CHAPTER XVI.
ON TEACHING BY OBJECTS.
Object Boards—Utility of this Method.
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"The eyes will greatly aid the ears."
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As I have before said that it is our object to teach the children from objects in preference to books, I will mention a method we adopt for the accomplishment of this purpose. It consists of a number of boards, of which, and of their use, the following description will convey an accurate idea.
The boards are about sixteen inches square, and a quarter of an inch thick: wainscot is the best, as it does not warp. These will go into the groove of the lesson post: there should be about twenty articles on each board, or twenty-five, just as it suits the conductors of the school; there should be the same quantity of things on each board, in order that all the children may finish at one time; this will not be the case, if there be more objects on one board than another. I will give an account of a few of our boards, and that must suffice, or I shall exceed the limits I have prescribed to myself.
The first board contains a small piece of gold in its rough state, a piece of gold in its manufactured state, a piece of silver in both states, a piece of copper in both states, a piece of brass in both states, a piece of iron in both states, a piece of steel in both states, a piece of tinfoil, a piece of solder, a screw, a clasp nail, a clout nail, a hob nail, a spike nail, a sparable, and a tack.
These articles are all on one board, and the monitor puts his pointer to each article, and tells his little pupils their names, and encourages them to repeat the names after him. When they finish at one post they go to the next.
The next board may contain a piece of hemp, a piece of rope, a piece of string, a piece of bagging, a piece of sacking, a piece of canvass, a piece of hessian, a piece of Scotch sheeting, a piece of unbleached linen, a piece of bleached linen, a piece of diaper linen, a piece of dyed linen, a piece of flax, a piece of thread, a piece of yarn, a piece of ticking, a piece of raw silk, a piece of twisted silk, a piece of wove silk, figured, a piece of white plain sills, and a piece of dyed silk, a piece of ribbon, a piece of silk cord, a piece of silk velvet, &c.
The next may contain raw cotton, cotton yarn, sewing cotton, unbleached calico, bleached calico, dimity, jean, fustian, velveteen, gause, nankeen, gingham, bed furniture, printed calico, marseilles, flannel, baise, stuff; woollen cloth and wool, worsted, white, black, and mixed.
The next may contain milled board, paste board, Bristol card, brown paper, white paper of various sorts, white sheep skin, yellow sheep, tanned sheep, purple sheep, glazed sheep, red sheep, calf skin, cow hide, goat skin, kid, seal, pig leather, seal skin, wash leather, beaver, &c.
The next may contain about twenty-five of those wood animals which are imported into this country, and are to be had at the foreign toy warehouses; some of them are carved exceedingly well, and appear very like the real animals.
The next may contain mahogany, and the various kinds of wood.
The next may contain prunings of the various fruit trees, all about an inch long, or an inch square.
The next may contain the different small articles of ironmongery, needles, pins, cutlery, small tools, and every other object that can be obtained small enough for the purpose.
The lessons are to be put in the lesson-post the same as the picture lessons; and the articles are either glued, or fastened on the boards with screws or waxed thread.
I would have dried leaves provided, such as an oak leaf, an elm leaf, an ash leaf, &c. &c. The leaves of ever-greens should be kept separate. These will enable a judicious instructor to communicate a great variety of valuable information.
On some things connected with such instruction I find I arrived at the same conclusions as Pestalozzi, though I have never read his works, and for some years after my first efforts, did not know that such a person existed. I mean, however, to give my views on teaching by objects more fully in a work I hope soon to prepare, to be entitled "The Infant Teacher in the Nursery and the School."
The utility of this mode of teaching must be obvious, for if the children meet with any of those terms in a book which they are reading, they understand them immediately, which would not be the case unless they had seen the object. The most intellectual person would not be able to call things by their proper names, much less describe them, unless he had been taught, or heard some other person call them by their right names; and we generally learn more by mixing with society, than ever we could do at school: these sorts of lessons persons can make themselves, and they will last for many years, and help to lay a foundation for things of more importance.
I am convinced the day is not far distant when a museum will be considered necessary to be attached to every first rate school for the instruction of children.
Sight is the most direct inlet for knowledge. Whatever we have seen makes a much stronger impression upon us. Perception is the first power of mind which is brought into action, and the one made use of with most ease and pleasure. For this reason object lessons are indispensable in an infant school, consisting both of real substances and of pictures. The first lesson in Paradise was of this kind, and we ought therefore to draw instruction from it. "And out of the ground the Lord God formed every beast of the field, and every fowl of the air; and brought them to Adam to see what he would call them: and whatsoever Adam called every living creature, that was the name of it."