"… Hence the North German Gymnasia,[1] with their countless lectures, so arranged that every hour a fresh teacher appears with a fresh subject. …
"Each one accustoms himself to give out much as a task, and afterwards to require but little, because he does not know what the pupils may at that very time have to do for other teachers. …
"Under the pressure of mere secondary matters, the ancient languages, history, and mathematics, the principal foundations of all mental culture, sink down themselves to be mere secondary subjects, and the boy loses the true preparatory training for all higher study. The proper end of the gymnasium, TO LEARN HOW TO LEARN, is lost; for, instead of this, the pupil only learns how to bungle, and, instead of making even increasing demands upon his mental activity, he becomes content with the deceitful appearance of knowledge in a large variety of subjects. …
"… Nothing new can be offered them (the pupils), for they have already tasted everything, and think themselves perfectly acquainted with everything, although they are really acquainted with nothing, or rather with less than nothing, for every sensible teacher knows that he can sooner make something of a pupil who knows nothing of his subject, than of one who comes to him with a superficial and confused knowledge of it. …
"It is a hard saying of Schelling, but it is one that should be written in letters of gold, that ' A bungler in knowledge is always also a bungler in morality.' "—Christian Family Life, by Thiersch.
Note to p. 41.
By the special kindness of the Rev. Stephen Hawtrey I am permitted to give the results of his experience as to the effect of music, from an account of his school, printed for private circulation.
"Before dismissing the question of mental culture, I must refer to another branch of learning, my advocacy of which will, perhaps, be more readily received than my recommendation of a more general introduction of Latin and Euclid into our National Schools.
"I mean the learning music from notes. Independently of the result, viz. the power of reading music, 1 know nothing that is more valuable for fixing the attention of children than the study of music. It can be brought to bear on the culture of their minds at a very early age; long before they have made such progress in elementary knowledge as to take in hand the studies before spoken of; and it is the best preparation for them.
"Only watch a class of little boys, of seven and eight years old, learning to read music from Hullah's Sheets, under a good master. Mark their eyes; with what intelligence and keenness they are fixed on the tablet, from the time they begin to read the page of music to the end of it. If they once lose their place they are all abroad. I do not know any lesson that fixes the attention so keenly for three or four minutes consecutively as reading in time one of Hulllah's sheets.
"The power of attention, and consequent mental activity, which 1 have observed to result from making music from notes a regular part of the school business, has led me to say deliberately to the promoters of schools, that of two schools, ceteris paribus, if one (A) were to make music part of the school business, and the other (B) were not to do so, it would be found, at the end of a given time, that the scholars of (A) school would have learned every subject that had been taught in the (B) school, and would know them better, besides having acquired the knowledge of music.
"The whole school may be safely taught; at least all those who enter at
- ↑ The Gymnasium corresponds to the English Public School; it stands between the Preparatory School and the University.
