International Education Series
EDITED BY
WILLIAM T. HARRIS, A. M., LL. D.
_Volume XVII._
THE INTERNATIONAL EDUCATION SERIES.
12mo, cloth, uniform binding.
The International Education Series was projected for the purpose of
bringing together in orderly arrangement the best writings, new and old,
upon educational subjects, and presenting a complete course of reading
and training for teachers generally. It is edited by W. T. HARRIS, LL.
D., United States Commissioner of Education, who has contributed for the
different volumes in the way of introductions, analysis, and commentary.
The volumes are tastefully and substantially bound in uniform style.
_VOLUMES NOW READY._
Vol. I.—THE PHILOSOPHY OF EDUCATION. By JOHANN K. F.
ROSENKRANZ, Doctor of Theology and Professor of Philosophy,
University of Königsberg. Translated by ANNA C. BRACKETT.
Second edition, revised, with Commentary and complete Analysis.
$1.50.
Vol. II.—A HISTORY OF EDUCATION. By F. V. N. PAINTER, A. M.,
Professor of Modern Languages and Literature, Roanoke College,
Va. $1.50.
Vol. III.—THE RISE AND EARLY CONSTITUTION OF UNIVERSITIES.
WITH A SURVEY OF MEDIÆVAL EDUCATION. By S. S. LAURIE, LL.
D., Professor of the Institutes and History of Education,
University of Edinburgh. $1.50.
Vol. IV.—THE VENTILATION AND WARMING OF SCHOOL BUILDINGS. By
GILBERT B. MORRISON, Teacher of Physics and Chemistry, Kansas
City High School. $1.00.
Vol. V.—THE EDUCATION OF MAN. By FRIEDRICH FROEBEL. Translated
and annotated by W. N. HAILMANN, A. M., Superintendent of
Public Schools, La Porte, Ind. $1.50.
Vol. VI.—ELEMENTARY PSYCHOLOGY AND EDUCATION. By JOSEPH
BALDWIN, A.M., LL. D., author of “The Art of School
Management.” $1.50.
Vol. VII.—THE SENSES AND THE WILL. (Part I of “THE MIND OF
THE CHILD.”) By W. PREYER, Professor of Physiology in Jena.
Translated by H. W. BROWN, Teacher in the State Normal School
at Worcester, Mass. $1.50.
Vol. VIII.—MEMORY: WHAT IT IS AND HOW TO IMPROVE IT. By DAVID
KAY, F. R. G. S., author of “Education and Educators,” etc.
$1.50.
Vol. IX.—THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE INTELLECT. (Part II of “THE
MIND OF THE CHILD.”) By W. PREYER, Professor of Physiology in
Jena. Translated by H. W. BROWN. $1.50.
Vol. X.—HOW TO STUDY GEOGRAPHY. A Practical Exposition of
Methods and Devices in Teaching Geography which apply the
Principles and Plans of Ritter and Guyot. By FRANCIS W. PARKER,
Principal of the Cook County (Illinois) Normal School. $1.50.
Vol. XI.—EDUCATION IN THE UNITED STATES: ITS HISTORY FROM THE
EARLIEST SETTLEMENTS. By RICHARD G. BOONE, A. M., Professor of
Pedagogy, Indiana University. $1.50.
Vol. XII.—EUROPEAN SCHOOLS: OR, WHAT I SAW IN THE SCHOOLS OF
GERMANY, FRANCE, AUSTRIA, AND SWITZERLAND. By L. R. KLEMM,
Ph. D., Principal of the Cincinnati Technical School. Fully
illustrated. $2.00.
Vol. XIII.—PRACTICAL HINTS FOR THE TEACHERS OF PUBLIC SCHOOLS.
By GEORGE HOWLAND, Superintendent of the Chicago Public
Schools. $1.00.
Vol. XIV.—PESTALOZZI: HIS LIFE AND WORK. By ROGER DE GUIMPS.
Authorized Translation from the second French edition, by J.
RUSSELL, B. A. With an Introduction by Rev. R. H. QUICK, M. A.
$1.50.
Vol. XV.—SCHOOL SUPERVISION. By J. L. PICKARD, LL. D. $1.00.
Vol. XVI.—HIGHER EDUCATION OF WOMEN IN EUROPE. By HELENE LANGE,
Berlin. Translated and accompanied by comparative statistics by
L. R. KLEMM. $1.00.
Vol. XVII.—ESSAYS ON EDUCATIONAL REFORMERS. By ROBERT HERBERT
QUICK, M. A., Trinity College, Cambridge. _Only authorized
edition of the work as rewritten in 1890._ $1.50.
Vol. XVIII.—A TEXT-BOOK IN PSYCHOLOGY. By JOHANN FRIEDRICH
HERBART. Translated by MARGARET K. SMITH. $1.00.
Vol. XIX.—PSYCHOLOGY APPLIED TO THE ART OF TEACHING. By JOSEPH
BALDWIN, A. M., LL. D. $1.50.
Vol. XX.—ROUSSEAU’S ÉMILE: OR, TREATISE ON EDUCATION.
Translated and annotated by W. H. PAYNE, Ph. D., LL. D.,
Chancellor of the University of Nashville. $1.50.
Vol. XXI.—THE MORAL INSTRUCTION OF CHILDREN. By FELIX ADLER.
$1.50.
Vol. XXII.—ENGLISH EDUCATION IN THE ELEMENTARY AND SECONDARY
SCHOOLS. By ISAAC SHARPLESS, LL. D., President of Haverford
College. $1.00.
Vol. XXIII.—EDUCATION FROM A NATIONAL STANDPOINT. By ALFRED
FOUILLÉE. $1.50.
Vol. XXIV.—MENTAL DEVELOPMENT IN THE CHILD. By W. PREYER,
Professor of Physiology in Jena. Translated by H. W. BROWN.
$1.00.
Vol. XXV.—HOW TO STUDY AND TEACH HISTORY. By B. A. HINSDALE,
Ph. D., LL. D., University of Michigan. $1.50.
Vol. XXVI.—SYMBOLIC EDUCATION: A COMMENTARY ON FROEBEL’S
“MOTHER PLAY.” By SUSAN E. BLOW. $1.50.
Vol. XXVII.—SYSTEMATIC SCIENCE TEACHING. By EDWARD GARDNIER
HOWE. $1.50.
Vol. XXVIII.—THE EDUCATION OF THE GREEK PEOPLE. By THOMAS
DAVIDSON. $1.50.
Vol. XXIX.—THE EVOLUTION OF THE MASSACHUSETTS PUBLIC-SCHOOL
SYSTEM. By G. H. MARTIN, A.M. $1.50.
Vol. XXX.—PEDAGOGICS OF THE KINDERGARTEN. By FRIEDRICH FROEBEL.
12mo. $1.50.
Vol. XXXI.—THE MOTTOES AND COMMENTARIES OF FRIEDRICH FROEBEL’S
MOTHER PLAY. By SUSAN E. BLOW and HENRIETTA R. ELIOT. $1.50.
Vol. XXXII.—THE SONGS AND MUSIC OF FROEBEL’S MOTHER PLAY. By
SUSAN E. BLOW. $1.50.
Vol. XXXIII.—THE PSYCHOLOGY OF NUMBER, AND ITS APPLICATIONS TO
METHODS OF TEACHING ARITHMETIC. By JAMES A. MCLELLAN, A. M.,
and JOHN DEWEY, Ph. D. $1.50.
Vol. XXXIV.—TEACHING THE LANGUAGE-ARTS. SPEECH, READING,
COMPOSITION. By B. A. HINSDALE, Ph. D., LL. D., Professor of
Science and the Art of Teaching in the University of Michigan.
$1.00.
Vol. XXXV.—THE INTELLECTUAL AND MORAL DEVELOPMENT OF THE CHILD.
PART I. CONTAINING CHAPTERS ON PERCEPTION, EMOTION, MEMORY,
IMAGINATION, AND CONSCIOUSNESS. By GABRIEL COMPAYRÉ. Translated
from the French by MARY E. WILSON, B. L. Smith College,
Member of the Graduate Seminary in Child Study, University of
California. $1.50.
Vol. XXXVI.—HERBART’S A B C OF SENSE-PERCEPTION, AND
INTRODUCTORY WORKS. By WILLIAM J. ECKOFF, Ph. D., Pd. D.,
Professor of Pedagogy in the University of Illinois; Author of
“Kant’s Inaugural Dissertation.” $1.50.
Vol. XXXVII.—PSYCHOLOGIC FOUNDATIONS OF EDUCATION. By WILLIAM
T. HARRIS, A. M., LL. D.
Vol. XXXVIII.—THE SCHOOL SYSTEM OF ONTARIO. By the Hon. GEORGE
W. ROSS, LL. D., Minister of Education for the Province of
Ontario. $1.00
Vol. XXXIX.—PRINCIPLES AND PRACTICE OF TEACHING. By JAMES
JOHONNOT. $1.50.
Vol. XL.—SCHOOL MANAGEMENT AND SCHOOL METHODS. By JOSEPH
BALDWIN.
OTHERS IN PREPARATION.
New York: D. APPLETON & CO., Publishers, 72 Fifth Avenue.
_INTERNATIONAL EDUCATION SERIES_
ESSAYS ON
EDUCATIONAL REFORMERS
BY
ROBERT HEBERT QUICK
M. A. TRIN. COLL., CAMBRIDGE
FORMERLY ASSISTANT MASTER AT HARROW, AND LECTURER ON
THE HISTORY OF EDUCATION AT CAMBRIDGE
LATE VICAR OF SEDBERGH
_ONLY AUTHORIZED EDITION OF THE WORK
AS REWRITTEN IN 1890_
NEW YORK
D. APPLETON AND COMPANY
1896
COPYRIGHT, 1890,
BY D. APPLETON AND COMPANY.
To
DR. HENRY BARNARD,
_The first United States Commissioner of Education_,
WHO IN A LONG LIFE OF
SELF-SACRIFICING LABOUR HAS GIVEN TO THE ENGLISH
LANGUAGE AN EDUCATIONAL LITERATURE,
THIS VOLUME IS DEDICATED,
WITH THE ESTEEM AND ADMIRATION OF
THE AUTHOR.
Οὺ γὰρ ἔστι περὶ ὅτου θειοτέρου ἄνθρωπος ἄν βουλεύσαιτο, ὴ
περὶ παιδείας καὶ τῶν αὑτοῦ και τῶν οἰκείων. _Plato in initio
Theagis_ (p. 122 B).
Socrates saith plainlie, that “no man goeth about a more godlie
purpose, than he that is mindfull of the good bringing up both
of hys owne and other men’s children.”—_Ascham’s Scholemaster.
Preface._
_Fundamentum totius reipublicæ est recta juventutis educatio._
The very foundation of the whole commonwealth is the proper
bringing up of the young.—_Cic._
EDITOR’S PREFACE.
Many years ago I proposed to my friend Mr. Quick to rewrite his
Educational Reformers, making some additions (Sturm and Froebel, for
example), and allow me to place it in this series of educational works.
I had read his essays when they first appeared, and noted their great
value as a contribution to the right kind of educational literature.
They showed admirable tact in the selection of the materials; the
“epoch-making” writers were chosen and the things that had been said and
done of permanent value were brought forward. Better than all was the
running commentary on these materials by Mr. Quick himself. His style
was popular, taking the reader, as it were, into confidential relations
with him from the start, and offering now and then a word of criticism in
the most judicial spirit, leaning neither to the extreme of destructive
radicalism, which seeks revolution rather than reform, nor, on the other
hand, to the extreme of blind conservatism, which wishes to preserve the
vesture of the past rather than its wisdom.
I have called this book of Mr. Quick the most valuable history of
education in our mother-tongue, fit only to be compared with Karl von
Raumer’s Geschichte der Pädagogik for its presentation of essentials and
for the sanity of its verdicts.
I made my proposal that he “rewrite” his book because I knew that he
considered his first edition hastily written and, in many respects, not
adequate to the ideal he had conceived of the book. I knew, moreover,
that years of continued thinking on a theme necessarily modifies one’s
views. He would wish to make some changes in matter presented, some in
judgments rendered, and many more in style of presentation.
Hence it has come about that after this lapse of time Mr. Quick has
produced a substantially new book, which, retaining all or nearly all
of the admirable features of the first edition, has brought up to their
standard of excellence many others.
The history of education is a vast field, and we are accustomed to demand
bulky treatises as the only adequate ones. But the obvious disadvantage
of such works has led to the clearly defined ideal of a book like Mr.
Quick’s, which separates the gold from the dross, and offers it small in
bulk but precious in value.
The educational reformers are the men above all others who stimulate
us to think about education. Every one of these was an extremist, and
erred in his judgment as to the value of the methods which prevailed in
his time, and also overestimated the effects of the new education that
he proposed in the place of the old. But thought begins with negations,
and originality shows itself first not in creating something new, but in
removing the fettering limitations of its existing environment. The old
is attacked—its good and its bad are condemned alike. It has been imposed
on us by authority, and we have not been allowed to summon it before
the bar of our reason and ask of it its credentials. It informs us that
it presented these credentials ages ago to our ancestors—men older and
wiser than we are. Such imposition of authority leaves us no choice but
to revolt. We, too, have a right to think as well as our ancestors; we,
too, must clear up the ground of our belief and substitute insight for
blind faith in tradition.
These educational reformers are prophets of the clearing-up period
(_Aufklärung_) of revolution against mere authority.
While we are inspired to think for ourselves, however, we must not
neglect that more important matter of thinking the truth. Free-thinking,
if it does not reach the truth, is not of great value. It sets itself
as puny individual against the might of the race, which preserves its
experience in the forms of institutions—the family, the social organism,
the state, the Church.
Hence our wiser and more scientific method studies everything that is,
or exists, in its history, and endeavors to discover how it came to be
what it is. It inquires into its evolution. The essential truth is not
the present fact, but the entire process by which the present fact grew
to be what it is. For the living force that made the present fact made
also the past facts antecedent to the present, and it will go on making
subsequent facts. The revelation of the living forces which make the
facts of existence is the object of science. It takes all these facts to
reveal the living force that is acting and producing them.
Hence the scientific attitude is superior to the attitude of these
educational reformers, and we shall in our own minds weigh these men
in our scales, asking first of all: What is their view of the world?
How much do they value human institutions? How much do they know of
the substantial good that is wrought by those institutions? If they
know nothing of these things, if they see only incumbrance in these
institutions, if to them the individual is the measure of all things, we
can not do reverence to their proposed remedies, but must account their
value to us chiefly this, that they have stimulated us to thinking, and
helped us to discover what they have not discovered—namely, the positive
value of institutions.
All education deals with the boundary between ignorance and knowledge and
between bad habits and good ones. The pupil as pupil brings with him the
ignorance and the bad habits, and is engaged in acquiring good habits and
correct knowledge.
This situation gives us a general recipe for a frequently recurring type
of educational reformer. Any would-be reformer may take his stand on the
boundary mentioned, and, casting an angry look at the realm of ignorance
and bad habit not yet conquered, condemn in wholesale terms the system of
education that has not been efficient in removing this mental and moral
darkness.
Such a reformer selects an examination paper written by a pupil whose
ignorance is not yet vanquished, and parades the same as a product of
the work of the school, taking great pains to avoid an accurate and
just admeasurement of the actual work done by the school. The reformer
critic assumes that there is one factor here, whereas there are three
factors—namely, (_a_) the pupil’s native and acquired powers of learning,
(_b_) his actual knowledge acquired, and (_c_) the instruction given
by the school. The school is not responsible for the first and second
of these factors, but it is responsible only for what increment has
grown under its tutelage. How much and what has the pupil increased his
knowledge, and how much his power of acquiring knowledge and of doing?
The educational reformer is always telling us to leave words and take
up things. He dissuades from the study of language, and also undervalues
the knowledge of manners and customs and laws and usages. He dislikes
the study of institutions even. He “loves Nature,” as he informs us.
Herbert Spencer wants us to study the body, and to be more interested
in biology than in formal logic; more interested in natural history
than in literature. But I think he would be indignant if one were to
ask him whether he thought the study of the habits and social instincts
of bees and ants is less important than the study of insect anatomy and
physiology. Anatomy and physiology are, of course, important, but the
social organism is more important than the physiological organism, even
in bees and ants.
So in man the social organism is transcendent as compared with human
physiology, and social hygiene compared with physiological hygiene is
supreme.
To suppose that the habits of plants and insects are facts, and that the
structure of human languages, the logical structure of the mind itself as
revealed in the figures and modes of the syllogism and the manners and
customs of social life, the deep ethical principles which govern peoples
as revealed in works of literature—to suppose that these and the like
of these are not real facts and worthy of study is one of the strangest
delusions that has ever prevailed.
But it is a worse delusion to suppose that the study of Nature is more
practical than the study of man, though this is often enough claimed by
the educational reformers.
The knowledge of most worth is first and foremost the knowledge of how
to behave—a knowledge of social customs and usages. Any person totally
ignorant in this regard would not escape imprisonment—perhaps I should
say decapitation—for one day in any city of the world—say in London,
in Pekin, in Timbuctoo, or in a _pueblo_ of Arizona. A knowledge of
human customs and usages, next a knowledge of human views of Nature and
man—these are of primordial necessity to an individual, and are means of
direct self-preservation.
The old trivium or threefold course of study at the university taught
grammar, logic, and rhetoric—namely, (1) the structure of language, (2)
the structure of mind and the art of reasoning, (3) the principles and
art of persuasion. These may be seen at once to be lofty subjects and
worthy objects of science. They will always remain such, but they are
not easy for the child. In the course of mastering them he must learn to
master himself and gain great intellectual stature. Pedagogy has wisely
graded the road to these heights, and placed much easier studies at the
beginning and also made the studies more various. Improvements in methods
and in grading—devices for interesting the pupil—so essential to his
self-activity, for these we have to thank the Educational Reformers.
W. T. HARRIS.
WASHINGTON, D. C., 1890.
PREFACE TO EDITION OF 1868.
“_It is clear that in whatever it is our duty to act, those matters
also it is our duty to study._” These words of Dr. Arnold’s seem to
me incontrovertible. So a sense of duty, as well as fondness for the
subject, has led me to devote a period of leisure to the study of
_Education_, in the practice of which I have been for some years engaged.
There are countries where it would be considered a truism that a teacher
in order to exercise his profession intelligently should know something
about the chief authorities in it. Here, however, I suppose such an
assertion will seem paradoxical; but there is a good deal to be said
in defence of it. De Quincey has pointed out that a man who takes up
any pursuit without knowing what advances others have made in it works
at a great disadvantage. He does not apply his strength in the right
direction, he troubles himself about small matters and neglects great,
he falls into errors that have long since been exploded. An educator is,
I think, liable to these dangers if he brings to his task no knowledge
but that which he learnt for the tripos, and no skill but that which
he acquired in the cricket ground or on the river. If his pupils are
placed entirely in his hands, his work is one of great difficulty, with
heavy penalties attached to all blundering in it; though here, as in the
case of the ignorant doctor and the careless architect, the penalties,
unfortunately, are paid by his victims. If (as more commonly happens)
he has simply to give a class prescribed instruction, his smaller scope
of action limits proportionally the mischief that may ensue; but even
then it is obviously desirable that his teaching should be as good as
possible, and he is not likely to employ the best methods if he invents
as he goes along, or simply falls back on his remembrance of how he
was taught himself, perhaps in very different circumstances. I venture
to think, therefore, that practical men in education, as in most other
things, may derive benefit from the knowledge of what has already been
said and done by the leading men engaged in it, both past and present.
All study of this kind, however, is very much impeded by want of books.
“Good books are in German,” says Professor Seeley. I have found that on
the history of Education, not only _good_ books but _all_ books are in
German or some other foreign language.[1] I have, therefore, thought
it worth while to publish a few such imperfect sketches as these, with
which the reader can hardly be less satisfied than the author. They may,
however, prove useful till they give place to a better book.
Several of the following essays are nothing more than compilations.
Indeed, a hostile critic might assert that I had used the scissors with
the energy of Mr. Timbs and without his discretion. The reader, however,
will probably agree with me that I have done wisely in putting before
him the opinions of great writers in their own language. Where I am
simply acting as reporter, the author’s own way of expressing himself
is obviously the best; and if, following the example of the gipsies and
Sir Fretful Plagiary, I had disfigured other people’s offspring to make
them pass for my own, success would have been fatal to the purpose I have
steadily kept in view. The sources of original ideas in any subject, as
the student is well aware, are few, but for irrigation we require troughs
as well as water-springs, and these essays are intended to serve in the
humbler capacity.
A word about the incomplete handling of my subjects. I have not attempted
to treat any subject completely, or even with anything like completeness.
In giving a sketch of the opinions of an author one of two methods
must be adopted; we may give an epitome of all that he has said, or by
confining ourselves to his more valuable and characteristic opinions, may
gain space to give these fully. As I detest epitomes, I have adopted the
latter method exclusively, but I may sometimes have failed in selecting
an author’s most characteristic principles; and probably no two readers
of a book would entirely agree as to what was most valuable in it: so
my account must remain, after all, but a poor substitute for the author
himself.
For the part of a critic I have at least one qualification—practical
acquaintance with the subject. As boy or master, I have been connected
with no less than eleven schools, and my perception of the blunders of
other teachers is derived mainly from the remembrance of my own. Some of
my mistakes have been brought home to me by reading works on education,
even those with which I do not in the main agree. Perhaps there are
teachers who on looking through the following pages may meet with a
similar experience.
Had the essays been written in the order in which they stand, a good deal
of repetition might have been avoided, but this repetition has at least
the advantage of bringing out points which seem to me important; and as
no one will read the book as carefully as I have done, I hope no one will
be so much alive to this and other blemishes in it.
I much regret that in a work which is nothing if it is not practically
useful, I have so often neglected to mark the exact place from which
quotations are taken. I have myself paid the penalty of this carelessness
in the trouble it has cost me to verify passages which seemed inaccurate.
The authority I have had recourse to most frequently is Raumer
(_Geschichte der Pädagogik_). In his first two volumes he gives an
account of the chief men connected with education, from Dante to
Pestalozzi. The third volume contains essays on various parts of
education, and the fourth is devoted to German Universities. There is an
English translation, published in America, of the fourth volume only.
I confess to a great partiality for Raumer—a partiality which is not
shared by a Saturday Reviewer and by other competent authorities in this
country. But surely a German author who is not profound, and is almost
perspicuous, has some claim on the gratitude of English readers, if he
gives information which we cannot get in our own language. To Raumer I am
indebted for all that I have written about Ratke, and almost all about
Basedow. Elsewhere his history has been used, though not to the same
extent.
C. A. Schmid’s _Encyclopädie des Erziehungs-und-Unterrichtswesens_ is
a vast mine of information on everything connected with education. The
work is still in progress. The part containing _Rousseau_ has only just
reached me. I should have been glad of it when I was giving an account of
the Emile, as Raumer was of little use to me.
Those for whom Schmid is too diffuse and expensive will find Carl Gottlob
Hergang’s _Pädagogische Realencyclopädie_ useful. This is in two thick
volumes, and costs, to the best of my memory, about eighteen shillings.
It was finished in 1847.
The best sketch I have met with of the general history of education is in
the article on _Pädagogik_ in _Meyers Conversations-Lexicon_.[2] I wish
someone would translate this article; and I should be glad to draw the
attention of the editor of an educational periodical, say the _Museum_ or
the _Quarterly Journal of Education_, to it.
I have come upon references to many other works on the history of
Education, but of these the only ones I have seen are Theodore Fritz’s
_Esquisse d’un Système complet d’instruction et d’éducation et de leur
histoire_ (3 vols., Strasburg, 1843), and Carl Schmidt’s _Geschichte
der Pädagogik_ (4 vols.). The first of these gives only the outline of
the subject. The second is, I believe, considered a standard work. It
does not seem to me so readable as Raumer’s history, but it is much more
complete, and comes down to quite recent times.
For my account of the Jesuit schools and of Pestalozzi, the authorities
will be found elsewhere (pp. 34 and 383). In writing about Comenius
I have had much assistance from a life of him prefixed to an English
translation of his _School of Infancy_, by Daniel Benham (London, 1858).
For almost all the information given about Jacotot, I am indebted to
Mr. Payne’s papers, which I should not have ventured to extract from so
freely if they had been before the public in a more permanent form.
I am sorry I cannot refer to any English works on the history of
Education, except the essays of Mr. Parker and Mr. Furnivall, and
_Christian Schools and Scholars_, which are mentioned above, but we have
a very good treatise on the principles of education in Marcel’s _Language
as a Means of Mental Culture_ (2 vols., London, 1853). Edgeworth’s
_Practical Education_ seems falling into undeserved neglect, and Mr.
Spencer’s recent work is not universally known even by schoolmasters.
If the following pages attract but few readers, it will be some
consolation, though rather a melancholy one, that I share the fate of my
betters.
R. H. Q.
INGATESTONE, ESSEX, _May, 1868_.
PREFACE TO EDITION OF 1890.
When I was a young man (_i.e._, nearly forty years ago), I once did
what those who know the ground would declare a very risky, indeed,
a fool-hardy thing. I was at the highest point of the Gemmi Pass in
Switzerland, above the Rhone Valley; and being in a hurry to get down
and overtake my party I ran from the top to the bottom. The path in those
days was not so good as it is now, and it is so near the precipice that
a few years afterwards a lady in descending lost her head and fell over.
No doubt I was in great danger of a drop of a thousand feet or so. But
of this I was totally unconscious. I was in a thick mist, and saw the
path for a few yards in front of me _and nothing more_. When I think of
the way in which this book was written three and twenty years ago I can
compare it to nothing but my first descent of the Gemmi. I did a very
risky thing without knowing it. My path came into view little by little
as I went on. All else was hid from me by a thick mist of ignorance. When
I began the book I knew next to nothing of the Reformers, but I studied
hard and wrote hard, and I turned out the essays within the year. This
feat I now regard with amazement, almost with horror. Since that time
I have given more years of work to the subject than I had then given
months, and the consequence is I find I can write fast no longer. The
mist has in a measure cleared off, and I cannot jog along in comfort as
I did when I saw less. At the same time I have no reason to repent of
the adventure. Being fortunate in my plan and thoroughly interested by
my subject, I succeeded beyond my wildest expectations in getting others
to take an interest in it also. The small English edition of 500 copies
was, as soon as I reduced the price, sold off immediately, and the book
has been, in England, for twenty years “out of print.” But no less than
three publishing firms in the United States have reprinted it (one quite
recently) without my consent, and, except in the edition of Messrs. R.
Clarke & Co., Cincinnati, with omissions and additions made without my
knowledge. It seems then that the book will live for some years yet,
whether I like it or not; and while it lives I wish it to be in a form
somewhat less defective than at its first appearance. I have therefore
in a great measure re-written it, beside filling in a gap here and there
with an additional essay. Perhaps some critics will call it a new book
with an old title. If they do, they will I trust allow that the new book
has at least two merits which went far to secure the success of the old,
1st, a good title, and 2nd, a good plan. My plan in both editions has
been to select a few people who seemed specially worth knowing about,
and to tell concerning them in some detail just that which seemed to me
specially worth knowing. So I have given what I thought very valuable or
very interesting, and everything I thought not particularly valuable or
interesting I have ruthlessly omitted. I have not attempted a _complete_
account of anybody or anything; and as for what the examiner may “set,” I
have not once given his questions a thought.
As the book is likely to have more readers in the country of its adoption
than in the country of its birth, I have persuaded my friend Dr. William
T. Harris, the United States Commissioner of Education, to put it
into “The International Education Series” which he edits. So the only
authorized editions of the book are the English edition, and the American
edition published by Messrs. D. Appleton & Co.
R. H. Q.
EARLSWOOD COTTAGE, REDHILL, SURREY, ENGLAND, _28th July, 1890_.
TABLE OF CONTENTS.
PAGE
=Chapter I.—Effects of the Renascence= 1-21
No escape from the Past 2
“Discovery” of the Classics 3
Mark Pattison’s account of Renascence 4
Revival of taste for beauty in Literature 5
What is Literature? 6
Renascence loved beauty of expression 7
No translations. The “educated” 8
Spread of literature by printing 9
School course settled before Bacon 10
First defect: Learner above Doer 11
Second: Over-estimate of literature 12
Literary taste not common 13
Third: Literature banished from school 14
Translations would be literature 15
The classics not written for children 16
Language _versus_ Literature 17
Fourth: “Miss as good as a mile” 18
Fifth: Neglect of children 19
Child’s study of his surroundings 20
Aut Cæsar aut nihil 21
=Chapter II.—Renascence Tendencies= 22-26
Reviving the Past. The Scholars 23
The _Scholars_: things for words 24
_Verbal Realists_: things through words 25
_Stylists_: words for themselves 26
=Chapter III.—Sturmius. (1507-1589)= 27-32
His early life. Settles in Strassburg 28
His course of Latin. Dismissed 29
The Schoolmaster taught Latin mainly 30
Resulting verbalism 31
Some books about Sturm 32
=Chapter IV.—Schools of the Jesuits= 33-62
Importance of the Jesuit Schools 34
The Society in part educational 35
“Ratio atque Institutio.” Societas Professa 36
The Jesuit teacher: his preparation, &c. 37
Supervision. Maintenance. Lower Schools 38
Free instruction. Equality. Boarders 39
Classes. Curriculum. Latin only used 40
Teacher Lectured. Exercises. Saying by heart 41
Emulation. “Æmuli.” Concertations 42
“Academies.” Expedients. School-hours 43
Method of teaching. An example 44
Attention. Extra work. “Repetitio” 45
Repetition. Thoroughness 46
Yearly examinations. Moral training 47
Care of health. Punishments 48
English want of system 49
Jesuit limitations 50
Gains from memorizing 51
Popularity. Kindness 52
Sympathy with each pupil 53
Work moderate in amount and difficulty 54
The Society the Army of the Church 55
Their pedagogy not disinterested 56
Practical 57
The forces: 1. Master’s influence. 2. Emulation 57-58
A pupil’s summing-up 59
Some books 60
Barbier’s advice to new master 61
Loyola and Montaigne. Port-Royal 62
=Chapter V.—Rabelais. (1483-1553.)= 63-69
Rabelais’ ideal. A new start 64
Religion. Study of Things 65
“Anschauung.” Hand-work. Books and Life 66
Training the body 67
Rabelais’ Curriculum 68
Study of Scripture. Piety 69
=Chapter VI.—Montaigne. (1533-1592.)= 70-79
Writers and doers. Montaigne _versus_ Renascence 71
Character before knowledge. True knowledge 72
Athens and Sparta. Wisdom before knowledge 73
Knowing, and knowing by heart 74
Learning necessary as employment 75
Montaigne and our Public Schools 76
Pressure from Science and Examinations 77
Danger from knowledge 78
Montaigne and Lord Armstrong 79
=Chapter VII.—Ascham. (1515-1568.)= 80-89
Wolsey on teaching 81
History of Methods useful 82
Our three celebrities 83
Ascham’s method for Latin: first stage 84
Second stage. The six points 85
Value of double translating and writing 86
Study of a model book. Queen Elizabeth 87, 88
“A dozen times at the least” 88
“Impressionists” and “Retainers” 89
=Chapter VIII.—Mulcaster. (1531(?)-1611.)= 90-102
Old books in English on education 91
Mulcaster’s wisdom hidden by his style 92
Education and “learning” 93
1. Development 2. Child-study 94
3. Groundwork by best workman 95
4. No forcing of young plants 96
5. The elementary course. English 97
6. Girls as well as Boys 98
7. Training of Teachers 99
Training college at the Universities 100
Mulcaster’s reasons for training teachers 101
Mulcaster’s Life and Writings 102
=Chapter IX.—Ratichius. (1571-1635.)= 103-118
Principles of the Innovators 104
Ratke’s Address to the Diet 105
At Augsburg. At Koethen 106
Failure at Koethen 107
German in the school. Ratichius’s services 108
1. Follow Nature. 2. One thing at a time 109
3. Over and over again 110
4. Everything through the mother-tongue 111
5. Nothing on compulsion 112
6. Nothing to be learnt by heart 113
7. Uniformity. 8. Ne modus rei ante rem 114
9. Per inductionem omnia 115
Ratke’s method for language 116
Ratke’s method and Ascham’s 117
Slow progress in methods 118
=Chapter X.—Comenius. (1592-1671.)= 119-171
Early years. His first book 120
Troubles. Exile 121
Pedagogic studies at Leszna 122
Didactic written. _Janua_ published. Pansophy 123
Samuel Hartlib 124
The _Prodromus_ and _Dilucidatio_ 125
Comenius in London. Parliamentary schemes 126
Comenius driven away by Civil War 127
In Sweden. Interviews with Oxenstiern 128
Oxenstiern criticises 129
Comenius at Elbing 130
At Leszna again 131
Saros-Patak. Flight from Leszna 132
Last years at Amsterdam 133
Comenius sought true foundation 134
Threefold life. Seeds of learning, virtue, piety 135
Omnia sponte fluant. Analogies 136
Analogies of growth 137
Senses. Foster desire of knowledge 138
No punishments. Words and Things together 139
Languages. System of schools 140
Mother-tongue School. Girls 141
School teaching. Mother’s teaching 142
Comenius and the Kindergarten 143
Starting-points of the sciences 144
Beginnings in Geography, History, &c. 145
Drawing. Education for all 146
Scientific and Religious Agreement 147
Bishop Butler on Educating the Poor 148
Comenius and Bacon 149
“Everything Through the Senses” 150
Error of Neglecting the Senses 151
Insufficiency of the Senses 152
Comenius undervalued the Past 153
Literature and Science 154
Comenius’s use of Analogies 155
Thought-studies and Label-studies 156
Unity of Knowledges 157
Theory and the Practical Man 158
Mother-tongue. Words and Things together 159
Janua Linguarum 160
The Jesuits’ Janua 161
Comenius adapts Jesuits’ Janua 162
Anchoran’s edition of Comenius’s Janua 163
Change to be made by Janua 164
Popularity of Janua shortlived 165
Lubinus projector of Orbis Pictus 166
Orbis Pictus described 167
Why Comenius’s schoolbooks failed 168
“Compendia Dispendia” 169
Comenius and Science of Education 170
Books on Comenius 171
=Chapter XI.—The Gentlemen of Port-Royal= 172-196
The Jesuits and the Arnaulds 173
Saint-Cyran and Port-Royal 174
Saint-Cyran an “Evangelical” 175
Short career of the Little Schools 176
Saint-Cyran and Locke on Public Schools 177
Shadow-side of Public Schools 178
The Little Schools for the few only 179
Advantages of great schools 180
Choice of masters and servants. Watch and pray 181
No rivalry or pressure. Freedom from routine 182
Study a delight. Reading French first 183
Literature. Mother-tongue first 184
Beginners’ difficulties lightened 185
Begin with Latin into Mother-tongue 186
Sense before sound. Reason must rule 187
Not Baconian. The body despised 188
Pedagogic writings of Port-Royalists 189
Arnauld. Nicole 190
Light from within. Teach by the Senses 191
Best teaching escapes common tests 192
Studying impossible without a will 193
Against making beginnings bitter 194
Port-Royal advance. Books on Port-Royal 195
Rollin, Compayré, &c. 196
=Chapter XII.—Some English Writers before Locke= 197-218
Birth of Realism 198
Realist Leaders not schoolmasters 199
John Brinsley. Charles Hoole 200
Hoole’s Realism 201
Art of teaching. Abraham Cowley 202
Authors and schoolmasters. J. Dury 203
Disorderly use of our natural faculties 204
Dury’s watch simile 205
Senses, 1st; imagination, 2nd; memory, 3rd 206
Petty’s battlefield simile 207
Petty’s realism 208
Cultivate observation 209
Petty on children’s activities 210
Hand-work. Education for all. Bellers 211
Milton and School-Reform 212
Milton as spokesman of Christian Realists 213
Language an instrument. Object of education 214
Milton for barrack life and Verbal Realism 215
Milton succeeded as man not master 216
He did not advance Science of Education 217
Milton an educator of mankind 218
=Chapter XIII.—Locke. (1632-1704.)= 219-238
Locke’s two main characteristics 220
1st, Truth for itself. 2nd, Reason for Truth 221
Locke’s definition of knowledge 222
Knowing without seeing 223
“Discentem credere oportet” 224
Locke’s “Knowledge” and the schoolmaster’s 225
“Knowledge” in Geography 226
For children, health and habits 227
Everything educative forms habits 228
Confusion about special cases. Wax 229
Locke behind Comenius 230
Humanists, Realists, and Trainers 231
Caution against classifiers 232
Locke and development 233
Was Locke a utilitarian? 234
Utilitarianism defined 235
Locke not utilitarian in education 236
Locke’s Pisgah Vision 237
Science and education. Names of books 238
=Chapter XIV.—Jean-Jacques Rousseau. (1712-1778.)= 239-272
Middle Age system fell in 18th century 240
Do the opposite to the usual 241
Family life. No education before reason 242
Rousseau “neglects” essentials. Lose time 243
Early education negative 244
Childhood the sleep of reason 245
Start from study of the child 246
Rousseau’s paradoxes un-English 247
Man the corrupter. The three educations 248
The aim, living thoroughly 249
Children not small men 250
Schoolmasters’ contempt for childhood 251
Schoolroom rubbish 252
Ideas before symbols 253
Right ideas for children 254
Child-gardening. Child’s activity 255
No sitting still or reading 256
Memory without books 257
Use of the senses in childhood 258
Intellect based on the senses 259
Cultivation of the senses 260
Music and drawing 261
Drawing from objects. Morals 262
Contradictory statements on morals 263
The material world and the moral 264
Shun over-directing 265
Lessons out of school. Questioning. At 12 266
No book-learning. Study of nature 267
Against didactic teaching 268
Rousseau exaggerates about self-teaching 269
Learn with effort 270
Hand-work. The “New Education” 271
The Teacher’s business 272
=Chapter XV.—Basedow and the Philanthropinum= 273-289
Basedow tries to mend religion and teaching 274
Reform needed. Subscription for “Elementary” 275
A journey with Goethe 276
Goethe on Basedow 277
The Philanthropinum opened 278
Basedow’s “Elementary” and “Book of Method” 279
Subjects to be taught 280
French and Latin. Religion 281
“Fred’s Journey to Dessau” 282
At the Philanthropinum 283
Methods in the Philanthropinum 284
The Philanthropinum criticised 285
Basedow’s improvements in teaching children 286
Basedow’s successors 287
Kant on the Philanthropinum 288
Influence of Philanthropinists 289
=Chapter XVI.—Pestalozzi. (1746-1827.)= 290-383
His childhood and student-life 291
A Radical Student 292
Turns farmer. Bluntschli’s warning 293
New ideas in farming. A love letter 294
Resolutions. Buys land and marries 295
Pestalozzi turns to education 296
Neuhof filled with children 297
Appeal for the new Institution 298
Bankruptcy. The children sent away 299
Eighteen years of poverty and distress 300
“Gertrude” to the rescue. Pestalozzi’s religion 301
He turns author. “E. H. of Hermit” 302
Pestalozzi’s belief 303
The “Hermit” a Christian 304
Success of “Leonard and Gertrude” 305
Gertrude’s patience tried 306
Being and doing before knowing 307
Pestalozzi’s severity. Women Commissioners 308
Pestalozzi’s seven years of authorship 309
“Citizen of French Republic.” Doubts 310
Waiting. Pestalozzi’s “Inquiry” 311
Pestalozzi’s “Fables” 312
Pestalozzi’s own principles 313
Pestalozzi’s return to action 314
The French at Stanz 315
Pestalozzi at Stanz 316
Success and expulsion 317
At Stanz: Pestalozzi’s own account 318-332
Value of the five months’ experience 333
Pestalozzi a strange Schoolmaster 334
At Burgdorf. First official approval 335
A child’s notion of Pestalozzi’s teaching 336
Pestalozzi engineering a new road 337
Psychologizing instruction 338
School course. Singing; and the beautiful 339
Pestalozzi’s poverty. Kruesi joins him 340
Pestalozzi’s assistants. The Burgdorf Institute 341
Success of the Burgdorf Institute 342
Reaction. Pestalozzi and Napoleon I 343
Fellenberg, Pestalozzi goes to Yverdun 344
A portrait of Pestalozzi 345
Prussia adopts Pestalozzianism 346
Ritter and others at Yverdun 347
Causes of failure at Yverdun 348
Report made by Father Girard 349
Girard’s mistake. Schmid in flight 350
Schmid’s return. Pestalozzi’s fame found useful 351
Dr. Bell’s visit. Death of Mrs. Pestalozzi 352
Works republished. Clindy. Yverdun left. Death 353, 354
New aim: develop organism 354
True dignity of man 355
Education for all. Mothers’ part. Jacob’s Ladder 356
Educator only superintends 357
First, moral development 358
Moral and religious the same 359
Second, intellectual development 360
Learning by “intuition” 361
Buisson and Jullien on intuition 362
Pestalozzi and Locke 363
Subjects for, and art of, teaching 364
“Mastery” 365
The body’s part in education 366
Learning must not be play 367
Singing and drawing 368
Morf’s summing-up 369
Joseph Payne’s summing-up 370
The “two nations.” Mother’s lessons 371
Mistakes in teaching children 372
Children and their teachers 373
“Preparatory” Schools 374
Young boys ill taught at school 375
English folk-schools not Pestalozzian 376
Schools judged by results 377
Pupil-teachers. Teaching not educating 378
Lowe or Pestalozzi? 379
Chief force, personality of the teacher 380
English care for unessentials 381
Aim at the ideal 382
Use of theorists. Books 383
=Chapter XVII.—Friedrich Froebel. (1783-1852.)= 384-413
Difficulty in understanding Froebel 385
A lad’s quest of unity 386
Froebel wandering without rest 387
Finds his vocation. With Pestalozzi 388
Froebel at the Universities 389
Through the Freiheits-krieg. Mineralogy 390
The “New Education” started 391
At Keilhau. “Education of Man” published 392
Froebel fails in Switzerland 393
The first Kindergarten 394
Froebel’s last years. Prussian edict against him. His end 395
Author’s attitude towards Reformers 396
Difficulties with Froebel 397
“Cui omnia unum sunt” 398
Froebel’s ideal 399
Theory of development 400
Development through self-activity 401
True idea found in Nature 402
God acts and man acts 403
The formative and creative instinct 404
Rendering the inner outer 405
Care for “young plants.” Kindergarten 406
Child’s restlessness: how to use it 407
Employments in Kindergarten 408
No schoolwork in Kindergarten 409
Without the idea the “gifts” fail 410
The New Education and the old 411
The old still vigorous 412
Science the thought of God. Some Froebelians 413
=Chapter XVIII.—Jacotot, a Methodizer. (1770-1840.)= 414-438
Self-teaching 415
1. All can learn 416
2. Everyone can teach 417
Can he teach facts he does not know? 418
Languages? Sciences? 419
Arts such as drawing and music? 420
True teacher within the learner 421
Training rather than teaching 422
3. “Tout est dans tout.” Quidlibet ex quolibet 423
Connexion of knowledges 424
Connect with model book. Memorizing 425
Ways of studying the model book 426
Should the book be made or chosen? 427
Robertsonian plan 428
Hints for exercises 429
The good of having learnt 430
The old Cambridge “mathematical man” 431
Waste of memory at school 432
How to stop this waste 433
Multum, non multa. De Morgan. Helps. Stephen 434
Jacotot’s plan for reading and writing 435
For the mother-tongue 436
Method of investigation 437
Jacotot’s last days 438
=Chapter XIX.—Herbert Spencer= 439-469
Same knowledge for discipline and use? 440
Different stages, different knowledges 441
Relative value of knowledges 442
Knowledge for self-preservation 443
Useful knowledge _versus_ the classics 444
Special instruction _versus_ education 445
Scientific knowledge and money-making 446
Knowledge about rearing offspring 447
Knowledge of history: its nature and use 448
Use of history 449
Employment of leisure hours 450
Poetry and the Arts 451
More than science needed for complete living 452
Objections to Spencer’s curriculum 453
Citizen’s duties. Things not to teach 454
Need of a science of education 455
Hope of a science 456
From simple to complex: known to unknown 457
Connecting schoolwork with life outside 458
Books and life 459
Mistakes in grammar teaching 460
From indefinite to definite: concrete to abstract 461
The Individual and the Race. Empirical beginning 462
Against “telling.” Effect of bad teaching 463
Learning should be pleasurable 464
Can learning be made interesting? 465
Apathy from bad teaching 466
Should learning be made interesting? 467
Difference between theory and practice 468
Importance of Herbert Spencer’s work 469
=Chapter XX.—Thoughts and Suggestions= 470-491
Want of an ideal 471
Get pupils to work hard 472
For this arouse interest. Wordsworth 473
Interest needed for activity 474
Teaching young children 475
Value of pictures 476
Dr. Vater at Leipzig 477
Dr. Vogel and Dr. Vater 478
First knowledge of numbers. Grubé 479
Measuring and weighing. Reading-books 480
Respect for books. Grammar. Reading 481
Silent and Vocal Reading 482
Memorising poetry. Composition 483
Correcting exercises. Three kinds of books 484
No epitomes 485
Ascham, Bacon, Goldsmith, against them 486
Arouse interest. Dr. Arnold’s historical primer 487
A Macaulay, not Mangnall, wanted 488
Beginnings in history and geography 489
Tales of Travelers 490
Results positive and negative 491
=Chapter XXI.—The Schoolmaster’s Moral and Religious Influence= 492-503
Master’s power, how gained and lost 493
Masters, the open and the reserved 494
Danger of excess either way 495
High ideal. Danger of low practice 496
Harm from overworking teachers 497
Refuge in routine work. Small schools 498
Influence through the Sixth. Day schools wanted 499
Teaching religion in England and Germany 500
Religious teaching connected with worship 501
Education to goodness and piety 502
How to avoid narrowmindedness 503
=Chapter XXII.—Conclusion= 504-526
A growing science of education 505
Jesuits the first Reformers 506
The Jesuits cared for more than classics 507
Rabelais for “intuition” 508
Montaigne for educating mind and body 509
17th century reaction against books 510
Reaction not felt in schools and the Universities 511
Comenius begins science of education 512
Locke’s teacher a disposer of influence 513
Locke and public schools. Escape from “idols” 514
Rousseau’s clean sweep 515
Benevolence of Nature. Man disturbs 516
We arrange sequences, capitalise ideas 517
Loss and gain from tradition 518
Rousseau for observing and following 519
Rousseau exposed “school-learning” 520
Function of “things” in education 521
“New Education” started by Rousseau 522
Drawing out. Man and the other animals 523
Intuition. Man an organism, a doer and creator 524
Antithesis of Old and New Education 525
Drill needed. What the Thinkers do for us 526
=Appendix.= Class Matches. Words and Things. Books for
Teachers, &c. 527-547
I
EFFECTS OF THE RENASCENCE.