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    children , are kept at an Infant School . And in the wealthier classes of society the children are committed for many more hours to the charge of nursery maids . In either case the superintendence of an able instructor several hours a day must prove advantageous . A good Infant School ought to be a nursery of the best description , highly advantageous to the child in whatever situation or circumstances it may otherwise be placed . In the second section the organization and apparatus of an Infant School are described . The grand requisite is a large dry play-ground , with a rotatory swing , wooden bricks , and other objects of amusement , besides flowers , shrubs , and fruit

    trees , in the border all round . A large school-room , with the means of perfect ventilation , and a gallery , or series of ascending seats at one end , is the next requisite . This room should contain a variety of moveable lesson posts , coloured prints , and illustrative drawings , a little museum of interesting objects , an arithmetical ball frame , &c . The third section contains specimens of the different branches of direct tuition , in which we must confess there is room for great improvement ; although even in this respect Infant Schools are far a-head of the ordinary system of tuition .

    Specimens of the lessons on objects , as given by Dr . Mayo and Mr . Wilderspin , are introduced ; but Dr . Mayo ' s Lessons were written for much older children , and Mr . Wilderspin ' are clumsy , and appear , not unfrequently , to be too abstract for any but the oldest pupils . The Reading Lessons , and tbe method adopted of teaching to read , are not good ; and the lessons on Grammar , Arithmetic , and Geometry are very indifferent . We trust that men of abilities will soon exert

    themselves in the preparation of manuals , showing how knowledge may be communicated to infants in the most interesting mode , and be firmly associated with all the ordinary actions and objects , while the whole of the faculties are agreeably exercised . The non-existence of such works would seem to imply that the preparation of science and knowledge for infancy is not one of the easiest branches of literature .

    It being found impossible to commence arithmetic with little children in the ordinary school method , the Infant School teachers begin by teaching the children to count little wooden balls , strung upon wires , which are moved backwards and forwards . The children afterwards make use of mental

    calculation to a certain extent ; in other respects , the science of numbers is taught as ill as it is at the ordinary schools : worse it could not be taught . It raises a smile of wonder , which is speedily checked by indignation , to see the formidable army of tables , drawn up in this book , which the poor little children are compelled to conquer . Every one of these ought to be

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    144 Infant Education .

• Citation
  • Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), March 2, 1836, page 144, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2655/page/16/