Chapter XLVI: Appendix: II (1)

SOME SPECIMENS OF EXAMINATION WORK DONE IN THE ‘PARENTS’ REVIEW’ SCHOOL, IN WHICH THE PUPILS ARE EDUCATED UPON BOOKS AND THINGS

The _Parents’ Review_ School, an output of the Parents Union, was, in the first place, designed to bring home schools, taught by governesses, up to the standard of other schools. A Training College for governesses, with Practising School, etc., was established later. Children may not enter the School under six; because we think the first six years of life are wanted for physical growth and the self-education which children carry on with little ordered aid. The _Parents’ Review_ School is conducted by means of programmes of work, in five classes, sent out, term by term, to each of the home schools (and to some other schools); and the same programmes are used in the Practising School. Examination papers are set at the end of each term.

The work is arranged on the principles which have been set forth in this volume; a wide curriculum, a considerable number of books for each child in the several classes, and, besides, a couple of hours’ work daily, not with _Books_ but with _Things_. Many of the pupils in the school have absorbed, in a way, the culture of their parents; but the children of uncultured parents take with equal readiness and comparable results to this sort of work, which is, I think, fitted, not only for the clever, but for the average and even the dull child.

=Class Ia.=—The child of six goes into Class Ia.; he works for 2½ hours a day, but half an hour of this time is spent in drill and games. Including drill, he has thirteen ‘subjects’ of study, for which about sixteen books are used. He recites hymns, poems, and Bible verses; works from Messrs Sonnenschein and Nesbitt’s _A B C Arithmetic_; sings French and English songs; begins Mrs Curwen’s _Child Pianist_, learns to write and to print, learns to read, learns French orally, does brush-drawing and various handicrafts. All these things are done with joy, but cannot be illustrated here. Bible lessons, read from the Bible; tales, natural history, and geography are taught from appointed books, helped by the child’s own observation.

Our plan in each of these subjects is to read him the passage for the lesson (a good long passage), talk about it a little, avoiding much explanation, and then let him narrate what has been read. This he does very well and with pleasure, and is often happy in catching the style as well as the words of the author.

Certain pages, say 40 or 50, from each of the children’s books are appointed for a term’s reading. At the end of the term an examination paper is sent out containing one or two questions on each book. Here are a few of the answers. The children in the first two classes narrate their answers, which someone writes from their dictation.

_Q._ Tell the story of Naaman.

A. (aged 6¾):—

“Naaman had something the matter with him, and his master sent
a letter to the King of Israel, and the king was very unhappy
and did not know what to do because he thought that he wanted
to come and fight against him, and he rent his clothes. And
he said, ‘I can’t cure him,’ so he sent him to Elisha, and he
told him to take a lot of presents and a lot of things with
him. And when Naaman came to Elisha’s door, Elisha sent Gehazi
to tell him to dip himself seven times in the waters of Jordan,
and he said to himself, ‘I surely thought he would have come
out, and I thought a lot of people would come out and make a
fuss’; and he went back in a rage. And his servant said to
him, ‘Why didn’t you go?’ And he said, ‘My rivers are much the
best.’ So his servants said, ‘If he had asked you to do some
great thing, wouldst thou have done it?’ So he went and dipped
himself seven times in the water, and when he came out he was
quite all right again. And when he was coming home they saw
Gehazi coming, so Naaman told them to stop the horses, and so
they stopped, and Gehazi said, ‘There are some people come to
see me, please give me some money and some cloaks,’ and they
were very heavy, so Naaman sent some of his men to carry them,
and when he came near the house he said to his servants, ‘You
can go now.’ Elisha said, ‘Because you have done this you shall
have the leprosy that Naaman had.’”

_Q._ Tell a fairy story.

B. (aged 6¾):—

“When Ulysses was coming back from Troy he passed the Sirens.
He could hear them, but he couldn’t get to them, because he was
bound. He wanted to get to them so as he could listen to them
a long time, because a lot of people had come and listened to
them, and they found it so beautiful that they wanted to stay
there, and they stayed till they died. His companions couldn’t
hear them because they stopped up their ears with wax and
cotton-wool. And this was the song they sang:—

‘Hither, come hither and hearken awhile,
Odysseus far-famed king,
No sailor has ever passed this way
But has paused to hear us sing.
Our song is sweeter than honey,
And he that hears it knows
What he never learnt from another,
And his joy before he goes.
We know what the heroes bore at Troy
In the ten long years of strife,
We know what happened in all the world,
And the secret things of life.’

And then they rowed on till at last the song faded away, and
they rowed on and on for a long time, and then when they could
not hear them nor see them, the wax was taken out of their
ears, and then they unbound Ulysses.”

_Q._ What have you noticed (yourself) about a spider?

C. (aged 7¾):—

“We have found out the name of one spider, and often have
seen spiders under the microscope—they were all very hairy.
We have often noticed a lot of spiders running about the
ground—quantities. Last term we saw a spider’s web up in the
corner of the window with a spider sucking out the juice of a
fly; and we have often touched a web to try and make the spider
come out, and we never could, because she saw it wasn’t a fly,
before she came out.

“I saw the claw of a spider under the microscope, with its
little teeth; we saw her spinnerets and her great eyes. There
were the two big eyes in one row, four little ones in the next
row, and two little ones in the next row. We have often found
eggs of the spiders; we have some now that we have got in a
little box, and we want to hatch them out, so we have put them
on the mantelpiece to force them.

“Once we saw a spider on a leaf, and we tried to catch it, but
we couldn’t; he immediately let himself down on to the ground
with a thread.

“We saw the circulation in the leg of another spider under the
microscope; it looked like a little line going up and down.”

_Q._ Gather three sorts of tree leaf-buds and two sorts of catkin, and tell all you can about them.

D. (aged 6):—

(1) “The chestnut bud is brown and sticky, it is a sort of
cotton-woolly with the leaves inside. It splits open and sends
out two leaves, and the leaves split open.

(2) “The oak twig has always a lot of buds on the top, and one
bud always dies. Where the bud starts there is a little bit of
knot-wood. The oak-bud is very tiny.

(3) “The lime bud has a green side and a red side, and then
it bursts open and several little leaves come out and all the
little things that shut up the leaves die away.

(4) “Golden catkins and silver pussy palms of a willow tree.
The golden catkins have stamens with all the pollen on them.
They grow upwards, and two never grow opposite to each other.
The silver pussy palms have seed boxes, with a little tube
growing out, and a little sticky knob on the top. The bees rub
the pollen off their backs on to the sticky knob.”

_Q._ Tell about the North-West Passage. (Book studied, _The World at Home_.)

E. (aged 7):—

“People in England are very fond of finding things out, and
they wanted to find out the North-West Passage. If people
wanted to go to the Pacific Ocean, they had to go round Africa
by the Cape of Good Hope, or else round South America by Cape
Horn. This was a very long way. They thought they might find
out a shorter way by going along the North Coast by America,
and they would come out in the Pacific Ocean. They would call
this way the North-West Passage. First one man and then another
tried to find a way. They found a lot of straits and bays which
they called after themselves. The enemy they met which made
them turn back was the cold. It was in the frozen zone, and the
sea was all ice, and the ice lumps were as big as mountains,
and when they came against a ship they crashed it to pieces.
Once a man named Captain Franklin tried over and over again to
find the North-West Passage, and once he went and never came
back again, for he got stuck fast in the ice, and the ice did
not break, and he had not much food with him, and what he had
was soon eaten up, and he could not get any more, for all the
animals in that country had gone away, for it was winter, and
he could not wait for the summer, when they would return. A
ship went out from England called the _Fox_ to look for him,
but all they found was a boat, a Bible, a watch, and a pair of
slippers near each other. After looking a lot they found the
North-West Passage, but because there is so much ice there the
ships can’t use it.”

=Class Ib.=—In Class Ib., the children are usually between seven and eight, but may be nine. They have fifteen ‘subjects’ (perhaps twenty-three books). The subjects which do not lend themselves to illustration are a continuation of the work in Class Ia. But by this time the children can usually read, and read for themselves some, at any rate, of their books for _History, Geography, and Tales_. In Class Ib. the children narrate their lessons as in Ia., and, also, their answers to the examination questions. They appear to enjoy doing this; indeed, the examinations which come at the end of each term are a pleasure; the only difficulty is that small children want to go on ‘telling.’ Their words are taken down literally. One is struck by the correctness and copiousness of the language used; but young children delight in words, and often surprise their elders by their free and correct use of ‘dictionary words.’ One notices the verve with which the children tell the tale, the orderly sequence of events, the correctness and fulness of detail, the accuracy of names. These things are natural to children until they are schooled out of them.

_Q._ Tell all you know about St Patrick. (Book studied, _Old Tales from British History_.)

A. (aged 7):—

“St Patrick was the son of a Scotch farming clergyman, and one
day some Irish pirates came and took Patrick with them to make
him a slave; and they sold him to an Irish nobleman. And the
Irish nobleman made him a shepherd to take care of his flocks,
and shepherds have a lot of time to think when they are out
guarding their flocks by night. And Patrick was very sorry that
the poor Irish were heathens. One day he slipped off and got
into a boat with some sailors, and after a great adventure,
for their food ran short, they arrived safely in Scotland. And
Patrick was still thinking about the Irish, so he went off in a
boat of his own, with a few followers, to Ireland. A shepherd
saw them coming, and told his master the pirates were coming.
So he armed his servants and went down to meet the pirates,
but when he heard the errand they were on, he offered them
to come into his house. Now Patrick settled in Ireland, but
some heathen priests rose up against him, and a wise man said,
‘What is the good of killing him? Other Irish people are now
Christians, and they will teach too.’ So he saved his life. And
Patrick gave him the book of Psalms written by his own hand.
One day Patrick asked a rich man if he might have a little plot
of land on the top of a hill, but the rich man refused him,
but gave him a little plot of land at the bottom of the hill.
And there Patrick built a church, and a house for himself and
servants to live in. Then the rich man got ill, and was just
about to die, but got better, but as he thought Patrick was
like a wizard, who could foretell his fortune, he thought he’d
better try to please him. So he sent him a brass cauldron,
enough to hold one whole sheep, and Patrick said ‘I thank you,
master.’ The rich man was angry, and sent for the cauldron back
again, and Patrick said, ‘I thank you, master.’ So the rich
man was ashamed, and brought back the cauldron, and said he
could have the little plot of land on the top of the hill. So
they went up to measure it. Then a roe-deer dashed out of the
thicket, but left her fawn behind her, and the men were going
to kill the fawn, but Patrick took it up and carried it down
the hill; the mother followed, for she saw he was doing no harm
to it. On that place he built a fine church, which is still
standing. And Patrick died on a journey, and was buried at a
place called Downpatrick after him.”

_Q._ Tell what you know about Alfred Tennyson. (Book studied, Mrs Frewen Lord’s _Tales from Westminster Abbey_.)

B. (aged 7½):—

“Alfred Tennyson was born in 1809, and he loved the country
very much. One Sunday when they were going out to chapel,
except Lord Tennyson as he was very young, his brother Charles
gave him his slate to write about birds and flowers, and when
they came back he had filled his slate with his first poem. He
and his brother used to make up stories that sometimes lasted
a month. He was very shortsighted, and when he was looking
at anything it looked as if he were smelling it. He had good
ears, for he could hear the shriek of a bat. Alfred Tennyson
wrote _The Revenge_ and _The Siege of Lucknow_, and Sir John
Franklin’s poem:—

‘Not here; the white North hath thy bones,
And thou, heroic sailor soul,
Art passing on thy happier voyage now,
Toward no earthly pole.’

And he also wrote the _May Queen_ and _Cradle Song_. Because
his poetry was so good the Queen gave him a name and knighted
him. He says that if you tread on a daisy it will turn up and
get red. He was 83 years old when he died—the year he died in
was 1892. He was buried in Westminster Abbey, in Poets’ Corner.”

_Q._ What is a hero? What heroes have you heard of? Tell about one.

C. (aged 7):—

“(1) A hero is a brave man. (2) Count Roland, Huon of Bordeaux,
the Horatii and Curatii. (3) Once there was a brave Emperor
called Charlemagne, and he was fighting with the heathen King
of Saragossa. Just a wee bit of land was left to the heathen
king, so he sent a messenger to speak about peace. They
pretended that they would have peace, so they went back to
Charlemagne and asked him to leave Roland behind to take charge
of the mountain passes. So Charlemagne said that he would leave
Roland behind because there was none so brave as him, so that
when Charlemagne had turned his army they should come in great
numbers to fight against Roland. And Roland stayed behind with
twenty thousand men, and Oliver heard a great noise by the side
of Spain, and then Oliver climbed on a pine tree, and he saw
the arms glimmering and the spears shining, and then he said to
Roland that there were a full hundred thousand, and that they
just had so few, and that it was much better to sound his horn
and Charlemagne will turn his army. Roland said he would be mad
if he did that. Oliver said again to sound his horn, and Roland
said he would lose his fame in France if he did it. Then Oliver
said again, ‘Friend Roland, sound thy horn and Charles will
hear it, and turn his army.’ Then all the mountain passes were
full of the enemies, and when they came nearer they fought, and
they fought, and they fought, and at last the Christians were
falling too, and when there were only sixty left he blew his
horn. Charlemagne heard it and said he must go, and Ganelon
said he was just pretending, but then Charlemagne heard it
fainter, and knew that it was true that he must go, and then
fainter again, but Charlemagne was nearer and so heard it
better. And Roland said, ‘Ride as fast as you can for many men
have been killed, and there are few left.’ Then Charlemagne
bade his men sound their horns, so that they knew that help
was near and then the heathen fled away. There were just the
two left, Roland and the Archbishop, and Roland said to the
Archbishop that he would try to fetch the dead bodies of the
braver soldiers. Then the Archbishop said to Roland, ‘Quick,
before I die.’ Then Roland went and brought them before the
Archbishop and laid them down there. Then he went and searched
the field again, and under a pine tree he found Oliver’s body,
then he brought it too and laid it in front of the Archbishop.
Then Roland fainted to the ground, then the Archbishop tried to
bring some water for Roland, and he fell down and died. Then
Roland put the hands over the chest of the Archbishop, then he
prayed to God to give him a place in Paradise, and then he said
that the field was his. Before he died he put his sword and
his ivory horn under him, and laid himself down on the ground,
so that Charlemagne, when he came, would know that he was the
conqueror. And God sent St Michael and another saint to fetch
his soul up to heaven.”

_Q._ Gather three sorts of tree leaf-bud and two sorts of catkin and tell all you can about them.

E. (a cottage child aged 9):—

“_Beech Twig._—It has rather a woody stalk, and it is a very
light grey-browny stalk, and it is very thin, and the little
branches that grow out are light brown and it is thicker where
the buds are and it is a lighter brown up at the top than it is
at the bottom, and the buds are a light reddy-brown and very
pointed, and they are scaly. The bark is rather rough and there
is a lot of little kind of brown spots on it.

“_Lime Twig._—It is called Ruby-budded Lime because the buds
are red, and they are fat rather, and they have got some green
in as well, and they come rather to a point at the top, they
grow alternately and the little stalk that they grow out of is
reddy-green, and the top part of the stalk is green, and it is
woody, and it is rough, and it is a reddy-green at the bottom.
Where the buds come out it is swelled out, the bark has come
off and it has left it white and woody. At the top of one of
the stalks the bud has come off.

“_Sycamore Twig._—Well, the back is _very_ woody, and it is a
brown stalk and it is rough and there is a little weeny bud
growing out of the side, and the buds grow out two and two, and
there are a lot of little buds.

“_Willow._—Well, the stalk is a dark brown, and is very smooth
and it will bend very easily, and the buds when they first come
on the stalk are little brown ones, and then a silvery-green
comes out and there is a scale at the bottom, and then they get
greyer and bigger with little green leaves at the bottom, and
then it comes yellow, and there is a lot of pollen on it. If
you touch it the pollen comes on your finger.

“_Hazel._—Well, the stalk is a dark brown, something the colour
of the willow, and it bends easily, and the buds are green and
there is little scales, and then the catkins come and they
grow very long, and there is a lot of little flowers in one,
and there is pollen in that, and the stalk is rather rough,
and there are some big buds at the top just bursting, and the
leaves are coming out, and the buds are very soft and glossy,
and the scales are at the bottom.”

_Q._ What have you noticed about a thrush? Tell all you know about it.

F. (aged 8):—

“Thrushes are browny birds. They eat snails, and they take the
snail in their mouths and knock it against a stone to break
the shell and eat the snail. I found a stone with a lot of
bits of shell round it, so knew that a thrush had been there.
Where we used to live a thrush used to sing every morning on
the same tree. The song of the thrush is like a nightingale.
We often see a lot of thrushes on the lawn before breakfast or
after a shower. They have yellow beaks and their breasts are
specked with lovely yellow and brown. Once we found a thrush
asleep on a sponge in a bedroom and we carried it out and put
it on a tree. Thrushes eat worms as well as snails, and on the
lawn they listen with their heads on one side and go along as
the worm gets under the ground, and presently, perhaps, the
worm comes up and they gobble it up, or they put their beaks
in and get it. Thrushes build their nests with sticks at the
bottom and line them with little bits of wool they pick up, or
feathers, and they like to get down very much.”

=Class II.=—In Class II. the children are between nine and twelve, occasionally over twelve. They have twenty-one ‘subjects,’ and about twenty-five books are used. They work from 9 to 12 each day, with half an hour’s interval for games and drill. Some Latin and German (optional) are added to the curriculum. In music we continue Mrs Curwen’s (_Child Pianist_) method and Tonic Sol-fa, and learn French, German (optional), and English songs. But I cannot here give details of our work, and must confine myself to illustrations from seven of the subjects on the programme. Children in Class II. write or dictate, or write a part and dictate a part of their examination answers according to their age. The examination lasts a week, and to write the whole of their work would be fatiguing at this stage. The plan followed is, that the examination in each subject shall be done in the time for that subject on the time-table.

I should like to say a word about the Greek and Roman History. Plutarch’s _Lives_ are read in Classes II. and III., and as children are usually five years in these two classes, they may read some fifteen of these _Lives_, which I think stand alone in literature as teaching that a man is part of the State, that his business is to be of service to the State, but that the value of his service depends upon his personal character. The _Lives_ are read to the children almost without comment, but _with necessary omissions_. Proper names are written on the blackboard; and, at the end, children narrate the substance of the lesson. The English History book used in Classes II. and III. is extremely popular; it is Mr Arnold-Forster’s (of about 800 pages), and is well known as a serious, manly, and statesmanlike treatment of English History; in no case is there any writing down to the children. Mrs Creighton’s _First History of France_ is also a favourite, though I should have thought there was hardly enough detail to make it so. Contemporary periods of English and French History are studied term by term. For Natural History, Miss Arabella Buckley’s _Fairyland of Science_ and _Life and Her Children_, Mrs Brightwen’s books, etc., give scientific information and excite intelligent curiosity, while out-of-door nature-study lays the foundation for science. The handiworks of Class II. are such as cardboard Sloyd, clay modelling, needlework, gardening, etc. These, field-work, piano practice, etc., are done in the afternoons or after tea.

_Q._ “Ah! Pericles, those that have need of a lamp, take care to supply it with oil.” Who said this? Tell the story. (Book studied, Plutarch’s _Lives: Pericles_.)

D. (aged 11½), answer dictated:—

“Anaxagoras, the philosopher, said these words to Pericles.

“Pericles was the ruler of Athens, and Anaxagoras had taught
him when a boy. Being ruler of Athens, he led a very busy
life, attending to the affairs of State, and so was not able
to give much time to his household affairs. Once a year he
collected his money, and could only manage his income by giving
out an allowance to each member of his family and household
every day: this was done by Evangelus, his steward. Anaxagoras
thought this a very wrong way of arranging matters, and said
that Pericles paid too much heed to bodily affairs, because he
thought you ought to mind only about philosophy and spiritual
doings, and not about the affairs of the world. To give an
example to Pericles he gave up all his household and tried to
live entirely on philosophy. But he soon found his mistake when
he found himself starving and penniless, with no house. So he
covered his head up and prepared to die. Pericles, hearing of
this, went immediately to his rescue and begged him to live;
not because he thought death a misfortune, but that he said,
‘What shall I do without your help in the affairs of State?’
And then Anaxagoras uttered the words which are above, meaning,
of course (though putting it in a clever way), that Pericles
was to keep him. On the other hand, he might have meant that he
had been mistaken in his philosophy.”

_Q._ Tell the history of ‘F.D.’ on a penny. (Book studied, Arnold-Forster’s _History of England_.)

C. (aged 10), answer written by child:—

“The letters ‘F.D.’ stand for the Latin words _Fidei Defensor_,
meaning ‘The Defender of the Faith.’ Henry VIII. had a little
while ago written a book on the Pope (who was Clement VII.)
saying that the Pope was the true head of the Church, and
everyone ought to obey him. The Pope was so pleased that he
made Henry _Fidei Defensor_. It must be remembered that the
king had married his brother Arthur’s[26] widow, a Spanish
princess, namely, Catherine of Aragon (_sic_), and as they
had no son Henry wished to divorce her, but the Pope would
not allow him to, as he had given Henry special leaf (_sic_)
to marry her. At this Henry was furious, and began to think
about the Pope’s words, ‘Defender of the Faith.’ He would
not act as he thought till someone suggested it. So two men,
called Cromwell and Cranmer, came forward, telling the king
to take the Pope’s words, not as he meant them, but as they
really were, as they stood. The king was delighted, and made
Cranmer a bishop and Cromwell his wisest counsellor.[26] In
1534 Parliament[26] was called upon to declare Henry head of
the Church. All said he was, except two men, Sir Thomas More
and Fisher, bishop of Rochester; these would not agree, and
were executed in 1535. If we look on a penny we see the letters
‘F.D.,’ which shows from the reign of Henry VIII. till now the
Pope has not been allowed to interfere with England. In order
to spite the Pope, Henry allowed the Lutherans and learned men
to come into England.”

_Q._ What did you see in the _Seagull_ sailing up the Firth of Forth? (Book studied, _Geographical Reader_, Book II.)

G. (aged 9), answer dictated:—

“In sailing up the Forth we first of all see Leith, which is
the seaport town of Edinburgh. Then we come to Edinburgh. The
old and new Edinburghs are built on opposite hills, the valley
in between is laid out in lovely gardens. One thing very odd
about Edinburgh is that the streets look as if they are built
one on top of the other. At one end of the town there is a
castle which looks so like the rocks and mountains it is built
on, one can hardly distinguish it. At the other end of the town
there is Holyrood, where the ancient kings used to live. We do
not see many merchantmen because there are no good harbours,
there are a good many fishing smacks and pleasure boats. As
we go along we see women with big baskets with a strap across
their foreheads, and they are calling out ‘caller herrings.’”

_Q._ “And Jonathan loved him as his own soul.” Of whom was this said? Tell a story of Jonathan’s love.

E. (aged 9), answer dictated:—

“This was said of David. Saul’s anger was kindled against
David; and Jonathan and David were talking together, and
Jonathan had been telling David that he would do anything for
him, and David said, ‘To-morrow is the feast of a new moon, and
Saul will expect me to sit with him at the table; therefore
say, ‘David earnestly asked leave of me to go to Bethlehem,
his city, where there is a sacrifice of his family.’ If Saul
is angry, then I shall know that he would kill me, but if he
is not angry, it will be all right.’ Jonathan said, ‘So shall
it be, but it will not be safe for anybody to know anything
about it; come into the field, and I will tell you what to do.
Thou shalt remain hidden by the stone, and I will bring a lad
and my arrows and bow, and I will shoot an arrow as if firing
at a target; and if I say ‘Run,’ to the lad, ‘is not the arrow
beyond thee? go fetch it,’ then thou shalt know that thou must
flee from Saul.’ David’s seat was empty at the feast that
night, but Saul said nothing. But the next day his seat was
empty, and when Saul asked why, Jonathan told him what David
had asked him to say. And Saul’s anger was kindled, so much so
that Jonathan feasted not that day, for he was grieved; and
next morning he went out with his bow and arrows, and the lad,
and shot an arrow as if at a mark. Then Jonathan said to the
lad, ‘Run, is not the arrow beyond thee? haste.’ Then Jonathan
gave his artillery unto the lad and sent him back to the
city; and David came out of his hiding-place, and they made a
covenant together, for Jonathan loved him as his own soul. Then
David had to flee to Naioth in Ramah and Jonathan went back to
the city.”

_Q._ What do you know of Richelieu? (Book studied, Mrs Creighton’s _First History of France_.)

E. (aged 10), answer partly written, partly dictated:—

“Cardinal Richeleu (_sic_) was brought to the French Court by
the Queen mother, who thought he would do as she wished, but
she was mistaken, for he no sooner was there than he turned
against her, for Louse (_sic_) took him into his favour and
made him Prime Minister after he had been there a few weeks.
Richeleu (_sic_) was a devoted Catholic, and was determined to
put down the Hugenots (_sic_), or Protestants as we call them,
so he laid siege to La Rochelle, the chief town of the Hugenots
(_sic_), who applied to the English for help. Charles sent a
fleet to La Rochelle under pretence of helping the Hugenots
(_sic_)[27] but Admiral Pennington, who was in command of
the ships, received orders when half way down the channel to
take in French soldiers and sailors at Calais and to go to
the French side. When Admiral Pennington ordered the ships to
take in the soldiers, his men mutinied and he had to go back.
Richelieu had thrown up earthworks across the harbour so that
it was impossible to get in. Now Rochelle held out bravely, but
at last it had to surrender, and out of 40,000, 140 crawled
out, too weak to bury the dead in the streets. La Rochelle was
razed to the ground, and never recovered its prosperity. One
by one the Huguenot towns surrendered, and thus the Huguenots
were destroyed. When Richelieu was made Prime Minister, the
nobles did not like him, because they thought he had too much
power, and now when Louis was ill, the Queen mother came to
him, and in a stormy passion of tears begged Louis to send away
his ungrateful servant. Louis promised he would do so, and
Richelieu’s fall seemed certain. Now all the nobles crowded to
the Queen mother to pay their respects to her, as they thought
she would now be the most important person in the Government.
But one noble, who was wiser than the rest, went to Richelieu
and begged to plead his cause before the King. The King
promised he would keep him if he would serve him as he had done
before. The Queen mother was foiled, and returned to Brussels,
where she died.”

_Q._ What towns, rivers, and castles would you see in travelling about Warwickshire? (Book studied, _Geographical Reader_, Book III.)

B. (aged 9½), answer dictated:—

“Warwick, Kenilworth, Coventry, Stratford, Leamington, and
Birmingham are all towns which you would see if you travelled
through Warwick.

“The Avon stretches from north to south of Warwickshire. It has
its tributary the Leam, upon which Leamington is situated.

“There is a castle of Warwick and Coventry and Kenilworth.

“Warwick is the capital of the county. It has a famous castle,
whose high and lofty towers stand upon the bank of the river
Avon.

“Coventry is a very old town. It also has a beautiful castle,
where the fair Lady Godiva and her father used to live, about
whom I suppose you have read.

“Stratford is called ‘The Swan on the Avon,’ because that is
where Shakespeare, the great poet, was born and died, and this
is a little piece of poetry about him:—

‘Where his first infant lays, sweet Shakespeare sung,
Where the last accents faltered on his tongue.’

“The river Avon takes its rise in the vale of Evesham, then
winds through pleasant fields and meadows till it comes to the
south of Warwickshire, and then it becomes broad and stately
and flows on up to Coventry, where the Leam branches off from
it (!), and then it becomes narrower and narrower until it gets
out of Warwickshire and stops altogether at Naseby (!)”

_Q._ How many kinds of bees are there in a hive? What work does each do? Tell how they build the comb. (Book studied, _Fairyland of Science_.)

F. (aged 10), answer dictated:—

“Three kinds. The _drones_ or males, the _workers_ or females,
and the _queen_ bee. The drone is fat, the queen is long and
thin, the workers are small and slim. The queen bee lays the
eggs, the worker bee brings the honey in and makes the cell,
and the drones wait to be fed. On a summer’s day you see
something hanging on a tree like a plum pudding, this is a
swarm of bees. You will soon see someone come up with a hive,
turn it upside down, shake the bough gently, and they will fall
in. They will put some clean calico quickly over the bottom
of the hive, and turn it back over on a bench. The bees first
close up every little hole in the hive with wax, then they hang
on to the roof, clinging on to one another by their legs. Then
one comes away and scrapes some wax from under its body, and
bites it in its mouth until it is pulled out like ribbon, this
she plasters on the roof of the hive, then she flies out to get
honey, and comes home to digest it, hanging from the roof, and
in 24 hours this digested honey turns to wax, then she goes
through the same process again. Next, the nursing bees come
and poke their heads into this wax, bite the wax away (20 bees
do this before one hole is ready to make a cell). Other bees
are working on the other side at the same time. Each cell is
made six-sided, so as to take up the least wax and the smallest
space. When the cells are made the bees come in with honey in
their honey-bag or first stomach; they can easily pass the
honey back though their mouths into the cells. It takes many
bees to fill one cell, so they are hard at work.”

G. (aged 9), written by child:—

Composition on ‘_The Opening of Parliament_.’

“The opening of Parliament by King Edward VII and Queen
Alexander (_sic_) was rather grand. First, they drove to the
Houses of Parliament in a grand state carriage which had
been used by George III, and then when they got there they
had to robe in a certain room in great big robes, all edged
with ermine fur, and with huge trains. Queen Alexandra had
an evening dress on, and King Edward a very nice kingly sort
of suit (which was nearly covered up by his robes), and then
they walked along to the real Houses of Parliament, where
the members really sit. Then the king made a speech to open
Parliment (_sic_), and other people made speeches too, and
everything was done with grandeur and stateliness such as would
befit a king. May Parliament long be his!”

=Class III.=—In Class III. the range of age is from eleven or twelve to fifteen. The ‘subjects’: Bible Lessons and Recitations (Poetry and Bible passages); English Grammar, French, German, and Latin; Italian (optional); English, French, and Ancient History (Plutarch’s _Lives_), Singing (French, English, and German Songs); Writing, Dictation, Drill; Drawing in Brush and Charcoal; Natural History, Botany, Physiology, Geography; Arithmetic; Geometry, and Reading. About thirty-five books are used. Time, 3½ hours a day; half an hour out of this time, as before, for drill and games. There is no preparation or home work in any of the classes. The reader will notice from the subjoined specimens that the papers are still written _con amore_, and show an intelligent grasp of the several subjects. Though there are errors in many of the papers, they are not often the mistakes of ignorance or stupidity, nor are they those of a person who has never understood what he is writing about. ‘Composition’ is never taught as a subject; well-taught children compose as well-bred children behave—by the light of nature. It is probable that no considerable writer was ever taught the art of ‘composition.’ The same remark may be made about spelling: excepting for an occasional ‘inveterate’ case, the habit of reading teaches spelling. All the pupils of the _Parents’ Review_ School do not take all the subjects set in the programmes of the several classes. Sometimes, parents have the mistaken notion that the greater the number of subjects the heavier the work; though, in reality, the contrary is the case, unless the hours of study are increased. Sometimes, outside lessons in languages, music, etc., interfere; sometimes, health will not allow of more than an hour or two of work in the day. The children in the practising school do all the work set, and their work compares satisfactorily with the rest, though the classes have the disadvantage of changing teachers every week. Children in Class III. write the whole of their examination work.

_Q._ Describe the founding of Christ’s Kingdom. What are the laws of His Kingdom?

A. (aged 13):—

“Christ came to found His kingdom. He preached the laws to His
people. He taught them to pray for it: ‘Thy kingdom come.’
And He told His chosen few to ‘go and preach the Gospel of
the kingdom.’ He founded His kingdom in their hearts, and He
reigned there. He will still found His kingdom in our hearts.
He will come and reign as King. The kingdom was first founded
by the sea of Galilee. ‘Follow Me,’ said our Lord to Andrew,
and from that moment the kingdom was founded in Andrew’s heart.
Then there were Peter, James, John, Phillip (_sic_), Nathaniel
(_sic_), and the kingdom grew. From that moment Christ never
stopped His work for the kingdom—preaching and teaching,
healing and comforting, proclaiming the laws of the kingdom.
‘Think not that I am come to destroy the law or the prophets. I
am not come to destroy, but to fulfil.’ ‘One jot or one tittle
shall in no wise pass from the law.’ ‘Whosoever shall break one
of these least commandments, and shall teach men so, the same
shall be called the least in the kingdom.’ No commandment was
to pass from the law, but there was a new commandment, a new
law, and that was ‘love.’ ‘Love your enemies.’ The Pharisees
could not understand it. ‘Love your friends, and hate your
enemies,’ was their law. But Jesus said, ‘Bless them that curse
you, and pray for them that despitefully use you.’ ‘Give,
hoping for nothing in return’; and, ‘Whosoever shall smite thee
on one cheek turn to him the other also.’ Christ’s law is the
love which ‘suffereth long and is kind ... seeketh not her own
... never faileth ... hopeth all things, endureth all things’;
and ‘now abideth faith, hope, and charity, these three, but the
greatest of these is—love.’”

_Q._ Explain ‘English Funds, Consols 2¾ per cent., 113.’ And give an account of the South Sea Bubble. (Book studied, Arnold-Forster’s _History of England_.)

B. (aged 14½):—

“This means that when the South Sea Company first appeared, the
Government gave them £113 on condition that the Company should
give 2¾ per cent., which means £2 15s. on every £100 lent, for
a certain number of years. In the reign of George I. the money
matters of the country were in a very bad state. The Government
was very much in debt, especially to those people who had
purchased annuities, and had a right to receive a certain sum
of money from the Government every year as long as they lived.
Sir Robert Walpole, who was then Prime Minister, was most
anxious to pay off part of this debt. He heard of a Company
which had just been started, called the South Sea Company,
whose object was to trade in the South Seas. This was what
Walpole wished for. He suggested to them that they should pay
off the debt due to the people who had bought annuities, and in
return the Government would give them some priveleges (_sic_)
and charts which would be useful to them. This the Company
agreed to do, but instead of paying the people in money they
gave them what were called ‘shares’ in the South Sea Company.
These shares were supposed to be very valuable, and it was
thought that the South Sea Company was really prosperous, and
that those who had shares in it would have most enormous profit
in the end. Thousands of people came to buy shares, and some of
them were so anxious to get them that they spent enormous sums
of money on these worthless pieces of paper. All was well for
a time, but at last the people began to wish for their money
instead of the shares, and claimed it loudly from the Company.
It was then that the bubble burst. It was discovered then that
the Company was quite unable to pay what was due, and that all
this time they had been deluding the nation by promises and
giving them shares, and that they had never been the rich and
prosperous Company they made themselves out to be. Naturally,
the most dreadful distress prevailed everywhere, and many were
absolutely ruined, so that the Government had to help those who
were most distressed. At this point Sir Robert Walpole came to
the rescue. He made the Bank of England pay some of the debts,
and behaved with such cleverness that he saved the country
almost from ruin.”

_Q._ What do you know of the States General? (Book studied, Mrs Creighton’s _First History of France_.)

C. (aged 12):—

“The States General met in May, 1789. The people had long
wanted reforms, and been talking about them, and now on the
5th of May, 1789, the States General met again for the first
time since 1614. If the nobles sat in one house, and the people
in another, as was the custom, they could never get the changes
made. So the people with their leader, the Marquis of Mirabeau,
declared that they would not leave the tennis court on which
they were standing till it was agreed that they could sit
together with the nobles. When Louis XVI. came down in State,
and told them they were to sit apart, they said they would not
leave their place except at the bayonets (_sic_) point. When he
heard this he said, ‘Very well, leave them alone.’ So they sat
together.”

_Q._ Show fully how Aristides acquired the title of ‘The Just.’ Why was it a strange title for a man in those days? (Book studied, Plutarch’s _Lives: Aristides_.)

D. (aged 13¼):—

“Aristides acquired the title of ‘The Just’ by his justice, and
because he never did anything unjust in order to become rich
or powerful. While many of the judges and chief men in Athens
took bribes, he alone always refused to do so, and he also
never spent the public money on himself. When, after having
defeated the Persians, at Platae, the Greek States decided to
have a standing army, it was Aristides who was sent round to
settle how much each town should contribute. And he did this so
fairly and well, that all the Greek States blessed and praised
his arrangement. It is said that Aristides could not only
resiste (_sic_) the unjust claims of those whom he loved, but
also those of his enemies. Once when he was judging a quarrel
between two men, one of them remarked that the other had
often injured Aristides. ‘Tell me not that,’ was the reply of
Aristides, ‘but what he has done to thee, for it is thy cause I
am judging, not my own.’ Another time when he had gone to law
himself, and when, after having heard what he had to say, his
judges were going to pass sentence on his adversary without
having heard him, Aristides rose and entreated his judges to
hear what his enemy could say in his own defence. In all that
he did Aristides was inflexibly just, and many stories were
told of his justice. Though he loved his country well, he would
never do anything wrong to gain for Athens some advantage, and
in all he did his one aim was justice, and his only ambition
to be called ‘The Just.’ He was so just and good, that he was
called the ‘most just man in Greece.’ In the times in which
Aristides lived, men used to care more to be called great,
rich, or powerful than just. Themistocles, the great rival of
Aristides, used to do all he could to become the first man in
Athens, and rich as well as powerful. He did not hesitate to
take bribes, and all he did for the Athenians was done with a
view to making himself the head of the people, and the first
man in the State. He used often to do unjust as well as cruel
things in order to get his own ends. It was the same with most
other men who lived at this time, they prefered (_sic_) being
rich, powerful, or great, to being distinguished by the title
of ‘The Just.’”

_Q._ Describe a journey in Northern Italy. (Book studied, _Geographical Reader_, Book IV.).

E. (aged 12):—

“I am about to go for a tour round the northern part of Italy,
and after I have taken a train to Savoy, which is about the
south-east of France, I enter into Italy by the Cenis pass,
which is very lofty, about 7,000 feet above sea level.

“On arriving in Italy, I come into the province of Piedmont,
which has three mountain torrents or streams running through
it. These streams join at Turin, the capital of Piedmont, and
form the Po river, which flows out on the east coast of France
into the Gulf of Venice. On the banks of the three mountain
streams are some Protestants by the name of Waldenses, who
say they are followers of the disciples, but if you ask any
outsider, they will say, ‘Oh! the Waldenses are followers of a
good man, by the name of Waldo, who fled out of France in the
12th century.’

“We will now go and see Turin, and the first thing we say is,
‘What a clean town,’ and so it certainly is, for it is quite
the cleanest town in Italy, as the people have only to turn on
the fountain taps to clean their paved streets. And after we
have looked at Alessandria, where Napoleon gained his great
victory, we leave Piedmont and follow up the river Po, until
we come to its next tributary, the river Ticino, which runs
up north into the Lake Maggiore, which is five to six miles
wide and about sixty miles in length. This lake has four
islands, which are named after Count Borromeo and so called
the Borromean Islands, which are cultivated like gardens with
terrases (_sic_) for resting places.

“Now let us go to Milan, which is so well known by its
beautiful cathedral of white and black marble which have
(_sic_) no less than 4000 sculptures of white marble, with
pillars of Egyptian granite. Milan is famous for silks and lace
to provide for the numerous palaces.

“We will now go back to the next lake, Lake Como, which is
surrounded by mountains, and supposed to be the most beautiful
of all lakes. At the south it goes out in a fork, and between
the fork is a beautiful piece of land called Bellagia (_sic_).

“The next lake we come to is the Garda, the largest of all the
lakes, and then we go on to the smallest of lakes called Lugano.

“We now having visited all the lakes, take a look at Lodi, the
famous cheese market in Italy; after which we visit Verona,
where Pliny the naturalist was born, also Paul Veronese.
Shakespeare lays the scene of his play ‘Romeo and Juliet’ in
Verona. The short time we have we spend at Venice, the queen
of the Italian citys (_sic_) with its wonderful canals and the
marvellous cathedral of St Mark’s, also the dark, gloomy palace
of the Doge.”

_Q._ How are the following seeds dispersed:—Birch, Pine, Dandelion, Balsam, Broom? Give diagrams and observations. (Book studied, Mrs Brightwen’s _Glimpses into Plant Life_.)

F. (aged 13):—

“The seeds of the Birch are very small, with two wings, one on
each side, so that in a high wind numbers of them are blown on
to high places, such as crevises (_sic_) on the face of a rock,
or crevises (_sic_) on a church tower, or the tower of an old
ruin. They are so light that they are carried a long way.

“The seeds of the Pine are very small, and the veins in the
seed are wriggly, so that the seed is curly, which makes it
whirl rapidly in the air, and the whirling motion carries it
along a little way before it rests on the ground. It has two
small wings.

“The seeds of the Dandilion (_sic_) are large, with a kind
of silky parashute (_sic_) attached, so that when they fall
off they do not fall to the ground, but are carried a little
way because the wind catches the under part of the parashute
(_sic_). The seed has a little hook at the top of it which
prevents it from being pulled out of the ground by the
parashute (_sic_) after it is once in.

“The Balsam seed case splits when the seeds are ripe and
sends them flying in all directions, so they are far enough
dispersed, and need no wings or parashutes (_sic_) to help them.