L^y LIBRARY or THE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, %eceM j^fj g ,gg3 .,80 Accessions No. H<\<^ • S" . ciiiss No. Uime ^juci^Liun ixMin oil, ijciicr- i> /iitnu- i'iiper, loiiiu, pp. ou lu A lirirf (ieography of Oiumdaua Coimty. 16mo, pp. 48, with Map 25 The School liullctin Year Book, 1885. Cloth, 16nu), int.-r leaved, pp. 160 1 00 Bassett (J. A.) Latitude, Longitude and Time, Hanilla, 16nio. pp.42 25 Beebe (Levi N.) Fiist Stepi< among Figures. Cloth, 16nio, pp. 326 100 Pupils' Editim. Cloth, I61110, pp. 140 45 Beesau {Am&.h\e) The Spirit of Educalion. Cloth, 16nio. pp. 325, and portrait 1 25 Bennett (C. VV.) National Education in Europe. Paper, 8vo, pp. 28 15 Bradford (W. II.) Thirty I'o^sUile Prohlemn in Percentage. 16ino, pp. 84 .. . 25 Blakely (VV. A.) Chart of Parliaincntary linles. rarchnient Paper, pp. 4 25 Brown (I. II.) Common Sctiool FJxaminrr (Hid Re.view. Pp. 371 1 00 Buckhani ;llenry B.) Handbook for Young Teacfiers. Cloth, IGnio, pp. 152. 75 Biigbee, (A. (i ) Exercl'^es in EnglUh Syrdax. Leatherette, 16mo, pp. 85.. 85 Key to the name. Leatherette, 16mo. pp. 86 85 Bulletin Spelling Pad-'<, 70 pajjes. Each 15 Book-Keeping Blankx. Day-Book, Journal, Ledger, Cash-Book, Sales- Hook, In sets or singly. Press-board, 7x854, pp. 28. Each 15 Compoxiiion Book. Manilla, 7x9, pp. 44 15 Claris Register. Press-board cover. Three Sizes, (a) 6x7, for terms of tweuty weeks (h) 5x7, for terms of fourteen weeks. Pp. 48 25 (c) Like (7>) but with one-half more (72) pages 85 Bnrchard ((). K.) Two Moidhs in Europe. Paper, l6mo, pp, 168 50 Biirritt (,I. L.) Penmanshi}) in Puttlic Schools. l2mo, pp. 62 and chart — 60 Canfleld (James H.) 77i\ O? THE I7EBSIT PREFACE TO THE AJlSlCAN EDITION. I venture to present an extract from the Quincy Report of 1878 and '79. "The principles of instruction that I am trying to make the foundation of all the teaching in Quincy were long since discovered and established. With a few exceptions in minor points, all the eminent w^riters upon philosophical teaching, from Bacon to Spencer, have explained these principles and urged their application in practice. There has been no famous teacher for the last two hundred years who does not owe his fame to the application of them. * * * * It may be asked, 'If these principles are so simple, and supported by such high authority, why are they not well known to the thousands of intelligent teachers in this state?' I will answer indirectly by stating a fact. Until within a short time the best standard works upon education were not to be found on the richly loaded shelves of the book-dealer in our American Athens." Happily a change has taken place in the educational world within the last few years. " I sell twenty-five books on education now to one I sold five years ago," is the report of one of the most prominent booksellers in Boston. IV PREFACE TO THE AMERICAN EDITION. All the English pedagogical works taken together would make but a comparatively small library, and of this small number very few indeed pretend to discuss at any length the fundamental principles of teaching. Methods and details of methods form the stock in trade of most pedagogical writers. These books do very little except to perpetuate a useless unending strife over methods that differ because the motives that determine them differ. The only books that radically help are those which discuss profoundly the principles and ideals of education. When 1 was a young teacher with some aspirations for a situation in Boston, that distinguished educator, J. D. Philbrick, then Superintendent of the Boston Schools, told me that there was a Science of Education founded upon mental laws, and that the way to true success in teaching could only be found by a close study of that science. I took his excellent advice, obtained a list of the best works on pedagogics and sent to England for them, as they could not be bought in this country. At the head of the list stood Tate's Philosophy of Education. In re-reading the book I recognize the fact that it has given me more substantial aid in teaching than any other English work 1 ever studied. It may be that there are better books, but just at that time it was the book for me. PREFACE TO THE AMERICAN EDITION. V Its author was a firm, undaunted believer in the Kew Education. No one can tell what the so-called New Education really is, from the very fact that many if not most of its principles and resulting methods have yet to be discovered. We stand on the border-land of dis- covery in education. If it is impossible to present any adequate idea of the New Education, the position of its disciples may be easily defined. They lelieve that there is an immense ma/rgin between the known and the unknown in education. The un- believers, on the other hand, hold that, with some possi- ble exceptions, the march of progress in education has closed with them. The followers of the New Education count in their ranks every great thinker and writer upon education from Socrates to Horace Mann, "who point to higher worlds and lead the way." Thought that penetrates hidden forces in nature and expresses itself in wood, iron and steel, has within eighty years revolutionized the civilized world; is it then too much to hope that when the same mental energy is turned upon the evolution of thought and thought power, still more wonderful changes will be made ? The New Education simply means the thinking, thoughtful teacher who has an ideal founded upon the vast possibilities of human development, an ideal far VI PREFACE TO THE AMERICAN EDITION. beyond himself, and outside tlie reach of methods he now uses. The stationary followers of the Old Education liave an ideal they can easily reach, and, having done so, the smile of perfect pedantic satisfaction freezes up on their faces, a striking manifestation of the utter com- placency to be found in limited ideals. Very few teachers can read this book without receiv- ing fresh inspiration for the highest work ever given by the Creator of the human soul to his creatures; the work of guiding the child's being towards a realization of the possibilities of growth into goodness and power. Francis W. Parkek. Cook County Normal School, Feb. 13, 1884. PREFACE This work is the result of the labour and reflection of many years; it, in fact, embodies the experience of my life as a practical educator. It contains an exposition of all the leading principles upon which my other works on education have been written; and in order to under- stand, fully, the drift and purpose of the one, the teacher must study the expositions and principles of the other. Wherever I have adopted the ideas of others, I have always, to the best of my recollection, made a due acknowledgement of the obligation. I am not acquainted with any work which really treats of the i3hilosophy of education in connection with the practice of it. Our books on education are either too purely speculative, or too exclusively em- pirical, and, so called, practical. My most earnest desire is, that this work may be the means of directing the attention of the practical edu- cator to the philosophy of education, and to the development of those systems and methods which are best calculated to establish in our schools a thoroughly sound and enlightened education. T. TATE. Otkr Stanflarfl Worh on TeacMng. Sent post-paid on receipt of the price hy the same publisher. ENGLISH. Payne's " Lectures on the Science and Art of Education." Paper, 50 cts. Cloth $1.00 Fitch's " Lectures on Education." 1.25 Smaller edition 1. 00 Herbert Spencer's "Education, Intellectual, Moral and Physical." Paper, 50 cts. Cloth 1.25 AMERICAN. De Graff's " School Room Guide.".. 1.50 Page's "Theory and Practice of Teaching." New edition, revised 1.25 Hoose's " On the Province of Methods of Teaching." 1.00 Payne's •* Short History of Education." 50 Col. Parker's " Notes and Talks on Teaching. " 1 . 00 Miss Partridge's " Quincy Methods." 1.50 ANALYSIS OF CONTENTS. PAGE Introduction - - . . . . i PART I.— ON METHODS AS APPLIED TO EDUCA- TION. CHAPTER I. Methods and Systems op Instruction. — Definition of Terms, &c. - 10 Different Methods and Systems of Education at present employed in Elementary Schools. CHAPTER II. Importance of Method - - - - 16 Method in Education, — in Art, — in Science, — in Poetry, —in Oratory, — in Nature. A distinguished Teacher must have a Method. A Glance at the History op Method - - 21 Socrates, — Euclid, — Bacon, — Newton, — Archimedes. Primary Education, — Locke, Rousseau, — Pestalozzi, — Lancaster, — Bell, — Government scheme of Educa- tion. Present Condition and Future Progress op Educa- tion ------- 27 Necessity of further Progress. Educators divided into two Classes. The Baconian Philosophy considered in relation to the Progress of Modern Education. Philosophy of Method ... - 38 Education based on an Induction of Facts. The Prin- ciples of Method considered subjectively as well as objectively. Difficulties peculiar to the Inquiry. Im- portance of Definitions. Collection of Facts. To dis- CONTENTS. tinguish between Facts and Opinions. Comparison and ClassiiScation of Facts. Relation of Cause and Effect. General Principles. Evils of implicit Confi- dence in Method. Experiments required to test Sys- tems; and "Methods. To estimate the Results of Method. CHAPTER III. To ASCERTAIN THE NATURE OP THE BeING TO BE EDUCATED. General Facts relating to the Development of the Intellectual Faculties . - - - 46 Primitive Intelligence as shown in Perception and Intuition, considered as the Basis op Development op the Intellectual Faculties - - • 68 Sensation, Reflection, and Intuition. The infant Soul con- tains implicitly all the Faculties of the developed In- telligence. Classipication of the Faculties op the Mind - 74 Four distinct Stages of Development. Classification of the Faculties of the Mind as a whole. Classification of the Intellectual Faculties. Explanatory Remarks. — First Stage, —the Perceptive Faculties.— Second Stage,— the Conceptive Representative Faculties. — Third Stage, — the Cognitive Faculties. Fourth Stage, — the Cogitative Faculties. Essential Points to be considered in relation to Method as applied to Education - - - 85 1. Nature of the Faculties. (1.) The peculiar Function of each Faculty. (2.) Mutual Relation of the Facul- ties — Relation of Succession — Relation of Assimilation — Relation of Aggregation. (3) The Faculties consid- ered with respect to their simultaneous Action and Cultivation. 2. The Subjects best adapted for the Cultivation of the different Faculties. 3. Nature of Motives acting on each class of Faculties. CONTENTS. XI 4. The Habits of Action to be established in relation to each Class of Faculties. 5. The Methods of Instruction adapted to each Class of Faculties. 6. Application of Results to the different Periods of Ed- ucation; Five Educational Periods, — Infancy, — Early Childhood,— Childhood,— Early Youth,— Youth. CHAPTER IV. General PRiNCirLEs of Teaching, or Elements of Method ....... lOO We should follow out the Intention of Nature. Princi- ple of Utility and Development. Principle of Harmo- nious Development. Instruction should be progressive. Principle of Self-development. We should appeal to the Senses. The Reasoning Faculties should be cul- tivated on an enlarged Basis. Teaching from the Simple to the Complex. Facts taught before Causes, &c. The Concrete before the Abstract. Constructive Teaching. Principles before rules. Oral and Collect- ive Teaching — Principles of School Classification. In- struction should give Pleasure — to secure the Attention —the Principle of School Routines— First or Prelimi- nary Lessons— The Infant School System — Imposition of Tasks — School Discipline. Thorough Teaching — Reproduction of Lessons — Examples and Applications — Reiterations of Lessons. Cultivation pf Habits. PART 11.— ON THE CULTIVATION OF THE INTEL- LECTUAL AND MORAL FACULTIES. CHAPTER I. Pbeliminary Notions - - - - 1Q2 Importance of Psychological Analysis in relation to Teaching. A Glance at our Childhood and Early Youth. A Cursory View of our Intellectual and Moral Faculties, as regards their mode of Development. Xll CONTENTS. CHAPTER II. CULTIVAITON OF THE INTELLECTUAL FACULTIES.— CULTIVA- TION OF THE Perceptive Faculties and of the Faculties of Primitive Judgment, Conception, Imitation, Abstraction, and Language - 175 The Senses. Knowledge derived from Experience. The Cultivation of the Senses necessarily includes the cul- tivation of the Perceptive Faculties. Certain Proper- ties detected by different Senses. Children should express in Language the Results of their Observations and Judgments. The Conceptive Faculties should be cultivated with the Perceptive Faculties. Notes- of a Lesson for cultivating the Conceptive Faculties. Definition of Terms— of Form, «&c., how given. Children should write their ideas in their own Lan- guage. CHAPTER III. Cultivation of the Intellectual Faculties, continued. — Cultivation of the Faculty of Attention - 186 Importance of Habit. Attention should be voluntary. Suggestive Teaching. Causes which tend to destroy the Habit. Fresh Motives, &c. Mode of treating Boys of different Tempers, Tastes, and Talents,— the Feeble— the Sluggish— the Volatile — the Timid — the Quick. A Digression on Thought, Language and Genius. CHAPTER IV. Cultivation of the Intellectual Faculties, continued. — Cultivation of Memory and Recollection - 206 Memory influenced by Attention, Habits, and Associa- tions. Philosophical Associations. Rules for the Cul- tivation of Memory, applied to various Subjects of Instruction, in the Course of which the Method of Contrast and Comparison, and that of picturing out Scenes, are fully explained. CONTENTS. Xlll CHAPTER V. Cultivation of the Intellectual Faculties, continued. Imagination and Taste. . . - - 247 Imagination dependent on Culture. The Picture Style of Teaching. The Imagination cultivated by Poetry, Fables, and Tales. The Sentiment of the Beautiful cultivated by Drawing and Music. CHAPTER VI Cultivation op the Intellectual Faculties, continued. —Reason and Judgment ; Wit and Invention - 354 General Principles for the Cultivation of the Reasoning Powers. Relations of Things and Events, viewed in six Distinct Aspects. How processes of Reasoning should be anal}/ zed. Sources of False Reasoning pointed out. Rules for the Conduct of the Under- standing. How to foster the Development of the In- ventive Powers. CHAPTER VII. Cultivation of the Moral Faculties - - 283 General Principles. Moral Training based on Religion. The Sentiments of Veneration and Faith. The Benev- olent Affections. Habits of Action. Influence of Ex- ample. The three Cardinal School Virtues: Truth- fulness—Honesty — Humility. Classification of Sub- jects in relation to the Cultivation of the Intellectual and Moral Faculties. PART III.— ON THE COMPARATIVE ADVANTAGES OF DIFFERENT METHODS AND SYSTEMS OF INSTRUCTION. Systems of Instruction . . . . gos The Individual and Collective Systems. Home Educa- tion. The Pupil-Teacher System. The Mixed Sys- tem. XIV C0:N TEXTS. Methods op Instruction .... 311 Synthetic and Analytic Methods. Examples of the Synthetic and Analytic Methods of Teaching. Inter- rogative or Catechetical Method. Principles and Rules common to the two Forms of Interrogation — Special Rules for Examination Questions— Special Principles and Rules relative to Suggestive Interroga- tions—The Simultaneous Method — Examples of Simul- taneous Teaching after the Catechetical Method — The Elliptical Form of Teaching — Examples. The Con- structive Method. The Illustrative Method. The Lecturing Method. Mixed Method. On the Repro- duction of Lessons in Writing. On certain Plans or Artifices for Economizing Time, &c. — An Examina- tion Lesson on Spelling — An Examination Lesson on Arithmetic. Respective Advantages of the three Great Methods of Examination. Ou the Preparation of Lessons. Notes of a Lesson. On the Periodical Ex- amination of Classes and Registration of Progress. On the Qualifications of the Schoolmaster in relation to his Professional Duties — The Teacher's Attainments — The Teacher's Capabilities and Character. Aptitude for Teaching. On School Registers for Recording the Result of Different Methods of Instruction, and also for testing the Capabilities of Teachers in relation to these Methods. General Conclusions derived from the Writer's Registration of the Results of Methods, &c. PART IV.— ON THE APPLICATION OF DIFFERENT SYSTEMS AND METHODS TO THE VARIOUS BRANCHES OF ELEMENTARY EDUCATION. The Scriptures; History; &c. - - - 347 Reading AND Spelling; Etymology; Grammar - 350 Specimen of a Reading Lesson. The Look and Say Plan — The Phonic Plan On teaching the Alphabet, &c. Grammar more fully considered — Lessons on Gram- CONTENTS. XV mar — Lessons on Composition and the Analj'Sis of Sentences. Arithmetic ------ 358 Lessons on the Addition of Fractions. Lesson on Rule of Three. Mental Arithmetic. Geography -...-. 363 Dr.^wing ------- 364 General Principles and Rules. Model Drawing— Dupuis's System. Writing ...---. 376 Pr-\ctical Geometry and Mensuration - - 377 Drawing Instruments, &c. Lessons on Geometry — Ob- servations relative to Familiar Modes of Exposition. Algebra. A' Lesson on Equations - - - 381 Mechanical and Physical Science. A Lesson on Chem- istry --..-- 383 Natural History ------ 385 PART v.— ON SCHOOL ORGANIZATION AND DIS- CIPLINE. School Buildings and Fittings. School Apparatus— List of Apparatus for General Use — Routines of Les- sons .-.-.- 389 Classification. The Pupil-Teachers - - 392 School Discipline. Order, &c. .... 395 'tjkiveesittj THE PHILOSOPHY OF EDUCATION: THE PRINCIPLES AND PRACTICE OF TEACHING. INTRODUCTION. As man is not only a physical, but also a thinking and an accountable being, so therefore education, in its com- prehensive sense, may be viewed in three aspects — that is, in relation to our pbysicial, intellectual, and moral nature. I here propose to consider the last two depart- ments of education; to determine, if possible, the best methods whereby our nature may be educated intellect- ually and morally. The end of all education should be, to promote man's happiness, not only during his present transitory existence, but throughout the eternity which is to follow. The principal means of education in this country are — school instruction, books, public lectures and discourses, and exhibitions of works of science and art. But the efficiency of all the popular means of education are dependent upon, and in fact inseparably connected with, A *Z PHILOSOPHY OF EDUCATION. the primary instruction of the schoolroom. The treas- ures of our literature and science are inaccessible to him who has not been taught the first rudiments of language. Hence it is, that the brilliant productions of the poetic genius, or the gigantic creations of the science of any particular age, afford us no data for estimating the state of education among the mass of the people of that age. On this subject John Forster eloquently observes: — "Long after the brilliant show of talent, and the creation of literary supplies for the national use, in the early part of the last century, the deplorable mental condition of the people remained in no very great degree altered. To pass from beholding that bright and sumptuous display in order to see what there was corresponding to it in the subsequent state of the popular cultivation, is like going out from some magnificent apartment, with its lustres, music, refections, and assemblage of elegant personages, to be beset by beggers in the gloom and cold of a winter night." The schoolmaster must begin the work of education. The subject of method, therefore, should be treated chiefly in relation to the work of the schoolmaster. Education is a Science as well as an Art. Practical teachers, as well as the public generally, had, until recently, regarded education more as an art than as a science, consisting merely of a few arbitrary and empirical rules which may be modified or altered to suit the tastes and attainments of the teacher, or to answer the opinions and circumstances of the managers of schools. This unfortunate prejudice has, no doubt, had itB origin, to a great extent, in the fact that the ETC. 3 greater portion of the teachers were unfit for their office. Few minds were capable of viewing education apart from its miserable and unworthy representatives, or dis- sociating it from the operation of the schools which came within the sphere of their own immediate observation. Twenty years ago, anybody was considered good enough for a schoolmaster. If a tradesman failed in business, he was thought to be learned enough for a schoolmaster; a feeble, sickly youth, who was not con- sidered strong enough to practise any regular trade, was thought to be sufficiently qualified to undertake the duties of school keeping; if a mechanic happened to get a limb fractured he would, as a matter of course, save himself from starvation by opening a school; when a man who had seen better days applied to the parish officers for out-door relief, they gravely debated the question whether it was more expedient to send him to the quary to break stones, or to confer upon him the office of parish schoolmaster.* Such was the low esti- mate formed of the qualifications requisite for a school- master. This state of things, doubtless, tended to re- tard the progress of education both as a science and an art, for the odium attached to the office, as well as the insufficiency of the remuneration, prevented properly qualified persons from undertaking the duties. But within the last fifteen years, a change in public opinion has been gradually taking place : the working and middle-classes have been led to see the value of a sound elementary education, and thereby to estimate more * In the towns of Newcastle and (xateshead, twenty-flve years ago, two schoolmasters had wooden legs,— one had a cork leg, two went upon crutches, two were little better than deformed dwarfs, and not a few were '♦ sticklt ministers " and broken-down tradesmen. 4 PHILOSOPHY OF EDUCATION. highly the difficulties and importaDce of the duties of the common schoolmaster. This salutary change is in a great measure due to the government schemes of edu- cation. I confidently hope that the day is not distant when the force of public opinion will elevate education into the rank of a recognized science. Elementary education has two great ends: 1. To de- velop the intellectual and moral faculties; or, in other words, to develop the faculties of the perfect man; 2. To communicate to the pupil that sort of knowledge which is most likely to be useful to him in the sphere of life which Providence has assigned him. The science of education must be based upon the nature of the being to be educated; that is to say, upon the laws which govern the development of the intellectual and moral faculties. These laws may be determined as well by observation as by psychological analysis. Every faculty of our nature has its proper period and peculiar mode of development. Now the philosophical educator will always suit his methods of instruction to the age of his pupils, or rather to the state of the intellectual and moral development of the faculties of his pupils; and he will also administer to them that intellectual aliment, both as to kind and degree, which is best calculated to promote the growth of the faculties at their different stages of development. Method, and the piinciples of method, therefore, neces- sarily become to him distinct and all-important matters of inquiry. A good teacher, before laying down any plans for the management of his school, makes himself acquainted with the tempers, habits, capabilities, and attainments of EDUCATION AS A SCIENCE, ETC. 5 his pupils. He then asks himself the two great ques- tions; — What shall I teach? How shall I teach? He is well aware that these questions cannot be satisfac- torily answered without a thorough knowledge of the nature of the beings whom he has to teach, as well as a comprehensive acquaintance with the various methods whereby instruction may be communicated. All artificial and unnatural methods of instruction, violating the laws of mind, necessarily demand the use of unhealthful stimulants. There is always a want of organization in schools where the plans and methods of the master are framed without any regard to the con- struction of the human mind, or the peculiar tempers, tastes, and capabilities of the pupils: such masters always blame their pupils for the failures of their system, but never seem to be aware that the excellence of a system depends upon its adaptation to the intellectual and moral conditions of these pupils. A teacher who is ignorant of human nature, is like an engineer who sets to work to erect a bridge before he has made him- self acquainted with the properties of the material em- ployed in the structure; when his work is completed, he finds, perhaps, that the material is ruptured by the pressure, or by the expansion due to heat; it is true, he might console himself with the reflection that his plan would have been excellent if it had not been for the peculiar properties of the material. A wise en- gineer would first make himself acquainted with the nature and properties of his material, and then, knowing the difficulties which he would have to encounter, he would provide against them accordingly. In like manner the teacher who is thoroughly acquainted with the laws 6 PHILOSOPHY OF EDUCA.TTON. regulating the juvenile mind, suits his methods of in- struction to the soul which he has to rear, and, fully foreseeing the difficulties which he has to encounter, lays his plans accordingly, — he is quite prepaied to supply strength to what may be weak, and to introduce a self -corrective agency to meet any ebullitions of temper or waywardness of disposition. Our ignorance of mental philosophy has hitherto led us into various erroneous methods and systems of edu- cation. The teacher showed an ignorance of the tastes and capabilities of the infant mind, when he overtasked his juvenile pupils with the dull, dry detail of technical learning, in the place of communicating to them that kind of knowledge which is best calculated to foster the deveh)pment of their perceptive and observing faculties. Teachers, in their ignorance, at one time believed that the first object of primary instruction is to cultivate the verbal memory of their pupils, when, in fact, the verbal memory is one of the few faculties of our nature which need no cultivation. This erroneous opinion led to the adoption of the task system. In accordance with this system, little boys had to commit to memory frightful colunms of spelling, long paragraphs of geography, ab- stract grammatical definitions, declensions of nouns, and conjugations of verbs. The debasing system of rewards and punishments formed a necessary adjunct to this un- natural system of instruction. In this system the cultivation of the reasoning powers was entirely disregarded, and the aids of philosophical memory, or the faculty <>f M«!>^<>cintioji, wore nov<'r called in requisition. The same erroneous opinion of human nature led to EDUCATION AS A SCIENCE, ETC. 7 the adoption of the rule and rote system of instruction, whereby the pupil had to work out results by formulas and dogmas rather than by the independent and health- ful exercise of his own reasoning powers. For example, in the teaching of arithmetic and practical geometry, the pupil was required to work out his problems by a rule appealing to his memory and simple apprehension, rather than by the exercise of his own reasoning powers. These unnatural methods of instruction have given rise to our debasing systems of discipline. Under a proper system of teaching, children rarely require any other motive to attention than the pleasure which the acquisition of knowledge affords them ; but what natural motive can induce a child to study what is above his capacity, or to commit to memory what he cannot comprehend ? hence the teacher's only resource was to act upon the vanity or upon the fear of his pupils. The art of education consists in the practice of its principles. It stands in the same relation to the science of education, that any other art does to the scientific principles of that art. A man may be thoroughly ac- quainted with tiie principles of any particular art, with- out being an adept in the practice of it ; in order to become this, he must practise the art until he has ac- quired the requisite amount of tact and skill. At the same time, it must be observed, that the highest amount of skill can only be obtained by a thorough knowledge of the principles of the art, combined with the constant application of these principles. Thus, for example, a man may be thoroughly acquainted with the principles of architectural construction, and yet he may not be able to frame a door or to build a shed. In like manner a 8 PHILOSOPHY OF EDUCATION. raan may be intimately acquainted with all the leading principles of education, and yet, at the same time, he may not be able to give efficient instruction to a class of little boys. It is a lamentable error to suppose that if a man has knowledge he must necessarily possess the art of communicating that knowledge. In order that a man may become a good teacher, he must not only be thor- oughly acquainted with the various branches of element- ary education, and intimately acquainted with the great leading scientific principles of education, but he must also acquire that tact and skill in the management of numbers and classes, and that fluency of diction, power of illustration, and facility of availing himself of con- tingent circumstances, which can only be attained by long practice and patient study. The art of education, without a due regard to its sci- ence, degenerates into empiricism ; and the science, without the practice of the art, becomes little better than a code of barren abstractions without the vital principle of development. The philosophy of education should go hand in hand with the practice of it ; — every step of advance taken by the one, should be followed by a corresponding pro- gress of the other ; philosophy should suggest plans and theories, art should test them and try them ; phil- osophy should build up a structure of general principles and rules ; art should supply the facts — the materials — by which, and upon which, the structure should be reared. Division of the Subject. The philosophy of education may be divided into five parts ; — DIVISION OF THE SUBJECT. 9 1. On method, as applied to education. 2. On the cultivation of the intellectual and moral faculties. 3. On the comparative advantages of different systems and methods of education. 4. On the application of different systems and methods to the various branches of elementary education. 5. On school organization and discipline. 10 PHILOSOPHY OF EDUCA.TION. Part I. ON METHOD AS APPLIED TO EDUCATION. CHAPTER I. METHODS ANn SYSTEMS OF INSTRUCTK »N.— DEFINITION OF TERMS, ETC. Different Methods and Systems of Education at present em- ployed in Elementary Schools, By a method of education is meant the peculiar way in which a subject is taught ; and by a system is meant those peculiar arrangements, both as to organization and modes of teaching, whereby instruction generally may be given to the pupils of a school. A system is the de- velopment of a method applied to certain objects. A difference of opinion at present exists relative to the use of the terra method as applied to education. Ac- cording to some writers, method simply means the way in which a subject of instruction may be treated ; so that there are only two methods of education, namely, Synthesis and Analysis. Such a restrictive use of the term is not only based on a contracted view of the sub- ject, but it does not give the entire conception usually associated with the term. We use the term in a more comprehensive sense : A method of teaching compre- hends, not merely the way in which the subject-matter is treated, but also the means, artifices, forms of expres- sion, &c., that are employed in conveying instruction to a class of children in a common school. SYNTHESIS AND ANALYSIS. 11 There are two great methods whereby a subject may be treated, viz., Synthesis and Analysis. By the former method we put the parts of a subject together ; by the hitter we take the subject-matter to pieces. The method of synthesis is the method of induction, whereby we ascend step by step from the simple to the complex — from the particular to the general formula ; the meth- od of analysis is the method of deduction, whereby we descend from the abstract principle to the various particular forms which it comprehends. As both meth- ods are employed in the discovery of truth, so both methods may be used in the exposition of truth. The expenraeutalist may show the composition of water syn- thetically by holding a tumbler over the flame of a can- dle (or a flame of hydrogen gas), at the same time call- m^ attention to the moisture that is formed on the interior surface of the glass; or, more exactly, by de- tonating, by means of the electric spark, the proper mixture of hydrogen and oxygen; in these experiments water is formed by the combination of its elements: — he may also show the composition of water analytically by means of the galvanic battery; in this case the poles of the battery analyze or decompose the water, that is, reduce it to its simple elements, the hydrogen being at- tracted by the one pole, and the oxygen by the other. We teach arithmetic deductively, or analytically, when we lay down a general rule and require our pupils to work out the particular example by tliat rule, for in this case we proceed from the general formula to the particu- lar example — from, the abstract princi})le to its special application. On the contrary, we teach arithmetic in- ductively, or synthetically, when we proceed at once to 12 PHILOSOPHY OF EDUCATION. work out, step by step, the particular example from cer- tain simple, known elementary principles, without taking any abstract rule for granted; in this case the pupils are led to prove the rule for themselves. The method of synthesis is constructive; by this method the skilful teacher builds up thought upon thought — truth upon truth — until his pupils have, almost insensibly, acquired a vast accumulation of knowledge. I have called the method of synthesis a constructive METHOD, because it is analogous to the way in which mechanical contrivances are completed: thus, the ingenious builder lays stone upon stone, beam upon beam, until he has reared a vast and beautiful structure, exciting, it may be, the wonder and admiration of the world: in this way, too, surprising results may be at- tained in education. Synthesis may be called a suggestive method of in- stniction; because it is progressive, proceeding, step by step, from the known to the unknown, — from the simple to the complex. By far the larger number of the great physical laws of nature were discovered by induction, and even many of our leading mathematical theorems and principles were established by the same process. Now if it be true (and we hive reason to believe that it is true; that the method of exposition should correspond to the method of discovery, it follows that the method of induction or synthesis is, for the most part, the more eligible for primary instruction. At the same time, it must be observed, that there are certain subjects of knowledge which may be efficiently taught by the method of analy- DIFFERENT METHODS AND SYSTEMS. 13 sis. But this subject will hereafter receive a more ade- quate consideration. The methods of synthesis and analysis may be either DEMONSTRATIVE or DOGMATIC. When the teacher uses the former method of communicating knowledge, he addresses the observing and reasoning faculties of his pupils, who believe in what is communicated to them because they see it to be true, or because they can prove it to be true. On the contrary, when he uses the latter method, he appeals to the memory and faith of his pupils, who, in this case, believe in what is communicated to them simply on the testimony of their teacher — they believe because their teacher says so. Demonstrative teaching embraces all those plans and artifices whereby a knowledge of principles may be more or less completely communicated to the pupils: on the other hand, dogmatic teaching gives rules and formula in the place of principles and investigations. Besides these general methods of teaching, there are certain modes or artifices which have regard to the peculiar form or way in which the knowledge is com- municated. The INTERROGATIVE method teaches by question and answer; it may be used simply for repro- ducing the knowledge which has been already commu- nicated to the pupil, or it may be used in connection with the principle of suggestion; and then it assumes the form of an important instrument of intellectual culture, which may be called the suggestive method of inter- rogation. "^rhe elliptical form of instruction requires the pupils to fill up certain blanks or ellipses, which the teacher intentionally leaves in hi^ dts^o.ufse. This form of uiriVEEsiTr) 14 PHILOSOPHY OF EDUCATION. instruction is only a slight modification of the sug- gestive method already mentioned. In both methods the teacher and his pupils carry on a sort of tete a tete lecture. In the SIMULTANEOUS form of instruction, the pupils are supposed to give simultaneous responses to the teacher's questions or suggestions. This simple arti- fice has been sometimes confounded with the collective system of instruction, with which it is necessarily asso- ciated. The ILLUSTRATIVE METHOD consists in conveying a knowledge of abstruse things, or even ordinary things, by means of illustrations addressed to the senses or to the imagination of the learner. The LECTURING METHOD cousists in giving the lesson in the form of a continuous lecture, all questions on the subject of the lesson being deferred until it is finished. A combination of any of these methods may be called a MIXED METHOD of instruction. The methogl generally employed by good elementary teachers, as shall be hereafter shown, is generally a combination of the demonstrative and the synthetic, while that which is usually adopted by sluggish and careless masters is a combination of the dogmatic and the analytic. There are two leading systems of teaching at present in use which have regard to number or organization; the one may be called the collective system of teach- ing, which consists in the teaching of a considerable number at one time; the other the individual system of teaching, which consists in the teaching of one pupil at a time. DIFFERENT METHODS AND SYSTEMS. 16 The PUPIL TEACHER System, which has been recently introduced into this country, may be regarded as forming an essential part of the collective system of teaching as it is at present practised in our elementary schools. The pupil teachers are supposed to follow the same plan of teaching as their master, and under his supervision. The MONITORIAL SYSTEM of Lancaster and Bell contains the essential features of the system of pupil teachers; but with this important difference, that whilst the MONITOR is merely a boy selected by the master from the pupils in his school, the pupil teacher is a paid official recognized by her Majesty's Inspectors, and who is time after time examined by them, and receives regular instruction from the master in all the duties of school keeping, with the view of fittting him for the discharge of his immediate duties, and also with the view of pre- paring him for the profession of schoolmaster. The system of home instruction consists in assign- ing to the pupils certain lessons or exercises to be studied or completed at home. This system may be combined with either of the two leading systems just described. The tripartite system, first proposed by Professor Moseley, has received its name from the architectural arrangements of the school. In this system the school- room is divided into three apartments, in one of which the master is supposed to teach all the classes in rotation. The leading object of this plan. is to bring all the chil- dren in the school under the direct instruction of the master, and to counteract undue noise. A combination of any of these systems may be called a MIXED system of instruction. 16 PHILOSOPHY OF EDUCATION. The word method signifies a way of transit, or the way of passing from one thing to another. According to the philosophical acceptation of the term it compre- hends the idea of unity, associated with progression, or a succession of uniform sequences. To arrive at this idea, we must exercise the faculties of abstraction, by which we view many things as one; by which we con- template not facts only, but likewise the relations of facts; by which we recognize the law which connects these relations. The comparative advantages and defects of the dif- ferent methods and systems of teaching will be hereafter more fully considered. CHAP. II. IMPORTANCE OF METHOD.— HISTORY OF METHOD.— PRESENT CONDITION AND FUTURE PROGRESS OF EDUCATION.— PHILOSOPHY OF METHOD. Importance of Method. There is method in Education. It is a dangerous error to suppose that any man may teach if he has only the requisite amount of attainments. Can it be possible that the art of training and developing the various faculties, emotions, and principles of an immortal and accountable soul is the only art which we have by in- tuition? Is the destiny of the noblest creation of God, the immaterial, the thinking, the undying principle, fashioned after His own image, to be intrusted to the care of him who has never studied the vast and complex relations of the task which he undertakes, and who, in IMPORTANCE OP METHOD. 17 the impious pride of self-sufficiency, despises the accu- mulated experience of those who have spent their lives in the work of teaching, and have borne unmistakable testimony to the difficulties which have beset them at every step in the discharge of their sacred duties? There is method in Art: the builder and the ma- chinist, the manufacturer, the sculptor, the painter, all complete their constructions and fabrications on the principles and methods which embody the results of vast experience, and which have been their constant study for the whole period of their lives. There is method in Science: there was a want of method when the philosophers of antiquity affirmed, that air and water were elementary bodies, that the celestial bodies moved in circles, of which the earth occupied the center, and that water rose in the barrel of the common pump from nature's horror of a vacuum; and even in more recent times, the same want of method was shown when Des- cartes affirmed that the planetary bodies floated in a whirlpool of ether. Who can estimate the marvellous change that has been effected by the philosophy of method first proposed by Bacon ? Nature, as if at the touch of the enchanter's wand, yielded up her treasures of knowledge; physical science, after the death-like slumber of ages, sprung into vigorous existence; and even in our own time, under the guidance of this method, mind has achieved the most despotic dominion over matter; new sciences have been born, far surpassing in utility, beauty, and gran- deur all that had been accumulated throughout the past history of humanity. Poetry has its method. So remarkable is this method 18 PIliLOSOPHY OF EDUCATiOiJ. that a great poet will by a single word — an idea — open to us a whole series of relations and conditions. In speaking of the style of Shakespeare, Coleridge ob- serves: — " Who, like him, could so methodically suit the very flow and tone of discourse to characters lying so widely apart, in rank and habits and peculiarities, as Holoferiies and Queon Katherine, Falstaff and Lear ? When we compare the pure English style of Shakespeare with that of the very best writers of his day, we stand astonished at the method by which he was directed in the choice of those words and idioms, which are as fresh now as in their first bloom ; nay, which are at the present moment at once more energetic, more expressive, more natural, and more elegant than those of the happiest and most admired living speakers or writers." There is method in Oratory. Who has not felt the power of Oratory ? Whence does this power proceed ? An eloquent public speaker must always possess method; he may be without technical learning, and even without those refinements of manner and diction which usually constitute a gentleman; he may be without the prestige of rank, or wealth, or party, and even without those conventional literary or scientific titles which are too often accepted as the badges of superior intellect, or as the j)a8sport8 to distinction and power; yet there is something in him which rises superior to all these dis- advantages, — there is method, based u})on a knowledge of the tastes and ruling passions of his audience, which charms and captivates them by its beauty, convinces them by its exactness and transparency, and overawes them by its depth and power. Beginning with a simple detail of facts, ho generalizes, abstracts and draws con- IMPORTANCE OF METHOD. 19 elusions; with a constant regard to the final impression which he wishes to produce, he sees from the first what will be the efi^ect of each successive step; all nature is tasked to supply him with illustrations and analogies, — youthful Spring with his freshness and his song, or golden Autumn with her stores of fruit and her sheaves of corn, — lovely Summer with her flowers and her sun- light, or stern Winter with his storms and his shadows, — the air, the earth, the ocean, the dread magnificence of heaven, — all may be invoked to lend power and en- chantment to his discourse; from the world about him he rises to the world of thought — from the visible to the invisible — and there finds new materials for argument and persuasion; having connected argument with argu- ment, and added illustration to illustration, he sums up the accumulated evidence, in order that it may fall with the greatest effect upon the minds of his audience, and that they may be convinced of the truth of the lead- ing conception, the end and aim of his discourse. In all this there is unity with variety, but it is the variety which arises out of unity, — this all-prevading idea constitutes the method. The intellectual faculties which characterize the oratory are very nearly allied to those which are requisite for forming the distinguished teacher. Everything in nature has its peculiar method of devel- opment; and this development may in almost every case, be aided and improved by the judicious application of the principles of this method. A grain of corn when thrown into the soil will germinate, and grow, and bud, and ripen into seed, without the special care of man; but all these processes would be very much aided and 20 PHILOSOPHY OP EDUCATION. improved by the application of the methods which agri- cultural chemistry has discovered. Just so it is with the germ of intelligence — the immaterial principle. It seeks to develop itself — it germinates, grows, and blossoms, and ripens and expands into developed intelligence, with out the application of any artificial means; but the in- telligence thus developed without the aid of culture, is that of the savage, not that of the perfect man, capable of acting and thinking in accordance with reason, and in conformity with the law of his Creator. It is true, that many men are born with a predilection for teaching, and seem to qualify themselves for the dis- charge of its duties with comparatively little study or reflection. Such teachers are exceptions to the rule; and there can be little doubt, that even they would have been vastly benefited by a study of method as applied to teach- ing. It is said that Pascal was born a Geometer, but it is very questionable whether we should ever have heard his name, had his genius not been cultivated and de- veloped by a systematic course of instruction. So it is with education: the most distinguished teachers are to be found among those who have shown a predilection for the work, and whose minds have been at the same time constantly directed to a study of methods of edu- cation. / Before a man can become a distinguished teacher he must have a method : all that he has seen, or experienced, or read, relative to the nature of the being to be edu- cated, must have assumed the form of a substantial unity — an idea — an all-pervading law which connects relations apparently the most dissimilar, and gives one- nesp and harmony to the most heterogeneous mass of HISTORY OF METHOD. 21 facts and conditions, — which constitutes his exponent of the past, and the symbol of the calculus which is to enable him to solve every problem which may arise in the future, — which involves all his past experience, and out of which he must evolve his conduct in the future, — which sheds a light over the path that lies behind him, and becomes the polar star to guide him in his voyage on the dark and shoreless ocean that lies before him. No language can adequately transmit that idea — that method — to other minds; for it is in him merely the key-note with which is associated a long train of har- monious combinations and sequences: it exists in him alone, and for him alone, and before others can stand on the same vantage ground with him, they must give the same patient attention to the philosophy of method, and submit themselves to the same strict, process of self- examination and self-development. We repeat that no man ever yet became a great teacher until method had become to him a living and substan- tial reality. This method may, and no doubt does, as- sume forms suited to the intellectual and moral qualities of each individual, even accommodating itself to the idiosyncrasy of each, and the varying external condi- tions and circumstances of each; but the grand features of this method, like the elements of our physical and moral constitution, wull be the same in all. A Glance at the History of Method. Socrates was not a great geometer, but he gave a method of plilosophy which determined the character of the schools of antiquity; and the catechetical form in which he gave his instruction has been distinguished by 22 PHILOSOPHY OF EDUCATION. his name. Euclid probably never discovered a single proposition of geometry; but he gave us the idea and form of a synthetic method which has shed an effulgence of light on the path of philosophy, and which will en- dure as long as there is a human soul to think, a science to be cultivated, or a law of nature to be discovered. Bacon made no discovery in mathematics, nor did he add one fact to our stock of physical knowledge; but he effected a greater purpose — he gave us the method of universal philosophy: what the one did for a single de- partment of abstract science, the other achieved for universal knowledge. Newton was a great discoverer in every department of mathematical and physical sci- ence; but he also gave us, in his " Principia," the em- bodiment of a synthetic method of teaching mixed mathematics which will probably co-exist with the law of gravitation itself. Archimedes was also a great dis- coverer, but, in a certain sense, his genius died with him; he did nothing to perpetuate himself, for he had no recognized method, and bequeathed to posterity no creative principle beyond the isolated facts and proposi- tions which he discovered; his mind was essentially individual, and his contempt for concrete science, which his mind was eminently qualified to adorn, caused the secret of his power to die with him. But let us consider the history of method iin>i\' strictly in relation to primary education. The ancient classical nations did nothing for primary education; they established splendid schools of philos- ophy for their young men, but left the instruction of their children to slaves, or neglected it altogethei'; and during tlw ?Mi,) and the geometry of the ancients formed the great sub- jects of -school instruction; whilst practical science, general knowledge, and nearly all those subjects which bear directly upon the interests of man as an active and thinking agent, were virtually ignored. This system even failed to accomplish the contracted end which it had in view. It professed to exercise and strengthen the intellectual faculties; but the only faculty which it could strengthen, admitting that to be possible, was memory. To remember, recite, and admire what the ancients had done, was the highest end which it pro- posed. It therefore produced a race of slavish imitators, and not a race of original, vigorous, and practical think- ers. Facts, and the induction of facts, were deemed unworthy of their platonic philosophy. Now Bacon had taught, in his philosophy, that the powers of memory can do little towards the advance- ment of science. He ranks the achievements of memory with the exhibitions of the mountebank: "The two per- formances are of much the same sort. The one is an abuse of the powers of the body; the other is an abuse of the powers of the mind. Both may excite our won- der; but neither is entitled to our respect." Locke, the great metaphysician, also advocated the same view at a subsequent period. Even geometry was considered to suffer a degradation whenever its abstract demonstrations were combined with more simple modes of exposition, or whenever it was applied to the business of life, — its essential and eternal truths were vitiated by the association. This 32 PHILOSOPHY OF EDUCATION. opinion obtains very largely amongst a certain class of educators, even at the present day. "Take care; do not simplify your geometry; do not attempt to give your children any common-sense definitions of geo- metrical truths, otherwise you will vitiate the eternal, immutable truths of geometry. You must begin with Euclid, and you must end with Euclid." Men that speak loudly in praise of Bacon as the father of modern philosophy, will never tell you about this, — that he exposed the systems of education which they are now employing in the education of the people of this country. Now Bacon taught that geometry, as well as all the other branches of mathematics, was valuable as a branch of education only so far as it contributed to supply the wants of society; and that such practical applications, so far from detracting from the discipline which it gave the mind, in reality made that discipline more forcible and complete. He viewed mathematics as an instrument for the extension of art and science, and considered that it should be studied, not as an end, but as a means to an end, without which the study would be, in a great meas- ure, fruitless. In short, like the platonic philosophy, the aim of the education of these schools was to raise man above the influence of vulgar wants. The principle of utility and })rogre8s would lead us to conclude that the education of the boy should fit and prepare him for discharging the duties of the man. But what did the collegiate-trained, aristocratic teacher care for the duties and interests of the carpenter, the wheel- wright, the engine-V>uilder, or the scientific experiment- alist ? Their pursuits were altogether foreign to his THE BACONIA.N PHILOSOPHY. 33 education and association; of their habits of thought he knew nothing, and cared as little; between him and them there was an impassable gulf ; he lived in a quies- cent world of abstractions; they lived in a world of action and progress. How could the one become the educator of the other ? These remarks, made in reference to the middle and higher class schools, will apply, with only a slight mod- ification, to the primary schools of the corresponding period. Interest quickens man's perceptions and invigorates his intellectual powers. The artisan works out his results chiefly by inductive processes of reasoning,because he finds the highest degree of certainty, and a sufficient degree of exactness in the method, and performs his inductions well and carefully, for his interest depends upon his deductions. Hence it was, that whilst phi- losophy remained stationary, the arts went on pro- gressing. Bacon observed this, and therefore recom- mended the inductive process for the advancement of philosophy. What the artisans had performed success- fully on a limited scale, he proposed to employ in the advancement of universal science. Thus Bacon's phi- losophy was harrowed from the worhhop; and what he did for science, we may now do for education; we must har- row from the workshop by adopting in our schools, more or less, those processes of reasoning, habits of thought, and peculiar modes of self-instruction, employed by our practical men. If the great intellect of Bacon could condescend to borrow from the workshop, why should we be ashamed of borrowing from the same source ? But yet so it is. B 34 PHILOSOPHY OF EDUCATION. Talk to some of our professional men — it may be our lawyers, or our clergymen — about borrowing ideas, and taking hints from the working man, they would smile at you with contempt, and say, " Can men who have had a college education obtain any information from persons of the lowly class, whose education has been altogether neglected?" Ay, neglected, to be sure; neglected so far as the schools in which these men had been placed in their childhood are considered; but those workmen, when they left the schools, had to commence a course of self-education; and that self-education has had its results; that self -education makes the English workman what he is, — the piide of his country, the most skilful artisan of the world. Notwithstanding all that has been done for primary education within the last twenty years, we are still very far from having realized the Baconian condition of utility and progress. We are still under the dominion of abstract theories of education consecrated by great names, and sanctioned and patronized by great societies. That philosophy is false, and not less hateful than it is false, which arrests the progress of knowledge by extinguishing the spirit of inquiry and destroying freedom of thought and action. The platonic philosophy enslaved the human mind for two thousand years, and during that long period it pro- duced no fruit, because it superseded inductive processes of inquiry by laying down theoretic dogmas and sublime philosophic fictions. Bacon emancipated the human mind from this degrading and enfeebling slavery. He showed mankind that the inductive method would lead them to new truths, far exceeding in brilliancy and util- THE BACONIAN PHILOSOPHY. 35 ity anything which the ancient gods of philosophy, whom the people had blindly worshiped, had ever dis- covered. It is not necessary to say how" wonderfully this prediction has been fulfilled. Thus our platonic theories of education must one day fall before the induc- tive method of inquiry. In moral questions there is, perhaps, no such thing as absolute certainty. A question in education cannot be solved in the same manner as a problem in geometry. Moral evidence has little in common with mathematical evidence; and the inductive method of research is in many respects widely different from the analytic method, by which we demonstrate abstract truths. In the induc- tive sciences, such as education, we seem only to approx- imate to truth. We can hardly ever say that we have actually arrived at the absolute truth; but we approach nearer and nearer to it, according as we extend our inductive processes. The truth lies in the asymptote of a curve, towards which we are always approaching, but which we may never absolutely reach. At the same time our approximations have always the stamp of util- ity, for they are practically true; that is, they are true as far as the actual wants of society are concerned, The inductive method never puts a stop to further inquiry; it is itself progressive, and recognizes the principle of progress. It gives no divine revelation; on the contrary, it appeals to reason, and challenges further inquiry. Watt concluded, from his experiments, that the sum of the latent and sensible heat of steam was a constant quantity: this, although not found by subsequent exper- imentalists to be strictly true, was nevertheless a grand approximation to truth, which conducted him to those 36 PHILOSOPHY OF EDUCATION. j magnificent inventions which have changed the des- tinies of the world. The same spirit should be adopted in relation to the development of our methods of edu- ^ cation. i The inductive method has already done something for the progress of education, but its importance is not yet i sufficiently acknowledged or understood. We are still J j the slaves of conventional forms and prescriptive theo- L j ries; we are still too much overawed and cowed into ser- / | vility by high-sounding names, and by the dogmas of | self-serving professions and ambitious societies. The | progress which we have made should be taken as the guarantee of further advancement. The positions we j have gained must form the base of operations for still * greater achievements. When I was a boy, geography was taught by rote; now it is taught much more efficiently by means of maps. j Arithmetic was imperfectly taught by rules; now it is ■ admirably taught by an exposition of principles; but there are still many important branches of knowledge ] very imperfectly taught by the rule and rote system. j We must not abandon the hope of future ^oyr^w. With I respect to utility^ there is much which remains to be ac- \ i complished. We want a greater enlargement of the f \ basis of intellectual and moral development, suited to the f j advanced state of our arts and sciences. The rich stores ^ \ of scientific knowledge, which we now possess, should be more thoroughly and systematically taught in our ; schools, not only as a means of intellectual and moral culture, but also on account of their immediate bearing on the business of life. Let us enter an elementary school in one of our manu- I A PROVINCIAL ELEMENTARY SCHOOL. 37 facturiiig cities. The master still teaches on the old individual system. There is no blackboard, or any kind of experimental apparatus. There are maps, it is true, hanging on the walls, but they seem to have been little used, for they are covered with dust. The school is not noisy, but there is the constant chatter and titter of idleness and frolic. There is discipline of a certain kind, but it is not moral discipline. The boys are sons of mechanics and factory laborers, and, like their par- ents, they will have to enter the workshop or the fac- tory. They are sharp, intelligent-looking boys, and seem capable of learning anything wliich the schoolmaster might attempt to teach them, or of taking advantage of his occasional fits of listlessness and abstraction; but they are idle, and feel no interest in their tasks. The dull routine of reading, writing, and arithmetic, with catechisms and formularies, goes on day after day. The school is characterized neither by utility nor by progress. The master sits at his desk, apparently in a deep " brown study;" let us look over his shoulder and see what he is doing. He is studying the ancient geometry, and on one side of his desk are some books of the ancient clas- sical authors. He is a scholar and a mathematician. What a misdirection of intellect ! What fruit has his knowledge yielded him ? or what advantage has it been to the pupils of his school? It has been a negation; or rather, it has been worse than a negation. These boys want to be taught in matters relating to the employments which they will soon have to follow. The master is idle, as a teacher, because the boys will not attend to his abstract prelections; and the boys are idle because the master will not instruct them in those things which form 38 PHILOSOPHY OF EDUCATION. : the subjects of their every-day associations. The school- ! house is surrounded by engines, by factories, by chemical works, and by workshops of all sorts. What a mine of intellectual wealth lies at his very door available for ; school instruction ! How useful he might become ! He ; might fill these hives of industry with a far more in- | telligent and skilful class of operatives, and thereby not ' only advance the interests of the operatives themselves, ? but contribute to the productive resources of his country. ! Hark ! the steam whistle ! He starts as a man aroused I from his slumber. Does that sound awaken some useful ; trains of association ? The steam-engine, with its huge i train of cars, passengers, and merchandise, starts on its j winged course. It goes onward and onward, and woe ; betide the thing that obstructs its progress. It rolls from i hamlet to hamlet, and from city to city, carrying with it i the products of industry and intelligence. Type of the age of progress ! has the shrill blast of thy whistle re- i minded the schoolmaster that utility and progress are realities demanding his consideration, and claiming the ! tribute of his powers ? Poor dreamer ! have you really i returned to your problems ? Are you content to remain i stationary, whilst everything around you reminds you that utility and progress are the motive principles of the i age; and that beings such as you, with all your classical i lore, must be swept away as the surf of the ocean before I the advancing tide of civilization ? | Philosophy of Method. I Having arrived at an educational epoch in which the | importance of teaching, as well as of tlie method of ■ teaching, is duly recognized, it becomes a matter of in- ■ PHILOSOPHY OF METHOD. 39 quiry, How are we to distinguish the true from the false? Amid such an accumulation of facts, methods, and systems, what are the evils arising out of the abuse of method, and by what principles of philosophy are our systeius to be tested and improved ? In short, what are the laws which govern the philosophy of method ? Education, like all other sciences, must be based upon a careful induction of facts. All true ideas of method must be derived from a careful study of the nature of the human faculties, as regards the mode as well as the order of their development. It is, therefore, the first business of the science of method to discover the laws and conditions which regulate the development of the mind, — to follow Nature wheresoever she may lead us, and not to lay down preconceived rules for her guid- ance. Our attempts to teach by abstract notions, formed independently of a careful study of facts, are as ridiculous as the conduct of the savage who sowed gun- powder, instead of trying to make it. It is true, that in the progress of all science there must be an initiative idea, but then this idea must be tested and perfected by an appeal to experience and experiment. When the ancient astronomers affirmed that the orbits of the planets were circular, because the circle was the most perfect figure, they committed a great error in philoso- phy, for the true proof of their initiative conception should have been sought for in nature, and not in any abstract principle. So, in like manner, all our theories, or general principles of teaching should be tested by an appeal to facts of observation and experiment. The relative efficiency of different systems should be deter- mined, by placing them under the same circumstances 40 PHILOSOPHY OF EDUCATION. and relations, and then, by a careful induction of facts, we should establish some general principles of method. The certainty of our conclusions, in such cases, depends upon two circumstances; — first, on the facilities which we have for tracing effects to their causes, and con- versely for following causes to their legitimate effects, — second, on the faith which we have in the constancy and uniformity with which the same relations and con- ditions occur. Thus, for example, the phenomena of the material world are always open to observation and experiment; and, at the same time, the pei-fect uniform- ity with which they take place, leads iis to speak with confidence of the future, from what has taken place in the past. A chemist, after having determined the par- ticular action of one substance upon another, from bis instinctive belief in the permanence of the laws of nature, at once decides that the same action will always take place under the same circumstances; but experience alone must lead him to find out what are the essential circumstances and relations for producing the particular action, and what are merely casual or accidental; in short, experience, or repeated experiment, must lead him to discover the true relation of uriiform sequence — the relation of cause and effect. Let us penetrate a little further into the recesses of this subject. Facts are the point of departure of all philosophy; these become matters of consciousness; ob- servation there lays hold of them before committing them to induction, which forces them to yield iq^ the principles which they contain. The method of observa- tion and induction was first given by Bacon, but it has become the spirit of the age, — the spirit of the world of 1»HIL0S0PHY OP METHOD. 41 civilisation and development. It constitutes the unity of the age characterized by the most striking diversities and antagonisms. Philosophy has its origin in observa- tion and experience only; to be so limited is to be lim- ited to human nature; but what else could we have, or would we have ? The experimental philosophy of Bacon (characterized by observation, experience, and experi- ment) is sufficient for the attainment of all knowledge, and for the completion of every science. It has passed sentence on the ancient systems of philosophy, — it has destroyed all that was merely hypothetical, but it has perpetuated all that was based on observation. A single fact not unfrequently consecrates a mass of errors, and sometimes gives to the wildest theories a certain amount of credit among men. Everything true and permanent in the systems of philosophy, scattered throughout the course of time, is the fruit of observation; and every- thing permanently useful in society is the result of the experimental method. To arrive at a permanent system we must not only observe, but we must observe every- thing faithfully, truly, and completely, without preju- dice and partiality. We must use only the method of observation, but we must apply it to all facts, wherever they exist; on its impartiality depends its accuracy, and ' to be impartial it must be universal. Method, as applied to education, is a mixed inquiry, comprehending ques- tions of physics as well as metaphysics; and a compre- hensive method of observation is necessary to establish the desiderated alliance between the two classes of phe- nomena, not by the sacrifice of the one to the other, but by the unity of the method employed in ascertaining the law connecting the phenomena, which, though different 42 PHILOSOPHY OF EDUCATION. as to kind, are nevertheless coexistent and inseparable as to results. When observation has put us in posses- sion of nil the elements of our science, we then proceed with the work of classificalion, generalization, etc. In order to fulfil these conditions, the principles of method^ as applied to education, must be considered sub- jectively as well as objectively; that is to say, in relation to the me, as well as in relation to the not me. The science of the me is called Psychology; it gives the history of the soul as derived from consciousness and reflection; it is, therefore, entirely occupied with internal facts and phenomena. The objective is our intellectual principles considered in relation to their ex- ternal objects. Here we must observe how the minds of children develop themselves; and also, how the mind of man, regarded historically, or in connection with the progress of society, has developed itself. All questions relating to methods of , instruction are contained in the three following: — 1. What are the characteristics of the actual, or the developed intelligence ? 2. What are their jsrmeWt;* characteristics? 3. What are the intermediate conditions, or occasions, connecting the actual with the primitive; or, in other words, how is intelligence developed ? The first two questions are almost exclusively sub- jective; the last is objective as well as subjective. Here we start with the actual state of the faculties, and arrive at their primitive state by following the in- termediate links connecting the one with the other. To determine the actual, is the easiest problem, and its solution is the first step towards the solution of the PHILOSOPHY OF METHOD. 43 others. This is the experimental method: we first ob- serve and register, all the principles or laws which actually govern the action and development of the faculties; — we admit only those facts and principles which really exist, but of those we reject none; — we ask not why they exist, or for what they exist; it is enough that they do exist, and what is in nature must form an element of science; — nor are we in haste to classify the results, in order to bring out some favorite theory; we are content to wait patiently until their registration is completed, so that their relations may be rendered apparent, and that their theory may gradually unfold itself. The philosophy of method, as applied to teaching, is not less difficult than important. The diversity of views which at present obtains in relation to systems of teaching, is a sufficient evidence of the difficulty of the subject, and a sufficient testimony to the want of some recognized principles. The following are some of the difficulties peculiar to the inquiry: — 1. Although the same powers and affections are found in every human being, yet these powers and affections exist in different degrees and states of development in different individuals. Hence it follows, that a system of instruction which is adapted to one class of pupils may not be suitable to another. 2. Different causes may, and no doubt often do, pro- duce the same or similar effects. This arises from the constitution of the mind itself, for we know that it admits of various modes of development. 3. Teachers differ much in their capabilities and 44 PHILiJSOPHY OF EDUCATION. acquirements; and they rarely restrict themselves to the use of any special system of instruction. However, an earnest study of the X)rinciples of method will enable us to surmount these obstacles. In con- ducting our inquiries, the following summary of rules and principles, having a special bearing on the subject, should be duly considered. Importance of Definitions. No science can make a satisfactory progress unless its technical terms are clearly and precisely defined. This is especially true in relation to the science of education. At present we have scarcely any recognized terms in education; we dignify by the name of a system or method some trifling modification of a general principle, and we make use of terms without sufliciently limiting their amount of meaning. Thus we speak of "the ellip- tical method," as if it contained some peculiar principle which was not involved in "the interrogative system " of instruction; some persons erroneously use the term " simultaneous teaching," to mean the same thing as " collective teaching." As a preliminary step, therefore, to ihe attainment of exact knowledge in the science of method, we should always define the terms which we employ, before proceeding to the detail of facts, or the elucidation of principles. Collection of Facts. The first step, in the attainment of a kiKJwledge of right methods of teaching, is an extensive acquisition of facts. In recording these facts, all the conditions and collateral circumstances should be carefully noted, for PHILOSOPHY OF METHOD. 45 even circumstances which appear trifling at the time, may really be important links in the chain of sequences. Educational facts may be derived from books on mental philosophy, from our own individual experience and observation, as well as from the experience and ob- servation of others. We are not to look to legislators and school managers for the discovery of these facts, nor even should we rely too much upon the hasty im- pressions of the visitors of schools. It is upon the labors of the practical teacher that we must chiefly de- pend; it is his business to watch the development of his pupils' faculties as they expand themselves under the various modes of instruction; — it is his business to col- lect facts, to record observations, and to institute ex- periments. In forming a collection of facts, the following rules must be observed: — 1. All the facts should be fully ascertained or authen- ticated; and whilst no essential facts connected with the subject should be wanting, all trivial and incidental cir- cumstances should be omitted. 2. The statement should contain a complete and fair view of all the facts involved in the inquiry, and none of the facts should be in any way modified to pander to any prec