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cruits, drilled in the public schools, will push their way across the continent, as the Saxons set out from their northern hives, a vast army of occupation, cultivating the "National Homestead," and fortifying the whole line of communication by a cordon of schoolhouses that shall hold it forever as the heritage of free labor, free men and a free nation.

"So shall the Northern pioneer go joyful on his way,

To wed Penobscot's waters to San Francisco's Bay!

To make the rugged places smooth, to sow the vales with grain,
And bear, with Liberty and Law, the Bible in his train;

The mighty West shall bless the East, and sea shall answer sea,
And mountain unto mountain call, PRAISE GOD, FOR WE ARE FREE!''

3. METHODS OF TEACHING.*

The common schools are established by law, for the purpose of affording to all the children in the State the means of obtaining a good education, at the public expense. Their design is to have knowledge as common among the people, as are water, air, and the sunlight. They are planted deep in the affections of the people. Their importance cannot be overstated. Any attempt to improve them, or to render them more useful, deserves the encouragement of every good citizen. I understand that the object of this Institute, composed of teachers from various parts of the State, is to interchange views in relation to the great cause of education, in order to assist one another in the practice of their profession.

So much has been written upon the subject of education, that it would seem to have been exhausted long ago. Yet it is, in fact, as inexhaustible as human nature. It comprehends and applies to all men, from the cradle to the grave, under all circumstances, and with all their varieties and peculiarities of character. It endeavors to ascertain the true and philosophical system of human culture, to point out the best methods of teaching, of maintaining good order, of preserving the health, and of developing all the faculties in the natural order, so as to produce the best results for the individual and the community.

The object of the present meeting is more specifically to improve, in every possible manner, the condition of the common schools of this State. We wish to render these fountains, at which the great mass of the people drink, as pure and invigorating as possible.

My purpose is then to take some of the ordinary branches taught in the common schools, and to state what I think the best methods of giving instruction in them. Before doing so, however, let me present a few general considerations.

Although the practice of teaching must have begun in Paradise (indeed, according to the pious legends of the Rabbins, Adam was not only the first man, but also the first schoolmaster, aided by Enoch, I suppose, as his first assistant), yet it is nearly certain that no great improvements were generally effected in the art of teaching, and that there never was known such a thing as the philosophy of teaching, until the institution of common schools, and, in point

* Read before the State Teachers' Institute, 1861, by George W. Minns.

We owe our

of fact, not even till long after they were known. fathers a debt of gratitude for the establishment of the first free schools, supported at the public expense, for the education of the whole people. Yet they were very imperfect in many particulars, and the change for the better was very slow and not made without much opposition. There was for a long time great imperfection in the construction of schoolhouses. The Hon. Horace Mann, while he was Secretary of the Massachusetts Board of Education, described schoolhouses in central districts of rich and populous towns, where each seat was a stump, without side-arms or back-board; some of them so high that the feet of the children in vain sought after the floor, and on the hard top of which they were obliged to balance themselves as well as they could, for some six hours in a day.

Mr. Mann says: "I have reason to remember one of another class of schoolhouses, of the wicker-work order of architecture-summerhouses for winter residences-where there was never a severely cold day without the ink's freezing in the pens of the scholars while they were writing, and the teacher was obliged to compromise between the sufferings of those who were exposed to the cold of the windows, and those exposed to the heat of the fire, by not raising the thermometer near the latter above ninety degrees, until that near the window fell below thirty. It was an excellent place for the teacher to illustrate one of the facts in geography, for five steps would have carried him through the five zones. Just before my present circuit," he writes, "I passed a schoolhouse, the roof of which, on one side, was trough-like, and down towards the eaves there was a large hole, so that the whole operated like a tunnel, to catch the rain, and pour it into the school-room. At first, I did not know but it might be some apparatus to illustrate the deluge. I called, and inquired of the mistress if she and her little ones were not sometimes drowned out. She said she should be, only that the floor leaked as badly as the roof, and drained off the water."

I myself have seen a schoolhouse in which an old hat was shown to be a pronoun, by being used instead of the noun, glass.

It is of great importance to provide healthful and comfortable schoolhouses for the young. Let them be placed in the most pleasant locations; let the seats be convenient for children of all ages, and let an abundance be furnished of that prime necessary of life, fresh air.

More improvements have been made in the last twenty-five years, in relation to the structure and management of schoolhouses, and in reference to the modes of teaching the various branches pursued therein, than had been accomplished during the preceding two centuries. I well remember the first grammar-school which I attended. It was a very long room, with a smoke-pipe extending the whole length of it, into which, so the master said, all bad boys would go. I was puzzled for some time to find where it led, as it passed through a partition separating us from the next room. The stove was large and grim-looking, with the head of some nondescript monster upon the door, with the snarling mouth wide open; and when the full power of the draught was on, it roared loud enough to devour several bad boys at once. I kept at a safe distance from it. The walls

of this apartment were as bare as prison walls. There was not a map, nor an engraving, nor a picture upon them, and no globe belonged to the school. This was certainly wrong. The walls of our school-rooms should be covered and adorned with maps and pictures suited to the progress of the scholars. There are published in the pictorial papers, and in other ways, farm scenes, pictures of domestic animals, birds, and beasts, of flowers, of different kinds of trees, and views of some of the largest cities of the globe, all of which would be useful in this respect. Nor, by any means, would I have omitted some scenes addressed to that sense of the beautiful which exists in children as strongly as it does in us. All this might be done at a trifling expense, and what a contrast would be presented between such a school-room and the cold, lifeless, and dingy walls within which too many children are confined. If I had a school in the country, particularly if it was one for small children, I would, in the proper season, have many of the exercises conducted in the open air, in a grove, or any shady place near by. Every lesson relating to nature should be studied, or read, in the face of nature, with flowers scattered all around, and under the living trees, instead of hanging over the "desk's dead wood." Why should a class read Bryant's glorious poem, "The groves were God's first temples," in a wooden box lined with Lowell sheeting, when at a short distance may be nature's temple itself, with its lofty pillars, its green arches, its majestic roof, and its sweet songsters.

Then, still carrying out this principle of object-teaching, I would avail myself of it wherever I could. For instance, by the use of the numeral frame, or, if that cannot be had, with buttons, or beans, all the fundamental rules and principles of arithmetic can be taught and made palpable to the eye. I would have the length of a yard, foot, and inch, permanently marked upon the upper part of the blackboard. I would have every grammar school provided with the following articles, for use in the various departments, namely: Peck, gallon, quart, pint, and gill, measures; grains, pennyweights, ounces, and pounds, of the different measures; blocks to represent square and solid measures, and, in addition, a pair of scales. The clock can be used to illustrate the divisions of time. I would have every scholar studying arithmetic show himself, by experiment, whether the tables he commits to memory are correct. In this manner, the learning of the tables, which is so often considered a drudgery, would become a pleasant pastime. After this, do you think the pupil would forget them?

number of different colShow them to the schol

So in commencing grammar. Provide a ored wafers, bits of cloth, silk, or cotton. ars, asking them to state the color of each. Let the pupils tell and write upon their slates the object, the color, and the number shown. Will not they very soon learn which is the noun, and which words merely describe the noun-that is, are adjectives?

A similar course may be pursued with the verb, and it may be modified so as to bring the child to understand the office of pronouns, and to apply some of the tenses of the verbs.

Example I lift a book (doing it). He lifts a book. The book can be lifted. You may rise. They will sit. She is touching the table, etc.

This exercise may be varied indefinitely. Children should go through these exercises together, pronouncing the sentences, and illustrating them by doing the thing mentioned.

In this connection, I will remark that, in my opinion, children pursue the study of grammar at altogether too early an age. Because they can easily be taught what a noun, an adjective, or a verb is, it by no means follows that their minds are in a fit state to understand the principles of grammar, or analysis. There are other studies more suitable for their tender years. A year or two later, they can enter more readily into the spirit and foundation of the rules of grammar, and their minds will be better prepared to grapple with the difficulties of the study. Time is lost by putting children into studies for which their minds are not ripe. "Grammar is not the V stepping-stone, but the finishing instrument." As grammar was made after language, so ought it to be taught after language.

When scholars come to study the natural sciences, these are made, as much as possible, matters of experiment and observation. No one supposes a pupil will make any proficiency in the study of chemistry, or of any branch of natural philosophy, without witnessing experiments, or making them for themselves. Is there not good reason, then, for pursuing the same course, as far as possible, with less advanced children? It is true, as has been remarked, that primary and intermediate schools need apparatus as much as a high school, but, of course, of a different character.

The several faculties of the human mind are not simultaneously developed, and in educating an individual we ought to follow the order of nature, and adapt the instruction to the age and mental stature of the pupil. If we reverse this order, and attempt to cultivate faculties which are not sufficiently matured, while we neglect to cultivate those which are, we do the child an irreparable injury. Memory, imitation, imagination, powers of observation, and the faculty of forming mental habits, exist in early life, while the judgment and the reasoning powers are of slower growth. It is well known that the memory may be stored at an early age with valuable rules and precepts which in future life may become the materials of reflection, and the guiding principles of action; that it may be furnished with heroic sentiments and poetic illustrations, with "thoughts which breathe and words that burn," and which, long after, will spring up spontaneously from the depths of the mind, at the proper moment, to embellish and to enforce the truths of the future man.

This period of life, when acquisitions of this kind are most readily made, is not that in which the judgment and reasoning powers can be most properly cultivated. They require a more advanced age, when the mind has become more matured by natural growth, and better furnished with the material of thought.

An important part of elementary mental instruction is that of imparting expertness in the performance of certain processes, such as spelling, reading, penmanship, drawing, composition, expertness in the first rules of arithmetic. I shall by and by consider some of these branches under another aspect. At present I refer only to that promptness and dexterity in going through certain processes, which can be imparted only by laborious drilling on the part of the

teacher, and acquired only by attention and frequent practice on the part of the pupil. As merely one illustration of what I mean, I will mention skill in adding long columns of figures with rapidity and correctness. It is only in early life, while the mind is in a pliable condition, that these mental facilities can most readily and most perfectly be acquired. The practice in each case must be so long continued, and the process so often repeated, that it becomes a mental habit, and is at length performed with accuracy and rapidity, almost without thought. I think this drilling is the most irksome part of a Teacher's duty; it is apt to be distasteful to the pupil, but it must be faithfully and resolutely performed. It is an important principle which should be kept in view by the Teacher, that although the practice of an art is at first difficult, and requires at each step an effort of mind, yet, every repetition renders it easier, and at length we come to exercise it not only without effort, but as a pleasurable gratification of a habitual act. Perseverance, therefore, in this cause, will ultimately receive a grateful reward.

We should carefully avoid having too many studies in our schools. Non multa, sed multum is a maxim of sound sense. Do a few things well, not many things poorly. It should never be forgotten that correct spelling, reading, writing, arithmetic, geography, grammar, and facility in expressing one's self in good plain English, are indispensable. They are the foundation of all future acquisitions; in fact, without them, there can be no superstructure. They are worth any quantity of heads full of mere smatterings of ologies and osophies. "I want to conjecture a map to study antimony, and to learn bigotry," said a girl to her master. "My dear little girl," was the reply, "you may project a map, after having studied geography some time longer; astronomy you may attend to when you can understand it; and I would advise you never to learn bigotry in all your life. Perhaps you mean botany."

It is a great evil, I have said, to introduce many studies into a school. It works evil in another way, and that is, children are put into studies for which their minds are not mature enough. It is an important fact that the mind, at a certain time, may be totally unable to comprehend a subject, because it is not sufficiently developed to understand it. The evident course to be followed is, to wait, wait until the mind has grown, and then what was formerly so difficult becomes perhaps quite easy.

An incident is related in the Autobiography of Dr. Benjamin Franklin, which illustrates this point.

Dr. Franklin states that he was sent by his father to a school for writing and arithmetic, "kept by a then famous man, a Mr. George Brownwell. Under him," says the Doctor, "I learned to write a good hand pretty soon; but I failed entirely in arithmetic."

It is almost incredible that a mind like Franklin's should be incapable, even at the age of nine years, of understanding the rudiments of arithmetic, which he tells us, he mastered a few years after by himself, with ease. His mind, perhaps, was not sufficiently grown for him to take hold of the subject. Another explanation of this fact is to be found also in the character of the text-books used in Franklin's day, and in the method, or, rather, want of any method,

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