Theory and practice of teaching

Front matter

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Preface

Many a meritorious book has failed to find readers by reason of a toilsome preface. If the following volume meets a similar fate, whatever its merits, it shall lack a like excuse.

This work has had its origin in a desire to contribute something toward elevating an important and rising profession. Its matter comprises the substance of a part of the course of lectures addressed to the classes of the Institution under my charge, during the past two years. Those lectures, unwritten at first, were delivered in a familiar, colloquial style, — their main object being the inculcation of such practical views as would best promote the improvement of the teacher. In writing the matter out for the press, the same style, to considerable extent, has been retained, — as I have written with an aim at usefulness rather than rhetorical effect.

If the term theory in the title suggests to any mind the bad sense sometimes conveyed

PREFACE.

by that word, I would simply say, that I have not been dealing in the speculative dreams of the closet, but in convictions derived from the realities of the schoolroom during some twenty years of actual service as a teacher. Theory may justly mean the science distinguished from the art of Teaching, — but as in practice these should never be divorced, so in the following chapters I have endeavored constantly to illustrate the one by the other.

If life should be spared and other circumstances should warrant the undertaking, perhaps a further course comprising the Details of Teaching may, at some future time, assume a similar form to complete my original design.

David P. Page.

State Normal School, } Albany, N. Y., Jan. 1, 1847. S

Chapter I. Spirit Of The Teacher

Perhaps the very first question that the honest individual will ask himself, as he proposes to assume the teacher's office, or to enter upon a preparation for it, will be — " What manner of spirit am I of?" No question can be more important. I would by no means undervalue that degree of natural talent — of mental power, which all justly consider so desirable in the candidate for the teacher's office. But the true spirit of the teacher, — a spirit that seeks not alone pecuniary emolument, but desires to be in the highest degree useful to those who are to be taught ; a spirit that elevates above every thing else the nature and capabilities of the human soul, and that trembles under the responsibility of attempting to be its educator ; a spirit that looks upon gold as the contemptible dross of earth, when compared with that imperishable gem which is to be polished and brought out into heaven's light to shine forever ; a spirit that scorns all the rewards of

True spirit.— Motives often wrong.

earth, and seeks that highest of all rewards, an approving conscience and an approving God ; a spirit that earnestly inquires what is right, and that dreads to do what is wrong ; a spirit that can recognise and reverence the handiwork of God in every child, and that burns with the desire to be instrumental in training it to the highest attainment of which it is capable, — such a spirit is the first thing to be sought by the teacher, and without it the highest talent cannot make him truly excellent in his profession.

The candidate for the office of the teacher should look well to his motives. It is easy to enter upon the duties of the teacher without preparation ; it is easy to do it without that lofty purpose which an enlightened conscience would ever demand ; but it is not so easy to undo the mischief which a single mistake may produce in the mind of the child, at that tender period when mistakes are most likely to be made.

Too many teachers are found in our schools without the spirit for their work which is here insisted on. They not only have not given attention to any preparation for their work, but resort to it from motives of personal convenience, and in many instances from a consciousness of being unfit for every thing else ! In other professions this is not so. The lawyer is not admitted to the bar till he has pursued a course of thorough preparation, and even then but warily employed. The physician goes through his course of reading and his course of lectures, and often almost through a course of starvation in the country village where he first puts

Preparation neglected.

up his sign, before he is called in to heal the maladies of the body. It is long before he can inspire confidence enough in the people to be intrusted with their most difficult cases of ailing, and very likely the noon of life is passed before he can consider himself established. But it is not so with the teacher. He gains access to the sanctuary of mind without any difficulty, and the most tender interests for both worlds are intrusted to his guidance, even when he makes pretension to no higher motive than that- of filling up a few months of time not otherwise appropriated, and to no qualifications but those attained by accident. A late writer in the Journal of Education hardly overstates this matter : — " Every stripling who has passed four years within the walls of a college ; every dissatisfied clerk, who has not ability enough to manage the trifling concerns of a common retail shop ; every young farmer who obtains in the winter a short vacation from the toils of summer, — in short, every young person who is conscious of his imbecility in other business, esteems himself fully competent to train the ignorance and weakness of infancy into all the virtue and power and wisdom of maturer years, — to form a creature, the frailest and feeblest that heaven has made, into the intelligent and fearless sovereign of the whole animated creation, the interpreter and adorer and almost the representative of Divinity !"

Many there are who enter upon the high employment of teaching a common school as a secondary object. Perhaps they are students themselves in some

Teaching a secondary object.— Ignorance does not excuse.

higher institution, and resort to this as a temporary expedient for paying their board, while their chief object is, to pursue their own studies and thus keep pace with their classes. Some make it a steppingstone to something beyond, and, in their estimation, higher in the scale of respectability, — treating the employment, while in it, as irksome in the extreme, and never manifesting so much delight as when the hour arrives for the dismissal of their schools. Such have not the true spirit of the teacher ; and if their labors are not entirely unprofitable, it only proves that children are sometimes submitted to imminent danger, but are still unaccountably preserved by the hand of Providence.

The teacher should go to his duty full of his work. He should be impressed with its overwhelming importance. He should feel that his mistakes, though they may not speedily ruin him, may permanently injure his pupils. Nor is it enough that he shall say, " I did it ignorantly." He has assumed to fill a place where ignorance itself is sin ; and where indifference to the well-being of others is equivalent to willful homicide. He might as innocently assume to be the physician, and, without knowing its effects, prescribe arsenic for the colic. Ignorance is not in such cases a valid excuse, because the assumption of the place implies a pretension to the requisite skill. Let the teacher, then, well consider what manner of spirit he is of. Let him come to this work only when he has carefully pondered its nature and its responsibilities,

Dangerous to mislead mind.

and after he has devoted his best powers to a thorough preparation of himself for its high duties. Above all, let him be sure that his motives on entering the schoolroom are such as will be acceptable in the sight of God, when viewed by the light beaming out from his throne.

" Oh ! let not then unskillful hands attempt To play the harp whose tones, whose living tones Are left forever in the strings. Better far That heaven's lightnings blast his very soul, And sink it back to Chaos' lowest depths, Than knowingly, by word or deed, he send A blight upon the trusting mind of youth."

A garden.— Flowers.— Fruit trees.

Chapter II. Responsibility Of The Teacher

SECTION I. -A NEGLECTED PEAR-TREE

Some years ago, while residing in the northeastern part of Massachusetts, I was the owner of a small garden. I had taken much pains to improve the condition and appearance of the place. A woodbine had been carefully trained upon the front of the little homestead ; a fragrant honeysuckle, supported by a trellis, adorned the doorway ; a moss-rose, a flowering almond, and the lily of the valley, mingled their fragrance in the breath of morn, — and never, in my estimation at least, did the sun shine upon a lovelier, happier spot. The morning hour was spent in "dressing and keeping" the garden. Its vines were daily watched and carefully trained ; its borders were free from weeds, and the plants expanded their leaves and opened their buds as if smiling at the approach of the morning sun. There were fruit trees, too, which had been brought from far, and so carefully nurtured, that they were covered with blossoms, filling the air with their fragrance and awakening the fondest hopes of an abundant harvest.

In one corner of this miniature paradise, there was

Neglected pear-tree —Pruning commenced.

a hop-trellis ; and, in the midst of a bed of tansy hard by, stood a small, knotty, crooked pear-tree. It had stood there I know not how long. It was very diminutive in size ; but, like those cedars which one notices high up the mountain, just on the boundary between vegetation and eternal frost, it had every mark of the decrepitude of age.

Why should this tree stand here so unsightly and unfruitful ? Why had it escaped notice so long ? Its bark had become bound and cracked ; its leaves were small and curled ; and those, small as they were, were ready to be devoured by a host of caterpillars, whose pampered bodies were already grown to the length of an inch. The tendrils of the hop-vine had crept about its thorny limbs and were weighing down its growth, while the tansy at its roots drank up the refreshing dew and shut out the genial ray. It was a neglected tree !

" Why may not this tree be pruned ?" No sooner said, than the small saw was taken from its place and the work was commenced. Commenced ? It was hard to determine where to commence. Its knotty branches had grown thick and crooked, and there was scarcely space to get the saw between them. They all seemed to deserve amputation, but then the tree would have no top. This and that limb were lopped off as the case seemed to demand. The task was neither easy nor pleasant. Sometimes a violent stroke would bring down upon my own head a shower of the filthy caterpillars ; again, the long-cherished garden-

Disagreeable toil. — Grafting of a Bartlet Pear.— Anxiety.

coat — threadbare and faded as it was — got caught, and before it could be disengaged, what an unsightly rent had been made ! With pain I toiled on, for one of the unlucky thorns had pierced my thumb ; and I might have been said to be working on the spur of the occasion !

The hop-vine, however, was removed from its boughs, the tansy and weeds from its roots, the scales and moss from its bark. The thorns were carefully pared from its limbs, and the caterpillars were all shaken from its leaves. The mould was loosened and enriched, — and the sun shined that day upon a long neglected, but now a promising tree.

The time for grafting was not yet passed. One reputedly skilled in that art was called to put the new scion upon the old stock. The work was readily undertaken and speedily accomplished, and the assurance was given that the Bartlet Pear — that prince among the fruits of New England — would one day be gathered from my neglected tree.

With what interest I watched the buds of the scion, morning after morning, as the month grew warmer, and vegetation all around was " bursting into birth !" With what delight did I greet the first opening of those buds, and how did I rejoice as the young shoots put forth and grew into a fresh green top ! With tender solicitude I cherished this tree for two long summers ; and on the opening of the third, my heart was gladdened with the sight of its first fruit blossoms. With care were the weeds excluded, the caterpillars

The pears ripen.— Chagrin and mortification.— A moral garden.

exterminated, the hop-vine clipped, the bark rubbed and washed, the earth manured and watered. . The time of fruit arrived. The Bartlet pear was offered in our market, — but my pears were not yet ripe ! With anxious care they were watched till the frost bade the green leaves wither, and then they were carefully gathered and placed in the sunbeams within doors. They at length turned yellow, and looked fair to the sight and tempting to the taste ; and a few friends, who had known their history, were invited to partake of them. They were brought forward, carefully arranged in the best dish the humble domicil afforded, and formally introduced as the first fruits of the " neglected tree.'" What was my chagrin and mortification, after all my pains and solicitude, after all my hopes and fond anticipations, to find they were miserable, tasteless — choke pears !

This pear-tree has put me upon thinking. It has suggested that there is such a thing as a moral garden, in which there may be fair flowers indeed, but also some neglected trees. The plants in this garden may suffer very much from neglect, — from neglect of the gardener. It is deplorable to see how many crooked, unseemly branches shoot forth from some of these young trees, which early might have been trained to grow straight and smooth by the hand of cultivation. Many a youth, running on in his own way, indulging in deception and profanity, yielding to temptation and overborne by evil influences, polluting by his example and wounding the hearts of his best

Many neglected trees.— Infancy.

friends as they yearn over him for good, has reminded me of my neglected tree, its caterpillars, its roughened bark, its hop-vine, its tansy bed, its cruel piercing thorns. And when I have seen such a youth brought under the influence of the educator, and have witnessed the progress he has made and the intellectual promise he has given, I have also thought of my neglected tree. When, too, I have followed him to the years of maturity, and have found, as I have too often found, that he brings not forth "the peaceable fruits of righteousness," but that he disappoints all the fondly-cherished hopes of his friends — perhaps of his own teachers, because the best principles were not engrafted upon him, I again think of my neglected tree, and of the unskillful, perhaps dishonest gardener, who acted as its responsible educator.

From the above as a text, several inferences might be drawn. 1. Education is necessary to develop the human soul. 2. Education should begin early. We have too many neglected trees. 3. It should be right education. And 4. The educator should be a safe and an honest man; else the education may be. all wrong, — may be worse even than the neglect.

But especially we may infer that

SECTION II. -THE TEACHER IS RESPONSIBLE.

It is the object of the following remarks feebly to illustrate the extent of the teacher's responsibility. It must all along be borne in mind that he is not alone responsible for the results of education. The parent

Extent of teacher's responsibility.— Bodily health.

has an overwhelming responsibility, which he can never part with or transfer to another while he holds the relation of parent.

But the teacher is responsible in a very high degree. An important interest is committed to his charge whenever a human being is placed under his guidance. By taking the position of the teacher, all the responsibility of the relation is voluntarily assumed ; and he is fearfully responsible not only for what he does, but also for what he neglects to do. And it is a responsibility from which he cannot escape. Even though he may have thoughtlessly entered upon the relation of teacher, without a single glance at its obligations ; or though, when reminded of them, he may laugh at the thought, and disclaim all idea of being thus seriously held to a fearful account, — yet still the responsibility is on him. Just as true as it is a great thing to guide the mind aright, — just as true as it is a deplorable, nay, fatal thing to lead it astray, so true is it that he who attempts the work, whether ignorant or skillful, whether thoughtless or serious, incurs all the responsibility of success or failure, — a responsibility he can never shake off as long as the human soul is immortal, and men are accountable for such consequences of their acts as are capable of being foreseen.

I. The teacher is in a degree responsible for the bodily health of the child. It is well established that the foundation of many serious diseases is laid in the school-room. These diseases come sometimes from a neglect of exercise ; sometimes from too long confine

Laws of physical health. — Nervous excitement.

ment in one position, or upon one study ; sometimes from over-excitement and over-study \ sometimes from breathing bad air ; sometimes from being kept too warm or too cold. Now the teacher should be an intelligent physiologist ; and from a knowledge of what the human system can bear and what it cannot, he is bound to be ever watchful to guard against all those abuses from which our children so often suffer. Especially should he be tremblingly alive to avert that excitability of the nervous system, the over-action of which is so fatal to the future happiness of the individual. And should he, by appealing to the most exciting motives, encourage the delicate child to press on to grasp those subjects which are too great for its comprehension, and allow it to neglect exercise in the open air in order to task its feverish brain in the crowded and badly ventilated school-room ; and then, in a few days, be called to look upon the languishing sufferer upon a bed of exhaustion and pain — perhaps a bed of premature death, could he say, " I am not responsible ?" Parents and teachers often err in this. They are so eager to develop a precocious intellect, that they crush the casket in order to gratify a prurient desire to astonish the world with the brilliancy of the gem. Each is responsible for his share of this sin ; and the teacher especially, because by his education he should know better.

II. The teacher is mainly responsible for the intellectual growth of the child. This may be referred chiefly to the following heads : —

Natural order. — Reading, &c— Mental Arithmetic.

1 . The order of study. There is a natural order in the education of the child. The teacher should know this. If he presents the subjects out of this order, he is responsible for the injury. In general, the elements should be taught first. Those simple branches which the child first comprehends, should first be presented. Reading, of course, must be one of the first; though I think the day is not distant when an enlightened community will not condemn the teacher, if, while teaching reading, he should call the child's attention by oral instructions to such objects about him as he can comprehend, even though in doing this he should somewhat prolong the time of learning to read. It is indeed of little consequence that the child should read words simply ; and that teacher may be viewed as pursuing the order of nature, who so endeavors to develop the powers of observation and comparison, that words when learned shall be the vehicles of ideas. Some further suggestions on this point will be made in the chapter entitled " Waking up Mind"

Next to Reading and its inseparable companions — Spelling and Defining, I am inclined to recommend the study of Mental Arithmetic. The idea of Number Is one of the earliest in the mind of the child. He can be early taught to count, and quite early to perform those operations which we call adding, subtracting, multiplying, and dividing. This study at first needs no book. The teacher should be thoroughly versed in " Colburn's Intellectual Arithmetic," or its equivalent, and he can find enough to interest the

Recite without book.— Geography and History.

child. When the scholar has learned to read, and hasattained the age of six or seven, he may be allowed a book in preparing his lesson, but never during the recitation. Those who have not tried this kind of mental discipline, will be astonished at the facility which the child acquires, for performing operations that often puzzle the adult. Nor is it an unimportant acquisition. None can tell its value but those who have experienced the advantage it gives them in future school exercises and in business, over those who have never had such training.

Geography may come next to Mental Arithmetic. The child should have an idea of the relations of size, form, and space, as well as number, before commencing Geography. These, however, he acquires naturally at an early age ; and very thoroughly, if the teacher has taken a little pains to aid him on these points in the earliest stages of his progress.. A map is a picture, and hence a child welcomes it. If it can be a map of some familiar object, as of his schoolroom, of the school district, of his fathers orchard or farm, it becomes an object of great interest. A map of his town is very desirable, also of his county and his own state. Further detail will be deferred here, as it is only intended in this place to hint at the order of taking up the subjects.

History should go hand in hand with Geography. Perhaps no greater mistake is made than that of deferring History till one of the last things in the child's course.

Writing.— Written Arithmetic— Composition.— Grammar.

Writing may be early commenced with the pencil upon the slate, because it is a very useful exercise to the child in prosecuting many of his other studies. But writing with a pen may well be deferred till the child is ten years of age, when the muscles shall have acquired sufficient strength to grasp and guide it.

Written Arithmetic may succeed the mental ; in deed, it may be practised along with it.

Composition — perhaps by another name, as Description — should be early commenced and very frequently practised. The child can be early interested in this, and he probably in this way acquires a better knowledge of practical grammar than in any other.

Grammar, in my opinion, as a study, should be one of the last of the common school branches to be taken up. It requires more maturity of mind to understand its relations and dependencies than any other ; and that which is taught of grammar without such an understanding, is a mere smattering of technical terms, by which the pupil is injured rather than improved. It may be said, that unless scholars commence this branch early, they never will have the opportunity to learn it. Then let it go unlearned ; for as far as I have seen the world, I am satisfied that this early and superficial teaching of a difficult subject is not only useless but positively injurious. How many there are who study grammar for years, and then are obliged to confess in after life, because " their speech bewrayeth" them, that they never understood it ! How many, by the too early study of an intricate branch, make

How to study.— Not words, but thoughts.

themselves think they understand it, and thus prevent the hope of any further advancement at the proper age ! Grammar, then, should not be studied too early.

Of the manner of teaching all these branches, I shall have more to say in due time. At present I have only noticed the order in which they should be taken up. This is a question of much consequence to the child, and the teacher is generally responsible for it. He should therefore carefully consider this matter, that he may be able to decide aright.

2. The manner of study. It is of quite as much importance hoiu we study, as what we study. Indeed I have thought that much of the difference among men could be traced to their different habits of study, formed in youth. A large portion of our scholars study for the sake of preparing to recite the lesson. They seem to have no idea of any object beyond recitation. The consequence is, they study mechanically. They endeavor to remember phraseology, rather than principles ; they study the book, not the subject. Let any one enter our schools and see the scholars engaged in preparing their lessons. Scarcely one will be seen, who is not repeating over and over again the words of the text, as if there was a saving charm in repetition. Observe the same scholars at recitation, and it is a struggle of the memory to recall the forms of words. The vacant countenance too often indicates that they are words without meaning. This difficulty is very much increased, if the teacher is confined to the text-book during recitation ; and par-

Teacher's duty. — Books but helps. — Study objects.

ticularly, if he relies mainly upon the printed questions so often found at the bottom of the page.

The scholar should be encouraged to study the subject ; and his book should be held merely as the instrument. " Books are but helps," is a good motto for every student. The teacher should often tell how the lesson should be learned. His precept in this matter will often be of use. Some scholars will learn a lesson in one tenth of the time required by others. Human life is too short to have any of it employed to disadvantage. The teacher, then, should inculcate such habits of study as are valuable ; and he should be particularly careful to break up, in the recitations, those habits which are so grossly mechanical. A child may almost be said to be educated, who has learned to study aright ; while one may have acquired in the mechanical way a great amount of knowledge, and yet have no profitable mental discipline.

For this difference in children, as well as in men, the teacher is more responsible than any other person. Let him carefully consider this matter.

3. Collateral study. Books to be sure are to be studied, and studied chiefly, in most of our schools. But there is much for the teacher to do toward the growth of the mind, which is not to be found in the school-books ; and it is the practical recognition of this fact which constitutes the great difference in teachers. Truth, in whatever department, is open to the faithful teacher. And there is such a thing, even in the present generation, as " opening the eyes of the blind," to

Teaching to observe.— Mind not to be crammed.

discover things new and old, in nature, in the arts, in history, in the relation of things. "Without diminishing, in the least, the progress of the young in study, thenpowers of observation may be cultivated, their perception quickened, their relish for the acquisition of knowledge indefinitely increased, by the instrumentality of the teacher. This must of course be done adroitly. There is such a thing as excessively cramming the mind of a child, till he loathes every thing in the way of acquisition. There is such a thing, too, as exciting an all-pervading interest in a group of children, so that the scholar shall welcome the return of school hours, and, by his cheerful step and animated eye, as he seeks the school-house, disclaim, as false when applied to him, the language of the poet, who described the school-boy of his darker day, —

" with his satchel, And shining morning face, creeping, like snail, Unwillingly to school."

The teacher, who is responsible for such a result, should take care to store his own mind with the material, and exercise the ingenuity, to do that which is of so much consequence to the scholar. The chapter on "Waking up Mind" will give some further hints to the young teacher.

III. The teacher is in a degree responsible for the

MORAL TRAINING of the child.

I say in a degree, because it is confessed that in this matter very much likewise depends upon parental influence.

Moral training neglected.— Precept.— Example.

This education of the heart is confessedly too much neglected in all our schools. It has often been remarked that " knowledge is power," and as truly that " knowledge without principle to regulate it may make a man a powerful villain !" It is all-important that our youth should early receive such moral training, as shall make it safe to give them knowledge. Very much of this work must devolve upon the teacher ; or rather, when he undertakes to teach, he assumes the responsibility of doing or of neglecting this work.