LIBRARY UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA . SAN DIEGO TWELVE LECTURES HISTORY OF PEDAGOGY, DELIVERED BEFORE THE CINCINNATI TEACHERS' ASSOCIATION. W. N. MAILMAN, A. M., Author of " Kindergarten CuMv.ru " and " Object Teaching. NEW YOUR : CINCINNATI : CHICAGO AMERICAN BOOK COMPANY Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1874, by WILSON, HINKLE & CO., In the Office of the Librarian of Congress, at Washington, D. C. PREFACE. THE twelve lectures on the History of Pedagogy, offered to the profession in this little volume, were delivered before the Cincinnati Teachers' Institute, in the summer of 1873. At the instance of Superin- tendent Hancock and many of the teachers who listened to the lectures, I have concluded to publish them in the present form. It is needless to say that I do not claim to present even an abbreviated history of pedagogy. My aim was to sketch, in a concise form, the gradual growth of the leading principles of modern education, singling out for this purpose a few of the most prominent thinkers and workers in the field of pedagogy. The great majority of teachers, on entering the pro- IV PREFACE. fession, have had little opportunity of becoming ac- quainted with principles and methods of teaching, and confine themselves mainly to the imitation of their teachers. This is apt to make their teaching mechanical, soulless, devoid of high aims, so that they exercise very little if any influence upon the develop- ment of intelligence and character in the pupils; it prevents them from asserting their own individuality in their work, and thus keeps them from developing individuality in their pupils. At the same time, they are unable, for want of a firm basis, to contribute to the growth of correct principles in the profession, and are thus rather an impediment to progress. It is true that, in the course of years, a number of them, by dint of experience and some study, become valuable, "live" members of the profession; but this entails a serious loss of time. Besides, the number of those who leave the profession without having done it any good, or who become petrified in certain fixed prac- tices, is much greater. To contribute to the abrogation of these evils is the object of this little volume. It is believed, too, that PREFACE. V a sketch like this, laying almost exclusive stress upon the most important principles that should underlie all education, and not encumbered with less important or even useless details and facts, will do more good in this direction than a complete, exhaustive history of peda- gogy ; nay, that the perusal of such a sketch, while it invites to the careful study of the history of pedagogy, is in most cases almost indispensable for a correct ap- preciation and application of historical facts subse- quently acquired. On this account, too, this little volume will be found more suitable, more fruitful of good results, as a text- book in normal and training schools, than more elab- orate treatises on the same subject, which, while they pay great attention to dates and minor details, neglect the drift, the essential spirit of the subjects under consideration. In the preparation of the lectures not originally designed for publication I made use, in some cases rather freely, of previous publications from my pen, without, however, impairing the value of the sketch, whatever that may be. The principal sources from VI PEEFACE. which I took facts, and in many cases views, are Barnard's School Journal, Schmidt's, Raumer's, Kruse's, Dittes's writings, and other works on the history of pedagogy, and the original writings of the pedagogic heroes introduced in the book. May the little volume do its allotted share of good. W. N. H. LOUISVILLE, April, 1874 CONTENTS. LECTURE I. PAQE Importance of History of Pedagogy China and Japan . 9 LECTURE II. Greece: General Features Sparta Lycurgus Pythagoras Athens Solon 18 LECTURE III. Greece: Socrates Plato Aristotle 31 LECTURE IV. Rome: Numa Pompilius General Characteristics Advent of Greek Culture Cicero Seneca Quintilian . . 4L> LECTURE V. Christianity The Sixteenth Century Baron Conienius -">2 LECTURE VI. Locke Fruncke ......... 03 Viii CONTENTS. LECTURE VII. PAGE Rousseau 74 LECTURE VIII. Influence of Modern Philosophers: Kant Fichte Richter Schopenhauer Hegel Rosenkranz Herbart Benecke Spencer 85 / LECTURE IX. Pestalozzi: Biographical . . . . . . . .93 LECTURE X. Pestalozzi: His Principles and Views 105 LECTURE XL Frederic Froebel Kindergarten Culture LECTURE XII. Summing up Conclusion 123 LECTURE I. IMPORTANCE OF HISTORY OF PEDAGOGY CHINA AND JAPAN. THE history of any art or science is the great recepta- cle of the thoughts and achievements in that art or science; hence it furnishes the basis of progress. The man who re-invents the steam-engine to-day, proves himself a master mind; but his mastership does not benefit the race, which is already in possession of the steam-engine. On the other hand, the race would have been benefitted by the labors of this master mind if he had devoted his energies to the same field on the basis of James Watt's achievements. Thus, in education, too, the teacher who, ignorant of Pestalozzi's and Froe- bel's principles, re-discovers one or more of these, proves thereby that he is the peer of these pedagogic heroes, but his labors yield no gain to the race, and he would have been a much more useful member of the craft had he, even with inferior powers, devoted himself to the propagation of the principles discovered to the apostle- ship, as it were, of Pestnloxzi and Froebel. Again, if we consider that the empiric in physical science must waste a great amount, not only of time (9) 10 HISTORY OF PEDAGOGY. and working force, but also of material, in order to arrive at his results, we are justified in looking upon him as an absolutely injurious member of society, who destroys where he would create. Yet, in view of the abundance of inorganic material and its apparent in- difference, we may forgive him his blundering, and while we pity him, we may still honor him. Not so with the blunderer in educational matters, whose mate- rial lives and grows, and, in consequence of his mis- takes, may live and grow into misery and crime. Such a blunderer becomes a curse to society, and should not be countenanced. Indeed, it is no hyperbole if educa- tional empiricism, in the family as well as in the school, is designated as "murder of the innocents." How little this fact is generally appreciated, appears from the indifference of parents and average school authorities to the preparation of those whom they em- ploy, in the very things which are of the greatest im- portance. The future teacher is examined in a number of arts and sciences, but little or no heed is given to his or her proficiency in educational principles and in pedagogic skill. The training of the youngest pupils, most easily impressed for good or evil, is still, in the majority of cases, intrusted to the least experienced, for the sake of economizing expense. In consequence of the numerous failures of so many who claim to do the teacher's work, the teacher's profession still struggles in a sort of disrepute, which exposes its votaries to want of confidence, to an income wholly incommensurate witli the responsibilities, to the indignity of being re-examined again and a [rain on the most absurd basis, and of feeling * must be considered and educated up to FICHTE RICHTER. 87 maturity, when he may choose his calling for life. All education for special callings or stations in life, before that time, he considers absurd and inhuman. He contends that early education is, and can be, only in the hands of the parents, who, as a last resort in their efforts to lead the child to morality, may nay, must employ force. They should be careful, however, not to destroy free obedience, childlike regard for the superior goodness and wisdom of parents ; and they should ever remain mindful of the fact that they are to bring up free human beings, and not machines devoid of a will. He designates as the representatives of education in the community, at a later period, the learned man who is to develop intelligence, free insight; the moral educator who is to develop that good-will, that charac- ter without which intelligence, free insight, has no value; and the aesthetic artist who, standing between the other two, must bring about a union between intelligence and will. Richter is the apostle of ideal individuality. "Each one of us," he says, "has in himself his ideal prize mnn that is, the harmonious maximum of all his in- dividual predispositions ; and it is the business of edu- cation to develop him into full growth." At the same time, he asks, with Kant, that education should elevate above the spirit of the times, and prepare for future- generations. "A child," he exclaims, "should be more sacred to you than the present, which consists of things and adults. Through the child you move, although la- boriously, by means of the shorter lever-arm of mankind, the longer one." Richter lays great stress on physical education; but he advises moderation, and is particular 88 HISTORY OP PEDAGOGY. to let physical exercise follow, not precede, intellectual effort. Intellectual education, as well as the physical, he would begin at birth. Its element of life, as he calls it, he finds in cheerfulness. "Cheerfulness," he says, " is the sky under which every thing thrives, except poison. Cheerfulness is, at the same time, soil, flower, and wreath of virtue. What warmth is to the body, cheerfulness is to the soul." Hence, he attaches much importance to the plays of children. " Beasts," he says, " play only with the body ; but children, with the soul." Still, here too, he counsels moderation, and warns against excess as highly pernicious. For the school, he gives no special directions. His moral training is, even where he punishes, based upon the gentle rule of love. He dislikes precept, and relies upon example as the best teacher; for he says, "life is kindled only by life; hence, the highest in the child is aroused only by example." Thus, in every di- rection, he aims at the independent development of the ideal individuality in every child. Schopenhauer lays great stress upon education for real life, upon the production of accurate understand- ing and of sound, untrammeled reason. He contends that all knowledge must have an intuitional basis, and that all abstract ideas must rest on concrete perceptions. He would offer to the young mind nothing that it can not master independently, for fear of creating error and prejudice. Artificial education, he says, consists in cram- ming the head with ideas, by means of teaching and reading, long before there are any direct perceptions in the mind of the learner. These perceptions are HEGEL KOSENKRANZ. 89 expected to be supplied afterward by experience; but, up to this problematical time, the human being is left at the mercy of false impressions and of prejudice. This explains to him the fact that the learned are, as a general thing, less liberally gifted with common sense than the unlearned. Hegel, too, considers pedagogy as the art of making man a moral being.,/ For him, the child is, naturally, neither good nor bad, since it has no knowledge of either good or evil. To teach him to do good con- sciously and freely, he designates as the object of dis- cipline, of moral education. The most important factor of moral education he finds in the family, and here the mother exerts the greatest influence. Of intellectual education, however, the school is the most powerful factor. To this he assigns, above all tilings, the task of teaching the art of thinking, and of assisting the child in its efforts to obtain fundamental ideas. At the same time, he looks upon the school as the transi- tion from the family to society. His ideas are, how- ever, followed out more systematically by his pupil Rosenkranz, to whom I pass. Rosenkranz has laid down his ideas on education in a work entitled " Pedagogics as a System" of which an admirable translation, by Miss Anna C. Brackett, has been published lately in Mr. Harris's Journal of Specu- lative Philosophy. Education, he holds, can create noth- ing ; it can only assist in developing existing actual possibilities into realities. Education can attain its aim only by setting the pupil to work, by arousing his self-activity. The general form of culture is habit; but the free subject (individual) must control the sys- H. P. 8. 90 HISTORY OF PEDAGOGY. tern of his habits so that their existence will bring him to ever greater freedom. The subjective limit of educa- tion he finds in the individuality of the pupil ; its ob- jective limit, in the means for nursing and developing this individuality. The absolute limit of education lies in its aim which is the emancipation of the pupil, re- sulting in self-education, or, if you choose, in inde- pendence. Thus, by the labors of these men, and of others whose mention I must here forego, the crude material, fur- nished by Rousseau, was crystallized into clear, beau- tiful, symmetrical purposes, which may be summed up in the formula with which we started in the first lecture, and which defines education as the development of independent individualities, fitted for life in society on the basis of morality and reason. This formula has been reached by reasoning so cau- tious, so honest, so free from prejudice and passion, that all cotemporaneous and subsequent developments of science, with reference to the nature of man, have only served to corroborate it. For the sake of clearness, allow me to sketch a few of these developments, and to select for this purpose the studies of a few pioneers in psychological science. Among the principal ones of these and, in time at least, among the first, is Herbart, who taught that the soul is a simple entity, subject to no change in its quality the real, unchangeable recipient of ideas. These, subject to change, assume the forms among which consciousness is one whose sum is called mind. The view that the soul lias a number of powers, of a higher and lower order, he declares to be a psycholog- HERBART BKNEOKE. 91 ical myth. Every single idea manifests itself, in con- sequence of its contrasts with others, as a force that sets the mass in motion. Thinking, feeling, imagining are only specified differences in the self-preservation of the soul. Consciousness is only the sum of relations in which the soul stands to other entities. Repressed ideas that have not entered consciousness are feelings ; as they enter consciousness, they become appetites; and, united with the hope of success, the appetite becomes will. Herbart was followed by Benecke, who contends that the soul, far from being a simple entity, is composed of a multiplicity of similar powers. These he divides into elementary (or primordial) and evolved powers ; the latter resulting from the union of elementary powers with impressions and ideas. For him, then, the soul is no longer a constant, but a variable, subject to development. He deems the existence of an imag- ination, of a memory, of an understanding, of a will, etc. as powers independent of ideas an absurdity ; and he shows that they are attributes or results of ideas. The simplest psychical formations are the sensuous sen- sations, which remain as traces in the soul. These traces multiply. The similar ones attract one another, and are strengthened into perceptions; similar perceptions, by an analogous process, unite to form concepts, conclu- sions, judgments, etc. ; clearness of concepts, clearness of consciousness, constitutes understanding. The rapid- ity and other features of these developments depend, subjectively, on the strength (power to retain), vivid- ness (tendency to assimilate), and susceptibility of the primordial powers; they depend, objectively, on the 92 HISTORY OF PEDAGOGY. number and intensity of the impressions, percepts, and concepts. Thus, starting from simple premises, he teaches that all manifestations of psychical force are the necessary results of the subjective peculiarities of the primordial powers, and of the multiplicity, inten- sity, and clearness of impressions. Herbart had shown the absurdity of assuming a number of special, independent faculties of the soul ; Benecke had proved that the soul is capable of develop- ment a thing that grows; the next step was taken by Herbert Spencer, who shows that this growth is organic, subject to the ordinary laws of organic develop- ment. Thus, he made psychology strictly a natural science, to be henceforth modified, extended in its scope, corrected in its errors, limited in its theories, by the same laws of criticism that apply to other natural sciences. Availing himself of the discovery of the laws of evolution, of the correlation, the inde- structibility, and mutability of forces, of their insep- arability from matter, he has built up a system of psychology which, on account of its clearness and strict adhesion to scientific principles, is destined to supplant, or, rather, to crown the work of his predeces- sors, a-nd to become one of the most potent agencies in hastening the recognition of correct principles of education. LECTURE IX. PESTALOZZI : BIOGRAPHICAL. IN order to review the work of practical educators during the period sketched in the last lecture, it be- comes necessary to turn back to the last quarter of the eighteenth century. Here we find the philanthropi- nists, among whom Basedow, Campe, and Salzmann occupy the highest rank, engaged in attempts to give practical shape to Rousseau's views on education. They owe their generic name to the Philanthropinum at Dessau, an institution founded by Basedow under the auspices of Duke Leopold ; an institution similar to Francke's pedagogium for the education of the sons of the nobility, but on purely philanthropic and cosmo- politan principles. Campe was great as an author of this school of pedagogy; and Salzmann is remarkable as the most practical of its followers, his philanthropi- num, near Goth a, is the only one that has continued its existence to this day. In a detailed history of pedagogy, the consideration of the labors of these men could not be passed over without injury to a full understanding of educational (93) 94 HISTORY OF PEDAGOGY. progress; but my limited time and, more yet, my spe- cific aim, compel me to content myself with a mere mention of them, and to pass at once to a more promi- nent figure to Pestalozzi. Pestalozzi was born on the 12th of January, 1746, at Zurich, in Switzerland. He lost his father, a physician, in 1751, and his education was left in the hands of a fond mother and of a faithful female servant, who had promised the dying father not to abandon the family. These two women were the constant and too watchful companions of his childhood. He says of his early ed- ucation : " I grew up in the care of the kindest mother, who spoiled me with excessive tenderness. From one end of the year to the other, I was kept in the house. Every essential mean, every impulse to the develop- ment of manly vigor, manly experience, manly disposi- tion, and manly exercise were wanting, although the peculiarities and weaknesses of my individuality needed them very much." Perhaps this accounts for the extra- ordinary want of practical sense that characterized all his undertakings, for his want of caution and circum- spection, for his excesssive sentimentality, and for a peculiar almost childishness in all his doings and say- ings. But it accounts, too, for his great inexhaustible love of mankind, for his unshaken faith, for his unlim- ited power of self-sacrifice, and for the fact that he assigned to the mother the most important position in. the education of children. He received his scholastic education exclusively in his native city. Zurich possessed, at that time, in addition to the elementary school, a so-called German school, in which ordinary school education found its PESTALOZZI. 95 limit; a Latin school, which prepared for the learned professions; and a higher school, intermediate between the gymnasia and the universities of a later date. Pestalozzi visited these schools in their order. The first professional study to which he devoted himself was that of theology, but he soon abandoned this in order to devote himself to jurisprudence. This, too, failed to satisfy him, and, in 1767, he left school in order to devote himself wholly to agriculture. He had read Rousseau's Emile, which had appeared a few years before, and he was affected by the book to a remarkable degree. He writes about this : " As soon as this book appeared, my exceedingly impractical dream- sense was transformed into enthusiasm by this exceed- ingly impractical dream-book. I compared the educa- tion which I had had, in the prison of home and school, with that which Rousseau sketched for his Emile. The home and school education of all the world seemed de- formed to me, and I thought I had found the panacea for all these evils in Rousseau's Emile." He threw his books away, burned his manuscripts, and went to a widely-known, successful farmer in the Canton of Bern, to study the art of cultivating the soil, as well as the sufferings and wants of the country people, who lan- guished at that time in a condition bordering on slavery and, in many respects, transcending it in abjectness. A year afterward, he bought a tract of sterile heath- land, near the village of Birr, in the Canton of Argau. He had a house built on his farm, and devoted the land to the raising of madder. These lands, which he named "Nt s uhof" (the New Farm), lie had bought with money borrowed on the prospects of a favorable marriage with 96 HISTORY OF PEDAGOGY. the daughter of a wealthy Zurich merchant. She became his wife at Neuhof, in 1769; but his efforts at farming did not prove successful, the creditor withdrew his capi- tal, and her fortune was mostly lost. Pestalozzi himself ascribes these misfortunes to his absolute practical un- fitness, his entire want of skill and capacity. The results of his practical efforts, in whatever he under- took, were as mean as his plans and aspirations were lofty. He himself says that " there was an immense contrast between his aims and his achievements, be- tween what he wanted to do and what he did and could do." About this time, he conceived the plan of uniting a poor-school or, rather, a home for poor children, with his farm. Several cities gave material support to the enter- prise, and, in 1775, the new institution was opened with fifty children. In summer they were to be occupied with agricultural pursuits; in winter, with spinning and weaving. In leisure hours they were to receive instruction in speaking, reading, writing, etc. The wants of the children were to be supplied, in part at least, from the products of the children's work. The new enterprise was taken up with enthusiasm, but it soon began to deteriorate. The children, mostly the sons and daughters of beggars, disliked work, and made the most unreasonable demands. In these they were abetted by their parents, who continued to visit the institution for the purpose of extortion and com- plaint. Many of the children ran away as soon as they had received new clothes. But Pestalozzi wanted to persevere; he would rather "share the last morsel with his children" than to give up the institution. He lived PESTALOZZI. 97 "like a beggar, in order to teach beggars how to live like human beings." At last, in 1780, however, the institution had to be given up, because it lacked all the necessaries of life. " I was poor now," says Pestalozzi, in utter despondency ; " I fared like all others who become poor through their own faults. I lost all con- fidence in myself, even in what I actually was and could do. My friends, too, loved me only hopelessly. All who knew me expressed the opinion that I was hopelessly lost." But the self-sacrificing fidelity of his wife, Anna Schulthess, and the encouraging words of an influ- ential friend at Basle, reassured him. During the same year, in 1780, he published his first work, entitled "Evening Hours of a Hermit" which contained the fundamental thoughts of all his subsequent efforts in behalf of education. In this book he attempted to show, with the warmth and affection peculiar to his womanly nature, that all school education which is not built upon the foundation of humane education, must mislead; that true education calls for the development of all the faculties and capacities in the individual ; that this purely humane education must precede all training for special stations and callings; that it alone can lead to an independent, honorable, and happy life; that all instruction and all practice must have an in- tuitional basis, must be adapted to the child's peculiari- ties and surroundings ; that, in these things, true self- dependent insight must take the place of authoritative verbiage, of dogmatic tradition; that a virtuous character, coupled with a deep religious sense, is the highest aim of all education.. "All wisdom," he says, "rests upon H. P.-9. 98 HISTORY OF PEDAGOGY. the vigor of a good heart obedient to truth ; and all happiness, upon simplicity and innocence. I build all liberty upon justice, and justice upon love; and the source of all justice and of all earthly blessings, the source of love and charity, rests upon the great thought that all are children of God." The next year, in 1781, he gave to the world his greatest achievement, a book entitled " Lienhard and Gertrude: a Book for the People.' 1 '' Gertrude, the heroine of this romance, is Pestalozzi's ideal. In her manage- ment of the household, in her moral influence upon her husband more especially, however, in her educa- tion of her children and in her aptness to teach he held her up in this remarkable work as a model to all mothers. The schools of his time were in a miserable condition ; the teachers had little or no education ; the nobility and wealthier classes demoralized and oppressed the common people ; and to correct these errors and faults, these vices of society, Pestalozzi wanted to place the education of the children of the common people, including their instruction, in the hands of the mothers. Thus Pesta- lozzi, like Rousseau, aimed at a thorough regeneration of the race; but, unlike Rousseau, he left the rising generation in its natural soil, and would lead it to humanity in the family, under the influence of ideal mothers. For Pestalozzi, the child is from the begin- ning a social being, growing up in truly natural sur- roundings, and under the truly natural guidance of a mother who appreciates her responsibilities, and who has the necessary tact, skill, knowledge, energy, and love to meet them fully. PESTALOZZI. 99 Pestalozzi himself characterizes the aim of the book, in the preface to the second edition, as an attempt " to effect a better condition of the people on the basis of the actual condition of the people and of their natural relations." " I saw," he says, " the misery of the people, and Lienhard and Gertrude were my sighs over this misery. The book was my first word to the heart of the poor and forsaken in the land. It was my first word to the heart of those who, for the poor and for- saken, are in God's stead in the land. It was my first word to the mothers of the land, and to the heart that God gave them, to be to their children what no human being on earth can be in their stead." "For," he says in another place, " if the home is not a holy temple of God, if the mother does not cultivate the head and heart of the child naturally, every other reform of social con- ditions is impossible." The effect of this work fully justified Pestalozzi's expression : " I felt its worth ; but only as a man who, in his dreams, feels the value of a good fortune." From all sides, from high and low, from philanthropic socie- ties, from princes and statesmen, honors, thanks, and invitations poured in upon the author of Lienhard and Gertrude. But, through his impractical indecision, all came to naught, and he continued to bury himself on his dilapidated farm, occasionally throwing out an arti- cle, a pamphlet, or a book, until 1798, when he pub- lished again a more important work, entitled "Investi- gations on the Course of Nature in the Development of Man." In this work he summed up, based on Rousseau and Fichte, his views upon the aims of education. He holds that man is naturally innocent and helpless; 100 HISTORY OF PEDAGOGY. his helplessness leads him to insight; this to acquisi- tion, possession, and, ultimately, to society. Social rela- tions bring about a life of legal right which leads to liberty. At the same time, there is in man a natural benevolence, which culminates in religion. The work is valuable as a casket, containing many bright jewels of thought and sentiment, but of little value as a system of philosophy or as a basis for pedagogic efforts. About the same year (1798), the French devastated the Canton of Unterwalden and burned the town of Stanz. Fatherless and motherless orphans wandered about the country without shelter, food, and clothing. Pestalozzi hastened to their rescue. The government placed an abandoned convent near Stanz at his disposal. This he fitted up for the orphans, of whom he gathered eighty between the ages of four and ten. They were all in the highest degree neglected, without discipline, ignorant, disorderly, in rags and filth in a state of physical, mental, and moral degeneracy. To these outcasts of society Pestalozzi would be father, teacher, servant nay, mother. "A seeing man," he himself says, "would not have ventured to do this; fortunately, I was blind, else I should not have ventured upon it." As in Neuhof, he began by uniting instruction with work, but he soon recognized the inadequacy of this mode of proceeding. For the sake of better progress, he made an attempt to employ the older children as teachers of the smaller ones ; he also introduced rhythm- ical speaking in concert. " I stood in their midst," he says, " spoke sounds to them, and caused them to imi- tate me ; all who saw it were astonished at the effect. I did not know what I was doing, but I knew what I PESTALOZZI. 101 wanted to do, and that was death or attainment of my purpose." However, all his efforts were in vain; he had undertaken more than one man can accomplish, and his institution would have perished of its own faults, had not external circumstances caused its earlier dissolution. In the summer of 1799, the French estab- lished a military hospital in his convent; most of the children were dispersed, and the remainder were given in charge of a local priest. Pestalozzi himself, after a short rest, accepted a position as teacher in an elemen- tary school at Burgdorf, in the Canton of Bern, and repeated or, rather, continued his experiments in sim- plifying elementary instruction, as far as the mechanism of the school permitted it. However, the limits of the school regulations re- strained him too much, and he established in the next year, with an assistant, an independent educational institution in the same town. Here he published the book "How Gertrude Teaches her Children" which was followed, in 1803, by the " Book for Mothers." In these works he laid down his principles, and attempted to show mothers how they can become the elementary instructors of their children, thus enabling them to do without the school for this purpose. "For," said he, ''as the child derives its first physical food from the mother, so it should also obtain its first mental food from the same God-given source." The contents of these books will form, however, the principal burden of my next lecture, so that we may now proceed with the re- maining incidents in Pestalozzi's life. In 1805, Pestalozzi established his institute at Yver- don, situated at the southern extremity of the lake of 102 HISTORY OF PEDAGOGY. Neuenburg, in western Switzerland, where he continued until 1825. Here Pestalozzi reached the summit of his glory. Yverdon became a center of attraction to which the noblest philanthropists of the time, from the plainest school-master to the greatest statesman, made pilgrim- ages, in order to bring away a sacred enthusiasm for popular education. From all' countries they came from France, from Germany, Italy, Spain, even from Russia and North America. Noble-hearted, high-minded youths joined him in order to become teachers of little children, and to be trained as his assistants. In 1809, his institution numbered 15 teachers, 165 pupils between the ages of six and seventeen, from all parts of the world, and 32 adults that studied his methods. He writes, about this time : " The difficulties that opposed my enterprise in the beginning were very great. Public opinion was wholly against me. Thou- sands looked upon my work as quackery, and nearly all who believed themselves competent judges, declared it worthless. Some condemned it as a silly mechanism; some looked upon it as mere memorizing, while others contended that it neglected the memory for the sake of the understanding; some accused me of want of religion, and others of revolutionary intentions. But, thank God, all these objections have been overcome. The children of our institution are full of joy and happiness ; their innocence is guarded; their religious feelings are fos- tered ; their minds are cultivated ; their knowledge in- creased; their hearts inspired with love of virtue. The whole is pervaded by the great spirit of home-union; a pure fatherly and brotherly spirit rules all. The chil- dren feel free ; their activity is incited by their occupa- PESTALOZZI. 103 tions; affection and confidence elevate and guide their hearts." Still there were a number of evils which, perhaps in his enthusiasm in consequence of unexpected success, he did not see. There were the frequent interruptions by the visits of princes and ministers whom the master wished to gain for his ideas; there was the want of cul- ture on the part of his teachers, who had little chance to correct their faults on account of the deficient arrange- ments of the household ; there was the want of knowl- edge of men, of organizing talent, of pedagogic quickness of apprehension, of practical circumspection and me- thodic skill on the part of Pestalozzi himself; and, as a consequence perhaps, the devil of partisanship that invaded the hearts of his teachers, and caused an open rebellion shortly after the death of his admirable wife. In 1816, a year after the demise of Anna Schulthess, twelve of his teachers seceded from the institution. Still he lingered on and, in 1818, even succeeded in adding to his charge a poor-school in the vicinity of Yverdon. This step contributed not a little to a loss of original purposes, and to a final dissolution of his whole enterprise in 1825. " Truly, it seems to me," he writes at this time, " as if by this retirement I made an end to life itself; it pains me so." He found an asylum at Neuhof, with his grandson. Here he wrote his autobiography and his " Swan's Strains" in which he attempted to express, in a concise form, all that he had thought and felt on the subject to which he had devoted his life. On the 17th of February, 1827, he died. His last words were : " I forgive my enemies ; may they now 104 HISTORY OF PEDAGOGY. find peace, as I enter everlasting peace ! I should have liked to live a month longer, in order to finish my task; but I thank God that he calls me away from life on earth. And you, my dearest ones, may you live in peace, and find your happiness in the quiet life of home ! " LECTURE X. PESTALOZZI : HIS PRINCIPLES AND VIEWS. A STRANGE phenomenon, indeed, is this Pestalozzi. For thirty years, as he says, in the height of his suc- cesses, he had not had time to read a book, so that he was more ignorant of the pedagogic achievements of his predecessors than the commonest school-master. He lacked the talent of organizing, was deficient in prac- tical skill, a mere dreamer. By a sort of accident he had become acquainted with Rousseau's and, afterward, Fichte's views. He was fired by these, and induced to undertake an entire reorganization of elementary education. Himself, he failed in all he undertook ; but he suc- ceeded in kindling in others an unprecedented enthu- siasm for popular education ; he succeeded in leading a host of others to unprecedented success. And this he did not accomplish by his own success, not by the force of argument or example 1 , but only and alone by the force of his great love, which constituted his genius. He says of himself: " What I am, I am by my heart." (105) 106 HISTORY OP PEDAGOGY. He was desirous to contribute his share in enhancing the welfare of the race, in neutralizing and eradicating the physical and moral misery of mankind ; and he looked upon education as the principal mean to ac- complish this. His earnest pleadings for education, as the chief factor in the elevation and consequent relief of the masses, brought conviction to all, high and low, ruled and rulers, so that he is justly called the " father of popular education." Through him, Germany became the land of pedagogy; but his influence went far beyond the limits of German lands. The family seemed to him the proper center of all educational efforts ; but although he went too far in this view, and although, in his own direct labors, he aimed his efforts mainly at the school, he never lost sight, not even theoretically, of his great discovery that human nature itself must dictate the principles of education. This discovery alone, urged by him again and again, with the eloquence of earnestness, upon all whom his words and deeds could reach, would have sufficed to make him one of the greatest benefactors of mankind. He thus became the inaugurator of a new epoch in education, the epoch of purely humane education; he created the possibility of basing the science of peda- gogy upon anthropology and natural science; of making it, indeed, itself one of the branches of natural science. His views of the nature and destiny of man were rather vague, but, on the whole, correct. They were not reached by careful philosophical analysis, but seemed to have sprung up in him, waked into existence by the magic power of his genius. Man appeared to PESTALOZZI. 107 Pestalozzi in every direction as an organism; an inde- pendent organism, as far as he alone is concerned; an organic part, if viewed with reference to society, the race, or the universe. To enter into harmony with the whole into communion with the Being of beings, with God without losing his individuality, seemed to Pes- talozzi man's highest destiny. Justice and love were to him man's highest virtues, in the intercourse with others; self-reliance the highest quality, with reference to himself. For the education of man as an individual, as a sepa- rate individuality, Pestalozzi found the general formula in the simple and single word evolution, development. Whatever powers man has, must be developed harmoni- ously, so as to form a harmonious, well-balanced whole. All individual development manifests itself as activity, as self-activity. This self-activity has two phases: one from without inward, receptive, acquisitive, learning; the other from within outward, expressive, productive, creative. The former, the receptive phase of self-activity, is designated by the term intuition anschauung, looking at; and the instruments which the mind uses, when engaged in it, are the senses. This phase will always precede the expressive, reproductive, or creative activ- ity; it forms the basis, the foundation of the latter. Hence Pestalozzi's great principle : All instruction must be intuitional amchaulich must reach the mind through its senses. This phase of activity engaged his attention almost exclusively, as far as his reformatory efforts in methods of teaching extended; and he fur- nished an ABC of instruction which, while it was liable 108 HISTORY OP PEDAGOGY. to many improvements in form and scope, has never been assailed in its principles. He was well aware of the fact that this was only half the work required, and he labored hard to find an ABC of skill of art, if you choose of the expressive phase of self-activity, but without success. To find this ABC was reserved for Froebel; but were not Pestalozzi's achievements work enough, as well as glory enough, for one man? He labored with great success to transform learning, the acquisition of knowledge, into an actual mental assimilation. And, in doing this, he gained another great point. He established beyond controversy that the ultimate aim of instruction is not to furnish man with knowledge and skill, but that these are valuable mainly as means to develop the mind and other powers of the human being. In other words, the material of instruction was to be used, in the first and foremost place, as an instrument for the development of the organism. Hence, the mode in which the learner approaches the material of instruction or, respectively, the mode in which it is brought to him, is of the greatest impor- tance, since it determines the beneficial or injurious, the furthering or hindering effect of instruction, with reference to mental development. Now, for the best way, he looks in the nature of man that is, in the insight which the anthropological and psychological study of man has furnished. Thus he chose the only way that leads to truth ; thus he freed pedagogy from all preconceived and dogmatical limitations, from all arbitrary fetters; made of it a natural science, to live and grow, henceforth, like other natural sciences. Thus PESTALOZZ1. 109 he laid low and ejected from the school the evil spirits of pedantry, that claim to be in full possession of truth, and form an insuperable barrier to progress; and in- stalled in their stead that modest search for truth which moves always, and always forward. What a great stride forward he himself made will appear even from a superficial review of his principles of teaching, as laid down in his last two books. He begins with the training of the senses, with perception, or, better, with perceptions; from these he leads the child gradually, surely, and as much as possible by its own efforts, to conceptions, judgments, conclusions. Every idea the child possesses has grown from the seed, and grown strong in indigenous soil, in the child's own mind. There is no pushing, no cramming, no pouring in ; but only growth healthy, vigorous, con- tinuous, natural growth. What the child can not grasp is not forced upon it ; whatever is beyond its comprehen- sion is left for future time and increased power. Specially, he proceeds always from known things to related unknown things, so that the learner may ever find a place for the new acquisition, may be enabled to bring the new acquisition into organic connection with what he already has or, rather, with what he already is. Abstract ideas grow gradually, almost laboriously, from concrete notions. He is a declared enemy of all mere verbiage, and fails to look upon parrot-like repetition of a statement or of an idea as knowledge. On the contrary, he asks that the child must develop the idea in its own mind, by its own self-active effort, before it can appreciate and, consequently, before it ought to receive the symbol or sign the word. 110 HISTORY OF PEDAGOGY. In the examination of objects he always proceeds from the whole, i. c., from the first impression, to the parts, i. e., to careful analysis. In the building-up of ideas, in comparison and classification, he made sure, first, of particulars, elements; and proceeded slowly, gradually, continuously to general, more comprehensive ideas and names. At the same time, he aimed con- stantly at organic connection between the subject and the object, between the learner and the things learned ; and strove to establish a similar connection between the various branches of instruction and practice. Again, he insists upon constant self-activity on the part of the child. He never does for the child what it can do for itself, because only its own work, only the direct exercise of its own powers, will give strength to these and increase their substance, as it were. His (the teacher's) activity is only directing or guiding, only impelling or inducing, as the case may require. This is one of Pestalozzi's greatest points, and so prominent that Benecke, whom I have had occasion to mention in a previous lecture, says of Pestalozzi's method : " He aims throughout at self-active growth of insight, in continuous progress and exhaustive com- pleteness." And Schwarz, a noted writer on pedagog- ical subjects, says of him: "He has cut a new road by the exercise of the powers in limited spheres, on a limited number of objects; from earliest youth, in every station of life, he wants to lead man to his greatest good, to his divine destin}*. Every one is to be brought to a full appreciation of his own powers; and a pare, true appreciation of his worth is to bring him to the noblest use of his powers." PESTALOZZI. Ill It would be to sin against truth, and thus to deprive history of its greatest power for good, if the faults of the great man were overlooked here. Some of these have already been hinted in this and the previous lecture. Among these are the want of caution and circumspection, of organizing talent and practical com- mon sense ; and more, perhaps, than these, his ignorance of pedagogic thoughts and deeds in previous times. He only knew the great misery around him, and Rousseau and his own good heart drove him to sacrifice himself in efforts to alleviate it. But there are some other, perhaps minor faults, that are important enough to be mentioned here. Among these, his exclusive reliance upon the family, as an educational agent, stands at the head. Aside from the practical impossibility of educating a number of chil- dren of various ages in the family alone, this error of his shows an almost entire disregard of the claims of society upon the young human being, and of the necessity of training it, as early as possible, for social relations, for free intercourse with equals. Again, short-sightedness or want of scope is mani- fested in the reduction of all sensuous impressions to number, form, and word. Certainly there are many other categories of sensual existence besides number, form, and word. Even if we look upon them symbolic- ally, viewing number and form as the signs of impressive agents, and icord as the sign of expressive action, it seems difficult to force all that impresses us and all our modes of expression within these terms. Again, the use of mechanical exercises in enunciation and speaking had become a sort of superstitiou with 112 HISTORY OF PEDAGOGY. him. He used them to such a morbid excess that they contributed much to his defeats, inasmuch as his prac- tice in this respect was directly opposed to his theory. This led him, too, in his propositions concerning the teaching of geography, history, anthropology, and nat- ural science, into an artificial mechanism, a mind- killing verbiage, and memorizing of long lists of names that were as far removed from Pestalozzianism as dark- ness is from light. His admirable principle that, in the study of objects, we should proceed from the near to the remote, caused him to forget that things may be too near for convenient and accurate observation, and misled him into the per- nicious practice of beginning with the child's own body, a proceeding which, by insuring failure at the start, could not fail to bring his ideas into disrepute. As akin to his over-estimation of the family as an educational factor, we should note, too, his over-estima- tion of the mother as the educator in the family. In this respect, the father seems to have no existence at all for him. This fault may be due to his own early education, and to the peculiar conditions of the society in which he lived and for which he worked; but even a little philo- sophical insight might have saved him from this griev- ous error. If it was his excellence to be what he was by his heart, it surely was his fault that his heart exercised a too despotic control over his head. Thus it happened that, as a practical teacher, he stood far below mediocrity. He taught without plan ; cared neither for time nor for the fatigue of the children ; neglected reading and writing; neither developed nor repeated ; entirely disregarded order and expediency in PESTALOZZI. 113 the occupations of the children ; worked only with the masses or classes, and took no heed of individuals; wasted much of his time in having the children repeat after him sentences which they did not understand; and, even in these exercises, neglected correctness and euphony of speech. And yet, in spite of all these faults, he is the founder of modern pedagogy. He is this by his indefatigable zeal, his Christ-like self-denial, his enthusiasm for truth and human happiness. These qualities charmed all who came in his vicinity, and kindled in them similar feel- ings, induced them to improve upon his virtues and to steer past his faults. As Jessen has said of him, "he was an enlightening creative hero of education ; an eagle who, as Dante says of Homer, vanquishes all in his flight. No one has, like him, set the world ablaze in a holy enthusiasm for the great task of ennobling the human race; no one has, like him, shaken the stolid world and overcome its resistance. He was a man great through his faith in his ideal, great in his aims, great in the self-denial Avith which he fought for his ideal, great in his zeal to alleviate human suffering a zeal which had be- come a part of his very being. Thus Pestalozzi's great- ness consists, perhaps, more in the impulse he gave than it does in his direct achievements." H. P.-10. LECTURE XL FREDERIC FROEBEL KINDERGARTEN CULTURE. THE most enthusiastic admirer and disciple of Pesta- lozzi was, fortunately, a man singularly predisposed by his training to complete the task left unfinished by the great master. This man was Frederic Froebel. * Like Pestalozzi, he found the aim of education in har- monious development, in the production of well-balanced human beings ; like Pestalozzi, he looked for the princi- ples of education in the laws of human nature ; like Pestalozzi, he required growth from within outward, and relied, therefore, upon self-activity on the part of the learner, as the indispensable condition of success in educational labors. He accepted full}' and unreservedly all that Pestalozzi had done, and built upon the law of intuition as a broad and firm basis. To this, however, he added the law of the " connection of contrasts." At the same time, he invented the ABC of the productive phase of self-activity, and showed how the exercise of the * For a biographical sketch, I refer the reader to the preface of my Khidrrcjartcn Culture. (114) FROEBEL. 115 productive serves not only to strengthen the receptive powers and to enrich the mind and heart, but how it alone can render the acquisition of knowledge useful. From the very beginning, he would have these two phases of self-activity the receptive and the produc- tive go hand in hand. Every new intuition is to be used in new forms of expression, and to be combined in every possible manner with previous acquisitions, in more and more complicated, more and more directly useful productions. He keeps the learner ever busy, imitating and inventing with the ever-increasing stock of knowledge ; andx ever increasing the stock of ideas with the aid of imitations and inventions, in accordance with the law of the " connection of contrasts." The harmonious development of man requires not only knowledge, but also skill ; not only ideas, but also the application of ideas. Nay, if we consider that knowl- edge manifests itself usefully only through skill, that ideas enter life only through their application, we are to some extent justified in looking upon the latter as more important. Knowledge without skill, like a stuffed elephant, may challenge our astonishment, but can not exert any influence in life; it is as unproductive of either good or evil as the sword in the hands of a statue. The education of children, more especially in schools, has suffered for centuries, and particularly in modern times, from the fatal one-sidedness of paying almost ex- elusive attention to knowledge. Our time, as Froebel and his followers express it, is sick from a surfeit of knowledge. These truisms lay in the consciousness of thinking pedagogues long before Froebel from Plato to Pestalozzi but it was reserved for Froebel to let 116 HISTORY OF PEDAGOGY. the consciousness ripen into the deed by his invention of the Kindergarten. Pestalozzi, wonderfully aroused by Rousseau's vigorous writings, and still more by the misery of the ignorant and unskilled masses, found the way of educating the child to independence in intuition, in the acquisition of ideas, and invented the ABC of knowledge; but his efforts to find an ABC of skill were fruitless, although he devoted himself to the task with conscious longing. Froebel, however, animated by an equally intense phi- lanthropy, but endowed with more philosophical insight and more thorough knowledge, unveiled also this secret, and indicates, in his writings on " The Education of Man" the way to independence in skill, in the art of doing and inventing, in productive, creative activity. With his predecessors in the mastership of pedagogy, he holds that education must begin at birth, and seeks the laws of pedagogic practice in the natural being and doing of the child. He observed how the latter, from the first dawn of consciousness, is ever eager to apply the acquired intuition to make use of them partly by simply reproducing them, partly by combining them with others formerly gained, in order to attain some- thing new, or to enjoy the results of its creative activ- ity. At the same time, he observed that the child, as a living being, is attracted most by living tilings, and, in the next place, by moving or movable objects. These and similar observations led him to the inven- tion of a number of gifts or playthings for little children. In the construction of these gifts he was guided by his law of the " connection of contrasts." He holds that we owe all our knowledge, primarily, to contrasts in the PROEBEL. 117 qualities of surrounding objects. By these contrasts our attention is drawn to the objects, to their comparison, their observation; without them, comparison and ob- servation mental life, indeed would be impossible, unthinkable. These contrasts, however, are brought together again, reduced to a common idea by intervening degrees of the same quality in other objects. The discovery of these intervening degrees he designates by the name, "con- nection of contrasts," a process by which the mutual relations in the qualities of objects are brought out, and the unity, the oneness in them is unveiled. All thinking, he maintains, is reducible to this law ; every step in the history of ideas rests upon it; even in emotional life, in the formation of taste and character, and in physical development, it holds good. * The gifts, or playthings, consist of balls, cylinders, cones, variously dissected cubes, quadrilateral and tri- angular tablets, sticks, mats for weaving, etc. By means of these the child is gradually and pleasantly introduced into the world of ideas, gains notions of cor- poreality, of color, shape, size, number, etc. At the same time, it learns to use them in imitating and, consequently, fixing ideas gained from other objects, in inventing new, more or less abstract combinations of the component parts of the gift. The results of the child's more or less self-active efforts are classified by Froebel as forms of cognition, of * For a full discussion and illustrations of this law, as well as for a detailed description of Froebel's gifts, I refer the reader to my Kindergarten Culture. 118 HISTORY OP PEDAGOGY. life, and of beauty. By the forms of cognition the child obtains and fixes new ideas, gains knowledge; by the forms of life it reproduces or expresses, more or less faithfully, ideas gained from surrounding objects; and by the forms of beauty, or symmetrical arrangements of the parts of the gift, it trains its inventive powers and forms its taste. Thus the third gift, a two-inch cube dissected into eight one-inch cubes, offers combinations of its compo- nent parts forms of cognition by which the child obtains ideas of number, shape, size, and relations of position. Again, it enables the child to build, in rude outline, tables, chairs, walls, ladders, bridges, and other forms of life; and the eight cubical blocks offer much scope in producing a variety of symmetrical arrange- ments, or forms of beauty. He lays great stress, too, upon the development of physical vigor, grace, and skill, by means of calisthenic and gymnastic exercises; upon the cultivation of taste, scope, and power in language, by means of declamation, song, and lively conversation ; and upon the simultane- ous training of hand and head in imitative and in- ventive drawing on slates and paper, specially prepared and ruled for the guidance of the little artists. A most important feature of his invention we have, again, in the social games, and in the fact that all the occupations of the kindergarten are managed in such a way as to unfold and train the social nature of the child. From the very beginning, the child is taught by direct experience that it finds the richest source of happiness in doing good in usefulness; and that it gains strength for greater usefulness in the free, voluntary union with FROEBEL. 119 others, in the social subordination to common purposes. At the same time, the kindergarten takes care not to drown individuality, but, by enlarging its scope, con- tinually offers new and strong incentives for its full development. Froebel looks upon the little children as organic beings, whose growth must be led and followed by the educator as the growth of plants is led and followed by the gardener; hence the name kindergarten garden for children. It is true that he would have an actual garden connected with these institutions, so that the child may, by direct observation, become familiar with the laws of growth, and learn to know and love nature, of which it, too, is an exponent. Still, such a garden, while it is eminently desirable, is not an essential feature of the kindergarten, since there are many other ways to accomplish similar results. Among these, the cultivation of plants in pots or boxes, and occasional excursions into the fields and forests, occupy a promi- nent place. Froebel, however, would make the kindergarten not only a place for the proper education of little children, but also a training-school for mothers and nurses. He appeals most earnestly to mothers to visit the kinder- garten, to attend its teachings, to practice there the art of bringing up the little ones; and he would estab- lish institutions in which young girls can prepare themselves for the difficult and responsible duties of a mother or nurse. Fortunately, his appeals were not unheeded; for Europe, and more especially Germany, can boast of a number of such training-schools, doing admirable work, increasing daily in scope and influ- 120 HISTORY OP PEDAGOGY. < ence, and sending out annually hundreds of enthusi- astic and skillful missionaries in the good cause. Again, Froebel's plans did not end with the kinder- garten. Finding the body pedagogic diseased, he did not propose to cure it by the mere addition of a healthy member, which would be doomed to become a prey to the general degeneracy of that body; but he meant that the kindergarten should leaven the entire system of teaching children, at home and at school. He would have it used as an entering wedge to break down whatever is illogical, unnatural nay, inhuman in family and school education ; he would make it the forerunner of school and youth gardens, i. e., of institu- tions in which the learner is placed in the most favor- able circumstances for self-active, organic growth in every direction of his being, where knowledge and skill, saying and doing, theory and practice, go hand in hand at every step. Indeed, his labors have already brought forth rich fruit. Even a superficial review of the progress of edu- cational principles in modern times, yields abundant proof of the great influence that Froebel has exerted upon the spirit which animates this progress. Every- where we see the tendency to technical education ; drawing forms a branch of instruction in all well- appointed school systems, even in our country; calis- thenic and gymnastic exercises gain ground from day to day; music cheers the souls of thousands of little learners, where a few years ago there was only the monotonous drawl of recitation or the excited tone of the rebuking teacher. Again, it can not be denied that the employment of FROEBEL. 121 female teachers, particularly in elementary schools, is due, to a great extent, to Froebel's influence. He held that teaching the little ones is the natural calling of woman; that by her greater tenderness, her deeper sympathy for the yearnings of children, by her quicker perception of their needs and wants, by her more inti- mate relationship to the child, by her readier adapta- bility to its ways, by her more graceful movements and her more winning words, she is much better fitted than man other circumstances being the same to arouse the child to free obedience and eager self-activity, and to implant the seeds of love and purity in its heart. Similarly, the growing employment of love, good habit, and reason in discipline, in preference to brute force; the greater attention paid to the plays of chil- dren ; the gaining practice of co-education of the sexes, at least in elementary schools; the war against one- sidedness in education ; the greater respect paid to child-nature ; the increasing value attached to self- activity and individuality ; the demand for less routine and more work in the branches of instruction; the gradual decline of artifice before the claims of nature ; the steady retreat of machine-teaching before natural development, are unquestionably due, in a high degree, to Froebel's influence. It is a significant fact, when we consider what stress was laid by Froebel upon the training of women for the important work of early education, that, both in this country and in Europe, the leading apostleship for the new education was assumed by women. In Europe, the baronness Bertha von Marenholtz-Buelow has devoted 11. p. n. 122 HISTORY OP PEDAGOGY. her life to the diffusion of Froebel's teachings. She has established kindergartens in France, Belgium, Holland, Switzerland, England, and Italy; and Austria has even incorporated the kindergarten with her public school system. In America, Miss Eliza P. Peabody and her sister, Mrs. Horace Mann, first drew public attention to the new education by the publication of their "Kinder- garten Guide" and by the establishment of a genuine English kindergarten in Boston, a few years ago. Thus the good work is progressing nobly; and the regeneration of education, on the basis of Froebel's ideas, is slowly and surely finding its way into the home, as well as into the school. LECTURE XII. SUMMING UP CONCLUSION. WE see from the preceding lectures how the Caucasian race has gradually and surely approached the principles of development or evolution in the work of education. It appears that these principles were already, in a de- gree, felt and followed by the Greeks; on the other hand, even the superficial student of the educational systems of our day will often come across practices that seem to be fully as far removed from the laws of de- velopment as Chinese education has been from time immemorial. This must needs be so, since the roots of our civiliza- tion lie far down in Greek soil; and as far as our civilization contains truth, Greek culture must have contained the seeds of truth. For truth may displace or destroy falsehood, may even grow strong upon it, but never can come from it. Nor can we, on the other hand, hope ever to reach full, unalloyed, absolute truth, error ever will surround us, and eat its way into the inmost life of many, to goad the race on to that con- stant search, that eager yearning for truth, which con- stitutes progress. (123) 124 HISTORY OP PEDAGOGY. The Greeks emancipated education from the curse of caste and asserted the claims of individuality; not, it is true, without a grand final struggle between Plato, who would sacrifice the individual to the state, and who calls for an equal, common, public education, and Aristotle, the champion of individual liberty and of the sacredness of family ties, with which public education never must interfere. At the same time, the Greeks teach the race to look upward beyond the realms of merely sensual existence, establish high ideals of edu- cation " the Good and the Beautiful " and demand harmony in culture ; while their greatest teachers, Pythagoras and Socrates, pave the way to sound natural and rational methods of instruction. Subsequently, the excessive idealism of Greek culture found a corrective in the sturdy realism, the practical common sense of the Romans; and when Rome lay dying of her own gross sins, Christianit}^ came to save the highest achievements of the race, and to fertilize them with new elements of health and vigor. ~ Christianity, a child of Semitic civilization a civil- ization that looked with the greatest reverence upon the family, and considered the fear of God as the highest virtue engrafted upon European culture the principle of strict humanity, liberated it from the bane of arbitrary and accidental external distinctions among men, raised woman to full equality with her mate before God, and taught respect for children, the framers of the future. And when, in the middle ages, its high teachings had been misapplied by the selfishness of man for sordid and ambitious ends, or perverted by diseased CONCLUSION. 125 superstition into a curse, blasting earthly happiness and paralyzing usefulness in real life, philosophy came to the rescue, dispelled the clouds, the Sun of Truth was again revealed, and his restoring and reforming rays aroused European civilization to a new and better life. Progress, that had slumbered so long, awoke to new vigor and made rapid strides under the leadership of Bacon, Locke, Descartes, Spinoza, Kant, and a host of others. Through the influence of these great men, pure, unalloyed humanity became the soul; the harmonious development of well-balanced, self-dependent, vigorous, and virtuous human beings, the aim of educational efforts. Man was shown to be an organic being, subject in all his manifestations of existence to ordinary, natu- ral laws; growing, developing, in all directions of his being, organically, from within outward; and all edu- cational ends and means that are not in accordance with these conquests of philosophy were proved to be pernicious, and are gradually yielding before the su- preme power of better insight. Among the many prominent mediators of this better insight, we have singled out Comenius, Francke, Pesta- lozzi, and Froebel, each one representing some important phase in the growth of a school practice, corresponding in scope and spirit with the laws and aims of the devel- oping education : Comenius as the pioneer of vernacular schools, of intuitional teaching, and of analytico-syn- thetic methods ; Francke, as the founder of scientific and technical schools, the champion of individuality and of the greater importance of training the pupil's powers and forming his character, compared with mere 126 HISTORY OF PEDAGOGY. instruction ; Pestalozzi, as the father of popular educa- tion and expounder of natural methods in the acquisi- tion of knowledge ; and Froebel, as the apostle of self- activity, of the productive side in child-nature, and of female influence in the work of education^ After thus reviewing some of the leading features in the history of developing education, it behooves us to ask ourselves to what extent our own school system, our immediate schools, our personal principles and practice, satisfy in tendency, scope, and character the require- ments of the "new education," so that our work may reap direct benefits from our study. Of course, only the first of these, our school system, is open for our common consideration ; and, with reference to this, I beg leave to offer a few average results of my own personal observation. It is a source of just congratulation to the Ameri- can citizen, that the political and social institutions of his country are more favorable, nearer to humanity than those of any other great nation in the world. Our Constitution grants equal political rights to all citizens, and respects personal freedom to such an ex- tent that it leaves the conscience of all men free, with reference to religious opinions and practices. Socially, we judge men by their inner worth and by their achievements, caring not for external or accidental distinctions, except where fashion has imported folly from abroad. Even the exorbitant value placed upon wealth has its root in this, since wealth is the com- monest reward of excellence. Hence, too, woman showing herself in so many activities the equal of man occupies among us a higher social position, and CONCLUSION. 127 exerts a greater influence upon the general welfare, than in any other civilized country. Even children are treated with greater consideration and looked upon with more respect than elsewhere. These things have developed in the American citizen an almost instinctive independence of character, which is exceedingly favorable to the development of strong individualities. Add to this the traditional energy and endurance of the American, which he owes to the early struggles of his forefathers with a reluctant wilderness and an obstinate race, and to the glorious war of the revolution ; add our great national power and the vast- ness of our resources that render us wholly independent of other nations, and there seems to be 110 reason why our country should not stand foremost in culture, and our educational systems be the best, nearest to the ideal of the great teachers whom we have reviewed. On the other hand, the doctrine of equal rights may produce jealousy in those less favored with capacity or success, and may bring about an equalization, particu- larly in educational efforts, which is adverse to the assertion and development of individuality. Excessive respect and consideration shown to the young may breed a self-satisfied conceit, which, in its turn, brings forth indolence. The ease of making a living may strengthen this indolence, and render man content with the acquisition of wealth and comfort, or pervert his energy into a nervous chase after money, which gives him the means to plunge into a whirlpool of gross, exciting, sensual pleasures. Thus, the very blessings that are justly our greatest boast, expose us to a self-conceit, an indolence, a sensu- 128 HISTORY OF PEDAGOGY. ality, an egotism, that may pervert those very blessings into curses, if we are not ever humbly watchful of our- selves. Add to this, again, the fact that we owe to our mother-country, England, an almost bigoted respect for authority and precedent ; a conservativism that hangs ever like lead upon the skirts of progress ; a utilitarian tendency that worships the real, while it scorns the ideal or smiles at it, and we can readily understand that much energy will yet have to be expended, if the manhood of our country is to justify the hopes and expectations of its youth, Yet, if we take our school system, the mightiest factor of the future, as a criterion, we have reason to feel reassured and encouraged. -It is true, our school system still struggles with many difficulties and suffers from a host of faults. So many parents and school trustees have no idea of the importance or the aims of true education. A great number of teachers look upon their work as a temporary, convenient mode of making a living. The school aims, in so many in- stances, almost exclusively at directly visible results, and crushes all efforts at the development of mental and physical vigor, of individuality and character, under the dead weight of percentage; it would force all the pupils to do a certain number of things equally well, and thus hampers progress, favors show, and does nothing very thoroughly nor very far; it reduces the teacher to a recitation machine and the pupil to a memorizing contrivance; it does, indeed, many things that are useless or injurious, and neglects many things that are indispensable, if education is to prepare the young for full usefulness and true happiness. CONCLUSION. 12ft On the other hand, our people as a whole, at least in the states that have enjoyed the benefits of a common school system, seem to be aware of the necessity of schools, seem to feel that ; good comes or can come from them. This feeling may, in many cases, be quite in- distinct and ill-defined; but it is sufficiently keen to render them ever ready to sacrifice wealth for the maintenance and improvement ' of their schools. No country in the world, except, perhaps, some portions of Switzerland, can boast of expending so much for schools, in proportion to the cost of other public con- cerns,-as these favored states; and all the states of the Union are gradually but surely drifting to this desirable condition. The wish to send to school is so general and grows so rapidly, that the necessity of compulsory laws be- comes ever less urgent. Our school-houses are built commodiously, with fair provisions for light, air, heat, and for comfort in the seats. Our school appliances, within the narrow but expanding scope of our subjects of instruction, are good and improving. In the methods of instruction, imperfect as they are, much of the work is thrown upon the learner often, indeed, more than his powers justify. The demand for play-grounds, for physical training, for respect to the development of the body, for technical instruction, for a more intimate intercourse with; nature, is steadily increasing. In dis- cipline there is a growing tendency to do away with force and mere authority, and to rely more and more upon insight and good habits on the part of the pupil ; although, of late, a cheap sort of military discipline has been retarding sound progress quite considerably. 130 HISTORY OF PEDAGOGY. At the same time, the number of parents and school trustees that appreciate the requirements of a truly good education is gaining from year to year. And, best of all, the number of teachers who feel the divinity of their calling, and who are willing to forego more lucra- tive or less trying occupations for the sake of devoting their lives to this, is rapidly swelling, thanks to the liberality of the people and to the influence of normal schools. Before the stout hearts, the clear heads, and the skillful hands of these men and women, the ene- mies of progress and of a rational, natural, humane education active and passive, animate and inanimate, be their name ignorance or incapacity, pedantry or pre- tense, selfishness or prejudice will be repelled into the past as steadily and surely as time inarches into the future. UC SOUTHERN REGIONAL LIBRARY FACILITY A 001 413600 6