the middle and lower orders to the Youth of the wanderer, 150.

THE ENGLISH

JOURNAL OF

EDUCATION.

JANUARY, 1843.

THE TITLE.

THIS Magazine is called the ENGLISH Journal of Education. The reader will naturally ask, what does this title mean? and what, especially, is expressed or implied in the word English?

Not, certainly, as even the present number will prove, that we are unwilling to seek instruction from foreigners. Not, certainly, that we wish Englishmen to boast of their own discoveries and achievements in education, and to esteem all that has been done by Frenchmen, Germans, or Swiss, as worthless or mischievous. Our best friends are those who lead us to discover in ourselves occasions of humiliation rather than of triumph; we gain more by observing the merits of others than by ex⚫ posing their weaknesses. But our Journal is English,

1. Because it is designed for those who, in the strictest sense, may be called English labourers; for English men and women, who are teaching English boys and girls in English villages, in the close alleys of English manufacturing towns, in the heart of the English capital; for those who speak the English tongue, and perhaps no other; for those who read English books, are English in their habits, prejudices, temptations; for those who can scarcely be understood, except by Englishmen nursed under the same influences with themselves. For these, and with these, be they masters or dames, experienced or inexperi、 enced, wise or ignorant, we desire to work; to learn from them, to impart to them, what information is within our reach; to remonstrate with them, encourage them, bring them to an understanding with each other: yet all rather as friends than as critics; rather as those who are conscious of the same difficulties, than as those who have a right to condemn them for their failures; rather as those who would bring out the strength which they have in them already, than as those who would tell them of some better possible system which they might adopt, if their character, position, and objects were altogether changed.—And we are English,

2. Because we do in our hearts believe, that the principles of our education need not be imported from any other shore; that we have them

fixed and rooted in our own soil, requiring only to be called forth and acted out. That we may learn much from Switzerland respecting the method of awakening certain faculties of children by sensible objects, and respecting the power of parental, especially of maternal, influence, -much from Prussia respecting the instruction in the more advanced schools, much from France respecting the management and machinery of all, we fully believe. But that schools formed in England upon models taken from any of these nations, will be really like that which they profess to imitate, will accomplish the purposes of their benevolent founders, will exercise any permanently beneficial influence on the English character, we do not believe. Education, to be effectual in an old country, must, we think, be native. It must form a part of the national feelings, faith, institutions: and it is only if there are no traces of an education which has worked itself into these, and has grown up along with them, that we may lawfully resort to one which is artificial and extraneous. It is our firm conviction, that there is in England an education which is more closely intermixed with the life and character of our people than the most cherished of our political institutions. The principles of this education may be forgotten; we desire that they should be recollected; its practice may be abused, we desire that it should be reformed; may have been confined to one or two classes, we desire that it should be extended to all. But we believe that in it lies the hope of England; that when it is understood and practically applied, all suggestions from other lands will be profitable; that while it is neglected, they will be quite lost upon us.

it

A GALLERY FOR A PAROCHIAL SCHOOL.

THOUGH no great admirers of what is sometimes called the gallery system, or of the simultaneous instruction of large numbers in any shape, we are not the less persuaded, that a raised platform, or gallery, upon which several classes, and, in some cases, a whole school, may be seated comfortably in a small space, and brought directly under the teacher's eye, may, in judicious hands, be turned to the best account. No one can visit Mr. Stow's training-school at Glasgow, without being struck with the superior bearing and tone of the children, particularly as compared with the generality of Scotch schools,-with the quiet, softened, subdued, and even reverential manner of the upper classes. This is high praise indeed; and if we could but calculate upon the same results in ordinary cases from the mere adoption of the system, it would go far towards reconciling us to its palpable defects in an intellectual point of view. It is evident, however, that, while the gallery affords the fullest opportunity for bringing the mind of the teacher to bear directly upon the sympathies and affections of a large class, the greater part of whom will naturally, without any considerable development of intellect or acquisition of knowledge, catch his manner and spirit, the whole tendency of the instruction, for good or for evil, turns upon the character and qualifications of the individual master. It may, with the help

of certain tests and correctives, be all that could well be desired; on the other hand, it may much more probably end in nothing but a very poor specimen of extemporaneous lay-preaching. And a good churchman may be allowed to doubt whether, in a parochial or juvenile school, (we are not speaking of an infant school, where the children are too young to learn the catechism for themselves), any person who is trusted with this power, ought not to be in some sort of holy orders. And this brings us to the strongest argument in favour of the introduction of a gallery into a parochial school, viz., that it would afford the clergyman of the parish,—the authorized teacher of babes as well as adults, the best opportunity of taking the interpretation, at least, of the religious instruction into his own hands, and also of addressing many a word of exhortation to the most impressible part of his flock. Many a parish priest spends far less time in his school-room, than he feels that he ought, and is really inclined to do, from the mere circumstance of being at a loss what is best to be done when he is there. He is bewildered with the number of classes and variety of employments, and consequent noise and bustle; and perhaps, in the end, satisfies himself that the little time he has to spare, and that only occasionally, would scarcely suffice to do much good; for it might be weeks, or even longer, before he could visit the same class again. His great anxiety is rather to give a tone, than to communicate information; not that he supposes that he can do one without the other. Now with the simple help of a gallery, and with comparatively small expenditure of time or trouble, he may effect far more towards making the school a nursery for the church, than any one who has not given this method a fair trial, can suppose. We feel that we owe the clergy an apology for even hinting that it would not take up much of their valuable time; for how could half an hour, or even an hour after breakfast be better spent than in training the greater proportion, or perhaps the whole, of the lambs of the flock at once? What would our forefathers in the ministry have given for such an opportunity? We should also bear in mind, that attention shown to a child is the shortest and readiest way to the parent's heart; to say nothing of the amount of actual knowledge carried home.

The gallery of which we now proceed to give a sketch, was contrived for such purposes as we have been describing;—for the use of the clergyman rather than of the schoolmaster. The design was not so much to communicate information, or to expand the mind, (both of which ends, important as they are, could be gained, as was found by experience, with more ease and certainty in smaller classes on the floor), as to train the children to be quiet, thoughtful, and reverential; in short, as was said above, to give a right and good tone to the whole school. The gallery was also intended to be used for all the religious exercises, such as singing and prayers, which not only were in a liturgical form, but contained a larger proportion of responses than is commonly the case: with this end in view, it was necessary to make it convenient for kneeling as well as sitting, and to have regard to cleanliness as well as comfort. To secure the last point especially, a temporary platform was in use for several months, and altered three or four times,