E.--2

8

whole. Table No. 5 contains information as to the race to which, children attending Native schools belong; 17 - 44 per cent, of these children are either Europeans, or are not sufficiently Maori to be called half-caste. Tables Nos. 6 and 7 show respectively the examination and inspection results for ihe year. Exclusive of boarding-school pupils, 63 passed Standard IV., 122 passed Standard 111., 198 passed Standard 11., and 420 passed Standard I. Fifteen schools this year gained a gross percentage higher than 70, as against the twenty-three schools that reached this standard of excellence last year. The Abt of Teaching in Maobi Schools. Copies of this report are sent to all Native schools, and experience has shown that teachers often make good use of hints and suggestions thus brought before them. For this reason, it is thought, it may be serviceable to enter rather fully into details with regard to the art of teaching as it now exists in Native schools—to give, in fact, a compendium of the principles which the most successful teachers appear to act upon, whether consciously or unconsciously; and, on the other hand, to give a brief statement of the chief conditions and circumstances which seem to precede or accompany failure, partial or complete. It is possible that such a compendium may be useful to teachers not engaged in Native-school work; and it should certainly be serviceable to pupil-teachers and those about to enter the profession, seeing that it will necessarily be a kind of A B C of the art of teaching, because it has reference throughout to pupils whose capabilities and deficiencies render it necessary for their teachers to carry back the analysis of the matter taught until the nearest possible approach to the ultimate elements has been made : every experienced teacher knows that power to simplify and power to teach are very closely allied.* The reason why this compendium is aphoristic in form, is obvious : the limits of a report do not allow space for much discussion, or for exposition of the grounds on which the statements and precepts are based. Section A. — General. 1. On the intellectual side the process of teaching has for its end and aim the improving and strengthening of the pupils' powers (1) of perception—that is, of drawing immediate inferences from sensations; (2) of bringing their "perceptions" under the proper concepts —that is, of correctly naming or describing what they observe; and (3) of articulating their knowledge systematically and harmoniously —that is, in effect, of substituting vigorous, orderly, clear, and coherent thought for the mixture of imperfect impressions, disconnected memories, and. confused images which, as a rule, constitute the mental possessions of those who have not been educated. 2. Experience plainly teaches that slight impressions are fleeting, and that depth and permanency go together. Therefore when a correct impression has been made on the minds of the members of a class there should be strenuous effort to deepen that impression—to drive it home. 3. The knowledge of a fact or principle is often merely a preliminary to the proper and successful use of a mental process which has to be frequently performed. Such a process, for example, is involved in the use of English by a Maori, or in the handling of the multiplication-table. Processes of this kind are almost invariably fatiguing when consciously performed, but by means of constant drill and practice the work may at last be done almost automatically; then the processes will be pleasurable, or, at the worst, indifferent. It is plain that really satisfactory work cannot be got out of children who are constantly in a state of mental fatigue, and no school training can be considered good which does not favour the production of a large amount of faculty for carrying on mental processes automatically. There are few more common and baneful errors connected with teaching than that of supposing that when the nature of a process has once been intellectually apprehended it is not still a matter of great importance to make the faculty for carrying on that process assume the charactor of a habit, and, as far as possible, an automatic habit. 4. Knowledge gained from a one-sided view of a thing is necessarily superficial and inadequate. There is, of course, a limit to the utility of viewing facts from many different standpoints, but generally the knowledge of a fact is perfect in proportion as it is many-sided: if a thing were known from all possible points of view the knowledge of it would be absolute. 5. A teacher should never satisfy himself with such thoughts as these : " My class thoroughly understand this thing although they cannot just put their ideas into words," or " That pupil knows this fact very well although he cannot express what he knows." A particular act of teaching is not complete until pupils both think correctly about what they have been taught and are able to express their thoughts correctly. 6. Avoid working in such a way as will tend to render the habit of making certain mistakes inveterate. Prevention is generally better than cure; therefore take great precautions to reduce to a minimum the production of incorrect written work. It may be added that the good done by the correction of a written mistake is generally far from counterbalancing the harm done to the mind of the child through his having gone through the faulty mental process which led to the making of the mistake. 7. Because a satisfactory reply to a question about anything is generally derived from views of it taken from more than one point, it is quite possible for two or three children to produce, by joint contributions, a correct answer to a question which no one of them could deal with by himself. It often happens also when a result has been thus arrived at that no one of the contributors really understands the answer or why it has been given. Therefore the test which simultaneous answering by a class affords is very fallacious, and therefore also joint work, copying, dependence on fellow-pupils, &c, should be systematically discouraged.

* If in addition to the analytic faculty which enables a teacher to reduce his matter to its elements and, so, to simplify his teaching of a fact or a process, he also possesses the power of discerning and of leading his pupils to discern the essential relations to one another of the elements analytically obtained, and if he is skilful in making and in leading his pupils to make a final synthesis of the elements and their relations in a unified notion, he is a fine teacher—a past master of his craft.