A study of the Pedagogical Seminary for August, 1897, would be profitable to teachers careless about externals. The article is called “A Study in Morals”. The question was put in writing and answered by twenty-three boys and one hundred and sixty girls: “Reflect which teachers, from kindergarten to college, you have liked best, and been influenced most by, and try to state wherein the influence was felt. Account if you can for the exceptional influence of that particular teacher. Was it connected with dress, manner, voice, looks, bearing, learning, religious activity, etc.? Four out of five mentioned the manner of the teacher as exerting an influence. One in three speaks of the voice, one in four speaks of dress.” These externals, as we are apt to call them, are the outcome of the personality, or they would not exert influence. We must therefore so order our inner being that manner, voice, dress, should express self-respect and unselfishness, right feeling, love of order, good taste.
If I were writing a treatise on psychology, I might insist on the teacher’s gaining an insight into the contents of the child’s mind—what Herbart calls apperception-masses, but in this short introduction I can only touch on the subject. I subjoin a short [list of books] not too difficult for teachers. I conclude with a few common rules derived from psychological observation and a few practical hints for the schoolroom.
A FEW PRACTICAL PRECEPTS.
This is not a treatise on psychology but a practical hand-book for young teachers. Before entering on the special subjects, it may be well to say something of the application of the principles which are familiar to all who are trained, and dwell upon a few of the most important.
(1) There is the fundamental precept, awaken interest. Have you seen the Medusa spreading its tentacles idly on the waves? Have you watched the change as it fastens on its prey? So does the mind grasp that which is suitable for its nourishment. As the intelligence of the child awakens, it no longer perceives in the lazy, dreamy way in which the infant is conscious of a light; it apperceives, takes into itself the object, the word, the thought, and grows thereby.
(2) Avoid distractions. The senses and the mind must be fixed on the subject of instruction. When a bird is to be taught to speak, he is placed in a dark room, shielded from the distractions of sight, until the words are acquired, then the use of other senses than hearing is permitted; so little children require more quietness and isolation than older ones.
Distractions are not all of sense. The mind is distracted by fear. How dreadful are the old pictures of the dame, teaching rod in hand, or the master with his cane; some may remember the music teacher ready to rap the knuckles, and know how all sense of harmony was destroyed. And it is so also with the seeking of rewards. I hope place-taking and prizes and scholarships will one day follow the rod and the cane, and children be led from their earliest years to feel, what is really natural to them, that knowledge is in itself a pleasure and a good.
(3) Proceed from the known to the unknown. Observe the laws of association; for this a teacher must be in intellectual sympathy with her pupils—know and feel by an inner sense, when mind is responding to mind. I have heard some so-called teachers, who spoke like a book, who were lecturers; they saw their own thoughts, but not those of their pupils, and were therefore unable to lead them on. E.g., if a sum was wrong, they would say, “Do it thus,” instead of inquiring into the cause of the mistake. In questioning they would not try to see into the child’s mind.
It is more difficult to enter into intellectual sympathy with very little ones, hence we need specially able teachers for them. It is also better for class teachers not to change too often, as it takes time to get into sympathy with a new class. Of course specialists have to do this; it is one reason why cæteris paribus they are less successful than class teachers.
(4) Proceed in classifying by noticing first the likenesses, then the differences—in other words, proceed from the genus to the species. There are some excellent chapters on this in Rosmini’s Method of Education, translated by Mrs. Grey, p. 15.