Education as growth; or, The culture of character; a book for teachers' reading circles, normal classes, and individual teachers

Front matter

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Boot lOpwight N"-

COPYl^IClIT DEPOSIT.

Foreword

Perhaps no sane person ever lived to be fifty years of age without wishing at least once that he could live his life over again, bringing back to his youth the experience of his maturity. Realizing that this is impossible for himself, he earnestly desires that his children, and, if his sympathies are broad, other young people, shall become wise ere it is too late to profit by their wisdom. But in his anxiety for the young he frequently mistakes knowledge for wisdom', and in his theory of education he is liable to leave out of account that growth or development of the soul which alone makes a person capable of using aright his treasures of acquired learning. This little book is devoted to a discussion of the best ways of attaining sound character through the process of acquiring an education under the discipline of the school and other

institutions of civilization.

L. H. JONES Ypsilanti, Michigan

Contents

CHAPTER PAGE

I. THE POINT OF VIEW i

II. SELF-ACTIVITY 33

III. SELF-REVELATION 84

IV. SELF-DIRECTION 163

V. SELF-REALIZATION 178

Chapter I

With so large a theme as education, no book of modest size can treat more than a small part of the subject. The point of view chosen will determine the range and character of the details. Much will be omitted, not because it is untrue or even unimportant, but because it is irrelevant. Other things may be included, not because they are the most important that can be said, but because they are necessary to the proper unfolding of the line of thought chosen. This book is frankly one-sided, — devoted to the discussion of one important phase of education, namely growth^ as distinguished from other aspects of the same subject. The idea of growth is, however, so fundamental in all education that a discussion of this phase leads inevitably to a consideration of the other aspects as well ; so that this point of view, while confessedly partial, is after all a central one. Whatever of symmetry may be found in the present work, therefore, is due rather to this fundamental character of growth as an element in the process of education than to any intention on the part of the author toward full or balanced treatment.

This fundamental idea of growth is not so simple as it might at first seem. Its relations are numerous and important, and its implications varied and inclusive. It is the function of this chapter to explain and illustrate the nature of this idea and some of its most important implications, to the end that the remaining chapters may be read in the light thus shed upon them.

Growth can take place only in an individual something which can by its own power react on something else so as to get benefit out of such contact, thus producing within itself certain changes leading toward perfection. There is, therefore, in every actual case of true growth these three essentials : a something capable of these worthy changes in its own nature, certain processes comparable to nutrition and exercise, and a noticeable change for the better in the thing receiving the nutrition and taking the exercise. The best growth implies also some care in the arrangement by which the environment may be made to call out the proper reactions in the growing agent, — that is, cultivation or culture.

This general statement of the law shows its applicability alike to material and spiritual existences, being as true of the human soul as of the human body, though the processes are different in the two cases, and nutrition fit for the soul may be quite a different thing from that which will serve a like purpose for the body. The author believes that each human mind (soul, spirit) is an entity, or something capable of such reactions upon other things in the universe as to gain both helpful exercise and wholesome nutrition. The problem of intentional or directed education is largely a problem of directing these reactions so that the exercise may become as helpful, and the nutrition as wholesome and effective as possible, in bringing the immortal, potential spirit into all the perfection implied in its type. The body of this book will be devoted to a discussion of this problem.

It will readily be seen that much of the language used in these preliminary pages is figurative; for instance, the expression " within itself " is not in all cases used in a spatial sense ; nor is " nutrition " used in a material sense. Accurate studies in psychology are so recent that language has not yet adapted itself to the simple and direct expression of many of the most important discoveries of this science of the human being. Close attention to the context will doubtless, in all these cases, make plain the meaning intended.

The author writes out of an experience of more than forty years of teaching and supervision of schools ; and it is the result of this extensive experience in actual school work that he has wrought into these pages, rather than a logical analysis of the theme from the standpoint of the abstract student. However, the results of a somewhat wide professional reading have been used in the interpretation of the theme.

The point of view is further made clear by the explanation of certain beliefs of the author, which have become so well established as to direct and control his thinking and his interpretation of facts. Fundamental among these is the belief that the human being whose education is discussed in these pages is, in its essence, a spiritual being, that is, a being whose essential nature is expressed by its thinking, feeling, and willing ; and that its material body is merely a necessary condition to existence in this world of matter. The body is the instrument of the mind or soul, and as such is worthy of all the attention that it is likely to receive in any system of education. Its development and training are of the utmost importance so long as its subordinate position as a useful instrument to the spirit is recognized. But the real education discussed in this book is the education of the spirit, often carried out, it is true, through the right use of the bodily organs, by which alone one spirit has definite means of communication with other spirits or persons.

There is Implied underneath this view the behef in the immortality of the individual human soul, since it is everywhere considered as enduring and accountable ; while the body is treated as a necessary condition of the performance of human functions and therefore as an actual part of the human being.

There is here no intention to enter upon a theological discussion, but rather to make plain the psychological principle which is an important interpreting idea for the succeeding chapters of this work. Nor is there the least disposition on the part of the author to dispute with the physiological psychologists whose recent discoveries make up the most brilliant and helpful chapter of educational psychology of the last quarter of a century. The scientific study of the body, and especially of the nervous system in relation to mind action, cannot be too highly commended ; nor do I see any reason to quarrel with the results of such scientific study as they are given us direct from the psychological laboratory. It is only when physiology is called psychology, or conditions are called causes, that the psychologist has a right to protest.

The writer believes that there is a wide difference between the cause of mental action and the mere occasion or condition of such action ; and that while conditions or occasions, or even motives, may come to the spirit through the body, the real power to begin, direct, and control such action is lodged with the soul and not in the body. Numerous illustrations of this difference will occur in the succeeding chapters. It will therefore be seen that the author believes in the essential freedom of the human will to a degree at least which develops the idea of accountability in the human being as his right education goes forward. The whole structure of modern education, as developed in the later chapters, is based on this belief. Any being not accountable — not responsible — is not capable of moral development or growth. Accountability or responsibility is inconceivable without a degree of freedom in the choice of one's course in life. Nor does this view conflict at all with the practical limitations which one constantly sees placed upon human conduct by heredity and environment. Freedom of the will as used here does not imply the ability to overcome obstacles of heredity or environment at once or in any particular instance, but rather the power to retain a right attitude of the mind and thus achieve a spiritual result similar to that of victory over external forces. The moral integrity of a person is often maintained under appearances that would indicate the opposite to a superficial observer. The power of the mind to develop its selfhood, to maintain its integrity, and to renovate itself through ideals and motives and the spiritual activities to which they lead, is the divinest capacity of the human being. The power of one person to enter vicariously into another's life, through the implanting of ideals and motives, is a truth that lies close to the heart of the profession of teaching, giving to educational work its highest inspiration. The possibility of doing this without disturbing the selfhood of the pupil is due to the fact of essential freedom as here described. While many teachers semiconsciously appreciate these conditions and partly apply these principles in teaching, it is left to those who clearly and philosophically understand them to apply them most fully, and thus to set up standards which others without this clear view semiconsciously imitate. There would be no high standard to imitate, however, did not some one take the pains to think out and apply the fundamental principles involved.

As has been already suggested, this doctrine of freedom of the will (which will be more fully developed in a later chapter) is inseparably connected with questions of heredity and environment. As these influences assist or retard the educational process, it seems appropriate here to explain those views of heredity involved in that theory of the free will which has been stated herein, and which is applied and enforced in the succeeding chapters. In doing this it is unnecessary to enter upon that illimitable field of discussion over which the scientists and philosophers of the world have driven one another in fruitless advance and retreat for many centuries. A few plain statements, which will appeal to the reason of the fairly well educated, will suffice for our purpose, leaving the hairsplitting arguments of philosophic scientists and scientific philosophers to those who make a specialty of such intricate studies. There will be selected here only those phases of these subjects which are likely to be of immediate advantage to practical teachers engaged in their daily work in the schoolroom.

If heredity, in an individual case, be separated from environment, as I think it may be for purposes of thought at least, it is chiefly a matter of persistent tendency. It includes those forces which tend, in the process of growth, to modify or direct action irrespective of particular environment. There are native tendencies, too, for the individual, which must be carefully distinguished from inherited ones, in the ordinary use of the word " inherited."

The author disclaims any intention of entering upon the discussion of the great question of the spiritual interpretation of the universe, made so interesting through discoveries in modern science and the results of recent philosophic thinking. Such discussion seems unnecessary, inasmuch as the results, so far as demonstrated, in no wise affect the position assumed by the writer in this work. Should the champion of materiaHsm substantiate all he suspects to be true, it would chiefly result in changing certain names; while if those philosophers who insist that even what is called matter is but a mode of spiritual activity should succeed in proving their contention, the conclusion would but emphasize the teachings here exemplified. The term " matter " whenever used in these pages is used in its ordinary meaning ; and the word " spirit " is applied to beings whose nature is expressed by such happy combination of thinking and feeling and choosing as to constitute a true personality.

As an example of a native tendency take an illustration from the germ of a seed. If the germ of a seed be examined under a microscope, there cannot be found in it a single root cell. But the first cell that forms at one end of the germ in the first act of growth is a root cell, and its first instinct is to seek the soil ; while the first cell formed at the other end is a stem cell, and it turns toward the light. These are native or race tendencies, inherent in the nature of the plant as a plant. If one's thinking be carried back far enough, it may be seen that even this tendency was orginally received through heredity, but it is now so firmly fixed in the constitution of all plants as to be regarded as a part of their essential nature. The tendency of a particular rose plant, however, to fill the cell in its flower leaves with red lO EDUCATION AS GROWTH

coloring matter rather than with yellow is a clearly inherited tendency, involving a long preceding line of roses, which to some extent, under peculiar conditions, were led to do this same thing. To make its petals red is not a tendency of the plant as a plant; therefore it is not a native tendency but an inherited one, now inhering in this rose because a certain number of its predecessors have done so increasingly through a long line of descent. In like manner the tendency of a child to think, or to feel, or to choose, under appropriate conditions, is a native tendency, inherent in each child as representing its human nature. But his tendency to run excessively to feeling rather than thought, or to thought rather than feeling, is an hereditary tendency. So any other noticeably peculiar mental action, which is not immediately dependent on any special environment, may be looked upon as a matter of hereditary tendency. Many thinkers, in the face of much seeming testimony to the contrary, have denied the transmission from one generation to another of these acquired characteristics or tendencies, saying that all tendencies found at birth are native tendencies, and that all others noticeable in a growing individual, amounting to peculiarities in many cases, are due in each individual to the influence of environment. They claim that all such peculiarities die with the death of the individual

THE POINT OF VIEW ii

manifesting them. Such writers account for the infinite variety of human traits solely on the basis of environment, and they are quite willing to boast that all are born free, since no one is bound by hereditary tendencies. They are forced to admit, however, by their own theory, that although we have no inherited tendencies we are not really born free, for we enter at birth into a set of ideals, customs, laws, and institutions which proceed to bind us quite as effectually as we could have been bound by hereditary tendencies. In other words, the denial of the transmission of acquired characteristics does not seem to me to be any great argument in favor of freedom of the will, so long at least as we are compelled to admit the force of environment. As I shall show elsewhere, true freedom of the will is not affected by such questions. The argument against the transmission of hereditary tendencies breaks down, moreover, under the accumulation of evidence in the view of every observing student. The theory of free will taught in this book is not that one is born " free " from hereditary tendencies, or " free " from the influence of environment ; but rather that one is born with the power to become free in the midst of both. Still other biological scientists claim that only those characteristics which have become thoroughly ingrained in the nature of the race are ever transmitted. This is only a special way of admitting that acquired characteristics are transmitted^ and that the more fully they have been ingrained in the nature by frequent and uninterrupted transmission, the surer are they to be transmitted regularly; all of which seems to be the truth when stated in this latter form. It is interesting to notice that while learned scientists have been asserting that it is utterly impossible that recently acquired characteristics can be transmitted, either in plant or animal life, Luther Burbank has proved that they are so transmitted in his own experimental gardens. In regard to the evidence shown there in plant life he has recently said that he sees no reason why analogous laws should not hold in animal life ; and that such laws, in all probability, are not confined to bodily traits, but belong equally to spiritual attributes. While, of course, Mr. Burbank's statements in regard to spiritual heredity are only matters of theory with him, they have the force which accompanies the thinking of a man whose investigations in an analogous field give him the right to speak with some degree of confidence.

The theory followed in this book is that spiritual as well as bodily characteristics are transmitted from parents to children, but under laws not yet well understood; that the most generally known law governing the case is that recently acquired characteristics are much less likely to be transmitted than those thoroughly ingrained in the nature by a long line of successive transmissions; and that when these recent characteristics are inherited, they are more likely to be irregularly and erratically transmitted. Of course, when these erratically transmitted characteristics are repeated many times through partial or complete transmission, they become fixed, and can be relied upon to descend with certainty and regularity from parents to children.

This general law governs both spiritual characteristics and bodily peculiarities. It is recognized that in this possibility of transmission, from parents to children, of good qualities that have been acquired in one generation or in many generations, there lies the great hope that education (used in its largest sense) will eventually reclaim the world. It is also recognized that evil has the same general opportunity for increasing its range of power over the world as has good, were it not for two factors, namely (i) the possibility of vicarious regeneration of others by faithful parents and teachers, who furnish ideals and motives ; and (2) the greater strength and persistence of good over evil in the world. Nature is favorable to recovery, whether the disease be physical or moral. This eternal health and sanity at the heart of things is the saving element in all life. The possibility of evil — degeneracy — is the necessary accompaniment of high development and supernal worth in human character; but it is only the negative side, and it has not the strength nor the persistence of the positive, aggressive, saving element in the good. It must h^ possible for one to choose the evil in order that his choice of the good be of the highest worth and effect in character culture ; but the motives to right choice glow with a radiant steadiness and a permanency which make them finally attractive over the seductions of the evil life. The doctrine of heredity, then, when well understood, is in happy accordance with right methods in education, preserving and handing down to generations yet unborn every sincere effort in the right direction.

It is full of suggestion to the earnest teacher and a self-replenishing source of inspiration. There is here no support for pessimism or excuse for the doctrine of laissez faire in education. Even the question of environment is also, to some extent, a question of inheritance. At least a man may be said, somewhat figuratively, perhaps, to inherit a set of social standards, ideals of life and conduct, customs, laws and institutions (domestic, social, political, and religious), and other limitations constituting the advantages or disadvantages pertaining to the community in which he is born and in which his education must take place. These influences begin their work upon him before he becomes conscious of their full meaning or bearing on his life; and, before he is aware, they produce an effect on his character quite as forceful for good or evil as are even the most imperious inherited traits. It must be repeated, however, that neither the hereditary predispositions nor these forces of environment constitute a prohibition against freedom of the will, that is, its power to try to overcome them. They merely offer obstacles that should challenge action instead of precluding it. By freedom of the will is not meant that there are no obstacles to its complete sway, but rather that the human being has the power or tendency to choose to stand against these outside forces. If the soul cannot fully conquer these obstacles, it can at least minimize their evil effects. Herein is the inspiration of the true teacher, — the opportunity to offer motives which shall appeal to this free will and call out its action toward overcoming adverse inheritance or environment, and toward carrying forward the soul's own growth. The vicarious element in human life, so pathetically applied by Jesus Christ and all the martyrs and the saviors of men, is at bottom the principle which underlies the process of intentional education such as that offered by the school through the teacher. The teacher becomes a part of the new environment, offering nobler and more potent motives than those incidentally offered by heredity and the former environment. Whatever else the school may accomplish through the teacher, it must always encourage this growth of the soul and an effort toward more exalted ends than mere chance offers, thus leading to the development of noble character through heroic living.

The act of teaching, then, is seen to be a perfectly natural process, being founded definitely on the principles of human nature. The study of human nature has usually been called psychology, and under this name has been a subject regarded with undue prejudice among teachers who have given it but slight attention or have studied it only in the abstract. As a matter of fact, in its concrete forms, that is, as it is exhibited in the everyday actions of all classes of people, it is an intensely interesting and absorbing study. The prior study of psychology proper, that is, human nature as a science, is profitable to teachers mainly in the degree in which it enables them to interpret more rapidly and effectively human nature exhibited in actual life, and especially in the schoolroom. The succeeding chapters of this book elaborate a theory of education in harmony with the latest and best results of psychological study so far as the author can interpret them, though little attempt is made to explain psychology itself. It is believed that the principles of psychology are so simply and definitely illustrated by the successive discussions that all will be seen to be in full harmony with human nature, even by those who have had no special interest in psychological studies; while to those more thoroughly trained in psychology by previous study a deeper meaning and worthier suggestion will be apparent.

The author is aware that a few favored persons inherit the ability to understand human nature in the concrete without studying it in the abstract, but he is also aware that most people need all the help possible before attempting to deal with so complex a problem as a school ; and he is therefore a firm believer in the study of psychology and allied subjects by all persons who would aspire to the high title of teacher. Through long experience in teaching and the supervision of schools he has observed that those young teachers who at first teach so well by native grace, lose this power after a little while unless they grow interested in a more scientific study of their work. Their supply of native or inherited tact is soon exhausted, and their interest, at first stimulated by novelty, begins to wane unless a careful study of human nature and its needs supplies a more permanent set of motives. Without such study the teacher who started out as a wise, tactful, successful worker frequently grows into a routine follower of forms, and ends in being a mediocre, commonplace, dissatisfied drudge. On the other hand, the author has seen those who blundered openly and unmistakably at first, saved by their earnestness and enthusiasm, which led them to study their profession. Many of these he has seen grow into teachers of great tact, freedom, and efficiency, through this more fundamental understanding of the principles of teaching. In fact, his observations have led him into the belief that in general only those who keep an interest in the continued study of the principles of their work and their applications, continue to be efficient as the years go by, or attain to any degree of success which would warrant their being considered as professional teachers. While these truths are in general applicable to the members of any profession, as a keen observer will have full opportunity to verify, they may be said to be especially applicable to teachers, because the large scope of their work, and the extreme complexity of human nature and of shifting social and political conditions, all tend to make the intelligent practice of their profession more difficult than that of any other. Yet I think that most of us can see many instances of the potency of these tests as applied to ministers, doctors, and lawyers who have come under our observation.

Those phases of psychology applicable to school education are so inwoven with the very texture of the remaining chapters, and so fully explained by the illustrations given, that it has not been deemed necessary to make a detailed separate treatment of the subject in this prehminary chapter. There is, however, one phase of the subject so fundamental that it is everywhere implied and used rather than explained, and so it seems better to make some detailed study of it here before going to its applications in the following chapters.

It has been suggested in earlier pages that this book is written in the belief that the human soul is a spiritual being, and that its connection with the material body is an incident that in no way changes its spiritual nature. This statement does not bring into question any theory as to how the soul has become what it is, whether by special creation or by evolution of some sort, but merely refers to its present condition.

This spiritual nature consists in the fact that on occasion the soul can think and feel and choose, — actions which no being composed entirely of matter can perform. It has the power, too, to maintain such relations of these three activities as prove it a person. Whenever in this volume the word " spirit " " mind," or " soul " is used as a noun, or whenever the word " spiritual " is used as an adjective, there is implied the above meaning, namely, the ability to think, feel, and choose, in contradistinction to any action that is merely reflex or automatic, such as might belong to a material object. This distinction between spirit and matter is fundamental, and with its implications will serve to give distinctive tone to all that may be said in the following pages.

By the human soul, however, is meant the soul actually connected with and using the body. This constitutes its human aspects. What the soul may be after it leaves the body, or what its mode of life may then be, is not here under consideration. The soul is the element which may be educated, while the body alone is powerless. So long as the body is informed and interpenetrated by the spirit it may be trained, and thus become an eflBcient instrument for the service of the soul. Such training of the body or any of its organs as requires the constant, conscientious cooperation of the mind may, by courtesy, be called education ; as instructors in gymnasiums all over the country have tended to adopt the term " physical education " rather than " physical training^'' as indicative of the higher ratio of mind exercise which they hope to involve in their work. Advocates of so-called manual training have, on the other hand, unfortunately used the lower term. The view of the soul here described does not tend to throw discredit upon phases of education such as those just mentioned, but rather shows how to make them successful, and how to gather about them those professional associations which will give them a more dignified place in educational thought and literature. Nor does this view of the soul, tending as it does frankly toward education as a culture process, belittle the utilitarian side of education, as will be fully shown in the chapter which treats of ideals and motives as educational forces. What it does insist upon is that no process is valid as an educational procedure which does not go forward on the theory that in the mysterious combination making up the human being as we know him in this world, the soul is master and the body is servant. We know little of the soul as an independent existence, except through such inferences as we are justified in drawing from the knowledge we gain of it as we find it connected with the body. We must therefore deal with it in education by fully recognizing its connection with the body, and indeed its dependence in many ways upon the body for its own continued existence in this world.