The Training System adopted in the Model Schools of the
Glas- gow Educational Society, combines the distinguishing features of many systems; including those of Bent., LANCASTER, PESTA.. LOZZI, WILDERSPIN, OBERLIN, and even OWEN. The purposes of this training are threefold,—corporeal, intellectual, and moral; and the plan consists in accustoming the child to act upon the precepts inculcated, so that habits of attention and regularity, of amiability and intelligence, bodily activity, and moral restraint, are insensibly acquired, not only without pain, but with pleasure to the pupil. The play-ground is made a school for moral and physical training, without putting any check upon the enjoyment of the children ; while in the school-room the acquisition of know- ledge and the exercise of the mental faculties are made a pastime. When the mind begins to flag, some bodily exercise is bad re- course to: this alternation of physical and mental employment giving a zest to both, and preventing fatigue in either. The In- struction is oral, not by books ; and the learners become teachers
of themselves and each other. The aim is to inform while amusing the mind, and to make each individual understand while all are being instructed. The children are taught through the medium of familiar objects, p;etures, and practical examples, as much as possible : where words are necessary, the ideas they represent are explained and impressed on the understanding. Cheerfulness is encouraged by the practice of singing, in chorus, simple airs with intelligible words embodying some useful lesson. The same system, on a more extended scale, is applied to the Juvenile Schools, for children above the age of six years, where books and the pen are first put into the scholar's hand.
Previous page
