Page:Home Education by Isaac Taylor (1838).djvu/22

 Moreover, the urgent influence of competition among teachers, and the stirring spirit of rivalry between public schools, have the same strong tendency to push forward whatever may be brought the soonest and the most certainly to a palpable issue. The visible and audible sum total of accomplishments brought home by a boy when he leaves school, is what must be thought of, and the thought of' which must govern the methods of teaching, as well as determine the .choice of studies, and the degree of attention that is to be bestowed upon each. Certain branches of' knowledge, although of the highest intrinsic importance, are perhaps only in a low degree _capable of being exhibited; and it is certain that there are methods of' teaching what is taught which, while they invigorate the faculties, leave, in the memory, a smaller amount of particulars, such as can be adduced, or repeated.

I hope this statement of a main characteristic of school teaching will not be thought illiberal: assuredly it does not imply the presence. of any motive of a discreditable kind; and if it involves any blame, it is a blame that should rest with parents, and must attach to public opinion, rather than fall upon those who have no choice but to meet the expectations of their employers, whether reasonable or not. Inevitable motives, not of mere interest, but of' laudable professional zeal, and proper ambition, must always render school education a system calculated to produce—speedy results; and in its methods of procedure it must be more or less improvident, and in some degree wasteful of the intellectual vigour of the young: nor can it be expected that any improvements yet to be made, either in the science or the art of education, should materially affect a course of things which arises necessarily from the relative position of parents and teachers.

It is only at home that a principle altogether different is likely to be carried into effect, or that the remote