3—Object-Teaching.

It has been observed that in schools in which object-teaching has been introduced with most success the teachers have carefully distinguished between two kinds of instruction which in other schools are not seldom confused. These two kinds of instruction are: (1) Observation of the page 22 object itself, and (2) giving information about the object. This distinction is of importance, because the scope and method of the lesson differ according to its nature. Object-teaching leads the scholar to acquire knowledge by observation and experiment; and no instruction is properly so callad unless an object is presented to the learner, so that the addition to his knowledge may be made through the senses.

Junior teachers have not unfrequently given lessons before Her Majesty's Inspectors which were wrongly described as object-lessons, because in dealing with the topic selected no suitable appeal was made to the eye of the scholar. A lesson, for example, on the elephant to children in village schools, who have no opportunity of visiting either museums or zoological gardens, may convey information and store the memory with interesting facts, but it does not cultivate the habit of obtaining knowledge directly and at first hand, or develop the faculty of observation, However well the lesson may be illustrated by diagrams, pictures, models or lantern-slides, if the children have no opportunity of handling or watching the actual object which is being dealt with, the teacher will the giving an information-lesson rather than an object-lesson. It should be always remembered that in object-lessons the imparting of information is secondary to the cultivation of the faculty of observation.

Object-teaching should he further distinguished from instruction in natural science. It is elementary science only in so far as it aids the child to observe some of the facts of Nature upon which natural science is founded; but as it deals with such topics without formal arrangement, it differs widely from the systematic study of a particular science. The principles of scientific classification, the continuous study of one group of natural phenomena, the generalisation from facts and the search for natural laws, belong to a later stage of mental discipline, which will be much more effectual if it is being based upon the preliminary training of the senses through sound object-teaching. It is most important, therefore, that if, for example, object-lessons are given on plant fife, no attempt should be made to treat them as a continuous introduction to the study of botany, or, if the lessons relate to animal life, to the study of zoology. In object-teaching the chief interest in the lesson should centre in the object itself.

The following suggestions, which have been made by practical teachers, will be found useful:—

(1.)	The teacher should select only so many of the objects set forth in the appended or other similar lists as can be dealt with in the year without overburdening the scholars. Habits of observation are better cultivated by the thorough examination of a few objects than by the superficial treatment of many.
(2.)	No object should be chosen which the teacher cannot thoroughly illustrate either by the object itself or by some adequate representation of the object, or by both. All that is purely technical, whether in the mode of study or the language and terminology, should be carefully avoided.
(3.)	The children should be encouraged to bring with them to the lesson illustrative specimens which they have collected or borrowed from friends.
(4.)	The children should be encouraged to make simple drawings, illustrative of their observations, wherever possible, and in certain cases to make simple records on square-ruled paper. Clay-modelling and other manual occupations may be employed to test the accuracy of the impressions which the children form, and to fix them in their minds. Teachers also should frequently illustrate details of the lesson by black-board draw- page 23 ings. Children who are jaded in five minutes by a lecture will be open-eyed and receptive for half an hour while the teacher draw as well as talks.
(5.)	Visits to museums and other institutions of educational value are now recognised by the Code, and may advantageously be undertaken where possible in connection with the object-teaching. Occasional class excursions out of school-hours (or, if the instruction be in accordance with Art. 12 (f.) of the Code, in school-hours), under proper guidance, will enable teachers both to provide suitable objects and to confirm previous impressions. It should be borne in mind that objects, when they are brought into the class-room, cannot be there studied under their ordinary conditions; and therefore it is important by a proper use of such expeditions to let the children see what part the object plays in its usual surroundings.
(6.)	If the scholars are to learn intelligently from their object-lessons, the first requisite is trained attention. The right method of securing this is to direct, in a conversational way, the attention of the children to the different parts of the object in an orderly manner, and explain the relation of each part of the whole. After the analysis or study of separate detail, the object should be again treated as a whole. It should not be left in fragments, but the division into parts should be followed when possible by the reconstruction of them into their original unity. Through such teaching the vague and indefinite impressions which children receive from objects when they are first presented to them are gradually converted into clear mental pictures.
(7.)	The attempt to teach children to be accurate in observation cannot be separated from the need of making them accurate in description. After the children have been trained to observe a fact, they should be practised in making a correct statement of it in a sentence of their own. This oral answering in complete sentences will lead to correct use of the English language, both in talking and writing, and will store the mind with a useful vocabulary. In the higher standards the children will be able to write brief weekly compositions, in which they may express in a written form the ideas which they have acquired through oral instruction.

To sum up the main value of object-teaching, there are three principal uses. The first and most important is to teach the children to observe, compare, and contrast; the second is to impart information; and the third is to reinforce the other two by making the results of them the basis for instruction in language, drawing, number, modelling, and other handwork.

There are, however, other important uses of good object-teaching. It makes the lives of the children more happy and interesting by opening up an easily accessible and attractive field for the exercise of brain, hand, and eye. It gives the children an opportunity of learning the simplest natural facts, and directs their attention to external objects, making their education less bookish. It further develops a love of nature and an interest in living things, and corrects the tendency which exists in many children to destructiveness and thoughtless unkindness to animals, and shows the ignorance and cruelty of such conduct. The value of the services which many animals render to man should be dwelt upon, and the importance of kindly treating them and preserving them should be pointed out. By these means, and in other ways, good object-teaching may lay the foundation for the right direction of the activity and intelligence of the children throughout the whole school.