Page images
PDF
EPUB

SUNDAY.- "Teach me to do thy will; for thou art my God." (Ps. cxliii. 10.)

Monday."The God of peace make you perfect in every good work to do his will." (Heb. xiii. 20, 21.) Tuesday."I delight to do thy will, O my God: yea, thy law is within my heart." (Ps. xl. 8.)

Wednesday." My meat is to do the will of Him that sent me." (John iv. 34.)

Thursday." That ye might be filled with the knowledge of His will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding." (Col. i. 9.)

Friday.- -"Not my will, but thine be done." (Luke xxii. 42.)

Saturday."That ye may stand perfect and complete in all the will of God." (Col. iv. 12.)

SUNDAY." Strengthen thou me according unto thy word." (Ps. cxix. 28.)

Monday." In the day when I cried thou answeredst me, and strengthenedst me with strength in my soul." (Ps. cxxxviii. 3.)

[ocr errors]

Tuesday. The Lord will give strength unto his people." (Ps. xxix. 11.) Wednesday.

[ocr errors]

Be strong in the Lord, and in the

power of his might." (Eph. vi. 10.)

Thursday."I will strengthen thee; yea, I will help thee; yea, I will uphold thee with the right hand of my righteousness." (Is. xli. 10.)

Friday."I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me." (Phil. iv. 13.)

Saturday." The Lord will be the hope of his people, and the strength of the children of Israel." (Joel iii. 16.) SUNDAY. "That thy way may be known upon earth." (Ps. lxvii. 2.)

Monday." They shall all know me, from the least of them unto the greatest of them, saith the Lord." (Jer. xxxi. 34.)

Tuesday.

xlvii. 10.)

[ocr errors]

Be still, and know that I am God." (Ps.

66

Wednesday. 'The earth shall be filled with the knowledge of the Lord, as the waters cover the sea.' (Isaiah xi. 9.)

Thursday.—" O righteous Father, the world hath not known thee: but I have known thee.” (John xvii. 25.) Friday.—“I will give them an heart to know me, that I am the Lord." (Jer xxiv. 7.)

Saturday.—“ O the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God!" (Rom. xi. 33.)

FOR THE WEEK-DAY TEACHER.

WHAT IS PESTALOZZIANISM?

(From the Quarterly Journal of Education.)

THE right basis of elementary instruction, Pestalozzi maintained, is intuition. By intuition he understood the impression received by the external senses (especially the sight,) communicated direct to the mind, and by which it obtains the idea or consciousnesss of any object. The impression thus made may be so distinct and vivid that, through the aid of the imagination and memory, the child may enjoy the picture of the object thus transmitted by the eye to the mind, when it no longer strikes upon that organ; and that even with the same vividness as when it was present. Pestalozzi, therefore, sought to form the judgment of the child by speaking to its eyes. His fundamental principle was to commence with what is most easy, and, before proceeding onward, to be sure that the child was master of the preceding steps. Thus he advanced without leaps and without gaps. The new idea flows necessarily from the one just acquired; and what was the foundation of instruction, (the knowledge of the thing itself,) was immediately and closely connected with the knowledge of the word by which it is expressed. No one will deny but that this is truly philosophical, for it is an acknowledged fact, that the mind is furnished originally through the operation of the senses; and we find, that upon the force and power with which first ideas and impressions are seized, will almost invariably depend the future success of education If the materials with which we work are imperfect, how can the result prove satisfactory? There is, however, one point on which the followers of Pestalozzi need to be cautioned-that is, not to detain the child too long in leading-strings, and to take care whilst the steps of instruction are carefully graduated, that they are, at the same time, sufficiently far apart to require a vigorous effort to pass from one to another. If all be made too easy, too accessible,-if the fresh knowledge to be acquired lies quite on the surface, power and vigour will not be exercised. What is obtained with small effort and labour neither strengthens the mind in its acquisition nor retains its hold on the memory.

The object of Pestalozzi was to collect all the elementary means of developing the faculties by the most natural processes. The first materials are supplied by the impressions the child receives from the external world. The crowd of objects that present them

selves to his observation, causes at first a real chaos in his mind, but, insensibly, the impressions produced by the things continually before him acquire more distinctness; next arises the desire of communicating to others what he experiences within himself; the organ of speech is not then long before it performs its office. With the assistance of language, sensations acquire day by day more precision. Impressions thus received, prepare the way for higher mental exercises. Soon the presence of the object is not necessary to call forth the idea,-by a simple act of his will, his imagination reproduces it-his memory recalls it he sees it with the eyes of his mind-he can retrace its form-determine its proportions; he compares, judges, reasons; and the little being, so lately inferior to the brutes in intelligence, manifests the distinguishing characteristics of man. Such is the course of nature; Pestalozzi took it as his guide; he was convinced from what he observed, first, that the intellectual faculties of a child only require to be developed carefully, gradually, and steadily, to elevate him to the highest point to which man can attain; and, secondly, that the small amount of success hitherto obtained in education, ought to be attributed to the weakness and incoherence of the foundation upon which different systems had been based; and especially to the little care taken to give to the impressions received in infancy, a direction conformable to the indications furnished by nature. Pestalozzi sought to discover the most simple means of giving the child this direction, so that the teaching of art might harmonize and cooperate with that of nature. After a long series of observations and experiments, he came to the conclusion, that the first distinct ideas called out in the child by exterior objects, were the result of observations that he made naturally on their form and their number, combined with the knowledge he had acquired of their names. In consequence, he proposed an elementary course of instruction, consisting of three branches.

The first embraced the intuitive perception, with the name of the objects of nature and art by which the child is surrounded.

The second was devoted to intuitive instruction in number. The third, to iutuitive instruction with respect to form or dimensions.

With respect to the first branch of instruction, Pestalozzi arranged a course comprising five steps.

In the first step the child is taught to distinguish the sounds of language, and imitate them. It contained a complete series of articulate sounds, which the child is to repeat sometimes slowly, sometimes quickly, but always distinctly; the mother sometimes singing them, varying the tone and expression.

In the second step, the child learns to name everything brought under his notice, without any order or arrangement, taking advantage of whatever creates a want, or excites curiosity. From naming things he proceeds to distinguish and to learn how to speak of their various properties, and thus gradually acquires an abundant supply of words, with which he also connects clear ideas.

The object in the third step is to lead the child to fix his attention successively on whatever in any object naturally calls out his observation. He will learn to distinguish and name the different parts and most striking qualities of an animal, a plant, or a stone, and thus the habit is formed of observing with intelligence everything

around him, and the power acquired of expressing himself correctly with respect to them.

At the fourth step, it is proposed to lead the child to perceive the points of difference in the objects of which he has observed the principal characteristics; thus, that the horse is a quadruped, with an undivided hoof; the ox. a quadruped with a cloven hoof; that the willow is a tree with pointed leaves; the cak, a tree with jagged leaves, &c.

The fifth step-the differences observed in the preceding step become the basis of the instruction proposed in this. The child is to be exercised in arranging in one row all objects of a similar nature. These lessons not only embrace a knowledge of qualities, but are extended to actions; and this leads to a large sphere of instruction,-to the terms used in arts, and in natural history, in trades and occupations. With respect to actions, the child may be exercised in determining their object, utility, danger, &c.; he may be led to observe the following circumstances, and to express himself with relation to them:-What usually performs such an action? When is it done? Where is it done? Why is it done? How is it done? What good is it? What harm? &c.

In this way the child may be exercised in acquiring positive ideas of a number of things that might otherwise strike his eyes, but not arouse his intelligence. One great benefit arising from such instruction, is the learning to associate the name with the thing signified. A great difficulty, and one that impedes every instant those engaged in teaching the children of the poorer classes, is that of making themselves understood. Things even the most simple, require long definitions, which, after all, fail to make the matter intelligible to the pupil, who, in fact, has no just idea of the true meaning of the terms in which they are couched. Pestalozzi addresses his instructions in the first rudiments of language to mothers, with whom should commence the task of cultivating the faculty of speech, and calls upon them most earnestly and affectionately to do their duty fully by their offspring.

The second elementary means by which Pestalozzi sought the development of the mental faculties, was number. This at first he treated as a process of intuition, requiring that, before the abstract idea was presented to the child, he should perceive number connected with objects. Thus, the parts of his body may be used to give the idea of quantity, also stones, nuts, beads, &c. The instructor says to the child, (not, Here is one,) but, Here is one stone, one nut, &c.; and adding another, Here are two stones, two nuts, &c. When the child has thus been exercised in distinguishing and naming one, two, three—the different number of the objects presented he will soon have an intuitive perception, that the terms one, two, three, are always the same, whilst the objects to which they are applied vary; he will thus be prepared to separate the idea of number from that of the thing, and to ascend to the abstract idea of quantity. Pestalozzi, in his course of arithmetic, excluded cyphers, until the idea of numbers was perfectly understood. The main object of his instruction was the development of the mental powers; and this he accomplished with so much success, that the ability his pupils displayed in mental arithmetic was the chief means of attracting the public attention to his experiments.

The third branch of Pestalozzi's elementary instruction em

braced the relations of form. Under this head he ranked writing, drawing, and geometry. The basis of each of these he considered to be the intuitive perception of form and its dimensions. Drawing, he thought, ought to be an universal acquirement, because the faculty for it is possessed by all, and because it would prove the means of leading the child from vague perceptions to clear ideas. He also considered that the art of measuring ought to precede that of drawing; that is, that the eye should be practised in determining figure and proportion, before the hand is employed to execute these perceptions. If a child, he observes, is called upon to imitate objects or representations of objects before he has acquired a distinct notion of their proportions, his instructions in the art of drawing will fail to produce upon his mental development that beneficial influence which alone renders it worth learning. Writing, he maintained, should not be taught before, but after drawing, and this also should be preceded by a previous proficiency in measuring lines; for writing is, in fact, a sort of linear drawing, and that of fixed forms, from which no arbitrary or fanciful deviations is permitted. He also contended that the practice of writing, when acquired previously to, and independently of drawing, spoils the hand and cramps its freedom, by confining it to a few peculiar forms. Another reason in favour of drawing being taught first, is, that by the previous acquirement of this art, the power of forming letters is greatly facilitated, and the time is saved which children lose in correcting bad habits contracted by the practice of bad writing.

The elements of geometry were included under the head of form, and Pestalozzian instructors have been as successful in this science as in that of number. We will abridge, from a Preface by Dr. Mayo to a work entitled "Lessons on Form," an account of the manner of treating this subject:

"The especial aim of the master is to enable his pupils to form clear apprehensions of the subject-matter of geometry, and then to develop the power of mathematical reasoning. Aware that clearness of apprehension can take place only when the idea to be formed is proximate to some idea already clearly formed,-when the step, which the mind is required to take, is really the next in succession to the step already taken, he will commence his instruction exactly at that point where his pupils already are, and in that manner which best accords with the measure of their development. As his pupils are unaccustomed to pure abstractions, he will not commence with abstract definitions. But supposing them, through the medium of 'Lessons on Objects,' to have had their attention directed to the forms which matter assumes, he will present in his first lessons of transition from the promiscuous assemblage of forms, to a particular group of them. In conformity

with the plan pursued in Lessons on Objects,' the pupils will examine regular solids presented to them, state what they perceive; then, by a more close and attentive examination, directed by the master, discover and supply the deficiencies in their first perceptions, and afford him an occasion for connecting their new ideas with adequate technical expressions.

"The master's next aim is to cultivate the power of abstract mathematical reasoning. With a view to this end, he may advan

« PreviousContinue »