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BV WESLEY MILLS, M.A., M.I)., F.R.S.C, Professor of Physiology, McGill University, Montreal. {Reprinted from Report of Ontario Educational Association, 1893.) • TORONTO : WILLIAM BRIGGS, 29-33 Richmond .Street West. 1893. HEREDITY IN RELATION TO EDUCATION. BY WESLKT MtLLS, M.A., M.D., F.K.S.C, Pro/enaorvf Physiology, McGill University, Montreal. I take the first opportunity to thank the Ontario Teachers' Associa- tion for the compliment paid me in affording me an opportunity to address them. Though it has fallen to me to reside during the greater part of the last twenty years in the neighboring Province of Quebec, I can say as regards Ontario's institutions, "I am to the manner born,'' for I was born, received my Elementary, High School and College (University College) education in this Province. Further, I have had the privilege of teaching in an Elementary School, a High School and a Collegiate Institute under Ontario regulations ; and I look back to a portion of this period as affording some of the happiest days of my life. Among many improvements that I notice as having taken place within the last twenty years, is one that was obvious to me on visiting the High School Section this morning. Most of those present were of mature years. Some had evidently grown gray in the service. This means that, so far, at least, as this department of educational work is concerned, a conditional of permanency has been reached, which is in itself a guarantee of considerable progress ; in fact, that teaching has become a profession amongst you. I have had the plea- sui:e of meeting here those to whom T sustained pleasing official relations, some former associates in te hing, and several old college friends as well as more recent acquaintci ces. But amid all this,*I to-night experience a feeling of sadness. I miss from among the educators of this Province a man of much worth and many accomplishments ; one probably best known to you as an esteemed High School Inspector— John Milne Buchan. I miss him as you could not, for he, as my teacher, more than any other individual, guided and moulded my youthful life. Of him I must ever think with reverence and gratitude ; and I would not be doing justice to my feelings did I not this evening, on making biief temporary con- tact with that system of education of which he once formed so impor- tant a part, pay this tribute to his memory. I do not know that I can better return the compliment you have paid me than by speaking my views without reserve. I have chosen a subject that may be new and interesting, and one to which I have devoted a good deal of attention : " Heredity in Relation to Education." It is of course necessary that the education of a country shall be systemized, harmonized and consolidated. This involves so much machinery, including examinations, inspec- tions, reports, etc., that those ooQcernecJ are under constant tempta- * HEBEDITV IN HEIATION TO EDUCATION. system U eLn^Wto .uteJ VS^ °'. '"'"'■■""''"• "'"""""J' practioal i„U "L 1„ inf„nI7- ! IM"'™. wWcli is IiIIkI »ith of ed„„»,i„nhi,Te„r„g " '" ''"'■ "' '"■"'• *"-'"° '^y '«""«"t If heseeHtTuX tZ'l.'S' H™'' '"" r" ■""''»• »«-*?- he ..sumes th.t tSe ^r n'^T.M V^'t' -^'r."!"" ''J' "'I"™' « well ; if he believes that tLrf. ?"" '" *"' P"P''» <'q"«"y will beeome aCSlt't a r,t"o?rh" r"'"'^'' ^'" """'°''. "« to s'uXt;:rr,;:^Trr;:tsr" tr ',r t" ^"''--' the develoDmenf of mo« 7^ possible. To him tlie know edge of of ai, s.tr"'H?:^rr sa-^rtroa t"v' "'° ^'-"^ this progress, this evolution or unfolding ? ^ , '""*' measure indifferently the possibilities for InS^^^ ''^'^ "^ '^'^'^^ «« y^' ''"t scale'^o^^n^un^prLtlfd^^^^^^^^^^^ °^ "^« ^-er in the not Very distantly imo^^^^ has passed through stages ^^, io.eaL'^rit-'f-rtXi *-i?™,':;an indiviSt*' '■'""'■^ °' "■' ''™ '^ '" »<"»<' "■»«»"« the history of „,e to themselves, they »«»> U'':cMt?aU ^^of r 'll*\'" ^ is considerate '^^iliV^r'^LilrtZZj:^;^;^^^: ''-'- ne.ll"t^7.ShXrtlL''';er;;lr "T^^^ '' '» '-« education ''"i^utes, perhaps, the greatest danger of modern :?urds"toXi:^- io™:h"; :: ---^ -^oino^aS^^^^ John Smith and ElirSX*: arl'TTbeT" '' ^ ""' '''' "'^"^ and nothing more. '^^ ^ regaraed as simply units If I were asked to state what I considered the. greatest evil HEREDITY IN RELATION TO EDUCATION. 6 threatening education or actually existing in education, if not in our entire cml,zat.on to-day, I should reply that in my opinion it was just what 1 have referred to— not recognizing the individual as such lu tJie masses. Allow me to point out that the available energy of the world is increased in proportion as we develop individuals, i.e., human beings, differing from their fellows. We see this in the passage of a com- munity from a savage to a civilized condition. There is division of abor vvuh differentiation of function. It is betterfor the community that there sliould be carpenters, blacksmiths, masons, etc., than that trades ''" attempt to make each individual a Jack-of-all- So in education we should aim to develop those differences that nature has established. So-called education has done much harm bv running counter to nature. Evidently then, the great business of the teacher is to study nature with a solicitous anxiety to learn her meaning as to man. Froebel, after ages of educational blundering by the world, set out on the right path because he, like the one who would enter the Kingdom of Hea,ven, became as a little child and so understood children and adapted inethods to human nature as it is-methods in which their individuality is recognized at the very outset. Would that we had followed this great genius closer. Would that we were to day applying his methods in their best aspects to our education more fully. I mean in the sense that we adapted our methods to human nature, as it is, and not chiefly with any so-called end in view, such as fitting the boy or girl merely to sit at a desk in a warehouse or stand behind a c unter in a shop. But our schools, like other institutions, are a reflection of our genera , ^ate of human progress ; and while we have much to be thanktul for, I- must, with President Eliot, of Harvard University consider that our school education is still in no small degree a failure • part y because we have failed to grasp the purpose of education, and partly because we do not recognize that men are more than methods after ail-that John Smith is more than simply a human unit- that what suits him would not equally well suit John Jones Allow me to put the problem of education in a sort of combined biological and psychological form. It is impossible to conceive of any organism as existing apart from relations to other things that immediately or remotely affect it in other words, Its environment, which term will be used to designate the sum total of all those influences of whatsoever kind that are in any way related to or can affect such organism. Very often the most important factors in the environment are other organisms of the same kind, and this applies especially in the case of man, rr r / In the discussion of educational problems, it seems to me to be of 6 HKREDFTY IN IlELATION TO EDUCATION. vital i,uportai,oe to realize that we must conaider n.atv as a wl.ol« Wo gel at the mind through the body. To one devoid nf ..li sensa ,on the world is as good as non-existent, and sucl an i° di^d,^ for ^8^"' ^'■*''" ^''' '""'"' *•'"'■" ^""^ P'-^b^^Jy "° '^venues to the «und clear '"it ifnolT °^ '''' ''""^.'? ^''^ ^^^^ ^" ^^is broad way is then win be fTV '*' '"^.^^-^^l-'^J-^^^^ of n^ind and body are recojied we Ss'iJ?hV;rt.'"'"°"^^P^'°"« ^'^^^ ^^- ^^"-«d educa?o.of 111 r.a„l^A*'*°'.i^« '^^'^ ''^*"'^' *^'" inevitable relation of nund and bodv h? PUP is "^^••^"S^J.^'- ^yfi-'ic conditions and ph^^al ste'e of ins pupi s. The condition of tlie atmosphere of the schoolroom th« temperature, the quality and the direction of rays of lighTwm be ^I Up to this point I have been endeavorin ^.,. * m proportion as he has correct and comp^ehenshrvLw^nf ^^^ nature, is supposed to devise methods uJacco d wilh Ihem TZ with such views he may not become a very successful teacher beiuse teaching IS an art, and it is one thing to understand in the abstmct In fact, It IS lust h«ro that th" s^t a< =- ,- - u t ^ ^ ^^' HRREDITY IN RKLATFON TO EDITCATION. f I will, tli,,refore, eniieavor to assist in aoine uieKsure in the aolu- tion of tluH prohlnin, l,y eallinK attention to a guide to tht. individual nature through the sui)ject of heredity. Froin the earliest times heredity or the resemblance of offijprinc to parents has Uen adndtted, in some vague way at leiist ; and if this were now as clearly recognized for man as it is by breeders of our domestic animals, 1 would anticipate greater human progress than is likely till sound views on this subject are more widespread and more deeply impressed. '^ How tew have ever seriously sat down and pondered upon such questions ft.s these : Why is my nature such as it is 1 To whnt degree am i, »nd in what measure are ancestors concerned in my being what I am 1 What urn J likely to become 1 1 presume one might safely affirm that most persons here nerer directly faced such considerations at all. Probably many would regard it as impossible to account in any approximately satisfactory way for their physical and mental make-up, and would be very apt to educatioJ*"^'' '" "° ^'"*" ^''^'^'' *° '^*'*^ " commonly known as But if we were to visit the establishment of some successful breeder of domestic animals, we would find no such hazy mental condir tion. Ihe breeder does know why his stock is such as it is You point to some admirable specimen and compare it with another of plainly inferior merit, arid ask him the reason. He does not attempt to explain the difference by th« pasture, but he tells you that the l^s valuable animal is a common cross-breotl without extended pedigree, while the other is derived from ancestors that he can trace for venera- tions, and the parents of which are now on his farm, the purchase price having been a large one. The breeder would have been greatly puzzled if such ancestors had produced offspring entirely unworthy of themselves. The same applies to the vegetable .world. " Do men gather grapes of thorns, oi tigs of thistles^ But apparently we often expect this rule to be reversed m regard to human beings. The fact is, man was so much regarded as a creature apart by himself, with laws of his own, laws that were, every now and then at least, interfered with in some inexplicable way^ that the public nund got demoralized ; for nothing can be so dissw! troi^ as to beheve that the laws of nature are subject to change We may require to modify our views as to what the laws of nature really are, but so far as the world has yet learned, these laws are invariable. I must confess myself to have had at one time almost unbounded taith in the changes that the environment could work, and especially that nnrf. nS if ilioi- ,n,,^ „„11 — I..., i.- „ i iU » _ •' """' r— - '- ••• "'— "• •-«■! cvtuCtttiuu, ill the narrowey senae, Uut a close study of heredity, by observation and exoeriment, in breeding some of our domestic animals for a term of years, has rery strongly impressed upon my mind the strength of heredity 8 HEREDITY IN RELATION TO EDUCATION. Galton Ribot, and others have given us the most convincinc proofs that heredity is stronger than its antagonist, variation, or than Its modiher, environment. In accounting for variations, for no two beings are quite alike we must admit great ignorance ; however it is impossible to ignore or disbelieve in the effect of the environment. ^ We know that unless there be some favorable features in the environment the best nature can never develop. „Ki '^l'^ r"^ ^^^^ ^';®^'^^'" "^^ ''^^°'"« referred to might possibly be able to show us an an.ma that through accident, inadequate feedincr or other unfavorable condition in the environment, had never prov °d worthy of Its parentage ; and the observer will meet many cases like ?1 llr.r"?h T? ^'^''^'; 7^% r instructive inasmuch as they tTtZt^rtllf^'"''' '''' ^^^^^' by heredity and environment in' Galton, after most exhaustive and careful examination of large classes of men, as statesmen, judges, commanders, divines, authors arfsts and others, shows that of all those that attained gre^t dist.nc tion, a fair proportion left posterity worthy of them. He concludes also that if a man be possessed of really high-class native ability he will rise m spite of the environment, or as Shakespeare has it, "Some men are born great." ' But what of the mediocre ? Do the same laws as to heredity and environment apply? The best way in my opinion to become con vinced on this point is to make an honest and careful study of one's selt. It sometimes takes years to realize the extent to which we represent— often in an occult manner-our ancestors; and we must remember that law which Darwin has emphasized, that traite of ancestors tend to appear at the same period of life in the offspring as in the parents. It is further to be remembered that by a study of parents alone we cannot get nearly so good an idea of the heredities of any individual as if more distant ancestors and . collateral lines (uncles, cousins) be taken into account. Indeed the believer in man's evolution from lower forms of life takes a much wider view of the whole subject. It must be plain that each individual in some measure is the resultant of all those forces represented in ancestors— forces which have been modified in innumerable ways by ancestors, a consideration which greatly complicates the study of heredity. But if any one principle has been established, it is that heredity is stronger than environment. However, we must point out that the weaker the heredity the stronger the environment. Education in the Droner sense can do more relatively for a mediocre or weak nature than for 1 'i ---.-I — .- I !-.«,! g^r.!Uo or a eiiiuiuai will be such resard- less of education. So that the practical issue for educators narrows down very much to the question of heredity and environment for the mediocre or sub-mediocre. It is with the latter classes that the HEREDITY IN RELATION TO EDUCATION. 9 teachers of the land have chiefly to do, though we must not overlook the possible best and wisest that may be entrusted to our care. Our systems are not well adapted to discovering them, especially those of high talent or genius, affairs so tend to averages and mediocrities in all directions these days. It will now be my ain- to indicate how the educator may, by a study of heredity in a practical individual way, as well as heredity as a general fact in nature, increase his usefulness by directing his energies to better advantage from more exact knowledge of the indi- viduals with whom he has to deal. However skilful the teacher may be in reading the individual from his conduct, the diagnosis (to borrow a nv dical term) will be much safer if we know the family history and the ancestral ten- dencies. It is as regards disease, i.e., tendencies of the physical organizatio ,nd it is equally so with the mind though not yet so generally reLi^gnized. The teacher who knows nothing of the parents of a child is but poorly prepared to do the best possible in developing that child. With all the disadvantages associated with the career of a country school teacher who " boarded round," or who was expected to make periodic visits, it cannot be denied that he had opportunities for understanding that all-important home environment of his pupils, and of studying the parents and other relatives, and gathering hints from scraps of family history that greatly helped him wno was not a believer that all children are to be treated educationally just alike, all minds to be compressed into the same mould. With all its imperfections, I am bound to say the individuality of the pupils in the old log schoolhouse was often more developed than in the city public school of to-day, where for a boy to be himself fre- quently brings with it the ridicule of his fellows, a condition of things that has its effect afterwards on the lad at college. I find this fear of being considered odd— out of harmony with what others may think one of the greatest drawbacks to the develop- ment of independent investigating students at college. The case is still worse for the girls. When women begin to be really independent in thought, feeling and action, I shall he much more hopeful of the progress of n)ankind ; and happily the dawn of this better day has already begun. It is scarcely necessary to point out that in the nature of the case the parents are in the best position to learn the hereditary tendencies of their children ; but inasmuch as in the large proportion of cases the subject has never been given any serious attention by them, it remains with the teacher to work it out by such means as he can. As with the physician, practice makes perfect in observation, inter- rogation and diagnosis. Often a little conversation with the children when at their ease at home will give more information as to their real tendencies than 10 HEREDITY IN RELATION TO EDUCATION. very b«,„ ; and the «.ir„ce*me\krd eaXri Z" 2 matters would be of inestimable value. aecidmg such By the skilled teacher I now mean the one who is an exnerf diagnostician of powers, and especially of natural lean^ls in whfch Th,-.^^l* u' u^l^ ^'"'t^"" ^° ^^'^ * y«""g ^^"^ that he is out of place Ihis should all have been settled long ago ^ In the course of some lectures on education, given at the Join. Hopkins University several years ago Dr Stan lev R. II li. • ! psychologist, drew attention i whafhe called a ^^if^bd^k'' ""'""' of .ll.h^^A 'T'^c ^^^'"r'-t'^l ^^ possible of such sayings and doin-^s of each child of a family from infancy to adolescence is recommended to be kept as may be a guide to real tendencies. ^^mended Teachers may widen their sphere of influence bv niakincr thi. the e.aot w„„,^ „f the ^^o,^^XSl^:i^Z^:^ .oc,racya„d .mpartiality, a, the fond parents a™ ve?y apt to Tt a fnSri,r„rsr"oTeT"^"""^ """'- -' raifto-^izt: It IS interesting to paste in also the first letter, first storv fir.f ntrtmhr"" '"^"-'"^ "'^' ""■ «'- acJto'lKS .he J:l'l^fl;tria;''eVe™nL7^^^^^^^ '" ' ''* "> rl«nfK T"^ °'^f 'v ""^ * ^'^ ^'■*^^'^ *>''^^"g been discovered in the verv i?f ^f Po;;«rty by a physician who was making a professional lalf fhat child has since developed into a distinguisLd Cn ^^^Ithlr innate genms was sufficiently strong to have forced him throu. h and a W his environment apart from such early discovery ^nd encoura "e ment, I cannot say. At all events it would in all oro .ahHH-v I* been a case of devious ways, diverted energ; ai^ lost S^if not f.:.a^ partial or complete failure but for this elrly reco^nitioT' No doubt the difficulties in the way of meeting aiUhe parents in the case of a large class in the city school, are considerate and it may not be feasible to visit all. though much is gained in moVwavs Sr :f"ttVu;:;r "'"^ ''- •^^-•^ --'-^-^^^ - -" -"'« ^s When once the teacher has made a somewhat complete «pd reliable estimate of the tendencies, good and bad, of any pupif and the r relative strength, a large part of the problem'of develp'S ts already 1 HEREDITV IN RKLATION TO EDUCATION. 11 Lvery human being may be regarded as an organism with a com- bination of qualities of varying strength, some of which, indeed most ot which are good m themselves, but either weak or stron-^ relatively to a comn^on standard or with reference to each other, "so that the question or balance is one of the most vital. The most dangerous of all meml^ers of' society are those that are il -balanced and lack self-control. The real criminal organization is of this nature. But so also is the faddist or extremist of any type dangerous, because being ill-balanced he himself tends to lead mediocre minds astray ; and much energy that might be better employed must be used to counteract his dang-rous doctrines and vigorous efforts Ihe question with the teacher then is, How can I develop each nature committed to my charge so as to strengthen its weak parts, physical, intellectual and moral, so that no faculty shall be unduly developed, and that the balance of the whole shall be good, while I do not overlook these faculties that are strong, and on which the success of the individual so much depends? It can, with the utmost conhdence, be assumed that in all human beings some powers are by inheritance of different strength from others. Some children are so weak m mathematical perception that they must receive careful and special attention to nurture this up to an approach to the average : while at the same time it must not be made almost the sole standard ot intellectual strength or excellence, as I fear has been too much the case in schools within the past twenty years, at all events An intel- lect thus weak n,ay have a good deal more than the average capacity tor artistic or moral feeling, and men are not mere calculating machines, but rather organisms endowed with feelings that, like ^he steam-boiler, supply the source of power, the moving forces How sadly have we neglected the culture of right feel'iu-' in our educational institutions ! It was a natural consequence "of the misleading, because partial, doctrine that the great purpose of the public school was to teach "the three Rs." It cannot be too much insisted on, tliat the great purpose of all education is to furnish a favorable environment (using that term in the widest sense) for the development of the highest type of human beings consistent with the innate inherited tendencies. We cannot make silk purses out of sow.s' lugs, but we must take cave that we do not convert silk purses into lugs by our bungling and lack of insight, all the more ikely if we place undue contidence in our educational systems which we call great, because, according to the tendencies of tiie day, they affect vast numbers. A study of heredity tends to prevent and mitigate discouraT^ment and It also shows us how great is the power of the organism to vary with changes of ,.„vironment. In other words, education, in the true sense, can do much to modify. The world has passed from stages of almost bestial degradation to the pre.sent state of civilization throu<'h this tendency to vary under' environment by pi-ocesses some of which 12 HEREDITY IN RELATION TO EDUCATION. f r r:t%':^p^J;y;;^;^r. that .. co .,. f^n, „„,«. «l>ould be a rational hoyl C:Z on Z ^"^ J'f- '"*"''« ^ ^u' ^h" end and in this the org'anisms n.ust tir t o^alfh '" '!, ""^^"^ *« -» Regarding mankind in this hVht uL ! considered. along m life. But oneli.".7s certa nTh .""' °"'^ '^"^ *° ^"ft great results, the teacher must be hinT"if t ''\'''" '''"^« ^'-"^y the pub he would do well if it could bTt In 7 "'"''' "^ * "'*" ^ «nd fpr wealth, power or distinction to consid!?^ Jong enough in the race . right means to find and reta.'n such nelf ^' t'^''. ^^ ^^ taking the and observe the laws of the her^ditTes o^f tfi ^""'^''^^ ""^'^ ^^udy possible progress ; and next to that X' '^ T^^ ^^^ ^re^'^^t m every way those that, X the n ."" u'""^ '"* ^"'^^h^"«h greatest influence in mouldinra'ddevlr*' ItT'^' ''^^« '^^ Al other questions are subordinate ]^f~^^ *''''''"''« ''^ ^'^"th. work, et us in our day and geaeratron r.^^ «°"«agues in this noble and seize it. ^ generation realize our great opportunity /^ ///«/.