The Hawaiian gazette., 1896-08-21
Or. DressIar's Interesting Talk
on Child Study.
INTEREST Is SOMETIME In PRIZES
illustrates His Lessons-opportunlt
for Studying Geography in Homo
lulu-Five Divisions of the SubjecU
Should be Taught-Prof. Scott Talks.


evening an organ recital is to be given
the teachers at Kaumakapili by Wray
Taylor. Beginning today DR.. Dress
lars class in pedagogy will be at 8 a.
m. and his class in methodology at
9:45. His subject in the former today
will be child study" and tomorrow
the educational value of IDEALS The
classes that came at will be at l D. m.
and those that came at 9:45 will be at
100 p. m.
In pedagogy yesterday afternoon Dr.
Dresslar said: The experiments we
had yesterday illustrate mot prove)
several principles. LIST, Fatigue is
deadly to attention. End, We must re-
move counter-irritants Bird, Interest
must be spontaneous. 4th, Attention
is rhythmic, that is severe and relaxed
alternately.
One of the great subjects of today is
interest. Every one of you knows that
the child must be interested in order
to learn. If a boy gets an arithmetic
lesson because the teacher requires it.
his interest is not in the arithmetic, it
is obedience. If a prize is given, his
interest will probably be in the prize
What things are we interested in?
Who is interested in hats? Who knows
about hats? The more you know of
carpentry and architecture, the more
interest you will have in buildings.
The more you know of teaching, of
principles, methods, theories, the more
you will be interested. The more the
boy understands the world, the more
he is interested in geography. If your
lesson fits the child's mind and needs
it, it will be interesting to him. There
fore study the child
In methodology, after some discus
sion chiefly by Messrs. Townsend, Scott
and Abbott, the statement of the pur-
pose of geography given yesterday by
DR.. Dresslar was substantially accept
ed. This was: THE chief purpose of
geography is to help the child to under
stand the world as his home" DR..
Dresslar said, Il don't ask you to accept
this. Think it out for yourselves. But
above all have a purpose and make
everything subservient to it. You have
the finest opportunity in the world to
teach geography. You have the sea,
the mountain, the plain, the valley in
view all the time There are five divi-
sions of the subject which should be
taught:
list. Surface features. (a) Mountains,
form size, etc. Lead don't ask the
pupil to ask how, why, ETC., and then
lead him to answer his own question.
Obi River valleys (cl Soil
end. Products. (a) Food, vegetable
ana animal Have the child tell what
foods are used. CD Building material,
where from, etc. (c) Clothing and
manufactured articles.
''3rd. Climate. This should be stud
led all the time, with thermometer and
barometer, noting the prevailing winds
and rainfall. Let the questions arise
in the pupils minds as to causes, etc.
"4th. Local commerce Why raise
rice? To eat. Is it all eaten by the
man who raises it? What becomes of
the rest? What do you eat? Where
do you get salmon? Flour? In this
connection pupils should learn that
work is honorable and that every man
ought to work. Why does the govern
ment build roads? So that this side of
the island may help that
9Th. Government. Let the pupil see
the workings of the local government.
What does this officer do? etc.
NJ. NJ. Scott, speaking of the value of
the study of the history of education,
said IF deeply read in past theories
we can understand far better the ideas
and methods of today.
I'VE shall speak today of a great
Frenchman and a great Englishman,
Descartes and Locke. Descartes, edu-
Gated in the best school of his time
Jesuit), found that his education did
not fit him for complete living. Moth
ing on authority was his great edu-
catiOnal maxim. In this he went too
far. We must accept many things,
much of our science indeed, on author
ity. But he meant that we must think
for ourselves, and in this he was right
Locke was contemporary with Des-
cartes, as were also Shakespeare and
Bacon. He is chiefly interesting as the
father of the English school of philo-
sophy. According to this school there
is nothing in the mind except what
comes through the senses. Hence
everything from education, nothing
from heredity. Socke believed in ex-
ercise, good food, but advocated ply
steal hardening by exposure to wealth
er and rough treatment Yet he was
opposed to fogging He put honor,
virtue, prudence before learning, and
arithmetic and bookkeeping before
the classics"
The gas works of the High School
don't work well. 1t took half an hour
to get them started last night and then
it went out in about half an hour. DR..
Lyons, however, delivered his lecture
to a body of much interested teachers
in spite of the delay and punctuation.
I'VE must have object work" he said.
ct is sometimes hard to find stones to
suit us, but the weather is always with
US. The observations should be SIM
pie and regular. A good thermometer,