I have had frequent occasion to urge upon teachers the importance of
cultivating the memory of their pupils. The old-fashioned plan of
requiring the young to commit to memory precious truths, in those very
words in which wise and far-thinking men have handed them down to us,
has too much gone out of use. I have felt called upon, therefore, from
time to time, to recall to the minds of teachers the unspeakable
importance of early exercising the memory of children, and of storing
their memories with wise sayings and rules. I would not take back
anything I have said on this subject, but rather repeat and reiterate
it. At the same time, I am aware that there is an extreme in this
direction, and I therefore put in a word of caution.
The danger to which I refer is that of requiring children to commit mere
words, to which they attach no meaning, or without their having any real
knowledge of the things expressed by the words. Of course there is much
in the formulas and rules of science that the immature minds of children
cannot entirely comprehend, and I am far from saying that a child should
commit nothing except what it can comprehend. But whatever in a rule or
a doctrine they can understand, should be diligently explained to them,
and the ingenuity of teachers should be exercised in awakening the minds
of their scholars to the apprehension of real knowledge as a preliminary
to the act of committing it to memory.
An example or two will illustrate my meaning. Children at school are
required to commit to memory the tables of weights and measures. The
exercise is one of acknowledged and indispensable importance. But it is
possible for a child to repeat one of these tables with entire glibness
and accuracy, pretty much as he would whistle Yankee Doodle, without any
apprehension of the actual things which the terms of the table
represent. He may learn to say "sixty seconds make a minute, sixty
minutes make a degree, three hundred and sixty degrees make a circle,"
with no more idea of the things expressed by this formula of words, than
the parrot who has been taught to say, "You are a big fool." If the
teacher will show the child an actual circle, with the degrees, minutes,
and seconds marked, and will let him count them for himself, so that he
has a real knowledge of the things, he will then not only commit this
formula of words to memory more easily, but the knowledge itself will
promote his mental growth. He will be feeding on real knowledge, not on
its husks. So in learning about inches, feet, yards, rods, and miles,
let the teacher, with foot-rule and yard-stick, show what these measures
really are, let him by some familiar instance give the child an idea of
what a mile is, and then let the memory be invoked to store up the
knowledge gained. So with ounces, pounds, and hundred-weights. So with
gills, quarts, and gallons. The common weights and measures are as
necessary in the school-room as are spelling-books and arithmetics. The
actual weights and measures, so far as possible, should be exhibited,
should be seen and handled, and the child's mind made to grasp the very
things which the terms express, that is, he should first get real
knowledge, and then he should store his memory with it in exact words
and forms of expression.
This is the true mental order. Knowledge first, then memory. Get
knowledge, then keep it. Any other plan is like attempting to become
rich by inflating your bags with wind, instead of filling them with
gold, or attempting to grow fat by bolting food in a form which you
cannot digest.
Some teachers, in their fear of cramming children with words, spend
their whole time and energy in awakening thought, and none in fixing
upon the memory the thoughts which have been awakened. They are so much
afraid of making children parrots, that they discard rules entirely in
teaching, or require pupils to frame rules for themselves. This is to go
into the opposite extreme. The rules and formulas of science require the
greatest care and consideration, and a large and varied knowledge. Few
even of men of learning and of those specially skilled in the meaning of
words and the use of language, are qualified to frame scientific rules
and propositions. To suppose that young children, just beginning to feel
their way into any department of science, are competent to such a task,
is simply absurd. Yet this is by no means uncommon. A teacher will
conduct a boy intelligently and skilfully through the process of doing a
sum in arithmetic, or analyzing a sentence in grammar, and then say to
him, "Now, form a rule for yourself, stating how such things should be
done." The first step here is right. Take your pupil by the hand, and
conduct him through the process or thing to be done. This is necessary
to enable him to understand the rule. But when he thus gets the idea,
then give him the rule or principle, as it is laid down in the book, in
exact and well considered words, and let him commit those words
thoroughly to memory, without the change or the omission of a word or a
letter.
What is thus true as to the method of teaching the common branches of
knowledge, is equally true in the study of religious knowledge. I would
not set a child to framing a creed or a catechism, nor, on the other
hand, would I require him to commit such formulas to memory, without
making some attempt to awaken in his mind previously an apprehension of
the ideas which the creed or formula contains. I do not say that a
child's mind is competent to grasp all the truths embraced in these
symbols. But there is no portion of any religious creed or catechism
that I have ever seen, some of the terms of which are not capable of
being apprehended by children. A wise teacher, in undertaking to
indoctrinate a child in such a formula, will begin by showing him as far
as possible what the words mean, by exciting in him ideas on the
subject, by filling his mind with actual knowledge of the truths
contained in the formula. Then, when the words of the formula have
become to the child's mind instinct with meaning and life, the teacher
will pause to stamp them in upon the memory. That is the way to study a
catechism. First, give the child, so far as possible, the meaning, then
grind the words into him. Do not set him to making a catechism; do not
let him stop at understanding the meaning, without committing the words.
Two phrases will cover the whole ground. Knowledge before memory. Memory
as well as knowledge.