ON TEACHING BY OBJECTS.
_Object Boards--Utility of this Method_.
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"The eyes will greatly aid the ears."
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As I have before said that it is our object to teach the children from
objects in preference to books, I will mention a method we adopt for
the accomplishment of this purpose. It consists of a number of boards,
of which, and of their use, the following description will convey an
accurate idea.
The boards are about sixteen inches square, and a quarter of an inch
thick: wainscot is the best, as it does not warp. These will go into
the groove of the lesson post: there should be about twenty articles
on each board, or twenty-five, just as it suits the conductors of the
school; there should be the same quantity of things on each board, in
order that all the children may finish at one time; this will not be
the case, if there be more objects on one board than another. I will
give an account of a few of our boards, and that must suffice, or I
shall exceed the limits I have prescribed to myself.
The first board contains a small piece of gold in its rough state, a
piece of gold in its manufactured state, a piece of silver in both
states, a piece of copper in both states, a piece of brass in both
states, a piece of iron in both states, a piece of steel in both
states, a piece of tinfoil, a piece of solder, a screw, a clasp nail,
a clout nail, a hob nail, a spike nail, a sparable, and a tack.
These articles are all on one board, and the monitor puts his pointer
to each article, and tells his little pupils their names, and
encourages them to repeat the names after him. When they finish at one
post they go to the next.
The next board may contain a piece of hemp, a piece of rope, a piece
of string, a piece of bagging, a piece of sacking, a piece of canvass,
a piece of hessian, a piece of Scotch sheeting, a piece of unbleached
linen, a piece of bleached linen, a piece of diaper linen, a piece of
dyed linen, a piece of flax, a piece of thread, a piece of yarn, a
piece of ticking, a piece of raw silk, a piece of twisted silk, a
piece of wove silk, figured, a piece of white plain sills, and a piece
of dyed silk, a piece of ribbon, a piece of silk cord, a piece of silk
velvet, &c.
The next may contain raw cotton, cotton yarn, sewing cotton,
unbleached calico, bleached calico, dimity, jean, fustian, velveteen,
gause, nankeen, gingham, bed furniture, printed calico, marseilles,
flannel, baise, stuff; woollen cloth and wool, worsted, white, black,
and mixed.
The next may contain milled board, paste board, Bristol card, brown
paper, white paper of various sorts, white sheep skin, yellow sheep,
tanned sheep, purple sheep, glazed sheep, red sheep, calf skin, cow
hide, goat skin, kid, seal, pig leather, seal skin, wash leather,
beaver, &c.
The next may contain about twenty-five of those wood animals which
are imported into this country, and are to be had at the foreign toy
warehouses; some of them are carved exceedingly well, and appear very
like the real animals.
The next may contain mahogany, and the various kinds of wood.
The next may contain prunings of the various fruit trees, all about an
inch long, or an inch square.
The next may contain the different small articles of ironmongery,
needles, pins, cutlery, small tools, and every other object that can
be obtained small enough for the purpose.
The lessons are to be put in the lesson-post the same as the picture
lessons; and the articles are either glued, or fastened on the boards
with screws or waxed thread.
I would have dried leaves provided, such as an oak leaf, an elm
leaf, an ash leaf, &c. &c. The leaves of ever-greens should be kept
separate. These will enable a judicious instructor to communicate a
great variety of valuable information.
On some things connected with such instruction I find I arrived at the
same conclusions as Pestalozzi, though I have never read his works,
and for some years after my first efforts, did not know that such
a person existed. I mean, however, to give my views on teaching by
objects more fully in a work I hope soon to prepare, to be entitled
"The Infant Teacher in the Nursery and the School."
The utility of this mode of teaching must be obvious, for if the
children meet with any of those terms in a book which they are
reading, they _understand them immediately_, which would not be the
case unless they had seen the _object_. The most intellectual person
would not be able to call things by their _proper names_, much less
describe them, unless he had been taught, or heard some other person
call them by their right names; and we generally learn more by mixing
with society, than ever we could do at school: these sorts of lessons
persons can make themselves, and they will last for many years, and
help to lay a foundation for things of more importance.
I am convinced the day is not far distant when a museum will be
considered necessary to be attached to every first rate school for the
instruction of children.
Sight is the most direct inlet for knowledge. Whatever we have seen
makes a much stronger impression upon us. Perception is the first
power of mind which is brought into action, and the one made use
of with most ease and pleasure. For this reason object lessons are
indispensable in an infant school, consisting both of real substances
and of pictures. The first lesson in Paradise was of this kind, and we
ought therefore to draw instruction from it. "And out of the ground
the Lord God formed every beast of the field, and every fowl of the
air; and brought them to Adam to see what he would call them: and
whatsoever Adam called every living creature, that was the name of
it."