I. ANALYSIS OF THE CONTENT OF EDUCATION. CHAPTER XII. Introduction and Division. 1. The subject-matter of education is in a certain sense universal, and it might, therefore, appear impossible to enumerate all its parts. Education may, indeed, consider the whole. content of human life as its proper field, even if educators require and assimilate only so much of it as is needed for their particular ends. But we should be defeating our purpose if we proceeded in our analysis of the educational content from he unlimited content of human life; nay, we may not proceed even from the system of the arts or the system of the sciences. Instead, we must turn to see how education disposes of these materials, and thus we shall obtain an internal principle of division. There are certain materials that are essential parts of education, while other materials are such as education merely works with. The first kind of materials must occupy the chief attention of the pupil, and they have been from the earliest times the main content of school education. The second kind of materials, though not excluded from the schools, may be mastered more easily than the first kind without a teacher. These materials were introduced into the schools at a comparatively late date, and hence may be called accessory, whereas the materials of the first class are the basic elements of education. The arts (Fertigkeiten),' in as far as they enter into general education, and all the sciences that include elements of the There is no accepted English term for the German Fertigkeiten, under which term Willmann comprises music, graphics, technology, and gymnastics. See the English translation (by Holland and Turner) of Pestalozzi's How Gertrude Teaches Her Children (2nd ed., Syracuse, 1898), pp. 7-15, for a long list of English synonyms of the German term Fertigkeit. The English term "arts" seems, however, to be used most widely in this sense; cf. West Virginia Institute Annual, Charleston, W. Va., 1908, p. 76. arts, or that, at the least, require a certain amount of systematic training, are basic elements. All those sciences, however, whose chief object is the imparting of knowledge, and not skill, are accessory elements. The first place, for intrinsic importance as well as for the time and labor to be spent on them, must be assigned to the disciplines that require much practice and systematic training, i. e., to the school sciences proper. Of these the greatest amount of time and energy must be given to the sciences that deal with language grammar, rhetoric, literature-and these may be comprised under the comprehensive term philology. Philology means primarily an interest in language, but has often changed its meaning; and here we extend its meaning so as to include the first elements of language study, viz., reading and writing. As a school science, philology implies the acquisition of linguistic knowledge as well as practice in the use of language: we can not properly enjoy the literature of any language without, at least, some proficiency in the use of the respective tongue. The mastery of language, both written and oral, is of great importance in all schools, in the elementary school as well as in the university Proficiency in language is the test applied universally for determining a man's educational attainments: the analfabeto, who is unable to read or write, is considered uneducated. To teach the correct use of the mother-tongue is the aim of elementary school education. The well-bred man is expected to know at least one foreign language; and the knowledge of the classical languages marks the man of liberal education. No one can claim to be educated unless he can express his thoughts in correct and intelligible language and is familiar, besides, with the classics of his mother-tongue. "He is able to write," designates in its different meanings different degrees of education: it implies either mastery of mechanical writing only, or the ability to write grammatically, or the proficiency to write with due observance of the rules of rhetoric. In accordance with old school traditions, arithmetic is taught in the elementary school beside reading and writing, and in the secondary school mathematics is taught beside language and literature. Thus mathematics is the second school science; and though it does not receive as much attention as philologyas not being of such general need-still it is almost everywhere 1 Vol. I, ch. IX, 7; ch. XXII, 1; ch. XXIX, 1. considered an essential part of education. As it hardly admits of popular treatment, it is hardly ever studied outside the schools. On account of its formal character it has always been considered a propedeutic discipline, and is regarded as the foundation of physics, philosophy, and even theology. . 2. Philosophy and theology are the other two school sciences, and they are higher studies than mathematics and philology. Historically, theology is the mother of all sciences; it was the first science studied, and its study gave rise to the first schools.' In the East it was the foundation of the whole system of education, but in Greece and Rome it had to surrender this position to philosophy, while the Christian school system includes both theology and philosophy in the curriculum. Religious instruction, the elementary form of theology, is one of the elementary school branches; and thus the four R's: reading, writing, arithmetic, and religion, are the essence of elementary school instruction. As logic or dialectic, philosophy is co-ordinated with the language studies; it is studied extensively outside the schools, and many books and lectures treat it in popular form. Philosophy occupies the borderland between higher and middle. schools, between school and life, and between general education and scientific research. Nevertheless, it is a good school science, first because of its propedeutic value for professional studies, and secondly because of its general training of the reasoning faculty. 3. The school sciences do not embrace all knowledge. They are but the core of it; or, to use a different picture, but the skeleton which must be covered with all the varied knowledge that deals with both nature and human life as well as the past and the present. This varied knowledge forms a polymathic field that offers large opportunities for individual initiative. All sciences that can not be well reduced to the form of school sciences no matter whether they incline to a professional or a popular form-belong to this field. Such sciences may be cultivated in the garden of scholarship, or they may grow wild, but they will not thrive in the nursery. To this class belong the historical sciences, which are fostered partly by the historical interest and partly by the political or patriotic interest; likewise geography, either as closely connected with history or as the independent study of the earth's surface; and finally all 1 Vol. I, ch. IV, 1; ch. V, 1; ch. VII, 1; ch. XV. 3. 2 Vol. I, ch. IX, 5; ch. XII, 6; ch. XIX, 2. the sciences that deal with nature: I. natural history that deals. with the natural phenomena; 2. natural philosophy that explains the physical forces; and 3. the applied natural sciences that deal with the service that man may obtain from nature. But history. geography, and the natural sciences do not exhaust the field Cyclopedias and compilations of all sorts supply much information that is both useful and entertaining, and we shall do well to regard this amorphous polymathic knowledge as a fourth field of our second group of educational materials. This last field is, unlike the third, not co-ordinated with any definite science.' The two first groups can be traced back to the sciences, but not so the arts which form our third group of educational materials. Music occupies the first place by virtue as well of its age as of its great vogue. Vocal music is taught regularly in the schools, but instrumental music is largely left to individual initiative. Orchestics is the transition from music to gymnastics;" and gymnastics comprises calisthenics and all other physical exercises that aim to develop one's personality. The ancients prized graphics" for its educational value, and it is, indeed, the introduction to the arts of design. Some connection was established in modern times between graphics on the one hand and the industries and the mechanical trades on the other by treating certain elements of technology as a part of graphics. Technology is now coming to be recognized as the complement of, and connecting link between, other branches of study. CHAPTER XIII. The System of the Educational Contents. 1. It is not difficult to find in our division all the courses of study that were ever recognized in the history of education, and this fact is a strong argument in favor of our classification. The ten Vêdânga, or members of the Veda, can be traced back to our school sciences: etymology, grammar, prosody, exegesis, belong to philology; logic, to philosophy; astronomy takes the place of mathematics; and the other sciences-dogmatics, juris 1 Vol. I, ch. IX, 2; ch. XII, 5; ch. XIX, 5; ch. XXII, 4; ch. XXVI. 2 Vol. I, ch. XI, 1. 3 Vol. I, ch. IX, 3. |