Page:The Mothers of England.djvu/49

44 Inspired by a laudable desire to be the early, and perhaps the sole instructers of their children, some well-meaning and industrious mothers begin with lettered cards and books, to teach the first rudiments of spelling and reading, before their children are capable of attaching a single right idea to the words they read; and it often happens that those parents who are the most sparing, and least apt, in the communication of their own ideas, are the most solicitous about their children being taught to read at the earliest possible period of capability. Such parents seem to have overlooked the fact, that there is very little exercise of the mind in simply learning to read; though the demands which are thus made upon attention, patience, and memory, are a little too exorbitant, and certainly such as never can repay either the teacher or the taught, by an amount of success at all proportioned to the labor and the pain of their endeavors.

But why, when the mother has such exquisite materials to work with, as the love and confidence of her child, with its quick sensibility to enjoyment—why does she not begin to work with these materials, so as to introduce ideas at once to its mind, and then to affix to such ideas their appropriate signs? By teaching the signs of ideas first, we reverse the order of nature, and convert into a task of painful and herculean toil, that which might be rendered by the mother a source of perpetual interest and enjoyment.

The memory, too, may be easily impressed by those who carefully watch the best opportunity of conveying instruction to the young; because whatever we can be made feelingly to comprehend, we distinctly remember; and thus the mother, through the medium of her own sympathies, and the affections of her child, enjoys an advantage over all other preceptors. Whatever also strikes the senses in a forcible manner, makes a vivid impression upon the mind, so as to be long remembered. From this principle the method of teaching as at present pursued in infant-schools, derives its power and efficacy; and from the same principle it is, that home-education possesses in many respects so decided a superiority over that of schools.

Let us for a moment imagine the case of a mother and