A manual of pedagogics

Preface

THIS manual contains the substance of the instruction given at the present time in the Michigan State Normal School upon the general application of psychology to the science and art of teaching. As indicated, the instruction is supplemented, as time permits, by reference to various works. Methods of teaching particular branches of study are considered only incidentally, for the purpose of illustrating the application of general laws.

The form of the matter of the book is the result of a gradual growth of many years. Portions of the matter have been rewritten and revised several times, and probably the process of revision would still go on if publication were delayed longer. The work does not assume to be a complete treatise upon Pedagogics, but a contribution to the educational discussion of the day. It is not addressed, on the one hand, to " advanced thinkers," nor, on the other, to those who are looking for " a short cut " into the teacher's position, with no desire to study principles as a basis for correct methods of teaching, and school work generally, but to students of Normal Schools and to others of about the same degree of pedaiv PREFACE.

gogical attainment. It is hoped that the manual mayserve a useful purpose as a text-book in such schools, in colleges, and in teachers' reading circles, and may also be of service to private readers.

It would be worse than folly for the ordinary writer upon Pedagogics to lay claim to much of originality in thought. He will be satisfied if he succeeds in presenting familiar truths in such a way as to render their real signification clearer and their practical applications easier and more obvious. To secure these ends, an effort has been made to avoid the unnecessary use of technical terms, and to state principles and laws in every-day language.

The writer is not consciously a disciple of any particular master, and does not suppose that any one pedagogical school has a monopoly of truth relating to education and teaching. He has, consequently, borrowed freely from all available sources, believing that the old is not worthless simply because it is old, nor the new valuable merely because it is new, but that it is the part of wisdom, in educational as in other affairs, " to prove all things, and hold fast to that which is good," without regard to age or parentage.

Contents

Chapter Page

Introduction vii

I. What Education Is n

Introduction

AS the study of teaching goes on, it becomes increasingly more apparent that a large share of each individual's culture comes to him independently of the schools.

Maturing, and growth, and development, and learning are terms which name natural processes whose direction only is at the call of the teacher, not their genesis or continuance. The unschooled child, whether found upon the streets of civilization, among the wild tribes of barbarism, or bound by the chains of human slavery, is as certainly destined for a course of maturing and functional improvement as he who is reared in an atmosphere of letters, and whose hands are upheld by culture. A cultivation of mind is as surely effected by nature as by man. In the two cases the processes are the same, and favoring conditions are equally appropriated by the mind. Teaching is a process of multiplying these favoring conditions. The teacher can no more think for the child than can the clod or the cloud which commands his attention. The former may converge stimuli, where the latter scatters ; use the means of culture thriftily, where nature is only wasteful, or worse;

vin INTRODUCTION.

but there is every reason for supposing that the mental conditions of learning, and the process itself, are the same in both cases.

If this be true, method — the method of the school — is not something imposed upon the child, but it is something which the child imposes upon the school. What the processes of learning and growth are, fixes the nature of teaching and the function of the school. In the purpose of the school are the rational grounds for whatever administration and equipment the school possesses. The choice of school courses, and apparatus, and texts, and the daily programme, and the form and conduct of the recitation, is not an arbitrary or indifferent matter. These are fixed in the nature of the end to be reached. Were that end perfectly understood by the teacher, no detail of the school would be unimportant. As it is, the theme of this book concerns the presentation of the conditions under which the most effective teaching goes on. That is, the emphasis is not put upon the teaching act, but rather upon the qualities of mind and life which make one or another teaching act to be reasonable.

To retrace the steps in this brief discussion, observe the following points, which are unquestionably in consonance with the text, if not directly extracted from it:

1. Education in the large sense and in the final analysis is the life-process through which the individual is matured.

2. The Science of Education is the body of laws in accordance with which the process of maturing goes on.

INTRODUCTION. ix

3. The Art of Teaching is the intelligent direction of this process.

4. The Science of Teaching is the body of principles in accordance with which the intelligent direction of this process goes on.

It will be obvious to the reader that a comprehensive pedagogical treatise would involve a detailed consideration of these several aspects of the subject. The author's discussion rests a consideration of the question primarily upon point 4. Nevertheless, chapters i.-v., inclusive, comprise a very clear statement of the essential facts relating to points 1 and 2. With evident wisdom, the book shows careful discrimination of these fundamentals from the mere ways of doing class-work. Devices and recipes, on the one hand, are avoided, as being matters of personal concern to the teacher, and, on the other, particular applications to specific subjects, as being foreign to the purpose of the book.

It need scarcely be said, here is a rich field heretofore but little cultivated, and often in a commonplace way. The book betrays an evident familiarity with current and recent, no less than the older, literatures upon the subject that is quite wholesome. The use that has been made of the conclusions of recent studies in physiological and experimental psychology and child mind must prove healthful to the great body of teachers who are doing their work out of reach of the new laboratories, and without personal acquaintance with the growing company of faithful investigators. The Bibliography at the close of chapter xiii. will be sufficient to dix INTRODUCTION.

rect teachers to a course of profitable reading in this line.

It is noted also that the book is adapted for use in whatever systematic and serious study of pedagogical doctrine. Normal Schools, College departments of Pedagogy, private secondary schools, Teachers' clubs where earnest continuous professional readings are undertaken, and Reading Circles conducted upon plans for work should all find this a helpful manual.

The use of the book, it should be said, presupposes a fair knowledge of mind. Chapters iv. and v. are rather pedagogical than psychological. The treatment there, as elsewhere through the book, has the teacher in view, and allows for some insight already into the functions and workings of the mind. Its adaptation to a serious and critical study in schools and colleges is obvious.

The work is commended as a positive and discriminating contribution to the discussion of an important question, — for teachers a vital question.

Chapter I. What Education Is

A FORMAL definition of education is not absolutely essential at the outset of our work. Nevertheless, one who proposes to perform any task, or to prepare himself to do any work, has need to form a clear and definite idea of the nature and extent of the work to be done. Without such a conception he can have no ideal, no distinct aim, no settled purpose. His condition is like that of one who should set out upon a journey with no definite notion of the direction in which he is to travel, or of the place he is to reach, or of the means he is to employ.

Various Definitions. — Before considering the applications of psychology to the practical business of the school-room, it will be worth our while to inquire what education really is, and, consequently, what teaching is. This inquiry is the more necessary from the fact that definitions given by prominent educators are exceedingly diverse, and in not a few cases apparently contradictory. To those not much accustomed to look below the surface of things, this diversity is often perplexing and confusing. They need the help of friendly suggestions to enable them to discover how apparent contradictions may be reconciled, and how unity and consistency may be brought out of diversity.

This to be expected. — A little reflection brings us to see that such variety of definition and description is exactly what might have been anticipated. It is not a matter of wonder or surprise, or, on the whole, even of regret. It is, indeed, of great advantage to the intelligent and sincere seeker after truth.

Illustration. — Different observers, looking at the same natural object from different directions, receive and carry away impressions and mental pictures marvelously unlike. Their descriptions of the object, made with equal faithfulness and honesty, seem to have very little in common. Yet each person has recorded fairly and truthfully what he saw from his point of view. A correct and complete notion of the whole object, as viewed from all directions and upon all sides, can be obtained only by combining these various and varied descriptions into a single one which shall embrace everything of importance in them all. In order to secure unity, consistency, and harmony* in the final description, omissions and modifications will sometimes be necessary in the original accounts, but nothing really essentia] will be omitted.

Upon what the Definition depends. — In like manner, students of education approach the subject from different directions, view it in different aspects, and consider it with reference to different purposes and ends. Each writer describes what he sees, in the direction in which he is looking, and from the position which he occupies. His definition depends upon his point of observation, and upon the particular object which he wishes to accomplish, or the end which he hopes to attain. Of necessity, the view taken by any one individual can be only a partial and incomplete one. Few minds have such breadth and depth, such evenness of balance and impartiality of judgment, as to be able to grasp and to hold firmly and steadily all the truth relating to any important subject, and to arrange this truth into a system in such a way that every part shall appear in its proper position, and with just the prominence to which it is entitled.

This is especially true of the subject of education. The subject presents many and varied aspects. One aspect attracts and charms one class of minds, another aspect equally attracts and charms another class of minds. The philosopher looks at one aspect, the practical man looks at another aspect. The statesman takes one view and has regard to one end ; the teacher of morals and religion takes a different view and has regard to a different end. These aspects are not necessarily contradictory, but each man is naturally disposed to think his own view of more importance than any other, and occasionally some over-zealous partisan insists that his peculiar view is the only rational and reasonable one. A few quotations will show the correctness of these statements, and also the variety of form in which the same ideas may be expressed.

Results of Education upon the Individual. — The first definitions and statements have reference mainly to the results of education upon the individual.

"The purpose of education is to give to the body and to the soul all the beauty and all the perfection of which they are capable." — Plato.

" The end of education is to render the individual as much as possible an instrument of happiness, first to himself, and next to others." — James Mill.

" A liberal education is an education in which the individual is cultivated, not as an instrument towards some ulterior end, but as an end to himself alone ; in other words, an education in which his absolute perfection as a man, and not merely his relative dexterity as a professional man, is the scope immediately in view." — Hamilton.

" Education is the process of making individual men participants in the best attainments of the human mind, namely, in that which is most rational, true, beautiful, and good." — Whewell.

" Education is the harmonious and equable evolution of the human faculties." — Stein.

" It has been fashionable in educational treatises, since the days of Pestalozzi, to define the province of education as ' The full and harmonious development of all our faculties.' This is, however, a survival of Rousseauism, and, like all survivals from that source, is very dangerous. It is of first importance to consider this definition in the light of psychology. It makes no discrimination among the faculties themselves. It ignores the great distinction between our higher and lower faculties, between our faculties that are means to ends above them, and those faculties which are ends in themselves. The definition ignores the distinction between man as an individual and man as a social whole, the state, the civil community, the church, the family. It fancies man the individual to be something complete in himself and without relation to society. Man has two selves : one his natural self as a puny individual, the other his higher self, embodied in institutions. This is the worst defect in the definition, because it leads the thought of the educator away from the essential idea of education, which is this : Education is the preparation of the individual for reciprocal union with society .; the preparation of the individual so that he can help his fellow-men, and in return receive and approp?iate their help. The ' harmony ' definition is abstract ; this definition is concrete. Reciprocal help of social whole and individual, in the first place, implies both special and general education. To help one's fellows one must get skill in some useful occupation. But to be able to receive the help of one's fellow-men implies general education, the capacity to receive and appropriate the help of institutions, — the spiritual help of the race in science, art, literature, and moral and religious ideas, as well as in the matter of creature comfort." — W. T. Harris.

The reply to the criticism of Mr. Harris by the believers in the " harmony theory " will be that " harmonious development" means the development of the powers of the soul in due proportion ; that the higher always and everywhere takes precedence of the lower ; that the lower is to be developed in subordination to the higher. It will also be affirmed that development has regard for the relations of man to society, and fits him " for reciprocal union with society ; " prepares him to help his fellow-men, and to be helped by them in return. The antagonism is in appearance more than in reality.

Means and Agencies of Education. — The following definitions have reference mainly to the agencies, means, and instrumentalities employed in the work of education: —

" Education is the process by which one mind forms another mind, and one heart another heart." — Jules Simon.

" Education, in the widest sense, is a general expression that comprehends all the influences which operate on the human being, stimulating his faculties to action, forming his habits, moulding his character, and making him what he is ; more especially, education is the training carried on consciously and continuously by the educator." — J. Payne.

" Education, in the last analysis, is the influence of one person upon another." — Scudder.

" Education is the culture which each generation purposely gives to those who are to be its successors. In a more limited sense, education is confined to the efforts made of set purpose to train men in a particular way, and more especially to the labors of professional educators or schoolmasters." — J. S. Mill.

Preparation for Life. — Some definitions have in view almost exclusively the preparation which the writers believe education should give for the practical duties of life. The following are of this kind : —

" I call a complete and generous education that which fits a man to perform justly, skilfully, and magnanimously all the offices, both public and private, of peace and war." — Milton.

" One great end of education is to communicate to the pupil that sort of knowledge which is most likely to be useful to him in the sphere of life which Providence has assigned him." — Tate.

" Education, in the most extensive sense of the word, may comprehend every preparation that is made in our youth for the sequel of our lives." — Paley.

" Education is the preparation for complete living." — Spencer.

" The proper education of to-day is a preparation for the duties and responsibilities of life. Our students must, therefore, come out of school with the elements of high character, with a vigorous, healthy body and mind, able to put both hand and brain to work, to enter readily into sympathetic co-opera-

WHA T EDUCA TION IS. I /

tion with the institutions of their country and time. Practical accomplishments are essential to a good education, though they are not the whole of it. While training to the full the faculties of the individual, including his mechanical powers, and fitting him to act his part as a citizen, a home-builder, and a bread-winner, we must not fail to set a high value on the finest products of the human mind, and to give fair introduction to the fields of art and philosophy." — C. M. Woodward.

Plato's Theory. — In the following extract from his Laws, Plato almost appears to have anticipated the Kindergarten and the doctrine of " learning to do by doing."

" According to my view, he who would be good at anything must practise that thing from his youth upwards, both in sport and in earnest, in the particular manner which the work requires. For example, he who is to be a good builder should play at building children's houses ; and he who is to be a good husbandman, at tilling the ground. Those who have charge of the education of children should provide them when young with mimic tools, and they should learn beforehand the knowledge which they will afterwards require for their art. For example, the future carpenter should learn to measure or apply the line in play ; and the future warrior should learn riding, or some other exercise, for amusement ; and the teacher should endeavor to direct the children's inclinations and pleasures, by the help of amusement, to their final aim in life. The soul of the child, in his play, should be trained to that sort of excellence in which, when he grows to manhood, he will have to be perfected."

Sources of a Definition. — Combining, as far as possible, the truths expressed in these various definitions, and considering what the human being is at the beginning of life, what he is at the period of full maturity,' and how he passes from one condition to the other, we may determine, with sufficient definiteness, what education is as a process on the part of the child, what the end to be attained is, what the agencies to be employed are, and what the work of the teacher is.

At the Beginning of Life. — In body the young child is a typical representative of weakness and helplessness. It is utterly unable to provide for any one of its numerous wants. A single instinctive act, absolutely necessary for the support of animal life, is all it has physical power to perform.

In mind the child is as feeble as in body. At first it shows little evidence of intelligence. The senses act very imperfectly. The thinking and reasoning powers hardly give signs of existence. No feelings are manifested higher than those exhibited by the young of the lower animals. The will is powerless to control the movement of a single muscle, or to give direction to the simplest form of mental activity. Language, other than that of inarticulate sounds and cries indicative of physical discomfort, is altogether wanting. Such is the human being at the beginning of life, — a scarcely conscious germ of humanity.

At Maturity. — By and by this weak, helpless, ignorant, half-conscious child appears in the full maturity of perfected manhood or womanhood. In the body, strength, beauty, grace manifest themselves. The mind has become grander and more admirable than the body. Every sense seems animated with a life of its own. The material of knowledge is gathered in through all the gateways of the soul, and transformed into the bread of mental life. The man perceives, remembers, imagines, judges, reasons, with a rapidity quite beyond comprehension. He possesses untold wealth of conscious feelings. He loves, hates, hopes, fears; experiences all degrees of pleasure and pain, of joy and sorrow; is touched and moved by the beautiful, the grand, the sublime. The will has gained complete mastery over the whole complex mechanism of both body and soul. He turns himself and all his energies in whatever direction and toward whatever object he pleases. He has acquired language addressed to the eye, to the ear, to the hand, by which all his thoughts, feelings, plans, and purposes can be made intelligible to others.

Man from the Child. — The child and the man seem, to the hasty observer, to have little in common. Yet the man has, in some way, grown out of the child ; he is the child brought to full maturity. Whatever appears in the man existed, in germ and possibility, in the weak, helpless child. The germs, the possibilities, have been unfolded, expanded, developed. The body and the soul have shared alike in this wonderful evolution and transformation.

Training. — In connection with this development, and as a necessary part of it, the powers of the child have been trained by constant exercise. An inborn impulse compelled appropriate activity. Pleasure came from action, and the action was repeated over and over again. Repetition produced habit and skill. Thus the man has been fitted for " complete living," and is able " to perform justly, skilfully, and magnanimously all the offices, both public and private," which belong to him in all the various relations of life. He is prepared " to help his fellows and be helped by them."

Knowledge acquired. — While passing through these processes of development and training, the child has been constantly acquiring knowledge. The acquisition of knowledge has been, indeed, a necessary condition of the development and training of the mind. It has served as means to an end. Without the material of knowledge there could have been no mental activity; and without such activity there could have been no production of habit or skill. But in addition to the value and use of knowledge as the necessary and only means of securing development and training, it is also valuable for practical purposes. It is essential to preparation for " complete living," and to the right and wise performance of the duties of social, civil, and business life. No serious antagonism exists between the knowledge demanded for culture and that required for the successful management of every-day affairs.

What Education includes. — From the brief study of the child and the man, and of the processes by which the one has been transformed into the other, we reach the conclusion that a complete education must include at least three things : —

I . The proper and complete development of the child. Development consists in bringing out into the highest possible state of perfection all those powers and capacities which at first exist as mere germs and possibilities in the child. The physical, intellectual, and moral powers share alike in this process. The lower elements of our complex nature are always kept in proper relation and in due subordination to the higher, and the child thus becomes the most and best of which he is susceptible. Development of this sort results in strength and symmetry ; no one part or power is perfected by dwarfing or neglecting another. Childhood is ripened into complete manhood.

2. The thorough training of the child. By training is meant moulding, fashioning, forming by wisely directed and long-continued activity, by such practice as affords appropriate exercise to every power, both of body and soul. Necessary acts and processes are repeated until they can be performed with the greatest possible accuracy and readiness and with the least possible conscious effort. Training results in habit, dexterity, easy and graceful movement, and in practical skill in doing whatever needs to be done.

3. The acquisition of knowledge. Mental development and training can go on only on condition of the acquisition of knowledge, of the reception of material upon which the psychical activities may exercise themselves. The mind is not " first formed, and then informed," or furnished. The forming and fashioning and furnishing proceed together. The process is complex, and at the same time simple ; it is difficult to describe, but easy to understand. This acquisition will include that knowledge which will be of service to the child when transformed into a man, and which will be useful to the community and to the state of which he is a member. The acquisition of knowledge will result in intelligence, in acquaintance with one's self, and with the best of everything which the world has to offer in science and art, in history and literature.

The result of all will be an education which prepares " the individual for reciprocal union with society ; " such a preparation that " he can help his fellow-men, and in return receive and appropriate their help."

These points include the essentials of a complete education, both theoretical and practical. They are necessary to the best result. But it should be remembered that, first and chiefest of all, the child is to be made into a man or a woman in the highest sense of these words, — a man or woman in body, mind, heart. Of such men and women the world has great need.

FOR READING.

White's Elements of Pedagogy, Introduction.

Compayre's Lectures on Teaching, chapter i.

Bain's Education as a Science, chapter i.

Rosenkranz's Philosophy of Education, Introduction and Part I.

Davidson's Aristotle and Ancient Educational Ideals, Book I. Introductory.

Barnard's Journal of Education, vol. xi. pp. 13-20; vol. xiii. pp. 7-16.

Joseph Payne's Lecture on the Science and Art of Education, and on the Theory of Education.

Laurie's Institutes of Education, Introduction, and Lectures I. and II.

T. J. Morgan's Studies in Pedagogy, chapter i.

Chapter II. Varieties Of Education

Divisions of the Subject. — The complex process through which the child passes in reaching full development and maturity forms one harmonious, consistent, and beautiful whole. Nevertheless, for purposes of study it admits of separation into several convenient and natural divisions. The work of each division has certain characteristics of its own, and is carried on by means and agencies, in many respects, peculiar to itself. Hence we have what may be called varieties of education. It should, however, be distinctly understood that all these varieties are only parts of one great whole; and it should also be kept constantly in mind that this whole cannot be complete without the combination, in due proportion, of all these parts. If one variety is crowded partially or entirely out, and another variety is allowed to occupy more time and attention than it is rightfully entitled to, the development must be wanting in symmetry, and the education must be one-sided. It is necessary to give a little consideration to each of these varieties of education, in order to determine as clearly as possible the province and work of schools and teachers.

I. Physical Education.

Purposes. — Physical education has reference primarily to the proper development and training of the body. Somewhat less obviously and directly, it has to do with the development and training of the mind, and with the giving and receiving of instruction. Modern studies in physiology and psychology reveal a most intimate connection between physical conditions and psychical activities and states. The idea of a necessary and perpetual antagonism between the body and the soul is no longer accepted by intelligent students of human nature. The combination of " a sound mind in a sound body" gives us the ideal man. It is coming to be more and more recognized that a well-formed, symmetrically developed, healthy, and vigorous physical organism furnishes the best possible foundation for the most productive intellectual and moral activity.

Men have reached intellectual greatness and high moral excellence with feeble and deformed bodies, and in spite of physical weakness and suffering ; but it is only reasonable to presume that under more favorable conditions they would have become still greater intellectually, and even more excellent morally. As a rule, noble and generous souls do not find a home in bodies dwarfed by bad environment, bad training, and bad feeding. Blood vitiated by foul air and thinned by scanty diet of innutritious food cannot produce a brain capable of enduring hard and protracted study, and able to solve difficult problems either in mathematics or morals. Proper physical training — the training, not of an athlete, but of an average man — is beginning to be held in just esteem by both students and teachers.