Vermont telegraph. [volume] (Brandon [Vt.]) 1828-1843, 1836-11-02
THE TELEGRAPH.
BRANDON. WEDNESDAY, NOV. 2, 1880.

BRANDON. "WEDNESDAY, NOV. 2, 1880. |
There are several articles on the out side !
of our present sheet which it was designed
TO accompany with remarks, but there was
not found time to do it in season; so they
will have to 60 with passing notice. To
take some Of them in order then, we will
first invite the attention Of school teachers,
Gas our winter schools are about commenc-
ing,) to the articles being copied from the
Common School Assistant, on the STUDY
OF ARITHMETIC" This most important
branch Of common school learning is taught,
in general, with too much careessness-or
rather, is scarcely taught at all. A large
proportion of the time that is devoted to this
study is wasted on vague, useless theory,
without any practical application. Two OBJ
study Of arithmetic: l. discipline Of mind
3. qualification for business. The present
system-if system it may be called-of
common school teaching, does very little tow
ards accompli shing either of these objects.
The first thing to be done is to learn the pu-
pill to dhiak-to think for himself This
is done with the greatest facility, not by
leaving the learner to do all himself, nor
yet by doing every thing for him. He must
be taught 10 learn himself To do this re-
quires great care, skill and patience. The
learner should neither be led nor crowded
a step beyond, or faster than he understands
what he is doing. Here is radical defect
in elementary teaching IN general. The
scholar is led or driven along without un-
derstanding the ground gone over. The
fault commonly begins with teaching the
child the first rudiments of reading. He is
too much made to content himself with az
! fixing names to unmeaning characters. He
is kept to the photography Of syllabIes and
words which convey no idea to his under
standing. Thus he is made TO stumble at
the threshold, by being made TO imbibe the
notion that the requirement Of science and
knowledge is for minds superior to his-the
privilege Of favored few. The first sylla
bic that the child is taught to form after
learning the alphabet--or enough Of it &c
form a syllable-should be a syllable, and
formed under circumstances, that will con
vey an idea to his mind and he should new
er afterwards be allowed to form or use {
word or syllable without meaning. The
child that has been taught only enough let
ters-which may have been accomplished
in a few hours-to form the words, cat
. dog and rat, and has been taught to u.s.
them in spelling the names of these ami
mails, is ahead, in the road to knowledge, O
the one who has been drilled, in the oil
spelling-book style, through all the tables c
underlined syllables and words between tn
= alphabet and the reading lessons, so calico
1 ! which in Webster's old book began Wit
"No nan put off" &c. 1t is precisely S
!, in the study of arithmetic. He who ha
learned in a few hours to tell how niue
four dozens of eggs will cost, at twelve an
a halfceuts dozen, may be farther advan'
ed in the art of reckoning than another WI
4 has been plodding for weeks, PerhaT
L months, without being taught to make an
q practical application.
More, perhaps, on the subject OF comma
'e school teaching, hereafter.
II STATING CHILDREN IN THE WoRLD."-
:. The short article under this head should
- carefully read by all parents and guardian
a Every word of the article is worthy Of ben
e. committed TO memory.
Is "a BFsErrINe SrN." Il is the fault OF
o. great many who have the care and educ
- ton of children, that they too frequently al
~ too severely fault, and sometimes pu
= ish children for what was purely accidebt
We The child that has been careless, after
NJ has first been properly shown that he r
n. careless, should be admonished or rep
er manded, with severity proportioned to
et desert, but he never should be punished 1
IT, what was purely accidental, or wholly VI
- =, voidable. To punish him for, an accide
81 strongly tempts him to conceal or deny t
4. nsxt accident. Indeed, if he is in the fau
ad let him al least expect to be treated as
he tional being, Otherwise ;you lay before b