Essays on the Philosophy of Instruction, or the Nurture of Young Minds

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1829. Excerpt: ... 17' p'for itself here and there something to sustain its life, and contribute to its gratification. In general it-is not in schools, but in the common intercourse of life, that the meaning of language is learned, and that the child is formed to a capacity for receiving any kind of instruction whatever. Wherever he goes, wherever he is, he sees some-. thing, from which he learns something; by which his mind is kept from falling into a state of torpor; by which it is nourished, and strengthened, and entertained. In general, the common school has never been, as it should have been, the principal nursery of thought. It has not been the house'of feasting, but the house of fasting; w here there-has been almost as little employment, or recreation for the mind, as there has been for the limbs. I am aware, it may be said, there is a vast diftierence between those children who have been educated in the common schools, and those, who Slave bad no such advantages; Sl difference, which -.j;(c)nfinues through the whofo period of life; and ithis may seem incompatible with the representations above. The fact is readily acknowledged, 'but.'it may be accounted for in a different manner; for it is remarkable, that those children, who are kept from school, have in general few, or no advantages at home. Their parents for the most part are both ignorant and vicious. They give their children no insti uction; they set them no good example; they neither attend public worship themselves/nor provide their children with such apparel, as would render it decent for them to attend. That we are much more indebted to the cornman intercourse of life, than we are to the iustruction of schools, for the formation of our minds and the diffusion of practical knowledge is apparent from.