In the School-Room: Chapters in the Philosophy of EducationHart, John S. (John Seely)
Philosophy
In the School-Room: Chapters in the Philosophy of Education
Hart, John S. (John Seely)
Teaching
The theory of it is true, not only in regard to things to be done, which
is generally admitted, but also in regard to things to be known, which
is often ignored if not denied. A boy, we will say, has a repugnance to
the study of arithmetic. Perhaps he is particularly dull of
comprehension on that subject. We shall not remove that repugnance by
railing at him. We shall never make him admire it by expatiating on its
beauties. It will not become clear to his comprehension by our pouring
upon it all at once a sudden and overpowering blaze of light in the way
of explanation. Such a process rather confounds him. Here again let us
fall back upon the method of the great Teacher, "Line upon line, precept
upon precept." We will first patiently conduct our boy through one of
the simplest operations of arithmetic, say, a sum in addition. The next
day we will conduct him again through the same process, or through
another of the same sort. The steps will gradually become familiar to
his mind, then easy, then clear. He learns first the practice of
arithmetic, then the rules, then the relations of numbers, then the
theory on which the rules and the practice are based, and finally, he
hardly knows how, he becomes an arithmetician. He has been trained into
a knowledge of the subject.
You wish to teach a young child how to find a word in a dictionary. You
give at first, perhaps, a verbal description of the mystery of a
dictionary. You will tell him that, in such a book, all the words are
arranged according to the letters with which they begin; that all the
words beginning with the letter A are in the first part of the book;
then those beginning with the letter B, then those beginning with C, and
so on; you tell him that all the words beginning with one letter,
covering some one or two hundred pages, are again re-arranged among
themselves according to the second letter of each word, and then again
still further re-arranged according to the third letter in each, and so
on to the end. Arouse his utmost attention, and explain the process with
the greatest clearness that words can give, and then set him to find a
word. See how awkward will be his first attempt, how confused his ideas,
how little he has really understood what you have told him. You must
repeat your directions patiently, over and over, "line upon line;" you
must take him by the hand day after day, and train him into a knowledge
of even so apparently simple a thing as finding a word in a dictionary.
While teaching and training are thus distinguishable in theory, in
practice they are well nigh inseparable. At least, they never should be
separated. Teaching has never done its perfect work, until, by training,
the mind has learned to run in accustomed channels, until it sees what
is true, and feels what is right, with the clearness, force, and
promptitude, which come only from long-continued habit.
IV.
MODES OF HEARING RECITATIONS.
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