The art of education

Preface

So many books have been written on the subject of education that one feels almost like apologizing for adding another to the list. But, of course, the apology, in any case, would involve the excuse that " no other book quite meets" a certain demand, or " quite supplies " a particular need ; and perhaps this conviction, so naturally to be expected of an author, will receive charitable consideration by even the critical reader. The most that I will venture to say concerning this book is that it is meant to substitute a scientific for a sentimental conception of the social meaning and value of education, and that the ideas advanced have proved to be inspiring, and practically helpful, to many who have heard them expressed in the form of lectures.

It is obvious enough that the interest and enthusiasm of the teacher are dependent to some extent upon his ideas with respect to the importance and dignity of the work in which he is engaged. Public respect for education, too, and for the teacher, is affected more or less by the prevalent opinion concerning the relative standing of the art of education among the various other occupations. With the object of contributing to the

vii

Vm PREFACE

formation in the mind of teachers and the general public of a true estimate of the rank of education among the arts, and its relative dignity, I have devoted the first chapter to an attempt to construct a valid classification of the arts, in which the place and relation of education shall be revealed. I base this classification on potential social utility which, as the reader will see, is also the basis of complexity and relative difficulty of successful practice. So classified, the arts arrange themselves in an ascending scale, and education is shown to occupy a place subordinate only to those infinitely difficult arts the object of which is the transformation of social groups, and of society itself. It is the highest of the vital arts, outranking the mechanical arts, and even the so-called " fine arts."

With whatever additional respect for education the results of this classification may awaken in the mind of the reader, and with whatever inspiration they may furnish if he happen to be a teacher, the book proceeds to inquire into the essential nature of education considered as an art, to specify and analyze the motive forces involved in it, to determine which of these are most important, and to discuss some of the methods that may best be employed to direct the educational forces to approved individual and social ends.

Education being an art, it must share the characteristic common to all the arts, namely, the control of the forces of nature. It is distinguished, in part, from the

PREFACE IX

Other arts by the particular set of forces with which it deals, namely, those that impel to action, the feelings. They are the true " educational forces." Chief among them is desire. Desire is the mainspring of action, the fundamental educational force. To educate is practically to control desire.

Desire, however, awakens toward anything that seems capable of satisfying it a peculiar feeling known as interest ; and, likewise, interest, if sufficiently strong, invariably occasions desire and impels to action. Desire, then, and hence activity and development, may be controlled through interest; and education practically reduces itself to a process of controlling and directing interest.

Interest, of course, invariably attaches itself to an object. The objects of interest are material and spiritual or ideal. These are embraced by the term environment. They constitute the sole means of influencing desire and interest, and hence the sole means of education. We are led, therefore, to the consideration of education as the art of manipulating the objects of the environment so as to awaken interest and to induce the activities appropriate to physical, mental and moral development. The forms of manipulation are manifested in educational methods, and a chapter is devoted to the most approved methods of controlling interest.

The primary end to which the control of interest should be directed is, of course, individual development.

X PREFACE

This is measured by the degree of the individual's adjustment to the various phases of his environment. Such adjustment the reader will find discussed in the chapter on '' The Finished Product." But to avoid misapprehension, and to preserve the broader educational outlook, it seemed necessary to include a discussion of the ultimate end of education, which, as in the case of all the arts, is Life.

With the assignment of education to its proper place among the arts, the determination of its essential nature, the valuation of its methods, and a discussion of its immediate and remote ends the book is concluded by some more or less obvious remarks in regard to the personal elements necessary to the successful practice of the educational art. These are knowledge, skill and interest, knowledge being the foundation element. In education, as elsewhere, " knowledge is power."

This brief, and perhaps repellently technical, account of the substance of the book ought to be of assistance in the way of enabling the reader to begin its study with a comprehension of the discussion as a whole, and with some conception of its unity.

Whatever faults the book may contain, and no doubt they are many, the author will be pardoned for entertaining and expressing the conviction that it will be enlightening to the general reader who is interested in education, and particularly stimulating and inspiring to those who are teachers, actual or prospective, for whom

PREFACE XI

it is more especially designed. My friend Professor Paul Monroe, of Columbia University, has done me the kindness, which I here gratefully acknowledge, to read the manuscript and to offer a few suggestions in regard to possible improvements. My indebtedness to others is sufficiently acknowledged, I think, in footnotes and references.

I. W. H.

Berkeley, Cal., August 1 6, 191 2.

Table Of Contents

Preface vu

CHAPTER I The Place of Education among the Arts

1 . Purpose of the Chapter .....

2. Meaning and Scope of Art ....

3. Popular Classification of the Arts Illogical Social Utility as a Basis of a Logical Classification Art and Material Phenomena ....

Classification of the Forms of Matter and of the Arts The Relation of Complexity to Utility The Physical Arts ....

The Vital Arts ....

The Social Arts ....

Diagrammatic Arrangement of the Arts The Place of Education .

Education and the Fme Arts .

PAGE I

5 6

9 12

19 20

CHAPTER II Purpose of the Chapter

The Universality of Change

Change and Phenomena .

The Causes of Phenomena

The Common Characteristic of the Arts

Education the Control of the Educational Forces

Conclusion .......

Chapter III

1 . The Fundamental Fact in Education

2. Kinds of Activity ......

26 27 29

31 34 36 37

40 41 xni

XIV

TABLE OF CONTENTS

3. The Somatic Forces

4. The Psychic Forces

5. The Fundamental Educational Force

6. Education Chiefly Concerned with Interest

CHAPTER IV Interest

1. The Nature of Interest

2. Kinds of Interest

3. Other Forms of Interest

4. Summary and Conclusion

CHAPTER V Interest and the Problems of Education

1. Education and Problems of Interest

2. Interest and Attention

3. Interest and Memory

4. Interest and Thought

5. Interest and the Will

6. Interest and Discipline

PAGE 42

45 50 53

56 62

63 65

67 68 72

I.

3- 4-

5- 6.

CHAPTER VI The Doctrine Stated 86

Interest and Play 87

Interest and Effort 91

Interest and Duty 9^

All Necessary Work May Be Made Interesting ... 99

Conclusion 102

CHAPTER VII Methods of Arousing Interest

1. The Problem of the Teacher . . . .

2. Life as Interest and a Succession of Interests .

103 105

TABLE OF CONTENTS

XV

3- 4- 5-

o.

7- 8.

II. Begin with Native Interests

Select Commendable Interests .....

Associate New Ideas and Objects with Those That are Natively Interesting .......

Interest and Use ........

Awaken Interest in Remote Ends .....

Appeal to As Many Senses As Possible ....

Arrange the Work So That It Will End in Pleasure Approve When Possible ......

IC7 III

117 117 118

Be Interesting 119

Chapter VIII

1. The Meaning of Factors .

2. Heredity

3. Environment .

4. The Objective Environment

5. Environment and Action

6. Institutional Factors

7. The School Environment

8. The School and the Home

9. The School and the Church

10. The School and the State

1 1 . The School and the Community

122 123 127 128

Chapter IX

1. The Subjective Environment .

2. The Objects of Interest .

3. Ideas and Ideals ....

4. The Educational Value of Ideals

5. Explanation of the Effects of Ideals

6. The Control of Ideals

7. Personal Ideals of Success

8. Ideals of Service

145 146 149

153 154 157 416

XVI

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Chapter X I

Definition

Health ....

The Use of the Fundamentals

The Desire for Knowledge

Useful Knowledge .

The Power to Think

Power of Expression

Power and Inclination to Wor

Public Spirit .

The Social Graces .

II.

Family Duties .

Love of the Beautifiil

Righteousness .

Conclusion

197 199 200 201

CHAPTER XI The Ultimate End of Education

2. The Will to Live ........ 203

3. The Time Element in Life ...... 203

4. The Qualitative Element ...... 206

CHAPTER Xn The Artist Teacher

1. An Artist Teacher . . . . . . . ,211

2. Requisites of the Artist Teacher 213

6. Conclusion 230

Chapter I

What nobler service can one render to the state than that of training and instructing the rising generation? — Cicero.

"What artists do you think most worthy of admiration, those who form images destitute of sense and movement, or those who produce animated beings endowed with the faculty of thinking and acting?

— Socrates.

I. Purpose of the Chapter. — There can be nothing, I think, more inspiring and helpful to those who are engaged in the work of education, or more illuminating to those who are not, than a correct conception of its real dignity and importance. Sentimental ideas with respect to education — " education, the bulwark of our liberties," **the schools, the hope of the country," and the like — are not sufficient. A reasoned conclusion with regard to the place among the arts that belongs properly to education, should take the place of pious opinion.

It is sometimes said that education is the highest art. Colonel Parker used to say, " Education is the highest art in the world." If that were really true, what an inspiring thought it would be ! A proposition so significant should be capable of logical demonstration. We

2 TKE ART OF EDUCATION

listen in vain, however, to hear such a declaration coupled with convincing proof. It is uttered sometimes as a dogma, sometimes as a self-evident truth, and is usually addressed to teachers, by those who know little about education, with the generous purpose of impressing and inspiring them with a sense of the loftiness of their calling. Far better than sentimental laudation of teaching would be a demonstration, on purely logical grounds, of the place or rank to which education must necessarily be assigned among the arts. That alone will compel the recognition and respect properly due to the art of education. To present such a demonstration is the purpose of this chapter.

2. Meaning and Scope of Art. — The true place of education among the arts can be discovered only by analyzing the conception of art and classifying the arts upon the basis of some fundamental and accepted principle. The first thing, then, is to consider the meaning and scope of the word " art."

Art, to most minds, signifies the fine arts — painting, sculpture, poetry, music, and the like. The word, however, has a much broader meaning. There are mechanical, industrial, or useful arts as well as the liberal, polite, or fine arts. But the industrial arts and the fine arts, broadly speaking, cover the whole range of human activities. Art, then, includes all the efforts of man to achieve results. It may be defined as the endeavor to realize an idea, ideal, or purpose through the conscious employment of means. It is therefore identical and co* extensive with intelligent action. A classification of the arts, in which alone the true place of education can be revealed, must therefore be, in effect, a classification of the various human occupations.

3. Popular Classification of the Arts Illogical. — Elsewhere it has been pointed out that the familiar classification of the arts into the '* Fine Arts " and the " Useful Arts " is illogical.^ The fine arts are useful for exactly the same reason that anything is useful ; they satisfy desire ; and if the useful arts are not fine, more's the pity. They might be fine, should be so, and do become so in proportion to the degree in which intelligence and the element of beauty enter into them. In a world of right human relations, in which joy in work could become everywhere a reahty, the most menial occupation might be lifted by inteUigence, beauty, and pleasure to the level of a fine art. From the standpoint of social well-being no necessary occupation is menial. Its end is Hfe, and the end dignifies both the work and the worker. This does not mean that all the arts are of equal rank. That cannot be. Ditch-digging and hod-carrying can never be raised to an equality with landscape gardening and architecture. They are not equally serviceable to human needs, and they do not offer equal opportunity for intelligence and the play of the creative

1 See an article by the present author on " The Classification of the Arts," Pop. Sci. Mo., Vol. LXX (May, 1907), pp. 429-436.

imagination. They are comparatively low forms of art. It is conceivable, however, that some elements of imagination and pleasure might be imparted to even the lowest occupations if the conditions of these occupations were made human, and if a true conception of their relation to the well-being of mankind prevailed. At any rate, the classification of the arts into ''Fine" and "Useful " is merely conventional, and is of little scientific value. "Beauty," says Emerson, "must come back to the useful arts, and the distinction between the fine and the useful arts be forgotten. If history were truly told, if Hfe were nobly spent, it would no longer be easy or possible to distinguish the one from the other. In nature, all is useful, all is beautiful." ^

4. Social Utility the Basis of a Logical Classification. — If, then, we reject this popular classification of the arts, we must find a basis or principle for another more significant and logical classification. This basis or principle is best deduced from a true conception of the end or object of the arts. The end of all the arts is the same ; namely, the promotion of human well-being. Some, indeed, pretend that the so-called " Fine Arts " exist for Art's sake, and that they ought not to be subjected to so prosaic, some would say vulgar, a test as utility ; but this is short-sighted. Art's " sake " is not final. " Man is the measure of all things," in more senses, perhaps, than Protagoras conceived. The

1 Complete Works, Concord Edition, Vol. IV, pp. 367-368.

true test of any activity, individual or social, is its effect upon human life. The only sound and deeply significant principle of a classification of the arts is, therefore, the principle of potential social utility.

5. Art and Material Phenomena. — Accepting potential social utility, then, as the true basis of a classification of the arts, we may pass to the consideration of an important fact. That fact is that in the practice of an art, no matter of what kind, material phenomena are involved. As a rule some form of matter is consciously employed. Matter is the medium in which and through which the ideas, ideals, purposes, and effects of art are objectified. As embodied in material form these ideas, etc., are called art products. They include all the works of man's hands, from the simplest flint implement of the savage to the complex industrial machine ; from the hut of the primitive man to the Parthenon ; from the rude drawing of the cave dweller to the Sistine Madonna. No art can divorce itself entirely from matter. Painting is impossible without canvas, brush, and pigment. The sculptor cannot " body forth " his ideal conceptions without his chisel and his marble, nor the architect create his " poem in stone " without the material means of building. Even the poet, with his "eye in a fine frenzy rolling," is dumb without the material means of utterance. ** Language is the marble in which the poet carves." Music, the most ideal of the arts, is no exception to the rule.

6 THE ART OE EDUCATION

Song is impossible in a vacuum, and the musician, no matter how skillful, is powerless without his instrument. Even the intellectual arts have a physical basis. Art, therefore, and material phenomena are inseparable. A classification of the arts must be in effect a classification of the forms of matter.

6. Classification of the Forms of Matter and of the Arts. — Now, as to the forms of matter, we have a familiar classification. Matter is inorganic, organic, and, to use Mr. Spencer's expression, superorganic. The inorganic may be allowed for our present purposes to include all non-living substances, the organic all living things, and the superorganic all social groups. These three divisions of matter are based upon, and stated in, the order of their complexity. Organic matter is more complex than the inorganic because it involves the life principle; and the superorganic is still more complex because it involves the principle of association. As the inorganic, the organic, and the superorganic cover all forms of matter with which the arts must deal, there should be three corresponding divisions of the arts — those which are employed on non-living substances, those which realize their objects in living things, and those which seek to realize their ideas and ideals in social organisms. These three grand divisions of the arts I have called the Physical Arts, the Vital Arts, and the Social Arts. Thus we have a classification of the arts based upon the complexity of the material with which they deal. What relation has this complexity to potential utility ?

7. The Relation of Complexity to Utility. — As to the relation between the complexity of the matter employed by the arts and the potential utility of the arts themselves, I think it can be shown that they vary directly. Auguste Comte, the French philosopher, laid down these two principles: (i) "The practical applications of the sciences increase with their complexity " ; and (2) " Phenomena grow more susceptible to artificial modification with the increasing complexity of the phenomena." ^ Comte's classification of the sciences, it will be remembered, was based on increasing complexity (and decreasing generality). It is as follows : Mathematics, Astronomy, Physics, Chemistry, Physiology (Biology)^ Social-physics (Sociology). A question might be raised as to whether mathematics is a science in the same sense as astronomy and the others, but, leaving that aside, the principle that the practical applications of the sciences increase with their complexity amounts, when considered with this classification, to an assertion that the vital and the social sciences have, through their corresponding arts, a wider range of application than the physical sciences. But application to what ? Obviously to phenomena. But phenomena, according to Comte's second principle, are more susceptible to artificial modification the more complex they are ; that is, more can be done

1 See Ward's " Applied Sociology," pp. 8-9.

with them, the greater the effects for good or ill that can be produced. The arts, then, that deal with the most complex phenomena are potentially the most useful. The physical arts deal with the least complex phenomena, the vital arts with those next in order, and the social arts with the most complex of all. The vital arts are, therefore, more useful potentially than the physical, and the social arts are potentially the most useful of all. We, therefore, arrive at the conclusion that a classification of the arts based upon the relative complexity of the phenomena with which they deal is a classification based on relative potential utility.

It is interesting to observe, too, that the complexity of an art, that is to say, of the material with which it deals, determines the difficulty of its practice. It is easier to fashion wood, bronze, or stone into a preconceived shape or form than to modify a Uving thing, plant or animal, until it represents a preconceived ideal. An inorganic form of matter " stays put " ; it does not react by virtue of inherent forces tending toward its natural development, against the efforts of the artist to effect its transformation. The vital arts, therefore, demand more skill than the physical, and the social more than the vital. The greater the complexity of the art, the greater is the opportunity it affords for the display of intelligence. Hence our classification of the arts on the basis of the complexity of the material with which they deal is a classification not simply on the basis of potential social utility, but also upon difficulty of practice, or amount of intelligence demanded, as well.

We have shown, then, that, on the basis of complexity, potential utiUty, and difficulty of practice, the arts may be divided, in an ascending order, into the physical arts, the vital arts, and the social arts. These divisions must be further analyzed to reveal the true place of education.

8. The Physical Arts. — Taking up the first division, the physical arts, it is obvious that they must include all the arts that realize their conceptions in inorganic forms of matter. The best examples are those in which ideas are objectified in the various non-living substances — wood, stone, iron, copper, brass, marble, etc. Such arts obviously vary in the degree of their complexity with respect to the means employed. The industrial arts of the primitive man, for instance, were exceedingly simple in comparison with the industrial arts of to-day. The only essential difference, however, is occasioned by the modern use of the machine. The primitive man was a toolmaker and a tool user, a handicraftsman par excellence. The artisan of to-day is a machine laborer. The machine, however, is only a combination of tools operated by some natural force. Its seven mechanical principles may be reduced to two, the lever and the inclined plane. The principal division of the physical arts is, then, into the hand arts and the machine arts, manulO THE ART OF EDUCATION

facture and machinofacture, the handicrafts and the mechanical trades.

But manufacture and machinofacture include not merely the mechanical arts, but the "fine" arts as well. There is no essential difference, so far as material, means, and end are concerned, between the art that makes a useful thing (useful, of course, in the narrow sense) and a beautiful thing. The wide distinction that may and does separate the work of the shop from the work of the studio is adventitious. They are one in kind. Intelligence, love of the beautiful, conditions making joy in labor possible, will transform the shop into a studio, and the artisan into an artist. In a strictly rational classification of the arts, then, architecture must take its place with the building trades, painting with the decorative arts, and the sculptor must stand with the molder and the stone mason.

This inclusion of the fine arts in the physical arts along with the mechanical trades will not seem so surprising if the fact be taken into consideration that the fine arts themselves have grown out of the physical arts. '* Art, in the ages of custom," says Tarde, " when it is born spontaneously without any wholesale importation, springs up from handicraft, * like a flower from its stem,' under the warmth of religious inspiration. This was the case in Egypt, in Greece, in China, in Mexico and Peru, and in Florence. Architecture, Gothic or otherwise, is born of the builder's craft; the painting of the fourteenth

THE PLACE OF EDUCATION AMONG THE ARTS II

century, of illuminating, and illuminating, of the craft of the copyists ; sculpture, of mediaeval cabinet making, of the tombs of Egypt; modern music, of the ecclesiastical habit of intoning ; eloquence, of the professions which involve speaking, of bench and bar; poetry and literature, of the different ways of speaking, of narration, of instigation, of persuasion." ^

Let not this inclusion of the fine arts in the physical arts seem to be a disparagement of the fine arts. It is not denied that historically they have ranked far above the arts of productive labor. They have been the arts of leisure. Joy and beauty have dwelt among them. Intelligence and genius have been their devotees. They have consequently been raised to a high level of perfection ; some say the highest level. The art of Greece, it is said, will never be surpassed. Zeuxis, the Grecian painter, put grapes on his canvas so true to nature that the birds flew down to peck at them ; and Parrhasius, his pupil, pictured a curtain so successfully that it deceived even the practiced eye of Zeuxis himself. The marbles of Praxiteles are the models of all ages. Greek art, it is said, is perfect. But the arts of productive labor are so inferior that men seem to forget sometimes that they are arts at all. They have been practiced under compulsion. They bear the taint of serfdom and slavery. They have been divorced from beauty and pleasure. They have not invited genius,

iTarde, " Laws of Imitation," New York, 1903, p. 354.

but on the contrary they have repelled it. No wonder that, Hke Cinderella, they are scorned by their more fortunate sisters. But think of the possibilities of these arts when beauty is brought back to them, when their end is life, and the joy and intelligence of the laborer are manifested in his product.

9. The Vital Arts. — Turning now to the second division, the vital arts, these include, as has been seen, all the arts which reaUze their conception in living things. There are two kinds of Hving things, plants and animals. There are therefore two grand divisions of the vital arts, those which deal with plants and those which deal with animals. They are the botanical arts and the zoological arts. Inasmuch as it would be distasteful to some to find man classed with the animals, we may make a concession to popular prejudice and divide the forms of Hf e into plants, animals, and man. The corresponding arts are the botanical (better the phytological, from <t>VT6v, a plant), the zoological, and the anthropological.

The phytological arts include agriculture, horticulture, forestry, landscape gardening, and the like. It will be surprising, and to some possibly it may seem ridiculous, to find agriculture, that is, farming, ranked above the fine arts. It must be remembered, however, that the principle of the present classification is not actual, but potential utility, not the existing conditions of the arts, but their ideal conditions. Farming is to-day, as a rule, empirical. It is seldom practiced consciously as an art. The farmer too often has little conception of the possibilities and the real significance of what he does. "The planter, who is a man sent out into the fields to gather food," says Emerson, "is seldom cheered by any idea of the true dignity of his ministry. He sees his bushel and his cart, and nothing beyond, and sinks into the farmer, instead of Man on the farm." ^ But farming ideally and potentially is something vastly more than breaking " the stubborn glebe," scattering seed, and gathering in the harvest. It is the art of conceiving new and improved forms of plant Hfe and, by intelligent control of the forces operating upon that kind of life, of bringing these new forms into concrete existence. Scientific farming has already revealed some of the possibilities in this direction. It has developed new varieties of grains and grasses, and by an improved adaptation of crops has made the desert to blossom as the rose. What is yet to be accomplished is best suggested by modern achievements in horticulture. Men like Luther Burbank have, by intelligence and skill, developed new varieties of fruit and of flower, — the seedless orange, the coreless apple, the spineless cactus, the variegated poppy. They have originated new varieties, even new species, and have thus duplicated the work ordinarily attributed to the Creator. Farming practiced as an art, with the intelligence and the enthusiasm hitherto applied to the fine

1 Complete Works, Concord Edition, Vol. I, p. 8;^.

arts, would deck the world in new forms of beauty and multiply utilities almost beyond the possibility of the imagination to conceive.

The botanical or phytological arts are, as has been said, limited in their application to plant life. Above the plants are the animals. They are a higher, a more complex, form of matter. They are the material in which the ideals of the zoological arts are realized. Hence the zoological arts must rank above the botanical arts. They include domestication, breeding, and training. The utility of these arts will not be questioned. Who can estimate, for instance, the value to mankind of the domestication of animals ? " A time came," says Fiske, ** when man learned how to turn to his uses the gigantic strength of oxen and horses, and when that day came it was the beginning of such an era as the world had never before witnessed. So great and so manifold were the results of this advancement, that doubtless they furnished the principal explanation of the fact that the human race developed so much more rapidly in the eastern hemisphere than in the western. ... At the time when the western hemisphere was visited by the Europeans of the sixteenth century after Christ, its foremost races, in the highlands of Mexico, Central America, and Peru, had, in respect of material progress, reached a point nearly abreast of that which had been attained in Egypt and Babylonia, perhaps seven or eight thousand years before Christ ; and this difference of nine or ten millenniums in advancement can be to a very considerable extent explained by the absence of horses and oxen in the western hemisphere. If such a statement surprises you, just stop to consider what an immense part of our modern civilization goes back by linear stages of succession to the era of pastoral life, that state of society which is described for us in the Book of Genesis and in the Odyssey ; then try to imagine what the history of the world as we know it would have been without that pastoral stage." ^ But bare utility is not the only element connected with these arts. When we consider the work of the breeder and the fancier, the possibilities of bringing into existence new animal forms, and of producing in these forms strange and pleasing effects by establishing new shades and combinations of color, the element of beauty is also seen to be present, potentially at least, in these arts as well as in painting and sculpture. The method of the breeder and fancier is artificial selection, which is far swifter in modifying a type than natural selection. Lord Somerville, in speaking of what breeders have done for sheep, says, " It would seem as if they had chalked out upon a wall a form perfect in itself, and then had given it existence." ^ But if from the simplest beginnings, "while this planet has gone circling on according to the fixed