Imagens das páginas
PDF
ePub

SCHOOL EDUCATION.

To obtain credit with my reader I will say a little of my pretensions to advise on School Education. Briefly, I feel able to speak from personal knowledge and experience of the various methods of education at school, as well as of actual effects as exhibited both at College and in after life. For every lesson that I said at school from the age of nine to seventeen years, every punishment that I witnessed, every kind of instruction that I received, each occasion on which any difficulty was surmounted, and the kind of explanation which produced the desired effect, are as deeply imprinted on my mind at this moment as they ever were. At College I saw the pupils of most of the distinguished masters, and either then or since have informed myself of their plans, and compared them with their several results. Since that time I have had from 200 to 300 boys of all ages under my superintendance, and have had time to try by the test of experience, all the opinions that I had formed on the subject of Education; of course some were wrong and some right, and almost all, if good in theory, required very

B

nice and cautious modification in practice. I think, therefore, the fault must be rather in myself than in my opportunities, if I am unable to make a selection of ways and means as useful to teachers generally as they have been to me.

The following remarks, I would observe, are intended both for Parents and Masters; for the duties of the latter are so nearly connected with those of the former, that I must address both together, and leave each to select from the following pages what suits him best.

First, I will say a little about Preparing a child for school.

Secondly, of the Choice of schools.

Thirdly, of what devolves on the master and the parent of the schoolboy respectively. First, as to Preparing for school.

mens

No parent who has time and qualifications to discharge a parent's duty, should send his son to school till eight years of age at least. At that age all the preparation I desire in my pupils is " sana in corpore sano," that is, as free use of all their faculties as is consistent with the use of their limbs and vigorous health. The amount of their knowledge matters little, if their habits are well formed, if they can attend to what they are about, keep quiet and do as they are ordered without expecting, in the modern fashion, to know why and wherefore. The object is not to fill, but form, the mind. Encourage to the utmost observation and curiosity. Children are naturally greedy after novelty, and fond of talking of all they learn, unless

taught like parrots with sound instead of sense. What is true of a child's plaything is equally true of his studies. Give him suitable toys and he will amuse himself, give him suitable subjects and he will teach himself. He will not, I grant, teach himself in Geography, for instance, long lists of places in the interior of Africa. But point out India, tell him of the lions, tigers, and elephants, -say ivory is taken from the elephant,-point out Rome, tell him the Romans had ivory, and he will ask if they had also elephants,—and by the help of leading questions, he will be made to enquire how they obtained them, how many miles these things were brought, will coast the whole distance with his little hand on the map by sea, and when told this was not the route, the child will (all this happened to me) make a nail mark on the map by land, and ask if there were any wild animals to eat people by the way, and whether there are any in England, and how they came to be destroyed, and more about the king who collected wolves' heads: and if a child so led on and fed-in mind as in body the most healthy way-by first creating an appetite, should be taken to Mr. Wombwell's menageries, the little he has so learned will all come out with a series of new questions, of which the answers will be equally treasured up to suggest more enquiries to infinity. Then remind the child that if he does not learn to read he will never know any more amusing stories, and you will lead by such silken reins one you could never drive along, and for this reason; you go with, and not against the

current of his nature. By these means all the History and Geography a child should ever be taught, because all he can comprehend, and all on which his mind can be fed or exercised, and, as a test, all which will suggest new questions, and excite a new appetite for knowledge, may be easily taught rather as a reward than a task or punishment. I have had many pupils whom I could tempt to industry with their Latin Grammar, by promising a lesson in History and Geography as a treat. In this manner a child may be excited to a love of knowledge, and a habit of thinking, as well as to a ready belief that there will also be a use and profit in things he is forced to learn less according to his inclination. Besides these, which are no inconsiderable attainments, care and accuracy, the habit of fixing the attention, punctuality and a methodical way of doing things, present a good field for the exercise of parental judgment and ingenuity, though I confess that few rules can be laid down. I have always observed that these habits are imparted only by those parents who themselves possess them.

Various exercises for the Memory, questions and answers, spelling, and the Latin nouns and verbs or vocabulary, and catechisms, will form a good initiation into the severer studies of school; one thing however, should always be borne in mind; that the child be accustomed to say one lesson quite perfectly before he learns another, and that when the attention can no longer be sustained the book be laid aside or the subject changed: you

[ocr errors]

cannot take too much pains to prevent a boy from being idle and drowsy when he has a book in his hand.

But are children often so prepared for school? are their habits often so carefully formed? Far from it. Parents generally estimate the chance of a child's success at school, by the quantity he can say by rote when the master examines him for admission, and say, "My boy can do very well if he likes, but is so inattentive and restless; that is the only thing I complain of;" and quite enough, for it takes a longer time to overcome this inattention than would teach him all he knows. Still if the child makes little progress the master is blamed. I wish parents could understand that the object of schools is not only to teach and control boys while there, but to send them into the world with such habits that they may be qualified to teach and control themselves ever after. Many a boy will learn while his father sits by him who will do nothing amid all the chances of evasion that a school presents, but when he comes to learn equally well at school it is a proof that he improves in discipline as well as knowledge. The greater part of the first half year is usually spent in teaching a boy how to behave, and in giving him the habit of learning and of saying lessons in a way far more improving to the mind, than is usual with the parent or governess at home. During this time he may even forget part of what he knew at first, still parents ought not, though they generally do com

« AnteriorContinuar »