{"id":452,"date":"2013-07-13T01:28:06","date_gmt":"2013-07-13T01:28:06","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/localhost\/?p=452"},"modified":"2013-07-13T01:28:06","modified_gmt":"2013-07-13T01:28:06","slug":"34-simultaneous-and-successive-teaching-vol-17-the-hour-of-god-volume-17","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/01-works-of-sri-aurobindo\/01-sabcl\/17-the-hour-of-god-volume-17\/34-simultaneous-and-successive-teaching-vol-17-the-hour-of-god-volume-17","title":{"rendered":"-34_Simultaneous and Successive Teaching.htm"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\n
\n

\n
\nFOUR
\n<\/span>
\n
\nSimultaneous<\/span>
\n<\/font>
\n<\/b><\/font>
\n
\nand Successive Teaching<\/font><\/b><\/span><\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

\n                       
\nA<\/span> <\/font>
\nVERY
\nremarkable feature of modern training which has been subjected in India to a reductio
\nad absurdum <\/i>is the practice of teaching by snippets. A subject is taught a
\nlittle at a time, in conjunction with a host of others, with the result that
\nwhat might be well learnt in a single year is badly learned in seven and the boy
\ngoes out ill-equipped, served with imperfect parcels of knowledge, master of
\nnone of the great departments of human knowledge. The system of education
\nadopted by the National Council, an amphibious and twy-natured creation,
\nattempts to heighten this practice of teaching by snippets at the bottom and the
\nmiddle and suddenly change it to a grandiose specialism at the top. This is to
\nbase the triangle on its apex and hope that it will stand.
\n   
\nThe old system was to teach one or two subjects well and thoroughly and then
\nproceed to others, and certainly it was a more rational system than the modern.
\nIf it did not impart so much varied information, it built up a deeper, nobler
\nand more real culture. Much of the shallowness, discursive lightness and fickle
\nmutability of the average modern mind is due to the vicious principle of
\nteaching by snippets. The one defect that can be alleged against the old system
\nwas that the subject earliest learned might fade from the mind of the student
\nwhile he was mastering his later studies. But the excellent training given to
\nthe memory by the ancients obviated the incidence of this defect. In the future
\neducation. we need not bind ourselves either by the ancient or the modern
\nsystem, but select only the most perfect and rapid means of mastering knowledge.
\n   
\nIn defence of the modern system it is alleged that the attention of children
\nis easily tired and cannot be subjected to the strain of long application to a
\nsingle subject. The frequent change of subject gives rest to the mind. The
\nquestion naturally arises:<\/span> \n<\/p>\n

\nPage-213<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

\nare the children of modern times
\nthen so different from the ancients, and, if
\nso, have we not made them so by discouraging prolonged concentration? A very
\nyoung child cannot, indeed, apply himself; but a very young child is unfit for
\nschool teaching of any kind. A child of seven or eight, and that is the earliest
\npermissible age for the commencement of any regular kind of study, is capable of
\na good deal of concentration if he is interested. ‘Interest is, after all, the
\nbasis of concentration. We make his lessons supremely uninteresting and
\nrepellent to the child, a harsh compulsion the basis of teaching and then
\ncomplain of his restless inattention! The substitution of a natural self-education
\nby the child for the present unnatural system will remove this objection of
\ninability. A child, like a man, if he is interested, much prefers to get to the
\nend of his subject rather than leave it unfinished. To lead him on step by step,
\ninteresting and absorbing him in each as it comes, until he has mastered his
\nsubject is the true art of teaching.
\n    The first attention of the teacher must be given to the medium and the
\ninstruments, and, until these are perfected, to multiply subjects of regular
\ninstruction is to waste time and energy. When the mental instruments are
\nsufficiently developed to acquire a language easily and swiftly, that is the
\ntime to introduce him to many languages, not when he can only partially understand what he is taught and masters it laboriously and imperfectly. Moreover,
\none who has mastered his own language, has one very necessary facility for
\nmastering another. With the linguistic faculty unsatisfactorily developed in
\none’s own tongue, to master others is impossible. To study science with the
\nfaculties of observation, judgment, reasoning and comparison only slightly
\ndeveloped is to undertake a useless and thankless labour. So it is with all
\nother subjects.
\n   
\nThe mother-tongue is the proper medium of education and therefore the first
\nenergies of the child should be directed to the thorough mastering of the
\nmedium. Almost every child has an imagination, an instinct for words, a dramatic
\nfaculty, a wealth of idea and fancy. These should be interested in the
\nliterature and history of the nation. Instead of stupid and dry spelling and
\nreading books, looked on as a dreary and ungrateful task, he<\/span><\/p>\n

\n
\nPage-214<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

\nshould be
\nintroduced by rapidly progressive stages to the most interesting parts of his
\nown literature and the life around him and behind him, and they should be put
\nbefore him in such a way as to attract and appeal to the qualities of which I
\nhave spoken. All other study at this period should be devoted to the perfection
\nof the mental functions and the moral character. A foundation should be laid at
\nthis time for the study of history, science, philosophy, art, but not in an
\nobtrusive and formal manner. Every child is a lover of interesting narrative, a
\nhero-worshipper and a patriot. Appeal to these qualities in him and through them
\nlet him master without knowing it the living and human parts of his nation’s
\nhistory. Every child is an inquirer, an investigator, analyser, a merciless
\nanatomist. Appeal to those qualities in him and let him acquire without knowing
\nit the right temper and the necessary fundamental knowledge of the scientist.
\nEvery child has an insatiable intellectual curiosity and turn for metaphysical
\nenquiry. Use it to draw him on slowly to an understanding of the world and
\nhimself. Every child has the gift of imitation and a touch of imaginative power.
\nUse it to give him the ground- work of the faculty of the artist.
\n   
\nIt is by allowing Nature to work that we get the benefit of the gifts she has
\nbestowed on us. Humanity in its education of children has chosen to thwart and
\nhamper her processes and, by so doing, has done much to thwart and hamper the
\nrapidity of its onward march. Happily, saner ideas are now beginning to prevail.
\nBut the way has not yet been found. The past hangs about our necks with all its
\nprejudices and errors and will not leave us; it enters into our most radical
\nattempts to return to the guidance of the all-wise Mother. We must have the
\ncourage to take up clearer knowledge and apply it fearlessly in the interests of
\nposterity. Teaching by snippets must be relegated to the lumber-room of dead
\nsorrows. The first work is to interest the child in life, work and knowledge, to
\ndevelop his instruments of knowledge with the utmost thoroughness, to give him
\nmastery of the medium he must use. Afterwards, the rapidity with which he will
\nlearn will make up for any delay in taking up regular studies, and it will be
\nfound that, where now he learns a few things badly, then he will learn many
\nthings thoroughly well.<\/span><\/p>\n

\nPage-215<\/font><\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/table>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

FOUR Simultaneous and Successive Teaching                           A VERY remarkable feature of modern training which has been subjected in India to a reductio ad absurdum…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-452","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-17-the-hour-of-god-volume-17","wpcat-9-id"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/452","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=452"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/452\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=452"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=452"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worksofthemotherandsriaurobindo.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=452"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}