The art of study; by Hinsdale Burke Aaron 1837-1900

Author:Hinsdale, Burke Aaron, 1837-1900. [from old catalog]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Teaching
Publisher: New York, Cincinnati [etc.] American book company
Published: 1900-03-25T05:00:00+00:00

"The law of apperception, we are told, proves that temporary methods of solving problems should not be so thoroughly mastered as to be used involuntarily, or as a matter of unconscious habit for the reason that a higher and a more adequate method of

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THOROUGHNESS.

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solution will then be found more difficult to acquire. The more thoroughly a method is learned, the more it becomes part of the mind, and the greater the repugnance of the mind toward a new method. For this reason, parents and teachers discourage young children from the practice of counting on the fingers, believing that it will cause much trouble later to root out this vicious habit, and replace it by purely mental processes, Teachere should be careful, especially with precocious children, not to continue too long in the use of a process that is becoming mechanical ; for it is already growing into a second nature, and becoming a part of the unconscious apperceptive process by which the mind reacts against the environment, recognizes its presence, and explains it to itself. The child that has been overtrained in arithmetic reacts apperceptively against his environment chiefly by noticing its numerical relations—he counts and adds ; his other apperceptive reactions being feeble, he neglects qualities and causal relations. Another child, who has been drilled in recognizing colors, apperceives the shades of color to the neglect of all else. A third child, excessively trained in form studies by the constant use of geometric solids and much practice in looking for the fundamental geometric fonns lying at the basis of the multifarious objects that exist in the world, will, as a matter of course, apperceive geometric forms, ignoring the other phases of objects."'

The subject can be pursued indefinitely,butone or two further instances will answer the present purpose.

Lord Karnes, for example, advanced the proposition that capacious Eaenif^ and sound judgment are seldom HcmoT7 found in company.' His argument is that andjndK- memory involves" the slight or loose relations of ideas, while judgment rests upon the strong or close relations, and that the two mental habits are incompatible. The truth turns, no doubt, upon the extent to which the individual relies upon his memory or his judgment. Either one may be cultivated, and especially

' Sefort of the Cemmittce ef Fifteen en Elementary Education. New York, American Book Company, 1895, PP' 5^ 57'

* Bltmentt vf Critteimt- Nev York, American Book Co., 1870, p- 33.

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the memory, at the cost of the other, but there is no necessary antagonism between the two mental faculties.

It is a familiar fact that precocious development in children is commonly followed by arrested development. Frccodoaa Inheritance has here something to answer for, chudicn. but something is no doubt due to the early over^ooving of the child's mind. Two practical ques-tions that deeply affect the teacher's work arise at this point, and will be briefly considered. How long shall a pupil be kept on the same lesson ? How long on the same study ?

A teacher, we will suppose, keeps a

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