Page:The Great Didactic of John Amos Comenius (1896).pdf/332

 notice that the sun’s action may be assisted by the lie of the ground. Valleys and depressions, for instance, collect the rays and thus attain a higher degree of warmth.

18. If matters be arranged in the following manner, one teacher will easily be able to cope with very large number of scholars. That is to say

(i) If he divide the whole body into classes, groups of ten, for example, each of which should be controlled by a scholar who is, in his turn, controlled by one of higher rank, and so on.

(ii) If he never give individual instruction, either privately out of school or publicly in school, but teach all the pupils at one and the same time. He should, therefore, never step up to any one scholar or allow any one of them to come to him separately, but should remain in his seat, where he can be seen and heard by all, just as the sun sends forth its rays over all things. The scholars, on the other hand, must direct their ears, eyes, and thoughts towards him and attend to everything that he tells them by word of mouth or explains by means of his hand or of diagrams. Thus, with a single blow, not one but many flies are killed.

19. (iii) With a little skill it will be possible to arrest the attention of the pupils, collectively and individually, and to imbue them with the notion that (as really is the case) the mouth of the teacher is a spring from which streams of knowledge issue and flow over them, and that, whenever they see this spring open, they should place their attention, like a cistern, beneath it, and thus allow nothing that flows forth to escape. The teacher also should take the greatest care never to speak unless all his pupils are listening, nor to teach unless they are all attending. In this connection that remark of Seneca’s is very apposite: “We should speak to none who is unwilling to listen.” Solomon also says: “Wisdom is before the face of him that hath understanding” (Prov. xvii. 24). That is to say, we should talk not to the winds but to the ears of men.