The foregoing paragraphs on presentative instruction may seem strange to the American teacher. We must remember, however, that they were written before the modern era of text-books, when, in point of fact, the teacher was practically the sole reliance for the facts that the children were to learn. It is the custom, even to the present, in the lower schools of Germany, to rely very largely upon the teacher for the information which the children are to acquire. In American schools, this method is not followed, for so enormous has been the development of text-book industry, that in every field of education the richest material is offered to the schools in the form of text-books. There is, however, still a legitimate field for purely presentative instruction in the earlier grades of the elementary school, especially in literature and in the beginnings of history. The most primitive method of instruction, as we see clearly in the earlier periods of Grecian education, was the narrative. The children of those days received their instruction in history, mythology, literature, geography, by listening to the tales of heroes and heroic deeds narrated by their parents, by wandering minstrels and rhapsodists. To this day, the teacher who can narrate biographical or literary matter in an attractive manner is sure to awaken intense interest in thechildren under her control. Perhaps one facility which the modern teacher needs to acquire more than any other is the capacity of happy, vivacious, interesting narrative cast, at the same time, into simple yet excellent literary form. Such a teacher is an undoubted treasure in the primary school. There is occasion, moreover, in nearly all school study for the presentation of supplementary material in almost every school study. This is true especially in literature and history. It is also true in geography and in mathematics, as where, for instance, the teacher narrates the methods of the ancient Egyptians in the development of geometrical ideas, or those of the Greeks. If one is teaching a foreign language, one may always find happy opportunities for introducing bits of history, biography, or other illuminating material. In the sciences nothing is more interesting to children, more stimulative of renewed effort, than narratives concerning our great scientists, their desire for education, their struggle to attain knowledge, their misfortunes, and their triumphs. Every aspect of instruction may be supplemented and illumined by instruction given in the purely presentative form of narration.
The foregoing paragraphs on presentative instruction may seem strange to the American teacher. We must remember, however, that they were written before the modern era of text-books, when, in point of fact, the teacher was practically the sole reliance for the facts that the children were to learn. It is the custom, even to the present, in the lower schools of Germany, to rely very largely upon the teacher for the information which the children are to acquire. In American schools, this method is not followed, for so enormous has been the development of text-book industry, that in every field of education the richest material is offered to the schools in the form of text-books. There is, however, still a legitimate field for purely presentative instruction in the earlier grades of the elementary school, especially in literature and in the beginnings of history. The most primitive method of instruction, as we see clearly in the earlier periods of Grecian education, was the narrative. The children of those days received their instruction in history, mythology, literature, geography, by listening to the tales of heroes and heroic deeds narrated by their parents, by wandering minstrels and rhapsodists. To this day, the teacher who can narrate biographical or literary matter in an attractive manner is sure to awaken intense interest in thechildren under her control. Perhaps one facility which the modern teacher needs to acquire more than any other is the capacity of happy, vivacious, interesting narrative cast, at the same time, into simple yet excellent literary form. Such a teacher is an undoubted treasure in the primary school. There is occasion, moreover, in nearly all school study for the presentation of supplementary material in almost every school study. This is true especially in literature and history. It is also true in geography and in mathematics, as where, for instance, the teacher narrates the methods of the ancient Egyptians in the development of geometrical ideas, or those of the Greeks. If one is teaching a foreign language, one may always find happy opportunities for introducing bits of history, biography, or other illuminating material. In the sciences nothing is more interesting to children, more stimulative of renewed effort, than narratives concerning our great scientists, their desire for education, their struggle to attain knowledge, their misfortunes, and their triumphs. Every aspect of instruction may be supplemented and illumined by instruction given in the purely presentative form of narration.
110.While skilful presentation produces results akin to an extension of the pupil’s range of actual experience, analysis helps to make experience more instructive. For, left to itself, experience is not a teacher whose instruction is systematic. It does not obey the law of actual progress from the simple to the complex. Things and events crowd in upon the mind in masses; the result is often chaotic apprehension. Inasmuch, then, as experience presentsaggregates before it gives the component particulars, it becomes the task of instruction to reverse this order and to adjust the facts of experience to the sequence demanded in teaching. Experience, it is true, associates its content; but if this earlier association is to have the share in the work of the school that it should have, that which has been experienced and that which has been learned must be made to harmonize. With this end in view we need to supplement experience. The facts it has furnished have to be made clearer and more definite than they are, and must be given an appropriate embodiment in language.
111.Let us consider first the earliest stage of analytic instruction. In order to understand the significance of this method of teaching, we must examine the nature of a child’s experience. Children are indeed in the habit of familiarizing themselves with their surroundings; but the strongest impressions predominate. Objects in motion have greater attraction for them than objects at rest. They tear up and destroy without troubling themselves much about the real connection between the parts of a whole. In spite of their many why’s and what for’s, they make use of every tool or utensil without regard for its purpose; they are satisfied if it serves the impulse of the moment. Their eyes are keen, but they rarely observe; the real character of things does not deter them from making a plaything of everything, as their fancy may direct, andfrom making one thing stand for every other thing. They receive total impressions of similar objects, but do not derive concepts; the abstract does not enter their minds of itself.
These and similar observations, however, apply by no means equally to every child. On the contrary, children differ greatly from one another; and, with the child’s individuality, his one-sidedness already begins.
112.It follows at once that the first thing to be done, in a school where many children are to be taught together, is to make the children more alike in their knowledge. To this end the store of experiences which they bring with them must be worked over. But the homogeneity of pupils, desirable as it is, is not the sole aim. We must take care also that the whole of instruction acts upon the particular stock of ideas of each pupil taken individually. We must seek those points of contact and departure to which attention has repeatedly been called above, and hence cannot leave the pupil’s mass of ideas in its original crude state. Thoughtful teachers have long since testified to the necessity of this requirement, which mere scholars in their zeal for learning fail again and again to appreciate.
Niemeyer, in his widely read work, opens his treatment of the particular laws of instruction with a chapter entitled: “The First Steps in awakening Attention and Reflection through Instruction, or Exercises in Thinking.”These exercises are no other than the elementary processes of analytic instruction. He says: “When the age, the health, and the strength of children have made instruction proper seem expedient, the first lesson should be one of the kind described in the chapter heading. Such exercises might be profitably continued in some form or other until the ninth or tenth year, and probably even later. The fact that it is not easy to describe them in a word very likely explains why we fail to find them in most programmes of private and public schools. That at last some attention is being given even in the common schools to this matter is one of the venerable Canon Rochow’s imperishable services to education.”
Pestalozzi, in his book for mothers, strikes out in the same direction. It will not serve the purpose, to be sure, to confine oneself, as he does, to a single object; still, the kind of exercises is indicated very definitely by him; indeed, more definitely, in some ways, than by Niemeyer.
113.The notions of pupils about surrounding objects, that is, notions in which the strongest impressions predominate (111), must be made to approach uniformity first. This is accomplished by uniform reproduction.
On this point Niemeyer says, “The teacher should begin by talking with his pupils about those objects which are, at the time, affecting their senses directly. Pointing to these objects, he asks the pupils to namethem. He then passes on to things that are not present, but that the children have seen or felt before. At the same time he exercises their powers of imagination and expression by making them enumerate what they are able to recall. Suitable material: everything in the schoolroom; the human body; everything pertaining to food, dress, comfort; things found in the fields, in the garden, in the yard; animals and plants so far as they are known by the children.”
114.The next step consists in pointing out the main facts of a given whole, the relative position of these parts, their connection, and their movability, if they can be moved without damage. To this are properly linked the simplest facts concerning the uses of things. At the same time children are taught how they mustnotuse things, and how, instead of ruining them, they ought to look after them and use them with care. The abundance and number of things, their size, form, and weight, should likewise be referred to as early as this stage, and should furnish occasion for comparisons.
But something more is needed to give distinctness to the ideas of pupils, and to prepare the way for future abstract thinking. Beginning first with the objects, we derive from them the predicates by searching out the attributes; this done, we must in turn make the predicates our starting-point, and classify the objects under the heads thus obtained. This distinctionhas been made before by Pestalozzi; it is one of fundamental importance in the preparation for generalization. While engaged in such work pupils will of themselves learn to compare, to discriminate, and, in some instances, to observe more accurately: erroneous notions due to an active imagination will be corrected by the appeal to experience as the source of knowledge.
115.Of what remains to be done, the most important task consists in securing a comprehensive view of a somewhat extended time-series, of which objects, together with their natural or artificial origins, are members. An elementary knowledge will thus be gained, especially of the simplest facts about manufacturing processes, and about intercourse among human beings, which facts will serve subsequently as the groundwork for instruction in natural history and geography. But for history also the way must be prepared by referring, although only in the most general way, to times when the utensils and tools of the present had not yet been invented, when the arts of to-day were as yet unknown, and when people were still without those materials that are now imported from foreign countries.
116.It does not follow, because no definite periods are set apart for the instruction described, that it is not being given at all. We may find it incorporated, to a large extent, with something else, particularlywith the interpretation of elementary reading matter, which forms part of the first work in the mother-tongue. Nevertheless, a subject that is taught only incidentally is always liable to suffer, if not from indifference, at least from inadequate treatment.
On the other hand, we cannot fail to recognize that the appointment of separate periods for analytic instruction may prove difficult, owing to the fact that the rate of progress depends so largely on the stock of ideas pupils bring with them, and on their readiness to utter what they think and feel. Besides, while Niemeyer expressly says, “Children taught in this manner know nothing of tedium,” he also hastens to add, “but it is easy to spoil them by too rapid changes of subject.” The same, or similar bad consequences, may result from other school exercises where the teacher himself supplies a profusion of instruction-material, and so relieves his pupils of the trouble of gathering such material from their own recollections. On the whole, therefore, it will be well enough to set apart but few hours, or weeks, for the first attempts; and these can be made a part of the lessons in the mother-tongue.
In private instruction the difficulty spoken of is not encountered. Besides, the ample opportunities afforded for observing the pupil’s store of ideas make it easy to devise a suitable plan for the earliest analytic teaching.
In the foregoing paragraphs on analytical instruction, the question naturally arises, “Is such instruction to be regarded as an end in itself, or as a means for preparing the mind for more perfect assimilation of the subject-matter to be presented from day to day in the various studies?” Since the time these paragraphs were written, not only Germany herself, but also America has gone through a varied experience with respect to what we call object teaching. It was at one time conceived that a specific hour should be set apart each day for instructing the children in the observation of objects. In other words, object lessons were a distinct part of the programme. It was supposed that in this way the children could be made conscious of the significance of their environment, and that it was highly desirable that such an end should be brought about. In Germany the same effort was undertaken under the name ofAnschauungsunterricht, but since the multiplication of text-books, and the increased pressure upon the schools brought about through the introduction of new subjects of study, it has been found inadvisable to devote a specific period of the day to isolated analytic instruction upon objects. Such instruction, however, has by no means passed from the field of usefulness, even in our very best schools. The necessity of appealing powerfully to previous experience, in and out of the schoolroom, as a basis for understanding a matter presented in the daily lessons, is everywhere recognized. From being an end of school work, therefore, analytic instruction has passed to the realm of a useful means for arousing the mental activity of the children concerning the regular lessons of the schoolroom. It is, in modern terms, an apperceptive basis for all instruction.
In the foregoing paragraphs on analytical instruction, the question naturally arises, “Is such instruction to be regarded as an end in itself, or as a means for preparing the mind for more perfect assimilation of the subject-matter to be presented from day to day in the various studies?” Since the time these paragraphs were written, not only Germany herself, but also America has gone through a varied experience with respect to what we call object teaching. It was at one time conceived that a specific hour should be set apart each day for instructing the children in the observation of objects. In other words, object lessons were a distinct part of the programme. It was supposed that in this way the children could be made conscious of the significance of their environment, and that it was highly desirable that such an end should be brought about. In Germany the same effort was undertaken under the name ofAnschauungsunterricht, but since the multiplication of text-books, and the increased pressure upon the schools brought about through the introduction of new subjects of study, it has been found inadvisable to devote a specific period of the day to isolated analytic instruction upon objects. Such instruction, however, has by no means passed from the field of usefulness, even in our very best schools. The necessity of appealing powerfully to previous experience, in and out of the schoolroom, as a basis for understanding a matter presented in the daily lessons, is everywhere recognized. From being an end of school work, therefore, analytic instruction has passed to the realm of a useful means for arousing the mental activity of the children concerning the regular lessons of the schoolroom. It is, in modern terms, an apperceptive basis for all instruction.
117.At a later time analytic instruction reappears in other forms, those of review and the correction ofwritten exercises. The teacher has presented a body of facts; he has furnished the helps necessary for the solution of certain problems. What he has given, the pupils are expected to produce again in their review exercises and essays. Where necessary, their work is analyzed and corrected.
In conducting reviews a pedagogical blunder is apt to be made—a blunder that brings on the evils specified in a former paragraph (105); review is confounded with examination. The two are radically different. If the teacher could be sure of both perfect attention and full comprehension, he himself would go over the ground covered by his first talk once more for the purpose of assisting the memory; the pupils would not be called upon to take part. In this case, we should have neither analytic instruction nor anything resembling an examination. As a matter of fact, however, pupils are usually asked to reproduce what and as much as they remember. This is easily taken to mean that they should have retained everything, which, strictly speaking, is not expected even in an examination. The purpose of an examination is to ascertain the actual state of knowledge, whatever it may prove to be; reviews are conducted for the purpose of increasing and deepening knowledge. If an examination is followed by praise or censure, well and good; a review has nothing to do with either.
Since reviewing and drilling, which resembles theformer, claim the larger portion of the time devoted to school work, it will be worth while to examine the subject somewhat more closely.
118.Repetition of several ideas intensifies those ideas. It does more than that. If they are of opposed nature, the reciprocal arrest that ensues resists their fusion less during the reproduction than it did in the original act of apprehension. The fusion increases in completeness, and, besides, becomes more uniform,i.e., the weaker ideas hold their own better alongside of the stronger. Again, if a series of successive ideas is repeated, the first members of the series of themselves tend to reproduce those that follow before the latter are repeated—a tendency gathering energy in proportion to the frequency of repetition. This fact underlies the increase in rapidity which comes with growing skill. Extraneous thoughts, however, very easily interrupt the psychical process of reproduction.
Let us assume that the teacher’s presentation has been an adequate one and has lasted no longer than the capacity of the pupils permitted, only a few minutes, perhaps. He himself might now repeat; but asks his pupils to do so, lest their thoughts begin to wander from the subject in hand. He comes to their aid and repeats only when their own attempts have failed. But very often they have retained some things and forgotten others. In this case it becomes his business to reinforce the ideas striving to rise into consciousness,but without disturbing their movement. In other words, he should prompt neither more nor less, should lend aid neither sooner nor later, than will serve to make the pupil’s train of thought coincide as nearly as possible with that of the presentation properly given. Unless this is done, the reproduction fails to effect the required association and facility. The same ground is gone over again and again in vain; fatigue sets in, and the wrong association takes place—a matter for grave apprehension. If the pupils are in an unresponsive mood, the teacher must go slow, for the time being; if interest is lacking, he cannot incite the proper movement of ideas. If the teacher is not conducting the repetition with skill, the fragmentary answers of the pupils indicate well enough after a time that the desired current of thought has not been generated.
119.We have taken it for granted that the presentation was an adequate one—one that might serve as a model (105). Where this adjustment of means and ends extends, as it may, even to the language, the latter should be closely followed in the repetition, but without pedantic insistence on unimportant details. But very frequently the essential feature of the presentation is found in the sequence of thought. In that case expression will vary, and the teacher is satisfied at first if, in repeating, the pupils furnish evidence that they understand; he allows them to use their own words, though less appropriate. Hemust, still, however, look carefully after the given sequence, which the repetition is to reproduce with the greatest possible coherence.
120.The case is different when later on larger sections of a course of successful instruction are to be repeated. During all the earlier stage particular facts were moved far apart (68) for the sake of clearness; by means of conversation, or of incidental mention in other recitations, or through experience itself (110), provision was made also for association of various kinds. Now it becomes the business of repetition in the first place to gather together into a smaller compass what has been expanded; next it subserves the purpose of systematic arrangement, and lastly, is often of use for making the instruction more complete and for adding the difficult to the comparatively easy. Here the mode of presentation itself changes to meet the requirements of a more advanced grade of work. But repetition immediately after the presentation, or, perhaps, during the next hour, will, as a rule, remain necessary even at this higher stage.
121.Here, where compression and insertions are to modify the material of instruction, we need to inquire into the forms of connection peculiar to the objects, together with those essential for use, and to determine accordingly the series and web of ideas to be formed in the mind of the pupil. For such organization of ideas, repetition is, at all events, far betteradapted than presentation, which can traverse only one of several series at a time, and which passes into repetition the moment an effort is made to bring the other series forward also. In natural history, for example, various classifications occur, in history the ethnographic divisions are crossed by the synchronistic, while the history of culture demands yet another basis of association; in geography each noted city is to be a landmark, enabling the pupil to take his bearings in every direction, but cities on rivers suggest river basins and mountain ranges; in mathematics each theorem is to be kept ready for separate application, but it has also its special place in the chain of demonstrations; grammatical rules, too, should be available when called for, but it is very necessary at the same time that the pupil become perfectly at home in his grammar and know where to look for information.
The teacher who, by skilful repetition, does justice to these multiform associations, is not always the one who shows most skill in systematic presentation, and who knows best how to make prominent the main thoughts, and to link to them those that are subordinate.
122.The impulse to repeat must, as a rule, come from points with which pupils are familiar. It is further requisite that the teacher, in conducting the repetition, adapt himself to their train of thought; he must not adhere strictly to an inflexible plan. Thenecessary corrections require delay here and there; the corrected statements often constitute new points from which to take bearings. At times the pupils themselves should feel free to indicate which topics it seems most necessary to repeat. By so doing they assume a certain responsibility as to the rest, and are made to realize all the more their obligation to make up deficiencies.
123.The correction of written work likewise falls under the head of analytic instruction, but the toil exceeds the profit if written work is demanded too early. While writing the pupil consolidates his ideas. Now if he does so incorrectly, the effect is mischievous, his mistakes cling to him. Moreover, the teacher has to be on his guard lest, while orally correcting and reading over the composition, he overestimate the pupil’s attention. When many slips occur, when a whole forest of mistakes is found to have sprung up, the pupil becomes indifferent to them all; they make humble, but they also dishearten. Such tasks should, therefore, be very brief, if the pupil is weak; nay, it is preferable to have none at all, as long as progress is being made more surely by a different kind of exercises.
The teacher who assigns home work with a view to saving labor in school miscalculates utterly; his work will soon have become all the harder.
To many it seems that the exercises they assignshould be very easy, rather than short; and to make them easy, outlines, turns of expression, everything, is indicated as definitely as possible. This is a delusion. If composition has any purpose, it consists in making the pupil try to see what he can do without the teacher. Now if the pupil actually gets started on the exercise, the teacher ought not to step in his way with all sorts of prescriptions. If the pupil fails to make headway, the attempt was premature. We must either wait or else shorten the task, no matter if it should shrink to no more than three lines. Three lines of the pupil’s own work are better than three pages written by direction. It may take years before the self-deception due to leading-string methods is superseded by a true estimate of the pupil’s actual power.
124.The case is quite different if, before writing, the pupil has been assisted orally in developing his thoughts. This kind of analysis is of special importance in later boyhood; but the teacher should see to it that the pupil gives free expression to his own opinion. If he does, a theme has been furnished for discussion during which the teacher will avoid harsh dissent in proportion to his eagerness to accomplish something with his pupil. To rebuke presuming boldness or impudence is a different matter, of course.
Self-chosen themes are preferable by far to those that are assigned, only they cannot be expected of themajority of pupils. But when they do turn up, the character of the choice alone, but still more the execution, will throw light on the opinions current among the pupils, and on the impressions which not only the school, but experience and society as well, have been constantly at work to produce. The writer’s individuality reveals itself even more distinctly. Every teacher must be prepared to come upon these individual traits, however much he might prefer to have his pupils reflect himself. It would be futile if he attempted to correct their essays by interpolating his own view; he would not by that means make the latter their own. The mode of treatment can be corrected; but other opportunities will have to serve for the rectification of opinions—provided this can ever be undertaken successfully.
125.With regard to synthetic instruction, we assume at the outset that it will be supported during the whole course of training by the merely presentative and the analytic methods of teaching, wherever these are in place. Otherwise the ultimate result will always remain problematical, particularly the union of learning and life.
Synthetic instruction brings in much that is new and strange; and we must take advantage of the universal charm of novelty. It must coöperate with acquired habits of application, and with the interest peculiar to each subject taught. The affairs, not ofItaly alone, but also those of Greece and the Orient, have become a matter of everyday discussion. There has been a general diffusion of knowledge about the facts and laws of nature. Hence even younger children cannot help but pick up many things now that will tend to forestall the indifference or aversion with which school studies were regarded not longer than fifty years ago. They seemed to be something foreign to life. At present, it cannot prove difficult to turn curiosity in the direction of distant lands, and of past ages even, especially where collections of rare articles and antiquities are accessible. This stimulation would not persist long, however, in the face of the labor of learning, if there did not exist at the same time a widespread conviction of the necessity of study, a conviction reinforced by the legal requirements of schools, particularly of the gymnasia. Accordingly, families exert a good influence with respect to the industry of children; and with the right sort of government and training in school, willingness to learn is easily secured. Less easy is it to incite a genuinely scientific desire to know, one that will endure beyond examinations. This brings us back to many-sidedness of interest (83–94). If interest were not already the end of instruction, we should have to look upon it as the only means whereby the results of teaching can be given permanence.
Interest depends partly, it is true, on native capacity,which the school cannot create; but it depends also on the subject-matter of instruction.
126.Synthetic instruction must offer subjects capable of arousing lasting and spontaneously radiating interest. That which affords only temporary pleasure or light entertainment is of too little consequence to determine the plan of operation. Nor can the choice of such studies be recommended as stand isolated, as do not lead to continued effort; for, other reasons aside, we are unable to decide beforehand to which of the main classes of interest (83–94) the individual pupil will especially incline. The first place belongs rather to those studies which appeal to the mind in a variety of ways and are capable of stimulating each pupil according to his individuality. For such subjects ample time must be allowed; they must be made the object of prolonged, diligent effort. We may then hope that they will take hold in some way, and we shall be in a position to know what kind of interest they have inspired in one pupil or another. Where, on the contrary, the end of the thread of work is soon reached, it remains questionable whether any effort at all will be produced, let alone a lasting impression.
127.The subject-matter having been chosen, the treatment must be adjusted to it in such a way as to bring it within reach of the pupils. For the exercises growing out of such treatment, the well-known rule holds in general: the easy before the difficult, or, morespecifically, that which prepares the way before that which cannot be firmly grasped without preliminary knowledge. To insist, however, on perfect mastery in this respect, is often equivalent to scaring away interest. Absolute proficiency in preliminary knowledge is a late achievement, nor is it attained without fatigue. The teacher has to be satisfied if the mastery acquired is such that what is lacking can, without serious delay, be added by him in practice. To make the road so level as to do away entirely with the necessity for occasional leaps (96), means to provide for the convenience of the teacher rather than for that of the pupils. The young love to climb and jump; they do not take kindly to an absolutely level path. But they are afraid in the dark. There must be light enough for them to see by; in other words, the subject must lie spread out before their eyes with such distinctness that each step is seen to be a step forward, which brings them perceptibly nearer to a distant goal.
128.With regard to the sequence of studies we need to distinguish first of all between preparatory knowledge and ability to do. As is well known, the latter, even when it has been fully attained, can be secured against loss only by long-continued practice. Hence the practice of the pupil’s skill must go on constantly from the time when he first learns to apply what he knows. But merely preliminary knowledge,which produced fatigue before it was mastered, may be allowed to drop out of the memory. Enough remains to make it easier to resume the subject at a later time (92,103). Accordingly, not the preliminary knowledge just referred to, but the pupil’s facility in doing, supplies the principle determining sequence. In the case of all essential elementary information—knowledge of rudiments of grammar, arithmetic, and geometry—it will be found expedient to begin with the simplest elements long before any practical application is made. In such first lessons individual facts only are presented. These are made clear to the pupils (68,69); here and there they are associated. Fatigue is avoided if possible. Even if the earliest attempts at memorizing should prove successful, it will be safer, instead of relying on this fact, to postpone the whole matter for a time. At a later period the same subject is resumed from the beginning without any demand on the teacher’s part that some things should have been retained. This time, however, it will be possible to introduce a somewhat larger quantity of the instruction-material, and it will not be too early to make pupils perceive the connection between individual facts. If pupils experience difficulty in comprehending, we should be careful not to advance too rapidly; the greater the difficulty, the greater the need for caution. When the time comes for practical application, an earnest, diligent effortmust be insisted on, but only for tasks of moderate length, and without exacting too much by harsh means. Not every pupil can do everything. Sometimes a pupil will at a later period acquire the power he does not possess now, if only his chances for success have not been spoiled by earlier blindness on the part of his teacher.
129.Again, corresponding to each stage of instruction, there is a certain capacity for apperceiving attention (77) which deserves careful consideration. For we ought to avail ourselves of the comparatively easy in order to facilitate indirectly what would otherwise prove difficult and time-consuming.
We need to distinguish between insertion and continuation, and to connect this distinction with the division of ideas into spontaneous and induced (71). It is easier to fill in between familiar points than it is to continue, because the continued series is in close contact with the well known only at the starting-point. Easiest of all is insertion between free-rising ideas, between those ideas that occur to the pupil spontaneously, when he has been led into a certain field of consciousness. Hardest of all, and least certain of success, is the continuation of lessons that can be revived in consciousness only by a laborious effort of memory. Intermediate in difficulty are the insertion of new elements between induced or reproduced ideas, and continuation on the basis of free-rising, orspontaneous, ideas. That there may be many gradations besides is of course self-evident.
The teacher who knows his pupils well will be able to make frequent use of these distinctions. Only a very general outline of their application can be given here.
The realia and mathematics can be connected more easily than other studies with the pupil’s experience (101,102). If the teacher has properly availed himself of this advantage, he may count on ideas that rise spontaneously, and his task will then consist in first establishing a few suitable cardinal points so that insertions may be made farther on.
Languages present more serious difficulties. It is true that progress in the vernacular is made through apperception by the pupil’s earlier attainments in his mother-tongue, and through the insertion of the new into the old. But in foreign languages, which associate themselves with the mother-tongue only gradually, apperception and insertion cannot take place until after some knowledge of the language has been acquired. And this knowledge must grow considerably before we can reasonably look for spontaneous ideas. If now the reproduced ideas become encumbered with additional new ones, worst of all through mere continuation, we need not wonder if the result is useless chaos.
This explains, no doubt, why the attempts to teachthe ancient languagesex usu, after the manner in which the language of a foreign country is easily learned by residence in that country, had to end in failure. One who learns French in France has persons and actions before his eyes; he easily infers that which concerns him. Such apperception takes place undoubtedly by means of spontaneous ideas with which the foreign language becomes associated. Before long the language itself becomes an apperceiving factor and participates in the process of learning. For the ancient languages, on the contrary, a grammatical working basis is needed first, especially a knowledge of inflectional endings, pronouns, and particles. The blunder should not be made, to be sure, of beginning with a marshalling of the hosts of grammar, as though grammar itself needed no base of operations. Long practice of what is most necessary must precede. But the worst plan would be to start in with cursory reading; in other words, to continue without making sure of anything.
Even cursory reading, however, produces good results under one condition; namely, the existence of a lively interest in the contents.
130.When the thoughts of the reader hasten on in advance of the words and get hold of the general sense correctly, the required apperception is performed by means of spontaneous ideas together with the insertion of whatever was not inferred. But this presupposesa very favorable relation of the book to the reader. Hence texts used in the teaching of a language must be chosen with very great care, and their contents explained.
Such work should not be slighted in favor of grammar; on the other hand, as much grammar must be given as is necessary. Some of the essentials will have to precede the reading; complementary facts will be presented in connection with the reading; other portions of the grammatical apparatus will be introduced at suitable halting-places. Written exercises belong elsewhere and stand in a different relation to grammar.
The interest in an author depends very largely on historical preparation; here we cannot fail to discover connection between philology and the so-called real studies.
131.Wheremany diverse means are to coöperate for the attainment of one end, where many obstacles have to be overcome, where persons of higher, equal, and lower rank enter as factors requiring consideration, it is always a difficult matter to keep the end itself, the one fixed goal, steadily in view. In instruction the difficulty is increased by the fact that no one single teacher can impart the whole, and that consequently a number of teachers are obliged to depend on one another. But for this very reason, however much circumstances may vary the courses of study, the common end, namely, many-sided, well-balanced, well-connected interest, in the achievement of which the true development of mental powers consists, needs to be lifted into prominence as the one thing toward which all details of procedure should point.
132.No more time, we need to realize at the outset, should be demanded for instruction than is consistent with the proviso that the pupils retain their natural buoyancy of spirits. This must be insisted on, and not merely for the sake of health and physical vigor;a more direct argument for our present purpose lies in the fact that all art and labor employed to keep the attention awake will be thwarted by the disinclination to study caused by sitting too long, and even by excessive mental application alone. Forced attention does not suffice for instruction, even though it may be had through disciplinary measures.
It is urgently necessary that every school have not only spacious schoolrooms, but also a playground; it is further necessary that each recitation be followed by an intermission, that after the first two periods permission be granted for exercise in the open air, and that the same permission be given after the third period if there is a fourth to follow.
Still more urgent is the demand that pupils shall not be deprived of their hours of needed recreation by an excessive amount of school work to be done at home. The teacher who loads pupils down with home tasks in order to dispense as much as possible with perhaps uncertain home supervision, substitutes a certain and general evil for a possible and partial one.
The neglect of such precautions has given rise in recent times to very bitter complaints, which will continue to be heard in future for similar reasons. Violent gymnastic exercise is not the means to put a stop to them. They threaten to lead to another extreme—such restrictions upon instruction as will make an inner unity of work impossible.
The subjects of fatigue and school hygiene have now grown to unexpected dimensions. Many periodicals are devoted to them, while the volume of literature bearing upon them has passed the stage where one person can be expected to command it all. In his “Bibliography of School Hygiene,” published in the “Proceedings of the National Educational Association for 1898,” Professor William H. Burnham enumerates four hundred and thirty-six standard works, articles, and journals dedicated to this cause. Many of these books, like those of Eulenberg and Bach, or Burgerstein and Netolitzky, comprise hundreds of pages, being based on extended experiment and research.
The subjects of fatigue and school hygiene have now grown to unexpected dimensions. Many periodicals are devoted to them, while the volume of literature bearing upon them has passed the stage where one person can be expected to command it all. In his “Bibliography of School Hygiene,” published in the “Proceedings of the National Educational Association for 1898,” Professor William H. Burnham enumerates four hundred and thirty-six standard works, articles, and journals dedicated to this cause. Many of these books, like those of Eulenberg and Bach, or Burgerstein and Netolitzky, comprise hundreds of pages, being based on extended experiment and research.
133.The time properly belonging to instruction must not be scattered. The deep-rooted practice of assigning two hours per week to one study and two hours to another, each lesson separated from the next by an interval of two or three days, is absurd, because incompatible with continuity of presentation. Of course, if the teacher can stand this arrangement, the pupils will have to endure it.
The subjects of instruction must be taken up in order that each may have its share of continuous time. To give a whole term to each is not always practicable; frequently shorter periods will have to suffice.
Again, one subject must not be split into several, according to the names of its branches. If, for example, we should set apart separate hours for Greek and Roman antiquities and again for mythology in addition to the time designated for the reading ofancient authors, separate hours for the systematic survey of the branches of knowledge besides those reserved for German in the highest class of the gymnasium, separate hours for analytic geometry alongside of algebra, we should tear asunder where we ought to join together, and should dissipate the time at our disposal.
Saving time depends on methods better than these,—on proficiency in presenting a subject and skill in conducting recitations.
Despite the protest here entered, German schools still adhere to the plan of presenting many subjects simultaneously, few hours per week being devoted to each. American schools are fairly free from the reproach, it being an exception to find standard subjects taught less than four or five times per week.
Despite the protest here entered, German schools still adhere to the plan of presenting many subjects simultaneously, few hours per week being devoted to each. American schools are fairly free from the reproach, it being an exception to find standard subjects taught less than four or five times per week.
134.As boys grow older, they may derive a great deal of profit from reading and doing many things by themselves. Following their own choice, they develop in accordance with their individual traits. We question, however, the wisdom of calling for reports on such outside pursuits. Pupils of ordinary capacity should not be made ambitious to imitate what they are not fitted for; extensive reading must not impair feeling and thinking. Breadth of learning is not identical with depth, and cannot make up for lack of depth. Instead of reading, some engage in the study of a fine art. Others are compelled at an early age to give lessons in order to support themselves. These learn while teaching.
The essentials of a coherent scheme of studies must not be dependent on outside reading; they must be embraced in the plan of instruction itself.
135.From beginning to end the course of study must be arranged so as to provide for each of the main classes of interest. The empirical interest, to be sure, is called forth everywhere more easily than any of the other kinds. But religious instruction always fosters sympathetic interest; in this it must have the assistance of history and language study. Æsthetic culture at first depends on the work in the mother-tongue; it is desirable to have, in addition, instruction in singing, which at the same time promotes the health of the pupil. Later on, the ancient classics contribute their share of influence. Training in thinking is afforded by analytic, grammatical, and mathematical instruction; toward the end, also, by the study of history, which then becomes a search for causes and effects. Coöperation of this sort is to be sought everywhere; the authors to be studied must be selected with this end in view, and interpreted accordingly.