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the word method in teaching primary reading. If so, I would like to give a little experience of mine.

MR. HANCOCK: I approve any good method; but running up and down the alphabet, I do not consider a good method.

MISS PIERCE: No, nor do I.

MR. HANCOCK: I approve of a combination of the word, phonic, and letter methods.

MISS PIERCE (In response to calls for "the experience"), I have not been in the habit of teaching the alphabet up and down. I tried the word method alone, not alone either, but aside from other methods. My experience with the child taught that it was almost impossible to get that child to learn to spell. I took, for example, the word with. It was first printed in large letters and then in small letters. Every word that looked anything like it, the child was disposed to call it with.

was,

MR. HENKLE: He was rather a bad subject.

MISS PIERCE: No, I think not. I think the fault was in the method. I have since combined methods. My experience has only gone as far as district schools.

MR. FORBES: I move that the report be recommended to the teachers of Ohio in its general features as a course of study. I do not wish it to be adopted to be put into the schools, but I would like to see the general spirit of the report recommended. MR. REINMUND: When I prepared that paper, I supposed it would be received as to its general spirit. No man can make a paper that will be adopted to use practically in all our schools.

E. E. WHITE: I can vote for Mr. Forbes's motion. I think the general scope of the report can be recommended. As I understood it, the report is intended to be merely suggestive-it is not to be prescribed and followed. And here let me say, that I did not intend to attribute the theory I was controverting, to the Oswego teachers. I am aware that they do not advocate it, but I have met it in teachers' institutes, and it underlies much talk on this subject. I am glad to believe that few of the intelligent teachers of Ohio hold it.

The next morning, Mr. White, rising to a personal explanation, said: I see by the morning papers that one of the speakers yesterday understood that the word "humbug was applied to the object method of teaching. This is a mistake. I was discussing the merits of a certain extreme theory of mental development, and a consequent division of school instruction into periods for the acquisition of sense knowledge, conceptive knowledge, etc. It was this idea that I characterized as a humbug, and I was doubtless correctly understood by the audience. All who know anything of my views, know that I am an advocate of and have heartily welcomed a reform in our primary methods of instruction. But I believe that the true way to promote reform is to guard against its abuse, and to correet narrow and extreme views. I believe that the great problem in primary instruction is to combine the two methods, the new and the old, into a complete and philosophic system. In what I have said here, on this and other subjects, I have aimed to speak against abuses and evil tendencies. I have done this knowing that I was addressing an intelligent body of educators, who were in no danger of misunderstanding me.

MORAL CULTURE

IN SCHOOLS. *

BY ELI T. TAPPAN, PRESIDENT OF KENYON COLLEGE.

The subject assigned to me is MORAL CULTURE. This is not Moral Philosophy, nor any theory of morals, but how to cultivate morals in children,--how to build up moral character.

The moral training of youth is attracting much attention from teachers and the public. The discussions whether the Bible shall be read in the schools, and whether denominational schools shall take the place of common schools, arouse a deep and wide-spread feeling. All know that the real question is, how to make our children good men and women. The proceedings of this Association, the addresses, resolutions, and discussions of former meetings, show how much you feel this matter.

MOST IMPORTANT SUBJECT.

Moral Culture is the most important subject that can engage the attention of teachers. As much as right and honor are more to be respected than knowledge and skill, so is this branch of education more worthy than intellectual culture.

It has been said that the knowledge how to preserve life is the first in order of importance, because "entire ignorance in all other directions would be less promptly fatal than entire ignorance in this direction." This is sophistry. The fallacy consists in basing a conclusion upon an inconceivable case—no one who is a subject to be taught, is entirely ignorant either in this direction or in all others. Only the new-born infant is in such ignorance, and even these philosophers of education would not attempt to teach such a one physiology. As soon as a child is old enough to be taught anything by the parent, the first lessons are moral ones, obedience and love. When a mother, for the sake of the babe's health, subjects it to good order and regular habits, the child does not learn how to preserve life or anything about life; it learns to obey and to love. As the boy grows older, and may be taught that valuable lesson in physiology, to keep his fingers out of the fire, still he is taught first the more important moral lesson, to have faith in his mother. She uses this faith to make him keep away from danger. She does not believe that her offspring should be burnt à little in order that it may dread the fire. The mother's instinct is the wisdom of nature. The philosopher of education ought to copy the lesson. Moral education is the foundation; upon this all other education is to be built. It is first in time and first in importance.

The moral part of man governs both the body and the intellect. The history of men and of nations proves this. A man of culture and refinement can endure more physical hardship than one who is more material and less spiritual. Those nations which have observed the purest morality, have been the most powerful, they have performed the greatest works, and have made the greatest progress in the arts and sciences. Small armies, inspired by solemn

* An Essay read before the Ohio Teachers' Association, July 6th, 1870.

devotion to a common cause, or by faith in a beloved leader, have vanquished large ones who were demoralized. Every teacher knows that a scholar's success is insured by certain habits, such as punctuality, obedience, industry, patience, and perseverance. The scholar who is intellectually dull, but has these moral qualities, outstrips the brighter intellect, who is irregular, unruly, lazy, impatient, or despondent.

That is a fine theory which makes rational life depend upon the animal, but the facts do not agree with the theory. A man's bodily health depends much more upon his leading a virtuous life than his mind does upon the soundness of his body. The mind may be pure and sound, while the body is racked with disease. That the body has an influence upon the mind is admitted; but that the mind has a greater influence upon the body is undeniable.

But bodily health, even life itself, is not the greatest good; an immoral life is worse than worthless. A man who says he "must live," is very apt to be a rogue. The assertion is false. Honor is worth more than life. A man should feel that he must do what is right, whether he lives or dies.

Happiness and misery are of the soul, more than of the mind or of the body. Bodily pain and illness may cause great sorrow, but much greater is the anguish which arises from purely spiritual causes. The indulgence of physical appetites may please, the gratification of intellectual wants gives a much higher enjoyment, but who can compare either of these with the happiness which arises from the activity of the moral nature?

Thus every view of the question leads to the conclusion that this is the most important work of the teacher, both because of its use in all other culture, and because it is in itself of most value.

THE TEACHER'S DUTY.

Admitting all that is claimed for the importance of moral culture, many sincere persons have held that this is not within the province of the school-master, that his business is only to teach what is found in books. This error is now rarely met with. The position, the character, and the attainments of the teacher, all fit him for this duty. His intercourse with his pupils, leading them and directing them in their work and in their play, gives him peculiar facilities for their moral culture. Indeed, no duty is ever more plainly put before a human being than this is before the teacher.

He can not possibly prevent, his influence being either good, or bad. His words, his acts, his appearance, his manner, everything that manifests the spirit within him, exerts either a moral or an immoral influence upon his pupils.

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The effect of "Unconscious Tuition was well stated by Mr. Huntington in an essay which many of you have read, and which every teacher ought to read.

THE TEACHER'S PERSONAL INFLUENCE.

Having established the paramount importance of moral culture, and the duty of the school-master to engage in it, the great practical question remains: how to do this work-what methods to employ.

The first thing necessary is, that the teacher be thoroughly convinced of the truths just stated; he must have a profound conviction that moral training is

the great work, that it is the beginning and the end, the means and the object of all other training; and he must have a deep sense of his own responsibility for the morals of his pupils.

To this conviction must be added an ardent desire to do this work, to accomplish the highest welfare of the pupil; in a word, the school-master must heartily love the scholar. This can not be feigned; it must be sincere. Children's eyes read our faces with wonderful intelligence; they penetrate every disguise; they soon know our very hearts, and whether we really love them or not. If we do, then we have their confidence; they are under our influence, and the work can go on. The master is himself the instrument, and his own soul must be sharpened by love, if he would prune off the vicious habits of a bad boy, or mend the manners of an ill-tempered girl.

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"There is", says Mr. Huntington, a touching plea in the loyal ardor with which the young are ready to look to their guides. In all men, and women more than men, and children most of all, there is a natural instinct and passion for impersonating all ideal excellence in some superior being, and for living in intense devotion to a heroic presence. It is the privilege of every teacher to occupy that place, to ascend that lawful throne of homage and of love if he will. If his pupils love him, he stands their ideal of a heroic nature. Their romantic fancy invests him with unreal graces. Long after his lessons are forgotten, he remains, in memory, a teaching power. It is his own forfeit, if by a sluggish, spiritless brain, mean manners, or a small and selfish heart, he alienates that confidence and disappoints that generous hope."

Then, if we would lead children in the paths of virtue, "we must march the whole road ourselves." We must exercise gentleness, kindness, generosity, forgiveness, charity, if we would teach these virtues. Like begets like; and it is the nature of children to follow example.

Here, probably, many of you say and think, as I say and think myself, that this is requiring very much from us. We are not perfect. No one but sometimes fails. Yet what I have stated is only the truth, a truth which we must know and feel that more depends upon the teacher than upon any books or lessons whatever. It is well established that the excellence of a school depends more upon the teacher than it does upon the buildings, apparatus, or any other circumstance; and this is nowhere so emphatically true as in the moral training. It is the example rather than the precept that is important; for a vicious man may talk morals. The good done is rather in the actions of the teacher than in the words, except when the words themselves constitute a loving act. Let the trustees of schools in the State of Ohio realize these truths; let them search for school-masters whose lives in the school-room, and out of it, are constant lessons of virtue; and let them refuse to employ one, however learned and intelligent, whose life and actions are vicious and debasing. No scientific excellence can compensate for a cruel or a hateful government.

Women are more kind, and gentle, and affectionate with children, than men are. If a man and a woman have equal skill and scholarship, the woman should be preferred as the teacher of children, on account of her feminine influence. It would be better if mothers could be employed more in the schools. The woman who has children of her own, has a greater sympathy for children .

When they can be spared from home duties, they generally become excellent primary school teachers. What a blessing it is, that in our young days we were in the hands of our mothers, and were not left to the tender mercies of philosophers of education!

TRAINING BY EXAMPLE.

While the master's example is the first, yet other examples can be used as scholars advance in years. Younger children give little heed to any example that is not before their own eyes. Older ones may be helped by examples of the heroes of story or of history-the heroes of our own land, the patient women who have risked their lives to nurse the sick and wounded, the noble men who have died for their country-the heroes of other lands and other days, the blessed army of martyrs who have died for the truth, and the blessed army of martyrs who have lived in pain and want for God's sake-the heroes whose deeds have been chronicled by poet or historian-and the heroes whose long suffering has been known only to our Father in Heaven.

Do not dwell much upon the moral of a story. It is a poor story for this purpose that does not show its moral without telling. It is the example that does the work. When the heart is touched, it is enough.

Many young minds are scarcely able to comprehend the abstract moral, that are easily and permanently impressed by the action seen or the story told.

The teacher should study in advance these examples, so as to produce the effect desired. Sometimes fiction may be used, but generally it is better to state facts from biography and history. A story has much greater weight, when the narrator can say it is true. History furnishes abundant examples of every virtue. There is one, in particular, the highest and brightest example of love, that love which He taught. A year ago, the Ohio Teachers' Association resolved unanimously, that "the teachings of Jesus Christ regarding human duty, and the spirit of love which He inculcated, should, as completely as possible, pervade every grade of school instruction."

This spirit of love was inculcated as much by His life, as by His word. This example should be used by the master in the daily work of training the scholar to a life of virtue. Here is a character the most pure, “generous, elevated, and sublime." Here is an example of the most self-sacrificing love. That such a One lived and died for men, is a history so attractive that all men are drawn to it. It touches every heart, purifies and ennobles every character.

The distinction between training and knowledge made by Mr. Henkle two years ago at Dayton, must not be forgotten. When example is used, we always have moral training; when precept is used, we may only succeed in giving a knowledge of the law. Example is the great means of training in morals; the precept, however, is not to be neglected.

TRAINING BY PRECEPT.

Here, as in other branches of our work, the best method is to draw out from the scholar what we wish to teach. The expression, in a boy's own language, of his generous emotions excited by a heroic example, will do more to make a hero of him than a week's moralizing by the master. One tear of sympathy at the Story of the Cross does more to purify his heart, than the most learned

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