In the higher school of the town, intended for the children of the wealthier citizen class, writing, arithmetic, Bible history, geography, and Swiss history were also taught. Methods of teaching. Individual recitation of memorized material. The method of instruction in the elementary schools has been suggested in some of the examples quoted. It was individual instruction, not class instruction. In reading, writing, and arithmetic the pupils were taught as individuals, not as groups. They were generally roughly classified into three groups according to their reading ability, but each pupil in a group was taught in the same way as if he had been alone. In the lowest class were those who were just learning their letters and syllables and could puzzle out a few words by spelling them; in the second class, those who could read somewhat without spelling the words, using the primer ; and in the highest class, the more expert who read in the Bible. Very little of the teacher's activity was actual instruction; it was simply hearing recitations. Giving of information by the teacher or inductive discussions with groups of children were almost unheard of. In arithmetic the memorizing of number combinations and of scores of rules to be followed mechanically in computation was the characteristic method. If pupils mastered the famous "Rule of Three," they were considered advanced calculators. This rule, that of proportion, was very important in colonial money transactions because so many kinds of currency were in circulation. In Pike's arithmetic it was defined thus: "The Rule of Three teacheth, by having three numbers given, to find a fourth, that shall have the same proportion to the third, as the second to the first." In teaching writing the teacher's chief concern was making quill pens and "setting copies" for each pupil. As a consequence there was little time left for the examination and criticism of the pupil's writing. Richard Mulcaster, an English schoolmaster of the sixteenth century, criticizing this method, said masters "spend their whole time about setting copies, whereas fewer copies, and more looking to his hand would help the child more." The first en graved copy slips is sued in America were prepared and published by a celebrated Boston schoolmaster, Caleb Bingham, in 1796. (2: II. Cf. 4: 188.) Two thirds of time wasted through poor equipment and methods. The traditional methods of instruction were so wasteful that children would attend school for years and get only a smattering of reading and writing. One of the chief causes of this waste of time was lack of equipment. For instance, in the teaching of writing, engraved copy slips and steel pens practically revolutionized THE AMERICAN INSTRUCTOR OR THE This frontispiece suggests some of the more prac- the method, leaving the teacher free to assist, suggest, and criticize. The introduction of slates in the early nineteenth century, although not hygienic, was an improvement from the standpoint of relieving the teacher of making pens. Some teachers never taught the pupils to make their own pens; in the Boston writing schools it was required that this be done when children were twelve years old, but the practice did not follow the rule. ९९ The absence of blackboards was another factor in causing waste. Mr. Johnson (2: 107) says the earliest reference to a school blackboard that he knows of was in the preface of an arithmetic published in 1809 in Philadelphia. It was to be about 3 feet square, painted or stained with ink, and hung against the wall in a convenient place for a class to assemble around it." Thus with blackboards came class instruction. Moreover, one example or copy written on the blackboard might serve for a whole arithmetic or writing class. Speaking of attendance on a mathematical school in Boston in 18131814, during his winter vacation from Harvard College, a writer says: On entering [the] room, we were struck at the appearance of an ample Blackboard suspended on the wall, with lumps of chalk on a ledge below, and cloths hanging at either side. I had never heard of such a thing before. There it was forty-two years ago that I first saw what now I trust is considered indispensable in every school - the blackboard and there I first witnessed the process of analytical and inductive teaching. (9: 38.) Improved management of religious schools considered next. The analytical and inductive teaching referred to in the last sentence represented an enormous advance over ordinary eighteenth-century methods, and was a part of the RousseauPestalozzian movement of the later eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, which revolutionized the ideas and methods of elementary education. This revolution in elementary education was the culmination of a revolution in social life by which secular interests overthrew the ecclesiastical control of life and thought which prevailed for such a long time in Europe. This process of the secularization of social life, including education, will be traced in several subsequent chapters. Before taking up this movement, however, we will consider briefly in the next chapter certain exceptional improvements which were made in school management while the schools were still on a religious basis. BIBLIOGRAPHICAL NOTES Concerning Puritan social life and thought. 1. Eggleston, ED WARD. The Transit of Civilization. (D. Appleton and Company, 1901.) See No. 14 in bibliography of preceding chapter. Concerning old textbooks and actual school conditions. 2. JOHNSON, CLIFTON. Old Time Schools and School-Books. (The Macmillan Company, 1904.) A profusely illustrated and interesting book. 3. LITTLEFIELD, G. E. Early Schools and School Books in New England. (Club of Old Volumes, Boston, 1904, limited edition.) 4. WATSON, F. English Grammar Schools to 1660. (University Press, Cambridge, 1909.) Discusses primers, etc., in England. 4a. TUER, A. W. History of the Hornbook. (Leadenhall Press, London, 1897.) 5. FORD, P. L. The New England Primer. (Dodd, Mead & Company, 1897.) The standard authority. Contains reprint of 1727 edition of The New England Primer. 6. The New England Primer. (Ginn and Company.) Inexpensive facsimile reproduction of a copy of The New England Primer of about 1790. 7. WICKERSHAM, J. P. History of Education in Pennsylvania. (Lancaster, Pennsylvania, 1886.) Somewhat difficult to obtain. Chap. x, pp. 187-209, discusses textbooks and methods. Other books referred to in the chapter. 8. PAULSEN, F. German Education. (Charles Scribner's Sons, 1908.) 9. BARNARD, H. American Educational Biography. Bardeen.) (C. W. 10. GUIMPS, ROGER DE. Pestalozzi, his Aim and Work. (D. Appleton and Company, 1890.) II. MITCHELL, D. G. American Lands and Letters. 12. BARNARD, H. American Journal of Education, Vol. XXVI. CHAPTER V IMPROVED CLASSROOM MANAGEMENT. BRETHREN OF CHRISTIAN SCHOOLS. MONITORIAL SYSTEMS Main points of the chapter. 1. The achievements of the Brethren of the Christian Schools and the work of the monitorial schools of Lancaster and Bell are two exceptions to the rule of complacent inefficiency in classroom management described in the previous chapter. 2. The Christian Brethren were an order of Catholic laymen organized in 1684 in France to maintain free schools for the poor. 3. The careful selection and training of the members of the order, and the preparation of excellent teachers' manuals by La Salle, the founder of the order, were the basis of their very superior teaching. 4. The Brethren carried out on a large scale the practical innovation of simultaneous class instruction, in place of the prevailing method of individual instruction. 5. The Lancaster-Bell system developed in England about 1800 and included many innovations in class management in addition to the employment of the older or more competent children as teachers of the others, 6. Like La Salle, Bell and Lancaster both possessed especial talent for the details of school organization and formulated these in teachers' manuals. 7. The Lancasterian system was superior to the prevailing methods described in the previous chapter in making a careful study of the mechanics of school keeping; in organizing the routine so as to eliminate waste of time; in paying especial attention to schoolroom construction ; in devising apparatus; in providing a careful, flexible classification of the children; and in making school work an active social process. Failure for centuries to realize possibility of improvements. -The preceding chapter showed that there was little expansion of the elementary curriculum during the three hundred years from the beginning of the sixteenth century to the end of the eighteenth. Moreover, there was little departure from the methods of instruction which had been copied from the |