The Sun.
London, England, 1855-01-01 00:00:00

rSOCIATION OF SCHOOLMASTERS OF
GREAT BRITAIN.

The proceedings at the annual meeting of this associa-
tion; were resumed on Friday morning, at St. Martin's
Hall, Long-acre, Mr. T. Tate, mathematical professor
of Kneller Hall Collegiate Institution, in the chair.
Mr. THOMAS CRAMPTON, master of the Brentford
Public-school, proceeded to deliver his lecture on "The
Teaching of Common Things." He said the subject
hich he had to introduce had lately occupied a large
share of public attention. It was, in fact, the topic of
the .clay in regard to elementary education ; and, if
rightly pursued, it would be worthy of enduring popu-
larity. He conceived that schoolmasters had the great
charge of the general education of the child committed
to them. Practically, and by implication, they stood in
-the important position of parent to many of these poor
children, who might he truly regarded as orphans, so
far: as the want of home training, and the judicious care
of a parent was concerned. They were indeed responsible
to the Great parent of all to do their very best, lest any of
those "little ones" should perish. He could not, therefore,
but regard it as an imperative duty on the part of the
schoolmaster to examine the propriety of teaching any
• subject that might be proposed for school instruction.
Theorists not only differed on what ought to be taught,
but also on every detail of method how to teach. For
instance, they had lately heard a great deal about the bad
writing of the middle and lower classes of Englard.
. The inspectors took this as seriously as the members of
the Royal Society did Charles ll.'s celebrated query,
Why a live fish placed in a tnJ of water should not in-
crease the weight thereof ? or, allowing Lord Pal-
merston to have been more than usually serious in the
matter, they might first doubt the fact, and assert the
writing of the middle classes of England to be generally
-excellent. But granting it to be otherwise, how to re-
medy it ? " You don't write half enough large hand,"
smid Mr, Watkins; "It's no use writing large hand at
Jill," said Mr. Jelinger Symons, "it's utterly absurd."
From the; elaborate method of Mulhauser, which came
gut .witti the direct patronage of Government, we inferred
that the slope of the letter was important, as books were
hued on, purpose to secure this point. Now, what did
Lord Palmerston say ?—" Don't slopt 'em at all ; make
a.em like print." (A laugh.) One declaimed against the
alternation of thick and thin upstrokes and downstrokes.
Imitate Italian hand," cries another, which was simply
thick.upstrokes and thin downstrokes. For all this, what
;Were they to do? If they attempted the impossibility of
follOiring all these directions, we might certainly succeed
developing a true aristocratic handwriting. He did
mot question tbe sincerity of these advocates for particu-
jar.plans9r subjects. Unfortunately, they were rather too
Sincere, io that their enthusiasm for their favourite sub-
ject involved .the ignoring of others. They had been
taught to regard. reading, writing, and arithmetic as the
indispensable milk, bread, and meat of education, and
could not find time duly to attend to these with so
much daily work for music, so much for drawing, so
much for science, so much.to learn phonics, and so much
to unlearn phonics. They found it simply impossible to
got through half this work in six hours daily teaching,
and they were therefore compelled to be eclectic even if
they had not wished it. He thought too little regard
had been paid to the idiosyncrasy of each teacher. Every
one knew best what his main tendencies were, and every
one knew that he taught best that which he loved.
Though they had each of them powers of mind to acquire
respectable knowledge of many things, yet they did not
act wisely in opposing those leading characteristics of
s out nature which had been formed by an all-wise Creator
for the evident purpose of developing high and varied
results. They should not be ashamed of not knowing
many things, aye, and not teaching many things also,
so that they "occupied," in a persevering, hopeful spirit,
those talents that God had graciously committed to them.
Re hoped, therefore,' that they should agree as to
the propriety as well as necessity of electicism in
regard to subjects propesed for teaching, and not be
driven from their duty by the sudden rush of any
subject into temporary popularity. He admitted the value of many new subjects propounded, and did not the least question the sincere and benevolent mo-
tives of the propounders ; but they must pause, and
see first whether they had time, and then ability, to
.teach the new subject, which they had better not at-
tempt until they could do it eff.eiently and consistently
with the attention required by other indispensable duties.
Many a humble schoolmaster might do more service
against the Goliath of Ignorance with the simple sling and the stone that he could use well, than by the swords'
and armour, the costly apparatus and elaborate methods,
which would h-ut encumber him. The grand aim of in-
tellectual discipline was doubtless to increase the powers
of the mind, so as to enable man more fully to became
acquainted with the works and arrangements of Provi-
dthenoce•nd to use such knowledge in the best way for
rniegglitoodbeofgmenaenrkaiint
A knowledge of abstract sciences
„t- y regarded as valuable for enabling
hem to obtain a better knowiedee of the concrete. The
discipline of the mental powers teas thought to be the
sole aim of education, irrespective of the utility or
practical value of,the subjects thus employed for mental
trainirg. The classics and the mathematics therefore
held for a long time, and do now hold to a great I
extent, the position of exclusive educational agents
Put he thought it would be admitted that these cstudiei
had not been so sienall
• improvements of theb humanysu reaccees.sfu T 1 hiensethsetudpirease,.
classics especially,practical
were for many centuries exclusively
- pursued
I as objects as well as methods of learning ;
and still the dark ages existed —still the scholastio
philoeephy reigned—still the sun went round the earth
—still general ignorance and seini-barb irism prevailed,
poor suffering limn:atilt:- took refuge in the
, tyranny
of king; front the lawfesSrie,s Science was
not, frledein Was ant, Science
priestciait, opprLsion, eceraiTel)t%-a thin; of
Ly and by there arose a 830 )a, as the first and
of common thin,ge. lie glee as the g• at method teacherof
teaching this subject, c'aeeieal k had not
only Lt( d to deve.l.pr but nimmeli hindered and obscured.
The imbeetive- philosophy taught' mankind how to em-
ploy • the mental powers in investigating the real
objects of nature, and how to melee these subservient to
the best purposes of !Inman happiness. Some time after
there 31-03 f! England's great mental plilloeopher, John
Lezlee. He told mankind that the human mini could
be best trained by appealing to the perceptive faculties
and exercising the leglelpowetresaociniiiovbjepertoedonfeoqbasveravlua:
tion. This' philosophy and this
able fruit by its inherent vitality, and without any uni-
versity- or scholastic patronage. They had sufficient
proofs, however, of the value of physical science in de-
veloping great minds without university assistance in the
great names of James Watt, It ,bert Ferguson, Ark wright, -Crompton, and the present illustrious Faraday, -
among scores- of secondary names that
might be men-
tioned,
Ho thought they could place the third great
department ,of human knowledge, the investigation of
physical science, as far as they could carry it out in our
schnele, under the tern " common things." The want of
inductivenenn in truth, characterised too much of our
teaching. - Our text bunks teem formed on the idea that
the development of the reasoning faculty by means of the
reading lesson was not worth consideration ; we had
plenty of deecriptivnicesons of all sorts of thingsand in all
sorts of etyles; but lie was unaware of a single inductive
lesson in Ml the reading hocks in common use. If the
niere inculcation of facts were their object, they had only
to take a qearter of an hour daily from writing, arithme-
tic, grammar, and some other subjects, and devote these
to reading text books .f lmat any one's fancy might tern
" canenion things." They had, however, something fa-
higher to do. It was their duty to be masters of their
own business,. and therefore they might welcome "com-
mon things " in our daily tenitine as the vehicle for the
training of the mental facul: ies, chiefly those Of induction
by means of perception. Ho should much recommend
the preparation of notes of lessons. First, on account
of the refreshing of the teacher's mind by such exercises ;
and secondly, as helps to the memory in giving the lesson.
He would carry out the valuable Pestalozzian plan of
using the object where possible. They knew that Lord
Ashburton attributed the development of his own mind
very much to the six months he studied in the university
of Genes a. "There," he said, " I did not, indeed, learn
much, butt my eyes were opened to mark and understand
what had before passed unheeded, Faculties were called
• into play which lay till thenundeveloped, and I found my
mind ripen more rapidly during these few months, than
in years previoui." Ws perhaps scarcely estimated the
immense importance of objects as appealing to the eye
in teaching, He would next recommend the preparation
of a number of simple experiments. For example, how
simple, yet how suggestive, the mere burning a piece of
paper before the class : why the paper ignited so readily —why the flame ascends—why it increased so rapidly
when held below the other portion of the Pa er—why
it burnt very slowly in a horizontal position—why it
p
would probably go out held above the paper. These
• 'questions would open a pretty extensive range of facts,
and highly practical lessons would necessarily follow, as
the lying doWn and avoiding the natural tendency to run
in the 'open air when the clothes caught fire—the
smothering, covering, preventing access of air to the fire
—in fact to procure its cessation. He supposed most
schoolboys had to clean boots and shoes. Let them inves-
tigate why they used the bard brush for brushing off the
dirt, and why a softer one for shining—why the blacking
must be rubbed while damp to produce a polish, and why,
if left to get dry, it would turn to a dull white. Additional
interest would be thus given to common employments,
and, generally speaking, the ratio/de of any labour
would invest it with a charm that would ensure its better
performance, as well as make it a vehicle for thought-
ful improvement. "Seed thou a man diligent in his
business," said the wise man, "he shall stand before
kings ; he shall not stand before mean men." And this
he believed to be true in every condition
te andinev
- s
en ge. of h
They might trace the course Poorest
clod-
hoppers, and fin d
examples oi
n h
f ens lad
doing
better b n oreac
thant r-
more clever athis work, ,
. • . others. He took a first place ,
gonwardamong
n
aboir ns ,paw nnfirsit,
k2pilaecpe.
• among men. His couree was
• his conditi-ms of
f success he inuet rise. lie
might lie pelted by eilv.Y, pushed
down by unkindneSn
while he was true
but, like a corkcame, up be cae, and,
to himself, lass , wleile •
Voices ; and
The historynma.rdzind :Va3 !Li 11 of such ins .
is °rid C:1 ol.i not keep him down
• many of them bail their first movem directly traced
ente
to tem) etliiming occmion or particular- circunistaiii.
nl,i it
,t.h.y 'vet,)uetitied 10 reeardiog as educational.
'alley ;led then but to apply the match, or, rather, to
l.sy tim train of common sense to common things, having
full hope and confidence that sines would in due time I,e
• 77;ignited, and produce, if not brilliant, at least usef it
_ isteneite, in exploding ignorance,
(Tear. )
T*, and removing the lurking playseert,u,Tvinil
e'4: the discussion followed on the topics started in the
7•411-4,.; , iestu,ge• of Mr. Crsanptor, in which Mr. lot masses of
--ueltneas ler,
tr.rG. Rearley, the Chairman, and other gemtlemen
4.4.111 5-et,44 took,iiart; and wieoto of thanks wareunanireoualy
Nsif•-:744l4iteete -\f-eceideti. to the lecturer.
,a
•• Later in the day lectures were delivered by .J.
Ta Ilea rd, corresponding- secretary of the association,
on

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