A broader elementary education

Front matter

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COPYRIGHT DEPOSIT.

Preface

This book is written primarily for two classes of readers : (i) those who, having enjoyed the advantages of college or normal-school training, occupy positions which make it their duty to shape the educational policy of their community ; (2) those who, as students, are preparing for such positions. With the needs of these classes in mind, it has seemed to the author desirable to set forth as explicitly as might be that in the very conception of education certain presuppositions are involved, and all the more desirable since opinions at variance with these presuppositions are widely prevalent.

In the conviction, also, that there can be no fundamental study of education that does not seek to ascertain the end education should strive to reach, and the impulses and capacities it must appeal to, and that there can be no rational teaching that is not based on definite notions as to these matters, he has endeavored to present upon his conclusions those notions as clearly as may be ; and he has sought to base all his recommendations as to practice. A prominent feature of the book is the emphasis laid upon the doctrine that there is a place for the will in education. The current theory inherited from Herbart, and by him from Rousseau, that everything should be made to depend upon interest, that there should be no must in education,

PREFACE.

seems to the author thoroughly pernicious — a theory that is prevented from resulting in deplorable consequences only by the fact that most of those who profess it do not take it seriously.

While these difficult questions have been discussed primarily with a view to the needs of the two classes above mentioned, the author has had constantly in mind a third class — the earnest, enthusiastic, and capable teachers who, in characteristic American fashion, are trying to remedy the defects of their early education by present arduous preparation for their chosen work. To such readers he would fain be of service, and to this end has prepared a list of questions for each chapter, with the object of helping concentrate the attention on the important points.

The author wishes to make special acknowledgment of

his indebtedness to Doctors Dewey and Baldwin, and all

the more because his discussions have emphasized points

of difference rather than of agreement ; also to his former

assistant, Dr. Clarke Wissler, for a detailed statement of

the opinions of those who advocate the postponing of the

teaching of reading, writing, and drawing until the child is

ten years of age ; but most of all to Mr. Theodore F. Neu,

who has revised the manuscript and read the proof, and to

whose keen intelligence are due many improvements in

the manner of presentation.

J. P. GORDY.

New York University, March 31, 1903.

CHAPTER I. A Presupposition of Education : Person or Physiological

Machine

I. Theory of automatism stated. 2. Nothing is due to purpose, if automatism be true. 3. From the standpoint of this theory education has to do with the brain only, not with the mind. 4. Ordinary facts incapable of clear statement from the standpoint of automatism. 5. According to automatism, physical causes alone account for all we do. 6. Automatism leaves no place for logical thinking. 7. Automatism makes distinctions between truth and falsehood impossible. 8. Theory of parallelism stated. 9. Superiority of parallelism over automatism. 10. This superiority has no significance from the standpoint of education. 11. According to parallelism the relation between matter and consciousness is like that between substance and shadow. 12. Attempts to do away with the distinction between laws of matter and laws of mind.

Chapter II

A Presupposition of Education -. Person or Psychological

Machine

I. Herbart's theory of the will. 2. Metaphysical difficulties of the theory. 3. Educational implications of the theory. 4. It does not make a philosophy of education impossible. 5. Consequences of the theory. 6. Coleridge. 7. Dr. Dewey's theory of interest. 8. Self-expression as understood by Dr. Dewey. 9. Dr. Dewey's confused account of interest. 10. Dr. Dewey's attempt to show that interest in an end guarantees an abiding interest in the means.

6 TABLE OF CONTENTS.

Chapter III. Page

I. The connection between education and the form of government. 2. The German school system. 3. Professor Peck on universal education. 4. Who shall receive a thorough education according to Professor Peck ? 5. The relation of education to political philosophy. 6. The philosophy of education should assume the truth of the republican theory. 7. The effect of education on the masses. 8. The dilemma of rulers. 9. Three causes that work towards democracy. 10. Progress of the world towards democracy.

CHAPTER IV. \ The End of Education as conceived by the Report of the

Committee of Fifteen 58

I. The end of education and civilization. 2. Must education conform to the principles of a given civilization ? 3. The educational statesman.

Chapter V

The End of Education as conceived by Mr. Herbert Spencer and Dr. Dewey 65

I. Education preparation for rational living. 2. Mr. Spencer's description of complete living. 3. Conflict of duties. 4. The development of character as the end of education.

Chapter VI

I. The unclearness of the fundamental conceptions of science. 2. Conclusions as to the end of education not susceptible of proof. 3. Things known through lower mediacy. 4. Things known through mediacy. 5. Things known through higher immediacy. 6. Intellectual activity an ultimate good. 7. The appreciation of beauty another ultimate good. 8. Moral character another ultimate good. 9. Friendship and domestic affection ultimate goods. 10. Sympathy, also, an absolute good. 11. Loyalty an ultimate good. 12. Comparative value of the various ultimate goods of life. 13. A standard for judging institutions.

TABLE OF CONTENTS. 7

Chapter VII. Page

Education as Preparation for Rational Living 91

I. Education and public opinion. 2. Blunder of the old Greeks. 3. Mr. Spencer's Theory. 4. The constituents of rational living: Knowledge. 5. Intellectual Power. 6. A cultivated emotional nature. 7. An effective will.

CHAPTER VIII. The End of Elementary Education 98

I. Material and intellectual needs. 2. Moral causes of poverty. 3. Intellectual and moral training compatible. 4. No conflict between the needs of the citizen and of the man. 5. A v liberal education and the elementary school.

Chapter IX

I . Begin with the child. 2. The young child and the educated man. 3. The child guided by interest. 4. Habits of rational conduct. 5. The educational centre of gravity. 6. Curiosity. 7. The. constructive impulse. 8. The art impulse. 9. The social impulse. 10. Imitation. 1 1. Invention. 12. Emulation. 13. The ethical impulse.

Chapter X

I. Professor Baldwin on imitation. 2. Imitation defined. 3. Biological imitation. 4. Psychological imitation. 5. Plastic imitation. 6. Imitation of thoughts and feelings. 7. Is education imitation ? 8. Education due to all our impulses. 9. Imitation and the constructive impulse. 10. Interaction of impulses. II. Another interpretation of Professor Baldwin. 12. Imitation and intelligence.

Chapter XI

I. When the child begins to imitate. 2. When imitation exerts the most powerful influence. 3. Influence of heredity on imitation. 4. Plastic imitation. 5. Plastic imitation and higher immediacy. 6. Signe Rink's childhood. 7. Imitation and character. 8. Imitation and reason.

8 TABLE OF CONTENTS.

CHAPTER XII. PACiE

How THE Child's Capital is to be Invested: Imitation . . 141 I. President Eliot on the public school. 2. Imitation the chief source of ideals. 3. Cardinal Newman on imitation. 4. Imitation and character-building. 5. Imitation during the kindergarten period. 6. Imitation in dress, etc. 7. Influence of the child's associates.

CHAPTER XIII. How THE Child's Capital Is to Be Invested: Manual Training 150

I. Curiosity. 2. The constructive impulse. 3. Manual training and respect for work. 4. Manual training adapts the school to the many.

Chapter XIV

How the Child's Capital Is to Be Invested: His Art, Social, Ethical, and Emulative Impulses 158

1. The art impulse. 2. The social impulse and language training. 3. The social impulse and the moral nature. 4. Rousseau and Pestalozzi on moral training. 5. The social impulse and the study of history. 6. Intellectual, constructive, art, and social impulses contrasted with imitation and emulation. 7. The place of emulation in the school.

CHAPTER XV. The Course of Study in the Primary Grades 167

I. The foundation on which the school must build. 2. Reading and story-telling. 3. Language Lessons. 4. Nature study. 5. Drawing. 6. Music, physical culture, and manual training. 7. Number lessons. 8. Distribution of time. 9. Young children's need of supervision. 10. The economic difi&culty. 11, Second-year work.

CHAPTER XVL

Should Reading and Writing be Taught Before the Age

OF Ten.' 177

I. It is argued that reading should not be taught before ten, because (i) the function of books is supplementary. 2. (2) Be-

TABLE OF CONTENTS.

cause the child has no " natural desire to learn to read." 3. (3) Because reading is a recent accomplishment of the race. 4. (4) Because of the development of the nervous system. 5. (5) Because the fundamental muscles develop before the accessory. 6. Objections summarized. 7. Practical argument in favor of current practice. 8. Relation between the real and the ideal.

Chapter XVII

I. The law of interest. 2. Concentration defined. 3. The principle upon which specialization depends. 4. Interest in the individual and scientific interest. 5. Interest not a criterion of educational method. 6. Cultivation of intellect: Its place in education. 7. Training to think. 8. Correlation.

Chapter XVIII

I. General method explained. 2. What determines the validity of method. 3. Action of the mind (i) in connection with grammar. 4. (2) In connection with history. 5. (3) In connection with arithmetic. 6. (4) In connection with literature.

7. Summing up conclusions relating to the action of the mind in connection with grammar, history, arithmetic, and literature.

8. Possible defence of the Herbartian theory. 9. Three processes not usually required. 10. How psychology may help the teacher.

Chapter XIX

I. Difficulty of mapping out the work through the grades. 2. Kind of work to be done. 3. History and literature. 4. Boston and French and old Athenian schools compared. 5. The amount of reading required by Massachusetts schools. 6. Arithmetic. 7. Political geography. 8. Nature study. 9. Electives. 10. Language and grammar. 11. Elemeiats of a liberal education from the start.

lO TABLE OF CONTENTS.

Chapter XX. Page

The Most Important Problem of Public School Administration 224

I. Man and nature the central subjects. 2. Need of adapting work to individual students. 3. Why the integrity of the college is threatened. 4. Responsibilities of the learned professions. 5. Do existing conditions discriminate against the poor ? 6. Injury to all grades of schools through disregard of the unequal capacity of pupils.

Chapter XXI

Departmental Instruction in the Grammar School . . . 232 I. Proposed transformation objected to as impracticable. 2. Is the existing system sacred ? 3. The grammar and high school compared. 4. Why specialists are not needed through all the grades. 5. When the study of facts in their logical relation should begin. 6. Advantages of specialization in teaching. 7. Objections to the existing system. 8. Existing system requires teachers to teach subjects in which they are not interested.

Chapter XXII. \

I. Educational values and method. 2. History (i) increases one's knowledge of himself and his fellows. 3. (2) Develops sympathy and charity. 4. (3) Makes us realize that nations, like individuals, must act in accordance with moral law. 5. (4) Prepares for citizenship. 6. (a) By the knowledge it imparts. 7. (b) By developing a certain kind of reasoning power. 8. (c) By fostering a high civic ideal. 9. The Theory of the Sophists. 10. Its American counterpart. 11. Children may study history with profit.

CHAPTER XXIII. The Educational Value of Spelling, Language Lessons

and Grammar 252

I. Spelling has little educational value. 2. The uses of forgotten knowledge. 3. Conventional value of spelling. 4. What words children should be taught to spell. 5. Conventional and

TABLE OF CONTENTS. II

PAGE

real value of the ability to use good English. 6. Language lessons should deepen a child's interest in his work. 7. Grammar (i) cultivates the capacity of discrimination. 8. (2) Promotes the study of the mind. 9. (3) Should illustrate the difference between knowledge and opinion. 10. At what age should grammar be studied.

Chapter XXIV

I. Reading and education. 2. Dr. Harris on " The educational value of reading." 3. The educational value of reading and observation lessons. 4. Mistakes in the teaching of reading. 5. Value of the knowledge of real men. 6. How to become acquainted with a man of thought. 7. Literature in the elementary school : Homer and Shakspere. 8. Burns, Lowell, and Holmes. 9. What literature is available for school purposes. 10. Pleasure to be derived from literature.

Chapter XXV

I, Arithmetic as a science and as an art. 2. Educational . value of arithmetic as an art. 3. Arithmetic as an art should give definiteness to all our concepts. 4. Two methods of teaching arithmetic as an art. 5. (i) How arithmetic may give definiteness to the concepts of elementary science. 6. (2) To the concepts of geography. 7. (3) Ideas acquired out of school. 8. Incidental and accidental teaching of form subjects. 9. Arithmetic as a science (i) makes clear the difference between first and second-hand knowledge. 10. (2) Different kinds of first-hand knowledge. 11. Arithmetic as a science the product of deductive reasoning. 12. Too much time given to arithmetic. 1 3. The grammar school the university of the masses.

CHAPTER XXVL

The Educational Value of Nature Study 285

I. Nature study (i) increases our interest in nature. 2. (2) Develops a realization of law and cultivates openmindness. 3. (3) In- ^ cites to speciahzation along the lines of natural bent.

y

12 TABLE OF CONTENTS,

Chapter XXVII. Page

School Management 290

I. The object of discipline. 2. The function of education. 3. The principle of anarchy. 4. The problem of the school.

5. The child may learn to love a rational life (i) because he wishes to be like his teacher. 6. (2) Because his teacher loves a rational life. 7. The influence of imitation on Roman education. 8. The teacher and the source of the ideals of the pupil.

CHAPTER XXVIII. The Small High School 297

I. The general principle upon which the proper work of the small high school depends. 2. The large high school not a model for the small high school. 3. The report of the Committee of Ten on the identity of the needs of those who are and those who are not going to college. 4. The small high school should teach (i) political economy. 5. (2) American history.

6. But (3) not a foreign language. 7. The course of study of the small high school to be determined in part by the capacity of the teachers and by its equipment. 8. English and American history should be substituted for general history. 9. Summary of the course of study.

Introduction

Education, from the standpoint of the mind which is being educated, consists of a vast series of changes ; from the standpoint of the teacher, of the influences brought to bear upon the mind to bring those changes about. But tlie intelHgent use of means to this end presupposes not only an idea of the type of character for the sake of which the changes are desired, but also of the mind in which it is to be developed. For our opinion as to what the mind may become depends upon our opinion of its essential nature. If we believe that the thoughts, feelings, and vohtions of a human being are the mechanical and inevitable results of the influences brought to bear upon him, we are bound to think of him as one of the links in the vast enginery of nature, and education cannot consider him as having anything to do with his own development. If, on the other hand, we believe that the mind is essentially active, then education has an entirely different problem to solve, the problem of supplying the mind with occasions of its own activity.

The lines of our subject are, therefore, marked out for us by its character. We must first seek to determine the essential nature of the mind, whether it is active or passive, and then endeavor to ascertain the end of education. This accomplished, we must investigate the means by which the ideal of education may be approximately realized.

But it is already evident that the question of means must be considered from two points of view. For the

H

INTRODUCTION.

changes that take place in the mind at any moment are due not only to the particular influences brought to bear upon it, but to the nature of the mind, and that not simply as active or passive, but as endowed with certain impulses and native tendencies. In order to furnish an adequate explanation of a given state of anger, for example, we have to determine both what it was that occasioned the anger and what it is in human beings that makes such a state possible. In considering the means of education, therefore, we are obliged to study the impulses of human nature which make education possible, as well as the material which must be presented to the mind in order to occasion the changes that lead towards the desired end.

But the question of means must be further subdivided. For the effect of the material presented to the mind depends very much on the way in which it is presented, or, rather, the mode of the presentation forms an important part of the material. Compare George Eliot's sentence, " It seems to me there must always be pale sad faces among the flowers, and eyes that look in vain," with a prosaic expression of the same idea : It seems to me I shall never be able to see anything beautiful again without thinking of something sad, — and the effect of the form in which an idea is expressed becomes very evident. A rational theory of education, therefore, requires us not only to know what our pupils should study, but the manner in which the subjects should be taught : and this necessitates a discussion of method.

A yet further subdivision is necessary. The changes in the mind in which education consists are exceedingly complex and numerous, the matter to be presented to it indefinitely extensive and various. The rational practice of

INTRODUCTION.

education, therefore, requires us not only to know in a general way the changes which we wish to bring about in the minds of our pupils, and the subjects which they must study, but the method according to which they must be taught. Or, rather, in order to have a thorough grasp of method, we need to know the precise effect which a given phase of a subject ought to produce. The teacher's subjects are his tools ; in order to use them effectively, he needs to know the sort of influence which each of them ought to have in the shaping of the mind — he ought to know their educational values.

When we have considered the influences exerted upon the pupil by the subjects which he studies, and the teacher's presentation of them, there remains for examination an important part of the business of the school. Those influences to which the pupil is subjected which are designated by the term discipline have a direct bearing not only on the immediate work of the pupil, but upon those habits of conduct which a wise theory of education seeks to form. The subject of school management will, accordingly, form still another subdivision of the question of the means to be employed in the education of the pupil.

We may, then, roughly indicate the subdivisions of our subject as follows :

I, The nature of the mind — active or passive, person or thing. II. The end of education, III. The means to be employed in reaching it.

1. Subjective: the impulses and native tendencies which make

education possible — the "child's capital."

2. Objective.

a. The course of study.

b. The method of teaching.

c. Educational values.

d. School management.

1 6 INTRODUCTION.

The first two general subdivisions grow out of the very nature of the subject. No matter what phase of education is considered, whether Kindergarten, elementary, secondary, or advanced, a rational treatment of it must be based on a conception of the nature of the individual whom we wish to educate, and of the ideal towards which we wish to develop him. But the means which education should employ depend largely upon the stage which the mind has reached in its development. A course of study proper in a high school would not be proper in the primary grades ; a successful method of governing college students would not be recommended to a grammar-school teacher. It must be borne in mind, then, that in this book we are concerned only with elementary education.

A BROADER ELEMENTARY EDUCATION.

Chapter I. A Presupposition Of Education: Person Or Physiological Machine

There is a preliminary question which must be answered before there can be any intelligent discussion of the purpose or methods of education : What is the nature of the mind ? Is consciousness an active process determined by the mind's own laws, or is it only a mechanical reflection of objects ?

Theory of Automatism Stated — Automatism gives a precise answer to this question. It says that the mind is a mere thing among the other things of the world. It holds that at a certain stage in the evolution of the cosmos organic life began to appear ; that later a nervous system began to exist ; that at some point in the development of the nervous system a rudimentary form of consciousness began to evolve ; and that from this simple beginning up to and including man there has been no essential change in the nature of mental life. Throughout the entire series, from the lowest and most incoherent form of organic matter to the most highly developed human being, you find, according to automatism, one kind of cause and one only — matter. The matter that functions in the inorganic world does indeed differ from that of which a highly developed nervous system is composed. But it differs only in the degree of its complexity. And as the motions that take place in the simplest forms of matter are due to material causes only, so are those that take place in the human body — what we call consciousness, having; no more to do with them than the whiz of a wheel with its revolution.

Nothing is Due to Purpose, if Automatism be True. —

If this theory be true, we must change our attitude towards human beings. It can no longer be said that men buy, sell, steal, kill for gold or for anything ; purpose has no existence among the reahties of the world. Its place is taken by the brain, blindly and mechanically obeying the laws of matter. Man indeed has no independent existence, unless we give that name to the purely material aggregate known as the human body. The body, constituting the innermost nature of man and forming a part of the material universe, is strictly and absolutely governed by material laws. We get up in the morning, dress, eat our breakfast, go to our place of business, write letters, engage in conversation, not because we are intelligent beings, but because our brains are what they are — every movement of every part of our bodies being the purely passive product of mechanical forces.

From the Standpoint of this Theory Education has to do with the Brain Only, not with the Mind. — From the standpoint of this theory education begins and ends with

A PRESUPPOSITION OF EDUCATION. I9

modifications of the brain. If we are automatists, we may — if our brains permit us — continue to talk about arousing the aspirations of our pupils, stimulating their interests, making appeals to their wills, to their sense of duty or of honor. But if we are bold enough to accept the logical consequences of our theory, we shall be sure that such appeals either accomplish nothing or that they do not operate as they seem to do. We shall be sure that they derive their entire significance from the fact that in some inscrutable way they produce a peculiar effect upon the body — not through the agency of the mind. The sentinel on guard, fighting against the drowsiness that threatens to overcome him, utters the word " duty " and straightway every sense becomes alert, every muscle tense, through attention. If automatism be true, how are we to explain this fact ? Are we to say that it was the desire of the sentinel -not to betray his trust that enabled him to overcome his drowsiness ? That would impute efficiency to consciousness, that a state of his mind caused something, while the theory maintains that what he does is due to his brain alone.

Ordinary Facts Incapable of Clear Statement from the Standpoint of Automatism. — From the point of view of automatism the fact is not only inexplicable, but the very attempt to state it involves one in a labyrinth of obscurities. "The sentinel on guard " is a phrase which embodies contradictory ideas. '* The sentinel " is nothing but a group of atoms every change in which takes place according to material laws. But "on guard " expresses purpose, and matter has no purposes to serve. Blind matter obeying mechanical laws is the only causal agency in the universe. " The sentinel on guard," then, means for automatism nothing more than that the aggregate of material atoms which constitute the sentinel has, in obedience to certain mechanical laws, undergone such changes as to result in the body's taking a position in a certain place and in an erect form. That the body holds a gun in its hands, that the gun will be used against all enemies, are inexplicable facts, according to automatism. To say that they are due to purpose would be to ignore all the achievements of science from Empedocles to Herbert Spencer, and naively to suppose with the old Greek philosopher that the reason why a leaf falls to the ground is because of its desire to rest on the bosom of the earth.

The phrase "fighting the drowsiness" is just as contradictory from the standpoint of automatism. To the sentinel who foolishly supposes that he is something more than a group of material atoms the phrase has a meaning. To him it signifies a struggle between himself and purely material conditions. " Drowsiness " he regards as the effect of his bodily state, and "fighting" as the effort which he, the conscious being, makes to overcome it. But, according to automatism, "fighting" and "drowsiness" represent nothing but material changes taking place in material things. We are again confronted with the same dilemma : the necessity of imputing purpose to that which, according to the theory, cannot entertain it, or of admitting that the facts, or what seem to be the facts, of ordinary life are incapable of being stated in terms of the theory.

Obviously every statement in the sentence is condemned to the same fate. " Every muscle becomes tense through attention " has a meaning only on the supposition that the mind has an influence on the body. Accepting automatism, we must describe the fact set forth in the sentence as follows : In the functioning of that purely physical machine which constitutes the sentinel an exceedingly complex group of changes in that part of the machine called the brain has led to equally complex changes in the nerves controlling the action of the muscles of the various parts of the machine, with the result that it takes an erect position in a certain place. This machine is subject to two highly complex groups of internal influences : a part of the atoms of its brain is undergoing changes which tend to produce such an effect on certain nerves and, through them, on certain muscles as will make an erect position of the machine impossible ; another part of the atoms of the brain is undergoing such changes as tend to counteract the changes of the first. The two sets of forces are almost perfectly balanced until somehow those brain changes stimulate the nerves controlling the tongue in such a way as to cause it to utter the word "duty," and straightway the nerve changes which stimulate the muscles that keep the body in an erect position become intensified and those having an opposing tendency become weakened. But this "description," it is evident, takes no account of the only characteristic features of the fact. That which sets it off from a mere happening in the external world, like the fall of a leaf from a tree, is the purpose which stupid common sense imputes to the sentinel ; but automatism leaves no place for purpose.

We say the soldier did his duty ; we might with equal reason give the same praise to a tree which falls to the ground just in time to crush the skull of a notorious criminal. As the tree falls because it has to, so the tongue of the soldier wagged because it had to : each obeyed purely physical laws and produced in turn a purely physical result.

According to Automatism, Physical Causes Alone Account

for All We Do Of course, if automatism be true, teacher

as well as pupil, writer as well as reader, are hopelessly entangled in purely physical causation. My pen writes these lines because my hand is compelled by the changes that take place in my brain to trace them, and every word that the teacher utters is due to the same cause. If the physical laws that govern my brain changes will permit me to think logically, I shall be sure, if I am an automatist, that this book, for example, will produce an effect upon its readers, not through their intelligence, but through their nervous systems. And the teachers who are automatists will be equally sure that the feelings which their words bring to the minds of their pupils are significant only in so far as they indicate changes that are taking place in their brains.