The elements of pedagogy

Front matter

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Preface

This treatise has its origin in a belief that the time has come for such a study of school education as will ascertain the limitations of its maxims and the coordination and harmonizing of its apparently conflicting methods. It embodies the results of an earnest effort to reach these ends by the sure path and in the clear light of psychology and practical experience.

The treatise presents :

1. An analysis of psychical processes, and especially those involved in knowing.

2. A statement of the order in which the several powers of the mind become active, and their relative activity and development at successive school periods, with a graphic illustration of the same.

3. A presentation of the fundamental principles of teaching, carefully deduced from psychical facts, and tested by the best school experience known to the writer.

4. The practical embodiment and illustration of these principles in general methods of teaching.

5. The application of these methods to the teaching of reading, language, geography, and arithmetic, — the branches which most fully represent elementary education.

6. The statement and application of psychical facts to moral training.

The methods of teaching presented embody the results of the author's somewhat wide observation, and it is believed that they fairly represent the best teaching in American schools. They might have been given without a prior statement of their underlying principles, and these might have been presented

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IV PREFACE.

without special reference to the psychical facts on which they are based. There is, however, very great advantage in studying these several subjects in the order of their logical dependence ; and it is hoped that this will not be found difficult in this treatise, since an effort has been made so to present psychical processes that they can be understood by any one who is competent to teach English grammar. A fuller illustration of these facts of mind would have taken space required for the proper treatment of other subjects.

It is, however, suggested that the reader who has little interest in psychical knowledge, can begin with the principles of teaching (page 97), and, after mastering these and the methods which embody them, he may peruse with profit the pages devoted to the elements of psychology. Experience uniformly shows that a knowledge of methods of teaching can be successfully applied only in the clear light of the principles which they embody, and hence the essential thing for the teacher is to obtain a clear knowledge of the guiding principles of his art.

This treatise is submitted to American teachers with the hope that it may give many of the more thoughtful a clearer knowledge of their great art and more satisfactory success in its practice.

Cincinnati, O., July 28, 1886.

Contents

PAGE

Introduction 9

Elements of Psychology.