Chapter 10

[34]Dewey, John, “The Aim of History in Elementary Education,”Elementary School Record, November, 1900, University of Chicago Press.

259.With the foregoing should be conjoined much attention to external nature, to the changes corresponding to the seasons, and to means of intercommunication.

Under this head belongs, on the one hand, observation of the heavenly bodies,—where sun and moon rise, how the latter waxes and wanes, where the north star is found, and what arcs are described by the brighter stars and the most conspicuous constellations.

Here belongs, on the other hand, technological knowledge, acquired partly through direct observation, partly through lessons in descriptive physical science. Technology ought not to be considered merely from the side of the so-called material interests. It furnishes very important connecting links between the apprehension of the facts of nature and human purposes. Every growing boy and youth should learn to handle the ordinary tools of the carpenter as well as rule and compasses. Mechanical skill would often prove far more useful than gymnastic exercises. The former benefits the mind, the latter benefit the body. With burgher schools should go manual training-schools, which does not mean that the latter must necessarily be trade schools. Finally, every human being ought to learn how to use his hands. The hand has a place of honor beside language in elevating mankind above the brute.

The foregoing store of information also enters intothe study of geography; how, will appear in the next chapter.

The soundness of the foregoing remarks is witnessed by the rapid development of manual training-schools in the last decade, and the almost universal desire, if not practice, of providing considerable amounts of manual training for the pupils of the grammar grades. The girls usually have some form of sewing and cooking, while the boys have sloyd or other similar tool work in wood. Therationaleof requiring girls to do carpenter work instead of the forms of manual exercise that especially pertain to their sex is not yet satisfactorily established.

260.On the observation of the heavenly bodies is based popular astronomy, which provides a test as to whether the mathematical imagination has been properly cultivated.

261.Elementary statics and mechanics will serve as an early introduction to physics, which combines with the easiest portions of chemistry. Long before physics is formally presented, it must be foreshadowed by many things stimulating the attention. Notice is directed to clocks, mills, the most familiar phenomena of atmospheric pressure, to electrical and magnetic toys, etc. In burgher schools, at least, so much must be said about buildings and machines as is necessary to incite to further study in the future. The same holds for the fundamental facts of physiology.

262.As often as a new topic for study is introduced, it is important to give prominence to some ofthe salient facts, and these must be accurately memorized. Moreover, pupils need to have practice in exact description. Where practicable, these descriptions are corrected by actually looking at the objects themselves.

Hasty and superficial observation of objects presented for inspection always calls for severe criticism; else collections and experiments become valueless. Nor should objects be shown too lavishly; pupils must often be told beforehand what they will have to look for. Frequently it may serve the purpose to employ successively good descriptions, pictures, and direct observation.

263.Asto geography, at least two courses may be distinguished. One of these is analytic and begins with the pupil’s immediate neighborhood, the topography of the place, while the other starts with the globe. Here only the former will be discussed, as the latter can be had directly from good text-books.

Note.—The usual method of taking the globe as the point of departure would be less open to criticism, if, in order to render the conception of the earth’s sphericity more intelligible, attention were directed to the shape of the moon, the observation being carried on occasionally with the aid of a telescope. But even if this is done, it still remains a blunder to substitute the faint and vague idea of a huge ball for direct perception. Equally injudicious is the plan of beginning with Portugal and Spain. That spot where pupils and teacher are at the moment is the point from which the pupils must take their bearings, and in thought extend their horizon. It will never do to pass over the natural starting-points provided by sense-perception.

Had the note to this section been properly heeded, we should not have had to wait for fifty years after Herbart’s death before witnessing the present rational methods of applying geographical science to elementary education. It is the proud boast of the modern elementary geography that it beginswith a study of the pupil’s actual environment. The termhome geographyhas now become a familiar one. It signifies that the pupil is taught to observe the geographical elements as they exist in his own neighborhood. He studies hills, watercourses, soil, woods, lakes, together with the industrial phenomena that come within the reach of his investigation. Upon this primary sense-basis he rears the structure of his geographical knowledge.

264.Geography is an associating science, and use must be made of the opportunities it offers for binding together a variety of facts, none of which should be allowed to remain isolated in the mind of the learner. It is not the mathematical portion, supplemented and made interesting by popular astronomy, that serves as the first connecting link between mathematics and history (second course); even the rudiments of geography may, on the basis of observation exercises, furnish practice in the determination of triangles which occur on the first maps used, although this step is not always necessary when once some skill has been acquired in singling out features worthy of note. (The determination of position by latitude and longitude is, for the first course, as irrational as the action of a traveller in Germany or France would be if he set about to put together the picture of the places where he expects to remain, with the aid of their relation to the equator and the first meridian.)

Physical geography presupposes some knowledgeof nature, and furnishes the occasion for enriching that knowledge. Political geography designates the manner in which man inhabits and uses the earth’s surface. It is the pedagogical aim of instruction in geography to associate all this.

265.The teacher must cultivate the art of narration; his accounts must resemble those of a traveller. But the narrative should conflict with the determination of the relative position of places (by grouping them about one principal place, and in the case of more than one by the use of triangles) as little as, in teaching history, the story of events should conflict with the scheme of chronology. The two go together. The narrative is to present a clear picture, and to this end requires the support of a few fixed points in space. On the other hand, these points should not remain isolated; they are to be connected by the lines of the picture.

266.It is not a matter of indifference how many unfamiliar names are mentioned in one minute or hour. Nor is it immaterial whether they are uttered before or after perception of the picture which the map presents. The first requisite is that every map placed before the pupils be conceived of as a country; three, at most four, names of rivers, and the names of a few mountains are sufficient; completeness is out of place here. The few names given provide ample opportunity for fixing the position of notablepoints, both with reference to one another and to the boundary lines of the country.

Due prominence having been given to these geographical features, they should then be connected, say with the aid of a blackboard, on which they are roughly sketched one by one, and properly joined together afterward. In the case of the sources and outlets of rivers, this may be done by a line to indicate the course. If now the pupils have made good previous use of their eyes, especially if they have noticed the fall of brooks and rivers, and have observed the slope of the ground in a particular region,—if they have not, the deficiency must be made good first of all,—it will not be too early to pass on to a general description of the appearance which the country under consideration would present to a traveller. And now the time has come for a somewhat fuller mention of the names of rivers and mountains, but these names must at once be gone over several times by the pupils. Doing so will reveal whether the list of new names has been made too long; it is often largely due to carelessness in this respect, if the study of geography proves barren or onerous. Next in order follow detailed descriptions of particular wonders of nature, where there are such. Attention is then given to some of the principal cities, mention being made of the number of inhabitants. Here the determination of relative location comes in again, and for this the self-activity of the pupils isindispensable. Finally, human industry and art, so far as they relate to the products of the country, together with the little of political organization that pupils can grasp. The names of the provinces should ordinarily be omitted from the first course.

This section is suggestive of the old geography of the last half century,—location, names, maps, the barren details of the science. Geography is something richer than all this. The old geography was political in the foregoing sense. The first break was in making it physiographical, the last in making it social. Names as such are nothing, and physical facts little more, but both become of value as soon as they are brought into relation to man,—his life, his work, his recreation. Geography is not essentially the location of places, nor is it physiography, but it is a study of the essential facts concerning the surface of the earth as they are related to man himself; it is, in short,humanin the fullest sense. It gives a concrete explanation of civilization; it explains the production, the exchange, and, to some extent, the consumption of goods. It contrasts countries, not so much by square miles, as by the number of miles of railroads they possess. (The most momentous fact of modern civilization is the railroad. Twelve billions of dollars are invested in it in the United States alone. In view of these facts, what shall be said of those recent geographies that keep the children poring over primitive maps for years—maps without a suggestion of a railroad in them? This is an illustration of how prone education is to lag behind the progress of society.)

267.The reviews, which should be frequent, must steadily work toward a growing firmness of associationbetween names and places. Each name is to be referred to the place it designates; hence the sequence of names must often be reversed, and the map looked over in all directions and from all points of view. How far to go is determined in accordance with individual capacity. From some, only what is absolutely essential can be demanded; from others, much more, in order that they may exert themselves properly.

268.In the midst of other studies on which greater stress is laid, geography is as a rule slighted by pupils and sometimes even by teachers. This attitude merits severe criticism. Instruction in geography may be reduced to a minimum, the first course even requires this, but it should not be disparaged. With many pupils, geography is the first study which gives them the consciousness that they can learn as they are expected to learn. With all pupils, geography must connect the remaining studies and must keep them connected. Without it everything remains unstable. Historical events lack places and distances; products of nature are without the regions where they are found; popular astronomy, which is called upon so often to prevent and dispel erroneous notions, is deprived of its very basis, and the geometrical imagination of one of its most important incentives. If the facts of knowledge are allowed to fall asunder in this way, instruction endangers the whole of education.

269.Therewould be less controversy about language teaching if existing differences in conditions were given proper attention.

The most general distinction to make is that between understanding and speaking. The distance between the two is a given factor at the time when regular instruction begins. It is very great in some cases, and, again, slight in others, according to individual aptitude and early surroundings.

270.First of all, one’s language was acquired by hearing it spoken, by receiving it from others, by imitation; it was refined or vulgar; it was perceived accurately or indistinctly; it was imitated by organs, good, bad, or indifferent. Little by little the imperfections of the earliest stage are outgrown, where cultured persons set a daily example and insist on correctness of speech. Sometimes, however, it takes years to bring about such a result.

271.Another factor, and one deeply rooted in individual temperament, is the stronger or weaker impulse toward expression through language. This fact elevatesthe language of each one above mere imitation; its improvement must start from the thoughts which it seeks to express. Striking progress of this kind often occurs during adolescence.

The differences noted in this and the two preceding sections are psychological, hence common to German and American children. The problem of teaching American children their mother-tongue, assumed to be English, is both harder and easier than to teach German to German children. It is easier in that English is mostly uninflected, hence unencumbered by nice distinctions in grammatical form. This same fact, on the other hand, causes didactic difficulties, since most teachers are at a loss as to what definite body of knowledge they should or can impart that will train the child into a mastery of good English speech. The last twenty years have seen a large number of experiments on the part of authors in the effort to present a body of information and exercises calculated to secure a good training in the mother-tongue. These efforts have met with but partial success, owing to the inherent difficulties of the subject. Many who can teach a foreign language, where there is a movable fulcrum of difficulties to be overcome, such as those found in inflection, or in the meaning of foreign words, fail when confronted by a language that is practically uninflected, and in which the words are easily understood.The old recourse was technical grammar. But this is an analytical study, calculated to lead to apprehension of subtle meanings, rather than to an instinct for correct form. Furthermore, the grammar cannot be successfully studied until after the habits of speech are fairly fixed. For these reasons, it bears much the same relation to living speech that formal logic does to real thinking. Grammar makes the mind keento detect formal errors of speech, just as logic trains one to detect fallacies in reasoning.The first important instrument for securing good English in the early primary grades is narration by the teacher and repetition by the children. This means, potent enough to form the speech of any child whether from the slums or from the homes of those who know no English, is rarely utilized up to the full measure of its efficiency. Teachers are filled with the prepossession that they must enable their pupils to write good English, forgetting that if the mind is habituated tothinkin good English first, the problem of writing it is well-nigh solved. The requisites for successful oral training in the mother-tongue are first, the selection of a body of interesting and appropriate literature, and second, skill in narration by the teacher. Given these two things, and we have the first in great abundance, and every child will be able in a year to give extended and correct speech within the range of his sphere of thought to an almost unlimited extent. His tenacious memory for forms frequently heard, together with his delight in repeating almost word for word stories told in his presence, will produce astonishing facility in correct speech. As much of this may be written as seems best, but it is probable that there would not be great loss if a child were not called upon to write a ‘composition’ before he is ten or twelve years old. Could we be sure he would go through the high school, formal writing might be postponed until he enters it. Not much is ever gained by attempts to produce fruit before its natural period for appearing.Upon the basis of this training in correct oral speech, the children may begin, when nine or ten years of age, to have systematic language lessons, which should be calculated to produce two results: first, a facile use of the pen in recordingthought, special caution being given not to weary the mind and body too much by unduly extending the length of the written exercises; second, an inductive approach, through brief written exercises, toward the classifications and distinctions of technical grammar. To be of use, this latter requirement should be clearly understood. The method of approach is purely synthetic. It consists in devices to enable the pupil repeatedly to use a given construction, say a relative pronoun, until the name and construction seem natural from use alone.[35]At the age of thirteen or fourteen the analytical study of grammar should be begun. The essential thing here is that the pupil should connectwordswith theideasthey express, andsentenceswith thethoughtsthat give rise to them.[36]Seeing mental distinctions clearly, he has small difficulty in their written or oral expression.

The old recourse was technical grammar. But this is an analytical study, calculated to lead to apprehension of subtle meanings, rather than to an instinct for correct form. Furthermore, the grammar cannot be successfully studied until after the habits of speech are fairly fixed. For these reasons, it bears much the same relation to living speech that formal logic does to real thinking. Grammar makes the mind keento detect formal errors of speech, just as logic trains one to detect fallacies in reasoning.

The first important instrument for securing good English in the early primary grades is narration by the teacher and repetition by the children. This means, potent enough to form the speech of any child whether from the slums or from the homes of those who know no English, is rarely utilized up to the full measure of its efficiency. Teachers are filled with the prepossession that they must enable their pupils to write good English, forgetting that if the mind is habituated tothinkin good English first, the problem of writing it is well-nigh solved. The requisites for successful oral training in the mother-tongue are first, the selection of a body of interesting and appropriate literature, and second, skill in narration by the teacher. Given these two things, and we have the first in great abundance, and every child will be able in a year to give extended and correct speech within the range of his sphere of thought to an almost unlimited extent. His tenacious memory for forms frequently heard, together with his delight in repeating almost word for word stories told in his presence, will produce astonishing facility in correct speech. As much of this may be written as seems best, but it is probable that there would not be great loss if a child were not called upon to write a ‘composition’ before he is ten or twelve years old. Could we be sure he would go through the high school, formal writing might be postponed until he enters it. Not much is ever gained by attempts to produce fruit before its natural period for appearing.

Upon the basis of this training in correct oral speech, the children may begin, when nine or ten years of age, to have systematic language lessons, which should be calculated to produce two results: first, a facile use of the pen in recordingthought, special caution being given not to weary the mind and body too much by unduly extending the length of the written exercises; second, an inductive approach, through brief written exercises, toward the classifications and distinctions of technical grammar. To be of use, this latter requirement should be clearly understood. The method of approach is purely synthetic. It consists in devices to enable the pupil repeatedly to use a given construction, say a relative pronoun, until the name and construction seem natural from use alone.[35]

At the age of thirteen or fourteen the analytical study of grammar should be begun. The essential thing here is that the pupil should connectwordswith theideasthey express, andsentenceswith thethoughtsthat give rise to them.[36]Seeing mental distinctions clearly, he has small difficulty in their written or oral expression.

[35]For extended illustration of this point, see the “Annotator’s Language Lessons,” the Werner School Book Co., New York, Boston, and Chicago.[36]This position is best exemplified by Mr. George P. Brown in his “Essentials of English Grammar,” the Werner School Book Co., New York, Boston, and Chicago.

[35]For extended illustration of this point, see the “Annotator’s Language Lessons,” the Werner School Book Co., New York, Boston, and Chicago.

[36]This position is best exemplified by Mr. George P. Brown in his “Essentials of English Grammar,” the Werner School Book Co., New York, Boston, and Chicago.

272.Now such facts might seem to point to the conclusion that no special periods of instruction are needed for the mother-tongue, or at least not for language lessons alone. On the one hand, it might be urged that cultured teachers will improve the language of their pupils by their mere example, and by the occasional corrections which will of course be necessary; while, on the other hand, the gradual progress of mental development will shape the means of expression from within, to the natural limits of individualcapacity. But before accepting the view here given, we need to remind ourselves, in the first place, that for a long time the educated teacher is only imperfectly understood by the uneducated listener, and that instruction is very much impeded if each unusual turn of expression necessitates an inquiry as to whether its meaning is clear.

273.But this is not all. Language is also to be read and written. Hence, it becomes a standing object for consideration, and, to one whose knowledge of it is deficient, a source of embarrassment. Accordingly, the first thing for the teacher to do is to show analytically, on the basis of what has been read or written, how the meaning would be lost or altered if either single words were interchanged, or the inflectional endings (especially in German) were incorrectly chosen. That the synthesis of sentences should follow next, advancing step by step toward greater complexity, especially by means of various conjunctions, may be assumed to be well understood.

274.Now if all experienced equal difficulty in their reading and writing, the language lessons designed as a remedy would commend themselves in all cases, and might fittingly be carried to the same extent everywhere.

But here the widest divergence appears. Accordingly, where many are being taught together, the teacher will seek to connect language work with othersubjects. Thus, in the course of the same recitation, analytic instruction may be directed to the language side for some pupils, while for others it may be given a far wider scope. Moreover, the accompanying written exercises may have a corresponding diversity.

275.The work of a recitation period will be further diversified by the introduction of exercises in reading aloud, and in oral reproduction. But never will it be possible to raise all pupils to the same plane of proficiency. Here, above all, the determining power of individuality must be acknowledged.

276.For older boys and young men, the work in the mother-tongue will consist partly in the study of excellent examples of the various kinds of poetry and oratory, partly in the writing of essays. Such study will prove the more profitable, the more perfect the models, the more suitably they are adapted to the stage of culture already attained by the student, and the more scrupulously the teacher refrains from forcing upon him a literary taste not congenial to his nature. The least promising of all written exercises are those in letter-writing. Confidential letters every one can write, each in his own way. Best of all are written exercises with a definite and rich store of thought to draw from and admitting of various forms of treatment. Several may then emulate each other in handling the same theme, and the process of correcting will awaken greater interest in consequence.

277.Asis well known, the exposition of grammatical distinctions and of the many turns of expression whereby language may become an adequate symbolization of thought, gains very materially in clearness by a comparison of the mother-tongue with Latin and Greek. Even with boys not more than eight years old the attempt may be made to utilize this advantage in the teaching of English, whether it has been finally decided, or not, that they are to take the regular classical course. Some boys learn, without much trouble, enough of Latin inflections to enable them soon to translate short sentences from the mother-tongue into Latin, andvice versa.

The present plan in Germany is to have boys in the gymnasia begin the study of Latin at the age of ten. The study is continued for a period of nine years. Greek is begun three years later and continued for six years. In the United States the prevailing plan is to postpone the study of Latin until the pupil enters the high school at the age of fourteen or fifteen. Good private schools and many city grammar schools permit children to begin when some two years younger thanthis. The Report on College Entrance Requirements made before the National Educational Association in 1899 suggested the propriety of extending the influence of the high school over the two highest grades of the grammar school, making in effect a six-year high school course. For students who expect to enter college or technical schools this plan offers great advantages, since it permits the desirable preparation to be distributed over six years instead of being concentrated into four.

278.This experiment will not, however, be long continued; since, with the large majority of pupils, the difficulties accumulate so rapidly as to lead unavoidably to the admission that the burden cannot be assumed merely for the sake of incidental advantages. Moreover, the customary view, handed down from the time of the Reformation, of the relation of the classical languages to the sciences, and to the needs of the age, is undergoing a change more and more apparent from decade to decade. The labor implied in the study of the ancient languages now pays only where talent combines with the earnest purpose to achieve the most complete scholarship.

This remark is prophetic of the enormous increase of instruction in the sciences since Herbart’s day, yet Latin has also enjoyed a phenomenal increase in popularity in American schools. According to the Report of the National Commissioner of Education the increase of enrollment in high schools for the years between 1890 and 1898 was 84 per cent, while the increase in the number of students pursuing Latin was 174per cent.[37]This surprising growth in the number pursuing an ancient language can hardly be accounted for by increased stringency in college entrance requirements in Latin, but must rather be ascribed to a growing conviction among the people that the study is indispensable in secondary education. That this must be the case is seen by the attendant circumstances. In the first place, Latin has become an elective in nearly all high schools; in the next place, many rich equivalents are offered, both in science and in modern languages; and finally our system of universal elementary education has sent large classes of persons into the secondary schools that have never previously been there. Yet the number of students electing this study grows by leaps and bounds.

Note.—(1) The assertion is often heard that the ancient languages supply a permanent standard by which to judge of the progress and the decay of modern languages; also that the ancient classics must be regarded as furnishing the models for purity and beauty in style. These and similar contentions are undeniably correct, and carry the greatest weight, but they are unpedagogical. They embody the absolute requirement, but not that which younger pupils need fortheirculture; and the large majority of those who are fitting themselves for official positions cannot afford to make themselves guardians of language and style. They must take language as it is, and acquire the manner of expression which is adapted to the world of affairs. Those higher cares belong to authors, but no one is educated for authorship.(2) It is a familiar notion that the difficulty would diminish if the ancient languages were begun later, that then the ability to learn would prove greater. On the contrary, the older the pupil the stronger the tendency of his thought-mass toward exclusion. Memory work must be introduced early, especially where its usefulnessdepends wholly on the acquisition of facility. It is essential to begin early in order to make it possible to proceed slowly and to avoid unpedagogical pressure. Four hours a week of Latin do not hurt a healthy, bright boy, provided his other tasks are arranged with pedagogical correctness. To put modern languages first would be to put the cart before the horse. Useful enough, however, are single French and English expressions relating to everyday life. They will be of service in acquiring the pronunciation; but a few phrases do not constitute the teaching of a language.

(2) It is a familiar notion that the difficulty would diminish if the ancient languages were begun later, that then the ability to learn would prove greater. On the contrary, the older the pupil the stronger the tendency of his thought-mass toward exclusion. Memory work must be introduced early, especially where its usefulnessdepends wholly on the acquisition of facility. It is essential to begin early in order to make it possible to proceed slowly and to avoid unpedagogical pressure. Four hours a week of Latin do not hurt a healthy, bright boy, provided his other tasks are arranged with pedagogical correctness. To put modern languages first would be to put the cart before the horse. Useful enough, however, are single French and English expressions relating to everyday life. They will be of service in acquiring the pronunciation; but a few phrases do not constitute the teaching of a language.

[37]Bennett and Bristol, “The Teaching of Latin and Greek,” Longmans, Green & Co., New York, 1900.

279.The manner of teaching the ancient languages, where they are regarded as a matter of necessity or conventionality, no account being taken of pedagogical considerations, need not be discussed here. It must rather be admitted at once that no pedagogical means whatever exist, whereby those who live with their interests strictly confined to the present could be brought to acquire, with genuine sympathy, the content of the works of antiquity.

American teachers in estimating the value of Latin for the high school student lay more stress upon training in the mastery of the mother-tongue than upon the literary contents of the classical writings. Professor Bennett in his treatment of “The Teaching of Latin in the Secondary School,”[38]places in strong light the splendid linguistic training a youth undergoes when taught by a good teacher of this subject. In Germany, since Herbart’s time, Professor Russell tells us that the teaching of Latin has fluctuated between two aims—“between that view which makes the classics a purely formal discipline, and that other view which bases the worth of such astudy on the acquisition of humanistic culture, in contact with ‘the best thoughts of the best men of antiquity.’ In the one case it is considered of equal value as a means of preparation for all trades and professions dependent on intellectual acumen; in the other case it is of worth only for those who can practically apply the technical knowledge thereby acquired, or may have sufficient leisure to enjoy its æsthetic qualities. It is a question of making the ancient literature a means to an end or an end in itself.”[39]The dogma of formal discipline as a leading aim in education has nowhere been more discredited than among Herbartian writers. A judicious estimate of its truth and error is made by Professor Hinsdale.[40]His main conclusions are as follows:—The degree to which power generated by education is general depends upon the extent to which it energizes the mind, and particularly the extent to which it overflows into congruent channels.Such power is far more special than general; it is only in a limited sense that we can be said to have a store of mobilized mental power.No one kind of mental exercise—no few kinds—can develop the whole mind.No study, no single group of studies, contains within itself the possibilities of a whole education.On the other hand, American students rarely study classics long enough to acquire much facility in mastering the literary contents of the ancient writers. If, to considerable extent, the idea of formal discipline is a delusive one, and the idea of abroad, humanistic culture is an illusion of the American schoolmaster, we must justify the study of Latin upon other grounds. The linguistic advantages arising from it are obvious and decided. Among these stands first the mastery of the mother-tongue, first through the comparative study rendered necessary by translation, then by study of the roots of a large part of the English vocabulary, and more remotely by the light thrown by Latin upon history and institutional life.There is an advantage in Latin of great, though usually unmentioned, importance, and that is its peculiar usefulness as an educational instrument, in that it presents to the pupil a graduated scale of surmountable difficulties. In this respect it is surpassed only by mathematics. The difference between a good and a poor educational instrument lies in this: a study offering few surmountable obstacles is a poor educational instrument, for the pupil can find no fulcrum upon which to use his mental powers. Thus he may stare at a natural object when directed to observe its characteristics, but he finds it hard to think when no thought problem is presented to him. But a study that involves thought problems of a definite and solvable kind is a good educational instrument, for the pupil finds something to move and a fulcrum upon which he may exert his power. Translation from an ancient language exercises the working powers of a student up to their highest efficiency, for the translation of ten sentences may easily provide the hardest kind of work for an hour; if ten lines do not, then more lines will. When a foreign language ceases to offer such surmountable difficulties, we leave it for something else that does offer them.

The dogma of formal discipline as a leading aim in education has nowhere been more discredited than among Herbartian writers. A judicious estimate of its truth and error is made by Professor Hinsdale.[40]His main conclusions are as follows:—

On the other hand, American students rarely study classics long enough to acquire much facility in mastering the literary contents of the ancient writers. If, to considerable extent, the idea of formal discipline is a delusive one, and the idea of abroad, humanistic culture is an illusion of the American schoolmaster, we must justify the study of Latin upon other grounds. The linguistic advantages arising from it are obvious and decided. Among these stands first the mastery of the mother-tongue, first through the comparative study rendered necessary by translation, then by study of the roots of a large part of the English vocabulary, and more remotely by the light thrown by Latin upon history and institutional life.

There is an advantage in Latin of great, though usually unmentioned, importance, and that is its peculiar usefulness as an educational instrument, in that it presents to the pupil a graduated scale of surmountable difficulties. In this respect it is surpassed only by mathematics. The difference between a good and a poor educational instrument lies in this: a study offering few surmountable obstacles is a poor educational instrument, for the pupil can find no fulcrum upon which to use his mental powers. Thus he may stare at a natural object when directed to observe its characteristics, but he finds it hard to think when no thought problem is presented to him. But a study that involves thought problems of a definite and solvable kind is a good educational instrument, for the pupil finds something to move and a fulcrum upon which he may exert his power. Translation from an ancient language exercises the working powers of a student up to their highest efficiency, for the translation of ten sentences may easily provide the hardest kind of work for an hour; if ten lines do not, then more lines will. When a foreign language ceases to offer such surmountable difficulties, we leave it for something else that does offer them.

[38]Bennett and Bristol, “The Teaching of Latin and Greek,” pp. 11–32, Longmans, Green & Co., New York, 1900.[39]Russell, “German Higher Schools,” Longmans, Green & Co., New York, 1899.[40]Hinsdale, “Studies in Education,” pp. 46–61, Werner School Book Co., Chicago, 1896.

[38]Bennett and Bristol, “The Teaching of Latin and Greek,” pp. 11–32, Longmans, Green & Co., New York, 1900.

[39]Russell, “German Higher Schools,” Longmans, Green & Co., New York, 1899.

[40]Hinsdale, “Studies in Education,” pp. 46–61, Werner School Book Co., Chicago, 1896.

280.Pedagogically considered, every difference in the degree of vivid realization of antiquity, in thedegree of its correlation with other main departments of knowledge, and in the extent to which a disagreeable aftertaste of school-day drudgery is prevented, determines the greater or smaller value to be ascribed to the knowledge acquired. If the same realization could be secured without the ancient languages and without the potency of early impressions, then the studies mentioned in preceding chapters, which outline the work of burgher schools, would leave nothing further to be desired; and the study of the ancient languages in gymnasia would be a necessary evil, highly as their incidental advantages are usually extolled.

281.But languages alone give to a boy a picture neither of bygone ages nor of men of the past; to him they are solely troublesome tasks imposed by the teacher. Nor can golden maxims, fables, and short narratives change his attitude. For even if these are well suited to the youthful mind, they do not materially offset the aversion to the work on stems, which have to be memorized; inflections, which must be practised; and conjunctions, which are required for guidance in the study of periods.

Ancient history (243,246) is the only possible groundwork for the pedagogical treatment of the ancient languages.

282.Now it is true that if Latin is begun first, Eutropius and Cornelius Nepos suggest themselves as suitable authors for study, as soon as the merest rudimentsof Latin have been learned in connection with instruction in the mother-tongue (277). And their use is not to be entirely condemned, provided the teacher takes it upon himself to make the past present through narration. But, as is well known, these authors are after all very meagre, and, besides, where to look for a path beyond them still remains an open question.

283.The reasons which accord to Homer’s “Odyssey” the preference for early use are familiar.[41]They are patent to every one who attentively reads the “Odyssey” with constant reference to the various main classes of interest which teaching is to awaken (83–94). But the question involved is not merely one of immediate effect, but also of finding points of departure for the later stages of instruction. There can be no better preparation for ancient history than to establish an interest in ancient Greece by means of the Homeric story. At the same time, the soil is being made ready for the cultivation of taste, and for language study.

To reasons of this kind, derived directly from the chief aim of all teaching and opposed only by tradition (the conventionaldoingof the classics), the philologists will have to listen some time, if they are notwilling that, with the growing importance of history and of the natural sciences, and with the increasing pressure of material interests, the study of Greek in schools should be pushed into a corner and suffer a reduction similar to that which has already taken place in the case of Hebrew. (A few decades ago Greek came very near being remitted for all but those intending to study theology.)

Of course, the “Odyssey” possesses no miraculous power to inspire those who have no talent whatever for language studies or do not take them seriously; nevertheless, as many years of experience have shown, it surpasses every other work of antiquity that might be selected in definite pedagogical effect. Moreover, its study does not preclude an early commencement of Latin (nor even of Greek, where that seems necessary); only Latin cannot be pushed with the customary rapidity at the same time; for the “Odyssey” requires an hour daily, and grammatical and lexicological work besides.

Experience has proved that the grammatical rudiments pertaining to declension and conjugation must be worked over very carefully first, although reduced to what is absolutely essential. Besides, the first lessons in the “Odyssey” ought not to exceed a few lines each time; and, during the first months, no accurate memorizing of words is to be demanded. But farther on the acquisition of a vocabulary must be vigorouslyinsisted on; in fact, it becomes the pupil’s most necessary collateral work. By continued effort in this direction a considerable portion of the whole stock of words is gradually acquired; the language forms are supplied with the content to which they refer, and through which they become significant. The teacher must know exactly, not only when to hasten on, but also when to delay; for every perceptible gain in facility is likely to betray pupils into some carelessness which needs to be corrected at once. With good pupils it is not infeasible to read the whole of the “Odyssey,” since facility increases very rapidly toward the end. Nevertheless, such work should not extend much beyond two years; otherwise weariness sets in, or time is taken from other things. In schools it will be well to assign the first four books to one class, perhaps the class composed of pupils nine or ten years old, the next class to begin with Book V. To determine exactly how many books each class can work up thoroughly is unnecessary, as good translations can be used to fill in the gaps that occur. The reason for the division just made will be manifest at once upon a closer inspection of the “Odyssey.” Some books more advanced pupils may later on read by themselves, but they should be expected to render an account of what they are doing. It is not necessary at this stage to explain in detail the rarer peculiarities of the Homeric dialect. Such things may well bedeferred until, later in the course, the study of Homer (of the “Iliad”) is resumed. The teacher who is afraid of the difficulties connected with the plan presented should remind himself of the fact that progress by any other path is equally beset with difficulties. While at work on Homer, care should be taken to keep pupils from being influenced simultaneously by such tales as those from the Arabian Nights, because they blunt the sense of the wonderful.

[41]These reasons apply in no way to the “Iliad,” but only to the “Odyssey.” Moreover, it is presupposed that religious feeling has been sufficiently awakened long beforehand. In that case the mythical elements can do no harm whatever, for, in so far as they are inconsistent with religious feeling, their effect is decidedly repellent, and renders an excess of illusion impossible.

284.Only two poets, two historians, and two philosophers need to be mentioned to indicate the continuation of the course. Homer and Virgil; Herodotus and Cæsar; Plato and Cicero. What authors should precede these, or should intervene, or follow, may be left for circumstances to determine. Xenophon, Livy, Euripides, Sophocles, and Horace will probably always retain a place by the side of those mentioned; Horace especially offers brief maxims, the after-effect of which the educator should by no means underestimate. It is obvious that Virgil and Herodotus are rendered much easier by taking up Homer first; on the other hand, the return to Homer (to the “Iliad”) during adolescence, is as little to be omitted, if only on account of mythology, as the return to ancient history for purposes of pragmatic study (250). Again, the syntactical scheme of the ancient languages, which involves far greater difficulties than do even inflections and vocabulary, is more easily mastered by placingthe poets before the prose-writers, because then the pupils are not compelled to struggle with all the difficulties of sentence structure at once. At any rate, it is desirable that, just as the student’s Greek vocabulary is built up from the “Odyssey,” his hoard of Latin words should be drawn from the “Æneid.” The latter, however, will hardly be read entirely, because it cannot be gone over with nearly the same rapidity as the latter books of the “Odyssey,” when facility in reading has been attained. Cæsar’s “Bellum Gallicum” must be studied with exceptional carefulness, since its style comes nearer to being a desirable first model for the student of Latin than the style of the other authors in use. After this has been accomplished, the strictly systematic teaching and memorizing of Latin syntax, together with selected brief examples, is in order as one of the main lines of work. In Plato several books of the “Republic,” especially the first, second, fourth, and eighth, constitute a desirable goal. That Cicero should be revealed to young minds on his brilliant side first, namely, as orator, need scarcely be mentioned. Later on his philosophical writings become important; but many passages require a fuller development of the subject-matter than is given by him.

Cicero should frequently be read aloud, or rather declaimed, by the teacher. An orator demands the living voice; the usual monotonous reading by thepupils fails to do justice to him. As regards Tacitus for school use, there is a difference of opinion. Generally speaking, authors that say much in few words are particularly welcome, not merely to the explaining teacher, but also to the responsive pupil. The opposite is true of Cicero; he must be read rapidly in order to be appreciated.

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