Weekly commercial herald. (Vicksburg, Miss.) 1884-18??, 1886-03-19

Art Of Teachlng--sgnopsls Of
cbapterI.
1st.-Doing presupposes knowledge
knowledge Of the means 70 the end
in view.
2nd.-Knowledge is Of two sorts,
empirical and scientific.
(a.) Empirical knowledge comes
from unrevised experience and obser-
YatiOn.
fb.1 Scientific knowledge is the out
come Of the revision and extension
of every day empirical knowledge; the
former, narrow and iDexact; the latter,
wide and accurate.
3rd.-That practice is an art which
demands special study and offers scope
for skill.
4th.-In the early stages of develop.
ment Of the various arts experience
was the teacher; for example, in agri-
culture and medicine. But later work.
ers in the arts asked for a deeper
knowledge than experience could give.
Chemistry and botany were drawn
upon to aid agriculture.
Anatomy and physiology, to aid
medicine.
5th.-This result naturally follows
from the imperfections Of empirical
knowledge. The more complex the
art, the more apparent these imperfec-
tions.
6th-ScientiGc knowledge not to
take the place of empirical knowledge,
but to supplement, interpret and cor
rect it.
7th-But scientific knowledge rem
ders a still great service by opening
the way to practical discoveries in ad-
vance of experience. In this case ex-
perience follows, supplementing, in
terpreting, and correcting science.
8th-The above points help Us to un-
derstand the value Of science in edu-
cation.
9th-Education, as an art, aims at
the realization of an end.
10th-The end Of education must
be clearly defined before we can re-
pair to science to ascertain what agen-
cies we can best employ in order to
compass it.
(G.) Writers differ greatly in their
definitions of education.
(6.) Difficulty in the complex ma
ture of a human being.
(c.) The difficulty will continue to
exist until we have determined the
highest good Of man. This belongs to
the department Of ethics, whose teach
ers are still divided.
(d.) Men are practically agreed as
to what is right and wrong, though
not agreed as to the thoretic basis of
these distinctions.
(e.) Educators practically agreed as
to the object they aim at.
0.) We agree to say that education
seeks. by social stimulus, guidance and
control, to develop the natural powers
of the child so as to render him able
and disposed to lead a healthy, happy
and morally worthy life; though think
ers differ in carrying out this general
idea.
a. According 10 this definition,
education aims at the promotion of
faculty rather than the giving of in
formation.
(h.) Education, however, attains its
end through instruction.
1Ith.-In the light of the above
definition, we see that empirical
knowledge will carry US but a little
way in realizing the object Of educa-
ton.
(a.) Human nature, the most COM
pick Of al. living things.
1st.-It is something material.
2d.-It is something mental.
3d.-The mental part is exceedingly
composite.
4th.-The physical and mental
powers are joined and interact upon
one another.
(6) Human nature, not only com
pick but exceedingly variable, as
shown in the individuality of each
child.
l2th.-As a matter of history, we
know that the older methods of edu.
eating the young were faulty.
(G) This was so because they were
not arrived at by the scientific study
of chiId-natures, al proved, for exam
pie, by their overlooking the fact in
human nature that the highest intel
lectual activity is possible only under
the stimulus of interest.
13th-MOdern educational reformers
have discovered this and other errors
and are trying to correct them.
l4th-What education wants is a
basis of facts and laws relating to the
child's physical and mental orgauiza-
tion.
l5th-These facts and laws must be
supplied by some science or sciences.
16th-These facts and laws which
may be called principles, are derived
in the main from two sciences
physiology and psychology.
(G) Physiology treats Of the bodily
organization, its several structures
and functions.
(b) Psychology deals with the
mind, its several faculties and their
mode of operation.
17th-The mind presents three de-
partments. 1st, the intellect; I'd, the
emotions; Sd, the will.
1Sth-The development of the mind