The Jersey City news. (Jersey City [N.J.]) 1889-1906, 1895-01-26
Teaching 4 FINE Art
DR.. Rice Tells Jersey City's
Fair Pedagogues What
Scientific Instruction Is
and How to Mas
ter 1t.

A lecture was given in the assembly
room of the Jersey City High School
yesterday afternoon by DR.. Rice upon
How to Acquire the Art of Teaching"
Before the lecture was delivered Mr..
Walter McGrandle played a violin solo,
and Miss Eleanor Buchanan SAM 1.-TWO
Little Friendless Children"
DIR. Rice sought to show first thai teach
ers should learn how to teach and then
the way they should learn. His lecture
was very good. while he confined HIM
self to his notes. but when he launched
into incidents he succeeded in completely
mixing both himself and his auditors.
DR.. Rice said:-"Many people have used
the old saying, "A teacher is born and
not made and construed it to mean "A
teacher is born and cannot be made
While I believe that some people natur-
ally have a gift for teaching which
others have not. that study Is necessary
to a teacher and that training is to a
teacher what a gardener is to a flower"
SOME TEACHERS FAULTS.
DR.. Rice then spoke or the faults of
some eachers He said some people
thought If they could only make their
lessons interesting that was all that was
necessary, but that was a bad argument,
for If the children get interested merely
in their teacher, they are Up to for
get the interest of the subject. Instruc-
ton should be first IN the eyes of a
teacher, and then interest, though the
ideal teacher is one who combines real
instruction and interest. SO that the in
terest arises from the subject, and not the
teacher.
DR.. Rice classed teachers in four
grades. The first, or lowest, is the teach
er who is neither instructive nor interest
ing; the second, the teacher who is
sufficiently interesting but has no thor
oughness. of instruction.; third, the teach
er who is thorough i'll instruction but
not interesting, and fourth, and highest,
the teacher VINO is equally instructive
and interesting.
EVERY LESSON TO BE STUDIED.
DR.. Rice said further that every les
son should be studied by the teacher be-
fore giving it to the class, n a teacher
should try to distinguish between the
more and less important facts. He COM
pared the school of Germany and Ameri-
ca. and a.d that in Germany they had
the scientific, in America the sympathetic
teaching, and where those were com
bined would be the ideal school. In
America too much time is devoted to re-
view, in Germany there is no review of
HE AllGIiCdll pc II Ge1 d CHAP
ter is never left until its contents are
thoroughly mastered, but, once mastered,
1t is not reviewed. Germans review by
comparison. For instance, In studying
the Mississippi River, after all its points
nave been learned, it IS left, but when
the Hudson River is reached, comparison
Is made between the two rivers, and in
that way the first is not forgotten.
Never ask a question to which the
answer is either yes or no. con-
tinrea DR.. Rec, for if the first child
does not know it the second will. Seek
rather to draw out a child to give his
own reasons for things n his own
IDEAS on subjects"
The lecturer seemed to favor teaching
lesson first, and then let the child study
the book.
An opportunity was given after the
lecture for all the teachers to ask ques-
tons on points which troubled them,
and many ava.led themselves of the
privilege.