Essays on Educational ReformersQuick, Robert Hebert
History
Essays on Educational Reformers
Quick, Robert Hebert
Education -- History; Educators
“But generally speaking we may say that, as in children the light depends
greatly on their senses, we should as far as possible attach to the
senses the instruction we give them, and make it enter not only by the
ear but also by the sight, as there is no sense which makes so lively an
impression on the mind and forms such sharp and clear ideas.”
This is excellent. There is a wise proverb that warns us that “however
soon we get up in the morning the sunrise comes never the earlier.” A
vast amount of instruction is thrown away because the instructors will
not wait for the day-break.
§ 38. For the moral training of the young there is one qualification
in the teacher which is absolutely indispensable—goodness.
Similarly for the intellectual training, there is an indispensable
qualification—intelligence. This is the qualification required by the
system of Port-Royal, but not required in working the ordinary machinery
of the school-room either in those days or in ours. When Nicole has
described how instruction should be given so as to train the judgment and
cultivate the taste, he continues:
“As this kind of instruction comes without observation, so is the profit
derived from it likely to escape observation also; that is, it will not
announce itself by anything on the surface and palpable to the common
man. And on this account persons of small intelligence are mistaken
about it and think that a boy thus instructed is no better than another,
because he cannot make a better translation from Latin into French, or
beat him in saying his Virgil. Thus judging of the instruction by these
trifles only, they often make less account of a really able teacher than
of one of little science and of a mind without light.” (Nicole in Cadet,
p. 204; Carré, p. 187.)
In these days of marks and percentages we seem agreed that it must be
all right if the children can stand the tests of the examiner or the
inspector. Something may no doubt be got at by these tests; but we cannot
hope for any genuine care for education while everything is estimated
“_par des signes grossiers et extérieurs_.”
§ 39. Whatever was required to adapt the thought of Port-Royal to the
needs of classical schools, especially the schools of the University
of Paris was supplied by Rollin (1661-1741) whose _Traité des Études_
or “Way of teaching and studying Literature,” united the lessons of
Port-Royal with much material drawn from his own experience and from his
acquaintance with the writings of other authors, especially Quintilian
and Seneca. Having been twice Rector of the University (in 1694 and
1695) Rollin had managed to bring into the schools much that was due to
Port-Royal; and in his _Traité_ he has the tact to give the improved
methods as the ordinary practice of his colleagues.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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