The Cultivation of Each Faculty of the Intellect

 

        Having attained a knowledge of the nature of the mind and the general nature of culture, we are prepared to apply these to the training of each faculty of the mind.

          Perception. The Perceptive Powers should be cultivated in early childhood. This is indicated by Nature, who gives active senses to a little child. Teachers should not be neglectful of their duty in this respect. Children should be trained to use their eyes and their other senses. As they are taught to read the textbooks of the school‑room, they should also be taught to read the "book of Nature."

        The Perceptive Powers may be cultivated by training children to a habit of observation. The following suggestions will indicate to teachers the method of cultivating the perceptive faculty:

        1. To cultivate the Perceptive Powers, require pupils to observe things for themselves. Objects should be brought into the schoolroom for them to see and examine. They should be taken out into the fields and woods to gather facts for themselves.

        2. To cultivate the Perceptive Powers, require pupils to describe objects. In order to describe an object, it must be very closely observed. The attempt to describe will lead pupils to see the necessity of examining an object with attention, and still give quickness and accuracy to the perceptive powers.

        3. To cultivate the Perceptive Powers, train pupils upon a well graded system of object‑lessons. Pupils should be given lessons on form, color, size, etc., and they will learn to notice these elements in the objects that they see. The sense of vision will thus become sharp, delicate, and accurate.

        4. Require pupils to draw outlines or sketches of objects. In order to draw an outline of an object it is necessary to examine it very minutely. The practice of drawing will thus cultivate the habit of close and minute observation.

        Such exercises will train pupils to the habit of using their perceptive powers, and habit is nearly everything in education. Teachers should also impress upon the minds of their pupils the importance of using their eyes, and not going through the world blind to its most interesting facts.

        5. The study of the physical sciences gives culture to the perceptive powers. The physical sciences begin in the observation of the facts of the external world, The proper study of these sciences requires the pupil to observe these facts closely and accurately. They thus call the perceptive powers into constant and forcible activity; quicken and strengthen the power of the senses, and make the student sharpened and accurate in his observation of things. Among all the studies, they especially, and almost alone, give culture to the perceptive powers.

          The Memory. The Memory should be carefully trained in youth, so that it may firmly hold the knowledge acquired and readily recall it. Minds differ in natural power of memory, but much can be done to strengthen a weak or quicken a sluggish memory. A neglect of the proper use of this faculty leads to habits which weaken it, and make it slow to acquire and unreliable in recalling its knowledge.

        The following suggestions will indicate to the teacher how he may cultivate the memory of his pupils:

        1. To cultivate the Memory, require pupils to attend closely to whatever subject they are considering. Attention is a necessary condition of remembering. A heedless mind soon forgets what it sees, hears, or reads. The mind must be concentrated upon the object of thought so that it may be indelibly impressed upon the memory.

        2. To cultivate the Memory, lead pupils to feel an interest in what you wish them to remember. An interested mind is open to receive the deepest impression. An incident which excites the mind is never forgotten. A pupil who takes delight in what he is learning will have little difficulty in acquiring it, and will retain it permanently.

        3. To cultivate the Memory, we should require a frequent review or repetition of that which the pupil has learned. Repetition seems to fix a subject more firmly in the memory. The subject most frequently recited is the most readily recalled, and remains the longest in the memory.

        4. To cultivate the Memory, we should require pupils to commit many extracts of prose and poetry. This will fix words and forms of expression in the mind, and cultivate a memory for language. Practice of this kind will give great facility in committing, while a neglect of it will so enfeeble the memory that it will be almost impossible to commit anything.

        5. To cultivate the Memory, we should lead the pupils to connect their knowledge by the laws of association. This is the way in which the memory naturally acts, and in which it acts with the most readiness and accuracy. The pupil should associate similar facts in geography, events of the same date in history, or those related as cause and effect. Such a habit will give a strong and reliable memory.

          The Imagination. The Imagination of children should be carefully cultivated. This faculty is usually very active in childhood, and needs guiding and refining. When it is sluggish, it should be excited and aroused into activity; when it is too active, it should be restrained and directed. The judicious training of this faculty will be of great value to the pupil. It will be a source of pure and refined pleasure and will exert an elevating influence on the character.

        1. The Imagination may be cultivated by observing beautiful, grand, and picturesque scenery. The spreading landscape, the flowing river, the wide extended ocean, the arching sky, out of whose deep blue the golden stars are shining, the moon in her beauty and the sun in his splendor -all these tend to give activity and culture to the imagination.

        2. The Imagination may be cultivated by filling the memory with beautiful pictures of natural scenery. The beautiful objects we have seen should be brought before the mind as pictures upon which it delights to look. Each mind may thus be a gallery where pictures of beauty hang upon the walls of memory exciting the imagination to activity and furnishing it with pure and lofty ideals.

        3. The Imagination may be cultivated by reading poetry, fiction, and other imaginative compositions. Such productions are the embodiments of the imaginings of others, and awaken our own imaginations into activity. The figures of the poet, the characters and incidents of fiction, linger in the memory and stimulate us to create for ourselves such images of beauty and incidents of life.

        4. The Imagination may be cultivated by hearing music, visiting galleries of painting, statuary, etc. Here we have the embodiment of imaginative beauty in color and form, which pleases and excites the fancy. That which was once in the imagination of the creator awakens a similar activity in the mind of the beholder. There is thus cultivated a pure and refined taste, and a natural and lively activity of the Imagination.

        5. The Imagination may be cultivated by creating imaginary scenes, incidents, etc. The creative power of the Imagination is its highest function, and such exercise gives it the highest culture. Pupils can be led to create and describe ideal landscapes or incidents of human action. They may be required to write and relate imaginary or fictitious events, as allegories, parables, novelettes, etc. Poetical composition and the creating of figures of rhetoric afford valuable culture in this respect.

          The Understanding. The understanding of children should also be carefully trained. Pupils should be taught to think, as well as to see and remember. Care should be taken that the memory be not required to do that which the understanding of the child should perform. The greatest mistake of school work may be made at this point; there may be too much cramming, and not enough thinking.

        1. The Understanding may be cultivated by the study of thought studies, as Mental Arithmetic, Written Arithmetic, Grammar, Geometry, etc. These studies require pupils to think, and pupils learn to think by thinking.

        2. The Understanding may be cultivated by working out original problems, parsing and analyzing sentences, etc. These exercises require the pupils to employ the power of original thought. They lead the mind to compare, and the process of comparison lies at the foundation of thinking. The judgment must be exercised to apply the principles and rules, and to see the relation of the conditions of the problem or the elements of the sentence.

        3. The Understanding may be cultivated by writing compositions and trying to think out and express something new. Such exercises bring into activity the inventive powers of the mind. They require the pupil to elaborate his knowledge, to work it up into new forms, to think out something new for himself. Writing original compositions is thus a most excellent exercise for the cultivation of thought‑power.

        4. The study of the physical sciences gives culture to the power of classification. The facts of the material world are found in classes, and the natural sciences embrace the classification of the facts, as well as the facts themselves. These classifications, in several of the branches, are the most perfect that can be found in science. The arrangement into species, genera, orders, and kingdoms, as in botany, zoology, etc., has no counterpart in other sciences. The natural sciences, therefore, transcend all others in affording cultivation to generalization and classification. They, above all other sciences, tend to train the mind to the habit of the systematic and orderly arrangement of knowledge.

        5. The study of the physical sciences cultivates the power of inductive reasoning. All the primary truths of these sciences are derived by induction. In their study we are constantly passing from particular facts to the general laws of which they are examples. In no other sciences is the use of induction so prominent. Though some of these sciences may rise into a deductive stage, yet the entire spirit of these branches is inductive. Induction is the genius which presides over their origin and development. The mind of the student is thus constantly occupied in inferring general laws from particular facts, and acquires the habit of reasoning in this way. The importance of such culture is seen in the fact that this is the kind of reasoning that we use in the questions that meet us in the ordinary duties of life.

        6. The Understanding may be cultivated by reading the works of the great thinkers. To follow thought, as expressed in language, will stimulate to thinking. By reading the works of Plato, Aristotle, Bacon, Locke, etc., the mind becomes familiar with great thoughts and is aroused to think for itself.

          The Intuition. This faculty is the controlling power over all the other faculties of the mind, and its training and culture are more difficult. The other faculties are developed by exercise; this faculty is not under the control of the will, like judgment or memory, and is therefore not so readily brought into exercise. The faculty of Intuition, though spontaneous in its actions, will however admit of culture. The eye of Intuition grows clearer with the development of the human mind; hence all mental development tends to develop the Intuition.

        The general principle for its development is that suitable occasions be presented for the Intuition to unfold the primary ideas encompassed by the intuitions of the True, the Beautiful, and the Good. Questions by the teacher on their nature will aid the pupil in a fuller and clearer development of these ideas and a better comprehension of their nature.

        1. The cognition of the True is developed by the study of science. Science discovers truth; but the Intuition perceives the truth of its principles. The Judgment gives a proposition; the truth of the proposition is seen by the Intuition. The Understanding draws a conclusion from premises; the Intuition sees the truth of the derived proposition. So all science tends to brighten and quicken the perception of the true.

        2. The general principle of the culture of the Beautiful is to give the mind exercise in the perception of beauty. As the memory is cultivated by remembering, so the perception of the beautiful is developed by the contemplation of beautiful objects. This exercise can be given by both the objects of nature and the productions of art and literature.

        3. The Intuitions of the Right may be developed by precept, by example, and by habit. That is, the moral nature may be developed by instilling moral axioms into the mind, by presenting examples of virtuous action, and by leading to the acquisition of habits of right conduct.

        4. Moral culture should be given in the concrete. We need examples of virtuous actions, as an occasion for the development of moral distinctions in young minds. They need to see moral truth embodied in moral deeds in order to obtain a clear cognition of moral ideas. Let virtue embody itself in human form, and let it walk, talk, and act, and an impression is made that will manifest itself in the thought and conduct. Talk to a child of the beauty and necessity of truthfulness, and your words may fall on listless ears; but give him truth and honesty in action, and his mind opens to perceive and appreciate the right. The moral lessons for children should therefore be in the form of incidents of moral action.       5. The teacher is a strong agent of moral culture. One of the strongest influences in the culture of moral ideas and duties is that which reveals itself in the daily life of the teacher. This moral influence, rising unconsciously out of the depths of his being and emanating from him as a kind of spiritual radiance, makes an imperishable impression. A lack of moral power in the teacher will be immediately felt by the pupils; and the profession or assumption of virtue without a reality at the heart, will but teach deceit and hypocrisy. At every point of contact with the teacher who is pure and noble at heart, the pupil will feel the presence and charm of human integrity, and be stimulated to virtuous thought and action.

        6. The examples of parents are especially powerful in moral culture. The strongest lesson in morality is the daily walk and conversation of upright and virtuous parents.

        7. Good literature is a strong influence for the culture of moral ideas and feelings. Here noble sentiments are expressed and deeds of honor and heroism are portrayed. Our sympathies are enlisted in favor of the right and against the wrong, and the heart beats in unison with that which is pure, noble, and elevated. Here we learn to admire high ideals of character, and to form our own ideals of what we would like to do and become. Vice, too, is portrayed in repulsive colors, so that we turn away from it with instinctive hatred. Where the demands of retributive justice are satisfactorily met, as they should be in a work of art, the consequences of evil actions tend to deter one from a life of vice. There are works of literature, however, which do not possess these attributes, and become a source of degradation rather than elevation; and these should carefully be withheld from the young.

        8. The study of history is valuable in developing moral ideas. History deals with the actions of mankind, and these actions contain a moral element. The deeds of benevolence call forth our admiration and inspire us with a spirit of benevolence; the heroic actions of heroes and martyrs lift the soul up to a plane of moral feeling in which it also aspires to deeds of heroism. So, on the other hand, the element of meanness in human action, the craft and falsehood of the unprincipled, and the corruption of the base and degraded, repel the soul and cause it to turn, with an instinctive dread or hatred of what is low and vicious, towards what is pure and virtuous.

         Attention. The power of Attention should be carefully trained in childhood. It is one of the most important of the mental powers, for upon its activity depends the efficiency of each one of the specific faculties. Mental power is, to a large extent, the power of attention; and genius has been defined as "nothing but continued attention."

          Suggestions Applicable to the Student. The following suggestions will indicate to the teacher the methods by which the power of attention can be cultivated in his pupils:

        1. Have pupils observe objects closely.

        2. Require them always to study written material with close attention.

        3. Read long sentences and have pupils write them.

        4. Read quite long combinations in mental arithmetic, and have pupils repeat them.

        5. Have pupils solve multi-step mathematical problems.

          Suggestions Applicable to the Teacher. The following suggestions are made to aid a teacher in securing the attention of his pupils:

        1. Manifest an interest in the subject you are teaching.

        2. Be clear in your thought, and ready in your expression.

        3. Speak in a natural tone, with variety and flexibility of voice.

        4. Let the position before the class be usually a standing one.

        5. Teach without a book, as far as possible.

        6. Assign different subjects for recitals, when necessary.

        7. Use the concrete method of instruction, when possible.

        8. Vary your methods, as variety is attractive to children.

        9. Determine to secure the attention at all hazards.