, 1865-05-16
REPORT
ON II
ANNUAL REPORT
OF H
INSPECTOR OF H COUNTRY SCHOOLS
FOR A. D. 1663-64.
OF THE
Continued.)

kSOIIluu0OJ
y. But if the undoubted failure Of these
Schools, in comparison with similar institu-
tons elsewhere, cannot, as we have shewn,
be attributed in any great degree to the caus-
es aliedged by the Superintendent, then the
question arises-To what is it to be attribut-
ed ? and on the answer to this question will
depend the decision Of the further most inn
portant ~inquiry-How is their defect. to be
remedied z Now, from the foregoing con
siderations, it must be manifest that the Chief
cause of the failure of our Schools must lie
in something peculiar to Notwithstanding
n0n-er{Stent IN OTHER quarters, where, under 81
mi1ar circumstances generally much greafcr
Succe8S as attained and we unhesitatingly
affirm that # is to be found IN the peculiar
meh0d Of instruction, rallied tie Phonetjca1,
adapted therein, and purSncd no1c3ere else
1rhere tie English Language IS ta1ght, We
emphatically deny any merit whatever to
this system as applied to the English Len
guage. 1t would, of course, be impossible
for us to enter here into any discussion of the
system itself, but we briefly contend that the
bare fact of its non-adoption in the Public
Schools Of England, Ireland, Scotland, and
the United States, nor yet in those Of the
DItt19A &OiDA4lCC-lluN IT. lNICCt4OA ia III
other places than this, where the English
Language prevails, is q far more than sufici-
ent verdict against its adaptation to that
language, and a conclusive retutation Of the
Superintendents opinion as to its '~intrinsic
value" Notwithstanding the fact of it's hav-
ing been deemed necessary to put the Coun-
try to the expense Of publishing @ series Of
Reading Books expressly tor our Coun5ry
Schools, we yet venture to deny that the
teaching Of the English Language here, is
something so different from the same work
elsewhere, as to admit Of a system being adj
vantageouSly applied TO it IN our Schools,
which is universally condemned as inappliCa-
BILE wherever else that language is spoken
and we cannot commit ourselves to the ab-
surditY of supposing that we. in this Island,
are more competent to arrive at a correct
conclusion on this point, than the eyperien-
ced and accomplished EiCcarionists Of the
Countries which We have named, whose
Judgment has been, by their non-adoption Of
the system, emphatically adverse to its claims
of superiority and we believe, moreover,
that one very important point has been quite
lost sight of by the majority of those among
us who are most jealous ia their advocacy of
the system, namely-that a thorough know
ledge of the Language to which it is applied, is
quite as necessary for the formation Of a cor
rect Judgment on its merits, as a knowledge
of the system itself.
With regard to the argument in its favor,
drawn from past experience, by the Super
intendent, we can only express our surprise
that the experience obtained here, should
have given results so opposite to those yield
ed elsewhere. In some of the United States
where the common School instruction has
been VIGOROUSLY carried to the very highest
perfection, and with acknowledged unbound
ed success, the trial of this system led to its
Immediate and entire Abandonment and
even in the neighboring Islands of St. Tho
mas and st. Johns it has been thrown aside,
if we mistake not, as a failure while here,
in the Town Schools of the United Brethren,
who, in this Commission, advocate the sys-
tenn most warmly, 1t has mever been adopted-
a fact which can only be accounted for by
their lack of faith in it. In any appeal to the
evidence of persons here, we accept as un-
questionable the position of the Superinten-
dent, that those Teachers are best able to
judge of this system "who have practised both,
"(the old and new,) in our Country Schools,
land are not biassed"-in other words, Er.