number taught can draw most of the simple mathematical lines and
figures, given as copies on the slates used, with tolerable accuracy,
and write all the letters of the alphabet in a fair script hand. This
experiment satisfies me that, with the proper facilities, the three
upper classes in graded primary schools can be taught to write the
letters of the alphabet in a plain script hand, and even to join them
into words, without any material hindrance to the other required
studies; and, moreover, that the great remedy for the complaint of want
of time, in these schools, is the increase of skill in the art of
teaching."
It is well known that in this country and in Europe methods of teaching
the alphabet have been introduced which materially diminish the labor of
teachers, and lessen the drudgery to which children are usually
subjected. The alphabet is taught as an object lesson. The object is
usually an animal, plant, or flower. More frequently the first. The mind
of the child is awakened either by the presence of the animal, or by a
brief but vivid description of its characteristics. The children are
first required to pronounce properly the name of the animal. Here is an
opportunity for training in the use of the voice, and in the art of
breathing, with which the general health, as well as the vocal power, is
intimately connected. The word which is the name of the animal is
analyzed into its elementary sounds. It may then be reconstructed
without the aid of visible signs, either written or printed. Next the
teacher produces the signs which stand for the several sounds, and gives
their names. The letters are presented in any way that suits the
teacher. There may be no better method than to produce them upon the
blackboard, as this course encourages the pupils to draw them upon their
slates, and thus they are at once, and without formal preliminaries,
engaged in writing.
An outline of the animal may be drawn upon the blackboard, which the
pupils will eagerly copy; and though this exercise may not be valuable
in a high degree, as preparation for the systematic study of drawing,
yet it trains the perceptive and reflective faculties in a manner that
is pleasant to the great majority of children. It is also in the power
of the teacher, at any point in the exercises, and with reference both
to variety and usefulness, to give the most apparent facts, which to
children are the most interesting facts, in the natural history of the
animal. This plan contemplates instruction in pronunciation in
connection with exercises in breathing, in the elementary sounds of
words both consonant and vowel, in the names of letters, in writing and
drawing, to all of which may be added something of natural history. It
is of course to be understood that such exercises would be extended over
many lessons, be subject to frequent reviews, and valuable in proportion
to the teacher's ability to interest children. The outline given is
suggestive, merely, and it is not presented as a plan of a model course;
but enough has been done and is doing in this department to warrant
increased attention, and to justify the belief that a degree of progress
will soon be made in teaching the elements that will mark the epoch as a
revolution in educational affairs. It is to be observed that the system
indicated requires a high order of teaching talent. Only thorough
professional culture, or long and careful experience, will meet the
claims of such a course. It is quite plain, however, that no advantage
would arise from keeping pupils in school six hours each day; and that,
regarding only the intellectual advancement of the child during the
elementary course, his presence might be reduced to two hours, or
possibly in some cases to one: provided, always, that he could enjoy,
with his class associates, the undivided attention of the teacher. In
this view of the subject, it would be possible, where the primary
schools are graded, as in portions of the city of Boston, for one
teacher to take charge of two classes or schools, each for an hour in
the forenoon and an hour in the afternoon. This arrangement would apply
only to the younger pupils; yet I am aware that parents and the public
would be solicitous concerning the manner of employing the time that
would remain. In the cities this question is one of magnitude, and there
are strong reasons for declining any proposition to reduce the school
day full one-half, which does hot provide occupation for the children
during the remainder of the time. It is only in connection with such a
proposition that projects for gymnastic training are practicable. When
children are employed six hours in school, it is not easy to find time
for a course of systematic physical education; and physical education,
to be productive of appreciable advantages, must be systematic. When
left to children and youth, or to the care of parents, very little will
be accomplished. Children will participate in the customary sports, and
perform the allotted labors; but in cities these sports and labors are
inadequate even for boys, and in country, as well as city, girls are
often the victims of neglect in this respect. Availing ourselves, then,
of the light shed by recent experience upon the subject of primary
instruction, it seems possible to diminish the length of the school day
with a gain rather than a loss of educational power. This change may be
followed by the establishment, in cities and large towns, of public
gymnasiums, where teachers answering in moral qualifications to the
requisitions of the laws shall be employed, and where each child, for
one, two, or three years, shall receive discreet and careful, but
vigorous physical training. After a few years thus passed in
corresponding and healthful development of the mind and body, the pupil
is prepared for admission to the advanced schools, where he can submit,
with perfect safety, to greater mental requirements even than are now
made. The school, as at present constituted, cannot do much for physical
education; and it must, as a necessity and a duty, graduate its demands
to the physical as well as the intellectual abilities of its pupils. But
I am satisfied that it is occasionally made to bear a weight of reproach
that ought to be laid upon the customs and habits of domestic, social
and general life.
Assuming that the principal work of the primary schools, after moral and
physical culture, should be to give instruction in reading, spelling,
writing, music and drawing, it is just to say that special attention
should be bestowed upon the two branches first named. So imperfectly is
reading sometimes taught, that pupils are found in advanced classes, and
in advanced schools, whose progress in other branches is retarded by
their inability to read the language fluently and intelligently. When
children are well educated in reading, they find profitable employment;
and they are, of course, by the knowledge of language acquired, able to
comprehend, with greater facility, every study to which they are called.
Pupils often appear dull in grammar, geography and arithmetic, merely
because they are poor readers. A child is not qualified to use a
text-book of any science until he is able to read with facility, as we
are accustomed to speak, in groups of words. This ability he cannot
acquire without a great deal of practice. If phonetic spelling is
commenced with the alphabet, he will be accurately trained in that art
also. It is certain that reading, writing and spelling, have been
neglected in our schools generally.
If there is to be a reform, it must be commenced, and in a considerable
degree accomplished, in the primary schools. These studies will be
taught afterwards; but the grammar and high schools can never compensate
for any defect permitted, or any wrong done, in the primary schools.
Reading is first mechanical, and then intellectual and emotional. In the
primary schools attention is first given to mechanical training, while
the intellectual and emotional culture is necessarily in a degree
postponed. When the first part of the work is thoroughly done, there is
no ground for complaint, and we may look to the teachers of advanced
classes and schools for the proper performance of the remaining duty.
The ability to spell arbitrarily, either in writing or orally, and the
ability to read mechanically,--that is, the ability to seize the words
readily, and utter them fluently and accurately,--must be acquired by
much spelling and much reading.
This work belongs to the early years of school-life; and, if it can be
faithfully performed, the introduction of text-books in grammar,
geography and arithmetic, may be wisely postponed. But it is a sad
condition of things, which we are often compelled to contemplate, when a
pupil, who might have become a respectable reader had the elementary
training been careful, accurate and long-continued, is introduced to an
advanced class, and there struggles against obstacles which he cannot
comprehend, and which the teacher cannot remove, and finally leaves the
school without the ability to read in a manner intelligible to himself,
or satisfactory to others. It is the appropriate work of primary
schools, and of the teachers of primary classes in district schools, to
develop and chasten the moral powers of children, to train them in those
habits and practices that are favorable to health and life, whether
anything is known of physiology as a science or not, and to give the
best culture possible to the eye, the ear, the hand and the voice. This
plan is comprehensive enough for any teacher, and it will be found
sufficient for any pupil less than ten years of age. Nor am I speaking
of that culture which is merely preparatory for the life of the artist,
but of that practical training which will enable the subject of it so to
use his powers as to render his life valuable to himself, and valuable
to the world. There will be, in the exercises comprehended by this
outline, sufficient mental discipline. It will, of course, be chiefly
incidental, and it may well be doubted whether studies that are merely
disciplinary should ever be introduced into our schools. There are
useful occupations for pupils that, at the same time, tax and test the
mind sufficiently. The plan indicated does not exclude grammar,
geography and mental arithmetic, but text-books will not at first be
needed. Grammar should be taught by conversation, and in connection with
the exercises in reading. Grammar is the appreciation of the power of
the words of the language in any given relations to each other, and a
knowledge of grammar is essential to the ability to speak, read and
write properly. Therefore, grammatical rules and definitions are, or
should be, deduced from the language. Hence children should be first
trained to speak with accuracy, so that habit shall be on the side of
taste and science; next the offices which words perform in simple
sentences should be illustrated and made clear; And thus far without
text-books; when, finally, with their help, the pupils in the higher
schools may acquire a knowledge of the science, and, at once, as the
result of previous training, discern the reason for each rule and
definition. The study of grammar requires some use of mental power; but
when it is presented to pupils by the aid of an object which, in itself
and in what it does, illustrates the subject and the predicate of a
sentence, the work of comprehending the offices which words perform is
rendered comparatively easy. Having the skeleton thus furnished, and
with the eyes and minds of the pupils fixed upon an object that
possesses known and appreciable powers and qualities, it is not
difficult for the teacher to construct a sentence that shall contain
words of several parts of speech, all understood, because the
grammatical office of each was seen even before the word itself was
used. This work may be commenced when the child is young, and very
satisfactory results ought to be secured as soon as the pupil is in
other respects qualified to enter a grammar school. The pupil should be
trained in reading as an art; that is, with the purpose of expressing
whatever is intellectual and emotional in the text. Satisfactory results
cannot at first be secured by much reading; it seems wiser for the
teacher to select an extract, paragraph, or single sentence only, and
drill a pupil or a class until the meaning of the author is
comprehended, and accurately or even artistically expressed. This can be
done only when the teacher reads the passage again and again in the best
manner possible. The contrary practice of reading volumes of extracts
from the writings of the most gifted men of ancient and modern times,
without preparation by the pupil, without example, explanation,
correction, or questionings, by the teacher, cannot be too strongly
condemned. The time will come when these selections may be read with
profit; but it is better to read something well than to read a great
deal; or there should be at least thorough drill in connection with
every exercise, until the pupils have attained some degree of
perfection. It may not be best to confine advanced pupils to the
exercises in the text-books. If such pupils are invited occasionally to
make selections from their entire range of reading, the teacher will
have an opportunity to correct whatever is vicious in taste; and the
pupil making the selection will be compelled to read in such a manner
that those who listen can understand, which is not always the case when
the language is addressed to the eye as well as to the ear.
The introduction of Colburn's Intellectual Arithmetic was an epoch in
the science. It wrought a radical change in the ability of the people to
apply the power of numbers to the practical business of life. Its
excellence does not consist in rules and illustrations by which examples
and problems are easily solved, but in leading the mind of the pupil
into natural and apparent processes of reasoning, by which he is enabled
to comprehend a proposition as an independent fact. Herein is a mental
discipline of great value, not only in the sciences, but in the daily
affairs of men of all classes and conditions. It is to be feared that
equally satisfactory results have not been attained in what is called
written arithmetic. This partial failure deserves consideration. The
first cause may be found in an erroneous opinion concerning the
difference between mental and written arithmetic. Written arithmetic is
mental arithmetic merely, with a record at given stages of the process
of what at that point is accomplished. But, as written arithmetic tends
to lessen the power of the pupil for the performance of those operations
that are purely mental, he should be subjected, each day, to a searching
and rapid drill in mental arithmetic also. This neglect on the part of
teachers explains the singular fact that pupils, well trained in mental
arithmetic, after attending to written arithmetic for three or six
months, appear to have lost rather than gained in their knowledge of the
science as a whole.
The second cause of failure may be found in the fact that rules,
processes and simple methods of solution, contained in the books, are
substituted for the power of comprehension by the pupil. He should be
trained to seize an example mentally, whether the slate is to be used or
not, and hold it until he can determine by what process the solution is
to be wrought. Nor is it a serious objection that he may not at first
avail himself of the easiest method. The difference between methods or
ways is altogether a subordinate consideration. There may be many ways
of reaching a truth, but no one of them is as important as the truth
itself. The text-books should contain all the facts needed for the
comprehension and the solution of the examples given; the teacher should
furnish explanations and other aids, as they are needed; but the
practice of adopting a process and following it to an apparently
satisfactory conclusion, without comprehending the problem itself, is a
serious educational evil, and it exerts a permanent pernicious
influence.
The remarks I have now made upon methods of teaching, which may seem to
have been offered in a spirit of severe criticism, should be qualified
and relieved by the statement that our teachers are as well educated as
any in the country, and that they are yearly making progress in their
profession. Indeed, I am encouraged to suggest that better things are
possible, by the consideration that many instances of distinguished
success in teaching the alphabet, reading and grammar, are known to me;
and that teachers are themselves aware that the work is, upon the whole,
inadequately performed. If, as is generally conceded, the highest order
of teaching talent is required in the primary schools, then that talent
should be sought out by committees; the persons possessing it should
enjoy the best means of preparation; they should receive the highest
rewards, both in money and public consideration, and they should be
induced to labor, without change or interruption, in the same schools
and the same people.
THE RELATIVE MERITS OF PUBLIC HIGH SCHOOLS AND ENDOWED ACADEMIES.
[Remarks before the American Institute of Instruction, at Manchester, N.
H.]
Indebted to my friend on the other side, and to you, sir, and this
audience, for inviting me to take a position on this floor, I am still
without any special preparation to discuss the subject. I have thought
upon it, because any one, however humbly connected with free schools in
this country, must have done so. And especially just now, when, in the
educational journal of Massachusetts, a discussion has been conducted
between one of its editors and Mr. Gulliver, the able originator of a
school in Norwich, Ct., and the advocate of the system of school
government established there. And, therefore, every one who has had his
eyes open must have seen that here is a great contest, and that
underlying it is a principle which is important to society.
The distinguishing difference between the advocates of endowed schools
and of free schools is this: those who advocate the system of endowed
academies go back in their arguments to one foundation, which is, that
in education of the higher grades the great mass of the people are not
to be trusted. And those who advocate a system of free education in high
schools put the matter where we have put the rights of property and
liberty, where we put the institutions of law and religion--upon the
public judgment. And we will stand there. If the public will not
maintain institutions of learning, then, I say, let institutions of
learning go down. If I belong to a state which cannot be moved from its
extremities to its centre, and from its centre to its extremities, for
the maintenance of a system of public instruction, then, in that
respect, I disown that state; and if there be one state in this Union
whose people cannot be aroused to maintain a system of public
instruction, then they are false to the great leading idea of American
principles, and of civil, political, and religious liberty.
It is easy to enumerate the advantages of a system of public education,
and the evils--I say evils--of endowed academies, whether free or
charging payment for tuition. Endowed academies are not, in all
respects, under all circumstances, and everywhere, to be condemned. In
discussing this subject, it may be well for me to state the view that I
have of the proper position of endowed academies. They have a place in
the educational wants of this age. This is especially true of academies
of the highest rank, which furnish an elevated and extended course of
instruction. To such I make no objection, but I would honor and
encourage them. Yet I regard private schools, which do the work usually
done in public schools, as temporary, their necessity as ephemeral, and
I think that under a proper public sentiment they will soon pass away.
They cannot stand,--such has been the experience in Massachusetts,--they
cannot stand by the side of a good system of public education. Yet where
the population is sparse, where there is not property sufficient to
enable the people to establish a high school, then an endowed school may
properly come in to make up the deficiency, to supply the means of
education to which the public wealth, at the present moment, is unequal.
Endowed institutions very properly, also, give a professional education
to the people. At this moment we cannot look to the public to give that
education which is purely professional. But what we do look to the
public for is this: to furnish the means of education to the children of
the whole people, without any reference to social, pecuniary, political,
or religious distinctions, so that every person may have a preliminary
education sufficient for the ordinary business of life.
It is said that the means of education are better in an endowed
academy, or in an endowed free school, than they can be in a public
school. What is meant by _means_ of education? I understand that, first
and chiefly, as extraneous means of education, we must look to a correct
public sentiment, which shall animate and influence the teacher, which
shall give direction to the school, which shall furnish the necessary
public funds. An endowed free academy can have none of these things
permanently. Take, for example, the free school established at Norwich
by the liberality of thirty or forty gentlemen, who contributed ninety
thousand dollars. What security is there that fifty years hence, when
the educational wants of the people shall be changed, when the
population of Norwich shall be double or treble what it is now, when
science shall make greater demands, when these forty contributors shall
have passed away, this institution will answer the wants of that
generation? According to what we know of the history of this country, it
will be entirely inadequate; and, though none of us may live to see the
prediction fulfilled or falsified, I do not hesitate to say that the
school will ultimately prove a failure, because it is founded in a
mistake.
Then look and see what would have been the state of things if there had
been public spirit invoked to establish a public high school, and if the
means for its support had been raised by taxation of all the people, so
that the system of education would have expanded according to the growth
of the city, and year by year would have accommodated itself to the
public wants and public zeal in the cause. Though these means seem now
to be ample, they will by and by be found too limited. The school at
Norwich is encumbered with regulations; and so every endowed institution
is likely to be, because the right of a man to appropriate his property
to a particular object carries with it, in the principles of common law,
and in the administration of the law, in all free governments, the right
to declare, to a certain extent, how that property shall be applied.
Rules have been established--very proper and judicious rules for to-day.
But who knows that a hundred years hence they will be proper or
acceptable at all? They have also established a board of trustees,
ultimately to be reduced to twenty-five. These trustees have power to
perpetuate themselves. Who does not see that you have severed this
institution from the public sentiment of the city of Norwich, and that
ultimately that city will seek for itself what it needs; and that, a
hundred years hence, it will not consent to live, in the civilization of
that time, under the regulations which forty men have now established,
however wise the regulations may at the present moment be?
One hundred and fifty years ago, Thomas Hollis, of London, made a
bequest to the university at Cambridge, with a provision that on every
Thursday a professor should sit in his chair to answer questions in
polemic theology. All well enough then; but the public sentiment of
to-day will not carry it out.