A STUDENT’S HISTORY OF EDUCATION
BOOKS ON THE HISTORY OF EDUCATION
By
DEAN FRANK P. GRAVES
A HISTORY OF EDUCATION IN THREE VOLUMES
Vol. I. Before the Middle Ages
Vol. II. During the Middle Ages and the Transition to Modern Times
Vol. III. In Modern Times
GREAT EDUCATORS OF THREE CENTURIES
PETER RAMUS AND THE EDUCATIONAL REFORMATION OF THE SIXTEENTH CENTURY
A STUDENT’S HISTORY OF EDUCATION
A STUDENT’S HISTORY
OF EDUCATION
BY
FRANK PIERREPONT GRAVES
(PH.D., COLUMBIA)
DEAN OF THE SCHOOL OF EDUCATION AND PROFESSOR
OF THE HISTORY OF EDUCATION IN THE
UNIVERSITY OF PENNSYLVANIA
New York
THE MACMILLAN COMPANY
1922
_All rights reserved_
COPYRIGHT, 1915,
BY THE MACMILLAN COMPANY.
Set up and electrotyped. Published July, 1915.
Norwood Press:
Berwick & Smith Co., Norwood, Mass., U.S.A.
TO
WILLIAM OXLEY THOMPSON, LL.D.
PRESIDENT OF THE OHIO STATE UNIVERSITY
WITH APPRECIATIVE MEMORIES OF
SIX PLEASANT YEARS OF ASSOCIATION
PREFACE
There is a growing conviction among those engaged in training teachers
that the History of Education must justify itself. It is believed
that, if this subject is to contribute to the professional equipment
of the teacher, its material must be selected with reference to his
specific needs. Antiquarian interests and encyclopædic completeness are
alluring and may in their place prove praiseworthy and valuable, but
they do not in themselves supply any definite demand in the training
of teachers. The greatest services that the History of Education can
perform for the teacher are to impel him to analyze his problems more
completely and to throw light upon the school practices with which he
is himself concerned. By presenting a series of clear-cut views of past
conditions, often in marked contrast to his own, it should make him
conscious that the present educational situation has to a large degree
been traditionally received, and it should at the same time especially
help him to understand the origin and significance of current practices.
In this way a study of the History of Education will disrupt the
teacher’s complacent acceptance of the present, and will enable him
to reconstruct his ideas in the light of the peculiar conditions out
of which the education of his times has sprung. Whenever historical
records do not assist in such an analysis and synthesis of present
day problems, they may be frankly dismissed from discussion. This
conception of the subject, I have myself, with much reluctance, come
to accept. My own regard for the classics, philosophy, and general
history as college disciplines has caused me to view with apprehension
any disposition to curtail their scope. It now seems clear, however,
that the modern tendency to emphasize the functional aspects of the
History of Education is both necessary and wise. The present work,
therefore, is not a mere condensation of my _History of Education in
Three Volumes_, but has been very largely re-written from the new angle.
In the first place, I have sought to stress educational institutions
and practices, rather than theories that did not find embodiment in
the times. This has led to the omission of much that is unessential or
more strictly related to philosophy, general history, or literature.
For example, even the immortal work of Plato and Aristotle has been
epitomized; the entire subject of mysticism and most of scholasticism
have been dropped; the masterpieces of such pure theorists as Rabelais,
Montaigne, and Mulcaster, are barely mentioned; and the various
historical epochs are given only so much detail as may be needed to
form a social setting for the educational movements of those periods.
Secondly, it has seemed to me that our present problems in education
can best be analyzed through a knowledge of the practices that have
developed in modern times. Hence, while this book includes an account
of all educational endeavor from the day of primitive man to the
present, somewhat more than one-half the material is connected with the
last two centuries. Even the attractive period of Hellenic activity
and the fascinating stories of monasticism and of chivalry have been
reduced to a minimum. But, though most of the changes in the earlier
half of the work are in the nature of shortening, or have to do with
more immediate connections, some topics, notably the development of
commerce and cities (Chapter XI) and the analysis of formal discipline
(Chapter XVI), have seemed to be so closely connected with subsequent
progress as to deserve more adequate treatment.
Finally, since this book is intended chiefly for teachers in the United
States, I have believed it most helpful to give considerable space to
the discussion of American education. The account of each educational
movement has included at least an attempt to trace its influence upon
the content, method, and organization of education in the United
States, while three chapters have been devoted exclusively to the rise
of educational systems in this country.
My indebtedness for many valuable features in this book is heavy.
The idea of an _Outline_, which appears at the beginning of each
chapter, was first suggested to me by the _History of Modern Elementary
Education_ of Dean S. C. Parker of the College of Education, University
of Chicago, although I have adopted a different explanation of its
value. Professor Parker also read through the manuscript and sent me a
general estimate of it. Professors J. H. Coursault of the University
of Missouri, A. J. Jones of the University of Maine, W. H. Kilpatrick
of Columbia University, A. R. Mead of Ohio Wesleyan University, and A.
L. Suhrie of the West Chester (Pennsylvania) State Normal School, have
all read the manuscript through with exceeding care and furnished me
with numerous corrections and criticisms, both particular and general.
Professor T. H. Briggs of Columbia University suggested a number of
improvements in the chapter upon Present Day Tendencies in Education
(XXVII). The chapter upon the Educational Influences of the Reformation
(XIII) has been relieved of several inaccuracies, and possibly of some
Protestant bias, through the assistance of the Rev. Benedict Guldner,
S. J., of St. Joseph’s College, and of Brother Denis Edward, F. S. C.,
President of La Salle College, Philadelphia. I have also, as usual,
been greatly aided by my wife, Helen Wadsworth Graves.
F. P. G.
CONTENTS
_PART I_
ANCIENT TIMES
CHAPTER I
PAGE
THE EARLIEST EDUCATION 3
The Value of the History of Education. Its Treatment
in This Book. Primitive Education. Oriental
Education. India: Its Religion and Castes. The Hindu
Education. Effect of the Hindu Education. India as
Typical of the Orient. Jewish Education.