III. COURSE OF INSTRUCTION IN THE PRIMARY SCHOOLS OF GERMANY. Rev. Calvin E. Stowe, D. D., in 1839, while Professor of Biblical Literature in Lane Seminary, Cincinnati, Ohio, visited Europe, and on his return submitted to the General Assembly of Ohio, in December, 1839, a "Report on Elementary Public Instruction in Europe," in which he thus describes the course of instruction pursued in the Primary Schools of Germany, particularly of Prussia and Wirtemburg. The whole course comprises eight years, and includes children from the ages of six to fourteen; and it is divided into four parts, of two years each. It is a first principle, that the children be well accommodated as to house and furniture. The school-room must be well constructed, the seats convenient, and the scholars made comfortable, and kept interested. The younger pupils are kept at school but four hours in the day-two in the morning and two in the evening, with a recess at the close of each hour. The older, six hours, broken by recesses as often as is necessary. Most of the school-houses have a bathing-place, a garden, and a mechanic's shop attached to them, to promote the cleanliness and health of the children, and to aid in mechanical and agricultural instruction. It will be seen by the schedule which follows, that a vast amount of instruction is given during these eight years; and lest it should seem that so many branches must confuse the young mind, and that they must necessarily be but partially taught, I will say, in the outset, that the industry, skill, and energy of teachers regularly trained to their business, and depending entirely upon it; the modes of teaching; the habit of always finishing whatever is begun; the perfect method which is preserved; the entire punctuality and regularity of attendance on the part of the scholars; and other things of this kind, facilitate a rapidity and exactness of acquisition and discipline, which may well seem incredible to those who have never witnessed it. The greatest care is taken that acquisition do not go beyond discipline; and that the taxation of mind be kept entirely and clearly within the constitutional capacity of mental and physical endurance. The studies must never weary, but always interest; the appetite for knowledge must never be cloyed, but be kept always sharp and eager. These purposes are gradually aided by the frequent interchange of topics, and by lively conversational exercises. Before the child is even permitted to learn his letters, he is under conversational instruction, frequently for six months or a year; and then a single week is sufficient to introduce him into intelligible and accurate plain reading. Every week is systematically divided, and every hour appropriated. The scheme for the week is written on a large sheet of paper, and fixed in a prominent part of the school-room, so that every scholar knows what his business will be for every hour in the week; and the plan thus marked out is rigidly followed. Through all the parts of the course there are frequent reviews and repetitions, that the impressions left on the mind may be distinct, lively, and permanent. The exercises of the day are always commenced and closed with a short prayer; and the Bible and hymn-book are the first volumes put into the pupils' hands; and these books they always retain and keep in constant use during the whole progress of their education. The general outline of the eight years' course is nearly as follows: I. First part, of two years, including children from six to eight years old; four principal branches, namely : 1. Logical exercises, or oral teaching in the exercise of the powers of observation and expression, including religious instruction and the singing of hymns. 2. Elements of reading. 3. Elements of writing. 4. Elements of number, or arithmetic. II. Second part, of two years, including children from eight to ten years old-seven principal branches, namely: 1. Exercises in reading. 2. Exercises in writing. 3. Religious and moral instruction, in select Bible narratives. 4. Language, or grammar. 5. Numbers, or arithmetic. 6. Doctrine of space and form, or geometry. 7. Singing by note, or elements of music. III. Third part, of two years, including children from ten to twelve years old-eight principal branches, namely: 1. Exercises in reading and elocution. 2. Exercises in ornamental writing, preparatory to drawing. 3. Religious instruction in the connected Bible history. 4. Language, or grammar, with parsing. 5. Real instruction, or knowledge of Nature and the external world, including the first elements of the sciences and the arts of life-of geography and history. Arithmetic continued through, fractions and the rules of proportion. 6. 7. Geometry-doctrine of magnitudes and measures. 8. Singing and science of vocal and instrumental music. IV. Fourth part, of two years, including children from ten to twelve years old—six principal branches, namely : 1. Religious instruction in the religious observation of Nature; the life and discourses of Jesus Christ; the history of the Christian religion, in connection with the contemporary civil history; and the doctrines of Christianity. 2. Knowledge of the world, and of mankind, including civil society, elements of law, agriculture, mechanic arts, manufactures, &c. 3. Language, and exercises in composition. 4. Application of arithmetic and the mathematics to the business of life, including surveying and civil engineering. 5. Elements of drawing. 6. Exercises in singing, and the science of music. We subjoin a few specimens of the mode of teaching under several of the above divisions. I. First part-children from six to eight years of age. 1. Conversations between the teacher and pupils, intended to exercise the powers of observation and expression. The teacher brings the children around him, and engages them in a familiar conversation with himself. He generally addresses them all together, and they all reply simultaneously; but, whenever necessary, he addresses an individual, and requires the individual to answer alone. He first directs their attention to the different objects in the school-room, their position, form, color, size, materials of which they are made, &c., and requires precise and accurate descriptions. He then requires them to notice the various objects that meet their eye in the way to their respective homes; and a description of these objects, and the circumstances under which they saw them, will form the subject of the next morning's lesson. Then the house in which they live, the shop in which their father works, the garden in which they walk, &c., will be the subject of the successive lessons; and in this way for six months or a year, the children are taught to study things, to use their own powers of observation, and speak with readiness and accuracy, before books are put into their hands at all. A few specimens will make the nature and utility of this mode of teaching perfectly obvious. In a school in Berlin, a boy has assigned him for a lesson, a description of the remarkable objects in certain directions from the school-house, which is situated in Little Cathedral street. He proceeds as follows: "When I come out of the school-house into Little Cathedral street, and turn to the right, I soon pass on my left hand the Maria Place, the Gymnasium, and the Anklam Gate. When I come out of Little Cathedral street, I see on my left hand the White Parade Place, and within that, at a little distance, the beautiful statue of Frederick the Great, King of Prussia. It is made of white marble, and stands on a pedestal of variegated marble, and is fenced in with an iron railing. From here, I have on my right a small place, which is a continuation of the Parade Place; and at the end of this, near the wall, I see St. Peter's Church, or the Wall-street Church, as it is sometimes called. This church has a green yard before it, planted with trees, which is called the Wall Church Yard. St. Peter's Church is the oldest church in the city; it has a little round tower, which looks green, because it is mostly covered with copper, which is made green by exposure to the weather. When I go out of the school-house to the lower part of Little Cathedral street, by the Coal-market, through Shoe street and Carriage street, I come to the Castle. The Castle is a large building, with two small towers, and is built around a square yard, which is called the Castle-yard. In the Castle there are two churches, and the King and his Ministers of State, and the Judges of the Supreme Court, and the Consistory of the Church, hold their meetings there. From the Coal-market, I go through Shoe street to the Hay-market, and adjoining this is the New-market, which was formed after St. Nicholas's Church was burnt, which formerly stood in that place. Between the Hay-market and the New-market is the City Hall, where the officers and magistrates of the city hold their meetings." If a garden is given to a class for a lesson, they are asked the size of the garden; its shape, which they may draw on a slate with a pencil; whether there are trees in it; what the different parts of a tree are; what parts grow in the spring, and what parts decay in autumn, and what parts remain the same throughout the winter; whether any of the trees are fruit trees; what fruits they bear; when they ripen; how they look and taste; whether the fruit be wholesome or otherwise; whether it is prudent to eat much of it; what plants and roots there are in the garden, and what use is made of them; what flowers there are, and how they look, &c. The teacher may then read them the description of the garden of Eden in the second chapter of Genesis-sing a hymn with them, the imagery of which is taken from the fruits and blossoms of a garden, and explain to them how kind and bountiful God is, who gives us such wholesome plants and fruits, and such beautiful flowers for our nourishment and gratification. The external heavens also make an interesting lesson. The sky-its appearance and color at different times; the clouds-their color, their varying form and movements; the sun-its rising and setting, its concealment by clouds, its warming the earth and giving it life and fertility, its great heat in summer, and the danger of being exposed to it unprotected; the moon-its appearance by night, full, gibbous, horned; its occasional absence from the heavens; the stars-their shining, difference among them, their number, distance from us, &c. In this connection the teacher may read to them the eighteenth and nineteenth Psalms, and other passages of Scripture of that kind, sing with them a hymn celebrating the glory of God in the creation, and enforce the moral bearing of such contemplations by appropriate remarks. A very common lesson is, the family and family duties, love to parents, love to brothers and sisters, concluding with appropriate passages from Scripture, and singing a family hymn. 2. Elements of reading. After a suitable time spent in the exercises above described, the children proceed to learn the elements of reading. The first step is to exercise the organs of sound till they have perfect command of their vocal powers; and this, after the previous discipline in conversation and singing, is a task soon accomplished. They are then taught to utter distinctly all the vowel sounds. The characters or letters representing these sounds are then shown and described to them, till the form and power of each are distinctly impressed upon their memories. The same process is then gone through in respect to dipthongs and consonants. Last of all, after having acquired a definite and distinct view of the different sounds, and of the forms of the letters which respectively represent these sounds, they are taught the names of these letters, with the distinct understanding that the name of a letter and the power of a letter are two very different things. They are now prepared to commence reading. The letters are printed in large form, on square cards; the class stands up before a sort of rack; the teacher holds the cards in his hand, places one upon the rack, and a conversation of this kind passes between him and his pupils: What letter is that? H. He places another on the rack. What letter is that? A. I now put these two letters together, thus, (moving the cards close together,) HA. What sound do these two letters signify? Ha. There is another letter. What letter is that? (putting it on the rack.) R. I now put this third letter to the other two, thus, IIAR. What sound do the three letters make? Har. There is another letter. What is it? D. I join this letter to the other three, thus, HARD. What do they all make? Hard. Then he proceeds in the same way with the letters F-J-S-T; joins these four letters to the preceding four, HARD-FIST, and the pupils pronounce, Hardfist. Then with the letters E and D, and joins these two to the preceeding eight, and the pupils pronounce, Hard-fisted. In this way they are taught to read words of any length, (for you may easily add to the above, N-E-S-S, and make Hard-fistedness)--the longest as easily as the shortest; and in fact they learn their letters; they learn to read words of one syllable and of several syllables, and to read in plain reading, by the same process, at the same moment. After having completed a sentence, or several sentences, with the cards and rack, they then proceed to read the same words and sentences in their spelling-books. 3. Elements of writing. The pupils are first taught the right position of the arms and body in writing, the proper method of holding the pen, &c.; and are exercised on these points till their habits are formed correctly. The different marks used in writing are then exhibited to them, from the simple point or straight line, to the most complex figure. The variations of form and position which they are capable of assuming, and the different parts of which the complex figures are composed, are carefully described, and the student is taught to imitate them, beginning with the most simple; then the separate parts of the complex, then the joining of the several parts to a whole, with his pencil and slate. After having acquired facility in this exercise, he is prepared to write with his ink and paper. The copy is written upon the blackboard; the paper is laid before each member of the class, and each has his pen ready in his hand, awaiting the word of his teacher. If the copy be the simple point, or line, the teacher repeats the syllable one, one, slowly at first, and with gradually increasing speed, and at each repetition of the sound the pupils write. In this way they learn to make the mark both correctly and rapidly. If the figure to be copied consists of two strokes, (thus, 1,) the teacher pronounces one, two--one, two, slowly at first, and then rapidly, as before; and the pupils make the first mark, and then the second, at the sound of each syllable,. as before. If the figure consist of three strokes, (thus, 1,) the teacher pronounces one, two, three, and the pupils write as before. So when they come to make letters, the letter a has five strokes, thus, a. When that is the copy, the teacher says, deliberately, one, two, three, four, five, and at the sound of each syllable the different strokes composing the letter are made; the speed of utterance is gradually accelerated, till finally the a is made very quickly, and at the same time neatly. By this method of teaching, a plain, neat, and quick hand, is easily acquired. 4. Elements of number, or arithmetic. In this branch of instruction I saw no improvements in the mode of teaching not already substantially introduced into the best schools of our own country. I need not, therefore, enter into any details respecting them, excepting so far as to say that the student is taught to demonstrate, and perfectly to understand, the reason and nature of every rule before he uses it. II. Second part-children from eight to ten years of age. 1. Exercises in reading. The object of these exercises, in this part of the course, is to acquire the habit of reading with accuracy and readiness, with due regard to punctuation, and with reference to orthography. Sometimes the whole class read together, and sometimes an individual by himself, in order to accustom them to both modes of reading, and to secure the advantages of both. The sentence is first gone through with in the class, by distinctly spelling each word as it occurs ; then by pronouneing each word distinctly without spelling it; a third time by pronouncing the words and mentioning the punctuation points as they occur. A fourth time, the sentence is read with the proper pauses indicated by the punctuation points, without mentioning them. Finally, the same sentence is read with particular attention to the intonations of the voice. Thus one thing is taken at a time, and pupils must become thorough in each as it occurs, before they proceed to the next. One great benefit of the class reading together is, that each individual has the same amount of exercise as he were the only one under instruction, his attention can never falter, and no part of the lesson escapes him. A skillful teacher, once accustomed to this mode of reading, can as easily detect any fault, mispronunciation, or negligence, in any individual, as if that individual were reading alone. The process is sometimes shortened, and the sentence read only three times, namely: "according to the words, according to the punctuation, according to the life." 2. Exercises in writing. The pupils proceed to write copies in joining-hand, both large and small, the principles of teaching being essentially as described in the first part of the course. The great object here is, to obtain a neat, swift, business hand. Sometimes, without a copy, they write from the dictation of the teacher; and in most cases instruction in orthography and punctuation is combined with that in penmanship. They are also taught to make and mend their own pens, and in doing this to be economical of their quills. 3. Religious and moral instruction in select Bible narratives. In this branch of teaching the methods are various, and the teacher adopts the method best adapted, in his judgement, to the particular circumstances of his own school, or to the special objects which he may have in view with a particular class. Sometimes he calls the class around him, and relates to them in his own language, some of the simple narratives of the Bible, or reads it to them in the words of the Bible itself, or directs one of the children to read it aloud; and then follows a friendly, familiar conversation between him and the class respecting the narrative; their little doubts are proposed and resolved, their questions put and answered, and the teacher unfolds the moral and religious instruction to be derived from the lesson, and illustrates it by appropriate quotations from the didactic and preceptive parts of the Scripture. Sometimes he explains to the class a particular virtue or vice, a truth or a duty; and after having clearly shown what it is, he takes some Bible narrative which strongly illustrates the point in discussion, reads it to them, and directs their attention to it, with special reference to the preceding narrative. A specimen or two of these different methods will best show what they are. (a) Read the narrative of the birth of Christ, as given by Luke, ii. 1-20. Observe, Christ was born for the salvation of men, so also for the salvation of children. Christ is the children's friend. Heaven rejoices in the good of men. Jesus, though so great and glorious, makes his appearance in a most humble condition. He is the teacher of the poor, as well as of the rich. With these remarks compare other texts of the Bible. Jno iii 16. "For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son, that whoso ever believeth in him should not perish. but have everlasting life." 1. Jno. iv. 9 "In this was manifested the love of God toward us; because that God sent his only begotten Son into the world, that we might live through him." Mark x. 14, 15. "But when Jesus saw it he was much displeased. and said unto them, Suffer little children to come unto me, for of such is the kingdom of God. Verily I say unto you. whosoever shall not receive the kingdom of God as a little child, he shall not enter therein." And the lesson is concluded with singing a Christmas hymn. Jesus feeds five thousand men: Jno. vi. 1-14. God can bless a little so that it will do great good. Economy suffers nothing to be lost-other texts: Ps. cxlv. 15, 16. "The eyes of all wait upon thee; and thou givest them their meat in due season." "Thou openest thy hand, and satisfiest the desire of every living thing." Matt. vi. 31-33. "Therefore take no thought, saying, what shall we eat? or, What shall we drink? or, Wherewithal shall we be clothed? (for after all these things do the Gentiles seek :) for your heavenly Father knoweth that ye have need of all these things. But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you." do the same thing externally, and yet the merit of Remorse and misery of the fratricide--other texts. 1 Jno. iii. 12. Job. xxxiv. 32. "For out of the heart proceed evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witness, blasphemies." |