Democratic Northwest and Henry County news. [volume] (Napoleon, O. [Ohio]) 1894-1905, 1894-04-12
THE NEW EDUCATION.

The following is the essence of an
address on "The New Education, /"
delivered by Prof. F. j. Beck of Ma
poleon, before the Teachers Insti-
tute held at Deshler, Saturday, APP
ril 7th:
The distinctive features of the so
called New Education" are the fol-
lowing: Due observance of the gener-
al and special laws of mind and the
general and special laws of teaching,
reinforced by and through the law
of effort, law of means and law of
method.
Generallaws ofmind: (a) The mind
at all periods of development grasps
knowledge in the form of wholes
or aggregrates and masses. (b) In
studying and arranging the knowl-
edge received, themind proceeds from
wholes to parts, to elements, thus at
tanning complete knowledge by means
of analysis. Afterwards the mind
proceeds to put these parts and ele-
ments together into new wholes, in
this way Increasing its knowledge and
making it productive. This is syn
thesis. (c) The mind retains and re-
produces what it has learned by nat
ural principles or laws of association.
| Cd The mind can receive but limi-
ted amount of knowledge at time,
and in order to secure the most ener-
kgetic and productive activity, the
mind must have some variety in sub
jects of study and periods Of rest.
The above principle or law is the bas-
is of our school system.
Special laws of mind: (a) In early
| learning the child must begin with
the concrete and go to the abstract,
from the known to the unknown.
from the particular to the general, by
means of Induction The order is, 1st,
objects; 2nd, ideas; 3rd, words, and
4th, action. (b) Later, the learner
begins with words, in many cases, as
the signs of things, causing in the
mind the production of pictures, i'm
ages or ideas of whatever the words
signify. This state of mind is follow
ed by, 1st, proper expression; End, de-
scription; 3rd, Judgment, and 4th,
reason. Co In many cases the learn
: er proceeds deductively in later peri
DDS. (d) Facts, events, processes, ex
amples and SO on, before causes, reat
son, rules, definitions and principles
and language before the laws oi
language, that is, before grammar
, The general and special laws of teach
ing should harmonize with the gener
al and special laws of mind We
| II in, l,o Inr
maxium of Comenius, "Let things
/ that have to be done be learned by
doing them.n
The following, by way of contrast
will serve to point out the main feat
ures of the old and new education:
(a) Book work before oral work
) The meaningless book is given tn
unframed to study. This is the olc
education. Unmeaning words, un
meaning rules and unmeaning prin
ciples clog memory. Sense-percep
: tion is not exercised and therefore no
developed. Is this vicious-does i
educate2 (b) Words before ideas
The pupil gains ideas from thing
which he clothes in words This
law. Visit school kept by q well
' meaning teacher. You observe what
No effort is made to lead the pupil t
understand; memory is filed wit
}, words, but the pupil does not knov
their meaning. The tables are men
orized but not learned. Words will
). out ideas mark every exercise. Thi
is the Chinese method, and this is th
|. old education. Co Concepts befor
> precepts. Precepts are the stuff ou
of which concepts are made. Th
pupil perceives this cape, this ba
s. and this island. He perceives lik'
ness and discerns class notion. Th
T. particular notion, this island, is a pr,
cept, but the general notion, islanC
= is a concept Here we obey law; tn
is the new education. With sue
+ teaching ense-perception grows. Br
n visit theHantiquated school, and yo
~ find the teacher trying to make pl