Thinking and learning to think, by Nathan C. Schaeffer ...

Front matter

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HINKING AN RNING 1 THINK

Preface

For a number of years it has been the author's duty as well as privilege to lecture at county institutes on the difficult art of teaching pupils to think. This led to the request that the lectures be thrown into permanent form for publication. The lecturer who never publishes has no pet theories to defend ; he can change his views as often as he sees fit ; yet, in spite of this advantage, he cannot always escape or ignore the art of printing. One who gives his thoughts to the public without the use of manuscript and under the limitations of extemporaneous speech, made necessary by the large audiences which gather at teachers' institutes, especially in Pennsylvania, runs the risk of being misquoted and misunderstood ; he pays the penalty of being reported in fragmentary if not distorted forms. This ultimately drives him, in justice to himself and others, to write out his theories on education and to give them to his coworkers in print.

Portions of these lectures were delivered at the annual meeting of the superintendents of 'New England, before the State teachers' associations of Massachusetts, Ehode Island, and Florida, before the Connecticut Council of Education, before the summer schools held under the auspices of the Ohio State University and the University of Wisconsin, and at several of the meetings of the Irrational Educational Association. The favorable hearing accorded on these occasions induces the hope that the lectures will be kindly received by many who teach outside of Pennsylvania, and by some who give instruction in our higher institutions of learning.

Although no one can hope, on so difficult a theme, to say much that will be entirely satisfactory to leading educators, surely no apology is needed from any one who, after spending his best years in educational work, attempts to contribute his mite towards the solution of any of the problems which confront the teacher.

It is assumed that there is a body of educational doctrine well established in the minds of teachers, and that on many school questions we have advanced beyond the border line of first discovery. Those who assert that our educational practice is radically wrong and in need of thorough reformation should hasten to clarify their own views and ideas, to substitute constructive for destructive criticism, and to give definite shape to their reforms ; otherwise a whole generation will grow to maturity and the reformers themselves will pass away before any of their reforms will have been accomplished. To give teachers the feeling that what they are doing is all wrong, and to leave them without anything better in place of what is condemned, robs them of joy in their work, makes them victims of worry and neurasthenia, and unfits them for the care of children. It is hoped that these lectures will be found to suggest a better way whenever criticism is bestowed upon existing methods of instruction.

No attempt is made to ridicule the arm-chair psychologists, or the advocates of child study, or those patient and painstaking workers who are honestly seeking to establish the facts of mind through experiments in the laboratory. He who has carefully reflected upon the art of making pupils think will not hesitate to admit that thus far he has received more light from the standard psychology than from the labors of those who claim to be the exponents of the new psychology. The latter can hardly

PREFACE. II

write or talk without using the terms coined by the older students of mind 5 this shows their indebtedness to those who taught and speculated before laboratories of psychology were established. Sometimes the experiments have only served to test and give a reason for what was already accepted. Often they have brought to our knowledge facts of mind which could never have been discovered by the method of introspection. In either case the experiments have resulted in clear gain. Let the facts of brain and mind, of nervous and mental action, of human growth, maturity, and decay be gathered, questioned, tested, and classified ; let their bearing upon educational practice be set forth in the clearest possible light : every resulting step of progress and reform will be hailed with delight by all who have no pet theories to defend.

The lecturer is limited by time, by the kind of audience which he addresses, and by circumstances largely beyond his control. These limitations drop out when he reduces his thoughts to writing, and a rearrangement at many points becomes possible as well as desirable. The expedients for relieving the strain of attention and winning back the listless can be omitted 5 and omissions that become necessary through the exigencies of the programme must be supplied for the sake of logical sequence. Moreover, the aims which those who engage the lecturer set before him frequently require a modification of the line of discussion, so that a course of lectures on a specific theme cannot always follow the same order of treatment, although substantially the same in content and scope. Hence the division into chapters has been adopted as preferable to the original sequence of lectures. Nevertheless, the style of the rostrum has not been altogether eliminated, because when oral discourse is thrown into new forms, and the phraseology is changed for the sake of publication, the loss in vividness, directness, and simplicity is greater than the gain in diction and fulness of statement.

Lecturing, as well as book- making, has its peculiar temptations. The lecturer must interest his hearers in order to hold them ; he is tempted to play to the galleries, and to omit what is beyond the comprehension of the average audience. The book-maker, on the other hand, is tempted to display his learning, to make a show of depth and erudition. The student of pedagogy is supposed to be in search of profound wisdom. Those who write for him often dive so deep that their style becomes muddy. Unfortunately, some of the best treatises on education have been written in the style of the philosopher and wrought out on the plane of the university professor, although intended for undergraduates at normal schools, and for teachers whose meagre salaries do not enable them to pursue courses of study at institutions of higher learning. The lucid style of Spencer' s treatise on ^'Education" has done much to counteract this tendency. Yet many of the authors of our treatises on pedagogy seem to be haunted by a feeling similar to that of the German professor, who, on reading the opening chapters of a new book, and finding them to be intelligible to his colleagues, exclaimed, '^Then I must rewrite these chapters ; otherwise nobody will read my book through."

Huxley has well described the penalty which must be paid by those who speak or write for the purpose of being understood. These are his words :

^' At the same time it must be admitted that the popularization of science, whether by lecture or essay, has its drawbacks. Success in this department has its perils for those who succeed. The 'people who fail' take their revenge, as we have recently had occasion to observe, by ignoring all the rest of a man's work and glibly labelling

Mm a mere popularizer. If the falsehood were not too glaring, they would say the same of Faraday and Helmholtz and Kelvin."

One who can never hope to rival the style of Spencer and Huxley and those to whom the latter refers, will nevertheless do well to emulate their skill in making difficult things plain to people who are not specialists or experts. He who writes for the teachers in our public schools should put aside his ambition to be considered erudite or profound, and endeavor above all things to be understood. Vague theories are apt to beget a bad conscience in those who teach and to destroy the joy which every one has a right to feel while doing honest and faithful work. Hence the writer offers no apology for heaping illustration upon illustration in the effort to make his meaning plain to those whom he aims to help.

There is at present great need for clear thinking and luminous presentation of facts on the part of all who write on education for the people or for teachers in our public schools. By a process similar to that by which the mediaeval imagination swelled the murder of the innocents at Bethlehem into a slaughter of thousands of children (there cannot have been many male children two years old and under in a small Judean village), the harm which some pupils suffer is magnified into a national crime at the feet of American parents ; the evils which result from ^^Bob White" societies, from children's parties, from church sociables for young boys and girls, are all ascribed to the school curriculum ; and reforms in home study are proposed which never fail to provoke a smile on the face of a healthy boy.

The hygienic conditions of the average school are quite equal to those of the average home. The health of many children improves during their attendance at school. The pupils who are born with a sound mind in a sound body, who get healthful diet, enough sleep, and treatment from their elders which is not calculated to make them nervous or unhappy, show none of the illness from overwork, the dulness of brain from fatigue, and the exhaustion of nervous energy which are made to furnish the narrow basis of fact for vague and broad generalizations. The haze in which those who must furnish the printer a given amount of copy in a given time are apt to envelop whatever they write has an effect like that of misty air upon the size of visible objects. Travellers who have come into a cloud while ascending a mountain report that a small wood-pile then looks like a barn, a cow seems larger than an elephant, men appear as giants, and the surrounding heights assume threatening proportions. As soon as sunlight clears the atmosphere, objects are again seen in their true dimensions. The moment the light of common sense penetrates the haze and mist and fog and cloud which are used to heighten the effect of essays upon school work, the need of radical reform seems far less urgent ; and teachers, instead of wasting their time in worry and uncertainty, begin with cheerful heart to impart that which modern civilization requires every child to know as. a condition of bread- winning and complete living.

There is, of course, a worse fault than obscurity of style, — namely, dearth of ideas. The danger to which the lecturer is always exposed, that of losing his hearers and failing to be recalled (their minds may leave while they are bodily present), spurs to effort in two directions. Either he will try to say something worth listening to, or he will strive to entertain by amusing stories and incidents. If he be conscious of a lack of talent for humor, he will try to stuff his lectures full of sense. If the lectures here published lack in this respect, the writer is willing to acknowledge failure.

In preparing a course of lectures it is proper to bear in mind the difference between the lecturer, the orator, the poet, and the philosopher. The philosopher investigates ideas and truths, explores their essence and relations, and unfolds them in their deepest unity and in their greatest possible compass. When this has been done throughout the whole domain of thought, his mission is accomplished. The poet seeks to clothe his ideas in beautiful forms. When the idea is perfectly suited to the form and the form to the idea, his mission is accomplished. The orator aims to move the will ; he quotes authorities, uses ideas, appeals to the feelings, and subordinates everything to the one end of gaining a verdict, winning a vote, or getting a response in the conduct of those whom he addresses. The lecturer seeks to impart information. He aims to get a response in the thinking of those whom he addresses. He tries to reach the intellect rather than the will. Beautiful language and exhaustive treatment are not essential parts of his mission. It is his province to elucidate the theme under consideration, to guide the efforts and inquiries of those who come to him for instruction, to direct them to the sources of information, and to furnish such incentives as he can towards independent study and investigation.

Since the data for pedagogy are derived mainly from kindred fields of investigation, the lecturer on the science and art of education has frequent occasion to cite authorities and to utilize the labors and conclusions of the men eminent in the sciences which throw light upon the growth of the child, more especially upon the development of mind and character. The most original writers quote very little, and those who are anxious to establish a reputation for originality refrain from quoting others. It is the business of the lecturer to lead the hearer to the sources of information. When anything has been so well said that he cannot improve upon the form of statement it is proper that he should quote the language, carefully giving the source whence it is derived. Without doubt, when the genius appears who will do for pedagogy what Aristotle did for logic and Euclid for geometry, he will so polish every gem he gets from others and give it a setting so unique and appropriate that the world will recognize the touch of the master and acknowledge the contribution as peculiarly his own handiwork. In painting and sculpture we look to the past for the greatest works of art. In music the century now closing has rivalled, if not surpassed, its predecessors. In the science and art of education the greatest achievements belong to the future. It is currently reported and sometimes believed that when the president of a celebrated university was asked why he had transferred a certain professor from the department of geology to that of pedagogy, he replied, ^^I thought the fellow would do less harm in that department.'' If the story is not a myth, he probably meant less harm to the reputation of the university. When in our day a course in geology or logic or geometry is announced, one can foretell the ground that will be covered. No such prediction can be made with reference to a course of lectures on teaching. The prophet is yet to come who wiU fix the scope of the science of education and give it something like definite and abiding shape.

This volume is not designed to supplant systematic treatises on psychology and logic. Its aim is to throw light upon one important phase of the art of teaching. If it contributes but two mites to the treasury of information on the science and art of education, the labor bestowed upon it has not been in vain. Should any critic hint that two mites are all one has to give, it may be said in reply that it is better to give something than to ^ive nothing at all, and that according to Holy Writ the smallest contributions are not to be despised if made in the right spirit. And it may add to the critic's stock of ideas to be informed that a small English weight, called mite, outweighs very many of the current criticisms upon modern education, that of this small weight it takes twenty to make a grain, and that to a faithfal teacher a tenth of a grain of helpful suggestion is worth more than many tons of destructive criticism.

Contents

CHAPTER PAGE

I. — Make the Pupils Think 21

II. — Thinking in Things and in Symbols 35

II

The rote system, like other systems of its age, made more of forms and symbols than of the things symbolized. To repeat the words correctly was everything, to understand the meaning nothing ; and thus the spirit was sacrificed to the letter.

Herbert Spencee.

Words are men's daughters, but God's sons are things.

Johnson.

For words are wise men's counters, — they do but reckon by them, — but they are the money of fools.

Hobbes.

It is only by the help of language ( or some other equivalent set of signs) that we can think in the strict sense of the word ; that is to say, consider things under their general or common aspects.

Sully.

II

Within half a mile of the Susquehanna Eiver a teacher was asking the class^ ' ^ Of what is the earth' s surface composed f "Of land and water," was the reply. In answer to a question by the superintendent concerning the earth's surface, one boy declared that he had Lesson in never seen the earth. He had been acquiring geography. words without the corresponding ideas. Turning to another boy, this official said, "Will you please show me water?" With a gleam of satisfaction on his face, the lad raised his atlas, pointed to the blue coloring around the map of North America, and said, ' ^ That iswater." "Will you please drink it f The expression on the faces of teacher and pupils indicated that all felt as if some one had committed a blunder. Where did the blunder lie? Had the teacher taught what should not be learned? Surely, every child should learn how water is indicated on a map. Did the boy use language wrong in idiom ? By no means ; for, as every student who has handled a lexicon well knows, many words have both a literal and a tropical, or figurative, meaning. If, pointing to an object, the teacher says, "This is a desk," he uses the word is in its literal sense. On the other hand, if he i^oints to a division on the map of the United States, and says, "This is Pennsylvania," he does not mean that the colored surface to which he is pointing is the real State of Pennsylvania (if it were, a political boss could pocket it, and carry it the rest of his days without further trouble).

What is meant is, that a given space on the map indicates or represents Pennsylvania, the word is being used, in the latter instance, in a figurative sense. Whether the word is, in the expression, ' ^ This is my body,^' should be understood in a literal or in a figurative sense has been discussed for ages in the Christian church. In the answer of the boy we strike a distinction in thought that lies at the basis of good teaching in all grades of schools, from the kindergarten to the uni- Two kinds versity, — namely, the distinction between thinkof ing in things and thinking in symbols. In one t m mg. gg^gg Q^ ^j^^ word, all thinking is symbolic 5 for the percepts, concepts, and images of external objects which the mind employs in the thinking process are symbolic of the things for which they stand. But in advanced thinking, and especially in scientific investigations, objective symbols, such as words, signs, letters, equations, formulas, technical terms and expressions, are utilized to facilitate the thinking process. Take the age questions in mental arithmetic that have been prematurely inflicted upon so many pupils in the public schools. So long as the mind consciously carries A's age and the wife's age, using the clumsy instruments of arithmetical analysis, the thinking is difficult indeed. As soon as x is made the symbol of A's age, and y the symbol of the wife's age, so that the conditions of the problem can be thrown into algebraic equations, the difficulty vanishes. In the algebraic solution the mind drops all thought of A's age and the wife's age while manipulating the signs and symbols of the equation, and restores the meaning of the symbols only when their value in figures has been found. The algebraic solution is a genuine specimen of thinking in symbols, and illustrates the labor-saving machinery which the human mind employs, more or less, in all the most difficult scientific investigations.

"What is a symbol? It is a mark, sign, or visible representation of an idea. The mathematician uses the symbol to represent quantities, operations, and symbol relations. The chemist uses the symbol to defined. indicate elements and their groupings or combinations. The theologian applies the term symbol to creeds and abstract statements of doctrine. The grips, countersigns, and passwords of a secret society may be spoken of as symbols of the ideas, aims, and principles of the organization. Often the symbol is chosen on account of some supposed resemblance between it and that for which it stands, as when black is made the symbol of mourning, white of purity, the oak of strength, and the sword of slaughter. ' ' A symbol, ' ' says Kate Douglass Wiggin. '•'■ may be considered to be a sensuous object which suggests an idea, or it may be defined as the sign or representation of something moral or intellectual by the images or properties of natural things, as we commonly say, for instance, that the lion is the symbol of courage, the dove the symbol of gentleness. It need not be an object any more than an action or an event, for the emerging of the butterfly from the chrysalis may be a symbol of the resurrection of the body, or the silver lining of the cloud typify the joy that shines through adversity. ' ' Frequently the symbol is chosen arbitrarily, or because it is the first letter of the word which denotes the quality, substance, thing, or idea for which the symbol stands. Generally the symbol is a visible representation, but it may also address the other senses, notably the ear and the sense of touch. The Standard Dictionary excludes the portrait from the extent or scope of the symbol, and confines it to the representation of that which is not capable of portraiture, as an idea, state, quality, or action. It is well to bear this limitation in mind during the present discussion.

A few illustrations will serve to fix the sense of the word symbol. In some parts of America the tramps have a system of symbols of their own, a given mark on the front gate indicating a good place to ask for a meal, another indicating a cross dog in the rear yard. That which the tramp fears or likes is not the mark which he sees, but a very real thing which that mark suggests to his mind. A number of the apostles were fishermen by trade. The fish became a very significant symbol in the days of early Christianity. The letters in the Greek name for fish are the initial letters of the expression, Jesus Christ, God' s Son, Saviour. It is one of many instances showing how the human mind delights in heaping symbol upon symbol to conceal precious meanings from the uninitiated.

What was the mental condition of the lad spoken of at the beginning of this chapter 1 The boy knew the real Symbols thing loug before he knew the first symbol for for water, ^atcr. Without doubt he had tasted it, played in it against his mother's will, been washed in it against his own will, for months before he learned the first symbol for water used in common by him and others, which was probably the spoken word. Up to that time he thought of water in some mental picture or image which had been formed upon the eye and th-^ upon mind somewhat as the picture is formed through the art of the photographer. Up to the time that he learned the spoken word for water this liquid suggested mental pictures which constituted a thinking in things * rather than in symbols, using the latter term according to the limitation set by the Standard Dictionary. On entering school he

* For brevity' s sake the phrase, thinking in things, is preferred to the more accurate but less convenient expression, thinking in the images of things.

was taught to read ; he added to the ear- symbol the eyesymbol, — that is, the written or printed word, which he may have associated at first with the real thing, or with the spoken word ; of course, very soon with both, if cor- Tect methods of teaching were followed. Next, he was taught the map-symbol. The blunder which the teacher on the banks of the Susquehanna had committed consisted not in teaching how water is indicated on a map, but in not pointing to the majestic river near the school-house, and associating the water in its channel with the representations of water on a map. If the boy studied Latin or Greek, he was taught new symbols for water in the corresponding words of these languages. If he studied chemistry, he early learned the composition of water, and was thenceforth taught to write it H2O, a symbol enshrining a new truth and lifting him to higher planes of thought by giving him a new instrument as well as new materials of thought.

Half the errors in teaching arise from the fact that the teacher does not constantly bear in mind the distinction between the symbol and the thing for which the sources of symbol stands, thus giving rise to confusion in ^^^°^- the mind of the learner. A class was bounding the different States of the Union. At the close of the recitation the superintendent suggested that the class bound the school-house. It was bounded on the north by the roof, on the south by the cellar, on the east and west by walls. The geography classes of an entire city were caught in that way. Either the pupils had not been taught, or else they had forgotten the difference between the real directions and the ordinary representation of them on the surface of a wall map. Sometimes the confusion exists in the mind of the teacher as well as in the minds of the pupils. Then he expects them to learn one thing while he teaches them another. By the methods formerly in vogue the pupil was expected to learn the sounds of the letters from their names ; the pronuncia- Eiementary tion of the word from the names of the letinstruction. ^gj.g which compose it ; the names, forms, and sounds of letters from the word taught as a whole 5 tht musical sounds from the notation on a musical staif 5 the ideas of number, of fractions, from the corresponding symbols ; the units of denominate numbers and of the metric system from the names used in the tables of weights and measures 5 the flowers of the field from the nomenclature of the botany 5 the substances and experiments in chemistry from the descriptions and pictures of a text-book. Such teaching has given rise to endless lectures, editorials, and discussions upon the use of the concrete in teaching, upon the value of thinking in things, upon the importance of object-lessons, laboratory methods, and the like.

But there is another side to the question. There comes a time in the development of the pupil when he must rise above the sticks and shoe- pegs and blocks of

]yiore ^^^ elementary arithmetic, and learn to think advanced in the symbols of the Arabic notation. Later instruction. ^^ j^nst learn to think in the more comprehensive symbols of the algebraic notation. He must learn to think the abstract and general concepts of science, and, in thinking these, to use the devices, technical terms, and other symbols which the scientists have invented to facilitate their thinking.

Hear a parable. A teacher sat down to dinner. The waiter handed him the bill of fare. The pro- A parable. ^^:^^^q^ foUowcd the Waiter to the kitchen, directed him to cut out the names of the eatables which had been ordered, and to carry these names on plates to the dining-room. "It is not these words,'' exclaimed the guest, "that I desire to eat, but the things in the kitchen for which these words stand.'' ^' Isn't that what you pedagogues are doing all the time, expecting children to make an intellectual meal on words such as are found in the columns of the spelling-book and attached on maps to the black dots which you call cities ? My boy gravely informs me that every State capital has its ring, because on his map there is always a ring around the dot called the capital of a country." The teacher was forced to admit that there is, alas ! too much truth in the allegation. In the afternoon he took revenge. Knowing that the proprietor had a thousand-dollar draft to be cashed, he arranged with the banker to have it paid in silver coin. When the landlord saw the growing heap of coin, he exclaimed, '^If I must be paid in silver, can you not give me silver certificates'?" "Did you not intimate to me," said the teacher, tapping him on the shoulder, "that it is the real things we want, and not words and symbols which stand for realities f The landlord was obliged to admit that in the larger transactions of the mercantile world it saves time and is far more convenient to use checks, drafts, and other symbols for money than it would be to use the actual cash. In elementary transactions, like the purchase of a necktie, it is better to use the cash, to think and deal in real money, but when it comes to the distribution of five and one-half million dollars among the school districts of Pennsylvania, it is better to draw warrants upon the State Treasurer, to use checks and drafts, and to think in figures, than it would be to count so much coin, and send the appropriation in that form all over a great common wealth.