The school teacher's manual; containing practical suggestions on teaching, and popular education

Front matter

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A-^ X

Preface

BY T. H. GALLAUDET.

The following work I received, some time since, from an esteemed friend in England. The official station and high character of the author, led me to anticipate much satisfaction and improvement from its perusal. I was not disappointed. Sound, practical, and enlarged views of education, attracted my attention on every page ; while a spirit of unaffected piety and benevolence, breathing through the whole, showed that the writer's hearty as well as head, was well prepared for his task. His is a mind to appreciate the worth of good schools and good teachers, and of the moral influence which they can be made to exercise upon the whole mass of society. He holds no such fallacious sentiment that mere intellectual training will be sufficient to produce private or public virtue. Both teacher and pupils, in his opinion, should feel their accountability to God in their daily intercourse with each other, and be under the

VI PREFACE.

dominion of that love which the Go.spel inspires, in order that education may be conducted on the best principles, and produce the happiest results.

Yet he is neither a bigot, nor a sectarian. Should the reader, (taking it for granted that he is a believer in divine revelation,) happen to differ from the author on some two or three points of religious opinion, he will find nothing to lead him to do this with any other feelings than those of kindness and respect for one who holds what he considers the truth, in love, and expresses it with " the meekness of wisdom."

The work is emphatically a manual for teachers. No one who is a teacher, whether of a day or Sunday school, can fail to be benefitted by its perusal. There are other works, indeed, of a similar kind before the public, and deserving of the highest commendation. But this will be found to have its peculiar excellencies, the results of long experience, careful observation, and profound thought, expressed in a clear, forcible, engaging, and often eloquent manner. He who reads it once, if employed in the business of instruction, will be sure to read it again ; and could its principles and spirit but find their way into our schools, and ticademies, and even higher institutions of learning, good would be done of which we can hardly estimate the amount.

While making these remarks, it will be allowed me to say that in a very few things, if writing on the same topics, I might express sentiments differing somewhat from those of the author. My object, however, is not to give my own views, but his. This I have endeavored faithfully to do ; though I have omitted some passages,

PREFACE. V12

and slightly modified others in the English edition, in order to digest it of what was peculiarly adapted to the state of things in that country, and not to the condition of our own. The title, too, has been somewhat varied, being in the original ; " Popular Education, or, The Normal School Manual, &c," and the letter on the Monitorial system, which is the fourth in the series, I have transferred to the close of the volume as an Appendix. To do this, I thought, would give more unity to the whole with reference to the great mass of the schools among us, (they not being generally conducted on that plan ;) while I was desirous to have its peculiar features, and as some think, advantages^ spread before the reader by so competent and able a hand.

It is cheering to every friend of popular education to see so many gifted and experienced individuals, both in this country and in Europe, among whom our author holds a conspicuous rank, coming to similar results on this momentous subject. Universal intelligence under the influence of sound moral and religious principle, and diffused, in connection with other modes of doing it, through the extensive medium of common schools so as to embrace the whole rising generation, is to. constitute with the blessing of God, the security, the ornament, and the happiness of the social state, and to render it, (what we ought ever to regard as its principal value,) the propitious auxiliary to our preparation for a higher and nobler condition of being beyond the grave.

Such are the views of the author, expressed in one of the paragraphs which, for the reasons already given, have been omitted in the body of the work, but though coming from an Englishman, and relating particularly

VIU PREFACE.

to his own country, it is not without interest to the American reader. These are his words :

" The main object of the work is the improvement of our (home) schools, and the elevation of our (English) elementaiy teachers. Until this is effected, a deadlyapathy will continue to chill every effort to extend education, and cold contempt still wither the aspirations of those, who, but for this burden, would cheerfully devote themselves to the arduous and important duties of the school. " I have been the tutor of princes," said the friend of Silvio Pellico, " I am now ambitious to rise to the elevation of a schoolmaster to the poor."* If that noble sentiment found a cordial response in British bosoms, I should say of England, " the day of her deliverance draweth nigh." But it does not meet with such response, and it never will, until the moral power which yet slumbers in our schools, is, in a far greater degree than heretofore, recognized, developed, and sanctified. The improvement of education will alone lead to its extension. Then, and not till then, will the benevolent anticipations of one of nature's sweetest poets find their happy fulfilment, and mankind witness

— *' The coming of that glorious time,

Wheii; prizmg knowledge as her noblest wealth

And best protection, this imperial realm,

While she exacts allegiance, shall admit

An obligation, on her part, to teach

Them who are born to serve her and obey ;

* Speech of Henry Meyer, Esq. of Rome, at the meeting of the British and Foreign School Society,

PREFACE.

Binding herself by statute, to secure For all the children whom her soil maintains, The rudiments of letters ; and to inform The mind with moral and religious truth."*

* Wordsworth—*' The Excursion."

IX

Contents

Object of the Book, - - . .

Pleasantness of Teaching,

Government of a School,

Letter Iii.— To The Same, Government Of A School

I have already observed that children must be governed to a great extent by the same way as men are, viz. by the adaptation of plans to the fixed and uniform tendencies of human nature. At the same time, it is fully allowed, that the government of a school must be a power, exercised by the will of one man, according to circumstances of which he alone is the judge. Now there are two ways, and but two ways, of obtaining power of this description, — one is hy force ^ the other, by influence. Both are necessary in their places, according to the age and character of those who are the subjects of discipline ; but both are not equally suitable for the school. A child is a reasonalle being ; and therefore Dr. Johnson was wrong in arguing, in defence of Hastie, that school boys ''can be governed only by fear; that no stated rules can ascertain the degrees of scholastic, more than of military punishment, but that it must be enforced till it overpowers temptation, till stubbornness becomes flexible and perVerseness regular." Lord Mansfield, in his judgment on the same case, which he pronounced in the House of Lords, showed himself both a wiser and a better man, when he exclaimed, " My Lords, severity is not the way to govern either boys or men."*

Let us then try to find out "a more excellent way." Putting aside, therefore, the old notion of brute force^ as unfit to be applied for the purposes of government, when the reasoning powers are possessed and developed, let us see how moral means, or what we term influence^ may be brought to bear in this service.

The first thing to be attended to in every school is GOOD ORDER. This point, not less essential to the comfort of the teacher, and to the communication of instruction, than it is to the happiness and the moral w^elfare of the child, must be gained at all hazards. The want of order is the great master defect of nearly all schools. I know of no one thing w^hich so powerfully counteracts the exertions of teachers as this want of good discipline.t It is a great mistake to attend to instruc-

* Dr. Johnson's argument in this case, may be fonnd at length in the appendix to Boswell's Johnson, vol. iii. Murray's edition.

t It will be seen that I use this word here, and I shall do so in future, in its modern and limited sense, as referring to control ; and not in its more legitimate and extended signification, as relating to the whole course of instruction. I make this remark became tion as the Jirst thing; the love of order, punctuality, and cleanliness, ought to be awakened before the means of knowledge are increased; and this, not because literary instruction is less important, but because discipline is itself a principal means both of moral and intellectual improvement. Every intelligent being sees and feels the beauty of order when he finds himself surrounded by it, and children do so even more -than adults. A good teacher will know how to turn this natural taste (or arrangement to account. I will only add that, whatever may in other respects be the talents of an instructor, if he cannot maintain good order, he is worse than useless as a moral governor of the young ; he takes rank with the incompetent and the indolent.

The question then arises, How is order to be obtained ? I should reply, by letting it be understood from the first that you are determined to have it. Good or bad arrangements, a well or ill chosen system, (matters with which your pupils have nothing to do,) will, of course, materially affect the degree of order which can be maintained, and will also make a wide difference in the ease or difficulty of obtaining it. I am not now, however, speaking of systems, but of the kind of influence which must be exercised in order to make any

Professor Pillans, in his very useful " Letters on Elementary Teaching,*' adopts the latter sense, as corresponding to disciplina, in the writings of Cicero and Quintilian.

system work quietly, regularly, and efficiently. And here nothing can be done without unbending^ inflexible determhmtion on the part of the teacher. He must be an absolute monarch, and he must speak as a man ''having authorit3^"

These last words start a new train of thought. They suggest the idea of One, before whom, not the waywardness of childhood, but the wickedness of mature and hardened' malignity, cowed and was abashed ; and yet he was " meek and lowly," a '' man of sorrows," in rank a servant, and in temper a lamb. With this example before us, need I add, that the voice and look of authority are quite compatible with a spirit of gentleness, love, and true humility ? Ah ! you will say, but He was "the Holy One !" True! that was the secret of his power. While he commanded others he was himself governed ; not indeed by men, but by principles ; and so must you be, if, like him, you would be in your appropriate place, the object at once of fear and of love. Law (not caprice) must rule your school ; law, of which Hooker beautifully says, ''Her seat is the bosom of God, her voice the harmony of the world ; all things in heaven and earth do her homage, the very least as feeling her care, and the very greatest as not exempted from her power ; both angels and men, and creatures of what condition soever, though each in different sort and manner, yet all with uniform consent, admiring her as the mother of their peace and joy." But this is digression.

In enforcing authority, especially over numbers, attention must he 'paid to the tones of the voice. A horse, it has been shrewdly observed, soon perceives the timidity of his rider by the shaking of his legs, and no sooner does he suspect fear than he refuses to obey. Children, in like manner, instinctively discover by the tones of the voice when a teacher is unable to enforce obedience ; and the moment that discovery is made, his power is gone. He may implore, or he may be imperious ; he will only excite their scorn. You will see that what I refer to, has little to do with what is termed a good or bad voice ; it is not a question of high or low notes, and still less of loudness and vociferation. It is only as an index to the mind^ as indicating the determination within, that the tones of the voice become important; and this kind of demonstration you will at once perceive, may be conveyed as well in a whisper as in a shout. Only let it be a living voice, expressing the calm and quiet determination of a mind conscious of its strength, and it will rarely be resisted.

Bear in mind, then, that the first step you have to take, in moral, as well as in intellectual education, is, TO ESTABLISH YOUR AUTHORITY. There

never was a more absurd notion than that which is becoming popular in some quarters, that children may be governed without authority, by moral suasion alone ; that is to say, that they may be brought to love duty, without any intervention of arbitrary command. Do not listen to this mischievous trash for a moment. To what extent it may be possible to substitute explanations and reasons for commands, I do not pretend to say ; but thil I am sure of, no good will be done unless the child knows that authority is at hand if reason should fail ; and let me add, I account that moral discipline of httle worth, which does not teach a child to submit to authority, simply as authority, " There are moments in the course of education, and even of life, when the delay which reasoning demands, would expose us to danger w^hich it is intended to avert, and where we must learn to yield to authority without a question."* Mr. Abbott, in a paper published in the American Annals of Education, illustrates this principle in his usual happy manner. He says, ''Power is not useless because it lies dormant. The government of the United States employs its hundreds of workmen at Springfield, and at Harper's Ferry, in the manufacture of muskets. The inspector examines every one as it is finished, with great care. H^ adjusts the flint, and tries it again and again, until its emitted shower of sparks is of proper brilliancy ; and when satisfied that all is right, he

• Woodbridge.

packs it away with its thousand companions, to sleep probably in their boxes in quiet obscurity for ever. A hundred thousand of these deadly instruments form a volcano of slumbering power which never has been awakened, and which we hope never will be. The government never makes use of them. One of its agents, a custom-house officer, waits upon you for the payment of a bond. He brings no musket. He keeps no troops. He comes with the gentleness and civility of a social visit. But you know, that if compliance with the just demands of your government is refused, and the resistance is sustained, force after force would be brought to bear upon you, until the whole hundred thousand muskets should speak with their united and tremendous energy. Such ought to be the character of all government. The teacher of a school, especiall}^, must act upon these principles. He will be mild and gentle in his manners ; in his intercourse with his pupils he will use the language and assume the air, not of stern authority, but, of request and persuasion. But there must be authority at the bottom to sustain him, or he can do nothing successfully, especially in attempting to reach the hearts of his pupils. The reason why it is necessary is this. First, the man who has not the full, unqualified, complete control of his scholars, must spend his time and wear out his spirits in preserving any tolerable order in his dominions ; and, secondly, he who has not authortime or trouble as too great." Still, they must not govern you ; nor will they probably attempt it, if they find that while you are mild and courteous, you still know how to maintain your authority, and to carry out j^our plans with unwavering firmness.

The best mode of treating new scholars is often a perplexing consideration to young teachers ; nor is it by any means an unimportant one. A child not unfrequently derives its strongest impressions with regard to school, -from the events of the. first few days or weeks after its admission. It is here, then, necessary to guard on the one hand, against an amount of indulgence which cannot be continued ; and on the other, against a degree of strictness proper only to be exercised towards those who have been for some Httle time under the discipline of the school. Gentleness and decision combined, are essential; and nothing else will meet the irritation and insult to which a teacher is often exposed by new comers. Not a few enter with a determination to have their own way, and the struggle which folio vv^s is always very trying to the temper of the instructor. These are the things that test his skill in the management of human nature, and according to his proficiencj^willbe his success. In educating the ox for the plough, Mr. Cobbett very sensibly recommends that all violence and rough language should be avoided. ''If he be stubborn, there should be no blows and no loud scolding. Stop ; pat him ; pat the other ox ; and he will presently move on again. If he lie clown, let him lie till he is tired ; and when he chooses to get up, treat him very gently, as if he had been doing every thing that was right. By these means a young ox will in a few days be broken to his labor. With gentle treatment, he is alwaj^s of the same temper ; always of the same aptitude to labor." A new scholar should be broken in, to the regulations of a school, if not in the same way, at least on the same principles.

But what is to be done with the thoroughly incorrigible ; the one that has imbibed habits of confirmed depravity, and on whom admonitions and efforts have all been expended in vain ? I think there can be but one answ^er — dismiss him. In this case there are bad influences 02a of school, operating more powerful^, and counteracting but too successfully the good influences of discipline and instruction. Unless these could be removed, the prospect of reformation is hopeless ; and, therefore, you are not only justified, but hound, out of regard to the welfare of the rest, at once to separate him from the school. In Sunday schools, where it is possible to isolate in a great measure a youth of this description, and to keep him almost exclusively under the eye of a judicious teacher, it may be desirable to retain our hold as long as he is willing to attend ; but in schools where numbers are to be governed by one teacher, this degree of care is manifestly impossible. It is then far better that one should be abandoned to his folly, than that the whole school should be corrupted by his iniquity.'^

before concluding this letter, I must very briefly refer to the too frequent absence of good order in Sunday schools. I am not ignorant of the peculiar difficulties which stand in the way, and frequently impede the exercise of discipline in these institutions. There is in the minds of some Sunday school teachers a constant shrinking from the exercise of authority, lest the child should be disgusted with school, and withdraw itself altogether from the influences of Christian instruction. The only remedy that I can suggest, is, the adoption of a course which, I doubt not, has frequently been urged upon attention ; viz. the exercise by teachers generally, of greater care in the selection of superintendents, and of greater humility in submitting to their arrangements. These men should be chosen chiefly on account^ of their ability to govern; and when chosen, they should be '' esteemed very highly in love for their work's sake." From the remarks which have been made in this letter on the government of schools generally many important principles may be gathered, which, with some triffing modifications, will admit of general adoption in Sunday schools. The par-

* I have recently heard of two instances in which expulsion has led to the reformation of the offender. The possibility of this result should not be kept altogether out of sight.

ticular mode of their application must be left to the judgment of experienced teachers.

In conclusion, let me again remind you, that cJdldrm naturally love order. They may not like the means by which alone it can be secured, but when it is secured, they are always the happier for it» A strict discipline, unstained by severity, never weaned the affections of any child, either from his school or his teacher. If, therefore, you would at once promote your own comfort, the happiness of your pupils, and their highest welfare MAINTAIN GOOD GOVERNMENT.

LETTER IV.— TO THE SAME. ^'didaktik," or the art of communi

GATING.

By this word (didalctilc)^ which the Germans have adopted from the Greek, I wish you to understand, the art of teaching; as distinguished on the one hand, from their inethodiTc^ or science of methods ; and on the^ other from their ^adagogik^^ or science of education ; of which the art of communicating is only one part or division. You will readily perceive that it is an attainment perfectly distinct from any particular plan or system ; and also a very different thing from what is usually termed tact in teaching. It is in fact, the art of so communicating knowledge, that the pupil shall, as far as possible, comprehend in all its relations, the truth sought to be imparted ; and that, associating what is thus received, with other and

* Dr. Bryce (of Belfast) suggests the word padeutics, which may be considered as both an art and a science; an art when it lays down

rules, a science when it teaches general principles.

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54 SCHOOL teacher's MANUAI/.

previous acquisitions, he may be led at one and the same time, to cultivate his original faculties, and to store his mind richly and permanently with valuable facts. This is what I mean by " the art of teaching," a talent which few naturally possess, but which may doubtless be acquired by the careful and diligent study of the human mind, in connection with a moderate share of ^'practice." . The use of this latter word suggests an analogy which, certainly to some extent, subsists between the profession of teaching and that of medicine. He who would be an accomplished physician, must stndj princijylesj as well as '' see cases ;" and, in like ma^nner, he who would be a useful teacher, must look beyond the systems to the principles on which they rest. The man who thinks himself qualified to teach, merely because he has observed others teaching on a particular plan, is just as much an empiric, as the medical pretender whose course of study has been limited to occasional walks through the wards of a hospital. It was in connection with this view of the subject, (its relation to the philosophy of the human mind,) that Dr. Thomas Brown, of Edinburgh, spoke of the art of teaching as *'the noblest, and in proportion to its value, the least studied of all the arts." When examined in this light, it cannot fail, I think, to be recognised as an attainment equally important to day and to Sunday school teachers ; because, it bears as directly on the effectual communication of Divine, as of secular knowledge.

After these remarks, from which you may gather the notions I entertain of the length and breadth of this subject, it is scarcely necessary for me to add, that a letter, like the present, can, of necessity, contain little more than a few brief hints, relating indeed to the art in question, but by no means sufficient for its entire comprehension. Before this can be accomplished, many a volume must be studied ; and, let me say, too, many a night passed in deep reflection upon the observations of the day.

I will suppose you, then, actuated by a sincere desire to communicate instruction in the best possible way, entering your school room, perplexed and harassed by the waywardness and indifference of your pupils ; and that in this state of mind you put the question, ''What can I do to excite attention, to stimulate dulness, to awaken effort ?" I reply, in the first place, as preliminary indeed to every thing else, — ^bring distinctly before your own mind the well-known fact, that children delight as rmich in exercising their ininds as their limbs ; provided only that which is presented to them, be suited to their capacities, and adapted to their strength.^

^ Probably it is no exaggeration to say that the appetite for knowledge is as great as any bodily appetite. To knowt is one of the

6(j SCHOOL teacher's MANUAL.

'' It was but this morning, (says a recent writer on education,) that I watched a young lazaroni, w^hile he sought to make his little crazy boat lie straight and steady upon the water. How fertile was he in expedients ; how ingenious in contrivances ; how resolute against despair ! First, were the waves too strong ; he sought out, therefore, a more sheltered spot : he next adjusted the balance and unfurled the sails — still without success. He then looked around him in much perplexity, till some of that long sea-weed, which is scattered over the coast after a storm, caught his eye : this he seized eagerly, and peeling it into long strips, he tied with them his little boat to a stone, (his sheet anchor ;) and then wading as far out as the weed would permit, and so shaping his course that a neighboring jetty might afford him smooth and tranquil water, he again placed his boat upon the sea. There he stood breathless, his hands busied with his burdens, his shirt tucked up and held by his teeth, but still half floating on the water, and his face troubled as though with his last hope. One moment he seemed to have succeeded ; the next, and his boat again lay with its side upon the

strongest desires of childhood ; lo obtain a new word is pleasant, and to gain a newideais pleasanter still; but to be crammed with words without ideas is very painful. Dr. Johnson was any thing but a philosopher, when he said that ''no attention can be obtained from children without the infliction of pain." Happily for this- generation, this notion is now nearly exploded.

waves : he did not however even then despair, but sat himself upon the beach, with an old nail and a stone, to devise some other remedy."* Now, we have only to make our experiments equally interesting to the youthful mind, in order to excite and to sustain the same ardor.

It is a great mistake to suppose, as many do, that, in order to make learning pleasant to the young, difficulties must as much as possible be removed out of the way. On the contrary, it is in teaching them to overcome difficulties, that we shall be most likely to create the interest we are so desirous of calling forth. As a general rule, it should be the care of a teacher to supply his pupils from day to day wdth a succession of topics, somewhat heyond their Icnowledge^ withoitt being above their comjp'ehension.

General rules, however, wdll not suffice for the g-uidance of young teachers ; they want details, examples, illustrations ; and without these, rules are worthless. If, therefore, I should sometimes enlarge on certain branches of instruction with a minuteness which their relative importance would scarcely seem to justify ; if I should stop to weigh conflicting opinions on points which may at first sight appear in themselves too trifling for discussion ; if I should sometimes, for the sake of elucidation, descend to apparent littleness ; remember

* Outline of a System of National Education. London, 1835.

*

that I do so, not because I am either regardless of the miportance of condensation, or insensible to the ofFensiveness of puerility ; but because I am determined in these letters to sacrifice every thing else to perspicuity and practical usefulness.

The Alphabet is usually the first subject presented to the notice of a child at school ; and a more difficult or tiresome lesson he is never doomed to meet with in his whole future course. The names of the letters are unmeaning and arbitrary sounds ; and with two or three exceptions, the forms are not associated with any object previously recognised. How can such an exercise be expected to produce any thing but weariness and disgust ? You will be glad to hear that men of the highest attainments in literature, have not thought it beneath their character and standing to endeavor at least to facilitate the passage across this ' bridge of sighs.'