_1. Logical order of topics and branches._
First, the arrangement of topics in proper sequence in the course of
study, in such a manner that each branch develops in an order suited
to the natural and easy progress of the child, and so that each step
is taken at the proper time to help his advance to the next step in
the same branch, or to the next steps in other related branches of the
course of study.
_2. Symmetrical whole of studies in the world of human learning._
Second, the adjustment of the branches of study in such a manner that
the whole course at any given time represents all the great divisions
of human learning, as far as is possible at the stage of maturity at
which the pupil has arrived, and that each allied group of studies
is represented by some one of its branches best adapted for the epoch
in question; it being implied that there is an equivalence of studies
to a greater or less degree within each group, and that each branch
of human learning should be represented by some equivalent study; so
that, while no great division is left unrepresented, no group shall
have superfluous representatives, and thereby debar other groups from a
proper representation.
_3. Psychological symmetry--the whole mind._
Third, the selection and arrangement of the branches and topics within
each branch, considered psychologically, with a view to afford the best
exercise of the faculties of the mind, and to secure the unfolding of
those faculties in their natural order, so that no one faculty is so
overcultivated or so neglected as to produce abnormal or one-sided
mental development.
_4. Correlation of pupil’s course of study with the world in which he
lives--his spiritual and natural environment._
Fourth and chiefly, your Committee understands by correlation of
studies the selection and arrangement in orderly sequence of such
objects of study as shall give the child an insight into the world
that he lives in, and a command over its resources such as is obtained
by a helpful co-operation with one’s fellows. In a word, the chief
consideration to which all others are to be subordinated, in the
opinion of your Committee, is this requirement of the civilization
into which the child is born, as determining not only what he shall
study in school, but what habits and customs he shall be taught in
the family before the school age arrives; as well as that he shall
acquire a skilled acquaintance with some one of a definite series of
trades, professions, or vocations in the years that follow school;
and, furthermore, that this question of the relation of the pupil to
his civilization determines what political duties he shall assume and
what religious faith and spiritual aspirations shall be adopted for the
conduct of his life.
To make more clear their reasons for the preference here expressed
for the objective and practical basis of selection of topics for the
course of study rather than the subjective basis so long favored by
educational writers, your Committee would describe the psychological
basis, already mentioned, as being merely formal in its character,
relating only to the exercise of the so-called mental faculties.
It would furnish a training of spiritual powers analogous to the
gymnastic training of the muscles of the body. Gymnastics may develop
strength and agility without leading to any skill in trades or useful
employment. So an abstract psychological training may develop the will,
the intellect, the imagination, or the memory, but without leading to
an exercise of acquired power in the interests of civilization. The
game of chess would furnish a good course of study for the discipline
of the powers of attention and calculation of abstract combinations,
but it would give its possessor little or no knowledge of man or
nature. The psychological ideal which has prevailed to a large extent
in education has, in the old phrenology, and in the recent studies
in physiological psychology, sometimes given place to a biological
ideal. Instead of the view of mind as made up of faculties like will,
intellect, imagination, and emotion, conceived to be all necessary to
the soul, if developed in harmony with one another, the concept of
nerves or brain-tracts is used as the ultimate regulative principle
to determine the selection and arrangement of studies. Each part
of the brain is supposed to have its claim on the attention of the
educator, and that study is thought to be the most valuable which
employs normally the larger number of brain-tracts. This view reaches
an extreme in the direction of formal, as opposed to objective or
practical grounds for selecting a course of study. While the old
psychology with its mental faculties concentrated its attention on
the mental processes and neglected the world of existing objects and
relations upon which those processes were directed, physiological
psychology tends to confine its attention to the physical part of the
process, the organic changes in the brain cells and their functions.
Your Committee is of the opinion that psychology of both kinds,
physiological and introspective, can hold only a subordinate place in
the settlement of questions relating to the correlation of studies. The
branches to be studied, and the extent to which they are studied, will
be determined mainly by the demands of one’s civilization. These will
prescribe what is most useful to make the individual acquainted with
physical nature and with human nature so as to fit him as an individual
to perform his duties in the several institutions--family, civil
society, the state, and the Church. But next after this, psychology
will furnish important considerations that will largely determine the
methods of instruction, the order of taking up the several topics so as
to adapt the school work to the growth of the pupil’s capacity, and the
amount of work so as not to overtax his powers by too much, or arrest
the development of strength by too little. A vast number of subordinate
details belonging to the pathology of education, such as the hygienic
features of school architecture and furniture, programmes, the length
of study hours and of class exercises, recreation, and bodily
reactions against mental effort, will be finally settled by scientific
experiment in the department of physiological psychology.
Inasmuch as your Committee is limited to the consideration of the
correlation of studies in the elementary school, it has considered
the question of the course of study in general only in so far as this
has been found necessary in discussing the grounds for the selection
of studies for the period of school education occupying the eight
years from six to fourteen years, or the school period between the
kindergarten on the one hand and the secondary school on the other. It
has not been possible to avoid some inquiry into the true distinction
between secondary and elementary studies, since one of the most
important questions forced upon the attention of your Committee is
that of the abridgment of the elementary course of study from eight or
more years to seven or even six years, and the corresponding increase
of the time devoted to studies usually assigned to the high school and
supposed to belong to the secondary course of study for some intrinsic
reason.