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ordinary, the result will be a night of gloom for the scholars, and thereafter a day of perplexity for himself. In such circumstances, the vexations of teaching are self-made troubles.

For Teachers in our Primary Schools it is specially important to consider the amount of home-preparation which may reasonably be expected. It seems to me altogether unlikely that satisfactory advance can be made in the work of education through means of. these schools, unless school-work be largely planned upon the admission that only slight home-preparation can be expected. A large proportion of the children are so situated at home that preparation of lessons must be very slight, and often completely neglected. It seems unwise to shun this admission; we must suit ourselves to the existing state of matters. Teaching must proceed largely on the assumption that the scholars are practically commencing the learning of the lesson when their teacher begins class-work. I do not incline so to view a teacher's work as to regard this position of affairs as occasion for special condolence. On the contrary, I favor the opinion, that in all cases it would be well if the classes in which primary instruction is communicated were conducted on the avowal that comparatively little is expected in the form of home-preparation. Even if lesson-learning were entirely restricted to school hours for the first two or three years of school life, I think we should gain and not lose in educational results. In the interests of health and physical development it is to be desired that the brain should not be subjected to continuous work for more than a few hours of each day. As far as possible, we should guard against the excitement of class-work flowing in upon the homes of the children, and even upon their sleeping hours. At present we have too much experience of uneasy restlessness of brain among young children. In the interests of the teachers of our primary schools, burdened as they are with the extra strain of maintaining the attention of large numbers of very young children, I would wish to see a saving of strength in teaching. Escape from the irritation experienced on account of the discovery of inadequate preparation would be a considerable help in this respect. There would be less fretting for. a teacher (and it is fretting which most quickly exhausts the strength), by deliberately undertaking the work of teaching the lesson from the foundation. There would also be a higher training in the real work of teaching. Mere lesson hearing is a comparatively slight and commonplace exercise; but to lead the young mind into the knowledge to be understood and remembered, is an exercise in every way worthy of large knowledge and much skill.

If learners are shown the true methods for reducing difficult combinations to their elements, many difficulties are taken out of the way. Mastery of the remaining difficulties will then prove a help for subsequent effort. This work of analysis is greatly simplified in later stages, if progress in elementary instruction has been by advancement on a careful system from the simplest elements of language to the more complex combinations. Intelligence is the avenue to memory. A passage may be accurately and rapidly read or recited, and yet not in any proper sense learned. The contribution to the real education of the child is comparatively small, unless the understanding is called into exercise. In education what may be described as a 'local' or 'verbal' memory is of slight influence in comparison with an intelligent or rationalizing memory. Association by reference to locality or verbal sequence is a temporary coherence, which generally breaks up when the occasion for it is gone. But if facts are contemplated, and truths are understood, memory keeps what it receives, and intelligence begins to utilize what it has gathered. It is therefore of the utmost importance that analysis become a familiar instrument in all educational work. The ordinary round of school duty gives constant opportunity for its use. In spelling, for example, to break up a word into its component parts is to bring the understanding into play, affording memory the aid it requires for accurately retaining and recalling that word.

Blackboard.

The use of the eye to aid the understanding is of great importance in all analysis. For this reason the blackboard presents an invaluable auxiliary. Its use may seem to consume time; in reality it greatly saves time. What is made visible will be understood much more rapidly than what is merely explained in words. A word of several syllables written out on the board in separate parts will much more easily be made familiar than if it be only looked at as printed in the ordinary lesson. Familiarity with the analysis of words will soon be gained in this way, rendering continued use of the board unnecessary, and setting it free for use at some other point of difficulty. There is no need to continue illustrations when writing mainly for those who are professional teachers. The value of the blackboard is not likely to be overlooked. The more a teacher can avail himself of all the avenues to the mind, the more efficient his teaching must become.

Combination of the Known and Unknown. When pupils are encouraged to make for themselves fresh combinations of things already known, additional progress is certain.

Variety of exercise in this way is as attractive to children as many of their games. If, when such exercises are given, the rivalry involved in taking places were discontinued, and all the extraneous excitement avoided, the play of intelligence would bring an ample reward. I plead for discontinuance of rivalry in such exercises, because, while it stimulates some, in other cases it hinders and even stops the action of intelligence. If any teacher doubt this, he may subject a class to experiment by watching the faces of the pupils, and next asking from the child who has been corrected an explanation of the reason for the correction. Hurry in such things is an injury, and so is all commingling of antagonistic motives. All fear hinders intellectual action, and the fear of wounded ambition offers no exception to the rule. The fear of being punished is more seriously detrimental than any form of fear which can be stirred. It is essentially antagonistic to the action of intelligence. Let mind have free play. There is hardly a better exercise for a class than that of allowing a scholar to write out on the blackboard the tense of a verb, or any other portion of grammar; requiring the others to offer corrections of what has been written; interlining the corrections as suggested; and then inquiring into their warrant.

Ritter, the celebrated geographer of Germany, pointed to the value of skillful combination in the suggestion he made as to teaching geography. He proposed the combination of history and geography. He recommended that an outline map should be drawn, the mountains traced, and the courses of the rivers; and that localities should be marked in connection with events of historic importance, or with information concerning the products of the soil, or of manufacture. The suggestion is a valuable example of the type of combinations which must greatly facilitate education and deepen its interest. The learning of geography is of comparatively little value if it be nothing more than lists of names in moderate doses, with the understanding that they belong to England or to France. But if a teacher roughly sketch an outline map upon the board, and bid one after another of the pupils fill in a part of it, and then unroll the printed map, the impression upon all will be greatly deepened. History would undoubtedly gain greatly in interest, if outstanding events were associated with map drawing. The Germans have advanced beyond most nations in teaching geography. Government instructions may lie behind this, and perhaps even military reasons may lie at the back of these instructions, but there can be little doubt of the fact. During the Franco-Prussian war it was said the German soldiers knew the geography of

France better than the French themselves. Special education for the army is, however, provided in Germany to an extent as yet unknown in any other country. The German soldier is not left merely to become familiar with drill; he has regular school training, as well as military exercise. But the school children are unusually well instructed in geography, with minute topographical information. When resident in Berlin, I had the opportunity of putting a variety of questions to a smart boy of thirteen years of age—a favorable example of the school, I should think-and found that he had a degree of topographical knowledge rarely possessed by those who have not traveled in a country. The boy could describe the whole aspect of the country around Edinburgh as not one-third of the boys of Edinburgh could have done.

Friendly Relations of Teacher and Scholars.

There is a familiarity which is destructive of discipline, and quite unfavorable to application on the part of the scholar. This is so clearly recognized in the profession, that there is hardly need for precaution against misunderstanding. The communication here referred to is that which has purely educational ends in view. What I point to is far removed from every thing which would favor undue familiarity. It even presupposes the impossibility of it. Any thing which interferes with the simple relation of teacher and taught is a hindrance. What is to be commended is freedom of communication exclusively for purposes of instruction, and connected with the matter in hand, as the sole attraction for the time. It is a freedom which, instead of being unfavorable to discipline, must tend to establish it. What is mainly to be desired is free communication of difficulties from the scholar to the teacher, as there should be full instruction from the teacher to the scholar. There is an exercise of authority by a teacher which utterly ignores and frowns upon any tendency to direct inquiries to him. He will question in order to ascertain what the scholars have learned; but they must not question him, in order to learn what they have failed to understand. Every thing is made to depend upon the thoroughness of the teaching at every stage; and this again depends upon the teacher's own reflection, without any sure discovery of his pupils' need. To every teacher such a method is inadequate, because insecure. The most experienced teacher will allow that he needs to be helped to the discovery of his pupils' difficulties. But if a teacher cultivate a distant reserve, he can not have the help which only the scholars can give. The instruction must roll on. If the scholars catch all they need, so far well; if they fail to understand all that is expressed, there is

no help for it. If such a system be preferred under the apprehension that any thing else would weaken discipline, there is either a consciousness of weakness in the teacher, or else a want of thorough reflection on the necessary conditions of school discipline. If a scholar may not freely inquire during some suitable opportunity afforded for the purpose, but must depend entirely upon catching the full meaning of all that has been said, the relation between teacher and scholar is constrained and unhealthy.

Routine to be Avoided.

In the school, as every where else, we want to escape routine.* Neither teacher nor scholar should feel that the procedure cach day is simply a repetition of the procedure of the preceding day. A sense of monotony is to be dreaded as one should the nightmare. If scholars are shy to speak out, as under our system they are apt to be, deliberate attempts should be made to draw them out, and ascertain what they still need to learn. It is quite essential to success that it should be somehow ascertained how much the children have got only by rote without understanding, how much they have misunderstood, and what they have never thought about which should have engaged their attention. There is nothing which more impresses one in visiting the public schools of the United States of America than the unrestrained freedom with which the pupil makes an appeal to the teacher, in the assurance of that appeal being encouraged and met as far as possible in the circumstances. This feature struck me as a general characteristic in all the schools I visited, from the primary to the normal schools. The pupils regard this as a natural feature of school life. I remember on one occasion entering the class-room of a teacher of physiology in one of the normal schools when he had just finished the lecture for the day. He was saying to the members of his class, 'I shall examine on this lecture to-morrow; just let me see if your notes are accurate.' One pupil at once asked what had been said as to the average weight of the human skull. The answer was immediately given. Another question followed, and another, until all were satisfied, after which the few closing minutes of the hour were spent in supplementing the lecture with such remarks as the questions seemed to suggest. This is only an example of what is common in American schools. I must express my admiration of this characteristic.

Dr. Noah Porter, President of Yale College, Connecticut, U. S., in a series of articles in The College Courant of Yale, writes upon 'special defects in the operation of modern schools.' He signalizes these two: 'The spirit of formalism and routine which has grown up in our modern schools, and the tendency to stimulate to excess the spontaneous or verbal memory.' We may take warning from American experience.

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