A history of education, by F. V. N. Painter

Front matter

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Author's Preface

It was in tlie library of the University of Bonn, nearly four years ago, as I sat before an alcove of educational works and leisurely examined the admirable histories by Ramner and Karl Schmidt, that the thought and purpose of preparing this work were first conceived. In view of the poverty of our literature in educational history, it seemed to me that such a work, by exhibiting the pedagogical principles, labors, and progress of the past, might be helpful to teachers in America.

The histoiy of education, viewed from the standpoint of the philosophy of history, has been traced in its relations with the social, political, and religious conditions of each country. While the results of French and German scholarship in this field have been utilized, the original sources of information whenever accessible have been consulted. As far as was consistent with the limits of this volume, the great teachers of all ages have xiv AUTHOR'S PREFACE.

been allowed to speak for themselves — a method that appeared more satisfactory than to paraphrase or epitomize their views.

Avoiding such matters of detail as serve only to confuse and oppress the memory, I have endeavored to present clearly the leading characteristics of each period, and the labors and distinctive principles of prominent educators. Considerable prominence has been given to Comenius, Pestalozzi, Froebel, and other educational reformers, who laid the foundations of the scientific methods now coming into general use. In support or illustration of various statements, recognized authorities have been permitted to speak freely.

In preparing this history my position has been, as I believe, that of conservative progress. While what is valuable in educational theory and practice is to be retained, and novelties are to be subjected to rigid scrutiny, it does not seem wise, in view of the fact that the science of education is yet incomplete, to reject summarily all changes and reforms as unnecessary and hurtful innovations. In the sphere of higher education I have not alhed myself to either the humanists or the realists, believing that the truth lies between these two extremes. In every department of education I have been able to discover progress, and it is my confident hope that the agitations of the present will issue in a system more nearly perfect than any yet devised.

I have frequently consulted Paroz's " Histoire

AUTHOR'S PREFACE. XV

JJniverselle de la Pedagogie^'' Dittes's " Geschickte der Erziehimg,'' and Raumer's " Geschickte der Pddagogik " / but my greatest obligation is due to Karl Schmidt's " Geschickte der Pddagogih^'' wliich is probably the ablest work that has yet been written on educational history. From these works, as well as from other French and German authors, a number of valuable passages have been translated. To President Julius D. Dreher, of Roanoke College, who read this work, both in manuscript and in proof, special acknowledgments are due for valuable suggestions.

Salem, Viuginia, Ajiril 12, 1886,

CO]^TENTS.

PAOE

Introduction 1

I. — The Oriental Nations 9

1. China 9

— ^. The People of Israel 26

II. — The Ancient Classical Nations 37 a. Sparta 40

b. Pythagoras 45

c. Athens 49

d. Socrates . .56

e. Plato 60

/. Aristotle 62

2. Rome 65

a. Cicero 71

b. Seneca 74

c. Quintilian 76

III. — Christian Education before the Reformation . . 80

1. The Relation of Christianity to Education . . 80

2. The Pounder of Christianity 82

3. Brief Survey of the Period 86

4. Education in the Early Church 88

a. Catechetical Schools 91

XVlll

Contents

Education during the Middle Ages a. Monastic Schools .

Cathedral and Parocliial Schools

Charlemagne ....

Introduction

The principles whicli sbonld control edncational methods are to be sought in human nature. This truth, which long remained unnoticed or inoperative, has been emphasized by the educational reformers of modern times. "Everything should be done in the order of natm'e " is one of the maxims of Comenius. Pestalozzi has beautifully said : " Sound education stands before me symbolized by a tree planted near fertilizing waters. A little seed, which contains the design of the tree, its form and proportions, is placed in the soil. See how it germinates and expands into trunk, branches, leaves, flowers, and fruit ! The whole tree is an uninterrupted chain of organic parts, the plan of which existed in its seed and root. Man is similar to the tree. In the new-born child are hidden those faculties which are to unfold during life. The individual and separate organs of his being form themselves gradually into an harmonic whole, and build up humanity in the image of God."

The various faculties or capacities which await development in the child are classed as physical, mental, and moral. To meet the ends of life, the body must 1

2 HISTORY OP EDUCATION.

grow, the mind be developed, and tlie moral nature trained. These powers, though at first existing in a germinal condition, contain within themselves large possibilities and a strong impulse toward development. The helpless infant may become a Newton. The genninal powers start spontaneously into activity ; the limbs become restlessly active, the senses open to objects of the external world, and cognition has its beginning. This growth or development, which gradually transforms childhood into youth, and youth into manhood, goes on according to definite laws, and may be sadly thwarted by neglect, or greatly promoted by judicious care.

During a considerable period of his early life man is helpless and ignorant ; he is without the strength and knowledge necessary to maintain an independent existence. It is this fact that renders education a necessity. The processes of physical and mental growth must be assisted and directed during the formative periods of childhood and youth. This is the function of education. Without its fostering care, no generation can be adequately fitted for the duties of life and the achievement of a worthy destiny.

The end of education is complete human development. This is attained by leading the several parts of man's nature to a harmonious realization of their highest possibilities. The finished result is a noble manhood, whose highest exemplification, the ideal of all culture, is Christ. The elements of this manhood are a healthy body, a clear and well-informed intellect, sensibilities quickly susceptible to every right feeling, and a steady will whose volitions are determined by reason and an enlightened conscience.

INTRODUCTION. 3

In support of this conception of education, Prof. Huxley has strikingly said : " That man, I think, has had a liberal education who has been so trained in his youth that his body is the ready servant of his will, and does with ease and pleasiu'e all the work that, as a mechanism, it is capable of ; whose intellect is a clear, cold logic-engine, with all its parts of equal strength, and in smooth working order ; ready, like a steam-engine, to be turned to any kind of work, and spin the gossamers as well as forge the anchors of the mind ; whose mind is stored with a knowledge of the great and fundamental truths of Nature, and of the laws of her operations ; one who, no stunted ascetic, is full of life and fire, but whose passions are trained to come to heel by a vigorous will, the servant of a tender conscience ; who has learned to love all beauty, whether of natm'e or art, to hate all vileness, and to respect others as himseK."

Thus, in its essential nature, education aims at developing a noble type of manhood ; but it has also an external relation. Man has various labors and duties to perform in the world, which require special training, and a wide range of knowledge. Childhood and youth are the periods of preparation. Hence, it is clear that education, both in its subjects and methods of instruction, should have some reference to the demands of practical life. Human development should be combined with practical wisdom ; the school should be the natural introduction into active life. This is the view of Milton, who has said, "I call a complete and generous education that which fits a man to perform justly, skillfully, and magnanimously all the oflSces, both private

4 HISTORY OF EDUCATION.

and public, of peace and war." Herbert Spencer also has presented the same view very forcibly. " How to live," lie says, " that is the essential question for us. !Not how to live in the mere material sense only, but in the widest sense. The general problem which comprehends every special problem is the right ruling of conduct in all directions under all circumstances. In what way to treat the body ; in what way to treat the mind ; in what way to manage our affairs ; in what way to bring up a family ; in what way to behave as a citizen ; in what way to utilize all those sources of happiness which Nature supplies ; how to use all our faculties to the greatest advantage of ourselves and others ; how to live completely. And this being the great thing needful for us to learn, is, by consequence, the great thing which education has to teach. To prepare us for complete living is the function which education has to discharge ; and the only rational mode of judging of any educational course is to judge in what degree it discharges such function."

There are two elements, logically distinguishable but practically inseparable, entering into education. These are development and the acquisition of knowledge. "Without development, the individual lacks strength to grapple with the problems of life ; and without knowledge, he remains a cipher in society. The great law underlying physical and mental development is self-activity. Every truly educated man is seK-made. The various functions of the mind, whether perceiving, feeling, judging, or willing, must for a long period be called into frequent exercise in connection with objects, facts, relations, and truths, in order to become active, obe-

INTRODTJCTION. 5

dient, and strong. The basis of tliis activity is Imowledge, which is as necessary for the development of the mind as food is for the growth of the body. " As food is indispensable to physical growth," says Johonnot, " so without knowledge the mind can not grow. While the mind, from the first, possesses all the germs of mental power, it is the appropriation of knowledge alone that converts its latent and apparently passive capacities into active capabilities.'" Education is not creative ; it can not give what Nature has withheld. It is limited by the pupil's individuahty, which it can ennoble, but not radically change.

In some form or other, education is as old as our race. According to Holy Writ, the first himian pair were the subjects of divine tuition. Among all peoples, barbarous as well as civilized, each generation has received a special training for its subsequent career. Where the form of civilization has been low, education has been narrow and defective. Uncivilized communities do scarcely more than strengthen the body and cultivate the senses. Among no two nations of antiquity have the theory and practice of education been the same. It has varied with the different social, political, and religious conditions of the people and the physical characteristics of the country. But, however varied or imperfect its form, education has existed among all nations.

It is a profound thought of German philosophy that God is leading the world, through a gradual though not uninterrupted development, to greater intelligence, freedom, and goodness. Like the individual, our race as a whole has to pass through the successive periods of childhood, youth, and maturity. Each succeeding pe-

6 EISTORY OF EDUCATION.

riod inherits tlie accumulated wisdom of the preceding one, and adds new treasures of its own. After the lapse of many ages of striving and conflict, mankind has reached a stage of development among enlightened nations that seems to accord with the estate of manhood. Intelligence, freedom, morality, and religion, though far from being universal, prevail to a degree unprecedented in the past. Human progress is an evident fact.

With improvement in other human interests, there has been unmistakable progress in education. Indeed, the ancient world, as we shall soon see, never succeeded in producing a correct and complete theory of education. If a great thinker now and then approximated the truth, his voice was lost upon the heedless multitude. The practice could hardly be better than the theory. Hence we shall find that education was always defective, usually laying stress upon some particular phase of human culture, to the neglect of others. Sometimes the physical was emphasized, sometimes the intellectual, sometimes the moral, sometimes the religious ; but never all together in perfect symmetry. It has been reserved for the nineteenth century, so distinguished for its many-sided advancement, to realize an education which leaves no part of man's nature neglected.

"We are now prepared to understand the nature of the history of education. It is an exhibition of what has been thought and done in all ages and countries in reference to training the young. It sets forth the principles and methods which have prevailed at various periods and in different lands. It gives an account of the prominent educators whose theories and methods have exerted a noteworthy influence upon educational

INTRODUCTION. 7

development. It includes an inquiry into tlie social, religious, and political conditions whicli have determined the peculiar form of education, and traces the line of educational progress from its humble beginnings down to the precious heritage of the present.

The history of education is a valuable study. Education stands in close relation to the civilization of a people. It is, at the same time, both a cause and an effect. Educational history, in setting forth the influences determining the peculiar character of education in any country, becomes to some extent a philosophy of history in general. As such it is a profound study. " The education of a people," says Dr. Henry Barnard, "bears a constant and most pre-eminently influential relation to its attainments and excellences — physical, mental, and moral. The national education is at once a cause and an effect of the national character ; and accordingly, the history of education affords the only ready and perfect key to the history of the human race, and of each nation in it — an unfailing standard for estimating its advance or retreat upon the line of human progress."

To speak more specifically, the study of educational history, by bringing the whole field within the range of our vision, broadens our views in regard to education. By acquainting us with the views and methods of the past, it spares us the cost of repeating experiments and mistakes. It gives the origin of present educational systems, and shows what is correct in principle and valuable in method. It inspires educational workers with greater zeal by presenting the examples of self-sacrificing and illustrious teachers. And it is a necessary study in

8 HISTORY OF EDUCATION.

order to complete the compreliensive scheme included in what is properly called the science of education.

Asia is the birtliplace of the human race. The march of progress, following the course of the sun, has been westward through Europe to America, which completes the circle of the globe. Here the great problems of religion, science, government, and education will probably receive their final solution. Following the course of human progress, the history of education natm-ally divides itself as follows :

I. The Oriental countries, including China, India, Persia, Palestine, and Egypt.

II. The ancient classical nations, Greece and Pome.

III. The Christian education of Europe and America, which is divided into — 1. The period before the Reformation ; and, 2. The period after the Peformation.

In this classification no account is taken of uncivilized peoples, since education with them consists almost exclusively in training the body for war and the chase. Their education is thus too primitive in its character to bring it within the scope of om* present undertaking.

I. The Oriental Nations

A STEiKiNG fact, wliicli throws great light upon Eastern education, is to be noted in reference to Oriental life. The individual there counts for nothing. A despotic external authority controls his destiny. Education does not aim to develop a perfect man or woman, but to prepare its subjects for their place in the estab- Hshed order of things. It does not aim to beautify the stone, but simply to fit it for its place in the wall. The source of this all-controlling authority varies in the different countries. In China it is fossiKzed tradition ; in India, caste ; in Persia, the state ; among the Jews, the theocracy. In all the Oriental countries, this external authority determines the character of education ; and, if this idea is firmly grasped, it will facilitate a thorough understanding of the educational systems of the East.

1. China.

The Chinese Empire — that magnificent country which comprises a f om-th part of the population of the globe — first claims our attention. Its people belong to the Mongohan race, whose genius is shown by the early invention of paper, printing, gunpowder, and the mariner's compass. Their character presents many points of interest. They are industrious and economical ; and in the relations of everj-daj life they are polite and kind. They honor their parents, love their children, and re~ spect those in authority. Possessed of great patience, they endure oppression and suffering without a murmur. On the other hand, they are destitute of deep moral convictions. They are hypocritical and dishonest ; and, once in authority, they are apt to become tyrannical, and even cruel. Their wives are held in contempt- Destitute of hope beyond the grave, and incapable of spiritual delights, their aspii'ations are confined to earthly objects. They are gross in their pleasures ; and to acquire wealth, live in ease, and fill some public ofiice, are the highest aims of their ambition.

Though one of the oldest nations in the world, the Chinese have for many ages made but little progress in civilization. They are very much the same to-day that they were more than two thousand years ago. The collective life of the people has become petrified in fixed forms. Their customs, the relations of the various classes of society, the methods of business and labor, the administration of justice, and the whole circle of thought, have all been stereotyped. They are practically unchangeable.

Notwithstanding its evident imperfections, the Chinese regard their civilization with great complacency. They are the " celestials," and the rest of mankind are barbarians. The preservation of existing institutions is an object of constant care. All deviation from traditional customs is looked upon with disfavor, improvements are hardly tolerated, and the introduction of foreign culture is generally stigmatized as barbarous. With

CHINA. 11

such a national feeling, education can have but one end. Its object is to impress upon each generation traditional ideas and customs, and thus prepare it to take its place naturally in the established order of society. It does not aim at a development of the human faculties — it is simply a cramming of the memory.

To education in this defective form there is great stimulus in China. " The importance of generally instructing the people," says Williams, "was acknowledged even before the time of Confucius, and practiced to a good degree at an age when other nations in the world had no such system ; and although in his day feudal institutions prevailed, and offices and rank were not attainable in the same manner as at present, yet magistrates and noblemen deemed it necessary to be well acquainted with their ancient writings. In the ' Book of Kites ' it is said ' that, for the purposes of education among the ancients, villages had their schools, districts their academies, departments their colleges, and principalities their universities.' This, so far as we know, was altogether superior to what obtained among the Jews, Persians, and Syrians of the same period." Education is forcibly and frequently inculcated in the classical Chinese Hterature, which is held in high esteem. The patronage of the wealthy makes education respectable and popular. Besides, education opens the only road to political preferment. All the officers of the Imperial Government are chosen from among those who have completed a long course of study and passed through the ordeal of several laborious and rigid examinations. Every community supports one or more primary schools, while the larger towns and cities have academies and colleges. The teachers are generally competent, being prepared for their work by a long course of study. The schools are conducted in rooms destitute of comfort, and without furniture, except the chair and table of the teacher, and the desks and seats furnished by the pupils themselves.

Children are placed under the care of a teacher at the age of six or seven years. The first years of their instruction are devoted to reading and writing ; and, as these are very difficult to learn, on account of the signcharacter of the Chinese language, the great majority never reach any higher attainments. The teaching is wholly by rote : the pupils repeat after the teacher the names of the characters in the book given them to study. After they have learned to pronounce the characters fluently they are taught the meaning, and the moral lessons of the book are impressed upon them. An extract is given from the book first placed in the hands of pupils at school :

Men, at their birth, are by nature radically good.

In this, all approximate, but in practice widely diverge.

If not educated, the natural character is changed.

A course of education is made valuable by close attention.

To bring up and not educate is a fathei*'s error.

To educate without rigor shows a teacher's indolence.

That boys should not learn is an improper tiling.

For if they do not learn in youth, what will they do when old ?

Gems unwrought can form nothing useful.

So men untaught can never know the proprieties.

CHINA. 13

The discipline is severe. The teacher keeps his rattan or bamboo hanging in a conspicuous place, and he uses scolding, castigation, starving, and imprisonment, to stir up the diligence of his pupils in their necessarily distasteful tasks.

Those in pursuit of a higher education place themselves under the care of a competent teacher, from whom they receive instruction in the Chinese classics and in the art of composition. After many years of severe toil, and running the gantlet of repeated examinations in which his competitors are numbered by thousands, the successful scholar becomes a member of the Imperial Academy — a position that brings him high honors and also a generous support from the royal treasury. Henceforth he is a member of the Imperial Government.

It is proper to say a word here in reference to the Chinese classics, which form the basis of education, to the exclusion of aU those studies — geography, history, mathematics, science, and language — which are deemed in the Western world so indispensable to a liberal culture. These classics in their present form are the work of Confucius, the most distinguished of Chinese philosophers and teachers, who lived in the fifth century before Christ. They are in part compilations made by him from older works and in part his own composition. They treat chiefly of the duties of social and pohtical life, though they are also in some measure historical. " I teach you nothing," says Confucius, " but what you might learn yourselves — viz., the observance of the fundamental laws of relation between sovereign and subject, father and child, and husband and wife, and the five cardinal virtues, universal cliarity, impartial justice, conformity to established ceremonies and usages, rectitude of heart and mind, and pure sincerity." He thus speaks of filial duty in particular: "There are three thousand crimes to which one or another of the five kinds of punishment is attached as a penalty, and of these no one is greater than disobedience to parents. When ministers exercise control over the monarch, then there is no supremacy ; when the maxims of the sages are set aside, then the law is abrogated ; and so those who disregard fihal duty are as though they had no parents. These three evils prepare the way for universal rebellion." The teaching of Confucius was a system of natural morality, from which the ideas of a personal God and future life were excluded. While it has sapped the foundations of all rehgion, it has fostered a painstaking attention to outward ceremony.

To sum up the results of this inquiry, the whole system of Chinese education confines the mind within a narrow circle of ideas, perpetuates the fixed customs of the people, encourages outward morality and ceremony, and renders progress well-nigh impossible. In the language of an able author already quoted : " OAving to this undue attention to the classics, the minds of scholars are not symmetrically trained, and they disparage other branches of literature which do not directly advance this great end. Every department of letters, except jurisprudence, history, and official statistics, is disesteemed in comparison ; and the literary graduate of fourscore will be found deficient in most branches of general learning, ignorant of hundreds of common things and events in his national history, which the merest school-boy in the Western world would be ' ashamed not to know in his. This course of instruction does not form well-balanced minds, but it imbues the future rulers of the land with a full understanding of the principles on which they are to govern, and the policy of the supreme power in using those principles to consolidate its own authority." As adapted to perpetuate an exclusive national existence, the Chinese system may not inappropriately be designated ancestral education.

The consideration of education in India ought to possess the greater interest for us, since the Hindoos are of the same blood as ourselves. As a branch of the great Aryan or Indo-European family of nations, they moved southward from their Central Asiatic home, some two thousand years before Christ, into the vast peninsula which extends from the Himalaya Mountains into the Indian Ocean. There they brought into subjection the swarthier aborigines ; and, under the influence of the favorable soil and climate, they developed into a very numerous people. The wealth of their country has always been a temptation to the avarice of other nations. The inoffensive character of the people has rendered them an easy prey. The Greeks, the Mohammedans, the Portuguese, and the Dutch have successively reached out a covetous hand after the natural and artificial treasures of the country. Last of all, the English, with their insatiable thirst for empire, have brought the whole peninsula under their sway, thereby adding a population of one hundred and ninety millions to the British dominion, and securing for the Queen the additional title of Empress of India, All these foreign influences have wrought changes in the social, political, and religious condition of the people of India ; and, at present, all the ancient usages and laws are in a process of rapid dissolution.

The language of the ancient Hindoos was Sanskrit, which, as nearly related to the Latin, Greek, English, and other Indo-European languages, is of especial interest to the philologist. Though the Sanskrit has given place to dialects, as did the Latin after the fall of the Roman Empire, it is still the learned language of the Brahmans. This language is the repository of a literature of great antiquity and surprising magnitude. The " Yeda," a collection of religious hymns, was compiled more than a thousand years before Christ. The " Mahabharata " is an epic poem, whose length is more than double that of the " Iliad," " iEneid," and " Paradise Lost" combined.

The prevailing religion is Brahmanism. Eor the more intelligent classes, this religion is pantheistic, and closely resembles modern philosophic pantheism in Germany. According to Brahmanism, God is an unconscious but all-pervading spiritual presence which has unfolded from within himself the material and visible universe. As God is thus beheved to be in everything, this religion easily and naturally degenerates among the masses into polytheism, in which the various objects of nature are worshiped as divinities.

The people present strange contradictions of character. They are gentle, docile, polite, industrious, and faithful in service ; at the same time they are deceitful, jealous, ungrateful, avaricious, and full of flattery. Thej are divided into four principal classes or castes : The Brahmans^ or holy teachers ; the Kshatriyas, or soldiers and kings of the nation; the Vaisyas, or farmers and traders ; and the Sudras, or servants of the three other classes. The three higher castes all enjoy peculiar rights and privileges, though the Brahmans possess the greatest influence, and are the repositories of learning for the whole people. Of the relative position of the several castes, Manu, the reputed author of the most celebrated law-book of tlie ancient Hindoos, says : " Whatever exists in the universe is all in effect, though not in form, the wealth of the Brahman ; since the Brahman is entitled to it all by his primogeniture and eminence of birth. . . . The first part of a Brahman's compound name should indicate holiness ; of a Kshatriya's, power ; of a Yaisya's, wealth ; and of a Sudra's, contempt." Of the caste system as a whole, a writer, who had ample opportunities of knowing, has said : " It has made the Hindoos contented with their lot — whether good or bad, high or low — and in doing so has provided a kind of universal happiness, which, if not of the highest kind, was better than none. Even now as it is passing away, and justly so, we have firm faith that the God of all manldnd, who permitted this wondrous institution to grow up and flourish for thousands of years, will overrule it for good."