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264 IMPORTANCE OF PROVISION FOR MORAL TRAINING.

comes from the Author of all good, and will last for ever. No school ought to be built without making provision for moral education, which cannot be taught effectually without. a play-ground and garden; ground is scarce and valuable in towns, and whilst selfishness bears rule as it does, will not always be to be got, but when national education is viewed in the light it ought to be, the public will be willing to unite their efforts to accomplish this work. Ground for race courses, and for similar purposes, can be got, and so will ground for moral training, when its advantages are seen and felt.

If no other faculty be called into action under the old plan, the memory is fully employed; the girl has, certainly, not much trouble to think, because her mistress has never once thought that thinking is necessary; she gives her scholars what she received from her parents or mistress,sundry thoughts, sentiments, and opinions, all cut and dried, ready for use. It would not be candid to say that moral culture is wholly neglected at this stage, for although it has not come to the heart's turn yet to be well attended to, some worthy mistresses reckon a little morality very useful, and, in accordance of these views, she gives the girl a copy, and desires her to write it down, that "evil communications corrupt good manners;" and after that she is to write the copy, "Forgive your enemies;" one or other of which may be indelibly fixed on her memory by the punishment inflicted upon her for blotting her copy, as we said in a former chapter. In addition to this, perhaps, at some annual scholastic exhibition of elocutionary acquirement, she tells an assembled company of admiring friends, that

"Vice is a monster of such hateful mein,
That to be hated needs but to be seen ;'

Or shews in beautiful needle-work on her sampler, that,

"Virtue alone is happiness below."

If desirous of ascertaining what effect has been produced

on the mind of the young scholar, by the sentiments she has learned, you have but to follow her to her seat, and ask her a few questions, which will convince you that an increase of vanity has been the result; and should you bestow admiration on the needle-work, you will find it will produce exactly the same effect. The degree of moral deformity and intellectual weakness consequent upon this separate and improper treatment of the physical, moral, and mental faculties of girls, entirely depends upon the circumstances through which the individual has to pass, and the characters with whom she has to come in contact, but deformed in character and weak in intellect, as, in some degree, all must be whose powers are neglected in the first stages of expansion, whose hearts and minds are not made the subject of as early, and as earnest preventive, supporting and directing care, which is so requisite, and for which such useful opportunities are afforded in the play-ground. There are parents and teachers who have not been content to teach by rote, and who have proceeded in the spirit of the system we would recommend, who have, in short, seen and acted upon the necessity of the mutual development of the physical, moral, and intellectual faculties. There are, consequently, many persons found, in whom morality is not a collection of maxims, nor religion, of mere outward forms; but there are more to whom our preceding remarks, severe as they may be, will apply. We trust that on concluding the perusal of these observations, though some too idle in mind to think upon the subject, and too indifferent in heart to care about it, may exclaim, "We cannot understand this, our children are quite wise and good enough;" yet, that others will anxiously enquire, "what should be done?" to such enquirers our former remarks are especially addressed.

A great portion of the time of these pupils should be devoted to constant minute examination and scrutiny of material things, and investigation of their qualities; a large

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provision of real objects must be made, and always should be increasing, and whenever it can be had, the article or object must be preferred to a drawing or model of it. The judicious mind will see at once what a feast is here for all the faculties which take cognizance of the material world, and these faculties, it must be kept in mind, are never more active or appetized than when every object is new and examined with avidity. Forms, sizes, weights, colours, sounds, are all objects of delightful contemplation to the young female; verbal memory must not be forgotten, but kept in its proper place, and rendered a source of pleasure, in combined activity with the other faculties, and never fatigued with that undue, and almost exclusive exercise to which it is doomed in other schools.

Under the faculties named come the first rudiments of arithmetic, geometry, and geography, for which there will be contrivances which call the whole of those faculties into activity, and produce the anticipated results; our end and object must be to impart moral improvement to the pupils, and that intellectual exercises themselves which are only accessary, all tend towards that end. Moral training cannot be begun too early, and in many cases is next to impossible, at least, with the lower classes, after twelve years of age; it is therefore self-evident that such schools are, and must be schools for moral training. This is the view-the new view, which it is the most difficult to impress upon. the public. A positive institution for moral training is a new idea to them; with them the education of the poorer classes means no more than reading, writing, and accounting; during which process moral improvement was supposed to creep on incidentally.

If these few loose hints are attended to, I feel assured that great good will be the result; no denomination of Christians can say such a system can do harm, but there is the fairest ground to hope that children treated in the way I humbly, though firmly, recommend, may find the school a

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place of real pleasure, as it ought to be. It is a fatal error to suppose that children do not love to learn; they are as anxious to feed the appetites of the mind, as they are to gratify those of the body. Many persons may doubt this, but I assert it as a fact, and I leave philosophers and theologians to debate the matter amongst themselves. It is sufficient to know that the thing is so, to find the cause of this effect may afford employment for other minds who have more time and inclination than I possess to enter into physical enquiries.

268

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CHAPTER VI.

BOYS' DEPARTMENT.

Preliminary remarks-What number of boys should be placed under one master-The monitorial system unpopular-Froposed government plan of education-Its errors pointed out-Choice of children for bringing up as teachers-Every child cannot be made oneOther errors in the government scheme-Absurdity of bringing children of all ages and both sexes together-What branches of knowledge are necessary for poor boys?-The question answered -Reason for not teaching political economy to boys of the poorer classes-Want of punctuality-Fluctuations in the attendance of children in the manufacturing districts-Difficulties to be contended with-Infant schools the only ones where attendance can be regular -Teaching by the clergy-The influence of a holy man over his flock-Where the clergyman should give the children religious instruction-Rules and regulations-Monitorial arrangements-Great advantage of a judicious selection of monitors.

IT will be seen from our former remarks in the second chapter of this work, that, where it is practicable, I deem it necessary to have those schools attached, or near each other; that is to say, a boys' school, to contain from two to four hundred boys; a girls' school, for the like number of girls; and an infant school for about two hundred infants. As to one man being capable of educating a thousand boys as they ought to be educated, it is proved by all practical men to be impossible. The Liverpool Corporation wisely and properly have three masters to each of their boys'. schools, and three mistresses to each of their girls' schools, and a master and mistress to each of their infant schools. Four hundred boys are as many as ought to be collected together under any one roof; children collected in larger numbers are a great evil. Whenever a great body of human beings are collected together, it always requires

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