Literary cadet and Rhode-Island statesman. [volume] (Providence, R.I.) 1827-1829, 1828-02-16
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MES FENNER.
KEEPING.

teaching, and ever since that unfortunate day
when Joseph Lancaster, landed on our shores,
TO I" hunbug" us, numerous plans have been
projected to gull the people, and to give an
impression, that by some peculi ,r process, u
nutton-hcad, can be transferred into a scholar,
and a man Of genius, and that by n process of
injection, ideas ard learning, can be impaired
10 the veriest ideot.
II is not moro than twenty years. since one
Of those geniuses, who manufacture wooden
clocks, and wooden tobacco seeds, invented,
in one OF his prolific moments, a machine, to
teach tho English grammer, and actually had
tho impudcnco to establish one of them III
Macombcr's Hall-now tho Manufacturers
Hotel, where he protested to teach the English
0rammer, in defsncc>o of all the works Of Lind
Icy Murray and William Goblet. by injection,
or probe ction = or rather. by machinery. The
fellow was more knavs than fool, and after
hayingguiled ono half Of tho town, accumu-
lated some hundred dollars, and goodly guam
,ify Of debts, no left the gals, aud his machine
tho first TO blush for their folly, and the
latter TO perpctuate the memory Of its infa.
NOUS inventor.
This fact, connected with a series Of guilt
biiiiy. which is found in the history Of Provi-
dence is recalled to our memory, by noticing,
tho extravagant prstcntions, which arc made by
smpyrics in school keeping, theology. music,
astronomy, aud modern guiii6iiity.
G-...-ir uon-r - p,bI;ehab Inf wbaf cnn-
tains a long. and an inflated advertisement,
written and signed by some pretending poda-
gogus, in which it is gravely declared, that a
now system of instruction has been invented,
and that Doctor Anthony Pangloss. or Ozia'
PolygIot, Esq. has discovered q method Of in
struction, by which an idoot can BIO made a
man Of sense; and the verrisst lump of stupid
mortality, can be made a man Of sparkling
and brilliant genius.
Too o1en these advertisements, arrest the
attention Of parents. and although they know
nothing Of the teacher, or Of his qualifications,
anxious to give their children the advantages
Of the bost schools, thoy are taken from n well
tried and approved seminary, and handed over
TO Mr Fiddlcfaddle, the new school-master,
uuder whose Kind direction they are frequent
ly ruined;--a year, and a considerable sum Of
money, having been squandcred away, they
arc returned to the place Of their original in
suuc,ion, to be rcmodoled by their former in
~s:rucior.
As for school keeping, there is nothing very
- III :. - - A.
say that no improvement has ever been made
to "the Science" and further, we will say, Wa
do not believe it is susceptible of improve
ment. Tho plans Of Joseph Lancaster, and
Portalozia, have been tried and abanGoned;-
tho former has been secuted by the good sense
Of tho people. and the latter has only been
tried 10 be abandoned.
Tho only difficulty in our schools. arises
from the want Of proper discipline, and the ab-
scnce Of ability and industry on the part Of the
teacher. A correct disciplinarian, a man Of
industry and ambition, requires not the aid Of
any other machinery, than that Of the mind,
10 instruct his pupils; he resorts not to any
system Of association Of ideas no symbals, or
the ridiculous and pedantic ;rappings. VIII ich
not unfrequcntly disgrace the walls of our
Academies. There is a great error, common to
all Of our schools, one. though it can be easily
rsmedicd, is suffered TO exist to tho eminent
disadvantage Of the scholar. 1t consists in
eemmonoing childrsn's education at too early
an age. and presenting to their juvenile and un-
prepared minds. tasks, which they are incapa-
bic Of performing, and over which they pom
de-, till their little minds are distracted, and
they despair Of ever accomplishing, what they
cannot comprehend, and then abandon the
school with disgust.
THIS error, is peculiarly observable, in the
manner, in which teachers attempt to instruct,
shiidren, in the rules oe arithmetic and mathe-
matics. Instead Of giving them sums TO cast
mp without first teaching them that two and
two make four, and that nine and one make
ssn, the first sum that is given them, consists
Of four or FIVE columns Of figures, an amount
which maay . man, at the onset. would find
n ain cult to add up correctly.
In tssehins. every thing should be done pro-
sr.ssivsIy: the child must first be taught the
slphabst, then to form syllablss. then words,
asa sentences, are be csnrsad, and. IN study
~ srhb~etie, he should FIRST be learned to