Clonmel. important National School, under the Right Rev. Dr. Delany, APPENDIX B. in the city of Cork; one is in a National School in this dis- I. Reports on trict; one had to join her brother as housekeeper; one emi- District Model grated with her family; and one is assisting in her father's Na- Schools. tional School. According as their four years of office expire, or earlier if fully grown, we shall have no difficulty in providing them with situations in schools, as the Managers evince a great desire to secure the services of persons so trained. The two female Teachers report favourably of the conduct and attention of the Monitresses, and their proficiency in their course of study is satisfactory. Extern Candidate Teachers. From the opening of the schools we have trained and instructed seven very respectable young women, who were admitted as candidates at the request, and on the recommendation, of several clergymen. They cost the Commissioners nothing, being merely allowed to witness the mode of conducting the Girls' and Infants' schools; and when sufficiently qualified, were given the charge of classes under the direction of the Teachers. Six of the seven have been provided with situations in good National Schools, two of them being at present in training in Dublin, and the seventh will soon get an appointment to the charge of a school. These young persons are giving the fullest satisfaction to the Managers and to the Inspectors; and without a shilling expense to the State, six respectable Teachers have been provided for National Schools. Three young men who had been extern candidates have also got charge of National Schools. Visitors. The number of visitors to the Model Schools, during the year, was very considerable, and their reports of the school highly satisfactory. Amongst some of those who visited may be mentioned, Lady Osborne; the Right Hon. W. F.F. Tighe, Lieutenant of Kilkenny; Bernal Osborne, Esq., M.P.; N. V. Maher, Esq., M.P.; A. O'Flaherty, Esq., M.P.; Francis Scully, Esq., M.P.; John Bagwell, Esq., D.L.; R. Musgrave, Esq., D.L.; Stephen Moore, Esq., D.L.; Dr. Mullock, Roman Catholic Bishop, Newfoundland; Sir Thomas Deane; Rev. Messrs. Neligan, Clemenger, Alexander, &c.; Charles Bianconi, Esq.; Stewart Blacker, Esq.; numerous bodies of Quakers from England, Waterford, &c. Mr. Cross, one of the Secretaries to the Commissioners, visited in November last, and heard several classes examined in the Boys' school, and also inspected the other schools, the domestic establishment, and the premises generally. He appeared to be greatly pleased with his visit, and complimented the Teachers on the state of their schools. Influence of the Clonmel Model Schools on the state of Education.-During the year 1851, I visited the cities of Lime APPENDIX B. I. Reports on Schools. Clonmel. rick, Waterford, and Kilkenny, with a view to assist in the selection of a site for a Model School in each; and the most active and influential of the local parties in these cities assured me, that it was the reports of the remarkable success of the Clonmel Model Schools which mainly led to their desire to secure similar advantages for their own localities. The adequacy of the National System to the wants of the middle and burgher classes, has been tested in giving a higher and more practical education to their children; and if the Commissioners be pleased to add a classical branch to their present schools in Clonmel, it will give completeness to the scheme, and be competent to prepare young men to enter schools and colleges of a higher character. Several of the leading men in the town have spoken to me on the subject, and as the increased school-fees, arising from the addition of such a branch, would nearly afford a good salary to the Teacher, the expense to the Board would be very trifling. Attracted by the success of the Model Schools, to which they are frequent visitors, the Society of Friends, or Quakers, in Clonmel, have spread through their reports to the members of their community in England and Ireland such a spirit for educational inquiry, that numbers of their body have specially visited the town in order to witness the mode in which the schools are conducted. At their request, I visited their large boarding-school, for boys, in Waterford, and at the desire of the Committee of the establishment, the Teachers have since spent some time in observing the system pursued in Clonmel. I know of no body of men in the country that evinces a higher desire to promote education than several of the Quakers in Clonmel; and a new school for the young ladies of their community, built, but not yet opened in the town, is likely, under their superintendence, to become one of the first private schools in which the National System, so far as its books, improved methods of teaching, &c., are concerned, will be practically adopted. Some of the PupilTeachers of the Model School, who are now in charge of National Schools in the town, are employed as private tutors in the families of Quakers. It may be necessary to repeat what was before stated in former reports, that the borough of Clonmel, with a population of 13,505 persons, has extensive schools, with four spaeious rooms, conducted by the Christian Brothers, large schools for infant and grown girls under the Sisters of Charity, these being attended by none but Roman Catholics; Protestant Parochial schools for boys, girls, and infants, under the Rector's superintendence; a small school for girls, founded by a Miss Grubb, and which, with the Rector's schools, are Clonmel. attended almost exclusively by Protestants; an endowed APPEndix B. classical school, and two private classical schools; and two I. Reports on private schools for girls, able to pay moderate school-fees. District Model Of National Schools there are two for boys, under Rev. Mr. Schools. Baldwin's patronage, and taught by two young men who had been Pupil-Teachers in the Model Schools; and a Girls' school, with two spacious rooms, conducted by the ladies of the Presentation Convent, which, as well as the two Boys' schools, are in Rev. Mr. Baldwin's parish, and quite convenient to the Model Schools. In the eastern side of the town there are two National Schools, a Day and an Evening, held in the Mechanics' Institution, and which were called into existence by the public attention which the Model Schools caused to be given to education. The Day school is attended by about 90 boys; and like the Model Schools, these include every grade, from the public officer, or medical man, with an income of £300 a-year, to the son of the day-labourer. The rates of payment are, 58. or 2s. 6d. per quarter, or 1d. per week, and the fees last year amounted to £20. Of the 90 boys, 64 are Roman Catholics, 20 of the Established Church, 2 Presbyterians, and 4 Baptists. The Evening school is attended by 58 pupils, including policemen, clerks, tradesmen, apprentices, &c., who are employed during the day; and like the Day school pupils they all pay moderate rates for their tuition, and they include a similar union of different religious denominations. Here, then, are three schools, boys', girls', and infants', opened under the Commissioners in 1849, in a town appearing to already abound with educational institutions; these schools are at once not merely filled, but crowded; and in addition two other National Schools are opened, and these also secure a numerous attendance. One shilling was not paid for tuition in a single National or other public school in the town, united education was unknown, and the attempt to secure the attendance of children of different social grades in the same school was treated as perfectly Utopian. Including the Model Schools, of the eight National Schools in the town, five are as perfect types of united education, both as to creeds and to classes, as the Commissioners could desire; and six of the eight are pay schools, with a receipt from school-fees of close on £200 a-year; one of the two free-schools being under Nuns, who, from their principles, could not accept any fee for tuition. The Workhouse National School has partaken of the awakened educational spirit, and the Guardians evince an earnest desire to have it one of the most efficient of its kind in Ireland. They have lately got a female Teacher from the Model School in Dublin; one of the Assistant Schoolmasters had been a VOL. I. N APPENDIX B. Pupil-Teacher in Clonmel: and over the industrial department they have placed an Agriculturist from the Model Farm, Glasnevin, I. Reports on Clonmel. Nor are the National Schools the only ones that have been improved by the attention drawn to the Model Schools. The habits of order, punctuality and regularity of attendance, readiness to purchase a supply of books, personal cleanliness, payment of fees, &c., which have been attained, prove to the Managers of other schools, that results such as were deemed impossible, may be attempted; and that while the fullest. opportunities for education should be thrown open to the poor, both parents and children will find that being obliged to exercise a moderate degree of forethought and self-denial in overcoming these obstacles, will eventually prove the best training for their children and themselves. As stated in my last Report, we have never allowed any spirit of hostility or antagonism to associate itself with the Model Schools in relation to the denominational schools in the town; we have had the Sisters of Charity aiding in giving religious instruction; the Protestant Rector sends one of his Teachers to the Model Schools to be trained; and the Christian Brothers, both of Clonmel and other towns, have been cordially welcomed as visitors. All the Teachers, without exception, have given us the highest satisfaction in the discharge of their several duties; and during the year nothing occurred to disturb the harmony and good feeling between them. To the several clergymen, Rev. Mr. Palliser, Rev. Mr. Baldwin, Rev. Mr. Dill, and Rev. Mr. Orr, I beg to tender my most sincere gratitude for the kind interest they have manifested in the general welfare of the schools, and especially for the regularity of their attendance in giving, or in directing, the religious instruction of the children of their respective communions. I have the honour to remain, Gentlemen, your obedient Servant, JAMES W. KAVANAGH, Head Inspector. The Secretaries, Education Office, Dublin. APPENDIX B. in Clonmel II. REPORT ON LECTURES upon NATURAL PHILOSOPHY, and Clonmel, 31st December, 1851. GENTLEMEN,-In accordance with your instructions, I furnished, in May last, a Report upon the Lectures delivered by me, at the District Model School of this town, from their commencement in the previous year. In that document, which the Commissioners of National Education did me the honour to publish in the Appendix to their Seventeenth Report, I stated the nature and objects of these lectures so fully, that I will not now enter at any length upon them. I will merely remind you, that their object was to impart a knowledge of the elements of Natural Philosophy and Chemistry, with a view to their serving as guides to the knowledge of nature's laws; and particularly bearing on their practical application to the arts, and the service which they therefore render to society in all its grades, such as to those engaged in agriculture, geology, mining, reduction of ores, engineering, building, construction of machinery, chemical manufactures, as common salt, soda, potass, sulphur, acids, salts, &c., dyeing, bleaching, tanning, pottery, glass making, plating, gilding, silvering, as well as their influence domestic economy, ventilation, &c. on Having stated the progress which the Pupil-Teachers and pupils of the senior class had made in most of these branches of knowledge, I shall now only mention, that since the date of that Report, the pupils have had several opportunities of testing the truth of the statements I had made, by observations in the workshop, in the field, and in the mill. In geology and mineralogy I brought them in several places on the junction of the various formations which this and the adjoining county afford, and made them familiar with the various ores, and their modes of extraction; whilst in mechanics and the steam-engine, the opportunities of observation, on an extensive scale, of the most improved machines, and the newest forms of steam-engine-which I had previously brought before them in detail by working and sectional models and diagrams-were such as the most favoured students of universities seldom enjoy. Much of this is due to the facilities so liberally afforded to me by the merchants and manufacturers of this town, who placed at my disposal large quantities of School. Dr. Clarke, |