Зображення сторінки
PDF
ePub

is more expressly adapted, his "vocational" training is of small value to him. He doesn't seem to know what he wants; but the educator of the old school points the finger of infinite wisdom and says: "I told you so; what that boy needs is general training— formal discipline the kind of thing the old courses in mathematics, Latin and Greek used to afford." But few educators would recommend a return to the education of two centuries ago. At the same time, is it not possible to reconstruct our work in such a way as to combine the training of the old with the subjectmatter of the newer education?

Suppose we teachers were to have a little examination of our aims. What is our purpose? To impart information? To develop judgment? To lead to the formation of habits of self-control, seriousness, neatness, regularity, application, attention? Do we want to encourage attainment, measurement of the rate of progress, independence; concise, clear, felicitous expression? If these and similar objectives be our aim, why should we not select our material and emphasize it so that these "all-round" and universally applicable attainments be encouraged and acquired?

Teachers of mathematics will admit that much that they must teach will be of little practical use; but if the subject be properly taught and the pupils are led to reason out their problems, the work has much general value. But this is not all that can be taught in the mathematics department. Lessons must be done neatly, regularly, completely, independently. The pupil must be neat in appearance, attentive, alert, earnest. His demonstrations must be clear; if spoken, they must be given in a good, clear, full tone of voice; he must stand or sit in a good, easy, but becoming position. And the pupil should know that he is just as likely to be marked on these things as on the fullness and accuracy of his knowledge. Work in foreign languages has its opportunities peculiar to itself, as well as those which are common to some or all other subjects. History, civics, law, science-all may well be stressed to develop the abiding qualities. The training these subjects provide is fully as important as the subject-matter. There

are difficult problems to solve, and carefully thought out decisions to be rendered. If pupils come to look upon the law, or economics, or history periods merely as rest periods, or to regard the science periods as times when they are permitted to toy with the apparatus in the laboratory, these subjects lose practically all their value.

In connection with the work in English, a form somewhat similar to the following may be used.

[merged small][merged small][merged small][graphic][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed]

The pupil may fill in his name, and the teacher may take occasion to explain that all these details enter into school training, and that the pupil may be marked on any or all of these details

any day. Some few objectives may be singled out at a time and emphasized, or the whole list may be presented with little or no comment. Thus pupils may be led to see that education is training, rather than simply the acquiring of knowledge; that all school work contributes to success, in living as well as in making a living. They may comprehend, as never before, the doctrine of one of our foremost educators: that it matters little what one studies; but it matters much how one studies it. They will realize that they are being trained, rather than that the subject is being taught.

The Return

Back to the scenes of childhood;
Fortune and fame, farewell!
Give me the field and forest,
Mountain and woodland dell.

May and the morning sunlight
Earth with a glory fill;
Gone are the years like shadows,
Youth in the heart lives still.

Youth with a deeper longing
Cometh again to me-
As I follow the shining river
Winding down to the sea.

Songs of the thrush and robin
To songs of the heart respond;
I cherish the life of the present,
Yet reach to the life beyond.

Love from the blue above me,
Life from the fragrant sod;

Back to the field and forest;
Back to the heart of God.

A. S. AMES.

Outline Study of Cooper's "The Spy"

OUTLINE STUDY No. 88

(JAMES FENIMORE COOPER 1789-1851)

PREPARATORY WORK: Character of "THE SPY:" Military

situation.

FIRST READING: Outline of the Narrative; Study of the text.

SECOND READING:

Construction of the Novel; Actors in the Story; Places Closely Connected with the Story; The Author's Views of the Political Situation; Comment of the Actors; The Literary Value of the Novel.

SUPPLEMENTARY WORK: Test Questions; Theme Subjects.

A. PREPARATORY WORK

CHARACTER OF "THE SPY:" MILITARY
SITUATION.

I. CHARACTER OF The Spy.

Note 1. The Spy, a novel by James Fenimore Cooper, published in 1821, tells the story of Harvey Birch, a spy employed by Washington in 1780, in Westchester County, New York, the Neutral Ground during the Revolution. His services could not be acknowledged and he was suspected by patriots and Tories alike. The tale is based on a story which had once been told by John Jay. It startled the American public and attained a success far greater than that of any previous American work.

II. THE MILITARY SITUATION IN 1780.

Note 2. The summer of 1780 was a critical period of the Revolutionary War. The fall of Charleston in the early summer, which was regarded as the establishment of British power in the extreme Southern colonies, had been a crushing blow to the patriot cause. Financial chaos, lack of authority in Congress, and the general inefficiency of the state governments had created a situation which seemed to offer no promise of a successful offensive or of any effective utilization of the French alliance. Dissensions were known to be rife among the officers of the Continental army and a mutinous spirit pervaded its ranks. Under such circumstances it might well have seemed that the treason of Arnold was the beginning of a general disintegration of that military force which was the sole support of the patriot cause. The Revolution was in danger, not only from the avowed Tories, but from the growing luke-warmness of a large and influencial class whose chief concern was to keep on the winning side.

From a purely military point of view, however, the patriot army in the Northern states still held the advantageous position gained in the victorious Saratoga campaign. The British forces, under the command of Sir Henry Clinton, were concentrated in the city of New York and were practically on the defensive. Besides the town itself which included only the extreme southern end of Manhattan Island, the British held all Manhattan Island with Staten Island, the west end of Long Island, and the commanding positions on the New Jersey side of the Hudson. Their warships held the harbor and commanded the Hudson.

The patriot army, under General Washington, occupied a line of connecting positions extending from Philadelphia, across northern New Jersey, to the fortified post of West Point on the Hudson. Along the Hudson River, the American lines extended to Peekskill, and outposts patrolled the country as far south as Tarrytown. From this point to the channels which separate Manhattan Island from the mainland, a distance of about forty miles, lay the "neutral ground," the No Man's Land of the Revolution. It was the object of the patriot army to prevent the British forces from drawing supplies from this region, but Congress would not permit devastation. Consequently, the "neutral ground," swept by constant raids, and exposed to the unchecked evils of civil war, became the abode of the lawless and adventurous spirits who flourish best in times of upheaval and disorder.

« НазадПродовжити »