OBJECT LESSONS.

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume XXVI, Issue 71, 28 March 1892, Page 2

OBJECT LESSONS.

(Prom tho Ohristohureh Press,) > " Need school be mado a blight to ohild life?" This is a question asked by Dr Rioe in the Forum. Ab one time of our existence our answer would have been prompt. Wherein lay the necessity for making sohcol a blight to our life we oould not have aaid; bub thoro was no doubfc as to the entire success of the system in that direotion. Our treo of knowledge was watered with many bitter tears, aud our experience waa that of moßt other children. Dr Rice auswers his pertiuent question iv the negative, and baoks up his assertion by Baying that if education were taken in hand a little more sensibly sohool would be more popular wifch children thau the playground. He quotes as an example, the manner in whioh geography is taught at ElbaiQeld in Germany and compares ib with New York, The differ- 1 enco appears to be that in oue place every- i thing possiblo ia taught by objeot lessons, and in the other oot of books. When geography haa to be taught the soholara at Ebstfeld ar* taken for a walk along a Httle stream, in otder

•■■"'. '■• ' y.-y.r-A- '■■■y;iyAmf^w-M^m i^W4 _ ] ■ : 'y':y>y 'yyyy^l^^^Wm that they may go Aud Beak ita 't&MfiM 'W l >l encourage! to wk iai take riotea of alt Mv •"<• "'"-. seo. Dr Bice continue* f:— ''■■\y-yyy\ "Upon suoh walks aud the I knowled**gained by means oi thesa (hs whole Geiinatt fl /.f «' a c* elemenJary eduoation h fosaded. All the work oentres upi>u tho ifou gaioed la thesa walks, which serve not only as a means of introduction lo (ta atudy of geography ; hut likewise (0 (hat of history, hfatorwal v paiola bpiug visited for thai purpose. Farther .' by means of the various things noticed and spoken of upon iheee excursions the ohildren gather information on botany, geology pby- ' • sios, os'ronomy, zoology, and other branches cf Boufioa. Whan I visifcid the ABO olass (he ohildren wero having a combined lamiaiM and memory lesson. They were, aotldg • Uuy tale and by meara of Ibis tbay learned to speak loudly, di.tiuotly, and lotSf enjoying themselves at the same (im* » ' A drawing Uason followed, ia which tha flffi?*" *•<*"*« to dr * w were chato, tables, to., and then they related what they had observed since the previous day, the weather the d rection of the wind, the temperature registered by thermometers, the position and phase of the mooa, and the progress of the plants ia thei? gaSS' Thfo excellent prooess of trainiS* the ohildrens powers of observation if contrasted with the method pursued In a public sohool in New York visited by Dr Sice, and probably, with medhtoafcions, iv many other places. The children in the lowest grammar grade who had been studying geography seven or eight months, wera fouud reciting abatraotdeflaltions concerning the axis of the earth, the zones, and co on, it is safe to say, withoat the slighest knowledge of the moaning of what they were saying. How muoh better would it havo been if the elements of learn* c« a L w f e a m^ iUed ifl to them by the eaay