The following is an alternative scheme of drill :— INFANT SCHOOL SIMULTANEOUS NEEDLEWORK DRILL. A. Needle Threading. [Teacher to stand in front of class and to use her left (3) Bring the needle and cotton close together. B. Thimble Drill. [Children must first be taught to distinguish the "thimblefinger" by its height above the others.] (1) Hold the thimble-finger up. (2) Take up thimble (in left hand between thumb and first finger). (3) Put thimble on thimble-finger. C. Hemming Drill. [Children should first be taught how to hold their work over the first finger of left hand by means of strips of paper.] (1) Make a little stitch. (2) See if it shines through (children turn work over to see if needle be visible). (3) Turn work back again. (4) Push needle through with thimble. (5) Draw it out over shoulder. CHAPTER XI. MANAGEMENT, ORGANIZATION, AND DISCIPLINE. THE requirements from Infant Schools to earn the Merit Grant are more precisely laid down in the Code than is the case in schools for older children. But no reference, as in the former case, is made in the code to (1) the Organization and (2) Discipline. These, nevertheless, are factors that must and ought to be present in the mind of an Inspector, and a few remarks will be made on this part of school life, so far as the special organization and discipline of an Infant School are concerned. (See Instructions to H.M.'s Inspectors.) I. ORGANIZATION. This is manifestly different from that of an upper department where Standards have to be adhered to. In an Infant School there is the choice of classifying according to age, and according to attainments. The former, if alone considered, is a vicious basis; but some attention to age is required, even when attainment is the fundamental notion of subdivision. The largest schools in this matter, as elsewhere, possess great advantages over the smaller, in good plans of possible organization, as more subdivision can be effected. A good arrangement, where the numbers allow of it, is the following: I. (Top) Class, 6-7 years old: the most advanced, especially in Reading. II. Class, 6-7 years old: less advanced. III. Class, 6-7 years old: "Wastrels," recently ad mitted with little previous infant schooling. Classes I. and II. have had one or two years' previous Infant School training. This organization suits a school of from 200-300 children. If the numbers are larger, a class or classes can be interpolated between II. and III.; if smaller, II. can be broken up between I. and III. All these go into upper departments at the end of the school year, and hence they are made into one section. Beneath this section comes a lower consisting of IV. Class, 5-6, the more advanced. "" 66 with VI. a class of 5-6 wastrels." Similar remarks apply here to those made in the upper section. The lowest section comprises the 4-5 years old children, and, when taken in from 3-4, the "Babies" proper. TIME TABLES.-The construction of time tables is a part of organization. The guiding principle in drawing up these should be to give frequent changes, and the most diverse occupations, to the youngest and weakest children, not letting any lesson exceed in length a quarter of an hour, and gradually adding to the length and reducing the playing occupations as we proceed higher and higher in the school. Ample provision should be made in the Time Table for the play-ground. It is cruel to retain children with muscles cramped in desks and on galleries from 9 to 12, and from 2 to 4.30. This is sometimes done by weak teachers under the plea of "saving time," but always really to save energy. As a consequence the children are continually passing by ones and twos from the school to the offices. Whenever the weather permits, the school should be "turned inside out" for a quarter of an hour at least, morning and afternoon; the windows and doors (in summer) being left wide open for the foul air to be swept out. In bad weather every child should be exercised by shifting the classes from desks to galleries, and vice versâ. The points to be considered in drawing up Time Tables be thus summarized : may (1) Draw up a list of subjects to be taught; apportion the due time necessary for each according to importance, giving Reading and Arithmetic the largest share. (2) Apportion the time of each lesson according to (a) The difficulty of the subject-the most difficult having the least time at each lesson, because of mental strain. (b) According to the age and capacities of the children, the youngest and weakest having the shortest lessons. (3) Let the succession of lessons be from difficult to simple, and such as to afford the greatest variety. (4) Arrange that "noisy" lessons be not given simultaneously in contiguous classes. (5) Leave no class to do work without a teacher. (6) Arrange that the Head Teacher may periodically superintend, teach, and examine the whole school. (7) Let the most competent teachers take the most difficult work, even if teachers have to be shifted to some extent from class to class (Professorial plan.) (8) Let the class rooms be used for the noisy lessons as much as possible. SCHOOL ORGANIZATION is necessary because of the number of pupils and of subjects to be taught, and has reference to (1) The Classification of scholars according to attainments, especially in Reading, or in Reading and Arithmetic taken together. |