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methods adopted there into practice elsewhere- And I may add , that I believe nothing would give Mr . Fellenberg more satisfaction than to receive a pupil sent there to learn those
methods . In order to profit immediately by his stay at Hofvvyl , such a person should understand German , as that is the language spoken by Vehril and the labourers .
Mr . Fellenberg , having observed the general defecfs in the education of youth in Switzerland , arising from the ignorance of the schoolmasters , ( whose emoluments are inferior to the
wages of ordinary labour , ) adopted a very judicious plan for remedying this evil . He assembled about forty of them one summer , and kept them at Hofwyl during their vacation of three months . He there had them instructed
by the professors of the place , in various branches of knowledge . Being men of industrious habits , and sufficiently anxious to learn , they made great progress , and still further improved themselves on their return to their homes . Mr . Fellenberg iuvited
them all to assemble the next year , but the government , for some reason which I cannot pretend to explain , took umbrage at this proceeding , and prohibited the meeting . However , the neighbouring canton of Zurich
encouraged their teachers to resort to Hofwyl , where a number of them were accordingly maintained and instructed in the same manner as the Bernese masters had been the year before .
There is another institution for education at Yverdun , which I also visited in August , 1816 . It is under the direction of Mr . Pestalozzi , and consists of above a hundred boys ,
who are taught every branch of learning , by different masters , upon a principle quite new and deserving of notice . Mr . Pestalozzi observes , that the received methods of instruction
are too mechanical ; that children are taught by rote , and that their reasoning faculties are not sufficiently called into action . Accordingly , all his pupils are taught in a way that
excludes mere mechanical operations , and certainly tends greatly to exercise the mind . No b > ooks are allowed : but the master , standing before a large board or slate , on which he writes , ci phers or draws , ( as the case may
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be , ) explains or demonstrates to the boys who sit around hina ; and whose attention is kept awake ' to every step of the process by constant examinations , in which they are obliged to go through the steps themselves viva voce . I saw many of them who had gone a
considerable way in the mathematics , without having ever used a book . One only had reached the flaxiona ! calculus , of which , from a question I gave him to work , he appeared to have an imperfect notion - although in a far shorter time than he had been
learning , the young men in this country acquire great expertness in the highest branches of analytical science * But he and the others whom 1 examined had certainly a very accurate knowledge of the rationale of all the operations which they had learnt , and
their minds were much strengthened , I doubt not , by the constant exercise of thought unconnected with notation . I conceive that analytical investigations might be rendered more useful , and might approach more to those of geometry , in their beneficial effects
upon the reasoning powers , were somewhat of M . Pestalozzi ' s principle adopted . That he carries it too far , seems equally clear to me ; and I have been informed , that his pupils , when they come to mix in the business of life , in counting-houses , &c , are very
much thrown out , at least at first , by their having been unaccustomed to the use of books . I should , however , wish to be understood as speaking with diffidence on this subject ,
from my imperfect examination of it . I understand that a gentleman from Ireland has made it his peculiar study , with the view of introducing it there ; and he may , I trust , before long , give the public an account of it in detail .
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Inscription designed for the Monument of Mr . John Short . 7 $ 3
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Dudley , Sir , November 18 , 1818 . IN the list which Mr . Manning was so obliging as to send you [ p . 89 ] of students educated , about fifty years ago , in the Academy at Exeter , occurs the name of Mr . John Short .
This gentleman , as Mr . Manning informs us , died before he had completed his academical course . I have lately met with a beautiful inscription designed for his monument . It wa& drawn up by the celebrated Mr . Bad"
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Dec. 2, 1818, page 733, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2483/page/5/
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