The Cass County Republican. [volume] (Dowagiac, Mich.) 18??-1880, 1862-02-15

iounudtiol tHaI on III humanity may
in the future build a superstructure in
which it will save all that is great and
good in our Country. 81 s
He then took up the subject promised
in the early part of the day. Said be
had no desire to charm with brilliant
generalities, but would say something
to help make our School System better
Ito enable us to go beyond old meth
ods to something more excellent. In
doing this he thought he might per-
haps say something's that some would
not believe. His advice to such was
"Prove all things, hold fast that which
is good.n = T9laes - 2.ts.. .sf'a.f
Education consists in calling out and
putting into exercise the minds native
powers, hence whatever does this edu-
Gates us, and, we are educuted Just in
the direction that these agencies incite
our powers to action. We are educa-
ted, in this view, by brooks, rivers and
mountains, by storms, sunshine and
tears. We are educated by everything
by which we are surrounded. (How
do some Of our School Houses educate
our children ?-Sec) He did not think
that the first schools were devised to
educate men, but to teach them things,
to fit them to become dextrous instru-
ments. We are now coming to ripper
experience-to a period when our
schools are seen to WELD the destiny of
the world. If the world goes up, then,
our schools must lead the way.
Taking education in is broadest sense
it does not begin in the school but in
the nursery. Hence, the necessity Of
here enunciating the first fundamental
law of education; it is this-Tbe intel
lectual faculties have their seasons of
growth. They do not all grow at once
because they do not all exist at once.
This thought, he illustrated by refer
ence to the growth of the different
parts of the body-hair, teeth, beard,
&c. In this view it is foolish to give
children some studies that they often
are given in their early childhood be-
cause they have not then the faculties
by which to learn those studies. This
principle we have not therefore, recog
nize. What shall we do first then !?
Investigate. Investigation teaches us
that the senses are all awake from the
6rst-bence the first age of growth is
the growth of the senses, and the first
teaching the child should receive should
be directed principally to the awaken
ing of these primary mental powers.
Teach nothing at this time that is alb
struct or difficult. This is the age of
experience, the age of cleaning facts.
How very wide from the truth, in the
light of this rule, has been our practice
heretofore. We have taught children
letters, first,-things unlike any thing
else in the world, and for which the
child has no love and in which he takes
no ointerest,-then words, Representatives
of things of which it has not the first
glimmering of a conception,-in fine a
printed language before spoken Ian
guage, which it must be acknowledged
is beginning at the end. When this
country was settled, this old theory
was the one universally adopted, but
since that time there has grown up a
different system, from Which the cele-
brated German Schools have sprung.
In these schools, children attend six
mouths before having a book at all.
What do they do during that time
you may ask. The reply is, they learn
about things by their senses and Ian
guage by talking. They learn things
first, then about things, then their
names, afterward the printed or written
word which represents them. The
studies which they pursue are Geome-
try, Arithmetic, Zoology, Botany, dc.
Not however, in their philosophy, but
lin their facts. We need not fear long
names, for but few words in these
studies are longer than grandmother
and grandfather, and these words
nearly all children learn at a very early
age. During this period, the child
learns to count, to weigh, forms, sizes,
north, south, east, west, and quite ex.
'Etensive spoken language preparatory to
a written one.
(Query.-How well informed ought
a primqry teacher to be ?-Sec) This
lis no fancy scotch. There are at least
La dozen schools in this State now at
/. work on this plan and with the best
success. In the next period of the
minds growth, the child begins to
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