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for Yale College, with other students. At times she would study her lessons in Middletown, and saddle and bridle her horse and ride over to Dr. Goodrich's to recite her lessons. She spoke both the Spanish and French languages. She married Henry Mansfield of New Haven, brother of the celebrated Col. Jared Mansfield, and was the mother of six children, one of whom was the distinguished Gen. Joseph K. F. Mansfield of the U. S. A., killed at Antietam. "She was the best educated lady in Middletown, and probably in the State. She was sensible as well as cultivated, high-spirited, and after her marriage transacted business to a considerable extent." She died Jan. 14, 1825.

The habit at once of Thrift and Benevolence.

The following extract, from a chapter in Barnard's Educational Biography, devoted to Mrs. Emma Willard, the distinguished principal of the Troy Female Seminary [Vol. I, p. 125–6], shows that Mrs. Emma Willard's mother [Lydia Hinsdale Hart] acted in the same spirit of large beneficent thrift, which was a characteristic of Mrs. Jonathan Edwards' household management.

In speaking of her domestic education, it is said of her mother, that "she was practical, quietly executive, severely but unwaveringly industrious; and although well educated for her day, and tenderly reared, and excelling in all the delicate fabrics of the needle, she had in full perfection the New England trait of making much out of little, and a little out of nothing. She had the true economy, not of selfish hoarding, but of industriously producing, carefully preserving, and wisely distributing. As an instance, on sorting the wool, as was the woman's part, after the shearing in the spring-when the best portion had been laid aside as material for the father's clothes, the second best selected for other men's wear, the third best for the women's wear, then family flannel and blanketing were to be provided for, and afterwards coarse remnants laid aside for mops. There yet remained scattered tags and burred clippings-to be burnt? No, not so. They were gathered by themselves, and her little girls, "Nancy and Emma," were quietly told by their mother that they might take their baskets, when their work was done, and carry it to the pasture field (where they loved to go), and scatter it upon the bushes which grew around the pond, so that the birds might find it to build their nests with.

Thoughtful, loving woman!-sublime in that charity which embraces all the creatures of God. "Gather up the fragments, that noth. ing be lost," she had read as the words of her loved Master, and in imitation of Him, she "considered the fowls of the air which your Heavenly Father feedeth." And it was this same wise bestowal of the fragments, in imitation of the mother by the daughter, which made the Troy Seminary a source of daily support and comfort through many years, to outside poor, numbering at times many families."

To be continued.

THE MODEL SCHOOL AT BRUSSELS.

Established by the Belgian League.

INTRODUCTION.

THE ECOLE MODÈLE at Brussels was established by the Society to indicate to the public the possibility of reducing to actual enjoyment the principles and methods of elementary instruction, and all the advanced notions of school construction, equipment, and organization, held by its members, or tried elsewhere, for children under fourteen years of age. Its proposed object is to secure the best mental and physical training of its pupils, without special reference to the amount or practical usefulness of the knowledge gained. "To train the senses to nicer discriminating power; to improve the retentiveness and quickness of memory; to develop the faculties of reasoning and the imagination and to give a healthy tone to the latter; to excite moral approbation and disapprobation for actions to which the terms right and wrong respectively and generally correspond; and especially to develop the bodily organs-these are the aims of the model school education."

The pupils, in age and social status, correspond to those of our public schools below the High School in communities with the average appreciation of education. They enter at the age of five and remain till fourteen or fifteen. They are classified into Kindergarten grade, which receives all under seven years, from which they pass into an intermediate school, where they remain till they are nine, and then become members of the Primary School, where they are taught in a general course for two years, at the end of which course a portion of each day is devoted to active preparation for some industrial pursuit. This Primary School corresponding to the Primary and Grammar grades of our village and city public schools, includes the Kindergarten, and the industrial methods of our advanced schoolmen. The school, as originally established, aims to be free to members of the association or League, but the resources at the command of the Board of Management have compelled the exaction of fees which amount to 150fr., or $30 a year.

SCHOOL CONSTRUCTION AND EQUIPMENT.*

The building consists of two stories of modest pretensions, as to size, cost, and style. The class-rooms all open into the central hall, and are arranged in two stories. On entering the school, you find yourself in a grand hall, to the left of which is the porter's lodge, and to the right a reception-room for the parents of the pupils and other visitors. There is also on this floor a room originally intended for a cloak-room, but now

This account is drawn up from a paper read Oct. 13, 1880, before the Educational Society (London), by Philip Magnus, B. A., and printed in the Journal of Education (for November), published by Messrs. John Walker & Co., 96 Farringdon street, London.

used for models and general apparatus. Above these are the private rooms of the head-master, as well as a drawing-room and museum and library for the teachers. The class-rooms on the first floor open on to a gallery, which surrounds the central hall. This hall contains an area of about 4,230 square feet. There are 12 class-rooms, and the maximum number of pupils admitted into a class is 33. The accommodation of the school is consequently limited to 400. Each class-room is about 29 feet long, 22 feet broad, and 174 feet high, giving about 346 cubic feet for each pupil. In all the classes, the desks are so arranged that the light enters the room on the left-hand side. Every child has a separate desk, the form of which is not at present uniform in all the classes; but I understand that the question of the shape of desk is now settled, and that the inclination of the desk is 20°, and the seats are shaped and provided with backs, which are slightly curved. The most remarkable feature of the class-rooms are the black-boards, which are continuous round three walls of the school (forming a complete lambri or dado), the fourth wall being occupied by the master's desk and the ordinary black-board used for the purposes of demonstration.

REGULATIONS OF HOURS OF STUDY AND EXERCISE.

The hours of instruction are from 8 till 12, and from 1.30 to 4.30, thus giving seven hours' school work. This comprises some amount of recreation, and is inclusive of home work. Each lesson occupies three-quarters of an hour, and is followed by a quarter of an hour's recreation, in which the pupils, under certain general restrictions, are quite free. No home work, except in certain cases of carelessness, or for some special object, is given to the pupils. With respect to this point, it is thought that "nothing is more beneficial than evenings passed in the calm enjoyment of family life." In fact, an important feature in the school system is the endeavor to enlist the free coöperation and interest of the parents in the pupils' daily tasks and progress. A number of regulations are framed with this object. Of these, the best worth noting is that which recommends-in the strongest terms short of compelling it, which is impossible -that every pupil of the school shall read aloud, for a quarter of an hour, in the presence of his family, in accordance with certain rules, referring to position, etc., which are given on a circular sent round to the parents of all the pupils. There is, no doubt, much to be said in favor of such a practice. The practice is also rigorously enforced of requiring the pupils to answer all questions put to them by the masters in complete sentences, as a means of securing a good elocution, and, at the same time, of impressing more firmly on the memory the answer required. Discipline is maintained, as indeed it is throughout all schools in Belgium, without the use of corporal punishment, by the moral influence of the masters, by good and bad marks and weekly reports, and by a graduated system of punishments, the chief of which is the arraigning of the boy in the presence of his parents before the committee of the school. In those cases only in which the parents fail to attend are they requested to withdraw their child from the school. Here, too, the masters and the parents consult together over the discharge of a joint duty. The matter

of religion is left entirely in the hands of the parents. No interference with the religious opinions of the pupils is permitted in the school, as no religion is there taught. Moral conduct is stimulated, altogether apart from the religious sanction, by the force of habit, by discipline, by a constant appeal to the common good of the school, and by the influence of high ideals.

PHYSICAL TRAINING.

Physical exercise is promoted chiefly by well-organized drill. One of the most interesting sights which I witnessed in connection with this school was the drill exercise in the large hall. Here the boys, from ten to fifteen years of age, went through their manual exercise, under the general orders of their sergeant; they marched in lines of two and four; they performed various manœuvres, and ultimately they formed a square round the Belgian colors, for which the boys are taught to entertain a completely military respect. During these exercises, the word of command was taken up by half-a-dozen small boys, who played their parts as sub-officers with perfect discipline, and whose shrill small voices, raised in command, were strictly obeyed by the boys forming the separate divisions. At the close of this very interesting exercise, the boys sang most pleasingly, and with exquisite feeling, to the accompaniment of the organ. Nothing could have been more gratifying than the manner in which their military exercises were performed.

EXCURSIONS.

An important feature in the organization and instruction of the school, aside, but in connection with the curriculum, is the periodic excursions. These are organized, not as an occasional treat or reward for the more industrious of the boys, but as an essential part of the school work; and the refusal of permission to a boy to join in the excursions is one of the punishments to which a boy is subject. Each class makes at least two excursions every month. The object of these excursions is to give the pupil a practical acquaintance with a variety of things which it is desirable that they should understand, and which otherwise they would know by the medium of books only. It is a part of the realistic system which governs the teaching of the school-that sense-knowledge should be appealed to wherever sense-knowledge can be gained. Everything connected with these excursions is carefully prepared beforehand, and such information is given to the pupils as will enable them to understand and appreciate the signification of the objects they will see. The excursions comprise visits to historical monuments in the city, to museums, to factories, to zoological gardens, to places illustrating facts in geography and geology. On returning from each excursion, the pupils write a description of what they have seen, and of what they may infer therefrom, and these descriptions are discussed and corrected by the masters.

STUDIES AND METHODS.

In drawing up the programme, and indeed in every regulation of the school, the objects of the founders are made plainly evident,-viz., to train and develop the faculties, and to evoke spontaneity. 'The culture of the intellectual faculties is the principal object," says the programme,

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"of the pedagogic reform for which the Model School has been created. “ Carrying on the system of Froebel, which presents to the child's view, so as to excite observation, actual objects, it comes about, by a natural coincidence, that the objects with which science is concerned present the best possible materials for the improvement of the powers of observation, the strengthening of the memory, and the development of the reason Reached by a somewhat different method of reasoning, Herbert Spencer arrives at the same result. Herbert Spencer, it must be remembered, places the usefulness of a study,-.e., its practical service in life,—in the foreground, in the choice of subjects of instruction; and finds, by a similar coincidence, that those subjects which are best worth knowing yield, in the acquisition of the knowledge, most discipline. The founders of the Model School attach first importance to mental discipline. That the faculties of a child are usually employed is the chief thing; the subjects of instruction are a matter of secondary importance." But they equally arrive at the same conclusion, that the elements of science afford the most suitable ideas for the development of the intellectual faculties. Accordingly, science-teaching occupies a prominent place in the programme of the studies. In the youngest classes, this consists of little more than placing before the child different objects, and giving to each its proper name. Nothing more is explained than is sufficient to draw the child's attention to the external appearance of the animal, plant, geometrical form, or other objeet that is being inspected. In this way the child's acquaintance with things is extended, and, at the same time, his knowledge of names. In the higher classes, each of the sciences in turn furnishes subject-matter for instruction; and the school authorities are fully aware that their system is open to the reproach that the teaching is superficial, and not thorough. This they admit, to a certain extent, and justify on the ground that the end of primary instruction is to arouse the intelligence, to bring the faculties into communion with as much of the outer world as possible, to draw simple inferences only, and to leave till a later period of study all complex reasoning and wide generalizations. Thus the programme of instruction includes the elements of Botany, Zoology, Mineralogy, Chemistry, Geology, Physics, and Mechanics. In estimating the value of this general and elementary science-teaching, it must be distinctly remembered that the teaching is not book-work. Nothing could be further removed from the science-teaching of the last half-century, which was gained from books on useful knowledge, and consisted generally of questions and answers, than the science-teaching of the École Modèle. Whatever may be its imperfections, it is what it professes to be-real. It is not gained from reading lessons, how economical soever such a process may be. If a child of the École Modèle describes a leaf of a tree, or the petal of a flower, he has seen it; if he tells you of the structure of the wing of a bat, he has handled it; if he talks of the bones of the human foot, he has taken them to pieces and replaced them. Indeed, of such importance is the knowledge of the structure of the human form considered, that an actual human skeleton is suspended in every class-room of the school. The teaching of Chemistry is equally real; and if you will pass into one of the class-rooms on

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