3

September 20th, 2008

3. The obligation of the master to train his apprentices in a trade.

[Illustration: FIG

September 19th, 2008

[Illustration: FIG. 76. SAINT ANTONINUS AND HIS SCHOLARS
Saint Antoninus (1380-1459) was the learned and pious Archbishop of
Florence from 1446 until his death. The picture of him giving instruction
is from the Venice (1503) edition of his _Summa Theologica_.]

If the definition of a good citizen propounded by Professor Masterman

September 18th, 2008

is true–that he is one who pays his rates without grumbling–’Citizen
Carrots,’ whatever his disadvantages, is intellectually anyhow on the
way to become such a citizen, and certainly in the sketch, ‘Citizen
Carrots’ is determined that the rates shall be expended properly
because he himself will have a vote in later days
If the definition of a good citizen propounded by Professor Masterman
is true–that he is one who pays his rates without grumbling–’Citizen
Carrots,’ whatever his disadvantages, is intellectually anyhow on the
way to become such a citizen, and certainly in the sketch, ‘Citizen
Carrots’ is determined that the rates shall be expended properly
because he himself will have a vote in later days.

CHAPTER XXI

September 17th, 2008

1

September 16th, 2008

1. The Essentials of Method. No one doubts, theoretically, the
importance of fostering in school good habits of thinking. But
apart from the fact that the acknowledgment is not so great in
practice as in theory, there is not adequate theoretical
recognition that all which the school can or need do for pupils,
so far as their minds are concerned (that is, leaving out certain
specialized muscular abilities), is to develop their ability to
think. The parceling out of instruction among various ends such
as acquisition of skill (in reading, spelling, writing, drawing,
reciting); acquiring information (in history and geography), and
training of thinking is a measure of the ineffective way in which
we accomplish all three. Thinking which is not connected with
increase of efficiency in action, and with learning more about
ourselves and the world in which we live, has something the
matter with it just as thought (See ante, p. 147). And skill
obtained apart from thinking is not connected with any sense of
the purposes for which it is to be used. It consequently leaves
a man at the mercy of his routine habits and of the authoritative
control of others, who know what they are about and who are not
especially scrupulous as to their means of achievement. And
information severed from thoughtful action is dead, a
mind-crushing load. Since it simulates knowledge and thereby
develops the poison of conceit, it is a most powerful obstacle to
further growth in the grace of intelligence. The sole direct
path to enduring improvement in the methods of instruction and
learning consists in centering upon the conditions which exact,
promote, and test thinking. Thinking is the method of
intelligent learning, of learning that employs and rewards mind.
We speak, legitimately enough, about the method of thinking, but
the important thing to bear in mind about method is that
thinking is method, the method of intelligent experience in the
course which it takes.