Part 1 (1/2)

dickens As an Educator

by Jahes

PREFACE

This book has two purposes: to prove that dickens was the great apostle of the ”new education” to the English-speaking world, and to bring into connected fors, the educational principles of one of the world's greatest educators, and one of its two most sympathetic friends of childhood

dickens was the arten and the land has yet produced He was one of the first great advocates of a national systenorance and the intellectual and spiritual destitution of the children of the poor led to the deep interest which ultiland

He was essentially a child trainer rather than a teacher In the twenty-eight schools described in his writings, and in the training of his army of little children in institutions and ho fronorance, selfishness, indifference, unwise zeal, unphilosophic philosophy, and un-Christian theology No other writer has attacked so e of childhood

He is the hts of childhood He struck the bravest blows against corporal punishainst all forms of coercive tyranny toward the child in homatic will control of such a placid, Christian woman as Mrs Crisparkle He demanded a free, real, joyous childhood, rich in all a child's best experiences and interests, so that ”childhood may ripen in childhood” He pleaded for the developht the wisdo a child proper food, and he showed the vital importance of real sympathy with the child, not lish father of true reverence for the child

But dickens studied thethe minds of children, as well as their character developorously than any other writer He taught the essential character of the iination in intellectual and spiritual development He showed the need of correlation of studies, and of apperceptive centres of feeling and thought in order to comprehend, and assie and thought that is brought to our minds

It is said by some, who see but the surface of the work of dickens, that his work is done Much of the good work for which he lived has been done, butthe work of child study and of rational education The twentieth century will understand dickens better than the nineteenth has understood him His profound philosophy is only partially comprehended yet, even by the leaders in educational work Teachers and all students of childhood will find in his true feeling and rich thought revelation and inspiration

dickENS AS AN EDUCATOR

CHAPTER I

THE PLACE OF dickENS AMONG EDUCATORS

dickens was England's greatest educational reforiven to the world in the form of ordinary didactic treatises, but in the for of all stories Millions have read his books, whereas but hundreds would have read them if he had written his ideals in the form of direct, systematic exposition He is certainly not less an educator because his books have been widely read

The highest for is the informal, the indirect, the incidental The fact that his educational principles are revealed chiefly by the evolution of the characters in his novels and stories, instead of by the direct philosophic stateives dickens higher rank as an educator, not only because it gives hi ive perhts

Was dickens consciously and intentionally an educator? The prefaces to his novels; the preface to his Household Words; the educational articles he wrote; the pro in hohest educational philosophy found in his writings; and especially the clearness of his insight and the profoundness of his educational thought, as shown by his condeht in teaching and training the child, prove beyond question that he was not only broad and true in his syressive student of the fundamental principles of education

dickens deals with twenty-eight schools in his writings, evidently with definite purposes in each case: ”Minerva House,” in Sketches by Boz; ”Dotheboys Hall,” in Nicholas Nickleby; Mr Marton's two schools, Miss Monflather's school, and Mrs Wackles's school, in Old Curiosity Shop; Dr

Blimber's school and ”The Grinders'” school, in Do's school, Agnes's school, and the school Uriah Heep attended, in David Copperfield; the school at which Esther was a day boarder and Miss Donney's school, in Bleak House; Mr

McChoakureat aunt's school, in Great Expectations; the evening school attended by Charley Hexam, Bradley Headstone's school, and Miss Peecher's school, in Our Mutual Friend; Phoebe's school, in Barbox Brothers; Mrs Lemon's school, in Holiday Ros; Miss Pupford's school, in Tom Tiddler's Ground; the school described in The Haunted House; Miss Twinkleton's seminary, in Edwin Drood; the schools of the Stepney Union; The Schoolboy's Story; and Our School

In addition to these twenty-eight schools, he describes a real school in American Notes, and all's establishment, Mr Cripples's academy, Drowvey and Grie Silvere's school, Pecksniff's school for architects, fagin's school for training thieves, and three dancing schools, conducted by Mr Baps, Signor Billse Silverman, and Canon Crisparkle as tutors, and Mrs General, Miss Lane, and Ruth Pinch as governesses Mrs Sapsea had been the proprietor of an academy in Cloisterham One of the first sketches by ”Boz” was Our School training of children in homes, in institutions, and by professional child trainers such as Mrs

Pipchin

Clearly dickens intended to reveal the best educational ideals, and to expose what he regarded as weak or wrong in school

dickens was the first great English student of the kindergarten His article on Infant Gardens, published in Household Words in 1855, is one of the arten philosophy It shows a perfect appreciation of the physical, intellectual, and spiritual aiht early training and of the influence of free self-activity in the development of individual power and character