Chapters on the aims and practice of teaching

Front matter

B^m:

aass_L'BAi5 5.

Book «S_ll^

Preface

The publication of these Chapters has been suggested by that widespread interest in education which characterises the Wales of to-day and promises so well for the Wales of the future. But the degree in which they may prove helpfully suggestive to the teachers of Wales is also the measure of their claim to the attention of teachers generally. Contributed, in response to the Editor's invitation, by writers whose knowledge and experience entitle them to speak with authority on the teaching of the several subjects of which they treat, and whose sphere of educational activity lies for the most part outside the Principality, they include few, if any, details of purely local interest. Both in England, where so much is said about the organisation of secondary education and so little done, and in America where so much is said and done in the matter of education generally, the issue of an inexpensive volume dealing with the efficient teaching of most of the respective subjects of an ordinary school curriculum will, there is reason to believe, be welcomed as an endeavour to meet a want which is increasingly felt. No attempt is here made to appraise the relative claims of conflicting subjects to a place in the curricula of the schools. We should probably never have witnessed the more acute phases of the dispute between the 'Ancients' and 'Moderns,' if due attention had been paid, on vi Preface.

either side, to the problem how best to teach whatever is taught. For, to quote the words of the Royal Commission on Secondary Education, " the true worth of instruction — that is to say, its vitalizing influence on the scholar's mind — depends less than is commonly supposed upon the particular subject through which the mind is approached, and more upon the stimulative method in which the mind is roused. School curricula, no doubt, need to be in some cases extended as regards the whole range of a school's work, and in others restricted as regards the number of subjects to be taught to the particular scholar at the same time. But it is, after all, not so much in the remodelling of curricula as in the improvement of methods, and, above all, in the supply of more highly educated and skilful teachers that educational progress must in future consist."

The cordial thanks of the Editor are due to the Syndics of the Cambridge University Press, who, while not necessarily endorsing all or any of the views expressed in these Chapters, have generously undertaken their publication.

The Editor's own task has been a pleasant and an easy one ; and for its performance he aspires to no higher meed than that bestowed by good Roger Ascham upon the quondam Master of his College, whom he describes indeed as "meanelie learned himselfe", but also as "not meanelie affectioned to set forward learning in others."

University College of North Wales, February, 1897.

Chapter I. Greek

No profit grows where is no pleasure ta'en : In brief, sir, study what you most affect.

Shakespeare, Taming of the Shrew, Act I. So. i.

When Lucentio finds himself in Padua, the nursery of arts, whither he has come in order to pursue a course of learning and ingenious studies, he turns for counsel to his trusty man Tranio. The advice given by Tranio culminates in the well-known lines which head this chapter. ' The mathematics and the metaphysics' were uppermost in Tranio's mind when he thus delivered himself; and it is arithmetic, and geometry, and the studies generally which lead up to dialectic, that are present to the thoughts of the Platonic Socrates when he enunciates the closely parallel principle that 'forced growths of knowledge take no abiding root in the mind.' It is not intended here to estimate with greater exactitude, and with fuller reference to the context in the two cases, the position assumed in these passages, nor to discuss on its merits the question of freedom of choice in the earher and the later years of study. It is enough that all will allow, first, that a time comes sooner or

s. T. X later when the learner should follow his own bent, and, secondly, that in the years which precede the granting of this option, it is better to allure, than to drive, into the paths of study.

Nor again — to deal still further in negations — is it intended to estimate the comparative advantages of beginning Greek at an early or at a somewhat later age. If the remarks which follow may seem sometimes to apply better to older than to younger students, it is because the writer's experience has lain chiefly among the former. The late beginners have always been a large body in the Scottish Universities ; they are to be found, too, in considerable numbers in our Provincial Colleges and our newer Boys' Schools, and among the girls trained in High Schools. As far as Greek represents with them a deliberate choice made at a time when they are of age to judge, the results attained should be good, provided always (i) that they have previously received a thorough training in English, and in the elements of Latin and of one or more of the continental languages, and (2) that they are allowed to devote an adequate amount of time to the study when once they begin it.

We will, accordingly, premise that the beginner is of any age from 14 onward : that he is able to give a large share of his time to the subject : that he has been well grounded in his own language, in Latin, and in one or more of the languages of the Continent. Such a learner, if he is in earnest and possesses fair abilities, may be expected to make rapid progress. Considerable difficulty will no doubt be presented by the grammar, especially by the accidence, and in the accidence especially by the irregular verbs. But the teacher, starting with a Greek- English and English-Greek Exercise Book, in which the simpler grammatical forms and rules are given, will push forward as quickly as possible to the reading of authors. He will feel that translation is the best guide to translation, and that grammar is best studied theoretically after it has been learnt practically.

The wise saws quoted at the commencement may now be reinforced by a modern instance. Not long ago a striking address was delivered at St Andrews by the Marquis of Dufferin as Lord Rector of the University. In drawing from his own long and varied experience hints for the guidance of the students who were his hearers, Lord Dufferin was led to look back upon the classical training which he had received at school and at the University. ' I myself was introduced to the Latin grammar when I was six years old, and to the Greek grammar a couple of years later; and when I left Oxford, after 14 years of uninterrupted application at these two tongues, the most that I could do was to translate with some sort of decency a few Greek plays, some books of Herodotus, a little of Cicero, and some Virgil and Horace, that had already been carefully conned \' This disproportion between labour and acquisition was to be noticed, we are further told, not only in the speaker but in the great majority of his contemporaries. The instance seems, therefore, to be ' modern' in Shakespeare's sense no less than in our own.

Fortunately Lord Dufferin, who thus indicts from his own experience the system under which he was educated, also appeals to his own experience in support of what he regards as a better method. ' Later in life I reflected with shame on the paucity of my classical acquirements, and I set myself down to learn Greek in the same way as I would set about learning a modern language (viz. by devoting more attention to translation than to grammar). The result was that, although I had only spare moments of time to give to the business, I soon found myself able to take up any ordinary Greek poet or prose writer, and read what was written as easily as I could French — always, of course, excepting a corrupt chorus or some of the more difficult

^ Rectorial Addresses delivered at the University of St Andrews, edited by William Knight, p. 339.

authors \' The comparative failure of the old system is attributed by its assailant to the fact that, instead of encouraging wide reading with a view to the acquisition of a vocabulary, it killed interest by its excessive devotion to grammatical analysis. Classical authors were to be read, it seemed, not because they had stories to tell or beauties to unfold, but because they had grammatical rules to illustrate.

Now the force of this criticism might, it is true, be questioned to some extent by a defender of the system attacked. It might be urged that boys are not men, and that consequently the methods of later life may not be suitable for them. Or stress might be laid on the difficulties which would attend the teaching of a large class, consisting of lazy and dull as well as of bright and industrious boys, if discursive reading were substituted for strict verbal analysis. But there is less reason to dwell on these considerations, forgotten though they often are by critics of their schooldays, because this paper, as already stated, is intended more especially to deal with learners who are not very young, who have had some previous training in the grammar of other languages, and who are supposed to study Greek of deliberate choice and because they like it. In the case of such students the observations of Lord Dufiferin are, in the judgment of the present writer at any rate, of great importance, even when all due allowance has been made for what may on any ground seem exceptional in the personal experiences which prompted them. In particular, as small a portion as possible of the best Greek literature should be subjected to mere grammatical dissection.

Let us suppose, then, that a learner of the type indicated is beginning Greek. What in broad outline will be his course ?

^ Rectorial Addresses delivered at the University of St And7-ews, edited by William Knight, p. 340.

I.] Greek. ij

He would, as we have said, begin with Exercises, Greek into English and English into Greek. He would

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thus be practised, from the start, in double translation. The choice of exercise-book would be a matter for the teacher's taste. But attention may be called to one or two features of importance not always found in books for beginners. It seems desirable that the simpler verbal forms should be given as soon as possible, so that there may be greater variety in the structure of the sentences set. Rarer forms, such as the dual in nouns and verbs, may be reserved for separate treatment at a later stage. Great pains should be taken to keep the learner on the alert by the repetition, at frequent intervals and under different guises, of any points (the construction of neuter plural nominative with singular verb, for example) which are apt to find him nodding. New words should be shown, wherever possible, to be related to the words the learner already knows in English or in other languages. The connexion is often far too remote in appearance to attract the beginner's attention, and unless pointed out at first, it is perhaps never noticed at all. Many men of good abilities who have done some amount of Greek would be at a loss if asked to give the etymology of anecdote^ hermit, acrobat, dropsy ; and yet the original Greek words are, in these cases, familiar enough. The results would probably be still more disappointing were the derivation required in the case of such words as diphtheria, proboscis, intoxicate, aiiodyiie, iconoclast.

Though he should postpone the systematic study of Greek grammar to a later period when he is more . .,

'-' ^ Accidence

amply furnished with the materials for it, it and Easy will be well for the learner, almost from the ^^^^ ation. beginning, to become accustomed to the use of some Primer of Greek Accidence which gives the principal Attic forms, and which contains nothing that it will afterwards be necessary to unlearn. Even the most retentive memory is helped by the appearance of a familiar page, and the exercise-book, which can only present the grammar in a fragmentary form^ is likely to be discarded when it has served its immediate purpose. An early beginning will also be made with simple passages of continuous prose for translation into English. The fullest help may be given in the preparation of the translation ; there is no reason to fear that the learner will not at a later time find difficulties enough and mental training enough, and the chief object at the moment is to quicken interest and to increase the stock of words. Short texts with vocabularies appended will be found useful, and the learner should see to it that every fresh bit of reading undertaken contributes towards that copia verborum which it must be his aim to attain. At the same time he should not be too anxious to carry everything away with him. A difficult word, though it may not easily be committed to memory when first encountered, will gradually fix itself in the mind, since it will present itself, time after time, in fresh contexts if sufficient ground be covered.

The passages first read may happen to be portions of

Xenophon's Anabasis. But even if this is not

enop on. ^^^ .^ ^.^ ^^^ ^^ Xon'g before the learner will

begin the time-honoured marches which successive generations of schoolboys have shared, parasang upon parasang, chapter upon chapter, with the soldiers of Xenophon. Only, let him not start with the fear that he will faint on the way, and that he can never hope to catch a glimpse of the distant sea and hail it with delight. The teacher will use his best endeavours to stimulate him by making the life and writings of Xenophon real to him. He will sketch the youth spent in the eager search for truth under the guidance of Socrates, the manhood of military adventure, the later years passed in retirement by a country gentleman, fond alike of field-sports and of the writing of books. He will just hint at the character of some of the books written then or earlier : the Memorabilia, those

I.] Greek. y

unpretending but invaluable records of the everyday life and conversation of Socrates ; the Cyropaedia, that account of the boyhood of Cyrus the Elder which, owing to the somewhat imaginary nature of its framework, may be regarded perhaps as the earliest of European romances ; and the Helletiica, our principal authority for long and important periods of Greek history.

With regard to the A?iabasis itself fuller details may be given. A specially enlarged map, kept always before the pupil's eyes, will show in one colour Anlba^is!*'^^ the route of the march inland (the Atiabasis proper), and in another the route taken from the interior to the coast. Inserted plans will also illustrate such points as the disposition of the forces on both sides at the battle of Cunaxa, the forcing of the Carduchian Pass, and the crossing of the Centrites. A table may further be prepared indicating briefly the contents of the various books and the precise months which they cover in the years 401 — 399 B.C., and containing some estimate of the distances traversed by the troops. Points to be dealt with orally will be such as the contrast between the Greek and the Persian character, the striking description given at the end of Book II of the characteristics of the Greek generals seized by Tissaphernes, and the historical importance of the expedition as an episode in the long-enduring strife of East and West, and as a proof (afterwards to be still further confirmed) that the Great King could with impunity be mocked ' at his very palacegates.' Some notice too will be claimed by minor matters, for example by the names of places or rivers passed (two of them destined to leave their mark on modern speech in the words ' solecism ' and ' meander '), and by the fortunes of the two deserted cities, Larissa and Mespila, which are supposed to be identical with the ancient Calah and Nineveh, in which case their history is better known to us than it could be to Xenophon himself. Reference might also be made to modern descriptions of the country of the Afiabasis by travellers or explorers such as Ainsworth, Curzon, Chesney, or Mrs Bishop ; to the estimates of Xenophon and his Anabasis by judges so various as Roger Ascham and Heine, Francis Bacon and Taine ; and to the curious fate which has made the Anabasis of Xenophon and the Gallic War of Caesar play so large a part in the education of the modern schoolboy. In any way and in every way the interest of the learner should be sufficiently excited to carry him at least to the end of the Fourth Book. It was for the 700 miles or so from the River Zab to Trapezus (Trebizond) that the endurance of the Ten Thousand Greeks was put to the severest test : they had to fight their way through an enemy's country in the winter. It is in Book IV that the interest of the narrative reaches its climax. When the Book opens the prospects of the Greeks are at their gloomiest, but when it closes they have crossed the Centrites, have passed safely through the snows of Armenia, have ascended the heights from which they gain their first welcome view of the sea, and are feasting, offering sacrifice, and making merry on the shores of the Euxine '.

If the narrative has been read with real zest and attention,

much linguistic knowledge will have been un- Tmns^adorfs"'^ consciously absorbed, more especially if the

ground has been covered not once only but twice or thrice. And here a word may fitly be said as to editions and as to the use of translations. It is well that, whatever he may be reading, the student should possess not only an edition containing grammatical and other illustrative matter, but also a plain text. In the former he may underline

^ The Anabasis, as a book for beginners, has been admirably treated in the United States. We may specially mention White and Morgan's Illustrated Dictionary to Xenophon'' s Anabasis, and two editions of Books I — IV, the one by Goodwin and White, and the other by Kelsey and Zenos. The latter contains plans such as those named above.

his difficulties if he pleases; the latter he should reserve for the rapid and pleasurable reading, as a connected whole, of portions already prepared. Upon the question of the use of translations opinions are sure to differ widely, but the teacher will do well to express his own view, whatever it may be, with the utmost frankness. The whole tone of work is apt to suffer if knowledge is approached by secret and half-forbidden avenues. The evil must be recognised, regulated, and minimised; stamped out altogether it can hardly be. And indeed is it wholly an evil? Is it not rather the case that, given the earnest students here presupposed, translations ought not to be put entirely under a ban? The traditional objections seem, if analysed, to resolve themselves into two, and to refer to the use of bad translations and the abuse of good translations. With regard to the first point, it is well known that there exist to-day translations of quite a different order from the ' cribs ' of a generation ago. Bald word-for-word versions, containing many slips and blunders, have been largely replaced by accurate renderings possessing a high degree of literary excellence. A more serious point is the second, that of the risk of good translations being abused. But that is a risk to which all good things are exposed ; and it seems best to face it from the first. The learner may be told of the best translation available (one which will be found, perhaps, in the School or College Library), but he should be warned, if he uses it at all, not to use it simply in order to save labour and thought. He must be given distinctly to understand that if he never puzzles out his author's meaning without extraneous aid, he will never be able to translate with accuracy at sight. In the long run you cannot save a youth from himself; if he does not use a translation, he will get help from a class-mate or from an edition which gives a large amount of translation in the form of notes. He must, therefore, be made to feel that he has reached the age at which he has his fate in his own hands ; and lo The Aims and Practice of Teaching. [Chap.

if only he does his best to make out the meaning of the passage for himself with no other aid than that of the grammar and the dictionary, it seems a matter for his own choice whether he learns the right rendering from his teacher's lips or from a printed translation, provided that the latter is used without dishonesty or concealment'. On the final revision of his work, at all events, he may find that difficulties have been left unsolved, and as it is of the utmost importance that he should not remain in doubt of the correct rendering, why should not he consult Jebb's Sophocles or Butcher and Lang's Odyssey^ In the case of the private student the argument is, of course, of double force ; but in the case of students whose need is not so great, a vigilant teacher will be able to detect abuse and to guard against it. Frequent questioning, the request for parsing or a literal version, composition exercises, practice in translation at sight, will all show whether honest work is being done. On these points, and others, a word or two may now be said. A few general remarks of a somewhat obvious nature may first be offered with regard to lessons in transla- L^sson^J^^'"" t^°"* ^^^^ ^z.vciQ ground should, to recur to a point already raised, be traversed repeatedly. Wearisome though the repetition may sometimes be to the teacher, it is most salutary to the average learner. The prepared translation may with advantage be done twice over, and also revised rapidly, as a whole, in texts free from underlining and from footnotes. It will be well for the student to read aloud the Greek when translating it, and for the teacher similarly to read it, and to deliver his own translation with

^ A really serious objection, however, from the schoolmaster's point of view, is that much of the freshness of the class-lesson may be impaired by the use of translations. The objection applies, in almost equal measure, to those annotated editions which, with misplaced zeal, leave hardly a single point unexplained. Why do not school editors sometimes suggest questions instead of always forestalling them ?

care and effect, couching his version in the best language he can command. At the later stages time may not allow of all this, but the value of the intelligent and expressive recitation of passages of poetry and oratory can hardly be over-estimated, and its neglect is one of the chief defects of English schools. The teacher will set his face against all mechanical reading, and will constantly be asking individual members of his class the old question : apu ye ytvcoo-Kcis a avaytvajcTKCts ;

But although it is important in the highest degree, it is not enough that a small amount should be most minutely done. If sufficient leisure for indepen- Rfa"Ina:^ dent work is allowed, wider and more discursive private reading should also be encouraged, particularly perhaps the study of some one author as a whole, with special attention to the pervading spirit and the permanent value of his writings. Such reading may not always win marks in an examination, but the boy who estimates examinations at their real worth as a means and not as an end will not heed that. He will read, and read, and read. And after he has become well versed in the Attic forms, he will be in a position to enjoy writers in other dialects ; and if here again his reading is wide, his teacher will be able to help him to take a more or less comprehensive survey of the Greek Dialects, and to do this (let us hope) without spoiling his pure and unsophisticated delight in the stirring tales of Homer and Herodotus. Let Homer and Herodotus be imbibed not sip by sip but in copious draughts, and at the same time let no narrow bounds, illiberally drawn, exclude later writers, such as the less-known Attic Orators or Polybius, Plutarch or Lucian, from the catholic sympathies of the young lover of Greek literature.

We pass to another point. To help the industrious and to convict the lazy, 'unseen' translation should be required almost from the beginning. This translation may be done in class, either orally or in writing, either without or (in the case of young students) with a dictionary. An oral at's'ight!^*'°" lesson in translation at sight will be of great value if the teacher does his best to put himself in the learner's place. If he has taught him from the beginning, he will know pretty well what his stock of knowledge is, and he will encourage him to call every particle of it into play. He will lead the members of his class on from point to point, and will show how they with their knowledge can grapple with the passage, if only they will attend carefully to the order and construction of the words, and keep an open mind instead of hurrying precipitately to conclusions. Progress will be slow at first, but speed will come with practice and increased knowledge on the pupil's part. And practice will be plentiful where the pupil is wise enough to treat his daily preparation as 'unseen,' and to mistrust all short cuts and royal roads to knowledge.

The next question is that of the teaching of systematic grammar. Grammar, treated in a broad and philosophic spirit, is a study which must necessarily come late, since it deserves in some degree the title of ' the coping-stone of the house of learning ' which an old scholar borrows from Plato in order to describe it'. Goodwin's larger work on the Greek Moods and Tenses is a fine example of the contributions made by modern scholarship to the higher grammar, contributions in which America has the distinction of being represented by Gildersleeve as well as by Goodwin. The study of comparative grammar may be aided by the use of Sonnenschein's Parallel Grainmar Series, of Victor Henry's Pr'ecis de granunaire comparee dii grec et du latin, of pioneer work such as the Greek Syntax by Clyde and that by Farrar, and of broadsheets such as Smith and Blackwell's Parallel Sy?itax Chart. Comparative philology will furnish help in many 1 Plato, ReJ>., 534 e, where the reference is to Dialectic.

directions, and students of Greek will have had the advantage of a sound grammatical discipline when learning Latin'. One thing in grammar is absolutely indispensable, and that is continual examination, both oral and \vritten. That learner is well advised who acts as his own chief questioner, and who prepares lists of difficult forms as they occur in his reading and collects for himself illustrations of the chief laws of syntax. But his teacher can also help him, and the grammar paper may, if drafted on broad lines, be as interesting as any, especially if the framer of it is at liberty to assume a good basis not only of Latin, but of English, French, and possibly German. Critical and miscellaneous questions will also form a useful adjunct to the grammar paper.

We come now to the practice of translation into Greek, which in various ways will have been proceeding all the time. We will assume that some sort of vo^c°aSry"°^ vocabulary has been already gained in the ordinary course of reading authors and writing exercises. Something more systematic might now be attempted. A book of vocabularies (words arranged in groups according to meaning) might be used for class repetition, the whole being gone over in one year and revised in the next. The words may be asked for occasionally in the shape of complete sentences devised by the teacher at the time after the manner of the Extemporalia of the German schools. Any interesting associations which may help to fix the meaning of a new word, and to make the act of remembering it as little mechanical as possible, will be mentioned. The word KaTrro? happens to meet the eye and may serve as an example. Its etymological connexion with the Latin vapor may be investigated ; or a literary illustration will help to the same end. The learner will probably have read Charles Kingsley's Westward Ho ! and he may be reminded of the

^ Latin has been, by the Germans, well termed der gratnmatisclu Knecht.

14 The Aims and Practice of TeacJdng. [Chap.

reference there made to that ' misocapnic ' monarch King James the First of England and his Counterblast to Tobacco. Or he may know something of the times of Erasmus, and mayremember frequent mention of the Hebrew scholar ReuchHn under the designation Capiio, fancifully suggested by the German word Ratich, just as the English Bullock and Fisher were Bovilliis and Piscator to their learned friends, and just as Desiderius Erasmus himself carried about with him throughout life somewhat unhappy Latin and Greek equivalents for his Dutch name, Gerard. In the same way let the teacher make the most of any traces in other languages of such words as pi^a, pax'-'') TrAttKous; of the nice distinctions in which Greek abounds, e.g. between (jaXiw, ipd<D, aripyw, dya-n-dw, or between the active voice and the middle in so many words ; of the somewhat rare descriptive words, such as Sao-uVovs, ^cpe'otKo?, av^efxovpyos, ttcVto^os; of Other names, for bird or beast or creeping thing, which might be rooted in the memory by reference to lines taken not from Hesiod or ^schylus but from Homer, who draws his similes from creatures as far apart as the wolf and the fly, the lion and the vulture, the horse and the bat, the swan and the grasshopper, the dog and the wasp, the locust and the crane, the falcon and the ass, the sea-mew and the serpent, the dolphin and the nightingale ; of proverbs such as yXavK €19 'A^vfi'as, ttXvvclv ttXLvOov, and ■17X0) o ^Xos; of words with historical or geographical associations, e.g.