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Vol. III. : ' \ ^ iiy:
TALKS ON TEACHING
By. FRANCIS W. PARKER,
PRINCIPAL COOK COUNTY AND CHICAGO NORMAL SCHOOL ;
AUTHOR OF "talks ON PEDAGOGICS," " HOW TO STUDY GEOGRAPHY,'
"suggestions ON TEACHING LANGUAGE," ETC.
REPORTED BY LELIA E. PATRIDGE.
FIFTEENTH EDITION. FROM NEW PL A TES.
NEW YORK AND CHICAGO :
E. L. KELLOGG & CO
1896,
Copyright, 1883,
By LELIA E. PATRIDGE.
Copyright transferred, 1893,
To FRANCIS W. PARKER.
EDUCATtON DEF^
ROBERT DRUMMONO, KLKCTBOTVPKB AND PRINTKR, NKW YORK.
CONTENTS.
PAGE
INTRODUCTION : Sketch of Col. Parker's Work 5
TALK I.— Preliminary 15
Technical Skill 19
TALK II.— Reading 22
TALK IIL— Reading.— The Word 26
TALK IV.— Reading.— Sentence 31
TALK v.— Reading.— Script 86
TALK VI.— Reading.— Phonics ' 41
TALK VII.— Reading.— Application of Principles 49
TALK VIII. — Reading. — Application of Principles. {Con-
tinued. ) 56
TALK IX.— Reading.— Application of Principles. {Concluded.). 62
TALK X.— Spelling 67
TALK XI.— Writing 71
TALK XII.— Talking with the Pencil 76
TALK XIII.— Talking with the Pencil. {Continued.) 79
TALK XIV.— Composition 86
TALK XV.— Number 92
TALK XVI.— Number. {Continued.) 100
TALK XVIL— Arithmetic 108
TALK XVm.— Geography 117
TALK XIX.— Geography. {Continued.) 123
TALK XX.— Geography. {Continued.) 130
TALK XXT.— Geography. {Concluded.) 185
TALK XXIL— History 140
TALK XXIII.— Examinations 147
TALK XXIV.— School Government 154
TALK XXV.— Moral Training 164
f>4 5 ;122
INTEODUCTION.
Theke is, perhaps, no name more widely known among the
teachers of this country than that of Col. Francis W. Parker.
The results of his supervision of the Quincy schools have made
him the most talked of, if not the most popular, educator of our
time. Whatever may be thought of him or his work — and it
would be idle to deny that opinions differ regarding both — he is
acknowledged, even by his opponents, to be one of those who are
destined to mould public opinion. Concerning such the world
is always curious. We desire to know their history, their en-
vironment, that we may judge their power.
Kemembering this, I have thought that something of the man,
as well as his methods, might prove interesting to the readers of
the ^* Notes." I have, therefore, persuaded Col. Parker to give
me the salient points of his life, more especially those that bear
upon his career as a teacher, and these I have thrown into shape
and order in the sketch which follows.
Francis Wayland Parker, born October 9th, 1837, in the town
of Bedford (now Manchester), N. H., came of a race of scholars
and teachers. His great-grandfather on his mother^s side was
Librarian of Harvard College, and a class-mate of Hancock.
His mother taught for several years before her marriage, show-
ing marked originality in her methods; and all her children
were born teachers.
5
6 Introduction,
From earliest childhood he thought and talked of being a
teacher. It was always his dream, and his one ambition. His
father dying when Francis was but six years old, at eight the
boy was bound out, according to New England phrase, that is,
apprenticed to a farmer till he was twenty-one. But nature was
too strong for circumstance. A farmer he could not, would not
be, and at the age of thirteen he broke his bonds, and started
out into the world for himself. Without money, influence, or
friends, for he had angered his relatives by this move, he strug-
gled on for the next four years, doing whatever he could find to
do, and going to school whenever opportunity offered. Then
he put his foot on the first round of the ladder; he obtained his
first school. It was at Corser Hill, Boscawen (now Webster), and
he was paid fifteen dollars per month.
This venture proved successful, though many of his pupils
were older than their teacher, and some (he says) knew more.
The next winter he taught at Over-the-Brook in the town of
Auburn, for seventeen dollars a month, and "boarded around."
From this time his services were in such demand in the town
that he taught not only the winter schools for the next three
years, but opened a ** select school" on his own account during
the autumn months. One term of teaching in Hinsdale, and
one in the grammar school of his native village, ended his work
in New England for several years.
In the fall of 1859 he received a call to the principalship of
the graded school at Carrollton, 111., and there he remained till
the breaking out of the war in the spring of 1861. Finding,
then, that loyalty to " the Union was the one qualification in a
school-master for which they had no use in that vicinity, he re-
igned his position before his committee had fully decided that
they wished for it, and was immediately offered a better one with
;i higher salary at Alton, 111. This ho declined and started for
llie East, where he at once enrolled as a private in the Fourth
Introduction. 7
New Hampshire Eegiment just forming. He fought all through
the war, became lieutenant, captain, lieutenant-colonel, and
brevet-colonel. He was wounded in the throat and chin at the
battle of Deep Bottom, August 16th, 1864, was taken prisoner
by the confederates at Magnolia, N. C, and released just as peace
was declared. Then with the remnant of his regiment he re-
turned to New Hampshire, and was mustered out of service
August, 1865.
At the call of his country he had left the school-room ; now
she required his services in the field no longer. Where next ?
Many ways were open to his choice. Military preferment, po-
litical office, excellent business positions were offered to him at
this time, but he declined them all. His passion for teaching
was too strong for these to tempt him. He never wavered for a
moment, not even when his best worldly interests seemed to be
at stake. A teacher he was born, a teacher he would live and
die. He accepted the principalship of the North Grammar
School of Manchester, N. H., at a salary of eleven hundred dol-
lars, and held the position for three years. From there he went
to Dayton, Ohio, in 1869, to take charge of the school in Dis-
trict No. 1. Here he had the supervision not only of the gram-
mar grades, but of the primary; and now his primary work
began. He had all along had his own way of doing things, and
had from the very first his conception of how teaching should be
done. Indeed, he tells, with some amusement at his own au-
dacity, that when only eight years old he rose in school one
day and informed the teacher that he didn't know how to teach!
Even war, with all its horrors, did not wholly absorb his mind
from its favorite theme. Often, as he sat before the camp-fire,
or lay in his tent at night, he studied how the mind grows, and
planned many of the methods which have since made him fa-
mous. It was in Manchester, where he used to work all day,
and then spend half the night preparing for the next, that he
8 Introduction.
first began to apply his theories. But in the primary schools of
Dayton he felt for the first time that he had begun at the begin-
ning of the great work of mind development. At the end of
the year he became principal of the Dayton Normal School, a
position he held for two years, being then elected assistant
superintendent of the city schools.
No one who steps out of the beaten track can walk long in his
new path unchallenged. To desert the old, to fail in respect for
the traditional, to imply that customary ways of doing things
might not be the best ways, is treason, and high treason. This
Col. Parker was made to feel, and feel keenly. Though a sol-
dier, he loved peace better than war, but he began to see, as
time weat on, that his fighting days were not yet over. More
and more he found himself antagonizing the convictions of his
fellow-teachers, as day by day he grew away from the time-
honored traditions of his vocation. They would not agree to
his views, he could not agree to theirs; and one party must be
in the wrong — which was it ? Where did truth lie ? It would
seem with the majority. But he would not give up what seemed
to him so clearly right without reasons. He would consult the
highest authorities in the art of teaching, and learn if he were
wrong. Accordingly, in the fall of 1872, he went to Germany,
and entered King William's University, at Berlin, for a two
years' course in philosophy, history, and pedagogics.
It need not be said that his opinions found confirmation strong
in that centre of intellectual development; and he returned to
his native land eager for an opportunity to put his theories, now
fully fledged, into practice. When it comes to pass in this world
that the right man finds the right place, we have a way of say-
ing, **TIow very providential!" as if affairs were only occasion-
ally under tlie care of Providence. But it was certainly a sin-
gularly happy coincidence that just about this time one of the
most intelligent school committees of these United States, lo-
Introduction. 9
cated at Quincy, Mass., made a discovery which forced them to
a conclusion, and that in turn decided them to make an experi-
ment. Their discovery was that after eight years of attendance
in the public schools ^^the children could neither write with
facility nor read fluently ; nor could they speak or spell their own
language very perfectly." Their conclusion was ^^that the
whole existing system was wrong — a system from which the life
had gone out. The school year had become one long period of
diffusion and cram, and smatter had become the order of the
day."
[It is not to be understood by this that the Quincy schools
were any worse than the average, but merely that they had a
committee intelligent enough to comprehend their true condi-
tion.]
Acting on this conclusion, they had decided to try to remedy
matters. But they were busy men, not specialists in education,
and wise enough to know that they were unequal to this difficult
and delicate work. Thus they had come to the decision to find
some one to do it for them. They would try the experiment of
having a Superintendent of Schools. That committee found the
man they sought in Francis W. Parker. So Col. Parker went
to Quincy, and nothing since the time of Horace Mann has
created such a sensation as his five years' supervision of those
schools.
Said his committee in their report after he had left them:
" For five years the town had the benefit of his faithful, intelli-
gent, and enthusiastic services. In these years he transformed
our public schools. He found them machines, he left them liv-
ing organisms ; drill gave way to growth, and the weary prison be-
came a pleasure-house. His dominant intelligence as a master,
and his pervasive magnetism as a man, informed his school- work.
He breathed life, growth, and happiness into our school-rooms.
The results are plain to be seen before the eyes of every one,
16 Introduction.
solid, substantial, unmistakable. They cannot be gainsaid, or
successfully questioned." Said Charles Francis Adams, Jr., in
his paper on the ^' New Departure in the Common Schools of
Quincy ": ^' The revolution was all-pervading. Nothing escaped
its influence; it began with the alphabet, and extended into the
latest effort of the grammar-school course. So daring an experi-
ment as this can, however, be tested in but one way — by its
practical results, as proven by the experience of a number of
years, and testified to by parents and teachers. Out of five hun-
dred grammar-school children, taken promiscuously from all the
schools, no less than four hundred showed results which were
either excellent or satisfactory, while its advantages are ques-
tioned by none, least of all by teachers and parents. . . . The
quality of the instruction given has been immeasurably im-
proved. "
Such a success as this, heralded abroad by the thousands who
visited the Quincy schools, could not fail to bring advancement
in its train. Accordingly, when in 1880 Boston gave the coun-
try superintendent a call to ''come up higher," and be one of
its supervisors, he accepted, and at the expiration of his time of
service (two years) was re-elected for a second term. In Octo-
ber, 1882, Col. Parker received an urgent call to the principal-
ship of the Cook County Normal School (just outside Chicago),
at a salary of five thousand dollars ; and later, the same year, was
offered the superintendency of the city of Philadelphia, at a still
higher salary. In December he resigned his position in Boston,
and, yielding to his overmastering desire to teach, declined the
office of superintendent, which Philadelphia would gladly have
i^qven him, and accepted instead the charge of the Normal School
in Illinois. The first day of January, 1883, he entered upon his
duties as principal of the Cook County Normal School, where he
is now working with all his characteristic force and spirit.
With greater opportunities than have ever been granted to him
Introduction, it
before, witli an experience broadened and deepened by the fail-
ures and successes of the past, with his old-time energy and en-
thusiasm no whit abated, we have faith to believe that the future
will show results which shall make what he has done in the past
seem but the crudest of beginnings. L. E. P.
TALKS ON TEACHING
TALK I.
PRELIMINARY.
I SHALL try in these lessons to help you learn j^ttitude of
more of the great art of teaching. "We have come tSward^the
from widely different sections, and are, for the most ^°^^'
part, strangers to each other, and may find it a little
difficult at first to draw together. But a common
interest will unite us in the bonds of sympathy and
good-fellowship. We have all seen teachers who
were so self-satisfied that they seemed — to their own
minds — to have rounded the circle of teaching,
made the circuit of knowledge and skill complete,
and closed their minds against the entrance of all
further impressions. Such can never learn till the
barriers of conceit behind which they have in-
trenched themselves are broken down. There are
others, the opposite of those just described, who
stand like empty pitchers waiting to be filled ; they
accept any and all methods which are popular, or
have some show of authority. Such teachers are
imitators merely, and will change when any novelty
15
i6 Talks on Teaching,
is brought to their notice. Ko one was ever great
by imitation; imitative power never leads up to
creative power. Just here let me say that I shall
object quite as strongly to your taking unquestioned,
the methods which I may present, as I should
to your acceptance of others in which I do not
believe.
Foundation Again, there are teachers who have some good
.r^true judg:- ^^yg^ \^^i ^j^q ^pg g^^ prejudiced that they have no
regard for anything outside their own work;
they cling to the old, have a ready-made objection
to the new, and have ceased to examine. Facts are
the eyes through which we see laws. There is no
better founded pedagogical rule than that the facts
must be known before generalizations can be. It
follows, then, logically, first, that we cannot know
which is the better of two methods without know-
ing both ; second, that we cannot know which is
the best without knowing all ; and, third, that we
cannot know any method without knowing the
principles which the method applies. Finally, no
one can fairly judge a method by seeing it in
operation once or twice, because the application
may not be correct, and that cannot be judged
unless the foundation principles are known.
Price of sue- The great difficulty in the way is that teachers
are not willing to pay the price of genuine success
— that is, untiring study in the most economical
directions — hard labor. The demand for good
teaching was never so great aa now, and no matter
where you are if your work is good it will attract
attention.
Preliminary. 17
I liave been often asked to explain the so-called The Qrincy
Quincy system. So far as I have been able to it is.
understand this system, it does not consist of
methods with certain fixed details, but rather pre-
sents the art of teaching as the greatest art in all
the world ; and because it is the greatest art de-
mands two things : first, an honest, earnest investi-
gation of the truth as found in the learning mind
and the subjects taught; and, second, the coura-
geous application of the truth when found. In the
talks which follow the only real substantial help I
can give you is to aid you in such investigation.
All the truths that you may learn must be dis-
covered by yourselves. In this way alone truth is
made a living power. J^othing is farther from my
present purpose than to have you take what I shall
say without the most careful scrutiny. The great
mass of teachers simply follow tradition, without
questioning whether it be right or wrong, and it
requires very little mental action to glide in the ruts
of old ways.
The work of the next hundred years will be to break
away from traditional forms and come back to natural
methods.
Every act has a motive, and it is the motive which False and
. true motives
colors, directs, forms the action. Consequently, if we 0^ education,
would understand the educational work of to-day,
we must know its motive, bearing in mind the fact
that due allowance must be made for the stupefying
effects of long-established usage. The motive com-
monly held up is the acquisition of a certain degree
of skill and an amount of knowledge. The quantity
1 8 Talks on Teaching,
of skill and knowledge is generally fixed by courses
of study and the conventional examinations. This
is a mistake. In contrast with this false motive of
education, to wdt, the gaining of skill and knowl-
edge, I place what I firmly believe to be the true
motive of all education, which is the harmonious
development of the human being, body, mind, and
soul. This truth has come to us gradually and in
fragments from the great teachers and thinkers of
the past.
Definition of ^ It was two hundred years ago that Comenius
said, ' ' Let things that have to be done be learned
by doing them. ' ' Following this, but broader and
deeper in its significance, came Pestalozzi's declara-
tion, ' ' Education is the generation of power. ' '
End and aim Last of all, Summing up the wisdom of those who
had preceded him, and embodying it in one grand
principle, Froebel announced the true end and aim
of all our work — the harmonious growth of the
whole being. This is the central point. Every
act, thought, plan, method, and question should lead
to this. Knowledge and skill are simply the means,
and not the end, and these are to work toward the
symmetrical upbuilding of the whole being. An-
other name for this symmetrical upbuilding is
character, which should be the end and aim of all
education. There are two factors in this process :
first, the inborn, inherited powers of the mind;
and, second, the environment of the mind, which
embraces, so far as the teacher is concerned, the
subjects taught. The subjects taught, then, are the
means of mental development. y
Preliminary, 19
To aid in the mind's development the teacher what the
must know, first, the means of mental and moral ^ow!^ ^^^
growth, which are found in the subjects taught;
and, second, the mental laws by which alone these
means can be applied. Knowing the mind and the ^
means, he can work toward the end, which is
growth. Method is the adaptation of means of
growth to mind to be developed, and natural
method is the exact adaptation of means of growth
to mind to be developed. To acquire a knowledge
of the mind and of the means by which the mind
may be developed is the study of a lifetime. Let
us stand with humility before immensity.
In the beffinnine:, then, the study of methods stndy of
., . . . -.^ . -. ' , "^T . T principles in-
aside irom principles is 01 little use ; thereiore that dispensawe.
investigation should lead to a knowledge of princi-
ples is all-important. There are two lines of inves-
tigation : The direct one is the study of mental laws,
or the investigation of the facts out of which the
generalization of principles is made. The second,
and indirect, way is the study of the application of *
methods in detail in order to discover through such
details the principles from which they spring. Let
no teacher rest satisfied with a study of the mere
details of methods, but use them as illustrating and
leading back to principles.
TECHNICAL SKILL.
In order to train children how to do we must be
able to do ourselves ; hence the great importance of
that preparation on the part of a teacher which will
result in skill in the technics of school work. First
In singing.
20 Talks on Teaching.
Vocal cnitnre. of all the voice should be trained, for a clear mu-
sical voice is one of the teacher's most potent quali-
fications for success, and cannot be overrated. Drill
in phonics is necessarv, not onlv to ffain the abilitv
DriU in . . .i i " . . *^ . , , . ,
piionics. to give the slow pronunciation with ease and with
natural inflections, but as an aid to perfect articula-
Trainin in *^^^ ^^^ pronunciation. That every teacher should
rej^in| and be an expressive reader is self-evident, but it might
not occur to all that to be an eloquent talker is also
one of the requisites demanded by the New Meth-
ods. Faults of tone, modulation, and manner are
propagated by the teacher, as well as false syntax
Cultivation ^^^ incorrect pronunciation. Then, too, every
teacher should be able to sing, and sing well. Music
fills the air with beauty, and in the school-room
everything should be quiet and musical, with never
a harsh note. Failing in this the school lacks har-
Practice in mony. Writing is the second great means of lan-
guage expression, and should follow immediately up-
on talking. A teacher who cannot write well cannot
teach writing well ; for the copy on the blackboard
should be well nigh perfect. Skill is the expression
of power, and drawing is the second best way of
expressing thought. Given the skill to draw anci
drawing. a teacher is never helpless, for then he can teach,
even if everything else is taken away. Besides, I
see a future in drawing which I see in nothing else
in the way of developing the mental powers ; hence
the demands made upon teachers for knowledge and
skill in this art must increase with every year.
Learning to Moulding in sand is one of the best possible ways to
monld in sand ,1 1 1111 1 i*
and clay. tcach geographer, and should precede map-drawing.
penmanship.
Exercise in
Preliminary, 21
Moulding in clay is a valuable means of form-teach-
ing, and is also the best of preparations for drawing.
Last of all, gynmastics — the training of the whole Ggmnastic
body — is of the utmost importance, note only to in-
sure symmetrical physical development, but to aid
in the estabhshment of good order. Mental action,
as you know, depends largely upon physical condi-
tions, and therefore we should train the body that
the mind may act. Believing that the skill of the
teacher in these directions measures in a great de-
gree his power to do good work, I have endeavored
in this course of lessons to provide you with the best
of teachers for these different departments. Now, a
word of caution : Time and strength are both limited,
therefore don't try too much; but that you may
become experts in these technical matters let me
add, whatever you do try, be sure to follow it up.
TALK II.
EVADING.
In the teaching of any subject it is of great im-
importance portance that we have a clear definition of what we
* teach. Not a definition in words alone, but a defi-
nition in thought that comprehends what we teach
in the most definite manner. The question before
"^^t is us is, What is reading? The answer to this ques-
tion that I shall give is, Reading is getting thought
by means of written or printed words arranged in
sentences. Thought may be defined as ideas in re-
lation. Ideas are either sense products, or deriva-
tions from sense products. We get thought, first,
by seeing objects in their relations; second, by
thinking of things in their relations without their
presence ; third, by seeing pictures or drawings of
objects in their relations ; and, fourth, by language.
How we get We get thought by language in two ways : first,
**^' * by the spoken language, and, second, by the wntten
or printed language. To illustrate, I put this hat
upon the table. Here you see the relation of two
objects, and you think, The hat is on the tahU. I
draw or sketch the hat on the table, and it brings to
your mind the thought. The hat is on the tahU. I
say, '' The hat is on the table," and you thhik the
same. I write on the board the sentence. The hat
is on the tahle^ and that conveys to your mind tlie
Reading, 23
same ideas in their relations. Thus we get the same
thought in four ways ; the only difference in the re-
sult is that the thought gained from seeing objects
in their relations is generally clearer.
Hearing language is getting thought by means Difference
of spoken words arranged in sentences. Eeading, ^gTSgu^g^"
as I have said, is getting thought by means of^ "^ ^*
written or printed words arranged in sentences.
It would be well for us to examine these two oper-
ations, hearing language, and reading, in order to
see in what they are alike, and in what they differ.
The arrangement of words in sentences, that is, the
idioms, are precisely alike. The thought in the
mind, gained either from hearing language or read-
ing, is identical. The only difference lies, then, in
the fact that in one case the word is spoken, and
in the other it is written or printed. I am sure
you have said, as I have given my definition, that
reading is the oral expression of thought. That is
oral reading. But you will see at once that we Definition of
may get thought — and by far the greater part of
reading is confined to this process — and not give it
to others by means of the voice. If we compre-
hend oral reading in our definition, we should say
that reading is the getting and giving of thought
by means of words arranged in sentences.
Not less in importance to the definition of read- preparation
ing is the thorough knowledge of the preparation Sr reaing.^
a child has made for learning to read, how he has
made it, and exactly what is to be done in learning
to read. This may be briefly stated thus : First, a
child has acquired ideas from the external world by
24 Talks on Teaching,
means of his senses. Second, lie knows the ideas
in tlieir relations, that is, he has thoughts. Third,
the child has associated spoken words with these
ideas. Fourth, he has associated idioms or fonns
of sentences with his thoughts. Fifth, he has
learned to utter these words and idioms in order to
express his thoughts. Tliis is a brief sunnnary of
the process of learning to talk. How he has done
this will be discussed in another place. Exactly
haTto do^to what the child has to do in order to learn to read
learn to read. ^^^^ ^^ clearly stated thus : The ideas that he has
associated with spoken words are to be associated
with written or printed words. If I am not mis-
taken, this is the sum and substance of learning to
read.
The cwid's Oral reading may be further defined as the vocal
sion.*^*"*" expression of thought that is gained by written or
printed words. A child has already learned to ex-
press thought orally by means of five or six years'
continual practice. The emphasis, inflection, and
melody of most children's voices can rarely be im-
proved. The child should be trained in no new
way, then, of expressing thought in oral reading.
Unfortunately the beauty and strength of what the
child has already gained is entirely ignored, and a
new and very painful process of oral expression is
Fimction of initiated. "Wliat is the use of oral reading? Talk-
ing enables us to see the thought in the child's
mind; oral reading to the teacher has no other
use. Oral reading, then, enables the teacher to
know whether the thought is in the child's mind in
its fulness, strength, and intensity. If, however,
Reading. ^5
the long preparation of the child in talking is over-
looked, and a new and stumbling process of slowly
pronouncing words is begun, the indispensable
function of oral reading is entirely destroyed.
The thought may or may not be in the child's
mind, his half -groaning utterances never reveal
the fact.
What is the use of reading? We return to our xhe use of
definition : Reading is getting thought by means of ^®^* reading.
written or printed words arranged in sentences.
Comprehensively stated, reading opens to the
mind all the learning and erudition of the past.
To the teacher, however, it is of the utmost im-
portance, for reading is thinking, and thinking is
the mind's mode of action ; and all mental develop-
ment is rightly directed toward action. Study of
text-books, then, if it differ from reading, the dif-
ference may be found simply and solely in inten-
sity. In study the thought gained may be clearer
and more complete than in mere reading. You importance
can judge for yourselves, then, fellow- teachers, of its^o^freadicT
what immense importance it is for the little child
to form correct habits of reading ; and you know
by experience how easily incorrect habits may be
cultivated, habits that will dishearten a child in his
attempts to read, and make words, instead of being
clear mediums of getting thought, actual barriers
to the truth they were intended to convey.
TALK III.
READING. THE WORD.
How child The child at five years of ae:e lias acquired ideas
acquires the . '^ . ^ ^ , . ,
spoken word, m tlieir relations, has associated spoken words with
these ideas, and idioms with the thoughts or related
ideas. The process of learning to read, then,
must consist of learning to use the written and
printed word precisely as he has used the spoken
words. Learning to read is learning a vocabulary
of written and printed words, so that the child may
get thought through the eye as he has done through
the ear. It is a matter of great interest to the teacher
of little ones to know just how the child acquires the
The law of spoken words. The process is a very simple one ;
""^^ °^* an object is presented and the word spoken. Tliat
is, the idea produced by the object and the spoken
word are associated in one act of the mind, which
we call an act of association. We all know that
only by means of a mysterious mental law, called
the law of association, are we enabled to recollect
anything. Words are used under this law to re-
call ideas. The word recalls an idea after a cer-
tain number of repetitions of these acts of associa-
tion. In the same way related ideas are associated
with idioms or sentence-forms.
26
Reading. — The JVord, 27
Every act of the mind is affected by some stimulus The mental
•^ '^ stimulus.
or mental excitement coming eitlier from without or
within the mind. As a rule, the greater the stim-
ulus the more effective the act. The little child,
for instance, sees an elephant for the first time.
The sight of the huge, strange beast stimulates
the mental action of the child to an unwonted de-
gree. The perjDctual question of the little one,
" What is that? " comes to his lips with great fer-
vor. The answer, "The elephant, my child,"
will be likely to remain in its mind forever. The
spoken word, then, is acquired by repeated acts of
association. The number of these acts necessary
depends in a great degree upon the stimulus of each
act. For instance, the greater the stimulus the less
the number of acts of association required, and vice
versa. What we have said of words may also be
applied to the learning of idioms.
!N^ow, the question is, In learning the new means Association
j: it -j V £ ^1, -xx J of words witH
of recalling ideas by means 01 the written words ideas,
should there be the slightest change in the general
method? A word is used simply and solely to recall
an idea. It has no other use. It can be learned
only by association with the idea recalled ; and the
sole question for the teacher is to know how best
to associate words with ideas. I think we can lay
down this one rule as fundamental : In all the teach-
ing and the study of the art of teaching little chil-
dren to read, that that which aids directly in
acts of association of words with their appropriate
ideas aids the child in learning to read, and any
other method, detail of method or device that does
28
Talks on Teaching,
not aid the mind in these acts hinders the child In
learning to read. To this one rule, then, all our
discussion of the art of teaching reading must re-
turn. Everything must be reconciled with this or
it is wrong.
The first question, then, is. What is the best way
of bringing about the acts of association with the
best possible stimulus? It is plain common-sense
to continue the method that has developed a fixed
and powerful habit of learning new words, namely,
the presentation of objects as the highest and best
stimulus to acts of association. This is strikingly
true in teaching the first few words. The written
or printed word is a new, strange object. It repels
rather than attracts. No stimulus, then, can be
found in the strange hieroglyphics that look more
mysterious to the child than Hebrew or Sanscrit do
to us. Tide the child over his first difficulties by
using the active energy of a fixed habit. Simply
repeat that which has been repeated thousands of
times, present the object (a favorite one of the
child's), and say the word, not with the lips, but
with the chalk. The child's consciousness is filled
with interest for the object, leaving just room
enough for the new form to find a resting-place.
On the other hand, try to fill the child's mind with
the word itself, and you fill his soul with disgust.
The word as The spoken word has been learned as a whole.
wnoie. j^ -g ^Q^Q complex, and therefore more difficult to
learn, than the written word. Every spoken word
is learned as a whole, and wo have no reason to be-
the slightest consciousness
The object
lieve that the child has
Reading. — The Word, 29
that the spoken word has any elementary parts.
The attempt ^ teach him the elementary parts of a
spoken word while he is learning to talk would
prove disastrous. Why, then, should not the writ-
ten word be learned as a whole? Why introduce
a new process when the old one has been so effect-
ual? Indeed, there is no doubt that any attempt
to separate the written word into parts, or to com-
bine the parts of a word into a whole, directly and
effectually hinders the acts of association, and there-
fore obstructs the action of the child's mind in
learning to read. The tendency of unscientific
teaching has set steadily and strongly for the last
thirty years toward woeful and useless complications
in details of instruction. The return to real teach-
ing is signalized by a strong leaning toward sim-
plicity. The height of the art of teaching, as in all
other lesser arts, is found in simplicity. Hold up the
object and write the name. Say just enough to lead
to the proper mental action and no more. The
fewer words the better. Begin with objects. Se-
lect those objects most interesting to the child.
Next to objects I shall place sketches upon the Devices to
blackboard, done in the presence of the child, so ^ ^^ '
they may be associated with the names of the things
drawn, and the sentences that express the relations
of the objects. Third, pictures may be used effec-
tively. Fourth, conversations of the teacher that
will bring the ideas to be associated with words vividly
into the child's consciousness. Fifth, stories may
be told with the same result. How long should
objects be used? Until the child will actively asso-
30 Talks on Teaching,
ciate new words with ideas without the presence of
the objects or pictures of the objects, tliat produced
the ideas. E^o teacher wlio watches the faces of her
httle ones will fail to note when this time has fully
come.
If the principles that I have here given are true,
then you will have a basis of truth for tlie discus-
sion of the art of teaching little children to
read. This method, to use a popular but not a cor-
rect term, may be called the associative or objective
method. Learning the word as a whole, without
trying to fix the child's attention upon its parts be-
fore it becomes a clear object in the mind, is called
the ' ' word method. ' '
Writing: the The question no doubt will arise in your minds,
if the old alphabet method is entirely laid aside and
the phonic method is not used at the outset for the
analysis of words : How is the form of the word
fixed in the mind ? The answer is a simple one :
The best way to fix any form in the mind is to draw
it.
TALK IV.
READING. THE SENTENCE.
I WILL repeat the fundamental principle of the art j^gg^j^e ^f
of teaching reading. Learning to read is learning previous talk,
a vocabulary of written and printed words. Each
word is learned by repeated acts of association of the
idea and the word. That which helps in these acts
of association, and that alone, should be used in
teaching reading. All other means are hindrances.
I have shown that the effectiveness of the acts of
association depends on the stimulus or excitement
to the act. This stimulus comes primarily and
mainly from the side of the idea. The vivid-
ness of the idea or mental picture in the conscious-
ness, with the appropriate word, determines the re-
sult. The greatest difficulty to be found in the proc-
ess of learning to read is in learning the first few
words. The habit, so strong in the mind, of learn-
ing the spoken word is to be carried over and used
as a power in learning the written word. The
word itself should be subordinate and secondary in
interest to the child to the idea that excites the
mind. The word is to be learned consciously as a
whole, and any attempt to analyze or synthesize it
hinders the act of association by absorbing the atten-
tion. The means used to arouse the mind to acts of
31
$2 Talks on Teaching.
association, I liave told yon, are, objects, drawings
upon the blackboard, made under the eye of the
Another Pupil, pictures, Conversations, and stories. But
means of asso- i . i , .,,
ciation.-The tliere IS another and still stronsjer means of associa-
sentence. •/•!/?
tion after the nrst few words have been learned, and
that is the arrangement of words that recalls ideas
in their relations or thought. Every object that
we recall or think of is recalled in space. The
more interesting the relation of the ideas one to an-
other the stronger will be the association. That is,
it is a great help in learning words to learn them in
sentences. We do not learn the word in order to
read the sentence, but we read the sentence in or-
Bt^*fkS.^^*** der to learn tlie word. The question may here be
®^**^ * asked, Why not begin with the sentence, as many
do with great success? My answer is that the first
written words, as I have said, present the greatest
difficulties to the child. We can hardly compre-
hend how mysterious the strange forms are to the
little one. We may get an inkling of the trouble
if we have ever begun Greek, Hebrew, or Sanscrit.
We may recall the fear that came over us wdien we
looked forward to the time when we must use the
meaningless forms to get thought. The successful
learning of the first few words, it seems to me, de-
pends upon presenting the simplest obstacle to be
overcome, and in making the child, the little learner,
as unconscious as possible of the difficulty. The
simplest step, then, consists in following a fixed and
powerful habit of the child, by presenting a favor-
ite object, and saying with the chalk just what the
tongue has so often repeated. I have no doubt but
Reading. — The Sentence. 33
what the skilful teacher could successfully begin
with a whole sentence. My point is that it is
much simpler and easier to begin with the single
words. Just as soon, however, as a few words have
been learned, for instance, fifteen or twenty, short
sentences should be taught by the objective plan ;
so that when the child sees the sentence he is able
to get the thought that it expresses. There are
many words that mean nothing alone which should
always be taught in phrases or sentences.
We come now to the discussion of oral reading, xhe sentence
or getting thought by means of written or printed ™®^*^°*^*
words arranged in sentences. A thought is ideas
in their relations, and may be called the unit of
mental action. A sentence, therefore, is the unit
of expression. We cannot learn a single word
without recalling the idea it expresses in some rela-
tion. You will remember what I have said con-
cerning the different ways of getting thought. First,
directly through the senses, by seeing, hearing, etc. ,
objects in their relations. Second, by pictures and
drawings. Third, by language, both oral and writ-
ten. In all these cases the thought is the same in
the mind, differing only in degrees of intensity.
The written sentence is simply one way of getting
thought. The child has already, by long and con-
tinued practice, learned to talk, and to talk well.
One thing above all others I wish to impress upon
your minds, here and now : Do not teach him to n^Sr^^ex^**
talk in any other way — that is, when he gets the JetSned! *° ^
thought by means of the written sentence, let him
say it as he always has. Changing the beautiful
34 Talks on Teaching,
power of expression, full of melody, liarmony, and
correct emphasis and inflection, to the slow, painful,
almost agonizing pronunciation that we have heard
60 many times in the school-room is a terrible sin
that we should never be guilty of. There is indeed
not the slightest need of changing a good habit to a
miserable one if we would follow the rule that the
child has naturally followed all his life. Never
Getting the ^^^ow a child to give a thought until he gets it.
^vffg \t.*^*" I^^ri^ember, and keep on remembering, my dear
teachers, that the child has learned to talk, and that
that teaching which mangles this grand power is
needless and worse than useless. Let the child get
the thought himself, in the easiest possible way, by
means of the written sentences. One of the worst
ways of teaching reading may be called, for want
oMmit™tSiL!* c>f ^ better term, tlie method of imitation. Now
you will see that the valuable act of the mind, the
thing to be done, is the child's getting the thought
for himself and by himself by the means, I repeat,
of written words. If the teacher reads the sentence
to the child, the child gets the thought through the
ear from the teacher's lips, and the one thing he
ought to do is prevented. I do not wish to be un-
derstood that the teacher should not read to tlie
child. The teacher should make herself the best
possible model of good reading, and through her
reading present a high ideal of expression for the
child to attain. What I wish to impress upon you
is the one pedagogical principle that stands above
all others — we learn to do by doing. Oral reading
has one function, one use to the teacher; it is a
Reading,— The Sentence, 35
means of knowing, as I have said in a former talk,
whether the thought is in the mind of the reader,
how it is there, if every relation is known, and the
intensity of the thought felt by the reader. This
grand function of oral reading may be perverted or
entirely destroyed. First and foremost, by not
waiting for the child to get the whole thought be-
fore he gives it. Second, by training the child to
imitate the teacher's voice, her pauses, emphasis,
and inflection; and, third, by a useless struggle
with the parts of the word in forcing analysis before
the whole word is clearly in the mind. The alpha-
bet method is the best possible means of obstructing
the mental action of the child in learning to read ;
too early phonic analysis the next. With the child
thought has always controlled expression. Why
should we throw this grand power aside, and try to
teach a child oral expression by means of pauses and
imitated inflection and emphasis? The initial cap-
ital of a sentence and the punctuation have one use —
they enable the child to get the thought. When
the thought is in the mind, they have no use.
You will see, then, that if you follow the principle.
Thought controls expression, much of the labor
and toil of the teacher, in trying to force artificial
expression by training a child to pause at commas
and periods, to raise the voice or let it fall at the end
of sentences, to give stress when they see diacritical
marks, is not only useless, but positively injurious
and nonsensical.
TALK V.
BEADING. SCRIPT.
The written The written word to tlie little child has no ele-
word.
inent of attraction. It is, on the other hand, a
repelling object. I have tried to show how the
difficulties of learning the first words may be over-
come by the stimulus of the idea in acts of associa-
tion. It is a matter of great importance to steadily
overcome the repulsion occasioned by the written
word. This repulsion will grow less and less, and
the acts of association will be made easier by con-
tinued familiarity with the new forms, if the
interest and the appetite of the child for words is
sedulously cultivated, through the pleasure that the
objects and pictures excite. All words are made,
as you know, of only twenty-six different forms.
The less the mental action it requires to see these
forms the easier will be the acts of association. It
is important to impress these forms upon the mind
in an easy, natural, semi-unconscious way. As I
have shown, the best possible way to impress the
word-forms upon the mind is to write them — to
make them. We hear the objection very often
that a child does not learn the letters by the new
method. He does not learn their names, but he
36
Reading.— Script. 37
learns them by continually making tliem. "What is
the best proof that any object is clearly in the
mind? A word description is weak beside the
representation of the object in drawing. ThiSp^^'**"'^®""^
brings us to the question so often mooted, whether
we should use print at the beginning, or print and
script, or script alone. I will try and present the
arguments in favor of using script alone, not deny-
ing, however, that script and print may be used at
the same time with good effect. When two or
more ways of teaching are presented, all of which
may be defended by good reasons, reasons that do
not directly violate a principle, the question of
choice then becomes a question of economy. If we
begin with print, it certainly fixes the printed forms
in the mind by reproducing them on the slates, so
that if the teacher uses print alone at the beginning
she should train the children to make the printed
forms. But making the printed forms is not a
means of expression that a child ever uses after the
first few months, or the first year. Writing is the
second great means of language expression. It
should be put into the power of the child just as
soon as possible, in order that he may express his
thoughts as freely with the pencil as with the
tongue. This fact needs no argument. Written
expression is as great a help to mental development
as oral expression ; and, indeed, in many respects
it stands higher. Written expression is silent ; the
child must give his own thought, in his own way,
thus developing individuality. The greatest diffi-
culty in all teaching in our graded schools is the
38 Talks on Teaching.
sinking of the individual in the mass. In written
expression we find a means of reaching individu-
ality through the mass. Why not, then, begin at
the beginning with this mode of expression that the
child must use all his life, and every day of his
life?
The change Why not teach printing and script together?
from script to .^^ *^ . . , \ ^ ^ ^ ^ . ^. .
print. iiecause it violates the rule of periect simplicity.
Train the child to use one set of forms, made in
one way, and one alone. In my experience, ex-
tending over eleven years of supervision of primary-
schools, I have never known the failure of a single
class to change from script to print, easily and
readily, in one or two days. What, then, is the
use of print at first? What logical reason can be
given for its use if the step from script to print is
Advantages SO very simple? The writing of the words by the
method?*^^* child on blackboard, slates, and paper furnishes a
vast amount of very interesting and profitable busy
work. In writing the first word the child begins
spelling in the only true way. In writmg the first
sentence the child makes the capitals and punctua-
tion-marks, and if he is never allowed to make a
form incorrectly it will be almost impossible for
him ever to write a sentence incorrectly — that is,
beginning it with a small letter, or not using the
proper punctuation at the end. In writing the
words the child follows exactly the method of
learning the spoken language. Spelling is the
precise correlative of pronunciation. The child
hears the spoken word and strives to reproduce it
by his voice. The child sees the written word and
Reading, — Script, 39
reproduces it with his pencil. He gets the thought
by means of the written word, and gives it back
just as he gets it — he is talking with his pencil.
He is ready to tell you any time, orally, what he is
writing.
In the first three years' work talking with the
pencil may be used as a greater means of learning
to read than all the books of supplementary reading.
When the child writes the first word, the unity of
all language-teaching is begun. Getting thought
and giving thought by spoken and written words
should be united at the start, and grow through all
future development as from one root.
What advantages has the blackboard and crayon Reasons for
over the chart and printed book in elementary blackboard,
reading? First, the words are created by the hand
of the teacher before the eyes of the children, as the
spoken word is created. Second, the word is
written alone in large letters, separated from all
other objects of interest except the object it names.
How different the confused mass of black sjDccks
upon the printed page. Third, the attention of the
Httle group is thus directed to one object in a very
simple manner. Fourth, words are learned by
repeated acts of association. The great fault with
charts and primers is that they do not repeat words
times enough for the child to learn them. On the
blackboard, on the other hand, these repetitions
can be easily made. It is of great importance that
the first one hundred words should be learned
thoroughly. Superficial work is always bad work.
From the first, then, the child should write every
40 Talks on Teaching.
word he learns from tlie blackboard, and just as
V soon as lie is able to write sentences tlie word
should invariably be written in sentences.
whycMid^ The child should be trained to read from his
ly from script slate all that he writes. The reason why the
to print. . . , ''
change is made so easily from script to piint used
to puzzle me. I only knew that it could be done,
but could not tell the reason w^hy. Script and
print are very nearly allied in form. The first
print was a crude reproduction of old manuscript.
Both, indeed, have changed since the art of print-
ing was discovered, but the resemblance remains.
The child, as you know, has a wonderful power of
seeing resemblances. Like comes to like in his
mind because his mental pictures are not filled out
with that which produces the differences. This, to
my mind, is sufficient reason for the surprising
ease with which the child changes from script to
print.
TALK VL
READING. PHONICS.
I PROPOSE to speak to-day of the use of the ^^^ spoken
spoken word in assisting acts of association between YecmsT^^^ "
the idea and the written word. It is very often
urged that the spoken word is sufficient to recall
its appropriate idea, and thereby bring about an
act of association between it and the written word ;
that, as the ideas are already in the mind of the
child, the spoken word alone is needed to re-
call them. Those who hold to this doctrine fail
to understand the great economy of mental ac-
tion that is brought about by the stimulus of the
object. Were I to teach you a foreign language,
German, for instance, how much quicker and easier
you would learn the words if I were to present the
objects and speak or write their names. This is
thoroughly understood to-day by the best teachers
of modern languages. If we adults can learn a
foreign language so much easier by the object meth-
od, it can be readily inferred how necessary the
use of objects is to the little child. When the old
habit of learning spoken words is carried over into
the learning of written words, that is, after a hun-
dred or more words have been learned, probably
the spoken word will then be sufficient to bring
41
42 Talks on Teaching,
about the required acts of association. When a
child does not need the stimulus of objects, pictures,
etc. , then their use should cease. Any good teacher
will not fail to observe when this time comes to
the child. The spoken word, then, aids in recall-
ing the idea, and at the same time names the writ-
ten word. The spoken word is associated mth the
written word, so that it recalls the written, and the
written recalls the spoken. Deaf mutes learn the
written words without the intermediate help of
spoken words, and it is found that with the use of
objects these unfortunate beings learn written words
with as much, if not greater, rapidity than the chil-
dren who have perfect hearing. Notwithstanding
this fact, the spoken word has a use in learning to
read, but it may be badly misused. For instance,
when it is associated with the written word alone,
and the written word is not associated with the idea.
In this case the reading is not the getting of
thought, and therefore not real reading, but sim-
ply mechanical word-pronouncing without the slight
est inspiration from the thought. There are meth-
ods of teaching reading whose sole aim is to train
children to pronounce words with little or no regard
to the thought. To the casual observer the results
seem surprising. To the real teacher they are the
sounding of empty words. The use of the spoken
word, then, in teaching reading must be to assist
in acts of association. To use them for any other
purpose is a liindrance in learning to read. The
question, then, is. How can spoken words be used
to help associative acts? The spoken words have
Reading.— Phonics, 43
been acquired by tlie cliild before he enters scbool.
He knows how to make every sonnd in the language,
and to combine them in pronouncing all the words
he knows. He has learned the spoken words as
wholes, and is not conscious of the elementary parts
of a w^ord, although he can combine them without
the slightest hesitation. The spoken word consists
of the articulation of one elementary sound or a
succession of elementary sounds. An elementary
sound, with the exception of the sound of A, re-
quires for its articulation a certain fixed position of
the vocal organs. Change the position of the vocat
organs, no matter how slightly, and the sound musl
change. Between a few combinations of two sounds
the articulation continues, producing pecuHar modi-
fications of sound brought about by various posi-
tions of the vocal organs that they must take in
changing from the position required by one sound
to that of another. If, however, these glides were
made between each and all of any combinations of
the sounds of the language, the intermediate sounds
would be innumerable. As it is, forty sounds are
all that are given in making the spoken words of
the English language. In changing, then, from tlie Explanation
position of the vocal organs required to make one nuncStiMi."
sound to that of another there must be, except in
glides, an actual suspension of sound. In pronounc-
ing ordinarily these pauses between sounds are too
short to be perceptible to the ear. Make these
pauses perceptible, and we do, what I think is
wrongly termed, spell by sound. As phonic an-
alysis has nothing whatever to do with spelling, is
44 Talks on Teaching.
oftentimes a hindrance rather than a help to Eng-
hsh epelHng, I prefer to call the act of articulating
each sound with a perceptible suspension of the
voice between two sounds — slow pronunciation, fol-
lowing the German term — langsamer ausjprache.
Now it should be borne in mind that in reality
the spoken words alone are pronounced slowly, the
written words cannot be. It is a mistake to say
that certain letters have several sounds, several
Process of sounds are represented by One letter. The process
tweei^ken" hy wliich a word is made to recall a spoken word,
word. ^^ or a letter is made to recall a sound, is exactly the
same as that by which the written word recalls the
idea — viz., the process of association. When the
first word is learned, the spoken word is associated
with the written word. The spoken word and ^^it-
ten word are learned as wholes. I have tried to
show that the written word is fixed in the mind by
writing it ; that when one word, for instance, rat^
is taught and written, the word cat can be more
easily seen and more easily copied ; for the word cat
contains two thirds of the forms of the previous word.
In this way we see that as the different forms are im-
pessed upon the mind the repulsion of the word or the
difficulty in grasping it, is overcome, and successive
associations made easy. In the same way the spo-
ken word may be associated with the written words,
80 that the written words will recall the spoken
with greater ease. As the written words become
more clear in the mind the separate parts of the
written word may be associated with the separate
articulate sounds, so that the difficulties in the acts
Reading. — Phonics, 45
of association may become less and less ; that is, new
words may be pronounced and known at sight.
The great danger is that children may be trained
to the skilful pronunciation of words without know-
ing them. A word is only known when it recalls
its appropriate idea.
There are two great obstacles in the way of the phonetic
successful teaching of the so-called phonic analysis.
One is more apparent than real, and that is the fact
that different sounds are represented by the same
letter in the English language. In a purely pho-
netic language (which, by the way, does not exist)
each sound is represented invariably by one charac-
ter.' If the English language were phonetic, it
would greatly lighten the burden of learning to read
and write. But a careful examination of the words
learned by a child will show that the difficulties are
not so great as they are often represented to be. If
we begin, for instance, with the short sounds, a child
may learn at least two hundred words that are purely
phonetic to him. I have calculated and classified
the words in thirty-nine pages of the ]N"ew Franklin
Primer, in the whole of Monroe's Charts, and in the
first forty pages of my Supplementary Reader, First
Book. There are 456 words in all, 205 of which
are purely phonetic, 216 are words whose pronun-
ciation is indicated by their form, and only the 35
remaining may be called entirely unphonetic. After
a child learns this number of words he has formed
a fixed habit of learning new words, and all active
use of primary methods may cease. What, then, is
the use of burdening the child with mangled and
46 lalks on Teaching »
twisted print or diacritical marks ? Phonics may be
used as a great help in teaching primary reading if
the natural growth of the child's power is care-
fully followed.
ReconciUa- Tlie second difficulty in teaching phonics is found
and word° ^ in the apparent opposition of the word and phonic
method. The word must be learned as a whole,
and any early attempt at word analysis simply re-
tards the teaching. The struggle to analyze a new
word, or to build it up from parts, as I have already
explained, absorbs the attention and prevents the
act of association. These two methods, that seem
to be in direct opposition to each other, may be en-
tirely reconciled by closely following well-known
mental laws. The child, as I have said, knows how
to make all the sounds in the language in their word
combinations. He is not conscious of a single sep-
arate element. Obviously, the first step to be
taken is to bring these elements slowly to his con-
sciousness. This may be done by training the child
to pronounce words slowly (spell by sound). I have
found by repeated experiments that the little child
will understand me when I pronounce words slowly
in a natural manner nearly as well as when I pro-
nounce in the ordinary way. The child may be
trained by imitation to pronounce slowly with great
readiness and skill. This should be carefully done
before any direct association is made between artic-
ulate sounds and tlie word that represents them.
The law of One of the greatest activities of the mind is the
and Us uses, coming together of like to like. It may be called
the law of analogies. It begins, as all good things
Reading. — Phonics. 47
do, in perfect unconsciousness on the part of the
child. When a child says, '' I seed," for I saw,
and ' ' I goed, " for I went, the child is uncon-
sciously following this law of analogies. The same
law is in operation when the child spells all words
phonetically, without regard to the absurdities of
English spelling. Using phonics, in teaching read-
ing, in the proper way simply intensifies this law.
If the word method were used, pure and simple, the
child's unconscious mental activity would seek out
and use the analogies of the language in associating
new written words with the same sounds he has
learned to associate with them. When we teach
words in phonic order, as, for example, rat, fat,
cat, mat, sat, pat, this law of like coming to like in
the mind is made more effective. But when at the
proper time the articulate sounds are consciously as-
sociated with the letters that represent them we use
this mental activity in the most economical way.
Great care, however, should be taken not to force
the growth of this mental action so as to conflict
with the other and more important law of learning
words as wholes. These whole words cannot be
analyzed until they are clear mental objects. The Details of
process, then, of using phonics may be given thus : metSodf ^^
First, train the child to recognize words when pro-
nounced slowly. This may be easily done if the
teacher pronounces slowly in easy, natural tones.
The greatest obstacle that I have found in phonics
is the inability of teachers to do this. Second,
train the child to pronounce slowly by imitating the
teacher's voice. All this should be done, as I have
48 Talks on Teaching,
said, before any direct association of articulate sounds
is made with written words. Third, after a few
words are taught let the teacher in writing words
give each articulate sound as she makes the charac-
ter that represents it. Do not require the children
to imitate the teacher until they do so of their own
accord. Fourth, have the children begin to pro-
nounce slowly, without even a suggestion from the
teacher, the words which she writes. Phonics may
be thereafter used with great effect in teaching read-
ing. Thus you will observe that by this process
the spoken word retains its unity as long as it is
necessary, and the way is carefully prepared for the
conscious analysis of words when the proper time
comes. This will be indicated by the child's own
spontaneous action.
All new words, then, that come within the child's
acquired analogies of sound may be readily associ-
ated with their appropriate idea with little or no
aid from the teacher. Give the child the power to
help himseK as soon as possible, and at the same
time please remember not to violate any known
laws of his mental growth.
TALK VII.
EEADINO. APPLICATION OF PKINCIPLES.
In this discussion of the art of teachine: reading Ho new ^
, . , . . 1 1 IT methods of
I have tried to explain the principles that underne teaching
the so-called object, word, sentence, script, and
phonic methods. Each of these methods has been
discovered by teachers in the past, and generally
each has been applied by different teachers as the
only true method. Probably the exact date of the
discovery of each method cannot be given, but the
youngest of these, the script method, is nearly one
hundred years old ; and the oldest, the phonic, is
described by Yalentine Ickelsamer, a contemporary
of Luther's, in a book written in 1 534. No one
would claim the title of inventor of a new method
if they had studied the history of the art of teaching
reading. Each one of these methods was dis-
covered in the action of some mental law. So far
as they go, and used in their own proper place and
proportion, they are all natural methods. The
difficulty is in using one method to the exclusion of
all others. It is like using one power of the mind
and leaving four others inactive. The fact is that
the object, word, sentence, script, and phonic
methods form one true method in teaching reading.
Each should be used in its own time, place, and
49
50 Talks on Teaching,
proportion, in such a manner as to arouse and
strengthen five faculties of the mind instead of one.
ReconcUia- This reconcihation of most methods that have been
forms^the true discovered in tlie past is true not only of teaching
^^ ° ' reading, but everything else. We might say that
everything now done in the school -room, in the
way of teaching, is right, in its place; but the
trouble is that things get frightfully misplaced.
Precision, for instance, may take the place and
crush the evolution of thought, and thought
growth may override precision. It seems to me
that the great duty of the teachers of this age is,
first, to know all the great things that have been
discovered by the teachers and thinkers of the past,
and to reconcile them into a science of teaching.
I shall now endeavor to apply in practice what I
have given you in theory ; in which I trust you will
see that all the methods I have given can and should
be used as one.
Importance The preparatory exercises that should always
seiecSon of precede the teaching of primary reading I will
words. ^^^ when I discuss the teaching of language. We
will suppose that the child has had these prepara-
tory exercises, and is ready to be taught reading.
The first question to be settled is, What words
shall be taught? (Learning to read, you will re-
member, is learning a vocabulary of written and
piinted words.) The first general answer to this
question is. The oral words the child has already
gained. The idea must always be acquired before
the word can be. All through the education of the
child this rule should be carefully followed. Edu-
Reading, — Application of Principles. 5 1
cation may be said to consist, first, of enlarging the
range of ideas; second, in relating these ideas in
various ways.
The value of a word depends wholly upon the what words
value of the idea it recalls. It is of great impor- taugit first,
tance to select carefully the vocabulary to be taught
the child during the first year ; and it is of greater
importance that the selected vocabulary should be
slowly and thoroughly taught; that is, that
repetitions of the word should entirely sufiice
to put the word within the automatic use of the
child.
Much time and very p-ood teachiner is wasted by Directions
regarding the
not following the step- by-step rule, by which every- first vocahn-
thing done is thoroughly done. It is far more
important to teach 20 words well than to try to
teach 200 imperfectly. The first vocabulary
selected should contain about 200 words, to be
taught in script on the blackboard. In selecting
tliis list of words three things should be taken into
account : First, the fcmorite words of the child.
Those words which would naturally arouse most
interest in the child should be taught first. Second,
the words should be arranged in phonic order —
generally the short sounds are taken first. With
these words all the unphonetic words, like where^
there^ etc., that serve to introduce the idioms used
by the little child. Teaching words in the phonic
order, that is, the order of vowel sounds, serves, as
I have previously explained, to intensify the law of
analogies on which the phonic method is founded.
I may say here that the phonic order should not be
52 Talks on Teaching.
followed at the expense of the interest of the child.
Every word and sentence should bring up a bright
and interesting picture. One should not hesitate to
introduce any new word for this purpose. The
first words taught should be names of connnon
objects. !N^ow it is true that the objects most
common to the child have names in which only
short vowel sounds occur, such as fan^ cap^ hat^
cat^ mat^ rat^ hat^ lag^ rag^ flag, hen, egg, nest, hell,
flsh, dish, pig, rabhit, ship, dog, doll, top, fox, box,
cup, tub, mug, jug, nut. The second thing to be
observed in selecting the list is the words used in
the first book or books that the child will read.
How to teach No First Header extant furnishes repetition
words. enough for the thorough learning of the words. It
is better to select the vocabulary from the first parts
of three or four different readers. If this is done
when the child begins the print (after 150 or 200
words have been taught in script), he can read with
great ease and delight 150 or 200 pages in print.
We will suppose, then, that the vocabulary has
been carefully selected ; that the preparatory oral
work has been done ; that the teacher has selected
fifteen or twenty objects, or models of objects, to
aid in teaching the first few words. The pupils
have been carefully divided off in groups of five or
six, according to their mental strength. The work
would naturally begin with their brightest group.
(Never tell them that they are bright, however.)
The teacher is at the board, surrounded by a little
group of children, who have been made to feel
quite at home in the school-room, and who are
Reading,— Application of Principles. 53
ready and eager for any new step, because every-
thing they have done in the school-room has given
them pleasure. They have unbounded faith in the
power of the teacher to lead them into green pas-
tures filled with the most delightful shrubs and
fiowers. The teacher holds up an object as she has
often done before.; but now, instead of giving its
name orally, she says, ' ' Hear the chalk talk, ' ' and
slowly writes the word. Let me say here that the
articles a,, an, and the should always be written
with the words, and the article and word should be
pronounced as one word. Write the name of the
object several times. Let the teacher point to the
word, having put the object down, and say to the
child, '' Bring me a — ," pointing at the same time
to the word. Let the teacher hold up the object
and ask, ''What does the chalk say this is? " having
the pupil point to the word. These exercises
should not occupy more than five minutes. The
next lesson shows a new object, and write its name
as before. Let the child take the two objects, one
in each hand. Let the teacher write the name, and
ask him to hold up the objects, first one, and then
the other, as the names are written. This plan
may be safely followed till ten or fifteen words are
taught. In review of words all the names may be
written ; let the teacher point to the different names
and have the pupils bring the objects ; then the
teacher holds up the objects and lets the pupils
point to the names ; and last, have the pupils point
and give the names without the objects.
The first sentence may now be taught. Let the
54 Talks on Teaching,
How to teach cliild take, for instance, a fan in his hand, and be
the first sen- ' ' '
tences. je^ to saj, ' ' This is a fan. ' ' Tlie teacher writes
the sentence on tlie board, and says, ' ' The chalk
has said what you said; what did tlie chalk say?"
The child, holding the fan, says, '' This is a fan."
Write in place of fan successively all the words
that have been taught. Have pupils take the ob-
jects and read the sentences. Change this to thati
place the objects at a little distance from the pupils,
and repeat all the sentences as before. Change
that to here, and repeat all the sentences, having
the child hold the appropriate object as he reads
each sentence. Change hei^e to there ^ and repeat as
before. Change the singulars to plurals, and change
the sentences accordingly, using these and those^ here
and there. Write questions beginning with where,
as, ''Where is the fan?" and let pupils answer
orally by holding up the object, as, ''Here is the
fan. ' ' Put the objects on the table, and ask the
question by writing it on the board — " Where is
the fan?" After this answer write the answers
and have pupils read them. When a dozen sen-
tences have been written, have the pupils read the
whole successively. Introduce new words as before
with objects. Qualities of objects may be brought
in next, as, " The red box," "The white fan,"
" The fat rat," and reviews made by the schedule
just given — this, that, these, those, etc. Place ob-
jects in different positions, as the fan in the liat,
the cap in the box, and write sentences describing
them. Little exclamatory sentences may here be
introduced with good effect, as, "Oh, what a pretty
Reading, — Application of Principles, 55
fan!" ''Seethe little doll!" ''Oh, there is the
cat ! " " The cat is sitting up ! " " Isn' t she funny ? ' '
Directions might be written on the board which the
pupil reads silently, and complies with, such as,
"Come to me," "Sit down," "Stand up,"
"Shake hands," "Eun," "Jump," "Skip,"
"Hop," "Laugh," "Cry," etc.
The next step may be the writing of little con- ^gJchin^tSe
nected stories on the blackboard. A very good ^«^^ **®p-
way to write stories, or sentences connected in
thought, is for the teacher to sketch a picture on
the board. Let her make a plan for a picture con-
taining quite a number of objects. Let her sketch
one object before the little group, talk, and then
write sentences about it, and arouse curiosity as to
what the picture is to be. Tlius one picture may
serve for several lessons. A large wall-picture may
be used in the same way. In all object lessons,
lessons on plants, animals, and color, the words and
sentences should be written upon the board.
TALK VIII.
KEADING. APPLICATION OF PRINCIPLES, CONTINUED.
General di- SoME general directions to be followed in teacli-
lirstieions. ing these first lessons may be of service. I will
give tliem here.
1. Carefully introduce each word which of itself
recalls an idea by first presenting the object, sketch
or representation of the object, or by bringing the
picture of it vividly to the child's mind by means
of conversation or questioning.
2. All words that do not recall ideas except in
their relations should be taught in phrases or sen-
tences.
3. Try to make every thought and its expression
real to the child, and when it can be done suit the
action to the word.
4. Be sure the child has got the thought before
you allow him to make an attempt to give it.
5. Have the child get the thought by means of
the written words, and not by hearing the sentence
read.
6. Do not teach emphasis, inflection, and pauses
by imitation. Thought will control expression.
If the thought is in the child's mind in its fullest
intensity, the expression will be appropriate.
7. Train childi-en to read in pleasant, conver-
56
\
keading,— Application of Principtes, si
sational tones, free from liarslmess, monotony, or
artificiality.
8. ]^evQr allow the children to read carelessly, or
to guess at the words.
9. To arouse a desire for new words, and a love
for the reading lesson, observe the following rules :
1. Teach the words very slowly at first.
2. Put the words taught into many different
sentences.
3. Write short sentences, and then make very
slight changes in them — generally of a single word
— in order that the children may be successful
every time they try to read a sentence.
4. Wait patiently until they grasp the thought,
and if they are dull be very patient.
5. Have always a bright picture behind each
word or sentence, which the child shall see vividly
with his mind's eye.
The children should be trained to write on their Devices for
slates the first words they learned from the black- ft?s?^tin|.
board. Several devices may be used for this.
First, the children, following the teacher, may write
the word in the air. Second, they may trace the
word. Third, they may write the word line by
line as the teacher writes it. (The teacher, by the
way, should be an excellent penman.) Fourth, the
children may write the word without any help from
the teacher, copying it from a large and well-nigh
perfect copy on the blackboard. The slates should
be ruled. The same word may be copied several
times. "No matter how badly the child writes the
first word, praise him if he has tried, and do not
58 Talks 071 Teaching.
discourage him if lie has not tried. Imbue him
with your own faith that he can do it. When the
sentence is written, have him write the sentences
in the order I have given for the teaching of sen-
tences. Be sure that he always begins the sentence
with a capital, and uses the correct punctuation-
mark at the end of the sentence. Have the pupils
read everything they write. Use short sentences
at first. IS'ever allow a child to read a sentence till
he has the thought in his mind, and never allow
him to express the thought in any other way than
by talking. If he does not talk well, train him to
do so, orally, by object lessons. Introduce all new
idioms in the same way. Repeat the words until
you are sure they are thoroughly known.
Purpose of The use of the phonic method may begin the first
sis? ^ day the child comes to school with the phonic an-
alysis of the spoken word, which I prefer to call
slow pronunciation. The purpose of this exercise
is to bring distinctly to the child's consciousness the
separate sounds of which the spoken word consists,
and to give him such practice as will enable him to
utter all the elementary sounds of the language
purely and easily. But no attempt should be made
at this time to associate these elementary sounds
with the letters that stand for them. That comes
later. The chlid should first become accustomed to
hear the separate sounds and to uttei' them ; and the
exercises for this purpose should be among the first
given to the child, and be carried on side by side
First steps in with the o ral-1 an ffu afire work from day to day. I
slow pronan- n »/ ./
ciauon. will describe in detail the first steps of this work.
Reading.— Application of Principles. 59
When a few exercises in the repetition of sentences
have been given, the teacher may, without chang-
ing her tone of voice, pronounce slowly (spell by
sound) one of the words in a given sentence. For
instance, the teacher pointing at the clock, says,
' ' There is a c-l-o-ck. ' ' The pupils wdll repeat the
sentence as before, without hesitation. Or the
teacher may say to the children, ''Touch what I
name : n-o-s-e, m-ou-th, f -a-ce, d-e-s-k, ' ' and the
pupils will perform the acts promptly if the teacher
does not change her tone. Then pronounce single
words slowly, and ask pupils to tell what you say.
Pronounce whole sentences slowly, and ask the pu-
jils to repeat them in the ordinary way. Direct
pupils to ''s-t-a-n-d u-p, s-i-t d-ow-n, etc." As
soon as they have become accustomed to hearing the
slow pronunciation say single words slowly and let
them imitate. (One sound may be given at a time,
the pupils repeating — as, ''m," "m," ''ou,"
"ou,'' "th," "th.'') It is not well to let the
pupils pronounce a word slowly and immediately
pronounce it in the ordinary way, as in a spelling
exercise, because they should have the feeling that
when they have once uttered the sounds they have
pronounced the word. After this pronounce words DetaUs of
in the ordinary way, and ask the pupils to pro- ing in paonics.
nounce the same words slowly. Let pupils pro-
nounce slowly any words that they may think of.
Those children who have defects in articulation
should have special drill. To assist them in utter-
ing the sounds correctly, the right position of the
vocal organs should be shown. Words mispro-
6o Talks on Teaching,
nounced should be corrected by imitating the
teacher and by repetition until the correct habit
is formed. The preliminary exercises, both in oral
language and in phonics, should be carefully graded,
beginning with those which are very simple. There
should be frequent reviews, and the exercises should
be short — five minutes at first, and never at any
time more than ten minutes. Practice on the sound
chart is of great service. Begin by articulating
each sound separately, and asking the pupils to im-
itate you. Each sound may be repeated once or
twice or three times, both slowly and in quick suc-
cession, the pupils imitating. In this exercise the
sounds may be given in the order indicated in the
chart which is given below, but this chart should
not be written on the board at first, not until it is
needed for the purpose of associating the sounds
with the letters in teaching reading.
The sound
chart.
SOUND CHAET,
CONSONANTS.
tPP
^ ^^
/
€ ty^
/
/
/
/
/
Reading,— Application of Principles. 6i
^ -^ ^
<S^
^ t€^^ ^^
/
VOWELS.
SHORT SOUNDS,
^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ (as in pull)
NAME SOUNDS,
LONG SOUNDS,
#?. 2??^^ ^^ ^^ ^^
TALK IX.
CONCLUDED.
Directions When 150 words Or more have been taught,
from sc^f to write a nice lesson on the blackboard in script, and
have the pupils read it; then, after the day's
session, erase the script and print the same lesson
in the same place. Call up the pupils the next
morning and liave tliem read the lesson. Do this
two or three times, and the pupils are ready for tlie
chart or a book. It is better to take the chart
first. In my experience of several years in chang-
ing many classes from script to print this simple
process has sufficed. One rule should be strictly
followed : Never point out or allude in any way to
the difficulty in learning print. You should have,
besides a good chart like Monroe's or Appleton's,
at least five or six sets of First Eeaders. They are
very cheap, and you can induce your committee to
buy them, providing you do good work. Read one
book until the sentences become difficult, and then
take another. (Never let the children point to
words with their fingers, and train them from the
First three first to find their places for themselves.) Two
years at least should be spent with the average
child in learning to read First Reader reading, and
the third year may be profitably spent in command-
6a
Reading.— Application of Principles. 6^
ing Second Reader reading. Tliere is immense
economy in going very slowly. If tlie primary
work is thoroughly done, there will be little or no
need of teaching reading as reading after the fourth
year.
I am quite sure that many of you have asked the Bad hawts-
question, to yourselves at least, while I have been ^°^'^ ^^^^®*^'
explaining the principles and methods of teaching
primary reading as I understand them, What shall
we do with children whose teaching has been all
wrong from the beginning ? — who have been
taught by the alphabet, phonic, phonetic, or word
methods without the life-giving principle of the
thought? — who struggle with each particular word
in a painful way, and drawl out the sentences as if
there were no beautiful pictures behind them? —
who have been led through a dreary waste of
empty words in a harsh, unnatural manner? What
shall we do with these children? you ask. It is a
very difficult question to answer, for two or three
weeks' wrong teaching will leave their scars in the
child's mind forever; crippling every action and
obstructing every step. The elocutionists, by
scores, reap a rich harvest from the bad teaching in
primary schools. The trouble with the voices gen-
erally is that the natural, easy, pleasant tones of
the child are changed to harsh, unnatural utter-
ance. Something may be done indeed for these Devices for
unfortunate victims. First, I would say, notSmf^"^"
matter what grade the children may be in, put
them into the easiest possible reading, even if you
have to begin with the First Reader, Select the
64 Talks on Teaching,
most interesting and the most dramatic pieces.
Dialogues, brisk, sharp dialogues, are very good.
Drop oral reading for a time, and lead the children
to see vividly the picture that lies behind the words.
Have them tell you in their own language what
they see in the word-pictures. When they are very
much interested, and are talking with great free-
dom, ask one to read a short sentence. The pupils
will feel the shock (if tlie teaching be skilfully
done) from cheerful, interesting conversational
tones to dull, prosy word-pronouncing. Thus
you can slowly lead them to form new ideals in
reading. Your whole mind as a teacher should be
concentrated on the one great thing of leading
your pupils to get the thought, or seeing mentally
the picture. If you hold steadily to this one purpose,
you may be able to lead them to read naturally.
It is a good plan to question them sharply upon the
sentences they are reading. Take a paragraph
like this, for instance : ' ' Five little peas in a pod ;
they were green and the pod was green, so they
thought all the world was green, and that was as it
should be." And then question, thus: ''Where
were the peas?" '' How many peas were there? "
*' What kind of peas were they? " ''What color
were the peas?" "What color was the pod?"
" Because they were green, what did they think? "
Tlie pupils can answer correctly only by the
closest attention to the thought expressed by the
paragraph. Ask them occasionally to read a whole
sentence. In this way children may be led out of
the wilderness, Eemember, also, to ^ve pupjls a
Reading, — Application of Principles. 65
great deal of interesting reading adapted to their
vocabulary and thought.
Two kinds of reading exercises, at least, should festionsf^^"
be given to the pupils : First, exercises in which
every new word is carefully taught upon the black-
board before the lesson in the book is read. Sec-
ond, tests in which pupils try to read new selections
without preparation. These tests should be fre-
quently given — once a week at least. The same
general rules should be observed in teaching reading
in books. Do not let the child read a sentence
aloud until he knows its words and its meaning. If
the sentence is long, he should be allowed to express
the thought by phrases or clauses. As a rule, do
not let the pupils in a class know who will be called
upon to read next. Do not give the thought to the
pupils orally, but let them get it for themselves.
Do not require them to read the same lesson over
and over again, lest they lose their interest in it.
It is a good plan to have the pupils close their books
and tell in their own words what they have read.
In the second year, when composition has been well Readinir
begun, require pupils to write one thing they re-
member of w^hat they have read ; then two things ;
three things ; and finally let them write the whole
story as they remember it. Ask them to read orally
the sentences, descriptions, and stories they write.
A large number of sentences, plainly written on
slips of paper or cardboard, may be successfully
used. Give each pupil a slip. If one pupil reads
a sentence correctly, give him another slip to read.
For busy- work give pupils slips to copy, and let
them read what they have copied. Let pupils takq
66 Talks on Teaching,
a number of slips and arrange them for busy-work
into a little stor j. Then let them read the story
from the slips, or read it after copying it upon their
slates. Single words, written or printed upon card-
board, may be put together into sentences and read.
When the teacher finds, by false emphasis or wrong
inflection, that the thought has not been correctly
apprehended by the reader, questions may be used
with good effect. By this means the attention of
the pupils wdll be turned directly upon the thought,
and their answers will be given with natural tones
and expression, as in talking. Gradually they may
be led to utter the whole sentence with expression.
Reading and composition should be taught to-
gether, the one assisting the other at every step.
Let pupils read what they write from a copy, from
dictation, and in composition. If pupils are trained,
as they may be, to express thought correctly and
easily in writing, their compositions may be made
as profitable as supplementary books in teaching
reading. Let pupils read one another's compositions.
In testing the script- work the list of words taught
may be rapidly written in sentences and short stories.
If the pupils can readily read these, the teacher may
feel confident that the words have been well taught.
In book-reading the tests should be from books that
pupils have never read. Before reading a para-
graph aloud a short tune should be given the class
The standard to read it silently. Finally, the standard of excel-
lence is indicated by these two questions : First,
has the reader correctly apprehended the thought?
Second, has he used correct pronunciation, distinct
articulation, and natural tones?
TALK X.
SPELLINa.
READma and spelling should come first in the^^^t J^
cMld's school-life, so as to finish them, and get
them out of the waj. If the preparation is thorough ,
and the teacher skilful, not a great amount of
time need be given to either. To continue the
teaching of spelling, as is usually done, through all
the years of a common-school course is a wasteful
expenditure of time and strength. What is spelling?
Spelling is making the forms of words correctly,
it is writing correctly, and should include capitals
and punctuation. Oral spelling is not spelling ^^r
se^ it is a description of the word. Spelling is the
co-relative of pronunciation. I hear a word pro-
nounced over and over till I can give it back. I
see a word spelled over and over till I can give
it back. The only difference is that spelling is the
written or printed form, and pronunciation is the
spoken. We learn to do a thing by doing it ; by How is it
doing it repeatedly ; by doing it right every time ;
by doing it until it is well done. It follows, then,
that we learn to make a word by making it; to
make it accurately by making it accurately ; to make
it easily by making it many times. In order to
know how a word looks we must see it, and the best
67
68
Talks on Teaching,
Proper f unc-
tion of oral
spellins:.
Pnrposeof
•pelling.
Tlie first
year'! work.
means of seeing a form is to draw it ; therefore
drawing (or copying) words is the best means of
receiving distinct mental impressions of written
words. If I spell a word orally, the names of the
letters recall their forms and you combine them in
your imagination. It is just as absurd to try to
learn drawing by oral description as it is to try to
learn how to spell a word from hearing it spelled
orally. The proper function of oral spelling is to
describe word-forms already in the mind ; not to
bring them into the mind by acts of imagination.
The most natural and economical way of learning
to spell is to write words until we can write them
automatically.
What is the purpose of spelHng? During the
first year it is entirely to prepare for composition, or
^ * talking with the pencil. ' ' Indeed, all spelling is for
the sake of composition, and it has no other purpose.
The words first taught on the blackboard in reading,
and the commonly used and constantly recurring
words of the child, in short, the script vocabulary,
should be the words first spelled. Bear in mind
the fact that word -forms sink into the mind very
slowly, and that patient waiting and working are
especially required just here. Make every step
with the small child a success, otherwise you may dis-
gust the mind with its failures. You must wait
for idea-growth, which cannot be forced. There-
fore do not have a child reproduce words without a
copy during the first year. Spend this time in prep-
aration for talking with the pencil. Training in
talking with the tongue is one of the best ways of
spelling. 69
preparing for this work. If this be properly done,
the words will drop off the pencil as easily and nat-
urally as they drop off the tongue. Faith has a great
deal to do with results. It is a great element in
successful teaching, as well as humility. Accept
crudities. The best thing which the child can do ^^^^^ ^^'
is always excellent. You may take the hand and
help the child, or allow him to trace the form,
but I like best to let him work out his own sal-
vation. Get to sentences as soon as possible, and
after that keep to sentences, for they are the writ-
ten forms of thought expression, and the stimulus
of the thought enables the child to recall the word-
forms in writing, just as it does in reading. Do
all this work easily and slowly, and in the doing of it
let the child alone and don't fuss with him. If a
child makes anything wrong, rub it right out, make
it a sort of dissolving view. Have him acquire the
power of copying from the blackboard ^liYi perfect
aGGuracy any sentence he can read, l^ever accept
any careless work. Don't scold, but let the work
vanish under the sponge with quiet celerity, and
have the child do it over. A better vocabulary can
be gained by writing than by reading. Form, dur-
ing the first year, a nucleus vocabulary of written
words, so distinctly fixed in the mind that they can
be reproduced instantly, without copy and with per-
fect accuracy. Train children to know when they
can see a word mentally, and when they cannot.
In other words, have them know when they don't
know. Say to them, ''Don't write that word if
you don't know it, " but never allow them to guess.
7© Talks on Teaching.
Every guess brings before the cliildren a wrong
form, and as only one is right the wrong are in a
majority. I would never allow a child either to see
or to hear any wrong forms. When they get into
the high school they may come in. There will be
plenty of time for false syntax then. When a word
is spelled wrong, don't explain, say nothing, except
perhaps, ''You didn't see right," and erase it at
/ once. Cultivate constantly the child's desire to do
work well, and that desire will absorb all his en-
ergies, leaving no time for idleness or mischief. In
dictating read the sentence in your best voice, and
read it hut once. Pupils should be trained to hear
perfectly, as well as to read expressively. When
they can write readily and accurately from dic-
tation, begin to train them to talk with the pencil.
As soon as this is accomplished all spelling per se
may cease, and this branch of study be taught in
composition. They should be able from this time
forward to write page after page without a mistake
in spelling, and with capitals and punctuation-marks
correctly placed.
TALK XL
WRITING.
I nAVE called your attention to the fact that the ^^Reasoiis^^_
second great means of expression, i.e., by writing, ^I'^^^^^^^eJ^
should be placed in the power of the child just as
soon as possible after he enters school. One great
advantage of written over oral work is that the
written enables the teacher to get at and develop
the individu9.1ity of the child. In oral lessons the
answers of bright children are constantly copied
and imitated by others, whereas in written com-
position each child must express his thoughts for
himself and by himself. By means of the com-
mand of writing, the child can be trained to do a
great deal of busy-work, thus keeping his mind
and hand constantly employed. The third reason
for teaching writing very early in the course is
that the work necessary to the command of good
legible handwriting may be entirely finished ; and
the time heretofore taken throughout the eight or
nine years for writing may be used for something
more profitable. Writing may be kept in the best
condition throughout the whole course if language
is properly tauglit, and the rule, ' ' JSTever allow any
careless work," closely followed.
There are two things to be acquired in writing :
71
72
Talks on Teaching,
Correct
training ver-
sus individ-
naUty.
lemrs^esfab-'^i^s*? the forms of letters. Second, movement
listed. ^^^Yi the pen. The conventional forms of the let-
ters has been established bj the highest authorities
in writing in this country. All the systems in our
schools have substantially the same forms. The
slant of letters (between 51 and 52 degrees) is very
nearly identical in all. It is not my purpose to
discuss whether these forms are right or wrong.
It is true that when pupils enter the upper primary
and grammar grades they are trained to make
these established forms. It is a great saving of
time and toil to make these forms right in the be-
ginning, so they will never have to be changed.
Allow children to display what is called their in-
dividuality at the start (that is to wi'ite any way and
every way) and it is much more difficult to train
them into good handwriting when they take the
pen than it would be if they had never written at
all. Many claim that fixed forms of writing injure
the child's individuality, or destroys the character
displayed in writing; as well might we say that
the child should be allowed to pronounce words as
he pleased, as the fixed pronunciation acquired by
imitation of correct standards would seriously afTect
his individuality. The most potent reason wliy
teachers do not train children to write correctly is
that they cannot write well themselves, and will
not take the trouble to learn. Teachers should
train themselves by constant and careful practice
to write with a great degree of pei*fection on the
blackboard, so as to give the children a good ideal
toward which thoy can work. In this question of
Writing. 73
cnaracter in writing there is one rule that teachers
would do well to follow, in writing as in all other
things — precision precedes ease. That is, let the
established form be thoroughly acquired, and then,
when the child has formed a character, that char-
acter will go into the writing. The painful atten-
tion now required to decipher the manuscript of
most great men and w^omen could be given to
something else more beneficial.
The foundation of spelling: should be learned en- Everything
. , , . . AT 1 • 1 should be care-
tirely by writing. As we have shown m the fuUy copied.
application of the principles of teaching reading,
every word that the child learns from the black-
board should be carefully copied on the slate or
paper. These copies, as I have said, should be
written with exceeding care. At the same time
technical writing should begin. In this there are
certain elementary principles that are the keynotes
of the whole. Find them and follow them, and
you are certain of success. Begin with one letter
and stay upon that letter till it is learned. The
child must have the ideal to follow, and that comes
slowly into the mind through the eye. Begin Sng^gestions
with this fundamental form, found in the first let- in technic.
ter taught, and work on until you get it, even if it
takes a year or two years. The children will not
tire till the teacher gets tired. Have the standard,
the ideal, clear, and they will work toward it pa-
tiently. Get them to master the foundation form,
which is also the simplest, and then take the next
shortest and easiest step. I have always taken the
small letter i as my fundamental form, and have
74 Talks on Teaching.
taught the writing of the alphabet in the following
order :
Chart of let-
ters arranged
in order of
teaciiing.
,4^.44^ .4^^y:Zyydry^tyiy^7m4'
Do not allow the children to try a new letter till
they have mastered the one upon which they are
Writing. 75
working. In this way you will teach writing once
for all, and there will be no need of pursuing it as
a study in the grammar grades.
Pen- writing should be taught just as soon as a Movement in
child has thoroughly acquired the forms of ^^^^^J^^gEin
letters. It should begin certainly in the third
year, and may begin in the second. This is a
purely gymnastic exercise, and, like all gymnastic
exercises, position and movement should be acquired
by the greatest precision and accuracy. The simple |,e^o*j! *°
thing to be accomplished in pen-writing is that a per- piished.
fectly smooth line may be made on the paper by
both nibs of the pen. Give very few directions, ^^"^2^1
and follow them strictly. Erect, easy position;
both feet squarely planted on the floor ; knees at a
little more than right angles ; forearm on the table ;
elbow never drawn back of a right angle. Slide
on the nail of the fourth or ring finger. Let the
pen rest in the pen-fingers (the thumb and first two
fingers), the pen-holder opposite the knuckle.
Give a great many simple exercises in movement.
It is a good plan to perform these exercises to
rhythmic movement, regulated by piano-playing.
It is of little use to have one position and drill for
these gymnastic exercises in writing, and to have
another and entirely different one in the regular
writing, composition, etc., of the pupil. A few
months' thorough work in position and movement,
and then rigidly holding pupils to the same in all
their writing, will give each child an excellent
handwriting, unless some physical difficulty inter-
venes.
TALK XIL
TALKING WITH THE PENCIL.
ciSdwSe?!?* When the child enters the school-room, he
enters school, (jomes into a new world, and should bring all that
is good and pleasant in his old world with him.
The strange surroundings, the new faces, banish
from his consciousness almost everything but won-
der and fear. If to this is added a teacher strong
in discipline, who would put the pupil as soon as
possible in the well-worn grooves of order, it is
likely that fear and consequent timidity will be the
controlling power in the cliild while he is in school.
On the other hand, a warm, affectionate greeting,
a cordial shake of the hand, and something to do or
see that is pleasant, from the moment that he comes
into the school-room, will drive away his fears, and
allow his own nature and his own knowledge and
skill to have free course. Give a child something
to do the moment he enters the school-room. A
piece of chalk to work on the board, a slate and
pencil, a pile of blocks, anything to attract his at-
tention. Lead the child to talk as freely in the
school-room as he does at home. He has learned
idioms, pronounciation, accent, use of language, by
Exercises In imitation. Continue this process of imitation by
talking witli .... -, . - , i
the tongue, exerciscs m imitating the voice oi the teacher.
76
Talking with the Pencil. 77
Have him pronounce sentences, suiting the words to
the action, thus — teacher stands before the class
and says (holding up her right hand), " This is my
right hand, ' ' the children do the same ; ' ' This is
my left hand," "I can stand up," ''See me
stand up," ''I can run," " I can walk," ''I can
jump," ''I can skip," etc.; always uttering the
word as the action is performed. Then have pu-
pils review. Ask them how many things they can
do ; and have one pupil after another perform acts,
and tell at the same time what they are doing.
Let the teacher point to objects and say, " There is
the clock, " ' ' There is a picture, ' ' and have the
pupils imitate her. Use here, there, this, those, in
the same way. Place objects in different positions,
and have pupils tell where they are. Introduce
the easiest object lessons. Lead pupils to tell what
they see in the simplest possible way. Plants,
stuffed animals, and other objects of the kind may
be used with good effect. Lessons in Form and
Color, and in fact all the lessons laid down in the
Manuals of Object-teaching, may be used as helps
for the teacher if she allows the child to see for
himself, and use his own language in talking. Pict-
ures may be used in the same way. The great
purpose should be to train the child to talk freely
and correctly. It is a good plan to note down all
the idioms a child has at his command. Faults in ^„9°Fl^-?°^ °l
Dad i]at}its aud
pronunciation should be corrected by repetition of ^^<^c^*<^^^S'
the right pronunciation. Faults in articulation
should be carefully corrected by leading the child to
place the organs of speech in the proper positions.
78 Talks on Teaching.
Until the child talks with a good degree of freedom
little or no effort should be made to change the in-
correct use of language. After this important
period is passed pupils should not be allowed to use
ungrammatical forms. The simple remedy for in-
accurate habits of speech is to give the child many
opportunities to use proper sentences. This should
be done almost invariably with objects. If, for in-
stance, the cliild uses is for are^ lead the child to
talk about numbers of objects before him, using the
^a^TJ^^I^ word are. You will remember that I said that all
and different
taugiif objec-^' "®^ idioms should be learned in the oral language,
tiveiy. and not in the written. All the modifications of
subject and predicate may be taught objectively.
For instance, the adverbs and adjectives. Objects
may be placed in different positions, — for example,
a hat upon the table, — and the question asked,
' ' Wliere is the hat ? ' ' All the prepositions may be
taught in this manner. Degrees of comparison may
be taught by comparing objects. ' ' This is a little
block, " " That block is larger than this, '' " This
block is the largest. ' ' Adjectives may be taught
by leading the child to see the qualities of objects.
What should When the child or a group of children has been
fng with the trained to observe attentively, and to talk fluently,
the work of teaching Eeading may profitably be
begun. It is generally an extravagant use of time
to begin reading before this power is acquired.
When teachers fully comprehend that education is
the generation of power, they will know better how
to adapt the steps of progress to the mind's abihty.
Haste makes a terrible waste when it consists in
Talking with the Pencil. 79
taxing the child's strength in an undue degree.
I have given in a former talk the method by
which I would teach Spelling. The first year
should be spent in training the child to copy (in
sentences) all the words he learns in reading, with
absolute accuracy. The beginning of the second
year dictation may be given. I wish to repeat
here two rules for Spelling that should be invari-
ably followed: First, train the children to know
when they don't know a word. The teacher
should write words which the children do not know
on the blackboard, until they are able to use the
dictionary. Second, never allow a child to write a
word incorrectly, or see a word incorrectly spelled,
if it be possible to prevent it. When it is found
that pupils can write from dictation all the words
they have previously used in copying, the Talking
with the Pencil should begin.
TALK XIII.
TALKING WITH THE PENCIL, CONTINUED.
Thought be- All education consists of the development of
sion.^^^"'" thought and expression. The thought must pre-
cede the expression. Thought, as I have explained,
is the relation of ideas. The best stimulus the
child can have for clear thought is the observation
of objects in relation. The simplest way to bring
thought into the mind, in order to express it with
the pencil, is to perform some simple act. Let the
teacher take up, for example, a block, and ask,
cifei'iioriS- '' ^^^^ di<i I <io ?" ''Tell me upon your slates
workT*^^^^ what I did, ' ' and have pupils write an appropriate
sentence, each writing it in his own way. Let the
teacher sit down in a chair, stand up, walk, run,
reach, laugh, sing, shake hands, rap on the table,
point to the clock, and perform a thousand simple
acts, and have pupils tell with their pencils what
she has done. Let a pupil perform an act, and
have the others describe it with their pencils.
Let two pupils plan, and do, something for their
playmates to describe. In this way all the idioms
that a child uses, and even new idioms, may be
introduced. Pupils may be led to use the various
modifications of subject and predicate in single
words (adjectives or adverbs), phrases, and clauses.
80
Talking with the Pencil. 8i
Prepositions may be taught in the written language,
as they were in the oral, by placing objects in differ-
ent positions; adverbs, by modifying actions, as,
walking slowly and swiftly^ etc. In fact, all the
ways I have just given for oral work may be used
in the written. Every teacher should have a large
collection of good pictures. These may be cut out
of illustrated books and papers, and pasted upon
stout cardboard. Let each child take a picture,
and write upon the slate one thing that he sees in
the picture. After he has done that well let him
write another and another. Great care should be Suggestions
, ., , . ., . . as to training
taken to tram children to write sentences, usm^ in capitaiiza-
' , tioD,punctua-
the proper capitals and punctuation. This can botion.etc.
done only by having them write a great number of
single sentences. They should not be allowed to
write connected sentences until they have formed
the habit of beginning and ending the sentences
properly. Teachers will often allow children to
write a whole page without the proper separation
of sentences, one from the other, repeating ' ' and ' '
and other words over and over again. This is sim-
ply leading them into bad habits. A good way to
prevent this is to require pupils to ask and answer
questions, writing both question and answer. Pict- The nse of
ures may be used in a great many ways. "Write
questions on the board to aid the pupils — such as,
' ' What things do you see in the picture? '* * * Where
are they?" ^' What are they doing?" ''What have
they been doing? " '' What do you think they will
do? " ''What are the names of the persons in the
picture? " [JV^ote. — Let pupils give names accord-
82 Talks on Teaching.
ing to their own fancy.] These and many other
questions may be asked to stimulate investigation.
When the proper time arrives, — that is, when pupils
can write single sentences correctly, — ^have them
describe the picture fully ; and then have them im-
agine and write a story about the picture. This they
will do with great pleasure. From the first chil-
dren should be trained to tell, in their own language,
what they have read ; either at the close of the les-
son, or at the beginning of the succeeding lesson.
When they begin to talk with the pencO, after each
lesson in reading let them go to their seats and
write one thing they have read. Follow this by
two things, then three, then four ; and at last have
them write all they can remember,
in?/ wron?;^' Objects may be used as the best means of training
and right. children to talk with the pencil. I wish to say a
word here about object- teaching. That object-
teaching which tries to force a child to see all the
teacher sees in an object, or has prepared, by copy-
ing a schedule of things to be seen from a Manual
of Object-teaching, and then leads the child to use
a lot of strange words, like ^'opaque," ** trans-
parent," ''flexible," etc., at the same time he is
struggling to observe, is to my mind as completely
wrong as the old-fashioned text-book rote learning.
In the first place, the whole attention should be di-
rected to the observation of the object, without
being encumbered by new words. Secondly, the
child can see very little in the object at first. The
attempt to make him see that which the mature
mind only has the power to observe is manifestly
Talking with the Pencil. 83
wrong. The rule to be followed is, Place the ob-
ject before the child, let him see what he can, and
write what he sees. Then by questioning and de-
vices lead him to see more.
Follow the child, and not make the child follow -
you. Thus, gradually and naturally, the child's
powers of observation will develop. In other
words, the object should ask the questions, and the
child should answer them.
Natural objects are the very best means of train- natural, ob-
ing the observing faculties ; and at the same time language les-
the child can be led to acquire the elementary facts
or ahcs oi Science. Seeds sown on brown paper,
or in cotton, their germination and growth watched,
and every change noted by the children, on paper
or slate, may be used to arouse the greatest curios-
ity, and at the same time to teach language in a
very effective way. Plants inside of the room,
and out-of-doors shrubs, trees, and flowers, should
be made the subjects of object and language les-
sons. I trust that I shall live to see the day
when both Reading and Composition will be beauti-
fully taught by the inspiring stimulus of facts,
gained from natural objects, that will lay a grand
foundation for a future knowledge of all the Nat-
ural Sciences.
All lessons in objects, form, and color should be
made language lessons. The highest perfection of
composition is reached in accurate descriptions of
objects. Toward this end all teaching of language
should steadily tend, without the slightest forcing
or overdriving.
S4 Talks on Teaching,
tiS^stSS^*" Every teacher should be a good story-teller.
By constant practice she should be able to tell a
story in a clear, simple, concise manner. Hans
Chiistian Andersen's, Grimm's, and Hebel's
charming stories may be told by the teacher, and
then written out by the pupil,
faiportant In conclusion, there are certain important rules
to be observed at every step. First, always be
sure that the thought is in the mind before you ask
the pupil to express it. Second, never allow any
careless work; never permit a pupil to write a
word or sentence wrong, as I have said, if it be
possible to prevent it. It is a good plan for the
teacher to move around among her pupils while
they are writing, and closely watch all they are
doing. Erase every mistake, and have pupils try
again. Such expressions as, ' ' You do not see
well," *' I am glad you see something in the pict-
ure" (or the object), ''Look again, and look
closer," ''Be very careful while you are writing
that word," may be used by the teacher with good
effect. Third, have pupils read everything they
write. Pupils may read each other's stories.
Use ruled brown paper freely in writing. When
pupils get command of the pen, have them use ink
in writing their stories.
If this plan of training pupils to talk with their
pencils which I have tried to outline be closely
followed, I am quite sure, from my experience,
that every child of ordinary ability may be trained
to write accurately and rapidly page after page of
good English in three years. And, above all^
Talking with the Pencil. 85
they may be trained to talk with their pencils
with as much eagerness and pleasure as they talk
with their tongues. But the best result is not
found in correct expression, but in the power to
think.
TALK XIV,
COMPOSITION.
Resuita of In the previous talk I tried to show how chil-
previous ^
work. (jpen may be trained in three years to write
legibly, correctly, and rapidly a page of English ;
that good, patient, careful teaching and training
will lead them to talk with the pencil as correctly
and fluently as with the tongue. The greatest re-
sult is that they love to do this work, and that they
are entirely prepared by a thoroughly formed habit
ever after to express whatever thoughts they may have
in good Enghsh. Education consists, primarily, in
the development of thought and expression. Ex-
pression is used by the true teacher simply and
solely as a means of knowing just how and what
the pupil thinks, in order to lead him to higher
struggles and greater victories. I am aware that
most so-called teaching consists in the training of
expression without regard to thought — that is, the
child's imitative powers alone are cultivated, while
his creative strength is left to pine and wither under
Every lesson a mass of meaningless words. If the teaching is
a language ^ ^
lesson. real teaching — i.e., thought development — all the
studies that now follow (after the third year), Geog-
raphy, Arithmetic, and the Sciences, may be made
the best kinds of language lessons. Every real
80
Composition, 87
lesson is carefully planned and given to evolve
thought. The child's previous training has given
him the power to give to the teacher all the thought
evolved, either orally or in writing. During the
lesson the thought is given orally; when it is
finished, it should invariably be given to the teacher
in writing. All true upbuilding of any science
consists of logical premises, sequences, and conclu-
isions. Each step grows out of the consistent union
of all previous thought of which each lesson is a
constituent part. It holds true, then, that if the
thought evolved in the pupil's mind be logical its
expression, either orally or in writing, will be —
that is, real teaching, assisted by constant written
expression, must train a child into the highest art of
written composition.
There is little or no necessity of going outside of ^^^S®^**'*^
the regular branches for the best kind of language- ^^a^^^ "
teaching. Elementary Geography furnishes an
exceedingly fruitful source for charming written
of jiescriptions of hills, valleys, plains, coast-lines, bays,
>xilfs, rivers, springs, in fact all the forms of water
md land under the pupil's observation, which alone
3an give the power of imagining all unseen forms of
and and water. When these unseen forms are
noulded and described, and the great, magnificent
mseen world is imaged through and by the seen,
ill these creations of the imagination will make in-
spiring subjects for composition.
Take one step farther, and from the earth spring
he countless forms of vegetation. Trees, plants,
'md flowers may be described by the child, and
88 Talks on Teaching,
each description be an inspiration to further obser-
vation.
The animals may be described by the quick pens
of the children. Shelter, clothing, cities, com-
merce, and all the interesting subjects with which
Geography fairly teems, form an exhaustless source
of excellent themes. Faith, Hope, and Charity
may be left to repose serenely in the lists of subjects
for compositions, until they have time to bud and
blossom in the child's heart,
mstoryto History, so closely allied and growing out of
ciMs in com- Geography, if properly taught, may be made a
most excellent means of language-teaching. Pict-
ures illustrating the great events in history may
be described. Following this, the teacher should
tell short, interesting stories in history, which may be
given back by the ready writers. Then comes a
carefully arranged list of topics in history. The
school library, if teachers and school committees
have done their duty, is rich with historical works
adapted to the capacity of children. The village or
city library also is at their command. Tlie eager
children are led to read up the topic in a large
number of excellent books. In the hour of recita-
tion they pour out their new-found treasures for their
schoolmates to hear and discuss, and for the teacher
to mould into consistency and order. Then comes
the happy time when they can tell the whole story
in their own words on clean sheets of white paper,
I am describing no Utopia, but a reality that
comes to those who have an immense faith in th
capabihties of human development. Every pupi
Composition, ^9
in a grammar school, at the end of an eight years'
course, may be trained to do this beautiful work.
You who, instead of feeding the child's wonderful,
exhaustless power of imagining the good, the true,
and the beautiful, driven where the cutting lash of
tradition turns the grand study of history into a dry,
stupid rote-learning of pages, dates, and meaningless
generalizations, will remember that the New Edu-
cation leads you to the heights beyond Jordan,
within sight of the Promised Land. Do not turn
back to the rocky, sandy desert of Sin.
Arithmetic, if it be the study of numbers of ^^^^^
things, instead of figures, has for its purpose the «^<^* ^^fi^*^'
development of exact logic. And if the logic is
exact the statements and rules and definitions must
be. The pupils are led to discover every fact,
process, and generalization for themselves, and then
to state what they have discovered in concise lan-
guage. Thus Arithmetic may be made to fill an
indispensable place in language-training.
I have spoken of the use of the elements of g^Si^f^*
E'atural Science as an excellent means of ^a-nguage- J^jt^^J^^^^^^
teaching. From what I have already said you will ^®®**
see that each step in the teaching of Science may be
materially assisted by written descriptions. There ito necessity
are teachers who stoutly aver that the child can ing-book.
spend weeks and months, and even years, upon the
study of columns of words in that expressionless
volume called the Spelling-book. ITow I would
like to ask, If the pupil writes, and writes correctly,
day after day all the words he learns in History,
Geography, Arithmetic, and the Natural Sciences,
90 Talks on Teaching*
how many more words does he need to learn?
What is the use of the SpeUing-book?
When should When should Grammar be taught? After the
Granunar he ^
taught? facts necessary to the metaphysical generalizations,
that are indispensable for the comprehension of the
difficult science of language; when the mind is
ready to use a high form of logical deduction.
What is the use of Grammar? First, to enable
the mind to look more closely into the masterpieces
of composition, in such a way as to comprehend the
thought of an author in all its fulness and complete-
ness; second, to express thought orally and in writ-
ing, in the clearest, most concise, and beautiful
manner. Correct speaking and correct writing can
only be learned by constantly speaking and writing
use^of incor- correctly. 1^0 incorrect form should ever be pre-
rect forms ; *' -"■
false syntax, sented to pupils Until they reach the age of careful
reflection. The custom of writing incorrect syntax
Partiin:. for children to correct is a vicious one. Many
teachers who are now breaking away from the
cast-iron method of teaching parsing and analysis
are diluting the old forms by an infusion of weaker
ones — i.e.^ they are training children to use words
for the sake of using them, without regard to the
Word les- thought that should always inspire their use. They
lead children to make sentences, using ''are,"
"is," ''been," etc., just (as I have said) for the
purpose of using the word. Now, if the child is
continually writing from the second year to the
eighth inclusive, and every sentence is written
under the stimulus of thought, he will use all the
necessary words correctly and repeatedly. There
sons.
Composition, 91
is, therefore, little or no need of purely word les-
sons. But this teaching of grammar is infinitely Diagrams,
better than the old way of taking a sentence that
was made to express a beautiful thought, or behind
which lies a grand picture, and mangling it by hard
names, cutting it intto minute pieces, hanging its
mutilated remains on cruel diagrams; while the
author's meaning remains as far away from the pu-
pil's mind as the bright stars in heaven. There
will come a time, in the course of proper develop-
ment, when teaching technical grammar may be
made a most excellent and profitable study ; when
the rich mines of thought and emotion of which our
Hterature is full may be opened to the growing
minds of children. Technical grammar, to my
mind, as it is usually taught, effectually disgusts
children, and bars the way to deeper insight into
the beauty and strength of language.
TALK XV.
NUMBEB.
What it At the outset of this discussion three questions
should be very carefully answered : What is number ?
"What can be done with numbers? What are the
uses of number? It is of the utmost importance
that we know definitely and exactly the nature of
the subject we teach ; its relations to other subjects ;
its place as a means of mental development ; and its
utility in the affairs of life. If the correct defi-
nition of the subject be not entirely comprehended,
all attempts at teaching will be vague and unsatis-
factory. The usual definitions of number are open
to criticism ; for instance, ' ' A number is a col-
lection of units. ' ' A collection of objects of the
same kind may be designated as a few^ several^
some^ etc. Thus you see the definition fails in defi-
niteness. The best way to define anything is to
concentrate the mind upon the thing to be defined.
I place, for example, several blocks before you.
You can say, *' There are some blocks," '* There
are several blocks," ** There are 2^ few blocks."
* * Some, " * ' several, ' ' and * ' few ' ' are adjectives
limiting the substantive "blocks." If you wish
to be more definite in regard to a collection of
blocks, by a closer inspection yo« are enabled to say,
9a
Number. 93
*' There are five blocks." " Five " is also a limit-
ing adjective. What is the difference between the
former Kmitations of '^few," ''some," and ''sev-
eral, ' ' and of the last, ' ' five ' ' ? The difference,
you see, is in definiteness of limitation of the col-
lection. " Five " answers definitely the question,
' ' How many blocks ? " It is difficult to formulate
a satisfactory definition from these facts. The best
we can give at present is that number definitely
limits obiects of the same kind to how many. The Limita^
of sense-
correlative of this definition is that surfaces, lines, and imag
tion.
corners, or points definitely limit volumes or bodies
of matter in regard to dimensions. You will ob-
serve that number definitely limits objects of the
same kind in regard to how many. ]S"umber limits
nothing vague or intangible. Number is not a quality
of objects or any pai-t of an object ; it simply limits
objects of the same kind in one particular way. "We
can make these limitations first by the senses ; by
sight, touch, and hearing. But these limitations of
the senses must have their limitations — that is, the
visual, tactual, auricular grasp of numbers of things,
however highly cultivated, must reach a point be-
yond which it cannot go. What this point is I am
not at present able to say. Following, and leaving,
the point where the sense-grasp ceases must come
what may be called the grasp of the imagination.
The latter depends totally upon the former for its
definiteness and distinctness. This fact is of the
greatest importance. The unseen can only be
measured by the seen. For instance, experience,
or, in other words, actual sense products, are the
94 Talks on Teaching,
only measures of that which cannot come within the
direct and limiting acts of the senses. We measure
the unseen mile by the yard or rod that is definitely
fixed in the mind by close observation. We measure
a hundred things by a standard that has been fixed
in the mind in the same way, by the action of the
senses.
Bctions to I have often heard objections raised to the object
txi« method of teaching number, because the eye and
hand can take in so few things at a time. This ob-
jection is illogical to the last degree ; for it is of the
utmost importance that our measures of values, that
can be obtained only through the senses, be as dis-
tinct to the mind as the actual yard-stick or bushel
to the measurer. You can easily see how a slight
fault in the standard would bring about an immense
error in great numbers of things. Precisely in the
same way, if the standards of measure are not dis-
tinct in the mind, the imagination of numbers of
things that lie beyond the sense-grasp will be weak
and wrong. Thus you see that the illogical argu-
ment of the objectors to object-teaching is, in reality,
the very strongest reason that can be given in favor
of such teaching,
can be What can be done with numbers? I advise you
8 ? always, for such answers, to observe closely numbers
of things. Here are a number of blocks. What
can I do with them? In what relations can you
see them? Take this one number ; with your eyes
you can perceive the definite limitation as to how
many. What can I do with this number? I can
separate it into other numbers or parts, each of
Number. 95
which you limit definitely in your mind by the
means of sight. Can I do more? Try it. Here
are several numbers. What can be done with them?
I unite them into one number. What more can be
done with a number? I separate the number into
parts, or other numbers ; I unite numbers into one
whole number. I can do this actually, or I can
think it done. ]N'umbers can be united ; a number
can be separated. Every operation in arithmetic,
however difficult or complex, must consist of one or
both of these two simple processes — uniting and
separating. There are two relations of numbers in
these two processes which are severally actual
counterparts or correlatives of each other. These
relations may be called, first, the relation of unequal
numbers to each other ; second, the relation of
equal numbers to each other. I can separate this
number of blocks into numbers that are not equal
each to the other ; I can unite the unequal numbers
into one number. I can separate this number into
equal numbers or parts ; I can unite the equal num-
bers into one number. Here we have the so-called ^Jnt J^S
fundamental four operations of arithmetic. Uniting operations,
numbers (or making a unit of them) is addition;
uniting equal numbers, a simpler process to the eye
and to the imagination than the union of unequal
numbers, is multiplication. The reverse of the for-
mer is subtraction ; of the latter, division. A full
comprehension of these simple facts, and the highly
important truth that every operation in arithmetic
consists solely and entirely of the application of
these simple relations, will make the subject
g6 Talks on Teaching.
of arithmetic a true science, instead of a complex
art.
S number? ^^^^ is ^^ ^se of number? First, and the most
important point to be understood in the teaching of
any subject, is its bearing upon mental develop-
ment ; second, its utility as applied to the affairs of
life. The teaching of arithmetic may be divided
into two parts : first, training the power to calculate
with accuracy and rapidity ; second, the develop-
ment of the power to reason exactly and logically.
"When we train a child to add, subtract, multiply,
and divide with accuracy and rapidity, the exact-
ness and celerity necessary to good work train the
• power of attention. Mathematics is the only exact
science ; if the premises are correct, the conclusions
must be. To form a strong effectual habit of seeing
and thinking of things just as they are, and in their
exact relations, is the province of mathematics.
There are, then, two motives in teaching arithmetic ;
one, of which is to train attention; the other, the
higher and more important one, is the development
of the power to reason logically. All arithmetical
reasoning must be done by bringing the mind to
bear directly upon the relations of numbers of things.
Language is simply the means of bringing the num-
bers of things and their relations into the mind.
wnmst How shall, or rather how must^ number be
ber be
"^Jit? taught? I use this word mvst because, primarily
and fundamentally, there is only one way to teach
number— that is by direct observation of numbers
of objects. We may, it is true, teach the language
of number, leaving the association of the language.
Number. 97
with tlie ideas they should riecall, to accident, and
fondly imagine that we are teaching number. As
well might we try to teach the facts in botany
without plants, in zoology without animals, form
without forms, and color without colors as to
teach number without numbers of objects. All
primary ideas of number and their relations must
be obtained immediately through the senses, and by
their repeated limitations as numbers of things as
to how many.
The first step in teaching number is to ascertain, First find
. out what the
by careful examination, just how much the child cMidimows.
knows of number — i. e. , just his acquired power of
limiting of objects of the same kind to how many ;
just how many limitations of this kind he has ac-
quired. His knowledge of number has been
acquired through some necessity of limiting the
number of objects he handles or sees. Thus a
child in the kindergarten, who is constantly hand-
ling objects — splints, pieces of paper, blocks, etc.
— placing them in different forms, such as triangles,
squares, oblongs, etc., is gaining unconsciously, in
the best possible way, knowledge of number. The
child's real knowledge of number consists in recog-
nizing numbers of things at sight. Ability to
count must not be confounded with the true knowl-
edge of numbers of things. Counting is generally
ordinal ; his four or five is apt to be nothing but
the fourth or fifth. Just what he does know is the
first question to be answered by the teacher. He
may know numbers without knowing their names
or the words that recall them. It would not be
98 Talks on Teaching,
fair, then, to gauge his knowledge of number by
asking him to bring you three^ four, or more
things. Hold up three objects and say, ''Bring
me so many," is the first and easiest test. If this
test is successful, holu up a number of objects (not
more than four), and say, '' Bring me — " (naming
the number.) Third test, hold up a number of
objects and ask, ''How many? " Fourth, request
the child to give you so many, giving the number
without showing the object,
teacher ^oiiid ^^^^ you have ascertained just what the child
know. knows of number, begin there. From repeated
tests, given by myself, and by teachers under my
supervision, the average child of ^yq or even six
years of age does not know three when he enters
the school-room. The reason for this, as I have
before intimated, is not far to seek. It can be
found in the fact that he has not been led to limit
objects in the definite way required by number.
The teacher should know exactly the facts that the
child must acquire in order to know number com-
prehensively ; that is, just what separations and
unions of numbers cover the whole ground. These
facts can be briefly stated thus: first, the equal
numbers in a number, the equal numbers that make
a number ; second, the equal parts of a number ;
and, third, any two unequal numbers in a number,
and any two unequal numbers that make a number.
Tliis applies to nmnbers from one to twenty inclu-
sive. These facts should be recognized by the
child, without the slightest hesitation, on the pres-
Qntation of objects, and should be recalled in the
Number, 99
same manner on hearing or seeing the language
that represents them. I wish to emphasize this ^j^^J^j^^^J^^.
point, that the facts should be known without the n^^tic.
slightest hesitation. That which is learned should
be sunk into automatic action. That teaching
which leaves the child a prey to helpless counting
of fingers when he wishes to reach a fact is very
poor indeed. The struggle of education is essen-
tially for freedom — i.e.^ the mind should be freed
by proper repetitions and drill, so that petty details
may be left behind, in order that power may be
concentrated upon the higher step. For instance,
in solving a problem the whole power of the mind
should be brought to bear upon the exact relations
of the numbers of things, free entirely from calcu-
lation ; because the calculation needed has been so
thoroughly mastered that it becomes secondary and
entirely subordinate, requiring simply automatic
action. Therefore you will see of what exceeding
importance it is that the facts, step by step, should
be thoroughly acquired once and forever.
TALK XVI.
NUMBER, CONTINTTED.
tem'^t^^th **' ^^^ almost hopeless confusion in their knowledge
first year. of arithmetic that we find in older pupils is owing
in greater part to the attempt to teach too much
during the first year. I have seen, many times,
fifty, or even one hundred, laid down in the course
of study to be taught. I have tried during the
last eleven years to teach number to little folks ;
and I have never yet succeeded in teaching, nor
have I ever seen ten, really taught during the first
year. I am well aware that many good teachers
argue that by constant repetition of the language,
without regard to what the language expresses,
fifty, or even one hundred, may be taught — i.e., the
child by unceasing drill may repeat a great quantity
of gibberish, that to the casual obsei-ver may seem
to be a valuable result. Ask these children to
verify one of their voluble sentences by showing
the real relations of numbers of things that the
sentence was made to represent, and you see, at
once, that they have spent much valuable time in
learning an unknown language. The same teachers
argue that the child cannot reason, and therefore
he must be tauglit the language before the things.
All this unreason arises from the attempt that tra-
lOO
Number. lo?
dition forces upon us to teach far more than the
child can learn. There is no time in the child's
life when he cannot see, judge, generalize, and
imagine, providing the work is adapted to his men-
tal capacity. It is this lack of adaptation which
leads to this erratic theory and ruinous practice.
Give the child time to grow, and wait patiently
until the germs of power burst out of their fruitful
soil of unconsciousness.
Teach each number as a whole, as you teach Let child
everything within the sense-grasp. When the idea for Mmseif .
of a number is in the mind as a whole, the tendency
of the mental power awakened by the whole is to
go to the parts. We can only analyze that which
is in the mind. Forced analysis, before the object
is clear in the mind, generates weakness. Let the
child discover everything he can in a number, and
discover it for himself and by himself. If, for
instance, he is learning 4, he has already learned
1,2, and 3 ; and by skilful leading he can discover
the I's, the 2's, the 3 and 1, and 1 and 3, he finds
in 4.
There are teachers who argue that an attempt to Teach the
teach the four operations at the same time confuses tions*at one
the child. It would, no doubt, if the language
alone were learned, without regard to the thought
which that language expresses. But let us see. I
hold up four blocks, separated into 2's.
''What do you see? You say, "Two and two Reasons for
are four, "or in other language, ' ' Two twos are ^ "'
four, " " There are two twos in four, " " Four less
two is two." Which fact do you see first? I have
I02 Talks on Tecching.
never had a class who agreed upon this. I hardly
know myself. It is logical to suppose that we must
see the separation before we can see the combina-
tion. No ; we must see the whole before the part.
It is the old question of trying to separate synthe-
Anaiysisandsis from analysis. I am inclined to believe that it
synthesis. . . . , /
is impossible for us to synthesize without analyzing,
or vice versa. The synthesis of units should sink,
as quickly as possible, into unconscious acts, and
not be kept alive by counting. But I think the
proof is positive that if we see two twos in four
we also see, at the same time, that two twos are
four. That three and two are ^yq we see at the
same time that we do that five less two is three, and
five less three is two. Now, instead of confusing
the mind, correlative relations mutually assist each
other in comprehending each relation. To spend a
long time in adding numbers, without noticing con-
sciously the separations, follow that by a long term
of subtracting, after which teach multiplying and
dividing; produces, I think, the inextricable con-
fusion regarding number that I have never failed to
find in grammar -grade classes. The same theory
carried out in botany would take one part of the
plant — the leaves, for instance — and teach that,
without regard to the whole plant ; and then, re-
turning, teach the bark, then the stem, and so on.
This manner of teaching belongs, not to a primary,
but to a secondary, stage of work.
A misunder- One important point I wish to make very clear
Arithmetic? to you, because in most Enghsh arithmetics tlie
point has been sadly misunderstood. I liave said
Number. 103
that the facts to be learned are the equal numbers
in a number, and the equal parts of a number. I
hold up four blocks ; jou readily see that there are
two twos in four ; that one half of four is two.
Compare the two twos (2 2's=4) in four with one
half of four is two ones (2 l's=2). JN'ow in most
of the arithmetics published in this country and
Great Britain both of these radically different rela-
tions are represented by one written sentence, viz. ,
4-=- 2. Arithmetic is an exact science, and it is
absolutely indispensable that it have an exact lan-
guage. I cannot conceive why these two relations
have been almost totally unrecognized by book-
makers. The only way I can account for it is
that the language of arithmetic seems to have arisen
from the relations of the signs, and not the numbers
of things. Finding the equal parts of a whole
number, which I would like to call pa/rtition^ in
contradistinction to the equal parts of a unit (frac-
tions), is not, perhaps, one of the simplest processes.
But it may successfully begin when the child is
learning four, and the two operations of measuring
by equal numbers (division) and j&nding the equal
])arts of a number should be kept entirely distinct
from each other in the child's mind, as they really
are, or will be, unless his mind is confused by an
ambiguous sentence. Discriminate very sharply
between learning number and learning the language
of number. The former must precede the latter.
If I am any judge of results, nine tenths of the
teaching of arithmetic consists in teaching figures
alone, with little or no regard to numbers. This
104 Talks on Teaching.
you may easily test by asking pupils to verify with
objects a few sentences like these :
4 of i, f -^ i etc.
la^M&f of^^ ^^^^ language of arithmetic is made up of idioms
nunii)er. ^j^^t have little or no analogy with the rest of the
language. For instance, the word from in sub-
traction is used in arithmetic only in the sense of
out of. Times in multiplication is a misleading
word. Bear in mind, then, that in the first steps
of teaching nmnber the ideas of number and their
relations are the things to be taught. Allow the
child to use his own idioms to express what he sees,
until the ideas become fixed in the mind. Then
gradually introduce, by using them yourself (do not
require the pupils to use them at first), the conven-
tional idioms peculiar to arithmetic. Thus these
forms of speech become gradually associated with
the thought. There is no danger of using the new
terms when they recall exactly what they mean.
There is another important point in the language
of arithmetic. When the child enters school, he has
clear ideas of the spoken words, such as "hat,"
**mat," ''cat," *'box," etc., with which written
words are to be associated. He has been gathering
these ideas through five or six years of constant
mental exercise, but, as I have shown, he has very
few, if any, clear ideas of number. Ideas groio
very slowly. It takes a long time, with many acts
of perception, to fix one idea clearly in the mind.
It is of immense importance that these ideas come
into the mind so distinctly that they can be used in
thinking. The oi*al language must be used to assist
Number, i6J
in gaining the ideas, and to express them. Bnt if
we endeavor to teach both forms of language, tlie
written and the oral, at the same time the all-
important work of idea-growth is going on, do we
not try to do too much? Will not the written
figures be taken, as they constantly are, for that
which they should represent? I would defer the
teaching of written figures, for this and other rea-
sons, until at least ten is tlioroughly taught. Then
figures may be taught, as words and sentences in
reading are, by associating them directly with that
which they represent.
I will now try to ffive some indications of the Details of the
•^ ^ step-by-step
step-by-step plan by which numbers may be taught, plan.
First, teach the number as a whole; use a great
variety of objects appealing to sight, touch, and
hearing; second, lead the child to discover every
fact for himself, giving each one a number of ob-
jects; third, after the facts have been repeatedly
discovered by the child fix them in the mind by
constant drill. Let the child take the number of
objects, and show you rapidly what he can see in
it. Show the objects yourself, and have the pupils
tell what they see. Then, without objects, question
pupils sharply upon the facts, and have them answer
without hesitation. Kext apply the numbers
learned, in all sorts of practical ways, by means of
little problems. Have pupils make problems for
themselves. In the teaching of number use all the
common weights, measures, money, that come
within the scope of the number taught. Teach one
number at a time, and have the pupils learn the
io6 Talks on Teaching.
facts in tliat number before another is taught.
Review continually. Judge of your progress by
the increasing power of attention on the part of
your pupils.
th7?s?o?SS** When should we stop using objects? I have but
jecis cease ? ^^^ answer to this question. Cease using any object
when it can be thought of and used without the
presence of the object. This is a general rule, and
appHes to all object-teaching. When children can
think of the things or qualities required for the
desired mental action without the presence of ob-
jects, their after-use cultivates weakness rather than
strength. That is, when the mind has abstracted
the required ideas of number and their relations
from numbers of objects, then the real abstract
number may be used. The abstract number that
cannot be defined or thought of is a snare and a
delusion, and has caused more vague, meaningless,
stupid work in arithmetic than tlie teaching of the
names of the letters has in reading. We say, for
example, that the multiplier is abstract : 2 times 3
means two threes. Two is a limiting adjective, and
limits threes. It has a definite meaning, and to
say that it is al)stract, in the sense given by most
arithmetics to that miserable word, is nonsense,
teaifiiers^ ^^ ^^^^ ^^ ®^^ ' ^^ conclusion to this talk, that if you
have been, like myself, trained in figure-work,
instead of the study of number, I should advise you
to lay aside, for a time, all you ever thought you
knew about arithmetic, and begin its careful,
thoughtful study over again (using numbers of ob-
jects all the time), with a little child to lead you.
TALK XVII.
AEITHMETIC.
When ten has been tlioronglily taught, begin the when and
teaching of the written language of number. The teaching:
process of teaching figures is precisely the same assigns,
in teaching written words. First, show a number
of objects, and then write (on the blackboard) the
sign. Second, write the fign, and ask pupils to show
that number of objects. Third, show a number of
objects, and have pupils write the sign. Fourth,
send the class to the board, then show numbers of
objects one after the other, and have pupils write
the sign. Fifth, show 111, 11, thus; then change
to 11111, and say, ''Write that." They write,
"■ 3 and 2 are 5." Sixth, teacher erases and, and
writes -j-, are and writes — . ''ISTow read it the
same way as before." Teach the signs, =,-[-?
— , X , -^ 5 very carefully, one at a time, and then
review by writing them together. Show objects
(as in oral teaching), and have pupils write the
answers. Introduce exercises like the following :
1
2
3
3
8-^2 =4
8--2 =
8-^ =4
-^2 =4
4 2"'=8
4 2'"=
4 ''=8
2'«=8
5+4 =9
5+4 =
5+ =9
+4 =9
8-5 =3
8-5 =
8- =3
-5 =d
4X2 =8
4X2 =
4X =8
X2 =8
107
io8 Talks on Teaching,
Then have pupils erase tlie answers (see 2) and
write the answers rapidly. Have them erase an-
swers again and read the columns. Have them erase
second line (see 3), then fill up the columns. Have
them erase again and read. Tlien let them erase
the first line (see 4) and fill in the Answers. Use
in these exercises all the forms of stating processes
to be found in arithmetical calculation, the pu-
pils learning them by seeing the relations which
they express. In division, for example, 8-7-4=2,
4)8(2, 4\8; in multiplication, 2x3 = 6, 3. When
h 2
6
these forms are firmly fixed in the mind, give the
i>«taU8^of same exercises without using objects. From 10
steps to 20. proceed, number by number, to the development
of 20, using both oral and written work. For re-
views give an exercise like this (orally), having
pupils write out answers upon slates or board, in
columns, without hesitation : 7-|-5; 5-[-3; 4's in
12; 10—7; i of 9; 6x2. Let pupils change
slates and correct, the teacher reading the answers.
Train pupils to make good figures, and to arrange
their work neatly upon slates, blackboard, or paper.
Never allow any careless worJc.
These exercises, however, form only a part of the
work which should be done. The oral and written
work should go hand in hand. Calculation should
be followed by applied numbers, using, as in oral
work, weights, measures, and money. Have pupils
buy and sell, and keep an account of their trades
on slate and paper. Give them a great many little
Arithmetic. 109
problems tliat will test their thinking powers.
Have them write their own problems (language
lessons). Write on the board T+4-; 3X5; J of
12; 16-i-4; and have them write problems on
their slates, using these numbers and their relations.
Write examples for them on the board. Have
them read them (reading lessons). A Primary
Arithmetic may be introduced (like the ''Frank-
lin") as a reading-book at this stage. The squares
of 2, 3, 4, and 5 may be taught by drawing the
squares on the board. Have children make the
tables — multiplication and division, products not
exceeding tlie number taught. I believe when 20
is thoroughly taught, and all the facts are known
without the slightest hesitation, and when the child
has formed the habit of using figures, simply to
represent numbers of tilings, in such a way that the
figures, in any and all of their relations, will readily
recall the numbers in their relations, that more
than half of the science of arithmetic is within the
grasp of the pupils. This work should occupy the
time at least of the first two years. It may be
done, I think, in one year if the pupils have had
thorough kindergarten training.
I have not time to speak of the steps from 20 to Parker's
100. For this work I will refer you to the Arith- Chart; 20 to
. 100.
metical Charts, soon to be published by Cowper-
thwait & Co. Three years at least should be al-
lowed for the thorough teaching of 100.
I am often asked the question, ' ' When should when can
the use of obiects cease in the development of i>e taught
, . . , . T .^ , , -,- without oh-
number, that is, m teaching a new number?' It iects?
no Talks on Teaching,
is clear to my mind that when pupils can analyze
a number {i.e.^ find the equal numbers in a num-
ber, the equal parts of a number, any two unequal
numbers into which a number can be separated, or
that make a number) without the presence of the
objects the time has come when they should not
be used. Whether this be at 10 or 20 I know
not. I shall have to teach number to little cliil-
dren a few years longer before I shall be able to
find this important fact. This rule, however, ap-
plies to all teaching : Set the child free as soon as
possible; train him to help himself, to use that
which is in his mind with the slightest external
stimulus ; but, above all things, be sure tha the has
the right mental objects to use. These must come
in through the senses.
Nothing new I have tried to give you an outline of how
Inhlelier to J
Aritfimetic. children may be thoroughly grounded in primary
arithmetic. If you fully comprehend and carry
out this plan, very little need be said about higher
or Written Arithmetic, as it is usually called. For
there is absolutely nothing new to be learned in all
arithmetical teaching, except the processes which
large numbers involve, such as is found in the addi-
tions, multiplications, subtractions, and divisions,
which cannot be performed without the use of slate
and pencil. All these processes should be discov-
ered by pupils,
ifeediesi The tendency of modern teaching has been to
this study, make very simple things complex and difiicult.
The application of the science of teaching will
bring us back to the grand simplicity characteristic
Arithmetic, iii
of true art. The complexity of which I speak
can arise in no other way than from a superficial
understanding of arithmetic. That is, it consists in
taking the language for the thing, and making
rules, and definitions, and terms which appear en-
tirely new to both teacher and pupil, when they
are simply a well-known operation under a new
name. I have shown that all that can be done with
number consists totally of separating and uniting
numbers. Hence every subject in arithmetic,
whether it be fractions, decimals, percentage, in-
terest, or cube root — whether the numbers be large
or small, is only a simple continuance of what the
child has already learned ; a new application of the
same thing. Let the teacher follow the great peda-
gogical rule of Pestalozzi. Teach the idea before
the word, the thought before the expression, and
all will go well. When a new subiect is beffun, Teach every
o J o 'new subject
fractions, for example, let the pupils discover what objectively,
fractions are by means of objects ; show them the
fractions; have them write the signs upon the
blackboard. Follow the usual course in teaching
fractions, and you will readily see that pupils can
be led to discover for themselves a mixed number
by showing them by objects a whole number and a
fraction; an improper fraction by separating a
whole number into equal parts; that the parts
must be equal in order to add or subtract, and
when they are equal they are added and subtracted
precisely like whole numbers ; and so on, step by
step, they may be led to see the relation of the dif-
ferent equal parts of units. That is, the thoughts
112
Talks on Teaching,
mility.
Teachers
need to study
numbers of
tMngs.
can be evolved by means of objects before the
How to bring sentence is written. If you happen to have a class
that have been through the hooh^ and know all
about fractions, write a simple fraction upon the
board, and ask them to verify it with objects —
i.e.^ ask them to show you just what .the word or
sentence means. In all my experience I have
never failed to bring about a commendable degree
of humility, which is very useful when turning the
minds of the pupils afresh upon an old and almost
worn-out subject that students are apt to imagine
they have thoroughly mastered.
I cannot urge you too strongly, as teachers, to go
back to the study of the real meaning of all you
think you know about arithmetic. My advice
comes from my own experience in trying to teach
this subject. Finding that I knew figures well,
and not numbers of things, I have been obliged to
go back to the objects in order to find just what
the figures in their relations mean. My second
reason for this advice is that I find pupils in ad-
vanced grades unable to reason in arithmetic.
Reasoning, let me repeat, must he upon things, and
not words.
The question has been often asked me, ' ' How
much analysis would you have?" By analysis
many teachers mean the repetition of a set formula
that has been learned ** by heart." That is, a child
learns a pattern by which all examples of the same
kind may be done with the slightest possible mentaJ
action on the part of the learner. This is not anal-
ysis, though it is often called by that name. It is
How mncli
analysis ?
Arithmetic, 113
pattern-learning, and is simply imitation carried over
into the sacred region of thought development;
and it effectually prevents the growing of any origi-
nal or creative power. Analysis is the discovery
by the thinking powers of the parts of a whole,
which must be, of course, clearly in the mind be-
fore its parts can be mentally seen. Another diffi-
culty in this so-called elaborate analysis is that it con-
sumes much valuable time. For instance : Teacher,
— ' ' If one apple costs three cents, what will four
apples cost? " Child. — " If one apple costs three
cents, four apples will cost four times as many cents
as one apple will cost. Therefore four apples
will cost four times three cents. Four times three
cents are twelve cents. Therefore, if one apple
costs three cents, four apples will cost twelve
cents. ' ' I think I have not put in all the words
that can be put into this complex and useless ex-
planation ; still I have tried to illustrate what I
have very often heard. The example given is the
application of a general fact which the child is
learning. If the previous work has been correct,
all the child needs to say is, '' Twelve cents," and
go on performing a dozen examples, instead of
agonizing over the stiff formula of one. Let me
not be misunderstood. The pupils' attention
should continually be turned back upon that which
has come into their minds as wholes. "We learn
the science of arithmetic not for the purpose of
knowing arithmetic, but that the study of the sub-
ject may increase mental power. The trouble is
that we ^^ our minds on the quantity to be learned,
114 Talks on Teaching,
and not on the value the things learned has in
mental growth,
shouid^be led -^^^ there is not one thing in the science of
tSoulhtrfor numbers, no definition, rule, or process, that can-
tiieiiiseives. j^^^ ^^ discovered by the child under the proper
leading of a skilful teacher who knows what she is
teaching. The pupils can discover in this way
every thought ; the language, of course, must be
given them. Definitions, rules, processes, and
problems may be an excellent means of mental
growth if each and all are discovered by the pupils
for themselves and by themselves. They are gen-
erally, as learned and applied in the pattern fash-
ion, a great means of concealing thought and in-
creasing stupidity. The arithmetic of the future
will contain not one rule, definition, or explana-
tion of a process. ' ' Education is the generation of
power, " ' ' ]S"ever do anything for a pupil that he
can be led to do for himself. ' ' How often these
old truths have been repeated, and still one of the
great evils, if not the greatest, is, that we do too
much for the pupils. Instead of leaving them to
help and control themselves, instead of cultivating
their powers of attention and concentration, we try
to make them the passive, innocent recipients of
stores of knowledge, without the movement, on
their part, of a mental muscle. Explanation is one
of the very best means of preventing mental action.
No expiana- Train a boy to be an athlete ; lift him over every
bar, carry him up the ladders, defend him with
your fists, and then send him out into the world to
fight his own battles ! This is exactly what we do
Arithmetic. 115
when we make everything plain by Qxplain2ii\on,
I have heard the objection made by teachers, when
I have broached this cardinal doctrine of the !N"ew
Education, that it takes too much time to lead a
child to discover everything for himself. Educa-
tion is the generation of power; and the generation
of power, in the right way, is the very highest
economy of which man can conceive. We learn to , we learn to
•^ , . , do by doing.
do by doing, to hear by hearing, and to think by
thinking. We see with all we have seen, we do
with all we have done, and we think with all we
have thought. The greatest delight of all teaching
is to place the difficulty squarely before the pupils
(generally by means of objects), and then let them
work it out for themselves. If they go wrong, do
not tell them they are wrong, but ask the question
that will set them right. Time is nothing when
power is growing ! Look on this picture, and then
on that. A class listening to the verbose explana-
tion of an enthusiastic pourer out of knowledge,
watch their faces as they are repeating a rote-
learned definition, rule, or formula, or are wait-
ing for their mothers — I beg your pardon, their
teachers — to put the food into their open mouths.
Or, if you please, behold this class led by a
teacher inspired by the thorough knowledge of the
subject, who has the thought distinctly in her own
mind, who is trying dexterously to lead her class to
know what she knows, and is very glad to have
them discover something that she doesn't know.
One class solemnly marches to their goal of quan-
tity under the banner of rewards and punishments,
ii6 Talks on Teaching,
per cents, merits, checks, or the rod. The other,
all aglow with eagerness and zeal, faces flushed in
their earnest desire to discover the truth, fearful
that some one will tell them what thej wish to
find out for themselves — such children are gather-
ing strength at every step, and learning to do the
work the world is most in need of.
My dear teachers, fill yourselves full of the sub-
ject you would teach, know its nature, its length,
breadth, and depth, and then, with the knowledge
of the learning child, lead him to discover, step by
step, what you have discovered. I promise you
that in such work you will find for yourselves a
mental growth on your own part that can scarcely
be found anywhere else, and an unequalled joy in
leading little ones to fulfil the grand destiny for
which God intended them.
TALK XVI 1 1.
GEOGEAPHY.
A DESCRIPTION of the surface of the earth and its Geography
inhabitants is, perhaps, as comprehensive a defini-
tion of geography as can be found. A description
of the surface of the earth consists of a knowledge
of the structure of the outside of this ball on which
we live; this sti*ucture consisting of slopes, rela-
tively gradual and abrupt, that vary its outline;
the surface being not that of a perfectly smooth
sphere. This description of the surface is limited,
in geography, to the constructed merely, and not
the construction. The construction applying to the Two parts of
material is the realm of eceoloffv. "We have in turai Geogra-
geography two parts, ihe iirst pertains to thetory.
superficial structure, the second to the people who
live and have lived upon the structure. We have,
then, the stage and the actors. The first is real
or structural geography, the second history. For
history has to do with all that men have done in
the past, and all they are doinff at present. First work;
rT^l n . i . -,.,.-,-.. i forming men-
ine first work m geoficraphy is to build into the tai pictures of
„ , . structure.
mmd, by means of the imagination, the stage, that
may afterward be filled with moving and acting
human beings. We can teach geography by means
of maps so that the mind will rarely go beyond the
"7
ii8 Talks on Teaching,
map, i.e.^ the world and all it contains is limited
to the colored surface of a piece of paper. Now
the map, like a word, should be the means of re-
calling a reahty. That teaching of geography
which does not take the student beyond the repre-
sentation of that which is represented is manifestly
wrong. The description, as I have said, of the
surface of the earth must be of mental pictures of
the forms raised above a perfectly level surface.
If the surface of the continent were like that of
the ocean (of water), a particular description of
surface would be impossible. Yarying outlines,
then, make it possible for us to describe the surface
of the earth. A description of the various and
varying forms that rise above the level of the
ocean is, per se^ b. description of the earth's sur-
face. This description has been almost entirely
overlooked in the study of geography.
Thecharac- The structure of the earth's surface should be
nentai forms studied iust as any other structure or form is
locates and •* "^ i m i
fixes them in studied. Were 1 to ask you to describe a house
the mind. "^
that you have seen, you would immediately con-
centrate your mind upon a mental picture of that
house. You would tell me of its height, its roof,
its general form, of its doors and windows, and so
on. Just in this way a continental structure may,
and should, be described. These varying forms
of vertical stmcture in their relations give the
character to a continent or any of its parts. Let
us look at this a moment in relation to memory.
All that we remember must be located in space,
real or imaginary. The more distinct the locality
Geography, 119
is in the mind the more tenaciously and clearly
the mind holds any fact in relation to the locality.
The more character there is, the more pronounced
and varying the slopes into hills, valleys, coast-
lines, and rivers, the easier it is to fill such locali-
ties with facts and retain them. Our knowledge
of locality upon smooth surfaces, like the ocean,
is very vague, hanging as it does upon imaginary
lines drawn from the sun, moon, and stars. I can
make my meaning plain by referring to the method
of the modern historian or novelist. The first
thing to be done on the part of either when a book
is to be written is to carefully prepare the terrain
upon which their figures have moved or are to
move. Curtius, the famous historian of Greece, ninstrationi
has given us in the first pages of his history a clear and Mstorian.
picture of that wonderful peninsula. When one
can travel in imagination all over that country, can
see Thermopylae and Marathon, can climb the
Acropolis or wander over the Isthmus of Corinth,
can view Sparta in all its surroundings, he is, in a
measure, ready to follow the fascinating movements
of the characters, either real or imaginary, from
Hercules to Bozzaris. The novelist, with a freer
pen and more fanciful range of thought, is wont to
describe minutely the landscape upon which he
designs to place his characters. Test yourselves
in this respect, and you will see better what I mean.
Recall the farm upon which you were born (if you
were so fortunate), or any other scene that is fixed
in your mind by long familiarity : how from each
tree, running stream, valley, or hill start thou-
120
Talks on Teaching,
AU that is
changing
should be held
in immovable
forms.
Vertical
forms de-
termine the
character of
continents.
Also charac-
ter of inhabi-
tants and
bistory.
sands of recollections, bound to tliem by the great
law of association. Were I to tell you that such
and such changes had been made, a house built
here, a road there, how quickly would your imagi-
nation make a picture of the changes, and these
pictures would thereafter be held firmly in your
memory. Now what the novehsts and historians
do in order to make us remember their stories and
histories should be done with the structure of the
whole earth, and for the same purpose. So that
cities, political divisions, the movements of men,
and all that is continually moving and changing,
may be retained and held in the forms and spaces
that do not change. My first argument, then, for
the teaching of structural geography is that it is
an essential and fixed basis for the memory of eter-
nally changing facts.
The character of the vertical forms of continents
determines their horizontal shape or outline. This
is plainly seen in the relations of highlands to the
seacoast. The vertical forms also determine the
drainage of a continent. The immense uplifted
masses may be called the bones or framework, the
drainage the life-blood of continental forms. The
soft earth or soil, worn away from rocks, that gives
us fertile or arable land is deposited by the drain-
age of varying slopes. Thus, you see, with the
exception of the important element of climate, the
structure limits the occupation, resources of food,
shelter, clothing, and health of man. The char-
acter of mankind depends, to an immense degree,
upon the character and position of these structural
Geography, lii
forms. Compare North America with Africa, —
the one with great mountain masses sloping gradu-
ally down to lower levels, and then to the sea;
with its great navigable rivers and accessible coast ;
the other with mountain masses, to be sure, but
with no extensive gradual slopes, so that its rivers
to gain their outlets must break through plateaus,
thus forbidding navigation, — and we have a picture
of two widely different continental forms. They
are the extremes. One with the conditions for
steadily moving arterial blood, like the horse ; the
other for the stagnation and slowness of the tortoise.
The greatness of nations may be traced directly to
the structural forms upon which they lived and
thrived. Egypt, with its narrow strip of very
fertile land fed by the Nile, is bounded by vast
deserts, to keep off invaders. Palestine is a natural
fortress with its great wall on the Jordan side, its
rocky desert on the south, but with one weak point,
the fatal plain of Esdraelon. Had that great rift
in the earth's crust, extending from the Sea of
Galilee to the Dead Sea, never been made, the his-
tory of that wonderful and powerful nation that
gave us the foundation for our religion never
would have been. The Grecian peninsula had all
the conditions for the development of its wonderful
history.
The study of the structure of the earth's surface study of
•^ /. n 1 stntcture the
forms the natural basis of the study of all other t)asis^of^
Physical Sciences. A knowledge of the surface issci«ac«8«
the elementary study of the crust of the earth, and
leads directly to Geology, and that to Mineralogy.
122 Talks on Teaching,
Drainage determines the soil, and upon soil and
climate depends vegetation, thus leading directly
to Botany. Upon the vegetation depends animal
life, the study of which gives us the science of
Zoology. The movements and phenomena pertain-
ing to structure give us both Physics and Physical
Geography ; the measurement of form and move-
ment of the earth, Mathematical Geography; its
parts and composition. Chemistry. All these sci-
ences are the direct outgrowth of structural geog-
raphy. Structural geography, then, may be called
the elementary science upon which all other sci-
ences are founded. This branch has hitherto been
almost entirely overlooked or neglected. Indeed,
I am obliged to invent a new name for this new
science — Structural Geography.
Humboldt, Humboldt, by his careful observations and gen-
Ritterand ' •^ ^
^yot, and eralizations, made it possible for Carl Kitter to
discover a science of geography. The study of
geography previous to Ritter's time consisted of
the learning of a conglomerated mass of isolated
and disconnected facts, that must be held in the
mind by the sheer force of verbal memory. The
progress of the new science has been, and is, ex-
ceedingly slow. Guyot, the pupil and disciple of
Ritter, made for us his unequalled Common-school
Geography. But the book has been a failure, and
is now out of print, because teachers who had been
taught in the old way could not comprehend its
great beauty.
TALK XIX.
GEOGRAPHY, CONTINUED.
In my last talk I tried to show that structural how can
geography is the true basis of geographical and be t)uiit in
historical knowledge. I shall endeavor to show
in this talk how it should be taught. The purpose
is to fix in the mind clear, comprehensive pictures
of the forms of continents. These forms are made
up of slopes. The slopes range from the gradual
(level plains) to the most abrupt (mountains).
These forms, of course, cannot be seen, and the
question is, How can they be brought into or built
in the mind? All we know of the unseen must be
known by the mental power we call imagination.
The law by which the imagination acts is very imagination
1 • rri, • J- 4. 1. 1 and its laws,
plain, ihere is no disagreement among psycholo-
gists concerning it. Imagination is that power of
the mind which combines and arranges, with more
or less symmetry and proportion, that which prima-
rily comes into the mind through the senses.
Everything imagined is made up of parts already
in the mind when the particular act of the imagi-
nation takes place. All our power of imagining is
absolutely limited to sense products, already the
property of the mind that imagines. If you have
never thought of this, a very little reflection will
123
124 Talks on Teaching,
convince you of its tnitli. Try to imagine any-
thing, and then, by analysis, notice if any of the
parts are not things you have abeady known. The
unseen is made or imagined entirely out of the
seen. The question, then, in teaching structural
geography is, How can the proper sense products
necessary to the imaging of the forms of continents
be brought into the mind? The answer is near at
hand. In order to imagine the unseen that which
can be seen must be brought clearly into the mind.
Elementary geography consists of the close and
careful observation of the forms of the earth's sur-
face around us. There is hardly a town or district
in the Atlantic States where each and aU of these
forms may not be observed.
o/caJti^a§ii& Higher than mere acquisition of knowledge, geog-
tiiis f actaty. raphy is the very best means for developing the
powers of imagination. Next to the direct action
of the senses, imagination is the most important in
its length, breadth, and depth of all the mental
powers. Distinct and true creatures of the imagi-
nation are an indispensable basis for reason, and for
ethical and spiritual culture. No subject is more
Power of neglected in our schools. The little child soon
Imagrinatioii in '^ • i j* i •
cMidren. creates a new world out oi the scant matenal oi his
limited sense products. In this world of fancy he y/
lives and revels. The child's life would be a sad
one were it not for his own bright, self -created ^
world. The little girl sees a beautiful doll in a
stick and a rag. Out of a few broken pieces of
crockery and a shingle or two she creates an ele-
gant pantry. A cane to the little boy is a splendid
Geography, 125
charger. Fairy-stories delight all children, and
often contain more truth than maxims or precepts.
Our common- school education has a tendency to
crush out all imagination, or force it into wrong
and vicious channels. This steady and strong ten-
dency of the mind may be developed into an im-
mense power, and geography furnishes, as I have
said, one of the very best means for its develop-
ment.
The first steps in geography should give the Directions
child the means to imagine that which he cannot the first steps
^ m Geograpny.
see. Begin with the forms around you ; the close
and careful study of the chains or ranges of hills,
valleys, plains, coast-lines, springs, brooks, rivers,
ponds, lakes, islands, and peninsulas. Study them
as you do objects in Botany or Zoology. Take the
children out into the fields and valleys ; return to
the school-room; let them describe orally what
they have seen; then mould and draw it; and,
finally, have them describe the objects they have
seen by writing. Teach them distance by actual
measurement; boundaries by fences, and other
limitations ; drainage by gutters, and the flow of
water after a rain. Let them find springs, and
discover how the W9,ter comes out of the ground.
Have them bring in different kinds of earth —
gravel, sand, clay, and loam. I have not time
to give you any regular order of subjects — ^if
there be one. Begin with one object, study it
carefully, then take another and combine the two,
and so on. I wish to call your attention especially
to the three great means of thought expression:
126 Talks on Teaching.
first, the concrete expression; second, drawing;
third, language. The first may be done by mould-
ing sand obtained from an iron-foundry. Have
pupils tell you what they have seen by moulding
the form. Second, have them draw everything
they see in relief and horizontally. Third, de-
scribe what they have seen orally, and then in
writing. Use these means continually in teaching
geography.
t^tmf^^ '^^® observation of objects should begin, of
It^^^^^ course, as soon as the child enters school. The
objects around the school-house should be observed :
yards, fences, gardens, gutters, roads, fields, past-
ures, hills, valleys. Out of these objects many
very interesting and profitable object and language
lessons may be made. But the teaching of element-
ary geography proper should not begin much before
the fifth year of the child's school-life. The work
of which I have just spoken, the study of geograph-
ical forms that may be observed, should be begun
the latter part of the fourth year, or the first of the
fifth. One year, at least, should be spent in this
study. Parallel with it books like Each and All,
Seven Little Sisters, Guyot's Introduction, may be
read with great profit. They seem to excite curios-
ity and inspire the imagination. The power of
imagination should be developed at every step.
Thus, after a lesson upon the hill tell the children
about the great mountains in the world. When
they have seen one river, tell them about others
that they can't see. When they have examined,
moulded, drawTJ, and written a description of one
Geography. 127
peninsula, draw other peninsulas, like Spain, Italy,
Greece, Florida, IRorway and Sweden, for them.
When they have studied an island, tell them about
the great islands (the continents).
Constantly excite their curiosity to solve problems e^^J^cSio^s^i-
like these: Where does the water go when it falls ty^^^gi|ad^o
on the ground? How far down does it go?
What does it do in the earth? When does it come
out of the ground? Where is the more water, in
rivers and lakes, or in the ground? Why does not
a river run in a straight line? What turns it?
Why is it narrow at some places and wide at others?
Take the water out of a lake, and what would you
have left? What, then, is a lake? Where does
a river get its water? How much land does a river
drain? What is the difference between a river and
a canal? What if the earth was all level, like the
floor? What are the uses of a river? a hill? a
plain? a valley? When does the water come into
the land on the coast? What makes a pebble?
What is the difference between a pebble and a grain
of sand? a pebble and a great piece of rock? and
a quarry? These and other questions, when skil-
fully used, and the child is led to discover every-
thing for himself, may be made a source of deep
and abiding interest on the part of children. The
philosophy of geography may begin as soon as the
child can make the slightest generalization.
When the child has in his mind the necessary Reasons
1.1 1 • . 1 -1 1 xi ^: forteachingr
sense products, he may begm to build the conti- the continent
1.1 mi .11 Tbeforethe
nents, as the next simplest step. The pupil can be cowity or
led to imagine the continent far easier than he can
128 Talks on Teaching*
be led to imagine any part of it. Strange as it may
seem at first thought, an entire continent is simpler,
in its general construction, than a single town or
district. It is a mistake, then, to begin with states
and sections before the entire continent is imagined.
There is a common rule in teaching geography
which leads to the teaching of the immediate sur-
roundings of the school-house, the district, the
town, the county, the state. This order is illogical,
because the county is more difiicult to imagine, as
I have said, than the entire continent. The reason
why we teach the surroundings is misunderstood.
The purpose of teaching that which can be seen
and examined is simply and solely to enable the
child to imagine the unseen. The great highlands,
long slopes, and regular vertical forms of the whole
continent is, to my mind, the next simplest step
when the facts of elementary geography are in the
child's mind.
The wholes Another pedae^Offical rule is often wrongly ap-
of sense-grasp r & t? & ./ r
93i^umAgi- plied : Begin with the whole, and go to the parts.
Thus, many teachers think that the whole must be
the great globe itself. The rule should be changed
to : Begin with any whole that is in the mind, and
go to the parts. I^ow there are two kinds of
wholes. One is the whole of sense-grasp; the
other is the whole of the imagination. The latter
depends entirely, as I have tried to show, upon the
former. Not until the child has the acquired
power of imaging or synthesizing the whole conti-
nent is he able to analyze or even think of the parts ;
bow much less is he able to imagine the great
Geography* 129
round ball we call tlie earth ! The reasonable road
to this knowledge is, first, sense products of geo-
graphical forms; second, whole continents; then,
parts of continents; and last, by means of the
acquired power of synthesis, the whole globe.
Mathematical ffeosrraphy, then, should be the last Mathemati-
o o r ./ 5 5 cal Geography;
geographical subject taught. But from the first to when it should
the last the facts necessary to the teaching of
matliematical geography should be picked up all
along the Hne. The seasons, with all their changes
of rain and sunshine, snow and ice, dry and wet
weather, growth and death of vegetation, heat
and cold, the sun and its movements, the moon
and stars — when they rise, how they look, what
they do, so far as children can observe, should be
made the constant subjects of observation. Mark
out on the floor the limits of the sunbeams as they
stiike through the window. Do the same thing
the next day at the same liour. Note the differ-
ence, and wonder how it all comes about.
Compare this teaching of real geography, that
delights children at every step, that trains close ob-
servation, lays the foundation for the development
of imagination, and forms the elementary steps of
all physical sciences, with the rote-learning of a
mass of dry, disconnected facts, found in the so-
called prunary geography. Which does the most
good? is a (question I leave for you to decide.
TALK XX.
GEOGRAPHY, CONTINUED.
meanf t).y* When the elementary facts have been carefully
contiSnu?* gathered, the building of the continents should
begin. By building of the continents, I mean
that the teacher should combine the acquired sense
products into a picture of the horizontal and verti-
cal structure of the continent, so that the pupil can
travel, in imagination, all over the structure, and
mentally see its parts. This picture at first is a
general one, a bird's-eye view, to be gradually
filled up and intensified in details by all after-
study of the continents. It is to form the mental
framework of all the facts that will be afterward
learned. In this framework of memory, cities,
boundaries, mining and agricultural regions, may
be placed and retained. Geography, as commonly
taught, leaves out the indispensable conception of
upraised forms, and limits the study to the plain
surface of a map, using the artificial helps to mem-
ory of color and boundary lines. In tliis teaching
of geography, maps, both plain and relief, together
witli description, are used simply as aids in imagin-
ing the real continent. That is, tlie mind is to bo
carried beyond the symbols to the real tilings them-
selves.
Geography, 131
The general forms of continents are x3omparatively what a con-
simple. In the first teaching, the teacher should
try to fix this general form in the mind, with very
little attention to details. The body of land we
call a continent consists wholly of slopes, bounded
by rivers and coast-lines. It may be taken, at first,
as one great mass of land raised above the sea.
The first division that should be made is a division
into great and lesser upraised masses or highlands.
These upraised masses are bounded by coast-lines
on one side, and the line of the lowest level be-
tween them. The mountain ranges are simply the
tops or apexes of these highlands. They form, in
themselves, a very small part, comparatively, of the
highland masses. Thus, we start from the Missis-
sippi, the line of the lowest level between the east-
ern and western highlands, and travel west on that
which looks like level ground, until we rise seven
thousand feet above the sea, before a mountain is
seen.
I wish to speak now of moulding these forms in Moulding in
7 , ... . Geography ;
sand, as an aid to the imagination m getting pic- its use and
tures of the upraised forms. First, let me say
that the moulding, like maps and other means of
description, is simply and solely a help to the im-
agination. If the mind sticks in the '* mud-pie,"
as it is often called, the mud is of little or no use.
The teacher should be constantly carrying the chil-
dren's minds from the symbol to the symbolized.
An objection is often made to relief maps, because
they exaggerate heights. It is impossible to repre-
sent to the eye the relative heights of the earth's
132 Talks on Teaching.
surface. If relief maps are not used, I would like
to ask the objectors, What means have you of lead-
ing the pupils to imagine continental forms ? As
the mind is led from the relief to the reality, when
extent can be imagined, the relative heights will
take their true place. A board or table, 3X4
feet, with raised edges; half a barrel of sifted
foundry sand, dampened so that it can be easily
worked with the hands, is material enough for
moulding. A few weeks' practice on your part,
will enable you to mould any continental form with
a considerable degree of skill.
Howto teach You may begin in several ways. I should begin
moulding:. with the continent that has the simplest form —
South America. Throw up the great highlands,
that extend from the Straits of Magellan to Panama.
Lead pupils to see how the highland determines the
outline of the western coast. Compare the abrupt
slope on one side with the long and gradual slope
on the other. Lead them to see that, if the west-
em coast is determined by the highlands, the east-
ern coast must also be so determined. That, if
there were no other highlands, the waters of the
Atlantic would cut into the land, so as to form two
abrupt slopes on either side. Now, the lesser high-
lands of Brazil and Guiana may be thrown up, and
the pupils will readily see what determines the out-
line of the eastern coast. I^ext, from the simple
laws of drainage they have already learned, they
will be able to locate the great river basins. The
different degrees of fertility may also be discovered
in the same way. Have each pupil mould the con-
Geography. 133
tinent. For this purpose small pieces of board
with raised edges may be used, or shallow tin pans,
that can be placed on their desks. The discussions
of the effect of the form upon drainage, soil, and
vegetation should go on hand in hand with the
moulding. The outline of the continent may be
drawn from the moulded form, and the great high-
lands and rivers designated. Drawing should he j^^^^p. *^^J-g
constantly used, from the beginning to the end of ^*^ •^®*^^^'
all geographical and historical teaching. The aim
should not be to draw nice, accurate maps, but to
express thought in a rapid way. The first thing
in all description in geography or history should
be a map of the country or section under study.
When the general form of one continent lias ^ JJ^^^der^of
been moulded, drawn, and studied, take the next <^<>^*^®^*^'
in order of simplicity — N^orth America. When
North America has been moulded, the two conti-
nents should be compared. First, lead pupils to
discover the resemblances between them ; then the
differences. Have them drawn and moulded in
their relative position. Lead pupils to trace the
great highland mass from Patagonia to Alaska.
Follow this with the moulding of Africa. By com-
paring this continent with North and South Amer-
ica, pupils may be led to discover the causes of the
wonderful differences in their history and develop-
ment. They can reason from cause to effect, and
by such reasoning discover what an immense in-
fluence structure has upon civilization. Asia and
Europe, followed by Australia, may be successively
moulded and drawn. The comparisons should be
134 Talks on Teaching.
constantly made. All the moulding and drawing
should be on a scale of distances which will de-
velop the power of judging extent. The conti-
nents should be located on the globe, so that their
relative positions may be seen, and the proper
preparation made for the study of mathematical
geography. The principal islands and groups of
islands should be studied in the same way as the
continents. The continental islands may be dis-
covered as broken fragments of the mainland.
1 "^^f^^°^" With this study of continental forms, descrip-
study of conti- tions of vegetation, climate, soil, and peoples should
go on; not in a definite and particular way, but
enough should be given to feed the imagination, to
arouse curiosity, and clothe the dry bones of the
structure with the warm coloring of living forms.
Children should read travels, bits of history, etc.,
in connection with this work of moulding and
drawing.
TALK XXI.
GEOORAPHY, CONCLUDED.
"W"e have now the general picture of the great The placing
11 .1^.1 .1 rrn M of continents
land masses that rise above the sea. ihe pupil can in their reia-
.... tive positions.
recall them, can travel over them m imagination.
With the placing of the continents in their relative
positions on the globe, some conception of climate
may be taught. Locating the great rivers and
their basins has brought the children to the study
of drainage; and this, in turn, has furnished a
basis to the study of vegetation. The soil and
great staple productions of all the continents may
be now learned quicker and better than the soil and
productions of a single country, in the old way, of
memorizing facts, which were the staple products
of the old geographies. All the maps of the conti-
nents may be drawn upon the board in their rela-
tive positions, as they appear on the Mercator Pro-
jection. The soil may be divided into fertile,
arable, and barren, and indicated by colored crayons Lessons on
upon the maps. Lessons upon soil should be given ^
and specimens of the various kinds of earth, from
gravel to vegetable mould, examined. If you have
a bit of ground near the school-house raise all the
different kinds of useful plants that you can. Then vegetation.
take up successively all the great food staples.
135
136 Talks on Teaching,
Locate the wheat, the rice, the corn, the potato,
and the rje regions, and indicate them, as I have
said, in colors on the maps. Follow these with
the luxuries in the way of food — coffee, tea, cocoa,
etc. Then the subject of shelter and fuel may be
studied, the forests and kinds of wood. Lessons
should be given upon specimens of wood. Plants
used for clothing may come next ; the cotton and
flax, the caoutchouc, etc., may be located. This
study of plants, as I have said, leads us directly to
the study of Botany.
Animals. From vegetation they may go to animals. These
may be classified, and their haunts discovered;
animals for food, animals for clothing, beasts of
burden, domestic and wild animals. This distribu-
tion may be noted by drawing the animals on the
map as they are distributed over the surface of the
earth. You will readily see that by this work you
have created a necessity for the study of Zoology.
Mines and ]S[ext mines and quarries may be located. Stone
Quames lo- ^ •'
catedo and metals for shelter, for machinery, and for
money and luxury may be dug from the bowels of
the earth by the eager imagination of the pupil.
Coal and salt mines may be explained, and the
wonderful story of their creation be told. We are
thus brought naturally to the study of geology and
mineralogy. The study of the structure, as I told
you, leads directly to the study of the construction.
The study of The earth is now made ready for the abode of
man ; races ; *'
hawts^ &c. ^"^°> ^^^ m2in^ the animal, will now take his place
on the earth, created in the minds of the children.
Lessons should be given on the races of men ; and
Geography. 137
tiieir peculiarities, customs, and habits described.
The races may be located upon the maps by color-
ing the maps as the races are colored. How
do men hve? In what kind of houses? What
clothing do they wear? What do they eat?
pupils have been prepared by the previous lessons
to answer these questions, with one exception — that
of the products brought from countries by com-
merce. Lessons on government should now ^^ ^ G^overMie^ts
given — how men found governments adapted to^^^^sions.
their particular states of barbarity or civilization.
Then all the continents may be divided up by
boundary lines of red chalk into pohtical divisions.
In two or three days, if the work I have indicated
has been properly done, all the political divisions
of the earth, and their relative positions, may be
easily taught; and more than that, pupils will be
ready to answer these questions of each political
division. What is the surface and soil of this
country? Climate? What the productions? The
animals and race of men? The foundation thus
thoroughly laid enables the child to learn more of
the world in one week than the children who
memorize the conglomerated mass of disconnected
facts can learn in a year. There is a place made
for everything, and everything is put in its place.
We are now ready for the founding of cities, ^*A^*» ^-
because we know the conditions under which cities ^^?ff5i^?!'
and commerce.
may be founded. Here the various industries
may be grouped and studied. The farmer on his
farm, the smith in his shop, the weaver at his
loom. The necessity and invention of machinery
138 Talks on Teaching,
for the economizing of force. The use of steam
and water power and electricity in manufactures.
The pupils will readily discover that the countries
containing small, quick-flowing rivers must be the
centres of manufacturing interests. Commerce
may be made an excellent review of what pupils
have already learned. What do certain peoples
want? When and how will they get it? Then
comes the necessity for ships, steamers, railway
cars, and beasts of burden. Routes on the ocean
may be traced from city to city, and country to
country, and the great Hues of iron rails stretched
across the continents.
Latitude, The relative positions of the countries may now
longfltade and _ ^ ,. , .-,, i. pi. i ii
climate. be lixed m the mmd by lines 01 latitude and longi-
tude, and the climates may be studied on the same
lines, and the causes of the differences in climate
be discovered.
What conn- The next step I would suff^est is the study of a
tries should he ^ . ^ . . "^ ,
•tndied. few very important countries — important as they
relate to the world's progress and civilization.
The United States should be thoroughly studied
as a preparation for our history. Great Britain,
France, and Germany should be studied for the
same purpose. Egypt, Palestine, Greece, Italy,
and Spain should be separately studied as a prep-
aration for the study of Ancient History. The
pupils are now ready to watch, with great eagernesw
and close observation, the changing mass of man-
kind as they move over the stage that has been
80 carefully prepared in their imagination. They
are now ready for History.
Geography. 139
Collateral reading should be kept up from the collateral
beginning to the end of all this work. Histories
adapted to the children, stories, travels, descrip-
tions of animals and plants — all may be very profit-
ably used at every stage of progress.
Objects — kinds of plants, woods, articles of food, coiiectioM of
clothing, fuel, implements of labor, models of shel- JiJt5?es^^
ters of all countries and nations — should be collected
into a school museum, and used in teaching as they
are needed. When objects fail, pictures should be
used. Of these every teacher can easily make a
very large collection, cut from illustrated papers,
magazines, books, etc., neatly pasted upon cheap
cardboard and classified. One set may be used
for landscapes, another for water views, others for
shelter, cities, animals, races of men, and the
various industries.
This is but a brief outline of the new and com- ^^^l^^^^
paratively untried science of Geography. The^®"'^*^*
great difiiculty in the way of its introduction can
be traced to the terrible power of habits fixed by
our own imperfect education. The teaching of the
science of Geography depends almost entirely upon
the power to use the imagination. In my limited
experience I find that the imagination, instead of
being developed by the usual methods of teaching,
is crushed, and nearly obliterated, so far as the
action of the mind is concerned in study. The first
thing for us to do, my dear teachers, is to convince
ourselves, by careful and thoughtful study, that
there is a real science of Geography. After this is
done we may have the courage and persistence so
much needed for its application in teaching.
TALK XXII.
HISTOKY.
What shonid Two tWngs should be acquired by the study of
study of history in grammar schools ; first, an ardent love
for history ; second, a plan or method of studying
the subject. The main practical purpose of the study
of history is to guide our steps in social, political,
and religious progress. This philosophy of history,
cannot be studied to any great extent until the
student reaches the high school or college. The
study of history in the grammar schools should be
confined to the collection and arrangement of facts
necessary to the generalization upon which the
ers^tra2ied*by philosophy of history depends. The place of liis-
tMs study. ^^^^ .^ mental development is found in the means
it affords for increasing the power of the imagina-
tion and deduction. Generalizations learned and
recited by rote, before the facts are known, en-
cumber the mind with useless rubbish. There are
very few text-books that can be used profitably in
grammar schools, because they are, for the most
part, filled with such generalizations. Higginson's
'* Young Folk's History of the United States'' is
an exception.
Use of fairy The active imatrination of the child, so strongly
ard mvtho- ,,.,. . , n . ij
logical itorics. marked m his ardent love for stories, may be de-
140
History, 141
veloped into a still greater love for history. I
liave spoken briefly, in a former talk, of the use of
fairy and mythological stories in mental develop-
ment. The child's intense desire to use his imag-
ination continually is the foundation of this love.
Fairy- stories to the child are like the parables of
the Master ; they contain the seeds of truth^ that /
will germinate and fructify in the child's mind far*^
better than the truth grown to its full stature, and
embodied in maxims and precepts. Every teacher
should be an excellent story-teller, so as to make
the half hour each day given to story-telling a
delightful one to the children. As the child gains
experience, by contact and communing with his
fellows, there comes a time when the real should
take the place of the fictitious, and all tlie child's
love for fancy may be carried over and become
more intensified in his love for the real. Short,
carefully selected, and well-told stories make a
good beginning for the elementary study of history.
It matters not whether these stories be taken from
ancient or modern history. They should be brief,
simple, well told. Tell the children the story, and
have them tell it back in their own language. Then
let them write it, as I said in my talk upon language ;
this furnishes one of the best means of talking with
the pencil. Work like this may be given in the
fourth year. Pictures representing: historical Detail of m-
•^ X o direct work
scenes, like the ' ' Landing of Columbus, ' ' the from fourth to
' o ' seventh year.
" Discovery of the Mississippi," etc., may be used
with excellent effect, both for language and history
lessons. First, have pupils describe what they see
T42 Talks on Teaching*
in the picture, thus arousing their curiosity, and
then tell them the story. Two years, at least, may
be profitably spent in this work. Eeading, after
the third year, of easy and interesting books upon
history may be introduced. Books like ' ' Stories
of American History, ' ' Quackenbos' * ' Elementary
History," and Mrs. Monroe's *'Our Country"
— these may be read as regular reading lessons.
Pupils should be required to tell what they have
read, both orally and in writing. The sixth year
may be spent to advantage in the study of the bi-
ographies of a few great men and women around
whose history very important facts can be grouped.
How to take In the seventh year, more direct study of history
study of should beojin. It is a great mistake to teach the
liistory. ^ ^
history of the United States unconnected with the
history of other nations, whose acts made our his-
tory possible. From 1492 on, the history of all
peoples that had so much to do with the formation
of our own nation — Italy, Spain, France, Holland,
Germany, and Great Britain — should be studied.
In teaching Spanish or French discoveries, one or
more topics may be arranged for the teaching of
Spain and France at the time of these discoveries.
One great difiiculty in the teaching of history, that
puzzles teachers and text-book makers, is the im-
mense number of facts that may be taught. A
careful selection of the subjects to be taught is of
Rules for se- tlie first importance. Two rules should govern in
topics. the selection of topics. First, select subjects that
are interesting; second, choose those topics which
bear directly on the development of the progress of
History. 143
the nation, or upon its failure and downfall. That
is, the teaching of all facts should be so directed
that the pupil, when the proper time comes, maj be
able to study effectively the philosophy of history.
The course of study in history during the seventh
and eighth years should consist of a carefully
selected and arranged number of topics that cover
the salient points in the history of a country. They
should be so arranged that one may be developed
into the other, and the whole form a framework of
history into which all after facts may come in their
proper places. Do not choose too many topics. aM^gJerest^
One topic, so taught as to arouse genuine interest e^pty ^en-^°*
and love for reading history, will do more good ^^^"^^^°^*
than a hundred superficially taught. Bear in mind
that your purpose is to create a love for history.
You are generating a power that is to act during
the child's life. Teaching the child to memorize
page after page of dry dates and empty generaliza-
tions is the best means to induce weakness and
disgust pupils, so that they will look upon history
all their days as an unpleasant study.
That which interests children the most is the
facts that come nearest to their own experience
[expanded and exaggerated, of course]. Thus, the
inner life of a people may be made intensely in-
teresting. How they lived, the kind of houses,
what they ate, their clothing, customs, and man-
ners, should form a very considerable part of all the
teaching of history. Besides, in these facts we
find the true secret of the failure or growth of na-
tions, of which the governments, wars, and great
144 Talks on Teaching.
events are simply the outcome. A real picture of
how a tribe or nation lives, the family and social
relations, the education and customs, is of more
philosophical value, than the lives of Alexander,
Csesar, or Napoleon ; for the first made the latter
possible : they furnished the conditions through
which great men become great.
Fix events In the talks upon geography I tried to show
and scenes ^ ^ o o jt ./
»ipon clear ^ you of what immense importance the knowledge
tnres of stmc- of the structure of the earth's surface is in remem-
tnre.
bering and understanding history. How the vary-
ing slopes make up the character of the continent
and influence the civilization of its peoples. The
main point which I wish to impress upon you now
is, that a clear and distinct picture of the stage
upon which the drama of a nation's history moves
is absolutely essential in fixing the various facts
and scenes in the memory. The structure remains
nearly the same throughout the ages, and it is only
by the close association of the ever- changing scenes
of time, with the clearest notions of immovable
space, that these scenes can be retained in their
relations and developments. The first thing to be
done, then, in teaching any topic is to fix the
stage or structure upon which the scenes were en-
acted very clearly in the mind. This may be done
best by moulding the structure in sand upon the
moulding-board, and then by drawing the horizon-
tal outline on the blackboard. !Ro attempt should
ever be made to teach a fact in history without the
close accompaniment of moulding and drawing.
History cannot be well taught from one book. I
History, 145
would, if possible, have each pupil obtain a differ- Detailed di-
ent book. There should be in every school a col- tJe^eacMng
lection of histories for reference and reading. °^ * ^°'^^*
Works of fiction should also be included. Give
out a topic, and ask pupils to read it up, mention-
ing the best sources of information at their disposal.
In recitation, have them tell what they have read ;
add to their store of knowledge by giving them
your own ; arouse their curiosity, thus leading them
to read in certain directions; discussions may be
held on disputed points, and authorities cited. The
teacher should mould all that the pupils bring into
systematic order, and, finally, when pupils are full
of the subject, have them write out all they have
learned. "When the day of examination arrives,
select one or more of the topics, and have pupils
tell, with their pens, all they know about it. The
marking should be upon the pupil's power of re-
search, expression in original language, and finally,
upon the use of language.
Yery much of the pupil's power in learning his- Dates; what
tory depends upon his ability to read well, i.e., ^^ they should be.
get thought accurately and rapidly by means of
words. By this plan all mere rote-learning is en-
tirely avoided. The memorizing of dates should
be confined to the events that mark great epochs in
history. Dates should be used simply as labels
upon subjects that have been made very interesting
to pupils.
The danger of using one book is that by it Caution re-
pupils will be led to pin their faith to an author, teaching: of re-
T-. • 111 .11 r. -1 /. ligrious and po-
i3y using many books they will soon find how facts, liticai events.
146 Talks on Teaching,
causes, and results differ under the different authori-
ties. Thej will discover for themselves, that even
the best authorities are not always reliable. The
teacher should avoid dogmatic opinions in regard to
politics and religion. Pupils, if left to their own
research, will find out for themselves the important
fact that it was not because men were Republicans
or Democrats, Protestants or Catholics, that so
many bad acts have been performed by various sects
and parties ; but because the lust for power and
love for cruelty drives men to the commission of
crime, no matter what their party name or sect
may be. To teach a child that the Protestants were
always right and pure, that the Catholics were al-
ways wrong and unjust, is radically false and wicked.
A great love for truth and justice should be de-
veloped by real teaching. In my experience, chil-
dren may be led to love the reading of history more
than they do that of fiction. It is wonderful, it
would seem almost incredible, if a painful experi-
ence had not taught us otherwise, that the learning
of history can be made a repulsive drudgery on the
part of children. Truly, the invention of the
school-master has been carried to the bitter end,
when children can be trained into a dislike for the
study of the grand scenes of which history is so
rich and full.
TALK XXIIL
EXAMINATIONS.
I BELIEVE that the greatest obstacle in the way Examina-
- . ^ . 1 "" . 1 TIP . ti<>"^ * gfitat
of real teacnma: to-day is the standard oi exami- obstacle to _
^ "^ good teacliing:.
nations. The cause is not far to seek. The stand-
ard for the work has a powerful influence on the
work itself. What should examinations be? The
test of real teacliing — of genuine work. What is
teaching? Teaching is the evolution of thought,
and thought is tlie mind's mode of action. Teach-
ing arouses mental activity, so as to develop the
mind in the best possible way, and at the same
time leads to the acquisition of that knowledge
which is most useful to the mind and its develop-
ment. There is one other important factor to be
considered, and that is the training of that skill
which leads to the proper expression of the thought
evolved. This factor in teaching is usually called
training, the results of which are correct modes
of expression, such as talking, writing, drawing,
making, and building. All school-work, then, is
comprehended in thought and its expression. It
must be understood at every step that expression
is only necessary when thought is evolved. Train
expression at the expense of thought, and we have
the body without the living soul.
147
I4S
Talks on Teaching.
What l8 the
aim of real
teaching ?
"What the
object of ex-
aminations
shonld he.
Common
standard false
and absurd.
Real teaching, 11 leaning by this the evolution of
thought, and the training of its expression, does
not aim at the learning of disconnected facts.
Heal teaching leads to the systematic, symmetrical,
all-sided upbuilding of a compact body of knowl-
edge in the mind. Every faculty of the mind —
perception, judgment, classification, reason, imag-
ination, and memory — is brought into action in this
upbuilding, or mstruction; and the foundations
are laid broad and deep in sense products. Words
and all other means of expression are simply indi-
cations of thought-building and its complicated
processes. Examinations, then, should test the
conditions and progress of mind in its develop-
ment. The means of examination are found in
language, oral and written, in drawing, and all
other forms of expression.
If I am not mistaken, the examinations usually
given simply test the pupil's power of memorizing
disconnected facts. Take, for illustration, the in-
numerable facts in history ; of these that which a
child can learn in a course of four or ^\e years'
vigorous study would be as a drop of water to the
ocean. It would be an easy matter to set an ex-
amination of ten seemingly simple questions in
history, for Mommsen, Curtius, Droysen, Bancroft,
and other eminent historians, which they would
utterly fail to pass. How, then, can we judge of
a child's knowledge by asking ten questions? The
same can be said of geography and the natural
sciences. The fact is the only just way to examine
pupils is to find out what the teacher has taught,
Examinations, 149
and her manner and method of teaching. Exami-
nation should find out what a child does know, and
not what he does not know. Suppose, then, that o/Ji?hVmode
in the example just mentioned the pupils have °^ ®^^™^^*°^'
been under the guidance of a skilful teacher, who
has given out, one after another, the most interest-
ing subjects to be found in history, and had her
pupils read all they could find in various books
about them, and after taking these acquired treas-
ures of knowledge, and arranging the events in
logical order, had finally had the children write
out in good English the whole story. The test of
such work would simply be to request the pupils
to tell orally, or on paper, all they knew about
Columbus, Walter Raleigh, Bunker Hill, or any
other interesting subject they have studied.
It is very easy for one accustomed to such ex-
aminations to judge of the true teaching power of
the teacher by the written papers. If meaningless
words have been memorized, if there is a lack of
research, investigation, and original thought, the
results will be painfully apparent. "Whatever the
teacher has done, or failed to do, can be readily
comprehended by an expert in examination. In
the same way geography and the sciences may oe
examined. The test of spelling, penmanship, com-
position, punctuation, and the power to use correct
language, can be tested in no better way than by
the writing of such compositions as these.
Examinations should not be made the test of fit- Examina-
/. • Tr. 1 1 n 1 tionnotthe
ness lor promotion, li the teacher really teaches, proper test for
, 'J ^ promotion.
and faithfully watches the mental growth of her
150 Talks on Teaching.
pupils, through the work of one or two years, she
alone is the best judge of the fitness of her pupils
to do the work of the next grade. If she does not
teach, it is impossible for her to prepare her pupils
for advanced work. The great question for the
supervisor to decide is, Has the teacher the ability
to instruct the children in the proper manner and
by the best methods? Is it possible for a super-
visor to find out in one hour, by a series of set
questions, more than the teacher, who watches
carefully the development of her pupils for one or
two years?
Those who understand children will readily ap-
preciate the excitement and strain under which they
labor when their fate depends upon the correct
answering of ten disconnected questions. It is well
known to you that some of the best pupils gen-
erally do their worst in the confusion that attends
such highly wrought nervous states. How much
better, then, is it to take the entire work of the
pupil for the whole year than the results of one
hour under such adverse conditions?
Toomucii^ Again, examinations demand more than the
demanded of ^
chudren. children can perform. What teacher ever received
a class from a lower grade fully prepared for the
work fixed by the examination for her grade? I
have never found one. Supposing children have
been in the school three or four years under poor
teaching, and do not know anything thoroughly —
cannot read, write, reckon, or think. Now the
teacher who takes such poorly prepared pupils
^lU8t choose onQ of two courses. She must do th©
Examinations, 151
children under her charge the greatest possible good
by teaching them thoroughly what they have failed
to learn, and then have them fail entirely of passing
the uniform examinations; or, by sheer force of
verbal memory, the paragraphs, pages, and propo-
sitions necessary for the test may be put into their
minds. ' ' Having, ' ' says Spencer, ' ' by our method '^
induced helplessness, we straightway make helpless-
ness the reason for our method. ' '
Perfect freedom should be given the teacher to Freedom
do the best work in her own way; that is, the the teacher,
highest good of the child should be the sole aim of
the teacher, without the slightest regard for false
standards. The teacher who strives for examina-
tions and promotions can never really teach. The
only true motive that should govern the teacher
must spring from the truth, found in the nature of
the child's mind and the subject taught.
The purpose of the superintendent's examination The doc-
•*■■'■ ^ tnneof re-
shc>uld be to ascertain whether the principals under sponsibUity.
his charge have the requisite ability and knowl-
edge to organize, supervise, and teach a large school.
The examinations of the principal should test the
teaching power of his teachers; and lastly, the
teacher should test, by examinations, the mental
growth of her pupils. This is the true economical
system of responsibility. First ascertain whether
superintendent, principal, and teacher can be
trusted, and then trust them.
The answer to this proposition I have heard a Give the
thousand times. * ' Your plan would be good IdiancV. ^"
enough if we had good teachers. The fault is
152 Talks on Teaching.
that the teachers are so poor we cannot trust tliem.
If we did not examine them in this waj, they
would absolutely do nothing. ' ' The fallacy of this
answer may be exposed in two ways : first, a uni-
form examination of disconnected questions pre-
vents the good teacher from exercising her art;
second, the poor teacher will never be able to see
the wide margin between good work and that which
she does until the true test of real teaching is placed
before her. There has been legislation enough for
poor teachers and poor teaching. Give the good
teachers a chance ! The testimony of countless good
teachers has been uniform in this respect. When
asked, ''Why don't you do better work? Why
don't you use the methods taught in normal schools,
and advocated by educational periodicals and
books? " the answer is, '' We cannot do it. Look
at our course of study. In three weeks, or months,
these children will be examined. We have not one
moment of time to spend in real teaching ! ' ' No
wonder that teaching is a trade, and not an art !
Appeal for ITo wonder there is little or no demand for books
est study and upon the scicuce and art of teaching, such as
* Payne's *' Lectures," etc. The demand fixed by
examiners is for cram, and not for an art ; and so
long as the demand exists so long will the teacher's
mind shrivel and dwarf in the everlasting tread-
mill that has no beginning or end, and the more it
turns the more it creaks ! So long, too, will this
tinkering of immortal souls go on! Teachers
often complain of their social position, their salaries,
and the lack of sympathy in the public. * ' The
Examinations, i^^
fault," dear teachers, "is not in onr stars, but in
ourselves, that we are underlings." Instead of
stubbornly standing, and obstinately denying that
there is no need of reform, and that all so-called
new methods are worthless, let us honestly, ear-
nestly, prayerfully study the great science of teach-
ing. Let us learn and courageously apply the
truths that shall set us free ; and the day will soon
come when the teacher will lead society and mould
opinion.
TALK XXIV.
SCHOOL GOVEENMENT.
reluitV/idtt- "^^^ highest intellectual result brought about bj
cation. elementary instruction is the power of attention to
those objects which have the greatest influence in
developing the mind. It may also be said that
higher education consists in developing that power
of the mind which enables it to concentrate all its
strength upon subjects within itself. To use a
psychological term, the first conscious work is upon
the object-object; the second upon the subject-
object. The greatest effect either of attention or
concentration is brought about by an effort of the will
to withdraw everything from the consciousness ex-
cept the object or subject of thought. The highest
result of all government, from whatsoever influence
it may come, is found in the most complete control
of the reason over the w^ill in all mental and moral
acts. Before the child can reason the mother
must be the child's will ; but neither mother nor
teacher should ever usurp the place of reason.
Just as soon as a child can act from his own right
impulse he should be allowed to do so. Many a
prudent parent has remained the will of the child
until the time when self-control can be acquired
had past, and tlie moment the guidance of tlie
154
School Government. 155
parent failed the child often found liimself drift-
ing on the sea of life, a hopeless wreck.
/ The highest motive of school government is to mJtiveo?^*^
give the child the power and necessary reason to ^^°JJ govern-
control himself. The immediate and direct motive
of school government is the limitation of mental
power to attention. That order is the best which
leads the child to withdraw attention from all other
objects except the one in hand. Whether the pur-
pose be thinking or performing some act of skill, '^-
or both, the direct motive of order remains the
same. Attention does not consist of the attitude of J^^atisreai
attention?
the body, but of the mind. Pupils may stare in-
tently at a book, may be paying the strictest atten-
tion to the eyes of the teacher, while their minds
are ' * over the hills and far away. ' ' There is a vast
difference between real and apparent attention. In
the one the thing attended to fills and controls the
consciousness; in the other the body may be in
correct attitude, the eye fixed upon the object, the
picture of the object may be upon the retina, but
the presence of other objects of thought in the
consciousness shuts out all perception of the object
seen. Attention may be impelled by a desire Twowaysin
• . c .,1 . P -, . ^wMchitmay
sprmgmg Irom within, irom the attractiveness of Regained,
the object ; or compelled from without by the will
of the teacher, who expresses her will by means of
rewards and punishments. The first great question,
then, for the teacher to decide is, To what extent
can the attractiveness of the object be made to con-
trol attention? That is, in what measure can the
interest of the child and the love of work be excited
156 Talks on Teaching,
and quickened so as to reduce tlie amount of re-
wards and punishments?
mSke'th^ub- / The natural growth of the child, both mentally
gct^attrac- ^^^ physically, is a healthy, happy growth. That
the growth may be natural the means of growth
must be exactly adapted at every step to the vary-
ing conditions of the child. No one will deny this
proposition, so far as it relates to physical growth.
Food, exercise, and clothing that meet the exact
wants of the child produce the best conditions for-
health and strength. I believe that this truth ap- J
plies with equal power to the mind as to the body.
"We have many criticisms upon the so-called natural
teaching, as though it were a kind of teaching that /
led the child to grow in some wild, uncertain way, ^
following his own propensities and desires. This
is one of the many shallow criticisms that emanate
from those who are troubled by the IS'ew Educa-
tion, and not having studious habits that would en-
able them to study thoroughly the reasons for bet-
ter teaching, they reply to everything by stale,
Definition of ready-made, stock arguments. Natural teaching
natural teach- *^ , . i i i -.
ins- means nothmg more nor less than tlie exact adap-
tation of the subject taught to the learning mind ;
and that adaptation leads the mind to grow in a
normal, healthy way. As that physical exercise
which is best suited to the growth and strength
of the body always delights the heart, so the natu-
ral exercise of the mind must bring a still higher
pleasure. /
tenprin^fpfes ^^^7 ^^ Gro^l's elementary method of training the /
education. child to work. The kindergarten is founded upon
School Government, 157
the child's intense love of play. Who ever saw
anything but constant delight oh the faces of the
little children in a true kindergarten, where hands
and heads and hearts are in continual harmonious
action? The secret lies in the fact that the child's
life consists of building, weaving, drawing, taking
apart and putting together, and at the same time
feeding the imagination for higher flights. When
should this delightful play and work stop? When
the primary teacher meets him at the door of a /
castle, fetters his active limbs to a hard seat, and
imprisons his expanding mind in a narrow cell
walled by unmeaning hieroglyphics? ]^o! A thou-
sand times no ! It is cruelty to stop the blessed
work done in the kindergarten. Froebel said that
the principles he discovered and advocated, when
thoroughly applied, would revolutionize the world ;
and he was right. In the kindergarten is the seed-
corn and germination of the New Education and v
the new life. The seed has been planted, the buds
and flowers are turned toward the sun : let not the
chilling frost of traditional teaching blight and
wither them. One and all of the true principles
of education are applied in the kindergarten ; these
principles should be applied (simply changing the
application to adapt it to different stages of growth)
through all education, up to the gates of heaven.
The strufferle of development consists in acquir- Contrast be-
tween tlie two
ing knowledge and skill so thoroughly that it can ideals in edu-
sink into the automatic, thus leaving the mind free
for new attainments. The conflict between the
kindergarten and the old education is the strife for
158 Talks on Teaching,
the mastery between two vastly different ideals —
the ideal of quantity learning and the ideal of har-
monious mental growth. The one must be com-
pelled, as it always has been, by the rod or ignoble
emulation ; the other finds its glowing impulses in
the inward joy of living and growing just as the
mind's Creator designed when He planted in the
human mind the vast possibilities to be realized by
the application of His truth. I mean by this that
all the teaching in our schools, if Nature be fol-
lowed, will bring decided and permanent pleasure.
One great reason why we continue unnatural teach-
ing may be found in the fact that the strongest
tendencies and hnpulses of beautiful child-nature \/
are utterly ignored. Every child loves nature:
the birds, flowers, and beasts are a source of ex-
haustless curiosity and wonder. Carry this love into
the school-room, bring the child closer and closer to
the thought of God and His creatures, and that
implanted desire to know more and more of His
works will never cease.
Teachevery- Keadini^r, writing, spelling, numbers, are simply
thing with the , ^' - ^^f' ^ f . ' - ^ ^
stimulus of the means 01 getting an education, and they may
loves. be all beautifully taught under the delightful stim-
ulus of that which a child loves. The child has a
strong desire to express his thoughts in the concrete
be re-creating the forms that come into his mind,
niustration: He makes mud-pies, hills and valleys, fences and
S-awinjf.*^ houses, with childish glee. Carry this same im-
pelling tendency into the school-room ; lay the foun-
dation of the grand science of geometry by moulding
in clay. Next to the child's love for making forms
School Government. 159
comes the joy he finds in drawing ; a child loves to
draw as well as, if not better than, he loves to talk.
Continue this love by putting crayon or pencil in
his hand as soon as he enters school, and give him
free room to express all he can. These tendencies
are the thrifty roots of true mental and moral
growth ; foster and nurture them by good teaching,
and soon we will have a new and better race of
men. It is a hard thing to say, but a strong belief jj^^emoraUz^-
in the immense possibilities in the human mind to gaciuSe?^^
grow far beyond any past attainments compels me
to express what I believe, and that is that most
primary teaching crushes the best and highest ten-
dencies of the mind, blights and withers imagina-
tion, stultifies reason, and then (by artificial meth-
ods) strives earnestly and honestly to build up the
mind on this ruined foundation.
I may have wandered far from my subject ; but
the point I wish to make is that the attractiveness
of the subject, if naturally taught, will create a
genuine enthusiastic love for study, and develop
the closest and most prolonged attention, thus mak-
ing the will of the teacher a secondary and subor-
dinate element in school government. Opposed to
this is the teaching of a quantity of knowledge, and
the acquisition of skill without regard to natural
adaptation. So far as my experience goes, most
children are reading in books far above their range
and power of thinking. They are going through
the arithmetic with an insufficient knowledge of the
elements. They are learning page after page of
generalizations and facts that mean little or nothing
i6o Talks on Teaching,
to them. The teachers are preparing words for
the examination, and neglecting to prepare the
child for the struggle of life.
rewS?or^ °' Sucli teaching 7nust, as I have said, be enforced
underthe^* by tlic hope of rewards or the fear of punishment.
Quantity ideal. There is no alternative. The glittering bauble of a
high mark or a diploma must lure the fainting and
famished pupil on, or the rod at his back must
drive him. Without these incentives there is no
motion. Compare the sterility and barrenness of
stupid word-learning with the richness and variety
which the full action of all the mental powers —
observation, judgment, imagination, and reason —
causes, and we need not seek farther for the mo-
tives that induce the children under one kind of
instruction to hate school and learning, and under
the other to love school- work with all their hearts.
Answer to One of the stale, old, often-repeated stock argu-
the argument . , , ' '_ , ,, -
for stern ments IS that the methods used are those oi enter-
discipline, etc. , i i i -i i
tamment and pleasure; that the child must be
trained to face the stern realities of life by strict
discipline and hard work. This objection is so
venerable, and at the same time so stupid, that it
is hardly worth the time it takes to answer it.
Because the mind finds pleasure in natural growth,
ergo^ the teaching should be unnatural in order to
discipline its powers. As if the road to success in
life lay in tormenting the child Avith all the sharp
thorns and hard pebbles that can be placed therein !
Wliat man ever made a true success in this world
who did not love his work, and pursue it witli a
genuine enthusiasm? Education is the generation
School Government, i6i
of power — power to overcome obstacles, power to The purpose
■*■ -^ . ^01 education,
toil, and struggle, and fight. ' There are plenty of
real obstacles that lie in the pathway of human de- No time to
^ "^ ^ , spend upon
velopment and progress without the invention of a made-up ob-
single artificial one. The entire purpose of educa-
tion consists of training the child to work, to work
systematically, to love work, and to put his brains
and heart into work. The more a child loves
work the more energy he will bring to it. The
more brains he puts into it the better and the more
economically it will be done.
I claim two tinners: first, that there is not one work best
^ ' ^ adapted to tlie
moment to spend upon anything for the mere sake f^H^^ ^Sm.
of discipline that has not a practical use in the
mind's upbuilding; second, that if the work be
adapted to the state of mental and physical power
and ability, if every onward movement brings suc-
cess, if the work be real (that is, upon real things,
and not drudgery), then let the child learn to do
by doing, for the pleasure of doing and its result-
ant successes best fits a man to control himself, and
master all the difiiculties and obstacles that lie be-
fore him.
I am aware that I have been painting an ideal to^ean'^^^
school under ideal teaching. Many of you, no
doubt, are anxiously asking the question, ' ' What
shall we do who are training children who have
not had the benefits of the kindergarten and the
best primary teaching? " I must refer you for
the answer to this important question to the other
means of limiting attention ; i. e. , your wills used
in governing children who are not attracted by
1 62 Talks on Teaching.
their work. '' Fear is tlie beginning of wisdom."
The first important element on your part necessary
to govern a school well is self-control ; the second
courage. The children, after the innocence of the
first year is past, have formed a habit that leads them
stSdySread *^ govern you if you cannot govern them. They
the teaciier. gtudy you as soldiers do a fortress that they intend to
attack. If there is one weak point indicated by
your presence in movement, attitude, or expression,
they will make the charge there. If you can be
teased, irritated, or made angry, they will find, for
want of better things, the greatest pleasure in
sticking pins (figurative) into the weak places of
your moral anatomy. If you threaten, they take
great delight in listening to your threats. If you
scold, they will invent ways of perpetuating the
process. But if they see in you a quiet, unalter-
able determination to control them, softened and
strengthened by a great love for children, in most
cases their surrender will be complete and perma-
nent; provided you have already at hand some
nutritious and tasteful food in the way of good
teaching and training. Give them something to
do the first moment you enter the school-room.
Show them how skilful you are in all points of
technical training without being ostentatious, and
they will soon forget their desire to badger and
control you in the pleasure of doing.
The auestion But perfect courage and self-control are ideal
of corporal
punisiimeiit. again. '* What if I haven't these qualities? '' you
ask. * * How shall I meet a rebellious boy ? ' '
You see I cannot avoid the great question of cor-
School Government. 163
poral punishment. Putting it in its right place, it
is, at best, but a poor substitute for a teacher's
lack of moral power and skill. If the choice be-
tween anarchy, misrule, and comparative order
must be made, I am bound to recommend, in such
cases, the judicious use of a good rattan. Corporal
punishment is far preferable to scolding : that turns
a school-room into a perpetual washing-day. It is
preferable to many inventions that have been dis-
covered to avoid straightforward punishment — such
as shutting children up in dark closets, making
them stand for hours on the floor, sending them
home, or keeping them after school. If you pun-
ish in anger, you simply enhance the difiiculty.
Anger begets anger. The sting of the rod must
be accompanied by the genuine sympathy of real
love. This is one of the painful subjects which
must be met by every teacher until the kinder-
garten and true teaching have done their effectual
work with the little children. * ' Fear is the begin-
ning of wisdom," but ''Perfect love casteth out
fear!"
TALK XXV.
MOEAL TEuAJNING-.
End and aim
of all educa-
tion.
What is
character?
Analysis
into habits.
No matter how much educators may differ in
regard to the means and metliods of teaching, upon
one point there is substantial agreement ; viz. , that
the end and aim of all education is the develop-
ment of character. There is, also, little or no dif-
ference of opinion in regard to the elements that
form the common ideal of character. Love of
truth, justice, and mercy, benevolence, humility,
energy, patience, and self-control, are recognized
the world over as some of the essentials that should
govern human action. True character is recognized
and felt by all classes and conditions of society,
though they may be incapable of its analysis, just
as the lower types of intellect feel the power of the
few masterpieces of art without knowing its source.
All the knowledge and skill of an individual, all
he thinks, knows, and does, is manifested in his
character. Character is the summation of all these
manifestations. Character is the expression of all
that is in the mind, and it may be analyzed into
habits. A habit is the tendency and desire to do that
which we have repeatedly done before. A habit,
then, consists in doing, the primary foundation of
164
Moral Training, 165
which is to be found in the possibilities for action
that lie latent in the mind of the new-born child.
The environment of the child determines the kind,
quality, and direction of its mental action. Edu- .
cation adapts the environment by limiting it to
those circumstances which lead the mind to act in
the right manner, and in the right direction. The
mother and teacher, be it through ignorance or
knowledge, determine the doing of the child. The
true teacher leads the child to do that whicli ought
to be done. The famous principle of Comenius :
'' Things that have to be done should be learned
by doing them," includes in its category the whole
truth that should govern every parent and teacher
in building the character of a child. Everything
that may determine action, be it religious precepts,
moral maxims, the best influences, or whatever of
good may be brought to bear upon the child, find
their limitations in what they inspire and stimulate
the child to do.
The opinion prevails among many teachers that ^j^ojjgatio^
intellectual development is by its nature separate
and distinct from moral training. Of all the evils
in our schools this terrible mistake is productive of
the greatest. The powers of the mind determine
by their limitations all human action. There is no
neutral ground. Every thing done has a moral or Everything
immoral tendency. That is, doinar forms bv repeti- has a moral or
11. Til. 1 1 -r immoral
tion a habit, and habits make up character. Let tendency,
no one think that I am trenching on religious or
theological grounds. I simply repeat what I have
said before; the greatest truths of religion, the
1 66 Talks on Teaching,
highest forms of morality, nature and art with all
their beauty, can do no more than stimulate, inspire,
direct, and ^x mental action. This action may be
right or wrong. If right, it leads upward to all
that is good, true, and beautiful. If wrong, it leads
down to falsehood, wickedness, and sin. No
teacher should say, * ' I train the intellect, ' ' and
leave moral and spiritual teaching to others. Eveiy
act of the teacher, his manner, attitude, character,
all that he does or says, all that he calls upon his
pupils to do or say, develops in a degree moral or
immoral tendencies. I am aware that this is a very
strong statement. I may not be able to prove it
entirely to your satisfaction, but I believe it with
all my heart, and will try to give you reasons for
the faith that is in me.
Importance First and foremost of the habits to be acquired
of training in ^
self-control, is that of self -control, and to self-control, we shall
V all agree, every act in educating the child should
lead. The vices that ruin mankind are the bane-
ful fruitage of the lack of self-control ; and gener-
ous, humanity-loving people spend millions to
mitigate the evils arising from this lack. An ounce
of prevention is worth a ton of cure ! One dollar
spent for kindergartens will do more in the cause
of temperance than thousands for reform schools or
Three causes Washingtonian homes. The mind is controlled by
the wiu. three causes : First, by the will of another. Second,
by one's own desire, whether right or wrong.
Third, by reason; i.e.^ that a course of action is
control/ed by knowingly right, and therefore must be taken. As
Sacher."'^ I said in the talk upon school govermnent, the
Moral Training, 167
mother and teaclier must be the will of the child
until the child's reason, or knowledge of right, v
leads it to do right acts. Otherwise its own un-
reasoning desire will govern the will from the first.
I have known many a child tired and jaded by the
care of controlling its parents, which control began
when it first cried for a light and got it, and con-
tinued up to the time that it came under the
influence of the sweet, strong will of a kind-hearted
teacher — I have known such children to act as
though a great burden was rolled from their little
shoulders as they sat and worked, at last in perfect
peace, and quietness ; but, alas, only to go home and
resume the reins of government ! The child finds
true happiness alone under the dominion of a firm,
steady, reasonable will outside of himself.
' But there is a dangerous and delicate point be- ^^\V^ ^^^^
yond which the will of the parent or teacher must yoution.^^
not be carried. The moment a child can act from
a dictate of his own reason that tells him something
is right the superimposed will of the parent should
give way to the child's own volition. The law
that we learn to do by doing comes in here with ^
full force. The importance of training the will by
developing the knowledge of right cannot be over-
rated. The knowledge of rip-ht comes from lead- Leading:
1 .1 1. 1 1 rr^i , . cWld to know
inff the mmd to discover the truth. The truth is and do the
. . right.
of no use unless it is expressed in action. The op-
portunities for this action at home and in school are
innumerable. These opportunities should be seized
upon and used by the mother or teacher as means
of training self-control. I cannot repeat often
1 68 Talks on Teaching,
enough the great truth that we learn to do by
doing. If a child be selfish, he has acquired the
habit by selfish acts. The wrong tendency may, it
is true, be inborn, but the habit is acquired by
Hawtuai selfish doiuff. A bad habit can be cured only by
wrong -doing: o j j
hawtnS^ ^y repetitions of good acts directly opposed to it.
right-doing. Tlius a selfish child may be given many opportuni-
ties to perform benevolent and generous acts.
Cruelty may be turned into loving-kindness and
mercy in the same way. In the school we find all
the primary elements of society, but lacking the
conventionalities of the grown-up world ; and here
knowing^the' the cliild acts out his nature freely. The eager,
naturef * ^^* searching eye of the teacher, fixed upon the good
of the child's soul, rather than the quantity of
knowledge to be gained, sees through the mass of
her little ones, into the weakness of each individual.
The order, the writing, the reading, the number
lessons, the play-ground, all furnish countless occa-
sions where the child may be led to act. in the right
way from right motives. Selfishness may be turned
V to benevolence, cnielty to love, deceit to honesty,
sullenness to cheerfulness, conceit to humility, and
obstinacy to compliance by the careful leading of
the child's heart to the right emotion. But in this
work, the mast responsible of all human under-
takings, we cannot afford to experiment; there is
one indispensable requirement — the teacher must
know the child and its nature.
iratnrai The true method of teaching is the exact adapta-
methodsde- . - , , . , - ,
fined. tion of the subject taught, or means of growth, to
the learning mind. The mind can best grow in
Moral Training, 169
only one way. If the adaptation of the subject to
the mind is wrong, the action of the mind is im-
paired and weakened by inefiectual attempts to
grasp it ; and then the will of the teacher is obliged
to come in with artificial stimulants to unhealthy
mental action. Under such conditions real essential m^fodf im-
happiness that must come from the child's right gj^^^j^jj.^^^^
emotions is wanting ; and the subject becomes in
itself an object of disHke and disgust to the child.
Such teaching, I hold, must be of its very nature
immoral. On the other hand, when the mind is in methodJen-
the full tide of healthy normal action, when it loves e??"owe?for
what it does, and does what it loves, the leading ^'^^*'
power of the teacher in right directions is enhanced
to an incalculable degree. If the teacher knows
the child, and her heart lies close to the child's
heart, every motion of his mental and moral pulse,
every desire to do wrong or right, will always be
felt by her. However much the teacher may de-
sire to help the child, however strong her own
moral or religious feelings may be, wrong methods
and misapplied teaching stand as formidable barriers
between herself and the child. Many a father who
would have given his life for his boy has, simply
because he did not understand his child's nature,
failed in his method of training, and driven the
boy to ruin. The will of a parent may deprive the
child of the use of his reason so long that when the
controlling will is removed the child finds himself
weak and helpless, a prey to any stronger will that
may choose to master him.
Primary education consists, as I have said, in
I70 Talks on Teaching,
Attractive- trainiiic; the power of attention. The attractiveness
ness in subject ^ ^
tJauendf^^^ of the object attended to controls the will. The
desire to attend is thus aroused, making it possible
for the mind to exert more and more power in such
acts, until the reason comes in to govern the will,
enabling the mind to concentrate itself whenever
required. The boy who is trained to solve a diffi-
cult problem bj a long and labored struggle with
the thought, stimulated only by the desire that
comes from former successes to gain a new victory,
has a will trained by reason in a high degree.
You may say that this boy, notwithstanding his
power in one direction, might perform immoral
Doine acts ; and you are right. The energy generated in
of diSng forms one direction, if it be not broadened and deepened
in all other right ways, may be fatal to the welfare
of the possessor. Lead and train a child to do one
good thing thoroughly, through love of doing, and
you have a central force of moral power that can
be turned into all doing.
forcedSust Let US look for a moment on the other side of
gi^d demor - ^|^.g q^^gg^^Qj^^ Q-o^j j^^g g^ created the mind that
healthy moral, mental, and physical exercise pro-
duces pleasure ; this truth I believe cannot be gain-
said. If the work be not adapted to the grasp of
the pupil, this pleasurable stimulant is lacking, and
artificial stimulants must be used. I have dis-
cussed, in a former talk, the use of fear in govern-
ing children. I need but appeal to all those into
whose heads knowledge has been driven by the ter-
ror of punishment to obtain the strongest testi-
mony that such a course invariably disgusts children
Moral Training, 171
with learning, and defeats tlie ends it seeks to pro-
mote. The ubiquitous croaker now arises with hiSart?S^Sii
single, ever reiterated poser : ' ' Webster, Clay, SS)ds.°^*^
Sumner, and all our greatest, were educated in the
old ways, why require better methods when we can
point to such results as these? " My dear sir, you
can count, it is true, a few saved and successful
men and women, but is your power of calculation
great enough to count the failures, the lost? It is
time for us, teachers, to call a halt ! All about us
are men and women who find themselves to-day
crippled for want of that power which their school-
training should have given them. You feel the
same lack, and so do I. ]N"ow these men and
women have risen up and are demanding better
things for their children. We have but to look to
see the handwriting on the wall : ' ' Thou art
weighed in the balances, and art found wanting. ' '
The other artificial stimulant is the hope of re- of the system
ward in the shape of merits, per cents, prizes — etc.
glittering empty baubles; sugar-coated but bitter
pills ! I have not time to point out in detail the
immoral influences of these false stimulants. I
will allude to one, and that is the common tendency
in examinations to appropriate others' earnings.
' How common this is you all know, from primary
school to college. Ponies, cuffs, hidden slips of
paper, sly glances at books, promptings, and the
thousand and one means to present stolen results,
all testify to the prevalence of this evil. This is
nothing more nor less than systematic training in
habits of dishonesty. I have no doubt that many
17^ Talks on Teaching,
of the frauds and defalcations so common at pres-
ent in tliis country may be traced directly back to
the well-meant but dishonest training in the school-
room.
^T^^h should Truth should govern the will, and the great
will. work of the teacher is to guide the child in his
discoveries of truth. The habit of searching, iind-
V ing, and using the truth, then, is one of the first
importance. Truth sets the child free, and leads
him to the source of all truth. The highest free-
dom is obedience to God. The learning of words
and pages of the text-books, without the privilege
of verifying the facts and generalizations there
given, weakens the reasoning power that should be
developed for the purpose of controlling the will,
to^w^k *find ^ ^^ ^^* ^^^® refer to religious truths, but to the
^utS!^^^ habit of seeking and prizing the truth wherever
found in the branches taught in our common
cchools. If this habit is formed there, it will be
carried into the affairs of politics and society. For
instance, a man so trained will vote, 2iot because
he happens to belong to a party, or because he be-
lieves the ipse dixit of a leader, but because,
through force of habit, he will discover from all
the sources of information that lie in his power
what the truth really is, and exercise his riglit to
vote accordingly. *' Put that you would have the
state into the school," is an old German maxim.
Americans must learn to apply this saying in a
vigorous way, or our politics, from their downward
tendency, will reach in no far distant day their
lowest level.
Moral Training. 173
There are two factors in education, thouojlit Effect when
' , , ^ precisioms
and expression. Most teaching is the training of ^^^^ ^*
the skill to express thought, with little or no regard
to the thought itself. Precision is an indispensable
mode of training skill in writing, drawing, position,
and accurate ways of acting ; but when the train-
ing of precision is made the main motive of school-
work, when the ways a child sits, places his feet,
holds his hands, stares at a book, stands up, marches,
utters a sentence, etc. , are the be all and end all in
the teacher's plan of work, then precision invades
the sacred realm of thought evolution, and the
mind's power to act is crushed and crippled. I
have seen schools of this description where the re-
sults would be grand if the systematic clockwork-
like operations were performed with puppets,
instead of living human beings. Such training
educates the willing followers of demagogues,
prompt to march when the commanding boss gives
the word.
Conceit is another outgrowth of this quantity conceit an-
ideal. The spectacle is a common one of a young s:rowth of tie
man, the model of his class, persistent and alert, i<ieai.
possessed of a powerful verbal memory, which en-
ables him to cram page after page of the text-book,
distancing all competitors, carrying olf all the class
honors, and finally, armed with his sheepskin (his
Alma Mater's gracious indorsement of his wonder-
ful attainments) confidently stepping out into the
world, never questioning but that he will conquer
in the new life as easily as he did in the old. But
the first spear-thrust of reality shivers his panoply of
174 Talks on Teaching,
emtpy words, and leaves him defenceless before tlie
rigorous demands of an uncompromising world.
*^ The long perspective of our life is truth, and not a
show;" and I hold that sort of teaching in the
highest degree immoral which crams the heads of
our children with the unusual pages of text-books,
and then leads them to suppose that they are
The greatest gaining real knowledge. By making quantity our
knowledge, ideal we develop and foster conceit: and conceit
is one of the most formidable barriers to true
knowledge.
Inspire them to seek earnestly for the truth, and
develop in them one of the greatest of all human
virtues — humihty. ' ' The meek shall inherit the
earth," said the Great Teacher. He alone is
really learning who feels the immensity of the
truth, and realizes that all he knows or can know
in this world is but as a drop to the great ocean of
truth that stretches boundless and fathomless into
Necessity for eternity . The teacher, above all others, should .
constant study -^ ' ' j
tSe^e^cSr**^ constantly be adding to his store of knowledge; I
and he who imagines that he has no more to learn
in the art of teaching is fit only to take his small i
place among other fossils. -•
lectlon^of Ob- Primary education consists, as I have repeatedly
thought pre- ^^*^^^ *^ show, in the development of the power of
sented. attention: and it will be plain to all tliat the
selection of the objects of thouglit and attention
is a matter of the liighest importance. The things
presented must be pure, good, and beautiful, for
tliat to which we attend comes into the heart, and
forms the basis of all our thinking and imagination ;
Moral Training, 175
' ' Out of the heart the mouth speaketh. ' ' Where Basis of
shall we look for the highest source of the good, imagrinaUon.
the true, and the beautiful? To the thoughts of
God in nature. The study of nature is the best study of
•^ ^ ^ nature as a
and highest foundation for morality, and a prepara- gJ^tJai*^ ^^^
tion for the revealed truth that comes to the child srrowtn.
later in life. Compare the drill upon hieroglyphics,
empty words, and meaningless forms with the ob-
servation of trees, flowers, animals, and the forms
of earth. The one stimulates thought, and fills
the mind with ideas of beauty ; the other crowds
the mind with useless, ugly forms that cannot,
from their very nature, stimulate it to renewed
action. A child's mind, filled with that which is^f^^^^^i^
pure and good, has no room for wickedness and lo^room^Ior^
sin. The study of the natural sciences is one of the ®^^*
best means of bringing about this result. Did you
ever observe the character of a boy who early fell
in love with nature, and who spent his spare hours
with plants, or animals, seeking for their haunts,
watching their habits, and making collections for
preservation? Such boys, so far as I have known,
are genuinely good. They have neither the time
nor the inclination for evil-doing. The study of
the thoughts of God in nature, filling the mind, as
it does, with things of beauty, prepares the imagina-
tion for clear and strong conceptions of the higher
and spiritual life.
Let no one misunderstand me, or imagine for a Teacher a
moment that I mean to limit moral training to ject lesson to
these subjects. Far from it. I am only trying to
show how all these things may be used in develop-
176
Talks on Teaching,
Tendency of
children to
read vicious
literature.
Its cause
and core.
ing tnie character. Children leara very much by
imitation. The teacher, whether good or bad, leaves
his everlasting imprint on every child under his
care. He can conceal nothing from the intuitional
power of the child. Whatever you are becomes
immortal through the souls of your pupils. The
precepts of a true teacher have immense weight ;
but the example has a still greater.
A fact very much bemoaned and bewailed in
these times is that children love to read trashy
literature ; that they read Dime E'ovels, sensational
newspapers, and stories like The Kobber of the
Bloody Gulch or The Eed Handed Pirate of the
Spanish Main. This unwholesome and vicious
tendency is almost wholly caused, I believe, by the
neglect of school authorities to furnish a gener-
ous supply of pure, interesting literature to the
schools under their charge. I know a superin-
tendent of schools who often waxes eloquent over
the vices engendered by such reading. I once
visited his schools, and found his pupils learning to
spell column after column, and page after page, of
words, one tenth of which they probably never
would use in their lives. I satisfied myself that
these poor victims hardly knew the meaning of one
word the forms of which they were struggling over.
The money expended for those spelling-books
would have purchased a rich supply of excellent
reading; and the time thrown away in conning
that fearful book, if used in reading the best liter-
ature, would have rendered unnecessary some of
that superintendent's eloquent and pathetic periods
Moral Training, I'j'j
in regard to tlie miseries caused by reading sensa-
tional works. An entire year of the little child's
life is generally given to the reading of one book,
not much thicker than my little finger. Let a
child read a selection twice or three times, and he
knows every word by heart. He can after that
read his lesson with the book upside down. I once
tested one of the best schools in this country. The
pupils read very well indeed ; I asked them to close
their books, and as soon as they understood what
I wanted they repeated every word, verbatim,
with great gusto, simply by my reading one word
anywhere in the book. They knew that book from
beginning to end ; and yet, following the course of
study, they must repeat those words, over and over
again, for five long months ! We are paying millions
of dollars in this country for such worse than
stupid and useless repetitions. A class will read a Plea for sup-
Primary Keader through in a very short time, reading.
The cost of a dozen different series of books (bought
by the school authorities) is not so great as the
price paid by the children for the Eeaders of a
single series. Every school can and should have
a good library, made of sets of different books,
embracing the best Eeaders; works on natural
history adapted to children, such as Prang's little
books, '^Little Folks in Feathers and Fur,"
^'Life and Her Children," and ^'The Fairyland
of Science ' ' ; primary geographies, like ' ' Our
World, ' ' and Guy of s ' ' Introduction ' ' ; histories ;
books of travel ; poetry, and the best fiction. In
my experience it is the easiest of all problems to
178
Talks 071 Teaching,
Train cWl
dren to love
work.
Natural lovehncf
of child for ex '^^^^
lead children to read, and to love to read, the very
best literature. If the hours devoted to the spell-
ing-book, to useless repetitions of words already
learned, were spent in the perusal of the best books,
children would never feel the necessity for the trash
they read, whose baneful influence is immeasurable.
In my talk upon School Government I said that
the end and aim of school education is to train a
child to work, to work systematically, to love work,
and to put his brains into work. The clearest ex-
pression of thought is expression in the concrete.
Working with the hands is one great means of
prhnary development. It is also one of the very
means of moral training. From the first
concreS.^^ ^^* ^^^^y child has an intense desire to express his
thought in some other way than in language.
Froebel discovered this, and founded the kinder-
garten. ]S'o one can deny that true kindergarten
training is moral training. Ideas and thoughts
come into the mind demanding expression. The
use of that which is expressed, to the child, is the
means it gives him to compare his thought with
its concrete expression. The expression of the
form made, compared with the ideal, stimulates to
further trials. In making and building is found
the best means of trainmg attention.
I wish to make a sharp distinction here between
real work and drudgery. Real work is done on
real things, producing tangible results, results that
are seen and felt. Real work is adapted at every
step to the child's power to do. Every struggle
brings success, and makes better work possible.
Distinction
hetween real
work and
Drudgery.
Moral Training, 179
Drudgery, on the other hand, is the forced action
of the mind upon that which is beyond mental
grasp, upon words that cannot be apprehended,
upon lessons not understood. Drudgery consists
mainly of the monotonous use of the verbal memory.
There is no variety ; not a bush or shrub along the
pathway. This is the kind of study that produces
ill-health. It is the straining of the mind upon
disliked subjects, with the single motive to gain
applause, rewards, and diplomas. Thousands of
nervous, earnest, faithful girls, spurred on by un-
wise parents, yearly lose their lives, or become
hopeless invalids, in this costly and useless struggle.
Keal work stimulates every activity of mind and
body. It furnishes the variety so necessary to
interest, and is like true physical development that
exercises every muscle and strengthens the whole
man. Real work is always interesting, hke real
play. No matter how earnest the striving may be,
it is followed by a glow of genuine pleasurable
emotion.
There is great outcry against our schools ^^^ Qf^^^%
colleges, caused by the suspicion that they educate ™^^^i^^°^-
children to be above manual labor. This suspicion
is founded upon fact, I am sorry to say ; but the
statement of the fact is not correct. Children are
educated lelow manual labor. The vague, mean-
ingless things they learn are not adapted to real
work ; no effectual habits of labor are formed by
rote- learning. The student's desire is too often,
when he leaves school or college, to get a living by
means of empty words. The wox'ld has little or
3
i8o * Talks on Teaching,
no use for such rubbish. That man should gain
his bread by the sweat of his brow is a curse
changed to the highest possible blessing. The
clergyman, the lawyer, the physician, the teacher,
need the benefit of an early training in manual
labor quite as much as the man who is to labor
with his hands all his life. /Manual labor is the
foundation of clear thinking, sound imagination,
and good health. There should be no real differ-
ence between the methods of our common schools
and the methods of training in manual labor
schools. A great mistake has been made in sepa-
rating them. All school-work should be real work.
We learn to do by doing. * ' Satan finds some
mischief still for idle hands to do." The direct
influence of real work is to absorb the attention in
the things to be done, leaving no room in the con-
sciousness for idleness and its consequent vices.
Out of real work the child develops a motive that
directs his life-work. Doing work thoroughly has
a great moral influence. One piece of work well
done, one subject well mastered, makes the mind
far stronger and better than a smattering of all the
branches taught in our schools. School- work and
manual labor have been for a long time divorced ; I
predict that the time is fast coming when they
will be joined in indissoluble bonds. The time, too,
is coming when ministers will urge upon their
hearers the great importance of manual labor as a
means of spiritual growth. At no distant date in-
dustrial rooms will become an indispensable part of
©very good school ; the work of the head and skill
Moral Training, i8i
of the hand will be joined in class-room and work- <
shop into one comprehensive method of developing
harmoniously the powers of body, mind, and soul.
If you would develop morality in the child, train
him to work. /
In all that I have said, and whatever mistakes I ^^®* words,
have made either in thought or expression, I have
had but one motive in my heart, and that is that
the dear children of our common country may re-
ceive at our hands a development of intellectual,
moral, and spiritual power that will enable them
to fight hfe's battle, to be thoughtful, conscientious
citizens, and prepare them for all that may come
thereafter. Whatever we would have our pupils
we must be ourselves.
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