Thoughts on physical education : being a discourse delivered to a convention of teachers in Lexington, Ky. on the 6th & 7th of Nov. 1833 / By Charles Caldwell, M.D.

  • Charles Caldwell
Date:
1834
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Thoughts on physical education : being a discourse delivered to a convention of teachers in Lexington, Ky. on the 6th & 7th of Nov. 1833 / By Charles Caldwell, M.D. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    18/138 page 20
    matter may be improved, and, by perseverance, reared to the highest perfection of which it is sus- ceptible. I say, “any form ;’ because the lower or- ders of living beings, vegetables not excepted, may be educated and improved, as certainly as the high- er, and on the same grounds. ‘That it may produce the desired effect, the scheme pursued, must con- form to the constitution of the race of beings, for whose improvement it is intended ; and, in the pres- “ent instance, that race‘is our own. No one, there- fore, is capable of devising and arranging such a scheme, for the amendment of the general condition of man, nor even of comprehending and skilfully ap- plying it, unless he be thoroughly acquainted with his constitution. Hence, without such an .acquaint- ance, it is impossible to become an able and suc- cessful instructer. He that would rectify or improve a piece-of machinery, must first understand it, in-its structure and principles. Under the want of such a knowledge of it, to. touch it, is to impair it: except it be saved by the intervention of accident. Jn like manner, he that would alter human nature for the better, must know it, as it as.. Special education, designed for a given purpose, is a scheme of training in accordance with that purpose. I need scarcely add, that general training does nothing more than improve general powers; while special training fits for some definite and corresponding pursuit. By the constitution of man, as just referred to, I mean his material portion, in its organized and vital capacity, that being, as I feel persuaded, the only
    digitised image 1
    digitised image 2
    digitised image 3