Reports on, Elementary Schools. By Matthew Arnold. (Mac- millan and
Co.)—Mr. Arnold was an Inspector of Schools for thirty-five years. Here we have nineteen of his reports on Ele- mentary Schools, and extracts, from various other reports on Training Colleges of one kind or another. They are full of words of wisdom, some of which have doubtless borne some fruit. He condemns with some emphasis the Revised Code. It has "acted injuriously," he thinks, "on the instruction in elementary schools." He expresses profound dissatisfaction with the average tone of mind, rather than with the attainments of the candidates for admission into the training colleges. "It seems as if during the last four-and-twenty years there had been effected no progress at all towards giving to our elementary schools what they most want, the mental apprehensiveness and resource which letters impart. The number and hopes of those destined for the pro- fession of teachers may have now revived, but with this revival mental quickening has not come." (This was written in 1874.) He is strong about the extravagant cost of education in England. He urges the use of good poetry in selections. This is a book to be read.
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