The Philosophy of Teaching: The Teacher, The Pupil, The SchoolSands, Nathaniel
Philosophy
The Philosophy of Teaching: The Teacher, The Pupil, The School
Sands, Nathaniel
Teaching
I do earnestly hope that our Committee will give to my observations their
most serious deliberation. Let us come to no hasty conclusion on this
subject: accustomed as we have been to hear constantly repeated such
conventional phrases as that "Latin and Greek are essential to the
education of a gentleman;" that "classical studies are indispensable to a
liberal education;" to hear applauded to the echo orators who have
introduced into their speeches quotations of bad Latin or worse Greek by
audiences of whom not one in one thousand understand what was said. We
have been apt to receive such phrases as embodying truths, without ever
examining their foundations. I respectfully urge the Committee to consider
well before they act, to study the reasons assigned by the great thinkers
I have named for condemning, as, humbly following in their wake, I venture
to condemn, as worse than mere waste of time, the years devoted to Latin
and Greek studies.
Let us endeavor to make the College of this city worthy of the city and of
the state; let us cast aside the trammels of mediæval ignorance, and
supply to the pupils of the College "the culture demanded by modern life."
Let us in this, the first important matter which has come before our
Committee, act in harmony and without prejudice, for the welfare of the
College and "for the advancement of learning," and so prove ourselves
worthy of the sacred trust we have assumed.
I am, dear sir, very truly yours,
NATHANIEL SANDS,
_Member of "The Executive Committee for the Care,
Government, and Management of the College of the
City of New York."_
_The Philosophy of Teaching._
THE TEACHER, THE PUPIL, THE SCHOOL.
BY NATHANIEL SANDS.
8vo, Cloth, $1 00.
An interesting and valuable work, in which the science of teaching is
treated in a philosophical and practical manner, and a sketch is given of
a school to be established on the principles developed in his pages. Mr.
Sands takes the view that education, mental and physical, is but the
absorption of surrounding elements into the mind and body--an arrangement
and assimilation of materials so as to incorporate them into the being to
whose nourishment they are applied, just as the tree or plant assimilates
to its growth and subsistence the materials which it draws from the air
and the soil; and his theory of teaching is based on these truths.--_N. Y.
Times._
He advocates a radical change in the system of teaching youth. He proposes
a school where pupils shall be taught by illustrations from nature as well
as from books; where the museum, chemical laboratory, and workshop shall
find a place; where, in short, the mind of the learner shall not be
forced, but shall have just the kind of food suitable for its age and
development.--_N. Y. World._
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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