EDUCATION. 



401 



based on this system have also appeared in New 

 York and Philadelphia. 



Only a limited description of the processes 

 adopted in the new method can be given in 

 these pages, but a brief analysis of them may 

 riot be inappropriate, since the system is so 

 actively propagated. The work of Mr. Shel- 

 don must be the guide, as being more complete 

 than any other, and being condensed from the 

 manual " of the Home and Colonial Training 

 Schools, and with the assistance of two of the 

 former teachers of those schools (Miss Jones 

 and Professor H. Kriisi, a son of Pestalozzi's 

 associate), is invested with a degree of authority 

 which does not appertain to the other treatises. 



The system of object teaching is by these 

 writers and in practice applied to children be- 

 tween the ages of 4 or 5 and 12 years. The 

 subjects on which lessons with objects are given 

 are color, form, number, size, weight, sound, 

 language, reading, dictation, geography, lessons 

 on the human body, lessons on animals, lessons 

 on plants, moral instruction, and drawing. 

 Under form is included the elementary princi- 

 ples of geometry and writing, under number 

 the simpler rules of arithmetic, under language 

 the principles of grammar, and under lessons 

 on the human body, animals, and plants, ele- 

 mentary physiology, zoology, and botany. The 

 range of topics is thus sufficiently extensive to 

 comprise the studies of public schools generally. 



The rules for the teacher in giving instruc- 

 tion by this method require that the matter 

 which is the subject should be stated, and the 

 properties, nature, qualities and uses of it 

 brought out by examination, the terms given 

 and explained, the ideas developed from it, and 

 illustrations and anecdotes respecting it narrat- 

 ed, and the whole impressed upon the memory 

 by numerous simultaneous repetitions, and by 

 writing and drawing upon the blackboard. Of 

 course, in the different topics there must be 

 considerable variations of detail, and much 

 must necessarily be left to the skill and tact of 

 the teacher, but the general order here indi- 

 cated must be followed. 



Children of the ages above specified are di- 

 vided into four classes or steps according to age 

 and intellectual capacity. AYith the youngest, 

 the object of the teacher must be to exercise 

 the perceptive faculties ; with the second, a 

 more minute perception is developed and the 

 conceptive faculty called into action ; with the 

 third, the reasoning faculties are exercised, es- 

 pecially in the matter of distinctions, differ- 

 ences, and comparisons ; while the perceptive 

 faculty is still kept in activity, in the fourth, the 

 imagination and the powers of analogy and 

 generalization are developed. 

 . The Phonic method of teaching reading, as 

 prescribed in the " Object System," is peculiar, 

 and many advantages are claimed for it. The 

 letters are taught by means of cards and the 

 blackboard, in the following order, a, t, m, c, J, 

 r, h, t>, /, s, d, I, p, g, n, j, ?, e, i, o, x, u, y, g, z, 

 and the combinations, &w. oy. and th. The 



YOL. IL-26 



small letters are taught first, and only the short 

 sounds of the vowels ; the capitals are next 

 taught, C, K, 0, P, S, U, V, N, X, and Z, from 

 their analogy to the small letters, and the re- 

 mainder divided into three classes, /, L, T, F, 

 E, H, A, N, and M, straight-lined letters ; Q 

 and G, curved line letters, and D, B, 7?, and J, 

 straight and curved line letters. These letters 

 are to be rudely imitated by the children with 

 laths, and drawn on the blackboard. Mean- 

 time the child is taught to recognize by sight 

 the words the, is, his, this, to aid in forming 

 sentences, and combinations of the letters into 

 words of one syllable, having the short sound 

 of the vowels, are made. The children are exer- 

 cised next, first on the long, double, and short 

 vowel sounds, secondly on the consonant sounds, 

 and third on rhyming sounds. In the second 

 step, the children are introduced to words con- 

 taining the long sounds of the vowels, and an 

 additional list of words to be learned at sight, 

 containing different sounds of the vowels ; to 

 words containing silent letters, and also to the 

 sound of IT, previously omitted, and the two 

 sounds of C and S. They are also taught 

 words having more than one initial or terminal 

 consonant, and for the first time learn the 

 names of the letters. Reading is commenced 

 in a simple reading book, prepared by the Home 

 and Colonial Society, and from this the teacher 

 reads first word by word, the children repeat- 

 ing, and then the children read in the same 

 way and the teacher -repeats, and this several 

 times ; the same process is followed with each 

 clause and finally with each sentence. Words 

 having any peculiarity of spelling are selected 

 and written upon the blackboard, sounds dis- 

 tinguished, and silent letters noticed. Xext a 

 single child is called upon to read the sentence 

 or sentences in the same way, and the children 

 are questioned on the meaning of the words, 

 and the idea of the sentence. In the third step, 

 the remaining consonants g, th, ph, gh, ch, z, and 

 x are considered and their sounds taught by 

 examples and analogies ; diphthongs and other 

 anomalous sounds are also distinguished, and 

 the children exercised in reading as before, 

 though in lessons of longer and more difficult 

 words. It is impossible to concur in the com- 

 mendations bestowed on this method of teach- 

 ing to read. It seems faulty in instructing the 

 child vowels before consonants, letters before 

 words, and compound sounds before simple ones. 

 Those who desire more full descriptions of 

 the system will find them in the treatises above 

 named. It is not surprising that so many prom- 

 inent teachers should have eagerly seized upon 

 this system. The teaching of very young 

 children, always a matter of difficulty, had 

 never been managed with much method, and 

 with but a moderate degree of success ; and rou- 

 tine, fatal here as everywhere el?e, had deprived 

 the best of the plans in use of much of their 

 vitality. The Kinder-garten system, though 

 in many respects admirable, was encumbered 

 with too many and too expensive arrangements 



