The classification of interests into two groups, namely, (a) those which arise from knowledge, and (b) those which arise from association with others, and the subdivision of each of these into three groups, making six in all, is one not of necessity, but of convenience. The knowledge interests are, (a) empirical, (b) speculative, (c) æsthetic; the interests arising from association are, (a) sympathetic, (b) social, (c) religious. This classification is adopted without criticism by most Herbartian writers. That the classification is made simply for convenience may be seen from such considerations as the following:—1. Strictly speaking,allinterests arise fromexperience, the social no less than the speculative; hence experience is not a basis for classification at all.2. Æsthetic interests, resting upon contemplation, need not be put into a group with those that rest upon the perception of cause and effect, or other relations perceived by discursive reflection.3. The same is true for those empirical interests that are supposed to rest upon immediate sense apprehension, such as the interest in color, shape, sound, taste, odor.4. If perception, reasoning, and sensibility are made bases for the classification of interests, why should not the active volitional powers of the mind become a basis likewise? Some claim that pleasure and pain rest primarily upon themotorside of our activity, rather than upon the sensory. Our interest indoingis antecedent to our interest in knowing or feeling. This fact is fully recognized by all Herbartians in the theory of methods, though it finds no recognition in their classification of interests.It must be granted, however, that Herbart’s classification is convenient, even if not especially scientific.The empirical interest is the mental eagerness aroused by direct appeal to the senses, as by novel shapes, colors, sounds, odors, and the like. Its first stage is wonder, admiration, fear, awe. The child that drops his picture-book to chase a butterfly abandons one empirical interest for a stronger one. This form of interest is usually transient; unless it develops into a new kind of interest, it is soon abandoned for some other attraction. A primary teacher may catch but cannot hold the attention of a child by sensuous devices leading to nothing beyond themselves.The speculative interest is more permanent than the empirical.It rests primarily on the perception of the relations of cause and effect; it seeks to know the reasons of things. On this account it is a higher form of apperception, or mental assimilation. The most fundamental idea in the speculative interest is that of purpose. We want to know thepurpose of things, the function they are to perform, the end they are expected to reach. Thus a child has a key to the understanding of even so complicated a machine as a self-binder, or a printing press, provided he sees clearly the purpose of each. Until this is perceived the facts are an unintelligible jumble of particulars. A crude form of the speculative interest is seen very early in the child, when he demands a reason for everything. It always remains the mainspring of intellectual life; when it ceases to be a motive power to thinking, thought is dead.The æsthetic interest rests upon the enjoyment of contemplation, when anideal, sometimes distinct, sometimes vague, can be perceived through asense medium. In the Greek statue ofApollo Belvidere, a divinity is represented in marble. In the painting,Breaking Home Ties, the feelings of a lad and his mother upon parting are portrayed upon canvas. In music the ideal is usually vague, in poetry it is clear and distinct. The æsthetic value of the latter is enhanced by good oral recitation, both because appeal is made to an additional sense, and because the ears of men were attuned to beautiful poetry long before the eye learned to apprehend it.All of these interests, the empirical, the speculative, and the æsthetic, may be classed asindividual, since they rest upon purely subjective grounds. They might belong to any Robinson Crusoe who became isolated from his fellows. But the remaining groups, the sympathetic, the social, and the religious, rest upon the idea of intercourse with others. They are, therefore, of supreme importance for civilized life. Withoutthe sympathetic coöperation of men civilization would become impossible. Mephistopheles in “Faust” defines himself as “the Spirit that ever denies.”[12]Consequently any man who becomes so absorbed in his individual concerns as to deny all social duties and renounce all social benefits becomes thereby a kind of civic devil. The cynics of old repudiated all social obligations, thus making themselves bitter civic devils, while the Cyrenaics, choosing self-indulgence, but denying likewise social duties, transformed themselves into sensualistic civic devils.It is an imperative duty of the teacher, therefore, to arouse the social and civic interests of the children, since upon these as active forces the welfare and possibly the stability of society rest.The school is the place, the studies and daily intercourse the means, whereby this class of interests may be aroused. Pupils brought up in isolation by private tutors are likely to become non-social in their disposition. Idiosyncrasies are fostered, there being little or no development of ideals of social coöperation. The kindergarten, however, when rightly conducted, is nearly always able to foster the social instincts so powerfully that even the lack of later education is not able to obliterate them. When this training is reinforced by the well-governed school, a solid foundation for civic character is likely to be laid. The studies most important for the fostering of social and civic interests are literature, history, civil government, and geography, though others have a more or less intimate relation to them.
The classification of interests into two groups, namely, (a) those which arise from knowledge, and (b) those which arise from association with others, and the subdivision of each of these into three groups, making six in all, is one not of necessity, but of convenience. The knowledge interests are, (a) empirical, (b) speculative, (c) æsthetic; the interests arising from association are, (a) sympathetic, (b) social, (c) religious. This classification is adopted without criticism by most Herbartian writers. That the classification is made simply for convenience may be seen from such considerations as the following:—
It must be granted, however, that Herbart’s classification is convenient, even if not especially scientific.
The empirical interest is the mental eagerness aroused by direct appeal to the senses, as by novel shapes, colors, sounds, odors, and the like. Its first stage is wonder, admiration, fear, awe. The child that drops his picture-book to chase a butterfly abandons one empirical interest for a stronger one. This form of interest is usually transient; unless it develops into a new kind of interest, it is soon abandoned for some other attraction. A primary teacher may catch but cannot hold the attention of a child by sensuous devices leading to nothing beyond themselves.
The speculative interest is more permanent than the empirical.It rests primarily on the perception of the relations of cause and effect; it seeks to know the reasons of things. On this account it is a higher form of apperception, or mental assimilation. The most fundamental idea in the speculative interest is that of purpose. We want to know thepurpose of things, the function they are to perform, the end they are expected to reach. Thus a child has a key to the understanding of even so complicated a machine as a self-binder, or a printing press, provided he sees clearly the purpose of each. Until this is perceived the facts are an unintelligible jumble of particulars. A crude form of the speculative interest is seen very early in the child, when he demands a reason for everything. It always remains the mainspring of intellectual life; when it ceases to be a motive power to thinking, thought is dead.
The æsthetic interest rests upon the enjoyment of contemplation, when anideal, sometimes distinct, sometimes vague, can be perceived through asense medium. In the Greek statue ofApollo Belvidere, a divinity is represented in marble. In the painting,Breaking Home Ties, the feelings of a lad and his mother upon parting are portrayed upon canvas. In music the ideal is usually vague, in poetry it is clear and distinct. The æsthetic value of the latter is enhanced by good oral recitation, both because appeal is made to an additional sense, and because the ears of men were attuned to beautiful poetry long before the eye learned to apprehend it.
All of these interests, the empirical, the speculative, and the æsthetic, may be classed asindividual, since they rest upon purely subjective grounds. They might belong to any Robinson Crusoe who became isolated from his fellows. But the remaining groups, the sympathetic, the social, and the religious, rest upon the idea of intercourse with others. They are, therefore, of supreme importance for civilized life. Withoutthe sympathetic coöperation of men civilization would become impossible. Mephistopheles in “Faust” defines himself as “the Spirit that ever denies.”[12]Consequently any man who becomes so absorbed in his individual concerns as to deny all social duties and renounce all social benefits becomes thereby a kind of civic devil. The cynics of old repudiated all social obligations, thus making themselves bitter civic devils, while the Cyrenaics, choosing self-indulgence, but denying likewise social duties, transformed themselves into sensualistic civic devils.
It is an imperative duty of the teacher, therefore, to arouse the social and civic interests of the children, since upon these as active forces the welfare and possibly the stability of society rest.
The school is the place, the studies and daily intercourse the means, whereby this class of interests may be aroused. Pupils brought up in isolation by private tutors are likely to become non-social in their disposition. Idiosyncrasies are fostered, there being little or no development of ideals of social coöperation. The kindergarten, however, when rightly conducted, is nearly always able to foster the social instincts so powerfully that even the lack of later education is not able to obliterate them. When this training is reinforced by the well-governed school, a solid foundation for civic character is likely to be laid. The studies most important for the fostering of social and civic interests are literature, history, civil government, and geography, though others have a more or less intimate relation to them.
[12]“Ich bin der Geist der stets verneint.”
[12]“Ich bin der Geist der stets verneint.”
84.We cannot expect to see all of these interests unfold equally in every individual; but among a numberof pupils we may confidently look for them all. The demand for many-sidedness will accordingly be satisfied the better, the nearer the single individual likewise approaches a state of mental culture in which all these kinds of interest are active with equal energy.
85.As has already been suggested (37), these six kinds of interest arise from two sources to which historical and nature studies respectively correspond. With this the facts observed in classical high schools (Gymnasia) coincide: pupils usually lean toward one side or the other. It would be a serious blunder, however, to affirm, on this account, an antithesis between the historical and the natural science interest; or, worse still, to speak of a philological and a mathematical interest instead—as is, indeed, not infrequently done. Such confusion in ideas should not continue; it would lead to utterly erroneous views of the whole management of instruction. The easiest means to counteract the evil is a consideration of the multitude of one-sided tendencies that occur even within the six kinds of interest; we shall be able, at all events, to bring out still more clearly the manifold phases of interest that must be taken into account. For the possible cases of one-sidedness are differentiated far more minutely than could be shown by the discrimination of only six kinds of interest.
“Is the ideal education classical or scientific?” This question, which is still debated, really means, shall we cultivatechiefly thesocialor theknowledgeinterests. The historical, or culture, studies belong preëminently on the one side, the natural sciences most largely on the other. Herbert Spencer in 1860 made a special plea for science studies in his monograph, “Education,” claiming that such studies are of chief worth both for knowledge and training. At that time classical, or culture, studies had possession of almost every institution for higher education, so that Spencer’s special plea was justified. At present, however, science, which has developed its own methods of instruction, holds an equal place with social studies in the colleges and universities. When we are asked which half of human interests we will choose, the knowledge or the social, our reply can only be: We will abandon neither, but choose both. Both are essential to human happiness; both are necessary for social and material advance.
“Is the ideal education classical or scientific?” This question, which is still debated, really means, shall we cultivatechiefly thesocialor theknowledgeinterests. The historical, or culture, studies belong preëminently on the one side, the natural sciences most largely on the other. Herbert Spencer in 1860 made a special plea for science studies in his monograph, “Education,” claiming that such studies are of chief worth both for knowledge and training. At that time classical, or culture, studies had possession of almost every institution for higher education, so that Spencer’s special plea was justified. At present, however, science, which has developed its own methods of instruction, holds an equal place with social studies in the colleges and universities. When we are asked which half of human interests we will choose, the knowledge or the social, our reply can only be: We will abandon neither, but choose both. Both are essential to human happiness; both are necessary for social and material advance.
86.Empirical interest becomes one-sided in its way when it seizes upon one kind of objects of experience to the neglect of the rest. When, for instance, a person wants to be a botanist exclusively, a mineralogist, a zoölogist; or when he likes languages only, perhaps only the ancient or only the modern, or of all these only one; or when as a traveller he wishes to see, like many so-called tourists, only the countries that everybody talks about, in order to have seen them too; or when, as a collector of curiosities, he confines himself to one or the other fancy; or when, in the capacity of historian, he cares only about the information bearing on one country, or one period, etc.
Speculative interest becomes one-sided by confiningitself to logic or to mathematics, mathematics perhaps only as treated by the old geometricians; or to metaphysics restricted possibly to one system; or to physics narrowed down perhaps to one hypothesis; or to pragmatic history.
Æsthetic interest in one case is concentrated exclusively on painting and sculpture; in another on poetry, perhaps only on lyric or dramatic poetry; in still another on music, or perhaps only on a certain species of music, etc.
Sympathetic interest is one-sided when a man is willing to live only with his social peers, or only with fellow-countrymen, or only with members of his own family; while a fellow-feeling for all others is wanting.
Social interest grows one-sided if one gives himself up wholly to one political party, and measures weal or woe only by party success or failure.
Religious interest becomes one-sided according to differences of creed and sect, to one of which allegiance is given, while those who hold a different view are regarded as unworthy of esteem.
Much of this one-sidedness is brought about in later life by one’s vocation. But a man’s vocation must not isolate him. Yet this would happen if such narrowness should make headway in youth.
87.A still more detailed analysis of the varieties of one-sidedness would be possible; it is not needed, however, for ascertaining the position of the above-mentionedhigh school studies among the subjects of instruction calculated to stimulate interest. Languages, to begin with, form a part of the curriculum; but why among so many languages is the preference given to Latin and Greek? Obviously because of the literature and history opened through them. Literature with its poets and orators falls under æsthetic interest; history awakens sympathy with distinguished men and the weal and woe of society, indirectly contributing in either case even to religious interest. No better focus for so many different stimuli can be found. Even speculative interest is not slighted if inquiries into the grammatical structure of these languages are added. Moreover, the study of history does not stop with the ancients; the knowledge of literature also is widened that the various interests may be developed still more completely. History, if taught pragmatically, assists speculative interest from another direction. In this respect, however, mathematics has precedence; only, in order to effect a sure entrance and abiding results, it must unite with the natural sciences, which appeal at once to the empirical and the speculative interest.
If now these studies coöperate properly, a great deal will be done, in conjunction with religious instruction, toward turning the youthful mind in the directions that answer to a many-sided interest. But if, on the contrary, the languages and mathematics were allowed to fall apart, if the connecting links were removed,and every pupil were permitted to choose one or the other branch of study, according to his preferences, mere bald one-sidedness of the kind sufficiently characterized above would be the outcome.
88.It is admitted now that not only classical but also public high schools in general should provide for this same many-sided culture, that is, should take account of the same main classes of interests. The only difference lies in the fact that for the pupils of the classical high schools the practice of a vocation is not so near at hand; whereas, in the public high schools, there is a certain preponderance of modern literature and history, together with inability to equip completely with the helps to a manifold mental activity those who purpose to go on. Much the same is true of all the lower schools whose aim is to educate. It is different with trade schools and polytechnic institutes; in short, with those schools which presuppose a completed education—completed to the extent permitted by circumstances.
If, then, the programme of a public high school is of the right sort, it will show as well as the curriculum of a classical preparatory school does, that an attempt is being made to guard against such one-sidedness as would be the outcome if one of the six main classes of interest were slighted.
How one-sidedness under an elective system may be avoided is discussed in a previous section (65).
How one-sidedness under an elective system may be avoided is discussed in a previous section (65).
89.But no instruction is able to prevent the special varieties of one-sidedness that may develop within the limits of each main group. When observation, reflection, the sense of beauty, sympathy, public spirit, and religious aspiration have once been awakened, although perhaps only within a small range of objects, the farther extension over a greater number and variety of objects must be left largely to the individual and to opportunity. To pupils of talent, above all of genius, instruction may give the necessary outlook by enabling them to see what talent and genius achieve elsewhere; but their own distinguishing traits they must themselves answer for and retain.
Moreover, the above-mentioned forms of one-sidedness are not all equally detrimental, because they do not assert themselves with the same degree of exclusiveness. Each may, indeed, lead to self-conceit; but this tendency does not attach to all in the same measure.
Holding to the idea of many-sided interest, what justification is there for elective studies? To this, the reply must be made that in elementary and in a part of secondary education the principle of indiscriminate election must be rejected. The only rational election in secondary education, as already explained (65), is election among the various members of a group of similar studies. In this way the destination and ability of the pupil may be regarded, without sacrificing the needed many-sidedness. The case is different in higher education, however, for election and many-sidedness are here quite reconcilable. Highereducation is thecomparative studyof a few branches. Thus, for example, on the social side, the whole civilization of Greece is focussed now in her political history, now in her art, now in her language, now in her education, now in her philosophy. The student who studies any one of these subjects thoroughly gets a comparative view of the whole of Greek life. It is not necessary for him to study them all. The same is true of each important country or epoch. Every culture study is an eminence from which the whole is seen.Likewise in science, to study a typical form of life exhaustively by the comparative method gives one an insight into all related life, as well as many glimpses into physical and chemical science. In a large sense, therefore, we study all nature, whether we elect biology, physics, or chemistry, provided we use the comparative method of higher education. In the college or university, therefore, a large amount of election is justifiable. That would be a one-sided course which neglected entirely all social or all science studies.
Holding to the idea of many-sided interest, what justification is there for elective studies? To this, the reply must be made that in elementary and in a part of secondary education the principle of indiscriminate election must be rejected. The only rational election in secondary education, as already explained (65), is election among the various members of a group of similar studies. In this way the destination and ability of the pupil may be regarded, without sacrificing the needed many-sidedness. The case is different in higher education, however, for election and many-sidedness are here quite reconcilable. Highereducation is thecomparative studyof a few branches. Thus, for example, on the social side, the whole civilization of Greece is focussed now in her political history, now in her art, now in her language, now in her education, now in her philosophy. The student who studies any one of these subjects thoroughly gets a comparative view of the whole of Greek life. It is not necessary for him to study them all. The same is true of each important country or epoch. Every culture study is an eminence from which the whole is seen.
Likewise in science, to study a typical form of life exhaustively by the comparative method gives one an insight into all related life, as well as many glimpses into physical and chemical science. In a large sense, therefore, we study all nature, whether we elect biology, physics, or chemistry, provided we use the comparative method of higher education. In the college or university, therefore, a large amount of election is justifiable. That would be a one-sided course which neglected entirely all social or all science studies.
90.Under favorable circumstances of time and opportunity, such as obtain in classical and other high schools, effort, as we know, is not restricted to the initial stimulation. Hence the question arises: In what sequence shall the aroused interests be further developed? Of instruction-material there is no lack; we must select and arrange, guided in the main by what was said on the conditions of many-sidedness and of interest. Thus to recapitulate: there must be progress from the simple to the more complex, and solicitous endeavor to make spontaneous interest possible. But in applying these principles we must notshut our eyes to the particular requirements and the difficulties in our way.
91.The empirical material of languages, history, geography, etc., calls for specific complications and series of ideas, together with the network of their interrelations. As to language, even words are complex wholes, made up of stems plus whatever elements enter into inflection and derivation, and further resolvable into single speech sounds. History has its time-series, geography its network of spatial relations. The psychological laws of reproduction determine the processes of memorizing and of retaining.
The mother-tongue serves as a medium through which foreign languages become intelligible, but at the same time offers resistance to the foreign sounds and constructions. Furthermore, it takes a young boy a long time to get familiar with the thought that far away in time and in space there have been and are human beings who spoke and speak languages other than his own, and about whom he need concern himself at all. Teachers, moreover, very commonly proceed on the fallacious and very mischievous assumption that, because their mode of expression is clear, it will, of course, be understood by the pupil. The resources of child-language increase but slowly. Such impediments as these must be removed. Geography extends the knowledge of spatial distances, but the inhabitant of a flat country lacks the sense-images ofmountain ranges; one who grows up in a valley is without the sense-perception of a plain; the majority of pupils lack the concrete idea of an ocean. That the earth is a sphere revolving about its own axis and about the sun, for a long time sounds to children more like a fairy-tale than like a statement of fact; and even educated young men sometimes hesitate to accept the theory of the planetary system because they are unable to comprehend how it is possible to know such things. Difficulties of this kind must be met and not massed together unnecessarily.—For history, old ruins might serve as starting-points if only the material they furnish do not prove altogether too scanty and is not too recent, when the object is to take pupils at an early age into the times and places of Jewish, Greek, and Roman antiquity. Here the only satisfactory helps are stories that excite a very lively interest; these establish points of support for the realization in thought of a time long vanished. There is still lacking, however, a correct estimate of chronological distances down to our own time. This is attained only very gradually through the insertion of intermediate data.
92.Material for the exercise of reflection, and so for the excitation of speculative interest, is supplied by whatever in nature, in human affairs, in the structure of languages, and in religion, permits us to discover, or even merely to surmise, a connectionaccording to general laws. But everywhere—the most common school studies, such as elementary arithmetic and grammar not excepted—the pupil encounters concepts, judgments, and inferences. But he clings to the particular, to the familiar, to the sensuous. The abstract is foreign to his mind; even the geometrical figures traced for the eye are to him particular things whose general significance he finds it hard to grasp. The general is to displace individual peculiarities in his thoughts; but in his habitual thought-series the well-known concrete crowds to the front. Of the general there remains in his mind almost nothing beyond the words used to designate it. Called upon to draw an inference, he loses one premise while pondering the next; the teacher is obliged to go back to the beginning again and again, to give examples, and from them lead up to generalizations; to separate and to connect concepts, and by degrees to bring the propositions closer to one another. When the middle terms and extremes have been successfully fused in the premises, they are still only loosely connected at first. The same propositions are repeatedly forgotten, and yet must not be reviewed too many times for fear of killing instead of quickening interest.
Since forgetting cannot be prevented, it is wise to abandon for a time a large portion of that into which pupils have gained an insight, but later on to go back to the essentials by other paths. The first preliminaryexercises serve their purpose if the particulars are made to reveal the general before generalizations become the material for technical propositions, and before propositions are combined into inference-series. The processes of association (69) must not be omitted between the first pointing out of common features and the systematic teaching of their rational connections.
93.Æsthetic contemplation may, indeed, receive its impulse from many interests other than the æsthetic, as also from aroused emotions. Art itself, however, is possible only in a state of mind sufficiently tranquil to permit an accurate and coherent apprehension of the simultaneously beautiful, and to experience the mental activity corresponding to the successively beautiful. Æsthetic objects adapted to the pupil’s power of appreciation must be provided; but the teacher should refrain from forcing contemplation. He may, of course, repress unseemly manifestations, above all the damaging of objects possessing æsthetic value and entitled to respectful treatment. Frequently imitative attempts—although very crude at first—in drawing, singing, reading aloud, and, at a later period, in translating, are indications of æsthetic attention. Such efforts may be encouraged, but should not be praised. The genuine warmth of emotion, which in æsthetic culture kindles of itself, is easily vitiated by intensifying artifices. Excess of quantity is injurious. Works of art appealing to a higher state of culture must not bebrought down to a lower plane. Art judgments and criticisms should not be obtruded.
94.The sympathetic interests depend still more on social intercourse and family life than the foregoing classes of interests do on experience in the world of sense. If the social environment changes frequently, children cannot become deeply attached anywhere. The mere change of teachers and of schools is fraught with harm. Pupils make comparisons in their own way; authority that is not permanent has little weight with them, whereas the impulse to throw off restraint gains in strength. Instruction is powerless to obviate such evils, especially since instruction itself must often change its form, thereby giving the impression of a real difference in teachers. This fact makes it all the more necessary that the instruction in history impart to pupils the glow of sympathy due to historical characters and events. For this reason—a reason of momentous significance to the whole process of education—history should not be made to present to pupils the appearance of a chronological skeleton. This rule should be observed with special care during the earlier lessons in history, since on these depends largely what sort of impression the whole subject will produce at a future time.
Of religious instruction, needless to say, we demand that it shall bring home to pupils the dependent condition of man, and we confidently expect that it willnot leave their hearts cold. But historical instruction must coöperate with religious instruction, otherwise the truths of religion stand isolated, and there is ground for fearing that they will fail to enter as potent factors into the teaching and learning of the remaining subjects.
95.Differencesin point of view give rise to conflicting opinions concerning not only the treatment, but also the choice of subject-matter for instruction. If, now, first one opinion then another wins predominance over the rest, the harmony of the purposes underlying both learning and teaching is wanting. Not only that, but the pupils suffer also directly through the lack of consistency where work is begun on one plan and continued on another.
96.The teacher in charge of a given branch of study only too often lays out his work without taking account of pedagogical considerations. His specialty, he thinks, suffices to suggest a plan; the successive steps in its organized content will, of course, be the proper sequence for instruction to follow. In teaching a language, he insists that pupils must master declensions and conjunctions in order that he may read an author with them later. He expects them to understand ordinary prose before he passes on to elucidate the finished style of a poet, etc. In mathematics,he demands that pupils bring to the subject perfect facility in common arithmetic; at a more advanced stage they must be able to handle logarithms with ease before formulæ requiring their use are reached, etc. In history, the first thing for him to do is to erect a solid chronological framework to hold the historical facts to be inserted afterward. For ancient history, he presupposes a knowledge of ancient geography, etc. This same view which derives the principle determining the sequence of studies from the instruction-material itself, as though it had been unconditionally and finally settled that such and such thingsmustbe taught, asserts itself on a larger scale in requirements for admission to higher grades or schools. Children are to be able to read, write, and cipher well before being allowed to enter the grammar school; promotions to higher grades are to take place only when the goal set for the grade immediately preceding has been reached. The good pupil, accordingly, is one who fits into and willingly submits to these arrangements. The natural consequence of all this is, that little heed is paid to the condition of attention, namely, the gradual progress of interest.
97.But still another consequence ensues, occasioning a different point of view. Pupils are commiserated on the ground that they are overburdened. All sorts of doubts spring up as to the wisdom of teaching the branches causing the trouble. Their future utility iscalled in question. A host of instances is adduced of adults neglecting and forgetting—forgetting without appreciable loss—that which it cost them so much toil to learn. Of course, examples showing the opposite to be true may also be cited, but that does not settle the question. It cannot be denied that there are many, even among the educated, who aspire to nothing higher than freedom from care by means of a lucrative calling, or a life of social enjoyment, and who, accordingly, estimate the value of their knowledge by this standard. Such a state of things is not mended by a kind of instruction that awakens little interest, and that in after years constitutes the dark side of reminiscences connected with early youth.
98.What is urged in reply is, generally speaking, true: youth must be kept busy; we cannot let children grow up wild. And their occupation has to be serious and severe, for government (45–55) must not be weak. But now, more than ever, doubt fastens on the choice of studies. Might not more useful things be offered for employment?
If, by way of rejoinder, the ancient languages are commended as being preëminently suited to give pupils diversity of work, this fact is accounted for by the faulty methods pursued in teaching the other subjects. With the proper method the same many-sided activity would be called forth. For the modern languages especially, the claim is made that they, too, are languagestudies involving reading, writing, translating, and training in the forms of thought. To this argument the unfortunate answer should not be returned, that the classical high schools must retain their Latin and Greek because they are educating future officials to whom the ancient languages are just as useful, nay, indispensable, as the modern languages to other classes. For, if the classical studies have once been degraded to the level of the useful and necessary, the door is thrown open to those who go a step farther still and demand to know of what use Hebrew is to the country parson, and Greek to the practising jurist or physician.
99.Controversies like these have often been conducted as if thehumanioraor humanistic studies were radically opposed to therealiaand could not admit them to partnership. In reality, the latter are at least as much a legitimate part of a complete education as the former. The whole matter has been made worse by the practice of some of the older generation of teachers who, in order to make the prescribed studies more palatable, descended to all kinds of amusement and play, instead of laying stress on abiding and growing interest. A view that regards the end as a necessary evil to be rendered endurable by means of sweetmeats, implies an utter confusion of ideas; and if pupils are not given serious tasks to perform, they will not find out what they are able to do.
We must, however, note in this connection that there are legitimate occasions even for the sweetening of study, just as in medicine there is a place for palliatives, notwithstanding the firm conviction of the physician that remedies promising a radical cure deserve the preference. Harmful and reprehensible as habitual playing with a subject is when it usurps the place of serious and thorough instruction, in cases where a task is not difficult, but seems so to the pupil, it often becomes necessary to start him by a dexterous, cheerful, almost playlike presentation of that which he is to imitate. Superfluous prolixity and clumsiness, through the ennui alone that they produce, cause failure in the easiest things. All this applies especially to the teaching of younger children and to the first lessons in a new subject,e.g., learning to read Greek, the beginning of algebra, etc.
100.If, among the conflicting opinions referred to, there is any vital point of controversy, it lies in thea prioriassumption that certain subjects must be taught (96). Such an assumption educative instruction cannot allow to be severed from the end aimed at: the intellectual self-activity of the pupil. This, and not mere knowledge, any more than utility, determines the point of view with regard to the instruction-material. Experience and social intercourse are the primary sources of the pupil’s ideas. It is with reference to these two factors that we estimate strengthor weakness in the ideas, and decide what instruction may accomplish with comparative ease or difficulty, at an earlier or at a later period. Good child literature turns to these sources even while children are only just learning to read, and gradually enlarges their range of thoughts. Not until this has been done can the question of instruction in one or the other department of knowledge claim consideration.
The termeducative instructionfrequently occurs. It means, primarily, instruction that has, in the broad sense, an ethical bearing, or an influence upon character. It is based on the idea that, not school discipline alone, but also school instruction in the common branches should be of service to the child in moral and especially in social growth. The studies help to reveal to him his place and function in the world, they form his disposition toward men and things, they give him insight into ethical relations. Instruction that contains this element of moral training is therefore callededucative instruction(Erziehender Unterricht).
The termeducative instructionfrequently occurs. It means, primarily, instruction that has, in the broad sense, an ethical bearing, or an influence upon character. It is based on the idea that, not school discipline alone, but also school instruction in the common branches should be of service to the child in moral and especially in social growth. The studies help to reveal to him his place and function in the world, they form his disposition toward men and things, they give him insight into ethical relations. Instruction that contains this element of moral training is therefore callededucative instruction(Erziehender Unterricht).
101.Therealia—natural history, geography, history—possess this one unquestionable advantage, viz., easy association with experience and intercourse. Partially, at least, the pupil’s spontaneous ideas (71) may go out toward them. Properly used, collections of plants, picture-books, maps, will contribute their share. In history, the fondness of youth for stories is utilized. The fact that these stories are partly taken from old books written in foreign languages, and that these languages were once actually spoken, has often tobe mentioned in passing, before the study of these languages themselves is taken up, nay, even after they have been begun.
It is useless to undertake a demonstration of the utility of therealia. The young do not act for the sake of the more remote ends. Pupils work when they feel they can do something; and this consciousness of power to do must be created.
The remark that it is useless to undertake to demonstrate to the young the ultimate utility of natural science studies leads naturally to a distinction between interest in the studies as ultimate ends and as immediate ends. It is suggested in this paragraph that pupils are interested in showing their capacity to accomplish results. It is very evident that one of the teacher’s chief anxieties must be to awaken an interest in the studies as ends, not perhaps in their final utility in life, but as fields in which useful work can be done even in the immediate present. The chief category by which to measure the pupil’s interest in the various activities of the schoolroom is the quality of work that he can be taught to accomplish. One need not go far to learn that children like those studies best in which they can do the best work. This is true in several respects. They are interested in the artistic perfection of what they can accomplish, as in drawing, painting, writing, the arrangement of arithmetical problems, so that the page presents a neat appearance, and so that all the processes are plainly revealed to the eye. They are interested in reading when they can call the words with facility, with neatness, without stumbling, mispronouncing or miscalling—when the tones of the voice are agreeable. The quality of the work, however,which appeals perhaps most powerfully to the children, is that of intellectual comprehension. In the reading class it is a constant delight to discover the finer shades of meaning, to express them with the voice, to detect in others any deviation from the true thought. Reading in English is particularly susceptible to this kind of treatment. For the English language being largely devoid of inflections does not show through the form of the words the finer distinctions of thought, but the mind must perceive these from a text largely devoid of grammatical inflections. It is quite possible, therefore, to read in such a manner as to miss all but the most salient points of the matter presented. There is in reading an intensive and an extensive magnitude. Our older method of teaching reading was to devote the time to a few extracts from literary masterpieces, which were exhausted by minute study. The more recent tendency in elementary education is to neglect this side of reading and to devote the time to the cursory reading, not of extracts, but of whole masterpieces of literature. The danger of such a proceeding is that the finer qualities of reading will be neglected for the sake of quantitative mastery of a large amount of reading matter. A middle course between the two would doubtless bring better results. It would, on the one hand, secure an interest that attaches to masterpieces as wholes, and, on the other, the literary appreciation that comes from minute analysis both in thought and expression of the finer distinctions of thought. In mathematical studies, the æsthetic interest of form, or the active interest of actual performance of problems, is not the sole or even the chief interest that should be appealed to. But the pupil should feel that he is making a progressive mastery of the principles of number. It is a pleasure to apply a rule, to solve a problem neatly; but it is a still greater pleasure to comprehendthoroughly the meaning of the rule, to grasp and to feel its universality, so that although it is not worth while, as Herbart suggests, to urge the ultimate function of mathematics in the life of the world, it is quite worth while to set up those immediate ends of interest such as appear in the activity of solving problems, in the æsthetic appearance of the work upon paper or board or slate, and in the comprehension of mathematical principles. These ends are near at hand; they can be made to appeal to the pupil through the quality of the work that the teacher demands of him. The same is true in the natural sciences. Even though the ultimate function of biology is an idea too remote or too complex for the child to grasp with enthusiasm, the immediate mastery of a principle in physics, or the discovery of a law of plant life, or of a fact in chemistry, may be an end in which the pupil’s most intense interest can be excited.
The remark that it is useless to undertake to demonstrate to the young the ultimate utility of natural science studies leads naturally to a distinction between interest in the studies as ultimate ends and as immediate ends. It is suggested in this paragraph that pupils are interested in showing their capacity to accomplish results. It is very evident that one of the teacher’s chief anxieties must be to awaken an interest in the studies as ends, not perhaps in their final utility in life, but as fields in which useful work can be done even in the immediate present. The chief category by which to measure the pupil’s interest in the various activities of the schoolroom is the quality of work that he can be taught to accomplish. One need not go far to learn that children like those studies best in which they can do the best work. This is true in several respects. They are interested in the artistic perfection of what they can accomplish, as in drawing, painting, writing, the arrangement of arithmetical problems, so that the page presents a neat appearance, and so that all the processes are plainly revealed to the eye. They are interested in reading when they can call the words with facility, with neatness, without stumbling, mispronouncing or miscalling—when the tones of the voice are agreeable. The quality of the work, however,which appeals perhaps most powerfully to the children, is that of intellectual comprehension. In the reading class it is a constant delight to discover the finer shades of meaning, to express them with the voice, to detect in others any deviation from the true thought. Reading in English is particularly susceptible to this kind of treatment. For the English language being largely devoid of inflections does not show through the form of the words the finer distinctions of thought, but the mind must perceive these from a text largely devoid of grammatical inflections. It is quite possible, therefore, to read in such a manner as to miss all but the most salient points of the matter presented. There is in reading an intensive and an extensive magnitude. Our older method of teaching reading was to devote the time to a few extracts from literary masterpieces, which were exhausted by minute study. The more recent tendency in elementary education is to neglect this side of reading and to devote the time to the cursory reading, not of extracts, but of whole masterpieces of literature. The danger of such a proceeding is that the finer qualities of reading will be neglected for the sake of quantitative mastery of a large amount of reading matter. A middle course between the two would doubtless bring better results. It would, on the one hand, secure an interest that attaches to masterpieces as wholes, and, on the other, the literary appreciation that comes from minute analysis both in thought and expression of the finer distinctions of thought. In mathematical studies, the æsthetic interest of form, or the active interest of actual performance of problems, is not the sole or even the chief interest that should be appealed to. But the pupil should feel that he is making a progressive mastery of the principles of number. It is a pleasure to apply a rule, to solve a problem neatly; but it is a still greater pleasure to comprehendthoroughly the meaning of the rule, to grasp and to feel its universality, so that although it is not worth while, as Herbart suggests, to urge the ultimate function of mathematics in the life of the world, it is quite worth while to set up those immediate ends of interest such as appear in the activity of solving problems, in the æsthetic appearance of the work upon paper or board or slate, and in the comprehension of mathematical principles. These ends are near at hand; they can be made to appeal to the pupil through the quality of the work that the teacher demands of him. The same is true in the natural sciences. Even though the ultimate function of biology is an idea too remote or too complex for the child to grasp with enthusiasm, the immediate mastery of a principle in physics, or the discovery of a law of plant life, or of a fact in chemistry, may be an end in which the pupil’s most intense interest can be excited.
102.Geometry has other advantages of association, advantages we have begun only recently to turn to account in earnest. Figures made of wood or pasteboard, drawings, pegs, bars, flexible wires, strings, the use of the ruler, of compasses, of the square, counted coins arranged in long or short, in parallel or diverging series,—all these may be offered to the eyead libitumand connected with other concrete objects. They may be made the basis of systematic employment and exercises, and this will be done more and more when the fact is once grasped that concrete ideas possessing theproper degree of strengthconstitute the surest foundation of a branch of instruction whose success dependson the manner in which the pupil forms in his mind the ideas of spatial relations. This is not grasped, of course, by those who regard space once for all as a form of sense-perception common to all minds alike. A careful study of the data of experience will convince the practical educator that the opposite is true; for in this respect individual differences are very marked. Pupils rarely hit upon geometrical constructions unaided; the aptitude for drawing, that is, for imitating the objects seen, is met with more often.
It is easy by abstraction to form arithmetical concepts out of the apprehension of geometrical relations. To do so should not be regarded as superfluous, not even when the pupil has already fully entered upon his work in arithmetic.
103.To Germans the two ancient classical languages do not offer the advantages of easy transition. On the other hand, the study of Latin, even if only moderately advanced, prepares the soil for the most indispensable modern foreign languages. Herein lies an argument against beginning with French, as was often done formerly. The linking of Latin to French will, moreover, hardly win the approval of students of languages, since, not to mention other reasons, Gallicisms are a source of no little danger to Latinity.
The ancient languages require long-continued labor. This fact alone renders it advisable to begin them early. The strangeness of Latin for Germans should not leadto the conclusion that the study of Latin should be commenced late, but rather that during the earlier years of boyhood it should be carried on slowly. The sounds of foreign languages must be heard early, in order that the strangeness may wear off. Single Latin words will be easily mastered even by a child. These may soon be followed by short sentences consisting of two or three words. No matter if they are forgotten again for a time. That which is said to be forgotten is not on that account lost. The real difficulty lies in the multitude of strange elements that accumulate in relatively long sentences; it lies also in the many ways of connecting subordinate clauses, in the qualifying insertions, in the order of words, and in the structure of the period. Furthermore, we must not overlook the fact that children are very slow to acquire the use of dependent clauses, even in German; their speech for a long time consists merely of a stringing together of the simplest sentences. The attempt to advance them more rapidly in the syntactical forms of Latin than is possible in their mother-tongue is a waste of time; and, besides, their inclination to study is put to a very severe test.
Perhaps the most serious defect of secondary education in the United States is its brevity. Languages are not begun until the pupil is well on to fifteen years old. A reform most urgently needed in this country is the extension of high school influence to the two grades of the grammar school lying immediatelybelow the high school. This would enable pupils to begin foreign languages at about the age of twelve, or two years later than they are now begun in Germany.
Perhaps the most serious defect of secondary education in the United States is its brevity. Languages are not begun until the pupil is well on to fifteen years old. A reform most urgently needed in this country is the extension of high school influence to the two grades of the grammar school lying immediatelybelow the high school. This would enable pupils to begin foreign languages at about the age of twelve, or two years later than they are now begun in Germany.
104.The foregoing remarks show plainly enough that in educative instruction some subjects will be found a comparatively easy and sure means of awakening intellectual activity, while others involve a more strenuous effort, which, under certain circumstances, may end in failure. The concrete studies are nearest to the pupil; mathematics requires some apparatus to render it tangible and vivid; to get pupils started properly in modern languages can be but a slow process. But this difference is, after all, not fundamental enough, nor does it affect the whole course of instruction sufficiently, to constitute a serious pedagogical objection to the study of foreign languages, so long as there is time to teach them. Their fruits mature later.
105.Whetheror not instruction will begin well and go on properly depends on a combination of three factors,—the teacher, the pupil, and the subject taught. Failure of the subject-matter to excite the pupil’s interest is followed by evil consequences moving in a circle. The pupil seeks to avoid the task set for him; he remains silent or returns wrong answers; the teacher insists on getting a correct answer; the lesson is at a standstill; the pupil’s dislike grows more intense. To conquer dislike and indolence, the teacher now refuses altogether the assistance he could give; as best he may, he compels the pupil to collect his thoughts, to work by himself, to prepare his lesson, to memorize, even to apply in written exercises what he knows but imperfectly, etc. The presentation proper has come to an end; at all events it has ceased to be consecutive. Now the right kind of an example is wanting, which the teacher should set—one of reading, thinking, writing, that implies complete absorption in the subject. And yet it is this example concretely illustrating how to take hold of the subject, how to present it, and how to associate it with related subjects, which effects the bestresults in good instruction. The teacher must set such an example, the pupil must imitate it as well as he can; the teacher must render him active assistance.
106.Instruction is either synthetic or analytic. In general, the termsyntheticmay be applied wherever the teacher himself determines directly the sequence and grouping of the parts of the lesson; the termanalytic, wherever the pupil’s own thoughts are expressed first, and these thoughts, such as they chance to be, are then, with the teacher’s help, analyzed, corrected, and supplemented. But there are many things under this head that need to be defined and discriminated more sharply. There are analyses of experience, of facts learned in school, and of opinions. There is one kind of synthesis which imitates experience; there is another kind which consists in constructing designedly a whole whose component parts have been presented one by one previously.
Here, again, many differences arise, owing to diversities inherent in the subject-matter.
107.Since instruction builds on the pupil’s experience, we shall deal first with that form of synthesis which imitates, or copies experience. We may name itpurely presentative instruction. The termsynthetic, on the other hand, will henceforth be reserved for that form of instruction which reveals clearly the process of building up a whole out of parts presented singly beforehand.
The purely presentative method of instruction, although practicable only to a limited extent, is nevertheless so effectual as to entitle it to separate treatment, so effectual that the teacher—and this is the main thing—will do well to train himself carefully in its use. Skill in this direction is the surest means of securing interest.
It is customary to demand that the pupil acquire facility in narration and description, but we ought not to forget that here above all the teacher must lead the way by setting a good example. To be sure, there is an abundance of printed narrative and description, but reading does not produce the effect that hearing does.Viva vox docet.As a rule, we cannot take for granted that a boy has even the skill and patience required for reading; and if perfect facility has been attained, the reading is done too rapidly. There is too much hurry to get to the end, or too much delay over the wrong passages, so that the connection is lost. At the most, we may let the pupils that read exceptionally well read aloud to the class. By far the surer means to the end in view is the oral presentation by the teacher. But in order that such presentation may produce its effect undisturbed, it needs to be perfectly free and untrammelled.
108.The first requisite for free oral presentation is a cultivated style of speaking. Many teachers need to be warned against the use of set phrases, againstmere expletives, faulty enunciation, pauses filled in with inarticulate sounds, against fragments of sentences, clumsy parentheses, etc.
In the second place, adaptation of the vocabulary employed, both to the subject-matter and to the intelligence of the pupils, and adjustment of phraseology to the pupil’s stage of culture are essential.
Lastly, careful memorizing. At first this should be done almost verbatim. At all events, the teacher must prepare his lesson as though he had his pupils before him and were talking to them. Later on he must memorize at least the facts and turning-points of the subject to be presented, in order that he may not be compelled to consult books or look at notes. A few remarks on some particular points will be made farther on.
109.The effect of the teacher’s narrative and description should be to make the pupil realize events and objects as vividly as if they were actually present to his eye and ear. The pupil must, therefore, have actually heard and seen much previously. This recalls to our minds the necessity, pointed out before, of first enlarging the young pupil’s range of experience, when found too limited, through excursions and the exhibition of objects. Again, this form of instruction is adapted only to things that might be heard or seen. We must therefore avail ourselves of all the help pictures can give.
If the presentation has been a success, the reproduction by the pupils will show that they recall, not merely the main facts, but largely even the teacher’s language. They have retained more exactly than they have been asked to do. Besides, the teacher who narrates and describes well gains a strong hold on the affections of his pupils; he will find them more obedient in matters pertaining to discipline.