Little more could be attempted in so limited a treatise than to give specimens of the several kinds of lessons proper to be given; but by studying the principles laid down in the work, the teacher may extend the series on each subject for himself. This may at first cause some difficulty; yet it will be found in the end, that those lessons which are the result of study are better taught and better understood, than such as are adopted ready made. No new theory is attempted to be set forth in the present work, such plans only being given as have been tested by experience, and found to promote the happiness and improvement of young children. Infant Model School, Office of National Education, THE TEACHER'S MANUAL. INFANT SCHOOLS. THE idea of collecting very young children for elementary instruction is not new: schools for infants having long existed under the name of Dame Schools. Indeed the embarrassment arising from the union of children widely differing in age, generally led either to the separation of the younger portion, or to their entire neglect. Very little observation and reflection are required to convince us of the marked disparity in the state of mind in children of various ages, which, when we address them familiarly, we involuntarily admit, by bringing our language and ideas to their level; and they themselves generally divide into groups, according to their age, for conversation or play. No judicious teacher overlooks this fact, or attempts to unite in one class pupils of five years of age, with others of ten and twelve. It is not, therefore, in the mere collecting of young children together, but in the kind of instruction given, and in the mode of communicating it, that the Infant School system differs essentially from any previous form of elementary teaching. Under the old system little was attempted until the child had learned to read; and, during this long and painful interval, the monotony of the school-room was seldom varied by anything to interest or amuse the little pupil. No physical exercises relieved the wearied body, but all was starched formality, and, what was called, good order. Immured in a close dull room-all B the joyous freedom of infancy repressed-the eyes vacantly poring over the unexplained mysteries of learning's first page, the only motives to exertion being the dread of the fool's cap, or of the "Tway birchen sprays, with anxious fear entwin'd; With such a system was it wonderful that the little sufferer longed to escape from school as from a prison house that small progress was made-and, worst of all, that the temper and disposition were too often irremediably injured? But, with the advancing intelligence of the present century, it began to be perceived and felt that something more was required for the happiness and good of infancy than this, at best, negative system; that, in fact, much could be done in the formation of character and good habits, as well as in the development of the intellectual and physical powers, even with children in the earliest stages of life: hence, Infant Schools arising in an age of high intelligence, have had impressed upon them, at their commencement, enlarged and philosophical principles. Throwing aside, as unfit, all previously existing systems, the Infant School legislates for its pupils in accordance with their age and state, basing its plans on the simplicity of nature; taking advantage of those restless instincts, which were the terror of former teachers, it makes them subservient to the most perfect training, subduing to cheerful orderly activity that incessant restlessness, which, when suppressed, constantly breaks out in irregularities. That troublesome curiosity which so often annoys us in the young, is made to produce the rapid and apparently spontaneous development of the intellectual faculties; while the ever springing love of infancy opens the heart to receive the seeds of the purest virtue. The following extract from an eminent Continental |