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Cornell University Library 
 LB1519 .H15 
 Outlines ot a , system ' tff^jSffljftiffl 
 
 3 1924 030 588 549 
 
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OUTLINES 
 
 SYSTEM OF OBJECT-TEACHING, 
 
 PREPARED FOR 
 
 TEACHERS AKD PARENTS. 
 
 BY 
 
 WILLIAM N. HAILMAN, A. M., 
 
 PBINOIPAL OF THE ENGLISH AND GERMAN ACADEMY, LOUJSVILLH, KENTUCKY. 
 
 WITH AN INTRODUCTION 
 
 BY 
 JAMES N. MoELLIGOTT, LL.D. 
 
 NEW YORK: 
 IVISON, PHINNET, BLAKEMAN & Co., 
 
 48 & 50 WALKER STREET. 
 
 CHICAGO- S. C. GRIGGS & CO. 
 
 LOUISVILLE : URADEY & GILBERT. 
 
 1867. 
 
 U 
 
Ui5 
 
 A<W-l-v.4-\ 
 
 G- 
 
 Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1866, b7 
 
 IVISON, PHINNEY, BLAKEMAN & Co., 
 
 In the Clerk's Office of tlie District Court of the United States for the 
 
 Southern District of New lork. 
 
 
 Stereotyped by Smith & MoDotjgal, 82 & 84 Beekman St, N. Y. 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 PAGE 
 How Ideas are gained — Attention — Objects of Education — 
 School Education, 17 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 Principles of ObjectTeaching — Order in which the Faculties 
 are developed — Order of Method — Synthesis and Analysis — 
 Independent Activity, 24 
 
 CHAPTER HI. 
 
 Scope of Object-teaching — Object Lessons — Scope of this 
 Work — Requisites in the Teacher, 36 
 
 CHAPTER IY. 
 
 Grammar — Division of the Subject — Entrance of the Pupil — 
 Names of things — Beading and Writing Method, 44 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 Srammar, continued — Lessons on Single Objects — Primary 
 Object of these Lessons, 52 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 Grammar, continued — Second Tear — Parts of Objects — Les- 
 sons on Single Objects — Reviews — New Ideas — Slate Exer- 
 cises, 61 
 
IV CONTENTS. 
 
 CHAPTER VTI. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Grammar, continued— Second Period (third year)— Informa- 
 tion about Objects— Descriptions— Method — Definitions- 
 Allied Qualities— Opposite Qualities— Enigmas, 71 
 
 CHAPTER Vin. 
 
 Second Period, continued — Slate Exercises — Definitions- 
 Descriptions — Special Forms of Expression — Objective Case 
 — Possessive Case — Pronouns — Adjectives — Adverbs, 80 
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 
 Second Period, continued — Telling — Definitions — Uses of Ob- 
 jects — Types for connected Descriptions, 87 
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 
 Grammar, continued — Third Period — Comparisons — Special 
 Forms of Expression — Comparison of Adjectives— Passive 
 Voice — Tenses — Relative Pronouns — Interrogative Pro- 
 nouns, 96 
 
 CHAPTER XI. 
 
 Grammar, concluded — Sentence — Subject and Predicate — 
 Transition, 105 
 
 CHAPTER Xn. 
 
 Geometry — First Period — Separate Exercises — Artificial Sys- 
 tems — Measuring — Selecting Shapes — Drawing, 110 
 
 CHAPTER XHI. 
 
 Geometry, concluded — Second Period— Definitions— Special 
 Exercises — Third Period — Generic Definitions — Measuring 
 — Cutting of Shapes — Transition 120 
 
CONTENTS. V 
 
 CHAPTEE XTV. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Natural Histoby — Reasons for choosing it — First Period — 
 Descriptions — Teohnical Terms — Separate Exercises — 
 Physiology, 129 
 
 CHAPTER XV. 
 
 Natural History, continued — Comparison and Classifica- 
 tion, 143 
 
 CHAPTER XVI. 
 
 Natural History, concluded — Catalogues of Classifications 
 — Extended to other Subjects — Technical Terms — Transi- 
 tion — Effect on Morals — Conclusion, 154 
 
.1 
 
 'TOCI 
 
INTKODUCTION 
 
 What is Object-teaching ? It is important to have a 
 definite answer to this question ; for something, under 
 that name, is at work in the schools, differing much in 
 phase, in aim, and results, according to circumstances, 
 and yet always inviting comparison with other meth- 
 ods, and complacently putting on the air of admitted 
 superiority. 
 
 Sometimes it seems to hold the office of a mere play- 
 thing. At all events, any tinge of training or instruc- 
 tion it may have, is exceedingly faint. Attention it at- 
 tracts by an imposing array of heterogeneous objects, 
 any one of which, from a flower to a fiddle-string, is 
 made the ground of a set of questions more miscella- 
 neous far than the motley group of articles, whence the 
 selection has been made. 
 
 The questions being, as a general thing, the extem- 
 poraneous effusions of a brain bent on no higher pur- 
 pose than that of carrying out some vague idea of mak- 
 ing knowledge attractive, take, of course, the widest 
 range and the loosest shape. No principle appears to 
 be involved ; and hence a curious assemblage of incon- 
 gruous facts, or fancies, as the case may be, soon gather 
 round the object in question, all of which, probably 
 
viil INTKODUCTION. 
 
 and most of which, certainly, the children, if left to them- 
 selves, would better collect from observation and ex- 
 perience. 
 
 What child, for example, old enough to attend school, 
 requires to be told that ah- is good to breathe, water, to 
 drink, that sugar is sweet and vinegar sour, that a calf, 
 by the process of eating, grows to be a cow, that nails 
 are made out of iron, and that our feet are used in walk- 
 ing and running, climbing and kicking ? Yet, such is 
 the superfluous work not seldom done, in schools and 
 school books, under the specious name of object teach- 
 ing. Shall it go hard with us then, if, in spite of the 
 pains taken to invest this process with a show of su- 
 perior adaptation to the wants of the school, we rank 
 it, as an appliance in teaching, little above the common- 
 place contrivances of the nursery ? 
 
 It is vain, in defense of a thing so fruitless, to appeal, 
 as some have done, to the authority of Pestalozzi, affirm- 
 ing that "observation is the beginning of all knowledge." 
 " Pestalozzi's System," as one rightly remarks, "was 
 greatly better than his own exemplification of it." But 
 the poorest exhibition of its powers and purposes ever 
 made by himself, or by anybody else, able even dimly to 
 perceive them, never left out the grand central idea — 
 t}je attainment of clear notions through modes of ob- 
 servation, derivable from a just application of the laws 
 of nature. 
 
 We say not that teaching answering to that we have 
 instanced above, constitutes the entirety of what is de- 
 livered, for instruction, under this name. What we have 
 cited, by way of illustration, comes, on the contrary, from 
 the midst of a multitude of other things, far enough 
 from being too obvious to need explanation, and rio-htly 
 
INTRODUCTION. IS 
 
 enough put among matters proper to be taught in 
 schools, if only put in their proper places. 
 
 We say not, moreover, that many of these things 
 might not, at times, be brought up with good effect, 
 even out of their proper places, as incidents, in a course 
 of instruction otherwise perfectly regular. In fact, they 
 are so brought up, and not seldom, too, in the practice 
 of every skillful and judicious teacher. But, in such 
 cases, they serve the merely momentary purpose of 
 arousing curiosity, awakening attention, relaxing effort, 
 or, perhaps, giving vent to exuberant spirits in the form 
 of a good, hearty laugh. All this is well. But, when 
 these things pass certain limits, and, from being merely 
 incidental and collateral, come to be made part of the 
 main design, they are liable, we think, to the gravest 
 objection. 
 
 Sometimes, however, the process takes a more rational 
 shape. The aim of the examiner clearly is to enlarge 
 the circle of the pupil's knowledge respecting the objects 
 brought under inquiry, and not to amuse him merely 
 with a recapitulation of his own ideas. 
 
 But, after ajl, he deals, and intends to deal, only with 
 isolated facts. His hearers learn, doubtless, from day to 
 day, what they knew not before ; and, if the process be 
 long enough continued, they come at last to have a large 
 amount of miscellaneous information. But what is it ? 
 Rudis indigeslaque moles. A shapeless mass, confused, 
 conglomerate, discordant, the necessary product of such 
 a method. 
 
 If we look into the books on which, for the most part, 
 this method relies for nutriment and guidance, we find 
 them answerable exactly to the expectations they had 
 raised. A world of facts lying half way between order 
 
X INTEODUCTION. 
 
 and confusion ; yet better far than nothing at all, seeing 
 that they are, even the poorest of them, free from the 
 blunders that often and sadly deform the proceeding, 
 when made a purely extemporaneous exercise. In this 
 respect, indeed, the children have good reason to be 
 grateful ; for, by the timely intervention of the books, 
 they are not seldom saved, while being flooded with a 
 multiplicity of facts, from being, at the same time, 
 flooded with a multiplicity of errors. 
 
 Still this does not relieve the books from the fatal ob- 
 jection, lying against the method to which they minister. 
 They mistake completely, in our view, the true end of 
 scholastic education. They miss, in fact, the very mark 
 they aim at, if they aim to impart knowledge rightly ; 
 for they lack the essential element of order. 
 
 Another phase of object- teaching, current in some 
 quarters, and entitled to higher rank as an educational 
 force, is that which distinctly recognizes mental devel- 
 opment as an essential, though subordinate part of the 
 work it has to do. Its aim is, accordingly, two-fold. 
 But its predominant purpose is to impart knowledge. 
 All its lessons, whatever the objects, leah decidedly in 
 that direction. So much is this the case, that intellec- 
 tual training, as such, seems sometimes quite out of 
 sight. Yet it re-appears at intervals, calling out, it may 
 be, the mental forces, to mark the presence of sugar in 
 maple-trees, and then affording exercise, in the way of 
 classification, by leading them to the discovery of the 
 same article in other things, differing as widely from each 
 other as beets from grapes, or as milk from molasses. 
 We accept this method for what it is worth ; but we 
 count its worth, educationally, as not very great ; seeing 
 that it wants unity of aim and steadiness of direction. 
 
INTRODUCTION, xi 
 
 Tet another kind of object-teaching is that which 
 loots upon the objects, employed in the process, merely 
 or mainly as means of illustration. As things to be 
 studied for their own sakes, and aside from the end 
 imm ediately in -view, they scarcely elicit a transient 
 thought. Being merely medio, they are, for that very 
 reason, supposed to be sufficiently known. 
 
 Nor does the mind, as something to be brought unfler. 
 regular discipline, receive any greater attention. It 
 may, and often does, get trained incidentally, as the ob- 
 jects may, and often do, get explained incidentally. But 
 the paramount purpose is neither of these things, but to 
 bring under vivid illustration something lying entirely 
 beyond both. 
 
 It takes, for instance, a bundle of rods, as in tke fable 
 of the dying father and his sons, and shows how easy 
 it is to snap them asunder when taken separately, how 
 hard to do this while they are bound together. It turns 
 with admiration to the teachings of our Lord, and 
 thence learns to re-echo the call for attention to the 
 lilies of the field, as far outvying in vesture the glory of 
 Solomon, and so evincing the ever-watchful providence 
 of God. Nay, in something of the spirit always in- 
 spired by the contemplation of that glorious example, it 
 directs the wondering eye to the whole assemblage of 
 things in visible nature, and, by skillful interrogation, 
 realizes for us the truth intended by Job, when he ex- 
 claimed, — " Speak to the earth and it will teach thee .'" 
 
 Object-teaching such as this, however, is far from be- 
 ing the handmaid of schools and colleges only. All 
 venture its use ; but genius alone is equal to its highest 
 and happiest exercise. In competent hands, humanity 
 everywhere owns its magical influence. The untutored 
 
Xli INTKODUCTION. 
 
 savage and the well-taught sage, allured alike by the 
 spell of its power, receive with double delight the thought 
 it conveys, because of the beauty that ushers its coming. 
 For its objects,, like sunbeams, reveal with unmistakable 
 distinctness whatever they are commissioned to illus- 
 trate, and such is their multitude, such the variety of 
 •their forms, that Nature herself yields not more diver- 
 sity. The tiniest flower and the sturdiest oak, the mur- 
 muring brook and the dashing torrent, the desert wild, 
 the mountain steep, the crystal clear, the diamond 
 bright — all, all come quick at its bidding, as at the 
 touch of a magician's wand, and humbly offer the bound- 
 less resources of simile and metaphor at the shrine of all- 
 creative imagination. But this style of teaching, great 
 as is ifs power to attract and enlighten the mind, to stir 
 the emotional nature, and give to beauty, sublimity, and 
 grandeur the benefit of clear and elegant expression, 
 would not be the most effective, were it even always 
 attainable, for the patient, persevering work of the 
 school-room. 
 
 The last kind of object-teaching here to be specified, 
 is that which differs from all the rest, in having for its 
 exclusive aim the training of the powers of the pupil. 
 This is its dignity ; this its peculiar distinction. 
 
 "Whatever, in any of the rest, occupies the first place, 
 takes here a position more or less subordinate, as a 
 matter of course. For the main design here is devel- 
 opment — development of the whole being ; or, if con- 
 fined in its operation to the narrower circle of scholastic 
 education, development of the intellectual powers. On 
 this it exhausts the teaching art, and, especially, the art 
 of questioning. 
 
 He, therefore, that engages in object-teaching, under 
 
INTDODTJCTION. Trill 
 
 this view of its purpose, becomes at once, if at all fit for 
 the place he assumes, what Socrates, in one of the Dia- 
 logues* of Plato, not un wittily styles himself "an ac- 
 coucheur of the mind." This is precisely his office ; and 
 it presupposes a skillful practitioner. It implies a pro- 
 found study of that system on which he is commissioned 
 to operate. He must know something of mind, in a 
 sense far higher than that in which the statuary is re- 
 quired to know something of marble- To spoil a statue 
 is a thing of less consequence than to spoil a mind. 
 
 He has, in'this undertaking, to adapt himself wisely 
 to the nature of his materials — the varying talents, dis- 
 positions, and wants of his pupils. He must have 
 an eye to what is most fit to ensure full harmonious 
 development. He must mark, in each individual, 
 the conditions of growth, which nature has imposed, 
 and be wise to detect those subtle sources of hind- 
 rance, which so often effectually neutralize all his best 
 endeavors. 
 
 In making use of objects, as the means of inducing 
 thought, he must remember that he fails, and must fail, 
 if he deals with the facts of nature as with a crowd of 
 unrelated particulars. To make them proper instruments 
 of training, they must come directly under that strong 
 and steady light, which reveals the secret of scientific 
 relationship. The laws that bind them together in 
 the strong "embrace of discovered truth, the affinities 
 that open the. way of ascent to general principles, mak- 
 ing classification possible and reliable, must be brought 
 distinctly under the eye of the observer, if we would 
 make the facts observed minister rightly to true edu- 
 cation. 
 
 * Theaetetus. 
 
XIV INTRODUCTION. 
 
 Such observation of facts and laws cannot but result 
 in admirable discipline. The searching tests which it 
 habitually applies to things, it no less habitually applies, 
 though all unconsciously, to the mind itself. Begetting 
 caution, as a constant characteristic, it saves us often 
 from the ever-active tendency to deceive ourselves ; 
 while, from the very nature of the case, it gradually forms 
 in us the habit of patient, laborious thinking. In this way, 
 it becomes to us the medium of that which, more* than 
 anything else, marks indelibly and ' manifestly a well- 
 disciplined mind — the power of forming clear ideas, and 
 giving them precise expression. 
 
 The teacher endowed with the genuine spirit, will not 
 be slow to take advantage of means so important. 
 There is something here exactly suited to his hand. 
 In the very secrecy of nature, he discerns the most effi- 
 cient aids to his art. For Nature locks up, in synthetic 
 forms, the manifold productions of her power, and loves 
 to hide from vulgar view the elements engaged in their 
 composition. To find a key to these mysterious combi- 
 nations, and guide the opening faculties in the effort to 
 take them apart, according to the ascertained law of 
 their being, is the office of the teacher. In like spirit, 
 and for like purpose, he employs the pupil in the work 
 of reconstruction. That which is separated according 
 to law, may again be united according to law ; that is, 
 analysis and synthesis must go hand in hand, the one 
 illustrating the other, and both silently, but surely, com- 
 bining their influence for the benefit of the mind en- 
 gaged in applying them. 
 
 It has been doubted whether a method, aiming at such 
 results, through such means, ought to bear such a name. 
 For it is urged, and not altogether without reason, we 
 
INTKODUCTION. XV 
 
 think, that, if this be object-teaching, all teaching that 
 follows the indications of nature, and the ascertained 
 laws of mind, must equally be such. We can hardly 
 carry on any course of instruction, it is added, under 
 the light of these two guides, without forcing the facul- 
 ties into vigorous exercise. 
 
 Even the author of the work to which these remarks 
 are introductory, feels so forcibly the unfitness of the 
 name, that he hesitates about using it, and mentions 
 others, in his view, more appropriate. 
 
 But the name is nothing, so long as we make no mis- 
 take about the thing. And the thing is sufficiently dis- 
 tinguished by its purpose, which is education — education"" 
 bound fast to its primitive import ; no mere accumula- 
 tion of facts, which is information ; nor yet a mere fur- 
 nishing of the mind with knowledge, which is instruction. 
 
 Scientific attainment, indeed, though not its aim, is 
 one of its necessary results. But attainment such as 
 may fit one only for the exercise of a particular trade, 
 calling, or profession, aside from the fitness that always 
 comes of disciplined mind, is no necessary part of its 
 object ; for it comes to educate man, as man, to bring 
 to his use resources not to be reached through the 
 training that merely brings bread, though often giving 
 even to that its best efficiency. It comes to cheer him 
 with a sense of his real dignity, and to help him in the 
 effort to climb a lofty eminence, " laborious indeed," as 
 Milton has beautifully said, "at the first ascent, but else 
 so smooth, so green, so full of goodly prospect and melo- 
 dious sounds on every side, that the harp of Orpheus 
 was not more charming." 
 
 The scheme of education indicated in the following 
 pages, and earned out so far as the limits would allow, 
 
Xvi INTRODUCTION. 
 
 aims at a result no less elevated than this. We bespeak 
 for it, therefore, an attentive, respectful hearing. It is 
 a willing contribution to our present stock of educational 
 forces, and we, accordingly, greet .he ontributof with a 
 cordial welcome. 
 
 He comes, indeed, with the confidence that belongs 
 to settled conviction, but with no pretentious air. His 
 performance, therefore, is marked by no ambitious at- 
 tempt to dazzle with a show of great originality. He is 
 content seemingly to be useful rather than brilliant. 
 For, having taken a wide survey of the field of educa- 
 tion, and found there many willing workers, cheered by 
 no adequate result, because unguided, or misguided in 
 the use of means well-known to the few, he has brought 
 for their benefit a convenient chart, engraven by ex- 
 perience on the clear ground of philosophy, and put it 
 within the reach of every one. And, if there be merit 
 in him who sets up a beacon to guide the helmsman in 
 the darkness of night, what praise shall be accorded to 
 him who, under like impulse, labors to throw light upon 
 the path of those entrusted, not with the steerage of . a 
 ship, but with the education of immortal mind ? 
 
 Let us, at least, give him the full assurance of a fair 
 trial, so that he may safely turn over all unreasonable 
 critics to the words of Pope : — 
 
 " Whoever thinks a faultless piece to see, 
 ' Thinks what, ne'er was, nor is, nor e'er shall be. 
 In every work regard the writer's end ; 
 Since none can compass more than they intend ; 
 And, if the means be just, the conduct true, 
 Applause, in spite of trivial faults, is due." 
 
OBJECT TEACHING. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 HOW IDEAS AEE GAINED — ATTENTION OBJECT OF 
 
 EDUCATION SCHOOL EDUCATION. 
 
 The knowledge of the most trifling empirical 
 fact, as well as of the greatest abstract truth, can 
 reach our mind only through the senses, either di- 
 rectly or indirectly, with the assistance of memory 
 and imagination- — -that great kaleidoscope of past 
 experiences : we learn by observation. This fact is 
 strikingly admitted by the great teacher of Chris- 
 tianity when he inculcates his sublime principles of 
 religion and morality, either by illustration, appeal- 
 ing directly to the senses, or by parables, appealing 
 to the imagination. It is indeed proved by observa- 
 tion — of the little child, seeing, touching, tasting, 
 smelling, hearing — taking in the world around it 
 through the senses, and discussing with its play- 
 mates the ideas gained. 
 
 Ideas are gained essentially in two ways. The 
 human mind first perceives the impressions made 
 
18 OBJECT TEACHING. 
 
 upon it by external objects and' phenomena through 
 the various inlets of the soul— the senses, and forms 
 them into clear and distinct ideas — it observes facts; 
 it then compares these ideas, and classifies them, 
 and unites them into more general, simpler ideas — 
 it observes the previously formed ideas. The former 
 process is generally termed perception, the latter, 
 refection; and, accordingly, we sometimes speak of 
 "perceptive and reflective faculties. There is evidently 
 no intrinsic, subjective difference between the two 
 faculties or sets of faculties, the difference is entirely 
 an objective one : perceptive and reflective faculties, 
 excluding memory and imagination, are the same 
 faculties exercised upon different objects ; dealing, 
 in the one case, with external facts, and, in the other, 
 with ideas — the results of previous operations of the 
 mind — with internal facts. In the one case, the ma- 
 terial upon which the mind works is offered by sur- 
 rounding objects ; in the other, this material is fur- 
 nished by memory and imagination. It is obvious, 
 then, that perception must always precede reflec- 
 tion ; that simple perception, not needing the pro- 
 ductive exercise of memory and imagination, is 
 easier than reflection ; and that the perceptive pow- 
 ers (holding fast the objective difference) can be 
 educated with much less difficulty than the reflective 
 powers, the exercise of which is based on clear and 
 
OBJECT-TEACHING. 19 
 
 distinct perceptions, and which, on this account, may 
 be considered of a higher order. 
 
 la both cases, observation is impossible without 
 attention, and the ideas obtained through observation 
 will be complete and accurate in proportion to the 
 intensity and analytical power of attention in the re- 
 spective individuals. Without attention the mind 
 will remain unconscious of surrounding objects ; in- 
 creased attention will, circumstances being the same, 
 increase the number, clearness, and accuracy of per- 
 ceptions. Without attention, memory and imagina- 
 tion will remain inactive and 'will never unfold their 
 inestimable treasures to the mind ; increased atten- 
 tion will always increase the variety, distinctness, 
 and truth of the reminiscences and images offered 
 by these two untiring auxiliaries of reflection. Per- 
 haps attention and activity of the mind are convert- 
 ible terms : for we observe that the mind is never 
 attentive, unless it is aroused to action, either by 
 some external cause (such as a wonderful object, an 
 exciting scene, a thrilling narrative, a deep sorrow), 
 or by an internal cause — the will. But, however 
 that may be, attention is certainly that state of the 
 mind in which the latter attends to its work, and the 
 sine qua non of all observation, of all acquisition of 
 ideas. 
 
 Upon these considerations the system of Object- 
 
20 OBJECT-TEACHING. 
 
 teaching is founded. The name, Object-teaching, 
 indicates this but poorly, and it would be better for 
 the success of the system in English schools if its 
 German name, Anschauungsunterricht (intuition teach- 
 ing), had been literally translated. On account of 
 the simple, rational, and almost axiomatic nature of 
 its principles, other names have been proposed, 
 such as the Natural Method and the Bational Method 
 of Teaching, both of which are more significant and 
 comprehensive than the much abused and misun- 
 derstood name of Object-teaching. Tet a change of 
 names would produce confusion and would there- 
 fore prove inexpedient. Hence, and hence alone, 
 we shall adhere to the name already so generally 
 adopted. 
 
 Education prepares man for his duties. Its ob- 
 ject is to enable man to be useful and happy to the 
 fullest extent. Usefulness and happiness require a 
 harmonious, healthy, and vigorous exercise of all the 
 faculties — mental, moral, and physical : hence edu- 
 cation, in its complete sense, develops, cultivates, 
 and directs all the faculties harmoniously, equally, 
 naturally — and the teacher's main labor consists in 
 so guiding the pupil's activity, that all his powers 
 may ever keep pace with each other in their growth 
 and that each may reach its full size without dwarf- 
 ing the others. 
 
OBJECT-TEACHING. 21 
 
 Education may then be said to have a two-fold 
 object : the development and cultivation of the facul- 
 ties, enabling the pupil to form ideas and purposes ; 
 and the direction of these faculties, enabling the pu- 
 pil to apply them for the purposes of usefulness and 
 happiness. Both these objects should constantly be 
 held in view in all teaching and should never be 
 separated. Man must be taught not only to think, 
 feel, and form plans; but also to speak, act, and ex- 
 ecute with the necessary directness, energy, and 
 power of endurance. 
 
 Unfortunately, however, the present condition of 
 society does not permit the school to carry this out 
 fully ; false social principles have robbed the teacher 
 of nearly all control over the physical and over a 
 great portion of the moral nature of his pupils, and 
 compel hiTti to direct his efforts almost exclusively to 
 intellectual education. "We are, then, justified in 
 stating that the principal aim of school education is 
 to teach the pupils how to form ideas and how to ex- 
 press them. The amount and kind of knowledge 
 gained are only secondary considerations, important 
 ones, indeed, but considerations that will take care 
 of themselves, if the power to form and express ideas 
 has been properly imparted. A person who has 
 this double power — who knows how to observe and 
 how to apply the results of his observations — will 
 
22 OBJECT-TEACHING. 
 
 derive so much pleasure and profit from it, that he 
 -will not be satisfied unless he is constantly increas- 
 ing his stock of information ; and, in all relations of 
 life, he will soon know everything that it is necessary 
 and possible for him to know, and, at the same time, 
 be able to make it useful to himself and others. 
 This is the " knowledge which is most worth ;" this, 
 and this alone, the "knowledge which is power." 
 Without this knowledge, learning is useless — a rot- 
 ting carcass, conspicuous only by the ill odor of its 
 decomposition ; without this knowledge, skill is un- 
 availing — an engine without a moving and directing 
 power. We would not be understood to mean that 
 the systematic "laying up" of positive information 
 is not a duty of the school, a duty, too, in the dis- 
 charge of which much care and discrimination are 
 needed ; but simply that it is of secondary import- 
 ance. The former is the ability to work, the latter 
 the result of the work ; the former labors, the latter 
 rewards ; the former is an essential, the latter a con- 
 sequence : the former is constant, the same at all 
 times and under all circumstances, the latter must 
 change with time and circumstances. 
 
 The first duty of the school, then, must be to 
 develop and cultivate the power of forming and 
 expressing ideas ; its second duty, to make a judi- 
 cious selection of subjects of study — to direct the 
 
OBJECT-TEACHING. 23 
 
 pupil's attention to such sources of positive informa- 
 tion as may prove most useful to him and to society 
 — to induce him to practice the acquired power 
 upon the material that may yield the richest harvest 
 of available ideas ; its first duty is to find the best 
 method ; its second, to determine the most expedient 
 course of study. Now, while courses of study may 
 vary indefinitely, there can be but one best method 
 of teaching the formation and expression of ideas, 
 just as there can be but one mode of forming and 
 expressing ideas completely and accurately — and 
 the system of Object-teaching claims to follow that 
 method. 
 
CHAPTEE II. 
 
 PRINCIPLES OF OBJECT TEACHING — OEDEE IN WHICH 
 THE FACULTIES ARE DEVELOPED — OEDEE OF METHOD 
 — SYNTHESIS AND ANALYSIS — INDEPENDENT ACTIVITY. 
 
 The principles of Object-teaching may be classed 
 under the following three heads : 
 
 1. Cultivate the faculties in their natural order of 
 development — peeception, conception, judgment. 
 
 2. Proceed from the known to the unknown— from the 
 simple to the complex— from the concrete to the abstract 
 — from the tchole to the parts— from the particular to 
 the general. 
 
 3. Accustom the child to activity. Never tell the 
 child ivhat it can discovee ; never do for the child what 
 IT can do. 
 
 Although these principles must present them- 
 selves as axioms to the mind of every intelligent ob- 
 server of human nature, it may be well to insist 
 upon their importance and comprehensiveness in a 
 somewhat more impressive manner than their sinple 
 statement. 
 
OBJECT-TEACHING. 25 
 
 First, then, cultivate the faculties in their natural 
 order of development. Nature places before the child 
 an innumerable variety of objects, differing indefi- 
 nitely in their qualities and undergoing countless 
 changes. These make impressions on the child's 
 mind through the various senses, vague at first, but 
 gradually increasing in distinctness and clearness, 
 as the mind is more and more aroused to attention by 
 that very variety, and becomes more and more 
 skilled in discrimination (analytical power). The 
 child first forms 'perceptions, notions of external 
 things and changes through the senses ; and these 
 perceptions, other circumstances being equal, are 
 clear in proportion to the variety of impressions made 
 upon the senses. For this variety is the principal 
 agent in arousing and maintaining the child's atten- 
 tion, without which perception becomes impossible. 
 The ' care bestowed upon this fundamental function 
 of the mind cannot be too great — indeed, nature 
 never relaxes it, even with the matured mind — for it 
 is obvious that all other mental and, we add, moral 
 functions — the whole vigor and scope of mind and 
 heart — depend upon the clearness, accuracy, and 
 number of our perceptions. 
 
 As the number of perceptions increases, many of 
 them are presented repeatedly. The child greets 
 them as old acquaintances and, looking upon all 
 
26 OBJECT-TEACHING. 
 
 with cheerful attention, begins to find a pleasure in 
 engraving them all upon the memory, so that in 
 leisure hours it may muse upon them and imagine 
 that those same objects and phenomena are again 
 present. And thus, with the assistance of memory 
 and imagination, it forms conceptions, ideas, the vivid- 
 ness and correctness of which depend on the vivid- 
 ness and correctness of previous perceptions as well 
 as upon the respective powers of memory and ima- 
 gination. The child should be encouraged in these 
 moments of musing during which two essential func- 
 tions of the mind grow. Thoughtless teachers and 
 parents often cut them short, reproaching the child 
 with listlessness and laziness, not dreaming that 
 they are stunting the mind in its development. 
 
 Soon the conceptions- thus formed become so 
 numerous, that the child finds it difficult to retain 
 them all and begins to feel the necessity of abbre- 
 viations, as it were. It then re-examines objects and 
 phenomena more minutely,' and discovers in them 
 many points of resemblance, trifling ones at first, 
 but gradually more important ones. A new and in- 
 teresting field is opened to the activity of the mind ; 
 objects are compared again and again, arranged and 
 re-arranged into sets or classes ; then these sets are 
 similarly compared and arranged, until a certain 
 order begins to take the place of the previous con- 
 
OBJECT-TEACHING. 27 
 
 fusion and the motley and unwieldy heap of inde- 
 pendent conceptions is reduced to a harmonious, 
 simple system of more or less general ideas, satisfy- 
 ing the youth's mind according to the ease with which 
 conceptions of new objects or phenomena may be 
 brought into the system. The mind is here develop- 
 ing its highest power — the power of comparing and 
 generalizing ; and this power once fully developed, 
 the possessor of the mind is prepared for the duties 
 of life — capable of being a useful and happy man or 
 woman, at least as far as the mind is concerned. 
 - This is the course of nature in the mental develop- 
 ment, and this also must be the course of the object 
 teacher, the teacher who follows the natural system. 
 Krst he must train the senses, so that they may 
 convey impressions rapidly, correctly, fully; and the 
 mind, so that it may change these impressions 
 readily into correct and full perceptions — so that it 
 may always understand and direct the senses. Then 
 he must give full opportunity for the development 
 of a quick, unerring memory, and of a healthy, vivid 
 imagination, in order to insure the formation of ac- 
 curate, vivid conceptions ; and, lastly, he must guide 
 his pupils in the difficult task to make correct, care- 
 ful, exhaustive comparison, and of complete, simple 
 generalizations — must secure sound, quick, inde- 
 pendent judgment. And these things he must do 
 
28 < OBJECT- TEACHING. 
 
 slowly, never allowing the child to be surfeited — 
 gradually, never training a higher function until the 
 development of the preceding one admits it — and 
 constantly, never permitting any of the faculties to 
 remain stationary, or even to lose power and. still 
 by disuse. 
 
 The second principle : Proceed from the lenown to 
 the unknown— from the simple to the complex— from the 
 concrete to the abstract— from the whole to the parts — 
 from the particular to the general, needs little com- 
 ment. It is necessary, however, to remove an ap- 
 parent contradiction in the principle, where it 
 requires the teacher to proceed from the whole to 
 the parts, on the one hand, and from the particular 
 to the general, on the other. The former has refer- 
 ence to objects and phenomena, the latter to(ideas}, 
 the former is based upon the fact that the observa- 
 tion of an object or phenomena^ a whole, attending 
 only to its most prominent characteristics, is less diffi- 
 cult than the minute observation of its parts — the 
 latter is based upon the fact that comparison and 
 generalization, the highest functions of the mind, are 
 founded upon a knowledge of particulars. In this con- 
 nection, we would direct attention to a question con- 
 cerning which there exists little clearness and cer- 
 tainty, and, consequently, much difference of opnion 
 in the minds of teachers ; the question, whether syn- 
 
OBJECT-TEACHING. 29 
 
 thesis or analysis should precede. Some, perhaps 
 the majority, maintain that synthesis should come 
 first ; others argue, at least very plausibly, that anal- 
 ysis should take the lead. In attempting to find the 
 truth concerning this important point, it is necessary, 
 in the first place, to have a clear idea of the nature 
 of the two methods. In analysis we decompose, sep- 
 arate an object of observation into its component 
 parts. We start with the object as a whole and re- 
 solve it into its constituent elements. In synthesis 
 we wort in the opposite direction : from ajiumber of 
 
 ,(m 
 
 given objects we form a new one,(more complex than 
 the former.VijThus, if we should see a knife, for the 
 first time, we would first examine it as a whole, in 
 order to form some general idea of its appearance ; 
 we would then successively pass to the handle, the 
 blades, the springs, the rivets, and at last to the 
 parts of the handle, the blade, &c, until we should 
 be satisfactorily informed about all the details that 
 may interest us in the knife. This would be analysis. 
 We might then have given to us the various parts of 
 another knife, similar to the one observed, and, with 
 the necessary tools and skill, we might go to work 
 to put them together and form a new knife ; or we 
 might go still further, and, taking steel, iron, and 
 wood, manufacture the parts of another knife and 
 put them together ; or, supposing tKat the knife ob- 
 
30 OBJECT-TEACHING. 
 
 served had been a table-knife, we might combine the 
 information gained by its observation with previous 
 observations upon other objects, and invent a pocket- 
 knife. This would be synthesis. It is obvious, then, 
 that analysis furnishes the material which synthesis 
 applies. Analysis discovers, synthesis imitates, 
 creates, and invents ; the former sows, the latter 
 reaps. Through analysis the world impresses us, 
 through synthesis we impress the world. Analysis 
 without subsequent synthesis is useless ; synthesis 
 without previous analysis is impossible. Synthesis 
 is the way of the manufacturer, the artist, the in- 
 structor (not synonymous with teacher) ; analysis 
 that of the purchaser,- the connoisseur, the student. 
 Analysis perceives, conceives, compares ; synthesis 
 generalizes. From these considerations, it appears 
 that the two methods are mutually dependent upon 
 each other ; that, instead of being opposed to each 
 other as two different methods to accomplish- the 
 same end, " they are only the necessary parts of the 
 same method" — the method of inteUectual life. 
 
 Let us now observe the manner in which Nature 
 reveals herself to her children — the manner in which 
 she teaches her pupils. We find that she surrounds 
 them with an apparently arbitrary collection of mot- 
 ley objects and_ phenomena — a promiscuous pile of 
 matter in various states of rest and motion endless 
 
OBJECT-TEACHING. 31 
 
 indeed, but equally endless in extent and confusion. 
 We notice also that the things which she offers at 
 any one time to the senses of the learner, are " fixed 
 facts,'' restilts of her activity ; that she seems to 
 make diligent efforts, as it were, to conceal from the 
 observer her manner of producing these results — 
 her synthesis. Observing the intellectual develop- 
 ment of a child from its birth, we find that it is first 
 aroused to a consciousness of the existence of sur- 
 rounding things by their motions and sounds. A few 
 days after birth, it begins already to follow with evi- 
 dent pleasure objects in their motions, to notice bro- 
 ther and sister playing about the room, to watch the 
 motion of the mother's busy hand plying the needle, 
 of the father's foot, swinging contentedly while he 
 sits reading in the easy chair ; or to listen with de- 
 light to the striking of the clock, the ticking of the 
 watch, or the canary's joyous song. The rolling ball, 
 the blazing fire, the barking dog, the noisy rattle 
 have fettered the child's attention long before it 
 deigns to look upon the beautiful paintings that em- 
 bellish the walls, or the bright carpet that adorns 
 the floor of the room. Thus it will soon have sur- 
 rounded itself with a little world of moving and 
 sounding objects which it delights to observe. In 
 the mean while, brother has so often rolled the ball 
 for it and sister has so often shaken the rattle in its 
 
32 OBJECT-TEACHING. 
 
 face, that it begins to stretch out its libtle hands for 
 these playthings and attempts to roll and shake them 
 itself. Notice the delight with which it greets suc- 
 cess: it has succeeded in its first synthesis— it has 
 proved the correctness of its first analysis. The thing 
 and its motion, the ball and ibs rolling were at first 
 but one impression on the little mind ; repeated ob- 
 servations, then, enabled it (having noticed the ball 
 alternately at rest and in motion) to distinguish the 
 object at rest from the same object in motion — to 
 analyze, as it were, the ball away from the rolling 
 ball. These two impressions needed only a third, 
 the pushing of the ball by the brother's hand, to en- 
 able the child to apply the knowledge gained — to 
 take the ball at rest, push it with its own hand, and 
 convert it into a ball in motion. And, thus, if we 
 follow the child as it goes on enriching its store of 
 experiences, we find that the same method is invari- 
 ably used, viz., analysis is succeeded by corresponding 
 synthesis, discovery is succeeded by immediate applica- 
 tion, experiences fixed by immediate and repeated prac- 
 tice. We notice the child successively analyzing 
 away from the object, impressions of color, weight, 
 hardness, roughness, shape, number, &c, and fixing 
 them in the mind as separate ideas, by means of 
 repeated application, repeated synthesis. In the 
 beginning, this is only the synthesis of imitation, its 
 
OBJECT-TEACHING. 33 
 
 results resemble the objects observed; but in the 
 course of time, the child will learn to combine and 
 apply experiences, so as to obtain entirely ncsv and 
 complex results — will learn to practice the synthesis 
 of invention. And this we shall find to be the 
 method of all independent intellectual activity, even 
 in mature age. To this method we owe all our 
 knowledge, and all our beautiful applications of the 
 laws of nature, of the relations of numbers — all, in- 
 deed, that we know and can do. The teacher, then, 
 who would teach naturally, must follow this method, 
 and guide his pupils, first in dear, rapid analysis, 
 then in repeated, interesting synthesis— first (he synthesis 
 of imitation, then that of invention. 
 
 It appears, then, that those object-teachers who 
 have given us the principle, " First synthesis, then 
 analysis," with the rather plausible addition, "not 
 the order of the subject, but the order of nature," 
 did not appreciate very clearly the meaning of the 
 terms they used. In this inference we are con- 
 firmed by the fact that the practical directions and 
 illustrations which they give in their works, proceed 
 upon an entirely different principle, viz., the one in- 
 dicated above. We are led to believe that they mis- 
 took the terms synthesis and analysis, respectively, 
 for induction and deduction, terms which apply only 
 to judgment. If so, the meaning of the principle is 
 
34 OBJECT- TEACHING. 
 
 correct, as far as it goes, and it coincides with that 
 portion of our second principle which requires the 
 teacher to go from the particular to the general. 
 Every one, however, will perceive that the basis of 
 all induction is a series of careful analysis ; that de- 
 duction is not truly analysis, but a mere singling 
 out of an object of observation from a number of 
 similar ones, proved similar by induction ; and that, 
 consequently, the statement of the principle is faulty 
 and insufficient. 
 
 The third principle — Accustom the child to ac- 
 tivity; NEVER TELL THE CHILD WHAT IT CAN DIS- 
 COVER ; NEVER DO FOR THE CHILD WHAT IT CAN DO — 
 
 seems, if possible, still plainer than the two pre- 
 ceding ones, but, unfortunately, is the most gen- 
 erally neglected: Yet the teacher has only to follow 
 nature, to encourage the natural disposition of the 
 pupil, in order to follow this principle. The child, 
 man indeed, is naturally active in every respect, 
 anxious to exercise, and thereby strengthen all his 
 powers ; and this desire for activity increases with 
 the increasing power, until a certain standard of 
 maturity is reached. There are no persons naturally 
 lazy or indolent— they are only made so by false 
 education. Natural education never produces such 
 results— and every system of education is so far faulty 
 as it saves the pupil wholesome labor, and as it has a 
 
OBJECT-TEACHING. 35 
 
 tendency to satiate more than to excite to greater activity. 
 These faults Object-teaching would try to avoid, so 
 that it may send pupils from school hungry for 
 more and with sufficient power, energy, and endur- 
 ance to obtain more — pupils who feel that their edu- 
 cation can never be finished and who have the 
 ability to continue it independently, not pupils who' 
 are glad to have escaped the odious school-house 
 and to have " finished their education." 
 
 If the first two principles refer principally to the 
 receptive, internal powers of the child, the third, Ac- 
 custom the child to activity, has special reference to 
 the expressive powers of the child. If the first two 
 principles guide us in teaching the child how to 
 think, feel, and form purposes, the third guides us in 
 teaching it how to say, do, and execute. If the first 
 two principles teach us how to develop and cultivate 
 the faculties, the third teaches us how to direct those 
 faculties, so as to enable the pupil to enjoy useful- 
 ness and happiness. 
 
CHAPTEE III. 
 
 SCOPE OF OBJECT-TEACHING OBJECT LESSONS — SCOPE 
 
 OF THIS WORK — REQUISITES IN THE TEACHER. 
 
 From these considerations, it appears that Object- 
 teaching is not a mere subject of instruction — is not, 
 as some would make it, synonymous with Object 
 Lessons, or Lessons on Common Things, but that its 
 scope is as extensive as education. It embraces all 
 subjects of study : teaching in all its phases, to be- 
 come efficient, must adapt itself to the requirements 
 of this system. Its material is the universe in all 
 its extent and variety. Its application leads the 
 pupil gradually but surely from a consideration of 
 form and size to the science of geometry — from 
 number to arithmetic and algebra — from minerals 
 plants, and animals to mineralogy, botany, and zool- 
 ogy — from physical, chemical, and physiological 
 phenomena to physics, chemistry, and physiolpgy — 
 from language to grammar, and so on through all 
 the arts and sciences. Object Lessons, which the 
 Germans call more appropriately Denk und Sprech-. 
 Uebungen (exercises in thinking and speaking), re- 
 
OBJECT-TEACHING. 37 
 
 main within the pale of the system and form a part 
 of it, so long as they do not degenerate into Lessons 
 on Common Things. But these Lessons on Com- 
 mon Things, far from being synonymous even with 
 Object Lessons, are entirely opposed and foreign to 
 the system — the result of that miserable hankering 
 for the double-quick, cramming process, so peculiar 
 to our English schools. 
 
 The introduction of the system of Object-teaching 
 does not introduce new courses of study, but only a new 
 •method of teaching the established courses — a method 
 claiming to follow more logical principles. The 
 purpose of its discoverers and expounders, from 
 Socrates down to Pestalozzi and his followers, was 
 not and is not to innovate, but to improve — not to 
 confuse, but to regulate, to simplify. Teachers, in 
 all times, as far as they were truly successful, have 
 followed the principles of this system ; but, not fol- 
 lowing them consistently and thoroughly, they were 
 only partially successful. 
 
 To show how the system will enable them to be 
 wholly successful, is the aim for which this little 
 book was written. It would require volumes to ac- 
 complish this fully and in detail with every subject 
 of study ; a full expose of even one subject would 
 lead us into many tedious minutiae, and would lay 
 the book open to the danger of being used as a text- 
 
38 OBJECT-TEACHING. 
 
 book by incompetent or indolent teachers. We are 
 content, therefore, to merely indicate the application 
 of its principles in a few typical subjects of study : 
 Grammar, Geometry, and Natural History. Of 
 course, we do not mean to give full information con- 
 cerning these subjects ; we do not intend to write 
 an exhaustive didactic treatise on grammar, geome- 
 try, and natural history, but we would merely show, 
 by means of a few practical illustrations and hints, 
 how these subjects may be handled in obedience to 
 the principles of the system. Also we do not mean 
 to imply that the system of Object-teaching is appli- 
 cable to these branches alone, but we have selected 
 them merely because its principles can be most 
 clearly and completely illustrated with them. At 
 the same time, we shall limit ourselves in the first 
 subject, principally to the construction of language ; 
 in the second, to elementary geometry ; in the 
 third, to botany and zoology. 
 
 Before we proceed to these illustrations, it may be 
 useful to indicate, in a general way, a few requisites 
 on the part of the teacher, without which he could 
 never have success in this method. These remarks 
 may be trite ; but the little attention paid by a num- 
 ber of teachers to the requisites discussed in them, 
 justifies us in repeating them here. 
 
 In the first place, the teacher must feel and ap- 
 
OBJECT- TEACHING. 39 
 
 preciate the whole nature, importance, and scope of 
 the responsibility which his •profession imposes on 
 him. The schoolmaster who is not fully impressed 
 with the vast influence which he exerts by example 
 and word upon his pupils ; the youngster who merely 
 uses this profession as a stepping-stone to some 
 other calling, which he, in his selfish narrow- 
 mindedness, considers higher, because more lucra- 
 tive ; the person who embraces the trade of school- 
 keeper for the want of capital to become a shop- 
 keeper ; the stripling who by selfish and unprinci- 
 pled friends is put on the rostrum for the purpose 
 of "finishing" his own "education" at the expense 
 of the young, budding minds of a whole Tillage ; the 
 veteran "dealer. in boys and birch, who considers 
 the boys, from whom he gathers his harvest, as so 
 much corn which must be threshed and knocked 
 about the ears" before a grain of sense can be ex- 
 tracted; the pedant who considers himself a vast 
 show-house of knowledge, where the astonished 
 and delighted urchins come to stare and wonder — 
 never can deserve the name of teacher. 
 
 In the next place, the teacher must be patient, al- 
 lowing no obstacle to cause him to recede, no failure 
 to discourage him. Especially should he reject the 
 idea that " there must be some blockheads in every 
 class." F6r no child, that is not an idiot, is a block- 
 
40 OBJECT-TEACHING. 
 
 head. They may sleep in his mind and soul, all 
 those sublime faculties, and they may sleep a deep, 
 nay, death-like sleep ; but it is the teacher's duty to 
 awake them and to cultivate them with fostering 
 care and unremitting patience, like tender, precious 
 plants just sprung from their seeds — not to neglect 
 them and set those blockheads aside as incorrigible ; 
 for by this he loads upon himself a heavy sin against 
 the person whom he has left to ignorance and con- 
 tempt, and bereaved of mental and moral enjoyment, 
 against society whom he has robbed of a valuable 
 coadjutor in the cause of civilization. The true 
 teacher must know the state of advancement of 
 each of his pupils, and, although arranged in 
 classes, each pupil must receive instruction adapt- 
 ed to him, perhaps to him alone. In no case 
 must he allow his impatience to lead him to ad- 
 vance only with the "bright" half of his class 
 and to let the rest " catch up." He must carefully 
 avoid that sauve qui pent system, so common in 
 English, and especially in American schools, a sys- 
 tem that has caused American superficiality to pass 
 into a proverb ; he must not be quite so anxious to 
 impart a great number of facts, but rather to have 
 those he imparts well understood. One great cause, 
 perhaps the greatest, of failure in education, is that 
 impatience to " go over much ground," the fact that 
 
OBJECT-TEACHING. 41 
 
 parents and teachers cannot wait. Yet the mental as 
 well as the physical growth of the child is, in its 
 earlv stages, very slow, almost insensible ; and this 
 must be constantly kept in view if we would forn» 
 substantial, thorough minds, capable of rapid acqui- 
 sition and powerful, correct application of know- 
 ledge. The teacher's principal duty is to constantly 
 probe the child's mind, in regard to its capacity and 
 power, and not to allow it to try itself upon subjects 
 beyond its full and easy grasp. The teacher must 
 neither overcharge the child's mind nor force its de- 
 velopment ; he must simply encourage, with unvary- 
 ing kindness, its natural growth : for young minds 
 will bear no forcing ; and minds that have been 
 forced in their development are like hot-house 
 plants — insipid, bloated, feeble. 
 
 Let the teacher also beware of irritability, the re- 
 sult of impatience and want of self-control. The 
 irritable teacher will never be able to command 
 either the love or respect of his pupils ; he will be 
 ridiculed by them, or at best feared. In either case 
 he cannot be successful, because, in the absence of 
 respect, the pupil will not attach sufficient import- 
 ance to the teacher's word and advice ; and the 
 child who is afraid will not venture to utter and de- 
 fend its childish views and opinions, and will never 
 dare to observe independently for fear of making 
 
42 OBJECT-TEACHING. 
 
 mistakes. The teacher must be a kind friend and 
 patient guide, to whom the child looks for advice 
 and protection ; his intercourse with the pupils must 
 be marked by an unvarying kindness and cordial 
 sympathy with all the child's notions and with all 
 the child's efforts at progress or exercise. Some- 
 body has said that it is "next to impossible to govern 
 children, but extremely easy to manage them. Let 
 the teacher then, by all means, manage the children 
 with kindness and sympathy. 
 
 In this connection we would warn the teacher 
 against self-conceit and false dignity. The teacher 
 who looks down upon his pupils not only as infe- 
 riors, but as inferiors who can never reach his ex- 
 alted position ; who considers himself a storehouse 
 of all knowledge, past, present, and future; who 
 looks upon contradiction as a crime, and upon 
 dissension from his opinions as a heresy, will never 
 do as a teacher, at least not in a republic ; for, being 
 himself a petty tyrant, he will turn out in his pupils 
 a race of petty tyrants, the very class of people that 
 are injurious and ruinous to free institutions. False 
 dignity, that mock gravity which is put on by some 
 men as a mask to cover disgracing blemishes and 
 faults, is, if possible, still more dangerous than its 
 twin sister, self-conceit. A person who never smiles 
 can never be a successful teacher, since, in the pres- 
 
OBJECT-TEACHING. 43 
 
 ence of such a person, the pupil can never feel that 
 ease, that want of restraint, that self-confidence so 
 essential to success. 
 
 Besides, the teacher muot never fail to enter the 
 school-room well prepared, not only in regard to the 
 object on which he intends to exercise his class, but 
 upon the order in which the exercises are to be con- 
 ducted, and upon the manner in which the indi- 
 vidual pupils are to be interrogated. He must him- 
 self have clear and distinct ideas, must himself ob- 
 serve accurately and think carefully, must himself 
 express concisely and correctly. 
 
 Without these requisites the teacher will fail in 
 Object-teaching, as well as in all other teaching; 
 with them he will accomplish results for which gen- 
 erations will thank him. 
 
CHAPTEE IV. 
 
 GRAMMAR — DIVISION OF THE SUBJECT — ENTRANCE 
 OF THE PUPIL — NAMES OF THINGS — READING AND 
 WRITING METHOD. 
 
 Grammar is the art of conveying ideas correctly by- 
 means of language and of understanding ideas so 
 conveyed by others: it is the art of using language cor- 
 rectly. This definition of the terms will suit our pur- 
 poses fully. It is sufficiently comprehensive : for it 
 includes not only all modes of expressing ideas by 
 language — reading, speaking, and writing; but also 
 the power of interpreting ideas so expressed. It is 
 sufficiently concise, for it does not admit anything 
 not properly belonging to the art. It is obvious, 
 then, that grammar must be one of the first subjects 
 to engage the attention of schools ; since language 
 is the principal, if not the only means of communi- 
 cation in the school, an indispensable handmaid 
 needed in the study and application of every science. 
 The school must, from the beginning, give the pupil 
 the art of using language correctly ; and in the pro- 
 portion in which it does this, other things being 
 
OBJECT-TEACHING. 45 
 
 equal, will the pupils be successful in their studies. 
 It is equally obvious, as has been shown before, that 
 ideas must be formed before they can be expressed : 
 hence the well-known aphorism of object-teachers, 
 " Ideas before words." 
 
 Elementary teaching in language implies then the 
 development, cultivation, and direction of a general 
 power of forming and expressing ideas correctly : 
 and this is to be accomplished by the so-called ob- 
 ject-lessons. We would not be understood to mean 
 that this is the only a/im of these lessons. Other 
 important aims may and should be connected with 
 it, such as the introduction into special subjects of 
 study — into arithmetic, geometry, geography, etc., 
 or the mutual application of principles taught in 
 these sciences. But we would be understood to 
 mean that it is the principal aim. This has been 
 sadly disregarded in the introduction of object-les- 
 sons into English schools, and acquisition of know- 
 ledge about certain objects has generally been made 
 the main aim of these lessons to such an extent that 
 they have degenerated into lessons on common 
 thing?, and that manuals upon the subject have as- 
 sumed the form of young compendia of sciences and 
 arts, tending to produce that miserable scatter brain 
 wisdom that seems so much and is so little. 
 
 For the sake of convenience, we shall divide our 
 
46 OBJECT-TEACHING. 
 
 illustrations into three periods; the first dealing 
 principally with the development of perception, the 
 second with conception, and the third with com- 
 parison and generalization. 
 
 In the first exercises, the teacher's chief aim should 
 be to gain the pupil's affection and confidence, so as 
 to make the transition from home to school disci- 
 pline as easy as possible ; indeed, the child should 
 be taught to look upon the transition as rather a 
 pleasant one. Still the teacher should not go too 
 far in this and make school duties all play. The 
 children must feel that there is a transition, an ac- 
 tual change — a change, too, from mere amusement 
 to a real duty, but that duty agreeable ; they must 
 feel that they have begun to work, but the work 
 must be made interesting — they must be taught to 
 like their work. It must' be clothed attractively, so 
 that they will approach it with cheerful hearts and 
 willing minds. 
 
 At first the teacher gains the affection of the chil- 
 dren, by making their acquaintance in a kind, 
 friendly manner. Let him rise and approach the 
 children with a smiling, open face ; let all his words 
 and gestures tell them that he is a kind friend. He 
 asks their names, perhaps; then repeats them to 
 find if he remembers and, intentionally, makes some 
 mistake— calls a girl by a boy's name, and lets the 
 
OBJECT-TEACHING. 47 
 
 amused pupils, wio feel nearer to hiin for the pleas- 
 ure they had in discovering the mistake, correct it 
 and give the reason for the correction. 
 
 He then asks the pupils to name the things they 
 see in the room. They mention everything in the 
 wildest confusion. The teacher listens patiently for 
 a few seconds, then kindly bids them stop, and tells 
 them to begin at a certain part of the room and to 
 speak one at a time ; and, when all the objects have 
 been mentioned, each child naming two or three in 
 turn, the teacher pointing at the objects, he lets the 
 whole class name in chorus the objects at which one 
 of the brighter pupils points. He will find that if 
 the first exercise has gained him the pupils' affec- 
 tion, this second one has established him in their 
 confidence fully and permanently, since the chil- 
 dren readily appreciate the better success they have 
 had under his guidance ; and he is now fully pre- 
 pared to keep in view, in the subsequent exercises, 
 the principal ends to be attained — the training of the 
 senses, the cultivation of habits of observation, the de- 
 velopment of the perceptive faculties, and the use of cor- 
 rect language* 
 
 The children are now called upon to mention a 
 certain number of objects (six, ten, twelve) in the 
 parlor, bedroom, kitchen, attic, cellar, wood-house, 
 
 * W. H. Wells, Graded Schools. 
 
48 OBJECT- TEACHING. 
 
 stable, barn, etc., in the street, river, woods, field, 
 meadow, garden, pond, creek, orchard, city, village, 
 etc. Again, they are asked to mention objects made 
 of leather, wool, cotton, silk, linen, velvet, wood, 
 paper, iron, tin, brass, steel, lead, stone, glass, china, 
 bricks, etc., or a certain number of animals, of four- 
 footed animals, of birds, insects, fishes, etc. In the 
 answers, constant attention must be paid to the pro- 
 nunciation of words — distinct and correct articula- 
 tion being one of the first requisites of correct 
 language. Yet this should not be carried on to such 
 an extent as to make it irksome to the pupils. The 
 child can attain perfection only gradually. It 
 should, therefore, be taught to make a constant and 
 conscious, but gradual effort to articulate correctly ; 
 and the teacher should encourage, but not drive. 
 Indeed, the child needs no driving : it will work 
 cheerfully and zealously with the teacher who has 
 learned the art of working with the child. 
 
 The child should also be taught to always answer 
 in full simple sentences and to express the same 
 idea in various ways. This may be most readily 
 accomplished by teaching the child to frame the 
 answers according to the questions. The teacher 
 asks, "What do you see in this room? What do 
 we find ? What can you discover ? What can you 
 name in this room ?" And the children answer ac- 
 
OBJECT-TEACHING. 49 
 
 cordingly : " We see, find, can discover, can name 
 in this room such objects." 
 
 The above sketch contains work for many weeks 
 to be done in connection with reading and writing 
 lessons, and lessons on number, form, and natural 
 objects. For reading and writing we shall append 
 a sketch corresponding in extent with these object- 
 lessons. For this purpose, we shall suppose that 
 the children have learned to speak distinctly, in dif- 
 ' ferent object-lessons, the words rat, cat, hat, mat* 
 The teacher may now single these words out, and 
 write them in various arrangements upon the black- 
 board, until the pupils have learned to recognize 
 them readily. He may then teach them to pro- 
 nounce the same words successively r-at, c^-at, h-at, 
 m-at, and lead them to discover that the sound at 
 has in every case the sign at. This sign they should 
 at once learn to imitate upon their slates. Success- 
 ive lessons will then cluster around this nucleus the 
 discovery of the signs m, r, f, s, c, h, and others 
 for corresponding sounds. The children should 
 learn to imitate these in connection with the first, 
 and to write mat, rat, fat, sat, cat, hat, etc. In the 
 same way, the words pin, fin, tin, chin, will furnish 
 the nucleus in ; lot, pot, dot, the nucleus Ht ; pen, hen, 
 den, men, the nucleus en; sun, gun, nun, tun, the 
 * Barnard's Object-teaching, p. 280. 
 
50 OBJECT-TEACHING. 
 
 nucleus un, etc. These may be treated in the same 
 way — combined with single consonants, read and 
 written by the children, until they are familiar with 
 the principal single consonants. The teacher may 
 then separate at into ctr-t, in into i-n, ot into o-t, etc. ; 
 and thus lead the pupils into the study and applica- 
 tion of tLe short vowel sounds. Haying found 
 a short, he may form ab, ad, ag, am, an, ap, as, 
 etc. ; and from these, by prefixing single, or some- 
 times, by way of introduction, double consonants,- 
 he may form a number of words with which the 
 child is familiar. Then he may continue with double 
 consonants and with the leading long vowel sounds 
 and signs. 
 
 The reading and writing of simple sentences may 
 begin long before all this is completed. Thus we 
 shall suppose the pupils to be familiar with the 
 sounds and signs at, in, ot, r, c,f, h. It will then be 
 necessary to teach them the sounds and signs of 
 only the two little words the and is, in order to 
 enable them to read and write : the cat is fat, the rat 
 is fat, the pin is hot, the fat is in the cat, the fat is in the 
 rat, the pin is in the cat, the pin is in the rat, the cat is 
 in the hot fat, the hot pin is in the fat rat, and a number 
 of other similar sentences. 
 
 We do not insist on the necessity of learning the 
 letters in the order mentioned— single consonants, 
 
OBJECT-TEACHING. 51 
 
 short vowels, double consonants, long vowels ; we 
 only prefer this order, because the consonants are 
 the most uniform in their signs and the long vowels 
 the most varied, and we have inserted the short 
 vowels between single and double consonants, in 
 order to obtain clear nuclei for interesting practical 
 work on the part of the pupils. But we do insist on 
 the necessity of combining reading and writing from 
 the beginning ; of leading the child from the sound 
 to the sign, and from this to the name of the letter ; 
 of having the first exercises in reading and writing 
 only in the written forms of letters ; and of not 
 introducing the printed forms of letters, until the 
 child is thoroughly familiar with the former. 
 
CHAPTBE V. 
 
 GEAMMAE CONTINUED — LESSONS ON SINGLE OBJECTS — 
 PRIMAEY OBJECT OE THESE LESSONS. 
 
 As soon as the exercises, suggested in the first 
 sketch on object-lessons, threaten to become too 
 irksome to the pupils or the material insufficient for 
 the corresponding reading and writing exercises, the 
 teacher may begin with lessons on some single ob- 
 jects. These lessons should, at first, alternate with 
 the former : for no class of exercises should be com- 
 menced or discontinued abruptly, but one class 
 should gradually merge into another. Before be- 
 ginning the lessons, "the teacher should have care- 
 fully determined what ideas he wants to develop 
 and impress, what he wants the children to learn ; 
 else the lesson will be, at best, imperfect. He 
 should, therefore, keep a blank book in which he 
 writes down an outline of each lesson before giving 
 it. We append a few sketches of lessons on single 
 objects by way of illustration and suggestion, pre- 
 
OBJECT-TEACHING. 53 
 
 fixing, in each case, the disposition of the subject 
 upon which the teacher is supposed to have deter- 
 mined. 
 
 1. A Sheet of Paper. 
 
 The teacher has determined upon the following 
 disposition : 
 
 A sheet of paper : 1. White ; 2. Face (surface) ; 3. 
 Edge ; 4 Corner. 
 
 He then exhibits the sheet of paper to his pupils 
 and, as expediency may require, asks them in turn 
 separately or collectively as a class. Perhaps the 
 following conversation, in which the teacher's words 
 are quoted, will ensue : 
 
 " What do you see in my hand ?" I see a sheet 
 (piece) of paper in your hand. " What is the color 
 of this sheet of paper ?" It is white. " What kind 
 of paper is this, then ?" It is white paper. " Can 
 you name any other things in this room that are 
 white ?" Sally's apron is white. The ceiling and the 
 walls are white. Tour collar is white. " Name some 
 white things at your house, on the street, etc." 
 "What white things do we sometimes spread over 
 the table ?" " On what white thing do we sleep at 
 night ?" "What white thing does winter bring us ?" 
 and other similar questions to fix' the impression 
 "white." 
 
54 OBJECT-TEACHING. 
 
 "What do you call this part of the sheet of 
 paper ?" (presenting a face and passing a hand over 
 it). We call it a side. " How many sides has this 
 sheet of paper ?" It has two sides. " Very good ; 
 but you must use another word for side and call 
 this a face. What should you call it?" A face. 
 " Then, how many faces has this sheet of paper ?" 
 It has two faces. " Show me something else that 
 has two faces — something that has six faces." " How 
 many faces has this book ? this mustard-box ? this 
 marble ? this cork ?" 
 
 " What do the two faces do here ?" (passing a fin- 
 ger of each hand along the respective faces until 
 they meet at the edge). They come together — they 
 meet. " And what do they form (make) where they 
 meet ?" They form (make) a line. " Tes, and we 
 call this line an edge. Now, what is an edge, Sally ?" 
 It is a line formed where two faces meet. (Sally 
 will need some assistance in this answer.) "How 
 many edges do you see on this sheet of paper?" 
 " Count them." " Show me the edges on this book." 
 " Count the edges on this box." " How many edges 
 has this marble ?" etc. 
 
 In a'similar manner the idea " corner" is imparted 
 and fixed, and the children may be requested to 
 bring for the next lesson some small object that has 
 four edges or corners, twelve edges and eight cor- 
 
OBJECT-TEACHING. 55 
 
 ners, no edges and no corners, two edges and two 
 corneis, etc. 
 
 In the disposition at the head of the- lesson, the 
 words white and face- are printed i» italics; because 
 the teacher is supposed to have underscored them, 
 having selected them for blackboard and slate exer- 
 cises. These may be made at the close of the les- 
 son. Having by some question again called out tbe 
 answer, It is white, the teacher may write the word 
 white on the blackboard and let the pupils sound it, 
 spell it, read it, and at last write it on their slates. 
 He may then assist them in writing the sentence, ilie 
 paper is white ; and, according to circumstances, let 
 them write other similar sentences, either indepen- 
 dently, with his assistance, or by dictation, e. g. : milk 
 is white ; snow is white ; the wall is white ; linen is 
 white ; the sheet is white ; the shirt is white. 
 
 In a similar way he may practice with the word 
 "fax," succeeding perhaps in eliciting sentences 
 similar to the following : the paper has two faces ; 
 the face is white ; the face is red ; the face is clean ; 
 the face shines. 
 
 2. A Tin Cup. 
 A tin cup : 1. Curved ; 2. Straight ; 3. On ; 
 4. Over ; 5. Under ; 6. Above ; 7. Below ; 8. Be- 
 tween. 
 
56 OBJECT-TEACHING. 
 
 " Here is a tin cup ; can any one of you tell me what 
 kind of a line this edge makes ?" It makes a round 
 line. " Very good ; but round is not the right -word. 
 Can you tell rue another word for round?" It 
 makes a crooked line. " That is better ; but I can 
 tell you *t still better word ; we call this a curved 
 line." " Name some things in this room that show 
 curved lines." "Are there any curved lines about 
 this inkstand ?" " Show me the curved lines on this 
 hat, this box, etc." " What kind of a line does the 
 edge of this rule make?" It makes a straight line. 
 " What kind of a line does the edge make now ?" 
 (bending the rule). It makes a curved line. 
 
 The teacher then causes the pupils to point out 
 and count the straight and curved lines of various 
 objects ; to point out the straight and curved lines 
 in some letters ; to name letters that show a certain 
 number of straight and curved lines, no straight 
 lines, etc. He draws straight and curved lines on 
 the blackboard, and causes some children to do the 
 same and all to draw similar lines on their slates, 
 etc. 
 
 " Where is the tin cup now, Mary?" It is on your 
 hand. " Put it on the table ; and now tell me where 
 the table is," etc. In a similar manner the remain- 
 ing ideas may be called forth and fixed ; the tin cup 
 and other objects placed into different positions 
 
OBJECT-TEACHING. 57 
 
 ■with regard to one another, both by the teacher and 
 by the pupils ; the relative positions of various ob- 
 jects in the room determined, etc. 
 
 The blackboard and slate exercises with the words 
 on and over would elicit sentences like the follow- 
 ing : The table is on the floor ; the slate is on the 
 desk ; the pencil is on the slate ; the man is on the 
 fence ; the cat is on the rug ; the roof is over the 
 house ; the sky is over us ; the tree is over the 
 bench; the dog jumps over the creek; the duck 
 swims over the river. 
 
 3. A Edbbon. 
 
 A ribbon: 1. Wavy; 2. Spiral; 3. Broad; 4. 
 Narrow ; 5. Heavy ; 6. Light ; 7. Long ; 8. Short. 
 
 The ideas wavy and spiral may be called forth by 
 so arranging the ribbon as to cause one of its edges 
 to exhibit these lines. The ideas broad and narrow 
 may be presented by means of two ribbons of the 
 same length, color, etc., but differing considerably in 
 breadth. Heavy and light may be introduced by 
 causing some of the children to feel the difference in 
 weight between the ribbon and a piece of lead ; long 
 and short, by means of ribbons of the same piece, dif- 
 fering only in length. In each case exercises must 
 be made to impress these ideas firmly on the mind : 
 the children point out long and short objects, name 
 
53 OBJECT-TEACHING. 
 
 heavy and light things, bring for the next lesson a 
 broad leaf and a narrow leaf, arrange ■ the edges of 
 flexible objects in wavy and spiral lines, etc: 
 
 The blackboard and slate exercises, with the 
 words long and short, will yield sentences like the 
 following : The line is long ; the dot is short ; the 
 pen is long ; the pencil is short ; the slate is long ; 
 the book is short. I have a long slate ; he has a 
 short pen ; you have a long ribbon : we have a short 
 cup. The long slate is black ; the short cup is 
 green ; the long pen is bad ; the short pencil is 
 good. 
 
 It is not expected, and, indeed, it could scarcely 
 be deemed judicious, that the teacher should pre- 
 sent at each exercise new ideas or as great a num- 
 ber of new ideas as the foregoing lessons indicate. 
 On the contrary, frequent reviews are necessary, also 
 lessons which are partly reviews and which present 
 only one or two new ideas, according to dispositions 
 like the following : 
 
 1. Review : 1, face ; 2, edge ; 3, corner ; 4, angle ; 
 5, line. 
 
 2. A Hat: (review); 1, straight ; 2, curved ; 3, wavy; 
 4, spiral. 
 
 3. A Rule : 1, long (review) ; 2, short (review) ; 3, 
 thick (new idea) ; 4, thin (new idea) ; 5, broad (re- 
 view) ; 6, narrow (review.) 
 
OBJECT-TEACHING. 59 
 
 We would also warn the teacher against adhering 
 too strictly to the limits of instruction, as well as to 
 the form of instruction, pointed out in tins period. 
 Circumstances may and, no doubt, will arise in the 
 experience of every teacher, requiring material modi- 
 fications in both. To keep up the interest in the 
 subject, teachers will be compelled to use many 
 variations and artifices which only their own in- 
 genuity and interest in the work can suggest and 
 invent. 
 
 On the other hand, we would impress upon the 
 minds of teachers the necessity of keeping in view, 
 in all exercises, the fact that the primary aim of 
 these exercises from objects is, not information about 
 the object, but the development of clear perception and 
 char expression. Thus, the sheet of paper was not 
 taken up with a view of giving the pupils informa- 
 tion about the paper, but to teach the ideas, white, 
 surface, edge, corner and the clear expression of 
 these ideas, whenever practicable. Hence the pains 
 taken to impress these ideas firmly, by means of 
 various and copious exercises, as soon as they have 
 been developed. Referring to a previous chapter, 
 we would say, hence that lively, interesting applica- 
 tion — that immediate, extensive synthesis — as soon 
 as the teacher has assured himself that the pupils 
 have succeeded in grasping the idea, have succeeded 
 
60 OBJECT-TEACHING. 
 
 in separating it — in analyzing it away from the ob- 
 ject in question. Of course the pupils will in these 
 lessons gain a great deal of information about the 
 objects used, and this information is sufficiently 
 valuable to render its acquisition a desirable secondary 
 aim. 
 
CHAPTEE VI. 
 
 GEAMMAE CONTINUED — SECOND YEAE — PAETS OF OB- 
 JECTS — LESSONS ON SINGLE OBJECTS BEVEEWS — NEW 
 
 IDEAS SLATE EXEBCISES. 
 
 When the children have reached the second year 
 of their school-life, they may be taught to name the 
 parts of objects in the same manner in which, during 
 the first year, they were taught to name objects 
 themselves. They name the parts of a book (cover, 
 back, leaves), of a pin (head, shaft, point), of a 
 chair (legs, rounds, seat, back) ; the parts of a door, 
 a window, a house, a cart, a carriage, a knife, an 
 inkstand, etc. Iu these exercises, the teacher should 
 be careful not to let the children call parts that 
 which is merely a property or an accident. A part 
 of a material object is a portion of it ; if the part is 
 removed, the object will be diminished in size and 
 weight : the part of an object must, therefore, always 
 have three dimensions and be material. It is improper, 
 then, to consider as parts the points, lines, and sur- 
 faces of objects ; to enumerate inside, outside, faces, 
 
62 OBJECT-TEACHING. 
 
 edges, angles, pores, etc., among the parts. To do 
 so -will give the pupils a very misty idea of what 
 parts really are. The teacher,* who has enumerated 
 as the parts of refined sugar " surface, edges, mid- 
 dle, crystals, grains, pores, would certainly be sorely 
 troubled, if he should be called upon to produce the 
 surface, the edges, the middle, and the pores, after 
 the removal of the " crystals and grains ;" and the 
 same teacher, who informs us that the parts of a cork 
 are " the ends, the surf ewe, ihe faces, and the edge, 
 would find it difficult to compute the loss of weight 
 which the removal of these parts would occasion in 
 the cork. i 
 
 The exercises upon the parts of objects should be 
 varied in many ways, so as to arouse and maintain a 
 livery interest in the pupils. The teacher points out 
 the parts of objects, and the pupils name them ; or 
 the pupils point out the parts which the teacher 
 names ; or they indicate the position of parts in 
 words, e. g. : " "Where is the head of the pin ?" It is 
 above the shaft. " Where is the shaft ?" It is be- 
 tween the head and the point. Again, the pupils 
 are asked to name a certain number (two, three, four) 
 of parts of a carriage, of a house, of a window, of a 
 door, etc. ; to name objects in which they can dis- 
 tinguish only two, three, or four parts ; to bring to- 
 * Sheldon on Object Lessons. 
 
OBJECT-TEACHING. 63 
 
 morrow some small object that shows two, three, or 
 four parts. (This last exercise will be found pecu- 
 liarly fertile.) Again, we ask the pupils to name the . 
 parts of a window that are made of wood, the parts 
 of a door that are made of iron, etc. ; to name that 
 part of a knife which is used for cutting, to point 
 out on a chair the part on which we sit, etc. ; or we 
 ask, what is the use of the head of the pin, of the 
 slate-frame, the book-cover, etc. — without, however, 
 entering further into a consideration of the materials 
 and uses of objects than is necessary to excite and 
 keep up the interest in the lesson. 
 
 In connection with these lessons, we have lessons 
 on single objects, with the design of reviewing the 
 ideas gained during the first year and of developing 
 and fixingnew and kindred ideas. We shall here 
 again, in a few examples, indicate how this may be 
 carried out, without, however, presenting the ex- 
 amples in the form of conversations, since the inex- 
 perienced teacher is too prone to follow the type so 
 closely as to lose sight altogether of circumstances 
 requiring important modifications in the manner of 
 presenting the subject to the pupils. We shall, 
 therefore, merely give some models of dispositions 
 to be made by the teacher before the lessons, and 
 indicate in a general way how the lessons should be 
 conducted. 
 
64 OBJECT-TEACHING. 
 
 1. A Rule. — Surface, edge, corner (review) ; 
 smooth, rough, oblong (new ideas). 
 
 2. A Watch. — • Curved, straight (review) ; hard, 
 soft, circular (new ideas). 
 
 3. A Cork. — Relations of position, (review) ; vel- 
 vety, porous (new ideas). 
 
 4. Vinegar. — -Wet, dry, sour, tasteless, dark red, 
 light red. 
 
 5. Piece of Glass. — Line, angle (review) ; right, 
 acute, obtuse angles, colorless (new ideas). 
 
 6. A Hat. — Curved, wavy (review) ; circle, ring 
 (new ideas). 
 
 7. A Marble. — Smooth, rough, hard, soft, tasteless 
 (review) ; sphere (new idea). 
 
 The objects of the reviews in these lessons are, in 
 the first place, to assure the teacher th#t the pupil 
 has a clear conception of the ideas taught during the 
 previous year, which are necessary for the develop- 
 ment of the new ideas to be illustrated in the re- 
 spective lessons ; and, in the next place, to fix more 
 firmly in the pupil's mind the valuable knowledge 
 previously acquired. The review questions are 
 therefore direct, to the point, without any attempt 
 at suggesting, guiding, or drawing out. We ask, 
 for instance, simply : " What is a face ?" or " How 
 many faces has this object?" or " Why do you call 
 this a face ?" without directing the child's attention 
 
OBJECT-TEACHING. 65 
 
 to the face by preliminary questions. If the ques- 
 tioned pupil cannot give an answer, we do not stop 
 to explain or draw out, but pass to the next, or call 
 upon the class to answer ; since the answer given by 
 the class usually serves all the purposes of repeated 
 instruction for those who have forgotten. Should 
 the class however fail (a rare case), it becomes 
 necessary to ask the question in a different form, or 
 to put additional questions. Of course, we also 
 omit the questions and exercises, employed pre- 
 viously for fixing the newly formed ideas, such as 
 (in the above instance) pointing out and counting 
 the faces on different objects, mentioning and bring- 
 ing objects with a certain number of faces, etc. 
 
 In developing the new ideas, we are guided by the 
 same principles and considerations that were indi- 
 cated in the sketch for the first year. Yet we should 
 constantly keep in mind what the child has already 
 acquired and frame our questions accordingly. This 
 has a double advantage : it saves time and it teaches 
 the child to apply what it has learned. The latter 
 especially, although so sadly neglected in the ma- 
 jority of schools, is one of the most important ob- 
 jects of education ; since, without it, education is 
 really all but useless. 
 
 While during the first year we exercise chiefly the 
 sense of sight, we .call into action now the other 
 
66 OBJECT-TEACHING. 
 
 senses, particularly those of touch and taste. Until 
 the child has learned to. use both these senses inde- 
 pendently, it is well, perhaps necessary, that the im- 
 pressions upon them be made in the lessons while 
 the child closes his eyes. A pupil is called out and 
 told to close his eyes, the teacher then seizes his 
 wrist, guides the ends of his fingers along some 
 object, say a piece of velvet, which he has not pre- 
 viously seen in the teacher's hands,' and asks him : 
 " What are you touching ?" " How do you know it 
 to be a piece of velvet," etc. Another pupil may 
 then step out, touch the velvet to get the impression 
 of smoothness, and then close his eyes, while the 
 teacher gently passes the ends of his fingers over 
 some rough surface (a piece of sand paper, the cross 
 section of a piece of wood) and asks him similar 
 questions to develop the idea and term rough. Both 
 these ideas, smooth and rough, may then be fixed by 
 the means already indicated. 
 
 Again, we shall suppose that we had some conver- 
 sations about vinegar, and that it remains to teach 
 the impressions sour and sweet. A little girl is 
 called and told to close her eyes and to open her 
 mouth, the teacher implying that he intends to put 
 some vinegar on her tongue ; but instead of vinegar 
 he places a drop of sugared water on it. The little 
 girl will startle and tell him that it is not vinegar. 
 
OBJECT-TEACHING. 67 
 
 She is then led to tell how she knows it not to 
 be vinegar, what she thinks it to be, why she thinks 
 so, etc. In a similar manner all other impressions 
 upon the senses should be introduced. They may 
 then be fixed as above. 
 
 The greatest difficulty in regard to the sens^ of 
 taste will be found in imparting the idea, tasteless. 
 Any object, though tasteless, placed upon the 
 tongue, will create a sensation of touch which the 
 child cannot well separate from the sensation of 
 taste. The child will say such an object tastes cold 
 or warm, smooth or rough, etc. How tp overcome 
 this we must leave entirely to the teacher's indi- 
 vidual ingenuity. Never in the author's experience, 
 has this been overcome in one lesson or in two 
 lessons, but only after repeated, patient exercises, 
 comparing the sensations sweet, sour, etc., on the 
 one hand, with the sensations cold, warm, rough, 
 smooth, etc., on the other. Yet every earnest teach- 
 er will ultimately succeed in enabling the children to 
 fully distinguish these impressions, and to arrive at 
 a clear conception of tasteless. 
 
 By far easier it will be to teach the idea, colorless. 
 The child readily perceives that pieces of colored 
 glass impart their respective hues to objects seen 
 through them ; that colored liquids lend their tinges 
 to objects immersed in them, while colorless glass 
 
68 OBJECT-TEACHING. 
 
 and colorless water have no more effect upon the 
 color of objects seen through them, than the open- 
 ing in a ring or the spaces between the fingers. 
 
 In the slate exercises the pupils may continue to 
 be drilled, as previously, in writing sentences, ac- 
 quainting them practically with the principal uses of 
 nouns in the subject and in connection with the 
 leading prepositions ; of adjectives in the positive 
 degree; of prepositions, where they indicate rela- 
 tions of position, direction, and, perhaps, time and 
 possession ; and of verbs, chiefly intransitive verbs 
 and, if transitive, in the active voice. 
 
 For exercises in verbs, the material is best ob- 
 tained in the first lessons on natural objects, intro- 
 ductory to natural history. The child has had a 
 lesson on the dog and is then induced to write, by 
 dictation, with the aid of the teacher, or indepen- 
 dently, sentences like the following : The dog barks, 
 the dog runs, the dog snaps, the dog bites, the dog 
 sits, the dog eats, the dog drinks, the dog hunts. 
 Or, starting with the verb bites, as a basis, he writes : 
 The dog bites, the cat bites, the rat bites, the fox 
 bites, the snake bites, the fish bites. Or, extending 
 the exercise to inanimate objects, the teacher requires 
 sentences with a number (3. 6.) of objects that stand 
 or lie, or brealc, eliciting perhaps : the table stands, 
 the tree siands, John stands, — the book lies, the 
 
OBJECT-TEACHING. 69 
 
 slate lies, the dog lies, — the glass breaks, the slate 
 breaks, the cup breaks. 
 
 Exercises may also be made to practice different 
 forms of predication with the same subject. The 
 teacher may write upon the black-board the fol- 
 lowing outline for the guidance of the pupils : 
 
 What is 
 "What thing is 
 What has 
 What does 
 
 the dog ? 
 
 ' The dog is large. 
 
 The dog is an animal. 
 
 The dog has a tail. 
 _ The dog barks. 
 
 He may then, having assured himself that the 
 pupils understand what they are about to do, re- 
 quire them to write four similar sentences about a 
 certain number of objects, the names of which may 
 be given or not. 
 
 Again, exercises on the formation of the plural are 
 in order, and the teacher need not avoid the irregular 
 forms in ordinary words. The children write sen- 
 tences according to the following formulas : 
 
 1. . The dog bites. Two dogs bite. (All) dogs bite. 
 
 The cat mews. Two cats mew. (All) cats mew. 
 
 The goose flies. Two geese fly. (All) geese fly. 
 2. The dog is an animal. Dogs are animals. 
 
 The cat is an animal. Cats are animals. 
 
 The goose is a bird. Geese are birds. 
 
70 
 
 OBJECT-TEACHING. 
 
 3. The dog has a snout. 
 
 The cat has a tail. 
 
 The goose has a bill. 
 4.. The dog is large. 
 
 The dog is a quadruped. 
 
 The dog barks. 
 
 Dogs have snouts. 
 Cats have tails. 
 Geese have bills. 
 Dogs are large. 
 Dogs are quadrupeds. 
 Dogs bark. 
 
 Exercises on person, it made at all, should as yet 
 be made very cautiously and sparingly. On the 
 other hand, constant and strict attention must be 
 paid to the spelling, to capitalization, and punctua- 
 tion, as far as they are needed in these sentences. 
 
CHAPTEK VII. 
 
 GBAMMAK CONTINUED SECOND PERIOD (THIRD YEAR) 
 
 INFOEMATION ABOUT OBJECTS DESCRIPTIONS — METHOD 
 
 — DEFINITIONS — ATTTET) QUALITIES OPPOSITE QUALI- 
 TIES — ENIGMAS. 
 
 The pupils have now arrived at the second period, 
 when special prominence is to be given to the culti- 
 vation of conception. From the sketches in the pre- 
 vious chapter, it appears that we do not wish to 
 convey the idea that the pupils are not to exercise 
 the conceptive powers, until they reach this period 
 (perhaps the third school year). By means of the 
 frequent reviews, and the abundant slate exercises, 
 a great deal has been done during the first period to 
 train memory and imagination ; and the majority of 
 perceptions have been made so often that the child 
 has already formed conceptions of them. These may 
 be vague and the child may be unable to render 
 them in words, but they are sufficiently clear to en- 
 able the child to use them and to enable us to con- 
 sider him fully introduced into the use of the power 
 
72 OBJECT-TEACHING. 
 
 of conception. During this period, however, special 
 care is bestowed upon this power, and upon its aux- 
 iliaries, memory and imagination, while at the same 
 time the perceptive power is by no means neglected 
 and material for new and various perceptions is con- 
 stantly offered. 
 
 Information about objects is now no longer merely a 
 desirable secondary end ; but becomes essential, 
 being needed for the formation of accurate and com- 
 plete conceptions. Hence, in preparing dispositions 
 for the lessons, as well as in the lessons themselves, 
 we pursue a different course from that pursued in 
 the previous period. "We exhaust the subject as far 
 as the powers of observation in the pupils permit. 
 And this we do methodically, so as to teach the pupils 
 the power of rapid, complete, and accurate observa- 
 tion, and to prepare them for concise, complete, and 
 accurate description. As types, we would propose 
 to teachers the following dispositions of lessons : 
 
 1. A Elate of Glass. 
 
 I. Impressions on the sense of sight. 
 
 1. Rectangular. 
 
 2. Green. 
 
 3. Transparent. 
 
 4. Bright (reflective). 
 
OBJECT-TEACHING. 73 
 
 H Impressions on the sense of touch. 
 
 5. Hard. 
 
 6. Smooth. 
 
 7. Cold. 
 
 III. Impressions on the sense of taste. 
 
 8. Tasteless. 
 
 IV. Impressions on the sense of smell. 
 
 9. Odorless. 
 
 V. Impressions on the sense of hearing. 
 
 10. Besonant ( ? ). 
 
 VI. Mixed impressions (obtained by more or less 
 complicated experiments). 
 
 11. Stiff. 
 
 12. Brittle. 
 
 13. Slightly elastic. 
 
 2. A Bubbee Ball. 
 
 I. Sight. — 1, spherical ; 2, lead-colored ; 3, opaque ; 
 4, dull. 
 II. Touch. — 5, velvety ; 6, soft. 
 HE. Taste. — 7, tasteless. 
 IV. Odor. — 8, odorless. 
 V. Sound. — 9, resonant ( ? ). 
 
 VI. Mixed impressions. — 10, elastic ; 11, compres- 
 sible ( ? ) ; 12, expansible ( ? ) ; 13, tough. 
 
74 OBJECT-TEACHING. 
 
 3. A Tin Tube. 
 
 Cylindrical, hollow, opaque, bright ; smooth, hard, 
 cold ; tasteless ; odorless ; flexible, slightly elastic ; 
 tenacious, ( ? ) metallic ( ? ). 
 
 4. A Needle. 
 
 Cylindrical, conical towards the point, flattened 
 and perforated by an oval hole at the other end, 
 steel gray, opaque, bright ; smooth, hard ; tasteless ; 
 odorless ; elastic, brittle, slightly flexible. 
 
 5. A Rope. 
 
 Cylindrical, white, opaque, dull ; smooth, not very 
 soft ; tasteless ; odorless ; flexible, slightly elastic, 
 fibrous, tough, vegetable ( ? ). 
 
 6. A Sponge. 
 
 Irregular in shape, light brown, opaque, dull ; vel- 
 vety, soft, light ; tasteless ; odorless ; compressible, 
 elastic, porous, absorbent ( ? ). 
 
 In determining upon the propriety of including in 
 these dispositions certain less obvious qualities, the 
 presence of which is to be determined by subjecting 
 the object to more or less complicated experiments, 
 the teacher must be guided by the capacity and the 
 advancement of his pupils, by the relation which 
 
OBJECT-TEACHING. 75 
 
 that quality holds to the uses of that object, by the 
 necessity of that quality for a sufficiently clear con- 
 ception of the object, and by other circumstances. 
 The names of some of these qualities, e. g., compres- 
 sible, flexible, and others have been distinguished, 
 in the above types, by an interrogation mark to indi- 
 cate that they may or may not be taught according 
 to circumstances. Indeed we do not insist upon 
 anything in these types except, first, that th% facts 
 must be so arranged that all the impressions upon 
 the same sense may be presented as a connected 
 series, not interrupted by the impressions upon the 
 other senses — the impressions upon the sense of 
 sight must be finished before we proceed to the 
 sense of touch, etc. ; and, second, that, in the exer- 
 cise upon various objects, the respective senses be 
 called into action in the same order. In this way 
 alone can the pupil acquire method in his observa- 
 tions and in his descriptions ; and both his observa- 
 tions and descriptions will increase in accuracy and 
 completeness and, consequently, in value, as they 
 increase in method. 
 
 We should also bestow special attention during 
 this period upon the definitions of the terms, whether 
 they represent " new ideas" or ideas taught in the 
 previous period. It is evident that this should be 
 the case, since the expression of the definition is the 
 
76 OBJECT-TEACHING. 
 
 only test the teacher can have of the scope and cor- 
 rectness of the respective conceptions in the pupil's 
 mind. If the pupils have been well taught, this for- 
 mation of definitions will be found a very pleasant 
 and fertile exercise. Sometimes, though not too fre- 
 quently, during the first half of this period, we call 
 for definitions of the same idea in different 
 terms ; generally, however, we are satisfied with 
 developing in terms, intelligible to the pupils, 
 one good de fini tion which the class will adopt 
 as a standard. The following definitions will serve 
 as types : 
 
 Anything, through which we can see objects (dis- 
 tinctly), is called iransjoarent. 
 
 Things are opaque, when they do not let light 
 pass. 
 
 We say a rope is flexible, because we can bend it. 
 
 We call things brittle, when they are easily 
 broken. 
 
 We say steel is hdrd, because it resists pres- 
 sure ( ? )'. 
 
 When a term is applied in different senses, it will 
 not do to confuse the pupils by giving the different 
 meanings at once. Thus, while studying the hard- 
 ness of steel, we should avoid all allusions to hard 
 water. 
 
 Occasionally the lessons may be varied in such a 
 
OBJECT-TEACHING. 
 
 77 
 
 maimer as to teach at the same time qualities allied 
 or opposed to each other. Thus, after discovering 
 that glass is transparent, the child may be guided to 
 discover that paper is translucent, tin opaque, etc. At 
 any rate, whenever a new quality has been dis- 
 covered, the pupils should mention several dbjects 
 possessing this quality, and several that do not 
 possess it, or we should ask (in the case of trans- 
 parent) : " Is this book transparent ?" " Why do 
 you say that glass is transparent?" "Why do you 
 say that iron is not transparent ?" and other similar 
 questions, as has been partially indicated in the pre- 
 vious chapter. 
 
 Again, we ask occasionally, in separate exercises, 
 for the opposites of qualities. The teacher will men- 
 tion certain qualities rapidly, and the pupils, in turn 
 or collectively, will name their opposites — thus : 
 
 Teacher. 
 
 Pwpil. 
 
 Teacher. 
 
 Pupil. 
 
 Soft, 
 
 Hard. 
 
 Smooth, 
 
 Rough. 
 
 Light, 
 
 Heavy. 
 
 Elastic, 
 
 Inelastic. 
 
 Brittle, 
 
 Tough. 
 
 Odorous, 
 
 Odorless. 
 
 Flexible, 
 
 Stiff. 
 
 Sapid, 
 
 Insipid. 
 
 Opaque, 
 
 Transparent. 
 
 Cold, 
 
 Warm. 
 
 Bright, 
 
 Dull. 
 
 White, 
 
 Black. 
 
 Again, we cause the children to name a certain 
 
78 O i! J K T - T E A(J H 1 JN li . 
 
 number of objects, possessing qualities mentioned 
 by the teacher. For instance : 
 
 Teacher. Pupils. 
 
 Soft ? Cloth, feathers, cotton. 
 
 Light? Feathers, cork, paper. 
 
 Brittle? Glass, china, sugar. 
 
 Flexible? Bope, paper, ribbon. 
 
 Opaque ? Slate, iron, wood. 
 
 Bright? Silver, brass, china. 
 
 Another very useful exercise, and one in which 
 the pupils will be particularly interested, is to de- 
 scribe an object without naming it, and to let the 
 pupils guess the name, or to let some of the brighter 
 pupils form such riddles for solution by the class. 
 This exercise has the double advantage of arousing 
 or maintaining the pupil's interest and of furnishing 
 them good models for imitation. Thus the teacher, 
 or a pupil, says : " I am thinking of a cylindrical 
 object; its color is light brown; it is opaque and 
 dull ; it feels soft, velvety, and is very light ; it has 
 neither taste nor smell ; and it is elastic, porous, and 
 quite tough." Probably the pupils will find it easy 
 to guess the name of the object. Should they hesi- 
 tate, some of the uses of the object may be added, 
 or some other fact connected with it that may facili- 
 tate the solution. 
 
OBJECT-TEACHING. 79 
 
 If the answer has been found, the teacher should 
 sometimes require a proof for its correctness, which 
 would, of course, result in a description of the object 
 on the part of the pupil. If the answer is incorrect, 
 the pupil is skillfully led to discover his mistake 
 himself and to correct it himself. An ingenious 
 teacher placed a number of objects on a table before 
 her, described some one of them, asked a pupil 
 to pick out from the collection the one described, 
 and then caused the pupil to describe the object 
 selected. Sometimes she should describe an object, 
 not on the table, an artifice which puzzled her pupils 
 only the first time : the ludicrous errors which they 
 committed in their eagerness to find the object de- 
 scribed on the table, made them remarkably careful 
 and circumspect for the future — ever after they 
 looked before they leaped. Sometimes again she 
 would take up an object and describe it with occa- 
 sional mistakes, the eager pupils rarely allowing 
 these mistakes to pass uncorrected. No doubt the 
 germs of self-reliance, which that teacher planted in 
 the souls of her pupils, will bring forth delightful 
 fruit. 
 
CHAPTEE VIII. 
 
 SECOND PERIOD CONTINUED — SLATE EXERCISES — DEFINI- 
 TIONS — DESCRIPTIONS — SPECIAL FORMS OF EXPRESSION 
 —OBJECTIVE CASE — POSSESSIVE CASE — PRONOUNS — 
 ADJECTIVES — ADVERBS. 
 
 The slate exercises, during the first half of this 
 period, are again of two kinds, either in direct con- 
 nection with the exercises sketched above, or more 
 independently practicing some special forms of ex- 
 pression. 
 
 The exercises of the first class consist principally 
 in the writing of definitions with a view of fixing 
 them firmly in the minds of the pupils, and in the 
 writing of descriptions of objects examined. Sup- 
 posing, for instance, that an acceptable definition of 
 the term brittle has been developed, we let the chil- 
 dren write this definition, and then fix it by means 
 of exercises like the following : 
 
 Glass is brittle, because it is easily broken. 
 
 China is brittle, because it is easily broken. 
 
 Coal is brittle, because it is easily broken. 
 
 Sugar is brittle, because it is easily broken. 
 
OBJECT-TEACHING; 81 
 
 Or, like the following : 
 
 Glass is easily broken, therefore we call it brittle. 
 
 China is easily broken, therefore we call it brittle, 
 etc., etc. 
 
 The ingenuity of the teacher will readily modify 
 these types, according to circumstances. For de- 
 scriptions of objects we offer the following types : 
 
 1. A Lump of Sugar. 
 
 The lump of sugar is cubical ; it is white ; it is 
 opaque ; it is sparkling ; it is hard ; it is rough ; it 
 is sweet ; it is odorless ; it is soluble (in water) ; it is 
 friable. 
 
 2. A Coppee Cent. 
 
 The copper cent is cylindrical, red (copper color- 
 ed), opaque, and bright. It is hard and smooth. It 
 is tasteless. It is odorless. It is resonant. It is 
 insoluble (in water), fusible and metallic. 
 
 3. A Cork. 
 
 A cork looks cylindrical, light brown, opaque, and 
 dull. It feels soft and velvety. It is tasteless and 
 odorless. It is porous, light, elastic, inflammable, 
 and vegetable. 
 
82 OBJECT-TEACHING. 
 
 Or we may let the pupil occasionally write skele- 
 ton descriptions : 
 
 4. Wateb. 
 Colorless, Tasteless, 
 
 Transparent, Odorless. 
 
 Bright, Liquid, 
 
 Wet, Wholesome. 
 
 5. Charcoal. 
 
 Black, opaque, dull, Inflammable, combustible, 
 Hard, rough, tasteless, Porous, absorbent, 
 Odorless, brittle, Vegetable. 
 
 6. A Tallow Candle. 
 
 Parts. Qualities. 
 
 Tallow. The tallow is cylindrical. 
 Wick. ■ white. 
 
 opaque (transparent). 
 
 dull. 
 
 not very hard. 
 
 smooth, greasy, etc., etc. 
 The wick is cylindrical. 
 
 white. 
 
 opaque. 
 
 dull. 
 
 soft. 
 
 smooth, etc., etc. 
 
OBJECT-TEACHING. 83 
 
 In most cases, however, it will be found too diffi- 
 cult a task for the pupils to give the descriptions of 
 compound objects, and it will be preferable to defer 
 them for the second half of this period. 
 
 Frequently, exercises, similar to those suggested 
 for the first period, on selected words are made; with 
 the difference that greater variety in the forms of 
 the sentences is encouraged. Thus, a teacher 
 selected for such an exercise the words spherical, 
 soft, elastic, tough, from a lesson on the rubber ball. 
 The following are some of the sentences which her 
 pupils formed : 
 
 Peaches are spherical. I have a spherical piece of 
 glass. Spherical things roll. Spherical things have 
 no corners. We cannot find any edges on this sphe- 
 rical object. That piece of wood is spherical. Vel- 
 vet is soft. I like to sleep on a soft bed. John has 
 a soft cap. Sally has a soft hand. A soft peach is 
 good to eat. Steel is elastic. Elastic balls jump. 
 This elastic steel is brittle. Are you fond of tough 
 meat ? Leather is tough. Glass is not tough, etc. 
 
 For special forms of expression we make, in addi- 
 tion to the exercises suggested for the first period, 
 exercises on the use of nouns as objects of transitive 
 verbs, and as possessives ; on personal pronouns (at 
 least in the nominative case) ; on the different forms 
 of verbs in the different persons ; on the use of seve- 
 
84 OBJECT-TEACHING. 
 
 raladjectives predicating of or modifying the same 
 noun ; and on adverbs of manner. For these new 
 exercises we offer the following formulas. The 
 teacher may write these or similar formulas on 
 the board, assure himself that the pupils understand 
 the formula, and then require them to write a given 
 number of similar sentences, either with words 
 selected by himself or with words of their own selec- 
 tion. We would here caution the teacher again 
 to be always on the alert in these writing exercises ; 
 to move constantly from pupil to pupil, examining 
 their work ; and to correct, assist, suggest, wherever 
 it may be needed. The teacher who enthrones her- 
 self in easy and sullen dignity upon her rostrum or 
 upon a chair in front of the class, will accomplish 
 very little in these exercises. 
 
 Objective Case. 
 
 1. The dog sees — whom ? The dog sees the man. 
 
 2. The dog sees — what ? The dog sees a cat ? 
 
 „ _,, n ( whom ? The dog sees the girl. 
 
 3. The dog sees— 1 ° . ° 
 
 I what i The dog sees the meat. 
 
 4.. The boy sees the dog. The boy whips the dog. 
 
 The dog bites the boy. 
 5. The dog sees the boy. The dogs see the boys. 
 
O B J E C T - T E A C H I N G . 
 
 85 
 
 Possessive Case. 
 
 6. Whose dog is large ? The boy's dog is large. 
 
 7. Whose dog barks ? The boy's dog barks. 
 Whose dogs bark ? The boys' dogs bark. 
 
 8. Whose dog bites the cat ? John's dog bites the cat. 
 Whose dogs bite the cats? John's dogs bite the cats. 
 
 9. The dog bites whose(?)cat. The dog bites the girl's 
 
 cat. 
 Pronouns* 
 
 10. John whips the dog. He is a bad boy. 
 
 11. I whip the dog. John whips the dog. He whips 
 
 the dog. 
 
 12. I whip the dog. - John and I whip the dog. We 
 
 whip the dog. 
 
 13. I whip the dog. 
 
 whip the dog. 
 
 He and I 
 
 He whips the dog. 
 We whip the dog. 
 
 14. John whips the dog. Henry whips the dog. 
 
 John and Henry whip the dog. They whip 
 • the dog. 
 
 15. I whip the dog. He whips the dog. We whip 
 
 the dog. They whip the dog. You whip the 
 
 dog. 
 I 
 
 We 
 You 
 They J 
 He whips the dog. 
 
 16 
 
 whip the dog. 
 
86 OBJECT-TEACHING 
 
 17. John whips the dog. He whips the dog. 
 Mary whips the dog. She whips the dog. 
 
 18. John falls. He falls. 
 Mary falls. She falls. 
 The slate faUs. It faUs. 
 
 Adjectives. 
 
 19. The dog is large and beautiful. The large and 
 beautiful dog barks. 
 
 20. The dog, is young, large, and beautiful. The 
 young, large, and beautiful dog barks. 
 
 Adverbs. 
 
 21. The dog runs — how ? The dog runs swiftly. 
 
 22. Sally is nice. Sally reads nicely. 
 John is bad. John writes badly. 
 
 These formulas may be multiplied and varied 
 indefinitely to suit circumstances. As guiding prin- 
 ciples in their formation, we would state : 1, They 
 must gradually progress from the known to the 
 unknown ; 2, they must, as much as possible, re- 
 view and combine knowledge and skill previously 
 acquired. 
 
CHAPTEE IX. 
 
 SECOND PERIOD CONTINUED TEliING — DEFINITIONS — 
 
 USES OF OBJECTS — TYPES FOE CONNECTED DESCRIP- 
 TIONS. 
 
 During the second half of this period (about the 
 second half of the third school year), the exercises 
 in description are continued, so as to embrace less 
 obvious qualities, such as solid, fluid, liquid, gaseous, 
 plastic, volatile, edible, nutritious, combustible mal- 
 leable, ductile, etc. It will be perceived that the 
 greater portion of the impressions represented by 
 these terms, are obtained by more or less complex 
 experiments, for which, in many cases, the teacher 
 may very appropriately, and without danger to 
 thoroughness on the part of the pupils, substitute 
 direct instruction or telling. Yet he should be care- 
 ful in the use of this privilege, and beware of con- 
 tracting the habit of lecturing and explaining, where 
 this would save the pupils wholesome labor. Lec- 
 tures, especially by a loved and respected teacher, 
 may charm children of these ages for a time, but 
 
88 OBJECT-TEACHING. 
 
 they rarely leave fertile impressions ; and, as for ex- 
 plaining, it is only lifting the pupil over an obstacle. 
 Should the same obstacle present itself again, the 
 pupil will be as helpless as he was at first, and the 
 teacher will have to explain — to lift again. Let the 
 pupils set their minds to work — let them labor with 
 their faculties — -let them take difficult questions 
 home again and again, until, by independent effort, 
 - they have explained them. Of course, the guiding 
 and helping hand of the teacher will always be use- 
 ful, nay necessary ; but while he guides and helps, 
 he must not take the pupil's work' upon himself. 
 
 The method pursued is the same as that indicated 
 in the previous sketch, although the descriptions are 
 more complete, and the details more rigidly carried 
 out. We need not, therefore, offer new types of dis- 
 positions for lessons, since they would resemble 
 those of the previous sketch, with the exception of 
 being more extended. Thus we should, perhaps, 
 add to the disposition on the plate of glass the ideas 
 solid, fusible, insoluble. 
 
 Increased attention is paid to definitions, and the 
 pupils are now often required to give definitions of 
 the same idea in different terms. Thus, opaque may 
 be defined as follows : 
 
 We call an object opaque, if we cannot see 
 through it. 
 
OBJECT-TEACHING. 89 
 
 Things, that do not let light pass through them, 
 are said to be opaque. 
 
 If bodies are opaque, we cannot see anything 
 through them. 
 
 Opaque means not letting any light pass, etc. 
 
 Very often connected qualities are contrasted. 
 Thus the teacher asks rapidly the definitions of : 
 
 Transparent, semi - transparent, translucent, 
 opaque ; 
 
 Smooth, velvety, polished, rough ; 
 
 Brittle, friable, pulverable, tough, tenacious ; • 
 
 Elastic, flexible, pliable, stiff; 
 
 Fragrant, aromatic, odorous, pungent, fetid ; 
 
 Inflammable, combustible, incombustible. 
 
 The forms of the definitions given by the pupils 
 should, in this case, be as nearly as possible the 
 same in each series respectively, e. g. : 
 
 Through a transparent object, we can see other 
 objects distinctly. 
 
 Through a semi-transparent object, we can see 
 everything about other objects, except the color. 
 
 Through a translucent object, we can only see light 
 (the light coming from other objects). 
 
 Through an opaque object we cannot see at all. 
 
 But here again the teacher must often be satisfied 
 with imperfect definitions, and patiently (not pas- 
 
90 OBJECT-TEACHING. 
 
 sively) foster and await the development of complete 
 and accurate ones. 
 
 Thus, the idea elastic, in a class of girls, went 
 through the following stages of development in the 
 course of two weeks. 
 
 Any thing that can be bent is elastic. 
 
 Any thing that will become straight, after it has 
 been bent, is elastic. 
 
 Any thing that will become straight, after it has 
 been bent, and any thing that will become shorter 
 again, after it has been stretched, is elastic. 
 
 Anything that will become straight again, after it 
 has been bent, or shorter again, after it has been 
 stretched, or will expand again, after it has been 
 compressed, is elastic. 
 
 Anything that will return to its first shape, after 
 it has been bent, stretched, or pressed, is elastic. 
 
 Anything that will return to its former shape, 
 after it has been forced out of it, is elastic. 
 
 In the conversational lessons of this grade, the 
 uses of objects are frequently taken into considera- 
 tion, although this is an exercise properly belonging 
 to the next period. It is not sufficient, however, fqj 
 the pupils to tell us simply the uses of certain ma- 
 terials or objects ; but, from the very beginning, 
 they should learn to discover the relations between 
 the qualities of the materials or objects in question, 
 
OBJECT-TEACHING. 91 
 
 and their uses. The children can easily understand 
 that leather is used for shoes ; but it will be a more 
 difficult and, consequently, a more "interesting task 
 for them to discover why leather is used for that 
 purpose. Until the pupils have some practice, it is 
 advisable to let them take questions concerning the 
 uses of objects or materials home and to bring their 
 answers the next day. 
 
 We shall suppose that the pupils were asked to 
 think about the reasons why leather is used for 
 shoes. The next morning very few will have brought 
 a complete answer. One, perhaps, will say that we 
 use it, because it is tough and soft ; another, because 
 it is water-proof and light ; still another, because it is 
 durable and thin. In order to convince the pupils of 
 the incompleteness of their answers, we name other 
 substances not suitable for shoes, but having the 
 qualities which they mentioned. Thus, in this case, 
 we tell the first that linen is tough and soft, the sec- 
 ond that tin is water-proof and light, the third that 
 glass is durable and thin ; and ask them, if these 
 substances could be used as well as leather in mak- 
 ing shoes. They will readily see that they have not 
 given a complete answer — that they must increase 
 the number of qualities in their list, and they will at 
 once at least put together the qualities which they 
 have given separately, arriving at the answer, that 
 
92 OBJECT -TEACHING. 
 
 leather is used in making shoes, because it is tough, 
 soft, thin, light, water-proof, and durable. According to 
 circumstances, the teacher may be satisfied with this 
 answer, or he may lead them tp discover that leather 
 is used also on account of its being elastic, absorbent, 
 and porous. A few lessons of this kind will develop 
 in the children a high degree of quickness in dis- 
 covering the relations between the qualities of ob- 
 jects and their uses. 
 
 To insure success, the teacher should, in a sepa- 
 rate part of the " disposition book," put down the 
 names of materials and objects with the qualities on 
 which their applications depend, e. g. : 
 
 Linen, used for towels, because it is soft, pliable, ab- 
 sorbent. 
 
 Linen, used for thread, because it is soft, flexible, 
 fibrous, tenacious. 
 
 Cork, used for stoppers, because it is soft, smooth, 
 compressible, elastic, and tough. 
 
 Cork, used for life-preservers, because it is insoluble 
 and light. 
 
 Glass, used for window panes, because it' is hard, 
 insoluble, transparent, and nearly colorless. 
 
 Glass, used for tumblers, because it is smooth, hard, 
 insoluble. 
 
 The pupils are also frequently exercised in giving 
 connected descriptions of objects, orally and in writ- 
 
OBJECT-TEACH IN ft. 93 
 
 ing, not merely the skeleton description, suggested 
 in the previous sketch, but more or less complete 
 descriptions, in which elegance and beauty of ex- 
 pression form an important element; descriptions 
 which gradually bring the pupil to a consciousness 
 that language may serve him not only the purpose 
 of expressing his ideas clearly, but also of pre- 
 senting them in a pleasing garb, in an impressive 
 manner. 
 As types, we offer the following descriptions : 
 
 1. Wateb. 
 
 Water is a colorless, transparent liquid ; it mir- 
 rors the images of objects very clearly ; it gives way 
 to pressure very easily, Eke all other liquids, and has 
 neither taste nor smell. All men and animals must 
 die without this wholesome and refreshing drink. It 
 is used in washing, dyeing, and in many other ways. 
 
 2. The "Wetting Slate. 
 
 A writing slate is made of two parts — the slate and 
 its frame- The slate, made of a, rectangular plate 
 of slate stone, is of a dark gray color, opaque, and 
 slightly reflective ; hard, smooth, and cold to the 
 touch. It makes no impression on taste and smell, 
 but is quite resonant. On account of its brittleness 
 and the roughness of its edges, it is enclosed in a 
 
94 OBJECT-TEACHING. 
 
 frame, made of four flat, oblong pieces of. wood. 
 These are grooved on the inner edge to hold the 
 slate, and fastened together by means of mortices 
 and tenons, and small wooden pegs. 
 
 3. A Cubical Block of Wood. 
 
 The piece of wood before me is called a cube, on 
 account of its shape, having six equal square sides. 
 The wood is of a yellow color, opaque, and polished, 
 so as to make it reflective ; it feels very smooth, 
 quite hard, and is light enough to float on water. It 
 is fibrous, porous, absorbent, and quite elastic. It 
 is one of the most useful substances to man ; be- 
 cause it is combustible, tough, durable, cheap, and 
 easily worked. 
 
 4. A Tallow Candle. 
 
 A tallow candle is a long, slender, nearly cylindri- 
 cal piece of tallow, with a cotton wick through its 
 middle (in its axis). It tapers a little from the bot- 
 tom to the top, and about one inch from the top, it 
 becomes conical. The dingy white, translucent, and 
 slightly odorous tallow is used to give light, because 
 it is a cheap, fusible, and inflammable substance, 
 burning with a clear, bright flame. The cotton wick 
 is used, because it is fibrous, porous, and absorbent, 
 to raise the melted tallow high enough to keep up 
 
OBJECT-TEACHING. 95 
 
 the flame, and to prevent the too rapid melting of 
 the candle. 
 
 Patience and judgment on the part of the teacher 
 will accomplish a great deal in these exercises. The 
 author has heard impromptu descriptions of objects 
 from children nine or ten years old, far excelling in 
 completeness, conciseness, and grace the imperfect 
 types here presented. 
 
 All other written exercises resemble those sketched 
 for the first half of this period, being only more ex- 
 tensive, to suit the advancement of the pupils. It is, 
 therefore, unnecessary to offer additional types. 
 
CHAPTER X. 
 
 GBAMMAR CONTINUED— THTED PEEIOD — COMPAEISONS — 
 SPECIAL FOEMS OF EXPEESSION — COMPAEISON OF AD- 
 JECTIVES — PASSIVE VOICE — TENSES — RELATIVE PEO- 
 NOUNS — INTEREOGATIVE PBONOUNS. 
 
 The remarks that were made in introducing the 
 second period will also apply respectively to tne 
 third period. While the pupils, during the two pre- 
 ceding periods, have had frequent opportunities to 
 use their growing powers of comparison and gen- 
 eralization, particularly in the exercises on de finit ion, 
 it is during the third period that we begin to attend 
 specially to the development and practice of these 
 powers. At the same time the faculties of percep- 
 tion and conception are not neglected, but continue 
 to be developed and vigorously exercised. "While, 
 therefore, we continue the exercises in definitions 
 a$d descriptions, we begin to pay special and 
 methodical attention to the comparison and classifi- 
 cation of objects. 
 
 We first guide the pupils in simply discovering 
 
OBJECT-TEACHING. 97 
 
 the resemblances and differences between objects. It 
 matters little whether we begin with the resemblances 
 or differences ; although, as a general rale, it is bet- 
 ter to begin with the latter, since they are more 
 prominent, more conspicuous to the pupil, than the 
 resemblances. Thus, selecting the door and the win- 
 dow for an example, we may develop the following 
 answers : 
 
 Differences. — The door is in a division-wall, the 
 window is in an outside wall. The door reaches the 
 floor ; the window reaches nearer the ceiling than 
 the door. The greater part of the door is made of 
 wood ; the greater part of the window is made of 
 glass. The door is made to let persons into and out 
 of the room ; the window to let light into the room, 
 to air the room, etc. 
 
 Resemblances. — The door is a part of the house, 
 and the window is a part of the house. Each is in 
 a wall and in a wooden frame. Both are of a rec- 
 tangular shape. Both are made partly of wood. 
 Both are painted. Both can be opened and closed, 
 etc. 
 
 In the same manner, the table and the desk, the 
 slate pencil and the lead pencil, the stool and the 
 chair, the ceiling and the floor, and many other ob- 
 jects may be compared. 
 
98 OBJECT-TEACHING. 
 
 The slate exercises may consist of detailed, as well 
 as outline comparisons, according to the type just 
 presented (the window and the door), or according 
 to the following : 
 
 1. The Slate Pencil and the Lead Pencil. 
 
 The slate pencil and the lead pencil are used for 
 writing and drawing. They are fit for this on ac- 
 count of their softness, leaving marks on slate, stone 
 or paper over which they may be drawn. The lead 
 pencil is made of two materials, plumbago and wood. 
 The wood is needed to protect the plumbago, which 
 is much softer and more brittle than soap-stone, the 
 only material of which slate pencils are made. Both 
 are long and slender cylinders, and for use, are cut 
 or ground to a sharp point at one end. The marks 
 left by lead pencils are black, while those made by 
 slate pencils are white. 
 
 2. The Sewing Needle and the Pin. 
 
 The needle and the pin resemble each other in 
 shape, both being conical, tapering to a sharp point. 
 Both are smooth and hard to the touch, and both 
 are metallic ; but pins are made of brass or iron, 
 whereas needles are made of steel. They differ, 
 
OBJECT-TEACHING. 99 
 
 therefore, in many of their qualities, steel being 
 harder, more elastic, more brittle, and less flexible 
 than brass or iron, and of a different color. We also 
 find in one end of the needle a small oval hole to re- 
 ceive the thread, but the upper end of the pin has a 
 small flattened head, against which the finger can be 
 pressed without danger. 
 
 3. Wine and Watee. 
 
 These two liquids, used for drinking, differ in 
 many qualities. Wine is " semi-transparent, of dif- 
 ferent colors, usually red or yellow ; water is always 
 colorless and transparent. Wine has both flavor 
 and odor, but water is tasteless and odorless. Wine 
 is a vegetable, but water is a mineral substance. 
 People may drink as much water as they please 
 without getting drunk ; but if they drink too much 
 wine, they lose their senses and become intoxicated. 
 
 4. Wool and Cotton. 
 
 Both are white, fibrous, combustible. 
 
 Wool is heavier, tougher, more elastic, more dura- 
 ble than cotton. Cotton is more flexible, softer, and 
 has longer and thinner fibers than wool. 
 
100 object-teaching. 
 
 5. Wood and Stone. 
 
 Resemblances. Differences. 
 
 Both are opaque, They differ in color. 
 
 porous, Stone is harder than wood ; 
 absorbent, Stone is heavier than wood ; 
 etc., etc. Stone is tasteless, wood has a 
 flavor ; 
 Stone is inodorous, wood is odor- 
 ous ; 
 Stone is more resonant than wood ; 
 Stone is granular, wood is fibrous ; 
 Stone is brittle, wood is tough ; 
 Stone is less elastic than wood ; 
 Stone is fusible, wood is not ; 
 Stone is more durable than wood ; 
 Stone is mineral, wood vegetable ; 
 Wood is combustible, stone is not. 
 
 The reader will fail to find in these types the pro- 
 gressiveness which characterizes those given in pre- 
 vious chapters. Miscellaneous artificial objects and 
 the substances of which they are composed, do not 
 offer so favorable a material for exercises in com- 
 parison as natural objects. Hence we have put 
 off the giving of progressive types for comparison 
 for the chapters treating on natural objects. For 
 the same reason, the further discussion of exer- 
 
OBJECT-TEACHING. 101 
 
 cises on classification and generalization has been 
 deferred. 
 
 In addition to the written exercises here indicated, 
 we continue the exercises on special forms of expres- 
 sion, combining with those, sketched in previous 
 chapters, others on comparison of adjectives, on the 
 possessive and objective cases of personal pronouns, 
 on the passive voice of verbs, on the imperfect 
 tenses (present, past, and future) of the indicative 
 mood, on relative and interrogative pronouns, and, 
 perhaps, on some of the simple conjunctions — ac- 
 cording to the following and similar formulas : 
 
 Comparison. 
 
 1. Wood is hard. Stone is harder than wood. 
 Stone is hard. Steel is harder than stone. 
 
 2. Wood is hard. Stone is harder than wood. 
 Steel is harder than stone. Steel is the hardest. 
 
 3. Wood is hard. Stone is harder than wood. 
 Wood is less hard than stone. 
 
 4 Steel is hard. Stone is less hard than steel. 
 Wood is less hard than stoae. 
 Wood is the least hard. 
 
 5. Wood is hard; stone is harder; steel is the 
 
 hardest. 
 
 6. Steel is hard ; stone is less hard ; wood is the 
 
 least hard. 
 
102 OBJECT-TEACHING. 
 
 7. Steel is brittle. China is more brittle. 
 Glass is the most brittle. 
 
 For the objective and possessive cases of personal 
 pronouns, we refer to the formulas given for the objec- 
 tive and possessive cases of nouns (pp. 84, 85) ; and 
 to exercises on prepositions (page 56). It will be well 
 to exercise the pupils, as yet, only upon the adjective 
 forms of the possessive case of personal pronouns. 
 
 Passive Voice. 
 
 8. The dog sees — what ? The dog sees the rat. 
 The rat is seen — by what ? The rat is seen by 
 
 the dog. 
 Tenses. 
 
 9. To-day I write. Yesterday I wrote. 
 To-morrow I shall write. 
 
 10. Yesterday I wrote ; to-day I write ; to-morrow 
 
 I shall write again. 
 
 11. I write ; I wrote ; I shall write. 
 He writes ; he wrote ; he will write. 
 
 12. I shall write ; we shall write. 
 
 13. He will write ; you will write ; they will write. 
 
 14. _ I shall write. 
 We J 
 
 He, she, or it 
 
 You r ™^ write. 
 
 They , 
 
 15. Write, wrote, shall or will write. 
 
OBJECT-TEACHING. 103 
 
 Passive Voice and Tenses. 
 
 16. The dog sees the rat. The rat is seen by the 
 
 dog. 
 The dog saw the rat. The rat was seen by the 
 
 dog. 
 The dog will see the rat. The rat will be seen 
 
 by the dog. 
 
 It is unnecessary as yet, nay, it would confuse the 
 pupils, to practice the forms of the future, which 
 require the auxiliary shall in the second and third 
 persons, or the forms indicative of resolution in- 
 stead of futurity ; since the child has rarely, if ever, 
 an opportunity to use them or to hear them used. 
 
 Bela'ive Pronouns. 
 
 17. A man, who writes, is a writer. 
 
 A man, who mates shoes, is a shoemaker. 
 
 18. A thing, which breaks easily, is brittle. 
 
 A thing, which can be burned, is combustible. 
 
 19. The man, who sees the dog, runs. 
 The man, that sees the dog, runs. 
 
 20. The rat,.which sees the dog, runs. 
 The rat, that sees the dog, runs. 
 
 21. I see the man who runs from the dog. 
 I hear the dog that barks at the man. 
 
104 OBJECT-TEACHING. 
 
 Interrogative Pronouns. 
 
 22. The man whips the dog. "Who whips the dog ? 
 
 23. The dog bites the man. What bites the man ? 
 
 24. The man whips the dog. What does the man 
 
 whip? 
 
 25. The dog bites the man. Whom does the dog 
 
 bite? 
 
 26. The girl pets the cat. Who pets the cat ? What 
 
 does the girl pet ? 
 
CHAPTEE XI. 
 
 GBAMMAE, CONCLUDED — SENTENCE SUBJECT AND 
 
 PEEDICATE — TRANSITION. 
 
 During this period (about the fourth school year), 
 the pupils may be gradually introduced into the 
 conscious study of grammar in its narrow sense, as a 
 science. But here we should be careful not to work 
 on the old routine plan of school grammarians ; we 
 should still keep in view the principles of natural 
 teaching, indicated above ; we should still proceed 
 from the known to the unkn own, from the simple to 
 the complex, from the whole to the parts, from the 
 concrete to the abstract ; we should still follow the 
 method of combined analysis and synthesis — of com- 
 bined discovery and application on the part of the 
 pupil. We should not, therefore, pitch the pupils 
 headlong into the confused maze of strange and 
 terrible words, indicative of strange and terrible, 
 sciences, of parts of speech, properties of words, kinds 
 of nouns, adjectives, etc. : but we should begin the 
 study of grammar where Plato began it — with the 
 simple sentence, and its resolution into subject and predi- 
 
106 OBJECT-TEACHING. 
 
 cate. The objects of this little book will permit us 
 only to indicate how this may be accomplished. 
 
 The pupil is at first taught to recognize the 
 expression of a thought as a sentence. The teacher may 
 write upon the black-board the sentences — 
 
 The tree is beautiful. 
 
 The tree grows. — 
 and lead them to recognize these sentences as ex- 
 pressions of thoughts about the tree. He may then 
 let them express orally, and write upon their slates 
 other thoughts about a tree, as well as thoughts 
 about other objects ; and he may, ultimately, tell them 
 that such an expression of thought is called a sen- 
 tence. He may then practice them in the recognition 
 and formation of sentences, in their distinction from 
 words and phrases (parts of sentences or proposir 
 tions), and in the definition of the term — sentence. 
 
 The teacher may then again write upon the black- 
 board the sentences — 
 
 The tree is beautiful. 
 
 The tree grows. — 
 and ask questions like the following, to lead the 
 child to the discovery that each sentence consists of 
 two parts : What is beautiful? (The tree is beauti- 
 ful.) What is the tree? (It is beautiful.) What 
 grows ? (The tree grows.) What does the tree do? 
 (It grows.) What does the word grows tell? (It 
 
OBJECT-TEACHING. 107 
 
 tells what the tree does.) What do the words is beau- 
 tiful tell ? (They tell what the tree is.) What do the 
 words the tree tell, in the first sentence ? (They tell 
 ns what is beautiful.) What do the words the tree 
 tell, in the second sentence? (They tell us what 
 grows.) Very few such exercises will enable the 
 child to see clearly that every sentence has two 
 parts — one part telling what the other is or does ; 
 to receive the terms subject and predicate for these 
 parts respectively ; and to form simple definitions of 
 these terms, resembling perhaps the following : The 
 subject is that part of a sentence about which something 
 is told. T/w predicate is that part of a sentence that 
 tells something about the subject. 
 
 Many sentences should now be. analyzed and 
 formed, orally and in writing, to practice these 
 things. We may, for instance, take the sentence, 
 The dog barks, and ask : What is the predicate ? 
 (Barks is the predicate.) Why ? (Because it tells 
 something about the subject, the dog.) What is the 
 subject? (The dog is the subject.) Why? (Because 
 something is told about it.) 
 
 Or a number of sentences may be written on the 
 black-board, and each child may, in turn, simply 
 name the subject or predicate of one of the sen- 
 tences. Or the teacher may pronounce a sentence 
 for each pupil in turn, or for the class collectively, 
 
108 OBJECT-TEACHING. 
 
 and require them to name rapidly the subject or 
 predicate. Thus : 
 
 Teacher. Pupil. 
 
 The dog bites. Predicate ? Bites. 
 
 The man whips the dog. Predicate ? "Whips the dog. 
 The good boy writes. Subject ? The good boy. 
 Does the lazy boy read ? Subject ? The lazy boy. 
 The cat eats meat. Predicate ? Eats meat. 
 
 The large cat caught a rat. Subject ? The large cat. 
 Again, the teacher may cause each pupil, in turn, 
 to rapidly complete a sentence, himself giving only 
 the subject or predicate. Thus : 
 
 Teacher. Pupil. 
 
 Mews. 
 
 Predicate. 
 
 The cat mews. 
 
 Howl. 
 
 Predicate. 
 
 The dogs howL 
 
 Birds. 
 
 Subject. 
 
 Birds sing. 
 
 The rose. 
 
 Subject. 
 
 The rose is red. 
 
 Again, we may dictate sentences to the pupils or 
 let them form sentences themselves or let them copy 
 a simple piece from the reader, and require fhem, 
 in each case, to underscore the subjects or the pre- 
 dicates or both — the predicate with one and the 
 subject with two lines. 
 
 As soon as the pupils have thoroughly mastered 
 the distinction between the subject and predicate, 
 we may proceed to develop definitions of nouns 
 
OBJEOT-TEACHING. 109 
 
 (names of things), pronouns (words standing for 
 nouns), and verbs (words expressing a being - or do- 
 ing). When these ideas are fixed, together with 
 perhaps some notions on number, we may consider 
 the principal modifiers of nouns — adjectives (words 
 telling what kind, how many, which one or which 
 ones), nouns in the possessive case, adjuncts 
 (phrases) formed with the preposition of, and rela- 
 tive clauses. Then we may take the principal modi- 
 fiers of verbs — adverbs (words telling how, when, 
 where, whither, etc.), adjuncts (phrases telling how, 
 when, where, whither, etc.), nouns and pronouns in 
 the objective case, depending on transitive verbs, 
 and conjunctive adverbs in connection with corre- 
 sponding subordinate clauses. Then may follow 
 exercises upon the voices and tenses of verbs (confin- 
 ing ourselves, as much as possible, to the indicative 
 mood) with some general practice on conjugation. 
 
 With these ideas well practiced, and clearly and 
 thoroughly fixed, the pupil will be prepared to 
 enter advantageously upon the synthetic study of 
 grammar with any good text-book and with any 
 good teacher who, instead of following the text- 
 book blindly or indolently, is ever mindful of the 
 great principles of natural teaching and gives full 
 scope to his inventiveness, that most important of 
 all mental qualifications to the teacher. 
 
CHAPTEE XII. 
 
 GEOMETRY — FIRST PEEIOD — SEPABATE EXEECISES — ARTI- 
 FICIAL SYSTEMS — MEASURING! SELECTING SHAPES — 
 
 DRAWING. 
 
 The sketches on the subject of geometry we divide 
 again, for the sake of convenience, into three periods, 
 corresponding with those adopted in presenting the 
 subject of language. By geometry we mean the 
 science of form, extent, and position ; but we shall 
 confine ourselves in our sketches to elementary 
 geometry. 
 
 In the beginning of the first period, no separate 
 exercises on this subject are needed, since general 
 perceptions on form, extent, and position, are fur- 
 nished in sufficient number and clearness by the 
 exercises on miscellaneous objects, sketched in the 
 first part of this work. Thus the sheet of paper 
 (page 53) gave us an opportunity to develop percep- 
 tions of surface, face, edge, corner ; the tin cup 
 (page 55) perceptions of line, curved, straight, and 
 of relations of position ; the ribbon (page 57) percep- 
 
OBJECT-TEACHING. Ill 
 
 tions of wavy, spiral, broad, narrow, long, short, etc. 
 In the same manner other objects will furnish oppor- 
 tunities for developing additional perceptions of 
 large, small, low, tall, thick, thin, deep, shallow, 
 round, cornered; cube, sphere (ball), cylinder, 
 square, circle, etc. "We would particularly insist on 
 the fact that these ideas must be gained from tJie objects 
 directly — that the concrete must precede the ab- 
 stract, and not (in the case of surfaces and lines) 
 from imperfect and absolutely incorrect representa- 
 tions — drawings on the black-board or on cards. 
 Such drawings will do very well, nay, they are need- 
 ed to fix, review, or compare the impressions, but 
 they should never be used in developing them. 
 Thus the impressions square, circle, triangle, 
 straight, curved, etc., must be developed with the 
 assistance of objects presenting respectively those 
 shapes in their surfaces or lines. Of course the 
 clearness of the impressions in the mind of the pupil 
 cannot be tested by his ability to give definitions, 
 although many teachers are guilty of the absurd 
 practice of teaching him, from the very beginning, to 
 repeat, parrot-like, stereotyped phrases, which are to 
 him nothing but sounds and which he recites sensa- 
 tionally, as a " learned pig " does its tricks.* That 
 clearness can cwly be tested by the pupil's power to 
 * Massachusetts Teacher, vol. xix., page 16. 
 
112 OBJECT-TEACHING. 
 
 recognize and name the impressions readily and cor- 
 rectly, whenever they may be made ; and, to some 
 extent (as far as ideas of surfaces, lines, and angles 
 are concerned), by the results of their efforts to rep- 
 resent them on the slate or black-board. 
 
 As soon as some general ideas are gained, sepa- 
 rate exercises may be made, directing the pupil's 
 attention specially to the observation of form, extent, 
 and position. These exercises should consist prin- 
 cipally in the measuring of objects — comparing them 
 in their length, breadth, and thickness ; in selecting 
 pieces of tin and paste-board of various shapes from 
 suitable collections ; and in drawing lines and figures 
 of various shapes. As much scope as possible 
 should frequently be given, in all these exercises, to 
 the fancy and desire for variety on the part of the 
 pupil, in order to arouse and maintain his interest, 
 practice his inventiveness, and to develop in him the 
 discovery of the important postulate that figures 
 may have any size or shape whatever. 
 
 The teacher should be very careful not to intro- 
 duce the pupil too soon into a rigidly systematic 
 study of geometrical facts — not to follow too soon 
 the artificial systems of text-books. Many teachers 
 are in the habit of making such exercises exclu- 
 sively, before they begin with the ^So-called object- 
 lessons, probably because they imagine such an 
 
OBJECT-TEACHING. 113 
 
 arrangement to be more systematical. It is, however, 
 a great error to pursue such a course, because it is 
 unnatural. v Man was led to the study of form, extent, 
 and position, by the great variety of forms, etc., in 
 the objects around him ; and the child must be 
 guided on the same road — " the genesis of knowledge in 
 the individual must follow the same course as the genesis 
 of knowledge in the race"* — the concrete must precede 
 the abstract, the known the unknown. This is the 
 natural system by which knowledge is acquired — 
 this is " object-teaching ;" and no other, no artificial 
 system will produce the same happy results. Ex- 
 perience will prove to every teacher that, as far as 
 he has recourse to artificial systems or expedients, 
 he will lessen or even destroy the iuteiest in the re- 
 spective study on the part of the pupils ; because 
 their minds cease to be independently active, and 
 become passive recipients. Object-teaching, espe- 
 cially during the earlier stages of the child's de- 
 velopment, requires the teacher to be "systemati- 
 cally unsystematical " — "artificially natural," as it 
 were, in all his methods. Hence, objects are pre- 
 sented to the pupil for study, until the variety of 
 shape, extent, and position (and the same remark 
 applies to color, number, etc.) has created in his 
 mind a desire to study these separately. The pupil 
 
 * Spencer, on Education. 
 
114 OBJECT- TEACHING. 
 
 may be but vaguely conscious of this desire, yet the 
 zeal which he manifests in drawing figures on his 
 slate and in measuring objects that interest him, 
 shows plainly that his mind is receiving palatable 
 food. Should the teacher begin the separate exer- 
 cises too soon, he will know it by the listlessness, 
 the want of zeal, on the part of the pupil; he 
 should then discontinue them and await a more 
 favorable period — rarely later than the third month 
 of the pupil's attendance at school. 
 
 At all times, these separate exercises should be 
 made very cautiously, the teacher guarding con- 
 stantly against rendering them too monotonous, too 
 formal, too abstract. Step by step the pupil should 
 be led to invent new expedients for determining ex- 
 tent, to discover new relations of position, and new 
 forms ; and, in no case, should he be made a mere 
 imitator. The pupil should be taught to work alone, 
 with as little showing as possible. For the sake of 
 suggestion, we offer the following sketches : 
 
 The first exercises in measuring consist merely in 
 applying certain objects to one another and deter- 
 mining which is longer, broader, thicker, etc. The 
 pupil finds successively by actual measurement that 
 the slate is longer than the slate pencil, that the 
 reading card is twice as long as the slate (or twice the 
 length of the slate), that the slate is twice as broad 
 
OBJECT-TEACHING. 115 
 
 as the book, the book twice as thick as the slate, that 
 the slate pencil is half as hn<j, the book half as broad 
 as the slate, etc. He may then be taught to meas- 
 ure dimensions by spans and, when he has found 
 that the spans are not of equal length and unreli- 
 able, he may receive a neat stick of wood about six 
 inches long* as a standard span. With this appa- 
 ratus, he may measure the dimensions of objects, by 
 dictation or at will, in various directions. Larger 
 dimensions, such as those of the floor and greater 
 distances, he may at first measure in paces and ulti- 
 mately in feet. Spans may then be abandoned and 
 the foot adopted as the unit, the fractions enabling 
 the teacher to guide the pupil in the construction of 
 a simple foot-rule and to introduce him into the 
 measurement in inches. 
 
 The exercises in selecting various shapes from suit- 
 able collections are extremely useful for fixing ideas 
 on shape and position, gained in the object lessons. 
 Each pupil should be provided with a box containing 
 such a collection, and pains should be taken to teach 
 him to handle the contents carefully. The forms 
 should consist of differently colored pieces of card- 
 board, neatly cut with a knife. They need not all be 
 regular ; indeed, there should be quite a number of 
 
 * The standard span of nine inches is, of course, too long for the 
 child. 
 
116 OBJECT-TEACHING. 
 
 irregular forms to lead the child to clear conceptions 
 of regular and irregular. With this box before him, 
 the pupil may be required to select and to arrange 
 by dictation a certain number of pieces that show 
 straight lines, curved lines; a given number of 
 straight, a given number of curved lines; pieces 
 that are square, circular (round), oval, triangular; 
 pieces in the shape of a square, a circle, an oval, 
 a triangle ; pieces that show a given number of 
 right, obtuse, and acute angles; pieces that show 
 parallel, perpendicular, slanting lines, or a given 
 number of sets of parallel or perpendicular lines; 
 and so on in numberless combinations and varia- 
 tions which the ingenuity of the teacher will not fail 
 to suggest. 
 
 The exercises in drawing will be found the most 
 difficult to handle, but also the most fertile in results. 
 Too .much liberty should not be given to the pupil's 
 fancy, for fear of making the exercises mere play, 
 unattended by systematic progress in developing 
 fundamental ideas on shape and extent ; too much 
 restraint should not be applied, for fear of suppress- 
 ing in the pupil that innate desire for invention and 
 independent application of acquired skill and know- 
 ledge — a desire which it is the teacher's duty to 
 foster and cultivate into a never-failing power. 
 While, therefore, it would not be advisable to let the 
 
OBJECT-TEACHING. 117 
 
 pupil draw nothing but grotesque representations of 
 surrounding objects and rude creations of bis own 
 fancy, it would be equally unwise to force him from 
 the beginning into rigid systems. From the first 
 day at school, the child should often be encouraged 
 in drawing on his slate anything he pleases, with a 
 view, mainly, of accustoming him to the proper 
 handling of the slate-pencil. No matter how whim- 
 sical the results may be, no matter even if the pupil 
 sometimes only scratches up his slate in all direc- 
 tions : he learns to handle slate and slate-pencil. 
 And, as he improves in skill, he begins to have better 
 success in drawing his caricatures of boys, girls, 
 cats, pigs, horses, trees, houses, pumps, etc., and to 
 delight in more careful efforts. The teacher, too, 
 has sometimes made correct drawings on the black- 
 board and on the pupil's slate, or he has, by means 
 of a few lines, improved or assisted the pupil's 
 attempts, until the latter has grown eager to rival 
 his teacher's success, and anxious to follow his 
 teacher's directions. In drawing the outlines of ob- 
 jects that interest the pupil, he will learn more of 
 the art of drawing geometrical figures, than he 
 could do if he were to begin his efforts with the rep- 
 resentation of straight and curved lines, various 
 kinds of angles, different surfaees, etc. : simply be- 
 cause he understands what he is doing and can bim- 
 
118 OBJECT-TEACHING. 
 
 self judge the correctness of his work. The interest;, 
 which this ability naturally develops in him, causes 
 him not only to apply himself with more zeal, but 
 induces him also to observe objects more clearly and 
 carefully, and to notice the shape, extent, and rela- 
 tive positions of their lines and surfaces more clearly. 
 In order to enable the pupil to derive adequate 
 profit from the systematic drawing of lines, angles, 
 and surfaces, in various positions, it is necessary to 
 await a period, when he understands them suffi- 
 ciently to feel an interest in them. The pupil may 
 then be required to draw straight, curved, wavy, and 
 spiral lines — from right to left, or vice versa ; up- 
 wards or downwards, slanting to the right or lef b ; 
 parallel, spreading (diverging) lines — to the right, 
 to the left, upwards, downwards, and (in the case of 
 curved lines) curved upwards, downwards, to the 
 right or left ; right, obtuse, acute angles in various 
 positions ; triangles with one right angle, one obtuse 
 angle, two acute angles, three acute angles; and, 
 ultimately, even rectangles and squares, ovals and 
 circles. Again, they may be required to draw lines 
 of different Jengths and angles of different diverg- 
 ences : e. g., a given number of lines one inch long, 
 or as long as a given line, then fines twice as long, 
 half as long, etc. ; or an acute angle similar to a 
 given one, then one smaller, greater, twice as great, 
 
OBJECT-TEACHING. 119 
 
 half as great, etc. Again, they may be required to 
 draw, by dictation, simple outlines of objects — of a 
 cup, a tumbler, a slate, a book, a house, a pump, a 
 table-knife, a bucket, etc., according to the follow- 
 ing type : 
 
 Draw, near the bottom of your slate, a straight 
 line from left to right ; from the right end of this 
 line, draw a straight line upwards ; make it a little 
 shorter than the line at the bottom ; from the left 
 end of the bottom line, draw another straight line 
 upwards ; make it as long as the line on the right ; 
 draw a straight line across from the top of the line 
 on the left to the top of the line on the right ; from 
 the top of thejine on the left, draw a short straight 
 line upwards, slanting to the right ; from the top of 
 the line on the right, draw a short straight line, slant- 
 ing to the left ; make this slanting line as long as the 
 first ; from the top of the slanting bine on the left, 
 draw a straight line across to the top of the slanting 
 line on the right ; now put the door, the windows, 
 and the chimneys, where you think they belong. 
 During these exercises, the teacher must constantly 
 move about among the pupils, to assure himself 
 that he is understood by them, to see that they put 
 the pencils in the right places and that they draw 
 the lines as directed. 
 
CHAPTEE XIII. 
 
 GEOMETEY, CONCLUDED — SECOND PERIOD — DEFINITIONS — 
 SPECIAL EXEECISES THIED PERIOD GENEEIC DEFINI- 
 TIONS MEASURING CUTTING OF SHAPES — /TRANSI- 
 TION. 
 
 In the second period, new ideas on shape and posi- 
 tion (excepting the forms of solids) may be given the 
 pupils without reference to objects, the teacher using 
 as a means of iUustration the black-board alone. 
 Thus, in order to develop with the pupils the idea 
 rhombus, it is not necessary to start with an object 
 having rhombic faces : drawings on the black-board 
 will be fully sufficient. The teacher may call one of 
 the pupils to the black-board and ask him to draw 
 a straight line ; then, from the left end of this line, a 
 second straight line", making a right angle with the 
 first ; then, from the right end of the first line, a third 
 straight hne,*forming also a right angle with the 
 first ; then, to make the second and third lines equal 
 in length to the first ; then, to draw a fourth straight 
 line connecting the free ends of the second and 
 third lines. The pupils will now tell the teacher that 
 
OBJECT-TEACHING. 121 
 
 the figure of a square has been drawn. Another 
 pupil may then be called out and, on his part, be re- 
 quired to draw a straight line ; then, from the right 
 end of this line a second line, making an acute angle 
 with the first and equal to the first ; then, from the 
 right end of the first line, a third straight line paral- 
 lel to the second and equal to the first ; then, a 
 fourth line connecting the free ends of the second 
 and third. The pupils may then be asked, if this 
 second figure is also that of a square, in what re- 
 spect it differs from the square, in what respect it 
 resembles it, and, ultimately, they may receive the 
 name rhombus for the figure. The idea and its name 
 may then be fixed in various ways, by drawing, by 
 selecting objects presenting rhombic faces, etc. 
 
 In this period, the pupils should also begin the 
 formation of definitions, the teacher proceeding 
 again with the same active patience on which the 
 author has insisted before. These definitions need 
 not be technical, but should always remain within 
 the developing power of the pupil. We offer the 
 following as types : 
 
 A Une is the distance between two points. 
 
 A face is a part of a surface, bounded by lines 
 (edges.) 
 
 A square is a face, bounded by four equal lines 
 which make four right angles. 
 
122 OBJECT-TEACHING. 
 
 A rhombus is a surface (figure), bounded by four 
 equal sides which do not form right angles, or 
 which form two acute and two obtuse angles. 
 
 A cube is a solid, bounded by six equal square 
 sides. • 
 
 Difficult as it may seem to attain these definitions, 
 they have been formed by pupils in this period, 
 slowly, gradually, but clearly. It is true they passed 
 through many transitions, before reaching even the 
 above forms, but they reached them, nevertheless, 
 through the independent efforts of the pupils. All 
 the teacher needs is tact and skill in presenting the 
 subject in an interesting and striking light and the 
 power of waiting. Thus, the definition of the square 
 passed through the following forms : 
 
 1. The square is a figure with four lines.. 
 
 2. The square is a figure, bounded by four lines. 
 
 3. The square is a surface (figure), bounded by four 
 equal lines. 
 
 4. The square is a surface, bounded by four equal 
 lines and having four right angles. 
 
 5. The square is a surface, bounded by four equal 
 lines which form four right angles. 
 
 Of these forms only 2 and 5 were given by the 
 teacher, for the sake of greater elegance, the others 
 ■were found by the pupils — found, of course, with the 
 teacher's guidance. No. 3 was obtained from No. 2, 
 
OBJECT-TEACHING. 123 
 
 by drawing rectangles and by exhibiting rect- 
 angles, the pupils being required to find and state 
 the difference between them and the square. No. 
 4 was obtained from No. 3 in a similar way, by 
 drawing rhombic figures and by exhibiting rhombic 
 surfaces. 
 
 The definition of the cube was reached in a some- 
 what different manner. The first clear de fini tion 
 stood as follows : The cube is a solid with six faces, 
 eight corners, twelve edges, and twenty-four angles. 
 Here the attributes equal and square had to be added 
 to the description of the sides; and it had to be 
 proved that all the remainder (after the word sides) is 
 superfluous. This was a severe exercise for the con- 
 ceptive power of the pupils, but they ultimately tri- 
 umphed and clearly discovered that it is impossible 
 for a figure, bounded by six equal square sides, to 
 have more or less than eight corners, twelve edges, 
 and twenty-four angles. 
 
 The definitions developed during this period need, 
 as yet, have no special reference to the classification 
 of the various shapes ; and little attention need be 
 paid to the placing of a given shape under the near- 
 est genus. Thus, we need not insist on defining the 
 rhombus as an oblique-angled parallelogram, all the 
 sides of which are equal ; but we may be satisfied 
 with any clear and unequivocal definition, whether it 
 
124 OBJECT-TEACHING. 
 
 call the rhombus a surface, a polygon, or a four-sided 
 figure. The chief concern in all definitions is, as 
 yet, the specific difference. 
 
 The special exercises in measuring should be con- 
 tinued vigorously during the whole of this period, 
 with a view, chiefly, of giving the pupils the valua- 
 ble power of measuring distances by the eye alone. 
 The exercises in selecting shapes may, however, be 
 discontinued ; and the cutting of given shapes from 
 card-board substituted in their stead. Directions 
 for these exercises may be given at school, and the 
 pupil may be required to practice at home and to 
 bring the results of his efforts to school for inspection. 
 Much time is bestowed on drawing, on geometrical 
 drawing as well as on the representation of actual 
 objects. Still the precautions given in the previous 
 chapter hold good : the pupil should never be forced 
 to draw anything which he does not fully understand 
 and in which he does not feel a lively interest. In 
 the course of the period, he may be allowed to draw 
 on paper, and in geometrical drawing, he may 
 gradually be taught the use of the rule and of the 
 dividers. 
 
 During the third period, new ideas are gained 
 essentially in the same way as in the previous 
 period with the difference, perhaps, that the de- 
 veloping lessons become more and more abstract, 
 
OBJECT-TEACHING. 125 
 
 less and less connected with actual objects, as the 
 pupils obtain clearer conceptions of shape, position, 
 and extent. It is, therefore, useless to enlarge 
 further on this part of the subject. 
 
 Much time should be devoted to generic defini- 
 tions, to the classification of related shapes. Here- 
 tofore, the pupils are supposed to have defined the 
 various shapes independently, without reference to 
 allied figures : they formed only specific definitions. 
 They must now compare the various shapes, arrange 
 them in groups or genera, and form definitions of 
 these genera. This is not an easy task, but it " pays 
 well," by its strengthening influence upon the powers 
 of conception and of comparison and generalization ; 
 and, in this respect, perhaps no exercise equals it in 
 educational value. Thus the pupils should be led 
 to recognize acute and obtuse angles as oblique angles. 
 They should be assisted in comparing the square, 
 the rectangle, the rhombus, the rhomboid, the tra- 
 pezium, and the trapezoid, and in discovering that 
 they are all four-sided figures, or quadrilaterals ; in 
 recognizing the square, the rectangle, the rhombus, 
 and the rhomboid as quadrilaterals, of which the 
 opposite sides are parallel, as parallelograms ; and 
 again in classing the square and rectangle as right- 
 angled parallelograms, and the rhombus and rhom- 
 boid as oblique-angled parallelograms. They are 
 
126 OBJECT -TEACHING. 
 
 guided in comparing the various prisms with each 
 other and in developing' the fact that they are all 
 solids, with two equal parallel polygons for bases 
 and with as many parallel parallelograms for their 
 sides as there are sides to the bases. 
 
 As soon as a new generic definition has been de- 
 veloped, the reflective specific definitions should at 
 once be remodelled accordingly. Thus the defini- 
 tion of the square (page 121) would successively pass 
 through the following phases : 
 
 1. The square is a quadrilateral (or foursided fig- 
 ure), of which all the sides are equal and all the 
 angels right, and of which the opposite sides are 
 parallel. 
 
 2. The square is a parallelogram, of which all the 
 sides are equal and all the angels right. 
 
 3. The square is a right-angled parallelogram, of 
 which all the sides are equal. 
 
 After the nearest genus has been recognized and 
 defined, the pupil should be accustomed to define 
 the species always in that genus. Thus, after recog- 
 nizing the square and rectangle as right-angled paral- 
 lelograms, the pupil should never be permitted to 
 define them simply as parallelograms, as . quadrila- 
 terals, as polygons, or as surfaces. In this way, alone, 
 can precision of thought and expression be culti- 
 vated. 
 
OBJECT-TEACHING. 127 
 
 The special exercises in measuring are continued 
 and extended, so as to include the measurement of 
 surfaces and solids. This should, however, not be 
 introduced with the statement of general rules and 
 their subsequent illustrations and explanations ; but, 
 as heretofore, the pupil should find the rules himself. 
 For the measurement of surfaces, he may be pro- 
 vided with a number of small pieces of thin card- 
 board about half an inch square, and these he may 
 apply to larger right-angled parallelograms, and de- 
 termine how many of these smaller ones are neces- 
 sary to cover the latter. Again, he may draw squares 
 and rectangles on his slate, on the black-board, or on 
 paper, subdivide them into small squares, and count 
 ' the number he obtains. He will soon discover that, 
 in a rectangle which is two inches long and one inch 
 broad, there* are two rows of four half-inch squares, 
 or four rows of two half-inch squares, and that, in 
 a square of which the side measures two inches, there 
 are four rows of four half-inch squares. He may 
 then, himself, develop the rule for the measurement 
 of right-angled parallelograms and may be prac- 
 ticed in the application of this rule. Then he may 
 be led to discover that the same rule applies to other 
 parallelograms, by drawing rhomboidal figures on 
 thin paste-board, by subdividing these into half-inch 
 squares by means of lines and scissors ; he will, then, 
 
128 OBJECT-TEACHING. 
 
 find that the triangles and trapezoids obtained may 
 be arranged so as to form four squares; and, on 
 counting, that the same law applies to oblique an- 
 gled parallelograms, which he has previously dis- 
 covered for right-angled parallelograms. In a simi- 
 lar way, he may be guided in the discovery of rules 
 for the measurement of triangles and other polygons. 
 According to the same principles, too, the pupil 
 should be introduced into the measurement of solids 
 with the assistance of small cubical blocks with 
 which square and rectangular prisms may be built. 
 Some of these blocks may be cut obliquely in various 
 proportions, so as to enable the pupil to build also 
 other prisms and pyramids. 
 
 Drawing, too, is continued, and special attention 
 paid to geometrical drawing, applying the facts and 
 principles taught during this and previous periods. 
 No other instrument should, however, be used as 
 yet, except the rule and the dividers. 
 
 The transition to the 'study of geometry as a 
 science is now made (about the sixth school year) 
 and the pupils are ready to take up the subject 
 "synthetically." But, even now, care should be 
 taken not to make the study too abstract and, par- 
 ticularly, to save the pupil the mind-killing labor of 
 learning theorems, problems, and their solutions by 
 heart. 
 
CHAPTER XIV. 
 
 NATURAL HISTOBY — REASONS FOE CHOOSING IT — ITEST 
 PEEIOD — DESCErPTTONS TECHNICAL TEEMS — SEPA- 
 RATE EXEECISES — PHYSIOLOGY. 
 
 The claims of the subject of Natural History, as 
 an educational agent, are so little appreciated, that 
 we feel compelled to apologize for choosing it as a 
 type in our illustrations, and to state and substan- 
 tiate the reasons which have induced us to choose it. 
 In the first place, no other subject offers to the 
 pupils so many interesting objects for observation — 
 interesting, if we exclude minerals, on account of 
 their variety and life. The child observes with de- 
 light the dog, the horse, the chicken, the bug, the 
 worm, long before he deigns to look upon the arti- 
 cles of- furniture in the house with any degree of 
 attention ; he greets with shouts of joy the daubed 
 picture of an animal, while he turns away indiffer- 
 ently from the most beautiful landscape painting, 
 which can win his attention only through its repre- 
 sentations of living things. Subsequently trees be- 
 
130 OBJECT-TEACHING. 
 
 gin to attract his attention by their "motion and 
 music in the wind," and flowers by their brilliant 
 colors. Artificial objects (articles of furniture, play- 
 things, tools, etc.) and minerals will enlist his active 
 attention only after he has commenced to perceive 
 how necessary they are to his own well-being or to 
 that of animals and plants, or when he has discover- 
 ed how they can be moved or made to sound — how 
 they can be made to imitate living things ; and, in 
 the direct proportion in which they are capable of 
 reminding him of life, they are interesting- to him. 
 Thus, the looking-glass is dear to him, because it 
 reflects his own life-like image ; he loves the rattle, 
 because he can shake it and make a noise with it ; 
 the whistle has no charm for him until he has 
 heard it sound. This principle, which is based upon 
 our instinctive love of life, holds good during the 
 whole existence of every man that has been fortu- 
 nate enough to enjoy a natural education. The 
 same love of life that causes the little girl to prefer 
 the doll to the picture-book, and the pet kitten to 
 the doll ; the same love of life that causes the little 
 boy to prefer the china animals to the building 
 blocks, and the favorite pup to the china animals : 
 that same love of life causes the adult to seek relief 
 from his toils in the contemplation of living nature. 
 It is among animals and plants, then, that we must 
 
OBJECT-TEACHING. 131 
 
 look for the objects that will most surely arouse and 
 fetter the pupil's attention and that will offer the 
 richest material for the exercise and development of 
 the powers of observation. 
 
 Again, objects of nature are pre-eminently fitted 
 for exercises in comparison and classification, on 
 account of their infinite variety, as well as on account 
 of the clearness with which they exhibit, in well de- 
 fined, unequivocal groups, common properties and 
 purposes; and certainly no other objects will be 
 delineated in their outlines by the pupils with more 
 pleasure and profit than plants and animals, so 
 varied and beautiful in form, and so dear and sug- 
 gestive to the pupil's fancy. 
 
 Another weighty reason for choosing Natural His- 
 tory was the hope of assisting in its introduction 
 into our elementary and common schools. We are 
 aware of the many formidable obstacles that meet 
 the teacher on every side, not only in his efforts to 
 introduce the study of Natural History, but in all 
 his attempts to make use of more natural and ra- 
 tional methods. "We have often felt, and we still 
 feel, the oppressive influence of that popular nervous- 
 ness, which cries for lightning progress in the so- 
 called "practical" subjects, which smiles incredu- 
 lously at the " cant" about thoroughness, and 
 about development and cultivation- of the mental 
 
132 OBJECT-TEACHING. 
 
 powers, and which considers as lost all the time 
 spent in walks or in the study of anything beyond 
 " the three It's" and, perhaps, history and geogra- 
 phy. "We have too often observed the blighting and 
 retarding effects of ignorance and bigotry upon 
 schools that labor under the control of trustees who 
 have no conception of the high destiny and of the 
 noble duties of man, and of the exalted office of the 
 school and who, in the majority of cases, consider 
 money-making the chief purpose of life — a purpose, 
 the accomplishment of which, as we all know, re- 
 quires very little intelligence and virtue. We are 
 aware that in large cities, the country is so far re- 
 moved from the majority of children as to be almost 
 inaccessible to them and that, therefore, direct in- 
 tercourse with nature is well nigh impossible. We 
 are aware that a very great number of silly mammas 
 do all in their power to cultivate in their children, 
 especially in their daughters, a kind of cowardice 
 that causes the little ones to shrink from all contact 
 with animals and a kind of fashionable horror 
 against long walks and against garden mud. Nay, 
 we are painfully conscious of the fact, that a con- 
 siderable number of so-called teachers do all in their 
 power to cater to these prejudices against the study 
 of nature, to increase them, and to invent arguments 
 in their favor, either for the purpose of securing 
 
OBJECT-TEACHING. 133 
 
 patronage, or for the purpose of concealing their 
 own ignorance and of avoiding work on their part. 
 Nevertheless, it is the duty of every teacher to com- 
 bat these prejudices ; and the deep sense of this 
 duty is one of the main reasons that havo induced 
 the author to choose Natural History as a means' 
 of illustrating the application of the principles of 
 Object-teaching. 
 
 In our remarks, we shall confine ourselves to ani- 
 mals and plants, presenting the subject in the same 
 order in which language and geometry have been 
 presented. To avoid redundancy we shall, however, 
 pass over the first two periods very rapidly and pay 
 more special attention to the exercises in compari- 
 son and generalization, for which natural objects are 
 so eminently fitted. We cannot deny the fact that 
 the school relations at these early ages are more or 
 less artificial : hence the school finds it so difficult to 
 accomplish anything in the study of nature during 
 the first period. No special exercises can, therefore, 
 be made profitable until the pupil has acquired 
 some skill in drawing and in the description of ob- 
 jects, or about the middle of the second period. 
 For the development of general ideas on life and 
 growth, on motion and sensation, the teacher is un- 
 fortunately compelled to rely more upon the cir- 
 cumstances that surround the pupil out of school, 
 
134 OBJECT-TEACHING. 
 
 particularly, at home, or upon subsequent instruc- 
 tion. It is true, he may occasionally take a walk 
 with the little ones (proA'ided his school is in the 
 country and not too full), or he may direct their 
 attention to certain animals and plants by means of 
 stories or pictures, or even by direct exhibition, or 
 by means of exercises similar to those indicated on 
 page 68 ; but all these t hin gs are as nothing, com- 
 pared to the influence which the parents may exert 
 in arousing the child's interest by means of daily 
 walks and talks, by the rearing of domestic animals, 
 by the cultivation of garden plots, etc. Hence, les- 
 sons in the school on dogs, cats, chickens, ducks, 
 frogs, fishes, etc'., on leaves, wood, bark, apples, 
 apple-trees, roses, rose-bushes, etc., will not differ in 
 their character from the lessons on miscellaneous 
 objects sketched on pages 47-71 ; and thus it would 
 be useless to offer additional types for their treat- 
 ment. 
 
 In the descriptions of animals and plants, which 
 the child is taught to make during the second period, 
 the same principles apply that were given for the 
 description of miscellaneous objects. In order to 
 secure method and precision, it is again necessary 
 to accustom the pupils to observe and describe 
 objects in question in a certain order of detail to 
 
OBJECT-TEACHING . 135 
 
 which they must adhere rigidly. We offer the fol- 
 lowing types : 
 
 The Dog. 
 
 Size. — Varying. 
 
 Bead. — Pyramidal ; placed horizontally. 
 
 SkuU. — Bounded ; higher behind than before. 
 
 Snout. — Half the length of the head ; narrow. 
 
 Ears. — Large, pendant (or, as the case may be, 
 small, erect.) 
 
 Nose. — Very long ; nostrils, cold, moist, rounded. 
 
 Eyes. — Almond-shaped ; pupil, round. 
 
 Mouth. — Large ; upper lip, overlapping the lower ; 
 lower lip, smaller, with a toothed margin. 
 
 Tongue. — Smooth, long, flat. 
 
 Teeth. — Twenty above, twenty-two below. (The 
 teeth may be described.) 
 
 Neck. — Round, about as long as the head. 
 
 Trunk. — Rounded, very broad, and stout about 
 the chest, thinner (contracted) just in front of the 
 hind-legs, covered with hair, like the rest of the 
 body. 
 
 Fore-legs. — Lower than the hind-legs ; four toes. 
 
 Hind-legs. — Higher than the fore-legs ; five totes. 
 
 Claws. — Stout ; blunt ; always protuding. 
 
 Tail. — Round ; curved upwards and to the left. 
 
 Hair. — Generally coarse, stiff, and short. 
 
136 OBJECT-TEACHING. 
 
 Voice. — Barks, growls, yelps, howls. 
 
 Habits. — (Under this head various peculiarities 
 may be enumerated, if possible, also in a certain 
 order.) 
 
 The Oat. 
 
 The cat grows to be from ten to fourteen inches 
 long and about five inches high. 
 
 The head is round and provided with a short 
 snout 
 
 It has two short, erect ears, running into a point ; 
 a nose, projecting very little ; and two round eyes, of 
 which the pupil is oblong and placed vertically. 
 
 Its mouth is quite small, the upper jaw is longer 
 than the lower and a little broader in front. The 
 tongue is rough. The teeth are very sharp, 16 above 
 and 14 below.' On both sides of the mouth, there 
 are long, stiff hairs or bristles. 
 
 The trunk of the cat is long and flexible, cylindri- 
 cal in shape. On the fore-feet there are four toes, 
 and on the hind-feet there are five toes. The claws 
 are sharp, curved, and retractile. The tail is long 
 and tapering. The hair is smooth and soft, and 
 electrical. The cat mews, purs, cries, and spits. 
 
 The cat eats small animals, such as mice, rats, 
 small birds, and even lizards. It dislikes water, bul 
 is very fond of milk. Because it catches mice and 
 
OBJECT-TEACHING. 137 
 
 rats, it is a necessary domestic animal. It is very 
 cleanly. Its skin is used as fur, and its guts are 
 used for musical strings. 
 
 The Pigeon. 
 
 The pigeon is about twelve inches long and 
 about six inches high. It is covered v.ith feathers, 
 all except the bill and the feet, which are bare. 
 The color of the feathers is generally blue, except 
 those of the head and tail, which are white. The 
 back is dark blue and the wings are light blue. It has 
 two kinds of feathers : the quill feathers, in the wings 
 and in the tail, and the downy feathers, covering the 
 rest of the body. The parts of its body are : 1, the 
 head; 2, the neck ; 3, the trunk ; 4, the limbs (wings 
 and legs) ; and 5, the tail. 
 
 The head is small and round and provided with a 
 conical bill, inside of which we can see a small, 
 pointed tongue, but no teeth. The upper mandible is 
 larger and more arched than the lower, and laps 
 over the lower mandible. Near the base (root) of the 
 upper mandible there is a soft skin, in which there 
 are two oval nostrils. The ears cannot be seen, be- 
 cause they are entirely in the head. Its two eyes 
 are small, round, and very gentle ; they are also very 
 acute. 
 
 The neck is round, short, and very flexible. The 
 
138 OBJECT- TEACHING. 
 
 trunk is in the shape of an egg. The sides are 
 covered by the wings ; on the breast and belly there 
 is very soft down. 
 
 The limbs are of two kinds : wings and legs. The 
 wings grow from the sides of the trunk and are very 
 long. (Ten of the feathers are very long.) They 
 reach nearly to the end of the tail. The hgs are 
 short, and covered with down, all except the feet. 
 These have four toes — three forward and one back- 
 ward — furnished with small, thin claws. 
 
 They eat grain, live in pairs, and are very 
 cleanly. 
 
 Flax (an Herb). 
 
 Boot. — Fibrous (many thread-shaped roots). 
 
 Stem. — Erect, thin, from two to' three feet high; 
 the tough fibers of the bast (inner bark) are used as 
 flax, to make linen, etc; 
 
 Leaves.— Small, alternate, lancet-shaped (lanceo- 
 late) pale green. 
 
 Flowers.— Numerous, blue, very small, regular — 
 blooms in June and July. 
 
 Calyx. — Divided into five parts (sepals). 
 
 Corolla. — Consists of five small blue petals. 
 
 Stamens. — Five, united below into a ring. 
 
 Pistil. — One : ovary, containing a few (ten) seeds 
 
OBJECT-TEACHING. 139 
 
 (ovules), in five apartments (cells) ; five styles, each 
 with a stigma. 
 
 Seeds. — Brown, small ; used to obtain linseed-oil. 
 To this the pupil may add the manner in which it is 
 planted, and various other facts, connected with the 
 practical application of flax. 
 
 The White Lily. 
 
 The root of this herb consists of a great number 
 of very short and thin fibers. 
 
 Besides the root, there is in the ground the bulb 
 (root stalk), which is yellow, covered with loose, 
 juicy scales, arranged like shingles. 
 
 The stem is from two to three feet high, round, 
 erect. 
 
 The leaves are very numerous, scattered along the 
 stem, and have parallel nerves. 
 
 It bears a few flowers on short stalks (pedicels). 
 
 Its calyx consists of six white sepals, united below, 
 and bent back at the top. 
 
 It has no corolla. 
 
 In the calyx there are six stamens, shorter than the 
 sepals, and united with them below. 
 
 The pistil consists of a rounded ovary, containing 
 three cells in which there are many flat ovules. The 
 style is long and slender, thickened above. The 
 stigma is three-lobed. 
 
140 OBJECT-TEACHING. 
 
 The teacher will often be compelled to have re- 
 course to technical terms, especially in the study of 
 plants. These should, however, never be given be- 
 fore the pupil has a clear idea of the meaning con- 
 veyed by the term, on the principle that ideas must 
 precede names. This may be accomplished in the 
 manner previously indicated, or by means of circum- 
 locution, previous translation of the term into En- 
 glish words with which the child is familiar. The 
 pupil will then easily retain the new technical term 
 as a more convenient carrier of the idea in question. 
 
 Additional illustrations might be offered, but those 
 given are sufficient to show how the subject may 
 be handled. The ingenuity of the teacher should, 
 however, be untiring in devising variations from 
 these types ; laying successively more stress upon the 
 structure, the habits, the uses of animals or plants, 
 the parts of animals or plants, and their respec- 
 tive uses, and upon the probable reasons for pecu- 
 liarities of structure. As helps, more or less neces- 
 sary in these studies, we would recommend frequent 
 walks with a view of observing animals and plants ; 
 skeletonizing animals and collecting specimens of 
 plants ; the keeping of pet animals and the cultiva- 
 tion of a small garden ; and, for the boys, hunting 
 and fishing. In the latter exercise, we should, 
 however, carefully guard against that bloodthirsty 
 
OBJECT-TEACHING. 141 
 
 cruelty that characterizes untutored juvenile hunt- 
 ers and that induces them to kill whatever comes in 
 their way for the pleasure, simply, of killing. If a 
 bird or other animal has been killed, it should be 
 carefully examined, perhaps prepared for skeleton- 
 izing, and the boy should be taught to avoid shoot- 
 ing similar birds afterwards. 
 
 As an exercise of great educational value, the col- 
 lection and nursing of caterpillars and of other larvae 
 should be encouraged. The caterpillars should be 
 kept where they can obtain an abundant supply of 
 light and air, and, in some cases, moist earth. If 
 the plant, on the leaves of which the larva feeds, is 
 not within easy reach, common lettuce will prove an 
 acceptable substitute in the majority of cases. This 
 exercise is especially useful in the development of 
 ideas on growth. The child should, however, be 
 taught to let the butterfly once formed and examin- 
 ed, enjoy its freedom, and not to impale it on a pin 
 for the sake of idle curiosity or silly vanity. 
 
 Frequently, too, the pupil should be led to study 
 the physiology of the animal and vegetable systems. 
 The butcher's stall, the dissection of some smaller 
 animals, and especially the chalk and black-board, 
 will offer sufficient material to enable the pupil to 
 understand and appreciate the beauties of digestion, 
 circulation, respiration, etc. The teacher should. 
 
142 OBJECT-TEACHING. 
 
 however, guard against entering too deeply into in- 
 tricate details, into hypothetical explanations, and 
 into diffuse lecturing. As heretofore, he should con- 
 fine himself as much as possible to facts which the 
 pupil can develop and illustrate by his own powers 
 and acquirements. As much as practicable, the 
 study of the functions of the respective parts of the 
 animal or plant should be combined with the study 
 of the parts themselves : so that the pupil may learn 
 to look upon every part of the living animal or plant 
 as something living in itself and as something essen- 
 tial to the life of the whole. This will be found par- 
 ticularly easy in the study of plants which do not 
 conceal their organs of life in a protecting envelop 
 as animals do and which, at the same time, do not 
 resist observation or suffer by it. 
 
CHAPTER XV, 
 
 NATUEAL HISTOKY, CONTINUED— COMPAKISON AND CLAS- 
 SIFICATION. 
 
 As soon as the pupils have acquired some skill in 
 the description of animals and plants and have 
 formed somewhat complete conceptions of the more 
 familiar ones (about the fourth school year), they 
 may begin to compare and classify them. In the 
 beginning, the pupils may be required to simply 
 recite or write down the names of animals or plants 
 that have or have not certain qualities. This is a 
 fundamental exercise in which the children cannot 
 be drilled too thoroughly. It will be advisable, too, 
 to avoid, from the very start, classifications based 
 upon accidental properties, such as color, size, etc., so 
 that the pupils may be enabled to form clear and 
 correct conceptions of classes, based upon essential 
 properties alone. Thus, they may recite or write 
 upon their slates the names of animals that are 
 
144 OBJECT-TEACHING. 
 
 carnivorous and of others that are not carnivorous, as 
 follows : 
 
 Carnivorous. Not Carnivorous. 
 
 The dog, The horse, 
 
 The cat, The cow, 
 
 The weasel, The sheep, 
 
 The fox, The rabbit, 
 
 The Hon, The camel, 
 
 The bear, The giraffe, 
 
 The shark, The squirrel, 
 
 The whale, The bee, 
 
 The snake, The butterfly, 
 etc., etc. etc., etc. 
 
 In a similar way they may be required to give 
 the names of herbivorous animals, of warm-blooded 
 animals, of animals that have skeletons of bone, of 
 animals that fly, etc., with their respective oppo- 
 sites. Two or more qualities may then be combined, 
 and the pupils asked to name animals that are car- 
 nivorous quadrupeds or carnivorous birds, rumi- 
 . nants, rodents, etc. The material offered by plants 
 may be similarly treated, furnishing lists of plants 
 that have a certain kind of leaves, flowers, fruits, 
 roots, or stems ; of plants that grow in certain 
 localities, that are used for certain purposes, etc. 
 The importance and educational value of these exer- 
 
OBJECT-TEACHING. 145 
 
 cises cannot be overestimated. They form the 
 very basis of all classification, since to classify is 
 to determine whether a certain object or group 
 of objects has or has not certain qualities ; and, 
 at the same time, they cause the pupil to review 
 carefully knowledge previously acquired, thus 
 rendering that knowledge more and more his 
 property. 
 
 Alternating, more or less regularly, with these ex- 
 ercises, others may be made, in which the pupils 
 compare certain animals or plants in sets, according 
 • to the following types : 
 
 1. Dog and Cat. 
 
 Resemblances. 
 
 Both are domestic animals. 
 
 Both are of -a medium size. 
 
 Neck and body of both are cylindrical 
 
 Both have four feet — are quadrupeds. 
 
 They walk on their toes — are digitigrade. 
 
 Both can walk, run, leap, swim, etc. 
 
 The skins of both are covered with hair. 
 
 Both breathe by means of lungs. 
 
 Both feed on flesh — are carnivorous. 
 
 Both give birth to living young — are mammals. 
 
146 
 
 OBJECT-TEACHING. 
 
 DOG. 
 
 Size. — Varying consider- 
 ably. 
 
 Head. — Pyramidal. 
 
 Snout. — Very long. 
 
 Ears. — Large, pendant. 
 
 Pupil qf the Eye. — Bound. 
 
 Teeth. — Forty-two, long- 
 er than in the cat. 
 
 Senses. — Odor best de- 
 veloped. 
 
 Legs. — Legs longer than 
 in the cat (in propor- 
 tion to the body.) 
 
 Claws. — Always protrud- 
 ing, cannot be moved 
 without the toes, blunt, 
 nearly straight. 
 
 Tail,. — Curved upwards. 
 
 Hair. — Yields no sparks, 
 when rubbed. 
 
 Differences. 
 
 Cat. 
 All grown, about 
 
 same. 
 Almost spherical. 
 Short. 
 
 Small, erect. 
 A mere slit. 
 Thirty. 
 
 the 
 
 Sight best developed. 
 Stouter than in the dog. 
 
 May be drawn in and 
 stretched forth (retrac- 
 tile), sharp, much curv- 
 ed. 
 
 Not curved upwards. — 
 Longer in proportion 
 " to the body. 
 
 Softer than in the dog; 
 yields sparks when rub- 
 bed forward in the 
 dark. 
 
OBJECT- TEACHING. 147 
 
 Dog. Cat. 
 
 Voice. — Barks, growls, Mews, purs, cries, and 
 
 yelps, howls. spits. 
 
 Progression. — Cannot Can climb. 
 
 climb. 
 
 Defense. — Uses the teeth. Uses the claws. 
 
 2. The Gooseberry and the Currant-bush. 
 
 Besemblances. 
 
 Both are bushes or shrubs. 
 
 The leaves consist of 3 — 5 lobes. 
 
 Both have very small green flowers, with five- 
 toothed., bell-shaped calyx, five stamens, and one 
 pistil, bearing two styles. 
 
 Both produce eatable berries. 
 
 Differences. 
 
 GOOSEBERRY. CURRANT. 
 
 Stem. — Provided with Without prickles, produc- 
 
 prickles, producing ing few branches, 
 many branches. 
 
 Leaves. — Lobes not sub- Lobes subdivided, more 
 
 divided. pointed. 
 
148 OBJECT-TEACHING. 
 
 GoOSEBEBBY. CtJRBANT. 
 
 Flower. — Peduncles, usu- Peduncles usually many- 
 ally three - flowered. flowered. 
 (The difference in shape 
 of the various parts of 
 the flower may be ad- 
 ded here.) 
 
 Fruit. — Sometimes prick- Never prickly, small, and 
 ly, larger and paler in clusters, 
 than the currant. 
 
 3. The House and the Cow. 
 
 The horse and the cow are domestic animals, be- 
 longing to the class of quadrupeds. They resemble 
 each other very much in general appearance ; and 
 both are covered with a thick, hairy shin, which is 
 used for leather. Both can walk, trot, run, and, if 
 necessary, swim. Both are herbivorous. 
 
 On the other hand, the horse is generally larger 
 than the cow, and is used as a beast of burden, 
 whereas the cow furnishes us with milk, cheese, butter 
 and meat. The horse is . graceful and agile, whereas 
 the cow is clumsy and awkward. Besides, the head 
 of the cow is shorter and thicker, furnished with 
 larger ears, and with two horns. The upper jaw is 
 without teeth in front, and the tearing or canine 
 
OBJECT-TEACHING. 149 
 
 teeth are wanting. The neck of the horse is grace- 
 fully arched, and furnished with a mane, whereas 
 the neck of the cow is almost straight and dis- 
 figured by a loose dew-lap. The whole body or 
 Irunlc of the horse is more compact and rounded 
 than that of the cow. There is also a marked differ- 
 ence between the tails of the two aDimals ; that of 
 the horse being covered with long, elastic hairs in its 
 whole length, while that of the cow is covered with 
 short hair. The legs of the horse are comparatively 
 longer, and also rounder and more graceful than 
 those of the cow. The horse has on each foot a round, 
 horny hoof ; the hoof of the cow is divided in the 
 middle, hence we say that the cow is cloven-footed or 
 cloven-hoofed. The hair of the cow is longer, and 
 less smooth and shining than that of the horse. 
 The cow is a ruminating animal, and has a much 
 more complicated stomach than the horse. The 
 horse moves much more rapidly than the .cow. The 
 horse neighs, whereas the cow bellows. 
 
 4 The Ox, the Sheep, and the Goat. 
 
 The principal points of resemblance in these ani- 
 mals are : 
 
 1. They are all herbivorous. 
 
 2. They xuminate — chew the cud. They have four 
 stomachs. At first the food is chewed hastily, and 
 
150 OBJECT-TEACHING?*. 
 
 swallowed into the first and largest stomach or 
 paunch. From this it passes to the second stomach, 
 the honey-comb, where it is softened and made into 
 little balls or pellets'. •These are forced back into the 
 mouth, where they are chewed a second time. The 
 food is then passed directly to the third stomach, 
 the manyplies, and from this to the fourth, the true 
 stomach, where it is digested. 
 
 3. They have hollow horns for defense. 
 
 4 Their eyes are placed at the side of the head 
 rather than in front, and the pupils are oval and 
 placed sidewise (horizontally), not up and down 
 (vertically), as in the cat. 
 
 5. They have no front teeth in the upper jaw ; but, 
 in their place, a hard pad. 
 
 6. The ears are placed far back and are very 
 movable. 
 
 7. The legs and the neck are long. 
 
 8. The feet are furnished with two toes or claws, 
 forming together a cloven hoof; and, behind the 
 hoof, a little higher up, there are two small toes or 
 hind-claws. 
 
 9. They are very useful domestic animals. 
 
 10. They are timid and quite stupid. 
 
 They differ from each other principally : 
 1. In size ; the ox is much larger than the sheep 
 and the goat. 
 
OBJECT-TEACHING. 151 
 
 2. In covering ; the hair of the ox is short and 
 straight, that of the goat long and straight, whereas 
 the sheep is covered with wool. 
 
 3. In the horns ; those of the ox are curved out- 
 ward and upward; those of the sheep backward, 
 and then spirally forward; those of the goat up- 
 ward and backward. Besides, the horns of sheep 
 and goats are wrinkled and angular, while those of 
 the ox are smooth and round. 
 
 4. In the muzzle ; that of the ox is broader and 
 naked, whereas the narrower muzzles of the sheep 
 and of the goat are hairy. The goat also has a 
 beard under the chin. 
 
 5. In the tail; that of the ox is long and thin, 
 that of the sheep long and thick, and that of the 
 goat very short and erect. 
 
 6. In the uses made of them : the ox only is used 
 as a beast of burden and of draught ; the sheep is 
 used principally for its wool, and the goat for its 
 milk. 
 
 5. The Pigeon Family of Bibds. 
 
 There are many kinds of pigeons. Among them 
 I can name the Domestic Pigeon, the "Wild Pigeon 
 or Passenger Pigeon, the Carrier Pigeon, the Crown 
 Pigeon, the Turtle Dove, and the Carolina Dove. 
 
 They are all very timid and gentle birds. They 
 
152 OBJECT-TEACHING. 
 
 have the bill shorter than the head ; the upper half 
 of the bill (the upper mandible) overlaps the lower 
 on both sides, and its root (or base) is covered 
 with a soft skin in which the nostrils are placed. 
 Their plumage is not very bright, but glossy — gen- 
 erally white, bluish, greenish, gray or brown. They 
 have from twelve to fourteen long tail-feathers. 
 Their feet are short and thin ; the toes are placed 
 on the same level, three before and one behind, and 
 armed with short, stout nails for scratching. They 
 have a double craw and a very strong gizzard. They 
 feed principally on grains. They live in pairs, and 
 usually lay only two eggs for a brood. They feed 
 the young with a sort of milk which they make in 
 their own crops. 
 
 6. The Gnawing Quadrupeds, oe Eodents. 
 
 These animals receive their name from the fact 
 that they are fitted for gnawing hard substances, such 
 as wood, and nut-shells. They have in each jaw two 
 long, sharp front teeth, shaped like chisels. The 
 rear portion of these teeth is much sharper than the 
 front portion, and wears away in gnawing, so as to 
 keep the teeth always sharp. These teeth grow as 
 fast as they wear away. Between these front teeth 
 and the back teeth (or grinding teeth) there is an 
 empty space in the place of the tearing teeth. These 
 
OBJECT-TEACHING. 153 
 
 animals are mostly vegetable eaters, feeding princi- 
 pally on nuts, wood, and the bark of trees, though 
 some, like the rats, eat also flesh. The squirrels, 
 rats, and mice, the beavers, guinea-pigs, porcupines, 
 hares, and rabbits, belong to the rodents. The hares 
 and rabbits differ from all the other rodents in having 
 four front teeth in the upper jaw. 
 
CHAPTEB XVI. 
 
 NATURAL HISTOBY, CONCLUDED — CATALOGUES OP CLASSI- 
 FICATIONS — EXTENDED TO OTHER SUBJECTS — TECHNI- 
 CAL TEEMS — TRANSITION EFFECTS ON MOEALS — CON- 
 CLUSION. 
 
 - To assist the pupil's memory, as -well as to 
 strengthen his powers of classification, he should 
 also be taught to draw up suggestive catalogues of 
 the classifications, at which he may from time to 
 have arrived, according to the following types : 
 
 1. Birds of Peey. 
 
 Birds of Prey. 
 
 ' feeding on living prey, 
 
 Falcons. 
 feeding on carrion, 
 t Vultures. 
 
 nocturnal — Owls. 
 
 diurnal, •{ 
 
 2. Vertebeate Animals. 
 
 Warm-blooded. 
 
 Cold-blooded. 
 
 Viviparous, oviparous. with lungs, with gills. 
 (ZIammals). (Birds). (Keptiles). (Fishes). 
 
OBJECT-TEACHING. 155 
 
 They may then read these catalogues in various 
 ways. Thus, the first of these types may be read : 
 " There are three classes of birds of prey — falcons, 
 vultures, and owls. The falcons are diurnal birds of 
 prey, feeding on living animals ; the vultures are 
 diurnal birds of prey, feeding on carrion ; and the 
 owls are nocturnal birds of prey." Or, " Birds of 
 prey are either diurnal or nocturnal. The diurnal 
 birds of prey either feed on living animals, and are 
 called falcons ; or they feed on carrion, and are 
 called vultures. The nocturnal birds of prey are 
 the owls." 
 
 Again, these catalogues will serve as guides in 
 framing terse definitions. Thus the pupil, if asked 
 to define mammals and birds, will readily answer, 
 from the second type : " Mammals are viviparous, 
 warm-blooded vertebrates. Birds are oviparous, 
 warm-blooded .vertebrates." 
 
 Labor bestowed upon this formulizing of know- 
 ledge always " pays well." It practices the pupil in 
 the highest and most difficult functions of the mind 
 and peculiarly enhances his interest in the respec- 
 tive subjects of study. At every new success in 
 thus reducing knowledge to a simpler and more tan- 
 gible form, in thus compressing diffuse facts into a nut- 
 shell, as it were, he feels that his memory lias been 
 relieved of a heavy burden, and shows his gratitude 
 
156 
 
 OBJECT-TEACHING. 
 
 in redoubled efforts to achieve similar triumphs. 
 Therefore, this formulizing of related facts or prin- 
 ciples should be extended to all subjects capable of 
 classifications. We cannot refrain from ofteiing, for 
 the sake of illustration, a few such formulas, that 
 have been used in our experience with much advan- 
 tage in grammar and geometry. 
 
 1. Person. 
 First person 
 Second person 
 Third person J 
 
 2. Formation of the Possessive in Nouns 
 We add to the Nominative, 
 
 denotes the person or 
 thing 
 
 speaking, 
 addressed, 
 spoken of. 
 
 Cs) 
 1. in all singul 
 
 ar nouns. 
 
 (') 
 in all plural nouns 
 
 2. in plural nouns not ending in s. 
 ending in s. 
 
 3. Tenses. 
 
 Time. 
 
 Action. 
 
 Name of Tense. 
 
 Present, . . J 
 
 Imperfect, 
 Perfect, 
 
 Present (Imperfect). 
 Present Perfect. 
 
 Past, | 
 
 Imperfect, 
 Perfect, 
 
 Past (Imperfect). 
 Past Perfect. 
 
 Future, . . . S 
 
 Imperfect, 
 Perfect, 
 
 Future (Imperfect). 
 Future Perfect. 
 
OBJECT-TEACHING. 
 
 157 
 
 4 Use of Shall and Will. 
 
 
 
 Shall or Should. 
 
 Will or Would. 
 
 
 Futurity. 
 
 
 First Person. 
 
 
 1. 
 
 Persons, same. 
 
 Persons, different. 
 
 2. 
 
 Kesolution. 
 
 Persons, different. 
 
 Persons, same, 
 
 The first three formulas explain themselves ; for 
 the better understanding of the last, we will give 
 the reading of the first part. " SlwE and should are 
 used to express futurity, when the person or thing 
 expecting and the one to whom the expectation re- 
 fers, are the same ; will and would when the persons 
 or things are not the same. In the first person 
 shall or should ase always used. 
 
 5. Qtjaletlatekals. 
 
 Symmetrical (Paballelookrams). Unsymmetrical. 
 
 Eight-angled. Oblique-angled. Two parallels. No parallels. 
 , ■ ( , • , Trapezoid. Trapezium. 
 
 equilateral, not equilateral, equilateral, not equilateral. 
 Sqtjabe. Rectangle. Rhombus. Rhomboid. 
 
 To return to the subject of Natural History, we 
 would warn the teacher once more against the hi- 
 
158 OBJECT-TEACHING. 
 
 cautious or too liberal use of technical names, since, 
 particularly in classification, there will be much 
 occasion to use them. "Wherever it is practicable, 
 purely technical names should be avoided : thus, 
 the terms cuneate, cordate, hastate, dentate, and 
 similar ones may be exchanged for wedge-shaped, 
 heart-shaped, spear-shaped, toothed, etc., without loss 
 of terseness, and with great gain of clearness on the 
 part of the pupils. Again, the pupil will, for a long 
 time, prefer the terms four-footed animals to quad- 
 rupeds, Dog family to Canidse, Deer family to Cer- 
 vidse, Rose family to Rosacea?, Lily family to Lilia- 
 cese, etc., because they are more significant to 
 him. In these cases, however, the technical names 
 have much practical value, on account of their 
 shortness. They should, therefore, be substituted 
 gradually and cautiously for thei* English trans- 
 lations; but this should never be done, until the 
 teacher is fully satisfied that the pupil has the idea 
 clearly. 
 
 It is obvious that, after a course in Natural His- 
 tory — similar to the one sketched above, and ex- 
 tending through a period of two to three years, 
 during the most impressible age of the pupil — 
 books on zoology and botany will present a very 
 different face to the young student, than they do, 
 when he is pitched headlong into a maze of un- 
 
OBJECT-TEACHING. 159 
 
 intelligible technicalities, arbitrary systems, and 
 mysterious symbols ; and that these subjects will 
 cease to be " dry studies," rendering nature almost 
 repulsive to the pupil. 
 
 Unquestionably, too, the teacher may use these 
 exercises as one of the principal levers in the educa- 
 tion of delicate, moral sensibilities. Let the teacher 
 in these lessons not forget that, as the immortal 
 Milton sings : 
 
 " By contemplation of created things, 
 We may by steps ascend to God." 
 
 And let the pupil gradually be brought to a con- 
 sciousness that, in studying Nature, he studies the 
 work of the wisest and best of beings, the Living 
 Word of God ; let him be taught to discover, wher- 
 ever he looks, His wisdom and goodness, that beau- 
 tiful harmony, that wonderful adaptation of all 
 things to the surroundings, that all-embracing love, 
 that affection without bounds — placing into the 
 smallest thing an exhaustless source of happiness 
 and delight and life, even for the greatest, and 
 making the greatest serve the wants and wishes of 
 the least ; impartially and equally distributing joy 
 and sorrow, love and aversion; — let him become 
 conscious of this, so that he may himself become 
 wiser and better. Above all things, avoid that un- 
 
160 OBJECT- TEACHING. 
 
 fortunate and fatal error of looking upon Nature as 
 a soulless object, as a collection of simply interest- 
 ing facts, which daily arise and pass away, but 
 guide the pupil to find the " golden kernel in the 
 silver shell"— the eternal truths revealed in Nature's 
 facts. To a child thus taught, Nature will indeed 
 be a " mother," a bountiful dispenser of the richest 
 and purest blessings. 
 
 According to the principles, indicated in the fore- 
 going sketches, all other subjects of instruction 
 should be treated. Thus, the study of geography 
 should be introduced with " object lessons" on the 
 geographical facts peculiar to the country in the 
 pupil's immediate vicinity ; the study of history 
 should be based upon familiar narrations of events 
 in the pupil's immediate experience at home, at 
 school, and during his rambles ; and the study of 
 arithmetic should be rendered intelligible and 
 attractive by being connected with concrete facts 
 within the grasp of the pupil's mind, and within the 
 pale of his direct sensuous observation. 
 
 Only if such a system is followed consistently 
 can we expect to develop in our schools well- 
 balanced human beings, capable of all the happi- 
 
OBJECT- TEACHING. 161 
 
 ness to which they are naturally entitled, and able 
 to dispense the blessings which their fellows have 
 a right to claim from them ; in short, only if 
 such a course is pursued, will the school be en- 
 abled to accomplish its purposes and to perform 
 its duties.