Appletons' Popular Science Monthly, February 1899: Volume LIV, No. 4, February 1899Various
Science
Appletons' Popular Science Monthly, February 1899: Volume LIV, No. 4, February 1899
Various
Science -- Periodicals; Technology -- Periodicals
Now what is the method of the grammarian? The child learns first the
names of things that do not appeal to his consciousness, for they do
not start from his point of view, but from that of the maker of a
book. He learns lists of words--that is, he learns to know the
_symbol_, and not the _thing_; he translates. He learns about Cæsar's
wars and the book of his father's uncle in what is called an exercise.
For both of these subjects he feels no interest, which is to be
expected, as they are abstract. He sees no action. Of the great part
of language, which may be called the speech of feeling, he also learns
only in the abstract. He reads that Cæsar was glad or that his
father's uncle was angry, but the happiness and the anger are outside
of his consciousness; they have been presented to him by symbols, that
is, printed words. By this method the child learns in about four years
to read fairly well; as a rule, speaking the language is entirely out
of the question. The pupils can not talk of their actions and their
feelings, because these are represented to them by symbols, for such
are printed words; they have not grasped them as actualities. If on
going into a foreign country they are able to understand what is being
said, the teacher may consider himself lucky. He has done his utmost
with the method he has chosen to employ. He has attained something. It
remains true that the mother accomplishes more in a shorter time than
the grammarian.
But is it perhaps possible to put the two methods together, and thus
to create a method which shall contain the good of both? We must not
continue always to act as the mother does, to teach after her method,
or our pupils will continue to talk like a child of two years, and be
furthermore unable to write at all. How shall we manage to melt the
two into one compact, inseparable whole?
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