The Newberry herald and news. (Newberry, S.C.) 1884-1903, 1886-04-28
TEACHERS DEPARTMENT.
C.. W. WEIGH, \. NJ. EDITOR.
: isOGa: Worth itna:iiI:..

! loi IliIS q IC"NtlIS S.iNiS 4Oi It'N III
proYement aud entertainment Of
teachers. We desire, in this issue, to
call attention to Herbert Spencer S
great work on education. We know
! Of 10 recent book that every teacher
and every parent ought TO read more
carefully than this work. In many
parts Of Mr.. Spencer's philosophical
system we find many dangerous doc
trines; but, in this book, tue views
presented are correct and the defects
of the old system Of teaching very
forcibly shown. The book is neatly
printed By the Nessrs. Appleton at
$50 per copy, or it may be bought
in pamphlet form in Humboldt Ii
brary Series for Is cents. The price
is not q consideration. We advise
our teachers to buy this book at once,
and read it with the desire to Oe ben
Gifted. Below, an extract is given
which may, in some measure, serve
as sample Of the style, &c.
The particulars first, and then the
generalization. is the new method, os
the Battersea School Reports remark,
which, though the reverse Of the
method usually followed, which con-
sists in giving the pupil the rule
first is yet proved by experience to
be the right one. Rule-teaching is
now condemned rs imparting 4 mere.
| ly empirical knowledge-as pro-
ducing an appearance Of understand
ing without the reality. TO give the
net product of inquiry, without the
inquiry that leads to it, is found to
be both enervating aid inefficient.
General truths. to be Of due and
permanent use, must be earned.
Easy come easy 60" is saying as
applicable to knowledge as to wealth.
While rules, lying isolated in the
mind-not joined toi IS, other contents
as outcrowths from them-are con-
tinually forgotten, the principles
which those rules express piecemeal
become. when once reached by the
understanding. enduring possessions.
While the rule-taught youth is at sea
when beyond his rules, the youth in
structed in principles solves a new
case rs readily as an old one. Be-
tween q mind Of rules and mind Of
principles there exists q difference
such rs that between confused heap
Of materials and the same materials
organized into q complete whole,
with ali its parts bound together.
OF which types this last has not only
the advantage that its constituent
parts are better retained, but the
much greater advantage, that it forms
an efficient agent for inquiry, for in
dependent thought, for discovery
ends for which the first is useless.
Nor let it be supposed that this is a
simile only: it is the literal truth.
The union of facts into generallza-
tions is the organization of knowl-
edge, whether considered as an OBJ
jective phenomenon or q subjective
one; and the mental grasp may be
measured by the extent to which this
organization is carried.
From the substitution Of principles
for rules, and the necessarily co-ordi-
nate practice Of leaving distractions
untaught until the mind has been IA
miliarized with the facts from which
they are distracted. has resulted the
postponemeut Of some once early
studies to a late period. This is ex-
empliGed in the abandonment Of that
intensely stupid custom, the teach
ing Of grammar to children. AS NJ.
Marcel says: 1t may without hest
tation be affirmed that grammar is
not the steppingstone, but the finish
ing instrument As Mr.. Wyse
argues: Grammar and syntax are q
collection Of laws and rules. Rules
are gathered from practice; they are
the results Of induction to which we
come by long observation and COM
parison Of facts. It is. in fine, the
science, tie philosophy Of language.
In following the process Of nature,
neither individuals nor nations ever
arrive at the science first. A Ian
guage is spoken, and poetry written,
many years before either a grammar
or prosody is even thought of: Men
did not wait till Aristotle had con-
structed his logic, to reason. In
short, as grammar was made after
language; so ought it to be taught
after language; an inference which
ali who recognize the relationship
between the evolution Of the race
and Of the individual will see to be
unavoidable.
Ofnew practices that have grown up
during the decline Of these old