The Somerset herald. [volume] (Somerset, Pa.) 1870-1936, 1882-07-05
METHODS OF INSTRUCTION.
BY A. c. H0LBERT.
CHAPTER XII.

CHAPTER XII.
Hints for Home Study is the SUBJ
ject to which propose devoting this
chapter.
Education is only valuable in so
| far as it has taught us how to live,
how to act, how to think, how to
study, and, l will add, how to work.
All this knowledge is the result of
drill. of practice. Were person to
appear in the world who could at
once perform any required opera
ton, of any branch of science, who
could perform any of the delicate
manipulations of the arts at once
and without the necessity of learn
ing how to perform them, such a
man could not be called an educat-
ed man; he would not be educated
in any proper sense of the term.
Education implies two things: "a
drawing out" and "a pouring in pro-
cess" Many teachers confine them
selves entirely to the latter; a much
less number confine themselves en-
tirely to the latter. Such teaching
always make me think of a Jug;
when it is full you may pour out, but
the fluid will run away and be lost.
When it is empty you may turn it
upside down, but you get nothing
more out of it.
The proper mode is combina-
ton of the two. He who has been
educated, in the true sense of the
term, will know how to assist him.
self in the various exigencies which
will and must arise during the jour.
ney of life. | have elsewhere re-
marked that no arithmetic can con-
tain all the various questions that
may arise. While this is true, any
one who has thoroughly studied this
branch will know how to attack any
possible question.
Just so it is all through life; the
educated person knows how to help
himself.
Of what practical benefit is it if
boy can solve all the problems in
his arithmetic and cannot tell his
father the interest on a promissory
note? Of what practical benefit is
it for a young lady to be able to jab-
Der French, and howl Italian songs,
if she cannot write a common note
without misspelling? Instances
might be enumerated; they are as
plenty as blackberries. but it is un-
necessary.
Education, when properly con-
Quoted, will modify our desires, and
enable us to control our passions.
Education says NovalIs. 'is a
completely fashioned will" The
definition is good oneto my mind.
A child will cry to have the reflec-
ton of the moon in the water in its
hands; it is no use to tell it that it
cannot get it; it will scream all the
louder. Let it find by experiment
that it actually cannot obtain it, ed
ucate it that far, fashion its will to
that degree, it viii cease screaming
and will never again cry for the
same object. You have given it Just
that amount of education.
| presume, however, tlat the !
teacher has been so far educated that |
he knows how to help himself. How
shall we manage our private read
ihg-our "home study" Many |
young men honestly think they have
no time to devote to home study.
They would very willingly, they |
say, study if they could Just see
how to put in the time, or, rather,
how to get the time. 1t is for the
benefit of this class of young men
that am writing this chapter. You
expect to do anything, |
mean anything that will be specially
profitable to you in the way of home
study, unless you make a systematic
division of your time, SO that you
may know how much time you have
to devote to study. Having discov-
cred when you can study and how
long, the next thing is for you to de-
eide what you shall study. Do not
aim to study too much, especially if
your time is limited. | can only il
lustrate my meaning, and my illus
trations are presented as such, and not
as you would, perhaps, take up
works to study. In arranging your
time you find that you have an hour
at your disposal, and you find that
you also have an hour in the early |
This gives you one
twelftih. of your time, and is perhaps \
more than some young men really /
have, Suppose you want to read
Shakespeare, study algebra and /
physiology. If you cut the hour up
among the three, you viii give them
but twenty minutes each, and there
are times in every one of these stud
les when twenty minutes will pass
ere you are aware. But YOU may
give an hour to algebra to-day, an
hour to Shakespeare tomorrow and
to physiology next day. /
Now what will this be in the
course of year? Suppose you put
in three hundred days, it will be one /
hundred hours to each, which 1
to ten days of ten hours !
each solid work, and this is as much /
as is put in in the study-actual
study-of any one branch III a five
school term Many young
man cannot find time for home
study because he doesn't want to
find it. Many a Young man COM /
plains that his father keeps him at
work early and late, and that he has
not minute for himself, when his /
father will give YOU another side to /