Fourth annual report of the Williams Secular School.

Williams Secular School

Date:: 1853

Credit: Fourth annual report of the Williams Secular School. Source: Wellcome Collection.

29/48 page 23

$mctic, Miss Watkins examined the children on Geography. The youngest children in the school were able to name and point out all the countries, cities, oceans, seas, mountains, rivers, &c., on the map of* the World. Elizabeth Watson, one of the pupil teachers, then examined the youngest children (from four to seven years of age) on the silk-worm, illustrating by a number of living speci- mens, in various stages of their growth, some feeding, some spin- ning, and others just taken from the cocoons in the chrysalis state. The process of winding Avas shewn, and also specimens of skeins of silk from silk-worms, bred in the school-house. The Natural History and Structure of Insects generally, as well as the processes of silk manufacture, were described by the children in this lesson, which was given to illustrate the method of teaching by objects, which is extensively adopted in the school. Two of the pupil teachers, W. Mason and J. Lambert, then examined the children of the second division (from seven to nine years of age) upon the Rudiments of Natural Philosophy and Physiology. The children explained the constitution and pressure of the atmosphere and its effects, the construction of the common pump and the air-pump, the transmission of sound, light, &c. In Physiology, they de- scribed the human skeleton, naming all the bones, their principal uses, described the structure and uses of muscles, the processes of digestion and respiration, and added some of the more simple rules for the promotion of health. On Tuesday evening the elder pupils were 'examined in the Waterloo Rooms by Mr Williams on English reading, grammar, and composition, when it was explained that in teaching grammar the practical application of every rule to the business of composi- tion is strictly attended to, less time being spent upon mere par- sing than is usual. This was illustrated by taking some sentence?, analysing and reconstructing them. The children then solved mentally a number of difficult arithmetical questions, both in Avhole and fractional arithmetic, and the more advanced pupils worked on a black board some problems in algebraical equations and civil engineering ; tAvo little boys not eleven years of age cal- culated the quantity of coal that would be consumed in raising to its place the materials of the great pyramid of Cheops, and the time a 300 horse-poAver engine Avould take to do it. The teacher then explained that the mere naming of the places on the map Avas taught to quite the youngest children, and referred to the previous examination in reference to their proficiency in that. By this means they are qualified when they enter the higher classes to study intelligently the more difficult questions in physical and po- litical geography, and this evening they Avcre accordingly exa- mined upon the movements of the atmosphere and the ocean, and explained the causes of the trade-Avinds, and the prevalent Avest-$

Fourth annual report of the Williams Secular School.

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