Lectures on pedagogy, theoretical and practical

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Author's Preface

I DO not presume to offer to the public, in this volume, a complete treatise on education : my purpose is simpler and more modest. In bringing together the lectures given in the higher normal schools of Fontenay-aux-Roses and Saint Cloud, I have simply intended to compose an elementary manual of teaching. In the vast field of the principles and the practice of education, I have selected only the indispensable ideas, those of which no one who educates and instructs children can afford to be ignorant.

In the composition of this volume I have made free use of the ■works of my predecessoi's. The best praise that can be given them is to do what I have done, — quote them on almost every page. However, I have endeavored not to imitate them, in at least two respects, — their dryness and their prolixity.

Too many manuals of teaching, in fact, are but dry nomenclatures, in which the spirit of pure form reigns supreme and multiplies divisions, definitions, and distinctions of every sort, with a pedantic display which seems borrowed from the ancient logic.

On the other hand, taking advantage of the intimate relations between pedagogy and the philosophical sciences, other writers on education have given undue extension to the sphere of their art, having included in it, in fact, the whole of psychology, the whole of ethics, and the whole of philosophy.

I have sought a just medium between these extremes, and have attempted to make my treatment of the subject at once simple and of living interest.

I do not think it enough to enumerate a certain number of abstract rules and scholastic formulas : my treatment ascends to principles, but with as much discretion as possible. From the

Vm PREFACE.

medley of modern lucubrations it lops oft" everything superfluous, in order to reserve for use what is really essential ; it restricts itself to the clearest and the most practical conceptions.

1 divide my treatise into two very distinct parts. I first study the child in himself, in his natural development, and in the formal culture of his faculties ; and then, abandoning the subject of education, I examine the object of it, — that is to say, instruction and discipline, the methods of the one and the principles and rules of the other.

In the first part, I call to my aid all who have studied childhood, correcting and completing their observations by my own studies.

In the second part, I have expressly consulted those who have professional competence, who have in their own practice put to tlie test methods of instruction and principles of discipline. For example, in order to extract the practical suggestions that are, as it were, buried in them, I have perused the voluminous and interesting Rapports of the Inspectors-General upon the condition of primary instruction.^

Without doubt, the best system of teaching, like the best logic, is still that which we make for ourselves through study, experience, and personal reflection. Certainly, it is not required to have learned by heart and recited, as some authors of teachers' manuals still demand, a catechism of method ; but in order to aid the reflection and guide the experience of each novice in instruction, the book is very far from being useless, though it do nothing more than stimulate personal reflection. It is just in this spirit, less for imposing doctrines than for suggesting reflections, that this modest volume has been written. I trust that it may receive the same welcome as my " History of Pedagogy," of which it is the sequel.

1 Paris, Imprimerie nationale, 1879-1880, 1881-1882.

THEOEETICAL PEDAGOGY.

THEORETICAL PEDAGOGY.

Chapter I. Education In General

1. Origin of the Word Education. — "Education" is a word relatively new in the French language. Montaigne employs it only once, in a sentence often quoted: "I protest against all violence in the education of a tender soul, which is being trained for honor and liberty."^ With this exception, he always employs the expression institution cles enfaiits, from which we have the word instituteur. The writers of the sixteenth century were accustomed to use the word notirritnre in the same sense, as in the well-known proverb, Nourriture passe nature (Nurture is more than Nature). But in the seventeenth century, "education " comes into current use to designate the art of train-

2. Education is the Prerogative of Man. — To man must be reserved the noble term education. Training suffices for animals, and cultivation for plants. Man alone is susceptible of education, because he alone is capable of governing himself, and of becoming a moral being. An animal, through its instincts, is all that it can be, or at least all that it has need of being. But man, in order to

1 Montaigne, Essais, I., II., Chap. VIII.

perfect himself, has need of reason and reflection ; and as at birth he does not himself possess these qualities, he must be brought up by other men.

3. Is THERE A Science of Education? — No one doubts, to-day, the possibility of a science of education. Education is itself an art, skill embodied iu practice ; and this art certainly supposes something besides the knowledge of a few rules learned from books. It requires experience, moral qualities, a certain warmth of heart, and a real inspiration of intelligence. There can be no education without an educator, any more than poetry without a poet, — that is, without some one who by his personal qualities vivifies and applies the abstract and lifeless laws of treatises on education. But, just as eloquence has its rules derived from rhetoric, and poetry its rules derived from poetics ; just as, in another order of ideas, medicine, which is an art, is based upon the theories of medical science ; so education, before being an art in the hands of the masters who practise it, who enrich it by their versatility and their devotion, who put upon it the impress of their mind and heart, — education is a science which philosophy deduces from the general laws of human nature, and which the teacher perfects by inductions from his own experience.

There is, therefore, a science of education, a practical and applied science, which now has its principles and laws, which gives proof of its vitality by a great number of publications, both in France and abroad, and which has also its peculiar designation, Pedagogy^ although there is still hesitation in adopting it.

4. Pedagogy and Education. — It is to be regretted that so many writers still confound pedagogy with education.

There is more than a shade of difference between these two terms. Pedagogy, so to speak, is the theory of education, and education the practice of pedagogy. Just as one may be a rhetorician without being an orator, so one may be a pedagogue — that is, may have a thorough knowledge of the x'ules of education — without being an educator, without having practical skill in the training of children.^

" To form a man," says Marion, eloquently, " is a fine art, a perilous undertaking. In this art do not venture the infallibility of a systematic geometry, and do not expect from it the supreme tranquillity of finely wrought demonstrations. In the prosecution of this art there will be contest, the unforeseen, brusque transitions, whims, failures, recoveries, inertia, the miracles of free and active nature. There will be all the tumultuous ebb and flow, the bursting into harmony and the degenerating into chaos, which are in man as well as in the sea." ^

But from these difficulties in practice we must not conclude either that the rules of education do not exist, or that it is useless to know them. In medicine also how much

1 M. Compayrc's use of the terms pedagogy and pedagogue may be illustrated as follows : A writer who discusses educational questions from the theoretical point of view is a pedagogue, and his treatise is a work on pedagogy ; while a man who directs educational affairs without actually teaching, as a superintendent of public instruction or of schools, is an educator. A history of pedagogy is an account of the rise, progress, and present state of educational theories or ideas ; while a history of education is an account of the rise, progress, and present state of educational systems and establishments. In other words, education in its theoretical or scientific aspect is pedagogy ; while in its practical aspect, or in its art-phase, it is education. But if distinctive terms are needed to designate these two phases, why not call education in the first sense Pedagogics, and in the second Pedagogy? We might thus escape the tautology of theoretical pedagogy and the inconsistency of practical pedagogy. (P.)

2 Marion's Lectures on the Science of Education, Manuel ge'neral de rinstruction primaire, Paris, 1884, p. 13.

that is uuforeseen, what freaks of nature, how many surprises that baffle our fears or deceive our hopes ! And yet what we deuiand above all else of a physician is to have a thorough knowledge of the principles and rules of his art.

Let it not ]:»e said, then, that for educating men there is required neither precision of anal^'sis nor science. Let it be said, rather, that all this is not enough, because living nature, by its sudden upheavals and unexpected falls, by its mobility and its diversity, can hold in check the best-established calculations. But recollect, however, that there are rules and principles, if not infallible, at least generally efficacious. Recollect, also, that these rules are becoming more exact day by day, and that with the progress of science tliis approximation becomes greater and greater.

The further w^e go, the better we know childhood, and the more deeply we fathom the laws of human nature ; the more perfect, also, educational methods become, and the more nearly tiiey approach the truth. It is said that experience is everything and science nothing ; but what, pray, is science itself, if not the experience of the ancients and of all those who have preceded us? Then let us not allow ourselves to think, with Diesterweg, that the study of pedagogy is of no account, and that one is born an educator just as one is born a poet.^ Let us not fall into the prejudice of thinking that a professor or a teacher has no more need of knowing the theoretical laws of education and instruction than we have of learning the functions of digestion from a book on physiology, in order that our food may be properly digested. In the matter of education, that which is worth still more than inspiration is inspiration enlightened and regulated by science.

1 CEuvres Choisies de Diesterweg. Hachette, 1884, p. 272.

EDUCATION IN GENEliAL. 7

5. Pedagogy, and its Scientific Principles. — Can it

be said that pedagogy has now become an organized science, and that recent progress has liberated it from those gropings and uncertainties whicli every science traverses in its earlier stages ? We do not go so far in our assumptions. Notwithstanding the great feats already accomplished, it is still necessary to repeat to-day what Diesterweg said in 1830. The scientific coordination of the precepts and experiments of pedagogy is still rather an aspiration or a hope than an accomplished fact.

"Would to God," he wrote, "that we had made enough progress so that, I do not say all men, but merely men of culture, were agreed as to the best mode of education ; that we could not only determine with certainty what is good and what is bad, and what the results are of such or such a method, but also give a reason for our conclusions." ^

But if we still have need of seeking the solution of certain problems, we at least know where these solutions can be found, and from what sources we must draw in order to give more and more exactness to our conceptions of education. Like all the practical sciences, pedagogy rests upon certain theoretical data, or upon a scientific basis.

6. The Relation of Pedagogy to Psychology. — Just as the physician ought to know the organs and the functions of the body which he treats, the farmer the nature of the soil which he cultivates, and the sculptor the qualities of the marble which he chisels and of the clay which he kneads, so the teacher cannot do without the knowledge of the laws of the mental organization, — that is, the study of psychology.

In truth, the rules for teaching are but the laws of psy-

1 Diesterweg, op. cit, p. 54.

chology applied, transformed into practical maxims, and tested by experience.

Psychology is the basis of all the practical sciences which have to do with the moral faculties of man ; but the other sciences which are derived from psychology treat of but certain energies of the human soul, — logic, of thought; aesthetics, of the sentiment of the l)eautiful ; ethics, of the will. Pedagogy alone embraces all faculties of the soul, and should put under contribution the whole of psychology.

7. Is THERE AN InFANT PSYCHOLOGY? It is UOt, llOW-

ever, general psychology, the psychology of the grown man, which alone ought to inspire the teacher. Whatever may have l)een said a])out it, there is a psychology of the child, because there is a childhood of the soul. The idealists, like Malebranche, should be the only ones to assert that the human spirit has no age, that from the hour of birth it is all that it can become, and that it is already capable of comprehending the loftiest abstractions.^ To an impartial observer it is evident that the mind is developed and formed in accordance with certain laws of growth which definitely constitute the psychology of the child. Psycholog}', in a word, is not an invarialile geometry, establishing immutable theorems. ])ut a history, at least for the first years of life, which relates the gradual evolution of the different faculties.

It has been truly said that if we wish to train a man, we must know the psychology of men ; Imt we would add that if we would educate a child, we must stud}^ the psychology of the child.2

1 See Compayre, History of Pedagogy (Boston: 188G), p. 193.

2 It is safer, with Pestalozzi, to loolv for tlie man in tlie child, than to regard the cliild as being sui generis. The proaress from childliood to manhood is an insensible transition ; there is no brusque passage

8. The Relations of Pedagogy with other Sciences. — Of course, siuce pedagogy embraces the whole human being, it does not derive its inspiration from psN'chology alone. In order to give a competent treatment of physical education, and even of certain parts of intellectual and moral education, biology in general, and more particular^ the anatomy and physiology of man, are summoned to render important services.

In the same way it would be eas}^ to prove that pedagogy cannot dispense with the aid of ethics and logic. Education tends to lead man to his proper destination, and it is ethics which determines the real end of human actions, the essential nature of all that we call good and desiral)le. On the other hand, education is the culture of thought and reason, and it is logic which makes known the best methods of weighing knowledges in order to discover the truth.

Pedagogy, or the science of education, then, has its method, which consists in observing all the facts of the pliysical and moral life of man, or rather in making use of the general laws which inductive reflection has constructed from these facts. Let us now define with greater precision its object and the principles which ought to guide it.

9. Different Definitions of Education. — The educators are rare who, like Locke, have written formal treatises on education without defining it, without collecting into one single formula the elements of their system.^ In general,

from one to the other, such as seems to be implied in the term '' infant psychology." However, this distinction will be serviceable if it shall emphasize the need of adapting instruction to the powers and the mental needs of the child. Dr. White's discussion of this subject (Elements of Pedagogy) is valuable. (P.) 1 See the opening paragraphs of Thoughts on Education.

each writer on education lias his own definition, and this diversit}' is chiefly due to the fact that the greater number have wrongly included in their definitions the indication of the particular methods and diftereut means which education calls to its aid.

It will not be without interest to mention in this place the principal definitions that are of note, either on account of the names of their authors or of the relative exactness of their connotations.

One of the most ancient, and also one of the best, is that of Plato: —

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

The perfection of human nature, such indeed is the- ideal purpose of education.

It is in the same sense that Kant, Madame Necker de Saussure, and Stuart Mill have given the following definitions : —

" Edvication is the development in man of all the perfection which his nature permits."

" To educate a child is to put him in a condition to fulfil as perfectly as possible the purpose of his life."

" Education includes whatever we do for ourselves and whatever is done for us by others, for the express purpose of bringing us nearer to the perfection of our nature."

Here it is the general purpose of education which is principally in view. But the term perfection is somewhat vague, and requires some explanation. Herbert Spencer's definition responds in part to this need : —

"Education is the preparation for complete living."

But in what does complete living itself consist? The definitions of German educators give us the reply : —

EDUCATION IN GENERAL. ll

"Education is at once the art and the science of gaiiding the young and of putting them in a condition, by the aid of insti'uction, through the power of ennilation and good example, to attain the triple end assigned to man by his religious, social, and national destination." (Niemeyer.)

" Education is the harmonious and equable evolution of the luunan faculties by a method founded uj)on the nature of the mind for developing all the faculties of the soul, for stirring up and nourishing all the principles of life, while shunning all onesided culture and taking account of the sentiments on which the strength and worth of men depend." (Stein.)

" Education is the harmonious development of the physical, intellectual, and moral faculties." (Deuzel.)

These definitions have the common fault of not throwing into sharper relief the essential cliaracter of education properly so called, which is the premeditated, intentional action which the will of a man exercises over the cliild to insti'uet and train him. They might be applied equally well to the natural, instinctive, and predetermined development of the human faculties. In this respect we prefer the following formulas : —

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

" Education is the sum of the intentional actions by means of which man attempts to raise his fellows to perfection." (Marion.)

" Education is the sum of the efforts whose purpose is to give to man the complete possession and correct use of his different faculties." (Henry Joly.)

Kant rightly demanded that the purpose of education should be to train children, not with reference to their success in the present state of human society, but with reference to a better state possible in the future, in accordance with an ideal conception of luimanity. We must surely assent to these high and noble aspirations, without forgetting, however, the practised aims of educational effort. It is in this sense that James Mill wrote : —

" The end of education is to render the individual as much as possible an instrument of happiness, first to himseK, and next to other beings."

Doubtless this definition is incomplete, but it has the merit of leading us back to the practical realities and the real conditions of existence. The word happiness is the utilitarian translation of the word perfection. A lofty idealism should not make us forget that the human being aspires to be happy, and that happiness is also a part of his destination. Moreover, without losing sight of the fact that education is above all else the disinterested development of the individual, of one's personality, it is well that the definition of education should remind us that we do not live solely for ourselves, for our own single and selfish perfection, but that we also live for otliers, and that our existence is subordinate to that of others.

What are we to conclude from this review of so many different definitions? First, that their authors have often complicated them b}' the introduction of various elements foreign to the exact notion of the word education, and that it would perhaps be better to be satisfied to say, with Rousseau,, for the sake of uniting simply on tlie sense of the word, " Education is the art of bringing up children and of forming men." But if we are determined to include in the definition of education the determination of the subject upon which it acts and tlie object which it pursues, we shall find the elements of such a conception here and there in the ilifferent formulas which we have quoted. It would suffice to bring them together and to say : —

"Eduralinn is the sum of the leHective efforts by which we aid nature in the development of the physical,^ intellectual, and moral faculties of man, in view of his perfection, his happiness, and his social destination."

10. Division of Education. — Education comprises different divisions, which correspond to a similar division of the faculties of human nature.

Whatever theory may be held as to the nature of the soul, whether it be considered as a distinct and independent substance or as related to the body as effect to its cause, the duality of the physical and the moral is no less real on this account. Hence there is a prime distinction to be made between the education of the body and the education of the mind.

But the mind itself is subdivided into a certain number of faculties. Thus it has long been the custom to distinguish intellectual education from moral education, the first cultivating the intellectual faculties and communicating knowledges, the other developing the heart and the will, and forming the sentiments, the habits, the conscience, and the moral powers.

In truth, it were preferable, having once started in this line of thought, to follow to the end the psychological division of the faculties, and to distinguish the education

^ In a definition of education we cannot omit the development of tlie physical faculties. Yet many educators pass them by in silence. This is easily accounted for in the case of theologians, like Dupauloup, who define education as "the art of preparing for the life eternal by exalting the present life." But it is not so easy to explain what Mr. Bain says : " Physical education, however important it may be, may be kept quite separate." (Education as a Science, p. 3.) So an English writer, James Sully, defines education in too narrow a sense when he says that it is " the practical science which aims at cultivating the mind on the side of Knowing, Feeling, and Willing alike." {Outlines of Psychologij, p. 15.)

of the intelligence, the education of the sentiments, and the education of the will.

Horace Mann, the American educator, distinguished the tliree essential parts of education in the following eloquent extract : —

"By the word education I mean much more than the ability to read, write, and keep common accounts. I comprehend, under this noble word, such a training of the body as shall build it up with robustness and vigor, at once protecting it from disease and enabling it to act formatively upon the crude substances of nature, — to turn a wilderness into cxxltivated fields, forests into ships, or quarries and claj'-pits into villages and cities. I mean also to include such a cultivation of the intellect as shall enable it to discover those permanent and mighty laws which pervade all parts of the ci-eated universe, whether material or spiritual. This is necessary, because, if we act in obedience to these laws, all the resistless forces of Nature become our auxiliaries and cheer us on to cei'tain prosperity and triumph ; but if we act in contravention or defiance of these laws, then Nature resists, thwarts, l)affles us, and in the end it is just as certain that she will overwhelm us with ruin, as it is that God is stronger than man. And, finally, by the term Education I mean such a culture of our moral atfections and religious susceptibilities as, in the course of Natiu-e and Providence, shall lead to a subjection or conformity of all our appetites, propensities, and sentiments to the will of Heaven. "' i

11. Another Division of Education. — Tlie preceding division is founded on the consideration of the subject, ■ — that is, of the faculties of man ; but if we regard the object, or the end of education, other divisions are made necessary.

In fact, a general or liberal education, which is meet for all, is one thing, and a professional or technical education, which prepares only for a given vocation, is quite another. At the normal school, for exituqdiN it is not the purpose

1 Lectures nn Edncntum. Boston, 1855, pp. 117, 118.

merely to educate men, but to train teachers ; to a general education there is added a special education, an education in pedagogy.

" These two species of education," says Dupanloup, " a general and liberal education, and a special and professional education, are equally important to man. Moreover, they are not opposed to one another. Directly to the contrary, they strengthen and pei'fect one another ; each is accomplished tlu'ough the other. To neglect one to the advantage of the other would be to weaken them, and often to ruin both at once." ^

12. Liberal Education. — The true term which should be applied to the education which is general and essential is "liberal education," although this term has till now been expressly reserved for the studies which prepare for the liberal professions.

If all men are free, morally free in the determination of their actions, and politicall}' free through their participation in the government of the society of which they form a part, is it not evident that they all have the right, whatever may be their condition, to a liberal education which enlightens and emancipates their mind and their will ? Formerly the classical humanities, the dead languages, were regarded as the sole instrument of a liberal education ; but to-day historical and scientific studies, even reduced to their simplest elements, appear to us to be studies truly liberalizing, and constitute what might be called the primary humanities. Even the physical exercises which give agility to the body and prepare it to become at a later period the docile instrument of professional education, constitute in one sense a part of a liberal education,

" That man has received a liberal education," says Mr. Huxley, " who has been so trained in youth that his body is the ready

1 Dupanloup, Be VEducation, tome I., p. 312.

servant of his will, and does with ease and pleasure all the work that, as a mechanism, it is capable of ; whose intellect is a clear, cold, logical engine, with all its parts of equal strength and in smooth working order, ready, like a steam-engine, to be turned to any kind of work, and spin the gossamers as well as forge the anchors of the mind ; whose mind is stored with a knowledge of the great and fundamental truths of Nature and of the laws of her operations ; one who, no stunted ascetic, is full of life and fire, but whose passions are trained to come to heel by a vigorous will, the servant of a tender conscience ; who has learned to love all beauty, whether of Nature or of art, to hate all vileness, to respect others as himself." ^

It is not necessary, then, in order to receive a liberal education, to aim at a high intellectual instruction. It suffices that the elementary instruction has been directed in such a way as to prepare for the free development of the reason. It may be said, in one sense, that the old education of the Jesuits was not a liberal education, since it did not tend in a sufficient degree towards the emancipation of the will and the mind. On the contrary, a poor workman gives his children a liberal education if he strives to open their intelligence and to fortify their moral energy, even though it is within his power to teach them nothing else than the elements of the sciences.

13. The Principle of Nature. — Especially since Rousseau's time, educational writers are fond of repeating that the grand ])rinciple of education is conformity to the laws of nature. We do not intend to oppose this notion. The nearer we come to the natural needs of the child, the more fully we take into account his aptitudes, the more perfectly shall we adapt the objects and the methods of instruction to the progressive development of his faculties,