Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.
Reviews.
about as perfect a set of instruction books as can be devised Avhereby to instruct the youthful sempstress . We ought , perhaps , to add that specimens of the results of the teaching are in our hands , and that they fully carry out the opinion Ave have formed
, and here express , of these little manuals , the Avhole of Avhich we recommend all our lady-readers to procure and study at once , if only Avith a view to putting them into the hands of their own children . We Avish that we could say as much for
the other work before us , but at the risk of seeming captious , Ave cannot but feel that , Avhilst it advocates a most valuable principle , it has gone a step too far into the region of ' faddles . ' It is almost too self-evident to need statement thatin
, every school , Discipline is of the first importance ; but , Avhilst Ave have not the least doubt that , in the school described by Mr . De Fonblanque as manipulated by the " signal , " of Avhich he gives an account in his little bookthis quality is present in a
, marked degree , Ave cannot accept the proposition stated , at least by implication , that in all , or nearly all , schools not so Avorked there
is" The usual noisy , slovenly method where the teacher deals out books to a parcel of children sitting all sorts of ways , using either or both hands , reaching over , talking , & o ., thus necessitating the loss of several minutes before order is established and the work commences ; "—
nor can Ave see that , if " the signal" Avere placed in the hands of any teacher Avhose schools Avere in such a condition as this , any difference Avhatever Avould be made thereby in order ancl discipline . All depends upon the tact ancl energy , qualified by the experience ancl patience of the
teacher , and this being indisputably the case , Ave fail to trace the discipline of the Centre Vale Schools to "the signal" in shape and size resembling a glove stretcher ; nor , if the only result of Mr . De Fonblanque ' s book be to lay down the rule that
children , to gain the maximum of good at school Avith the minimum of trouble and anxiety on the part of the teachers , must be , at least , quiet and orderly , could Ave help recalling to mind a certain proverbial instruction of elderly ladies in the ovivorant art . But , although it may have been stated in a someAvhat obscure manner , and the principle have been made subservient
Reviews.
to one of the Avays of putting it into practice , — " the glove-stretcher signal" to Avit , —we cannot but recognise that much good Avould accrue to both pupils and teacher by some more silent and methodical system than that generally in use .
As one way , then , if not the way , of Avorking this desirable consummation , we may still commend Mr . De Fonblanque ' s book to our readers attention , trusting that it may , at least , help to bring about good results , if only in exciting in them an
interest iu the great work of education . We feel , however , that it may do even more than this , —exhibit the absurdity of a teacher's shouting himself hoarse where a less noisy method might be found . In any case Ave gladly Avelcome and heartil y commend Mr . De Fonblanque ' s evidentl y disinterested effort to benefit our children
by attempting to remove " That stolid weariness which in ordinary schools gradually gathers on the pupils' faces , and that listless and hopeless air which is so often the characteristic expression of the teachers . "
To give a child the power of imbibing knowledge is good , to awaken enquiry in its mind ancl so to deA'elope its power of intelligently assimilating the knoAvledge so imbibed is better . To endue it with
the power of reading that free and open Bible of which we spoke , is thus undoubtedly a benefit ; what then is that quickening of the pupil ' s mind Avhich shall fit it to understand Avhat it reads , ancl reading act upon and profit by it 1 The one makes it a better citizen of Time , the other of Eternity . W . T .
Some Original Letters.
SOME ORIGINAL LETTERS .
WE have seldom been so interested , or laughed so heartily for some time as wo have clone over a collection of original letters ivhich appear in Scribner ' s American Monthly for September . We think it well , as the promoters especially of Masonic geniality , to communicate our impressions ancl enjoyment to others , and we therefore make no apology for reproducing them to our readers , commending earnestly as AVC
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.
Reviews.
about as perfect a set of instruction books as can be devised Avhereby to instruct the youthful sempstress . We ought , perhaps , to add that specimens of the results of the teaching are in our hands , and that they fully carry out the opinion Ave have formed
, and here express , of these little manuals , the Avhole of Avhich we recommend all our lady-readers to procure and study at once , if only Avith a view to putting them into the hands of their own children . We Avish that we could say as much for
the other work before us , but at the risk of seeming captious , Ave cannot but feel that , Avhilst it advocates a most valuable principle , it has gone a step too far into the region of ' faddles . ' It is almost too self-evident to need statement thatin
, every school , Discipline is of the first importance ; but , Avhilst Ave have not the least doubt that , in the school described by Mr . De Fonblanque as manipulated by the " signal , " of Avhich he gives an account in his little bookthis quality is present in a
, marked degree , Ave cannot accept the proposition stated , at least by implication , that in all , or nearly all , schools not so Avorked there
is" The usual noisy , slovenly method where the teacher deals out books to a parcel of children sitting all sorts of ways , using either or both hands , reaching over , talking , & o ., thus necessitating the loss of several minutes before order is established and the work commences ; "—
nor can Ave see that , if " the signal" Avere placed in the hands of any teacher Avhose schools Avere in such a condition as this , any difference Avhatever Avould be made thereby in order ancl discipline . All depends upon the tact ancl energy , qualified by the experience ancl patience of the
teacher , and this being indisputably the case , Ave fail to trace the discipline of the Centre Vale Schools to "the signal" in shape and size resembling a glove stretcher ; nor , if the only result of Mr . De Fonblanque ' s book be to lay down the rule that
children , to gain the maximum of good at school Avith the minimum of trouble and anxiety on the part of the teachers , must be , at least , quiet and orderly , could Ave help recalling to mind a certain proverbial instruction of elderly ladies in the ovivorant art . But , although it may have been stated in a someAvhat obscure manner , and the principle have been made subservient
Reviews.
to one of the Avays of putting it into practice , — " the glove-stretcher signal" to Avit , —we cannot but recognise that much good Avould accrue to both pupils and teacher by some more silent and methodical system than that generally in use .
As one way , then , if not the way , of Avorking this desirable consummation , we may still commend Mr . De Fonblanque ' s book to our readers attention , trusting that it may , at least , help to bring about good results , if only in exciting in them an
interest iu the great work of education . We feel , however , that it may do even more than this , —exhibit the absurdity of a teacher's shouting himself hoarse where a less noisy method might be found . In any case Ave gladly Avelcome and heartil y commend Mr . De Fonblanque ' s evidentl y disinterested effort to benefit our children
by attempting to remove " That stolid weariness which in ordinary schools gradually gathers on the pupils' faces , and that listless and hopeless air which is so often the characteristic expression of the teachers . "
To give a child the power of imbibing knowledge is good , to awaken enquiry in its mind ancl so to deA'elope its power of intelligently assimilating the knoAvledge so imbibed is better . To endue it with
the power of reading that free and open Bible of which we spoke , is thus undoubtedly a benefit ; what then is that quickening of the pupil ' s mind Avhich shall fit it to understand Avhat it reads , ancl reading act upon and profit by it 1 The one makes it a better citizen of Time , the other of Eternity . W . T .
Some Original Letters.
SOME ORIGINAL LETTERS .
WE have seldom been so interested , or laughed so heartily for some time as wo have clone over a collection of original letters ivhich appear in Scribner ' s American Monthly for September . We think it well , as the promoters especially of Masonic geniality , to communicate our impressions ancl enjoyment to others , and we therefore make no apology for reproducing them to our readers , commending earnestly as AVC