Imágenes de páginas
PDF
EPUB

4. Never behave childishly to a child, but treat the child with a childlike heart.

5. Do not strive to hide your own imperfections from the child; but rather strive to avoid their influencing your conduct; and when you have done this, avow them fully. But to be able to avow them without impairing your influence, you must get rid of all those imperfections which you can not avow without losing your dignity in the child's eye.

6. Never let your pupils look up to you for the ground of their conviction, but let them find the proof of their knowledge in their understanding.—Indiana School Journal.

THE SECOND INAUGURAL ADDRESS OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN.

[THE last official words of ABRAHAM LINCOLN to the American people should be treasured in every heart. We are unwilling that a document so grandly sublime and at the same time so simple, should pass into history without notice by our school journals. The best notice we can give of it is the document itself.-EDS.]

FELLOW COUNTRYMEN:

At this second appearing to take the oath of the Presidential office, there is less occasion for an extended address than there was at the first. Then, a statement, somewhat in detail, of a course to be pursued, seemed fitting and proper. Now, at the expiration of four years, during which public declarations have been constantly called forth on every point and phase of the great contest which still absorbs the attention and engrosses the energies of the nation, little that is new could be presented. The progress of our arms, upon which all else chiefly depends, is as well known to the public as to myself; and it is, I trust, reasonably satisfactory and encouraging to all. With high hope for the future, no prediction in regard to it is ventured.

On the occasion corresponding to this, four years ago, all thoughts were anxiously directed to an impending civil war. All dreaded it— all sought to avert it. While the Inaugural Address was being delivered from this place, devoted altogether to saving the Union without war, insurgent agents were in this city seeking to destroy it

without war seeking to dissolve the Union, and divide the effects, by negotiation. Both parties deprecated war; but one of them would make war rather than let the nation survive; and the other would accept war rather than let it perish: and the war came.

One-eighth of the whole population were colored slaves—not distributed generally over the Union, but localized over the southern part of it. These slaves constituted a peculiar and powerful interest. All knew that this interest was, somehow, the cause of the war. To strengthen, perpetuate, and extend this interest was the object for which the insurgents would rend the Union, even by war: while the Government claimed no right to do more than to restrict the territorial enlargement of it. Neither party expected for the war the magnitude or the duration which it has already attained. Neither anticipated that the cause of the conflict might cease with, or even before, the conflict itself should cease. Each looked for an easier triumph, and a result less fundamental and astounding. Both read the same Bible, and pray to the same God; and each invokes His aid against the other. It may seem strange that any men could dare to ask a just God's assistance in wringing their bread from the sweat of other men's faces; but let us judge not, that we be not judged. The prayer of both could not be · answered — that of neither has been answered fully. The Almighty has His own purposes. "Woe unto the world because of offenses! for it must be that offenses come; but woe to that man by whom the offense cometh." If we shall suppose that American slavery is one of those offenses which, in the Providence of God, must needs come, but which having continued through His appointed time, He now wills to remove, and that He gives to both North and South this terrible war, as the woe due to those by whom the offense came, shall we discern therein any departure from those divine attributes which the believers in a living God always ascribe to Him. Fondly do we hope fervently do we pray-that this mighty scourge of war may speedily pass away. Yet, if God wills that it continue until all the wealth piled up by the bondman's two hundred and fifty years of unrequited toil shall be sunk, and until every drop of blood drawn with the lash shall be paid with another drawn with the sword, as was said three thousand years ago, so still it must be said, "The judgments of the Lord are true and righteous altogether."

With malice towards none; with charity for all; with firmness in the right, as God gives. us to see the right, let us strive on to finish

the work we are in; to bind up the nation's wounds; to care for him who shall have borne the battle, and for his widow and his orphans-to do all which may achieve and cherish a just and lasting peace among ourselves, and with all nations.

From the American Educational Monthly.

HOW SHALL WE TEACH GEOGRAPHY ?

NEED OF A PREPARATORY COURSE.

IN the January number we gave outlines of a course of study in Geography, which we believe to be the only philosophic one. That course included three separate grades-the Perceptive, the Analytic, and the Synthetic, the work of each being of a different character from that of the others, and having an entirely different object. The work of the Perceptive grade was mainly to become acquainted with the, so to speak, mechanism of the earth, and was to be conducted by the examination of a globe as its most perfect representation, and of maps of the continents as convenient representations, on a larger scale, of its several great members.

Undoubtedly all will admit that the only value of globes or maps, as a means of study, consists in the fact that they are symbols of what actually exists upon the earth—that they represent the earth, or portions of it, in regard to form, character, and the position, both* relative and absolute, of its parts.

If, therefore, a globe or map can create in the mind of the pupil no image of the earth, or of the portion of the earth which it represents, but is to him simply a ball or a sheet of paper with certain lines and colors upon it to which certain names are attached, then it has no longer any value as a representative object, and so far as practical results in the study of geography are concerned, might as well be dispensed with, and the pupils be taught, as some of us were in childhood, simply to repeat lists of names headed rivers, mountains, islands, seas, etc. For of what value can it be to a child to know that a certain line on the map is called a river or a mountain range, if he has no correct notion of what a river or mountain range really is? or, that a certain part of the map is called England, and a certain

point within it London, if he does not see behind the map the beautiful country itself, with its farms, its mines, its great cities and busy villages; and the vast metropolis with its trade and manufactures, its crowds of busy people, its palaces, its gardens, even its fogs—whatever distinguishes it from any other great city?

In order to secure the requisite results from the use of a map, we must give it life and significance, so that when the eye rests upon certain signs there shall start into view a great mountain wall in all its grandeur, with its accessory slopes, and its rivers like silver bands uniting them; or certain other signs shall spread out a broad landscape with dark forests, green pastures, and fields of golden grain, and lakes white with the sails of commerce. The child must first be made acquainted with nature as it exists under different conditions of surface, climate, and culture; in other words, he must first know the thing to be symbolized. Then the symbol will have a value, and not till then.

For this reason the course heretofore delineated should be preceded by an introductory course, the purpose of which shall be by means of a series of simple conversational lessons, to form in the mind a vivid picture of whatever is most characteristic of the great physical regions of the globe: that is, to give to the mind of the child, in regard to each, as nearly as possible, what he would receive by seeing with his own eyes the region in question. These lessons, followed by maps in which the child learns the appropriate symbol for the reality he has been studying, and sees the countries through which his imaginary journey has led him, in their comparative size and relative position, will give to him the correct appreciation of the nature and use of a map, and enable it to become to his mind, in his future study a source of knowledge which it could have become in no other way. Having made acquaintance with a type of each of the great strongly-marked physical regions of the earth, and learned the manner of representing it upon the map, he is now prepared to read the map itself, and seeing the actual country it represents spread out before him on a smaller scale, learn for himself all the map contains just as perfectly and easily as, having learned the alphabet, he masters the contents of a printed page.

GENERAL PLAN OF PREPARATORY COURSE.

These lessons should commence with what is most familiar to the child-his own locality—as that is within his range of observation,

and possesses features that can be made use of in building up the images of remote regions. When he has learned all it is able to teach him, he may, under the direction of his teacher, construct a simple map of the neighborhood, showing the position of every object he has been studying. A map so constructed will never fail to call up a complete picture of the region it represents. The child has thus taken his first step in geographical study; he has made an intimate acquaintance with a portion of the earth's surface, and has formed a symbol by which it can always be recalled, as vividly as the face of a friend by a portrait.

He may now proceed, step by step, to form acquaintance with the characteristic regions of his own country. This is done by an imaginary journey, in the course of which whatever would most strike his attention in travelling should be presented in the order in which it occurs, in a vivid and picturesque description, yet in such language as he can most perfectly comprehend. Care should be taken to notice only the striking features of the picture, as too great minutia of detail would impair its distinctions and weaken its impression. Throughout these journeys the position of the region under discussion in regard to the child's home must be kept in mind. Thus, at the beginning of each lesson the pupils might be asked to point or walk toward the places of which they have learned, and to state in what direction they are from the place in which the lessons are given. At the end of the lessons on the United States, a map of the whole country showing the various regions traversed in their relative size and position, accompanied by a rapid review of the main points noticed, will fix in the memory all that is needed, and make the map a vivid symbol of the reality. After this is done, the lessons can be extended in the same manner to other countries and continents, noticing, of course, only what is most characteristic of each of these. Thus in England we have the beauty of the landscape, owing to high culture, the commercial and manufacturing industry of London and Manchester; in France the vintage and silk manufacture-Paris and Lyons; in Switzerland the snow-crowned Alps, the beautiful mountain lakes and the herdsmen. When all are done, a Mercator's map, in which the several continents and oceans can be seen in their relative position without the interruption occasioned by the hemispheres, will complete the preparation for the use of the maps in future study. Then a few lessons, gathering together the separate ideas in regard to climate,

« AnteriorContinuar »