Page:Home Education by Isaac Taylor (1838).djvu/14

 belief, first, that Home Education, if the principles and methods proper to it are well understood, is both practicable and preferable in more instances than has often been supposed, and especially so for girls; and secondly, that this system is susceptible of improvements, such as could not fail, if adopted to any considerable extent, very sensibly to promote the moral and intellectual advancement of the community.

It is especially with this persuasion that I come forward to recommend, warmly, but not blindly, that system of culture which may be carried on in a private family. With the methods of Home Education I have been at different times, and am now again, practically conversant; its theory too has engaged much of my attention; and deeply impressed as I am with a conviction of the advantages that are peculiar to it, I shall think myself happy if, without attempting to alter the determination of parents who are actually sending their children to school, I may afford some aid to those who are wishing to retain them at home.

I ought to premise that the phrase,, is not, in my view, to be strictly confined to the training of the children of a single family, under the paternal roof; but may embrace any instances in which the number assembled for instruction is not greater than may well consist with the enjoyments, the intimacy, the usages, and the harmony that ought to attach to a family.

Understanding the term in this extended sense, I entertain the hope that, while professing to write for parents, I may render some aid to teachers also, having the charge of a limited number; for it is only reasonable to suppose that, as well the general principles of intellectual culture, as the specific methods of instruction which are applicable to the eight or ten children of a family, may be brought to bear with perhaps a little modification, upon the twelve or