The whole work of education may be summed up in the concept: :- Morality.-HERBART (Felkin's Science of Education, p. 57). Was ist gewonnen, wenn es gelingt, die Kultur des Erdbodens zu erhöhen, den Geist des Handels und der Industrie überall zu beleben, den Gesetzen und Grundverfassungen der Länder die höchste Vollkommenheit zu geben, wenn die Menschen nicht würdig sind, eine so schöne Erde zu bewohnen, und nicht fähig, auf ihr einen Himmel zu finden? - REIN, Pädagogik im Grundriss, p. 8. Image the whole, then execute the parts; Quite, ere you build; ere steel strike fire from quartz, BROWNING, The Grammarian's Funeral. § 1. THE topic of this book is Teaching-the ends, means, methods to be employed when a group of children are placed in charge of an adult during specified hours of the day. It is obvious that a E B systematised exposition of principles relating to this topic must assume, in the reader's mind, a set of ideas relating to other departments in the science of Education. For example, who brings together this group of children? What motives set this machinery of teaching a-going? Such questions must already have received an answer. Let us, then, by way of an introductory chapter, survey this wider field; we shall thus hope to bring our subject into its right perspective; thus we shall see the end from the beginning. Let us accept the following as a description of the meaning of Education : The adult portion of the community, organised in the forms of the Family, the State,1 the Church, and various miscellaneous associations, desires to promote the welfare of the rising generation. This it seeks to do by the employment of certain deliberate modes of influence, as an addition to the inevitable influences of circumstance and environment that operate upon all human life. specific influences are called Education, and those who exercise them (whether professionally or incidentally) are called Teachers. These The full bearing of this definition will appear as we proceed with our study; it will suffice for the moment to emphasise the following: (a) The fount or source of Education is not the teacher. However much he may pride himself on the name of master," he has not the supreme control at the outset; he is the servant of the 1 Including both Central and Local authorities. 2 "On the Definition of Education" (Journal of Education, Sept. 1896); also in Vol. II. of Special Reports (Education Dept., 1898), article "On the Study of Education. community. This submission does not absolve him from professional responsibility; nor does it limit the range of his legitimate authority, which should indeed be absolute, within the walls of his classroom. But it places him, in the last extremity, at the bidding of those social organisations which have called him to their aid. (b) The subject of Education is the rising generation. The young, the immature, are subjected to this process by the adult community.1 It is necessary, whatever the dictionaries may say, to place this restriction upon the scope of the term "Education." When you have entered upon the active duties of life as a citizen, your Education, in the proper sense of the term, is ended. It is very true that the culture of the mind may continue, but nothing is gained by confusing the terms "culture," or "development," or "environment," with the term Education as employed in Acts of Parliament and in common speech. To say that "a sojourn in Italy is a liberal education" is a statement which can be understood, but it had better be expressed otherwise. Travel in Italy may be undertaken expressly for the purpose of Education by those who are being educated; but it is more commonly an affair of culture. And here it may be convenient to dismiss one branch of Education which cannot engage our attention further in this book, but which, for the first time in the world's history, is beginning to move the heart and conscience of society. The adult community is taking upon itself not only the burden of children, but also of those classes of the community who, although no longer children in age, remain children 1 Plato: Lysis: "The reason is, Socrates, that I am not of age." in morals or in intellect, and who therefore require the processes of Education long after the normal period. The great army of the criminal, the abnormal, the defective, the insane, stand on the same footing in respect of Education; they are children, and they demand from the community the same pity, the same training and teaching, the same control and restraint, which we afford to our little ones. Blessed are the weak, for they shall inherit the earth! A general exposition of Class Teaching, such as this book attempts, has no concern with these pupils, beyond urging the necessity for providing separate teaching for children who are abnormal or defective. The presence in the classroom of even a single pupil of weak intellect, or of grave physical defect, is sufficient to hinder the whole work. در (c) The agency of a teacher is necessary to the process of Education. This is a specific undertaking, designed by social organisations; they entrust the task which we call Education to individuals who are either set apart entirely for this duty, or who take it up incidentally. Thus a mother sometimes acts as private tutor to her children; or a clergyman teaches in a Sunday School. The professional teacher is, indeed, only found in societies which have progressed to a high standard of civilisation, and are able to recognise the value of deliberate systematised efforts to promote the welfare of the rising generation; and, whatever he may achieve, he is scarcely likely in our day to ignore the aid of those who are not teachers by profession, but who have an equally deep interest in the child's welfare. § 2. From the definition of the last paragraph (p. 2), we now trace three main problems which, if treated in order, cover the entire field embraced in the study of Education. Firstly, what do we include in "the welfare of the rising generation"? We answer this question by investigating the Aim or End of Education. Secondly, what are the functions of the corporate bodies (State, Church, Family, etc.) who are united in seeking to achieve this aim? What are their mutual relations, to one another, and to the teachers whom they engage upon the task? Here we treat of the Control of Education. The final problem is the Conduct or Practice of Educationthe business of the teacher when he and his pupils are brought face to face. We will proceed as rapidly as is possible to this third branch of our science, pausing only for a moment to clear the way by a summary review of the other two. Let it be noted that the order here chosen is logical and necessary :-Aim, Administration, Practice. We cannot determine what sort of teachers we want, we cannot settle the mutual claims of Church, Family, State, etc., to control Education, until we have realised the end to be kept in view. Nor can the teacher set about his task until he knows what are its limits and what are his relations to those whose agent he is. In the present year of Grace (1901) it is hardly necessary to plead, either with teachers or with laymen, for support in this order of procedure. For, even in England, our public men have come to recognise the momentous issues, moral and social, involved in the upbringing of the young. On the other hand, these three branches must always keep each other in sight: the active mind of the student of Education must be prepared to revise conclusions drawn from one field in the light of his investigations into another. The teacher is not prepared to let the philosopher propound the Aims of Education or the politician determine the principles of Control apart from some insight into the possibilities of practice. A system of Education which is in touch with the realities of life, which plays its part in the behaviour of those who profess it, must be a united whole.1 Hence the obliga 1 Compare p. 35 in The (New York) Educational Review (June, 1901), on "The Situation as regards the Course of Study," by John Dewey. The whole article is of the highest value to students of Education. |