Home education

Preface

In determining to give my own children the kind of education which I myself received, namely, a domestic one, I soon found the want, not merely of elementary books on particular subjects, such as I could employ with entire satisfaction, but also of any comprehensive system, specifically applicable to the peculiar circumstances of a home course of instruction.

In a word, and with all the respect that is due to the many able and amiable writers who have favoured the world with their thoughts on the general subject of education, I have felt myself compelled, as well to digest the principles of procedure in such a course, as to devise the methods proper for giving them effect.

It is manifest that a scheme of family instruction ought, not merely to comprise what may, in some

IV PREFACE.

degree, compensate for the unquestionable advantages that attach to schools ; but also include the means for improving, to the utmost, those peculiar and inestimable opportunities of moral and mental advancement which are to be found at home, and there only. Not to do this, would be to place ourselves in a position in which private education could not at all sustain comparison with the more usual method.

Now, not to mention some incidental and yet important recommendations of the plan which we have at present in view, the chief and the most decisive one, (moral considerations apart,) is the facilities afforded, at home, for bestowing a well-considered culture upon each of the several faculties of the mind ; and for doing this in the order of their natural development.

This point may then be named, as the leading characteristic of the system which it is the intention of the present volume to explain.

But a scheme of intellectual culture, conformed to the principle of a careful adherence to the order of nature, in expanding the several faculties, is not to be comprised within very narrow limits. Indeed it is evident, that an elaborate operation, extended through ten or twelve years, (the five or six years of infancy

PREFACE. V

not included,) if it be so far described in its details as to be made available to others, must occupy a good deal of room. In the present volume, after advancing some observations applicable to the home economy in general, I have gone no further than to open the subject of a systematic culture of the mind, by suggesting some methods for eliciting, and for enriching, those faculties that are passive, and recipient chiefly, and which, as they are developed early, demand the teacher's attention before the time when any strenuous labours ought to be exacted from children.

I wish to secure the attention of some who may be my readers, to a point, adverted to more than once in the course of the volume, namely, that although the phrase — Home Education — understood in its primary import, means, of course, the education of a family under the paternal roof; yet, the principles and the methods of instruction propounded in this work are, I hope, such as, with more or less modification, may be applied in all cases where the number assembled around a teacher does not greatly exceed the limits of a large family.

In advancing, as I am now doing the principles and methods of Intellectual Culture, it would give me much uneasiness to find myself so far misunderstood, as for it to be inferred, that I assign

VI PREFACE.

Moral and Religious culture to a subordinate place. The reader would do me the greatest wrong in attributing to me any such intention. My most serious convictions, and I hope, too, my own practice, as the father of a family, are decisively opposed to so fatal an error.

Having made this profession, which I do with some earnestness of feeling, it will not, perhaps, be required of me to state my reasons for avoiding, at present, those subjects to which, in fact, I attach supreme importance.

Stanford Rivees.

Chapter I. Page

Points of Comparison between Public and Private Education, 1

CHAPTER H.

Happiness, the necessary Condition of Home Education, 23

CHAPTER in.

Family Love and Order, ■ 52

CHAPTER IV.

The Three Periods of Early Life— Infancy, 67

CHAPTER V.

The Second Period of Education, 117

CHAPTER VI.

The Third Period of Early Life, and concluding Term of Home Education, 135

CHAPTER ,VH.

Some Diversities of Mental Conformation considered in relation to Methods of Culture, 148

CHAPTER Vni.

Analysis of the Intellectual Faculties, so far as relates to the Culture of each, .... 171

VIU CONTENTS.

CHAPTER IX.

Culture of the Conceptive Faculty, 181

CHAPTER X.

C ulture of the Conceptive Faculty in connexion with Language , 229

CHAPTER XI.

Training of the Sense of Resemblance and Relation, and of the Perception of Analogy, 256

CHAPTER XH;

The Analogical Feeling and Habit preparatory to the Expansion of the Abstractive and Reasoning Faculties, 296

HOME EDUCATION.

CHAPTER I.

POINTS OF COMPARISON BETWEEN PUBLIC AND PRIVATE EDUCATION.

I am not about to compare public and private education as if intending to disparage the one, that the other, which is my chosen subject, may appear to the greater advantage. No question can reasonably be entertained as to the great benefits that attach to school discipline, whether effected on a larger or a smaller scale; nor is it to be supposed, whatever may be said of female education, that that of boys could, in the majority of instances, be well conducted beneath the paternal roof.

The reader would have good reason to distrust the judgment of a writer who, for the purpose of enhancing the importance of the particular task he has undertaken, should speak of Home Education as if it were abstractedly and universally preferable to the opposite system ; or should affirm that it might be adopted by the generality of families : the contrary of both suppositions I fully admit.

Having thus precluded a probable misunderstanding of my intention, I may with equal explicitness, profess the belief, first, that Home Education, if the principles and methods proper to it are well understood, is both practicable and preferable in more instances than has often been supposed, and especially so for girls ; and secondly, that this system is susceptible of improvements, such as could not fail, if adopted to any considerable extent, very sensibly to promote the moral and intellectual advancement of the community.

It is especially with this persuasion that I come forward to recommend, warmly, but not blindly, that system of culture which may be carried on in a private family. "With the methods of Home Education I have been at different times, and am now again, practically conversant; its theory too has engaged much of my attention ; and deeply impressed as I am with a conviction of the advantages that are peculiar to it, I shall think myself happy if, without attempting to alter the determination of parents who are actually sending their children to school, I may afford some aid to those who are wishing to retain them at home.

I ought to premise that the phrase, Home Education, is not, in my view, to be strictly confined to the training of the children of a single family, under the paternal roof; but may embrace any instances in which the number assembled for instruction is not greater than may well consist with the enjoyments, the intimacy, the usages, and the harmony that ought to attach to a family.

Understanding the term in this extended sense, I entertain the hope that, while professing to write for parents, I may render some aid to teachers also, having the charge of a limited number; for it is only reasonable to suppose that, as well the general principles of intellectual culture, as the specific methods of instruction which are applicable to the eight or ten children of a family, may be brought to bear with perhaps a little modification, upon the twelve» or fifteen, or even twenty, who may be gathered from several families.

A Home, whether its inmates be related by the ties of consanguinity or not, is a place where the stress of government rests much rather upon affection, and sentiment, than upon rules and penalties, or the mechanism of external order. School, on the contrary, is a little world where, as in the great world, if delicate sentiments exist at all, they must be kept out of view ; or at least must neither be allowed to interfere with the movements of the general body ; nor must it be mainly relied upon. On this point of distinction much will be found to hinge ; — one might say, every thing, more or less immediately, within the two systems respectively ; and especially so in relation to whatever affects moral training.

But to confine myself to my proper subject, it may be said that the culture of the intellectual faculties, in combination with a warm and refined family affection, tends to impart a healthy freshness to the mere reason, and to bring it into happy alliance with the moral sentiments, in a manner that can hardly be effected at school, and yet so as is highly conducive to the harmony of the faculties, and to the general efficiency of the character.

It is probable indeed that some conductors of large schools may resent the supposition that the ennobling emotions of the heart are lost sight of in the communities over which they preside ; and may deny that feeling necessarily gives way to law, and to the force of mechanism, where numbers are to be governed. But while k is freely granted that, under a wise and skilful management, even in the largest schools, certain generous sentiments and motives of honour may almost supersede the operation of law and of its sanctions, yet it can never be pretended that emotions of this class are the same in themselves, or the same in their influence on the character, as the tender, profound, and personal affections which cement a happy family. The sacred feeling which is the bond of the home circle will by no means bear to be stretched much beyond the limits for which nature has woven it. The master of a school, if wise, firm, and kind, will no doubt draw to himself the respectful and grateful regards of his pupils; or of the better portion of them ; and so a good feeling may pervade the mass ; but who can believe that boys at school ever love their master as sons love a father ; or that they can feel one towards another as brothers 1 Nature is not to be imitated on so large a scale in her finer productions.

Parents can hardly need to be reminded that if, in retaining their children at home, they have recourse to a stern and formal mechanism, or rigidly enforce a lifeless system of rules, to the exclusion of affection, the prime idea of Home is lost, and the disadvantages of a public education are taken up, without its counterbalancing benefits. The children of any such family would certainly be happier, as well as better taught, at school, than at home.

Again ; a principal and necessary distinction between thetwo systems, now compared, is this, that while in the one, all methods of instruction and modes of training are, or may be, with more or less exactness, adapted to the faculties, tastes, and probable destination of the pupils singly, and may be accommodated to the individual ability of each ; in the other system, that is to say at school, it is the mass of minds only, or some few general classes, at the best, that can be thought of. It is true that a sedulous and conscientious teacher, or an ambitious one, from other motives, may take pains to adapt his usual methods of training to the taste and capacity of certain individuals, under his care, lending aid to the feeble, and bestowing especial care upon the intelligent ; but it might well be questioned, in such cases, whether the eighteen out of twenty are not losers to the whole amount of the peculiar regard that is given to the one or two ; or whether the damage sustained by some, be not just proportioned to the advantages secured for others. School training to be equitable, must be a training of minds in the mass.

And yet it is granted that even this undistinguishing mechanism, which is proper to a school, and which carries all before it with a sort of blind force, is in itself, in some respects, a good ; and that if some are the victims of it, to others it may be beneficial. There are children who are not to be advanced at all, except by the means of a mechanical momentum; and such might well be sent from home to school, on this sole account, that they will there be carried round on the irresistible wheel-work of school order.

This allowed, it is yet unquestionable that great and indefinite advantages are derivable from an intimate adaptation of every means of culture, as well in substance as in mode, to the powers, the tastes, and the talents of young minds, singly considered. This fitting of the process of instruction to the faculties that are to be trained, will, when skilfully made use of, bring all minds to a much higher level, severally, than (a very few excepted) they would have reached if dealt with in the aggregate. In the following pages frequent occasions will arise for pointing out the particular means that may be resorted to with the view of carrying this sort of adaptation as far as it is desirable it should go.

But here it may properly be remarked, in furtherance of what has just before been said, that although, in a large school, even when broken up into classes, little regard can equitably be paid to individual peculiarities of faculty or taste ; the principle now named, as characteristic of home education, may readily be extended to schools not much

1* exceeding the bounds of a numerous family. In fact it is only the personal ability of the teacher, his tact, his intelligence, and his assiduity, that can fix the limits within which the principle of adaptation may be made to take effect. There are those who could bestow individual culture upon twelve, or fifteen, or twenty minds, more effectively than is done by others, charged only with two or three ; and far more so in fact than is often attempted by a perfunctory tutor of a solitary pupil.

At home, not only are there few to be thought of, but these few are brought under a well-digested system of treatment, that is extended through the entire period of education ; and a teacher or parent who may have erred at first, in his estimate of a child's powers, has the opportunity to amend his judgment, and to modify his methods of treatment. But at school, even if a regard to what is due to all, did not prevent the teacher from thinking much of the capacities of individuals, the frequent changes that are taking place, and the short time, ordinarily, during which he has to do with any one of his pupils, must forbid, or greatly discourage his endeavours to suit himself, in any consistent manner, to the peculiar temperament of individuals. The teacher's good will towards his pupils must be, and it ought to be, of a very moveable or transferable sort ; and any feeling, or any effort of a more special kind, even if it did not imply positive injustice to some, would involve the prejudicial consequences of favouritism.

But home education, and especially when conducted by parents themselves, or under their immediate superintendence, may, in its successive parts, be specially adapted to the minds that are to receive it ; and may have the advantage of the most intimate knowledge of the ability, and the tendency of each. Now it is obvious that the principle of adaptation, skilfully made use of, cannot but save much time and loss of labour ; and that it may moreover prevent the damage that is so often sustained by fine faculties, roughly treated with others. For example, a teacher may see reason for remitting certain pursuits with which the mind of the individual has absolutely no affinity, while so much the more attention is given to other studies, which nature has not interdicted. Or, on the other hand, extraordinary natural endowments may be watched over, and held in check, and guided, so as shall give them the utmost ultimate advantage, and preclude the fruitless regrets of after years, under the recollection of squandered time, and misdirected industry. Again ; in diversifying the methods of teaching, in accordance with the capacities of those who are to be taught, much may be effected at home which could by no means be admitted at school ; and thus in fact the entire period of education may be turned to the best account ; while none are left to be the victims of fixed usages, and of courses of study proper perhaps for the majority, but deplorably unsuited to the few. In fact it is more than a few who leave school almost totally deficient in mental culture, not because they might not have learned what would have quickened the faculties, and have been applicable to the occasions of common life ; but because they could never learn the particular things taught at school ; or not learn them in the particular mode which the unalterable usages of public education admit of.

Home education therefore, in consequence of its power of adaptation, may be made highly advantageous as well to ungifted, as to gifted children.

A natural transition leads us next to consider another important advantage of private, as compared with public education, namely, that whereas, in the latter, the choice of things to be taught, and of the method of teaching, in each branch, is everywhere governed, either by actual statutes, or by immoveable usages, and is moreover overruled, to a great extent, by sundry secondary considerations of expediency, or by a perfunctory regard to what is the most facile or practicable, and is therefore neither very comprehensive, nor well proportioned — neither inclusive of all that should be taught, nor regardful of the several faculties of the human mind that ought to be trained ; on the contrary, home education, inasmuch as it is free, or may be so, from every sort of despotism, and side influence, is easily rendered (by whoever has skill to do so) in the fullest sense complete, as well in relation to the studies it is made to embrace, as to the faculties it endeavours to cherish. On this ground, if on no other, the practice to the principles and details of which this volume is devoted, possesses signal advantages ; and the consciousness of them may well animate the exertions of parents who intend to adopt it.

And yet, desirous as I am neither to be, nor to seem the zealot of the domestic system, which I adopt and recommend, I am forward to allow, first, that a school education which, on an abstract view of it, might be condemned as extremely partial and defective, may nevertheless, if vigorously conducted, subserve well enough the purposes of common, or even of professional life ; and further, that the usual course of school education, is, in fact, as comprehensive as can fairly be expected, under the circumstances by which it is limited : nor must it be denied that, as a preparation for the labours and conflicts — the competitions and the crosses of real life, the rough treatment of school may be really preferable to the more refined and better digested but milder training which may be carried on at home.

This concession being made, I do not hesitate to express my conviction, that a private education, well devised, and carried into effect with energy and constancy, is the only sort that, altogether, deserves the name in a philosophic sense : nor do I despair of being able, in the end, to convince intelligent parents and teachers that, on some such plans as those hereafter to be explained, and with the aid of a fair measure of ability, on the one side, and of natural capacity on the other, the intellectual faculties, whatever bias happens to belong to them, may receive a culture, and a preparation for culture, incalculably surpassing that which is ordinarily effected at school. Let it be granted that school education is as good as it can be, under all circumstances : — but home education may be good absolutely. The one conveys certain easily communicated portions, or samples of learning; the other may impart the elements of all, in due proportion ; and may put the mind in a position to accumulate knowledge in any one direction, with the greatest advantage.

Another, and a very material point of contrast, obtruding itself while comparing public and private education is this, that, at school, and indeed in almost all cases of professional teaching — honourable as is the profession, and upright as may be the intentions of the teacher, there must, from obvious motives, be far more regard had to immediate and ostensible results — to the tangible product of the process of instruction, than to its remote influence and future effect, as bearing upon the adult development and actual employment of the faculties. Ordinary teachers, and even the most efficient and distinguished of them, are almost inevitably impelled by the wish, whether confessed or not, to make it appear, in no questionable manner, that they are fairly earning their remuneration, and are honestly rendering the quid pro quo to their employers. How conscious soever they may be of aiming always at the real advantage of their pupils, they can hardly have stoicism enough to sustain, in silence, the imputation, very likely to be thrown upon them by inconsiderate and ignorant parents, of not having imparted an amount of learning equivalent to the stipend received. The training of the mind with a view to remote results is not what can fairly be expected from professional teachers.

Moreover, the urgent influence of competition among teachers, and the stirring spirit of rivalry between public schools, have the same strong tendency to push forward whatever maybe brought the soonest and the most certainly to a palpable issue. The visible and audible sum total of accomplishments brought home by a boy when he leaves school, is what must be thought of, and the thought of which must govern the methods of teaching, as well as determine the choice of studies, and the degree of attention that is to be bestowed upon each. Certain branches of knowledge, although of the highest intrinsic importance, are perhaps only in a low degree capable of being exhibited ; and it is certain that there are methods of teaching what is taught which, while they invigorate the faculties, leave, in the memory, a smaller amount of particulars, such as can be adduced, or repeated.

I hope this statement of a main characteristic of school teaching will not be thought illiberal : assuredly it does not imply the presence of any motive of a discreditable kind ; and if it involves any blame, it is a blame that should rest with parents, and must attach to public opinion, rather than fall upon those who have no choice but to meet the expectations of their employers, whether reasonable or not. Inevitable motives, not of mere interest, but of laudable professional zeal, and proper ambition, must always render school education a system calculated to produce — speedy results ; and in its methods of procedure it must be more or less improvident, and in some degree wasteful of the intellectual vigour of the young : nor can it be expected that any improvements yet to be made, either in the science or the art of education, should materially affect a course of things which arises necessarily from the relative position of parents and teachers.

It is only at home that a principle altogether different is likely to be carried into effect, or that the remote conse* quenccs of early training should be admitted, without disturbance, to regulate the entire process. And yet, even at home, the influence of the very same motives must be guarded against in each instance in which parents avail themselves, as ordinarily they must, of the services of teachers of particular accomplishments. The home teacher, with a natural solicitude to justify himself, or herself, will always be tending to the same point — a quick and visible result ; nor in truth, are many parents able thoroughly to dismiss from their own bosoms the instinctive desire to see their children shine, and shine in comparison with others. Very much that is gratifying must be foregone when a clever child, who might easily have been made to blaze with various accomplishments, is quietly trained under a severe regard to what the future man may be, and do.

But throughout the present work nothing else can be assumed but that parents, in deciding upon a home education for their families, have formed their resolution as to what they actually aim at ; and that they possess the self-denying energy required for carrying on methods of culture, such as may not perhaps fully justify the principle embodied therein, until distant years come about, when the arduous engagements of life shall put that principle to the proof.

The doctrine so much talked of of late, and so eagerly followed by many, is that of development ; and the question put on all sides is, ' What are the readiest and the surest means of expanding the faculties at an early age 1 ' But the very contrary doctrine is the one professed and explained throughout this work ; for I am bold to avow my adherence to the principle of repression and reserve, in the culture of the mind ; and it is this principle which I would fain convince the reader may be put in practice consistently with the conveyance of really more information, or of information more comprehensive and substantial, than is usually communicated at school.

The principle of delayed development supposes a vigilant regard to be had to the spontaneous germination of the several faculties ; and a due care also that the vitality of each should be preserved throughout the period during which its expansion and exercise are deferred. The rule we have to recommend enjoins that excitement should be postponed, while nutriment is supplied ; and in a word, that the mental force should be husbanded, much rather than used.

It is nowhere but at home that the experiment can be fairly tried, which shall prove whether, along with a full measure of mere learning, a far more vigorous expansion of the higher faculties at eighteen, than is often witnessed, may not be effected, by a thorough-going adherence to this rule of postponed excitement. It must be at home, if at all, that the force and fruitfulness of the mind may be kept in the bud, until the natural summer-time of action comes on.

But it is manifest that we must not venture thus to delay the expansion of the faculties, unless we are able to calculate, pretty surely, upon commanding the future opportunity to carry forward the process of culture beyond the usual term of school education. If children are to be removed from our care, and are to abandon the means of improvement as they enter their teens, no choice is left us, but to develop the mind as quickly as we can. A somewhat different case is however supposed throughout the present work.

Little perhaps now remains to be hoped for, in relation to public education, beyond the gradual extension of the existing system, until it shall have embraced all classes of the community. But home education unquestionably is in itself susceptible of indefinite advancements ; and especially by the means of a well-digested system of slow culture, such as, while it animates without expending the early forces of the mind, makes preparation, during the former half of the entire period of education, for the exercises and labours of the latter half.

The full conviction I entertain of the possibility of greatly enhancing the intelligence of individuals, and so that of the community, by giving effect to the principle now spoken of, has been a main motive in impelling me to undertake the present work.

The practical decision which a teacher will be required to come to, when he has made his choice between a hastened and a delayed system of development, must relate principally to the three following questions, namely, — What is it which, at certain stages of the process of education, should be taught, and what is better held in reserve ? Secondly, How far, in each department of knowledge, when it has been taken on the list, should instruction be carried beyond the rudiments 1 And lastly, Which of the faculties is it that ought, in compliance with the order of nature, to be early cultivated, or aided in its spontaneous expansion, and which should be held in check, or at least not elicited until a more advanced period 1

Now it is the last of these three questions that is at once the most important, and the most difficult ; and in seeking guidance on this ground it must be confessed that very little comes to our hand that is distinct and practical. Much more has been said and written concerning the things that are to be taught, and the method of teaching them, than concerning the faculties of the mind that are to be trained, and the natural order of their development. In suggesting, as I shall have to do in the following chapters, various hints on this subject, I hope to observe the caution proper to one who is advancing upon a path not much trodden.