The Union and journal. [volume] (Biddeford, Me.) 1858-1882, 1870-04-08
Method. of Teaching.
"A correspondent Of tho Portland Press
presents some valuable hints In regard TO


"A correspondent Of tho Portland Press
presents some valuable hints In regard TO
methods Of teaching. rs follows:
At certain high school in York county.
where teachers institute has alresdybecn
held. history is said to be taught by oblig--
ing the learner to commit to memory and
repeat verbatim to the teacher, who holds
in her hand the textbook, page after page
Of the language of the book. The author
Of the very work such class Is studying
could not take the place of one Of these
pupils and recitc to that teachers salts
faction. He would be 'demerited" and
perhaps punished for his plumbers. should
he appear in the disguise of childhood.
Such is the artificial, the laborious. tho
painful process of learning, rs imposed by
stupid teachers, which, If teachers insti-
tutes do not put final stop to. they should
themselves receive their everlasting quiet
us from the first Legislature that meets
after such default. The people should
never tolerate any machinery which adds
to the holidays and to the wages of teach
ers merely. 1t must add to their efficiency
or GO to the wall.
Teachers must be made to take manfnlly
the laboring oar, and not shirk and throw
the labor all on the learner. Especially
they must he forbidden to ''educate" him
SO there shall be nothing left of him when
he gets through their hands except skin,
bones, dyspoptic stomach, and tubercu-
lous lungs. In our cities common schools
are maintained nearly or quite throughout
the year, and teachers employ every de-
wise their ingenuity can invent to make
the children constant in their attendance.
In every kind Of weather, sick or well, the
more ambitious and best scholars, obedient
to authority. press on to school. day after
day and year after year, ignoring head.
ache. hcartache. WEAKNESS, and parental
admonitions even, till typhoid fever or
consumption too often claims the victim.
The bad boys and the obtuse in intellect
are in little danger perhaps. But our pub
lie schools which ought especially to be-
institutions 10 inculcatc the laws Of health.
are in fact becoming institutions to break
them, and bring upon the rising genera
ton tho consequences OF their violation.
The only remedy for these things seems
To be, first .to make teachers better in
formed in Hygiene, and second, that they
adopt more natural mode Of instruc-
ton"
The high pressure system must be aban-
doned. and'the desire for infant prodigies
abated. The teachers must do more them
selves and trust less to books and forever
abandon making children commit to MEN,
DRY long strings Of words and sentences.
Every teacher should be held unqualified
for his place unless he could take class
and without the aid of any book teach sue
ccssfnlly English Grmmer. Toillustratc
this point reference may bemadc to short
lecture given by DIR. True ut one of the
teachers Institutes before u promiscuous
audience ON natural history. Not one in
twenty perhaps of the audience had given
any attention to tho subject before, but
every one was Interested and instructed
and no one thought of being tired, and mt
the close II was the unanimous request OF
his,audience that he should resume the
subject the next night.
Now in that short time much was taught
and much learned, and should add 1t was
by tho aid of pointed illustration. Now
If any one in that large meeting had been
required to take u book and commit tn
memory n lot of unintelligiblo words and
their explanation he would have been dis
gustcd. Such is the difference between
the natural way and the artificial way Of
teaching.