400 



EDUCATION. 



This zeal for loading the mind of the child 

 with names for every ohject and for all the at- 

 tributes of every object which falls under his 

 observation, was deprecated by many of Pesta- 

 lozzi's assistants and followers ; and Fellenberg, 

 Zeller, and Van Kaumer, the ablest of them, en- 

 tirely repudiated it. 



In Germany, however, the evil results flow- 

 ing from this predominance given to language, 

 are, owing to the structure of the German lan- 

 guage, far less injurious than they would be 

 elsewhere. From the native roots, compounds 

 and derivatives are formed by accretion of 

 root words in common use, and early under- 

 stood by the child, so that the attributes or 

 qualities of objects are described in language 

 which suggests its own meaning to the child. 

 Thus where we should speak of the transpar- 

 ency of glass, for instance, the German word 

 would be (literally translated) " through-seen- 

 ness : " what we should call a hexagon, the 

 German would describe as " six corners," a 

 carnivorous animal in their vernacular would 

 be " flesh- eating." Thus the mind of the child 

 was not taxed, as it would be in English, 

 with names of " learned length and thundering 

 sound " derived from foreign tongues, and form- 

 ing no part of the language of every day life. 



In 1818, Dr. Mayo, of London, visited Pesta- 

 lozzi's institution at Yverdun, and was so 

 favorably impressed with his system that he 

 resolved to introduce it into Great Britain. 

 Dr. Biber and Mr. Greaves, who had also been 

 at Yverdun, cooperated with him in the effort 

 to accomplish his purpose. They introduced 

 some modifications in order the better to adapt 

 it to the English habits and modes of thought, 

 but unfortunately the theory of language was 

 adopted with all its faults, and with the addi- 

 tional objection, that owing to the idea appar- 

 ently that the homely and expressive Saxon de- 

 scriptive words, which would at least have had 

 thejnerit of being constantly used within the 

 child's hearing were vulgar, the more refined and 

 classical words of Latin or Greek derivation 

 were adopted ; thus, if a peppercorn were the 

 subject of the lesson, the child, instead of being 

 told that its taste was biting or stinging, was 

 taught that it was acrid or pungent ; birdlime, 

 instead of being sticky, was adhesive ; an object 

 without life was inanimate; a sourish apple 

 was acidulous, and so on ail infinitum. In 1836, 

 the " Home and Colonial School Society" was 

 organized for the promotion of schools on this 

 system, and a few years later established model 

 and training schools from which about 3,000 

 teachers, a majority of them females, have 

 been sent out. The apparent results from this 

 method of teaching have been such as to at- 

 tract attention, and to lead to its extensive in- 

 troduction in Great Britain. In Toronto, Can- 

 ada, it has been introdHoed into the normal 

 and model schools. Dr. Mayo first, and subse- 

 quently his daughter, Miss Elizabeth Mayo, 

 have prepared books of introduction for the 

 teachers of the Home and Colonial Training 



Schools, giving, with great minuteness of 

 detail, the processes of instruction in all 

 branches taught on the Pestalozzian system. 

 The first of these works, published in 1853, 

 was in five 8vo. volumes. A "Manual of Ele- 

 mentary Instruction," in two volumes, pre- 

 pared by 'Miss Mayo, was published in 1861. 

 In 1860, attention was called to this system of 

 instruction in the United States by the publica- 

 tion, by Henry Barnard, in his " American Jour- 

 nal of Education," of a sketch of the Home and 

 Colonial School Society's operations, and speci- 

 mens of their mode of teaching. Several emi- 

 nent teachers and friends of education, in visit- 

 ing Toronto, had spent some time in the Toron- 

 to model schools, and witnessed the exercises 

 of the primary classes trained under J;his sys- 

 tem. Among them were E. A. Sheldon, su- 

 perintendent of the city schools of Oswego, N. 

 Y., and N. A. Calkins, of New York city. Mr. 

 Sheldon procured the volume of instruction of 

 the Home and Colonial Society, and very soon 

 commenced training the teachers of his pri- 

 mary schools in the method of object teach- 

 ing, and, deeming it desirable to have the 

 teachers of the primary schools thoroughly 

 trained by experienced instructors, sent to the 

 Home and Colonial Society for a teacher. Miss 

 M. E. M. Jones, an experienced instructor, was 

 sent by the society, and has conducted for the 

 past year a training school at Oswego. Mr. 

 Calkins, having devoted much attention to the 

 methods of the society, has, for a year and a 

 half past given instruction in object teaching 

 at Teachers' Institutes, &c., on the subject. The 

 system has been introduced into the model 

 schools of the State Normal Schools of New 

 York, New Jersey, and Michigan, and into a 

 portion of the primary schools of Syracuse, N. 

 Y., Paterson, N. J., Chicago, 111., Toledo and 

 Cincinnati, Ohio, Kochester, N. Y., San Fran- 

 cisco, Cal., and several smaller places. Mr. 

 Sheldon and Mr. Calkins have both published 

 treatises on the subject ; Mr. Sheldon's being 

 entitled " A Manual of Elementary Instruction 

 for the Use of Public and Private Schools and 

 Normal Classes, Containing a Graduated Course 

 of Object Lessons, for Training the Senses and 

 Developing the Faculties of Children," New 

 York, 1862; and Mr. Calkins's, "Primary Ob- 

 ject Lessons for a Graduated Course of Devel- 

 opment : a Manual for Teachers and Parents," 

 New York, 1862. The following works on the 

 subject have also been published: "Object 

 Teaching and Other Methods of Primary In- 

 struction in Great Britain," by Henry Barnard, 

 LL.D., Hartford, 1861; "A Manual of Infor- 

 mation and Suggestions for Object Lessons," 

 by Marcius Willson, author of several popular 

 school books, New York, 1862 ; " Object Les- 

 sons Prepared for Teachers of Primary Schools 

 and Primary Classes," by A. S. Welch, Prin- 

 cipal of Michigan State Normal School, New 

 York, 1862. "Pveport of the Committee on 

 the Primary Schools in the City of Oswego, 

 N. Y., 1862." Several school books professedly 



