The master's desk should be placed at the end of the
school, where the
class-room is. By this means he will be able to see the faces of all
the children, and they can see him, which is absolutely necessary.
They may then be governed by a motion of his hand.
The furniture necessary for the school consists of a desk for
the master; seats for the children; lesson-stands; stools for the
monitors; slates and pencils; pictures and lessons on scriptural
subjects; pictures and lessons on natural history; alphabets and
spelling lessons; brass letters and figures, with boards for
them; geometrical figures, &c.; and the transposition-frame, or
arithmeticon, as it has been called. To these may added little
books, &c. The particular use of these articles will be shewn in
the
succeeding pages.
The following is a representation of a lesson-post.
The lessons, pasted on wood, to render them sufficiently stiff, are
put into the grooves of the lesson-post; and can then be placed in any
position which is most convenient, and adjusted to any height, as the
master may see proper.
The following lesson-post has been found to answer better than the
preceding one; and is fixed in a socket, which prevents the necessity
of the cross-bar feet at bottom, and possesses this advantage, that
it
may be taken out when done with, and hung up by the side of the
wall, so as to allow the area of the room to be quite clear of any
incumbrance, and to be used for any other purpose. No. 2, is the
socket which should be let into the floor and screwed fast to the side
of a joist, so as to keep it perfectly steady; the socket is to be
open at bottom so as to let the dust pass through: and No. 1, is a
plate, to fit over the socket, to come flush with the floor, to be put
over it when the lesson-post is taken out, to prevent too much dust
from getting into the socket. The little nich represented in plate
one, is too small for the pupils to get their fingers into, so as to
pull up the plate, but wide enough to allow the teacher to put a
very narrow key in, when he desires to pull up the plate to put the
lesson-post in the socket. No. 3, is a front view of the lesson-post,
containing the slides nipping the lessons between them; the other
figure represents a side view of the lesson post, and the small figure
at the left hand side represents the groove of the two sliders to
receive the lesson, and the back part of it the dovetails to clip,
which come down behind the post; these are placed parallel in double
rows down the school, at equal distances, exactly opposite each other;
and flattened brass or iron is to be let into the floor, opposite to
the front of them, as shewn in one of the engravings representing the
area of the school, and the children at their object lessons. I have
found by experience that this invention possesses a decided advantage
over the other, as they always remain perpendicular and parallel to
each other, take up less room, and are more easily put out of the way,
and the children cannot knock them down; they should be numbered in
front as represented in the figure, so that the teacher may always put
the proper post in its own place.
The Arithmeticon, of which a description will be given in a subsequent
chapter, is simple in its construction, but, as will be seen
hereafter, may be variously and beneficially applied. It is indeed
indispensable in an infant school, as it is useful for teaching the
first principles of grammar, arithmetic, and geometry. The expense of
furnishing a large school is about £16.; that of a smaller one
about
£10.
I must here protest against a violation of the freedom of the infant
mind. A fold, as it is called, is erected in some schools for the
youngest of the children; and thus they are cut off from the society
of the rest, from whom they would learn much more than they could from
any teacher. The monitors having charge of this class, are also cooped
up in the same cage, and therefore suffer the same privation. The result
of my own experience, as well as that of others, is, that a
child is decidedly incompetent to the duties of a monitor, if he
cannot keep the youngest class in order without any such means. I
would therefore deprecate, in the strongest terms, the separation
referred to, as not only altogether unnecessary, but exceedingly
injurious.
To have one hundred children, or upwards, in a room, however
convenient in other respects, and not to allow the children proper
relaxation and exercise, which they could not have without a
play-ground, would materially injure their health, which is a thing,
in my humble opinion, of the first importance. I would rather see a
school where they charged two-pence or three-pence per week for each
child, having a play-ground, than one where the children had free
admission without one; for I think the former institution would do the
most good. The play ground, likewise, is one of the most useful
parts of the system. It is there the child shews itself in its true
character, and thereby gives the master an opportunity of nipping
in the bud its evil propensities. I am, therefore, most anxious to
recommend that this necessary appendage to an infant school should
not be dispensed with. I moreover observe, that where there is a
play-ground attached to the school, instead of playing in the streets,
where scarcely anything but evil is before their eyes, the children
will hasten to the school, with their bread and butter in their hands,
in less than a quarter of an hour after they have left it, knowing
that they have an opportunity of playing there the remainder of their
dinner-time, so that they love the school, and but rarely wish to be
anywhere else.
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