Nebraska advertiser. [volume] (Brownville, Nemaha County, N.T. [Neb.]) 1856-1882, 1870-03-17
OUR NORMAL CLASS.
Object Teaching.

This is an important branch OF
teaching, muchneglected by the teach
ers of our common schools. KnOwl-
edge is first acquired by perception,
and these peFceptive' facilities may be
developed by cultivation. This will
be of great advantage to young stu
dents, causing them to notice every
thing around them. Children like to
ask questions about almost everything
they see, and if this thirst for knowl-
edge be properly cultivated by the
teacher, much information will be
early obtained by them which will be
of practical benefit to them as they
grow older. Every teacher should
understand object teaching; It's often
great help in explaining the princi'
Piles of arithmetic, astronomy, &c,
Philosophy is not often studied by pu-
pills under twelve or thirteen years OF
age, yet how much a child of five Ol
six may understand of its principles
10y the use of object lessons explaining
attractions, pOrosity, elasticity, or
chromatics. Though the properties
of matter may not be perfectly under
stood, yet the foundation is laid for 9
more thorough knowledge of them; a
widerfield Of thoughtopened for them
An object lesson may be given on al
most any object, however small it may
be-a piece of fine sewing thread, or
even a broOmstraw, if theteacher un-
derstands it fully in all its parts; he
should never undertake to give a lesson
on anything he does not fully under,
stand; he should always try to have
someparticular thing selected which
he wishes to teach, and select a suitable
object, thus If he. wanted to teach
elasticity, piece of rubber or whale
bone would be a good object. Many
teachers do not realize the importance
Ofobject teaching, and too many do moi
know how to begin, never having tried
it. To those, perhaps, a few sugges.
tiOns might be of some assistance
Try to get the children aroused and
thoroughly interested, ask them ques.
tioIs concerning the object, encour.
aging them to ask questions too. The
teacher should not do all the talking
as this would lead them to receive i'm
pressions and ideas without any eff
fort on their part, yet he should dc
the greater part of it, to keep them
interested and entertained. A word
is the siege of an idea. The children
should be encouraged to express every
idea obtained in their own words, and
where they fail to, or do not use the
proper words, the teacher may tell
them, but they ought first to see the
need of a name, then learn what it is
If the teacher wishes to explain NAL
Liability, that property of matter
should he.fully explained, and their
curiosity excited as to what the name
might be, then it should be written
upon the board, or spelled by the
children, its meaning explained, &c;
thus it would be so impressed upon
their minds that they would not have
to remember it merely by force OF
memory. It would be well to fevie3,
those lessons given during the week.
on Fridays to see how muchrof Them
the children could remember, perhaps
adding new thought to each subject
Perhaps a synopsis of lesson would
Illustrate more fully the manner o.
giving an object lesson. The obieei
selected is honey. Idea to be devel
OPed, taste and qualities 1t is sweet
fluid, thick, liquid, yellow, sticky
it is vegetable substance, natural
nOurishing, healing, Opaque, &c, &c
The time occupied in giving an object
lesson should be about ten minutes,
though five is long enough for very
good one, and the teacher can spend
that length of time almost any day
We are confident he will End Obieci
teaching great help in keeping the
pupils interested, -----'----.
l1f0# GOI3 EMMA BROOKE I
NOTE.-The Editor suggests-not
that he has complaint of any one
the Importance and propriety Of those
writing for this Department of oul
i paper. being particular in punctuation
If left to the compOsitOr, or proof
reader, they may not puBetuate JUS
| nc fhl, author. m " dn-ir., In