The Kenosha telegraph. [volume] (Kenosha, Wis.) 1860-1888, 1875-05-13
A FEW THOUGHTS ON EDUCATION
AL MATTERS.


methods of instruction in our district
schools. AS the standard OF education
has been raised, and more thorough super
vision secured, than was possible under
/ the old township system, teachers have
! become better qualified for their work.
and are securing better results.
The question and answer plan, which
some one well remarks. "must have been
invented for the development of stupid
/ it5," has well nigh disappeared. The
motto of the aspiring teacher OF to-day
: is. 'Teach ideas not words" The
topical method Of instruction is in very
general use, and has many y Oints OF
superiority over old methods, yetin this.
as in every other reform, there is danger
of going to extremes. And one Of the
worst results Of the system is tendency
; towards. what may be called an American
characteristic, -superfciality. We boast
Of cur free schools and the intelligence
of the common people, but can point to
but few examples of ripe scholarship.
Many teachers seem anxious to push
their pupils over 80 much ground as
possible, to give them smattering Of a
great many things instead of a thoroug b
knowledge of few. They seem to
forget that the most important
things is TO teach few thing
thoroughly, SO that the mind Is inabled
to grasp other truths. Often analyses
are written out so fully that the scholars
task is comparatively easy. A few
minutes of not 0erg close application is
sufficient to learn the lesson.
For the same reason, oral inst CT ion,
though valuable auxiliary, cannot be
wholly relied upon as a discipline tothe
mind. Such methods, unless judiciously
used, tend to store The mind with facts
rather than to draw out its lat ent pow
ers, which should ever be the primary
object in all education. The duty of the
teacher in this respect is two fold: first,
to give the child instruction in the
lelementry, branches; and second, to
give him the means Of helping himself
| In the future. In the first, most teach
ers succeed comparatively well; in the
second, too many make most fatal
mistakes.
| Nor do these mistakes arise SO much
from carelessness as from ignorance,
| ignorance Of the laws Of deyelop ment of
the human mind, The child's attention
| is first turned to the objects of sense, 20
all the varied objects of nature which he
sees obout him. Children are close
observers of nature, and are ever anxious
to know the why and wherefore of every
thing; but this natural inquisiti yeness,
instead Of being encouraged anJ
quSded is too often repressed. The;
reason for this'unnatural course is obvious.
Parents and teachers do not possess the
requisite information. They have not
been properly taught themselves and SO
cannoh teach others. Persons of good
intelligence often manifest the most
lamentable ignorance in regard to the
simplest natural phenomena.
And not only do these mistakes occur
occasionally and Indirectly, but they
also appear in cur regular course of
instruction. The child is put into the
schoolrocm to study arithmetic, geography
and grammar. He is required to cora
prehend abstruse theories and abstrsct
principles but is shut out from the vari-
ed and interesting objects of nature
around him.
! In the earlier years those studies
should be pursued which tend to discip-
| line, the powers Of observation and
memory instead of those which require
close reasoning and acquired habits of
thought. Objective and NATURAL studies
should largely occupy the attention.
Habits of careful and exact discrimina
ton should be cultivated, and the imagin-
ton carefully directed not repressed.
The memory too, at this age, is very
active and should receive due attention.
| Stories, poems, facts and dates should
be accurately learned and stored away
for future use. If in early youth the
faculties of perception rather than those.
of reflacfion were cultivated, fewer