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Untitled Article
We will try another experiment . We open a modern work on Political Economy of high reputation , and read , *• The general principle that town and country thrive at the expense of each other , I believe to be quite erroneous . " The pupil is desired to verify this opinion ( unquestionably sound ) by a reference to his model-book . He may , by patient examination , find some truth from whence he can deduce the soundness of the opinion ; but the first thing which will strike him is a passage in the most direct contraT diction to it ; viz . that in which Mentor and Telemachus converse on the
altered state of Salentum . Now , what is to be done ? Fenelon knew nothing of Political Economy , and was wrong . Is the pupil to believe him or a less antiquated teacher of the science ? And what is to be the strength of his faith in his model-book henceforth ? For grammar let him refer perpetually to a model , for a perfect model may be found ; but not for style , much less for science , and least of all for morals , should he be confined to
one production , be the mind whence it emanates what it may—as pious as Fenelon's , as philosophical as Newton ' s , or as refined as Michael Angelo ' s . If we were obliged to choose a model-book , it should be one very unlike Telemaque , even in all its original beauty . It should be a very careful selection of Fables , where deep moral and scientific truth should be embodied in the best forms of narrative , and where there might be a union of the beauties of fact , sentiment , and style . But no book could serve the
purpose well or permanently but one absolutely divine . We have no fear of any part of the Scriptures being seized upon for the objects of the system ; as it is clearly understood from the beginning that the book itself must be sacrificed ;—must , from being anatomized , and in that state kept for ever before the eyes of the student , lose not only its entireness and ^ race , but become recognized only in its mutilated parts , and be regarded with loathing for ever .
We have now considered all that is peculiar to the system of Jacotot ; for the modes of interrogation described by Mr . Payne must vary with the varieties of teachers and pupils , and be , moreover , only such as would be practised under any other system of instruction which has any utility ip it at all . We will only remark that there are many modes of suggesting and stimulating to inquiry besides mere interrogation ; and , knowing how wearisome and irritating the interrogative practice becomes to children , we
cannot but hope that all the examinations of Jacotot's school are not conducted by question and answer only , as is the case with those presented in the pamphlet before us . The merit of this far-famed system appears to us to reside in its extensive substitution of the analytical for the synthetical method . The use made of this method in teaching reading , writing , * grammar , and all the sciences , we approve as fully as our observation , reflection ,
and partial experience , authorize us in pronouncing ; and we admire the courage with which M » Jacotot has pushed this principle further than it has ever before been systematically carried in the business of education . Of the subordinate parts of his plan we do not think so well , though it is upon these that he and his followers set the highest value . An exclusive attachment to any model-book whatever we consider highly objectionable , and are too well convinced of the injurious effects of the laborious and irksome
repetition required in disgusting the learner , and cramping his intellectual powers , to wish to see it adopted for the sake of any possible advantage it may offer in learning a language . We much doubt whether there be not already a prevalent sameness of thought and style among the compositions of Jacotot ' s pupils ; and whether
Untitled Article
264 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 264, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2596/page/48/
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