I visited to-day a school at Trawsnant, in the parish of Llanrhystyd. The room is well built, lighted, and ventilated, and in every respect suitable to conduct a school in it. It was erected by the Calvinistic Methodists for a Sunday school.
I examined the highest class who were reading the 38th chapter of Genesis. The reading was very imperfect; and in questioning the class upon what was read, I found that scarcely a single word was understood, and the master told me that he was not in the habit of asking them any questions, nor using any means to make the scholars understand what they read and spelt. General questions on Scripture history, and the principal facts of the New Testament, were answered tolerably well when asked in Welsh. I heard some of each class reading and spelling ; but all manifested defective teaching and ignorance of the first principles of knowledge. Arithmetic was taught, to two or three, but they did not know the multiplication table, or the pence table. The writing was badly done, careless, and the books covered with blots.
The master was an uneducated person, having had no advantages, but brought up in a school similar to this, and was employed as a farm servant and a labourer for a little time in the dockyard at Woolwich, and having picked up a little knowledge of English, he was the best that offered to keep a school in this place. Mr. Davies, a respectable farmer, living at a farm called Pentre, accompanied me here. and was present during my visit, and informed me of the above facts respecting the master, and also stated that there is a general desire in the neighbourhood to have a better master.
December 4th, 1846. (Signed) HENRY PENRY, Assistant.