INSTRUCTION.

This may be considered under two heads. First, the matter of instruction; second, the method of instruction. The matter of instruction may be divided as suited to the different departments.

I. PRIMARY DEPARTMENT.

LANGUAGE-First year.-Children taught to read-taught the names and sounds of the letters-to print on slate and blackboard short sentences of their own construction; and the use of the period, interrogation and exclamation marks.

Second year.--The second reader completed; names and uses of the punctuation marks, so far as the children can comprehend their uses; some of the rules for the use of capitals as observed in the reading lessons; spelling and defining all important words in reading lessons; and the phonic spelling of' selected words, both orally and by printing on slate and blackboard.

Third year.-Third reader; children receive a course of oral language lessons; systematic exercises daily in simple objective description; first of objects as now and here present; second, of objects not as present to the senses, but which the children "seem to see," i. e. conceive, objects of former perception; also exercises in simple narration, and in forms for epistolary correspondence.

NUMBER-First year-Perception of numbers under ten developed, and all possible combinations made objectively in addition, subtraction, multiplication and division. Representation of these perceptions, first, by lines; second, by figures, and the whole work extended to suit the capacity of the children; children taught to count one hundred.

Second year. The same work extended with the development of decimal notation, and the idea of fractions.

Third year.-General law of notation developed; special aim at accuracy and rapidity in operations in the four fundamental rules. Through the entire work of the three years concrete applications continually made by teacher and pupils.

HUMAN BODY-First year.-Name, position, and use of external parts..

Second year-Description of same as to form, adaptation of form to use, and comparison with parts of other animals.

Third year.-Internal and external organs: as, vocal organs, organs of circulation, respiration and digestion; uses, and adaptation to use.

ANIMALS-First year.-Conversation lessons on familiar animals; names, number, position and description of parts of mammals and birds.

Second year.-Characteristic parts, habits, traits, and disposition and comparative size. Subjects selected from mammals and birds with a view to classification. Miscellaneous lessons on fishes and reptiles. Order always to be observed: first, domestic, then foreign animals.

Third year.-Internal as well as external organization. Adaptation of parts to habits. Miscellaneous lessons upon fishes, reptiles and insects, and classification of mammals and birds.

SIZE-First year.-Development of the idea of extension in different directions. Relative size and proportion of objects. Second year.-Standard measures-linear, dry and wine. Third year.-Square and cubic measures.

WEIGHT-First year.-General idea of weight. Relative weight. Weight as compared with bulk. Classification of objects as to weight.

Second year.-Avoirdupois weight.

Third year.--Troy and apothecaries' weights.

PLACE-First year.-Relative position of objects. Idea of representation. Points of compass. Map of school-room drawn by the eye from dictation of children.

Second year.-School-room, building and yard, drawn to scale; measuring drawn by children, under the direction of the teacher. Third year.-Exercise upon and copying of city map. Course of globe lessons.

FORM-First year.-Surfaces, faces, edges, corners. Straight and curved lines. Distinguish angles and inclosed surfaces, naming the latter by sides.

Second year.-Names and description of different kinds of straight lines, angles and plane faces.

Third year.-Circle. Names and description of solids. Inventive drawing practiced throughout the whole work, commencing with simple combinations of two straight lines, and increasing as the subject develops.

OBJECTS-First year.-Names, number, position and uses of parts. Principal distinguished from secondary parts in artificial objects.

Second year.-Most simple and obvious qualities distinguished, and one new essential quality systematically developed, in each lesson. Names and uses of parts, and qualities upon which uses depend.

Third year.-Less obvious qualities developed. Adaptation of structure, material and qualities to uses. Lastly, objects considered in classes, and taken with reference to arts, manufactures, etc.

PLANTS.-Plant lessons of the first and second years are included in objects, but in the third year are treated as a distinct subjects.

COLOR-First year.-Children taught to distinguish and name primary, secondary and tertiary colors. Classification of objects. of like color and patterning.

Second year.-Children taught the production of tints and shades. Names of standards, and one tint and shade of each, and to distinguish and produce hues.

Third year. The production of secondary from primary, and of tertiary from secondary, colors, and harmony.

MORAL INSTRUCTION.-Pictures of Scripture scenes and events, (of which we have quite a collection,) stories, and daily occurrences in the school-room, used as the means for imparting to the children, in a manner according to their capacity, instruction which may be included under these heads, viz: Duties to God, duties to themselves, and duties to others.

II. INTERMEDIATE DEPARTMENT.

The course of study in this department is but an expansion of the circle passed over in the primary department. There is more direct effort to cultivate the power of memory and to direct the imagination. The following heads are comprehensive of the subject matter:

Language.-Fourth Reader-children lead to distinguish between prose and poetry, as to their forms and the kind of thoughts expressed in each; to classify the selections read, as descriptive, narrative or didactic; to determine from his language what the writer thought, and how he felt when he uttered the piece; from which they determine the degree of force, speed, pitch, volume,

emphasis and inflections appropriate in the rendering. Oral lessons in grammar continued, embracing classes and uses of words, analysis of simple sentences, use of capitals, and of punctuation marks. (For further work under this head see "Objects.")

Number.-Daily drill in mental arithmetic during the entire course, and frequent exercises in the four ground rules of arithmetic, having in view the disciplining of the mental powers, exercised to work with great rapidity and accuracy. Children expected to become good practical arithmeticians at the end of this course.

Human Body.-Lessons reviewed that were given in the primary course, that the children may retain what they then learned, and that those pupils who may have entered this school from other schools may have an opportunity to acquire the information, if they have not already done so. Special application of the knowledge gained made to the laws of health, i. e., "How to take care of ourselves."

Size. What was classed as size in the primary department, now comes up under the head of "Compound Numbers" in arithmetic.

Place-Geography.-Place now appears under the head of Geography. The globe, Guyot's Physical Maps and Primary Geography, are some of the instrumentalities employed to carry on the work.

Form-Geometry.—The pupils are made acquainted with interesting and useful geometrical facts. The object is, as an educatory process, to cultivate the imagination rather than the reason, and to lead the pupil to the "perception of forms as real entities."

Objects (Language).—The most familiar material objects examined, to ascertain if the pupil has a name, and that the right one, for the parts, qualities, uses, etc., of the objects examined.

One exercise is taken for finding out the parts, names and uses of the parts; another, if need be, for finding the qualities, and the qualities on which the uses depend. If a natural object, they find from what country procured, thus making practical use of their knowledge of geography, and fixing much of that knowledge permanently. If the object of study be an artificial one, the mode of investigation is carried on in substantially the same manner, i. e., finding names of parts, uses, qualities, material whence procured, and where and how the object is manufactured. This work

being done, the pupil has the material for writing a simple objective description, and these constitute a part of the language lessons and spelling. The vocabulary of the pupil is thus wonderfully increased, and his power of observation, memory and reflective power.

Plants. A systematic study of plants, "Grey's How Plants Grow," taken as the basis for the teacher to follow. Children always collect and bring in the parts of the plant which are the objects of study.

Minerals.-Distinctive lessons not yet given, since knowledge of minerals is gained in the study of objects.

Color.-A practical application of the knowledge of color, gained in the primary course, is constantly made in the study of different objects.

Moral Instruction.-This work is carried on in the same manner and spirit as in the primary department.

Some ideas of the city, state and national government given, and of the necessity and importance of government in general.

III. GRAMMAR DEPARTMENT.

In this department the course of study is a continuation and expansion, in some respects, of the course in the lower departments. It is the aim in this department, more especially than in the next lower, to exercise the reflective faculty of the mind, although it is found here that the perceptive and conceptive faculties yet predominate in their activity over the reflective. This fact is duly regarded.

The matter of instruction may be included under

Language. Children read the Fifth Reader, lessons in which are conducted, substantially, in the spirit indicated in connection with the same subject in the intermediate department. The prefixes, suffixes and roots learned, and daily exercises in etymological analysis, and the resolving of lists of words into their phonic elements, representing them by the notation adopted in the "Analytical Reader." The course of oral language lessons is completed, and the principles of English Grammar studied from the text book; spelling continued under the head of language lessons; special aim to build up the vocabulary of the pupil.