The Iola register. [volume] (Iola, Allen County, Kansas) 1875-1902, 1880-03-19
EDUCATIONAL COLUMN.
APoint Wen stated.

~ VOA1O314Se
Point Wen stated.
Mr.. Joshua Bates, who has been
teacher for nearly forty years, in an ar
ticle printed in the Boston Herald, states
very plainly the weak points in merely
oral instruction.
This cry for the disuse of textbooks is
unwise and will be found to be very IN
profitable in the outcome. Mr.. Bates
says: 81 very much doubt the practical
bility or wisdom of the change recently
introduced of 80 much oral instruction,
and the recommendation of so general .
disuse of textbooks.
Mental dicipline and Intellectual &C.
quirement must go together in education,
and these can be secured only by indi-
yidual effort and application to study.
Would you look for q well-developed,
strong and vigorous arm, you must 60 to
the laborer to find it; to one who has
strengthened his arm by muscular effort.
So it is with the mind. The pupil must
work for himself, and not expect to have
the work done by the teacher, and it is
just as important for children in our
common schools to learn principles and
rnles from textbooks, and to know how
to study, how to acquire knowledge, and
how to use that knowledge, as far as it
goes, inpelligently and we'll, as it is for
scholars in the higher grades of schools.
Among our prominent men in all de-
partment of study, who are the most dis
tinguished and successful in professional
life? Are they not very often men, who,
unaided and by hard mental effort, have
essentially educated themselves
Children must study principles Of text
books for themselves, and no amount Of
oral instruction can take its place. Ex-
PLANTATION in studies to certain degree
IL important and necessary.
Every we'll disposed and successful
teacher will 90 aid and direct all study,
"a mot To interfere with mental discipline
and attainment.
He will help his pupils enough to
stimulate their curiosity and industry,
and thus prevent them fror, being dis
couraged BY appalling difficulties, but
never giving them too much explanation
or superabundant aid, and thus leaving
them no notice or opportunity for re-
search and study on their part.
Oral instruction, as generally adopted
and practiced, implies examining and
not the unfolding Of thought. The pupi!
should have freedom Of mind to act and
search for himself. The highest acqui'
sition of knowledge is not so much OBJ.
tanned through oral instruction, IS it il
bv mind power, unwrought by early hab
cts of investigation to be developed in
after life. The scholar should act, think
and gain knowledge for himself, chiefly
by close application and not be too OTTER
aided by explanation.
\ Severe Intellectual training fixes tn
attention, strengthens the memory
quickens the perceptions, and guides tn
reflective powers, cultivates the taste ant
pives acuteness to the faculties of compar
ison and discrimination.
A wise teacher very often checks him
self in the very act of communicating
some important fact or principle iron
the apprehension that it will be tar bet
ter for his pupils to search it out and IN
yestigate for themselves.
at is no WISDOM" says DR.. Thoma
Arnold, the late famous teacher OF tn
Rugby school, England, ITO make boy
and girls prodigies of information an
men passive recipients of knowledge, bu
Il ia wisdom and duty to cultivate the
faces and discipline their minds"
The Socratic method of catechising an
questioning, skillfully and properly dom
is at times we'll and highly importan
but the continual pouring in Of inform'
ton, explaining away all difficulties ]
lessons, and the constant talking on IL
part of teachers, without thought
mental discipline on the part of the p
pils, are confusing, diluting and weake
ing 20 the mind
The tendency to day in our schools
to encourage, and even demand an 9
cessive amount of empty talk and lik
wise teachers of small attainments q
less scholarship are expected to eni,ght
their pupils on all subjects, and the o.
who is gifted most in loquac,ousness
commended and held up for imitatio
IF such teaching is encouraged. the
NAV be some general smattering.
knowledge in the community, but Il
mental force and consequently much
,.,fo;ol ;nstruction. Jour-