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Programme of Study for Public Schools in British Columbia, 1890 |
Note: Teachers are expected to
follow the Programme as closely as circumstances will permit.
Basis of Instruction. - Explanatory Memorandum on the Following Programme.The great object of this programme is to secure such an education of youths as to fit them for the ordinary employments and duties of life. This includes:
First. Reading, Writing, Arithmetic, and the use of the
English language. Every youth, whether in town or country, should be
able so to read that reading will be a pleasure and not a labour,
otherwise his little knowledge of reading will be seldom, if ever,
used to acquire information; he should be able to write readily and
well; he should know arithmetic so as to perform readily and
properly any financial business transactions, and be able to keep
accounts correctly; he should be able to speak and write with
correctness the language of the country.
These subjects are the
first essentials of education for every youth, and in which he
should be primarily and thoroughly taught.
Secondly. An acquaintance with the properties and growth of
the plants we cultivate and use, and the soils in which they grow;
the instruments and machinery we employ and the principles of their
construction and use; our own bodies and minds, and the laws of
their healthy development and preservation. Large experience shows
not only the importance of a knowledge of these subjects of natural
science and experimental physics, but that they can be taught easily
for all ordinary practical purposes to pupils from six to twelve
years of age.
Thirdly. Some knowledge of Geography and History, of the
civil government and institutions of our own country, and, in all
cases, of the first principles of morality, so essential to every
honest man and good citizen.
These are the subjects which should be embraced in a common school
curriculum, and which have been and can be easily learned by pupils
under twelve years of age. Those who aspire to a higher and more
accomplished English education can obtain it in the High Schools. The length of time during which a pupil shall continue in any class must depend upon his or her progress. The promotion of a pupil from a lower to a higher class is at the discretion of the master or mistress of the school, and if any difference arise on the subject between the master or mistress of a school and the trustees, or any parent of a pupil, the Superintendent or Deputy Superintendent of Education must decide; but no pupil is to be promoted to a higher class without being thoroughly acquainted with all the subjects taught in the lower classes.
A pupil on being admitted into a
school, must be examined by the master or mistress and placed in the
class into which such pupil is qualified to enter.
In all cases the order
of subjects in the programme must be followed, and the time
prescribed for teaching each subject per week must be observed, nor
must any subject of the course be omitted. Where a class is too large for all the pupils to be taught together, or where there is an obvious inequality in the ability and progress of the pupils, such class may be divided into two divisions—First and Second.
When the pupils in a school amount to more than fifty, and less
than one hundred, an additional teacher must be employed as an
assistant.
N.B. — The work assigned for home preparation
varies with the class in which the pupil is placed. In the first and
second classes, the lessons are designed to occupy half-an-hour
every evening; in the third and fourth, from an hour to an hour-and-a-half;
and in the fifth, from an hour-and-a-half to two hours.
Parents are expected to see that their children attend to their
work at home. |