This book is included in the Family Affairs - Education section.
Preface The fourteenth edition of "Lessons on Objects" was published in London in 1855, under the auspices of the Home and Colonial Training Institution, and underwent at that time a thorough revision. In this American edition many changes have been made in the arrangement of the Lessons. Some of the terms have been modified, others left out altogether. A number of the lessons have been omitted and others substituted in their place, and much information on common objects has been added. In the original work there were but few Model Lessons; in this, a large additional number have been inserted. These have been taken from "Manual of Elementary Instruction," "Model Lessons," and "Notes and Sketches of Lessons," all London publications. The arrangement of the Steps correspond to the arrangement in the "Manual of Elementary Instruction." The first three steps are designed for the first three years of the child's school life, or for the Primary Schools. The fourth and fifth steps are adapted to the junior or intermediate grade, or for pupils from ten to fourteen years of age. The Models given are designed to aid the teacher in the preparation of her lessons, as suggestions in regard to the proper method of arranging and presenting them, and not as forms to be implicitly or blindly followed. In cases where lists of the names of the qualities of objects are given, it is not essential that the children should be led to the discovery of all the qualities named. As the object of these Lessons is to cultivate the senses, to awaken and quicken observation, and lead the children to observe carefully everything in nature about them that comes within the range of the senses, it is important as far as possible to give the children a good deal of latitude, and let the discoveries be their own, except as they may be guided in part by the teacher. So that if they should leave out in their investigations some qualities named, and put in others not named, it is not a matter of importance, provided they are correct as far as they go, and accuracy of observation is cultivated. It should be added, that as the ideas are clearly developed, the giving of terms to express these ideas is designed as a preparation for "Language Lessons," and to give the children a vocabulary by which they are enabled to express the observations they are continually making of the objects of the external world. Thus observation and language are both cultivated. We cannot do better here than insert the Preface to the Fourteenth London Edition: PREFACE TO THE FOURTEENTH LONDON EDITION. When this work was first presented to the public, nearly thirty years since, the idea of systematically using the material world as one of the means of educating the minds of children, was so novel and untried a thing in England, that the title "Lessons on Objects" excited many a smile, and the success of the little volume was deemed to be, at best, very dubious. The plain sound sense of the plan, however, soon recommended it to our teachers, and they discovered that reading, writing, and arithmetic, do not form the sole basis of elementary education, but that the objects and actions of every-day life should have a very prominent place in their programme. In spite of the ominous forebodings which attended the first introduction of this little volume, the public has given a decided sanction to the system of teaching it, and the degree in which it has in consequence modified books for the young and the practice of elementary instruction, can scarcely be calculated. Successive editions of the Lessons have issued rapidly from the press, hitherto without any alteration ; but it is now thought desirable to profit by the experience gained by the introduction of such a course of instruction, and to make a few changes and additions. As the work is much used in institutions for the training of Teachers, the following account of the plan of the whole course is given as a guide in the use of the lessons, and a help in carrying out the idea. Those who fall into a mechanical way of giving such instruction, and do not perceive the principle involved, completely defeat its intention, and they had far better keep to old plans and old books. The work contains progressive series of lessons, the prevailing aim being to exercise the faculties of children according to their natural order of development, aiming also at their harmonious cultivation. The first series chiefly exercises the perceptive faculties, arresting attention on qualities discoverable by the senses; and then furnishing a vocabulary to clothe the ideas, and so fixing them in the mind, where they will be ready for reproduction when the faculty of conception begins to act. The second and third series, in addition to this, exercise the conceptive powers in recalling the impressions made upon the senses by external objects, when they are removed from observation—also in leading from what has become known to what is unknown. In the fourth series, the children are exercised in tracing resemblances and differences, in drawing comparisons and recognizing analogies, thereby cultivating the power of arranging and classifying. In the fifth series, the reason and judgment are brought into activity; in tracing the connection between cause and effect, between use and adaptation; language or the power of expression is cultivated; the ideas developed in the lessons of the previous series are expressed either in simple words or short sentences; but throughout this series the pupils are required to put down all the knowledge they acquire, in the form of consecutive narrative. This plan promotes fixedness of attention during the giving of the lesson, a clear apprehension of facts and truths, and facility in arranging and expressing what has been acquired. An objection has been made to these Lessons, that they put fine words into children's mouths, and give them an air of pedantry—but the evil in reality is the effect of the ignorance that has hitherto prevailed as to the properties of the most common things by which we are surrounded, and the consequent poverty of the poor man's language. When the love of knowledge is excited, and the habit of intelligent observation cultivated, words and phrases are required to define accurately what so often otherwise remains vague impressions on the mind; consequently a more extended vocabulary is requisite, and when no simple and common words can be found to express (for instance, such very important and common qualities as opacity and transparency), the only terms our language affords must be used, and the reproach of pedantry be risked. Teachers making use of these Lessons are earnestly advised to read carefully the introduction to a series before they commence the lessons which it contains, and to endeavor to understand, and then to act up to the principles and aim set forth. They should guard against mere mechanical work, or allowing this in their pupils; the latter, after having heard a few names, will often, without thought or observation, apply them indiscriminately. Neither should the lessons be slavishly followed in all that is set down; they should rather be used as affording suggestive hints; and variety should be sought for—the children often themselves indicate what their minds require. ELIZABETH MAYO. Hampstead, July, 1855. End of Preview. RETURN to Main Titles Index or Family Affairs - Education
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