Educational Southern Branch of the University of California Los Angeles Form L-l uv Thi, book is DUE on the I.,, d..e stamped below HA. Form L-9-15m-8,'2|r > V 1 7 795 JU! 9 o QUARTER 4 1977 IRelloGg'6 {Teachers' library VOL. XX EDUCATIONAL CREEDS OF THE NINETEENTH CENTURY EDITED BY OSSIAN H. LANG AUTHOR OF "OUTLINES OF HERBART'S PEDAGOGICS," "COMENIUS," "BASEDOW," ETC. /447Z NEW YORK AND CHICAGO E. L. KELLOGG & CO, Copyright, 1898, by E. L. KELLOGG & CO., NEW YORK. INTRODUCTION. THERE is something radically and fatally wrong with a teacher who has no educational creed. Education is a responsible and complicated work, which must be care- fully planned from beginning to end. There must be a definite aim and a clear understanding of the ways and means of reaching it. In other words, the educator must have in his mind some fixed principles of action. Without them he is like the captain of a ship without a compass. Every fad that stirs up a breeze may turn him from his course. If he is a routinist his pupils will be deprived of opportunities for educational development. In short, only a teacher who has clear and rational edu- cational convictions can be safely entrusted with the training of children. But the collecting and organizing of a body of sound v^ educational doctrine is no easy task. The professional ^ aspect of teaching is as yet but imperfectly developed, ^ and there is little agreement as to what constitutes an ' authoritative statement in matters pedagogical. Often people assume the direction of educational affairs with no other qualification than success in a political contest. Again, in teachers' meetings a bright speaker with just a superficial, if any, knowledge of pedagogy frequently impresses his audience more than a thoroughly grounded iii iv Introduction. educator who lacks ability in public address. Further- more, there is an abundance of books and periodicals, all professing to be pedagogical in character, which present almost as many different and conflicting opinions con- cerning fundamentals as there are writers. No wonder the belief prevails that the theory of education is merely a matter of opinion, an arbitrary thing, concerning which one person's judgment is as good as that of another. Experience and extensive inquiry among students of education show that the most satisfactory source of ped- agogical insight and inspiration is to be found in the history of educational theories, or, more precisely speak ing, in the study of the pedagogic creeds of the masters. Here, then, is a wide and fruitful field for investigation for all who desire to get hold of the great truths upon which education rests. But however necessary the historical study of educa- tion may be, it is not all-sufficient. The world moves. The advance of civilization daily brings up new prob- lems. The ideals of humanity are constantly broaden- ing. The present, it is true, is the result of the past and cannot be rightly understood without a knowledge of its evolution. But it is also and decidedly a subject for special consideration, involving close scrutiny of the demands of present-day sociology and ethics. In for- mulating'one's pedagogical creed, therefore, one ought to take careful account of the conclusions arrived at by those who have given years of thought to the digging for educational truths and are best qualified to interpret the educational needs of the present. Xowhere has pedagogical inquiry received more atten- tion than in Germany. Its contributions to the litera- ture of pedagogy are therefore well worthy of the American teachers. Educational foundation truths are Introduction. v universal, and the best thought of Germany concerning them cannot but prove helpful to the seeker for light. But a creed involves more than universal principles. It is of little value if it does not strike at existing condi- tions. American education involves peculiar problems and possibilities. We need more than adaptation of European-bred pedagogical ideas and plans. Popular government on as grand a scale as ours is to be found nowhere else, and the education of the people in com- mon schools free to all is a reality only with us even in free England it is still but an ideal. It is evident that we need a thoroughly American scheme of education, one that is specially and fully suited to the demands of our own civilizaiton. These and other considerations induced the editor, in the spring of 1896, to send out letters to a number of well-known students of the philosophy of education, ask- ing them to furnish for publication brief but compre- hensive statements of the educational ideals and plans upon whose application they based their hopes for the future of American civilization. The replies were printed in The School Journal under the general head of "Pedagogical Creeds,*' and after a careful revision are now collected and offered in book form. This century may well be called the Pestalozzian era in education. There is not one American educator rep- resented in this book who is not indebted either directly or indirectly to Father Pestalozzi. The indirect influ- ences may have come either from Froebel and Diester- weg, who elaborated the plans of Pestalozzi in a practi- cal way, or from Herbart and Beneke, who attempted to systematize the new educational gospel and make it the basis of a science of pedagogics. But they are to be discerned more or less clearly in every creed. It was thought, therefore, that the readers of this book would vi Introduction. appreciate summaries of the educational principles of the great German Pestalozzians. These latter creeds have been collected from various sources and an effort has been made to keep them as concise as possible, assuming that readers will look for aids to special and more ex- tensive study elsewhere. All these creeds reflect various conceptions of the fundamental truths of education. A comparative study of them will, it is hoped, serve to arouse greater interest in the study of theoretical pedagogics, to stimulate pro- fessional pride, and to invigorate in the hearts of thou- sands of American educators the sense of responsibility demanded for the task of training the future citizens of this country. OSSIAN H. LANG. NEW YORK, 1898. CONTENTS. Introduction . . .vT>v iii The Pedagogical Creed of Professor John Dewey.. 5 The Pedagogical Creed of John S. Clark 21 The Pedagogical Creed of William T. Harris 36 The Shorter Pedagogical Creed of B. A. Hinsdale 47 The Pedagogical Creed of Earl Barnes 52 The Pedagogical Creed of Colonel Francis W. Parker 64 The Pedagogical Creed of James L. Hughes 57 The Pedagogical Creed of W. N. Hailmann 67 The Pedagogical Creed of L. Seeley, Ph.D 73 The Pedagogical Creed of Richard G. Boone 78 The Pedagogical Creed of E. W. Scripture 82 The Pedagogical Creed of Louis H. Jones 90 The Pedagogical Creed of R. Heber Holbrook, Ph.D 95 The Educational Creed of Patterson DuBois 100 A Bit of a Creed. By James P. Haney, M.D 107 The Educational Creed of T. G. Rooper 112 Some Elements of a Common Educational Creed. By George P. Brown 126 Pedagogic Achievements of Pestalozzi 133 Froebel's Pedagogical Creed 136 TTiesterweg's Pedagogical Creed 141 Rules of Instruction 144 Herbert's Pedagogical Creed. . . 148 Two Analyses of Herbert's Didactics 152 , Beneke's Pedagogical Creed 15.") Herbart and Beneke : A Comparison of their Creeds with Reference to the Theory of Instruction. 157 vii I. THE PEDAGOGICAL CREED of Professor JOHN DEWEY, University of Chicago. ARTICLE I. WHAT EDUCATION IS. I BELIEVE that all education proceeds by the participa- tion of the individual in the social consciousness of the race. This process begins unconsciously almost at birth, and is continually shaping L of ,,.,..,,, ,. , . humanity. the individuals powers, saturating his con- sciousness, forming his habits, training his ideas, and arousing his feelings and emotions. Through this unconscious education the individual gradually comes to share in the in- tellectual and moral re- sources which humanity has succeeded in getting together. He becomes an inheritor of the fund- ed capital of civilization. The most formal and technical education in the world cannot safely depart from this general process. It can only or- ganize it ; or differen- tiate it in some particular direction. 5 6 Educational Creeds. I believe that the only true education comes through the stimulation of the child's powers by the demands of Social the social situations in which he finds him- demands. se jf_ Through these demands he is stimu- lated to act as a member of a unity, to emerge from his original narrowness of action and feeling, and to con- ceive of himself from the standpoint of the welfare of the group to which he belongs. Through the responses which others make to his own activities he comes to know what these mean in social terms. The value which they have is reflected back into them. For instance, through the response which is made to the child's in- stinctive babblings the child comes to know what those babblings mean ; they are transformed into articulate language, and thus the child is introduced into the con- solidated wealth of ideas and emotions which are now summed up in language. I believe that this educational process has two sides one psychological and one sociological ; and that Psychological neither can be subordinated to the other or basis, neglected without evil results following. Of these two sides, the psychological is the basis. The child's own instincts and powers furnish the material and give the starting-point for all education. Save as the efforts of the educator connect with some activity which the child is carrying on of his own initiative in- dependent of the educator, education becomes reduced to a pressure from without. It may, indeed, give cer- tain external results, but cannot truly be called educative. Without insight into the psychological structure and activities of the individual, the educative process will, therefore, be haphazard and arbitrary. If it chances to coincide with the child's activity it will get a leverage ; if it does not, it will result in friction, or disintegration, or arrest of the child nature. John Dewey. 7 I believe that knowledge of social conditions, of the present state of civilization, is necessary in order prop- erly to interpret the child's powers. The Thesocia i child has his own instincts and tendencies, 8ide ' but we do not know what these mean until we can tran- slate them into their social equivalents. We must be able to carry them back into a social past and see them as the inheritance of previous race activities. "We must also be able to project them into the future to see what their outcome and end will be. In the illustration just used, it is the ability to see in the child's babblings the promise and potency of a future social intercourse and conversation which enables one to deal in the proper way with that instinct. I believe that the psychological and social sides are organically related, and that education cannot be re- garded as a compromise between the two, or .,. r ' Psychological a supenmposition of one upon the other, social sides We are told that the psychological definition of education is barren and formal that it gives us only the idea of a development of all the mental powers with- out giving us any idea of the use to which these powers are put. On the other hand, it is urged that the social definition of education, as getting adjusted to civiliza- tion, makes of it a forced and external process, and re- sults in subordinating the freedom of the individual to a preconceived social and political status. I believe each of these objections is true when urged against one side isolated from the other. In order to know what a power really is we must know , . , , . . , , . Development what its end, use, or function is ; and this we of , . . ' , , , . , . capacities, cannot know save as we conceive of the indi- vidual as active in social relationships. But, on the other hand, the only possible adjustment which we can give to the child under existing conditions, is that 8 Educational Creeds. which arises through putting him in complete possession of all his powers. With the advent of democracy and modern industrial conditions, it is impossible to foretell definitely just what civilization will be twenty years from now. Hence it is impossible to prepare the child for any precise set of conditions. To prepare him for the future life means to give him command of himself; it means so to train him that he will have the full and ready use of all his capacities ; that his eye and ear and hand may be tools ready to command, that his judg- ment may be capable of grasping the conditions under which it has to work, and the executive forces be trained to act economically and efficiently. It is impossible to reach this sort of adjustment save as constant regard is had to the individual's own powers, tastes, and interests say, that is, as education is continually converted into psychological terms. In sum, I believe that the individual who is to be educated is a social individual, and that society is an Purpose of organic union of individuals. If we elimi- edacation. lia j- e ^j je soc j a i factor from the child we are left only with an abstraction ; if we eliminate the indi- vidual factor from society, we are left only with an inert and lifeless mass. Education, therefore, must begin with a psychological insight into the child's capacities, interests, and habits. It must be controlled at every point by reference to these same considerations. These powers, interests, and habits must be continually inter- preted we must know what they mean. They must be translated into terms of their social equivalents into terms of what they are capable of in the way of social service. John Dewey. ARTICLE II. WHAT THE SCHOOL IS. I believe that the school is primarily a social institu- tion. Education being a social process, the school is simply that form of community life in which community all those agencies are concentrated that will ufe * be most effective in bringing the child to share in the in- herited resources of the race, and to use his own powers for social ends. I believe that education, therefore, is a process of liv- ing and not a preparation for future living. I believe that the school must represent present life life as real and vital to the child as that V itai which he carries on in the home, in the forms - neighborhood, or on the playground. I believe that education which does not occur through forms of life, forms that are worth living for their own sake, is always a poor substitute for the genuine reality, and tends to cramp and to deaden. I believe that the school, as an institution, should simplify existing social life ; should reduce it, as it were, to an embryonic form. Existing life is so complex that the child cannot be brought into contact with it without either confusion or distraction; he is either overwhelmed by the multi- plicity of activities which are going on, so that he loses his own power of orderly reaction, or he is so stimulated by these various activities that his powers are prema- turely called into play and he becomes either unduly specialized or else disintegrated. I believe that, as such simplified social life, the school life should grow gradually out of the ... The meaning home life; that it should take up and con- of social ... . , i , , i -i i activities, tinue the activities with which the child is already familiar in the home. io Educational Creeds. I believe that it should exhibit these activities to the child, and reproduce them in such ways that the child will gradually learn the meaning of them, and be ca- pable of playing his own part in relation to them. I believe that this is a psychological necessity, because Continuity ^ * s ^ ne on ty wav ^ securing continuity in of growth, thg chip's growth, the only way of giving a background of past experience to the new ideas given in school. I believe it is also a social necessity, because the home is the form of social life in which the child has been nur- tured and in connection with which he has had his moral training. It is the business of the school to deepen and extend his sense of the values bound up in his home life. I believe that much of present education fails because it neglects this fundamental principle of the school as Wrong a f rm f community life. It conceives the aims. school as a place where certain information is to be given, where certain lessons are to be learned, or where certain habits are to be formed. The value of these is conceived as lying largely in the remote future; the child must do these things for the sake of some- thing else he is to do; they are mere preparations. As a result they do not become a part of the life experience of the child and so are not truly educative. I believe that the moral education centers upon this conception of the school as a mode of social life, that Moral ^ ie kest an ^ deepest moral training is pre- training. c i se iy that which one gets through having to enter into proper relations with others in a unity of work and thought. The present educational systems, so far as they destroy or neglect this unity, render it difficult or impossible to get any genuine, regular moral training. John Dewey. n I believe that the child should be stimulated and controlled in his work through the life of stimulus the community. and control. I believe that under existing conditions far too much of the stimulus and control proceeds from the teacher, because of neglect of the idea of the school as a form of social life. I believe that the teacher's place and work in the school is to be interpreted from this same basis. The teacher is not in the school to impose certain ideas or to form certain habits in the child, but is there as a member of the community to select the influences which shall affect the child and to assist him in properly responding to these influences. I believe that the discipline of the school should pro- ceed from the life of the school as a whole and not directly from the teacher. I believe that the teacher's business is simply to de- termine, on the basis of larger experience and riper wisdom, how the discipline of life shall come to the child. I believe that all questions of the grading of the child and his promotion should be determined by reference to the same standard. Examinations are of use only so far as they test the child's fitness for social life and reveal the place in which he can be of the most service and where he can receive the most help. ARTICLE III. THE SUBJECT-MATTER OF EDUCATION. I believe that the social life of the child is the basis of concentration, or correlation, in all his training or growth. The social life gives the uncon- concentra- scious unity and the background of all his tton< efforts and of till his attainments. 12 Educational Creeds. I believe that the subject-matter of the school cur- riculum should mark a gradual differentiation out of the primitive unconscious unity of social life. I believe that we violate the child's nature and render difficult the best ethical results by introducing the Special child too abruptly to a number of special studies, studies, of reading, writing, geography, etc., out of relation to this social life. I believe, therefore, that the true center of correla- tion on the school subjects is not science, nor literature, nor history, nor geography, but the child's own social activities. I believe that education cannot be unified in the study of science, or so-called nature study, because apart from human activity, nature itself is not a unity; Principle . .;'. " of nature in itself is a number of diverse objects radiation. . , ,. , , , ., in space and time, and to attempt to make it the center of work by itself is to introduce a principle of radiation rather than one of concentration. I believe that literature is the reflex expression and interpretation of social experience ; that hence it must follow upon and not precede such experi- ence. It, therefore, cannot be made the basis, although it may be made the summary of unification. I believe once more that history is of educative value in so far as it presents phases of social life end growth. It must be controlled by reference to social life. When taken simply as history it is thrown into the distant past and becomes dead and inert. Taken as the record of man's social life and progress it becomes full of meaning. I believe, however, that it cannot be so taken excepting as the child is also introduced directly into social life. I believe accordingly that the primary basis of educa- tion is in the child's powers at work along the same John Dewey. 13 -general constructive lines as those which have brought civilization into being. I believe that the only way to make the child con- scious of his social heritage is to enable him The primary to perform those fundamental types of ac- basis> tivity which make civilization what it is. I believe, therefore, in the so-called expressive or constructive activities as the center of correlation. I believe that this gives the standard for the place of cooking, sewing, manual training, etc., in the school. I believe that they are not special studies which are to be introduced over and above a lot of others in the way of relaxation or relief, or as additional accomplishments. I believe rather that they social represent, as types, fundamental forms of social activity; and that it is possible and desirable that the child's introduction into the more formal subjects of the curriculum be through the medium of these activities. I believe that the study of science is educational in so far as it brings out the materials and pro- science cesses which make social life what it is. teaching:. I believe that one of the greatest difficulties in the present teaching of science is that the material is pre- sented in purely objective form, or is treated as a new peculiar kind of experience which the child can add to that which he has already had. In reality, science is of value because it gives the ability to interpret and con- trol the experience already had. It should be intro- duced, not as so much new subject-matter, but as showing the factors already involved in previous experi- ence and as furnishing tools by which that experience can be more easily and effectively regulated. I believe that at present we lose much of the value of literature and language studies because of our elimina- 14 Educational Creeds. tiou of the social element. Language is almost always treated in the books of pedagogy sinmlv M.S Language. the expression of thought. It is true that language is a logical instrument, but it is fundamentally and primarily a social instrument. Language is the device for communication ; it is the tool through which one individual comes to share the ideas and feelings of others. When treated simply as a way of getting in- dividual information, or as a means of showing off what one has learned, it loses its social motive and end. I believe that there is, therefore, no succession of studies in the ideal school curriculum. If education is life, all life has, from the outset, a scientific Development , , . , of aspect; an aspect of art and culture and an aspect of communication. It cannot, there- fore, be true that the proper studies for one grade are mere reading and writing, and that at a later grade, reading, or literature, or science, may be introduced. The progress is not in the succession of studies, but in the development of new attitudes towards, and new interests in, experience. I believe, finally, that education must be conceived as a continuing reconstruction of experience ; Reconstruc- ,. , ,. , , V. tionof that the process and the goal of educatioii experience. , , , . are one and the same thing. I believe that to set up any end outside of education, as furnishing its goal and standard, is to deprive the educational process of much of its meaning, and tends to make us rely upon false and external stimuli in deal- ing with the child. ARTICLE IV. THE NATURE OF METHOD. I believe that the question of method is ultimately reducible to the question of the order of development of John Dewey. 15 the child's powers and interests. The law for pre- senting and treating material is the law im- The law plicit within the child's own nature. Because of this is so I believe the following statements are of supreme importance as determining the spirit in which education is carried on : 1. I believe that the active side precedes the passive in the development of the child nature; that expression comes before conscious impression; that the muscular development precedes the sensory ; ,, , , . impression. that movements come before conscious sen- sations; I believe that consciousness is essentially motor or impulsive; that conscious states tend to project themselves in action. I believe that the neglect of this principle is the cause of a large part of the waste of time and strength in school work. The child is thrown into a passive, re- ceptive, or absorbing attitude. The conditions are such that he is not permitted to follow the law of his nature; the result is friction and waste. I believe that ideas (intellectual and rational pro- cesses) also result from action and devolve for the sake of the better control of action. What we term reason is primarily the law of orderly or effective action. To attempt to develop the reasoning powers, the powers of judgment, without reference to the selection and ar- rangement of means in action, is the fundamental fal- lacy in our present methods of dealing with this matter. As a result we present the child with arbitrary symbols. Symbols are a necessity in mental development, but they have their place as tools for economizing effort; presented by themselves they are a mass of meaningless and arbitrary ideas imposed from without. 2. I believe that the image is the great instrument of instruction. What a child gets out of any subject pre- 1 6 Educational Creeds. sented to him is simply the images which he himself forms with regard to it. I believe that if nine-tenths of the energy at present Power of directed towards making the child learn imagery. cer tain things were spent in seeing to it that the child was forming proper images, the work of instruction would be indefinitely facilitated. I believe that much of the time and attention now given to the preparation and presentation of lessons might be more wisely and profitably expended in train- ing the child's power of imagery and in seeing to it that he was continually forming definite, vivid, and growing images of the various subjects with which he comes in contact in his experience. 3. I believe that interests are the signs and symptoms The child's of growing power. I believe that they rep- interests. resen t dawning capacities. Accordingly the constant and careful observation of interests is of the armost importance for the educator. I believe that these interests are to be observed as showing the state of development which the child has leached. I believe that they prophesy the state upon which he ia about to enter. I believe that only through the continual and sympa- thetic observation of childhood's interests can the adult enter into the child's life and see what it is ready for, and upon what material it could work most readily and fruitfully. I believe that these interests are neither to be hu- mored nor repressed. To repress interest is to sub- stitute the adult for the child, and so to weaken intel- lectual curiosity and alertness, to suppress initiative, and to deaden interest. To humor the interests is to substitute the transient for the permanent. The inter- John Dewey. 17 est is always the sign of some power below; the impor- tant thing is to discover this power. To humor the interest is to fail to penetrate below the surface, and its sure result is to substitute caprice and whim for genu- ine interest. 4. I believe that the emotions are the reflex of actions. I believe that to endeavor to stimulate or arouse the emotions apart from their corresponding activities is to introduce an unhealthy and morbid state of mind. I believe that if we can only secure right habits of action and thought, with reference to the good, the true, and the beautiful, the emotions will for the most part take care of themselves. I believe that next to deadness and dullness, formal- ism and routine, our education is threatened with DO greater evil than sentimentalism. I believe that this sentimentalism is the necessary result of the attempt to divorce feeling from action. ABTICLE V. THE SCHOOL AND SOCIAL PROGRESS. I believe that education is the fundamental method of social progress and reform. I believe that all reforms which rest simply upon the enactment of law, or the threatening of cer- special tain penalties, or upon changes in mechanical P*" 88 - or outward arrangements, are transitory and futile. I believe that education is a regulation of the process of coming to share in the social consciousness ; and that the adjustment of individual activity on the basis of this social consciousness is the only sure method of social reconstruction, i3 Educational Creeds. I believe that this conception has due regnrd for both the individualistic and socialistic ideals. It is duly indi- Two vidual because it recognizes the formation of ideals. a cer t a i n character as the only genuine basis of right living. It is socialistic because it recognizes that this right character is not to be formed by merely individual precept, example, or exhortation, but rather by the influence of a certain form of institutional or community life upon the individual, and that the social organism through the school, as its organ, may deter- mine ethical results. I believe that in the ideal school we have the recon- ciliation of the individualistic and the institutional ideals. I believe that the community's duty to education is, therefore, its paramount moral duty. By law and pun- ishment, bv social agitation and discussion, The great . , - * , . ., ,, . duty of society can regulate and form itself m a more 16 y ' or less haphazard and chance way. But through education society can formulate its own pur- poses, can organize its own means and resources, and thus shape itself with definiteness and economy in the direction in which it wishes to move. I believe that when society once recognizes the possi- bilities in this direction, and the obligations which these possibilities impose, it is impossible to conceive of the resources of time, attention, and money which will be put at the disposal of the educator. I believe it is the business of every one interested in education to insist upon the school as the primary and most effective interest of social progress and reform in order that society may be awakened to realize what the school stands for, and aroused to the necessity of en- dowing the educator with sufficient equipment properly to perform his task. John Dewey. 19 I believe that education thus conceived marks the most perfect and intimate union of science , ' i i i Union of and art conceivable in human experience. science and I believe that the art of thus giving shape to human powers and adapting them to social service is the supreme art; one calling into its service the best of artists; that no insight, sympathy, tact, executive power is too great for such service. I believe that with the growth of psychological ser- vice, giving added insight into individual structure and laws of growth ; and with growth of social science, add- ing to our knowledge of the right organization of indi- viduals, all scientific resources can be utilized for the purposes of education. I believe that when science and art thus join hands the most commanding motive for human action will be reached; the most genuine springs of human conduct aroused, and the best service that human nature is capable of guaranteed. I believe, finally, that the teacher is engaged, not simply in the training of individuals, but in The teacner , the formation of the proper social life. office. I believe that every teacher should realize the dignity of his calling; that he is a social servant set apart for the maintenance of proper social order and the securing of the right social growth. I believe that in this way the teacher always is the prophet of the true God and the usherer in of the true kingdom of God. 20 Educational Creeds. [NOTE. The isolation of the teacher is a thing of the past. The processes of education have come to be recognized as futida mental and vital in any attempt to improve human conditions and elevate society. The missionary and social reformer have long been looking to education for counsel and aid in their most difficult undertakings. They have viewed wtth interest and pleasure the broadening of pedagogy so as to make it include not only experimental physiol- ogy and child-study, but the problems of motor training, physical culture, hygiene, and the treatment of defectives and delinquents of every class. The schoolmaster, always conservative, has not found it easy to enter this large field; for he has often failed to realize how rich and fruitful the result of such researches are; but remarkable progress has been made, and a changed attitude on the part of educators is the result. And how could it be otherwise when the oldest and most renowned institutions of learning in the land are giving a conspicuous place to the newer and better pedagogy in their curriculum ? Another, and perhaps the latest, phase of the educational move- ment is the conviction that the school is a social institution, that its aims are social, and that its management, discipline, and method of instruction should be dominated by this idea. The mere contemplation of the proposition must be accompanied in the mind of every candid person by a sense of our shortcomings in this respect. Dr. Dewey's Pedagogical Cr ed shows how the concentrated agencies of the school should bring the child to share in the in- herited resources of the race. It points out how discipline and method should be influenced to this end. SAMUEL T. BUTTON, Supt. of Schools, Brookline, Mass. II. THE PEDAGOGICAL CREED of JOHN S. CLARK. THE substance of my pedagogical creed is contained in the following comments on the creed of Professor John Dewey, of the University of Chicago : The pedagogical creed of Professor Dewey, as pub- lished in The School Journal of January 16, 1897, is a notable contribution to educational literature. Since Spencer's famous essay, over thirty years ago, there have been few statements of the basis, function, and purposes of education that are so sound, so Dewey's sensible, and so suggestive as this word from creed> Chicago University. Educational thinkers and workers owe Professor Dewey a genuine debt for his comprehen- sive setting forth of the problem as he sees it. We have here one of the first satisfactory statements of the interrelation between the psychological and the social aspects of education. Investigation into chil- dren's individual capacities, interests, and habits is to be pursued, we are told, not wholly out of deference to the innate self, but, above all, for the sake of discovering the most feasible ways of helping the individual to receive and to give his share of the life of the race. "All education," says Professor Dewey, "proceeds by the participation of the individual in the social con- sciousness of the race." TJiree Principles. I take it that the professor's main points of emphasis are three : 21 22 Educational Creeds. 1. The individuality of the child : his personal capaci- ties, interests, and powers. 2. The social environment of the child as a world of conscious intelligence ; the gradual understanding of this social world by the individual through coming into conscious touch with its best aspects. JOHN S. CLARK. 3. The creative activities of the child as the point of concentration in his educational development ; the crea- tive activities as the means through which the individ- ual does thus gradually come into the full command of himself and the full appreciation of the social whole of which he is to become a part. John S. Clark. 23 The reasons given for the importance of considering the child's individuality are reasons which ought to do much towards keeping modern child-study on a sensible basis. According to Professor Dewey, the child's per- sonal instincts, interests, capacities, and hab- ., ,. ,, Individual- its merit attention and consideration, on the ity of the ground that these, under normal conditions, indicate, directly or indirectly, the probable lines of adaptability to social needs and conditions. Child-study acquires a new value when children begin to be studied, not simply for the sake of cataloguing them as speci- mens, but chiefly for the sake of seeing along what lines they are likely to be most susceptible to influences of environment, and along what lines they are likely to be most capable of effective reaction on their natural and their social environment through creations for the social benefit. These points are indeed of vital importance. If I may be allowed to carry the thought a step fur- ther, let the idea of selection by the teacher be added right here. Let child- study include in its child legitimate range the sympathetic observation 8tad y- of children to discover what elements in the social environment appeal most to the higher elements of a particular child's make-up. Let child-study include in its range also observation to discover which of the child's natural aptitudes and habits of creative activity are correlated with the finest feeling and highest thinking; into what sorts of activity the child seems able to put the largest expression of his best self. In other words, let child-study recognize the idealizing powers of the child, and his responsiveness to ideals, as well as to bare, uncharacterized facts. If we once assume what Professor Dewey certainly will grant, that in this life some things are better worth having and doing than other things, it is certainly of 24 Educational Creeds. great importance for teachers to make, if possible, a Qualitative qualitative as well as a quantitative analysis analysis. o f ^] ie personalities with which they deal, and to consider the best way of bringing out the best in these personalities. When we are told that the process and the goal of education should be the continual re- construction of experience through bringing the indi- vidual more and more into harmony with the conscious- ness of the race we must assume that it is the race consciousness of the best things that is meant. It seems to me that from the very first the teacher's task of selecting the influences which shall P in d si|ht! c P la y on the child ought to be aided by a better knowledge of the comparative respon- siveness of the child's simple animal nature, on the one hand, and of his higher spiritual nature on the other hand. Such insight, where it does exist, means, of course, an immense saving of time and labor, and an avoidance of some discouraging failures. Just here I may be permitted to say that Professor Dewey's definition of the function of the teacher seems to reduce the influence of the teacher's per- pwsonaiity. sona lity to unnecessarily low terms. His feeling in the matter is apparently that of vigorous reaction and revolt against the autocracy of the schoolmaster, as he used to be. But does not the present revolt against arbitrariness and dogmatism carry us a trifle too far? Is it wise to leave the child so entirely to his own devices, and make him work out his own salvation at such expensive outlay of time and futile effort ? I believe that there should still be a use for the teacher over and above the rather vague "selec- tion of influences" to bear on the child. It ought to be possible still for some ideas to be caught by contact with a superior mind, for some knowledge to be gained John S. Clark. 25 through another's experience, as well as through the child's own experience.* If this were not true, we older folks, who ended our school life many years before present educational methods came into repute, would be reduced to the humiliating necessity of declaring that our own school days were barren of profit. Proclamation of the absolute ineffectiveness of former methods in education is a sort of boomerang, which turns in its course and conies back to belabor every grown-up reformer with the assertion of his own mental outfit and enfeebled mental condition. SOCIAL ENVIRONMENT OF THE CHILD. When we consider Professor Dewey's second point of emphasis, the social environment of the child, we see how far he is in advance of most of his con- temporaries in educational literature, and Environ- how far our educational discussion has ad- vanced during the last few years. He does not overlook or undervalue the importance of the natural environ- ment. He sees the importance of the study of nature * " Now whatever may be said of pedagogical ideals and apparatus, there is one factor in education that has remained essentially un- changed from age to age. This factor is the personal the native, indefinable something to the teacher that wins and inspires the pupil. Of such paramount importance is this quality that nobody thinks of disputing the dictum of Jules Simon 'The master is the school.' Mr. Emerson has said substantially the same thing ' It matters little what you learn, the question is with whom you learn." Dean Stanley insisted that the dullest, most vicious boy at Rugby could not come in contact with Dr. Arnold without receiving a moral and intellectual impulse. " It was the personal element that told most effectively, for many of his contemporaries were his equals in intellect and his superiors in scholarship the personal element which it is so difficult to charac- terize and so impossible to measure. 'The system is lost in the man,' says Dean Stanley; 'the recollections of the head-master of Rugby are inseparable from the recollections of the personal guide and friend of his scholars.' " LEVEEETT WILSON SPBINO, D.D., on " Mark Hopkins, Teacher." 26 Educational Creeds. for herself and in herself, but he rightly recognizes the social environment, the world of human activity, as the most significant source of help in the education of the child. Here again I ask leave to carry his expressed thought one stage further. I feel that he would certainly not Social overlook the absolute need of a distinct recog- ideais. n ition of social ideals in any plan or course of education that undertakes to bring the individual and society into truly harmonious relations. He says that the school, in its presentation of social conditions, should be simply the natural outgrowth of the home. This could not be better put, if only the homes of our public- school children were ideal homes. But what is the fact ? I assume that we are speaking of homes and schools in cities and large towns. The great mass of our Actual school population is actually found sur- conditions. roun( ^ e( j by distinctly urban conditions ; statistics show that the tendency of population is more and more towards centralizing in cities. The schools of the future are, without doubt, to be made up more and more of children born and reared in cities. How can the actual average city home, the home of the average public-school child, be counted worthy of being model and pattern for the school itself? Heaven forbid! The average city home is, on the contrary, a bit of social environment whose lessons and influences too often need prompt neutralizing and replacing by influences of a higher and finer sort that have to be consciously, in- tentionally selected, directed, and emphasized by the teacher. The very existence of laws for compulsory school attendance is so much emphasis on the recog- nized inefficiency of the average home as a preparation for reputable citizenship. John S. Clark. 27 Speaking broadly, there is, at the present time, greater need of the school influencing the home through ideals of proper living, through bringing the child Sc i! 00l in contact with distinctly high ideals of social fctf^ences. life, than of the home influencing the school. In other words, the school should mean not simply the average home, broadened out or raised to the wth power, but rather the home elevated and inspired by ideals dis- tinctly higher than those of the average city household. Again, Professor Dewey seems to overstate in one direction the matter of surrounding the child with the real active conditions of society, as the most preparing helpful influence under which to grow. The for Ufe ' author goes so far as to say that the school is life, and that it ought not to be regarded as a preparation for life. I think the extreme ground taken here shows a healthy, human reaction from the lifeless formality of the old-fashioned schools. But the school of long ago had its element of Tightness after all. School life is indeed real life; but it is, at the same time, in another sense, only a preparation for later and a much broader life. Any one day's adult life is real in one sense, and in another sense a preparing for the next day. " . . . . All experience is an arch wherethro' Gleams that untravelled world whose margin fade Forever and forever while I move." To regard the school as real social living, to intro- duce real life into the school, there must be brought in the selfishness, which animates this real life, and the competitive rivalry, which makes Defined! 11 * such a demand for preparatory drills and training in all the important activities. I cannot help feeling that the attempt to introduce real life into the school, to construct the school on the basis of real life, 28 Educational Creeds. would quickly destroy its main function as a social in- stitution. The real life of the streets of Chicago, New York, or Boston, or of any town, could not, profitably, be brought into the school, for that very life needs the school and the church at one end of the social scale, and the police court at the other end, to protect it from it- self. If Professor Dewey means that the school should, in its discipline and its occupations, typify the finer social ideals, and seek to surround the child with those influences that especially appeal to his higher nature, then I agree with him. I feel that in our educational discussions we have only just entered upon the con- siderations of the social bearing of education, and while Professor Dewey's remarks touching the school and its relations to the home, and to social life in general, are very suggestive, I feel that they will bear further exposi- tion. NEW BASIS OF CONCENTRATION. It is a great encouragement to find Professor Dewey putting into such vigorous affirmations the doctrine that the point of educational concentration axrtivitiM. * n elementary schools should be upon the social or constructive activities of the child himself. I heartily hope this utterance of his is setting people to thinking along this line. Recent discussions of correlation and concentration have been too largely confined to the comparative values of the so-called "form studies" and the "content studies." By pre- senting the creative activities of the child in their social aspects as the true point of concentration Pro- fessor Dewey has carried the whole discussion of con- centration, and of educational value as well, up to a much higher and more inclusive plane than it has John 5. Clark. 29 hitherto occupied. From this higher standpoint both the form studies and the content studies become of especial importance, and each class takes a new value, as both classes are seen to be closely interrelated as necessary means for the proper development of the individual towards social ends. Let me quote a charac- teristic passage or two : "I believe accordingly that the primary basis of edu- cation is in the child's powers at work along the s-mie general constructive lines as those which have brought civilization into being. " I believe that the only way to make the child con- scious of his social heritage is to enable him to perform those fundamental types of activity which make civil- ization what it is. " I believe, therefore, in the so-called expressive or constructive activities as the center of correlation." But Professor Dewey's enumeration of the lines of educational work involving the exercise of these typical constructive activities can hardly express his full thought. Curiously enough, though he seems to have in mind the constructive ac- tivities, which are the basis and framework of a pro- gressive civilization, he mentions only "cooking, sew- ing, manual training, etc.," as studies involving the typical activities of the race. I want to round out his own words arid include those products of the creative activities which actually measure the quality, the value, of human civilization human art. Cooking, sewing, and building construction must, naturally, be under- stood as having chiefly to do with merely physical needs and desires, and as contributing to the upbuilding of a civilization of an essentially material sort. But this is not all of civilization. It is only the substructure of a true civilization. 30 Educational Creeds. The civilization which Professor Dewey must have meant is not manifested solely in effective means of Creative securing food, shelter, and clothing, for the ability. com fort and culture of men's bodies. Be- sides all this, it shows itself in the creations of litera- ture, music, painting, sculpture, architecture. These, the various phases of art, are the real measure of man's distance from his savage progenitors. And these, as they exist to day, conspire with the art instincts of each new-born man to urge him on to new art activities in his own person. ART ACTIVITIES IN EDUCATION". It seems to me that the ground explicitly taken by Professor Dewey logically necessitates his advancing this one step farther and recognizing: 1. The importance of Art as the embodiment of much the better part of the experience of the race, and forming an essential part of the child's social environment, with which the school ought to bring him into close touch. 2. The importance of the aesthetic nature of the indi- vidual, its responsiveness to the art creations of the race, and the importance of giving him opportunity for creative self-expression in forms of art of the very highest social significance and value. Art, as a part of the child's social environment, is pre-eminently important, because it is that part of the environment in which nature and human Idealization. nature are united. The gradual growth of art has involved not only distinct mental imaging of outward facts, but also continual idealization of these outward facts. By the idealization of a fact I mean John 5. Clark. 31 that combination of insight and creative imagination which grasps not merely the existing and actual, but also the possible, and then, imaging the possible, pro- ceeds to create a new embodiment for it. In this sense, the transformation of a parched Western valley into fertile farm lands, by means of irrigation, is a piece of idealization on the part of the civil engineer and his workmen. The transformation of a quantity of quar- ried stone, timber, etc., into a great Congressional Li- brary is a piece of idealization on the part of the archi- tect and his artisans. The transformation of a bit of stretched canvas and a handful of powdered minerals of different colors into a Sistine Madonna is a piece of idealization on the part of the great painter. It is emphatically true, as Professor Dewey says, that "the image is the great instrument of instruction. What a child gets out of any subject pre- sented to him is simply the images which he himself forms with regard to it." In the light of this thought, it must seem all the more desirable that the child shall gradually learn to image ideals, as well as literal facts; that he shall learn to use his own simple, primitive images of things as they are, for material wherewith to build up, in imagination, things as they need to be and may be. And this is idealization the completest revelation of himself which the individual can possibly make. The art activities, as practicable for children mod- eling, drawing, painting, " making" are the simpler forms of the activities practiced by the world's art workers; these are the A B C of all the world's art. It is when these creative and constructive art activities are included in the point of educational concentration in elementary schools that we shall be using with the truest economy all the forces 32 Educational Creeds. and opportunities of the school combined with all the best activities of the individual. The constructive social activities must, therefore, have a distinctly ideal element in them, in order to ex- ercise and utilize the best part of the child and make his powers and capacities most promising for the social good. What Professor Dewey says of the active element in child nature taking precedence of the passive muscular The active activity, preceding the sensory, is very im- eiement. portant and suggestive. His energetic pro- test against vague emotion and sentimentalism, and against the dangerous separation of feeling from action to some definite purpose, is a protest that is greatly needed at the present time. I wish that he had gone somewhat further in this direction, and made some definite statements about the basis of conscious mental training, and the necessity for it. Medical authorities tell us that, physiologically speak- ing, nerve fibers are the only things that can be actually trained. We are told that muscle in itself can- discoveries! no ^ properly speaking, be trained. All that muscle can do is to contract and relax in obe- dience to nervous impulse. The human body is so con- stituted that the simpler fundamental, muscular move- ments, breathing, winking, etc., are performed automatic- ally, as they are in animals. As the afferent nerves bring their sense- messages to the nerve centers, the efferent nerves respond witli commands to muscular reaction, pro- ducing " motor discharge " of energy. Experiments with frogs and other animals have many times demonstrated the exquisite automatic balance between action and reaction in the nervous system of creatures of simple organization. Authorities in anatomy and physiology John S. Clark. 33 tell us that as the nervous system becomes more com- plicated, first by the multiplication of nerve centers connected with each other, and then by the connection of all these with a sort of central power-house of nervous energy in the bruin, the creature becomes more and more capable of controlling the reaction of his own nerves. An impulse to motor discharge may be checked, or entirely altered in character and application, as a result of the consensus of impulse from the many con- nected nerve centers, and especially as a result of calling in the decisive power of the will to settle the balance. One person responds instantly with the appropriate, instinctive nervous reaction to each new sensation. His mind is certainly active, but its activity is of a con- fused, helter-skelter sort. His thinking is desultory, for each change of sight or sound changes the direction of his reaction on his environment. Another person has gradually learned to make a dis- tinction between one sort of reaction and another, assuming more and more positive control .. & , , . , Self-control, over the whole nervous organism. He learns to say to himself, " Pay no attention to this message just received, give attention to that one. Do not react (with a turn of the head) to that impression of sound (testifying that some one has entered the room), but listen to the person who is talking to yon, or image clearly and consecutively the ideas for which the words stand in the book you are reading." This person's mind, we say, is self-controlled, disci- plined. This person's mind is not a mere machine, set going by the heat generated in the contact of environ- ment with physical organism and working automatic- ally. It is something that he controls and uses. Now, if it is this self-controlled, disciplined sort of 34 Educational Creeds. mind which we wish to develop in children, it woulfl appear that mental discipline and training discipline, should be essential elements in education. The suggestive analogy between the growth of the individual and the progress of human civilization sometimes gets twisted out of gear right here. We find ourselves assuming that the civilization of the race simply "growed," like Topsy, and without human effort, and that in order that the individual may participate in the experience of the race all he has to do is to keep the gates of his senses wide open and wait for mental per- fection to come in. But, as a matter of fact, neither the civilization of the race nor the rounded develop- ment of the individual can be depended upon to come by that royal road. Civilization has been largely the fruit of deliberate effort, and positive overcoming of the poorer by the Individual- better, the lesser by the greater. Civilization ism * means not go-as-you-please individualism, but conscious, purposive individualism, moving to the highest social good under law and order. I am con- vinced, simply on the ground of race development, that the education of the individual ought to have a strong element of the overcoming, the mastering, spirit about it. The will ought to be invoked for getting more and more perfect control of the nerves, training these into prompt obedience to the commands that come from the central office of the brain. Then all the activity of which the individual is capable, or of which he becomes capable, can be brought into positive harmony with the man's ideals, directed in accordance with the mind's judgment, and made outwardly effective in the highest degree for the general social welfare. And this brings us direcily to the recognition of the fact that the child is something far and away from be- John 5. Clark. 35 ing the mere sum of his physical attributes. We have to recognize that he possesses a spiritual nature, that transcends his physical powers spiritual ,, i ] i element, or environment that he has a divinely implanted soul. As I have before taken occasion to observe, the quick- ening of this indwelling spirit in a child is the vital point in his education, and its development needs the help of all the highest spiritual influences at our dis- posal. Spirit is acted upon more by the incentive of what is itself spiritual than through the influence of what is itself material. We need the influence derived from association with nature; we need the help of the finest ideals crystallized for us through the ages into works of art, and forming a spiritual world within or upon the material world; above all do we need the help of the finest attainable personality in the teacher. The influences of these, wisely brought to bear on the creative aesthetic activities of the growing child, will certainly make the school what Professor Dewey believes it should be, the most important of all social institu- tions. The more Professor Dewey's Pedagogical Creed is studied in all its implications, it will be seen that it stands not for educational revolution, or anarchy, but for positive, sensible, educational evolu- ^^intion^ 1 tion and construction in conformity to the highest social ideals; and in this sense it might well be taken, not as a personal creed, but as the creed of the New Education. III. THE PEDAGOGICAL CEEED E d d efined. n of WILLIAM T. HARRIS, U. S. Commissioner of Education. HAVING been asked to write a brief statement of my educational creed, I set down what I consider to be im- portant principles, without, however, taking the pains to arrange them in any systematic order. Many years ago, on being asked for a definition of education I described it as the process by which the individual is elevated into the spe- cies, and explained this brief and technical defi- nition by saying that education gives the in- dividual the wisdom derived from the ex- perience of the race. It teaches him how his species, that is to say, mankind in general, have learned what na- ture is and what are its processes and laws, and by what means nature W. T. HARRIS. J , may be made useful to man. This lesson of experience is the conquest of nature. 36 William T. Harris. 37 The second and more important lesson is, however, derived from the experience of human nature the manners and customs of men, the motives which govern human action and especially experience the evolution or development of human insti- tutions, that is to say, the combinations of individuals into social wholes. By these combinations the individual man is enabled to exist in two forms. First, there is his personal might, and second, there is the reinforcement which comes to him as an individual through the social unit, the family, civil society, the State, the Church. The individuals endow the social unit in which they live with their own strength, and hence the strength of the whole institution is far greater than that of any indi- vidual. In fact, the combined strength is greater than the aggregate of the individual strengths which compose it. Ten Robinson Crusoes acting in conjunction are equal not only to ten individual Crusoes, but to ten timea ten. It follows from this view of education (as a means of fitting man, the individual, to avail himself of the knowledge of his species or race obtained through two kinds of experience) that I must set a very high value on the accumulated wis- dom of the race. I must think that the man as an un- educated individual is infinitely below man as an educated individual. I must think, too, that a system which proposes to let the individual work out his edu- cation entirely by himself Kasper Hauser style is the greatest possible mistake. Rousseau's doctrine of a return to nature must also seem to me the greatest heresy in educational doctrine. But with this educa- tional principle, so far as stated above, one does not have any protection against a wrong tendency in method which may be justified on the ground that the contribu- 38 Educational Creeds. tion of the social whole is the essential thing, and the contribution of the individual the unessential thing. Keeping in view that essential thing, /educational method is prone to neglect too much the individual peculiarities, and above all to undervalue the Danger of ,.,..,, ,, -i i , exclusively self-activity of the pupil in gaining knowl- edge. ) It does not consult the likes and dis- likes of the pupil, and cares little or nothing for his interest in his studies. It is content if it secures the substantial thing, namely, that the individual should learn the wisdom of the race and the lesson of sub- ordinating himself to the manners and customs of his fellow men. It is content if it makes him obedient. He must obey not only the laws of the State but the conventional rules of etiquette. Above all he must obey his parents, his teacher, and his elders. This re- quirement of obedience carried out to the extent de- manded in China, and to a less degree in monarchical countries of Europe and in this country until very recently, is based on a too exclusive contemplation of the social ideal as the chief object of education, and I hasten to add the statements needed to correct its in- completeness. DEVELOPMENT ACCOKDING TO SELF-ACTIVITY. All education is based on the principle of self-ac- tivity. The individual to be educated has the poten- tiality of perfection in various degrees and * can attain this by his self-activity. A material body or a mechanical aggregate of any kind can be modeled or formed or modified externally into some desirable shape. But this external moulding is not education. Education implies as an essential condition the activity of a self. It follows from this that while' William T. Harris. 39 the end of education must be the elevation of the in- dividual into the species, that this can only happen through the self-activity of the individual. I saw this principle clearly before I saw the entire principle to which it is a part, namely, the relation of the individual to society. I can readily sympathize with scores of my friends and companions in education who see this prin- ciple of self-activity but have not yet arrived at the insight into that function of self-activity of the in- dividual which is to so act that it may reinforce itself by the self activity of institutions or social wholes. Following this necessity of the individual I believe that the greatest care should be taken not to arrest the development according to self- of 1 . derelopment. activity. Any harsh, mechanical training will tend to arrest development of the child. There is for human beings as contrasted with lower animals a long period of helpless infancy. This long period is required for the development of man's adapta- tions to the spiritual environment implied in the habits, modes of behavior, and the arts of the social com- munity into which man is born. Professor John Fiske has shown the importance of this fact to the theory of evolution as applied to man. It is the most important contribution which that doctrine has made to pedagogy. If the child is at any epoch of his long period of help- lessness inured to any habit or fixed form of activity belonging to a lower stage of development the tendency will be to arrest growth at that standpoint and to make it difficult or next to impossible to continue the growth of the child into higher and more civilized forms of soul-activity. Any overcultivation of sense-perception in tender years, any severe and long-continued stress upon the exercises of the memory, will prevent the rise 40 Educational Creeds. of the soul into spiritual insight. I therefore distrust many of the devices invented by teachers of great will- power to secure thoroughness in the learning of the studies in the primary school. THREE STAGES OF THINKING. My doctrine of rational psychology holds that there are three stages in the development of the think- Sense- i n P ower - The first stage is that of sense- perception, perception, and its form of thinking conceives all objects as having independent being and as existing apart from all relation to other objects. It would set up an atomic theory of the universe if it were questioned closely. The second stage of knowing is that which sees everything as depending upon the environment. Every- Seeing thing is relative and cannot exist apart from relations. j tg re i at i ons to ot h er things. The theory of the universe from this stage of thinking is pantheistic. There is one absolute unity of all things. It alone is independent and all the others are dependent. They are phenomenal and it is the absolute. Pantheism con- ceives the universe as one vast sea of being in which the particular waves lose their individuality after a brief manifestation. The third stage of thinking arrives at the insight that true being is self-active or self-determined. It is there- The fore self-conscious being and is above in- absolute, tellect and will. Inasmuch as intellect is in its essential nature altruistic, or that which makes itself its own object and gives objective being to others, it follows that its views of the world sees the necessity of presupposing a divine reason as the absolute which William T. Harris. 41 creates in order that it may share its being with others in its own image. According to my thinking, the most important end of education is to take the pupil safely through the world- theories of the first and second stages, namely, sense-perception and the relativity ^{SJSlht!* 1 doctrine of pantheism, up to the insight into the personal nature of the absolute. All parts and pieces of school education and all other education should have in view this development of the intellect. INDIVIDUAL RESPONSIBILITY AND THE MORAL WILL. Corresponding to this elevation of the intellect up to the point where it sees true being to be self-active is the doctrine of the moral will which Moral should be reached by the method of discipline wUL adopted by the school. Intellectual insight is the high- est result of the theoretical training, and a moral will is the highest result of the practical side of school educa- tion. The kindergarten work treats with the requisite degree of tenderness the early manifestations of will- power in the child. It gradually develops in his mind the necessity of self-restraint for the sake of co-opera- tion with his fellow pupils. He must inhibit or hold back his tendency to act without respect to the require- ments of the work of the kindergarten. There develops in the child the power of self-control for rational ends. The discipline of the elementary school builds up in a very powerful manner the sense of individual re- sponsibility. Each child feels that he is responsible not only for what he does inten- tionally, but what he neglects to do in the way of performing school duties. This is the most 42 Educational Creeds. powerful influence which a well-disciplined school exercises towards the production of character. The child subdues his likes and dislikes, adopts habits of regularity, punctuality, silence, and industry. His in- dustry takes the form of two kinds of attention : first, the critical attention to the work of the class and the criticisms of the teacher, and second, to the mastery of his own set task by his unaided labor. Every self-active being is a will in so far as it lifts itself out of the chain of causation, in which it finds itself in nature, and acts in such a way as to of modify this chain of action in accordance with its inclination or ideas. It can originate modifications in the chain of causality and thus be- come responsible for the series of effects which flow from its action. It becomes a moral will when it is conscious of this power of origination; it knows itself responsible. Immersed in mere feeling, in mere likes and dislikes, interests and antipathies, it is not a moral will, although it originates new causal series in the world. But it becomes conscious of its responsibilities when it observes in itself the power to inhibit or hold back the chain of causality in which it finds itself and resist its inclinations and the force of its habits. It can absolutely refuse to act, and this demonstrates its abso- lute freedom. Freedom does not mean the power to do everything, for that is omnipotence. It means the power to refuse to transmit external impulses and forces by lending them its efforts. ADJUSTMENT OF INDIVIDUAL TO SOCIETY. School education and all education is a delicate matter of adjustment, inasmuch as it deals with two William T. Harris. 43 factors, spontaneity and prescription. The latter tends to determine the whole individual by the re- quirements of the social whole. The former ^^i^ ei tends to make the child a bundle of caprice and arbitrariness by giving full course to his spontaneity or self-activity. The concrete rule of pedagogy is to keep in view both sides, and to encourage the child to self-activity only "in so far" as the same is rational, that is to say, in so far as his self-activity enables him to reinforce himself with the self-activity of the social whole, or, to put it in another way, it enforces pre- scription upon the child only in so far as the same is healthful for the development of his self-activity. Every pedagogical method must therefore be looked at from two points of view: first, its capacity to secure the development of rationality or of the true adjustment of the individual to the social whole, and secondly, its capacity to strengthen the individuality of the pupil and avoid the danger of obliterating the personality of the child by securing blind obedience in place of intelligent co-operation, and by mechanical memorizing in place of rational insight. I believe that the school does progress and will pro- gress in this matter of adjusting these two sides. But I find and expect to find constantly on the road to prog- ress new theories offered which are more or less neg- lectful of the delicate adjustment between these two factors of education. PROGRESS TOWARDS FREEDOM. I believe that the school as it is and as it has been is and has been a great instrumentality to lift all classes of people into a participation in civilized life. 44 Educational Creeds. I believe that the world progresses and has progressed towards freedom. In this respect I think of that every form of civilization that has pre- crvUization. ., , . *,, , , , . . ,. , , vailed in the world has some important light to throw upon the questions of pedagogy. On the whole our new and newest education is better able to help children whose souls are imprisoned in their bodies and who are dull and stupid. The education of to-day knows better than the education of yesterday how to arouse such children by the application of devices that stimulate their interests and self-activity. It knows, too, better how to hold back the child who is filled with selfishness and teach him to subordinate his self-seeking to the interest of the social whole. More than the child of Europe, Asia, or Africa, the American child is pre- cocious in will-power. In improperly conducted kin- dergartens one sees very often two or three bright children monopolize the attention not only of all the other small children but also of the teacher. Such child gardens remind us of kitchen gardens choked with weeds. THE FIELD OF CHILD-STUDY. Finally, a word in my creed regarding child-study. I have hoped and still hope from the child-study movement a thorough investigation of the of question of arrested development. In view method. \ , . . of what I have said above regarding the long period of helpless infancy and of the importance of keeping the child open to educative influences as long as possible, it becomes necessary to ascertain the effect of every sort of training or method of instruction upon the further growth of the child. For instance, do methods of teaching arithmetic by the use of blocks, ob- jects, and other illustrative material advance the child William T. Harris. 45 or retard him in his ability to muster the higher branches of mathematics ? What effect upon the pupil's ability to understand motives and actions in history does great thoroughness in arithmetical instruction have; for in- stance, does it make any difference whether there is only one lesson in arithmetic a day or one each in writ- ten arithmetic and in mental arithmetic ? Does a care- ful training in discriminating fine shades of color and in naming them, continued for twenty weeks to half a year in the primary school, permanently set the mind of the pupil towards the mischievous habit of observing tints of color to such an extent as to make the mind oblivious of differences in form or shape and especially inattentive to relations which arise from the interaction of one object upon another ? Questions of this kind are endless in number, and they relate directly to the forma- tion of the course of study and the school programme. They cannot be settled by rational or a priori pyschology, but only by careful experimental study. In the settle- ment of these questions one would expect great assist- ance from the laboratories of physiological psychology. Notwithstanding my firm faith in the efficiency of the school to help the child enter upon the fruits of civil- ization, I am possessed with the belief that to the school is due very much arrested develop- ment. Not very much success in this line can be expected, however, from those enthusiasts in child- study who do not as yet know the alphabet of rational psychology. Those who cannot discriminate the three kinds of thinking are not likely to recognize them in their study of children. Those who have no idea of arrested development will not be likely to undertake the careful and delicate observations which explain why certain children stop growing at various points in dif- ferent studies and require patient and persevering effort 4 6 Educational Creeds. on the part of the teacher to help them over their men- tal difficulties. The neglected child who lives the life of a street arab has become cunning and self-helpful, but at the expense of growth in intellect and morals. Child-study should take up his case and make a thor- ough inventory of his capacities and limitations and learn the processes by which these have developed. Child- study in this way will furnish us more valuable informa- tion for the conduct of our schools than any other fields of investigation have yet done. THE U. S. BUREAU OF EDUCATION, WASHINGTON, D. C. THE SHORTER PEDAGOGICAL CREED of B. A. HlNSDALE, Professor of Pedagogy, University of Michigan. THERE is a Shorter Catechism. Why not a Shorter Creed? And why not write it according to the ancient fashion, in tripartite form ? I. THE CHILD OR THE MIND. Education begins with the being to be educated, that is, the child, and it culminates in his higher nature, that is, his mind. The child's mind is ac- Meaning' tive, self-active we say, and through its own of ' ! i j education, activity makes increase, grows, enlarges, de- velops. Furthermore, this increase, enlargement, or development is education. The common conception of education makes it consist of attainments or knowledge, but the proper conception makes it mental growth or power of mind. The dynamical view is far superior to the static view. The mind is not equally energetic or active at all times; for example, in sleep it is less active than when awake, and it is commonly thought, perhaps, at such times to be altogether at rest. Be- activity, sides, there are such things as mental la- tency, subconsciousness, and unconscious cerebration, the nature of which, and the relations of which to mental 47 48 Educational Creeds. activity and growth, are not very fully understood as yet. But there is no denying the fact that the activity of the mind is the cardinal fact to be considered in mental growth. Physical rest, and mental rest (which really means another form of activity, or a less intense activity), limits mental growth in important ways, but the limit is rather a condition than a cause. We may say, then, that the mind grows only as it is active. B. A. HlNSDALE Mental activity, therefore, is the factor to be first considered in all education that rises above the material nature of man. It comprehends the intellect, the feel- B. A. Hinsdale. 49 ings, and the will. It encompasses intellectual, moral, and religious education. Subject to the law of inherit- ance, a man's soul makes his character through its own activity. II. EDUCATION-STUFF, OR STUDIES. "When we say that the child's mind is self-active we mean that it contains the principle of activity within itself. In this respect it is unlike a block of points stone or wood, which is itself dead and pow- f contact, erless. But we do not mean that the child's mind, if left to itself, will act and grow. On the other hand, it does not act, and cannot act, until something capable of arousing its activity is brought into contact with it. At first, this something consists of objects external to the mind itself; the stimulus is an outer stimulus. Objects capable of exciting the mind to act are as necessary to mental activity as the self-active mind itself. The mind cannot act in vacuo. Accordingly, the growth of the mind, or its education, in the first stage depends absolutely upon the establishment of points of contact between the mind and its environment. With such points of con- tact mental growth begins. From such points of con- tact all mental growth must proceed. To change the form of expression, objects that may be known are as necessary to knowledge as a knowing mind. Knowledge is the product when these two factors are brought into proper contact or relation. All intellectual education must be developed from the primal contacts of the mind with the surrounding world. At first, these contacts are between the mind and the natural world, and they constitute the beginning points of all scientific knowledge. Next, and it is not long after, contacts are established with the human world, the world of mankind, and these become 50 Educational Creeds. centers of historical, political, social, and moral knowl- edge. At a later day, the mind begins to recognize it- self, or it establishes points of contact between itself and itself, and these contacts are the beginnings of philosoph- ical knowledge. But while knowledge, strictly speaking, is the result flowing from the establishment of contacts between the mind and objects of knowledge, men have nevertheless long been in the habit of regarding these objects, at least in many of the forms that they assume, as knowledge itself. III. THE TEACHEE. To teach is to bring the mind of the child and educa- tion-stuff into due relation. It is an act of mediation between the two terms that are essential to Beginnings mental activity and to growth of mind. At first, the child has, strictly speaking, no teacher; his mind fixes itself upon the objects about it. What these objects are, depends upon his environment. But whatever they are, they are the beginnings or sources of mental activity and of education. Nature, the world, life, is the child's first teacher. The mother or the nurse is a teacher only in so far as she is an object of observation and study, and as she Teachers of contributes to or controls the child's envi- the child. ronmen t. AS selecting and arranging the objects that make up, or help to make up, the environ- ment, the mother or nurse influences the child's men- tal activity and development; but she acts, and can act, at this stage of progress, only through environment. This is no doubt something, a good deal, in fact, but it is not what is commonly called teaching. The mother or nurse does not think that she is teaching ; she does the work unconsciously while attending to something B. A. Hinsdale. 51 else, as the child's comfort or pleasure. Still it is a type of all teaching. Mental activity is observation, memory, comparison, analysis, imagination, thought. Moreover, these acts are all personal ; no one can do them for another. Every person must image his own ideas, form his own judgments, think his own thoughts, acts are All that one person can do for another in respect to these activities is incidental and secondary. A cannot form an idea for B, but he may put before him an object that will excite its formation. A cannotV form an opinion, make up a judgment, or reach a \ conclusion for B, but he may bring to his attention j matter that will lead to such result. The teacher's / function as an instructor is exhausted, therefore, with / the selection and presentation of appropriate education material. As already said, the process is really typified by the partial control which the mother or nurse has over the infant's surroundings. Here, however, she is conscious in doing her work. Accordingly, the teacher is a mediator, standing between the pupil, on the one hand, and the world of knowledge, on the other. It may be asked, Power of Has not the teacher power over the child as the well as over education material ? Undoubt- edly. The teacher may lead the pupil to knowledge as well as bring knowledge to the pupil; but this in no- wise affects the case, since the material, in any event, must be chosen and arranged. The whole pedagogical field is therefore divisible into three parts, viz. : the Child, Studies, and the Teacher. ANN ARBOR. THE PEDAGOGICAL CEEED of EARL BARNES, Professor of Education in Leland Stanford, Jr., University, Cal. I BELIEVE that this is a sane, well-ordered universe, and that the natural tendencies in it are towards higher upward forms. I believe that the problem of the tendencies, educator is to find these large upward-moving tendencies in civilization, and to do all in his power to foster and encourage them. PKOP. EARL BARNES. Earl Barnes. 53 I believe these laws can be discovered through a study of the history of ideas and ideals, and through a direct study of the natural history of human ]j a t ura i beings from childhood to old age. I believe ^uman f the great problem of this immediate genera- beings, tion is to work out the natural history of human beings as a basis for educational activity, and I believe that when this is fairly accomplished we shall find that what we have is a philosophy of life and life's possibilities, not materially different from philosophies held in the past, but perfected in many details. LELAND STANFORD, JR., UNIVERSITY. THE PEDAGOGICAL CREED of COL. FEANCIS W. PAEKEE, Prin. Chicago Normal School. I AM obliged to give my pedagogical creed in a very general way. First, I have unbounded faith in the development of the human race. I believe that the path and goal of Community man kind is education. The end and aim of life - education is community life. The child should be a citizen to all intents and purposes the moment he enters the schoolroom ; or, in other words, he should become through teaching and training an efficient citizen of his little community. I believe that the past has given us a vast inherit- ance of good that we should use for the future. I also believe that, comparatively speaking, we have poisFbmtieif. J us ^ De g un to study the science of education and apply art: that most things done in the past and that which we are now doing are comparatively crude. I believe that the only consistency in this world worthy the name is constant change in the direction of a better knowledge of humanity and of the means by which humanity rises to higher levels. I believe that the art of teaching is the art of all arts, it surpasses and comprehends all other arts, and that the march of progress is upon the line of the realization of infinite possibilities for the good and growth of mankind. 54 Francis W, Parker, 55 I believe in personal method in this sense that each teacher must discover methods by the study of psychol- ogy and all that pertains to the development of the human being ; that he must apply that which he thinks is for the best good of his pupils, and by supplying the best he will learn Bomething better. The future of education means the Scientific methods. COL. PARKER IN HIS STUDY. closest study and diagnosis of each personality and the application of means to develop that personality into the highest stature of manhood or womanhood. I believe that no teacher, no one, can study the science 56 Educational Creeds. and art of education and remain in the same place, applying the same methods, more than one day at a- time. I believe that what we need in this country to-day is a close, careful, unprejudiced, thorough study of education as a science. I believe that dogmatism should have an end and in its place should come scien- tific methods of study and a tentative mode of applica- tion. I began to keep school forty-two years ago. I began to learn how to teach some twenty-five years ago. Moral And, to-day, I feel deeply that I have not ends. y e t learned the fundamental principles of education. I believe in universal salvation on earth through education. I believe that man is the demand, God the supply, and the teacher the mediator, and when the day comes that this mediation shall approach perfection the human race will enter into new life. I believe that no teaching is worthy the name if it does not have a moral and ethical end. There are only two things to study, man and nature ; there is only one thing to study, and that is the Creator of man and nature, God. The study of God's truth and the appli- cation of His truth are the highest glory of man. Herein lies the path and the goal of education. CHICAGO NORMAL SCHOOL. THE PEDAGOGICAL CREED of JAMES L. HUGHES, Inspector of Public Schools, Toronto, Ontario. I BELIEVE: That God is the Creator, the source of life, the es- sence of life which gives it the power of evolution to higher life, and the center of universal unity. That God and the child are the essential elements in all true educational thought and investigation. That man's highest destiny is unity or inner connec- tion with God. That the perfect community of humanity is the only sure foundation for the complete unity of humanity with God. That the fullest development of the individual is the true basis for the perfect community or interrelation- ship of humanity. Race-inclusive individuals * Develop- form an individual-respecting race. ment of indi- viduality. That the highest function of education is to aid in the complete development of individuality as the true basis for the community of humanity and the unity of humanity with God. That the selfhood of the child is the element of di- vinity in it. 57 58 Educational Creeds. That no one can be a true teacher until his reverence / for the sacredness of individuality or selfhood is strong enough to prevent his interference with its perfect de- V velopment. That self-activity the activity of selfhood is the Self- only possible process by which selfhood or activity, individuality can be developed. That activity in response to the direct suggestion cr command of another is in no sense true self-activity. JAMES L. HUGHES. That every individual should be self-propulsive and ^self-directing; positive, not negative. That children who, during their school and college course, study and act only in response to suggestions or James L Hughes. 59 instructions from their teachers, are being trained to be obedient followers merely, who may possibly act well under direction, but whose only positiveness of character results from their incidental training outside the school and college. That even responsive activity is infinitely better than receptive passivity on the part of the pupil; but the only true developing activity is that in which the child's executive work results from its own originative and di- rective powers. That self-expression is the only ideal of expression worthy of recognition by educators. All lower ideals of expression, orally, or in writing, or by draw- Self _ ing, modeling, painting, or in any other way, expression, are destructive of power. Expression should be the highest agency for developing power instead of destroy- ing it. That the best test of efficiency of an educational method is the amount of true self -activity it requires of the child in the originative, directive, and executive de- partments of its power. That there are evolutionary stages, or culture epochs, in the complete development of individual power and character. stagesof That complete development in maturity is eyolutl011 - impossible unless there has been complete appropriate development in each of the preceding stages of evolution. That development is always arrested when work adapted to a higher evolutionary stage is forced pre- maturely on the attention of a child. That it is a grievous wrong to give a child knowledge, or more power to acquire knowl- edge, without at the same time, and as far \ as possible by the same process, increasing its and tendency to use knowledge. 60 Educational Creeds. That the educational methods of the past have devel- oped the sensor at the expense of the motor system, Motor an( i that therefore men have become more training. rece ptive than executive. Educational methods should develop the motor system and establish the necessary reactions between the sensor and motor systems. That the power of problem-discovery is the funda- mental intellectual power. The schools dwarf pupils Problem by making them problem-solvers only. Be- discovery. | ore children g O to school they are problem- discoverers as well as problem-solvers. That the natural wonder-power and the power of problem-discovery should increase throughout a man's whole life if their development were not arrested by unwise methods. That wonder-power and problem-discovery are the essential elements in alert and aggressive interest. That alert, aggressive, persistent, and self- Attention ,. . . , . ,, and active interest is the true stimulus to pro- ductive intellectual effort. That the child's attention should be self-active. Teachers have no right to control attention. They may direct the attention of the child, if they are wise enough to direct it without dwarfing it. Interest and attention act spontaneously if the proper conditions of interest are provided. That it is always wrong to substitute the teacher's in- terests for the child's interests. The teacher's duty is to provide conditions of interest adapted to the evolu- tionary stage of the child. That one of the most important duties of educators is to form by experience in the child's mind in the earli- est stage of its development as wide u range as possible of apperceptive centers of feeling and thought, in order James L. Hughes. 61 that the feelings and thoughts communicated during the period of conscious development may Apperceptive have vitality and meaning. The outer can a^apper- never be made clear unless there is in the ce P" on - inner at least a germ to which the outer may be related. That new knowledge becomes a part of our permanent mental equipment and an element in character only when the corresponding inner feeling and knowledge are aroused sufficiently to lead to a perfect union be- tween the old and new. The increase of knowledge should be by amalgamation, not by mere accumula- tion. That the activity of the selfhood of the child is the only certain way of making the mind actively and aggressively apperceptive; the only way by which in- terest can become persistently investigative and truly stimulative. That the child's center of interest is the Corre i a tine true guide in the correlation or concentru- centers, tion of studies. That nature is the most attractive, the most suggest- ive, the most enlightening, and the most productive correlating center for childhood. That the history of man's achievements, the revela- tion of the best ideals of civilization, and the co-ordina- tion of the uplifting forces of society are the central rivers to which all educational streams should be tribu- tary, above the primary school, including the work in colleges and universities. That the physical, intellectual, and spiritual natures should be trained as a unity, and that the weakest de- partment of power should receive most careful culture. That informal training is more productive than for- mal training in all departments of human power. That children love productive work better than idle- 62 Educational Creeds. ness. They may not like the work we choose for them. It would indicate deterioration if they did. ^"work!** They like more developing work than ours, if we have wisdom sufficient to place them in conditions of proper independent choice. The power to choose wisely, to decide correctly, and to control one's own powers in achieving good purposes is even more important than the power of accomplishment, which becomes merely mechanical if divorced from originality of conception. That it is not necessary to destroy a child's power in order to change its direction. Most of what has been called discipline in schools has crippled in order to control. That coercion is always destructive of real character- power. Freedom is less understood by teachers than any other element in child-training. A full compre- hension of the true meaning of the "perfect law of liberty " will make discipline a process for the complete evolution of the child's divinity, and not a mere effort to restrict its depravity. That while human tendency is not always towards The divine ^ ne divine, human power is always divine, element. That if the child's power is used in cre- ative self-activity it will lift the child progressively towards the divine. That the scope of education should include the de- velopment of the brain and the co-ordination of the . _. . . nervous system, as well as the storing and Opportunities J for the culture of the mind. The proper nu- Orlginatlon. tntion of the brain and neurological sys- tem, and their highest development through joyousness, plays, physical exercises, manual training, and other appropriate opportunities for the free exercise of originative, directive, and operative self-activity, are George P. Brown. 63 among the most important departments of educational effort. TORONTO, ONTARIO. ANNOTATIONS. By GEORGE P. BROWN, Editor of Public School Journal, Bloomington, HI. THE educational creed of Superintendent Hughes, of Toronto, in Tlie School Journal of October 3, 1896, is interesting to the thoughtful reader, and tends to lift his thoughts and purposes to a higher plane than the detailed work of the schoolroom is apt to suggest. The effect of it will be inspiring in the matter of both aim and method. A few of the articles of this creed that treat more of method than of doctrine will tend to convey a false impression to many readers of what the author probably means. He says, for instance : "The child's center of interest is the true guide in the correlation or concentration of studies." The statement is either very vague or very false. No normal child has any one center of interest. His edu- cative interests must be supplied by the teacher. If the child had already a center of interest that would lead him. on to his proper education there would be little for the teacher to do. Civilization has deter- mined what the child must learn and what the results of his training must be. The school is to give him 64 Educational Creeds. this knowledge and this training by awakening centers of interest that do not now exist. It is not true, then, that the child's center of interest on entering school is to guide in the correlation of his studies, but that cen- ters of interest are to be established and so chosen that there will be a correlation in his knowledge and train- ing kindred to that which exists in the social order for which he is educated. Another article reads as follows : " Nature is the most attractive, the most suggestive, the most enlightening, and the most productive corre- lating center for childhood." This is not vague, certainly, and as a statement of the author's educational faith is interesting, provided we all put the same meaning into the word nature. But do we ? Does the word nature here include man and all of man's activities in the world ? If it does, then everybody will accept this article. If it does not, then this statement of Mr. Hughes' is doubly interest- ing in that a man of his experience and observation can hold such an article of faith. Again, he says : "The physical, intellectual, and spiritual natures should be trained in unity, and the weakest department of power should receive most careful culture." Accepting this as a general statement of the truth in respect to the three general departments named, the question arises whether the same law holds in respect to the subdepartments. If the child is weak in the "mathematical sense," for example, is he to devote more of his time and attention to mathematics than to other studies ? Another article of his creed is: "That informal training is more productive than for- mal training in all departments of human power." George P. Brown. 65 We will all accept this with the proviso that formal training shall be considered an essential part of the child's education. Power is worth nothing that does not realize itself in forms. Another article of this creed is truly startling: "Coercion is always destructive of character and power." It is probable that the author has a different defini- uition of coercion from the one commonly held. An- other name for coercion, when the word is applied to education, is authority and its enforcement. Most of the life of the child is directed by authority until it becomes habit. He must learn to do things because it is so ordered. It is the work of education to transfer the coercion from a force without to one within. The real self learns to obey the ideal self. He feels that he must. Character is strongest when obe- dience to this authority is most implicit. The road to obedience to the authority of one's self is through obe- dience to the authority of parent, and teacher, and society. There may be a time in the lives of some men when the real self never feels the coercive influence of the ideal self, for there may be some holy persons. The doctrine that coercion is " destructive of character and power" would be a new education indeed. It would be nearer the truth to affirm that the Avant of coercion in education is " destructive of character and power." It is probable that the author of this creed believes the substance of what is here affirmed. We shall need to know in what special sense he uses the word " coer- cion" before we can understand this article. The last article of this confession of faith which we shall consider is as follows: " The fullest development of the individual is the true 66 Educational Creeds. basis for the perfect community or interrelationship of humanity/' This statement appears to be misleading. It is true that without the fullest development of the individual there can be no perfect community; but it is also true that without the fullest development of community life there can be no perfect individual. The human being is both social and individual from earliest childhood. It is not clear in what sense we are to consider the perfect individual as the basis of the perfect community. Many will interpret this to mean that education is to concern itself chiefly, if not wholly, with the development of the individual as an individual, who is to be thus prepared for entering community life. This idea was held by a part of the Christian world at one time, but it is no longer current. Now, it is more than probable that this attempt to state an educational creed illustrates the impossibility for one to convey his thought in so few words with such precision that all, or any one, will understand it as the author does. Our purpose at this time has been not to criticise Superintendent Hughes' creed but to call the attention of the reader to an interpretation that would easily be given to these articles, which interpretation would constitute very bad educational doctrine, unless some people have discovered some new and fundamental truths that will work a revolution in the world's con- ception of the aim and method of educating the young, and in civilization itself. We all believe in evolution, but only a few now believe in revolution, and they are not our leaders. From The Public School Journal, Bloomington, 111., November, 1896. THE PEDAGOGICAL CREED of W. N. HAILMANN, Ex-Superintendent of Indian Education, at present superintendent of the schools of Dayton, O. IN matters of education, I am afraid of creeds. Creeds are apt to array men in hostile groups, each bent on the maintenance of its creed instead of toiling jointly with others in the search for more light and better ways. Creeds are apt to hinder rather than to help progress, which is the very essence and purpose of education. As authorita- tive statements of doctrine, creeds are of little value in any art, and educational practice, as an art, loses in effectiveness in the measure in which it is subjected to fixed doctrine. As embodiments of more or less con- nected statements of opinion on matters of educational theory and practice, creeds are, if possible, even more hurtful. They are apt to be either too vague to afford real guidance in practical work or so specific as to force the practical work into channels of routine, which is always hostile to development. Yet, earnest and thoughtful workers in the educa- tional field will of necessity reach certain more or less general views concerning the various phases of their work, certain more or less distinct of points of theory which may, at least tempo- rarily, assume the force of convictions and of more or less serviceable criteria of practice. In this sense, I 6? 68 Educational Creeds. have an educational creed which reads somewhat as follows : In the first place, as to child and man, I see in man the only living being capable of conscious individual, social, racial, and universal development the only living being that can gain an insight into the purpose and tendency of the evolutionary pro- W. N. HAILMANN. cess and deliberately make of himself the chief factor in this process. I see the child and man, primarily, in his develop- ment under the physical law of growth, rinding impulse and guidance in instinct and heredity, his life-activities absorbent and aiming at self-establishment and self- W. N. Hailmann. 69 preservation. I see him, in another phase of develop- ment, under the psychical law of conscious physical, self-direction, finding impulse and guidance ps ^ ica1 ' in experience, in social union and history, ethlcall aw. his life-activities productive and leading to the arts of commerce and of the industries, aiming at self-expansion. I see him, in the last and highest phase of his develop- ment, placing himself freely and joyously under the moral law of love, finding impulse and guidance in in- spiration and insight, his life-activities becoming truly creative, his soul finding expression in art and in deeds of charity and devotion. The ultimate aim of education I find in the liberation of the child and of man from the blind forces of instinct and heredity, giving him conscious control of Tne ^y. his powers and environment, placing him in mateaim - possession of the achievements of humanity and of the ideals of humanity, and leading him to an adequate appreciation of his responsibility with reference to the progressive achievement of these ideals. The proximate aim of education, I take it, is to make the child, within himself, strong and self-reliant; in his experience, sensible and thorough; in his xheprox- work, cheerful and earnest; in his attitude im&te aim> towards others, sympathetic and helpful; in short, to lead him to individual, social, and universal efficiency. As to the mutual attitude of teacher and pupil, I see the teacher successively as guardian, guide, exemplar, leader, friend, companion; and the child '. , . ,. .,, , ,. , , ,,. ,T Relation of respectively implicitly obedient, intelligently pupil and . . , ~ ,. *,!* teacher, following, reverently and affectionately imitat- ing, loyally co-operating, sympathetically appreciative, in devoted co-ordination with reference to the common end. As to criteria of method, I hold that every full educa- tional measure should stimulate into self-active life the 70 Educational Creeds. entire being of the child in harmony with benevolent purpose. Whatever stimulus comes to the E stinmii" al child, should enlist spontaneous interest, invite spontaneous thought, call forth spon- taneous purpose, and lead to spontaneous achievement. The mental act, in its entirety, begins with interest and ends in achievement; the key-note of its harmony is its purpose; and this should be benevolent, should tend from individual to social, from social to universal, ends. This is equivalent to the demand that instruction should rest upon the child's personal experience and should lead, through thought, to correspond- PP and ing achievement or action. In this, it will a ' be noticed, thought has a double part to play, On the side of experience, thought is apperceptive and results in knowledge, or apperceptive ideas; on the side of achievement, thought is introceptive and results in purpose, or introceptive ideas. It is equivalent, also, to the demand that instruction should, like spontaneous mental life, proceed from anal- ysis to synthesis. The beginning of anal- anaiys to ysis is in experience, and synthesis finds its only legitimate end in achievement. Both analysis and synthesis take place in thought, furnishing guidance and substance to the will. The will itself is the center of life; it appears as active resistance in experience, as active assimilation in thought, as active control in achievement. I see that with expanding thought the vital force of one isolated individual becomes inadequate for the pur- poses of complete life, that social union in Division ,. of purpose and action, as well as sympathy in interests. . , , , , , , j experience and thought, become indispen- sable. This leads in life to a significant division of interests. Deliberate experience, through experiment, W. N. Hailmann. 71 becomes the task of one; the formulation of law and the construction of theory, the task of another; inven- tion and leadership in purpose, the task of a third; final achievement of purpose, the task of a fourth, who may have, and usuajly has, many associates. Yet all are consciously united in the same complete mental act. The chief defect of the schools of our time is to be found in the disregard of these social requirements in the work of instruction, and in the conse- social queut neglect of the child's social attitude, demands. The work of the school should be carried on with constant reference to these social requirements, systematically stimulating the child to interest himself in common purpose, to find his place with reference to its achieve- ment, and to devote himself to its achievement' under the undivided guidance of spontaneous good will. In thought-development on the side of knowledge, method should begin with perception, which deals with things and phenomena ; it should subse- *L ' . Perception, quently appeal to reason, which is concerned with ideas and relations, and furnish insight, which re- fers to ideals and their realizations. In the liberation of the will, method should begin with the stimulation of the will in interest; should carefully guard attention, in which the will becomes conscious of its object, and establish aspira- tion, which is indeed the liberated will, controlling life in the service of elevated ideals. With reference to the achievement side of develop- ment, educational method should begin with play and lead the child gradually to productive and Achieve- creative work. This implies a gradual transi- ment> tion in the chief stimulus of the activity from a sense of mere pleasure to a sense of duty, and to the joy that attends its faithful performance. 72 Educational Creeds. In his efforts to provide stimulation, material, and scope for the self-active development of the child the means at the disposal of the educator are ment and environment and instruction. Environment on * consists of things and relations, of events and phenonema; it appeals primarily and predominantly to analytic and inductive processes; it yields experience and personal knowledge, establishes apperceptive centers for the purposes of instruction. Instruction appeals primarily and predominantly to synthetic and deductive processes; it transmits, on the basis of the pupil's per- sonal experience, the experience of the race; it imparts the conventionalities of institutional life; it guards and directs purpose, and furnishes encouragement and assist- ance in achievement. Deliberate education should adjust environment with reference to the child's scope and power, and with a view of securing for him complete life on his own pl' ine f appreciation and achievement. It should eliminate excessive, and thereby weakening, hindrances and temptations, without, how- ever, excluding legitimate hardships that stimulate per- sistence and ample opportunities to choose the relatively true and right. In the stimulation and direction of effort, in the resistance of temptation and overcoming of difficulties, and in the recognition of the relatively true and right, instruction is invaluable and indispensable. Artificial incentives that lie outside the legitimate purposes of the mental acts involved, and punishments that appeal to relatively low motives and incentives, thereby retard and arrest development, are symptoms of ignorance, weaknesses of temper, or lack of benevolence on the part of the educator. W. N. HAILMANN. WASHINGTON, D.C. THE PEDAGOGICAL CREED of L. SEELEY, Ph.D., Professor of Pedagogy, State Normal School, Trenton, N. J. A CREED is a definite summary of what one believes. It is very difficult to briefly state exactly what one be- lieves on a great subject so as to be able to justify the positions taken when they are sub- C c^ e ^f5 jected to keen criticism or careful analysis. Then, too, one's creed changes in many particulars as one grows older, gets wider views of things, and becomes more thoughtful. This is true of religious as well as of pedagogic creeds. I certainly have very different peda- gogic creeds from those of my earlier years of teaching, and these changes have been wrought by experience and by deeper insight. I do not think that the end is reached yet, and therefore I do not necessarily stand committed to these beliefs for all time to come. I like the noble words of Col. Parker in the preface to his " Talks on Pedagogics" where he says, " I sincerely trust that in publishing this book I shall not in any way compromise my attitude towards truth by clinging to any statement here made when it is shown to be incorrect, or when something better is presented." 1. I believe that there is a science of education, not by any means final, nor ever to be final as long as there is such a thing as individual and racial devel- opment, with certain well-established princi- of i i i education, pies, which must serve as a gmue to the teacher. A knowledge of this science is as essential to 73 74 Educational Creeds. the teacher as a knowledge of medicine is essential to the physician, a knowledge of jurisprudence to the law- yer, or a knowledge of theology to the minister of the DR. L. SEELEY. gospel. Therefore, no person should be allowed to teach without professional knowledge of teaching, any more than a person should be allowed to practice medicine, or law, or teach theology without the required professional training. I trust that the time is near at hand when the various States will require every teacher to be profes- sionally trained, giving due notice of such requirement, so that teachers will have time to prepare to meet it. This is the position taken by Wilhelm von Humboldt when at the head of educational affairs in Prussia (1808- L Seeley, Ph.D. 75 1811). He said, " All teachers must be trained/' and Germany has long ago reached this condition. 2. I believe that the child is the center of educational activity, that the school is made for the child and not the child made for the school, and therefore the recent psychological research based upon ^ center? child-study is practical, suggestive, and bound to produce great results. It has already made some most important discoveries which are revolution- izing our courses of study, changing our schedules of daily work, introducing more sensible and humane dis- cipline, and producing better methods of instruction. The carrying out of this idea to its logical conclusion will make the school a most happy place for the child, a place where his powers are brought into fullest play, a place full of inspiration and love, a place that prepares him for honorable citizenship and awakens in him a longing for knowledge of his Creator. All of this the school should be and may be if we will remember that the school is for the child. 3. I believe that the end of education is character. This has become something of a hackneyed phrase, but I believe that the essence of this thought is one of the most important that has yet been c {f| n t < f'' brought to the conscience of the teacher. Carried to its legitimate conclusion, it means that a higher purpose than that of drawing his salary, of ad- vancing his pupils in the studies of the school curricu- lum, or of preparing them for examination or promotion, must possess the mind and heart of the teacher. All instruction, all discipline, all contact of the teacher with his pupils, will have not simply an immediate purpose to be fulfilled, but will look into the future of the child and prepare him for the right kind of manhood. It will create in the pupil the noble ideals which the 76 Educational Creeds. teacher himself possesses and practices. It will look forward to the production of patriotic, law-abiding citi- zens, of useful members of society, and of men conse- crated to God and humanity. The evils of society will be guarded against, and the teacher will seek to correct them by preparing the men and women who are soon to shape the destiny of the land to fully meet the respon- sibility. This will make it necessary that boards of educa- tion secure educational experts for their schools, furnish tbem with ample materials and equipment, give them all moral and official support, and then, bidding them God- speed, leave them alone in working out their noble pur- pose. It will lead to greater permanency in teachers' positions, as school boards will learn that these high purposes can only be fulfilled when the teacher has be- come thoroughly acquainted with the child and his en- vironment. 4. I believe that besides the intellectual and physical side of the child there is the moral and religious side also which must not be neglected, and this religious moral and religious life in the child can be fully developed only by lessons from the Holy Scriptures. I believe with Rosenkranz that "Educa- tion must, therefore, first accustom the youth to the idea that in doing the good he unites himself with God as with the absolute Person, but that in doing evil he separates himself from Him. The consciousness that through his deed he comes into relation with God him- self, affirmatively or negatively, deepens the moral standpoint, with its formal obedience to the commands of virtue, to the standpoint of the heart that finds its all-sufficient principle in love." As, therefore, education is not complete without a development of the religious side of life, the State, which L. Seeley, Ph.D. 77 seeks to make complete men, is not doing its whole dutji in the public school. I admit that in working out this idea there are great dangers religions and difficulties. I also admit that the pu blic initriieti011 - school, supported by general tax, cannot be the arena foi the discussion of religious dogmas or for the promulga- tion of sectarian beliefs. Such an attempt would pro- voke strife, arouse suspicion, and defeat the purpose of the American common school. I believe, however, that such universally accepted truths as the existence of God, man's responsibility to Him, the duty of man to man, as well as the great moral lessons of the Bible, might well be taught. Instead of provoking antagonism, I think that parents would welcome such teaching, provided they could be assured that everything sectarian would be rigidly excluded. This does not furnish all the religious instruction necessary perhaps it can be called only moral instruc- tion; but it is as far as the State can go, and it will pre- pare the way for the more spiritual and doctrinal beliefs, which must be left to the home and the church. I might add many articles to my pedagogic creed, but it seems to me that the whole ground is covered by these four statements, namely, en science of education which requires professionally trained teachers filled with the true knowledge and spirit of teaching; the child is the center of pedagogic interest in the school, therefore a psychological study of the individual child is necessary; the end of education is character, which gives noblest aim to instruction; and the final purpose to be sought, which is also closely allied to the preceding statement, is to bring the child to a knowledge of God, his duty to Him and to his fellow man. L. SEELEY. STATE NORMAL SCHOOL, TRENTON, N. J. THE PEDAGOGICAL CREED Of ElCHAKD G. BOONE, President of the State Normal College, Ypsilanti, Mich. IN spite of the term's etymology, one's creed usually includes a good deal that cannot be expressed in formal theses. Between the belief that takes form educational in explicit judgments and the unquestioned though undefined faith that underlies there are no sharp lines of demarcation. The best that one be- lieves eludes statement. The final effort to put it into words may be still unsatisfactory. Any serious-minded person's religious creed reveals this discrepancy. It is true of political beliefs and per- sonal standards of conduct. Like all expression even the best of the deepest things of the heart, they are compromises. Nevertheless one should, having a reason for the faith that is in him, be able to make an approximate state- ment of the essentials of his creed. And, touching education, I venture to do this. Education is a natural and inevitable process a quality of the mind, incident to one's personality, and not something transferred or acquired. The Subject and . ., , . , , \ . instruments child is educated whatever be his environ- of education. m , , . , . , ment. The process, which is one of matur- ing, cannot be prevented, though it may be hindered and distorted. Scholarship is an wnessential element, though a very desirable incident and means of further- ing a wholesome education. Doing is a far more im- portant instrument of education than mere knowledge, 78 Richard G. Boone. 79 and quite as natural. But neither doing nor knowing is education; nor what is done or known. It is always helpful and contributes to sound thinking to regard B. G. BOONE. education as this spiritual process of maturing, natural and inevitable, which may be directed or hindered, but cannot be prevented. As a second clause in this statement it is held that the world of thing and mind and force and happening is the instrument of one's education, and exists for that purpose. Set over against the educational intelligence of the mind is the intelligible pro8Tes8> world. The happenings of nature are meaningful and therefore educative. Its reasonableness constitutes it 8o Educational Creeds. the instrument it is. Tracing out lines of significance, following up sequences, working out interpretations, grouping and relating phenomena and experiences these are the steps in the educational process. Scrappy learning, disconnected ideas, are not educative or fruit- ful in development. The child is educated whatever the environment, provided only there be an environment that has meaning and unity and a purpose. To trace its laws and enjoy its service and use it towards high personal and social ends is the business of every one, child and man. The incidental maturing process is education. The subject of education, therefore, is the child, the means or instrument is thing or happening. There is no virtue in knowledge; but only in the effect of ac- quiring or holding knowledge. The indifference of means used in order that the end an efficient maturity be attained is therefore a corollary of this article of my creed. As a third part of this creed it is affirmed that there is in the child a natural love for knowledge: an impulse to unfold that is native and constant and is manifest in this craving. Between the universe of things and phenomena to be known and enjoyed and used and the mind which is Fitness for fitted to know and enjoy and use there is a education. re .j an( j abiding affinity an adaptation of each for the other. To the unspoiled child knowledge is attractive because it is kiiowledge. Primarily it is an impersonal and unselfish affinity. Things invite him. A world of happenings exists for him, and be- longs to him, and finds in his pleasure and service its only reason for being; whatever is, is his opportunity. To save this spontaneous and unshamed and many- sided interest in things and persons and affairs and Richard G. Boone. Si make it active in adult years is the great purpose of teach- ing. This interest in knowing is better than knowledge as an abiding purpose and an and means of intelligent effort to do right chastens a life of mistakes. Better a joyous unreserved pleasure in the beautiful than the most critical estimate of any in- dividual work of art. Openness of mind and touch- ableuess of heart, effort, experiment these are at once the condition and the means of maturing. If these be wanting, the ripest culture stagnates. In the unspoiled child they are not wanting even in the average child but are often, if not usually, pronounced and insistent and regenerative. That it is so is the saving fact for the teacher. This internal urgency of the child is the one reasonable and ever-present motive to which appeal may be made. All other motives, or so-called motives, are artificial, and on the surface, and of transient force. The opportunity of every teacher is to find this open door to a child's loves and interests. As it is held, therefore, that the child as a rational being is the only subject of education, and that the pro- cess is a natural one, that the world, reason- able and meaningful, is the only instrument of education, and that the natural affinity between these two, the love of the child for knowledge and the corre- sponding fitness of the world to be known, constitute the only motive in education, so it is held as a fourth article in this creed that time and the opportunities that go along with it are the only conditions in education. Given a reasonable creature in a meaningful world, and time will educate him, so natural and inevitable is the process. The function of teaching is to direct this process to wise and wholesome ends, and with a thrifty use of means. R. (r. BOONE. YPSU.ANTI, MICH. THE PEDAGOGICAL CREED Of E. W. SCKIPTUKE, Director of the Psychological Laboratory, Yale University. I BELIEVE that one of the prime duties of education Scli _ is to train the child to obedience and self- control, control. It would be hard to say too much :n favor of military drill for this purpose. That the child should voluntarily attend to and cheer- causes of fully follow the instruction. If marks, re- disobedience. W ards, or penalties are necessary, the trouble may lie in : 1. The child (mental or bodily troubles, which should be attended to or at least understood). 2. The system of instruction (long lessons, no inter- mission, dull subjects, vicious regulations as to posture, speaking, etc.). 3. The teacher (dull or irritating manner, uninterest- ing method of conducting the lesson). 4. Bad air and bad light. That the child's attention should not be strained to the breaking point. Few grown persons can listen to a sermon or a lecture for half an hour without point oi fatigue. The Emperor William has ordered that the sermons preached before him shall not exceed fifteen minutes. In many American schools the sermon lasts five or six hours a day, with only one stop for refreshment. It is a well-established fact that no school exercise shall last over 45 minutes as an 82 E. W. Scripture. 83 extreme, and that after each such exercise there should be an intermission of 10 to 20 minutes. In many schools there is not a single recess during the whole morning session of three hours. E. W. SCRIPTURE. That children should be at least allowed (if not taught) to love the beautiful. When they are making borders and other designs with their colored . , , e Love of papers, why should they be punished for the I i \ ^ > T * beantlfnl. using bright colors ? Is it really necessary that all designs shall be of muddy colors in dingy com- 84 Educational Creeds. binations ? It is true that our household decorations consist mainly in dingy colors enlivened only by hideous contrasts. This is the natural result of deriving our ideas from a nation that lives in a continual atmospheric and intellectual fog. But America has sunshine enough to make things pleasanter. Do let the children have some sunshine in their colors, and don't tell them that slate-pencil and chalk are prettier than -cherries and plums. That children should not be taught to love the ugly. In many places their sense of beauty is systematically deformed; they are made into aesthetical defrrmities. humpbacks. This is done partly by the color work. A few years ago sets of colored tablets were placed before the children in two cities. Each child was to pick out the tablet that pleased him best. In the lowest grades they picked out almost entirely the yellow, green, and blue, and avoided red and violet; in the upper grades there was a progressive tendency to picking out the colors more evenly; in the highest grades they chose more red. This did not prove that children naturally dislike red and violet and that as they grow older they learn to love them. The children had not been tested with flowers or pure colors, but with X Y Z's specially prepared tablets. No wonder that the children did not like the red and violet tablets; the red was hideous, and the violet resembled a decaying egg- plant. I leave the reader to think out what the experi- ment really proved. That we ought not to allow manufacturers and trades- men to prescribe our methods of instruction. If we wanted directions for instruction in chemis- for t saie! tr J we would not go to a dealer in chemical glassware for it especially if he declared that all the great chemists that ever lived were wrong E. W. Scripture. 85 and that he alone understood the science. There is to- day in many American schools a department of instruc- tion in exactly this condition; it is Well, let's have no personalities. That the big should precede the little. For example, in educating a child's activities the large movements should come first. The general order of order of studies should be: Physical exercises, mainly stlldies - out-of-doors; manual training, writing and drawing, finer work. Thus the kindergarten should be a real outdoor or indoor garden devoted mainly to games, and not to small work like beads and pegs. Every fact and truth now taught by such abominations as sewing, the pegboard, etc., could be far better taught by large games, if the teacher only knew how. Just after the kinder- garten the chief instruction (in addition to language) should be in woodwork. In order that the reader may not think I am building an air-castle, I hasten to add that a carefully developed system of woodwork for children from five to nine years of age is already in use in Sweden. From this point manual training (including laboratory work) should always form some part of the instruction. At the appropriate time writing and draw- ing can be introduced. That we ought to make our instruction as truthful as we conveniently can. The kindergarten teaching that the child is the sole object for which nature blooms and man toils is a medieval lie. The sun does not rise for the purpose of waking Freddy in the morning, the birds do not sing just because he comes out, etc., etc. If Freddy has a healthy American spirit in him he soon tires of such twaddle. That " teaching lies " to children is an unspeakable 86 Educational Creeds. crime. The ordinary "temperance" instruction is a Teaching gd example of an unmitigated lie. The lies. usual instruction in history is somewhat better. That children should generally have some idea of what they are talking about. A favorite song in the kindergarten is "The Farmer." How many Ide words re children in a New York or Chicago kinder- garten ever learn what a farmer is ? Un- sophisticated persons would say the teacher should try to explain by pictures, stories, etc. A prominent kinder- gartner, however, says that the farmer is to symbolize an invisible care that provides the child's food, and that it makes no difference how the child embodies the idea. But where do father and mother come in, and sup- pose the child has gotten his idea of the farmer from the comic paper ? It's hardly fair to the farmer, any- way. That instruction in metaphysics is out of place in the kindergarten. Some one once said that England was the place where the good old German phi- Symbolism. \ . i , ^ i j TT v losophies went when they were dead. Hegelian philosophy had just gone there. This was many years ago. Now Hegelian philosophy has found its home in the American kindergarten. Everything symbolizes something. The sphere symbolizes the universe, the sun, the earth, the moon. (Why not the orange, the grape, and the soap-bubble ?) The cylinder symbolizes you can finish the list by referring to various kinder- garten books. Nothing is what it is, and everything is what it isn't. You may not understand it; but then you must remember that Hegel himself said that " Only one man had ever understood his philosophy and, after all, he hadn't really grasped it." That children should be educated to the good side of E. W. Scripture. 87 life : they will learn the bad soon enough. It is the fashion, however, in many American com- munities to send epileptics, idiots, and other monstrosities to the public schools presum- ably to toughen the sound children at as early an age as possible. That most criminal natures show themselves in child- hood and that there is some hope of curing them at that time. The duty of the ideal school 111 jij- i3j?j. i Defectives, would be to watch for such defectives and then to either properly train them or send them to appropriate institutions. That the education acquired in ordinary Boardinff . boarding-schools consists largely of vicious schools, habits. That an ideal system of boarding-school instruction for degenerates is to be found in the Elmira reforma- tory. That the child has an inalienable right to the pursuit of health and happiness. The child, however, cannot defend himself. By the law of compulsory school attendance and by the tyranny of his and parents he is forced daily to buy and sell stock on the disease exchange. He traffics in diphtheria, measles, scarlet fever, and other valuable commodities, and generally acquires plenty of each. He frequently retires at an early date from the business of this life. That if a child is compelled to go to school he has the right to a fair chance of living. In a certain kin- dergarten of sixty pupils there were at one time last year only fourteen in attendance; the rest had measles and diphtheria. We read lists of school graduates each year, but nobody adds the names of those who had early in the course gradu- ated to the graveyard. There is only one protection, 88 Educational Creeds. namely, the daily systematic inspection of the schools by specially appointed physicians supported by the authority of the State. In civilized countries like Ger- many and France this is everywhere carefully provided. In America there are only a few cities that attempt it. The rest of us must send our children to school with the certainty of dangerous and expensive diseases to be acquired, and with the probability of debility, deafness, or death. That a child's mind should have a fair chance to work. It is not a fair chance to poison his brain with carbonic acid by shutting him for hours in a small room. One cubic foot of fresh air per second per person is the minimum allowance necessary for health. If there are thirty pupils in a room there must be at least thirty cubic feet of air entering every second, etc. That it is not advisable to employ methods of instruc- tion such as to ruin all the children's eyes; we ought to leave at least one good eye for each child. That it is not safe to remain in the old ruts any longer; the public may some time have something to say- That the whole blame, after all, lies with the public that allows the boards of education to be made up en- tirely of shoe dealers, lawyers, tea merchants When J T . . reform will brewers, etc. It is a superhuman and im- possible task for a superintendent or a prin- cipal no matter how gifted he may be to educate the board of education, keep his place, and run the schools at the same time. That there is a good time coming: 1. When the school system shall be not only nominally but really out of politics. 2. When intelligent members of the board will assist and support the superintendent. E. W. Scripture. 89 3. When only trained teachers will be employed. 4. When the normal schools will give thorough in- struction not only in physiology, but also in the science of mind. 5. When education will be an art based on scientific principles and not a hodge-podge of antiquated philoso- phies, vague psychologies, innumerable fads, and endless nonsense. YALE UNIVERSITY, NEW HAVEN, CONN. THE PEDAGOGICAL CEEED of Louis H. JONES, Superintendent of Public Schools, Cleveland, 0. I DO not know that my pedagogical creed differs much from the general belief of the average superintend- ent of schools. However, there are some things which I do firmly believe in reference to the philosophy of education; so here I pen them. I believe that the true basis for all methods of procedure in education is a comprehensive knowl- edge of man as child, youth, and adult; as in- dividual and Z SfmS5 e as a member of society; as a being with a history and a destiny. No abstract psychology, nor any mere child-study, will lay a basis sufficiently broad, though both of them are included in a proper knowledge of man. Even the knowledge of man as a person, without regard to social and rational characteristics, will not suffice; all phases of the human being must receive consideration. 90 L. H. JONES. Louis H. Jones. 91 Having found man's natural characteristics, and hav- ing discovered his possible development, we are in con- dition to determine our ideals of character Ideals. and set up our ends of education. This con- cludes our first line of investigation and gives us our primary set of beliefs. I believe that the next most necessary theme for in- vestigation by the student of education is the nature of the various ideas which constitute the differ- ent branches of learning, and which must constitute the means of development of the human be- ing who by appropriate activities learns them. The teacher needs to know, at least in a general way, the precise use which each branch of learning is best adapted to serve in the proper education of the young. Following the studies here indicated I believe it is profitable to study methods i. e., the rationale of the steps by which the human being under Metllod0 f guidance appropriates and assimilates these taming, branches of learning so as to secure his best, completest, and most harmonious development. In a similar way it is necessary to study what lines of conduct must be taught i. e., what discipline must be enforced, to the end of the highest develop- ment of character. I believe that along the lines here so imperfectly sketched a theory of education may be discovered which will stand the tests required of a science, and which will furnish the necessary rules for the guidance of teachers in the proper prosecution of their work. I believe that some people are born with so much tact and grace that they teach well by instinct, and that some of the best work done in primary Good schools is done by such people. But I have teachers, noticed that such people, after a little experience, unless 92 Educational Creeds. they set themselves seriously to work to learn the science of education, become formal and artificial and lifeless in their teaching. So that I firmly believe that the only safe way for all teachers is to continue to study while they teach, and to seek through all the days of their teaching life for the better ways of teaching. I believe that methods devised empirically and used formally are of little real worth; but that methods Good wrought out by close observation, generous methods, reading^ an( j profound thinking, and applied under a high ideal and a deep feeling of responsibility, are full of life and worth. But I believe further that even a good method, in order to accomplish its best work in the schoolroom, social must be wrought out by a man or a woman relations. o f high ideals of character and achievement. The teacher must believe in a theory of education which ennobles those in whom it is realized. I believe that is the best education which teaches us how we society are all joined together as a whole, for better, for worse, for richer or poorer, in sickness and in health; that when one member suffereth the others suffer likewise by a humanitarian sympathy; that the criminal is one who finds himself in a state of maladjustment to the social whole, fighting the hopeless fight against ethically or- ganized society. I believe we should teach the child to spell correctly, to read readily, to write legibly, and to calculate accu- rately. I believe in teaching the child the education, dignity of labor through a well-arranged course of manual training. But these are the mere beginnings of education; and by confining ourselves to these we are denying to our children their divine birthright we are really denying them as yet the rights guaranteed them by the Declaration of Inde- Louis H. Jones. 93 pendence the right to life, which is not mere exist- ence; to liberty, which is not mere freedom from physical bondage; to the pursuit of happiness, which does not consist chiefly in the getting of money or the gratifying of the animal propensities. I believe in preparing the child by a very practical drill in the elements of an education to earn an honest living; but I believe also in teaching him to recognize what is honest and pure and sweet and wholesome in life. I believe in teaching him that work is honorable that drudgery may even be divine, if inspired and controlled by sound principle. Indeed, to live up to a high standard of life in a civiliza- tion still holding many of the crudities and evils of savage life requires that each of us shall daily do many things which in themselves are not only not pleasurable but are positively distasteful. I believe in giving the young ideals of life and char- acter and human worth and dignity, which will enable them to stand firm under all tribulations and mgll drudge till the glorious end be achieved. In ti ves - and of itself much of our daily work is necessarily drudgery, while much of it requires that we bear large responsibilities, endure petty annoyances, and do dis- agreeable things. It is impossible that we shall feel any real interest in these things by reason of any grati- fication of any power of ours by any attribute of theirs. There is therefore no motive to do these things unless one can be found elsewhere, but so related to these acts as to constitute for the time being a valid vicarious in- terest. This is a true ideal of the joyful service we can do. The end not only justifies the means but glorifies it as well. The continued contemplation of the ideal condi- 94 Educational Creeds. tions to be achieved by work for the service of loved ones gives a pleasure akin to realization, glid- of achieve- ing at last into the glory of actual achieve- ment. Happy is he in life who can so live and think and feel that the effulgent glory of his ideal life is thrown backward till it lights up all the pathway of his actual life. His ideal becomes the magnetic pole of his life and conduct. He will work and drudge ten hours per day, if need be, that he may found his ideal family life and keep it sweet and pure under the shadow of his own vine and fig tree. If properly educated, he will march with steady step to the cannon's mouth at the call of his patriotic ideal, counting life and limbs as mere incidents in the series of movements by which civil and religious liberty are established. He will counsel together with his neighbors, foregoing his per- sonal preferences, in order that the social whole may be unbroken. His interests are so set in the best things that he cannot unbend to the mean or the low; and the high sense of gratification coming from the realization within himself of a high grade of manhood compensates for laborious effort and frequent disappointments in ex- ternal plans and purposes. The end and aim of modern education requires that one become able to think clearly, to aspire nobly, to drudge cheerfully, to sympathize broadly, to The aim. , . . , , *' decide righteously, and to perform ably; in short, to be a good citizen. SUPERINTENDENT OF SCHOOLS, CLEVELAND, O. THE PEDAGOGICAL CREED of R. HEBER HOLBROOK, PH.D., Principal High School, Pittsburg, Pa. 1. TJie soul is a germ of the divine in a process of conscious growth by means of its environ- ment towards the divine ideal. of 2. Environment is a term indicating all the resisting (action) forces of nature upon which the energy of the soul must react (reaction) in order to reveal itself or to grow. 3. Teaching is a conscious effort to favor the growth of the soul by harmonizing it with its environment. 4. Growth is a term designating that plan or law of the divine in nature according to which all change makes towards improvement. 5. Growth, as an idea, is essentially dual, necessarily involving opposites, as: progress and regress; less ma- ture, more mature ; higher, lower ; stronger, weaker; up and down; positive, negative; more and less; light and darkness, hot and cold, pleasure and pain, wisdom and ignorance, good and evil, righteousness and sin, life and death. To think growth is to think such opposites and to account for them, and to realize that neither is think- able without the other. 6. God might have created all things perfect, making change unthinkable, progress, learning, happiness, and salvation impossible, but He did not. A divine 7. Free-ivill, self-responsibility, and the law - partnership of man with God as a Creator are possible 95 9 6 Edwational Creeds. and thinkable only as under the law of growth estab- lished by God. 8. All growth is of the divine, not of the human, since growth is but a plan or law by which the divine B. H. HOLBBOOK. force works. But the human soul attains to the divine image by learning good and evil, that is, by becoming conscious of the laws of growth in itself towards the divine ideal, and so of the fact that of this ideal it is itself the germ, the prophecy, the promise, the potency. 9. TJie Father is creating the soul through growth, as He creates all things. The soul's consciousness of its own growth, attained through the knowledge of good R. Hebe* Hoibrook, Ph.D. 97 and evil ; of progress and regress ; of ability, on its own part, to favor progress or regress ; of free choice ; of self-responsibility ; of creating itself through growth ; of thus sharing in the highest power of the divine, is the consciousness of the soul that it is made in the image of God. 10. Teaching is, therefore, soul creating. It is the soul favoring the growth of soul its own soul and the souls of others. 11. Years of discretion is a term indicating that time in the life of Adam and Eve, and of every Respollsi _ other man and woman, at which they pass W-'ity. from irresponsible, therefore innocent, animal existence to that full consciousness of self-responsibility which dis- tinguishes the human from the mere animal. 12. This change in Adam and Eve is spoken of as the " fall of man " from irresponsible animalism to re- sponsible Godship. " Behold, the man is become as one of us to know good and evil" was spoken by the Lord of Adam and Eve after they had eaten the forbidden fruit ; through this knowledge of good and evil man stepped to his divine estate, realizing that favoring soul-growth (in himself and others) is good, and that impeding soul-growth is evil. 13. The soul, being in the process of grotvth, is grow- ing into an increasing and clearer knowledge Self _ of its own growth, and therefore into the *awiedg;e. knowledge of the how to favor its growth. 14. Conversion is the conscious recognition by the soul of the loving fatherhood and teachership of God (as manifested by the law of growth in all phenomena and demonstrated in Jesus with the Christ), accompanied with a painful sense of past ignorance blindness, and disloyalty (sin), followed by a joyous discovery, through the life and death (the 98 Educational Creeds. blood) of Jesus Christ, that by turning about and work- ing with God in his plans, by harmonizing one's self, therefore, with His laws as fast as they are learned, one may best grow into a higher realization of the divine ideal in his own soul. 15. All teaching, therefore, leads to a deeper insight Deeper ^ n ^ the pl ans f God, and always makes insight, towards conversion first, then continuously towards increased knowledge. 16. Knowledge is, therefore, itself a growth, and is made possible only through the growth of the soul. 17. The aim of all teaching, of all knowledge, of all living, therefore, is the growth of the soul towards the divine ideal. The soul has, before all else, this one purpose the growth of soul, its own soul and the souls of others. 18. The feeling of duty is the soul's consciousness of this purpose. This is conscience, the feeling Conscience. .,... ,, , v , 7 , ,, of obligation, the feeling of oughtness, the feeling of being able to aid or impede growth and the necessity of choosing the right. 19. The primordial feeling of the mind is conscience. 20. The primordial knowing of the mind is the con- scious discrimination as to what is right and what is wrong. 21. The primordial willing is the choosing between the right and the wrong by doing it. 22. Sensibility, intellect, and will, in their elemental The Divine P nase au d successive development, are the Mind - dim miniatures of the Divine Mind as graph- ically delineated by Moses in the first chapter of Genesis. They are the radicle, the axis, and the plumule of the mind or soul. All teaching is favoring the develop- ment of these divine and divinely growing energies. R. Heber Holbrook, Ph.D. 99 23. These elemental energies are equal, co-ordinate, simultaneous, inseparable, one. To make one co-ordinate of these subordinate to the others, or to make ener ^ le8 ' any one dominate the others, is to be partial and hurtful. 24. They Are Transcendental. They are not only the very unified elements of the soul and mind, but they are outside of and dominate the entire environ- ment of the mind. 25. The Tliree Pedagogical Axioms. Out of this law of growth proceed the three principal prop- Pedagoglcal erties of the mind, showing what the mind axioms. is as it is in the presence of the teacher for training: (a) The mind is naturally self-active. (b) The mind naturally grows right. (c) The mind naturally enjoys growing right. 26. The Three Pedagogical Postulates. Out of this law of growth proceed the three primordial possibilities of the teacher with the mind, showing what he may do with the mind, or the three lines of direction along which he may train the mind: (a) The mind may be fed. (Instruction.) (b) The mind may be stimulated. (Discipline.) (c) The mind may be directed. (Habit.) 27. The Three Pedagogical Conditions. Out of this law of growth come the three conditions which pedagogical must exist before the mind can be trained: conditions. (a) The mind must be hungry. (Interest or force.) (b) The mind must be free. (Individuality or space ) (c) The mind must have time in which to grow. (Time.) Out of these twenty-seven articles come the whole science and art of education. R. HEBER HO^BROOK. PITTSBURG, PA, THE EDUCATIONAL CREED of PATTERSON DuBois, Author of " Beckonings from Little Hands " and " The Point of Contact in Teaching." IT is easier to know how to begin to formulate one's educational creed than to know just where to stop. Creeds are supposed to deal with fundamen- L detaii. 0f tals or essentials. There are fundamental psychological and sociological facts, and there are doctrines or theories of motive and of method. In a short statement of one's convictions, such as a creed is supposed to be, these facts and principles must be presented in some kind of proportion. What the limits of detail in statement should be is a problem in itself. Probably in such a series of " creeds " as this each author has a certain liberty to be disproportionate, that he may accentuate certain facts, theories, or prin- ciples which may seem to him to have failed of due recognition, or which, for other reasons, have peculiar hold upon him. Education is that process by which an individual is led to acquire ideals, and to realize them through his own self-activity. In a Christian education education, these ideals are Godward or Christlike. It therefore aims to put the person in full pos- session of every natural power that makes for righteous- ness, and so to develop the whole nature, physical, in- tellectual, moral, and spiritual. 100 Patterson DuBois. 101 This constitutes the upbuilding of a character, or personality. PATTERSON DuBois. Inasmuch as, whether we eat or whether we drink, we should do all to the glory of God, there is, strictly speaking, no proper division between secular -, ,r . T . . ,, . Secular and and religious education. In view of this, reiig^ns the Sunday-school ought to be in close touch with general educational movements, and it ought, so far as its educative purpose is concerned, to commend itself by reason of proper pedagogical methods to the sympathy and support of the professional educator as such. Formal education must take cognizance both of what 102 Educational Creeds. child nature is and of what the child as a social or con- ventionalized being must become. I have U S?rac? 11 little sympathy with the doctrine of parallel- ism between the development of the race and the development of the individual child. Yet the child does come into an inheritance of race possessions or accumulations through the educative processes. I am convinced that the child early feels his right to be recognized as one of his race. He is, it is true, a very different sort of creature in some ways from the adult, and is not to be regarded as undeveloped or diminutive man. Yet we do him injustice and injury by our con- tinually passing on him a class judgment, and so make him feel himself outside, as it were, of the pale of com- mon humanity. It is no sin or crime for him to be a child, childlike, but it is a sin for us to mention his childhood to him as though that were in itself his mis- fortune and something only to be tolerated. Whatever sense of unity with the race or social consciousness the child may come into, he must be a true child before he can become a true man. A too rapid development, that deprives a child of his childhood, means not enrich- ment, but impoverishment. A stunted, suppressed, or slighted childhood cannot grow into the highest type of developed manhood. The fundamental fact upon which I base my peda- gogical creed, so far as I am conscious of having any creed capable of formulation, is that all con- sciousness", sciousness is essentially motor; the idea of a movement is practically the beginning of that movement. This being so, every conscious state into which we are, consciously or unconsciously, instru- mental in bringing another will sooner or later result in an activity, habit-forming or inhibitive, on the part of that other. Conversely, every activity deepens con* Patterson DuBois. 103 sciousness, and insures, in greater or less degree, its permanency. Whatever theories we may hold biologically, I believe that pedagogically we have little, if anything, to do with heredity, of which we are at best very o i j' Heredity ignorant. But we have everything to do and environ- with environment. It is the part of en- vironment to suggest ideals, and so utilize the potential of heredity, whatever it may chance to be. This environment does not develop the child, but he develops himself by his own response or reaction to it. The drug does not cure the disease by act- J Reaction, ing upon the organism, but the organism cures itself by acting upon the drug. Food does not make flesh, but the living organism makes its own flesh by acting upon and appropriating the food. For the same reason, in supplying mental and moral food to the child we must consider the mental or spiritual organ- ism which is to react or respond to it. Hence we must always meet him on the plane of his own experience. We must start at his point of contact with life. We must address ourselves to some initial interest, ideal, instinct, or activity of his own as the primary factor in our general procedure from knowns to unknowns. Education is therefore not a matter of schools and homes alone, but of all life. The child is under a rain of forces or suggestions from without, to , . , , ... . office of which he will, in one degree or another, re- the act. Our office as his educators is to super- vise these forces. Some must be directed, some de- flected, some, in effect, counteracted. We must put him in the way of being impinged upon by advanta- geous forces; we must defend him from the disadvan- tageous. But in neither process can we, or should we, be complete. Hence the child must grow into the con- 104 Educational Creeds. sciousness of the necessity of choosing, acting, and overcoming for himself. We have the difficult problem of keeping his part and ours in right proportion. He must not be swamped too early with responsibilities of judgment, choice, and independent action; nor must he have his work done for him, so that he grows up weak, irresponsive, and inert. He must learn to obey, but we must first be obedient to the divine law of child nature before we have a right to make a demand of obe- dience upon him. Obedience is just as imperative upon the man as upon the boy. The prime obstacle to our doing the best that might be done for the child's education is our adult egotism. The shadow of ourselves obscures the child. egotism. ^ e P ress upon him our 'formularies, our the- ologies and philosophies, our inverted orders of thought, our remote reasons, our inarticulate allu- sions, our institutional consciousness, and all that comes by experience and conventionality, and suppose that by talking these things in a jargon of mixed baby talk and technics we are meeting him on the plane of his experi- ence. We lead him into evil by suggesting to him forms of evil not level or likely to his experience, and from which he is in no immediate danger. We mis- name his motives and his actions, and read into them significances of which he is entirely unconscious. Many an activity in a child has a different basal signifi- cance from that which the same activity has in his adult accusers, from whom he has taken it by sugges- tion and in innocent faith that they were his natural exemplars. We complain of the child's excessive activ- ity instead of utilizing it, and think of him as a fellow being to be corrected rather than directed, to be thwarted rather than understood; and we think more of being ourselves obeyed than of having him obedient. Patterson DuBois. 105 We are egotists always in the presence of child run, ami so do we impede their education instead of facilitat- ing it. Another obstacle is our satisfaction in interesting the child, or in gaining his attention. We do not stop to inquire what it is that he is attending to, or what it is that he is interested in, and, above and all, what profound significance lies at the bottom of that close interest, that rapt attention. While it is true that much can be accomplished, doubtless, by the cultivation of brain-cells, it is also true that nothing but those experiences in Limitations. which space, time, and remote causes are es- sential factors can make certain classes of concepts pos- sible to the child mind. One thing is to be always remembered hi dealing with the young child: that which is remote is out of his grasp. He deals with the immediate in space, time, cause, or interest. We must meet him with this limitation clearly in view, or we labor to no purpose. Our duty as educators, formal or informal, then, is, as I see it, comprehended in our office as ward- ers of the child's environment. And this office has the threefold function already de- scribed of direction, deflection, and counteraction. We direct when we address ourselves to the child consciously as instructors, bringing to him ideals through nature, literature, art, morals, or spiritual duties and aspirations. We deflect when, seeing the child subjected to all man- action, ner of unwise suggestion, unfair treatment, unnecessary hardship, cruelty, ill-timed conversation, literature, pic- tures, or terrifying and brutalizing stories, we do what we can to draw off his attention or rescue him from the positive limbo or slavery of his custodians. We coun- io6 Educational Creeds. teract when, having misjudged him, or having found him absorbing conversation which he should not hear (mayhap from good friends who sit at our table), we take every subsequent occasion to counteract the mis- chievous suggestion, which has already rooted itself in him as idea, and is consequently in the initial stages of formative self-activity. It is not only the parent or the school-teacher who ought to walk circumspectly in the presence of chil- dren. The obligation is on all. He whose adfultment! "walk and conversation " have come under the keen observation of a child is a part of that child's suggestive environment. Hence the im- mense task of the professional educator, who has to estimate the relative values of these varied environing influences in adjusting his curriculum. This adjust- ment will be efficient in proportion as it results in put- ting the child in possession of his own powers through the exercise of his self-activity. It will be truly suc- cessful just so far as it develops that real nature and those ideals which are God's thought of the child and God's desire for him. PATTEESOK DuBois. The Sunday ScJiool Times, PHILADELPHIA. A BIT OF A CREED. By JAMES P. HANEY, M.D., Director of Manual Training, Public Schools, New York City. A PEDAGOGICAL creed should look not to the means but to the end of all education, to the development of the powers of the child, physical, mental, spir- , m. The end. itual. The means may vary, may change with changes in our knowledge of the manner in which the body and brain develop, may change with altered social conditions: the end is ever the same, to develop power power to receive, to think, to execute, to origi- nate. Power is gotten with exercise, not from direc- tions. Knowledge alone is not power; to be potent, it must be knowledge in use. If there be power to create, opportunity should be given to exercise it, but no education can give creative power; training can but develop the ability creative which is already possessed by the child, can power, but afford it opportunity for expression. Power to execute at command or to imitate, these may be given, but such teaching falls far short of the end of education. The creative is far greater than the imitative power. All true art is creative no mere imi- tation has a right to be called art. It needs the artist to make a die, a machine may stamp a copy. When one gives power to create one gives also power to enjoy. Thus may the laborer learn to delight in his labor, thus may the artisan know the satisfaction of the artist. 107 io8 Educational Creeds. The power of creation depends upon the imagination. Stifle the imaginative power and you throttle the crea- tion at its birth. The growing demand for free development Im power! Ve ^ the imaginative power is one of the moot striking features of the broadening channel in which the great stream of education flows. One may note it in many curricula, in many grades, but nowhere is it more striking than in the modern teaching of the arts. Enjoyment of the powers of imagination is part of the birthright of the little child. Dwarf these powers in youth and they can never be developed later. Fortunate it is that there are few who voluntarily would seek to destroy in the expanding mind the power to picture. Some, however, accomplish through ignorance that which the few consummate by design. There was once a wise man who said that those who rose early were con- ceited all the forenoon and sleepy all the afternoon. The economic education which aims by mechanical methods to turn out a prodigy of formal learning robs the little child of the power which in later years would have lightened all its labor, leaves it dull and apathetic in the afternoon of youth. To those who are close to the child nothing is more delightful than to watch the growing power to receive, steady ^ ren to execute, but this growth is never growth. De looked for as one exhibiting sudden transformation. Those who seek such results will be often disappointed. One must stand afar to get the proper sense of perspective. None can see the change from day to day, and yet the change goes daily, hourly on. Not different is the change in the child basking in the genial warmth of a sympathetic teaching from that of the web spread upon the meadow upon which from James P. Haney, M.D. 109 time to time the weaver sprinkles a gentle shower. To such a one said a passer, " A dreary labor that of yours, the same to-day as yesterday." " Nay," said the other, " I pass and come again, and though I see no change from day to day, yet I know that in the end the change will show that all the while the linen is getting whiter and whiter, cleaner and purer." Without imaginative power what were poet, artist, author ? With it human- ity can know their joy, can follow beautiful conceptions in verse, in picture, in romance. To the child should be given opportunity for the ex- ercise of this power, that in his old age it may not de- part from him, and with it should be given the power to produce something that is good, something that is beautiful, something that is original. So may the arts contribute to pleasure in the life of every man, and the delights of brush, verse, and melody be with each in his craft or trade. There is no article in my educational creed which I would place before the one which says, " I believe in the individuality of the little child." I be- lieve that we should give him the power to receive, reflect, direct, and execute; should give him opportunity to originate and create. I believe that all the manual arts afford such oppor- tunity, some to a greater, some to a less, degree. I be- lieve that no curriculum which excludes them can furnish to the child chance for full development. Education which neglects the cultivation of the self- activity of the child does him the severest in- Set[ ^ jury. I believe that all mechanical training activity, arrests the education of the child by his own efforts. I believe in the self-activity of the teacher, and that books and formulae which prescribe the task which should require the exhibition of originality on the part no Educational Creeds. of teacher and child hinder the development of both. I believe that the arts should be taught but as means to development; that they should be made a vital part of the existence of the child. I believe in beauty in the schoolroom and that the love of the beautiful is one of the strongest incentives to work; that the effort to seek it sets a stand- ard purer and better than can be any arti- ficial one. But I believe in teaching art not for art's sake, but the arts for the child's sake. I believe the art which seeks nicety of results in place of power of expression arrests the growth of the child at the beginning and makes it difficult if not impossible to continue its devel- ment to the higher forms of activity. In the teeming tenements there is one sound which rises ever shrill and clear above all other noises of the day and night it is the sound of little chil- ' dren wailing. For those whose sentient ear is turned to hear the silent protests of the dumb there comes from every class-room, where sit children doomed, for no crime, to be deprived of that which is theirs by rights divine, the cry for liberty of action, the inarticu- late plea for opportunity to do as well as to learn. Not long since there was noised about in a London slum news of a school for the dull, a school in which it was said the slowest boy might enter and be ^abon f welcome. It was miles away, yet not so far but that the next day one childish tenant of the alley, a miserable paralytic, whose feeble brain held but one passionate longing, painfully dragged himself from his foul cellar to the quiet street where stood the Mecca of his hope. Then, knocking at the door with his crutch, he sank, stammering his plea, " For God's sake, let me in." This is quite true. I know his story well. For him a new day has dawned to end his Arctic night. No James P. Haney, M.D. 1 1 1 longer impotent, he has lived to know the infinite joy of him who works from love of his labor. This is the in- centive, the sustenance, the solace, for all effort. This is the matchless, priceless secret of success for every age and art. JAMES P. HANEY. NEW YORK CITY. THE EDUCATIONAL CREED of T. G. ROOPEK, H. M. Inspector of Schools, England ; author of "A Pot of Green Feathers : A Study of Apperception," etc. Is it not a striking fact that a touch of human nature in Homer, who wrote, perhaps, 3,000 years ago, should be as full of meaning to us who live so long on of y after as a similar touch of human nature in y ' the works of Lord Byron or Lord Tennyson ? This continuity in the character of the human race is a cheering fact to the educationist, because it follows as a consequence from it that there are numerous and weighty branches of education which are not really newer, more doubtful, or more perplexing to-day than they were in the days of Plato or St. Paul, or the medieval writers on the subject. Leaving out of sight the education of the future, I ask the reader's attention for a few moments while I dwell upon those parts of training which are a^an'Jd.eai. not new and are scarcely affected by modern changes, whether political, social, or scien- tific. I speak of Reverence as the ideal in education be- cause I wish to distinguish it from those very practical questions which, however much vexed and disputed, admit, nevertheless, of a definite solution. Whether, for instance, you are to teach a child Greek or French is doubtless a matter of controversy, but whichever way you finally decide it, there is no difficulty in acting T. G. Rooper. 113 upon the decision. Either language can be taught. When, however, you begin to deal with the elements of that high character which we desire every child to attain, the opposite holds true, for then there is a general T. G. ROOFER. agreement as to the virtues which we should try to im- plant or cherish. The only uncertainty is as to the success of our efforts. The mind, by the right use of the imagination, can create ideals at which to aim, but experience shows that man can only advance a little way in the direction of these ideals, for, strive as he may to attain them, the goal he makes for remains afar off. Indeed, so imperfect is human nature that the ii4 Educational Creeds. attainment of one ideal often seems inconsistent with the complete possession of another. REVERENCE. My central thought is summed up in the word "rev- erence." In one of Goethe's masterpieces upon educa- tion he takes his reader to a secluded monas- festtires. * ei 7 situated in a romantic country, where a few children are being educated upon an unusual system. On ncaring the old monastic buildings, which, instead of being in the hands of the clergy, are now occupied by special teachers, the visitor is struck by the peculiar antics with which the children greet him as he approaches. He notices three different gestures. Sometimes the children stand, having their arms crossed on their breasts and looking up to heaven with gladness; sometimes thoy turn their eyes to earth, smiling, and keeping their hands crossed behind their backs, as if tied there; while in a third kind of greeting they run together, stand side by side, and look straight before them. Naturally, the visitor asks his guide to interpret to him the meaning of these strange gestures. " Children," answers the interpreter, "bring with them of into the world many gifts of nature. These it is our duty to cherish. Often, however, natural gifts develop best when left to themselves. One there is that no child brings with him into the world, one habit of mind which only comes by training, and yet it is the most important of all for the making of a perfect man." "And what, pray, is that?" asks the visitor. "Reverence," answers the interpreter. The yjsitor is still puzzled. T. G. Rooper. 115 "Yes, reverence," continues the other; "all want that; you, yourself, perhaps. There are three kinds of reverence, which we teach here in succession, but which exert their full influence only when united in one character, and the three gestures which you have seen are outward symbols corresponding to these three kinds of reverence. To begin with, the young child crosses his arms on his breast and casts a joyous look heavenward. That action indicates rever- ence for what is above him. Thus, young children learn that God is above them and reveals Himself to them in their parents and others who are set in authority over them. Next, the children learn to cross their hands behind their backs, as if bound, and incline their face earthward. This action indicates reverence for earth, and reminds them of two things : first, that earth is the source of life and untold happiness; and, secondly, that it is also the source of infinite misery; for from the earth arise pain and sorrow, and earthly wills are un- ruly, and man is in danger of suffering and doing ill all his life long. In these two first stages of our training the children are taught to stand alone and apart; but in the third stage they join each other side by side, as comrades, and, thus united, look straight before them, facing the world with a bold front. Until man has learned to associate with other men for a common pur- pose there prevails between him and his fellows nothing but suspicion and mistrust." "But," says the visitor, "you say reverence is not inborn, and needs to be implanted. Surely every savage fears the great and evident forces of nature, and learns through them, naturally, to fear a Being greater than himself." "True," replies the guide; "but fear is not rever- ence; the two things are distinct. What a man fears n6 Educational Creeds. he either seeks to meet and vanquish, if he be strong, or to avoid and shirk, if he be weak; but what a man reverences he seeks to attain or imitate." This is Goethe's famous illustration of reverence. Now I hold that while much remains doubtful and dis- putable in education, we have in this word reverence, reverence, as thus interpreted, one thing fixed and certain, one thing which is not obscure or new, but repeated a hundred times in the world's literature, and proved in practice, as long as history records the doings of the human race, to be a solid and substantial basis for nobility of character. We must implant in children a feeling of reverence. The next point is, What are children to learn to rever- ence ? Following Goethe, I would say: things above, things on earth, and man in society. I begin with the last reverence for man in society the most important element of which is man's reverence for his native country. PATEIOTISM. I know that the word patriotism is often distrusted and discredited. Like all high conceptions, the spirit of patriotism has heen debased, and the na- patriotism. tional strength to which it gives rise may be and has been abused to tyrannize over the weak or to insult the oppressed. But the true spirit of patriotism is not one of false pride and conceit, not of self-laudation and exaltation, but such an appreciation of his country's greatness as leads a man to be humble, modest, and ready to sacrifice himself as an insignificant portion for the good of the whole community. It leads a youth to feel how much others, living and dead, have done for him, and to aspire to make that return which lies in his power by keeping himself temperate and well T. G. Rooper. 117 disciplined in mind and body, that he may, when called upon, support the public interest, even if he must sacrifice his own. This spirit leads a man to live for the good of others, and not for himself or his family alone; it supplies a motive for developing his faculties, instead of destroying them either by vice or idleness, or even by a fruitless asceticism, like that of some Oriental fakir, sitting out his life in dreaming and contempla- tion; it leads him to respect his fellow countrymen, whether rich or poor, and to remember that all of them, however divided in their several aims, must have a com- mon interest. This is the spirit that might replace the prevalent feeling of class hatred, that canker of national life. This is the spirit which we may implant in children, partly by making them acquainted with stirring pas- sages in English literature which are inspired by it, and partly by telling them stories of those men and women who have consecrated their lives to their country's good and have believed that a profitless, comfortable life is scarcely better worth living than a life of vice. DISCIPLINE. Connected with patriotism is reverence for disciplined life, and therefore the next ideal in education is that of hardihood, strictness, and simplicity of living. Compare the means of comfort within reach of almost all people in these days with the opportunities for avoiding hardship which existed a hundred years ago and you will realize the imminent danger of yielding to the temptation of soft living, and then to softness of life. I am not think- ing of a frigid discipline, which is often a substitute for zeal, and which may throw some of the best impulses of n8 Educational Creeds. a child into an atrophy, or at least freeze up the healthy flow of his animal spirits, but of that discipline which develops the manlier virtues. On this subject I will quote a passage from Taylor: " Otherwise," says he, " do fathers and mothers handle their children. These soften them with kisses discfpune. an ^ imperfect noises, with the pap and the breast-milk of soft endearments; they rescue them from their tutors, and snatch them from disci- pline; they desire to keep them fat and warm, and their feet dry, and their bellies full, and then the children govern and cry, and prove fools and troublesome, so long as the feminine republic does endure. But fa- thers, because they design to have their children wise and valiant, apt for counsel and for arms, send them to severe governments and tie them to study and hard labor, and afflictive contingencies. Softness for slaves and domestic pets, and useless persons, for such as can- not ascend higher than the state of a fair ox, or servant, entertained for vainer offices. Labor," he continues, "obedience, and discipline, these are the three guides in attendance upon the highway of the cross; unpleas- ant are they, but safe." There never was a time when the numerous distrac- tions of town life were more insidious, and when, therefore, it was more necessary to dwell SI o?iife. ty u P on t ne virtues of singleness of aim and simplicity in life. No doubt a knowledge of miscellaneous affairs is most useful to most people, but at what a risk such knowledge is obtained in youth! Let us think of the biographies of men like Bunyan, or Wesley, and pay heed how much they were content to forego of that which most people devote all their lives to acquiring or enjoying, and that in order to obtain a large share of spiritual treasure, which many of us half T. G. Rooper. 119 despise and most of us are very willing to dispense with. Then we may realize how important an ingredient in the noble nature is simplicity of life. CITIZENSHIP. It is not the important end of education to train a child to become a successful wage-earner, because "making his own living" is not really the most important part of his future life. The StSSupf real educational problem is not a mere in- dustrial question. We want to know how we can make it possible for all, even the poorest, to lead a life which, however humble, shall not want its share of dignity. The boy grows to be a man, and will become a work- man, or a professional man, but he will also be a mem- ber of a community and an American or an Englishman. Our problem is how to enable him to play a man's part in that community and in that country. I cannot bet- ter explain to you the meaning of this ideal than by quoting a portion of the oath which young men took in Athens when they arrived at man's estate. " I will do battle," they swore, "for our altars and our homes, whether aided or unaided. I will leave our country not less, but greater and nobler, than she is intrusted to me. I will reverently obey the citizens who shall act as judges. I will obey the laws which have been ordained, and which in time to come shall be ordained, by the national will." This is the spirit that pervaded civic life 2,000 years ago. How infinitely grander it is than the spirit which pervades a large part of modern society! It is a common fashion now to despise the past, ^raditi(m. r to belittle great characters, and to magnify present opinion and practice by a comparison. There are many who believe that if they do not agree with the i2o Educational Creeds. expressed national will they are philosophic and scien- tific in disregarding, disobeying, and defying it. For admiration, reverence, and humility they substitute a spirit of cynicism, assumption, and self-conceit. Then I turn to a greater work than the pages of Greek his- tory I mean the books of the Bible and read those words of Elijah, when, worn out with the cares of what seemed a hopeless struggle with evil, he cried, "It is enough. Now, Lord, take away my life, for I am not better than my fathers." How much nobler, truer, and more worthy is such a spirit than the state of mind of those for whom the past has no claim to respect, nor the ancient majesty of long tradition any title to regard, nor the law of the land any sacred sanction! Such a spirit is the highest result of reverence for man in society, and the way to implant it in the mind of a child is by encouraging reverence for the heroic character. We are cynically told that it is no reproach to a man that he is not a hero. At any rate, let children be assisted to admire heroism in all its forms, because some elements of the heroic character are necessary to every good man. The contrast between a heroic death and a feeble, discontented, self-indulgent life cannot fail to be a bracing contemplation. Few children who have learned to admire devotion and self-sacrifice in the life of another will be content with mere ease and enjoy- ment in their own. ART. The next ideal I would bring under your notice is reverence for beauty, which is the chief of "things on earth." I think a good many of our people teauty nave great doubt about the value of a love for beautiful objects. They look upon all ssu'.h us toys and trifles, playthings for people with T. G. Rooper. 121 leisure and money to devote to them, as an interest of which the best that can be said is, that it is harmless; hence, they think that it is, to say the least of it, super- fluous to make children acquainted with vanities. Yet Goethe, one of the greatest and most thoughtful of writers, has said boldly, "The beautiful is greater than the good." How can we reconcile these conflicting opinions ? We know that the study of art may be made a frivolous pursuit, but this is a perversion of it: Ab ! believe me, there is more than so, That works such wonders in the minds of men ! A painting of " The Mother and Her Child," by Ra- phael; a landscape, by Turner, as seen in the midst of the eternal peace of sunset; a carved marble, by a Greek artist, who has fixed forever the truth, beauty, transient grace of muscular movement, or, M with intense vividness, the working of the mind show- ing itself in the fleeting expression of the countenance; an oratorio, by Handel; a solemn service, by Bach these and similar works of art body forth for us in a way that nothing else can the union of what things are true, beautiful, and good. If this be the lesson that can be learned from art, it is no mere "crackling of thorns under a pot," but a sober, serious pursuit that may, if rightly followed, brace and strengthen, as well as enlarge and elevate, the mind. But to get real good from this study it should be begun early in life and continued long, for a sense of beauty cannot be snatched up in a moment in our later years. This study, in Shakespeare's words, Is like the heaven's glorious sun, That will not be deep-searched by saucy looks. The process is long and slow, and if it begins with a child's delight in a pretty color it may end long afterward 122 Educational Creeds. with a masculine and severe joy in beautiful scenes and objects, filling the soul with power. Of course, I do not expect too much from art. I do not hope to make chil- dren moral merely by teaching them to draw, nor do I suppose that the right remedy for rotten and rat-riddled tenements is a scarlet geranium or an artistic wall-paper, but I do believe that moral beauty is not different from but really one with the beauty which is made manifest by artists, and that if you teach a child to see beauty in a shell or a flower, in a picture or a carving, you are helping him to see the beauty of right conduct, and, what is more, the ugliness of the opposite. A recent number of the Parent's Review supplies me, from its invaluable appendix, which contains actual observations on the minds of children, with B o? r teaii f ty? t * wo illustrations of the unexpected influence of a sense of beauty upon moral behavior. In the first case a mother describes the repugnance which grew up in a little child of four years to sayii g prayers, and explains the difficulty of treating this temper. "One day," she continues, " I took the little girl into a room where several tall lilies were arranged in pots and asked her would she like to kneel by them and thank God for making such beautiful things. She at once consented, and her interest being awakened, has continued ever since, adding a word of praise for the lovely lilies, and thus a good habit has driven out a bad one." Who can fail to see in this description a touch- ing illustration of one of the most exquisite passages in the Sermon on the Mount ? Another mother states, that to quiet a child three, four, or five years old, in a passion, she would take her to look at Holman Hunt's " Light of the World," which had a calming effect that no words could produce. Often a first sign of regret was asking to be taken to see it. T. G. Rooper. 123 The love of art has often been thought inconsistent with hardihood, the last ideal which I dwelt on. If art is devoted to providing comforts and luxuries . Hardihood. for private use, it may be so ; but the art which builds and adorns public buildings, raises monu- ments to great men and great deeds, or interprets and reveals to men beauty which might escape them, will never lead to selfishness or self-indulgence. There is an ascetic devotion to art and an ascetic enjoyment of this world's delights, and it is this truth which Goethe adumbrates when he describes ... . , , . ,,. . ,, Asceticism, with quaint but telling imagery the gesture of those who look with joy upon the earth and yet at the same time stand with their hands tied behind their backs. The beauty of earth we ought to learn to reverence, but it cannot be enjoyed without restraint, so that parents and guardians must follow that Shepherd who said, "And I took unto me two staves; the one I called Beauty, and the other I called Bands; and I fed the flock " (Zech. xi. 7). CHRISTIAN RELIGION. I have dealt with reverence of two kinds, as suggested by Goethe's famous allegory: reverence for things on earth and reverence for man in society. Chr i stian There remains one more ideal, the greatest of Ufe - all one that may change but never will decay; an ideal that is ancient yet ever modern, most well-known and yet never carried into act without being original; an ideal that is most worthy of being dwelt upon in a time when so many are inclined to disregard it, because, say they, " Old things are passed away ; behold, all things are become new." The chief part of education is rever- ence for the Christian life. I mean by a Christian life 124 Educational Creeds. an eternal act of death into life done by Christ, a life in which all may share, a life which has been shared by countless numbers of persons calling themselves Chris- tians during the last 1,800 years. The evidence and the substance of the death of Christ, and all the varied doc- trines that have prevailed in connection with it, are acts of Christian love. Tongues cease, prophets die, science changes, ecclesiastical systems nourish and decay the act of love that seeketh not its own abideth. Amid fretfulness, discontent, sophistry, ambition, the roar of the street, and the din of the market we may easily forget or ignore this ancient and simple theology. Yet, which of us has not known in the flesh some living example of Christian life ? I do not mean a Gordon or a Nightingale, or an Arnold Toynbee, whose fame re- sounds as far as the English tongue is heard, but one whose narrow stage has been the sick-room or a dis- orderly and teasing household, and who has discharged lowly, painful, and laborious duties with such cheerful- ness and perfection as to make us envy the beauty of their spirit, which exhibits in power the crucified and risen life described with burning eloquence by St. Paul. It is when we come to know persons like this that we are forced to grasp the fact (which we are slow and loath to credit) that great men do mean what they say. Such, then, are the ideals that we ought to teach children to venerate patriotism, civic life, beauty, and the Christian life. Great as is the impor- Th tMn|s* e8t tance of other subjects, " the rudiments of the world," yet if we bear these in mind dis- putes about the rest will dwindle into insignificance. Whether we succeed in instructing children exactly in the fashion of the latest and most approved science, yet, projecting this light from the past on the darkness of the future, we shall find it possible to train them to lead T. G. Rooper. 125 a life which is simple, good, and true, and we shall find that while their human faculties are slowly unfolding and developing they are continually increasing the in- crease of God. SOUTHAMPTON, ENGLAND. SOME ELEMENTS OF A COMMON EDUCA- TIONAL CEEED. By GEORGE P. Editor of The Public School Journal, Bloomington, 111, THE School Journal, of New York, has been doing a real service by publishing the individual educational creeds of certain men prominent as thinkers Foundations. -XT.- n j j and teachers in this country, in Canada, and in England. The writer believes that if a statement could be made of the philosophical as well as psycho- logical doctrines that underlie most of the thinking of the present time in every department of human activity, including that of education, it would help to clear our thinking about educational aims and processes. The writer is not so ambitious as to attempt to formu- late this doctrine, but the following propositions are submitted as a slight contribution to the Ph o i f ufe. hy construction of such a statement. That the thought is centered upon the process of school education, in formulating these propositions, will not militate, it is hoped, against their application to every other department of life, since all institutions of society are but phases of the educational process by which hu- manity is advanced. The writer fears that some readers will fail to recognize their own philosophy of life in these propositions, but it may be that further reflection will lead them to discover that some tilings here set forth were already in their subconsciousness, and had become the basis of much of their thinking. 126 George P. Brown. 127 There is a consensus of convictions among thought- ful men which constitutes the universal creed of these men, no matter in what words they may express it. They may be interested in A ^edf sal searching for these convictions in the fol- lowing statements of doctrine, and in discovering their application to the vocation of teaching: SOME FUNDAMENTAL PRESUPPOSITIONS. The universe is an organism, i. e., the creative or constructive principle or energy is within it and not external to it. It is thus distinguished from a mechanism. The symbol of it is not a watch, but a flower. The process of change resulting in the growth of worlds and of men we call evolution, which is the modern name for creation. Man alone makes things. All other things are in a constant process of growth or decay. Growth, or synthe- sis, and degeneration, or analysis, are two aspects of the complex process of nature. The corresponding activi- ties in the consciousness of men are also called synthesis and analysis. Synthesis builds up, analysis dissolves or destroys. The activity or energy that is everywhere embodying itself in things, and changing from one form to another, is of the nature of will, since it is ever working towards some end, or ends. The only being on this planet in which this activity comes to consciousness of itself, to such a degree that it can become in a large measure self-directive, Self- is man. The history of this planet shows coascious- that the end towards which this world energy has ever moved has been its own embodiment in a self- cousciouness being. The purpose of education in every 128 Educational Creeds. age of man's existence has been to enlarge the range of this consciousness. The child is the heir of all the ages. " What they have thought he may think; what the saints have felt he may feel; what at any time has befallen any man he can understand." The direct purpose of education is to bring the child into this his inheritance by such a method and route that he may be able not only to " think, feel, "of 8 and understand " what the race has experi- enced, but also that he may be able to add something of value to the accumulated store, if per- chance he has inherited a capability for such contri- bution. The child is a bundle of potentialities and tendencies Poten- which education seeks to stimulate or re- tiaiities. p resgj as the ideal set up by our time may direct. The end sought is such a development of the poten- tialities and tendencies of the child as shall produce the best individual and the best citizen. These are not two ends, but one. The subjective, individual self is one with the objective, universal self which we call the citizen. The highest order of in- dividual manhood or womanhood is also the highest order of citizenship. SOME PSYCHOLOGICAL ASSUMPTIONS. The activities of the mind, while they are of the general nature of will, may be separated into acti"t&. three classes: (a) Acts that are non-voluntary and are either conscious or unconscious. George P. Brown. 129 (V) Voluntary acts consciously directed towards an end. (c) Non-voluntary acts that were once voluntary but have become habitual or automatic. These develop or become actual in the order in which they are here enumerated. In the development of these classes of activities the movement is at first from physical or physiological to the mental or psychical. Later, the initial activity may be either psychical or physi- physical to ological. Every psychical act of any human being is accompanied by a corresponding physiological act of the neural organism. Nerve action and mind action are different phases or aspects of that primal activity which is incarnated in nature and in man, making "the whole world kin." Education is the process of stimulating the har- monious development and adjustment of the psychical and neural activities that constitute a human self- being, through the self-activity of that being. actlvit y- The constant appeal is, therefore, to the will, which sets up ends and strives to realize them. Mind, or Primal Will, strives to realize itself in man in the forms of intellect, feeling, and volition, which are in essence one and the same, but are different manifesta- tions of its nature. Each of these forms demands for its full expression the harmonious development of the other two. The human mind has realized itself in the creation of the State, in which volition is tl.ie leading form of its activity: also in Art, in which feeling pre- ..',. ' / i Fields of ponderates; also in the Church, where feel- seif- , .,, ,, , ,. , , . realization, ing and will are the leading forms; and again in Science, including all the departments of organized thought, in which the intellect transcends the other 130 Educational Creeds. powers of the mind. These constitute the field where education must seek its material for promoting the harmonious development of the child. The order of the evolution of the individual mind from infancy to maturity is the same in all individuals. This makes it possible to construct a science ' of pedagogy. The first class of forms that the mind creates which are conscious are perceptions, together with the attendant feelings and volitions that unite with them to make up the sense life. This stage has two phases: first, of interests that center in the in- dividual and are subjective and self-regarding; and second, of interests begotten by the social instinct, which are objective and altruistic in their nature. The second class of forms which the mind constructs are images, or internal perceptions, which are, at first, internal reproductions of sense-perceptions; and afterwards, modifications of these; and later, the creations of the imagination in response to the instinct for self-realization, which cannot rest satisfied with the objects of sense alone. Neither does this in- stinct for self-realization rest satisfied with these in- ternal creations, but it is prompted by its self-regarding and social instincts to give them objective form, and so create an external world that shall correspond to its internal images. The imagination seeks to objectify itself. To do this the feelings and volitions are prom- inently active, and each form of the mind's activity stimulates and re-enforces the others. The third and latest class of forms created by the child in the first two or three years of life are symbols. The babblings of the child are at first mere Symbols. ' , . , , , perceptions to him, but they soon come to be signs or symbols of other things, and are later system- atized into oral speech. The oral and afterwards the George P. Brown. 131 written or printed words become the signs of all in- dividual and social activities, and of all natural objects, and the medium by which the self-regarding and social- istic instincts are communicated from one to another. After the first two years of the child's life it is con- tinually using perceptions, images, and symbols, in its instinctive efforts to realize its potentialities and tendencies as an individual and as a social aspect of life being. Individuality and sociality, the man and the citizen, the particular unit and the social whole, are not separate and antagonistic forms of being, but merely different aspects of one and the same life. Analogous to this relation is that of the members of the body to the body. Neither can say to the other, "I have no need of thee." Indeed, neither can be anything without the other. Hand cannot be hand if there is no body. And body would be a meaningless abstraction without the members. This double aspect of life, the subjective and the ob- jective, the individual and the universal, must be regarded at every step in the education of the child. METHOD. In the field of method there is a variety of beliefs and practices, according as one or another of the ontological or psychological ideas is seen with greater clearness than the others and so given greater emphasis. One gives special prominence to perceptions, another to images, another to symbols. Others emphasize the social aspect of life, while some exalt the individual. Some lose sight of the organic character of nature and of man and see the universe as a vast machine moved by an energy not itself and ex- 132 Educational Creeds. ternal to it. This fundamental belief posits a will out- side of this machine. All growth then becomes only a kind of mechanism. The principle of self-activity is not recognized, and all education is reduced to the operation of an external influence upon the mind to be educated. This class believes that knowledge can be "imparted/' and that, too, by exact definition and rule. The reader can amuse himself by selecting other ideas found in this organism called mind and making each the center and controlling principle of a method of procedure. The method he thus constructs will prob- ably have its counterpart in some institution of learning. But out of this chaos of thought and practice there is slowly evolving the conception of a method in harmony with the method of organic life, the outline of which is now dimly visible in the conduct of some schools. From The Public School Journal, Bloomington, 111., May, 1897. [Eeprinted by permission.] PEDAGOGIC ACHIEVEMENTS OF PESTALOZZI. Dr. Karl Kosenkranz * in a memorial address deliv- ered at the Pestalozzi centennial, January 12, 1846, sums up the debt which modern pedagogy owes to Pestalozzi as follows: " (1) In the method of instruction he has substituted for the artificial and playful modes of procedure the striving after the cheerful seriousness result- * , ,.,.,,. ,, Method, mg from and embodied m the form of de- velopment given by nature herself. "(2) He has emancipated the government of chil- dren from all terrorism. In place of compulsion and lifeless mechanism he has put the most lov- ing treatment of the pupil, in order to habitu- ate him to self-activity and self-esteem. " (3) He has opened our eyes to the fact that all cul- ture of individual intelligence and all moral elevation of the individual will are vain in the end if they do not issue forth from out of the whole ^^In spirit of a people and do not flow lack into it as its original property. He has taught us to regard education essentially as national education." * Born at Magdeburg, April 23, 1805 ; died at Koenigsberg, 1877. Occupied for forty-six years the chair of philosophy in the University of Koenigsberg. Best known to American students of pedagogy as author of " The Philosophy of Education." (Inter- national Education Series, Vol. I. ) 133 134 Educational Creeds. Kosenkranz repeats these three points in the follow- ing sentence: PESTALOZZI. "Naturalness of the method in teaching and learning; love as the essential form of all human intercourse, hence also that of educators and pupils; the elaboration of education to a national system these are the eternal ideas which moved the heart of Postal ozzi, and which for us ancj. all pos- Three essentials. Pestalo^i. 135 terity, to be sure, are perfectible ad infinitum, but must never be given up." " It is," Kosenkranz says in another place, " a lasting achievement of Pestalozzi, through method, to remove all arbitrariness in teaching and learning. In order to gain a clear knowledge of anything, the human mind must pass through a neces- sary sequence of processes. From sensation and sense- intuition it must rise through ideation to clear concepts. Instruction cannot give true insight if it does not con- sider this necessary sequence. In this psychological basis Pestalozzi fully agrees with the famous saying of Kant, that 'sense-intuitions without concepts are blind; concepts without sense-intuitions, empty/ ' One more quotation from the remarkable address of Kosenkranz : " Pestalozzi recognized not only the truth taught on evejy page of universal history, that man must be edu- cated; he recognized also that education, no matter how it may be modified, is governed ^^f 1 by eternal laws, and he clung, therefore, with unshaken consciousness to the necessity of method." FKOEBEL'S PEDAGOGICAL CREED. BY VERNON GIBBERD. EDUCATION, according to Froebel, should be a harmo- nious development, from its earliest bud to its latest blossom, each stage preparing for its subse- ^d-ution. 6 q uen/ ^ one > an( i growing gradually into it. "It should," he says, "be the business of every form of instruction in its respective stage to arouse in the pupil a keen and definite feeling of the need of the next stage." In effect, he applies the great law of evolution to education, and it is no small testimony to the insight of Froebal that he should have anticipated to some extent this great principle, and have perceived its application to education, both as a method and as a process. The essential value and importance of early training were facts borne in upon him by the discovery that the schools of his day accomplished so little. chS^ood. Either the pupils came to school altogether unprepared, or with faculties quite neglected or misdirected from want of proper nurture; and failure, partial or complete, was the necessary result. " There are/' he held, "in the child germs which, if they were to thrive, must be developed early," and hence the great importance attached to family life in FroebeFs system. The study of the psychology of childhood, which is be- ginning to receive serious attention, will witness to the 136 Froebel. 137 supreme importance of the very earliest years of child- hood, as a period when tendencies may be developed or destroyed, and impressions received which color the whole subsequent life. /'But the great corner-stone of Froebel's teaching is the (law of education by self -activity ; it was, in fact, the in- FBOEBEL. spiration of his genius and the ruling idea of his system. ^No truth is really our own," said Emerson," until we have discovered it for ourselves/' and to train the child to acquire knowledge by its own activity was the aim which Froebel pursued with so much patience/) and which his disciples have practiced with such marked success. " To have found one-fourth of the answer to a question," he says, " by his own effort is of more value and 138 Educational Creeds. importance to a child than it is to half hear and half understand in the words of another." To activity. Pestalozzi's assertion, that the faculties were developed by exercise, Froebel added that the function of education was to develop the faculties by arousing voluntary activity. Hence, he insists tbat the purpose of teaching and instruction is to bring ever more out of man rather than put more and more into him; and it was this, as his conception of the method of nature, that convinced him in his study of childhood of the practical educational value of work and play, both of which were used by him as a means of invoking activity in the mind of the child, and leading it in the right direction. He found that one of the greatest faults of school ar- rangements as then organized was that too often, as not infrequently now, the pupils were wholly debarred from outwardly productive labor. And yet, as Eousseau has Productive- sa ^ : " ^~ c ^^ ma J forget what he sees, and aess. more still what is said to him, but he never forgets what he has made; " or, as Froebel himself con- tended: " Lessons through and by work, through and from life, are by far the most impressive and intelli- gible." A faculty for production is instinctive in chil- dren, and there is a danger that, unless this capacity is utilized and wisely directed, it may run to waste or suffer perversion; and it was because his experi- ence taught him that to learn a thing in life, and through doing, was more developing, and cultivating, and strengthening, than to learn it merely through the verbal communication of ideas, that he invented a series of " occupations," as at once a satisfaction of native in- stinct and a means of healthy activity and self-acquisi- tion. Similarly, it was his sympathetic study of childhood Froebel. 139 that suggested, with surely the inspiration of genius, the educational value of play. Other philoso- phers, from Plato downwards, had referred to the indicative character of play, but the genius of Froebel consists in his discovery of its potency as an educational factor of the highest interest and import- ance, and his organization of it in such a way as to use it not only as a means of acquiring knowledge, but of contributing to one of the great purposes of education, the provocation of activity, and so leading by natural processes to the performance of work with the same freedom and spontaneity as play. " The plays of child- hood," he says, " are the germinal leaves of all later life." It is easy to imagine possible developments of the use of work and play beyond the limits of ordinary elementary education. But Froebel insisted also on the necessity of con- certed action. He believed in developing early the so- cial impulse, gathering children together in groups, and so encouraging the growth of Action. those virtues which would not be otherwise developed. He combined the theory of Pestalozzi, that the child belonged to the family, with that of Fichte, that the state and society were its real owners, and as- serted that he belonged to all three. " The social im- pulse, the love of others beyond the narrow range of self and of one's own home, cannot be properly excited and developed except when numbers of children from different homes are gathered together." The value and sanity of this conclusion are evident from the success which has attended the kindergarten system, not only in this country, but especially in America. No review of Froebelian principles would be complete without a. reference to his position that religion is the culmination of education. He holds not onlv that re- 140 Educational Creeds. ligion is an essential element in all education, but also that from the earliest period the religious sense should be carefully and sedulously cultivated. Ke- Religion. J J . ligious teaching need not be doctrinal; it should not be dogmatic; but it should certainly be defi- nite and practical. Here also he would have the relig- ious sense evolved as a natural growth; not dependent on outward incentives or artificial sanctions for its culti- vation, but rather and mainly through the agency of love, and by the child's realization of the reflex action of his own conduct. "All education not founded on re- ligion," he says, "is unproductive." For to moral training belongs the direction of conduct, and conduct, as Matthew Arnold has reminded us, is occupied with the larger part of human life. Condensed from an arti- cle in The Educational Times, London. DIESTERWEG'S PEDAGOGICAL CEEED. KNOWLEDGE does not involve the concept of education, neither does ability. All depends on the will. Willing dare not be lacking, the earnest, firm, stirring willing of that which is truly beautiful, true, and good; the unceasing striving for righteousness, mor- ality, and piety. He who has attained to firmness in this, is called educated. The means aiding to this end are called educative means. The person who endeavors to attain this object in others, is honored with the beau- tiful name of educator. The school comes to the assistance of education in the family and prepares for life in the world; the cliurch matures the bloom and adornment of politi- cal life and sanctifies it through the eternal pe ^S?. 011 ideas of truth and piety. All co-operate to the end of bringing about as perfect as possible a condi- tion of human life. Hence life is the only unchange- able aim of every fruitful activity of educators and instructors in family, in school, in state, in church. Life is the one great circle which unites within itself all in- terests to whose developments all efforts must be bent; the highest task of all parents, teachers, statesmen, and clergymen. ~ ^Educate according to Nature./ This is the supreme principle of all human education, of all life-wisdom. Natural procedure is the highest degree of pedagogic 141 142 Educational Creeds. wisdom in matters of human education. Procedure contrary to nature is the highest degree of tonaturef pedagogic folly and error. He alone is a true educator who in his educative activity re- mains always and everywhere true to that principle; and he misguides, warps, and distorts man who breaks away DlESTERWEG. from this principle and works in opposition to it. Hence the universal, unconditional, and most comprehensive demand upon the educator is: Follow nature! The principle of naturality contains two requirements, one negative and the other positive. The formers reads: Avoid in education everything that is contrary to nature; the latter: Practice conformity to nature. Diesterweg. H3 I believe the purpose of education, hence also the pur- pose of the training of teachers, to be self-activity. Man this is what I mean is to be educated Self _ to self -activity; man is educated and in- activity, structed in the same degree in which he is educated and instructed to self-activity, and he is uneducated and un- instructed in the same degree in which he lacks self- activity. Self-activity of the pupils is the final, supreme aim of all true activity of educators; it is really the principle of human education. To this formal principle must be added a material one. Hence I say: Development of self -activity in the service of the true and good or to the realization of the true and good in public life, in the community of men. Tlie fashioniny of life according to the principles of truth, beauty, goodness in the highest energy of self- activity, is, I take it, the problem which man is called upon to solve. KULES OF INSTETJCTIOK (From Diesterweg's " Guide for Teachers.") I. WITH KEGAED TO THE PUPIL (THE SUBJECT). ' 1. CONFORM to the laws of nature. \ 2. Proceed from the standpoint of the pupil, and from there carry instruction forward continuously without interruption, without breaks. 3. Teach intuitively! [Appeal to the child's sense- perception and experience.] -1 4. Proceed from the near to the remote; from the simple to the complex; from the easy to the difficult; from the known to the unknown. [Adapt your instruc- tion to the apperceptive power of the pupil.] 5. Proceed in elementary order [inductively] not scientifically. Scientific procedure begins as a rule with the most general statements from which the particular and elemental is deduced. The elementary method be- gins from the particular and from there proceeds to the general. 6. Pursue everywhere the formal as well as the mate- rial aim; interest the pupil through the same subject as many-sidedly as possible; unite particularly knowledge with doing and practice what has been learned until the mind has complete control over it. 7. Consider the individuality of your pupils. 144 Diesterweg. 145 II. WITH REFERENCE TO THE MATTER OF INSTRUCTION (THE OBJECT). 1. Divide the matter of every study according to the standpoint and development laws of the pupil. 2. Tarry particularly at the elements. 3. In proving deduced statements return frequently to the first elementary foundation ideas and deduce the former from the latter. 4. Divide every subject-matter in definite stages and small wholes. 5. Indicate upon any stage several parts of the suc- ceeding one and without allowing a noticeable interrup- tion to occur, point out a few particulars in order to stimulate the pupil's desire for knowledge, without, however, gratifying it. 6. Divide and arrange the matter in such a way that, wherever possible, in the new, upon the succeeding stage the old recurs again which the pupil has learned up to that time. [Provide for reviews on every stage, as far as possible.] 7. Connect subjects which are related in kind with each other. [Correlate !] 8. From the thing to its sign [symbol], not vice versa. [First the idea, then the word or sign representing it.] 9. In the choice of the form of teaching be guided by the nature of the topic. III. WITH REFERENCE TO EXTERNAL CONDITIONS, OF THE TIME, PLACE, ETC. 1. Treat topics more one after another than one beside the other. 2. Consider the (probable) future calling [state] of the pupil. 146 Educational Creeds. \ 3. Instruct (educate) in conformity to the demands of civilization. IV. WITH REFERENCE TO THE TEACHER. g 1. Endeavor to make instruction attractive (interest- ing). 2. Instruct with force. [Leave an impression.] 3. Never stand still. [Improve constantly; "keep a- moving;" avoid stagnation.] 1. The problem and end of education is harmonious development of all powers. "As physical nature un- folds its powers in accordance with eternal, . immutable laws, so human nature is sub- jected in its development to similar laws. All sound pedagogy must be founded upon these laws. All instruction and all education must have a psycho- logical foundation; education and instruction must proceed in accordance with the same laws that nature itself follows. The method looks upon the soul of the child not as a tabula rasa that must first be written upon from without, nor as an empty, hollow vessel that is to be filled with foreign matter in order to contain some- thing, but as a real, living, self-dependent power that unfolds itself from the first moment of its existence, after its own laws." 2. (a) "MORAL CULTURE is the pure unfolding of human willing through the higher feeling of love, grati- tude, and confidence as they express them- cnJttire. selves as germinating in the pure relation between child and mother. The aim of this culture is the moral perfecting of our natur.e; its means are exercises in the desire for moral feeling, thinking, uud doing." Diesferweg. 147 (b) " INTELLECTUAL CULTURE is the pure unfolding of human ability or our power of reason through a most simple habituating of its use. The aim of intellectual development is to produce in In cSttffe! al man clear concepts. The starting-point of knowledge is sense perception, the end the raising of the sense-percept to the concept," (c) " PHYSICAL CULTURE is the pure development of ability or the many-sided physical powers within man through the simple habituating of their use. The starting-point of this unfolding is move- culture 1 . 1 ment; the aim, power, graceful carriage, and skill in handicrafts and arts." 3. Spontaneity and self-activity are the necessary conditions under which the mind educates itself, and gains power and independence. "Nature develops all the human faculties by practice, and their growth depends on their exercise." HEKBART'S PEDAGOGICAL CREED. The aim of education is the formation of a moral- religious character. METHOD : Conform as educator to the laws governing human development. The aim of education is given and explained in the science of ethics : the ways and means are founded, in general,, upon psychology ; in particular, upon insight and the laws of development of the individuality. Formation of character is essentially will- culture. In order to make it moral-religious it is neces- sary to develop a moral-religious insight. In short, education aiming to form a moral-religious character consists chiefly in will-culture and intelligence-culture. That branch of education which aims mainly at will- culture is called guidance and includes child-govern- ment and training. Intelligence-culture is essentially the office of instruction. Thus we speak of three inter- related offices of education: government, training, and instruction. How does the educator form the character of an im- mature individual? How does he lead him to perfec- tion-seeking intelligence ? The first condition is a knowledge of human nature and particularly child-nature; furthermore, the educa- tor should be familiar with the laws govern- and child ing the mental and physical development of his pupil. This is learned from exact psy- chology and a careful, constant, and sympathetic study of children. 148 Herbart. 149 The special aims which the educator must bear in mind if he wants to develop and form character are: (1) to cultivate will; (2) to make this will powerful and firm; (3) to direct the will to deveiop- the good. The completion of the character proper is a matter that lies beyond the sphere of the educator; it is for the pupil to realize himself in a ma- HERBART. turer age by constantly exercising control over himself through self-formed resolutions. How pedagogic activity is to be organized and to proceed may be learned from psychology. \ . J Tr , &J Interest According to Herbart, character rests upon and resolution, and this is the result of reflection. Resolving contains two elements or two different 150 Educational Creeds. wills, as it were: an objective will growing out of inter- ests and a subjective will whose source is the judgment. The objective will may be likened to a river which flows out of the thought-circle. If its direction is to be changed you must begin at the source. The . m eans to this end is given in educative in- struction, the most faithful ally of moral guidance. The following examples may suggest thoughts as to how to counteract the incipient growth of a misdirected objective will : A boy spends his play hours in fishing, catching birds or butterflies; and he is in danger that his fine feeling, sympathetic heart will harden. Would pun- mustration. ishment direct the content of his will to nobler pursuits ? Would it thoroughly cure him? Certainly not. It would sooner increase the danger. The thoughtful educator pursues a different course. He seeks to build up a new interest in the thought-circle of the boy. He calls his attention to the beauty of flowers, explains to him their nature and various kinds, shows him how to raise plants and how to take care of them, how to press and dry them. The probabilities are that he will spend his recreation hours in cultivating plants, in botanizing, and in making a herbarium. Stimulate and develop in your pupils as many-sided as possible an interest in worthy objects. He, however, who follows only his interests without regard to their practical value or moral worth is a weak character. On the other hand, if our will is Character, constantly brought before the forum of judg- ment, if our conscience is judge and we ac- cept and follow out its verdict, on matter how hard it may seem to be, then results, as a product of two Herbart. 151 factors (objective and subjective willing), the charac- ter. The formation of the subjective willing shows differ- ent stages of development: that of choice, holding fast to the willed object, resolution, maxim or rule of life, and principle. In this forma- subjective . . will tion of character the pupil must be aided in various ways, as by habituation, good example, suitable occupation, admonition, explanation, and warning; above all, prayer is of importance here, and for the more ma- ture pupils the Bible and divine service. A character founds itself upon the foundation of inner self-dependence. In order to aid the maturing of this self-dependence by the above-named means (habituation, good example, etc.) there is but ac ^ty. one way, that of the self-activity of the pupil. Only by his own activity in thinking and willing does man attain to self-dependence. Only self-activity can produce profound knowledge and free ability. The pupil loves nothing more than self-activity because it gives him the full enjoyment of his human power and dignity. Accordingly, it is a natural as well as rational princi- ple of education to incite pupils to self-activity. Adolph Diesterweg, for this reason, rightly declared the supreme principle of instruction to be: " Lead your pupils to self-dependence through self- activity in the service of the true, the beautiful, and the good." The surest means for early character-formation or the laying of the foundation of character are educative instruction and educative guidance. Educative instruc- tion is the greater of the two : it is the principal means to the end of character-formation. (Adapted from an article by G. Froeblicb.) TWO ANALYSES OF HERBART'S DIDACTICS. I. 1. Instruction is to so form the pupil's circle of thought that right iudgment and right willing may grow out of it. 2. Its specific object is to stimulate and develop many- sided, equilibrious (harmonious), direct interest. The following interests (sides of interest) must be considered: M. emperical, I. Interests of cognitions (knowledge) < 2. speculative, ( 3. aesthetic. II. Interests of participation (associa- (J sympathetic, tion with others). |J; Jous. 3. The matter of instruction is contained in the sci- ences. The sciences are divided into two groups : historical and natu- ral sciences : (n) The matter furnished by the natural sciences serves to sup- plement, almost exclusively, the experience of the pupil; and hence supplies the sources of the interests of knowledge. (6) The matter furnished by the historical sciences serves to supplement both the pupil's experience and intercourse with others, particularly the latter; and hence, supplies the sources of the interests of participation or association with others. 152 Her barfs Didactics. 153 4. Instruction requires of the pupil attention, absorp- tion, and reflection. (Method.) matter of instruction is brought home to the child, by employing either the things themselves, or surrogates (models and pictures of the things), or merely signs or symbols (language, etc. ) (Means of Method.) 6. To bring connection and unity into the various groups of thought, all instruction must be tending to a common center. (Concentric Instruction.) 7. The procedure in the method of instruction is either analytic, or merely exhibiting (descriptive), or syn- thetic. II. 0. Willmann, one of the best authorities on Herbart's pedagogic ideas, gives the following analysis of the didactics: Instruction. 1. Its procedure is with reference to the circle of thought of the pupil either analytic, or synthetic. 2. It gives absorption, as a first stage of many-sided- ness through showing (presenting) and connecting; and reflection, as a second stage, through teaching (causing to know) and philosophizing (causing to think and apply). 154 Educational Creeds. 3. It is according to the stages of the interest intuitive (addressed to perception) and continuous (far-following); According to the stages of desire elevating and entering into reality. 4. With reference to the cognitions it develops the spirit of observation, speculation, and taste ; with reference to participation (love of and feeling of dependence upon others) it gives sympathetic participation, public spirit, religiousness. BENEKE'S PEDAGOGICAL CREED. BENEKE considers pedagogy to be applied psychology and seeks to make psychology serviceable to pedagogy. Education, as he explains it, is almighty. He assumes that it is the duty of developed reason to raise undeveloped reason up to its own plane. The re- sultant definition of education is as follows: " Eduction is the intentional exerting of an education! influence on the part of 'adults upon youth in order to elevate it to the higher stage of culture which those occupy and survey uho exert the influence" The importance with which he invests education is shown in his belief that it produces all good and all evil revealed in man. The human being, according to him, brings into the world only the capability to receive sense-im- pressions, to retain these, to connect, separate and group them according to their similarities and differences, and to elaborate them to higher mental forms, etc. The natural gifts are neither good nor evil; the educator must develop and unfold them and take care that they do not degenerate. Success of education depends upon clear conscious- ness of its effects, the Science of Education is the devel- opment of this consciousness to the highest degree. Knowledge of psychology furnishes explanations as to how an influence affects the inner development, what of this remains as an inner talent (power), how the latter expresses itself and what 155 156 Educational Creeds. may be built upon it. But pedagogy must look also to logic for support in order to determine the perfection of thinking. Further, it must consult (esthetics for the de- velopment of aesthetic taste; ethics, for the establishment of the moral development ; the philosophy of religion, for the theory of religious culture. It must also borrow advice from anatomy, physiology, and pathology. . The three real educators of man, according to Beneke, are (1) the natural environment, (2) fate, (3) human beings. Education by man is the only one E of u maa directly controllable and it has the advan- tage that it can press the other two " educa- tors " into its service, and this it must do. The three main questions which concern pedagogy and which it must answer are these: (1) what is the ob- ject and aim 'of education ? (2) What does ^ ie educator fi n ^ before the beginning of his work ? (3) What means can aid the educa- tor to lead that which he finds to the aim. HERBART AND BENEKE. A COMPARISON" OF THEIR CREEDS WITH REFERENCE TO THE THEORY OF INSTRUCTION. ACCORDING to Beneke, the business of education is the perfection of the whole of human life, both phys- ically and mentally. Its main problem, Relatlonof however, is the formation and develop- eAu ion ment of the inner faculties or powers of the instruction, soul. Under education, he therefore treats of the training of the intellect, the emotions, and the will. The function of instruction, on the other hand, is to impart a definite objective content, whereby the pupil's knowl- edge may be enriched and his skill perfected. Education and instruction are closely inter-related, and must be mutually helpful. Education prepares the way for instruction by creating in the child habits of attention. Instruction, in turn, must always be educative, at the same time. Through the imparting of ideas, instruction aids the es- tablishment of feelings and desires, hence, one of its es- sential purposes is the training of the emotions and the character. The matter of instruction must create in the pupil a "feeling of tension" ("spannendes Selbstge- fiihl," interest), which impels him to self-activity. In- struction should furnish model combinations (concepts, theorems, ideals), which become authoritative standards, producing new groups of concepts and series of ideas, in 157 158 Educational Creeds. accordance with their type. Thus, "if a pupil has clearly and distinctly grasped certain mathematical theorems, he may apply the same general perception of form, the same idea of clearness, not only to other mathe- matical problems, but to problems of life and language as well, so that nothing will henceforth satisfy him which falls short of that ideal, and he will strain all his pow- ers in striving to realize it even in these other fields." The educative influence of instruction also depends on the personality of the teacher; especially the tone of his teaching (Lehrton), as well as on the whole management of the school. Herbart recognizes three educative activities, namely, government, training, and instruction, the highest of which is training. The aim of training and E officesT e instruction lies in the future, while gov- ernment has to do with the present. It maintains order, by removing whatever may tend to dis- turb the work of training and instruction. It comprises what is generally known as school discipline. Both Beneke and Herbart declare the formation of character to be the supreme aim of all education. Both are convinced that training and instruction compared. mu st constantly aid each other, and that all instruction must be of an educative nature. Beneke does not make a separate sub-division of govern- ment, but he supplements Herbart's idea of the relation of training and instruction, by calling attention to the importance of authoritative standards (of thinking, feel- ing, and willing), which result from certain models implanted in the pupil's mind. Beneke demands that instruction should lead the pupil to higher ideals, and fills him with a desire to live up to them more and more, and to use them, according to his strength and opportunity, in working for the progress Her barf and Beneke. 159 of mankind. In connection with this general culture, or education for ideal manhood, there may be the train- ing for a special occupation or vocation in life. One study may serve both ends, The acquirement of an inner perfection may be the means for the attainment of an external pur- pose, an object of special training, likewise certain ac- complishments acquired for the purpose of professional training (a musical education, for instance) may be of importance to a general, liberal education. Herbart finds the proximate aim of instruction in the >^ producing of a many-sided, well-balanced, well-connect- ed, direct interest. He means by interest so pleasurable a feeling attending one's dealing with a subject that it will lead to continuous working at it. The many-sided- ness of interest helps to form the moral character, which is the ultimate aim of all education. The special train- ing of the pupil for the mere sake of profit or bread-win- ning is not, according to Herbart, the business of the educator. Both Herbart and Beneke, accordingly, believe the aim of instruction to consist not in knowledge or skill, but in interest; or, as Beueke calls it, the Branches of "feeling of tension." Both put general cul- and ture before special training. But Herbart e values? stated the aim of instruction and its relation to the gene- ral aim of education more pointedly and distinctly by giving an accurate and clear-cut definition of the many- sidedness of interest; the fundamental idea of his peda- gogics. Beneke, on the other hand, supplements the theory of Herbart by investigating more thoroughly the relation between special training as a preparation for a vocation in life, and as a general humane culture. Both Herbart and Beneke reject the old doctrine of formal discipline, which meant the development of the 160 Educational Creeds. so-called " faculties" of the mind imagination, memory, reasoning, etc., independent of the content of the sub- ject-matter of instruction. "Memory," for instance, says Beneke, " does not exist apart from ideas, it being merely their inner power of persistence; hence, any amount of training of this power for a certain circle of ideas will not increase, in the least, one's retentiveness in an entirely different circle of ideas." (This agrees with the results of modern psychology. See, e. g., James' Psychology, I. p. 664.) In like manner, Her- bart says: "Mathematical reasoning stays in mathe- matics, and grammatical reasoning in grammar; but the power of reasoning in any other subject must be devel- oped in its own way for that particular subject. Both, however, admit that intellectual culture ac- quired in one field of knowledge may be of use in the acquisition of knowledge in different fields. They ar- rive at this conclusion by different processes of reason- ing. Beneke, as was stated above, assumes that ideal standards attained in a particular study will lead the mind to desire the same perfection in other subjects, while Herbart bases it on the laws of reproduction, ac- cording to which ideas enter into association and help oach other. Thus, if we have thoroughly studied some particular science, and then turn to another which con- tains matter of a somewhat similar and related nature, the ideas of the old subject will be reproduced in us, and help in the acquisition of the new material. With regard to educational values, Beneke is more explicit than Herbart. Like Dr. W. T. Harris, he divides the subjects of the curriculum into Educational ,, ,,, , , . ,. . . ,. values of nve groups, although his division differs m some essential points. Beneke's groups are (1) languages, (2) history, together with morals and religion, (3) mathematics, (4) natural sciences, and (5) Her bar t and Beneke. 161 technical arts. " Every one of these groups," says Ben- eke, " has so peculiar and well-defined a didactic char- acter, that none of them can be used, not even as a passable substitute for any other." Therefore, these five groups must be represented in the courses of study of the lowest as well as of the highest classes of the school. Beneke values the study of languages higher than does Herbart, while he reduces the somewhat exaggerated estimate which the latter seems to put on mathematics. With regard to history, he differs essen- tially from Herbart, and his opinions on this study form, perhaps, the weakest part of his system. He divides history into "external" and "internal." The latter, which includes a philosophic view of the inner connec- tion of historic events, he regards as too difficult for a school study, as the pupil lacks the proper amount of introspection and experience to understand the process of human development. The only history left for the schools is, then, the " external ;" in other words, a dry conglomeration of facts, names, and dates, which is hardly of any pedagogic value. This separation is utterly artificial, and quite foreign to Herbartian ideas. Beneke's remarks, on the educational value of the natu- ral sciences, including geography, as well as on the manual arts, are equally disappointing, and cannot be compared as to depth and thoroughness with the views of Herbart on the same subjects. With regard to this question, Beneke and Herbart differ materially from each other. Beneke admits that there are certain advantages in private in- .....,, . Private vs. strnction, in so far as it can do greater jus- public tice to the individuality of the pupil, and has greater freedom in the selection of the subjects of study. But, on the other hand, class instruction gains much through the force of example, habit, and social 162 Educational Creeds. interest. The intercourse of pupils in the school is the very best preparation for life in organized society. It is interesting to note that he qualifies his remarks by re- stricting them largely to the male sex. Boys, he thinks, need the education of the family and the public school; for girls, education in the family might be sufficient. Herbart, on the contrary, regards education essen- tially as the function of the family. The class teacher is too much inclined to look upon the class as a whole, and to neglect the individual pupil. Truly educative in- struction, in its full perfection, can be given only by a tutor in the home, he believes, and well-conducted pri- vate schools are to be preferred to public institutions. From a practical point of view, as well as for other considerations, the position of Beneke would seem to be more sound than that of Herbart, who may have been largely influenced by his own experience as a tutor. From this brief comparison of the pedagogic the@ries of Beneke and Herbart, it appears that these two philo- sophical educationists are by no means op- ' posed to each other, nor do they show only a few points of contact. On the contrary, it was found that, while they materially differ on certain minor ques- tions, there is a substantial agreement concerning those matters which are fundamental. In some ways Beneke supplements and corrects Herbart's views, and from this point of view his system may be regarded as a de- velopment of Herbart's didactics. This is all the more remarkable, as the two systems are built up on entirely different psychological foundations, and it proves that Herbart's psychology is by no means the only one which can serve as the basis of a thoroughly sound and consist- ent system of education. (Adapted from O. E. Huminel's " Die Unterriclitslehre Benekes im Vergleicb zur padagogischen Didaktik Herbarts. ") Seventeen volumes, uniform in size and binding, covering all sides of educational thought History of Education, Methods of Teaching, Principles of Education, Child Study, Psychology, Manual Training, Nature Study, and School Gymnastics. Each volume is 7 1-2x5 inches in size, with elegant and durable cloth covers stamped in two colors and gold. Every book in this library is the best, or one of the best, of its kind; the greatest writers and thinkers on education are represented Parker, Joseph Payne, Herbert Spencer, Page, Quick, and others; it is a collec- tion invaluable for the thinking teacher. 1. 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