SECTION IV

METHOD

CHAPTER XII

FIRST TYPE OF LESSONS: THE ACQUIREMENT OF

KNOWLEDGE

Think of Laplace, the great Laplace, dismissed by Napoleon for incapacity, and say whether the greatest mind may be truly called great, when tested apart from the apperception masses with which it is familiar.—Adams, The Herbartian Psychology, p. 127.

§ 1. WE have thus completed the inquiry which we commenced in Chapter II. We have selected "Material" for our class right through the stages of school life.

We have now to survey the second part of our task, and search for principles of "Method" by which these pursuits-studies, occupations, exercises, and what not-may be presented to the pupil and engage his activity.

Here, again, as in Chapter II, we may listen for a moment to the sceptic. Why," he will say, "interfere with pupil and teacher further? Every teacher has his own way of putting things, and every pupil in a class has his own way of accepting these why try to reduce this to a machinery?"

It is easy to meet this general objection by a general appeal to the usages of all professions and callings in which trained skill is required. The physician does not lose his individuality by a study of principles the engineer does not become an automaton because he bases his practice on general laws and usages, which he learns from the experience of others.

Nevertheless, there is undoubtedly a wide distrust felt of any attempt to systematise the daily practice of teachers. The earlier chapters of this book have dealt with topics which concern the laity as much as the practitioner, topics which must always be of interest to the public mind; but now we come to a sphere of inquiry which is solely of professional interest; and the teacher is still, as a rule, sensitive as to any discussion of his modes of giving instruction. He is accustomed to "interference," more or less minute, in the choice of studies, by parents or by public authorities,1 but when once he sets to work to administer the prescription, he expects to be left free to pursue his own methods. It is this desire, entirely justifiable, to assert the freedom of the teacher in his own sphere, which in part accounts for the resentment often shown by teachers to a pedagogic inquiry such as we are now to pursue. But the answer is ready to hand we can only establish Education as a professional pursuit by

1 The circumstance that teachers, especially assistant teachers, are restricted in the choice of Material for the Time Table, whereas they are left free in regard to Method, will suggest that the later chapters of this book may be of more immediate value than the Chapters IV. to XI. The present writer's experience in training teachers, and in lecturing to teachers at work in schools, made it evident that an interest in Method can be readily aroused, because the question has a direct bearing on the daily work of the class-room.

devoting to its study the same elaborate care, the same spirit of devotion to our profession as we witness in other callings which have won the confidence of the public. The more completely and thoroughly we investigate on a scientific basis the principles on which we pursue our daily practice, the more thoroughly will the public be persuaded to extend the range of the confidence which it reposes in the teacher. For, be it observed, the investigation upon which we are now bent is not directed to the prescription of rigid mechanical devices, often labelled as "Methods": we shall not clear a strait path to be trod by every teacher: what we have seen in Chapter II as to the necessity of freedom and individuality in our selection of Material for the child, is just as needful in our handling of Method. Both teacher and pupil, in every school and in every class, have idiosyncrasies which will (most happily!) elude every sort of investigation— precisely as the sick-room and hospital-ward exhibit personal features which stand outside of the laws of medical science.

But none the less, here as there, the business of physician and teacher alike is to search for common principles, springing out of and again reflecting upon, that daily practice. He who denies that such principles exist, who insists that his particular modes of teaching are so individual and personal as to be incapable of comparison with those of others, is grossly ignorant of the practice of his colleagues. When all possible allowance is made for the personal equation, there still remains a great body of general principles, based upon the permanent situation, on which all good teaching is based; he who ignores these principles may, indeed, be one of that rare breed, "born teacher," but he may chance to be an

a

egotistic crank, a type of man who, in other professions, would be called a quack.1

Furthermore, it is necessary for teachers, even more than for members of other professions, to recognise that a partial surrender of liberty is a necessary condition of association with a corporate body.

"The teacher in a school is not a free lance: he is bound by the law of his society; and his value as a member thereof depends largely upon his sense of order. He who has not learnt the habit of submission where submission is due, is not yet grown to the stature of his profession; 'freedom, variety, and elasticity' can only be permitted to those who recognise the limitations imposed by their environment. The situation of the teacher, as a member of a corporate body, is one of the most important factors which govern the progress of educational reform. This progress has been, and always must be, slow, since every change must win the appreciation of many before it can be thoroughly worked out. In few callings in life is it more necessary for each worker to maintain within himself an open eye fixed on lofty aims, while content to tread the even path of daily routine step by step with his fellows.” 1

Our investigation, then, is concerned with the general theory which underlies the teacher's practice, when he has selected a branch of teaching and is about to engage his class upon it.2

The foundation for these principles will be sought at first in the same field which we have covered in our study of the Curriculum: we shall require to bear in mind the nature of the Child (Chap. II, S3), the processes by which his mind works when attacking the Material of teaching: then we shall revert again to the nature of this Material (Chap. III), since different sorts of study need

1 On the Study of Education, p. 340 and 348, in Special Reports on Educational Subjects, Vol. II, 1898.

2 We have already devoted a few lines to Method in Chapter VI, when treating of the Curriculum of the Kindergarten, but this seemed to be necessary since Kindergarten work in so many aspects differs from formal class-teaching.

to be attacked differently; and, in a minor degree, we must still bear in mind that we are dealing with class-teaching (Chap. I, § 5 A), and we must therefore not overlook the restrictions and modifications in Method due to the fact that a number are jointly concerned in the task of learning. This last is a matter which offers considerations of a special kind, and we shall therefore devote an additional chapter (XVI.) to it at the close.

§ 2. We shall approach our inquiry by drawing a distinction which is found in all professional pursuits, between principles which are general, fundamental to all branches of teaching, and those which are special, i.e., only applicable to a single branch. Just as the engineer finds general laws of energy which underlie the whole field of engineering, distinguished from special laws which concern only the construction of bridges, or others which concern only the construction of docks, so we first find general laws based mainly upon the processes of mind; at a later stage these assume different shapes according to their application :—our method, e.g., in teaching History will differ greatly from that suitable for Drawing.1 The basis for these general laws has already been implicitly ascertained in the analysis undertaken in Chapter II, §§ 3-7.

We there discussed the nature of the Child as a part of our investigation of Material, but the conclusions of that chapter serve us equally well in searching for laws of Method. We may summarise the whole doctrine under one universal principle

1 Compare the Preface, and the Scheme at the end of Chapter 1, where it will be seen that Special Method (Spezielle Didaktik) is excluded from this volume. The illustrations in History, Geometry, German, etc., that we have found space for, are, however, so far as they go, examples of Special Method in those branches.