In the School-Room Part 11

_Fabulous_--Full of threads; "Silk is fabulous."

_Accession_--The act of eating a great deal; "John got very sick after dinner by accession."

_Atonement_--A small insect; "Queen Mab was pulled by little atonements." Sound, [orthodox]; "They went to the church of the Atonement."

_Auxiliary_--To form; "The gardener did auxiliary his garden."

_Ingredient_--A native-born; "Tobacco is an ingredient of this country."

_Fragment_--Sweetmeats; "It was a fragment."

_Develop_--To swallow up; "G.o.d sent a whale to develop Jonah."

_Exotic_--Relating to a government; "Some countries have a very exotic government." Patriotic; "He was exotic in the cause of Independence." Absolute; "The government of Turkey is exotic."

Standing out; "The company were exotic."

_Circ.u.mference_--Distance through the middle. Distance around the middle of the outside.

_Callous_--Something which cannot be effected; "That America should gain her independence was supposed to be callous."

_Mobility_--Belonging to the people; "The mobility of St. Louis has greatly increased."

_Anomalous_--Powerful; "His speech was considered anomalous."

_Adequate_--A land animal; "An elephant is an adequate."

_Transition_--The act of transcribing; "The transition of that book was gaining ground in the public mind."

_Gregarious_--Pertaining to idols; "The Sandwich Islands wors.h.i.+p gregarious." Pertaining to an oak; "The Druids were noted for their gregarious exercises." Consisting of grain. Gra.s.s-eating. Full of talk. Full of color.

_Propensity_--Dislike; "He had a propensity to study."

_Artificially_--Belonging to flowers.

_Fluctuation_--coming in great numbers; "There was a great fluctuation of emigrants." Setting on fire. Beating.

_Odium_--That you have a great tact at anything; "Your odium is very great." A poisonous herb. Pertaining to song; "He was an odium writer." A sweet smell; "The odium of new-mown hay."

_Transverse_--To turn over; "Transverse that bucket and see what is in it." To change from verse; "Some writers change books from transverse to verse." To verse again; "He transversed his copy." To spread abroad; "They transverse the Bible."

_Utility_--Relating to the soil; "The ground it remarkable for its utility."

_Quadruple_--Relating to birds; "There was a number of quadruple."

_Alternate_--Not ternate.

_Menace_--A tare in the flesh; "The dog caused a menace in John's arm."

_Vital_--Relating to death; "Vital spark of heavenly flame."

_Intrinsic_--not trinsic. Weak, feeble; "He was a very intrinsic old man."

_Subservient_--One opposed to the upholding of servants. Stubborn; "On account of the boy being subservient he was turned out of school."

_Perfidy_--Trust; not to cheat; "Such a man is perfidy; that is, everything can be trusted to him." Accessible; "Some persons have a great deal of perfidy."

_Access_--Intermission; "Joseph had access of his teacher to go into the room."

_Vicinity_--In the same direction; "Pekin is in the vicinity of Philadelphia."

_Subsequent_--Preceding; "The subsequent chapter."

_Infectious_--To make fectious.

_Exquisite_--To be in a quisitive manner. To help. To find out.

Talkative. Not required.

_Mingle_--To tear in pieces.

_Deride_--To ride down.

_Manifold_--Made by the hand. Pertaining to man; "Forgive our manifold sins."

I have failed entirely in the general drift of this chapter, if I have not made it obvious that the principle which I have been attempting to ill.u.s.trate is one of singularly pervading influence, and of most various and manifold applications. The subject is indeed eminently suggestive.

One single additional line of ill.u.s.tration, however, must suffice. I refer to the application of this principle to what may be called the incidentals of teaching and training.

A child, for instance, should not only "spell out of book," as it is called, but his attention should by some means be directed to the way in which words are spelled. He should be accustomed to form, as it were, a mental image of each word, to think of it as having a particular form and appearance, so that his eye will detect instantly a wanting or an excrescent letter, just as he sees a wen, a defective limb, or a distorted feature on the person of an acquaintance. Only fire his young ambition with the aim to spell well, and quicken his attention to the way in which words are spelled, and every time he reads a book he receives incidentally a lesson in spelling.

A child should have stated exercises and systematic instructions in the art of reading. But quite as much improvement in this important and too much neglected accomplishment may be gained by not allowing children at any time to read in an improper manner. Every demonstration at the blackboard, every text or hymn repeated from memory, every recitation in arithmetic, grammar, or geography, every exercise of every kind in which the voice is used and words are uttered, may be made an incidental lesson in reading. By being never allowed to p.r.o.nounce words incorrectly, to utter them in a low or drawling manner, or to crowd and overlap them, as it were, one upon the other, the ear becomes accustomed to the correct sounds of the language, and immediately detects any variation from its accustomed standard. By thus insisting, in every vocal exercise, upon the full and correct p.r.o.nunciation of the elementary sounds of the language, more may be done to make good readers and speakers than by all the p.r.o.nouncing dictionaries and elocution books in print.

Let a child by all means take lessons in writing. Let him learn plain text, German text, round hand, running hand, back hand, and the flourishes. But if he is to become rapidly master of that truly beautiful and most useful accomplishment, let the teacher insist upon his always attending to his manner of writing, and always writing as well as he can. Whether he writes a composition, a sketch, a letter, whenever for any purpose he puts pen to paper, let him be required to form each letter distinctly, to write it gracefully, and to give to his exercise a neat and elegant appearance. Teach him to think of a crooked line or a blotted page as of an untied shoe, or a dirty face. By thus making every written exercise an exercise in writing, his progress will be increased beyond your expectations, and you will soon see him looking with pleasure at the clean and symmetrical forms which flow so gracefully from his pen, as he goes from line to line over the virgin page, no half-formed or misshapen letters to embarra.s.s, but all in every part as elegantly written as it is easily read.

Grammar should no doubt be taught by text-book and in stated lessons.

The parts of speech, the conjugations and declensions, syntax and parsing, must all be systematically conned, the rules and definitions committed to memory, and the judgment exercised upon their application.

At the same time every recitation of a child, as well as all his conversation, ought to be made an incidental and unconscious lesson in grammar. Only never allow him to use unchallenged an incorrect or ungrammatical expression, train his ear to detect and revolt at it, as at a discordant note in music, let him if possible hear nothing but sterling, honest English, and he will then learn grammar to some purpose. If, on the contrary, he is allowed to recite and to talk in whatever language comes uppermost, and to hear continually those around him reciting and talking in a similar manner, he may pa.r.s.e till he is blind without learning "to speak and write the English language correctly." Banish from the nursery, the school-room, and the play-ground, incorrect and ungrammatical expressions, and you do more than can be done in all other ways to preserve "the well of English undefiled."

Young persons need systematic instructions in the principles which should govern their conduct. They need not indeed be troubled with the more abstruse questions in the theory of morals. But the great obvious rules of duty should be taught them, in a systematic manner, by a competent instructor. But that man would be thought little acquainted with the influences which go to mould and form the character, who should suppose the matter ended here. The doctrines inculcated in the lesson, must be carried out and applied in all the petty incidents of the day.

Not an hour pa.s.ses in a large family or a school, without an occurrence involving some principle in morals. A boy of moderate talents, notwithstanding all his exertions, is eclipsed by one more gifted, and he is tempted to envy. Imagining himself aggrieved or insulted by his fellows, he burns for revenge. Overtaken in a fault and threatened with punishment, he is tempted to lie. Misled by the opinion of others, or esteeming some rule of his teachers harsh and unnecessary, he is inclined to disobey. These and a hundred other instances which might be named, will suggest to the thoughtful parent or teacher so many opportunities for giving incidentally the most important practical instruction in morals.

In these and the manifold other ill.u.s.trations which might be given, the essential point is to quicken and keep alive the attention. Whatever be the subject of study, and whether the instructions be direct or incidental, let children be preserved from attending to it in a sluggish, listless, indifferent manner. The subject of study, in the case of young persons, is often of less importance than the manner of study. I have been led sometimes to doubt the value of many of the inventions for facilitating the acquisition of knowledge by children.

That knowledge the acquisition of which costs no labor, will not be likely to make a deep impression, or to remain long upon the memory. It is by labor that the mind strengthens and grows: and while care should be taken not to overtask it by exertions beyond its strength, yet let it never be forgotten that mere occupation of the mind, even with useful and proper objects, is not the precise aim of education. The educator aims, not to make learned boys, but able men. To do this, he must tax their powers. He must rouse them to manly exertion. He must teach them to think, to discriminate, to digest what they have received, to work.

Every day there must be the glow of hard work,--not the exhaustion and languor which arise from too protracted confinement to study,--which have the same debilitating effect upon the mind that a similar process has upon the body,--but vigorous and hardy labor, such as wakens the mind from its lethargy, summons up the resolution and the will, and puts the whole internal man into a state of determined and positive activity.

The boy in such a case feels that he is at work. He feels, too, that he is gaining something more than knowledge. He is gaining power. He is growing in strength. He grapples successfully to-day with a difficulty that would have staggered him yesterday. There is no mistaking this process; and no matter what the subject of study, the intellectual development what it gives, is worth infinitely more than all that vague, floating kind of knowledge sometimes sought after, which seems to be imbibed somehow from the atmosphere of the school-room, as it certainly evaporates the moment a boy enters the atmosphere of men and of active life.

XXVII.