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THE THEORV
THE SCHOOL.
Howard Sandison,
Department of Psychology and Didactics,
Indiana State Normal School.
The demand of the age, in education, is the "practical." The most prac-
ticSl education that a child can receive is that education which sends
him forth with a skilled mind, trained to think accurately. It
is a matter of comparative Indifference whether the
Period of Preparation— that of the Family,
Kindergarten and School— gives amount
0/ kncwledge, i.e., a/«// mind.
ai:i)ir5 QEbition.
KKVI8ED AND ENLARGED.
C. W. MOWN, PMINTIN AND tlNOCn, TtRRE HAUTt, IMO.
1886.
1 BlOlb
/-. - /
Copyright, 1885,
BY
Howard Sandison.
SOURCES AND REFERENCES.
Prominent among the sources and references con-
sidered, are pamphlets and school reports by W. T.
Harris; the principal American and English kindergar-
ten works; Notes on Theory, by Wm. A. Jones (first
President of the Indiana State Normal School) ; Murison
on Language; Geography, by Morell; The Cyclopedia
of Education; tte educational works of Laurie, Bain,
Currie, Quick, Thring and Fitch; Notes of Talks on
Teaching, by L. E. Patridge; the Practical Teacher, a
paper edited by F. W. Parker; Rousseau's Emile;
Teaching Methods, by J. H. Hoose; The Training
System, by D. Stow; Porter's Elements of Intellectual
Science; Everett's Science of Thought, and Hegel's
Philosophy of History.
5442G9
PREFACE TO THIRD EDITION.
Originality, except in certain features, is not claimed
for the theory as set forth in the following pages. The
work is in part written by the author, and to a degree,
arranged and compiled ; the thought being in a certain
sense the joint product of a study of some of the lead-
ing works on education, experience in teaching, super-
vising, and preparing students for work in the common
schools.
Selections from other works that are substantially
unmodified, are indicated by quotation marks, or by
smaller type; those that have been modified to a degree,
by half quotations. In many cases, the thought and the
language are largely those of another, but both have been
recast, and to some extent newly applied. This is indi-
cated by the name at the foot of the page. In many
unindicated places the thought and the language were
not originally the writer's, but from long consideration
and usage have become a part of his thought and mode
of expression.
There is no claim to fullness of treatment. The book
contains merely an outline that may form the basis for
a discussion of the theory of the school.
. A comprehension of the external stmcture of the work
will be assisted by the following statements : —
PHEFACK
1. In the co-ordination and subordination of topics
the Roman symbol indicates the main heading ; subor-
dinate to that is the Arabic symbol : next is the letter ;
subordinate to that is the Arabic symbol in parenthesis;
subordinate to that, the letter in parenthesis ; then the
Arabic symbol prime ; the letter prime ; the Arabic
symbol prime in parenthesis, etc; appearing thus : —
I.
1.
a.
(1)
(a)
V.
a'.
(10
(aO
2. The work, being a text-hook, has three features : —
a. Thoughts presented so as to require but slight
elaboration.
b. Thoughts presented in such a way as to require
considerable elaboration.
c. Thoughts suggested in a manner that necessi-
tates an almost independent working out by the student
or reader.
3. The various methods that are presented in Read-
ing and in Writing are given in order to show the growth
as to method in those subjects and also to furnish ground
for comparison. The different methods are given in
Reading for the additional purpose of submitting them
to the test of the principles given.
PREFACE. 7
In the case of each subject, the last method that is pre-
sented, is the one recommended. It is needless to say
that the thought to be held by the one who studies these
methods should be not their adoption but their adapta-
tion to the needs and peculiarities of his particular school.
To obtain an adequate insight into the internal or
thought structure^ the following thoughts must be grasp-
ed:—
1. The individual mind with its inherited habits
and tendencies is the true subject of education.
2. The condition of education is the self-activity
of the mind, and the goal of education is self-direc-
tion.
3. In the educational process of leading the mind
from self-activity t^ self-direction, the various subjects, as
geography, grammar, etc., are instruments, not ends, or,
if ends, subordinate ones ; i.e., the main aim of a course
of study is development ; a subject is taught, not for
the knowledge that it contains (except incidentally) but
mainly for the development it affords the mind; the
true question in regard to each thought or idea dealt
with is not How can the child be led to most clearly
see this thought or idea? but how can this thought or
IDEA BE presented SO AS TO CONFER THE HIGHEST DEGREE
OF TRAINING THAT IT IS FITTED TO GIVE?
4. The main defect of the schools is the placing of
stress upon mere expression, instead of upon thought
and thinking. The different manuals and outlines of
courses of study are unconscious witnesses of the truth
of this proposition in all such directions as : —
8 PREFACE.
First Year— Number. Take the addition of I's, 2's, 3's
and 4's; Arabic figures — (above 4, mere verbalism); Roman
numerals — (Above IV, mere verbalism). Or the following :
First Year — Number. Take numbers to 5 by the Grube
method; Roman numerals — (above F, mere expression);
the Arabic figures ; count to one hundred. (Both the
latter mere form above 5.)
Such work tends to cultivate the habit "always pre-
valent in civilized life, of talking fluently without hav-
ing anything to say."
Goethe saw the presence of this defect in the German
Universities, and made Mephistopheles the strong advo-
cate of it : —
Mephistopheles.— ^^o sum up all— To words hold fast !
Then the safe gate securely passed,
You'll reach the fane of certainty at last.
Siitdeni.— But then some meaning must the words convey.
Meph.— Right ! but o'er-anxious thought you'll find of no avail,
For there precisely where ideas fail,
A word comes opportunely into play.
Most admirable weapons words are found,
On words a system we securely ground.
In words we can conveniently believe.
Nor of a single jot can we a 7wrd? bereave.
5. The true reform that seems requisite in the edu-
cational process, is the turning from this too exclusive
consideration of expression — words, phrases, defini-
tions, RULES, ETC., to that kind of work that will truly
EDUCATE the child's mind, by leading it to penetrate the
"the hardened crust of verbalism " and touch and be
touched by the essence, the thought, the reality.
SUMMARY OF CONTENTS.
CHAPTER I. Page 17.
SUBJECT OF EDUCATION.
Subject stated; organism; the human element; the two
stages of education; the things consequently manifest; the
sensibilities the avenue to the intellect ; ways of viewing mind ;
subi'ect re-stated ; the teacher and the study of mind ; infer-
ences—as to number of pupils to a teacher — as to promotion of
teacher with grade — as to number ,of regular studies ; the spon-
taneous memory — when active — inferences ; the imagination —
when active— la ws-»mode8 of cultivation; the undeveloped
state of the logical faculty— the two requirements; power to
continuously attend not natural — inattention, how fostered;
educational truths furnished by a study of mind; observation-
its relation to education— example ; reflections in regard to ex-
ample ; re-8tatement of educational truths.
CHAPTER 11. Page 52.
AIM OF EDUCATION.
Things to be understood in order to comprehend the aim —
final cause — aim stated — rational freedom — aim stated — the
substrate of all things— aim stated— the two kinds of power-
aim stated; relation of intellect and character; statement of aim
of education — by Comenius — by Rousseau — by Pestalozzi— by
Froebel— by Stow— by Carrie— by Laurie— by Jevons— by Page
—by Huntington.
10 • mMMARY OF CONTENTS.
CHAPTER III. Page 81.
PEINCIPLE AND CONDITION OP EDUCATION.
Power to attain a great amount of knowledge; power to attain
growth; self -activity; intellectual self-activity; moral self-activ-
ity; volitional self-activity; reflex influence of action upon its
source; primary conditions of growth, kinds of doing — illustra-
tions — with liquid measure — with curved lines — form, with clay
— form, with paper — geography; re-statement of principle and
condition of education.
CHAPTER IV. Page 90.
EXERCISE-GROUND IN EDUCATION.
A frequent error; the scope of education; the two kinds of
education; the institutions that confer education; the education
of the Family; the efi'ect upon the other institutions if this edu-
cation is not well given; the function of the School; the education
of the Church; the education of Business; the education of the
State; the comparative value of the education of each; each
institution an organism; the Social System an organism; the pur-
pose of the Social System.
CHAPTER V. Page 96.
THE KINDERGARTEN.
The genesis of the kindergarten; the five stages of its growth,
general nature and appliances— room, furniture, teacher, appa-
ratus; gifts and occupations — their order of development; the
first gift — its material, games and exercises — relation to family
and to school; the second gift — its material, games and exercises
— relation to first gift, to family and to school; the third gift —
its material, games and exercises — relation to first and to second
SUMMARY OF CONTENTS. 11
gifts, to family and to school; the fourth gift — its material, games
and exercises — relation to the other gifts, to the family and to
the school; the Jifth gift — its material, games and exercises —
relation to the other gifts, to the family and to the school; the
sixth gift — its material, games and exercises — relation to the
other gifts, to the family and to the school; table showing the
relation between the kindergarten and higher education.
CHAPTER VI. Page 124.
THE SCHOOL.
Oround of the school; Idea of the school; Form of the school
—the common, university and special schools — the general offi-
cers—the special oflBcers; State Superintendent — general duties;
State Board of Education — general duties; County Superinten-
dent — general duties*; Township Trustee — general duties; Pur-
pose of school — ethical conduct — mechanical conduct — scholar-
ship.
CHAPTER VII. Page 132.
CONDUCT.
Conduct in relation to the Infinite — opening exercises — view-
ed as intellectual and as moral — design — basis — parts — method
— examples of method; Narration — steps, illustration — introduc-
tion, separation, conclusion; Emblems — nature, steps, intro-
duction, natural image, spiritual truth, conclusion; Parables —
nature, steps, illustration — introduction, the story, interpreta-
tion, conclusion; opening exercises as presented in the Training
Schools — first and second grades, third and fourth grades, fifth
and sixth grades; conduct in relation to self; conduct in rela-
tion to others — in the family, in the business world, in the
state, in the school; the school as a field for the cultivation of
behavior — order — punctuality, regularity, perseverance, earn-
estness, justice, truthfulness, industry, kindness.
12 SUMMARY OF CONTENTS.
CHAPTER VIII. Page 178.
SCHOLARSHIP.— ME THOD.
SECTION ONE.
METHOD IN READING.
PREPARATORY STAGE.
The known ; the advance ; the various methods.
Alphabetic Method. — Subject-matter, its work, principles,
favorable points, objections, how to test it.
Phonic Method.— Subject-matter, its work, principles, favor-
able points, objections, how to test it.
Phonetic Method. — Subject-matter, its work, principles,
favorable points, objections, how to test it.
The Word Method. — Subject-matter, its work, principles,
favorable points, objections, how to test it.
The Idea- Word Method. — Subject-matter, its work, princi-
ples, favorable points, how to test it; power to master new
words — how given ; suggestions— work of first two months ;
analysis into sounds and letters; diacritical marks — purpose,
time ; print and script— reasons for and against the use of each
at first; n-anner of teaching "a" and "the"; the words for first
work — how to select them.
The Sentence Method. — General nature — the reading of
those taught out of school; of those taught in school; infer-
ences ; definition of reading ; the object in teaching reading ;
principles of the sentence method ; first step of the sentence
method ; second step of the sentence method ; third step of the
sentence method.
Why any one of these alone is not a method; the central
thought of each; the great point in learning to read ; associa-
tion the essential act ; the principles of association ; the de-
velopment of the mind ; the devices to be employed in read-
ing ; the prevalent defect in teaching children to read.
SUMMARY OF CONTENTS. 13
PRIMARY STAGE.
General nature ; usual mode of procedure ; a preferable mode
— thought, form, oral reading ; supplementary work ; list of
books to read.
ADVANCED STAGE.
Definition ; kinds ; thought analysis— the idpa in it, illustra-
tions of what is meant by thought analysis in reading ; deriva-
tion — general suggestions, incidental derivation — illustration,
systematic derivation— roots of words, prefixes, suffixes, deriva-
tives ; figurative language— definition, examples, suggestions
as to how to deal with figurative language.
SECTION TWO. Page 270.
METHOD IN WRITING.
Design; mechanical conditions, furniture, position of body,
materials: basis;— nature, order of procedure, stages.
SECTION THREE. Pftg© 278.
MBTHOD IN SPELLING.
Design; principles; stages— copy, dictation, application, analy-
sis; syllabication; grouping; rules.
SECTION POUR. • Page 285.
METHOD IN NUMBER.
Definition of number; what can be done with a number; what
can be known of a number — illustration; purpose; the five main
defects in teaching number; stages in number work; prin-
ciples; numerical ideation; notation — relation of numeration
and notation; outline of work of first four years; details of the
work of the first year — work of first three months illustrated;
work of last seven months of the first year illustrated; details
of the work of the second, third and fourth years; the nature
of the fundamental processes.
14 SUMMARY OF CONTENTS.
SECTION FIVE. Page 331.
METHOD IN GEOGRAPHY.
Definition; system; principles; mental faculties involved;
purposes ; the knowledge that the children possess when enter-
ing school ; its classification ; through what sources obtained ;
the attitude of their minds toward these ideas ; the consequent
first work in geography; into what do these ideas unfold; the
more common defects in presenting the subject; First Year's
Work, nature of; Second Year's Work, nature of; suitable books
for collateral reading ; Third Year's Work — aim, nature of work,
the idea upon which the work is based, illustration of the nature
of the work, means to be employed, the geographical elements;
order of presenting the geographical elements, collateral general
lessons, pictorial illustration, how select pictures, how classify
them, books for collateral reading and for pictures ; Fourth Year's
Work — aim; steps — form of earth, latitude and longitude, globe
and map, the air, the hemispheres, relation of earth to sun,
winds, oceanic movements, vapor in the air, the crumbling of
the earth's surface, glaciers, volcanoes and hot springs ; the aim
of the work upon these points; suggestive questions; the structure
of the continents; order of the study of the continents; list of
books for collateral reading; Fifth Year's Work — aim; outline of
work; means of original investigation; means of review; diagram
of location of general vegetable productions; diagram of location
of food plants; diagram of location of animals; diagram for con-
sideration of religions; diagram for consideration of govern-
ments; books for teachers; books for pupils; Sixth Year's Work —
the two phases of geography— poZi^teaZ and industrial; the subor-
dinate place of political geography; order of the study of the
continents in political geography; the scope of the study; as-
pect; character of the people; characteristics of instruction;
map construction; use of text; historical geography; incidental
geography; industrial geography of the U. S.; the specific lines
of investigation; the preliminary steps; the order and outline of
work; characteristics of instruction; books for collateral read-
ing.
SUMMARY OF CONTENTS. 15
SECTION SIX. Page 375.
METHOD IN U. 8. HISTOBY.
What history is ; its aim ; the system of history ; the mental
powers involved ; biography ; the study of homes — in the fourth
year, the Aborigines in their homes; in the fifth year, the Spanish
and French in their homes ; in the sixth year, the Dutch and
English in their homes ; in the first half of the seventh year, the
Colonists in their new homes ; list of books for reference ; the life
of the nation — enumeration of principles ; method ; epochs ; list
of books for reference; form of government ; outline of course of
study on form of government ; list of books on form of govern-
ment.
SECTION SEVEN. Page 397.
V METHOD IN LANGUAGE.
Outline of first three years' work; explanation of the nature
of the work; illustration of work taken in connection with read-
ing; outline of the work for the fourth, fifth, sixth and seventh
years; explanation of the work for these years; series of exer-
cises; illustration of each point in the work of the fourth, fifth,
sixth and seventh years ; outline of the eighth year's work ;
purpose; central thought; scope; general method; order of in-
struction.
CHAPTER IX. Page 426.
THE RECITATION.
The school; the common school; instruments of the common
school— physical surroundings; thejlaws of theIschool;4branches
of study, (a), their organic relation, (b),^ kinds of exercise-
grounds, (c), methods appropriate; the teacher — his unconscious
influence, what it is, the aim of education it assumes; its prin-
ciples, the avenues by which it reaches the child, its relation
to the teacher's previous discipline, why it is the most potent
factor; the conscious influence of the teacher — how it manifests
16 SUMMARY OF CONTENTS.
itself, (a) in the general work, (b) in the recitation; preparation
of the teacher preparatory to school work and to the recitation
— a knowledge of the principles of education, of the history of
the growth of educational ideas, and of the principles of select-
ing materials and of planning lessons; illustration of written
plan — subject, design, condition of training, exercise-ground,
the basis, steps, method; agencies of the recitation — stimuli,
interest and attention, their nature, attention in the recitation,
interest in the subjects, interest in general mental growth;
questioning — nature, purpose, kinds, illustrations from Socra-
tes, structure of questions, sequence in questioning; explanation
— explanation proper, illustration — objective illustration, verbal
illustration, pictorial illustration; repetition; the main princi-
ples of the recitation.
<^
The Theory of the School.
CHAPTER L
THE SUBJECT OF EDUCATION.
INFERENCES.
Ariadne furnished him with a sword, with which to encounter the
Minotaur, and with a clew of thread by which he might find his way out
of the labyrinth.— BULFINCH'8 Ag^e of FabU.
j^HE root thought of a correct theory of the school
'^^i is that mind, endowed with self-activity and the
capacity for self-direction is the real subject of educa-
tion. The mind is a spiritual organism, possessing
three distinct capacities — the capacities of knowing, of
feeling, and of willing. This organism, with fts several
functions, is the subject of the educational process.
1. Consideration and definition of organism.
2. Illustration of self-activity, self-direction and organism.
That which is distinctively human in man is the emo-
tional and volitional nature. This is the true life of a
3
18 THE THEORY OF THE SCHOOL.
human being. This truer or higher Hfe, as distinguished
from the bodily and the intellectual, is provided with
two instruments or servants — the intellect and the body.
More specifically, then, mind as emotion and will, is
the subject of education in the higher sense, and body
and intellect in the lower or instrumental sense.
1. Distinguish and give examples of acts of intellect, sensi-
bility and will.
2. Show the organic relation of such acts.
Education confers upon the mind no absolutely new
capacities. All the powers that are found in the mind
at maturity existed, then, in embryo in the mind at
birth. Before the mind can apply itself successfully to
the varied problems of active life it requires, like the
body, a period of preparation. But a period of prepara-
tion is, impliedly, a time of development. It may be
stated, then, that the subject of education is a spiritual
being, the essential principle of which is growth. Growth
thus becomes the fundamental principle of education,
and the two marked stages of mind are :
1. Development or training. (Through use).
2, Use. (Resulting in additional development).
That mind, with these two distinct stages is the sub-
ject of education, is the most significant truth that the
teacher will encounter. If he absorbs this thought so
as to make it a part of his very being, he is possessed at
once of the sword of Ariadne.
Several things are manifest, obviously, (from all the
foregoing) :
1. That knowledge, i.e., the different branches of
study, is not the subject of education.
THE THEORY OF THE SCHOOL. 19
2. That a course of study by pages is inconsistent
with the true theor}^ of education.
3. That real education is self-education ; the child
being his own educator under the guidance of the
teacher, who is merely a formal educator having both a
negative and a positive function.
The negative function consists ih removing impedi-
ments, so as to allow free scope to the child's self-devel-
opment. The positive function is to stimulate the
child to the exercise of his powers, to furnish materials
and occasions for their exercise, and to maintain and
train the action of the mental powers.
4. That the shbject-matter or instrument of educa-
tion is thought, since to think is the function of the
mind.
5. That the essence of education lies in determin-
ing the best method of furnishing the faculties of the
mind with material for exercise, of awakening and exer-
cising the dormant faculties, of giving them strength
and of training them into higher life.
6. That education is a life-long process, the exercise-
ground of mind being the institutions known as the
family, school, church, business society, and state.
7. That the family and the school form the exer-
cise-ground of mind during its period of development
and the other institutions during the period of use.
While all teachers who have studied mind understand
it to be an organism, and know and base their work
upon the thought that the intellect is the avenue to the
sensibilities, that other truth, that the heart is also the
avenue to the intellect is either not known, or but little
20 THE THEORY OF THE SCHOOL.
acted upon if known. To make this essential thought,
that the heart is the real avenue to the intellect^ a vital part
of one's teaching character, is the only guarantee of
success in dealing with mind, as otherwise the intellect
may remain closed to all efforts to address it.
If mind as an organism is the subject of education ,
this inter-relation of sensibilities and intellect must be
understood and acted upon.
Every gate is closed to hate,
But open wide to love.
— Whittiee.
A loving heart is the beginning of all knowledge. This it is that opens the
whole mind, and quickens every faculty of the intellect to do its fit work.
— Carlyle.
But to present mind as the subject of education is not
sufficiently definite, since mind may be viewed in sev-
eral ways :
1. Mind may be understood as the "universal sub-
strate of all things."
2. Mind in general, as presented in works on men-
tal science.
3. Mind as embodied in the teacher.
4. The minds of the pupils.
The question becomes pertinent, In which of these
views is mind the subject of education ?
No doubt the general answer would be, mind in neither
of the first three senses is the subject, although that
answer would by no means satisfy all, that systems of
schools, studies, methods, and means, have not frequent-
ly been adapted to mind in general, or to the teacher's
own, instead of to the pupils' minds. Is it to be accept-
ed, however, that the minds of the pupils form the sub-
THE THEORY OP THE SCHOOL. 21
ject of the educational process ? If so, in what sense ?
"The minds of the pupils" is a very comprehensive
term. In a school of thirty pupils what does it mean ?
It means in one case a young John Stu:art Mill, in
mind.
It means in another case a mind from the depths, the
very opposite of the perfection of child-nature found in
the first.
It means in a third case the average child-mind from
the average home.
Again, it means a boy who has had generations of
vice and ignorance behind him.
In another instance it means some child from a home
of idleness and frivolity.
It means, perhaps, some child from the environment
of stupidity and stunted life.
It may mean a child with years of wrong methods
behind him.
In that room, beside the quick, intelligent child may
sit a dull, contented nature, satisfied with dullness,
neither wanting to know nor ashamed of not knowing.
Each mind is different from the others. Each has its
idiocracy, its special traits. The degrees of capacity
are different. The degrees of apathy are different. The
causes of apathy are different. All of these are includ-
ed in " the minds of the pupils."
What, then, is the subject in teaching?
« The best minds of the pupils ? Then the average
and the poorest are wronged.
The average minds of the school? Then the best
and the worst are deprived of their due.
22 THE THEORY OF THE SCHOOL.
The poorest minds that are found in the room? This
would be manifest injustice to the others.
Is not the fundamental truth this — that each particu-
lar mind with its special traits and idiosyncracies is
the true subject of the educating process — the subject
to which teacher, methods, and means, are to be
adapted ?
The individual mind, then, with its two stages of
development and use, is the subject of education in its
full sense.
The teacher who is thoroughly imbued with this
thought is possessed of both the sword and the thread
of Ariadne.
If the individual minds are the subject, several infer-
ences present themselves :
1. That the teacher must study mind.
2. That the sources of the study of mind are three :
a. From books, Porter, Hopkins, Hickok, Car-
penter, etc., giving a knowledge of mind in general — the
true basis for a study of the individual minds.
b. The acts and phenomena of the teacher's own
mind, to which he always has immediate access.
c. The activity of the pupils' minds, to which he
always has mediate access through their outward acts
and words.
The two cardinal truths which need, more than any
others, to be impressed upon the mind of each teacher
are, first, that each individual mind under his charge is
the true subject of his educational efforts ; second, that
he cannot obtain the best results in teaching, indeed,
that he cannot be a real teacher, unless he understands
THE THEORY OF THE SCHOOL. 23
the mind with which he must deal. What kind of a
blacksmith is he who does not understand iron? What
kind of a foreman in a wool factory is a person who
cannot judge of wool? What kind of a teacher is that
one who cannot judge of mind and mind action ?
' It is true that there are teachers endowed with the
power of sympathizing so earnestly with children that
in their case this sympathy does the work of knowledge,
or rather it is knowledge unconsciously exercising the
power proverbially attributed to it. The intense interest
they feel in their work almost instinctively leads them
to adopt the right way of doing it. They are artists with-
out knowing that they are artists. They are acting upon
the principle that the feelings are the avenue to the intel-
lect, that interest is the basis of attention, and attention
thebasis of intellectual power, without being conscious of
it. But considering the large number of teachers, such
examples are rare, and as a general proposition it will
be found to be true that the only truly efficient director
of moral and intellectual action is the one who under-
stands the true nature of the mind he is guiding. It
is this knowledge that makes teaching a psychological
art. One who does not possess it is attempting to guide
an organism of exquisite capabilities which he does not
comprehend. The fact that there is so large a number
of persons in positions as school trustees and as teachers
without understanding even the most fundamental facts
concerning the minds with which their work has to do,
explains the courses of study by pages, the telling,
cramming, the endless explaining, the unnecessary as-
sisting, the rote-learning, the frequent examinations that
24 THE THEORY OF THE SCHOOL.
are mere tests of memory, and not of power, the fierce
struggle for per cents by teachers for their rooms and by
pupils for themselves, and all that kind of work which
regards mere knowledge to be the subject of education,
and which enfeebles and deadens the native powers of
the child. True teaching has but little in common with
that system of telling and cramming which so generally
usurps its name, and which results not merely in com-
paratively empty minds, but in closed minds, minds
indifferent and stolid as to education and its value.
Unteachable minds is the usual result of the work of
those who do not understand the subject of their
work.'*
3. If each individual mind is the teacher's subject,
the third inference is obvious — that the number of pu-
pils under the charge of one teacher should be small
enough for the teacher to become thoroughly acquainted
with the capacities and defects of each mind, while it
should not be so small as to deprive the pupils of the
advantage which comes from the contact of mind with
various different minds.
It may, perhaps, be safely held that the suitable num-
ber of pupils for a teacher vibrates between twenty
and thirty, owing to the teacher's penetration in com-
prehending character and its needs. It is a serious, not
to say irreparable injury to a community, when a school
board, iinder the idea that it is a stroke of economy and
a gain to the people, place one hundred children in
charge of two teachers at an annual expense to the tax-
payers of one thousand dollars, instead of employing to
* JOSEPH PAYNE,
THE THEORY OF THE SCHOOL. 25
educate them, four teachers, with twenty-five to a room,
at an annual expense of two thousand dollars.
If it is true, as is held, that numbers higher than
about thirty shut off attention to individual minds, then
a little reflection makes it obvious that the second pro-
cedure would be far more economical to the community.
In the first place, the attempt of the teacher to deal
with fifty children makes it impossible to give that
attention to the peculiar nature and needs of each child
that the parent has a right to demand when he hands
him over to the care of the schools and pays for that
care. The problem is to reach and teach the mind of
each child. Anything other than this would be mani-
fest injustice to some families of those represented by
the fifty children. With fifty children one tea:cher can-
not understand the individual minds and needs well
enough to teach to each mind each branch of study
well and neglect no one of them ; and this is not taking
into account the subject of discipline and moral culture,
which is very much complicated by numbers. The
teacher has neither the knowledge of the minds nor the
time to adapt herself and her work to each mind, and
she is, therefore, compelled to address the minds as a
mass, to pour out knowledge before them and let those
who can, adapt themselves to it, and the others remain
without even this kind of help. The result is an
attempt to inform to a given extent, each month, and
not to educate, because to educate requires that each
mind shall be understood. In this way but little inter-
est is aroused in the pupils, and the process of cram-
ming is received at first with protest, then with indiffer-
26 THE THEORY OF THE SCHOOL.
ence, and at last the hundred pupils of the two teachers
pass out of school, none of them educated in the sense
that education is development ; some few, those who
needed it least, well instructed perhaps ; others but
fairly instructed ; and still others, perhaps fifty out of
the hundred, and they the ones who needed training
most, with little or nothing in the way of intellectual
and moral power, and worse than this, indifferent to
education and its value, the effect of the schools having
been to make them contented in their ignorance and
lack of power.
The question naturally arises, In which case has th©
school board done most good to the community? Which
course would be true economy? Would the commu-
nity have been richer in having expended only one
thousand dollars, and in having received the children
back into the active walks of life as above described^
which is no untrue picture, or in having spent two-
thousand dollars, thus insuring a sufficient number of
teachers to give attention to the individual needs of the
children, and receiving them at last from the schools
with their moral and intellectual powers well trained^
with minds active, skilful and capable ; with new long-
ings, and new capacities for satisfying those longings;
with minds as receptive and skilled as each individual
case is capable of being made? Which is worth more to
a neighborhood, one thousand dollars or one hundred
children morally and intellectually strong ?
If individual minds are the subject of education, is it
not a proper inference that school boards should see to
it that the number in charge of each teacher is small
THE THEORY OF THE SCHOOL. 27
enough to enable the teacher to read each mind and
then adapt herself and her work to each mind ?
4. If it be admitted that the individual mind is the
subject of the teacher's work, then a fourth inference is
that the teacher should remain long enough with the
pupils to be able to see into their peculiarities of dispo-
sition and environment. This can not be well accom-
plished in six months, nor in one year, and the thought
that arises is that the teachers of the country schools
should not be changed so often, and that the teachers in
the city schools should be promoted with their classes.
Viewing this principle alone — that time gives the teacher
the opportunity to know the minds of the pupils —
the thought would be that the pupil should have but
one teacher during school life. But another principle —
that the pupil's mind gains greater breadth and power
by coming into contact with different minds — seems to
require variety in teachers. With the two principles in
consideration it may be held that there should be two
or three changes of teachers during the school course.
It is obvious, of course, that if the teacher is inefficient,
thesponer a change is made the better; on the supposi-
tion, however, that the school boards and superintend-
ents do not complicate the selection of teachers by
geographical, family, and other arbitrary considerations,
but make moral and intellectual fitness the sole test — a
supposition which in a work on theory may be per-
mitted — a greater length of time with a given class than
is now allowed would be a gain, inasmuch as it would
necessarily result in the teacher's gaining a more inti-
28 THE THEORY OF THE SCHOOL.
mate acquaintance with the individual minds of the
pupils.
5. It is also held by some, and by many not, that
if individual mind with its peculiarities is the subject,
the regular studies of the course should not be so many
as to engross all the time and strength of the. pupils ;
enough extra studies being provided to satisfy their
various natures and peculiarities. This requirement is
met, to a certain degree by the general lessons, readings,
and conversations of the lower grades, and by the elective
studies in the higher schools. (Reasons for and against
elective studies.)
Mind being the real subject in education, the impor-
tance of its study, as before suggested, at once becomes
manifest. The study of mind in general, as presented
in Porter, Hickok, Carpenter, and others, will give the
teacher a comprehensive knowledge of the various facul-
ties, their order of development and inter-dependence,
the laws of their action, their processes and products — .
knowledge of great advantage to the educator. But
many object, and truly, that they have neither time nor
opportunity for such study. " It is essential, neverthe-
less, to the fully equipped teacher.
Mind and its action are, however, accessible to these.
As was before observed, each teacher has direct access
to the phenomena of his own mind and indirect access
to the minds of his pupils through their actions and
words. Systematic, patient study in these two lines will
make plain many things concerning the mental faculties
and their growth.
THE THEORY OF THE SCHOOL. 29
The intelligent observer will see among other things
that the imagination and the spontaneous memory are
active in the early years, and that the power to learn in
an abstract way through the logical faculty is but feeble.
It will appear that the power of continuous attention i«
not possessed, should not be expected, needs to be
developed ; that the power to observe^ usually supposed
to be acute in the child when he enters school, is by the
third or fourth year of school, practically dormant. A
brief notice of what these mental facts imply is due.
Neglect in observing mind action has led to neglect in
the cultivation of the imagination. It is, however, a
faculty worthy of cultivation, and necessary alike to the
intellectual, and to the moral education. This, while
fully recognized in the kindergarten, has not been, in
general, in the schools. Its central principle— the
imagination creates no new material — is a confirmation,
in one sense, of Jacotot's paradox "Tout est dans tout"
(All is in all.) This faculty gives to the child the un-
known in or from the known. 'It furnishes knowledge
otherwise unattainable ; it gives life, interest, and au-
thority to the action of the understanding by the rich
illustration which it suggests ; and by its power of set-
ting before the child scenes of other lands and distant
times, past or future, it provides nourishment for the^
moral nature. It is, moreover, a constant source of hap-
piness through the pleasant images with which it fills
the mind. Observation is limited to very narrow boun-
daries of space and time ; to whatever extent the child
passes th'ese it must be on the wings of the imagination.
Accordingly, as already implied, descriptions of natural
so THE THEORY OF THE SCHOOL.
scenery, and scenes from life, real or ideal, are the field
in which this mode of intelligence is to be exercised,
and both are very rich in materials. It is clear at once
that the instruments available for the cultivation of this
faculty are two — language and pictorial illustration.^'^
All these facts are obvious to the teacher who watches
his own mind and the minds of children, and they sug-
gest a problem, and indicate a line of work for the teach-
er's own improvement. The problem is. What is the
method of using language, and pictorial illustration in
the cultivation of the imagination? The line of work is
— the mastery of description and narration as language
forms for expressing and conveying thought.
The spontaneous memory^ the form to be observed in
childhood, like a sponge, absorbs everything that comes
in contact with it. Unlike the power afterwards acquired
of fixing in mind by conscious efibrt, whatever is
judged worthy of being retained, it is a natural power
by which the child receives and stores up, with little or
no efiort, whatever comes before the mind, whether it
is worthy to be held or not. The fact that the child
possesses this power in a high degree is of great signifi-
cance in early education. It shows that the early years
are pre-eminently years for gathering materials for
thought and reflecting in the presence of them, because
•such reflection reacts upon the memory and tends to
make it rational ; and it furnishes also the ground for
judicious selection and an organized series of impres-
sions. It has been said, however, by Lord Lytton, that
io attempt to systematize the child's impressions, at least
*CURRIB
THE THEORY OF THE SCHOOL. 31
in his most tender years, is to proceed as the man who
thought that his bees would produce more honey, if
instead of wandering from flower to flower, they were
shut up in the hive and furnished with flowers.
The bees, however, are not endowed with an unguid-
ed power of selection which causes them to take honey
from every flower, be it poisonous or otherwise, as the
spontaneous memory of the children drinks in alike the
good and bad, to have a marked influence on character
not yet formed. Moreover, while the bees are possessed
of a natural and fully developed power of selection, and
the man who was to furnish them with flowers had no
power of selection in that respect, in the case of chil-
dren their power of selection and arrangement is un-
developed, but that of their educator is supposed to be
developed and matured.
That the child possesses the power of spontaneous
memory, drinking in and retaining all kinds of impre's-
sions seems to establish three thoughts in regard to early
education :
First, that there should be a systematic selection and
organization of the impressions that he is to receive.
This is admirably accomplished in the kindergarten.
Second, that the first work in the primary schools
should be to supplement the work already done in the
kindergarten, or to partially fill its place if the child has
not been under its influence, 'by opening to him a&
materials for thought, in connection with all necessary
work, all that which will inspirit and interest ; all that
which is wonderful, weird, picturesque, beautiful, and
noble, in connection with humanity, nature, and art,
32 THE THEORY OF THE SCHOOL.
and at the same time within his mental range ; as, when
he studies direction, connect with it some beautiful
poem or song on sunset, or some pathetic narration of
noble deeds in Arctic regions ; some attractive descrip-
tion of that icy wonderland, and its inhabitants with
their queer homes and customs.' Thus in every phase
of work during these early years, so that this attractive,
and also useful fund, may be stored by their active
memories and render lighter in both senses, and more
interesting all the work of future years. In education,
a great deal depends upon the first impressions of the
work.
The third thought is that in all phases of education,
inaccuracies of pronunciation, of sentence construction,
of facts, etc., should be rigidly excluded, as their ten-
dency is to sink into the mind and remain there.
The undeveloped state in the child, of the power to
reason^ except in the presence of things^ determines that in
his early stages, and in the beginning of many kinds of
work in more advanced stages, he is not to learn by any
abstract logical process. The teacher, it is true, is to
have clearly in mind a logical line of work and adhere
to it, but his actual teaching will be fragmentary,
changing apparently, and full of illustrations as requir-
ed by the needs of individual minds.
The real subject is the individual mind, and the prob-
lem is how to call forth interest and active thought
without making too great a demand upon the logical fac-
ulty. To accomplish this, two things are required, one
negative and the other positive. The first is, that as a
general rule, no attempt should be made to present to
THE THEORY OF THE SCHOOL. 33
the mind, at any given time, that which is not needed and
can not he nsed at that time, under the thought that it
may be^useful hereafter. Usually, that which is present-
ed under such conditions does not arouse interest and
thought, but becomes useless encumbrance. Nothing
should be taught which is not needed and capable of
being used at the time, and which is not the best and
most easy way of meeting the want.
" Wouldst thou possess thy heritage, essay
By use to render it thine own!
What we employ not but impedes our way,
That which the hour creates that can it use alone."
—Goethe's Faust.
The second requirement is that all early work and in
general the beginning stages of advanced work, should
be as before intimated, presented to the senses, or 'pic-
tured out ' to the mind. The child under such circum-
stances is able to reason, to think; but his thinking will
be in the presence of things, and his power of abstract
thinking, when it does come, will be a natural develop-
ment from his sensuous thinking. The usual mistake
is to thrust an abstract process of learning upon the child
by requiring him to think in the presence of nothing, or
of mere words. ' Picture out' to the body's eye or to
the mind's eye, is the first principle of early teaching if
individual minds are to be made the real subject
The general directions under this point are :
1. 'See ; examine what you see; lastly, answer.
2. Make no attempt to remember anything you
can not put before the eye, or picture to the mind's eye.
Memory is not visible or mental sight ; think in shape.
34 THE THEORY OF THE SCHOOL.
Examples may tend to set forth these thoughts more
clearly.
The pupil is asked to describe an apple. Tlie usual
tendency is to close the eyes and evolve the answer from
the inner consciousness; but the mind's development
as it is, and as it is to be, requires that the pupil should
picture to himself the thing to be described in as many
aspects as possible, one by one, compare it with things
most like it; and then present the peculiar points that
make it different from other things.
The process is :
1. Picture an apple. Put one before the senses if
possible; if not, picture it in the mind.
2. Analyze, i.e., note its shape, color, texture, parts —
pips, core, skin, juice, etc.
3. Compare with other things.
All these things are seen, as soon as the apple is seen,
and intelligent sight gives the description required. The
untrained mind begins to try to remember what it knows
about an apple.
The requirement may be to describe a field. This
should bring forth the condition at a particular time.
The untrained child would evolve from his inner con-
sciousness. If the work is done according to the princi-
ple under discussion the process would be somewhat as
follows : —
1. See or picture to the mind the field: as, time of
year — autumn; time of day — afternoon; kind, of day —
clouds and sun ; stubble ; ground broken and uneven ;
bounded by hills on one side ; trees, small lake, cattle ;
direction of view — west.
THE THEORY OF THE SCHOOL. 35
2. Reflect upon these elements.
3. Describe.
Again, the pupil may be asked to state the meaning
of 'when.' According to the thought being considered,
the first thing to be done is to see it in its relations.
This may be done by constructing sentences that picture
out the two meanings of 'when,' thus :
"When Ft. Sumter was fired upon, compromise was
at an end.'*
"When he was in the army, he wrote for the press."
The word in the first sentence means the exact mo-
ment, but in the second it means at various indeter-
minate times. It thus appears that the sight of two
well-selected sentences in which 'when' occurs, reveals
that either a particular moment is meant, or any time
in a given period — two very different thoughts.'*
9 is f of what number ? may be asked.
The absence in the child of the power to reason
abstractly determines what in regard to such work?
John Stuart Mill says: ''''The fundaTjiental truths of the
science of number all rest upon the evidence of the senses ;
they are proved by showing to our eyes, that any given
number of objects — ten balls, for example — may by
separation and re-arrangement, exhibit all the different
sets of numbers, the sum of which is equal to ten.
All improved methods of teaching arithmetic to
children proceed upon a knowledge of this fact. All
who wish to carry the child* s mind along with them in
learning arithmetic — all who wish to teach numbers and
^'X.TIUUMa.
36 THE THEORY OF THE SCHOOL.
not mere cyphers — now teach it through the evidence
of the senses."
One who does not hold to this view may attempt to
have the child see the relations in the above problem
by some such analysis as the following :
■^ is "I- of f . If 9 is f of the number, \ of the number
is ^ of 9, which is 3. f of the number equal the num-
ber. If \ of the number is 3, | of the number, or the
number is 4 times 3, which is 12. Therefore, 9 is | of
12.
One, however, who sees clearly that a principle of
early teaching is — the relations must be presented to the
senses, or pictured to the mind's eye — will put the rela-
tions before the pupil in some concrete way : as,
oooooo ooo ooo
9
and then ask him what he sees. Among the many rela-
tions he will perceive in a way that will enable him to
hold it, and also to more readily see other relations, that
9 is i of 12.
The teacher who has no opportunity to study psy-
chology as given in books, will clearly see this mental
fact that is now under view — the rational faculty, the
power to learn in an abstract way through the logical
faculty is undeveloped in the child — if he studies with
care and intelligence the phenomena of his own mind,
and the individual minds of the children through the
medium of their words, actions, and the play of their
countenances.
THE THEORY OF THE SCHOOL. 37
Such study will also show, as previously indicated,
that the power of continuous attention is not possessed
by the child. That knowledge will prevent many mis-
takes on the part ot the teacher by his consequent per-
ception of the truth that attention is but little more to
be assumed than a knowledge of the multiplication
table, and that it must be taught as a habit, just as the
other must as an element of knowledge.
The teacher has an important educational principle
when he understands that the germ of attention, the
capacity to attend," is the condition of education, but
that the power to attend closely for any considerable
time is the result of education. It will then be manifest
that inattention is natural in the child, and that the prob-
lem is to determine the kind of teaching that will build
up the habit of attention ; the kind that will not foster
inattention.
Observation having shown the teacher that inatten-
tion is natural in the child, reflection will make it clear
that among the things by which inattention is fostered
are the following: —
1. Apathetic, uninterested demeanor on the part of
the teacher.
2. Too little attention to trifles and to beginnings
in laxness in recitations, and in disorder.
3. Too much attention to them, and the setting
over against each point of inattention and disorder its
fixed arbitrary penalty.
4. The concentration of the teacher's attention on
the point being discussed in the class, and on the pupil
reciting, to the exclusion of the other members.
38 THE THEORY OF THE SCHOOL.
5. Failure to train the pupils into careful habits of
attentive study. Pupils frequently sit at their desks
during their study hours attentive as to the eye, but in-
attentive as to the mind. In spirit they are absent,
although the eye travels along each line and the words
come as images before the mind. Often after a page or
more has been conned in this mechanical way the mind
awakens to the fact that the thought contained in the
words has been in no sense obtained. In all such cases,^
which are not infrequent, the pupil could appropriately
say with the poet :
My soul to-day,
Is far away,
Sailing the Vesuvian Bay ;
My winged boat,
A bird afloat,
Swims round the purple peaks remote.
This habit will necessarily reappear in the recitation
room.
6. Poor arrangement of the class as to its position
in relation to the teacher. Some hold that if the class
ie standing, the arrangement should be the horse-shoe
shape, in order that all may be equally within spiritual
touch of the teacher.
7. Inattention to the bodily attitude of the pupil
when studying and when reciting. It is said that Lord
Byron in preparing to write was as scrupulous in regard
to his appearance as he would have been, had he been
preparing for a royal reception. In a less degree such
was the fact in regard to Washington Irving. And it is
generally observed by any one who gives attention to it^
that he writes more logically and more pointedly when
THE THEORY OF THE SCHOOL. 39
using pen and ink than when writing with a pencil.
These things indicate the law.
8. Too long lessons, and too great a length of school
hours.
Elaborate the eight points given, and make it clear, why the
habit of inattention becomes more firmly fixed by means of
them.
Omitting all study of psychology as presented in
books, if need be, (such study, however, being neces-
sary to the ideal teacher,) the close study of the pheno-
mena of his own mind on the part of the teacher, and
the patient, intelligent, and persistent study of child
nature will necessarily equip the teacher with several
additional truths in regard to education; with the
truths : —
1. That there can be no thinking without materi-
als for thought.
2. That there can be no materials for thought with-
out observation.
3. That in the beginning of its career the child ob-
serves and gathers materials for thought naturally and
spontaneously.
4. That very early in his school course, through
familiarity with the surface of things, through ignor-
ance and repression on the part of his instructors,
through memory and rote-work, both the desire and the
power to observe are to a large degree non-existent in
the average school child. ^^Having by our method in-
dticed helplessness, we nuike the helplessness a reason for our
method,^'' and continue the cramming and telling pro-
40 THE THEORY OF THE SCHOOL.
cess, on the ground that the child can not observe and
decide for himself.
5. That the fundamental, and hence the absolutely-
necessary first step in conscious education is to implant
in the child, first the desire, and second the habit of
conscious observation — the habit of consciously gather-
ing the material for its thinking.
One without the power of accurate observation is not
only without the power of gathering the materials for
his thinking, but he is also deprived in a large degree
of legitimate enjoyment. A person who is not firmly
grounded in the habit of observing is in the same con-
dition as is one who is ignorant of Latin. Schopen-
hauer says, ''One who is without Latin is as a man
walking through a beautiful region in a fog. The hori-
zon is close about him."
A study of the mind of the average pupil will make
clear both the practical absence of the power of obser-
vation and the absolute necessity for it. Pestalozzi's
fundamental principle was, ^'Observation is the absolute
basis of all knowledge."
The power and the benefit of observation, i. e., of the
habit of seeing things in nature, art, and books, and
reflecting in the presence of them can scarcely be over-
estimated. "Turner, the eminent land-scape painter,"
says an English writer, "was often observed to spend a
whole day in throwing pebbles into the water while
others were working around him. His power of obser-
vation was so great, and his patience and love so un-
wearied, that with his trained eye he could find intense
interest, and gather lessons above all price from the rip-
THE THEORY OF THE SCHOOL. ' 41
pie, and the wave, and the play of light, and harmon-
ious discord of varying movements, from the common
curves, made by a common stone, falling into common
water ; over which the untrained eye and mind could
not spend a profitable moment. Before his eyes was
spread the ever stationary, ever moving mirror, the
changeful eternity of light that flows, the gliding earth-
born light of water, with its strange memories of higher
worlds, and strange affinities to cloud and sky, free
beyond all earthly things to come and go, still loving to
borrow, as it moves, brightness from sky, and gleams
from cloud, or shore, and welcoming in its bosom, like
a living thing, all images that reach it in its course ; he
stood and looked upon it, and tried to unlock its secrets,
and conscious or unconscious of the full interpretation,
caught some glimpses of the great illuminated text of
the book of the thoughts of God, appreciated the exqui-
site subtlety of the handwriting of speech divine, became
a kind of living microscope in his power of seeing un-
known beauty, and then handed on to us non-seers the
gain of new discovery to be henceforth a part of the
possession of the world. A common stone thrown into
common water could thus become a prophet, reveal-
ing beauty and truth. But to whom does the prophet-
voice of stones and water speak ? A careful analysis
will show that the great painter, the genius, could see
and understand because he had learnt by years of
patient work to observe more than others^
The difference in persons as to their power to observe,
in the sense in which Pestalozzi uses the tenn, and the
value of the habit may be made more vivid by consider-
42 THE THEORY OF THE SCHOOL.
ing the following, in which an English school-master
converses with two of his pupils concerning their em-
ployment of a holiday :
Master. "Well, Robert, where have you been walking this
afternoon ?
Bobert. I have been, sir, to Broom-heath, and so around by
the windmill upon Camp-mount, and home through the
meadows by the river side,
M. Well, that's a pleasant round.
a. I thought it very dull, sir ; I scarcely met with a single
person. I had rather by half have gone along the turnpike
road.
M. Why, if seeing men and horses is your object, you
would, indeed, be better entertained on the high-road. But
did you see William?
B. We set out together, but he lagged behind in the lane,
so I walked on and left him.
M. That was a pity. He would have been company for you.
i2. Oh, he is so tedious, always stopping to look at this thing
and that ! I dare say he is not home yet.
M. Here he comes. Well, William, where have you been ?
W. O, sir, the pleasantest walk ! I went all over Broom-
heath, and so up to the mill at the top of the hill, and then
down among the green meadows by the side of the river.
M. Why, that is just the round Robert has been taking, and
he complains of its dullness, and prefers the high-road.
W. I wonder at that. I am sure I hardly took a step that
did not delight me, and I have brought my handkerchief full
of curiosities home.
M. Suppose, then, you give us some account of what amus-
ed you so much. I fancy it will be as new to Robert as to me.
W. I will, sir. The lane leading to the heath, you know, is
close and sandy, so I did not mind it much, but made the best
of my way. However, I spied a curious thing enough in the
hedge. It was an old crab tree, out of which grew a great
THE THEORY OF THE SCHOOL. 43
bunch of something green, quite different from the tree itself.
Here is a bunch of it.
M. Ah! this is misseltoe, a plant of great fame for the use
made of it by the Druids of old in their religious rites and in-
cantations. It bears a very slimy white berry, of which bird-
lime may be made, whence its Latin name of viscus. It is one
of those plants which do not grow in the ground by a root of
their own, but fix themselves upon other plants ; whence they
have been humorously styled parasitical, as being hangers-on
or dependents. It was the misseltoe of the oak that the Druids
particularly honoured.
W. A little further on I saw a green woodpecker fly to a
tree, and run up the trunk like a cat.
M. That was to seek for insects in the bark, on which they
live. They bore holes with their strong bills for that purpose,
and do much damage to the trees by it.
Tr. What beautiful birds they are !
M. Yes ; they have been called, from their colour and size,
the English parrot.
W. When I got upon the open heath, how charming it was !
The air seemed so fresh, and the prospect on every side so free
and unbounded ! Then it was all covered with gay flowers,
many of which I had never observed before. There were at
least three kinds of heath (I have them in my handkerchief
here) and gorse, and broom, and bellflower, and many others
of all colours, that I shall beg you presently to tell me the
names of.
M. That I will, readily.
W. I saw, too, several birds that were new to me. There
was a pretty grayish one, of the size of a lark, that was hopping
about some great stones ; and when he flew he showed a great
deal of white above his tail.
M. That was a wheat-ear. They are reckoned very delicious
birds to eat, and frequent the open downs in Sussex, and some
other countries, in great numbers.
W. There was a flock of lapwings upon a marshy part of the
44 THE THEORY OF THE SCHOOL.
heath, that amused me very much. As I came near them,
some of them kept flying round just over my head, and cry-
ing pewet so distinctly one might fancy they almost spoke. I
thought I should have caught one of them, for he flew as if one
of hijB wings was broken and often tumbled close to the ground;
but as I came near, he always made a shift to get away.
M. Ha, ha ! you were finely taken in then ! This was all an
artifice of the bird to entice you away from its nest ; for they
build upon the bare ground, and their nests would easily be
observed, did they not draw ofi" the attention of intruders by
their loud cries and counterfeit lameness.
W. I wish I had known that, for he led me a long chase,
often over shoes in water. However, it was the cause of my
falling in with an old man and a boy who were cutting and
piling up turf for fuel, and I had a good deal of talk with them
about the manner of preparing the turf, and the price it sells
at. They gave me, too, a creature I never saw before — a young
yiper, which they had just killed, together with its dam. I
have seen several common snakes, but this is thicker in pro-
portion, and of a darker colour than they are.
M. True. Vipers frequent those turfy boggy grounds pretty
much, and I have known several turf-cutters bitten by them.
W. They are very venomous, are they not ?
M. Enough so to make their wounds painful and dangerous,
though they seldom prove fatal.
W. Well — I then took my course up to the windmill on the
mount. I climbed up the steps of the mill in order to get a
better view of the country round. What an extensive pros-
pect ! I counted fifteen church-steeples ; and I saw several
gentlemen's houses peeping out from the midst of green woods
and plantations ; and I could trace the windings of the river
all along the low grounds, till it was lost behind a ridge of hills.
But I'll tell you what I mean to do, sir, if you will give me
leave.
M. What is that ?
THE THEORY OF THE SCHOOL. 45
W. I will go again, and take with me Carey's county map,
by which I shall probably be able to make out most of the
places.
M. You shall have it, and I will go with you, and take my
pocket telescope.
W. I shall be very glad of that. Well — a thought struck
me, that as the hill is called Camp-mount, there might probably
be some remains of ditches and mounds with which I have
read that camps are surrounded. And I really believe that I
discovered something of that sort running round one side of
the mount.
if. Very likely you might. I know antiquaries have de-
scribed such remains as existing there, which some suppose
to be Roman, others Danish. We will examine them further,
when we go.
W. From the hill I went straight down to the meadows
below, and walked on the side of a brook that runs into the
river. It was all bordered with reeds and flags and tall flower-
ing plants, quite different from those I had seen on the heath.
As I was getting down the bank to reach one of them, I heard
something plunge into the water near me. It was a large
water-rat, and I saw it swim over to the other side, and go into
its hole. There were a great many large dragon-flies all about
the stream. I caught one of the finest, and have him here in
a leaf. But how I longed to catch a bird that I saw hovering
over the water, and every now and then darting down into it !
It was all over a mixture of the most beautiful green and blue,
with some orange colour. It was somewhat less than a thrush,
and had a large head and bill, and a short tail.
Af. I can tell you what that bird was — a kingfisher, the cele-
brated halcyon of the ancients, about which so many tales are
told. It lives on fish, which it catches in the manner you saw.
It builds in holes in the banks, and is a shy retiring bird, never
seen far from the stream where it inhabits.
W. I must try to get another sight at him, for I never saw
46 THE THEORY OF THE SCHOOL.
a bird that pleased me so much. Well — I followed this little
brook till it entered the river, and then took the path that leads
along the bank. On the opposite side I observed several little
birds running along the shore, and making a piping noise.
They were brown and white, and about as large as a snipe.
M. I suppose they were sand-pipers, one of the numerous
family of birds that get their living by wading among the shal-
lows, and picking up worms and insects.
W. There were a great many swallows, too, sporting on the
surface of the water, that entertained me with their motions.
Sometimes they dashed into the stream ; sometimes they pur-
sued one another so quickly that the eye could scarcely follow
them. In one place, where a high steep sand-bank rose directly
over the river, I observed many of them go in and out of holes
with which the bank was bored full.
M. Those were sand-martins, the smallest of our species of
swallows. They are of a mouse-color above and white beneath.
They make their nests and bring up their young in these holes,
which run a great depth, and by their situation are secure
from all plunderers.
W. A little further I saw a man in a boat, who was catch-
ing eels in an odd way. He had a long pole with broad iron
prongs at the end, just like Neptune's trident, only there were
five instead of three. This he pushed straight down among
the mud in the deepest parts of the river, and brought up the
-eels sticking between the prongs.
M. I have seen this method. It is called spearing eels.
W. While I was looking at him, a heron came flying over
my head, with his large flagging wings. He lit at the next turn
of the river, and I crept softly behind the bank to watch his
motions. He had waded into the water as far as his long legs
would carry him, and was standing with his neck drawn in,
looking intently on the stream. Presently he darted his long
bill as quick as lightning into the water, and drew out a fish,
which he swallowed. I saw him catch another in the same
THE THEORY OF THE SCHOOL. 47
manner. He then took alarm at some noise I made, and flew
away slowly to a wood at some distance, where he settled.
M. Probably his nest was there, for herons build upon the
loftiest trees they can find, and sometimes in society together,
like rooks. Formerly, when these birds were valued for the
amusement of hawking, many gentlemen had their Iieronries,
and a few are still remaining.
W. I think they are the largest wild birds we have.'
M. They are of great length and spread of wing, but their
bodies are comparatively small.
W. I then turned homeward across" the meadows, where I
stopped awhile to look at a large flock of starlings which kept
flying about at no great distance. I could not tell at first what
to make of them ; for they rose altogether from the ground as
thick as a swarm of bees, and formed themselves into a kind of
black cloud, hovering over the field. After taking a short
round, they settled again, and presently rose again in the same
manner. I dare say there were hundreds of them.
M. Perhaps so ; for in the fenny countries their flocks are so
numerous as to break down whole acres of reeds by settling
on them. This disposition of starlings to fly in close'swarms
was remarked even by Homer, who compares the foe flying
from one of his heroes, to a cloud of stares retiring dismayed
at the approach of the hawk.
W. After I had left the meadows I crossed the corn-fields in
the way to our house, and passed close by a deep marl pit.
Looking into it, I saw in one of the sides a cluster of what I
took to be shells ; and upon going down, I picked up a clod of
marl, which was quite full of them ; but how sea shells could
get there, I cannot imagine.
M. I do not wonder at your surprise, since many philoso-
phers have been much perplexed to account for the same
appearance. It is not uncommon to find great quantities of
shells and relics of marine animals even in the depths of high
mountains, very remote from the sea. They are certainly
48 THE THEORY OF THE SCHOOL.
proofs that the earth was once in a very different state from
what it is at present ; but in what manner and how long ago
the changes took place, can only be guessed at.
W. I got to the high field next our house just as the sun
was setting, and I stood looking at it till it was quite lost.
What a glorious sight ! The clouds were tinged with purple
and crimson and yellow of all shades and hues, and the clear
sky varied from blue to a fine green at the horizon. But how
large the sun appears just as it sets ! I think it seems twice as
large as when it is overhead.
M. It does appear so, and you probably have observed the
same apparent enlargement of the moon at its rising.
W. I have ; but pray what is the reason of this ?
M. It is an optical deception depending upon principles
which I cannot well explain to you till you know more of that
branch of science. But what a number of new ideas the after-
noon's walk has afforded you ! I do not wonder that you found
it amusing ; it has been very instructive, too. Did you see
nothing of all these sights, Robert ?
R. I saw some of them, but I did not take particular notice
of them.
M. Why not ?
R. 1 don't know. I did not care about them, and made
the best of my way home.
M. That would have been right if you had been sent on a
message; but as you only walked for amusement, it would
have been wiser to have sought out as many sources of it as
possible. But so it is — one man walks through the world with
his eyes open, and another with them shut ; and upon this
DIFFERENCE DEPENDS ALL THE SUPERIORITY OF KNOWLEDGE THE
ONE ACQUIRES ABOVE THE OTHER. I havc kuowu sailors who had
been in all quarters of the world, and could tell you nothing
but the signs of the tippliug-houses they frequented in the
different ports, and the price and the quality of the liquor. On
the other hand, a Franklin could not cross the Channel with-
THE THEORY OF THE SCHOOL. 49
out making some observations useful to mankind. "While many
a vacant, thoughtless youth is whirled throughout Europe
without gaining a single idea worth crossing a street for, the
observing eye and inquiring mind find matter for improvement
and deHght in every ramble in town or country. Do you then,
William, continue to make use of your eyes ; and you, Robert,
learn that eyes were given you to use."
1. Determine the scope of the term observation, used in
the Pestalozzian sense.
2. Consider critically the foregoing conversation as express-
ing an instance of the habit and the power of observation.
3. How can arithmetic be taught so that the tendency shall
be to produce the habit exemplified in William ? In Robert ?
The same inquiry in regard to geography, reading, etc.
It may be claimed, however, that the difference be-
tween 1,he pupils cited is not one of education but of in-
heritance. But what would that mean other than this :
that for generations back of William, his ancestors had
been so trained in accurate habits of observation, that
the habit was transmitted to him, just as his physical
characteristics were. The mind of a pupil is, to a degree,
an art product, representing in its peculiar nature, the
education and training not only of z^s period of existence,
but of many generations in the past.
A child's mind, with its peculiar habits and powers is
the joint product of the culture of its own brief time,
and of congenital endowments resulting from the culture
of its ancestry for ages back ; so the difference between
two persons in respect of their power to observe and to
enjoy because of that power, is, after all, the result, at
least to a large degree, of education, conferred some-
where along the line of life.
6
50 THE THEORY OF THE SCHOOL.
In Smiles' Self Help, it is truthfully said, ^^It is the
close observation of little things which is the secret of success
in business, in art, in science, and in every pursuit of life.
Human knowledge is but an accumulation of small
facts, made by successive generations of men, the little
bits of knowledge and experience carefully treasured
up by them growing at length into a mighty pyramid.
Though many of these facts and observations seemed
in the first instance to have but slight significance, they
are all found to have their eventual uses, and to fit into
their proper places."
Arising from the inter-relations of all of the foregoing
thoughts, several conclusions present themselves :
Mind is the real subject of education ; the individual
mind of each child ; this individual mind in its two
clearly marked stages of preparation and of use.
The teacher, in order to become an artist, or even a
fair mechanic, must study this plastic, living material.
It may be studied in its general characteristics, as
presented in books ; or in a more individual sense, as
embodied and manifesting itself in the teacher himself,
and in each of his pupils.
Even if the teacher is unable, on account of means or
time, to study mental phenomena and laws in the first
way, in the second sense they are ever present to the
mental gaze.
Even the unaided study of mental phenomena, as
exhibited by his own mind and by those of the pupils,
leads the teacher to many educational truths ; among
which are:
THE THEORY OF THE SCHOOL. 51
The imagination and the spontaneous memory are
active in early years.
The child does not learn by the abstract logical fac-
ulty.
The child is naturally inattentive ; the power of at-
tention is the result of education, not the condition;
though embryo attention is the basis of all growth in
mental power.
The child has been trained away from his natural ten-
dency to observe.
The heart is the avenue to the intellect no less than
is the intellect to the heart.
The individual mind of the child is the true subject
of the educational process ; the necessity for its study is
absolute ; the opportunity for its study is ever present. —
Such is the clue of Ariadne, and without it the teacher
hopelessly gropes.
^^'S^'^^^fetsJK A^^S^"^^
mi
CHAPTER II.
THE AIM OF EDUCATION.
"What are a nation's possessions ? The great words that have been said'
in it; the great deeds that have been done in it."
A distinguished Chinese scholar who was travelling in the United States
was asked what he considered to be the most prominent American trait. He
quietly and promptly replied, "A lack of honor."
'•Conduct is three-fourths of life."— Matthew Aenold.
"But you were always a good man of business, Jacob," faltered Scroogei
who now began to apply this to himself. "Business !" cried the ghost wring.
ing its hands again. "Mankind was my business. The common welfare
was my business. Charity, mercy, forbearance and benevolence, were, allV
my business. The dealings of my trade were but a drop of .water in the
comprehensive ocean of my business !"— Dickens' Christmas Carols.
"And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free."
—John, 8: 32.
ARGUMENT.
The greatest idea in a thing is its final purpose. Purposes are
of two general kinds — a purpose in the thing itself, and its re~
lated purpose. A plant has a purpose in itself and a related!
purpose (to animals and to men.) An animal has a purpose in-
itself and a related purpose (to man.) Man has a purpose in
himself and a related purpose (to other human beings and tO'
the Infinite.) Such things as the church, the state, the family^
business society, the school, a school board, a superintendent,,
(as such,) a teacher, (as such,) a course of study, a recitation^
etc., have no final purpose in themselves — they have only a
THE THEORY OP THE SCHOOL. 53
related purpose. Their final purpose is found only in the final
purpose of man's being. The final purpose of a thing is that
alone which can determine the conditions of its existence and
•growth, and the co-ordination of its parts. For example, the
final purpose of the plant — the purpose in itself — is to perpetu-
ate its species.
This determines the conditions of its process of growth — light,
heat, moisture, etc. — allowing no more or others, permitting no
less or other thaH those demanded by its nature. In like
manner the co-ordination of its parts — root, stem and leaves — is
determined.
Such is the case in respect to the animal ; and so it is with
man. The final purpose of the child determines the conditions
of his growth in school, i.e., the functions of the school board,
fiuperintendent, teacher, nature of a course of study, whether
he is to do his own thinking, or the teacher think for him, the
relative training to be given to intellect, sensibility and will,
the purpose of any branch of study, the purpose of a recita-
tion, etc.
The conditions of a school and the co-ordination of its parts
are determined by nothing in itself. They are determined by
its final purpose (final cause.) The final purpose or cause of the
school is found in the final purpose or cause of the child's being.
The purpose of the child's being is to free himself from the
bonds of his selfishness, prejudice, ignorance ; to remove the
antithesis that exists between his subjective nature and objec-
tive thought ; to elevate him to his species, (rational freedom.)
The attainment of rational freedom, or the process of true
education, involves the passage of mind through mind (ob-
jective thought) into mind. (Mind is a universal substrate.)
For example, Whittier is an embodiment of life; Snow Bound
is an embodiment of Whittier's life to a degree ; the child is
an embodiment of life. The education of the child, by means
■of Snow Bound, consists of the passage of the life of Whittier
through Snow Bound into the life of the child, transforming it
to a degree, implanting in it some of the elements of Whit-
tier's nature, and to that extent elevating the child to his
species.
The same process of life passing through life into life is to be
«een in the study of the cotton-gin, the magnolia tree, in the
studv of any idea whatever. That is, education deals with life,
not lessons, and any process of education is a failure that bat-
tens mainly on books — viewing their mastery as an end. Edu-
cation, dealing with life must distinguish between the child's
54 THE THEORY OF THE SCHOOL.
higher or life power and his automatic or mechanical power, in
order to determine what studies minister most to this life power
because of the presence of the elements of the higher fife in
them, and what ones do so to a less degree, as well as to decide
in what attitude of mind to approach a subject.
The four things herein adverted to must be studied for a two-
fold purpose — to make clear the aim of school and education^
to aid in seeing the thought in things.
JN order to adequately comprehend the purpose in
education, one must understand, at least to a
degree :
1. The ideas :
a. Final Cause.
b. Rational Freedom.
2. The judgments :
a. Mind is a universal substrate, i.e., everything
is, in essence, mind or thought.
b. Man has in his single nature a dual power —
instrumental-power and character-power^ the latter consti-
tuting man as man, or feeling, in distinction from man
as a machine, or intellect.
c. Character-power is the higher element in man —
the life.
Whittier gives expression to this thought by saying
in reference to Webster,
"When faith is lost, when honor dies,
The wa« is dead !"
d. Character-power is sensitive, retiring, in the
presence of force, or alien feeling.
THE THEORY OF THE SCHOOL. 56
The relative value of instruction and education ; of
information and training ; of a preparation for business
in a technical sense, and a preparation for business as
defined by Marley's ghost ; of intellectual-power and
character-power, i.e., of brain-education and heart-educa-
tion is, as indicated, to be comprehended through an
insight into the foregoing ideas and judgments, to which
the mind is now to address itself.
FINAL CAUSE.
As shown by Porter, causes have been divided into
four classes : material, formal, efficient, and final.
^Material causes are the material elements or princi-
ples which compose any existence, whether the matter
is bodily or spiritual.
The cause termed formal is the property or properties
which constitute the essence, logical content j form. Thus
used the cause is an element or constitutive principle.
Efficient causes are the working causes, or those agents
which palpably bring about an efiect.
The fined cause, is the design which is conceived as
impelling and directing the action of working causes,
until the result appears, e. g., if one forms a purpose,
the result, when made actual is the end of a series of
actions or events. In this way the word end or final
comes to mean a purposed result. Thus the final cause
of a series of actions is the result of the series. The pur-
pose is called a catise for the reason that it is conceived
when formed as originating or setting in motion the
56 THE THEORY OF THE SCHOOL.
series of acts or events necessary to its realization.
Thus the final cause of a series of actions is the purpose
or thought which gave rise to the series. On account of
this double view the idea is termed a final cause, i. e., a
cause which beginning as a thought works itself into a
fact which is the end or result of the series of agencies
set in motion because of the thought.'
By Aristotle the material cause was termed the raw
material, the underlying thing; the formal cause, the
true nature of the thing; the efficient cause, that whence
the beginning of motion is; the final cause, that on
account of which a thing is.
In Everett's Science of Thought it is said "Where a
process is carried on by means of parts co-operating for
their own mutual support, or for the promotion of a
common end, this composition of parts is called an or-
ganism and the end for which they co-operate is called
a final cause. The cause, although it no longer exists as
cause, is fulfilled in the effect. The end is more really
the cause than the beginning, for, in the end, the cause
finds first its real and complete existence. The end for
which all the parts of an organism work together —
termed the final cause — is really the cause of the organ-
ism. If one goes to a city his object in going is the cause
of his movement rather than the locomotive that took
him there. A seed is buried in the earth. The warmth
and moisture make it sprout into life ; yet if it had not
this tendency to life, this final cause embodied in itself?
the sun and moisture would have been in vain. The
final cause of the seed is to produce the plant. Its ex-
THE THEORY OF THE SCHOOL. 57
istence is fulfilled in that. The final cause is the real
cause. The great difl&culty in regard to final causes is
that they are always mingled with working or efficient
causes. A final cause has no objective existence except
in its result, and this result has been produced directly
by efficient causes, while it — the final cause — has only
been working invisibly behind and through these. In
all actions that are the result of mind or intelligence,
there must be final cause ; for intelligence is the acting
for a final cause, and hence every intelligent act must
have a final cause." In nature, in life, in history, in all
organisms, in the school, in the recitation, in the study
and behavior of the pupils, final cause is hidden and at
work. It is the essence of the school, of the prepara-
tion for school work, of the recitation, and of the whole
subject of the children's actions, and of discipline. The
real teacher always seeks for, and is able to recognize its
presence.
The aim of education in its limitation to the period of
preparation — the period of family and school influence —
is to assist the child toward the final cause of his exist-
ence, not by giving him knowledge merely or mainly,
but mainly by sending him forth equipped with the
desire and the power to attain knowledge. The aim of
education in its full sense, i. e., through the instrumen-
talities of the family, school, church, business society
and state — including both the period of preparation and
that of use or action is to confer upon each individual
truth-freedom, reason-freedom, rational-freedom. The
stages in the process are :
58 THE THEORY OF THE SCHOOL.
1. Presentation of material for the mind's action.
2. Action of the mind upon the material, and
consequent acquisition of knowledge.
3. Mental strength and skill, intellectual, emotion-
al and volitional, arising from such action,
and the assimilation of knowledge.
4. A partial insight, arising from the strength and
skill, into that knowledge which is of most
value.
6. A desire to enter into possession of the knowl-
edge thus opened to the mind.
6. In the high school, mental discipline and
knowledge become substantially co-ordinate
aims.
7. In the college, the mastery of the sciences and
the liberal arts, i. e., knowledge, becomes the main
aim, with mental discipline as the necessary at-
tendant.
8. In the professional schools of universities, and
in technical schools, the mastery of knowledge and
the acquiring of skill necessary to special vocations.
9. The unconscious or unsystematic acquiring of
knowledge in the various spheres of life.
10. The assimilation and employment of this
knowledge.
11. The perception of the truth, growing out of
all the foregoing.
12. The truth-freedom resulting — "Ye shall know
the truth, and the truth shall make you free."
§
RATIONAL OR TRUTH-FREEDOM.
Freedom is, in essence, obedience. True freedom is
obedience to natural law, whether physical or spiritual ;
THE THEORY OF THE SCHOOL. 59
but all freedom, whether true or not, is obedience — obe-
dience to something.
Freedom is of two kinds, as is bondage — physical and
spiritual. True physical freedom is that in which the
body is, through a training into a condition of uncon-
scious habit, of second nature, instantly, as occasion re-
quires, obedient to all its physical laws. Real physical
freedom requires that the obedience shall be uncon-
scious, automatic. Spiritual freedom is likewise of two
kinds :
1. Caprice-freedoUy or obedience to caprice, prejudice,
ignorance, i.e., bondage.
2. Rational freedom^ or obedience to truth, i.e., to
knowledge, to reason, to the feeling "I ought."
The first is the freedom of a Henry VIII., of an Eliza-
beth, of a Trinculo and of a Caliban. In such freedom,
which in truth is the veriest slavery, the baseness of the
master makes the servant baser still, and Trinculo gives
Caliban wine, and Caliban thinks him a god, and that
he has entered into freedom. There is no hope of real
advancement in such a state of things; rebellion against
the true master is a necessary consequence ; he must be
got rid of, or Trinculo and Caliban can not rule.
It is a spectacle of caprice-freedom to see, in any
phase of life, the Trinculos and Calibans conspiring
against the true lord of the island — reason, truth, the
"I ought."
Rational freedom is the habitual joint right action of
the intellect, sensibility and will. The will in one sense
is not free ; in another sense it is absolutely free. It is
60 THE THEORY OP THE SCHOOL.
not free in the sense that it can not avoid choosing. It
is its very nature and essence, however, to choose ; and
it fulfills the function of its being in choosing. The
proper conditions being supplied, the will must, of
necessity, choose. Yet it is free in that it has absolute
power in its choosing. If its choice is in accordance
with reason, it is rationally free. ^
If the choosing of any given individual is habitually
in accordance with the principles of justice — each shall
render an equivalent for that which he receives — uni-
versal brotherhood — mutual love — he is a rationally free
member of the social system. But each of these princi-
ples is, in essence, love or kindness, and if one, in all
circumstances, acts in obedience to this, the highest ele-
ment of his emotional nature — the one that links him
most closely to the Divine — for God is in form or essence
love — he is rationally free.
The thought that all other principles have their root
in this one — love or kindness — and that therefore, the
nobler elements of man's emotional nature are really the
man is clearly seen in this :
"The night has a thousand eyes,
The day but one ;
So the light of the whole day dies
At set of sun.
The mind has a thousand eyes,
The heart but one ;
So the light of the whole life dies
When love is done."
The transcendent thought for the teacher is that when
force, fear, or any alien power has driven the child's
higher nature into its inacessible retreats, the eyes of
THE THEORY OF THE SCHOOL. 61
the intellect are made less acute, just as the stars — the
eyes of the night — would lose their silvery luster if the
sun were no more.
The aim of education, then, is heart-education. It is
habitual obedience to the higher elements of man's
emotional nature ; obedience to the 'ought'
The first recorded instance of caprice-freedom, was
the choosing of knowledge by the first man, in the Gar-
den of Eden. This following of the 'I want' instead of
the 'I ought' — the exaltation of knowledge and intel-
lectual power over obedience to the principle of love —
constituted the Fall of Man. In like manner the exalt-
ation of dogmatism and verbalism over the essence and
reality of things constituted the fall of education, and
demanded and required in the fourteenth century 'The
Revival of Letters.' And just as Henry V. thought the
defection of Lord Scroop to be like unto a second fall of
man, so by many it is held that there has been a second
fall of education, since in its period of preparation — the
period of the family and the school, especially the latter
— it seems to exalt mere form, words, definitions — a
hardened crust of verbalism over the reality, the
thought; since it seems to make, as the end of the school,
preparation for business in the sense in which Scrooge
used the term, rather than that in which the Ghost used
it; since the goal appears to be facts, knowledge, per-
cents, or at best intellectual power, rather than habitual
obedience to the higher emotional nature — character-
power. If intellectual power were the true aim of edu-
cation, there could be but slight objection to Mephisto-
62 THE THEORY OF THE SCHOOL.
pheles, or to Faust in his early career. (It is evident
from the illustrations that the terms intellect and intel-
lectual power, are employed in a limited sense — the rational
phase falling, substantially, outside the terms.) The real
aim of education is to restore man by dethroning intel-
lectual power and knowledge, and by enthroning man's
real being — his emotional and volitional powers. The
true end is to relegate facts to their proper sphere — that
of materials mainly, and intellect to its proper station,
that of a servant or instrument — the highest instrument
it is true — and to make character-power, the power of
"having withstood all, to stand," the goal. The final
cause of education, then, is rational freedom.
Rational freedom unites the powers of habit, rational
intelligence and sensibility. Taken singly, the cultiva-
tion of neither of these powers gives rational freedom.
The exclusive development of either one leads from it.
Thus intellectual power in the limited sense, is not
rational h-eedom though it is involved in it. The keenest
intellectual power, as above indicated, may exist side
by side with caprice. The cultivation of the mere in-
tellect may lead one to think that that is the one thing
needful, and that his actions are not concerned, and
that therefore, their character is a thing indifferent; this
forms the habit of not obeying what he knows to be the
truth, hence he is not truth-free.
The training of the will alone is not rational freedom,
though that is in it. Habit, without knowledge and
conscious motive, is the characteristic, not of a rational
being, but of a machine ; acts performed under its in-
THE THEORY OF THE SCHOOL. 63
fluence have no moral character, whether their results
are in accordance with morality or not. This seeming
habit of morality cannot be permanent and sufficient.
The routine conduct to which it leads may endure for a
while, as long as circumstances do not interfere with
obedience to the habit ; but it will never stand against
the rush of personal prejudices and interests, when these
clamor, as they inevitably will, for a hearing. There is
wanted intelligence to give such acts a moral character,
and motive to secure their performance against all op-
posing tendencies.
The sensibilities alone will not give rational freedom.
Apart from habit, the performance of actions must
always be difficult, and uncertain ; while there is also
needed the intelligence to prevent good motives from
being blind guides.
The process in rational freedom is :
1. The perception of that which is fit or right in
human action. (Intellect.)
2. The arising of the feeling 'I ought.* (Feeling.)
3. The determination to obey the feeling 'I ought.'
(Will.)
4. The resulting action, mental or physical. (Prac-
tical.)
This is obedience to the true self, hence it is freedom.
True obedience to another person or to an institution of
which one is a member, is choosing the same end as that
other person, or as the institution. Such obedience is
freedom. No one can be forced to act in a certain way,
or to choose a given purpose; each one chooses his own
64 THE THEORY OF THE SCHOOL.
purpose ; hence, the third point indicated above is the
element of freedom. Every one has freedom, in the
sense that he is free to make either the choice that he
does or some other one. The free spirit cannot be en-
chained. Man acts in freedom. If he obeys the 'ought'
he acts rationally, and hence has rational freedom.
"Rational freedom is that state in which one is when
he does right, or acts in obedience to the 'ought'; for
this alone is the dictate of the reason. In this state the
intellect discerns the true, the sensibility feels the beau-
tiful, and the will chooses the good ; hence, there is a
blending of the true, the beautiful, and the good in the
character." Character-power of this kind is the true aim
of education. That is, the aim and scope of that civil-
izing process through which the child passes in his con-
tact with the family, school, church, business society,
and state, is the attainment of rational freedom. But
the very term freedom, in this connection, presupposes a
previous bondage. Bondage to what ? In the conversa-
tion of the descendants of Abraham with Christ, they
referred it to the physical power of the ruling body. In
that conversation, they, however, catch a gleam of a
new doctrine — that imperfect humanity is in bondage
to itself, to its own belief, ignorance, and prejudice.
The true aim and effect of the social system— family,
school, church, business society, and state — is the deliv-
erance from that bondage. This is the removal of the
antithesis that exists between the objective and the sub-
jective, by merging the external to any one into his sub-
jective. In the lower stages of civilization the moral
THE THEORY OF THE SCHOOL. 65
and political restrictions of the family, school, church,
business, and state, are looked upon as objectively de-
termined ; the social system being viewed as something
into which one is born, but which is subjectively differ-
ent from that one. In such a state "the individual feels
himself bound to comply with requirements of whose
justice or propriety he is not allowed to judge, though
they often severely test his endurance, and even demand
the sacrifice of his life.*' In a state of higher civiliza-
tion, though an equal sacrifice be demanded, the indi-
vidual feels that the institutions are just and desirable,
and that the laws and restrictions are at one with his
own subjective nature, and such as his own rational
choosinsj would have produced. This is the harmoniza-
tion of the objective and the subjective. The true aim
of education in the stage of preparation is to harmonize
the subjective of each individual in the family and the
school with the objective, in order to fit him for a like
harmony in the church, business, and state. This would
remove, among other things, the ground for the Chinese
traveller's statement.
MIND A UNIVERSAL SUBSTRA TE
The first part of the word nature — not — is the same as
the first part of the words natal and native, and means
bom. The last part, ure, is from the I^atin ura, meaning
to be or necessary to be. In its original sense, therefore,
the word nature signifies that which is to be born.
That is, nature is in essence energy, and that which
outwardly appears is merely a manifestation, the sub-
66 THE THEORY OF THE SCHOOL.
stratum of which is life, spirit, mind. But mind is an
energy of three-fold variety — intellect, sensibility, and
will. Nature, then, is at heart intellect, sensibility and
will, and for a human being to comprehend nature in
whole or in part, is for him to transmute it into thought.
The true standpoint is that whatever God has put forth
in audible or visible form is in truth God himself to a
degree, and for an individual to comprehend, to really
know any such form means that the intellect, sensibility,
and will of God, which to a degree lies concealed in it,
is to come forth and touch the mind of the learner, and
coalesce with it, and in a manner lift the mind of the
learner up to itself.
This passing of the divine life into the human life is
the education that nature affords. God thought a
thought, and made that thought manifest in visible
form. That visible form is called North America.
What, then, in reality is North America but thought — a
thought of God? What is the lily of the valley but the
life of the Divine Being made manifest to a degree?
Such, indeed, they are, and such also, is each bird of
of the air, and beast of the field. Christ, while on earth,
was God manifest in the flesh : in like manner God has
manifested Himself in the visible forms of nature.
Nature is in essence a thought of God. Hence the
meaning — about to be bom ; for the mind of God, which,
to a degree, is ensconced in every form of nature, is about
to come forth and touch the mind of the true learner, and
transform it. But to whom does it come forth ? Only
to the one who has the power to break the spell. Only
THE THEORY OF THE SCHOOL. 67
to the true prince — the one whose spirit is in harmony
with the life, the thought concealed.
The child himself is a thought of God. Each human
being is the intellect, sensibility, and will of God
shadowed forth imperfectly and faintly. In order then
that the teacher may assist in the education of the child,
he must be able to think the child, i. e., to comprehend
the life, the embodied mind to that degree which will
enable him to call forth the mind of the child and cause
it to touch the thought that lies hidden in his own (the
teacher's) expressions, and in the object of study ; for
example, the llama, or the heliotrope. But to whom
does the child-mind thus come forth ? Only to the true
prince, the one whose spirit is in harmony with it, and
who has therefore, the power to reach it in its otherwise
inaccessible retreats.
Again, art is the intellect, sensibility, and will of man,
manifest in merely another form ; poetry, prose, paint-
ing, architecture, music, sculpture, and all done by
man, are embodiments of certain portions of man's life
set in action. Whenever a man does anything, he puts
forth a part of himself, of his mind, and if it is under-
stood it must be re-transmuted into that.
And these mind-creations are naturally subject to the
same conditions as the life of which they are the out-
come, and, as far as they go, represent it as faithfully as
if they were separate living beings. Spiritually there is
one Bartholdi; externally there are two (really many) —
one, full-orbed, in which the life or mind is most free,
most self-determining, lives, moves and has its being in
68 THE THEORY OF THE SCHOOL.
Paris; the other, partial, in majestic iron and copper
stands on Bedloe's Island and is called Liberty Enlight-
ening the World.
The one who is to really know the Bartholdi statue
must transmute it into thought. If the learner is of
kindred spirit, the three-fold mind of the artist that is
embodied in the statue will touch his mind and it will
be as it was no more, for at the touch of kindred spirit
the inventive genius that lies hidden in the statue will
awake and live again in the life of the learner, and to
some extent, depending upon his native endowments,*
he is evermore a Bartholdi. So everything that divine
or human artist has produced, a chair, a pencil, a table,
a house, the wren, the rose. Mount Blanc, Evangeline
or Hamlet — is in its reality, mind or thought, and if thus
contemplated and reached, becomes a living crucible,
an educating force. But otherwise it is a mere dead
form.
Everett says, "When it is said that all being is ob-
jective thought, it is meant that all being exists to the
infinite mind as thought, and that all being may exist
to any mind as thought, so far as that mind is develop-
ed enough to grasp it ; the limit in every case being not
the nature of the outward object, but the capacity of
the mind itself."
All being is animate with enchanted life for all who
have the power to break the spell.
The true aim of education is to assist the child to the
power of viewing all being as thought ; of reading the
high and varied emotions of noble minds, and thereby
THE THEORY OF THE SCHOOL. 69
kindling high and varied power in himself. For then
only is he educated.
INSTRUMENTAL AND CHARACTER POWER.
In the Louvre, at Paris, is a renowned statue of a
slave. The attitude and proportions proclaim the artist,
and the resignation and intelligence depicted in the face
are striking. Yet all who have beheld it and studied it
agree that the finest touch (it being the statue of a
slave) is the absence from the face and bearing of that
finer, subtler something which always indicates the real
man. It stands there the embodiment of a perfect ani-
mated machine. Mechanical power of a high order is
evident in it, but it is clear that the lash, or the will of
the master, has driven into exile those higher feelings
which constitute the real being, and which always enter
into man's true work. It is an illustration of a hard
mechanic power of mind and body when the real being
has retired at the presence of alien feeling, or compulsive
force.
There lies within every child and in every work of
man, in addition to its mechanical side, a finer nature
which is the true being, and which, viewed as power,
may be called character-power. The mechanical side
exists for this^ and may therefore be termed instrumen-
tal power. In education, the character elemdnt in the
child, or in man's work, must be reached. But the
slave owner might as well try to call forth the finer
nature with his lash as for the mere intellect to expect to
win its way by force into the heart of visible thought.
70 THE THEORY OP THE SCHOOL.
^Both deal, and deal successfully, if strong enough,
with the husk, the mere mechanical side of that which
they approach; both fail, if not strong, even in that;
and both stand forever outside the walls of the home in
which true power and beauty dwell. Education is not
concerned with the external except as an instrument;
as an end it is concerned with the life, the character-
power. Should this be granted, it becomes clear that
all work which deals with the externals, as, words and
their pronunciation in reading as an end; rules, defini-
tions, and technical terms in language as an end ; fig-
ures, and rules for manipulating them, in number, as
an end, fails to fulfill the demands of higher training;
and, also, that all hard, unfeeling, irreverent temper,
unfits both the teacher and the pupil, however strong in
intellect they may be, for the higher ranges of power,
which can only be attained by giving and taking the
thrill of true feeling, and by an endeavor to enter into
communion with each other, and with the life embodied
in the thing studied. This conception of power as two-
fold — mechanical power and living power — manifesta-
tions of the child's being, both contained always in
greater or less degree, balanced or unbalanced within
him, establishes the first principle of true education. It
forms the basis of educational science. One consequence
appears at once — that child-life can only be trained to
its highest perfection hy contact with life and thought^ or
by processes of life; and hence, however useful or neces-
sary certain forms of skill, and certain branches of
knowledge are, they do not belong to the teaching and
THE THEORY OF THE SCHOOL. 71
training of the higher life, except in a subordinate de-
gree, because of the absence of the very elements of the
higher life in them.' *
Test the common school branches by this thought.
*' The aim of education is not to prepare for life in any
technical sense, but to raise the standard of life itself."
Locally it is to remove the ground for the Chinese
traveller's answer. The necessity for the removal is evi-
denced in that the press of the country recently set forth
as remarkable the fact that a business man having failed
some years since, and having paid at the time fifty cents
on the dollar, had just completed the payment in full,
though not compelled by law to do so. In the record,
moreover, the press unconsciously gave testimony to the
popular sentiment that such payment was optional, and
therefore notably honorable. But it was not optional —
man's higher nature compelling it, the man simply per-
forming his bounden duty in compliance with the plain
business principle — " Every one shall render an equiva-
lent for that which he receives."
Bodily strength is a very great power, but to live for
the body only is to be a mere animal. Intellectual
strength, also, is a very great power, but to live for the
intellect only is to be a Mephistopheles.
Both these powers are necessary and must be culti-
vated, but as instruments, not as supreme. However
much the intellect may have usurped the throne, it may
nevertheless be united with the most destructive, or the
meanest qualities. Intellectual power has no necessary
♦ E, Thring.
72 THE THEORY OF THE SCHOOL.
connection with good (except as indicated in "a" and
"6" under the second "2" following).
There is an adage that "Whatever you would put
into the life of a nation, you must first put into the
schools." The experiment is yet to be faithfully tried
in the schools, whether they can so train to true life as
to keep the nation from falling, and maintain it in its
true rank; whether by their work they can insure that
the nation shall seek after true life, rather than mere
knowledge and material prosperity; that it shall rightly
use the two servants of the real being — bodily and intel-
lectual strength. The danger to the nation is correctly
fore-shadowed in "The Message of the Nineteenth Cen-
tury to the Twentieth," by Ex-President White, of
Cornell.
It is self-evident that any truth belonging to man as
man, must belong to every individual, and that no truth
belongs to man as man that is limited to a small num-
ber. This must hold good whether by truth is meant
means or end. The universal is synonomous with truth
pertaining to man and man's nature. All men must be
able to attain the end of existence, if there is an end of
existence for man ; that is, the end must be universal.
All pupils must be able to reach the aim of school edu-
cation if, as is held, there is a universal aim. Extensive
hi(ywledge can never he the possession of every individual;
excellent power of doing skilled work, and true feeling as a
motive power, can. The nature of things makes the ex-
tremes of perfect training, and of producible knowledge,
to a certain degree antagonistic ; i. e., the time spent in
THE THEORY OP THE SCHOOL. 73
questioning with a view to train, can not be employed
in pouring in knowledge with a view to turn it out again
on demand. The importance of this distinction is not
seen, however, in the best pupils. They succeed to a
creditable degree under either system. What results to
the average, or to the poor pupil, is the real question.
With them, the vain attempt to get a certain amount of
knowledge results in emptiness, and a stolid unbelief in
education. The attempt to get training results in the
native strength being improved, as far as it is capable of
improvement, and in as much skill being acquired as
the case admits of. The first ends in a diseased state of
mind ; the second in a healthy condition however weak
it may be.
The true aim of education, especially during the
period of preparation, is therefore three-fold :
1. To train the character-power; that is, '^to set the
loving and the hating on the right track."
2. To train the intellect (subordinate) and the body
(more subordinate); i.e., the instrumental powers.
3. To obtain knowledge ; primarily as the material
for thought, and secondarily for future application.
The relation of the intellect and the character-power
is:
1. Oppositional, in that the highest intellectual
activity at any given moment, excludes the highest
emotional activity at that given moment, and vice versa^
in accordance with the principle that the mind has but
a given quantum of energy.
2. Supplementary :
74 THE THEORY OF THE SCHOOL.
a. Whatever increases one's knowledge of things
as they are, leads to an appreciation of truth.
6. Increase of mental power increases the power,
to judge on moral questions.
c. When the will, affections and conscience are
cultivated with a view to independent action, the intel-
>^lect must be cultivated so as to impose proper limits
upon that independence.
d. In proportion as the intellect is cultiyated, the
sensibilities and will — the real being — must be trained
to carry its judgments into effect.
The truth of "c" and "d," as given at the beginning
of the chapter, is made evident in the consideration of
instrumental and character-power.
Consider the aim of education as above presented, in the
light of the following, and weigh these by that :
"Man is the last, the most complete, and the most excellent
of living creatures.
The final end of man lies beyond this Mfe. This life is three-
fold, viz : Vegetative, Animal, and Intellectual or Spiritual.
The first nowhere manifests itself outside the body ; the second
stretches forth to objects through the operations of the senses ;
the third is able to exist separately as well as in the body, as in
the case of angels.
This life is only a preparation for an eternal life. The visible
world is only a seed-plot, a boarding-house and training-school
for man.
There are three steps of preparation for Eternity. 'Se, et
secum omnia, nosse ; regere ; et ad Deum dirigere.'
It is accordingly required of man that —
He should know all things.
He should have power over all things, and over himself.
THE THEORY OF THE SCHOOL. 75
He should refer himself and all things to God the Source
of All.
These requirements are summed up in the words Eruditio,
Virtus, seu Mores Honesti, Eeligio, seu Pietas, — Knowledge, Virtue
and Piety. All else is merely accidental and extrinsic.
The seeds of these three are in us by Nature, i.e., our first
original and fundamental nature, to which we are to be recalled
by God in Christ.
It is as certain that man has been born fit for the understand-
ing of things, the harmony of morals, and the love of God, as
that there are roots to a tree."— Comknius.
"In the natural order of things, all men being equal the
vocation common to all is the state of manhood, and whoever
is well trained for that, cannot fulfill badly any vocation which
depends upon it. Whether my pupil be destined for the army,
the church, or the bar, matters little to me. Before he can
think of adopting the vocation of his parents, nature calls upon
him to be a man. How to live is the business I wish to teach
him. On leaving my hands he will not, I admit, be a magis-
trate, a soldier, or a priest ; first of all he will be a man. All
that a man ought to be, he can be, at need, as well as anyone
else can. Fortune will in vain alter his position, for he will
always occupy his own."— Rousseau.
"Elementary education, in his view, means, not definite in-
struction in special subjects, but the eliciting of the powers
OP the child as preparative to definite instruction — it
means that course of cultivation which the mind of every child
ought to go through, in order to secure the all-sided develop-
ment of its powers." — Payne's Festalozzi.
"Education has for its chief object moral culture, the forma-
tion of character ; and for this end it is above all necessary
that there should be freedom of individual movement, room
for the development of personality."— Froebel.
76 THE THEORY OF THE SCHOOL.
"What the education is that will best enable a man to edu-
cate himself, ought surely to be the paramount inquiry. Is it
Instruction, or is it Training, or is it both ?
Is it the amount of elementary knowledge communicated, or
is it that exercise of mind by which the pupil acquires the
power of educating himself? Till within the last few years, the
term used to define Education was Instruction. Give elemen-
tary and religious instruction, it was and is still said, and this
will be sufficient. Teach the poor to read the Bible, and forth-
with you will make them good, holy, and happy citizens — kind
parents, obedient children, compassionate and honorable in
their dealings ; and crime will diminish. Hundreds of thou-
sands of our population have received such an education. Are
such the results ? Have our political advocates for educating
the poor — has the public hit upon the right kind of education,
or upon the proper mode of communication f Can teaching or in-
struction alone produce the results which are so fondly antici-
pated?
Can all the telling, or teaching, or instruction in the world
enable a man to make a shoe, construct an engine, ride, write,
or paint, without training, that is, without doing f Can the mere
head-knowledge of religious truths make a man good without the
practice of it, without the training of the aff'ections and moral
habits ? Will teaching to read, write and cast accounts, with a
little knowledge of geography and grammar, cultivate the child
— the whole man f
Is this process of mere head-knowledge likely to up-root self-
ishness, pride and vanity, and to substitute in their stead, kind-
ness, generosity, humility, forbearance and courteousness,
without the practice being enforced in suitable circumstances,
as well as the theory communicated? The boy may repeat
most correctly, and even understand in a general way, the pre-
cepts, 'Avenge not yourselves, but rather give place unto
wrath,' 'Render not evil for evil,' 'Be courteous' ; but see him
at play among his companions, neither better, nor perhaps
THE THEORY OF THE SCHOOL. 77
worse, than himself, un-siiperintended, and his conduct un-
reviewed by parent or school-master, and what do these scrip-
tural injunctions avail him when engaged in a quarrel ? Reason
is dormant, passion reigns for the time and the repeated exer-
cise of such propensities strengthens the disposition, and event-
ually forms evil habits.'^ — Stow.
"Education comprises all the influences which go to form the
character. In early infancy, before the child has acquired the
power over thought and language which fits him for direct in-
tercourse with those around him, he is educated by the expe-
rience which he acquires through the natural activity of his
instincts.
In childhood and youth his education proceeds under the
superintendence of the family circle and the school. In mature
years he is again thrown upon the resources of self-education,
but now with the power of controlling these for definite ends ;
and he finds in the intercourse of society, in his own reading
and reflection, and in the ministrations of the Christian church,
the means by which his nature is to reach its destined measure
of perfection. The education of childhood is often spoken of
as if it were pre-eminently the education of the whole man. It
is not so, however ; the education which the man carries on of
himself in maturity, when he has come into the possession of
all his powers, is that which determines his character and
position. The peculiar importance of the education of child-
hood lies in the consideration that it prepares the way for the
subsequent self-education of manhood. It brings the man into
command of his faculties, and enables him to use his oppor-
tunities of progress ; it equips him with intellectual, moral and
practical principles, but for which he would pass through life
without any purpose of self-improvement, and without the
power of profiting by its experience." — Currik.
"The aim of the educationalist is not the giving of informa-
tion, nay, not even instruction, though this is essential, but
78 THE THEORY OF THE SCHOOL.
mainly discipline ; and the aim of discipline is the production of
a sound mind in a sound body, the directing and cherishing of
the growth of the whole nature, spiritual and physical, so as to
make it possible for each man within the limits of the capacity
which God has given him, to realize in and for himself, with
more or less success, the type of humanity, and in his relation
to others to exhibit a capability for wise and vigorous action.
This result would not be attained by pressure. By anticipating
the slow but sure growth of nature, we destroy the organism.
Many and subtle are the ways in which nature avenges itself on
the delicate, complicated machinery of man, but avenge itself
somehow it will and must." — Laurie.
" The true view of education is to regard it as a course of training.
The youth in a gymnasium practices upon the horizontal bar
in order to develop his muscular powers generally ; he does
not intend to go on posturing upon horizontal bars all through
life. School is a place where the mental fibres are to be exercised, train-
ed, expanded, developed and strengthened. * * It is the very purpose
of a liberal education, as it is correctly called, to develop and
train the plastic fibres of the youthful brain so as to prevent
them from taking too early a definite 'set,' which will afterward
narrow and restrict the range of acquisition and judgment.
I will even go so far as to say that it is hardly desirable for the
actual things taught at school to stay in the mind for life.
The source of error is the failure to distinguish between form
and the matter of knowledge ; between the facts themselves
and the manner in which the mental powers deal with facts.
* * * It is the purpose of education so to exercise the facul-
ties of mind that the infinitely various experiences of after-life
may be observed and reasoned upon to the best efiect." —
Jevons.
"The conclusions of the honest and intelligent enquirer after
the truth in this matter, will be something like the following : —
That education (from e and duco, to lead forth) is development ;
THE THEORY OF THE SCHOOL. 79
that it is not instruction merely — knowledge, facts, rules — com-
municated by the teacher, but it is a discipline, it is a waking
up of the mind — growth by a healthy assimilation of whole-
some aliment. It is an inspiring of the mind with a thirst for
knowledge, growth, enlargement — and then a disciplining of
its powers so far that it can go on to educate itself. It is the
arousing of the child's mind to think, without thinking for it;
it is the awakening of its powers to observe, to remember, to
reflect, to combine. It is not a cultivation of the memory to
the neglect of everything else ; but it is a calling forth of all
the faculties into harmonious action. If to possess facts simply
is education, then an encyclopaedia is better educated than a
man." — Page.
"The central thought of my doctrine assumes that the ulti-
mate or total object of the teacher's profession is not the com-
munication of knowledge ; or even, according to the favorite
modern formula, the stimulating of the knowing faculty, if by the
knowing faculty we understand a faculty quite distinguished
and separate from the believing faculty, the sensibility, and the
will. It has been generally admitted, for a long time, that ed-
ucation does not consist in inserting facts into the pupil's mem-
ory, like specimens into a cabinet, or freight stowed in the hold
of a ship. But not only must we dismiss those mechanical re-
semblances that liken the mind to a store-room, a museum or a
library; we must also carry our conception of learning -above
the notion of an agile and adroit brain. Education does not
consist in provoking bare intellectual dexterity, any more than
in presenting ascertained truth to the intellectual perceptions ;
or in both together. Education involves appeals to faith, to
feeling, to volition. The realm of positive science shades off
on eveiy side — not by abrupt transitions, but by imperceptible
gradations — into the realm of trust ; nor does science consult
her dignity more than her modesty, when she undertakes to
sharpen the partition-line of hostility between knowledge and
belief.
80 THE THEORY OF THE SCHOOL.
So does the true training of the mind involve an engagement
of the affections, including taste, or the sense of beauty, and
love, or the sense of good, both the mind's freedom and its
harmony being dependent on a healthy heart. And so, again,
the understanding and the feelings wait on that brave executor,
the will ; and nobody can be wise who leaves its scholarship
neglected." — Huntington.
:y'^^sr'»^'^^?iv!K /iT.,f^(^t2S^
--^^-^1
CHAPTER IIL
THE PRINCIPLE AND THE CONDITION OF
EDUCATION
"I LKAHNED early in life that my business was to grow."
Margaret Fuller.
"Our chief want in life is somebody who shall make us do what we can;
rach a one is a friend. " Emerson.
rr every one is able to attain a great amount of
knowledge ; but every one is capable of growth.
Growth is the fundamental principle of education, and
its condition is exercise. Activity, or exercise, is the
law of development, either mental or physical; and each
of these two kinds has its reflex influence upon the
other. "Learn to do by doing," is the practical expres-
sion of this thought.
Comenius says, ^^Let things that have to he done, be
learned by doing them. Mechanics and artists do not teach
82 THE THEORY OF THE SCHOOL.
their apprentices by disquisitions, but by giving them
something to do. They are taught to make anything
by making it, to paint by painting, to dance by dancing,
etc. So we should teach to write by writing, to read by
reading, to sing by singing, to reason by reasoning, etc."
The several elements of the child's nature grow by
exercise suitable in kind and amount. By physical ex-
ercise the body is invigorated and developed, and by no
other conceivable means.
By the exercise of its several faculties, likewise, does
the mind attain its power to use them. No faculty can
interchange with any other. The faculty of language is
developed by speaking ; of observation, by observing ;
of imagination, by imagining; and of reason by reason-
ing. If but one is exercised, but one is educated ; if
one is over-exercised, the excess does not flow over to
the benefit of another.
The moral powers, also, require their own appropriate
exercise. Morality being a quality of actions, it is by
regulation of the conduct according to its laws that
morality is inculcated. Intelligence does not secure it.
If the pupil is to be educated to the truth, he must be
led to act and to speak the truth ; to honesty, he must
be led to act honestly in cases where his honesty is
tried ; to diligence, he must be caused to apply himself
to strenuous work.
Observation has made it plain that the mind's faculties
grow by exercise, but this has been thought to be .pe-
culiarly true of thought and attention^ which are energies
eminently dependent upon the will. Education is a growth,
THE THEORY OF THE SCHOOL. 83
a habit. Hence no one can be said to know how to com-
mand his faculties who has not the habit of it. This state
is attained only by those who exert their faculties to the
maximum degrees, so that this state becomes habitual.
Mere theory will never produce these habits. All teach-
ing of pupils how to study, which does not demand of
them their maximum efforts in practice^ is ineffective.
"The arm of the smith does not grow strong by his look-
ing at the hammer, but by his wielding it." Intellectual
growth comes not by thinking how* to study, but by men-
tal application in studying up to the measure of the highest
degrees. Difficulty in school tvork is objected to only by
those educators who hold to the theory that the aim of school
education is the accumulation of knowledge; to those who
hold to the theory that school education has for its end the
conferring of power and skill, the highest stretch of difficulty
appropriate to the mind of the pupil, is seen to be a requis-
ite. Nay more. Even, if an idea is too difficult to be mas-
tered by the pupil, it may nevertheless be selected as an exer-
cise-ground^ and the consideration of it confers upon him a
high degree of power to think.
*In the application of these thoughts to education it
is necessary to advert to the reflex influence which in
any given psychological process runs back from action
to its source. Action, in satisfying a desire, in gratify-
ing an interest, in expressing an emotion, by a reflex
influence strengthens, purifies, idealizes these forms of
feeling, and through them their corresponding forms in
thought. Hence, action is a most powerful instrument
in education for quickening all forms of thought-growth.
84 THE THEORY OF THE SCHOOL.
Through action, the subjective becomes objective; the
inner assumes an outer existence, in terms of the outer.
Thus an opportunity is afforded for testing the correct-
ness of the inner conceptions, with reference to their
outer counterparts, by comparison. The contrast be-
tween the original outer counterpart, and the outer re-
production of the conception, appears as inaccuracies,
deficiencies, exaggerations, etc., that require correction.
Thus outer action pushes conception (subjective action)
steadily and surely nearer to objective truth.
In the case of the will, action appears as conduct,
which as practice, exerts a powerful reflex influence in
fixing the will into habit, and establishing the character.
The primary conditions, then, under which psycho-
logical growth occurs, are : first, an active external, capa-
ble of making impression; second, an active internal,
capable of receiving these impressions, and of controlling
the external for subjective needs. Hence, the work of
education is to adjust surroundings with reference to the
subjective needs, so as to call forth appropriate activity
on the part of the pupil.'*
It is evident, therefore, that the doing, in the educa-
tional process, is of two kinds :
1. Mental. (Thinking, feeling, willing).
2. Manual. (Preceded, accompanied, and followed
by mental doing).
, Under the first, it has been said that "the great mis-
take of education is the attempt to learn to do one thing
by doing something else.*'
*W. N. HAILMANN.
THE THEORY OF THE SCHOOL. 85
If reading is the association of thought with expres-
sion, the pupil can not learn to associate thought and
expression by dealing with the pronunciation of words.
If arithmetic is "the limitation of things by ones,'* the
child can not learn to do this by studying figures ; and
likewise in regard to the other subjects.
The manner in which outward action may press sub-
jective action, i.e., conceptions, nearer to objective truth,
appears to a degree from the following : *
Liquid Measure, — The teacher should be furnished
with gill, pint, quart and gallon measures, also a box of
sand, or some water. The children may be asked to
name some measure they know, and to point it out ; with
that for a starting-point, proceed to other measures. If
a quart is first selected, let another child find another
measure, and tell, if he knows, what it is. Then let him
find out for himself, by measuring the sand or water, how
many of one are the other. If a gallon is next selected,
let some one see how many times he can fill the quart
and pour into the gallon, the children watching and
counting. Proceed in a similar manner with the other
measures. Ask what articles are measured with these
measures. Who use them. Have the children buy and
sell quantities of that which is measured by liquid
measure.
Curved Lines. — Provide the children with short pieces
of stiff, yet pliable wire. Ask them to bend the wire
into different positions. Have them make similar lines
* XDX70ATI0N BY DOIMO, BY ▲. JOHNSON, B. L. KKLLOOO A 00.
SQ THE THEORY OF THE SCHOOL.
on the board. Try to have them make all the positions
themselves — curved, crooked, broken, waved, spiral,
circle, and semi-circle. If they do not do so readily,
direct their attention to objects that contain them. Show
a ring, arch, spring, draw a spider's web, waves, etc.
Refer to straight parallel lines, and then have them
make with the wire, and then draw parallel curved
lines.
Forvij (With Clay.) — Have each pupil furnished with
a small piece of board, and a piece of moistened clay.
Have the ball or sphere made first. What kind of sur-
face has it? How many hemispheres can be made of it?
What part of a sphere is a hemisphere? How many
halves in a sphere? In an apple ? In anything ? How
many faces has it? What kind? What edges? Let them
place the two halves together, then press it, and make
an oblate-spheroid; then make it round again, and taper
one end for an ovate-spheroid. Return again to the
sphere, and cut off each side for a cube. Review the shape
as to faces, edges and corners. Roll it out for a cylinder,
cut off the sides for a square prism ; cut in two for a
triangular prism. Then form pyramids, cones, etc.
Let them make the shapes of different kinds of fruit,
using little sticks for stems ; for strawberries they could
make little indentures with pins for the seeds. Have a
talk about each kind of fruit, and when practicable pre-
sent the real fruit.
Have a lesson on the bird's nest, and let them mold
it in clay, make the eggs, and place them in the nest.
THE THEORY OF THE SCHOOL. 87
Let them give the names of and talk about little birds
that they know.
A great variety of objects can be made and a little les-
son on each given. The children may also exercise their
own ingenuity and devise many new forms.
Form, (With Paper.) — Let each child be given some
short, narrow pieces of colored paper and cards, or small
pieces of paste-board or box-covers, the size of cards.
Dissolve five cents' worth of gum tragacanth in a bowl
of water, and pour into small butter-plates, placing one
plate for the use of two or three children.
The children may paste the papers on their cards,
using all the positions of straight lines, angles, and
figures enclosed with straight lines which they have
learned. The teacher may have these previously drawn
upon the board for children to copy.
As it will take many days for them to finish their
sets, they may have small rubber bands to slip over
their cards; the top card may have the name of the
pupil written upon it, so that each child may get his
own package each time. When a set is completed it
may be laid aside for review, and at the close of the
term given to the child.
When the children become expert in this work, they
may be furnished with muslin scrap-books, which may
be when filled, laid aside for exhibition.
Geography y (Third Year.) — Have a board 4x5 feet
made, with a rim around the edge an inch high. Upon
this board, which should be adjusted to a table or desk.
88 THE THEORY OF THE SCHOOL.
put half a bushel of moulding sand, such as may be had
from a foundry ; or if this is impracticable, a half bushel
of moist loam, sifted, will answer the purpose well.
With the use of blocks, toy houses, trees, animals, large
and small pieces of looking glass, green tissue paper,
narrow blue ribbon or tape, small twigs for evergreen
trees, shells, and stones, the principal definitions in geo-
graphy may be practically and impressively taught.
When the class is small, it is best to have all of them
gather around the moulding board ; but when the class
is large, a part may gather round the board, while the
others observe and suggest. The teacher should be care-
ful to give every pupil his proportion of time at the
moulding board. In giving an idea of the sea-shore,
place a large piece of looking-glass on one side of the
moulding board, and fill the rest with sand.
Tell the children you will have a talk with them
about the earth or world in which they live.
On what do ships sail? On what are houses built?
What two things are found on the earth ? What have
we to represent water on this board? What the land?
Who will find the place where the land and water come
together? Does anyone know what we call the place
where the land and water come together? Give the
term coast or shore. When sailors go far off on the water,
where do we say they have gone? What may we call
this water? What may we call this shore or coast?
How many have ever been to the sea-shore ? How does
the water of the sea taste ? If they do not know, place
some salt in water and have them taste it. Of what use
THE THEORY OP THE SCHOOL. 89
is the sea? Speak of the water rising, forming into
clouds, and returning in rain, etc. In a similar manner
may be considered valleys, mountains, plains, deserts,
etc.
THUS, GROWTH, BASED UPON THE ALL-COMPREHENSIVE LAW OF
ACTIVITY, OR GROWTH BASED ON EXERCISE UPON APPROPRIATE
MATERIAL — THE EXERCISE BEING GIVEN FOR THE PURPOSE OF THE
GRO^VTH, AND ONLY SECONDARILY FOR THE SAKE OF THE MATERIAL-
IS THE CENTRAL THOUGHT OF EDUCATION.
•*-»^^^<<-*'
-^mmMmMm^^
CHAPTER IK
TIIK K\ > r]'GiiOUND IN EDUCATION.
•■\'\ Mi.l iluMi. ■•! ,l(.ti(.l knew." Tho
Hurpii ; ilKM-o In anything; dial hlM i)iircntH
(loiuii IjiKt .\ Ih'H \\o luiH ())Ku> <liH(!ov(TO(l that
: I.' that
rs (hey
r ;(. him with
'i!i , and Miiii-i^' . II 11.1 Ihiitcdlioatlon
has I
— ' 1 1 A I : I ; I MX M A ifl' I N 1 : ah' s 1 1, 'u^,- hold Education.
<g||N error frequently made is to demand of the school
^"^ all kinds of education, — education for trades and
business, in religion, in politics, and in habits which the
nurture of the family sliould supply.
Education, in the full sense, includes the whole life
of man, in so far as the different institutions of human
life react upon the individual and educate him. These
institutions are the family, the school, the church, the
social community, and the state.
The education that is received by each individual is
of two kinds :
THE THEORY OF THE SCHOOL. 91
1. The education of direct preparation^ the stage of
development and training. (Knowledge being neces-
sarily acquired as it is the divinely appointed exercise-
^ound, or instrument, but being secondary in consider-
ation.)
2. The education resulting from use, the stage of
application and acquiring. (Discipline being necessari-
ly advanced, as the mind is constantly acting upon the
conditions and materials presented, but not being
sought primarily.)
The institutions that are designed to confer the pre-
paratory development and training, are the family, kin-
dergarten and school, and to a degree, the church ; while
those whose main function is to educate through use are
the church, business society and the state. Each of
these five institutions gives a special kind of education,
which can not be given by any one of the others. Their
combined efiforts are to make the mere individual the
possessor of the fruits of the labors and experience of
the human race — to elevate him to his species.
The education that the child receives in the Family
extends thus far: by example, precept, and sympathy
he is trained into good sentiments and habits — habits
of behavior toward superiors, equals and inferiors; hab-
its of personal cleanliness, of proper dress, of eating, of
drinking, industry, economy, etc. Through these three
i.e., example, precept and sympathy, he receives also his
primary ideas of right and wrong ; by constant familiar
conversation, the family develops the child's latent capa-
city for language, and it develops his power of observar
92 THE THEORY OP THE SCHOOL.
tion, and awakens his interest in knowledge, by exercis-
ing his intelligence on the things around him. The
advantages of the family for discharging its responsi-
bility are chiefly two : indefinite strength of afiection
between parent and child, whereby the one is impelled
to seek the true welfare of the other; and indefinite con-
tact in the daily engagements of life, whereby the parent
has the child's actions under his constant inspection
with a view to the formation of habits, and has ade-
quate opportunity of intercourse to quicken into life
the germs of his moral and intellectual nature.
All the other institutions presuppose in the child that
he has learned these great fundamental lessons in the
family. If he has not, the other institutions are at a
great disadvantage. The school can do but. little for
him, because it can not well deal with a child who does
not know language, and who is not industrious, nor can
it take time to teach him all the personal habits he
should know. The church will be very much hamper-
ed with him, for the spirit of reverence is lacking in
him.
The social and business community can not receive
the child who comes to it devoid of family training;
for he lacks the sense of social propriety, has no respect
for the rights of property, is not honest nor truthful,
and has no instinct for industry. The beggar is the
symbol of the destruction of the social community.
Even the state will of necessity reject him, and be
unable to permit him to exercise his liberty, because
he lacks the habits which would make him a safe person ;
THE THEORY OF THE SCHOOL. 93
he has not attained the characteristics which are essen-
tial to the individual for living in a lawful community.
The state imprisons him, therefore, — his period of family
nurture, having been an education into hostility to social
forms.
The function of the School in education, is peculiarly
the development of the powers of the mind, so that the
pupil may have full use of them in after life.
PRESENT KNOWLEDGE IS NOT GIVEN EXCEPT IN A SUBORDINATE
SENSE, FOR ITS OWN SAKE, NOR WITH A VIEW TO FUTURE PROFES-
SIONAL OCCUPATION, BUT THAT THE PUPIL WHO HAS GONE THROUGH
THE PROCESS OF EXERCISING HIS MIND UPON THE IDEAS — THEY
FORMING IN THE FIRST SENSE MERELY EXERCISE-GROUNDS — MAY
GAIN THEREFROM THE POWER TO THINK ACCURATELY, FEEL, WILL,
AND ACT RIGHTLY, AND HENCE ACQUIRE WITH FACILITY, PRESSING
THEREBY TOWARD RATIONAL FREEDOM — THE GOAL.
According to the degree in which it tends to give this
power and this disposition, is any branch of knowledge
a suitable or an unsuitable instrument for school pur-
poses. The school has a general, not a special design ;
it does not consider how much of this subject or of that
will be required to fit the pupil for such and such a
position ; but how it can best discipline his mind. The
elevation of character implied in the attainment of this
end, will better prepare Tiim for the position he may be
called on to occupy, than any accumulation of knowl-
edge presented to him from its apparent exclusive adap-
tation to its requirements.
The Church is the highest educational institution, be-
cause it reveals the highest principle to man, — that of
94 THE THEORY OP THE SCHOOL.
the Creator. In revealing this principle, it reveals the
origin and destiny of the world of nature, and of man.
Under such an education as the religion of Pantheism
teaches, there can be only despotism in the state, slavery
in the social community, and patriarchal rule in the
family. But with the Christian ideal, the individual is
all-important, and the progress is toward the education
and preservation of each individual.
The education succeeding that of the church, is that
of the Business and Social Community. This is regarded
as third in importance ; that of the church being first,
of the state second, of the family fourth, and of the
school fifth. In this sphere, the business relation of
man to his fellow men, continually educates the individ-
ual, and humanizes him, or degrades him, according as
his employment is rational or the reverse.
As before said, the education of the State ranks in im-
portance next to that of the church. The influence of
the form of government, its laws and the efficiency of
their execution, have a most powerful eJBFect in forming
the character of each citizen. What can school educa-
tion do toward making a man of the child who is born
under the blight of absolute despotism ? The education
of the state would dwarf such an individual more than
the school could cause him to grow. But under a free
government, where each citizen is permitted to assist in
making the laws, this education is very powerful toward
building up self-respect and strong individuality.' *
* W. T. HARRIS.
THE THEORY OF THE SCHOOL. 95
Show that each of these institutions is an organism, and that
each is an organic part of a greater organism — the Social System.
Make it clear that the purpose of the social system is rational
or truth-freedom.
Of these five educational institutions, the one that
claims specific consideration, in this connection, is
The Schooly involving first a treatment of its vestibule —
The Kindergarten.
(»>SZi<»N^TK /i?^*!Sr^rzS^
CHAPTER V.
THE KINDERGARTEN.
Those that do teach young babes,
Do it with gentle means and easy tasks.
— Shakespbabe.
That which issues from the heart alone
Can bind the hearts of others to our own.
— GOBTHK.
"Die Kindheit von heute
1st die menschheit von morgen."
THE GENESIS OF THE KINDERGARTEN,
inquiry, however brief or imperfect, into the
genesis of an educational system, for which so
much is claimed as for Froebelism, can be altogether
without use. Nothing can be rightly understood but by
considering its connection with other things, since "to
understand'* is to perceive the relations of ideas. Indeed,
to limit one's attention to Froebel's method itself, with-
out ever attempting a more comprehensive view, is like-
THE THEORY OF THE SCHOOL. 97
ly to contort rather than intensify the mental vision. In
the intellectual firmament, reflected light plays as im-
portant a part as in the physical.
All systems may be said to have descended from pre-
vious ones. Of thought, which is a product of life as of
life, there is no spontaneous generation. The ideas of
one generation are the mysterious progenitors of those
of the next. Each age is the dawn of its successor, and
in the eternal advance of truth.
There always is a rising sun,
And day is ever but begun.
It is thus true that there is nothing new under the
sun, since the new grows from the old, as boughs grow
from the tree ; and though errors and exaggerations are,
from time to time, shaken off, yet "the things which
cannot be shaken" will certainly abide.
Carlyle says, "Literature is but a branch of religion,
and always participates in its character." It is still
more true that education is a branch of psychology, and
takes its mould and fashion from it. For it is evident
that as philosophy, in successive ages, gives varying
answers as to man's chief end and summum bonum^ so
education, which is simply an attempt to prepare him
thereto, must vary accordingly. Humboldt hints that
the vegetation of whole regions bespeaks, and depends
on, the strata beneath ; and it is certainly true that we
cannot delve long in the teacher's plot without coming
upon those moral questions which "go down to the
centre."
1. The dawn of the New Education arose after the
98 THE THEORY OF THE SCHOOL.
night of the middle ages. During those long centuries,
in education, obedience without intelligence was the
pupil's dreary task, and self-denial without love his
ideal of Christian duty. The ''dim religious light" of
the Church gave hardly a glimpse of the beautiful world
of Nature without.
2. On this "opaque of nature and of soul" the light
of the New Learning broke in. Men's eyes were sub-
denly opened to see "a beauty that was Greece, and a
grandeur that was Rome," and to reverence once more
the wisdom and piety of the classic past. A more eclec-
tic intellect, a more genial sympathy, a more Hellenistic
conception of life came upon Western Europe, and,
Thus deeply drinking in the soul of things^
They became wise perforce.
Education changed accordingly. It began to recog-
nize that man has to be trained for this world as well
as for the future one ; that though the way to heaven
is strait, ''not every strait way leads there ;" and that in
Physical Nature's vast museum was offered a field more
worthy of man's faculties than the wandering mazes of
scholasticism.
3. Strange to say, however, the Spirit of the Reform-
ation suj0fered an early divorce from that of the Renais-
sance, and in the hands of the Protestant, on the one
hand, as of Jesuits on the other, education crystallized,
or rather congealed, into methods, which for two hun-
dred YEARS have been USED BY ALL TEACHERS, AND CON-
DEMNED BY ALL REFORMERS. The publication of Rous-
seau's Emile was a protest, and its date marks the next
THE THEORY OF THE SCHOOL. 99
great epoch. Rousseau demanded that man should be
treated as an organism, and that education should be
a development of all the faculties of that organism. He
discarded the prejudices of society and the dogmas of
authority, and took as his watchwords, Nature, Reason,
and Individuality.
4. But the crude audacities of the French philoso-
pher had, after the Revolution, to be disentangled and
woven into order by German labor and insight. How
the philosophy of Kant or Hegel contributed to the re-
sult, we would not attempt to trace out. But notably
from the fertile and sympathetic mind of Richter came
forth in full luxuriance the ideas which Froebel plucked
and arranged with such discernment. Richter delighted
to preach the doctrine of an ideal-Man, and that educa-
tion is the harmonious development of the faculties and
dispositions of each individual. He would give ample
scope especially to the fancy and imagination of a child,
in whose hand "the simplest wand is like Aaron's rod
which budded." No one, moreover, knew better than he,
that (in Carlyle's words) "A loving heart is the begin-
ning of all knowledge. This it is that opens the whole
mind, and quickens every faculty of the intellect to do
its fit work."
5. Inspired by the same principles, Pestalozzi and
Froebel devised their methods. Pestalozzi may be styled
the father of popular education. He would develop the
human being from within outward; would give primary
importance to the receptive and perceptive faculties;
and held self-activity to be the great condition of pro-
102 THE THEORY OF THE SCHOOL.
The tables are three feet by eighteen inches, ruled in
inch squares; or six feet by two feet, with a line one
inch from each edge.
The reason for these measurements ?
In the kindergarten are the head teacher, a mature
woman, and young girls, one for each class of ten or
twenty.
These young girls are as older sisters to the pupils,
and take a loving and intelligent interest in all that
concerns them. They carry into execution the plans of
the head teacher, and consult with, and are advised by
her upon all points.
What two reasons are there for the employment of young
girls in the kindergarten ?
The apparatus devised for the kindergarten consists
of balls, wooden cubes, paper, and various other mate-
rials that allow the children to exercise their physical
powers and their imagination.
The occupations with these gifts are strictly graded,
and by means of them the children become somewhat
familiar with the elements of music, form, number, size;
the properties and uses of objects ; language; and the
beginnings of moral training.
Show in what way each of the above points is gained.
The occupations having been pursued for a time, the
children repair to the large room for games. These
games have a three-fold object :
THE THEORY OF THE SCHOOL. 103
To give physical exercise.
To call into exercise the imagination.
To cultivate the moral nature.
How in the games may these objects be accomplished ?
The games of the kindergarten are founded on the
observed habits of children. They have specifically, in
relation to the body, a two-fold purpose :
To give exercise to the voice and body in general.
To train some particular sense or muscle.'*
GIFTS AND OCCUPATIONS, t
Kommt, lasst uns unsem kindem leben.
— Froebel.
Froebel, adopting the principle of Comenius, that
nature does nothing per saltum, held that education
should be so conducted that it shall have no abrupt
transitions.
It is to be expected, therefore that each step in the
occupations shall be a logical sequence from the preced-
ing. Such is the case. The various occupations are
developed one from another in a perfectly natural order,
beginning with the most simple and concluding with
the most difficult. Taken together, therefore, they sat-
isfy all the demands of the child's nature in respect
both of physical and mental culture, and lay a sure
foundation for all subsequent education of school and
of life.
♦kindergarten manual, by J. 8. LAURIE. f KINDEROAETEN HANDBOOK
BT P. A. STEELE.
104 THE THEORY OF THE SCHOOL.
Systematic work, though apparently slow, is always econom-
ical in the end, as it avoids the waste of time and power
which is incurred in finding and connecting the lost
threads of unsystematic work. Thus, a sure basis in
lessons and exercises on Form will prepare for a study
of those branches in which a knowledge of form is re-
quired, as geometry, drawing, geography, etc.
In the kindergarten the children's work begins with
materials that are whole, substantial, and undivided, and
proceeds to parts, to the less substantial, and to the divided.
The first are more easily seen, are more tangible, and
therefore plainer to the capacity of the young child.
Hence the solids form the first group of the occupations.
These are followed by planes, which form the basis for
several series of occupations and designs.
The lines, which are the edges of the surfaces, become
the next material. From the line, the passage is to the
point, represented by the end of the line, and appearing
in the occupation termed pricking. In this the points
are holes, which are ranged in rows or lines, and thus
lead again to the outline of a surface. In the reverse
order the surface ascends to the solid, and the circle of
consecutive occupations is thus completed.
The kindergarten occupations would therefore develop
in the following order :
1. Solids — ball, cube and cylinder— gifts one to six.
2. Surfaces — Wooden and paper planes.
3. Lines— sticks, lines drawn on slates and paper,
rings, thread.
THE THEORY OF THE SCHOOL. 105
4. Points — produced by pricking, or represented by-
peas in peawork.
Ascending from points to lines and surfaces, solids are
reached, which may be given to the children in an un-
finished condition, or as shapeless material, so that they
may make their own solids, with clay and other plastic
materials.
FIRST GIFT.
The first gift consists of six worsted balls of the rain-
bow colors, with strings attached. It is said that Froebel
selected the balls as the first gift because he wished to
found all the toys used for his games upon a mathemat-
ical basis, and because the spherical shape of the ball is
the simplest and most perfect form of all solid objects,
and is that in which all other forms are contained.
They became the first gift also because he noticed that
a ball is the first object a mother gives to her child as
soon as it is able to play, and because it seems to be a
favorite even with large children.
In compliance with the principle that in education
there should be no abrupt transitions, it is to be expect
ed that tliis first gift forms the connection between the
family and the kindergarten.
By its use in the family the child learns the primary
and the secondary colors and to express himself in cor-
rect language concerning the various powers and move-
ments of the ball. In the kindergarten he finds his old
gift exhibiting new powers in the hands of numbers in-
stead of one. If the child is timid, he is allowed to
106 THE THEORY OF THE SCHOOL.
observe the game or occupation until he shows a disposi-
tion to join it. This is on the principle that no forcing
it to be attempted, but that the teacher is to watch for the
first sign of inclination, and then call it into exercise.
The balls are taken out for use somewhat as follows :
All stand in a ring, and the balls are brought out by
some of the children, chosen from those who volunteer,
and they are handed gently from one to another until
all are supplied.
The advantage of this ?
The following may be given as specimen exercises
with this gift :
The children by direction hold the balls above the
head, in the right hand and then in the left.
Again the ball is held in both hands in front of the
body, and then gently raised above the head, and lower-
ed to the floor, etc.
"What is gained by the first exercise ? What by the second ?
When some skill has been gained in these exercises
but before the children are wearied, the teacher tells
some little story which the movements illustrate, as, the
balls represent birds picking up crumbs from the ground
and carrying them to their young; or they are the cargo
of a boat and the children are handing them up to men
in a ship, etc.
Then a song is sung in which the balls are spoken of
as birds, cargoes, etc.
The balls having been given out as usual the teacher
finds that here is, for example, a red one. She asks how
THE THEORY OF THE SCHOOL. 107
many have balls of the same color, who can point out
anything of the same color in the room, name things of
the same color in the room, name things of the same
color out of doors, at home, etc. A timid child is asked
to show his ball and the same kind of work is taken
with it. After a consideration of color, number is con-
sidered by having the balls of different colors counted
as held; then all of one color, e.g., green, placed in a
circle and counted ; a circle of another color placed out-
side of that and counted ; then both counted, etc.
The balls are placed and retaken in perfect order, and
songs and stories accompany the exercise as before.
The children stand side by side in the circle and at
the word of command or song, as,
'The soft ball loves to wander
From one hand to another,'
pass the ball from the right hand to the left and from
the left to the next child's right, thus each receiving the
ball of each and passing it on. The ball may be imagin-
ed to be other things, as a child, a bird, etc. In which
case the song changes to The little child loves to wan-
der,' etc.
In regard to exercises it is to be understood that both
the teacher and the pupils are to frequently invent them,
governed by the following thoughts : —
1. The various parte of the body, both singly and
in combination are to be exercised in a gentle, graceful
manner without undue fatigue.
108 THE THEORY OF THE SCHOOL.
2. The appropriate moral and intellectual faculties
are to be dalled into use and trained by arousing the dor-
mant ones and directing any that are taking the wrong
direction into right channels.
3. The exercises are to be linked to previous work
in order to bring in the element of association.
What advantages arise from having the pupils invent exer-
cises ?
This gift may form the ground work of exercises in
language upon various topics.
For example, the children may be led to express freely
the qualities, actions, and changes of position of the
ball ; to imagine the ball with its string to be a pendu-
lum and enter into a conversation concerning clocks;
to suppose it to be a potato or apple, and themselves to
peel, cook and place it in a plate upon the table, after
which they converse concerning manner of holdinsj the
spoon, knife and fork, and other points in table eti-
quette.
Again, the ball may be imagined to be a grape, cur-
rant, cherry, etc., and may thus open the way to a con-
versation about the vine, bush, or tree ; or it may be
imagined to be a seed in the ground, and the sprouting
of seeds may be talked about. These topics would
naturally lead to conversation and songs concerning the
gardener and his work, Spring, Autumn, etc.
The ball may also be imagined to be a bird and held
in the hand as in a nest. This may lead to a conversa-
tion about birds, their homes, habits, etc. Or the ball
THE THEORY OF THE SCHOOL. 109
may be thought to be an egg in the nest, hatched, and
the young bird cared for and taught to fly, etc. Thus
the children acquire a real interest in animals and their
habits — the true foundation of a reverence for life and
living things.
How may this last theme tend to develop reverence for the
Creator and His highest creation — man ?
It is to be understood that the range of subjects suit-
able for language exercises is by no means limited to
these suggested, nor to this gift. The aim is to show
that this — the most simple gift — is, in the hands of a
thoughtful, sympathetic teacher, fitted to cultivate the
hand, senses, and voice; and to call forth the idea of
number, language, the power of imitation, sympathy,
politeness and reverence.
Among rhymes suitable may be given the following :
1. For the directions —
"Look ! the balls swing to and fro ;
Ne'er too fast, ne'er too slow,
Swing to left, swing to right,
Swing together in our sight."
2. For plants—
"Winter's storms and frosts are over,
Trills the lark at early dawn ;
Guelder-roses, springtime's snowballs,
Scatter snow-flakes on the lawn."
3. In connection with themes to awaken reverence —
•'We sow the seed in early spring,
When the rain comes mild and sweet;
It lies safe hid from the chilly rime,
From the stormy wind and sleet.
110 THE THEORY OF THE SCHOOL.
"It grows, and it spreads its tiny roots,
In the earth so cool and light ;
But ever its buds and leaves look up
To the sunshine, warm and bright.
"So does our Maker plant us here
In the world, to live and grow ;
Let us, like the flower, look up to heaven.
Though set in the earth below."
How does this gift supplement and react upon the family and
its training ? How does it prepare for the school ? In what
work of the primary school may this gift be used to advantage?
SECOND GIFT.
The central thought in the first gift is color ; in the
second, form.
Is this in accord with natural development ?
The principle that there is to be no abrupt transition,
but a gradual procedure from simple to complex, pre-
pares the mind for the second gift — the wooden ball,
cylinder, and cube — in which is exemplified clearly an
object, its opposite and their mediative.
What training may be gained in taking out the gift ? Deter-
mine a set of directions.
The first work in the second gift is the comparison of
the hard with the soft ball. In this comparison the
children learn the meaning of such words as light, heavy,
hard, soft, rough, smooth, etc. As to sound, the hard
ball will be found to produce a sharp sound, when it
strikes upon the table ; this will suggest to the imagina-
tion a hammer, or some other solid tool, and may lead
to imitation of, and conversation concerning the work of
blacksmiths, tinsmiths, carpenters, etc. The children
THE THEORY OF THE SCHOOL. Ill
should be led to see what the soft ball is best fitted to do
and what the hard, together with the reason.
After a comparison of the two balls, the study of the
cube is commenced. It is found that while the ball
moves readily, the cube does not, and this fact is fixed
by some such expression as the following :—
" This is the ball that runs away,
This is the cube sitting still all day."
The children are then led to point to the difierent
faces, edges and corners and to give them their names;
they are then counted, after which the ball and cube are
compared in respect to these characteristics. The edges
and faces are then measured and the result fixed in the
mind. In this work the children become familiar with
the terms height, breadth, and depth.
At all stages the idea being considered is viewed in
connection with familiar objects, as when speaking of
points (corners) and lines, they are to be pointed out in
the room, in nature, etc.
The cylinder is then to be compared with the cube
and the ball.
What points of likeness and difference will be found ?
What work may be done with the axes and diameters of the
ball, cube and cylinder? How?
In this gift the child gains some elementary concep-
tions in regard to motion and resulting appearance.
In what way may the gift lead to this ?
As in gift one the imagination is called into exercise
at every stage. Thus, the cube may be imagined to rep-
112 THE THEORY OF THE SCHOOL.
resent a house, table, sheep, etc.; the cylinder, a roller,
a man, etc.; the ball, a wagon, train, mouse, etc.
The cube with a stick placed upright in it, may repre-
sent a fort with a flagstaff, and supplying a paper flag
the children are led to converse concerning a fort, its
use, and those who live in it; a cube with a stick in it
may also form a carpenter's mallet, and thus lead to a
familiar talk about the carpenter, his tools and his work.
A song of the carpenter and his useful labors may be
sung, and his motions imitated.
The imaginative exercises of this gift may be much
extended. The progress of the child is as follows :
1. He observes places and persons present.
2. He becomes able to think and speak of them
when they are absent.
3. By means of what experience has shown him of
distance and persons, he is able to think of places and
persons that he has never seen.
The construction work of gift two should give this
natural growth such exercise as shall systematically de-
velop the powers of mind, and at the same time give the
child valuable physical and moral truths.
Exercises such as the following will tend to do this: —
A short stick with a paper sail converts the cube into
a boat, and a sail may be taken along a river, thus
furnishing the occasion for a conversation upon the
river, its waters, its banks, fish, etc.; or the boat may be
made larger, called a ship, an^ launched for an ocean
voyage. The imaginary voyage will form the ground
for talks on storms, waves, sea-birds, icebergs, etc.
THE THEORY OF THE SCHOOL. 113
Voyages maybe made to Holland, Spain, Brazil, Cuba,
etc., obtaining from each its principal productions. The
relative distances to these regions is to be indicated by
the time occupied; and the cargoes form subjects for object
and language lessons.
After the children have become familiar with the idea
of journeys and voyages to distant places, by connection
with objects in common use, they may be led to picture
these places in imagination, and thus lay the foundation
of geography. The ship's voyage along a coast may be
imagined, the character of the coast pictured, and the
towns described and named. Pictures from geographies
and periodicals will aid much in this work. The imag-
inary track of the ship along a coast may be traced upon
the board, or in moulding sand; by such work the out-
line of a region may be made familiar, and the use of a
map learned. This work should be accompanied by
lessons on place, distance, measurement, etc.
Several children may combine to build with their
gifts. A square may be formed of four cubes ; on these
two or more cylinders may be placed to represent a fac-
tory chimney, monument, telegraph-post, light-house,
etc. A conversation is thus prompted concerning those
who are employed at such places, what they do for us,
what we should do for them, etc.
How does this gift supplement and react upon the family and
its training.
How does it prepare for school ?
In what work of the primary school may this gift be used to
advantage ? .
114 THE THEORY OF THE SCHOOL.
THIRD GIFT.
The purpose of the third gift is to train the mind and
the hand by means of exercises in form, number, con-
struction and design. The gift is a two-inch cube,
divided once each way so as to form eight one-inch
cubes. This gift forms a contrast to the second gift, in-
asmuch as in this one the whole is divided, while in the
other the cube, sphere and cylinder are, each, undivided
wholes. The connecting link, or mediative, is the cube-
shape of the third gift.
At about three years of age a child shows a wish to
ascertain the cause of things. It attempts to take ob-
jects to pieces, and to alter their form in order to dis-
cover new peculiarities in, and fresh applications for
them. After examining their exterior forms, it wants to
see their interior, and by putting the parts together,
either to restore them to their original form, or to form
something new. This is the reason why a child of that
age is in the habit of breaking to pieces its toys, and of
preferring to play with the pieces rather than with the
whole toy ; and for that reason the divided cube is pro-
vided at this stage, since, while it satisfies this desire, it
is not easily destroyed.
With this, and with the succeeding gifts, forms of
knowledge, forms of utility or life, and forms of art or
beauty, are produced. Forms of knowledge are the
mathematical forms. Forms of utility are those used in
real life, as the chair, table, sofa, bedstead, etc. Forms
of art are creations of the imagination, including espe^
THE THEORY OF THE SCHOOL. 115
cially symmetrical forms, such as architectural designs,
designs for carpets, wall paper, etc.
As in the second gift the taking out and the replacing
of the gift form exercises of great value.
Prepare directions for taking out, and for replacing.
What is to be gained by such exercises ?
The work with the third gift consists mainly of exer-
cises in :
Comparison in form.
Number.
Construction or building.
Designing.
The first exercise is to examine, measure, describe and
name the gift. All points of likeness and difference as
compared with the second gift are then discovered and
stated.
The work in number is mainly counting. It is taken
somewhat as follows :
1. There being ten gifts upon the table the pupils
first touch and count all the faces, corners, and edges of
each cube; and secondly, count the cubes thus : one, two,
three, etc., to ten ; and ten, nine, eight, etc., to one, each
X^upil touching and counting his own.
2. The left half is drawn away from the right half
by each pupil, and the parts are compared as to size and
each part compared with the whole as to size and num-
ber. The term half is then applied.
3. The halves are counted to twenty and then back
to one, by ones and by twos, as one half, two halves,
three halves, etc.; twenty halves, nineteen halves, etc.
114 THE THEORY OF THE SCHOOL.
THIRD GIFT.
The purpose of the third gift is to train the mind and
the hand by means of exercises in form, number, con-
struction and design. The gift is a two-inch cube,
divided once each way so as to form eight one-inch
cubes. This gift forms a contrast to the second gift, in-
asmuch as in this one the whole is divided, while in the
other the cube, sphere and cylinder are, each, undivided
wholes. The connecting link, or mediative, is the cube-
shape of the third gift.
At about three years of age a child shows a wish to
ascertain the cause of things. It attempts to take ob-
jects to pieces, and to alter their form in order to dis-
cover new peculiarities in, and fresh applications for
them. After examining their exterior forms, it wants to
see their interior, and by putting the parts together,
either to restore them to their original form, or to form
something new. This is the reason why a child of that
age is in the habit of breaking to pieces its toys, and of
preferring to play with the pieces rather than with the
whole toy ; and for that reason the divided cube is pro-
vided at this stage, since, while it satisfies this desire, it
is not easily destroyed.
With this, and with the succeeding gifts, forms of
knowledge, forms of utility or life, and forms of art or
beauty, are produced. Forms of knowledge are the
mathematical forms. Forms of utility are those used in
real life, as the chair, table, sofa, bedstead, etc. Forms
of art are creations of the imagination, including espe-
THE THEORY OF THE SCHOOL. 115
cially symmetrical forms, such as architectural designs,
designs for carpets, wall paper, etc.
As in the second gift the taking out and the replacing
of the gift form exercises of great value.
Prepare directions for taking out, and for replacing.
What is to be gained by such exercises ?
The work with the third gift consists mainly of exer-
cises in :
Comparison in form.
Number.
Construction or building.
Designing.
The first exercise is to examine, measure, describe and
name the gift. All points of likeness and difference as
compared with the second gift are then discovered and
stated.
The work in number is mainly counting. It is taken
somewhat as follows :
1. There being ten gifts upon the table the pupils
first touch and count all the faces, corners, and edges of
each cube; and secondly, count the cubes thus : one, two,
three, etc., to ten ; and ten, nine, eight, etc., to one, each
pupil touching and counting his own.
2. The left half is drawn away from the right half
by each pupil, and the parts are compared as to size and
each part compared with the whole as to size and num-
ber. The term half is then applied.
3. The halves are counted to twenty and then back
to one, by ones and by twos, as one half, two halves,
three halves, etc.; twenty halves, nineteen halves, etc.
116 THE THEORY OF THE SCIIOOl^.
4. Work as in ^'3," modified by the removal of the
first half. Thus, one, three, five, etc : nineteen, seven-
teen, fifteen, etc.
5. The midway point is made the starting point,
and the number of ones and of twos, from that point to
either end is found by counting.
The cube is then divided into fourths, and the five
kinds of work taken with fourths ; after which the
division is made into eighths, and the division followed
be similar exercises.
Indicate the points of knowledge that the children will gain
from these exercises. The kind of discipline. How may this
gift be used in connection with square and cubic measure ?
The work in construction, or building, is to be in con-
formity to certain rules :
1. Each construction must be gradually developed
from the cube.
2. In each building all of the cubes must be used.
3. Every structure that can be produced by the re-
moval of one cube, is to be constructed before one is
built requiring two cubes, etc.
4. Each structure must be gradually re-formed into
the cube.
These rules are based on what principle of education ?
There are three kinds of work. One in which train-
ing is given to the powers of observation, imitation,
imagination and language. Another in which training
is given to the powers of memory, imagination and
language. A third, in which the main thought is the
development of the social nature.
THE THEORY OF THE SCHOOL. 117
In the first case, the teacher or a pupil builds a struc-
ture, the pupils imitate, and a conversation is had con-
cerning it.
In the second case, the teacher names the structure,
the pupils make it and the conversation follows.
In the third kind of work a child is allowed to build
as he chooses, and often requires more than his eight
cubes. When this occurs, the other children are led to
assist by lending the cubes required, while the one
building is taught to accept the help gracefully, to return
the cubes as soon as he is done with them, and to be
ready to assist others in like cases.
In another form of this exercise, one child is the archi-
tect, while the rest act as laborers.
What things are gained by these last exercises?
In designing, the same rules apply as in building.
Designing differs from building in that in the first
the cubes form only one layer on the table, making pat-
terns, or forms of symmetry. Everything is developed
from the square, and all designs that can be made by
the moving of the upper square are completed before the
lower square is moved. Each move is as slight as pos-
sible, and always by exact measurement.
The principle of teaching involved in these rules of designing?
How may music be taught by means of the third gift?
How does this gift supplement and react upon the family
and its training?
How does it prepare for the school?
In what work of the primary school may this gift be used to
advantage?
118 THE THEORY OF THE SCHOOL.
FOURTH GIFT.
This gift, like the third, is a box containing a cube
divided into eight equal parts. The parts are not cubes,
however, but are oblongs, each measuring two inches in
length, one in width, and one- half of an inch in thick-
ness.
The difference between this gift and the previous one
lies in the jorm of the parts, and the likeness in the
number of the parts.
Indicate the diflference.
The mediative of gifts three and four is seen when
two cubes of the third gift are placed together so as to
form a rectangle ; the rectangle is equal in length and
width to the tablet of the fourth gift, and in width and
height to a cube of the third. The mediative also exists
in either gift — both forming when wholes, cubes of equal
size.
The work with this gift is similar to that of gift three :
comparison, number, building, and design.
The same exercises are taken in number as in the
previous gift, and the fractional names, half, quarter,
eighth, are applied to the new divisions of the cube.
What is the effect of continuing similar exercises with dif-
ferent forms ?
The forms in building are, as before, those of knowl-
edge, utility, and beauty. The forms differ consider-
ably from those produced with the cubes, and give rise
to conversations concerning a greater range of subjects.
THE THEORY OF THE SCHOOL. 119
For instance, two or more slabs leaning against each
other form a tent.
This introduces a conversation about those who live
in tents, why they do so, where the tent is usually
pitched, etc. The children may, then, in imagination,
travel with some Arab family ; or have told to them the
story of Gemila, the child of the Desert — one of The
Seven Little Sisters ; or consider some early Bible story.
Three or four slabs will form a cavern, and thus lead
to a talk concerning caves. If the contents of several
boxes are combined, buildings of increased size and
complexity may be produced. Thus, a farm with its
yards, stables, cow sheds, barn, carriage house, etc., may
be represented. The name and use of each part, the
habits of the animals, etc., are considered. A shop or
manufactory may be treated in the same manner. If
each tablet is made to represent a store or shop, a street
may be represented, and the children may be led to
converse as to the contents of the stores, their prices
and uses, where and how obtained, etc.
In designing the oblongs are laid flat and symmetri-
cally. The rules for designing, as well as those for build-
ing, are the same as for gift three. The peculiar powers
of the oblong, as distinct from those of the cube, arise
from the fact that it has narrow sides and ends, and
that it may be made to stand on either of these. If
upon the narrow edge of one tablet, another is put upon
its broad side, the law of equilibium is illustrated ; if
all of the tablets are arranged in a row, with a
small space between each two, so that should the first
120 THE THEORY OF THE SCHOOL.
one fall, all the others will also, the law of transmitted
motion is shown.
This gift affords an admirable opportunity for the
legitimate exercise of the child's natural propensity to
knock over or down its play things and buildings.
This propensity is, of course, to be kept within bounds,
and regulated ; but within its bounds it is to have due
exercise.
The act of upsetting buildings and playthings may involve
what different feelings ?
How should the propensity be treated ?
How does this gift supplement and react upon the family
and its work ?
How does it prepare for the school ?
In what work of the primary school may this gift be used to
advantage ?
FIFTH GIFT.
All the gifts, as previously indicated, develop from
one another. The fifth gift, like the third and fourth, is
a cube ; but for convenience it is larger than the pre-
vious ones. The cube Of the third gift is divided'once
in all directions. The natural progress is from 1 to 2 ;
hence, the cube of the fifth gift is divided twice in each
direction. The result is twenty-seven cubes of equal
size. But as this division would only have multiplied,
not diversified the occupation material, it was deemed
best to introduce a new element, by subdividing some
of the cubes in a slanting direction. Heretofore, only
perpendicular and horizontal lines have been used.
These opposites, however, require their meditative; and
this meditative has already appeared in the forms of life
THE THEORY OF THE SCHOOL. 121
and of beauty in the two previous gifts, when side and
edge were made to touch.
The slanting direction appearing in that manner inci-
dentally, becomes here permanent by introducing the
oblique line by a division of the cube. Three of the
small cubes of the fifth gift are divided into half cubes,
and three into quarter cubes, so that there are twenty-
one whole cubes, six half cubes, and twelve quarter
cubes — constituting a gift of thirty-nine pieces.
The first practice with this gift is like that with the
others introduced thus far. The gift is measured. It is
then compared and contrasted with the other gifts in all
points. The children then deal with number in con-
nection with it — the gift obviously affording a wide
field.
By these exercises the child becomes familiar enough
with the gift to employ it for the production of various
forms of use, beauty and knowledge, in building and
design.
The main condition in these last exercises, as before
indicated, is that for each representation the whole of the
material is to be employed; not that only one object
should be built, but that having built one structure, the
remaining pieces, if any, are to be used so as to represent
accessory parts. The child should be constantly re-
minded that nothing belonging to a whole can be super-
fluous. Nor should it be forgotten that nothing should
be destroyed, but everthing produced by rebuilding. It
is advisable to always start from the figure of the cube.
122 THE THEORY OF THE SCHOOL.
How does the gift supplement and react upon the family and
its work ?
How does it prepare for the school ?
In what work of the primary school may this gift he used to
advantage ?
SIXTH GIFT.
As the third and fifth gifts form an especial sequence
of development, so the fourth and sixth are intimately
connected with each other. The sixth gift contains
twenty-seven oblong blocks of the same dimensions as
those of the fourth gift. Of these twenty-seven blocks,
eighteen are whole, six are (iivided breadthwise, each
into two squares, and three by a lengthwise cut, each
in two columns, altogether making thirty-six pieces.
This gift differs from the fifth in the shape and in the
number of the parts, and in being capable of being made
into a greater variety ^^of forms of perception, of utility,
and of beauty or art. The sixth gift completes the
groups of bodies^ the succeeding mediums of occupation
representing surface, line and point.
The succeeding exercises are: Pattern -laying with
wooden planes; paper -folding; paper-cutting; lath-plat-
ting; stick-laying; ring-laying; thread-laying; construc-
tion with sticks and softened peas; paper-plaiting;
paper-pricking (not much used); stitching; drawing;
coloring ; modelling in clay.
The relation existing between the kindergarten and
other education is shown by the following diagram,
adapted from the table by A. De Portugall :
THE THEORY OF THE SCHOOL.
123
Third funda-
mental form—
The Cylinder.
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Second fundamental form-
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Philosophy
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CHAPTER VI.
THE SCHOOL.
••What you would put into the life of a nation you must first put into the
schools."
"What constitutes a State? Men, high-minded men ; men who their duties
know, and knowing dare perform."
THE GROUND OF THE SCHOOL. *
<g|HE state may be viewed as including the family
^ and civil society. It may be viewed as a means
whereby the family and civil society are possible ; as the
agent which creates, defines and protects them. But
the existence of these institutions in any degree of per-
fection, is made possible to the people through the
training given in obtaining possession of literature, sci-
ence and art.
Take from the people the training given in obtaining
knowledge of the common branches and they would
be not merely children, but barbarians. All the evi-
dences of civilized life would be as difficult to interpret
as were the ships of Columbus to the Aborigines.
* WM. A. JONES.
THE THEORY OF THE SCHOOL. 125
The necessity for universal education may be seen
from the following suppositions :
1. Deprive one of his skill obtained in gaining a
knowledge of geography, and of his knowledge of the sub-
ject — the science which frees him from his limits in
space ; the science which teaches him a rational con-
ception of the earth and his relations to it; deprive
him of this skill and knowledge, and the earth becomes
to him that extent of territory which he has actually
perceived.
2. Take from one his development obtained through
a knx)wledge of history, the subject that frees him from
his limitations in time, and reveals to him the struggle
of the human soul towards its goal — freedom — the sub-
ject which reveals to him the antecedent events which
he has unconsciously taken up into his own life ; take
from one the result of this knowledge and he is limited
to the events of his own narrow observation.
3. Take from one his discipline arising from the
effort to gain a knowledge of arithmetic^ and the know-
ledge, necessarily thus acquired, and it is impossible for
him to effect exchanges except in a sensuous equivalent ;
such a thing as a note of hand, a bank note, or a bill of
exchange is an incomprehensible object to him.
4. Take from one his ability to read, and he is lim-
ited to the narrow range of his own experience.
The rich treasures of the past are his only who takes
possession of them.
From these few statements it may be seen that the
very existence of a highly civilized state is conditioned
on the universal education of the people.
126 THE THEORY OF THE SCHOOL.
Universal education in the wide sense in which it has
been defined, is the means by which the people may
attain their destiny — freedom.
The state is created as a special institution whose end
is "to ascertain, define, and enforce what is right and to
prohibit what is wrong."
The state in the exercise of its functions creates the
school as a necessary means for the education of all : for
giving that education, intellectual and moral, which
will enable the individual to join himself to the various
parts of the social organization, and to participate in
the substantial enjoyment of the freedom which they
afibrd.
The ground of the school is the necessity of the people
for training by employing the elements of learning as
an exercise-ground. The state creates the school as a
means to meet this necessity — a necessity which no
other institution can meet.
THE IDEA OF THE SCHOOL,
This will be presented under form and purpose.
FORM.
As an institution created by the state, the school must
have a legal form. This form is delineated in the whole
body of school laws of the state.
1. The form of the school in Indiana is called "The
School System of Indiana."
{(1) Ungraded Schools.
(2) Township Graded Schools.
(3) Town and City Schools.
(4) Indiana State Normal School.
THE THEORY OF THE SCHOOL.
127
. XT , ,^c . f (1) State University.
*. University System. | ' '
(2) Purdue University.
c. Special Schools.
(1) Charitable
(2) Refonnatory
(«) School for the Blind.
(3) School for Deaf Mutes.
{c) Soldiers' Orphans' Home.
(«) Girls' Reformatory.
(*) Boys' Reformatory.
2. The common school system is administered by
the following officers :
(1) state Superintendent of Public Instuction.
(a) Governor of State.
(3) Superintendent of Public In-
struction.
(2) Board of J (^) Presidents of State University,
Eduction State Normal and Purdue Uni-
versity.
(</) Superintendents of schoolsof the
three largest cities of the State.
I. General Officers.
t. Special Officers.
(1) In Ungraded
Schools.
(2) In Township Grad-
ed Schools.
{a) County Superintendent.
(3) County Board of Educa-
cation.
(c) Township Trustee.
{d) Director.
(*) Teacher.
{;
) Township Trustee.
{i) Teacher.
(3) In City and Town
Schools.
(a) Board of Trustees.
(*) City Superintendent,
(f) Teachers,
(4) In State Normal
School
(6) In State University
(6) In Purdue Unlver
sity.
{i;
) Board of Trustees.
{i) President and Faculty.
) Board of Trustees.
(*) President and Faculty.
) Board of Trustees.
(*) President and Faculty.
128 THE THEORY OF THE SCHOOL.
STATE SUPERINTENDENT.
1. Election : At a general election by the qualified
voters of the state.
2. Time of taking office : Fifteenth day of March
succeeding his election.
3. Term of office : Two years.
4. Office how filled in case of death, resignation, or
removal : By appointment by the Governor of the State.
5. Duties of office :
a. Takes general charge of the schools of the state
and supervises the management of the school funds and
revenues.
h. Visits every county once in two years, confers
with officers, and makes public addresses.
c. Receives reports concerning proceeds of state
school tax, and interest on school fund from County
Auditors, and statistical reports from County Superin-
tendents.
d. Apportions the school revenue for tuition to
counties in proportion to the number of school children
therein.
e. Hears appeals from decisions of County Super-
intendents, and gives opinions concerning the [school
law.
/. Makes annual reports and causes school law to
be published.
g. Is Trustee of the State Normal School, and
President of State Board of Education.
STATE BOARD OF EDUCATION— DUTIES.
The Board forms an advisory council of the State
Superintendent. It issues instructions to County Su-
THE THEORY OF THE SCHOOL. 129
perintendents, and prepares questions for the use of
County Superintendents in the monthly examination of
teachers.
It examines candidates for state license, and issues
certificates for life to such as are competent and have
had forty-eight months successful experience.
It appoints trustees of the State University, and the
visitors to the State Normal School. It commissions
High Schools to send graduates to State University,
Purdue University, and State Normal School without
examination.
COUNTY SUPERINTENDENT.
1. How appointed : By the Township Trustees at a
meeting held at the County Auditor's office on the first
Monday in June.
2. Term of office : Two years.
3. Duties:
a. To examine all applicants for license as teach-
ers of the schools of the state by a series of written or
printed questions.
b. To hold at least one public examination in
each month of the year.
c. To revoke, when required, licenses granted by
him or his predecessors.
d. To take general superintendence of the schools
of his county.
e. To attend each Township Institute at least
once in each year.
/. To encourage teachers* institutes and associa-
tions, and to labor in every practicable way to elevate
10
130 THE THEORY OF THE SCHOOL.
the standard of teaching, and to improve the condition
of the schools.
g. To constitute the medium between the State
Superintendent and subordinate school officers.
Any questions arising about the school law, the opin-
ion of the County Superintendent should first be sought,
whence an appeal may be made to the State Superin-
tendent, on a written statement of facts certified to by
the County Superintendent.
h. To at all times carry out the orders of the State
Board of Education and State Superintendent of Public
Instruction.
The County Board of Education is composed of the
following persons : County Superintendent, Trustees of
the townships, Presidents of the School Boards of the
several towns and cities of the county.
TOWNSHIP TRUSTEE— DUTIES,
1. He shall receive the special school revenue, and
the revenue for tuition.
2. The Trustee shall employ and contract with
teachers, but he has no power to engage a teacher with-
out a license properly issued and in full force at the date
of the employment.
3. The Trustee is personally liable for the wages of
a teacher for services rendered under his contract with-
out examination.
PURPOSE.
The purpose of the school is to give strength and train-
ing to the will and sensibilities — ethical conduct; and to
THE THEORY OF THE SCHOOL. 131
confer knowledge, by employing it as an instrument of
moral and intellectual training — m^echanical conduct and
scholarship.
Conduct may be defined, in general, as the manner in
which one bears himself in relation to The Infinite, to
himself and to others.
In its endeavor to confer conduct, the school seeks to
prepare the pupil for self-conformity to the standard of
action in each of these relations.*
•*-»^M^^^>^
>@fife-^
CHAPTER VII.
CONDUCT.
WILL. SENSIBILITY. INTELLECT.
LiFB is three-fourths conduct : one-fourth knowledge.
Matthew Arnold.
The reward of one duty performed, is the power to fulfill another. The
idea of duty, that recognition of something to be lived for beyond the mere
satisfaction of self, is to the moral life what the addition of a great central
ganglion is to animal life. No one can begin to mold himself on a faith or
an idea without rising to a higher order of experience: a principle of sub-
ordination, of self-mastery, has been introduced into his nature : he is no
longer a mere bundle of impressions, desires, and impulses.
George Eliot.
CONDUCT IN RELATION TO THE INFINITE.
<^N SO far as the school takes a part in grounding
^ the child in his duty in this relation, it is usually
through the medium of the devotional exercises of the
school.
The work of the opening exercises may be viewed in
two ways :
1. As intellectual.
2. As moral.
As intellectual it is subject to the same laws as other
branches of instruction. The child will not attend to
the instruction with the reverence due, merely from its
THE THEORY OF THE SCHOOL. 133
own pre-eminent importance. Therefore, as before
stated, the same conditions under which he yields his
attention when being educated by means of reading,
geography, etc., must be observed when this, the highest
of all subjects, is being considered.
a. The conditions for securing attention explained.
b. The ones that apply to opening exercises indicated.
But, as stated, the opening exercises have a moral as-
pect also — the implanting of the germs of love and rev-
erence. This is the higher aspect. No one who deals
with this phase of school work, will contemplate an aim
lower than this.
TNE DESIGN.
The design of parental training is, first of all, to lead
the child to see that he is the object of parental love,
and to foster in him sentiments of love, trust, and obedi-
ence in return.
The design of opening exercises should be to impress
the child with a sense of God's parental love and pres-
ence, so as to arouse in him sentiments of filial love and
reverence for God.
THE BASIS.
Basis in general explained.
The true basis for this important work must be that
love and reverence which dwell amid the sentiments,
examples, and associations of home.
The idea of God as The Father must be made the cen-
tral one. To this all the others must be subordinated,
and it must give life and light to them all.
134 ' THE THEORY OP THE SCHOOL.
The child's knowledge of home relations and this cen-
tral idea of God as a Heavenly parent, form an amply-
sufficient basis for that series of lessons extending
through the early years of school, in which the pupils
may be led to understand the love, reverence, and obedi-
ence due to the Divine Being in His benign aspects ; as,
1. The creator and preserver of all.
2. All-knowing and ever-present.
3. Endowed with wisdom, holiness, truth and good-
ness.
4. The infinitely kind and generous Ruler and
Father in His future and eternal home.
Obedience and happiness are the ideas of the child's
early existence, and therefore this is the aspect of the
divine character which he can comprehend, for it is the
same in its kind as that relation in which he is con-
scious of standing to his earthly parents. In the words,
"Our Father who art in heaven," is found the whole
groundwork of that love and reverence which it is the
aim of the opening exercises to instill. These words
are worthy from their inexhaustible depth of meaning
and fullness of obligation to preface that model prayer
which was uttered for us by the Divine Teacher.
Let prominence be given to the idea of '^ Father j^^ and
the pupils may be led to see : —
That He provides lovingly and carefully for His chil-
dren.
That when He sees His children in danger He rescues
them from it.
That they may cherish the elevating hope of an eter-
THE THEORY OF THE SCHOOL. 136
nal life, for they will naturally look upon a father as
unwilling to bestow life upon his children in order after-
wards to destroy them.
That they should render unto Him all the love, rever-
ence, and obedience which are due to a father.
Let the thought be centered upon ^^our^] and it will be
evident that His love and care are over not merely one,
but all the members of his countless family, and there-
fore that they ought to dwell together in unity and love.
Dwell upon the phase "m heaven,^^ and they will un-
derstand that He is all-wise, holy, and good.
That they should seek to be like him, and to know
and do His will.
That if they render unto Him a fitting love, rever-
ence, and obedience, they will dwell with Him in that
abode of peace and joy.
The opening exercises in the early years of school life
as in later years, may consist of singing, lessons on the
Sacred Word, or on topics closely connected therewith,
and prayer.
THE METHOD.
The child will best apprehend the work of the open-
ing exercises when presented by the method of illustra-
tion, and not explanation proper. (See chapter ix.)
It will therefore be readily seen that the main chan-
nels of instruction in this work as based upon the Holy
Writ, are three :
1. Narration including biography.
2. Emblems.
3. Parables.
136 THE THEORY OF THE SCHOOL.
Having indicated the three channels along which the
instruction should flow, it remains —
1. To speak briefly of the nature of each.
2. To designate the steps peculiar to each.
B. To furnish an illustration.
NARRATION.
' NATURE.
Biography always interests and instructs the child,
whenever he is susceptible of instuction at all, because
it appeals directly to his experience. And of biogra-
phies, there are few if any, more highly interesting and
instructive than those of the Bible, both on account of
the admirable simplicity with which they are deline-
ated, and of the unerpng standard of conduct by which
all the actions which they record, are tried.
STEPS.
When the truth to be conveyed by the opening exer-
cises is expressed in the form of narration, the steps
should be : —
1. To read the account to the children, or to tell the
story in one's own words, as in familiar conversation,
depending on the power of description to impress the
pictures vividly on the mind.
2. To lead the pupils to note the most important
features.
3. To lead them to exercise their judgment concern-
ing these features.
4. To lead them to apply the conclusion to them-
selves.
THE THEORY OF THE SCHOOL. 137
5. To lead them to express the main thought in a
Bible precept or maxim.
ILLUSTRATION.
THE SEPARATION OF ABRAM AND LOT.
Gen. XIII. 5-13: "And Lot also, which went with
Abram had flocks and herds and tents.
And the land was not able to bear them that they
might dwell together ; for their substance was great, so
that they could not dwell together.
And there was strife between the herdmen of Abram 's
cattle and the herdmen of Lot's cattle; and the Canaan-
ite and Perizzite dwelled then in the land.
And Abram said unto Lot, 'Let there be no strife, I
pray thee, between me and thee, and between my herd-
men and thy herdmen, for we be brethren.
Is not the whole land before thee ? Separate thyself,
I pray thee, from me. If thou wilt take the left hand
then I will go to the right ; or, if thou depart to the
right hand, then I will go to the left.'
And Lot lifted up his eyes and beheld all the plain of
Jordan, that it was well watered everywhere, before the
Lord destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah, even as the gar-
den of the Lord, like the land of Egypt as thou comest
unto Zoar. ,
Then Lot chose him all the plain of Jordan ; and Lot
journeyed east ; and they separated themselves, the one
from the other.
Abram dwelled in the land of Canaan, and Lot dwell-
ed in the cities of the plain, and pitched his tent toward
Sodom."
138 THE THEORY OF THE SCHOOL.
INTRODUCTION.
Before treating of the main subject — the separation —
lead the pupils to note carefully the persons mentioned
in the lesson ; show how they came to be traveling to-
gether ; dwell briefly upon their previous journeyings
showing that they had last been in Egypt on account
of a grievous famine and that they had now returned
out of Egypt into Canaan and had pitched their tents
at a mountain between Bethel and Hai, where Abram
had previously erected an altar and offered Sacrifices
unto the Lord ; call special attention to that which they
had with them, showing their occupation and wealth.
THE SEPARATION.
THE DIFFICULTY.
In treating of the difficulty, show that their prosperity
was in accord with God's promise as previously given to
Abram.
Gen. XII. 2; "And I will make of thee a great nation ;
and I will bless thee and make thy name great, and
thou shalt be a blessing.*'
Show in what their wealth consisted, and illustrate by
familiar observation that a grassy and well-watered re-
gion is required ; lead the pupils to see also that many
herdsmen would be required to care for the flocks; how
many, show by referring to Gen. XIV-14. ''And when
Abram heard that his brother was taken captive, he
armed his trained servants born in his own house, three
hundred and eighteen, and pursued them unto Dan."
Describe carefully the region in which they were,
THE THEORY OF THE SCHOOL. 139
with its pasturage and wells, explaining the dangers of
the situation, the place and the cause of the quarrel.
THE aCNEROSITY OF ABRAM.
Call attention to Abram's temptation, considering what
he did in connection with what ordinary men would
have done under the circumstances ; determine reasons
for his action by showing how they were related — uncle
and nephew — and that strife is always to be deprecated;
is So especially among kinsmen ; and also that Abram,
being a man of God, felt that he should set a worthy
example before the idolatrous Canaanites. Lead them
to see how he avoided the quarrel, the prudence of sep-
arating, and in addition, by referring to Gen. XII. 1-5,
show who had the better right to choose, and why.
"Now the Lord had said unto Abram, 'Get thee out
of thy country, and from thy kinsmen, and from thy
father's house, unto a land that I will shew thee; and I
will make of thee a great nation, and I will bless thee
and make thy name great, and thou shalt be a blessing;
and I will bless them that bless thee, and curse him
that curseth thee ; and in thee shall all the families of
the earth be blessed.'
And Abram departed, as the Lord had spoken unto
him, and Lot went with him ; and Abram was seventy
and five years old when he departed out of Haran."
Dwell upon the generosity and faith in God, shown
by Abram.
TMi •itritN CHOICE or lot.
I^t what Lot should have thought and done, be made
to stand out clearly against what he really thought and
140 THE THEORY OF THE SCHOOL.
did ; describe particularly the expressions, "lifted up his
eyes"— "all the way to Zoar."
Show that it was a meadow land all along Jordan,
well watered everywhere and very fertile, i. e. a garden
of the Lord ; speak of the position of Zoar.
Carefully note Lot's solicitude to choose the best for
himself, and lead them to fitly characterize his choice.
■X
THE CONSEQUENCES.
Show who would be the happier and why, by consid-
ering the thoughts ^of both, and in addition consider the
one important thing that Lot overlooked by referring to
Gen. XIII. 13. "But the men of Sodom were wicked
and sinners before the Lord exceedingly."
Then illustrate the misery of living with bad neigh-
bors even amidst plenty ; show the future troubles of
Lot from war and from the destruction of Sodom, from
both of which he was saved by Abram. Dwell upon
the disposition this shows, by considering. Gen. XIV.
1-16. Show that Abram remained where he was, con-
tented, blessed still more and more, and call especial
attention to the promise given him just after Lot's de-
parture.
Gen. XIII. 15-18: "And the Lord said unto Abram
after that Lot was separated from him, 'Lift up now
thine eyes, and look from the place where thou art,
northward and southward and eastward and westward,
for all the lands which thou seest, to thee will I give it
and to thy seed forever. And I will make thy seed as
the dust of the earth, so that if a man can number the
dust of the earth, then shall thy seed be numbered.
THE THEORY OF THE SCHOOL. 141
\rise, walk through the land in the length of it and in
;he breadth of it, for I will give it unto thee.'*
CONCLUSION.
In conclusion fix clearly three thoughts :
1. That one should live peaceably with all, especial-
y with brethren. Illustrate by their school-life and
lave them learn the following :
Psalms CXXXIII: "Behold how good and how pleas-
int it is for brethren to dwell together in unity! It is
ike the precious ointment upon the head that ran down
apon the beard, even Aaron's beard that went down to
he skirts of his garments ; as the dew of Hermon and
he dew that descended upon the mountains of Zion ;
or there the Lord commanded the blessing, even life
brever more."
Romans XIL 18; "If it be possible, as much as lieth
n you, live peaceably with all men."
2. That those who know what is right ought to set
I good example to others as Abram did.
Illustrate by their school life and have them learn :
Matt. V. 16: "Let your light so shine before men,
ihat they may see your good works and glorify your
P'ather which is in heaven."
3. That one should be generous and not selfish ;
,he one leading to happiness and the other to misery.
Illustrate by their school life and have them learn :
Malt. VII. 12.- "Therefore, all things whatsoever ye
«rould that men should do unto you, do ye even so unto
;hem ; for this is the law and the prophets."
142 THE THEORY OF THE SCHOOL.
Romans XII. 10; "Be kindly affectioned one to
another with brotherly love; in honor preferring one
another."
EMBLEMS. *
NATURE.
Emblems are not only very numerous, but they con-
vey all the encouragements, hopes, duties, and experi-
ences of the Christian life ; while they are quickly and
pleasantly learned and easily retained, from the concise-
ness of their statement, the aptness of illustration, and
the interesting associations suggested by them. There
are no parts of Scripture, moreover, that more readily
occur to one, or are more welcome guests to the imagi-
nation amidst the busy scenes of life.
EXAMPLES.
1. Old Testament.
"The Lord is my Shepherd."
"The name of the Lord is a strong tower."
"We all do fade as a leaf."
"As a hart panteth for the water-brooks, so panteth
my soul for Thee, God."
"Keep me as the apple of Thine eye."
"The righteous shall flourish as the palm tree."
"I will be as the dew unto Israel."
2. New Testament.
"Ye are the salt of the earth."
"All flesh is grass."
"Put on the whole armor of God.''
* STOW'S BIBLE EMBLEMS.
THE THEORY OF THE SCHOOL. 143
The method with a lesson on a Scripture emblem is
comprised of two steps : —
1. The natural image or object of reference in the
figure must first be fully illustrated in itself; as fully as
is required for the use which is to be made of it. The
length of the illustration will depend upon the nature
of the object.
Sometimes the image is exclusively oriental or trop-
ical, as in "The righteous shall flourish as the palm
tree,'' in which case, since it would be remote from the
experience of the pupil, detailed illustration would be
required to bring it before him with anything of its
original force. Sometimes again the image is, in itself,
as significant to him as it was to those to whom it was
originally addressed, as in "Ye are the salt of the
earth."
The more clearly and forcibly the image is impressed
on the pupil's mind, the broader will be the foundation
for the second step.
2. The image should be given the spiritual inter-
pretion.
In this second step lies the greatest diflficulty, which
is the avoidance on the one hand of the presentation of
the spiritual emblem in terms too vague to be of any
practical value ; on the other hand, an avoidance of an
overstraining of the analogy, by pursuing it in direc-
tions in which it does not hold ; the effect of which is
to weaken the force of the truth which the emblem
inculcates.
144 THE THEORY OP THE SCHOOL.
ILLUSTRATION.
"I WILL BE AS THE DEW UNTO ISRAEL."
INTRODUCTION.
Under the introduction, the teacher might speak of a
walk in the fields on a summer morning ; the surprise
on finding the shoes all wet, on a clear, dry, warm
morning; call attention to the cause of this— the dew ;
discuss the manner of its formation.
NATURAL IMAGE.
THE REFRESHING POWER OF THE DEW.
Show that among other things, moisture, obtained
principally from rain, is required for the growth of
plants ; that sometimes, however, there are long and hot
dry seasons in which the plants would be scorched ;
lead the pupils to see that moisture is required frequent-
ly and regularly, and that while the gardener might
water the delicate flower, this would be impossible with
the grass and grain of the wide fields ; but that this
office is filled by the gentle dew by keeping all vegeta-
tion fresh, green and full of sap, when otherwise it
would wither and die.
Speak then, of the rainy and dry seasons of the East
and the greater strength of the sun's heat there, and the
longer drought; show that therefore, a greater amount
of dew is there required, and that it is deposited in
greater quantities; so much greater that often little
water-courses are filled with it, as they are in our regions
after a rain, and tell how much in such countries the
dew is valued.
THE THEORY OF THE SCHOOL. 145
THE SILENT ACTION OF THE DEW.
Call the attention of the pupils to the fact that even
when they are busy at home or at school, they can
know of the coming and presence of rain, from seeing
it, or from the sound of the drops, but even were they
watching, they could not notice the coming of the dew ;
but that in the morning they may know of its presence;
picture to them the dew as collecting gradually, silently
and invisibly on the plants.
SPIRITUAL TRUTH.
THE BLESSING OF GOD IS LIKE THE DEW.
Call attention again to the languishing flowers, and
show that animals and people also languish, and require
rest to refresh them. Present the idea that human
beings have things to weary them other than toil, i.e.,
pain, anxiety, and grief, from various causes, and that
time and the comfort of friends tend to relieve them
from these.
Then consider another cause of weariness and anxie-
ty — the sense of sin or wrong-doing in their relations to
God. Illustrate how this oppresses them when they
afterwards reflect upon it. Lead them to see that God,
as their Heavenly Father, will refresh them and make
them glad and hopeful again, just as the plants are re-
vived and refreshed by the dew.
OOO** BCIMINM COMC IM SlkCNCC, LIKE THE OfW.
Call attention to some of the chief blessings of life,
and show that some people do not look upon them as
146 THE THEORY OF THE SCHOOL.
blessings at all, but as things that belong to them. Con-
sider God's promises to those in distress, and show that
he fulfills them and sends his gifts upon all, as the dew
comes, invisibly and in silence.
CONCLUSION.
Under the conclusion, lead the pupils to see that all
should be animated by the feelings of love, reverence,
and obedience toward the Heavenly Father, and that
they should look to Him in all difficulties and look with
confidence. Consider the advantages of being His
people.
Hosea XIV. 1-7: "0 Israel, return unto the Lord thy
God ; for thou hast fallen by thine iniquity. Take with
you words and turn to the Lord, say unto Him, 'Take
away all iniquity and receive us graciously, so will we
render the calves of our lips. Asshur shall not save us ;
we will not ride upon horses, neither will we say any
more to (he work of our hands, Ye are our gods ; for in
Thee the fatherless findeth mercy. I will heal their
backsliding, I will love them freely, for mine anger is
turned away from him. I will be as the dew unto
Lsrael; he shall grow as the lily and cast forth his roots
as Lebanon. His branches shall spread and his beauty
shall be as the olive tree, and his smell as Lebanon.
They that dwell under the shadow shall return ; they
shall revive as the corn and grow as the vine ; the scent
thereof shall be as the wines of Lebanon."
Read and explain the above seven verses and cause
the pupils to learn the last three.
THE THEORY OF THE SCHOOL. 147
PARABLES. *
NATURE.
It would be somewhat difficult to give any definition
of a parable to which reasonable exception might not
be taken, on account of the great variety of construc-
tion existing among the compositions which pass under
that name. But if such a definition could be framed
it would not greatly serve the present purpose, which is
not so much to find the correct theory of their structure
£is it is to determine the best method of presenting them
so as to bring out their full force and beauty.
The method of teaching the parables ought to be
made both interesting and instructive. ^
The parables themselves are interesting, because the
mind, even of the unenlightened, readily apprehends
and retains such representations as they embody, from
their dealing with things similar to those of actual
experience. The Son of God addressed them to audi-
ences which were often ignorant, and when not ignorant,
unfriendly — if not openly hostile; yet it is evident,
from various indications, that interest and attention
were always aroused when He spoke in parables.
Much more are they suited to enlist the interest and
attention of children, who always turn from the abstract
to the concrete, from the general principle to the par-
ticular action embodying it.
The parables, besides being interesting, are always in-
structive. They are devoted to unfolding the great
moral duties of religion, the performance of which is at
*TBBMCH ON THE PABABLKS.
148 THE THEORY OF THE SCHOOL.
once the test and end of true religion. They all have
an extremely practical purpose, and they are wonder-
fully fertile in suggestions. It is not only their one
leading lesson that is enforced on us; numerous inci-
dental lessons spring up as we advance from part to
part of the narration. Moreover, they are all as appli-
cable to present circumstances as to the circumstances
of those to whom they were first addressed. None of
them are obsolete ; all are as fresh as when they fell
from the lips of the Great Teacher. They rouse our
sympathies as much as they did those of the men of
olden times. And they will arouse the sympathies of
men under any of the conditions of human life as much
as they do ours, because the incidents they build upon
occur in the life of every society, and because the ele-
ments of character and the affections to which they
appeal are the same at all times and in all places.
STEPS.
In indicating the lines which the method should fol-
low, it will be sufficient to notice the one leading feature
of the parable, i.e., that it has two distinct aspects — the
one literal, and the other figurative and spiritual ; and
that the spiritual is conveyed by the analogy of the lit-
eral representation.
Viewed in the one light, a parable is a story setting
forth some incident in nature or in human life, real or
imaginary, and having an interpretation complete in
itself
Viewed in the other light, it is the language of sym-
bol, teaching duty to God and man.
THE THEORY OF THE SCHOOL. 149
In the presentation of the parable, the steps are there-
fore two : —
1. To make clear the literal idea.
2. To present the spiritual truth of which the literal
idea is the symbol.
All explanations necessary to the comprehension of
the incidents should be given in connection with the
first step, e.g., explanations in regard to the geography
of the scene, or the manners and customs to which refer-
ence is made — that they may not afterwards interrupt
the interpretation.
This first step ought to possess the merit of being
clear and graphic, so as to impress the pupil's imagina-
tion.
In the second step — the presentation of the spiritual
truth — the story should be taken part by part, and each
portion have clearly attached to it the spiritual meaning
of which it is the symbol.
In dealing with the parable, as well as in dealing with
the emblem, there are two dangers peculiar to the sec-
ond step.
The first, as before, is vagueness, arising generally from
the teacher's not apprehending with sufficient clearness
and force the precise aim of the parable. This will lead
to the attempt to make it teach a great many things;
but it will result in causing it to teach nothing in par-
ticular.
The second danger, as before also, is an overstraining
of the analogy, which results from pressing the story too
far into detail, which will end in a distortion [of the
150 THE THEORY OF THE SCHOOL.
spiritual truth, when the attempt is made to carry out
the parallel between it and the literal side. If the parable
has been well illustrated in the first step, as it should be,
the reflections which it suggests will be such that no
minute or indirect inference will be justified. The over-
ruling point in connection with the second step is to see
that the spiritual truth is distinctly and impressively
brought forth. The test of success in teaching the para-
ble is the force and clearness with which the practical
conclusions, which are deduced from it, are brought to
hear on the home and school suroundings of the pupils.
It is to but little purpose that the story is graphically
presented in the first step, or that the inferences drawn
from it in the second step are just, if the duty which it
is designed to impress is not brought to bear with clear-
ness and force upon the consciences of the pupils.
Let the teacher habitually lead them to look upon the
truth which the parable conveys as a truth to be receiv-
ed into their hearts, and to be held there as a life-long
influence.
To aid in this, as a concluding step, the parable should
be committed to memory.
ILLUSTRATION.
Matt. XIII. 33. "Another parable spake He unto
them : 'The kingdom of heaven is like unto leaven,
which a woman took and hid in three measures of meal,
till the whole was leavened.' "
Luke XIII. 20-21. "And again He said : 'Whereunto
shall I liken the kingdom of God ? It is like leaven
THE THEORY OF THE SCHOOL. 151
which a woman took and hid in three measures of meal,
till the whole was leavened.' "
INTRODUCTION.
Under the introduction, first question the pupils on
materials used in bread-making and the process of mak-
ing the dough ; call especial attention to an additional
element and its office — the yeast or leaven ; note its
effect — a change next morning in the dough in appear-
ance and taste, in every part and particle.
Under the introduction, in the second place, read the
parable.
THE STORY.
Under the story or literal part, call attention to the
meaning of "^?'d," the amount of flour or meal, and
show how much three measures were and that this was
the quantity commonly used. See
Gen. XVIII. 6: "And Abraham hastened into the
tent unto Sarah, and said, 'Make ready quickly three
measures of fine meal, knead it, and make cakes upon
the hearth.'"
Speak then of the use of water, and then of the leaven,
noting specially that the change requires time, and by
referring to the introduction illustrate the nature of the
change, dwelling upon the ideas that it is both gradual
and complete.
INTERPRETATION.
THE OHANOI. *
Show that by a change in the dough is meant a spirit-
ual change in ourselves; try to lead the pupils to see in
a general sense, what that change must be ; by appeal-
152 THE THEORY OF THE SCHOOL.
ing to their experience, show that all at times do wrong,
illustrating by referring to particular acts or thoughts,
and that therefore all are sinful ; show how a Father of
infinite love and kindness must regard this, and that
before we can come into harmony with Him, and ac-
complish the purpose of our lives, we must be changed,
just as the dough must be changed before it becomes
bread.
THE CAUSE OF THE CHANGE.
Show, first, that it is likened to the leaven, and that,
therefore, the ^''kingdom of heaven''' must mean something
felt on earth among men, for Jesus was speaking of
men; convey the idea that it is the love of God in our
hearts, or the love and kindness toward all, which
animates us; refer to the love the pupils bear to their
parents and brothers and sisters, showing how it influ-
ences their whole home conduct, giving, if possible,
some illustrations; so, if we feel love and reverence
toward God, we shall do what will meet with His ap-
proval, and shall be kindly disposed toward all.
THE CHANGE IS GRADUAL.
Lead the pupil to think of the appearance of the
dough, if it were examined at short intervals after the
leaven was put in ; show that the woman had to wait
for the change, not in doubt, but certain that it would
occur in time. From this go to the thought that no one
can change himself all at once, referring to some habit
to illustrate the difficulty of changing and the time
needed; advancing the idea that if we are animated by
love and reverence toward God, and growing out of that,
THE THEORY OF THE SCHOOL. 153
by kindness for all, we shall be changed by degrees, first
one bad habit and then another; first one bad thought
and then another, as life passes along, until the change
is entire, impressing the idea that however slow and im-
perceptible, it is, under those circumstances, sure.
THE CHANGE COMPLETE.
Lead the pupils to think of the condition of the dough
when the woman came back to it, showing that so entire
was the change that even tliose portions furthest from
the center, where the leaven was put in, had been
changed ; enforce the idea that this must be the nature
of the change ip us ; that every bad act, bad word, bad
thought, even the secret ones, must be given up.
CONCLUSION.
Under the conclusion, or practical part, show first
that all need to be changed ; that all can obtain the thing
needed to change us; that it is love and reverence for
the Heavenly Father, alone, which can make the change,
and that therefore all ought to seek to know Him, and
to love and reverence, and to obey Him.
Under the conclusion, or practical part, show, in the
second place, what our conduct will be if we are ani-
mated by love and reverence for Him; that we shall
avoid sinful acts, and shall grow better day by day.'*
SUGGESTIVE EXERCISES.
The following, prepared by the teachers of the respective
gratles in the Training School, indicates the work in opening
exercises as given by them: It will be seen that the work
bears upon conduct in all three relations.
*KKV. JAMBB CUBEIE.
154 THE THEORY OF THE SCHOOL
FIRST AND SECOND GRADES.
The opening exercises in a primary school should be short,
suited to the child's comprehension, varied from day to day
and sufficiently interesting to hold the complete attention.
The great object in view will be defeated if the child is made
to feel that he is receiving moral instruction; it is not necessary
that each selection read or story told should be "pointed with
a moral." Let the story be told in simple, forcible language ;
let the selection be from an honest, consistent author, who
understands the child's nature and needs, and the moral will
impress itself without aid.
Those exercises should be employed which have in view both
instruction and moral training.
Collect a series of facts and anecdotes from the lives of good
people, each of which shall teach some important lesson, such
as: — patience truthfulness, bravery, kindness to people and
animals, self-denial, heroism, patriotism, generosity, etc. If pos-
sible, obtain a rehable picture of the person who lorms the sub-
ject of the lesson. Let the children handle it, if it be small ; if
large, hang it upon the wall where it can be easily seen. (Har-
per's Weekly will occasionally furnish a portrait. Holiday cat-
alogues of books will do the same).
While the portrait and name are becoming familiar, relate
the anecdotes or facts selected. If an author forms the subject
of the sketch, read from his writings. Thus the children will
associate the face, the character and the product of his pen.
Such characters may be selected as:
George Washington, Putnam, Benjamin Franklin, J. G.
Whittier, H.W. Longfellow, Abraham Lincoln, Hans Andersen,
Louise Alcott, Mary Mapes Dodge, Lucy Larcom, etc.
At the proper time there may be associated with their author,
the "Scrap Bag" stories, chapters from "Little Men" and "Little
Women;" ''Merry Rhymes and Jingles" with Mary Mapes
Dodge; "Fairy Tales" with Hans Andersen; etc.
THE THEORY OF THE SCHOOL. 155
Whittier and Lucy Larcom have each a collection of poems
for children.
A series of articles entitled "Stories About Favorite Authors"
in *'Our Little Men and Women," will be found useful. "Baby-
land," "St. Nicholas," "Wide-Awake" and the "Independent"
will furnish good material, as will "Our Children's Songs," a
book of carefully selected poems. From the study of the char-
acters suggested, the attention may be turned to the life of
Christ, as presented in the New Testament. The study may
begin with his childhood, and the interest be heightened by a
description of the manners and customs of the time as diflfer-
ing from our own. Having studied Him, His words and teach-
ings will gain additional interest. The Lord's Prayer should be
explained and committed by the pupils. Many of the parables
can be understood and their truth impressed.
A series of texts (arranged in alphabetical order to assist the
memory) may be taught the pupils, each text being the subject
of a lesson, or a series of lessons. The meaning of the text
should be thoroughly understood by the pupils before it is
formulated, otherwise, as is often true, the words alone remain
in the memory, and are like an empty shell, the rich kernel
being overlooked.
Through these texts may be taught : —
Love to God, to parents, to all things created.
That we must obey Him if we wish Him to love us.
That He wishes us to love Him.
That we must be honest in thought, word and deed, etc.
THIRD AND FOURTH GRADES.
The opening exercises consist of singing devotional songs,
repetition of the Lord's Prayer, Bible verses, alphabetically ar-
ranged, alternating with the Twenty-third Psalm or Ten Com-
mandments and the morning lesson.
The Lord's Prayer and the psalm may be sung as a chant for
variety.
156 THE THEORY OF THE SCHOOL.
BIBLE VERSES.
These verses are selected by the pupils in the following man-
ner : —
Each child is prepared, on a certain day, with a Bible verse
beginning with "a."
The children select the child's verse which they can most
easily understand.
Examples : — "A good name is rather to be chosen than great
riches, and loving favor rather than silver and gold." "Do
unto others as you would have others do unto you." "Even a
child is known by his doings, whether his works be pure, or
whether they be right." "Lying lips are abomination to the
Lord, but they that speak truly are his delight."
After the selection has been made the pupils are allowed to
give their own thought of its meaning.
The teacher, by illustration, makes the meaning more plain.
Illustration : — "Go to the ant, thou sluggard, consider her
ways, and be wise ; which, having no guide, overseer or ruler,
provideth her meat in the summer and gathereth her food in
the harvest."
Lead pupils to observe the ant-hill ; tell them about its won-
derful structure, its builders, their queen, workers and warriors.
Give a vivid picture of the sluggard.
Lead the pupils to apply the meaning to themselves.
The work on the ant can be done for rest work on the pre-
vious day.
MORNING LESSON.
This lesson consists in a portion of a Bible story, read or told
by the teacher, in simple attractive language.
Last year the teacher selected one story for each month,
occasionally changing the story for a parable or emblem, or had
the children select and commit verses containing certain
thoughts ; as love, truth, obedience, etc. Birthday verses, the
longest and shortest verse, also give pleasing variety.
THE THEORY OF THE SCHOOL. 157
MANNER OF PROCEDURE.
1. Read or narrate a portion of the story.
2. Question pupils on the leading points.
3. Lead the pupils to give their own thoughts of its mean-
ing and application.
4. Write upon the board the Bible precept found in or sug-
gested by the lesson.
5. After the entire story has been given, let the children
give or write the story, and its lesson to them.
Each day allow one or more of the pupils to give the story of
the previous day, in order that they may more plainly see the
connection between the old and the new. Show pictures rep-
resenting the scene, when possible. Make all descriptions
vivid and real.
The following stories were taken last year in the order given: —
1. The Garden and Its Inhabitants.
2. Joseph and His Brethren.
3. The Wandering Children of Israel. Balaam's Parables.
4 Gideon.
5. Samson, Samuel and Saul.
6 The Shepherd Boy that Became a King.
7. Solomon and the Queen of Sheba. Emblem — Consider
the lilies, etc.
8. Queen Esther.
9. Daniel.
10. The Great Teacher.
The following gives the division of the first story for each day
of the month :
The Garden and its Inhabitants.
a. Description, as given beautifully by Rothingham, in
Ills "Stories of the Patriarchs."
6. Outside the Gate.
c. Quarrel of the First Brothers.
d. Death of Abel. Cain's Flight.
e. The Ark and the Flood.
158 THE THEORY OF THE SCHOOL.
/. Tower of Babel.
g. Abraham's Childhood.
h. Abraham's Journey.
i. Visit of the Angels.
j. Destruction of Sodom.
k. Lot's Escape.
l. Sacrifice of Isaac.
m. Isaac's Two Sons.
n. Jacob Cheats Esau of His Birthright.
0. Jacob Receives his Father's Blessing.
p. Jacob's Flight.
q. His Dream.
r. History of the Twenty Years He Remained with His
Uncle.
s. His Return.
t Meeting of the Brothers.
u. Review and Application to us.
The stories were given in this order that pupils might study
them in connection with the country in which they were
located. "The Children of Israel" were studied at this time
because the Third Grade were studying and moulding the
peninsula of Arabia. The Fourth Grade were studying and
moulding Africa— the desert, where the "Israelites wandered
forty years," *'the place where they were supposed to have
crossed the Red Sea," "the mount where Moses received the
Ten Commandments," and "Egypt" could be located; thus ad-
ding interest to both story and country.
In the study of Daniel, a description of Babylon, its walls,
gates, towers and hanging gardens make it more real. Repre-
senting the position of the armies, in sand, when David killed
Goliath, will add interest also.
Some books, valuable for their simple, attractive language
and illustrations: — "Stories of the Patriarchs," "Joseph and
His Brethren," "Line Upon Line," "Precept Upon Precept,''
**Stories of David," "Ben Hur," extracts from ''Near Home and
THE THEORY OF THE SCHOOL. 159
Far Off," "Description of Jerusalem," "John the Baptist,"
"Christ's Teachings and Death."
FIFTH AND SIXTH GRADES.
In opening exercises the subject of behavior affords many fruit-
ful topics for conversation.
As to place, the work should include the behavior of the
child:
1. In the school-room.
2. On the play-ground.
3. On the street.
4. At home.
5. In railway cars and other public places.
By questions and illustrations, the children are led to see
that behavior in the school-room includes obedience, honesty,
silence, industry, kindness, neatness, politeness, punctuality,
etc.
In considering each of these topics, the meaning of the term
should be understood. The children may refer to dictionaries
for meaning, and the teacher, by illustrations and otherwise,
may assist in making the meaning clear.
To whom and by whom must obedience be rendered in the
school-room, and why, may be discussed by the children, the
teacher leading in the discussion.
Illustrations may be called for, and the children will cite
many instances where the law of obedience is violated.
After discussing this law in a general way, the teacher may
ask for individual experiences ; as, How many of you ever vio-
lated the law of obedience in the school-room ? Probably all
will raise hands, but if not, call upon those who are ready and
willing to speak of their own faults, and the others will reach
that point sooner or later.
In like manner, each of the above topics may be discussed
from day to day, as time permits.
160 THE THEORY OF THE SCHOOL.
The interest will be greatly enhanced by calling upon pupils
to decide whether an illustration given is right or wrong, and
by calling special attention to those that are particularly good.
Of course the accuracy of the statement, and of the language
used must be noticed in every case.
After the discussion of all or many of these laws, the chil-
dren will readily see that a single act may be a violation of
several laws.
If a pupil whispers to his neighbor he has violated the fol-
lowing laws : Obedience, silence, politeness, kindness, and
honesty. The children will probably see, and give all these.
But if one does not see just how obedience or some other law
mentioned has been violated, some one else may explain to
him.
Following this, illustrations may be given by pupils, and the
school decide how many and what laws are violated.
When all of these topics are carefully discussed with refer-
ence to the school-room, the children may be called upon to
decide which of these will apply to the play-ground, which, if
any, shall be discarded, and whether any new topics may be
added.
The same plan may be followed with regard to the other
places mentioned.
The benefits of such discussions are manifold.
1. The children themselves are led to decide upon a course
of action to be followed out.
2. They become conscious that every action they put forth
is iu obedience to or in violation of law, and they will thus be
led to reflect upon what they do before the deed is done.
3. The results of the violations of these laws will be care-
fully traced in many cases, and the children are led to see that
the deed returns to the doer.
4. They learn to discriminate and judge for themselves;
and to rely upon themselves ; thus making the school, in a great
measure, control itself.
THE THEORY OF THE SCHOOL. Itl
Other exercises are :
1. The studying and committing of beautiful poems.
2. Investigation of Scripture texts.
3. Consideration of Bible stories, etc.
CONDUCT IN RELATION TO SELF.
*HuMAN RESPONSIBILITY Is the fundamental principle
of morals, or conduct. As a special being of nature, it
is the duty of the individual to realize in himself the
ideal of humanity. This demands the use of his natural
being as a means, and not as an end.
1. He must foster and preserve his physical organ-
ism.
2. He must learn to absorb his whole endeavor fu
the pursuit of a rational end — some particular avoca-
tion in life.
3. He must confine his gratification of the natural
wants within proper limits, and learn to sacrifice them
for higher duties.
4. Through this self-control he must strive for self-
culture, sacrificing his natural being for his spiritual
being.
These duties to self, apparently immediate, are how-
ever, only contingent upon broader duties which he
owes to others.'
CONDUCT IN RELATION TO OTHERS.
The individual is not able to achieve his highest end
and aim directly through himself, but only through
combination with his fellow-men. This combination
lias four stages:
12
162 THE THEORY OF THE SCHOOL.
1. The family.
2. The church.
3. Social and business society.
4. The state; including the school as an instru-
ment of the state.
Conduct in the sphere of the church is considered
here, as previously given, only in so far as the school
prepares the child to enter upon the relations involved
-in the church, as a higher institution.
IN THE FAMILY^.
Within the family the interest of each is that of all
in a special natural sense. The reciprocal duties of
parents and children, of brothers and sisters, of husband
and wife form a special code distinguished from other
spheres of morality by its close connection with natural
impulse; affection and reverence form its foundation. In
this sphere isolated interest is vicious and immoral ; the
community is the unit. A transition from the family
to civil society is found in polite society wherein there
prevails the tone of the family elevated to a general
demeanor. The essence of politeness consists in persis-
tently treating the special individual with whom one has re-
lations, as an ideal being. Every human being has in
himself the possibility of ideal humanity. Polite con-
duct consists in regulating one's behavior toward him
by this ideal. Consequently politeness requires us to
ignore all personal defects, not alluding to our own or
to those of others : even rudeness toward us passes un-
noticed and receives only courteous treatment in return.
THE THEORY OF THE SCHOOL. 163
Within the family and within polite society these un-
selfish and refined manners must prevail. It is not
however sufl&cient for the human spirit that it remain
within such limits. They serve only as polish to
human actions which penetrate deeper the essence of
personality.
IN THE BUSINESS WORLD.
In civil society proper we have combination by
means of division of labor and commerce. Each works
for himself and has in so far a selfish end; but he
achieves it through devoting himself to the gratification
of some want of his fellow-men. Thus his selfishness
•is mediated, and its quality changed. In the field of
productive industry the individual does not any longer
act from the impulse of affection, or pity ; he helps oth-
ers as the organized means of self-aggrandizement; he
does not treat others as abstract ideals merely (the po-
lite world); but he treats them as free personal units
concretely realized in the ownership of property. The
fact of realization of personality through property gives
an externality to the whole code of duties belonging to
civil society. One man deals with another as an abstract
legal person in business transactions which form the
real practical interest. Honesty and integrity, prudence
and policy, punctuality and regularity are the cardinal
virtues here.
IN THE STA IE.
In the state mere natural affection and courtesy to
the ideal — the principles of the family and polite society
— as well as the pursuit of individual gain, which finds
164 THE THEORY OF THE SCHOOL.
its sphere in civil society, are subordinated to an actual
ideal, that of justice. Man is here complemented so
that whatsoever he does returns through the state to
himself and he becomes actually free and self-deter-
mined What polite society assumes and makes into an
appearance, is in the state realized as an actual, but in
such a way that complete responsibility attaches to the
individual.
IN THE SCHOOL.
To cultivate behavior the school as an instrument of
the state, presents a wide field for the pupil's activity.
The school is a little world in which the pupils devise
and carry out schemes as in the world without, in which
individual interests are often concurrent, and not sel-
dom in opposition ; but where both the concurrence
and the opposition give rise to indefinite activity.
There are constant opportunities for embodying in ac-
tion the virtues of truthfulness, justice, and benevo-
lence, or for being swayed by their opposites.
The virtues to be manifested toward superiors are
drawn out in the respect and obedience exacted by the
teacher, or give place to the opposite vices of insolence
and insubordination.
In the performance of duty, the moral qualities of
diligence and resolution may be steadily fostered ; or the
opposite vices of idleness and sluggishness; while the
routine of the school may be gone through either with
punctuality or the reverse. The teacher's duty with
respect to this activity of the school in all of its phases
is to regulate it and increase it.
THE THEORY OF THE SCHOOL. 165
He sees it to a great extent manifested in the course
of engagements conducted by himself or under his
superintendence ; he can control its defects, and can
point the way to such improvement as is practicable.
Much of it comes to his knowledge through report, or
through casual inquiry. But in great measure it goes
on beyond the teacher's observation, and in a sphere
over which he has no direct control. In the play-
ground this activity of the school exercises its greatest
influence for good or for evil. If the spirit that presides
there is in conformity with his, then its intercourse is
for good; if any there retain in their hands a command-
ing influence over their companions, but of a difi'erent
tendency, the activity of the school will develop into
bad habits. The teacher can only control it in this
sphere by establishing in the school a sound public opin-
ion^ the reflex of his oivn, which shall make itself felt
every where — a difficult task, and only to be accom-
plished by him who has the interest of his pupils at hearty
and who to that benevolence adds the force of character
and tact of managevient necessary to secure personal
ascendency over others. But difficult as it may be, it
must be accomplished, if the teacher would have his
influence constantly at work on his pupils. When there
is a bad state of feeling in school between teacher and
pupils, their activity will be restrained and insincere in
his presence ; they will be afraid to act, and thus reveal
their sentiments to him whom they mistrust. This bad
relation will usually carry with it an unsatisfactory re-
lation among the pupils themselves; restrained by no
166 THE THEORY OF THE SCHOOL.
central influence they will be apt to separate, according
to their several interests, into parties having no good
will toward one another, and thus the malevolent dis-
positions will be stimulated into preponderating activity.
The teacher' is responsible for establishing confidence
between the pupils and himself, and among the pupils
toward one another, under the genial influences of
which the right activity may spring up and gain
strength, and the wrong wither away for the want of
room for its display.
The main difference between the family and the
school as places of moral instruction is this : That in
the former the parent sees precisely what is wanting to
the child's knowledge from having him so constantly in
his presence and observing his conduct. The family
instruction is therefore more spontaneous and better
regulated to the necessities of the case than that of the
school can ever be ; for the teacher must, in the nature
of things, proceed less by special requirements at the
moment than by consideration of the general training
which the pupil will require to fit him for life. But this
comparative disadvantage under which the teacher
labors only supplies an additional reason why he should
strive, with all the resources of his art, to make the in-
struction he gives the more impressive ; and he is not
altogether without compensation.'
'The more formal teaching of a school may, to a con-
siderable extent, be supplemented by such instruction
as is naturally elicited from the incidents of the family-
circle. There are school cases equally with family cases
THE THEORY OF THE SCHOOL. 167
which the teacher has the means of observing; and, if
he observe at all, he will find a greater variety of them
than any one family is likely to supply, illustrative of
both virtues and vices. His object should be to turn
them to the benefit of the school, which has, more or
less, been witness of them. If he cannot do this with-
out exposure of individual pupils, he cannot profitably
do it all. If he does it with direct and recognized per-
sonal reference he will be suspected both by the pupil
and by the school of doing it with personal motives,
either with the view of establishing his authority or of
gratifying his dislikes. But the judicious teacher will
find it by no means impossible to handle cases in an
indirect way so that all his statements shall seem to be
naturally suggested by the train of his story, so that the'
allusions shall never be suspected of personal intention.
The penetration into their experience which the sKilful
management of such cases shows, will affect them with
a power which no other channel of instruction can at-
tain. Virtues should be illustrated this way as well as
vices ; it is in every way desirable that he should show
the same insight in dealing with the one as in dealing
with the other, and that he should appear zealous and
ratified to recognize the good that may be done in
-chool, as well as ready to reprimand the evil. The
observant teacher will see from this how much he will
lin in influence as an educator by any intimate ac-
juaintance he may set himself to acquire of the school
life.'*
* ABBOIT^
168 THE THEORY OF THE SCHOOL.
SELF SACRIFICE.
^In these spheres of action there lies at the basis the
fundamental idea of the distinction of man as a natural
being (mere animal) from man as human (elevated into
his ideal through culture.) Thus the fundamental basis
is SELF-SACRIFICE, employing as its conviction responsi-
bility y i. e. the insight into the necessity of its own
agency in attaining its true self by the suppression of its
natural appetites. Self-control, self-denial, temperance,
neatness, cleanliness, self-respect, — these are the various
species that fall immediately under this general cate-
gory.
OBEDIENCE.
Obedience is the general mode of the conformity of
the individual to general rules, laws, and prescribed
forms of activity. This is one side of self-sacrifice.
In the practice of duty, obedience is the first condi-
tion : obey the higher, repress the lower. In obedience,
reference is had to what is external. But it is the ex-
ternal to mere natural being only. Obedience is the
mediation by which the true self is realized and the
illusive self of mere natural impulse renounced.
Obedience has several phases :
a. Order and regularity — conformity to the rhythm
that governs external things.
h. Punctuality or conformity to the external re-
quirements of time and place.
c. Perseverance — conformity to purpose.
d. Earnestness —confonmty of outward endeavor
to inward resolution.
THE THEORY OF THE SCHOOL. 169
e. Justice — conformity to the universal (self-meas-
ured) standard of action.
/. Truthfulness — conformity of utterance (speech
and behavior) to reality.
g. Industry — conformity of activity to the chan-
nels prescribed by society so that what one does is
directly for others, indirectly for one's self.
The first requisite of the school is order: each pupil
must be taught first and foremost to conform his beha-
vior to a general standard. Only thus can the school as
a community exist and fulfill its functions. In the out-
set therefore the group of virtues above referred to are
taught the pupil, and these are taught so thoroughly,
and so constantly enforced, that they become fixed in
his cliaracter. The method of this moral training is,
like that which rules everywhere in the practical world,
one of division and repetition. The duty of being a
well-behaved pupil is not a vague generality. It divides
into specific, well-defined duties :
a. Punctuality: The pupil must be at school in
time. Sleep, meals, play, business, indisposition — all
must give way to the duty of obedience to the external
requirement of time. Punctuality does not end with
getting to school. While in school it is of equal impor-
tance. Combination cannot be achieved without it.
The pupil must have his lessons ready at the appointed
time, must rise at the tap of the bell, move to the line,
return; in short, go through all the evolutions with
equal precision.
6. Regularity is punctuality reduced to a system.
Conformity to the requirement of time in a particular
170 THE THEORY OF THE SCHOOL.
instance is punctuality ; made general it becomes regu-
larity. Combination in school rests on these two vir-
tues. They are the most elementary ones of the moral
code — its alphabet. Schools achieved a high rank in
this respect only through the most persistent effort on
the part of the teachers. The community submits to
regulations patiently, but it may be doubted whether
their importance is fully appreciated. This age is called
the age of productive industry. It is the era of emancipa-
tion of each and every member of society from the
drudgery of slavery to his natural wants. The emanci-
pation is effected through machinery. Machinery during
the past fifty years has quadrupled the efficiency of
human industry. With the same amount of labor each
man may obtain four times the amount of food, cloth-
ing, and shelter, or for one-fourth of the labor necessary
fifty years ago he may obtain as much, as the laborer of
that period did. Achievement in this direction has but
begun. In the future hovers the picture of a humanity
so free on the side of its natural wants that its time is
its own for spiritual culture. But there is one general
training especially requisite for the generations of men
who are to act as directors of machinery, and of busi-.
ness that depends upon it — this training is in the habits
of punctuality and regularity. A human being may
wait for the arrival of another, a machine will not make
any allowance for subjective whims, or caprices, or fail-
ures in obedience to the laws of time and space. The
fact that so much of labor depends upon machinery
makes itself felt throughout all occupations of life. The
THE THEORY OF THE SCHOOL. 171
necessity of conformity to the time of the train, to the
starting of work in the manufactory, fixes the time for
the minor affairs of life with absolute precision. Only
by obedience to these abstract external laws of time and
place may we achieve that social combination necessary
to free us from degrading slavery to our physical wants
and necessities.
But the school makes these duties the ground and
means of higher duties. They are indispensable, hut no
ultimatum. They render possible higher spiritual cul-
ture. The quick and prompt obedience of the pupil in
simple mechanical training, renders the child penetra-
ble, and accessible to lessons of higher import. To this
end the discipline extends to calisthenics ; the pupil is
taught to sacrifice his arbitrary control over his body
and to combine regularly and punctually with others
in imitating prescribed bodily gestures or exercises.
Thus his sense of rhythm — or regular combination with
others — is further developed. Through this becomes
possible the training to general habits of proper position
for sitting and standing, proper modes of speaking —
addressing others ; in general, the formalities of polite
intercourse. The highest discipline under the head of
ill \ 111 111 is reached in vocal music. This presupposes in
the highest degree the training in punctual and regular
habits, and a conscious participation in the result is
reached by the pupil through his enjoyment of the har-
mony he assists in producing. Here — in vocal music —
the external, mechanical aspect of discipline softens,
and a response to it is felt in the deepest inner being of
172 THE THEORY OF THE SCHOOL.
the soul — the domain of feeling. This brings us to the
next step in school discipline.
c. Silence is the basis for the culture of internality
or reflection — the soil in which thought grows. The
pupil is therefore taught habits of silence : to restrain
his natural animal impulse to prate and chatter, or to
excite attention by his occupation on the material world
around him. All ascent above natural being arises
through this ability to hold back the mind from utter-
ance of the immediate impulse, and to correct its one-
sidedness by combination and generalization. The
largest combination and widest generalization is the
deepest and truest. Thus silence in the school-room has
a twofold significance. It is necessary to the attain-
ment of combination with others, and besides this, it is
a direct discipline in the art of combining the diff'used
and feeble efforts of the pupil himself. He begins his
career with mental distraction, everything isolated in
his mind, and learns to connect the scattered phases,
classify and arrange them, and thus to generalize and
reduce them. The first glance does not suffice; it is the
repetition of mental effort, the absorption of the mind
that digests the multiplicity before it. This depends
directly upon silence. The distraction of the mind
consequent upon garrulity, or the occupation of any of
the senses exclusively, prevents reflection. Silence al-
lows the repose of the senses and the awakening of
insight and reflection. In our schools this is carried
further than merely negative silence and the pupil is
taught the difficult but essential habit of absorption in
THE THEORY OF THE SCHOOL. 173
his proper task even when a lively recitation is going on
with another class. He must acquire the strength of
mind (of internality) which will enable him to pursue
without distraction his train of thought and study, un-
der any external conditions. Out of this discipline
grow attention, memory, thought — the three factors of
theoretic culture. The culture described thus far, is
very formal although it is essential to all that follows.
It is a great point to gain so much, and to gain it by
proper means. A school discipline that secured this
through harsh, rough means, through appeals to cor-
poral punishment, would break down the deeper sense
of honor in the pupil.
The school thereforeas its fourth virtue in the ascend-
ing scale inculcates truthfulness.
d. Truth is the basis of the duties of a man toward
others. Truth makes free, says the old proverb. No
positive relation with our fellowmen is possible except
through truth. Untruth is the essence of discord. Earn-
estness and sincerity, honesty and reliability are the vir-
tues that rest directly on truthfulness. The vices found-
ed on neglect of this duty are lying, deceit, hypocrisy,
cheating, and all manner of fraud; its effects on society
are to produce suspicion and distrust among men and
to stifle all spiritual relationship. It is a subtle poison
that destroys the positive benefits that may be derived
from the institutions of society. The virtue of truth-
fulness is developed in a twofold way in the school-
room. First, by the continual discipline of the recita-
tion ; the pupil is required to be accurate and compre-
174 THE THEORY OF THE SCHOOL.
hensive in his statements ; he is taught that suppression
of essential particulars makes his statement false ;* he is
held strictly accountable to know what he says, i. e., to
have a clear conception of what is involved in the words
he uses. Very much of the untruth and consequent
distrust among men arises in the first instance from lack
of a clear insight into what was implied by the words
used. It is only one step from a lie committed by mis-
take to a lie on a purpose ; for to suffer the penalty for
a supposed vice is a temptation to enjoy its supposed
selfish advantages. Careful attention to the implica-
tions of one's statements is the first step in the inculca-
tion of truth ; and this can scarcely find a better disci-
pline than in the properly conducted recitation. The
second mode of securing truthfulness is the direct appli-
cation of discipline to the behavior of the pupil. Any
lack of truthfulness in the pupil reveals itself at once in
his struggles to conceal his misdemeanors. It is an ob-
ject of constant care on the part of the teacher to sup-
press lying and dishonesty in whatever forms they may
manifest themselves. The admonition of the teacher,
the disgrace felt at exposure in presence of the class, are
most powerful caustics to remove this moral disorder.
e. The duty of justice next follows that of truth-
fulness and finds partly its presupposition in the latter.
Justice can be taught only in a community. In a well-
ordered community it grows spontaneously. A system
of measure established, by which conformity to rule and
right is rewarded by recognition, and all breach of dis-
cipline met by prompt exposure, appeals constantly to
THE THEORY OF THE SCHOOL. 175
the sense of justice and develops its normal exercise. A
danger lies, however, in certain baneful practices some-
times adopted by educators. On the supposition that
the child cannot see the legitimate and healthy results
of doing his duty he is offered a special reward for it.
This goes far to sap the foundation of all morality. The
feeling of responsibility is the essence of virtue, and an
extraneous reward held up as the end sought tends to
destroy what little internal self-determination the pupil
may possess. The distinction between the inclination
(the "I want") of the child, and his true ideal nature
(expressed in ''I ought") should be continually kept
before the child and not confused by concealing the duty
under some shape of immediate self-interest. Doubt-
less self-interest lies at the bottom of all virtue, for man
is a self-related being ; but its circle is so large that no
one can perceive its full return in an individual instance,
and the only guide, at all safe, is duty pure and simple.
The little community of the school-room, filled with
fifty or sixty children presents a miniature world. There
are children of the wealthy and of the indigent, children
of talent, and children of slow, imprisoned intellects ;
some with quick theoretical, some with strong practical
tendencies; some with deep spiritual instincts, others
with base brutal ones. External dress and carriage, and
use of speech vary accordingly. Before the school-room
ideal all prerogatives vanish and each is equal in that
respect ; the standard of comparison shall be the work
done, its quality and its quantity. From tlie very outset
the child learns to distinguish essential humanity from
176 THE THEORY OF THE SCHOOL.
its accidental surroundings. Keenness of perception,
moral integrit}^ practical sagacity, these are the triumph-
ant powers of the good school. Can there be a better
soil for the growth of moral responsibility or a sense of
justice ?
KINDNESS.
The other side of self-sacrifice is kindness in its varied
species included under the terms of sympathy, forbear-
ance, considerateness, mercy, benevolence, charity, phi-
lanthropy. Kindness is akin to politeness and cour-
tesy, in that it looks upon the human being as embody-
ing the ideal of humanity, no matter what forms he
wears ; but it differs from courtesy and is superior to it,
in that it sees also the real, its imperfections and limita-
tions. It does not merely, like justice in the state, hold
up in the face of each, the mirror of his deed, but re-
gards this as no ultimatum and affirms the ideal to be
the true final aim and destiny of the individual, to
whom it offers aid and comfort. It seeks to remove the
imperfections and limitations of humanity without in-
jury to the individual. Justice does not respect particu-
larity — kindness does respect it. In kindness or love
the universal is carried into the particular (descends
into it) without destroying it, but with the design of
drawing up to it the latter. Kindness therefore is the
moral duty that approaches nearest to religion and
forms the connecting link with it. Like the sense
of justice, it requires a community for its culture —
a community which, like the school, brings together
all classes and conditions, and subjects them to the
THE THEORY OF THE SCHOOL. 177
— •
same trials and the same standard of success. The
feeling of justice fostered by a constant opportunity to
see through the adventitious wrappings of social rank
and condition and observe the real substance of the
character, prepares the basis for kindness. The discre-
pancy between good intent and deserts, which arouses
childish sympathy most readily, is the first incitement.
Justice proclaims that seeming and good intent are not
sufficient— there must be adequate performance. If
this principle did not prevail in society and the moral
world at large, there would be no more strenuous exer-
tion to growth ; the wish would be sufficient. But the
good intention baffled of its actual fruition through
inadequate performance is ever an object that excites
deepest sympathy and commiseration in the kind heart.
Not only the good intention is the object of kindness,
but even the depraved and corrupt excites pity. The
trials, that all are alike subjected to, reveal to each child-
ish heart the temptations and struggles with passion
and impulse, as well as the weakness of intellect and
will that belong to his fellows. Broad human sympa-
thy grows up under these conditions and a Christian
civilization finds in it its necessary presuppositions.
The education of youth by means of private tutoi-s
essentially lacks the whole side of moral education,
such as is found in the good school.'*
♦W. T. Habbis.
13
>~^*^i
CHAPTER VIII.
SCHOLARSHIP.
INTELLECT, sensibility, will.
METHOD.
There is a best way of doing everything, if it be but to boil an egg.
—Emerson.
"In all things a man must beware of so conforming himself, as to crush
his nature, and forego the purpose of his being. We must look to other
standards than what men may say or think. We must not abjectly bow
down before rules and usages; but must refer to principles and purposes. We
must think, not whom we are are following, but what we are doing. If not,
why are we gifted with individual life at all? Uniformity does not consist
with the higher forms of vitality. Even the leaves of the same tree are said
to differ, each one from all the rest. And can it be good for the soul of a
man with a biography of its own like to no one else's, to subject itself with-
out thought to the opinions and ways of others ; not to grow into symmetry
but to be moulded down into conformity?"
WHAT IS METHOD IN TEACHING?
j®iHE student-teacher, as a preparation for his work,
'^ considers a field that involves four, to a degree,
distinct phases.
1. That in which he deals with knowledge in order
to distinguish its parts as elements; in order to dis-
cover the relations existing among the elements; in
order to re-arrange, classify, and systematize the ele-
ments, or the isolated points of knowledge in the light
THE THEORY OF THE SCHOOL. 179
of relations. This is the region of scholarship. In it
the student approaches the subjects or exercise-grounds,
i. e. arithmetic, geography, etc., with a somewhat vague,
confused comprehension of each ; he distinguishes the
different facts or elements ; compares them, discovering
the relations — essential, non-essential, the similar, and
the dissimilar, and then synthesizes the remaining ele-
ments into a new intellectual whole. In this phase the
essential facts of a subject are arranged into an organic
relation. This is the sphere of logical system.
2. That in which, by introspection of his own men-
tal phenomena, and by aid of the testimony of others,
1. e. works on psychology, he becomes conscious of the
various methods by which the mind learns.
This is the region of study in which he perceives :
a. That one method by which the mind learns, is to
comprehend vaguely a whole, discriminate the parts or
elements ; compare the elements in order to discover the
relations of similar and dissimilar. — Analysis.
b. That one of its methods is to apprehend the
elements that are similar rejecting the unassimilative
ones, (abstraction) ; to create from the similar essential ele-
ments a new intellectual product or whole. — Synthesis.
c. That another method that belongs to mind is
to observe in a number of objects, elements that are
similar, conceive these similars as the same, (generaliza-
tion), and apply to this element a term common to it
and to all objects that have it as their characteristic
mark. — Naming.
180 THE THEORY OF THE SCHOOL.
d. That a fourth method of the mind is to hold
before itself a general element or elements and compare
objects with this general idea, rejecting those that are
devoid of it and grouping those marked by its pres-
ence. — Classification.
e. That another method is to take the classifica-
tion at any given stage and extend by inference the
generalization to objects that have never been within
the mind's experience, thus creating a general or univer-
sal. — Induction.
f. That a method of the mind is to employ the
generals or universals furnished by induction or intui-
tion as a means of obtaining individual truths in regard
to individual objects. — Deduction.
This is the phase of general method.
3. The region in which he becomes conscious,
through introspection, and through testimony, i. e.
psychological works, of the mental methods above in-
dicated, and that they are organically related ; of the
relation to these methods, of consciousness, attention,
memory, imagination, sensibility and will ; of the con-
ditions of these methods of mental activity, their under-
lying laws, and their results or products. This is the
sphere of psychological system.
4. The fourth phase of the teacher's investigation
is that in which he considers the principles employed in
adapting the subject-matter of the various branches of
learning to the capacities of the learner's mind. This is
the phase in which he studies the science and the art of
adjusting objects or ideas to the actual mental condition
THE THEORY OF THE SCHOOL. 181
of the pupils in order that they may give exercise to
and be comprehended through this or that faculty, at
one or another of the stages of development. This
constitutes the province of method in school education.
It is evident from the above distinctions that the ma-
terial presented under method in relation to the various
subjects is not strictly either system or method ; but it is,
in any given case, the system of the subject modified in
general by the idea of method. The work given is to
be viewed as a basis for the discussion of :
a. The psychological laws especially applicable.
b. The principles that determine the adjustment
of subject-matter to its appropriate faculty.
c. The determination of suitable devices.
COMENIUS IDEA OF METHOD.
" Reformation is possible. I undertake an organiza-
tion of schools whereby —
1. All the youth may be instructed save those to
whom God has denied intelligence.
2. And instructed in all those things which make a
man wise, good, and Holy.
3. And thai^ as a preparation for life, in such a time
as will set him free before he is adult.
4. And thai^ without blows, severity, or compulsion,
but most lightly, gently, and, so to speak, spontaneously.
5. And that., in such a way that they shall be
trained, not to specious and superficial, but to true and
tiolid learning, and to the use of their own faculties,
— not to dependence on others or on mere memory.
182 THE THEORY OF THE SCHOOL.
With like solidity will they be instructed in morality
and religion.
6. And thaU so that the course of instruction shall
not be laborious but very easy ; four hours a day being
sufficient.
Order it is that is the soul of the world; order
sustains nature in all its parts.
Order too is the eye of the school, and we must take
from nature the order of the school.
Our business is to discover from the indications of
nature the principles which underlie the answers to the
following queries : —
1. How life may be so prolonged as to enable us
to learn all things.
2. How arts may be shortened with ^ view to rapid
learning.
3. How we may seize the right occasions for learn-
ing so as to learn Surely.
4. How we may unlock the mind so as to learn
Easily.
5. How we may sharpen the understanding so as
to learn Solidly.
CERTO OR SURELY.
How are we to teach and learn surely ^ i.e., so as to be sure
of our result f
This is to be done by finding the modus operandi
of Nature, and accommodating ourselves to that, as
follows : —
THE THEORY OF THE SCHOOL. 183
FIRST PRINCIPLE.
Nature Attends to a Fit Time.
Birds do not begin the work of multiplying their
species in winter. So with other natural operations,
such as the growth in a garden ; the season determines
all. Right in the teeth of this, schools do not choose a
fit time for exercising the minds of pupils ; and they do
not so accurately arrange the exercises as to insure that
all things advance infallibly through their own suc-
cessive steps.
Just as Nature chooses spring as the time of prepara-
tion for future products, so the right time is boyhood —
the spring of life. The right time of the day is the
morning hours, which is the spring of the day ; and as
to arrangement of studies, it may be said, generally,
that nothing should be taught except when it can be
comprehended.
SECOND PRINCIPLE.
Nature Prepares Material for Itself Before it Gives it Form.
In the school-books, matter does not precede form.
In schools also they teach words before things — the
mere clothing or husk of words before the reality itself.
Then in the study of a language they teach form before
things, because they teach rules before words and sen-
tences. They give rules and then examples, whereas
the light ought to precede that which it is intended to
light up.
In all instruction it is necessary that, having got
ready the necessary books and materials: 1. The un-
derstanding be instructed before speech is demanded ;
184 THE THEORY OF THE SCHOOL.
2. That no language should be learned from a Gram-
mar, but from suitable authors, that real studies should
precede organic (formal), and that examples should
come before rules.
THIRD PRINCIPLE.
Nature Takes a Fit Subject for its Operation, or at least Takes Care
that it be Made Fit.
Wherefore —
1. Let him who goes to school remain steadily
there.
2. Whatever study is taken up for treatment, let
the minds of the pupils be predisposed towards it (and
prepared for it).
3. Let all obstacles be removed out of the path of
the pupils.
FOURTH PRINCIPLE.
Nature Does Not Confuse Itself in its Works, but Advances Distinctly
to One Thing After Another.
Wherefore let pupils be occupied with only one study
at a time ; that is to say, teach only one thing at a time.
FIFTH PRINCIPLE.
Nature Begins all its Operations from Within Outwards, e.g.,
A tree grows from within, etc.
Teachers err herein, that instead of diligently explain-
ing and articulating everything, they would acquit
themselves of their task of instructing youth, by speak-
ing, dictating, and exercising memory.
Wherefore —
1. Let the understanding of things be first formed,
then the memory exercised on what is understood, and
*
THE THEORY OF THE SCHOOL. 185
only in the third place, speech and hand (i. e. writing).
2. The teacher should attignd to every way of open-
ing the intelligence, and must apply it fitly.
SIXTH PRINCIPLE.
Nature Begins all its Formation from Generals, and thence Proceeds
to Specialize — e.g.,
It warms and nourishes the whole mass of the egg,
and does not form first the head, then the wings, then
the feet, but, having warmed the whole, it sends its
creative force into the special parts, and there specializes.
So, a painter in painting a portrait does not draw first
the nose, then the ears, etc., but outlines the whole man
on the canvas roughly with chalk, and then proceeds to
fill in. So with instruction, the outline should first be
given.
Wherefore —
1. From the very beginning of their instruction,
the (principles or) essential groundwork of all learning
should be given.
2. Every language, science, or art should first be
learned in its simplest rudiments. Thus the idea of
the whole, as a whole, will be grasped ; then, more fully,
rules and examples should be given ; thereafter, pecu-
liarities and anomalies ; and finally, if necessary, com-
mentaries, etc.
SEVENTH PRINCIPLE.
Nature does not Proceed per Saltum, but Step by Step.
The hatching goes on by insensible degrees. So, a
man building a house does not begin from the top but
from the foundation, and step by step he rears his struc-
ture.
186 THE THEORY OF THE SCHOOL.
Wherefore —
1. The whole sphere of studies should be dis-
tributed carefully among the successive classes of the
school in such a manner that the earlier study always
prepares the way for what is to follow, and, as it were,
lights the path to it.
2. The time at the teacher's disposal should be
carefully distributed, so that its own peculiar task may
await every year^ month, day, hour.
3. This distribution of the time should be most
closely attended to, so that nothing may be passed over,
and nothing put in its wrong order.
EIGHTH PRINCIPLE,
Nature, When it Once Begins, Does Not Stop Till it Has Completed
its Task.
Wherefore —
1. He who is handed over to the school should be
retained there until he is ready to come forth an in-
structed, moral, and religious man.
2. The school should be in an undisturbed locality.
3. Wha,t has been laid down to be done should be
strictly carried on on the lines laid down, and no gap
permitted.
4. No one should be allowed to absent himself on
any pretext.
NINTH PRINCIPLE.
Nature Carefully Avoids Whatever is Contrary to its Operations,
or Hurtful.
Wherefore —
1. Permit a scholar the use of no books save those
which have to do with his own class.
THE THEORY OF THE SCHOOL. 187
2. The books should be so constructed that they
may with truth be called channels of Wisdom, Morality,
and Piety.
3. Dissolute associates in or out of school are not
to be tolerated.
FACILE, OR EASILY.
We have exhibited the principles in accordance with
which the work can be done with certainty. Now we
proceed to show that it can also be done easily and
pleasantly. This will be the case if we attend to the
following ten principles (many of which repeat what has
been already laid down).
1. Let the education begin early, before the mind is
corrupted.
2. Let it be done with due preparation of the mind.
3. Let it proceed from the more general to the
special.
4. And from the easy to the more difficult. •
5. Let no one be weighted with too much to learn.
6. Let progress be slow everywhere.
7. Let the intellect be forced to nothing save what
it spontaneously desires in accordance with its age and
with right method.
8. Let everything be communicated through the
senses.
9. And turned to present use.
10. Let all things be taught according to one and
the same method.
Let us follow the steps of Nature as illustrative of the
above principles.
188 THE THEORY OF THE SCHOOL.
FIRST PRINCIPLE.
Nature Begins from Pure Elements.
The egg which is to be hatched is pure. The tender
minds we seek to train should be free from distractions
and uncorrupted.
Wherefore —
1. Let the education of youth begin early.
2. Let there be only one preceptor in each subject
for each pupil (i. e. do not send the child from one mas-
ter to another in the same subject).
3. Before all, let the morals be reduced to harmony
under the influence of the preceptor.
SECOND PRINCIPLE.
Nature Predisposes Matter so That it Shall Seek Form.
The bird hatched desires to walk and to peck, and
finally desires to fly.
Wherefore —
1. The desire of knowing and learning is to be
stirred up in boys in every way.
2. Let the method of teaching lessen the labour of
learning, so that nothing be a stumbling-block to the
pupil and deter from perseverance in study.
This ardour to acquire is to be excited by parents,
who should evince their respect for schoolmasters and
learning ; by teachers, who should be kind, paternal,
and ready to commend ; by schools, which should be
pleasant rooms, well lighted, clean, and adorned with
pictures, etc.; by the things which the pupils study,
which should be so presented as to attract; by the
method, which should be the natural method ; and by
THE THEORY OF THE SCHOOL. 189
magistrates, who should be present at examinations and
distribute rewards.
THIRD PRINCIPLE.
Nature Draws Out All Things from Beginnings, which in Their Bulk
are Small, in Their Virtue Strong.
Note in connection with this —
1. That every art be summed up in rules, very
short, but very exact.
2. That every rule be conceived in words as brief as
they are lucid.
3. That numerous examples be given with each
rule, so that the applications of the rule, however vari-
ous, may be clear.
FOURTH PRINCIPLE.
Nature Proceeds from the More Easy to the More Difficult.
We find Latin rules taught in Latin — the unknown
by the equally unknown, and many other faults which
will be amended if
1. The teacher speak the same vernacular as the
boy.
2. If all explanations of things be given in a knovm
tongue.
3. If every grammar and lexicon be adapted to that
tongue (i. e. the vernacular) by means of which the new
is to be learned.
4. If the study of the new tongue advance by de-
grees — the pupil being taught first to understand, then
to write, and finally to speak it (which, being extempo-
raneous, is the most difficult).
5. If, when Latin words are given with vernacular,
190 THE THEORY OF THE SCHOOL.
the vernacular words, as being best known, always come
-first.
6. If the material of study be so arranged that the
scholar learns first that which is nearest, then that
which is near, then that which is more remote, and
finally that which is most remote {e.g. do not seek illus-
trations from theology or politics, but from things at
hand and familiar).
7. If the senses of boys be first exercised, then the
memory, then the intelligence, and finally the judg-
ment. For science takes its beginning from the senses,
and thence passes into the memory through imagina-
tion, then by induction of singulars an understanding
of universals is formed, and finally a judgment as to
things understood takes effect, giving the certitude of
science.
FIFTH PRINCIPLE.
Nature Does Not Overweight Itself, but is Content with Few Things
at a Time.
It does not demand two birds out of one egg.
SIXTH PRINCIPLE.
Nature Does Not Hurry Itself, but Proceeds Slowly— e.g.,
Slow is the hatching of the bird.
Wherefore —
1. Spend as few hours as possible in public lessons;
four being the right number, as many more being left
for private study.
2. Fatigue the memory as little as possible, only
fundamental things being exacted, all else being allowed
to flow freely.
THE THEORY OF THE SCHOOL. 191
3. Proportion all things to the capacity, which,
according to the progress of years and studies, will
grow of itself.
SEVENTH PMNCIPLE.
Nature I*U8he8 Nothing Forcibly Forward, Except What, Being Already
Inwardly Matured, Desires to Burst Forth.
The bird does not urge its young to fly till their
wings are ready.
Let nothing, then, be done against the grain. The
want of desire frequently arises from want of previous
preparation and explanation.
Wherefore —
1. Let nothing be attempted with youth except
those things which their age and ability not only admit
of but desire.
2. Let nothing be prescribed as a memory-task
which has not previously been thoroughly understood.
3. Let nothing be prescribed to be done till the
form of it and the rule of imitation have been suffi-
ciently pointed out and impressed.
EIGHTH PRINCIPLE.
Nature Assists Itself in Every Possible Way— e.g.,
There is vital warmth in the egg itself, as well as in
the maternal incubator.
Boys must be so far assisted as to understand what is
given them to do. The teacher who demands a task
without sufficient explanation and preparation is as
cruel as a nurse who would put an infant on the ground
and tell it to walk. We must bear patiently with weak-
ness.
192 THE THEORY OF THE SCHOOL.
Wherefore —
1. Let no stripes be inflicted on account of studies:
(for if the boy does not learn, whose fault is it save the
teacher's, who either does not know how to make the
pupil docile, or does not care to do it?).
2. Let what the pupils have to learn be so placed
before them and explained that they see it as clearly as
their own five fingers.
3. And in order that everything may be imprinted
the more easily, let the senses be applied to the subject
as often as possible — e.g.^ let hearing be joined with
vision, and the hand with speech. It is not enough to
tell to the ears, but the teacher must present to the
eyes, that through them the instruction may reach the
imagination. Leave nothing until it has been im-
pressed by means of the ear, the eye, the tongue, the
hand. Write up on the walls (or draw) the substance
of your teaching. Thus the pupils will also acquire the
habit of writing down in their note-books
NINTH PRINCIPLE.
Nature Produces Nothing the Use of Which is Not Ultimately
Apparent— e. g,
Wings and feet are found to be formed for flying and
running.
Wherefore —
Let nothing be taught except for manifest use.
TENTH PRINCIPLE.
Nature Does All Things Uniformly— e.g.
One bird is produced in the same way as all other
birds.
THE THEORY OF THE SCHOOL. 193
Wherefore —
1. Let there be one and the same method for in-
structing in ail sciences ; one and the same in all arts ;
one and the same in all tongues.
2. Let there be for all school-exercises the same
order and manner of procedure.
3. Use the same editions of books throughout.
SOLIDE, OR SOLIDLY.
Few give a solid amount of instruction to scholars.
This is a general complaint.
To cure these evils —
1. Let only things likely to be of solid advantage
be treated of.
2. All these should be taught without separating
any of them from the curriculum.
3. A solid basis should be laid for each.
4. That basis should be laid deep.
5. Let everything subsequently aimed at rest on
these same foundations.
6. Wherever distinctions are to be made, let these
be distinctly and most articulately made.
7. Let all studies which follow be founded on those
that go before.
8. Let all things which as a matter of fact cohere
be always connected in teaching.
9. Let everything be arranged according to its true
relation to the understanding, the memory, and the
speech.
10. Let everything be firmly implanted by continual
exercises.
14
194 THE THEORY OF THE SCHOOL.
FIRST PRINCIPLE.
Nature Begins Nothing that Will be Useless.
Wherefore in schools —
1. Let nothing be taught which is not of the most
soUd utility for this life and the next.
2. If some things have to be instilled into youth
only for the sake of this life, let them be of such a kind
as will not hinder the interests of the eternal life, and
as will produce solid fruit for this life.
SECOND PRINCIPLE.
Nature Omits Nothing Likely to be of Benefit to the Body it is Forming.
Therefore it is that in schools there must be not
merely knowledge, but also morals and piety.
THIRD PRINCIPLE.
Nature Does Nothing Without a Foundation or Root.
Wherefore —
1. The love of any studies that are begun should
be excited in the pupil.
2. The idea (i. e. outline or sketch) of the subject
to be taught — language or art — should first be given
before going to particulars. In this way a foundation
is laid in the mind of the pupil.
FOURTH PRINCIPLE.
Nature Sends its Roots Deep.
The general idea of the subject to be taught must
therefore be deeply impressed.
FIFTH PRINCIPLE.
Nature Produces Everything from a Root; Nothing from Any
Other Source.
Wherefore —
1. Let all things be deduced from the unchangeable
elements of things.
THE THEORY OF THE SCHOOL. 195
2. Let nothing be learned by authority, but by
demonstration, sensible or rational.
3. Let nothing be taught by the analytic method
only, but rather by the synethic.
SIXTH PRINCIPLE.
The More the Uses for Which Nature Prepares Anything, the More
Articulately Does it Differentiate it into Parts.
Wherefore —
Let there be no confusion in instruction.
SEVENTH PRINCIPLE.
Nature, in Each of its Works, is in Perpetual Progress, Never Halts,
and Never Attempts New Things, the Former Things being
Cast Aside, but Only Continues What Has Been Pre-
viously Begun, Increases it, and Perfects it.
Wherefore —
1. Let all studies be so arranged that the subse-
quent things shall be founded in what has preceded,
and be strengthened by them.
2. Let everything which is presented to the pupil,
and rightly understood, be fixed in the memory. '
EIGHTH PRINCIPLE.
Nature Binds Together Everything by Continuous Bonds.
Wherefore —
1. Let the studies of the whole life be so arranged
that they shall be one encyclopaedia, in which there
shall be nothing which does not arise out of a common
root, nothing not in its proper place.
2. Let everything that is taught be so strengthened
l»y reasons that no room shall be left for doubt or for-
getfulness. And further, let all things be taught through
their causes.
196 THE THEORY OF THE SCHOOL.
NINTH PRINCIPLE.
Nature Preserves, Between Root and Branches, a True Proportion
in Respect of Quantity and Quality.
Wherefore —
1. Let everything taught be at once a subject of
reflection as to its use, lest anything should be learned
to no purpose (i. e. the root of knowledge must spread
out into the branches of its various applications.)
2. Let everything that is learned be communicated
to others, that nothing may be known to no purpose.
TENTH PRINCIPLE.
Nature Develops and Strengthens Itself by Frequent Movement.
There must therefore in everything be very frequent
repetitions and exercises. " *
METHOD IN READING.
THE PREPARATORY STAGE.
(Several Months.)
THE KNOWN.
On entering school at the beginning of his sixth year,
the child is possessed of a considerable store of ideas,
in many cases vague and partial; the oral terms for
most of his ideas ; a large array of thoughts ; the oral
sentences for these, often incorrect ; power to recognize
and name, in many cases, all or a part of the letters, and
a few words ; power to produce all the sounds in their
combinations, and most of them singly ; and the power
of proper emphasis, inflection and modulation, as re-
quired by his own thought.
* John Amos Comenius.— By S. S. Laurie.
THE THEORY OF THE SCHOOL. 197
The mind being an organism, it is of course true that
in acquiring the above mentioned ideas, thoughts, ex-
pressions and powers, all the mental faculties were
called into action, some prominently, some slightly.
Those prominently employed appear to be observation
and association.
THE ADVANCE.
The work of reading in this stage is to preserve the
power of proper emphasis, inflection and modulation ;
to complete the knowledge of the alphabet; to make the
child conscious of the separate elementary sounds, and
to give adequate power to produce them ; to associate
with the ideas, thoughts and oral expressions, their
printed expression ; and to associate with new ideas and
thoughts their oral and printed expressions. The work
has several starting points, each connecting with the
known, and the proper point of beginning cannot, there-
fore, be determined by that relation alone.
THE VABI008 (PARTIAL) METHODS. (RATHER SYSTEMS.)
The different points of beginning have given rise to
different system'^ which have been termed methods.
Thus : beginning with what was known of the alphabet,
completing that knowledge, passing by means of this
into the study of syllables, words, and then of sentences,
was known as the alphabetic method ; passing from the
oral word as a whole to the separate sounds, to the >
letters, to the printed word as a whole, and then to sen-
tences, was called the phonic, or with certain modifica-
tions the phonetic method; associating the oral word as
a whole with the printed word as a whole, and then
198 THE THEORY OF THE SCHOOL.
entering upon a study of sounds, letters and sentences,
took the name of the word method; making the thought
the unit, and moving from thought to oral sentence, and
thence in order to printed sentence, words, sounds, and
letters, assumed the name sentence method.
ALPHABETIC METHOD.
1. Its subject matter. — The alphabet (letters,) word,
and sentence.
2. What it presents in dealing with the alphabet,
a. Form of letters.
h. Name of letters.
c. Order of letters.
3. What it presents concerning the word.
a. Form as a whole.
h. Pronunciation.
c. Visible parts.
4. Principles.
a. Any whole may be more clearly comprehended
if its elements are known.
h. But twenty-six characters enter into the com-
position of the various words, and these words differ
mainly in the arrangement of these characters, hence it
is more logical to teach the alphabet first.
c. The alphabet should be taught by grouping
and juxtaposition, involving likeness and difference :
thus, placing and teaching together c, o, and e; w and
v; m and n ; p and q ; p and d, etc.
d. The word should be taught by associating its
visible form and its pronunciation with the letters and
the aggregate of the letter-names.
THE THEORY OF THE SCHOOL. 199
5. Favorable points.
a. Its recognition of principles a, c and the first
part of b. as above stated.
6. Objections.
a. It adheres to the last part of principle b there-
by reversing the order of reading and spelling, spelling
being a habit of the eye; and disregarding the principle
that in acquisition the more natural method of proce-
dure is from the whole to the part.
b. The association which it makes between the
pronunciation and the aggregate of the letter-names is
arbitrary.
c. It does not associate the printed form with the
idea, though it might, indirectly.
PHONIC METHOD.
1. Its subject-matter. —
The alphabet^ (sounds,) word, and sentence.
2. What it presents concerning the alphabet.
a. Forms of letters.
b. Names of letters. .
c. Order of letters.
d. Sounds of letters.
e. Diacritical marks.
3. What it presents concerning the word.
n. Form of word as a whole.
6. Pronunciation.
c. Visible parts.
d. Audible parts.
e. Relation between c and d.
4. Principles.
200 THE THEORY OF THE SCHOOL.
a, b and c same as in alphabetic method.
d. The word should be taught by associating its
visible form and pronunciation with the letters and the
aggregate of the letter-sounds.
5. Favorable points.
a. Same as under alphabetic method.
6. Objections.
a and b same as under alphabetic.
c. The aggregate of the letter-sounds does not
naturally suggest the pronunciation, although the
association is much closer than that between the aggre-
gate of the letter-names and the pronunciation.
d. Its classification of the elementary sounds, in
connection with their signs, is complex yet inadequate.
PHONETIC METHOD.
(Leigh's Pronouncing Orthography.)
1. Its subject-matter. —
77i^ alphabet, (sounds,) word, and sentence.
2. What it presents concerning the alphabet.
a. Forms of letters.
b. Names of letters.
c. Order of letters.
d. Sounds of letters.
e. New characters.
3. What it presents concerning the word,
a, 6, c, d, e, same as in phonic method.
4. Principles.
a, b, c and d, same as in phonic method.
e. There should be a separate character for each
sound, and that character should have a uniform power.
THE THEORY OF THE SCHOOL. 201
5. Favorable points.
Same as in phonic.
6. Objections.
In this method the transition to the common alpha-
betic characters is made by giving to the pupil the same
primers to read in these characters that he has already
been reading in the phonetic characters.
Such a method is liable to the same objections that
have been urged against the phonic method excepting
d, while its peculiarity in using new characters has two
difficulties special to itself.
(1.) The irregularities of sound in the language
as it is written are not surmounted by such a contri-
vance but only delayed.
(2.) Such a method, to be introduced at all,
would require to be introduced universally ; for it is
incompatible with the ordinary methods, and a pupil
changing from one to another with change of school,
would find his previous acquisition not only useless to
liim, but an actual obstacle to further progress.
WORD METHOD.
1. Its subject-matter. —
The word, alphabet, and sentence.
2. What it presents concerning the word.
a. Association of idea with the oral word.
6. Association of the printed form with the oral
word as a whole.
c. The analysis of the word into its sounds.
d. Analysis into letters.
e. Association of the sounds with the letters, in-
cluding diacritical marking.
202 THE THEORY OF THE SCHOOL.
3. What it presents concerning the alphabet.
a. Names of letters.
b. Forms of letters.
c. Sounds of letters.
d. Diacritical marks.
4. Principles.
a. Same as a in the alphabetic.
b. It is the more natural to proceed from the
whole to the elements.
c. The printed word should be taught by asso-
ciating it directly with the already familiar oral word.
d. A part is contemplated with more interest
after its whole is known.
e. In teaching the forms of the letters, the eye
should observe and the hand reproduce.
5. Favorable points.
The recognition of the five principles above stated.
6. Objections.
a. It does not make a direct association between
the idea and the printed word.
6. It does not directly give the pupil the power
to master new words^ in which the power of reading really
consists.
c. It presents the diacritical marks before necessi-
ty requires, thereby complicating the work of the pre-
paratory stage.
IDEA-WORD METHOD.
1. Subject-matter. —
The word in direct association with its idea, alpha-
bet, and sentence.
2. What it presents concerning the word.
idea.
THE THEORY OF THE SCHOOL. 203
a. Printed form as a whole.
b. Direct association of the printed form with the
c. Pronunciation.
d. Analysis into sounds.
e. Analysis into letters.
/. Association of the letters with the sounds.
3. What it presents concerning the alphabet.
a. Names of letters.
b. Forms of letters.
c. Sounds of letters.
4. Principles.
a. The method of learning the printed word
should be analogous to that by which the child learns
the oral word ; i. e., the association between the printed
word and the idea should be direct, and the expression
should be kept in the background. When has a word
been learned f
The true answer to this question is involved in the
answers to two other questions — What is a word ? and,
What is the use of a word ? A word is an arbitrary sign
of an idea ; that is, it is only by arbitrary agreement
that a certain familiar object is called table; it might
with as good reason have been called door. The only
valuable use of a word is to suggest to the mind an idea.
If a word is an arbitrary sign of an idea, it can be
made to suggest its idea only by acts of association. If
the actfl of association are weak, the word will suggest
its idea vaguely;' if they are strong, the idea will be re-
called vividly.
204 THE THEORY OF THE SCHOOL.
The root idea in primary reading^ then, is strong associa-
tion of idea and word. It is held by some that the main
thought of primary reading is the mastery of the written
or printed word. It is said, the child is familiar with
the idea, and with the oral word, and the thing remain-
ing to be done is to teach him the printed word. This
thought is at the basis of the formal and mechanical
reading work of the schools. It inevitably tends to
concentrate the attention of both teacher and child upon
words to the comparative exclusion of ideas. If those
holding to the thought that the mastery of the printed
word is the design, employ ideas or objects, it is simply
to make vivid the picture of the word. It is true that
the printed word must be taught, but as a means not as
an end. It is to be taught only that it may be associa-
ted with its idea, and not for itself.
The child in the beginning does, as is said, know two
things — the idea and the oral word; but it is hardly cor-
rect that there remains but one thing to do — the mas-
tery of the printed word. There are two things to be
done :
1. The mastery of the printed word.
2. The strong association of the idea with the printed
word.
The last is the central idea of primary reading — the
one that determines method, means, etc. If it is said
that those who say that the mastery of the printed word
is the work of a primary school mean to include the
second point, the answer is that the results show a
very weak association, but considerable power to call words
THE THEORY OF THE SCHOOL. 205
at sight — thus indicating that the stress of the work has
been upon expression and not upon the association of
thought with expression.
There are, however, as has been shown, two ways of
associating the printed word with the idea — one indi-
rect, the other direct. In the first, the thought is — the
child already knows the idea and the oral word and has
associated them ; he is now to be led to associate the
printed word with the idea through the oral word. This
assumes that the thing that above all others the child
needs is the oral word; that he is already able by means
of association with the idea to call it up, and that his
power to call it up must be increased by associating it
with the printed word. It is thus seen that the ter-
mination is again, power to call words at sight, instead
of power to instantly drink in the meaning of words at
sight of them.
In *'The True Order of Studies," by Thomas Hill, the
statement is made that " the children must early be
taught that the printed word is the sign or picture of
the oral word." This idea has been the blight to thought
work in primary reading.
In the second way of associating the printed word
with the idea, the thought is that nature has already
provided the child with one means of suggesting the
idea, viz., the oral word, by associating the two directly
and frequently, and that the aim of primary reading
work is to furnish another means, by the same method
— the printed word. This consideration makes the direct
association of printed word and idea the ruling thought
206 THE THEORY OF THE SCHOOL.
It furnishes the true ground for .deciding as to the
means and devices that are to be employed — if they
strengthen the direct acts of association they are legiti-
mate; if not, they hinder in the process of reading,
which consists essentially in bringing about acts of asso-
ciation between printed words and ideas.
A printed word has been learned, when the associ-
ation between it and its idea is so strong that the idea
(not the sound — the oral word) is instantly suggested at
sight of it.
h. The power to master new words as to printed
form and pronunciation should be given through the
law of analogy.
For example, at some stage in the work the pupil has
encountered the word hem, and in connection with it
studied gem, stem, them, etc. At another time he may
have been required to deal with the word ark, and
along with it to consider dark, hark, mark, park, stark,
etc. At still another time he has had presented some word
involving b — e.g., ball, or web ; or some word involving
is, as this. In the study of these the work involved not
the use of diacritical marks, but a dependence —
(1.) Upon phonic and visible resemblance.
(2.) Upon the spontaneous induction which
the mind of the pupil tends to make.
(3.) Upon direct and systematic guidance to
the proper induction by the teacher.
In this way the pupil gradually comes into a com-
prehension of the genius of the English language as to
its letter-combinations and the associated sounds. By
THE THEORY OF THE SCHOOL. 207
natural mental growth he begins to understand that as
a rule there is, according to the inherent nature of the
English language for the analogous combinations ark,
dark, hark, park, etc., an analogous sound regardless of
any markings; and likewise, in regard to such words
as gem, stem, them, hem, etc.
Therefore, it is held that work based upon this
thought, taken day by day, establishing the general
laws as to the relation of combinations of letters and
sounds first, and dealing with the exceptions afterwards,
confers a natural power for the mastery of the printed
form and the pronunciation of new words, and one that
is as applicable to the newspaper and general literature
as to the prepared text book in which markings are to be
found. It thus occurs that if the pupil meets for the
first time, upon the page of a newspaper or elsewhere,
the word disembark^ he is already substantially master of
it, because in the combinations already referred to he
has studied the forms em, ark, b, d, and is, and compre-
hends their power ; and the idea that he has gained of
phonic and visible resemblance enables him to see with
but little difficulty the relation between form and sound
of this new word.
c. The sense or meaning of a word is its strongest
bond of association, and also the one of greatest worth.
d. Other things being equal, those things that are
brought most often before the mind are best retained.
e. Other things being equal, those things which
are most free from entangling relations are best retained.
/. The word as a whole, and the letters are visi-
208 ' THE THEORY OF THE SCHOOL.
ble forms, and therefore in learning them the eye should
observe and the hand reproduce.
SUaOESTIONS.
1. For perhaps two months present isolated words as
wholes, making the association between the printed word and
the idea direct, using the oral word only incidentally.
a. Nature of the work under " 1 " explained.
2. At about the beginning of the third month com-
mence to teach words in sentences.
a. Nature of the work under " 2 " explained.
3. At the beginning of the third month begin to
analyze words into their sounds.
a. Manner of beginning the analysis explained.
4. Sometime during the third month commence to
analyze the words into their letters, and to associate the
letters with their sounds.
a. Nature of the work under " 4 " explained.
The time as given under 1, 2, 3 and 4, as well as that
given elsewhere, is only approximate. It may be varied
according to the condition of the school community, or
the mental development of the pupils.
5. Diacritical marks.
a. Purpose.
To aid the child in the intelligent use of the dic-
tionary.
h. Time of teaching these marks : —
Beginning of the third year.
(1). Reason : —
Principle e of this method.
6. Print and script.
THE THEORY OF THE SCHOOL. 209
a. Reasons for presenting words in script from the
beginning.
(1). Printed letters have a vertical position.
Pupils who practice printing for any considerable length
of time acquire a stiff, awkward manner of forming the
letters.
(2). Script preserves closely the unity of the
word.
(3). The script form is more easily made.
(4). It gives the child at the very beginning of
his school-life the second important medium of commu-
nication.
b. Reason for presenting words in print form
from the beginning.
The purpose of the preparatory stage is the associ-
ation of ideas with words as printed forms. A care-
ful consideration of the reasons for presenting script
and for presenting print from the beginning will show a
preponderance in favor of presenting print.
7. Manner of teaching the words "a'* and "the."
There are three methods of presenting these words,
which will be stated in the order of their value, begin-
ning with the one of least worth.
a. To teach the sounds of these words as given by
the dictionary, and to hold the pupils rigidly to this
pronunciation.
6. To teach the words, giving " a " and " e" their
name sounds, on the assumption that the pupils will
naturally acquire the proper pronunciation.
15
210 THE THEORY OF THE SCHOOL.
c. To omit all direct teaching in regard to the
pronunciation of these words. First, on the ground
that the directions given for their pronunciation by the
dictionary are based upon the observed habit of both
children and adults ; and, second, on the assumption
that the pupils will naturally and readily continue their
already acquired habit of pronouncing these words
when they are presented as printed forms without any
direct instruction.
8. The words to be taught in the preparatory stage :
a. The number: —
About one hundred. The number may vary. By
some teachers it is deemed best to begin almost at once
with the words in the book ; by others, after presenting
orally from ten to twenty words ; while still others
advocate the teaching of from fifty to one hundred
words in the preparatory stage. Each teacher should
decide this for herself in view of her surroundings, and
the condition of the school and class, but enough should
be taught to fix clearly in the mind of the pupil the
thought that the use of a word is to suggest an idea,
before letters and sounds are dealt with.
h. Ideas to be considered in selecting them :
(1). They must be familiar orally and as to
their meaning.
(2). They must be interesting.
(3.) They must be in a large measure those
contained in the first reading book.
(4). They should be composed of groups that
contain words analogous in form and sound.
c. How they are to be selected :
THE THEORY OF THE SCHOOL. 211
(1). The words that occur in the first reading
lesson should be taken.
(2). To these should be added all familiar words
that are analogous in form and sound.
(3). The words of the succeeding lesson should
be selected in the same way until the number of words
required for the preparatory stage is secured.
(a). The preparation of a list of words suita-
ble for presentation in the preparatory stage, in accord-
ance with the thought expressed under "c."
SENTENCE METHOD.
GENERAL NATURE.
Observations as to the reading of those who learned
to read before they entered school, show that most of
them are rapid readers of the thought. In a glance
their eye would pass over the sentence or sen-
tences with but little consciousness of the words and
they would grasp the thought of the selection much more
rapidly than if the words were pronounced. The discov-
ery is, on the other hand, that those who have been taught
to read in school are slow readers, i. e. of the thought,
their habit being to pronounce the words mentally, if
not aloud. They are almost invariably rapid readers of
words, i. e. they call words at sight rapidly, but are slow
to drink in the meaning. The inferences are that in the
public school too much attention is given to word call-
ing, to pronunciation, to sounds and diacritical marks
in the early work, thereby establishing a bent in the
direction of mere form ; that not enough stress is laid
upon the direct association of thought and expression;
212 THE THEORY OF THE SCHOOL.
and that there is not enough training in drinking in
the thoughts of whole sentences at a glance.
Reading consists of silent reading and oral reading.
The first is the comprehending of the thought expressed
and suggested by printed or written language and the
second is the adequate oral expression of that thought
in the same language. The first is the fundamental
process. In fact the oral reading is to be considered
largely as a means by which the teacher determines
whether the pupil has "read" in the first sense. The
correctness of the oral reading depends largely upon
the silent reading. The object in teaching reading is to
give the pupil the power to look upon the printed or
written page and to grasp the thought with the least
possible consciousness of the words. If the pupil is so
taught that he either thinks the pronunciation of eacfh
word, or actually pronounces it, the thought is not
obtained directly through the printed or written lan-
guage, but indirectly, in that the printed or written
words have first to be translated into oral words.
The pupil should be able to look directly through the
printed or written words to the meaning, or to at once
determine the unknown elements.
The ordinary use of the eye is to convey to the mind
the visible attributes of objects. But the ear while
recognizing sound as sound, has from the beginning
learned to recognize thought through oral words in such
a way that the thought becomes primary in conscious-
ness, and the sound of the words secondary. So purely
does language become the representative of thought,
that, as sound, it is almost entirely in the back-ground.
THE THEORY OF THE SCHOOL. 213
To cause the eye to obtain thought from language
with as little consciousness of the expression as does
the ear in comprehending the thought from spoken lan-
guage is the problem. And this problem is settled,
largely, one way, or the other, by the end of the third
year of school. The prime aim is to so change the
function of the eye that, in reading, words will suggest
directly to the consciousness their contained thought.
PRINCIPLES.
The principles of the sentence method are :
1. The mind naturally begins with wholes in its
investigations.
2. As the unit of thinking is the thought, so the
unit of expression is the sentence.
3. As parts are naturally learned while considering
their wholes, words, as parts of a sentence are learned
while studying the sentence, and letters while studying
their whole — the word.
4. Language should be learned indirectly, the stress
of the attention being upon the thought.
STEPS.
The first step in the sentence method is to awaken
thought in the mind of the pupil by means of objects
present to the senses and to the imagination, and to lead
him to give the thought proper oral expression.
The second step is to lead the child to grasp the exact
thought of any given oral expression, and to make the
appropriate concrete representation.
The third step is to lead the child to grasp the exact
thought contained in a printed or written sentence, and ,
214 THE THEORY OF THE SCHOOL.
to enable him to express the thought in the language
used.
For example, the teacher prints or writes upon the
board, " I have a ball." The pupils never having studied
printed or written words, do not know the meaning;
but from the habits and tendencies gained from the pre-
vious steps, when the teacher places the ball in the
hands of the pupil he says ''I have a ball."
The teacher continues the work in the same way
until several children are supplied with objects, and cor-
responding number of sentences being upon the board.
The pupils will then be called upon one by one to
point out their sentences upon the board, and to read
them orally. Since each retains his object, this will be
readily done. If the child forgets the sentence the
teacher is to point it out for him. The pupils are then
led to exchange objects and continue the same kind
of work. In the lessons from day to day the position
of the sentences is to be changed, in order that the pupils
may not recall them from their position. The objects to
be used should be kept upon a table or desk within
reach of the pupils. When the teacher prints or Writes
a new sentence she may hand the object to the pupil or
point it out for him to take.
At a later stage the teacher may, after printing or
writing a sentence, wait, and thus give the pupils an
opportunity to select the object without its being shown.
Whenever a pupil expresses a desire to do this it indi-
cates that he has read the thought, and is acting in
obedience to the impulse occasioned by the thought.
The pupils are, from this point on, able to read the
THE THEORY OF THE SCHOOL. 215
sentences, silently, orally, and to represent the thought
objectively with but little aid from the teacher. In due
season they pass to the consideration of single words,
letters, sounds, etc.
Indicate, in detail, the exercises under each step. What are the favorable
points of the method? The objections to it? How lest it?
No one of these, however, constitutes a method of
teaching reading. Each is a system^ one condition of
the method.
The central thought in each is association; each in its
place is best. The things to be associated in reading
are ideas and thoughts on the one hand with their
printed symbols on the other. It is not the aim of readr
iiig to teach the printed word or the printed sentence, but to so
associate them with the idea and the thought that they express,
that the one shall instantly suggest the other. Each of these
systems, in its proper relation, is an aid to the asso-
ciation of thought and expression ; but each may be era-
ployed at such a time, and make such association as to
be a hindrance to thought, the great point im read-
ing WORK IS TO ASSOCIATE IDEAS AND PRINTED WORDS,
AND THOUGHTS AND PRINTED SENTENCES, 80 AS TO MAKE
THE PUPIL AS LITTLE CONSCIOUS OF THE PRINTED WORD
AS HE IS OF ORAL WORDS WHEN HE IS GIVING OR RECEIV-
ING THOUGHT BY MEANS OF THEM. The SOle USC of a
word or sentence is to' suggest an idea or thought. Un-
less they do this they are worse than useless. But
words and sentences have in themselves as forms no
inherent power of suggesting ideas and thoughts, since
they are arbitrary expressions. In order that they may
^1^ lUK X«iiX>KY a*' THK SOHOOL.
At vvi>o0 8Ug|t«^t thdr ideas imd thoughts, the assoeiAtion
mu$t fh«ii the am be diwct, the weight of attevit
mtiii^tt upon the thou«fht side. ''An irr^hignb
iUaHctice,** eay^ Cwuw^ius, "is that tht> uiuio
tuui th^tong\u^?^uHild Hd\WHH> in jvanUlol I-
Th^ oi«;>A\n\^v ia<\H in r^ditt^it i§ that tl\o pr
5^\ous ari* to be Aseuttated with their iil
iij'^iMustantly sufpstthwd. md y
Aj^viatiou Wi^x^sj th«^ e^^si^ntial aet in U>arningto mul,
a vHH^dd^ration v\f the Lhw$ of asstooiatioi\ is r^uisLit^,
Th«? t\uHiam^nt«l prinoiple of nwodation is ti^at tA^
mmd ttHih H^ oH oyci^ •$ «l iW» «c«mI. Subordinate to
thi$i$<~^hf(MArH$f$<l]^lMr«MiM IIUiiiMM)oirA<rv^aiii^
^tm<^«r «i tMiiM(i^»filt «iimiim»m> <iihI one ^ Hum ^ f^^
•wirrf lMt9iii«f^. th$ tniilm^ f»>^ <At M$r to ^pmr m
i^H.^'itmrnm. But this is oi>ly « tendency ; there is no
aWt\lut<* tvrt^uty that the one wiU pieeent itself to the
nund when the othwdoes. This owimnty is to be secur-
eii bv the application of another law of assocbtion—
a«*<rr «A#i^ Mat <t^ <*«^ <*«59» l*crf wt ia«< q^
^ H ^ k i <^yK»€r wi <e<»{jcj»ii3inn» mt meat a<roiijf<y qwofwl^
Ecoiuvmy requires that this law should be supj^e-
mented by two othm: (kktr Mii$9 htm$ «9iki/> tkom
r^iili^ ^i^^ ^ «aia(«Mi m^ taest 4lvei^ ^^ (If
the emotion become© absorUng^ howeyt^, the tend«ioy
tv> str\n\)jt asj^viation is weakened.) OtiWr tiUi^ h$m9
^f^mf. ^m$ ^m^ ^^ mw IM ««9«a«r w €aiiwtMi^M«8»»
TllJC TliKOHY OF THE aCilOOL. 217
most free from entangling relationSj are W/ost utrongly asso*
dated.
The ideaa tu be mtuitered in reading, or the exercise-
ground, Hhould Ix;, and nhould appeiir to the child to be
a development from the baHJH, i.e., that wliich he already
IIOW8 upon the Bubject.
The thought that iH to determine what meann or d«;-
viceH are to be employed in teaching the child to n;;i(l
-whether the given device or means will aid the aHHo-
' i.ition of the thought and expresBion.
The development of the mind \h thus presented by
I'OKTKR :
"TlKf (ievelopment of the mind begiiiH with the beginnings of
■"rniwn. Before thiM, itH octivitieH are, oh it were, rudimental
ly. From tliJH condition th« mind awakeH when wmia object
attra<!t» and holds itH attention. Tiie infant'H power to know
bcKinM to be <leveloped when it beginn to attend. Ah »oon an
the infant be^inn U) notice, itH vacant countenance aasumes the
expreHHion of intelligence, and Ih lighted with the dawn of
intellectual activity. Attention given diwTiminatu/n, and din-
crimination implicH objectn diHcriuiinated. The Ant object«
dittinguinhed are object of senite. The teniible objecta that are
f^rHt niaHtered are th^me which relate to its wanit, and generally
far only vm they are related to these want«; firHt to it« apj)e-
litei, then U) itM nffertiorut and detiren. With the dincernntent of
thene object*, in their relations to these HenHibilitien and desires,
('••j^iiiH hIho the direction of the active powern by intelligence.
liut though the attention is at firHt chiefly occupied with
sennible objects, and thew prominently in their relations to the
w<*nsibilitieH and the practical wants, it Im not wholly neglectful
the psychical oi>erations and the pHycfiical self. At a very
riy period the lH>dy is dlHtinj^uished from the material world
which it forniH a [)art. The soul alwj begins to be appre-
218 THE THEORY OF THE SCHOOL.
hended as diverse from the body, as soon as the purely psychi-
cal emotions, as the love of power and sympathy, or the irasci-
ble passions, are vividly experienced.
As fast as the attention masters distinct objects, it must separ-
ate them into separable ideas or images, which are henceforth
at the service of the imagination and the memory. These reap-
pear in the occasional dream-life that begins to disturb what
was hitherto the animal sleep of the infant. Memory begins to
recall past experiences of knowledge and feeling. Recognition
finds old and familiar acquaintances in the objects seen a sec-
ond time. At a later period, imagination begins to imitate the
actions and occupations of older persons, and furnishes endless
and varied play work for childhood in the busy constructions of
the never-wearied fancy ; while it irradiates the emotional life
with perpetual and inextinguishable sunshine.
Slowly the rudiments of thinking, or the rational processes, begin
to be learned and practiced. The attention not only discrimi-
nates, but compares. As it compares, it discerns likenesses and
differences in qualities and relations. These, it thinks apart
from the individual objects to which they pertain. It groups
and arranges, under the general conceptions thus formed, the
individuals and species to which ihey belong. To these activi-
ties language furnishes its stimulus and lends its aid. Inasmuch
as there can be but a limited language without generalization,
the infant or child is forced to think, by the multitude of words
which catch its ear and force themselves upon its attention ;
each representing the previous thinking of other men, and
even of other generations.
With classifying, are intimately allied the higher acts of
tracing effects to causes and illustrating causes by effects. Then,
inductions are made by interpreting similar qualities and causes,
as exhibited in experience and elicited by experiments. The
mind becomes possessed of principles and rules, which it ap-
plies in deductions both to prove and explain.
From the development of the child's mind it is evi-
THE THEORY OF THE SCHOOL. 219
dent that devices or means that will not be appropriate,
and will not aid the association at one time, will at an-
other, and vice versa.
What are the principal means or devices that may be
employed in reading? (a). To call the idea into con-
sciousness, (b). To call the word into consciousness.
Among the principal means of suggesting the idea to
the mind may be mentioned :
1. Illustration.
a. Objective.
b. Graphic, {^-j^f
2. Language.
a. Oral word, j ^^^"^- ,
( In a sentence.
b. Conversation.
c. Stories.
The printed word is brought into consciousness, in
the first place mainly by observation and copy. It is
afterwards suggested by any one of the means given
above as suggesting the idea.
The great and most prevalent defect in teaching
children to read is in having them try to learn one thing
by doing another, i. e., in having them associate expression
mth expression, when the aim is to associate expression
with thought. Dealing too much with form or expres-
sion, has been, and is, the source of all the mechanical
reading that so abounds. In reading, the form or ex-
pression is the incident, and is to be kept in the back-
ground.
220 THE THEORY OF THE SCHOOL.
The tendency to make the expression prominent is
seen in the association of the printed word with the oral
word in unnecessary cases ; the association of the printed
word with the same word in other places on the board
or in the book; in the practice of calling the pupil's
attention to his mistakes in emphasis, inflection, modu-
lation, etc. ; in the practice of asking one pupil to try to
give a better oral reading than the one given. All these
tend to make the pupil self-conscious, and hence divide
his mental energy, which should be concentrated upon
the thought.
THE PRIMARY STAGE.
(To about the close of the Third Year).
GENERAL NATUBE.
In the first part of this stage the subject matter and
the methods partake of the nature of those in the ad-
vanced stage but more largely of those in the preparatory
stage; while in the latter part of the work the reverse
is the case.
Since all literature is the embodiment of thought, and
all thought involves the relations indicated under the
head of the categories — (considered at another place) —
it follows that the teacher of silent reading will find that
all the questions employed by her in leading the child-
ren to obtain the thought will find their classification
under these categories referred to, so that the question
can not be — Shall the categories be employed in obtain-
ing the thought of the reading lessons in the primary
stage? but — Shall they be applied informally, (to the
children) or formally and in such a way that the child-
ren are conscious participants in their application ?
THE THEORY OF THE SCHOOL. 221
The true answer, probably, is that in the beginning
of the primary stage their application should be in-
formal, (the teacher, however, having in mind their sys-
tematic use) gradually passing into a conscious and sys-
tematic use of them, so as to, by this means, early im-
plant among other habits a habit of studying the read-
ing lessons in the light of them. This alone would be
a gain of great value, as it would go far toward solving
that problem so often met by the primary teacher — How
can the primary pupil be led to study the reading les-
son ? Many difficulties in discipline would thus be re-
moved.
USUAL MODE OF PROCEDURE.
The most prevalent method of dealing with a reading
lesson is based on two principles :
1. The chief aim in a reading lesson has to do with the
thought.
2. The mind can best master a thing, when the thing
to be mastered is most free from entangling relations.
It is therefore said by many, ' unless the mind is freed
from the consideration of such things as the spelling, pro-
nunciation, and meaning of ne^ or vaguely understood
words when it enters upon the attempt to obtain the
thought of a paragraph or of a whole selection, it will
be hampered and engrossed by these elements of form
so as to seriously interfere with the mastery of the
thought '
The inference of those who reason thus is that the
treatment of a given selection as a reading lesson would
involve three general kinds of work :
222 THE THEORY OP THE SCHOOL.
1. The mastery of new words.
2. The consideration of the general thought.
3. The oral reading.
The mode of procedure would therefore be (a selection
having been decided upon):
a. The selection of the most difficult words (diffi-
cult as to pronunciation, spelling, meaning, or in any
respect) and the placing of them upon the board. .
b. The study of these words by the pupils, as to
their spelling, sounds, diacritical marking, pronunciation
and general meaning.
c. A recitation upon the given words in respect
to these points.
d. The consideration and discussion of the
thought. (The supposition being that the mind by this
considerable and minute treatment of the form, has
been so freed from it as to be able to turn the whole
attention upon the thought.)
e. (In primary classes). Thecallingof the words
from the beginning to the end of the sentence and vice
versa.
f. The oral reading.
This method although apparently rational, is seen
upon close reflection, to be fallacious. If those same
words with their peculiar characteristics of form and
meaning were the ones that were to appear in every
possible reading lesson, in and out of school, the theory
would then hold true; and it would, therefore, be the
rational order of work to first devote a period to the
mastery of this universal form and then ever after be
able to turn the undivided attention upon the thought.
THE THEORY OF THE SCHOOL. 223
But such is not the case. Each selection has its pecul-
iar words with their peculiar characteristics. And to
consider them first, and with all the detail indicated,
tends not to free the mind from them but to engross it
with them, to give them an undue prominence in the
mind. According to the method being considered, only
about one third of the time is devoted to the thought
element; as for example, upon any three days' work with
a selection it usually requires one day upon the unfa-
miliar words, one concerning the general thought and
one devoted to the oral expression; or if but one day is
employed, one third of the time upon the first, one
third upon the second and the remainder of the time
upon the oral expression.
The practical results, therefore, of reading work of this
character are :
1. To give great prominence to the formal side, and
to engross the mind with it.
2. To disregard, to a degree, the principle of proceed-
ing from the known to the related unknown.
3. To disregard the idea that the mind gains most
power, when in each exercise, it exerts its present power
to the highest degree.
The general mode of procedure that is suitable in the
reading work of this or of the succeeding stage is based
upon the following principles :
1. The aim in teaching reading is to confer upon
the pupil the power to obtain thought from language
toithout considering the spellingy soundSy pronunciation and
general meaning of the wordsj except in a very subordinate
degree.
224 THE THEORY OF THE SCHOOL.
2. The mind, in the attempt to master the thought
of a selection must exhaust its already acquired power
and knowledge in the attempt at interpretation before
dealing with extraneous aids. That is, the pupil's ex-
perience, knowledge, and power, and the relations of the
words in the paragraphs should all be utilized to the ut-
most before outside agencies, such as dictionaries, etc.,
should be employed.
3. Spelling, separate sounds, pronunciation, etc., be-
longing to oral reading, should, until the thought is
thoroughly mastered, be kept as subordinate as possible.
A PREFERABLE MODE OF PROCEDURE.
The plan of work that would be in accord with these
principles, whether the lesson is upon a wbole selection,
a paragraph or a sentence is —
THOUGHT.
1. To have the class come to the recitation without
having considered at all the spelling, sound and pronun-
ciation, except incidentally or unconsciously, as they
would necessarily do when attempting to interpret
the thought. The pupils are not in their preparation
to have used the dictionary. The aim is to have the
selection, paragraph, or sentence utter to them its entire
thought as fully as possible without any aid outside of
it. The only instruments that are to be brought to bear
upon the lesson in its study are the pupil's previously
acquired knowledge and habits, and these are to be
pressed to the full test.
2. {In the recitation.) The teacher, by questions,
THE THEORY OF THE SCHOOL. 225
applying the categories informally or formally, is to de-
termine:
a. To what extent the pupil has come into posses-
sion of the thought.
b. What the impediments to his full comprehen-
sion of the thought are, i.e., where his difficulties lie.
There will thus be disclosed, definitely to the teacher,
the expressions or words that, for want of comprehen-
sion, stand between the pupil and his full insight into
the thought.
3. The third kind of work is to concentrate the at-
ii<»n upon these difficulties. No extraneous aids,
iiowever, such as the dictionary, are to be used at this
time. The teacher is by question and suggestion to
irshal and bring to bear upon these seemingly un-
uiiuiliar words, all the pupil's related knowledge; all
that analogy of form and sound have previously given
him; all that may be gathered from every possible re-
lation as indicated or suggested in the paragraph or sen-
tence, in order to dissolve the difficulties or reduce them
t" the minimum.
4. If there still remain a word or words that have
not yielded to the previous work, such word or words
are then (in the recitation) to be examined in the dic-
tionary, (if the class is advanced enough to use it) or ex-
plained by the teacher at the board, and so intertwined
with the pupil's previous ideas and vocabulary that
they become his permanent property. If it is not de-
sired to investigate these words during the recitation,
the pupils may be asked to study them before the next
recitation.
16
226 THE THEORY OF THE SCHOOL.
The objection may be urged, however, that in the an-
swers required in the work suggested, the pupils will
necessarily have to use some of the words of the lesson,
and not having studiejj the spelling, pronunciation, etc.,
will doubtless make mistakes in pronunciation, and
thereby tend to fix an incorrect habit.
The answer is :
1. That the words in a new lesson that have not
been made familiar to sight and sound by the child's
experience before entering school, and by the work in
reading and in other studies are much fewer than would
be at first supposed.
2. That if the pupils do frequently mispronounce
words in their answers it is much better that these
mechanical mistakes should occur (the teacher quietly
correcting them at the time) than that by the previous
study of them the mind should be prevented from giving
the thought due prominence, and from gaining the
highest degree of exercise.
FORM.
The thought of the selection, paragraph, or sentence
having been substantially mastered, the attention is
then to be turned to a mastery of the unfamiliar ele-
ments of the form, i. e. pronunciation, etc.
In this work essentially the same kind of steps would
be taken as have been suggested for the thought work.
That is, the thought having been obtained, the teacher
would :
1. Test the pupils thoroughly without reference to
dictionaries or other aids, as to mastery over the lan-
guage in regard to the separate sounds, pronunciation,
THE THEORY OF THE SCHOOL. 227
etc., in order to determine the exact location of their
difficulties.
2. The nature and extent of the unknown having
thus been brought clearly before both the pupil and the
teacher, the efifort is then to be made to translate this
unknown into the known, i. e. to master the difficulties
by means of questions, suggested analogies of form,
lines of relation to known words in meaning, inference,
etc., before resorting to the dictionary, or to explana-
tions by the teacher.
3. If any difficulties remain unremoved as might
be' the case for example with the word bade on account
of its anomaly, they are to be explained by blackboard
work, or by use of dictionary, or assigned for investiga-
tion.
ORAL READING.
In the oral reading, the mistakes in emphasis, inflec-
tion, modulation, etc., are signals of defects in the
thought. They are effect. The want of comprehension of
the thought is caiuse. Remedies should, if possible, be
<iirected to the cause. When such mistakes occur,
therefore, the attention of the class should not be called
to them, but it should be again concentrated upon that
element of the thought, which, for want of being com-
})rehended or felt, caused the oral mistake. Whenever
a mistake of the kind mentioned occurs, it should serve
as a notice to the teacher to turn quietly to the thought,
in order to farther investigate it, without any reference
to the mistake itself. In this way the pupils will silent-
ly imbibe the idea that a mistake in emphasis, modula-
tion, etc., is a mistake in thought, and will hence acquire
228 THE THEORY OF THE SCHOOL.
the habit of dealing with the mistake at the root. If the
mistake is more mechanical, as articulation, the quality
of a sound, defect in the use of the vocal organs, etc., the
nature of the remedy is likewise to be different. Most
of the work, however, upon orthoepy, diacritical mark-
ing, spelling, etc., should be done at a time separate from
the work upon either silent or oral reading.
In general the same method in oral reading would be
employed in this stage as in the advanced stage. The
function of oral reading is to be viewed, however, as
indicated, as almost wholly a .means by which the
teacher is enabled to look into the mind of the pupil
and determine whether he has grasped the thought, and
experienced the feeling.
SUPPLEMENTARY WORK.
It is not the intention here to present new means of
interest, but merely to emphasize the value of old and
well known devices, such as : —
1. Illustration — objective, pictorial and verbal.
2. Conversational exercises.
3. Reading to pupils.
The first means is based upon the principles that the
strongest and most interesting bond of association that
a word can have is its meaning presented in conjunc-
tion with the form, and that, other things being equal,
that is most easily acquired and best retained, which is
presented most concretely, vividly and graphically.
These would indicate that whenever the word stands for
an object, the object should, if possible, be at hand, or a
representation of it in a picture or upon the board, in
order that the qualities for which it is known may be
THE THEORY OP THE SCHOOL. 229
observed and associated with the printed form which is
its symbol. There are, however, many words that are
susceptible of neither objective nor pictorial illustration.
These are to be made vivid in their significance and
therefore interesting, through verbal illustration, i. e.,
by picturing out to the minds of the. pupils, the ideas
for which the printed forms stand. In order to make
the mastery of such words interesting, there are required
verbal comparison, analogy and illustration to the degree
that the significance shall stand out present to the
mind's eye.
In reality every word represents an object or a com-
bination of objects, and may therefore be made strongly
interesting to the pupils by being pictured out in words
representing the objects. That every word represents
either an object or a combination of objects does not at
first appear ; yet a close analysis of even such words as
o/, from^ this, that^ towards, resting, etc., will show that
each represents an object or objects in certain relations
or conditions.
Pestalozzi was the first who introduced the systematic
use of objects and pictures as an element of interest and
knowledge in language work ; but long before, a greater
teacher than he, one who " spake as never man spake,"
gave the true way of filling every abstract term, figura-
tive word, and phrase with significance and interest by
the simple and interesting method of picturing out to
the mind's eye through analogy and verbal illustration.
The New Testament is rich in examples of verbal illus-
tration. Among them will be remembered the follow-
ing:—
230 THE THEORY OP THE SCHOOL.
When the Savior wished the Jews to understand His
love for Jerusalem and the destruction of Jerusalem, in
order to fill these phrases to the utmost, He said — "0
Jerusalem, Jerusalem, thou that killest the prophets,
and stonest them which are sent unto thee, how often
would I have gathereth thy children together, even as a
hen gathered her chickens under her wings, and ye
would not ! Behold, your house is left unto you deso-
late."
The judicious employment of the device of picturing
out to the mind in reading lessons upon all appropriate
occasions will tend to enrich and fill with interest the
usually uninteresting process of mastering words as
forms. It may be said in objection to this that such a
process, in conjunction with the other forms of illustra-
tion, would require too much time. The reply is that
mere instruction, the mere lodging in the memory of
word-forms may be pressed, but that education is of
slow growth.
The second means — conversational exercises — is based
upon the principles that education is a process in which
mind addresses mind, and that in order that the pro-
cess may be successful, there must be sympathetic har-
mony between the minds to insure freedom of mind
action on the part of those addressed. It should there-
fore be the constant aim in the early reading work, to
foster, by using every fitting opportunity, that sym-
pathy and freedom which will arise from the interweav-
ing of conversation and instruction upon the forms of
words. This is one of the most accessible approaches
to the interest of the child.
THE THEORY OF THE SCHOOL. 231
The third means — reading to children — is employed
to confessedly great advantage in the family, and it is
somewhat strange that it is neglected to so great an ex-
tent in many schools. Reading to pupils has, clearly,
two advantages : —
First, it furnishes a strong stimulus to the pupils to
learn to read for themselves ; and this is peculiar to it
in distinction from telling the same thing to the pupils
in the teacher's own words. The teacher should read
to the school; interest them in what he reads by cluster-
ing pleasant associations round the book ; and lead the
children to see that he gains a large part of his knowl-
edge from books.
If the children are thus frequently shown both direct-
ly and indirectly the pleasures of reading for them-
selves, an incentive to master the formal, hard, dry side
of reading will naturally arise in the mind, because of
the desire to take possession of the beauty and enchant-
ment which the form has within it, forever locked away
and hidden from all not possessed of the key — power to
read.
The second advantage of reading to pupils is the cul-
ture that it brings to the imaginative, moral, and aes-
thetic natures, to which it should be addressed.
Direct address, or the telling of stories to the children
may, it is true, accomplish the same end ; but even if
all teachers possessed the grace and charm of narration
that is found in the works of Irving, Prescott, Dickens,
Miss Alcott, and like writers, which is not the case, their
power would be greatly extended by the use of books.
These present a large range of beautiful ideas clothed
232 THE THEORY OF THl^ SCHOOL.
in elegant and graceful drapery, giving them a perma-
nent existence to which the child may be led again and
again, each time with renewed pleasure ; for the child
delights in an old story, because all his surroundings
are new to him, and he seeks repose from novelty in
familiarity, just as when the world grows old to the
mature, they seek a change from monotony in novelty.
Reading to children, in addition to interesting them,
tends, if rightly conducted, to confer that which is one
great aim of education — the power of close and self-
sustaining attention.
The books from which to read belong to two classes —
those whose subject-matter is real, and those in which
it is imaginative. Of the former, many incidents of
biography and history may be employed, but not to so
great a degree as might at first be supposed, because they
do not, in a large measure, present the quiet and
unobtrusive virtues, but are, in many cases, connected
with wrong, oppression, and punishment.
In addition to this, the most of biographies and his-
tories are written for adults, and need much modifica-
tion in order that they may be available for primary
work.
The second class of books — the imaginative — has, to
a great extent, been sent into exile by the utilitarian
spirit, which prevails to a harmful degree in the public
schools. Almost all of the old nursery and fairy tales
have been banished by this spirit, but they should be
recalled and used again, being fitted for all children
in all times. They are much superior in respect of
healthy influence, to many that have superseded them.
THE THEORY OF THE SCHOOL. 233
They develop the imao^ination, amuse and interest, and
are, at the same time educating, since they have, espe-
cially the fairy tales, a distinct moral influence, separat-
ing the good from the bad by an impassable gulf. The
spirit which would make the public school a mere drill-
ground on which to prepare the child to earn his daily
bread, would exclude all these primary imaginative
tales from the realm of educative influence, and from
the schools, disregarding the fact that the aesthetic faculty
is one of the earliest to unfold in the mind of the child.
The aesthetic nature is regarded by Herbert Spencer
as the mere ornament of life — the "efl'ervescence of civ-
ilization," the culture of which may be deferred to some
distant day of idle leisure in a future golden age, in
order meantime to press forward the studies necessary
for the preservation and maintenance of material exist-
ence. "When," says that distinguished thinker, "the
forces of Nature have been fully conquered to man's
use, when the means of production have been brought
to perfection, when labor has been economized to the
highest degree, when education has been so systemat-
ized that a preparation for the more essential activities
may be made with comparative rapidity, and when con-
sequently, there is a great increase of spare time, then
will the Beautiful, both in Art and Nature, rightly fill a
large space in the minds of all."
The scheme of education as given by Alexander Bain
would also exclude from the schools this important
means of arousing interest, and relegate it to the family.
He regards early imaginative literature as only " a means
for indulging the emotions, — an ingredient in the satis-
234 THE THEORY OF THE SCHOOL.
faction of life," going on to state — " In addition to our
enjoyment gained from realities, we crave for the con-
tribution to our enjoyment which comes from ideality.
Now Ideality is a diiferent thing in different ages, —
fairy tales and extravaganzas for the young; the poetry
of Milton for the old. There is nothing educative in
the first instance ; we are not aiming at instruction, but
drinking in emotion. The gratifying of children with
the literature of the imagination is a matter for the
parent as much as giving them country walks or holi-
day treats."
Both of these eminent educators seem to ignore to too
great a degree the fact that the aesthetic faculty is one of
the earliest to unfold, and that therefore primary im-
aginative literature becomes educative ; and also that it
is one of the great means of interest in the formal or
primary side of reading, in that it opens enchanted ground^
and wonder-land^ in connection with that subject.
If it were possible to separate education from inter-
est, and to contract it into a training which had for its
first object the obtaining of the means for improved
material existence, it might well be asked whether the
race so trained would be likely to have any large space
of mind left to be filled by beauty in the idle years,
after nature had been forced to contribute all she could
to man's material prosperity.
A school training separated from interest and aesthetics,
through the early formative years would tend to lead
those who come under its influence to say at last, —
THE THEORY OF THE SCHOOL. 235
'* Little we see in Nature that is ours,
We have given our hearts away, a sordid boon.
This sea, that bares her bosom to the moon,
The winds, that will be howling at all hours
And are up-gathered now like sleeping flowers,
For this, for everything we are out of tune ;
It moves us not."
Some of the books that are considered favorable are : —
Jane Austin's novels, (realistic.)
Anderson's Fairy Tales.
iEsop's Fables. Robinson Crusoe.
Little Folks in Fur and Feathers.
Near Home and Far Off.
Extracts from such writers as Miss Edge worth, Mrs.
Barbauld, Miss Alcott, " Peter Parley," " Sophie May,"
"H.H." and others.
Johonnot's Natural History Series. — D Appleton & Co.
1. Cats and Dogs, and other Friends.
2. Friends in Feathers and Fur.
3. Neighbors with Wings and Fins.
Such Periodicals as St. Nicholas, Youths' Companion.
Harper's Young Folks, the Wide-Awake, The Century,
Harper's Magazine and Weekly (judiciously used), The
Nursery, Our Little Men and Women, and others.
ADVANCED READING.
DEFINITION.
THE WHOLE OF WHICH THE SUBJECT OF REAOINQ 16 A PART.
"Reading belongs to the group of language studies, the
other studies of which are rhetoric, composition, litera-
ture, grammar, orthography and orthoepy. These sub-
jects are called language studies because their subject-
236 THE THEORY OF THE SCHOOL.
matter is language and their purpose is to give skill in
the interpretation and use of language.
COMPARISON OF LANGUAGE STUDIES AND OTHER STUDIES.
Language is involved in all thinking and hence all
subjects, especially those involving the use of text-books,
give skill in the interpretation and use of language; in
this respect language studies and all other studies are
alike.
LANGUAGE STUDIES CONTRASTED WITH OTHER STUDIES.
Between the two groups of studies there is this differ-
ence. In the language studies the thought expressed is
incidental to the manner of expressing it ; in other sub-
jects the language is incidental and the attention is
directed mainly to the thought expressed rather than to
the manner of expressing it. In other words, in lan-
guage studies the thought expressed is regarded as a
means of exhibiting the forms of language ; in studies
other than language studies the language employed is
regarded as a means of exhibiting the thought. One
teaches the form by means of the content, the other
teaches the content by means of the form.
LANGUAGE STUDIES SEPARATED INTO GROUPS.
Language studies naturally divide themselves into
three groups on basis of the parts of language with
which they deal: 1. Word studies. — Orthography and
Orthoepy. 2. Sentence study. — Grammar. 3. Discourse
studies. — Rhetoric, Composition and Reading.
DISCOURSE STUDIES COMPARED.
Discourse studies are alike in that they deal with dis-
course as a whole rather than with its parts as in the
case of orthography, orthoepy and grammar.
THE THEORY OF THE SCHOOL. 237
READING CONTRASTED WITH COMPOSITION
Composition deals with the synthesis of discourse.
Reading deals with the analysis of discourse. The one
organizes the parts into a whole, the other separates the
whole into parts. The one teaches involution, the other
how to deal with what has been involved. While analy-
sis and synthesis are present in both cases, they are not
employed in both cases in the same way. The com-
poser first analyzes his subject, then synthesizes the
parts into a connected whole. The reader first compre-
hends vaguely by means of synthesis the subject as a
whole ; and then more largely by analyzing or separat-
ing it into its parts ; and by synthesizing or determin-
ing the relation of these parts. He begins and ends
with synthesis, and employs analysis as an interme-
diate step.
THE RELATION OF READING AND LITERATURE TO OTHER SUBJECTS.
Discourse represents products of three forms of mental
activity — intellect, sensibility and will. Studies other
than literature and reading whether language studies or
not deal mainly with didactic discourse or the discourse
of pure intellect : they represent thought and awaken
thought in the student. Literature proper is that kind
of discourse which represents products or states of the
sensibility, and which tends to stimulate those powers in
the mind of the reader. Other discourse gives power
to the intellect mainly. Literature is addressed to uni-
versal human nature and gives power to our whole
spiritual being. A marked difference exists between the
two kinds of discourse, whether regarded as to form or
238 THE THEORY OF THE SCHOOL.
content. The content of one is addressed to the under-
standing and is written in the language of the under-
standing, or in the language of science : the content of
the other is addressed to the sensibility and is presented
in a sensuous form or in the language of the imagina-
tion. Both reading and literature deal with this kind
of discourse. In this respect they are alike.
READING CONTRASTED WITH LITERATURE.
There must be in the mind of the student a condition
that shall constitute a proper basis of the psychological
states of the author which he is expected to experience.
The principles of conduct presented must be identical
with or similar to those involved in the simple problems
of life which have already confronted him and com-
manded his attention. The language employed must
be such that he can with reasonable effort master it.
Having mastered the principles of conduct, the value
of which his own experience enables him to appreciate,
and having been exercised in the simple forms of ex-
pression, and being strengthened in his imagination by
the short flight presented in his school reader, he has
been furnished a basis for the deeper problems of phi-
losophy, the subtlet elements of style and the more sus-
tained flights of the imagination, presented in the more
advanced grades of literature such as the book of Job,
Paradise Lost, or the plays of Shakespeare. Reading is
primary or elementary literature. Literature is advanc-
ed reading. There is this further difierence between the
reading work and literature; literature is studied for
its own sake in a sense that reading is not. Reading is
THE THEORY OF THE SCHOOL. 239
preparatory to not only literature but to other subjects
in that it seeks to give skill in the interpretation of all dis-
course.
READING CONTRASTED WITH OTHER SUBJECTS.
It is generally held that pupils should receive in-
struction and deal in the art of oral expression : and
that the subject of reading should secure to him this drill.
All subjects that require the student to talk give skill in
the oral expression of thought, but not in the expres-
sion of feeling. Some subjects do not give this drill
because: 1. The matter dealt with, being deductive
does not furnish the proper occasion for such expres-
sion. 2. In these as well as in case of subjects the
matter of which is appropriate to such expression no
attempt is made to give it because such a result would
be foreign to the end. 3. The matter in the reader fur-
nishes a variety of expression and it is held to be the
study of the teacher to give the student instruction in
this art. Reading should teach the forms of expression
appropriate to various typical feelings and the principles
involved in the oral expression of thought learned in
other subjects, and the thought employed in conversa-
u.
KINDS.
Reading may be separated into kinds or classes on
several bases.
ON BASIS OF AIM.
SHent reading, i. e., that in which the purpose is to
experience the thought expressed and suggested by the
composition.
Oral reading, i. e. that in which the aim is to give the
I
240 THE THEORY OF THE SCHOOL.
power to decide the oral expression suitable to the
thought, and to cause others to experience the thought
by giving adequate oral expression in the words of the
author.
ON BASIS OF SUBJECT MATTER.
Discourse contains products of the three forms of
mental activity : on this basis we have the three kinds
of reading.
1. Thought reading, or the reading of matter that
seeks to awaken thought.
2. Emotional reading or the reading of matter
which seeks to excite the sensibilities.
3. Ethical reading, or the reading of matter which
seeks to influence the reader's thought and determine
his action.
Thought is the necessary condition of feeling and
volition and hence whatever feeling or choice the author
seeks to inspire in the reader or whatever course Qf ac-
tion he would lead him to adopt, he first seeks to com-
municate some idea or thought as the condition of the
ethical or emotional end in view.
ON BASIS OF FORM,
Form is the means which the author employs to re-
present thought, feeling and volition.
1. The reading of narration or reading of discourse
which represents events succeeding each other in time.
2. The reading of description or the reading of that
which represents complex objects and their attributes.
3. The reading of exposition or the reading of dis-
course which deals with definition and arguments.
THE THEORY OF THE SCHOOL. 241
4. The reading of mixed forms or the reading
of that discourse which contains several of the above
forms.
THE STUDY OF WORDS.
In the study of a selection as a whole there are in-
volved :
1. The study of the literal meaning of words or the
-tudy of words which give to objects of thought attri-
utes and relations which they actually possess, and
which directly express objects of thought, attributes
and relations by naming them. In studying the literal
meaning of a word, its derivation and generally except-
ed meaning should be learned. Thus a valuable addi-
tion to the student's general vocabulary is made
nd the habit of critically studying the meaning of
words is cultivated.
2. Its meaning in the content. This is necessary
in order to understand the author's meaning.
3. The figurative meaning."*
In order to be able to direct the work in all these
phases the teacher should understand the process of
''Ought analysis ; etymology, or the de^'ivation of words ;
nd the distinction between language of the understand-
''ng and language of the imagination.
THODOHT ANALYSIS.
Those things which are the ground for the employ-
nent of the categories or forms of knowledge in the inter-
I 'Fetation of discourse are :
'Joseph Cashabt, DePauw University.
17
242 THE THEORY OF THE SCHOOL.
1. The mind in its processes of thinking, in the
formation of its mental products, involves and assumes
certain categories or forms of knowledge according to
which it performs its thinking, and constructs its pro-
ducts.
These categories are: —
Substance ; Attribute ; Time ; Space ; Similarity ;
Diversity; Whole; Part; Cause; Effect; Design; etc.
2. Literature or reading is objective thought. That
is, any selection in literature, as Gray's Elegy, is the life
or thought of the author put forth in objective or visi-
ble form — in language. The Elegy then is a mental
product, projected into the outer world. Since its for-
mation as a mental product involved the relations re-
ferred to, it, as an element of thought or life made ob-
jective, still involves them. Moreover, the mind that is to
approach it and awaken it to life again, i. e. to re- think
it, is itself subject in its processes of thinking to the
same fundamental relations as the author who thought
the Elegy and gave it concrete form. To re-think the
poem the mind of the learner must move forward upon
the same categories or forms of knowledge that the poet of
necessity employed. The question naturally arises, —
Under what forms oj knowledge or thinking, did the poet
produce his work ?
Could the scene have been imaged by the authoi
without involving the idea or category of space ? Thf
it could is inconceivable. Then the one who is to re
think it must do so under this relation. Could th|
writer have produced it without assuming the cat
gory of design, and without viewing it as a whole an^
THE THEORY OF THE SCHOOL. 243
as consisting of parts, and could he do otherwise than
to think tiie whole, and each part under the relation
of design ? The mind can not conceive that this is
possible. Then the learner is to consider it under the
relations or categories of design and of whole and part,
etc.
The practical form of the questions that direct the
mind in its consideration of any selection under these
forms of knowledge or categories, has been given as follows :
("it" indicating to the mind, but not naming, the sub-
ject of the selection or lesson).
1. What is (or was) it ? — (Category of Substance
and Attribute.)
2. When is (or was) it? — (Category of Time.)
3. Where is (or was) it? — (Category of Space.)
4. Why is (or was) it ?-^(Category of Cause and
Effect.)
5. The purpose of it ? — (Category of Design.)
6. The whole of which it is a part ? — (Category of
Whole and Part.)
7. The parts of it ?~(Category of Whole arid Part.)
8. What is (or was) it like? — (Category of Simi-
larity.)
9. What is (or was) it unlike? — (Category of Diver-
sity.)
10. What is (or was) the effect of it? — (Category
of Cause and Effect.)
The province, force, and value of the categories in
their application to reading work may be understood,
to a degree, by a careful consideration of the following
selections and their accompanying analyses :
244" THE THEORY OF THE SCHOOL.
THE DISCONTENTED PENDULUM.
"An old clock, that had stood for fifty years in a far-
mer's kitchen without giving its owner any cause of
complaint, early one summer's morning, before the fam-
ily was stirring, suddenly stopped. Upon this the Dial-
plate (if we may credit the fable) changed countenance
with alarm ; the Hands made an ineffectual effort to
continue their course ; the Wheels remained motionless
with surprise; the Weights hung speechless. Each
member felt disposed to lay the blame on the others.
At length the Dial instituted a formal inquiry into
the cause of the stop, when Hands, Wheels, Weights,
with one voice protested their innocence. But now a
faint tick was heard from the Pendulum, who thus
spoke :
'I confess myself to be the sole cause of the present
stoppage, and am willing, for the general satisfaction,
to assign my reasons. The truth is that I am tired of
ticking.' Upon hearing this, the old Clock became so
enraged that it was on the point of striking.
'Lazy Wire! ' exclaimed the Dial-plate. — 'As to
that,' replied the Pendulum, 'it is vastly easy for you,
Mistress Dial, who have always, as everybody knows,
set yourself up above me — it is vastly easy for you, I
say, to accuse other people of laziness — you who have
nothing to do all your life but to stare people in thej
face, and to amuse yourself with watching all that go(
on in the kitchen.'
'Think, I beseech you, how you would like to
shut up for life in this dark closet, and wag backward
and forward year after year, as I do.' — 'As to that
THE THEORY OF THE SCHOOL. 245
id the Dial, *is there not a window in your house on
purpose for you to look through ? '
'But what of that?' resumed the Pendulum.
* Although there is a window, I dare not stop, even for
an instant, to look out. Besides, I am really weary of
my way of life; and, if you please, I'll tell you how I
took this disgust at my employment.'
'This morning I happened to be calculating how
many times I should have to tick in the course only
of the next twenty-four hours — perhaps some of you
above there can tell me the exact sum ? ' , The Minute-
hand being quick at figures, instantly replied — ' Eighty -
six thousand four hundred times.' — 'Exactly so,' re-
plied the Pendulum.
' Well, I appeal to you all if the thought of this was
not enough to fatigue one ? And when I began to mul-
tiply the strokes of one day by those of months and
years, really it is no wonder if I felt discouraged at the
prospect; so, after a great deal of reasoning and hesi-
tation, thought I to myself, ' I'll stop ! '
The Dial could scarcely keep its countenance during
tliis harangue ; but, resuming its gravity, thus replied :
* Dear Mr. Pendulum, I am really astonished that such
a useful, industrious person as yourself should have
been overcome by this suggestion.
' It is true, you have done a great deal of work in
your time; so have we all, and are likely to do; and
though this may fatigue us to think of, the question is,
Will it fatigue us to dof Would you now do me the
favor to give about half a dozen strokes, to illustrate my
246 THE THEORY OF THE SCHOOL.
argument? ' The Pendulum complied, and ticked six
times at its usual pace.
'Now,' resumed the Dial, 'was that exertion fatiguing
to you ? ' — ' Not in the least,' replied the Pendulum ;
' it is not of six strokes that I complain, nor of sixty,
but of millions.'
'Very good,' replied the Dial; 'but recollect that,
although you may thinh of a million strokes in an in-
stant, you are required to execute but one; and that,
however often you may hereafter have to swing, a mo-
ment will always be given you to swing in.'
' That consideration staggers me, I confess,' said the
Pendulum. — ' Then I hope,' added the Dial-plate, ' we
shall all immediately return to our duty, for the people
will lie in bed till noon if we stand idling thus.'
Upon this, the Weights, who had never been accused
of light conduct, used all their influence in urging him
to proceed ; when, as with one consent, the Wheels be-
gan to turn, the Hands began to move, the Pendulum
began to swing, and, to its credit, ticked as loud as ever ;
while a beam of the rising sun, that streamed through
a hole in the kitchen-shutter, shining full upon the
Dial-plate, made it brighten up as if nothing had been
the matter.
When the farmer came down to breakfast, he de-
clared, upon looking at the Clock, that his watch had
gained half an hour in the night."
THE THEORY OF THE SCHOOL. 247
THOUGHT ANALYSIS.
Written as a Class Exercise.
1. Subject. ( Category of substance and attri-
bute.^ The conversation betwee?t the different
members of the clock.
2. Time. (^Category of time ^ A summer
m,orning, one half hour before sun-rise, fify
years after the clock had been placed in the
kitchen.
J. Place. i^Cdtegory of place. ^ On the west
side of the farmer s kitchen.
4. Cause. [Category of cause and effect.')
a. The weariness of the Pendulum.
b. The stoppage.
c. Su7^prise of the other members of the clock.
d. The inquiry made by the Dial.
e. The protestation of in^iocence.
5. Effect. [Category of cause and effect.)
Special effort made by other members of the
clotky and the return of the Pe7idulum to duty.
6. Purpose. [Category of design.)
a. Of Pendulum. To justify hitnself
b. Of Dial. To secure the willing service
of the Pendulum.
c. Of the Author. To teach that it is bet-
ter to work than to do nothing.
248 THE THEORY OF THE SCHOOL.
7. Parts. ( Category of whole and part ^
a. 0?i basis of characters.
(1.) Pendulum.
(2.) Weights.
(3.) Wheels.
(4.) Hands.
(5.) Dial.
b. On basis of ideas expressed.
(1.) Co7ifession as to the cause of stop-
page.
use it.
(2.) Angry retort.
(3.) Sarcastic reply.
(4.) Cofnplaint as to dark room.
(5.) Mention of a window.
(6.) Complaint that there is no time to
(7.) Reason for stopping.
(8.) Acknowledgment that it was the
work of the Pendulum.
(9.) The request.
(10.) Compliance.
(11.) Question as to fatigue.
(12.) Reply.
(13.) Forcible statement.
(14.) Confession.
8. Whole. {^Category of whole and part?)
THE THEORY OF THE SCHOOL. 249
This is a fable a7id fables belo7ig to narration.
g. Comparison. ( Category of similarity and
diversity.^ The dial, weights, wheels and hands
were alike in that they were willing to do their
duty and were willing to assist others to do
their s. The pe7idulum was easily discouraged,
but when convinced, was willifig to do the right,
QRAY'8 ELEQY.
The curfew tolls the knell of parting day,
The lowing herd winds slowly o'er the lea,
The ploughman homeward plods his weary way,
And leaves the world to darkness and to me.
Now fades the glimmering landscape on the sight,
And all the air a solemn stillness holds.
Save where the beetle wheels his droning flight,
And drowsy tinklings lull the distant folds :
Save that from yonder ivy mantled tow'r,
The moping owl does to the moon complain
Of such as, wand'ring near her secret bow'r,
Molest her ancient solitary reign.
Beneath those rugged elms, that yew-tree's shade.
Where heaves the turf in many a mould'ring heap,
Each in his narrow cell for ever laid.
The rude forefathers of the hamlet sleep.
The breezy call of Incense-breathing mom,
The swallow twitt'ring fi-om the straw-built shed
The cock's shrill clarion, or the echoing horn.
No more shall rouse them from their lowly bed.
For them no more the blazing hearth shall bum,
Or busy housewife ply her evening care ;
No children run to lisp their sire's return,
Or climb his knee the envied kiss to share.
250 THE THEORY OF THE SCHOOL.
Oft did the harvest to their sickles yield,
Their furrow oft the stubborn glebe has broke :
How jocund did they drive their teams afield !
How bow'd the woods beneath their sturdy stroke !
Let not ambition mock their useful toil,
Their homely joys, and destiny obscure :
Nor grandeur hear with a disdainful smile.
The short and simple annals of the poor.
The boast of heraldry, the pomp of power
And all that beauty, all that wealth ere gave,
Await alike th' inevitable hour.
The paths of glory lead but to the grave.
Nor you. ye proud, impute to these the fault,
If memory o'er their tomb no trophies raise.
Where through the long-drawn aisle and fretted vault,
The pealing anthem swells the note of praise.
Can storied urn, or animated bust,
Back to its mansion call the fleeting breath?
Can honour's voice provoke the silent dust,
Or flatt'ry soothe the dull cold ear of death?
Perhaps in this neglected spot is laid
Some heart once pregnant with celestial fire ;
Hands, that the rod of empire might have sway'd,
Or wak'd to ecstasy the living lyre.
But knowledge to their eyes her ample page
Rich with the spoils of time did ne'er unroll ;
Chill penury repress'd their noble rage,
And froze the genial current of the soul.
Full many a gem of purest ray serene
The dark unfathom'd caves of ocean bear :
Full many a flower is born to blush unseen,
And waste its sweetness on the desert air.
Some village Hampden , that, with dauntless breast,
The little tyrant of his fields withstood,
Some mute inglorious Milton here may rest.
Some Cromwell guiltless of his country's blood.
THE THEORY OF THE SCHOOL. 251
Th' applause of list'ning senates to command,
The threats of pain and ruin to despise,
To scatter plenty o'er a smiling land,
And read their history in a nation's eyes,
Their lot forbade : nor circumscrib'd alone
Their growing virtues, but their crimes confin'd ;
Forbade to wade through slaughter to a throne,
And shut the gates of mercy on mankind.
The struggling pangs of conscious truth to hide.
To quench the blushes of ingenuous shame.
Or heap the shrine of luxury and pride
With incense kindled at the Muse's flame.
Far from the madding crowd's ignoble strife.
Their sober wishes never leani'd to stray ;
Along the cool sequester'd vale of life
They kept the noiseless tenor of their way.
Yet ev'n these bones from insult to protect
Some frail memorial erected nigh,
With uncouth rhymes and shapeless sculpture deck'd,
Implores the passing tribute of a sigh.
Their name, their years, spelt by th' unletter'd Muse,
The place of fame and elegy supply :
And many a holy text around she strews,
That teach the rustic moralLit to die.
For who, to dumb forgetfulness a prey.
This pleasing anxious being e'er resign'd,
Left the warm precincts of the cheerful day,
Nor cast one longing ling' ring look behind?
On some fond breast the parting soul relies,
Some pious drops the closing eye requires;
E'en from the tomb the voice of nature cries.
E'en in our ashes live their wonted fires.
For thee, who, mindful of th' unhonour'd dead,
Dost In these lines their artleas tale relate;
If chance, by lonely contemplation led.
Some kindred spirit shall enquire thy fate,—
252 THE THEORY OF THE SCHOOL.
Haply some hoary-headed swain may say,
"Oft have we seen him at the peep of dawn
Brushing with hasty steps the dews away,
To meet the sun upon the upland lawn.
"There at the foot of yonder nodding beech,
That wreaths its old fantastic roots so high,
His listless length at noontide would he stretch.
And pore upon the brook that babbles by.
"Hard by yon wood, now smiling as in scorn,
Mutt'ring his wayward fancies he would rove;
Now drooping, woful-wan, like one forlorn,
Or crazed with care, or cross'd in hopeless love.
"One morn I miss'd him on the custom'd hill,
Along the heath, and near his fav'rite tree;
Another came ; nor yet beside the rill.
Nor up the lawn, nor at the wood was he :
•'The next, with dirges due in sad array
Slow through the church- way path we saw him borne :
Approach and read (for thou can'st read) the lay
Grav'd on the stone beneath yon aged thorn,"
THE EPITAPH.
Here rests his head upon the lap of earth
A youth, to fortune and to fame unknown :
Fair science frown'd not on his humble birth,
And melancholy mark'd him for her own.
Large was his bounty, and his soul sincere.
Heaven did a recompense as largely send ;
He gave to mis'ry (all he had) a tear,
He gained from heav'n ('twas all he wish'd) a friend.
No farther seek his merits to disclose,
Or draw his frailties from their dread abode,
(There they alike in trembling hope repose,)
The bosom of his Father and his God.
THE THEORY OF THE SCHOOL. 253
THOUGHT ANALYSIS.
Written as a Class Exercise.
1. Purpose. {Category of design.) To in-
spire in the exalted a feeling of respect for the
lowly and to induce them to treat the poor with
more consideration.
2. Means. ( Category of cause and effect un-
der the special form of means and end.)
To accomplish the above object the author pre-
sents :
a. A picture inte^ided to inspire a feeling
of solemnity. The things which tend to inspire
this feeling are :
(1.) The Place. {Category of place.) A
grave yard.
(2.) Time. ( Category of time ^ Evening.
(3.) Sotmds which possess one or more of
the following attributes : ( Category of cause and
effect under the form of means and end.)
{a.) Low pitch,
ib.) Slow time,
(c.) Regular movement,
id.) Large volume,
(e.) Subdued force.
The sounds are :
(a.) Tolling of the curfew,
(b.) Lowing of the herd.
254 THE THEORY OF THE SCHOOL.
{c.) Solemn stillness,
id.) Flight of the beetle,
(e.) Tinkling of the bell,
(f) Hooting of the owl.
(4.) Objects of sight. (^Category of cause
and effect under the form of means and end.)
{a.) Animate objects possessing one or
more of the attributes mentio7ied under (j.)
The objects are :
(1') The ploughman.
(2') The herd,
{b.) Inanimate objects suggesting one
or more of the following ideas :
(1') Age.
(2') Desolation.
(3') Mortality of man.
These objects are:
(1') Fading landscape,
(2') Ivy mantled tower,
(3') Rugged elms,
(4') Yew tree.
(5') Mounds.
b. A picture intended to inspire a feeling
of sympathy, by giving an ideal form of life,
(^Category of cause and effect under the form of
means and end.)
THE THEORY OF THE SCHOOL. 255
(1.) The beautiful morning.
(2.) Singing of the birds.
(3.) Sweet odors.
(4.) Crozuing of the cocks.
(5.) Echoing horn.
(6.) Cheerful home.
(7.) Busy house-wife.
(8.) Blazing hearth.
(9.) Affectionate children.
(10.) Occupation :
{a.) Harvesti7ig.
{b.) Breaking.
(c.) Felling timbers.
c. Argurnent. ( Category of cause and effect
under form of means and end.)
(1.) Mortality of all.
(2.) None can be called back to life.
(3.) Monuments affect not the dead.
(4.) Natural endowments.
(5.) Difference in power may be owing to
difference in circumsta7ices .
(6.) Difference i7i circumstances prevents
doing evil.
(7.) Natural affection.
(8.) All fear death.
256 THE THEORY OF THE SCHOOL.
(9.) Their opinion of us should not affect
feeling towards them.
(10.) We should feel and act in such a
manner that it would be pleasing in the sight
of God.
DERIVATION.
GENERAL SUGGESTIONS.
Principle. — In the work indicated under each of the following
points the learner is to put to the utmost test all his powers of observa-
tion, comparison and inference in respect to both form arid meaning^
before erriploying the dictionary, or other extraneous aids.
1. Associate carefully each root with its meaning.
2. Give examples of English words involving the roots.
3. State of each word :
a. Its primary literal meaning.
b. Its secondary literal meaning.
E. g. Defer meaning to put off, furnishes deferer, one who
puts off; and deference, deferential, in which the idea is — yielding
to the wishes of another.
4. Associate each prefix and suffix with its meaning.
5. Give examples of English words involving prefixes:
find words in which the sufiixes have the meaning given.
6. The treatment of each word in the appended list of deri-
vatives (page ) should consist of :
a. The separation of the word unto prefix, root, and
sufiix.
b. The statement of the meaning of each.
c. The force of the time element as indicated by the
form of the root or sufiix.
d. The giving of :
(1). Primary literal meaning.
(2). Secondary literal meaning.
e. Statement of current meaning.
THE THEORY OF THE SCHOOL. 257
7. Consider each significant word in the Elegy :
a. As to whether it is language of the understanding or
language of the imagination, using the form suggested under
*• Figurative Language " (page 266).
b. As to its derivation.
INCIDENTAL.
(Fourth, Fifth and Sixth Years).
By the time the pupil is able to use the Third Reader,
he has obtained such facility in reading that he may be-
gin the study of derived words. The work may be
taken orally as a general lesson, or incidentally in con-
nection with jeading lessons. The following illustra-
tion will tend to suggest the nature of the work on
affixes and prefixes during the fourth year. In the
fifth and sixth years, the general plan would be similar,
the material, however, presenting more difficulty.
ILLUSTRATION.
(Diminutives).
It may be that in some reading lesson the word river
has occurred. During the recitation or at another time,
as a general lesson, lead the pupils to consider rivers as
to their size, and to call that moving body of water that
is too small for even small boats to float upon, a little
river. Consider then the meaning of rivulet. Write
the word river at one part of the board and the word
rivulet in another place. Have the children :
1. To state the difference in meaning.
2. To observe and state the difference in form.
3. To infer and state the force of let.
Under the word river write the word stream. Obtain
from the children its meaning, and lead them to infer
the word that means a little stream. Write the word
18
258 THE THEORY OF THE SCHOOL.
Streamlet under rivulet. Deal in a similar way with
brookj tart, wave, cloud. Let the class give orally, and
then write on their slates the meaning or force of let,
i. e., define it. In like manner consider kin, as with
lamb, pan, man, etc.
At this stage lead the children to observe that in each
case let and kin are added or fixed to a syllable, and
then state and have them write " Let and kin are affixes,
meaning small or little.^^ Have the sentence given orally
many times.
Ask then for two affixes meaning smj^ll. Write the
two as the beginning of a column. Suggest others,
writing them in the column as obtained, by asking the
name for a little duck, a little goose, etc. Inquire what
is meant by lordling, darling, etc. — suggesting if neces-
sary that the first means a lord or person who is little in
mind but great in his own thought, and that the second
is a slight modification of dear with the affix. Have the
pupils infer the meaning of nursling. State that a sack
or bag is also termed a poke. Ask what those little bags
sewn in their coats, vests, trousers, aprons, and dresses
in which they carry handkerchiefs, knives, marbles, etc.
are called. In this way obtain the word pock(^e)et.
From it and floweret infer the meaning of et. In a simi-
lar way obtain ock, from hillock, bullock, etc. Then have
the list read. Ask the name for such endings. Have
the definition repeated, and the force of the affixes
given. Leave the thought with them that there are
many other affixes with other meanings, and that at
another time these will be reconsidered in connection
with those as yet unknown ones.
THE THEO
ifr
OF THE SCHOOL.
259
SYSTEMATIC.
Seventh and Eighth Years.
LMtin, — Verbs.
*Ager«, to do, to perform; eg,act.
Amare, to love; amat.
Aptare, to fit or join.
Ardere, to burn; ars.
Arguere, to argue.
Arare, to plough.
Audire, to hear; audit.
Augere, to increase; aux, auct.
Bibere, to drink.
Cadere, to fall; cas.
CaedCT-e to cut, to kill; caes.
CaXere, to be warm or hot.
Canderc, to glow with heat.
Capere, to take; cep, capt.
Csivere, to beware; caut.
Cedere, to yield, to go away; cess.
Censere, to judge or estimate.
Cernere, to separate, distinguish
or discern; cret.
Ciere, to rouse, to call forth; cit.
Clam are, to cry out, to shout;
clamat.
Claud ere ^ ( claus
Clodere V to shut, to close; \ clos.
Cludere J i clus.
Clinere, to incline or bend.
Colere, to cultivate; cult.
Coquere, to cook; coct.
Credere, to believe; credu,
credit.
Creare, to create; creat.
Crescere, to grow; cret.
Currere, to run; curs.
Debere, to owe; debit.
Dicore, to devote, to show; dicat.
Dic^re, to say; diet.
Dividere, to divide; divis.
Dare, to give; dat.
Docere, to teach; docu, doct.
Dolere, to grieve; to be in pain.
Ducere, to lead; duct.
Ire, to go; it.
Errare, to wander; errat.
^stimare, to value; aestimat.
Facere, to do or make; fee, fact
Fallere, to deceive; fals.
Fari, to speak; fat.
Fendere, to strike.
Ferre, to carry or bear; lat.
Fervere, to boil; to be hot.
Fidere, to trust.
Figere, to fix or fasten; fix.
Fingere, to form or fashion; fict.
Flectere, to bend; flex.
Fligere, to beat, to dash; fiict.
Fluere, to flow; flux.
Frangere, to break; frag, fract.
Fugere, to flee; fugit.
.Fulgere, to shine.
Fundere, to pour out; fus.
Gerere, to bear or carry on; gest.
Gignere, to generate or produce;
genit.
Gradi, to take steps, to walk;
gress.
Habere, to have; habit.
Imperare, to command; imper-
at.
Jacere, to throw; jact or ject.
Judicare, to judge; judicat.
Jungere, to join; junct.
Jurare, to swear; jurat.
Legare, to send as an embassa-
dor; legat.
260 THE THEORY OF THE SCHOOL.
Legcre, to gather, to select, to Premere, to press; press.
read; lect. Probare, to prove; probat.
Levare, to raise; levat. Pungere, to sting; punct.
Jjigare, to bind; ligat. Fntare, to think; putat.
Linguere, to leave; lict. Quserere, to seek; qusesit.
Loqui, to speak; locut. Hegere, to direct, to rule; rect.
Ludere, to play; lus, Ren, to think, to judge; rat.
Mandare, to commit, to give Rogare, to ask; rogat.
charge or command; mandat. Rumpfre?, to break; rupt.
M.anere, to remain; mans. Salire, to leap or spring; salt.
M.edere, to cure. Scandere, to climb, to mount;
Memini, to remember. scans.
Mergere, to dip, to sink; mers. Scribere, to write; script.
Metin, to measure, mens. Sedere, to sit; sess.
Mittere, to send, miss. Seniire to perceive; sens.
Monere, to warn, to put in Sequi, to follow; secut.
mind; monit. Servare, to watch, to preserve;
Monstrare, to point out, to servat.
show; monstrat Sistare or stare, to stand, to
Movere, to move; mot. place, to set up; stat.
Mutare, to change; mutat. Solvere, to loose; solut.
Nasci, to be born; nat. Spicere, to look, to see; spect.
Nocere, to hurt, to harm; nocit. Sperare, to hope; sperat.
Nectere, to tie or bind; nex. Spirare, to breathe; spirat.
Noscere, to know; not. Struere, to build, construct;
Nunciare, to announce; nunciat. struct.
Orm, to rise or sping from; ort. Sumere, to take; sumpt.
Orare, to pray, to ask; orat. Tangere to touch; tact.
PatM, to suffer, to endure; pass. Tendere, to stretch, to go to-
Pellere, to drive; puis. , wards, to aim at; tens or
Pendere, to hang; tent.
Pendere, to weigh, to pay out; Tenere, to hold, to keep; tent.
pens. Texere, to weave; text.
Petere, to seek; petit. Trahere, to draw; tract.
Pingere, to paint; pict. Uti, to use; us.
Placere, to please; placit. Ysdere, to be strong; to have
Plaudere, to clap, to applaud; force or value.
plans, Yeriere, to turn; vers.
Plere, to fill; plet. Venire, to come; vent.
Plicare, to fold; plicat. Videre, to see; vis.
Plectere, to twine or weave; Vincer« to conquer; vict.
plex. Vivere, to live; vict.
Ponere to put or place; posit. Vocare, to call; vocat.
Portare, to carry. Volvere,to roll; volut..
Prehendere, to seize; prehens. Vovere to vow; vot.
THE THEORY OF THE SCHOOL.
261
Nouns.
Ager, a field ; agr.
Angulus, a corner ; angul.
Anima, the life or spiritual
principle ; anim.
Animus, the inind; anim.
Annus, a year ; ann.
Arma, arms, weapons ; arm.
Ars, art, skill ; art.
Articulus, a joint or limb; arti-
cul. '
CantuH, a song ; cant.
Caput, the head; capit
Caro, flesh ; cam.
Causa, a cause ; caus.
Circus, a circle ; circ.
Civis, a citizen ; civ.
Classis, a class ; class.
Concilium, an assembly, a
council ; concili.
Cor, the heart ; cord.
Corona, a crown ; coron.
Corpus, a body ; corpor.
Crux, a cross ; cruc.
Culpa, a fault ; culp.
Cura, care ; cur.
Damnum, harm, loss ; damn.
Dens, a tooth ; dent.
Deus, God ; de.
Divus, a god ; div.
Dies, a day ; di.
Dominus, a master or lord ;
domin.
Domus, a house, a home; dom.
Exemplum, an example; ex-
empl.
Fama, a report; fam.
Familia, a family ; famili.
Fanum, a temple ; fan.
Fomina, a woman ; femin.
Filius, a son ; fili.
Filia, a daughter ; fili.
Filum, a thread ; fil.
Finis, an end or limit ; fin.
Flamma, a flame ; flamm.
Flos, a flower ; flor.
Folium, a leaf; foli.
Forma, form, beauty ; form.
Frater, a brother ; fratr.
Frigus, cold ; frigor.
Frons, the forehead ; front.
Fumus, smoke ; fum.
Fundus, a foundation ; fund.
Granum, a grain of corn ; gran.
Grex, a flock of sheep ; greg.
Haeres,an heir or heiress; haer-
ed.
Hospes, a host or guest; hospit.
Hostis, an enemy ; host.
Humus, the ground; hum.
Imago, an image ; imagin.
Iter, a journey ; itiner.
Jus, right, law, justice; jur.
Labor, labor.
Latus, a side ; later.
Lex, a law ; leg.
Liber, a book ; libr.
Linum, flax ; lin.
Litera, a letter ; liter.
Locus, a place ; loc.
Lumen, V^^^^/lumin.
Magister, a master ; magistr.
Manus, the hand ; man.
Mare, the sea ; mar.
Mater, a mother ; matr.
Merx, merchandise ; mere.
Minister, a servant or attend-
ant; ministr.
Modus, a manner ; mod.
Mons, a mountain ; mont.
Mors, death ; mort.
Mos, custom, practice ; mori
Munus, an office or gift; muner.
Numerus, a number ; numer.
Opus, a work ; oper.
Pars, a part ; part.
262
THE THEORY OF THE SCHOOL.
Pater, a father ; patr.
Poena, punishment ; poen.
Pes, a foot ; ped.
Planta, a plant ; plant.
Populus, the people ; popul.
Signum, a sign or seal ; sign.
Socius, a companion ; soci.
Terra, the earth ; terr.
Testis, a witness ; test.
Verbum, a word ; verb.
Vulgus, the common people
vulg.
Adjectives.
Altus, lofty; alt.
Ampins, large; ampl.
Brevis, short; brev.
Cavus, hollow; cav.
Centum, a hundred; cent.
Clarus, clear, bright; clar.
Crudus, raw, unripe; crud.
Curvus, crooked, winding ;
curv.
Decem, ten.
Densus, thick, close; dens.
Dignus, worthy; dign.
Durus, hard; dur.
JEquus, equal, just; sequ.
Exterus, outer, foreign; exter.
Felix, happy; felic.
Festus, joyful; fest.
Firmus, strong; firm.
Fortis, brave, fort.
Grandis, great; grand.
Gratus, pleasing, agreeable,
thankful; grat.
Gravis, heavy, grievous; grav.
Lenis, mild; len.
Liber, free; liber.
Longus, long; long.
Magnus, great; magn.
Greek.
Aer, the air. Chole, bile, anger.
Arche, the beginning; govern- Christos, the Anointed.
ment. Chronos, time.
Astron, a star. Kosmos, the world.
Autos, one's self. Krites, a judge.
Ballo, to cast or throw. Kuklos, a circle.
Kentron, a central point. Demos, the people.
Major, greater, maj.
Mains, bad; mal.
Mathrus, ripe; matur.
Minor, less.
Mirus, strange, wonderful; mir.
Miser, wretched; miser.
Multus, much; mult.
Novus, new; nov.
Omnis, all; omn.
Par, equal, like; par.
Planus, even, level, evident;
plan.
Proprius, belonging to, pecu-
liar; propri.
Eudis, unpolished, uncultiva-
ted; rud.
Sagus, wise, discerning; sag.
Sanus, sound, healthy; san.
Severus, severe; sever.
Similis, like; simil.
Solidus, solid; solid.
Solus, alone; sol.
Ultimus, last; ultim.
Unus, one; un.
Vagus, wandering; vag.
Verus, true; ver.
THE THEORY OF THE SCHOOL. 263
Doxa, an opinion. Pan, every; all.
Hedra, a se.it. Pathos, suffering, affection,
Ergon, a work. emotion.
Eu, well; rightly. Petalon, a leaf.
Ge, the earth. Phaino, to appear, to show.
Glotta or glossa, the tongue; Pharmakon, a drug; a medi-
language. cine.
Gonia, an angle or corner. Phemi, to say or tell.
Grapho, to write. Philos, a friend or lover.
Gramma, a writing. Phone, a sound.
Helios, the sun. Phrazo, to say or relate.
Hudor, water. Pnren, the mind.
Idios, belonging to one; pecu- Phusis, nature.
liar. Polls, a city.
Lpos, the people. Polus, much, many.
Logos, a speech, account or de- Pur, fire.
scription. Skeptomai, to examine; to con-
Math ema, knowledge; that sider.
which is learned. ' Schole, leisure,
Metron, a measure. Skopeo, to observe; to watch.
Monos, sole; only. Sophia, wisdom.
Naus, a ship. Spao, to draw.
Neuron, a cord, a nerve. Stasis, a standing or position;
Nomos, a law or rule. a placing.
Ode, an ode or song. Stenos, narrow.
Odos, a road or way. Thesis, a putting or placing.
Onoma, a name. Theos, God.
Optomai, to see. Tome, the act of cutting.
Orthos, erect, right. Tonos, tension; tone.
Oxus, sbarp, acid. . Topos, a place.
Paideia, education. Tupos, a shape, figure, model.
Prefixes.
A (Eng. or Sax.), in, on, at. Apo or Ap (Gr.) from.
A or ab (Lat.) from. Be (Eng.) upon, over, about.
A or an (Gr.)de8titute of. Cata (Gr.) down, against.
Ad (Lat.) taking the forms Circum (Lat.) around, about.
a, ac, af, ag, al, an, ap, ar, as, Con (Lat.) with or together.
or at.) to. It may assume the forms of
Am or amb (Lat.) round or co, cog, col, com, cor.
about. Contra (Lat.) against.
Ana. (Gr.) throughout ; up. De (Lat.) from, down from.
Ante (Lat.) before. Dia (Gr.) through.
Anti or Ant (Gr.) against.
264 THE THEORY OF THE SCHOOL.
Dis. (Lat.) asunder, apart, Para or Par (Gr.) by the side
away, taking the forms di of.
and dif. Per (Lat.) through.
E or Ex (Lat. and Gr.) out or Peri (Gr.) around.
out of. It sometimes Post ( Lat. ) after.
changes to ec or ef. Pre (Lat.) before.
En or Em, See In. Preter (Lat.) beyond.
Epi or Ep (Gr.) upon, over. Pro (Lat.) for, forth, forward.
for. It may become por and pur.
Rxtra (Lat.) beyond. Re or Red (Lat.) back again,
Fore, before. anew
Hyper (Gr.) above, beyond. Retro (Lat.) backward.
Hypo (Gr.) under. ' Se (Lat.) aside, apart.
In or En (Lat. and Gr.) in, on. Sub or subter (Lat.) under. It
or into. In may become il, may become sue, suf, sug,
im, ir ; en may become em. sup, sus.
Inter (Lat.) between or among. Super (Lat.) above, over, more
Sometimes becomes enter. than enough. Often changed
Intro (Lat.) within. to sur.
Meta or Met (Gr.) after, be- Syn (Gr.) with, together. It
yond, from one to another. may become sy, suf, sym.
Mis, wrong, erroneous, defec- Trans or Tra (Lat.) over,
tive. through, beyond.
Non. (Lat.) not. Un denotes privation or nega-
Ob (Lat.) denotes opposition, tion.
and may become oc, of, or Under,
op. With denotes opposition or
Out, beyond. separation.
Sujffixes.
Suffixes have not fixed significations, as is the case
with prefixes. These must be determined in every case
by the meaning of the word in which the suffix is found.
In the following list one or more meanings are given
with each:
Ac, like; pertaining to. An or ian, belonging to; one
Aceous, having the qualities of. who.
Acy, state or condition of. Ance orancy, the state of being.
Age, the condition of; the do- Ant, being in; one who.
ing of. Ar, belonging to; resembling;
Al, relating to; the act of. one who.
THE THEORY OF THE SCHOOL. 265
Ard, one who. Ism or asm, the state of being;
Ary, pertaining to ; a place an idiom of.
wheie. Ist, one who.
Ate, having the qualities of; Ite, one who is; one belonging
one who. to.
Ble, that can or may be. Ive, fitted to.
Cle, little. Ize or ise, to make or render.
Cule, minute. Less, without.
Dom, the state or condition of. Let, little.
Ee, one who is. Like, resembling. ,
Eer, one who does. Ling, denotes littleness.
En, to make. Ly, like; in a manner.
Ence or ency, the state of be- Ment, the state of; the act of;
ing; the act or quality of. that which
Ent, having the quality of; one Mony, the quality of.
who. Ness, the state of being; quali-
Er, one who does; more. ty or circumstance of being. •
Ery, a place where. Or, one who does.
Escence, the state of growing or Ory, fitted or designed; a place
becoming. where.
Escent, becoming. Ose, abounding in. %
Ess, denotes feminine gender. Ous, partaking of; having the
Ful, full. quality of.
Hood, the condition of. Ship, the place or office of; the
Ic, like, having the qualities of. condition or relation of.
Ice, the quality of. Some, characterized by.
Ics, the science of. Ster, one who.
Id, having the quality of. Tude, the condition of ; the
He, pertaining to; capable of quality of.
being. Ty, the condition or state of
Ine, pertaining to; having the being.
qualities of. Ure, the act of.
Ion, the act or state of. Ward, in the direction of; hav-
Ish, like; somewhat. ing the quality of.
Y, the quality or state of being.
In the consideration of the succeeding list of words : —
1. Determine with each word the full extent that can be
wrought out unaided by the already acquired powers.
2. Study it by means of the dictionary.
3. Consider, in the light of the knowledge gained from the
dictionary, whether the data for mastering the word were not,
even before the use of the dictionary, within the scope of the
mind's experience.
266
THE THEORY OF THE SCHOOL.
Acidulate.
Master.
Destroy.
Exigency.
Emancipate.
Tent.
Inimical.
Matron.
Tenor.
Millenium.
Remedy.
Terrier.
Inert.
Moderator.
Protestant.
Obedient.
Summon.
Testament.
Regicide.
Tantamount.
Trait.
Sc^ald.
Momentum.
Extravagance.
Incendiary.
Common.
Invaluable.
Accent.
Manoeuver.
Venture.
Precept.
Adore.
Verse.
Precipitate.
Peerless.
Trivial.
Accuse.
Portion.
Survey.
City.
Jupiter.
Divulge.
Courage.
Repent. '
Aeronaut.
Corpuscle.
Triple.
Asterisk.
Succumb.
People.
Hyperbole.
Proxy.
Surprise.
Centre.
Succor.
Proper.
Choler.
Indite.
Amputate.
Anachronism.
# Condign.
Require.
Cosmogony.
Disdain.
Incorrigible.
Crisis.
Render.
Realize.
Cathedral.
Circuit.
Prorogue.
Energy.
Iniquity.
Erudite.
Geology.
Pontiff.
Salmon.
Stenography.
Vociferous.
Serf.
Heliotrope.
Suffrage.
Pursue.
Catalogue.
Foundation.
Obsequious.
Thermometer.
Bellicose.
Signet.
Psalmody.
Exhibit.
Constable.
Pantomime.
Reject.
Interstice.
Periphrastic.
Adjust.
Solder.
Pyrotechnics.
Neglect.
Despicable.
System.
Libel.
Spiritual.
Tonic' *
FIGURATIVE LANGUAGE.
^'Figures of speech are those forms of language which
give to objects of thought attributes and relations which
they do not actually possess, which indirectly suggest
* THE SCHOLAR'S COMPANION.
THE THEORY OF THE SCHOOL. 267
objects of thought, attributes or relations by giving
some related idea.
In each case the sentence numbered ** a " is intended to ex-
press a thought in the language of the understanding, and the
sentence numbered "b" is intended to express the same
thought in figurative language.
1. Attributes which they do not actually possess
are given to objects of thought.
a. The child weeps.
b. The tree weeps.
2. An object of thought is suggested by an attri-
bute.
a. Belgium's capital had gathered there her beau-
tiful women and brave men.
b. 'Belgium's capital had gathered there her
beauty and chivalry.'^
3. An attribute suggested by an object.
a. He showed the fierceness of his disposition.
b. He showed the tiger of his disposition.
4. An object of thought is suggested by giving its
time relation.
a. Remember the assassination of Caesar.
b. 'Remember March, the ides of MarchP
5. An object of thought is suggested by giving its
place relation.
a. He smote the people living in the city.
b. He smote the city.
6. An object of thought is suggested by giving its
cause.
a. We read the works of Milton.
* b. We read Milton.
268 THE THEORY OF THE SCHOOL. ^
7. An object of thought is suggested by giving its
effect.
a. We plant a tree.
b. We plant a shadow.
8. An object of thought is suggested by giving its
purpose.
a. Men intending to benefit society have founded
good institutions.
b. Benefit has founded good institutions.
9. Part is suggested by giving whole.
a. We are citizens of the United States.
b. We are citizens of America.
10. Whole suggested by giving part.
a. Give us this day our daily food.
b. 'Give us this day our daily bread.''
11. An object of thought suggested by giving one
like it.
a. Go ye and tell Herod.
b. 'Go ye and tell that /ox.'
12. An object of thought is suggested by giving one
unlike it.
a. Ye are not the people and wisdom will not die
with you.
b. 'No doubt ye are the people and wisdom will
die with you.'
13. An object of thought is suggested by giving an
accompaniment of it.
a. The choice of the people governs this country.
b. The ballot-box governs this country.
In addition to the above cases, adjectives are trans-
ferred from one object to another. The objects whfch
THE THEORY OF THE SCHOOL. 269
allow such transfer sustain to each other some of the
above relations. The learning of the different names
which rhetorics apply to the above forms of language
may be deferred until quite late in the pupil's course
or omitted altogether. When he meets those forms of
expression in his reading it is not necessary that he
shall think the names which custom has applied to
them, but it is important that he shall see the relations
involved.
In reading the sentence " The Lord is my shepherd,"
if he thinks — 'as the shepherd cares for his sheep so the
Lord tenderly cares for His people,' he can very well
afford to omit from his thinking the word ' metaphor.'
Indeed it may be claimed that not to know their
names is a positive advantage to the young learners in
dealing with forms of expression. A very vague per-
ception of the relations involved may suggest to him
the names of the figures and if half guessing he pro-
nounces the name, that relieves him from further re-
sponsibility and he has not received from the difficulty
the strength it was capable of affording him. If on the
other hand not knowing the name, he is required to see
clearly and to state in the language of the understand-
ing the relations involved he soon acquires perfect mas-
tery over such forms as well as the power of independ-
ent thinking in other directions.
Perhaps no other power of the young mind needs
more restraining and directing than the imagination.
The understanding is the natural check to the imag-
ination.
270 THE THEORY OF THE SCHOOL.
FORM OF ANALYSIS.
The following form of analysis has been found use-
ful: The tree weeps. "Tree" is language of the un-
derstanding because it directly expresses an object of
thought by naming it. '' Weeps " is the language of the
imagination because it gives to the object "tree" an at-
tribute which it does not possess.
^'' Belgium^ s capital had gathered there her beauty and
her chivalry.^'' "Beauty" and "chivalry" are language of
the imagination because they indirectly suggest ob-
jects of thought — beautiful women and brave men — by
giving attributes of them.
" We celebrate the fourth of July.'' " Fourth of July "
is language of the imagination because it indirectly
suggests an object of thought — The Declaration of In-
dependence — by giving its time relation.
With the slight modification necessitated by the dif-
ferent relations involved, this form will apply to all cases
and will require close thinking and definite expression."*
METHOD IN WRITING.
The most potent reason why teachers do not train children to write cor-
rectly is, that they can not write well themselves and will not take the trouble
to learn.— F. W. Parker, Ta^ks on Teaching.
DESIGN.
The design of writing in the common schools is to
gi\e the pupil that power over slope, height, and width
of letters, thickness and curvature of lines, and mode
* JOSEPH CARHART.
THE THEORY OF THE SCHOOL. 271
of union, as applied to script, which shall make his
writing rapid, and at the same time graceful and legible.
Stated in the order of their importance, beginning with
the least important, the ends of the subject of writing
are gracefulness, facility and legibility.
GRACEFULNESS.
Gracefulness in writing relates to design and to execu-
tion. It assumes legibility and, in so far as it relates to
design, depends upon the lines prominently employed.
Lines, as they appear in writing, are of three kinds : —
straight lines, arcs of one circle, arcs of more than one
circle. Gracefulness in script arises from the prominent
use of the third kind of line. Analysis of script that
is lacking in beauty will make it manifest that the defect
arises from the general tendency of the curved lines to
approach the straight line and the circle. In so far as
gracefulness in script depends upon execution, it is
attained by giving regularity, smoothness, and propor-
tion to the various lines.
FACILITY.
While rapidity is one of the ends of the subject of
writing, it should not be sought in the early stages of
the work. The prime end of the subject in all its stages
is legibility ; and the attempt to attain facility or rapid-
ity should be deferred until the elements of legibility
and beauty of style are effectually mastered.
These features having been attained, however, it then
becomes advisable on account of the business relations
that the pupil is in the future to assume, to give him
the power of ease and rapidity of execution.
272 THE THEORY OF THE SCHOOL.
The attainment of this end will be advanced if it is
understood that rapidity depends largely upon five
characteristics of writing.
1. The round style.
2. The minimum of slope.
3. Simple, as opposed to ornamental.
4. Regular and uniform, as opposed to the irregular
and jerking.
5. Smooth and flowing rather than disjointed union
of the letters.
LEGIBILITY.
Were legibility the sole end in writing, no form other
than the print characters would be employed, since print
is the standard of simplicity and legibility. Writing
having, however, the additional ends of beauty and
rapidity, a compromise is required in which legibility
shall, to some extent, be sacrificed in order to better-
attain the other ends, especially that of rapidity. The
result of that compromise is script. The problem then
becomes, How shall the greatest degree of legibility in
the use of script be attained ?
Legibility in script rests upon several conditions :
1. The employment of the round hand.
2. The formation of letters with the minimum
degree of slope.
3. Simplicity of outline.
4. Proportion in regard to the height and width of
the letters, and the thickness of the lines. If the height
be too great for the width, the closeness of the letters
perplexes the eye. If the width be too great for the
height, the eye has farther to travel to gather up the
THE THEORY OF THE SCHOOL. 273
sum of the whole. In either case distinctness is im-
paired; the want of proportion in the length of the
parts of certain letters is a common cause of indistinct-
ness; e. g., in d, t, q, g, etc. If the lines or loops are
made too long, they extend into the writing above or
below, causing the whole to assume a ta^ngled appearance.
In the matter of thickness, various faults are com-
mitted : —
a. The lines may be too light for the size of the
letter.
b. They may be too thick for the size of the letter,
which produces the "heavy " hand.
c. There may be a strong and irregular contrast
between light and heavy in the same line, which makes
a "jerking" hand, the most indistinct of the three.
5. The proper separation of words and the proper
joining of characters, i.e., the formation of all characters
and parts of characters that admit of it, by one continu-
ous motion of the hand.
MECHANICAL CONDITIONS.
Under mechanical conditions may be considered the
adjustment of the furniture, the position of the body
the spacing and writing materials.
ADJUSTMENT OF FUBNITURK.
The adjustment of furniture should be in regard to
the relation of the parts to each other, and of the whole
to the age of the pupils.
The pupil when seated should be perfectly steady
19
274 THE THEORY OF THE SCHOOL.
and have complete command over his materials. If the
seat be too high and without support for the feet, the
pupil's position must be unsteady, and his work of the
same character ; if the desk be too high for the seat, he
will not have control over his arm in writing. The edge
of the desk should be on a level with his elbow when
he is seated; the top of the desk should be sloped but
slightly, and should be broad enough to prevent the
copy-book from folding over its outer edge. The desks
should be arranged so as to allow the pupils to observe
the teacher's illustrations on the board without chang-
ing their position, and so that the light shall fall on
them from the pupil's left. A moderate front light is
the next best.
The posture of the pupil should be natural and easy ;
he should therefore sit upright at the desk, or nearly so,
not leaning his breast on the edge of it, but turning the
left side slightly toward it, steadying the body by rest-
ing the lower part of the left arm on the desk, and hav-
ing his right arm free to- support its own weight on the
muscles of the forearm and the third and fourth fingers.
If he is allowed to bend forward or to twist his posture
in any way, his point of view is such as to prevent him
from judging of the qualities of the work he is perform-
ing. The posture should be attended to very carefully,
at the outset, when it is as easy for the pupil to adopt
the right one as the wrong ; a bad habit will become
very difficult to correct.
THE THEORY OF THE SCHOOL. 275
MATERIALS.
The materials used in writing should be good and
kept in good order. The teacher should have very
explicit arrangements to secure their proper keeping.
To prevent copy-books from being ill Used, they should
be delivered to and taken from the pupils at the begin-
ning and close of each lesson. By a very simple ar-
rangement, the teacher may secure that each pupil shall
have his own pen and pen-wiper as well as his own
copy-book. Such arrangements should be attended to
both for economy and for moral considerations. Finally,
the pupil should be taught to use his materials properly ;
e. g., to hold the pen lightly yet steadily between the
first and second fingers at a certain distance from the
point of the pen, directed toward the shoulder, but so
that the point shall fall squarely upon the copy, the
fingers which hold it being neither too stiflf nor too
much bent, the others quite at rest, and the hand as a
whole not turned too much upon its edge; to have his
copy-book squarely before him, neither too near nor
too far from him, somewhat toward the right and
steadied by the left hand."
BASIS, I, E., PSYCHICAL CONDITION,
The basis, or psychical condition for writing, is the
knowledge and power gained through elementary draw-
ing. The perception of form requires cultivation like
any other exercise of the senses. The eye cannot appre-
ciate an intricate form, if it has not been exercised upon
a succession of simpler forms leading up to it. The
276 THE THEORY OF THE SCHOOL.
pupil should therefore bring to his writing an educated
eye. The forms he is called on to imitate are complex ;
the simplest of them is so when observed for the first
time. If he has not been taught to observe accurately
he cannot be expected to imitate accurately. He should
know what a straiojht line is in its different positions of
vertical, horizontal, and oblique ; he should recognize
equality and difference of lengths, widths, and thick-
nesses, and he should be acquainted with the simpler
curves, and the simpler combinations of curves w4th
straight lines. Without such an experience of form he
can make but slow progress in writing ; if he does not
bring it with him to this art, he must work it out for
himself in his first attempts, but his advancement will
be of necessity slow on this account. Writing should be
based on drawing ; it is a species of drawing, and any
instruction in drawing, therefore, which the pupil re-
ceives may be expected to bear fruit in the improve-
ment of his writing. When the eye is educated to observe,
and the hand to execute correct and graceful forms of objects
in general, the taste for form is refined; and it cannot but
happen that the culture thus given will show itself in
any special branch of instruction in form.
The three main principles to be observed in writing
are: —
1. Writing should be acquired, to a degree, incident-
ally, in connection with the endeavor to express thought.
2. The child should not be left to his individual
THE THEORY OF THE SCHOOL. 277
inclination, but should acquire from the very first that
style of writing which has been settled upon as the
standard.
3. The power of forming smooth, continuous lines
should be acquired.
These principles indicate three corresponding stages.
1. That stage beginning after a short period of prac-
tice in drawing, and in printing words, in which the
child gives expression in script to his thoughts, in read-
ing, spelling, and in various other lessons. This kind
of work continues throughout the school course. In
this stage capital letters are used whenever necessary.
2. That stage in which the child is trained to
thoroughly master the form of each letter. This and
the first stage progress hand in hand, l^he first stage
furnishing the application, and giving the power to
combine letters into words and sentences, while the
second is conferring the accurate mastery of the accept-
ed form of each letter. Each letter should he dwelt upon
until it is thoroughly mastered.
In teaching the small letters, which are taken up be-
fore the capitals for the obvious reason of their greater
simplicity and more general use, opinions differ as to
the order, some beginning with the letter % some with o,
etc.
The natural order would seem to be to begin with the
straight line combined with the curve, as in i, and t ;
then the complete curve as in o ; then the combination
of the straight line with the loop, as in j. The letters
should be taken in the order of their simplicity as com-
278 THE THEORY OF THE SCHOOL.
posed of these elements, so that letters of similar forma-
tion will occur together. The few exceptional forms
should be taken last. When the pupil has advanced to
the writing of words, the capital letters should be gradu-
ally introduced, and in the same spirit of teaching as
the small letters.
3. That stage in which the pupil is trained to the
proper movement. This begins at the stage of the use
of the pen and ink, about the beginning of the third
year.
Position, movement, etc., in application in order not
to negate, but to supplement this stage, should be the
same as in the practice in this stage.
ADHERENCE TO COPY.
Experience shows that frequently the pupils do not
imitate the copy, or if they do so at all, only for the first
few lines, and as they descend the page they gradually
lose sight of the model, and imitate either their impres-
sion of it, or their own writing.
There are three things that assist in preventing this: —
1. Copy-books with from four to six lines.
2. A sliding copy.
3. Careful oversight of the work of each line, and
correction of all errors that occur, always with direct ref-
erence to the copy.
METHOD IN SPELLING.
A diagram of the work in spelling may be given as
follows :—
THE THEORY OF THE SCHOOL.
279
1. Design.
2. Principles
a. Familiarity of the eye with the form.
b. Association of form and meaning.
c. Mainly written work,
[d. From simple to complex.
a. Copy.
Spelling \ b. Dictation.
3. Stages. i
c. Application.
d. Analysis.
4. Syllabication.
5. Grouping.
6. Rules.
The iiltimate design in learning to spell is to gain the
power to write words correctly when expressing one's thought.
The 'principles are four :
1. Spelling deals with the forms of words, and the
eye of the pupil should therefore be made familiar with
the forms by repeated observation before he is required
to reproduce them in writing.
2. In teaching spelling, the principle that all instruc-
tion in the forms of language should be based upon a
comprehension of the meaning, should be observed, on
the ground that the sense of a word or passage is a stronger
and more interesting bond of association than the appear-
ance or sound.
3. Since the pupil learns the spelling of words in
order that he may write them, the instruction should be
280 THE THEORY OF THE SCHOOL.
mainly through the art to which spelling is applied in
after life, and only subordinately through oral work.
4. Instruction should proceed from the simple to
the complex.
In the light of these principles the stages in spelling
are four.
1. Copy-work, the simplest form of spelling.
2. The reproduction, in dictation exercises, of words
previously learned, a more difficult form of spelling.
3. The spelling of the necessary words when the thought
is jioixd upon the idea which is being expressed, a still more
difficult work.
4. The analysis of difficult combinations with a state-
ment of the reasons for their difficulty, a work the most
complex of the four kinds.
A pupil should be required to copy accurately and
readily before he is given the more difficult work of
reproducing from memory. "That which we know
thoroughly,'''' was said by Jacotot, " contains the explan-
ation of the unknown." "The end is in the beginning."
Success in teaching spelling depends upon thorough-
ness. It is not the amount but the manner of doing it.
The vague forms are to be made perfectly distinct forms
to the eye by writing before passing to others.
To develop power to reproduce from memory : After
a word has been copied from the board, erase it, and
have it reproduced from memory. Do the same with
two words, three, a short sentence, etc. Regulate the
work by the pupil's power to do it accurately. Train
him to do exactly what he is asked to do.
THE THEORY OF THE SCHOOL. 281
When he can copy and reproduce readily and accurately^
he is prepared for the spelling of words that are used to
express his original thought, i. e., the words used in
composition.
During the time the pupil is acquiring facility in
copying and reproducing, attention should be given to
developing his powers of observation and description by
lessons on color, form, animals, etc., and by inducing
him to talk freely on all subjects that come within the
range of his observation.
After a period of using words in the expression of
original thought, the pupil is prepared for the fourth
stage — the stage of difficult combinations.
The difficulty of English spelling arises from the vari-
ety of combinations employed to represent the elementary
sounds. For example, the short sound of e may be re-
presented in eleven different ways, as is shown by the
words web, head, again, aesthetics, any, nonpareil, leop-
ard, bury, friend, guess, says.
This difficulty is to be overcome by —
1. Concentrating the attention upon only such words
as involve difficult combinations.
2. Mastering tables of equivalents for elementary
sounds. For example —
The name sound of a is represented in twelve ways:
In many words by a, as ale; by ai, as ail, and by ay,
as bay. In a few words by ey, as they; ei. as veil; ea,
as break; ua, as guage ; ao, as gaol ; aa, as Aaron ; e and
ee, as melee; aye, (meaning ever.)
3. Analysis ivith open hooky in order that both the eye
and the ear may be addressed. For example, the word
282 THE THEORY OF THE SCHOOL.
police. The pupil pronounces and spells the word from
the book, thus: "Po-lice, police; it is a difficult word
because the name sound of e is represented by i, and
not by one of the more frequent modes — e, ea, ee, ei, ie.
There are twelve ways to represent this sound. The
word is more difficult to spell, because the sound of s is
represented by ce."
The first stage occupies the first year; the second, the
second year; the third, from the beginning of the third
year to the end of the seventh year ; and the fourth, the
eighth year.
According to to the principle of Comenius, however,
that ' nature does nothing by leaps,^ the work of any given
stage appears in a subordinate degree in the preceding
stage; there is also combination as the pupil passes
from stage to stage.
Correct spelling requires not only a proper order of
letters in a word, but a proper divimoa of syllables. The
practice of spelling by syllable should therefore be fol-
lowed ; not only will it cost no additional trouble, but it
will most materially diminish the difficulties of spell-
ing, since errors are most frequently caused by the pupil
falling into confusion from the length of the words,
which difficulty this practice would prevent. The most
expeditious and effective way of spelling by syllables is
simply to require a slight pause at the end of each.
In the grouping of words for spelling, the main classi-
fications should be three : —
1. A grouping of words that present difficult combin-
ations for elementary sounds.
2. A grouping of words that have the same pronun-
THE THEORY OF THE SCHOOL. 283
cialion as certain other words, but a different spelling and
meaning.
3. A grouping of words that have tioo or more pro-
nunciations and meanings.
In dealing with words of the second class, the pupil
should be required to spell and define the other words
having the same pronunciation.
In considering the words of the third class, the pupil
should give the other pronunciations and meanings.
Other bases of classification also may be employed to
give additional interest and profit to the work. For
example, the pupils may be required to group and spell
words that denote articles of food, drink, clothing and
furniture; articles used in writing, building, traveling,
etc.; the name of qualities belonging to any object ; the
words which are formed from one root ; the names of
individuals and species comprehended under one genus.
This exercise may obviously be framed to suit any stage
of advancenl^nt, considering the various principles of
classification which may be followed, viz., the forms of
words, their meanings, their derivation, and their logi-
cal relation ; and it is valuable not only for the practice
in spelling which it affords, but. for what it teaches of
the use of words, and for the mental exercise implied in
the classification. It is equally suited for writing and
for oral instruction.
In regard to rules oj spelling^ it is to be held in mind
that spelling is a habit of the eye and ear, and not of
rule or reason. Rules have, however, their place in
spelling work, but it is a subordinate and concluding
284 THE THEORY OF THE SCHOOL.
one, as the subject of spelling should be substantially
mastered before the pupils enter upon a consideration
of rules. The rules learned should be those that are
most general in their application, and least encumbered
with exceptions, and they should be the outgrowth of obser-
vation, comparison and inference.
Incidental spelling naturally and necessarily appears
at all stages of school work. It has been correctly said
that all lessons are language lessons ; for the words used
in them must be made familiar to the class both in mean-
ing and form. Thus the object-lesson gives opportunity
for spelling the names of common objects, qualities and
actions; the form and color lessons, the names and qual-
ities of commonly occurring forms and colors ; the lesson
on number, the names of the numbers, cardinal and
ordinal ; and reading and general lessons, the names of
important places and persons, in addition to many of
those already enumerated.
Where these names do not occur to th^ class for the
first time, the spelling of them may be asked for at once ;
when they are new, they should be presented on the
blackboard, that the class may observe their forms
before spelling them from memory.
Incidental spelling is a very profitable exercise, from
the strict connection which it maintains between the
spelling of words and their meanings. It is to be, how-
ever, only incidental.
THE THEORY OF THE SCHOOL. 285
METHOD IN NUMBER.
DEFINITION.
Number has been said to be the limitation of objects
by ones. That is, by the idea one, objects, either men-
tal or material, may be limited, just as material things
are limited by the ideas red, hard, blue, rough, etc.
Thus, — objects of various colors and qualities may be
placed upon a table, and the requests be made : Show
me the red objects ; point out the things that are hard ;
bring to the desk all the blue things that you see; which
of the objects upon the table are rough ? etc.
In like manner, the objects being variously arranged,
it may be said : Show me one ball : all the one-cubes ;
point out all the two-spheres ; take in your hand a three-
prisms, etc. It is thus evident that objects are as defin-
itely limited by the idea one, as by the idea red. The
psychological definition of number is — " Number is the
limitation of things by ones." But the things them-
selves are not units or numbers, though frequently spoken
of as such, especially in the early stages of the work.
WHAT CAN BS DONE WITH A NUMBER.
Comenius has said that we learn to do things by doing
them. The truth of this being granted, it becomes ap-
parent that the teacher should answer the question :
What can be done with a number?
Experiments show that all that can be done with a
number is :
To separate it into unequal numbers.
To separate it into equal numbers or parts.
286 THE THEORY OF THE SCHOOL.
To combine it with a number equal to it.
To combine it with a number unequal to it.
WHAT CAN BE KNOWN OF A NUMBER.
The importance of definitely determining what can be
known of a number before beginning to teach number,
can scarcely be overestimated. It gives definiteness to
all the work following.
Of any number, as 6 for example, may be known : —
1. The number as a whole.
2. The relations in the number.
a. Any two unequal numbers that make the num-
ber, as required by the following problems : —
If a boy has five marbles and finds one more, how
many has he?
If the flour for a family costs two dollars a month,
and the meat four dollars, what is the cost of both for a
month ?
h. Any two equal numbers that make the num-
ber, as required by the following problem : —
A man earns three dollars in one day, and three dol-
lars the next day ; how many dollars does he earn in
the two days ?
c. Any two unequal numbers into which the
number may be separated ; as required by the following
problems : —
A boy has six apples and eats one ; how many has he
remaining ?
A lady spends four of her six dollars for a hat ; how
many dollars has she left ?
THE THEORY OF THE SCHOOL. 287
d. Any two equal numbers into which the num-
ber may be separated ; as required in the following
problem : —
A merchant has six yards of ribbon and sells three ;
how many remain ?
e. The number of equal numbers that make the
number ; as required by the following problems : —
A man gives one apple to each of six boys; how many
apples does he give ?
A boy leaves two pints of milk at each of three houses ;
how many pints does he leave ?
/. The number of equal numbers that are in the
number ; as required by the following problems : —
A mail has six pints of vinegar; how many quarts
has he ?
A grocer wishes to give to poor families six bushels of
potatoes, one to each family ; to how many families can
he give ?
g. The equal parts of a number; as required by
the following problems : —
A miller divides six barrels of flour equally among
three families; how many barrels does each family re-
ceive ?
A stationer distributes six pencils equally among six
boys : how many pencils does each receive ?
A druggist has six ounces of quinine and sells one-
half of what he has to another druggist ; each has then
how many ounces ?
A boy havii\g one apple divides it equally among five
other boys and himself; what part does each receive?
288 THE THEORY OF THE SCHOOL.
PURPOSE.
To present any subject well, the teacher must be able
to strike the cleavage idea.
In number this is two-fold : —
1. Number, in the stage of perception, may be
viewed as an attribute or quality of things.
2. Addition, subtraction, multiplication and divis-
ion are not properly the fundamental processes of arith-
metic ; they are the only processes, and are all involved
in addition.
Percentage, Compound Numbers, Ratio, Proportion,
Cube Root, etc., are merely kinds of addition, subtrac-
tion, multiplication or division, in a new garb, and there
should be clearly shown :
a. Their essential nature.
b. Their distinctive features.
c. The relation of the new terms to the old ones.
DEFECTS IN PRESENTATION.
The fundamental defect in dealing with arithmetic is
that expression is treated instead of number. Symbol is
taught instead of substance. Arithmetic is made " the
science of figures and the art of memorizing them and
the rules for manipulating them."
This manifests itself in various ways : —
1. In the failure to teach the ideas and oral terms of
numbers for a considerable tim£ before beginning the wofk
on written symbols. In reading, the child has been deal-
ing with ideas and oral terms for six or more years be-
fore he begins work upon the written word.
The reast»n that a year or more is not given to the
THE THEORY OF THE SCHOOL. 289
study of real number, or numbered things and oral
terms, before commencing the work upon figures, is be-
cause ^^«res are ccmsidered to he the real subject in number
and arithmetic. Being such, the aim is to begin to deal
with them as soon as possible, and if numbered things
are used at all, it is merely for the purpose of explaining
figures.
2. In dealing with large numbers (in figures) during
the first three years. This would be impossible if real
numbers, i. e., numbered objects, (actually or in imagina-
tion) were dealt with. If the pupil were to thoroughly
master, during the first three years, real numbers to one
hundred, with their relations as whole numbers, frac-
tions, percentage, and in tables, together with the ap-
propriate symbols, he would be vastly better prepared
to encounter the actual affiiirs of life if deprived of
school advantages at the end of the third year, than if
he were trained to manipulate figures by rule to hun-
dreds of millions.
3. In counting higher than numbers are learned.
Sometimes, directions for the first year's work are
somewhat as follows :
" Take numbers to 20. Count to 100. Roman num-
bers to L."
This is manifestly work with expression. Counting
and work with Roman numerals should keep strict
pace with the mastery of numbers. If in the second
year real numbers are studied, as suggested elsewhere,
to twenty, counting and Roman numeral ivork shmdd ex-
tend to twenty and no further. If it goes beyond that it
becomes work with mere words. In counting the word
290
THE THEORY OF THE SCHOOL.
five names orie, the fifth one. In number, the word
five means ^-ye ones.
4. In the teaching of the various topics as isolated.
This is to teach the various stages and processes of
number in such a manner that the relation of one to
the other is not shown. For example, notation is pre-
sented as an isolated subject, throughout the range of
small and large numbers. This is followed by a con-
sideration of numeration in the same manner, and then
addition, etc. Such work arises in great measure from
teaching expression instead of number itself
If real number, or numbered things are considered it
will appear that in any one process the three others are
implied, and that a knowledge of number is a know-
ledge of fractions and of percentage. Thus one subject,
if presented in its natural relations is the interpretation
of others.
In the following it will be seen that all the processes,
whole numbers, fractions, and percentage are involved
in relations that are mutually interpreting:
1 sq. inch
K
25 per cent.
Compare one sq. in., one-fourth, and 25 per cent, with
the whole.
Addition. — One sq. in. and three sq. in. are how many
sq. in. ? etc.
One-fourth, and three-fourths are how many fourths?
etc.
THE THEORY OF THE SCHOOL. 291
Twenty-five per cent, and three twenty-five per cents,
are how many per cent. ? etc.
Multiplication. — Four one sq. in. are how many sq.
in.? etc.
Four one-fourths are how many one-fourths? etc.
Four twenty-five per cents, are how many per cent.?
etc.
Subtraction. — Four sq. in. less one sq. in., are how
many sq. in.? etc.
Four-fourths less one-fourth are how many fourths ?
etc.
One whole, less twenty-five per cent, are how many
per cent. ? etc.
Division. (First phase — finding the number of equal
parts or numbers in a number.) In four sq. in., there
are how many one sq. in.? How many two sq. in.? etc.
In four fourths there are how many one- fourths?
How many two-fourths ? etc.
In one whole, or one hundred per cent., there are
how many twenty-five per cents. ? How many fifty per
cents.? etc.
Division. (Second, phase — finding the size or ammint
of one of the equal parts.) One-fourth of four sq. in.
are how many sq. in. ? etc.
One-fourth of four-fourths are how many fourths?
etc. Twenty-five per cent, of one hundred per cent.
are how many per cent. ? etc.
Facte that may be seen in the geometrical figure.
One-half of one^half of four sq. in. is what part of
three sq. in. ?
What part of three-fourths of four sq. in. is one-half
of four sq. in. ?
292 THE THEORY OF THE SCHOOL.
Fifty per cent, of fifty per cent, of one hundred per
cent, is what part of seventy-five per cent.
What part of seventy-five per cent, of one hundred
per cent, is one-half of four-fourths ?
Twenty-five per cent, is what per cent, of seventy-five
per cent, of four sq. in. ? etc.
5. In the failure to 'picture out'' to the minds of the
pupils the conditions of the problems. It is no absolute
proof of the pupil's comprehension of the relations in a
problem, that he is able to give the process and result
in words or figures. In beginning new work, whether
in primary or advanced stages, the relations should be
shown by numbered things, or by illustration.* This
should be true in all primary work (employing either
the observation or imagination) where development by
thinking concerning things and their relations is the prin-
cipal idea.
Consider for example the following problems :
If one orange costs three cents, what will five oranges
cost? (Primary work).
A man left f of his estate to his elder son, -f of the
remainder to his second son, and the rest to his daughter,
which was $1,440 less than the younger son received.
What was the value of the estate? (More advanced
work).
One way of considering the first, and the one growing
out of a prominent study of expression is to give :
1. Statement. — If one orange costs three cents, what
will five oranges cost ?
2. Analysis. — If one orange costs three cents, five
THE THEORY OF THE SCHOOL. 293
oranges will cost five times (?) three cents, which are
fifteen cents.
3. Conclusion. — Therefore, if one orange costs three
cents, five oranges will cost fifteen cents.
Another way to consider it is to represent the condi-
tions thus :
o
O
O
O
O
000
ooo
000
000
000
The child may then be led to say :
1. I see that there are as many three cents as there
are oranges.
2. The problem is one in multiplication.
3. Three cents is the multiplicand ; five three-cents
(or five) is the multiplier; fifteen cents is the product.
One way of considering the second, and the one result-
ing fi-om a study of expression, is to give, as before :
1. Statement. — A man left f of his estate, etc.
2. Analysis. —
If a man left f of his estate to his elder son, and ^ of
the remainder to his second son, the first step is to find
the remainder.
Since the whole estate was ^ of itself and he left f of
it to his elder son, the remainder was the difference
between ^ and f or 4^.
Second step. If he left f of the remainder to his
second son, and the remainder was ^ of the estate he left
to his second son ^ of f of the estate. ^ of | is ^ and ^
of ^ is 4 times ^ or Jf . Therefore he gave to his second
son \i of the estate.
Third step. If the man left the rest to his daughter,
he left to her the difference between ^ or the whole estate
294
THE THEORY OF THE SCHOOL.
and the sum of f left to the elder son and ^ left to the
younger son. f ^^fi- H + if is tt. ff (or the whole
estate) — f|- (given to the two sons)r=i|, left to the
daughter.
Fourth step. But the amount received by the daughter
was $1,440 less than that received by the younger son.
The amount received by the younger son was if, and
by the daughter was if. Therefore $1,440 was such a
part of the estate as the difference between if and if
or^.
Fifth step. If ^ of the estate was $1,440, ^ was i of
$1,440 or $360, and ff or the whole estate was 49 times
$360 or $17,640.
3. Conclusion.
Therefore: If a man left f of his estate to his elder
son and -f- of the remainder to his second son, and the
remainder to his daughter; and the amoilnt received by
the daughter was $1,440 less than that received by the
younger son, the value of the estate was $17,640.
A different way to deal with the problem given, is : —
1. To picture it out thus :
2. To have the analysis given somewhat as follows :
1. It is seen that the value of -^ is $1,440.
2. The problem is first one in division (second
phase).
THE THEORY OF THE SCHOOL. 295
3. $1,440 is the dividend; 4 is the divisor; $360 is
the quotient.
The work now involves multiplication.
S360 is the multiplicand. Forty-nine $360 (or 49) is
the multiplier.
$17,640 is the product— the value of the estate.
6. In the failure to definitely determine and iveigh.
a The various conceptions of the scope of multiplica-
tion and of division.
b. The various conceptions of the nature of the mul-
tiplier, and hence of the quotient.
In regard to the scope of multiplication and its con-
sequent definition, the methods of determining are two :
(1.) One is to examine and analyze every case
of multiplication as given by the various authorities
in mathematics, and then, rejecting the nonessential
elements in each of the cases, to synthesize the essential
elements into an abstract general conception. To this
concept the term multiplication is applied. This idea
of multiplication and the definition constructed upon
it would obviously be comprehensive enough to include
every authoritative phase of multiplication. Such
would be the mode of procedure in determining the
scope of division. This is the scientific method of
definition. In this manner would be detennined the
definition of the oak, a fish, etc.
(2.) Another method is to begin with three
propositions.
(a.) Numbers or numbered things can be
only separated or combinea.
296 THE THEORY OF THE SCHOOL.
(b.) The numbers or numbered things that
are combined are either equal or unequal.
(c.) The root idea and the prevalent idea of
the term multiplication are to increase, — to combine.
With these three propositions the mind passes in
review each case as given by the various authorities
under the head of arithmetical operations.
All those that involve as their essential element the
idea of a uniting of numbers so as to produce increase,
are termed combination.
In the second place, all cases of combination are
analyzed. These are found to resolve themselves into
cases in which unequal numbers are united, and into
those in which equal numbers are united. The former
are termed cases of addition.
The third step is to analyze all cases in which equal
numbers are united. This examination reveals, it is
held, that in given cases the mind unites equal
numbers by separate steps or moves, and that in other
given cases it unites them instantly by memory.
Whether this is a true distinction is to be answered by
consciousness. The former combination is termed
addition and the latter multiplication.
The definition that is then given is — Multiplication
is uniting equal numbers at once, or by memory. Such
also would be the process 6f defining division.
The jnajority, perhaps all, of the special authorities
in mathematics hold that the first method is the true
and scientific one.
A few educators who are concerned with the general
THE THEORY OF THE SCHOOL. 297
problem of education, consider the second method as
the true process.
The second process would seem to be less artificial
and formal than the first, and to accord more with the
mind's natural tendencies to analysis and synthesis.
Under definitions obtained through the second pro-
cess such operations as 2X1=2 (two multiplied by one),
2X0=0, 0-^1=0, etc., are not strictly provided for, as
are considered to be purely formal, not actual.
Under the head of form, therefore, they are classed
as operations of the processes severally indicated by
the form.
Further, by the definition derived through the second
method such expressions as — ^ x J or i of ^, are pro-
vided for under the second phase of division — that in
which, the number itself and the number of parts into
which it is to be separated being known, the aim is to
find the size of one part.
Those who hold that the idea of multiplication as
obtained by the second mode of procedure is the more
correct and the more valuable, attempt to show that
such cases as i of ^ belong under division thus :
Let abcd=l ; abc=J of abed ; and cfe=^ of abc.
c
It is evident that to obtain '* cfe," " abc " is not mul-
tiplied but divided. The only sense in which there is
298 THE THEORY OF THE SCHOOL. I
_ . ^
any multiplication, in the limited scope in which that j
term is used under the second mode of procedure, is in '
that it requires two parts the size of " abc " to constitute \
"abed," and six the size of " cfe." But this is obviously |
not a multiplication of " abc." 1
It has been held under the second idea of division as ]
above noted, that a fraction cannot be divided by a \
whole number, as e. g., i-^2; that is, the operation as \
expressed, cannot be performed. The " 2 " in this case 1
does not represent an integer which shall become the ■
divisor, but the number of parts into which ^ is to be 'i
separated, and the problem becomes — Find i of 2. A ;
case under the second phase of division. '
According to the more comprehensive definitions of I
multiplication and division, all these cases referred to, \
together with such as "7 is what part of 3?" are pro- ]
vided for under those phases to which their respective i
forms would assign them. ]
In regard to the nature of the multiplier, one view is 1
that it (considered as a symbol) expresses a relation — |
the ratio of the product to the multiplicand. That is, ;
if 6 is the product and 2 the multiplicand, 3 is the mul- j
tiplier, in that it expresses the ratio of 6 to 2. If 2 is ,
the product, and 6 the multiplicand, i is the multiplier \
as it expresses the ratio of 2 to 6. This is perhaps the ;
most satisfactory scientific conception of the multiplier. \
It is held to be the true conception by those who have i
given most thought to mathematics as a science. It is I
comprehensive in that it provides for any case of multi- \
plication as considered in the wider sense. Another i
view is that " the multiplier is a number indicating the ■
THE THEORY OF THE SCHOOL. 299
number of times the multiplicand is to be taken." With
a liberal interpretation of the application of the word
" times," this idea of the multiplier would apply to any
case occurring under multiplication viewed in its broad
sense. This is the most prevalent conception of the
multiplier. In this and in the previous view, the mul-
tiplier is considered as always abstract.
A third conception of the multiplier is that it expresses
the number of equal numbers or of numbered things
that are united. In this view multiplication is consid-
ered as the uniting of equal numbers ; the multiplicand
as one of these number ; the multiplier as the number
of equal numbers ; and the product as the equal num-
bers united.
The following example will illustrate the thought:
2x3=6. Considering 2 as the multiplier, 3 as the mul-
tiplicand and 6 as the product, if squares are meant, the
sentence would read : Two 3 squares are 6 squares, and
would appear to the eye thus : —
Multiplicand.
D^^ DDD.
Multiplier.
The two groups united form the product, and these
statements seem to follow : —
Three squares is the multiplicand.
Two three-squares is the multiplier.
Six squares is the product.
In this view of the multiplier it is not considered as
always abstract. The thought is that in the concrete
stage of the child's thinking, the multiplier is concrete
300 THE THEORY OF THE SCHOOL. \
when the multiplicand is, and that by the natural order 1
of the mind's development in passing from concrete par- j
ticulars to abstract general conceptions, the concrete \
idea of the multiplier merges into the conception of it j
as a ratio, within the scope of the uniting of equal num- j
bers. I
This idea of the multiplier is not accepted by the ;
various authorities in mathematics. It is held, however, ]
by a few educators who have made a close study of mind \
development and of the adaptation of arithmetic to ;
mind as an instrument of development. These consider \
such a conception of the multiplier as true to the science J
of number, adapted to mind development at every ]
stage, and as tending to give definiteness to all arithme- I
tical conceptions. |
STAGES. 1
Stages in number and arithmetic, as based on mind I
development and the nature of the subject, seem to be I
four in number. ]
THE STAGE OF PERCEPTION.
In this stage the child can not learn numbers and ^
their relations except through the medium of objects i
present to the senses. \
This incapacity is the ground for the concrete work in {
giving the first ideas of numbers. . 1
Whether or not objects are to be used in early num- ]
ber work is not left to the opinion of the teacher. This |
point is predetermined by the nature of child-mind, and \
it only remains for the teacher to study and understand \
the material he is trainings and to adapt the work to it. j
• THE THEORY OF THE SCHOOL. 301
The concrete work that is done should not, however,
be for the purpose of illustrating the meaning of figures,
with the idea that the children are afterwards to deal
with addition, subtraction, multiplication and division
by means of figures. The work with objects is to give
ideas of numbers and their relations ; to teach the pro-
cesses, and to give the pupil skill and accuracy in per-
forming them, and in applying them to practical
problems. The distinction between numbers and figures
is important. Figures are but arbitrary signs, represent-
ing numbers, and teaching the meaning and use of
figures is essentially language work, not number work.
To teach this language before the pupil has learned
number with objects is to fill his mind with useless
lumber, and to destroy, in a large measure, his inborn
desire to know.
This mistake is less only than that of teaching figures
to give first ideas of numbers, and of assuming that in
studying figures one is learning numbers. "There is
no difficulty in learning the figures along with the num-
bers ; the difficulty comes in learning the numbers along with
the figures. So it seems best to ignore the sign in favor
of the thing."
The objects to be used in the work should be various.
Among them may be mentioned : form, in wood, paper
(paper folding), and drawings ; grouped objects, as brace,
span, yoke, etc.; units of measure, as pint, peck, inch,
etc.; objects in room, as window-panes, lines, corners,
doors, pieces of furniture, pictures, etc.; parts of animals ;
parts of plants and flowers ; kinds of minerals ; fingers ;
the pupils themselves ; miscellaneous objects, as shells,
302 THE THEORY OF THE SCHOOL.
pieces of chalk, pegs, etc.; kindergarten material, espe-
cially the first six gifts ; the abacus.
Since the aim in using objects is to ultimately free the
mind from the necessity of using them, they Should be
wide in range.
Since interest is the basis of attention, they should be
of such a nature that the child can conveniently handle
them. Since they are used for the purpose of giving
ideas of number they should not be so attractive as to
draw the attention from the idea of number.
The stage of perception covers, approximately, the
work of the first year.
THE STAGE OF IMAGINATION.
This stage occupies about the time of the second and
third years. But the mind has now advanced to that
degree of power which enables it to study numbers and
their relations by means of objects absent to the senses,
but present in the imagination. According to the prin-
ciple that '' Nature does nothing per saltum,^^ there is to
be no sudden transition from the first to this stage, the
withdrawal of objects being gradual, and being deter-
mined by the pupil's ability to image absent objects.
The purpose of the stage is to make the pupil rapid
and accurate in his power to think numbers and their
relations by means of objects present to the imagina-
tion. This is the stage in which most work in the
picturing out of the conditions of problems to the mind
by means of drawing or sketching is done.
THE STAGE OP TRANSITION.
This stage includes, approximately, the period of the
fourth year in school. In the first part of the year the
THE THEORY OF THE SCHOOL. 303
mind is more largely engaged in thinking the relations
of numbers by means of objects present to the imagina-
tion, and yet it is growing more and more into the habit
of considering numbers through figures. In the second
part of the year the mind is engaged more largely in
the consideration of numbers and their relations
through symbols, while to a considerable extent en-
gaged in a study of them by means of objects present
to the imagination. Hence, the stage is termed the
stage of transition.
THE STAGE OF PRINCIPLES AND SYMBOLS.
This stage, beginning about the fifth year, extends
throughout the remainder of the work in arithmetic.
PRINCIPLES.
Among the principles to be considered in the method
work in number are the following-: —
1. Number work should be concrete.
2. ' Nature does nothing per saltum, but step by
step.'
3. Small numbers should be employed in elemen-
tary work, and in giving first ideas of each branch of
work.
4. All the processes are implied in addition.
5. The process of gaining ideas of numbers requires
some such term as ideation or numerical ideation. The
process bears the same relation to notation that gaining
the ideas in reading, does to the mastery of the printed
terms.
6. Ideation is practical and theoretical — practical
when it presents a number as composed of so many
304 THE THEORY OF THE SCHOOL.
units of the same kind ; and theoretical when it presents
a number as composed of so many units of the same
kind, and also as composed of units different in kind,
and having the relation of one to ten.
7. Notation, which is merely the expression side of
ideation, is consequently practical and theoretical.
Theoretic ideation may be explained when the num-
ber ten is reached, or the time may be determined by
the necessity for the use of the ideas. This would place
the time of explanation sometime in the second year,
or at the beginning of the third. It is best, probably,
to defer it until the beginning of the third year.
In practical ideation the number three is taught as a
whole composed of three ones of the same kind (units);
the number eleven is taught as a whole composed of
eleven ones of the same kind (units); the number nine-
teen is taught as a whole composed of nineteen ones of
the same kind, (units), etc.
In theoretical ideation the number three, and all num-
bers between one and nine inclusive, are taught as in
practical ideation; the number eleven is taught as a
whole composed of two kinds of ones (unit and ten),
and the relative value of the ones is shown. It is also
taught as a whole composed of eleven ones (units); the
number nineteen is taught as a whole composed of nine
ones of one kind (units) and one one of another kind
(ten), and the relative value of the different kinds of ones
is shown. It is also taught as a whole composed of
nineteen ones (units), etc.
THE THEORY OF THE SCHOOL. 306
When a class enters upon formal aritmetic, i. e., about
the beginning of the third year, its first effort is to learn
theoretical ideation. The principle of theoretical idea-
tion is that a number may be considered as divided into
successive multiples of ten.
In regard to the first nine numbers, in practical
ideation, it is only necessary to say that they should be
given as one-unit, two-units, etc. The necessity for
explanation does not arise until the number ten is
reached. Two points are to be shown in regard to this
number : —
1. That it is to be considered as grouped, as a ten.
2. The advantage of grouping.
In proceeding beyond ten the reckoning begins with
units again, viewing them as added to the one ten already
grouped ; so that the numbers are in succession, one ten
and one unit; one ten and two units, etc., which are to
be called for convenience eleven, twelve, etc. After
twenty the gradual addition of units is resumed, etc.
The grouping of ten tens is to be on the same principle
as that embodied in grouping ten units, etc.
NOTATION.
Notation may likewise be viewed as practical and
theoretical.
In practical notation the symbol 3 is taught as a whole,
a picture, a sign, representing the idea or number three;
the symbol 11 is taught as a whole, a picture, a sign,
representing the idea or number eleven ; the symbol 19
is taught as a whole, a picture or sign representing the
number nineteen, etc.
In theoretical notation the symbol 3 and all symbols
21
306 THE THEORY OF THE SCHOOL.
from 1 to 9 inclusive are taught as in practical notation;
the symbol 11 is taught as a sign composed of two fig-
ures, one representing one of the two kinds of ones in
the number eleven, and the other representing the other
kind of one ; the symbol 19 is taught as a sign com-
posed of two figures, one representing the nine ones of
one kind in the number nineteen, and the other repre-
senting the one one of the other kind, etc.
It is obvious that it is with the symbol 10 that the
necessity for explanation arises. The manner of pro-
cedure is : —
1. To show that the one ten resembles the one unit
in being a one, but that it differs from it in value.
2. To show that therefore the symbol should be like
that for one unit and yet different from it.
3. To show that the same symbol is employed, the
difference being that it is held in the second place by the
cipher, which in itself expresses no value.
4. To explain the principle of notation, i. e., that
the difference in value expressed by a figure is denoted
by relative position.
5. To treat of the combination of the symbols for
tens and units.
If it has been impressed that one ten is denoted by
the symbol 1 in the second place from the right, and
the one unit by the symbol 1 with nothing to its right,
the pupil will have but little difficulty in seeing that
one ten and one unit together, or eleven, should be in-
dicated by two symbols in the relation indicated by 11.
The point to be made clear is that simple juxtaposi-
tion of the symbol for ten with the symbol for one, viz.,
THE THEORY OF THE SCHOOL. 307
101 would not denote eleven. Great care should be
taken to show that the cipher is used only to keep fig-
ures in their proper relative positions.
If the preceding points are illustrated with sufiicient
clearness the pupils may be led to infer the symbols to
100, after which they should have various exercises in
observing, making, and using the symbols.
The symbol 100 is the next difficult point. The man-
ner of treating it is analogous to that used in consider-
ing 10. This symbol should be compared carefully
with other symbols of three figures, especially with 111,
110, 101.
Two points are to be held in mind : one is that the
pupil should not be held exclusively to theoretical no-
tation, but is to consider in connection with it all rela-
tions and processes, since it is futile to attempt to ex-
haust this or any other subject at the time the pupil is
introduced to it ; the other is that in the explanation of
notation terms must be used with precision and con-
sistency.
The importance of dwelling with care upon ideation
and notation will be evident from the following : —
1. When the principle of ideation, that a number
may be considered as divided into the successive multiples of
ten^ is comprehended, every operation becomes a prece-
dent for another ; while otherwise every process in arith-
metic would be reduced to mere counting.
2. It is in the light of the principles of ideation and
notation that the several partial results are arranged in
the various processes.
Illustrate"!" and "2."
308 THE THEORY OF THE SCHOOL.
OUTLINE OF WORK.
Practical ideation of whole numbers to ten.
Ideation of fractions to tenths. The relations in whole
numbers to ten.
The relations in fractions to tenths.
The units of measures and their relations in so far as
they are involved in numbers from one to ten.
Practical notation of numbers from one to ten.
Practical notation of fractions to tenths.
Practical ideation of numbers from ten to twenty.
Practical notation of numbers from ten to twenty.
Ideation of fractions to twentieths.
Notations of fractions to twentieths.
The units of measures and their relations in so far as
they are involved in numbers from ten to twenty.
Theoretical ideation of numbers from ten to one hun-
dred.
Theoretical notation of numbers from ten to one
hundred.
The fraction involved in numbers from twenty to one
hundred ; (especially the one hundreth, percentage.)
The units of measure and their relations in so far as
they are involved in the numbers from twenty to one
hundred.
The process of addition and subtraction, in which num-
bers and fractions, to one hundred and hundredths are
involved.
Multiplication, involving fractions, and whole numbers
to ones of thousands.
Division, involving fractions, and whole numbers to
ones of thousands.
THE THEORY OF THE SCHOOL. 309
DETAILS OF WORK.
FIRST YEAR.
First step. The first step in number work is to deter-
mine the condition of the child's mind as to number.
This is to be done by some such tests as the following :
— (each pupil being, if practicable, tested apart from the
others). Say to the pupil (showing one object) , Take
as many as I have. If the child is able to do so, ask.
How many have I ?
If he is able to give the oral term — one^ say, Bring me
one — (naming some object). Point out other ones in
the room. Tell of ones that you can think of out of
the room, etc.
If the child is able to answer satisfactorily all these
tests, apply similar ones to the number two, and so con-
tinue until the limit of the child's knowledge in number
is definitely known.
WORK OF THE FIRST THREE MONTHS.
The work during a period of about three months in
80 far as number is concerned is incidental.
The main idea is to train the mind by a consideration
oiform^ as sphere, cube, cylinder, prism, square, triangle,
lines, points, etc.
In doing this work number is, of necessity, incident-
ally introduced and learned.
The nature of this combined form and number work
may be seen from the following : —
(It is not to be understood that the numbering necessarily
indicates the order in which the forms are to be studied.
The exercises are given merely to suggest the kind of work,
not the order.)
310 THE THEORY OF THE SCHOOL.
1. With the sphere.
The teacher may place before the children the sphere,
and lead them to describe it orally, to mold it, to name
things resembling it, in the room, in nature, at home,
and to represent spherical objects on the board, as a
ball, an apple, a peach, etc.
The number work arises incidentally and is of this
nature :
How many spheres are on the table? How many
did you mold? If you place the sphere you molded
with the one on the table, how many spheres do you
have? Two spheres less one sphere are how many
spheres? Two one-spheres are how many spheres?
In two spheres there are how many one-spheres? How
many things that are at home can you think of that are
like a sphere ? etc.
2. With the triangular prism.
The prism is shown to the child, he observes it care-
fully, and by skillful questioning on the part of the
teacher, is led to describe it : which description consists
in giving its lines, faces, angles, corners, etc.
The teacher of course gives the child the correct name
of each, when he has a clear idea of it.
In this work the child is using his perceptive facul-
ties, and strengthening his powers of observation.
He is then ready to make a similar prism of
molding clay. In this part of the work he is taught
carefulness and accuracy, using his fingers to shape and
smooth the form with which he is working.
So far the child has been gaining the idea of the form.
THE THEORY OF THE SCHOOL. 311
Next he is required to point out or name objects in
the room that are similar to the triangular prism. Also
to name objects at home, on the street, or elsewhere, of
similar shape, perhaps describing or telling something
about some of them.
Then he is required to draw objects that are similar
to the prism described.
In this work he is applying his knowledge oj triangular
prisms, and training his eye and hand, as well as gain-
ing language.
The child is now ready to begin number loork with this
object.
The prism may be placed before him, and such ques-
tions as the following may be asked: (Each teacher
must be judge of the kind and number of questions,
and be governed by the development of the child's
mind, and the circumstance under which he is work-
ing-)
How many prisms do you see ?
(Taking it away). Now, how many ?
One prism less one prism are how many prisms ?
How many faces do you see ?
(Changing). How many now ?
How many faces on the sides of the prism ?
How many on the ends?
How many in all? (Using numbers as wholes, not
counting).
How many comers do you see?
Now, how many?
Point out two corners.
Point out the two upper corners.
312 THE THEORY OF THE SCHOOL.
Point out the two lower corners.
How many corners in all? etc.
Upper, lower, front, back, right, left, etc., are taught with
form rather than with number. In the child's answers his
language must be guarded, and every answer must be a full,
clear, complete sentence.
3. With the cube.
The teacher places before the child the cube, and by
•talking about it in an interesting manner the child is
led to observe it closely and to describe it as to form,
through skillful questioning on the part of the teacher.
The teacher should correct any wrong idea the child has
of its form, by leading him to observe it more closely.
When he is found to have a clear conception of its
form, he is given molding clay with which to mold it,
either from an irregular mass or from the sphere pre-
viously made. Changing the sphere into the cube will
give the child an idea of the relation of the sphere and
the cube and will more clearly illustrate the difference
in form. The molding should be done with the perfect
form in view. The description, molding and drawing
(which might be employed) of the cube, are designed to
give the child a clear conception of it.
The child is now asked to name objects in the room
resembling the cube, also to name such objects that he
has seen at home, on the play -ground, etc., thus calling
into exercise the observation and memory.
The answers will disclose whether the child has the
power to apply the idea of the cube to objects of nature
and art.
THE THEORY OF THE SCHOOL. 313
Form having been thus dealt with the teacher may
now present number incidentally.
Thus, questions similar to the following may be asked :
What do you see as to the corners ? (holding the cube
before the child.)
The child may be led to answer, I see four corners.
Four corners less one corner (covering one corner) leave
how many corners? "Three corners." Four corners
less two corners? In four corners how many two-
corners? Four one-corners are how many corners, etc.
In a similar manner the questioning may continue
until all the different processes have been touched upon.
The work might be taken through all the relations of
the numbers as given by the corners, angles, edges, etc.;
then having the pupil place the cube he has formed
beside the one being dealt with continue the work,
enlarging upon it. But number need not be present-
ed at the length allowed by the material, as the aim is
to make the form prominent and the number incidental.
4. With the cylinder.
The teacher places on the desk, a cylinder, which the
children observe closely, and by her questioning, and
work with the cylinder, they are led to describe it orally.
The children may then be asked to mold the cylinder.
This they do, being very careful to shape it with the tips
of their fingers, so that every movement requires a men-
tal act. The work thus far is intended to give a clear
conception of the cylinder. It is also necessary that
they should know how to apply this knowledge, so the
teacher asks them to name every thing in the room that
314 THE THEORY OF THE SCHOOL.
is like the cylinder ; then objects that they have seen at
home, on the street, etc., that are like the cylinder.
This is to be followed by drawings on the board of cylin-
drical objects.
At this stage, number may be brought in, in a manner
somewhat as follows :
The teacher points to the cylinder and asks — How
many faces do you see ? (Covering one face) How many ?
Tell me about it. The child would answer —
Three faces less one face, are two faces.
In three faces how many one-faces ? How many three
faces ? Three one-faces are how many faces ?
It is to be remembered that these questions are only
suggestive; and that the relations of number in connec-
tion with the various forms are not to be exhausted as
this would be teaching number not as incidental.
WORK OF THE LAST SEVEN MONTHS.
About the fourth rnonth, the number work that has
theretofore been incidental in connection with' form, be-
comes regular and systematic, based upon the use of
objects present to the senses, as indicated in the stage of
perception.
The ostensible aim is to give clear ideas of the numbers
from one to ten, but the ideas of these numbers are really
means, not ends, and the true end is the training of the
mind by activity upon these ideas, and the all-impor-
tant question for the teacher in regard to each number
is — How can the idea of this number be presented so as to
give the highest and best training to the mind f
All the dififerent lines of work, as upon whole num-
THE THEORY OF THE SCHOOL. 315
bers, fractions, and units of measure, move forward
abreast.
Each number is considered :
1. As a whole.
2. As to the relations in it.
3. In its applications.
The first work with a number, considering it as a
whole, is to present its idea and its oral term. The idea
of a number is obtained when it is known as composed
of the next lower number and one, and a^ made up of so many
ones of the same kind.
Thus, the presentation of the idea and oral term of
two consists in teaching :
1. A new combination composed of an already
known number — one, and one more.
2. That the oral term for this new combination is
two.
3. That two consists of two ones (units) of the same
kind.
As a Whole.
The idea and oral term of two having been taught,
there remain various devices by which the mind may
be trained in considering it as a whole :
1. Two may be dealt with as a whole, and the ob-
servation powers developed :
a. By having all the twos in the room pointed
out (sight).
h. By leading the pupils to observe two taps of
a pencil, two sounds of a bell, two notes of a piano, two
ticks of a clock, etc. (hearing).
316 THE THEORY OF THE SCHOOL.
c. By placing on the desk a collection of objects,
and having the children with closed eyes select twos
(touch).
2. Two may be studied as a whole, and the memory
be cultivated by requiring the children to recall twos seen
on the play-ground, in the street, at home, in other re-
gions.
3. Two may be presented as a whole, and the child's
interest aroused, and his will trained by having him do,
e. g., move the thumb twice, step twice, toss a ball twice,
give sound of a letter twice, j^lace two sticks in various
positions, string beads in twos by color, arrange paper tri-
angles in twos by color, string kindergarten fundamental
forms in twos, illustrate problems involving two by
drawings, arrange in twos, shells, pegs, pebbles, leaves,
etc.
4. Two may be taught as a whole, and the mind
trained by considering the meaning of the words —
couple, pair, yoke, span, brace, etc.; by calling attention
to the members of the body, parts of vehicles, buildings,
engines, etc., that are arranged in pairs.
The association of the printed words with these ideas
is to be presented in the reading work, but the ideas be-
long to number. Thus do the different lines of study,
if the work be organized, supplement each other, as seen
previously in number, form and language.
Relations in the Number.
To the consideration of two as a whole should succeed
work with the relations in it.
By means of objects present to the senses the children
THE THEORY OF THE SCHOOL. 317
should be led to see and to express orally the following
relations, the order being immaterial:
One and one are two.
Two less one is one.
Two less two is naught.
Two ones are two.
One two is two.
In two there are two ones.
In two there is one two.
In the history of the development of method in number work
there have been several modes of dealing with numbers and
their relations :
1. That which dealt merely with the figures and symbols
of relation.
2. That which dealt with the figures and symbols, but used
objects to illustrate them.
3. That in which the teacher, having in mind a given form
of statement (oral), uses the objects, so manipulating them, and
so questioning as to awaken the thought of the statement, and
to obtain the statement she has predetermined.
This kind of work is based on principles '* 1 " and " 2 " (page
303). According to these principles a number, e. g. three would
be considered as follows (Many exercises and examples being
given nnder each relation^ :
Thrt*.
a. ** Three as a whole.
b. Discoveries in three.
c. Facts in three.
(1). Two and one.
(2). One and two.
(3). Three minus one.
(4). Three minus two.
(6). Three divided by one.
318 THE THEORY OF THE SCHOOL.
(6). Three ones.
(7). Three minus three,
d. Comparison of three with numbers known.
At various stages ample reviews are taken upon these rela-
tions. In connection with the review, the written word for the
lower numbers and for the number being studied may be given
thus:
• •• •••
one two three
Four.
a. Four as a whole.
b. Discoveries in four.
c. Facts in four.
(1). Three and one.
(2). One and three.
(3). Four minus one.
(4). Four minus three.
(5). Two and two.
(6). Four minus two.
(7). Four divided by two.
(8). Two twos,
(y). Four minus four. 2
(10). Four divided by one.
(11). Four ones.
d. Comparison of four with number known.
e. Writing —
• •• ••• ••••
one two three four. " *
(Prepare exercises and examples under each relation indi-
cated under the numbers three and four. What reasons can be
given in favor of teaching a certain relation first, etc.? What
reasons against ?)
♦Primary Arithmetic, Wentworth <& Reed. Ginn & Co.., Boston.
THE THEORY OF THE SCHOOL. 3l9
4. A fourth, and to some, a preferable mode , which is to
place the objects before the pupils for the sole purpose of
awakening their thought, and of enabling them to perceive the
relations of numbers, allowing the expression to be determined
by what they see, giving no regard as to whether the relations
as seen in addition, subtraction, multiplication, or division, are
seen and expressed first.
The relation first seen by the pupil and his own spontaneous
expression of it, if correct, are to be accepted in the beginning
without any attempt to force upon him any particular mode of
seeing the relation or any technical and arbitrary arithmetical
expression.
Such are to be considered and used in the later stages.
The above mentioned relations of two (page ) hav-
ing been dealt with, those that are involved in the second
phase of division are to claim attention.
Thus, (using two cubes, balls, or other objects,) separ-
ate the two into two parts, lead the children to see that the
parts are equal, and apply the name always to be given
to any one of two such parts — one-half. The pupils are
then to see that one half of two is one, and that two
halves of two are two.
One (one apple,) is then to be separated into two equal
parts, and the pupil led to apply the term one-half to
each part. The class are then to see and state :
One-half and one-half are one.
One less one-half is one-half
One less two halves is naught.
Two one-halves are one.
Ii) one there are two halves.
One-half of one is one-half.
320 THE THEORY OF THE SCHOOL.
Applications.
From the completion of the relations in two the
pupils are to enter upon a study of its applications.
These may be considered of two kinds : —
1. Its application in the tables, or as to units of
measure.
2. Its application in general.
Under the first the children would be taught con-
cretely in connection with two, all the units of the
tables that involve two, as :
Two one-cents are two cents.
Two pints are one quart.
A sheet folded into two leaves is a folio, etc.
. The printed forms of the new words, such as pint,
quart, cent, folio, etc., would be associated with their
ideas in the coexistent reading lessons, and the coins, as
one and two cent pieces, as would the other coins in
their order, would form the basis of language lessons,
the aim of which would be to develop the children's
power of language and observation, and increase their
knowledge of the coins of their country, by conversa-
tional lessons, and stories concerning their appearance,
composition, where and how the materials are obtained,
their coinage, etc.
Thus, as before mentioned, would the various exer-
cises of the school, if organized, supplement each other.
Under the second, the pupils would be required to
solve, and to form and solve miscellaneous problems;
as: —
If a boy buys one orange one day, and another the
next day, how many does he buy ?
THE THEORY OF THE SCHOOL. 321
If a man has two apples, and wishes to give them
away, giving one apple to each boy, to how many boys
can he give? etc.
The work, as indicated for the number two, repre-
sents the nature of the work on the numbers from one
to ten.
The units of the various tables, and their relations as
involved in the numbers from one to ten, are: —
1.
One cent.
2.
Two one-cents are two cents.
Two pints are one quart.
Two reams are one bundle.
A sheet folded into two leaves is a folio.
3.
Three feet are one yard.
Three feet are one pace.
Three miles are one league.
Three one-cents are three cents.
4.
Four quarters are one yard.
Four quarters are one dollar.
Four inches are one hand.
Four gills are one pint.
Four pecks are one bushel.
Four quarts are one gallon.
Four weeks are one month.
Four farthings are one penny.
A sheet folded into four leaves is a quarto.
322 THE THEORY OF THE SCHOOL.
5.
Five one-cents are five cents.
6.
Six feet are one fathom.
7.
Seven days are one week.
8.
Eight quarts are one peck.
Eight cord feet are one cord.
A sheet folded into eight leaves is an octavo.
9.
Nine square feet are one square yard.
10.
Ten mills are one cent.
Ten cents are one dime.
Ten dimes are one dollar.
Ten dollars are one eagle.
SECOND YEAR.
The second year's work differs from the first in the
numbers dealt with ; in being in the Stage of Imagina-
tion ; and in that it presents the practical notation for
the numbers considered in the first and second years.
Notation considers two things :
The figures.
The arithmetical sentences.
The figures are taught just as other words are : —
1. Present the number and associate it with its
figure.
2. Point to the figure and associate it with its num-
ber.
THE THEORY OF THE SCHOOL. 323
3. Pass in the association from numbers to figures.
There should be careful drill in making the figures on
board and paper.
In teaching the notation for thought in number there
are three stages : —
1. To obtain the notation from objects.
2. To obtain the notation from problems ; as, If a
boy has three apples and finds two more, how many
has he then ? In this case the pupil is to write, — 3 and
2 are 5.
3. To obtain the notation from the oral expression
of number (abstract).
For example, the teacher may give (orally) 3 and 4,
when the pupil is to write, 3 and 4 are 7.
The notation is obtained from objects somewhat as
follows : —
The ieacher presents three objects, e. g., cubes, and
after a slight pause one more, and then combines them,
asking pupils to write on the board, or slate, what they
saw. The pupils write, 3 and 1 are 4.
In like manner a number of sentences are written.
The teacher then explains the use of + for and, and obtains
a number of sentences in which + is used. After the
pupils thoroughly understand the use of -f, the use of
= for are is explained.
Sentences in subtraction, multiplication, and divis-
ion are presented in the same general way.
The units of the various tables, and their relations as
involved in the numbers from ten to twenty, are : —
324 THE THEORY OF THE SCHOOL.
12.
12 inches are 1 foot.
12 pence are 1 shilling. .
12 ounces are 1 pound.
12 signs are 1 circle.
12 things are 1 dozen.
12 months are 1 year.
12 dozen are 1 gross.
12 gross are 1 great gross.
A sheet folded in 12 leaves is a 12 mo. or a duodecimo.
16.
A sheet folded in 16 leaves is a 16 mo.
16 drams are 1 ounce.
16 ounces are 1 pound.
16 cubic feet are 1 cord foot.
18
18 inches are 1 cubit.
20.
20 shillings are 1 pound.
20 cwt. are 1 ton.
20 things are 1 score.
20 quires are 1 ream.
20 grains are 1 scruple.
THIRD YEAR.
Numbers in the third year (20 to 100) are treated in
the same general manner and spirit as are those of the
second year, the work still being in the Stage of Imagin-
ation.
Theoretic ideation and notation, if they have not been
taught before, are presented as the first work.
THE THEORY OF THE SCHOOL.
325
In considering fractions in connection with the whole \
number one hundred^ the idea of percentage arises, and is j
to be treated. ]
The following illustration and exercises will indicate \
to some extent the nature of the work : j
.2 and .3; .4 — .1;.4-- .2; .9 --.7; .7 -,- .3; .7 and .07;
.27 and .5 ; .6 - .03; .1 -- .01 ; .8 ^ .07 ; .1 of .1 ; .2 of .1 ; .3
of .7;. 5 of .5.
What is 4 per cent, of $40?
8 per cent, of $200?
10 per cent, of 90 yards ?
12\ per cent, of 72 miles ?
20 per cent, of a cubic yard ?
5 per cent, of an acre ?
What per cent of $35 is $7 ?
What per cent, of $28 is $14?
What per cent, of 42 miles is 21 miles ?
$6 is 20 per cent, of what number of dollars ?
40 rods is 12 J per cent, of what number of rods ?
326 THE THEORY OF THE SCHOOL.
If 4 qts. of grain are given for grinding a bu., what
per cent, is the cost of grinding ?
1 fib. 4 oz. is 25 per cent, of what ?
There is nothing in fractions hut the relations of whole
numbers, except the terms. (Illustrate.)
The units of the various tables and their relations as
involved in the numbers from twenty to one hundred
are:
24 gr. are 1 pwt.
24 hours are 1 day.
24 sheets are 1 quire.
24 things are 2 dozen.
27 cu. ft. are 1 cu. yd.
28 days in February.
29 days in February.
30 degrees are 1 sign.
30 days in April, June, September and November.
30i sq. yd. are 1 sq. rd.
31 days in January, March, July, August, October and
December.
32 gills are 1 gallon.
32 quarts are 1 bu.
32 pounds of oats are 1 bu.
36 inches are 1 yard.
36 things are 3 dozen.
40 perches are 1 rood.
40 rods are 1 furlong.
48 things are 4 dozen.
56 pounds of corn, rye or flax seed are 1 bu.
60 pounds of wheat or clover seed are 1 bu.
THE THEORY OF THE SCHOOL. 327
60 seconds are 1 minute.
60 minutes are 1 hour.
60 minutes are 1 degree. '
60 geographical miles are 1 degree.
60 things are 6 dozen.
72 things are 6 dozen.
84 things are 7 dozen.
96 things are 8 dozen.
100 pounds are 1 hundred weight.
100 years are 1 century.
The processes of addition and subtraction in this year,
and also the processes of multiplication and division, in
the fourth year, are to be presented and explained at
first concretely, first with objects present to the senses,
and then with objects present to the imagination.
This process requires attention to the following points ;
1. The object of the process.
2. The impossibility of adding all the numbers at
one step.
3. The necessity of the successive steps and of com-
bining results.
4. The division for this purpose.
5. The manner of combining the partial results in
accordance with the principle of numeration. (Idea-
tion.)
6. The statement of the rule, and its illustration by
reference to the steps of the operation itself.
7. Practice, in which each step of each operation is
to be accounted for by reference to the rule.
328 THE THEORY OF THE SCHOOL.
When the rule is familiar, it remains only to grade the
practice according to the complexity of the operation
involved. The grading consists of four stages : —
a. That which involves the expression on the
slates in symbols of what the pupil has previously done
orally ; as, 8+4+3=15.
b. That which involves the axiom of operation by
parts but no change of denomination ; as, 33+26=59.
c. That in which the change of denomination in-
volves the principle of numeration, (ideation) and the
axiom of operation by parts; as 37+46=83.
d. Exercises involving ciphers.
SUBTRACTION.
The game points in regard to explanation and grada-
tion apply to subtraction.
The method in subtraction is either that which in-
volves a change of minuend alone, depending on the
principle of numerical ideation ; or that which involves
a change in both the form and value of the minuend and
subtrahend, depending on the axiom that the difference
of two numbers is not changed if both be equally in-
creased.
The proofs in addition and subtraction should be
given, as well as the operations themselves, being equal-
ly valuable as mental exercises.
The proof of addition is based on the principle that
in adding a series of numbers, the sum should be the
same, in whatever order the series is added ; and that
pf subtraction on the principle that what is subtracted
from a number and what remains must equal the whole.
THE THEORY OF THE SCHOOL. 329
MULTIPLICATION.
Multiplication, in the limited conception, should be
explained by addition, and its object shown to be to
find what the addition of a given number of equal
numbers will produce. Its relation to division should
be clearly set forth, also.
The table should be constructed objectively and
should then be made a mental habit by repetition. It
is valuable practice to extend it to twenty or more.
The grading of exercises should be as follows :
1. Exercises in which the multiplier consists of the
units in succession.
2. Exercises in which the multiplier consists of the
tens in succession.
3. Exercises in which the multiplier consists of
both units and tens.
In multiplying by such a number as 27, the 2 should
not be spoken of as twenty nor as two tens, for that is
contrary to the idea of notation, and only complicates
the operation.
Let it be spoken of as a 2, and afterward by recalling
the fact that it is tens, the denomination of the product
may be shown. Success in dealing with such cases
depends on success in the work on notation and the
previous steps in multiplication, for then the pupil will
be able to perceive in how far the multiplication by 2
tens agrees with that by 2 units, and in how far it
differs. The axiom of partial operations is employed
three times in such cases, and that axiom and the prin-
ciple of numeration (ideation) explain the entire theory
of the process.
330 THE THEORY OP THE SCHOOL.
Division, according to the less comprehensive defini-
tion, should be explained by subtraction, and its object
shown to be to find how often one number is contained
in another ; or to find one of the equal parts of a num-
ber. Its relation to multiplication should likewise be
indicated.
The principles upon which the process depends are
that of partial operations and that of numeration (idea-
tion.)
Long division should be presented before short divis-
I ion because short division is an elliptical form of long
division, and therefore naturally grows out of it.
In commencing with long division, however^ small
divisors, such as 2, 3, 4, etc., should be used.
The exercises should be graded as follows :
1. Those where the partial quotients are even with-
out involving any change of denomination ; as, 84648-^2.
2. Those in which change of denomination is in-
volved.
3. Those which involve ciphers.
The proofs for multiplication and division should be
considered for the reasons given under subtraction.
The proof for multiplication is based on the principle
that the product is the same in whatever order the par-
tial products are obtained, and that for division, on the
principle that the contained number multiplied by the
number of times it is contained, will give the containing
number.
THE THEORY OF THE SCHOOL. 331
METHOD IN GEOGRAPHY.
DEFINITION.
PRINCIPLES.
The three root principles in the subject of geography
are:
1. Earth and man are mutually adapted to each
otheras habitation and inhabitant. (The selective prin-
ciple as to subject-matter.)
2. The earth is an organism, having life through
contrast. (The directive principle in presentation.)
3. Each new idea is, and is to be made appear to be
a development of one already in the mind. (This prin-
ciple is not peculiar to the subject of geography.)
MENTAL FACULTIES INVOLVED AND TRAINED.
Elaborate each of the preceding ideas.
PURPOSE.
The first and most important purpose in teaching
geography, is to awaken and to furnish exercise to the
mental faculties.
More specifically, the purpose is primarily to develop
the imagination.
It should also be the aim to give intellectual and moral
breadth. (How does geography tend to do this?)
The secondary purpose is to give a knowledge of the
earth as an organic whole, and its parts in their rela-
tions ; to give a general knowledge of all the political
diviBions of the earth, and to give a specific knowledge
332 THE THEORY OF THE SCHOOL.
of the pupil's own country, and four or five others of the
leading countries as commercial and industrial units.
Geography is not to be taught for the sake of the
geographical knowledge, but for the sake of awakening
and exercising the mental faculties, and giving them in-
creased vigor by furnishing material for their exercise,
and afiording opportunities for the directing and train-
ing of them.
In this use and not in its facts, lies the great value of
the subject of geography ; though the facts have their
value, and should be clearly presented.
THE KNOWN.
What knowledge have children upon entering school, that
is geographical or related to geography f
When a child enters school he is in possession of
ideas, sometimes vague and incomplete, sometimes in-
correct, concerning : —
The form, size and position of the earth, its daily mo-
tion, day and night, the seasons and their succession,
direction, color, form, the rising of smoke.
Rain, snow, ice and dew ; where they come from ;
where they go to.
Heat and cold, and their effects ; air, the boiling of
water.
Clouds.
Different plants; their relations to heat, moisture,
man and animals. •
Different animals ; their uses.
Different minerals ; their uses.
Hill, valley, plain, pond, stream, cape, peninsula, etc.
THE THEORY OF THE SCHOOL. 333
Different kinds of soiL earth-worms, the coral, and
their effect.
Different means of communication, riding on cars,
vehicles, etc., and the effect.
Different races of man.
Different nations of men.
Cities ; their buildings, streets, governments.
Different religions.
Education.
Different occupations.
Pictorial representation.
The difference in earth and water in receiving and
giving off heat.
Classification of the items given above under : —
1. Mathematical Georgraphy.
2. Physical Geography.
3. Political Geography.
These ideas classified would be as follows : —
Form, size, position of the earth, its motion ; — day
and night; — the seasons and their succession; — direc-
tion; — form; — streets; — pictorial representation, belong-
ing to TTiathematical geography.
Rain, snow, ice and dew, where they come from;
where they go to ; — heat and cold, and their effects'; —
clouds; — different plants; their relations to heat and
moisture, man and animals ; — different animals, their
uses; — different minerals; their uses; — hill, valley, pond,
stream, cape, peninsula, etc.; — different kinds of soil ;
earth-worms, and corals ; — different races of man ; — dif-
ference in earth and water in receiving and giving off
334 THE THEORY OF THE SCHOOL.
heat; — color; — the rising of smoke ; pictorial representa-
tion, belonging to physical geography.
Different means of communication; — different na-
tions of men; cities; their buildings and governments;
— different religions ; — education ; — different occupa-
tions; pictorial representation, belonging to political
geography.
Through what sources has the child acquired these ideas f
(^Amplify.)
What is the attitude of his mind in regard to them ?
The attitude of the child's mind to this accumulated
knowledge is two-fold : First, much of the knowledge
is the latent known. In the second place, much of it
has become common -place. ' The curiosity excited by
novelty has become somewhat satisfied by familiarity
with the outside of the surrounding phenomena, or has
been repressed by contact with ignorance, and com-
mands to cease unwelcome questions ' The child is by
birth a naturalist. His love of nature is the capital in
geography. At first his wondering eyes gather material
naturally. Therefore : —
1. The first work of geography is to flash its light
across the latent known and turn the child's gaze upon
it.
2. The second is to re-awaken his interest in the
common-place known.
This is to be done by opening up to the pupil in the
beginning all that is strange, picturesque, and wonder-
ful in the realm of which his acquired ideas form a
part. ^
THE THEORY OF THE SCHOOL. 335
This can never he done by chaining his mind down
during the. first year or more of geography, to a study of
the objects of the school-room and how to represent them^
the school'yardy township^ county^ and state, and how to
map them.
The child must see the earth first in its most enchant-
ing guise, and through mediums which are perfectly
familiar — pictures and language — so that the mediums
shall be in the back -ground. If he is set in the very
beginning to the production of a new means of repre-
sentation — the map — the tendency is for it to become
all-important in his eyes, and thus, in a measure, close
them to that which it represents. It is a reversal of the
maxim — " The thing signified before the sign."
Into what knowledge do the ideas possessed by the child
unfold or develop in the geography work f
Under the influence of proper geography work, the
subject of geography appears to the child as the mere
expansion or development of those ideas related to the
subject which he possessed when he entered school.
For example, the child's idea of the form of the
earth, whether correct or incorrect, is that out of which
grow considerations of — reasons for his belief and their
application to the apparent and the real case; clear ideas
of the form, comparative and actual (spheroid) ; proofs
— Magellan's voyage, appearance and disappearance of
ships at sea, appearance of objects on land to incoming
ships, the circular horizon, and its increase on ascent,
the shadow cast on the moon ; illustration — movement
of toy ships on globe, toy man on the surface represented
336 THE THEORY OF THE SCHOOL.
by sand on the curved surface of a molding board, mod-
elling in clay of the spheroid, a piece of paper with a
round hole in it placed on a large globe, etc.
The inadequate idea of the earth's size unfolds into
definite ideas concerning — circumference at the equator,
diameter at the equator and between the poles, circum-
ference in time — railroad trip of more than a month at
the rate of 30 miles an hour, with no stops.
The vague idea as to the earth's position is to unfold
into clear ideas in regard to its position by reference to
pictures of globes floating in the air ; other earths— the
evening star and the moon — magnet, balls, balloons,
birds, kites, etc., in the air.
From the idea possessed as to the motion of the earth
or the apparent motion of the sun, the development is,
through illustration afforded by riding upon the cars,'
and by comparison of the size of earth and sun, to the
rotation of the earth.
The knowledge of day and night will lead to the idea
of rotation, axis, poles, and variation of length of day
and night.
Illustration work. — Rotation with axis vertical, hori-
zontal and oblique, using card-board disc or day circle ;
the finding of sunrise, noon, sunset, and midnight for
given places ; place ball or globe in position for northern
midsummer, mark with dots the places for sunrise and
sunset, and then rotate, having the pupils observe whether
the dots are longer in the light or dark. (Read in con-
nection " Agoonack " of " The Seven Little Sisters," and
" Bidding the Sun Good night in Lapland," by Joy Alli-
son); hold a crayon on the farthest point of the surface
THE THEORY OF THE SCHOOL. 337
beyond tl?e North Pole that the sunlight reaches, and
rotate, keeping the crayon in position — have the pupil
tell about the day at all places within the circle formed
by the crayon. In like manner, place the ball for the
other seasons and show results as to day and night.
The ideas that the child already possesses in regard to
the seasons and their succession, are to develop into
clear ideas concerning the revolution of the earth, the
zones, the orbit, climate and its relation to vegetation.
These ideas are to be obtained by reference to the-
pupil's experience, and employment of such devices as
placing a ball or globe on a table to represent the sun,
and another in the hands of a pupil to represent the
earth. The pupil by holding the ball in its proper posi-
tion, rotating it and moving with it to represent the revo-
lution, can show the changes of light and heat, and the
inferences as to the most obvious effects will follow.
This may also be shown by a candle and a ball, and, of
course, by scientific apparatus, if it be possessed.
In like manner the development of each of the famil-
iar ideas could be shown.
THE MORE COMMON DEFECTS IN PRESENTING THE SUBJECT.
1. It is made too largely a verbal memory study.
2. Neglect in use of the globe.
3. Study of facts as isolated to too great an extent.
4. Tendency toward national conceit and narrow-
ness through the early and continuous study of one's
own region, before grounds of comparison are furnished
by the study of the earth as a whole, and of other
countries.
23
338 THE THEORY OF THE SCHOOL.
5. Subordinating the map to the text on points of
which they both treat.
6. Not guarding sufficiently against the tendency
on the part of the pupils to make the map and text the
end.
7. Teaching the hemispheres from but one stand-
point instead of from three — the eastern and western,
northern and southern, land and water.
8. Teaching the continents only as surfaces.
9. The failure to distinguish between the twenty-
five or thirty cities of the earth in which the commer-
cial and industrial relations are strongest, and which
should therefore require the preponderance of treat-
ment, and those whose importance is arbitrary, political
or local, and which therefore require less exhaustive
study.
10. Failure to sufficiently utilize the experience of
the pupils.
11. Presenting the different stages of the work in
an unnatural order, e. g., the presentation of political
divisions before natural divisions, winds, currents, etc.
12. Presenting the symbol before the reality — the
sign before the thing.
13. Neglect of map drawing, one of the very best
means of giving clear conceptions of the various regions
on the ground that it takes too much time.
OUTLINE OF WORK,
FIKST YEAR.
The geographical threads of the first year are lessons
on:
THE THEORY OF THE SCHOOL. 339
Place, form, drawing, size, distance, direction, and
color.
In the lessons on place^ work would be given illustra-
ting the use of such expressions as,— on, above, before,
between, under, below, behind, around, etc., right-hand
corner, left-hand corner, front right-hand corner, back
left-hand corner, middle of right side, etc.
In such work the teacher would place objects and the
pupil imitate ; the teacher place and the pupil describe ;
the teacher place and the pupil draw ; the teacher dic-
tate and the pupil place ; the teacher disarrange and the
pupil place from memory, etc.
In the work on color, form, size, etc., the pupils would
be led to speak of the color, form, size, place on the
earth, etc., of animals, plants, minerals, etc.
Thus, of the tiger : its colors would be spoken of and
represented; its form and size shown on the board and
in pictures and by reference to tigers that the pupils
may have seen ; then the region that it inhabits would
be spoken of, its distance and direction from the pupil's
own region indicated, etc. In a similar way the tiger-
lily, magnolia, lead, gold, etc., would be briefly touched
upon, in connection with the lessons on place, form,
color, size, etc.
SECOND YEAR.
In the second year the geographical threads are les-
sons on : —
1. Animals:
That live on the lartd; in the water ; in the air.
That live in hot parts of the earth; in cold parts; in
forests; in plains; in deserts; on mountainSy etc.
340 THE THEORY OF THE SCHOOL.
2. Vegetation — Same as animals.
3. People : (By stories and readings.)
Their kinds of homes.
What they wear, eat, and do.
The animals they use.
The distance and direction of their homes from the
pupil's home.
(See The Seven Little Sisters ; Each and All ; Aunt Martha's
Corner Cupboard, or Stories about Tea, Coflfee, Sugar, etc.;
Little Lucy's Wonderful Globe ; Little People of Asia ; Johon-
not's Natural History Series ; etc.)
THIRD YEAR.
(It is not the thought that all the work that is outlined in any
one year's work should be taken during that year. The out-
line indicates the order, method, and topics from which to
select.)
AIM.
1. Principal.^To open up to the child the wonder-
ful and picturesque features of the subject. — To guard
against making the map, definition, and text, all-import-
ant. — To give a general conception of the earth as a
whole without the use of a map.
2. Incidental — Extended ideas of distance, direction,
means of communication, vegetation, animals, and of
the different peoples and their habits.
NATURE OF THE WORK.
The wbrk is based upon the idea that every region of
the earth is composed of some or all of the few geographical
elements, (about thirteen in number) : as, hill, lake, pen-
insula, etc., each of these having its essential marks or
elements (as the base, slope and summit of a hill), which
THE THEORY OF THE SCHOOL. 341
essential elements may appear in various types, e. g., a
summit may be flat, rounded, or pointed ; a slope, wooded,
rocky, grassy, etc.
The purpose of the year's work is to be accomplished
by giving clear, rich and full conceptions of the various
geographical elements ; so that a geographical term, as
^^ peninsula^^ shaM call up in the mind of the child — not
the conception as derived from a single example, but as
gained from a number of instances sufficient to present
the element in its various types.
In order that the purpose as stated above may be best
accomplished the various examples necessary to illus-
trate the different types are selected from as many dif-
ferent regions of the earth's surface as possible.
In the use of the molding sand and drawings as means
of making clear the geographical elements, to insure
that the pupils shall look through the molding sand and
the map to the real objects which these represent, pre-
liminary work of two kinds is necessary.
1. Work in which teacher and pupils mold in sand,
(common molding sand) and draw in horizontal and in
vertical outline, (profile) regions with which the pupils
are familiar ; all knowing in each case what region is
being represented.
This work may be pursued for several weeks.
2. Work in which the teacher molds in sand, and
draws in horizontal and vertical outline regions with
which the class is familiar; the pupils, however, not
knowing before hand what region is to be represented,
342 THE THEOEY OF THE SCHOOL.
but being required to determine the region through the
representation.
Two or three weeks may be consumed in this kind of work.
This preliminary work having been completed, the
pupil is prepared to enter upon the study of the various
geographical elements.
The work with any one geographical element consists
of three parts :
1. Study of the example in the home region.
2. Imaginary journeys to examples in foreign re-
gions.
3. Study of examples selected in foreign region.
On the supposition that the lake is the element to be
considered, and that its various types are adequately
represented by the lake or pond in the home region, and .
by Lake George in North America, Lake Titicaca in
South America, Lake Geneva in Europe, Lake Balkash
in Asia, Lake Tchad in Africa, and Lake Eyre in Aus-
tralia, the work would be of the following nature :
a. If practicable, the pupils should observe the
lake or pond in the home region, noting its essential
characteristics and their types ; and should mold it in
sand, while it is before them.
b. Mold from memory.
c. Describe orally.
d. Describe in writing.
e. Draw in horizontal and vertical outline.
The foregoing work on the example in the home
region having been completed, the pupil is prepared to
enter upon the second kind of work — the imaginary
journey.
THE THEORY OF THE SCHOOL. 343
In the imaginary journey the pupil should notice
carefully the distance, direction, means of communica-
tion, the general character of the intervening surface,
the habits and industries of the people, etc.
When the pupil has been brought, by means of the
imaginary journey, to the first example of the element
in foreign regions which has been selected, (in this case
Lake George) the teacher should make his conception
of the element as vivid as possible by pictures and de-
scriptions.
When this has been accomplished the pupil may
occasionally be required,
a. To mold the example.
b. To describe it both orally and in writing.
c. To draw it in horizontal and vertical outline.
When the work has been completed to this point, the
pupil is to return to the home region either by the same
or a different route.
He is next to make an imaginary journey to the next
example of the element in foreign regions — (Lake Titi-
caca) — noticing the same things during the journey and
studying the example in the sameway. Returning to
the hom e region, as before, either by the same or by a
different route, he proceeds to study in the same manner
all the examples selected as necessary to give a full and
vivid conception of this geographical element.
Such work as that indicated in relation to the lake,
should be pursued with each of the remaining geo-
graphical elements ; the treatment of examples in foreign
regions being obviously less exhaustive than that of the exam-
pie in the home region.
344 THE THEORY OF THE SCHOOL.
Supposing the hill to be the element selected to begin
with, the general order of presentation would be as fol-
lows:
1. The Hill.
a. Work as indicated with the lake.
b. The hill region.
c. The expansion of the hill into the mountain.
2. The mountain.
a. Work as indicated with the lake.
b. Combination.
(1.) Into the range.
(2.) Ranges into the system.
3. The Valley.
a. Work same as indicated for the lake.
b. Extension of valley into the plain.
4. The Plain.
a. Work same as with the lake.
b. Elevation of the plain into table-land or
plateau.
5. The Table-land, or Plateau,
a. Work same as with lake.
6. The Spring.
a. Work as indicated for the lake.
b. Extension of the spring into the streamlet.
7. The Streamlet.
a. Same as with the lake.
b. Expansion of streamlet into river.
8. The River.
a. Same as with lake.
b. Formation of river-system.
c. Expansion of river into the ocean. (Atlantic.)
THE THEORY OF THE SCHOOL. 345
9. The Lake.
a. Work indicated before.
b. Expansion of lake into ocean. (Pacific.)
10. The Cape.
a. Same as indicated for the lake.
b. Extension of cape into peninsula.
11. The Peninsula.
a. Same as with lake.
b. Showing isthmus from 'the part of the penin-
sula which connects with the main body of the land.
12. The Isthmus.
a. Same as with lake.
13. The Island.
a. Work as indicated for lake.
b. Island group.
14. Gulf or Bay.
a. Same as with lake.
• b. Extension of the gulf into the inland sea.
15. The Inland Sea.
a. Same as with lake.
b. The connection of the inland sea with gulf or
bay, forming the strait.
16. The Strait.
a. Same as indicated for lake.
In connection with the foregoing, the pupils may re-
ceive elementary ideas of climate, productions, inhabi-
tants of various regions, means of communication,
cities; but this work should be incidental, and limited
to those regions which have been selected to give full
conceptions of the various geographical elements. The
following outline will suggest the nature of the work : —
346 THE THEORY OF THE SCHOOL.
1. Climate.
a. The Spring Day.
(1.) Comparative length of day and night.
(2.) Variations of heat and moisture, or the
combinations of the elements of climate.
(3.) The effects of their combination as found
in the spring day upon productions and inhabitants.
b. The Summer Day.
(1.) and (2.) Same as for Spring Day.
(3.) The effect of the combination as found in
the summer day upon the productions and inhabitants.
(4.) Merged into the tropical day and season.
c. The Autumn Day.
(1.) and (2.) Same as for Spring Day.
(3.) The effects of the combination as found in
the autumn day upon inhabitants and productions.
d. The Winter Day.
(1.) and (2.) Same as in Spring Day.
(3.) The effects of the combination as found in
the winter day upon productions and inhabitants.
(4.) Merged into the frigid day and season.
2. Productions,
a. Minerals.
(1.) In home region.
(a.) Kinds.
(b.) Appearance.
(c.) How obtained.
(d.) Use.
(2.) In other regions.
(a.), (b.), (c.) and (d.) same as in home re-
gion.
THE THEORY OF THE SCHOOL. 347
(e.) Comparison as to kind and use.
(f.) Generalization.
b. Vegetation.
(1.) Of home region.
(a.) Appearance.
(b.) Use.
(c.) Adaptation of soil and climate to vege-
tation.
(2.) Of other regions.
(a.) and (b.) Same as in home region.
(c.) Inference as to soil and climate.
c. Animals.
(1.) Of home region,
(a.) Wild,
(b.) Domestic.
(1.') Foreign.
(2.') Native,
(c.) Appearance,
(d.) Habits.
(e.) Uses.
(f.) Adaptation of climate and region to
habits and uses.
(2.) Of other regions,
(a.), (b.), (c), (d.) and (e.) Same as under
home region.
( f.) Inference as to region and climate.
3. Inhabitants,
a. Of home region.
(1.) Races.
(2.) Influence of climate and region upon mode
of life, as to : —
348 THE THEORY OF THE SCHOOL.
(a.) Occupations,
(b.) Habitations,
(c.) Food,
(d.) Clothing.
b. Of other regions.
(1.) and (2.) with (a.), (b.), (c), (d.), same as
under home region.
4. Means of communication,
a. Of home region.
(1.) By land.
(a.) Natural — Those possessing the motive
power within themselves and using as passage-ways : —
(1.') Roads.
(2.') Bridges,
(b.) Artificial. — Those not possessing the
motive power within themselves, and using passage-
ways,
d.') On the surface.
' (2.') Above the surface.
(3.') Beneath the surface,
(c.) Objects communicated.
(1.') Material.
(2') Immaterial, or thought.
(2.) By water,
(a.) Natural. — Those using as motive power
the currents of the streams and passing on the water.
(b.) Artificial. — Those employing as motive
power forces other than the current and passing,
(!.') On the water.
(2/) Under the water,
(c.) Objects communicated.
THE THEORY OF THE SCHOOL. 349
(1/) Material.
(2/) Immaterial, or Thought,
b. Of other regions.
Same as under home region.
5. Cities.
a. The Village.
(1.) Work as indicated for the lake under geo-
graphical elements.
(2.) Expansion* of the village into the city.
b. The City.
Comparison of the various types of cities met with in
the study of the geographical elements.
IDEAS INCIDENTALLY ACQUIRED.
Although this year's work does not deal with locality,
yet the pupil will necessarily become somewhat familiar
with the general position of countries, together with
their names and those of their remarkable features.
Thus, in listening to a description of rivers, as the
Amazon or the Hudson, interest fixes their names in
memory so that they are familiar when, in the course of
their later work, their position is learned.
Likewise, in studying animals or vegetation, the pupil
associates the countries with these: Africa, with the
lion ; China, with tea, etc.
If in the general lessons of the school, the following
three lines of work, among others, are pursued, as sup-
plementary to the second year's work, they will furnish
valuable assistance in rendering more vivid the pupil's
conception of the regions described in the geography
work : —
350 THE THEORY OF THE SCHOOL.
1. One upon the lion, elephant, camel, tiger, wolf,
bear, hyena, kangaroo, buffalo, reindeer, dog, serpent,
whale, shark, eagle, ostrich, vulture, etc.
2. Another upon the palm, olive, breadfruit, vine,
cotton-plant, tea-plant, coffee-tree, sugar-cane, rice, maize,
cinnamon, cedar, mahogany, etc.
3. A third upon artirdes of food, clothing and build-
ing.
In the course of these lessons* the principal countries
would evidently be noticed so often that the pupils
would, of necessity, accumulate a considerable fund of
ideas concerning each.
ILLUSTRATIONS.
During the work of this year, the only illustrations to
be used other than those previously mentioned, are
pictures of the objects dealt with in the general lessons,
and pictures of scenes typical of countries.
In accord with this thought the teacher would present
pictorial representations somewhat as follows : —
Arabia, by a desert scene exhibiting the general features
of the desert and sky, the caravan as a whole, the camel,
and the Arab himself, in his usual costume.
EgypU by its river, pyramids, and inhabitant, engaged
in his usual avocation, etc.
Only a limited supply of such illustrations is furnished
by the text-books. The teacher should, therefore, make
collections of pictorial illustrations of natural features;
animal, vegetable and mineral productions; buildings,
manufactories and processes of manufacturing ; repre-
sentative men of different nationalities ; cities ; bird's
THE THEORY OF THE SCHOOL. 351
eye views, etc. These should be divided on the basis
of continent, and then subdivided on the basis of
country, region, etc., and kept separate.
Harper's Magazine and Weekly, and the Century Magazine
are among the richest sources of such illustrations.
Number 1,370 of the Weekly contains views of " The Funeral
of a Little Waif," in Paris ; " The Fish Hatching at Cold Spring,
Long Island ;" ** Prince GortchakofF;" " Mount ^tna, Sicily ;"
" Interior of a Southern Cotton Press by night," and " Sketches
in Cairo."
Number 1,390 of the Weekly contains views of " Coney
Island," and the " Louisville Exposition."
1,391, views of scenery at " Grand Rapids," of "Oyster and
Clam Fisheries," of " Sands Point, Long Island," and views from
" Sandy Hook."
The Monthly for June, 1877, contains " Scenes in the Vicinity
of the Androscoggin Lakes," (17.) "The Wheeler Survey in
Nevada," (10.) "Gibraltar," (3.) "Representations of Birds'
Nests," (3).
Scribner's Monthly (now the Century) for November, 1876,
contains views of " Hartford, Conn," (38.) " Pictures from
Rome," (14.) "Furniture," (19.)
These numbers, selected at random, indicate the value of
such illustrations when divided and subdivided in such a man-
ner as to be available for systematic use in studying the various
geographical regions.
(See for collateral reading— parts of Near Home and Far Off;
Scribner's Geographical Reader; Our World, No. 1, by Hall;
Seven Little Sisters ; Each and All.)
IDEA OF THE MAP.
At this stage the pupil is to be led to comprehend th^
idea of the mapj by a series of lessons upon the school-
room and its furniture, the school yard, etc., then to
352 THE THEORY OF THE SCHOOL.
study by means of it the earth in the order so generally
advocated, viz., the state ; the group of states ; the United
States ; the continent, etc.; or to pursue the method indi-
cated in the work as outlined in the following years.
FOURTH YEAR.
AIM.
To train the mind by giving a clear structural concep-
tion of the earth by means of representation: i. e., globe,
map of the earth as a whole, maps of parts of the earth,
moldings, drawings, etc.
STEPS.
1. Consideration of the form.
The work under this point should be somewhat of the
following nature :
a. Obtain the pupil's opinions in regard to the
shape of the earth and the reasons for such opinions.
b. Discuss the question whether a body having
the characteristics which he presents as reasons for his
opinion, could be flat ; also if it could be round.
c. Obtain if possible, if not, give familiar proofs
of the earth's form, such as the following : —
(1.) The earth always casts a circular shadow.
(2.) Objects which are out of sight to one
standing on the surface may be seen from an elevation.
(3.) Of an approaching ship, the masts may
be seen before the hull, etc.
2. Presentation of lines of latitude and longitude.
The steps to be taken in dealing with this subject are:
a. To explain the terms literally.
b. To show the necessity for the lines.
c. To teach the pupils how to construct the lines.
THE THEORY OF THE SCHOOL. 353
A good piece of apparatus to use in presenting these
ideas, is a small black ball. If a dot be placed upon
the ball with chalk and the pupils be asked to locate it,
it will soon become evident that sufficient data lor its
exact location are wanting.
If dots are now placed upon the ball in proper posi-
tions to represent the poles, and circles are drawn
through these and numbered, the pupils will see that
these aid to a great extent in locating the dot, but that
something is still wanting to make the location definite.
If, in a plane at right angles to the plane of the
circles already drawn, a circle be drawn, midway be-
tween the two points selected to represent the poles, and
circles parallel to this be drawn between it and the
poles, and numbered, it can be shown that the means for
locating the dot are now complete.
The streets of a city also form a good means of illus-
tration of lines of latitude and longitude.
3. Explanation of the globe as a representation of the
earth as a whole.
4. Explanation by means oj the globe, of the map of
the earth as a whole.
5. Air.
a. Position. \
b. Composition.
In treating of the composition of air, it is to be made
to appear that of the four elements — Oxygen, Nitrogen,
Carbonic acid gas, and vapor, the most important in re-
lation to the subject of geography, is the vapor, and
that Carbonic acid gas is second in importance.
c. Manner of heating.
356 THE THEORY OF THE SCHOOL.
avoided. Every thing that can be, is to be made pal-
pably evident by illustrationj analogy, observation and
experiment. For example, in treating of the different
degrees of heat in the atmosphere due to the direct and
reflected rays of the sun, refer to the stove, the wall, and
the heating of the intervening space.
In teaching that heated air rises and that this rising
causes lateral currents, call attention to what may be
observed at a register, a fire place or over a slab of heated
iron.
The expansion of heated air may be observed in the
popping of corn, baking of apples, etc.
The difference in the rapidity with which earth and
water receive and give off heat, may be shown by observ-
ing buckets filled with each, and exposed to the sun, at
noon, and again sometime after sunset.
The aim is to be to awaken an intelligent appreciation
of what is already known in part by rote, or daily seen
by eyes that see not, or daily done but not understood,
and to connect it by its innumerable links with the un-
known. The materials presented are to be used as an
exercise ground for thought. To a degree it is dealing
with the latent known and the answers are, in part,
theoretically in the pupils' minds already, and the ob-
ject is to awaken thought; to cause them to sift and
rearrange their ideas ; to implant new desires and new
capacities for satisfying desires; to give, not so much
knowledge, as power to learn and to observe.
Unless this habit of intelligent observation is implanted,
the horizon will be close about the pupil and he will be
as Schopenhauer says of one without a knowledge of
THE THEORY OF THE SCHOOL. 357
Latin, "as a man walking in a beautiful region in a
fog."
The pupils are to consider the questions carefully,
"which is a great point gained.
They are to debate the questions thoughtfully which is
a greater point gained.
They are to answer the questions with thought which
is the greatest gain.
Pupils who are merely instructed and who are assisted
unduly at almost every step cannot answer questions
"with thought. But even if they were unable to answer
the questions, to acquire the power to consider and debate
questions with thought is to attain the end sought for.
The points are, however, so intertwined with their daily
experience, and with the common things around them,
that all may comprehend them.
It is true that the power to question on these common
phenomena requires that the questioner shall be a skilled
workman, and that he shall view himself as the director,
the suggestor, the stimulator, and the child as a being
educating himself by self effort ; but such a supposition
is allowable.
•iMoearivc questions.
Among the many questions to be considered, the following
■will, no doubt, present themselves:—
Where does the rain come from ?
How does rain get into the clouds ?
Why does rain fall ?
Why does water collect in a river channel ?
Where does a river make its bed ?
Why does the water in a river channel flow in one direction
more than another 7
356 THE THEORY OF THE SCHOOL.
avoided. Every thing that can be, is to be made pal-
pably evident by illustration, analogy, observation and
experiment. For example, in treating of the different
degrees of heat in the atmosphere due to the direct and
reflected rays of the sun, refer to the stove, the wall, and
the heating of the intervening space.
In teaching that heated air rises and that this rising
causes lateral currents, call attention to what may be
observed at a register, a fire place or over a slab of heated
iron.
The expansion of heated air may be observed in the
popping of corn, baking of apples, etc.
The difference in the rapidity with which earth and
water receive and give off heat, may be shown by observ-
ing buckets filled with each, and exposed to the sun, at
noon, and again sometime after sunset.
The aim is to be to awaken an intelligent appreciation
of what is already known in part by rote, or daily seen
by eyes that see not, or daily done but not understood,
and to connect it by its innumerable links with the un-
known. The materials presented are to be used as an
exercise ground for thought. To a degree it is dealing
with the latent known and the answers are, in part,
theoretically in the pupils' minds already, and the ob-
ject is to awaken thought; to cause them to sift and
rearrange their ideas ; to implant new desires and new
capacities for satisfying desires; to give, not so much
knowledge, as power to learn and to observe.
Unless this habit of intelligent observation is implanted,
the horizon will be close about the pupil and he will be
as Schopenhauer says of one without a knowledge of
THE THEORY OF THE SCHOOL. 357
Latin, "as a man walking in a beautiful region in a
fog."
The pupils are to consider the questions carefully,
■which is a great point gained.
They are to debate the questions thoughtfully which is
a greater point gained.
They are to answer the questions with thought which
is the greatest gain.
Pupils who are merely instructed and who are assisted
unduly at almost every step cannot answer questions
with thought. But even if they were unable to answer
the questions, to acquire the power to consider and debate
questions with thought is to attain the end sought for.
The points are, however, so intertwined with their daily
experience, and with the common things around them,
that all may comprehend them.
It is true that the power to question on these common
phenomena requires that the questioner shall be a skilled
workman, and that he shall view himself as the director,
the suggestor, the stimulator, and the child as a being
educating himself by self effort ; but such a supposition
is allowable.
•uoouTive QucariONS.
Among the many questions to be considered, the following
will, no doubt, present themselves: —
Where does the rain come from ?
How does rain get into the clouds ?
Why does rain fall ?
Why does water collect in a river channel ?
Where does a river make its bed ?
Why does the water in a river channel flow in one direction
more than another 7
868 THE THEORY OF THE SCHOOL.
What discolors a river in a rainy season?
Where did the mud come from ?
What becomes of the mud and water in a river ?
In what way are the sand and gravel disposed of when they
reach the sea ?
Why does one river form a delta and another an estuary ?
What is the air ? Its parts ?
When water is placed in a kettle and then heated until the
kettle is dry, what has become of the water?
Where do plants get their solid parts ?
Where does the sand in maple sugar or syrup come from?
Where doe? the silica in grain come from ?
When plants and animals decay what do they give back into
the air?
In breathing what do animals give the air ?
How do we become sensible of the air ?
How is the air heated ?
Why is air ever cold ?
Why is the air warm during a snow storm ?
Why are slanting rays weaker than direct rays ?
Why are cloudy days sometimes warm ?
What causes the motion of the air ?
How does vapor get into the air?
How does vapor get out of the air ?
Where does the water that collects upon the outside of a
pitcher come from ?
Can vapor be seen ?
When can the air hold the least vapor ?
What is dew ?
What is mist, or fog ?
What is a cloud ?
What is the difference between rain, snow, hail and sleet ?
What are the shapes of snow ?
When rain falls upon the ground in how many ways does it
disappear ?
What becomes of the part that sinks into the ground ?
THE THEORY OF THE SCHOOL. 359
Why does it not sink to the center of the earth ?
What would be the result if the water which sinks into the
earth were to remain there ?
How does the water get out of the ground ?
How does it happen that there is room for water in the
ground ?
What makes it rise to the surface ?
What does the water take from the air as it falls as rain ?
What happens to the water that sinks into the ground ?
What does the water in the ground do to the rocks ?
What makes buildings, rocks, fences, etc., look old?
What advantage is it to have rocks decay ?
All the surface of the land is traveling in what direction ?
Why does water flow down ?
Why do rivers wind ?
Is it better to have them wind ?
Of what advantage are brooks and rivers ?
What becomes of snow and ice in warm regions ?
What becomes of that upon cold mountain-tops ?
Does a glacier help to make soil ? How ?
Why is the sea salt ?
Is the sea getting more or less salt ? Why ?
THE STRUCTURC OF THE CONTINENTS.
1. Instruments.
a. The regular text.
b. Other texts.
c. Cyclopedias.
d. Special works on physical geography, as
Geike, Somerville, etc.
e. Construction lines.
f. Molding.
g. Drawing.
(1.) Vertical.
(2.) Horizontal.
360 THE THEORY OF THE SCHOOL.
2. Features in the Structure.
In the study of the structure the pupils must form a
picture of the continent as a solid ; as divided by an
axis into two slopes, one long and gradual and the other
short and steep ; as having on these slopes secondary axes;
as consisting of mountain land^ plateaus and plains ; of
the mountains as consisting of systems, ranges and peaks;
of the continent as arranged into river basins; of the
river basins as parallel to, and ^ as at right angles to the
continental axes.
3. Order of Study of Continents.
In the study of structure the order may be given, as
— South America, North America, Asia, Europe, Africa,
and Australia. Reasons for the order indicated ?
(See Guyot's Physical Geography, and Earth and Man ;
Maury's Physical Geography ; Recluse's Earth ; Huxley's
Physiography ; Kingley's Town Geology ; Forms of Water,
by Tyndall; Vegetable Mold and Earth- Worms, by Darwin.)
FIFTH YEAR.
AIM.
The purpose in this year is to clothe the structure studied
in the previous year ; i. e., to train and develop the mind
by a consideration of the vegetation, minerals, animals,
people, trade cities, (those determined by natural condi-
tions ; the natural depots of trade, commerce and manu-
facture; as, New York, London, San Francisco, Pitts-
burg, etc.), religions, governments and systems of edu-
cation of the earth.
THE THEORY OF THE SCHOOL. 361
OUTLINE OF WORK.
veOETATlON.
1. Means of original investigation,
a. The pupil's own knowledge.
b. Regular text-book.
c. Other text-books.
d. Cyclopedias.
e. Special works.
f. Charts, pictures, books on travel.
2. Means of review.
a. Lead the pupils to place on the board names
of all important vegetable products.
b. Lead the children to classify them, as — food
plants; building materials; art materials; material for
medicine, etc. Thus : —
Food Plants.
Staple.
Placed upon board.
Luxuries.
Placed upon board.
Building and Shelter.
Clothing.
Placed upon board.
Arts and Manufactures.
Coloring.
Placed upon board.
Cabinet work.
Placed upon a board.
Medicines.
362
THE THEORY OF THE SCHOOL.
* Names of plants used for medicines written upon
board.
c. Obtain and place upon board the names of the
parts of the plants used as food, building material, art
and manufacturing material, medicines, etc.; e. g., leaves,
bark, sap, seed, stalk, trunk, root, etc.
d. On the basis of the part used, re-classify the
vegetable productions; as, all plants the leaves of which
are used, etc.
e. Classify vegetable productions according to re-
gions ; first, by lines, second, by coloring on map of the
earth as a whole, or on maps of the continents.
The representation by lines would appear somewhat
as follows :
n |P
Trop.
Trop
Can.
8|P
THE THEORY OP THE SCHOOL.
363
N IP
y^ Berries and Roots, ^v
Arc./ \
vC.
/ Rye. Barley, Potatoes.
\
/ Wheat, Oats, Potatoes.
\
/ Maize. 8weet Potatoes. Sugar.
\
Trop./
/ Sugar, Coffee, Tea, Maize, Rice.
\
Can.
E-
\
Rice. Manioc, Yams, Bananas, Bread-fruit.
Trop.\
Sweet Potatoes, Rice, Sugar.
Cap.
y
\ Maize, Wheat, Oats, etc.
\ (introduced)
* ».*\
/C.
\^^ Berries and Roots. y^
S|P
f. Consider the vegetation by zones, as follows: —
The Arctic Zone is the zone of mosses and stunted
trees. The plants are mosses, lichens, sedges, ferns and
birches.
The Temperate Zone is divided into three plant belts :
In its colder portion are found cone-bearing trees, princi-
pally pine, fir, and spruce. Cranberries, raspberries and
email strawberries also occur. The food plants of this
region are oats, barley, rye, potatoes and turnips.
In the moderate portion^ leaf-shedding or decidiuma trees
abound ; such as oaks, elms, beeches, walnuts, and chest-
nuts. The food plants are wheat, corn, barley, onions,
carrotfi, cabbage, etc.
364 THE THEORY OF THE SCHOOL.
In the warmer portion the trees are Evergreens, such as
myrtles, laurels, mulberry, olive, etc. The food plants
are the fig, orange, lemon, the vine, tea, rice, etc.
Cotton also belongs to this zone.
The Tropical Zone is the zone of palms and bananas.
Tree-ferns also abound. The food-plants are the date-
palm, sago-palm and cocoa-palm, and the bread-fruit.
g. Consider vegetation by continents as follows : —
North America is the continent of flowering trees, the
most striking being the tulip tree and the magnolia.
South America has palms, bananas, tree-ferns and fig-
trees.
Asia is the home of fruit trees. The peach, apricot,
fig, olive, date, mulberry and spice trees grow there.
Vines, melons, cucumbers, gums, balsams, resins and
the tea-plant are also among the products of this conti-
nent.
Europe has the same plants as Asia in the same lati-
tudes.
Africa has in the north, palms ; in the south, very
large heaths.
Australia is the home of myrtles, acacias and gum-
trees.
MINERALS.
1. Means oj original investigation, same as under
Vegetation.
2. Means of review,
a. and b., same as a. and b. under means of re-
view for Vegetation.
THE THEORY OF THE SCHOOL.
365
c. Represent prominent mineral regions by col-
oring on the map of the earth as a whole, or on maps of
the continents.
ANIMALS.
1. Means of original investigation, same as under
Vegetation.
2, Means of review.
a., b. and c. Work similar to a., b. and c. under
means of review for Vegetation.
d. Classify animals according to zone regions, as
follows : —
N|P
Trop
£
Trop.
Arc.
Moose.Deer, White Bear, Se»l.
0.
Wolf, Fox, Grizzly Bear, Chamois, Eagle
Yak, Bison, Turkey, Beaver, Puma, Bear,
Camel, Ostrich, Flamingo, Buffalo, Zebra.
I Can.
Lion, Giraffe, Elephant, Tiger, Boa.
IE
Gorilla, Hippopotamus Rhinoceros.
White Bear, Seal.
TiT
1. Means of original investigation, same as under
Vegetation.
2. Means of Review.
Same as c. under Minerals.
366 THE THEORY OF THE SCHOOL.
NATURAL OR TRADE CITIES.
1. Means of original investigation^ same as under
Vegetation.
2. Means of review.
Represent on the map of the earth as a whole,
on maps of continents, or countries, (as the various cities
may require) in the same color, each city considered and
the regions with which it is most closely associated in
business, together with the routes used between them.
RELIGION.
1. Means of original investigation.
a. Same as under Vegetation, in so far as it will
apply.
b. By diagram, thus :
Confucianism,
Braminism,
Buddhism,
Zendavesta,
Judaism,
Islam,
Egyptian,
Greek,
Roman,
Scadinavian.
(1.) Determine the main characteristics of each.
(2.) Decide upon the characteristic, or charac-
teristics, common to each and the Christian Religion.
2. Means of Review — Coloring upon the map.
QOVERNMENT.
1. Means of original investigation,
a. Same as a. under Religion.
Christian — Catholic.
THE THEORY OF THE SCHOOL. 367
b. By diagram, thus :
Patriarchism,
Theocracy,
Oligarchy,
Monarchy. {Ab^^^te,
Aristocracy,
Democracy.
Democratic Republic.
(1.) Determine the main characteristics of each.
(2.) Decide upon the characteristic, or charac-
teristics, that are common to each and the democratic
republic.
2. Means of review — Coloring upon the map.
EDUCATION.
As usually presented in geographies.
BOOKS FOR TEACHERS.
Ocean Wonders, by Damon ; The Little Merchants, by Miss
Edgeworth ; Modern Egyptians, by Lane ; Lands of the Saracen,
Bayard Taylor ; Heart of Africa, by Schweinfurth ; Livingston's
South Africa ; Stanley's Across the Dark Continent, and Congo;
Journey in Brazil, by Agassiz ; Arctic Explorations, by Kane ;
The Pampas and Andes, by Bishop ; Overland Through Asia,
by Knox ; Northern Travel, by Taylor.
The Childhood of Religions.
The Childhood of the Earth. (Lovel Library.)
Humboldt's Cosmos. (Bohn Library.)
Ritter's Life.
Le Conte's Geology. (Read First Part.)
Geological Story Briefly Told.
Last chapter of Conservation of Energy — International
Scientific Series.
Guthrie's First Book of Knowledge.
Oriental Religions. Caird.
Age of Fable. Bulfinch.
THE THEORY OF THE SCHOOL.
BOOKS FOR PUPILS.
Up the Amazon.
Zig Zag Journeys.
Children's Fairy Geography.
8;jr^Cy^li;jS.}Le«*Shepard: Boston.
SIXTH YEAR,
The work of the sixth year consists of two phases : —
Political geography^ extending over a period of about
five months.
Industrial geography occupying about the same length
of time.
POLITICAL GEOGRAPHY.
Political geography is not really geography^ but his-
tory. It has generally been treated as if it were almost
the 'all in all' of the subject. The first five months of
the sixth year should be devoted to this branch of the
subject, in order to give a general and cursory view of
the political divisions. To secure that the inter-rela-
tion of geography and history shall render the great-
est mutual assistance, the order of study should, proba-
bly, be as follows : —
1. The countries of Asia.
2. The countries of Africa.
3. The countries of Europe.
4. The countries of North America.
5. The countries of South America.
6. The divisions of Australia.
The scope of study may be included under three
heads :
r) •*• f Absolute,
a. Position. '
'i
Relative.
THE THEORY OF THE SCHOOL. 369
b. Aspect.
c. The inhabitants ; in particular, their industrial
character.
A8PE0T.
The first object in describing the aspect of a political
division, is to distinguish its ^reat natural divisions, i.e.,
to give its general plan. These are of four principal
kinds : — Mountain region, slope, river-basin, plain or
plateau.
These should be described as they would actually
appear' to the eye. The teacher must take one natural
division at a time, and give a bird's-eye view of it; this
implies that the river shall be noticed in connection
with the mountain from which and the plain thrdugh
which it flows, and that the surface shall be described
as generally hilly or flat, pastoral or agricultural, fertile
or barren.
A country may have mountain ranges and large
rivers ; it is not on the possession of these simply, that
its aspect depends, but on the manner in which they
are connected. If the mountains, plains, rivers, etc., be
separated, and each kind studied by itself, the idea of
natural division is lost sight of.
Towns or cities should be considered under three
heads : — river towns, sea-coast towns and inland towns.
These should be studied under position, site, size, ap-
pearance, historical and industrial facts.
OMAIMOTIII OF THI PtOrtt.
In geography, national character should be stated as
fact, and traced to its causes only in those cases where
the connection is obvious.
25
370 THE THEORY OF THE SCHOOL.
Examples : —
Mountain. — Freedom and independence.
Plain. — Steadiness and dullness.
Rigors of the North. — Stunted growth of body and
mind. Etc.
The great and important aspect of national character
which is properly embraced in the study of geography
is the industrial, as being directly influenced by the
productions of the soil.
CHARACTERISTICS OF INSTRUCTION.
Under characteristics of instruction are included de-
scription according to the order and unity of nature,
questioning apart from the map, study in the light of
the idea of contrast, use of newspaper, molding, map-
construction, coloring, use of text, historical geography
and incidental geography.
- MAP CONSTRUCTION.
For presenting position and aspect, there is, after bird's-
eye views and molding, no other mode so effectual as is
map construction. The map of the continent should be
first constructed as a basis for the map of the political
divisions. The map to be constructed should not be com-
pleted in a single effort. It should be constructed in the
presence of and by the aid of the pupils. It should grow
with their advancing knowledge of the country, 'and
should represent no more at any time, than they know of
it ; otherwise, the exercise becomes purely a mechanical
act of copying, and fails of its object. One division at a
time should be filled in with mountain, river and town ;
then another and another, till the whole country appears
THE THEORY OF THE SCHOOL. 371
in the representation; the progress of the map being
kept in strict accordance with the progress of instruction.
Finally, the pupils should present, on paper, carefully
prepared maps of the most important countries.
08E OF TEXT.
The text is to be used for certain kinds of facts ; but
as a rule, the text should be used to confirm and supple-
ment the conclusions drawn from the other means. So
far from being looked upon as aids to books, books
should be considered as explanatory of these means.
HISTORICAL GEOGRAPHY.
From the close relation that exists between geography ]
and history, in geography there should be constant ref- !
erence to the historical associations of places, limited by ;
this principle ; — Historical facts are to be considered in the \
study of geography when the facts are so suited to the mental \
development of the pupils, that they can be led to perceive their '>
significance. ^
INCIDENTAL aEOQRAPHV.
In many of the lessons in school, other than the geog-
raphy lesson, there are allusions to places. These allu-
sions should be illustrated by oral statement, and then
by actual reference to the map. There are two reasons
for this : —
It is necessary for the full comprehension of the
lesson being studied.
It teaches the pupil to use his geographical know-
ledge for casual purposes, just as he will afterwards have
to use it in his business life.
372 THE THEORY OF THE SCHOOL.
(See Earth as Modified by Human Action, — Marsh ; Buckle's
History of Civilization in England ; Draper's Intellectual De-
velopment of Europe; Books of Travel,— G. Putnam & Son;
Bound About Rio; Strange Dwellings; Travels in Mexico;
Our Boys in India, and Our Boys in China.)
INDUSTRIAL GEOGRAPHY.
In this division, the United States are considered in
their business aspect. This involves —
1. That the country as a business whole, should be
cansidered in relation to the countries with which it has
important commercial relations.
2. That each of its important commercial cities
should be studied in connection with the places with
which it is closely related in business, instead of each
of these being considered separately, and the pupil
allowed to learn their relation incidentally.
3. That each of its most important manufacturing
cities should be presented in connection with the min-
eral and other districts upon which its importance de-
pends.
THE SPECIFIC LINES OF INVESTIGATION,
1. The manner and degree to which the people of
the United States sustain themselves.
2. The manner and degree to which they contribute
to the sustenance of others.
3. How they come to make the particular contri-
butions which they do.
4. The manner and degree to which the other
nations considered, contribute to the sustenance of the
people of the United States.
THE THEORY OP THE SCHOOL. 373
5. How they come to make the contributions which
they do.
The preliminary steps are : —
1. To construct a blackboard map of the earth as a
whole.
2. To place on that map, the United States and its
dependencies in a given color.
3. To represent in another color its chief business
cities in their business relations.
4. To represent in like manner on the same map
the countries that are most largely engaged in trade
with the United States.
THE STEPS IN THE WORK.
1. The study of the United States^ under : —
a. Actual position.
b. Relative position.
(1.) In relation to the other countries repre-
sented.
(2.) In relation to the direct rays of the sun.
(3.) In relation to the prevailing winds.
(4.) In relation to ocean currents.
c. Actual and relative size.
d. Aspect.
(1.) Mountain regions.
(2.) Slopes.
(3.) Plains.
(4.) River basins.
e. Natural productions.
(1.) Mineral.
(a.) Location of principal mineral regions,
(b.) Amount and value of mineral produc-
tion.
General rela-
tion of these
to business.
374 THE THEORY OF THE SCHOOL.
(2.) Vegetable.
(a.) and (b.) as in (1.)
3. Animal.
(a.) and (b.) as in (1.)
f. Manufactured productions.
(1.) Location of principal manufactories.
(2.) Reasons for such location.
(3.) Amount and value of manufactured pro-
ductions.
g. Means of communication.
(1.) Shipping.
(a.) Principal lines.
(b.) Number of miles.
(c.) Distinctive features of the trade.
(2.) Railroads.
(a.), (b.), (c), as in (1.)
(3.) Telegraph.
(a.) and (b.) as in (1.)
(4.) Telephone.
(a.), (b.), (c), as in (1.)
h. Inhabitants.
(1.) Number.
(2.) Races.
(3.) Number engaged in each of the principal
occupations.
(4.) National character and causes thereof.
(5.) Their form of government.
2. Less exhaustive study of the dq)endencies of the
United States under the same points.
3. Less exhaustive study of the other countries repre-
sented^ and their dependencies^ under the same points.
THE THEORY OF THE SCHOOL. 375
The instruction, as before indicated, should be char-
acterized by : —
a. Thorough description in the order of nature.
b. Questioning apart from the map.
c. Adherence to the principle of contrast.
d. Full and regular use of newspapers.
One way of employing the newpaper to advantage is
to take some paper like the N. Y. Tribune, Herald,
Times, etc., which advertises the departure and arrival
of shipping, and have the pupils trace the course of the
vessel, explaining why such course is taken.
(See newspapers and periodicals; Tribune Almanac, and
others of like character ; Reports of Heads of the Departments
of the Government ; Manual of Commerce, by S. W. Browne ;
Natural Resources of the U. S„ by Patton ; A Hand-Book to the
Industries of the British Isles and the U. S., by Bevan ; Com-
mercial Products of the Sea, by Simmonds; The Geography of
the Oceans, (containing tables of commerce) by J. F. Williams ;
The Statesman's Year Book, Statistical and Historical Annual
of the States of the Civilized World, Macmillan & Co.) •
METHOD IN U. 8. HISTORY.
Practical Teacfur.— "To begin the Study of U. S. History, mold a map
Of Charleston and Boston, showing Bunker Hill, Breed's Hill, ships in the
harbor ; throw up a redoubt on Breed's Hill. Mark the line of the stone and
rail fence. Draw a map showing Boston, Charleston, Dorchester Heights,
Cambridge, the British quarters, the American encampment. Make the
scene as real as poBsible. Who are these men in the redoubt ? How are they
dressed? Tell me about their equipments? What kind of guns have they ?
How are these guns fired ? Did you ever see such a gun ? Describe the sol-
diers' ammunition. How do they carry bullets? How were the bullets
made? How do they carry powder? How do they load their guns? Where
376 THE THEORY OF THE SCHOOL.
did these men come from? Draw a map of the places in which they live.
In what kind of houaes do they live ? Where do they work ? Draw one of
their houses? Describe the inside of the house ? What do they learn? Of
what religion are they? How did they get here? Why did they come?
Have they good reasons for coming? What are they? Who are those sol-
diers landing on the shore? How are they dressed? How do they march ?
Who leads them? Where do they live? Why are they here? Who sent
them? Why? Who are leading the farmers ? Who is Prescott ? Putnam?
Warren, ? Stark ? See the Americans as they hold their guns steadily over
the breastworks until the British come within eight rods. Is it not a terrible
thing to kill men? Are the Americans right in firing? IVhat if they had
run? What excellent reasons have they for running? What gave them
courage? Tell all about the battle. Who commanded the Americans?
Who won ? Why do the Americans celebrate the day as if it were a
victory ?
The questions suggest the line of study. Have pupils find the answei^
by reading, questioning their parents and friends, and by pictures or relics.
Take time, let the investigation cover weeks if you can keep up the in-
terest. First lead your pupils to live upon the scene.
Objector—" But we haven't the time to spend on Bunker Hill. What of
the examination ? "
Practical Teacher— "The examination? Remain on Bunker Hill so
long that from the height your pupils can see with clear vision the past and
that which led to that glorious morning— and what those brave acts did for
mankind— and let the examination take care of itself. It will."
— F. W. Parker's Practical Teacher.
WHAT HISTORY IS. \
WHAT U. S. HISTORY IS, i
\
i
THE AIM IN TEACHING HISTORY. |
THE AIM IN TEACHING U. S. HISTORY. 1
\
THE SYSTEM OF HISTORY. «
THE SYSTEM OF U. S. HISTORY. "^
A
THE MENTAL POWERS INVOLVED AND TRAINED. !
BIOGRAPHY. I
Biography is studied incidentally, in connection with j
devotional, general, reading and other lessons ; and also ]
THE THEORY OF THE SCHOOL. 377
in the consideration of the third individual — the na-
tion ;^a8, in connection with the Revolution, Washing-
ton ; with the Mexican War, Scott and Taylor ; with
the administrations, Adams, Jefierson, etc.; with the
Rebellion, Grant, Thomas, etc.
THE STUDY OF HOMES.
1. In the Fourth year, after having completed the
structure of North America, in geography, the study of
the Aborigines in their homeSj is entered upon. The
premises of a typical home or village would, with mold-
ing sand and building material, be represented by the
pupils. They would make the construction of the
miniature houses as real as possible. The people would
then be studied in their homes, as to what their work
is; what they wear, and how they obtain it; what they
eat, and how they obtain it; their furniture; their
weapons; their education; how they are governed;
their strongest beliefs. The pupils are to study about
them from various sources, and to live with them in imag-
ination, until they obtain something of an insight into
their genius and spirit, as a community.
2. In the Fifth year the pupils are to study the
Spanish and the French, of all grades, in their homes.
3. The work of the Sixth year, is to endeavor to
lead the pupils to comprehend the spirit and influence
of typical Dutch and English homes of different grades.
4. The first five months of the Seventh year are to
be devoted to the study of the colonists from these four
nations, in their new homes.
378 THE THEORY OF THE SCHOOL.
The pupil is to study the homes as indicated in the differ'
^nt years, in order to come into a comprehension of the spirit
of their lives. ^^All true history centers around homes. There
are the secret springs of action.'''' Who were the ^Embat-
tled farmers?' What did they eat? What did they
wear? What did they study ? What did they believe?
How came they in those homes ? Who were their ances-
tors ? Describe a New England home. Compare it with
an English home." The homes of the Spanish, French,
Dutch, English and Colonists, having been made real to
the pupils, they are prepared to commence, about the
middle of the seventh year, the study of the national
individual, with genuine and enduring interest.
(See Letters from Spain — Bryant; Outre Mer— Longfellow ;
Old Streets and Houses of England— Scribner, Sept., 1877 ; The
Saxons in England— Kern ble ; Notes on England— Taine ; Old
English History— Freeman ; Our Old Home— Hawthorne ;
Stories of Old Dominion — Cook ; The Siege of Boston— Froth-
ingham ; A Short History of the English People— Green ;
Child's History of England— Dickens ; Pioneers in the Settle-
ment of America— Crafts ; The Home of Columbus— Harper,
Dec, 1876 ; The Knickerbockers of New York Two Centuries
Ago— Harper, Dec, 1876 ; "The Good Old Times" in Plymouth
—Harper, Jan., 1877 ; The Romance of the Hudson— Harper,
April, May and June, 1876 ; Old Philadelphia— Harper, May,
1876 ; Spanish Sketches— Scribner, Dec, 1875 ; History of France
—Mrs. Markham ; see Century for July, 1885.)
STUDY OF THE NATION.
AS TO ITS INNER LIFE.
PRINCIPLES.
1. Those that pertain to history in general :
a. A nation being sovereign, has, per consequence,
a moral purpose.
b. History may be viewed as the biography of
THE THEORY OF THE SCHOOL. 379
commonwealths; it is therefore subjective and objectivey
i: e., it deals with principles in their development and
with outward events.
c. It concerns itself with deeds as the manifesta-
tion of the development of rational free-will in a
people.
d. Being the investigation of development, it is
composed of epochs.
e. The epochs of the development of a nation
should be determined by those events that are peculiar
to it.
f. The spirit and action in any epoch should be
studied in the work of a writer of that epoch, as well as
in the work of a writer of the present epoch.
g. The wars of a nation, are in general, its subordi-
nate events.
h. The purpose of history is: (1.) To show
what real history is. (2.) To create an interest in his-
tory. (3.) To acquaint the pupils with a method of in-
vestigation. (4.) To so discipline the judgment that
it shall be able to apply the lessons of the past to the
present. (5.) To cause the pupils to love and honor all
that is noble in their country's progress.
2. Those that pertain to the American people as a
distinctive political community. —
Singly :—
a. Government by the people, for the people, and
of the people.
b. The supremacy of the civil over the military
power.
c. Equal laws for the common good.
THE THEORY OF THE SCHOOL.
In opposing pairs : —
a. (1.) The absolute authority of the community
in religious affairs.
(2.) The absolute authority of conscience in re-
ligious affairs.
b. (1.) The union of church and state with
church supreme.
(2.) The separation of church and state.
c. (1.) Suffrage and office based on church mem-
bership.
(2.) Suffrage and office based on citizenship.
d. (1.) The supremacy of the colony or state in
a final appeal.
(2.) The supremacy of the central government
in a final appeal.
e. (1.) The central government is endowed with
only those powers expressly delegated to it in the Con-
stitution, all others being reserved to the states, — the
Strict Constructionist view.
(2.) The central government is endowed with
all powers of acting for the general welfare that are not
denied to it in the Constitution — the Liberal Construc-
tionist view.
The triumph of this principle is seen in the acknowledge-
ment by all parties that the national government is endowed
with the power of making internal improvements, of abolish-
ing slavery, of coercing a rebellious state, of conferring civil
rights upon the freedmen ; of laying protective duties ; and of
organizing a national banking system.
f. (1.) Freedom of speech and of the press.
(2.) Authority of the government in regard to
these.
THE THEORY OF THE SCHOOL. 381
g. (1.) Right to peaceably assemble and petition
for redress of grievances and right to carry arms.
(2.) Authority of the government in regard to
these.
It is obvious that these indicate the principles that have ob-
tained not in any single stage of our national progress, but in
its successive epochs.
3. Those that pertain to the mind in acquisition ;
a. In a series of events the mind requires a general
plan.
• b. All education is based upon actual experience.
c. The child is most interested in that which
appeals to his experience.
d. Interest is the basis of attention ; attention of
memory, and memory of permanency of acquisition.
e. The memory may act through judgment.
f. The exercise of the judgment begins early, and
continues throughout life.
g. The natural procedure is from the known to
the related unknown.
h. The imagination creates no new material ; it
creates ideala.
i. The mind has certain innate principles of asso-
ciation, in accordance with which it acquires.
EPOCHS.
AMOurri RiLioioua mccnmncv.
The compact of the May Flower in 1620 announced
the birth of constitutional liberty. This was the dawn
of that light which now sends forth its full beams from
institutions based on " equal laws " for " the common
382 THE THEORY OF THE SCHOOL.
good." This was the beginning of the primal epoch in
our history — the epoch of absolute religious ascendency.
Twenty-three years later, the epoch had its close in an
event indicating no small progress in political science.
The Union of the New England Colonies, " Protection
against the Dutch, French and Indians and the liberties
of the gospel in purity and peace" were its objects. To
this significant event may be traced four notable things
— two provisions of the present Constitution, a principle
which was later the occasion of a long and bitter strug-
gle, — viz., ultimate colonial supremacy — and the glorious
hope of a new and better union ; for it was provided in
the plan of union that fugitive servants and criminals
should be delivered up ; that judgments of courts of law
and probates of wills in each colony should have full
faith and credit in all others, and that to each colony
should be reserved its respective local jurisdiction — so
old is the question of State Rights.
The principles of this momentous epoch were — the
supremacy of the colony in local affairs ; the absolute
authority of the community in religious affairs ; a union
of church and state with church supreme, and equal
laws for the common good,
DECLINE OF ABSOLUTE RELIQIOUS ASCENDENCY.
In the union of 1643, only church members were the
free-men or electors, showing that the religious element
was still in the ascendency, as at the beginning ; but the
nation was then about entering on a new epoch — the
decline of absolute religious ascendency. The close
of this long epoch is fittingly marked in 1754 by the
THE THEORY OF THE SCHOOL. 383
memorable Albany Plan of Union, and its rejection ; in
which plan was the first official suggestion of what grew,
afterward, to be our present Constitution. This union
was significant in that it was a plan of permanent union.
Brancroft says — (see vol. i v., p. 123): "The constitu-
tion was a compromise between the prerogative and
popular power. The king was to name and support a
governor-general, who should have a negative on all
laws ; the people of the colonies, through the legislatures,
were to elect triennially a grand council, which alone
could originate bills. Each colony was to send a num-
ber of members in proportion to its contributions, yet
not less than two or more than seven. The governor-
general was to nominate military officers, subject to the
advice of the council, which in tnrn. was to nominate
all civil officers. No money was to be issued but by
their joint order. Each colony was to retain its domestic
constitution, the federal government was to regulate all
relations of peace and war with the Indians, affairs of
trade, and purchases of lands not within the bounds of
particular colonies ; to establish, organize and tempo-
rarily to govern new settlements, to raise soldiers, and
equip vessels of force on the seas, rivers or lakes; to make
laws, and to levy just and equal taxes. The grand coun-
cil were to meet once a year, to choose their own speaker,
and neither to be dissolved or prorogued, nor continue
sitting longer than six weeks at any one time, but by
their own consent."
There can be no stronger evidence of both religious
and political advance since the close of the previous
epoch, than the purely political nature of the constitu-
38;i THE THEORY OF THE SCHOOL.
tion, and the fact that it was rejected by the colonies as
giving too much power to the king.
The principles of state rights and equal laws for the
common good were still prevalent, while supremacy of
the community in religion and the union of church and
state, with church supreme, had given place to the prin-
ciples of the supremacy of conscience, and separation of
church and state.
JUDICIAL STRUOaLE.
The nation was now entering upon an epoch of fierce
contention for the purity of its judiciary^ the central princi-
ple being that tenure of office in the judgeship should
be based upon good behavior. This was in 1765
merged into the ever-memorable epoch of agitation for
legislative power in financial affairs. The condition of
the public mind at this time was shown with peculiar
force by that wonderful union of the colonies in Congress,
in October, 1765, which determined to ground American
liberties on natural justice, abstract truth and universal
reason. It was resolved that, " We should stand upon
the broad common ground of those natural rights that
we all feel and know as men and as descendents of
Englishmen. We should wish such charters as may
not ensnare us at the last, by drawing different colonies
to act differently in this great cause. Whenever this is
the case, all will be over with the whole. There ought
to be no New England man, no New Yorker known on
the continent, but all of us Americans." These views
prevailed ; and in the proceedings of the Congress the
argument for American liberty from royal grants was
THE THEORY OF THE SCHOOL. 385
avoided. This was the first great step toward independ-
ence. During this epoch the principlesof the previous
epoch — the supremacy of the colony in local aJBfairs;
equal laws for the common good; supremacy of con-
science ; and separation of church and state — were man-
ifest, though they were thrust into the background by
that of the appointment of judges during good befiavior.
LCOISLATIVI AOITATION.
America was now entering upon its great epoch of
agitation for legislative power ^ which, so rapid was the
development, assumed in the brief period between
1766 and 1776, the three distinct phases of "no taxa-
tion without representation," " no legislation without
representation," "no legislation.*' It needed but the
single step — no political connection — and America's
great and glorious struggle would be complete. This
great step was consummated on the ever memorable
second of July, 1776, when twelve of the thirteen colo-
nies, " without one dissenting voice," resolved: "That
these United Colonies are, and of right ought to be, free
and independent states ; that they are absolved from all
allegiance to the British crown, and that all political
connection between them and the state of Great Britain
is and ought to be, totally dissolved." " The greatest ques-
tion," wrote John Adams, "was decided, which ever was
debated in America; and a greater, perhaps, never was 'nor
never will be decided among men. When I look back to
1761, and run through the series of political events, the
chain of causes and effects, I am surprised at the sudden-
ness as well as the greatness of this revolution. Britain
20
386 THE THEORY OF THE SCHOOL.
has been filled with folly and America with wisdom. It is
the will of Heaven that the two countries should be sun-
dered forever. * * * * ^ * The second day of July,
1776, will be the most memorable epoch in the history of
America, to be celebrated by succeeding generations as
the great anniversary festival, commemorated as the day
of deliverance by solemn acts of devotion to God
Almighty from one end of the continent to the other from
this time forward forevermore."
In this epoch the same great principles that pertained
to the preceding one were cherished, but the overshad-
owing one was that of independence.
CONSTRUCTION.
Independence having been declared, America had
thrust upon her the critical epoch of construction, ex-
tending from 1776 to the formation of the present Con-
stitution in 1787. This was pre-eminently an epoch of
compromise. Its principles were the same as those
of the epoch which ended with the Declaration of
Independence. But " two that had, since 1643, been
contending principles — State Rights and Centraliza-
tion — stood. out in this epoch in still more stub-
born antagonism ; and two others — Slave Labor and
Free Labor — entered the lists in that irrepressible con-
flict.
TRIAL.
With the formation of the Constitution began the
great tentative or test epoch of the Union. It was the
most extraordinary in its results. It marked the rise of
parties and party spirit. The principles of the people,
THE THEORY OF THE SCHOOL. 387
as a whole, were as before — equal laws for the common
good ; separation of church and state ; the absolute
authority of conscience. Freedom of speech and of
the press also became the definitely expressed princi-
ples of all parties in this epoch. But these did not
furnish the contending principles, the solution of whose
conflict marks the close of this epoch. There were
arrayed upon the one side these ideas — the absolute
sovereignty of the state in an ultimate appeal ; the strict
construction of the Constitution ; the relegation of the
status of slavery to the state and to the territory. Upon
the other side were the opposing ideas of the limited
authority of the state ; the sovereignty of the central
government in the limits of the Constitution; the lib-
eral constructfon of the Constitution, authorizing inter-
nal improvements by the general government, a general
tariff and kindred means ; state authority over slavery
in the states, but national authority over it in the ter-
ritories. This last appeared later as national authority
over the subject of slavery, and finally as no slavery.
This crucial epoch ended in 1865, in the establish-
ment of the principles of free labor, limited state
authority and a liberal construction of the Constitution.
So ended the conflict that began with the Union of the
New England Colonies in 1643. Such are the princi-
ples of to-day, to which are added, of course, those which
were stated ae principles common to all parties in the
previous epoch.
MfTHOO
Those principles that mark and characterize each
epoch, form its inner life. In each epoch they form the
388 THE THEORY OF THE SCHOOL.
true ground for the interpretation of the outer life. In
the light of principles only, can the pupil be led to a
clear understanding of the events, laws, charters, con-
ventions and petitions of the early epochs ; and the great
questions of territorial organization, tariff, national
bank, internal improvements and others of the later
epochs.
The true method in history will seize upon these prin-
ciples that give character to the different epochs and hold
them aloft to give light and life to all outward events.
It consists of two essential steps. According to one
phase, in the first place, the religious, political and social
aspects of the present should be definitely set forth, in-
cluding outward manifestations and principles ; and in
the second place the religious, political and social prin-
ciples of the first epoch in U: S. history should be pre-
sented as a set of principles animating the people of
that epoch; and the events of that epoch should be
viewed as manifestations of those principles. Thus,
epoch by epoch, the pupils are to trace those princi-
ples, in their collisions, changes, and transfusions, con-
sidering events in the light of them, until they are
merged into the principles of the present.
In accordance with the other phase, there should be
presented in the beginning, the events or manifesta-
tions of any one nature as seen in the present and
the spirit or principle which they embody should
be determined; e. ^r., the explorations or expeditions of
discovery of this age, as those of De Long, Stanley, etc.,
should be discussed, and then the principle or spirit
animating them made clear; — and as a second step, the
THE THEORY OF THE SCHOOL.
principles or spirit of discovery preceding the first
epoch of U. S. history should be set forth. These
principles should be traced in a continuous course with
all their accompanying manifestations until they are
merged into the present age.
The events or manifestations of another nature, e. g.,
settlements, in the present and their underlying prin-
ciples or spirit should be taught, with their accom-
panying results. This topic should then be pursued
from the beginning, in all its phases down to the present.
Thus, one by one, the principles of the present, as the
religious principle ; free trade and protection ; state
rights and centralization, etc., should be considered :
1. In their present aspect.
2. In their origin,
3. In their course and manifestations from the be-
ginning to the present.
The first phase of this double method is the appro-
priate one in the original investigation of history; the
second in its review. The review may also be conduct-
ed by means of the categories, (page 243). Illustrate
the manner in which the categories may be employed,
by considering the Battle of Bunker's Hill.
(See Cyclopedia of Education ; Hildredth's History of the U.
8.; Lectures on Modern History— Dr. Arnold ; The Battle of
Long Island— Harper, Mar., 1876 ; The Fifteen Decisive Battles
— Creasy ; Some Unpublished Letters of Washington — Harper,
March, 1878 ; New York in the Revolution — Scribner, Jan. and
Feb., 1876; A Piece of Secret History— Scribner, Feb., 1876;
Camp Fires of the Revolution— Parley ; The Mohawk Valley
During the Revolution— Harper, July, 1877; General Stark and
390 THE THEORY OF THE SCHOOL.
the Battle of Bennington — Harper, Sept., 1877; The Campaign of
Burgoyne — Harper, Oct., 1877 ; Bancroft ; The Lost Cause —
Pollard ; The War Between the States — Stephens ; The Ameri-
can Conflict — Greely ; The Memoirs of W. T. Sherman, and The
Memoirs of U. S. Grant ; The Century's War Articles, 1885-86.)
AS TO ITS GOVERNMENT.
The study of this should commence with a general
examination of the different forms of government in the
world — Patriarchal ; Theocratic ; Monarchical, Absolute,
Limited, Hereditary, Elective ; Democratic and Repub-
lican — with historic examples.
The class should next enter upon an examination
of the government of the United States. Although such
analysis begins with the most complex and highly
organized government in the world, it finds the pupils
already prepared for the instruction, by having lived in
the country and entered into the spirit of the nation.
As it more intimately concerns them and their future,
their interest is readily awakened. And as it is con-
spicuous as a representative form of government, which
form is being more and more adopted and extended, the
knowledge thus acquired raises them to a position where
they can easily study and understand other govern-
ments, and the laws of civil government in general.
There is, besides, a certain connection between this gov-
ernment and that of England. A certain political evo-
lution brought it forth from a limited monarchy. The
teachings of the Commonwealth of Milton, Locke, Sid-
ney, Penn and others, united with the experience in
colonial and local government here, educated the people,
step by step, for a government of the people, by the
THE THEORY OF THE SCHOOL. 391
people, for the people. This connection — this evolution
— furnishes a very interesting and instructive opportu-
nity for studying the progress of government, through
English history, from savage despotism to the most
highly organized form of modern free government.
A brief examination of the settlement and early his-
tory of the United States, including, particularly, the
government of the Colonies, and their efforts towards
union for protection and common good, serves as an
introduction.
Advancing to the Declaration of Independence, the
Revolution and the Articles of Confederation, the class
study the first political organization ; and then proceed
to the Constitution itself. It enters as far as possible
into the rigorous necessity which forced each change in
the organic law. The pupils are to be led to study
with interest the terse and comprehensive clauses of
the preamble which set forth the exigencies which
produced the Constitution.
And here the study of the Constitution proper begins.
It is found to divide into three great branches. First,
the Legislative, or Law Making; second, the Judicial,
or Law Interpreting ; third, the Executive, or Law En-
forcing.
When the pupils have investigated each of these
branches in detail, they are ready to observe the delicate
checks and balances sustained between them, and the
mutual strength and support they furnish.
Then follow the prohibitions, limiting the powers of
the general government, — an enumeration of the acts
which the government cannot do, except in certain
392 THE THEORY OF THE SCHOOL.
emergencies : such as the suspension of the writ of
habeas corpus ; interference in inter-state commerce;
the appropriation and drawing of public money,
except as provided ; the creating of titles of nobility ;
the passing of bills of attainder, or ex post facto laws
and the restriction of civil and religious freedom ; i. e.,
no religious test shall be required as a qualification to
any office, neither shall any law be passed abridging the
freedom of speech or of the press ; and the right of the
people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed.
Then follow the rights of the states, such as repre-
sentation in the two houses of congress, privileges of
citizenship, elections, militia, federal protection, to-wit:
a guarantee of a republican form of government; and
freedom from foreign invasion and domestic violence.
Next, the subordination of states, their powers and
limitations. And finally, the several amendments of
the Constitution, and the events which produced them.
Occasion will be found at every step to refer to the
British Constitution, or to English history or English
literature, as well as to our own history and literature ;
because all these contributed to the Constitution, in its
inception, and some of them have thrown light upon it
since. The great judicial decisions also elucidate and
explain it, and must be in constant use in the class.
This knowledge of the general government furnishes
the basis for a thorough knowledge of the government
of the states, and renders it easy and simple, because
the general government is usually the model on which
they are fashioned.
THE THEORY OF THE SCHOOL. 393
The connection between the state government and
the administration of county and town affairs is so
close, that they are to be studied next. Great interest
may be awakened in a class, over these elementary or
primary organizations. It is a rich field in American
civil government.
Having reached this point the attention is turned to
a few principles of municipal law, e. g., the distinction
between common and statute law, civil rights, personal
security, liberty, private property, something of the law
of contracts, marriage, principal and agent, partnership,
sales, gifts, fraudulent transfers, bills of exchange, inter-
est, insurance, estates in real property^ deeds and mort-
gages, landlord and tenant, the distribution of property
after death by statute and by will, a little international
law, the relations of nations at war and at peace.
The class then study and describe the various offices
in the civil service, with their powers and duties, from
the chief magistrate to the justice of the peace; the
methods of courts of law, both in mesne and final pro-
cess; the methods and detail of law making, both
judge-made and statute law; the officers of court and
their duties. Here, as elsewhere, the interest may be
heightened by personal reminiscence, biographical inci-
dent, and by historic allusions to eminent persons, in
active official duty, both in the United States and other
countries. Thus the pupils have presented government
as a living, real thing. The greatest orator has said
that his power consisted in action; so government in
(iction in the hands of living or historic men, is taught.
394 THE THEORY OF THE SCHOOL.
Throughout this course of study, civil service reform
may and should be constantly inculcated. It is the
golden moment in which to teach that office is a sacred
public trust which is to seek the man ; that patriotism,
the public good first, ought of right to be the one grand
leading purpose of office holders ; that the man who
perverts a public trust to private uses, merits the con-
tempt of mankind, and deserves to mate with traitors ;
and that whoever neglects his duties in official station
to secure his own re-election, is of that class and quality.
So are those persons who trade, compromise and bartfer
their vote and public influence for selfish, personal ends,
whose votes are not on their convictions and conscience,
but guided by their probable eff'ect upon their own for-
tunes at the next election.
Walter Savage Landor has portrayed the supreme
peril of political life and ambition. He says : "When
Satan would have led our Savior into temptation,
he did not conduct Him where the looser pas-
sions were wandering; he did not conduct Him
amid flowers and herbage, where a fall would only have
been a soilure to our frail human nature ; no, he led
Him up to an exceedingly high mountain, and showed*
Him palaces and towers and treasures, knowing that it
was by these alone that he himself could have been so
utterly lost to rectitude and beatitude. Our Savior
spurned the temptation, and the greatest miracle was
accomplished. After which, even the father of lies never
ventured to dispute His divine nature."
What a beautiful model of the just statesman is given
for the instruction of American youth, by Daniel Web-
THE THEORY OF THE SCHOOL. 395
ster, in the character of Washington. He says : " In
the first place, all his measures were right in their intent.
He stated the whole basis of his own great character,
when he told the country, in the homely phrase of the
proverb, that ' honesty is the best policy.* One of the
most striking things ever said of him is that * he changed
mankind's ideas of political greatness.' To commanding
talents and success, the common elements of such great-
ness, he added a disregard of self, a spotlessness of motive,
a steady submissiorT to every public and private duty,
which threw far into the shade the whole crowd of vulgar
great. The object of his regard was the whole country.
No part of it was enough to fill his enlarged patriotism.
His love of glory — so far as that may be supposed to
have influenced him at all — spurned everything short
of general approbation. It would have been nothing to
him, that his partisans or his favorites outnumbered, or
outvoted, or outmanaged, or outclamored those of other
leaders. He had no favorites ; he rejected all partisan-
ship, and acting honestly, for the universal good, he
deserved what he so richly enjoyed — the universal love.
" His principle it was to act right, and to trust the
people for support ; his principle it was not to follow
the lead of sinister and selfish ends, nor to rely on the
little arts of party delusion to obtain public sanction for
such a course. Born for his country and for the world,
he did not give up to party what was meant for man-
kind. The consequence is, that his fame is as durable
as his principles, as lasting as truth and virtue them-
selves. While the hundreds whom party excitement
and temporary circumstances, and casual combinations
S96 THE THEORY OF THE SCHOOL.
have raised into transient notoriety, sink again like thin
bubbles, bursting and dissolving into the great ocean,
Washington's fame is like the rock which bounds that
ocean and at whose feet its billows are destined to break
harmlessly forever."
Another noble example is found in Aristides the Just,
contrasted with the selfish and time-serving Them-
istocles, related with classical beauty in Plutarch's lives.
With this foundation, students may go on to compar-
ative politics. They may seek in other governments,
first, the three great branches — Legislative, Judicial and
Executive. If they fail to find either branch, then they
may search for the department which holds that power.
Representative government, and its extension and
growth in the governments of the world, is full of inter-
est and instruction. These investigations ought to be
carried out in elaborate written essays, to give full and
permanent possession of the knowledge acquired.
Nothing will inspire greater respect for and confidence
in their own government, than this study. Admiration
of the wisdom, integrity and patriotism of the fathers,
will awaken and stimulate in their own bosoms, greater
patriotism.
A general survey of the whole subject, with lessons on
political evolution and sociology will furnish a suitable
conclusion to the foregoing instruction.
(See Webster and the Constitution— Harper, March, 1877 ;
State and Society in Washington — Harper, March, 1878 ; Our
Civil Service — Harper, July, 1877; Instruction in Political Sci-
ence — Augustine Jones. — The above, as to form of government,
has been, substantially, obtained from the last.)
THE THEORY OF THE SCHOOL. 397 J
METHOD IN LANGUAGE.
FIRST STAGE.
Word and separate sentence-making.
Ctorrection of oral errors.
l\
' Color,
Form,
Free oral expression of thought upon lessons in ■ Size,
1
Reading,
General Lessons, etc.
Copy work. (1) from board, (2) from book.
Thought prominent ; expression incidental.
Separate sentence-making.
Correction of oral and written errors. f Color,
Form,
Free oral expression of thought upon lessons in -I Size,
Copy work from board and book. [ Generaf Lessons, etc.
Dictation work in sentences.
Expression in written sentence or separate sentences of a thought obtained
from a sentence in reading book.
Thought prominent; expression incidental.
Sentence-making.
Correction of oral and written errors. f Color,
Form,
Free oral expression of thought upon lessons in < Size,
Reading,
Dictation work in sentences. I. GeneralLessons. etc.
Expression in separate written sentences of thoughts obtained from two
or three sentences in reading book.
The making of original separate sentences on position, qualities of ob-
jects, single actions, a leaf and leaves, a plant and plants, a fruit and
fruits, an animal and animals, a mineral and minerals, man and Ills
works, pictures, etc.
Thought prominent ; expression incidental.
All education consists in the development of thought
and expression. The thought must precede the expres-
sion. This principle has not been adhered to in language
work sufficiently.
398 THE THEORY OF THE SCHOOL.
The underlying principle that should be kept in nriind
during the entire language work, is that thought is prom-
inent, while expression is only incidental. In grammar
work, however, the expression is made prominent and
the thought explanatory ; hut power to think is the aim.
In the first two years of language the single expression
for a given idea is to be carefully and continually ob-
served ; but in the third year, while this is continued,
variety of expression is sought. If the teaching in these
years should consist in the training of expression without
regard to thought, the child's imitative powers alone are
cultivated, while his creative strength is allowed to re-
main dormant. This change from a single expression
for an idea to a variety of expressions for the same, should
be gradual, for *' Nature does nothing by leaps, but pro-
ceeds gradually and smoothly from the simple to the
complex." It is the nature of the mind in investigating to
learn, first particulars — soon it spontaneously observes simi-
larities — and then is naturally led to generalize and classify,
after which it names and gives definitions. If success is to be
attained in the work, this idea is to be ever held in mind
— that during the first three years' work, the sentences
are all to be clear, simple, separate sentences. Pupils
should, not he permitted to write connected sentences, until they
have Jormed the habit of good single sentences. In each year
there should be correction of oral and written errors
at the exact time that they are made. The teacher may
call attention to the error, or may have the pupils do so.
The one who made the error must then repeat the sen-
tence as he first gave it, and then correctly. In this cor-
rection, — when the error is made — the thought and not
THE THEORY OF THE SCHOOL. 399
the expression is uppermost in the mind ; but when the
attention is called to the correction of the error the ex-
pression then is specially noted. In the free oral expres-
sion of thought upon lessons in color, form, size, reading,
general lessons, etc., the ultimate end is training and a
knowledge of the object, shown in the thoughts express-
ed in regard to it. The object should be placed before
the child and he be permitted to see what he can, and
then tell in definite separate sentences what he sees.
Then by judicious questioning and devices he can be led
to see more. Thus he will become skilled to observe and
think, and at the same time be learning many useful
and important facts.
Only one particular should be presented at the begin-
ning, as that is Nature's method of procedure. That is,
one definite color, one form or size, etc., is to be taught.
Toward the close of the first year, copying words and
sentences from the board and also from the book is to
be begun. This will impress upon the mind uncon-
sciously the form or arrangement in general of the
elements of the sentence and the modifiers, the punctu-
ation, capitalization and other things to be noticed in a
good sentence. In copying work from the board the
script will be learned ; and the work is easier than if
taken from the book, since the sentences stand alone,
disconnected from others, with which they are connected
in the book. In the second year dictation work is begun.
In order that this may not be a leap from the preceding
year's work, it is connected with the first in that the
sentence is written as usual upon the board, time given
for its imprint on the mind, then erased and given orally.
400 THE THEORY OF THE SCHOOL.
This is continued for some time, when the writing on
the board is omitted and the sentences are merely dic-
tated and written from memory.
The written expression, by the pupil, of a thought
obtained from a sentence in the reading book, is a phase
of great value, on account of the power it gives both to
employ expression, and to interpret it.
This requires a short period of preparatory work in
which the pupil is to be led to give the thought
obtained from a sentence in the reading book, in
original oral sentences.
The nature of the work would be :
1. To have the pupils ponder carefully the sentence
in order to obtain all its contained or suggested thought.
2. To close the books and then express in original
oral sentences the thought or thoughts that the sentence
suggests to them.
Their work will at first, probably, exhibit two errors :
a. Their oral sentences will be entirely, or largely
the language of the book.
b. They will not set forth all the suggested
thought.
The first work of the teacher will therefore be to lead
them to express the suggested thoughts in language as
original as possible.
The second work, will be to lead them to see thoughts
that are suggested by the sentence which they did not
grasp.
The third work, will be to lead them to express all the
suggested thoughts in good separate original sentences.
THE THEORY OF THE SCHOOL. 401
This period of preparatory oral work is to be followed
by similar work in which the sentences given by the
pupils are to be written.
If the pupils are led to attempt to give in written
sentences the thought as obtained from a sentence or
sentences without a preparatory stage in which they are
taught to carefully gather all the elements of thought
that are suggested, express them orally, and then com-
pare both language and thought with that in the book,
the results will make manifest the general inability on
the part of pupils either to drink in at a glance the
thought of a sentence or to express in good English a
a thought that they possess.
1LLU8TBATI0N,
eECOND YEAR OHAOE.
(Average age of children 7^ years.)
Sentence. — Under a great tree in the woods, two hoys saw
a fine, large nut, and both ran to get it, (McGufifey's Sec-
ond Reader, page 44.)
With this sentence the pupils were required :
1. To ponder it carefully in order to comprehend
all its suggested thoughts.
2. To express on the slate in original sentences, the
thoughts suggested by the sentence in the book.
3. To copy the sentences from the slates upon
paper.
The following indicate the nature of the results :
27
402 THE THEORY OF THE SCHOOL.
(^NameJ) F ebruary ig 1886.
O ne day in the fall two brothers went out in
the forest and sow a fine wall-nut and both ran
after it.
o
February i g 1886
(^Name.)
O re day in winter when wallnuts were om
the ground two boys were at play and they
saw a nut and they all ran to find it .
F ebruary ig, 1886
i^Name.)
O nee in the fall when the nuts were ripening
two boys saw a fine nut and skiped to it
under a tree.
(^Name.) February, ig 1886.
Two boys went in the far est Ihey both saw a
fine nut and they went to try to get to the
place first. It was a wall - nut tree.
February ig
(^Name.)
T wo boys were out in the wods and thre was a
nut on the ground and it was in the fall.
They both ran after the nut.
THE THEORY OF THE SCHOOL. 403
February ig.i886 .
(Name.)
One summer day two boys were in the woody
they saw a 7tut a7td both ran to get it.
February ig 1886.
(^Name.)
In the fall there were two c hildren on the farm
and they saw a fine wall mit and they run
to get it.
o
(Name.) ig,i 8 8 6.
Under a big wall-nut tree two childern found a
big nice uut and they both tired to get it.
They went to the woods in the F all .
The work of the teacher, after the sentences have
been prepared, as above, is :
1. To lead the children to compare carefully the
thoughts suggested by the sentence with those as given
in each written exercise.
2. To compare as to points on the expression side.
Indicate all points that could be made with the pupils con-
coming the given exercises :
a. As to the thought.
b. As to the language.
404 THE THEORY OF THE SCHOOL.
THIRD YEAR GRADE.
(Time allowed for study of the sentences — ten minutes. Aver-
age of children 8 years.)
Sentences. — Squirrels build for themselves summer houses.
These are made of leaves, and sticks, and moss. They are
nice and cool for summer, but would never do for the winter
cold and snow. (McGuflfey's Second Reader, page 58,)
The requirements and conditions were the same for
these sentences as for the previous one. These pupils,
as those in the second grade, had been given no pre-
vious oral or written work of this nature.
The following are specimens of the work done :
The Squirrels.
Squirrels build themselves houses that are
made of leaves, and sticks, and moss. They
would do very nice for Summer but would never
do for Winter.
f [Name.)
The squirrels
Squirrels build them selver Summer houses,
thay build their houses out of sticks, and moss,
they are nice and cool for S ummer.but would
never do for the winter, coldund snow They find
an old tree that has o large cave in it and they
build themselves a house in it for the winter, they
build it of soft moss and sticks, they buildit
very nice and snug, and warm -
THE THEORY OF THE SCHOOL. 405
The S.quiels.
The Sqtcrrels build for themselvls houses, they
worm and sung they make them with soft moss
and sticks they are wise little people,
(^Name.)
The squirrels.
Squirrels build summer houses, T hey are
made of leaves and sticks, and moss. T hey are
very nice and cool for the summer. But they
would not do for the winter cold, snowy, and
grey. (^Name.)
o
The Squirrels.
The summer houses that squirrels make for
themselves are not nice for Winter, but are nice
and cool for summer, but would never keep out
the cold. The houses are made of slicks and
leaves, and moss.
(^Name.)
o
Patty and the squirrels.
6. Sguirels build houses themselves houses.
They nake the out of leaves and sticks and
moss. These are made. They are nice and
coot for summer, but never do for tlte cold
and snow.
(^Name.)
406 THE THEORY OF THE SCHOOL.
The Squirrels.
S quirrels builad for themselves summer
house. These are made of leaves, and sticks,
and moss, thar are nice and cool for Summer,
but for Winter it would never do.
{Name.)
o
'Patty And T he Squirrl
Suirrl tire in a hoses made with leares, and
stickcand mos s.
These hoses are nice and cool, but woud never do
for Winter
{Name.)
A Nice Home
Squrrls lives in a nice house for summer.
But it is not nice for winter.
S qurrels have two homes a summer homes and
a winter honne.
{Name.)
T he Squirrels
S qsuirrels build for them house.
T hey would do for. ^ B ut would
summer^ B ut winter.
{Name.)
THE THEORY OF THE SCHOOL. 407
The Sqttirrles.
Squirrles build houses in the summer they
teke leaves a7id stcilse and noss. Theg would,
do for summer but would nerve do for
winter cold and snow,
(^Name,)
Patie And The Squirrel
Squirrel live in a hollow oh tree in the
woold
There house is made out of Sticks and moss
Ne eat them sum time When they are
good and nice.
I like to play with squirrels that are tome,
(^Name.)
This was doubtless an average third year grade. These ex-
ercises indicate what as to the pupils' power:
1. To interpret the thought in reading?
2. To express their thoughts in good English ?
Set forth clearly the work that could be done with the class:
a. Upon the thought side.
b. In regard to the expression.
In the third year this kind of work becomes more
complex from the fact that several sentencen are to be
reproduced in the same manner. In this year variety
of expression for the same thought or idea is entered
upon. Also, the making of original separate sentences
upon given topics or objects is begun in semi- regular
lessons.
THE THEORY OF, THE SCHOOL.
SECOND STAGE.
Connected sentence-making, i.e., composition.
Correction of oral and written errors.
Variety of expression for | pronoun.
Connected sentence-making on natural objects, plants, fruits, animals,
minerals, tools and manufactured articles, geographical subjects,
pictures, actions, etc.
Expression in connected written sentences of thoughts obtained from a
paragraph in reading book
Variety of expression for a given idea or thought.
Connected sentence-making.
Correction of oral and written errors.
(Verb.
Variety of expression for -< Adverb.
(Adjective.
Connected sentence-making on natural objects, plants, fruits, animals,
minerals, tools and manufactured articles, geographical subjects,
pictures, actions, etc.
Expression in connected written sentences of thoughts obtained from
two or more paragraphs in reading book.
Variety of expression for a given idea or thought.
Connected sentence-making.
C/Orrection of oral and written errors.
Variety of expression for Phrase.
Connected sentence-making on natural objects, plants, fruits, animals,
minerals, tools and manufactured articles, geographical subjects,
pictures, actions, etc.
Expression in connected written sentences of the thoughts obtained from
three or more paragraphs in reading book.
Variety of expression for a given idea or thought.
Connected sentence-making. .
Correction of oral and written errors j
-, . , . ■ r i The Clause. ^
Variety of expression forj The Ellipsis. '>
Connected sentence-making on natural obiects, plants, fruits, animals, 1
minerals, tools and manufactured articles, geographical subjects, 1
pictures, actions, ete. \
Expression in connected written sentences of the thoughts obtained from i
a whole selection in reading book. \
Variety of expression for a given idea or thought.
THE THEORY OF THE SCHOOL. 409
The language work, which was incidental in the first
and second years, and semi-incidental in the third year,
becomes regular and formal in the fourth year.
The work throughout the period extending from the
fourth to the eight year, is to be based largely upon two
prevailing thoughts :
1. The fundamental ideas of grammar are:
a. Use.
6. Classification based upon use. For example,
the word mountain is classed as a noun, by reason of its
use in naming an object, but in the phrase — a mountain
stream, on the ground of its use in limiting the word
stream^ it is classed as an adjective. The idea of iLse is
the final appeal in all questions in grammar, and pro-
ficiency in this subject requires skill in determining the
exact use of expressions.
2. The fundamental idea of composition and rhe-
toric is appropriateriess. Thus, in the sentence, " The
monks yielded to the Pope; but John, defying the
Pontiff", drove the monks from the monks' abbeys,"
grammar does not question whether it is better to use
the word Pontiff instead of repeating the word Pope;
nor does it ask whether one should use the word them
instead of the second word monks ; neither does gram-
roar inquire as to the comparative merits of the words
monksi' and their^ as limiting the word abbeys. But all
these questions must be considered in composition and
rhetoric, for they deal with not only the grammatical
expression of thought, but especially with the com-
parative appropriateness of different grammatical ex-
pressions.
410 THE THEORY OF THE SCHOOL.
It is not to be forgotten that language as a subject of
school instruction, is, like all other subjects, a means
and not an end ; that it is taught, not for its own sake,
but for the sake of the mind considering it. It is an
instrument for mind training. The highest aim of lan-
guage work is to train the mind to think. The second aim
is to master language as an instrument, in order that
thought may be expressed and interpreted with accu-
racy and facility. A third design is to lay the foun-
dation for an intelligent study of grammar, composition,
and rhetoric, as succeeding subjects of study ; language
as here used being limited to elementary work, and not
including these subjects, which are of course, included
in the general term — language.
Language lessons, being fundamental to grammar,
composition and rhetoric, as indicated in the third pur-
pose, should be to a considerable extent determined by
the underlying ideas of those subjects, i. e., use and
appropriateness. These being the ideas, also, that pre-
dominantly pertain to language as an instrument of
thought, they are the guiding ones, considering language
work, as to its three-fold aim. The specific province of
language in the grades from the fourth to the eighth —
the period preceding text-book grammar — would, there-
fore, seem to be to thoroughly ground the pupil in :
1. The use of expressions.
2. Fullness and variety of expression, as a basis for
future classifications.
3. The power to weigh expressions as to appropri-
ateness.
It is evident from what has been given, that the gen-
THE THEORY OF THE SCHOOL. 411
eral process of work would involve in regard to each
point in language the substitution of an equivalent ex-
pression for a given expression.
Consider, for example, the sentence, "The monks
yielded to the Pope, but John defied the Pope."
The point in language that the child is to be led to
comprehend, is that the English language provides two
equivalent expressions for the word Pope as used in the.
second place, i. e. Pontiff and him. Indeed, two do not
at all exhaust the equivalent expressions for the term
given.
The various steps in the work, in dealing with the
point are :
1. To lead the pupils to determine the exact nature
and use of the expression given. (The word Pope in
the second case.)
2. To lead the pupils to make the substitution. As
.follows, if the point in language is the use of* the pro-
noun for the noun — '' The monks yielded to the Pope,
but John defied him." Thus, if the point should be
the use of a noun of equal extent for another noun —
" The monks yielded to the Pope, but John defied the
Pontiff." (Both points should not be taught at the same
stage, the one being under substitutions of the pronoun,
and the other of the noun. The terms noun and pro-
noun need not be used).
3. To lead the pupils to determine the exact nature
and use of the suVjstituted expression.
4. To have the pupils weigh accurately the two ex-
pressions — Pope and him; or Pope and Pontiff, by the
idea of appropriateness.
412 THE THEORY OF THE SCHOOL.
THE SERIES OF EXERCISES.
1. In the first exercise, the teacher explains, by-
means of a set of examples, a given substitution.
2. In the second exercise, the teacher tests the pupils,
by means of a second set of examples, upon the substi-
tution made in the first exercise.
3. In the third exercise, the pupils are required to
select from their text-books examples in which the same
substitution may be made, and to make the substitu-
tion.
4. In the fourth exercise, the pupils are required to
select from newspapers and literature in general, exam-
ples in which the same substitution may be made, and
to make the substitution.
5. The fifth exercise is three-fold in its nature : —
a. The preparation by the pupils of an original
exercise in writing.
b. The discussion of all the substitutions previ-
ously considered that may be made in the exercise.
c. The re- writing of the exercise, in which re- writ-
ing all substitutions that are demanded by appropriate-
ness or fitness are to be made.
The fifth exercise should be given from five to ten tinies dur-
ing the year. It involves : —
In the Fourth Year Grade, compositions, narrative in form,
and letter-writing.
In the Fifth Year Grade, compositions, descriptive in form,
and letter-writing.
In the Sixth and Seventh Year Grades, compositions, both nar-
rative and descriptive in form, biographical sketches and letter-
writing.
THE THEORY OF THE SCHOOL. 418
The substitutions presented in the outline for the various
grades are considered as suitable in difficulty to the develop-
ment of the pupils, but if careful work upon a given substitu-
tion proves it to be too difficult for the grade to which it is
assigned, it should be deferred until the pupils are better fitted
to deal with it.
The outline of illustrations is not to be considered as present-
ing all the forms of substitutions that the language affords, but
merely those that are most essential.
The examples that have been selected to illustrate the out-
line are not, in the main, so simple as those that should be pre-
sented to the pupils.
VAEIKTY OF EXPBB88ION.
ILLUmiATION8.
FOUMTH VtAK.
Suistitutums /or Ncun.
1. Noun.
Of equal extent.
He boasted of his feats and compared them to
the feeds of ancient heroes. Exploits.
Of greater extent.
He was extremely fond of coffee, and often
praised coffee. That beverage.
Of collective nouns for class nouns.
He welcomed his tenants. Tenantry.
Abstract nouns for class nouns.
Young people are rash.
Youth is rash.
2. Pronoun.
Personal.
An Englishman's house is an Ekglishman^a
castle. His.
414 THE THEORY OF THE SCHOOL. ]
Indefinite. ^
Strange sounds frighten a person. One. \
Relative. \
She walked by the side of her father; her i
father walked on in silence. Who. \
Demonstrative. j
Though he was a valiant soldier, he was not a j
valiant soldier alone. He was not this alone. j
Pronominal adjectives. \
Here are some cherries. You may have two
cherries. Two. '\
3. The Noun Phrase. ]
The better part of valor is discretion. Is to he dis- j
creet. j
4. The noun clause. ' I
England's wealth is well known. That England is \
wealthy, is well known. \
Substitutions for Pronoun. %
1. Reverse of substitutions for noun in so far as
they relate to pronouns. \
2. Noun phrase or Infinite. I
To do this is brave, but iJt is not wise. But to do j
this is not wise. I
3. Noun clause. ;
He declared that their leader was slain, but they ]
would not believe it. Would not believe that their leader \
was slain. i
Voice.
FIFTH YEAR.
Substitutions /or Verb,
Soldiers filled Newburg. Newburg was filled by
soldiers.
THE THEORY OF THE SCHOOL. 415
Substitutions /or Adverb.
1. Adverbial Phrase.
It has rained incessantly all the week.
It has rained without cessation all the week.
2. Adverbial clause.
I am contented here.
I am contented where I am.
Substitutions for Adjective.
1. Noun.
Possessive.
This was said with maternal pride. A mother'' 8
pride.
2. Adjective phrase.
This is a steel pen.
A pen of steel.
3. Participial phrase.
The public burdens are heavy. Burdens home
by the public.
4. Adjective clause.
He has powerful friends. Friends who are power-
ful.
SIXTH rlAR.
Suittitution* /or tho Phrase.
1. The Noun Phrase replaced by —
Nouns.
To be just is more important than to be generous.
Justice is more important than generosity.
Noun Clause.
To obey is their only safety.
That they should obey is their only safety.
416 THE THEORY OF THE SCHOOL.
2. The Adjective Phrase replaced by —
Adjectives.
The house of my uncle was destroyed. My nucleus
house was destroyed.
She wore a dress of bitter
She wore a blue dress.
Nouns.
In apposition.
Having shared in his disasters, were they not to
share in his triumphs ?
Sharers in his disasters, etc.
Used as an adjective.
This ring is of gold.
This is a gold ring.
Adjective Clauses.
The crime of Sunderland was never forgiven.
The crime which Sunderland committed was never
forgiven.
Adverbial Clauses.
The judges, holding their office by favor of the hing^
were obsequious.
As the judges held their office by favor of the king,
they were obsequious.
Co-ordinate expressions.
The island, being encircled by a coral reef was very
difficult of approach.
The island was encircled by a coral reef and was
very difficult of approach.
3. The Adverbial Phrase, replaced by —
Adverbs.
Rizzio was murdered in this room. Was mur-
dered here.
THE THEORY OF THE SCHOOL. 417
Adverbial Clauses.
The prince was found in the fiercest of the battle.
The prince was found where the battle was fiercest
Infinitives.
He was pleased on hearing of the decision.
He was pleased to hear of the decision.
Co-ordinate Expressions.
After a hard struggle^ he at length recovered.
He struggled hard and at length recovered.
SEVENTH YEAR.
SuistitutioHs /or the Cla'uie.
1. Noun Clause replaced by —
Nouns.
Thai you were weak was your excuse. Weakness
was your excuse.
Noun Phrases.
That one should be so afflicted is a great misfortune.
To he so afflicted is a great misfortune.
2. Adjective clause replaced by —
Adjectives.
A man who is diligent^ will succeed.
A diligent man will succeed.
Adjectives Phrases.
He was a man whose integrity was unquestioned.
He was a man of unquestioned integrity.
Co-ordinate Expressions.
His schemes, which were very ambitious^ were never
carried out. His ichemes were very ambitiouSf but were
never carried out.
418 THE THEORY OF THE SCHOOL.
3. The Adverbial Clause replaced by —
Adverbs.
I shall remain where I am.
I shall remain here.
Adverbial Phrases.
Coblentz stands where the Moselle joins the Rhine.
Coblentz stands at the junction of the Rhine and
Moselle.
Co-ordinate Expressions.
When she looked up, she saw it approaching.
She looked up and saw it approaching.
1. In Noun Positions.
After adjectives.
The future shall obliterate the past.
Future time, etc.
After possessive case.
I stopped at the grocer^ s. Store.
Pronouns as subjects of imperative verbs.
Spare my eyes !
Spare you my eyes !
Pronouns as subjects of verbs in other moods.
Thank you.
/thank you.
" To " of infinitive omitted.
Better be dead.
To be dead would be better.
Bid him go.
Bid him to go.
Object omitted.
Heat expands.
Heat expands substances.
THE THEORY OF THE SCHOOL. 419
2. In Predicate.
A ministering angel thou !
A ministering angel art thou !
3. In Adjective Modifiers.
The President resides in the White House.
The President of the United States^ etc.
4. In Adverbial Modifiers.
Preposition omitted.
He waited an hour.
He waited during (or for) an hour.
Noun omitted in adverbial phrases.
I have never seen him since. Since that time,
5. In noun Clauses.
"That" omitted.
I hope you will succeed.
I hope that you will succeed.
6. In Adjective clauses.
" That," as object, omitted.
Show me the passage you quoted.
Show me the passage that you quoted.
Preposition omitted.
There was hardly an hour that something did
not happen.
There was hardly an hour that something did
not happen in (or during).
Preposition and relative omitted.
The moment I saw it, I remembered it.
In the moment ai which I saw it, I remembered
it.
Antecedent omitted.
Whom the gods love die young.
Those whom the gods love, etc.
420 THE THEORY OF THE SCHOOL.
7. In Adverbial Clauses.
That is important if true.
That is important if it is true.
Speak as distinctly as you can.
As you can speak distinctly.
He is taller than I.
He is taller than I am tall
8. In Compound Sentences.
Of common elements.
He came yesterday and returned to-day. He
came yesterday and he returned to-day.
I take this ; you that. You take that.
Their welfare pleased him and their cares dis-
tressed.
Their welfare pleased him and their cares dis-
tressed him.
Of the conjunction.
Send out more horses; scour the country
round ; hang those that talk of fear.
Send out more horses and scour the country
round ; and hang those that talk of fear.
Of two or more common elements.
Queen Elizabeth, knew instinctively how far
she could go and what she could do.
Queen Elizabeth knew instinctively how far
she could go and Queen Elizabeth knew instinctively what
she could do.
i2
The structure of the sentence.
r ^ _
Correction of oral and written errors.
Expression in connected written sentences of the thought obtained
from a selection in the reading book.
The thought and its elements.
The sentence and its elements.
Parsing With {Tg|P-;-^Jp^e^ch.^^_^,,
Generalization, Definition and Classification.
THE THEORY OF THE SCHOOL. 421
The oral grammar stage may be considered under : —
Purpose.
Central Thought.
Scope.
General Method.
Order of Instruction.
1. The purpose is to train the pupil by giving him a
conception of the nature of the parts of speech and their
principal inflections.
2. The central thought is that grammar should be
presented as a body of results obtained from the obser-
vation of language, and not as a collection of rules exer-
cising an arbitrary and mysterious power over language
from without.
3. The scope includes : —
a. The thought and its elements.
b. The simple sentence and its elements.
c. The parts of speech.
d. The principal inflections.
e. Parsing.
4. The general method :
a. The method is to be oral and is to proceed
analytically, i. e., it is not to impart rules and apply
these as if language were the product of grammar, but
is to attain all results by the pupil's own induction upon
examples of expression submitted to him for examin-
ation.
b. The starting point is to be the thought and the
simple sentence, on the ground that the parts of speech
can be adequately illustrated only by reference to their
422 THE THEORY OF THE SCHOOL.
whole ; by their use in which, their nature may be deter-
mined.
c. The explanation of grammatical forms must be
based on an understanding of the meaning. The nature
of all classes of expressions must, therefore, be made
familiar to the pupil before their terms are used.
d. Throughout this stage, the language presented
for the pupil's observation should be mainly furnished
orally by the teacher and the pupils ; for the reason that
such illustrations are more familiar and interesting than
those drawn from books.
5. The order of instruction :
a. With parts of speech.
Observing the logical succession, the following order
of procedure may be suggested :
(1.) The presentation of sentences containing a
given part of speech.
(2.) Investigation of the nature and use of the
part of speech being considered.
(3.) Other examples of the same part of speech
furnished by the pupils.
(4.) The application of the name.
(5.) Additional examples furnished by the
pupils, together with the reason for their being such.
(6.) Construction of definition. *
(7.) Memorizing of definition.
b. With inflections.
These, as the parts of speech, may be best presented
through the sentence ; e. g. —
(1.) Number.
THE THEORY OF THE SCHOOL. 423
(a.) Present a series of sentences in pairs, each
pair containing a given verb and subject,, but dififering
in the number of the subjects.
(b.) Consideration of the use and form of the
words.
(c.) Additional examples given by teacher
and pupils.
(2.) Case. This may be presented in a similar
manner. It is well, however, to employ pronouns in
order to have the assistance of change of form in lead-
ing to a comprehension of the relation.
(3.) Tense. In explaining this, some such
order as the following may be observed :
(a.) An example involving the first person
may be given ; as, / write the word.
(b.) Obtain other examples in which the
same verb form is used ; as, with you, (sing.) we^ you^ (pi.)
they. Also examples in which the other form is used ;
as with he^ she and it.
The observation of these examples will fix the pre-
vailing identity and the single difference which mark
the present tense. In similar manner the other tenses
may be considered.
Founded on like observation of sentences the pupil
may be led, in dealing with the adjective and the ad-
verb, to see that they are not inflected for number, case,
etc., but only for comparison.
c. With parking.
An efficient instrument in grounding the pupil in a
424 THE THEORY OF THE SCHOOL.
knowledge of the parts of speech and their principal
inflections, is the exercise termed parsing.
Since, however, it deals with the relations of words
to other words, it involves the element of syntax, and
is employed more largely in the succeeding stage. It, is
desirable, however, to consider in connection with this
stage certain features in regard to parsing ; as —
The condition of the pupil as to syntax.
The application of parsing.
The marks of good parsing.
The condition of the pupil in regard to syntax is that the
subject is a matter of habit with him and he has a prac-
tical knowledge of the subject, but is not possessed of
its rules. He stands now in the same relation to the
rules of syntax that he did at the beginning of the
stage in regard to the parts of speech, and the method
of attaining a knowledge of the rules of syntax is
essentially the same as that employed in learning the
parts of speech. Each syntactical relation should be
illustrated by means of sentences exemplifying it.
The application of parsing under any given rule of
syntax is two-fold :
To trace the application of the rule within examples
arranged for the purpose.
To trace the application of the rule in passages from
the reader.
The marks of good parsing are four : —
That the procedure should be from the general to the
particular.
THE THEORY OF THE SCHOOL. 425
That the process should be the work of the pupils
themselves, and not dependent on reiterated questions
at each step.
That the order of parsing words should be that of
logical connection.
That the parsing should deal mainly with the critical
words in the structure of the sentence.
•*->>^^^<^>^
CHAPTER IX.
THE RECITATION.
" Kindness adds sweetness to everything. It is kindness that makes life's
capabilities to blossom, and paints them in cheery hues, and endows them
with their invigorating fragrance. Whether it waits on superiors, or minis-
ters to inferiors, or disports itself with equals, its work is marked by a pro-
digality which the strictest discretion can not blame. It does unnecessary
work, which, when done, looks the most necessary work that could be done*
If it goes to soothe sorrow, it does more than soothe it. If it relieves a want,
it cannot do so without doing more than relieve it. Even where it is econom-
ical in what it gives, it is not economical in the gracefulness with which
it gives. The secret impulse out of which kindness acts is an instinct which
is the noblest part of ourselves, the most undoubted remnant of the image of
God, which was given us at first. It is the nobility of man. It runs up into
eternal mysteries. It is a divine thing, rather than a human, because it
springs from the soul of man, just at the point where the divine image is
graven deepest."
" A Loving heart is the beginning of all knowledge. This it is that opens
the whole mind, and quickens every faculty of the intellect to do its fit
work," — Caklyle.
THE SCHOOL.
" School is the effort to bring the scholar to the right
consciousness of the nature and inner life of things and
of himself; to teach him to know, and to make him
THE THEORY OF THE SCHOOL. 427
conscious of, the inner relation of things to each other,
to the scholar, and to the living cause and clear unity
of all things,— to God."
The school assumes various phases : —
The Kindergarten.
The Common School.
The High School.
The College.
The University.
The Industrial School.
Set forth the scope, and the peculiar function of each.
THE COMMON SCHOOL.
INSTRUMENTS.
The instruments of the child's education in the com-
mon school are the influences upon and modifications of
his own self-conscious and self-active nature through :
1. Physical surroundings.
2. Laws of the school.
3. Branches of study.
4. The teacher.
What educational principles may be evolved from the truth
that the thing being dealt with — the child's mind — is Klf-oonr
$cunu, and telf -active f
PHYSICAL SURROUNDINQS. •
1. Seating.
a. Size of desks.
b. Arrangement.
2. Light.
a. Its two-fold end.
428 THE THEORY OF THE SCHOOL. \
h. Best mode of admitting light. \
c. Blinds.
d. Tint of walls. \
3. Ventilation. \
i
a. The ceiling. J
h. Arrangements of the windows. ;,
c. Escape flues. i
d. Expedients. i
e. Causes of impure air. • ^
(1.) Respiration. |
(2.) Combustion. i
(3.) Uncleanliness. \
f. Effects of impure air. |
4. Temperature. i
a. Object of heating. i
b. Average temperature of a room. |
5. Site of school building. \
a. General nature. \
6. Play-ground. 1
a. General nature. ^
7. Out-door exercise. -
a. Object. |
b. Kinds. j
8. Intermissions. |
a. Object. j
The physical surroundings in addition to their bear- 1
ing upon health tend to educate the child in three |
respects :
a. If the building and grounds are arranged and I
kept in order, habits of neatness and order will be uncon- i
THE THEORY OF THE SCHOOL. 429 ;
sciously implanted. j
b. If they are comfortable and pleasant, the pleas- i
urable emotions will be stimulated, thus favoring mental |
effort. ;
What law of mind underlies this thought ? \
c. The surroundings will, if the grounds and the j
mural decorations exhibit taste, educate the sesthetic ]
nature of the child.
THE LAWS OF THE SCHOOL. (Page 168.) j
These are an educative influence in that the pupil is I
required to conform to them. \
What law of mind is ground for the thought that obedience \
to them is educative ? ^
The child obtains from these laws a more rational ]
education if he is led to see them as they are — as certain ]
laws and conditions of his own spiritual nature made j
external. He will then of his own accord place himself J
in harmony with them.
THE BRANCHES OF STUDY. ^
THUB OBGANIC RELATION.
In considering the branches of study as instruments \
of education, one needs to consider four root thoughts, ]
out of which the true conception of their organic rela- \
tion arises. Every act of the human mind is character- ]
ized and distinguished by the presence and predomi- I
nance of one or another of the elements, intellectualt ■
emotional or volitional) yet it is also true that the mind \
by its self-active power, * springs at once along the com-
pleted curve of its capacities.' That is, while it is true !
430 THE THEORY OF THE SCHOOL. •
that every act of mind is pre-eminently an act of know-
ing, feeling or willing, yet it is nevertheless true that
along with and involved in this predominant element
may be detected the presence of the two other elements.
Among these three elements, there exists the relation
of dependence in that the element of knowing must
precede that of feeling, and knowing and feeling that of
willing.
So pre-eminently one, however, is an act of mind,
that no one of these elements can be called forth and
exercised without necessitating the exercise of the others.
If the intellectual element is to be called into superior
activity, it can only be done by stimulating the element
of feeling into a high degree of interest concerning the
object to which the intellect is applied, or the ends for
which it works, and by concentrating, through the will,
all the energies of the mind and directing them into a
harmonious action. This conception of an act of mind and
itspeculiar characteristics^ is thefirst of the four root thoughts.
The second is, that every act of the Divine Mind is dis-
tinguished by the same characteristics, differing only in
degree. It may be asserted that this proposition expresses
knowledge which transcends man's power. Some may
consider that while it is true that man through con-
sciousness may discover these characteristics as pertain-
ing to an act of his own mind, he has no adequate
avenue through which to determine, with any degree of
certainty, the characteristics of an act of the Divine
Mind. The reply to this is two-fold :
1. It is impossible for man to conceive of the Divine
/THE THEORY OF THE SCHOOL. 431
Mind as possessing powers more, or less, or other than
those of knowing, feeling and willing ; or to conceive of
an act of the Divine Mind as being different from that of
the human mind, except in degree.
2. The nature of the Scriptures themselves tends
to establish the identity in kind between the human
and the Divine Mind.
When it is said that God breathed into man the breath
of life, the meaning, it may be held, is that he endowed
him with a life kindred to his own. The expression
that God created man in his own image, in its deepest
import must imply that God, being a Spirit, imaged in
man, in a spiritual way, the characteristics and attri-
butes of The Divinity ; although in man, the Divine
powers are but imperfectly and faintly expressed. It is
sometimes maintained that the idea of the Trinity is
only a peculiar indication of the three-fold power of
the Absolute ; that the Divine Mind acting with the voli-
tional element predominant is the Father; with the
intellectual element predominating, the Holy Spirit;
with the sensibilities in the ascendency, the Son,
This three-fold attitude of the Divine Mind is stiU
more strongly indicated in the dealings of God with
with His people. In the patriarchal times, God is seen
manifesting Himself to His people predominantly as
will. When His nature was set forth in His law to the
people, there was a manifestation of the God-head as
predominantly intellectual, although, according to the
organic unity of all spirit, feeling and volition were in-
volved.
432 THE THEORY OF THE SCHOOL.
When, in the progress of His government, God put
Himself forth as Incarnate, it was the manifestation of
Himself as pre-eminently feeling, though at the same
time, highly intellectual and strong in the power of His
will. It was however, eminently the reign of love.
These and many other evidences in Holy Writ tend to
establish that every act of the Divine Mind is charac-
terized and distinguished by the presence and predomi-
nance of one or another of the intellectual, emotional
and volitional elements; and that in every act, the
Divine Mind involves all of these at the same instant
and that the same relation of dependence exists among
these elements as is found to hold true in every act of
human mind.
This conception of an act of the mind of the Absolute
and of its peculiar characteristics is, as previously stated,
the second of the four root thoughts.
Having considered the nature of a thought of the
Divine Mind, and of the human mind, it becomes neces-
sary, at this stage, in order to exhibit the true function
of the branches of study in education, to consider objec-
tive thought.
God thought a thought. This thought, as before indi-
cated, was characterized by : —
1. The presence of all three elements — intellect,
sensibility and will.
2. The predominance of one of them.
3. The fact that a relation of logical dependence
exists among them — the element of feeling depending
upon that of knowing and of willing upon that of
feeling.
THE THEORY OF THE SCHOOL. 433
4. The fact that superior activity in either one of
these elements, depends upon the superior activity and
force of the others, i. e., that each element is the true and
necessary avenue to the others.
This thought of the Divine Mind thus constituted and
characterized was projected into outward form and
became the macrocosmos (the universe). The essence of
the universe is therefore a thought, an organic unity,
and is, hence, itself an organic unity.
The materials of geography, being elements of the
the universe, partake, in their separation and in their
aggregation, of the organic unity of the whole.
The microcosmos (man) is a thought of the Divine
Mind. As a physical being, man is the objective ex-
pression of a thought of God ; and as a spiritual being,
he is the spiritual image of the Absolute, differing,
in the beginning, only in degree.
As a physical being, man constitutes the materials for
physiology and hence physiology deals with subject-
matter which is in essence organic, since it is the ob-
jective expression of a thought. As a spiritual being,
man constitutes the materials for psychology, subject-
matter which is obviously organic.
The attempt of man to make subjective to himself,
the thought of the Divine, as expressed in the universe,
furnishes what may be called the path of history. This
path of history, being a series of thoughts or mental
movements, obviously involves the organic relations
that pertain to any single thought. This progress of
the finite mind toward the Infinite becomes objective in
29
434 THE THEORY OF THE SCHOOL.
the materials considered in arithmetic, grammar, read-
ing (with its attendants, spelling and writing) and his-
tory. The common school studies are organic therefore,
in the sense that their common element is thought, in that
they have a common substratum, which is spiritual and
therefore organic. Physiology and geography are the
objective expression of the thought of the Infinite Mind,
characterized by all the organic relations before men-
tioned. It is with great difficulty, however, that one is
able to determine whether the element of feeling, know-
ing or willing is predominant, except when the ma-
terials of these subjects are considered in detail. For
example, if in the study of geography, one considers in
the plant life the heliotrope as an objective expression of
a thought of God, the emotional or aesthetic element is
seen to be predominant. Arithmetic is the objective
expression of the thinking or intellectual element in
man, as related to the objective and inorganic world.
Grammar is the objective expression of the thinking or
intellectual element in man as related to the processes
of his own thinking. Reading, with its attendants,
spelling and writing, is that into which man has pro-
jected his emotional or aesthetic nature, while in history,
the volitional element in man or man as a being of deeds,
is portrayed.
According to the nature of a thought, as before indi-
cated, it is to be understood that while each of these
subjects is marked by the predominance of one element,
all of the elements are present with the relation of de-
pendence existing among them, and that to transmute
THE THEORY OF THE SCHOOL. 435
them into thought, all three elements must be reached
and touched.
This conception of the material universe and of man as
the objective thought of the AbsolutCy and of whatever man
has put forth in concrete form, as the life or spirit of
man himself to a degree, is the third root thought.
The attempt of man to harmonize his being with the
thought made manifest in the macrocosmos as evinced
in the development of history, discloses man in a
three-fold relation, i. e., in relation to himself, in rela-
tionjto others involving a relation to self, in relation to
the Infinite involving a relation to himself and to other
beings.
This conception of m^n ow moving in a three-fold relation,
i. e., as having duties to sdf, to others and to the Infinite, con-
stitutes the fourth root thought.
Out of the four root thoughts arises the true concep-
tion of the organic relation of the common school
studies. It is obvious at once that this relation
cannot be simple. It is complex and involves
three constituent thoughts. The first of these con-
stiiueni thoughts is that there exists among the studies
themselves, and among their constituent ideas, and among
the three elements — those of knowing, feeling and will'
tng—the relation of mutual dependence.
For example, the subject of history depends upon and
is made clear to a degree, by the subject of geography ;
while it in turn throws its light back upon the subject
of geography. Division prepares for and makes
clear the subject of ratio, while ratio makes more
436 THE THEORY OF THE SCHOOL.
definite and plain the subject of division. The
famihar" idea of a draft in a stove or chim-
ney leads up to a consideration of the trade
winds and is itself made clear by an explanation
of them ; and in studying DaVinci's Last Supper, the
element of knowing must precede that of feeling, and
feeling that of willing, i. e., the student of this piece of
art must know the general plan, the groupings, the idea
in each group, the significance of the various postures
as a condition for his feeling of satisfaction and high
appreciation of it as a work of art, and the reverential
feeling which the theme, as thus portrayed, suggests ; and
this knowing and feeling are the condition to those
resolves of excellence and duty that the proper know-
ledge and emotions would arouse.
The first constituent thought — that there is a relation
of mutual dependence existing among the subjects and
among the ideas of each subject, — involves and is based
upon two related thoughts. The first of these is that
the universe has its spiritual and its material sides; that
the material side is composed of the inorganic and the
organic world; arithmetic being the gate-way to the in-
organic world; while geography and physiology form
avenues to the organic world ; that the spiritual side
consists of man as a logical being (to which phase gram-
mar is the avenue) — as a being of emotion, (reading
being the opening to this phase) — as a being of deeds,
(the mind entering into this realm through the subject
of history.)
The second of these related thoughts is that the child
THE THEORY OF THE SCHOOL. 437
h^ore ent^ng school has mastered to a degree and made a
part of his experience, ideas pertaining to every phase of the
field of knowledge.
The first of these related thoughts together with the
development of the mind, determines that there is a
general order or sequence of studies.
The second makes it clear that, to a degree, the
various subjects move forward simultaneously. To
illustrate : In giving a lesson in language upon
the two-cent coin, the child would study the
relation of one cent to two cents — (number) ; the
form of the coiij (form) ; its size (size and number) ;
its color (color) ; the material of which it is made (geog-
raphy — minerals); where the material is found (geog-
raphy — location); how it is obtained (geography —
mining) ; its coinage (government) ; its uses (business).
If the lesson were in reading — for example, *' The Loss
of the Birkenhead" — the pupil in studying it should
connect it with the realm of ethics. He should learn how
the German emperor had paraded his vast army and
had caused to be read to them, regiment by regiment,
**The I^ss of the Birkenhead;" how they had thus
learned the quiet firmness of the English soldiers during
that trying ordeal, while the women and children were
being saved and the vessel was slowly sinking down
with them, in parade order upon its decks, inch by inch
into the cruel African sea. They should know that the
German emperor thought this quiet faithfulness unto
death to be an example of what noble men ought to be
— an education for heroes. Thus should the reading work
and the idea of duty react upon each other.
438 THE THEORY OF THE SCHOOL.
But taken even as a point of knowledge, how
admirably would the lesson pass out in various lines.
Let it be studied when the class are engaged in the
consideration of the continent of Africa. What a lesson
in geography it could be made. How vivid a descrip-
tion of the translucent African sea— the home of the
shark and kindred wonders it would enable their active
minds to comprehend. How great an interest it would
throw upon the study of the continent itself — its struc-
ture, its vegetation, its beautiful rivers and lakes, its
inhabitants and their queer customs.
If " Time's Swing," were the lesson' in reading, the
whole selection should not be studied at once, but that
part relating to winter, in the winter time, and, that
relating to spring in the spring time, etc. Reading and
outward nature should react upon each other. The pupil
should note that first " lilac bud " and put down its
date. Each day he should watch the new comers with
their curious differences, their kinds of growth, the beauty
of their leaves, their color and structure, the upward
flow of the sap, until all the glory of that moving life
should be understood and he would see in every blade
of grass a rivulet, and in every tree a river ; and it would
thus come upon him that the quiet fields with their grass
and trees, were yet the scene of constant life and motion.
Not a bird should fly unnoticed. He should hear the
note of the first robin. Not a song should be sung and
not a wing should be moved that did not appeal to hear-
ing ears and seeing eyes and to a mind interested in
reflecting concerning them. Thus should the realm of
THE THEORY OF THE SCHOOL. 439
nature reinforce and move forward with the reading work
of the school.
On the supposition, however, that the teacher thor-
oughly understands this constituent thought of a mutual
relation of subjects and ideas and its two related thoughts,
what practical conclusions come to him that will tend
to make him more rational and organic in his work ?
This thought of a relation of mutual dependence,
since it considers man mainly in the lowest relation —
to himself — gives rise to practical conclusions relating
largely to details. The first practical conclusion is that
the present common school studies are those necessary
for the common schools, inasmuch as each is the only
gate-way to some one division of the field of knowledge.
Satisfactory preparatory education admits of no less,
nor of other studies, and requires no more. It'will be
seen, in the second place, that a thorough understanding,
of this constituent idea, with its underlying principle,
would modify many details of school work :
It would transfer work witli diacritical marks from
the first year to the second or third year.
It would establish the validity of a brief period of
printing in the beginning of reading work.
It would justify the teaching together of the four pro-
cesses in number during the first two years ; the pre-
sentation of long division before short; the considera-
tion of any number in relation to whole numbers, to
the fraction to which it gives rise, and to the units of
the various tables, before taking up tlie next liigher
number.
440 THE THEORY OF THE SCHOOL.
It would prevent the teaching of Arabic or Roman
symbols, or of counting, higher than the actual numbers
taught.
It would at least call into serious question that kind
of language work which furnishes the pupils with a
miscellaneous list of subject and predicate words and
requires them to mechanically unite these into state-
ments, questions, exclamations, etc.
It would also raise the question whether that method
of geography work is best which begins with the study
and mapping of the school-room and proceeds in like
manner to the school yard, township, county, state,
group of states, etc.
Indicate the ground for each of these conclusions.
The second constituent thought of the complex idea of
the organic relation of these studies is that the common
school subjects are designed to constitute a mental gymna-
sium for mind exercise.
This involves the idea that education is a course of
training. As the youth in a gymnasium practices upon
the horizontal bar in order to develop his muscular
powers generally, without intending to go on posturing
upon horizontal bars all through life, so the pupil in tlie
school exercises his mind upon the subjects there pre-
sented in order to develop all of his powers harmoni-
ously without regarding as a supreme end either the
acquisition of the facts and organized knowledge which
he necessarily obtains, or any particular vocation that
he may be thinking of entering upon.
THE THEORY OF THE SCHOOL. 441
Jevons says, "School is a place where the mental,
fibers are to be exercised, trained, expanded, developed
and strengthened. It is the very purpose of a liberal
education, as it is correctly called, to develop and train
the plastic fibers of the youthful brain in that general
and harmonious way that will effectually prevent them
from taking too early a definite set which will after-
ward narrow and restrict the range of judgement and
acquisition. I will even go so far as to say that it is hardly c?e-
sirahle for the actual things taught at school to stay in the
mind for life. The source of error is the failure to dis-
tinguish between the form and the matter of know-
ledge ; between the facts themselves and the manner in
which the mental powers deal with the facts.
It is the purpose of education so to exercise the fac-
ulties of the mind that the infinitely various experi-
ences of after-life may be observed and reasoned upon
to the best effect."
This constituent thought, that the common school
branches constitute a mental gymnasium for mind exer-
cise, involves and is based upon several related thoughts
among which may be stated the following :
The highest development of man is to be attained
through communion with his fellow men in organized
society.
But the root idea of organized society is exchange — on
the one hand spiritual exchange^ an interchange of ideas,
on the other, material exchange^ that of food, clothing and
shelter. In considering the common school branches in
relation to these exchanges, it is seen that arithmetic is
442 THE THEORY OF THE SCHOOL.
the key to material exchange, reading and writing to the
spiritual. Geography opens to the view the sources to
the material exchange. Grammar is the medium by
which are first disclosed the workings of mind — the
origin of the ideas to be exchanged.
History shows the working of the past as seen in the
present, either of the individual or of the nation.
A second related thought is that the American indi-
vidual possesses the unrestricted right to change his status
or vocation in organized society.
This is not the case in India. The pariah's status is
fixed. He is predestined, even before birth, to menial
vocations. A web of fate extends over all members of
society in that region from which they cannot extricate
themselves if they would. To such individuals the
common school branches could have no organic relation
in the sense here indicated. This inability to change is
less manifest in Europe, but it exists there to a certain
degree. The tendency in Europe is still to educate the
child to move in the class in which birth places him ;
but in America, absolute freedom of change in vocation
is not only accorded but encouraged. All the environ-
ment of a child urges him to exhibit all the power that
there is in him and to receive the appropriate reward.
To such a child alone can there be this true organic
relation of the studies, and this power of his to transfer
his status makes it evident that the common aim of the
branches must be to furnish his mind an exercise ground —
to give him a key by which he may unlock and discover his
capacities, and thereby determine for himself the voca-
tion that he is called upon to fill.
THE THEORY OF THE SCHOOL. 443
The third related thought is thai the basis of true success
in any vocation, in organized society ^ is character or manhood.
Rousseau says, "In the natural order of things, all men be-
ing equal, the vocation that is common to all is the state
of manhood, and whoever is well trained in that cannot
fulfill badly any vocation that depends upon it. Whether
the pupil who leaves my hands is destined for the church,
the bar or the army, matters little. Before a child chooses
the vocation of his parents, nature calls upon him first to
be a man. How to live is what I want to teach him. He
may not be when he leaves my charge a magistrate, a
soldier or a priest ; but all that a man can do, he can do
as well as any one and fortune will in vain alter his
position, for he will always maintain his own."
The fourth idea which is involved in this constituent
thought is that any design which is common to these sub-
jects must be attainable by every child in the school; and the
fifth that great knowledge is not attainable by every child, but
mental development and skill are. The practical conclu-
sions to be drawn from this constituent idea and its
related thoughts, are :
1. That it is a question whether or not the usual
method of presenting geography is the best for the
pupil.
2. That the most practical education a child can
receive is that which trains him to think accurately in
any set of circumstances into which he may be thrown.
3. That the cardinal question for the teacher is not
" How can I lead the pupil to most clearly comprehend
this subject, e. g., grammar?" but "How can I employ
444 THE THEORY OF THE SCHOOL.
this subject so as to give the highest degree of mental
training which it is fitted to give? " Not " How can I
lead the pupil to most readily understand this thought,
6. g., dividing the divisor multiplies the quotient?" but
" How can I employ this thought so as to give the mind
of the pupil all the training which the thought is fitted
to give ?" Not " How can I most clearly present this
idea, e. g., the trade-winds?" but "How can I employ
this idea so as to develop " the mental faculties of the
pupil to the highest degree to which the nature of the
idea will admit?"
4. That in a business sense, the studies that are
most absolutely necessary are reading, writing and
arithmetic.
The third constituent idea is that the subjects constitute
a medium by which untrained and immature mind is
enabled to touch and coalesce with trained and mature
human minds, and with the Infinite Mind.
This idea is the outgrowth of two under-lying
thoughts :
1. That the universe is the objective expression of
God's thought.
2. That any work put forth by man is the expression,
to a degree, of man's life and thought.
The thought that the universe is the reason of God
made objective, is not a novel one. The great astrono-
mer long ago said " I read thy thoughts, God," and
ages before that even, the same thought had been ex-
pressed when it was said "The heavens declare the
glory of God and the firmament showeth His handi-
THE THEORY OF THE SCHOOL. 445
work. Day unto day uttereth speech and night unto
night showeth knowledge." That whatever a man does
is really his life to a degree, ought to be equally clear.
A thought arose in the mind of a poet. He pruned,
elaborated and refined it. While still subjective this
thought is evidently his life, his spirit to a degree.
When he causes it to take shape in language and calls
it the " Sensitive Plant," what is it other than a part of
his life and thought made objective?
The practical conclusions from this constituent
thought and its involved ideas are :
1. That education deals with life and not with
lessom or books^ except as instruments.
2. That the true process of education is the passing
of life through life into life and the fusing with it.
That education is really a communion of spirit with
spirit, a blending of thought with thought, is but little
regarded in education. The Ancients, however, had a
true conception of this passage of life, in that they
represented it as a fountain ever flowing, from which,
thinker, historian and poet might drink and thus im-
bibe inspiration for their lofty themes; and its truth
may easily be made clear to even the practical modern
man.
A philosopher of old conceived a beautiful thought.
He clothed this in a paragraph, and between the lids of
a book it rested for ages until it came in contact with
the mind of a thinker, and at his touch it awoke and
arose from the folio sepulchre in which it had so long
been entombed and entered into his thought and mind
446 THE THEORY OF THE SCHOOL.
and lived again, and awakened to him the genius and
spirit of its originator and thus, to a degree elevated him
to his species.
The same idea of the passing of life is given in the
expression,
" A nameless man, amid the crowd that thronged the daily mart,
Let fall a word of hope and love unstudied from the heart,
A whisper on the tumult thrown, a transitory breath.
It raised a brother from the dust, it saved a soul from death."
It is here obviously the intention to convey the idea
that the word is an embodiment of life as it is repre-
sented as life-giving.
3. That these mind-creations are subject to the same
conditions as the minds of which they are the out-
growth.
4. That in the view of a training for higher life, the
subjects that are most absolutely essential are reading,
geography, and history, in that they embody, more
largely than any others, the elements of higher life.
What is meant by higher life ? Show in what respect these
branches of study embody its elements more largely than the
others.
KINDS OF EXERCISE-GROUNDS.
1. The idea or notion.
r External object.
a. Individual. < An action or event changing from
(^ one phase to another.
b. General.
2. The thought or judgment.
a. Individual.
b. General.
THE THEORY OF THE SCHOOL. 447
METHODS APPROPRIATE.
1. The method appropriate to the treatment of the
general idea or notion is Definition, mainly by : —
a. Example.
b. Analysis.
c. Antithesis.
2. The method appropriate to the treatment of the
external object is Description, mainly by : —
a. A general plan.
6. A succession of views.
c. The condition at a particular time.
3. The method appropriate to the treatment of
changing events is Narration, mainly by presenting: —
a. The result of the series of events.
6. The events in their sequence.
c. A summary.
4. The method appropriate to the treatment of the
judgment is Exposition, mainly by : —
a. Example.
b. Illustration.
c. Iteration.
d. Obverse iteration.
e. Pointing out the difficulty.
These methods are appropriate because the mind, in origin-
ally acquiring the ideas or judgments, naturally pursues the
methods given.
In preparing to present a lesson from a text-book, the teacher
should decide —
a. The nature of the subject.
b. The method by which the author has treated it.
c. Whether the method of the author needs explanation.
448 THE THEORY OF THE SCHOOL.
d. By what other methods appropriate to the subject, the
author's method may be supplemented.
THE TEACHER.
While the child is the real educator of himself, the
teacher as a formal educator, is the predominant instru-
ment of the school. The influence due to the teacher
is of two kinds :
1. Unconscious influence.
2. Conscious influence.
UNCONSCIOUS INFLUENCE.
1. What it is.
a. The idea of unconscious education, assumes
what as the aim of education ?
b. The principles of unconscious education ?
c. The avenues through which unconscious in-
fluence reaches the child.
2. The relation of the teacher's previous discipline
to his unconscious influence.
3. Why the unconscious influence of the teacher is
the most potent factor in unfolding the true spiritual
being of the child.
Elaborate each of the points suggested.
CONSCIOUS INFLUENCE.
The teacher is consciously an educative force : —
1. Through his general work in the school.
2. Through the work of the recitation.
The prime consideration in the recitation is that the
pupil shall he in a state of genuinely interested atten-
tion in the w oil-:, and in sympathetic harmony with the
THE THEORY OF THE SCHOOL. 449
teacher, with the other pupils, and with the exercise-
ground.
The principles underlying this thought ?
In order that this state may be permanent, there
must be in the teacher's character the residuum of a
generous previous general and specific preparation.
This will manifest itself in the recitation in the eflBicient
employment of the true agencies of the recitation,
viz: —
a. Suggestion.
b. Stimuli.
c. Questioning.
d. Explanation.
e. Repetition. (Iteration, review.)
THE PREVIOUS PREPARATION.
As among the features of the teacher's previous
preparation may be suggested :
1. Accurate and ample preparation for the work by
the teacher, through a careful study of the subject in text-
books, and of the active^ practiced world, in which the
children and himself move.
2. A knowledge of the sulked of education, together
with its inferences. (Page 19.)
3. A knowledge of the aim of education. (Page 52.)
4. A knowledge of the principle and the condition of
education. (Page 81.)
6. A knowledge of what is meant by the exercise-
ground in education. (Page 90.)
6. A knowledge of ike school in relation to other insti-
tutions. (Page 96—131.)
450 THE THEORY OF THE SCHOOL.
7. A knowledge of the trend of educational thought
and method, as seen in the Greek, Roman, and Jesuit edu-
cation, and in the works of:
Ascham, (1515). Kant, (1724).
Montaigne, (1533). Pestalozzi, (1746).
Ratich, (1571). Fichte, (1762).
Comenius, (1592). Richter, (1763).
Milton, (1608). Jacotot, (1770).
Locke, (1632). Herbart, (1776).
Rousseau, (1712). Froebel, (1782).
Basedow, (1723). Sturm, (1803).
Spencer, (1820).
The teacher should understand the fundamental ideas of
these so that :
a. His mind may be led in the right direction.
b. He may dwell upon essentials in his work.
c. He may avoid errors, long known to he such.
8. Matured habits of regularity, punctuality, silence,
politeness and kindness.
9. Power of rich illustration.
10. Skill in blackboard drawing.
11. Ability to write well on paper and on blackbord.
12. Power of vivid narration and description.
13. Power to question with accurracy and judgment.
14. Interest in the children and in the work.
15. Knowledge of the methods appropriate. (In-
volving a knowledge of and sympathy with the pupils'
minds.)
Scholarship, if combined with natural aptitude in
imparting, can accomplish much in teaching; these,
,and a knowledge of the general or fundamental princi-
THE THEORY OF THE SCHOOL. 451
pies of teaching, more ; the foregoing, combined with a
thorough mastery of the specific method of each subject,
and practical experience in applying it, most.
The comprehension of the specific method of any sub-
ject must be thorough enough to reach its rational basis,
i. e., it must be seen to rest upon the nature of the sub-
ject and upon the nature of the pupil's mind in the
various stages. The first is, and has long been, gener^
ally admitted; the second is beginning to be. The teacher,
through any specific method, is assumed to be cultivat-
ing the mind. But this cannot be done unless the
teacher has an insight into mind action, and knows that
the method is based upon the laws of such action. Unless
such is the case, education might recognize certain facul-
ties in operation, but others, which ought to be active
but are dormant, it would not notice; it would meet
with obstacles to progress which it could not remove;
errors of conduct to which it could apply no remedy ;
it would give preference to those motives which we most
easily obey, rather than to the highest.
Its method, not founded on principles, would be a
thing of accident; at best a combination of expedients
with no consciousness of one purpose; if right at any
time« right only by chance ; most probably a confusion
of methods, undoing at one time what has been done
at another ; feeble and irregular, wanting both the power
to mold and the beauty to attra^.t. Mere empirical
teaching, it is true, may not be altogether unproductive
of valuable results ; by closely following prescribed laws,
much good may be done. But much more can be done
if the ground and spirit of these laws are compre-
452 THE THEORY OF THE SCHOOL.
hended; while many cases must arise which the pre-
scription does not provide for. Moreover, it will doubt-
less be conceded that it is better to be a conscious than
an unconscious agent ; to be rationally adapting means
to end.
Notwithstanding a method may be rational it should
not be applied rigidly and unvaryingly in every school
and under all circumstances by any teacher, nor should
its interpretation and application be precisely the same
in the same school and under the same circumstances
by different teachers; i. e., since a method is a mode by
which one mind addresses other minds, it should be so
individualized by the teacher as to be adapted to the
natural and acquired aptitudes of both the mind ad-
dressing and the minds addressed.
This is merely to present the evident truth that the
intelligent teacher is of more importance than his
method ; that his sympathy with the minds to be ad-
dressed, his force of personal character, and the degree
of interest and intelligence with which he is able to
invest a method, must always transcend its mere
technical propriety.
Each individual teacher should adopt that method
best suited to his natural aptitudes, and in which he
has the strongest rational faith, relying upon the
thought that a sympathetic, earnest and judicious man-
ner of dealing with the pupils will secure success,
whether the given method is strictly rational or not ;
since it is moral considerations, which determine the
progress of the pupils, rather than the intellectual pro-
priety of the method employed.
THE THEORY OF THE SCHOOL.
In this thought lies the explanation of the success
that has attended the use of the alphabetic, phonic, and
various other methods which are not in all respects in
thorough accord with the principles of mental activity.
The teachers who introduced them, and many who
afterward employed them with success, believed in them
and applied them with devotion.
It may be reasonably held, however, that the success
in such cases was not at all commensurate with what it
would have been had these teachers thoroughly compre-
hended the nature, in general and in detail, of a specific
method for the given subject that was more rational and
harmonious, and then had invested it, in its a^pplica-
tion, with their personality and devotion.
16. Power to organize, in the form of a written plan
the material and method of a lesson.
There are many teachers, who are highly efficient, and
who believe in the efficacy of written plans, and yet who
do not, as a rule, prepare written plans for their lessons.
This is because they have served their apprenticeship in
written plans, and by their work with them their minds
have acquired the habit of spontaneously organizing the
material and method of a lesson into a logical mental
plan. This is the real aim of written plans. They are
not to be thought of as a direct and immediate means
of conducting a recitation According to directions set
down in them ; but as a means of forming the mental
habit of systematically organizing the matter and method
of a lesson. They, therefore, belong to the period of the
teacher's preparation. Written plans should be resorted
454 THE THEORY OF THE SCHOOL.
to, however, as often as practicable, in the every-day
work, in order to reinforce the mental habit referred to,
and not for the purpose of using them as guides in the
actual recitation. The class of teachers referred to under-
stand this and employ the written plan in its proper
place, and to fulfill its true function.
There are some teachers, however, who dismiss sum-
marily the idea of written plans. These are usually of
two classes :
a. Those teachers who are too indolent to prepare
adequately for their work, considering that their respon-
sibility commences at the moment that school begins in
the morning, and ends the moment that school closes in
the evening.
b. Those superintendents and teachers who hold
that the teaclier should inform herself well upon the
subject, and without any planning, go before the class,
and " trust to the inspiration of the moment." The
claim of these is that to prepare written plans for les-
sons makes the teaching mechanical. Such a criticism
indicates a mistaken view of the true function of written
plans or " notes on lessons."
A farmer once told his sons, when he was about to
pass from the scenes of earth, that, concealed beneath
the soil in the farm that he was about to leave them, was
a great treasure. After their father had passed away, the
sons carefully and patiently spaded up every foot of the
ground, but found no treasure. Their next crops, how-
ever, were found to be more valuable a hundred-fold.
The treasure their father meant was the effect of their
careful, thorough work.
THE THEORY OF THE SCHOOL. 465
So it is with the written plan. The value of the plan
is in the planning. The purpose of the written plan is
accomplished before the recitation begins. To employ
it as a guide, and consult it during the progress of the
recitation, would be a violation of the spirit of teaching
as a psychological art. The attention of the teacher,
during the recitation, must be concentrated upon the
minds of the pupils, in order that she may read their
true condition at each step, and change and adapt her
work as their difficulties change. To attempt at the
same time to consult at each step the suggestions of a
written plan, is to disregard the principle that the mind
has but a given quantum of energy ; and it is also to
deprive the lesson of spirit and interest by thrusting
between the mind addressing and the minds addressed,
a barrier, thereby making the communion of their
minds even more mediate than it must of necessity be.
The true course for the teacher is not merely to inform
herself upon the subject, and then go before the class
" trusting to the inspiration of the moment." There
is no inspiration in the moment, under such circum-
stances. The course for the teacher, as demanded by
the interest and the interests of the children, is :
1. To gather carefully the material for the lesson.
2. To reflect carefully upon its arrangement, the
order and method of presenting the ideas, and to deter-
mine, in the main, the illustrations, etc., thus obtaining
a mental plan.
3. To reduce this mental plan to a written plan,
(" Writing makes the exact man ") in order to test more
456 THE THEORY OF THE SCHOOL.
carefully the mental plan, and to insure a better organi-
zation of the lesson.
4. To go before the class and conduct the recitation
without the aid of the written plan, or if using it at all,
obtaining only the main headings, thus insuring that
true inspiration and confidence, and that thorough or-
ganization that come from careful preparation ; and at
the same time allowing that freedom which enables the
teacher to adapt the work to the changing needs of the
class.
But the reply is that the city teacher with eight or
ten daily recitations, and the country teacher with from
ten to twenty-five can not take the time for such pre-
paration. Admitting that to be true, it may still be
said that such should be the preparation for at least one
recitation daily, (the most difficult one) and its benefi-
cial effects will be felt in all recitations.
On the supposition that the horse is the animal
selected for an oral lesson, the organization of the lesson
could be presented in a written plan somewhat as fol-
lows:
Plan.
I. Subject. — The individual minds of the pupils.
II. Design.— I. To give the mind strength and skill by train-
ing it to observe common animals and to reflect upon what it
observes. 2. To give (incidentally) certain knowledge of the
horse.
III. Condition of training. — Self-activity of the pupil.
IV. Exercise-ground. — The idea ^horse.^
V. The Basis. — (The basis consists of the ideap already
possessed by the child, that are related to the subject and
employed by the teacher.) — Knowledge of various four-footed
THE THEORY OF THE SCHOOL. 457
animals ; ability to count to four ; experience as to some of the
uses, food, and homes of horses ; knowledge as to glue and as
to a certain kind of furniture.
VI. Steps.— {A step is the advance of the mind, from an idea
possessed to the one to be gained.)
1. Advance of the mind to the thought — The horse is a
quadruped.
a. Method. — Refer to their experience as to number of
feet ; present pictures ; have the feet counted ; have the thought
that it is a four-footed animal expressed ; state that there is
another word that may be used instead of " four-footed," writ-
ing upon the board the word quadruped; have other quadrupeds
named ; write the sentence, and have the children repeat it and
write it.
2. Advance of the mind to correct ideas as to the use, food,
and home of the horse.
a. Method.— 'Refer to the children's experience in regard
to these points ; obtain from them what it eats, what it does for
man, and where it lives in winter and in summer ; supplement
that which is thus obtained; organize the information as it is
received ; have the children help form the sentence ; write it
upon the board ; have the children read it and then write it. >
3. Advance of the mind to ideas as to the use of the horse
after its death.
a. ifrtAod.— Obtain from the children the various mate-
rials used in furniture, and in this way indicate the use of horse-
hair ; lead them to talk of glue and its uses ; lead them to see
that it may be made from the hoofs and some parts of the fleeh;
add the word tineioB to their vocabularies ; lead them to point
out sinews in their own bodies; organize the information as it
is given ; with the help of the children form the sentences
required, and then write them on the board ; have the sentences
read and written by the children as before ; have all the sen-
tences of the lesson read ; by questioning, lead the pupils to
express themselves freely upon all the points, noting carefully
their language.
458 THE THEORY OF THE SCHOOL.
Many other ideas concerning the horse could be pre-
sented ; the aim has been, however, not to give a full
treatment, but merely to suggest the nature of a written
plan that the teacher may prepare in giving oral lessons
on animals.
AGENCIES IN THE RECITATION.
STIMULI.
Under stimuli three questions present themselves.
1. What is the nature of interest and attention?
2. What qualities and methods tend to produce at-
tention during the recitation; to give permanent interest
to the subjects ; and to impel the pupil to mental
growth ?
3. Of these qualities and methods, what ones are
capable of being acquired?
Interest and Attention.
Interest is derived from inter meaning between, and
est, from esse, meaning to he. Literally, therefore, interest
means it is between. This indicates that there are two
things, between which is a third thing. On one hand
is the untrained mind with its natural disinclination to
continuous effort in a given direction, and on the other
hand, a certain subject or lesson requiring close effort to
master it. To master the point of knowledge requires
attention. But attention by its literal meaning signifies
effort. It means a stretching to — the very thing that the
untrained mind is averse to. Whatever stands between
this tendency of the mind to avoid continuous effort
and the knowledge, the mastery of which requires effort,
and thereby attaches the mind to its work, is interest.
THE THEORY OF THE SCHOOL. 459
Attention is the concentration of the mental faculties
upon a given subject. It is, therefore, an act of will,
and is based upon motive. The motive is interest of
some kind. Every lesson requires efifort. It is essen-
tial, therefore, especially in primary work, that the lea-
son be interesting.
Interest is the basis of attention. * Attention in the
child is feeble, and capable of but limited continuance.
It grows stronger by exercise, and interest is the great
promoter of its exercise, and thereby of permanency in
the knowledge gfiined, or the power of memory.'
An act of knowing " may be performed with greater
or less energy. This greater or less energy in the opera-
tion of knowing is called attention^ which word, as its
etymology suggests, is another term for tension or effort,
and was doubtless first transferred to the spiritual opera-
tion from the strained condition of the part or whole of
the bodily organism, which accompanies or follows such
efifort." Attention is the concentration of the powers of
the mind upon a given instrument of training, at a given
time. It is involved in all good teaching, but not as a
condition^ except to a limited degree. It is the resiUt of
good teaching. As has been said in another connection,
the child is by nature inattentive, if by attention is
meant continuous efifort. Attention is a habit to be
acquired. Being a habit, it is subject to the law that
the mind tends to act again as it has acted. One act of
attention makes the next one easier, and the next still
easier until at last attention becomes second nature, i. e.,
habitual.
460 THE THEORY OF THE SCHOOL.
Likewise, one act of inattention makes a second more
easy, etc. Attention, then, is a habit, a mental growth.
It requires in its development, effort, and is consequently,
based upon motive. Attention is an act of will. The
will may be trained and controlled. Everyone, there-
fore, has the power, to so develop mentally that he may
attend at will. It is a question, then, of desire or motive.
To give close attention for any considerable period of
time is very difficult. The experience of every one will
testify to this. Even the person whose powers are sub-
stantially mature, finds it difficult to give fixed attention;
and for children to give fixed attention to prescribed
subjects, and at prescribed times is especially difficult.
Yet difficult as it is attention must he obtained. It cannot
be obtained, however, by demand or entreaty; by urging
upon the pupils the importance of the subject, and the
brevity of school time.
These last are very valid considerations with the
mature, but nothing can be relied upon to secure the
attention of the child, for any considerable period, but a
genuine interest in the subject itself.
1. Attention in the recitation may be secured by dis-
cipline or by stimulus. By the former the mind becomes
stolid and indifferent to education. In the latter there
is life, and hence growth.
Napoleon III., having stationed soldiers at the polls
was able to say that the election was peaceful. There
should be in the recitation attention through inner life.
How can such attention be stimulated ?
a. By a familiar and sympathetic manner on the
part of the teacher.
THE THEORY OF THE SCHOOL. 461
b. By having the pupils ' picture out ' the thought,
or represent it by doing.
c. By basing illustrations on the pupils' experi-
ence.
d. By varying the usual regularity and routine.
(1.) Illustrate each point.
(2.) Upon what principles of mind are they based ?
2. Interest in the subjects themselves.
How may this be inculcated?
a. By employing books adapted to the develop-
ment of the pupils.
b. By studying the subject outside of the book as
well as in it ; i. e. by making the text-book merely a text-
hook.
c. By stimulating original production (written
exercises) as against the tendency to book work.
d. By recognizing and commending the germs of
thought and effort, that may be usually detected among
the crudities and imperfections.
(\.) II lustrate each point.
(2.) Upon what principles of mind are they based ?
3. Interest in general mental growth.
In what ways may this be fostered ?
a. By clearness in teaching.
Just what constitutes clearness in teaching is a point
that requires to be more definitely settled. It should
be understood that the prominent marks of clearness
are:
(1.) The setting forth of a general plany or frame'
work of the thought.
Then every detail falls into its place; the fragments
462 THE THEORY OF THE SCHOOL.
exhibit the relations of the whole ; the maze becomes
mapped. The pupil is then, even in respect of the
difficult thoughts, able to say with the poet, " A mighty
maze, but not without a plan." Grasp of this kind gives
to the pupil a sense of power and conquest. It makes
deep thought interesting, inclines to new efforts, gives
mental breadth and stimulation.
(2.) The use by the teacher of precise, clear-cut lan-
guage.
(3.) The making prominent of the salient point.
(4.) The change of formuloe, as soon as the pupils
begin to recite by rote.
(5.) The concentration of the attention exactly upon
the difficulty.
(6.) The quiet leading on of confused answers till the
confusion and the exact point of the confusion are manifest.
(7.) The pointed cross questioning of half-knowledge,
so as to both make apparent the incompleteness, and indicate
the avenue to the full knowledge.
For a lesson to have these marks of clearness is for it
to have stimulus. It is a pleasurable incentive to the
growing mind to participate in the unravelling of
every tangle in his thought, and to take part in brush-
ing aside, one by one, every cobweb that obstructs his
mental vision^ until every detail, in its relations is
clearly seen.
b. By avoiding too much explanation.
c. By arranging it so that the pupils shall be joint
sharers with the teacher in his researches.
THE THEORY OF THE SCHOOL. 463
(Natural science affords the richest field in this respect
Why?)
(1.) Illustrate each point.
(2.) Upon what principles of mind are they based ?
QUESTIONINQ.
Nature.
If information were the end of the school, the teacher's
qualifications should be: knowledge of his subjects;
general knowledge of mind ; pleasant manner; fluency of
speech ; knowledge of the nature of description and
narration ; and richness of illustration. But the design
of the school being to make the mind skillful and strong,
the teacher must be equipped with one other instru-
ment in addition to the above — the power to question with
skill and judgment ; and no other single means, perhaps,
justly assumes the importance of this power.
Questioning is an art. That is, it is a practical power
— something that is learned not by hearing lectures up-
on it, but by doing it. Proficiency in it is learned aa in
every other art, by practice. Education in it comes
through experience. To become a skillful questioner
requires patient, watchful practice. But if that were
all, it would be sufficient to say to the young teacher, —
*' Take charge of a school ; begin work with your classes;
and learn the art of questioning by actual questioning."
Questioning is not only an art, however; it is also a
science. That is, the art of questioning rests upon a
body of principles ; and the teacher should know the
principle underlying any given practice in questioning;
he should be acquainted with the general principles
464 THE THEORY OF THE SCHOOL.
that he is to apply to specific cases ; he is to know the
why as well as the how.
Purpose.
1. The first purpose is to disclose to the teacher, be-
fore he attempts to present a new thought, the actual
condition of the pupil's mind ; to reconnoiter, in order
to see how the child's ideas are encamped ; to plough up
the mental soil, so that the mental germs may have free-
dom to spring into stronger life ; to make the learner
conscious of the limits of his knowledge, and to open
to his mental view the latent known. In one sense the
aim is to apply the "torpedo's electricity," and in an-
other to awaken the stimulus of curiosity.
2. The second aim of questioning is to stimulate,
suggest, and direct, but not to tell, or unduly assist ; to
lead the mind to act upon the new knowledge and
assimilate it; to cause the mind to connect the new
knowledge with the old by its innumerable relations,
i. e., to organize its knowledge ; to awaken new desires,
and to develop new capacities for satisfying those de-
sires. Indeed, the object of this kind of questioning is
almost identical with that of school education — the
pointing out of the knowledge that is of most worth, the
creating of a desire for it, and the developing of the poiver
to obtain it.
3. The third design of questioning is to test whether
the work indicated under the second design has been
done ; to examine upon work assigned ; to see what re-
mains in the pupil's mind; to determine what added
power he has at the conclusion of a given work.
THE THEORY OF THE SCHOOL. 465
Kinds.
1. The search question. This may also be termed
the reconnoiter question, and the Socratic question.
2. The stimulative-directive question. This has been
called the instructive or Socratic question.
3. The test question. (Examination oral or written.)
Each of these classes of questions may be set forth
more clearly by an illustration.
Thus, in illustration of the first may be cited a por-
tion of Socrates' dialogue with Meno.
Meno asks whether virtue is acquired by teaching or
by practice. Socrates replies that he does not as yet
know what virtue is, and has never known any one who
did.
* Then he cannot have met Gorgias when he was at
Athens.'
*Yes, Socrates had met him, but he has a bad memory,
and has forgotten what Gorgias said.'
*Will Meno tell him his own notion, which is proba-
bly not very different from that of Gorgias?'
* O yes — nothing easier ; there is the virtue of a man,
of a woman, of an old man, and of a child ; there is a
virtue of every age and state of life, all of which may
be easily described.'
By the cross-questioning of Socrates, Meno was com-
pelled to frequently change his position, until he finally
became confused and complained of the negative qual-
ity of Socrates' teaching, saying that the conversation
has had the efiect of a torpedo's shock upon him.
*When he talks with other persons he has plenty to say
81
466 THE THEORY OF THE SCHOOL.
about virtue, but in the presence of Socrates, his thoughts
seem to desert him.'
In order to demonstrate the province of this kind of
questioning, Socrates calls to him one of the attendants
of Meno, and the following dialogue, substantially,
ensues : —
Socrates. What figure is this?
Boy. A square.
S. What do you see as to the lines ?
B. They are all equal.
S. May a square be of any size ?
B. Certainly.
S. If each side be two feet in length, how many
square feet will it contain ?
B. Four.
S. Can there be another square just twice as large as
this?
B. Yes.
S. How many square feet will it contain?
B. Eight.
aS^. Tell me the length of the line which forms a side
of that double square.
B, Clearly, Socrates, it will be double.
S. Do you observe, Meno, that I am not teaching
the boy anything, but only asking him questions ; and
now he fancies that he knows how long a line is neces-
sary in order to produce a figure of eight square feet ;
does he not ?
THE THEORY OF THE SCHOOL.
467
Meno. Yes.
S. And does he really know ?
M. Certainly not.
S. He only guesses that, because the square is
double, the line is double.
M. True,
S. Observe him while he recalls the steps in order.
(7b the boy.) Do you assert that a double space
comes from a double line ?
B. Yes.
S, But does not this line become doubled if we add
another such line here ?
B. Certainly.
S. And four such lines will make a space contain-
ing eight square feet ?
B. Yes.
S. Let us describe such a figure :
fSt
Is not that what you would say is the figure of eight
square feet?
B. Yes.
S. And are there not these four divisions in the
468 THE THEORY OF THE SCHOOL.
figure, each of which is equal to the figure of four square
feet?
B. True.
S. And is not that four fours ?
J5. Certainly.
S. And four fours is not the double ?
B. No, indeed.
S. But how much ?
B. Four times as much ?
S, Therefore, the double line has formed a space
not twice but four times as great ?
B. True.
S. And four fours are — ^
B. Sixteen. ^
S. What lines would give you a space of eight
square feet, as this gives one of sixteen square feet ; do
you see ?
B, Yes.
S, And the space of four square feet is made from
half this line ?
B. Yes.
S. Good ; and is not a space of eight square feet twice
the size of this and half the size of the other ?
B, Certainly.
S. Such a space will be formed upon a line greater
than this one and less than that one ?
B. Yes ; that is what I think.
8. Very good ; I like to hear you say that you think.
Is not this a line of two feet and that of four ?
B. Yes.
8. Then the line which forms the side of eight square
THE THEORY OF THE SCHOOL.
469
feet ought to be more than this line of two feet, and less
than the other of four feet ?
B. It ought
S. How long will it be?
B. Three feet.
S. Then if we add a half line to this line of two feet
that will be a line of three feet.
Here are two feet and there is one. And on the other
side, here are two also and there is one :
And that makes the figures of which you speak ?
B. Yes.
8. But if there are three square feet this way, and
three square feet that way, the whole space will be three
three-square feet?
B. That is evident.
And how many are three three-square-feet ?
Nine square feet.
And what is the double of four square feet?
Eight square feet.
Then a figure of eight square feet is not made out
of a line of three feet ?
B. No.
8,
B.
8.
B.
8
470 THE THEORY OF THE SCHOOL.
S. But from what line ? Tell me exactly ; and if you
would rather not reckon, show me the line.
B, Indeed, Socrates, I do not know.
S. Do you see, Meno, what advances he has made ?
He did not know at first, and he does not know now,
what the side of a figure of eight square feet is, but then
he thought that he knew, and answered confidently as
if he knew, and had no difficulty ; but now he has a dif-
ficulty, and neither knows nor fancies that he knows.
M. True.
S. Is he not better off in knowing his ignorance ?
M. I think that he is.
S. If we have made him doubt, and given him the
'' torpedo's shock " have we done him any harm ?
M. 1 think not.
>S'. We have certainly done something that may assist
him in finding out the truth of the matter ; and now he
will wish to remedy his ignorance, but then he would
have been ready to tell all the world that the double
space should have a double side.
M, True.
S. But do you suppose that he would ever have
inquired, or learned what he fancied he knew and did
not know, until he had fallen into perplexity under the
idea that he did not know and had desired to know ?
M. I think not.
S. Then he was the better for the torpedo's touch ?
M. I think he was.
Socrates was a philosopher, a profound student of
mind action, and the greatest of secular teachers, and
his questioning is worthy of thoughtful study.
THE THEORY OF THE SCHOOL. 471
The inferences from this example of the first kind of
questioning are plain :
a. The teacher is, as a preliminary step, to obtain
light as to what the pupil already possesses, and as to
his existing mental power, in order that he may the bet-
ter see how to adapt his teaching to the pupil's condition.
b. The pupil must be led to see what he does not
know, i. e., his difficulty.
c. The pupil is to be shown his latent known,
i.e., the foundation that experience has given him.
d. The desire for new power and added knowledge
must be implanted.
All these things are to be accomplished by means of
the search or preliminary questions.
As an illustration of the second kind of questioning,
the continuation of Socrates' dialogue with Meno's
attendant will serve. In the first kind the boy had been
shown his difficulty, and had had his curiosity aroused
as to its proper solution. To this solution Socrates pro-
ceeds :
S. Mark now, Meno, the farther development. I shall
only ask him, and not instruct him, and he shall share
the inquiry with me ; and do you watch and see if you find
me telling or explaining anything to him, instead of elicit-
ing his opinion. (To the boy.) What is this I have
drawn?
472
THE THEORY OF THE SCHOOL.
B.
S.
A square of four square feet.
And now I add what ?
B. Three other squares, each equal to the first.
S. We have, then, what ?
B. Four equal spaces.
S. How many times is this space as large as the
former?
B. Four times.
S. But it ought to have been how many times as large?
B. Two times.
S. Draw a line from this corner to that one, and so
in each space.
I/N
/I I l\
1/
N/l
What does each line do to each space?
B. It divides it into two equal parts.
S. What is true of the lines ?
B. They are equal.
S. How much space do they inclose ?
B. I do not understand.
THE THEORY OF THE SCHOOL. 478
f —
S. How much of the four spaces have these lines
cut off?
B. Half of them.
S. How much was there in the first space?
B. Sixteen square feet.
5. Then how many in this ?
B. Eight square feet.
S. From what line do you get this figure?
B, From this one.
S. How may you describe it ?
B, By saying it extends from one corner to its oppo-
site.
S. What is the line called?
B. I do not know.
S. Show me other lines like it.
Very good. Such a line is called a diagonal. Point
out other diagonals.
What is the double of a space?
B. The square of its diagonal.
S. What do you say of him, Meno ? Were not all
these answers given out of his own head ?
M. Yes, they were all his own.
From this example of the second kind of question-
ing, the distinctive marks of the class appear:
a. They suggest but do not inform.
b. They tend to establish a loidcal connection be-
tween the old and the new ; to make the new a devel-
opment from the old. They lead to the expansion of
the germs that lie hidden in the child's mind.
The third kind of questioning needs no illustration.
474 THE THEORY OF THE SCHOOL.
It is exemplified in all oral and written examination,
and by recapitulations at the close of lessons, or divis-
ions of lessons. The distinctive marks of the third kind
of questioning are :
a. It tests whether the pupil has added power.
b. It tests whether the knowledge has been accu-
rately learned and thoroughly organized.
c. It tends to deepen and more firmly fix what
has been gained.
Structure.
The questions should be simple, short, and adapted to
the capacity of the children.
They should be such that the talk on the part of the
teacher is at the minimum, while fullness and freedom
of expression is required by them on the part of the
pupil. Their tendency should be to keep the teacher
and his work in the background, and to make promi-
nent, the pupil and his work. Plainness and brevity
are the desideratum.
Another point in regard to structure is that the ques-
tions should not he information-giving. A good question
does not convey information. Each fact or idea should
if possible be educed from the pupil. This indicates
that the phraseology of the text is to be avoided in the
construction of the questions. If the words of the
book are employed in the question, the answer is sug-
gested, and the pupil thereby deprived of the mental
exercise that is the real aim of the questioning.
A third thought in regard to the structure is that the
question should be definite. An indefinite, equivocal
THE THEORY OF THE SCHOOL. 475
question tends not to concentrate the mental energy
upon the point desired, but to divide the mental energy.
The tendency is also to inculate the habit of guessing, a
habit fatal to accurate thought.
Segutnct.
The first thought concerning sequence is that the
questions in a lesson should constitute a logical series.
Desultory, random questioning produces but little
that is valuable however good the question may be in its
structure, and however well adapted it may be to call
forth the activity of the pupil's mind. The claims of
both mental discipline and knowledge require that each
question shall have a logical connection with the pre-
ceding one ; that each question shall seem to grow out
of the preceding answer; and that each answer shall be
the explanation of a point that was brought forward by
the previous answer, but not made clear by it. This
requires a habit on the part of the teacher of so ques-
tioning that each thought advanced b^r the pupil shall
be an outgrowth of his previous thought and a prepara-
tion for the succeeding one. The true sequence in ques-
tioning is one that portrays the order in which the
instrument for the mind's exercise — the -subject — would
naturally unfold itself in the mind of a trained, logical
thinker.
While, however, the teacher will have a logical plan,
and a logical series of questions, he should not be in
bondage to them. He should be master of all his
means to that degree that he can readily readjust, and
adapt them to the wants of the pupils as disclosed by
476 THE THEORY OF THE SCHOOL.
the progress of the lesson. Unlooked-for misconceptions
may appear, the need of more ample illustration than
was contemplated may become evident, and in various
ways the children's mental needs may require digression
from the pre-arranged questions. The main purpose of
the lesson should, however, be adhered to, at least to
that degree that no useless digressions shall occur.
The second thought in regard to sequence is that the
question should be addressed to the class as a whole, before
the pupil who is to answer it is named. This is based
upon the principle that the aim of the recitation is to
give mental skill and strength. If the question is pre-
sented to the whole class, every mind receives it and is
exercised upon it, and is ready, therefore, either to
answer it intelligently, or to discuss intelligently the an-
swer given, in addition to the mental strength gained
by considering it. If the pupil who is to answer the
question is named first, and the question is then asked,
the above result is, to a degree, reversed. While this is
to be the general rule, it should not, however, be invari-
ably adhered to as such adherence would tend to make
the recitation stereotyped and monotonous, and the
mind recoils from monotony.
A third point under sequence is that there should be
that continuity and steady flow of question and answer
which is the result of animation on the part of the
teacher. This animation can arise only from an ample
knowledge of the subject, or exercise-ground, special
preparation for the given recitation, a real interest in
the instrument of training, i. e., the ideas being dealt
with, and pleasure in arousing, strengthening, and direct-
THE THEORY OF THE SCHOOL. 477^
ing the action of the mental faculties of the pupils.
Such a condition on the part of the teacher will result
in giving vigor to his teaching, in making his illustra-
tions graphic, in imparting earnestness to his manner,
animation to his voice, and an active, impressive char-
acter to his questioning.
Experience shows that slow, dull, heavy and involved
questioning is wearisome to children, and deprives a
lesson of its interest. It is necessary, therefore :
1. To avoid long pauses between an answer and its
succeeding question.
2. To vary the phraseology of the questions.
3. To avoid monotony of tone.
4. To be animated in manner, and thus kindle inter-
est and enthusiasm in the lesson, by exhibiting them in
the questioning.
Such considerations as these militate against the use
of printed questions, or questions pre-arranged by the
teacher, and brought before the class in the form of
* notes.' It cannot be too often iterated that the teacher
should make special preparation for each lesson, and
have in mind a logical plan, and a logical series of ques-
tions; neither can it be too often repeated that the
teacher is to go before his class untrammeled by written
plan, written questions, notes, or text books ; for the
minds of pupil and teacher must come into actual con-
tact. And pre-arranged questions, whether printed or
in notes, serve to divide the mental energy of the teach-
er, and at the same time do not have the life and force
of questions that are the outgrowth of two things :
478 THE THEORY OF THE SCHOOL.
a. Careful previous preparation.
b. Watchful consideration of the actual needs of
the pupil at all stages of the recitation. The line of
questioning is to be carefully thought out before the
recitation, but in the presence of the class, questioning
takes any direction whatever, is fragmentary, changing
as the difficulties of the pupils' minds change, disre-
garding all precise plan, provided that the general aim
is held in view, and a close, laborious, and exact exer-
cise of mind is the result.
Under sequence, may be considered, in the fourth
place, reception of answers.
A pupil should be required to answer the question
given.
An answer as given by the first pupil reciting, may
be:
a. Right.
b. Wrong.
c. Partly right.
It is in violation of the principle that the aim of the
recitation is to train the mind, if in the first case the
teacher states at once that the answer is correct. He
should receive the answer, withhold his decision, obtain
the thought of the different pupils, with their reasons,
and having thoroughly exercised the minds of the class
upon the point in question, decide definitely and clearly.
The procedure in the second case should be the same
with this addition — at the conclusion of the discussion,
the question should be again presented to the one who,
at first, gave the wrong answer, and to all who subse-
quently answered incorrectly.
THE THEORY OF THE SCHOOL. 479
In regard to answers that are partly right, the decision
should be reserved and the point discussed, as in the
previous cases, after which the teacher should recast his
question, add a subordinate one here and there so as to
disentangle the truthful element from the incorrect one,
and then present again his original question to the pupil
who first answered, and to the class.
The fifth thought in regard to sequence is, that, as a
rule, the question should not be repeated. It is obvious that
the habit of repeating the question on demand, will fos-
ter inattention, and the opposite course, attention.
To sum up all: the aim of questioning, as indicated in
the statement of the purpose is to arouse thought, to
promote mental activity, to develop accuracy in all the
mental faculties instead of merely cultivating the verbal
memory at the expense of the higher faculties and
tendencies. That questioning is best which best stimu-
lates mental action in the pupil ; which according to
the principle of Jacotot, gives him a habit of thinking
and inquiring for himself; which tends to render him
independent; which makes him a skillful inquirer after,
rather than a receiver of truth. The success of ques-
tioning, as of teaching, is to be determined, not by the
amount of information that is imparted, but by the de-
gree to which the judgment of the pupils has been
strengthened, and their capacity to learn enlarged and
skilled ; by the degree in which it imparts to them an
inquiring spirit, which is a far surer basis for future ac-
quisitions than any amount of mere information can be.
It has been truly said that Socrates originated a system
of questioning that has been searching the world ever
480 THE THEORY OF THE SCHOOL.
since it was employed, and that has quickened the
perception of all generations; so that the result was that
he wh6 taught nothing produced disciples that learned
everything.
EXPLANATION.
There are two processes, both explanatory, which re-
quire to be distinguished — explanation proper and illus-
tration.
1. Explanation Proper.
" A word, as ' spectacle ' would be explained by say-
ing that it means a view or scene, or all that we can see
around us, or by some similar phrase.
The proverb, 'What a man sows, that shall he also
reap,' would be explained by saying that the conse-
quences of our actions will be influenced by their char-
acter, or the like.
And so the process of sugar making would be ex-
plained when an account of the successive steps in the
process is given.
Explanation proper, then, consists in stating an idea
or fact in its simplest form."
2. Elustration.
Illustration as here used, includes both illustration
proper and example.
Kinds of illustration :
Illustration is of three kinds :
a. Objective Illustration.
When the lesson is upon an object, whether an oral
lesson or a reading lesson, the thing should be at hand,
if possible, so that the qualities for which it is known
may be observed.
THE THEORY OF THE SCHOOL. 481
An object is sometimes referred to incidentally, in the
course of a lesson, to illustrate some of its topics ; in
such a case the illustration is seldom satisfactory with-
out the presence of the thing. This should not be neg-
lected, as it often is, because its presence is seemingly
immaterial ; the habit of verification which it fosters is
invaluable as a safe guard against vague or half-formed
ideas.
b. Pictorial Illustration.
As it is but a comparatively small number of objects
that can be brought under the notice of the class, how-
ever, the want must be supplied as far as it is practica-
ble, by pictorial illustration. This should be introduced
just at that point of the lesson where it is needed ; i. e.,
after verbal work, as a picture will always be examined
more efifectively when the curiosity has been awakened
by a previous description.
If the pupil is led to first form the image for himself
he will afterward compare with interest his ideal one
with the real.
The picture should not be presented to him before it
is to be used; otherwise it will supersede h is imagination
and its use will be less impressive.
c. Verbal Illustration.
Verbal illustration is two-fold : —
(1). The substitution of the particular for the gen-
eral.
Thus the word "spectacle" would be illustrated by
presenting to the imagination of the pupil some con-
spicuous point and causing him to realize that all that
is to be seen from it may be termed a "spectacle."
482 THE THEORY OF THE SCHOOL.
The illustration of "Whatsoever a man soweth, that
shall he also reap," would consist in referring the pupil
to the process of sowing the seed in the ground, and the
corresponding harvest.
A virtue or duty, such as truthfulness or honesty, is
illustrated in a story by which it is exemplified.
(2.) The substitution of one particular case for
another with which it is analogous.
Thus "the boiling of sugar may be compared to the
making of jelly, the melting of lead to that of wax,
or the action of any historical character to some sup-
posed similar one within one's own experience."
The marks of good illustration are three:
(a.) "Illustration should be apposite.
(b.) Illustration should be interesting ; i. e.,
must be drawn from something that has an interest for
the pupil. This implies that it be familiar ; it is no illus-
tration to refer a thing or case which is unknown to an-
other which is equally or more so.
(c.) Illustration should be clear and graphic."
In using illustrations two errors are to be avoided : —
(a.) "The failure to set forth the illustration
with sufficient amplitude to make an impression on the
minds of the class.
(b.) The overburdening of the lesson with
illustration. Important as illustration is, it must be
kept in its place of strict subordination to the thing
illustrated."
THE THEORY OF THE SCHOOL. 483
Repetition has already been referred to as iteration.
It is essential, especially in primary work, because
everything is new to the pupils, and their minds have
little power of retaining what they acquire.
The concluding part of a lesson is generally devoted
to a recapitulation of the leading points, but opportuni-
ties for incidental repetition continually occur in the
course of the lesson itself
There are two ways of repeating — the direct and the
indirect. Both are necessary.
In the former the thing is repeated in the precise form
in which it was first communicated; the design being to
impress the memory.
In the latter, the thing is repeated in another form ;
i. e., the class is required to express from one point of
view what was communicated from another.
This process, besides appealing to the memory, is the
educative process in every lesson.
PRtNCIPUS Of THE RECITATION.
1. The recitation is the predominant element of the
school ; all other agencies being auxiliary to it, and de-
signed to promote ito ends.
2. The true recitation is one in which the mind of
the teacher addresses the individual minds of the
pupils, in accordance with the actual condition of the
various minds, in order to lead them into communion
with the mind, made external to a degree, in the exer-
cise-ground.
3. The purpose of recitation is : —
484 THE THEORY OF THE SCHOOL.
a. To give the mind strength and skill, by exercis-
ing it upon the ideas involved in the object of study.
b. To give an insight into the true method of
study.
c. To test as to the knowledge and power gained
by the preparation for the lesson.
d. To supplement that which the pupil has
gained in his preparation.
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