The title I gave to these lectures ought, like all titles, to have
been as definite, as plain, and as significant as possible; now,
however, I observe that owing to a certain excess of precision, in its
present form it is too short and consequently misleading. My first
duty therefore will be to explain the title, together with the object
of these lectures, to you, and to apologise for being obliged to do
this. When I promised to speak to you concerning the future of our
educational institutions, I was not thinking especially of the
evolution of our particular institutions in Bâle. However frequently
my general observations may seem to bear particular application to our
own conditions here, I personally have no desire to draw these
inferences, and do not wish to be held responsible if they should be
drawn, for the simple reason that I consider myself still far too much
an inexperienced stranger among you, and much too superficially
acquainted with your methods, to pretend to pass judgment upon any
such special order of scholastic establishments, or to predict the
probable course their development will follow. On the other hand, I
know full well under what distinguished auspices I have to deliver
these lectures--namely, in a city which is striving to educate and
enlighten its inhabitants on a scale so magnificently out of
proportion to its size, that it must put all larger cities to shame.
This being so, I presume I am justified in assuming that in a quarter
where so much is _done_ for the things of which I wish to speak,
people must also _think_ a good deal about them. My desire--yea, my
very first condition, therefore, would be to become united in spirit
with those who have not only thought very deeply upon educational
problems, but have also the will to promote what they think to be
right by all the means in their power. And, in view of the
difficulties of my task and the limited time at my disposal, to such
listeners, alone, in my audience, shall I be able to make myself
understood--and even then, it will be on condition that they shall
guess what I can do no more than suggest, that they shall supply what
I am compelled to omit; in brief, that they shall need but to be
reminded and not to be taught. Thus, while I disclaim all desire of
being taken for an uninvited adviser on questions relating to the
schools and the University of Bâle, I repudiate even more emphatically
still the rôle of a prophet standing on the horizon of civilisation
and pretending to predict the future of education and of scholastic
organisation. I can no more project my vision through such vast
periods of time than I can rely upon its accuracy when it is brought
too close to an object under examination. With my title: _Our_
Educational Institutions, I wish to refer neither to the
establishments in Bâle nor to the incalculably vast number of other
scholastic institutions which exist throughout the nations of the
world to-day; but I wish to refer to _German institutions_ of the kind
which we rejoice in here. It is their future that will now engage our
attention, _i.e._ the future of German elementary, secondary, and
public schools (Gymnasien) and universities. While pursuing our
discussion, however, we shall for once avoid all comparisons and
valuations, and guard more especially against that flattering illusion
that our conditions should be regarded as the standard for all others
and as surpassing them. Let it suffice that they are our institutions,
that they have not become a part of ourselves by mere accident, and
were not laid upon us like a garment; but that they are living
monuments of important steps in the progress of civilisation, in some
respects even the furniture of a bygone age, and as such link us with
the past of our people, and are such a sacred and venerable legacy
that I can only undertake to speak of the future of our educational
institutions in the sense of their being a most probable approximation
to the ideal spirit which gave them birth. I am, moreover, convinced
that the numerous alterations which have been introduced into these
institutions within recent years, with the view of bringing them
up-to-date, are for the most part but distortions and aberrations of
the originally sublime tendencies given to them at their foundation.
And what we dare to hope from the future, in this behalf, partakes so
much of the nature of a rejuvenation, a reviviscence, and a refining
of the spirit of Germany that, as a result of this very process, our
educational institutions may also be indirectly remoulded and born
again, so as to appear at once old and new, whereas now they only
profess to be "modern" or "up-to-date."
Now it is only in the spirit of the hope above mentioned that I wish
to speak of the future of our educational institutions: and this is
the second point in regard to which I must tender an apology from the
outset. The "prophet" pose is such a presumptuous one that it seems
almost ridiculous to deny that I have the intention of adopting it.
No one should attempt to describe the future of our education, and
the means and methods of instruction relating thereto, in a prophetic
spirit, unless he can prove that the picture he draws already exists
in germ to-day, and that all that is required is the extension and
development of this embryo if the necessary modifications are to be
produced in schools and other educational institutions. All I ask,
is, like a Roman haruspex, to be allowed to steal glimpses of the
future out of the very entrails of existing conditions, which, in
this case, means no more than to hand the laurels of victory to any
one of the many forces tending to make itself felt in our present
educational system, despite the fact that the force in question may
be neither a favourite, an esteemed, nor a very extensive one. I
confidently assert that it will be victorious, however, because it
has the strongest and mightiest of all allies in nature herself; and
in this respect it were well did we not forget that scores of the
very first principles of our modern educational methods are
thoroughly artificial, and that the most fatal weaknesses of the
present day are to be ascribed to this artificiality. He who feels in
complete harmony with the present state of affairs and who acquiesces
in it _as something_ "_selbstverständliches_,"[1] excites our envy
neither in regard to his faith nor in regard to that egregious word
"_selbstverständlich_," so frequently heard in fashionable circles.
He, however, who holds the opposite view and is therefore in despair,
does not need to fight any longer: all he requires is to give himself
up to solitude in order soon to be alone. Albeit, between those who
take everything for granted and these anchorites, there stand the
_fighters_--that is to say, those who still have hope, and as the
noblest and sublimest example of this class, we recognise Schiller as
he is described by Goethe in his "Epilogue to the Bell."
"Brighter now glow'd his cheek, and still more bright
With that unchanging, ever youthful glow:--
That courage which o'ercomes, in hard-fought fight,
Sooner or later ev'ry earthly foe,--
That faith which soaring to the realms of light,
Now boldly presseth on, now bendeth low,
So that the good may work, wax, thrive amain,
So that the day the noble may attain."[2]
I should like you to regard all I have just said as a kind of preface,
the object of which is to illustrate the title of my lectures and to
guard me against any possible misunderstanding and unjustified
criticisms. And now, in order to give you a rough outline of the range
of ideas from which I shall attempt to form a judgment concerning our
educational institutions, before proceeding to disclose my views and
turning from the title to the main theme, I shall lay a scheme before
you which, like a coat of arms, will serve to warn all strangers who
come to my door, as to the nature of the house they are about to
enter, in case they may feel inclined, after having examined the
device, to turn their backs on the premises that bear it. My scheme is
as follows:--
Two seemingly antagonistic forces, equally deleterious in their
actions and ultimately combining to produce their results, are at
present ruling over our educational institutions, although these were
based originally upon very different principles. These forces are: a
striving to achieve the greatest possible _extension of education_ on
the one hand, and a tendency _to minimise and to weaken it_ on the
other. The first-named would fain spread learning among the greatest
possible number of people, the second would compel education to
renounce its highest and most independent claims in order to
subordinate itself to the service of the State. In the face of these
two antagonistic tendencies, we could but give ourselves up to
despair, did we not see the possibility of promoting the cause of two
other contending factors which are fortunately as completely German as
they are rich in promises for the future; I refer to the present
movement towards _limiting and concentrating_ education as the
antithesis of the first of the forces above mentioned, and that other
movement towards the _strengthening and the independence_ of education
as the antithesis of the second force. If we should seek a warrant for
our belief in the ultimate victory of the two last-named movements, we
could find it in the fact that both of the forces which we hold to be
deleterious are so opposed to the eternal purpose of nature as the
concentration of education for the few is in harmony with it, and is
true, whereas the first two forces could succeed only in founding a
culture false to the root.