A Practical Enquiry into the Philosophy of EducationGall, James
Philosophy
A Practical Enquiry into the Philosophy of Education
Gall, James
Education
"The next point to be ascertained was, whether the children were able,
not only to perceive what passages of Scripture were applicable in
particular circumstances, but also to find out what circumstances in
life those passages might be applied to. For this purpose, Mr Gall
asked, 'Could you tell me any circumstances which may happen, in which
you may be called on to remember that Joseph and Mary attended public
worship?'--If a friend were to take dinner or tea with us, that should
not detain us from attending church.--Idle amusements should not detain
us from church; and nothing should keep us from it but sickness.
"Mr Gall again expressed his unabated satisfaction at the results of the
examination, in proving the intellectual acquirements of the children.
But so important did the application of the lessons appear to him, that
he must trespass still further upon the time of the meeting by a more
severe test of the children's practical training on this particular
point. It was a test which he believed to be altogether new to them; but
if they should succeed, it will prove still more satisfactorily, that
their knowledge of Scripture has made it become, in reality, a light to
their feet, and a lamp to their path.
"Mr Gall then produced a little narrative tract, which he read aloud to
the children; and after the statement of each moral circumstance
detailed in it, he asked the children whether it was right or wrong.
When the children answered that it was _right_, he required them to
prove that it was so, by some statement in the word of God, because the
Bible should to them, and to every Christian, be the _only_ standard of
what is right and wrong; and so, in the same manner, when they said that
it was _wrong_, he required them also to prove it from Scripture.
"As soon as the children perceived what was wanted, passages of
Scripture, both of precept and example, were brought forward with as
much readiness and discrimination as before. The only exception, was one
or two quotations from the Shorter Catechism in proof of their
positions, which were of course rejected, as deficient of the required
authority."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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