Public-domain ebook
by James Gall
Language: en5,803 downloads on Project Gutenberg
Subjects
In: Philosophy & Ethics·Teaching & Education
Public-domain ebook sourced from Project Gutenberg #27790.
James Gall’s work is a systematic treatise that seeks to turn education into a true science. He begins by presenting himself as a modest, practical man whose long experience in Sabbath schools has led him to view teaching as a set of natural processes that can be studied, refined, and imitated. The opening pages lay out a detailed plan, dividing the inquiry into four parts that move from establishing a solid philosophical foundation, through examining nature’s own methods of instruction, to proposing concrete exercises for teachers. The author’s preface stresses the need for empirical, inductive reasoning, drawing on thirty years of practice, to replace the “conjectures” that have long dominated schoolrooms.
The prose reflects the earnest, didactic tone of mid‑nineteenth‑century reformers, combining moral earnestness with a confidence in scientific progress. Its language is formal yet accessible, aiming at teachers, clergy, and educated laypeople who wish to ground their pedagogical efforts in reason and observation. Readers interested in the history of educational theory, or in the Victorian‑era effort to align schooling with natural philosophy, will find Gall’s methodical, example‑driven approach both illuminating and representative of its time.
The opening · free to read
Printed by J. Gall & Son. 22, Niddry Street.
PREFACE.
The Author of the following pages is a plain man, who has endeavoured to write a plain book, for the purpose of being popularly useful. The philosophical form which his enquiries have assumed, is the result rather of accidental circumstances than of free choice. The strong desire which he felt in his earlier years to benefit the Young, induced him to push forward in the paths which appeared to him most likely to lead to his object; and it was not till he had advanced far into the fields of philosophy, that he first began dimly to perceive the importance of the ground which he had unwittingly occupied. The truth is, that he had laboured many years in the Sabbath Schools with which he had connected himself, before he was aware that, in his combat with ignorance, he was wielding weapons that were comparatively new; and it was still longer, before he very clearly understood the principles of those Exercises which he found so successful. One investigation led to another; light shone out as he proceeded; and he now submits, with full confidence in the truth of his general principles and deductions, the results of more than thirty years' experience and reflection in the great cause of Education.
He has only further to observe, that the term "NATURE," which occurs so frequently, has been adopted as a convenient and popular mode of expression. None of his readers needs to be informed, that this is but another manner of designating "THE GOD OF NATURE," whose laws, as established in the young mind, he has been endeavouring humbly, and perseveringly to imitate.
Myrtle Bank, Trinity, Edinburgh, 8th May, 1840.
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