The career of the child

Introduction

THE subject of pedagogy is making rapid strides. A body of scientific principles is rapidly being collected from the sciences of biology, psychology, anthropology, and sociology, all of which must be considered in the composite, applied science of education. One of the keenest, most patient and far-sighted workers in this applied science is Dr. Groszmann, author of the present volume. He has devoted many years to careful observation and experimentation in schools for both normal and abnormal children. This work has been supplemented by a careful testing of results in a practical way.

The long experience of Dr. Groszmann in the Ethical Culture School of New York City, and his more recent experience at Watchung Crest in dealing with atypical and subnormal children, added to his thorough and critical scholarship of the German type, has fitted him admirably for a discussion of the curriculum and of scientific methods in education.

In making a curriculum it is frequently assumed that the selection of subjects and the amount of time given to each subject can be determined without any reference to the children to be taught or the ultimate aim of education. Tradition has been the dominant factor determining both the matter and the method in education.

Dr. Groszmann has made a careful analysis of the aims

4 INTRODUCTION

of education; of physical, mental, and moral stages of growth and the best conditions under which this growth can be promoted and the aims of education attained. The subject matter is then analyzed to see in what way it may be made to contribute to the ideal development. But as the experiences of a normal individual are complex and varied it is necessary that unity of life and development be brought out of disparity of experiences, oftentimes apparently conflicting. This problem of co-ordination is an important factor in Dr. Groszmann's treatment.

In addition to the German idea of the spiral arrangement of studies, Dr. Groszmann has emphasized the idea that no true center of correlation can be found in the subjects themselves. At best such correlations must be artificial and unpsychological. The true center of correlation is the child himself. By this plan it is possible to follow the child's interests — and needs — and to emphasize things important for the particular child or group, and to "eliminate what is unessential, useless, and consequently burdensome." Dr. Groszmann has shown how the various activities should not properly be called subjects, but that there are the play activities, manual activities, and the various kinds of interests which demand varieties of knowledge which we conveniently systematize into subjects such as geography, arithmetic, history, etc. While he does not advocate making these subjects incidental, they should grow out of the interests of the child and the problems which he must feel to be real problems.

INTRODUCTION 5

The first phase of pedagogy to receive discussion was that of methods. Many volumes have been written upon the subject of general and special methods, but upon no branch of pedagogical knowledge has the influence of scientific principles been so little felt. A great part of all that has been written down to the present time has been either from the purely logical point of view or has consisted of trite discussions by pedagogical theorists. In the present book, the author has made a long step in advance in the direction of working out methods from the standpoint of the science of education.

Method should be determined by the laws of development of the child instead of by pure logic and the subject matter itself. Method means not only a logical arrangement of the materials in a given subject of instruction, but also the question of its adaptation to nascent growth periods of the child and his interests as determined by native instincts and environment. Even in teaching mathematics the laws of growth and development of the child must be considered. In recent years the order of topics in mathematics has been very materially changed to harmonize with the well established laws of growth. Dr. Groszmann has pointed out the fact that not only chronological growth and physiological growth, but also psychological growth periods must be observed.

While the teacher of the various subjects which are treated in this volume will find little or nothing of prescription in the way of a definite curriculum to be followed day by day, the fundamental principles which determine what a child

6 INTRODUCTION

can be taught and the relations between the given subject and other subjects are thoroughly established.

It would mean much if every teacher from the kindergarten through the university could be well grounded in the fundamental principles of biology, anthropology, psychology, and sociology, and could then under guidance of a master study the great educational problems in the light of all the foregoing contributory sciences. This should be followed by a careful study of the special method in the particular subject to be taught. Adequate knowledge of the subject itself is, of course, presupposed. The present volume points in the direction which subsequent writers on education will find it profitable to travel.

Frederick E. Bolton, i State University of Iowa.

Contents

Chapter Page

Introduction 3

I Dignity and Responsibility of the Teacher's

CHAPTER I Dignity and Responsibility of the Teacher s Profession

BEFORE the life of man had assumed the differentiated character which resulted from the division of labor, the functions which now are singly assigned to different individuals were more or less collectively represented by all. In patriarchal society, every head of a family was his own provider, and what are now diverse trades were pursued as the common tasks of daily life. During the pioneer period of our own country, similar conditions prevailed, and the stately matron of by-gone times wove and finished with her own hand the linen and cloth from which she would make her lord's and her children's as well as her own garments ; while the worthy husbandman was his own blacksmith, shoemaker, carpenter, and what not. Of course, at times they had, like Robinson in the story, recourse to the vast stores and manufactures of their European homes, importations from there having been the basis of their pioneer life in the wilderness. The primitive family, however, had no opportunity for such importations — it had to exist upon its own resources exclusively ; and the knowledge and skill requisite for the various performances which signaled the dawn of civilization, were handed down from father to son, from mother to daughter. The parents were the natural teachers of the young, they were the centers from which the moral influence radiated, the guardians of the family gods, of the tribe's religion and honor.

In the more advanced society of a later period, we find io THE CAREER OF THE CHILD

indeed the family organization modeled after essentially the same plan ; but the wisdom and higher knowledge of the tribe and incipient nation have become concentrated in a separate class, or caste, that of the priesthood. The priests are now the spiritual guardians of the people; it is their special function to commune with the gods and to mediate between them and the nation. From this divine intercourse, by their being devoted entirely to the searching into the mysteries of nature and human life, they obtain a knowledge which to the uninitiated appears truly magical and supernatural. They are not only priests, but philosophers, poets, astronomers, scientists, physicians, teachers; all the learned professions as we know them, were represented in their rudimentary, undifferentiated form by this caste which endowed all knowledge with a spiritual significance — as coming from the gods whose agents they were. All knowledge was then a divine revelation ; even the arts of husbandry, of metalworking, and other crafts, were ascribed to the teachings of gods who had come down among men as helpers and teachers. Teaching was a sacred profession, then, and was essentially concerned in spiritual matters.

"Tempora mutantur et nos mutamur in illis". Times change, and we change in time. When the old order of things gave way to new institutions ; when Greece and Rome became masters of the world, and in their turn were dethroned by the ascendency of the Teutonic tribes which hold sway over the civilized world up to the present day : — science, religion and philosophy became more and more democratized, and gradually accessible to the masses that had formerly been kept in subjection and ignorance. Teaching was now a secular profession. But the struggle between the guardians of religion and the promoters of secular ideas was long and fierce, and is not fought to the end yet. Church and State are still at war over the same issue, i. e. to whom the control of popular education properly belongs. The secular view that education, at least as far as school training is concerned, means merely the transmission of information, the imparting of so-called knowledge, the training of the intelligence, the drill in useful occupations, and that consequently it is a mat-

THE CAREER OF THE CHILD n

ter entirely separate from ethico-religious considerations, is certainly a very shallow conception. Knowledge and skill in themselves are neutral possessions; they may work good or evil in accordance with the character of the one who possesses them. It has been truly said that it requires as much mechanical genius and intelligence to pick a lock as to construct its intricate mechanism ; and whether your boy will grow up to be a prophet or a seducer, will depend not upon what he knows, but upon his spiritual nature which will convert his knowledge either into a weapon of destruction or into a means of inspiration. Wisely administered intellectual training will certainly broaden a man's mind and make him capable of appreciating the relations which exist in the human life and in the life of nature; he will thus be helped to discriminate better between right and wrong and to choose more wisely in perplexing situations: but his actions will in every case be determined by the kind of character he has.

Indeed: teaching is essentially a spiritual thing. All depends upon the spirit in which information is imparted, upon the ideal towards which knowledge is directed; upon the educator's power to strengthen the will, to inspire the heart, to ennoble the aspirations of his pupil. If education has any reference at all to the building up of character — and who will undertake to dispute this claim ? — it must have an ethico-religious background. In fact, ethics and religion are the fountain-heads from which the true teacher will draw his strength, and towards which the eyes of the inspired student must turn for invigoration and revelation.

When the conditions of the religious life were simple and elementary; when the life of all individuals was believed to be directed by powers which to all serious people revealed themselves in practically the same form; in other words, when the God of the prophet was the God of the multitude, when the national life expressed itself spiritually in a national religion : — the case was free from complexity. Education was then permeated by ideas and ideals which all held practically in common. Conscience was then the product of universal agreement, so to speak. Nowadays there is a perplexing difficulty. The form in which the religious idea manifests itself is no longer a simple and constant element; out of universal oneness, of elementary uniformity, there has emerged a differentiated organism of which the different parts live their individual lives. It has become a matter of common justice to respect the freedom of the individual, notably in matters of conscience; to recognize that each individual is a unit by himself, produced by forces which differentiated him from all others, and that the world will necessarily picture itself in each one in a form characteristic of his special constitution. Thus what was once a national church has been split up into a large number of sects and sub-sects; and religious notions shade off on one hand into creeds which were originally foreign elements, and were imported subsequent to the closer intercourse of nations; and on the other to abstractions of a more or less philosophic character. Unfortunately, mistaken fervor which fails to recognize that all these various groups strive for the same goal, believe in the same ideal, and draw their strength from the same eternal facts of existence, only in different ways and under different symbols, has produced a mutual mistrust and enmity between these groups, and education is very much the sufferer for it. Even in purely secular matters we are apt to be impressed much more by the manner of a thing, than by its meaning or essence; a pleasant lie offends us less than impetuous frankness. And it is only too true that religious fervor is prone to lead to intolerance and fanaticism. Thus free thinkers will ridicule orthodox believers as being plainly ignorant, and believers will denounce all who do not profess a personal god, as necessarily wicked and immoral ; and Jews and Christians, Baptists and Methodists, Episcopalians and Presbyterians, Catholics and Protestants, are constantly branding each other as transgressors and gentiles.

This very struggle between different religious attitudes has led to a still greater secularization of public instruction than when there was merely a quarrel between the Church and State. For into whose hands can the spiritual guidance of our children be entrusted if there is so much uncertainty as to what is the true religion ? The public schools have therefore in many instances declined all responsibility for the ethico-religious training of their pupils, confining themselves to secular instruction pure and simple ; on the other hand, numerous sectarian schools have sprung up, all supplying an education which indeed contains the ethico-religious element, but which, by its pronouncedly dogmatic and separatistic character, tends to widen the gulf that unhappily gapes between different portions of the nation. Denominational schools, like all denominational institutions, exhibit the tendency inherent in all political and religious systems that have become institutionally fixed and authoritative, viz. the tendency of self-perpetuation in place of growth; of acquiring and maintaining power instead of recognizing the principle of freedom and progressive differentiation.

The secularization of instruction has, among other things, exerted a deplorable influence upon the quality of the teaching talent. When education was a matter of spiritual concern, when it was a prerogative of a class which represented the most spiritually minded elements of the community, the teaching was undertaken with a seriousness of purpose, and an equipment of knowledge, as high as the respective stage of culture allowed. Teaching was, then, a life-calling. And we must not fancy that the priest-teacher of those times was not professionally fit for his particular work. There was perhaps little, or no, strictly professional training in these ecclesiastical times; but teaching was then as now an art; what lack of training there was, was largely compensated by empiric knowledge of child-nature, by intuitive insight, and by recognition of an ethical aim. At an early date, those among the priests who showed eminent fitness for the office of teacher, were selected for the special function ; and indeed, even tho the caste appeared as a unit before the multitude, ability and preference soon worked a differentiation of tasks among its members. Measuring the teaching done under these conditions by the standard of the times, it was certainly of a high order, even tho it was of an exclusixe character and bestowed upon a favored few.

When teaching became the business of secular persons who did it for hire, the spirit of the work degenerated at once. Not that there had not been from Quintilian's time down to our own, many inspired secular teachers whose influence was ennobling and far-reaching. But the general trend of secular education was utilitarian, and the teachers were recruited from all walks of life, mostly the lowliest. Secular education had a democratic tendency — it embraced wide circles and gradually developed the idea of popular education. Grand and momentous as this new ideal was, it increased the demand for teachers at such a rate that the supply was often insufficient. For the so-called people, i. e. common people, a minimum of instruction was supposed to be ample, which permitted the employment of very ignorant persons as teachers; as these were selected, as a rule, by "patrons", or boards, rarely representing the highest culture of the times, incredible conditions prevailed in many schools of this type. These were the days when anyone who was not good enough for anything else, was still thought competent to be a school-master; if he could wield the rod with satisfactory energy, all was well. Cripples and invalids of all kinds, slaves or servants, broken-down traders, shepherds and blacksmiths were the teachers in the secular elementary schools, or were employed in homes as tutors of the young. In higher instruction alone students of divinity long held their own and were employed in Colleges and High Schools and as private tutors in wealthy families. But on the whole, the profession, if such it can be called, was in a degraded state; it was "low business" as it was called even in the earlier days of our own glorious republic. Teachers had no social standing at all; in compensation and respect they often ranked lower than ordinary servants.

These conditions are not altogether a thing of the past. Even nowadays, it is not uncommon for a man to try his hand at teaching after he has failed in everything else; and the scholarship and professional training of teachers is not generally high. A French, German, or Italian immigrant, if he does not readily find employment will set himself up as a "professor" of languages or music, or what not, supposing to have a perfect right to do so. Many people entertain the idea that all that is necessary for being able to teach a subject is to know it; the fallacy of this notion it is not easy to demonstrate to one who is ignorant of the psychological laws that govern the workings of the human mind. But the conditions would not be half so sad as they are if these professed teachers really did know what they undertake to teach ; yet instances are only too numerous when a very little knowledge is puffed up in a very delusive semblance of proficiency. Teaching has as yet become a profession with a very few; most teachers found employed in many of our schools are either young men who use their position in a public school as a stepping stone to "something better", or young girls who want to fill the interval between their own school days and the blessings of married life with some sort of respectable occupation — and school teaching has at last gained recognition as a respectable occupation. The case of these young girls is perhaps not the worst feature of the general situation, by any means; they gain in this way an experience which may stand them in good stead when they have children of their own. It has become a growing conviction among progressive educators that Frobel was right when he suggested that every young woman should be given a chance to study and handle children as a preparation for motherhood. The only difficulty is this that most of our young teachers enter upon their work without real preparation for it; they have little understanding of it, they have likewise little love for it. With them it is a daily mechanism, the veriest routine; and there is danger that they will carry the superficial notion of child-life and education which governs their work in school, into their later life of maternal functions. And if we may judge the public valuation of the teacher's services by what they are "worth" to the school boards in dollars and cents, their social standing is still very mediocre; few receive a salary that makes them financially independent, or even free from care or that can compare with the wages paid to clerks, cooks, and other such worthies whose responsibilities are vastly inferior.

However, if we survey the whole field of public instruction, we may congratulate ourselves upon the great change that has taken place during the last century. Ever since the days of Rousseau and Pestalozzi, there has been gradually evolved a higher conception of the office of the teacher. Both these great minds recognized the need of a better understanding of the child-soul before we can administer to its wants. It was the dawn of a child-psychology that was destined to revolutionize education. Herbart and Frobel were the apostles of this new gospel, and whatever is good in modern developments can be traced back to suggestions from these two great teachers, erroneous as some of their philosophical premises were. All at once the child became the center of interest, and teaching assumed a new significance. The great movement of child-study has stirred up the minds of educators especially in our own country and in Germany, and has resulted in the beginning of a new pedagogy based upon the careful study of the object of education, the child, a pedagogy which is at once a science and an art: — it has served to spiritualize the work which has so long been under the bane of a one-sided secularism. The teacher, from the new point of view, is not merely a lesson-giver, a mechanical contrivance for the pouring in of information; he is not the child's jailor, and the arch-enemy of all the child's natural impulses and instincts : he is his friend and counselor, loving him and studying him; his spiritual helper and, perchance, his assistant physician, his servant and his ideal — in one word : his educator. Child-psychology has brought to light with scientific accuracy the fact that it is idle to undertake intellectual instruction without influencing the moral faculties; that no absorption and normal assimilation of instructive matter is possible without due attention to the training of the will ; that intellectual training of the wholesome kind is identical with will training, and that all we do with the child will be somehow reflected in his moral and religious character. All the forces that make up the child's environment are of educational import and will influence his fortune in after life. Secular education as it has been understood is an illusion, an impossibility; all education is in its very essence spiritual education, for good or evil. Where the spiritual element is neglected, education will be a dismal failure ; it will not be simply negative or neutral in its effect, but will tend to corrupt, or at least confuse, he moral character of the child.

Thus the profession of the teacher assumes a new dignity. He is again, as of old, recognized to be a spiritual power, and comes next to the parent in direct and telling influence upon the future and character of the child. His is an almost priestly function inasmuch as the young soul is given into his keeping; and since it has been demonstrated that psychological development is bound up with physiological conditions of health and disease, he will have to assume at certain junctures some of the duties which are professionally assigned to the consulting physician. In his person, he will therefore represent a combination of functions which in a measure revives that ancient order from which the special functions of the teacher has become disintegrated. As he will have to be in close touch with the ethical and religious life of the community as represented by the progress in church and philosophy, so as to develop and refine his own religious life; further with the medical profession whose assistance he will need daily in solving the educational problems which individual children will present to him ; and finally with the progress of science in general which he is to mediate to young minds in his charge : he will be instrumental in bringing about a new brotherhood and community of spiritual interests — a community which will differ from the ancient caste-organization of patriarchal times mainly in this that it will be based upon freedom of conscience and the spirit of progress and mutual tolerance and helpfulness.

This new dignity entails a new responsibility, indeed one so vast that none of us will ever be able to attain the ideal. "But no end can arouse enthusiasm if complete attainment be possible" (Prof. Geo. H. Palmer). The teacher must stake his whole life, spiritually, on his work ; he must sanctify his entire personality and sacrifice it to the sacred duties which he assumes.

The teacher is the school. It is not the course of studies, nor the "methods" employed, upon which the success of school education depends ; but the principles which the teacher lives, the spirit which imbues him, the character and personality of him thru whose agency the abstract facts of knowledge become living realities and moral forces to the children.

Not every scholar is necessarily a teacher, but every teacher must be a scholar. Not in the sense that he be an expert in any one science or a number of sciences. But he must possess the scientific spirit; the spirit of research and progressiveness, and that genuine scholarship which is not so much concerned in the accumulation of a vast number of facts as in the intelligent use of those which are at hand. The teacher must be an investigator and aspire to larger knowledge, such as will expand his own personality and widen the horizon of his interests. He must not know just enough to teach and not be found out by his pupils — but must personate to them, not an infallible oracle by any means, but the incorruptible dignity, the broad interests and salutary influences of true science, even tho it be in a modest way. The teacher's interest ought not to be confined to the four walls of his school room lest he become narrow and self-complacent, and petty and nagging. He must live the larger life, and concern himself in the great problems of his age, so that he may keep steadily before him the great aim of all educational effort, viz. to fit the children to carry the banner of civilization to still loftier heights, that "banner with the strange device 'Excelsior!'"

The true teacher will cherish motives in his bosom so as to awaken high motives in the breasts of the young. Too much is our present life given to emulation ; it is not excellence we strive after, but the ability to excel, to surpass, to outstrip others. Our age is one of merciless competition, and our ordinary school practice, by a seductive system of marks, reports, and prizes, arouses and stimulates this unhappy tendency in our young children. "The larger part of the pupils leave the school with no higher aim than to outstrip their neighbors, not to help them, in the pursuit of the comforts and luxuries of life." (A. Caswell Ellis, in the "Pedagogical Seminary", Oct., 1897). Here is the teacher's opportunity. If he has the high motive, if he is not swayed by sordid considerations, petty jealousies and emulative ambitions ; if he has the unselfish heart, if he loves his neighbor as he does himself : then will he inspire his pupils with the force of his noble example.

The main factor of the ethical influence of the school is certainly the teacher. "There are teachers, and there are others who falsely enter that holy office. . . . There are teachers in whose very presence is delight. The child feels the inspiration of a great life and is influenced accordingly. Such a teacher is an effective apostle of a better living, and gives an uplift and an impulse to the students' life that cannot be measured this side of eternity." (Preston W. Search, in "The Ethics of the Public Schools". Educational Review, Feb., 1896).

It is not so much a matter of what ideals a teacher teaches, as of what ideals are in his own heart. These ideals will influence his entire manner. There must be absolute fairness and self-control, unfailing cheerfulness and sympathy, a readiness to appreciate the pupil's side of the problem and to forget his own ; a loving interest in the individual needs of each child, a wise discernment of causes and effects, physical, moral and intellectual; a tactful attitude towards the parents whose co-operation must be secured, the influences of heredity and environment having been discreetly studied ; a ready heart and a willing hand to help the most forlorn and abandoned little soul and neglected body even more promptly than the dainty child of wealth and winning manners. "Come unto me all ye that labor and are heavy laden and I will give you rest". We must be meek and lowly and glorify ourselves by service.

In a stirring lecture before the Brookline Educational Society, Professor Geo. H. Palmer expressed these beautiful thoughts: "The great characteristic of teaching, and one that is too often overlooked, is that in the teacher we must expect a readiness for vicariousness. We must take up a doubleended life; we must see not only where truth arises, but where it penetrates. ... A teacher cannot live his own life, but must live the lives of others — many others, and all different. He must take on conditions not his own, and look at things from another's standpoint. He must lead the student on, step by step, and then must be continually retreating to the first standpoint and first principles."

We must perhaps not take it literally when he says a teacher cannot live his own life. Unless a teacher has freedom to be himself, to live up to the best that is in him, to live his own individual life, he cannot understand the lives of others. Truly by "taking on conditions not his own", he will expand his own individuality, and his must be the capacity to be truly happy only when living with and for children. Well does Prof. Palmer say: "The teacher puts himself inside of the young lives ; many times he lives the lives of all ; he is among you as one who serves. . . . We must bear the child's burdens vicariously, we must study out the line of the least intellectual resistance; must spend days in discovering where the burden can be rolled away. Knowledge buffets the child ; we must aid it in penetrating the young mind with the least friction. All this we must do, not for our own sake, but for the sake of the children. We must love to do it, and unless we do, it is no profession for us."