INTEREST IN WORK.

195

the taking of an adequate sketch, is converted into a habit, and becomes productive both of instruction and amusement.'* ·

Besides drawing, Pestalozzi recommended modelling, a hint which was afterwards worked out by Fröbel in his Kindergärten.

Differing from Locke and Basedow, Pestalozzi was no friend to the notion of giving instruction always in the guise of amusement. I am convinced,' says he, 'that such a notion will for ever preclude solidity of knowledge, and, from want of sufficient exertions on the part of the pupils, will lead to that very result which I wish to avoid by my principle of a constant employment of the thinking powers. A child must very early in life be taught the lesson that exertion is indispensable for the attainment of knowledge.' But a child should not be taught to look upon exertion as an evil. He should be encouraged, not frightened into it. 'An interest in study is the first thing which a teacher should endeavour to excite and keep alive. There are scarcely any circumstances in which a want of application in children does not proceed from a want of interest; and there are perhaps none in which the want of interest does not originate in the mode of teaching adopted by the teacher. I would go so far as to lay it down as a rule, that whenever children are inattentive and apparently take no interest in a lesson, the teacher should always first look to himself for the reason. Could we conceive the indescribable tedium which must oppress the young mind while the weary hours *Letters on Early Education, xxiv. p. 117.

are slowly passing away one after another in occupations which it can neither relish nor understand, could we remember the like scenes which our own childhood has passed through, we should no longer be surprised at the remissness of the schoolboy, "creeping like snail unwillingly to school."... To change all this, we must adopt a better mode of instruction, by which the children are less left to themselves, less thrown upon the unwelcome employment of passive listening, less harshly treated for little excusable failings; but more roused by questions, animated by illustrations, interested and won by kindness.

'There is a most remarkable reciprocal action between the interest which the teacher takes and that which he communicates to his pupils. If he is not with his whole mind present at the subject, if he does not care whether he is understood or not, whether his manner is liked or not, he will alienate the affections of his pupils, and render them indifferent to what he says. But real interest taken in the task of instruction-kind words and kinder feelings-the very expression of the features, and the glance of the eye, are never lost * children.' upon

In conclusion, I would ask, Have English schoolmasters nothing to learn from Pestalozzi? Do they aim at a plan of education which shall be founded on a knowledge of human nature, and at modes of instruction which shall develope their pupils' faculties? Perhaps some will be inclined to answer, 'Fine words no doubt, and in a sense very true, that education

* Letters on Early Education, xxx. p. 150.

THEORY AND PRACTICE.

197

should be the unfolding of the faculties according to the Divine idea; but between this high poetical theory and the dull prose of actual school-teaching, there is a great gulf fixed, and we cannot attend to both at the same time.' I know full well how different theories and plans of education seem to us when we are at leisure and can think of them without reference to particular pupils, and when all our energy is taxed to get through our day's teaching, and our animal spirits jaded by having to keep order and exact attention among veritable schoolboys who do not answer in all respects to the young' of the theorists. But whilst admitting most heartily the difference here, as elsewhere, between the actual and the ideal, I think that the dull prose of schoolteaching would be less dull and less prosaic if our aim was higher, and if we did not contentedly assume that our present performances are as good as the nature of the case will admit of. Many teachers (I think I might say most) are discontented with the greater number of their pupils, but it is not so usual for teachers to be discontented with themselves. And yet even those who are most averse from theoretical views, which they call unpractical, would admit, as practical men, that their methods are probably susceptible of improvement, and that even if their methods are right, they themselves are by no means perfect teachers. Only let the desire of improvement once exist, and the teacher will find a new interest in his work. In part, the treadmill-like monotony so wearing to the spirits will be done away, and he will at times have the encouragement of con

scious progress. To a man thus minded, theorists may be of great assistance. His practical knowledge may, indeed, often show him the absurdity of some pompously enunciated principle, and even where the principles seem sound, he may smile at the applications. But the theorists will show him many aspects of his profession, and will lead him to make many observations in it, which would otherwise have escaped him. They will save him from a danger caused by the difficulty of getting anything done in the school-room, the danger of thinking more of means than ends. They will teach him to examine what his aim really is, and then whether he is using the most suitable methods to accomplish it.

Such a theorist is Pestalozzi. He points to a high ideal, and bids us measure our modes of education by it. Let us not forget that if we are practical men we are Christians, and as such the ideal set before us is the highest of all. 'Be ye perfect, even as your Father in heaven is perfect.**

* Raumer reckons up the services Pestalozzi did for education as follows: He compelled the scholastic world to revise the whole of their task, to reflect on the nature and destiny of man, and also on the proper way of leading him from his youth toward that destiny.' Those who wish to study Pestalozzi and his work will find a mass of information, thrown together without any apparent attempt at method, in Henry Barnard's Pestalozzi and Pestalozzianism. New York, 1859. This volume contains Tilleard's translation of Raumer's Pestalozzi, excerpted from the Geschichte der Pädagogik, and published in this country. Besides this, Barnard gives us sketches of Pestalozzi's principal assistants, a translation of Lienhard und Gertrud, and long extracts from his other writings. I have used chiefly Barnard and Dr. Biber's Life, also article by Palmer in C. A. Semid's Encyclopädie. An important work (according to Barnard, I have not seen it myself) is R. Christoffel's Pestalozzis Leben und Ansichten in wortgetreuen Auszügen seiner ge

BIRTH AND DEATH.

199

sammten Schriften. Zürich, 1847. The little volume of Letters on Early Education, addressed to Mr. Greaves, was last published in the Phoenix Library. I have made many quotations from these letters above, and will conclude with this striking passage: Whenever we find a human being in a state of suffering, and near to the awful moment which is for ever to close the scene of his pains and his enjoyments in this world, we feel ourselves moved by a sympathy which reminds us, that, however low his earthly condition, here too there is one of our race, subject to the same sensations of alternate joy and grief-born with the same faculties—with the same destination, and the same hopes of immortal life. And as we give ourselves up to that idea, we would fain, if we could, alleviate his sufferings, and shed a ray of light on the darkness of his parting moments. This is a feeling which will come home to the heart of every one-even to the young and the thoughtless, and to those little used to the sight of woe. Why, then, we would ask, do we look with a careless indifference on those who enter life? why do we feel so little interest in the condition of those who enter upon that varied scene, of which we might contribute to enhance the enjoyments, and to diminish the sum of suffering, of discontent, and wretchedness? And that education might do this, is the conviction of all those who are competent to speak from experience. That it ought to do as much, is the persuasion, and that it may accomplish it, is the constant endeavour, of those who are truly interested in the welfare of mankind.'