Methods of Teaching. 201 perpendicular? Or do you endeavor to follow the pupil's genius or inclination? When you begin with teaching a child to read, do you first teach whole words, and afterwards proceed to analyze them? If with single characters, which of them? How many at a single lesson ? If you begin with the vowels, with which of them do you commence ? If with the consonants, with which of them? Do you require your pupils to know all the letters perfectly, before they proceed to combinations? How long is a pupil, usually, in learning the twentysix single characters ? When you have taught a child to call A., by the name of its long sound, both when standing alone, and when placed after a single consonant, as ba, ca, da, &c., by what magic can you make him understand why it has a short or broad sound in other combinations? In teaching spelling, do you first teach your pupil to spell the names of objects around him? Are columns taught him by rote? Why is this old custom discontinued? Is the pupil sometimes required to write his spelling lessons from dictation, or from a slate or book? Do you sometimes give him a primitive word, and request him to find and study, as a lesson, all its derivatives? What other plans have you for teaching spelling? How long is a child, in general, in learning to read simple sentences? Is he always taught the definition of every word he reads or spells? What are some of the most common methods of teaching the definition of words? Are sensible objects much used for this purpose? Are pictures sometimes substituted for objects? How extensively has the practice prevailed, in your schools, of teaching children to incorporate or frame words into sentences? What are the advantages of this exercise? Besides perfecting a pupil in writing, reading, spelling, defining and composing, may Grammar, Geography, History, Biography and Arithmetic, and many more branches be taught in that way? If the pupil reads nothing but what he fully understands, will he be likely to acquire unnatural tones in reading? And, on this principle, is it possible to furnish him with bet 202 Beginning at Home to Teach. ter reading lessons than he can make for himself, by incorporating words into sentences? Are children, with you, taught to pause, mechanically, in reading, or to be governed by the sense? 6 Is the rule, Read as you talk,' inculcated? Do you think that cuts and engravings aid a child in learning to read? Do you begin with Arithmetic very early? Do you begin with the simplest combinations? Combinations of what-sensible objects or abstract numbers? Is Grammar taught as a separate branch? Are sensible objects of any service in this branch? Are the definitions of the nine parts of speech best taught by sensible objects? Is Geography also begun very early? Is it either necessary or useful to begin with so many studies very early? Is there not danger in that way that none of them will ever be thoroughly understood? Besides, in giving a pupil the elements of a great number of branches, nearly at once, will not the mind itself be confused? If the old fashioned practice of committing every thing to memory is to be done away, what are we to propose as a substitute? In beginning at home, to teach Geography, how is is customary to proceed? Do you teach the elements of almost every branch, chiefly without the aid of books? Would you substitute oral instruction for books, or rather would you use it as a preparation for them? Should every pupil be required to draw maps as soon as he begins the study of Geography? Should we endeavor to give him clear and definite ideas of the various divisions of land and water, by exhibiting them to him, in miniature; that is, by means of models? In teaching letters or single characters-if these are taught before words-might it not be well to give the pupil, (when cut from pasteboard or something of the kind,) the component parts or elements of the letter you are teaching him, and show him how to combine them to form it? Might not a knowledge of spelling be greatly facilitated, by combining letters, on the same principle? And might not reading be taught by requiring the pupil to combine words, to form his own lessons, in the same general manner? Study of Natural Science. How soon are your pupils taught to use a pen? 203 Does their progress appear to be greater from having been previously accustomed to write on the black board or slate? Do you control the manner of holding the pen, or suffer the pupil to hold it as he pleases? Do pupils begin with large copy hand, or is that custom gone into disuse, and regarded as unnecessary? Do they form the elements of letters before they attempt to combine them? If we control the pupil's manner of holding a pen, are not models of great service, as examples, to be placed constantly before the eye? Besides numerous other advantages to be derived from various methods of explaining and illustrating an art or science, do we not secure one point of very great importance; that of furnishing him with constant employment? How early is the study of Civil History commenced? In pursuing this branch, are you guided by the great principle of beginning with the known, and proceeding gradually to the unknown? How early should Natural History be taught? How early Geology? How early Physiology and the Laws of Health? Can these last be taught orally? Can they be illustrated to any considerable extent by the living, moving, breathing, active body? Should Botany be taught early? Are museums and herbariums useful? Can every school and family have them? Have the pupils in your schools been accustomed to procure and preserve specimens in Botany? Why may they not do something, in the same way, with Natural History? In prosecuting the study of Natural Science, do your teachers often walk abroad into the fields and woods with their pupils ? If they cannot go themselves, do they send monitors? How early do you teach Biography? Is it regarded by teachers as very useful? Is Elocution? Astronomy? Is each pupil taught to make his own pen? Is each taught to help himself as much as possible, in every thing, and to depend as little as possible on others? Preparatory to the study of Geography, History, &c., is great 204 Moral Management. pains taken to give pupils as clear ideas as possible of distances, weights, measures, &c.? For this purpose, do you begin with the smaller divisions, as the foot, the pound, &c.? Do you labor to cultivate all the faculties of the mind, as well as the memory? Do you endeavor-for this purpose, if for no other—to cultivate and improve all the senses? Should the mind be active or passive in the reception of ideas and in the development of its faculties? As the development and well being of the physical frame is by no means in proportion to the actual amount of nutritive matter which the stomach receives, is it considered that the development of mind, too, is not in an exact ratio to the number of ideas it receives? IV. MORAL EDUCATION. Do you consider that man is what he is, in no small degree, from imitation? Is it your object,then, to form good character, chiefly by good example? Have you considered the extent of your influence, in this way on children? Do not most teachers often forget it? Do they always wear a smiling countenance? Are their smiles sincere and unaffected? Do they always walk as if they felt happily? Are they neat in their person and dress? Are they conscientious in the smallest matters? Are they hypocritical-or are they just what they seem to be? In short, are they, in all things, just what they wish their pupils to be? Is there nothing in or about the school house, which tends to benumb the moral sensibility of the pupils ? Do they see no angling? Do they see no hunting or stoning of birds? Are there any bird cages about the school house? Are all the pictures, maps and engravings, paintings, &c., of the school room, as happily adapted to improve the heart as the mind? Is every thing arranged, within doors and without, to prevent impure associations and licentious imaginations? Is the teacher accustomed to draw moral lessons from passing occurrences? Are there any religious exercises in the school? Is prayer attended daily? Is the Bible read? By the teachers, or by the pupils? What other forms of religious instruction are adopted? Is the language in which the prayers to God are offered, such as most of the pupils can understand? Are the pupils questioned or conversed with on the religious exercises? Is every thing duly explained? Are lessons often given out on the virtues and vices? For example, are the pupils required, at a certain time, to produce all the texts they can find in the Bible against slander, or perhaps against tale bearing-or perhaps, at another time, in favor of the duty of forgiving one another? Is this exercise ever made the order of the day for Saturday, instead of catechisms? Might it not be pursued, in a most happy manner, among children of various sects? Are the special religious exercises in the school, in general, rather short? Does music have a place among the religious exercises? In addressing the pupils, does the teacher make much use of the imperative mood? If compulsion to study is ever resorted to in school, is the result, in a moral point of view, favorable? Is emulation in any form encouraged? Could it not be dispensed with? What is its appropriate substitute? Will the desire of pleasing the teacher, be sufficient? The desire of pleasing parents and friends? The desire of pleasing ourselves, or rather of satisfying the demands of our consciences? The desire of pleasing God? Is not the combination of all these sufficient? Do you try to encourage virtue by rewards? Are the rewards made as general as possible? To which is the reward applied, to the degree of progress actually made, or to the amount of effort? |