Obrázky na stránke
PDF
ePub

them the events recorded in Scripture, and the geographical index, will also make it available as a book of reference to students and others engaged in Theological pursuits. Although it has been deemed advisable to give the modern names of places, the Teacher need not require his children to learn them, unless he considers such an exercise necessary. He must use his own discretion in this matter.

The Questions at the end of each section will be found useful, especially to Pupil Teachers and Monitors. These questions have been given, because, in our present educational condition, there is a necessity for such aids to intellectual progress.

Besides being questioned in the ordinary way at the termination of a lesson, the children should be required occasionally to write from memory an abstract of the lesson. This is an excellent exercise in spelling, grammar, and composition; and fixes, also, the places, facts, and events more firmly in the mind.

The following plan may also be adopted. Write a series of questions on the black board, and let the children give answers to these questions either on paper or on their slates. These questions should be numbered 1, 2, 3, &c., and the children are to adopt the same order of arrangement in writing their answers. This method keeps the one answer distinct from the other, and tends to teach the children habits of order and neatness. Care should be taken in the framing of these questions; they should not be such as to require merely an affirmation or negation; but they should be distinct propositions to which the children cannot give answers without due exercise of their mental

powers.

The plan of introducing poetical quotations has been occasionally adopted; if a more frequent use of them, however, seem desirable, a Teacher can have no difficulty in finding quotations suited to his purpose. Any piece of poetry, or any marked and beautiful expression, which conveys the idea you wish to impart concerning any place, is seized by children with avidity, because it gives to the place a more tangible existence. "It will contribute," says Professor Pillans, " to give additional interest and impressiveness to geographical instruction, as well as to improve the taste and store the mind with rich imagery and pleasing associations, if a selection of passages from the poets of antiquity, where they describe or allude to, either the local peculiarities, or the mythological and political history of the places and scenes enumerated, be brought under the eye of the learner, and made so familiar to him as to recur along with the names, and even committed to memory."

The Teacher should always use the black board when giving a viva voce lesson on Geography. Whenever a place is mentioned, it should be written down, so that the children may see, as well as hear, the word that has been pronounced. He who adopts this plan has a double power; for the mere enunciation of a word, especially if previously unknown, leaves but a faint impression on the mind. This truth should be ever present to those engaged in the education of children, namely, that nothing should be taught through the ear alone, that can be taught also through the eye.

«Segnius irritant animos demissa per aurem,

*

[graphic]
[ocr errors][ocr errors][ocr errors][ocr errors][ocr errors][ocr errors][ocr errors][ocr errors][ocr errors][ocr errors][ocr errors][ocr errors][merged small][ocr errors][ocr errors][ocr errors][ocr errors][ocr errors][ocr errors]
[ocr errors]

ccasion veut from many as of the EL. Tss a alter east a spelling, grammar, and composition: mi tres Ns, facts, and evans more in the nià. The following pi be argced. Write a series of questions on the black board, and is the children give answers to these questions either on paper or on their slates. These questions should be numbered 1, 2, 3, &c., and the children are to adopt the same order of arrangement in writing their answers. This method keeps the one answer distinct from the other, and tends to teach the children habits of order neatness. Care should be taken in the e these questions; they should not be s

merely an affirmation or negati

be distinct propositions +

give answers without

[graphic]

powers.

The plan of introducing poetical quotations has been occasionally adopted; if a more frequent use of them, however, seem desirable, a Teacher can have no difficulty in finding quotations suited to his purpose. Any piece of poetry, or any marked and beautiful expression, which conveys the idea you wish to impart concerning any place, is seized by children with avidity, because it gives to the place a more tangible existence. "It will contribute," says Professor Pillans, "to give additional interest and impressiveness to geographical instruction, as well as to improve the taste and store the mind with rich imagery and pleasing associations, if a selection of passages from the poets of antiquity, where they describe or allude to, either the local peculiarities, or the mythological and political history of the places and scenes enumerated, be brought under the eye of the learner, and made so familiar to him as to recur along with the names, and even committed to memory.'

[ocr errors]

The Teacher should always use the black board when giving a viva voce lesson on Geography. Whenever a place is mentioned, it should be written down, so that the children may see, as well as hear, the word that has been pronounced. He who adopts this plan has a double power; for the mere enunciation of a word, especially if previously unknown, leaves but a faint impression on the mind. This truth should be ever present to those engaged in the education of children, namely, that nothing should be taught through the ear alone, that can be taught also through the eye.*

# 66 Segnius irritant animos demissa per aurem,

Besides the usual method of teaching from a map *, placed in front of the class, the teacher will find it an excellent plan to draw on the black board the outline of the country to be described, filling in, as he proceeds with his lesson, the mountains, rivers, lakes, towns, &c.

The children should also be taught to draw maps on their slates, first from actual observation, and then from memory alone. Such an exercise tends to strongly impress on their minds the configuration of countries, the directions of mountain chains, the courses of rivers, and the relative position of places.

The method of compelling children to get by heart, as it is termed, certain pages of some geography, without any previous explanation, or any reference to the places on a map, is ill calculated to enlarge their understanding, or to inspire them with a love for knowledge.

Or, if Geography be taught by pointing to certain spots on a map, and requesting the children to repeat a series of proper names, without at the same time describing anything remarkable about these places, without connecting with them some ideas, without giving to them "a local habitation," as well as "a name," it is a useless and an unintellectual exercise. It may be termed a Geographical Vocabulary; but it lays no claim to the title of an exercise having for its end the Intellectual Education of children.

Should the present work meet with a favourable re

*The best school maps of Palestine are those published by Johnstone, Chambers, and Arrowsmith. The best Bible Atlas is that by Mr. Hughes, and sold by J. W. Parker.

« PredošláPokračovať »