Practical Education

'Practical Education' is an educational treatise written by Maria Edgeworth and her father Richard Lovell Edgeworth. It is a comprehensive theory of education that combines the ideas of philosophers John Locke and Jean-Jacques Rousseau as well as of educational writers such as Thomas Day, William Godwin, Joseph Priestley, and Catharine Macaulay. The Edgeworths' theory of education was based on the premise that a child's early experiences are formative and that the associations they form early in life are long-lasting. They also encourage hands-on learning and include suggestions of 'experiments' that children can perform and learn fun. In Edgeworths' work, the attention of the child appears as a key site for pedagogical work and interventions. Following Locke's emphasis on the importance of concrete language over abstract, the Edgeworths' argued that words should clearly indicate 'distinct ideas'. This contributed to what Romanticist Alan Richardson calls 'their controversial positions', including their resistance to reading fairy tales to children or discussing religion with them. Contents: Toys Tasks On Attention Servants Acquaintance On Temper On Obedience On Truth On Rewards and Punishments On Sympathy and Sensibility On Vanity, Pride, and Ambition Books On Grammar and Classical Literature On Geography and Chronology On Arithmetic Geometry On Mechanics Chemistry On Public and Private Education On Female Accomplishments, &c. Memory and Invention Taste and Imagination Wit and Judgment Prudence and Economy Summary Notes, containing Conversations and Anecdotes of Children

Maria Edgeworth (1768-1849) was a prolific Anglo-Irish writer of adults' and children's literature. She was one of the first realist writers in children's literature and was a significant figure in the evolution of the novel in Europe. She held views on estate management, politics and education, and corresponded with some of the leading literary and economic writers, including Sir Walter Scott and David Ricardo. Richard Lovell Edgeworth (1744-1817) was an Anglo-Irish politician, writer and inventor. A Trinity College and Corpus Christi alumnus, he is credited for creating, among other inventions, a machine to measure the size of a plot of land. He also made strides in the developing educational methods. Edgeworth sat in Grattan's Parliament from 1798 until the Act of Union in 1801, and advocated Catholic Emancipation and parliamentary reform. He was a founder-member of the Royal Irish Academy.