The philosophy of education; being the foundation of education in the related natural and mental sciences

Front matter

BEING

THE FOUNDATIONS OF EDUCATION IN

THE RELATED NATURAL AND

CHAPTER I Introduction: The Field of Education

PAGE

1. The Agencies of Civilization i

2. The Mottoes of Growth 4

3. Broad and Narrow Conceptions of Education ... 5

4. Points of View in the Study of Education .... 7

(i) The History of Education 7

(2) The Science of Education ...... 8

(3) The Practice of Education il

5. Field of this Inquiry 13

6. Division of the Field . . . . . . . .14

Chapter II

1. The Biological Facts significant for Education . . . 19

2. The Increasing Size of the Mammalian Cerebrum ... 19

(1) Its Significance 20

(2) The Advantage of Educability over Instinct . . 24

(3) The Mental Basis of Natural Selection ... 27

(4) Biology and Education 28

(5) Nature and Nurture 29

3. The Prolonged Period of Human Infancy .... 30

(i) Its Final Cause 31

(2) Its Significance 32

4. The Brain as the Organ of the Mind 34

(1) History 34

(2) Proof 35

(3) Significance .36

(4) What can Education do for the Brain ? ... 41

xiii xiv Contents

PAGE

5. Is Automatism the End of Education ? 48

6. First Definition of Education 52

7. Educational Consequences of the Biological Point of View . 53

CHAPTER III The Physiological Aspect of Education

1. The Place of the Body in Education 57

2. The Questions that concern Physical Education • . • 59

3. The Influence of the Body on the Mind .... 59

(i) How effected 59

(2) The Physiology of Habit 62

(3) Psychosis and Neurosis 63

(4) The Degree of Mental Efficiency .... 64

(5) The Influence of Mind on Body 67

4. The Attention the Body should receive 67

(i) Mental Work 68

(2) Brain Rest 68

(3) Respect for the Limits of Brain Capacity ... 69

(4) Study of the Physical Child 71

5. The Attention the Body is receiving 72

(1) Manual Training ........ 73

(3) Gymnastics 81

(4) Athletics 83

6. The History of Physical Education 91

7. Second Definition of Education 95

Chapter IV

1. The Nature of the Pupil's Environment .

2. The Method of his Adjustment thereto .

3. Education and Sociology

4. The Questions of the Sociological Discussion

5. The Elements of the Spiritual Environment

6. The Nature of the Intellectual Environment

(i) What is Matter? .... (2) What is Mind? ....

99 100

lOI lOI

103 103 105

Contents

XV

(3) The Classification of the Sciences

(4) The Relation of Science and Art

(5) The Educational Value of Science

7. The Nature of the Emotional Environment

(i) The Nature of Beauty

(2) The List of the Arts .

(3) The Nature of Religion

(4) The Educational Value of Art .

8. The Nature of the Volitional Environment

(i) The List of the Volitions .

(2) The Nature of History

(3) Is History a Science?

CHAPTER V The Sociological Aspect of Education {concluded')

(4) The Nature of Constitutions 138

(5) The Nature of Law . ... . , . 139

(6) The Nature of Morality 140

(7) The Educational Value of the Volitions , . . 142 9. Education as Participation in Racial Experience . . . 145

10. Third Definition of Education 150

11. The Social Effects of Education 150

(i) The Conservation of the Past 15 1

(2) The Preservation of the Present .... 152

{a) The Attitude of Founders of Society . '153

{F) Education and Crime 154

(f) Social Demand and Educational Supply . .158

(3) The Progress of the Future 160

12. Educational Consequences from the Sociological Point of

View 164

Chapter VI

1. Education Psychologically considered .

2. The Questions of the Psychological Discussion

3. The Notion of Self-activity

169 170 170

XVI

Contents

4. The Insufficiency of Rational Psychology

5. Educational Services of the Newer Psychology

6. Internal Ways of Mental Development

7. Three Additional Ways of Mental Development

(i) Imitation

{a) The Nature of Imitation .

Id) The Effects of Imitation .

(c) The Educational Uses of Imitation (2) Interest

(a) The Nature of Interest .

((5) The Importance of Interest

(0 Effort

The Art of securing Interest .

Herbart's Doctrine of Interest and Will

The Nature of Effort

The Importance of Effort (<:) The Place of Effort in Education (d) The Mutuahty of Effort and Interest

173 174

175 175 176 177

CHAPTER VII The Psychological Aspect of Education (concluded)

8. The Notion of Self-development 207

(i) The Presupposition of Time ..... 207

(2) The Potential and the Actual . . . . . 208

(3) The Stages of Mental Growth 209

(^a) Childhood 209

(d) Youth 215

(c) Manhood 218

9. Some Things Education is not 220

ID. The Use of the Stages of Mental Growth in Educating . 222

11. The Qualities of an Educated Mind 226

12. The Psychological Ideal of Education 240

13. The Nature of Culture 242

14. A Liberal Education 244

15. Fourth Definition of Education 251

16. Other Definitions of Education 251

Contents xvii

CHAPTER VIII The Philosophical Aspeci of Education PAGE

1. The Method of Philosophy 257

2. The Question of the Philosophy of Education . . . 258

3. Two Preliminary Generalizations 259

4. The Implications of Education 263

(i) The Origin of Man 263

(2) The Nature of Man 273

(3) The Destiny of Man 280

5. Fifth Definition of Education 285

Chapter I Introduction : The Field Of Education

There are five great agencies of civilization which i. The Agen-"^ conserve the past, preserve the present, and make zatLn^^^^^" possible a progressive future. These agencies are the home, the school, the vocation, the state, and the ' church. The home is the basic unit of civilization, in which appear in latent form all the powers that later life is to realize. 'The school was first in the home, and by growth became a separate institution as an extension of the home. The teacher is still said to stand in loco parentis. The vocation is made possible through the enlargement of personal power that takes place in the home and the school. The plying of one's vocation safely and justly necessitates the state. And underneath this whole procession of institutions, giving immortal significance to each and all, is the church. Thus the agencies of civilization are organically related.

Each of these agencies, too, discovers the social nature of man, revealing him as they do in a series of widening relationships with other beings. In the home the child stands in relation to father, mother, brothers, and sisters. In the school the youth stands in relation to teachers and fellow-pupils. In his vocation man stands in relation to fellow-laborers. In the state man stands in relation to his fellow-citizens under the law. And in the church man stands in relation to the ideal Person, to God, — the widest relationship possible to man.

Each of these institutions of society is based upon an underlying idea which explains their service to civilization, and which justifies their existence. In the home it is the idea of obedience which is fundamental, and which becomes the habit of the child's life. This habit of the ready surrender of self to the standards of a righteous and loving authority is permanently desirable in a solid social fabric. To obey is better than sacrifice. This fundamental virtue is the contribution of the home to society and civilization.

The underlying idea of the school, which explains the school and justifies its existence, is development; development of the body as the fit mediurn of expression for the mind, development of the mind as the fit governor of the body and as embodying rational ends in itself. The school does for the child what the aeons of past time have done for the race, — develops its body and mind.

The underlying idea of the business world, in which each man follows his vocation and justifies his existence by the sweat of his brow, is the interdependence of the sons of earth. No civilized man produces all he needs in order to live, nor consumes all of what he himself produces. The members of the business world, as they follow their vocations, daily enter into each other's labors. Each man is both a producer and consumer, producing one thing that is necessary for many lives, and exchanging it for many things necessary for his own life. The world of one's vocation emphasizes the unity, the solidarity, the interdependence, of man and man.

The underlying idea of the state is justice, suum cuique^ to each man his own, the return of the deed on the doer, whether it be protection for his conformity to the law or punishment for his violation of the law. The state is the impartial judge, rewarding every man according to his deed. Justice is the foundation of the structure of human society. The ** Republic " of Plato is the first great discussion, and one of the final great discussions, of the ideal state. Already it was recognized that the theme of justice, which is one of the titles of the dialogue, is in all its ramifications the theme of the state. To the modern Platonist, Hegel, the state is also, in the political organization of society, the final revelation of the eternal Idea. Jt is in the ministrations of the state that man becomes uniquely conscious of that which is just.

And the underlying idea of the church, in which man comes into his widest consciousness through relationship to God, is righteousness, the doing of the will of the supreme Person upon the earth, the transformation of the kingdoms of earth into the kingdom of heaven, the addition of love and mercy to law and justice. The church is the perpetual prophet of the ideal to human society, winning the attention of men away from the things that are to the things that ought to be. In the church society becomes most profoundly conscious of its inherent unrealized powers of righteous attainment, and man of his infinitude.

It is the natural destiny of every man to receive successively these continually widening views of his nature, i Man comes into the fulness of his growth and into the final consciousness of himself through these elements of his social environment. \ Only by subjecting himself to them and learning their lessons and habituating his conduct to their ideas can he rise through them to the full measure of his own self-consciousness. 'The mottoes of spiritual growth are three. In childhood, in the institution of the home, the child must be another, imitate others, obey others. He can become himself only by first subjecting himself, all unconsciously or with effort, to others. In the school, which compasses the adolescent period, the youth must be himself, develop his powers, become all his nature permits, and gain the sense of his individuality and independence as a man. And in the business, state, and church worlds, during the period of manhood, he must find himself in the service of others, must make himself a contributor to the life of society, and must find his self by losing it. .First obey, then become, then contribute — these are the natural stages of self-realization as indicated by the social institutions.

It is a familiar thought to-day that the physical organs of man, to be understood, must be viewed against the background of lower animal life. It is a less familiar thought, but equally true, that the activities of man as expressed in the social agencies of

, civilization must likewise be viewed against this background of lower animal life. The home, the school, the vocation, the state, and the church are due to traits in man which are found also in simpler form in the lower animals. They mate, build homes, teach their young by example, form social communities, have leaders of flocks and herds, and become attached to higher beings who are good to them and upon whom they depend. The unique thing about man is not his uniqueness, but his comprehensiveness. In him the lower animal life finds its fulfilment. Through his highly developed powers of abstraction, imagination, and reason, only intimations of which the lower animals possess, man is enabled to carry on to greater fruition the immanent ends of existence. Through these institutions, taking up and adding to his animal heritage, man grows, and finds himself like a noble oak, which, in subjection to natural law, grows into its own likeness, and then both shelters and delights the sons of men. Only in the man these , stages of growth are conscious as he subjects himself in obedience, as he finds himself in development, and as he gives himself in service.

This review of those natural social influences that 3. Broad and come upon and shape the life of man lead to two ^pt[ons of°' resulting conceptions of education, a broad and a Education, narrow one. Broadly speaking, the whole of life is an education, and life itself, in all its phases, is the great school. Not a situation in life but leaves its influence on the individual. Every agency of civilization is an education. From this point of view education becomes the resultant upon the individual of the sum total of the influences of life. Every human situation is an educational situation, in which we grow from less to more. The significance of past time, so far as organic life is concerned, is found in the present stage of development and attainment of mankind. The meaning of the manifold present will be spelt in that larger future situation to which the present is but the antechamber. The human race itself as a whole is being educated under the tutelage of the Infinite Spirit, both in nature and in man, for a destiny greater, both in time and eternity, than it can imagine. This is the broadest conception it is possible to hold concerning education, in which living is itself learning, and life is itself the school, and the Spirit of the world himself the teacher.

But, narrowly, education is the influence exerted by the school, technically so called, upon the individual. The school is the institution which appoints to itself the task of developing into fulness of self-consciousness and power the members of the race. The other institutions of society educate incidentally in the natural performance of their functions : the school educates with set purpose ; it intends to do what it can to put the plastic element in society, its youth, into full possession of itself and into full consciousness of its social relations and duties. The school, in this sense, embraces the whole educational system as a unit, from kindergarten, through primary and secondary grades, college, university, and professional schools. These all work together as one for the making of a man both powerful and efficient, and the educational house should not be divided against itself.

The study of education may be undertaken from 4- Points of either the broad point of view, as above defined, or study of the narrow. From the former point of view the study Education. of education is the study of civilization in its entirety. With this aspect of the subject the present inquiry will have nothing further to do, confining itself rather to the nature of the education which it is the function of the school to give. But even this field for our present purpose will have to be narrowed further.

There are four points of view from which the study of education, in the narrow sense of the term, may be profitably undertaken. Education has a history, an ideal, a practice, and a philosophy. The educational ideal, as defined by the normative science of education, is an outgrowth of educational history. Educational practice is the attempt to incorporate the educational ideal. And the philosophy of education is the attempt to find the meaning of the whole educational process as it takes shape in history, ideals, and practice. Thus the philosophy of education would give the inclusive truth which the preceding points of view indicate. Let us briefly define each of these four points of view, viz., the history, the science, the practice, and the philosophy of education.

The historical point of view asks the question, (i) The What has education been in the past .^ The answer JJ^^toryof

^ Education.

is given from the standpoint of the history of civilization, education being both an effect and a cause of a nation's manner of life. The answer considers both those educational systems that have controlled a nation's life, being also controlled by it, and those educational reformers, who, like Goldsmith's village preacher —

"... tried each art, reproved each dull delay, Allured to brighter worlds, and led the way."

The historical consideration of education begins with the Orient and treats of the educational systems and ideals of the ancient nations, China, India, Persia, Israel, Phoenicia, and Egypt ; then the classical nations of Greece and Italy ; then the early church and Middle Age education, followed by modern education, since the Renascence ; and finally, the contemporary educational systems of the leading countries of the world. Such an historical study discloses education as a growing body of theory and practice, as a process of evolution in the system of instruction become conscious of itself. The origin and growth of the body under the laws of nature was a process of unconscious evolution ; the development of the body and mind under the nurturing influence of the school is a process of conscious evolution. As a resultant of historic forces the educational ideal is defined.

Second, the scientific point of view in the treatment of education is the attempt to say what education ought to be, to define the educational ideal, to reduce the art of education to a science. In the well-known phrase of Professor Jevons, an art teaches us to do, and a science to know. The teacher, or educator, is doing something; the pupil, as he becomes educated, is doing something. Education is doing; it is an art. But is this art conscious of its basis ?

Are there universally valid principles which underlie this art, as anatomy and physiology underlie the practice of medicine ? The science of education attempts to answer these questions, to discover the theoretic basis upon which the art of education rests.

The questions of the science of education are two, namely, What is the nature of the body and mind to be educated ? And how, in the light of their nature, ought this education to proceed ? The answer to the first question the science of education seeks in the sciences of physiology, psychology, logic, aesthetics, ethics, and sociology. Physiology reveals the nature of the body. Psychology reveals the nature of the mind when analyzed into its elements, and explained through its physiological relations with the body and brain. Logic is the science of the knowing function of the mind, as aesthetics is the science of the feeling function, and ethics is the science of the willing function. Sociology is the science of man in organized groups. These are the sciences that underlie the art of education.

The answer to the second question of the science of education, namely, how, in the light of their nature, ought the body and mind to be educated, is now in process of making. It is the new question in educational history that originated with Herbart. It is the question of method, or the right way of doing a thing. It is being answered in tentative fashion, for the making of a man is no simple matter, by the physical culturists, the applied psychologists, like James and Dewey, the normal schools, the summer schools for teachers, and the pedagogical departments of the lo The Philosophy of Education

colleges and universities, together with the growing and for the most part undigested literature on the methods of teaching.

The question of the right way of teaching needs to be dignified in the sight of our most capable and prominent educators. In his inaugural address in 1869, reviewing the increase in knowledge of the modern centuries, President Eliot was led to say, "The actual problem to be solved is not v/hat to teach, but how to teach." Likewise there is no fallacy of argumentum ad verecundiam in quoting from Talleyrand, ^^ Les methodes sont les maitres des maitres'^ The study of method in teaching is but the study of the best way of doing what must be done in some way. And Dr. Arnold of Rugby has well reminded us, " It is clear that in whatever it is our duty to act, those matters also it is our duty to study." The use of method in teaching is seeing that the subject-matter taught is realized in the experience of the pupil. Without this result, teaching and learning are mechanical ; with it, they are vital. But those who set about determining the method of education to-day must look, not as they are tempted, to psychology alone, but to that group of related sciences defined above, one of which is psychology, and which together define the physical, mental, and social nature of the being to be educated. Education is primarily an art ; it can become a science only as it grounds itself upon universal principles, applicable to all individuals alike, deduced from the sciences of man, the educable being.

In the third place, education in the narrow sense of the term may be studied from the practical point (3) The of view, viz., from that point of view which considers Education the practice of education, the execution of the ideal of education, as defined by history and science, through the agencies of school boards, superintendents, parents, teachers, and pupils, working together with books and apparatus in buildings and fields. This point of view has to do with the mechanical and the vital environment of the educational process, with the conditions in relation to which education becomes an accomplished fact. The problems of the practical point of view are three, viz., (i) how to organize a school or school system ; (2) how to manage, in which the question of discipline is uppermost ; and (3) how to supervise. Under the practice of education are involved all questions of school hygiene, incentives, work, play, offence, discipline, punishment, and the improvement of teachers. In no particular has American education been weaker than in these practical matters, and no educational sign to-day carries more hope with it than the widely growing recognition of their importance.

Finally, in the fourth place, after the history, the (4) The science, and the practice of education, one raises the of^Education fundamental inquiry as to the meaning of the whole educational process. Does this education, which occupies so large a proportion of the human history that is worth remembering and repeating, whose ideal it is so difficult to define, whose practice engages the best service of the best minds of civilized society, and consumes annually incredible amounts of public money, — does this education mean anything significant for human happiness, progress, and destiny ? What ? Does education imply anything as to the final truth of man and his world ? In brief, what is the meaning of education ? That is the question which it is the function of the philosophy of education to answer. That answer must give unity to the truths of the preceding points of view. It must locate education in the economy of our universe. The masterpiece in the literature of this aspect of the subject of education has been, since its publication in 1848, Rosenkranz' '' Philosophy of Education," written in the spirit of Hegel. The problems of the philosophy of education are divided by Rosenkranz into three, viz., (i) Education in its General Idea;

(2) Education in its Special Elements, including physical, intellectual, and volitional training ; and

(3) Education in its Particular Systems, being an historical review, from the standpoint of Hegel's "Phenomenology of Spirit," of the world's systems of education.

The volume of Herbert Spencer on " Education," published in America in 1861, has been one of the most widely read and influential of the books on education of the last half-century. He raises the question, " What knowledge is of most worth } " and discusses the nature of intellectual, moral, and physical education.

These two discussions of Rosenkranz and Spencer, as do almost all of the theoretical treatises on the nature of education, omit entirely the consideration of the nature of aesthetic education. The education of the emotions, ending in the appreciative sense of the beautiful, is an unwritten chapter in educational theory. The explanation of this omission is doubtless the late recognition, beginning with Rousseau, accorded the feelings as real elements of psychic life. But there is no excuse for this omission from the point of view, either of the importance of the emotions in life, or of their fundamental place in the structure of body and mind of the individual. A new philosophy of education must supply this lack.

Such are the four points of view in their mutual 5. Field of interdependence that may be utilized in the study This inquiry. of the education of the school. Now, what are the self-imposed limits of the present task } Passing by the history, the science, and the practice of education, our sole present inquiry concerns the answer to the last-named question, viz.. What is education.? What, from a fundamental point of view, is the nature and meaning of education .? What is the philosophy of education ? In the answer to this question, if true, the history, the science, and the practice of education will find satisfaction.

In any inquiry which attempts to be ultimate, to go to the bottom of a matter, which is the essential characteristic of philosophic thinking, two questions must be asked and answered. The first is, What are the facts in the case under consideration ? The second is. What is their meaning .? Both the dream and the interpretation thereof is expected in a philosophic investigation. The present inquiry, in so far as it concerns itself with the facts of education, will take us far afield into the related natural, social, and mental sciences, will occupy most of our attention, and of the Field.

will furnish us with the data for the final answer to our question, What is education ? This part of the inquiry may be called empirically philosophical, and comprises the following six chapters of the book. For the second question, What is the ultimate meaning of the educational process ? the only method of answer is that of following out into some final form the suggestions, the intimations, the implications, of our present collected, though fragmentary, group of educational facts. This method may be called the purely philosophic, and the answer that it affords to our question is attempted in the last chapter of the book. 6. Division It must always be remembered that the term educatio7i is abstract, that education itself does not exist except as a concept of the mind, that the concrete existent thing is always some being or beings educated or to be educated. The educable being, the individual child, — he is the concrete thing with which our discussion has to do. The nature of man, as the subject for education, determines the nature of education, and suggests the lines of inquiry in our chosen field. When we ask concerning the nature of man, the being to be educated, we are confronted by an old and new view. Man, in his isolation and remoteness from the world of nature and animals, has been sufficiently emphasized in the generations hitherto. It is the growing habit of our own generation to consider man in his integrity with the remainder of creation. The conception of the unity of the world of creatures has been brought into clear consciousness through the method and the doctrine of evolution. This point of view characterizes the thinking of the latter half of the nineteenth century. It has been widely applied to various data of thought, as religion and theology, society, philosophy, and history, outside of its chosen domain of natural science, and with uniformly suggestive results. It remains, among other possible applications, to apply the conception of evolution to the theory of the nature of education. The following inquiry has attempted to throw what light evolution can give upon the subject of education.

Adopting the new view that considers man in the perspective of his historic background, in his integrity with the remainder of creation, we may note four common possessions that he shares with the lower animal world ; viz., he possesses life, his life takes shape in a physical form, he goes in groups with his fellows, and he has intelhgence. Life is the great fundamental fact ; with this we start. And life is always embodied in some form as its vehicle, hence the body as the bearer of life. And this life in physical form finds its completion only- in other life similarly embodied ; hence the groupings of lives. And life in the body in companionship with other life needs conscious direction, and this is the function of intelligence.

These common characteristics as shared by man differ prodigiously from themselves as shared by the lower animals, but not absolutely. Each of these characteristics is a field for special scientific research, and concerning each of them a body of knowledge has grown up using comparative methods of study. The knowledge of life is called biology, of the body in which life takes form is physiology, of the groupings of life is sociology, of the intelligence that directs life is psychology, and of the meaning of life is philosophy.

Here, then, we have the outline of our inquiry. The nature of education, which is our quest, depends upon the nature of the man to be educated. What, then, have the essential sciences of man to say concerning our question, What is education } Biology, as the science of life in organic forms, ought to furnish a primary and elemental conception of education, whose function, as Spencer defines it, is to fit for complete living. Physiology, as the science of the function of the organs of the body, ought to be able to add conceptions of the first importance concerning the education of the body, without which any succeeding education is baseless. Sociology, as the science of society, of men in organized masses, ought to enlarge still further our conception of that education which socializes the individual and makes of him a desirable member of human society. Psychology, as the science that describes and explains mental phenomena, that analyzes and gives causes for mental states, ought to show the effect upon the mind of that education which aims to develop the power of mind and train to efficiency its natural capacities. And finally, philosophy, as the science that attempts to unify experience into some systematic and selfexplaining whole, ought to be able to indicate whether education is a superficial excrescence on human life, or whether it is fundamental in the structure of things and possessive of deep-lying impUcations concerning that which is invisible and eternal. The answer to our single inquiry gives us, then, the pain of seeking it through the finite facts of our human experience, and finally into the transcendent world which our present fragmentary experience suggests but does not yet compass. In consequence, let us consider —