The application of psychology to the science of education

Front matter

THE APPLICATION OF PSYCHOLOGY

TO THE

SCIENCE OF EDUCATION

Preface

is much that will not fit into our universe of thought. The great advance in science, especially in physiological science, has much enlarged our knowledge of the relation of the mind to the body, and we think at first that it is impossible for us to follow him, or benefit by his teaching.

But before we can understand Herbart, we have to transport ourselves into a different thought-world. As we cannot read Dante or Milton without a clear vision of their cosmos, so neither can we follow the psychology of Herbart without translating our conceptions into the language of his thought; and then, though his poetic figures are not ours, yet the truths expressed are brought vividly before us by Ms imagery.

Taught by him, we learn to think of ideas not as merely objective to the Ego, and of the Ego by a dialectic process selecting the ideas, and assigning their functions by the laws of logic ; we also think of them as active powers, the living offspring of the thinker. We learn from him to think of the Ego building up itself by constantly adding fresh contents; as giving birth to conceptions, ideas, which become in some sense real entities, an active environment dominating the Ego, and in relation with which the Ego comes to know itself ; one is reminded of Kant’s words : “ Der Mensch macht die Natur.” Thus, at the basis of Herbart’s system, lies the doctrine of apperception, and we have to think of these ideas as forming, for good or evil, the character of the Ego. At first, as we read

PREFACE.

Vll about his ideas — objective as those of Plato — meeting, contending, suppressing, attracting one another; — as we study what he calls mathematical psychology, we feel as if we had gone back to an old-world mythology, entered some Egyptian temple, where we see flitting about mythological ghosts called ideas, which rise and fall, contend and suppress one another, “vault” and “ taper.” These materialised conceptions remind us of the sprites of the poets, which come into the dreamworld with their suggestions ; but as we reflect, and look into the darkness, we find this language of poetry does express for us truths of experience. That which we have received into the body of our thought does live in us, helping us to form each new conception — rising unbidden, by the laws of association, suppressing other thoughts which we are striving to evoke, passing below the “ threshold of consciousness ” into the darkness, where we yet feel that it is, though we cannot always call it up; and so we read on, and find that the hieroglyphs of Herbart express for us in mystic language truths of daily experience, truths which religion, too, affirms, and which are full of significance for the educator. Ideas do seem to have an inherent vitality to present themselves unbidden, and, if once received, to present themselves again and again, fitting themselves into the soul environment, which is our intellectual and moral universe. And when we linger on, and seek to penetrate further into these mysteries, we begin to see that Herbart’s ABC vm

PREFACE.

of Sense Perception and his JEsthetic Revelation of the Universe bridge over the opposition between the Pure and Practical Reason.

There is much too, to attract us in Herbart’s imaginative power. We find in him the intellectual subtlety of Kant combined with the enthusiasm of Fichte, and giving form to the practical philanthropy of Pestalozzi.1 We feel our intellectual and moral life quickened, though we may not be able to live altogether in his intellectual universe. The teacher, as he dwells upon the psychology of Herbart, learns to recognise more and more its pedagogical and ethical value. In the region of thought the disciple of Herbart will not be content till ideas have taken definite, clear shape for the pupil. He will know that to see clearly we must look intently ; so he will first of all awaken interest, he will associate each new thought with the already existing mental content, and group all round a centre.

But he will not be satisfied with mere knowledge — pure reason ; thought is to give form to desire, and desire pass over to action, and energise the will. The moral self is the harmonizing unity which correlates, supplements, formulates all that is given in sense, which, brooding on the objective vision, gives it a subjective life, so that it reacts upon its maker.

And then we cannot but ask, as educators, if indeed

1 It is just a century ago, 1797, that the first meeting took place between Herbart and Pestalozzi,

PREFACE.

IX we are each of us helping those whom we influence to apperceive “ the Esthetic Revelation ” of the world, which is ever being made to the individual and to the race, widening the horizons of those who love the light, and making for righteousness. The revelation is ever being made through sense and through sympathy with kindred souls, not only in the present, but in the records of the past, in the history and sacred literature of the world. It is ours to see that our children’s minds are furnished with things pure and lovely, with noble ideals, above all, with the vision of the ideal, the perfect manhood, the fullest revelation of the Divine.

Herbart has carried on the work of Kant in several directions. Kant showed us that the Ego must furnish the forms of thought by which the energy communicated through sense becomes an objective conception, an idea; so Herbart has insisted that every act of apperception is the outcome of the subjective energy, giving form to sensation. Kant so changed the conditions of thought, that we see no longer a meaning in the question whether there is a boundary to space and time; his life was too short to work out fully the problems of Practical Reason which he suggested. Herbart entered into his labours, and the moral self formed the chief subject of his observations.

It would be contrary to the spirit of the Master if we adopted his system as a complete whole. It is because we think Herbart has laid a good foundation

X

PREFACE.

that we desire educators should enter into his thought and build on it, and the proof that it is based on truth is, that several schools have been built upon these foundations.

The “ methods of concentration ” adopted by some of his followers may seem to us fanciful and futile ; they were an advance on mere conglomerate methods, which he so much condemns ; there are, what I may perhaps call organic methods, which commend themselves more to the leaders of thought now ; but these are not out of harmony with Herbart’s principles.

The enormous progress made in physiological psychology by means of histological research, especially the valuable and important work initiated by Dr. Stanley Hall at the Clarke University, has shown how large is the field for exploration ; and the more the true theory of apperception is studied, the more apparent will become the marvellous adaptation of the intelligence of man to the intelligible universe, the more the relation of the individual to the universal. This book of familiar and explanatory letters will help some perhaps to a fuller insight into the teaching of Herbart, than can be attained by the study of only formal treatises.

The question often suggested itself to the translator, whether that only should be given, which seemed to fit into our schemes of thought to-day. But in the midst of much that appears valueless to us now, there were to be found suggestive thoughts which could not stand

PREFACE.

XI apart from the context, and it was finally decided to give the letters as Herbart wrote them, and let readers judge for themselves.

With Miss Mulliner’s comments and explanations, this volume will, I hope, form a useful book for those who come to it with a sufficient equipment of philosophical ideas. The work of translation has been a difficult one, and it has been thought best to keep close to the text, even at some sacrifice of English idiomatic structure. I am persuaded, however, that no complete translation into another language, of systems of thought elaborated in Germany, is possible for those who are unfamiliar with the language and literature of that country.

We must have, so to speak, a “ native ministry.” The German thought -environment is different from ours, and numberless allusions to what is supposed to be known, escape us. America has given us valuable translations and elucidations. I may mention especially the works of De Garmo and Ufer, and Lange and Eckoff, and we have an English translation by Felkin of the Science of Education. We want, not translators only, but English psychologists and philosophers to naturalise the best thoughts of educational thinkers of the world, translate them, not into our language only, but into our forms of thought, adapt them to our environment. Our philosophy and our religion grow from one root. As the old poem expressed it, there grew in the midst of the garden the tree with its two branches,

Xll

PREFACE.

the tree of life, and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.

Not until we have chairs such as those occupied by- Kant and Herbart, Eosencranz and Fichte and Lotze, can we hope, that men with such powers of thought, will be able to find the leisure and intellectual surroundings which will make it possible for them to accomplish this work for us. Such a literature is beginning to go up in Scotland and England. We have Ward and Laurie, and Sully and Findlay, but we are far behind America and Germany.

The tide against which many of us have been rowing has at last turned ; the old empiricism, which declared there was no such thing as a science and philosophy of education, speaks no longer with so loud a voice ; the demand for thoughtful works is increasing, and will increase, and then precious time will be saved, and minds and wills will be better disciplined, and we shall realise more that the knowledge of the truth, and obedience to God’s law, is perfect freedom.

TRANSLATOR’S PREFACE

7TER the publication of his great series of works on mental and moral science, Herbart might well have thought that he had discharged for ever his debt to psychology. But his keen interest in education, and the desire to make scientific use of the practical experience gained in his school at Konigsberg, induced him to resume his psychological studies. The result was the work before us. The Letters on the Application of Psychology to the Science of Education were addressed to Friedrich Karl Griepenkerl, a friend of many years’ standing, who had been engaged in practical educational work with Fellenberg at Hofwyl, and now held the post of Professor at Carolina in Braunschweig. Unfortunately the letters are unfinished. Herbart discontinued the work when his removal from Konigsberg to Gottingen, and the consequent closing of his school, deprived him of the field of experience whence it had grown. That he had quite given up the idea of its completion and publication is clear from the fact that he has used whole passages from it elsewhere, especially in the second edition of his Text-Book of Psychology.

xiv translator’s preface.

Of the existing thirty-five letters the three first form the Introduction, in which, after stating their object, Her hart brings out briefly the nature and threefold task of psychological education: then, after otherwise expressing satisfaction with the improvement in schools since the beginning of the century, he deplores the neglect of the necessary study of the individual capacity of the pupil, and insists on the necessity of home training, as contrasted with the form of State education desired by Fichte. The remaining thirty-two letters deal with the many-sided individual capacity for culture in the pupil. This is demonstrated both as regards “Innate Differences” (Letters iv.-xxix.) and “Differences which are acquired” (Letters xxx.- xxxv.). The former may be divided thus : differences of a purely psychological kind, iv.-ix. ; those which concern physiology and psychology, x.-xiii. ; the purely psychological, xiv.-xxix.

The translator would specially thank Miss Beale, not only for unvarying kindness and help throughout the progress of the work, but also for her valuable Preface, showing the importance of the study of Herbart in England.

Many thanks are also due to Dr. Bein, of Jena, for information and assistance with regard to difficult points in Herbartian theory.

The translator would take this opportunity of expressing her gratitude to Miss Eose Seaton and Miss Lupton, of the Ladies’ College, Cheltenham, without translator’s preface.

XV whose kind aid a somewhat laborious task would scarcely have been possible.

Many thanks are also due to Mr. Sydney Herbert for the illustrations of the culture epochs, and to Fraulein Clara Burz, of Bonn, for her careful revision of the translation.

B. C. M.

The Ladies’ College, Cheltenham.

November, 1897.

ANALYSIS OF THE LETTERS

Introductory . . .

The many-sided and individual capacity for culture in the pupil .

Letters i.-iii.

iv.-xxxv.

TO THE STUDY OF HERBART

Chapter I. Herbart And His School

“ Hitherto,

At present (and a weary while to come),

The office of ourselves . . . has been

For the worst of us — to say, they so have seen ;

For the hotter— what it was they saw ; the best

Impart the gift of seeing to the rest." — Robert Browning.

“There is nothing more divine than Education.”— Prato.

OHANN FRIEDRICH HERBART was born at

Oldenburg, in North Germany, on the 4th of May, 1776. His father, Thomas Gerhard Herbart, a lawyer and privy councillor of the town, was a reserved, silent man of somewhat phlegmatic temperament. His mother, Lucie Margarethe Schiitte, a woman of remarkable individuality and keen intellect, exercised no small influence on the career of her only child. Regarded by those who did not know her as odd and eccentric, she nevertheless arranged for her son’s education with the utmost care. It was she who selected his tutor, took part in his lessons, and learnt Greek herself that she might the better sympathize with his interests. From the first the boy showed extraordinary ability. His retentive memory and b

XV111 INTRODUCTION TO THE STUDY OF IIERBART.

aptitude for mathematics and philosophy were some of the earliest signs of future greatness. The study of Logic begun at eleven years of age, of Metaphysics at twelve, and an original essay on Human Freedom at fourteen, give us a fair idea of the precocious, brilliant child who was destined to occupy not unworthily the chair of Kant at Konigsberg. The concluding words of this essay on Freedom show to what an extent the child was father of the man : “ It is contrary to all philosophy to reject an argument against which we have nothing to urge.”

At Easter, in 1794, Herbart entered the University of Jena, then the centre of the philosophic life of Germany. Nominally he came to study jurisprudence at his father’s wish; but the innate bent was too strong, and the youth became the enthusiastic disciple of Fichte, who had just been appointed to the vacant chair of philosophy.

In 1797, through his mother’s influence, he left Jena before his course was completed, and became private tutor to the three sons of Herr von Steiger-Reggisberg, Governor of Interlaken. Ludwig, Karl, and Rudolf von Steiger, aged respectively fourteen, ten, and eight years, were left entirely in the hands of the young tutor, their father merely requiring that a letter should be written to him every two months reporting their progress. Karl von Steiger grew up Herbart’s devoted friend and disciple.

This very important period came to an end in 1799, when, partly on account of his mother’s illness, partly through political considerations, Herbart left Switzerland for Bremen, that he might study philosophy, and thus qualify for a university chair. In 1799 he had visited Restalozzi at Burgdorf, and from 1801 begins the publication of his various works on philosophy, psychology, and education. A list of the more important of these will be found in Chart I.

HERB ART AND HIS SCHOOL.

XIX

In May, 1802, having taken his Doctor’s degree, he entered upon academic work at Gottingen, and his lectures and writings on philosophy and education began to attract increasing attention. In 1809, however, he was at last offered the chair of philosophy which Kant had occupied at Konigsberg. Here he spent the next twenty-four years of his life in constant intellectual activity, lecturing and writing for an increasing circle of adherents.

One of the chief events in this period is his marriage in 1811 to a young English girl, Mary Drake, whose father, at one time a wealthy merchant, had been almost ruined by the war. The union was a singularly happy one, and the intellectual sympathy and peace which Herbart found in his own home give point to his strong arguments in favour of the maintenance of family ties.

In addition to the publication of a succession of important works on psychology, Herbart carried out in Konigsberg his long-cherished plan for the establishment of a training college for teachers, in which students could practically apply the theories learned in the class-room.

The undertaking aroused so much interest, that the Prussian Minister of Education, Wilhelm von Humboldt, authorized him to procure an assistant in his work at a yearly salary of 200 thalers (£30). The pupils were taught for sixteen hours a week by four students. Herbart himself took the mathematical lessons, and the classical course he had devised for the von Steigers was carried out with great success. In 1833 the action of the Government towards the University of Konigsberg made Herbart anxious for a sphere of greater freedom, and he accepted the offer of a lectureship at Gottingen. His fame had preceded him, and he had an enthusiastic reception. Eight more years were thus spent in the usual round of

XX INTRODUCTION TO TIIE STUDY OF HERBART.

successful university work and the writing of certain important treatises.

Early in August, 1841, though apparently in perfect health, he told a friend, with a strange accent of certainty, that he should not live much longer. On the 9th he gave his usual lectures to the students with all the old power and brilliancy. The next evening he spent with his family, and they specially noticed the cheerful kindliness which of late years had never left him. At three o’clock in the early morning of August 11th, he died almost instantaneously; and a few days later, in the deepest grief, the students carried to the grave the body of their beloved master.

By far the most remarkable feature of Herbart’s character was his passion for truth. Faithful to his home, his work, his friends, he was above all faithful to his ideals; and the feeling of his contemporaries, expressed in the lines on the marble cross which marks his tomb, will be shared by the student of his works :

He may have erred in some points, he may have failed in others — who has not? But he used faithfully a noble intellect for the good of his fellows, and made ready a path which has been successfully trodden by others. We have entered into his labours; he has passed on to the clearer vision of the truth which he loved.

Such is a brief sketch of the somewhat uneventful life of the author of the Letters.1

It is more important for us to inquire into the position which Herbart holds in the world’s thought,

1 Further details will be found in a work by G. A. Hennig (Siegismund and Volkening, Leipzig).

HERBART AND HIS SCHOOL.

XXI and the claims which his teaching has on onr attention at the present moment. A glance at Chart II. will explain the atmosphere of tumult and intellectual restlessness which surrounded the young philosopher.

In 1776 the ill-fated Louis XVI. had been two years on the throne of France, and a reserved boy of inflexible will was growing up in Corsica whose name was Napoleon Bonaparte. In 1789, the year that Herbart became a schoolboy at the Gymnasium of Oldenburg, men were startled by the first thunders of the French Revolution. His last school year was that of the Reign of Terror in France. In 1799, when he began to study philosophy at Bremen, Napoleon became first Consul ; and soon after this, out of his small yearly stipend, Herbart was compelled to contribute 1500 francs for war expenses.

In 1806, at the battle of Jena, on the very hill above the University, Napoleon annihilated the Prussian army. Nine years later the cause of Liberty was saved by his crushing defeat at Waterloo.

Such, then, was the Europe of that day, a world indeed of excitement and revolution. Other men were swept away by the current. Fichte, an idealistic philosopher, was the very firebrand of German patriotism. Froebel fought as a soldier in the campaign of 1813 against Napoleon. Pestalozzi was fighting the social misery of the time, for it was he, who, in 1798, after the massacre by the French at Stanz, came to the rescue and gathered the orphans under his care.

Herbart seems to have lived apart from the political turmoil ; “ the spectres he fought were those of the mind.” His life-work was to equip the future leaders of thought, and the environment which really affected him was that of the intellect.

The Chart shows that in 1762 Emile had been published by Rousseau; in 1774 the Philanthropinum

XXXI INTRODUCTION TO THE STUDY OF HERBART.

had been founded by Basedow; from 1775 to 1780 Pestalozzi was the “saviour of the poor” at Neuhof. Above all, in 1781 a quiet, methodical professor, already past middle age, unexpectedly brought out a new book which has revolutionized the world of philosophy. The writer was Immanuel Kant; the work was The Critic of Pure Reason. The result was that almost every chair of philosophy was soon filled by Kantists, and Gottlieb Fichte, Herbart’s revered teacher at Jena, was an enthusiastic admirer of “ the Sage of Konigsberg.”

For Herbart’s relation to Kant the reader is referred to the Introduction, pp. xxxiii-xxxvii. With regard to the Pestalozzian movement, Professor De Garmo has pointed out that any great reform of this kind is emotional rather than scientific in its early stages. Divine enthusiasm is what moves men long before the time comes for exact and logical thought. Besides, there was no psychology at that time on which Pestalozzi could have founded his system, for Kant had not been able to carry his investigations into the practical side of experience. The Pestalozzian reform, then, had to do with the heart rather than with the head. “ Like an impetuous leader with an army before a river, Pestalozzi does not wait to build a bridge, but bids all rush in. Many get over, yet some are lost, and all are wet.” 1 A great threefold task was then before Herbart: —

1. He had first to develop a psychology which could be used in the practical problems of teaching.

2. He had to scientifically apply this psychology to education by means of his doctrine of apperception.

3. He had to perfect the work of Pestalozzi by bringing unity into the systems of the past. In a word, he had to give a scientific basis to what had as yet been merely empirical.

1 De Garmo, Great Educators, Herbart, p. 6.

HERBART AND HIS SCHOOL.

As regards the first, we note the following statement by Professor Ward in the Encyclopaedia Britannica : “ Por exactness and penetration of

thought Herbart is quite on a level with Hume and Kant. We are most indebted to him for the enormous advance psychology has been enabled to make.”

His claim to have accomplished the two last rests on his theory of education which will be discussed later. (See chapter ii.)

In concluding this part of the subject, the question arises, what has been the practical outcome of Herbart’s life-work ? His own training college for teachers in Konigsberg was in existence from 1810 until his departure for Gottingen in 1833. Early in the year 1832 one of his pupils, Heinrich Gustav Brzoska, came to the University of Jena, and in 1836 attracted considerable attention by publishing a book, entitled The Necessity for a Pedagogical Seminary, and its Proper Organization. The author’s early death in 1839 prevented the carrying out of the undertaking. In his place, however, in the summer of 1843, when the cause of educational training in Jena seemed well-nigh hopeless, a young lecturer, Dr. Karl Yolkmar Stoz, came forward with all the enthusiasm of youth, and founded among his students an educational society, which was to combine theoretic discussion with practical exercises. He had himself gone through the theoretical work of the Herbartian school, and his capacity as a practical teacher had been tested in the Benderschen Educational Institute at Weinheim.

The formal opening of the Seminar-School took place on December 9th, 1844. In 1858, the 300th anniversary of the inauguration of the University of Jena, some new buildings were secured, and the name of the Johann Friedrich School was adopted in memory of the great Elector. On the death of Dr. Stoz, on January 23rd, 1885, the activity of the Seminar was xxiv INTRODUCTION TO THE STUDY OF HERBART.

for a time interrupted. But the many difficulties were at last overcome, and the work began again with renewed vigour in October, 1886, under Dr. Bein. Since then the circle of interest has been steadily widening, and the visitors and students at Jena are now gathered from all parts of the world. The spirit of the Seminar is opposed to demanding from anyone slavish imitation or subjection to a set of rules. It prefers to send its members forth on their different paths, that each in his own way may seek truth, and contribute his share towards the solution of the countless problems of education. Its one watchword is : —

“ In necessariis unites,

In dubiis libertas,

In omnibus caritas.”

The 130 members of the holiday course held at Jena this year (1897), in August, represented fourteen different nations. Germany took the lead in point of numbers, but England, France, Belgium, America, Norway, Sweden, Australia, Hungary, Switzerland, Denmark, Servia, and even New Zealand, sent representatives to a friendly international conference of an almost unique type. The lectures were on various subjects, including theology, art, literature, and science, but interest seemed to centre round those given by Dr. Bein on the general science of education. Lectures on practical pedagogy, illustrated by specimen lessons to different classes of boys, were delivered by Herr Lehmensick, the head-master of the Jena Practising School. So great was the interest aroused, that Dr. Bein convened a special evening meeting for educational discussion, at which the position of the modern Herbartian school was more clearly defined.1

1 A pilgrimage to Thuringia cannot be too strongly recommended to the students of modern Hcrbartianism. The educational interest of Jena is increased by the unique surroundings. The quaint

IIERBART AND HIS SCHOOL.

XXV

The Pedagogic Seminar of the University of Jena deserves special notice. Its aim is the development of the Science of Education. It is connected with the Professorship of Pedagogics at the University, and has also a practising school, in which students teach under the direction of the Master of Method. Membership in the Seminar may be of three kinds : —

1. The “ Hospitanten,” or bye-students, who attend the Professor’s lectures, and also any lessons which they like to select in the practising school.

2. Special members, who are expected to take part in the theoretical work, the criticism of lessons, reports of school anniversaries, examinations, expeditions, etc.

3 Ordinary members, who, in addition, undertake to teach some subjects in the practising school for at least a term, subject to the supervision and criticism of the class teacher.

No special period of residence is enforced, but not less than a year is recommended, as otherwise little benefit can be obtained.

As regards the progress of Herbartian principles in other places, Eisenach might be mentioned and its Karolinen Sehule for girls. There are some 200 pupils at present in this school, and attached to it is a train-

mediaeval town, with its narrow streets, grey walls, and venerable tower, affords a striking contrast to the modern ways of a holiday course, and this year the past and present seemed indeed to blend in the entertainment given for the first time by English ladies to their fellow-members in the Schiller Garden. The curious survivals of mediaeval student-life may also be seen at Jena almost better than in any other German University; amongst these the “Career” — where the students suffer a mild imprisonment for trifling misdemeanours, and where they while away the hours by the most remarkable drawing in coloured chalk on wall and ceiling — must not be overlooked.

Once in Thuringia, Eisenach, with its exquisite scenery and important Herbartian school, can be visited. It should be noted that the greatest courtesy is shown to foreigners in these institutions. Visitors are permitted to attend classes, and are given every facility for obtaining information regarding the working and curriculum of the schools.

XXVI INTRODUCTION TO THE STUDY OF IIERBART.

ing department for women teachers under Director Ackermann. Herbartian training schools also exist in Gotha, Weimar, Schwabach (Niirnberg), Kaiserslautern (Bavaria Palatinate), Karlsruhe (Baden), and Chur (Switzerland). Another thoroughly Herbartian school for girls is that at Altenburg, where there are some 200 pupils under Dr. Karl Juste.

There are also several influential societies in Germany and elsewhere formed with the object of furthering the science of education as explained by Herbart. The following are worthy of notice : —