For the Schoolmaster. S. Which is More Lovely, Water or Land WHAT sight is there more noble than old ocean's vast expanse ? engraver in his art and strive to imitate him. write a very fair hand in one year, instead of He has just the same number of letters to form spending many years to little or no advantage. as the writer has,- twenty-six small letters and In a subsequent article I will endeavor to twenty-six capitals, fifty-two in all. Now how give some details of the elementary work of does he set about his work? He takes one let- teaching writing. ter at a time and overcomes all the difficulties which lie in the way, whether they 'consist in imperfect conception of forms or inaccuracy of muscular movement. Determination and application will overcome all hindrances. And, as the engraver knows that his remuneration, his livelihood, depends upon the character of his work, he does not leave a single letter till he has perfected himself in the execution of it. And thus he goes on with each and every letter and character till each is perfected; having no Beneath the flashing canopy in the free and mystic regard to their grouping into words, till the elements of each word and letter are all mastered. In like manner, if the pupil who is learning to write would study each character he is to make in all its parts, in curve and shade, till he is master of all its details, then he would be prepared to use the pen skillfully in reproducing the characters. The greatest difficulties in every undertaking lie at the very beginning, in the failure to conceive the object to be attained, and to comprehend the steps to be taken to secure the end. Therefore it should be the inflexible rule of every teacher of writing, that no step should be taken till the object to be accomplished is well defined and a plan formed and the whole fully explained to the pupil; and then let the pupil be held rigidly to the execution of the same. The want of such a system, or some system at least, I believe is the reason why we have so few good or even passable writers in our schools, while we have multitudes of indifferent, bungling and illegible ones. The most studied determination could not more effectually prevent the forming a good hand in writing than the course generally pursued. I am warranted in thus judging from the fact that in some few places different results are uniformly obtained. In Boston, for instance, a very large proportion of the pupils in the public schools become good writers and many acquire a finished hand. Now the cause does not lie in the latitude or longitude of the place, nor in the mental or physical ability of the children over those of other places; but in the care bestowed on them by their teachers in an intelligent and systematic manner, aided, perhaps, by a strong public opinion. I believe that a child who is old enough to write may be properly trained to Or the gentle brooklet's mirror pure of stainless silvery glass? Than water scenes what can exist more beautiful and fair air? What more majestic or sublime, Where the blue sky doth ocean span. There's a solemn cast o'er ocean's face. proud in its mildest mood, As beautiful when tempest lashed as when by zephyrs wooed, As glorious in its rippling calm as when with foaming might It folds each gallant swift-winged bark in spray 'Tis eloquence too rich for earth, The very billows seem to teach. Nor yet less lovely, though more mild, the little cascade's fall With tinted rainbows quivering bright like lamps 'mid fairy hall. Pure crystal showers glide flashing o'er the beds of stone, And beauty unobtrusive shines from many a rocky Man's lost upon the ocean hoar, Earth's pictures too are not less bold and with the sea-views vie, And nothing can exceed her scenes beneath the There's grandeur on the rocky mount and beauty Earth's paintings are forever new, The prairie's rolling slope of wealth, as fain the face, I mean one that the children can look at eye would trace without its exciting any fear or repulsion. One Some line to mark its vast extent, bears on its no- who contracts her brows and puts on the terrible face ble, in order to hold her school in check, cuts The impress of the Master-hand, that stretched an extremely ridiculous figure before those its emerald lake None ever visit but they wish e'en longer to abide. 'Tis there that land and sea unite their panoramas vast, And solemn, mystic thoughts arise where peace We meet with them in daily life, Such scenes then brightest are and best. From the Ohio Educational Monthly. whose manners she is expected to polish. And when her tones lose their feminine sweetness and imitate those of the opposite sex, another fatal mistake is made, for which no amount of zeal and perseverance can atone. The teacher is regarded by her pupils as the embodiment of all that is good and worthy of imitation; consequently, lasting impressions are made for good or evil, according as she is judicious or injudicious in her daily walk and conversation in their presence. The ostensible purpose of a recitation is to impart instruction as well as to effect a permanent lodgment in the mind, of whatever was required to be prepared. There is a pernicious habit that many teachers unwillingly fall into, the absurdity of which is palpable enough. It consists of a sort of pantomimic performance during the recitation, intended to indicate to the pupil whether or not it is answering correctly. The habit also of supplying the word when a pupil hesitates in answering a question is equalIf I were asked by an inexperienced teacher ly objectionable. Teach self-reliance from the for a set of rules that would insure success if first day a child enters school, and it will be the persistently followed, I would answer: In the better for it through life. Methods of instrucfirst place, always be exceedingly careful to im- tion are diversified, but the one we understand part instruction in language suited to the capa- best and for which we entertain the highest concity of your pupils, and in the second, third, fidence will always reward us with the greatest fourth, fifth, sixth, ad infinitum, let system characterize every effort. BY JAMES M. ROSS.* success. In order to be fully understood, I will endeavor to be as practical as possible in what I have to say. It is not enough that children learn to pronounce all the words that are found on the cards and copy letters neatly when written on the board. Let the script hand be commenced at the very outset and until the pupils are put into the First Reader, devote one-half of each recitation to writing. In this way bad habits, in forming and connecting the letters and in holding the pencil, may be avoided. Everything should be presented in a plain, simple manner, and if possible, illustrated by pictures and drawings, the more deeply to interest and rivet the attention. The ordinary screeching, sing-song manner of recitation, too often allowed among abecedarians, not unfrequently creates a disgust for the school that well directed effort cannot wholly overcome. I verily believe that we cannot place too high an estimate on the first lessons in education. It is just as easy to cultivate distinct articulation, correct pronunciation and proper taste in reading as the imperfections and inaccuracies that constructed to employ all of the words on Card carelessness produces; and the one is just as No. 1 (or in its absence the first twenty lessons sure to cling to us through life as the other. of the First Reader) printed upon the board, Habitual kindness, a smooth musical voice placing the easiest one first. Select a word and a pleasant face are qualifications that every from the first sentence and print the first letter teacher should strive to attain, if she does not of it upon the black-board. Explain the manalready possess them. When I say a pleasant ner in which it is formed, as for example: d is a straight line down with half an o on the left I would have as few sentences as could be * Principal Fifth District School, Cincinnati, O. hand side at the bottom, and require the class to repeat after you. Continue to print that let- quently acquired only by rote, the pernicious ter and have them tell how it is formed, until effects of which may be traced through the First each member of the class can give it verbatim. and Second Readers. I have broken up this [Why not have them print the letter also?-ED. routine by requiring the class, sometimes singly of O. E. M.] Special care should be taken that and, to vary the exercise, at other times in coneach pupil articulates the letter distinctly. Re-cert, to spell the words of the reading lesson in quire them, individually, to point it out wher- their natural order and then in the reverse orever found in the first, second, third, etc., lines der. The readiness with which they go through of the card or on each page of the First Read- this exercise will always furnish ample evidence er. Proceed in like manner with the other let- as to its preparation. In the beginning of eveter or letters of the word. Let the class spell ry lesson, let the vowel sounds be given by the it in concert and singly. The names of the let-class. That reading is poorly taught in most schools is no doubt attributable to the fact, that it is generally believed that it comes by nature, without special effort or training on the part of teachers. The same opinion was formerly entertain ters are a matter of memory, just as much as the names of the digits or the combination of any two of them. It is impossible for most children to remember them until after innumerable repetitions. A double advantage is gained by concert exercises, viz: the recollection of the names of the letters, and their sounds when ed in regard to writing, but the progress that has recently been made in our schools in penused together to represent a word. As a general rule, let no word be passed until every member manship has exploded that false notion. If, by of the class can recognize it at sight, and spell and pronounce it properly. any possibility, the mass of our teachers could be made to realize that reading, to be creditably taught, requires more study and a more critTeach each of the other words that make up ical preparation than everything else combined, the sentence in the same manner, being careful the progress of our schools would be as marked to arrange, miscellaneously, all of the letters in this branch as it has been in others. It may that have been taught, and devote a portion of seem to many teachers, foolish and unprofitable each recitation to their recital. Require them, to spend time in the preparation of lessons in singly and in concert, to pronounce in a clear, the First and Second Readers, but let me asdistinct voice each of the words of the sentence sure one and all, it is a duty you owe not only separately, backward and forward. Explain in to your pupils but also to yourselves. Study simple terms the rising and falling inflections, every sentence. Determine the emphatic words, and give them daily practice upon each. Show the inflections, the proper tone of voice and practhem by means of examples, that certain words tice until you can render the piece artistically. are required to be spoken more forcibly than Never leave it until you are satisfied that you others, and exercise them orally upon little sen- can read it with proper expression. You are tences until they grasp the idea of emphasis and then, and not until then, prepared to appear beremember the term by which you designate it. fore your class and instruct them. You are then Continue your instruction upon the first sen- prepared to give them the proper reading and tence until every member can read it intelligent-require them to imitate, no difference who haply. This may seem like a waste of time, for it pens to be present. It is exceedingly embarcannot be accomplished in a day, nor in a week, rassing to attempt to worry through a recitation but it has been my experience that whatever we before persons of acknowledged or supposed have to do, it is greatly to the interest of our ability, when you have neglected this highest schools to have it done effectively. Although duty - self-preparation - and consequently feel the first sentence, under this plan, requires a your inability even to interest your pupils, much long time, each succeeding one will demand less persons of cultivated tastes. I have known much less, until finally, when your pupils are of teachers spending hours in the preparation admitted to the mysteries of the First and Se- of lessons in the First and Second Readerscond Readers, you will find that most if not all without considering it any humiliation — and I of the serious difficulties that have been experi- have observed that the proficiency of their classes enced, have disappeared. amply repaid them for their trouble. It is in Before being transferred to the First Reader, vain that children are told to give the rising init is customary to require pupils to pronounce flection here and the falling there; to emphasize with remarkable facility. Much of this is fre- this word or that one; to read this portion slow success. ly and that with animation, unless the teacher is us, its influence inust rather be of a magnetic prepared to give the example. nature. So remote is its spirit from that which It is steady, persevering effort that insures seems to prevail among our teachers, that we Lead your pupils on step by step, doubt whether a translation of the book would patiently awaiting the natural development of find any other reception than the standard sneer mind, but always endeavoring to make every- with which the cunning heads of our profession thing so plain and simple, that the naturally rug- have learned to condemn whatever seems to ged pathway may be the more easily travelled. them unpractical. Let forbearance, patience and perseverance be resolved upon every morning, and the harvest of good that will follow will amply repay you. For the Schoolmaster. A Chapter from Richter. The chapter on Dancing cannot, of course, fitly represent the whole of so good a book; but, trivial as is the topic, its treatment is extraordinary and characteristic.-T.] ON TEACHING CHILDREN TO DANCE. It is not easy to say whether children's balls [We would like to introduce the readers of are more to be detested, or children's dancing THE SCHOOLMASTER to a more intimate acquain- more to be praised. The former,- in the prestance with Richter's Levana than will be pos- ence of the dancing-mater,- in the company of sible by now and then translating a passage. spectators or of fellow-dancers in the hot cliWith unimportant exceptions, his entire works mate of the ball-room, and among its hot prostill remain sealed in their native German; ducts- are, at best, the primary lessons and doubly sealed, besides, in the intricacies of a the first steps in the dance of death. The danstyle, which constantly leads the amateur trans- ces of children, on the other hand, are worthy lator into mazes of rhetorical figures and strange of all commendation. oddities of speech, for the clear rendering of As the first language long precedes grammar, which, the resources of the English dictionary so should dancing long precede, and prepare are utterly inadequate. But it is purest gold for, the art of dancing. If a father has an old that is obtained by diligent mining in Richter: piano-forte, or an old violin, or a flute, or a and no earnest student of the German can af- good voice for improvising, he ought to call toford to leave this vein unexplored. One must gether his own children and the neighbors', and study the descriptive sketches in which Carlyle let them, for an hour or two every day, skip and DeQuincey portray this wonderful man to and whirl about to his orchestra,-in pairs,— English readers. He combines the qualities, hand-in-hand in rows, in rings, - very often usually thought the very opposites of each oth- alone,- they themselves singing the while, like er, of philosophical depth and sparkling hu- self-operating barrel-organs, and completely mor. I have never found such intense sympa- at their own will. In the child joy dances still, thy with everything human, as in the pages of while in the man it, at best, smiles or weeps. Richter. His books always leave the remarka- The mature man may, in the dance, express onble impression that they are the natural utter- ly the beauty of the art, not himself and his ances of the author, and reveal a soul which feeling. Love would express itself too rudely, love, simplicity, wisdom and genius qualify for and joy too loud and boldly, before the stern the high office of teacher of men. While in the Nemesis. In the child body and soul are still novels, which form the most considerable part living through their honeymoon in harmony, of his works, Richter writes for all persons of and the rejoicing body still leaps after the hapliberal culture, in the " Levana, or Doctrine of py soul: ere long they quit each other's bed Education," he especially addresses parents and and board, and at iast forsake each other uttereducators, or, indeed, all who have deep inter- ly. Later still, the gentle zephyr of contentest in the welfare of children. Since we have ment no longer shows itself by turning the known this book, we have regarded it as the heavy metal vane. best we have met on the subject of education, Children are Farrer's watches, which always adding, as it does, to Rousseau's contempt of wind themselves, if you only go with them. As scholastic pedantry.— which, in the Emile, only in the ancient astronomy, eleven of their heasnarls and complains, — a geniality, a glow of vens are in motion, and only one-that of sleepfriendliness, and a sympathy, which enlist the is fixed. But only those dances which require fullest confidence in the author's heart. The movements in curves are easy enough for the Levana is not didactic. Being a work of geni- child: running in a straight line will be too dif ficult till he has reached the period of youth. longs to the advantages of this delight of the As to the heavenly bodies, so to the bodies of eyes and heels, that children by no stricter canchildren belong the movement of the spheres, and on than the musical one, are united to each oththeir music withal; while the older body, like er in a feast of rose-buds without the thorns of water, takes the straight course, and shall march quarrel. forward like a soldier to an assault. To explain In short, dancing cannot come early enough; more clearly:— woman, every one knows, can-"but the dancing-master will more easily come not run, but only dance; and any woman could too early than too late." The latter clause more easily journey over a monotonous road, stands in the first edition. More correctly, perdancing, than riding. Now, children are dimin- haps, I ought to have written singing-master, utive women, at least boys are, although girls instead of dancing-master, because connoisseurs are often only diminutive boys. Among all declare that by too early exercise the voice is movements dancing is the easiest, because it is spoiled. The first edition was right, only in so the most limited and the most multifarious: far as it recommended that those children that hence the jubilee is represented, not by a ran- have been educated in a conceited desire to ner, but by a dancer: hence the lazy savage please, should be withdrawn from dancing-masdances, and the negro slave, weary with toil, ter, who reduces to a strict system of rules the dances, in order to excite himself by means of desire to please by means of the bodily graces. action to new action again: hence the runner On the other hand, the second edition is also has oftener fallen dead, other things being equal, right in adding, that better-trained children, than the dancer. Hence camels and armies and who, as late as their eighth or ninth year, know, oriental laborers perform their tasks more easily instead of vanities, only the law of the good to the sound of music, not principally because and the beautiful, may be led to the music of the music is cheering, - for this effect could ea- the dancing-master's fiddle, and in obedience to sily be produced by other enjoyments,-but be- his rules,-compounded of trifles though these cause the music sounds even the straight move- be,-without danger to their higher nature; and ment to a circular dance and to its returning that the best time for this will be the earlier rhythm. As in a chain of argumentative or of years when they learn dancing quite as much historical reasoning, every exertion prepares us without conceit as they do walking and reading. for a severer one, while the zigzag of epigrams To such children, who suffer the torture that is drives us every minute to a new start, and leap, inflicted on goats, when their tendons are cut so, physically, the case is the same in running to prevent leaping, the dancing-lesson may and walking, in which, up hill and down hill, still become an hour of freedom and play. no effort furnishes the motive for the following one, but the greatest and the slightest succeed each other at random: while, on the other hand, dancing, without aim and compulsion, reproduces the same motion out of itself, and makes not the continuance, but the cessation, difficult. Every race must soon end; but not so with the dance. What better movement could there be, therefore, for children's exercise than this constantly recurring one, especially since children are still more excitable and more easily exhausted than women? Running, walking on stilts and climbing strengthen and harden single pow-necessity for something higher and beyond even ers and muscles; while, on the other hand, From the Connecticut Common School Journal. - MUCH has been said, recently, to show teachers the importance of moral lessons in the school-room, and almost all, doubtless, are convinced of their excellence. They furnish an opportunity for implanting correct moral sentiments in the child's soul, and at the same time, by varying the ordinary round of exercises, awaken a fresh interest in his school-life. Yet still the Christian teacher sometimes fee's a this. As he thinks of the blessed lessons which dancing, as a physical poetry, both spares and the Great Teacher, Him of Nazareth, taught. also exercises and equalizes all the muscles. he would fain follow humbly in the same gloriMoreover, music imparts to body and soul ous pathway, and lead his pupils to the same the metrical order, which further develops what peaceful home. is highest in our nature, and disposes pulse- But how to impart appropriate religious inbeats, steps and thoughts. Music is the metre struction, amid the hurrying pressure of school of this poetical motion, an invisible dance, as duties, it is often difficult to decide. It must be the latter is a dumb music. Finally, it also be- skillfully done, occupying only a few moments |
