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diff --git a/30296-0.txt b/30296-0.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..43cd2fa --- /dev/null +++ b/30296-0.txt @@ -0,0 +1,1584 @@ +*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 30296 *** + + _The Philosophy of Teaching._ + + THE TEACHER, + THE PUPIL, THE SCHOOL. + + BY + NATHANIEL SANDS. + + + _NEW YORK_: + HARPER & BROTHERS, PUBLISHERS, + FRANKLIN SQUARE. + 1869. + + + +Entered, according to Act of Congress, in the year 1869, by + +HARPER & BROTHERS, + +In the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the United States for the +Southern District of New York. + + + + +_THE TEACHER, THE PUPIL, THE SCHOOL._ + + +_TEACHER AND PUPIL._ + + +Of the various callings to which the division of labor has caused man +specially to devote himself, there is none to be compared for nobility or +usefulness with that of the true teacher. Yet neither teachers nor people +at present realize this truth. + +Among the very few lessons of value which might be derived from so-called +"classical" studies, is that of the proper estimate in which the true +teacher should be held; for among the Greeks no calling or occupation was +more honored. Yet with a strange perversity, albeit for centuries the +precious time of youth has been wasted, and the minds and morals of the +young perverted by "classical" studies, this one lesson has been +disregarded. + +What duty can be more responsible, what vocation more holy, than that of +training the young in habits of industry, truthfulness, economy, and +sobriety; of giving to them that knowledge and skill without which their +lives would become a burden to themselves and to society? Yet, while the +merchant seeks to exercise the greatest caution in selecting the persons +to whom he intrusts his merchandise, and yields respect to him who +faithfully performs his commercial engagements; he makes but scant inquiry +as to the character or qualifications of the MIND-BUILDER upon whose +skill, judgment, and trustworthiness the future of his children will +greatly depend. + +The position assigned by our social rules to the teacher accords, not with +the nobility of his functions, but with the insufficient appreciation +entertained of them by the people, and is accompanied by a corresponding +inadequate remuneration. And what is the result? Except a few +single-hearted, noble men and women, by whom the profession of the teacher +is illustrated and adorned; except a few self-sacrificing heroes and +heroines whose love of children and of mankind reconciles them to an +humble lot and ill-requited labors, the class of school-teachers +throughout the whole civilized world barely reaches the level of that +mediocrity which in all other callings suffices to obtain not merely a +comfortable maintenance in the present, but a provision against sickness +and for old age. + +What aspiring father, what Cornelia among mothers, select for their +children the profession of a teacher as a field in which the talents and +just ambition of such children may find scope? Nor can we hope for any +improvement until a juster appreciation of the nobility of the teacher's +vocation, and a more generous remuneration of his labors shall generally +prevail. + +It is to the desire to aid somewhat in bringing about a juster +appreciation in the minds alike of teachers and of people of the utility +and nobleness of the teacher's labors and vocation that these pages owe +their origin. + +When we consider the nature of the Being over whose future the teacher is +to exercise so great an influence, whose mind he is to store with +knowledge, and whom he is to train in the practice of such conduct as +shall lead to his happiness and well-being, we are lost in amazement at +the extent of the knowledge and perfection of the moral attributes which +should have been acquired by the teacher. It is his duty to make his +pupils acquainted with that nature of which they form a part, by which +they are surrounded, and which is "rubbing against them at every step in +life." But he can not teach that of which he himself is ignorant. Every +science then may in turn become necessary or desirable to be employed as +an instructive agent, every art may be made accessory to illustrate some +item of knowledge or to elucidate some moral teaching. + +Man is his subject, and with the nature of that subject and of his +surroundings he must be acquainted, that the object to be attained and the +means for its attainment may be known to him. + +What is man? What are his powers, what is his destiny, and for what +purpose and for what object was he created? Let us enter the laboratory of +the chemist and commence our labors. Let us take down the crucible and +begin the analysis, and endeavor to solve this important problem. In +studying the great Cosmos we perceive each being seeking its happiness +according to the instincts implanted in him by the Creator, and only in +man we see his happiness made dependent on the extent to which he +contributes to the happiness of others. What, so far as we can see, would +this earth be without any inhabitants? What great purpose in the economy +of nature could it serve? A palace without a king, a house without an +occupant, a lonely and tenantless world, while we now see it framed in all +its beauty for the enjoyment of happiness. + +The Being upon whom the art and science of the teacher is to be exercised +is one to whom food, clothing, fuel, and shelter are needful; possessed of +organs of digestion, whose functions should be made familiar to their +possessor; of breathing organs, to whose healthful exercise pure air is +essential; a being full of life and animation, locomotive--desirous of +moving from place to place; an emotional being, susceptible to emotions of +joy and sorrow, love and hate, hope and fear, reverence and contempt, and +whose emotions should be so directed that their exercise should be +productive of happiness to others. He is also an intellectual being, +provided with senses by which to receive impressions and acquire a +knowledge of external things; with organs of comparison and of reason, by +which to render available for future use the impressions received through +the senses in the past. Lastly: he is also a social being, to whom +perpetual solitude would be intolerable; sympathizing in the pains and +pleasures of others, needing their protection, sympathy and co-operation +for his own comfort, and desirous of conferring protection upon and of +co-operating with them. But, further, he is a being who desires to be +loved and esteemed, and finds the greatest charm of existence in the love +and esteem he receives; to be loved and esteemed and cared for, he must +love, esteem and care for others, and be generally amiable and useful. + +Such is the Being, susceptible of pain and pleasure, of sorrow and joy, +whom the MIND-BUILDER is to train up so that, as far as possible, the +former may be averted and the latter secured. + +The teacher, then, must train him in habits of industry and skill, that +work may be pleasant and easy to him, and held in honorable esteem; for +without work, skillfully performed, neither food, clothing, fuel nor +shelter can be obtained in sufficient quantity to avoid poverty and +suffering. Knowledge also must be acquired by the laborer, in order that +the work which is to be skillfully performed may be performed with that +attention to the conditions of mechanical, chemical, electrical, and vital +agencies necessary to render labor productive. A knowledge of the +conditions of mechanics, of chemistry, of electricity, and of vital +phenomena should be imparted by the teacher; and to impart this knowledge, +he must first possess it. + +How sublime, then, are the qualifications, natural and acquired, which the +true teacher should possess! How deep should be our reverence for him who, +by his skill and knowledge, is capable, and by his moral qualities +willing, to perform duties so onerous and so difficult. What station in +life can be regarded as more exalted; whose utility can be compared with +that of him who proves himself faithful to the duties he assumes, when he +takes upon himself the office of a teacher of youth? + +The question which is ever present to the mind of the true teacher is: +What can I do to insure the happiness of these beings confided to my +charge, whose minds it is given to me to fashion, not according to my +will, but according as my skill and judgment shall, more or less, enable +me to adapt my teachings to their natures? What shall I seek to engrave +upon the clear tablets of their young and tender minds, in order that +their future lot may be a joyous one? Let me illustrate (he will say) my +profession. I will raise it high as the most honored among men, and for my +monument I will say: "Look around; see the good works of those whom I have +taught and trained; they are my memorials!" + +Such may, such will become the hope and aspiration common to teachers in +that good day to come, when their labors shall be honored as they deserve; +when parents, in all the different ranks into which society falls, shall +vie with each other in the respect and honor tendered to the teacher, +whose true place in society is at least not beneath that of the Judge. + +The teachers to be developed by such a state of society will, as their +first step, seek to obtain a clear and comprehensive view of the work they +propose to accomplish, and will then seek to adopt the most judicious +means to reach the end proposed. They will adapt their methods of teaching +to the nature of the object to be taught and to the order in which the +faculties of the human mind naturally unfold themselves, for true +education is the natural unfolding of the intellectual germ. In order to +obtain the knowledge necessary of the object to be taught, the true +teacher turns to nature as his guide, for the voice of nature is the voice +of God, and in reading her statutes we read that grand volume in which He +has left an impress of Himself. The science of nature is nothing more +than the ability to read and interpret correctly the lessons taught. There +was a period when mankind knew very little of the planet upon which they +lived and moved and had their being; _there was_ a time when they knew +almost nothing; and there _will_ come a time when they will know almost +every thing that can be known by finite man. The earth is our _mother_, +and _nature_ is our teacher, and if we listen to her voice, she will lead +us higher and higher until we will stand the master and the king in the +glorified temple of wisdom. To reach results so grand and a position so +exalted, our natures must unfold in exact harmony with all the laws and +forces which surround and control us from the time our existence commences +until its close. + +From the period of conception until birth the child draws to itself all +the essential elements required for the organization of a human being; the +capabilities and powers of the parent are taxed and called upon to +contribute their material to enable nature to reproduce itself. + +The child is born, and then, in a higher and more enlarged and more +independent state of existence, commences drawing to itself the materials +and substances necessary for its growth and unfolding. It draws in its +mother's milk, it draws in the air, and it builds up in itself the unseen +forces of life. Nature, true to her mission, goes on unfolding the child, +and teaches it daily and hourly the lessons best adapted to its condition. +In a few days after it is born, its powers of observation begin to show +signs of life and action, and it can distinguish light from darkness; in +a few weeks its mother and nurse are known--in a few months quickened +intelligence displays itself in all its actions; in about twelve months it +has learned the most difficult art of balancing itself so as to walk, and +also to speak a few words; at from two to two and a half years of age, +only thirty months from birth, it has learned a language which it speaks, +and has become familiar with a vast number of things surrounding it. From +a state of entire ignorance it has in thirty months learned what would +fill volumes. Horses, cows, pigs, dogs, toys, whips, birds, people, trees, +houses, fruit, food, clothes, music, sounds, parents, friends, and a +thousand other things are all familiar to it. Without professional +teachers, almost without effort, all this valuable and indispensable +knowledge has been acquired, through the unconscious adoption on the part +of the mother of the true system of education--_e duco_--I lead forth, and +hence nurse, cherish, build up, develop. + +The child feels or reaches out, like the tendril, to the material world, +seeking to make itself acquainted with that world; even the young infant +soon begins to observe closely, soon knows its mother from all other +persons, clings to her, loves her above all; soon it recognizes light from +darkness, sweet from bitter; soon, when it sees a dog it will recognize it +and jump with delight almost out of its mother's arms; it will show an +eager delight to watch the motions of the horse, and imitates the sounds +employed by adults when driving. He spreads forth the tentacles of his +feeble mind for knowledge, and his mind "grows by what it feeds upon," and +it is for those intrusted with the infant's training to respond +intelligently to the child's desire, to place within its reach the mental +food adapted to its digestion, to nourish and develop it so that its +mental hunger shall be at once gratified and excited anew. + +It is here, and to this end, that the able teacher steps in, to perfect +the development of the future man and woman. He educates, by assisting the +natural unfolding of the intellectual germ, he places within reach of the +child-mind the food needed to its growth, and the child-mind reaches out +its tentacles and absorbs the nourishment offered to it. Thus the mind +grows from _within outward_, and the teacher aids its development, as the +careful husbandman by tilling and enriching the soil according to the +nature of the plant he cultivates, produces a healthy and fruitful plant. + +The true teacher does not seek to teach by simply putting books into the +child's hand, and bidding it to learn; he addresses himself to those +faculties and powers of the child's mind, which bring it in relation with +the world in which it lives. Sight, hearing, touch, smell, taste, and +thence observation, judgment, perception, reason, memory, hope, +imagination, and the love of the beautiful are appealed to, developed and +strengthened by natural exercise, even as the organs and limbs of the body +are developed and strengthened by gymnastic and other appropriate +exercises. + +Education, mental and physical, is but the ABSORPTION of surrounding +elements into the mind and body--an arrangement an assimilation of +materials so as to incorporate them into the being to whose nourishment +they are applied, just as the tree or plant assimilates to its growth and +subsistence the materials which it draws from the air and the soil. + +It is thus apparent that a great change in the system and principles now +adopted in teaching is required, and if we change the principles we must, +of course, change the instruments. These are now adapted to the method of +teaching from WITHOUT inward. If we are to invert the system, and teach +from within outward, then must our means and appliances be adapted to this +change. The task, the forcing process, the stuffing and cramming must all +give way to the natural mental growth, fostered, cherished, unfolded by +culture, in accord with nature and with law. The inquiry then arises: What +are to be the new means and appliances for mental culture? We have but to +turn again to Nature as our teacher and our guide; her instincts are +unerring. The seed germinates and pushes forth its root from within +outward. The expansion or growth takes place by means of the elements +which it attracts to itself, when these are placed within its reach, and +towards which it stretches forth its organs. These elements it assimilates +into and makes a part of itself. This process of Nature, so familiar to +most of us, serves to illustrate exactly what should take place in +intellectual growth. The mind hungers and feels out for and is impelled by +a natural internal impulse to gather to itself the elements of knowledge; +the wise teacher steps forward and becomes to the germinating intellect +what the sun and dew and rain are to the plant. The mind must be fed in +conformity with its longings, its wants, its desires. "Blessed are they +that hunger and thirst after righteousness." The teacher develops this +hunger and thirst by stimulating inquiry, and by presenting to the mind +the use and beauty of knowledge; and when the mind gives signs that its +hunger is temporarily appeased, that time is now required for mental +digestion and assimilation, the wise teacher rests, and would no more +attempt to stuff and cram the mind than the wise mother would seek to +force food into her child's stomach. + +Intellectual growth of some kind, not less than bodily growth, whether +good or evil, is constantly taking place. It should be the teacher's care +to render that growth a healthy one, calculated to insure the happiness of +the subject, and, in securing his own happiness, to contribute to the +happiness of others. + +The body being visible to the physical eye, its growth is also visible, +and we do not think of feeling impatient at the long months and years +required for it to attain its full proportions; nor do we seek by any +forcing process to produce a man at 10 instead of at 20 or 30 years of +age. + +Were the mind and its growth also visible to the eye, we would be equally +careful in our treatment of it. Man's first impulse in an uncivilized +state has generally been a resort to force for the accomplishment of his +objects; and as he took his first step forward the habits of his barbaric +life remained with him. Hence, the first steps in teaching were by +force--the lash, the rod, the school penal code; but even as when hungry, +wholesome and well-dressed food rejoices us, so will the mind gladly +accept the mental food carefully prepared for it by the true teacher. + +We live in a world adapted by its Creator to our happiness and highest +well-being. It is not only possible, but easy, to win from Nature all that +is necessary or desirable, for our sustenance and comfort. It is the true +teacher's duty to fit the child thus to win its happiness; and such a +teacher has ever present to his mind the question: How am I to perform +this duty? What sort of teaching and training am I to give to the subjects +of my care? Let us endeavor to find some direction to guide us to Nature's +answer to this question. + + + + +_TEACHING AND TRAINING_ + + +Whether we regard private schools or public schools, boarding or day +schools, we find that much which goes on at them affords an important +lesson, not as to what to follow, but what to avoid. + +Is there any thing worthy of the name, of confiding intercourse between +teacher and pupil known upon this continent, or to extend our inquiry, we +may say, known anywhere? Here and there exceptional instances will be +found, as we have before said, both in this country and in Europe, of men +and women devoted to their noble profession, between whom and their pupils +there has grown up the strongest bond of parental and fraternal affection. +To these teachers the pupils run in every difficulty for its solution, in +every danger for protection; but with these exceptions the teacher is +looked upon as a task-master, sometimes even as a spy; the tasks set to be +shirked as much as possible, the observation of the teacher to be eluded +and deceived. + +Lesson-time over, the children resort to their tame animals, to their +weaving-machines, their wind-mills and dams; to their gardens, kites and +ships; to swimming, rowing, foot-ball, marbles, leap-frog, base-ball and +cricket. In the practice of these games, skill, dexterity and knowledge +are acquired of which the pupils appreciate the utility, and enjoy not +only for present, but for anticipated future use. + +Natural History, to be taught in school and made a reality, by following +the guide given us by nature in the amusements to which children resort of +their own accord, should be a prominent subject of instruction and +training in the school. Cultivating the faculties of observation and of +analysis, it should be among the earliest subjects of instruction, and, at +the same time, of amusement. + +But they ought not to be taught from books; nature and the teacher are the +only books to be employed until considerable progress has been made by the +pupils. It is so easy to procure the things themselves for the study of +botany; an abundant supply of wild flowers can be so readily obtained, +sufficient to enable each child to be supplied with specimens for +examination and dissection. The interest of the children in their study +can be so easily awakened and sustained by the judicious teacher, the +difficulties of the supposed hard words of scientific names disappear so +readily, that the real difficulty is to understand how so obvious a +subject of instruction is either wholly banished from the schools, or +sought to be taught only from books, without any reference to living +nature. + +The variety and multiplicity of insect life affords ample opportunity for +the study of that branch of natural history--and entomology would be found +not less beautiful and interesting than botany; the delightful excursions +in which teachers and pupils would join for the gathering of objects of +natural history would at the same time serve to strengthen the bond of +affection which should exist between them. The nature of his own body and +the functions of his various organs will soon interest the pupil, and +along with instruction therein he would learn the qualities of the +different kinds of animal and vegetable substances in use for food, their +relative value and importance in building up his body; he would learn to +compare the food now in use with that which was employed by our ancestors, +and what has given rise to the adoption of the new and abandonment of the +old; the methods of cookery best adapted to each kind of food, and what +kinds of food are suitable for particular ages and states of health; what +material, vegetable or animal, is most suitable for clothing, separately +or in combination. He would learn to compare our present style of clothing +with that adopted in past ages; he would learn the history of the changes +which have been adopted, and while feeling desirous of retaining such as +have been wisely adopted, might learn from past experience to desire to +return to some good habits as to clothing which have been abandoned. + +The tight-fitting garments in which we unhealthily clothe our bodies, a +fashion for which we are indebted to the use of armor in times when the +chief occupation of man was mutual slaughter, and the great object of +desire to secure protection against hostile weapons, might some time come +to be discarded for the more healthful practices of the ancient Asiatics +and Romans, if a general knowledge of the unhealthfulness of our present +practices should come to prevail. + +The necessity and meaning of light and cleanliness, the indifference of +the human body to all natural changes of temperature, when strengthened +and maintained in health by wholesome food and efficient bathing, might +lead to the taking of effective measures to restore the old Roman bath to +general use. + +As regards shelter, why a building on the ground is generally to be +preferred to a cave or shelter in the ground--what materials are best +adapted for roofs, what for walls, floors, windows, why we use stone or +brick in one part of the country and wood in another; what sizes, shapes, +means of warmth and ventilation, for privacy and social enjoyment, should +be adopted, and as regards furniture and utensils, what are most suitable +for the several parts of a dwelling; what should guide our selection of +material, fabrics, shape, size and pattern; how to establish a +communication from one part of a building to another; how water and light +are to be had most readily. All these things should form the subject of +school study and inquiry. + +The means of locomotion, how streets, roads and paths should be laid out +and maintained; the construction and use of carriages, cars, wagons, +tramways, railroads, ships, steamers, propelling power; where bridges +should be built, and how; viaducts and embankments to cross valleys, +cuttings and tunnels to penetrate hills and mountains; these, too, simply +at first, and afterwards in more elaborate detail, should form subjects of +school instruction, the rules determining the selection of each and the +methods of their construction not being preached in lectures, _ex +Cathedra_, but evolved by a patient questioning of nature, by experiment +and the Socratic method of inquiry. Exercise of the limbs under the +direction of a skilled instructor, so that all the muscles of the body may +be duly trained, and a healthy body built up to support a healthy mind. +The kinds of recreation to be selected, whether bull-baiting, +cock-fighting, rat-catching or prize-fighting, should be preferred to +games of skill and strength, to the drama, literature, works of art, +public walks, gardens, and museums; the comparative influence of all these +upon the health, strength, courage, activity, humanity, refinement and +happiness of society; how people may be led to prefer such as tend to +general well-being to those which have a tendency to brutalize and debase. +All these also should be dwelt upon in the school. + +How stores of food, of clothing, of fuel and of the materials for building +may be collected and preserved; how present labor may be made to supply +future wants, and the thought of future enjoyment be made to sweeten the +present toil. How the means of instruction and of amusement may be +secured. How all engaged in supplying one need of society co-operate with +all who are engaged in supplying its other needs. What form of government +is best, and how it may be best administered. How upright judges may be +secured, justice administered, and society protected against internal and +external foes. These and all the other subjects enumerated would, if +handled by a true teacher, be found most attractive to children. + +The names given to the subjects at which we have glanced are: Natural +History, the Mathematical and Physical Sciences in all their branches, +Vegetable and Animal Physiology, the Political and Social Sciences; which +should be presented in the order in which the attention and desire to +learn could be aroused. + +It will hardly fail to strike the mind of the reader that nothing has yet +been said about giving instruction in the use of those tools for acquiring +knowledge, reading, writing, ciphering and drawing. The true teacher will +understand the omission. The commencement of the instruction in reading, +writing, ciphering, drawing, and in spelling, would take place as part of +the object lesson which should be adopted as the first step to knowledge, +and should be retained in the most advanced classes as the most perfect +method of applying the knowledge which has been acquired. It would soon be +understood by the pupils that the power of reading, of writing, of +designing and of calculating is essential to the acquirement of knowledge, +and to any thing like extent and variety of information on subjects +relating to individual and social well-being. The desire of acquiring this +knowledge would quicken the faculties of the children, augment their +industry, and lighten the labors of the teacher to an indefinable extent. +The teacher who should fail to impart a moderate degree of skill in these +arts to most, and of excellence to many, at the same time that adequate +progress was made in the study of the sciences we have named, should be +deemed unfit for his profession, and not be allowed to relieve himself +from disgrace by magnifying the difficulties of his task or by complaints +of the idleness or want of capacity of his pupils. As children will take +interest in what they learn in proportion to their understanding of its +bearing upon their own happiness, and upon their actual life and +surroundings, the knowledge of themselves as beings acted upon by +surrounding objects and by their own kind, should be carefully imparted to +them simultaneously with the knowledge of the qualities of the surrounding +objects destined to act upon them. + +Children thus worked upon by skilled and earnest instructors; led to find +out and observe the properties of that Nature of which they form a part; +their minds nourished by the enjoyment which follows the mastering of +every difficulty, and the addition of every fresh item of knowledge to +their previous store; trained also in habits of healthfulness and of +amiability; will not only cheerfully give themselves to study, but will +also seek to dignify by their conduct and to improve by practice the +knowledge they progressively acquire, soon understanding, among other +things, why they are sent to school and the importance of that education, +part of which they are to acquire at school. + +As the object of the school-teaching should be to prepare the pupils for +actual life, they should be made familiar with the idea that all their +means of subsistence and enjoyment can only be obtained by labor; not only +should their attention be called to the fact, but they should be made +sensible how much skill, knowledge and labor and economy were needed for +the creation of existing stores, and are needed for their maintenance in +undiminished quantity; nor can this be done in any way more fitly or +completely than by performing under their eyes, and causing them to take +part in, the actual business of production. The well-ordered school is an +industrial school, in which every industrial occupation, manufacturing or +agricultural, for the carrying on of which convenience can be made, should +be successively practised by the children, under the direction of skilled +workers. + +The farm, the factory, the shop, the counting-house and the kitchen, +should each have its type in the school, and present to the minds of the +children a picture of real life; while their practice would impart a skill +and adaptability to the pupils which would insure their preparedness for +all the vicissitudes of the most eventful life. + +Can any reason be suggested for adopting a different system of instruction +for girls than that which shall be determined on as best fitted for boys? +We confess to our inability to perceive any--both are organisms of the +same all-pervading nature--to both the most intimate knowledge of that +which skill and perseverance secure, seems to be desirable for their +happiness, and that of all mankind. Of the two, perhaps, the greatest +knowledge is needed for the woman, FOR HERS IS THE MORE IMPORTANT AND MORE +PERFECTED ORGANISM; to her is committed the performance of the chief +functions of the highest act of organized beings, viz., reproduction; +therefore, upon her knowledge and conduct, far more than upon that of the +man, depends the future of the beings in whom she is to live again. + +Another great object with the true teacher, will be so to train the +judgment of his pupils as to avoid that forming of unconsidered opinion +which is the parent of prejudice and a chief obstacle to progress. Trained +to investigate the foundations of every fact in nature and in science, to +weigh the evidences on which they are asked to receive assertions, whether +of a physical, moral or social nature, they will ever have a reason for +the faith that is in them; and will know how to SUSPEND JUDGMENT when the +means of knowledge are insufficient. + +Such pupils will not be apt to form opinions either in physical science, +politics, or industrial life, without having first thoroughly examined the +bases of the opinions they form and express, while the prejudices imbibed +from nurses or parents, will be subjected to vigorous investigation, and +either received as sound doctrine, or discarded as ill-founded and +superstitious. Of how many prejudices are we not the victims, without +being ourselves in the least conscious of the fact! Our political +opinions, our social customs, are taken up like the fashion of a coat, +without reason or reflection; and habit and association, but too often +hold us captive long after reason has pronounced her condemnation; our +minds have been warped from truth, and we fail to perceive our own +deficiency, to recognize the mental dishonesty with which we are +afflicted. All this will be averted in the case of those who in their +youth are trained to a rigorous investigation of every fact presented to +their minds, until the habit of truth, not merely of speaking and telling +the truth, but that mental truthfulness which shrinks from accepting a +falsehood for truth, and acknowledges ignorance rather than utter what is +not assured--will become as much a part of the pupil's nature as is his +desire for food. In short, he would be so trained as to feel as great a +repugnance to plunge his mind into moral, as his body into material filth. + +Again, while ever merciful and pitying to the criminal, he would be +intolerant of falsehood wherever it might be found; and he would deem +himself derelict in his duty, as a man and as a citizen, did he leave +corruption to rot and fester in the Commonwealth, because he and others +like him would not take the trouble to raise their voices against +wrongdoers! + +What a different aspect would not this great city of New York offer to our +inspection to what it now presents, had a generation been trained in the +knowledge, and practised in the observance of their duties as citizens! + +Did those merchants and traders, who, in their private dealings would +scorn a lie, but recognize the duty they owe as citizens and as men of +truth, they would, by uniting, soon sweep away the serious discredit to +our country and to Republican Institutions, the festering corruption of +this city and of the State; yet it is to their supine, nay wicked +tolerance of the evil that we owe the specimens of judicial corruption by +which we are robbed and dishonored. Can it be said that any system of +education can be sound, which shall fail to demonstrate, at least to the +older pupils, their duties as citizens, to take an active, intelligent and +upright interest in public affairs; that shall fail to instruct them in +the principles by which their judgments should be guided, and lead them to +discard every action in public affairs, which they would not approve in +private life? + +We must cease to live in books, in past mystifications, in useless +theories, in foolish and unprofitable discussions, in ancient ideas and +customs, and grasp the living present with all the richness, fullness and +beauty of its life. The chemistry of nature, the work of her great +laboratory, should be the study of youth as of age, instead of dead +languages and the vain and foolish mythology of Greeks and Romans +wherewith at present we poison the minds of the young. + +"Can we take burning coals into our bosom and not be burned?" Can we +suffer the impressionable minds of youth to be impregnated with the filth +of the heathen poets in their imaginings of gods as disgusting as +themselves, without staining the pure tablet of the mind with spots and +grossness, while the children acquire a distaste for that glorious nature +whose volume should be their constant study? + +We have to deal with the great present, with life, not with death--to +promote health, physical and moral, not to propagate infectious sickness. +The present, wisely improved, leads to a happy future, and is the only +road to that goal. We can not jump the present and its duties and reach +the future so as to enjoy it, neither can the dead past lighten the labors +of the living present. There is a past which still lives and vivifies the +present, but the quaint and filthy imagery in which the ancient priests +disguised from the profane--from all but the initiated--the mysteries of +their lore, can be of small account to a people whose great duty is the +dissemination of light and truth. + +Every thing that has any relation to man's comfort and well-being, or to +his happiness as a social being, that it is, and not the dead past that we +should learn, and of the things that affect us most nearly we should learn +first. What did the ancients know of steam, of electricity, of the +material elements of nature, of her forces? And little as we know, how +much of that little could be learned from a lifelong study of ancient +lore? If there be aught of value in the laws of ancient Rome which has not +been translated into our native tongue, let it be translated; but let not +our youth waste precious years in learning to play upon an instrument +(Greek or Latin) which when learned can give forth no sound. But if we +turn to Nature and to her grand volume, we there find all the knowledge +man can acquire. From her study, too, we can learn a lesson, not perhaps +among the least important, as to the limits fixed by nature to human +knowledge. To know of a surety what those things are which never can be +known to mortal man, is a knowledge, the want of which has driven many to +puerile and superstitious practices, and many more to madness and despair. + +From the great book of Nature, God's book, is to be learned the principle +of justice, of love, of wisdom, of truth; and as the germ of justice is +developed in the mind, the mind is brought in contact with the Great +Fountain, absorbs a portion of its light, enlarges, develops, becomes +stronger, assimilates to itself the essence of the great Godhead, and +renders man godlike. + +So with each of the other faculties of man; each draws its nourishment +from its special FOUNTAIN. Wisdom, love, justice, and truth should +preside; and if judgment, sympathy and conscientiousness be judiciously +trained and developed, they will help to develop harmoniously all the +other faculties. But to this end they, and each and all of man's +faculties, must be brought into a wholesome, natural contact, each with +its proper food; and by natural we mean not that contact which might +peradventure happen if left uncared for, but such as the nature of the +faculty demands for its development in due harmony, to produce the +greatest amount of happiness to its possessor. To supply this food, to +bring to each faculty its proper aliment, is the business of the true +teacher. If we desire a child to be truthful, we must bring it in contact +with truth, and bring it to love truth by causing its practice to inure to +the child's enjoyment. If we wish it to be wise, we must bring its mind in +contact with wisdom, exercise its analytical powers, and train its +judgment; let it see sound judgment producing happiness; let it see how +beautiful and desirable is the possession of wisdom, and the child will +soon learn to seek it for its own sake. + +To chastise a child for speaking that which is untrue may fill it with +fear, but does not make it love truth. The love of truth and of wisdom +must be cultivated as we cultivate the love of music. "Seek me early, and +ye shall find me." "Knock, and it shall be opened unto you." That which +the mind seeks it will find. The natural relationships are established, +and it is only for us to work in harmony with, and not obstruct or +interfere with them. It is the "true relationship of things" we need to +learn. There is nothing in us that is not in nature. All the forces +developed in man are but developments of nature; and all the forces +required for his nourishment and strength exist in the bosom of Nature. +Matter, light, heat, electricity are not produced by him. In nature they +exist; remove any one of them and he perishes. To Nature then must we ever +turn as the reservoir of nourishment and as the teacher, by the study of +whose volume we learn all of wisdom that can be known of mortal man, or +that can tend to his well-being; and her true relationships must be the +constant object of our search. Before the knowledge of her true +relationships disappear superstition and fear and mystery. The lightning's +flash, the thunder's roar, the falling meteor and the sun's eclipse cease +to terrify and alarm. Witches, hobgoblins and demons come no longer to +trouble us; the most unusual phenomena awaken only philosophical research +and curiosity. And what is true of the full-grown man is not less true of +the child. + +That school wherein children above the age of infancy fail to assist the +teacher in his instruction, is an ill-ordered school. It is not the +subject, but the teacher who is uninteresting; he scolds, worries and +punishes his pupils, when he himself is the fitter subject for the lash. +He awakens the sense of fear which should lie dormant, while the other +faculties of his pupils slumber in spiritless inactivity. + +As the object of education is to prepare children to enter successfully +and happily into life, and wisely to discharge all the duties devolving +upon them as they unfold into men and women, and occupy the sphere +assigned to them, the simple rule for the course of instruction seems to +be, that they should learn those things in the order in which they can be +received by the child's mind, which most vitally affect their well-being +and happiness. + +As only a healthy, well-developed body can afford a home to a healthy, +well-developed mind, physical culture claims early and constant attention, +and should receive that careful regard to which the truth contained in +the well-known aphorism: "We are fearfully and wonderfully made," entitles +it. The teachings of the sciences of Pathology and of sanitary science +should be judiciously and carefully elucidated, practically and +theoretically; presented step by step to the mind of the child; and the +child's body and mind should be carefully trained, so as to develop all +its physical and mental powers in harmony. Gymnasiums for the body, +conducted by men who have made themselves masters of anatomy and +physiology, should be an essential feature in every school, so that +ignorance and the desire to excel may not lead to putting a strain upon +the system calculated materially to injure organs which need careful and +judicious development. Plays, games, dancing, marching and the gymnasium +all require the careful supervision of a teacher well versed in a +practical knowledge of the human system, and thoroughly appreciative of +the great truth, "We are fearfully and wonderfully made." But the +foundation for the school as for the life career must be laid at home, and +much as the teacher can do, he can never supply deficiencies resulting +from the want of a well-ordered home or of a healthy home training. Never, +save under necessity, should the parent yield up his sacred duty to +another, at least during the tender years of childhood. + +The education of the heart and of the affections, is as essential as the +school education, and these can never be so well cultivated as under the +influence of home. All must be developed in order to maintain the true +equilibrium. The boarding-school is not the place for children to attain a +sound moral development, and the sooner parents generally understand this +truth, the better for their children, for themselves and for society. As +well uproot the flower, or shrub or tree, and expect it to flourish, as to +cut the child off from the influence of home, and the care of a loving +mother, father, brother and sister, and hope that the sympathetic +faculties of its mind can attain their just development. + +Physical culture, heretofore neglected among us--the body being left to +grow up as it may happen or chance--will form a prominent feature of +training in every well-ordered school. All the muscles of the body will be +in turn exercised, developed. The ancient Greeks afforded us here also a +wise example, which we have signally failed to imitate. + +Let us secure for our children all the advantages we can from an +enlightened and natural system of education, and do all we can to perfect +both mind and body. How often is the cry repeated, "Mamma, tell me a +story," and mamma, tired and weary, says she is too busy, or, for the want +of a better, tells over again for the hundredth time, "Little Red Riding +Hood," or some other equally foolish or more injurious tale, such as +Bluebeard or Cinderella. Anecdotes of great men, suitably arranged, events +in history and biography, carrying with them valuable and important +morals, will afford all the amusement the child desires, without +developing a love for the marvellous and false, which leads it away in +infancy from the simple, truthful, and natural. If children are to be +taught to think naturally and truthfully, we can not begin too young, and +it is the duty of parents to remember that Valentine and Orson, +Cinderella, Bluebeard, and such stories, are a web of false and +exaggerated statements that will, and do produce injurious effects upon +the child's mind. The story of Aladdin's Lamp has made many a child desire +to enjoy wealth without labor, and has exerted a most pernicious, though +unsuspected, influence upon his future. Children, not less than men, seek +an easy road to the objects of their desires; and while works of +imagination are to be by no means discarded in mental training, such +should not be selected as give false notions of the busy and industrial +life into which the child is to be introduced. Even in the choice and use +of the finest works of fiction, the greatest caution is necessary. The +little one can hardly distinguish between a fable that amuses it, and a +lie told to shield it from punishment. If it hear nothing but truth, it +will know nothing but truth; and a truthful mind is a glorious thing to +behold in children as in men. "An idle brain is the devil's workshop;" +therefore let there be no idle brains, but let all work usefully and +pleasantly. Usefully we say, for even amusement is useful. We live in a +world of use, in a world of beauty, a world that can be greatly improved, +and human happiness largely increased, according as we avail ourselves of +the knowledge already acquired for the right teaching and training of the +young, so that they may grow up and develop into happy, self-supporting +men and women, diffusing happiness to all around, themselves happy in +proportion to the happiness they cause. + + + + +_THE SCHOOL._ + + +Upon the organization and arrangement of the school largely depends the +success of the educator. Two things must be borne constantly in mind. +First, to create truthful and intellectual atmosphere, where wisdom, +honor, and knowledge can be inhaled as with the breath, and second, to +make the school cheerful and attractive in every way possible. We must get +rid of the idea now generally prevailing among children, that the school +is to be resorted to with regret and escaped from with pleasure. + +So soon as the child will look at and become interested in pictures and +toys, and will listen to tales and little stories, it can profitably be +introduced in the school, the first department of which should be the +Infant-school, or, as the Germans so aptly term it, the children's garden, +or Kinder Garten. + +Here plaiting, modelling, and building, with simple object lessons for the +older infants, develop their powers of observation, and give employment +and impart skill to little fingers which might else be engaged in +destroying furniture or clothes, or in pilfering from the sugar-bowl. +Practical familiarity with the properties of lines, angles, circles, +spheres, cylinders, cubes, cones, and the conic sections will be acquired, +which will give a life and reality to the geometrical studies which will +occupy them in their school career. Dancing and singing will relieve the +tedium of sitting, shake off the surplus energy, give rest to the body, +and power, time, and tune to the voice. Models of houses, stores, +workshops, kitchens, farms, and factories, which later on they will assist +in making, will be a source alike of amusement and instruction. + +In the children's garden no teacher should have charge of more than about +twelve children, who should regard her as their mother-teacher, while she +should seek to win the love and confidence of the little ones as the +beginning of her work. + +Each class of twelve should have their own special room, while for general +purposes, such as music, drilling, gymnastic exercises, games, tableaux, +and exhibitions of the magic lantern, the oxyhydrogen microscope, the +stereopticon, and the like, they should assemble in a large hall. The +details of arrangements will readily suggest themselves. The main feature +is to have all things natural, free, pleasant, cheerful, bright, refined, +and unrestrained by external forms or rigid rules, at the same time that +order is secured by an easy discipline. + +So deeply are we impressed with the importance and utility of the kinder +garten, and with the high qualities required by the teacher of the very +young, that we are more and more disposed to believe that the true order +in rank and promotion among teachers should be, to speak in paradox, +downwards; that is to say, the younger the children to be taught, the +higher the rank and remuneration of the teacher; for not only is an +extensive range of knowledge necessary to enable the teacher truthfully +to answer the innumerable questions of inquisitive infancy, and to avoid +giving false notions, to be afterwards with greater or less difficulty +removed--always with a shock to the moral sentiment when the child +discovers it has been deceived--but also a knowledge of the infant mind, a +perception of the thoughts and fancies which chase one another through the +infant brain, a knowledge and perceptive power which only a watchful and +loving experience can acquire. An industry and a patience far beyond any +needed by the teacher of more advanced pupils are also required by the +highly-cultivated men and women, to whom alone the training of infant +minds should be intrusted. Advanced pupils go more than half-way to meet +their teacher--the infant can render no assistance to his, all has to be +borne, suffered and done for him--his future habits depend mainly on those +given to him in his earliest years. Yet the care of him in these important +days is generally confided to ignorant nurses and to the less-skilled +class of teachers. + +In building the school, a pleasing style of architecture should be +adopted, and the walls of the main hall should be hung with diagrams of +all kinds, illustrative of natural history in its largest sense, of the +sciences and of the mechanical arts, and with portraits or busts of +distinguished men. The walls of the class-rooms should be decorated with +diagrams and maps and figures referring to the special branches taught +therein. + +A large and commodious laboratory should be fitted up in the building, to +enable every pupil to acquire experimentally that knowledge of chemical +forces and action which books alone can never impart. A convenient +observatory should afford facility for astronomical study and observation. + +On the top floors or around the building should be arranged workshops, +where the use of tools and machinery could be taught. The classes should +assemble in the large hall, in the morning, where they might join in +singing or light gymnastic exercises, or listen to some short appropriate +address before betaking themselves to their class-rooms. + +The teaching in these latter should be conducted, wherever practicable, +upon the Socratic method, and every branch of science and of art could be +thus explained. The mother unconsciously uses this method in educating or +drawing out the first perceptions of infancy and early youth; and the +impressions derived from this method of acquiring knowledge are the most +lasting, being such as become most absolutely assimilated with the pupil's +mind. The teacher would also, at frequent intervals, conduct his class +into the fields and woods for the study of botany, entomology, and +geology, where Nature would supply in abundance the materials, and the +teacher would be the only book. Instruction in the various trades which +could be conveniently practised should receive attention, the taste of the +pupils being made a guide to selection. + +Some portion of the teaching which goes on in school should be performed +by the pupils, under the supervision of the teacher. No adult can so +thoroughly enter into a child's mind as can another child; nor is this the +only reason. + +That is not fully known which can not be thoroughly used and applied, and +knowledge can not be applied which its possessor can not himself impart. +A perfect illustration of this truth is furnished us in the training of +the soldier. + +Upon nothing, perhaps, have the knowledge and skill of the most powerful +intellects been more concentrated than upon the science and art of mutual +slaughter; and in establishing the soldiers' drill, an exhaustive analysis +of the means by which the desired object was to be attained has been +pursued. The men whose intellects have developed that drill, have not been +content to treat the soldier as a pupil only. Each recruit has in turn to +teach, as well as to learn to practise what he has learned, by drilling +others whom he is made temporarily to command, as well as to practise his +drill under the command of his officer; for only by such means could the +highest degree of efficiency be secured. The reasons which led to the +adoption of this principle in the barrack apply equally to the school. + +This principle of giving and receiving we also see exemplified in Nature. +Animals inhale oxygen from the air and return carbonic acid, which serves +to build up the structure of the plant, and the latter in its turn gives +out oxygen to supply the consumption of animals. + +Every day--in the middle of the day, in winter, in the summer, early in +the morning, or in the evening--gymnastic training on the system of the +Swedish anatomist Ling or of the German Turners would form a portion of +the curriculum, for which convenient apparatus would be provided. + +Biography should form an important feature in the course of reading, its +subjects being arranged in groups; and the true glory of a Washington, a +Bentham, a Stevenson, a Morse, and a Cobden distinguished from the false +glare and tinsel of a Louis XIV. and a Marlborough. + +Music, both vocal and instrumental, would be taught to all, but only those +more gifted by nature would be educated to perform solo. Nearly all +persons can be trained to sing part-music pleasantly and intelligently, +and to perform moderately on some instrument. The cultivation of the +musical faculties harmonizes the mind, and affords a never-failing source +of solace and recreation. The attempt to convert all persons into solo +performers, and the hypocritical applause with which their discordant +notes are indiscriminately greeted, deprives society of the pleasures +which part-music well performed would afford, by encouraging all to +attempt what they are pretty sure to do badly, to the exclusion of what +they would be equally likely to do well. + +We have reserved for the last, to enumerate what is, perhaps, the most +important of all the subjects of instruction. + +TO ALL children, so soon as they can be promoted from the _kinder +garten_--perhaps even to the higher grades therein--instruction in the +conditions of human well-being, and in the phenomena and arrangements of +social life should be given, and should be continued throughout their +school career. + +What! teach political economy to children? Even so. It will be conceded, +that to teach the future laborers the laws by which the wages of their +labor will be regulated, how high wages may be secured and low wages +prevented--to teach the future capitalists the laws by which their profits +will be determined, how large profits may be secured, and loss, failure, +crises, and panics avoided--must be a desirable, if it be a practicable +thing. Is it practicable? The experience of twenty years has proved that +it is. The experiment has been tried by Mr. Wm. Ellis, the wise and noble +founder of the Birkbeck schools of London, England, who not only devoted +his surplus means to the endowment of true schools, but gave also his time +to instruct in the principles of the science of human well-being--alike +the poor children by whom his schools were attended and the children of +the Queen of England. He also instructed and trained a corps of teachers, +professional and volunteer, and by one of the latter a class was conducted +in the winter of 1867, '68 at the Normal School of this city of some 35 to +40 teachers engaged in the practical work of teaching in our common +schools, who, under his guidance, became, after a short course of some +twenty or more lessons, enthusiastic advocates for the introduction of +this study into the schools; for not only does it teach the conditions of +industrial success, but it is also a science of morals and of ethics far +more worthy of the attention it has never yet received in this or, indeed, +in any country, than that which is given to what goes under the name of +moral teaching and training. It is by gradual steps--by the employment of +the Socratic method of instruction--with a rare use of text-books, that +the most intricate problems of this science can be unfolded to pupils with +such effect that a child of fourteen or fifteen years of age, who shall +have passed through a course of four or five years' instruction, would put +to the blush, with few exceptions, alike the members of both houses of +the United States Congress and of the British Parliament. + +A museum and a library would be necessary adjuncts to such a school as we +have described. It would need but a few seasons to get together in the +various excursions taken by pupils and teachers, quite a collection of +botanical, entomological, and geological specimens. These would serve as +objects for illustrating the teacher's lessons, and for examination by the +pupils. The drying, preservation, and arrangement of plants, animals, and +minerals, in which the pupils would assist, would serve to impart to them +a skill and dexterity, which they would know how to value, and would be +eager to acquire, and, together with their frequent visits to the museum, +would serve to cultivate a love of nature and devotion to the study of her +works. + +The library, besides containing treatises on science and for reference, +would be filled with books of travels, and the nobler English and foreign +classics; the books would be loaned to the pupils as in ordinary +circulating libraries, and a pleasant reading-room would be furnished with +the better class of periodicals and newspapers. + +To be deprived for a time of the right to visit the museum or +reading-room, or to borrow books from the library, would be one of the +severest punishments known in the school. + +It is hardly necessary to say that the selection of the principal of such +a school as we have indicated is among the most difficult problems of its +establishment. His qualifications should be as near the perfection of +manhood as can possibly be found. Invited by a large and generous salary +(to be dependent, beyond a stated sum, on the number of the pupils), it is +to be hoped such a teacher could be found. + +Such a principal, after a fixed period of probation, should not be +removable except on a very large vote of the proprietors of the school to +that effect, but his office should be vacated on his attaining the age of +60 or 65 years. The selection of teachers to assist him in his duties +should be left to himself. The remuneration of the assistant teachers +should also be large, and should be such as not only to enable them to +live in comfort, but to make ample provision for their future when the age +of labor shall have passed. + +The chief position in society should be assured to the principal and his +assistants by the proprietors of the school. + +The visits of the former to the houses of the latter should be regarded as +an honor, the greatest respect and deference should be paid to them, and +the pupils should be taught to look upon them with love and respect next +only to that they pay their parents. + +The best investment a parent can make of his wealth is in the proper +education of his children. Life is not merely to be born, to grow, to eat, +to drink, and breathe. Noise is not music. Life is such as we take it and +make it, or rather as it is taken hold of and made for us by those to whom +the care of our youthful days is intrusted. + +Let us endeavor to picture to ourselves the being likely to be produced by +a system of teaching and training, continued for successive generations, +such as we have indicated above. Let us imagine the full development of +the most complex of nature's organisms--a part of the one living organism +of the Universe, the latest product of her laboratory; considered, as a +part of the great Cosmos, the most perfect, yet but an integer in the +whole; the ultimate development of nature's chemistry, yet forming an atom +of her living unity; combining and possessing the widest relationships, +even embracing therein the entire volume of that nature whose true +relationships comprise all knowledge, truly "the noblest study of +mankind." Let us try and draw the picture of the developed man! + +Robust and supple of limb, symmetrical of shape, his muscles swelling +beneath their healthy development; with head erect, conscious of his +strength and skill, which he puts forth for the protection of the weak, +and for the purpose of drawing from nature her bounteous stores; free from +sickness or disease, in harmony with nature, at peace with his fellow-men, +possessing a competent knowledge of nature's laws, and guiding his conduct +to be in accord therewith, "sitting beneath his own vine and fig-tree," +"blessed in all the works of his hands," and diffusing blessings and +happiness around. Such is the picture of THE HEALTHY MIND IN A HEALTHY +FRAME, which it is in man's power to procreate and rear! + + + + +_APPENDIX._ + + + DEPARTMENT OF PUBLIC INSTRUCTION,} + CORNER OF GRAND AND ELM STREETS, } + NEW YORK, June 5th, 1869. } + + TO MAGNUS GROSS, Esq., + +_Chairman of the "Executive Committee for the Care, Government and +Management of the College of the City of New York:"_ + +DEAR SIR,--I have observed with surprise, and with a sense of deep regret, +that the proposition is entertained by a large number of the Trustees of +filling the chair of Latin and Greek, now vacant, and even of establishing +separate chairs for each, at the College of the City of New York; +involving, with the necessary tutors, an outlay of not less than $20,000 +per annum. The subject in all its bearings is one of too vast importance +to be treated in the ordinary method of discussion by the Committee, and I +therefore beg leave to place my views in writing, to insure their +receiving more matured consideration than oral observations could secure. + +I pass over the question (on which considerable difference of opinion +exists) as to the propriety of sustaining at all, at the enforced expense +of the public, an educational institution to supply the needs which the +College of the City of New York is intended to meet. The College exists by +law; we are its guardians, and the only question we have to consider is, +how most efficiently and most economically to secure the attainment of the +ends desired by the Legislature. + +These ends we shall no doubt all agree to be--first: that any of the youth +of this city possessed of special talents, but lacking means for their +cultivation, may have placed within their reach an education the best +possible for the development of their powers for the benefit of +themselves and of the community; and, second, to provide for the +comparatively well-to-do the means of pursuing useful studies in +compensation for compelling them to provide for the instruction of their +less fortunate citizens. + +As it is self-evident that whatever course of studies will tend to secure +the first of these ends will tend also to secure the second and less +important, we are spared the necessity of a two-fold investigation. + +A very few statistics suffice to show that neither of these ends has been +hitherto attained by the College of the City of New York. + +It is immaterial what year we select for examination, the numbers which +follow will be found to bear about the same relative proportions in every +year. I quote from the Trustees' Report for 1866 merely because it is the +latest document at hand which furnishes the numbers in the different +classes and of the graduates; from this report I find, that while there +were three hundred and eighty-one students in the introductory class, only +twenty-five graduated in that year. The number of graduates in 1867 was +thirty, and twenty-nine in July, 1868. Of the three hundred and eighty-one +who composed the introductory class in 1866, one hundred and fifty-one +left the College during the year, and doubtless the two hundred and thirty +who remained will have dwindled to about twenty-five or thirty by the year +1871. + +Without doubt some proportion of the three hundred and eighty-one leave +the College because of the necessity they are under of obtaining, by their +labor, the means of subsistence; but when it is remembered that these +three hundred and eighty-one are the _picked youth from the many thousands +attending the public schools_, and when the sacrifices and privations +which men and youth imbued with a love of learning will make and undergo +for the acquirement of knowledge are borne in mind, we must look to +something in the constitution of the College itself to account for this +result. In short, we can but come to the conclusion that the main cause +of this falling off is to be found in the feeling which grows upon the +pupils and their guardians, of the comparative uselessness of the studies +to which they are consigned. + +Let us examine the course of studies, as given from pages 8 to 14 of the +Report of the Board of Trustees for the year 1866, or from pages 24 to 28 +of the Manual of the College. + +The first observation which must strike the mind of every thinker is the +fact that the primary analysis--the main classification which has been +adopted of studies which ought to be framed to fit the students for +"complete living"--is one of "words," _i. e._, the tools of knowledge, +instead of knowledge itself. Or in the words of the Report: "There are two +courses of studies--ancient and modern--differing only in the languages +studied." + +On examining the course for the introductory and freshman classes, a +feeling of astonishment must fill the mind at the marked want of wisdom by +which it was dictated, but which at the same time affords a sufficient +explanation for the abandonment of the College by its students. + +Even if "_words_" ought to be the real object of education, it would be +supposed that English words would be more useful to a people whose +mother-tongue is English, than the words of any other language; yet the +students of the introductory and freshman classes of the ancient course +receive instruction _five hours a week through both terms in Latin and +Greek_, and _one lesson per week during one term in the English language_. +The students of the modern course substitute for Latin and Greek the +French and Spanish languages. + +I purposely abstain from saying any thing as to the method of instruction, +which is the converse of that adopted by nature, and as a consequence +signally fails. This has been so forcibly put by President Barnard, of +Columbia College, that I need only refer the members of our Committee to +his essay on "Early Mental Training, and the Studies best fitted for it." + +What steps are taken to familiarize the students of, say the freshman +class, with that great nature of which they form a part? What, for +instance, do they learn of the structure of their own bodies, and of the +means of preserving health? _One lesson a week_ is given on Physiology and +Hygiene, and that is all! The fear of making this letter too long compels +me merely to refer the Committee to pages 40 to 42 of Mr. Herbert +Spencer's chapter on "What Knowledge is of Most Worth," in his work on +Education, in farther illustration of this subject, instead of making +extracts from it as I would otherwise like to do. + +Attention, it is true, is paid throughout the college course to +mathematical studies, yet very little to their practical application; +while to Chemistry, the parent of modern physics, the manual (which is our +guide) prescribes two lessons per week to the introductory class, and to +the freshman, sophomore, and junior classes absolutely _none at all_! +Mining, Mechanical Engineering, Architecture, Theoretical Agriculture, +Biology, and Botany are utterly ignored; and no branch of Zoology is even +mentioned in the curriculum. We next come to a science more important, +because universal in its application and in its need than any other, viz.: +The Science of Human Well-being, commonly called Political or Social +Economy. Here, too, like exclusion! except that in the sophomore class, +for one term, one hour per week is given to it. That is to say, a people +who are to live by labor are left by the guardians of their education in +ignorance of the laws by which the reward for that labor must be +regulated; they who are to administer capital are to be left to blind +chance whether to act in accordance with those laws of nature which +determine its increase, or ignorantly to violate them! + +Restrained again from quotation by the fear of wearying the Committee, +permit me to refer them to the lecture of Dr. Hodgson, delivered at the +Royal Institution of Great Britain, on "The Importance of the Study of +Economic Science," which will be found in the work of Professor Youmans, +on "The Culture demanded by Modern Life." + +I confess to a feeling of deep discouragement at the perusal of such a +record as that presented by the course of studies at the College of the +City of New York, especially when I find that this is the state of things +a large number of the Trustees seem desirous of perpetuating. My views on +this subject are confirmed by the following remarks found in President +Barnard's Essay on "Early Mental Training, and the Studies best fitted for +it." + + "Whatever may be the value of the study of the classics in a + subjective point of view, _nothing could possibly more thoroughly + unfit a man for any immediate usefulness_ in this matter-of-fact + world, or make him _more completely a stranger in his own home_, than + the purely classical education which used recently to be given, and + which, with some slight improvement, is believed to be still given by + the universities of England. This proposition is very happily + enforced by a British writer, whose strictures on the system appeared + in the London _Times_ some twelve or thirteen years ago. + + "Common things are quite as much neglected and despised in the + education of the rich as in that of the poor. It is wonderful _how + little_ a young gentleman may know when he has taken his university + degrees, _especially if he has been industrious, and has stuck to his + studies_. He may really _spend a long time in looking for somebody + more ignorant than himself_. If he talks with the driver of the + stage-coach that lands him at his father's door, he finds he knows + nothing of horses. If he falls into conversation with a gardener, he + knows nothing of plants or flowers. If he walks into the fields, he + does not know the difference between barley, rye, and wheat; between + rape and turnips; between natural and artificial grass. If he goes + into a carpenter's yard, he does not know one wood from another. If + he comes across an attorney, he has no idea of the difference between + common and statute law, and is wholly in the dark as to those + securities of personal and political liberty on which we pride + ourselves. If he talks with a country magistrate, he finds his only + idea of the office is that the gentleman is a sort of English Sheik, + as the Mayor of the neighboring borough is a sort of Cadi. If he + strolls into any workshop or place of manufacture, it is always to + find his level, and that a level far below the present company. If he + dines out, and as a youth of proved talents and perhaps university + honors is expected to be literary, his literature is confined to a + few popular novels--the novels of the last century, or even of the + last generation--history and poetry having been almost studiously + omitted in his education. _The girl who has never stirred from home, + and whose education has been economized, not to say neglected, in + order to send her own brother to college_, knows vastly more of those + things than he does. The same exposure awaits him wherever he goes, + and whenever he has the audacity to open his mouth. _At sea he is a + landlubber; in the country a cockney; in town a greenhorn; in science + an ignoramus; in business a simpleton; in pleasure a + milksop_--everywhere out of his element, everywhere at sea, in the + clouds, adrift, or by whatever word _utter ignorance_ and + _incapacity_ are to be described. In society and in the work of life, + he finds himself beaten by the youth whom at college he despised as + frivolous or abhorred as profligate." + + +Take the preparation of our youth for their duties as citizens. Here, +again, a knowledge of political and social economy is indispensable. We +have seen the attention it receives; and while two lessons a week for one +hour, and that only to the senior class in its last term, are given to +American citizens on the Constitution of the United States and on +International Law, _none whatever is given on the science of Government +throughout the entire course of five years_! + +I might go through the whole course of studies with similar results. Here +and there, in this or that class, a small amount of attention is given to +some of the sciences omitted in the other classes; but the entire record +is one of the most disheartening character. + +_Words! words!_ engross almost exclusively the attention of the students +from the hour they enter the College until they leave it; and it is not to +the five-and-twenty graduates the palm of useful industry should be +awarded, but to the many who, in discouragement, abandon a course which +tends to _unfit_ them for the great battle of life! + +What, then, are the reasons generally assigned for this perverse +conventionalism of devoting the time of youth to the acquirement of dead +words, to the unavoidable exclusion of nearly every thing that is of +value? First, we are told that we can not understand the English language +without a knowledge of Latin, from which it is derived. The inaccuracy of +this pretension is at once made manifest by reference to Webster, where he +states: + + "That English is composed of-- + + "_First._ Saxon and Danish words of Teutonic and Gothic origin. + + "_Second._ British or Welsh, Cornish and Amoric, which may be + considered as of Celtic origin. + + "_Third._ Norman, a mixture of French and Gothic. + + "_Fourth._ Latin, a language formed on the Celtic and Teutonic. + + "_Fifth._ French, chiefly Latin corrupted, but with a mixture of + Celtic. + + "_Sixth._ Greek formed on the Celtic and Teutonic, with some Coptic. + + "_Seventh._ A few words directly from the Italian, Spanish, German, + and other languages of the Continent. + + "_Eighth._ A few foreign words, introduced by commerce, or by + political and literary intercourse. + + "Of these, _the Saxon words constitute our mother-tongue_, being + words which our ancestors brought with them from Asia. + + "The Danish and Welsh also are primitive words, and may be considered + as a part of our vernacular language. They are of equal antiquity + with the Chaldee and Syriac." + + +But even were it true that our language was derived from the Latin, +wherein lies the difficulty in the way of the teacher explaining to his +pupils the meanings of the parts of English words which are of Latin +origin, without the necessity of the pupil's acquiring the same knowledge +by the roundabout process of learning one thousand words he will never +need, for one that may at some time be to him of some service as a +mnemonic? + +Driven from this position, the advocates of "_classical_" studies tell us +that the study of Latin and Greek serves as a training for the intellect. +Unquestionably the exercise of the faculties of the mind serves to develop +the faculties so exercised; yet if this were the object to be attained, +Hebrew, nay, Chinese, would be preferable to Latin; but SCIENCE develops +the same faculties, and far more efficiently. The facts of science to be +stored up in the mind are so infinite in number and magnitude that no man, +however gifted, could ever hope to master them all, though he were to live +a thousand years. But their arrangement in scientific order not only +develops the analytical powers of the mind, but exercises the memory in a +method infinitely more useful and powerful than the study of any language. +Finally we are told classical studies develop the taste. If then to this +the advocates of such studies are driven, its mere announcement must +suffice to banish Latin and Greek from all schools supported by taxation; +for however essential it may be to provide the means of the best possible +instruction, it is as absolutely out of the sphere of the Trustees of +Public Moneys to provide, at the public expense, so _mere a luxury_ as on +this hypothesis Latin and Greek must be, as it would be to provide the +public with costly jewels! But even for the cultivation and development of +art and taste, SCIENCE is the true curriculum! + +He who is ignorant of anatomy can not appreciate either sculpture or +painting! A knowledge of optics, of botany and of natural history, are +necessary, equally to the artist or to the connoisseur; a knowledge of +acoustics to the musician and musical critic. "No artist," says Mr. +Spencer, "can produce a healthful work of whatever kind without he +understands the laws of the phenomena he represents; he must also +understand how the minds of the spectator or listener will be affected by +his work--a question of psychology." The spectator or listener must +equally be acquainted with the laws of such phenomena, or he fails to +attain to the highest appreciation. + +I now come to the last and most serious aspect of this question, and I +fearlessly assert that classical studies have a most pernicious influence +upon the morals and character of their votaries. + +It should not be forgotten that Greeks and Romans alike lived by slavery +(which is robbery), by rapine, and by plunder; yet we, born into a +Christian community which lives by honest labor, propose to impregnate the +impressionable minds of youth with the morals and literature of nations of +robbers! + +This letter has already extended to so great a length that I am compelled +to abstain from making extracts from the works of the greatest thinkers, +which I had desired: and I can now but cite them in support, more or less +pronounced, of the views above put forward, viz.: President Barnard, of +Columbia College, who with rare honesty and boldness has spoken loudly +against the conventional folly of classical studies; Professor Newman, +himself Professor of Latin at the University of London, England; +Professors Tindall, Henfry, Huxley, Forbes, Pajet, Whewell, Faraday, +Liebig, Draper, De Morgan, Lindley, Youmans, Drs. Hodgson, Carpenter, +Hooker, Acland, Sir John Herschell, Sir Charles Lyell, Dr. Seguin, and, +rising above them all in _educational science_, _Bastiat_ and _Herbert +Spencer_. To a modified extent, the name of Mr. John Stuart Mill may be +quoted--for he loudly advocates science for all--science, which is +unavoidably excluded by the introduction of, or at least the prominence +given to, Latin and Greek in our College. Mr. Mill, it is true also, +advocates classical studies, but for certain special classes which exist +in England who have no regular occupations in life. + +Neither is it without importance as a guide to ourselves to observe that +in the very best school in this country--a school perhaps not surpassed by +any in the world, viz., the Military Academy at West Point--neither Latin +nor Greek studies are permitted. + +If now, in any career whatever, any use could be found for Latin, it must +be in that of the professional soldier, to whom, if to any one, the +language and literature of the most military people the world has ever +seen, should be of some service. But no! the wise men who framed the +curriculum of West Point, though they knew that the study of the campaigns +of the Romans would be serviceable to their students, provided for their +study, _not_ by the roundabout method of first learning a language which +could never be of any other use, but by the direct method of the study of +those campaigns! Are the pupils of West Point generally found deficient in +intellect? Is not, on the contrary, the fact of having graduated at that +school a passport to the _highest scientific_ and _practical_ employment? + +Our duty to the people is clear; let us neither waste the precious time of +our youth on worse than useless studies, nor the money of the citizens on +worse than useless expenditure. + +I do earnestly hope that our Committee will give to my observations their +most serious deliberation. Let us come to no hasty conclusion on this +subject: accustomed as we have been to hear constantly repeated such +conventional phrases as that "Latin and Greek are essential to the +education of a gentleman;" that "classical studies are indispensable to a +liberal education;" to hear applauded to the echo orators who have +introduced into their speeches quotations of bad Latin or worse Greek by +audiences of whom not one in one thousand understand what was said. We +have been apt to receive such phrases as embodying truths, without ever +examining their foundations. I respectfully urge the Committee to consider +well before they act, to study the reasons assigned by the great thinkers +I have named for condemning, as, humbly following in their wake, I venture +to condemn, as worse than mere waste of time, the years devoted to Latin +and Greek studies. + +Let us endeavor to make the College of this city worthy of the city and of +the state; let us cast aside the trammels of mediæval ignorance, and +supply to the pupils of the College "the culture demanded by modern life." +Let us in this, the first important matter which has come before our +Committee, act in harmony and without prejudice, for the welfare of the +College and "for the advancement of learning," and so prove ourselves +worthy of the sacred trust we have assumed. + + I am, dear sir, very truly yours, + + NATHANIEL SANDS, + + _Member of "The Executive Committee for the Care, + Government, and Management of the College of the + City of New York."_ + + + + +_The Philosophy of Teaching._ + +THE TEACHER, THE PUPIL, THE SCHOOL. + +BY NATHANIEL SANDS. + +8vo, Cloth, $1 00. + + +An interesting and valuable work, in which the science of teaching is +treated in a philosophical and practical manner, and a sketch is given of +a school to be established on the principles developed in his pages. Mr. +Sands takes the view that education, mental and physical, is but the +absorption of surrounding elements into the mind and body--an arrangement +and assimilation of materials so as to incorporate them into the being to +whose nourishment they are applied, just as the tree or plant assimilates +to its growth and subsistence the materials which it draws from the air +and the soil; and his theory of teaching is based on these truths.--_N. Y. +Times._ + +He advocates a radical change in the system of teaching youth. He proposes +a school where pupils shall be taught by illustrations from nature as well +as from books; where the museum, chemical laboratory, and workshop shall +find a place; where, in short, the mind of the learner shall not be +forced, but shall have just the kind of food suitable for its age and +development.--_N. Y. World._ + +Much has been written upon education--much that is both wise and +thoughtful, and much that has been but sound. Among the most thoughtful +and suggestive recent writings is an unpretentious work bearing the title +of "The Teacher, the Pupil, the School," by Mr. Nathaniel Sands. Small as +it is, it contains more ideas than many bulky volumes.--_N. Y. Tribune._ + +The question with which he mainly concerns himself is whether Latin and +Greek, and certain other branches, shall be taught to the exclusion of +more practical studies. He thinks that what is commonly known as the +"culture demanded by modern life"--chemistry, mining, anatomy, natural +history, political and social economy, the science of government, +etc.--should take the place now usurped by classical studies. Mr. Sands +believes in making no compromise between the useful sciences and the +classics. He condemns "as worse than mere waste of time the years devoted +to Greek and Latin," and would bar them out altogether.--_Journal of +Commerce._ + +Mr. Sands, who has just been appointed one of the new Board of Education, +has long been known as an advanced thinker on the subject he is now called +upon to deal with. He has published a pamphlet on the Philosophy of +Education.--_N. Y. Sun._ + +We have in this compact and unpretentious treatise a great deal of pith +and acumen, brought to bear upon a most important subject--that of +educational first principles. Mr. Sands has gone to the base of human +teaching, discarding pretentious themes, in order to illustrate the +simpler beauty of that eductive and inductive co-relationship which, +beginning at the mother's breast, proceeds through all the quiet processes +of mental development in infancy, childhood, and maturity.--_N. Y. +Dispatch._ + +His hints may well arrest the attention of thoughtful men.--_N. Y. +Tribune._ + +We commend it to the thoughtful consideration of all, but especially of +our public men. * * * Commissioners of Schools and others charged with +youthful training may advantageously consider the reflections.--_N. Y. +Evening Post._ + + +HARPER & BROTHERS, PUBLISHERS, + +FRANKLIN SQUARE, NEW YORK. + +HARPER & BROTHERS _will send the above work by mail, postage prepaid, to +any part of the United States, on receipt of $1 00_. + + + + +WORKS ON EDUCATION + +PUBLISHED BY + +HARPER & BROTHERS, NEW YORK. + + +HARPER & BROTHERS _will send any of the following books by mail, postage +prepaid, to any part of the United States, on receipt of the price_. + +HARPER'S CATALOGUE _and_ TRADE-LIST _will be sent by mail on receipt of +Five Cents, or they may be obtained gratuitously on application to the +Publishers personally_. + + +RANDALL'S POPULAR EDUCATION. First Principles of Popular Education and +Public Instruction. By S. S. RANDALL, Superintendent of Public Schools of +the City of New York. 12mo, Cloth, $1 50. + +SANDS'S PHILOSOPHY OF TEACHING. The Teacher, the Pupil, the School. By +NATHANIEL SANDS. 8vo, Cloth. + +BURTON'S OBSERVING FACULTIES. The Culture of the Observing Faculties in +the Family and the School; or, Things about Home, and how to make them +Instructive to the Young. By WARREN BURTON, Author of "The District School +as it was," "Helps to Education," &c. 16mo, Cloth, 75 cents. + +CALKINS'S PRIMARY OBJECT LESSONS. Primary Object Lessons for a Graduated +Course of Development. A Manual for Teachers and Parents, with Lessons for +the Proper Training of the Faculties of the Children. By N. A. CALKINS. +Illustrations. 12mo, Cloth, $1 50. + +WILLSON'S OBJECT LESSONS A Manual of Information and Suggestions for +Object Lessons, in a Course of Elementary Instruction. Adapted to the Use +of the School and Family Charts, and other Aids in Teaching. By MARCIUS +WILLSON. 12mo, Cloth, $1 50. + +ABBOTT'S TEACHER. Moral Influences Employed in the Instruction and +Government of the Young. By JACOB ABBOTT. With Engravings. +12mo, Cloth, $1 75. + +BOESÉ'S EDUCATION IN NEW YORK CITY. Public Education in the City of New +York: its History, Condition, and Statistics. An Official Report to the +Board of Education. By THOMAS BOESÉ, Clerk of the Board. With +Illustrations. 8vo, Cloth, $1 50. + +BEECHER'S TRAINING OF CHILDREN. The Religious Training of Children in the +Family, the School, and the Church. By CATHARINE E. BEECHER. +12mo, Cloth, $1 75. + +EDGEWORTH'S PRACTICAL EDUCATION. A Treatise on Practical Education. By +RICHARD LOVELL EDGEWORTH and MARIA EDGEWORTH. Engravings. +12mo, Cloth, $1 50. + +SIR WILLIAM HAMILTON'S ESSAYS. Discussions on Philosophy and Literature, +Education and University Reform. Chiefly from the Edinburgh Review. +Corrected, Vindicated, and Enlarged, in Notes and Appendices. By Sir +WILLIAM HAMILTON, Bart. With an Introductory Essay, by Rev. ROBERT +TURNBULL, D.D. 8vo, Cloth, $3 00. + +DR. OLIN'S COLLEGE ADDRESSES. College Life: its Theory and Practice. By +Rev. STEPHEN OLIN, D.D., L.L.D., late President of the Wesleyan +University. 12mo, Cloth, $1 50. + +POTTER & EMERSON'S MANUAL. The School and the Schoolmaster. A Manual for +the Use of Teachers, Employers, Trustees, Inspectors, &c., &c. In Two +Parts. Part I. By Rt. Rev. ALONZO POTTER, D.D. Part II. By GEORGE B. +EMERSON, A.M., of Massachusetts. Part I. The School; its Objects, +Relations, and Uses. With a Sketch of the Education most needed in the +United States, the present State of Common Schools, the best Means of +Improving them, and the consequent Duties of Parents, Trustees, +Inspectors, &c. Part II. The proper Character, Studies, and Duties of the +Teacher, with the best Methods for the Government and Instruction for the +Common Schools, and the Principles on which School-Houses should be Built, +Arranged, Warmed, and Ventilated. Engravings. 12mo, Cloth, $1 50. + +EVERETT ON PRACTICAL EDUCATION. Importance of Practical Education and +Useful Knowledge: being a Selection from the Orations and Discourses of +EDWARD EVERETT, President of Harvard University. 12mo, Cloth, $1 50. + + + + +Transcriber's Notes: + +Passages in italics are indicated by _underscore_. + +Additional spacing after block quotes is intentional to indicate both the +end of a quotation and the beginning of a new paragraph as presented in +the original text. + + + + + + +End of Project Gutenberg's The Philosophy of Teaching, by Nathaniel Sands + +*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 30296 *** |