The Massachusetts spy, and Worcester County advertiser. [volume] ([Worcester, Mass.]) 1825-1831, 1830-09-01
FOR THE MASSACHUSETTS SPY.
EDuCATION-Nn o

EDUCATION.-No. g.
Mr.. EDIToR,-ln my last | endeavored to
show that many of those who presented them.
selves school teachers, were but miseTablv
| qualified Tor that business and that many col.
leglans were ignorant of the first PRINCIPLES OF
an English education. | propose in this mum.
Der to speak more particularly of the mode Of
Instructing in our common schools More
teachers fail in the faculty of teaching than in
the knowledge of the arts and sciences.
Nothing is more ridiculous than the manner
in which scholars generally taught II is
true that scholars generally begin right to OBJ
tain their education, that is, they learn their
letters first, and then go into their abs, and SO
on for short time. But soon after this. the
spelling book must be laid aside, and some
higher branches must be attended to, Yes.
before one half of the lessons in the spelling
book are learned, the child must be put into
Geography, Grammar, and Arithmetic, and
forthwith into History, Philosophy, Rhetoric,
and Chemistry. Now in this Multiplicity of
studies, what can the scholar do? Why he
must pay very little attention to each of
these branches, and SO in a manner neglect
them all.
Now in our common district schools there
are but few scholars that are in reality qualified
to study these high branches. But Phiioso.
ply, Rhetoric, and Chemistry must be attended
to, even if every other subject is entirely neg
lected. But as to the MODE of teaching Take
the subject of English Grammar, the child
learns the definition of Grammar, and then
tells US thatt is divided into four parts. The
first part, viz. photography, is passed over, not
for the time being, but forever. He then gives
his attention to the second and third parts
And before these are half understood, the schol-
ar must attend to Rhetoric. Rhetoric may be
considered the finishing touches of Ian
M ha onholar "a. 80 he L..
understands the first rudiments of the language
This is as much out of place it would be to put
scholar into plain reading, before he knew all
his alphabet. But wish 10 treat at this time
rather upon the mode Of teaching them the
subjects taught. In Grammar the scholar is
permitted to go on, and call every oer6, a reg
uar verb, Indicative mood, present tense, third
person singular. All the exceptions to the
general rules, escape both the teacher and his
pupils. In this manner he goes on and when
his knowledge of Grammar is complete, as he
supposes, he knows little or nothing of Orthog.
raphy or Prosody. What he learns, he learns
and repeats it like parrot, and
not like reasonable being.
Take Geography. The scholar begins his
studies in the sun and ends in the West Indies,
so that after he has completed his studies on
this subject, he is unable to bound his own
tewn, tell the number of counties in his own
state, or the shire town of his own county. |
In his study of Geography, History, Rhetoric,
Philosophy, and Chemistry, the same wretched
habit prevails. They are taught by the ques- |
lions entirely The teacher, or some other |
person must mark short sentence, and some !
times single wUrd. Tho tho sohoior commits |
to memory, and can recite very readily u hen !
1T the same time he knows nothing of the sub |
Jet on which the work treats In history, |
scholars frequently answer question by sim. |
ply giving the name of an individual, when |
they have no knowledge at all who that indi-
vidual was, what was his character, to what
nation he belonged &c. &c. In fact, take
most of the scholars who study these high
branches, and question them on these sciences,
and unless your questions are precisely the |
same as those in the book, they can answer not |
one question in fifty. This is just Iepresen. |
tation of the case.
Now while this miserable mode of teaching !
prevails, our scholars will be mere mechanics. |
One great cause of this evil lies in the teachers.
Most of our teachers are too ignorant to teach
in any other manner. They are as much con-
lined to the book as the scholars are, and like
them are mere mechanics, acting not from
consideration, but following the class books in
school. Our teachers fail in nothing more
than in making every study mechanical Blu.
all teachers are not thus ignorant. Some of
them know that such mode Of study is nearly
useless, But they know at the same time, that
this is the most pleasing to the scholars and
to many of the parents for in this manner the
pupils will seem to advance much faster than
would be possible, if they studied understand !
ngly. Thus, to keep peace vita their schools,
and perhaps to crafty their own Incidence,
they go on IN this beaten track, and thus waste
their own time, and that Of their scholars.
Now while our schools are conducted in this !
manner, we cannot expect that our children
will be thorough scholars. With all the beast |
ed improvements of the age, our common
schools are permitted TO go on in one beaten
track, simply because the teachers cannot, or
will not teach their pupils in a proper manner.
am aware that in some of our larger towns,
these evils have been removed; but they exist
in an alarming degree in most of our small
towns. The first step towards reform is, to
employ teachers of different cast, teachers
knowledge of the first rodiments of
an education, and who will treat their pupils
like reasonable beings Let suitable teachers
be employed, and our schools would be worth
fifty per cent more than they are at present.
But we must defer our remarks upon this sub
ject till our next. a PLAIN MAN.