The native Virginian. [volume] (Orange Court House, Va.) 1867-187?, 1869-03-05
I'm THE SCHOOL ROOM.
Chapters in the Philosophy Of Education, BY
q John S. Hart, L. L. d Principal of Ne1
jersey State Normal School.

Chapters in the Philosophy Of Education, BY
| q John s. Hart, L. L. d, Principal of Ne.c
Jersey State Normal School.
DR.. Hart brings to his work large
and varied experience, having labored
in every other variety OF school before
enterir & OH his present duties, and hav-
youths, of both sexes. The useful
thoughts suggested during his long ca
reer are here recorded in short detached
chapters, each complete i'll itself.
He shows what teaching is; how i'm
perfect some of those figures are SO Of
ten used to illustrate it; how "chiseling
the marble" and "sealing the wax" fail
| to complete their office ofillustration, in
that the wax aud the marble are pas
| sive recipients, while the mind to be
taught is itself living power, whose
own activities must needs be stirred
He shows how the fuel may even put
out the fire. lie sums up the teachers
application of this principle in the die
tum, "needing little qualification or
abatement; that scholar has learned
nothing from US but aehat he has expressed to
as again in cords"
He exhorts not only to teaching but to
training, showing how a pupil may be
taught the Importance of punctuality,
but must be trained to the habit OF it.
We find discussion of two methods
OF recitation, the concert and the
s.individasl'' method. In the former
the pupils, usually very young ones, all
answer AT once. 1t gives relief aud
encouragement to the timid, and is very
attractive to most children, while rules,
definitions and other words to be conf
mitted to memory, can scarcely be SO
we'll taught in any other way to large
numbers. AS many as fifty or even u
hundred are sometimes SO taught. The
very body of the sound impresses the
ear strongly, and SO the memory, and
through the active sympathies of the
very young, their emotional nature can
be strongly Influenced. Witness the
closing exercises, common in most Sun
day Schools. Perhaps the greatest adj
vantage OF the method is the relief it af-
fords to the constraint of the school,
room, so irksome and often SO I'M urious
to children. That it has disadvantages
always, aud That it can be used at all,
only for particular classes, is obvious.
The authors appreciation of the CON-
parative merits of this and of the oppo-
site method, the '.individual," is shown
in the following, 1.-The teacher who is
wise will aim so to conduct recitation
that, first, his whole time shall be given
to every scholar; and secondly, each
scholars mind shall be exercised with
every part of the lesson, and just as
much when others are reciting, as when
it is his own time to recite."
This is the very climax of good teach
ing, exceedingly difficult but not unat-
tainable. An effort should be made to
lay before our teachers in Virginia some
of the ingenious devices for this end
which have been worked out by the
teachers in the common schools of Eu-
rope and our Northern States-methods
they have long ago been obliged to de-
wise and adopt because this peculiar
work compelled them to teach large
classes.
) DR.. Hart further gives elaborate dis
c1ssions of the proper "order of devel-
opment" giving very decided views
against the new school idea, that reason
cannot be too soon, or COO far develop
tics" err when they insist that the
young learner shall give each step OF
the process by which he gets his an
swer and prefers at the first, intuitive
processes" He shows the need of Nor
NAL Schools (regretting that no more
appropriate name has fallen to them)
likens some l2borious teachers to the iS.
nsrant novice in farming who should
bury his peck of corn in a pit and hope
for acrop-reminds us that even knit
ter goes first to be taught by one who
has knitted and does not invent stitct
tor herself. For the remainder of his
valuable suggestions, We commend the
volume to all teachers, or persons in
terested in Education.
The book \ neatly printed and durs-
bly, bound. Eldridge and Brother Of
Philadelphia are the publishers.