The Valley Virginian. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1865-1895, 1886-07-29
Course in Didactics at staunton Nor
NAL Institute.
By S. S. PARR.

courses have been delivered by lfols'
Smith and Painter.
This conrse III lectures is a general
answer 10 the question What must the
teacher he. know and Il" il. order to sue
seed ?
i. Wl.at nust the teacher ie?
Personal sitliess il presmposed. thus
condition incl',Aes 3 ln'n''rf "i elements.
chief ;t.,t,ig Uliiei,-,r.' o',e'i III 'til"t"S "t
inteIeeiias, a}.ii.ty ~ viii s'ial'r The i'i'f-
pective teacher 10 master thr $i'hjtc ~
which he is to give instruction ready
sympathies power to put oneself i'll the
learners place and see the SUBJECT us lie
must see it and last, tut not least. good
character.
1.-THE foregoing was the substance OF the
first lecture. THE next two related to the
kind and amount of knowledge the teacher
must have of the subjects he teaches
2. What must the teacher know In ORDER
to succeed
He must know the subjects be is to
teach must know the workings and devel-
opment of the child mind and Of his own
AID must know how to use the subjects OF
il struetion to develop the chiid's mind,
that is. how TO ADJUST the subjects OF in
struction to the learnil & mind.
What is it 10 know a subject?
There are various views about the an
swer to this question. Some bold that II
means merely verbal knowledge of one
Textbook. No reputable authority Oh
scholarship hollis any such view We VIII
Illustrate this verbal aad snperiicial knowl,
edge bv considering q couple of definitions
that are fairly rep: eseni:tilv" OF IT. A
aaoal. is the name of an object A zero as Il
aco,d alsich expresses action, oeing or state
The wore. mona is derived from The
Latin word ',ieluen'' which means the
| same rs the English word name. =
"Nnun'' is, therefore II synonym OF
| .'nam,'' and may br substituted t'r il.
| Hence we may substitute name fo'
| moan in IN. stat t.nc: t. and "" havrth. 1t
exceedingly intelligent piece of ininiina
ton: A aiant is II name. Furthermore Il
is not the ellie, of Il verbto express action.
being or state, hHt TO express the act OF
| thinking The predicate OF the subject
[-ee Day & Whitney. for authority
Others hol! that Il family good knowledge
of some textbook is scholarship. But this
| kind Of scholarship will rot do for the
| teacher A type of this ecies OF scholar,
| ship is found in the cnrrent definition OF
| MULTIPLICATION Multiplication is thepro-
| cess of taking one number as many times
as there are units IN another" This is not
correct. because the definition is used
without limitation. and il does hot apply
to either multiplication Of fractions, or
algebraic null iplcation.
The teacher must know the subject in
dependent of this or than text book. He
must have both a Logical and q chronology
| ical knowledge of it. A logical knowledge
| is such an one as perceives the central
principle and then the others grouped in
order around this step by step outward to
the boundaries of the subject. n chrome
Illogical knowledge is such an one as can
adjust the subject, step by step. grading
the difficulties by taking them i'll the order
of their progression. to the child IS budding
MUD.
The teacher must know the child's
mind This knowledge can be gained from
several sonsres /. \ study OF his own
mental powers and their action 2. A
study of books 5. The instruction of
teachers l. A study of c!ii'dren's minds.
4 ~. bn IN
know. feel aud will. Knowing is of sew
eral kinds Sense-perception or ohservaz
tiun memory. or the production of ideas
once before the mind imagination, or the
power Of changing or creating the ideas of
sense, perception or of consciousness
understanding. or the power ofsystematiz-
ing knowledge and finally, reasoning, or
the power of explaining facts and prihci-
pies In the development of the growing
mind, sense-perception is active from
birth to IA years of age. The other facul-
ties act, but during this st me sense -percep-
ton is the predominating activity. In
these years the child explores the material
world, learns his mother-tongue and lays
the foundation of all subsequent knoWl-
edge From IA to is years OF age imagip-
alton is the most active faculty. In this
time the young person delights in stories,
especially stories Of adventure, and in all
Imaginative literature. From IS years
onward understanding and reason are ac-
tive, and then and not until then. the per-
son should learn formal science and those
subjects that require reason. All subjects
should be adapted to this development OF
the mind. Thug arithmetic should have
an observation phase when the pupil be-
gins to learn it; later, it should appeal to
his imagination and 6nallE assume the
scientific or reasoning stage.