2004 Charlotte Mason Conference
Basics of a Charlotte Mason
Education ~
I. Philosophy or The Why -
A. Children must be
nurtured on the Best
B.The
Great Work of Education
C.Teaching
must be Fresh and Living
D.Books
must be Living
E.Education
must be in touch with life
II. Principles or The What –
A. Suggestions toward a curriculum that offers
children-
1. a wide and
generous curriculum
2.Variety of subjects
III. Methods (How to do it) (Living Books in place of
textbooks transparency)
A. Charlotte Mason's Unique
approach to subjects
B. Devising a syllabus
IV. Practical Everyday Application of the Philosophy,
Principles and Methods
A.Will these
principles and methods really work in a modern day homeschool?
B.Examples from 15
years of using CM
Basics of a Charlotte Mason
Education ~
"...as children and
adults we suffer from underfed minds" Charlotte Mason
I. Philosophy or The Why -
A. Children
must be nurtured on the Best ~
V2
p. 263: Children must be nurtured on the Best-- For the children? They must
grow up upon the best. There must never be a period in their lives when they
are allowed to read or listen to twaddle or reading-made-easy. There is never a
time when they are unequal to worthy thoughts, well put; inspiring tales, well
told...
V2
p. 279: Children must have the
Best Books--One more thing is of vital importance; children must have books,
living books; the best are not too good for them; anything less than the best
is not good enough; and if it is needful to exercise economy, let go everything
that belongs to soft and luxurious living before letting go the duty of
supplying the books, and the frequent changes of books ,
which are necessary for the constant stimulation of the child's intellectual
life.
B. The Great
Work of Education ~
"we perceive
that the great work of education is to inspire children with vitalising ideas as to every relation of life, every
department of knowledge, every subject of thought; and to give deliberate care
to the formation of those habits of the good life which are the outcome of
vitalising ideas. In this great work we seek and assuredly find the co-operation of the Divine Spirit, whom we recognise, in a sense rather new to modern thought, as the
supreme Educator of mankind in things that have been called secular, fully as
much as in those that have been called sacred."
C. Teaching
must be Fresh and Living ~
V
2 p.278: Teaching must be Fresh and Living.--With this thought of a child to
begin with, we shall perceive that whatever is stale and flat and dull to us
must needs be stale and flat and dull to him, also that there is no subject
which has not a fresh and living way of approach. Are we teaching geography?
The child discovers with the explorer, journeys with the traveller,
receives impressions new and vivid from some other mind which is immediately
receiving these impressions; not after they have been made stale and dull by a
process of filtering through many intermediate minds, and have found at last
their way into a little text-book. Is he learning history? his concern is not
with strings of names and of dates, nor with nice little reading-made-easy
stories, brought down, as we mistakenly say, to the level of his comprehension;
we recognise that his power of comprehension is at
least equal to our own, and that it is only his ignorance of the attendant
circumstances we have to deal with as luminously as we can.
D. Books
must be Living ~
V2
p. 278: Books must be Living--We recognise that HISTORY
for him is, to live in the lives of those strong personalities which at any
given time impress themselves most upon their age and country........
We
take the child to the living sources of history--a child of seven is fully able
to comprehend Plutarch, in Plutarch's own words
(translated), without any diluting and with little explanation. Give him living
thought in this kind, and you make possible the co-operation of the living
Teacher.
The child's
progress is by leaps and bounds, and you wonder why.....
E. Education
must be in touch with life ~
V6,
p. 276: "Education must be in touch with life. We must learn what we desire to know.....What a welcome
companion is he who can distinguish between songs that differ in the vespers of
the birds! How grateful the company of the reader of history who brings forward
parallels to the episodes in the great War!...
If we work for
public examinations, the questions in which must be of a narrow academic cast,
we get a narrow, accurate, somewhat sterile type of mind.
“WE REAP AS WE HAVE SOWN.” (emphasis mine JB)
II. Principles or The What –
A. Suggestions toward a curriculum that offers children-
1. a wide and
generous curriculum ~
V6 p.19: They require a great variety of knowledge,--about religion, the humanities,
science, art; therefore, they should have a wide curriculum, with a definite amount of
reading set for each short period of study.
V6 p.30: During the last thirty years thousands of children educated on these lines have
grown up in love with Knowledge and manifesting a 'right judgment in all things' so far
as a pretty wide curriculum gives them data.
2.Variety of subjects ~
V6 p.16: The mind concerns itself only with thoughts, imaginations, reasoned arguments;
it declines to assimilate the facts unless in combination with its proper pabulum; it, being
active, is wearied in the passive attitude of a listener, it is as much bored in the case of a
child by the discursive twaddle of the talking teacher as in that of a grown-up
conversational twaddle; it has a natural preference for literary form; given a more or less
literary presentation, the curiosity of the mind is enormous and embraces a vast variety of
subjects.
3. Guiding Principles ~
Charlotte Mason Volume 6 p. 6-9: We want an education which shall nourish the mind while not neglecting either physical or vocational training; in short, we want a working philosophy of education. I think that we of the P.N.E.U. have arrived at such a body of theory, tested and corrected by some thirty years of successful practice with thousands of children. This theory has already been set forth in volumes [The Home Education Series] published at intervals during the last thirty-five years; so I shall indicate here only a few salient points which seem to me to differ from general theory and practice,--
(a) The children, not the teachers, are the responsible persons; they do the work by self-effort.
(b) The teachers give sympathy and occasionally elucidate, sum up or enlarge, but the actual work is done by the scholars.
(c) These read in a term one, or two, or three thousand pages, according to their age, school and Form, in a large number of set books. The quantity set for each lesson allows of only a single reading; but the reading is tested by narration, or by writing on a test passage. When the terminal examination is at hand so much ground has been covered that revision is out of the question; what the children have read they know, and write on any part of it with ease and fluency, in vigorous English; they usually spell well.
…Has an attempt been made before on a wide scale to secure that scholars should know their books, many pages in many books, at a single reading, in such a way that months later they can write freely and accurately on any part of the term's reading?
(d) There is no selection of studies, or of passages or of episodes, on the ground of interest. The best available book is chosen and is read through perhaps in the course of two or three years.
(e) The children study many books on many subjects, but exhibit no confusion of thought, and 'howlers' are almost unknown.
(f) They find that, in Bacon's phrase, "Studies serve for delight"; this delight being not in the lessons or the personality of the teacher, but purely in their 'lovely books,' 'glorious books.'
(g) The books used are, whenever possible, literary in style.
(h) Marks, prizes, places, rewards, punishments, praise, blame, or other inducements are not necessary to secure attention, which is voluntary, immediate and surprisingly perfect.
(i) The success of the scholars in what may be called disciplinary subjects, such as Mathematics and Grammar, depends largely on the power of the teacher, though the pupils' habit of attention is of use in these too.
(j) No stray lessons are given on interesting subjects; the knowledge the children get is consecutive.
…At any rate that GOLDEN RULE of which Comenius was in search has discovered itself, the RULE, "WHEREBY TEACHERS SHALL TEACH LESS AND SCHOLARS SHALL LEARN MORE."
I have enumerated some of the points in which our work is exceptional in the hope of convincing the reader that unusual work carried on successfully in hundreds of schoolrooms--home and other--is based on principles hitherto unrecognized. The recognition of these principles should put our national education on an intelligent basis and should make for general stability, joy in living, and personal initiative.
May I add one or two more arguments in support of my plea,-- (pg 9)
The appeal is not to the clever child only, but to the average and even to the 'backward' child.
This scheme is carried out in less time than ordinary school work on the same subjects.
There are no revisions, no evening lessons, no cramming or 'getting up' of subjects; therefore there is much time whether for vocational work or interests or hobbies.
All intellectual work is done in the hours of morning school, and the afternoons are given to field nature studies, drawing, handicrafts, etc.
Notwithstanding these limitations the children produce a surprising amount of good intellectual work.
No homework is required.
It is not that 'we' (of the P.N.E.U.) are persons of peculiar genius; it is that, like Paley's man who found the watch, "we have chanced on a good thing."
"No gain that I experience must remain unshared."
We feel that the country and indeed the world should have the benefit of educational discoveries which act powerfully as a moral lever, for we are experiencing anew the joy of the Renaissance, but without its pagan lawlessness.
III. Methods or The How -
A.Charlotte Mason's Unique
approach to subjects and Benefits
1. Narration – recounting an experience (seen, heard or read); can
be
oral or written as in words or pictures
“A narration should be original as it comes from the child--that is, his own mind should have acted upon the
matter it has received.”
a. Benefits-
v
helps child learn to form sentences; complete
thoughts; learn to order their thoughts
v
builds memory; they don’t forget what they
narrate
b. Narration then leads to Composition –
V3 p. 247: 'Composition' comes by Nature. --In fact, lessons on 'composition' should follow the model of that famous essay on "Snakes in Ireland"--"There are none.” For children under nine, the question of composition resolves itself into that of narration, varied by some such simple exercise as to write a part and narrate a part, or write the whole account of a walk they have taken, a lesson they have studied, or of some simple matter that they know. Before they are ten, children who have been in the habit of using books will write good, vigorous English with ease and freedom; that is, if they have not been hampered by instructions. It is well for them not even to learn rules for the placing of full stops and capitals until they notice how these things occur in their books. Our business is to provide children with material in their lessons, and, leave the handling of such material to themselves. If we would believe it, composition is as natural as jumping and running to children who have been allowed due use of books. They should narrate in the first place, and they will compose, later readily enough; but they should not be taught 'composition.'
V3 Preface: The
free use of books implies correct spelling and easy and vigorous
composition without direct teaching of these subjects.
2. Short Lessons – Starting with as little 5-10 minutes with very
young and increasing
with age
a. Benefits –
v
Builds Memory Skills
v
Interest is retained because there is no fear of
fatigue
3. Copywork – writing from a visual example
a. Benefits
–
v
Handwriting Practice
v
Visual aid (as to construction of sentences,
words)
v
Increases memory
4. Grammar –
V6 p. 209: Therefore it is better that a child should
begin with a sentence and not with
the parts of speech, that is, he should learn a little of what is
called analysis before he learns to parse…. he has learned nearly all the
grammar that is necessary when he knows that when we speak we use sentences and
that a sentence makes sense;…
V6 pg 210: Every sentence has two parts, (1), the thing we speak of, and (2), what we say about it. We speak of John, we say about him that he goes to school. At this stage the children require many exercises in finding out the first and second parts of simple sentences. When they are quite familiar with the fact that the first part of a sentence is what we speak about, they may get a name for it, subject, which will be made simpler to them if they know the word subject means that which we talk about.
V6
p. 246: “…Grammar rules, lists, of names and dates and places,--the whole stock
in trade of the earlier schoolmaster--was found to be matter which the minds of
children reject: and, because we were wise enough to see that the mind
functions for its own nourishment whether in rejecting or receiving, we changed
our tactics,"
“I have no patience
with the stupidity of the average teacher of grammar who wastes precious years
in hammering rules into children's heads. For it is not by learning rules that
we acquire the power of speaking a language, but by daily intercourse with
those accustomed to express themselves with exactness and refinement, and by
the copious reading of the best authors. --Erasmus, "Upon the Right Method
of Instruction."
B. Devising a syllabus
V6 Preface: 13. In devising a SYLLABUS for a normal child, of whatever social class, three points must be considered:
(a) He requires much knowledge, for the mind needs sufficient food as much as does the body.
(b) The knowledge should be various, for sameness in mental diet does not create appetite
( i.e. , curiosity)
(c) Knowledge should be communicated in well-chosen language, because his attention responds naturally to what is conveyed in literary form.
Suggestions for Book choices:
Pre- School: read
lots of good books on all kinds of subjects. Lots of outdoor time to explore
First- Third
Grade: Literature, Fairy Tales, Nursery Rhymes, Tall Tales, Legends, Myths (in
selected form)
All Ages: Bible
verses and stories, Poetry, Nature stories, Moral or character stories, Nature
Study, History, Biographies, Geography, Music, Art
Fourth-Sixth: start chapter books, Current
Events, Increased silent reading, Start introducing different sciences and
experiments
Seventh-Eighth: More
challenging reading; Start discussing literary terms; Critical Thinking
Suggested High School subjects – Adding in Art, Music
and P.E.
4 years of Bible studies (including Worldview)
4 years of English (includes Literature, grammar,
vocabulary, writing)
4 years of Math
3 years of Science
3 years of History
3 years of Spanish
1 year Economics
1 year Government
˝ year Speech
˝ year Health
The Application – What the Butchees have done
Miss
Mason's words are just as relevant today as when she first wrote them. Her
recommendations remind me of Philippians 4:8 "Finally, brothers, whatever
is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is
lovely, whatever is admirable--if anything is excellent or praiseworthy--think
about such things."
Some
of Charlotte's
Principles applied in our Homeschool:
I.
Habit of Attention is developed by
a) Short lessons
b) interesting
lessons
"The
Mother who takes pains to endow her children with good habits secures for
herself smooth and easy days" But, it takes time. "The mother
devotes herself to the formation of one habit at a time..." Charlotte Mason
II.
Read Alouds are above the child's reading level
III.
A wide variety of interesting books, several a year
for each subject-plus poetry and Shakespeare
IV.
Lots of Nature Study
V.
Lots of Biographies-Missionaries, Scientists, Artists, Composers
VI.
Language Arts includes-Narration, Copywork,
Dictation, Written Narration (Book Reports)
VII.
Citizenship-The Bible, The Book of Virtues, Stories
Worth Re-reading, The Miller Family
VIII.
History-Chronological of what was happening in all the
World at the same time & Biographies
(Genevieve Foster,The Story of Mankind, Streams of Civilization,
Christian Liberty books)
IX.
Science-lots of hands-on experiments
X.
Music Appreciation-Narrated tapes, Classical Kids, recorded sounds of
instruments, and just music
(sometimes
when listening to a piece, we try to see if it is familiar)
XI.
Art Appreciation-We have used college art text (edited by mom), read through
The Annotated
Mona Lisa, KidsArt,
postcards, inexpensive prints, and biographies in The Gift of Music
Other ideas:
a scientist writing about
his experiments
an eyewitness account to a
historical event
a log or journal by an
explorer
the original speeches &
writings which influenced an age
the legends, fairy
tales, tall tales and myths passed down
through generations
a book written by a historian or biographer who
lived during the time he wrote
an author who has done
extensive research on his subject, preferably from source documents
Source documents themselves
a poet who has a way of
painting pictures for us with words
biographies about the lives
of people who made a contribution to the age in which they live which includes
scientists, composers, musicians, philosophers, missionaries, explorers, etc.
Plus all of the wonderful beloved classic stories that
have withstood the test of time.
Closing
Thought:
So
what can be the benefits of using Charlotte Mason’s methods?
Volume 6 p.
244--"Like all great ventures of life this that I propose is a venture of
faith, faith in the saving power of knowledge and in the assimilative power of
children........Bring the two together in ways that are sanctioned by the laws
of mind (in the nature of knowledge and in the nature of children) and, to use
a figure, a chemical combination takes place and a new product appears, a
person of character and intelligence, an admirable citizen whose own life is
too full and rich for him to be an uneasy member of society."
Curriculum Recommendations from
Volume 3 pages 301-303
LITERATURE Vol
6 pg 180-
II The Knowledge of Man
(b) Literatures
Except in Form I the study of Literature goes pari passu with that of History. Fairy tales, (Andersen or Grimm, for example), delight Form lB, and the little people re-tell these tales copiously, vividly, and with the astonishing exactness we may expect when we remember how seriously annoyed they are with the story-teller who alters a phrase or a circumstance. Aesop's Fables, too, are used with great success, and are rendered, after being once heard, with brevity and point, and children readily appropriate the moral. Mrs. Gatty's Parables From Nature , again, serve another purpose. They feed a child's sense of wonder and are very good to tell. There is no attempt to reduce the work of this form, or any other, to a supposed 'child level.' Form IA (7 to 9) hears and tells chapter by chapter The Pilgrim's Progress and the children's narrations are delightful. No beautiful thought or bold figure escapes them. Andrew Lang's
Tales of Troy and Greece , a big volume, is a piece de resistance going on from term to term.
The great tales of the heroic age find their way to children's hearts. They conceive vividly and tell eagerly, and the difficult classical names instead of being a stumbling-block are a delight, because, as a Master of a Council school says,--
"Children have an instinctive power by which they are able to sense the meaning of a whole passage and even some difficult words."
That the sonorous beauty of these classical names appeals to them is illustrated by a further quotation from the same Master,--
"A boy of about seven in my school the other day asked his mother why she had not given him one of those pretty names they heard in the stories at school. He thought Ulysses a prettier name than his own, Kenneth, and that the mother of his playmate might have called him Achilles instead of Alan."
There is profound need to cultivate delight in beautiful names in days when we are threatened with the fear that London itself should lose that rich halo of historic associations which glorifies its every street and alley, that it may be made like New York, and should name a street X500,--like a workhouse child without designation; an age when we express the glory and beauty of the next highest peak of the Himalayas by naming it D2! In such an age, this, of their inherent aptitude for beautiful names, is a lode of much promise in children's minds. The Kaffir who announced that his name was' Telephone' had an ear for sound. Kingsley's Water Babies , Alice in Wonderland , Kipling's Just So Stories , scores of exquisite classics written for children, but not written down to them, are suitable at this stage.
Form IID has a considerable programme of reading, that is, not the mere mechanical exercise of reading but the reading of certain books. Therefore it is necessary that two years should be spent in Form IA and that in the second of these two years the children should read a good deal of the set work for themselves. In IIB they read their own geography, history, poetry, but perhaps Shakespeare's Twelfth Night , say, Scott's Rob Roy , Gulliver's Travels , should be read to them and narrated by them until they are well in their tenth year. Their power to understand, visualise, and 'tell' a play of Shakespeare from nine years old and onwards is very surprising. They put in nothing which is not there, but they miss nothing and display a passage or a scene in a sort of curious relief. One or two books of the calibre of The Heroes of Asgard are also included in the programme for the term.
The transition to Form IIA is marked by more individual reading as well as by a few additional books. The children read their 'Shakespeare play' in character. Certain Council School boys, we are told, insist on dramatising Scott as they read it. Bulfinch's Age of Fable admits them to the rich imaginings of peoples who did not yet know. Goldsmith's poems and Stevenson's Kidnapped , etc., may form part of a term's work, and in each and all children shew the same surprising power of knowing, evinced by the one sure test,--they are able to 'tell' each work they have read not only with accuracy but with spirit and originality. How is it possible, it may be asked, to show originality in' mere narration'? Let us ask Scott, Shakespeare, Homer, who told what they knew, that is narrated, but with continual scintillations from their own genius playing upon the written word. Just so in their small degree do the children narrate; they see it all so vividly that when you read or hear their versions the theme is illuminated for you too.
Children remain in Form II until they are twelve, and here I would remark on the evenness with which the power of children in dealing with books is developed. We spread an abundant and delicate feast in the programmes and each small guest assimilates what he can. The child of genius and imagination gets greatly more than his duller comrade but all sit down to the same feast and each one gets according to his needs and powers.
The surprises afforded by the dull and even the 'backward' children are encouraging and illuminating. We think we know that man is an educable being, but when we afford to children all that they want we discover how straitened were our views, how poor and narrow the education we offered. Even in so-called deficient children we perceive,--
"What a piece of work is man . . . In apprehension, how like a god!"
In Forms III and IV we introduce a History of English Literature carefully chosen to afford sympathetic interest and delight while avoiding stereotyped opinions and stale information. The portion read each term (say fifty pages) corresponds with the period covered in history studies and the book is a great favourite with children. They have of course a great flair for Shakespeare, whether King Lear, Twelfth Night, Henry V, or some other play, and The Waverleys usually afford a contemporary tale. There has been discussion in Elementary Schools as to whether an abridged edition would not give a better chance of getting through the novel set for a term, but strong arguments were brought forward at a conference of teachers in Gloucester in favour of a complete edition. Children take pleasure in the 'dry' parts, descriptions and the like, rendering these quite beautifully in their narrations. Form IV may have quite a wide course of reading. For instance if the historical period for a term include the Commonwealth, they may read L'Allegro , and Il Penseroso, Lycidas , and contemporary poets as represented in a good anthology, or, for a later period, Pope's Rape of the Lock , or Gray's poems, while Form III read poems of Goldsmith and Burns. The object of children's literary studies is not to give them precise information as to who wrote what in the reign of whom?--but to give them a sense of the spaciousness of the days, not only of great Elizabeth, but of all those times of which poets, historians and the makers of tales, have left us living pictures. In such ways the children secure, not the sort of information which is of little cultural value, but wide spaces wherein imagination may take those holiday excursions deprived of which life is dreary; judgment, too, will turn over these folios of the mind and arrive at fairly just decisions about a given strike, the question of Poland, Indian Unrest. Every man is called upon to be a statesman seeing that every man and woman, too, has a share in the government of the country; but statesmanship requires imaginative conceptions, formed upon pretty wide reading and some familiarity with historical precedents.
The reading for Forms V and VI (ages 15 to 18) is more comprehensive and more difficult. Like that in the earlier Forms, it follows the lines of the history they are reading, touching current literature in the occasional use of modern books; but young people who have been brought up on this sort of work may, we find, be trusted to keep themselves au fait with the best that is being produced in their own days. Given the proper period, Form V would cover in a term Pope's Essay on Man , Carlyle's Essay on Burns , Frankfort Moore's Jessamy Bride , Goldsmith's Citizen of the World (edited), Thackeray's The Virginians , the contemporary poets from an anthology. Form VI would read Boswell, The Battle of the Books , Macaulay's Essays on Goldsmith, Johnson, Pitt; the contemporary poets from The Oxford Book of Verse , and both Forms read She Stoops to Conquer . This course of reading, it will be seen, is suggestive and will lead to much reading round and about it in later days. As for the amount covered in each Form, it is probably about the amount most of us cover in the period of time included in a school term, but while we grown-up persons read and forget because we do not take the pains to know as we read, these young students have the powers of perfect recollection and just application because they have read with attention and concentration and have in every case reproduced what they have read in narration, or, the gist of some portion of it, in writing.
The children's answers [Examination Papers can be seen at the P.N.E.U. Office] in their examination papers, show that literature has become a living power in the minds of these young people.
WHAT A CHILD SHOULD KNOW AT TWELVE
In order to induce the heads of schools (private schools, preparatory schools, girls' schools, and' Lower' schools) to consider seriously whether it is not possible to introduce some such method of Education by Books, let me put forward a few considerations :--
1. The cost of the books per pupil for the six years--from six to twelve--does not average more than (L)1 a year. A scheme of work for elementary schools might be arranged at a much less annual cost for books.
2. Two and a half, for Class I., to three and a half hours a day, for Class III., is ample time for this book education.
3. Much writing is unnecessary, because the pupils have the matter in their books and know where to find it.
4. Classes II. and III. are able to occupy themselves in study with pleasure and profit.
5. Teachers are relieved of the exhausting drudgery of many corrections.
6. The pupils have the afternoons for handicrafts, nature-work, walks, games, etc.
7. The evenings are free, whether at school or at home, for reading aloud, choral singing, hobbies, etc.
8. The pupils get many intelligent interests, beget hobbies, and have leisure for them.
9. There is no distressing cramming for the term's examination. The pupils know their work, and find it easy to answer questions set to find out what they know, rather than what they do not know.
10. Children of any age, however taught hitherto, take up this sort of work with a avidity.
11. Boys and girls taught in this way take up ordinary school work, preparation for examinations, etc., with intelligence, zeal, and success.
The six years' work--from six to twelve--which I suggest, should and does result in the power of the pupils--
(a) To grasp the sense of a passage of some length at a single reading: and to narrate the substance of what they have read or heard.
(b) To spell, and express themselves in writing with ease and fair correctness.
(c) To give an orderly and detailed account of any subject they have studied.
(d) To describe in writing what they have seen, or heard from the newspapers.
(e) They should have a familiar acquaintance with the common objects of the country, with power to reproduce some of these in brushwork.
(f) Should have skill in various handicrafts, as cardboard Sloyd, basket-making, clay-modelling, etc.
(g) In Arithmetic, they should have some knowledge of vulgar and decimal fractions, percentage, household accounts, etc.
(h) Should have a knowledge of Elementary Algebra, and should have done practical exercises in Geometry.
(i) Of Elementary Latin Grammar; should read fables and easy tales, and, say, one or two books of 'Caesar.'
(j) They should have some power of understanding spoken French, and be able to speak a little; and to read an easy French book without a dictionary.
(k) In German, much the same as in French, but less progress.
(l) In History, they will have gone through a rather detailed study of English, French, and Classical (Plutarch) History.
(m) In Geography they will have studied in detail the map of the world, and have been at one time able to fill in the landscape, industries, etc., from their studies, of each division of the map.
(n) They will have learned the elements of Physical Geography, Botany, Human Physiology, and Natural History, and will have read interesting books on some of these subjects.
(o) They should have some knowledge of English Grammar.
(p) They should have a considerable knowledge of Scripture History and the Bible text.
(q) They should have learned a good deal of Scripture and of Poetry, and should have read some Literature.
(r) They should have learned to sing on the Tonic Sol-fa method, and should know a number of English, French, and German Songs.
(s) They should have learned Swedish Drill and various drills and calisthenic exercises.
(t) In Drawing they should be able to represent common objects of the house and field with brush or charcoal; should be able to give rudimentary expression to ideas; and should be acquainted with the works of some artists through reproductions.
(u) In Music their knowledge of theory and their ear-training should keep pace with their powers of execution.
This is the degree of progress an average pupil of twelve should have made under a teacher of knowledge and ability. Progress in the disciplinary subjects, languages and mathematics, for example, must depend entirely on the knowledge and ability of the teacher.