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learn every thing is to be told nothing . Other experiments were tried in the same manner and with the same success ; the pupils being made to acquaint themselves thoroughly with a model , and then to draw all their materials from it , and fashion all their proceedings with a perpetual reference to it . It was found that they spontaneously observed every rule of orthography and grammar , until they proved themselves capable of writing as well as the author of their model-book , as far as style was concerned . Of the degree of resemblance between the style of each pupil and that of his master or fellow-pupil , we are not informed ; but we imagine that a diversity of styles can scarcely exist under this method .
It is plain that the grand characteristic of this system is , that the old method of teaching is directly reversed ; that the pupil is taught analytically instead of synthetically . This is an all-import ant difference , and one which will fully account for the beneficial results of Jacotot ' s plan * , without obliging us to admit the desirableness of all the modes in which the principle is applied . If it was necessary for every mind to go through all the labour which the discovery of the analytical proeess caused to those benefactors of the race
who first made us acquainted with the true method of philosophizing , all who wished for the accelerated progress of science would exclaim against learners being exercised in any but the synthetical mode It might then be well to accept as articles of belief principles deduced by the labour of others , and to confine the business of instruction to assistance in the application of those principles . But , since the materials may be add are so prepared as to render the analytical process speedy and easy to learners , since the results are certain , and there is no other method of making pupils sure
of their principles , it seems the most evident thing possible that they should go through the whole process in its natural order . The whole process cannot indeed be dispensed with ; it is accomplished under the old system as well as the new , as often as any science is thoroughly learned ; the only difference ( and it is a most important one ) being , that in the one case the process is reversed , while in the other it is natural . Take the instance of grammar . On the old plan , the pupil was taught the principles of the science and most of its details before he had the slightest notion how to apply them . They remained in his memory , and could not be made his own till
he could institute the process of analysis for himself ; till he could interpret the grammatical meaning of the language he heard or read or used by his own application of the hitherto senseless rules he had been obliged to lodge in his memory . Then , after all , he had to institute the synthetical process for himself ; and when he had done , found that the first attempt to pursue
it was just so much extra labour , and the time employed in it just so much time lost . On the new plan , the pupil hears nothing of the principles and rules of grammar till he is prepared , on a very slight suggestion , to discover and apply them for himself : and as he comes fresh to the subject , and his understanding is interested all the time , he can without delay or disgust proceed
to the second part of his task , and compose grammatically immediately after having discovered the principles on which he is to advance . This method , if advantageous in one intellectual process , must be so in all ; and as much of the system of Jacotot as is involved in it has our cordial approbation . We say the same for the Hamiltonian or any other system , whatever may be the extraneous errors or peculiarities of each ; our business being with their relation to human welfare , and not with the merits of their discoverers or
Untitled Article
260 Exposition of Professor Jacotot s 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 260, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2596/page/44/
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