Welsh Journals

Report just published is before me, and it is dainty reading. I subjoin in full the Observations of the Director of Education re the subject of Religious (?) Instruction — My opportunities of hearing lessons in this subject have been so very limited that I am not qualified to express an opinion on the value of the work done. The few lessons I have heard, however, have been little more than Reading Lessons, and those of the poorest quality. The children were asked to read verses in turns, one verse perhaps by a big boy with his voice breaking, another by a small girl in a shrill treble, another by a child suffering from a cold in the head. In the last lesson I heard, an upper standard boy came to a sudden halt before the word miracles. The boy did not know the word, consequently if he had succeeded in pronouncing it correctly, it would have conveyed no meaning to him, so the boy was not reading, he was simply repeating words in succession-" barking at print someone has termed it. But to my utter astonishment the teacher, who was also the Headmaster, told the boy, Well, spell the word, lad, spell it, spell it in Welsh then '-and by some mysterious process, having given the Welsh sound values for each of the letters, he was expected to arrive at the English pronunciation of the word. There is no surer way of spoiling what is perhaps the finest literature we have, than to subject the Bible to the treatment received at the few lessons I have heard given in this County. The point I wish to make is that better use might be made of this lesson than to convert it into a Reading Lesson, important though the teaching of Reading undoubtedly is. Again in this particular school the Scripture Lesson should be conducted in Welsh. In the mind of the boy referred to, gwurth would probably have called up a familiar idea, whereas miracle was to him simply an irritating jumble of letters which effectually blocked the way to his grasping the meaning of the sentence." Better abolish Bible Instruction altogether than this unholy farce officially characterised as spoiling our finest literature. Proper supervision is the sine qua non of any future improvement; the careless teacher must be goaded, and the good one discovered. III. The statement that the Council School has given hardly any impetus to Bible study needs no apology, though in fairness it should be recognised that this is due to external discouragement already hinted at in the course of this article. To secure reasonable results, three things are required (1) A thorough overhauling of the schemes now in force must be undertaken. Education Authorities in some cases are becoming alive to this, and are memorialising their headmasters for suggestions. But the matter should not be left in the hands of teachers and Directors of Education professional Biblical scholars ought certainly to be consulted. I understand that the Central Board is arranging to meet Sunday School representatives with a view to formulating some scheme whereby the work in the Secondary and Sunday Schools could be co-ordinated. Some such plan might be adopted in the case of Day Schools. (2) Supervision must be regular. At present, the Government Inspector is not authorised to trouble himself or others in the matter of Bible instruction at some future Please send this Magazine to a Soldier at the Front, date, he may have this duty added unto him in the mean- time, the Local Authorities should undertake the work of informing themselves that this branch of a child's education is not neglected. (3) But something more than a revised scheme and a proper supervision is needed. The Instructor himself must be reasonably qualified it is no reflection to state that he is not so qualified for not having been required to teach the subject he had no occasion to be himself taught. To some extent this is true of the Secondary School Teacher as well: a gentleman qualified to express an opinion assures the writer that Bible teaching in Secondary Schools is weak in the meagreness of the curriculum and in the low qualifications of the teachers; having examined the Scripture Papers for a number of years under the C.W.B. he was impressed with the mustiness of much that was taught; modern views seem scarcely to have penetrated into the majority of our Secondary Schools old text-books apparently that must have done duty when our great grand parents were boys and girls, are treated as authorities for a time, he was greatly puzzled to know the sources from whence the candidates were drawing their information till he was enlightened by a secondary school headmaster, when all became plain. We do not want a repetition of this the child should be so taught at school that he need never unlearn what was once taught him; and if the teaching is honest, true, and intelligent, nothing of the sort will happen. And this leads to the question of the proper training of the teacher himself, which, according to Canon Fairchild, the Principal of St. Mary's Training College, Bangor, is the key to the whole problem. In the Church Training Colleges, Biblical Instruction is a compulsory part of the curriculum four or five hours per week, for five out of the six terms of a student's college life, are devoted to the subject; he is taught to know his Bible and how best to impart that knowledge to others. There is nothing of this, or rather one should say there is next to nothing of this, in non- denominational colleges. Nothing in the charters of those institutions seem to exist to debar the subject from being taken up, and probably the National Colleges under their present charters could take it up, and some of these latter would, I think, welcome such an extension of their curri- culum in the department of Day Training. Without being enthusiastic one way or the other, the Principals of the non-denominational training colleges do not seem to be averse to the idea of giving much more attention to the subject in the colleges under them there is one exception however, a gentleman who considers that things as they are in the college over which he presides, where scripture is not taken as a separate subject, are "ideal." Welshmen outside, I hope, will not consider the position even in that most favoured institution as either perfect or ideal. Bangor. Ellis Jones.