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Untitled Article
teaching ought to last , and in all probability , whether it be good ; or bad , it will last , through all other teachings , till his mind gains its maturity . In the first place , then , it is no such easy matter to train a child ' s temper , and feelings , and habits . Good sense and observation are essential , but a knowledge of the general principles and laws of mind will be found to be
very advantageous , if not also essential . "• Systems of education , " we are told , " are full of quackery and nonsense , and children were well taught before Rousseau and Locke , Pestalozzi and Edgeworth , were heard of . *' Better taught , perhaps , than they would have been by the blind disciples of any of those masters ; but it does not therefore follow that there may not be much to be learnt from them all—still less that the science of mind
can teach us nothing beyond our individual experience of mind . How is it with medical knowledge ? Is there no quackery , no nonsense , no fashion there ? It is notorious that people are bled or blistered , poisoned or starved out of life , by the professors of this or that school , and yet which of us says that a knowledge of the human frame is of no avail in curing disease ? Which of us , in a dangerous case , would prefer the advise of a
sensible man who had not studied medicine ? If education be professional in woman , the study of mental and moral philosophy is her appropriate and professional duty . Thus qualified in the most important point , she knows how to teach—she can act upon the child's mind , train his feelings , regulate his temper , form his habits , excite and secure his attention . Let us now see what she should teach—what rudiments of knowledge are to be
imparted by her , or under her superintendence ? Far , very far , beyond the daily lesson , should the mother ' s instruction , even to an infant , extend . Children should never be brought too forward , never be crammed ; but when they ask , as intelligent children who are permitted and encouraged to do so , always will ask , a thousand questions from hour to hour , of the beings and things that surround them , they should not be starved . Often and
often does a child of five years old ask what his accomplished and " welkinformed" mother is puzzled to answer , because ( as she says ) he is too young to understand it—because ( in reality ) she does not sufficiently understand it herself to put it into simple language and adapt it tp his capacity . Curiosity of this kind is soon damped , the habit of inquiring
soon ceases ( particularly if the consciousness of inability throws a little pettish ness into the mother ' s answer ) . " You may read about all these things by and , bye , when ypu can understand them , " is a mere dead letter , instead of a promise associated with present pleasure , and stimulating to future exertion , and the weeds spring up instead of the good seed which should have been sown . Nine times out of ten , if the subject were clear
to the parent , some part of it might be made clear to the child ; this is always the case in natural history , in manufactures , ( when a child asks , " What is this made of ? " or , *? How is it nvuje ? " ) and often , much oftener than is supposed , in . natural philosophy . Whoever is concerned m educa ^
Untitled Article
What should a Woman Learn ? 527
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Aug. 2, 1831, page 527, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2600/page/23/
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