Abbildungen der Seite
PDF
EPUB

PREFACE.

IN writing the following pages my object was three-fold. First, To present the teacher with a method of preparing notes of a lesson on geography for his own individual use in giving such lesson. To be of any service to a teacher, while addressing his class, the notes of a lesson must be short, clear, suggestive; containing little or nothing of the substance of the lesson itself. Second, To give him examples of actual lessons followed out to their minutest detail in matter and manner. Third, To shew the great importance of questioning as a means of instruction. In this last particular many teachers fail; and for that reason I have given the examinations to the first four or five lessons with as much completeness as I could make apparent in writing. It should be observed, however, that in most lessons of a really instructive kind, and in

which the pupils are led to take a lively interest, much of an incidental but vastly important character will occur, for which I could not possibly provide. Here the teacher must be left to himself.

The lessons were all prepared for the upper division of the Battersea Model School. It is very necessary to bear this in mind. To a younger, and, consequently, lower division, the lessons would have been much shorter, and of a much more simple character. There are, however, some lessons which are fit only for a good first class, as, for instance, that on Jerusalem and its Environs, and all those on the History of Palestine. One essential element of a good lesson is-its adaptation to the capacities and attainments of the pupils. This adaptation can be manifested in various ways; but chiefly in simplicity of arrangement, and simplicity of language. The following lessons, must, therefore, be taken-with the exceptions mentioned-as being adapted to a good first division of a good elementary school. How far others may agree with me in connecting Scripture History, in the manner I have connected it, with the Geography of Palestine, I know not; but I have always found such lessons to be more interesting, and to have made a more durable impression than those in which the Scripture illustrations were omitted. I have also found it to be

more effective to read certain passages from the Bible, than to quote them from memory. The former plan carries with it more authority than the latter, and I have often been astonished at the difference. Where the Scripture narrative can be shortly, and appropriately, "pictured out," it is a much better plan than simply telling it.

I have never found anything objectionable arising out of this practice. A school should be-as far as a teacher can make it-like one large family; and that kind of language, and that tone of voice, which a wise parent would adopt in teaching his children, are precisely such as a teacher will find to be the most effective in addressing his pupils.

G. H. TAYLOR,

Model School, Battersea,

HINTS TO TEACHERS.

1. In the following pages I have laid down a form; it remains for you to give it life. System, beyond certain limits, is nothing; soul everything. The most perfect system may be barren; the most imperfect, comparatively fruitful. Sympathy begets sympathy; earnestness, earnestness; love, love; sincerity, sincerity; truth, truth, under any system. So, also, indifference begets indifference; sloth, sloth; unkindness, unkindness; falsehood, falsehood, under any system. Good begets good; and evil, evil. Do you seek to be successful as a teacher? then be yourself all that you wish your pupils to be. Remember that you only instruct by communicating information, but you educate by the manner in which that information is communicated.

2. Success in imparting instruction depends upon the observance of a multitude of little, and, apparently, very trifling things. Natural fitness, tact, and quickness of apprehension, enable some teachers, almost unconsciously, and without effort, to pay attention to the numerous details of their art, and thus insure success. To others it must be a work of labour, but that labour given success is almost equally certain. I have known the most astonishing changes produced in teachers by an unremitting attention to trifles. Many clever men, as scholars, make very poor teachers, and often for no other reason than this-that they are either incapable of paying, or think it beneath them to pay, attention to little things.

« ZurückWeiter »