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taught merely by exercising the intellect , nor science by administering to the affections . We make our pupils learned at the expense of their nerves , and pious while we neglect their understandings ; and yet exercise and diet are as much under our controul as religious influences , and the operations of the reasoning faculty as much as either . Careful as we should be , therefore , in adopting any new systems of education , our proneness to the partial cultivation of our pupils should make us
doubly watchful of those systems which relate only to particular departments of education . Among these is the system of Jacotot , which has nothing to do with physical or moral development , though it advances extraordinary pretensions as far as the intellect is concerned . Now , before we examine these pretensions , we must express our doubts whether this system can by any good management on the part of the teacher be pursued by the pupil with that relish , —whether it can ensure to him those encouragements and
rewards which are essential to the healthful prosecution of any study , and to its beneficial moral effects . Of any but the intellectual results of these methods we know nothing ; but we feel pretty sure that we could not in childhood have gone through such wearisome labour as is here prescribed without losing more in one way than we could gain in another . " The Universal Instruction has but one route . The pupil is required to
commit to memory the first six books of Telemachus , as an introductory exercise . These lie must know perfectly , so as to be able to repeat them from one end to the other without the slightest hesitation ; and whenever the teacher mentions the first word of a paragraph or sentence , to continue the paragraph or sentence without the omission of a single word . Many persons to whom this has been mentioned have been at once startled at what they considered so
vast a requirement , not recollecting , at the same time , that much more , and to infinitely less purpose , is exacted from the pupil by the common method . When the six books of Telemachus , or an equivalent portion of any eminent work in the language which the pupil may be studying , is once thus thoroughly impressed on the memory , his labour is almost all over . Every exercise afterwards required of him is little better than amusement ; he is in possession of all the necessary materials , and his mind will almost spontaneously employ them /'— " * Learn then by heart and understand , ' says Jacotot , ' the first six
books of Telemaque , or an equivalent portion of any eligible work in the language to be acquired , and repeat it incessantly . Refer every thing else to this , and you will certainly learn the language . ' The following is the method proposed by Jacotot , in order to attain that perfect mental retention necessary to the efficient operation of this system . —The pupil must learn every day a sentence , a paragraph , or a page , according as his memory is more or less habituated to this exercise ; and he must never fail to repeat all that he
has previously learned , from the first word of the book . Thus , if he learns one sentence at first , on the following day he learns the next sentence , but repeats the two , commencing' with the first word of that previously learned . The same method is pursued to the end of tjhe sixth book . As , however , this repetition , as the pupil goes on , necessarily occupies much time , it is sometimes found advisable to divide the portion thus accumulating ; but still the genera ) repetition of the six books must have place at least twice a week .
The oftemer the whole is repeated , the more prompt and durable are the resuits . — % t ( is confessed that the preceding exercise is tedious and wearisome , and great care is required on the part of the teacher to prevent it from becoming repulsive and disgusting to the pupil . Too much must not at first be exacted . If the child cannot learn a p aragraph in a day , let hjtm learn two sentences , one sentence , or even a single word . At all events be must learn something thoroughly , on the next day he will lean * something more , still repeating what has been previously learned ; and after a fortnight ' s practice ,
Untitled Article
268 Exposition of Professor Jacotot 9 System of Education *
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), April 2, 1831, page 258, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2596/page/42/
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