On this page
-
Text (1)
-
Untitled Article
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.
-
-
Transcript
-
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.
Additionally, when viewing full transcripts, extracted text may not be in the same order as the original document.
Untitled Article
be little more than a better directed and more systematic exercise of the senses and the simple observing powers than the child would engage in if left to himself . It ought all to be amusement , not study or exertion . If knowledge is gained , it should be as easily gained as if picked up spontaneously by the way . "
Section fourth consists of a number of little essays or paragraphs , tbe substance of which is to be impressed by teachers on their pupils . It is entitled " Prevention of Prejudices , Fallacies , Tyrannies , Cruelties , Unfairnesses , Selfishness , Bad habits , &c . " A variety of points are properly brought forward for reprobation in this section ; but many of them could hardly
be made intelligible to little children ; and if they could , a more detailed account of the manner in which they should be done , would be quite necessary , It is , we repeat , of no use to give vague general rules without practical illustrations . What can little babies , between the age of two and six , have to do with " The love of war and passion for military glory , " or with
" Religious bigotry and intolerance , " or with " Conceited depreciation—the procurant 6 spirit , " &c . How few persons there are who understand little children—who are fully aware on the one hand , of their remarkable acuteness and power in some points , and of their equally remarkable feebleness in others !
The remaining portion of the book consists of a number of interesting anecdotes respecting the Edinburgh Infant School , and of a collection of Poetry for Infant Schools . With respect to the poetry we never saw a more choice collection of miserable doggerel . Were it not advanced in sober seriousness , we should have taken it for a hoax played off upon Infant
Schools by some scurvy jester , and we should have despised him for the extravagance and silliness of his buffoonery . We select the following from what are entitled "philosophical songs , " not because it is the worst , but because it is the shortest .
The Oceans number five ; Two lie around the poles ; Between us and America , A third , th' Atlantic , rolls . The Indian Ocean next .
A fourth is eaid to be ; A fifth the great Pacific i » , From tempests ever free . What the above song can mean—what object , philosophical or moral , it is intended to effect , we have not the remotest conception . There-is a choice song oo the circulation of the
Untitled Article
146 Infant Education .
-
-
Citation
-
Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), March 2, 1836, page 146, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2655/page/18/
-