I have not yet heard what the Central Society have invented; probably we shall soon hear of the mighty wonders performed by them, from one end of the three kingdoms to the other. Their whole account of the origin of the Infant System is as partial and unjust as it possibly can be. Mr. Simpson, whom they quote, can tell them so, as can also some of the committee of management, whose names I see at the commencement of the work. The Central Society seem to wish to pull me down, as also does the other society to whom reference is made is the same page of which I complain; and I distinctly charge both societies with doing me great injustice; the society complains of my plans without knowing them, the other adopts them without acknowledgment, and both have sprung up fungus-like, after the Infant System had been in existence many years, and I had served three apprenticeships to extend and promote it, without receiving subscriptions or any public aid whatever. It is hard, after a man has expended the essence of his constitution, and spent his children's property for the public good, in inducing people to establish schools in the principal towns in the three kingdoms,—struck at the root of domestic happiness, by personally visiting each town, doing the thing instead of writing about it—that societies of his own countrymen should be so anxious to give the credit to foreigners. Verily it is most true that a Prophet has no honour in his own country. The first public honour I ever received was at Inverness, in the Highlands of Scotland, the last was by the Jews in London, and I think there was a space of about twenty years between each.
CHAPTER XIII.
FORM, POSITION, AND SIZE.
Method of instruction, geometrical song—Anecdotes—Size—Song measure—Observations.
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"Geometry is eminently serviceable to improve and strengthen the intellectual faculties."—Jones.
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Among the novel features of the Infant School System, that of geometrical lessons is the most peculiar. How it happened that a mode of instruction so evidently calculated for the infant mind was so long overlooked, I cannot imagine; and it is still more surprising that, having been once thought of, there should be any doubt as to its utility. Certain it is that the various forms of bodies is one of the first items of natural education, and we cannot err when treading in the steps of Nature. It is undeniable that geometrical knowledge is of great service in many of the mechanic arts, and, therefore, proper to be taught children who are likely to be employed in some of those arts; but, independently of this, we cannot adopt a better method of exciting and strengthening their powers of observation. I have seen a thousand instances, moreover, in the conduct of the children, which have assured me, that it is a very pleasing as well as useful branch of instruction. The children, being taught the first elements of form, and the terms used to express the various figures of bodies, find in its application to objects around them an inexhaustible source of amusement. Streets, houses, rooms, fields, ponds, plates, dishes, tables; in short, every thing they see calls for observation, and affords an opportunity for the application of their geometrical knowledge. Let it not, then, be said that it is beyond their capacity, for it is the simplest and most comprehensible to them of all knowledge;—let it not be said that it is useless, since its application to the useful arts is great and indisputable; nor is it to be asserted that it is unpleasing to them, since it has been shewn to add greatly to their happiness.
It is essential in this, as in every other branch of education, to begin with the first principles, and proceed slowly to their application, and the complicated forms arising therefrom. The next thing is to promote that application of which we have before spoken, to the various objects around them. It is this, and this alone, which forms the distinction between a school lesson and practical knowledge; and so far will the children be found from being averse from this exertion, that it makes the acquirement of knowledge a pleasure instead of a task. With these prefatory remarks I shall introduce a description of the method I have pursued, and a few examples of geometrical lessons.
We will suppose that the whole of the children are seated in the gallery, and that the teacher (provided with a brass instrument formed for the purpose, which is merely a series of joints like those to a counting-house candlestick, from which I borrowed the idea,[A] and which may be altered as required, in a moment,) points to a straight line, asking, What is this? A. A straight line. Q. Why did you not call it a crooked line? A. Because it is not crooked, but straight. Q. What are these? A. Curved lines. Q. What do curved lines mean? A. When they are bent or crooked. Q. What are these? A. Parallel straight lines. Q. What does parallel mean? A. Parallel means when they are equally distant from each other in every part. Q. If any of you children were reading a book. that gave an account of some town which had twelve streets, and it is said that the streets were parallel, would you understand what it meant? A. Yes; it would mean that the streets were all the same way, side by side, like the lines which we now see. Q. What are those? A. Diverging or converging straight lines. Q. What is the difference between diverging and converging lines and parallel lines? A. Diverging or converging lines are not at an equal distance from each other, in every part, but parallel lines are. Q. What does diverge mean? A. Diverge means when they go from each other, and they diverge at one end and converge at the other.[B] Q. What does converge mean? A. Converge means when they come towards each other. Q. Suppose the lines were longer, what would be the consequence? A. Please, sir, if they were longer, they would meet together at the end they converge. Q. What would they form by meeting together? A. By meeting together they would form an angle. Q. What kind of an angle? A. An acute angle? Q. Would they form an angle at the other end? A. No; they would go further from each other. Q. What is this? A. A perpendicular line. Q. What does perpendicular mean? A. A line up straight, like the stem of some trees. Q. If you look, you will see that one end of the line comes on the middle of another line; what does it form? A. The one which we now see forms two right angles. Q. I will make a straight line, and one end of it shall lean on another straight line, but instead of being upright like the perpendicular line, you see that it is sloping. What does it form? A. One side of it is an acute angle, and the other side is an obtuse angle. Q. Which side is the obtuse angle? A. That which is the most open. Q. And which is the acute angle? A. That which is the least open. Q. What does acute mean? A. When the angle is sharp. Q. What does obtuse mean? A. When the angle is less sharp than the right angle. Q. If I were to call any one of you an acute child, would you know what I meant? A. Yes, sir; one that looks out sharp, and tries to think, and pays attention to what is said to him; and then you would say he was an acute child.