Chapter VI: Part V: Lessons as Instruments of Education

I. THE MATTER AND METHOD OF LESSONS

Parents must reflect on the subject-matter of instruction--Home
the best growing ground for young children--Three
questions for the mother--Children learn, to grow--Doctoring
of the material of knowledge--Children learn, to get ideas--
Ideas grow and produce after their kind--Scott and Stephenson
worked with ideas--Value of dominant ideas--Lessons must
furnish ideas--Children learn, to get knowledge--Diluted
knowledge--Dr Arnold’s knowledge as a child--Literature proper
for children--Four tests which should be applied to children’s
lessons--_Résumé_ of six points just considered 169

II. THE KINDERGARTEN AS A PLACE OF EDUCATION

The mother the best _Kindergärtnerin_--The nursery need not
therefore be a kindergarten--Field of knowledge too
circumscribed--Training of a just eye and faithful hand--
‘Sweetness and light’ in the kindergarten 178

III. FURTHER CONSIDERATIONS OF THE KINDERGARTEN

The childhood of Tolstoi--_The Story of a Child_--What we owe
to Froebel--Requirements of a person--Nature as an educator--
Danger of undervaluing children’s intelligence--We all like
to be humoured--Teachers mediate too much--Danger of personal
magnetism--‘Kindergarten’ a false analogy--‘Mother-games’
too strenuous for a child--The society of his equals too
stimulating for a child--Danger of supplanting Nature--
Importance of personal initiative--Parents and teachers must
sow opportunities--‘Only’ children--The child should be
allowed some ordering of his life--_Helen Keller_--Miss
Sullivan on systems of education--The kindergarten in the
United States--Mr Thistleton Mark on the kindergarten--
Dr Stanley Hall on the kindergarten 182

IV. READING

Time of teaching to read--Mrs Wesley’s plan--The alphabet--
Word-making--Word-making with long vowels, etc.--Early
spelling--Reading at sight--The reading of prose--Careful
pronunciation--A year’s work--Ordinary method 199

V. THE FIRST READING LESSON

(Two mothers confer) 207

VI. READING BY SIGHT AND BY SOUND

Learning to read is hard work--Knowledge of arbitrary
symbols--These symbols should be interesting--Tommy’s
first lesson--Steps--Reading sentences--Tommy’s second
lesson--Unknown words--Like combinations have different
sounds--Moral training in reading lessons 214

VII. RECITATION

‘The children’s art’--Memorising 222

VIII. READING FOR OLDER CHILDREN

The habit of reading--Reading aloud--Limitation--Reading
to children--Questions on the subject-matter--Lesson-books--
Slipshod habits; Inattention--Careless enunciation 226

IX. THE ART OF NARRATING

Children narrate by nature--This power should be used in
their education--Method of lesson 231

X. WRITING

Perfect accomplishment--Printing--Steps in teaching--Text-
hand--_A New Handwriting_--How to use 233

XI. TRANSCRIPTION

Value of transcription--Children should transcribe favourite
passages--Small text-hand--Double-ruled lines--Position
in writing--Desks--Children’s table 238

XII. SPELLING AND DICTATION

A fertile cause of bad spelling--The _rationale_ of spelling--
Steps of a dictation lesson 240

XIII. COMPOSITION

George Osborne’s essay--An educational futility--Lessons in
composition--Teaching that is a public danger--‘Composition’
comes by nature 243

XIV. BIBLE LESSONS

Children enjoy the Bible--Should know the Bible text--Essential
and accidental truth--Method of Bible lessons--Picture
illustrations--Bible recitations 247

XV. ARITHMETIC

Educative value of--Problems within the child’s grasp--
Demonstrate--Problems--Notation--Weighing and measuring--
Arithmetic as a means of training--The _A B C Arithmetic_--
Preparation for mathematics 253

XVI. NATURAL PHILOSOPHY

A basis of facts--Eyes and no eyes--Principles--To be
comprehended by children--As taught in a village school 264

XVII. GEOGRAPHY

Educational value of--As commonly taught--Geography should
be interesting--How to begin--What next--Maps--What general
knowledge a child of nine should have--Particular knowledge--
Definitions--Fundamental ideas--Meaning of a map 271

XVIII. HISTORY

A storehouse of ideas--‘Outlines’ mischievous--So are most
history books written for children--Early history of a nation
best fitted for children--Some old Chronicles--Age of myths--
_Plutarch’s Lives_--History books--Dates--Illustrations by
the children--‘Playing at’ history 279

XIX. GRAMMAR

Grammar a difficult study--Latin grammar--English grammar a
logical study--Two grammar lessons 295

XX. FRENCH.

M. Gouin’s method--The ‘Series’--How does the child learn? 300

XXI. PICTORIAL ART, ETC.

Study of pictures--Should be regular--A picture talk--Drawing
lessons--Children have ‘Art’ in them--Clay modelling--The
piano and singing--Handicrafts and drills 307