447
Writing, Spelling, and Dictation in the Lower School were on the whole good, especially the Handwriting, which was generally speaking very good throughout the school. Many mistakes in Dictation were made in some Divisions of the Lower School, but others did very well, VI C, and VI B, for instance.
Reading. This subject was on the whole well done. In Class I the boys read scenes from Macbeth. The various characters were distributed among the Class, and were sustained with intelligence, and very creditably. In the Lower School there is a tendency to slur the final consonants, though otherwise the pronunciation and delivery were good. But we have to point out that the system under which the reading is taught in the Lowest Classes is most unsatisfactory. A distinction is made between reading and the meaning of the passage read. The process appears to be that the boys are first taught the sound of the words, and at a later date are taught a Chinese translation of the passage which they have read. Instruction in this Chinese version moreover does not keep pace with instruction in reading, so that on asking how much the boys had prepared, we were met with the answer: The class has read to (say) page 60, but the meaning has only been explained up to page 40. Reading and explanation were treated as different subjects. This distinction appears to us to be foolish and should be abolished. Chinese boys are only too willing to memorize instead of trying to understand, and it can be of no service to any boy to be able to repeat certain sounds, without understanding in the least what those sounds mean.
The
When taking a new lesson, many of the Chinese masters do not attempt to explain the matter to the boys beforehand, and so create an interest in it. master in Class V B was an exception; he briefly explained what the new lesson was about, so that the boys when they began had some idea of what they were going to read.
The reading books appear to be unsuitable. The stories contained in them are not very interesting, and deal with subjects with which a Chinese boy is unfami- liar. Reading Books suited to local needs are no doubt badly wanted.
•
Geography and History-A Committee is at present considering the methods of teaching these subjects in the Colony, and we do not think it necessary to make detailed criticisms upon the courses of study. It must however be pointed out that the necessity of studying the periods and countries chosen for the Oxford Local Examinations every year, has the effect of making the teaching disjointed and fragmentary. For instance the teaching of Geography in the Upper School this year is confined to Europe (Class III), England and Wales (Class II), and India (Class I). A boy might, as it seems to us, pass through the school without knowing anything about some countries, while his mind was packed with details about others of no more importance. Similarly unless a regular course of instruction in History is laid down, the know- ledge of a boy who has passed steadily through his Classes will probably suffer from want of continuity. He might take up the Norman period in Class III, the Hanoverian period in Class II, and the Norman period again for the Oxford- Local in Class 1. There is moreover a subdivision of Classes to suit the needs of the candidates for this examination, which must be disorganising to the or- dinary school work.
Geography. The subject is first studied in Class VI by the rather old fashioned and unattractive method of teaching "definitions," which are committed to memory. An island is a piece of land entirely surrounded by water. Example, the Isle of Wight.' The subject should surely be first attacked by beginning with the Geography of Hongkong, and all the more because from the school windows nearly every kind of geographical features-isthmus, bay, strait, peninsula, mountain, valley, watershed-can be seen.
In VIC the subject was a failure: out of 37 boys, 21 replied "No" when asked if they had ever seen an island. In VI B only 4 boys knew what a harbour was. VI Ai and VI A i did better. A few boys were able to describe the position of the Pacific Ocean in relation to Hongkong. Asia is studied in Class V B. Here again 9 boys said they had never seen an island. appeared that interest in the study was not raised by bringing it into relation
It