the life of nature. Finally, he is not at all deaf to the religious teachings of nature, but "Finds tongues in trees, books in the running brooks, In fact, all creatures lead him to the Creator. "1 But the study of nature has many 'other happy results. For instance, communion with nature deepens the knowledge of one's home, strengthens the home sense, and consequently fosters the sympathetic feelings included in the latter. Furthermore, the quiet reign of law in nature calms the heart when about to cry out with the bitterness of life's struggles. Finally, the mind that is weary of intellectual labors is refreshed by the observation of life in nature: to preserve health of mind, one must use his eyes, ears, and other senses; one must assimilate colors and forms, instead of letters and numbers; must return occasionally from the past to which our books and studies generally transport us to the sensuous present. 2. The same holds for the young; and Raumer well said, "The elements of nature study are well adapted to the boy, for he will feel, particularly if much occupied with language study, a natural and wholesome impulse to enjoy himself and refresh his mind by looking at crystals and flowers."" But the boy will not be satisfied with merely looking at these objects; he will soon proceed to observe, to compare, and to generalize. The classification of individual specimens affords the valuable logical exercise contained in passing from the specific to the generic, and the inverse of this exercise is obtained by letting the pupil find specimens of a certain family or genus. Natural history thus affords in concrete things the same logical exercises that the language studies require in abstract matters. There are even positive gains in greater linguistic skill. Aside from the obvious facts that the terminology implies an increase in the stock of words and that the work of describing the specimens affords a training in expression, the value of designating and, therefore, of language in general is seen from a new angle: "One name designates an untold number of individual things, and in a few pages the naturalist can express briefly and accurately the results of the researches of many years; and precisely because 1 As You Like It, II, I, 15-16. 2 Karl von Raumer, Geschichte der Pädagogik, III, p. 331. 3 Cf. supra, ch. XVII, 3. 3 one has first perceived the gravitation of the material world, will one realize the more keenly the magical power of the spiritual in language. The systems of natural history embody no mean amount of such intellectual work, as offers good material for training the young mind. Yet there are methods of teaching this subject that deprive natural history of all its educational value: the terminology is crammed down the throats of the pupils, and they are forced to believe that the system is the only justifiable unit in nature study, while such units as are suggested by life itself are ignored. However, it is just these units that are valuable for instruction, and this is true as well of those that are founded on the practical needs of life as of those that are based on the conditions obtaining in nature, where the different creatures and beings depend upon one another. By following up human aims and relations we shall connect natural history with the humaniste disciplines, and by tracing the life-units (Lebenseinheiten) in nature we shall elicit real sympathy with the life of nature and discover internal unity in what seemed to be wholly unconnected." 3. Natural bodies, the cosmic as well as those of our environment, are directly accessible to the student. But to get at the forces of nature and their substrata, the elements, there is required that deeper study of the phenomena which is the province of the natural sciences proper. Physics and chemistry-no other natural sciences need be considered here were originally studied by the scientific research worker only, and chemistry was for a long time considered a black art. Now, however, they are essential to the course of general education, for physics and chemistry and the sciences based on them, especially technology, have enriched our modern life with many conveniences, comforts, helps, apparatuses, etc., which the educated man should not use without understanding, since he ought to recognize them as products of specific mental activities. A further argument in favor of physics and chemistry may be drawn from the fact, that the schools must furnish the preparatory training for many technical professions in which at least an elementary knowledge of these two sciences is required. Of the natural sciences we may repeat what was said above of geography: sense-perception and teaching, one's own experience 1 Raumer, l. c., p. 333. 2 Cf. infra, ch. XLII. The and the instruction of others-all these factors must co-operate. By reflecting upon what was close at hand-the phenomenon or the object might have appeared insignificant-men have often been led to very important discoveries. The hammers of a smithy led Pythagoras to the discovery of laws of sound. Galileo discovered a law of mechanics by observing a swinging lamp. The falling of an apple led Newton to discover cosmic laws. The steam issuing from a boiling teakettle led Watt to discover laws of the theory of heat. It is of interest to note how one and the same object may affect different men. man with a geographical interest will ask whence the articles of his environment have come; the man with a bent for the history of civilization will inquire how long these articles have been in use; the natural philosopher, finally, will examine what they are made of and how they were made. The last mentioned will, therefore, be busy with them for the longest time, and will study them more thoroughly than the others did; he will first survey them from all sides, then examine them with his hands, take them apart, and ultimately set about making experiments with them. The experiment, aptly described as a question put to nature, is characteristic of the natural sciences. The guiding element of the experiment has an a priori character: the mind must first conceive the idea of procuring the object that is to be observed, and the sense-perception and observation are only the second step. This joining of logical processes is peculiar to this field of knowledge. In physics and chemistry it is the method that embodies, like the system in natural history, most intellectual work, and modern physical research has perfected not only the general methods, but has really accomplished great things in discovering and improving special methods, so that, as an educational instrument, physical research can now be compared to mathematics. In as far as the natural sciences employ the services of mathematics they merit the high praise that we accorded to astronomy: they demonstrate the wide scope of the science of quantity and thereby show how the phenomena are controlled by laws. 4. This many-sided educational value of the natural sciences can not, however, be fully utilized in the schools, for they can accomplish even less in this department than in history and geography. To be well up in the books on geography and history, may be considered satisfactory in regard to these subjects. But in the case of the natural sciences the student must live himself into the respective disciplines. A familiarity, for instance, with botany is impossible without a garden and conservatory; and to study zoology properly, you need a zoological garden, an aquarium, and an aviary. Again, to study mineralogy and chemistry, more is needed than a collection of minerals and a few pieces of apparatus. These sciences can be treated adequately only in the apothecary's shop, in the laboratory, and the factory. In physics, likewise, the demonstration of an experiment means little; only the pupil's co-operation and his making of the experiment will introduce him into the subject. The mastery of these sciences means technical skill, and the teacher of them should be a master, and the schoolroom should, for any adequate treatment, be turned into a workshop. But such methods of instruction would transcend the scope of a purely cultural course. It is difficult to correlate even those materials of the natural sciences that fall within the scope of general education with the older and more important subjects. The students generally regard the natural sciences as forming with mathematics a group of studies that has no relation whatever to any other school subject. The ignoring of the bonds that in reality connect the natural with the moral sciences, is responsible for this erroneous conception. Still, even the recognition of these bonds can bring about only an interweaving of the two courses, instead of a fusion, which precisely is the desideratum. The cause of this difficulty is to be sought not only in the content, but rather in the guiding principles of the two sets of subjects. The innermost nerve connecting the moral and the natural sciences is the concept of their end. Though we may not say that modern physical research has cut this nerve in twain, yet it has much neglected it and has thus impaired the usefulness of the teleological concept as a guiding principle. According to the older conception, which was based on ancient idealism, the end was a metaphysical principle. The good was regarded as the final cause, not only of our striving, but of all happenings; the idea was considered as prior to the corporeal world, reason as prior to nature, the perfect as prior to the imperfect, and liberty as prior to necessity. Francis Bacon attacked this sition with the specious argument that the final causes are like the Vestals consecrated to the deity, who are, indeed, venerable, but withal barren. The majority of modern naturalists have accepted his views, and have substituted the mechanistic conception of nature for the older organic view. This change has, it is true, produced some good results in individual cases, yet po it has isolated the natural sciences from the moral disciplines and has estranged the former from the idealistic methods of study. The naturalists have thus bartered the whole truth in exchange for half the truth, and this was too high a price, even if the partial truth be ever so fertile and (as in the present case) practically useful. To Bacon we may say that the Vestals were, though barren, yet not useless: they watched the sacred fire, and their virtue elevated and hallowed all womankind. CHAPTER XXIX. Polymathy. 1. The branches that we have treated in the preceding pages circumscribe the content of general education, but do not exhaust it. This content, namely, includes knowledge obtained from sources of all sorts-from reading, from life, from the present and the past, from history and nature and often little attention is given to the branch or science to which the information obtained may belong. More attention was formerly given to this informal kind of education; polymathy was valued primarily as an offset against the exclusive study of languages, but it was also appreciated because of the universal appeal of fullness and variety. Essays and even books were written on the art of reading, on making extracts, and there were models for commonplace books, scrap-books, etc. In the schools of the 17th century polymathy was taught under the name of erudition or encyclopedic instruction. In comparison with the old education, the instruction in present-day schools is undoubtedly rich and varied enough. There is, in fact, more material than enough. However, the science of education no longer teaches the art of reading and of filing extracts and clippings. Still, amid the deluge of newspapers, magazines, the short-lived literature of the day, and the multitude of encyclopedias, it is the duty of the present-day educator to teach the art of ignoring most of what issues from the press. Yet the dipping into all sorts of books and magazines, the passing, like the butterfly, from one interesting thing to another all this is so diametrically opposed to true education that the educationist might appear justified in ignoring the whole 1 Monroe, Cyclopedia of Education, s. v. Commonplace Books. |