.jpg)
The Pamphlet Collection of Sir Robert Stout: Volume 23
Standard VI.(1)
Standard VI.(1)
Heading.—A book containing extracts from general literature.
Spelling and Dictation suited to this stage.
Writing.—The copying of tabulated matter, showing bold head-lines, and marking distinctions such as in letterpress require varieties of type (e.g., the copying of these printed standards, or of a catalogue showing division into groups).
Arithmetic(2).—Vulgar and decimal fractions; interest and other commercial rules; square root, and simple cases of mensuration of surfaces; mental arithmetic generally.
Grammar and Composition.—Complete parsing (including syntax) of simple and compound sentences; prefixes and affixes, and a few of the more important Latin and Greek roots, illustrated by a part of the reading book: essay or letter; analysis of easy complex sentences.
Geography(3).—Knowledge of places of political, historical, and commercial importance in Asia, North America, and the British Possessions. Physical geography: Atmospheric phenomena, winds, rain, ice; distribution of the animals and plants of greatest value to man.
English history.—The succession of Houses and Sovereigns, and the leading events of each reign, from the earliest times to the present (precise dates not required); also the elements of social economy.(4)
Elementary Science, &c.—See Regulation 9.
1 Pupils that have passed Standard V. ought to be much less dependent upon oral instruction than those in the lower classes, and more able to derive benefit from the use of text-books. Brief explanations and general supervision of work will be demanded of the teacher, and it will be his duty to direct the scholars in making abstracts and tabular statements of the matter presented for their study in the books that they use. In small schools the Sixth Standard class (if there be one) will often have to be treated as almost independent students, working strictly according to the time-table, having their exercises corrected out of school-hours, and receiving occasional advice and direction, without monopolising a teacher's time. Their reading may be kept up and improved by taking them for this purpose in the same class with the Fifth Standard pupils, and using in the class alternately the reading books of the two Standards V. and VI. In a large school the routine work of Standard VI. may be done in great part under the eye of a junior teacher, while the head-master teaches a lower class, or superintends the instruction given by his subordinates.
2 Under the heading "arithmetic," "other commercial rules" means discount, commisxmission, insurance, stocks, partnership, and all rules of a similar character.
3 "Knowledge of places" has the same restricted meaning here as in Standard V.
4 Attention is again directed to the fact that in history, for these standards, "precise dates are not required." The term" social economy" is wider than "political economy," and at the same time less pretentious. It is used here to indicate very elementary knowledge on such subjects as government, law, citizenship, labour, capital, barter, money, and banking.
8. In the application of any standard to the case of an individual scholar, marked deficiency in all or most of the subjects, or serious failure in any two subjects, shall be reckoned as failure for that standard; but serious failure in any one subject alone shall not be so reckoned, if it appear to be due to some individual peculiarity, and be not common to a large proportion of the class under examination(1)
9. Although the scholars will be allowed to pass the standards as defined in Regulation 7, the Inspector will inquire, and, if necessary, report as to the kind and amount of instruction in other subjects in the case of each class, as follows(1):—
1 This regulation has been sometimes understood to amount to a recommendation to Inspectors to be generally lenient in judging of a child's fitness to pass. This is a misunderstanding. The latter half of the regulation (which has partly determined the form of the other half) is designed to enable Inspectors to avoid the infliction of injustice in peculiar cases. A child whose articulation is imperfect ought not to be kept back in his general studies because, his utterance not keeping pace with his intelligence, he cannot read as well as those that are in other respects not superior to him. It is the opinion of many that literary genius is often associated with a partial incapacity for receiving mathematical truth. Perhaps the opinion owes its origin to a grave defect in the early education of the persons from whose cases the induction has been made. But, in case the experience of an Inspector should ever be such as to sustain the opinion, the regulation allows him to permit a child exceptionally clever in other respects, but manifestly unable to grasp the relations of number, to advance from one class to another according to his general fitness, notwithstanding his special defect. With such exceptions no good can come of passing the pupils too easily; and the rule is, therefore, that serious failure in one subject or manifest weakness in most subjects involves failure for the standard. At the same time it would be palpably absurd to demand a degree of excellence, proportioned to the possible best, beyond what reasonable examiners look for when they are dealing with adult students. Allowance must always be made for the excitement attendant on examination, and no candidate is ever expected to do all his work perfectly.
1 Teachers are not at liberty to regard these subjects as purely optional. None are to be omitted except as the result of actual necessity, of which the Inspector must be the judge. In the next regulation (10), needlework is prescribed as compulsory for girls in every school in which there is a female teacher. No teacher can have any excuse for neglecting drill, or omitting to take all necessary pains to secure a knowledge of the subject-matter of the reading lessons. In some small schools singing and drawing cannot be taught, because there is no one able to teach them; but where any one of the teachers is competent these subjects ought not to be neglected. And in such schools even a competent master may be permitted to use his discretion as to whether he will in the end do more justice to his pupils by including a little knowledge of physical laws in his programme or omitting it. The drill, however simple, ought always to be very precise; otherwise it must be pernicious as professing to be what it is not. As performed in some schools, it must actually stand in the way of children that are trying to learn to distinguish the right hand or foot from the left.