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"Mastery."

they have not appropriated any dead knowledge (" angelernte todte Begriffe," as Diesterweg has it), and it cannot be said of them, "They know about much, but know nothing (Sie kennen viel und wissen nichts)." Their knowledge is actual knowledge, for they are taught not what to think but to think, and to exercise their powers of observation and draw conclusions from their own experience. The teacher simply furnishes materials and occasions for this exercise in observing, and as it goes on gives his benevolent superintendence.

§ 100. They learn slowly for another reason. According to Pestalozzi the first conceptions must be dwelt upon till they are distinct and firmly fixed. Buss tells us that when he first joined Pestalozzi at Burgdorf the delay over the prime elements seemed to him a waste of time, but that afterwards he was convinced of its being the right plan, and felt that the failure of his own education was due to its

incoherent and desultory character. "Not only," says Pestalozzi, "have the first elements of knowledge in every subject the most important bearing on its complete outline, but the child's confidence and interest are gained by perfect attainment even in the lowest stage of instruction."*

* One of the most interesting and most difficult problems in teaching is this: How long should the beginner be kept to the rudiments? With young children, to whom ideas come fast, the main thing is no doubt to take care that these ideas become distinct and are made "the

intellectual property" of the learners. But after a year or two chil tren will be impatient to "get on," and if they seem "marking time" will be bored and discouraged. Then again in some subjects the elementary parts seem clear only to those who have a conception of the whole. As Diderot says in a passage I have seen quoted from Le Neveu de Rameau, "Il faut être profond dans l'art ou dans la science

The body's part in education.

§ 101. We have seen that Pestalozzi would have children learn to pray, to think, and to work. In schools for the soi-disant "upper classes" the parents or friends f a boy sometimes say, "There is no need for him to work he will be very well off." From this kind of demoralization Pestalozzi's pupils were free. They would have to work, and Pestalozzi wished them to learn to work as soon as possible. In this way he sought to increase their self-respect, and to unite their school-life with their life beyond it.*

§ 102. Pestalozzi was tremendously in earnest, and he wished the children also to take instruction seriously. He was totally opposed to the notion which had found favour with many great authorities as eg., Locke and Basedow, that instruction should always be given in the guise of. "I am convinced," says he, "that such a

amusement.

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pour en bien posséder les éléments. "C'est le milieu et la fin qui éclaircissent les ténèbres du commencement." The greatest "coach in Cambridge used to "rush" his men through their subjects and then go back again for thorough learning. To be sure, the "scientific method" suitable for young men differs greatly from the "heuristic" or "method of investigation," which is best for children. (See Joseph Payne's Lecture on Pestalozzi.) But even with children we should bear in mind Niemeyer's caution, "Thoroughness itself may become superficial by exaggeration; for it may keep too long to a part and in this way fail to complete and give any notion of the whole" (Quoted by O. Fischer, Wichtigste Päd. 213).

"Elementary

* Nearly 20 years ago (1871) appeared a paper on National Education " in which "John Parkin, M.D.," advocated making all our elementary schools industrial, not only for practical purposes, but still more for the sake of physical education. The paper attracted no notice at the time, but now we are beginning to see that the body is concerned in education as well as the mind, and that the mind iearns through it "without book." The application of this truth will bring about many changes.

Learning must not be play.

notion will for ever preclude solidity of knowledge, and, for 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 "* (To G., xxiv, p. 117). But he should be taught at the same time that exertion is not an evil, and he should be encouraged, not frightened, into it. Healthy exertion, whether of body or mind, is always attended with a feeling of satisfaction amounting to pleasure, and where this pleasure is absent the instructor has failed in producing proper exertion. As Pestalozzi says, "Whenever children are inattentive and apparently take no interest in a lesson, the teacher should always first look to himself for the reason "† (16.).

* Herbart, when he visited Pestalozzi at Burgdorf, observed that though Pestalozzi's kindness was apparent to all, he took no pains in his teaching to mix the dulce with the utile. He never talked to the children, or joked, or gave them an anecdote. This, however, did not surprise Herbart, whose own experience had taught him that when the subject requires earnest attention the children do not like it the better for the teacher's " fun." "The feeling of clear apprehension," says he, "I held to be the only genuine condiment of instruction" (Herbart's Päd. Schriften, ed. by O. Willmann, j. 89).

First look to himself, but there may be other causes of failure as well. The great thing is never to put up contentedly, or even discon tentedly, with failure. In teaching classes of lads from ten to sixteen years old, when I have found the lessons in any subject were not going well, I have sometimes taken the class into my confidence, told them that they no doubt felt as I did that this lesson was a dull one, and asked them each to put on paper what he considered to be the reasons, and also to make any suggestions that occurred to him. In this way I have got some very good hints, and I have always been helped in my effort to understand how the work seemed to the pupils. Every teacher

Singing and drawing.

§ 103. But though he took so serious a view of instruction, he made instruction include and indeed give a prominent place to the arts of singing and drawing. In the Pestalozzian schools singing found immense favour with both the masters and the pupils, and the collection of songs by Nägeli, a master at Yverdun, became famous. Drawing too was practised by all. As Pestalozzi writes to Greaves (xxiv, 117), "A person who is in the habit of drawing, especially from nature, will easily perceive many circumstances which are commonly overlooked, and will form a much more correct impression even of such objects as he does not stop to examine minutely, than one who has never been taught to look upon what he sees with an intention of reproducing a likeness of it. The attention to the exact shape of the whole and the proportion of the parts, which is requisite for the taking of an adequate sketch, is converted into a habit, and becomes productive both of instruction and amusement."

§ 104. I have now endeavoured to point out the main features of Pestalozzianism. The following is the summing up of these features given by Morf in his Contribution to Pestalozzi's Biography :

1. Instruction must be based on the learner's own experience. (Das Fundament des Unterrichts ist die Anschauung.)

should make this effort. As Pestalozzi says, "Could we conceive the indescribable tedium which must oppress the young mind while the weary hours are slowly passing away one after another in occupations which it can neither relish nor understand we should no longer be surprised at the remissness of the schoolboy creeping like snail unwillingly to school" (To G., xxx, 150).

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Morf's summing-up.

2. What the learner experiences and observes must be connected with language.

3. The time for learning is not the time for judging, not the time for criticism.

4. In every department instruction must begin with the simplest elements, and starting from these must be carried on step by step according to the development of the child, that is, it must be brought into psychological sequence.

5 At each point the instructor shall not go forward till that part of the subject has become the proper intellectual possession of the learner.

6. Instruction must follow the path of development, not the path of lecturing, teaching, or telling.

7. To the educator the individuality of the child must be sacred.

8. Not the acquisition of knowledge or skill is the main object of elementary instruction, but the development and strengthening of the powers of the mind.

9. With knowledge (Wissen) must come power (Können), with information (Kenntniss) skill (Fertigkeit).

10. Intercourse between educator and pupil, and school discipline especially, must be based on and controlled by love.

II. Instruction shall be subordinated to the aim of education.

12. The ground of moral-religious bringing up lies in the relation of mother and child.*

* With Morf's summing-up it is interesting to compare Joseph Payne's, given at the end of his lecture on Pestalozzi:

I. The principles of education are not to be devised ab extra; they are to be sought for in human nature.

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