The question is, how to educate this strange
boy. One thing is clear; it is no use trying the humdrum plan any
longer; it has been tried, and failed. I should adapt his education to
his nature. Education is made as stiff and unyielding as a board; but
it need not be. I should abolish that spectacled tutor of yours at
once, and get a tutor, young, enterprising, manly, and supple, who
would obey orders; and the order should be to observe the boy's nature,
and teach accordingly. Why need men teach in a chair, and boys learn in
a chair? The Athenians studied not in chairs. The Peripatetics, as
their name imports, hunted knowledge afoot; those who sought truth in
the groves of Academus were not seated at that work. Then let the tutor
walk with him, and talk with him by sunlight and moonlight, relating
old history, and commenting on each new thing that is done, or word
spoken, and improve every occasion. Why, I myself would give a guinea a
day to walk with William White about the kindly aspects and wooded
slopes of Selborne, or with Karr about his garden. Cut Latin and Greek
clean out of the scheme. They are mere cancers to those who can never
excel in them. Teach him not dead languages, but living facts. Have him
in your justice-room for half an hour a day, and give him your own
comments on what he has heard there.
Pages:
412
413
414
415
416
417
418
419
420
421
422
423
424
425
426
427
428
429
430
431
432
433
434
435
436