296 THE BOOK OF THE LANDED ESTATE. 



In the management of an evening-school for labourers, attention 

 should be paid to a good selection of subjects to be taught. The great 

 thing is to teach them only plain useful things to begin with. 



In the first place, reading should of course be taught, and along 

 with this writing ; and to carry either of these out properly, they should 

 be taught grammar. This will enable them to understand the con- 

 struction of the language, and they will all the easier learn composition 

 and letter-writing. Arithmetic should also be taught ; but, with the 

 general class of labourers, no attempt should be made to master the 

 more complex rules of arithmetic. The chief thing should be to 

 teach them thoroughly the first rules only, and of course if any pick 

 it up quickly, they may be able to go further into it. The great 

 thing with many teachers seems to be to give their pupils a skimming 

 only of all the different rules. They evidently think it a matter of impor- 

 tance to get them as far advanced in the book as possible, whether they 

 may understand the different rules or not. Where this is done, a pupil 

 very soon forgets what he got at school. If he is taught thoroughly 

 what he does attempt, he will not forget it afterwards. The great object 

 in all schools, and more especially in evening-schools, with labouring 

 people, is to make them understand thoroughly what they do attempt, and 

 on no account to proceed further into the subject until this is done. In 

 arithmetic, what a working man wants is addition, multiplication, divi- 

 sion, and reduction, and perhaps he might be carried as far as practice. 

 These are always useful to a working man, and once he had these 

 thoroughly, he would be enabled to teach himself more. It is also 

 a useful thing to practise them in mental arithmetic that is to say, 

 questions should be put to them, simple to begin with, which they 

 should be encouraged to answer from memory. 



After labourers have been taught these primary departments of a 

 common English education, it is very advantageous to teach them the 

 simple parts of land-surveying. To men working on an estate or farm 

 this is very useful. I do not mean that they should be made professors of 

 land-surveying, but simply to give them such a knowledge as will enable 

 them to make an estimate of the extent of any portion of land. In the 

 event of their doing any work by contract such as ploughing, digging, 

 trenching, draining, &c. this knowledge would be of great advantage to 

 them. 



Major Stapylton has recently offered prizes for the best essays written 

 by the workmen on his estate. This is an excellent system, as it 

 encourages the men to read and write, and also to think. The subjects 

 of the essays are descriptions of their own work. 



