Indiana State University - Sycamore Yearbook (Terre Haute, IN)

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6 THE NORMAL ADVANCE s -'fw . ing. This includes the whole scope of devices employed by the tactful teacher. There has been a varied phraseology employed to express this quality in the teacher. Solomon called it wisdom, some have called it tact, others insight, while still others have styled it, in the verna- cular, gumption or perchance good-horse-sense. It is believed by many that the power to em- ploy devices is an inherited characteristic; hence the expressionsttteachers are born not made? University professors have often held this view. They have failed to note individual differences in children and consequently to recognize the fact that one may be trained in the use of appropriate devices as well as in a knowledge of subject-matter. Indeed, many writers on pedagogy have done little more than imply this Vital phase of method. It has been considered the bi-product of a knowledge of subject-matter and psychology, rather than a distinct factor in the teaching process. Doubt- less this has resulted from a careless examina- tion of the relative experiences of the efiicient and the inefficient teacher. The one thru ex- perience, including instruction, has grasped the significance of devices in teaching; while the other, because of a lack of such expenrienoe and instruction, is ignorant of their importance. It is, then, the duty of the student of method thence of all teachersy to investigate the chang- ing social status of his time in order to deter- mine the needs of his own and the nextgenera- tion; to examine the subject-matter of the cur- riculum in View of its power to realize these - anticipated needs; to know the generic and in- dividual characteristics of the child that he may better know the time that such materials may be effectually presented; and to know the ex- periences 0f the child that he may press the keys that will set vibrating those elements that are relevant to the subject-matter to be learned, or to supply them in the event they are lacking. The recognition of the teachers need of those tools of teaching was the genesis of professional courses for teachers. It gave immortality to Pestilozzi, Froebel, Herbart, and Horace Mann, and won the publicis sanction of normal train- ing throughout the world. It is in anticipation of such an equipment that young men and young women of worth are lilling the Normal schools today. And well they may. The field of education never looked so promising as it does now and there has never been a greater call for professionally trained teachers than at this time. This general appreciation of the fundamental principles in teaching is most en- couraging. The Code of Hammurabi WALDO F. MITCHELL, '10 Many centuries before Alexander the Great led his Macedonian Phalanx through Baby- lonia, and many ages before Moses led the Israelites out of Egypt, a civilization rich in culture and government had grown up along . the Tigris-Euphrates valley. Many ages before Moses received the Tablets of the Law from the hand of God, Hammurabi was giving his peo- ple at Babylon laws for their good governing. When Abraham was building up the Hebrew nation in Canaan, Hammurabi tor, as his- torians think, Amraphel, king of Shinar, Gene- . sis 140 was giving his subjects precepts upon monuments of stone. Perhaps the most famous of his monuments is the black diofite found at Susa in December, 1901, by the French expedi- tion under M. de MorganaThiS was about eight feet in height, and was broken into three pieces. It is called, The Code of Hammurabi. - On the front side is an engraving which represents Hammurabi in the act of receiving the Code from the sun god. The manuscript consists of three parts, including the Epilogue and Pro- logue. One feature of the Epilogue gives the

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. THE NORMAL ADVANCE 5 xx It isnit enough to create a definite reactive be- . havior in response to certain formal stimuli. It must be a reactive behavior capable of doing the worlds work. It isnit enough to secure altruistic emotions. Our educative processes must produce an altruistic intellect and an al- truistic will. It is evident that the character of the educa- tional aim will determine very largely the order and kind of materials used in the teaching pro- ceSs. The aim should serve as a standard in the selection of materials and any serious at- tempt to guide teachers in a mastery of better methods must include an adequate discussion of it. a But to have an aim in education without a definite notion of a route to its realization is to construct a pedagogical utopia. Of necessity, therefore, method involves, secondly, a knowl- edge of just those phases of the curriculum that Will lead to the realization of an adequate aim. Doubtless this has been our greatest stumbling block in the past. We have apparently been alert to the most Vital needs of society; we have generally accepted the advance in inductive psychology; and yet, owing to our educational obtuseness due to a lack of proper stimulation, we have retained required subjects in the cur- riculum that are hoary with tradition. Latin has ear-marks of this character. There was a time when .the Latin language was saturated with the culture of the world. The securing of this culture necessitated oneis acquiring the key to itea reading knowledge of Latin. Later tra- ditionalists added other virtures to it. They argued that a thoro study of the dead languages created in the student a generalized power as well as furnished the basic knowledge of our English words. These values of the traditional- ists have been dislodged by recent observation and research. Nevertheless we are holding on tenaciously to Latin in the required courses of our secondary schools and colleges. Why should we still hold on to these lower rungs of our linguistic ladder since this early culture is now amply expressed in English? That a marked generalized power of reflection is acquired from a study of Latin is most vigorously denied by recent investigators in psychology. The last main argument, namely: that a better under- standing of English results from a study of Latin roots ignores the dynamic character of the content of a language in its adjustment to racial progress. This argument has also lost much of its force by the introduction of simplified spell- ing. Many of the English words have lost their root connections in this saner orthography. What has been argued against Latin and Greek by the progressives may be equally ap- plied to parts or all of many other subjects. Place geography, a history of dates and events, a purely deductive grammar, formal spelling, and any partially deductive science, are a few of the many expressions of form at the expense of content. ' In addition to a knowledge of the aim of edu- cation and an understanding of the materials that will best realize it, it is pertinent that we know, thirdly, something of the child. We should know his stages of mental growth and the interpretative attitudes characteristic of these stages. Without such a knowledge we are apt to present the wrong order or kind of sub- ject-matter. Time and energy may be wasted in teaching technical grammar to a child that is most interested in the art of expression. Moral theory may be repulsive to children at an age when they find pleasure in moral prac- tice. It is evident on the face of it that we must know the child in order to judiciously se- lect and present subject-matter to him. With a thoro knowledge of these things, one' ought to be fitted for artistic teaching. Most persons, however, can sight examples of those who understand subject-matter exceedingly well; who are clear in their notion of the aim of education; and who are well versed in psy- chology and child-study; and yet are relatively poor teachers. The presentation of well chosen subject-mat- ter to children whose interpretative attitudes are well understood and in a manner to best realize an adequate educational aim is, fourthly, another significant factor in method of teach-

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THE NORMAL ADVANCE , 7 mission of Hammurabi. ttThe great gods pro- claimed me and I am guardian governor, whose scepter is righteous and whose beneficent pro- tection is spread over my city. In my bosom I carried the people of the land of Sumer and Akkad; under my protection I brought their brethren into security; in my wisdom I re- strained thidi them; that the strong might not oppose the weak, and that they should give jus- tice to the orphan and the widow, in Babylon, the city whose turrets Ann and Bel raised; in Esagila, the temple whose foundations are firm as heaven and earth, for the pronouncing of judgments in the land, for the rendering of de- cisions for the land, and for the righting of wrong, my weighty words I have written upon my monument, and in the presence of my image as king of righteousness have I established? What awe inspires us as we read the writing of a king so ancient; for the Code is more an- cient by ages than the Code of Moses; more stern than the Roman. It is interesting to stu- dents of history because of its antiquity and stern justice. The 4500 years which have suc- ceeded the inscription of the Code are but so many curious lights which cast a strange and bewitching shadow upon those ancient scenes. It is with great delight and interest that we be- come aware of a civilization so old and yet so great. In looking at that ancient people we meditate and marvel at their position in social customs and manners. The records shows that these people had their problems concerning rent, neighbors, etc. itIf a man open his canal for irrigation and neglect it and the water carry away an adjacent iield, he shall measure out grain on the basis of the adjacent fields? itIf a man have not received the rent of his field and he have rented the field for either one-half or one-third tof the cropi, the tenant and the owner of the held shall divide the grain which is in the field ac- cording to the agreement? A iiIf a man give his orchard to a gardener to manage, the gardener shall give to the owner of the orchard two- thirds of the produce of the orchardf, From the Code we learn that the questions of the Liquor TrafIic and Womenls Rights are not of modern origin. We also learn of two common forms of punishment. 4cIf a wine-seller do not receive grain as the price of drink, but if she receive money by the great stone, or make the measure for drink smaller than the measure for corn, they shall call that wine-seller to ac- count, and they shall throw her into the water? ttIf a priestess who is not living in a M A L. G E. A. open a wine-shop or enter a wine-shop for a drink, they shall burn that woman? Although J ustice was stern, all crimes were not punished with death. The punishment was rather ctan eye for an eye, and a tooth for a tooth? There were classes of people, however, and the degree of punishment was determined by the class and nature of the crime. If a man destroy the eye of another man, they shall de- stroy his eye? ttIf one break a mans bone, they shall break his bone? iiIf a man knock out a tooth of a man of his own rank, they shall knock out his toothy ttIf one knock out a tooth of a freeman, he shall pay one-third mana of silver? gtIf a man strike another man of his own rank, he shall pay one mana of silver? gt'If a freeman strike a freeman, he shall pay ten Shekels of silvery ttIf a mans slave strike a mans son, they shall cut 0H his ear.,, ttIf a son strike his father, they shall out 01f his fingers? . If Henry Clay could have read the past, he could have learned of slavery more galling than American slavery; he could have seen that Hammurabi anticipated his Fugitive Slave Law. ttIf a brander, without the consent of the owner of the slave, brand a slave with a sign that he cannot be sold, they shall cut off the fingers of that brander? ttIf a man harbor in his house a slave who has fled from the palace or from a freeman, and do not bring him tthe slavel forth at the call of the commandment, the owner of the house shall be put to deat W The professions and mechanical arts are not modern. Physicians were held responsible for mal-practice. ttIf an artisan take a son for adoption and teach him handicraft, one may not bring claim for him? tiIf a man steal a