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Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
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Untitled Article
tion , should have extensive , accurate , and practical knowledge of these branches of science ; women , that isj should be acquainted with natural history , with manufactures , and with natural philosophy . The Toutine of lessons is comparatively unimportant , and may be transferred , but it is a mistake to suppose that ** any body can hear the child its lessons , ' * or that
a knowledge of reading , writing , and spelling , is all it requires . Magni momenti est ad studia , eorum initia a perfectissimo praeceptore tradi , is a doctrine of the ancients , which modern instructors would do well to remember . In arithmetic , for instance , which falls to the lot of so many mothers
to teach , what a thorough and scientific knowledge of the principle of numbers , of mathematics in short , does it require to lay a good foundation , and give the child a rational command of the first few simple rules ! Listen to the questions which are asked and answered perpetually till the mechanical routine is fixed in the memory . " Am I to multiply or divide ? ' * " Which row am I to take ? " Why they are to multiply or divide , or
what relation one row may bear to another , is no part of what they acquire ; they are taught to do sums , but they are not taught arithmetic : if they have resolution , when they are further advanced , to go back to the subject , and seek an explanation of these early rules , they may possibly find it , but they will never understand so well or so readily , as they might have done , step by step , when they first went over the ground . If we wish our
children to be clear-headed , let their mothers be conversant with the higher branches of arithmetic and the elements of mathematics . Geography , what a wearisome business it is , for want of more information on the part of the teacher ! Why should children be forced to learn by rote with infinite pains a string of names with which they connect no ideas , when those very names would be learnt with so much ease , profit , and pleasure , if they were associated with the facts which alone make them worthy of
notice ? A child should be taught the manners , customs , and appearance of the inhabitants , and the natural productions of every country which is shewn to him on the map , instead of being compelled to repeat the countries , capital towns , rivers , mountains , &c , for his future edification , and the credit of his instructor . —We come now to the languages , the classical languages especially , and here it must be allowed that some provision for future instruction is made . We are often told that ** it is very convenient for a woman to understand a little Latin—enough to hear her boys their
grammar , * ' &c . It is convenient , and it is not essential ; but against the very little which is supposed to be sufficient for the purpose , we should be inclined to enter a protests A very-little indeed , or none at all , may be
sufficient for hearing a boy his grammar , in the senseless way in which it is still decreed to be gotten by heart ; but a very little is not enough to teach a language to any purpose , even to the youngest beginner . If a woman has not time and talent enough to make herself thoroughly mistress of the construction and spirit of the language , she had far better let it alone ,
Untitled Article
528 What should a fVvman Learn ?
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Aug. 2, 1831, page 528, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2600/page/24/
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