A Practical Enquiry into the Philosophy of EducationGall, James
Philosophy
A Practical Enquiry into the Philosophy of Education
Gall, James
Education
The remedy for this evil is obvious. Instead of confounding the eye and
the mind of the child, by rapidly parading twenty-six, or fifty-four
forms, continuously and without intermission before the pupil, the
letters ought to be presented to the child singly, or at most by two at
a time; and these two should be rendered familiar, both in name and in
form, before another character is introduced. When a few of the more
conspicuous letters have become familiar, another is to be brought
forward, and the child may be made to amuse himself, by picking out from
a page of a book, all the letters he has learned, naming them, and if
necessary describing them to a companion or a sub-monitor as they occur.
Or he may be set down by himself, with a waste leaf from an old book, or
pamphlet, or newspaper, to prick with a pin the new letter or letters
last taught him; or, as an introduction to his writing, he may be made
to score them gently with ink from a fine tipped pen. In these
exercises, and all others which are in their nature similar, the
principle of individuation is acknowledged and acted upon; and therefore
it is, that a child will, by their means, acquire an acquaintance with
the letters in an exceedingly short time, and, which is of still greater
importance, without irritation or trouble. These methods may sometimes
be rendered yet more effective, by the teacher applying the catechetical
exercise to this comparatively dry and rather forbidding part of a
child's education. It proceeds upon the principle of describing each
letter, and attaching its name to the description, such as "round o,"
"spectacle g," "top dotted i," &c. as in the "Classified Alphabet." The
teacher has thus an opportunity of exercising the child's imagination,
as well as its memory, and making a monotonous, and comparatively
unintellectual exercise, one of considerable variety and amusement.
In teaching the alphabet to adults, whose minds are capable of
appreciating and applying the principle of analysis, the "Classified
Alphabet" should invariably be used. By this means their memory, in
endeavouring to recall the form and name of any particular letter,
instead of having to search through the whole _twenty-six_, has never to
think of more than the four or five which compose its class,--a
circumstance which makes the alphabet much more easily acquired by the
adult than by a child. But even here, the principle of individuation
must not be lost sight of; each letter in the class must be separately
learned, and each class must be familiar, before another is taught.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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