CATECHISM ON METHODS OF TEACHING. TRANSLATED FROM DIESTERWEG'S "ALMANAC," (Jahrbuch,) FOR 1855 AND 1856, BY DR. HERMANN WIMMER. I. INTUITIONAL INSTRUCTION, (Anschauungsunterricht,) BY A. DIESTERWEG. 1. What is the object of intuitional instruction? To prepare the child who has just entered the primary school, for formal school instruction. 2. What is therefore its external position in the course of instruction? It forms as it were the bridge from the liberty of home life to the regular discipline of the school; it is in regard to instruction, an intermediate between home and school. 3. What is to be effected by it? The children are to learn to see and to hear accurately, to be attentive, to govern their imaginations, to observe, to keep quiet, and to speak distinctly and with the right emphasis. 4. With what objects must this preparatory education deal; having in view a "formal" aim, but no acquisition of knowledge? Perceptible or perceived objects; hence its name. It has a two-fold meaning; real observation by the senses, especially by eye and ear,-and such management, by the teacher that the objects, their qualities and conditions, are made vivid interior perceptions. 5. By what do we know that its end is attained? By the whole appearance of the children, and particularly by their correct and proper speech and pronunciation, which can not be valued too highly from the first beginning. 6. What is the beginning of this instruction? After a conversation about father and mother, to gain their confidence, and after some directions concerning the mode of answering and behaving in the school-room, the first thing is to observe the room and its contents. The pupil is to be made acquainted with all around him; he must learn to see, to name, and to describe exactly, all objects in the room. 7. What must be chiefly attended to from the first day? (a) A clear, emphatic statement in complete sentences. E. g. What sort of thing is this? This thing is a chair, etc. (b) A comprehensive view of all qualities observed in an object, at the conclusion of each exercise. This is of the greatest importance in all instruction. 8. What is the second step? Observation of the whole school, school-house, road, village or town, in their external qualities. 9. The third? Observation of some of the animals in the place, and of man. 10. What next? This depends on circumstances. In general, it may be said, that the result of this instruction may be secured by from four to six hours a week during the first year. The duller the children are, the longer it must be continued. It may be further extended to the trees and plants of the neighborhood, the trades and employments of the people in the place, clouds, weather, wind, fire, water, sun, moon, stars, etc.; in short, to all objects accessible to real observation. Accurate contemplation or description of models of mathematical bodies may also be very advantageous. The teacher should draw the streets and houses of the place before the eyes of the pupils on the blackboard; he may resort to "Stäbchenlegen," (laying down small sticks; see Diesterweg's Kleinkinderschule, (Primary School,) fifth edition, and Stangenberger's book;) he may use the picture tables; in one word, he may arrange any variety of useful exercises to attain the important end. It is least possible in this branch, to prescribe in books a regular and equal course to all. Of the greatest importance, we may repeat, is the way in which the children speak and pronounce. A teacher who is unmindful of this, prepares trouble for his whole professional career. Instruction in teaching, if the teacher understands it, is at the same time instruction in language. It is not, however, instruction in grammar; yet it leads to the understanding of the language, and to attention to words and expressions in general. Not only the nouns, adjectives and verbs, but the prepositions and conjunctions also, should be managed without the mention of their names, but by using practical examples of them. It is not the object to explain these words, but to use them correctly by means of a variety of exercises. The best manuals for the Intuitional Method direct such instruction, and the teacher shows his skill in the suitable choice of objects, and especially in the varied and attractive treatment of them. Less depends on the selection of what is to be discussed, than on the way in which the attention of the children is secured. If the proverb "Every way is good except the tiresome" be true any where, it is true here. As soon as the children get tired, the subject must be dropped. Success depends entirely on the activity of the children. This is true, indeed, of all teaching, but preeminently so where knowledge and technical ability are not aimed at, but only an awakening of the slumbering faculties, a "formal" end. Attention, liveliness, a desire to observe, and to answer, etc., are the measures for judging of success. If the result is secured, i. e., if the pupil is prepared for learning, the teacher leaves this instruction and advances to study proper, which is likewise intuitional. That is, he proceeds always from facts, from real, undeniable and undisputable facts. The importance of this principle is not yet enough understood, nor has the subject been exhausted by teachers or educators.* II. INSTRUCTION IN READING, BY HONCAMP. Reading Writing together (Schreib-Lese- Unterricht.) 1. Shall the first instruction in reading be begun in connection with the first instruction in writing? Most certainly, for reading and writing are most intimately connected. *Harder, in his manual, (Altona, 1853,) differs from these views so far as he makes this instruction the basis of real instruction, and likewise real instruction itself. "But where matter dominates," says Kalisch," pedagogical management and general cultivation is at an end; for to the teacher, matter is secondary." CATECHISM ON METHODS OF TEACHING. 2. Was instruction in the former separated from the latter in olden times? 7 From ancient times writing was accompanied by reading; but not until modern times, (since Graser,) has reading been connected with writing, in all its steps. 3. Is this method according to nature? It is natural, because reading and writing are properly but two different sides of the same thing, i. e., of the written language. 4. But is it not easier, first to practice the one, and not to practice the other, until the greater difficulties of the former are mastered? Quite the contrary. Reading and writing assist each other mutually, and experience teaches, that the first instruction in either, is made more efficient by their union. 5. In what way shall they be connected? The teacher can either (analytically) view the spoken word as a sound, and then have it (synthetically) represented by the signs for the sounds, i. e., the letters, in which case writing is prior; or he may first view the written (printed) word as a representation of the sound, (analytically,) and then have it (synthetically) reproduced by pronouncing or reading-in which case reading is prior. We have, therefore, either a Lese (reading)-Schreib (writing)-Methode, or a Schreib-Lese-Methode,-(Writing-reading-method.)* 6. What may be said in favor of the reading-writing method? Writing always precedes reading; the inventor of writing did it for reading's sake; he wrote first, and then he read. Hence, instruction in reading must be joined to instruction in writing. 7. What may be said in favor of the reading-writing-method? In answering this question we take, not the place of the inventor of writing, but of him to whom he first communicated his invention; the inventor taught him first to read and then to write, and in like manner, according to nature, we must proceed now. 8. Which method is to be preferred? It is nearly indifferent, either in regard to subject or result, whether we put the pupil in the more artificial place of the first inventor, or in the more natural place of the first pupil. 9. What rules must be observed in the adoption of either? Reading and writing must always be intimately connected; the elements of the word must be found by analysis, and made the basis of study; and only such words and syllables must be read and written, as have a meaning for the pupil * Reading is always analytical, writing synthetical; but the method of teaching may be different. If reading be separated from writing, the proceeding may be (1,) Synthetical; where the letter is given, and with it either (a) the name of the letter with. out the sound-buchstabirmethode, spelling method; or (b) the sound (laut) of the letter without the name-lautirmethode, phonetic method; or (c) the sound and the name of the letter, spelling and phonetic method combined, (Wilging's, Kawerau's ;) or (2) Analytical; where the pupil reviews the written (printed) matter as a whole, that he may resolve it into its elements. The whole is (a) a proposition or sentence, (Jacotot's method ;) (b) a word, (Gedike's method ;) or (3,) Analytico-synthetical; the child, to become prepared for reading, is made to resolve sentences into words, words into syllables, syllables into sounds, and then the teacher proceeds by the combined method. See Jacobi's book on these methods; also Honcamp's "Volksschule," No. 10, p. 20. In the Schreib-Lese Methode, (and vice versa,) it is well to give also the name of the sound and letter. |