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Would an ideal course closely correlate drawing with nature work?

6 Are there drawing drills (like practice of scales on piano) that are profitable?

7 Should perspective be taught by rule? Where should shading begin?

8 How far is the union of inventional Geometry with drawing desirable? Is mechanical drawing

common

in Should all other drawing be strictly free-hand?

schools profitable?

9- Should drawing cultivate the imagination or be strictly limited to representing visual impressions?

10- What can be done to give our teachers more freedom in the use of the crayon as a means of illustrative teaching?

O. T. R. C. DEPARTMENT.

AN AMERICAN'S VISIT TO PESTALOZZI.

[While this article has no direct bearing upon any of the books adopted this year, yet we feel sure that it will prove helpful to the members of the O. T. R. C.--ED.]

[In 1818, 1819 Prof. John Griscom, of New York City, made a study of the schools, colleges, and charitable institutions of Great Britain, France, Switzerland, Italy, and Holland, and on his return home embodied the fruits of his investigations in a work of two volumes to which he gave the name, "A Year in Europe." "No one volume in the first half of the nineteenth century', says Dr. Barnard, "had so wide an influence on the development of our educational, reformatory, and preventive measures, directly and indirectly, as this." Ex-President Jefferson pronounced the view that the book gave of the literary and public institutions of the countries that the

author visited the best that he had ever read. He said he found in it useful hints for the University of Virginia, which he was then engaged in establishing. Griscom visited Pestalozzi, and wrote the account of his visit that is reproduced below. "A Year in Europe" is now a rare book. It owes much of its interest to the fact that it was written by a practical educator at a time when little was known about Pestalozzi and foreign education in the United States. B. A. Hinsdale.]

Breakfast finished, our first and chief concern here was to visit the celebrated Institute of Pestalozzi. This establishment occupies a large castle the use of which was granted to Pestalozzi by the Canton of Berne, when the town of Yverdun was included in that Canton, and the government of the Pays de

Vaud, to which it now belongs, continues the grant. On entering the castle, we were invited into a private room. I gave my letters to the person in attendance, who took them immediately to the chief. The good old man soon came in, seized me warmly by the hand, and seeing my hat on my head, he pointed to it in a sort of ecstacy, with his eyes almost filled with tears. I hardly knew how to interpret this emotion, and asked him if he wished me to take it off. He answered very earnestly, "no, no, no, keep it on, you are right." He seemed very glad to see us and as he speaks French very imperfectly, and with an indistinct accent, he said he would call Monsieur Greaves to talk with us. This gentleman soon came and entered immediately into a detail of the institution, its principles, its spirit, its arrangement, etc. He is an Englishman, and, as I found upon inquiry, brother to the lady whom I had seen at Lausanne. He has been some weeks with Pestalozzi, for the purpose of understanding the system thoroughly, in order to aid a sister in England in the education of her children. enters warmly into its concerns, and will be useful in making it better known. He explained to us very clearly the leading ideas and views. of human nature, which induced Pestalozzi to become an instructor of youth. The two great instruments with which he works are faith and love. He discards the motives

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of ambition and emulation, as unnecessary, and as tending to counteract the sentiment of good will toward others. He thinks there is enough in the intuitive understanding of every child to accomplish the complete growth and maturity of its faculties, if its reason be properly trained and nourished, and not warped by injudicious treatment. The common plans of education he regards as too artificial, too wide a departure from nature. Too much stress is laid upon the memory, while the imagination is too much neglected. If the native feelings of the heart are allowed to operate, under the domination of the native powers of mind, drawn out and expanded by faith and love, the child is competent of itself to arrive gradually at the most correct and important conclusions in religion and science. There is a native and inherent life, which only requires to be cherished by genial treatment to bring it into the full attainment of truth, and to the utmost perfection of its being. He therefore insists upon the greatest pains being taken to draw out this native life and to preserve it in full vigor. There is a constant danger of urging the child. forward beyond its natural strength, of anticipating its conclusions and thus weakening its confidence in its own powers. In the plans he adopts. nothing is to be got by heart. The understanding is to be thoroughly reached, and then the memory will take care of itself.

His school consists at present of about ninety boys, German, Prussian, French, Swiss, Italian, Spanish, and English. It is divided into four principal classes, according to the attainments of the pupils. These classes are subdivided into others. There are seven school rooms in the castle, and twelve teachers or professors. His head professor, Joseph Schmidt, has been brought up in the institution, and is a very efficient and worthy man. He is a native of one of the German Cantons and speaks and writes perfectly the German and French. He is a man of modest demeanor and entirely devoted to the institution. He has written treatises on several of the subjects taught in the school and adapted to its methods.

We spent most of the day in the different school-rooms, witnessing the exercises of the scholars. Very few books are used, as it is expected the children can read well before they come there. But to describe the modes of teaching, so as to render them clearly intelligible, would require much more time and space than I can possibly allot to it, were I ever so competent to make it known. We saw the exercises of arithmetic, writing, drawing, mathematics, lessons in music and gymnastics, something of geography, French, Latin, and German. teach a school, in the way practised here, without book, and almost entirely by verbal instruction, is extremely laborious. The teacher

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must be constantly with the child, always talking, questioning, explaining, and repeating. The pupils, however, by this process, are brought into very close intimacy with the instructor. Their capacities, all their faculties and propensities, become laid open to his observation. This gives him an advantage, which cannot possibly be gained, in the ordinary way in which schools are generally taught. The children look well, appear very contented, and apparently live in great harmony one with another; which, considering the diversity of national character and temper here collected, can be attributed only to the spirit of love and affection which sways the breast of the principal of the institution, and extends its benign influence throughout all the departments. In the afternoon we went, with Pestalozzi, Greaves, and Bucholz, a German clergyman, (who is here on a visit to the institution), and one or two others, to visit a free school of twelve or fourteen children, which Pestalozzi has established in the village of Clendy, at a short distance from the castle. These are the children taken from the families of poor people, selected on account of their character and talents, in order to be educated as teachers, with a view to extend and perpetuate the principles and operation of the system. One-half of them are boys and the other half girls. Their principal instructor is a sister of Schmidt, the chief master,

an exceeding clever and interesting young woman. She has another sister also with her, younger than herself, who will soon become qualified to act as instructor. These pupils were exercised before us, in arithmetic, in drawing, and in music. The girls, seated round a table, and busy with their needles, had questions in arithmetic given. them by the mistress, which they were to solve by their heads. They are thus led on, from the most simple beginnings, to comprehend the principles of arithmetic, and to work questions with great expertness, solely by a mental process. A male teacher is provided for the boys though the mistress often assists in their instruction. This little school promises to be well cared for, and of service to the Pestalozzian cause. We were much pleased with its appearance, and with the assurance it affords, that whatever there is of value and importance in this system, it will not be lost.

The success of this mode of instruction, greatly depends upon the personal qualifications of those who undertake to conduct it. There is nothing of mechanism in it, as in the Lancasterian plan; no laying down of precise rules for managing classes, etc. It is all mind and feeling. Its arrangements must always depend on the ages, talents, and tempers of the scholars, and require, on the part of the teachers, the most diligent and faithful attention. Above all, it requires that the

teacher should consider himself as the father and bosom friend of his pupils, and to be animated with the most affectionate desires for their good. Pestalozzi himself is all this. His heart glows with such a spirit, that the good old man can hardly refrain from bestowing kisses on all with whom he is concerned. He holds out his hands to his pupils on every occasion, and they love him as a child loves its mother. His plan of teaching is just fit for the domestic fireside, with a father or mother in the centre, and circle of happy children around them. He is aware of this, and wishes to extend the knowledge of his plan to every parent. Pestalozzi is seventy-two years of age. It has been quite unfortunate for the progress of his system on the continent, that he pays so little attention to exteriors, regarding dress, furniture, etc., as of no moment whatever, provided the mind and heart be right.

The weather continuing wet, we resolved to wait till the morrow, and take the diligence to Lausanne and Geneva. Much of the day was spent at the castle, in the school-rooms, and in conversation with Greaves. I omitted to mention, that we attended last evening, to the religious exercise which terminates the business of the day. The scholars assembled in a room called the chapel, but very simply furnished, with benches, and a table. When all were collected, Pestalozzi, directing his face chiefly to the boys,

began to speak in German, moving about, from side to side, directing his attention, for some time, to the boys on his right, and then advancing toward those on his left. This motion backward and forward, continued about twenty minutes; he was constantly speaking, and sometimes with considerable earnestness. It was altogether unintelligible to me, but I afterwards learned, that it consisted of a recapitulation of the occurrences of the day, noticing particularly everything of moment, and intermingling the whole with short prayers, adapted to the circumstances mentioned in the discourse. If, for example, any of the boys had quarrelled, or behaved unseemly to each other, or to their teacher, he would speak to the case, and accompany his remarks with a pious ejaculation. It is probable, that he sometimes engages more formally in this exercise. As it was it appeared to gain the whole attention of his audience. It was concluded by reading, from a small book, what appeared to be a hymn. or psalm.

A company of English visitors attended at the castle to-day, consisting of men and women. The boys performed some of their gymnastic exercises before them, con

sisting chiefly of simple, but simultaneous movements of the arms, legs, feet, head, etc., stepping, marching, turning and jumping, all intended to exercise the various muscles which give motion to the limbs and head, and to make the boys acquainted with the elements. of all those movements. This exercise took place in one of the large bed-rooms. We attended, by invitation, last evening a lecture given by Schmidt, the head teacher, to a number of young men, among whom were four Russians, sent by the Emperor to gain information, in England, and other countries, relative to the best modes of teaching. They had been in England, and spoke our language tolerably well. The lectures are to illustrate more fully, the principles and processes adopted in the Pestalozzian institution.

We had the company, this evening, at our lodgings, of Frederick Bucholz, who was lately a chaplain to the king's German legion in England. He had been some time with Pestalozzi, and was able to give us more information with respect to some parts of the system, than we could obtain by a short visit to the school itself.

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