On this page
-
Text (2)
-
Untitled Article
-
Untitled Article
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
-
-
Transcript
-
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
Additionally, when viewing full transcripts, extracted text may not be in the same order as the original document.
Untitled Article
Lastly , Geography is . taught precisely on the same principle—not formally from a book , but from maps only ; and not as a task , but as an indulgence at extra hours : and
" So high an opinion , " says our author , " have the public entertained of the extensive and minute knowledge of geography displayed by our pupils , tliat several of them are at this moment employed in the most respectable p rivate families in teaching this department of knowledge . " Such is the method of instruction which Mr . Wood has introduced into the Edinburgh Sessional School . Regarded merely as a mean of imparting elementary knowledge , it must be allowed to be a vast improvement on the old plan ; and in a moral and religious view , its advantages are incalculable . On ibis subject let us hear Mr . Wood himself :
Of the changes which their education and new habits have operated upon the characters of our pupils while within the walls of the seminary , we have ourselves witnessed many very pleasing instances . Many who entered it , and that not at the very earliest stage of life , quite ignorant and regardless of religion , have there become deeply interested in its important truths , and , to
all appearance at least , strongly impressed with a sense of the moral obligations which it imposes . Some who were originally addicted to lying , and to every species of meanness , and were on that account shunned by their companions , have , under the influence of the religious and moral discipline of this institution , and of that high tone of right feeling and sense of honour which it infuses , been altered into beings of apparently a quite different stamp . la
nothing , however , has such an amendment been more conspicuous than with regard to temper . Often has it been our delight to behold sullenness and discontent converted into gratitude and satisfaction , —to see the gathering storm upon the brow dispelled by a single look , and giving way to a mingled
smile of shame and of grateful recognition , —and even to hear from the lips of the pupils themselves an acknowledgment , that their parents at home had remarked a striking change upon their temper , from the period of their entering our institution . That profane and disgusting language , too , which is elsewhere so common in this class of society , is here never heard without exciting in the minds of the pupils the strongest feelings of horror and aversion . "— Pp . 247 , 248 .
In an indirect manner , too , the improvements introduced have tended to promote a moral reformation ; for the fondness which the boys have acquired lor the school has induced them to remain till a master was found for them , thus filling up with useful employment that most dangerous interval which would have elapsed between the time of their leaving school and entering on their apprenticeship . Nor has the superior education which they have received had the effect of giving them a distaste for their situation in life .
" Our greatest proficients , " says Mr . W ., " are still content to ' dwell among their own people / and to follow the occupations of their fathers . This , indeed , has sometimes been exhibited in a manner that has surprised us . In consequence of the anxiety to get the system of the Sessional School introduced into other parts of the country , our best scholars have frequently been requested to follow the profession of teaching . This request , though strongly urged , has on more than one occasion been declined by the boys themselves , who preferred entering into ordinary mechanical occupations . Still , however , their fondness for their original studies remained . Some of them requested permission from their friends to continue at our evening school , while others , who were patterns of diligence in the work-shop , employed their vacant hours at home in useful reading , "—P . 255 .
Untitled Article
Edinburgh Sessional School . 385
Untitled Article
VOL . III . 2 K
-
-
Citation
-
Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), June 2, 1829, page 385, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2573/page/17/
-