Essays On Education And Kindred Subjects (Fiscle Part- 11) - Herbert Spencer (if you give a mouse a cookie read aloud txt) 📗
- Author: Herbert Spencer
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With Greater Clearness, That There Is Always A Method To Be Found
Productive Of Interest--Even Of Delight; And It Ever Turns Out That This
Is The Method Proved By All Other Tests To Be The Right One.
With Most, These Guiding Principles Will Weigh But Little If Left In
This Abstract Form. Partly, Therefore, To Exemplify Their Application,
And Partly With A View Of Making Sundry Specific Suggestions, We Propose
Now To Pass From The Theory Of Education To The Practice Of It.
It Was The Opinion Of Pestalozzi, And One Which Has Ever Since His Day
Been Gaining Ground, That Education Of Some Kind Should Begin From The
Cradle. Whoever Has Watched, With Any Discernment, The Wide-Eyed Gaze Of
The Infant At Surrounding Objects Knows Very Well That Education _Does_
Begin Thus Early, Whether We Intend It Or Not; And That These Fingerings
And Suckings Of Everything It Can Lay Hold Of, These Open-Mouthed
Listenings To Every Sound, Are First Steps In The Series Which Ends In
The Discovery Of Unseen Planets, The Invention Of Calculating Engines,
The Production Of Great Paintings, Or The Composition Of Symphonies And
Operas. This Activity Of The Faculties From The Very First, Being
Spontaneous And Inevitable, The Question Is Whether We Shall Supply In
Due Variety The Materials On Which They May Exercise Themselves; And To
The Question So Put, None But An Affirmative Answer Can Be Given. As
Before Said, However, Agreement With Pestalozzi's Theory Does Not
Involve Agreement With His Practice; And Here Occurs A Case In Point.
Treating Of Instruction In Spelling He Says:--
"The Spelling-Book Ought, Therefore, To Contain All The Sounds Of
The Language, And These Ought To Be Taught In Every Family From The
Earliest Infancy. The Child Who Learns His Spelling Book Ought To
Repeat Them To The Infant In The Cradle, Before It Is Able To
Pronounce Even One Of Them, So That They May Be Deeply Impressed
Upon Its Mind By Frequent Repetition."
Joining This With The Suggestions For "A Nursery Method," Set Down In
His _Mother's Manual_, In Which He Makes The Names, Positions,
Connections, Numbers, Properties, And Uses Of The Limbs And Body His
First Lessons, It Becomes Clear That Pestalozzi's Notions On Early
Mental Development Were Too Crude To Enable Him To Devise Judicious
Plans. Let Us Consider The Course Which Psychology Dictates.
Part 1 Chapter 2 (Intellectual Education) Pg 30
The Earliest Impressions Which The Mind Can Assimilate Are The
Undecomposable Sensations Produced By Resistance, Light, Sound, Etc.
Manifestly, Decomposable States Of Consciousness Cannot Exist Before The
States Of Consciousness Out Of Which They Are Composed. There Can Be No
Idea Of Form Until Some Familiarity With Light In Its Gradations And
Qualities, Or Resistance In Its Different Intensities, Has Been
Acquired; For, As Has Been Long Known, We Recognise Visible Form By
Means Of Varieties Of Light, And Tangible Form By Means Of Varieties Of
Resistance. Similarly, No Articulate Sound Is Cognisable Until The
Inarticulate Sounds Which Go To Make It Up Have Been Learned. And Thus
Must It Be In Every Other Case. Following, Therefore, The Necessary Law
Of Progression From The Simple To The Complex, We Should Provide For The
Infant A Sufficiency Of Objects Presenting Different Degrees And Kinds
Of Resistance, A Sufficiency Of Objects Reflecting Different Amounts And
Qualities Of Light, And A Sufficiency Of Sounds Contrasted In Their
Loudness, Their Pitch And Their _Timbre_. How Fully This _À Priori_
Conclusion Is Confirmed By Infantile Instincts, All Will See On Being
Reminded Of The Delight Which Every Young Child Has In Biting Its Toys,
In Feeling Its Brother's Bright Jacket-Buttons, And Pulling Papa's
Whiskers--How Absorbed It Becomes In Gazing At Any Gaudily-Painted
Object, To Which It Applies The Word "Pretty," When It Can Pronounce It,
Wholly Because Of The Bright Colours--And How Its Face Broadens Into A
Laugh At The Tattlings Of Its Nurse, The Snapping Of A Visitor's
Fingers, Or Any Sound Which It Has Not Before Heard. Fortunately, The
Ordinary Practices Of The Nursery Fulfil These Early Requirements Of
Education To A Considerable Degree. Much, However, Remains To Be Done;
And It Is Of More Importance That It Should Be Done Than At First
Appears. Every Faculty During That Spontaneous Activity Which
Accompanies Its Evolution Is Capable Of Receiving More Vivid Impressions
Than At Any Other Period. Moreover, As These Simplest Elements Have To
Be Mastered, And As The Mastery Of Them Whenever Achieved Must Take
Time, It Becomes An Economy Of Time To Occupy This First Stage Of
Childhood, During Which No Other Intellectual Action Is Possible, In
Gaining A Complete Familiarity With Them In All Their Modifications. Nor
Let Us Omit The Fact, That Both Temper And Health Will Be Improved By
The Continual Gratification Resulting From A Due Supply Of These
Impressions Which Every Child So Greedily Assimilates. Space, Could It
Be Spared, Might Here Be Well Filled By Some Suggestions Towards A More
Systematic Ministration To These Simplest Of The Perceptions. But It
Must Suffice To Point Out That Any Such Ministration, Recognising The
General Law Of Evolution From The Indefinite To The Definite, Should
Proceed Upon The Corollary That In The Development Of Every Faculty,
Markedly Contrasted Impressions Are The First To Be Distinguished; That
Hence Sounds Greatly Differing In Loudness And Pitch, Colours Very
Remote From Each Other, And Substances Widely Unlike In Hardness Or
Texture, Should Be The First Supplied; And That In Each Case The
Progression Must Be By Slow Degrees To Impressions More Nearly Allied.
Passing On To Object-Lessons, Which Manifestly Form A Natural
Continuation Of This Primary Culture Of The Senses, It Is To Be
Remarked, That The System Commonly Pursued Is Wholly At Variance With
The Method Of Nature, As Exhibited Alike In Infancy, In Adult Life, And
In The Course Of Civilisation. "The Child," Says M. Marcel, "Must Be
_Shown_ How All The Parts Of An Object Are Connected, Etc.;" And The
Various Manuals Of These Object-Lessons Severally Contain Lists Of The
Facts Which The Child Is To Be _Told_ Respecting Each Of The Things Put
Before It. Now It Needs But A Glance At The Daily Life Of The Infant To
See That All The Knowledge Of Things Which Is Gained Before The
Acquirement Of Speech, Is Self-Gained--That The Qualities Of Hardness
And Weight Associated With Certain Appearances, The Possession Of
Particular Forms And Colours By Particular Persons, The Production Of
Special Sounds By Animals Of Special Aspects, Are Phenomena Which It
Observes For Itself. In Manhood Too, When There Are No Longer Teachers
At Hand, The Observations And Inferences Hourly Required For Guidance
Must Be Made Unhelped; And Success In Life Depends Upon The Accuracy And
Completeness With Which They Are Made. Is It Probable, Then, That While
The Process Displayed In The Evolution Of Humanity At Large Is Repeated
Alike By The Infant And The Man, A Reverse Process Must Be Followed
During The Period Between Infancy And Manhood? And That Too, Even In So
Simple A Thing As Learning The Properties Of Objects? Is It Not Obvious,
On The Contrary, That One Method Must Be Pursued Throughout? And Is Not
Nature Perpetually Thrusting This Method Upon Us, If We Had But The Wit
To See It, And The Humility To Adopt It? What Can Be More Manifest Than
The Desire Of Children For Intellectual Sympathy? Mark How The Infant
Sitting On Your Knee Thrusts Into Your Face The Toy It Holds, That You
Too May Look At It. See When It Makes A Creak With Its Wet Finger On The
Table, How It Turns And Looks At You; Does It Again, And Again Looks At
You; Thus Saying As Clearly As It Can--"Hear This New Sound." Watch The
Elder Children Coming Into The Room Exclaiming--"Mamma, See What A
Curious Thing," "Mamma, Look At This," "Mamma, Look At That:" A Habit
Which They Would Continue, Did Not The Silly Mamma Tell Them Not To
Tease Her. Observe That, When Out With The Nurse-Maid, Each Little One
Runs Up To Her With The New Flower It Has Gathered, To Show Her How
Pretty It Is, And To Get Her Also To Say It Is Pretty. Listen To The
Eager Volubility With Which Every Urchin Describes Any Novelty He Has
Been To See, If Only He Can Find Some One Who Will Attend With Any
Interest. Does Not The Induction Lie On The Surface? Is It Not Clear
That We Must Conform Our Course To These Intellectual Instincts--That We
Must Just Systematise The Natural Process--That We Must Listen To All
The Child Has To Tell Us About Each Object; Must Induce It To Say
Everything It Can Think Of About Such Object; Must Occasionally Draw Its
Attention To Facts It Has Not Yet Observed, With The View Of Leading It
To Notice Them Itself Whenever They Recur; And Must Go On By And By To
Indicate Or Supply New Series Of Things For A Like Exhaustive
Examination? Note The Way In Which, On This Method, The Intelligent
Mother Conducts Her Lessons. Step By Step She Familiarises Her Little
Boy With The Names Of The Simpler Attributes, Hardness, Softness,
Colour, Taste, Size: In Doing Which She Finds Him Eagerly Help By
Bringing This To Show Her That It Is Red, And The Other To Make Her Feel
That It Is Hard, As Fast As She Gives Him Words For These Properties.
Each Additional Property, As She Draws His Attention To It In Some Fresh
Thing Which He Brings Her, She Takes Care To Mention In Connection With
Those He Already Knows; So That By The Natural Tendency To Imitate, He
May Get Into The Habit Of Repeating Them One After Another. Gradually As
There Occur Cases In Which He Omits To Name One Or More Of The
Properties He Has Become Acquainted With, She Introduces The Practice
Of Asking Him Whether There Is Not Something More That He Can Tell Her
About The Thing He Has Got. Probably He Does Not Understand. After
Letting Him Puzzle Awhile She Tells Him; Perhaps Laughing At Him A
Little For His Failure. A Few Recurrences Of This And He Perceives What
Is To Be Done. When Next She Says She Knows Something More About The
Object Than He Has Told Her, His Pride Is Roused; He Looks At It
Intently; He Thinks Over All That He Has Heard; And The Problem Being
Easy, Presently Finds It Out. He Is Full Of Glee At His Success, And She
Sympathises With Him. In Common With Every Child, He Delights In The
Discovery Of His Powers. He Wishes For More Victories, And Goes In Quest
Of More Things About Which To Tell Her. As His Faculties Unfold She Adds
Quality After Quality To His List: Progressing From Hardness And
Softness To Roughness And Smoothness, From Colour To Polish, From Simple
Bodies To Composite Ones--Thus Constantly Complicating The Problem As He
Part 1 Chapter 2 (Intellectual Education) Pg 31Gains Competence, Constantly Taxing His Attention And Memory To A
Greater Extent, Constantly Maintaining His Interest By Supplying Him
With New Impressions Such As His Mind Can Assimilate, And Constantly
Gratifying Him By Conquests Over Such Small Difficulties As He Can
Master. In Doing This She Is Manifestly But Following Out That
Spontaneous Process Which Was Going On During A Still Earlier
Period--Simply Aiding Self-Evolution;
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