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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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common subjects I found their ideas unclear and confused , and the same children , who would use the most correct language as long as they re * mained in the track of what they were just then reading , or what they had learned by rote , were unable to express themselves even with tolerable correctness on other matters ; a clear proof that their apparent
knowledge was a mere word-knowledge , in the acquisition or advantages of which the mind had no share . Thus , on another visit , the boys were exhibiting their slates , on whicfi they had written various words . I stopped one among the rest , who had the word "disadvantageous " " What does that word mean , my boy ? " " 1 don ' t know . " " You know , perhaps , what disadvantage means ? " ' No . " " Do you know what advantageous means ? " No . " "Or , have you ever heard the word advantage ^ what does that mean V " I don ' t know . " " Well , but suppose you lost your jacket , would that be an advantage or a disadvantage to you ? " " An advantage V * was his answer .
* It would be unfair , however , to let it be supposed that facts , such as these , are only to be met with in National schools . On this head the British system is quite as defective . Its method of ciphering , though different in some of the details , is , on the whole , no less objectionable , as it is , like the other , a mere mechanical application of the mechanical rules of ciphering , mechanically inculcated into the memory . And , as regards the preposterous exercise of learning to read and to write words ,
selected merely from a regard to the number of their syllables , by which the children are so stupified , that they lose the habit of thinking altogether , and do not care about the meaning even of that which they might understand , I recollect a fact which far outdoes the boy , who thought it an advantage for him to lose his jacket . It was at a Lancasterian school , and one which has the name of being among the best conducted ; so at least I was told by my friend who went with me , and
who is one of the managers . When we entered the room , we found the boys engaged in writing words of different lengths , according to the order of their seats ; I passed by those in which such words as ' approximation , superintendency , " and the like , caught my eye , and , looking over the sentences which some of the more advanced boys were writing , I found one who had copied , about half a dozen time « , the words Live in love . " 4 t What are you writing here ?* ' I asked . "Live in love . " a And what does that mean ? " " I don ' t know ! M " You don ' t know !
But don ' t you know what * love means ? " No ! " 4 t Or do you know what' / we' means ? " < l No ! " " What must you do to live in love ?" " I don ' t know ! " " Do you know what you must not do , to live in love ! " u No , I don't / 1 4 t Well , but you should know something about what' Live in love * means . Does it mean that you are to fight with the other boys ? " "I can't tell !* " Well , " 8 a * id I , turning to my friend , " what do you say to this ? " Upon which the school-master , observing somewhat of the scope of our conversation , came up to us and said , kkI dare say you might ask such questions all over the school , without getting a better answer ; they none of them know what they are writing . " Of the Lancasterian schools : — * It is worth while to examine , in detail , the operations of this system . 44 Tickets of nominal value are given to deserving boys each school time , which are called in at the end of every three months , and rewards
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508 Reform in Education .
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), July 2, 1834, page 508, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2635/page/48/
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