Mineral Point tribune. [volume] (Mineral Point, Wis.) 1854-1858, 1858-11-23
CoNINTUN
Objective Education.
an Essay Read Bqore the Teachers Assoeiotio,
S Y L. II. WARREN.

Go into any school and point out TO the
pupils some of the most common and well
known objects in nature and art, for ex-
ample table, corn plant, cow, and
proceed, by asking questions, to ascertain
how much the pupils can tell you about
them.
If you ask the general question, "Wha.
IS table {" perhaps a few of the older
pupils may say as Issach as lis piece
of furniture made Of some kind of wood
standing on four legs, and used to eat
from, to write upon ETC." Suppose you
slft out their whole knowledge of the OBJ
ject, by asking a series of question rela-
tive to every detail of structure, form,
size, weight, color, comparison of kinds,
uses, and everything gong to make up It's
complete history. Very few of the pu-
pills will be able to answer correctly even
small proportion of these questions
How often we see children who have read
through half dozen books Of a series of
school readers. containing large amount
of information upon all subjects, common
and uncommon, who cannot tell whether
or not cow has upper front teeth, or
whether she have entire or divided hoofs
whether the silk of corn plant grows
from the husk, from the cob, or from the
grain, or whether the leaf veins are par
allel or rcticulated = whether the legs of
a table are fastened to the top directly or
through the intervention of frame, with
nails, screws, or glue, whether they are
IN shape square, rrismatic, pyramidIcal,
conicaI or cylindrical. Children who
have gone THROUGH Geography - to use
their own expression yet cannot des-
cribe the source, flow, and discharge. Of
the nearest spring branch. 1t is not that
the facts are obscure, but that the child
has never been taught to OBSERVE. The
WORDS Of books may have become quite
familiar and easily pronounced, but the
LANGUAGE Of the book has not been
learned simply because no language can
be learned till the THINGS, acts and rea-
tions, it represents, are learned. The
word " table" conveys no idea to the child
who has never seen q table. The SEN
tence, the Amazon has It's source ia the
Andes, and, traversing Brazil, empties
itself into the sea-" leaves no impression
upon the memory, because it is not un-
derstcod by the boy who hever had point
ed out to him its application, by a mere
change of names, TO the stream in his
own town.
The child, then, wants, first of all, to
learn THINGS. l propose to give some
details suggesting, rather than describing,
plan of Education for primary schools,
in which no books at all are used but in
which objects are studied directly through
the medium of the senses.
Here follows detailed description Of the
method of dra,oing ont from the pupil knowl-
edge Of all the qualities characteristics and his
,
taken as an illustration This would be inter
esting to teachers but We omit it for want of
room.
Many days. perhaps months, may be
required TO gi7e the child complete
knowledge Of one common object. con-
ceive it far more desirable to spend three
months in learning the natural history of
a table in this thorough manner and with
the concurrent training which | shall
presently describe, than to spend the same
time in poring over WORDS without the
training which will make them understood
In pursuing still further the study of
table, let the teacher, on pleasant day,
take his school or class into the woods 10
find the tree from whose wood a black
walnut table, for example, is manufac-
tured. When the tree is found, he NAV
proceed 10 ask questions, calling attention
20 the form. size and color, Of the trunk,
the surface, marking and texture, of the
bark, and tearing that off. of the under
lylng WOOD, the arrangement, direction,
size, ramifcation, etc, Of the branches,
the form, s2rface and venation of the
leaf. and all the numerous characteristics,
in their season, Of the bud, flower and
fruit. These observations must be made
at several different times, as the tree
changes in lis foliage and It's organs Of
fructication.
Let the pupils see tree felled. Some
Of them may, perhaps, be able to tell why
the tree falls in a certain direction. Let
them count the rings formed by the anpu-
al suspension of growth, but let their Gu
riosity 10 know the cause Of these rings
be kept In suspense till the opportunity is
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