1834.]

Apparatus.

Punctuality.

37

Farmer P. Not long. I guess neighbor we were about as well off forty years ago thrashing wheat, as to be dozing here over 'transubstantiation,' and such long words. Why, I remember how I read to my mother in those days in the Bible, and Pilgrim's Progress; yes, and as I grew older, we got hold of Rollin's Ancient History.

Mr F. Well. There will be another advantage from the apparatus. The scholars will know what they are about. I should be ashamed to tell how old I was, before I had a clear notion of the difference between a square and a cube; it was a great while after 1 could work the Cube Root.

Farmer B. There you hit my plan. You needed a better teacher to see whether you understood as you learned you understand.

to make Farmer F. True, but his easiest way to do it would have been, to have set a square and a cube side by side.

Mr G. There is one more thing wanted - and that is to make the children come more regularly, and through the whole season. What can the best teacher do with the best books and apparatus, if the scholars are absent so much of the time, as to forget every lesson they are taught. And how can he teach them any thing worth remembering, if they come so irregularly that he cannot teach them in classes? If he is obliged to give sixty separate lessons of a morning, he might almost as well give none. Three minutes a piece, is about as good as no time. Let us alter in this matter; this will be a cheap and easy improvement.

Dr H. There's another subject, gentlemen, which I will name, if you will not be frightened. Your school-house is not fit for the use you put it to. When you get sixty children into this room, the air becomes, in a short time, unfit to breathe, so that if your other arrangements are ever so good, your school-house benumbs and sickens all the children's faculties.*

Mr I. The Doctor would not complain for want of fresh air, if he had been sitting where I have, with a stream of cold air coming in upon me.

Dr H. True, I forgot one evil while thinking of another; but I had good reason to remember it, and so have all my neighbors. My book tells sad tales of sore throats, and quinsies, and coughs, and fevers, very likely, by means of these very streams of air. If you build your school-house as it ought to be, I may be a loser, but you

will not.

Lawyer K. Well, neighbor, saving the new school-house, which we can't touch this winter, I believe we shall be unanimous in all

38

A Proposal.

[Jan.

the points which we have named ; i. e. if neighbor Stingy does not come. For he would rather see the district as dark as the dark ages, than give a sixpence.

Farmer P. Well, if we are twenty to one we must not mind him. If he is stubborn, here is Lawyer K. will bear a hand at collecting, and we know it will be better for him and his children in the end.

Lawyer K. Well, if all these matters are cut and dried,' let us try one more, (looking at his watch), yes, and quick too, for it lacks only a quarter to seven, and then it will be, To order, gentlemen.'

All. Well, speak on.

Lawyer K. But first, I'll warn you all that if you adopt my proposal, you must look out, or I shall have more than one job at collecting.

Half a dozen. Well, let us see how we are going to get into the Lawyer's hands.

Farmer P. It will be the first time in my life, and I am so old that I shall not relish it now. However, let the Lawyer try and get a little business out of me, if he will.

Lawyer K. Well, if you don't try my plan you may try all the rest, and not accomplish much in improving your school; and if you do take mine, with a forfeit, then ten to one a good many of you will have to pay, and I am not sure of escaping with a whole skin' myself.

All. Speak on.

Lawyer K. The secret of improving this school, and all the schools is short; it can be told in less than the five minutes which now remain. If you wish the young to improve, let the old keep learning. Let the elder members of society be ever learning something new, useful and interesting, and we shall have no poor schools. When the children see that we are every day trying to learn more, that we are the better off for all we learn, they will catch our spirit. The young people who stand between, will get from both sides a stimulus to improvement, which they give back to the parents and the children. The children will not be made dull by the sleepy air about the chimney corner; will not be frozen up by the cold of home; but will feel the warm glow of an Iceland family, and be better off than they, because they will have then, good schools, as well as good homes. You see my plan. Gentlemen, you must settle the forfeit.

Farmer P. The lawyer is too cunning for us. But what if we should study like college boys,' as neighbor B. said, then, Lawyer, you will lose your chance of collecting.

Lawyer K. Aye, but I might charge handsomely for advice

1834.]

How to make a Fire.

39

which was so useful. But this once, at least, I'll labor for the public good. If my clients will take my advice, they shall have it for nothing.

Mr L. Well, that is exactly what I have been trying to make out, as I have been sitting here without saying a word, seeing our good neighbor M. there, trying to make a fire. I hope neighbor M. will take no offence if I tell what has been in my mind.

Mr M. No, No; only I shall insist that you shall make the fire next time, for I have had trouble enough with it.

Farmer P. Well, I hope you'll contrive how to do it without all this bother, though I know not how, unless you have better materials and a better fire-place. As to your school, Lawyer K., you will never have a good school, in a smoky and cold house like this. Lawyer K. Well, let us see how Mr L. is going to set the whole matter right.

Mr L. Well, then, with neighbor M.'s leave, we will consider what has been going on. First came a shovel full of coals, fanned by the wind, and locking bright enough to set the world on fire; and down they went upon the hearth, which you see has not taken fire yet, and never will; next came a dozen sticks of green wood laid half a mile from the coals; then to establish the line of communication between the fire and the fuel, came a peck of water soaked chips.

Mr M. Just such as school district No. 5, keeps dried in nature's wood-house but what next?

Mr L. Why, what next, but the grand fire-making instrument that you have in your hands, the bellows, which I am sure you have been using a full half-hour, raising smoke enough to stifle us and put out our eyes.

Mr M. Ah, that's the fault of the chimney, the draught is bad. Mr L. No wonder, then, that we have not a good school; for even with a good bellows and faithful blowing, we are likely to have no fire. If you want to have a good school you must have a good fire so, then, to make the fire you must have - 1. Dry fuel, water will not burn. 2. The fire must touch the wood. 3. The fire and wood must be above the hearth, so that the air may pass through. Mr M. And 4. I must come with the bellows!

Mr L. The bellows, man! no, not if I make the fire. Give me the bellows, and let me burn them up. All nature gives the bellows. Say then, 4. a Say then, 4. a fire-place with a good draught; let the chimney be the nose of the bellows.

Lawyer K. But what has all that to do with my proposition? Mr L. Why a great deal. What are books and apparatus, but fuel, on which the love of knowledge may feed? And what the business of your best teacher but to lay them where the mind can

40

On Teaching to Read.

[Jan.

take fair and fast hold of them, and where the flame may be fanned by all the motives of improvement?

Mr M. And then to take the bellows. flogging, &c.

rewards

places

Mr L. Nay, man to let it burn-if the chimney has a good draught, i. e. Lawyer K., to quote your words, if the old keep learning something new, and useful, and interesting if the 'set' of the neighborhood-of the family is towards useful knowledgethere'll be no need of a bellows. —I tell you what, neighbor, it is too much to expect good schools, in an empty-minded, idle-minded neighborhood. I don't mean to say that ours is so; for I'm sure we have talked long enough on this business to prove that we are

not.

Lawyer K. Long enough, indeed. Twenty minutes past the time. To order, gentlemen, or we shall have no school at all.

ON TEACHING TO READ ACCORDING TO THE METHOD OF JACOTOT.

THE higher branches of instruction are very properly confined to the school room: they are rendered more clear and interesting by the lessons of the professional teacher he can assign its proper place to each, and consulting their natural order, prepare by one the way for the other. But there is another department of education in which the kindness and affection of a mother, will accomplish far more than the skill and experience of the teacher, when a word of tenderness will give a vigor and zeal, that cold encouragement and commendation can never inspire. It is in learning to read; the first, the simplest chapter, it is true, in the whole science of education, but for that very reason, the most interesting and the most important. The child may be harassed and disgusted on this threshold of his course, or he may be excited to a high degree of interest, and all his faculties brought into active exertion. It is the first bending of the twig; and although the pliant stem may, even long after this, be compressed into a regular and graceful form; yet, far quicker and stronger would be its growth, could we devote that time of correction to restraining its luxuriance, and preserving the tendency of its origi nal direction.

In a former article I have stated the origin of the method of Jacotot. I will now endeavor to show by a brief illustration, that if his method do not fully accomplish this object, it does not, at least, fall far short of it.

It is by no means necessary that any particular work be generally adopted as the text of this exercise. The various circumstances, of

1834.]

Analysis of Words.

41

which every teacher is the best judge for his own pupils, must direct in the choice. We will suppose that our little class has been told to commence with the Gospel of St John, and that each individual holds that work in his hand. Let them open at the first chapter, and be directed to fix their eyes upon the first verse. The instructor then pronounces the word in, and the class repeats it after him. This,' he then tells them, is the first word in the verse; it is represented by the two first marks that you see there. Now observe their shape, for you will soon meet them again, and of course you would like to recognise them. Can you describe them?

Yes Sir. The first looks like a straight mark, the other has two marks instead of one, and there is a line across the top, that unites them.'

'That is very well described. Now let us take the next word, 'the.' Look carefully at the letters. How many are there of them?' 'Three.'

'Are any of them like the two first ?'

Here every eye will be running from letter to letter, in a diligent comparison.

'No Sir, they are not at all alike.'

Well, now repeat these two words, and then we will pass to the next.'

In the beginning.'

This word,' continues the instructor, is very long, and you must take care to pronounce it distinctly. Now tell me whether you can

find here any letter that you have seen before.'

Here the comparison recommences, and is attended this time with better success.

'0 yes, Sir ; we find several.

'How many?'

'Two; the last letter of the first word is repeated twice, and then there is the last letter of the second word, too.'

'But point them out to me. Show me in which part of the word you find them.'

'The last letter of the second word comes directly after the first letter in this word.'

That is very well done. But would not you like to have some name to distinguish that letter by, just as you distinguish your playfellows, when you speak to them? It is very inconvenient to be obliged to say first letter and last letter, because it makes you say a great many words, in order to tell one thing.'

'Yes, Sir. Do give us a name.'

'I will give you one with a great deal of pleasure, but you must endeavor to recollect it. We call that the letter e. Now can any one of you tell why it is called so?'

This is apparently a difficult question for children. probably hesitate. Some may not perceive the answer several lessons; but they will at last decide that it is called it is sounded so in the words in which they have seen it. 4*

VOL. IV.- NO. I.

They will until after e, because The con