teachers; but the efficiency of the system depends in a very great measure upon the earnestness with which schoolmasters and schoolmistresses fulfil the trust implied in every apprenticeship. In training pupil-teachers there are two objects to be gained. It is one thing to furnish them with new information, and to tax the memory with facts; but there is the higher duty of carrying on a systematic mental discipline, which will strengthen the character, and enable the young teacher to appreciate the true uses of knowledge. The probationary years of apprenticeship will not have been well employed if the pupil has not acquired in them a higher sense of duty, more decision of character, and a gentle heart. We should never lose sight of the fact, that, as a general rule, the only education that a poor man's child can hope for is that which is to be had in the parochial school. Under the most favourable circumstances it is a very limited one; but it will be a mere mockery of education if those few years of school life are entrusted to teachers who have neither enthusiasm for the noble cause in which they are engaged, nor resolution to perform faithfully its many duties. I do not think that this is an overdrawn statement of the real position of schoolmasters and mistresses, or of the relation that ought to exist between them and their apprentices,-the point to which I should wish to draw attention. That it is a very responsible one I quite admit. I do not see how it can be otherwise. If pupil-teachers are ultimately to become members of a profession whose great object is to co-operate in elevating the character of a nation, and in bearing it on in the career of civilization, it is hardly possible to overstate the importance of securing for them the most careful training. I have the honor to be, &c. To the Right Honorable The Lords of the Committee of Council on Education. D. J. STEWART. 35.82 47 37 33 22 27-62 48.26 31.56 37.2 28 72 14 21 14-21 13.09 11-14 8-81 5.32 4.5 The amount of accommodation in square feet divided by 8 will give the number of children who can be properly accommodated. Calculations of area in school-rooms, as compared with the average attendance of scholars, should be made upon this basis. The space of six square feet has been found, in practice, to be insufficient for the accom modation of each child. At the date of closing this return. Per-centage taken on number of children present at examination, 3 Per-centage taken on number of children on the books, Simple Rules. 47-64 |
