Essays On Education And Kindred Subjects (Fiscle Part- 11) by Herbert Spencer (best fiction novels to read TXT) 📕

Suggested By The   Boy's Instinctive Behaviour To Her. Manifestly, Too,

The Course She Is Adopting Is The   One Best Calculated To Establish A

Habit Of    Exhaustive Observation; Which Is The   Professed Aim Of    These

Lessons. To _Tell_ A Child This And To _Show_ It The   Other, Is Not To

Teach It How To Observe, But To Make It A Mere Recipient Of    Another's

Observations: A Proceeding Which Weakens Rather Than Strengthens Its

Powers Of    Self-Instruction--Which Deprives It Of    The   Pleasures Resulting

From Successful Activity--Which Presents This All-Attractive Knowledge

Under The   Aspect Of    Formal Tuition--And Which Thus Generates That

Indifference And Even Disgust Not Unfrequently Felt Towards These

Object-Lessons. On The   Other Hand, To Pursue The   Course Above Described

Is Simply To Guide The   Intellect To Its Appropriate Food; To Join With

The Intellectual Appetites Their Natural Adjuncts--_Amour Propre_ And

The Desire For Sympathy; To Induce By The   Union Of    All These An

Intensity Of    Attention Which Insures Perceptions Both Vivid And

Complete; And To Habituate The   Mind From The   Beginning To That Practice

Of Self-Help Which It Must Ultimately Follow.

Object-Lessons Should Not Only Be Carried On After Quite A Different

Fashion From That Commonly Pursued, But Should Be Extended To A Range Of

Things Far Wider, And Continued To A Period Far Later, Than Now. They

Should Not Be Limited To The   Contents Of    The   House; But Should Include

Those Of    The   Fields And The   Hedges, The   Quarry And The   Sea-Shore. They

Should Not Cease With Early Childhood; But Should Be So Kept Up During

Youth, As Insensibly To Merge Into The   Investigations Of    The   Naturalist

And The   Man Of    Science. Here Again We Have But To Follow Nature's

Leadings. Where Can Be Seen An Intenser Delight Than That Of    Children

Picking Up New Flowers And Watching New Insects; Or Hoarding Pebbles And

Shells? And Who Is There But Perceives That By Sympathising With Them

They May Be Led On To Any Extent Of    Inquiry Into The   Qualities And

Structures Of    These Things? Every Botanist Who Has Had Children With Him

In The   Woods And Lanes Must Have Noticed How Eagerly They Joined In His

Pursuits, How Keenly They Searched Out Plants For Him, How Intently They

Watched While He Examined Them, How They Overwhelmed Him With Questions.

The Consistent Follower Of    Bacon--The "Servant And Interpreter Of

Nature," Will See That We Ought Modestly To Adopt The   Course Of    Culture

Thus Indicated. Having Become Familiar With The   Simpler Properties Of

Inorganic Objects, The   Child Should By The   Same Process Be Led On To An

Exhaustive Examination Of    The   Things It Picks Up In Its Daily Walks--The

Less Complex Facts They Present Being Alone Noticed At First: In Plants,

The Colours, Numbers, And Forms Of    The   Petals, And Shapes Of    The   Stalks

And Leaves; In Insects, The   Numbers Of    The   Wings, Legs, And Antennæ, And

Their Colours. As These Become Fully Appreciated And Invariably

Observed, Further Facts May Be Successively Introduced: In The   One Case,

The Numbers Of    Stamens And Pistils, The   Forms Of    The   Flowers, Whether

Radial Or Bilateral In Symmetry, The   Arrangement And Character Of    The

Leaves, Whether Opposite Or Alternate, Stalked Or Sessile, Smooth Or

Hairy, Serrated, Toothed, Or Crenate; In The   Other, The   Divisions Of    The

Body, The   Segments Of    The   Abdomen, The   Markings Of    The   Wings, The   Number

Of Joints In The   Legs, And The   Forms Of    The   Smaller Organs--The System

Pursued Throughout Being That Of    Making It The   Child's Ambition To Say

Respecting Everything It Finds All That Can Be Said. Then When A Fit Age

Has Been Reached, The   Means Of    Preserving These Plants, Which Have

Become So Interesting In Virtue Of    The   Knowledge Obtained Of    Them, May

As A Great Favour Be Supplied; And Eventually, As A Still Greater

Favour, May Also Be Supplied The   Apparatus Needful For Keeping The   Larvæ

Of Our Common Butterflies And Moths Through Their Transformations--A

Practice Which, As We Can Personally Testify, Yields The   Highest

Gratification; Is Continued With Ardour For Years; When Joined With The

Formation Of    An Entomological Collection, Adds Immense Interest To

Saturday-Afternoon Rambles; And Forms An Admirable Introduction To The

Study Of    Physiology.

We Are Quite Prepared To Hear From Many That All This Is Throwing Away

Time And Energy; And That Children Would Be Much Better Occupied In

Writing Their Copies Or Learning Their Pence-Tables, And So Fitting

Themselves For The   Business Of    Life. We Regret That Such Crude Ideas Of

What Constitutes Education, And Such A Narrow Conception Of    Utility,

Should Still Be Prevalent. Saying Nothing On The   Need For A Systematic

Culture Of    The   Perceptions And The   Value Of    The   Practices Above

Inculcated As Subserving That Need, We Are Prepared To Defend Them Even

On The   Score Of    The   Knowledge Gained. If Men Are To Be Mere Cits, Mere

Porers Over Ledgers, With No Ideas Beyond Their Trades--If It Is Well

That They Should Be As The   Cockney Whose Conception Of    Rural Pleasures

Extends No Further Than Sitting In A Tea-Garden Smoking Pipes And

Drinking Porter; Or As The   Squire Who Thinks Of    Woods As Places For

Shooting In, Of    Uncultivated Plants As Nothing But Weeds, And Who

Classifies Animals Into Game, Vermin, And Stock--Then Indeed It Is

Needless To Learn Anything That Does Not Directly Help To Replenish The

Till And Fill The   Larder. But If There Is A More Worthy Aim For Us Than

To Be Drudges--If There Are Other Uses In The   Things Around Than Their

Power To Bring Money--If There Are Higher Faculties To Be Exercised Than

Acquisitive And Sensual Ones--If The   Pleasures Which Poetry And Art And

Science And Philosophy Can Bring Are Of    Any Moment; Then Is It Desirable

That The   Instinctive Inclination Which Every Child Shows To Observe

Natural Beauties And Investigate Natural Phenomena, Should Be

Encouraged. But This Gross Utilitarianism Which Is Content To Come Into

The World And Quit It Again Without Knowing What Kind Of    A World It Is

Or What It Contains, May Be Met On Its Own Ground. It Will By And By Be

Found That A Knowledge Of    The   Laws Of    Life Is More Important Than Any

Other Knowledge Whatever--That The   Laws Of    Life Underlie Not Only All

Bodily And Mental Processes, But By Implication All The   Transactions Of

The House And The   Street, All Commerce, All Politics, All Morals--And

That Therefore Without A Comprehension Of    Them, Neither Personal Nor

Social Conduct Can Be Rightly Regulated. It Will Eventually Be Seen Too,

That The   Laws Of    Life Are Essentially The   Same Throughout The   Whole

Organic Creation; And Further, That They Cannot Be Properly Understood

In Their Complex Manifestations Until They Have Been Studied In Their

Simpler Ones. And When This Is Seen, It Will Be Also Seen That In Aiding

The Child To Acquire The   Out-Of-Door Information For Which It Shows So

Great An Avidity, And In Encouraging The   Acquisition Of    Such Information

Throughout Youth, We Are Simply Inducing It To Store Up The   Raw Material

For Future Organisation--The Facts That Will One Day Bring Home To It

With Due Force, Those Great Generalisations Of    Science By Which Actions

May Be Rightly Guided.

The Spreading Recognition Of    Drawing As An Element Of    Education Is One

Among Many Signs Of    The   More Rational Views On Mental Culture Now

Beginning To Prevail. Once More It May Be Remarked That Teachers Are At

Length Adopting The   Course Which Nature Has Perpetually Been Pressing On

Their Notice. The   Spontaneous Attempts Made By Children To Represent The

Men, Houses, Trees, And Animals Around Them--On A Slate If They Can Get

Nothing Better, Or With Lead-Pencil On Paper If They Can Beg Them--Are

Familiar To All. To Be Shown Through A Picture-Book Is One Of    Their

Highest Gratifications; And As Usual, Their Strong Imitative Tendency

Presently Generates In Them The   Ambition To Make Pictures Themselves

Also. This Effort To Depict The   Striking Things They See Is A Further

Instinctive Exercise Of    The   Perceptions--A Means Whereby Still Greater

Accuracy And Completeness Of    Observation Are Induced. And Alike By

Trying To Interest Us In Their Discoveries Of    The   Sensible Properties Of

Things, And By Their Endeavours To Draw, They Solicit From Us Just That

Kind Of    Culture Which They Most Need.

Had Teachers Been Guided By Nature's Hints, Not Only In Making Drawing A

Part Of    Education But In Choosing Modes Of    Teaching It, They Would Have

Done Still Better Than They Have Done. What Is That The   Child First

Tries To Represent? Things That Are Large, Things That Are Attractive In

Colour, Things Round Which Its Pleasurable Associations Most

Cluster--Human Beings From Whom It Has Received So Many Emotions; Cows

And Dogs Which Interest By The   Many Phenomena They Present; Houses That

Are Hourly Visible And Strike By Their Size And Contrast Of    Parts. And

Which Of    The   Processes Of    Representation Gives It Most Delight?

Colouring. Paper And Pencil Are Good In Default Of    Something Better; But

A Box Of    Paints And A Brush--These Are The   Treasures. The   Drawing Of

Outlines Immediately Becomes Secondary To Colouring--Is Gone Through

Mainly With A View To The   Colouring; And If Leave Can Be Got To Colour A

Book Of    Prints, How Great Is The   Favour! Now, Ridiculous As Such A

Position Will Seem To Drawing-Masters Who Postpone Colouring And Who

Teach Form By A Dreary Discipline Of    Copying Lines, We Believe That The

Course Of    Culture Thus Indicated Is The   Right One. The   Priority Of

Colour To Form, Which, As Already Pointed Out, Has A Psychological

Basis, Should Be Recognised From The   Beginning; And From The   Beginning

Also, The   Things Imitated Should Be Real. That Greater Delight In Colour

Which Is Not Only Conspicuous In Children But Persists In Most Persons

Throughout Life, Should Be Continuously Employed As The   Natural Stimulus

To The   Mastery Of    The   Comparatively Difficult And Unattractive Form: The

Pleasure Of    The   Subsequent Tinting Should Be The   Prospective Reward For

The Labour Of    Delineation. And These Efforts To Represent Interesting

Actualities Should Be Encouraged; In The   Conviction That As, By A

Widening Experience, Simpler And More Practicable Objects Become

Interesting, They Too Will Be Attempted; And That So A Gradual

Approximation Will Be Made Towards Imitations Having Some Resemblance To

The Realities. The   Extreme Indefiniteness Which, In Conformity With The

Law Of    Evolution, These First Attempts Exhibit, Is Anything But A Reason

For Ignoring Them. No Matter How Grotesque The   Shapes Produced; No

Matter How Daubed And Glaring The   Colours. The   Question Is Not Whether

The Child Is Producing Good Drawings. The   Question Is, Whether It Is

Developing Its Faculties. It Has First To Gain Some Command Over Its

Fingers, Some Crude Notions Of    Likeness; And This Practice Is Better

Than Any Other For These Ends, Since It Is The   Spontaneous And

Interesting One. During Early Childhood No Formal Drawing-Lessons Are

Possible. Shall We Therefore Repress, Or Neglect To Aid, These Efforts

At Self-Culture? Or Shall We Encourage And Guide Them As Normal

Exercises Of    The   Perceptions And The   Powers Of    Manipulation? If By

Furnishing Cheap Woodcuts To Be Painted, And Simple Contour-Maps To Have

Their Boundary Lines Tinted, We Can Not Only Pleasurably Draw Out The

Faculty Of    Colour, But Can Incidentally Produce Some Familiarity With

The Outlines Of    Things And Countries, And Some Ability To Move The   Brush

Steadily; And If By The   Supply Of    Tempting Objects We Can Keep Up The

Instinctive Practice Of    Making Representations, However Rough; It Must

Happen That When The   Age For Lessons In Drawing Is Reached, There Will

Exist A Facility That Would Else Have Been Absent. Time Will Have Been

Gained; And Trouble, Both To Teacher And Pupil, Saved.

From What Has Been Said, It May Be Readily Inferred That We Condemn The

Practice Of    Drawing From Copies; And Still More So That Formal

Discipline In Making Straight Lines And Curved Lines And Compound Lines,

With Which It Is The   Fashion Of    Some Teachers To Begin. We Regret That

The Society Of    Arts Has Recently, In Its Series Of    Manuals On

"Rudimentary Art Instruction," Given Its Countenance To An Elementary

Drawing-Book, Which Is The   Most Vicious In Principle That We Have Seen.

We Refer To The   _Outline From Outline, Or From The   Flat_, By John Bell,

Sculptor. As Explained In The   Prefatory Note, This