Essays On Education And Kindred Subjects (Fiscle Part- 11), Herbert Spencer [historical books to read .txt] 📗

Out. And From These He May Be Led On Step By

Step To More Complex Questions: All Of    Which, Under Judicious

Management, He Will Puzzle Through Unhelped. Doubtless, Many Of    Those

Brought Up Under The   Old Regime, Will Look Upon This Assertion

Sceptically. We Speak From Facts, However; And Those Neither Few Nor

Special. We Have Seen A Class Of    Boys Become So Interested In Making Out

Solutions To Such Problems, As To Look Forward To Their Geometry-Lesson

As A Chief Event Of    The   Week. Within The   Last Month, We Have Heard Of

One Girl's School, In Which Some Of    The   Young Ladies Voluntarily Occupy

Themselves With Geometrical Questions Out Of    School-Hours; And Of

Another, Where They Not Only Do This, But Where One Of    Them Is Begging

For Problems To Find Out During The   Holidays: Both Which Facts We State

On The   Authority Of    The   Teacher. Strong Proofs, These, Of    The

Practicability And The   Immense Advantage Of    Self-Development! A Branch

Of Knowledge Which, As Commonly Taught, Is Dry And Even Repulsive, Is

Thus, By Following The   Method Of    Nature, Made Extremely Interesting And

Profoundly Beneficial. We Say Profoundly Beneficial, Because The   Effects

Are Not Confined To The   Gaining Of    Geometrical Facts, But Often

Revolutionise The   Whole State Of    Mind. It Has Repeatedly Occurred That

Those Who Have Been Stupefied By The   Ordinary School-Drill--By Its

Abstract Formulas, Its Wearisome Tasks, Its Cramming--Have Suddenly Had

Their Intellects Roused By Thus Ceasing To Make Them Passive Recipients,

And Inducing Them To Become Active Discoverers. The   Discouragement

Caused By Bad Teaching Having Been Diminished By A Little Sympathy, And

Sufficient Perseverance Excited To Achieve A First Success, There Arises

A Revulsion Of    Feeling Affecting The   Whole Nature. They No Longer Find

Themselves Incompetent; They, Too, Can Do Something. And Gradually As

Success Follows Success, The   Incubus Of    Despair Disappears, And They

Attack The   Difficulties Of    Their Other Studies With A Courage Insuring

Conquest.

 

 

 

A Few Weeks After The   Foregoing Remarks Were Originally Published,

Professor Tyndall In A Lecture At The   Royal Institution "On The

Importance Of    The   Study Of    Physics As A Branch Of    Education," Gave Some

Conclusive Evidence To The   Same Effect. His Testimony, Based On Personal

Observation, Is Of    Such Great Value That We Cannot Refrain From Quoting

It. Here It Is.

 

 

 

     "One Of    The   Duties Which Fell To My Share, During The   Period To

     Which I Have Referred, Was The   Instruction Of    A Class In

     Mathematics, And I Usually Found That Euclid And The   Ancient

     Geometry Generally, When Addressed To The   Understanding, Formed A

     Very Attractive Study For Youth. But It Was My Habitual Practice To

     Withdraw The   Boys From The   Routine Of    The   Book, And To Appeal To

     Their Self-Power In The   Treatment Of    Questions Not Comprehended In

     That Routine. At First, The   Change From The   Beaten Track Usually

     Excited A Little Aversion: The   Youth Felt Like A Child Amid

     Strangers; But In No Single Instance Have I Found This Aversion To

     Continue. When Utterly Disheartened, I Have Encouraged The   Boy By

     That Anecdote Of    Newton, Where He Attributes The   Difference Between

     Him And Other Men, Mainly To His Own Patience; Or Of    Mirabeau, When

     He Ordered His Servant, Who Had Stated Something To Be Impossible,

     Never To Use That Stupid Word Again. Thus Cheered, He Has Returned

     To His Task With A Smile, Which Perhaps Had Something Of    Doubt In

     It, But Which, Nevertheless, Evinced A Resolution To Try Again. I

     Have Seen The   Boy's Eye Brighten, And At Length, With A Pleasure Of

     Which The   Ecstasy Of    Archimedes Was But A Simple Expansion, Heard

     Him Exclaim, 'I Have It, Sir.' The   Consciousness Of    Self-Power,

     Thus Awakened, Was Of    Immense Value; And Animated By It, The

     Progress Of    The   Class Was Truly Astonishing. It Was Often My Custom

     To Give The   Boys Their Choice Of    Pursuing Their Propositions In The

     Book, Or Of    Trying Their Strength At Others Not To Be Found There.

     Never In A Single Instance Have I Known The   Book To Be Chosen. I

     Was Ever Ready To Assist When I Deemed Help Needful, But My Offers

     Of    Assistance Were Habitually Declined. The   Boys Had Tasted The

     Sweets Of    Intellectual Conquest And Demanded Victories Of    Their

     Own. I Have Seen Their Diagrams Scratched On The   Walls, Cut Into

     The   Beams Upon The   Play Ground, And Numberless Other Illustrations

     Of    The   Living Interest They Took In The   Subject. For My Own Part,

     As Far As Experience In Teaching Goes, I Was A Mere Fledgling: I

     Knew Nothing Of    The   Rules Of    Pedagogics, As The   Germans Name It;

     But I Adhered To The   Spirit Indicated At The   Commencement Of    This

     Discourse, And Endeavoured To Make Geometry A _Means_ And Not A

     _Branch_ Of    Education. The   Experiment Was Successful, And Some Of

     The   Most Delightful Hours Of    My Existence Have Been Spent In

     Marking The   Vigorous And Cheerful Expansion Of    Mental Power, When

     Appealed To In The   Manner I Have Described."

 

 

 

This Empirical Geometry Which Presents An Endless Series Of    Problems,

Should Be Continued Along With Other Studies For Years; And May

Throughout Be Advantageously Accompanied By Those Concrete Applications

Of Its Principles Which Serve As Its Preliminary. After The   Cube, The

Octahedron, And The   Various Forms Of    Pyramid And Prism Have Been

Part 1 Chapter 2 (Intellectual Education) Pg 35

Mastered, May Come The   More Complex Regular Bodies--The Dodecahedron And

Icosahedron--To Construct Which Out Of    Single Pieces Of    Cardboard,

Requires Considerable Ingenuity. From These, The   Transition May

Naturally Be Made To Such Modified Forms Of    The   Regular Bodies As Are

Met With In Crystals--The Truncated Cube, The   Cube With Its Dihedral As

Well As Its Solid Angles Truncated, The   Octahedron And The   Various

Prisms As Similarly Modified: In Imitating Which Numerous Forms Assumed

By Different Metals And Salts, An Acquaintance With The   Leading Facts Of

Mineralogy Will Be Incidentally Gained.[1]

 

 

 

After Long Continuance In Exercises Of    This Kind, Rational Geometry, As

May Be Supposed, Presents No Obstacles. Habituated To Contemplate

Relationships Of    Form And Quantity, And Vaguely Perceiving From Time To

Time The   Necessity Of    Certain Results As Reached By Certain Means, The

Pupil Comes To Regard The   Demonstrations Of    Euclid As The   Missing

Supplements To His Familiar Problems. His Well-Disciplined Faculties

Enable Him Easily To Master Its Successive Propositions, And To

Appreciate Their Value; And He Has The   Occasional Gratification Of

Finding Some Of    His Own Methods Proved To Be True. Thus He Enjoys What

Is To The   Unprepared A Dreary Task. It Only Remains To Add, That His

Mind Will Presently Arrive At A Fit Condition For That Most Valuable Of

All Exercises For The   Reflective Faculties--The Making Of    Original

Demonstrations. Such Theorems As Those Appended To The   Successive Books

Of The   Messrs. Chambers's Euclid, Will Soon Become Practicable To Him;

And In Proving Them, The   Process Of    Self-Development Will Be Not

Intellectual Only, But Moral.

 

 

 

To Continue These Suggestions Much Further, Would Be To Write A Detailed

Treatise On Education, Which We Do Not Purpose. The   Foregoing Outlines

Of Plans For Exercising The   Perceptions In Early Childhood, For

Conducting Object-Lessons, For Teaching Drawing And Geometry, Must Be

Considered Simply As Illustrations Of    The   Method Dictated By The   General

Principles Previously Specified. We Believe That On Examination They

Will Be Found Not Only To Progress From The   Simple To The   Complex, From

The Indefinite To The   Definite, From The   Concrete To The   Abstract, From

The Empirical To The   Rational; But To Satisfy The   Further Requirements,

That Education Shall Be A Repetition Of    Civilisation In Little, That It

Shall Be As Much As Possible A Process Of    Self-Evolution, And That It

Shall Be Pleasurable. The   Fulfilment Of    All These Conditions By One Type

Of Method, Tends Alike To Verify The   Conditions, And To Prove That Type

Of The   Method The   Right One. Mark Too, That This Method Is The   Logical

Outcome Of    The   Tendency Characterising All Modern Improvements In

Tuition--That It Is But An Adoption In Full Of    The   Natural System Which

They Adopt Partially--That It Displays This Complete Adoption Of    The

Natural System, Both By Conforming To The   Above Principles, And By

Following The   Suggestions Which The   Unfolding Mind Itself Gives:

Facilitating Its Spontaneous Activities, And So Aiding The   Developments

Which Nature Is Busy With. Thus There Seems Abundant Reason To Conclude,

That The   Mode Of    Procedure Above Exemplified, Closely Approximates To

The True One.

 

 

A Few Paragraphs Must Be Added In Further Inculcation Of    The   Two General

Principles, That Are Alike The   Most Important And The   Least Attended To;

Namely, The   Principle That Throughout Youth, As In Early Childhood And

In Maturity, The   Process Shall Be One Of    Self-Instruction; And The

Obverse Principle, That The   Mental Action Induced Shall Be Throughout

Intrinsically Grateful. If Progression From Simple To Complex, From

Indefinite To Definite, And From Concrete To Abstract, Be Considered The

Essential Requirements As Dictated By Abstract Psychology; Then Do The

Requirements That Knowledge Shall Be Self-Mastered, And Pleasurably

Mastered, Become Tests By Which We May Judge Whether The   Dictates Of

Abstract Psychology Are Being Obeyed. If The   First Embody The   Leading

Generalisations Of    The   _Science_ Of    Mental Growth, The   Last Are The

Chief Canons Of    The   _Art_ Of    Fostering Mental Growth. For Manifestly, If

The Steps In Our _Curriculum_ Are So Arranged That They Can Be

Successively Ascended By The   Pupil Himself With Little Or No Help, They

Must Correspond With The   Stages Of    Evolution In His Faculties; And

Manifestly, If The   Successive Achievements Of    These Steps Are

Intrinsically Gratifying To Him, It Follows That They Require No More

Than A Normal Exercise Of    His Powers.

 

 

 

But Making Education A Process Of    Self-Evolution, Has Other Advantages

Than This Of    Keeping Our Lessons In The   Right Order. In The   First Place,

It Guarantees A Vividness And Permanency Of    Impression Which The   Usual

Methods Can Never Produce. Any Piece Of    Knowledge Which The   Pupil Has

Himself Acquired--Any Problem Which He Has Himself Solved, Becomes, By

Virtue Of    The   Conquest, Much More Thoroughly His Than It Could Else Be.

The Preliminary Activity Of    Mind Which His Success Implies, The

Concentration Of    Thought Necessary To It, And The   Excitement Consequent

On His Triumph, Conspire To Register The   Facts In His Memory In A Way

That No Mere Information Heard From A Teacher, Or Read In A School-Book,

Can Be Registered. Even If He Fails, The   Tension To Which His Faculties

Have Been Wound Up, Insures His Remembrance Of    The   Solution When Given

To Him, Better Than Half-A-Dozen Repetitions Would. Observe, Again, That

This Discipline Necessitates A Continuous Organisation Of    The   Knowledge

He Acquires. It Is In The   Very Nature Of    Facts And Inferences

Assimilated In This Normal Manner, That They Successively Become The

Premises Of    Further Conclusions--The Means Of    Solving Further Questions.

The Solution Of    Yesterday's Problem Helps The   Pupil In Mastering

To-Day's. Thus The   Knowledge Is Turned Into Faculty As Soon As It Is

Taken In, And Forthwith Aids In The   General Function Of    Thinking--Does

Not Lie Merely Written On The   Pages Of    An Internal Library, As When

Rote-Learnt. Mark Further, The   Moral Culture Which This Constant

Self-Help Involves. Courage In Attacking Difficulties, Patient

Concentration Of    The   Attention, Perseverance Through Failures--These Are

Characteristics Which After-Life Specially Requires; And These Are

Characteristics Which This System Of    Making The   Mind Work For Its Food

Specially Produces. That It Is Thoroughly Practicable To Carry Out

Instruction After This Fashion, We Can Ourselves Testify; Having Been In

Youth Thus Led To Solve The   Comparatively Complex Problems Of

Perspective. And That Leading Teachers Have Been Tending In This

Direction, Is Indicated Alike In The   Saying Of    Fellenberg, That "The

Individual, Independent Activity Of    The   Pupil Is Of    Much Greater

Importance Than The   Ordinary Busy Officiousness Of    Many Who Assume The

Office Of    Educators;" In The   Opinion Of    Horace Mann, That "Unfortunately

Education Amongst Us At Present Consists Too Much In _Telling_, Not In

_Training_;" And In The   Remark Of    M. Marcel, That "What The   Learner

Discovers By Mental Exertion Is Better Known Than What Is Told To Him."