The "P.R." Letter Bag.
Volume 7, 1896, pg. 755-759
(The Editor is not responsible for the opinions of Correspondents.)
Dear Editor,--In answer to the letter of "An Anxious Mother," I should
like to say that, after two years' work in the P.R.S., my boy of 10
took a good place in a boys' preparatory school. His interest in work
generally, and his anxiety to learn, is, I feel sure, much greater than
is usually the case with boys of his age. He has formed good habits of
industry and attention and study, and now sees the interest of the work
behind the mere task-work which the ordinary school routine often is.
His attention being trained and his intellect awakened, his memory is
good, even for the mere facts which are the mental food that so many of
our schools offer; I know other children who have also done well in
ordinary schools after leaving the P.R.S., and I should therefore like
to assure "An Anxious Mother" that she need have no anxiety on this
score. The methods used and the books recommended in the P.R.S. must
commend themselves to all teachers.
Yours faithfully, A Grateful
Mother.
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Dear Editor,--I send you the school report on my boy, after his first
week at school. I taught him myself in the P.R.S. (though we could not
always keep to the examinations owing to illness and constant moves.)
He was nine years old:--"We find H------ unusually advanced for his age.
There is no subject of which he does not know something, and his powers
of attention and concentration are most unusual in so young a child.
You have certainly developed his reasoning powers, and, at nine years
of age, he is on a level with boys of 13 and 14 in knowing how to
learn, how to attack a subject, and in intelligent interest in his
work. He is certainly the best trained child we have had, and I say
this with more candour, as I confess I was not prepared for any
practical results from your theories on education. The boy could take
any scholarships you wish him prepared for, but this, I understand, is
opposed to your plans for him. His arithmetic is of quite uncommon
merit."
A Girton Mother.
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Dear Editor,--I should be glad, if I may be allowed the space, to answer a remark in the letter from 'An Anxious Mother,' in your last issue. She says, speaking of her three boys, "We are anxious, of course, that they should take good places in the public schools when the time comes for them to enter," "good" places meaning, of course, high places. I would suggest that for a boy entering a new school, a low place is much better than a high one.
Other things being equal, a boy who is placed low at first is likely to learn more and be happier than one who is placed high. For one thing he will certainly be more modest, and probably more industrious; he will find himself with boys a little younger than himself, and will be stimulated to try to rise out of their company into that of his equals in age, a wholesome ambition, free from the vanity and egotism that belongs to the effort at surpassing those as old or older than ourselves. At the same time he is less likely to be overworked; he will find his work easier, and will understand it better; so that if he gets in lower, he is likely to come out higher than other boys of equal capacity. Of course there is a limit to this rule. If the boy enters too low he is likely to accept himself as the booby of the school, and so be discouraged from trying to work at all; but between one form and the next it is the lower that should be preferred.
For this, as for many other reasons, it is a mistake in home education to aim at bringing a child forward in those very studies which it is the specialty of the school to teach well. Rather, those things should be dwelt upon in which the school is most likely to fail.
Only one practical warning I should like to give to the inexperienced--do not forget, among other acquirements, to teach a child how to learn, independently, from books. Of the three ways of learning, from things themselves, from a teacher, and from books, the latter, which is still the chief in our public schools, is apt to be the most neglected by modern private teachers, almost in proportion as they are good teachers.
The value of first-hand study of things themselves is beginning at last to be realized, and, to supplement this, oral teaching can be much better adapted to the requirements of each child than any book. But, on the other hand, books also are "things themselves," and the art of learning directly from them is indispensable to any high degree of culture. This art is usually picked up by chance, if at all, but it can and should be expressly taught. Two things are necessary to it: (1) Practice in handling books; (2) The habit of attending to what the book says. In other words, the analytic and the receptive faculty, both applied to books as objects of study. Teach a child to examine a book, as he would any other object, to find out how it has been put together. Get him to notice the mode of numbering the pages, the paragraphs, the chapters, the use of small and large print, &c. Teach him to look out words in a dictionary; not only those that are placed there in order, but also those that are not (e.g. past participles). Let him know, before he goes to school, what an index, and an appendix, and a footnote are. For want of such training the first term at school is usually hard and unprofitable. The boy spends hours staring at his paper in despairing idleness, not knowing how to look for the fact he wants. If, further, it is possible to get the books used in his future school, and so familiarise him beforehand with their methods (irrespective of learning what is in them), much time and worry may be saved.
Even more important than the ready observation of book forms is the
power of understanding written words, without the need of asking
questions. This power is often quite wanting in children who have had
much individual attention. The simplest statements will often be not
understood for want of the human voice expressing them, or from some
literary turn in the phrasing. The remedy for this is, not to give less
individual attention, or to discourage talk and questions, but to refer
to the book itself for an answer whenever possible. Say to the child:
"Don't you remember we read about that last week, I think you'll find
it on page so-and-so," or "I daresay we shall come to that later, we
must look out for it," &c.; and, in explaining a difficulty, do not
explain the fact only, in your own words, but try to get the child to
understand the actual words of the book in the order in which they
occur. The boy who can do this is better prepared for learning at
school than if he knew twice as much to begin with, but was still a
foreigner in bookland.
Yours faithfully, E. L. Young.
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Dear Editor,--May I call the attention of your readers to the list of branches of the Union which the Committee hope to help in starting, and which is published month by month under "P.N.E.U. Notes." No branch is started unless a wish for it has been expressed from within the locality, and if your readers would send us the names of friends who would welcome a branch and help towards its formation, it would greatly facilitate the work of organization.
I should like to add here that as branches increase in number it
becomes more and more difficult for our few tried lecturers to answer
to every call. One of the chief advantages of a branch is that it helps
to focus and bring out the good educational thought with which every
locality must be alive, and that it brings together those who want to
learn and those who have something helpful to offer. But at the same
time it is never certain that such a speaker will express the
principles and teaching of the Union, and though it may be well to hear
every side and thus to search for truth, still one must be careful to
remember that every lecturer speaks of necessity for himself, and that
the Union as a whole must not be blamed for anything one objects to in
what he says. Of course, wherever it is possible, it is better that the
Committee of a branch should in some way know the line of thought of
anyone whom they invite to speak. It is unfortunate if members have to
listen to teaching which is contrary to that of the Union; though I
should hardly think that anyone not in accord with the principles of
the Union would (if they are aware of these) consent to lecture. Local
Secretaries would greatly help the work of our Secretary, Miss Frances
Blogg, if they would send her regularly their opinion of the lecturers
whom they have had the opportunity of hearing.
Yours faithfully,
H. [Henrietta] Franklin,
Hon. Organizing Sec.
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Dear Editor,--I think your readers would be interested in a book I have
seen lately, i.e., The Bible for Home Reading, edited by C. C.
Montefiore. It is written for the use of Jewish children, and begins
with the starting point of Jewish history, i.e., the call of Abram; but
its clear, consecutive teaching of the old Testament History surpasses
anything I have seen before; and, as it embodies the results of modern
criticism and research, it ought to be helpful to all teachers.
Yours faithfully, E. C. R.
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Dear Editor,--Will your contributor, E. M. Caillard, be so kind as to tell me if the ten essays, on "The Intellectual Position of Christians," have been published in pamphlet form? If so, I should be very glad to purchase one dozen of them for distribution.
I fee sure that the readers of the Parents' Review will agree with me
that they are most deeply interesting and instructive; and likely to be
very helpful to those seeking to know "What is Truth."
I am, Yours truly, H. M. B.
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Dear Editor--It has often been remarked that there is some sort of correspondence existing between the development of the child's mind during the school period and a succession of phases in the history of civilization. This idea has been taken as the guiding principle of a school, conducted by Miss Scott, at Detroit, U.S.A. [Harriet Scott, Detroit Normal School], and described by Miss Geraldine Buck, M.Sc., in this month's Forum. In the lowest class the children are made to reproduce in fancy the life of the nomadic hunters, of whom they take Hiawatha as a type, the lessons in reading, natural history, &c., all being linked to his story as told by Longfellow. Then follows the Aryan period of pastoral life, which, in the same way, forms the groundwork of their lessons, to be succeeded in turn by the Persian, Greek, and Roman periods, leading up to the Renaissance and modern times. The idea is fantastic, but is declared to show good results, enabling the teacher to cover the same ground in technical reading, writing, drawing, science study, number, geography, and language, as that occupied by the old system, besides much important work in literature, art and ethics. One can easily believe that, in the hands of a good teacher, this is so; but a good teacher can obtain good results under almost any system of teaching.
In the Nineteenth Century, Professor [John Pentland] Mahaffy has a lively article ("The Modern Babel") on the need for some one language to take the place held by Latin in the middle ages, as the medium of communication between educated men of all countries. He considers that English is destined for this position by its richness, flexibility, and easy construction, and by the worldwide enterprise of English merchants; but that its progress is hindered by our diplomatists, who neglect or misuse their opportunities, and by our pedantic adherence to a difficult and irrational mode of spelling. Incidentally he refers to the increased pressure upon our youth to learn an ever-growing number of current European languages, which pressure "produces a waste of millions of valuable hours every year among those who fail in the task, whether from natural stupidity, or from incompetent and antiquated teaching, or from a rotten and ridiculous system of examinations." The gradual simplification of English spelling is also insisted upon by a writer in the Forum.
Speaking of Free Libraries, the Times (Oct. 27th) considers that they
have fallen far short of our expectations as a means of education, and
that the purpose they serve is chiefly recreative, and that they might
be made "much more than they are, centres of culture and more worthy of
the compliments freely showered upon them." I note also a suggestive
article in Pall Mall Gazette (Nov. 4th) pointing out the necessity for
extreme patience in dealing with children, as their minds work so much
more slowly than do ours.
Pater Junior.
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