The next may contain about twenty-five of those wood
animals which
are imported into this country, and are to be had at the foreign toy
warehouses; some of them are carved exceedingly well, and appear very
like the real animals.
The next may contain mahogany, and the various kinds of wood.
The next may contain prunings of the various fruit trees, all about
an
inch long, or an inch square.
The next may contain the different small articles of ironmongery,
needles, pins, cutlery, small tools, and every other object that can
be obtained small enough for the purpose.
The lessons are to be put in the lesson-post the same as the picture
lessons; and the articles are either glued, or fastened on the boards
with screws or waxed thread.
I would have dried leaves provided, such as an oak leaf, an elm
leaf, an ash leaf, &c. &c. The leaves of ever-greens should
be kept
separate. These will enable a judicious instructor to communicate a
great variety of valuable information.
On some things connected with such instruction I find I arrived at
the
same conclusions as Pestalozzi, though I have never read his works,
and for some years after my first efforts, did not know that such
a person existed. I mean, however, to give my views on teaching by
objects more fully in a work I hope soon to prepare, to be entitled
"The Infant Teacher in the Nursery and the School."
The utility of this mode of teaching must be obvious, for if the
children meet with any of those terms in a book which they are
reading, they understand them immediately, which would not be the
case unless they had seen the object. The most intellectual person
would not be able to call things by their proper names, much less
describe them, unless he had been taught, or heard some other person
call them by their right names; and we generally learn more by mixing
with society, than ever we could do at school: these sorts of lessons
persons can make themselves, and they will last for many years, and
help to lay a foundation for things of more importance.
I am convinced the day is not far distant when a museum will be
considered necessary to be attached to every first rate school for the
instruction of children.
Sight is the most direct inlet for knowledge. Whatever we have seen
makes a much stronger impression upon us. Perception is the first
power of mind which is brought into action, and the one made use
of with most ease and pleasure. For this reason object lessons are
indispensable in an infant school, consisting both of real substances
and of pictures. The first lesson in Paradise was of this kind, and
we
ought therefore to draw instruction from it. "And out of the ground
the Lord God formed every beast of the field, and every fowl of the
air; and brought them to Adam to see what he would call them: and
whatsoever Adam called every living creature, that was the name of
it."
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