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there will be little reason to tax him with want of memory . When the pupil knows the first six books thoroughly , it is not necessary to commit the remaining eighteen to memory ; but he must read every day some pages of them , with a degree of attention sufficient to enable him to relate what they contain . —This second exercise , however , on no account excludes the general or partial repetition of the first six books , which the pupil must go through at least once a week , even when they are fixed immoveably in his memory . " —Pp . 20 , 26 , 27 .
This " introductory exercise" being 6 nished , the elements of all science and wisdom are to be drawn out and framed into com p leteness by a system of interrogation , which we should think equally wearisome to teacher and pupil . Then follows a system of exercises , all bearing reference to the portions impressed on the memory ; and the same ( with the exception of the scientific part ) has to be gone through with every new language that is learned . If , as it appears to us , all the mental processes which are necessary to ed . If , as it appears to us , all the mental processes which are necessary to
the acquisition of the sciences are totally independent of this prodigious exertion of memory , the question conies to this—is this drudgery too heavy a tax to pay for the acquisition of a language ? Feeling how our own under standing would be disgusted and our temper irritated by such a process , we conclude that it is . We do not doubt Jacotot's promise , You will certainly learn the language ;* ' but we inquire , "At what cost ? ' * We have quite as strong a conviction that the intellectual results of such
a plan of repetition cannot be good . Let any one ' s experience declare whether to learn by rote is not to lose the power of judgment and the pleasures of taste , in reference to what is committed to memory . «« No , I wont learn it by heart , " said a little girl , about a pretty piece of poetry , •* because I want to go on liking it . " Many who repent of their early voluntary exercises of memory , and who now find that to retain in perfect accuracy is not
to enjoy , will sympathize with this child's feeling . They will find how the pleasure arising from choice pieces committed to memory is irrecoverably gone , how impossible it is to reason on , judge , compare , and in any degree appreciate , what , by being retained in words , has lost its power of appealing to other associations . No allurements could incite us , no management could enable us , to reason on any thing presented in a form of words repeated twice a week with the vigour and freedom with which we should attack new
thoughts , or even old ones , presented under a new mode of expression . It is very true that by Jacotot's method a vast quantity of materials are stored up by the pupil ; but we doubt whether the power of using them would not disappear during the process of accumulation . If we thought that the proved efficacy of Jacotot ' s system depended as much as its advocates declare on this particular exercise , we should hesitate to express ourselves as we have done ; for wonders have certainly been done in some societies of his disciples abroad . We will explain what we suppose to be the causes of success when we have given a brief account of the origin and nature of the system .
M . Jacotot , a native of Dijon , being made , in 1818 , Professor of the French language at the University of Louvain , found himself called upon to teach the French language to pupils whose native tongue he did not understand . He gave them Fenelon's Telemaque , with a Dutch translation , which they proceeded to commit to memory , discovering the meaning of the French text by a close comparison with the Dutch version * When thoroughly acquainted with half the first book , they began to compose in French , and succeeded to the astonishment of the Professor himself , who Was thus led to the recognition of the great principle of his system— --that the best way to
Untitled Article
Exposition of Professor Jacotot ' s System of Education . 269
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), April 2, 1831, page 259, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2596/page/43/
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