Mudie's Man in his Relations to Society, 2nd edition, foolscap 8vo. Precepts for the Conduct of Life, foolscap 8vo. Verteul's Trinidad, its Geography, Resources, &c. 8vo. Wareing's Hymns and Meditations, 7th edition, 18mo. Wheatly's Illustrations of Book of Common Prayer, Notes by Corrie. Wilson's Hawick and its Old Memories, post 8vo. Wood's Common Objects of the Country, illustrated, foolscap 8vo. Letters to the Editor. SIB, ON MR. THRING'S LETTERS. The letters of Mr. Thring, inserted in the April number of your Journal, call attention to a subject of great importance, yet little considered, I mean, the state of our higher schools as places of education for the mass of the boys who enter them. It were much to be desired that his remarks should elicit from competent judges comments and suggestions, which might either, on the one hand, show his ideas to be unsound and impracticable, or on the other develop the means by which they can best be carried into effect. I venture therefore to offer a few observations, founded on Mr. Thring's excellent letters, in the hope that what little I have to put forward may draw forth from the judgment and experience of others what will prove instructive to your readers generally as well as to myself. Most heartily do I coincide with Mr. Thring in his preference for the "free system" above that method of constant supervision during play-time as well as lesson-time, on which rests the discipline of foreign schools generally and, I believe, of most private schools in this country. But may not the free system as established in our public schools take a hint from the antagonist plan? However imperfectly carried out, however fatally vitiated in its results by errors in the application of it, or by the conditions under which it is applied, a valuable idea does lie at the root of the supervision system, and is, I trust and believe, worked out in some degree to good purpose in the best schools conducted under that system. That idea I suppose to be, that in the play-ground as well as in the school-room the influence of the educator may with advantage be brought into contact with the mind and character of the pupil, and that, not merely through the medium of general laws, but personally and immediately. Is such influence either in itself undesirable or in the nature of things impossible? Yet I believe I am not mistaken when I assert that it exists not at all, or to a very limited extent, in our public schools generally, and certainly does not form an essential part of the education of the mass of boys in them. In Mr. Thring's words, "the currents of master and boy life never mix-one is above, the other below." Why is this so? No one, I suppose, will assert that the exercise of a direct influence by free and friendly intercourse is in itself and in theory undesirable; very many, I apprehend, and among them not a few of long experience in schools, will declare that it is visionary, impracticable, dangerous, as lowering the position of the master, and relaxing the bands of discipline. Mr. Thring seems not to have found it so in his experience, I am very sure that I have not found it so in mine. For some years now, in more than one position, as an Assistant Master and as a Head Master, I have cultivated the closest personal relations with the boys under my charge, joining in their games, their walks, their conversations, living with them in their play-hours almost as one of themselves. Yet more, I have seen the same plan adopted by other men, differing very widely from one another in many points of character and temperament; but never have I experienced in my own case, or seen in the case of others, any of the evil results which are supposed to be inevitable; on the contrary I have found the greatest good arising from this course. But, in order that good may result, certain conditions must be fulfilled; conditions which Mr. Thring, if I am not mistaken, fully appreciates, though he has only hinted at them in his second letter. In the first place, the master who would retain the respect of boys when brought into close contact with them, must be really and thoroughly "respectable," in the best sense of the word, manly, straight forward, unselfish, free from mean and petty feelings. If he be otherwise he may keep up appearances in the school-room; in the play-ground he will soon be found out and despised. Secondly, he must have a real liking for the society of the young, and a genuine pleasure in the amusements which he shares with them. He must not be perpetually thinking about his own dignity and nervously afraid of compromising it or of incurring ridicule. Let him dismiss all thought of himself and think only of the game or the pursuit in which he is taking part, and, depend upon it, his dignity will take care of itself. Let him play with boys as an equal, and they will cordially pay him the deference due to a superior, but, if he shows that he is condescending, they will wish him where, for any good he is doing, he had much better be-in his study. Thirdly, he must have nothing of the martinet about him, but must possess tact and a quick perception of the feelings of boys, remembering that the presence even of a friend is not at all times equally acceptable. To these qualities he should join good spirits and good temper. It seems to me essential that association with the boys, in fact presence among them at all during their play-hours, be entirely voluntary on the master's part. The fact that he is present on "play-ground duty," as it is called, that is, present expressly to control them and watch them, and, perhaps, report their conduct, is perfectly well known and appreciated by the boys under his charge; he ceases to be the friend drawn to them by common tastes, he is thought to be joining in their amusements merely because he cannot get away to do something else he would like better. Probably (such is human nature) the very thing which he would have done with pleasure, if left free, he does with reluctance because it is exacted of him, and so on both sides the essentials of useful companionship are wanting. I do not say that tact on the master's part may not enable him to overcome the disadvantages of compulsory association with his pupils, but I doubt not that the principle of such association is erroneous and mischievous. One other condition seems important, that the master be not in manners and social standing manifestly inferior to his pupils. The limited extent and routine nature of school-room intercourse may keep defects in manners undetected, the play ground will bring them to light. A man may be an excellent mathematician, yet pronounce the English language very in correctly, may be a sound classic and skilful teacher, yet very ill versed in the habits of good society. The man himself is little the worse for these deficiencies, yet the display of them lowers his influence and places him at a disadvantage. No doubt sterling good qualities and real manliness in him, above all the absence of any assumption of being what he is not, will do much to make up for the want of polish; nevertheless a disadvantage it is, and a serious one. I do not suppose that in the vast majority of private schools the system of forced supervision by a master can be dispensed with. I hope never to see it an element in the discipline of our public schools; but I do hope to see a time when free and friendly intercourse between boys and masters, and its natural result, mutual respect and regard, will be the rule of every public school. Too often at present a state of war is accepted as the normal relation between the two parties; of honorable war in most cases, it is to be hoped, when masters and boys are alike English gentlemen-yet of war, accompanied by some positive evils, by the absence of much possible good. It may be that I am mistaken in my notions on this matter; that others of longer experience may have fairly tried the method of free association and found it wanting. If it be so they would do well to save others from error by pointing out the sources of danger and failure. Gladly would I see practical men coming forward to discuss a subject of the highest practical interest in education. In conclusion, (for I fear I have already trespassed unwarrantably on your columns), I would defend myself from a possible charge of egotism for putting forward my personal experience of the working of the system I advocate. I do so simply because by general experience alone and not by a priori arguments can the questions raised be decided, and the experience of each person is an element of a certain value, more or less, in the determination. Neither would I be supposed to claim the introduction of something new. What I have attempted according to my ability I know that many before me have done, and are doing with success. Yet the plan is not general, is looked upon with jealousy by many, and therefore I have endeavoured to call to it the attention of all true friends of education. In the last number of the Journal of Education is an interesting article on "Sunday Schools and how to reform them." May I be permitted to make a few observations on one of the statements it contains? The passage to which I refer is the following:-" If children attend the afternoon church service, that is quite enough." I do not for a moment deny that there are evils in the present plan, or that had the "original and rubrical limits" of church services been allowed to continue as they were anciently instituted, it might not have been better; but established as they now are, I doubt whether the remedy proposed would cure these evils without bringing worse ones in their place. The supporters of the new plan appear to argue thus:-The Church Services are too long even for * By no means: we invite more letters. Ed. J. E. adults, how much therefore must they weary children who have moreover some hours extra fatigue in their school work. Reading with or without the dryest possible questions, diversified by long repetitions from the Catechism." On the opposite side it is said "Train up a child in the way he should go, and when he is old he will not depart from it." If a boy is brought up to be content with one service in his youth will he desire more when he is a man? The habit of putting off the public worship of God to the latter half of the day, when mind and body are both perchance weary, and have lost the freshness all experience in the morning, is one that we should have great difficulty in eradicating; while on the other hand though a child may be wearied with the length of the morning service, (and our own juvenile recollections will tell us that such must frequently be the case,) yet the habit of attendance will be formed, and continue after the feeling of fatigue has passed away. Much however may, and as the writer of this article suggests, ought to be done to relieve the fatigue of the Sunday scholar, by making his school work more agreeable. The lessons of the day, or other suitable portions of of the Bible might be read by the children and explained viva voce by the teacher, with illustrations of eastern habits and manners reference to which make many parts of scripture so incomprehensible to the uneducated. It is very easy to interest a child and make his hours of lesson, hours of enjoyment; and we should thus keep his mind fresh, and yet in tune for the religious services of the day: and Sunday, while ceasing to be an object of dislike, would still be regarded as a day set apart from all others. [We are glad to see this subject discussed in our columns. All services ought to be shortened. Their length is a crying evil. We have no objection to the children going to matins mid-day or evening services, if the discourse be adapted to them, and provided they do not go to all of them the same day.-Ed. J. E.] SIR, DISERTUS. Will any of your learned correspondents favor us with their views on the etymology of disertus? It strikes me that it is not correctly given in the usual dictionaries, and being in the country I have not at this moment access to the more critical ones. George, in his Lateinisch Deutsches Wörterbuch points to the old source, dissero, which is surely very wide of the mark. Dr. W. Smith, in his Latin English Dictionary gives another etymon which does not seem satisfactory. April 22nd. In a Convocation holden this morning at ten o'clock, the nomination of the Rev. George Croke Rowden, D.C.L., New College, to be an Examiner in the Faculty of Music was approved. In the same Convocation the Delegates of Privileges for the ensuing year were nominated by the proctors. In a Congregation held afterwards, the Rev. Henry Reynolds, B.D., Jesus, was nominated public examiner in the mathematical schools. At the same time the following degrees were conferred : Masters of Arts.-Rev. Robert Rowley Watts, and Rev. James Francis Bright, University; Rev. Perceval Speakman Webb, All Souls; John Parkinson, St. Mary Hall; Rev. Robert George Hooper Orchard, Magdalen Hall. Bachelors of Arts.-John Gregson, University: John Eade Pryor, Magdalen; Richard Battye and Brooke Lambert, Brasenose; Germain Lavie, (Student), Christ Church; William Maunder Hitchcock, Wadham; Frederick Richard Pentreath (Scholar), Worcester; John Mortlock Brown, St. Edmund Hall. The next degree day is Thursday, May 6th. In a Convocation to be holden on Thursday, May 6th, at ten o'clock, it will be proposed to confer the honorary degree of M.A. on John Obadiah Westwood, Esq., F.L.S., keeper of the Hopeian collections. QUEEN'S COLLEGE. Samuel John Hawkes, exhibitioner of this college, was to-day elected a scholar on the Michel foundation. MERTON COLLEGE. APRIL 23rd.-An election of three postmasterships will take place on Thursday, June 10th. Candidates are desired to call on the warden on Saturday, June 5th, and to bring with them testimonials of good conduct and certificates of baptism. In the election to one of these postmasterships, a preference will be given to attainments in mathematics. The value of these scholarships is £60. per annum, tenable for five years from election. |