20 THE ACTION OF THE FRENCH LANGUAGE ON CLASSICAL ROOTS. English. .....Liber .Lv r r...............L b r r. ...Gvrnr .........Gbr nr. Probus ..Prv r.......... ....... PURSUE .Prbr. .Prs qur. Vrt Prt. .Rcpr. Dplk. ..Kr. .Poursuivre.........Persequor ......... Per and sequor...P r s vr ..Duplex (-plicis) ... Duo and plico ...D 61 {Ouvert, part. of } Opertus, part.of} ...Por .......... .P pr. The characteristic common to all these examples is, the softening of one of the consonants of the root. But sometimes this method of derivation is just reversed, as in these words: RENDER ...........Rendre ............ Redonare........ HUMBLE............. In this set we notice that the derived words are strengthened by introducing a new consonant. It will be observed that this introduction takes place between two liquids; and the consonant introduced is that for which the former of the liquids has the greatest affinity. These three classes show the principal modes of deflecting words from Latin to French; and each is subject to numerous exceptions and irregularities. As a minor characteristic of the language under consideration, we may notice its fondness for open vowels, especially oi (pronounced like oo-ah, run together), and au or eau (pronounced o). We give a few examples. Set (a) really belong to Class I. In set (b) the au supplies the omission of the liquid ; but this method of formation also is strangely enough reversed in the word novel, (Fr.) nouvelle, fem. of nouveau, (Lat.) nova, fem. of novus. Dukinfield. D. QUEEN'S SCHOLARSHIPS. WE think it desirable to remind our readers that under a recent arrangement, the terms of which are not generally known, the annual examination for Queen's Scholarships is now open to all young men and women above the age of eighteen, who may be presented by the authorities of the various normal colleges. A scholarship entitles the holder to a year's residence at a normal college, free of expense; but if the candidates gain a place in the first class, additional allowances of £4 and £3 are made towards defraying personal expenses or the purchase of books. The holders of scholarships are thus enabled to qualify themselves for the office of schoolmaster or schoolmistress by a regular professional training. A residence for this period generally qualifies a student to secure a place in the "Class List" of the Committee of Council, after the examination held at Christmas by one of Her Majesty's Inspectors. Success at this examination will either entitle the student to a certificate of the third or lowest grade, and thus to all the privileges of a certificated teacher; or it will be reckoned as a scholarship for a second year, and thus enable him to obtain the advantage of a more thorough and professional training. The importance of these arrangements is manifest; and we hope that they will be brought under the notice of many young persons who possess an aptitude for teaching, and are desirous of devoting themselves to the work. The teachers and supporters of British schools throughout the country would do well to explain the new conditions of the Queen's Scholarship Examination to any persons of high moral and religious character whom they believe to be otherwise adapted to succeed as teachers. It ought to be generally understood that the examination, although determined in its character by the five years' course of instruction prescribed for pupil-teachers, is no longer limited to that class of candidates; and that all the successful competitors will be classed together according to merit, without any distinction between those who have and those who have not been apprenticed in elementary schools. The following are the subjects comprised in the examination : 1. Reading with correctness and expression. 2. English Grammar, including the ordinary rules of syntax, parsing, and the elements of analysis. 3. Arithmetic, including vulgar and decimal fractions and simple interest. 4. (Euclid, Books I. and II., and the elements of Algebra, as far as simple equation.) 5. Geography of the four quarters of the globe, with a special and detailed knowledge of the British Islands and our own Colonies. Maps to be drawn from memory. 6. History of England. 7. Ability to give a lesson and to conduct a class in the presence of the inspector. 8. Composition of an essay on some subject connected with the art of teaching. Female candidates will not be required to take the subjects enclosed in brackets, but will do well to take book-keeping or domestic economy in addition, if they desire to secure a place in the first class. We Several pupil-teachers have applied to us for information as to the effect of this new broad-sheet upon the approaching Queen's Scholarship Examination. have authority to state that, at Christmas next, such questions will be given as may be answered by those who have diligently pursued their studies according to either broad-sheet. It is not, therefore, desirable that intending candidates, who have been systematically preparing for the examination according to the old syllabus, should in any way modify their course. The new broad-sheet differs principally from the old in requiring the elements of Algebra to be taken with two books of Euclid, instead of proposing them as an alternative subject with four books of Euclid; and in defining the work of each successive year with greater clearness than before, in relation to other subjects. It will take effect as soon as copies of it shall have been distributed among the teachers at the visits of the inspectors, but is not, we believe, intended to produce any hasty change in the course of instruction now being pursued by pupil-teachers. The Committee of the British and Foreign School Society will, as far as possible, communicate by letter with those teachers who have apprentices in their fifth year. But since it is not unlikely that the list of such teachers is incomplete, all intending candidates, whether pupil-teachers or not, are advised to communicate their wishes in writing to the Secretary of the Society, not later than the last week in October, and to let their letters be accompanied with testimonials from their teacher, and the minister of the congregation to which they belong. MINUTES OF COUNCIL FOR 1856-7. WE have not space this quarter to give our usual analysis of the contents of the Minutes of Council. The volume contains, however, much valuable information, and is fully up to the average in regard to the importance of the suggestions which are made incidentally in the Inspectors' Reports. We content ourselves with two extracts. Gallery Lessons.-There is a tendency in the gallery lesson to throw the whole labour of instruction on the teacher. The children play an entirely subordinate part. As little mental effort as possible is required of them, and the questions which they have to answer lead them upward by such gentle steps that, whether by guessing, or by real inference, they seem to solve difficulties which are in reality far beyond their reach. The teacher is apt to suppose that what they can thus do, while he is guiding and aiding, and almost prompting them, is a fair measure of their hold upon what they have learnt. As far as mere information is concerned, this may be true. It is sometimes quite astonishing to find how much of a good oral lesson children will remember, and even re-produce. But nothing would be a greater mistake than to suppose that the reasoning, or other mental act of which a child seems capable, when thus sustained by a mature mind, is any measure of what he will do when unaided, or even any measure of the cultivation which he is receiving. A long interval separates the comprehension of an act of reasoning from the power to imitate it; or, rather, the two things are different in kind. A boy who could perfectly follow a very difficult arithmetical problem, when worked before him on the board, and in whose answers during the work you could not detect the slightest proof of want of comprehension, would certainly fail in working a very easy problem by himself, if he had never before been so tried. Yet I have repeatedly met with teachers who fancied that the children could do whatever they seemed to understand; that a boy, for instance, who had followed with attention and apparent intelligence the working of a hard sum in proportion, could of course work an easy one for himself with accuracy; or that one who had answered really hard questions in a lesson on a complicated weighing machine, would be able at once to understand a common steelyard without further explanation. The fact is, that all the best cultivation of a child's mind is obtained by the child's own exertions, and the master's success may be measured by the degree in which he can bring his scholars to make such exertions absolutely without aid.-The Rev. F. Temple. Reading Lessons. The following deficiencies have attracted my attention in many schools, and some vigorous measures should be taken to supply them. 1. The reading books are often ill adapted to the classes in which they are used; the general fault being that they are not simple or intelligible. In a great number of schools, I have reported that a larger quantity of easy reading books is required. 2. Sufficient pains are not taken to illustrate the reading lessons by maps, diagrams, or pictures. 3. The teachers do not generally think it necessary to read the lessons carefully beforehand, in order to be able to explain difficult words at once in clear and simple language; indeed, I have not unfrequently found that the pupil-teacher was really ignorant of the meaning of several words in a lesson read by one of the middle classes of a school. 4. Much time is wasted in unnecessary repetition, spelling long words, taking places, and by a variety of awkward expedients, which save an idle or incompetent teacher the trouble of exerting his own mind, or exercising the energies of his class. Upon the whole, I am of opinion that the pupil-teachers require more careful and systematic instruction in the art of teaching to read than they usually receive. 5. There are not many schools in which the elder boys and girls commit considerable portions of English prose or poetry to memory. I have long been convinced that the neglect of this practice, to which so much time is properly devoted in higher schools, has been most detrimental to the children; and I attribute the great proficiency of the schools which I have named excellent in this subject, chiefly to the care and ability with which the recitation of long passages learned by heart have been conducted. It is obvious, however, that no good will be effected unless the passages are previously explained and thoroughly understood, the accent and intonation of the pupils carefully corrected, and the faults of affectation and exaggeration watched and checked. -Rev. F. C. Cook. GENERAL RESULTS OF A YEAR'S INSPECTION. THE establishment and maintenance of schools by means of aid from public funds continues to find favour with the friends of education, even to a larger extent than heretofore, and seems to be gradually taking its place as the general and recognised mode of providing instruction for children of the labouring classes. The chief desideratum in the working of the system is, to produce a more lasting effect upon the minds and characters of the children submitted to it; and the greatest impediment to this result is presented by the early age at which children leave school. To meet this, infant schools should be everywhere established; the teaching of the juvenile schools should be rendered as effective and as practical as possible; and greater encouragement should be given to the establishment of night schools or evening classes, for the completion of that education which the early removal to labour necessarily leaves unfinished in the day school. These night schools should be allowed to adapt themselves freely to the wants of each particular neighbourhood, and should be rendered as attractive as possible. The process of self-education should, at the same time, be further encouraged, by the establishment of lending libraries, not only in connexion with the day school, but also in many cases independently, in every town or considerable village.-J. BOWSTEAD, ESQ. LETTER TO THE EDITOR. SIR,-The method adopted to secure regularity of attendance in our school, which I have conducted for the last fourteen years, has been the regular observance of the following rule : "As great inconvenience would arise from irregularity in attendance, the weekly payment will be required whether the children be present or absent, except in cases of serious illness, or lengthened absence from home. This arrangement is equally necessary to the financial prosperity of the Institution, the good order of the School, and the improvement of the children." This rule has been in operation for the above period of fourteen years, and though its enforcement has occasionally lost us a scholar, yet, on the whole, it has worked and it does work well. Indeed, why should not a child pay when he is absent? The teacher is present to instruct him. His copy-book occupies the place at the desk that he would occupy if present; another boy cannot be put in his place so long as he is a scholar. His name is called, the same as the others; he is inquired after, sent after, and gives the teacher as much anxiety and trouble as if he were present. It is therefore reasonable and just that the child should pay, and to himself it is most beneficial. I am, yours, Barnsley. J. H. L. Locke, J., Esq., M.P., 6, Chester Street, Belgrave Square..... Martin, C. W., Esq., M.P., 17, Great Cumberland Place (1847 to 1857, as per account from Messrs. Hoare & Co.) Mellor, J., Esq., Q.C., 21 Endsleigh Street, Golden Square Nash, J., Esq., 56, Walcot Place, Kennington (additional) 110 0 10 0 10 10 0 1 1 0 11 11 0 1 1 0 1 1 0 0 10 6 110 1 1 0 Remittances from Auxiliary Societies and Corresponding Committees, &c., from June 1st, 1857, Subscriptions and Donations will be thankfully received by Messrs. HANBURYS and Co., Bankers to the Society, 60, Lombard-street; and at the Society's House, Borough-road. Printed by JACOB UNWIN, of No. 8, Grove Place, in the Parish of St. John, Hackney, in the County of Middlesex, at his Printing Office, 31, Bucklersbury, in the Parish of St. Stephen, Walbrook, in the City of London; and Published by THE SOCIETY, at the Depository, Borough Road.-THURSDAY, OCTOBER 1, 1857. |