I pass from this digression to the statement that the chief means of

self-improvement are five: Observation, Conversation, Reading, Memory,
and Reflection
I pass from this digression to the statement that the chief means of
self-improvement are five: Observation, Conversation, Reading, Memory,
and Reflection.

Within the same brief period of time it has become the fixed custom of

the people to associate together for educational objects
Within the same brief period of time it has become the fixed custom of
the people to associate together for educational objects.

But there is a further fact; forgotten also because we

moderns forget that there is a female point of view
But there is a further fact; forgotten also because we
moderns forget that there is a female point of view.
The woman"s wisdom stands partly, not only for a wholesome
hesitation about punishment, but even for a wholesome hesitation
about absolute rules. There was something feminine and
perversely true in that phrase of Wilde"s, that people should
not be treated as the rule, but all of them as exceptions.
Made by a man the remark was a little effeminate; for Wilde did
lack the masculine power of dogma and of democratic cooperation.
But if a woman had said it it would have been simply true;
a woman does treat each person as a peculiar person.
In other words, she stands for Anarchy; a very ancient
and arguable philosophy; not anarchy in the sense of having
no customs in one"s life (which is inconceivable), but
anarchy in the sense of having no rules for one"s mind.
To her, almost certainly, are due all those working traditions
that cannot be found in books, especially those of education;
it was she who first gave a child a stuffed stocking for
being good or stood him in the corner for being naughty.
This unclassified knowledge is sometimes called rule of thumb
and sometimes motherwit. The last phrase suggests the whole truth,
for none ever called it fatherwit.

The second cause of failure may be found in the fact that rules,

processes and simple methods of solution, contained in the books, are
substituted for the power of comprehension by the pupil
The second cause of failure may be found in the fact that rules,
processes and simple methods of solution, contained in the books, are
substituted for the power of comprehension by the pupil. He should be
trained to seize an example mentally, whether the slate is to be used or
not, and hold it until he can determine by what process the solution is
to be wrought. Nor is it a serious objection that he may not at first
avail himself of the easiest method. The difference between methods or
ways is altogether a subordinate consideration. There may be many ways
of reaching a truth, but no one of them is as important as the truth
itself. The text-books should contain all the facts needed for the
comprehension and the solution of the examples given; the teacher should
furnish explanations and other aids, as they are needed; but the
practice of adopting a process and following it to an apparently
satisfactory conclusion, without comprehending the problem itself, is a
serious educational evil, and it exerts a permanent pernicious
influence.