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of that office upon which I was about to enter , and had sought for information wherever T could find it , I determined not to bind myself to any one of the many systems of education which are continually presented to the notice of the world , but to endeavour to make myself
acquainted with what should appear to be good in each , and apply it as common sense might direct , according to the various dispositions and talents of those who might be intrusted to my care . With what ability I have done this it is not for me to say , but I will say I have constantly done it with good intentions , and applied
myself to my duties with fidelity , diligence , and serious attention . These duties 1 always considered as highly important . The welfare of society is intimately conuected with the care which is taken of individuals in their early years . Experiments in education are scarcely allowable when we consider that if the experiment fails children are robbed of their
time , receive no solid instruction , and . often get erroneons impressions , while no end is answered save that of gratifying the temporary vanity or filling the pockets of the experimentalist . I therefore determined to pursue a well-defined path , never to wander from it in search of short cuts and royal roads , but to leave it only where the advantage was to the best of my judgment self-evident . The man who makes any great change in the
mode by which youth is instructed , must either have a very superior mind capable of perceiving intuitively the result of his plans , ( since he has no experience to guide him , ) or he must be a daring , reckless empiric , who , while he cau gratify the reigning love of novelty and serve his own interested views , cares not how individuals or society may be injured by the neglect or wrong instruction of the infant mind . A teacher . should enter
upon his duties with enlarged and generous views . To talk , indeed , of views wholly disinterested is affectation ; every man hopes to maintain himself and family by the pursuit to which he devotes himself . But an honest , mauly mind will
expect support only by the diligent exercise of Mich skill and ability as he may possess—not by impudent quackery or vain boasting . The welfare of the child , the improvement of his moral and intellectual faculties , is the object of education . To this task the teacher must
a Pply himself with cheerful self-devotion , »» d then , though meanness may deride or imbecility affect to regard the employment with contempt , it will tfank among the most honourable in which a man cau
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Intelligence . *— -Tribute of Respect to the Rev . H . R . Bowles * & 87
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engage . But he who sacrifices the great principle of education to meaner considerations ; he who thinks chiefly how he may raise himself to popularity , or how he may make most money ; he who pays court to prejudice in every shape—to prejudice of fashion , prejudice of fastidious
refinement , of unintellectual vulgarity , or of literary pedantry ; he who studies only how to please , —neglects altogether the interest of the child for whose benefit education is chiefly intended ., and degrades the office of preceptor into one of the lowest and most grovelling employments of life . The child , with all his
various faculties — and nothing else — should be the great object of the teacher ' s attention . It is his duty . to > call forth those faculties , energies , and talents , which , whether he in ay be destined to move in the humbler walks of life , or shine in art , science , and literature , may constitute him a useful member of society . These powers of mind appear ( under various modifications ) in every individual , and it behoves the teacher to mark the
different shades of character and talent , carefully to observe what different treatment they require in their different stages of development , and apply such means as may best call ihose faculties into exercise , and to prepare their possessors for future usefulness in whatever station of
lite they may be destined to fill . With these views and these principles I began my career as a preceptor ; to these I have firmly and conscientiously adhered through good and evil report ; highly delighted when my efforts have won the approbation of those who had transferred the parental authority to my hands ; receiviug a still higher gratification when
I have seen my former pupils advancing in usefulness as they advanced in life , and could say to myself , * I had some share in the development of those qualities which confer respectability on their possessors ;* and consoling myself under whatever mortification I may have endured when my motives aiid plans have been misrepresented and misunderstood , by the pleasing reflection that I had done my duty according to my best ability . —
From that common centre , my desk , round which in earlier life you assembled , your paths have diverged in different directions , and borne you to different points of the compass . It is my most ardent desire that none of you may have cause to say that the time was lost which you passed under my care . Some left me at an early age to receive the advantages which the public schools of oui country afford . I trust 1 may be allowed
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Aug. 2, 1829, page 587, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2575/page/69/
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