_The Nature of Education._
§ 13. The nature of Education is determined by the nature of mind--that
it can develop whatever it really is only by its own activity. Mind is
in itself free; but if it does not actualize this possibility, it is in
no true sense free, either for itself or for another. Education is the
influencing of man by man, and it has for its end to lead him to
actualize himself through his own efforts. The attainment of perfect
manhood as the actualization of the Freedom necessary to mind
constitutes the nature of Education in general.
--The completely isolated man does not become man. Solitary human
beings who have been found in forests, like the wild girl of the forest
of Ardennes, sufficiently prove the fact that the truly human qualities
in man cannot be developed without reciprocal action with human beings.
Caspar Hauser in his subterranean prison is an illustration of what man
would be by himself. The first cry of the child expresses in its appeals
to others this helplessness of spirituality on the side of nature.--
§ 14. Man, therefore, is the only fit subject for education. We often
speak, it is true, of the education of plants and animals; but even when
we do so, we apply, unconsciously perhaps, other expressions, as
"raising" and "training," in order to distinguish these. "Breaking"
consists in producing in an animal, either by pain or pleasure of the
senses, an activity of which, it is true, he is capable, but which he
never would have developed if left to himself. On the other hand, it is
the nature of Education only to assist in the producing of that which
the subject would strive most earnestly to develop for himself if he had
a clear idea of himself. We speak of raising trees and animals, but not
of raising men; and it is only a planter who looks to his slaves only
for an increase in their number.
--The education of men is quite often enough, unfortunately, only a
"breaking," and here and there still may be found examples where one
tries to teach mechanically, not through the understanding power of the
creative WORD, but through the powerless and fruitless appeal to
physical pain.--
§ 15. The idea of Education may be more or less comprehensive. We use it
in the widest sense when we speak of the Education of the race, for we
understand by this expression the connection which the acts and
situations of different nations have to each other, as different steps
towards self-conscious freedom. In this the world-spirit is the teacher.
§ 16. In a more restricted sense we mean by Education the shaping of
the individual life by the forces of nature, the rhythmical movement of
national customs, and the might of destiny in which each one finds
limits set to his arbitrary will. These often mould him into a man
without his knowledge. For he cannot act in opposition to nature, nor
offend the ethical sense of the people among whom he dwells, nor despise
the leading of destiny without discovering through experience that
before the Nemesis of these substantial elements his subjective power
can dash itself only to be shattered. If he perversely and persistently
rejects all our admonitions, we leave him, as a last resort, to destiny,
whose iron rule must educate him, and reveal to him the God whom he has
misunderstood.
--It is, of course, sometimes not only possible, but necessary for one,
moved by the highest sense of morality, to act in opposition to the laws
of nature, to offend the ethical sense of the people that surround him,
and to brave the blows of destiny; but such a one is a sublime reformer
or martyr, and we are not now speaking of such, but of the perverse, the
frivolous, and the conceited.--
§ 17. In the narrowest sense, which however is the usual one, we mean by
Education the influence which one mind exerts on another in order to
cultivate the latter in some understood and methodical way, either
generally or with reference to some special aim. The educator must,
therefore, be relatively finished in his own education, and the pupil
must possess unlimited confidence in him. If authority be wanting on the
one side, or respect and obedience on the other, this ethical basis of
development must fail, and it demands in the very highest degree,
talent, knowledge, skill, and prudence.
--Education takes on this form only under the culture which has been
developed through the influence of city life. Up to that time we have
the naïve period of education, which holds to the general powers of
nature, of national customs, and of destiny, and which lasts for a long
time among the rural populations. But in the city a greater complication
of events, an uncertainty of the results of reflection, a working out of
individuality, and a need of the possession of many arts and trades,
make their appearance and render it impossible for men longer to be
ruled by mere custom. The Telemachus of Fenelon was educated to rule
himself by means of reflection; the actual Telemachus in the heroic age
lived simply according to custom.--
§ 18. The general problem of Education is the development of the
theoretical and practical reason in the individual. If we say that to
educate one means to fashion him into morality, we do not make our
definition sufficiently comprehensive, because we say nothing of
intelligence, and thus confound education and ethics. A man is not
merely a human being, but as a reasonable being he is a peculiar
individual, and different from all others of the race.
§ 19. Education must lead the pupil by an interconnected series of
efforts previously foreseen and arranged by the teacher to a definite
end; but the particular form which this shall take must be determined by
the peculiar character of the pupil's mind and the situation in which he
is found. Hasty and inconsiderate work may accomplish much, but only
_systematic_ work can advance and fashion him in conformity with his
nature, and the former does not belong to education, for this includes
in itself the idea of an end, and that of the technical means for its
attainment.
§ 20. But as culture comes to mean more and more, there becomes
necessary a division of the business of teaching among different
persons, with reference to capabilities and knowledge, because as the
arts and sciences are continually increasing in number, one can become
learned in any one branch only by devoting himself exclusively to it,
and hence becoming one-sided. A difficulty hence arises which is also
one for the pupil, of preserving, in spite of this unavoidable
one-sidedness, the unity and wholeness which are necessary to humanity.
--The naïve dignity of the happy savage, and the agreeable simplicity of
country people, appear to very great advantage when contrasted on this
side with the often unlimited narrowness of a special trade, and the
endless curtailing of the wholeness of man by the pruning processes of
city life. Thus the often abused savage has his hut, his family, his
cocoa tree, his weapons, his passions; he fishes, hunts, plays, fights,
adorns himself, and enjoys the consciousness that he is the centre of a
whole, while a modern citizen is often only an abstract expression of
culture.--
§ 21. As it becomes necessary to divide the work of teaching, a
difference between general and special schools arises also, from the
needs of growing culture. The former present in different compass all
the sciences and arts which are included in the term "general
education," and which were classified by the Greeks under the general
name of Encyclopædia. The latter are known as special schools, suited to
particular needs or talents.
--As those who live in the country are relatively isolated, it is often
necessary, or at least desirable, that one man should be trained equally
on many different sides. The poor tutor is required not only to instruct
in all the sciences, he must also speak French and be able to play the
piano.--
§ 22. For any single person, the relation of his actual education to its
infinite possibilities can only be approximately determined, and it can
be considered as only relatively finished on any one side. Education is
impossible to him who is born an idiot, since the want of the power of
generalizing and of ideality of conscious personality leaves to such an
unfortunate only the possibility of a mechanical training.
--Sägert, the teacher of the deaf mutes in Berlin, has made laudable
efforts to educate idiots, but the account as given in his publication,
"Cure of Idiots by an Intellectual Method, Berlin, 1846," shows that the
result obtained was only external; and though we do not desire to be
understood as denying or refusing to this class the possession of a mind
_in potentia_, it appears in them to be confined to an embryonic
state.--