A primer of pedagogy

Front matter

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Prefatory Note To Third Edition

The favor with which this little volume has been received, and the conviction that it has been of great service to teachers of elementary schools, induce the publisher to issue a new edition. The body of the work remains essentially unchanged ; but a chapter has been added upon the Study of Children. This chapter presents only such matter as will be of real and practical value to ordinary teachers. This addition brings the book up to date.

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CHAPTER L

THE teacher's WORK.

Three questions. — Three questions naturally present themselves to a person who proposes to prepare himself to do any work:

(1.) Just what is the work which I am preparing to do?

(2.) By what means and methods, and in what manner, can this work be done most easily and thoroughly ?

(3.) How can I prepare myself most readily and completely to do this work ?

Should be answered. — Every candidate for a teacher's position should put these questions to himself, and should not be satisfied until he can answer them with a good degree of clearness and definiteness.

Probable answer. — Very likely the answer to the first question, in most cases, will be, the work is teaching, and I propose to prepare myself to teach.

While this reply might be accepted with sufiicient explanation and qualification, it involves the not unusual error of putting the means in place of the end. Teaching is not an end in itself: it is only and merely a means to an end. We do not teach for the sake of the teaching any more than we construct a machine simply for the sake of the machine, or make a road just for the sake of having the road. We value the machine, not for itself, however beautiful it may be, but for what we can accomplish by using it; we value the road because it affords a convenient way of going somewhere. So we value teaching on account of the purpose which can be accomplished by it. That purpose or end is the education of the child.

The real work of the teacher. — The real work to be done, the real work of the teacher, is the right education of his. pupils.

He teaches in order to attain this end. If the teaching secures this, it is good; if it fails to accomplish this, it is worthless, or of very little value.

What is right education?— If it be agreed that the teacher's work is the right education of the child, the question presents itself, what is right education ? Without attempting to give a complete and formal definition we may safely assume that the proper education of a child must include: —

(1.) The complete development of the child; that is, the bringing out into the highest state of possible perfection all his powers of body and soul, making of him the most and best of which his nature is susceptible.

(3.) The thorough training of tJie child. Training is forming, fashioning, and molding by continual practice, causing acta and processes to be repeated until they can be performed with great accuracy and rapidity and with little conscious effort.

(3.) Thepi'ojyer instructing of the child; that is, the helping of the child, so far as aid is needed, to obtain that knowledge which will be of the highest value to him as an individual and also as a member of the community and a citizen of the state.

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What is produced?— These are the three co-ordinate elements or factors in a complete and symmetrical education: Development produces power, strength, energy; training results in skill, dexterity, facility, habit; instruction gives intelligence, comprehension, mastery of facts and principles, and should tend to the production of virtue and righteousness of character and conduct. Intelligence guides power in the right direction, and makes profitable use of skill and dexterity.

All accomplished at the same time. — These three objects are accomplished at the same time and by the same processes if right methods are wis'ely employed by the teacher. Instruction must precede and accompany training and furnish the material upon which the activitj^ involved in training is exercised. The exercise which training requires produces development.

Some definitions of education. — These statements of what education should do for the child are essentially the same as those made by many eminent writers.

Tate. —Tate says: "Elementary education has two ends. 1. To develop the intellectual and moral faculties; or, in other words, to develop the faculties of the perfect man. 2. To communicate to the pupil that sort of knowledge which is most Ukely to be useful to him in the sphere of life which Providence has assigned him."

Milton. — Milton, in his tractate on education, writes; *' I call a complete and generous education that which fits a man to perform justly, skillfully, and magaanimously, all the offices both private and public of peace and war." In this definition Milton has in view the purpose or end to be secured by education rather than education itself.

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Addison. — Addison, in his beautiful style, says: " I consider a human soul without education like marble in the quarry, which shows none of its inherent beauties until the skill of the polisher fetches out the colors,' makes the surface shine, and discovers every ornamental cloud, spot, and vein that runs through the body of it.

" Education, after the same manner, when it works upon a noble mind, draws out to view every latent virtue and perfection which, without such helps, are never able to make their appearance."

Plato. — Plato, in his Laws, seems to have anticipated the modern doctrine of " learning to do by doing," and even something of the kindergarten, when he writes: "According to my view, he who would be good at anything must practice that thing from his youth upwards, both in sport and in earnest, in the particular manner which the work requires. For example, he who is to be a good builder, should play at building children's houses; and he who is to be a good husbandman, at tilling the ground. Those who have charge of the education of children should provide them when young with mimic tools, and they should learn beforehand the knowledge which they will afterwards require for their art. For example, the future carpenter should learn to measure or apply the line in play; and the future warrior should learn riding, or some other exercise for amusement; and the teacher should endeavor to direct the children's inclinations and pleasures, by the help of amusements, to their final aim in life. The soul of the child, in his I>lay, should be trained to that sort of excellence in which, when he grows to manhood, he will have to be perfected."

In speaking of the value of education to the state he says: ' ' If you ask what is the good of education in general, the answer is easy — that education makes good men, and good men act nobly because they are good."

Divisions of education. — If the subject were to be fully considered it would be convenient to make several divisions and treat each of these separately. It will only be possible here to indicate these divisions.

1. Physical education, which treats of the proper development and training of the body, and of the conditions necessary for securing and maintaining strength, vigor and health in the physical organism.

2. Intellectual education, which treats of the development and training of the intellectual powers, and of the whole matter of instruction, study, and teaching.

3. Moral education, which considers man as a being ca^pable of knowing right from wrong, and free to choose between these, and consequently responsible for his conduct. This division treats of the principles which should govern men in all the relations of life, and seeks to show how children may be taught and trained to habits of truthfulness, honesty, integrity, and virtue in the highest sense of the word.

4. Industrial QdiWcaition, which includes " manual training," and considers how pupils may be prepared to use to the best advantage their powers of body as well as of mind, and may be fitted, when leaving school, to enter immediately into some business or employment of some kind by which they can gain a livelihood and be useful to the state.

It will not be practicable to discuss these divisions separately, at any length, in this work. It will be understood that the complete education of a child includes, as far as possible, all these varieties of education.

SUMMARY OF CHAPTER I.

1. Three questions presented to one preparing for any work.

2. Probable answer to the first question by one preparing to teach.

3. Why this answer is not satisfactory.

4. Illustrations of the purpose of teaching.

5. Real work of the teacher.

6. The three objects which education should include.

7. The results of development, of training, of instruction.

8. Relation of these processes to each other.

9. Definitions of education quoted. Tate, Milton, Addison, Plato.

10. Divisions of the subject of education and purpose of each.

Chapter II. The Child

Knowledge needed to answer the second question. — The question, What is the teacher's work ? was answered in the first chapter. The second question, By what means and methods, and in what manner, can this work be done most easily and thoroughly ? cannot be answered so readily and briefly.

The being to he educated is the child. Before we can tell how to educate him we must know what sort of a being lie is. What is there in him to be developed and trained? The germs of what powers and capacities does he possess? What kind of

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instruction does he need ? and under what conditions and circumstances can this instruction be given to the best advantage ?

Illustration. — The man who should offer to take charge of a valuable young horse, and to train him for use or for the market, would be asked by the owner of the animal what he knew about horses, and about the best methods of training them; whether he knew what kind of food horses needed, and how much, and in what form and at what times it should be given. Whether he had carefully studied the nature and disposition of horses, and understood how to handle them; how to train them so as to bring out their very best characteristics and qualities, and to correct any bad or vicious traits which might appear in the progress of their education. Such questions would be reasonable, and it would be necessary for this candidate for the position of trainer to make clear and definite replies. It would hardly be satisfactory for him to say that he had seen a great many horses, and could readily distinguish them from mules by sight, even at considerable distance.

Proper to ask of the teacher. — Is it not proper to ask as much of the teacher of children as of the trainer of horses? and to expect as definite answers of the teacher as of the trainer? What, then, is a child?

What the child is.— The child is a complex being, curiously and wonderfully made, composed of matter, the body, and of spirit, the mind or soid. The limits of a short chapter will not allow a complete analysis and study of his nature. It is assumed that the reader has some knowledge of the human body, derived from observation and from instruction in the elements of physiology. We shall here notice only some parts

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of the nervous system, which must be clearly understood in order to understand certain activities of the mind.

Nervous system. — The brain is the great center of the nervous system. From the brain and the spinal cord small threads or cords called nerves extend to all parts of the body. Each nerve is composed of a considerable number of very minute fibers very closely united. The peculiar property or cliaracteristic of the nerves is the susceptibility of being impressed, excited, or irritated, and the power of transmitting or conveying, in some ivay, these impressions, excitements or irritations.

Some of the nerves or nerve fibers transmit impressions made upon them by external things inward to the brain. These are called afferent or sensory nerves. Other nerves convey impulses or impressions from the brain outward to the various parts of the body. These are named efferent or motor nerves. For example, I will to take a book from the table; the nerves running to my hand and fingers convey the order or impulse made upon them by the act of my will; the muscles of the arm, hand and fingers move in the right direction and order and the book is grasped.

PROCESSES AND ACTIVITIES OF KNOWING.

The senses. — We are said to have five senses. This means that there are five peculiar and special nerves, called nerves of sense, through which we get the beginnings of all our knowledge. These are the nerves of touch, taste, smell, hearing and sight. They are sometimes called tlie ' ' gate- ways of the soul, " because only through these can the soul become acquainted with the external world.

Each of these nerves, except the nerves of touch, receives but one kind of impression and gives to the mind but one kind of knowledge. By a most beneficient provision, however, if one nerve of sense is lost or destroyed, the others can, to a considerable extent, supply its place. It is also true that, by a process of education, one sense learns to do work which originally belonged to another sense. For example, we judge by sight whether a surface is rough or smooth, although, in the first instance, we must have learned to distinguish the rough from the smooth by touch. Other illustrations will readily occur to any one who

thinks.

Knowledge derived through the different senses. — By the

sense of touch in connection with muscular movement and resistance, we obtain our first notions of form, distance, direction, weight, hardness, softness, roughness, smoothness, and of many other characteristics of objects. Taste makes us acquainted only with flavors. Smell gives information concerning odors alone; hearing is the only gate -way through which sounds reach the soul. Sight primarily gives knowledge of colors and forms; but very early the child begins to learn , through this sense, of size, direction, distance, character of surfaces, and of many other things.. Education deals very largely with the sense of sight. The eye and the hand are of priceless value in the schoolroom, as they are in the greater world of human affairs generally.

The senses, instruments of the mind. — The senses are the instruments or organs of the mind. Through them the mind feels, tastes, smells, hears, and sees. In the process of education they are to be trained, by proper exercise, to become more perfect and more reliable instruments. It is a part of tlie teacher's work to provide for such training.

The mind. Consciousness. — The mind or soul is that ivithin us which knows, feels, and wills. Of its substance we have no knowledge. We know that we feel, taste, smell, hear, and see; that we think, remember, imagine and reason. This kind of knowing tve call consciousness, which may be defined as the viindknowing itself and knoiving its own states and activities.

Relation of consciousness to the senses. Sensation. — The relation of consciousness and the senses is easily illustrated: I rub the tips of my fingers over the rough surface of an unpolished piece of stone and then over the surface of a piece of highly polished marble. An impression is made in each case upon the minute fibers of the nerves. They are irritated, or excited, and this excitement is conveyed along the nerves to the brain. In some way, but how no one has yet been able to explain, an impression is made upon the mind. A state of mind is produced which is called a sensation. We say, therefore, sensation is a state of mind produced by an impression upon some sensory nerve.

Beginnings of education. — The mind is immediately aware of the sensation through consciousness. In the case just supposed of rubbing the pieces of stone, the mind recognizes the two sensations, compares them, pronounces them unlike, and declares one piece to be rough, the other smooth. All th^, knowledge of the child begins with sensations. The process of education commences just at this point, and commences with the knowing of sensations, comparing them, finding their resemblances and differences, and making conclusions and decisions concerning them.

Knowledge of external things. — As soon as the mind becomes conscious of sensations it begins spontaneously to attribute them to external objects or influences as causes. If through the sense of smell it has a sensation of some odor, it believes the odor comes from some object outside of itself. This attributing sensations to their causes brings the mind into acquaintance with the external world, and produces what is called perception.

Perception. — Perception, as an act, is the mind knowing things outside of itself, the world about us. As a power, perception is tJie ability of the mind to know the external world. In the act of perceiving we form in the mind an image, idea, or notion of the thing perceived. This product of the act of perceiving is called a percept. If I look upon a tree and then close my eyes and turn away I can form a picture or representation of the tree in my mind. This picture is the percept reproduced. If I hear a musical tone I can afterwards form an idea or notion of the tone, but not an image or picture. The same is true of a taste or an odor. These ideas or notions are also called percepts.

Space and time. — The mind is so made that as soon as a child begins to know objects he cannot help thinking or knowing that they are somewhere. That somewhere he learns to call space. He cannot think of himself without at the same time thinking that he is in space. He thinks of all things as in space, though he cannot tell what space is.

As soon as he commences to notice that events happen one after another, that he sees one thing and then another, that he thinks one thought and then another, he has immediately an idea of what we call time, though he is unable to describe it.

Intuition. — That power of mind tvhich causes the child to have such ideas as those of space and time is called intuition. The same power recognizes instantly the truth of what we call axioms. They are said to be self-evident truths. We mean by this that the. mind is so constituted that it cannot help accepting them as true as soon as it knows them. It does not go through any process of reasoning to reach this conclusion. Such truths as these make a starting point in all processes of reasoning. No sane mind ever doubts or denies them.

The perceptive powers. — These three activities of mind, consciousness, perception and intuition, give us the beginnings, what we may call the raw material, of all our knowledge. Taken together they form a class or group of mental activities and are named the perceptive powers. Consciousness, as before stated, is the mind knowing or perceiving itself, and what it does, and how it feels, and what it chooses and determines. Perception, as an act, is the mind perceiving or knowing external things through the senses. Intuition is the mind perceiving or knowing simple ideas, such as the idea of time, of space, of beauty, or of right, and of self-evident truths: Such as that the whole is equal to the sum of all its parts, or that an object can be in onlj' one place at any one time.

COXCEPTIVE OR REPRESENTATIVE ACTIVITIES.

Power and process of representation. — As already stated, I can shut my eyes and 5'"et see, in my mind, a tree, or a house, or any other object of sight. There appears to be ''in the mind's eye," a picture or an image of the object. Tli is picture or image is said to represent the object.

I can think of some sound which I have heard at some past time so as to have a pretty clear and distinct idea of the sound. Any person who sings must be able to do this, otherwise he

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could not reproduce to-day the notes of a tune learned yesterday or last year.

In the same way one can form a notion of a taste or a smell which has been experienced at some time. If this were not so the mouth would not "water" when we think of some very delicious article of food.

Representation from descriptions. — I can also represent or picture mentally any object or place when it is described to me, although I have never myself seen the object or place. This process of representation always goes on in the mind when one is reading, if the language of the book or paper is understood. A book is of no use to a child until he has become able to formthose mental images and ideas.

Representation in school. — In the schoolroom the pupil, who is told to place an example in arithmetic upon the blackboard without using his book, must first form a picture or idea of the example in his mind before he can produce it on the board. The same would be true of a sentence to be written, of a map to be drawn, or of a geometrical figure to be reproduced.

Concepts. — All these mental images, pictures, ideas or notions are called simple concepts. They differ from percepts in this respect: Percepts are the mental pictures and ideas or notions of objects formed when the objects are present to the senses; concepts are the mental pictures and notions formed when the objects are not present.

Real representation. — In all the examples thus far mentioned the mind represents things just as they are or just as they are supposed to be. This process is called real representation, and the mental activity ivhich does such work is called simple conception or the power of real representation. It is also sometimes named reproductive imagination.

Ideal representation, imagination. — But there is another and a different kind of representation, which is more properly the work of imagination. Mental images and pictures may be combined and arranged into new forms, unlike any which have ever been seen, or which actually exist. In this way the painter produces an ideal landscape, putting into a single picture the representation of objects from many different localities, a mountain from one place, a valley from another, a grove from still another, and so on until he has filled his canvas. In like manner the story writer fills his book with incidents, skillfully woven together, which originally had no relation to each other. Such representations are called ideal, and the mental power ivhich creates them is imagination proper.

Other work of imagination. — The imagination also changes things by representing them as larger or smaller than they really are, thus making giants and pygmies out of ordinary men. It also transforms one thing into another, and represents perscHis and things by objects which have no resemblance to them. The boy's stick becomes a horse; the girl's toy table is surrounded by an imaginary company of her playmates.

In school. — In the schoolroom imagination is of great service. By its help the pupil sees rivers, lakes, mountains, hills, villages, cities, railroads, and hundreds of other objects in the map hanging on the wall before him, where, in reality, he can see only lines and marks of various kinds.

Memory. — Memory is the power of mind which retains, reproduces and reknows knowledge. How it retains we do not know. It acts constantly in connection with simple conception and imagination. In many cases their work could not be done without the aid of memory.

How memory recalls. — The memory can recall and reproduce a few things instantly. A person gives his name, repeats the alphabet, answers questions on the multiplication table without stopping to think. But in most cases it takes a little time to bring back what is asked for. It is not able to get the thing wanted by a single effort. It starts with one thing, that leads on to another, the second leads to a third, the third to a fourth, and so on until the desired object is reached and reproduced. All these various things are said to be associated or fastened together in the mind, so that any one of them will aid the memory in finding the others. There is always a relation of some sort between objects and ideas thus associated. The relations which cause knowledge to be associated in this ivay are called laws of association.

Laws of association. — The most important of these laws are, (1) the law of similarity, (2) the law of contrast, and (3) the law of contiguity. That is, things and thoughts are associated in the mind because they are alike, or because they are the opposites of one another, or because they belong in the same time, or at the same place, or are in some way closely related. These laws are called primary and objective.

Conditions of mind and body. — In addition to these laws there are certain conditions and states both of mind and body which help the power of memory very much. For this reason such conditions are sometimes called secondary and subjective laws of association.

The most essential of these are (1) attention, (2) repetition, m proper feeling , (4) lapse of time, (5) condition of mind, (6) condition of body, and (7) employments. Those things are usually easily remembered to which we give close attention when learning them. Some things are fixed in the memory simply by many repetitions; others by some vivid feeling associated with them. Things can be. easily recalled which w^ere learned yesterday; those learned a long time ago are recalled less readily. If the mind is preoccupied, or the body is full of pain, it is difficult to commit a lesson to memory.

Finally, men readily recall things connected with their daily business.

The representative or conceptive powers. — Simple conception, imagination and memory are grouped together and called the conceptive or representative powers of the mind.

THINKING ACTIVITIES.

Thinking processes — Having got the matter of knowledge by the perceptive powers we hold it and reproduce it by the representative powers, and then go on to examine, arrange, and classify it so that we can use it for practical purposes, or as means by which to obtain additional knowledge. These processes of examining, sorting over, and arranging ive call thinking.

Analysis, abstractions, generalization — Things which are to be brought together into the same class must possess certain common characteristics. These characteristics form the basis of the classification. In order to find such characteristics, objects must be carefully and thoroughly examined. This examination is called analysis. Then these common characteristics must be picked out from the others and united into a

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complex notion or concept. The process is termed abstraction. Finally, atl the objects which have these qualities are grouped under some common name. This last act is called gejieralization.

General conception, general concepts. — The mental activity, by which these three complex processes of analysis, abstraction, and generalization are performed, is named general conception; and the mental product is called a general concept. This is the simplest thinking operation of the mind. In this way we form the ideas or notions expressed by common nouns, such as flowers, roses, apples, horses, houses, books and so on.

The judgment, a judgment. — We are constantly comparing objects and pronouncing them alike or unlike. The young child begins by comparing sensations, and next percepts, or objects about him. He compares persons, animals, flowers, fruits, and learns to discriminate or distinguish one from another. The mental power which thus compares and decides concerning things is called the judgment, and the mental product is named a judgment. When a judgment is expressed in words, either spoken or written, it is termed 3^ proposition or a sentence. Stones are hard; sugar is sweet; the horse is worth a hundred dollars. These are all judgments expressed in propositions.

Form of thinking. — This forming of judgments is another of the thinking processes; most, if not all, our thinking takes this forrh, as one can determine by analyzing his own mental activities. As soon as the child has learned language he thinks in words.

Reasoning. — One other mode of thinking is called reasoning.

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in this judgments are compared. We assume certain things to be true, and then say, if these are true a certain other thing must be true, also. For example: Liars are bad men; this man is a liar; therefore, this man is bad.

The knowing powers. — General conception, judgment, and reasoning form the group of thinking powers. The three groups together constitute the knowing poivers of the mind or the intellect.

Synopsis

of the