Account of the Edinburgh Sessional School: And the Other Parochial ...

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Introduction

Pftge Reasons for Publication, and for its delay. — Error of attaching too great importance to the externals of education combated— Opposite error combated. — Error of disregarding the age and circumstances of the pupil — Error of considering the Sessional School as unsusceptible of imitation. — Other schools in which the same method has been found successful. ..... 1

CHAP. L

ORIGIN AND HISTORY OF THE EDINBURGH PAROCHIAL INSTITUTIONS.

Origin of the Sunday Schools.— Origin of the Daily School, —Its progressive improvements. — Li Urary. — Da i I y Eve n - ing School. . - 19

CHAP. 11.

ON THE EDINBURGH PAROCHIAL SUNDAY SCHOOLS,

Expediency of such Institutions. — Superintendence—- System of Locality considered. — Stipendiary Teachers.— -Devotional Exercises.— Exhortations. . . 3g

V1U CONTENTS.

CHAP. IIL

SUNDAY SCHOOLS CONTINUED.

Page

Catechisms.— Their use.— Their abuse—How to be explained—Scripture Biography. — Scripture Reading, — Sunday Schools should be exclusively devoted to Religious Education. ...... 49

CHAP. IV.

THE EDINBURGH SESSIONAL DAILY SCHOOL.

Branches taught. — Pupils, how admitted — Number in attendance. — Arrangements and Details. • . 71

CHAP. V.

THE OFFICE AND DUTY OF DIRECTORS. .

Direction of the Daily School, in whom vested.— Importance of the Office—Duties both abstinent and poaitire—t-How they have been discharged. ... 76

CHAP.VL

DUTIES AND QUALIFICATIONS OF THE MASTER.

Importance of the Office. — Whether it should be an absolute disqualification for a Teacher that he has higher views. — Aptness to teach, an essential qualincatiofli^His obligation to do justice to all his Pupils.*— In what qualified sense this is to be received. — Tact necessary in a Xeaaher. 61

CHAP.VIL

THE MONITORS AND MONITORIAL SYSTEM.

Monitors how selected.— History of the Monitorial System. —Advantage of Monitors.— In what Schools necessary. —

CONTENTS. IX

Page In what Schools least efficient — Assistant Monitors. — General informers reprobated. — In what manner most expedient to introduce the Monitorial System. . 89

CHAP. VIIL

ON CLASSIFICATION.

Whether large or small classes are preferable — Rules according to which a Pupil is posted to a particular class. — Dis» tinct classification necessary for each department of education. ...... ioa

CHAP. IX.

ON EMULATION, PLACES, AND PRIZES.

Mode of taking places. — Emulation, on what grounds condemned by some theorists — Its advantages. — Objection arising from its perversion answered. — Objection founded . on Scripture answered. — Self-emulation recommended. — Prizes. — Objection to them answered. — How they may be rendered most efficacious-^Conduct-prizes considered. 1 1 1

CHAP. X.

ON PUNISHMENTS.

Punishments how far essential to a Schools— Corporal punishment how far essential. — Abolition of it attempted in Sessional School — Accounts of successful attempts not always to be relied on. — Lancaster's punishments considered.— Ridicule, to what extent it may be employed as a punishment. — Punishment by confinement.— Pototas. — Loss of grade. — Frequency of punishment a sure sign of incapacity on the part of a Teacher. . 128

X {CONTENTS.

Page

CHAP. XI.

EXPLANATORY METHOD OF INSTRUCTION.

Objects contemplated in the Explanatory Method.— Its Use in giving Pleasure to the Pupil. — Its Use in Communicating to him the Particular Instruction contained in each Passage Read.— Its Use in giving him a General Command of Language. — How far essential with regard to a Vernacular Tongue.— How far essential to Children in the Higher Ranks. — How far essential to Children of all capacities. — Account of an Idiot Boy. — Account of a Blind Boy. — Explanatory Method founded in Nature.— How Practised by Burns' Preceptor.— How Practised in the National Schools. — How suggested to the Conductors of the Sessional School. — Its results both there and elsewhere. 1 42

CHAP, XIL

READING LESSONS.

Alphabet— Lessons consisting of Words of Two Letters, how Read, Spelt, and Explained^— Nature of the Explanfc. tions at this stage. . ♦ . . 170

CHAP. XIII.

READING LESSONS CONTINUED.

Lessons consisting of Words of Three Letters, how Read, Spelt, and Explained. . . . 183

CHAP. XIV.

READING LESSONS CONTINUED.

The Children, when able to put Pour Letters together, read only Interesting and Instructive Passages. — Sped-

Page mens of these, and of the Explanations upon them.— Contents of the Second Book. — Specimens of the Examinations upon it. • • 190

CHAP. XV.

READING OF THB MOBS ADVANCED CLASSES.

National School Collection, its Contents — Specimen of the Examinations upon it. — Examinations, by whom Conducted on Public Days. — What these Public Days are. — Objection that such Examinations teach only words answered. — Candour evinced by Visiting Teachers. — Instructive Extracts. — Contents of this Work. — Specimen of Examinations upon it. — Mode of Reading. — Mode of Spelling. ..... 204

CHAP. XVI.

daily religious exercises.

daily Religious Instruction, how far essential— School Prayers. — All the Books contain Religious Instruction— Bible Reading. 219

CHAP. XVII,

on grammar.

Grammar, how far an essential Branch of Education.— Education in English Grammar, how far superseded by a knowledge of the dead languages.— -Necessity of attention to its Principles as well as its Rules. — Taught without any systematic Book of Grammar.— Exposition of the Method. 223

Xll CONTENTS.

CHAP XVIII.

ON WRITING.

Writing, its importance.— Objections to Teaching the Lower Ranks to Write noticed. — Slate Writing. . 240

CHAP. XIX.

ON ARITHMETIC.

Arithmetic, a department in which either Activity or Indolence may be Strikingly Exemplified.— Activity exhibited in it by the Sessional School Pupils.— How promoted. — Its Good Effects.— Rapidity and Accuracy of Calculation not Inconsistent. — Mental Arithmetic. — Taking of Places in Arithmetic — This branch of Study how early commenced. 242

CHAP XX.

ON GEOGRAPHY.

Geography— Its Importance.— How Taught in the 'Sessional School. . 862

CHAP. XXI.

Conclusion

Benefits derived from the Edinburgh Parochial Institutions. —Supposed dangers of General Education considered. 256

•+IH

INTRODUCTION.

" Care I for the big aasemblance ?— give me ike spirit, Matter Shallow.*' Shaksfea&s*

An account of the method of instruction pursued in The Edinburgh Parochial Institutions has been so long and so urgently called for, by the friends of education in various quarters, that it appears more necessary to explain, why this wish has hitherto remained ungratified, than to offer any apology f<> r a publication, which, whatever may be its demerits, will hardly have to defend itself against the charge of being thrust obtrusively upon the notice of the public.

The truth is, that the conductors of this establishment never had the slightest desire to hold themselves out as the inventors of a new system, but have, on the contrary, uniformly attributed any success, which' may have attended their humble labours, not so much to any novelty or peculiarity of external arrangement, as to their haying made it their anxious endeavour, to keep steadily in view, and to bring into active operation, those simple and obvious principles, which they conceive Nature herself must have dictated to every parent and teacher, previously to more artificial contrivances. To open up a royal road to learning, by which all the advantages of superior education might be attained, without any trouble on the part either of the teacher or scholar* undoubtedly never for a single moment entered into their contemplation. But they were by no means on that account less anxious, to do everything in their power, to render die duties of both as easy, as pleasing, and profitable as possible ; and particularly to study the capacity and the inclinations of the learner. In all their arrangements they have regarded their youngest pupil* mnA as a machine, or an irrational animal, that must be 'drii^en, but as an intellectual being <wl» may be led ; endowed, not merely with sensation rtidfflremory* hot -with perception, judgment, cmisrienae, aflectiaas, and passions ; capable* to <a certain degree, «f receiving favourable or unfavourable impressions, of imbibing right or wrong sentiments, -of acquiring good or fad habits ; strong* ly *verset©apjflicatdan, whejo^'ite object is unperceived or remote, but, on the other hand, ardently curious and infinitely deHghtibg in the display of every new (attainment which he nates. It has, ac* covdtngjy, A«en their fuuooau aim Ao interest no less than to task* — to m$ke die -pupil understand (as attach a* possible) ithat be h doing, no less than to tXTRODtrCTION. 3

e*act from him its perfc^ance,— familiarly toilluatwite, and copiously to exemplify the principle, no less than to hear him repeat the words of a rule, —to speak to him, and by all means to encourage him to speak, in a natural language, which he understands, rather than in irksome technicalities, which the pedant might approve, — to keep him while in school not only constantly, but actively, energetically employed, — to inspire him with a zeal for excelling in whatever is his present occupation, (whether it be study or amusement,) and, even where he is incapable of excelling others, still, by noticing with approbation every step, however little, which he makes towards improvement, to delight him with the consciousness of excelling his former self

These obvious principles may be grafted on a variety of systems of external arrangement, adapted to the particular circumstances and object of each in* dividual seminary ; but, for any defect of the principles themselves, or of a due sense of their paramount importance, we conceive that no system of external arrangement, however beautiful — no selection of books, however judicious-— no talents or accomplishments on the part of the instructor, however brilliant and transcendent, can ever in any degree compensate. In carrying these principles into practice in their own establishment, the Directors of the Edinburgh Sessional School readily availed themselves of every aid, which they could procure, whether from the old school or from more modern systems. Unconnected with education as a profession, they were on that account more free from the trammels, and perhaps also from the prejudices, of pro* fessional men. Enlisting themselves under no favourite leader, and undesirous either of popularity or of becoming the leaders of a new party, they had no other object in view, than the humble and unambitious one, of communicating useful knowledge, in the simplest and easiest, and, at the same time, most attractive form, to the indigent and helpless objects of their care. Little did it enter into their conception, that the lowly seminary, which they originally opened, and for many years conducted, in an unceiled apartment, in one of the most obscure and least inviting corners of their city, was ever to arrest the eye of any passenger, or to be looked upon as an object, either of jealousy, or of imitation. The arrangements, accordingly, were all strictly adapted to the immediate circumstances and object of their own establishment ; and, though the system there pursued (if system it is to be called) has indeed been crowned with success, beyond their own most sanguine expectation, they were not on that account disposed to regard it as meriting any greater share of public attention, than had already so unexpectedly been bestowed upon it*

Their scheme, too, with all the advantages, which have been ascribed to it, by the partiality of its admirers, they have ever themselves considered as still merely in a state of infancy, and very far, indeed, remote from that perfection, which is boldly attributed to the Madras system by its celebrated founder. Jf there be any plan of education, of which it can with justice be said, that, in point of principle, " the wit of man can add nothing to it, and can take nothing from it, 11 * and that its details are' neither susceptible, nor stand in need of great improvement, undoubtedly it is not the subject of the present treatise, which can make any such lofty pretensions. Many are the defects, on the contrary, which its conductors are incessantly labouring to supply; many the improvements, which it is #till their anxious aim to introduce. No one will allege, that hitherto at least their school has been stationary or unimproving : nor can they, on s the other hand, charge themselves with any unsteadiness or vacillation in its management. The changes, which they have introduced, all flowed from the same fixed principles ; they followed each other in regular succession ; and hence, instead of retarding the education of the eooisting pupils, (as is too often the case with violent changes arising from a wavering spirit) on the contrary contributed to assist their progress. No discerning stranger has ever repeated his visit to their school after even a short interval, without remarking the advance which had been made, both in the proficiency of individual pupils, and in the general system of the establish* ment. One of its own former teachers, who had left it only about a year and a half before, on a recent visit to his former charge, was astonished to find the fourth class reading a book, which had, at the time when he was in attendance, been exclusive-

« See Bdl'j Manual

6 XKT»OftWCTI0K.

ly confined to the first or highest, and answeriitg questions upon it in a manner, which, as he said, we should then hare considered as doing credit to the most advanced and ablest boys ; while the latter were now receiving and fully comprehending much higher instruction, than had at that time, . so far as he knew, been even in contemplation* While such changes were going on, the public can hatdty blame us, for not having sooner gratified them, with an account of this unstationary, though by no means unsteady system. Had any account been given of it at the time, when it was first mostloudly called for, it must have been entirely defective in the deliae*. • tion of some of the most interesting features, which the school at this day presents : and it is to be hoped, that the present attempt will, ere long, be liable to a simikr objection.

Even, however, if there were no room for this objection, and if the method of instruction had attained all the perfection, of which it is susceptible, we were well aware of the almost insurmountable difficulty, which would still remain, of conveying to the minds of those, who had not witnessed it in actual operation, any adequate conception, either of its results, or of the steps by which these had been attained. To such as have not been accustomed to behold the youthful mind in any thing like full activity, the accounts have ever been unintelligible, and we know, have sometimes appeared marvellous and incredible, of acquirements, which in others, to whom they had been matters of daily and familiar urrxomrcneN, . j

observation, have long Ago ceased to excite tkt slightest feeling of surprise. Nor » k to be expected^ that these difficulties, either of understanding or belief, should easily yield to any detail of pwfiminary steps, of which*, perhaps* the principal «ecommendation is their extreme simplicity.

In opposition to all this, it has been contended, that to withhold the information, which has been asked, would at once be illiberal and injurious. Whether the method of instruction in question is to be deemed a system, or a combination of systems, the efspskig of prudent forethought, or the result of ©boervati&B and experience, if has already been sueeessfinl in one quarter, and there is no reason {k k said} why it should not be equally beneficial elsewhere. If a mere statement cannot give one at a distance an adequate conception, either of the plan, <arof ks made of operation, stiU k is thought, that it may not even to hint be altogether without adV vantage ; while to those* who hare had the opportunity of personal inspection, it may be the means *f recalling some not unuseful recollections, and also, perhaps, of suggesting spme circumstances, which, though not immaterially contributing to the success of the Institution* may have happened at the time to escape their observation. To delay the publication till the Seminary should come to & stand in paint of improvement, (it has, not without reason, been maintained) would be to wait for a period, which ought not to arrive at all, and of which, at present at least, there is happily no near prospect.

Last of all, it has been urged, (nor has this consideration been without its influence in drawing forth the present statement) that if those, who hare the best means of acquaintance with the subject, should continue silent, there is a danger, that it may b& taken up in some quarter, where its real bearings' may be less distinctly understood.

The writer of the present Account, in compliance with these views of his friends, rather than with his own inclination, which would hare withheld him . from the performance of a task, that, if less invo-- luntary, might well have been deemed to savour of presumption, has at length been induced to lay before the Public a minute detail of the history and arrangements of an institution, in which he can never ftil to take the mo*t lively . interest. In doing, so* however, he would wish most anxiously to guard his readers against the erroneous notion, that the success of any seminary can ever depend entirely, or even principally, upon its machinery; (00 to {(peak,) or external system of arrangement. That no school can ever be well conducted without due' attention to order and method, every one in theslightest degree acquainted with the subject will readily admit ; and the gratitude, both of the pre-' sent and of future ages, is therefore most justly due, for the facilities, which the systems of Bell and Lancaster have, in this department, contributed to the cause of general education. Every judicious conductor of an establishment for education, accordingly, will he at the utmost pains to render hit $?«*> ltfTJtODirCTION. . 9

tem in this respect as perfect as he cab. But, when this is done, he will keep in remembrance, that the weightier matters remain behind. He will consider, that it is not upon the nature of the scaffolding or building apparatus, however skilfully devised and admirably adapted to its own purpose, that the beauty, or usefulness, or stability of the future fabric is to depend ; nor will he suffer himself to forget, how often it has happened, that, on the removal of the scaffolding, some deformity or flaw in the structure itself has been disclosed, which the apparatus had hitherto concealed from the eye of the spectator. From inattention to this fundamentally important truth, how large a proportion, unfortunately, of the schools instituted even upon the most justly celebrated systems, have been allowed to become little better than mere pieces of mechanism, pretty enough indeed in external appearance, but comparatively of Httle use, in which the puppets strut with wondrous regularity and order, and with all that outward " pomp and circumstance," which art well calculated to catch a superficial observer, but in which all the while the mind is but little exerted, and of course little, if at all, improved.

Nor let it be imagined, that the scheme adopted in the Sessional School may not be liable, as well as other systems, to have its injudicious admirers and imitators. Struck with the alleged success of the system as there exhibited, one may investigate every its minutest detail with no less punctilious tm% than that of the poor savage, who, restored on

10 iinmomjeTioH.

one occasion to health by the administration of a particular drug, ever afterwards fondly treasures up in his memory, with. a view to the recurrence of a similar exigency, the recollection of the day of the moon, the hour of the day, the posture of his own body at the time of receiving the medicine, and every other little adventitious concomitant of his cure. The copyist may introduce precisely the same number and the same size of classes,— may place the master, the monitors, and the scholars, in the same respective positions, — may prescribe to them the same movements, — may put the same books into their hands, — and, in short, may give the whole the self-same external aspect. But, if he be not at least equally desirous to catch the spirit, as . to imitate the forms,— to keep steadily in view th? ends, which it is the legitimate object of education to attain, as well as the steps, which, under proper guidance, may facilitate their attainment, — if he imagine, that any artificial contrivance whatever can, in the slightest degree, supersede the necessity of diligence and zeal, of earnestness and kindliness of manner, on the part of the instructor, — if he treat his pupils more as mechanical than as intellectual beings, attempting rather to cram into them a certain definite quantity of instruction, than to inspire them with the taste, and furnish them with the power of acquiring knowledge for themselves* — if he content himself with teaching them to repeat byrote with slavish precision rules, of which they are left alike ignorant ofethe principle And of the appli-

INTXODffCTKH*. 11

cation, <nr to pronounce with, formal tone, and mea* sored cadence and inflection, a mere jargon of sounds, to which they have never learned to attach the slightest signification— let him not- wonder, % notwithstanding all the pake, which he has bestowed on the externals of his system, it should degenerate into as dull, cold, and lifeless a routine, as is exhibited in any of the moss unproductive seminaries around him.

It is no less necessary, on the other hand, to guard against the opposite error of imagining, that, because the externals may subsist where the spirit is awaiting, the former, in place of being rendered subservient to the latter, should be laid aside altogether as utterly unavailing. It may be very true, that neither the monitors and other arrangements of Bell and Lancaster for facilitating mutual instruction, and 'maintaining order and constant activity, nor the places, and prises, and other incitements to emulation, which have so long held their place in almost' every approved system of education, can of themselves insure success to any seminary. But it is much to be doubted, whether the Sessional School would ever have attained its present character, if its Directors had either neglected those modern arrangements as useless innovations, or* abolished these incitements in order to make way for the operation of a purer love of excellence, or still purer love of knowledge, or love of duty superior to either.

There is another and no dight danger, to which this method of education is exposed, in the hands of injudicious or unskilful imitators, and which, though originating in the system, may, by a fatal re-action, directly defeat its object, and at length altogether subvert it. It has, as we have said, been the fundamental aim of the Sessional School, to cultivate the understandings of the pupils, and to treat them as intellectual, not as merely mechanical beings. But, while we ought never to forget, that children are neither machines nor animals devoid of reason, as little ought we to forget, that they are neither philosophers, nor as yet even men. While one is a child, he must " speak as a child, understand as a child, thyik as a child ;" and must, therefore, -still be treated as a child, and be " fed with milk, and not with meat** until he be " able to bear it" Even the infant mind, indeed, is "able to bear," and to relish, and digest far more than those are inclined to imagine, who have never witnessed its workings in a due st*te of exercise and vigour. Still, however, it is, and can only be the mind of a child, and not of a perfect man.' It must not be crammed with the " strong meats" either of the theologian or the philosopher.

To fix, indeed, precise limits in a matter of this kind, is of course quite out of the question ; much in this, as well as in every thing else connected with the education of young people, must depend upon the discretion and skill of the instructor. Great care, however, must obviously be takfen, *o distinguish between the kind of Information and mode of communication applicable to the younger children, and those which may be employed in the more advanced classes of the same seminary. A. single year at the opening of life, it ought ever ty. be remembered, makes a prodigious difference in the capacity of the human mind. So also in schools, where children are retained till they arrive at twelve or fourteen years of age, a much wider range of information may be attempted, than would be at all proper where they leave it at eight or nine. In a, school, also, for children of the humbler ranks of life, whose whole education is in all probability to. be confined within its walls, it may be advisable to crowd a greater quantity of useful information into a narrow space, than will be either necessary or expedient, in the case of those more highly favoured individuals, whose circumstances hold out to them, the prospect of a more protracted education, and leisure for a more gradual,, extensive, and systematic course of study. But nothing, in short, can be more injurious to the young, draw down greater ndifiule on any system of education, or give more countenance to the old and pernicious practice of learning by rote, than a teacher indulging his own vanity, or that of his pupils and their friends, by allowing them to converse, to read, «r to write, upon subjects altogether beyond the capacity of their years.

Before dosing these introductory observations,

: *bftre is still one very prevailing error relative to the

school in question, to which it. seems necessary to advert. It has been pretty generally imagined, that the success of this institution is principally to be attributed to adventitious circumstances, and that his one of those indigenous productions^ which it were rain to think of transplanting into a different soil, even though blessed apparently with a more genial atmosphere. " Where else," it is constantly asked, " can we expect to find children displaying at once such talent, such diligence, such alacrity ; teachers capable of producing such results ; superintendanta stooping to such mean drudgery." So strongly indeed are many imbued with a notion of the transcendent genius of the boys in Market Street, that hypotheses, and even less pardonable fictions, have been resorted to and industriously propagated, for the purpose of accounting for this extraordinary concentration of talent. We have also heard it stated, and we believe on the best grounds, that a very able and benevolent admirer of the Sessional School had desisted from an attempt to introduce the like mode of instruction into a seminary in his own neighbourhood in the country, assigning as a reason, that he found "no clever boys" in that school. Had our excellent friend's perseverance been equal to his talents and philanthropy, there cannot be the slightest doubt, that he would soon have beheld the very urchins, of whose qualifications lie was once induced to form so low an estimate, transformed into the " clever boys," whose absence he so much deplored. With regard to the superior endowments, which are supposed to be efsential to * .

INTBODUCTIO*. 15

teacher under the system in question, it may be sufficient to observe, that, while such a mode of tuition undoubtedly afford* ample scope for the exercise, under judicious control, of the highest qualifications, it seems no less certain, that there is hone, in which .the most moderate talents and acquirements can be employed to greater advantage* A system, indeed, so extremely simple and unartificial, seems peculiarly adapted to the latter situation, and may accordingly be carried into execution by instructors "but little advanced either in years or experience, as u daily exemplified in the case of our own monitors. The superintendance, too, to which so much importance has been ascribed, however useful in' the infancy of an experimental system, in order to ascertain the extent to which the experiment may be carried, is obviously by no means essential to the system itself, and may with perfect safety, nay perhaps in general with advantage, be surrendered into the hands of a judicious teacher, especially where the emoluments of his situation are in any way made dependant upon the success of his own exertions. All this, however, cannot long continue a matter of mere theory and speculation. The mode of instruction in question is no longer confined to one estar bhshment. Its leading principles are every day . -more and more generally adopted, and still perhaps more generally professed, in the education of all classes of the community, and of both sexes;* in pub-

- * We had recently the pleasure of witnessing a most beatUtfiil specimen of the adaptation of this system to the instruction of

16 INTB0DUCT10N.