Introduction
Mr Squeers, owner and headmaster of Dotheboys Hall near Greta Bridge in Yorkshire, has (much to the bafflement of Mrs Squeers) hired an assistant master from London, nineteen-year-old Nicholas Nickleby. The moment has now come for the new arrival to familiarise himself with a system of education designed to fit young people for the world of work — chiefly in Dotheboys Hall.
“THIS is the first class in English spelling and philosophy, Nickleby,” said Squeers, beckoning his assistant to stand beside him. “We’ll get up a Latin one, and hand that over to you. Now, then, where’s the first boy?”*
“Please, sir, he’s cleaning the back-parlour window,” said the temporary head of the philosophical class.
“So he is, to be sure,” rejoined Squeers. “We go upon the practical mode of teaching, Nickleby, — the regular education system. C-l-e-a-n, clean, verb active, to make bright, to scour. W-i-n, win, d-e-r, winder: a casement.* When the boy knows this out of a book, he goes and does it. It’s just the same principle as the use of the globes. Where’s the second boy?”
“Please, sir, he’s weeding the garden,” replied a small voice.
“To be sure,” said Squeers, by no means disconcerted, “so he is. B-o-t, bot, t-i-n, tin, n-e-y, ney, bottiney,* noun substantive:* a knowledge of plants. When he has learned that bottiney means a knowledge of plants, he goes and knows ’em. That’s our system, Nickleby. What do you think of it?”
* The head boy of the class.
* Window is, of course, the correct spelling. Not all windows are casement windows, however; a casement window is properly one that opens on a hinge (like a door) or a sash window that can be raised and lowered. Squeer’s definition would not do for the window of a railway carriage or a church.
* Botany.
* ‘Noun substantive’ is an expression taken from old-fashioned Latin grammars. At one time, adjectives were considered a form of noun because in Latin they could show number, gender and case just as nouns can. Hence, a distinction was made between the noun substantive (our noun) and the noun adjective (our adjective). In 1817 William Cobbett (1762-1835) began writing a series of letters to his son James on English grammar, in which he used ‘substantive’ and ‘noun’ interchangeably, and classed adjectives separately from both. Mr Squeers, it would seem, was already behind the times.
Précis
In Charles Dickens’s Nicholas Nickleby, young Nicholas has been engaged as an assistant to Mr Squeers, headmaster of Dotheboys Hall in Yorkshire. Squeers proudly shows off his ‘practical’ system of education, which consists of no more than setting boys to do property maintenance after some rudimentary (and incorrect) spelling lessons, and then asks Nicholas for his opinion. (57 / 60 words)
In Charles Dickens’s Nicholas Nickleby, young Nicholas has been engaged as an assistant to Mr Squeers, headmaster of Dotheboys Hall in Yorkshire. Squeers proudly shows off his ‘practical’ system of education, which consists of no more than setting boys to do property maintenance after some rudimentary (and incorrect) spelling lessons, and then asks Nicholas for his opinion.
Variations: 1.increase the length of this precis to exactly 60 words. 2.reduce the length of this precis to exactly 50 words. 3.introduce one of the following words into the precis: because, despite, if, may, or, ought, since, until.
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