The Infant System eBook

This eBook from the Gutenberg Project consists of approximately 434 pages of information about The Infant System.

The Infant System eBook

This eBook from the Gutenberg Project consists of approximately 434 pages of information about The Infant System.

I have mentioned that the children should be classed:  in order to facilitate this, there should be a board fastened to the wall perpendicularly, the same width as the seats, every fifteen feet, all round the school; this will separate one class from another, and be the cause of the children knowing their class the sooner.  Make every child hang his hat over where he sits, in his own class, as this will save much trouble.  “Have a place for every thing, and every thing in its place.”  This will bring the children into habits of order.  Never do any thing for a child that he is able to do for himself; but teach him to put his own hat and coat on, and hang them up again when he comes to school.  Teach every child to help himself as soon as possible.  If one falls down, and you know that he is able to get up himself, never lift him up; if you do, he will always lie till you can give him your aid.  Have a slate, or a piece of paper, properly ruled, hanging over every class; let every child’s name that is in the class be written on it, with the name of the monitor; teach the monitor the names as soon as you can, and then he will tell you who is absent.  Have a semicircle before every lesson, and make the children keep their toes to the mark; brass nails driven in the floor are the best, or flat brass or iron let into the floor.  When a monitor is asking the children questions, let him place his stool in the centre of the semicircle, and the children stand around him.  Let the monitors ask what questions they please, they will soon get fond of the process, and their pupils will soon be equally fond of answering them.  Suppose the monitor ask.  What do I sit on?  Where are your toes?  What do you stand on?  What is before you?  What behind you?  Let the monitors be instructed in giving simple object lessons on any familiar substance, such as a piece of wood, of stone, of iron, of paper, of bone, of linen, &c.  Let them question their class as to the qualities first, and then the various uses to which the object is applied.  These lessons will be of incalculable benefit to the children, and give them an early desire to inquire into the nature, qualities, and uses of every natural object they come into contact with.  We will suppose the monitor holds in his hand a piece of leather; he first asks, “What is this?” The children will simultaneously exclaim, “A piece of leather.”  This being answered, he will proceed to the qualities, and will have either from his class, or by his own help, the following answers:  “It is dry, it is smooth, it is hard, it is tough, it is pliable, it is opaque,” &c.  He will then question them as to its uses, and will ask, “What is made from leather?” A. Boots and shoes.  Q. What use is it of else?  A. Books are bound with it; and so on through all its uses.  He will then ask them how leather is made, and give them information which he has himself previously received from the teacher as to the mode of tanning leather, and the various

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The Infant System from Project Gutenberg. Public domain.