Imágenes de páginas
PDF
EPUB

the narrow compass of his own life. These exceptions are rays of light for the teacher, who, by means of them, may see what he can do for the cultivation of young minds, and how he must set about it.

Although all the intellectual faculties of the child who enters on our course of language have been more or less in action for some time, this action has not been harmonious; perception has predominated, and imagination next. Intelligence is behind-hand, though it ought to take the lead, and to become more and more reasonable by applying more and more accurately, and in a constantly growing sphere, the great principles which are given for the regulation of its noble work. It is for education to establish that harmony among the faculties which is required by the nature, the dignity, and the lofty interests of man.

3. Means of Cultivating the Intellectual Faculties in Childhood.

On this subject we have already alluded to two opposite systems of education; the object of the one is to supply children with knowledge; to instruct them as much as possible; to convert their minds, or rather their memories, into a compendious encyclopædia. The other, on the contrary, sets no value on this variety of knowledge; it takes account only of the intellectual faculties, and endea– vours to expand and strengthen them, in the full confidence that knowledge will come of itself when once the mind is capable of apprehending it. Pestalozzi was the first who loudly advocated this system of intellectual cultivation, which he pursued in his establishment in Switzerland, with his characteristic energy and perseverance. He first fixed upon the structure of the human body as the subject on which the intellectual faculties were to be exercised and strengthened, and then had recourse to mathematics, which, in his opinion, presented the best course of mental gymnastics. Then began in Germany those exercises of intelligence which were adopted in different places, and teachers decidedly aimed at being, if I may so express myself, the modellers of the mind. Having in view solely

what they called formal cultivation (for their object was only to form, and not to instruct the young mind), they adopted indiscriminately any means towards this end. One of them, M. Kreuse, selected graduated lessons in the mother-tongue for his course of mental exercises; and so far our views coincided, but it did not enter into the plan of the German to instruct, whilst he developed the faculties of youth; and he fixed by chance on the instrument which he only wanted for the formation and expression of thought.

Teachers who wish in the first place to develope the faculties of childhood, in order to qualify it for instruction, prove, in so doing, that they have studied man as well as the noble art which they profess; but in raising a wall of separation between intellectual cultivation and instruction, in order to make the one precede and the other follow, do not they fall again into error? The developement which they aim at cannot be effectually accomplished by mathematics, as we have before said. It imperatively demands a multitude of various thoughts, which may bring into action all the different faculties of childhood; and by means of which they may be gradually and harmoniously exercised.

Here wisdom must direct the choice, for it is evident that a series of heterogeneous thoughts, joined together by chance, can never produce that graduated and harmonious course of gymnastics which is required for the due developement of childhood. In this consists the real art of education, which must select its materials from the vast field of truth and arrange them in order, so as to form one complete whole.

As this is a matter of the very last importance, we shall endeavour to throw full light upon it. We shall first sketch out the general instruction which is suitable for the pupils in a course of language; and then we shall show, that if, on the one hand, this instruction presents us with that very selection and series of thoughts most suitable to the mental gymnastics which we have in view; so, on the other hand, our exercises will qualify our pupils to seize our instruction and turn it to account. This

combination will have two advantages; first, it will save time, of which education ought ever to be sparing; second, instruction will not come too late, as must necessarily be the case when the mind is first to be moulded, and not furnished till afterwards.

As the mother has instructed and developed her child while teaching him language, there is no doubt that art may obtain the same result by the same means, and all the more certainly, because it will do regularly and scientifically what she has only guessed at in the dark, under the guidance of maternal instinct.

CHAPTER II.

Instruction to be given to Pupils in our Course of Language.

WE shall begin by enumerating the subjects which must be included in this instruction, and we shall add a few cursory remarks on their suitableness.

1ST.-ENUMERATION OF SUBJECTS.

The names of these subjects are as follows: Man, the family, country, the human race, nature, its author, Providence, Christ, the Saviour of man, life beyond the grave, morality as adapted to childhood. Maternal instruction has already touched on all these points, so the pupil in our course of language is no stranger to them; but we must go over the ground again, in order to place them in a stronger light, and give them a surer foundation. What may have sufficed hitherto will not be sufficient hereafter; and education must look forwards, while training its pupils for futurity.

Man.

We shall not, under this head, adopt those endless lessons in which it has been thought advisable to give a minute enumeration of all the different parts of the human body, and then to count, measure, compare, divide, and subdivide them. Nevertheless, we shall point out to our

pupils the admirable organs of our body; but it is to the soul itself that we shall chiefly direct their attention, by awakening them to the lessons which our inward consciousness continually affords. Can this be less important, though it may perhaps be less striking than the impressions received through the medium of the organs? and though the pupil, in order to understand it, must look within, which is contrary to his habit, for his attention naturally follows the direction of his organs. Moreover, the objects of internal consciousness, such as thought, sentiment, desire, are of a totally different nature from a head, a hand, a ball, a cake, a tree, &c.; but this difference is the very thing that we should most carefully point out, and it is the habit of looking within that we should most anxiously inculcate, in order to train up our pupils for after-life. We believe that the inscription on the Temple of Delphos, "Know thyself," applies to them also, for we wish to make men, aye, and sensible men of them.

The mother has already spoken to her child of the soul which animates the human body, and which must survive it; but it was out of her power to give him the clear and precise idea of this fundamental truth, which he will require in after-life. Regular instruction in language must develope what has only been roughly sketched out, and must assign reasons for all it teaches. It must give to the novice in life the consciousness of self; the consciousness of what he perceives by his various organs, of what he thinks, loves, fears; of what he can, or cannot do; of what he appears to be, of what he is. It must point out, on the one hand, the distinction between himself and the organs which are his agents; on the other hand, the bonds which unite for a season two orders of beings so essentially different. Thus we shall teach him psychology; but it will be adapted to childhood, for he will discover it in himself; and the common language of life will suffice, because it expresses all the ideas we shall require for our science. By means of it we shall place in the child's hand the key of the spiritual world, in which we should early acclimatize him; is it not rather his real home?

Nor shall we fail to point out the wonderful mechanism of his body. We shall leave, indeed, to men of science their anatomy and physiology; but is it not a disgrace to the teachers of childhood that they should overlook in their instructions those organs which are our medium of communication with the material world? Neither shall we pass by unnoticed the internal parts of the body, on which depend its preservation. From their nature and action must be derived the lessons on health, which the child must know, in order to practise them; for we are less likely to disregard a rule when we understand the principles on which it is based.

The Family.

Children have no recollection of their early infancy, their original ignorance, weakness, and poverty; they do not remember how long they were without speech, nor that it was their mother who endued their lips with utterance. The cares which her tenderness lavished on them; the trouble, anxiety, and expense which their first early years cost to their parents; all this has left no trace on their memory. Even afterwards, they do not consider their helpless and dependent condition in life. They are too apt to regard the gifts of kindness as the payment of a debt; and ingratitude and indocility follow upon forgetfulness and inadvertence. Bring them back, then, to the cradle; seek, by means of their imagination, to identify them with the little speechless beings whom they daily see there; and then you can make out the running account to which every hour adds its unit, and which they can never pay off.

There are also other family relationships which must be pointed out, in order that the pupils may rightly understand their position, and, first, that of equality between brothers and sisters; nor will you neglect to inculcate that servants are their fellow men; and that their dependent situation entitles them to regard and sympathy, rather than contempt.

« AnteriorContinuar »