Εικόνες σελίδας
PDF
Ηλεκτρ. έκδοση

changes in pronunciation as well as in meaning; but even a superficial observer need not be in danger of confounding the natural outgrowth with the unsightly deformity, or of failing to discriminate between the change which is according to the laws of growth, and those innovations which set all law at defiance. The dictionary should be our constant hand-book, and all doubtful cases referred to it. Miss Edgeworth, in speaking of a dunce, caps the climax of his dulness by saying that he could never be taught to look out a word in the dictionary. Many who often use this book, seldom take in a tenth part of what is given about derivation, meaning, and pronunciation.

It is not safe to follow implicitly any of our public speakers. Glaring errors have come into use through practices that have sprung from the conceit of some popular lecturers. There is likely to be some peculiarity in the vocabulary of almost every public speaker, so that from twenty different men one might cull a fantastic dialect.

There is a disciplinary influence in accurate speech which ought not to be left out of account. A slovenly utterance is demoralizing in its effect upon a school. The fate that overtook forty-two thousand men at the passages of the Jordan, because they could not say shibboleth, will not probably in our day fall upon blundering speakers. But consequences not trifling follow careless usage. The steps are short from carelessness to coarseness, from coarseness to vulgarity, and the taint of the dialect may be transmitted to the taste and somewhat to the character.

OBJECT TEACHING.

It is not easy to see why the term "Object Teaching" was ever necessary. Does it mean anything more than "Illustration"? If so, what is it? I have heard many lectures about it, and read books, but cannot make anything more of it. Young teachers get the impression, sometimes, that it forms a system of practice by itself, like allopathy or homeopathy in medicine; whereas the fact is, that it is a mere incident in the most successful instruction. To give instruction by every means possible-through the eye, the ear, the sense of touch, as well as by abstract reasoning- is to

practise "object teaching," a term of which there was never any need, and which designates nothing new. The discussion of the subject for the last twenty years has given shape to public opinion, which is still progressing in this matter. This is specially manifest in the natural sciences. The chemist is beginning to see that he can instruct well only so far as the learner himself works out in practice the problem set before him. So, too, in physics and botany; time spent in learning the mere description of flowers, or in the abstract discussion of physical principles, without any visible application of them, is for the most part wasted. A boy with a corked bottle, rubber tube, and pipe-stem, and a few hours of oral instruction, would be more likely to make himself in the end a philosopher, than the boy who has merely committed to memory the latest and fullest work on physics. The boy who can take his knife and tell the main facts about an apple-blossom as he cuts it apart, is more likely to become a botanist than he would be if he knew every plant by heart, but had never dissected a flower. The attempt to illustrate to the senses is doubtless often carried too far, and the explanation may be more difficult to comprehend than the subject which it is intended to illustrate. There needs to be training in dealing with things in the abstract as well as in the concrete. Grammatical diagrams, for instance, with their loops and links and outlying squares, are harder for a beginner to master than the structure of the sentence would be without them. A part of the so-called object teaching is the attempt to transfer mental work from the brain to the fingers, a thing which cannot well be done.

The first efforts of a young teacher to depart from the book and give original illustrations will not always be encouraging. There is nothing in which more progress can be made by the teacher than in the power to give illustrations aptly and forcibly, and nothing in which persevering practice is better rewarded. The beginner will be disheartened at times, but let him not on that account give up his purpose.

He cannot do everything as well as some of the talkers at Teacher's Institutes can do one thing. There is one lecturer who is always upon the map of South America; another confines himself to coral islands; another opens his lips only to show how to

count ten; and another still dwells with constancy and affection on the multiplication table. Now, when one of these lecturers says that no one is fit to teach until he can give object lessons in every branch, and that the lesson ought to be given with the fullness and fluency exhibited by the lecturer himself, young teachers at once feel abased, and say: "Then it is of no use for me to teach; I could do that in some few things, but not in everything." Very well; probably that is all the lecturer himself can do. A short time since, a woman connected with a Normal School was addressing a meeting of teachers in the State of New York. She purposed to give an object lesson to a class of boys who had been brought in for her to use. She said that every teacher ought to have resources for illustrating all subjects that came within the scope of his work, as an example of how the thing should be done. She would take,—well, as the objects happened to be right at hand, she would take the definition of transparent, translucent, and opaque. She took up from her desk a piece of clear glass, a piece of ground glass, and a piece of slate; and fixing her eyes upon the class before her, was about to begin, when one little marplot, who had heard this lecturer before in a neighboring town, raised his hand and said: “I know all about it, I heard you tell that the other day;" and then he repeated the substance of her illustration. From her opening remark it was expected that she would draw something else from the treasury of her rich imagination; but she did n't. She gave her lesson pretty much as the boy had done, but she left on the minds of her audience the impression that she couldn't do much besides that.

Don't be discouraged, then, because some lecturer says that a person who knows no more than you do, or who is no more ready than you are, is n't fit to teach. Begin with simple matters that you can illustrate clearly and briefly; the work will grow in your hands until you can direct it skilfully and well.

CONVERSATIONS IN THE PRIMARY SCHOOL.

IN the prospectus of a foreign school there is laid down with minuteness a prescribed course of study. Here is a quotation from the beginning of it:—

"Infant School. - Reading and spelling words of one syllable, conversations, with corrections of colloquial errors.

"Ist Form. Reading and spelling words of two syllables, copying correctly from books, writing from dictation short and easy sentences, conversations.

"2d Form. Advanced reading, spelling, and dictation, recital of anecdotes, comparison of words with one another."

One thing noticeable about the course of study is, that conversation is recognized as a means of instruction, and has a prominent place assigned to it. We infer that pupils are taught to talk correctly by the example and precept of the teacher applied directly to talking; and also, that this is made the means of conveying information to the pupil, sharpening his wits, and educating him. There is nothing that could more profitably be introduced into the Primary Schools of our own State, and made a considerable part of the work of all teachers. The conversation must not be to the pupils, or at them, but with them; this must require great tact, ingenuity, and freshness of invention. The ordinary teacher might possibly take a class of ten or fifteen pupils, and converse with them twenty minutes once a month. But there is needed for this purpose one who can renew the exercise every day, and lead the children to participate in it with zeal. We observe, with perplexity, that most boys and girls, twelve to fifteen years old, are not easy to get at. They are apt to be shy, evasive, reticent. They imagine a gulf between themselves and their teachers, and are inclined to keep on their own side of it. They can gossip and babble fast enough; few of them can talk. This is manifest whenever the attempt is made, at the beginning of a recitation, to get them into an animated conversation about the subjects they have studied. Still it is possible to bring them into it, and the teacher ought to do it. The earlier a beginning is made the easier it will be. Scholars will often look astonished and bewildered when a teacher comes over to their side of the gulf, and instead of throwing questions at them, talks

with them. The reserve may be thawed away. Time, patience, and constant effort will secure increasing good results, and the hour of recitation may be made a social one on both sides.

Formality must be avoided. Anything like a set exercise chills the spontaneity of childhood into silent propriety. The teacher must make the most careful preparation; but so far as the pupil is concerned, the conversation must rather happen than result from any previous plan.

It is not advised that the course here recommended should make the greater part of the means of instruction, but only one part of it. Some of the advantages of it are, that it removes the constraint that often wraps a child and fetters him in school, and leaves his mind to act with greater freedom. It teaches the pupil to talk, and leads to the correcting of common colloquial errors. It teaches to think in some kind of logical order; for one cannot talk well unless the thoughts flow freely and with regularity; it brings the pupil and teacher into sympathy with one another, and when well done, strengthens the personal influence of the teacher.

GRAMMAR MISAPPLIED.—“As an instance of another kind of intellectual difficulty which is probably more weakening than bracing, we need only recall to mind the hours and days which boys of nine and ten years of age have been required to spend in learning in a semi-barbarous jargon the abstractions of grammar, which are quite unintelligible to them at that age, and which, in so far as they have made any meaning at all, present little difficulty to a mind that has reached the stage of understanding abstractions. It is quite right to train even a young boy to encounter difficulties suited to his age; but this discipline is adequately secured by the necessity of learning accurately the forms and inflexions of the language he is studying, and of practically observing grammatical laws and distinctions in interpreting, with the help of a few simple rules, the sentences of an ancient author.

"The conclusion to which we come on this point is that there is no value whatever, but rather a great hinderance, in the unmeaning and unnecessary difficulties with which classical studies have been too much encumbered; that it is the duty of every teacher to do his best to clear them away; that he should keep steadily before him the aim of awakening in every one of his pupils the power of independent insight into, and sympathy with, the various modes in which the spirit of antiquity realized itself; and that he should strive to attain this result neither by the largest and most difficult, nor by the shortest and easiest, but by the surest and most intelligent process." - Prof. Sellar, Prof. of Humanity in the University of Edinburgh.

« ΠροηγούμενηΣυνέχεια »