SECTION 22. OBSERVATION. 305 



be tendered. First, John Stuart Mill explicitly and categori- 

 cally denied that such was the case. Secondly, the present 

 author has watched the early education of children in homes, 

 and has reached the conclusion that any child of nine or ten 

 ought not only to know, speaking generally, as much as child- 

 ren leaving the elementary school at fourteen, but vastly more, 

 so far at least as real education is concerned. The secret is not 

 a deeply veiled one. First, the child can be led to observe 

 and know most of the simpler natural phenomena, to acquire 

 manipulative dexterity, to make substantial progress in arith- 

 metic and drawing, as well as to listen to simplified stories 

 which would promote in him or her an understanding of, and 

 interest in, all kinds of important problems. Secondly, the 

 child is encouraged to read and re-read books, printed in large 

 type and written in plain language and well illustrated, on 

 many fundamental topics astronomy, etheorology, geology, 

 natural history, anthropology, psychology, history, geography, 

 inventions and discoveries of a practical character, etc. If to 

 this be added the older Mill's method of encouraging clear and 

 thoughtful expression in speaking and writing of things learnt 

 and considered, and a complementary training in morals and in 

 the appreciation of things useful and beautiful, the outcome is 

 quite beyond anything one could possibly hope for from the 

 school in its present form, especially if we also include in our 

 purview systematic methodological teaching of the type advo- 

 cated in this volume. 



Assuming intelligent direction, one fairly well prepared mentor 

 could educate with facility, say, six children, until the age of 

 self-education arrives, that is, several years before the average 

 child now leaves the elementary school, after which period the 

 teacher could as easily assist double or treble this number of 

 children. 



This analysis suggests several conclusions that the present- 

 day schools are, comparatively speaking, wofully inefficient; 

 that the supreme aim of education should be to create in the 

 young a love of truth, goodness, health, work, and beauty, and 

 not merely to pump into them in class and during certain hours 

 a given amount of "necessary" knowledge; that the schools 

 should primarily succeed, if they are to succeed at all, in per- 

 suading children intelligently to read and re-read for themselves 

 simply but ably written books on the leading topics of cultural 

 interest, 1 to study problems at first hand, to become dexterous 

 in every kind of manual activity, and to be habitually reflective 

 and judicious; that they should obtain the co-operation of the 

 home in order that the children are led to observe, examine, 

 reflect, and act with decision ; that the schools should raise their 



1 According to Darwin "there are no advantages and many disadvantages 

 in lectures compared with reading". (Life and Letters, vol. 1, p. 33.) 



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