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diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6833f05 --- /dev/null +++ b/.gitattributes @@ -0,0 +1,3 @@ +* text=auto +*.txt text +*.md text diff --git a/30661-0.txt b/30661-0.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..b278fb4 --- /dev/null +++ b/30661-0.txt @@ -0,0 +1,8878 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of Pedagogics as a System, by Karl Rosenkranz + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: Pedagogics as a System + +Author: Karl Rosenkranz + +Translator: Anna C. Brackett + +Release Date: December 13, 2009 [EBook #30661] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: UTF-8 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK PEDAGOGICS AS A SYSTEM *** + + + + +Produced by Jonathan Ingram, Turgut Dincer and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net (This +file was produced from images generously made available +by The Internet Archive/American Libraries.) + + + + + + + +-------------------------------------+ + | Transcriber's note: | + | | + | Many words in the text are spelled | + | with or without a hyphen; these are | + | not corrected as both forms occur | + | with almost same frequency and the | + | hyphenated form might indicate an | + | emphasis in words such as | + | re-formation. | + | | + | If Greek text is not displayed | + | correctly, set the coding of the | + | text reader to Unicode UTF8. | + +-------------------------------------+ + + + + PEDAGOGICS + AS A + SYSTEM. + + By Dr. KARL ROSENKRANZ, + + _Doctor of Theology and Professor of Philosophy at the University + of Königsberg._ + + TRANSLATED FROM THE GERMAN + + By ANNA C. BRACKETT. + + + (_Reprinted from Journal of Speculative Philosophy._) + + + ST. LOUIS, MO.: + THE R. P. STUDLEY COMPANY, PRINTERS, CORNER MAIN & OLIVE STS. + 1872. + + Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1872, by + WILLIAM T. HARRIS, + In the Office of the Librarian of Congress at Washington. + + + + + ANALYSIS. + + {FIRST PART. {Its Nature. + {In its General {Its Form. + { Idea. {Its Limits. + { + {SECOND PART. {Physical. + {In its Special {Intellectual. + { Elements. {Moral. + { + { { { {Family China. + { { {Passive. {Caste India. + { { { {Monkish Thibet. + { { { + { { { {Military Persia. + { {National. {Active {Priestly Egypt. + { { { {Industrial Phœnicia. + { { { + { { { {Æsthetic Greece. + E { { {Individual. {Practical Rome. + D { { { {Abstract {Northern. + U { { { { Individual{ Barbarians. + C { { + A { {Theocratic. . . . . . . . . . . . Jews. + T { { + I { {Monkish. + O {THIRD PART. { + N {In its { + { Particular { + { Systems. { + { {Chivalric. + { { + { {Humanitarian. {For Special {Jesuitic. + { { { Callings. {Pietistic. + { { + { { {The + { { { {Humanistic. + { {For Civil {To achieve { + { { Life. { an Ideal of {The + { { { Culture. {Philanthropic + { { { {Movement. + { { { + { { {For Free Citizenship. + + +PEDAGOGICS AS A SYSTEM. + + + [Inquiries from teachers in different sections of the + country as to the sources of information on the subject of + Teaching as a Science have led me to believe that a + translation of Rosenkranz's Pedagogics may be widely + acceptable and useful. It is very certain that too much of + our teaching is simply empirical, and as Germany has, more + than any other country, endeavored to found it upon + universal truths, it is to that country that we must at + present look for a remedy for this empiricism. + + Based as this is upon the profoundest system of German + Philosophy, no more suggestive treatise on Education can + perhaps be found. In his third part, as will be readily + seen, Rosenkranz follows the classification of National + ideas given in Hegel's Philosophy of History. The word + "Pedagogics," though it has unfortunately acquired a + somewhat unpleasant meaning in English——thanks to the + writers who have made the word "pedagogue" so + odious——deserves to be redeemed for future use. I have, + therefore, retained it in the translation. + + In order that the reader may see the general scope of the + work, I append in tabular form the table of contents, + giving however, under the first and second parts, only the + main divisions. The minor heads can, of course, as they + appear in the translation, be easily located.——_Tr._] + + + + +INTRODUCTION. + + +§ 1. The science of Pedagogics cannot be derived from a simple principle +with such exactness as Logic and Ethics. It is rather a mixed science +which has its presuppositions in many others. In this respect it +resembles Medicine, with which it has this also in common, that it must +make a distinction between a sound and an unhealthy system of education, +and must devise means to prevent or to cure the latter. It may therefore +have, like Medicine, the three departments of Physiology, Pathology, and +Therapeutics. + +§ 2. Since Pedagogics is capable of no such exact definitions of its +principle and no such logical deduction as other sciences, the treatises +written upon it abound more in shallowness than any other literature. +Short-sightedness and arrogance find in it a most congenial atmosphere, +and criticism and declamatory bombast flourish in perfection as nowhere +else. The literature of religious tracts might be considered to rival +that of Pedagogics in its superficiality and assurance, if it did not +for the most part seem itself to belong, through its ascetic nature, to +Pedagogics. But teachers as persons should be treated in their +weaknesses and failures with the utmost consideration, because they are +most of them sincere in contributing their mite for the improvement of +education, and all their pedagogic practice inclines them towards +administering reproof and giving advice. + +§ 3. The charlatanism of educational literature is also fostered by the +fact that teaching has become one of the most profitable employments, +and the competition in it tends to increase self-glorification. + +——When "Boz" in his "Nicholas Nickleby" exposed the horrible mysteries +of an English boarding-school, many teachers of such schools were, as he +assures us, so accurately described that they openly complained he had +aimed his caricatures directly at them.—— + +§ 4. In the system of the sciences, Pedagogics belongs to the Philosophy +of Spirit,——and in this, to the department of Practical Philosophy, the +problem of which is the comprehension of the necessity of freedom; for +education is the conscious working of one will on another so as to +produce itself in it according to a determinate aim. The idea of +subjective spirit, as well as that of Art, Science, and Religion, forms +the essential condition for Pedagogics, but does not contain its +principle. If one thinks out a complete statement of Practical +Philosophy (Ethics), Pedagogics may be distributed among all its grades. +But the point at which Pedagogics itself becomes organic is the idea of +the Family, because in the family the difference between the adults and +the minors enters directly through the naturalness of spirit, and the +right of the children to an education and the duty of parents towards +them in this respect is incontestable. All other spheres of education, +in order to succeed, must presuppose a true family life. They may extend +and complement the business of teaching, but cannot be its original +foundation. + +——In our systematic exposition of Education, we must not allow +ourselves to be led into error by those theories which do not recognize +the family, and which limit the relation of husband and wife to the +producing of children. The Platonic Philosophy is the most worthy +representative of this class. Later writers who take great pleasure in +seeing the world full of children, but who would subtract from the love +to a wife all truth and from that to children all care, exhibit in their +doctrine of the anarchy of love only a sickly (but yet how prevalent an) +imitation of the Platonic state.—— + +§ 5. Much confusion also arises from the fact that many do not clearly +enough draw the distinction between Pedagogics as a science and +Pedagogics as an art. As a science it busies itself with developing _a +priori_ the idea of Education in the universality and necessity of that +idea, but as an art it is the concrete individualizing of this abstract +idea in any given case. And in any such given case, the peculiarities of +the person who is to be educated and all the previously existing +circumstances necessitate a modification of the universal aims and ends, +which modification cannot be provided for beforehand, but must rather +test the ready tact of the educator who knows how to make the existing +conditions fulfil his desired end. It is exactly in doing this that the +educator may show himself inventive and creative, and that pedagogic +talent can distinguish itself. The word "art" is here used in the same +way as it is used when we say, the art of war, the art of government, +&c.; and rightly, for we are talking about the possibility of the +realization of the idea. + +——The educator must adapt himself to the pupil, but not to such a degree +as to imply that the pupil is incapable of change, and he must also be +sure that the pupil shall learn through his experience the independence +of the object studied, which remains uninfluenced by his variable +personal moods, and the adaptation on the teacher's part must never +compromise this independence.—— + +§ 6. If conditions which are local, temporal, and individual, are fixed +as constant rules, and carried beyond their proper limits, are +systematized as a valuable formalistic code, unavoidable error arises. +The formulæ of teaching are admirable material for the science, but are +not the science itself. + +§ 7. Pedagogics as a science must (1) unfold the general idea of +Education; (2) must exhibit the particular phases into which the general +work of Education divides itself, and (3) must describe the particular +standpoint upon which the general idea realizes itself, or should become +real in its special processes at any particular time. + +§ 8. The treatment of the first part offers no difficulty. It is +logically too evident. But it would not do to substitute for it the +history of Pedagogics, simply because all the conceptions of it which +appear in systematic treatises can be found there. + +——Into this error G. Thaulow has fallen in his pamphlet on Pedagogics as +a Philosophical Science.—— + +§ 9. The second division unfolds the subject of the physical, +intellectual and practical culture of the human race, and constitutes +the main part of all books on Pedagogy. Here arises the greatest +difficulty as to the limitations, partly because of the undefined nature +of the ideas, partly because of the degree of amplification which the +details demand. Here is the field of the widest possible differences. If +e.g. one studies out the conception of the school with reference to the +qualitative specialities which one may consider, it is evident that he +can extend his remarks indefinitely; he may speak thus of technological +schools of all kinds, to teach mining, navigation, war, art, &c. + +§ 10. The third division distinguishes between the different standpoints +which are possible in the working out of the conception of Education in +its special elements, and which therefore produce different systems of +Education wherein the general and the particular are individualized in a +special manner. In every system the general tendencies of the idea of +education, and the difference between the physical, intellectual and +practical culture of man, must be formally recognized, and will appear. +The How is decided by the standpoint which reduces that formalism to a +special system. Thus it becomes possible to discover the essential +contents of the history of Pedagogics from its idea, since this can +furnish not an indefinite but a certain number of Pedagogic systems. + +——The lower standpoint merges always into the higher, and in so doing +first attains its full meaning, e.g.: Education for the sake of the +nation is set aside for higher standpoints, i.g., that of +Christianity; but we must not suppose that the national phase of +Education was counted as nought from the Christian standpoint. Rather it +itself had outgrown the limits which, though suitable enough for its +early stage, could no longer contain its true idea. This is sure to be +the case in the fact that the national individualities become +indestructible by being incorporated into Christianity——a fact that +contradicts the abstract seizing of such relations.—— + +§ 11. The last system must be that of the present, and since this is +certainly on one side the result of all the past, while on the other +seized in its possibilities it is determined by the Future, the business +of Pedagogics cannot pause till it reaches its ideal of the general and +special determinations, so that looked at in this way the Science of +Pedagogics at its end returns to its beginning. The first and second +divisions already contain the idea of the system necessary for the +Present. + + + + +FIRST PART. + +The General Idea of Education. + + +§ 12. The idea of Pedagogics in general must distinguish, + + (1) The nature of Education in general; + (2) Its form; + (3) Its limits. + + +I. + +_The Nature of Education._ + +§ 13. The nature of Education is determined by the nature of mind——that +it can develop whatever it really is only by its own activity. Mind is +in itself free; but if it does not actualize this possibility, it is in +no true sense free, either for itself or for another. Education is the +influencing of man by man, and it has for its end to lead him to +actualize himself through his own efforts. The attainment of perfect +manhood as the actualization of the Freedom necessary to mind +constitutes the nature of Education in general. + +——The completely isolated man does not become man. Solitary human +beings who have been found in forests, like the wild girl of the forest +of Ardennes, sufficiently prove the fact that the truly human qualities +in man cannot be developed without reciprocal action with human beings. +Caspar Hauser in his subterranean prison is an illustration of what man +would be by himself. The first cry of the child expresses in its appeals +to others this helplessness of spirituality on the side of nature.—— + +§ 14. Man, therefore, is the only fit subject for education. We often +speak, it is true, of the education of plants and animals; but even when +we do so, we apply, unconsciously perhaps, other expressions, as +"raising" and "training," in order to distinguish these. "Breaking" +consists in producing in an animal, either by pain or pleasure of the +senses, an activity of which, it is true, he is capable, but which he +never would have developed if left to himself. On the other hand, it is +the nature of Education only to assist in the producing of that which +the subject would strive most earnestly to develop for himself if he had +a clear idea of himself. We speak of raising trees and animals, but not +of raising men; and it is only a planter who looks to his slaves only +for an increase in their number. + +——The education of men is quite often enough, unfortunately, only a +"breaking," and here and there still may be found examples where one +tries to teach mechanically, not through the understanding power of the +creative WORD, but through the powerless and fruitless appeal to +physical pain.—— + +§ 15. The idea of Education may be more or less comprehensive. We use it +in the widest sense when we speak of the Education of the race, for we +understand by this expression the connection which the acts and +situations of different nations have to each other, as different steps +towards self-conscious freedom. In this the world-spirit is the teacher. + +§ 16. In a more restricted sense we mean by Education the shaping of +the individual life by the forces of nature, the rhythmical movement of +national customs, and the might of destiny in which each one finds +limits set to his arbitrary will. These often mould him into a man +without his knowledge. For he cannot act in opposition to nature, nor +offend the ethical sense of the people among whom he dwells, nor despise +the leading of destiny without discovering through experience that +before the Nemesis of these substantial elements his subjective power +can dash itself only to be shattered. If he perversely and persistently +rejects all our admonitions, we leave him, as a last resort, to destiny, +whose iron rule must educate him, and reveal to him the God whom he has +misunderstood. + +——It is, of course, sometimes not only possible, but necessary for one, +moved by the highest sense of morality, to act in opposition to the laws +of nature, to offend the ethical sense of the people that surround him, +and to brave the blows of destiny; but such a one is a sublime reformer +or martyr, and we are not now speaking of such, but of the perverse, the +frivolous, and the conceited.—— + +§ 17. In the narrowest sense, which however is the usual one, we mean by +Education the influence which one mind exerts on another in order to +cultivate the latter in some understood and methodical way, either +generally or with reference to some special aim. The educator must, +therefore, be relatively finished in his own education, and the pupil +must possess unlimited confidence in him. If authority be wanting on the +one side, or respect and obedience on the other, this ethical basis of +development must fail, and it demands in the very highest degree, +talent, knowledge, skill, and prudence. + +——Education takes on this form only under the culture which has been +developed through the influence of city life. Up to that time we have +the naïve period of education, which holds to the general powers of +nature, of national customs, and of destiny, and which lasts for a long +time among the rural populations. But in the city a greater complication +of events, an uncertainty of the results of reflection, a working out of +individuality, and a need of the possession of many arts and trades, +make their appearance and render it impossible for men longer to be +ruled by mere custom. The Telemachus of Fenelon was educated to rule +himself by means of reflection; the actual Telemachus in the heroic age +lived simply according to custom.—— + +§ 18. The general problem of Education is the development of the +theoretical and practical reason in the individual. If we say that to +educate one means to fashion him into morality, we do not make our +definition sufficiently comprehensive, because we say nothing of +intelligence, and thus confound education and ethics. A man is not +merely a human being, but as a reasonable being he is a peculiar +individual, and different from all others of the race. + +§ 19. Education must lead the pupil by an interconnected series of +efforts previously foreseen and arranged by the teacher to a definite +end; but the particular form which this shall take must be determined by +the peculiar character of the pupil's mind and the situation in which he +is found. Hasty and inconsiderate work may accomplish much, but only +_systematic_ work can advance and fashion him in conformity with his +nature, and the former does not belong to education, for this includes +in itself the idea of an end, and that of the technical means for its +attainment. + +§ 20. But as culture comes to mean more and more, there becomes +necessary a division of the business of teaching among different +persons, with reference to capabilities and knowledge, because as the +arts and sciences are continually increasing in number, one can become +learned in any one branch only by devoting himself exclusively to it, +and hence becoming one-sided. A difficulty hence arises which is also +one for the pupil, of preserving, in spite of this unavoidable +one-sidedness, the unity and wholeness which are necessary to humanity. + +——The naïve dignity of the happy savage, and the agreeable simplicity of +country people, appear to very great advantage when contrasted on this +side with the often unlimited narrowness of a special trade, and the +endless curtailing of the wholeness of man by the pruning processes of +city life. Thus the often abused savage has his hut, his family, his +cocoa tree, his weapons, his passions; he fishes, hunts, plays, fights, +adorns himself, and enjoys the consciousness that he is the centre of a +whole, while a modern citizen is often only an abstract expression of +culture.—— + +§ 21. As it becomes necessary to divide the work of teaching, a +difference between general and special schools arises also, from the +needs of growing culture. The former present in different compass all +the sciences and arts which are included in the term "general +education," and which were classified by the Greeks under the general +name of Encyclopædia. The latter are known as special schools, suited to +particular needs or talents. + +——As those who live in the country are relatively isolated, it is often +necessary, or at least desirable, that one man should be trained equally +on many different sides. The poor tutor is required not only to instruct +in all the sciences, he must also speak French and be able to play the +piano.—— + +§ 22. For any single person, the relation of his actual education to its +infinite possibilities can only be approximately determined, and it can +be considered as only relatively finished on any one side. Education is +impossible to him who is born an idiot, since the want of the power of +generalizing and of ideality of conscious personality leaves to such an +unfortunate only the possibility of a mechanical training. + +——Sägert, the teacher of the deaf mutes in Berlin, has made laudable +efforts to educate idiots, but the account as given in his publication, +"Cure of Idiots by an Intellectual Method, Berlin, 1846," shows that the +result obtained was only external; and though we do not desire to be +understood as denying or refusing to this class the possession of a mind +_in potentia_, it appears in them to be confined to an embryonic +state.—— + + +II. + +_The Form of Education._ + +§ 23. The general form of Education is determined by the nature of the +mind, that it really is nothing but what it makes itself to be. The mind +is (1) immediate (or potential), but (2) it must estrange itself from +itself as it were, so that it may place itself over against itself as a +special object of attention; (3) this estrangement is finally removed +through a further acquaintance with the object——it feels itself at home +in that on which it looks, and returns again enriched to the form of +immediateness. That which at first appeared to be another than itself is +now seen to be itself. Education cannot create; it can only help to +develop to reality the previously existent possibility; it can only help +to bring forth to light the hidden life. + +§ 24. All culture, whatever may be its special purport, must pass +through these two stages——of estrangement, and its removal. Culture must +hold fast to the distinction between the subject and the object +considered immediately, though it has again to absorb this distinction +into itself, in order that the union of the two may be more complete and +lasting. The subject recognizes then all the more certainly that what at +first appeared to it as a foreign existence, belongs to it as its own +property, and that it holds it as its own all the more by means of +culture. + +——Plato, as is known, calls the feeling with which knowledge must begin, +wonder; but this can serve as a beginning only, for wonder itself can +only express the tension between the subject and the object at their +first encounter——a tension which would be impossible if they were not in +themselves identical. Children have a longing for the far-off, the +strange, and the wonderful, as if they hoped to find in these an +explanation of themselves. They want the object to be a genuine object. +That to which they are accustomed, which they see around them every day, +seems to have no longer any objective energy for them; but an alarm of +fire, banditti life, wild animals, gray old ruins, the robin's songs, +and far-off happy islands, &c.——everything high-colored and +dazzling——leads them irresistibly on. The necessity of the mind's making +itself foreign to itself is that which makes children prefer to hear of +the adventurous journeys of Sinbad than news of their own city or the +history of their nation, and in youth this same necessity manifests +itself in their desire of travelling.—— + +§ 25. This activity of the mind in allowing itself to be absorbed, and +consciously so, in an object with the purpose of making it his own, or +of producing it, is _Work_. But when the mind gives itself up to its +objects as chance may present them or through arbitrariness, careless as +to whether they have any result, such activity is _Play_. Work is laid +out for the pupil by his teacher by authority, but in his play he is +left to himself. + +§ 26. Thus work and play must be sharply distinguished from each other. +If one has not respect for work as an important and substantial +activity, he not only spoils play for his pupil, for this loses all its +charm when deprived of the antithesis of an earnest, set task, but he +undermines his respect for real existence. On the other hand, if he does +not give him space, time, and opportunity, for play, he prevents the +peculiarities of his pupil from developing freely through the exercise +of his creative ingenuity. Play sends the pupil back refreshed to his +work, since in play he forgets himself in his own way, while in work he +is required to forget himself in a manner prescribed for him by another. + +——Play is of great importance in helping one to discover the true +individualities of children, because in play they may betray +thoughtlessly their inclinations. This antithesis of work and play runs +through the entire life. Children anticipate in their play the earnest +work of after life; thus the little girl plays with her doll, and the +boy pretends he is a soldier and in battle.—— + +§ 27. Work should never be treated as if it were play, nor play as if it +were work. In general, the arts, the sciences, and productions, stand in +this relation to each other: the accumulation of stores of knowledge is +the recreation of the mind which is engaged in independent creation, and +the practice of arts fills the same office to those whose work is to +collect knowledge. + +§ 28. Education seeks to transform every particular condition so that it +shall no longer seem strange to the mind or in anywise foreign to its +own nature. This identity of consciousness, and the special character of +anything done or endured by it, we call Habit [habitual conduct or +behavior]. It conditions formally all progress; for that which is not +yet become habit, but which we perform with design and an exercise of +our will, is not yet a part of ourselves. + +§ 29. As to Habit, we have to say next that it is at first indifferent +as to what it relates. But that which is to be considered as indifferent +or neutral cannot be defined in the abstract, but only in the concrete, +because anything that is indifferent as to whether it shall act on these +particular men, or in this special situation, is capable of another or +even of the opposite meaning for another man or men for the same men or +in other circumstances. Here, then, appeal must be made to the +individual conscience in order to be able from the depths of +individuality to separate what we can permit to ourselves from that +which we must deny ourselves. The aim of Education must be to arouse in +the pupil this spiritual and ethical sensitiveness which does not +recognize anything as _merely_ indifferent, but rather knows how to +seize in everything, even in the seemingly small, its universal human +significance. But in relation to the highest problems he must learn that +what concerns his own immediate personality is entirely indifferent. + +§ 30. Habit lays aside its indifference to an external action through +reflection on the advantage or disadvantage of the same. Whatever tends +as a harmonious means to the realization of an end is advantageous, but +that is disadvantageous which, by contradicting its idea, hinders or +destroys it. Advantage and disadvantage being then only _relative_ +terms, a habit which is advantageous for one man in one case may be +disadvantageous for another man, or even for the same man, under +different circumstances. Education must, therefore, accustom the youth +to judge as to the expediency or inexpediency of any action in its +relation to the essential vocation of his life, so that he shall avoid +that which does not promote its success. + +§ 31. But the _absolute_ distinction of habit is the moral distinction +between the good and the bad. For from this standpoint alone can we +finally decide what is allowable and what is forbidden, what is +advantageous and what is disadvantageous. + +§ 32. As relates to form, habit may be either passive or active. The +passive is that which teaches us to bear the vicissitudes of nature as +well as of history with such composure that we shall hold our ground +against them, being always equal to ourselves, and that we shall not +allow our power of acting to be paralyzed through any mutations of +fortune. Passive habit is not to be confounded with obtuseness in +receiving impressions, a blank abstraction from the affair in hand which +at bottom is found to be nothing more than a selfishness which desires +to be left undisturbed: it is simply composure of mind in view of +changes over which we have no control. While we vividly experience joy +and sorrow, pain and pleasure——inwoven as these are with the change of +seasons, of the weather, &c.——with the alternation of life and death, of +happiness and misery, we ought nevertheless to harden ourselves against +them so that at the same time in our consciousness of the supreme worth +of the mind we shall build up the inaccessible stronghold of Freedom in +ourselves.——Active habit [or behavior] is found realized in a wide range +of activity which appears in manifold forms, such as skill, dexterity, +readiness of information, &c. It is a steeling of the internal for +action upon the external, as the Passive is a steeling of the internal +against the influences of the external. + +[Sidenote: _Formation of Habits._] + +§ 33. Habit is the general form which instruction takes. For since it +reduces a condition or an activity within ourselves to an instinctive +use and wont, it is necessary for any thorough instruction. But as, +according to its content, it may be either proper or improper, +advantageous or disadvantageous, good or bad, and according to its form +may be the assimilation of the external by the internal, or the impress +of the internal upon the external, Education must procure for the pupil +the power of being able to free himself from one habit and to adopt +another. Through his freedom he must be able not only to renounce any +habit formed, but to form a new one; and he must so govern his system of +habits that it shall exhibit a constant progress of development into +greater freedom. We must discipline ourselves, as a means toward the +ever-changing realization of the Good in us, constantly to form and to +break habits. + +——We must characterize those habits as bad which relate only to our +convenience or our enjoyment. They are often not blamable in themselves, +but there lies in them a hidden danger that they may allure us into +luxury or effeminacy. But it is a false and mechanical way of looking at +the affair if we suppose that a habit which has been formed by a certain +number of repetitions can be broken by an equal number of denials. We +can never renounce a habit utterly except through a clearness of +judgment which decides it to be undesirable, and through firmness of +will.—— + +§ 34. Education comprehends also the reciprocal action of the +opposites, authority and obedience, rationality and individuality, work +and play, habit and spontaneity. If we imagine that these can be +reconciled by rules, it will be in vain that we try to restrain the +youth in these relations. But a failure in education in this particular +is very possible through the freedom of the pupil, through special +circumstances, or through the errors of the educator himself. And for +this very reason any theory of Education must take into account in the +beginning this negative possibility. It must consider beforehand the +dangers which threaten the pupil in all possible ways even before they +surround him, and fortify him against them. Intentionally to expose him +to temptation in order to prove his strength, is devilish; and, on the +other hand, to guard him against the chance of dangerous temptation, to +wrap him in cotton (as the proverb says), is womanish, ridiculous, +fruitless, and much more dangerous; for temptation comes not alone from +without, but quite as often from within, and secret inclination seeks +and creates for itself the opportunity for its gratification, often +perhaps an unnatural one. The truly preventive activity consists not in +an abstract seclusion from the world, all of whose elements are innate +in each individual, but in the activity of knowledge and discipline, +modified according to age and culture. + +[Sidenote: _Protection against Temptation._] + +——If one endeavors to deprive the youth of all free and individual +intercourse with the world, one only falls into a continual watching of +him, and the consciousness that he is watched destroys in him all +elasticity of spirit, all confidence, all originality. The police shadow +of control obscures all independence and systematically accustoms him to +dependence. As the tragi-comic story of Peter Schlemihl shows, one +cannot lose his own shadow without falling into the saddest fatalities; +but the shadow of a constant companion, as in the pedagogical system of +the Jesuits, undermines all naturalness. And if one endeavors too +strictly to guard against that which is evil and forbidden, the +intelligence of the pupils reacts in deceit against such efforts, till +the educators are amazed that such crimes as come often to light can +have arisen under such careful control.—— + +§ 35. If there should appear in the youth any decided moral deformity +which is opposed to the ideal of his education, the instructor must at +once make inquiry as to the history of its origin, because the negative +and the positive are very closely connected in his being, so that what +appears to be negligence, rudeness, immorality, foolishness, or oddity, +may arise from some real needs of the youth which in their development +have only taken a wrong direction. + +§ 36. If it should appear on such examination that the negative action +was only a product of wilful ignorance, of caprice, or of arbitrariness +on the part of the youth, then this calls for a simple prohibition on +the part of the educator, no reason being assigned. His authority must +be sufficient to the pupil without any reason. Only when this has +happened more than once, and the youth is old enough to understand, +should the prohibition, together with the reason therefor, be given. + +——This should, however, be brief; the explanation must retain its +disciplinary character, and must not become extended into a doctrinal +essay, for in such a case the youth easily forgets that it was his own +misbehavior which was the occasion of the explanation. The statement of +the reason must be honest, and it must present to the youth the point +most easy for him to seize. False reasons are morally blamable in +themselves, and they tend only to confuse. It is a great mistake to +unfold to the youth the broadening consequences which his act may bring. +These uncertain possibilities seem to him too powerless to affect him +particularly. The severe lecture wearies him, especially if it be +stereotyped, as is apt to be the case with fault-finding and talkative +instructors. But more unfortunate is it if the painting of the gloomy +background to which the consequences of the wrong-doing of the youth may +lead, should fill his feelings and imagination prematurely with gloomy +fancies, because then the representation has led him one step toward a +state of wretchedness which in the future man may become fearful +depression and degradation.—— + +[Sidenote: _Reproof and Punishment._] + +§ 37. If the censure is accompanied with a threat of punishment, then we +have the same kind of reproof which in daily life we call "scolding;" +but if reproof is given, the pupil must be made to feel that it is in +earnest. + +§ 38. Only when all other efforts have failed, is punishment, which is +the real negation of the error, the transgression, or the vice, +justifiable. Punishment inflicts intentionally pain on the pupil, and +its object is, by means of this sensation, to bring him to reason, a +result which neither our simple prohibition, our explanation, nor our +threat of punishment, has been able to reach. But the punishment, as +such, must not refer to the subjective totality of the youth, or his +disposition in general, but only to the act which, as result, is a +manifestation of the disposition. It acts mediately on the disposition, +but leaves the inner being untouched directly; and this is not only +demanded by justice, but on account of the sophistry that is inherent in +human nature, which desires to assign to a deed many motives, it is even +necessary. + +[Sidenote: _Correction_ VERSUS _Satisfaction of Justice._] + +§ 39. Punishment as an educational means is nevertheless essentially +corrective, since, by leading the youth to a proper estimation of his +fault and a positive change in his behavior, it seeks to improve him. At +the same time it stands as a sad indication of the insufficiency of the +means previously used. On no account should the youth be frightened from +the commission of a misdemeanor, or from the repetition of his negative +deed through fear of punishment——a system which leads always to +terrorism: but, although it may have this effect, it should, before all +things, impress upon him the recognition of the fact that the negative +is not allowed to act as it will without limitation, but rather that the +Good and the True have the absolute power in the world, and that they +are never without the means of overcoming anything that contradicts +them. + +——In the statute-laws, punishment has the opposite office. It must first +of all satisfy justice, and only after this is done can it attempt to +improve the guilty. If a government should proceed on the same basis as +the educator it would mistake its task, because it has to deal with +adults, whom it elevates to the honorable position of responsibility for +their own acts. The state must not go back to the psychological ethical +genesis of a negative deed. It must assign to a secondary rank of +importance the biographical moment which contains the deed in process +and the circumstances of a mitigating character, and it must consider +first of all the deed in itself. It is quite otherwise with the +educator; for he deals with human beings who are relatively undeveloped, +and who are only growing toward responsibility. So long as they are +still under the care of a teacher, the responsibility of their deed +belongs in part to him. If we confound the standpoint in which +punishment is administered in the state with that in education, we work +much evil.—— + +§ 40. Punishment as a negation of a negation, considered as an +educational means, cannot be determined _à priori_, but must always be +modified by the peculiarities of the individual offender and by the +peculiar circumstances. Its administration calls for the exercise of the +ingenuity and tact of the educator. + +[Sidenote: _Three Kinds of Punishment._] + +§ 41. Generally speaking, we must make a distinction between the sexes, +as well as between the different periods of youth; (1) some kind of +corporal punishment is most suitable for children, (2) isolation for +older boys and girls, and (3) punishment based on the sense of honor for +young men and women. + +§ 42. (1) Corporal punishment is the production of physical pain. The +youth is generally whipped, and this kind of punishment, provided always +that it is not too often administered or with undue severity, is the +proper way of dealing with wilful defiance, with obstinate carelessness, +or with a really perverted will, so long or so often as the higher +perception is closed against appeal. The imposing of other physical +punishment, e.g. that of depriving the pupil of food, partakes of +cruelty. The view which sees in the rod the panacea for all the +teacher's embarrassments is censurable, but equally undesirable is the +false sentimentality which assumes that the dignity of humanity is +affected by a blow given to a child, and confounds self-conscious +humanity with child-humanity, to which a blow is the most natural form +of reaction, in which all other forms of influence at last end. + +——The fully-grown man ought never to be whipped, because this kind of +punishment reduces him to the level of the child, and, when it becomes +barbarous, to that of a brute animal, and so is absolutely degrading to +him. In the English schools the rod is much used. If a pupil of the +first class be put back into the second at Eton, he, although before +exempt from flogging, becomes liable to it. But however necessary this +system of flogging of the English aristocracy may be in the discipline +of their schools, flogging in the English army is a shameful thing for +the free people of Great Britain.—— + +§ 43. (2) By Isolation we remove the offender temporarily from the +society of his fellows. The boy left alone, cut off from all +companionship, and left absolutely to himself, suffers from a sense of +helplessness. The time passes heavily, and soon he is very anxious to be +allowed to return to the company of parents, brothers and sisters, +teachers and fellow-pupils. + +——To leave a child entirely to himself without any supervision, even if +one shuts him up in a dark room, is as mistaken a practice as to leave a +few together without supervision, as is too often done where they are +kept after school, when they give the freest rein to their childish +wantonness and commit the wildest pranks.—— + +[Sidenote: _Sense of Honor in the Pupil._] + +§ 44. (3) This way of isolating a child does not touch his sense of +honor at all, and is soon forgotten because it relates to only one side +of his conduct. It is quite different from punishment based on the sense +of honor, which, in a formal manner, shuts the youth out from +companionship because he has attacked the principle which holds society +together, and for this reason can no longer be considered as belonging +to it. Honor is the recognition of one individual by others as their +equal. Through his error, or it may be his crime, he has simply made +himself unequal to them, and in so far has separated himself from them, +so that his banishment from their society is only the outward expression +of the real isolation which he himself has brought to pass in his inner +nature, and which he by means of his negative act only betrayed to the +outer world. Since the punishment founded on the sense of honor affects +the whole ethical man and makes a lasting impression upon his memory, +extreme caution is necessary in its application lest a permanent injury +be inflicted upon the character. The idea of his perpetual continuance +in disgrace, destroys in a man all aspiration for improvement. + +——Within the family this feeling of honor cannot be so actively +developed, because every member of it is bound to every other +immediately by natural ties, and hence is equal to every other. Within +its sacred circle, he who has isolated himself is still beloved, though +it may be through tears. However bad may be the deed he has committed, +he is never given up, but the deepest sympathy is felt for him because +he is still brother, father, &c. But first in the contact of one family +with another, and still more in the contact of an individual with any +institution which is founded not on natural ties, but is set over +against him as a distinct object, this feeling of honor appears. In the +school, and in the matter of ranks and classes in a school, this is very +important.—— + +§ 45. It is important to consider well this gradation of punishment +(which, starting with sensuous physical pain, passes through the +external teleology of temporary isolation up to the idealism of the +sense of honor), both in relation to the different ages at which they +are appropriate and to the training which they bring with them. Every +punishment must be considered merely as a means to some end, and, in so +far, as transitory. The pupil must always be deeply conscious that it is +very painful to his instructor to be obliged to punish him. This pathos +of another's sorrow for the sake of his cure which he perceives in the +mien, in the tone of the voice, in the delay with which the punishment +is administered, will become a purifying fire for his soul. + + +III. + +_The Limits of Education._ + +§ 46. The form of Education reaches its limits with the idea of +punishment, because this is the attempt to subsume the negative reality +and to make it conformable to its positive idea. But the limits of +Education are found in the idea of its nature, which is to fashion the +individual into theoretical and practical rationality. The authority of +the Educator at last becomes imperceptible, and it passes over into +advice and example, and obedience changes from blind conformity to free +gratitude and attachment. Individuality wears off its rough edges, and +is transfigured into the universality and necessity of Reason without +losing in this process its identity. Work becomes enjoyment, and he +finds his play in a change of activity. The youth takes possession of +himself, and can be left to himself. + +——There are two widely differing views with regard to the limits of +Education. One lays great stress on the weakness of the pupil and the +power of the teacher. According to this view, Education has for its +province the entire formation of the youth. The despotism of this view +often manifests itself where large numbers are to be educated together, +and with very undesirable results, because it assumes that the +individual pupil is only a specimen of the whole, as if the school were +a great factory where each piece of goods is to be stamped exactly like +all the rest. Individuality is reduced by the tyranny of such despotism +to one uniform level till all originality is destroyed, as in cloisters, +barracks, and orphan asylums, where only one individual seems to exist. +There is a kind of Pedagogy also which fancies that one can thrust into +or out of the individual pupil what one will. This may be called a +superstitious belief in the power of Education.——The opposite extreme +disbelieves this, and advances the policy which lets alone and does +nothing, urging that individuality is unconquerable, and that often the +most careful and far-sighted education fails of reaching its aim in so +far as it is opposed to the nature of the youth, and that this +individuality has made of no avail all efforts toward the obtaining of +any end which was opposed to it. This representation of the +fruitlessness of all pedagogical efforts engenders an indifference +towards it which would leave, as a result, only a sort of vegetation of +individuality growing at hap-hazard.—— + +[Sidenote: _The Limits of Individuality._] + +§ 47. _The limit of Education is_ (1) _a Subjective one_, a limit made +by the individuality of the youth. This is a definite limit. Whatever +does not exist in this individuality as a possibility cannot be +developed from it. Education can only lead and assist; it cannot create. +What Nature has denied to a man, Education cannot give him any more than +it is able, on the other hand, to annihilate entirely his original +gifts, although it is true that his talents may be suppressed, +distorted, and measurably destroyed. But the decision of the question in +what the real essence of any one's individuality consists can never be +made with certainty till he has left behind him his years of +development, because it is then only that he first arrives at the +consciousness of his entire self; besides, at this critical time, in the +first place, much knowledge only superficially acquired will drop off; +and again, talents, long slumbering and unsuspected, may first make +their appearance. Whatever has been forced upon a child in opposition to +his individuality, whatever has been only driven into him and has lacked +receptivity on his side, or a rational ground on the side of culture, +remains attached to his being only as an external ornament, a foreign +outgrowth which enfeebles his own proper character. + +——We must distinguish from that affectation which arises through a +misunderstanding of the limit of individuality, the way which many +children and young persons have of supposing when they see models +finished and complete in grown persons, that they themselves are endowed +by Nature with the power to develop into the same. When they see a +reality which corresponds to their own possibility, the presentiment of +a like or a similar attainment moves them to an imitation of it as a +model personality. This may be sometimes carried so far as to be +disagreeable or ridiculous, but should not be too strongly censured, +because it springs from a positive striving after culture, and needs +only proper direction.—— + +[Sidenote: _Limit in the Means of Education._] + +§ 48. (2) _The Objective limit of Education_ lies in the means which can +be appropriated for it. That the talent for a certain culture shall be +present is certainly the first thing; but the cultivation of this talent +is the second, and no less necessary. But how much cultivation can be +given to it extensively and intensively depends upon the means used, and +these again are conditioned by the material resources of the family to +which each one belongs. The greater and more valuable the means of +culture which are found in a family are, the greater is the immediate +advantage which the culture of each one has at the start. With regard to +many of the arts and sciences this limit of education is of great +significance. But the means alone are of no avail. The finest +educational apparatus will produce no fruit where corresponding talent +is wanting, while on the other hand talent often accomplishes incredible +feats with very limited means, and, if the way is only once open, makes +of itself a centre of attraction which draws to itself with magnetic +power the necessary means. The moral culture of each one is however, +fortunately from its very nature, out of the reach of such dependence. + +——In considering the limit made by individuality we recognize the side +of truth in that indifference which considers Education entirely +superfluous, and in considering the means of culture we find the truth +in the other extreme of pedagogical despotism, which fancies that it can +command whatever culture it chooses for any one without regard to his +individuality.—— + +§ 49. (3) _The Absolute limit of Education_ is the time when the youth +has apprehended the problem which he has to solve, has learned to know +the means at his disposal, and has acquired a certain facility in using +them. The end and aim of Education is the emancipation of the youth. It +strives to make him self-dependent, and as soon as he has become so it +wishes to retire and to be able to leave him to the sole responsibility +of his actions. To treat the youth after he has passed this point of +time still as a youth, contradicts the very idea of Education, which +idea finds its fulfilment in the attainment of majority by the pupil. +Since the accomplishment of education cancels the original inequality +between the educator and the pupil, nothing is more oppressing, nay, +revolting to the latter than to be prevented by a continued dependence +from the enjoyment of the freedom which he has earned. + +——The opposite extreme of the protracting of Education beyond its proper +time is necessarily the undue hastening of the Emancipation.——The +question whether one is prepared for freedom has been often opened in +politics. When any people have gone so far as to ask this question +themselves, it is no longer a question whether that people are prepared +for it, for without the consciousness of freedom this question would +never have occurred to them.—— + +[Sidenote: _Arrival at the age of Majority._] + +§ 50. Although educators must now leave the youth free, the necessity of +further culture for him is still imperative. But it will no longer come +directly through them. Their pre-arranged, pattern-making work is now +supplanted by self-education. Each sketches for himself an ideal to +which in his life he seeks to approximate every day. + +——In the work of self-culture one friend can help another by advice and +example; but he cannot educate, for education presupposes +inequality.——The necessities of human nature produce societies in which +equals seek to influence each other in a pedagogical way, since they +establish by certain steps of culture different classes. They presuppose +Education in the ordinary sense. But they wish to bring about Education +in a higher sense, and therefore they veil the last form of their ideal +in the mystery of secrecy.——To one who lives on contented with himself +and without the impulse toward self-culture, unless his unconcern +springs from his belonging to a savage state of society, the Germans +give the name of Philistine, and he is always repulsive to the student +who is intoxicated with an ideal.—— + + + + +SECOND PART. + +The Special Elements of Education. + + +§ 51. Education in general consists in the development in man of his +inborn theoretical and practical rationality; it takes on the form of +labor, which changes that state or condition, which appears at first +only as a mere conception, into a fixed habit, and transfigures +individuality into a worthy humanity. Education ends in that +emancipation of the youth which places him on his own feet. The special +elements which form the concrete content of all Education in general are +the Life, Cognition, and Will of man. Without life mind has no +phenomenal reality; without cognition, no genuine, i.e. conscious, will; +and without will, no self-assurance of life and of cognition. It is true +that these three elements are in real existence inseparable, and that +consequently in the dialectic they continually pass over into one +another. But none the less on this account do they themselves prescribe +their own succession, and they have a relative and periodical ascendancy +over each other. In Infancy, up to the fifth or sixth year, the purely +physical development takes the precedence; Childhood is the time of +learning, in a proper sense, an act by which the child gains for himself +the picture of the world such as mature minds, through experience and +insight, have painted it; and, finally, Youth is the transition period +to practical activity, to which the self-determination of the will must +give the first impulse. + +§ 52. The classification of the special elements of Pedagogics is hence +very simple: (1) the Physical, (2) the Intellectual, (3) the Practical. +(We sometimes apply to these the words Orthobiotics, Didactics, and +Pragmatics.) + +——Æsthetic training constitutes only an element of the education of +Intellectual Education, just as social, moral, and religious training +form elements of Practical Education. But because these latter elements +concern themselves with what is external, the name "Pragmatics" is +appropriate. In this sphere, Pedagogics should coincide with Politics, +Ethics, and Religion; but it is distinguished from them through the +aptitude which it brings with it of putting into practice the problems +of the other three. The scientific arrangement of these ideas must +therefore show that the former, as the more abstract, constitutes the +conditions, and the latter, as the more concrete, the ground of the +former, which are presupposed; and in consequence of this it is itself +their principal teleological presupposition, just as in man the will +presupposes the cognition, and cognition life; while, at the same time, +life, in a deeper sense, must presuppose cognition, and cognition +will.—— + + +FIRST DIVISION. + +PHYSICAL EDUCATION. + +§ 53. The art of living rightly is based upon a comprehension of the +process of Life. Life is the restless dialectic which ceaselessly +transforms the inorganic into the organic, but at the same time creates +out of itself another inorganic, in which it separates from itself +whatever part of the inorganic has not been assimilated, which it took +up as a stimulant, and that which has become dead and burned out. The +organism is healthy when its reality corresponds to this idea of the +dialectic, of a life which moves up and down, to and fro; of formation +and re-formation, of organizing and disorganizing. All the rules for +Physical Education, or of Hygiene, are derived from this conception. + +§ 54. It follows from this that the change of the inorganic to the +organic is going on not only in the organism as a whole, but also in its +every organ and in every part of every organ; and that the organic as +soon as it has attained its highest point of energy, is again degraded +to the inorganic and thrown out. Every cell has its history. Activity +is, therefore, not contradictory to the organism, but favors in it the +natural progressive and regressive metamorphosis. This process can go on +harmoniously; that is, the organism can be in health only when not only +the whole organism, but each special organ, is allowed, after its +productive activity, the corresponding rest and recreation necessary for +its self-renewal. We have this periodicity exemplified in waking and +sleeping, also in exhalation and inhalation, excretion and taking in of +material. When we have discovered the relative antagonism of the organs +and their periodicity, we have found the secret of the perennial renewal +of life. + +§ 55. Fatigue makes its appearance when any organ, or the organism in +general, is denied time for the return movement into itself and for +renovation. It is possible for some one organ, as if isolated, to +exercise a great and long-continued activity, even to the point of +fatigue, while the other organs rest; as e.g. the lungs, in speaking, +while the other parts are quiet; on the other hand, it is not well to +speak and run at the same time. The idea that one can keep the organism +in better condition by inactivity, is an error which rests upon a +mechanical apprehension of life. Equally false is the idea that health +depends upon the quantity and excellence of the food; without the force +to assimilate it, it acts fatally rather than stimulatingly. _True +strength arises only from activity._ + +——The later physiologists will gradually destroy, in the system of +culture of modern people, the preconceived notion which recommended for +the indolent and lovers of pleasure powerful stimulants, very fat food, +&c. Excellent works exist on this question.—— + +§ 56. Physical Education, as it concerns the repairing, the motor, or +the nervous, activities, is divided into (1) Dietetics, (2) Gymnastics, +(3) Sexual Education. In real life these activities are scarcely +separable, but for the sake of exposition we must consider them apart. +In the regular development of the human being, moreover, the repairing +system has a relative precedence to the motor system, and the latter to +the sexual maturity. But Pedagogics can treat of these ideas only with +reference to the infant, the child, and the youth. + + +FIRST CHAPTER. + +_Dietetics._ + + +§ 57. Dietetics is the art of sustaining the normal repair of the +organism. Since this organism is, in the concrete, an individual one, +the general principles of dietetics must, in their manner of +application, vary with the sex, the age, the temperament, the +occupation, and the other conditions, of the individual. Pedagogics as a +science can only go over its general principles, and these can be named +briefly. It we attempt to speak of details, we fall easily into +triviality. So very important to the whole life of man is the proper +care of his physical nature during the first stages of its development, +that the science of Pedagogics must not omit to consider the different +systems which different people, according to their time, locality, and +culture, have made for themselves; many, it is true, embracing some +preposterous ideas, but in general never devoid of justification in +their time. + +§ 58. The infant's first nourishment must be the milk of its mother. The +substitution of a nurse should be only an exception justified alone by +the illness of the mother; as a rule, as happens in France, it is simply +bad, because a foreign physical and moral element is introduced into the +family through the nurse. The milk of an animal can never be as good for +a child. + +§ 59. When the teeth appear, the child is first able to eat solid food; +but, until the second teeth come, he should be fed principally on light, +fluid nourishment, and on vegetable diet. + +§ 60. When the second teeth are fully formed, the human being is ready +for animal as well as vegetable food. Too much meat is not good; but it +is an anatomical error to suppose that man, by the structure of his +stomach, was originally formed to live alone on vegetable diet, and that +animal food is a sign of his degeneracy. + +——The Hindoos, who subsist principally on vegetable diet, are not, as +has been often asserted, a very gentle race: a glance into their +history, or into their erotic poetry, shows them to be quite as +passionate as other peoples.—— + +§ 61. Man is omnivorous. Children have therefore a natural desire to +taste of everything. For them eating and drinking possess a kind of +poetry; there is a theoretic ingredient blended with the material +enjoyment. They have, on this account, a proneness to indulge, which is +deserving of punishment only when it is combined with disobedience and +secrecy, or when it betrays cunning and greediness. + +§ 62. Children need much sleep, because they are undergoing the most +active progressive metamorphosis. In after-life sleep and waking should +be subjected to periodical regulation, but not too exactly. + +§ 63. The clothing of children should be adapted to them; i.e. it should +be cut according to the shape of the body, and it must be loose enough +to allow free play to their desire for movement. + +——With regard to this as well as to the sleeping arrangements for +children, less in regard to food——which is often too highly spiced and +too liberal in tea, coffee, &c.——our age has become accustomed to a very +rational system. The clothing of children must be not only comfortable, +but it should be made of simple and cheap material, so that the free +enjoyment of the child may not be marred by the constant internal +anxiety that a rent or a spot may bring him a fault-finding or angry +word. From too great care as to clothing, may arise a meanness of mind +which at last pays too great respect to it, or an empty frivolity. This +last may be induced by dressing children too conspicuously.—— + +§ 64. Cleanliness is a virtue to which children should be accustomed for +the sake of their physical well-being, as well as because, in a moral +point of view, it is of the greatest significance. Cleanliness will not +endure that things shall be deprived of their proper individuality +through the elemental chaos. It retains each as distinguished from every +other. While it makes necessary to man pure air, cleanliness of +surroundings, of clothing, and of his body, it develops in him a sense +by which he perceives accurately the particular limits of being in +general. + + +SECOND CHAPTER. + +_Gymnastics._ + + +§ 65. Gymnastics is the art of systematic training of the muscular +system. The action of the voluntary muscles, which are regulated by the +nerves of the brain, in distinction from the involuntary automatic +muscles depending on the spinal cord, while they are the means of man's +intercourse with the external world, at the same time re-act upon the +automatic muscles in digestion and sensation. Since the movement of the +muscular fibres consists in the change of contraction and expansion, it +follows that Gymnastics must bring about a change of movement which +shall both contract and expand the muscles. + +§ 66. The system of gymnastic exercise of any nation corresponds always +to its way of fighting. So long as this consists in the personal +struggle of a hand-to-hand contest, Gymnastics will seek to increase as +much as possible individual strength and adroitness. As soon as the +far-reaching missiles projected from fire-arms become the centre of all +the operations of war, the individual is lost in a body of men, out of +which he emerges only relatively in sharp-shooting, in the charge, in +single contests, and in the retreat. Because of this incorporation of +the individual in the one great whole, and because of the resulting +unimportance of personal bravery, modern Gymnastics can never be the +same as it was in ancient times, even putting out of view the fact that +the subjectiveness of the modern spirit is too great to allow it to +devote so much attention to the care of the body, and the admiration of +its beauty, as was given by the Greeks. + +——The Turners' unions and halls in Germany belong to the period of +subjective enthusiasm of the German student population, and had a +political significance. At present, they have been brought back to their +proper place as an Educational means, and they are of great value, +especially in large cities. Among the mountains, and even in the country +towns, a special institution for bodily exercise is less necessary, for +the matter takes care of itself. The attractions of the situation and +the games help to foster it. In great cities, however, the houses are +often destitute of halls or open places where the children can take +exercise in their leisure moments. In these cities, therefore, there +must be some gymnastic hall where the sense of fellowship may be +developed. Gymnastics are not so essential for girls. In its place, +dancing is sufficient, and gymnastics should be employed for them only +where there exists any special weakness or deformity, when they may be +used as a restorative or preservative. They are not to become Amazons. +The boy, on the contrary, needs to acquire the feeling of +good-fellowship. It is true that the school develops this in a measure, +but not fully, because it determines the standing of the boy through his +intellectual ambition. The academical youth will not take much interest +in special gymnastics unless he can gain preëminence therein. Running, +leaping, climbing, and lifting, are too meaningless for their more +mature spirits. They can take a lively interest only in the exercises +which have a warlike character. With the Prussians, and some other +German states, the art of Gymnastics identifies itself with military +concerns.—— + +§ 67. The real idea of Gymnastics must always be that the spirit shall +rule over its naturalness, and shall make this an energetic and docile +servant of its will. Strength and adroitness must unite and become +confident skill. Strength, carried to its extreme produces the athlete; +adroitness, to its extreme, the acrobat. Pedagogics must avoid both. All +immense force, fit only for display, must be held as far away as the +idea of teaching Gymnastics with the motive of utility; e.g. that by +swimming one may save his life when he falls into the water, &c. Among +other things, this may also be a consequence; but the principle in +general must always remain: the necessity of the spirit of subjecting +its organism of the body to the condition of a perfect means, so that it +may never find itself limited by it. + +§ 68. Gymnastic exercises form a series from simple to compound. There +appears to be so much arbitrariness in them that it is always very +agreeable to the mind to find, on nearer inspection, some reason. The +movements are (1) of the lower, (2) of the upper extremities; (3) of the +whole body, with relative striking out, now of the upper, now of the +lower extremities. We distinguish, therefore, foot, arm, and trunk +movements. + +§ 69. (1) The first series of foot-movements is the most important, and +conditions the carriage of all the rest of the body. They are (_a_) +walking; (_b_) running; (_c_) leaping: each of these being capable of +modifications, as the high and the low leap, the prolonged and the quick +run. Sometimes we give to these different names, according to the means +used, as walking on stilts; skating; leaping with a staff, or by means +of the hands, as vaulting. Dancing is only the art of the graceful +mingling of these movements; and balancing, only one form of walking. + +§ 70. (2) The second series embraces the arm-movements, and it repeats +also the movements of the first series. It includes (_a_) lifting; (_b_) +swinging; (_c_) throwing. All pole and bar practice comes under lifting, +also climbing and carrying. Under throwing, come quoit and +ball-throwing, and nine-pin playing. All these movements are +distinguished from each other, not only quantitatively but also +qualitatively, in the position of the stretched and bent muscles; e.g. +running is something different from quick walking. + +§ 71. (3) The third series, or that of movements of the whole body, +differs from the preceding two, which should precede it, in this, that +it brings the organism into contact with a living object, which it has +to overcome through its own activity. This object is sometimes an +element, sometimes an animal, sometimes a man. Our divisions then are +(_a_) swimming; (_b_) riding; (_c_) fighting, or single combat. In +swimming, one must conquer the yielding liquid material of water by arm +and foot movements. The resistance met on account of currents and waves +may be very great, but it is still that of a will-less and passive +object. But in riding man has to deal with a self-willed being whose +vitality calls forth not only his strength but also his intelligence and +courage. The exercise is therefore very complicated, and the rider must +be able perpetually to individualize it according to the necessity; at +the same time, he must give attention not only to the horse, but to the +nature of the ground and the entire surroundings. But it is only in the +struggle with men that Gymnastics reaches its highest point, for in this +man offers himself as a living antagonist to man and brings him into +danger. It is no longer the spontaneous activity of an unreasoning +existence; it is the resistance and attack of intelligence itself with +which he has to deal. Fighting, or single combat, is the truly +chivalrous exercise, and this may be combined with horsemanship. + +——In the single combat there is found also a qualitative modification, +whence we have three systems: (_a_) boxing and wrestling; (_b_) fencing +with sticks; and (_c_) rapier and broad-sword fencing. In the first, +which was cultivated to its highest point among the Greeks, direct +immediateness rules. In the boxing of the English, a sailor-like +propensity of this nation, fist-fighting is still retained as a custom. +Fencing with a stick is found among the French mechanics, the so-called +_compagnons_. Men often use the cane in their contests; it is a sort of +refined club. When we use the sword or rapier, the weapon becomes +deadly. The Southern Europeans excel in the use of the rapier, the +Germans in that of the sword. But the art of single combat is much +degenerated, and the pistol-duel, through its increasing frequency, +proves this degeneration.—— + + +THIRD CHAPTER. + +_Sexual Education._ + + + NOTE.——The paragraphs relating to Sexual Education are + designed for parents rather than for teachers, the parent + being the natural educator of the family and sexual + education relating to the preservation and continuance of + the family. This chapter is accordingly, for the most + part, omitted here. It contains judicious reflections, + invaluable to parents and guardians.——_Tr._ + +§ 72. Gymnastic exercises fall naturally into a systematic arrangement +determined by the chronological order of development through infancy, +childhood, and youth. Walking, running, and leaping belong, to the first +period; lifting, swinging, and throwing, to the second; swimming, +riding, and bodily contests, to the third, and these last may also be +continued into manhood. But with the arrival at youth, a new epoch makes +its appearance in the organism. It prepares itself for the propagation +of the species. It expands the individual through the need which he +feels of uniting himself with another individual of the same species, +but who is a polar opposite to him, in order to preserve the two in a +new individual. The blood rushes more vigorously; the muscular strength +becomes more easily roused into activity; an indefinable impulse, a +sweet melancholy takes possession of the being. This period demands a +special care in the educator. + +§ 73. The general preventive guards must be found in a rational system +of food and exercise. By care in these directions, the development of +the bones, and with them of the brain and spinal cord at this period, +may be led to a proper strength, and that the easily-moulded material +may not be perverted from its normal functions in the development of the +body to a premature manifestation of the sexual instinct. + +§ 74. Special forethought is necessary lest the brain be too early +over-strained, and lest, in consequence of such precocious and excessive +action, the foundation for a morbid excitation of the whole nervous +system be laid, which may easily lead to effeminate and voluptuous +reveries, and to brooding over obscene representations. The excessive +reading of novels, whose exciting pages delight in painting the love of +the sexes for each other and its sensual phases, may lead to this, and +then the mischief is done. + + +SECOND DIVISION. + +INTELLECTUAL EDUCATION. + +§ 80. _Mens sana in corpore sano_ is correct as a pedagogical maxim, but +false in the judgment of individual cases; because it is possible, on +the one hand, to have a healthy mind in an unhealthy body, and, on the +other hand, an unhealthy mind in a healthy body. To strive after the +harmony of soul and body is the material condition of all proper +activity. The development of intelligence presupposes physical health. +Here we are to speak of the science of the art of Teaching. This had its +condition on the side of nature, as was before seen, in physical +Education, but in the sphere of mind it is related to Psychology and +Logic. It unites, in Teaching, considerations on Psychology as well as a +Logical method. + + +FIRST CHAPTER. + +_The Psychological Presupposition._ + + +§ 81. If we would have a sound condition of Philosophy, it must, in +intellectual Education, refer to the conception of mind which has been +unfolded in Psychology; and it must appear as a defect in scientific +method if Psychology, or at least the conception of the theoretical +mind, is treated again as within Pedagogics. We must take something for +granted. Psychology, then, will be consulted no further than is +requisite to place on a sure basis the pedagogical function which +relates to it. + +§ 82. The conception of _attention_ is the most important to Pedagogics +of all those derived from Psychology. Mind is essentially self-activity. +Nothing exists for it which it does not itself posit as its own. We hear +it not seldom implied that something from outside conditions must make +an impression on the mind, but this is an error. Mind lets nothing act +upon it unless it has rendered itself receptive to it. Without this +preparatory self-excitation the object does not really penetrate it, and +it passes by the object unconsciously or indifferently. The horizon of +perception changes for each person with his peculiarities and culture. +Attention is the adjusting of the observer to the object in order to +seize it in its unity and diversity. Relatively, the observer allows, +for a moment, his relation to all other surroundings to cease, so that +he may establish a relation with this one. Without this essentially +spontaneous activity, nothing exists for the mind. All result in +teaching and learning depends upon the clearness and strength with which +distinctions are made, and the saying, _bene qui distinguit bene docit_, +applies as well to the pupil. + +§ 83. Attention, depending as it does on the self-determination of the +observer, can therefore be improved, and the pupil made attentive, by +the educator. Education must accustom him to an exact, rapid, and +many-sided attention, so that at the first contact with an object he may +grasp it sufficiently and truly, and that it shall not be necessary for +him always to be adding to his acquisitions concerning it. The twilight +and partialness of intelligence which forces us always to new +corrections because a pupil at the very commencement did not give entire +attention, must not be tolerated. + +[Sidenote: _Psychological Faculties._] + +§ 84. We learn from Psychology that mind does not consist of distinct +faculties, but that what we choose to call so are only different +activities of the same power. Each one is just as essential as the +other, on which account Education must grant to each faculty its claim +to the same fostering care. If we would construe correctly the axiom _a +potiori fit denominatio_ to mean that man is distinguished from animals +by thought, and that mediated will is not the same as thought, we must +not forget that feeling and representing are not less necessary to a +truly complete human being. The special direction which the activity of +apprehending intelligence takes are (1) Perception, (2) Conception, (3) +Thinking. Dialectically, they pass over into each other; not that +Perception rises into Conception, and Conception into Thinking, but that +Thinking goes back into Conception, and this again into Perception. In +the development of the young, the Perceptive faculty is most active in +the infant, the Conceptive in the child, and the Thinking in the youth; +and thus we may distinguish an intuitive, an imaginative, and a logical +epoch. + +——Great errors arise from the misapprehension of these different phases +and of their dialectic, since the different forms which are suitable to +the different grades of youth are mingled. The infant certainly thinks +while he perceives, but this thinking is to him unconscious. Or, if he +has acquired perceptions, he makes them into conceptions, and +demonstrates his freedom in playing with them. This play must not be +taken as mere amusement; it also signifies that he takes care to +preserve his self-determination, and his power of idealizing, in +opposition to the pleasant filling of his consciousness with material. +Herein the delight of the child for fairy tales finds its reason. The +fairy tale constantly destroys the limits of common actuality. The +abstract understanding cannot endure this arbitrariness and want of +fixed conditions, and thus would prefer that children should read, +instead, home-made stories of the "Charitable Ann," of the "Heedless +Frederick," of the "Inquisitive Wilhelmine," &c. Above all, it praises +"Robinson Crusoe," which contains much heterogeneous matter, but nothing +improbable. When the youth and maiden of necessity pass over into the +earnestness of real life, the drying up of the imagination and the +domination of the understanding presses in.—— + + +I. _The Intuitive Epoch._ + +§ 85. Perception, as the beginning of intellectual culture, is the free +grasping of a content immediately present to the spirit. Education can +do nothing directly toward the performance of this act; it can only +assist in making it easy:——(1) it can isolate the subject of +consideration; (2) it can give facility in the transition to another; +(3) it can promote the many-sidedness of the interest, by which means +the return to a perception already obtained has always a fresh charm. + +§ 86. The immediate perception of many things is impossible, and yet +the necessity for it is obvious. We must then have recourse to a +mediated perception, and supply the lack of actual seeing by +representations. But here the difficulty presents itself, that there are +many objects which we are not able to represent of the same size as they +really are, and we must have a reduced scale; and there follows a +difficulty in making the representation, as neither too large nor too +small. An explanation is then also necessary as a judicious supplement +to the picture. + +§ 87. Pictures are extremely valuable aids to instruction when they are +correct and characteristic. Correctness must be demanded in these +substitutes for natural objects, historical persons and scenes. Without +this correctness, the picture, if not an impediment, is, to say the +least, useless. + +——It is only since the last half of the seventeenth century, i.e. since +the disappearance of real painting, that the picture-book has appeared +as an educational means; first of all, coming from miniature painting. +Up to that time, public life had plenty of pictures of arms, furniture, +houses, and churches; and men, from their fondness for constantly moving +about, were more weary of immediate perception. It was only afterwards +when, in the excitement of the thirty-years' war, the arts of Sculpture +and Painting and Christian and Pagan Mythology became extinct, that +there arose a greater necessity for pictured representations. The _Orbis +Rerum Sensualium Pictus_, which was also to be _janua linguarum +reserata_, of Amos Comenius, appeared first in 1658, and was reprinted +in 1805. Many valuable illustrated books followed. Since that time +innumerable illustrated Bibles and histories have appeared, but many of +them look only to the pecuniary profit of the author or the publisher. +It is revolting to see the daubs that are given to children. They are +highly colored, but as to correctness, to say nothing of character, they +are good for nothing. With a little conscientiousness and scientific +knowledge very different results could be obtained with the same outlay +of money and of strength. The uniformity which exists in the stock of +books which German book-selling has set in circulation is really +disgraceful. Everywhere we find the same types, even in ethnographical +pictures. In natural history, the illustrations were often drawn from +the imagination or copied from miserable models. This has changed very +much for the better. The same is true of architectural drawings and +landscapes, for which we have now better copies.—— + +§ 88. Children have naturally a desire to collect things, and this may +be so guided that they shall collect and arrange plants, butterflies, +beetles, shells, skeletons, &c., and thus gain exactness and reality in +their perception. Especially should they practise drawing, which leads +them to form exact images of objects. But drawing, as children practise +it, does not have the educational significance of cultivating in them an +appreciation of art, but rather that of educating the eye, as this must +be exercised in estimating distances, sizes, and colors. It is, +moreover, a great gain in many ways, if, through a suitable course of +lessons in drawing, the child is advanced to a knowledge of the +elementary forms of nature. + +——That pictures should affect children as works of art is not to be +desired. They confine themselves at first to distinguishing the outlines +and colors, and do not yet appreciate the execution. If the children +have access to real works of art, we may safely trust in their power, +and quietly await their moral or æsthetic effect.—— + +§ 89. In order that looking at pictures shall not degenerate into mere +diversion, explanations should accompany them. Only when the thought +embodied in the illustration is pointed out, can they be useful as a +means of instruction. Simply looking at them is of as little value +towards this end as is water for baptism without the Holy Spirit. Our +age inclines at present to the superstition that man is able, by means +of simple intuition, to attain a knowledge of the essence of things, and +thereby dispense with the trouble of thinking. Illustrations are the +order of the day, and, in the place of enjoyable descriptions, we find +miserable pictures. It is in vain to try to get behind things, or to +comprehend them, except by thinking. + +§ 90. The ear as well as the eye must be cultivated. Music must be +considered the first educational means to this end, but it should be +music inspired by ethical purity. Hearing is the most internal of all +the senses, and should on this account be treated with the greatest +delicacy. Especially should the child be taught that he is not to look +upon speech as merely a vehicle for communication and for gaining +information; it should also give pleasure, and therefore he should be +taught to speak distinctly and with a good style, and this he can do +only when he carefully considers what he is going to say. + +——Among the Greeks, extraordinary care was given to musical cultivation, +especially in its ethical relation. Sufficient proof of this is found in +the admirable detailed statements on this point in the "Republic" of +Plato and in the last book of the "Politics" of Aristotle. Among modern +nations, also, music holds a high place, and makes its appearance as a +constant element of education. Piano-playing has become general, and +singing is also taught. But the ethical significance of music is too +little considered. Instruction in music often aims only to train pupils +for display in society, and the tendency of the melodies which are +played is restricted more and more to orchestral pieces of an exciting +or bacchanalian character. The railroad-gallop-style only makes the +nerves of youth vibrate with stimulating excitement. Oral speech, the +highest form of the personal manifestation of mind, was also treated +with great reverence by the ancients. Among us, communication is so +generally carried on by writing and reading, that the art of speaking +distinctly, correctly, and agreeably, has become very much neglected. +Practice in declamation accomplishes, as a general thing, very little in +this direction. But we may expect that the increase of public speaking +occasioned by our political and religious assemblies may have a +favorable influence in this particular.—— + + +II. _The Imaginative Epoch._ + +§ 91. The activity of Perception results in the formation of an internal +picture or image of its ideas which intelligence can call up at any time +without the sensuous, immediate presence of its object, and thus, +through abstraction and generalization, arises the conception. The +mental image may (1) be compared with the perception from which it +sprang, or (2) it may be arbitrarily altered and combined with other +images, or (3) it may be held fast in the form of abstract signs or +symbols which intelligence invents for it. Thus originate the functions +(1) of the verification of conceptions, (2) of the creative imagination, +and (3) of memory; but for their full development we must refer to +Psychology. + +§ 92. (1) The mental image which we form of an object may be correct; +again, it may be partly or wholly defective, if we have neglected some +of the predicates of the perception which presented themselves, or in so +far as we have added to it other predicates which only seemingly +belonged to it, and which were attached to it only by its accidental +empirical connection with other existences. Education must, therefore, +foster the habit of comparing our conceptions with the perceptions from +which they arose; and these perceptions, since they are liable to change +by reason of their empirical connection with other objects, must be +frequently compared with our conceptions previously formed by +abstractions from them. + +§ 93. (2) We are thus limited in our conceptions by our perceptions, but +we exercise a free control over our conceptions. We can create out of +them, as simple elements, the manifold mental shapes which we do not +treat as given to us, but as essentially our own work. In Pedagogics, we +must not only look upon this freedom as if it were only to afford +gratification, but as the reaction of the absolute ideal native mind +against the dependence in which the empirical reception of impressions +from without, and their reproduction in conceptions, place it. In this +process, it does not only fashion in itself the phenomenal world, but it +rather fashions out of itself a world which is all its own. + +§ 94. The study of Art comes here to the aid of Pedagogics, especially +with Poetry, the highest and at the same time the most easily +communicated. The imagination of the pupil can be led by means of the +classical works of creative imagination to the formation of a good taste +both as regards ethical value and beauty of form. The proper classical +works for youth are those which nations have produced in the earliest +stages of their culture. These works bring children face to face with +the picture which mind has sketched for itself in one of the necessary +stages of its development. This is the real reason why our children +never weary of reading Homer and the stories of the Old Testament. +Polytheism and the heroism which belongs to it are just as substantial +an element of childish conception as monotheism with its prophets and +patriarchs. We stand beyond both, because we are mediated by both, and +embrace both in our stand-point. + +——The purest stories of literature designed for the amusement of +children from their seventh to their fourteenth year, consist always of +those which were honored by nations and the world at large. One has only +to notice in how many thousand forms the stories of Ulysses are +reproduced by the writers of children's tales. Becker's "Tales of +Ancient Times," Gustav Schwab's most admirable "Sagas of Antiquity," +Karl Grimm's "Tales of Olden Times," &c., what were they without the +well-talking, wily favorite of Pallas, and the divine swine-herd? And +just as indestructible are the stories of the Old Testament up to the +separation of Judah and Israel. These patriarchs with their wives and +children, these judges and prophets, these kings and priests, are by no +means ideals of virtue in the notion of our modern lifeless morality, +which would smooth out of its pattern-stories for the "dear children" +everything that is hard and uncouth. For the very reason that the +shadow-side is not wanting here, and that we find envy, vanity, evil +desire, ingratitude, craftiness, and deceit, among these fathers of the +race and leaders of "God's chosen people," have these stories so great +an educational value. Adam, Cain, Abraham, Joseph, Samson, and David, +have justly become as truly world-historical types as Achilles and +Patroclus, Agamemnon and Iphigenia, Hector and Andromache, Ulysses and +Penelope.—— + +§ 95. There may be produced also, out of the simplest and most primitive +phases of different epochs of culture of one and the same people, +stories which answer to the imagination of children, and represent to +them the characteristic features of the past of their people. + +——The Germans possess such a collection of their stories in their +popular books of the "Horny Sigfried," of the "Heymon Children," of +"Beautiful _Magelone_," "Fortunatus," "The Wandering Jew," "Faust," "The +Adventurous Simplicissimus," "The _Schildbürger_," "The Island of +Felsenburg," "Lienhard and Gertrude," &c. Also, the art works of the +great masters which possess national significance must be spoken of +here, as the Don Quixote of Cervantes.—— + +§ 96. The most general form in which the childish imagination finds +exercise is that of fairy-tales; but Education must take care that it +has these in their proper shape as national productions, and that they +are not of the morbid kind which poetry so often gives us in this +species of literature, and which not seldom degenerate to sentimental +caricatures and silliness. + +——The East Indian stories are most excellent because they have their +origin with a childlike people who live wholly in the imagination. By +means of the Arabian filtration, which took place in Cairo in the +flourishing period of the Egyptian caliphs, all that was too +characteristically Indian was excluded, and they were made in the "Tales +of Scheherezade," a book for all peoples, with whose far-reaching power +in child-literature, the local stories of a race, as e.g. Grimm's +admirable ones of German tradition, cannot compare. Fairy-tales made to +order, as we often see them, with a mediæval Catholic tendency, or very +moral and dry, are a bane to the youthful imagination in their stale +sweetness. We must here add, however, that lately we have had some +better success in our attempts since we have learned to distinguish +between the naïve natural poetry, which is without reflection, and the +poetry of art, which is conditioned by criticism and an ideal. This +distinction has produced good fruits even in the picture-books of +children. The pretensions of the gentlemen who printed illustrated books +containing nothing more solid than the alphabet and the multiplication +table have become less prominent since such men as Speckter, Fröhlich, +Gutsmuths, Hofman (the writer of "Slovenly Peter"), and others, have +shown that seemingly trivial things can be handled with intellectual +power, if one is blessed with it, and that nothing is more opposed to +the child's imagination than the _childishness_ with which so many +writers for children have fallen when they attempted to descend with +dignity from their presumably lofty stand-point. Men are beginning to +understand that Christ promised the kingdom of heaven to little children +on other grounds than because they had as it were the privilege of being +thoughtless and foolish.—— + +§ 97. For youth and maidens, especially as they approach manhood and +womanhood, the cultivation of the imagination must allow the earnestness +of actuality to manifest itself in its undisguised energy. This +earnestness, no longer through the symbolism of play but in its +objective reality, must now thoroughly penetrate the conceptions of the +youth so that it shall prepare him to seize hold of the machinery of +active life. Instead of the all-embracing Epos they should now read +Tragedy, whose purifying process, through the alternation of fear and +pity, unfolds to the youth the secret of all human destiny, sin and its +expiation. The works best adapted to lead to history on this side are +those of biography——of ancient times, Plutarch; of modern times, the +autobiographies of Augustine, Cellini, Rousseau, Goethe, Varnhagen, Jung +Stilling, Moritz, Arndt, &c. These autobiographies contain a view of the +growth of individuality through its inter-action with the influences of +its time, and, together with the letters and memoirs of great or at +least noteworthy men, tend to produce a healthy excitement in the +youth, who must learn to fight his own battles through a knowledge of +the battles of others. To introduce the youth to a knowledge of Nature +and Ethnography no means are better than those of books of travel which +give the charm of first contact, the joy of discovery, instead of the +general consciousness of the conquests of mind. + +——If educative literature on the one hand broadens the field of +knowledge, on the other it may also promote its elaboration into ideal +forms. This happens, in a strict sense, through philosophical +literature. But only two different species of this are to be recommended +to youth: (1) well-written treatises which endeavor to solve a single +problem with spirit and thoroughness; or, (2) when the intelligence has +grown strong enough for it, the classical works of a real philosopher. +German literature is fortunately very rich in treatises of this kind in +the works of Lessing, Herder, Kant, Fichte, Schleiermacher, Humboldt, +and Schiller. But nothing does more harm to youth than the study of +works of mediocrity, or those of a still lower rank. They stupefy and +narrow the mind by their empty, hollow, and constrained style. It is +generally supposed that these standard works are too difficult, and that +one must first seize them in this trivial and diluted form in order to +understand them. This is one of the most prevalent and most dangerous +errors, for these Introductions or Explanations, easily-comprehended +Treatises, Summary Abstracts, are, because of their want of originality +and of the acuteness which belongs to it, much more difficult to +understand than the standard work itself from which they drain their +supplies. Education must train the youth to the courage which will +attempt standard works, and it must not allow any such miserable +preconceived opinions to grow up in his mind as that his understanding +is totally unable to comprehend works like Fichte's "Science of +Knowledge," the "Metaphysics" of Aristotle, or Hegel's "Phenomenology." +No science suffers so much as Philosophy from this false popular +opinion, which understands neither itself nor its authority. The youth +must _learn how to learn to understand_, and, in order to do this, he +must know that one cannot immediately understand everything in its +finest subdivisions, and that on this account he must have patience, and +must resolve to read over and over again, and to think over what he has +read.—— + +§ 98. (3) Imagination returns again within itself to perception in that +it replaces, for conceptions, perceptions themselves, which are to +remind it of the previous conception. These perceptions may resemble in +some way the perception which lies at the basis of the conception, and +be thus more or less symbolical; or they may be merely arbitrary +creations of the creative imagination, and are in this case pure signs. +In common speech and writing, we call the free retaining of these +perceptions created by imagination, and the recalling of the conceptions +denoted by them, _Memory_. It is by no means a particular faculty of the +mind, which is again subdivided into memory of persons, names, numbers, +&c. As to its form, memory is the stage of the dissolution of +conception; but as to its content, it arises from the interest which we +take in a subject-matter. From this interest results, moreover, careful +attention, and from this latter, facility in the reproductive +imagination. If these acts have preceded, the fixing of a name, or of a +number, in which the content interesting us is as it were summed up, is +not difficult. When interest and attention animate us, it seems as if we +did not need to be at all troubled about remembering anything. All the +so-called mnemonic helps only serve to make more difficult the act of +memory. This act is in itself a double function, consisting of, first, +the fixing of the sign, and second, the fixing of the conception +subsumed under it. Since the mnemonic technique adds to these one more +conception, through whose means the things with which we have to deal +are to be fixed in order to be able freely to express them in us, it +trebles the functions of remembering, and forgets that the mediation of +these and their relation——wholly arbitrary and highly artificial——must +also be remembered. The true help of memory consists in not helping it +at all, but in simply taking up the object into the ideal regions of the +mind by the force of the infinite self-determination which mind +possesses. + +——Lists of names, as e.g. of the Roman emperors, of the popes, of the +caliphs, of rivers, mountains, authors, cities, &c.; also numbers, as +e.g. the multiplication table, the melting points of minerals, the dates +of battles, of births and deaths, &c., must be learned without aid. All +indirect means only serve to do harm here, and are required as +self-discovered mediation only in case that interest or attention has +become weakened.—— + +§ 99. The means to be used, which result from the nature of memory +itself, are on the one hand the pronouncing and writing of the names and +numbers, and on the other, repetition; by these we gain distinctness and +certainty. + +——All artificial contrivances for quickening the memory vanish in +comparison with the art of writing, in so far as this is not looked at +as a means of relieving the memory. That a name or a number should be +this or that, is a mere chance for the intelligence, an entirely +meaningless accident to which we have unconditionally to submit +ourselves as unalterable. The intelligence must be accustomed to put +upon itself this constraint. In science proper, especially in +Philosophy, our reason helps to produce one thought from others by means +of the context, and we can discover names for the ideas from them.—— + + +III. _The Logical Epoch._ + +§ 100. In Conception there is attained a universality of intellectual +action in so far as the empirical details are referred to a _Schema_, as +Kant called it. But the _necessity_ of the connection is wanting to it. +To produce this is the task of the thinking activity, which frees itself +from all representations, and with its clearly defined determinations +transcends conceptions. The Thinking activity frees itself from all +sensuous representations by means of the processes of Conception and +Perception. Comprehension, Judgment, and Syllogism, develop for +themselves into forms which, as such, have no power of being perceived +by the senses. But it does not follow from this that he who thinks +cannot return out of the thinking activity and carry it with him into +the sphere of Conception and Perception. The true thinking activity +deprives itself of no content. The abstraction affecting a logical +purism which looks down upon Conception and Perception as forms of +intelligence quite inferior to itself, is a pseudo-thinking, a morbid +and scholastic error. Education will be the better on its guard against +this the more it has led the pupil by the legitimate road of Perception +and Conception to Thinking. Memorizing especially is an excellent +preparatory school for the Thinking activity, because it gives practice +to the intelligence in exercising itself in abstract ideas. + +§ 101. The fostering of the Sense of Truth from the earliest years up, +is the surest way of leading the pupil to gain the power of thinking. +The unprejudiced, disinterested yielding to Truth, as well as the effort +to shun all deception and false seeming, are of the greatest value in +strengthening the power of reflection, as this considers nothing of +value but the actually existing objective circumstances. + +——The indulging an illusion as a pleasing recreation of the +intelligence should be allowed, while lying must not be tolerated. +Children have a natural inclination for mystifications, for masquerades, +for raillery, and for theatrical performances, &c. This inclination to +illusion is perfectly normal with them, and should be permitted. The +graceful kingdom of Art is developed from it, as also the poetry of +conversation in jest and wit. Although this sometimes becomes +stereotyped into very prosaic conventional forms of speech, it is more +tolerable than the awkward honesty which takes everything in its simple +literal sense. And it is easy to discover whether children in such play, +in the activity of free joyousness, incline to the side of mischief by +their showing a desire of satisfying their selfish interest. Then they +must be checked, for in that case the cheerfulness of harmless joking +gives way to premeditation and dissimulation.—— + +§ 102. An acquaintance with logical forms is to be recommended as a +special educational help in the culture of intelligence. The study of +Mathematics does not suffice, because it presupposes Logic. Mathematics +is related to Logic in the same way as Grammar, the Physical Sciences, +&c. The logical forms must be known explicitly in their pure independent +forms, and not merely in their implicit state as immanent in objective +forms. + + +SECOND CHAPTER. + +_The Logical Presupposition or Method._ + + +§ 103. The logical presupposition of instruction is the order in which +the subject-matter develops for the consciousness. The subject, the +consciousness of the pupil, and the activity of the instructor, +interpenetrate each other in instruction, and constitute in actuality +one whole. + +§ 104. (1) First of all, the subject which is to be learned has a +specific determinateness which demands in its representation a certain +fixed order. However arbitrary we may desire to be, the subject has a +certain self-determination of its own which no mistreatment can wholly +crush out, and this inherent immortal reason is the general foundation +of instruction. + +——To illustrate; however one may desire to manipulate a language in +teaching it, he cannot change the words in it, or the inflections of the +declensions and conjugations. And the same restriction is laid upon our +inclinations in the different divisions of Natural History, in the +theorems of Arithmetic, Geometry, &c. The theorem of Pascal remains +still the theorem of Pascal, and will always remain so.—— + +§ 105. (2) But the subject must be adapted to the consciousness of the +pupil, and here the order of procedure and the exposition depend upon +the stage which he has reached intellectually, for the special manner of +the instruction must be conditioned by this. If he is in the stage of +perception, we must use the illustrative method; if in the stage of +conception, that of combination; and if in the stage of reflection that +of demonstration. The first exhibits the object directly, or some +representation of it; the second considers it according to the different +possibilities which exist in it, and turns it around on all sides; the +third questions the necessity of the connection in which it stands +either with itself or with others. This is the natural order from the +stand-point of the scientific intelligence: first, the object is +presented to the perception; then combination presents its different +phases; and, finally, the thinking activity circumscribes the restlessly +moving reflection by the idea of necessity. Experiment in the method of +combination is an excellent means for a discovery of relations, for a +sharpening of the attention, for the arousing of a many-sided interest; +but it is no true dialectic, though it be often denoted by that name. + +——Illustration is especially necessary in the natural sciences and also +in æsthetics, because in both of these departments the sensuous is an +essential element of the matter dealt with. In this respect we have made +great progress in charts and maps. Sydow's hand and wall maps and +Berghaus's physical atlas are most excellent means of illustrative +instruction; also Burmeister's zoölogical atlas.—— + +§ 106. The demonstrative method, in order to bring about its proof of +necessity, has a choice of many different ways. But we must not imagine, +either that there are an unlimited number, and that it is only a chance +which one we shall take; or that they have no connection among +themselves, and run, as it were, side by side. It is not, however, the +business of Pedagogics to develop different methods of proof; this +belongs to Logic. We have only to remember that, logically taken, proof +must be analytic, synthetic, or dialectic. Analysis begins with the +single one, and leads out of it by induction to the general principle +from which its existence results. Synthesis, on the contrary, begins +with a general which is presupposed as true, and leads from this through +deduction to the special determinations which were implicit in it. The +regressive search of analysis for a determining principle is +_Invention_; the forward progress of synthesis from the simple elements +seeking for the multiplicity of the single one is _Construction_. Each, +in its result, passes over into the other; but their truth is found in +the dialectic method, which in each phase allows unity to separate into +diversity and diversity to return into unity. While in the analytic as +well as in the synthetic method the mediation of the individual with the +general, or of the general with the individual, lets the phase of +particularity be only subjectively connected with it in the dialectic +method, we have the going over of the general through the particular to +the individual, or to the self-determination of the idea, and it +therefore rightly claims the title of the genetic method. We can also +say that while the inventive method gives us the idea (notion) and the +constructive the judgment, the genetic gives us the syllogism which +leads the determinations of reflection back again into substantial +identity. + +§ 107. (3) The active mediation of the pupil with the content which is +to be impressed upon his consciousness is the work of the teacher, whose +personality creates a method adapted to the individual; for however +clearly the subject may be defined, however exactly the psychological +stage of the pupil may be regulated, the teacher cannot dispense with +the power of his own individuality even in the most objective relations. +This individuality must penetrate the whole with its own exposition, and +that peculiarity which we call his _manner_, and which cannot be +determined _à priori_, must appear. The teacher must place himself on +the stand-point of the pupil, i.e. must adapt himself; he must see that +the abstract is made clear to him in the concrete, i.e. must illustrate; +he must fill up the gaps which will certainly appear, and which may mar +the thorough seizing of the subject, i.e. must supply. In all these +relations the pedagogical tact of the teacher may prove itself truly +ingenious in varying the method according to the changefulness of the +ever-varying needs, in contracting or expanding the extent, in stating, +or indicating what is to be supplied. The true teacher is free from any +superstitious belief in any one procedure as a sure specific which he +follows always in a monotonous bondage. This can only happen when he is +capable of the highest method. The teacher has arrived at the highest +point of ability in teaching when he can make use of all means, from the +loftiness of solemn seriousness, through smooth statement, to the play +of jest——yes, even to the incentive of irony, and to humor. + +——Pedagogics can be in nothing more specious than in its method, and it +is here that charlatanism can most readily intrude itself. Every little +change, every inadequate modification, is proclaimed aloud as a new or +an improved method; and even the most foolish and superficial changes +find at once their imitators, who themselves conceal their insolence +behind some frivolous differences, and, with laughable conceit, hail +themselves as inventors.—— + + +THIRD CHAPTER. + +_Instruction._ + + +§ 108. All instruction acts upon the supposition that there is an +inequality between present knowledge and power and that knowledge and +power which are not yet attained. To the pupil belong the first, to the +teacher the second. Education is the act which gradually cancels the +original inequality of teacher and pupil, in that it converts what was +at first the property of the former into the property of the latter, and +this by means of his own activity. + + +I. _The Subjects of Instruction._ + +§ 109. The pupil is the apprentice, the teacher the master, whether in +the practice of any craft or art, or in the exposition of any systematic +knowledge. The pupil passes from the state of the apprentice to that of +the master through that of the journeyman. The apprentice has to +appropriate to himself the elements; journeymanship begins as he, by +means of their possession, becomes independent; the master combines with +his technical skill the freedom of production. His authority over his +pupil consists only in his knowledge and power. If he has not these, no +external support, no trick of false appearances which he may put on, +will serve to create it for him. + +§ 110. These stages——(1) apprenticeship, (2) journeymanship, (3) +mastership——are fixed limitations in the didactic process; they are +relative only in the concrete. The standard of special excellence varies +with the different grades of culture, and must be varied that it may +have any historical value. The master is complete only in relation to +the journeyman and apprentice; to them he is superior. But on the other +hand, in relation to the infinity of the problems of his art or science, +he is by no means complete; to himself he must always appear as one who +begins ever anew, one who is ever striving, one to whom a new problem +ever rises from every achieved result. He cannot discharge himself from +work, he must never desire to rest on his laurels. He is the truest +master whose finished performances only force him on to never-resting +progress. + +§ 111. The real possibility of culture is found in general, it is true, +in every human being; nevertheless, empirically, there are +distinguished: (1) Incapacity, as the want of all gifts; (2) Mediocrity; +(3) Talent and Genius. It is the part of Psychology to give an account +of all these. Mediocrity characterizes the great mass of mechanical +intelligences, those who wait for external impulse as to what direction +their endeavors shall take. Not without truth, perhaps, may we say, that +hypothetically a special talent is given to each individual, but this +special talent in many men never makes its appearance, because under the +circumstances in which it finds itself placed it fails to find the +exciting occasion which shall give him the knowledge of its existence. +The majority of mankind are contented with the mechanical impulse which +makes them into something and impresses upon them certain +determinations.——Talent shows itself by means of the confidence in its +own especial productive possibility, which manifests itself as an +inclination, as a strong impulse, to occupy itself with the special +object which constitutes its content. Pedagogics has no difficulty in +dealing with mechanical natures, because their passivity is only too +ready to follow prescribed patterns. It is more difficult to manage +talent, because it lies between mediocrity and genius, and is therefore +uncertain, and not only unequal to itself, but also is tossed now too +low, now too high, is by turns despondent and over-excited. The general +maxim for dealing with it is to remove no difficulty from the subject to +which its efforts are directed.——Genius must be treated much in the same +way as Talent. The difference consists only in this, that Genius, with a +foreknowledge of its creative power, usually manifests its confidence +with less doubt in a special vocation, and, with a more intense thirst +for culture, subjects itself more willingly to the demands of +instruction. Genius is in its nature the purest self-determination, in +that it lives, in its own inner existence, the necessity which exists in +the thing. But it can assign to the New, which is in it already +immediately and subjectively, no value if this has not united itself to +the already existing culture as its objective presupposition, and on +this ground it thankfully receives instruction. + +§ 112. But Talent and Genius offer a special difficulty to education in +the precocity which often accompanies them. But by precocity we do not +mean that they early render themselves perceptible, since the early +manifestation of gifts by talent and genius, through their intense +confidence, is to be looked at as perfectly legitimate. But precocity is +rather the hastening forward of the human being in feeling and moral +sense, so that where in the ordinary course of nature we should have a +child, we have a youth, and a man in the place of a youth. We may find +precocity among those who belong to the class of mediocrity, but it is +developed most readily among those possessed of talent and genius, +because with them the early appearance of superior gifts may very easily +bring in its train a perversion of the feelings and the moral nature. +Education must deal with it in so far as it is inharmonious, so that it +shall be stronger than the demands made on it from without, so that it +shall not minister to vanity; and must take care, in order to accomplish +this, that social naturalness and lack of affectation be preserved in +the pupil. + +——Our age has to combat this precocity much more than others. We find +e.g. authors who, at the age of thirty years, in which they publish +their collected works or write their biography, are chilly with the +feelings of old age. Music has been the sphere in which the earliest +development of talent has shown itself, and here we find the absurdity +that the cupidity of parents has so forced precocious talents that +children of four or five years of age have been made to appear in +public.—— + +§ 113. Every sphere of culture contains a certain quantity of +knowledge and ready skill which may be looked at, as it were, as the +created result of the culture. It is to be wished that every one who +turns his attention to a certain line of culture could take up into +himself the gathered learning which controls it. In so far as he does +this, he is professional. The consciousness that one has in the usual +way gone through a school of art or science, and has, with the general +inheritance of acquisition, been handed over to a special department, +creates externally a beneficial composure which is very favorable to +internal progress. We must distinguish from the professional the amateur +and the self-taught man. The amateur busies himself with an art, a +science, or a trade, without having gone through any strict training in +it. As a rule, he dispenses with elementary thoroughness, and hastens +towards the pleasure which the joy of production gives. The conscious +amateur confesses this himself, makes no pretension to mastership, and +calls himself——in distinction from the professional, who subjects +himself to rules——an unlearned person. But sometimes the amateur, on the +contrary, covers over his weakness, cherishes in himself the +self-conceit that he is equal to the heroes of his art or science, +constitutes himself the first admirer of his own performances, seeks for +their want of recognition in external motives, never in their own want +of excellence; and, if he has money, or edits a paper, is intoxicated +with being the patron of talent which produces such works as he would +willingly produce or pretends to produce. The self-taught man has often +true talent, or even genius, to whose development nevertheless the +inherited culture has been denied, and who by good fortune has through +his own strength worked his way into a field of effort. The self-taught +man is distinguished from the amateur by the thoroughness and the +industry with which he acts; he is not only equally unfortunate with him +in the absence of school-training, but is much less endowed. Even if the +self-taught man has for years studied and practised much, he is still +haunted by a feeling of uncertainty as to whether he has yet reached the +stand-point at which a science, an art, or a trade, will receive him +publicly——of so very great consequence is it that man should be +comprehended and recognized by man. The self-taught man therefore +remains embarrassed, and does not free himself from the apprehension +that he may expose some weak point to a professional, or he falls into +the other extreme——he becomes presumptuous, steps forth as a reformer, +and, if he accomplishes nothing, or earns only ridicule, he sets himself +down as an unrecognized martyr by an unappreciative and unjust world. + +——It is possible that the amateur may transcend the stage of +superficiality and subject himself to a thorough training; then he +ceases to be an amateur. It is also possible that the self-taught man +may be on the right track, and may accomplish as much or even more than +one trained in the usual way. In general, however, it is very desirable +that every one should go through the regular course of the inherited +means of education, partly that he may be thorough in the elements, +partly to free him from the anxiety which he may feel lest he in his +solitary efforts spend labor on some superfluous work——superfluous +because done long before, and of which he, through the accident of his +want of culture, had not heard. We must all learn by ourselves, but we +cannot teach ourselves. Only Genius can do this, for it must be its own +leader in the new paths which it opens. Genius alone passes beyond where +inherited culture ceases. It bears this in itself as of the past, and +which it uses as material for its new creation; but the self-taught man, +who would very willingly be a genius, puts himself in an attitude of +opposition to things already accomplished, or sinks into oddity, into +secret arts and sciences, &c.—— + +§ 114. These ideas of the general steps of culture, of special gifts, +and of the ways of culture appropriate to each, which we have above +distinguished, have a manifold connection among themselves which cannot +be established _à priori_. We can however remark that Apprenticeship, +the Mechanical Intelligence, and the Professional life; secondly, +Journeymanship, Talent, and Amateurship; and, finally, Mastership, +Genius, and Self Education, have a relationship to each other. + + +II. _The Act of Learning._ + +§ 115. In the process of education the interaction between pupil and +teacher must be so managed that the exposition by the teacher shall +excite in the pupil the impulse to reproduction. The teacher must not +treat his exposition as if it were a work of art which is its own end +and aim, but he must always bear in mind the need of the pupil. The +artistic exposition, as such, will, by its completeness, produce +admiration; but the didactic, on the contrary, will, through its perfect +adaptation, call out the imitative instinct, the power of new creation. + +——From this consideration we may justify the frequent statement that is +made, that teachers who have really an elegant diction do not really +accomplish so much as others who resemble in their statements not so +much a canal flowing smoothly between straight banks, as a river which +works its foaming way over rocks and between ever-winding banks. The +pupil perceives that the first is considering himself when he speaks so +finely, perhaps not without some self-appreciation; and that the second, +in the repetitions and the sentences which are never finished, is +concerning himself solely with _him_. The pupil feels that not want of +facility or awkwardness, but the earnest eagerness of the _teacher_, is +the principal thing, and that this latter uses rhetoric only as a +means.—— + +§ 116. In the act of learning there appears (1) a mechanical element, +(2) a dynamic element, and (3) one in which the dynamic again +mechanically strengthens itself. + +§ 117. As to the mechanical element, the right time must be chosen for +each lesson, an exact arrangement observed, and the suitable apparatus, +which is necessary, procured. It is in the arrangement that especially +consists the educational power of the lesson. The spirit of +scrupulousness, of accuracy, of neatness, is developed by the external +technique, which is carefully arranged in its subordinate parts +according to its content. The teacher must therefore insist upon it that +work shall cease at the exact time, that the work be well done, &c., for +on these little things many greater things ethically depend. + +——To choose one's time for any work is often difficult because of the +pressure of a multitude of demands, but in general it should be +determined that the strongest and keenest energy of the thinking +activity and of memory——this being demanded by the work——should have +appropriated to it the first half of the day.—— + +§ 118. The dynamical element consists of the previously developed power +of Attention, without which all the exposition made by the teacher to +the pupil remains entirely foreign to him, all apparatus is dead, all +arrangement of no avail, all teaching fruitless, if the pupil does not +by his free activity receive into his inner self what one teaches him, +and thus make it his own property. + +§ 119. This appropriation must not limit itself, however, to the first +acquisition of any knowledge or skill, but it must give free existence +to whatever the pupil has learned; it must make it perfectly manageable +and natural, so that it shall appear to be a part of himself. This must +be brought about by means of Repetition. This will mechanically secure +that which the attention first grasped. + +§ 120. The careful, persistent, living activity of the pupil in these +acts we call Industry. Its negative extreme is Laziness, which is +deserving of punishment inasmuch as it passes over into a want of +self-determination. Man is by nature lazy. But mind, which is only in +its act, must resolve upon activity. This connection of Industry with +human freedom, with the very essence of mind, makes laziness appear +blameworthy. The really civilized man, therefore, no longer knows that +absolute inaction which is the greatest enjoyment to the barbarian, and +he fills up his leisure with a variety of easier and lighter work. The +positive extreme of Industry is the unreasonable activity which rushes +in breathless chase from one action to another, from this to that, +straining the person with the immense quantity of his work. Such an +activity, going beyond itself and seldom reaching deliberation, is +unworthy of a man. It destroys the agreeable quiet which in all industry +should penetrate and inspire the deed. Nothing is more repulsive than +the beggarly pride of such stupid laboriousness. One should not endure +for a moment to have the pupil, seeking for distinction, begin to pride +himself on an extra industry. Education must accustom him to use a +regular assiduity. The frame of mind suitable for work often does not +exist at the time when work should begin, but more frequently it makes +its appearance after we have begun. The subject takes its own time to +awaken us. Industry, inspired by a love and regard for work, has in its +quiet uniformity a great force, without which no one can accomplish +anything essential. The world, therefore, holds Industry worthy of +honor; and to the Romans, a nation of the most persistent perseverance, +we owe the inspiring words, "_Incepto tantum opus est, cætera res +expediet_"; and, "_Labor improbus omnia vincit_." + +——"Every one may glory in his industry!" This is a true word from the +lips of a truly industrious man, who was also one of the most modest. +But Lessing did not, however, mean by them to charter Pharisaical +pedantry. The necessity sometimes of giving one's self to an excess of +work injurious to the health, generally arises from the fact that he has +not at other times made use of the requisite attention to the necessary +industry, and then attempts suddenly and as by a forced march to storm +his way to his end. The result of such over-exertion is naturally entire +prostration. The pupil is therefore to be accustomed to a generally +uniform industry, which may extend itself at regular intervals without +his thereby overstraining himself. What is really gained by a young man +who has hitherto neglected time and opportunity, and who, when +examination presses, overworks himself, perhaps standing the test with +honor, and then must rest for months afterwards from the over-effort? On +all such occasions attention is not objective and dispassionate, but +rather becomes, through anxiety to pass the examination, restless and +corrupted by egotism; and the usual evil result of such compulsory +industry is the ephemeral character of the knowledge thus gained. +"Lightly come, lightly go," says the proverb.—— + +——A special worth is always attached to study far into the night. The +student's "midnight lamp" always claims for itself a certain veneration. +But this is vanity. In the first place, it is injurious to contradict +Nature by working through the night, which she has ordained for sleep; +secondly, the question is not as to the number of hours spent in work +and their position in the twenty-four, but as to the quality of the +work. With regard to the value of my work, it is of no moment whatsoever +whether I have done it in the morning or in the evening, or how long I +have labored, and it is of no consequence to any one except to my own +very unimportant self. Finally, the question presents itself whether +these gentlemen who boast so much of their midnight work do not sleep in +the daytime!—— + +§ 121. But Industry has also two other extremes: seeming-laziness and +seeming-industry. Seeming-laziness is the neglecting of the usual +activity in one department because a man is so much more active in +another. The mind possessed with the liveliest interest in one subject +buries itself in it, and, because of this, cannot give itself up to +another which before had engrossed the attention. Thus it appears more +idle than it is, or rather it appears to be idle just because it is more +industrious. This is especially the case in passing from one subject of +instruction to another. The pupil should acquire such a flexibility in +his intellectual powers that the rapid relinquishment of one subject and +the taking up of another should not be too difficult. Nothing is more +natural than that when he is excited he should go back to the subject +that has just been presented to him, and that he, feeling himself +restrained, shall remain untouched by the following lesson, which may be +of an entirely different nature. The young soul is brooding over what +has been said, and is really exercising an intensive activity, though it +appears to be idle. But in seeming-industry all the external motives of +activity, all the mechanism of work, manifest themselves noisily, while +there is no true energy of attention and productivity. One busies +himself with all the apparatus of work; he heaps up instruments and +books around him; he sketches plans; he spends many hours staring into +vacancy, biting his pen, gazing at words, drawings, numbers, &c. Boys, +under the protection of so great a scaffolding for work erected around +them, often carry on their own amusements. Men, who arrive at no real +concentration of their force, no clear defining of their vocation, no +firm decision as to their action, dissipate their power in what is too +often a great activity with absolutely no result. They are busy, very +busy; they have hardly time to do this thing because they really wish or +ought to do that; but, with all their driving, their energy is all +dissipated, and nothing comes from their countless labors. + + +III. _The Modality of the Process of Teaching._ + +§ 122. Now that we have learned something of the relation of the teacher +to the taught, and of the process of learning itself, we must examine +the mode and manner of instruction. This may have (1) the character of +contingency: the way in which our immediate existence in the world, our +life, teaches us; or it may be given (2) by the printed page; or (3) it +may take the shape of formal oral instruction. + +§ 123. (1) For the most, the best, and the mightiest things that we know +we are indebted to Life itself. The sum of perceptions which a human +being absorbs into himself up to the fourth or fifth year of his life is +incalculable; and after this time we involuntarily gain by immediate +contact with the world countless ideas. But especially we understand by +the phrase "the School of Life," the ethical knowledge which we gain by +what happens in our own lives. + +——If one says, _Vitæ non scholæ discendum est_, one can also say, _Vita +docet_. Without the power exercised by the immediate world our +intelligence would remain abstract and lifeless.—— + +§ 124. (2) What we learn through books is the opposite of that which we +learn through living. Life _forces_ upon us the knowledge it has to +give; the book, on the contrary, is entirely passive. It is locked up in +itself; it cannot be altered; but it waits by us till we wish to use it. +We can read it rapidly or slowly; we can simply turn over its +leaves——what in modern times one calls reading;——we can read it from +beginning to end or from end to beginning; we can stop, begin again, +skip over passages, or cut them short, as we like. To this extent the +book is the most _convenient_ means for instruction. If we are indebted +to Life for our perceptions, we must chiefly thank books for our +understanding of our perceptions. We call book-instruction "dead" when +it lacks, for the exposition which it gives, a foundation in our +perceptions, or when we do not add to the printed description the +perceptions which it implies; and the two are quite different. + +§ 125. Books, as well as life, teach us many things which we did not +previously intend to learn directly from them. From foreign romances +e.g. we learn, first of all, while we read them for entertainment, the +foreign language, history or geography, &c. We must distinguish from +such books as those which bring to us, as it were accidentally, a +knowledge for which we were not seeking, the books which are expressly +intended to instruct. These must (_a_) in their consideration of the +subject give us the principal results of any department of knowledge, +and denote the points from which the next advance must be made, because +every science arises at certain results which are themselves again new +problems; (_b_) in the consideration of the particulars it must be +exhaustive, i.e. no essential elements of a science must be omitted. But +this exhaustiveness of execution has different meanings according to the +stand-points of those for whom it is made. How far we shall pass from +the universality of the principal determinations into the multiplicity +of the Particular, into the fulness of detail, cannot be definitely +determined, and must vary, according to the aim of the book, as to +whether it is intended for the apprentice, the journeyman, or the +master; (_c_) the expression must be precise, i.e. the maximum of +clearness must be combined with the maximum of brevity. + +——The writing of a text-book is on this account one of the most +difficult tasks, and it can be successfully accomplished only by those +who are masters in a science or art, and who combine with great culture +and talent great experience as teachers. Unfortunately many dabblers in +knowledge undervalue the difficulty of writing text-books because they +think that they are called upon to aid in the spread of science, and +because the writing of compendiums has thus come to be an avocation, so +that authors and publishers have made out of text-books a profitable +business and good incomes. In all sciences and arts there exists a +quantity of material which is common property, which is disposed of now +in one way, now in another. The majority of compendiums can be +distinguished from each other only by the kind of paper, printing, the +name of the publisher or bookseller, or by arbitrary changes in the +arrangement and execution. The want of principle with which this work is +carried on is incredible. Many governments have on this account fixed +prices for text-books, and commissioners to select them. This in itself +is right and proper, but the use of any book should be left optional, so +that the one-sidedness of a science patronized by government as it were +patented, may not be created through the pressure of such introduction. +A state may through its censorship oppose poor text-books, and recommend +good ones; but it may not establish as it were a state-science, a +state-art, in which only the ideas, laws and forms sanctioned by it +shall be allowed. The Germans are fortunate, in consequence of their +philosophical criticism, in the production of better and better +text-books, among which may be mentioned Koberstein's, Gervinus', and +Vilmar's Histories of Literature, Ellendt's General History, +Blumenbach's and Burmeister's Natural History, Marheineke's text-book on +Religion, Schwegler's History of Philosophy, &c. So much the more +unaccountable is it that, with such excellent books, the evil of such +characterless books, partly inadequate and partly in poor style, should +still exist when there is no necessity for it. The common style of +paragraph-writing has become obnoxious, under the name of +Compendium-style, as the most stiff and affected style of writing.—— + +§ 126. A text-book must be differently written according as it is +intended for a book for private study or for purposes of general +circulation. If the first, it must give more, and must develop more +clearly the internal relations; if the second, it should be shorter, and +proceed from axiomatic and clear postulates to their signification, and +these must have an epigrammatic pureness which should leave something to +be guessed. Because for these a commentary is needed which it is the +teacher's duty to supply, such a sketch is usually accompanied by the +fuller text-book which was arranged for private study. + +——It is the custom to call the proper text-book the "small" one, and +that which explains and illustrates, the "large" one. Thus we have the +Small and the Large Gervinus, &c.—— + +§ 127. (3) The text-book which presupposes oral explanation forms the +transition to Oral instruction itself. Since speech is the natural and +original form in which mind manifests itself, no book can rival it. The +living word is the most powerful agent of instruction. However common +and cheap printing may have rendered books as the most convenient means +of education——however possible may have become, through the +multiplication of facilities for intercourse and the rapidity of +transportation, the immediate viewing of human life, the most forcible +educational means, nevertheless the living word still asserts its +supremacy. In two cases especially is it indispensable: one is when some +knowledge is to be communicated which as yet is found in no compendium, +and the other when a living language is to be taught, for in this case +the printed page is entirely inadequate. One can learn from books to +understand Spanish, French, English, Danish, &c., but not to speak them; +to do this he must hear them, partly that his ear may become accustomed +to the sounds, partly that his vocal organs may learn correctly to +imitate them. + +§ 128. Life surprises and overpowers us with the knowledge which it +gains; the book, impassive, waits our convenience; the teacher, superior +to us, perfectly prepared in comparison with us, consults our necessity, +and with his living speech uses a gentle force to which we can yield +without losing our freedom. Listening is easier than reading. + +——Sovereigns e.g. seldom read themselves, but have servants who read to +them.—— + +§ 129. Oral instruction may (1) give the subject, which is to +be learned, in a connected statement, or (2) it may unfold it by means +of question and answer. The first decidedly presupposes the theoretical +inequality of the teacher and the taught. Because one can speak while +many can listen, this is especially adapted to the instruction of large +numbers. The second method is either that of the catechism or the +dialogue. The catechetical is connected with the first kind of oral +instruction above designated because it makes demand upon the memory of +the learner only for the answer to one question at a time, and is hence +very often and very absurdly called the Socratic method. In teaching by +means of the dialogue, we try, by means of a reciprocal interchange of +thought, to solve in common some problem, proceeding according to the +necessary forms of reason. But in this we can make a distinction. One +speaker may be superior to the rest, may hold in his own hand the thread +of the conversation and may guide it himself; or, those who mingle in it +may be perfectly equal in intellect and culture, and may each take part +in the development with equal independence. In this latter case, this +true reciprocity gives us the proper dramatic dialogue, which contains +in itself all forms of exposition, and may pass from narration, +description, and analysis, through satire and irony, to veritable humor. +When it does this, the dialogue is the loftiest result of intelligence +and the means of its purest enjoyment. + +——This alternate teaching, in which the one who has been taught takes +the teacher's place, can be used only where there is a content which +admits of a mechanical treatment. The Hindoos made use of it in very +ancient times. Bell and Lancaster have transplanted it for the teaching +of poor children in Europe and America. For the teaching of the +conventionalities——reading, writing, and arithmetic——as well as for the +learning by heart of names, sentences, &c., it suffices, but not for any +scientific culture. Where we have large numbers to instruct, the giving +of the fully developed statement (the first form) is necessary, since +the dialogue, though it may be elsewhere suitable, allows only a few to +take part in it. And if we take the second form, we must, if we have a +large number of pupils, make use of the catechetical method only. What +is known as the conversational method has been sometimes suggested for +our university instruction. Diesterweg in Berlin insists upon it. Here +and there the attempt has been made, but without any result. In the +university, the lecture of the teacher as a self-developing whole is +contrasted with the scientific discussion of the students, in which they +as equals work over with perfect freedom what they have heard. +Diesterweg was wrong in considering the lecture-system as the principal +cause of the lack of scientific interest which he thought he perceived +in our universities. Kant, Fichte, Schelling, Schleiermacher, Wolf, +Niebuhr, &c., taught by lectures and awakened the liveliest enthusiasm. +But Diesterweg is quite right in saying that the students should not be +degraded to writing-machines. But this is generally conceded, and a +pedantic amount of copying more and more begins to be considered as out +of date at our universities. Nevertheless, a new pedantry, that of the +wholly extempore lecture, should not be introduced; but a brief summary +of the extempore unfolding of the lecture may be dictated and serve a +very important purpose, or the lecture may be copied. The great efficacy +of the oral exposition does not so much consist in the fact that it is +perfectly free, as that it presents to immediate view a person who has +made himself the bearer of a science or an art, and has found what +constitutes its essence. Its power springs, above all, from the +genuineness of the lecture, the originality of its content, and the +elegance of its form: whether it is written or extemporized, is a matter +of little moment. Niebuhr e.g. read, word for word, from his manuscript, +and what a teacher was he!——The catechetical way of teaching is not +demanded at the university except in special examinations; it belongs to +the private work of the student, who must learn to be industrious of his +own free impulse. The private tutor can best conduct reviews.——The +institution which presupposing the lecture-system combines in itself +original production with criticism, and the connected exposition with +the conversation, is the _seminary_. It pursues a well-defined path, and +confines itself to a small circle of associates whose grades of culture +are very nearly the same. Here, therefore, can the dialogue be strongly +developed because it has a fixed foundation, and each one can take part +in the conversation; whereas, from the variety of opinions among a great +number, it is easily perverted into an aimless talk, and the majority of +the hearers, who have no chance to speak, become weary.—— + +§ 130. As to the way in which the lecture is carried out, it may be so +arranged as to give the whole stock of information acquired, or, without +being so exact and so complete, it may bring to its elucidation only a +relatively inexact and general information. The ancients called the +first method the esoteric and the second the exoteric, as we give to +such lectures now, respectively, the names _scholastic_ and _popular_. +The first makes use of terms which have become technical in science or +art, and proceeds syllogistically to combine the isolated ideas; the +second endeavors to substitute for technicalities generally understood +signs, and conceals the exactness of the formal conclusion by means of a +conversational style. It is possible to conceive of a perfectly +methodical treatment of a science which at the same time shall be +generally comprehensible if it strives to attain the transparency of +real beauty. A scientific work of art may be correctly said to be +popular, as e.g. has happened to Herder's _Ideas on the Philosophy of +the History of Mankind_. + +——Beauty is the element which is comprehended by all, and as we declare +our enmity to the distorted picture-books, books of amusement, and to +the mischievous character of "Compendiums," so we must also oppose the +popular publications which style themselves _Science made Easy_, &c., in +order to attract more purchasers by this alluring title. Kant in his +_Logic_ calls the extreme of explanation Pedantry and Gallantry. This +last expression would be very characteristic in our times, since one +attains the height of popularity now if he makes himself easily +intelligible to ladies——a didactic triumph which one attains only by +omitting everything that is profound or complicated, and saying only +what exists already in the consciousness of every one, by depriving the +subject dealt with of all seriousness, and sparing neither pictures, +anecdotes, jokes, nor pretty formalities of speech. Elsewhere Kant says: +"In the effort to produce in our knowledge the completeness of scholarly +thoroughness, and at the same time a popular character, without in the +effort falling into the above-mentioned errors of an affected +thoroughness or an affected popularity, we must, first of all, look out +for the scholarly completeness of our scientific knowledge, the +methodical form of thoroughness, and first ask how we can make really +popular the knowledge methodically acquired at school, i.e. how we can +make it easy and generally communicable, and yet at the same time not +supplant thoroughness by popularity. For scholarly completeness must not +be sacrificed to popularity to please the people, unless science is to +become a plaything or trifling." It is perfectly plain that all that was +said before of the psychological and the logical methods must be taken +into account in the manner of the statement.—— + +§ 131. It has been already remarked (§ 21), in speaking of the nature +of education, that the office of the instructor must necessarily vary +with the growing culture. But attention must here again be called to the +fact, that education, in whatever stage of culture, must conform to the +law which, as the internal logic of Being, determines all objective +developments of nature and of history. The Family gives the child his +first instruction; between this and the school comes the teaching of the +tutor; the school stands independently as the antithesis of the family, +and presents three essentially different forms according as it imparts a +general preparatory instruction, or special teaching for different +callings, or a universal scientific cultivation. Universality passes +over through particularizing into individuality, which contains both the +general and the particular freely in itself. All citizens of a state +should have (1) a general education which (_a_) makes them familiar with +reading, writing, and arithmetic, these being the means of all +theoretical culture; then (_b_) hands over to them a picture of the +world in its principal phases, so that they as citizens of the world can +find their proper status on our planet; and, finally, it must (_c_) +instruct him in the history of his own state, so that he may see that +the circumstances in which he lives are the result of a determined past +in its connection with the history of the rest of the world, and so may +learn rightly to estimate the interests of his own country in view of +their necessary relation to the future. This work the elementary schools +have to perform. From this, through the _Realschule_ (our scientific +High School course) they pass into the school where some particular +branch of science is taught, and through the Gymnasium (classical course +of a High School or College) to the University. From its general basis +develop (2) the educational institutions that work towards some special +education which leads over to the exercise of some art. These we call +Technological schools, where one may learn farming, mining, a craft, a +trade, navigation, war, &c. This kind of education may be specialized +indefinitely with the growth of culture, because any one branch is +capable in its negative aspect of such educational separation, as e.g. +in foundling hospitals and orphan asylums, in blind and deaf and dumb +institutions. The abstract universality of the Elementary school and the +one-sided particularity of the Technological school, however, is +subsumed under a concrete universality, which, without aiming directly +at utility, treats science and art on all sides as their own end and +aim. _Scientia est potentia_, said Lord Bacon. Practical utility results +indirectly through the progress which Scientific Cognition makes in this +free attitude, because it collects itself out of the dissipation through +manifold details into a universal idea and attains a profounder insight +thereby. This organism for the purpose of instruction is properly called +a University. By it the educational organization is perfected. + +——It is essentially seen that no more than these three types of schools +can exist, and that they must all exist in a perfectly organized +civilization. Their titles and the plan of their special teaching may be +very different among different nations and at different times, but this +need not prevent the recognition in them of the ideas which determine +them. Still less should the imperfect ways in which they manifest +themselves induce us to condemn them. It is the modern tendency to +undervalue the University as an institution which we had inherited from +the middle ages, and with which we could at present dispense. This is an +error. The university presents just as necessary a form of instruction +as the elementary school or the technological school. Not the abolition +of the university, but a reform which shall adapt it to the spirit of +the age, is the advance which we have to make. That there are to be +found outside of the university men of the most thorough and elegant +culture, who can give the most excellent instruction in a science or an +art, is most certain. But it is a characteristic of the university in +its teaching to do away with contingency which is unavoidable in case of +private voluntary efforts. The university presents an organic, +self-conscious, encyclopædic representation of all the sciences, and +thus is created to a greater or less degree an intellectual atmosphere +which no other place can give. Through this, all sciences and their aims +are seen as of equal authority——a personal stress is laid upon the +connection of the sciences. The imperfections of a university, which +arise through the rivalry of external ambition, through the necessity of +financial success, through the jealousy of different parties, through +scholarships, &c., are finitudes which it has in common with all human +institutions, and on whose account they are not all to be thrown +away.——Art academies are for Art what universities are for Science. They +are inferior to them in so far as they appear more under the form of +special schools, as schools of architecture, of painting, and +conservatories of music; while really it may well be supposed that +Architecture, Sculpture, Painting, Music, the Orchestra, and the Drama, +are, like the Sciences, bound together in a _Universitas artium_, and +that by means of their internal reciprocal action new results would +follow.——Academies, as isolated master-schools, which follow no +particular line of teaching, are entirely superfluous, and serve only as +a _Prytaneum_ for meritorious scholars, and to reward industry through +the prizes which they offer. In their idea they belong with the +university, this appearing externally in the fact that most of their +members are university professors. But as institutions for ostentation +by which the ambition of the learned was flattered, and to surround +princes with scientific glory as scientific societies attached to a +court, they have lost all significance. They ceased to flourish with the +Ptolemies and the Egyptian caliphs, and with absolute monarchical +governments.——In modern times we have passed beyond the abstract +jealousy of the so-called Humanities and the Natural Sciences, because +we comprehend that each part of the totality can be realized in a proper +sense only by its development as relatively independent. Thus the +_gymnasium_ has its place as that elementary school which through a +general culture, by means of the knowledge of the language and history +of the Greeks and Romans, prepares for the university; while, on the +other hand, the _Realschule_, by special attention to Natural Science +and the living languages, constitutes the transition to the +technological schools. Nevertheless, because the university embraces the +Science of Nature, of Technology, of Trade, of Finance, and of +Statistics, the pupils who have graduated from the so-called high +schools (_höhern Bürgerschulen_) and from the _Realschulen_ will be +brought together at the university.—— + +§ 132. The technique of the school will be determined in its details by +the peculiarity of its aim. But in general every school, no matter what +it teaches, ought to have some system of rules and regulations by which +the relation of the pupil to the institution, of the pupils to each +other, their relation to the teacher, and that of the teachers to each +other as well as to the supervisory authority, the programme of lessons, +the apparatus, of the changes of work and recreation, shall be clearly +set forth. The course of study must be arranged so as to avoid two +extremes: on the one hand, it has to keep in view the special aim of the +school, and according to this it tends to contract itself. But, on the +other hand, it must consider the relative dependence of one specialty to +other specialties and to general culture. It must leave the transition +free, and in this it tends to expand itself. The difficulty is here so +to assign the limits that the special task of the school shall not be +sacrificed and deprived of the means of performance which it (since it +is also always only a part of the whole culture) receives by means of +its reciprocal action with other departments. The programme must assign +the exact amount of time which can be appropriated to every study. It +must prescribe the order in which they shall follow each other; it must, +as far as possible, unite kindred subjects, so as to avoid the useless +repetition which dulls the charm of study; it must, in determining the +order, bear in mind at the same time the necessity imposed by the +subject itself and the psychological progression of intelligence from +perception, through conception, to the thinking activity which grasps +all. It must periodically be submitted to revision, so that all matter +which has, through the changed state of general culture, become out of +date, may be rejected, and that that which has proved itself inimitable +may be appropriated; in general, so that it may be kept up to the +requirements of the times. And, finally, the school must, by +examinations and reports, aid the pupil in the acquirement of a +knowledge of his real standing. The examination lets him know what he +has really learned, and what he is able to do: the report gives him an +account of his culture, exhibits to him in what he has made improvement +and in what he has fallen behind, what defects he has shown, what +talents he has displayed, what errors committed, and in what relation +stands his theoretical development to his ethical status. + +——The opposition of the _Gymnasia_ to the demands of the agricultural +communities is a very interesting phase of educational history. They +were asked to widen their course so as to embrace Mathematics, Physics, +Natural History, Geography, and the modern languages. At first they +stoutly resisted; then they made some concessions; finally, the more +they made the more they found themselves in contradiction with their +true work, and so they produced as an independent correlate the +_Realschule_. After this was founded, the gymnasium returned to its old +plan, and is now again able to place in the foreground the pursuit of +classical literature and history. It was thus set free from demands made +upon it which were entirely foreign to its nature.——The examination is, +on one side, so adapted to the pupil as to make him conscious of his own +condition. As to its external side, it determines whether the pupil +shall pass from one class to another or from one school to another, or +it decides whether the school as a whole shall give a public +exhibition——an exhibition which ought to have no trace of ostentation, +but which in fact is often tinctured with pedagogical charlatanism.—— + +§ 133. The Direction of the school on the side of science must be held +by the school itself, for the process of the intellect in acquiring +science, the progress of the method, the determinations of the subject +matter and the order of its development, have their own laws, to which +Instruction must submit itself if it would attain its end. The school is +only one part of the whole of culture. In itself it divides into +manifold departments, together constituting a great organism which in +manifold ways comes into contact with the organism of the state. So long +as teaching is of a private character, so long as it is the reciprocal +relation of one individual to another, or so long as it is shut up +within the circle of the family and belongs to it alone, so long it has +no objective character. It receives this first when it grows to a +school. As in history, its first form must have a religious character; +but this first form, in time, disappears. Religion is the absolute +relation of man to God which subsumes all other relations. In so far as +Religion exists in the form of a church, those who are members of the +same church may have instruction given on the nature of religion among +themselves. Instruction on the subject is proper, and it is even +enjoined upon them as a law——as a duty. But further than their own +society they may not extend their rule. The church may exert itself to +make a religious spirit felt in the school and to make it penetrate all +the teaching; but it may not presume, because it has for its subject the +absolute interest of men, the interest which is superior to all others, +to determine also the other objects of Education or the method of +treating them. The technical acquisitions of Reading, Writing and +Arithmetic, Drawing and Music, the Natural Sciences, Mathematics, Logic, +Anthropology and Psychology, the practical sciences of finance and the +municipal regulations, have no direct relation to religion. If we +attempt to establish one, there inevitably appears in them a morbid +state which destroys them; not only so, but piety itself disappears, for +these accomplishments and this knowledge are not included in its idea. + +——Such treatment of Art and Science may be well-meant, but it is always +an error. It may even make a ludicrous impression, which is a very +dangerous thing for the authority of religion. If a church has +established schools, it must see to it that all which is there taught +outside of the religious instruction, i.e. all of science and art, shall +have no direct connection with it as a religious institution.—— + +§ 134. The Church, as the external manifestation of religion, is +concerned with the absolute relation of man, the relation to God, +special in itself as opposed to his other relations; the State, on the +contrary, seizes the life of a nation according to its _explicit +totality_. The State should conduct the education of all its citizens. +To it, then, the church can appear only as a school, for the church +instructs its own people concerning the nature of religion, partly by +teaching proper, that of the catechism, partly in quite as edifying a +way, by preaching. From this point of view, the State can look upon the +church only as one of those schools which prepare for a special +avocation. The church appears to the State as that school which assumes +the task of educating the religious element. Just as little as the +church should the state attempt to exercise any influence over Science +and Art. In this they are exactly alike, and must acknowledge the +necessity which both Science and Art contain within themselves and by +which they determine themselves. The laws of Logic, Mathematics, +Astronomy, Morals, Æsthetics, Physiology, &c., are entirely independent +of the state. It can decree neither discoveries nor inventions. The +state in its relations to science occupies the same ground as it should +do with relation to the freedom of self-consciousness. It is true that +the church teaches man, but it demands from him at the same time belief +in the truth of its dogmas. It rests, as the real church, on presupposed +authority, and sinks finally all contradictions which may be found in +the absolute mystery of the existence of God. The state, on the +contrary, elaborates its idea into the form of laws, i.e. into general +determinations, of whose necessity it convinces itself. It seeks to give +to these laws the clearest possible form, so that every one may +understand them. It concedes validity only to that which can be proved, +and sentences the individual according to the external side of the +_deed_ (overt act) not, as the church does, on its internal side——that +of _intention_. Finally, it demands in him consciousness of his deed, +because it makes each one responsible for his own deed. It has, +therefore, the same principle with science, for the proof of necessity +and the unity of consciousness with its object constitute the essence of +science. Since the state embraces the school as one of its educational +organisms, it is from its very nature especially called upon to guide +its regulation in accordance with the manifestation of consciousness. + +[Sidenote: _The Modality of the Process of Teaching._] + +——The church calls this "profanation." One might say that the church, +with its mystery of Faith, always represents the absolute problem of +science, while the state, as to its form, coincides with science. +Whenever the state abandons the strictness of proof——when it begins to +measure the individual citizen by his intention and not by his deed, +and, in place of the clear insight of the comprehending consciousness, +sets up the psychological compulsion of a hollow mechanical authority, +it destroys itself.—— + +§ 135. Neither the church nor the state should attempt to control the +school in its internal management. Still less can the school constitute +itself into a state within the state; for, while it is only one of the +means which are necessary for developing citizens, the state and the +church lay claim to the whole man his whole life long. The independence +of the school can then only consist in this, that it raises within the +state an organ which works under its control, and which as school +authority endeavors within itself to befriend the needs of the school, +while externally it acts on the church and state indirectly by means of +ethical powers. The emancipation of the school can never reasonably mean +its abstract isolation, or the absorption of the ecclesiastical and +political life into the school; it can signify only the free reciprocal +action of the school with state and church. It must never be forgotten +that what makes the school a school is not the total process of +education, for this falls also within the family, the state, and the +church; but that the proper work of the school is the process of +instruction, knowledge, and the acquirement, by practice, of skill. + +——The confusion of the idea of Instruction with that of Education in +general is a common defect in superficial treatises on these themes. The +Radicals among those who are in favor of so-called "Emancipation," often +erroneously appeal to "free Greece" which generally for this fond +ignorance is made to stand as authority for a thousand things of which +it never dreamed. In this fictitious Hellas of "free, beautiful +humanity," they say the limits against which we strive to-day did not +exist. The histories of Anaxagoras, Protagoras, Diagoras, Socrates, +Aristotle, Theophrastus, and of others, who were all condemned on +account of their "impiety," tell quite another story.—— + +§ 136. The inspection of the school may be carried out in different +ways, but it must be required that its special institutions shall be +embraced and cared for as organized and related wholes, framed in +accordance with the idea of the state, and that one division of the +ministry shall occupy itself exclusively with it. The division of labor +will specially affect the schools for teaching particular avocations. +The prescription of the subjects to be studied in each school as +appropriate to it, of the course of study, and of the object thereof, +properly falls to this department of government, is its immediate work, +and its theory must be changed according to the progress and needs of +the time. Niemeyer, Schwarz, and others, have made out such plans for +schools. Scheinert has fully painted the _Volkschule_, Mager the +_Bürgerschule_, Deinhard and Kapp the _Gymnasium_. But such +delineations, however correct they may be, depend upon the actual sum of +culture of a people and a time, and must therefore continually modify +their fundamental Ideal. The same is true of the methods of instruction +in the special arts and sciences. Niemeyer, Schwarz, Herbart, in their +sketches of Pedagogics, Beneke in his _Doctrine of Education_, and +others, have set forth in detail the method of teaching Reading, Writing +and Arithmetic, Languages, Natural Science, Geography, History, &c. Such +directions are, however, ephemeral in value, and only relatively useful, +and must, in order to be truly practical, be always newly laid out in +accordance with universal educational principles, and with the progress +of science and art. + +——The idea that the State has the right to oversee the school lies in +the very idea of the State, which is authorized, and under obligation, +to secure the education of its citizens, and cannot leave their +fashioning to chance. The emancipation of the school from the State, the +abstracting of it, would lead to the destruction of the school. There is +no difficulty in Protestant States in the free inter-action of school +and church, for Protestantism has consciously accepted as its peculiar +principle individual freedom as Christianity has presented it. For +Catholic States, however, a difficulty exists. The Protestant clergyman +can with propriety oversee the _Volkschule_, for here he works as +teacher, not as priest. In the Protestant church there are really no +Laity according to the original meaning of the term. On the contrary, +Catholic clergymen are essentially priests, and as such, on account of +the unconditional obedience which, according to their church, they have +to demand, they usurp the authority of the State. From this circumstance +arise, at present, numberless collisions in the department of school +supervision.—— + + +THIRD DIVISION. + +PRAGMATICS (EDUCATION OF THE WILL). + +§ 137. Both Physical and Intellectual Education are in the highest +degree practical. The first reduces the merely natural to a tool which +mind shall use for its own ends; the second guides the intelligence, by +ways conformable to its nature, to the necessary method of the act of +teaching and learning, which finally branches out into an objective +national life, into a system of mutually dependent school organizations. +But in a narrower sense we mean by practical education the methodical +development of the Will. This phrase more clearly expresses the topic to +be considered in this division than others sometimes used in Pedagogics +[_Bestrebungs vermögen_, conative power]. The will is already the +subject of a science of its own, i.e. of Ethics; and if Pedagogics would +proceed in anywise scientifically, it must recognize and presuppose the +idea and the existence of this science. It should not restate in full +the doctrines of freedom of duty, of virtue, and of conscience, although +we have often seen this done in empirical works on Pedagogics. +Pedagogics has to deal with the idea of freedom and morality only so far +as it fixes the technique of their process, and at the same time it +confesses itself to be weakest just here, where nothing is of any worth +without a pure self-determination. + +§ 138. The pupil must (1) become civilized; i.e. he must learn to +govern, as a thing external to him, his natural egotism, and to make the +forms which civilized society has adopted his own. (2) He must become +imbued with morality; i.e. he must learn to determine his actions, not +only with reference to what is agreeable and useful, but according to +the principle of the Good; he must become virtually free, form a +character, and must habitually look upon the necessity of freedom as the +absolute measure of his actions. (3) He must become religious; i.e. he +must discern that the world, with all its changes, himself included, is +only phenomenal; the affirmative side of this insight into the emptiness +of the finite and transitory, which man would so willingly make +everlasting, is the consciousness of the _absolute_ existing in and for +itself, which, in its certainty of its truth, not torn asunder through +the process of manifestation, constitutes no part of its changes, but, +while it actually presents them, permeates them all, and freely +distinguishes itself from them. In so far as man relates himself to God, +he cancels all finitude and transitoriness, and by this feeling frees +himself from the externality of phenomena. Virtue on the side of +civilization is Politeness; on that of morality, Conscientiousness; and +on that of religion, Humility. + + +FIRST CHAPTER. + +_Social Culture._ + + +§ 139. The social development of man makes the beginning of practical +education. It is not necessary to suppose a special social instinct. The +inclination of man to the society of men does not arise only from the +identity of their nature, but is also in certain cases affected by +particular relations. The natural starting-point of social culture is +the Family. But this educates the child for Society, and by means of +Society the individual passes over into relations with the world at +large. Natural sympathy changes to polite behavior, and this to the +dexterous and circumspect deportment, whose truth nevertheless is first +the ethical purity which combines with the wisdom of the serpent the +harmlessness of the dove. + +§ 140. (1) The Family is the natural social circle to which man +primarily belongs. In it all the immediate differences which exist are +compensated by the equally immediate unity of the relationship. The +subordination of the wife to the husband, of the children to their +parents, of the younger children to their elder brothers and sisters, +ceases to be subordination, through the intimacy of love. The child +learns obedience to authority, and in this it gives free personal +satisfaction to its parents and enjoys the same. All the relations in +which he finds himself there are penetrated by the warmth of implicit +confidence, which can be replaced for the child by nothing else. In this +sacred circle the tenderest emotions of the heart are developed by the +personal interest of all its members in what happens to any one, and +thus the foundation is laid of a susceptibility to all genuine or real +friendship. + +——Nothing more unreasonable or inhuman could exist than those modern +theories which would destroy the family and would leave the children, +the offspring of the anarchy of free-love, to grow up in public +nurseries. This would appear to be very humanitarian; indeed these +socialists talk of nothing but the interests of humanity——they are never +weary of uttering their insipid jests on the institution of the family, +as if it were the principle of all narrow-mindedness. Have these +fanatics, who are seeking after an abstraction of humanity, ever +examined our foundling-hospitals, orphan asylums, barracks, and prisons, +to discover in some degree to what an atomic state of barren cleverness +a human being grows who has never formed a part of a family? The Family +is only one phase in the grand order of the ethical organization; but it +is the substantial phase from which man passively proceeds, but into +which, as he founds a family of his own, he actively returns. The child +lives in the Family in the common joy and grief of sympathy for all, +and, in the emotion with which he sees his parents approach death while +he is hastening towards the full enjoyment of existence, experiences the +finer feelings which are so powerful in creating in him a deeper and +more tender understanding of everything human.—— + +§ 141. (2) The Family rears the children not for itself but for the +civil society. In this we have a system of morals producing externally a +social technique, a circle of fixed forms of society. This technique +endeavors to subdue the natural roughness of man, at least as far as it +manifests itself externally. Because he is spirit, man is not to yield +himself to his immediateness; he is to exhibit to man his naturalness as +under the control of spirit. The etiquette of propriety on the one hand +facilitates the manifestation of individuality by means of which the +individual becomes interesting to others, and on the other hand, since +its forms are alike for all, it makes us recognize the likeness of the +individual to all others and so makes their intercourse easier. + +——The conventional form is no mere constraint; but essentially a +protection not only for the freedom of the individual, but much more the +protection of the individual against the rude impetuosity of his own +naturalness. Savages and peasants for this reason are, in their +relations to each other, by no means as unconstrained as one often +represents them, but hold closely to a ceremonious behavior. There is in +one of Immerman's stories, "The Village Justice," a very excellent +picture of the conventional forms with which the peasant loves to +surround himself. The scene in which the townsman who thinks that he can +dispense with forms among the peasants is very entertainingly taught +better, is exceedingly valuable in an educational point of view. The +feeling of shame which man has in regard to his mere naturalness is +often extended to relations where it has no direct significance, since +this sense of shame is appealed to in children in reference to things +which are really perfectly indifferent externalities.—— + +§ 142. Education with regard to social culture has two extremes to +avoid: the youth may, in his effort to prove his individuality, become +vain and conceited, and fall into an attempt to appear interesting; or +he may become slavishly dependent on conventional forms, a kind of +social pedant. This state of nullity which contents itself with the +mechanical polish of social formalism is ethically more dangerous than +the tendency to a marked individuality, for it betrays emptiness; while +the effort towards a peculiar differentiation from others, to become +interesting to others, indicates power. + +§ 143. When we have a harmony of the manifestation of the individual +with the expression of the recognition of the equality of others we have +what is called deportment or politeness, which combines dignity and +grace, self-respect and modesty. We call it when fully complete, +Urbanity. It treats the conventional forms with irony, since, at the +same time that it yields to them, it allows the productivity of spirit +to shine through them in little deviation from them, as if it were fully +able to make others in their place. + +——True politeness shows that it remains master of forms. It is very +necessary to accustom children to courtesy and to bring them up in the +etiquette of the prevailing social custom; but they must be prevented +from falling into an absurd formality which makes the triumph of a +polite behavior to consist in a blind following of the dictates of the +last fashion-journal, and in the exact copying of the phraseology and +directions of some book on manners. One can best teach and practise +politeness when he does not merely copy the social technique, but +comprehends its original idea.—— + +§ 144. (3) But to fully initiate the youth into the institutions of +civilization one must not only call out the feelings of his heart in the +bosom of the family, not only give to him the formal refinement +necessary to his intercourse with society; it must also perform to him +the painful duty of making him acquainted with the mysteries of the ways +of the world. This is a painful duty, for the child naturally feels an +unlimited confidence in all men. This confidence must not be destroyed, +but it must be tempered. The mystery of the way of the world is the +deceit which springs from selfishness. We must provide against it by a +proper degree of distrust. We must teach the youth that he may be +imposed upon by deceit, dissimulation, and hypocrisy, and that therefore +he must not give his confidence lightly and credulously. He himself must +learn how he can, without deceit, gain his own ends in the midst of the +throng of opposing interests. + +——Kant in his Pedagogics calls that worldly-wise behavior by which the +individual is to demean himself in opposition to others, +Impenetrability. By its means man learns how to "manage men." In Lord +Chesterfield's letters to his son, we have pointed out the true value of +egotism in its relation to morals. All his words amount to this, that we +are to consider every man to be an egotist, and to convert his very +egotism into a means of finding out his weak side; i.e. to flatter him +by exciting his vanity, and by means of such flattery to ascertain his +limits. In common life, the expression "having had experiences" means +about the same thing as having been deceived and betrayed.—— + + +SECOND CHAPTER. + +_Moral Culture._ + + +§ 145. The truth of social culture lies in moral culture. Without this +latter, every art of behavior remains worthless, and can never attain +the clearness of Humility and Dignity which are possible to it in its +unity with morality. For the better determination of this idea +Pedagogics must refer to Ethics itself, and can here give the part of +its content which relates to Education only in the form of educational +maxims. The principal categories of Ethics in the domain of morality are +the ideas of Duty, Virtue, and Conscience. Education must lay stress on +the truth that nothing in the world has any absolute value except will +guided by the right. + +§ 146. Thence follows (1) the maxim relating to the idea of Duty, that +we must accustom the pupil to unconditional obedience to it, so that he +shall perform it for no other reason than that it is duty. It is true +that the performance of a duty may bring with it externally a result +agreeable or disagreeable, useful or harmful; but the consideration of +such connection ought never to determine us. This moral demand, though +it may appear to be excessive severity, is the absolute foundation of +all genuine ethical practice. All "highest happiness theories," however +finely spun they may be, when taken as a guide for life, lead at last to +Sophistry, and this to contradictions which ruin the life. + +§ 147. (2) Virtue must make actual what duty commands, or, rather, the +actualizing of duty is Virtue. And here we must say next, then, that the +principal things to be considered under Virtue are (_a_) the dialectic +of particular virtues, (_b_) renunciation, and (_c_) character. + +§ 148. (_a_) From the dialectic of particular virtues there follows the +educational maxim that we must practise all virtues with equal +faithfulness, for all together constitute an ethical system complete in +itself, in which no one is indifferent to another. + +——Morality should recognize no distinction of superiority among the +different virtues. They reciprocally determine each other. There is no +such thing as one virtue which shines out above the others, and still +less should we have any special gift for virtue. The pupil must be +taught to recognize no great and no small in the virtues, for that one +which may at first sight seem small is inseparably connected with that +which is seemingly the greatest. Many virtues are attractive by reason +of their external consequences, as e.g. industry because of success in +business, worthy conduct because of the respect paid to it, charity +because of the pleasure attending it; but man should not practise these +virtues because he enjoys them: he must devote the same amount of +self-sacrifice and of assiduity to those virtues which (as Christ said) +are to be performed in secret.—— + +——It is especially valuable, in an educational respect, to gain an +insight, into the transition of which each virtue is empirically +capable, into a negative as well as into a positive extreme. The +differences between the extremes and the golden mean are differences in +quality, although they arrive at this difference in quality by means of +difference in quantity. Kant has, as is well known, attacked the +Aristotelian doctrine of the ethical μεσοτες, since he was considering +the qualitative difference of the mind as differentiating principle; +this was correct for the subject with which he dealt, but in the +objective development we do arrive on the other hand at the +determination of a quantitative limit; e.g. a man, with the most earnest +intention of doing right, may be in doubt whether he has not, in any +task, done more or less than was fitting for him.—— + +——As no virtue can cease its demands for us, no one can permit any +exceptions or any provisional circumstances to come in the way of his +duties. Our moral culture will always certainly manifest itself in very +unequal phases if we, out of narrowness and weakness, neglect entirely +one virtue while we diligently cultivate another. If we are forced into +such unequal action, we are not responsible for the result; but it is +dangerous and deserves punishment if we voluntarily encourage it. The +pupil must be warned against a certain moral negligence which consists +in yielding to certain weaknesses, faults, or crimes, a little longer +and a little longer, because he has fixed a certain time after which he +intends to do better. Up to that time he allows himself to be a loiterer +in ethics. Perhaps he will assert that his companions, his surroundings, +his position, &c., must be changed before he can alter his internal +conduct. Wherever education or temperament favors sentimentality, we +shall find birth-days, new-year's day, confirmation day, &c., selected +as these turning points. It is not to be denied that man proceeds in his +internal life from epoch to epoch, and renews himself in his most +internal nature, nor can we deny that moments like those mentioned are +especially favorable in man to an effort towards self-transformation +because they invite introspection; but it is not to be endured that the +youth, while looking forward to such a moment, should consciously +persist in his evil-doing. If he does, we shall have as consequences +that when the solemn moment which he has set at last arrives, at the +stirring of the first emotion he perceives with terror that he has +changed nothing in himself, that the same temptations are present to +him, the same weakness takes possession of him, &c. In our business, in +our theoretical endeavors, &c., it may certainly happen that, on account +of want of time, or means, or humor, we may put off some work to another +time; but morality stands on a higher plane than these, because it, as +the concrete absoluteness of the will, makes unceasing demand on the +whole and undivided man. In morality there are no vacations, no +interims. As we in ascending a flight of stairs take good care not to +make a single mis-step, and give our conscious attention to every step, +so we must not allow any exceptions in moral affairs, must not appoint +given times for better conduct, but must await these last as natural +crises, and must seek to live in time as in Eternity.—— + +§ 149. (_b_) From Renunciation springs the injunction of +self-government. The action of education on the will to form habits in +it, is discipline or training in a narrower sense. Renunciation teaches +us to know the relation in which we in fact, as historical persons, +stand to the idea of the Good. From our empirical knowledge of ourselves +we derive the idea of our limits; from the absolute knowledge of +ourselves on the other hand, which presents to us the nature of Freedom +as our own actuality, we derive the conception of the resistless might +of the genuine will for the good. But to actualize this conception we +must have practice. This practice is the proper renunciation. Every man +must devise for himself some special set of rules, which shall be +determined by his peculiarities and his resulting temptations. These +rules must have as their innermost essence the subduing of self, the +vanquishing of his negative arbitrariness by means of the universality +and necessity of the will. + +——In order to make this easy, the youth may be practised in renouncing +for himself even the arbitrariness which is permitted to him. One often +speaks of renunciation as if it belonged especially to the middle ages +and to Catholicism; but this is an error. Renunciation in its one-sided +form as relying on works, and for the purpose of mortification, is +asceticism, and belongs to them; but Renunciation in general is a +necessary determination of morals. The keeping of a journal is said to +assist in the practice of virtue, but its value depends on how it is +kept. To one it may be a curse, to another a blessing. Fichte, Göthe, +Byron, and others, have kept journals and have been assisted thereby; +while others, as Lavater, have been thwarted by them. Vain people will +every evening record with pen and ink their admiration of the correct +course of life which they have led in the day devoted to their +pleasure.—— + +§ 150. (_c_) The result of the practice in virtue, or, as it is +commonly expressed, of the individual actualization of freedom, is the +methodical determinateness of the individual will as Character. This +conception of character is formal, for it contains only the identity +which is implied in the ruling of a will on its external side as +constant. As there are good, strong and beautiful characters, so there +are also bad, weak, and detestable ones. When in Pedagogics, therefore, +we speak so much of the building up of a character, we mean the making +permanent of a direction of the individual will towards the +actualization of the Good. Freedom ought to be the character of +character. Education must therefore observe closely the inter-action of +the factors which go to form character, viz., (α) the temperament, as +the natural character of the man; (β) external events, the historical +element; (γ) the energy of the Will, by which, in its limits of nature +and history, it realizes the idea of the Good in and for itself as the +proper ethical character. Temperament determines the Rhythm of our +external manifestation of ourselves; the events in which we live assign +to us the ethical problem, but the Will in its sovereignty stamps its +seal on the form given by these potentialities. Pedagogics aims at +accustoming the youth to freedom, so that he shall always measure his +deed by the idea of the Good. It does not desire a formal independence, +which may also be called character, but a real independence resting upon +the conception of freedom as that which is absolutely necessary. The +pedagogical maxim is then: Be independent, but be so through doing Good. + +——According to preconceived opinion, stubbornness and obstinacy claim +that they are the foundation of character. But they may spring from +weakness and indeterminateness, on which account one needs to be well on +his guard. A gentle disposition, through enthusiasm for the Good, may +attain to quite as great a firmness of will. Coarseness and meanness are +on no account to be tolerated.—— + +§ 151. (3) We pass from the consideration of the culture of character +to that of conscience. This is the relation which the moral agent makes +between himself as manifestation and himself as idea. It compares +itself, in its past or future, with its nature, and judges itself +accordingly as good or bad. This independence of the ethical judgment is +the soul proper of all morality, the negation of all self-deception and +of all deception through another. The pedagogical maxim is: Be +conscientious. Be in the last instance dependent only upon the +conception which thou thyself hast of the idea of the Good! + +——The self-criticism prompted by conscience hovers over all our +historical actuality, and is the ground of all our rational progress. +Fichte's stern words remain, therefore, eternally true: "He who has a +bad character, must absolutely create for himself a better one."—— + + +THIRD CHAPTER. + +_Religious Culture._ + + +§ 152. Social culture contains the formal phase, moral culture the real +phase, of the practical mind. Conscience forms the transition to +religious culture. In its apodeictic nature, it is the absoluteness of +spirit. The individual discerns in the depths of its own consciousness +the determinations of universality and of necessity to which it has to +subject itself. They appear to it as the voice of God. Religion makes +its appearance as soon as the individual distinguishes the Absolute from +himself as personal, as a subject existing for itself and therefore for +him. The atheist remains at the stage of insight into the absoluteness +of the logical and physical, æsthetic and practical categories. He may, +therefore, be perfectly moral. He lacks religion, though he loves to +characterize his uprightness by this name, and to transfer the dogmatic +determinations of positive religion into the ethical sphere. It belongs +to the province of religion that I demean myself towards the Absolute +not only as toward that which is my own substance, and that in relation +to it not I alone am the subject, but that to me also the substance in +itself is a personal subject for itself. If I look upon myself as the +only absolute, I make myself devoid of spiritual essence. I am only +absolute self-consciousness, for which, because it as idea relates only +to itself, there remains only the impulse to a persistent conflict with +every self-consciousness not identical with it. Were this the case, such +a self-consciousness would be only theoretical irony. In religion I know +the Absolute as essence, when I am known by him. Everything else, myself +included, is finite and transitory, however significant it may be, +however relatively and momentarily the Infinite may exist in it. As +existence even, it is transitory. The Absolute, positing itself, +distinguishing itself from itself in unity with itself, is always like +to itself, and takes up all the unrest of the phenomenal world back +again into its simple essence. + +§ 153. This process of the individual spirit, in which it rises out of +the multiplicity of all relations into union with the Absolute as the +substantial subject, and in which nature and history are united, we may +call, in a restricted sense, a change of heart [Gemuth]. In a wider +sense of the word we give this name to a certain sentimental +cheerfulness (light-heartedness), a sense of comfort——of little +significance. The highest emotions of the heart culminate in religion, +whose warmth is inspired by practical activity and conscientiousness. + +§ 154. Education has to fit man for religion. (1) It gives him the +conception of it; (2) it endeavors to have this conception actualized in +him; (3) it subordinates the theoretical and practical process in +fashioning him to a determinate stand-point of religious culture. + +——In the _working out_ or detailed treatment of Pedagogics, the +position which the conception of religion occupies is very uncertain. +Many writers on Education place it at the beginning, while others +reserve it for the end. Others naïvely bring it forward in the midst of +heterogeneous surroundings, but know how to say very little concerning +it, and urge teachers to kindle the fire of religious feeling in their +pupils by teaching them to fear God. Through all their writing, we hear +the cry that in Education nothing is so important as Religion. Rightly +understood, this saying is quite true. The religious spirit, the +consciousness of the Absolute, and the reverence for it, should permeate +all. Not unfrequently, however, we find that what is meant by religion +is theology, or the church ceremonial, and these are only one-sided +phases of the total religious process. The Anglican High-Church presents +in the colleges and universities of England a sad example of this error. +What can be more deadening to the spirit, more foreign to religion, than +the morning and evening prayers as they are carried on at Oxford and +Cambridge with machine-like regularity! But also to England belongs the +credit of the sad fact, that, according to Kohl's report, there live in +Manchester, Liverpool, Birmingham, and London, thousands of men who have +never enjoyed any teaching in religion, have never been baptized, who +live absolutely without religion in brutal stupidity. Religion must form +the culminating point of Education. It takes up into itself the +didactical and practical elements, and rises through the force of its +content to universality.—— + + +I. _The Theoretical Process of Religious Culture._ + +§ 155. Religion, in common with every content of the spirit, must pass +through three stages of feeling, conception, and comprehension. Whatever +may be the special character of any religion it cannot avoid this +psychological necessity, either in its general history or in the history +of the individual consciousness. The teacher must understand this +process, partly in order that he may make it easier to the youth, partly +that he may guard against the malformation of the religious feeling +which may arise through the fact of the youth's remaining in one stage +after he is ready for another and needs it. Pedagogics must therefore +lay out beforehand the philosophy of religion, on which alone can be +found the complete discussion of this idea. + +§ 156. (1) Religion exists first as religious feeling. The person is +still immediately identical with the Divine, does not yet distinguish +himself from the absoluteness of his being, and is in so far determined +by it. In so far as he feels the divine, he is a mystery to himself. +This beginning is necessary. Religion cannot be produced in men from the +external side; its genesis belongs rather to the primitive depths in +which God himself and the individual soul are essentially one. + +——The educator must not allow himself to suppose that he is able to +make a religion. Religion dwells originally in every individual soul, +for every one is born of God. Education can only aid the religious +feeling in its development. As far as regards the psychological form, it +was quite correct for Schleiermacher and his followers to characterize +the absoluteness of the religious feeling as the feeling of dependence, +for feeling is determined by that which it feels; it depends upon its +content. But in so far as God constitutes the content of the feeling, +there appears the opposite of all dependence or absolute emancipation. I +maintain this in opposition to Schleiermacher. Religion lifts man above +the finite, temporal and transitory, and frees him from the control of +the phenomenal world. Even the lowest form of religion does this; and +when it is said that Schleiermacher has been unjustly criticized for +this expression of dependence, this distinction is overlooked.—— + +§ 157. But religious feeling as such rises into something higher when +the spirit distinguishes the content of this religious feeling from any +other content which it also feels, represents it clearly to itself, and +places itself over against it formally as a free individual. + +——But we must not understand that the religious feeling is destroyed in +this process; in rising to the form of distinct representation, it +remains at the same time as a necessary form of the Intelligence.—— + +§ 158. If the spirit is held back and prevented from passing out of the +simplicity of feeling into the act of distinguishing the perception from +what it becomes, the conception——if its efforts towards the forming of +this conception are continually re-dissolved into feeling, then feeling, +which was as the first step perfectly healthy and correct, will become +morbid and degenerate into a wretched mysticism. Education must, +therefore, make sure that this feeling is not destroyed by the progress +of its content into perception and conception on the side of +psychological form, but rather that it attains truth thereby. + +§ 159. (2) Conception as the ideally transformed perception dissects +the religious content on its different sides, and follows each of these +to its consequence. Imagination controls the individual conceptions, but +by no means with that absoluteness which is often supposed; for each +picture has in itself its logical consequence to which imagination must +yield; e.g. if a religion represents God as an animal, or as half animal +and half man, or as man, each of these conceptions has in its +development its consequences for the imagination. + +§ 160. We rise out of the stage of Conception when the spirit tries to +determine the universality of its content according to its necessity, +i.e. when it begins to think. The necessity of its pictures is a mere +presupposition for the imagination. The thinking activity, however, +recognizes not only the contradiction which exists between the sensuous, +limited form of the individual conception, and the absolute nature of +its content, but also the contradiction in which the conceptions find +themselves with respect to each other. + +§ 161. If the spirit is prevented from passing out of the varied +pictures of conception to the supersensuous clearness and simplicity of +the thinking activity——if the content which it already begins to seize +as idea is again dissolved into the confusion of the picture-world, then +the religion of imagination, which was a perfectly proper form as the +second step, becomes perverted into some form of idolatry, either coarse +or refined. Education must therefore not oppose the thinking activity if +the latter undertakes to criticize religious conceptions; on the +contrary, it must guide this so that the discovery of the contradictions +which unavoidably adhere to sensuous form shall not mislead the youth +into the folly of throwing away, with the relative untruth of the form, +also the religious content in general. + +——It is an error for educators to desire to keep the imagination apart +from religious feeling, but it is also an error to detain the mind, +which is on its formal side the activity of knowing, in the stage of +imagination, and to desire to condemn it thence into the service of +canonical allegories. The more, in opposition to this, it is possessed +with the charm of thinking, the more is it in danger of condemning the +content of religion itself as a mere fictitious conception. As a +transition-stage the religion of imagination is perfectly normal, and it +does not in the least impair freedom if, for example, one has +personified evil as a living Devil. The error does not lie in this, but +in the making absolute these determinate, æsthetic forms of religion. +The reaction of the thinking activity against such æsthetic absolutism +then undertakes in its negative absolutism to despise the content also, +as if it were a mere conception.—— + +§ 162. (3) In the thinking activity the spirit attains that form of the +religious content which is identical with that of its simple +consciousness, and above which there is no other for the intelligence as +theoretical. But we distinguish three varieties in this thinking +activity: the abstract, the reflective, and the speculative. The +Abstract gives us the religious content of consciousness in the form of +abstractions or dogmas, i.e. propositions which set up a definition as a +universal, and add to it another as the reason for its necessity. The +Reflective stage busies itself with the relation of dogmas to each +other, and with the search for the grounds on which their necessity must +rest. It is essentially critical, and hence skeptical. The explanation +of the dogmas, which is carried on in this process of reasoning and +skeptical investigation, is completed alone in speculative thinking, +which recognizes the free unity of the content and its form as its own +proper self-determination of the content, creating its own differences. +Education must know this stage of the intelligence, partly that it may +in advance preserve, in the midst of its changes, that repose which it +brings into the consciousness; partly that it may be able to lead to the +process of change itself, in accordance with the organic connection of +its phases. We should prevent the criticism of the abstract +understanding by the reflective stage as little as we should that of the +imagination by the thinking activity. But the stage of reflection is not +the last possibility of the thinking activity, although, in the variety +of its skepticism it often takes itself for such, and, with the +emptiness of mere negation to which it holds, often brings itself +forward into undesirable prominence. It becomes evident, in this view, +how very necessary for man, with respect to religion, is a genuine +philosophical culture, so that he may not lose the certainty of the +existence of the Absolute in the midst of the obstinacy of dogmas and +the changes of opinions. + +§ 163. Education must then not fear the descent into dogmatic +abstraction, since this is an indispensable means for theoretical +culture in its totality, and the consciousness cannot dispense with it +in its history. But Education has, in the concrete, carefully to discern +in which of these stages of culture any particular consciousness may be. +For if for mankind as a race the fostering of philosophy is absolutely +necessary, it by no means follows that this necessity exists for each +individual. To children, to women, e.g. for all kinds of simple and +limited lives, the form of the religion of the imagination is well +suited, and the form of comprehension can come only relatively to them. +Education must not, then, desire powerfully and prematurely to develop +the thinking activity before the intelligence is really fully grown. + +——The superficial thinking which many teachers demand in the sphere of +religion is no less impractical than the want of all guidance into +rightly ordered meditations on religious subjects. It is natural that +the lower form of intelligence should, in contrast with the higher, +appear to be frivolous, because it has no need of change of form as the +higher has, and on this account it looks upon the destruction of the +form of a picture or a dogma as the destruction of religion itself. In +our time the idea is very prevalent that the content itself must change +with the changing of the psychological form, and that therefore a +religion in the stage of feeling, of conception, and of comprehension, +can no longer be the same in its essence. These suppositions, which are +so popular, and are considered to be high philosophy, spring from the +superficiality of psychological inquiry.—— + +§ 164. The theoretical culture of the religious feeling endeavors +therefore with the freedom of philosophical criticism to elevate the +presupposition of Reason in the religious content to self-assured +insight by means of the proof of the necessity of its determinations. +This is the only reasonable pedagogical way not only to prevent the +degeneration of the religious consciousness into a miserable mysticism +or into frivolity, but also to remove these if they are already +existent. + +——External seclusion avails nothing. The crises of the world-historical +changes in the religious consciousness find their way through the +thickest cloister walls; the philosopher Reinhold was a pupil of the +Jesuits, the philosopher Schad of the Benedictines.—— + + +II. _The Practical Process of Religious Culture._ + +§ 165. The theoretical culture is truly practical, for it gives man +definite conceptions and thoughts of the Divine and his relation to him. +But in a narrower sense that culture is practical which relates to the +Will as such. Education has in this respect to distinguish (1) +consecration——religious feeling in general,——(2) the induction of the +youth into the forms of a positive religion, and (3) his reconciliation +with his lot. + +§ 166. (1) Religious feeling presupposes morality as an indispensable +condition without which it cannot inculcate its ideas. But if man from a +merely moral stand-point places himself in relation to the idea of Duty +as such, the ethical religious stand-point differs from it in this, that +it places the necessity of the Good as the self-determination of the +divine Will and thus makes of practice a personal relation to God, +changing the Good to the Holy and the Evil to Sin. Education must +therefore first accustom the youth to the idea, that in doing the Good +he unites himself with God as with the absolute Person, but that in +doing Evil he separates himself from him. The feeling that he through +his deed comes into contact with God himself, positively or negatively, +deepens the moral conduct to an intense sensibility of the heart. + +§ 167. (2) The religious sense which grows in the child that he has an +uninterrupted personal relation to the Absolute as a person, constitutes +the beginning of the practical forming of religion. The second step is +the induction of the child into the objective forms of worship +established in some positive religion. Through religious training the +child learns to renounce his egotism; through attendance on religious +services he learns to give expression to his religious feeling in +prayer, in the use of symbols, and in church festivals. Education must, +however, endeavor to retain freedom with regard to these forms, so that +they shall not be confounded with Religion itself. Religion displays +itself in these ceremonies, but they as mere forms are of value only in +so far as they, while externalities, are manifestations of the spirit +which produces them. + +——If the mechanism of ceremonial forms is taken as religion itself, the +service of God degenerates into the false service of religion, as Kant +has designated it in _Religion within the Limits of Pure Reason_. +Nothing is more destructive to the sensibility to all real religious +culture than the want of earnestness with which prayers, readings from +the Bible, attendance on church, the communion, &c., are often practised +by teachers. But one must not conclude from this extreme that an +ignorance of all sacred forms in general would be more desirable for the +child.—— + +§ 168. (3) It is possible that a man on the stand-point of +ecclesiastical religious observances may be fully contented; he may be +fully occupied in them, and perfect his life thereby in perfect content. +But by far the greater number of men will see themselves forced to +experience the truth of religion in the hard vicissitudes of their lot, +since they carry on some business, and with that business create for +themselves a past whose consequences condition their future. They limit +themselves through their deeds, whose involuntary-voluntary authors they +become; involuntary in so far as they are challenged to the deeds from +the totality of events, voluntary in so far as they undertake them and +bring about an actual change in the world. The history of the individual +man appears therefore on the one hand, if we consider its material, as +the work of circumstances; but on the other hand, if we reflect on the +form, as the act of a self-determining actor. Want of freedom (the being +determined through the given situation) and freedom (the determination +to the act) are united in actual life as something which is exactly so, +and cannot become anything else as final. The essence of the spiritual +being stands always over against this unavoidable limitation as that +which is in itself infinite, which is beyond all history, because the +absolute spirit, in and for itself, has no history. That which one calls +his history is only the manifesting of himself, and his everlasting +return out of this manifestation into himself an act which in absolute +spirit coincides with the transcending of all manifestation. From the +nature which belongs to him there arises for the individual spirit the +impulse towards a holy life, i.e. the being freed from his history even +in the midst of its process. He gratifies this impulse negatively +through the considering of what has happened as past and gone, as that +which lives now only ideally in the recollection; and positively through +the positing of a new actual existence in which he strives to realize +the idea of freedom which constitutes his necessity, as purer and higher +than before. This constant new-birth out of the grave of the past to the +life of a more beautiful future is the genuine reconciliation with +destiny. The false reconciliation may assume different forms. It may +abstain from all action because man through this limits himself and +becomes responsible. This is to despair of freedom, which condemns the +spirit to the loss of itself since its nature demands activity. The +abstract quietism of the Indian penitents, of the Buddhists, of the +fanatical ascetics, of the Protestant recluses, &c., is an error of this +kind. The man may become indifferent about the ethical determinateness +of his deeds. In this case he acts; but because he has no faith in the +necessary connection of his deeds through the means of freedom, a +connection which he would willingly ascribe to mere chance, he loses his +spiritual essence. This is the error of indifference and of its +frivolity, which denies the open mystery of the ruling of destiny. +Education must therefore imbue man with respect for external movements +of history and with confidence in the inexhaustibleness of the +progressive human spirit, since only by producing better things can he +affirmatively elevate himself above his past. This active acknowledgment +of the necessity of freedom as the determining principle of destiny +gives the highest satisfaction to which practical religious feeling may +arrive, for blessedness develops itself in it——that blessedness which +does not know that it is circumscribed by finitude and transitoriness, +and which possesses the immortal courage to strive always anew for +perfection with free resignation at its non-realization, so that +happiness and misery, pleasure and pain, are conquered by the power of +disinterested self-sacrifice. + +——The escape from action in an artificial absence of all events in +life, which often sinks to a veritable brutalizing of man, is the +distinguishing feature of all monkish pedagogics. In our time there is +especial need of a reconciliation between man and destiny, for all the +world is discontented. The worst form of discontent is when one is, as +the French say, _blasé_; though the word is not, as many fancy, derived +originally from the French, but from the Greek βλαζειν, to wither. It is +true that all culture passes through phases, each of which becomes +momentarily and relatively wearisome, and that in so far one may be +_blasé_ in any age. But in modern times this state of feeling has +increased to that of thorough disgust——disgust which nevertheless at the +same time demands enjoyment. The one who is _blasé_ has enjoyed +everything, felt everything, mocked at everything. He has passed from +the enjoyment of pleasure to sentimentality, i.e. to rioting in feeling; +from sentimentality to irony with regard to feeling, and from this to +the torment of feeling his entire weakness and emptiness as opposed to +these. He ridicules this also, as if it were a consolation to him to +fling away the universe like a squeezed lemon, and to be able to assert +that in pure nothingness lies the truth of all things. And yet +nevertheless this irony furnishes the point on which Education can +fasten, in order to kindle anew in him the religious feeling, and to +lead him back to a loving recognition of actuality, to a respect for his +own history. The greatest difficulty which Education has to encounter +here is the coquetry, the miserable eminence and self-satisfaction which +have undermined the man and made him incapable of all simple and natural +enjoyment. It is not too much to assert that many pupils of our +_Gymnasia_ are affected with this malady. Our literature is full of its +products. It inveighs against its dissipation, and nevertheless at the +same time cannot resist a certain kind of pleasure in it. Diabolical +sentimentality!—— + + +III. _The Absolute Process of Religious Culture._ + +§ 169. In comparing the stages of the theoretical and practical culture +of the religious feeling their internal correspondence appears. Feeling, +as immediate knowledge, and the consecration of the sense by means of +piety; imagination with all its images, and the church services with +their ceremonial observances; finally, the comprehending of religion as +the reconciliation with destiny, as the internal emancipation from the +dominion of external events——all these correspond to each other. If we +seize this parallelism all together, we have the progress which religion +must make in its historical process, in which it (1) begins as natural; +(2) goes on to historical precision, and (3) elevates this to a rational +faith. These stages await every man in as far as he lives through a +complete religious culture, but this may be for the individual a +question of chance. + +§ 170. (1) A child has as yet no definite religious feeling. He is still +only a possibility capable of manifold determinations. But, since he is +a spirit, the essence of religion is active in him, though as yet in an +unconscious form. The substance of spirit attests its presence in every +individual, through his mysterious impulse toward the absolute and +towards intercourse with God. This is the initiatory stage of natural +religion, which must not be confounded with the religion which makes +nature the object of worship (fetichism, &c.) + +§ 171. (2) But while the child lives into this in his internal life, he +comes in contact with definite forms of religion, and will naturally, +through the mediation of the family, be introduced to some one of them. +His religious feeling takes now a particular direction, and he accepts +religion in one of its historical forms. This positive religion meets +the precise want of the child, because it brings into his consciousness, +by means of teaching and sacred rites, the principal elements which are +found in the nature of religion. + +§ 172. (3) In contradistinction to the natural basis of religious +feeling, all historical religions rest on the authoritative basis of +revelation from God to man. They address themselves to the imagination, +and offer a system of objective forms of worship and ceremonies. But +spirit, as eternal, as self-identical, cannot forbear as thinking +activity to subject the traditional religion to criticism and to compare +it as a phenomenal existence. From this criticism arises a religion +which satisfies the demands of the reason, and which, by means of +insight into the necessity of the historical process, leads to the +exercise of a genuine toleration towards its many-sided forms. This +religion mediates between the unity of the thinking consciousness and +the religious content, while this content, in the history of religious +feeling, appears theoretically as dogma, and practically as the command +of an absolute and incomprehensible authority. It is just as simple as +the unsophisticated natural religious feeling, but its simplicity is at +the same time master of itself. It is just as specific in its +determinations as the historical religion, but its determinateness is at +the same time universal, since it is worked out by the thinking reason. + +§ 173. Education must superintend the development of the religious +consciousness towards an insight into the necessary consequence of its +different stages. Nothing is more absurd than for the educator to desire +to avoid the introduction of a positive religion, or a definite creed, +as a middle stage between the natural beginning of religious feeling and +its end in philosophical culture. Only when a man has lived through the +entire range of one-sided phases——through the crudeness of such a +concrete individualizing of religion, and has come to recognize the +universal nature of religion in a special form of it which excludes +other forms——only when the spirit of a congregation has taken him into +its number, is he ripe to criticize religion in a conciliatory spirit, +because he has then gained a religious character through that historical +experience. The self-comprehending universality must have such a solid +basis as this in the life of the man; it can never form the beginning of +one's culture, but it may constitute the end which turns back again to +the beginning. Most men remain at the historical stand-point. The +religion of reason, as that of the minority, constitutes in the +different religions the invisible church, which seeks by progressive +reform to purify these religions from superstition and unbelief. It is +the duty of the state, by making all churches equal in the sight of the +law, to guard religion from the temptation of impure motives, and, +through the granting of such freedom to religious individuality, to help +forward the unity of a rational insight into religion which is distinct +from the religious feeling only in its form, not in its content. Not a +philosopher, but Jesus of Nazareth freed the world from all selfishness +and all bondage. + +§ 174. With this highest theoretical and practical emancipation, the +general work of education ends. It remains now to be shown how the +general idea of Education shapes its special elements into their +appropriate forms. From the nature of Pedagogics, which concerns itself +with man in his entirety, this exposition belongs partly to the history +of culture in general, partly to the history of religion, partly to the +philosophy of history. The pedagogical element in it always lies in the +ideal which the spirit of a nation or of an age creates out of itself, +and which it seeks to realize in its youth. + + + + +THIRD PART. + +Particular Systems of Education. + + +§ 175. The definite actuality of Education originates in the fact that +its general idea is individualized, according to its special elements, +in a specific statement which we call a pedagogical principle. The +number of these principles is not unlimited, but from the idea of +Education contains only a certain number. If we derive them therefore, +we derive at the same time the history of Pedagogics, which can from its +very nature do nothing else than make actual in itself the possibilities +involved in the idea of Education. Such a derivation may be called an _à +priori_ construction of history, but it is different from what is +generally denoted by this term in not pretending to deduce single events +and characters. All empirical details are confirmation or illustration +for it, but it does not attempt to seek this empirical element _à +priori_. + +——The history of Pedagogics is still in the stage of infancy. At one +time it is taken up into the sphere of Politics; at another, into that +of the history of Culture. The productions of some of the most +distinguished writers on the subject are now antiquated. Cramer of +Stralsund made, in 1832, an excellent beginning in a comprehensive and +thorough history of Pedagogy; but in the beginning of his second part he +dwelt too long upon the Greeks, and lost himself in too wide an +exposition of practical Philosophy in general. Alexander Kapp has given +us excellent treatises on the Pedagogics of Aristotle and Plato. But +with regard to modern Pedagogics we have relatively very little. Karl v. +Raumer, in 1843, began to publish a history of Pedagogics since the time +of the revival of classical studies, and has accomplished much of value +on the biographical side. But the idea of the general connection and +dependence of the several manifestations has not received much +attention, and since the time of Pestalozzi books have assumed the +character of biographical confessions. Strümpell, in 1843, developed the +Pedagogics of Kant, Fichte, and Herbart.—— + +[Sidenote: _Particular Systems of Education._] + +§ 176. Man is educated by man for humanity. This is the fundamental idea +of all Pedagogics. But in the shaping of Pedagogics we cannot begin with +the idea of humanity as such, but only with the natural form in which it +primarily manifests itself——that of the nation. But the naturalness of +this principle disappears in its development, since nations appear in +interaction on each other and begin dimly to perceive their unity of +species. The freedom of spirit over nature makes its appearance, but to +the spirit explicitly in the transcendent form of abstract theistic +religion, in which God appears as the ruler over Nature as merely +dependent; and His chosen people plant the root of their nationality no +longer in the earth, but in this belief. The unity of the abstractly +natural and abstractly spiritual determinateness is the concrete unity +of the spirit with nature, in which it recognizes nature as its +necessary organ, and itself as in its nature divine. Spirit in this +stage, as the internal presupposition of the two previously named, takes +up into itself on one hand the phase of nationality, since this is the +form of its immediate individualization; but it no longer distinguishes +between nations as if they were abstractly severed the one from the +other, as the Greeks shut out all other nations under the name of +barbarians. It also takes up into itself the phase of spirituality, +since it knows itself as spirit, and knows itself to be free from +nature, and yet it does not estrange itself as the Jews did in their +representation of pure spirit, in reference to which nature seems to be +only the work of its caprice. Humanity knows nature as its own, because +it knows the Divine spirit and its creative energy manifesting itself in +nature and history, as also the essence of its own spirit. Education can +be complete only with Christianity as the religion of humanity. + +§ 177. We have thus three different systems of religion——(1) the +National; (2) the Theocratic; and (3) the Humanitarian. The first works +in harmony with nature since it educates the individual as a type of his +species. The original nationality endeavors sharply to distinguish +itself from others, and to impress on each person the stamp of its +uniform type. One individual is like every other, or at least should be +so. The second system in its manner of manifestation is identical with +the first. It even marks the national difference more emphatically; but +the ground of the uniformity of the individuals is with it not merely +the natural common interest, but it is the consequence of the spiritual +unity, which abstracts from nature, and as history, satisfied with no +present, hovers continually outside of itself between past and future. +The theocratic system educates the individual as the servant of God. He +is the true Jew only in so far as he is this; the genealogical identity +with the father Abraham is a condition but not the principle of the +nationality. The third system liberates the individual to the enjoyment +of freedom as his essence, and educates the human being within national +limits which no longer separate but unite, and, in the consciousness +that each individual, without any kind of mediation, has a direct +relation to God, makes of him a man who knows himself to be a member of +the spiritual world of humanity. We can have no fourth system beyond +this. From the side of the State-Pedagogics we might characterize these +systems as that of the nation-State, the God-State, and the +humanity-State. From the time of the establishment of the last, no one +nation can attain to any sovereignty over the others. By means of the +world-religion of Christianity, the education of nations has come to the +point of taking for its ideal, man as determining himself according to +the demands of reason. + + +FIRST DIVISION. + +THE SYSTEM OF NATIONAL EDUCATION. + +§ 178. The National is the primitive system of education, since the +family is the organic starting-point of all education, and is in its +enlargement the basis of nationality. + +——Education is always education of the mind. Even unorganized nations, +those in a state of nature, the so-called savage nations, are possessed +of something more than a mere education of the body; for, though they +set much value upon gymnastic and warlike practice and give much time to +them, they inculcate also respect for parents, for the aged, and for the +decrees of the community. Education with them is essentially family +training, and its content is natural love and reverence. We cannot deny +that the finer forms of those to which we are accustomed are wanting. +Besides, education among all these people of nature is very simple and +much the same, though great differences in its management may exist +arising from differences of situation or from temperament of race.—— + +§ 179. National Education is divided into three special systems: (1) +Passive, (2) Active, (3) Individual. It begins with the humility of an +abstract subjection to nature, and ends with the arrogance of an +abstract rejection of nature. + +§ 180. Man yields at first to the natural authority of the family; he +obeys unconditionally its behests. Then he substitutes for the family, +as he goes on his culture, the artificial family of his caste, to whose +rules he again unconditionally yields. To dispense with this +artificialty and this tyranny, at last he abstracts himself from the +family and from culture. He flees from both, and becoming a monk he +again subjects himself to the tyranny of his order. The monks presents +to us the mere type of his species. + +§ 181. This absolute abstraction from nature and from culture, this +quietism of spiritual isolation, is the ultimate result of the Passive +system. In opposition to this, the Active system seeks the positive +vanquishing of naturalness. Its people are courageous. They attack other +nations in order to rule over them as conquerors. They live for the +continuation of their life after death, and build for themselves on this +account tombs of granite. They brave the dangers of the sea. The +abstract prose of the patriarchal-state, the fantastic chimeras of the +caste-state, the ascetic self-renunciation of the cloister-state, yield +gradually to the recognition of actuality; and the fundamental principle +of Persian education consisted in the inculcation of veracity. + +§ 182. But the nationality which is occupied with simple, natural +elements——other nations, death, the mystery of the ocean——may revert to +the abstractions of the previous stage, which in education often take on +cruel forms——nay, often truly horrible. First, when the spirit begins +not only to suspect its true nature, but rather to recognize itself as +the true essence; and when the God of Light places as the motto on his +temple the command to self-knowledge, the natural individuality becomes +free. Neither the passive nor the active system understands the free +self-distinction of the individual from the rest. In them, to be an +individuality is a betrayal of the very idea of their existence, and +even the suspicion of such a charge suffices utterly and mercilessly to +destroy the one to whom it refers. Even the solitary individuality of +the despot is not the one-ness of free individuality: he is only an +example of his kind; only in his kind is he singular. Nationality rises +to individuality through the free dialectic of its race, wherein it +dissolves its own presupposition. + +§ 183. Nevertheless individuality must always proceed from naturalness. +Esthetically it seeks nature, but the nature of the activity itself, in +order, by penetrating it with mind, to make of it a work of art; +practically it seeks it, partly to disdain it in gloomy resignation, +partly to enjoy it in excessive sensual ecstasy, demoniacally to +heighten the extravagance of its own internal feeling in wild revels. + +——The Germans were not savage in the common signification of this term. +They were men each one of whom constituted himself willingly a centre +for others, or, if this was not the case, renounced them in proud +self-sufficiency. All the glory and all the disgrace of our race lies in +the power of individualizing which is divinely breathed into our veins. +As a natural element, if this be not controlled, it degenerates easily +into intractableness, into violence. The Germans need therefore, in +order to be educated, severe service, the imposition of difficult tasks; +and for this reason they appropriate to themselves, now the Roman law, +now the Greek philology, now Gallic usages, &c., in order to work off +their superfluous strength in such opposition. The natural reserve of +the German found its solvent in Christianity. By itself, as the history +of the German race shows, it would have been destroyed in vain +distraction. First of all, the German race, in the confidence of its +immediate consciousness, ventured forth upon the sea, and managed the +ship upon its waves as if they rode a charger.—— + + +FIRST GROUP. + +THE SYSTEM OF PASSIVE EDUCATION. + +§ 184. All education desires to free man from his finitude, to make him +ethical, to unite him with God. It begins therefore with a negative +relation to naturalness, but at once falls into a contradiction of its +aim, which is to convert the opposition to nature into a natural +necessity. Spirit subjects the individual (1) to the rule of the family +as naturally spiritual; (2) to the rule of the caste as to a principle +in itself spiritual, mediated through the division of labor, which it +nevertheless, through its power of being inherited, joins again to the +family; (3) to the abstract self-determination of the monkish quietism, +which turns itself away as well from the family as from work, and +constitutes this flight from nature and history, this absolute +passivity, into an educational ideal. + +——We shall not here enter into the details of this system, but simply +endeavor to remove from their differences the want of clearness which is +generally found involved in any mention of them, so that the phrases of +hierarchical and theocratical education are used without any historical +accuracy.—— + + +I. _Family Education._ + +§ 185. The Family, as the organic starting-point of all education, makes +the beginning. The nation looks upon itself as a family. Among all +unorganized people education is family-education, though they are not +conscious of its necessity. Identical in principle with these people, +but distinguished from them in its consciousness of it, the Chinese +nation, in their laws, regulations, and customs, have constituted the +family the absolute basis of their life and the only principle of their +education. + +§ 186. The natural element of the family is found in marriage and +relationship; the spiritual, in love. We may call the nature of family +feeling which is the immediate unity of both elements, by the name of +Piety. In so far as this appears not merely as a substantial feeling but +at the same time as law, there arises from it the subordination of the +abstract obedience of the woman as wife to the husband, of children to +the parents, of the younger children to the elder. In this obedience man +first renounces his self-will and his natural roughness; he learns to +master his passions, and to conduct himself with deferential gentleness. + +——When the principle ruling the family is transferred to political +relations, there arises the tyranny of the Chinese state, which cannot +be fully treated here. We find everywhere in it an analogical relation +to that of parents and children. In China the ruler is the father and +mother of the country; the civil officers are representatives of a +paternal authority, &c. It follows that in school the children will be +ranked according to their age. The authority of parents over children is +according to the principle entirely unconditional, but in actuality very +mild. The abandonment of daughters by the poorest classes in the great +cities is not objected to, for the government rears the children in +orphan asylums, where they are cared for by nurses appointed by the +state.—— + +§ 187. The distinction of these relations which are conditioned by +nature takes on the external shape of a definite ceremonial, the +learning of which is a chief element of education. In conformity with +the naturalness of the whole principle all crimes against it are +punished by whipping, which does not necessarily entail dishonor. In +order to lead man to the mastery of himself and to obedience to those +who are naturally set over him, education develops an endless number of +fragmentary maxims to keep attention ever watchful over himself, and his +behavior always fenced in by a code of prescriptions. + +——We find in such moral sentences the substance of what is called, in +China, Philosophy.—— + +§ 188. The theoretical education includes Heading, Writing——i.e. +painting the letters with a brush——Arithmetic, and the making of verses. +But the ability to do these things is not looked at as means of culture +but as ends in themselves, and to fit one therefore for the undertaking +of state offices. The Chinese possess formally all the means for +literary culture——printing, libraries, schools, and academies; but the +worth of these is not great. Their value has been often over-rated +because of their external resemblance to those found among us. + + +II. _Caste Education._ + +§ 189. The members of the Family are certainly immediately +distinguished among each other as to sex and age, but this difference is +entirely immaterial as far as the nature of their employment goes. In +China, therefore, every man can attain any position; he who is of +humblest birth in the great state-family can climb to the highest honor. +But the progress of spirit now becomes so mediated that the division of +labor shall be made the principle on which a new distinction shall arise +in the family: each one shall perfect himself only in that labor which +was allotted to him as his own through his birth into a particular +family. This fatalism (caste-distinction) breaks up the life, but +increases its tension, for spirit works on the one hand towards the +deepening of its distinctions; on the other, towards leading them back +into the unity which the natural determining directly opposes. + +§ 190. The chief work of education thus consists in teaching each one +the rights and duties of his caste so that he shall act only exactly +within their limits, and not pollute himself by passing beyond them. As +the family-state concerns itself with fortifying the natural distinction +by a far-reaching and vigorous ceremonial, so the caste-state must do +the same with the distinction of class. A painful etiquette becomes more +and more endless in its requisitions the higher the caste, in order to +make the isolation more sharply defined and more perceptible. + +——This feature penetrates all exclusively caste-education. The +aristocracy exiles itself on this account from its native country, +speaks a foreign language, loves its literature, adopts foreign customs, +lives in foreign countries——in Italy, Paris, &c. In this way man becomes +distinguished from others. But that man should strive thus to +distinguish himself has its justification in the mystery of his birth, +and this is assuredly always the principle of the caste-state in which +it exists. The castes lead to genealogical records, which are of the +greatest importance in determining the destiny of the individual. The +Brahmin may strike down one of a lower caste who has defiled him by +contact, without becoming thereby liable to punishment; rather would he +be to blame if he did not commit the murder. Thus formerly was it with +the officer who did not immediately kill the citizen or the common +soldier who struck him a blow, &c.—— + +§ 191. The East Indian culture is far deeper and richer than the +Chinese. The theoretical culture includes Reading, Writing, and +Arithmetic; but these are subordinate, as mere means for the higher +activities of Poetry, Speculation, Science, and Art. The practical +education limits itself strictly by the lines of caste, and since the +caste system constitutes a whole in itself, and each for its permanence +needs the others, it cannot forbear giving utterance suggestively to +what is universally human in the free soul, in a multitude of fables +(Hitopadesa) and apothegms (sentences of Bartrihari). Especially for the +education of princes is a minor of the world sketched out. + +——Xenophon's Cyropedia is of Greek origin, but it is Indian in its +thought.—— + + +III. _Monkish Education._ + +§ 192. Family Education demands unconditional obedience towards parents +and towards all who stand in an analogous position. Caste Education +demands unconditional obedience to the duties of the caste. The family +punishes by whipping; the caste, by excommunication, by loss of honor. +The opposition to nature appears in both systems in the form of a rigid +ceremonial, distinguishing between the differences arising from nature. +The family as well as the caste has within it a manifold fountain of +activity, but it has also just as manifold a limitation of the +individual. Spirit is forced, therefore, to turn against nature in +general. It must become indifferent to the family. But it must also +oppose history, and the fixed distinctions of division of labor as +necessitated by nature. It must become indifferent to work and the +pleasure derived from it. That it may not be conditioned either by +nature or by history, it denies both, and makes its action to consist in +producing an abstinence from all activity. + +§ 193. Such an indifference towards nature and history produces the +education which we have called monkish. Those who support this sect care +for food, clothing, and shelter, and for these material contributions, +as the laity, receive in return from those who live this contemplative +life the spiritual contribution of confidence in the blessings which +wait upon ascetic contemplation. The family institution as well as the +institution of human labor is subordinated to abstract isolation, in +which the individual lives only for the purification of his soul. All +things are justified by this end. Castes are found no more; only those +are bound to the observance of a special ceremonial who as nuns or monks +subject themselves to the unconditional obedience to the rules of the +cloister, these rules solemnly enjoining on the negative side celibacy +and cessation from business, and on the positive side prayer and +perfection. + +[Sidenote: _Buddhistic Education——System of Active Education._] + +§ 194. In the school of the Chinese Tao-tse, and in the command to the +Brahmin after he has established a family to become a recluse, we find +the transition as it actually exists to the Buddhistic Quietism which +has covered the rocky heights of Thibet with countless cloisters, and +reared the people who are dependent upon it into a childlike amiability, +into a contented repose. Art and Science have here no value in +themselves, and are regarded only as ministering to religion. To be able +to read in order to mutter over the prayers is desirable. With the +premeditated effort in the state of a monk to reduce self to nothing as +the highest good, the system of passive education attains its highest +point. But the spirit cannot content itself in this abstract and dreamy +absence of all action, though it demands a high stage of culture, and it +has recourse therefore to action, partly on the positive side to conquer +nature, partly to double its own existence in making history. Inspired +with affirmative courage, it descends triumphantly from the mountain +heights, and fears secularization no more. + + +SECOND GROUP. + +THE SYSTEM OF ACTIVE EDUCATION. + +§ 195. Active Education elevates man from his abstract subjection to +the family, the caste, asceticism, into a concrete activity with a +definite aim which subjects those elements as phases of its mediation, +and grants to each individual independence on the condition of his +identity with it. These aims are the military state, the future after +death, and industry. There is always an element of nature present from +which the activity proceeds; but this no longer appears, like the +family, the caste, the sensuous egotism, as immediately belonging to the +individual, but as something outside of himself which limits him, and, +as his future life, has an internal relation to him, yet is essential to +him and assigns to him the object of his activity. The Persian has as an +object of conquest, other nations; the Egyptian, death; the Phœnician, +the sea. + + +I. _Military Education._ + +§ 196. That education which would emancipate a nation from the passivity +of abstraction must throw it into the midst of an historical activity. A +nation finds not its actual limits in its locality: it can forsake this +and wander far away from it. Its true limit is made by another nation. +The nation which knows itself to be actual, turns itself therefore +against other nations in order to subject them and to reduce them to the +condition of mere accidents of itself. It begins a system of conquest +which has in itself no limitations, but goes from one nation to another, +and extends its evil course indefinitely. The final result of this +attack is that it finds itself attacked and conquered. + +——The early history of the Persian is twofold: the patriarchal in the +high valleys of Iran, and the religio-hierarchical among the Medes. We +find under these circumstances a repetition of the principal +characteristics of the Chinese, Indian, and Buddhist educations. In +ancient Zend there were also castes. Among the Persians themselves, as +they descended from their mountains to the conquest of other nations, +there was properly only a military nobility. The priesthood was +subjected to the royal power which represented the absolute power of +actuality. Of the Persian kings, Cyrus attacked Western Asia; Cambyses, +Africa; Darius and Xerxes, Europe; until the reaction of the spiritually +higher nationality did not content itself with self-preservation, but +under the Macedonian Alexander made the attack on Persia itself.—— + +§ 197. Education enjoined upon the Persians (1) to speak the truth; (2) +to learn to ride and to use the bow and arrow. There is implied in the +first command a recognition of actuality, the negation of all dreamy +absorption, of all fantastical indetermination; and in this light the +Persian, in distinction from the Hindoo, appears to be considerate and +reasonable. In the second command is implied warlike practice, but not +that of the nomadic tribes. The Persian fights on horseback, and thus +appears in distinction from the Indian hermit seclusion and the quietism +of the Lamas as restless and in constant motion. + +——The Family increases in value as it rears a large number of warriors. +Many children were a blessing. The king of Persia gave a premium for all +children over a certain number. Nations were drawn in as nations by war; +hence the immense multitude of a Persian army. Everything——family, +business, possessions——must be regardlessly sacrificed to the one aim of +war. Education, therefore, cultivated an unconditional, all-embracing +obedience to the king, and the slightest inclination to assert an +individual independence was high treason and was punished with death. In +China, on the contrary, duty to the family is paramount to duty to the +state, or rather is itself duty to the state. The civil officer who +mourns the loss of one of his family is released during the period of +mourning from the duties of his function.—— + +§ 198. The theoretical education, which was limited to reading, writing, +and to instruction, was, in the usages of culture, in the hands of the +Magians, the number of whom was estimated at eighty thousand, and who +themselves had enjoyed the advantages of a careful education, as is +shown by their gradation into Herbeds, Moheds, and Destur-Moheds; i.e. +into apprentices, journeymen, and masters. The very fundamental idea of +their religion was military; it demanded of men to fight on the side of +the king of light, and guard against the prince of darkness and evil. It +gave to him thus the honor of a free position between the world-moving +powers and the possibility of a self-creative destiny, by which means +vigor and chivalrous feeling were developed. Religion trained the +activity of man into actualization on this planet, increasing by its +means the dominion of the good, by purifying the water, by planting +trees, by extirpating troublesome wild beasts. Thus it increased bodily +comfort, and no longer, like the monk, treated this as a mere negative. + + +II. _Priestly Education._ + +§ 199. War has in death its force. It produces this, and by its means +decides who shall serve and who obey. But the nation that finds its +activity in war, though it makes death its absolute means, yet finds its +own limit in death. Other nations are only its boundaries, which it can +overpass in fighting with and conquering them. But death itself it can +never escape, whether it come in the sands of the desert——which buried +for Cambyses an army which he sent to the oracle of the Libyan Ammon——or +in the sea, that scorns the rod of the angry despot, or by the sword of +the freeman who guards his household gods. On this account, that people +stands higher that in the midst of life reflects on death, or rather +lives for it. The education of such a nation must be priestly because +death is the means of the transition to the future life, and +consequently equivalent to a new birth, and becomes a religious act. +Neither the family-state, nor the caste-state, nor the monkish nor +military-state, are hierarchies in the sense that the leading of the +national life by a priesthood produces. But in Egypt this was actually +the case, because the chief educational tribunal was the death-court +which concerned only the dead, in awarding to them or denying them the +honor of burial as the result of their whole life, but in its award +affected also the honor of the surviving family. + +§ 200. General education here limited itself to imparting the ability +to read, write, and calculate. Special education consisted properly only +in an habitual living into a definite business within the circle of the +Family. In this fruitful and warm land the expense of supporting +children was very small. The division into classes was without the cruel +features of the Indian civilization, and life itself in the narrow Nile +valley was very social, very rich, very full of eating and drinking, +while the familiarity with death heightened the force of enjoyment. In a +stricter sense only, the warriors, the priests, and the kings, had, +properly speaking, an education. The aim of life, which was to determine +in death its eternal future, to secure for itself a passage into the +still kingdom of Amenth, manifested itself externally in the care which +they expended on the preservation of the dead shell of the immortal +soul, and on this account worked itself out in building tombs which +should last for ever. The Chinese builds a wall to secure his +family-state from attack; the Hindoo builds pagodas for his gods; the +Buddhist erects for himself monastic cells; the Persian constructs in +Persepolis the tomb of his kings, where they may retire in the evening +of their lives after they have rioted in Ecbatana, Babylon, and Susa; +but the Egyptian builds his own tomb, and carries on war only to protect +it. + + +III. _Industrial Education._ + +§ 201. The system of active education was to find its solution in a +nation which wandered from the coast of the Red Sea to the foot of the +Lebanon mountains on the Mediterranean, and ventured forth upon the sea +which before that time all nations had avoided as a dangerous and +destructive element. The Phœnician was industrial, and needed markets +where he could dispose of the products of his skill. But while he sought +for them he disdained neither force nor deceit; he planted colonies; he +stipulated that he should have in the cities of other nations a portion +for himself; he urged the nations to adopt his pleasures, and insensibly +introduced among them his culture and even his religion. The education +of such a nation must have seemed profane, because it fostered +indifference towards family and one's native land, and made the restless +and passionate activity subservient to gain. The understanding and +usefulness rose to a higher dignity. + +§ 202. Of the education of the Phœnicians we know only so much as to +enable us to conclude that it was certainly various and extensive: among +the Carthaginians, at least, that their children were practised in +reading, writing, and arithmetic, in religious duties; secondly, in a +trade; and, finally, in the use of arms, is not improbable. Commerce +became with the Phœnicians a trade, the egotism of which makes men dare +to plough the inhospitable sea, and to penetrate eagerly the horror of +its vast distances, but yet to conceal from other nations their +discoveries and to wrap them in a veil of fable. + +——It is a beautiful testimony to the disposition of the Greeks, that +Plato and others assign as a cause of the low state of Arithmetic and +Mathematics among the Phœnicians and Egyptians the want of a free and +disinterested seizing of them.—— + + +THIRD GROUP. + +THE SYSTEM OF INDIVIDUAL EDUCATION. + +§ 203. One-sided passivity as well as one-sided activity is subsumed +under Individuality, which makes itself into its own end and aim. The +Phœnician made gain his aim; his activity was of a utilistic character. +Individuality as a pedagogical principle is indeed egotistic in so far +as it endeavors to achieve its own peculiarity, but it is at the same +time noble. It desires not to _have_ but to _be_. Individuality also +begins as natural, but it elevates nature by means of art to ideality. +The solution of beauty is found in culture, since this renounces the +charm of appearance for the knowledge of the True. The æsthetic +individuality is followed by the practical, which has indeed no natural +basis, but proceeds from an artificial basis as a state formed for a +place of refuge. In order internally to create a unity in this, is +framed a definite code of laws; in order externally to assure it, the +invincible warrior is demanded. Education is therefore, more exactly +speaking, juristic and military practice. The morality of the state is +loosened as it reduces into its mechanism one nation after another, +until the individuality, become dæmonic, makes its war-hardened legions +tremble with weakness. We characterize this individuality as dæmonic +because it desires recognition simply for its own sake. Not for its +beauty and culture, not for its knowledge of business and its bravery, +only for its peculiarity as such does it claim value, and in the effort +to secure this it is ready to hazard life itself. In its +naturally-growing existence this individuality is deep, but at the same +time without self-limit. The nations educate themselves to this +individuality when they destroy the world of Roman world——that of +self-limit and balance——which they find. + + +I. _Æsthetic Education._ + +§ 204. The system of individual education begins with the +transfiguration of the immediate individuality into beauty. On the side +of nature this system is passion, for individuality is given through +nature; but on the side of spirit it is active, for spirit must +determine itself to restrain its measure as the essence of beauty. + +§ 205. Here the individual is of value only in so far as he is +beautiful. At first beauty is apprehended as natural, but then it is +carried over into the realm of spirit, and the Good is posited as +identical with the Beautiful. The ideal of æsthetic education remains +always that there shall be also an external unity of the Good with the +Beautiful, of Spirit with Nature. + +——We cannot here give in detail the history of Greek Education. It is +the best known among us, and the literature in which it is worked out is +very widely spread. Among the common abridged accounts we mention here +only the works of Jacobs, of Cramer & Bekker's "Charinomos." We must +content ourselves with mentioning the turning-points which follow from +the nature of the principle.—— + +§ 206. Culture was in Greece thoroughly national. Education gave to the +individual the consciousness that he was a Greek and no barbarian, a +free man and so subject only to the laws of the state, and not to the +caprice of any one person. Thus the nationality was freed at once from +the abstract unity of the family and from the abstract distinction of +caste, while it appeared with the manifold talents of individuals of +different races. Thus the Dorian race held as essential, gymnastics; the +Æolians, music; the Ionics, poetry. The Æolian individuality was +subsumed in the history of the two others, so that these had to proceed +in their development with an internal antagonism. The education of the +Dorian race was national education in the fullest sense of the word; in +it the education of all was the same, and was open to all, even +including the young women; among the Ionic race it was also in its +content truly national, but in its form it was varied and unlike, and, +for those belonging to various great families, private. The former, +reproducing the Oriental phase of abstract unity, educated all in one +mould; the latter was the nursery of particular individualities. + +§ 207. (1) Education in the heroic age, without any systematic +arrangement on the subject, left each one perfectly free. The people +related the histories of the adventures of others, and through their own +gave material to others again to relate stories of them. + +——The Greeks began where the last stage of the active system of +education ended——with piracy and the seizure of women. Swimming was a +universal practice among the sea-dwelling Greeks, just as in +England——the mistress of the ocean——rowing is the most prominent +exercise among the young men, and public regattas are held.—— + +§ 208. (2) In the period of state-culture proper, education developed +itself systematically; and gymnastics, music, and grammatics, or +literary culture, constituted the general pedagogical elements. + +§ 209. Gymnastics aimed not alone to render the body strong and agile, +but, far more, to produce in it a noble carriage, a dignified and +graceful manner of appearance. Each one fashioned his body into a +living, divine statue, and in the public games the nation crowned the +victor. + +——Their love of beautiful boys is explicable not merely by their +interest in beautiful forms, but especially by their interest in +individuality. The low condition of the women could not lie at the +foundation of it, for among the Spartans they were educated as nearly as +possible like the men, and yet among them and the Cretans the love of +boys was recognized in their legislation. To be without a beloved +(ἀïιτης), or a lover (εἴσπνηλας), was among them considered as +disgraceful as the degradation of the love by unchastity was +contemptible. What charm was there, then, in love? Manifestly only +beauty and culture. But that a person should be attracted by one and not +by another can be accounted for only by the peculiar character, and in +so far the boy-love and the man-friendship which sprang from it, among +the Greeks, are very characteristic and noteworthy phenomena.—— + +§ 210. It was the task of Music, by its rhythm and measure, to fill the +soul with well-proportioned harmony. So highly did the Greeks prize +music, and so variously did they practise it, that to be a musical man +meant the same with them as to be a cultivated man with us. Education in +this respect was very painstaking, inasmuch as music exercises a very +powerful influence in developing discreet behavior and self-possession +into a graceful naturalness. + +——Among the Greeks we find an unrestricted delight in nature——a +listening to her manifestations, the tone of which betrays the +subjectivity of things as subjectivity. In comparison with this tender +sympathy with nature of the Greeks——who heard in the murmur of the +fountains, in the dashing of the waves, in the rustling of the trees, +and in the cry of animals, the voice of divine personality——the sight +and hearing of the Eastern nations for nature is dull.—— + +§ 211. The stringed instrument, the cithern, was preferred by the Greeks +to all wind instruments because it was not exciting, and allowed the +accompaniment of recitation or song, i.e. the contemporaneous activity +of the spirit in poetry. Flute-playing was first brought from Asia Minor +after the victorious progress of the Persian war, and was especially +cultivated in Thebes. They sought in vain afterwards to oppose the wild +excitement raised by its influence. + +§ 212. Grammar comprehended Letters (γράμματα), i.e. the elements of +literary culture, reading and writing. Much attention was given to +correct expression. The Fables of Æsop, the Iliad, and the Odyssey, and +later the tragic poets, were read, and partly learned by heart. The +orators borrowed from them often the ornament of their commonplace +remarks. + +§ 213. (3) The internal growth of what was peculiar to the Grecian State +came to an end with the war for the Hegemony. Its dissolution began, and +the philosophical period followed the political. The beautiful ethical +life was resolved into thoughts of the True, Good, and Beautiful. +Individuality turned more towards the internal, and undertook to subject +freedom, the existing regulations, laws and customs, to the criticism of +reason as to whether these were in and for themselves universal and +necessary. The Sophists, as teachers of Grammar, Rhetoric, and +Philosophy, undertook to extend the cultivation of Reflection; and this +introduced instability in the place of the immediate fixed state of +moral customs. Among the women, the _Hetæræ_ undertook the same +revolution; in the place of the πότνια μήτηρ appeared the beauty, who +isolated herself in the consciousness of her charms and in the +perfection of her varied culture, and exhibited herself to the public +admiration. The tendency to idiosyncrasy often approached wilfulness, +caprice and whimsicality, and opposition to the national moral sense. A +Diogenes in a tub became possible; the soulless but graceful frivolity +of an Alcibiades charmed, even though it was externally condemned; a +Socrates completed the break in consciousness, and urged upon the system +of the old morality the pregnant question, whether Virtue could be +taught? Socrates worked as a philosopher who was to educate. Pythagoras +had imposed upon his pupils the abstraction of a common, exactly-defined +manner of living. Socrates, on the contrary, freed his disciples——in +general, those who had intercourse with him——leading them to the +consciousness of their own individuality. He revolutionized the youth in +that he taught them, instead of a thoughtless obedience to moral +customs, to seek to comprehend their purpose in the world, and to rule +their actions according to it. Outwardly he conformed in politics, and +in war as at Marathon; but in the direction of his teaching he was +subjective and modern. + +§ 214. This idea, that Virtue could be taught, was realized especially +by Plato and Aristotle; the former inclining to Dorianism, the latter +holding to the principle of individuality in nearly the modern sense. As +regards the pedagogical means——Gymnastics, Music, and Grammar——both +philosophers entirely agreed. But, in the seizing of the pedagogical +development in general, Plato asserted that the education of the +individual belonged to the state alone, because the individual was to +act wholly in the state. On the other hand, Aristotle also holds that +the state should conduct the education of its citizens, and that the +individual should be trained for the interest of the state; but he +recognizes also the family, and the peculiarity of the individual, as +positive powers, to which the state must accord relative freedom. Plato +sacrificed the family to the state, and must therefore have sacred +marriages, nurseries, and common and public educational institutions. +Each one shall do only that which he is fitted to do, and shall work at +this only for the sake of perfecting it: to what he shall direct his +energies, and in what he shall be instructed, shall be determined by the +government, and the individuality consequently is not left free. +Aristotle also will have for all the citizens the same education, which +shall be common and public; but he allows, at the same time, an +independence to the family and self-determination to the individual, so +that a sphere of private life presents itself within the state: a +difference by means of which a much broader sway of individuality is +possible. + +——These two philosophers have come to represent two very different +directions in Pedagogics, which at intervals, in certain stages of +culture, reappear——the tyrannical guardianship of the state which +assumes the work of education, tyrannical to the individual, and the +free development of the liberal state-education, in opposition to +idiosyncrasy and fate.—— + +§ 215. The principle of æsthetic individuality reaches its highest +manifestation when the individual, in the decay of public life, in the +disappearance of all beautiful morality, isolates himself, and seeks to +gain in his isolation such strength that he can bear the changes of +external history around him with composure——"ataraxy." The Stoics sought +to attain this end by turning their attention inward into pure +internality, and thus, by preserving the self-determination of abstract +thinking and willing, maintaining an identity with themselves: the +Epicureans endeavored to do the same, with this difference however, that +they strove after a positive satisfaction of the senses by filling them +with concrete pleasurable sensations. As a consequence of this, the +Stoics isolated themselves in order to maintain themselves in the +exclusiveness of their internal unconditioned relation to themselves, +while the Epicureans lived in companies, because they achieved the +reality of their pleasure-seeking principle through harmony of feeling +and through the sweetness of friendship. In so far the Epicureans were +Greeks and the Stoics Romans. With both, however, the beauty of +manifestation was secondary to the immobility of the inner feeling. The +plastic attainment of the Good and the Beautiful was cancelled in the +abstraction of thinking and feeling. This was the advent of the Roman +principle among the Greeks. + +§ 216. The pedagogical significance of Stoicism and Epicureanism +consists in this, that, after the moral life in public and in private +were sundered from each other, the individual began to educate himself, +through philosophical culture, into stability of character, for which +reason the Roman emperors particularly disliked the Stoics. At many +times, a resignation to the Stoic philosophy was sufficient to make one +suspected. But, at last, the noble emperor, in order to win himself a +hold in the chaos of things, was forced himself to become a Stoic and to +flee to the inaccessible stillness of the self-thinking activity and the +self-moving will. Stoics and Epicureans had both what we call an ideal. +The Stoics used the expression "kingdom"; as Horace says, sarcastically, +"_Sapiens rex est nisi——pituita molesta est_." + + +II. _Practical Education._ + +§ 217. The truth of the solution of the beautiful individuality is the +promise of the activity conformable to its purpose [i.e. teleological +activity], which on the one hand considers carefully end and means, and +on the other hand seeks to realize the end through the corresponding +means, and in this deed subjects mere beauty of form. The practical +individuality is therefore externally conditioned, since it is not its +own end like the Beautiful, whether Stoical or Epicurean, but has an +end, and finds its satisfaction not so much in this after it is attained +as in the striving for its attainment. + +§ 218. The education of this system begins with very great simplicity. +But after it has attained its object, it abandons itself to using the +results of æsthetic culture as a recreation without any specific object. +What was to the Greeks a real delight in the Beautiful became therefore +with the Romans simply an æsthetic amusement, and as such must finally +be wearisome. The earnestness of individuality made itself in mysticism +into a new aim, which was distinguished from the original one in that it +concealed in itself a mystery and exacted a theoretically æsthetic +practice. + +§ 219. (1) The first epoch of Roman education, as properly Roman, was +the juristic-military education of the republic. The end and aim of the +Roman was Rome; and Rome, as from the beginning an eclectic state, could +endure only while its laws and external politics were conformable to +some end. It bore the same contradiction within itself as in its +external attitude. This forced it into robbery, and the plebeians were +related to the patricians in the same way, for they robbed them +gradually of all their privileges. On this account education directed +itself partly to giving a knowledge of the Law, partly to communicating +a capacity for war. The boys were obliged to commit to memory and recite +the laws of the twelve tables, and all the youths were subject to +military service. The Roman possessed no individuality of native growth, +but one mediated through the intermingling of various fugitives, which +developed a very great energy. Hence from the first he was attentive to +himself, he watched jealously over the limits of his rights and the +rights of others, measured his strength, moderated himself, and +constantly guarded himself. In contrast with the careless cheerfulness +of the Greeks, he therefore appears gloomy. + +——The Latin tongue is crowded with expressions which paint presence of +mind, effort at reflection, a critical attitude of mind, the importance +of personal control: as _gravitas morum, sui compos esse, sibi constare, +austeritas, vir strenuus, vir probus, vitam honestam gerere, sibimet +ipse imperare_, &c. The Etruscan element imparted to this earnestness an +especially solemn character. The Roman was no more, like the Greek, +unembarrassed at naturalness. He was ashamed of nakedness; _verecundia, +pudor_, were genuinely Roman. _Vitam præferre pudori_ was shameful. On +the contrary, the Greek gave to Greeks a festival in exhibiting the +splendor of his naked body, and the inhabitants of Crotona erected a +statue to Philip only because he was so perfectly beautiful. Simply to +be beautiful, only beautiful, was enough for the Greek. But a Roman, in +order to be recognized, must have done something for Rome: _se bene de +republica mereri_.—— + +§ 220. In the first education of children the agency of the mother is +especially influential, so that woman with the Romans took generally a +more moral, a higher, and a freer position. It is worthy of remark that +while, as the beautiful, she set the Greeks at variance, among the +Romans, through her ethical authority, she acted as reconciler. + +§ 221. The mother of the Roman helped to form his character; the father +undertook the work of instruction. When in his fifteenth year the boy +exchanged the _toga prætextata_ for the _toga virilis_, he was usually +sent to some relative, or to some jurist, as his guardian, to learn +thoroughly, under his guidance, of the laws and of the state; with the +seventeenth began military service. All education was for a long time +entirely a private affair. On account of the necessity of a mechanical +unity in work which war demands, the greatest stress was laid upon +obedience. In its restricted sense education comprised Reading, Writing, +and Arithmetic; the last being, on account of its usefulness, more +esteemed by the Romans than by the Greeks, who gave more time to +Geometry. The schools, very characteristically, were called _Ludi_, +because their work was, in distinction from other practice, regarded +simply as a recreation, as play. + +——The Roman recognized with pride this distinction between the Greek and +himself; Cicero's Introduction to his Essay on Oratory expresses it. To +be practical was always the effort of the reflective character of the +Romans, which was always placing new ends and seeking the means for +their attainment; which loved moderation, not to secure beauty thereby, +but respected it as a means for a happy success (_medium tenuere +beati_); which did not possess serene self-limitation, or σωφροσύνη, but +calculation _quid valeant humeri, quid ferre recusent_; but which, in +general, went far beyond the Greeks in persistency of will, in +_constantia animi_. The schools were at first held publicly in shops; +hence the name _trivium_. Very significant for the Roman is the +predicate which he conferred upon theoretical subjects when he called +them _artes bonæ_, _optimæ_, _liberales_, _ingenuæ_, &c., and brought +forth the practical element in them.—— + +§ 222. (2) But the practical education could no longer keep its ground +after it had become acquainted with the æsthetic. The conquest of +Greece, Asia Minor, and Egypt, made necessary, in a practical point of +view, the acquisition of the Grecian tongue, so that these lands, so +permeated with Grecian culture, might be thoroughly ruled. The Roman of +family and property, therefore, took into his service Greek nurses and +teachers who should give to his children, from their earliest years, +Greek culture. It is, in the history of education, a great evil when a +nation undertakes to teach a foreign tongue to its youth. Then the +necessity of trade with the Greeks caused the study of Rhetoric, so that +not only in the deliberations of the senate and people, but in law, the +ends might be better attained. Whatever effort the Roman government made +to prevent the invasion of the Greek rhetorician was all in vain. The +Roman youth sought for this knowledge, which was so necessary to them in +foreign lands, e.g. in the flourishing school of rhetoric on the island +of Rhodes. At last, even the study of Philosophy commended itself to the +practical Roman, in order that he might recover for himself confidence +amid the disappointments of life. When his practical life did not bring +him any result, he devoted himself in his poverty to abstract +contemplation. The Greeks would have Philosophy for its own sake; the +ataraxy of the Stoics, Epicureans, and Skeptics even, desired the result +of a necessary principle; but the Roman, on the contrary, wished to lift +himself by philosophemes above trouble and misfortune. + +——This direction which Philosophy took is noteworthy, not alone in +Cicero and Seneca, but at the fall of the Roman empire, when Boethius +wrote in his prison his immortal work on the consolations of +Philosophy.—— + +§ 223. The earnestness which sought a definite end degenerated in the +very opposite of activity with him who had no definite aim. The idleness +of the wealthy Roman, who felt himself to be the lord of a limitless +world, devoted itself to dissipation and desire for enjoyment, which, in +its entire want of moderation, abused nature. The finest form of the +extant education was that in _belles-lettres_, which also for the first +time came to belong to the sphere of Pedagogics. There had been a +degeneration of art in India and Greece, and also an artistic trifling. +But in Rome there arose a pursuit of art in order to win a certain +consideration in social position, and to create for one's self a +recreation in the emptiness of a soul satiated with sensual debauchery. +Such a seizing of art is frivolous, for it no longer recognizes its +absoluteness, and subordinates it as a means to subjective egotism. +Literary _salons_ then appear. + +——In the introduction to his _Cataline_, Sallust has painted +excellently this complete revolution in the Roman education. The younger +Pliny in his letters furnishes ample material to illustrate to us this +pursuit of _belles-lettres_. In Nero it became idiotic. We should +transgress our prescribed limits did we enter here into particulars. An +analysis would show the perversion of the æsthetic into the practical, +the æsthetic losing thereby its proper nature. But the Roman could not +avoid this perversion, because, according to his original aim, he could +not move except towards the _utile et honestum_.—— + +§ 224. (3) But this pursuit of fine art, this aimless parade, must at +last weary the Roman. He sought for himself again an object to which he +could vigorously devote himself. His sovereignty was assured, and +conquest as an object could no more charm him. The national religion had +fallen with the destruction of the national individuality. The soul +looked out over its historical life into an empty void. It sought to +establish a relation between itself and the next world by means of +dæmonic forces, and in place of the depreciated nationality and its +religion we find the eclecticism of the mystic society. There were, it +is true, in national religions certain secret signs, rites, words, and +meanings; but now, for the first time in the history of the world, there +appeared mysteries as pedagogical societies, which concerned themselves +only with private things and were indifferent to nationality. Everything +was profaned by the roughness of violence. Man believed no longer in the +old gods, and the superstitious faith in ghosts became only a thing fit +to frighten children with. Thus man took refuge in secrecy, which had +for his satiety a piquant charm. + +§ 225. The education of the mysteries was twofold, theoretical and +practical. In the theoretical we find a regular gradation of symbols and +symbolical acts through which one seemed gradually to attain to the +revelation of the secret; the practical contained a regular gradation of +ascetic actions alternating with an abandonment to wild orgies. Both +raised one from the rank of the novice to that of the initiated. In the +higher orders they formed an ethical code of laws, and this form +Pedagogics has retained in all such secret culture, _mutatis mutandis_, +down to the Illuminati. + +——In the Roman empire, its Persian element was the worship of Mithras; +its Egyptian, that of Isis; its Grecian, the Pythagorean doctrines. All +these three, however, were much mingled with each other. The Roman +legions, who really no longer had any native country, bore these +artificial religions throughout the whole world. The confusion of +excitement led often to Somnambulism, which was not yet understood, and +to belief in miracles. Apollonius of Tyana, the messiah of Ethnicism, is +the principal figure in this group; and, in comparison with him, +Jamblichus appears only as an enthusiast and Alexander of Abonoteichos +as an impostor.—— + + +III. _Abstract Individual Education._ + +§ 226. What the despair of the declining nations sought for in these +mysteries was Individuality, which in its singularity is conscious of +the universality of the rational spirit, as its own essence. This +individuality existed more immediately in the Germanic race, which +nevertheless, on account of its nature, formed first in Christianity its +true actualization. It can be here only pointed out that they most +thoroughly, in opposition to nature, to men, and to the gods, felt +themselves to be independent; as Tacitus says, "_Securi adversus +homines, securi adversus Deos_." This individuality, which had only +itself for an end, must necessarily be destroyed, and was saved only by +Christianity, which overcame and enlightened its dæmonic and defiant +spirit. We cannot speak here of a system of Education. Respect for +personality, the free acknowledgment of the claims of woman, the loyalty +to the leader chosen by themselves, loyalty to their friends (the idea +of fellowship),——these features should all be well-noted, because from +them arose the feudalism of the middle ages. What Cæsar and Tacitus tell +us of the education of the Germans expresses only the emancipation of +individuality, which in its immediate crudeness had no other form in +which to manifest itself than wars of conquest. + +——To the Roman there was something dæmonic in the German. He perceived +dimly in him his future, his master. When the Romans were to meet the +Cimbri and Teutons in the field, their commander had first to accustom +them for a whole day to the fearful sight of the wild, giant-like +forms.—— + + +SECOND DIVISION. + +THE SYSTEM OF THEOCRATIC EDUCATION. + +§ 227. The system of National Education founded its first stage on the +substantial basis of the family-spirit; its second stage on the division +of the nation by means of division of labor which it makes permanent in +castes; its third stage presents the free opposition of the laity and +clergy; in its next phase it makes war, immortality, and trade, by +turns, its end; thirdly, it posits beauty, patriotic youth, and the +immediateness of individuality, as the essence of mankind, and at last +dissolves the unity of nationality in the consciousness that all nations +are really one since they are all human beings. In the intermixture of +races in the Roman world arises the conception of the human race, the +_genus humanum_. Education had become eclectic: the Roman legions +levelled the national distinctions. In the wavering of all objective +morality, the necessity of self-education in order to the formation of +character appeared ever more and more clearly; but the conception, which +lay at the foundation, was always, nevertheless, that of Roman, Greek, +or German education. But in the midst of these nations another system +had striven for development, and this did not base itself on the natural +connection of nationality, but made this, for the first time, only a +secondary thing, and made the direct relation of man to God its chief +idea. In this system God himself is the teacher. He manifests to man His +will as law, to which he must unconditionally conform for no other +reason than that He is the Lord, and man His servant, who can have no +other will than His. The obedience of man is therefore, in this system, +abstract until through experience he gradually attains to the knowledge +that the will of God has in it the very essence of his own will. +Descent, Talent, Events, Work, Beauty, Courage,——all these are +indifferent things compared with the subjection of the human to the +divine will. To be well-pleasing to God is almost the same as belief in +Him. Without this identity, what is natural in national descent is of no +value. According to its form of manifestation, Judaism is below the +Greek spirit. It is not beautiful, but rather grotesque. But in its +essence, as the religion of the contradiction between the idea and its +existence, it goes beyond nature, which it perceives to be established +by an absolute, conscious, and reasonable Will; while the Greek +concealed from himself only mythically his dependence on nature, on his +mother-earth. The Jews have been preserved in the midst of all other +culture by the elastic power of the thought of God as One who was free +from the control of nature. The Jews have a patriotism in common with +the Romans. The Maccabees, for example, were not inferior to the Romans +in greatness. + +——Abraham is the genuine Jew because he is the genuinely faithful man. +He does not hesitate to obey the horrible and inhuman command of his +God. Circumcision was made the token of the national unity, but the +nation may assimilate members to itself from other nations through this +rite. The condition always lies in belief in a spiritual relation to +which the relation of nationality is secondary. The Jewish nation makes +proselytes, and these are widely different from the _Socii_ of the +Romans or the _Metoeci_ of the Athenians.—— + +§ 228. To the man who knows Nature to be the work of a single, +incomparable, rational Creator, she loses independence. He is negatively +freed from her control, and sees in her only an absolute means. As +opposed to the fanciful sensuous intuitions of Ethnicism, this seems to +be a backward step, but for the emancipation of man it is a progress. He +no longer fears Nature but her Lord, and admires Him so much that prose +rises to the dignity of poetry in his telological contemplation. Since +man stands over and beyond nature, education is directed to morality as +such, and spreads itself out in innumerable limitations, by means of +which the distinction of man from nature is expressly asserted as a +difference. The ceremonial law appears often arbitrary, but in its +prescriptions it gives man the satisfaction of placing himself as will +in relation to will. For example, if he is forbidden to eat any +specified part of an animal, the ground of this command is not merely +natural——it is the will of the Deity. Man learns therefore, in his +obedience to such directions, to free himself from his self-will, from +his natural desires. This exact outward conformity to subjectivity is +the beginning of wisdom, the purification of the will from all +individual egotism. + +——The rational substance of the Law is found always in the Decalogue. +Many of our modern much-admired authors exhibit a superficiality +bordering on shallowness when they comment alone on the absurdity of the +miracles, and abstract from the profound depth of the moral struggle, +and from the practical rationality of the ten commandments.—— + +§ 229. Education in this theocratical system is on one side patriarchal. +The Family is very prominent, because it is considered to be a great +happiness for the individual to belong from his very earliest life to +the company of those who believe in the true God. On its other side it +is hierarchical, as its ceremonial law develops a special office, which +is to see that obedience is paid to its multifarious regulations. And, +because these are often perfectly arbitrary, Education must, above all, +practise the memory in learning them all, so that they may always be +remembered. The Jewish monotheism shares this necessity with the +superstition of ethnicism. + +§ 230. But the technique proper of the mechanism is not the most +important pedagogical element of the theocracy. We find this in its +historical significance, since its history throughout has a pedagogical +character. For the people of God show us always, in their changing +intercourse with their God, a progress from the external to the +internal, from the lower to the higher, from the past to the future. Its +history, therefore, abounds in situations very interesting in a +pedagogical point of view, and in characters which are eternal models. + +§ 231. (1) The will of God as the absolute authority is at first to +them, as law, external. But soon God adds to the command to obedience, +on one hand, the inducement of a promise of material prosperity, and on +the other hand the threat of material punishment. The fulfilment of the +law is also encouraged by reflection on the profit which it brings. But, +since these motives are all external, they rise finally into the insight +that the law is to be fulfilled, not on their account, but because it is +the will of the Lord; not alone because it is conducive to our +happiness, but also because it is in itself holy, and written in our +hearts: in other words, man proceeds from the abstract legality, through +the reflection of eudæmonism, to the internality of moral sentiment——the +course of all education. + +——This last stand-point is especially represented in the excellent +Gnomic of Jesus Sirach——a book so rich in pedagogical insight, which +paints with master-strokes the relations of husband and wife, parents +and children, master and servants, friend and friend, enemy and enemy, +and the dignity of labor as well as the necessity of its division. This +priceless book forms a side-piece from the theocratic stand-point to the +_Republic_ of Plato and his laws on ethical government.—— + +§ 232. (2) The progress from the lower to the higher appeared in the +conquering of the natural individuality. Man, as the servant of Jehovah, +must have no will of his own; but selfish naturalness arrayed itself so +much the more vigorously against the abstract "Thou shalt," allowed +itself to descend into an abstraction from the Law, and often reached +the most unbridled extravagance. But since the Law in inexorable might +always remained the same, always persistent, in distinction from the +inequalities of the deed of man, it forced him to come back to it, and +to conform himself to its demands. Thus he learned criticism, thus he +rose from naturalness into spirit. This progress is at the same time a +progress from necessity to freedom, because criticism always gradually +opens a way for man into insight, so that he finds the will of God to be +the truth of his own self-determination. Because God is one and +absolute, there arises the expectation that His Will will become the +basis for the will of all nations and men. The criticism of the +understanding must recognize a contradiction in the fact that the will +of the true God is the law of only one nation; feared by other nations, +moreover, by reason of their very worship of God as a gloomy mystery, +and detested as _odium generis humani_. And thus is developed the +thought that the isolation of the believers will come to an end as soon +as the other nations recognize their faith as the true one, and are +received into it. Thus here, out of the deepest penetration of the soul +into itself, as among the Romans out of the fusion of nations, we see +appear the idea of the human race. + +§ 233. (3) The progress from the past to the future unfolded the ideal +servant of God who fulfils all the Law, and so blots out the empirical +contradiction that the "Thou shalt" of the Law attains no adequate +actuality. This Prince of Peace, who shall gather all nations under his +banner, can therefore have no other thing predicated of him than +Holiness. He is not beautiful as the Greeks represented their ideal, not +brave and practical as was the venerated _Virtus_ of the Romans; he does +not place an infinite value on his individuality as the German does: but +he is represented as insignificant in appearance, as patient, as humble, +as he who, in order to reconcile the world, takes upon himself the +infirmities and disgrace of all others. The ethnical nations have only a +lost Paradise behind them; the Jews have one also before them. From this +belief in the Messiah who is to come, from the certainty which they have +of conquering with him, from the power of esteeming all things of small +importance in view of such a future, springs the indestructible nature +of the Jews. They ignore the fact that Christianity is the necessary +result of their own history. As the nation that is to be (_des +Seinsollens_), they are merely a historical nation, the nation among +nations, whose education——whenever the Jew has not changed and corrupted +its nature through modern culture——is still always patriarchal, +hierarchal, and mnemonic. + + +THIRD DIVISION. + +THE SYSTEM OF HUMANITARIAN EDUCATION + +§ 234. The systems of national and theocratic education came to the +same result, though by different ways, and this result is the conception +of a human race in the unity of which the distinctions of different +nations find their Truth. But with them this result is only a +conception, being a thing external to their actuality. They arrive at +the painting of an ideal of the way in which the Messiah shall come. But +these ideals exist only in the mind, and the actual condition of the +people sometimes does not correspond to them at all, and sometimes only +very relatively. The idea of spirit had in these presuppositions the +possibility of its concrete actualization; one individual man must +become conscious of the universality and necessity of the will as being +the very essence of his own freedom, so that all heteronomy should be +cancelled in the autonomy of spirit. Natural individuality appearing as +national determinateness was still acknowledged, but was deprived of its +abstract isolation. The divine authority of the truth of the individual +will is to be recognized, but at the same time freed from its +estrangement towards itself. While Christ was a Jew and obedient to the +divine Law, he knew himself as the universal man who determines himself +to his own destiny; and while only distinguishing God, as subject, from +himself, yet holds fast to the unity of man and God. The system of +humanitarian education began to unfold from this principle, which no +longer accords the highest place to the natural unity of national +individuality, nor to the abstract obedience of the command of God, but +to that freedom of the soul which knows itself to be absolute necessity. +Christ is not a mere ideal of the thought, but is known as a living +member of actual history, whose life, sufferings and death for freedom +form the security as to its absolute justification and truth. The +æsthetic, philosophical, and political ideal are all found in the +universal nature of the Christian ideal, on which account no one of them +appears one-sided in the life of Christ. The principle of Human Freedom +excludes neither art, nor science, nor political feeling. + +§ 235. In its conception of man the humanitarian education includes both +the national divisions and the subjection of all men to the divine law, +but it will no longer endure that one should grow into an isolating +exclusiveness, and another into a despotism which includes in it +somewhat of the accidental. But this principle of humanity and human +nature took root so slowly that its presuppositions were repeated within +itself and were really conquered in this reproduction. These stages of +culture were the Greek, the Roman, and the Protestant churches, and +education was metamorphosed to suit the formation of each of these. + +——For the sake of brevity we would wish to close with these general +definitions; the unfolding of their details is intimately bound up with +the history of politics and of civilization. We shall be contented if we +give correctly the general whole.—— + +§ 236. Within education we can distinguish three epochs: the monkish, +the chivalric, and that education which is to fit one for civil life. +Each of these endeavored to express all that belonged to humanity as +such; but it was only after the recognition of the moral nature of the +Family, of Labor, of Culture, and of the conscious equal title of all +men to their rights, that this became really possible. + + +I. _The Epoch of Monkish Education._ + +§ 237. The Greek Church seized the Christian principle still abstractly +as deliverance from the world, and therefore, in the education +proceeding from it, it arrived only at the negative form, positing the +universality of the individual man as the renunciation of self. In the +dogmatism of its teaching, as well as in the ascetic severity of its +practical conduct, it was a reproduction of the theocratic principle. +But when this had assumed the form of national centralization, the Greek +Church dispensed with this, and, as far as regards its form, it returned +again to the quietism of the Orient. + +§ 238. The monkish education is in general identical in all religions, +in that, through the egotism of its way of living and the stoicism of +its way of thinking, through the separation of its external existence +and the mechanism of a thoughtless subjection to a general rule as well +as to the special command of superiors, it fosters a spiritual and +bodily dulness. The Christian monachism, therefore, as the fulfilment of +monachism in general, is at the same time its absolute dissolution, +because, in its merely abstracting itself from the world instead of +affirmatively conquering it, it contradicts the very principle of +Christianity. + +§ 239. We must notice as the fundamental error of this whole system, +that it does not in free individuality seek to produce the ideal of +divine-humanity, but to copy in external reproduction its historical +manifestation. Each human being must individually offer up as sacrifice +his own individuality. Each biography has its Bethlehem, its Tabor, and +its Golgotha. + +§ 240. Monachism looks upon freedom from one's self and from the world +which Christianity demands only as an abstract renunciation of self, +which it seeks to compass, like Buddhism, by the vow of poverty, +chastity, and obedience, which must be taken by each individual for all +time. + +——This rejection of property, of marriage, and of self-will, is at the +same time the negation of work, of the family, and of responsibility for +one's actions. In order to avoid the danger of avarice and covetousness, +of sensuality and of nepotism, of error and of guilt, monachism seizes +the convenient way of abstract severance from all the objective world +without being able fully to carry out this negation. Monkish Pedagogics +must, in consequence, be very particular about an external separation of +their disciples from the world, so as to make the work of abstraction +from the world easier and more decided. It therefore builds cloisters in +the solitude of deserts, in the depth of forests, on the summits of +mountains, and surrounds them with high walls having no apertures; and +then, so as to carry the isolation of the individual to its farthest +possible extreme it constructs, within these cloisters, cells, in +imitation of the ancient hermits——a seclusion the immediate consequence +of which is the most limitless and most paltry curiosity.—— + +§ 241. Theoretically the monkish Pedagogics seeks, by means of the +greatest possible silence, to place the soul in a state of spiritual +immobility, which at last, through the want of all variety of thought, +goes over into entire apathy, and antipathy towards all intellectual +culture. The principal feature of the practical culture consists in the +misapprehension that one should ignore Nature, instead of morally +freeing himself from her control. As she, again and again asserts +herself, the monkish discipline proceeds to misuse her, and strives +through fasting, through sleeplessness, through voluntary self-inflicted +pain and martyrdom, not only to subdue the wantonness of the flesh, but +to destroy the love of life till it shall become a positive loathing of +existence. In and for itself the object of the monkish vow——property, +the family, and will——is not immoral. The vow is, on this account, very +easy to violate. In order to prevent all temptation to this, monkish +Pedagogics invents a system of supervision, partly open, partly secret, +which deprives one of all freedom of action, all freshness of thinking +and of willing, and all poetry of feeling, by means of the perpetual +shadow of spies and informers. The monks are well versed in all +police-arts, and the regular succession of the hierarchy spurs them on +always to distinguish themselves in them. + +§ 242. The gloomy breath of this education penetrated all the relations +of the Byzantine State. Even the education of the emperor was infected +by it; and in the strife for freedom waged by the modern Greeks against +the Turks, the _Igumeni_ of the cloisters were the real leaders of the +insurrection. The independence of individuality, as opposed to monkish +abstraction, more or less degenerates into the crude form of soldier and +pirate life. And thus it happened that this principle was not left to +appear merely as an exception, but to be built up positively into +humanity; and this the German world, under the guidance of the Roman +Church, undertook to accomplish. + + +II. _The Epoch of Chivalric Education._ + +§ 243. The Romish Church negated the abstract substantiality of the +Greeks through the practical aim which she in her sanctity in works +founded, and by means of which she raised up German individuality to the +idealism of chivalry, i.e. a free military service in behalf of +Christendom. + +§ 244. It is evident that the system of monkish education was taken up +into this epoch as one of its elements, being modified to conform to it: +e.g. the Benedictines were accustomed to labor in agriculture and in the +transcribing of books, and this contradicted the idea of monachism, +since that in and for itself tends to an absolute forgetfulness of the +world and a perfect absence of all activity in the individual. The +begging orders were public preachers, and made popular the idea of love +and unselfish devotion to others. They labored toward self-education, +especially by means of the ideal of the life of Christ; e.g. in Tauler's +classical book on the Imitation of Jesus, and in the work of +Thomas-à-Kempis which resembles it. Through a fixed contemplative +communion with the conception of the Christ who suffered and died for +Love, they sought to find content in divine rest and self-abandonment. + +§ 245. German chivalry sprang from Feudalism. The education of those +pledged to military duty had become confined to practice in the use of +arms. The education of the chivalric vassals pursued the same course, +refining it gradually through the influence of court society and through +poetry, which devoted itself either to the relating of graceful tales +which were really works of art, or to the glorification of woman. Girls +were brought up without especial care. The boy until he was seven years +old remained in the hands of women; then he became a lad (a young +gentleman), and learned the manner of offensive and defensive warfare, +on foot and on horseback; between his sixteenth and eighteenth year, +through a formal ceremony (the laying on of the sword), he was duly +authorized to bear arms. But whatever besides this he might wish to +learn was left to his own caprice. + +§ 246. In contradistinction to the monkish education, Chivalry placed an +infinite value on individuality, and this it expressed in its extreme +sensibility to the feeling of honor. Education, on this account, +endeavored to foster this reflection of the self upon itself by means of +the social isolation in which it placed knighthood. The knight did not +delight himself with common possessions, but he sought for him who had +been wronged, since with him he could find enjoyment as a conqueror. He +did not live in simple marriage, but strove for the piquant pleasure of +making the wife of another the lady of his heart, and this often led to +moral and physical infidelity. And, finally, the knight did not obey +alone the general laws of knightly honor, but he strove, besides, to +discover for himself strange things, which he should undertake with his +sword, in defiance of all criticism, simply because it pleased his +caprice so to do. He _sought adventures_. + +§ 247. The reaction against the innumerable number of fantastic +extravagancies arising from chivalry was the idea of the spiritual +chivalry which was to unite the cloister and the town, abstract +self-denial and military life, separation from the world and the +sovereignty of the world——an undeniable advance, but an untenable +synthesis which could not prevent the dissolution of chivalry——this +chivalry, which, as the rule of the stronger, induced for a long time +the destruction of all regular culture founded on principles, and +brought a period of absence of all education. In this perversion of +chivalry to a grand vagabondism, and even to robbery, noble souls often +rushed into ridiculous excesses. This decline of chivalry found its +truth in Citizenship, whose education, however, did not, like the +πόλις and the _civitas_ of the ancients, limit itself to itself, but, +through the presence of the principle of Christianity, accepted the +whole circle of humanity as the aim of its culture. + + +III. _The Epoch of Education fitting one for Civil Life._ + +§ 248. The idea of the State had gradually worked itself up to a higher +plane with trade and industry, and found in Protestantism its spiritual +confirmation. Protestantism, as the self assurance of the individual +that he was directly related to God without any dependence on the +mediation of any man, rose to the truth in the autonomy of the soul, and +began out of the abstract phantasmagoria of monachism and chivalry to +develope Christianity, as the principle of humanitarian education, into +concrete actuality. The cities were not merely, in comparison with the +clergy and the nobility, the "third estate"; but the citizen who himself +managed his commonwealth, and defended its interests with arms, +developed into the citizen of a state which absorbed the clergy and +nobility, and the state-citizen found his ultimate ideal in pure +Humanity as cognized through reason. + +§ 249. The phases of this development are (1) Civil education as such, +in which we find chivalric education metamorphosed into the so-called +noble, both however being controlled as to education, within Catholicism +by Jesuitism, within Protestantism by Pietism. (2) Against this tendency +to the church, we find reacting on the one hand the devotion to a study +of antiquity, and on the other the friendly alliance to immediate +actuality, i.e. with Nature. We can name these periods of Pedagogics +those of its ideals of culture. (3) But the truth of all culture must +forever remain moral freedom. After Education had arrived at a knowledge +of the meaning of Idealism and Realism, it must seize as its absolute +aim the moral emancipation of man into Humanity; and it must conform its +culture by this aim, since technical dexterity, friendly adroitness, +proficiency in the arts, and scientific insight, can attain to their +proper rank only through moral purity. + + +_1. Civil Education as such._ + +§ 250. The one-sidedness of monkish and chivalric education was +cancelled by civil education inasmuch as it destroyed the celibacy of +the monk and the estrangement of the knight from his family, doing this +by means of the inner life of the family; for it substituted, in the +place of the negative emptiness of the duty of holiness of the celibate, +the positive morality of marriage and the family; while, instead of the +abstract poverty and the idleness of the monkish piety and of +knighthood, it asserted that property was the object of labor, i.e. it +asserted the self-governed morality of civil society and of commerce; +and, finally, instead of the servitude of the conscience in +unquestioning obedience to the command of others, and instead of the +freakish self-sufficiency of the caprice of the knights, it demanded +obedience to the laws of the commonwealth as representing his own +self-conscious, actualized, practical Reason, in which laws the +individual can recognize and acknowledge himself. + +——As this civil education left free the sensuous enjoyment, freedom in +this was without bounds for a time, until, after men became accustomed +to labor and to their freedom of action, the possibility of enjoyment +created from within outward a moderation which sumptuary laws and +prohibitions of gluttony, drunkenness, &c., could never create from the +external side. What the monk inconsistently enjoyed with a bad +conscience, the citizen and the clergyman could take possession of as a +gift of God. After the first millennium of Christianity, when the earth +had not, according to the current prophecies, been destroyed, and after +the great plague in the fourteenth century, there was felt an immense +pleasure in living, which manifested itself externally in the fifteenth +century in delicate wines, dainty food, great eating of meat, drinking +of beer, and, in the domain of dress, in peaked shoes, plumes, golden +chains, bells, &c. There was much venison, but, as yet, no potatoes, tea +and coffee, &c. The feeling of men was quarrelsome. For a more exact +painting of the Education of this time, very valuable authors are +Sebastian Brant, Th. Murner, Ulrich von Hutten, Fischart, and Hans +Sachs. Gervinus is almost the only one who has understood how to make +this material useful in its relation to spirit.—— + +§ 251. In contrast with the heaven-seeking of the monks and the +sentimental love-making of the knight, civil education established, as +its principle, Usefulness, which traced out in things their conformity +to a proposed end in order to gain as great a mastery over them as +possible. The understanding was trained with all exactness that it might +clearly seize all the circumstances. But since family-life did not allow +the egotism of the individual ever to become as great as was the case +with the monk and the knight, and since the cheer of a sensuous +enjoyment in cellar and kitchen, in clothing and furniture, in common +games and in picturesque parades, penetrated the whole being with soft +pleasure, there was developed with all propriety and sobriety a +house-morality, and, with all the prose of labor, a warm and kindly +disposition, which left room for innocent merriment and roguery, and +found, in conformity to religious services, its serious transfiguration. +Beautiful burgher-state, thou wast weakened by the thirty years' war, +and hast been only accidentally preserved sporadically in Old England +and in some places in Germany, only to be at last swept away by the +flood of modern world-pain, political sophistry, and anxiety for the +future! + +§ 252. The citizen paid special attention to public education, +heretofore wholly dependent upon the church and the cloister; he +organized city schools, whose teachers, it is true, for a long time +compassed only accidental culture, and were often employed only for +tumultuous and short terms. The society of the brotherhood of the +Hieronymites introduced a better system of instruction before the close +of the fourteenth century, but education had often to be obtained from +the so-called travelling scholars (_vagantes_, _bacchantes_, +_scholastici_, _goliardi_). The teachers of the so-called _scholæ +exteriores_, in distinction from the schools of the cathedral and +cloister, were called now _locati_, then _stampuales_——in German, +_Kinder-Meister_. The institution of German schools soon followed the +Latin city schools. In order to remove the anarchy in school matters, +the citizens aided the rise of universities by donations and +well-invested funds, and sustained the street-singing of the city +scholars (_currende_), an institution which was well-meant, but which +often failed of its end because on the one hand it was often misused as +a mere means of subsistence, and on the other hand the sense of honor of +those to whom it was devoted not unfrequently became, through their +manner of living, lowered to humiliation. The defect of the monkish +method of instruction became ever more apparent, e.g. the silly tricks +of their mnemotechnique, the utter lack of anything which deserved the +name of any practical knowledge, &c. The necessity of instruction in the +use of arms led to democratic forms. Printing favored the same. Men +began to concern themselves about good text-books. Melanchthon was the +hero of the Protestant world, and as a pattern was beyond his time. His +Dialectics, Rhetoric, Physics, and Ethics, were reprinted innumerable +times, commented upon, and imitated. After him Amos Comenius, in the +seventeenth century, had the greatest influence through his _Didactica +Magna_ and his _Janua Reserta_. In a narrower sphere, treating of the +foundation of Gymnasial Philology, the most noticeable is Sturm of +Strasburg. The universities in Catholic countries limited themselves to +the Scholastic Philosophy and Theology, together with which we find +slowly struggling up the Roman Law and the system of Medicine from +Bologna and Salerno. But Protestantism first raised the university to +any real universality. Tübingen, Königsberg, Wittenberg, Jena, Leipzic, +Halle, Göttingen, &c., were the first schools for the study of all +sciences, and for their free and productive pursuit. + +§ 253. The Commons, which at first appeared with the clergy and the +nobility as the Third Estate, formed an alliance with monarchy, and both +together produced a transformation of the chivalric education. +Absolutism reduced the knights to mere nobles, to whom it truly conceded +the prerogative of appointment as spiritual prelates as well as officers +and counsellors of state, but only on the condition of the most complete +submission; and then, to satisfy them, it invented the artificial +drinking festivals, of a splendid life at court, and a +temptingly-impressive sovereignty of beauty. In this condition, the +education of the nobles was essentially changed in so far as to cease to +be alone military. To the art of war, which moreover was made so very +much milder by the invention of fire-arms, must be now added an activity +of the mind which could no longer dispense with some knowledge of +History, Heraldry, Genealogy, Literature, and Mythology. Since the +French nation soon enough gave tone to the style of conversation, and +after the time of Louis XIV. controlled the politics of the continent, +the French language, as conventional and diplomatic, became a constant +element in the education of the nobility in all the other countries of +Europe. + +——Practically the education of the noble endeavored to make the +individual quite independent, so that he should, by means of the +important quality of an advantageous personal appearance and the +prudence of his agreeable behavior, make himself into a ruler of all +other men, capable of enjoying his own position, i.e. he should copy in +miniature the manners of an absolute sovereign. To this was added an +empirical knowledge of men by means of ethical maxims, so that they +might discover the weak side of every man, and so be able to outwit him. +_Mundus vult decipi, ergo decipiatur._ According to this, every man had +his price. They did not believe in the Nemesis of a divine destiny; on +the contrary, disbelief in the higher justice was taught. One must be so +elastic as to suit himself to all situations, and, as a caricature of +the ancient ataraxy, he must acquire as a second nature a manner +perfectly indifferent to all changes, the impassibility of an +aristocratic repose, the amphibious _sang-froid_ of the "gentleman." The +man in the world as the man of the world sought his ideal in endless +dissimulation, and in this, as the flowering of his culture, he took the +highest interest. Intrigue, in love as well as in politics, was the soul +of the nobleman's existence.—— + +——They endeavored to complete the refinement of manners by sending the +young man away with a travelling tutor. This was very good, but +degenerated at last into the mechanism of the foolish travelling of the +tourist. The noble was made a foreigner, a stranger to his own country, +by means of his abode at Paris or Venice, while the citizen gradually +outstripped him in genuine culture.—— + +§ 254. The education of the citizen as well as that of the noble was +taken possession of, in Catholic countries by the Jesuits, in Protestant +countries by the Pietists: by the first, with a military strictness; by +the second, in a social and effeminate form. Both, however, agreed in +destroying individuality, inasmuch as the one degraded man into a +will-less machine for executing the commands of others, and the other +deadened him in cultivating the feeling of his sinful worthlessness. + + +(_a_) _Jesuitic Education._ + +§ 255. Jesuitism combined the maximum of worldly freedom with an +appearance of the greatest piety. Proceeding from this stand-point, it +devoted itself in education to elegance and showy knowledge, to +diplomacy and what was suitable and convenient in morals. To bring the +future more into its power, it adapted itself not only to youth in +general, but especially to the youth of the nobler classes. To please +these, the Jesuits laid great stress upon a fine deportment. In their +colleges dancing and fencing were well-taught. They knew how well they +should by this course content the noble, who had by preference usurped +the name of Education for this technical way of giving formal expression +to personality. + +——In instruction they developed so exact a mechanism that they gained +the reputation of having model school regulations, and even Protestants +sent their children to them. From the close of the sixteenth century to +the present time they have based their teaching upon the _ratio et +institutio Studiorum Societatis Jesu_ of Claudius Aquaviva, and, +following that, they distinguish two courses of teaching, a higher and a +lower. The lower included nothing but an external knowledge of the Latin +language, and some fortuitous knowledge of History, of Antiquities, and +of Mythology. The memory was cultivated as a means of keeping down free +activity of thought and clearness of judgment. The higher course +comprehended Dialectics, Rhetoric, Physics, and Morals. Dialectics +appeared in the form of Sophistry. In Rhetoric, they favored the +polemical-emphatic style of the African fathers of the Church and their +pompous phraseology; in Physics, they stopped with Aristotle, and +especially advised the reading of the books _De Generatione et +Corruptione_, and _De Coelo_, on which they commented after their +fashion; finally, in Morals casuistic skepticism was their central +point. They made much of Rhetoric on account of their sermons, giving to +it much attention, and introduced especially Declamation. Contriving +showy public examinations under the guise of Latin School Comedies, they +thus amused the public, disposed them to approval, and at the same time +quite innocently practised the pupil in dissimulation.—— + +——Diplomacy in behavior was made necessary to the Jesuits as well by +their strict military discipline as by their system of reciprocal +mistrust, espionage, and informing. Abstract obedience was a reason for +any act of the pupils, and they were freed from all responsibility as to +its moral justification. This empirical exact following out of all +commands, and refraining from any criticism as to principles, created a +moral indifference, and, from the necessity of having consideration for +the peculiarities and caprices of the superior on whom all others were +dependent, arose eye-service, and the coldness of isolation sprang from +the necessity which each felt of being on his guard against every other +as against a tale-bearer. The most deliberate hypocrisy and pleasure in +intrigue merely for the sake of intrigue——this most refined poison of +moral corruption——were the result. Jesuitism had not only an interest in +the material profit, which, when it had corrupted souls, fell to its +share, but it also had an interest in the process of corruption. With +absolute indifference as to the idea of morality, and absolute +indifference as to the moral quality of the means used to attain its +end, it rejoiced in the superiority of secrecy, of the accomplished and +calculating understanding, and in deceiving the credulous by means of +its graceful, seemingly-perfect, moral language.—— + +——It is not necessary to speak here of the morality of the Order. It is +sufficiently recognized as the contradiction, that the idea of morality +insists upon the eternal necessity of every deed, but that in the +realizing of the action all determinations should be made relative and +should vary with the circumstances. As to discipline, they were always +guided by their fundamental principle, that body and soul, as in and for +themselves one, could vicariously suffer for each other. Thus penitence +and contrition were transformed into a perfect materialism of outward +actions, and hence arose the punishments of the Order, in which fasting, +scourging, imprisonment, mortification, and death, were formed into a +mechanical artificial system.—— + + +(_b_) _Pietistic Education._ + +§ 256. Jesuitism would make machines of man, Pietism would dissolve +him in the feeling of his sinfulness: either would destroy his +individuality. Pietism proceeded from the principle of Protestantism, +as, in the place of the Catholic Pelagianism with its sanctification by +works, it offered justication by faith alone. In its tendency to +internality was its just claim. It would have even the letters of the +Bible translated into the vivacity of sentiment. But in its execution it +fell into the error of one-sidedness in that it placed, instead of the +actuality of the spirit and its freedom, the confusion of a limited +personality, placing in its stead the personality of Christ in an +external manner, and thus brought back into the very midst of +Protestantism the principle of monachism——an abstract renunciation of +the world. Since Protestantism has destroyed the idea of the cloister, +it could produce estrangement from the world only by exciting public +opinion against such elements of society and culture which it +stigmatized as _worldly_ for its members, e.g. card-playing, dancing, +the theatre, &c. Thus it became negatively dependent upon works; for +since its followers remained in reciprocal action with the world, so +that the temptation to backsliding was a permanent one, it must watch +over them, exercise an indispensable moral-police control over them, and +thus, by the suspicion of each other which was involved, take up into +itself the Jesuitical practice, although in a very mild and affectionate +way. Instead of the forbidden secrecy of the cloister, it organized a +separate company, which we, in its regularly constituted assembly, call +a conventicle. Instead of the cowl, it put on its youth a dress like +that of the world, but scant and ashen-colored; it substituted for the +tonsure closely-cut hair and shaven beard, and it often went beyond the +obedience of the monks in its expression of pining humility and prudish +composure. Education within such a circle could not well recognize +nature and history as manifestations of God, but it must consider them +to be limitations to their union with God, from which death can first +then completely release them. The soul which knew that its home could be +found only in the future world, must feel itself to be a stranger upon +the earth, and from such an opinion there must arise an indifference and +even a contempt for science and art, as well as an aversion for a life +of active labor, though an unwilling and forced tribute might be paid to +it. Philosophy especially was to be shunned as dangerous. Bible +lectures, the catechism and the hymn-book, were the one thing needful to +the "poor in spirit." Religious poetry and music were, of all the arts, +the only ones deserving of any cultivation. The education of Pietism +endeavored, by means of a carefully arranged series of representations, +to create in its disciples the feeling of their absolute nothingness, +vileness, godlessness, and abandonment by God, in order to displace the +torment of despair as to themselves and the world by a warm, dramatic, +and living relation to Christ——a relation in which all the Eroticism of +the mystical passion of the begging-friars was renewed in a somewhat +milder form and with a strong tendency to a sentimental sweetishness. + + +_2. The Ideal of Culture._ + +§ 257. Civil Education arose from the recognition of marriage and the +family, of labor and enjoyment, of the equality of all before the Law, +and of the duty of self-determination. Jesuitism in the Catholic world +and Pietism in the Protestant were the reaction against this +recognition——a return into the abstract asceticism of the middle ages, +not however in its purity, but mixed with some regard for worldly +possessions. In opposition to this reaction the commonwealth produced +another, in which it undertook to deliver individuality by means of a +reversed alienation. On the one hand, it absorbed itself in the +conception of the Greek-Roman world. In the practical interests of the +present, it externalized man in a past which held to the present no +immediate relation, or it externalized him in the affairs which were to +serve him as means of his comfort and enjoyment; it created an abstract +idealism——a reproduction of the old view of the world——or an abstract +Realism in a high appreciation of things which should be considered of +value only as a means. In one direction, Individuality proceeded towards +a dead nationality; in the other, towards an unlimited +world-commonwealth. In one case, the ideal was the æsthetic +republicanism of the Greeks; in the other, the utilitarian +cosmopolitanism of the Romans. But, in considering the given +circumstances, both united in the feeling of humanity, with its +reconciliatory and pitying gentleness toward the beggar or the criminal. + + +(_a_) _The Humanitarian Ideal._ + +§ 258. The Oriental-theocratic education is immanent in Christian +education through the Bible. Through the mediation of the Greek and +Roman churches the views of the ancient world were subsumed but not +entirely subdued. To accomplish this was the problem of humanitarian +education. It aimed to teach the Latin and Greek languages, expecting +thus to secure the action of a purely humane disposition. The Greeks and +Romans being sharply marked nationalities, how could one cherish such +expectations? It was possible only relatively in contradiction, partly +to a provincial population from whom all genuine political sense had +departed, partly to a church limited by a confessional, to which the +idea of humanity as such had become almost lost in dogmatic +fault-findings. The spirit was refreshed in the first by the +contemplation of the pure patriotism of the ancients, and in the second +by the discovery of Reason among the heathen. In contrast to +formlessness distracted by the want of all ideal of culture of +provincialism and dogmatic confusions, we find the power of +representation of ancient art. The so-called uselessness of learning +dead languages imparted to the mind, it knew not how, an ideal drift. +The very fact that it could not find immediate profit in its knowledge +gave it the consciousness of a higher value than material profit. The +ideal of the Humanities was the truth to Nature which was found in the +thought-painters of the ancient world. The study of language merely with +regard to its form, must lead one involuntarily to the actual seizing of +its content. The Latin schools were fashioned into _Gymnasia_, and the +universities contained not merely professors of Eloquence, but also +teachers of Philology. + + +(_b_) _The Philanthropic Ideal._ + +§ 259. The humanitarian tendency reached its extreme in the abstract +forgetting of the present, and the omitting to notice its just claim. +Man discovered at last that he was not at home with himself in Rome and +Athens. He spoke and wrote Latin, if not like Cicero, at least like +Muretius, but he often found himself awkward in expressing his meaning +in his mother-tongue. He was often very learned, but he lacked judgment. +He was filled with enthusiasm for the republicanism of Greece and Rome, +and yet at the same time was himself exceedingly servile to his +excellent and august lords. Against this gradual deadening of active +individuality, the result of a perverted study of the classics, we find +now reacting the education of enlightenment, which we generally call the +philanthropic. It sought to make men friendly to the immediate course of +the world. It placed over against the learning of the ancient languages +for their own sake, the acquisition of the more needful branches of +Mathematics, Physics, Geography, History, and the modern languages, +calling these the real studies. Nevertheless it often retained the +instruction in the Latin language because the Romance languages have +sprung from it, and because, through its long domination, the universal +terminology of Science, Art, and Law, is rooted in it. Philanthropy +desired to develope the social side of its disciple through an abstract +of practical knowledge and personal accomplishments, and to lead him +again, in opposition to the hermit-like sedentary life of the +book-pedant, out into the fields and the woods. It desired to imitate +life even in its method, and to instruct pleasantly in the way of play +or by dialogue. It would add to the simple letters and names the +contemplation of the object itself, or at least of its representation by +pictures; and in this direction, in the conversation-literature which it +prepared for children, it sometimes fell into childishness. It performed +a great service when it gave to the body its due, and introduced simple, +natural dress, bathing, gymnastics, pedestrian excursions, and a +hardening against the influences of wind and weather. As this +Pedagogics, so friendly to children, deemed that it could not soon +enough begin to honor them as citizens of the world, it was guilty in +general of the error of presupposing as already finished in its children +much that it itself should have gradually developed; and as it wished to +educate the European as such, or rather man as such, it came into an +indifference concerning the concrete distinctions of nationality and +religion. It coincided with the philologists in placing, in a concealed +way, Socrates above Christ, because he had worked no miracles, and +taught only morality. In such a dead cosmopolitanism, individuality +disappeared in the indeterminateness of a general humanity, and saw +itself forced to agree with the humanistic education in proclaiming the +truth of Nature as the pedagogical ideal, with the distinction, that +while Humanism believed this ideal realized in the Greeks and Romans, +Philanthropism found itself compelled to presuppose an abstract notion, +and often manifested a not unjustifiable pleasure in recognizing in the +Indians of North America, or of Otaheite, the genuine man of nature. +Philosophy first raised these conceptions to the idea of the State, +which fashioned the cognition of Reason and of the reform which follows +from its idea, into an organic element in itself. + +——The course which the developing of the philanthropic ideal has taken +is as follows: (1) Rousseau in his writings, _Emile_ and the _Nouvelle +Heloise_, first preached the evangel of Natural Education, the +abstraction from History, the negation of existing culture, and the +return to the simplicity and innocence of nature. Although he often +himself testified in his experience his own proneness to evil in a very +discouraging way, he fixed as an almost unlimited axiom in French and +German Pedagogics his principal maxim, that man is by nature good. (2) +The reformatory ideas of Rousseau met with only a very infrequent and +sporadic introduction among the Romanic nations, because among them +education was too dependent on the church, and retained its +cloister-like seclusion in seminaries, colleges, &c. In Germany, on the +contrary, it was actualized, and the _Philanthropia_, established by +Basedow in Dessau, Brunswick, and Schnepfenthal, made experiments, which +nevertheless very soon departed somewhat from the ultraism of Basedow +and had very excellent results. (3) Humanity existed _in concreto_ only +in the form of nations. The French nation, in their revolution, tried +the experiment of abstracting from their history, of levelling all +distinctions of culture, of enthroning a despotism of Reason, and of +organizing itself as humanity, pure and simple. The event showed the +impossibility of such a beginning. The national energy, the historical +impulse, the love of art and science, came forth from the midst of the +revolutionary abstraction, which was opposed to them, only the more +vigorously. The _grande nation_, their _grande armée_, and +_gloire_——that is to say, for France——absorbed all the humanitarian +phases. In Germany the philanthropic circle of education was limited to +the higher ranks. There was no exclusiveness in the _Philanthropia_, for +there nobles and citizens, Catholics and Protestants, Russians and +Swiss, were mingled; but these were always the children of wealthy +families, and to these the plan of education was adapted. Then appeared +Pestalozzi and directed education also to the lower classes of +society——those which are called, not without something approaching to a +derogatory meaning, _the people_. From this time dates popular +education, the effort for the intellectual and moral elevation of the +hitherto neglected atomistic human being of the non-property-holding +multitude. There shall in future be no dirty, hungry, ignorant, awkward, +thankless, and will-less mass, devoted alone to an animal existence. We +can never rid ourselves of the lower classes by having the wealthy give +something, or even their all, to the poor, so as to have no property +themselves; but we can rid ourselves of it in the sense that the +possibility of culture and independent self-support shall be open to +every one, because he is a human being and a citizen of the +commonwealth. Ignorance and rudeness and the vice which springs from +them, and the malevolent frame of mind against the human race, which are +bound up with crime——these shall disappear. Education shall train man to +self-conscious obedience to law, as well as to kindly feeling towards +the erring, and to an effort not merely for their removal but for their +improvement. But the more Pestalozzi endeavored to realize his ideal of +human dignity, the more he comprehended that the isolated power of a +private man could not attain it, but that the nation itself must make +their own education their first business. Fichte by his lectures first +made the German nation fully accept these thoughts, and Prussia was the +first state which, by her public schools and her conscious preparation +for defence, broke the path for National Education; while among the +Romanic nations, in spite of their more elaborate political formalism, +it still depends partly upon the church and partly upon the accident of +private enterprise. Pestalozzi also laid a foundation for a national +pedagogical literature by his story of _Leonard and Gertrude_. This book +appeared at first in 1784, i.e. in the same year in which Schiller's +_Robbers_ and Kant's _Critique of Pure Reason_ announced a new phase in +the Drama and in Philosophy.—— + +——The incarnation of God, which was, up to the time of the Reformation, +an esoteric mystery of the Church, has since then become continually +more and more an exoteric problem of the State.—— + + +_3. Free Education._ + +§ 260. The ideal of culture of the humanitarian and the philanthropic +education was taken up into the conception of an education which +recognizes the Family, social caste, the Nation, and Religion, as +positive elements of the practical spirit, but which will know each of +these as determined from within through the idea of humanity, and laid +open for reciprocal dialectic with the rest. Physical development shall +become the subject of a national system of gymnastics fashioned for use, +and including in itself the knowledge of the use of arms. Instruction +shall, in respect to the general encyclopædic culture, be the same for +all, and parallel to this shall run a system of special schools to +prepare for the special avocations of life. The method of instruction +shall be the simple representation of the special idea of the subject, +and no longer the formal breadth of an acquaintance with many subjects +which may find outside the school its opportunity, but within it has no +meaning except as the history of a science or an art. Moral culture must +be combined with family affection and the knowledge of the laws of the +commonwealth, so that the dissension between individual morality and +objective legality may ever more and more disappear. Education shall, +without estranging the individual from the internality of the family, +accustom him more and more to public life, because criticism of this is +the only thing which can prevent the cynicism of private life, the +half-ness of knowledge and will, and the spirit of caste, which has so +extensively prevailed. The individual shall be educated into a +self-consciousness of the essential equality and freedom of all men, so +that he shall recognize and acknowledge himself in each one and in all. +But this essential and solid unity of all men shall not evaporate into +the insipidity of a humanity without distinctions, but instead it shall +realize the form of a determinate individuality and nationality, and +shall enlighten the idiosyncrasy of its nation into a broad humanity. +The unrestricted striving after Beauty, Truth, and Freedom, actually +through its own strength and immediately, not merely mediately through +ecclesiastical consecration, will become Religion. + +The Education of the State must rise to a preparation for the +unfettered activity of self-conscious Humanity. + + + THE SCIENCE OF EDUCATION. + + A PARAPHRASE OF DR. KARL ROSENKRANZ'S + PAEDAGOGIK ALS SYSTEM. + + BY ANNA C. BRACKETT. + + ST. LOUIS: + G. I. JONES AND COMPANY. + 1878. + + + Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1878, by + WILLIAM T. HARRIS, + In the office of the Librarian of Congress, at Washington. + + +PREFACE. + + +The translation of "Pedagogics as a System" was prepared and published +five years ago. The wide demand for it that has made itself known since +that time, especially in normal schools, has proved the value of such +works in the domain of education. At the same time, the difficulty the +students have always found in its use——a difficulty inseparable from any +translation of a German metaphysical treatise——has led us to the +conviction that a paraphrase into a more easily understood form is a +necessity, if the thought of Rosenkranz is to be appropriated by the +very class who are most in need of it. As was remarked in the preface to +the translation, we have in English no other work of similar size which +contains so much that is valuable to those engaged in the work of +education. It is no compendium of rules or formulas, but rather a +systematic, logical treatment of the subject, in which the attention is, +as it were, concentrated upon the whole problem of education, while that +problem is allowed to work itself out before us. To paraphrase the +text——or, rather, to translate it from the metaphysical language in +which it at present appears into a language more easy of +comprehension——without losing the real significance of the statements, +is the task which is here undertaken. Free illustrations and suggestions +have been interwoven to give point and application to the thoughts and +principles stated. This translation, or paraphrase, follows the +paragraphs of the original and of the first translation. The analysis of +the whole work, as it appeared in the original translation, is appended +at the end of the "Introduction," as a guide to the student. + + + + +THE SCIENCE OF EDUCATION. + + +INTRODUCTION. + +§ 1. The science of Pedagogics may be called a secondary science, +inasmuch as it derives its principles from others. In this respect it +differs from Mathematics, which is independent. As it concerns the +development of the human intelligence, it must wait upon Psychology for +an understanding of that upon which it is to operate, and, as its means +are to be sciences and arts, it must wait upon them for a knowledge of +its materials. The science of Medicine, in like manner, is dependent on +the sciences of Biology, Chemistry, Physics, etc. Moreover, as Medicine +may have to deal with a healthy or unhealthy body, and may have it for +its province to preserve or restore health, to assist a natural process +(as in the case of a broken bone), or to destroy an unnatural one (as in +the case of the removal of a tumor), the same variety of work is imposed +upon Education.[1] + +§ 2. Since the rules of Pedagogics must be extremely flexible, so that +they may be adapted to the great variety of minds, and since an infinite +variety of circumstances may arise in their application, we find, as we +should expect, in all educational literature room for widely differing +opinions and the wildest theories; these numerous theories, each of +which may have a strong influence for a season, only to be overthrown +and replaced by others.[2] It must be acknowledged that educational +literature, as such, is not of a high order. It has its cant like +religious literature. Many of its faults, however, are the result of +honest effort, on the part of teachers, to remedy existing defects, and +the authors are, therefore, not harshly to be blamed. It is also to be +remembered that the habit of giving reproof and advice is one fastened +in them by the daily necessity of their professional work.[3] + +§ 3. As the position of the teacher has ceased to be undervalued, there +has been an additional impetus given to self-glorification on his part, +and this also——in connection with the fact that schools are no longer +isolated as of old, but subject to constant comparison and +competition——leads to much careless theorizing among its teachers, +especially in the literary field. + +§ 4. Pedagogics, because it deals with the human spirit, belongs, in a +general classification of the sciences, to the philosophy of spirit, and +in the philosophy of spirit it must be classified under the practical, +and not the merely theoretical, division. For its problem is not merely +to comprehend the nature of that with which it has to deal, the human +spirit——its problem is not merely to influence one mind (that of the +pupil) by another (that of the teacher)——but to influence it in such a +way as to produce the mental freedom of the pupil. The problem is, +therefore, not so much to obtain performed works as to excite mental +activity. A creative process is required. The pupil is to be forced to +go in certain beaten tracks, and yet he is to be so forced to go in +these that he shall go of his own freewill. All teaching which does not +leave the mind of the pupil free is unworthy of the name. It is true +that the teacher must understand the nature of mind, as he is to deal +with mind, but when he has done this he has still his main principle of +action unsolved; for the question is, knowing the nature of the mind, +How shall he incite it to action, already predetermined in his own mind, +without depriving the mind of the pupil of its own free action? How +shall he restrain and guide, and yet not enslave? + +If, in classifying all sciences, as suggested at the beginning of this +section, we should subdivide the practical division of the Philosophy of +Spirit, which might be called Ethics, one could find a place for +Pedagogics under some one of the grades of Ethics. The education which +the child receives through the influence of family life lies at the +basis of all other teaching, and what the child learns of life, its +duties, and possibilities, in its own home, forms the foundation for all +after-work. On the life of the family, then, as a presupposition, all +systems of Education must be built. In other words, the school must not +attempt to initiate the child into the knowledge of the world——it must +not assume the care of its first training; that it must leave to the +family.[4] But the science of Pedagogics does not, as a science, +properly concern itself with the family education, or with that point of +the child's life which is dominated by the family influence. That is +education, in a certain sense, without doubt, but it does not properly +belong to a science of Pedagogics. But, on the other hand, it must be +remembered that this science, as here expounded, presupposes a previous +family life in the human being with whom it has to deal. + +§ 5. Education as a science will present the necessary and universal +principles on which it is based; Education as an art will consist in the +practical realization of these in the teacher's work in special places, +under special circumstances, and with special pupils. In the skillful +application of the principles of the science to the actual demands of +the art lies the opportunity for the educator to prove himself a +creative artist; and it is in the difficulty involved in this practical +work that the interest and charm of the educator's work consists. + +The teacher must thus adapt himself to the pupil. But, in doing so, he +must have a care that he do not carry this adaptation to such a degree +as to imply that the pupil is not to change; and he must see to it, +also, that the pupil shall always be worked upon by the matter which he +is considering, and not too much by the personal influence of the +teacher through whom he receives it.[5] + +§ 6. The utmost care is necessary lest experiments which have proved +successful in certain cases should be generalized into rules, and a +formal, dead creed, so to speak, should be adopted. All professional +experiences are valuable as material on which to base new conclusions +and to make new plans, but only for that use. Unless the day's work is, +every day, a new creation, a fatal error has been made. + +§ 7. Pedagogics as a science must consider Education—— + + (1) In its general idea; + + (2) In its different phases; + + (3) In the special systems arising from this general idea, + acting under special circumstances at special times.[6] + +§ 8. With regard to the First Part, we remark that by Education, in its +general idea, we do not mean any mere history of Pedagogics, nor can any +history of Pedagogics be substituted for a systematic exposition of the +underlying idea. + +§ 9. The second division considers Education under three heads——as +physical, intellectual, and moral——and forms, generally, the principal +part of all pedagogical treatises. + +In this part lies the greatest difficulty as to exact limitation. The +ideas on these divisions are often undefined and apt to be confounded, +and the detail of which they are capable is almost unlimited, for we +might, under this head, speak of all kinds of special schools, such as +those for war, art, mining, etc. + +§ 10. In the Third Part we consider the different realizations of the +one general idea of Pedagogics as it has developed itself under +different circumstances and in different ages of the world. + +The general idea is forced into different phases by the varying +physical, intellectual, and moral conditions of men. The result is the +different systems, as shown in the analysis. The general idea is one. +The view of the end to be obtained determines in each case the +actualization of this idea. Hence the different systems of Education are +each determined by the stand-point from which the general ideal is +viewed. Proceeding in this manner, it might be possible to construct a +history of Pedagogics, _à priori_, without reference to actual history, +since all the possible systems might be inferred from the possible +definite number of points of view. + +Each lower stand-point will lead to a higher, but it will not be lost in +it. Thus, where Education, for the sake of the nation,[7] merges into +the Education based on Christianity, the form is not thereby destroyed, +but, rather, in the transition first attains its full realization. The +systems of Education which were based on the idea of the nation had, in +the fullness of time, outgrown their own limits, and needed a new form +in order to contain their own true idea. The idea of the nation, as the +highest principle, gives way for that of Christianity. A new life came +to the old idea in what at first seemed to be its destruction. The idea +of the nation was born again, and not destroyed, in Christianity. + +§ 11. The final system, so far, is that of the present time, which thus +is itself the fruit of all the past systems, as well as the seed of all +systems that are to be. The science of Pedagogics, in the consideration +of the system of the present, thus again finds embodied the general idea +of education, and thus returns upon itself to the point from whence it +set out. In the First and Second Parts there is already given the idea +which dominates the system found thus necessarily existing in the +present. + + + {FIRST PART. {Its Nature. + {In its General {Its Form. + { Idea. {Its Limits. + { + {SECOND PART. {Physical. + {In its Special {Intellectual. + { Elements. {Moral. + { + { { { {Family China. + { { {Passive. {Caste India. + { { { {Monkish Thibet. + { { { + { { { {Military Persia. + { {National. {Active {Priestly Egypt. + { { { {Industrial Phœnicia. + { { { + { { { {Æsthetic Greece. + E { { {Individual. {Practical Rome. + D { { { {Abstract {Northern. + U { { { { Individual{ Barbarians. + C { { + A { {Theocratic. . . . . . . . . . . . Jews. + T { { + I { {Monkish. + O {THIRD PART. { + N {In its { + { Particular { + { Systems. { + { {Chivalric. + { { + { {Humanitarian. {For Special {Jesuitic. + { { { Callings. {Pietistic. + { { + { { {The + { { { {Humanistic. + { {For Civil {To achieve { + { { Life. { an Ideal of {The + { { { Culture. {Philanthropic + { { { {Movement. + { { { + { { {For Free Citizenship. + + + + +FIRST PART. + +The General Idea of Education. + + +§ 12. A full treatment of Pedagogics must distinguish—— + + (1) The nature of Education; + + (2) The form of Education; + + (3) The limits of Education. + + +_I.——The Nature of Education._ + +§ 13. The nature of Education is determined by the nature of mind, the +distinguishing mark of which is that it can be developed only from +within, and by its own activity. Mind is essentially free——_i.e._, it +has the capacity for freedom——but it cannot be said to possess freedom +till it has obtained it by its own voluntary effort. Till then it cannot +be truly said to be free. Education consists in enabling a human being +to take possession of, and to develop himself by, his own efforts, and +the work of the educator cannot be said to be done in any sense where +this is not accomplished. In general, we may say that the work of +education consists in leading to a full development of all the inherent +powers of the mind, and that its work is done when, in this way, the +mind has attained perfect freedom, or the state in which alone it can be +said to be truly itself.[8] + +The isolated human being can never become truly man. If such human +beings (like the wild girl of the forest of Ardennes) have been found, +they have only proved to us that reciprocal action with our fellow +beings is necessary for the development of our powers. Caspar Hauser, in +his subterranean prison, will serve as an example of what man would be +without men. One might say that this fact is typified by the first cry +of the newly-born child. It is as if the first expression of its +seemingly independent life were a cry for help from others. On the side +of nature the human being is at first quite helpless. + +§ 14. Man is, therefore, the only proper object of education. It is true +that we speak of the education of plants and of animals, but we +instinctively apply other terms when we do so, for we say "raising" +plants, and "training" animals. When we "train" or "break" an animal, it +is true that we do, by pain or pleasure, lead him into an exercise of a +new activity. But the difference between this and Education consists in +the fact that, though he possessed capacity, yet by no amount of +association with his kind would he ever have acquired this new +development. It is as if we impress upon his plastic nature the imprint +of our loftier nature, which imprint he takes mechanically, and does not +himself recognize it as his own internal nature. We train him for our +recognition, not for his own. But, on the contrary, when we educate a +human being, we only excite him to create for himself, and out of +himself, that for which he would most earnestly strive had he any +appreciation of it beforehand, and in proportion as he does appreciate +it he recognizes it joyfully as a part of himself, as his own +inheritance, which he appropriates with a knowledge that it is his, or, +rather, is a part of his own nature. He who speaks of "raising" human +beings uses language which belongs only to the slave-dealer, to whom +human beings are only cattle for labor, and whose property increases in +value with the number. + +Are there no school-rooms where Education has ceased to have any +meaning, and where physical pain is made to produce its only possible +result——a mechanical, external repetition? The school-rooms where the +creative word——the only thing which can influence the mind——has ceased +to be used as the means are only plantations, where human beings are +degraded to the position of lower animals. + +§ 15. When we speak of the Education of the human race, we mean the +gradual growth of the nations of the earth, as a whole, towards the +realization of self-conscious freedom. Divine Providence is the teacher +here. The means by which the development is effected are the various +circumstances and actions of the different races of men, and the pupils +are the nations. The unfolding of this great Education is generally +treated of under the head of Philosophy of History. + +§ 16. Education, however, in a more restricted sense, has to do with the +shaping of the individual. Each one of us is to be educated by the laws +of physical nature——by the relations into which we come with the +national life, in its laws, customs, etc., and by the circumstances +which daily surround us. By the force of these we find our arbitrary +will hemmed in, modified, and forced to take new channels and forms. We +are too often unmindful of the power with which these forces are daily +and hourly educating us——_i.e._, calling out our possibilities into +real existence. If we set up our will in opposition to either of these; +if we act in opposition to the laws of nature; if we seriously offend +the laws, or even the customs, of the people among whom we live; or if +we despise our individual lot, we do so only to find ourselves crushed +in the encounter. We only learn the impotence of the individual against +these mighty powers; and that discovery is, of itself, a part of our +education. It is sometimes only by such severe means that God is +revealed to the man who persistently misunderstands and defies His +creation. All suffering brought on ourselves by our own violation of +laws, whether natural, ethical, or divine, must be, however, thus +recognized as the richest blessing. We do not mean to say that it is +never allowable for a man, in obedience to the highest laws of his +spiritual being, to break away from the fetters of nature——to offend the +ethical sense of his own people, or to struggle against the might of +destiny. Reformers and martyrs would be examples of such, and our +remarks above do not apply to them, but to the perverse, the frivolous, +and the conceited; to those who are seeking in their action, not the +undoubted will of God, but their own individual will or caprice. + +§ 17. But we generally use the word Education in a still narrower +sense than either of these, for we mean by it the working of one +individual mind upon or within another in some definite and premeditated +way, so as to fit the pupil for life generally, or for some special +pursuit. For this end the educator must be relatively finished in his +own education, and the pupil must possess confidence in him, or +docility. He must be teachable. That the work be successful, demands the +very highest degree of talent, knowledge, skill, and prudence; and any +development is impossible if a well-founded authority be wanting in the +educator, or docility on the part of the pupil. + +Education, in this narrowest and technical sense, is an outgrowth of +city or urban life. As long as men do not congregate in large cities, +the three forces spoken of in § 16——_i.e._, the forces of nature, +national customs, and circumstances——will be left to perform most of the +work of Education; but, in modern city life, the great complication of +events, the uncertainty in the results——though careful forethought has +been used——the immense development of individuality, and the pressing +need of various information, break the power of custom, and render a +different method necessary. The larger the city is, the more free is the +individual in it from the restraints of customs, the less subjected to +curious criticism, and the more able is he to give play to his own +idiosyncrasies. This, however, is a freedom which needs the counterpoise +of a more exact training in conventionalities, if we would not have it +dangerous. Hence the rapid multiplication of educational institutions +and systems in modern times (one chief characteristic of which is the +development of urban life). The ideal Telemachus of Fenelon differs very +much from the real Telemachus of history. Fenelon proposed an education +which trained a youth to reflect, and to guide himself by reason. The +Telemachus of the heroic age followed the customs ("use and wont") of +his times with _naïve_ obedience. The systems of Education once +sufficient do not serve the needs of modern life, any more than the +defenses once sufficient against hostile armies are sufficient against +the new weapons adopted by modern warfare. + +§ 18. The problem with which modern Education has to deal may be said, +in general terms, to be the development in the individual soul of the +indwelling Reason, both practical (as will) and theoretical (as +intellect). To make a child good is only a part of Education; we have +also to develop his intelligence. The sciences of Ethics and Education +are not the same. Again, we must not forget that no pupil is simply a +human being, like every other human being; he is also an individual, and +thus differs from every other one of the race. This is a point which +must never be lost sight of by the educator. Human beings may be——nay, +must be——educated in company, but they cannot be educated simply in the +mass. + +§ 19. Education is to lead the pupil by a graded series of exercises, +previously arranged and prescribed by the educator, to a definite end. +But these exercises must take on a peculiar form for each particular +pupil under the special circumstances present. Hasty and inconsiderate +work _may_, by chance, accomplish much; but no work which is not +_systematic_ can advance and fashion him in conformity with his tenure, +and such alone is to be called Education; for Education implies both a +comprehension of the end to be attained and of the means necessary to +compass that end. + +§ 20. Culture, however, means more and more every year; and, as the +sum total of knowledge increases for mankind, it becomes necessary, in +order to be a master in any one line, to devote one's self almost +exclusively to that. Hence arises, for the teacher, the difficulty of +preserving the unity and wholeness which are essential to a complete +man. The principle of division of labor comes in. He who is a teacher by +profession becomes one-sided in his views; and, as teaching divides and +subdivides into specialities, this abnormal one-sideness tends more and +more to appear. Here we find a parallelism in the profession of +Medicine, with a corresponding danger of narrowness; for that, too, is +in a process of constant specialization, and the physician who treats +nervous diseases is likely to be of the opinion that all trouble arises +from that part of the organism, or, at least, that all remedies should +be applied there. This tendency to one-sideness is inseparable from the +progress of civilization and that of science and arts. It contains, +nevertheless, a danger of which no teacher should be unwarned. An +illustration is furnished by the microscope or telescope; a higher power +of the instrument implies a narrower field of view. To concentrate our +observation upon one point implies the shutting out of others. This +difficulty with the teacher creates one for the pupil. + +In this view one might be inclined to judge that the life of the savage +as compared with that of civilized man, or that of a member of a rural +community as compared with that of an inhabitant of a city, were the +more to be desired. The savage has his hut, his family, his cocoa-palm, +his weapons, his passions; he fishes, hunts, amuses himself, adorns +himself, and enjoys the consciousness that he is the center of a little +world; while the denizen of a city must often acknowledge that he is, so +to speak, only one wheel of a gigantic machine. Is the life of the +savage, therefore, more favorable to human development? The +characteristic idea of modern civilization is: The development of the +individual as the end for which the State exists. The great empires of +Persia, Egypt, and India, wherein the individual was of value only as he +ministered to the strength of the State, have given way to the modern +nations, where individual freedom is pushed so far that the State seems +only an instrument for the good of the individual. From being the +supreme end of the individual, the State has become the means for his +advancement into freedom; and with this very exaltation of the value of +the mere individual over the State, as such, there is inseparably +connected the seeming destruction of the wholeness of the individual +man. But the union of State and individual, which was in ancient times +merely mechanical, has now become a living process, in which constant +interaction gives rise to all the intellectual life of modern +civilization. + +§ 21. The work of Education being thus necessarily split up, we have +the distinction between general and special schools. The work of the +former is to give general development——what is considered essential for +all men; that of the latter, to prepare for special callings. The former +should furnish a basis for the latter——_i.e._, the College should +precede the Medical School, etc., and the High School the Normal. In the +United States, owing to many causes, this is unfortunately not the case. + +The difference between city and country life is important here. The +teacher in a country school, and, still more, the private tutor or +governess, must be able to teach many more things than the teacher in a +graded school in the city, or the professor in a college or university. +The danger on the one side is of superficiality, on the other of +narrowness. + +§ 22. The Education of any individual can be only relatively finished. +His possibilities are infinite. His actual realization of those +possibilities must always remain far behind. The latter can only +approximate to the former. It can never reach them. The term "finishing +an education" needs, therefore, some definition; for, as a technical +term, it has undoubtedly a meaning. An immortal soul can never complete +its development; for, in so doing, it would give the lie to its own +nature. We cannot speak properly, however, of educating an idiot. Such +an unfortunate has no power of generalization, and no conscious +personality. We can train him mechanically, but we cannot educate him. +This will help to illustrate the difference, spoken of in § 14, between +Education and Mechanical training. + +We obtain astonishing results, it is true, in our schools for idiots, +and yet we cannot fail to perceive that, after all, we have only an +external result. We produce a mechanical performance of duties, and yet +there seems to be no actual mental growth. It is an exogenous, and not +an endogenous, growth, to use the language of Botany.[9] Continual +repetition, under the most gentle patience, renders the movements easy, +but, after all, they are only automatic, or what the physicians call +reflex. + +We have the same result produced in a less degree when we attempt to +teach an intelligent child something which is beyond his active +comprehension. A child may be taught to do or say almost anything by +patient training, but, if what he is to say is beyond the power of his +mental comprehension, and hence of his active assimilation, we are only +training him as we train an animal (§ 14), and not educating him. We +call such recitations parrot recitations, and, by our use of the word, +express exactly in what position the pupils are placed. An idiot is only +a case of permanently arrested development. What in the intelligent +child is a passing phase is for the idiot a fixed state. We have idiots +of all grades, as we have children of all ages. + +The above observations must not be taken to mean that children should +never be taught to perform operations in arithmetic which they do not, +in cant phrase, "perfectly understand," or to learn poetry whose whole +meaning they cannot fathom. Into this error many teachers have fallen. + +There can be no more profitable study for a teacher than to visit one of +these numerous idiot schools. He finds the alphabet of his professional +work there. As the philologist learns of the formation and growth of +language by examining, not the perfectly formed languages, but the +dialects of savage tribes, so with the teacher. In like manner more +insight into the philosophy of teaching and of the nature of the mind +can be acquired by teaching a class of children to read than in any +other grade of work. + + +_II.——The Form of Education._ + +§ 23. The general form of Education follows from the nature of mind. +Mind is nothing but what it itself creates out of its own activity. It +is, at first, mind as undeveloped or unconscious (in the main); but, +secondly, it acquires the power of examining its own action, of +considering itself as an object of attention, as if it were a quite +foreign thing——_i.e._, it reflects (in this stage it is really ignorant +that it is studying its own nature); and, finally, it becomes conscious +that this, which it had been examining, and of whose existence it is +conscious, is its own self: It attains self-consciousness. It is through +this estrangement from itself, given back to itself again and restored +to unity, but it is no longer a simple, unconscious unity. In this third +state only can it be said to be free——_i.e._, to possess itself. +Education cannot create; it can only help to develop into reality the +previously-existent possibility; it can only help to bring forth to +light the hidden life. + +§ 24. All culture, in whatever line, must pass through these two +stages of estrangement and of reunion; the reunion being not of two +different things, but the recognition of itself by thought, and its +acceptance of itself as itself. And the more complete is the +estrangement——_i.e._, the more perfectly can the thought be made to +view itself as a somewhat entirely foreign to itself, to look upon it as +a different and independent somewhat——the more complete and perfect will +be its union with and acceptance of its object as one with itself when +the recognition does finally take place. Through culture we are led to +this conscious possession of our own thought. Plato gives to the +feeling, with which knowledge must necessarily begin, the name of +wonder. But wonder is not knowledge; it is only the first step towards +it. It is the half-terrified attention which the mind fixes on an +object, and the half-terror would be impossible did it not dimly +forebode that it was something of its own nature at which it was +looking. The child delights in stories of the far-off, the strange, and +the wonderful. It is as if they hoped to find in these some solution to +themselves——a solution which they have, as it were, asked in vain of +familiar scenes and objects. Their craving for such is the proof of how +far their nature transcends all its known conditions. They are like +adventurous explorers who push out to unknown regions in hopes of +finding the freedom and wealth which lies only within themselves. They +want to be told about things which they never saw, such as terrible +conflagrations, banditti life, wild animals, gray old ruins, Robinson +Crusoes on far-off, happy islands. They are irresistibly attracted by +whatever is highly colored and dazzlingly lighted. The child prefers the +story of Sinbad the Sailor to any tales of his own home and nation, +because mind has this necessity of getting, as it were, outside of +itself so as to obtain a view of itself. As the child grows to youth he +is, from the same reasons, desirous of traveling. + +§ 25. Work may be defined as the activity of the mind in a conscious +concentration on, and absorption in, some object, with the purpose of +acquiring or producing it. Play is the activity of the mind which gives +itself up to surrounding objects according to its own caprice, without +any thought as to results. The Educator gives out work to the pupil, but +he leaves him to himself in his play. + +§ 26. It is necessary to draw a sharp line between work and play. If the +Educator has not respect for work as an activity of great weight and +importance, he not only spoils the relish of the pupil for play, which +loses all its charm of freedom when not set off by its antithesis of +earnest labor, but he undermines in the pupil's mind all respect for any +real existence. On the other hand, he who does not give to the child +space, time, and opportunity for play prevents the originality of his +pupil from free development through the exercise of his creative +ingenuity. Play sends the child back to his work refreshed, because in +it he loses himself without constraint and according to his own fancy, +while in work he is required to yield himself up in a manner prescribed +for him by another. + +Let the teacher watch his pupils while at play if he would discover +their individual peculiarities, for it is then that they unconsciously +betray their real propensities. This antithesis of work and play runs +through the entire life, the form only of play varying with years and +occupations. To do what we please, as we please, and when we please, not +for any reason, but just because we please, remains play always. +Children in their sports like nothing better than to counterfeit what is +to be the earnest work of their after-lives. The little girl plays with +her dolls, and the boy plays he is a soldier and goes to mimic wars. + +It is, of course, an error to suppose that the play of a child is +simply muscular. The lamb and the colt find their full enjoyment in +capering aimlessly about the field. But to the child play would be +incomplete which did not bring the mind into action. Children derive +little enjoyment from purely muscular exercise. They must at the same +time have an object requiring mental action to attain it. A number of +children set simply to run up and down a field would tire of the +exercise in five minutes; but put a ball amongst them and set them to a +game and they will be amused by it for hours. + +Exceptional mental development is always preceded, and is, indeed, +produced by, an exceptional amount of exercise in the form of play on +the part of the special faculties concerned. The peculiar tendencies +exhibited in play are due to the large development of particular +faculties, and the ultimate giant strength of a faculty is brought about +by play. The genius is no doubt born, not made; but, although born, it +would dwindle away in infancy were it not for the constant exercise +taken in play, which is as necessary for development as food for the +maintenance of life. + +§ 27. Work should never be treated as if it were play, nor play as if it +were work. Those whose work is creative activity of the mind may find +recreation in the details of science; and those, again, whose vocation +is scientific research can find recreation in the practice of art in its +different departments. What is work to one may thus be play to another. +This does not, however, contradict the first statement. + +§ 28. It is the province of education so to accustom us to different +conditions or ways of thinking and acting that they shall no longer seem +strange or foreign to us. When these have become, as we say, "natural" +to us——when we find the acquired mode of thinking or acting just what +our inclination leads us to adopt unconsciously, a _Habit_ has been +formed. A habit is, then, the identity of natural inclination with the +special demands of any particular doing or suffering, and it is thus the +external condition of all progress. As long as we require the conscious +act of our will to the performance of a deed, that deed is a somewhat +foreign to ourselves, and not yet a part of ourselves. The practical +work of the educator may thus be said to consist in leading the mind of +the pupil over certain lines of thought till it becomes "natural" or +spontaneous for him to go by that road. Much time is wasted in schools +where the pupil's mind is not led aright at first, for then he has to +unlearn habits of thought which are already formed. The work of the +teacher is to impress good methods of studying and thinking upon the +minds of his pupils, rather than to communicate knowledge. + +§ 29. It is, at first sight, entirely indifferent what a Habit shall +relate to——_i.e._, the point is to get the pupil into the way of +forming habits, and it is not at first of so much moment what habit is +formed as that a habit is formed. But we cannot consider that there is +anything morally neutral in the abstract, but only in the concrete, or +in particular examples. An action may be of no moral significance to one +man, and under certain circumstances, while to another man, or to the +same man under different circumstances, it may have quite a different +significance, or may possess an entirely opposite character. Appeal must +be made, then, to the individual conscience of each one to decide what +is and what is not permissible to that individual under the given +circumstances. Education must make it its first aim to awaken in the +pupil a sensitiveness to spiritual and ethical distinctions which knows +that nothing is in its own nature morally insignificant or indifferent, +but shall recognize, even in things seemingly small, a universal human +significance. But, yet, in relation to the highest interests of morality +or the well-being of society, the pupil must be taught to subordinate +without hesitation all that relates exclusively to his own personal +comfort or welfare for the well-being of his fellow-men, or for moral +rectitude. + +When we reflect upon habit, it at once assumes for us the character of +useful or injurious. The consequences of a habit are not indifferent. + +Whatever action tends as a harmonious means to the realization of our +purpose is desirable or advantageous, and whatever either partially +contradicts or wholly destroys it is disadvantageous. Advantage and +disadvantage being, then, only relative terms, dependent upon the aim or +purpose which we happen to have in view, a habit which may be +advantageous to one man under certain circumstances may be +disadvantageous to another man, or even to the same man, under other +circumstances. Education must, then, accustom the youth to consider for +himself the expediency or inexpediency of any action in relation to his +own vocation in life. He must not form habits which will be inexpedient +with regard to that. + +§ 31. There is, however, an _absolute_ distinction of habits as morally +good and bad. From this absolute stand-point we must, after all, decide +what is for us allowable or forbidden, what is expedient and what +inexpedient. + +§ 32. As to its form, habit may be either passive or active. By passive +habit is meant a habit of composure which surveys undisturbed whatever +vicissitudes, either external or internal, may fall to our lot, and +maintains itself superior to them all, never allowing its power of +acting to be paralyzed by them. It is not, however, merely a stoical +indifference, nor is it the composure which comes from inability to +receive impressions——a sort of impassivity. It is that composure which +is the highest result of power. Nor is it a selfish love of ease which +intentionally withdraws itself from annoyances in order to remain +undisturbed. It is not manifested because of a desire to be out of these +vicissitudes. It is, while in them, to be not of them. It is the +composure which does not fret itself over what it cannot change. The +soul that has built for itself this stronghold of freedom within itself +may vividly experience joy and sorrow, pain and pleasure, and yet +serenely know that it is intrenched in walls which are inaccessible to +their attacks, because it knows that it is infinitely superior to all +that may chance or change. What is meant by active habit in distinction +from passive habit is found in our external activity, as skill, +facility, readiness of information, etc. It might be considered as the +equipping of our inner selves for active contest with the external +world; while passive habit is the fortifying of our inner selves against +the attack of the external world. The man who possesses habit in both +these forms impresses himself in many different ways on the outer world, +while at the same time, and all the time, he preserves intact his +personality from the constant assaults of the outer world. He handles +both spear and shield. + +§ 33. All education, in whatever line, must work by forming habits +physical, mental, or moral. It might be said to consist in a conversion +of actions which are at first voluntary, by means of repetition, into +instructive actions which are performed, as we say, naturally——_i.e._, +without any conscious volition. We teach a child to walk, or he teaches +himself to walk by a constant repetition of the action of the will upon +the necessary muscles; and, when the thinking brain hands over the +mechanism to the trained spinal cord, the anxious, watchful look +disappears from the face, and the child talks or laughs as he runs: then +that part of his education is completed. Henceforth the attention that +had been necessary to manage the body in walking is freed for other +work. This is only an illustration, easily understood, of what takes +place in all education. Mental and moral acts, thoughts, and feelings in +the same way are, by repetition, converted into habits and become our +nature; and character, good or bad, is only the aggregate of our habits. +When we say a person has no character, we mean exactly this: that he has +no fixed habits. But, as the great end of human life is freedom, he must +be above even habit. He must not be wholly a machine of habits, and +education must enable him to attain the power of breaking as well as of +forming habits, so that he may, when desirable, substitute one habit for +another. For habits may be (§ 29), according to their nature, proper or +improper, advantageous or disadvantageous, good or bad; and, according +to their form, may be (§ 32) either the acceptance of the external by +the internal or the reaction of the internal upon the external. Through +our freedom we must be able, not only to renounce any habit formed, but +to form a new and better one. Man should be supreme above all habits, +wearing them as garments which the soul puts on and off at will. It must +so order them all as to secure for itself a constant progress of +development into still greater freedom. In this higher view habits +become thus to our sight only necessary accompaniments of imperfect +freedom. Can we conceive of God, who is perfect Freedom, as having any +habits? We might say that, as a means toward the ever-more decided +realization of the Good, we must form a habit of voluntarily making and +breaking off habits. We must characterize as bad those habits which +relate only to our personal convenience or enjoyment. They are often not +essentially blameworthy, but there lies in them a hidden danger that +they may allure us into luxury or effeminacy. It is a false and +mechanical way of looking at the affair to suppose that a habit which +had been formed by a certain number of repetitions can be broken off by +an equal number of refusals. We can never utterly renounce a habit which +we decide to be undesirable for us except through decision and firmness. + +§ 34. Education, then, must consider the preparation for authority and +obedience (§ 17); for a rational ordering of one's actions according to +universal principles, and, at the same time, a preservation of +individuality (§ 18); for work and play (§ 25); for habits of +spontaneity or originality (§ 28). To endeavor by any set rules to +harmonize in the pupil these opposites will be a vain endeavor, and +failure in the solution of the problem is quite possible by reason of +the freedom of the pupil, of surrounding circumstances, or of mistakes +on the part of the teacher, and the possibility of this negative result +must, therefore, enter as an element of calculation into the work +itself. All the dangers which may in any way threaten the youth must be +considered in advance, and he must be fortified against them. While we +should not intentionally expose the youth to temptation in order to +prove his strength of resistance, neither should we, on the other hand, +endeavor to seclude him from all chance of dangerous temptation. To do +the former would be satanic; while to do the latter would be ridiculous, +useless, and in fact dangerous in the highest degree, for temptation +comes more from within than from without, and any secret inclination +will in some way seek, or even create, its own opportunity for +gratification. The real safety from sin lies, not in seclusion of one's +self from the world[10]——for all the elements of worldliness are innate +in each individual——but in an occupying of the restless activity in +other ways, in learning and discipline; these being varied as time goes +on, according to the age and degree of proficiency. Not to crush out, +but to direct, the child's activity, whether physical or mental, is the +key to all real success in education. The sentimentalism which has, +during the last few years, in this country (the United States), tended +to diminish to so great an extent the actual work to be performed by our +boys and girls, has set free a dangerous amount of energy whose new +direction gives cause for grave alarm. To endeavor to prevent the youth +from all free and individual relations with the real world, implies a +never-ending watch kept over him. The consciousness of being thus +"shadowed" destroys in the youth all elasticity of spirit, all +confidence, and all originality. A constant feeling of, as it were, a +detective police at his side obscures all sense of independent action, +systematically accustoming him to dependence. Though, as the +tragic-comic story of Peter Schlemihl shows, the loss of a man's own +shadow may involve him in a series of fatalities,[11] yet to be +"shadowed" constantly by a companion, us in the pedagogical system of +the Jesuits, undermines all naturalness. And, if we endeavor to guard +too strictly against what is evil and wrong, the pupil reacts, bringing +all his intelligence into the service of his craft and cunning, till the +would-be educator stands aghast at the discovery of such evil-doing as +he had supposed impossible under his strict supervision. Within the +circle of whatever rules it may be found necessary to draw around the +young there must always be left space for freedom. Pupils should always +be led to see that all rules against which they fret are only of their +own creation; and that as grave-stones mark the place where some one has +fallen, so every law is only a record of some previous wrong-doing. The +law "Thou shalt not kill" was not given till murder had been committed. +In other words, the wrong deed preceded the law against it, and perfect +obedience is the same as perfect freedom. No obedience except that which +we gain from the pupil's own convictions has real educational +significance. + +§ 35. If there appears in the youth any decided deformity opposed to +the ideal which we would create in him, we should at once inquire into +its history and origin. The negative and positive are so closely +related, and depend so intimately on each other, in our being that what +appears to us to be negligence, rudeness, immorality, foolishness, or +oddity may arise from some real necessity of the pupil which in its +process of development has only taken a wrong direction. + +§ 36. If it should appear, on such examination, that the wrong action +was the result of avoidable ignorance, of caprice, or willfulness on the +part of the pupil, this calls for a simple prohibition on the part of +the teacher, no reason being assigned. His authority must be sufficient +for the pupil without any reason. When the fault is repeated, and the +pupil is old enough to understand, then only should the grounds of the +prohibition be stated with it. This should, however, be done in few +words, and the educator must never allow himself to lose, in a doctrinal +lecture, the idea of discipline. If he do, the pupil will soon forget +that it was his own misbehavior which was the cause of all the remarks. +The statement of the reason must be honest, and must be presented to the +youth on the side most easy for him to appreciate. False reasons are not +only morally wrong, but they lead the mind astray. We also commit a +grave error when we try to unfold to the youth all the possible +consequences of his wrong act, for those possible consequences are too +far off to affect his mind. The long lecture wearies him, especially if +it be in a stereotyped form; and with teachers who are fault-finding, +and who like to hear themselves talk, this is apt to be the case. Still +more unfortunate would it be if we really should affect the lively +imagination of a sensitive youth by our description of the wretchedness +to which his wrong-doing, if persisted in, might lead him, for then the +conviction that he has already taken one step in that direction may +produce in him a fear which in the future man may become terrible +depression and lead to degradation. + +§ 37. If to censure we add the threat of punishment, we have then what +in common language is called scolding. + +If threats are made, the pupil must be made to feel that they will be +faithfully executed according to the word. + +The threat of punishment is, however, to be avoided; for circumstances +may arise which will render its fulfillment not only objectionable, but +wrong, and the teacher will then find himself in the position of Herod +and bound "for his oath's sake" to a course of action which no longer +seems the best. Even the law in affixing a penalty to definite crimes +allows a certain latitude in a maximum and minimum of awarded +punishment. + +§ 38. It is only after other means of reformation have been tried, and +have failed, that punishment is justifiable for error, transgression, or +vice. When our simple prohibition (§ 36), the statement of our reason +for the prohibiting (§ 36), and threat of punishment (§ 37) have all +failed, then punishment comes and intentionally inflicts pain on the +youth in order to force him by this last means to a realization of his +wrong-doing. And here the punishment must not be given for general bad +conduct or for a perverse disposition——those being vague +generalities——but for a special act of wrong-doing at that time. He +should not be punished because he is naturally bad or because he is +generally naughty, but for this one special and particular act which he +has committed. Thus the punishment will act on the general disposition, +not directly, but through this particular act, as a manifestation of the +disposition. Then it will not accuse the innermost nature of the +culprit. This way of punishment is not only demanded by justice, but it +is absolutely necessary in view of the fact of the sophistry inherent in +human nature which is always busy in assigning various motives for its +actions. If the child understands, then, that he is punished for that +particular act which he knows himself to have committed, he cannot feel +the bitter sense of injustice and misunderstanding which a punishment +inflicted for general reasons, and which attributes to him a depravity +of motives and intentions, so often engenders. + +§ 39. Punishment as an educational means must, nevertheless, be always +essentially corrective, since it seeks always to bring the youth to a +comprehension of his wrong-doing and to a positive alteration in his +behavior, and, hence, has for its aim to improve him. At the same time +it is a sad testimony of the insufficiency of the means which have +been previously tried. We should on no account aim to terrify the +youth by physical force, so that to avoid that he will refrain from +doing the wrong or from repeating a wrong act already done. This would +lead only to terrorism, and his growing strength would soon put him +beyond its power and leave him without motive for refraining from +evil. Punishment may have this effect in some degree, but it should, +above all, be made to impress deeply upon his mind the eternal truth +that the evil deed is never allowed in God's universe to act +unrestrained and according to its own will, but that the good and true +is the only absolute power in the world, and that it is never at a +loss to avenge any contradiction of its will and design. + +It may be questioned whether the moral teaching in our schools be not +too negative in its measures; whether it do not confine itself too much +to forbidding the commission of the wrong deed, and spend too little +force in securing the performance of the right deed. Not a simple +refraining from the wrong, but an active doing of the right would be the +better lesson to inculcate. + +In the laws of the state the office of punishment is first to satisfy +justice,[12] and only after this is done can the improvement of the +criminal be considered. If government should proceed on the same basis +as the educator, it would make a grave mistake, for it has to deal, not +with children, but with adults, to whom it concedes the dignity of full +responsibility for all their acts. It has not to consider the reasons, +either psychological or ethical, which prompted the deed. The actual +deed is what it has first of all to deal with, and only after that is +considered and settled can it take into view any mitigating +circumstances connected therewith, or any peculiarity of the individual. +The educator, on the other hand, has to deal with those who are immature +and only growing toward responsibility. As long as they are under the +care of a teacher, he is at any rate partially accountable for what they +do. We must never confound the nature of punishment in the State with +that of punishment as an educational means. + +§ 40. As to punishment, as with all other work in education, it can +never be abstractly determined beforehand, but it must be regulated with +a view to the individual pupil and his peculiar circumstances. What it +shall be, and how and when administered, are problems which call for +great ingenuity and tact on the part of the educator. It must never be +forgotten that punishments vary in intensity at the will of the +educator. He fixes the standard by which they are measured in the +child's mind. Whipping is actual physical pain, and an evil in itself to +the child. But there are many other punishments which involve no +physical pain, and the intensity of which, as felt by the child, varies +according to an artificial standard in different schools. "To sit under +the clock" was a great punishment in one of our public schools——not that +the seat was not perfectly comfortable, but that one was never sent +there to sit unless for some grave misdemeanor. The teacher has the +matter in his own hands, and it is well to remember this and to grade +his punishments with much caution, so as to make all pass for their full +value. In some schools even suspension is so common that it does not +seem to the pupil a very terrible thing. "Familiarity breeds contempt," +and frequency implies familiarity. A punishment seldom resorted to will +always seem to the pupil to be severe. As we weaken, and in fact +bankrupt, language by an inordinate use of superlatives, so, also, do we +weaken any punishment by its frequent repetition. Economy of resources +should be always practiced. + +§ 41. In general, we might say that, for very young children, corporal +punishment is most appropriate; for boys and girls, isolation; and for +older youth, something which appeals to the sense of honor. + +§ 42. (1) Corporal punishment implies physical pain. Generally it +consists of a whipping, and this is perfectly justifiable in case of +persistent defiance of authority, of obstinate carelessness, or of +malicious evil-doing, so long or so often as the higher perceptions of +the offender are closed against appeal. But it must not be administered +too often, or with undue severity. To resort to deprivation of food is +cruel. But, while we condemn the false view of seeing in the rod the +only panacea for all embarrassing questions of discipline on the +teacher's part, we can have no sympathy for the sentimentality which +assumes that the dignity of humanity is affected by a blow given to a +child. It is wrong thus to confound self-conscious humanity with +child-humanity, for to the average child himself a blow is the most +natural form of retribution, and that in which all other efforts at +influence at last end. The fully grown man ought, certainly, not to be +flogged, for this kind of punishment places him on a level with the +child; or, where it is barbarously inflicted, reduces him to the level +of the brute, and thus absolutely does degrade him. In English schools +the rod is said to be often used; if a pupil of the first class, who is +never flogged, is put back into the second, he becomes again subject to +flogging. But, even if this be necessary in the schools, it certainly +has no proper place in the army and navy. + +§ 43. (2) To punish a pupil by isolation is to remove him temporarily +from the society of his fellows. The boy or girl thus cut off from +companionship, and forced to think only of himself, begins to understand +how helpless he is in such a position. Time passes wearily, and he is +soon eager to return to the companionship of parents, brothers and +sisters, teachers and fellow-students. + +But to leave a child entirely by himself without any supervision, and +perhaps in a dark room, is as wrong as to leave two or three together +without supervision. It often happens when they are kept after school by +themselves that they give the freest rein to their childish wantonness, +and commit the wildest pranks. + +§ 44. (3) Shutting children up in this way does not touch their sense +of honor, and the punishment is soon forgotten, because it relates only +to certain particular phases of their behavior. But it is quite +different when the pupil is isolated from his fellows on the ground that +by his conduct he has violated the very principles which make civilized +society possible, and is, therefore, no longer a proper member of it. +This is a punishment which touches his sense of honor, for honor is the +recognition of the individual by others as their equal, and by his +error, or by his crime, he had forfeited his right to be their equal, +their peer, and has thus severed himself from them. + +The separation from them is thus only the external form of the real +separation which he himself has brought to pass within his soul, and +which his wrong-doing has only made clearly visible. This kind of +punishment, thus touching the whole character of the youth and not +easily forgotten, should be administered with the greatest caution lest +a permanent loss of self-respect follow. When we think our wrong-doing +to be eternal in its effects, we lose all power of effort for our own +improvement. + +This sense of honor cannot be developed so well in family life, because +in the family the ties of blood make all in a certain sense equal, no +matter what may be their conduct. He who has by wrong-doing severed +himself from society is still a member of the family, and within its +sacred circle is still beloved, though it may be with bitter tears. No +matter how wrong he may have been, he still can find there the deepest +sympathy, for he is still father, brother, etc. It is in the contact of +one family with another that the feeling of honor is first developed, +and still more in the contact of the individual with an institution +which is not bound to him by any natural ties, but is an organism +entirely external to him. Thus, to the child, the school and the +school-classes offer a means of development which can never be found in +the family. + +This fact is often overlooked by those who have the charge of the +education of children. No home education, no private tutorship, can take +the place of the school as an educational influence. For the first time +in his life the child, on being sent to school, finds himself in a +community where he is responsible for his own deeds, and where he has no +one to shield him. The rights of others for whom he has no special +affection are to be respected by him, and his own are to be defended. +The knowledge gained at the school is by no means the most valuable +acquisition there obtained. It must never be forgotten by the teacher +that the school is an institution on an entirely different basis from +the family, and that personal attachment is not the principle on which +its rule can be rightly based. + +§ 45. This gradation of punishment from physical pain, up through +occasional isolation, to the touching of the innermost sense of honor is +very carefully to be considered, both with regard to the different ages +at which they are severally appropriate and to the different discipline +which they necessarily produce. Every punishment must, however, be +always looked at as a means to some end, and is thus transitory in its +nature. The pupil should always be conscious that it is painful to the +teacher to punish him. Nothing can be more effectual as a means of cure +for the wrong-doer than to perceive in the manner and tone of the voice, +in the very delay with which the necessary punishment is administered, +that he who punishes also suffers in order that the wrong-doer may be +cured of his fault. The principle of vicarious suffering lies at the +root of all spiritual healing. + + +_III.——The Limits of Education._ + +§ 46. As far as the external form of education is concerned, its limit +is reached in the instrumentality of punishment in which we seek to turn +the activity which has been employed in a wrong direction into its +proper channel, to make the deed positive instead of negative, to +substitute for the destructive deed one which shall be in harmony with +the constructive forces of society. But education implies its real +limits in its definition, which is to build up the individual into +theoretical and practical Reason. When this work goes properly on, the +authority of the educator, as authority, necessarily loses, every day, +some of its force, as the guiding principles come to form a part of the +pupil's own character, instead of being super-imposed on him from +without through the mediation of the educator. What was authority +becomes now advice and example; unreasoning and implicit obedience +passes into gratitude and affection. The pupil wears off the rough edges +of his crude individuality, which is transfigured, so to speak, into the +universality and necessity of Reason, but without losing his identity in +the process. Work becomes enjoyment, and Play is found only in a change +of activity. The youth takes possession of himself, and may now be left +to himself. There are two widely differing views with regard to the +limits of education; one lays great stress on the powerlessness of the +pupil and the great power of the teacher, and asserts that the teacher +must create something out of the pupil. + +This view is often seen to have undesirable results, where large +numbers are to be educated together. It assumes that each pupil is only +"a sample of the lot" on whom the teacher is to affix his stamp, as if +they were different pieces of goods from some factory. Thus +individuality is destroyed, and all reduced to one level, as in +cloisters, barracks, and orphan asylums, where only one individual seems +to exist. Sometimes it takes the form of a theory which holds that one +can at will flog anything into or out of a pupil. This may be called a +superstitious belief in the power of education. The opposite extreme may +be found in that system which advocates a "severe letting alone," +asserting that individuality is unconquerable, and that often the most +careful and circumspect education fails of reaching its aim because the +inherent nature of the youth has fought against it with such force as to +render abortive all opposing efforts. This idea of Pedagogy produces a +sort of indifference about means and ends which would leave each +individuality to grow as its own instinct and the chance influences of +the world might direct. The latter view would, of course, preclude the +possibility of any science of education, and make the youth only the +sport of blind fate. The comparative power of inherited tendencies and +of educational appliances is, however, one which every educator should +carefully study. Much careless generalization has been made on this +topic, and opinion is too often based upon some one instance where +accurate observation of methods and influences have been wanting. + +§ 47. Education has necessarily a definite _subjective limit_ in the +individuality of the youth, for it can develop in him only that which +exists in him as a possibility. It can lead and assist, but it has no +power to create. What nature has denied to a man education cannot give +him, any more than it can on the other hand annihilate his original +gifts, though it may suppress, distort, and measurably destroy them. And +yet it is impossible to decide what is the real essence of a man's +individuality until he has left behind him the years of growth, because +it is not till then that he fully attains conscious possession of +himself. Moreover, at this critical time many traits which were supposed +to be characteristic may prove themselves not to be so by disappearing, +while long-slumbering and unsuspected talents may crop out. Whatever has +been forced upon a child, though not in harmony with his individuality, +whatever has been driven into him without having been actively accepted +by him, or having had a definite relation to his culture——will remain +perhaps, but only as an external foreign ornament, only as a parasitic +growth which weakens the force of his real nature. But we must +distinguish from these little affectations which arise from a +misconception of the limits of individuality that effort of imitation +which children and young people often exhibit in trying to copy in their +own actions those peculiarities which they observe and admire in +perfectly-developed persons with whom they may come in contact. They see +a reality which corresponds to their own possibility, and the +presentiment of a like or a similar attainment stirs them to imitation, +although this external imitation may be sometimes disagreeable or +ridiculous to the lookers-on. We ought not to censure it too severely, +remembering that it springs from a positive striving towards true +culture, and needs only to be properly directed, and never to be roughly +put down. + +§ 48. _The objective limit_ of education consists in the means +which can be applied for it. That the capacity for culture should exist +is the first condition of success, but it is none the less necessary +that it be cultivated. But how much cultivation shall be given to it +must depend in very great degree on the means which are practicable, and +this will undoubtedly again depend on the worldly possessions and +character of the family to which the pupil belongs. If he comes of a +cultivated and refined family, he will have a great advantage at the +start over his less favored comrades; and, with regard to many of the +arts and sciences, this limitation of education is of great +significance. But the means alone will not answer. Without natural +capacity, all the educational apparatus possible is of no avail. On the +other hand, real talent often accomplishes incredible feats with very +limited means; and, if the way is only once open, makes of itself a +center of attraction which draws to itself as with magnetic power the +necessary means. Moral culture is, however, from its very nature, raised +above such dependence. + +If we fix our thought on the subjective limit——that of individuality (§ +47)——we detect the ground for that indifference which lays little stress +on education (§ 46, end). If, on the other hand, we concentrate our +attention on the means of culture, we shall perceive the reason of the +other extreme spoken of——of that pedagogical despotism (§ 46) which +fancies that it is able to prescribe and enforce at will upon the pupil +any culture whatever, without regard to his special characteristics. + +§ 49. Education comes to its _absolute limit_ when the pupil has +apprehended the problem which he is to solve, has comprehended the means +which are at his disposal, and has acquired the necessary skill in using +them. The true educator seeks to render himself unnecessary by the +complete emancipation of the youth. He works always towards the +independence of the pupil, and always with the design of withdrawing so +soon as he shall have reached this stand-point, and of leaving him to +the full responsibility for his own deeds. To endeavor to hold him in +the position of a pupil after this time has been reached would be to +contradict the very essence of education, which must find its result in +the independent maturity of the youth. The inequality which formerly +existed between pupil and teacher is now removed, and nothing becomes +more oppressive to the former than any endeavor to force upon him the +authority from which, in reality, his own efforts have freed him. But +the undue hastening of this emancipation is as bad an error as an effort +after delay. The question as to whether a person is really ready for +independent action——as to whether his education is finished——may be +settled in much the same way in education as in politics. When any +people has progressed so far as to put the question whether they are +ready for freedom, it ceases to be a question; for, without the inner +consciousness of freedom itself, the question would never have occurred +to them. + +§ 50. But, although the pupil may rightly now be freed from the hands of +instructors, and no longer obtain his culture through them, it is by no +means to be understood that he is not to go on with the work himself. He +is now to educate himself. Each must plan out for himself the ideal +toward which he must daily strive. In this process of +self-transformation a friend may aid by advice and example, but he +cannot educate, for the act of educating necessarily implies inequality +between teacher and pupil. The human necessity for companionship gives +rise to societies of different kinds, in which we may, perhaps, say that +there is some approach to educating their members, the necessary +inequality being supplied by various grades and orders. They presuppose +education in the usual sense of the word, but they wish to bring about +an education in a higher sense, and, therefore, they veil the last form +of their ideal in mystery and secrecy. + +By the term _Philister_ the Germans indicate the man of a civilized +state who lives on, contented with himself and devoid of any impulse +towards further self-culture. To one who is always aspiring after an +Ideal, such a one cannot but be repulsive. But how many are they who do +not, sooner or later, in mature life, crystallize, as it were, so that +any active life, any new progress, is to them impossible? + + +ANALYSIS AND COMMENTARY. + +§ 1. Pedagogics is not a complete, independent science by itself. It +borrows the results of other sciences [_e.g._, it presupposes the +science of Rights, treating of the institutions of the family and civil +society, as well as of the State; it presupposes the science of +anthropology, in which is treated the relations of the human mind to +nature. Nature conditions the development of the individual human being. +But the history of the individual and the history of the race presents a +continual emancipation from nature, and a continual growth into freedom, +_i.e._, into ability to know himself and to realize himself in the +world by making the matter and forces of the world his instruments and +tools. Anthropology shows us how man as a natural being——_i.e._, as +having a body——is limited. There is climate, involving heat and cold and +moisture, the seasons of the year, etc.; there is organic growth, +involving birth, growth, reproduction, and decay; there is race, +involving the limitations of heredity; there is the telluric life of the +planet and the circulation of the forces of the solar system, whence +arise the processes of sleeping, waking, dreaming, and kindred +phenomena; there is the emotional nature of man, involving his feelings, +passions, instincts, and desires; then there are the five senses, and +their conditions. Then, there is the science of phenomenology, treating +of the steps by which mind rises from the stage of mere feeling and +sense-perception to that of self-consciousness, _i.e._, to a +recognition of mind as true substance, and of matter as mere phenomenon +created by Mind (God). Then, there is psychology, including the +treatment of the stages of activity of mind, as so-called "faculties" of +the mind, _e. g_, attention, sense-perception, imagination, conception, +understanding, judgment, reason, and the like. Psychology is generally +made (by English writers) to include, also, what is here called +anthropology and phenomenology. After psychology, there is the science +of ethics, or of morals and customs; then, the Science of Rights, +already mentioned; then, Theology, or the Science of Religion, and, +after all these, there is Philosophy, or the Science of Science. Now, it +is clear that the Science of Education treats of the process of +development, by and through which man, as a merely natural being, +becomes spirit, or self-conscious mind; hence, it presupposes all the +sciences named, and will be defective if it ignores nature, or mind, or +any stage or process of either, especially Anthropology, Phenomenology, +Psychology, Ethics, Rights, Æsthetics, or Science of Art and Literature, +Religion, or Philosophy]. + +§ 2. The scope of pedagogics being so broad, and its presuppositions so +vast, its limits are not well defined, and its treatises are very apt to +lack logical sequence and conclusion; and, indeed, frequently to be mere +collections of unjustified and unexplained assumptions, dogmatically set +forth. Hence the low repute of pedagogical literature as a whole. + +§ 3. Moreover, education furnishes a special vocation, that of teaching. +(All vocations are specializing——being cut off, as it were, from the +total life of man. The "division of labor" requires that each individual +shall concentrate his endeavors and be a _part_ of the whole). + +§ 4. Pedagogics, as a special science, belongs to the collection of +sciences (already described, in commenting on § 1) included under the +philosophy of Spirit or Mind, and more particularly to that part of it +which relates to the will (ethics and science of rights, rather than to +the part relating to the intellect and feeling, as anthropology, +phenomenology, psychology, æsthetics, and religion. "Theoretical" +relates to the _intellect_, "practical" relates to the _will_, in this +philosophy). The province of practical philosophy is the investigation +of the nature of freedom, and the process of securing it by +self-emancipation from nature. Pedagogics involves the conscious +exertion of influence on the part of the will of the teacher upon the +will of the pupil, with a purpose in view——that of inducing the pupil to +form certain prescribed habits, and adopt prescribed views and +inclinations. The entire science of mind (as above shown), is +presupposed by the science of education, and must be kept constantly in +view as a guiding light. The institution of the _family_ (treated in +practical philosophy) is the starting-point of education, and without +this institution properly realized, education would find no solid +foundation. The right to be educated on the part of children, and the +duty to educate on the part of parents, are reciprocal; and there is no +family life so poor and rudimentary that it does not furnish the most +important elements of education——no matter what the subsequent influence +of the school, the vocation, and the state. + +§ 5. Pedagogics as science, distinguished from the same as an art: the +former containing the abstract general treatment, and the latter taking +into consideration all the conditions of concrete individuality, +_e.g._, the peculiarities of the teacher and the pupil, and all the +local circumstances, and the power of adaptation known as "tact." + +§ 6. The special conditions and peculiarities, considered in education +as an art, may be formulated and reduced to system, but they should not +be introduced as a part of the _science_ of education. + +§ 7. Pedagogics has three parts: first, it considers the idea and nature +of education, and arrives at its true definition; second, it presents +and describes the special provinces into which the entire field of +education is divided; third, it considers the historical evolution of +education by the human race, and the individual systems of education +that have arisen, flourished, and decayed, and their special functions +in the life of man. + +§ 8. The scope of the first part is easy to define. The history of +pedagogics, of course, contains all the ideas or definitions of the +nature of education; but it must not for that reason be substituted for +the scientific investigation of the nature of education, which alone +should constitute this first part (and the history of education be +reserved for the third part). + +§ 9. The second part includes a discussion of the threefold nature of +man as body, intellect, and will. The difficulty in this part of the +science is very great, because of its dependence upon other sciences +(_e. g_, upon physiology, anthropology, etc.), and because of the +temptation to go into details (_e. g_, in the practical department, to +consider the endless varieties of schools for arts and trades). + +§ 10. The third part contains the exposition of the various national +standpoints furnished (in the history of the world) for the bases of +particular systems of education. In each of these systems will be found +the general idea underlying all education, but it will be found existing +under special modifications, which have arisen through its application +to the physical, intellectual, and ethical conditions of the people. But +we can deduce the essential features of the different systems that may +appear in history, for there are only a limited number of systems +possible. Each lower form finds itself complemented in some higher form, +and its function and purpose then become manifest. The systems of +"national" education (_i.e._, Asiatic systems, in which the +individuality of each person is swallowed up in the substantiality of +the national idea——just as the individual waves get lost in the ocean on +whose surface they arise) find their complete explanation in the systems +of education that arise in Christianity (the preservation of human life +being the object of the nation, it follows that when realized abstractly +or exclusively, it absorbs and annuls the mental independence of its +subjects, and thus contradicts itself by destroying the essence of what +it undertakes to preserve, _i.e._, life (soul, mind); but within +Christianity the principle of the state is found so modified that it is +consistent with the infinite, untrammelled development of the +individual, intellectually and morally, and thus not only life is saved, +but spiritual, free life is attainable for each and for all). + +§ 11. The history of pedagogy ends with the present system as the latest +one. As science sees the future ideally contained in the present, it is +bound to comprehend the latest system as a realization (though +imperfect) of the ideal system of education. Hence, the system, as +scientifically treated in the first part of our work, is the system with +which the third part of our work ends. + +§ 12. The nature of education, its form, its limits, are now to be +investigated. (§§ 13-50.) + +§ 13. The nature of education determined by the nature of Mind or +Spirit, whose activity is always devoted to realizing for itself what it +is potentially——to becoming conscious of its possibilities, and to +getting them under the control of its will. Mind is potentially free. +Education is the means by which man seeks to realize in man his +possibilities (to develop the possibilities of the race in each +individual). Hence, education has freedom for its object. + +§ 14. Man is the only being capable of education, in the sense above +defined, because the only conscious being. He must know himself ideally, +and then realize his ideal self, in order to become actually free. The +animals not the plants may be _trained_, or _cultivated_, but, as devoid +of self-consciousness (even the highest animals not getting above +impressions, not reaching ideas, not seizing general or abstract +thoughts), they are not realized for _themselves_, but only for us. +(That is, they do not know their ideal as we do.) + +§ 15. Education, taken in its widest compass, is the education of the +human race by Divine Providence. + +§ 16. In a narrower sense, education is applied to the shaping of the +individual, so that his caprice and arbitrariness shall give place to +rational habits and views, in harmony with nature and ethical customs. +He must not abuse nature, nor slight the ethical code of his people, nor +despise the gifts of Providence (whether for weal or woe), unless he is +willing to be crushed in the collision with these more substantial +elements. + +§ 17. In the narrowest, but most usual application of the term, we +understand by "education" the influence of the individual upon the +individual, exerted with the object of developing his powers in a +conscious and methodical manner, either generally or in special +directions, the educator being relatively mature, and exercising +authority over the relatively immature pupil. Without authority on the +one hand and obedience on the other, education would lack its ethical +basis——a neglect of the will-training could not be compensated for by +any amount of knowledge or smartness. + +§ 18. The general province of education includes the development of the +individual into the theoretical and practical reason immanent in him. +The definition which limits education to the development of the +individual into ethical customs (obedience to morality, social +conventionalities, and the laws of the state——Hegel's definition is here +referred to: "The object of education is to make men ethical") is not +comprehensive enough, because it ignores the side of the _intellect_, +and takes note only of the _will_. The individual should not only be man +in general (as he is through the adoption of moral and ethical +forms——which are _general_ forms, customs, or laws, and thus the forms +imposed by the _will_ of the _race_), but he should also be a +self-conscious subject, a particular individual (man, through his +intellect, exists for himself as an individual, while through his +general habits and customs he loses his individuality and spontaneity). + +§ 19. Education has a definite object in view and it proceeds by grades +of progress toward it. The systematic tendency is essential to all +education, properly so called. + +§ 20. Division of labor has become requisite in the higher spheres of +teaching. The growing multiplicity of branches of knowledge creates the +necessity for the specialist as teacher. With this tendency to +specialties it becomes more and more difficult to preserve what is so +essential to the pupil——his rounded human culture and symmetry of +development. The citizen of modern civilization sometimes appears to be +an artificial product by the side of the versatility of the savage man. + +§ 21. From this necessity of the division of labor in modern times there +arises the demand for two kinds of educational institutions——those +devoted to general education (common schools, colleges, etc.), and +special schools (for agriculture, medicine, mechanic arts, etc). + +§ 22. The infinite possibility of culture for the individual leaves, +of course, his actual accomplishment a mere approximation to a complete +education. Born idiots are excluded from the possibility of education, +because the lack of universal ideas in their consciousness precludes to +that class of unfortunates anything beyond a mere mechanical training. + +§ 23. Spirit, or mind, makes its own nature; it _is_ what it produces——a +self-result. From this follows the _form_ of education. It commences +with (1) undeveloped mind——that of the infant——wherein nearly all is +potential, and but little is actualized; (2) its first stage of +development is self-estrangement——it is absorbed in the observation of +objects around it; (3) but it discovers laws and principles +(universality) in external nature, and finally identifies them with +reason——it comes to recognize itself in nature——to recognize conscious +mind as the creator and preserver of the external world——and thus +becomes at home in nature. Education does not create, but it +emancipates. + +§ 24. This process of self-estrangement and its removal belongs to all +culture. The mind must fix its attention upon what is foreign to it, and +penetrate its disguise. It will discover its own substance under the +seeming alien being. Wonder is the accompaniment of this stage of +estrangement. The love of travel and adventure arises from this basis. + +§ 25. Labor is distinguished from play: The former concentrates its +energies on some object, with the purpose of making it conform to its +will and purpose; play occupies itself with its object according to its +caprice and arbitrariness, and has no care for the results or products +of its activity; work is prescribed by authority, while play is +necessarily spontaneous. + +§ 26. Work and Play: the distinction between them. In play the child +feels that he has entire control over the object with which he is +dealing, both in respect to its existence and the object for which it +exists. His arbitrary will may change both with perfect impunity, since +all depends upon his caprice; he exercises his powers in play according +to his natural proclivities, and therein finds scope to develope his own +individuality. In work, on the contrary, he must have respect for the +object with which he deals. It must be held sacred against his caprice, +must not be destroyed nor injured in any way, and its object must +likewise be respected. His own personal inclinations must be entirely +subordinated, and the business that he is at work upon must be carried +forward in accordance with its own ends and aims, and without reference +to his own feelings in the matter. + +Thus work teaches the pupil the lesson of self-sacrifice (the right of +superiority which the general interest possesses over the particular), +while play develops his personal idiosyncrasy. + +§ 27. Without play, the child would become more and more a machine, and +lose all freshness and spontaneity——all originality. Without work, he +would develop into a monster of caprice and arbitrariness. + +From the fact that man must learn to combine with man, in order that the +individual may avail himself of the experience and labors of his +fellow-men, self-sacrifice for the sake of combination is the great +lesson of life. But as this should be _voluntary_ self-sacrifice, +education must train the child equally in the two directions of +spontaneity and obedience. The educated man finds recreation in change +of work. + +§ 28. Education seeks to assimilate its object——to make what was alien +and strange to the pupil into something familiar and habitual to him. +[The pupil is to attack, one after the other, the foreign realms in the +world of nature and man, and conquer them for his own, so that he can be +"at home" in them. It is the necessary condition of all growth, all +culture, that one widens his own individuality by this conquest of new +provinces alien to him. By this the individual transcends the narrow +limits of particularity and becomes generic——the individual becomes the +species. A good definition of education is this: it is the process by +which the individual man elevates himself to the species.] + +§ 29. (1) Therefore, the first requirement in education is that the +pupil shall acquire the habit of subordinating his likes and dislikes to +the attainment of a rational object. + +It is necessary that he shall acquire this indifference to his own +pleasure, even by employing his powers on that which does not appeal to +his interest in the remotest degree. + +§ 30. Habit soon makes us familiar with those subjects which seemed so +remote from our personal interest, and they become agreeable to us. The +objects, too, assume a new interest upon nearer approach, as being +useful or injurious to us. That is useful which serves us as a means for +the realization of a rational purpose; injurious, if it hinders such +realization. It happens that objects are useful in one sense and +injurious in another, and _vice versa_. Education must make the pupil +capable of deciding on the usefulness of an object, by reference to its +effect on his permanent vocation in life. + +§ 31. But _good and evil_ are the ethical distinctions which furnish the +absolute standard to which to refer the question of the usefulness of +objects and actions. + +§ 32. (2) Habit is (a) _passive_, or (b) _active_. The passive habit +is that which gives us the power to retain our equipoise of mind in the +midst of a world of changes (pleasure and pain, grief and joy, etc). The +active habit gives us skill, presence of mind, tact in emergencies, etc. + +§ 33. (3) Education deals altogether with the formation of habits. For +it aims to make some condition or form of activity into a second nature +for the pupil. But this involves, also, the breaking up of previous +habits. This power to break up habits, as well as to form them, is +necessary to the freedom of the individual. + +§ 34. Education deals with these complementary relations (antitheses): +(a) authority and obedience; (b) rationality (_general_ forms) and +individuality; (c) work and play; (d) habit (general custom) and +spontaneity. The development and reconciliation of these opposite sides +in the pupil's character, so that they become his second nature, removes +the phase of constraint which at first accompanies the formal +inculcation of rules, and the performance of prescribed tasks. The +freedom of the pupil is the ultimate object to be kept in view, but a +too early use of freedom may work injury to the pupil. To remove a pupil +from all temptation would be to remove possibilities of growth in +strength to resist it; on the other hand, to expose him needlessly to +temptation is fiendish. + +§ 35. Deformities of character in the pupil should be carefully traced +back to their origin, so that they may be explained by their history. +Only by comprehending the historic growth of an organic defect are we +able to prescribe the best remedies. + +§ 36. If the negative behavior of the pupil (his bad behavior) results +from ignorance due to his own neglect, or to his wilfulness, it should +be met directly by an act of authority on the part of the teacher (and +without an appeal to reason). An appeal should be made to the +understanding of the pupil only when he is somewhat mature, or shows by +his repetition of the offence that his proclivity is deep-seated, and +requires an array of all good influences to reinforce his feeble +resolutions to amend. + +§ 37. Reproof, accompanied by threats of punishment, is apt to +degenerate into scolding. + +§ 38. After the failure of other means, punishment should be resorted +to. Inasmuch as the punishment should be for the purpose of making the +pupil realize that it is the consequence of his deed returning on +himself, it should always be administered for some particular act of +his, and this should be specified. The "overt act" is the only thing +which a man can be held accountable for in a court of justice; although +it is true that the harboring of evil thoughts or intentions is a sin, +yet it is not a crime until realized in an overt act. + +§ 40. Punishment should be regulated, not by abstract rules, but in view +of the particular case and its attending circumstances. + +§ 41. Sex and age of pupil should be regarded in prescribing the mode +and degree of punishment. Corporal punishment is best for pupils who are +very immature in mind; when they are more developed they may be punished +by any imposed restraint upon their free wills which will isolate them +from the ordinary routine followed by their fellow-pupils. (Deprivation +of the right to do as others do is a wholesome species of punishment for +those old or mature enough to feel its effects, for it tends to secure +respect for the regular tasks by elevating them to the rank of rights +and privileges.) For young men and women, the punishment should be of a +kind that is based on a sense of honor. + +§ 42. (1) Corporal punishment should be properly administered by means +of the rod, subduing wilful defiance by the application of force. + +§ 48. (2) Isolation makes the pupil realize a sense of his dependence +upon human society, and upon the expression of this dependence by +coöperation in the common tasks. Pupils should not be shut up in a dark +room, nor removed from the personal supervision of the teacher. (To shut +up two or more in a room without supervision is not isolation, but +association; only it is association for mischief, and not for study.) + +§ 44. (3) Punishment based on the sense of honor may or may not be based +on isolation. It implies a state of maturity on the part of the pupil. +Through his offence the pupil has destroyed his equality with his +fellows, and has in reality, in his inmost nature, isolated himself from +them. Corporal punishment is external, but it may be accompanied with a +keen sense of dishonor. Isolation, also, may, to a pupil, who is +sensitive to honor, be a severe blow to self-respect. But a punishment +founded entirely on the sense of honor would be wholly internal, and +have no external discomfort attached to it. + +§ 45. The necessity of carefully adapting the punishment to the age +and maturity of the pupil, renders it the most difficult part of the +teacher's duties. It is essential that the air and manner of the teacher +who punishes should be that of one who acts from a sense of painful +duty, and not from any delight in being the cause of suffering. Not +personal likes and dislikes, but the rational necessity which is over +teacher and pupil alike, causes the infliction of pain on the pupil. + +§ 46. Punishment is the final topic to be considered under the head of +"Form of Education." + +In the act of punishment the teacher abandons the legitimate province of +education, which seeks to make the pupil rational or obedient to what is +reasonable, as a habit, and from his own free will. The pupil is +punished in order that he may be _made_ to conform to the rational, by +the application of constraint. Another will is substituted for the +pupil's, and good behavior is produced, but not by the pupil's free act. +While education finds a negative limit in punishment, it finds a +positive limit in the accomplishment of its legitimate object, which is +the emancipation of the pupil from the state of imbecility, as regards +mental and moral self-control, into the ability to direct himself +rationally. When the pupil has acquired the discipline which enables him +to direct his studies properly, and to control his inclinations in such +a manner as to pursue his work regularly, the teacher is no longer +needed for him——he becomes his own teacher. + +There may be two extreme views on this subject——the one tending towards +the negative extreme of requiring the teacher to do everything for the +pupil, substituting his will for that of the pupil, and the other view +tending to the positive extreme, and leaving everything to the pupil, +even before his will is trained into habits of self-control, or his mind +provided with the necessary elementary branches requisite for the +prosecution of further study. + +§ 47. (1) The subjective limit of education (on the negative side) is to +be found in the individuality of the pupil——the limit to his natural +capacity. + +§ 48. (2) The objective limit to education lies in the amount of time +that the person may devote to his training. It, therefore, depends +largely upon wealth, or other fortunate circumstances. + +§ 49. (3) The absolute limit of education is the positive limit (see § +46), beyond which the youth passes into freedom from the school, as a +necessary instrumentality for further culture. + +§ 50. The pre-arranged pattern-making work of the school is now done, +but self-education may and should go on indefinitely, and will go on if +the education of the school has really arrived at its "absolute" +limit——_i.e._, has fitted the pupil for self-education. Emancipation +from the school does not emancipate one from learning through his +fellow-men. Man's spiritual life is one depending upon coöperation with +his fellow-men. Each must avail himself of the experience of his +fellow-men, and in turn communicate his own experience to the common +fund of the race. Thus each lives the life of the whole, and all live +for each. School-education gives the pupil the instrumentalities with +which to enable him to participate in this fund of experience——this +common life of the race. After school-education comes the still more +valuable education, which, however, without the school, would be in a +great measure impossible. + + + + +ERRATA. + + +§ 26. Last two paragraphs should be within quotation marks, being from +an English author. + +§ 29. The second and third paragraphs belong to § 30.——the numbering +being omitted. + +§ 33. Line four——"instructive" should be "intuitive." + + + + +SECOND PART. + +The Special Elements of Education. + + +§ 51. Education is the development of the theoretical and practical +Reason which is inborn in the human being. Its end is to be accomplished +by the labor which transforms a condition, existent at first only as an +ideal, into a fixed habit, and changes the natural individuality into a +glorified humanity. When the youth stands, so to speak, on his own feet, +he is emancipated from education, and education then finds its limit. +The special elements which may be said to make up education are the +life, the cognition, and the will of man. Without the first, the real +nature of the soul can never be made really to appear; without +cognition, he can have no genuine will——_i.e._, one of which he is +conscious; and without will, no self-assurance, either of life or of +cognition. It must not be forgotten that these three so-called elements +are not to be held apart in the active work of education; for they are +inseparable and continually interwoven the one with the other. But none +the less do they determine their respective consequences, and sometimes +one, sometimes another has the supremacy. In infancy, up to the fifth or +sixth year, the physical development, or mere living, is the main +consideration; the next period, that of childhood, is the time of +acquiring knowledge, in which the child takes possession of the theory +of the world as it is handed down——a tradition of the past, such as man +has made it through his experience and insight; and finally, the period +of youth must pave the way to a practical activity, the character of +which the self-determination of the will must decide. + +§ 52. We may, then, divide the elements of Pedagogics into three +sections: (1) the physical, (2) the intellectual, (3) the practical. +(The words "orthobiotics," "didactics," and "pragmatics" might be used +to characterize them.) + +Æsthetic training is only an element of the intellectual, as social, +moral, and religious training are elements of the practical. But because +these latter elements relate to external things (affairs of the world), +the name pragmatics, is appropriate. In so far as education touches on +the principles which underlie ethics, politics, and religion, it concurs +with those sciences, but it is distinguished from them in the capacity +which it imparts for solving the problems presented by the others. + +The scientific order of topics must be established through the fact that +the earlier, as the more abstract, constitute the condition of their +presupposed end and aim, and the later because the more concrete +constitute the ground of the former, and consequently their final cause, +or the end for which they exist; just as in human beings, life in the +order of time comes before cognition, and cognition before will, +although life really presupposes cognition, and cognition will. + + +FIRST DIVISION. + +PHYSICAL EDUCATION, OR ORTHOBIOTICS. + + +§ 53. Only when we rightly comprehend the process of life may we know +how to live aright. Life, the "circle of eternal change," is constantly +transforming the inorganic into the organic, and after using it, +returning it again to the realm of the inorganic. Whatever it does not +assimilate of that which it has taken in simply as a stimulant, and +whatever has become dead, it separates from itself and rejects. The +organism is in perfect health when it accomplishes this double task of +organizing and disorganizing. On the comprehension of this single fact +all laws of physical health or of hygiene are based. This idea of the +essence of life is expressed by Goethe in his Faust, where he sees the +golden buckets perpetually rising and sinking.[13] When the equilibrium +of the upward and downward motion is disturbed, we have disease. When +the motion ceases we have death, in which the whole organism becomes +inorganic, and the "dust returns to dust." + +§ 54. It follows from this that not only in the organism as a whole, but +in every organ, and every part of every organ, this restless change of +the inorganic to the organic is going on. Every cell has its own +history, and this history is only the same as that of the whole of which +it forms a part. Activity is then not inimical to the organism, but is +the appointed means by which the progressive and retrogressive +metamorphoses must be carried out. In order that the process may go on +harmoniously, or, in other words, that the body may be healthy, the +whole organism, and every part of it in its own way, must have its +period of productive activity and then also its period of rest in which +it finds renewal of strength for another period of activity. Thus we +have waking and sleep, inspiration and expiration of air. Periodicity is +the law of life. When we understand the relative antagonism (their stage +of tension) of the different organs, and their cycles of activity, we +shall hold the secret of the constant self-renewal of life. This thought +finds expression in the old fairy stories of "The Search after the +Fountain of Youth." And the figure of the fountain, with its rising and +falling waters, doubtless finds its origin in the dim comprehension of +the endless double movement, or periodicity of life. + +§ 55. When to any organ, or to the whole organism, not sufficient time +is allowed for it to withdraw into itself and to repair waste, we are +conscious of fatigue. While the other organs all rest, however, one +special organ may, as if separated from them, sustain a long-continued +effort of activity even to the point of fatigue, without injury——as, +_e.g._, the lungs in talking while all the other members are at rest. +But, on the other hand, it is not well to talk and run at the same time. + +The idea that the body may be preserved in a healthy state longer by +sparing it——_i.e._, by inactivity——is an error which springs from a +false and mechanical conception of life. It is just as foolish to +imagine that health depends on the abundance and excellence of food, for +without the power of assimilating the food taken, nourishment of +whatever kind does more harm than good; all real strength develops from +activity alone. + +§ 56. Physical education, according as it relates to the repairing, the +muscular, or the emotional activities, is divided into (1) diatetics, +(2) gymnastics, (3) sexual education. In the direct activity of life +these all interact with each other, but for our purposes we are obliged +to speak of them as if they worked independently. Moreover, in the +development of the human being, they come into maturity of development +in a certain order: nutrition, muscular growth, sexual maturity. But +Pedagogics can treat of these only as they are found in the infant, the +child, and the youth; for with the arrival of mature life, education is +over. + + +FIRST CHAPTER. + +_Diatetics._ + + +§ 57. By diatetics we mean the art of repairing the constant waste of +the system, and, in childhood, of also building it up to its full form +and size. Since in reality each organism has its own way of doing this, +the diatetical practice must vary somewhat with sex, age, temperament, +occupation, and circumstances. The science of Pedagogics has then, in +this department, only to enunciate general principles. If we go into +details, we fall into triviality. Nothing can be of more importance for +the whole life than the way in which the physical education is managed +in the very first stages of development. So generally is this fact +accepted, that almost every nation has its own distinct system, which +has been carefully elaborated. Many of these systems, no doubt, are +characterized by gross errors, and widely differ as to time, place, and +character, and yet they all have a justification for their peculiar +form. + +§ 58. The best food for the infant in the first months of its life is +its mother's milk. The employment of another nurse, if a general custom, +as in France, is highly objectionable, since with the milk the child is +likely to imbibe to some extent his physical and ethical nature. The +milk of an animal can never supply the place to a child of that of its +own mother. In Walter Scott's story of _The Fair Maid of Perth_, Eachim +is represented as timorous by nature, having been nourished by a white +doe after the death of his mother. + +§ 59. When the teeth make their appearance, it is a sign that the child +is ready for solid food; and yet, till the second teeth appear, light, +half-solid food and vegetables should constitute the principal part of +the diet. + +§ 60. When the second teeth have come, then the organism demands both +vegetable and animal food. Too much meat is, doubtless, harmful. But it +is an error to suppose that man was intended to eat vegetables alone, +and that, as some have said, the adoption of animal food is a sign of +his degeneracy. + +The Hindoos, who live principally on a vegetable diet, are not at all, +as has been asserted, a mild and gentle race. A glance into their +stories, especially their erotic poetry, proves them to be quite as +passionate as any other people. + +§ 61. Man is an omnivorous being. Children have, therefore, a natural +desire to taste of every thing. With them, eating and drinking have +still a poetic side, and there is a pleasure in them which is not wholly +the mere pleasure of taste. Their proclivity to taste of every thing +should not, therefore, be harshly censured, unless it is associated with +disobedience, or pursued in a clandestine manner, or when it betrays +cunning and greediness. + +§ 62. Children need much sleep, because they are growing and changing so +fast. In later years, waking and sleeping must be regulated, and yet not +too exactly. + +§ 63. The clothing of children should follow the form of the body, and +should be large enough to give them free room for the unfettered +movement of every limb in play. + +The Germans do more rationally for children in the matter of sleep and +of dress than in that of food, which they often make too rich, and +accompany with coffee, tea, etc. The clothing should be not only +suitable in shape and size, it must also be made of simple and +inexpensive material, so that the child may not be hampered in his play +by the constant anxiety that a spot or a rent may cause fault to be +found with him. If we foster in the child's mind too much thought about +his clothes, we tend to produce either a narrow-mindedness, which treats +affairs of the moment with too much respect and concerns itself with +little things, or an empty vanity. Vanity is often produced by dressing +children in a manner that attracts attention. (No one can fail to remark +the peculiar healthful gayety of German children, and to contrast it +with the different appearance of American children. It is undoubtedly +true that the climate has much to do with this result, but it is also +true that we may learn much from that nation in our way of treating +children. Already we import their children's story-books, to the +infinite delight of the little ones, and copies of their children's +pictures are appropriated constantly by our children's magazines and +picture-books. It is to be greatly desired that we should adopt the very +sensible custom which prevails in Germany, of giving to each child its +own little bed to sleep in, no matter how many may be required; and, in +general, we shall not go far astray if we follow the Germans in their +treatment of their happy children.) + +§ 64. Cleanliness is a virtue to which children should be trained, not +only for the sake of their physical health, but also because it has a +decided moral influence. Cleanliness will not have things deprived of +their distinctive and individual character, and become again a part of +original chaos. It is only a form of order which remands all things, +dirt included, to their own places, and will not endure to have things +mixed and confused. All adaptation in dress comes from this same +principle. When every thing is in its proper place, all dressing will be +suitable to the occasion and to the wearer, and the era of good taste in +dress will have come. Dirt itself, as Lord Palmerston so wittily said, +is nothing but "matter out of place." Cleanliness would hold every +individual thing strictly to its differences from other things, and for +the reason that it makes pure air, cleanliness of his own body, of his +clothing, and of all his surroundings really necessary to man, it +develops in him the feeling for the proper limitations of all existent +things. (Emerson says: "Therefore is space and therefore is time, that +men may know that things are not huddled and lumped, but sundered and +divisible." He might have said, "Therefore is cleanliness.") + + +SECOND CHAPTER. + +_Gymnastics._ + + +§ 65. Gymnastics is the art of cultivating in a rational manner the +muscular system. The activity of the voluntary muscles, which are under +the control of the brain, in distinction from the involuntary, which are +under the control of the spinal cord, renders possible the connection of +man with the external world, and acts in a reflex manner back upon the +involuntary or automatic muscles for the purposes of repair and +sensation. Because the activity of muscle-fibre consists in the change +from contraction to expansion, and the reverse, gymnastics must use a +constant change of movements which shall not only make tense, but relax +the muscles that are to be exercised. + +§ 66. The gymnastic art among any people will always bear a certain +relation to its art of war. So long as fighting consists mainly of +personal, hand-to-hand encounters of two combatants, so long will +gymnastics turn its chief effort towards the development of the greatest +possible amount of individual strength and dexterity. But after the +invention of fire-arms of long range has changed the whole idea of war, +the individual becomes only one member of a body, the army, the +division, or the regiment, and emerges from this position into his +individuality again only occasionally, as in sharpshooting, in the +onset, or in the retreat. Modern gymnastics, as an art, can never be the +same as the ancient art, for this very reason: that because of the loss +of the individual man in the general mass of combatants, the matter of +personal bravery is not of so much importance as formerly. The same +essential difference between ancient and modern gymnastics, would result +from the subjective, or internal character of the modern spirit. It is +impossible for us, in modern times, to devote so much thought to the +care of the body and to the reverential admiration of its beauty as did +the Greeks. + +The Turners' Unions and Turners' Halls in Germany belonged to the period +of intense political enthusiasm in the German youth, and had a political +significance. Now they have come back again to their place as an +instrument of education, and seem in great cities to be of much +importance. In mountainous countries, and in country life generally, a +definite gymnastic drill is of much less importance, for much and varied +exercise is of necessity a constant part of the daily life of every one. + +The constant opportunity and the impulse to recreation helps in the same +direction. In cities, on the contrary, there is not free space enough +either in houses or yards for children to romp to their heart's and +body's content. For this reason a gymnasium is here useful, so that they +may have companionship in their plays. For girls this exercise is less +necessary. Dancing may take its place, and systematic exercise should be +used only where there is a tendency to some weakness or deformity. They +are not to become Amazons. On the other hand, boys need the feeling of +comradeship. It is true they find this in some measure in school, but +they are not there perfectly on an equality, because the standing is +determined to some extent by his intellectual ability. The academic +youth cannot hope to win any great preëminence in the gymnastic hall, +and running, climbing, leaping, and lifting do not interest him very +much as he grows older. He takes a far more lively interest in exercises +which have a military character. In Germany the gymnastic art is very +closely united with the art of war. + +(The German idea of a woman's whole duty——to knit, to sew, and to obey +implicitly——is perhaps accountable for what Rosenkranz here says of +exercise as regards girls. We, however, who know that the most frequent +direct cause of debility and suffering in our young women is simply and +solely a want of muscular strength, may be pardoned for dissenting from +his opinion, and for suggesting that dancing is not a sufficient +equivalent for the more violent games of their brothers. We do not fear +to render them Amazons by giving them more genuine and systematic +exercise, both physically and intellectually.) + +§ 67. The main idea of gymnastics, and indeed of all exercise, is to +give the mind control over its natural impulses, to make it master of +the body which it inhabits, and of itself. Strength and dexterity must +combine to give us a sense of mastership. Strength by itself produces +the athlete, dexterity by itself the acrobat. Pedagogics must avoid both +these extremes. Neither must it base its teaching of gymnastics on the +idea of utility——as, _e. g_, that man might save his life by swimming, +should he fall into the water, and hence swimming should be taught, etc. + +The main thought must be always to enable the soul to take full and +perfect possession of the organism, so as not to have the body form a +limit or fetter to its action in its dealings with the external world. +We are to give it a perfect instrument in the body, in so far as our +care may do so. Then we are to teach it to use that instrument, and +exercise it in that use till it is complete master thereof. + +(What is said about the impropriety of making athletes and acrobats may +with justice be also applied to what is called "vocal gymnastics;" +whence it comes that we have too often vocal athletes and acrobats in +our graduates, and few readers who can read at sight, without difficulty +or hesitation, and with appreciation or enjoyment, one page of good +English.) + +§ 68. There are all grades of gymnastic exercises, from the simple to +the most complex, constituting a system. At first sight, there seems to +be so much arbitrariness in these things that it is always very +satisfactory to the mind to detect some rational system in them. Thus we +have movements (_a_) of the lower extremities, (_b_) of the upper, (_c_) +of the whole body, with corresponding movements, alternately, of the +upper and of the lower extremities. We thus have leg, arm, and trunk +movements. + +§ 69. (1) The first set of movements, those of the legs and feet, are of +prime importance, because upon them depends the carriage of the whole +body. They are (_a_) walking, (_b_) running, (_c_) leaping; and each of +these, also, may have varieties. We may have high and low leaping, and +running may be distinguished as to whether it is to be a short and +rapid, or a slow and long-continued movement. We may also walk on +stilts, or run on skates. We may leap with a pole, or without one. +Dancing is only an artistic and graceful combination of these movements. + +§ 70. (2) The second set comprises the arm movements, which are about +the same as the preceding, being (_a_) lifting, (_b_) swinging; (_c_) +throwing. The use of horizontal poles and bars, as well as climbing and +dragging, belong to lifting. Under throwing, come quoit and ball-playing +and bowling. These movements are distinguished from each other not only +quantitatively, but qualitatively; as, for instance, running is not +merely rapid walking; it is a different kind of movement from walking, +as the position of the extended and contracted muscles is different. + +§ 71. (3) The third set of exercises, those of the trunk, differ from +the other two, which should precede it, in that they bring the body into +contact with an object in itself capable of active resistance, which it +has to subdue. This object may be an element (water), an animal, or a +human being; and thus we have (_a_) swimming, (_b_) riding, (_c_) +fighting in single combat. In swimming we have the elastic fluid, water, +to overcome by means of arm and leg movements. This may be made very +difficult by a strong current, or by rough water, and yet we always have +here to strive against an inanimate object. On the contrary, in +horseback riding we have to deal with something that has a self of its +own, and the contest challenges not our strength alone, but also our +skill and courage. The motion is therefore very complex, and the rider +must be able to exercise either or all of these qualities at need. But +his attention must not be wholly given to his horse, for he has to +observe also the road, and indeed every thing around him. One of the +greatest advantages of horseback riding to the overworked student or the +business man lies doubtlessly in the mental effort. It is impossible for +him to go on revolving in his mind the problems or the thoughts which +have so wearied or perplexed him. His whole attention is incessantly +demanded for the management of his horse, for the observation of the +road, which changes its character with every step, and with the objects, +far or near, which are likely to attract the attention of the animal he +rides. Much good, doubtless, results from the exercise of the muscles of +the trunk, which are not in any other motion called into such active +play, but much also from the unavoidable distraction of the mind from +the ordinary routine of thought, which is the thing most needed. When +the object which we are to subdue, instead of being an animal, is a man +like ourselves, as in single combat, we have exercise both of body and +mind pushed to its highest power. We have then to oppose an intelligence +which is equal to our own, and no longer the intelligence of an +unreasoning animal. Single combat is the truly chivalrous exercise; and +this also, as in the old chivalry time, may be combined with +horsemanship. + +In single combat we find also a qualitative distinction, and this of +three kinds: (_a_) boxing and wrestling, (_b_) fighting with canes or +clubs, and (_c_) rapier and sword fencing. The Greeks carried wrestling +to its highest pitch of excellence. Among the British, a nation of +sailors, boxing is still retained as a national custom. Fencing with a +cane or stick is much in use among the French artisan class. The cane is +a sort of refined club. When the sword or rapier makes its appearance, +we come to mortal combat. The southern European excels in the use of the +rapier; the Germans in that of the sword. The appearance of the pistol +marks the degeneracy of the art of single combat, as it makes the weak +man equal to the strong, and there is therefore no more incentive to +train the body to strength in order to overcome an enemy. (The trained +intelligence, the quick eye, the steady hand, the wary thought to +perceive and to take advantage of an opportunity——these are the +qualities which the invention of gunpowder set up above strength and +brute force. The Greek nation, and we may say Greek mythology and art, +would have been impossible with gunpowder; the American nation +impossible without it.) + + +THIRD CHAPTER. + +_Sexual Education._ + + +[This chapter is designed for parents rather than for teachers, and is +hence not paraphrased here. A few observations are, however, in place.] +Great care is necessary at the period of youth that a rational system of +food and exercise be maintained. But the general fault is in the +omission of this care in preceding years. One cannot neglect due +precautions for many years, and then hope to repair the damage caused, +by extreme care for one or two years. + +Special care is necessary that the brain be not overworked in early +years, and a morbid excitation of the whole nervous system thereby +induced. We desire to repress any tendency to the rapid development of +the nervous system. Above all, is the reading of the child to be +carefully watched and guarded. Nothing can be worse food for a child +than what are called sensational romances. That the reading of such +tends to enfeeble and enervate the whole thinking power is a fact which +properly belongs to the intellectual side of our question not yet +reached, and may be here merely mentioned. But the effect on the +physical condition of the youth, of such carelessly written sensational +stories, mostly of the French type, and full of sensuous, if not sensual +suggestions, is a point not often enough considered. The teacher cannot, +perhaps, except indirectly, prevent the reading of such trash at home. +But every influence which he can bring to bear towards the formation of +a purer and more correct taste, he should never omit. Where there is a +public library in the town, he should make himself acquainted with its +contents, and give the children direct help in their selection of books. + +This is an external means. But he should never forget that every +influence which he can bring to bear in his daily work to make science +pleasant and attractive, and every lesson which he gives in the use of +pure, correct English, free from exaggeration, from slang, and from +mannerism, goes far to render such miserable and pernicious trash +distasteful even to the child himself. + +Every example of thorough work, every pleasure that comes from the +solving of a problem or the acquisition of a new fact, is so much +fortification against the advances of the enemy; while all shallow half +work, all pretence or show tend to create an appetite in the child's +mind which shall demand such food. + +The true teacher should always have in his mind these far-away and +subtle effects of his teaching; not present good or pleasure either for +himself or his pupil, but the far-off good——the distant development. +That idea would free him from the notion, too common in our day, that +the success or failure of his efforts is to be tested by any adroitly +contrived system of examinations; or still worse, exhibitions. His +success can alone be tested by the future lives of his pupils——by their +love for, or dislike of, new knowledge. His success will be marked by +their active growth through all their lives; his failure, by their early +arrested development. + + + + +AN OUTLINE OF EDUCATIONAL PSYCHOLOGY. + +BY WM. T. HARRIS. + +[TO BE USED AS AN INTRODUCTION TO PARAGRAPHS 81 TO 102 OF ROSENKRANZ'S +PEDAGOGICS.] + + +I. + + What beings can be educated; the plant has reaction + against its surroundings in the form of nutrition; the + animal has reaction in the form of nutrition and feeling; + Aristotle calls the life of the plant the "nutritive + soul," and the life of the animal the "sensitive soul." + + The life of the plant is a continual reproduction of new + individuals——a process of going out of one individual into + another——so that the particular individual loses its + identity, although the identity of the species is + preserved. + +That which is dependent upon external circumstances, and is only a +circumstance itself, is not capable of education. Only a "self" can be +educated; and a "self" is a conscious unity——a "self-activity," a being +which is through itself, and not one that is made by surrounding +conditions. + +Again, in order that a being possess a capacity for education, it must +have the ability to realize within itself what belongs to its species or +race. + +If an acorn could develop itself so that it could realize, not only its +own possibility as an oak, but its entire species, and all the varieties +of oaks within itself, and without losing its particular individuality, +it would possess the capacity for education. But an acorn, in reality, +cannot develop its possibility without the destruction of its own +individuality. The acorn vanishes in the oak tree, and the crop of +acorns which succeeds is not again the same acorn, except in _kind_ or +species. "The species lives, but the individual dies," in the vegetable +world. + +So it is in the animal world. The brute lives his particular life, +unable to develop within himself the form of his entire species, and +still less the form of all animal life. And yet the animal possesses +self-activity in the powers of locomotion, sense-perception, feeling, +emotion, and other elementary shapes. Both animal and plant react +against surroundings, and possess more or less power to assimilate what +is foreign to them. The plant takes moisture and elementary inorganic +substances, and converts them into nutrition wherewith to build its +cellular growth. The animal has not only this power of nutrition, which +assimilates its surroundings, but also the power of _feeling_, which is +a wonderful faculty. _Feeling_ reproduces within the organism of the +animal the external condition; it is an ideal reproduction of the +surroundings. The environment of the plant may be seized upon and +appropriated in the form of sap, or in the form of carbonic acid, for +the nourishment of that plant; but there is no ideal reproduction of the +environment in the form of _feeling_, as in the animal. + +In the activity of _feeling_, the animal transcends his material, +corporeal limits——lives beyond his mere body, and participates in the +existence of all nature. He reproduces within himself the external. Such +being the nature of the activity of _feeling_, which forms the +distinguishing attribute that divides animals from plants, the question +meets us at the outset, "Why is not the animal capable of education? Why +can he not realize within himself his entire species or race, as man +can?" + +In order to settle this fundamental question, we must study carefully +the scope and limits of this activity, which we have termed "Feeling," +and which is known under many names——as, sensation, sensibility, +sensitivity, sense-perception, intuition, and others. + +Education aims to develop the mind as intellect and will. It must know +what it is to develop, and learn to distinguish higher or more complete +stages of intellect and will from those which are rudimentary. + +Again, the discussion of mind begins properly with the first or most +undeveloped manifestation——at the stage where it is common to brutes and +human beings. Hence we may begin our study of educational psychology at +this point where the distinction between animal and plant appears, and +where the question of the capacity for education arises. + +When we understand the relation of feeling or sensibility to the higher +manifestations of mind, we shall see in what consists a capacity for +education, and we shall learn many essentials in regard to the matter +and method, the _what_ and the _how_ of education. + +A general survey of the world discovers that there is inter-action +among its parts. This is the verdict of science, as the systematic form +of human experience. In the form of gravitation we understand that each +body depends upon every other body, and the annihilation of a particle +of matter in a body would cause a change in that body which would affect +every other body in the physical universe. Even gravitation, therefore, +is a manifestation of the whole universe in each part of it, although it +is not a manifestation which exists _for_ that part, because the part +does not _know_ it. + +There are other forms wherein the whole manifests itself in each part of +it——as, for example, in the phenomena of light, heat, and possibly in +magnetism and electricity. These forms of manifestation of the external +world upon an individual object are destructive to the individuality of +the object. If the nature of a thing is stamped upon it from without, it +is an element only, and not a self; it is dependent, and belongs to that +on which it depends. It does not possess itself, but belongs to that +which _makes_ it, and which gives evidence of ownership by continually +modifying it. + +But the plant, as we just now said, has some degree of self-activity, +and is not altogether made by the totality of external conditions. The +growth of the plant is through assimilation of external substances. It +reacts against its surroundings and digests them, and grows through the +nutrition thus formed. + +All beings that cannot react against surroundings and modify them, lack +individuality. Individuality begins with this power of reaction and +modification of external surroundings. Even the power of cohesion is a +rudimentary form of reaction and of special individuality. + +In the case of the plant, the reaction is _real_, but not also _ideal_. +The plant acts upon its food, and digests it, or assimilates it, and +imposes its _form_ on that which it draws within its organism. It does +not, however, reproduce within itself the externality as that external +exists for itself. It does not form within itself an idea, or even a +feeling of that which is external to it. Its participation in the +external world is only that of _real_ modification of it or through it; +either the plant digests the external, or the external limits _it_, and +prevents its growth, so that where one begins the other ceases. Hence it +is that the elements——the matter of which the plant is composed, that +which it has assimilated even——still retain a large degree of foreign +power or force——a large degree of externality which the plant has not +been able to annul or to digest. The plant-activity subdues its food, +changes its shape and its place, subordinates it to its use; but what +the matter brings with it, and still retains of the world beyond the +plant, does not exist for the plant; the plant cannot read or interpret +the rest of the universe from that small portion of it which it has +taken up within its own organism. And yet the history of the universe is +impressed on each particle of matter, as well within the plant as +outside of it, and it could be understood were there capacities for +recognizing it. + +The reaction of the life of the plant upon the external world is not +sufficient to constitute a fixed, abiding individuality. With each +accretion there is some change of particular individuality. Every growth +to a plant is by the sprouting out of new individuals——new plants——a +ceaseless multiplication of individuals, and not the preservation of the +same individual. The species is preserved, but not the particular +individual. Each limb, each twig, even each leaf is a new individual, +which grows out from the previous growth as the first sprout grew from +the seed. Each part furnishes a soil for the next. When a plant no +longer sends out new individuals, we say it is dead. The life of the +plant is only a life of nutrition. + +Aristotle called vegetable life "the nutritive soul," and the life of +the animal the "feeling," or _sensitive_ soul. Nutrition is only an +activity of preservation of the general form in new individuals, it is +only the life of the species, and not the life of the permanent +individual. + +Therefore we see that in the vegetable world we do not possess a being +that can be educated——for no individual of it can realize _within_ +itself the species; its realization of the species is a continual +process of going out of itself in new individuals, but no activity of +_return_ to itself, so as to preserve _the identity_ of an individual. + + +II. + + Feeling is a unity of the parts of an organism everywhere + present in it; feeling is also an ideal reproduction of + the external surroundings; feeling is therefore a + synthesis of the internal and external. Aristotle joins + locomotion and desire to feeling, as correlates; how + desire is a more explicit recognition of the unity of the + external and internal than the first form of feeling is; + feeling reproduces the external without destroying its + externality, while nutrition receives the external only + after it has destroyed its individuality and assimilated + it; desire is the side of feeling that unfolds into will. + +With feeling or sensibility we come to a being that reacts on the +external world in a far higher manner, and realizes a more wonderful +form of individuality. + +The animal possesses, in common with the plant, a process of +assimilation and nutrition. Moreover, he possesses a capacity to _feel_. +Through _feeling_, or sensation, all of the parts of his extended +organism are united in one centre. He is one individual, and not a +bundle of separate individuals, as a plant is. With feeling, likewise, +are joined _locomotion_ and _desire_. For these are counterparts of +feeling. He feels——_i.e._, lives as one indivisible unity throughout his +organism and controls it, and moves the parts of his body. Desire is +more than mere feeling. Mere feeling alone is the perception of the +external within the being, hence an ideal reproduction of the external +world. In feeling, the animal exists not only within himself, but also +passes over his limit, and has for object the reality of the external +world that limits him. Hence it is the perception of his finiteness——his +limits are his defects, his needs, wants, inadequateness——his separation +from the world as a whole. In feeling, the animal perceives his +separation from the rest of the world, and also his union with it. +Feeling expands into desire when the external world, or some portion of +it, is seen as ideally belonging to the limited unity of the animal +being. It is beyond the limit, and ought to be assimilated within the +limited individuality of the animal. + +Mere _feeling_, when attentively considered, is found to contain these +wonderful features of self-activity: it reproduces for itself the +external world that limits it; it makes for itself an ideal object, +which includes its own self and its not-self at the same time. It is a +higher form than mere nutrition; for nutrition destroys the nature of +such externality as it receives into itself, while feeling preserves the +external in its foreign individuality. + +But through _feeling_ the animal ascends to _desire_, and sees the +independent externality as an object for its acquisition, and through +locomotion it is enabled to seize and appropriate it in a degree which +the plant did not possess. + + +III. + + The various forms of feeling——its specialization: (_a_) + touch, the feeling of mere limits, the indifferent + external independence of the organism and its + surroundings; (_b_) taste, feeling of the external object + when it is undergoing dissolution by assimilation; (_c_) + smell, the feeling of chemical dissolution in general; + (_d_) hearing, the feeling of the resistance of bodies + against attacks: sound being vibration caused by elastic + reaction against attacks on cohesion; (_e_) seeing, the + feeling of objects in their independence, without + dissolution or attack; plant life, nutrition, a process in + which the individuality is not preserved either in time or + in space; animal life, as feeling, preserves its + individuality as regards space, but not as regards time. + +Having noted these important characteristics of the lower orders of +life, and found that _reaction_ from the part against the whole——from +the internal against the external——belongs to plant life and animal +life, we may now briefly mention the ways in which feeling is +particularized. In the lower animals it is only the feeling of touch; in +higher organisms it becomes also localized as seeing, hearing, taste, +and smell. These forms of sense-perception constitute a scale (as it +were) of feeling. With touch, there is reproduction of externality, but +the ideality of the reproduction is not so complete as in the other +forms. With taste, the feeling cognizes the external object as +undergoing dissolution, and assimilation within its own organism. We +taste only what we are beginning to destroy by the first process of +assimilation——that of eating. In smell, we perceive chemical dissolution +of bodies. In seeing and hearing, we have the forms of _ideal_ +sensibility. Hearing perceives the attack made on the individuality of +an external thing, and its reaction in vibrations, which reveal to us +its internal nature——its cohesion, etc. In seeing, we have the highest +form of sense-perception as the perception of things in their external +independence——not as being destroyed chemically, like the objects of +taste and smell; not as being attacked and resisting, like the objects +which are known through the ear; not as mere limits to our organism, as +in the sense of touch. + +Sense-perception, as the developed realization of the activity of +feeling, belongs to the animal creation, including man as an animal. + +We have not yet, therefore, answered the question of capacity for +education, so far as it concerns a discrimination between man and +the brute. We have only arrived at the conclusion that the vegetable +world does not possess the capacity for education, because its +individual specimens are no complete individuals, but only transitory +phases manifesting the species by continual reproduction of +new individuals which are as incomplete as the old ones. Plant life +does not possess that self-activity which returns into itself in the +same individual——if we may so express it; it goes out of one individual +into another perpetually. Its identity is that of the _species_, +but not of the _individual_. + +How is it with the animal——with the being which possesses sensibility, +or feeling? This question recurs. In feeling there is a reaction, +just as in the plant. This reaction is, however, in an ideal +form——the reproduction of the external without assimilation of it——and +especially is this the case in the sense of _sight_, though it is true +of all forms of sensation to a less degree. + +But all forms of sensibility are limited and special; they refer only +to the _present_, in its forms of _here_ and _now_. The animal cannot feel +what is not here and now. Even seeing is limited to what is present +before it. When we reflect upon the significance of this limitation +of sense-perception, we shall find that we need some higher form of +self-activity still before we can realize the species in the individual, +_i.e._, before we can obtain the true individual——the permanent +individuality. + +The defect in plant life was, that there was neither identity of +individuality in space nor identify in time. The growth of the +plant destroyed the individuality of the seed with which we began, +so that it was evanescent in time; it served only as the starting-point +for new individualities, which likewise, in turn, served again the same +purpose; and so its growth in space was a departure from itself as +individual. + +The animal is a preservation of individuality as regards space. He +returns into himself in the form of _feeling_ or _sensibility_; but as +regards time, it is not so——feeling being limited to the present. +Without a higher activity than feeling, there is no continuity of +individuality in the animal any more than in the plant. Each new moment +is a new beginning to a being that has feeling, but not memory. + +Thus the individuality of mere feeling, although a far more perfect +realization of individuality than that found in plant life, is yet, +after all, not a continuous individuality for itself, but only for the +species. + +In spite of the ideal self-activity which appertains to feeling, even +in sense-perception, only the species lives in the animal and the +individual dies, unless there be higher forms of activity. + + +IV. + + Representation is the next form above sense-perception. + The lowest phase of representation is recollection, which + simply repeats for itself a former sense-perception or + series of sense-perceptions; in representation the mind is + free as regards external impressions; it does not require + the presence of the object, but recalls it without its own + time and place; fancy and imagination are next higher than + recollection, because the mind not only recalls images, + but makes new combinations of them, or creates them + altogether; attention is the appearance of the will in the + intellect; with attention begins the separation of the + transient from the variable in perception; memory is the + highest form of representation; memory deals with general + forms——not mere images of experience, but general types of + objects of perception; memory, in this sense, is + productive as well as reproductive; with memory arises + language. + +Here we pass over to the consideration of higher forms of intellect and +will. + +While mere sensation, as such, acts only in the presence of the +object——reproducing (ideally), it is true, the external object, the +faculty of representation is a higher form of self-activity (or of +reaction against surrounding conditions), because it can recall, at its +own pleasure, the ideal object. Here is the beginning of emancipation +from the limitations of time. + +The self-activity of representation can summon before it the object that +is no longer present to it. Hence its activity is now a double one, for +it can seize not only what is now and here immediately before it, but it +can compare this present object with the past, and identify or +distinguish between the two. Thus recollection or representation may +become _memory_. + +As memory, the mind achieves a form of activity far above that of +sense-perception or mere recollection. It must be noted carefully that +mere recollection or representation, although it holds fast the +perception in time (making it permanent), does not necessarily +constitute an activity completely emancipated from time, nor indeed very +far advanced towards it. It is only the beginning of such emancipation. +For mere recollection stands in the presence of the special object of +sense-perception; although the object is no longer present to the senses +(or to mere feeling), yet the image is present to the representative +perception, and is just as much a particular here and now as the object +of sense-perception. There intervenes a new activity on the part of the +soul before it arrives at memory. Recollection is not memory, but it is +the activity which grows into it by the aid of the activity of +attention. + +The special characteristics of objects of the senses are allowed to drop +away, in so far as they are unessential and merely circumstantial, and +gradually there arises in the mind the type——the _general form_——of the +object perceived. This general form is the object of memory. Memory +deals therefore with what is general, and a type, rather than with what +is directly recollected or perceived. + +The activity by which the mind ascends from sense-perception to memory +is the activity of attention. Here we have the appearance of the will in +intellectual activity. Attention is the control of perception by means +of the will. The senses shall no longer passively receive and report +what is before them, but they shall choose some definite point of +observation, and neglect all the rest. + +Here, in the act of attention we find _abstraction_, and the greater +attainment of freedom by the mind. The mind abstracts its view from the +many things before it, and concentrates on one point. + +Educators have for many ages noted that the habit of attention is the +first step in intellectual education. With it we have found the point of +separation between the animal intellect and the human. Not attention +simply——like that with which the cat watches by the hole of a mouse——but +attention which arrives at results of abstraction, is the distinguishing +characteristic of educative beings. + +Attention abstracts from some things before it and concentrates on +others. Through attention grows the capacity to discriminate between +the special, particular object and its general type. Generalization +arises, but not what is usually called generalization--only a +more elementary form of it. Memory, as the highest form of +representation--distinguishing it from mere recollection, which +reproduces only what has been perceived--such memory deals with the +general forms of objects, their continuity in time. Such activity of +memory, therefore, does not reproduce mere images, but only the +concepts or general ideas of things, and therefore it belongs to the +stage of mind that uses language. + + +V. + + Language marks the arrival at the stage of thought——at the + stage of the perception of universals——hence at the + possibility of education; language fixes the general types + which the productive memory forms; each one of these + types, indicated by a word, stands for a possible infinite + of sense-perceptions or recollections; the word _tree_ + stands for all the trees that exist, and for all that have + existed or will exist. Animals do not create for + themselves a new world of general types, but deal only + with the first world of particular objects; hence they are + lost in the variety and multiplicity of continuous + succession and difference. Man's sense-perception is with + memory; hence always a recognition of the object as not + wholly new, but only as an example of what he is mostly + familiar with. Intellectual education has for its object + the cultivation of reflection; reflection is the Platonic + "Reminiscence," which retraces the unconscious processes + of thought + +Language is the means of distinguishing between the brute and the +human——between the animal soul, which has continuity only in the species +(which pervades its being in the form of _instinct_), and the _human_, +soul, which is immortal, and possessed of a capacity to be educated. + +There is no language until the mind can perceive general types of +existence; mere proper names nor mere exclamations or cries do not +constitute language. All words that belong to language are +significative——they "_express_" or "_mean_" something——hence they are +conventional symbols, and not mere individual designations. Language +arises only through common consent, and is not an invention of one +individual. It is a product of individuals acting together as a +community, and hence implies the ascent of the individual into the +species. Unless an individual could ascend into the species he could not +_understand_ language. To know words and their meaning is an activity of +divine significance; it denotes the formation of universals in the +mind——the ascent above the here and now of the senses, and above the +representation of mere images, to the activity which grasps together the +general conception of objects, and thus reaches beyond what is transient +and variable. + +Doubtless the nobler species of animals possess not only +sense-perception, but a considerable degree of the power of +representation. They are not only able to recollect, but to imagine or +fancy to some extent, as is evidenced by their dreams. But that animals +do not generalize sufficiently to form for themselves a new objective +world of types and general concepts, we have a sufficient evidence in +the fact that they do not use words, or invent conventional symbols. +With the activity of the symbol-making form of representation, which we +have named Memory, and whose evidence is the invention and use of +language, the true form of individuality is attained, and each +individual human being, as mind, may be said to be the entire species. +Inasmuch as he can form universals in his mind, he can realize the most +abstract thought; and he is conscious. Consciousness begins when one can +seize the pure universal in the presence of immediate objects here and +now. + +The sense-perception of the mere animal, therefore, differs from that of +the human being in this:—— + +The human being knows himself as subject that sees the object, while the +animal sees the object, but does not separate himself, as universal, +from the special act of seeing. To know that I am I, is to know the most +general of objects, and to carry out abstraction to its very last +degree; and yet this is what all human beings do, young or old, savage +or civilized. The savage invents and uses language——an act of the +species, but which the species cannot do without the participation of +the individual. + +It should be carefully noted that this activity of generalization which +produces language, and characterizes the human from the brute, is not +the generalization of the activity of thought, so-called. + +It is the preparation for thought. These general types of things are the +things which thought deals with. Thought does not deal with mere +immediate objects of the senses; it deals rather with the objects which +are indicated by words——_i.e._, general objects. + +Some writers would have us suppose that we do not arrive at general +notions except by the process of classification and abstraction, in the +mechanical manner that they lay down for this purpose. The fact is that +the mind has arrived at these general ideas in the process of learning +language. In infancy, most children have learned such words as _is_, +_existence_, _being_, _nothing_, _motion_, _cause_, _change_, _I_, +_you_, _he_, etc., etc. + +But the point is not the mere arrival at these ideas. Education does +not concern itself with that; it does not concern itself with children +who have not yet learned to talk——that is left for the nursery. + +It is the process of becoming conscious of these ideas by reflection, +with which we have to concern ourselves in education. Reflection is +everywhere the object of education. Even when the school undertakes to +teach pupils the correct method of observation——how to use the senses, +as in "object-lessons"——it all means _reflective_ observation, +_conscious_ use of the senses; it would put this in the place of the +_naïve_ spontaneity which characterizes the first stages of +sense-perception. + +We must not underrate these precepts of pedagogy because we find that +they are not what it claims for them——_i.e._, they are not methods of +first discovery, and of arrival at principles, but only methods of +reflection, and of recognizing what we have already learned. We see that +Plato's "Reminiscence" was a true form of statement for the perception +of truths of reflection. The first knowing is utterly unconscious of its +own method; the second or scientific form of knowing, which education +develops, is a knowing in which the mind knows its method. Hence it is a +knowing which knows its own necessity and universality. + + +VI. + + Education presupposes the stage of mind reached in + productive memory; it deals with reflection; four stages + of reflection: (_a_) sensuous ideas perceive things; (_b_) + abstract ideas perceive forces or elements of a process; + (_c_) concrete idea perceives one process, a pantheistic + first principle, persistent force; (_d_) absolute idea + perceives a conscious first principle, absolute person. + +We have considered in our psychological study thus far the forms of life +and cognition, contrasting the phase of nutrition with that of feeling, +or sensibility. We have seen the various forms of feeling in +sense-perception, and the various forms of representation as the second +phase of intellectual activity——the forms of recollection, fancy, +imagination, attention, and memory. We draw the line between the animals +capable of education and those not capable of it, at the point of memory +defined——not as recollection, but as the faculty of general ideas or +conceptions, to which the significant words of language correspond. + +With the arrival at language, we arrive at education in the human sense +of the term; with the arrival at language, we arrive at the view of the +world at which thought as a mental process begins. As sense-perception +has before it a world of _present_ objects, so thought has before it a +world of general concepts, which language has defined and fixed. + +It is true that few persons are aware that language stands for a world +of general ideas, and that reflection has to do with this world of +universals. Hence it is, too, that so much of the so-called science of +education is very crude and impractical. Much of it is materialistic, +and does not recognize the self-activity of mind; but makes it out to be +a correlation of physical energies——derived from the transmutation of +food by the process of digestion, and then by the brain converted into +thought. + +Let us consider now the psychology of thinking, or reflection, and at +first in its most inadequate forms. As a human process, the knowing is +always a knowing by universals——a re-cognition, and not simple +apprehension, such as the animals, or such as beings have that do not +use language. The process of development of stages of thought begins +with sensuous ideas, which perceive mere individual, concrete, real +objects, as it supposes. In conceiving these, it uses language and +thinks general ideas, but it does not know it, nor is it conscious of +the relations involved in such objects. This is the first stage of +reflection. The world exists for it as an innumerable congeries of +things, each one independent of the other, and possessing +self-existence. It is the stand-point from which atomism would be +adopted as the philosophic system. Ask it what the ultimate principle of +existence is, and it would reply, "Atoms." + +But this view of the world is a very unstable one, and requires very +little reflection to overturn it, and bring one to the next basis——that +of _abstract ideas_. When the mind looks carefully at the world of +things, it finds that there is dependence and interdependence. Each +object is related to something else, and changes when that changes. Each +object is a part of a process that is going on. The process produced it, +and the process will destroy it——nay, it is destroying it now, while we +look at it. We find, therefore, that things are not the true beings +which we thought them to be, but processes _are_ the reality. Science +takes this attitude, and studies out the history of each thing in its +rise and its disappearance, and it calls this history the truth. This +stage of thinking does not believe in _atoms_ or in _things_; it +believes in _forces_ and _processes_——"abstract ideas"——because they are +negative, and cannot be seen by the senses. This is the dynamic +stand-point in philosophy. + +Reflection knows that these abstract ideas possess more truth, more +reality, than the "things" of sense-perception; the force is more real +than the thing, because it outlasts a thing,——it causes things to +originate, and to change, and disappear. + +This stage of abstract ideas or of negative powers or forces finally +becomes convinced of the essential unity of all processes and of all +forces; it sets up the doctrine of the _correlation of forces_, and +believes that persistent force is the ultimate truth, the fundamental +reality of the world. This we may call a concrete idea, for it sets up a +principle which is the origin of all things and forces, and also the +destroyer of all things, and hence more real than the world of things +and forces; and because this idea, when carefully thought out, proves to +be the idea of self-determination——self-activity. + +Persistent force, as taught us by the scientific men of our day, is the +sole ultimate principle, and as such it gives rise to all existence by +its self-activity, for there is nothing else for it to act upon. It +causes all origins, all changes, and all evanescence. It gives rise to +the particular forces——heat, light, electricity, magnetism, etc.——which +in their turn cause the evanescent forms which sense-perception sees as +"things." + +We have described three phases:—— + + I. Sensuous Ideas perceive "things." + II. Abstract Ideas perceive "forces." + III. Concrete Idea perceives "persistent force." + +In this progress from one phase of reflection to another, the intellect +advances to a deeper and truer reality[14] at each step. + +Sense-ideas which look upon the world as a world of independent objects, +do not cognize the world truly. The next step, abstract ideas, cognizes +the world as a process of forces, and "things" are seen to be mere +temporary equilibria in the interaction of forces; "each thing is a +bundle of forces." But the concrete idea of the Persistent force sees a +deeper and more permanent reality underlying particular forces. It is +one ultimate force. In it all multiplicity of existences has vanished, +and yet it is the source of all particular existence. + +This view of the world, on the stand-point of concrete idea, is +pantheistic. It makes out a one supreme principle which originates and +destroys all particular existences, all finite beings. It is the +stand-point of Orientalism, or of the Asiatic thought. Buddhism and +Brahminism have reached it, and not transcended it. It is a necessary +stage of reflection in the mind, just as much as the stand-point of the +first stage of reflection, which regards the world as composed of a +multiplicity of independent things; or the stand-point of the second +stage of reflection, which looks upon the world as a collection of +relative existences in a state of process. + +The final stand-point of the intellect is that in which it perceives the +highest principle to be a self-determining or self-active Being, +self-conscious, and creator of a world which manifests him. A logical +investigation of the principle of "persistent force" would prove that +this principle of Personal Being is presupposed as its true form. Since +the "persistent force" is the sole and ultimate reality, it originates +all other reality only by self-activity, and thus is self-determined. +Self-determination implies self-consciousness as the true form of its +existence. + +These four forms of thinking, which we have arbitrarily called +_sensuous_, _abstract_, _concrete_, and _absolute_ ideas, correspond to +four views of the world: (1) as a congeries of independent things; (2) +as a play of forces; (3) as the evanescent appearance of a negative +essential power; (4) as the creation of a Personal Creator, who makes it +the theatre of the development of conscious beings in his image. Each +step upward in ideas arrives at a more adequate idea of the true +reality. _Force_ is more real than _thing_; persistent force than +particular forces; Absolute Person is more real than the force or forces +which he creates. + +This final form of thinking is the only form which is consistent with +the theory of education. Each individual should ascend by education into +participation——_conscious_ participation——in the life of the species. +Institutions——family, society, state, church——all are instrumentalities +by which the humble individual may avail himself of the help of the +race, and live over in himself its life. The highest stage of thinking +is the stage of insight. It sees the world as explained by the principle +of Absolute Person. It finds the world of institutions a world in +harmony with such a principle. + + + [1] The parallelism between these two sciences, Medicine + and Education, is an obvious point, which every student + will do well to consider. + + [2] This will again remind the student of the theories of + treatment in medicine in diseases which, in the + seventeenth century, were treated only by bleeding and + emetics, are now treated by nourishing food, and no + medicines, etc. + + [3] The teacher will do well to consider the probable + result of the constant association with mental inferiors + entailed by his work, and also to consider what + counter-irritant is to be applied to balance, in his + character, this unavoidable tendency. + + [4] The age at which the child should be subject to the + training of school life, or Education, properly so-called, + must vary with different races, nations, and different + children. + + [5] The best educator is he who makes his pupils + independent of himself. This implies on the teacher's part + an ability to lose himself in his work, and a desire for + the real growth of the pupil, independent of any personal + fame of his own——a disinterestedness which places + education on a level with the noblest occupations of man. + + [6] See analysis. + + [7] Asiatic systems of Education have this basis (see § + 178 of the original). + + [8] The definition of freedom here implied is this: Mind + is free when it knows itself and wills its own laws. + + [9] Perhaps, however slow the growth, there is real + progress in liberating the imprisoned soul (?) + + [10] "When me they fly, I am the wings."——_Emerson._ + + [11] The story of Peter Schlemihl, by Chamisso, may be + read in the English translation published in "Hedge's + German Prose Writers." + + [12] That is, punishment is retributive and not + corrective. Justice requires that each man shall have the + fruits of his own deeds; in this it assumes that each and + every man is free and self-determined. It proposes to + treat each man as free, and as the rightful owner of his + deed and its consequences. If he does a deed which is + destructive to human rights, it shall destroy his rights + and deprive him of property, personal freedom, or even of + life. But corrective punishment assumes immaturity of + development and consequent lack of freedom. It belongs to + the period of nurture, and not to the period of maturity. + The tendency in our schools is, however, to displace the + forms of mere corrective punishment (corporal + chastisement), and to substitute for them forms founded on + retribution——_e. g_, deprivation of privileges. See secs. + 42 and 43. + + [13] Faust; Part I., Scene I. "How all weaves itself into + the Whole! Each works and lives in the other! How the + heavenly influences ascend and descend, and reach each + other the golden buckets!" + + [14] Hume, in his famous sketch of the Human + Understanding, makes all the perceptions of the human mind + resolve themselves into two distinct kinds: _impressions_ + and _ideas_. "The difference between them consists in the + degrees of force and liveliness with which they strike + upon the mind, and make their way into our thought and + consciousness. Those perceptions which enter with the most + force and violence we may name _impressions_, and under + this name include all our sensations, passions, and + emotions, as they make their first appearance in the soul. + By _ideas_, I mean the faint images of these in thinking + and reasoning." "The identity which we ascribe to the mind + of man is only a fictitious one." + + From this we see that his stand-point is that of "sensuous + ideas," the first stage of reflection. The second or third + stage of reflection, if consistent, would not admit the + reality to be the object of sense-impressions, and the + abstract ideas to be only "faint images." One who holds, + like Herbert Spencer, that persistent force is the + ultimate reality——"the sole truth, which transcends + experience by underlying it"——ought to hold that the + generalization which reaches the idea of unity of force is + the truest and most adequate of thoughts. And yet Herbert + Spencer holds substantially the doctrine of Hume, in the + words: "We must predicate nothing of objects too great or + too multitudinous to be mentally represented, or we must + make our predications by means of extremely inadequate + representations of such objects——mere symbols of them." + (Page 27 of "First Principles.") + + + + + + + +End of Project Gutenberg's Pedagogics as a System, by Karl Rosenkranz + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK PEDAGOGICS AS A SYSTEM *** + +***** This file should be named 30661-0.txt or 30661-0.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + https://www.gutenberg.org/3/0/6/6/30661/ + +Produced by Jonathan Ingram, Turgut Dincer and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net (This +file was produced from images generously made available +by The Internet Archive/American Libraries.) + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: Pedagogics as a System + +Author: Karl Rosenkranz + +Translator: Anna C. Brackett + +Release Date: December 13, 2009 [EBook #30661] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK PEDAGOGICS AS A SYSTEM *** + + + + +Produced by Jonathan Ingram, Turgut Dincer and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net (This +file was produced from images generously made available +by The Internet Archive/American Libraries.) + + + + + + + +-------------------------------------+ + | Transcriber's note: | + | | + | Many words in the text are spelled | + | with or without a hyphen; these are | + | not corrected as both forms occur | + | with almost same frequency and the | + | hyphenated form might indicate an | + | emphasis in words such as | + | re-formation. | + +-------------------------------------+ + + + + + PEDAGOGICS + AS A + SYSTEM. + + By Dr. KARL ROSENKRANZ, + + _Doctor of Theology and Professor of Philosophy at the University + of Knigsberg._ + + TRANSLATED FROM THE GERMAN + + By ANNA C. BRACKETT. + + + (_Reprinted from Journal of Speculative Philosophy._) + + + ST. LOUIS, MO.: + THE R. P. STUDLEY COMPANY, PRINTERS, CORNER MAIN & OLIVE STS. + 1872. + + Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1872, by + WILLIAM T. HARRIS, + In the Office of the Librarian of Congress at Washington. + + + + + ANALYSIS. + + {FIRST PART. {Its Nature. + {In its General {Its Form. + { Idea. {Its Limits. + { + {SECOND PART. {Physical. + {In its Special {Intellectual. + { Elements. {Moral. + { + { { { {Family China. + { { {Passive. {Caste India. + { { { {Monkish Thibet. + { { { + { { { {Military Persia. + { {National. {Active {Priestly Egypt. + { { { {Industrial Phoenicia. + { { { + { { { {sthetic Greece. + E { { {Individual. {Practical Rome. + D { { { {Abstract {Northern. + U { { { { Individual{ Barbarians. + C { { + A { {Theocratic. . . . . . . . . . . . Jews. + T { { + I { {Monkish. + O {THIRD PART. { + N {In its { + { Particular { + { Systems. { + { {Chivalric. + { { + { {Humanitarian. {For Special {Jesuitic. + { { { Callings. {Pietistic. + { { + { { {The + { { { {Humanistic. + { {For Civil {To achieve { + { { Life. { an Ideal of {The + { { { Culture. {Philanthropic + { { { {Movement. + { { { + { { {For Free Citizenship. + + +PEDAGOGICS AS A SYSTEM. + + + [Inquiries from teachers in different sections of the + country as to the sources of information on the subject of + Teaching as a Science have led me to believe that a + translation of Rosenkranz's Pedagogics may be widely + acceptable and useful. It is very certain that too much of + our teaching is simply empirical, and as Germany has, more + than any other country, endeavored to found it upon + universal truths, it is to that country that we must at + present look for a remedy for this empiricism. + + Based as this is upon the profoundest system of German + Philosophy, no more suggestive treatise on Education can + perhaps be found. In his third part, as will be readily + seen, Rosenkranz follows the classification of National + ideas given in Hegel's Philosophy of History. The word + "Pedagogics," though it has unfortunately acquired a + somewhat unpleasant meaning in English--thanks to the + writers who have made the word "pedagogue" so + odious--deserves to be redeemed for future use. I have, + therefore, retained it in the translation. + + In order that the reader may see the general scope of the + work, I append in tabular form the table of contents, + giving however, under the first and second parts, only the + main divisions. The minor heads can, of course, as they + appear in the translation, be easily located.--_Tr._] + + + + +INTRODUCTION. + + + 1. The science of Pedagogics cannot be derived from a simple principle +with such exactness as Logic and Ethics. It is rather a mixed science +which has its presuppositions in many others. In this respect it +resembles Medicine, with which it has this also in common, that it must +make a distinction between a sound and an unhealthy system of education, +and must devise means to prevent or to cure the latter. It may therefore +have, like Medicine, the three departments of Physiology, Pathology, and +Therapeutics. + + 2. Since Pedagogics is capable of no such exact definitions of its +principle and no such logical deduction as other sciences, the treatises +written upon it abound more in shallowness than any other literature. +Short-sightedness and arrogance find in it a most congenial atmosphere, +and criticism and declamatory bombast flourish in perfection as nowhere +else. The literature of religious tracts might be considered to rival +that of Pedagogics in its superficiality and assurance, if it did not +for the most part seem itself to belong, through its ascetic nature, to +Pedagogics. But teachers as persons should be treated in their +weaknesses and failures with the utmost consideration, because they are +most of them sincere in contributing their mite for the improvement of +education, and all their pedagogic practice inclines them towards +administering reproof and giving advice. + + 3. The charlatanism of educational literature is also fostered by the +fact that teaching has become one of the most profitable employments, +and the competition in it tends to increase self-glorification. + +--When "Boz" in his "Nicholas Nickleby" exposed the horrible mysteries +of an English boarding-school, many teachers of such schools were, as he +assures us, so accurately described that they openly complained he had +aimed his caricatures directly at them.-- + + 4. In the system of the sciences, Pedagogics belongs to the Philosophy +of Spirit,--and in this, to the department of Practical Philosophy, the +problem of which is the comprehension of the necessity of freedom; for +education is the conscious working of one will on another so as to +produce itself in it according to a determinate aim. The idea of +subjective spirit, as well as that of Art, Science, and Religion, forms +the essential condition for Pedagogics, but does not contain its +principle. If one thinks out a complete statement of Practical +Philosophy (Ethics), Pedagogics may be distributed among all its grades. +But the point at which Pedagogics itself becomes organic is the idea of +the Family, because in the family the difference between the adults and +the minors enters directly through the naturalness of spirit, and the +right of the children to an education and the duty of parents towards +them in this respect is incontestable. All other spheres of education, +in order to succeed, must presuppose a true family life. They may extend +and complement the business of teaching, but cannot be its original +foundation. + +--In our systematic exposition of Education, we must not allow +ourselves to be led into error by those theories which do not recognize +the family, and which limit the relation of husband and wife to the +producing of children. The Platonic Philosophy is the most worthy +representative of this class. Later writers who take great pleasure in +seeing the world full of children, but who would subtract from the love +to a wife all truth and from that to children all care, exhibit in their +doctrine of the anarchy of love only a sickly (but yet how prevalent an) +imitation of the Platonic state.-- + + 5. Much confusion also arises from the fact that many do not clearly +enough draw the distinction between Pedagogics as a science and +Pedagogics as an art. As a science it busies itself with developing _a +priori_ the idea of Education in the universality and necessity of that +idea, but as an art it is the concrete individualizing of this abstract +idea in any given case. And in any such given case, the peculiarities of +the person who is to be educated and all the previously existing +circumstances necessitate a modification of the universal aims and ends, +which modification cannot be provided for beforehand, but must rather +test the ready tact of the educator who knows how to make the existing +conditions fulfil his desired end. It is exactly in doing this that the +educator may show himself inventive and creative, and that pedagogic +talent can distinguish itself. The word "art" is here used in the same +way as it is used when we say, the art of war, the art of government, +&c.; and rightly, for we are talking about the possibility of the +realization of the idea. + +--The educator must adapt himself to the pupil, but not to such a degree +as to imply that the pupil is incapable of change, and he must also be +sure that the pupil shall learn through his experience the independence +of the object studied, which remains uninfluenced by his variable +personal moods, and the adaptation on the teacher's part must never +compromise this independence.-- + + 6. If conditions which are local, temporal, and individual, are fixed +as constant rules, and carried beyond their proper limits, are +systematized as a valuable formalistic code, unavoidable error arises. +The formul of teaching are admirable material for the science, but are +not the science itself. + + 7. Pedagogics as a science must (1) unfold the general idea of +Education; (2) must exhibit the particular phases into which the general +work of Education divides itself, and (3) must describe the particular +standpoint upon which the general idea realizes itself, or should become +real in its special processes at any particular time. + + 8. The treatment of the first part offers no difficulty. It is +logically too evident. But it would not do to substitute for it the +history of Pedagogics, simply because all the conceptions of it which +appear in systematic treatises can be found there. + +--Into this error G. Thaulow has fallen in his pamphlet on Pedagogics as +a Philosophical Science.-- + + 9. The second division unfolds the subject of the physical, +intellectual and practical culture of the human race, and constitutes +the main part of all books on Pedagogy. Here arises the greatest +difficulty as to the limitations, partly because of the undefined nature +of the ideas, partly because of the degree of amplification which the +details demand. Here is the field of the widest possible differences. If +e.g. one studies out the conception of the school with reference to the +qualitative specialities which one may consider, it is evident that he +can extend his remarks indefinitely; he may speak thus of technological +schools of all kinds, to teach mining, navigation, war, art, &c. + + 10. The third division distinguishes between the different standpoints +which are possible in the working out of the conception of Education in +its special elements, and which therefore produce different systems of +Education wherein the general and the particular are individualized in a +special manner. In every system the general tendencies of the idea of +education, and the difference between the physical, intellectual and +practical culture of man, must be formally recognized, and will appear. +The How is decided by the standpoint which reduces that formalism to a +special system. Thus it becomes possible to discover the essential +contents of the history of Pedagogics from its idea, since this can +furnish not an indefinite but a certain number of Pedagogic systems. + +--The lower standpoint merges always into the higher, and in so doing +first attains its full meaning, e.g.: Education for the sake of the +nation is set aside for higher standpoints, e.g., that of +Christianity; but we must not suppose that the national phase of +Education was counted as nought from the Christian standpoint. Rather it +itself had outgrown the limits which, though suitable enough for its +early stage, could no longer contain its true idea. This is sure to be +the case in the fact that the national individualities become +indestructible by being incorporated into Christianity--a fact that +contradicts the abstract seizing of such relations.-- + + 11. The last system must be that of the present, and since this is +certainly on one side the result of all the past, while on the other +seized in its possibilities it is determined by the Future, the business +of Pedagogics cannot pause till it reaches its ideal of the general and +special determinations, so that looked at in this way the Science of +Pedagogics at its end returns to its beginning. The first and second +divisions already contain the idea of the system necessary for the +Present. + + + + +FIRST PART. + +The General Idea of Education. + + + 12. The idea of Pedagogics in general must distinguish, + + (1) The nature of Education in general; + (2) Its form; + (3) Its limits. + + +I. + +_The Nature of Education._ + + 13. The nature of Education is determined by the nature of mind--that +it can develop whatever it really is only by its own activity. Mind is +in itself free; but if it does not actualize this possibility, it is in +no true sense free, either for itself or for another. Education is the +influencing of man by man, and it has for its end to lead him to +actualize himself through his own efforts. The attainment of perfect +manhood as the actualization of the Freedom necessary to mind +constitutes the nature of Education in general. + +--The completely isolated man does not become man. Solitary human +beings who have been found in forests, like the wild girl of the forest +of Ardennes, sufficiently prove the fact that the truly human qualities +in man cannot be developed without reciprocal action with human beings. +Caspar Hauser in his subterranean prison is an illustration of what man +would be by himself. The first cry of the child expresses in its appeals +to others this helplessness of spirituality on the side of nature.-- + + 14. Man, therefore, is the only fit subject for education. We often +speak, it is true, of the education of plants and animals; but even when +we do so, we apply, unconsciously perhaps, other expressions, as +"raising" and "training," in order to distinguish these. "Breaking" +consists in producing in an animal, either by pain or pleasure of the +senses, an activity of which, it is true, he is capable, but which he +never would have developed if left to himself. On the other hand, it is +the nature of Education only to assist in the producing of that which +the subject would strive most earnestly to develop for himself if he had +a clear idea of himself. We speak of raising trees and animals, but not +of raising men; and it is only a planter who looks to his slaves only +for an increase in their number. + +--The education of men is quite often enough, unfortunately, only a +"breaking," and here and there still may be found examples where one +tries to teach mechanically, not through the understanding power of the +creative WORD, but through the powerless and fruitless appeal to +physical pain.-- + + 15. The idea of Education may be more or less comprehensive. We use it +in the widest sense when we speak of the Education of the race, for we +understand by this expression the connection which the acts and +situations of different nations have to each other, as different steps +towards self-conscious freedom. In this the world-spirit is the teacher. + + 16. In a more restricted sense we mean by Education the shaping of +the individual life by the forces of nature, the rhythmical movement of +national customs, and the might of destiny in which each one finds +limits set to his arbitrary will. These often mould him into a man +without his knowledge. For he cannot act in opposition to nature, nor +offend the ethical sense of the people among whom he dwells, nor despise +the leading of destiny without discovering through experience that +before the Nemesis of these substantial elements his subjective power +can dash itself only to be shattered. If he perversely and persistently +rejects all our admonitions, we leave him, as a last resort, to destiny, +whose iron rule must educate him, and reveal to him the God whom he has +misunderstood. + +--It is, of course, sometimes not only possible, but necessary for one, +moved by the highest sense of morality, to act in opposition to the laws +of nature, to offend the ethical sense of the people that surround him, +and to brave the blows of destiny; but such a one is a sublime reformer +or martyr, and we are not now speaking of such, but of the perverse, the +frivolous, and the conceited.-- + + 17. In the narrowest sense, which however is the usual one, we mean by +Education the influence which one mind exerts on another in order to +cultivate the latter in some understood and methodical way, either +generally or with reference to some special aim. The educator must, +therefore, be relatively finished in his own education, and the pupil +must possess unlimited confidence in him. If authority be wanting on the +one side, or respect and obedience on the other, this ethical basis of +development must fail, and it demands in the very highest degree, +talent, knowledge, skill, and prudence. + +--Education takes on this form only under the culture which has been +developed through the influence of city life. Up to that time we have +the nave period of education, which holds to the general powers of +nature, of national customs, and of destiny, and which lasts for a long +time among the rural populations. But in the city a greater complication +of events, an uncertainty of the results of reflection, a working out of +individuality, and a need of the possession of many arts and trades, +make their appearance and render it impossible for men longer to be +ruled by mere custom. The Telemachus of Fenelon was educated to rule +himself by means of reflection; the actual Telemachus in the heroic age +lived simply according to custom.-- + + 18. The general problem of Education is the development of the +theoretical and practical reason in the individual. If we say that to +educate one means to fashion him into morality, we do not make our +definition sufficiently comprehensive, because we say nothing of +intelligence, and thus confound education and ethics. A man is not +merely a human being, but as a reasonable being he is a peculiar +individual, and different from all others of the race. + + 19. Education must lead the pupil by an interconnected series of +efforts previously foreseen and arranged by the teacher to a definite +end; but the particular form which this shall take must be determined by +the peculiar character of the pupil's mind and the situation in which he +is found. Hasty and inconsiderate work may accomplish much, but only +_systematic_ work can advance and fashion him in conformity with his +nature, and the former does not belong to education, for this includes +in itself the idea of an end, and that of the technical means for its +attainment. + + 20. But as culture comes to mean more and more, there becomes +necessary a division of the business of teaching among different +persons, with reference to capabilities and knowledge, because as the +arts and sciences are continually increasing in number, one can become +learned in any one branch only by devoting himself exclusively to it, +and hence becoming one-sided. A difficulty hence arises which is also +one for the pupil, of preserving, in spite of this unavoidable +one-sidedness, the unity and wholeness which are necessary to humanity. + +--The nave dignity of the happy savage, and the agreeable simplicity of +country people, appear to very great advantage when contrasted on this +side with the often unlimited narrowness of a special trade, and the +endless curtailing of the wholeness of man by the pruning processes of +city life. Thus the often abused savage has his hut, his family, his +cocoa tree, his weapons, his passions; he fishes, hunts, plays, fights, +adorns himself, and enjoys the consciousness that he is the centre of a +whole, while a modern citizen is often only an abstract expression of +culture.-- + + 21. As it becomes necessary to divide the work of teaching, a +difference between general and special schools arises also, from the +needs of growing culture. The former present in different compass all +the sciences and arts which are included in the term "general +education," and which were classified by the Greeks under the general +name of Encyclopdia. The latter are known as special schools, suited to +particular needs or talents. + +--As those who live in the country are relatively isolated, it is often +necessary, or at least desirable, that one man should be trained equally +on many different sides. The poor tutor is required not only to instruct +in all the sciences, he must also speak French and be able to play the +piano.-- + + 22. For any single person, the relation of his actual education to its +infinite possibilities can only be approximately determined, and it can +be considered as only relatively finished on any one side. Education is +impossible to him who is born an idiot, since the want of the power of +generalizing and of ideality of conscious personality leaves to such an +unfortunate only the possibility of a mechanical training. + +--Sgert, the teacher of the deaf mutes in Berlin, has made laudable +efforts to educate idiots, but the account as given in his publication, +"Cure of Idiots by an Intellectual Method, Berlin, 1846," shows that the +result obtained was only external; and though we do not desire to be +understood as denying or refusing to this class the possession of a mind +_in potentia_, it appears in them to be confined to an embryonic +state.-- + + +II. + +_The Form of Education._ + + 23. The general form of Education is determined by the nature of the +mind, that it really is nothing but what it makes itself to be. The mind +is (1) immediate (or potential), but (2) it must estrange itself from +itself as it were, so that it may place itself over against itself as a +special object of attention; (3) this estrangement is finally removed +through a further acquaintance with the object--it feels itself at home +in that on which it looks, and returns again enriched to the form of +immediateness. That which at first appeared to be another than itself is +now seen to be itself. Education cannot create; it can only help to +develop to reality the previously existent possibility; it can only help +to bring forth to light the hidden life. + + 24. All culture, whatever may be its special purport, must pass +through these two stages--of estrangement, and its removal. Culture must +hold fast to the distinction between the subject and the object +considered immediately, though it has again to absorb this distinction +into itself, in order that the union of the two may be more complete and +lasting. The subject recognizes then all the more certainly that what at +first appeared to it as a foreign existence, belongs to it as its own +property, and that it holds it as its own all the more by means of +culture. + +--Plato, as is known, calls the feeling with which knowledge must begin, +wonder; but this can serve as a beginning only, for wonder itself can +only express the tension between the subject and the object at their +first encounter--a tension which would be impossible if they were not in +themselves identical. Children have a longing for the far-off, the +strange, and the wonderful, as if they hoped to find in these an +explanation of themselves. They want the object to be a genuine object. +That to which they are accustomed, which they see around them every day, +seems to have no longer any objective energy for them; but an alarm of +fire, banditti life, wild animals, gray old ruins, the robin's songs, +and far-off happy islands, &c.--everything high-colored and +dazzling--leads them irresistibly on. The necessity of the mind's making +itself foreign to itself is that which makes children prefer to hear of +the adventurous journeys of Sinbad than news of their own city or the +history of their nation, and in youth this same necessity manifests +itself in their desire of travelling.-- + + 25. This activity of the mind in allowing itself to be absorbed, and +consciously so, in an object with the purpose of making it his own, or +of producing it, is _Work_. But when the mind gives itself up to its +objects as chance may present them or through arbitrariness, careless as +to whether they have any result, such activity is _Play_. Work is laid +out for the pupil by his teacher by authority, but in his play he is +left to himself. + + 26. Thus work and play must be sharply distinguished from each other. +If one has not respect for work as an important and substantial +activity, he not only spoils play for his pupil, for this loses all its +charm when deprived of the antithesis of an earnest, set task, but he +undermines his respect for real existence. On the other hand, if he does +not give him space, time, and opportunity, for play, he prevents the +peculiarities of his pupil from developing freely through the exercise +of his creative ingenuity. Play sends the pupil back refreshed to his +work, since in play he forgets himself in his own way, while in work he +is required to forget himself in a manner prescribed for him by another. + +--Play is of great importance in helping one to discover the true +individualities of children, because in play they may betray +thoughtlessly their inclinations. This antithesis of work and play runs +through the entire life. Children anticipate in their play the earnest +work of after life; thus the little girl plays with her doll, and the +boy pretends he is a soldier and in battle.-- + + 27. Work should never be treated as if it were play, nor play as if it +were work. In general, the arts, the sciences, and productions, stand in +this relation to each other: the accumulation of stores of knowledge is +the recreation of the mind which is engaged in independent creation, and +the practice of arts fills the same office to those whose work is to +collect knowledge. + + 28. Education seeks to transform every particular condition so that it +shall no longer seem strange to the mind or in anywise foreign to its +own nature. This identity of consciousness, and the special character of +anything done or endured by it, we call Habit [habitual conduct or +behavior]. It conditions formally all progress; for that which is not +yet become habit, but which we perform with design and an exercise of +our will, is not yet a part of ourselves. + + 29. As to Habit, we have to say next that it is at first indifferent +as to what it relates. But that which is to be considered as indifferent +or neutral cannot be defined in the abstract, but only in the concrete, +because anything that is indifferent as to whether it shall act on these +particular men, or in this special situation, is capable of another or +even of the opposite meaning for another man or men for the same men or +in other circumstances. Here, then, appeal must be made to the +individual conscience in order to be able from the depths of +individuality to separate what we can permit to ourselves from that +which we must deny ourselves. The aim of Education must be to arouse in +the pupil this spiritual and ethical sensitiveness which does not +recognize anything as _merely_ indifferent, but rather knows how to +seize in everything, even in the seemingly small, its universal human +significance. But in relation to the highest problems he must learn that +what concerns his own immediate personality is entirely indifferent. + + 30. Habit lays aside its indifference to an external action through +reflection on the advantage or disadvantage of the same. Whatever tends +as a harmonious means to the realization of an end is advantageous, but +that is disadvantageous which, by contradicting its idea, hinders or +destroys it. Advantage and disadvantage being then only _relative_ +terms, a habit which is advantageous for one man in one case may be +disadvantageous for another man, or even for the same man, under +different circumstances. Education must, therefore, accustom the youth +to judge as to the expediency or inexpediency of any action in its +relation to the essential vocation of his life, so that he shall avoid +that which does not promote its success. + + 31. But the _absolute_ distinction of habit is the moral distinction +between the good and the bad. For from this standpoint alone can we +finally decide what is allowable and what is forbidden, what is +advantageous and what is disadvantageous. + + 32. As relates to form, habit may be either passive or active. The +passive is that which teaches us to bear the vicissitudes of nature as +well as of history with such composure that we shall hold our ground +against them, being always equal to ourselves, and that we shall not +allow our power of acting to be paralyzed through any mutations of +fortune. Passive habit is not to be confounded with obtuseness in +receiving impressions, a blank abstraction from the affair in hand which +at bottom is found to be nothing more than a selfishness which desires +to be left undisturbed: it is simply composure of mind in view of +changes over which we have no control. While we vividly experience joy +and sorrow, pain and pleasure--inwoven as these are with the change of +seasons, of the weather, &c.--with the alternation of life and death, of +happiness and misery, we ought nevertheless to harden ourselves against +them so that at the same time in our consciousness of the supreme worth +of the mind we shall build up the inaccessible stronghold of Freedom in +ourselves.--Active habit [or behavior] is found realized in a wide range +of activity which appears in manifold forms, such as skill, dexterity, +readiness of information, &c. It is a steeling of the internal for +action upon the external, as the Passive is a steeling of the internal +against the influences of the external. + +[Sidenote: _Formation of Habits._] + + 33. Habit is the general form which instruction takes. For since it +reduces a condition or an activity within ourselves to an instinctive +use and wont, it is necessary for any thorough instruction. But as, +according to its content, it may be either proper or improper, +advantageous or disadvantageous, good or bad, and according to its form +may be the assimilation of the external by the internal, or the impress +of the internal upon the external, Education must procure for the pupil +the power of being able to free himself from one habit and to adopt +another. Through his freedom he must be able not only to renounce any +habit formed, but to form a new one; and he must so govern his system of +habits that it shall exhibit a constant progress of development into +greater freedom. We must discipline ourselves, as a means toward the +ever-changing realization of the Good in us, constantly to form and to +break habits. + +--We must characterize those habits as bad which relate only to our +convenience or our enjoyment. They are often not blamable in themselves, +but there lies in them a hidden danger that they may allure us into +luxury or effeminacy. But it is a false and mechanical way of looking at +the affair if we suppose that a habit which has been formed by a certain +number of repetitions can be broken by an equal number of denials. We +can never renounce a habit utterly except through a clearness of +judgment which decides it to be undesirable, and through firmness of +will.-- + + 34. Education comprehends also the reciprocal action of the +opposites, authority and obedience, rationality and individuality, work +and play, habit and spontaneity. If we imagine that these can be +reconciled by rules, it will be in vain that we try to restrain the +youth in these relations. But a failure in education in this particular +is very possible through the freedom of the pupil, through special +circumstances, or through the errors of the educator himself. And for +this very reason any theory of Education must take into account in the +beginning this negative possibility. It must consider beforehand the +dangers which threaten the pupil in all possible ways even before they +surround him, and fortify him against them. Intentionally to expose him +to temptation in order to prove his strength, is devilish; and, on the +other hand, to guard him against the chance of dangerous temptation, to +wrap him in cotton (as the proverb says), is womanish, ridiculous, +fruitless, and much more dangerous; for temptation comes not alone from +without, but quite as often from within, and secret inclination seeks +and creates for itself the opportunity for its gratification, often +perhaps an unnatural one. The truly preventive activity consists not in +an abstract seclusion from the world, all of whose elements are innate +in each individual, but in the activity of knowledge and discipline, +modified according to age and culture. + +[Sidenote: _Protection against Temptation._] + +--If one endeavors to deprive the youth of all free and individual +intercourse with the world, one only falls into a continual watching of +him, and the consciousness that he is watched destroys in him all +elasticity of spirit, all confidence, all originality. The police shadow +of control obscures all independence and systematically accustoms him to +dependence. As the tragi-comic story of Peter Schlemihl shows, one +cannot lose his own shadow without falling into the saddest fatalities; +but the shadow of a constant companion, as in the pedagogical system of +the Jesuits, undermines all naturalness. And if one endeavors too +strictly to guard against that which is evil and forbidden, the +intelligence of the pupils reacts in deceit against such efforts, till +the educators are amazed that such crimes as come often to light can +have arisen under such careful control.-- + + 35. If there should appear in the youth any decided moral deformity +which is opposed to the ideal of his education, the instructor must at +once make inquiry as to the history of its origin, because the negative +and the positive are very closely connected in his being, so that what +appears to be negligence, rudeness, immorality, foolishness, or oddity, +may arise from some real needs of the youth which in their development +have only taken a wrong direction. + + 36. If it should appear on such examination that the negative action +was only a product of wilful ignorance, of caprice, or of arbitrariness +on the part of the youth, then this calls for a simple prohibition on +the part of the educator, no reason being assigned. His authority must +be sufficient to the pupil without any reason. Only when this has +happened more than once, and the youth is old enough to understand, +should the prohibition, together with the reason therefor, be given. + +--This should, however, be brief; the explanation must retain its +disciplinary character, and must not become extended into a doctrinal +essay, for in such a case the youth easily forgets that it was his own +misbehavior which was the occasion of the explanation. The statement of +the reason must be honest, and it must present to the youth the point +most easy for him to seize. False reasons are morally blamable in +themselves, and they tend only to confuse. It is a great mistake to +unfold to the youth the broadening consequences which his act may bring. +These uncertain possibilities seem to him too powerless to affect him +particularly. The severe lecture wearies him, especially if it be +stereotyped, as is apt to be the case with fault-finding and talkative +instructors. But more unfortunate is it if the painting of the gloomy +background to which the consequences of the wrong-doing of the youth may +lead, should fill his feelings and imagination prematurely with gloomy +fancies, because then the representation has led him one step toward a +state of wretchedness which in the future man may become fearful +depression and degradation.-- + +[Sidenote: _Reproof and Punishment._] + + 37. If the censure is accompanied with a threat of punishment, then we +have the same kind of reproof which in daily life we call "scolding;" +but if reproof is given, the pupil must be made to feel that it is in +earnest. + + 38. Only when all other efforts have failed, is punishment, which is +the real negation of the error, the transgression, or the vice, +justifiable. Punishment inflicts intentionally pain on the pupil, and +its object is, by means of this sensation, to bring him to reason, a +result which neither our simple prohibition, our explanation, nor our +threat of punishment, has been able to reach. But the punishment, as +such, must not refer to the subjective totality of the youth, or his +disposition in general, but only to the act which, as result, is a +manifestation of the disposition. It acts mediately on the disposition, +but leaves the inner being untouched directly; and this is not only +demanded by justice, but on account of the sophistry that is inherent in +human nature, which desires to assign to a deed many motives, it is even +necessary. + +[Sidenote: _Correction_ VERSUS _Satisfaction of Justice._] + + 39. Punishment as an educational means is nevertheless essentially +corrective, since, by leading the youth to a proper estimation of his +fault and a positive change in his behavior, it seeks to improve him. At +the same time it stands as a sad indication of the insufficiency of the +means previously used. On no account should the youth be frightened from +the commission of a misdemeanor, or from the repetition of his negative +deed through fear of punishment--a system which leads always to +terrorism: but, although it may have this effect, it should, before all +things, impress upon him the recognition of the fact that the negative +is not allowed to act as it will without limitation, but rather that the +Good and the True have the absolute power in the world, and that they +are never without the means of overcoming anything that contradicts +them. + +--In the statute-laws, punishment has the opposite office. It must first +of all satisfy justice, and only after this is done can it attempt to +improve the guilty. If a government should proceed on the same basis as +the educator it would mistake its task, because it has to deal with +adults, whom it elevates to the honorable position of responsibility for +their own acts. The state must not go back to the psychological ethical +genesis of a negative deed. It must assign to a secondary rank of +importance the biographical moment which contains the deed in process +and the circumstances of a mitigating character, and it must consider +first of all the deed in itself. It is quite otherwise with the +educator; for he deals with human beings who are relatively undeveloped, +and who are only growing toward responsibility. So long as they are +still under the care of a teacher, the responsibility of their deed +belongs in part to him. If we confound the standpoint in which +punishment is administered in the state with that in education, we work +much evil.-- + + 40. Punishment as a negation of a negation, considered as an +educational means, cannot be determined _ priori_, but must always be +modified by the peculiarities of the individual offender and by the +peculiar circumstances. Its administration calls for the exercise of the +ingenuity and tact of the educator. + +[Sidenote: _Three Kinds of Punishment._] + + 41. Generally speaking, we must make a distinction between the sexes, +as well as between the different periods of youth; (1) some kind of +corporal punishment is most suitable for children, (2) isolation for +older boys and girls, and (3) punishment based on the sense of honor for +young men and women. + + 42. (1) Corporal punishment is the production of physical pain. The +youth is generally whipped, and this kind of punishment, provided always +that it is not too often administered or with undue severity, is the +proper way of dealing with wilful defiance, with obstinate carelessness, +or with a really perverted will, so long or so often as the higher +perception is closed against appeal. The imposing of other physical +punishment, e.g. that of depriving the pupil of food, partakes of +cruelty. The view which sees in the rod the panacea for all the +teacher's embarrassments is censurable, but equally undesirable is the +false sentimentality which assumes that the dignity of humanity is +affected by a blow given to a child, and confounds self-conscious +humanity with child-humanity, to which a blow is the most natural form +of reaction, in which all other forms of influence at last end. + +--The fully-grown man ought never to be whipped, because this kind of +punishment reduces him to the level of the child, and, when it becomes +barbarous, to that of a brute animal, and so is absolutely degrading to +him. In the English schools the rod is much used. If a pupil of the +first class be put back into the second at Eton, he, although before +exempt from flogging, becomes liable to it. But however necessary this +system of flogging of the English aristocracy may be in the discipline +of their schools, flogging in the English army is a shameful thing for +the free people of Great Britain.-- + + 43. (2) By Isolation we remove the offender temporarily from the +society of his fellows. The boy left alone, cut off from all +companionship, and left absolutely to himself, suffers from a sense of +helplessness. The time passes heavily, and soon he is very anxious to be +allowed to return to the company of parents, brothers and sisters, +teachers and fellow-pupils. + +--To leave a child entirely to himself without any supervision, even if +one shuts him up in a dark room, is as mistaken a practice as to leave a +few together without supervision, as is too often done where they are +kept after school, when they give the freest rein to their childish +wantonness and commit the wildest pranks.-- + +[Sidenote: _Sense of Honor in the Pupil._] + + 44. (3) This way of isolating a child does not touch his sense of +honor at all, and is soon forgotten because it relates to only one side +of his conduct. It is quite different from punishment based on the sense +of honor, which, in a formal manner, shuts the youth out from +companionship because he has attacked the principle which holds society +together, and for this reason can no longer be considered as belonging +to it. Honor is the recognition of one individual by others as their +equal. Through his error, or it may be his crime, he has simply made +himself unequal to them, and in so far has separated himself from them, +so that his banishment from their society is only the outward expression +of the real isolation which he himself has brought to pass in his inner +nature, and which he by means of his negative act only betrayed to the +outer world. Since the punishment founded on the sense of honor affects +the whole ethical man and makes a lasting impression upon his memory, +extreme caution is necessary in its application lest a permanent injury +be inflicted upon the character. The idea of his perpetual continuance +in disgrace, destroys in a man all aspiration for improvement. + +--Within the family this feeling of honor cannot be so actively +developed, because every member of it is bound to every other +immediately by natural ties, and hence is equal to every other. Within +its sacred circle, he who has isolated himself is still beloved, though +it may be through tears. However bad may be the deed he has committed, +he is never given up, but the deepest sympathy is felt for him because +he is still brother, father, &c. But first in the contact of one family +with another, and still more in the contact of an individual with any +institution which is founded not on natural ties, but is set over +against him as a distinct object, this feeling of honor appears. In the +school, and in the matter of ranks and classes in a school, this is very +important.-- + + 45. It is important to consider well this gradation of punishment +(which, starting with sensuous physical pain, passes through the +external teleology of temporary isolation up to the idealism of the +sense of honor), both in relation to the different ages at which they +are appropriate and to the training which they bring with them. Every +punishment must be considered merely as a means to some end, and, in so +far, as transitory. The pupil must always be deeply conscious that it is +very painful to his instructor to be obliged to punish him. This pathos +of another's sorrow for the sake of his cure which he perceives in the +mien, in the tone of the voice, in the delay with which the punishment +is administered, will become a purifying fire for his soul. + + +III. + +_The Limits of Education._ + + 46. The form of Education reaches its limits with the idea of +punishment, because this is the attempt to subsume the negative reality +and to make it conformable to its positive idea. But the limits of +Education are found in the idea of its nature, which is to fashion the +individual into theoretical and practical rationality. The authority of +the Educator at last becomes imperceptible, and it passes over into +advice and example, and obedience changes from blind conformity to free +gratitude and attachment. Individuality wears off its rough edges, and +is transfigured into the universality and necessity of Reason without +losing in this process its identity. Work becomes enjoyment, and he +finds his play in a change of activity. The youth takes possession of +himself, and can be left to himself. + +--There are two widely differing views with regard to the limits of +Education. One lays great stress on the weakness of the pupil and the +power of the teacher. According to this view, Education has for its +province the entire formation of the youth. The despotism of this view +often manifests itself where large numbers are to be educated together, +and with very undesirable results, because it assumes that the +individual pupil is only a specimen of the whole, as if the school were +a great factory where each piece of goods is to be stamped exactly like +all the rest. Individuality is reduced by the tyranny of such despotism +to one uniform level till all originality is destroyed, as in cloisters, +barracks, and orphan asylums, where only one individual seems to exist. +There is a kind of Pedagogy also which fancies that one can thrust into +or out of the individual pupil what one will. This may be called a +superstitious belief in the power of Education.--The opposite extreme +disbelieves this, and advances the policy which lets alone and does +nothing, urging that individuality is unconquerable, and that often the +most careful and far-sighted education fails of reaching its aim in so +far as it is opposed to the nature of the youth, and that this +individuality has made of no avail all efforts toward the obtaining of +any end which was opposed to it. This representation of the +fruitlessness of all pedagogical efforts engenders an indifference +towards it which would leave, as a result, only a sort of vegetation of +individuality growing at hap-hazard.-- + +[Sidenote: _The Limits of Individuality._] + + 47. _The limit of Education is_ (1) _a Subjective one_, a limit made +by the individuality of the youth. This is a definite limit. Whatever +does not exist in this individuality as a possibility cannot be +developed from it. Education can only lead and assist; it cannot create. +What Nature has denied to a man, Education cannot give him any more than +it is able, on the other hand, to annihilate entirely his original +gifts, although it is true that his talents may be suppressed, +distorted, and measurably destroyed. But the decision of the question in +what the real essence of any one's individuality consists can never be +made with certainty till he has left behind him his years of +development, because it is then only that he first arrives at the +consciousness of his entire self; besides, at this critical time, in the +first place, much knowledge only superficially acquired will drop off; +and again, talents, long slumbering and unsuspected, may first make +their appearance. Whatever has been forced upon a child in opposition to +his individuality, whatever has been only driven into him and has lacked +receptivity on his side, or a rational ground on the side of culture, +remains attached to his being only as an external ornament, a foreign +outgrowth which enfeebles his own proper character. + +--We must distinguish from that affectation which arises through a +misunderstanding of the limit of individuality, the way which many +children and young persons have of supposing when they see models +finished and complete in grown persons, that they themselves are endowed +by Nature with the power to develop into the same. When they see a +reality which corresponds to their own possibility, the presentiment of +a like or a similar attainment moves them to an imitation of it as a +model personality. This may be sometimes carried so far as to be +disagreeable or ridiculous, but should not be too strongly censured, +because it springs from a positive striving after culture, and needs +only proper direction.-- + +[Sidenote: _Limit in the Means of Education._] + + 48. (2) _The Objective limit of Education_ lies in the means which can +be appropriated for it. That the talent for a certain culture shall be +present is certainly the first thing; but the cultivation of this talent +is the second, and no less necessary. But how much cultivation can be +given to it extensively and intensively depends upon the means used, and +these again are conditioned by the material resources of the family to +which each one belongs. The greater and more valuable the means of +culture which are found in a family are, the greater is the immediate +advantage which the culture of each one has at the start. With regard to +many of the arts and sciences this limit of education is of great +significance. But the means alone are of no avail. The finest +educational apparatus will produce no fruit where corresponding talent +is wanting, while on the other hand talent often accomplishes incredible +feats with very limited means, and, if the way is only once open, makes +of itself a centre of attraction which draws to itself with magnetic +power the necessary means. The moral culture of each one is however, +fortunately from its very nature, out of the reach of such dependence. + +--In considering the limit made by individuality we recognize the side +of truth in that indifference which considers Education entirely +superfluous, and in considering the means of culture we find the truth +in the other extreme of pedagogical despotism, which fancies that it can +command whatever culture it chooses for any one without regard to his +individuality.-- + + 49. (3) _The Absolute limit of Education_ is the time when the youth +has apprehended the problem which he has to solve, has learned to know +the means at his disposal, and has acquired a certain facility in using +them. The end and aim of Education is the emancipation of the youth. It +strives to make him self-dependent, and as soon as he has become so it +wishes to retire and to be able to leave him to the sole responsibility +of his actions. To treat the youth after he has passed this point of +time still as a youth, contradicts the very idea of Education, which +idea finds its fulfilment in the attainment of majority by the pupil. +Since the accomplishment of education cancels the original inequality +between the educator and the pupil, nothing is more oppressing, nay, +revolting to the latter than to be prevented by a continued dependence +from the enjoyment of the freedom which he has earned. + +--The opposite extreme of the protracting of Education beyond its proper +time is necessarily the undue hastening of the Emancipation.--The +question whether one is prepared for freedom has been often opened in +politics. When any people have gone so far as to ask this question +themselves, it is no longer a question whether that people are prepared +for it, for without the consciousness of freedom this question would +never have occurred to them.-- + +[Sidenote: _Arrival at the age of Majority._] + + 50. Although educators must now leave the youth free, the necessity of +further culture for him is still imperative. But it will no longer come +directly through them. Their pre-arranged, pattern-making work is now +supplanted by self-education. Each sketches for himself an ideal to +which in his life he seeks to approximate every day. + +--In the work of self-culture one friend can help another by advice and +example; but he cannot educate, for education presupposes +inequality.--The necessities of human nature produce societies in which +equals seek to influence each other in a pedagogical way, since they +establish by certain steps of culture different classes. They presuppose +Education in the ordinary sense. But they wish to bring about Education +in a higher sense, and therefore they veil the last form of their ideal +in the mystery of secrecy.--To one who lives on contented with himself +and without the impulse toward self-culture, unless his unconcern +springs from his belonging to a savage state of society, the Germans +give the name of Philistine, and he is always repulsive to the student +who is intoxicated with an ideal.-- + + + + +SECOND PART. + +The Special Elements of Education. + + + 51. Education in general consists in the development in man of his +inborn theoretical and practical rationality; it takes on the form of +labor, which changes that state or condition, which appears at first +only as a mere conception, into a fixed habit, and transfigures +individuality into a worthy humanity. Education ends in that +emancipation of the youth which places him on his own feet. The special +elements which form the concrete content of all Education in general are +the Life, Cognition, and Will of man. Without life mind has no +phenomenal reality; without cognition, no genuine, i.e. conscious, will; +and without will, no self-assurance of life and of cognition. It is true +that these three elements are in real existence inseparable, and that +consequently in the dialectic they continually pass over into one +another. But none the less on this account do they themselves prescribe +their own succession, and they have a relative and periodical ascendancy +over each other. In Infancy, up to the fifth or sixth year, the purely +physical development takes the precedence; Childhood is the time of +learning, in a proper sense, an act by which the child gains for himself +the picture of the world such as mature minds, through experience and +insight, have painted it; and, finally, Youth is the transition period +to practical activity, to which the self-determination of the will must +give the first impulse. + + 52. The classification of the special elements of Pedagogics is hence +very simple: (1) the Physical, (2) the Intellectual, (3) the Practical. +(We sometimes apply to these the words Orthobiotics, Didactics, and +Pragmatics.) + +--sthetic training constitutes only an element of the education of +Intellectual Education, just as social, moral, and religious training +form elements of Practical Education. But because these latter elements +concern themselves with what is external, the name "Pragmatics" is +appropriate. In this sphere, Pedagogics should coincide with Politics, +Ethics, and Religion; but it is distinguished from them through the +aptitude which it brings with it of putting into practice the problems +of the other three. The scientific arrangement of these ideas must +therefore show that the former, as the more abstract, constitutes the +conditions, and the latter, as the more concrete, the ground of the +former, which are presupposed; and in consequence of this it is itself +their principal teleological presupposition, just as in man the will +presupposes the cognition, and cognition life; while, at the same time, +life, in a deeper sense, must presuppose cognition, and cognition +will.-- + + +FIRST DIVISION. + +PHYSICAL EDUCATION. + + 53. The art of living rightly is based upon a comprehension of the +process of Life. Life is the restless dialectic which ceaselessly +transforms the inorganic into the organic, but at the same time creates +out of itself another inorganic, in which it separates from itself +whatever part of the inorganic has not been assimilated, which it took +up as a stimulant, and that which has become dead and burned out. The +organism is healthy when its reality corresponds to this idea of the +dialectic, of a life which moves up and down, to and fro; of formation +and re-formation, of organizing and disorganizing. All the rules for +Physical Education, or of Hygiene, are derived from this conception. + + 54. It follows from this that the change of the inorganic to the +organic is going on not only in the organism as a whole, but also in its +every organ and in every part of every organ; and that the organic as +soon as it has attained its highest point of energy, is again degraded +to the inorganic and thrown out. Every cell has its history. Activity +is, therefore, not contradictory to the organism, but favors in it the +natural progressive and regressive metamorphosis. This process can go on +harmoniously; that is, the organism can be in health only when not only +the whole organism, but each special organ, is allowed, after its +productive activity, the corresponding rest and recreation necessary for +its self-renewal. We have this periodicity exemplified in waking and +sleeping, also in exhalation and inhalation, excretion and taking in of +material. When we have discovered the relative antagonism of the organs +and their periodicity, we have found the secret of the perennial renewal +of life. + + 55. Fatigue makes its appearance when any organ, or the organism in +general, is denied time for the return movement into itself and for +renovation. It is possible for some one organ, as if isolated, to +exercise a great and long-continued activity, even to the point of +fatigue, while the other organs rest; as e.g. the lungs, in speaking, +while the other parts are quiet; on the other hand, it is not well to +speak and run at the same time. The idea that one can keep the organism +in better condition by inactivity, is an error which rests upon a +mechanical apprehension of life. Equally false is the idea that health +depends upon the quantity and excellence of the food; without the force +to assimilate it, it acts fatally rather than stimulatingly. _True +strength arises only from activity._ + +--The later physiologists will gradually destroy, in the system of +culture of modern people, the preconceived notion which recommended for +the indolent and lovers of pleasure powerful stimulants, very fat food, +&c. Excellent works exist on this question.-- + + 56. Physical Education, as it concerns the repairing, the motor, or +the nervous, activities, is divided into (1) Dietetics, (2) Gymnastics, +(3) Sexual Education. In real life these activities are scarcely +separable, but for the sake of exposition we must consider them apart. +In the regular development of the human being, moreover, the repairing +system has a relative precedence to the motor system, and the latter to +the sexual maturity. But Pedagogics can treat of these ideas only with +reference to the infant, the child, and the youth. + + +FIRST CHAPTER. + +_Dietetics._ + + + 57. Dietetics is the art of sustaining the normal repair of the +organism. Since this organism is, in the concrete, an individual one, +the general principles of dietetics must, in their manner of +application, vary with the sex, the age, the temperament, the +occupation, and the other conditions, of the individual. Pedagogics as a +science can only go over its general principles, and these can be named +briefly. It we attempt to speak of details, we fall easily into +triviality. So very important to the whole life of man is the proper +care of his physical nature during the first stages of its development, +that the science of Pedagogics must not omit to consider the different +systems which different people, according to their time, locality, and +culture, have made for themselves; many, it is true, embracing some +preposterous ideas, but in general never devoid of justification in +their time. + + 58. The infant's first nourishment must be the milk of its mother. The +substitution of a nurse should be only an exception justified alone by +the illness of the mother; as a rule, as happens in France, it is simply +bad, because a foreign physical and moral element is introduced into the +family through the nurse. The milk of an animal can never be as good for +a child. + + 59. When the teeth appear, the child is first able to eat solid food; +but, until the second teeth come, he should be fed principally on light, +fluid nourishment, and on vegetable diet. + + 60. When the second teeth are fully formed, the human being is ready +for animal as well as vegetable food. Too much meat is not good; but it +is an anatomical error to suppose that man, by the structure of his +stomach, was originally formed to live alone on vegetable diet, and that +animal food is a sign of his degeneracy. + +--The Hindoos, who subsist principally on vegetable diet, are not, as +has been often asserted, a very gentle race: a glance into their +history, or into their erotic poetry, shows them to be quite as +passionate as other peoples.-- + + 61. Man is omnivorous. Children have therefore a natural desire to +taste of everything. For them eating and drinking possess a kind of +poetry; there is a theoretic ingredient blended with the material +enjoyment. They have, on this account, a proneness to indulge, which is +deserving of punishment only when it is combined with disobedience and +secrecy, or when it betrays cunning and greediness. + + 62. Children need much sleep, because they are undergoing the most +active progressive metamorphosis. In after-life sleep and waking should +be subjected to periodical regulation, but not too exactly. + + 63. The clothing of children should be adapted to them; i.e. it should +be cut according to the shape of the body, and it must be loose enough +to allow free play to their desire for movement. + +--With regard to this as well as to the sleeping arrangements for +children, less in regard to food--which is often too highly spiced and +too liberal in tea, coffee, &c.--our age has become accustomed to a very +rational system. The clothing of children must be not only comfortable, +but it should be made of simple and cheap material, so that the free +enjoyment of the child may not be marred by the constant internal +anxiety that a rent or a spot may bring him a fault-finding or angry +word. From too great care as to clothing, may arise a meanness of mind +which at last pays too great respect to it, or an empty frivolity. This +last may be induced by dressing children too conspicuously.-- + + 64. Cleanliness is a virtue to which children should be accustomed for +the sake of their physical well-being, as well as because, in a moral +point of view, it is of the greatest significance. Cleanliness will not +endure that things shall be deprived of their proper individuality +through the elemental chaos. It retains each as distinguished from every +other. While it makes necessary to man pure air, cleanliness of +surroundings, of clothing, and of his body, it develops in him a sense +by which he perceives accurately the particular limits of being in +general. + + +SECOND CHAPTER. + +_Gymnastics._ + + + 65. Gymnastics is the art of systematic training of the muscular +system. The action of the voluntary muscles, which are regulated by the +nerves of the brain, in distinction from the involuntary automatic +muscles depending on the spinal cord, while they are the means of man's +intercourse with the external world, at the same time re-act upon the +automatic muscles in digestion and sensation. Since the movement of the +muscular fibres consists in the change of contraction and expansion, it +follows that Gymnastics must bring about a change of movement which +shall both contract and expand the muscles. + + 66. The system of gymnastic exercise of any nation corresponds always +to its way of fighting. So long as this consists in the personal +struggle of a hand-to-hand contest, Gymnastics will seek to increase as +much as possible individual strength and adroitness. As soon as the +far-reaching missiles projected from fire-arms become the centre of all +the operations of war, the individual is lost in a body of men, out of +which he emerges only relatively in sharp-shooting, in the charge, in +single contests, and in the retreat. Because of this incorporation of +the individual in the one great whole, and because of the resulting +unimportance of personal bravery, modern Gymnastics can never be the +same as it was in ancient times, even putting out of view the fact that +the subjectiveness of the modern spirit is too great to allow it to +devote so much attention to the care of the body, and the admiration of +its beauty, as was given by the Greeks. + +--The Turners' unions and halls in Germany belong to the period of +subjective enthusiasm of the German student population, and had a +political significance. At present, they have been brought back to their +proper place as an Educational means, and they are of great value, +especially in large cities. Among the mountains, and even in the country +towns, a special institution for bodily exercise is less necessary, for +the matter takes care of itself. The attractions of the situation and +the games help to foster it. In great cities, however, the houses are +often destitute of halls or open places where the children can take +exercise in their leisure moments. In these cities, therefore, there +must be some gymnastic hall where the sense of fellowship may be +developed. Gymnastics are not so essential for girls. In its place, +dancing is sufficient, and gymnastics should be employed for them only +where there exists any special weakness or deformity, when they may be +used as a restorative or preservative. They are not to become Amazons. +The boy, on the contrary, needs to acquire the feeling of +good-fellowship. It is true that the school develops this in a measure, +but not fully, because it determines the standing of the boy through his +intellectual ambition. The academical youth will not take much interest +in special gymnastics unless he can gain preminence therein. Running, +leaping, climbing, and lifting, are too meaningless for their more +mature spirits. They can take a lively interest only in the exercises +which have a warlike character. With the Prussians, and some other +German states, the art of Gymnastics identifies itself with military +concerns.-- + + 67. The real idea of Gymnastics must always be that the spirit shall +rule over its naturalness, and shall make this an energetic and docile +servant of its will. Strength and adroitness must unite and become +confident skill. Strength, carried to its extreme produces the athlete; +adroitness, to its extreme, the acrobat. Pedagogics must avoid both. All +immense force, fit only for display, must be held as far away as the +idea of teaching Gymnastics with the motive of utility; e.g. that by +swimming one may save his life when he falls into the water, &c. Among +other things, this may also be a consequence; but the principle in +general must always remain: the necessity of the spirit of subjecting +its organism of the body to the condition of a perfect means, so that it +may never find itself limited by it. + + 68. Gymnastic exercises form a series from simple to compound. There +appears to be so much arbitrariness in them that it is always very +agreeable to the mind to find, on nearer inspection, some reason. The +movements are (1) of the lower, (2) of the upper extremities; (3) of the +whole body, with relative striking out, now of the upper, now of the +lower extremities. We distinguish, therefore, foot, arm, and trunk +movements. + + 69. (1) The first series of foot-movements is the most important, and +conditions the carriage of all the rest of the body. They are (_a_) +walking; (_b_) running; (_c_) leaping: each of these being capable of +modifications, as the high and the low leap, the prolonged and the quick +run. Sometimes we give to these different names, according to the means +used, as walking on stilts; skating; leaping with a staff, or by means +of the hands, as vaulting. Dancing is only the art of the graceful +mingling of these movements; and balancing, only one form of walking. + + 70. (2) The second series embraces the arm-movements, and it repeats +also the movements of the first series. It includes (_a_) lifting; (_b_) +swinging; (_c_) throwing. All pole and bar practice comes under lifting, +also climbing and carrying. Under throwing, come quoit and +ball-throwing, and nine-pin playing. All these movements are +distinguished from each other, not only quantitatively but also +qualitatively, in the position of the stretched and bent muscles; e.g. +running is something different from quick walking. + + 71. (3) The third series, or that of movements of the whole body, +differs from the preceding two, which should precede it, in this, that +it brings the organism into contact with a living object, which it has +to overcome through its own activity. This object is sometimes an +element, sometimes an animal, sometimes a man. Our divisions then are +(_a_) swimming; (_b_) riding; (_c_) fighting, or single combat. In +swimming, one must conquer the yielding liquid material of water by arm +and foot movements. The resistance met on account of currents and waves +may be very great, but it is still that of a will-less and passive +object. But in riding man has to deal with a self-willed being whose +vitality calls forth not only his strength but also his intelligence and +courage. The exercise is therefore very complicated, and the rider must +be able perpetually to individualize it according to the necessity; at +the same time, he must give attention not only to the horse, but to the +nature of the ground and the entire surroundings. But it is only in the +struggle with men that Gymnastics reaches its highest point, for in this +man offers himself as a living antagonist to man and brings him into +danger. It is no longer the spontaneous activity of an unreasoning +existence; it is the resistance and attack of intelligence itself with +which he has to deal. Fighting, or single combat, is the truly +chivalrous exercise, and this may be combined with horsemanship. + +--In the single combat there is found also a qualitative modification, +whence we have three systems: (_a_) boxing and wrestling; (_b_) fencing +with sticks; and (_c_) rapier and broad-sword fencing. In the first, +which was cultivated to its highest point among the Greeks, direct +immediateness rules. In the boxing of the English, a sailor-like +propensity of this nation, fist-fighting is still retained as a custom. +Fencing with a stick is found among the French mechanics, the so-called +_compagnons_. Men often use the cane in their contests; it is a sort of +refined club. When we use the sword or rapier, the weapon becomes +deadly. The Southern Europeans excel in the use of the rapier, the +Germans in that of the sword. But the art of single combat is much +degenerated, and the pistol-duel, through its increasing frequency, +proves this degeneration.-- + + +THIRD CHAPTER. + +_Sexual Education._ + + + NOTE.--The paragraphs relating to Sexual Education are + designed for parents rather than for teachers, the parent + being the natural educator of the family and sexual + education relating to the preservation and continuance of + the family. This chapter is accordingly, for the most + part, omitted here. It contains judicious reflections, + invaluable to parents and guardians.--_Tr._ + + 72. Gymnastic exercises fall naturally into a systematic arrangement +determined by the chronological order of development through infancy, +childhood, and youth. Walking, running, and leaping belong, to the first +period; lifting, swinging, and throwing, to the second; swimming, +riding, and bodily contests, to the third, and these last may also be +continued into manhood. But with the arrival at youth, a new epoch makes +its appearance in the organism. It prepares itself for the propagation +of the species. It expands the individual through the need which he +feels of uniting himself with another individual of the same species, +but who is a polar opposite to him, in order to preserve the two in a +new individual. The blood rushes more vigorously; the muscular strength +becomes more easily roused into activity; an indefinable impulse, a +sweet melancholy takes possession of the being. This period demands a +special care in the educator. + + 73. The general preventive guards must be found in a rational system +of food and exercise. By care in these directions, the development of +the bones, and with them of the brain and spinal cord at this period, +may be led to a proper strength, and that the easily-moulded material +may not be perverted from its normal functions in the development of the +body to a premature manifestation of the sexual instinct. + + 74. Special forethought is necessary lest the brain be too early +over-strained, and lest, in consequence of such precocious and excessive +action, the foundation for a morbid excitation of the whole nervous +system be laid, which may easily lead to effeminate and voluptuous +reveries, and to brooding over obscene representations. The excessive +reading of novels, whose exciting pages delight in painting the love of +the sexes for each other and its sensual phases, may lead to this, and +then the mischief is done. + + +SECOND DIVISION. + +INTELLECTUAL EDUCATION. + + 80. _Mens sana in corpore sano_ is correct as a pedagogical maxim, but +false in the judgment of individual cases; because it is possible, on +the one hand, to have a healthy mind in an unhealthy body, and, on the +other hand, an unhealthy mind in a healthy body. To strive after the +harmony of soul and body is the material condition of all proper +activity. The development of intelligence presupposes physical health. +Here we are to speak of the science of the art of Teaching. This had its +condition on the side of nature, as was before seen, in physical +Education, but in the sphere of mind it is related to Psychology and +Logic. It unites, in Teaching, considerations on Psychology as well as a +Logical method. + + +FIRST CHAPTER. + +_The Psychological Presupposition._ + + + 81. If we would have a sound condition of Philosophy, it must, in +intellectual Education, refer to the conception of mind which has been +unfolded in Psychology; and it must appear as a defect in scientific +method if Psychology, or at least the conception of the theoretical +mind, is treated again as within Pedagogics. We must take something for +granted. Psychology, then, will be consulted no further than is +requisite to place on a sure basis the pedagogical function which +relates to it. + + 82. The conception of _attention_ is the most important to Pedagogics +of all those derived from Psychology. Mind is essentially self-activity. +Nothing exists for it which it does not itself posit as its own. We hear +it not seldom implied that something from outside conditions must make +an impression on the mind, but this is an error. Mind lets nothing act +upon it unless it has rendered itself receptive to it. Without this +preparatory self-excitation the object does not really penetrate it, and +it passes by the object unconsciously or indifferently. The horizon of +perception changes for each person with his peculiarities and culture. +Attention is the adjusting of the observer to the object in order to +seize it in its unity and diversity. Relatively, the observer allows, +for a moment, his relation to all other surroundings to cease, so that +he may establish a relation with this one. Without this essentially +spontaneous activity, nothing exists for the mind. All result in +teaching and learning depends upon the clearness and strength with which +distinctions are made, and the saying, _bene qui distinguit bene docit_, +applies as well to the pupil. + + 83. Attention, depending as it does on the self-determination of the +observer, can therefore be improved, and the pupil made attentive, by +the educator. Education must accustom him to an exact, rapid, and +many-sided attention, so that at the first contact with an object he may +grasp it sufficiently and truly, and that it shall not be necessary for +him always to be adding to his acquisitions concerning it. The twilight +and partialness of intelligence which forces us always to new +corrections because a pupil at the very commencement did not give entire +attention, must not be tolerated. + +[Sidenote: _Psychological Faculties._] + + 84. We learn from Psychology that mind does not consist of distinct +faculties, but that what we choose to call so are only different +activities of the same power. Each one is just as essential as the +other, on which account Education must grant to each faculty its claim +to the same fostering care. If we would construe correctly the axiom _a +potiori fit denominatio_ to mean that man is distinguished from animals +by thought, and that mediated will is not the same as thought, we must +not forget that feeling and representing are not less necessary to a +truly complete human being. The special direction which the activity of +apprehending intelligence takes are (1) Perception, (2) Conception, (3) +Thinking. Dialectically, they pass over into each other; not that +Perception rises into Conception, and Conception into Thinking, but that +Thinking goes back into Conception, and this again into Perception. In +the development of the young, the Perceptive faculty is most active in +the infant, the Conceptive in the child, and the Thinking in the youth; +and thus we may distinguish an intuitive, an imaginative, and a logical +epoch. + +--Great errors arise from the misapprehension of these different phases +and of their dialectic, since the different forms which are suitable to +the different grades of youth are mingled. The infant certainly thinks +while he perceives, but this thinking is to him unconscious. Or, if he +has acquired perceptions, he makes them into conceptions, and +demonstrates his freedom in playing with them. This play must not be +taken as mere amusement; it also signifies that he takes care to +preserve his self-determination, and his power of idealizing, in +opposition to the pleasant filling of his consciousness with material. +Herein the delight of the child for fairy tales finds its reason. The +fairy tale constantly destroys the limits of common actuality. The +abstract understanding cannot endure this arbitrariness and want of +fixed conditions, and thus would prefer that children should read, +instead, home-made stories of the "Charitable Ann," of the "Heedless +Frederick," of the "Inquisitive Wilhelmine," &c. Above all, it praises +"Robinson Crusoe," which contains much heterogeneous matter, but nothing +improbable. When the youth and maiden of necessity pass over into the +earnestness of real life, the drying up of the imagination and the +domination of the understanding presses in.-- + + +I. _The Intuitive Epoch._ + + 85. Perception, as the beginning of intellectual culture, is the free +grasping of a content immediately present to the spirit. Education can +do nothing directly toward the performance of this act; it can only +assist in making it easy:--(1) it can isolate the subject of +consideration; (2) it can give facility in the transition to another; +(3) it can promote the many-sidedness of the interest, by which means +the return to a perception already obtained has always a fresh charm. + + 86. The immediate perception of many things is impossible, and yet +the necessity for it is obvious. We must then have recourse to a +mediated perception, and supply the lack of actual seeing by +representations. But here the difficulty presents itself, that there are +many objects which we are not able to represent of the same size as they +really are, and we must have a reduced scale; and there follows a +difficulty in making the representation, as neither too large nor too +small. An explanation is then also necessary as a judicious supplement +to the picture. + + 87. Pictures are extremely valuable aids to instruction when they are +correct and characteristic. Correctness must be demanded in these +substitutes for natural objects, historical persons and scenes. Without +this correctness, the picture, if not an impediment, is, to say the +least, useless. + +--It is only since the last half of the seventeenth century, i.e. since +the disappearance of real painting, that the picture-book has appeared +as an educational means; first of all, coming from miniature painting. +Up to that time, public life had plenty of pictures of arms, furniture, +houses, and churches; and men, from their fondness for constantly moving +about, were more weary of immediate perception. It was only afterwards +when, in the excitement of the thirty-years' war, the arts of Sculpture +and Painting and Christian and Pagan Mythology became extinct, that +there arose a greater necessity for pictured representations. The _Orbis +Rerum Sensualium Pictus_, which was also to be _janua linguarum +reserata_, of Amos Comenius, appeared first in 1658, and was reprinted +in 1805. Many valuable illustrated books followed. Since that time +innumerable illustrated Bibles and histories have appeared, but many of +them look only to the pecuniary profit of the author or the publisher. +It is revolting to see the daubs that are given to children. They are +highly colored, but as to correctness, to say nothing of character, they +are good for nothing. With a little conscientiousness and scientific +knowledge very different results could be obtained with the same outlay +of money and of strength. The uniformity which exists in the stock of +books which German book-selling has set in circulation is really +disgraceful. Everywhere we find the same types, even in ethnographical +pictures. In natural history, the illustrations were often drawn from +the imagination or copied from miserable models. This has changed very +much for the better. The same is true of architectural drawings and +landscapes, for which we have now better copies.-- + + 88. Children have naturally a desire to collect things, and this may +be so guided that they shall collect and arrange plants, butterflies, +beetles, shells, skeletons, &c., and thus gain exactness and reality in +their perception. Especially should they practise drawing, which leads +them to form exact images of objects. But drawing, as children practise +it, does not have the educational significance of cultivating in them an +appreciation of art, but rather that of educating the eye, as this must +be exercised in estimating distances, sizes, and colors. It is, +moreover, a great gain in many ways, if, through a suitable course of +lessons in drawing, the child is advanced to a knowledge of the +elementary forms of nature. + +--That pictures should affect children as works of art is not to be +desired. They confine themselves at first to distinguishing the outlines +and colors, and do not yet appreciate the execution. If the children +have access to real works of art, we may safely trust in their power, +and quietly await their moral or sthetic effect.-- + + 89. In order that looking at pictures shall not degenerate into mere +diversion, explanations should accompany them. Only when the thought +embodied in the illustration is pointed out, can they be useful as a +means of instruction. Simply looking at them is of as little value +towards this end as is water for baptism without the Holy Spirit. Our +age inclines at present to the superstition that man is able, by means +of simple intuition, to attain a knowledge of the essence of things, and +thereby dispense with the trouble of thinking. Illustrations are the +order of the day, and, in the place of enjoyable descriptions, we find +miserable pictures. It is in vain to try to get behind things, or to +comprehend them, except by thinking. + + 90. The ear as well as the eye must be cultivated. Music must be +considered the first educational means to this end, but it should be +music inspired by ethical purity. Hearing is the most internal of all +the senses, and should on this account be treated with the greatest +delicacy. Especially should the child be taught that he is not to look +upon speech as merely a vehicle for communication and for gaining +information; it should also give pleasure, and therefore he should be +taught to speak distinctly and with a good style, and this he can do +only when he carefully considers what he is going to say. + +--Among the Greeks, extraordinary care was given to musical cultivation, +especially in its ethical relation. Sufficient proof of this is found in +the admirable detailed statements on this point in the "Republic" of +Plato and in the last book of the "Politics" of Aristotle. Among modern +nations, also, music holds a high place, and makes its appearance as a +constant element of education. Piano-playing has become general, and +singing is also taught. But the ethical significance of music is too +little considered. Instruction in music often aims only to train pupils +for display in society, and the tendency of the melodies which are +played is restricted more and more to orchestral pieces of an exciting +or bacchanalian character. The railroad-gallop-style only makes the +nerves of youth vibrate with stimulating excitement. Oral speech, the +highest form of the personal manifestation of mind, was also treated +with great reverence by the ancients. Among us, communication is so +generally carried on by writing and reading, that the art of speaking +distinctly, correctly, and agreeably, has become very much neglected. +Practice in declamation accomplishes, as a general thing, very little in +this direction. But we may expect that the increase of public speaking +occasioned by our political and religious assemblies may have a +favorable influence in this particular.-- + + +II. _The Imaginative Epoch._ + + 91. The activity of Perception results in the formation of an internal +picture or image of its ideas which intelligence can call up at any time +without the sensuous, immediate presence of its object, and thus, +through abstraction and generalization, arises the conception. The +mental image may (1) be compared with the perception from which it +sprang, or (2) it may be arbitrarily altered and combined with other +images, or (3) it may be held fast in the form of abstract signs or +symbols which intelligence invents for it. Thus originate the functions +(1) of the verification of conceptions, (2) of the creative imagination, +and (3) of memory; but for their full development we must refer to +Psychology. + + 92. (1) The mental image which we form of an object may be correct; +again, it may be partly or wholly defective, if we have neglected some +of the predicates of the perception which presented themselves, or in so +far as we have added to it other predicates which only seemingly +belonged to it, and which were attached to it only by its accidental +empirical connection with other existences. Education must, therefore, +foster the habit of comparing our conceptions with the perceptions from +which they arose; and these perceptions, since they are liable to change +by reason of their empirical connection with other objects, must be +frequently compared with our conceptions previously formed by +abstractions from them. + + 93. (2) We are thus limited in our conceptions by our perceptions, but +we exercise a free control over our conceptions. We can create out of +them, as simple elements, the manifold mental shapes which we do not +treat as given to us, but as essentially our own work. In Pedagogics, we +must not only look upon this freedom as if it were only to afford +gratification, but as the reaction of the absolute ideal native mind +against the dependence in which the empirical reception of impressions +from without, and their reproduction in conceptions, place it. In this +process, it does not only fashion in itself the phenomenal world, but it +rather fashions out of itself a world which is all its own. + + 94. The study of Art comes here to the aid of Pedagogics, especially +with Poetry, the highest and at the same time the most easily +communicated. The imagination of the pupil can be led by means of the +classical works of creative imagination to the formation of a good taste +both as regards ethical value and beauty of form. The proper classical +works for youth are those which nations have produced in the earliest +stages of their culture. These works bring children face to face with +the picture which mind has sketched for itself in one of the necessary +stages of its development. This is the real reason why our children +never weary of reading Homer and the stories of the Old Testament. +Polytheism and the heroism which belongs to it are just as substantial +an element of childish conception as monotheism with its prophets and +patriarchs. We stand beyond both, because we are mediated by both, and +embrace both in our stand-point. + +--The purest stories of literature designed for the amusement of +children from their seventh to their fourteenth year, consist always of +those which were honored by nations and the world at large. One has only +to notice in how many thousand forms the stories of Ulysses are +reproduced by the writers of children's tales. Becker's "Tales of +Ancient Times," Gustav Schwab's most admirable "Sagas of Antiquity," +Karl Grimm's "Tales of Olden Times," &c., what were they without the +well-talking, wily favorite of Pallas, and the divine swine-herd? And +just as indestructible are the stories of the Old Testament up to the +separation of Judah and Israel. These patriarchs with their wives and +children, these judges and prophets, these kings and priests, are by no +means ideals of virtue in the notion of our modern lifeless morality, +which would smooth out of its pattern-stories for the "dear children" +everything that is hard and uncouth. For the very reason that the +shadow-side is not wanting here, and that we find envy, vanity, evil +desire, ingratitude, craftiness, and deceit, among these fathers of the +race and leaders of "God's chosen people," have these stories so great +an educational value. Adam, Cain, Abraham, Joseph, Samson, and David, +have justly become as truly world-historical types as Achilles and +Patroclus, Agamemnon and Iphigenia, Hector and Andromache, Ulysses and +Penelope.-- + + 95. There may be produced also, out of the simplest and most primitive +phases of different epochs of culture of one and the same people, +stories which answer to the imagination of children, and represent to +them the characteristic features of the past of their people. + +--The Germans possess such a collection of their stories in their +popular books of the "Horny Sigfried," of the "Heymon Children," of +"Beautiful _Magelone_," "Fortunatus," "The Wandering Jew," "Faust," "The +Adventurous Simplicissimus," "The _Schildbrger_," "The Island of +Felsenburg," "Lienhard and Gertrude," &c. Also, the art works of the +great masters which possess national significance must be spoken of +here, as the Don Quixote of Cervantes.-- + + 96. The most general form in which the childish imagination finds +exercise is that of fairy-tales; but Education must take care that it +has these in their proper shape as national productions, and that they +are not of the morbid kind which poetry so often gives us in this +species of literature, and which not seldom degenerate to sentimental +caricatures and silliness. + +--The East Indian stories are most excellent because they have their +origin with a childlike people who live wholly in the imagination. By +means of the Arabian filtration, which took place in Cairo in the +flourishing period of the Egyptian caliphs, all that was too +characteristically Indian was excluded, and they were made in the "Tales +of Scheherezade," a book for all peoples, with whose far-reaching power +in child-literature, the local stories of a race, as e.g. Grimm's +admirable ones of German tradition, cannot compare. Fairy-tales made to +order, as we often see them, with a medival Catholic tendency, or very +moral and dry, are a bane to the youthful imagination in their stale +sweetness. We must here add, however, that lately we have had some +better success in our attempts since we have learned to distinguish +between the nave natural poetry, which is without reflection, and the +poetry of art, which is conditioned by criticism and an ideal. This +distinction has produced good fruits even in the picture-books of +children. The pretensions of the gentlemen who printed illustrated books +containing nothing more solid than the alphabet and the multiplication +table have become less prominent since such men as Speckter, Frhlich, +Gutsmuths, Hofman (the writer of "Slovenly Peter"), and others, have +shown that seemingly trivial things can be handled with intellectual +power, if one is blessed with it, and that nothing is more opposed to +the child's imagination than the _childishness_ with which so many +writers for children have fallen when they attempted to descend with +dignity from their presumably lofty stand-point. Men are beginning to +understand that Christ promised the kingdom of heaven to little children +on other grounds than because they had as it were the privilege of being +thoughtless and foolish.-- + + 97. For youth and maidens, especially as they approach manhood and +womanhood, the cultivation of the imagination must allow the earnestness +of actuality to manifest itself in its undisguised energy. This +earnestness, no longer through the symbolism of play but in its +objective reality, must now thoroughly penetrate the conceptions of the +youth so that it shall prepare him to seize hold of the machinery of +active life. Instead of the all-embracing Epos they should now read +Tragedy, whose purifying process, through the alternation of fear and +pity, unfolds to the youth the secret of all human destiny, sin and its +expiation. The works best adapted to lead to history on this side are +those of biography--of ancient times, Plutarch; of modern times, the +autobiographies of Augustine, Cellini, Rousseau, Goethe, Varnhagen, Jung +Stilling, Moritz, Arndt, &c. These autobiographies contain a view of the +growth of individuality through its inter-action with the influences of +its time, and, together with the letters and memoirs of great or at +least noteworthy men, tend to produce a healthy excitement in the +youth, who must learn to fight his own battles through a knowledge of +the battles of others. To introduce the youth to a knowledge of Nature +and Ethnography no means are better than those of books of travel which +give the charm of first contact, the joy of discovery, instead of the +general consciousness of the conquests of mind. + +--If educative literature on the one hand broadens the field of +knowledge, on the other it may also promote its elaboration into ideal +forms. This happens, in a strict sense, through philosophical +literature. But only two different species of this are to be recommended +to youth: (1) well-written treatises which endeavor to solve a single +problem with spirit and thoroughness; or, (2) when the intelligence has +grown strong enough for it, the classical works of a real philosopher. +German literature is fortunately very rich in treatises of this kind in +the works of Lessing, Herder, Kant, Fichte, Schleiermacher, Humboldt, +and Schiller. But nothing does more harm to youth than the study of +works of mediocrity, or those of a still lower rank. They stupefy and +narrow the mind by their empty, hollow, and constrained style. It is +generally supposed that these standard works are too difficult, and that +one must first seize them in this trivial and diluted form in order to +understand them. This is one of the most prevalent and most dangerous +errors, for these Introductions or Explanations, easily-comprehended +Treatises, Summary Abstracts, are, because of their want of originality +and of the acuteness which belongs to it, much more difficult to +understand than the standard work itself from which they drain their +supplies. Education must train the youth to the courage which will +attempt standard works, and it must not allow any such miserable +preconceived opinions to grow up in his mind as that his understanding +is totally unable to comprehend works like Fichte's "Science of +Knowledge," the "Metaphysics" of Aristotle, or Hegel's "Phenomenology." +No science suffers so much as Philosophy from this false popular +opinion, which understands neither itself nor its authority. The youth +must _learn how to learn to understand_, and, in order to do this, he +must know that one cannot immediately understand everything in its +finest subdivisions, and that on this account he must have patience, and +must resolve to read over and over again, and to think over what he has +read.-- + + 98. (3) Imagination returns again within itself to perception in that +it replaces, for conceptions, perceptions themselves, which are to +remind it of the previous conception. These perceptions may resemble in +some way the perception which lies at the basis of the conception, and +be thus more or less symbolical; or they may be merely arbitrary +creations of the creative imagination, and are in this case pure signs. +In common speech and writing, we call the free retaining of these +perceptions created by imagination, and the recalling of the conceptions +denoted by them, _Memory_. It is by no means a particular faculty of the +mind, which is again subdivided into memory of persons, names, numbers, +&c. As to its form, memory is the stage of the dissolution of +conception; but as to its content, it arises from the interest which we +take in a subject-matter. From this interest results, moreover, careful +attention, and from this latter, facility in the reproductive +imagination. If these acts have preceded, the fixing of a name, or of a +number, in which the content interesting us is as it were summed up, is +not difficult. When interest and attention animate us, it seems as if we +did not need to be at all troubled about remembering anything. All the +so-called mnemonic helps only serve to make more difficult the act of +memory. This act is in itself a double function, consisting of, first, +the fixing of the sign, and second, the fixing of the conception +subsumed under it. Since the mnemonic technique adds to these one more +conception, through whose means the things with which we have to deal +are to be fixed in order to be able freely to express them in us, it +trebles the functions of remembering, and forgets that the mediation of +these and their relation--wholly arbitrary and highly artificial--must +also be remembered. The true help of memory consists in not helping it +at all, but in simply taking up the object into the ideal regions of the +mind by the force of the infinite self-determination which mind +possesses. + +--Lists of names, as e.g. of the Roman emperors, of the popes, of the +caliphs, of rivers, mountains, authors, cities, &c.; also numbers, as +e.g. the multiplication table, the melting points of minerals, the dates +of battles, of births and deaths, &c., must be learned without aid. All +indirect means only serve to do harm here, and are required as +self-discovered mediation only in case that interest or attention has +become weakened.-- + + 99. The means to be used, which result from the nature of memory +itself, are on the one hand the pronouncing and writing of the names and +numbers, and on the other, repetition; by these we gain distinctness and +certainty. + +--All artificial contrivances for quickening the memory vanish in +comparison with the art of writing, in so far as this is not looked at +as a means of relieving the memory. That a name or a number should be +this or that, is a mere chance for the intelligence, an entirely +meaningless accident to which we have unconditionally to submit +ourselves as unalterable. The intelligence must be accustomed to put +upon itself this constraint. In science proper, especially in +Philosophy, our reason helps to produce one thought from others by means +of the context, and we can discover names for the ideas from them.-- + + +III. _The Logical Epoch._ + + 100. In Conception there is attained a universality of intellectual +action in so far as the empirical details are referred to a _Schema_, as +Kant called it. But the _necessity_ of the connection is wanting to it. +To produce this is the task of the thinking activity, which frees itself +from all representations, and with its clearly defined determinations +transcends conceptions. The Thinking activity frees itself from all +sensuous representations by means of the processes of Conception and +Perception. Comprehension, Judgment, and Syllogism, develop for +themselves into forms which, as such, have no power of being perceived +by the senses. But it does not follow from this that he who thinks +cannot return out of the thinking activity and carry it with him into +the sphere of Conception and Perception. The true thinking activity +deprives itself of no content. The abstraction affecting a logical +purism which looks down upon Conception and Perception as forms of +intelligence quite inferior to itself, is a pseudo-thinking, a morbid +and scholastic error. Education will be the better on its guard against +this the more it has led the pupil by the legitimate road of Perception +and Conception to Thinking. Memorizing especially is an excellent +preparatory school for the Thinking activity, because it gives practice +to the intelligence in exercising itself in abstract ideas. + + 101. The fostering of the Sense of Truth from the earliest years up, +is the surest way of leading the pupil to gain the power of thinking. +The unprejudiced, disinterested yielding to Truth, as well as the effort +to shun all deception and false seeming, are of the greatest value in +strengthening the power of reflection, as this considers nothing of +value but the actually existing objective circumstances. + +--The indulging an illusion as a pleasing recreation of the +intelligence should be allowed, while lying must not be tolerated. +Children have a natural inclination for mystifications, for masquerades, +for raillery, and for theatrical performances, &c. This inclination to +illusion is perfectly normal with them, and should be permitted. The +graceful kingdom of Art is developed from it, as also the poetry of +conversation in jest and wit. Although this sometimes becomes +stereotyped into very prosaic conventional forms of speech, it is more +tolerable than the awkward honesty which takes everything in its simple +literal sense. And it is easy to discover whether children in such play, +in the activity of free joyousness, incline to the side of mischief by +their showing a desire of satisfying their selfish interest. Then they +must be checked, for in that case the cheerfulness of harmless joking +gives way to premeditation and dissimulation.-- + + 102. An acquaintance with logical forms is to be recommended as a +special educational help in the culture of intelligence. The study of +Mathematics does not suffice, because it presupposes Logic. Mathematics +is related to Logic in the same way as Grammar, the Physical Sciences, +&c. The logical forms must be known explicitly in their pure independent +forms, and not merely in their implicit state as immanent in objective +forms. + + +SECOND CHAPTER. + +_The Logical Presupposition or Method._ + + + 103. The logical presupposition of instruction is the order in which +the subject-matter develops for the consciousness. The subject, the +consciousness of the pupil, and the activity of the instructor, +interpenetrate each other in instruction, and constitute in actuality +one whole. + + 104. (1) First of all, the subject which is to be learned has a +specific determinateness which demands in its representation a certain +fixed order. However arbitrary we may desire to be, the subject has a +certain self-determination of its own which no mistreatment can wholly +crush out, and this inherent immortal reason is the general foundation +of instruction. + +--To illustrate; however one may desire to manipulate a language in +teaching it, he cannot change the words in it, or the inflections of the +declensions and conjugations. And the same restriction is laid upon our +inclinations in the different divisions of Natural History, in the +theorems of Arithmetic, Geometry, &c. The theorem of Pascal remains +still the theorem of Pascal, and will always remain so.-- + + 105. (2) But the subject must be adapted to the consciousness of the +pupil, and here the order of procedure and the exposition depend upon +the stage which he has reached intellectually, for the special manner of +the instruction must be conditioned by this. If he is in the stage of +perception, we must use the illustrative method; if in the stage of +conception, that of combination; and if in the stage of reflection that +of demonstration. The first exhibits the object directly, or some +representation of it; the second considers it according to the different +possibilities which exist in it, and turns it around on all sides; the +third questions the necessity of the connection in which it stands +either with itself or with others. This is the natural order from the +stand-point of the scientific intelligence: first, the object is +presented to the perception; then combination presents its different +phases; and, finally, the thinking activity circumscribes the restlessly +moving reflection by the idea of necessity. Experiment in the method of +combination is an excellent means for a discovery of relations, for a +sharpening of the attention, for the arousing of a many-sided interest; +but it is no true dialectic, though it be often denoted by that name. + +--Illustration is especially necessary in the natural sciences and also +in sthetics, because in both of these departments the sensuous is an +essential element of the matter dealt with. In this respect we have made +great progress in charts and maps. Sydow's hand and wall maps and +Berghaus's physical atlas are most excellent means of illustrative +instruction; also Burmeister's zological atlas.-- + + 106. The demonstrative method, in order to bring about its proof of +necessity, has a choice of many different ways. But we must not imagine, +either that there are an unlimited number, and that it is only a chance +which one we shall take; or that they have no connection among +themselves, and run, as it were, side by side. It is not, however, the +business of Pedagogics to develop different methods of proof; this +belongs to Logic. We have only to remember that, logically taken, proof +must be analytic, synthetic, or dialectic. Analysis begins with the +single one, and leads out of it by induction to the general principle +from which its existence results. Synthesis, on the contrary, begins +with a general which is presupposed as true, and leads from this through +deduction to the special determinations which were implicit in it. The +regressive search of analysis for a determining principle is +_Invention_; the forward progress of synthesis from the simple elements +seeking for the multiplicity of the single one is _Construction_. Each, +in its result, passes over into the other; but their truth is found in +the dialectic method, which in each phase allows unity to separate into +diversity and diversity to return into unity. While in the analytic as +well as in the synthetic method the mediation of the individual with the +general, or of the general with the individual, lets the phase of +particularity be only subjectively connected with it in the dialectic +method, we have the going over of the general through the particular to +the individual, or to the self-determination of the idea, and it +therefore rightly claims the title of the genetic method. We can also +say that while the inventive method gives us the idea (notion) and the +constructive the judgment, the genetic gives us the syllogism which +leads the determinations of reflection back again into substantial +identity. + + 107. (3) The active mediation of the pupil with the content which is +to be impressed upon his consciousness is the work of the teacher, whose +personality creates a method adapted to the individual; for however +clearly the subject may be defined, however exactly the psychological +stage of the pupil may be regulated, the teacher cannot dispense with +the power of his own individuality even in the most objective relations. +This individuality must penetrate the whole with its own exposition, and +that peculiarity which we call his _manner_, and which cannot be +determined _ priori_, must appear. The teacher must place himself on +the stand-point of the pupil, i.e. must adapt himself; he must see that +the abstract is made clear to him in the concrete, i.e. must illustrate; +he must fill up the gaps which will certainly appear, and which may mar +the thorough seizing of the subject, i.e. must supply. In all these +relations the pedagogical tact of the teacher may prove itself truly +ingenious in varying the method according to the changefulness of the +ever-varying needs, in contracting or expanding the extent, in stating, +or indicating what is to be supplied. The true teacher is free from any +superstitious belief in any one procedure as a sure specific which he +follows always in a monotonous bondage. This can only happen when he is +capable of the highest method. The teacher has arrived at the highest +point of ability in teaching when he can make use of all means, from the +loftiness of solemn seriousness, through smooth statement, to the play +of jest--yes, even to the incentive of irony, and to humor. + +--Pedagogics can be in nothing more specious than in its method, and it +is here that charlatanism can most readily intrude itself. Every little +change, every inadequate modification, is proclaimed aloud as a new or +an improved method; and even the most foolish and superficial changes +find at once their imitators, who themselves conceal their insolence +behind some frivolous differences, and, with laughable conceit, hail +themselves as inventors.-- + + +THIRD CHAPTER. + +_Instruction._ + + + 108. All instruction acts upon the supposition that there is an +inequality between present knowledge and power and that knowledge and +power which are not yet attained. To the pupil belong the first, to the +teacher the second. Education is the act which gradually cancels the +original inequality of teacher and pupil, in that it converts what was +at first the property of the former into the property of the latter, and +this by means of his own activity. + + +I. _The Subjects of Instruction._ + + 109. The pupil is the apprentice, the teacher the master, whether in +the practice of any craft or art, or in the exposition of any systematic +knowledge. The pupil passes from the state of the apprentice to that of +the master through that of the journeyman. The apprentice has to +appropriate to himself the elements; journeymanship begins as he, by +means of their possession, becomes independent; the master combines with +his technical skill the freedom of production. His authority over his +pupil consists only in his knowledge and power. If he has not these, no +external support, no trick of false appearances which he may put on, +will serve to create it for him. + + 110. These stages--(1) apprenticeship, (2) journeymanship, (3) +mastership--are fixed limitations in the didactic process; they are +relative only in the concrete. The standard of special excellence varies +with the different grades of culture, and must be varied that it may +have any historical value. The master is complete only in relation to +the journeyman and apprentice; to them he is superior. But on the other +hand, in relation to the infinity of the problems of his art or science, +he is by no means complete; to himself he must always appear as one who +begins ever anew, one who is ever striving, one to whom a new problem +ever rises from every achieved result. He cannot discharge himself from +work, he must never desire to rest on his laurels. He is the truest +master whose finished performances only force him on to never-resting +progress. + + 111. The real possibility of culture is found in general, it is true, +in every human being; nevertheless, empirically, there are +distinguished: (1) Incapacity, as the want of all gifts; (2) Mediocrity; +(3) Talent and Genius. It is the part of Psychology to give an account +of all these. Mediocrity characterizes the great mass of mechanical +intelligences, those who wait for external impulse as to what direction +their endeavors shall take. Not without truth, perhaps, may we say, that +hypothetically a special talent is given to each individual, but this +special talent in many men never makes its appearance, because under the +circumstances in which it finds itself placed it fails to find the +exciting occasion which shall give him the knowledge of its existence. +The majority of mankind are contented with the mechanical impulse which +makes them into something and impresses upon them certain +determinations.--Talent shows itself by means of the confidence in its +own especial productive possibility, which manifests itself as an +inclination, as a strong impulse, to occupy itself with the special +object which constitutes its content. Pedagogics has no difficulty in +dealing with mechanical natures, because their passivity is only too +ready to follow prescribed patterns. It is more difficult to manage +talent, because it lies between mediocrity and genius, and is therefore +uncertain, and not only unequal to itself, but also is tossed now too +low, now too high, is by turns despondent and over-excited. The general +maxim for dealing with it is to remove no difficulty from the subject to +which its efforts are directed.--Genius must be treated much in the same +way as Talent. The difference consists only in this, that Genius, with a +foreknowledge of its creative power, usually manifests its confidence +with less doubt in a special vocation, and, with a more intense thirst +for culture, subjects itself more willingly to the demands of +instruction. Genius is in its nature the purest self-determination, in +that it lives, in its own inner existence, the necessity which exists in +the thing. But it can assign to the New, which is in it already +immediately and subjectively, no value if this has not united itself to +the already existing culture as its objective presupposition, and on +this ground it thankfully receives instruction. + + 112. But Talent and Genius offer a special difficulty to education in +the precocity which often accompanies them. But by precocity we do not +mean that they early render themselves perceptible, since the early +manifestation of gifts by talent and genius, through their intense +confidence, is to be looked at as perfectly legitimate. But precocity is +rather the hastening forward of the human being in feeling and moral +sense, so that where in the ordinary course of nature we should have a +child, we have a youth, and a man in the place of a youth. We may find +precocity among those who belong to the class of mediocrity, but it is +developed most readily among those possessed of talent and genius, +because with them the early appearance of superior gifts may very easily +bring in its train a perversion of the feelings and the moral nature. +Education must deal with it in so far as it is inharmonious, so that it +shall be stronger than the demands made on it from without, so that it +shall not minister to vanity; and must take care, in order to accomplish +this, that social naturalness and lack of affectation be preserved in +the pupil. + +--Our age has to combat this precocity much more than others. We find +e.g. authors who, at the age of thirty years, in which they publish +their collected works or write their biography, are chilly with the +feelings of old age. Music has been the sphere in which the earliest +development of talent has shown itself, and here we find the absurdity +that the cupidity of parents has so forced precocious talents that +children of four or five years of age have been made to appear in +public.-- + + 113. Every sphere of culture contains a certain quantity of +knowledge and ready skill which may be looked at, as it were, as the +created result of the culture. It is to be wished that every one who +turns his attention to a certain line of culture could take up into +himself the gathered learning which controls it. In so far as he does +this, he is professional. The consciousness that one has in the usual +way gone through a school of art or science, and has, with the general +inheritance of acquisition, been handed over to a special department, +creates externally a beneficial composure which is very favorable to +internal progress. We must distinguish from the professional the amateur +and the self-taught man. The amateur busies himself with an art, a +science, or a trade, without having gone through any strict training in +it. As a rule, he dispenses with elementary thoroughness, and hastens +towards the pleasure which the joy of production gives. The conscious +amateur confesses this himself, makes no pretension to mastership, and +calls himself--in distinction from the professional, who subjects +himself to rules--an unlearned person. But sometimes the amateur, on the +contrary, covers over his weakness, cherishes in himself the +self-conceit that he is equal to the heroes of his art or science, +constitutes himself the first admirer of his own performances, seeks for +their want of recognition in external motives, never in their own want +of excellence; and, if he has money, or edits a paper, is intoxicated +with being the patron of talent which produces such works as he would +willingly produce or pretends to produce. The self-taught man has often +true talent, or even genius, to whose development nevertheless the +inherited culture has been denied, and who by good fortune has through +his own strength worked his way into a field of effort. The self-taught +man is distinguished from the amateur by the thoroughness and the +industry with which he acts; he is not only equally unfortunate with him +in the absence of school-training, but is much less endowed. Even if the +self-taught man has for years studied and practised much, he is still +haunted by a feeling of uncertainty as to whether he has yet reached the +stand-point at which a science, an art, or a trade, will receive him +publicly--of so very great consequence is it that man should be +comprehended and recognized by man. The self-taught man therefore +remains embarrassed, and does not free himself from the apprehension +that he may expose some weak point to a professional, or he falls into +the other extreme--he becomes presumptuous, steps forth as a reformer, +and, if he accomplishes nothing, or earns only ridicule, he sets himself +down as an unrecognized martyr by an unappreciative and unjust world. + +--It is possible that the amateur may transcend the stage of +superficiality and subject himself to a thorough training; then he +ceases to be an amateur. It is also possible that the self-taught man +may be on the right track, and may accomplish as much or even more than +one trained in the usual way. In general, however, it is very desirable +that every one should go through the regular course of the inherited +means of education, partly that he may be thorough in the elements, +partly to free him from the anxiety which he may feel lest he in his +solitary efforts spend labor on some superfluous work--superfluous +because done long before, and of which he, through the accident of his +want of culture, had not heard. We must all learn by ourselves, but we +cannot teach ourselves. Only Genius can do this, for it must be its own +leader in the new paths which it opens. Genius alone passes beyond where +inherited culture ceases. It bears this in itself as of the past, and +which it uses as material for its new creation; but the self-taught man, +who would very willingly be a genius, puts himself in an attitude of +opposition to things already accomplished, or sinks into oddity, into +secret arts and sciences, &c.-- + + 114. These ideas of the general steps of culture, of special gifts, +and of the ways of culture appropriate to each, which we have above +distinguished, have a manifold connection among themselves which cannot +be established _ priori_. We can however remark that Apprenticeship, +the Mechanical Intelligence, and the Professional life; secondly, +Journeymanship, Talent, and Amateurship; and, finally, Mastership, +Genius, and Self Education, have a relationship to each other. + + +II. _The Act of Learning._ + + 115. In the process of education the interaction between pupil and +teacher must be so managed that the exposition by the teacher shall +excite in the pupil the impulse to reproduction. The teacher must not +treat his exposition as if it were a work of art which is its own end +and aim, but he must always bear in mind the need of the pupil. The +artistic exposition, as such, will, by its completeness, produce +admiration; but the didactic, on the contrary, will, through its perfect +adaptation, call out the imitative instinct, the power of new creation. + +--From this consideration we may justify the frequent statement that is +made, that teachers who have really an elegant diction do not really +accomplish so much as others who resemble in their statements not so +much a canal flowing smoothly between straight banks, as a river which +works its foaming way over rocks and between ever-winding banks. The +pupil perceives that the first is considering himself when he speaks so +finely, perhaps not without some self-appreciation; and that the second, +in the repetitions and the sentences which are never finished, is +concerning himself solely with _him_. The pupil feels that not want of +facility or awkwardness, but the earnest eagerness of the _teacher_, is +the principal thing, and that this latter uses rhetoric only as a +means.-- + + 116. In the act of learning there appears (1) a mechanical element, +(2) a dynamic element, and (3) one in which the dynamic again +mechanically strengthens itself. + + 117. As to the mechanical element, the right time must be chosen for +each lesson, an exact arrangement observed, and the suitable apparatus, +which is necessary, procured. It is in the arrangement that especially +consists the educational power of the lesson. The spirit of +scrupulousness, of accuracy, of neatness, is developed by the external +technique, which is carefully arranged in its subordinate parts +according to its content. The teacher must therefore insist upon it that +work shall cease at the exact time, that the work be well done, &c., for +on these little things many greater things ethically depend. + +--To choose one's time for any work is often difficult because of the +pressure of a multitude of demands, but in general it should be +determined that the strongest and keenest energy of the thinking +activity and of memory--this being demanded by the work--should have +appropriated to it the first half of the day.-- + + 118. The dynamical element consists of the previously developed power +of Attention, without which all the exposition made by the teacher to +the pupil remains entirely foreign to him, all apparatus is dead, all +arrangement of no avail, all teaching fruitless, if the pupil does not +by his free activity receive into his inner self what one teaches him, +and thus make it his own property. + + 119. This appropriation must not limit itself, however, to the first +acquisition of any knowledge or skill, but it must give free existence +to whatever the pupil has learned; it must make it perfectly manageable +and natural, so that it shall appear to be a part of himself. This must +be brought about by means of Repetition. This will mechanically secure +that which the attention first grasped. + + 120. The careful, persistent, living activity of the pupil in these +acts we call Industry. Its negative extreme is Laziness, which is +deserving of punishment inasmuch as it passes over into a want of +self-determination. Man is by nature lazy. But mind, which is only in +its act, must resolve upon activity. This connection of Industry with +human freedom, with the very essence of mind, makes laziness appear +blameworthy. The really civilized man, therefore, no longer knows that +absolute inaction which is the greatest enjoyment to the barbarian, and +he fills up his leisure with a variety of easier and lighter work. The +positive extreme of Industry is the unreasonable activity which rushes +in breathless chase from one action to another, from this to that, +straining the person with the immense quantity of his work. Such an +activity, going beyond itself and seldom reaching deliberation, is +unworthy of a man. It destroys the agreeable quiet which in all industry +should penetrate and inspire the deed. Nothing is more repulsive than +the beggarly pride of such stupid laboriousness. One should not endure +for a moment to have the pupil, seeking for distinction, begin to pride +himself on an extra industry. Education must accustom him to use a +regular assiduity. The frame of mind suitable for work often does not +exist at the time when work should begin, but more frequently it makes +its appearance after we have begun. The subject takes its own time to +awaken us. Industry, inspired by a love and regard for work, has in its +quiet uniformity a great force, without which no one can accomplish +anything essential. The world, therefore, holds Industry worthy of +honor; and to the Romans, a nation of the most persistent perseverance, +we owe the inspiring words, "_Incepto tantum opus est, ctera res +expediet_"; and, "_Labor improbus omnia vincit_." + +--"Every one may glory in his industry!" This is a true word from the +lips of a truly industrious man, who was also one of the most modest. +But Lessing did not, however, mean by them to charter Pharisaical +pedantry. The necessity sometimes of giving one's self to an excess of +work injurious to the health, generally arises from the fact that he has +not at other times made use of the requisite attention to the necessary +industry, and then attempts suddenly and as by a forced march to storm +his way to his end. The result of such over-exertion is naturally entire +prostration. The pupil is therefore to be accustomed to a generally +uniform industry, which may extend itself at regular intervals without +his thereby overstraining himself. What is really gained by a young man +who has hitherto neglected time and opportunity, and who, when +examination presses, overworks himself, perhaps standing the test with +honor, and then must rest for months afterwards from the over-effort? On +all such occasions attention is not objective and dispassionate, but +rather becomes, through anxiety to pass the examination, restless and +corrupted by egotism; and the usual evil result of such compulsory +industry is the ephemeral character of the knowledge thus gained. +"Lightly come, lightly go," says the proverb.-- + +--A special worth is always attached to study far into the night. The +student's "midnight lamp" always claims for itself a certain veneration. +But this is vanity. In the first place, it is injurious to contradict +Nature by working through the night, which she has ordained for sleep; +secondly, the question is not as to the number of hours spent in work +and their position in the twenty-four, but as to the quality of the +work. With regard to the value of my work, it is of no moment whatsoever +whether I have done it in the morning or in the evening, or how long I +have labored, and it is of no consequence to any one except to my own +very unimportant self. Finally, the question presents itself whether +these gentlemen who boast so much of their midnight work do not sleep in +the daytime!-- + + 121. But Industry has also two other extremes: seeming-laziness and +seeming-industry. Seeming-laziness is the neglecting of the usual +activity in one department because a man is so much more active in +another. The mind possessed with the liveliest interest in one subject +buries itself in it, and, because of this, cannot give itself up to +another which before had engrossed the attention. Thus it appears more +idle than it is, or rather it appears to be idle just because it is more +industrious. This is especially the case in passing from one subject of +instruction to another. The pupil should acquire such a flexibility in +his intellectual powers that the rapid relinquishment of one subject and +the taking up of another should not be too difficult. Nothing is more +natural than that when he is excited he should go back to the subject +that has just been presented to him, and that he, feeling himself +restrained, shall remain untouched by the following lesson, which may be +of an entirely different nature. The young soul is brooding over what +has been said, and is really exercising an intensive activity, though it +appears to be idle. But in seeming-industry all the external motives of +activity, all the mechanism of work, manifest themselves noisily, while +there is no true energy of attention and productivity. One busies +himself with all the apparatus of work; he heaps up instruments and +books around him; he sketches plans; he spends many hours staring into +vacancy, biting his pen, gazing at words, drawings, numbers, &c. Boys, +under the protection of so great a scaffolding for work erected around +them, often carry on their own amusements. Men, who arrive at no real +concentration of their force, no clear defining of their vocation, no +firm decision as to their action, dissipate their power in what is too +often a great activity with absolutely no result. They are busy, very +busy; they have hardly time to do this thing because they really wish or +ought to do that; but, with all their driving, their energy is all +dissipated, and nothing comes from their countless labors. + + +III. _The Modality of the Process of Teaching._ + + 122. Now that we have learned something of the relation of the teacher +to the taught, and of the process of learning itself, we must examine +the mode and manner of instruction. This may have (1) the character of +contingency: the way in which our immediate existence in the world, our +life, teaches us; or it may be given (2) by the printed page; or (3) it +may take the shape of formal oral instruction. + + 123. (1) For the most, the best, and the mightiest things that we know +we are indebted to Life itself. The sum of perceptions which a human +being absorbs into himself up to the fourth or fifth year of his life is +incalculable; and after this time we involuntarily gain by immediate +contact with the world countless ideas. But especially we understand by +the phrase "the School of Life," the ethical knowledge which we gain by +what happens in our own lives. + +--If one says, _Vit non schol discendum est_, one can also say, _Vita +docet_. Without the power exercised by the immediate world our +intelligence would remain abstract and lifeless.-- + + 124. (2) What we learn through books is the opposite of that which we +learn through living. Life _forces_ upon us the knowledge it has to +give; the book, on the contrary, is entirely passive. It is locked up in +itself; it cannot be altered; but it waits by us till we wish to use it. +We can read it rapidly or slowly; we can simply turn over its +leaves--what in modern times one calls reading;--we can read it from +beginning to end or from end to beginning; we can stop, begin again, +skip over passages, or cut them short, as we like. To this extent the +book is the most _convenient_ means for instruction. If we are indebted +to Life for our perceptions, we must chiefly thank books for our +understanding of our perceptions. We call book-instruction "dead" when +it lacks, for the exposition which it gives, a foundation in our +perceptions, or when we do not add to the printed description the +perceptions which it implies; and the two are quite different. + + 125. Books, as well as life, teach us many things which we did not +previously intend to learn directly from them. From foreign romances +e.g. we learn, first of all, while we read them for entertainment, the +foreign language, history or geography, &c. We must distinguish from +such books as those which bring to us, as it were accidentally, a +knowledge for which we were not seeking, the books which are expressly +intended to instruct. These must (_a_) in their consideration of the +subject give us the principal results of any department of knowledge, +and denote the points from which the next advance must be made, because +every science arises at certain results which are themselves again new +problems; (_b_) in the consideration of the particulars it must be +exhaustive, i.e. no essential elements of a science must be omitted. But +this exhaustiveness of execution has different meanings according to the +stand-points of those for whom it is made. How far we shall pass from +the universality of the principal determinations into the multiplicity +of the Particular, into the fulness of detail, cannot be definitely +determined, and must vary, according to the aim of the book, as to +whether it is intended for the apprentice, the journeyman, or the +master; (_c_) the expression must be precise, i.e. the maximum of +clearness must be combined with the maximum of brevity. + +--The writing of a text-book is on this account one of the most +difficult tasks, and it can be successfully accomplished only by those +who are masters in a science or art, and who combine with great culture +and talent great experience as teachers. Unfortunately many dabblers in +knowledge undervalue the difficulty of writing text-books because they +think that they are called upon to aid in the spread of science, and +because the writing of compendiums has thus come to be an avocation, so +that authors and publishers have made out of text-books a profitable +business and good incomes. In all sciences and arts there exists a +quantity of material which is common property, which is disposed of now +in one way, now in another. The majority of compendiums can be +distinguished from each other only by the kind of paper, printing, the +name of the publisher or bookseller, or by arbitrary changes in the +arrangement and execution. The want of principle with which this work is +carried on is incredible. Many governments have on this account fixed +prices for text-books, and commissioners to select them. This in itself +is right and proper, but the use of any book should be left optional, so +that the one-sidedness of a science patronized by government as it were +patented, may not be created through the pressure of such introduction. +A state may through its censorship oppose poor text-books, and recommend +good ones; but it may not establish as it were a state-science, a +state-art, in which only the ideas, laws and forms sanctioned by it +shall be allowed. The Germans are fortunate, in consequence of their +philosophical criticism, in the production of better and better +text-books, among which may be mentioned Koberstein's, Gervinus', and +Vilmar's Histories of Literature, Ellendt's General History, +Blumenbach's and Burmeister's Natural History, Marheineke's text-book on +Religion, Schwegler's History of Philosophy, &c. So much the more +unaccountable is it that, with such excellent books, the evil of such +characterless books, partly inadequate and partly in poor style, should +still exist when there is no necessity for it. The common style of +paragraph-writing has become obnoxious, under the name of +Compendium-style, as the most stiff and affected style of writing.-- + + 126. A text-book must be differently written according as it is +intended for a book for private study or for purposes of general +circulation. If the first, it must give more, and must develop more +clearly the internal relations; if the second, it should be shorter, and +proceed from axiomatic and clear postulates to their signification, and +these must have an epigrammatic pureness which should leave something to +be guessed. Because for these a commentary is needed which it is the +teacher's duty to supply, such a sketch is usually accompanied by the +fuller text-book which was arranged for private study. + +--It is the custom to call the proper text-book the "small" one, and +that which explains and illustrates, the "large" one. Thus we have the +Small and the Large Gervinus, &c.-- + + 127. (3) The text-book which presupposes oral explanation forms the +transition to Oral instruction itself. Since speech is the natural and +original form in which mind manifests itself, no book can rival it. The +living word is the most powerful agent of instruction. However common +and cheap printing may have rendered books as the most convenient means +of education--however possible may have become, through the +multiplication of facilities for intercourse and the rapidity of +transportation, the immediate viewing of human life, the most forcible +educational means, nevertheless the living word still asserts its +supremacy. In two cases especially is it indispensable: one is when some +knowledge is to be communicated which as yet is found in no compendium, +and the other when a living language is to be taught, for in this case +the printed page is entirely inadequate. One can learn from books to +understand Spanish, French, English, Danish, &c., but not to speak them; +to do this he must hear them, partly that his ear may become accustomed +to the sounds, partly that his vocal organs may learn correctly to +imitate them. + + 128. Life surprises and overpowers us with the knowledge which it +gains; the book, impassive, waits our convenience; the teacher, superior +to us, perfectly prepared in comparison with us, consults our necessity, +and with his living speech uses a gentle force to which we can yield +without losing our freedom. Listening is easier than reading. + +--Sovereigns e.g. seldom read themselves, but have servants who read to +them.-- + + 129. Oral instruction may (1) give the subject, which is to +be learned, in a connected statement, or (2) it may unfold it by means +of question and answer. The first decidedly presupposes the theoretical +inequality of the teacher and the taught. Because one can speak while +many can listen, this is especially adapted to the instruction of large +numbers. The second method is either that of the catechism or the +dialogue. The catechetical is connected with the first kind of oral +instruction above designated because it makes demand upon the memory of +the learner only for the answer to one question at a time, and is hence +very often and very absurdly called the Socratic method. In teaching by +means of the dialogue, we try, by means of a reciprocal interchange of +thought, to solve in common some problem, proceeding according to the +necessary forms of reason. But in this we can make a distinction. One +speaker may be superior to the rest, may hold in his own hand the thread +of the conversation and may guide it himself; or, those who mingle in it +may be perfectly equal in intellect and culture, and may each take part +in the development with equal independence. In this latter case, this +true reciprocity gives us the proper dramatic dialogue, which contains +in itself all forms of exposition, and may pass from narration, +description, and analysis, through satire and irony, to veritable humor. +When it does this, the dialogue is the loftiest result of intelligence +and the means of its purest enjoyment. + +--This alternate teaching, in which the one who has been taught takes +the teacher's place, can be used only where there is a content which +admits of a mechanical treatment. The Hindoos made use of it in very +ancient times. Bell and Lancaster have transplanted it for the teaching +of poor children in Europe and America. For the teaching of the +conventionalities--reading, writing, and arithmetic--as well as for the +learning by heart of names, sentences, &c., it suffices, but not for any +scientific culture. Where we have large numbers to instruct, the giving +of the fully developed statement (the first form) is necessary, since +the dialogue, though it may be elsewhere suitable, allows only a few to +take part in it. And if we take the second form, we must, if we have a +large number of pupils, make use of the catechetical method only. What +is known as the conversational method has been sometimes suggested for +our university instruction. Diesterweg in Berlin insists upon it. Here +and there the attempt has been made, but without any result. In the +university, the lecture of the teacher as a self-developing whole is +contrasted with the scientific discussion of the students, in which they +as equals work over with perfect freedom what they have heard. +Diesterweg was wrong in considering the lecture-system as the principal +cause of the lack of scientific interest which he thought he perceived +in our universities. Kant, Fichte, Schelling, Schleiermacher, Wolf, +Niebuhr, &c., taught by lectures and awakened the liveliest enthusiasm. +But Diesterweg is quite right in saying that the students should not be +degraded to writing-machines. But this is generally conceded, and a +pedantic amount of copying more and more begins to be considered as out +of date at our universities. Nevertheless, a new pedantry, that of the +wholly extempore lecture, should not be introduced; but a brief summary +of the extempore unfolding of the lecture may be dictated and serve a +very important purpose, or the lecture may be copied. The great efficacy +of the oral exposition does not so much consist in the fact that it is +perfectly free, as that it presents to immediate view a person who has +made himself the bearer of a science or an art, and has found what +constitutes its essence. Its power springs, above all, from the +genuineness of the lecture, the originality of its content, and the +elegance of its form: whether it is written or extemporized, is a matter +of little moment. Niebuhr e.g. read, word for word, from his manuscript, +and what a teacher was he!--The catechetical way of teaching is not +demanded at the university except in special examinations; it belongs to +the private work of the student, who must learn to be industrious of his +own free impulse. The private tutor can best conduct reviews.--The +institution which presupposing the lecture-system combines in itself +original production with criticism, and the connected exposition with +the conversation, is the _seminary_. It pursues a well-defined path, and +confines itself to a small circle of associates whose grades of culture +are very nearly the same. Here, therefore, can the dialogue be strongly +developed because it has a fixed foundation, and each one can take part +in the conversation; whereas, from the variety of opinions among a great +number, it is easily perverted into an aimless talk, and the majority of +the hearers, who have no chance to speak, become weary.-- + + 130. As to the way in which the lecture is carried out, it may be so +arranged as to give the whole stock of information acquired, or, without +being so exact and so complete, it may bring to its elucidation only a +relatively inexact and general information. The ancients called the +first method the esoteric and the second the exoteric, as we give to +such lectures now, respectively, the names _scholastic_ and _popular_. +The first makes use of terms which have become technical in science or +art, and proceeds syllogistically to combine the isolated ideas; the +second endeavors to substitute for technicalities generally understood +signs, and conceals the exactness of the formal conclusion by means of a +conversational style. It is possible to conceive of a perfectly +methodical treatment of a science which at the same time shall be +generally comprehensible if it strives to attain the transparency of +real beauty. A scientific work of art may be correctly said to be +popular, as e.g. has happened to Herder's _Ideas on the Philosophy of +the History of Mankind_. + +--Beauty is the element which is comprehended by all, and as we declare +our enmity to the distorted picture-books, books of amusement, and to +the mischievous character of "Compendiums," so we must also oppose the +popular publications which style themselves _Science made Easy_, &c., in +order to attract more purchasers by this alluring title. Kant in his +_Logic_ calls the extreme of explanation Pedantry and Gallantry. This +last expression would be very characteristic in our times, since one +attains the height of popularity now if he makes himself easily +intelligible to ladies--a didactic triumph which one attains only by +omitting everything that is profound or complicated, and saying only +what exists already in the consciousness of every one, by depriving the +subject dealt with of all seriousness, and sparing neither pictures, +anecdotes, jokes, nor pretty formalities of speech. Elsewhere Kant says: +"In the effort to produce in our knowledge the completeness of scholarly +thoroughness, and at the same time a popular character, without in the +effort falling into the above-mentioned errors of an affected +thoroughness or an affected popularity, we must, first of all, look out +for the scholarly completeness of our scientific knowledge, the +methodical form of thoroughness, and first ask how we can make really +popular the knowledge methodically acquired at school, i.e. how we can +make it easy and generally communicable, and yet at the same time not +supplant thoroughness by popularity. For scholarly completeness must not +be sacrificed to popularity to please the people, unless science is to +become a plaything or trifling." It is perfectly plain that all that was +said before of the psychological and the logical methods must be taken +into account in the manner of the statement.-- + + 131. It has been already remarked ( 21), in speaking of the nature +of education, that the office of the instructor must necessarily vary +with the growing culture. But attention must here again be called to the +fact, that education, in whatever stage of culture, must conform to the +law which, as the internal logic of Being, determines all objective +developments of nature and of history. The Family gives the child his +first instruction; between this and the school comes the teaching of the +tutor; the school stands independently as the antithesis of the family, +and presents three essentially different forms according as it imparts a +general preparatory instruction, or special teaching for different +callings, or a universal scientific cultivation. Universality passes +over through particularizing into individuality, which contains both the +general and the particular freely in itself. All citizens of a state +should have (1) a general education which (_a_) makes them familiar with +reading, writing, and arithmetic, these being the means of all +theoretical culture; then (_b_) hands over to them a picture of the +world in its principal phases, so that they as citizens of the world can +find their proper status on our planet; and, finally, it must (_c_) +instruct him in the history of his own state, so that he may see that +the circumstances in which he lives are the result of a determined past +in its connection with the history of the rest of the world, and so may +learn rightly to estimate the interests of his own country in view of +their necessary relation to the future. This work the elementary schools +have to perform. From this, through the _Realschule_ (our scientific +High School course) they pass into the school where some particular +branch of science is taught, and through the Gymnasium (classical course +of a High School or College) to the University. From its general basis +develop (2) the educational institutions that work towards some special +education which leads over to the exercise of some art. These we call +Technological schools, where one may learn farming, mining, a craft, a +trade, navigation, war, &c. This kind of education may be specialized +indefinitely with the growth of culture, because any one branch is +capable in its negative aspect of such educational separation, as e.g. +in foundling hospitals and orphan asylums, in blind and deaf and dumb +institutions. The abstract universality of the Elementary school and the +one-sided particularity of the Technological school, however, is +subsumed under a concrete universality, which, without aiming directly +at utility, treats science and art on all sides as their own end and +aim. _Scientia est potentia_, said Lord Bacon. Practical utility results +indirectly through the progress which Scientific Cognition makes in this +free attitude, because it collects itself out of the dissipation through +manifold details into a universal idea and attains a profounder insight +thereby. This organism for the purpose of instruction is properly called +a University. By it the educational organization is perfected. + +--It is essentially seen that no more than these three types of schools +can exist, and that they must all exist in a perfectly organized +civilization. Their titles and the plan of their special teaching may be +very different among different nations and at different times, but this +need not prevent the recognition in them of the ideas which determine +them. Still less should the imperfect ways in which they manifest +themselves induce us to condemn them. It is the modern tendency to +undervalue the University as an institution which we had inherited from +the middle ages, and with which we could at present dispense. This is an +error. The university presents just as necessary a form of instruction +as the elementary school or the technological school. Not the abolition +of the university, but a reform which shall adapt it to the spirit of +the age, is the advance which we have to make. That there are to be +found outside of the university men of the most thorough and elegant +culture, who can give the most excellent instruction in a science or an +art, is most certain. But it is a characteristic of the university in +its teaching to do away with contingency which is unavoidable in case of +private voluntary efforts. The university presents an organic, +self-conscious, encyclopdic representation of all the sciences, and +thus is created to a greater or less degree an intellectual atmosphere +which no other place can give. Through this, all sciences and their aims +are seen as of equal authority--a personal stress is laid upon the +connection of the sciences. The imperfections of a university, which +arise through the rivalry of external ambition, through the necessity of +financial success, through the jealousy of different parties, through +scholarships, &c., are finitudes which it has in common with all human +institutions, and on whose account they are not all to be thrown +away.--Art academies are for Art what universities are for Science. They +are inferior to them in so far as they appear more under the form of +special schools, as schools of architecture, of painting, and +conservatories of music; while really it may well be supposed that +Architecture, Sculpture, Painting, Music, the Orchestra, and the Drama, +are, like the Sciences, bound together in a _Universitas artium_, and +that by means of their internal reciprocal action new results would +follow.--Academies, as isolated master-schools, which follow no +particular line of teaching, are entirely superfluous, and serve only as +a _Prytaneum_ for meritorious scholars, and to reward industry through +the prizes which they offer. In their idea they belong with the +university, this appearing externally in the fact that most of their +members are university professors. But as institutions for ostentation +by which the ambition of the learned was flattered, and to surround +princes with scientific glory as scientific societies attached to a +court, they have lost all significance. They ceased to flourish with the +Ptolemies and the Egyptian caliphs, and with absolute monarchical +governments.--In modern times we have passed beyond the abstract +jealousy of the so-called Humanities and the Natural Sciences, because +we comprehend that each part of the totality can be realized in a proper +sense only by its development as relatively independent. Thus the +_gymnasium_ has its place as that elementary school which through a +general culture, by means of the knowledge of the language and history +of the Greeks and Romans, prepares for the university; while, on the +other hand, the _Realschule_, by special attention to Natural Science +and the living languages, constitutes the transition to the +technological schools. Nevertheless, because the university embraces the +Science of Nature, of Technology, of Trade, of Finance, and of +Statistics, the pupils who have graduated from the so-called high +schools (_hhern Brgerschulen_) and from the _Realschulen_ will be +brought together at the university.-- + + 132. The technique of the school will be determined in its details by +the peculiarity of its aim. But in general every school, no matter what +it teaches, ought to have some system of rules and regulations by which +the relation of the pupil to the institution, of the pupils to each +other, their relation to the teacher, and that of the teachers to each +other as well as to the supervisory authority, the programme of lessons, +the apparatus, of the changes of work and recreation, shall be clearly +set forth. The course of study must be arranged so as to avoid two +extremes: on the one hand, it has to keep in view the special aim of the +school, and according to this it tends to contract itself. But, on the +other hand, it must consider the relative dependence of one specialty to +other specialties and to general culture. It must leave the transition +free, and in this it tends to expand itself. The difficulty is here so +to assign the limits that the special task of the school shall not be +sacrificed and deprived of the means of performance which it (since it +is also always only a part of the whole culture) receives by means of +its reciprocal action with other departments. The programme must assign +the exact amount of time which can be appropriated to every study. It +must prescribe the order in which they shall follow each other; it must, +as far as possible, unite kindred subjects, so as to avoid the useless +repetition which dulls the charm of study; it must, in determining the +order, bear in mind at the same time the necessity imposed by the +subject itself and the psychological progression of intelligence from +perception, through conception, to the thinking activity which grasps +all. It must periodically be submitted to revision, so that all matter +which has, through the changed state of general culture, become out of +date, may be rejected, and that that which has proved itself inimitable +may be appropriated; in general, so that it may be kept up to the +requirements of the times. And, finally, the school must, by +examinations and reports, aid the pupil in the acquirement of a +knowledge of his real standing. The examination lets him know what he +has really learned, and what he is able to do: the report gives him an +account of his culture, exhibits to him in what he has made improvement +and in what he has fallen behind, what defects he has shown, what +talents he has displayed, what errors committed, and in what relation +stands his theoretical development to his ethical status. + +--The opposition of the _Gymnasia_ to the demands of the agricultural +communities is a very interesting phase of educational history. They +were asked to widen their course so as to embrace Mathematics, Physics, +Natural History, Geography, and the modern languages. At first they +stoutly resisted; then they made some concessions; finally, the more +they made the more they found themselves in contradiction with their +true work, and so they produced as an independent correlate the +_Realschule_. After this was founded, the gymnasium returned to its old +plan, and is now again able to place in the foreground the pursuit of +classical literature and history. It was thus set free from demands made +upon it which were entirely foreign to its nature.--The examination is, +on one side, so adapted to the pupil as to make him conscious of his own +condition. As to its external side, it determines whether the pupil +shall pass from one class to another or from one school to another, or +it decides whether the school as a whole shall give a public +exhibition--an exhibition which ought to have no trace of ostentation, +but which in fact is often tinctured with pedagogical charlatanism.-- + + 133. The Direction of the school on the side of science must be held +by the school itself, for the process of the intellect in acquiring +science, the progress of the method, the determinations of the subject +matter and the order of its development, have their own laws, to which +Instruction must submit itself if it would attain its end. The school is +only one part of the whole of culture. In itself it divides into +manifold departments, together constituting a great organism which in +manifold ways comes into contact with the organism of the state. So long +as teaching is of a private character, so long as it is the reciprocal +relation of one individual to another, or so long as it is shut up +within the circle of the family and belongs to it alone, so long it has +no objective character. It receives this first when it grows to a +school. As in history, its first form must have a religious character; +but this first form, in time, disappears. Religion is the absolute +relation of man to God which subsumes all other relations. In so far as +Religion exists in the form of a church, those who are members of the +same church may have instruction given on the nature of religion among +themselves. Instruction on the subject is proper, and it is even +enjoined upon them as a law--as a duty. But further than their own +society they may not extend their rule. The church may exert itself to +make a religious spirit felt in the school and to make it penetrate all +the teaching; but it may not presume, because it has for its subject the +absolute interest of men, the interest which is superior to all others, +to determine also the other objects of Education or the method of +treating them. The technical acquisitions of Reading, Writing and +Arithmetic, Drawing and Music, the Natural Sciences, Mathematics, Logic, +Anthropology and Psychology, the practical sciences of finance and the +municipal regulations, have no direct relation to religion. If we +attempt to establish one, there inevitably appears in them a morbid +state which destroys them; not only so, but piety itself disappears, for +these accomplishments and this knowledge are not included in its idea. + +--Such treatment of Art and Science may be well-meant, but it is always +an error. It may even make a ludicrous impression, which is a very +dangerous thing for the authority of religion. If a church has +established schools, it must see to it that all which is there taught +outside of the religious instruction, i.e. all of science and art, shall +have no direct connection with it as a religious institution.-- + + 134. The Church, as the external manifestation of religion, is +concerned with the absolute relation of man, the relation to God, +special in itself as opposed to his other relations; the State, on the +contrary, seizes the life of a nation according to its _explicit +totality_. The State should conduct the education of all its citizens. +To it, then, the church can appear only as a school, for the church +instructs its own people concerning the nature of religion, partly by +teaching proper, that of the catechism, partly in quite as edifying a +way, by preaching. From this point of view, the State can look upon the +church only as one of those schools which prepare for a special +avocation. The church appears to the State as that school which assumes +the task of educating the religious element. Just as little as the +church should the state attempt to exercise any influence over Science +and Art. In this they are exactly alike, and must acknowledge the +necessity which both Science and Art contain within themselves and by +which they determine themselves. The laws of Logic, Mathematics, +Astronomy, Morals, sthetics, Physiology, &c., are entirely independent +of the state. It can decree neither discoveries nor inventions. The +state in its relations to science occupies the same ground as it should +do with relation to the freedom of self-consciousness. It is true that +the church teaches man, but it demands from him at the same time belief +in the truth of its dogmas. It rests, as the real church, on presupposed +authority, and sinks finally all contradictions which may be found in +the absolute mystery of the existence of God. The state, on the +contrary, elaborates its idea into the form of laws, i.e. into general +determinations, of whose necessity it convinces itself. It seeks to give +to these laws the clearest possible form, so that every one may +understand them. It concedes validity only to that which can be proved, +and sentences the individual according to the external side of the +_deed_ (overt act) not, as the church does, on its internal side--that +of _intention_. Finally, it demands in him consciousness of his deed, +because it makes each one responsible for his own deed. It has, +therefore, the same principle with science, for the proof of necessity +and the unity of consciousness with its object constitute the essence of +science. Since the state embraces the school as one of its educational +organisms, it is from its very nature especially called upon to guide +its regulation in accordance with the manifestation of consciousness. + +[Sidenote: _The Modality of the Process of Teaching._] + +--The church calls this "profanation." One might say that the church, +with its mystery of Faith, always represents the absolute problem of +science, while the state, as to its form, coincides with science. +Whenever the state abandons the strictness of proof--when it begins to +measure the individual citizen by his intention and not by his deed, +and, in place of the clear insight of the comprehending consciousness, +sets up the psychological compulsion of a hollow mechanical authority, +it destroys itself.-- + + 135. Neither the church nor the state should attempt to control the +school in its internal management. Still less can the school constitute +itself into a state within the state; for, while it is only one of the +means which are necessary for developing citizens, the state and the +church lay claim to the whole man his whole life long. The independence +of the school can then only consist in this, that it raises within the +state an organ which works under its control, and which as school +authority endeavors within itself to befriend the needs of the school, +while externally it acts on the church and state indirectly by means of +ethical powers. The emancipation of the school can never reasonably mean +its abstract isolation, or the absorption of the ecclesiastical and +political life into the school; it can signify only the free reciprocal +action of the school with state and church. It must never be forgotten +that what makes the school a school is not the total process of +education, for this falls also within the family, the state, and the +church; but that the proper work of the school is the process of +instruction, knowledge, and the acquirement, by practice, of skill. + +--The confusion of the idea of Instruction with that of Education in +general is a common defect in superficial treatises on these themes. The +Radicals among those who are in favor of so-called "Emancipation," often +erroneously appeal to "free Greece" which generally for this fond +ignorance is made to stand as authority for a thousand things of which +it never dreamed. In this fictitious Hellas of "free, beautiful +humanity," they say the limits against which we strive to-day did not +exist. The histories of Anaxagoras, Protagoras, Diagoras, Socrates, +Aristotle, Theophrastus, and of others, who were all condemned on +account of their "impiety," tell quite another story.-- + + 136. The inspection of the school may be carried out in different +ways, but it must be required that its special institutions shall be +embraced and cared for as organized and related wholes, framed in +accordance with the idea of the state, and that one division of the +ministry shall occupy itself exclusively with it. The division of labor +will specially affect the schools for teaching particular avocations. +The prescription of the subjects to be studied in each school as +appropriate to it, of the course of study, and of the object thereof, +properly falls to this department of government, is its immediate work, +and its theory must be changed according to the progress and needs of +the time. Niemeyer, Schwarz, and others, have made out such plans for +schools. Scheinert has fully painted the _Volkschule_, Mager the +_Brgerschule_, Deinhard and Kapp the _Gymnasium_. But such +delineations, however correct they may be, depend upon the actual sum of +culture of a people and a time, and must therefore continually modify +their fundamental Ideal. The same is true of the methods of instruction +in the special arts and sciences. Niemeyer, Schwarz, Herbart, in their +sketches of Pedagogics, Beneke in his _Doctrine of Education_, and +others, have set forth in detail the method of teaching Reading, Writing +and Arithmetic, Languages, Natural Science, Geography, History, &c. Such +directions are, however, ephemeral in value, and only relatively useful, +and must, in order to be truly practical, be always newly laid out in +accordance with universal educational principles, and with the progress +of science and art. + +--The idea that the State has the right to oversee the school lies in +the very idea of the State, which is authorized, and under obligation, +to secure the education of its citizens, and cannot leave their +fashioning to chance. The emancipation of the school from the State, the +abstracting of it, would lead to the destruction of the school. There is +no difficulty in Protestant States in the free inter-action of school +and church, for Protestantism has consciously accepted as its peculiar +principle individual freedom as Christianity has presented it. For +Catholic States, however, a difficulty exists. The Protestant clergyman +can with propriety oversee the _Volkschule_, for here he works as +teacher, not as priest. In the Protestant church there are really no +Laity according to the original meaning of the term. On the contrary, +Catholic clergymen are essentially priests, and as such, on account of +the unconditional obedience which, according to their church, they have +to demand, they usurp the authority of the State. From this circumstance +arise, at present, numberless collisions in the department of school +supervision.-- + + +THIRD DIVISION. + +PRAGMATICS (EDUCATION OF THE WILL). + + 137. Both Physical and Intellectual Education are in the highest +degree practical. The first reduces the merely natural to a tool which +mind shall use for its own ends; the second guides the intelligence, by +ways conformable to its nature, to the necessary method of the act of +teaching and learning, which finally branches out into an objective +national life, into a system of mutually dependent school organizations. +But in a narrower sense we mean by practical education the methodical +development of the Will. This phrase more clearly expresses the topic to +be considered in this division than others sometimes used in Pedagogics +[_Bestrebungs vermgen_, conative power]. The will is already the +subject of a science of its own, i.e. of Ethics; and if Pedagogics would +proceed in anywise scientifically, it must recognize and presuppose the +idea and the existence of this science. It should not restate in full +the doctrines of freedom of duty, of virtue, and of conscience, although +we have often seen this done in empirical works on Pedagogics. +Pedagogics has to deal with the idea of freedom and morality only so far +as it fixes the technique of their process, and at the same time it +confesses itself to be weakest just here, where nothing is of any worth +without a pure self-determination. + + 138. The pupil must (1) become civilized; i.e. he must learn to +govern, as a thing external to him, his natural egotism, and to make the +forms which civilized society has adopted his own. (2) He must become +imbued with morality; i.e. he must learn to determine his actions, not +only with reference to what is agreeable and useful, but according to +the principle of the Good; he must become virtually free, form a +character, and must habitually look upon the necessity of freedom as the +absolute measure of his actions. (3) He must become religious; i.e. he +must discern that the world, with all its changes, himself included, is +only phenomenal; the affirmative side of this insight into the emptiness +of the finite and transitory, which man would so willingly make +everlasting, is the consciousness of the _absolute_ existing in and for +itself, which, in its certainty of its truth, not torn asunder through +the process of manifestation, constitutes no part of its changes, but, +while it actually presents them, permeates them all, and freely +distinguishes itself from them. In so far as man relates himself to God, +he cancels all finitude and transitoriness, and by this feeling frees +himself from the externality of phenomena. Virtue on the side of +civilization is Politeness; on that of morality, Conscientiousness; and +on that of religion, Humility. + + +FIRST CHAPTER. + +_Social Culture._ + + + 139. The social development of man makes the beginning of practical +education. It is not necessary to suppose a special social instinct. The +inclination of man to the society of men does not arise only from the +identity of their nature, but is also in certain cases affected by +particular relations. The natural starting-point of social culture is +the Family. But this educates the child for Society, and by means of +Society the individual passes over into relations with the world at +large. Natural sympathy changes to polite behavior, and this to the +dexterous and circumspect deportment, whose truth nevertheless is first +the ethical purity which combines with the wisdom of the serpent the +harmlessness of the dove. + + 140. (1) The Family is the natural social circle to which man +primarily belongs. In it all the immediate differences which exist are +compensated by the equally immediate unity of the relationship. The +subordination of the wife to the husband, of the children to their +parents, of the younger children to their elder brothers and sisters, +ceases to be subordination, through the intimacy of love. The child +learns obedience to authority, and in this it gives free personal +satisfaction to its parents and enjoys the same. All the relations in +which he finds himself there are penetrated by the warmth of implicit +confidence, which can be replaced for the child by nothing else. In this +sacred circle the tenderest emotions of the heart are developed by the +personal interest of all its members in what happens to any one, and +thus the foundation is laid of a susceptibility to all genuine or real +friendship. + +--Nothing more unreasonable or inhuman could exist than those modern +theories which would destroy the family and would leave the children, +the offspring of the anarchy of free-love, to grow up in public +nurseries. This would appear to be very humanitarian; indeed these +socialists talk of nothing but the interests of humanity--they are never +weary of uttering their insipid jests on the institution of the family, +as if it were the principle of all narrow-mindedness. Have these +fanatics, who are seeking after an abstraction of humanity, ever +examined our foundling-hospitals, orphan asylums, barracks, and prisons, +to discover in some degree to what an atomic state of barren cleverness +a human being grows who has never formed a part of a family? The Family +is only one phase in the grand order of the ethical organization; but it +is the substantial phase from which man passively proceeds, but into +which, as he founds a family of his own, he actively returns. The child +lives in the Family in the common joy and grief of sympathy for all, +and, in the emotion with which he sees his parents approach death while +he is hastening towards the full enjoyment of existence, experiences the +finer feelings which are so powerful in creating in him a deeper and +more tender understanding of everything human.-- + + 141. (2) The Family rears the children not for itself but for the +civil society. In this we have a system of morals producing externally a +social technique, a circle of fixed forms of society. This technique +endeavors to subdue the natural roughness of man, at least as far as it +manifests itself externally. Because he is spirit, man is not to yield +himself to his immediateness; he is to exhibit to man his naturalness as +under the control of spirit. The etiquette of propriety on the one hand +facilitates the manifestation of individuality by means of which the +individual becomes interesting to others, and on the other hand, since +its forms are alike for all, it makes us recognize the likeness of the +individual to all others and so makes their intercourse easier. + +--The conventional form is no mere constraint; but essentially a +protection not only for the freedom of the individual, but much more the +protection of the individual against the rude impetuosity of his own +naturalness. Savages and peasants for this reason are, in their +relations to each other, by no means as unconstrained as one often +represents them, but hold closely to a ceremonious behavior. There is in +one of Immerman's stories, "The Village Justice," a very excellent +picture of the conventional forms with which the peasant loves to +surround himself. The scene in which the townsman who thinks that he can +dispense with forms among the peasants is very entertainingly taught +better, is exceedingly valuable in an educational point of view. The +feeling of shame which man has in regard to his mere naturalness is +often extended to relations where it has no direct significance, since +this sense of shame is appealed to in children in reference to things +which are really perfectly indifferent externalities.-- + + 142. Education with regard to social culture has two extremes to +avoid: the youth may, in his effort to prove his individuality, become +vain and conceited, and fall into an attempt to appear interesting; or +he may become slavishly dependent on conventional forms, a kind of +social pedant. This state of nullity which contents itself with the +mechanical polish of social formalism is ethically more dangerous than +the tendency to a marked individuality, for it betrays emptiness; while +the effort towards a peculiar differentiation from others, to become +interesting to others, indicates power. + + 143. When we have a harmony of the manifestation of the individual +with the expression of the recognition of the equality of others we have +what is called deportment or politeness, which combines dignity and +grace, self-respect and modesty. We call it when fully complete, +Urbanity. It treats the conventional forms with irony, since, at the +same time that it yields to them, it allows the productivity of spirit +to shine through them in little deviation from them, as if it were fully +able to make others in their place. + +--True politeness shows that it remains master of forms. It is very +necessary to accustom children to courtesy and to bring them up in the +etiquette of the prevailing social custom; but they must be prevented +from falling into an absurd formality which makes the triumph of a +polite behavior to consist in a blind following of the dictates of the +last fashion-journal, and in the exact copying of the phraseology and +directions of some book on manners. One can best teach and practise +politeness when he does not merely copy the social technique, but +comprehends its original idea.-- + + 144. (3) But to fully initiate the youth into the institutions of +civilization one must not only call out the feelings of his heart in the +bosom of the family, not only give to him the formal refinement +necessary to his intercourse with society; it must also perform to him +the painful duty of making him acquainted with the mysteries of the ways +of the world. This is a painful duty, for the child naturally feels an +unlimited confidence in all men. This confidence must not be destroyed, +but it must be tempered. The mystery of the way of the world is the +deceit which springs from selfishness. We must provide against it by a +proper degree of distrust. We must teach the youth that he may be +imposed upon by deceit, dissimulation, and hypocrisy, and that therefore +he must not give his confidence lightly and credulously. He himself must +learn how he can, without deceit, gain his own ends in the midst of the +throng of opposing interests. + +--Kant in his Pedagogics calls that worldly-wise behavior by which the +individual is to demean himself in opposition to others, +Impenetrability. By its means man learns how to "manage men." In Lord +Chesterfield's letters to his son, we have pointed out the true value of +egotism in its relation to morals. All his words amount to this, that we +are to consider every man to be an egotist, and to convert his very +egotism into a means of finding out his weak side; i.e. to flatter him +by exciting his vanity, and by means of such flattery to ascertain his +limits. In common life, the expression "having had experiences" means +about the same thing as having been deceived and betrayed.-- + + +SECOND CHAPTER. + +_Moral Culture._ + + + 145. The truth of social culture lies in moral culture. Without this +latter, every art of behavior remains worthless, and can never attain +the clearness of Humility and Dignity which are possible to it in its +unity with morality. For the better determination of this idea +Pedagogics must refer to Ethics itself, and can here give the part of +its content which relates to Education only in the form of educational +maxims. The principal categories of Ethics in the domain of morality are +the ideas of Duty, Virtue, and Conscience. Education must lay stress on +the truth that nothing in the world has any absolute value except will +guided by the right. + + 146. Thence follows (1) the maxim relating to the idea of Duty, that +we must accustom the pupil to unconditional obedience to it, so that he +shall perform it for no other reason than that it is duty. It is true +that the performance of a duty may bring with it externally a result +agreeable or disagreeable, useful or harmful; but the consideration of +such connection ought never to determine us. This moral demand, though +it may appear to be excessive severity, is the absolute foundation of +all genuine ethical practice. All "highest happiness theories," however +finely spun they may be, when taken as a guide for life, lead at last to +Sophistry, and this to contradictions which ruin the life. + + 147. (2) Virtue must make actual what duty commands, or, rather, the +actualizing of duty is Virtue. And here we must say next, then, that the +principal things to be considered under Virtue are (_a_) the dialectic +of particular virtues, (_b_) renunciation, and (_c_) character. + + 148. (_a_) From the dialectic of particular virtues there follows the +educational maxim that we must practise all virtues with equal +faithfulness, for all together constitute an ethical system complete in +itself, in which no one is indifferent to another. + +--Morality should recognize no distinction of superiority among the +different virtues. They reciprocally determine each other. There is no +such thing as one virtue which shines out above the others, and still +less should we have any special gift for virtue. The pupil must be +taught to recognize no great and no small in the virtues, for that one +which may at first sight seem small is inseparably connected with that +which is seemingly the greatest. Many virtues are attractive by reason +of their external consequences, as e.g. industry because of success in +business, worthy conduct because of the respect paid to it, charity +because of the pleasure attending it; but man should not practise these +virtues because he enjoys them: he must devote the same amount of +self-sacrifice and of assiduity to those virtues which (as Christ said) +are to be performed in secret.-- + +--It is especially valuable, in an educational respect, to gain an +insight, into the transition of which each virtue is empirically +capable, into a negative as well as into a positive extreme. The +differences between the extremes and the golden mean are differences in +quality, although they arrive at this difference in quality by means of +difference in quantity. Kant has, as is well known, attacked the +Aristotelian doctrine of the ethical [Greek: mesotes], since he was +considering the qualitative difference of the mind as differentiating +principle; this was correct for the subject with which he dealt, but in +the objective development we do arrive on the other hand at the +determination of a quantitative limit; e.g. a man, with the most earnest +intention of doing right, may be in doubt whether he has not, in any +task, done more or less than was fitting for him.-- + +--As no virtue can cease its demands for us, no one can permit any +exceptions or any provisional circumstances to come in the way of his +duties. Our moral culture will always certainly manifest itself in very +unequal phases if we, out of narrowness and weakness, neglect entirely +one virtue while we diligently cultivate another. If we are forced into +such unequal action, we are not responsible for the result; but it is +dangerous and deserves punishment if we voluntarily encourage it. The +pupil must be warned against a certain moral negligence which consists +in yielding to certain weaknesses, faults, or crimes, a little longer +and a little longer, because he has fixed a certain time after which he +intends to do better. Up to that time he allows himself to be a loiterer +in ethics. Perhaps he will assert that his companions, his surroundings, +his position, &c., must be changed before he can alter his internal +conduct. Wherever education or temperament favors sentimentality, we +shall find birth-days, new-year's day, confirmation day, &c., selected +as these turning points. It is not to be denied that man proceeds in his +internal life from epoch to epoch, and renews himself in his most +internal nature, nor can we deny that moments like those mentioned are +especially favorable in man to an effort towards self-transformation +because they invite introspection; but it is not to be endured that the +youth, while looking forward to such a moment, should consciously +persist in his evil-doing. If he does, we shall have as consequences +that when the solemn moment which he has set at last arrives, at the +stirring of the first emotion he perceives with terror that he has +changed nothing in himself, that the same temptations are present to +him, the same weakness takes possession of him, &c. In our business, in +our theoretical endeavors, &c., it may certainly happen that, on account +of want of time, or means, or humor, we may put off some work to another +time; but morality stands on a higher plane than these, because it, as +the concrete absoluteness of the will, makes unceasing demand on the +whole and undivided man. In morality there are no vacations, no +interims. As we in ascending a flight of stairs take good care not to +make a single mis-step, and give our conscious attention to every step, +so we must not allow any exceptions in moral affairs, must not appoint +given times for better conduct, but must await these last as natural +crises, and must seek to live in time as in Eternity.-- + + 149. (_b_) From Renunciation springs the injunction of +self-government. The action of education on the will to form habits in +it, is discipline or training in a narrower sense. Renunciation teaches +us to know the relation in which we in fact, as historical persons, +stand to the idea of the Good. From our empirical knowledge of ourselves +we derive the idea of our limits; from the absolute knowledge of +ourselves on the other hand, which presents to us the nature of Freedom +as our own actuality, we derive the conception of the resistless might +of the genuine will for the good. But to actualize this conception we +must have practice. This practice is the proper renunciation. Every man +must devise for himself some special set of rules, which shall be +determined by his peculiarities and his resulting temptations. These +rules must have as their innermost essence the subduing of self, the +vanquishing of his negative arbitrariness by means of the universality +and necessity of the will. + +--In order to make this easy, the youth may be practised in renouncing +for himself even the arbitrariness which is permitted to him. One often +speaks of renunciation as if it belonged especially to the middle ages +and to Catholicism; but this is an error. Renunciation in its one-sided +form as relying on works, and for the purpose of mortification, is +asceticism, and belongs to them; but Renunciation in general is a +necessary determination of morals. The keeping of a journal is said to +assist in the practice of virtue, but its value depends on how it is +kept. To one it may be a curse, to another a blessing. Fichte, Gthe, +Byron, and others, have kept journals and have been assisted thereby; +while others, as Lavater, have been thwarted by them. Vain people will +every evening record with pen and ink their admiration of the correct +course of life which they have led in the day devoted to their +pleasure.-- + + 150. (_c_) The result of the practice in virtue, or, as it is +commonly expressed, of the individual actualization of freedom, is the +methodical determinateness of the individual will as Character. This +conception of character is formal, for it contains only the identity +which is implied in the ruling of a will on its external side as +constant. As there are good, strong and beautiful characters, so there +are also bad, weak, and detestable ones. When in Pedagogics, therefore, +we speak so much of the building up of a character, we mean the making +permanent of a direction of the individual will towards the +actualization of the Good. Freedom ought to be the character of +character. Education must therefore observe closely the inter-action of +the factors which go to form character, viz., ([Greek: a]) the +temperament, as the natural character of the man; ([Greek: b]) external +events, the historical element; ([Greek: g]) the energy of the Will, by +which, in its limits of nature and history, it realizes the idea of the +Good in and for itself as the proper ethical character. Temperament +determines the Rhythm of our external manifestation of ourselves; the +events in which we live assign to us the ethical problem, but the Will +in its sovereignty stamps its seal on the form given by these +potentialities. Pedagogics aims at accustoming the youth to freedom, so +that he shall always measure his deed by the idea of the Good. It does +not desire a formal independence, which may also be called character, +but a real independence resting upon the conception of freedom as that +which is absolutely necessary. The pedagogical maxim is then: Be +independent, but be so through doing Good. + +--According to preconceived opinion, stubbornness and obstinacy claim +that they are the foundation of character. But they may spring from +weakness and indeterminateness, on which account one needs to be well on +his guard. A gentle disposition, through enthusiasm for the Good, may +attain to quite as great a firmness of will. Coarseness and meanness are +on no account to be tolerated.-- + + 151. (3) We pass from the consideration of the culture of character +to that of conscience. This is the relation which the moral agent makes +between himself as manifestation and himself as idea. It compares +itself, in its past or future, with its nature, and judges itself +accordingly as good or bad. This independence of the ethical judgment is +the soul proper of all morality, the negation of all self-deception and +of all deception through another. The pedagogical maxim is: Be +conscientious. Be in the last instance dependent only upon the +conception which thou thyself hast of the idea of the Good! + +--The self-criticism prompted by conscience hovers over all our +historical actuality, and is the ground of all our rational progress. +Fichte's stern words remain, therefore, eternally true: "He who has a +bad character, must absolutely create for himself a better one."-- + + +THIRD CHAPTER. + +_Religious Culture._ + + + 152. Social culture contains the formal phase, moral culture the real +phase, of the practical mind. Conscience forms the transition to +religious culture. In its apodeictic nature, it is the absoluteness of +spirit. The individual discerns in the depths of its own consciousness +the determinations of universality and of necessity to which it has to +subject itself. They appear to it as the voice of God. Religion makes +its appearance as soon as the individual distinguishes the Absolute from +himself as personal, as a subject existing for itself and therefore for +him. The atheist remains at the stage of insight into the absoluteness +of the logical and physical, sthetic and practical categories. He may, +therefore, be perfectly moral. He lacks religion, though he loves to +characterize his uprightness by this name, and to transfer the dogmatic +determinations of positive religion into the ethical sphere. It belongs +to the province of religion that I demean myself towards the Absolute +not only as toward that which is my own substance, and that in relation +to it not I alone am the subject, but that to me also the substance in +itself is a personal subject for itself. If I look upon myself as the +only absolute, I make myself devoid of spiritual essence. I am only +absolute self-consciousness, for which, because it as idea relates only +to itself, there remains only the impulse to a persistent conflict with +every self-consciousness not identical with it. Were this the case, such +a self-consciousness would be only theoretical irony. In religion I know +the Absolute as essence, when I am known by him. Everything else, myself +included, is finite and transitory, however significant it may be, +however relatively and momentarily the Infinite may exist in it. As +existence even, it is transitory. The Absolute, positing itself, +distinguishing itself from itself in unity with itself, is always like +to itself, and takes up all the unrest of the phenomenal world back +again into its simple essence. + + 153. This process of the individual spirit, in which it rises out of +the multiplicity of all relations into union with the Absolute as the +substantial subject, and in which nature and history are united, we may +call, in a restricted sense, a change of heart [Gemuth]. In a wider +sense of the word we give this name to a certain sentimental +cheerfulness (light-heartedness), a sense of comfort--of little +significance. The highest emotions of the heart culminate in religion, +whose warmth is inspired by practical activity and conscientiousness. + + 154. Education has to fit man for religion. (1) It gives him the +conception of it; (2) it endeavors to have this conception actualized in +him; (3) it subordinates the theoretical and practical process in +fashioning him to a determinate stand-point of religious culture. + +--In the _working out_ or detailed treatment of Pedagogics, the +position which the conception of religion occupies is very uncertain. +Many writers on Education place it at the beginning, while others +reserve it for the end. Others navely bring it forward in the midst of +heterogeneous surroundings, but know how to say very little concerning +it, and urge teachers to kindle the fire of religious feeling in their +pupils by teaching them to fear God. Through all their writing, we hear +the cry that in Education nothing is so important as Religion. Rightly +understood, this saying is quite true. The religious spirit, the +consciousness of the Absolute, and the reverence for it, should permeate +all. Not unfrequently, however, we find that what is meant by religion +is theology, or the church ceremonial, and these are only one-sided +phases of the total religious process. The Anglican High-Church presents +in the colleges and universities of England a sad example of this error. +What can be more deadening to the spirit, more foreign to religion, than +the morning and evening prayers as they are carried on at Oxford and +Cambridge with machine-like regularity! But also to England belongs the +credit of the sad fact, that, according to Kohl's report, there live in +Manchester, Liverpool, Birmingham, and London, thousands of men who have +never enjoyed any teaching in religion, have never been baptized, who +live absolutely without religion in brutal stupidity. Religion must form +the culminating point of Education. It takes up into itself the +didactical and practical elements, and rises through the force of its +content to universality.-- + + +I. _The Theoretical Process of Religious Culture._ + + 155. Religion, in common with every content of the spirit, must pass +through three stages of feeling, conception, and comprehension. Whatever +may be the special character of any religion it cannot avoid this +psychological necessity, either in its general history or in the history +of the individual consciousness. The teacher must understand this +process, partly in order that he may make it easier to the youth, partly +that he may guard against the malformation of the religious feeling +which may arise through the fact of the youth's remaining in one stage +after he is ready for another and needs it. Pedagogics must therefore +lay out beforehand the philosophy of religion, on which alone can be +found the complete discussion of this idea. + + 156. (1) Religion exists first as religious feeling. The person is +still immediately identical with the Divine, does not yet distinguish +himself from the absoluteness of his being, and is in so far determined +by it. In so far as he feels the divine, he is a mystery to himself. +This beginning is necessary. Religion cannot be produced in men from the +external side; its genesis belongs rather to the primitive depths in +which God himself and the individual soul are essentially one. + +--The educator must not allow himself to suppose that he is able to +make a religion. Religion dwells originally in every individual soul, +for every one is born of God. Education can only aid the religious +feeling in its development. As far as regards the psychological form, it +was quite correct for Schleiermacher and his followers to characterize +the absoluteness of the religious feeling as the feeling of dependence, +for feeling is determined by that which it feels; it depends upon its +content. But in so far as God constitutes the content of the feeling, +there appears the opposite of all dependence or absolute emancipation. I +maintain this in opposition to Schleiermacher. Religion lifts man above +the finite, temporal and transitory, and frees him from the control of +the phenomenal world. Even the lowest form of religion does this; and +when it is said that Schleiermacher has been unjustly criticized for +this expression of dependence, this distinction is overlooked.-- + + 157. But religious feeling as such rises into something higher when +the spirit distinguishes the content of this religious feeling from any +other content which it also feels, represents it clearly to itself, and +places itself over against it formally as a free individual. + +--But we must not understand that the religious feeling is destroyed in +this process; in rising to the form of distinct representation, it +remains at the same time as a necessary form of the Intelligence.-- + + 158. If the spirit is held back and prevented from passing out of the +simplicity of feeling into the act of distinguishing the perception from +what it becomes, the conception--if its efforts towards the forming of +this conception are continually re-dissolved into feeling, then feeling, +which was as the first step perfectly healthy and correct, will become +morbid and degenerate into a wretched mysticism. Education must, +therefore, make sure that this feeling is not destroyed by the progress +of its content into perception and conception on the side of +psychological form, but rather that it attains truth thereby. + + 159. (2) Conception as the ideally transformed perception dissects +the religious content on its different sides, and follows each of these +to its consequence. Imagination controls the individual conceptions, but +by no means with that absoluteness which is often supposed; for each +picture has in itself its logical consequence to which imagination must +yield; e.g. if a religion represents God as an animal, or as half animal +and half man, or as man, each of these conceptions has in its +development its consequences for the imagination. + + 160. We rise out of the stage of Conception when the spirit tries to +determine the universality of its content according to its necessity, +i.e. when it begins to think. The necessity of its pictures is a mere +presupposition for the imagination. The thinking activity, however, +recognizes not only the contradiction which exists between the sensuous, +limited form of the individual conception, and the absolute nature of +its content, but also the contradiction in which the conceptions find +themselves with respect to each other. + + 161. If the spirit is prevented from passing out of the varied +pictures of conception to the supersensuous clearness and simplicity of +the thinking activity--if the content which it already begins to seize +as idea is again dissolved into the confusion of the picture-world, then +the religion of imagination, which was a perfectly proper form as the +second step, becomes perverted into some form of idolatry, either coarse +or refined. Education must therefore not oppose the thinking activity if +the latter undertakes to criticize religious conceptions; on the +contrary, it must guide this so that the discovery of the contradictions +which unavoidably adhere to sensuous form shall not mislead the youth +into the folly of throwing away, with the relative untruth of the form, +also the religious content in general. + +--It is an error for educators to desire to keep the imagination apart +from religious feeling, but it is also an error to detain the mind, +which is on its formal side the activity of knowing, in the stage of +imagination, and to desire to condemn it thence into the service of +canonical allegories. The more, in opposition to this, it is possessed +with the charm of thinking, the more is it in danger of condemning the +content of religion itself as a mere fictitious conception. As a +transition-stage the religion of imagination is perfectly normal, and it +does not in the least impair freedom if, for example, one has +personified evil as a living Devil. The error does not lie in this, but +in the making absolute these determinate, sthetic forms of religion. +The reaction of the thinking activity against such sthetic absolutism +then undertakes in its negative absolutism to despise the content also, +as if it were a mere conception.-- + + 162. (3) In the thinking activity the spirit attains that form of the +religious content which is identical with that of its simple +consciousness, and above which there is no other for the intelligence as +theoretical. But we distinguish three varieties in this thinking +activity: the abstract, the reflective, and the speculative. The +Abstract gives us the religious content of consciousness in the form of +abstractions or dogmas, i.e. propositions which set up a definition as a +universal, and add to it another as the reason for its necessity. The +Reflective stage busies itself with the relation of dogmas to each +other, and with the search for the grounds on which their necessity must +rest. It is essentially critical, and hence skeptical. The explanation +of the dogmas, which is carried on in this process of reasoning and +skeptical investigation, is completed alone in speculative thinking, +which recognizes the free unity of the content and its form as its own +proper self-determination of the content, creating its own differences. +Education must know this stage of the intelligence, partly that it may +in advance preserve, in the midst of its changes, that repose which it +brings into the consciousness; partly that it may be able to lead to the +process of change itself, in accordance with the organic connection of +its phases. We should prevent the criticism of the abstract +understanding by the reflective stage as little as we should that of the +imagination by the thinking activity. But the stage of reflection is not +the last possibility of the thinking activity, although, in the variety +of its skepticism it often takes itself for such, and, with the +emptiness of mere negation to which it holds, often brings itself +forward into undesirable prominence. It becomes evident, in this view, +how very necessary for man, with respect to religion, is a genuine +philosophical culture, so that he may not lose the certainty of the +existence of the Absolute in the midst of the obstinacy of dogmas and +the changes of opinions. + + 163. Education must then not fear the descent into dogmatic +abstraction, since this is an indispensable means for theoretical +culture in its totality, and the consciousness cannot dispense with it +in its history. But Education has, in the concrete, carefully to discern +in which of these stages of culture any particular consciousness may be. +For if for mankind as a race the fostering of philosophy is absolutely +necessary, it by no means follows that this necessity exists for each +individual. To children, to women, e.g. for all kinds of simple and +limited lives, the form of the religion of the imagination is well +suited, and the form of comprehension can come only relatively to them. +Education must not, then, desire powerfully and prematurely to develop +the thinking activity before the intelligence is really fully grown. + +--The superficial thinking which many teachers demand in the sphere of +religion is no less impractical than the want of all guidance into +rightly ordered meditations on religious subjects. It is natural that +the lower form of intelligence should, in contrast with the higher, +appear to be frivolous, because it has no need of change of form as the +higher has, and on this account it looks upon the destruction of the +form of a picture or a dogma as the destruction of religion itself. In +our time the idea is very prevalent that the content itself must change +with the changing of the psychological form, and that therefore a +religion in the stage of feeling, of conception, and of comprehension, +can no longer be the same in its essence. These suppositions, which are +so popular, and are considered to be high philosophy, spring from the +superficiality of psychological inquiry.-- + + 164. The theoretical culture of the religious feeling endeavors +therefore with the freedom of philosophical criticism to elevate the +presupposition of Reason in the religious content to self-assured +insight by means of the proof of the necessity of its determinations. +This is the only reasonable pedagogical way not only to prevent the +degeneration of the religious consciousness into a miserable mysticism +or into frivolity, but also to remove these if they are already +existent. + +--External seclusion avails nothing. The crises of the world-historical +changes in the religious consciousness find their way through the +thickest cloister walls; the philosopher Reinhold was a pupil of the +Jesuits, the philosopher Schad of the Benedictines.-- + + +II. _The Practical Process of Religious Culture._ + + 165. The theoretical culture is truly practical, for it gives man +definite conceptions and thoughts of the Divine and his relation to him. +But in a narrower sense that culture is practical which relates to the +Will as such. Education has in this respect to distinguish (1) +consecration--religious feeling in general,--(2) the induction of the +youth into the forms of a positive religion, and (3) his reconciliation +with his lot. + + 166. (1) Religious feeling presupposes morality as an indispensable +condition without which it cannot inculcate its ideas. But if man from a +merely moral stand-point places himself in relation to the idea of Duty +as such, the ethical religious stand-point differs from it in this, that +it places the necessity of the Good as the self-determination of the +divine Will and thus makes of practice a personal relation to God, +changing the Good to the Holy and the Evil to Sin. Education must +therefore first accustom the youth to the idea, that in doing the Good +he unites himself with God as with the absolute Person, but that in +doing Evil he separates himself from him. The feeling that he through +his deed comes into contact with God himself, positively or negatively, +deepens the moral conduct to an intense sensibility of the heart. + + 167. (2) The religious sense which grows in the child that he has an +uninterrupted personal relation to the Absolute as a person, constitutes +the beginning of the practical forming of religion. The second step is +the induction of the child into the objective forms of worship +established in some positive religion. Through religious training the +child learns to renounce his egotism; through attendance on religious +services he learns to give expression to his religious feeling in +prayer, in the use of symbols, and in church festivals. Education must, +however, endeavor to retain freedom with regard to these forms, so that +they shall not be confounded with Religion itself. Religion displays +itself in these ceremonies, but they as mere forms are of value only in +so far as they, while externalities, are manifestations of the spirit +which produces them. + +--If the mechanism of ceremonial forms is taken as religion itself, the +service of God degenerates into the false service of religion, as Kant +has designated it in _Religion within the Limits of Pure Reason_. +Nothing is more destructive to the sensibility to all real religious +culture than the want of earnestness with which prayers, readings from +the Bible, attendance on church, the communion, &c., are often practised +by teachers. But one must not conclude from this extreme that an +ignorance of all sacred forms in general would be more desirable for the +child.-- + + 168. (3) It is possible that a man on the stand-point of +ecclesiastical religious observances may be fully contented; he may be +fully occupied in them, and perfect his life thereby in perfect content. +But by far the greater number of men will see themselves forced to +experience the truth of religion in the hard vicissitudes of their lot, +since they carry on some business, and with that business create for +themselves a past whose consequences condition their future. They limit +themselves through their deeds, whose involuntary-voluntary authors they +become; involuntary in so far as they are challenged to the deeds from +the totality of events, voluntary in so far as they undertake them and +bring about an actual change in the world. The history of the individual +man appears therefore on the one hand, if we consider its material, as +the work of circumstances; but on the other hand, if we reflect on the +form, as the act of a self-determining actor. Want of freedom (the being +determined through the given situation) and freedom (the determination +to the act) are united in actual life as something which is exactly so, +and cannot become anything else as final. The essence of the spiritual +being stands always over against this unavoidable limitation as that +which is in itself infinite, which is beyond all history, because the +absolute spirit, in and for itself, has no history. That which one calls +his history is only the manifesting of himself, and his everlasting +return out of this manifestation into himself an act which in absolute +spirit coincides with the transcending of all manifestation. From the +nature which belongs to him there arises for the individual spirit the +impulse towards a holy life, i.e. the being freed from his history even +in the midst of its process. He gratifies this impulse negatively +through the considering of what has happened as past and gone, as that +which lives now only ideally in the recollection; and positively through +the positing of a new actual existence in which he strives to realize +the idea of freedom which constitutes his necessity, as purer and higher +than before. This constant new-birth out of the grave of the past to the +life of a more beautiful future is the genuine reconciliation with +destiny. The false reconciliation may assume different forms. It may +abstain from all action because man through this limits himself and +becomes responsible. This is to despair of freedom, which condemns the +spirit to the loss of itself since its nature demands activity. The +abstract quietism of the Indian penitents, of the Buddhists, of the +fanatical ascetics, of the Protestant recluses, &c., is an error of this +kind. The man may become indifferent about the ethical determinateness +of his deeds. In this case he acts; but because he has no faith in the +necessary connection of his deeds through the means of freedom, a +connection which he would willingly ascribe to mere chance, he loses his +spiritual essence. This is the error of indifference and of its +frivolity, which denies the open mystery of the ruling of destiny. +Education must therefore imbue man with respect for external movements +of history and with confidence in the inexhaustibleness of the +progressive human spirit, since only by producing better things can he +affirmatively elevate himself above his past. This active acknowledgment +of the necessity of freedom as the determining principle of destiny +gives the highest satisfaction to which practical religious feeling may +arrive, for blessedness develops itself in it--that blessedness which +does not know that it is circumscribed by finitude and transitoriness, +and which possesses the immortal courage to strive always anew for +perfection with free resignation at its non-realization, so that +happiness and misery, pleasure and pain, are conquered by the power of +disinterested self-sacrifice. + +--The escape from action in an artificial absence of all events in +life, which often sinks to a veritable brutalizing of man, is the +distinguishing feature of all monkish pedagogics. In our time there is +especial need of a reconciliation between man and destiny, for all the +world is discontented. The worst form of discontent is when one is, as +the French say, _blas_; though the word is not, as many fancy, derived +originally from the French, but from the Greek [Greek: blazein], to +wither. It is true that all culture passes through phases, each of which +becomes momentarily and relatively wearisome, and that in so far one may +be _blas_ in any age. But in modern times this state of feeling has +increased to that of thorough disgust--disgust which nevertheless at the +same time demands enjoyment. The one who is _blas_ has enjoyed +everything, felt everything, mocked at everything. He has passed from +the enjoyment of pleasure to sentimentality, i.e. to rioting in feeling; +from sentimentality to irony with regard to feeling, and from this to +the torment of feeling his entire weakness and emptiness as opposed to +these. He ridicules this also, as if it were a consolation to him to +fling away the universe like a squeezed lemon, and to be able to assert +that in pure nothingness lies the truth of all things. And yet +nevertheless this irony furnishes the point on which Education can +fasten, in order to kindle anew in him the religious feeling, and to +lead him back to a loving recognition of actuality, to a respect for his +own history. The greatest difficulty which Education has to encounter +here is the coquetry, the miserable eminence and self-satisfaction which +have undermined the man and made him incapable of all simple and natural +enjoyment. It is not too much to assert that many pupils of our +_Gymnasia_ are affected with this malady. Our literature is full of its +products. It inveighs against its dissipation, and nevertheless at the +same time cannot resist a certain kind of pleasure in it. Diabolical +sentimentality!-- + + +III. _The Absolute Process of Religious Culture._ + + 169. In comparing the stages of the theoretical and practical culture +of the religious feeling their internal correspondence appears. Feeling, +as immediate knowledge, and the consecration of the sense by means of +piety; imagination with all its images, and the church services with +their ceremonial observances; finally, the comprehending of religion as +the reconciliation with destiny, as the internal emancipation from the +dominion of external events--all these correspond to each other. If we +seize this parallelism all together, we have the progress which religion +must make in its historical process, in which it (1) begins as natural; +(2) goes on to historical precision, and (3) elevates this to a rational +faith. These stages await every man in as far as he lives through a +complete religious culture, but this may be for the individual a +question of chance. + + 170. (1) A child has as yet no definite religious feeling. He is still +only a possibility capable of manifold determinations. But, since he is +a spirit, the essence of religion is active in him, though as yet in an +unconscious form. The substance of spirit attests its presence in every +individual, through his mysterious impulse toward the absolute and +towards intercourse with God. This is the initiatory stage of natural +religion, which must not be confounded with the religion which makes +nature the object of worship (fetichism, &c.) + + 171. (2) But while the child lives into this in his internal life, he +comes in contact with definite forms of religion, and will naturally, +through the mediation of the family, be introduced to some one of them. +His religious feeling takes now a particular direction, and he accepts +religion in one of its historical forms. This positive religion meets +the precise want of the child, because it brings into his consciousness, +by means of teaching and sacred rites, the principal elements which are +found in the nature of religion. + + 172. (3) In contradistinction to the natural basis of religious +feeling, all historical religions rest on the authoritative basis of +revelation from God to man. They address themselves to the imagination, +and offer a system of objective forms of worship and ceremonies. But +spirit, as eternal, as self-identical, cannot forbear as thinking +activity to subject the traditional religion to criticism and to compare +it as a phenomenal existence. From this criticism arises a religion +which satisfies the demands of the reason, and which, by means of +insight into the necessity of the historical process, leads to the +exercise of a genuine toleration towards its many-sided forms. This +religion mediates between the unity of the thinking consciousness and +the religious content, while this content, in the history of religious +feeling, appears theoretically as dogma, and practically as the command +of an absolute and incomprehensible authority. It is just as simple as +the unsophisticated natural religious feeling, but its simplicity is at +the same time master of itself. It is just as specific in its +determinations as the historical religion, but its determinateness is at +the same time universal, since it is worked out by the thinking reason. + + 173. Education must superintend the development of the religious +consciousness towards an insight into the necessary consequence of its +different stages. Nothing is more absurd than for the educator to desire +to avoid the introduction of a positive religion, or a definite creed, +as a middle stage between the natural beginning of religious feeling and +its end in philosophical culture. Only when a man has lived through the +entire range of one-sided phases--through the crudeness of such a +concrete individualizing of religion, and has come to recognize the +universal nature of religion in a special form of it which excludes +other forms--only when the spirit of a congregation has taken him into +its number, is he ripe to criticize religion in a conciliatory spirit, +because he has then gained a religious character through that historical +experience. The self-comprehending universality must have such a solid +basis as this in the life of the man; it can never form the beginning of +one's culture, but it may constitute the end which turns back again to +the beginning. Most men remain at the historical stand-point. The +religion of reason, as that of the minority, constitutes in the +different religions the invisible church, which seeks by progressive +reform to purify these religions from superstition and unbelief. It is +the duty of the state, by making all churches equal in the sight of the +law, to guard religion from the temptation of impure motives, and, +through the granting of such freedom to religious individuality, to help +forward the unity of a rational insight into religion which is distinct +from the religious feeling only in its form, not in its content. Not a +philosopher, but Jesus of Nazareth freed the world from all selfishness +and all bondage. + + 174. With this highest theoretical and practical emancipation, the +general work of education ends. It remains now to be shown how the +general idea of Education shapes its special elements into their +appropriate forms. From the nature of Pedagogics, which concerns itself +with man in his entirety, this exposition belongs partly to the history +of culture in general, partly to the history of religion, partly to the +philosophy of history. The pedagogical element in it always lies in the +ideal which the spirit of a nation or of an age creates out of itself, +and which it seeks to realize in its youth. + + + + +THIRD PART. + +Particular Systems of Education. + + + 175. The definite actuality of Education originates in the fact that +its general idea is individualized, according to its special elements, +in a specific statement which we call a pedagogical principle. The +number of these principles is not unlimited, but from the idea of +Education contains only a certain number. If we derive them therefore, +we derive at the same time the history of Pedagogics, which can from its +very nature do nothing else than make actual in itself the possibilities +involved in the idea of Education. Such a derivation may be called an _ +priori_ construction of history, but it is different from what is +generally denoted by this term in not pretending to deduce single events +and characters. All empirical details are confirmation or illustration +for it, but it does not attempt to seek this empirical element _ +priori_. + +--The history of Pedagogics is still in the stage of infancy. At one +time it is taken up into the sphere of Politics; at another, into that +of the history of Culture. The productions of some of the most +distinguished writers on the subject are now antiquated. Cramer of +Stralsund made, in 1832, an excellent beginning in a comprehensive and +thorough history of Pedagogy; but in the beginning of his second part he +dwelt too long upon the Greeks, and lost himself in too wide an +exposition of practical Philosophy in general. Alexander Kapp has given +us excellent treatises on the Pedagogics of Aristotle and Plato. But +with regard to modern Pedagogics we have relatively very little. Karl v. +Raumer, in 1843, began to publish a history of Pedagogics since the time +of the revival of classical studies, and has accomplished much of value +on the biographical side. But the idea of the general connection and +dependence of the several manifestations has not received much +attention, and since the time of Pestalozzi books have assumed the +character of biographical confessions. Strmpell, in 1843, developed the +Pedagogics of Kant, Fichte, and Herbart.-- + +[Sidenote: _Particular Systems of Education._] + + 176. Man is educated by man for humanity. This is the fundamental idea +of all Pedagogics. But in the shaping of Pedagogics we cannot begin with +the idea of humanity as such, but only with the natural form in which it +primarily manifests itself--that of the nation. But the naturalness of +this principle disappears in its development, since nations appear in +interaction on each other and begin dimly to perceive their unity of +species. The freedom of spirit over nature makes its appearance, but to +the spirit explicitly in the transcendent form of abstract theistic +religion, in which God appears as the ruler over Nature as merely +dependent; and His chosen people plant the root of their nationality no +longer in the earth, but in this belief. The unity of the abstractly +natural and abstractly spiritual determinateness is the concrete unity +of the spirit with nature, in which it recognizes nature as its +necessary organ, and itself as in its nature divine. Spirit in this +stage, as the internal presupposition of the two previously named, takes +up into itself on one hand the phase of nationality, since this is the +form of its immediate individualization; but it no longer distinguishes +between nations as if they were abstractly severed the one from the +other, as the Greeks shut out all other nations under the name of +barbarians. It also takes up into itself the phase of spirituality, +since it knows itself as spirit, and knows itself to be free from +nature, and yet it does not estrange itself as the Jews did in their +representation of pure spirit, in reference to which nature seems to be +only the work of its caprice. Humanity knows nature as its own, because +it knows the Divine spirit and its creative energy manifesting itself in +nature and history, as also the essence of its own spirit. Education can +be complete only with Christianity as the religion of humanity. + + 177. We have thus three different systems of religion--(1) the +National; (2) the Theocratic; and (3) the Humanitarian. The first works +in harmony with nature since it educates the individual as a type of his +species. The original nationality endeavors sharply to distinguish +itself from others, and to impress on each person the stamp of its +uniform type. One individual is like every other, or at least should be +so. The second system in its manner of manifestation is identical with +the first. It even marks the national difference more emphatically; but +the ground of the uniformity of the individuals is with it not merely +the natural common interest, but it is the consequence of the spiritual +unity, which abstracts from nature, and as history, satisfied with no +present, hovers continually outside of itself between past and future. +The theocratic system educates the individual as the servant of God. He +is the true Jew only in so far as he is this; the genealogical identity +with the father Abraham is a condition but not the principle of the +nationality. The third system liberates the individual to the enjoyment +of freedom as his essence, and educates the human being within national +limits which no longer separate but unite, and, in the consciousness +that each individual, without any kind of mediation, has a direct +relation to God, makes of him a man who knows himself to be a member of +the spiritual world of humanity. We can have no fourth system beyond +this. From the side of the State-Pedagogics we might characterize these +systems as that of the nation-State, the God-State, and the +humanity-State. From the time of the establishment of the last, no one +nation can attain to any sovereignty over the others. By means of the +world-religion of Christianity, the education of nations has come to the +point of taking for its ideal, man as determining himself according to +the demands of reason. + + +FIRST DIVISION. + +THE SYSTEM OF NATIONAL EDUCATION. + + 178. The National is the primitive system of education, since the +family is the organic starting-point of all education, and is in its +enlargement the basis of nationality. + +--Education is always education of the mind. Even unorganized nations, +those in a state of nature, the so-called savage nations, are possessed +of something more than a mere education of the body; for, though they +set much value upon gymnastic and warlike practice and give much time to +them, they inculcate also respect for parents, for the aged, and for the +decrees of the community. Education with them is essentially family +training, and its content is natural love and reverence. We cannot deny +that the finer forms of those to which we are accustomed are wanting. +Besides, education among all these people of nature is very simple and +much the same, though great differences in its management may exist +arising from differences of situation or from temperament of race.-- + + 179. National Education is divided into three special systems: (1) +Passive, (2) Active, (3) Individual. It begins with the humility of an +abstract subjection to nature, and ends with the arrogance of an +abstract rejection of nature. + + 180. Man yields at first to the natural authority of the family; he +obeys unconditionally its behests. Then he substitutes for the family, +as he goes on his culture, the artificial family of his caste, to whose +rules he again unconditionally yields. To dispense with this +artificialty and this tyranny, at last he abstracts himself from the +family and from culture. He flees from both, and becoming a monk he +again subjects himself to the tyranny of his order. The monks presents +to us the mere type of his species. + + 181. This absolute abstraction from nature and from culture, this +quietism of spiritual isolation, is the ultimate result of the Passive +system. In opposition to this, the Active system seeks the positive +vanquishing of naturalness. Its people are courageous. They attack other +nations in order to rule over them as conquerors. They live for the +continuation of their life after death, and build for themselves on this +account tombs of granite. They brave the dangers of the sea. The +abstract prose of the patriarchal-state, the fantastic chimeras of the +caste-state, the ascetic self-renunciation of the cloister-state, yield +gradually to the recognition of actuality; and the fundamental principle +of Persian education consisted in the inculcation of veracity. + + 182. But the nationality which is occupied with simple, natural +elements--other nations, death, the mystery of the ocean--may revert to +the abstractions of the previous stage, which in education often take on +cruel forms--nay, often truly horrible. First, when the spirit begins +not only to suspect its true nature, but rather to recognize itself as +the true essence; and when the God of Light places as the motto on his +temple the command to self-knowledge, the natural individuality becomes +free. Neither the passive nor the active system understands the free +self-distinction of the individual from the rest. In them, to be an +individuality is a betrayal of the very idea of their existence, and +even the suspicion of such a charge suffices utterly and mercilessly to +destroy the one to whom it refers. Even the solitary individuality of +the despot is not the one-ness of free individuality: he is only an +example of his kind; only in his kind is he singular. Nationality rises +to individuality through the free dialectic of its race, wherein it +dissolves its own presupposition. + + 183. Nevertheless individuality must always proceed from naturalness. +Esthetically it seeks nature, but the nature of the activity itself, in +order, by penetrating it with mind, to make of it a work of art; +practically it seeks it, partly to disdain it in gloomy resignation, +partly to enjoy it in excessive sensual ecstasy, demoniacally to +heighten the extravagance of its own internal feeling in wild revels. + +--The Germans were not savage in the common signification of this term. +They were men each one of whom constituted himself willingly a centre +for others, or, if this was not the case, renounced them in proud +self-sufficiency. All the glory and all the disgrace of our race lies in +the power of individualizing which is divinely breathed into our veins. +As a natural element, if this be not controlled, it degenerates easily +into intractableness, into violence. The Germans need therefore, in +order to be educated, severe service, the imposition of difficult tasks; +and for this reason they appropriate to themselves, now the Roman law, +now the Greek philology, now Gallic usages, &c., in order to work off +their superfluous strength in such opposition. The natural reserve of +the German found its solvent in Christianity. By itself, as the history +of the German race shows, it would have been destroyed in vain +distraction. First of all, the German race, in the confidence of its +immediate consciousness, ventured forth upon the sea, and managed the +ship upon its waves as if they rode a charger.-- + + +FIRST GROUP. + +THE SYSTEM OF PASSIVE EDUCATION. + + 184. All education desires to free man from his finitude, to make him +ethical, to unite him with God. It begins therefore with a negative +relation to naturalness, but at once falls into a contradiction of its +aim, which is to convert the opposition to nature into a natural +necessity. Spirit subjects the individual (1) to the rule of the family +as naturally spiritual; (2) to the rule of the caste as to a principle +in itself spiritual, mediated through the division of labor, which it +nevertheless, through its power of being inherited, joins again to the +family; (3) to the abstract self-determination of the monkish quietism, +which turns itself away as well from the family as from work, and +constitutes this flight from nature and history, this absolute +passivity, into an educational ideal. + +--We shall not here enter into the details of this system, but simply +endeavor to remove from their differences the want of clearness which is +generally found involved in any mention of them, so that the phrases of +hierarchical and theocratical education are used without any historical +accuracy.-- + + +I. _Family Education._ + + 185. The Family, as the organic starting-point of all education, makes +the beginning. The nation looks upon itself as a family. Among all +unorganized people education is family-education, though they are not +conscious of its necessity. Identical in principle with these people, +but distinguished from them in its consciousness of it, the Chinese +nation, in their laws, regulations, and customs, have constituted the +family the absolute basis of their life and the only principle of their +education. + + 186. The natural element of the family is found in marriage and +relationship; the spiritual, in love. We may call the nature of family +feeling which is the immediate unity of both elements, by the name of +Piety. In so far as this appears not merely as a substantial feeling but +at the same time as law, there arises from it the subordination of the +abstract obedience of the woman as wife to the husband, of children to +the parents, of the younger children to the elder. In this obedience man +first renounces his self-will and his natural roughness; he learns to +master his passions, and to conduct himself with deferential gentleness. + +--When the principle ruling the family is transferred to political +relations, there arises the tyranny of the Chinese state, which cannot +be fully treated here. We find everywhere in it an analogical relation +to that of parents and children. In China the ruler is the father and +mother of the country; the civil officers are representatives of a +paternal authority, &c. It follows that in school the children will be +ranked according to their age. The authority of parents over children is +according to the principle entirely unconditional, but in actuality very +mild. The abandonment of daughters by the poorest classes in the great +cities is not objected to, for the government rears the children in +orphan asylums, where they are cared for by nurses appointed by the +state.-- + + 187. The distinction of these relations which are conditioned by +nature takes on the external shape of a definite ceremonial, the +learning of which is a chief element of education. In conformity with +the naturalness of the whole principle all crimes against it are +punished by whipping, which does not necessarily entail dishonor. In +order to lead man to the mastery of himself and to obedience to those +who are naturally set over him, education develops an endless number of +fragmentary maxims to keep attention ever watchful over himself, and his +behavior always fenced in by a code of prescriptions. + +--We find in such moral sentences the substance of what is called, in +China, Philosophy.-- + + 188. The theoretical education includes Heading, Writing--i.e. +painting the letters with a brush--Arithmetic, and the making of verses. +But the ability to do these things is not looked at as means of culture +but as ends in themselves, and to fit one therefore for the undertaking +of state offices. The Chinese possess formally all the means for +literary culture--printing, libraries, schools, and academies; but the +worth of these is not great. Their value has been often over-rated +because of their external resemblance to those found among us. + + +II. _Caste Education._ + + 189. The members of the Family are certainly immediately +distinguished among each other as to sex and age, but this difference is +entirely immaterial as far as the nature of their employment goes. In +China, therefore, every man can attain any position; he who is of +humblest birth in the great state-family can climb to the highest honor. +But the progress of spirit now becomes so mediated that the division of +labor shall be made the principle on which a new distinction shall arise +in the family: each one shall perfect himself only in that labor which +was allotted to him as his own through his birth into a particular +family. This fatalism (caste-distinction) breaks up the life, but +increases its tension, for spirit works on the one hand towards the +deepening of its distinctions; on the other, towards leading them back +into the unity which the natural determining directly opposes. + + 190. The chief work of education thus consists in teaching each one +the rights and duties of his caste so that he shall act only exactly +within their limits, and not pollute himself by passing beyond them. As +the family-state concerns itself with fortifying the natural distinction +by a far-reaching and vigorous ceremonial, so the caste-state must do +the same with the distinction of class. A painful etiquette becomes more +and more endless in its requisitions the higher the caste, in order to +make the isolation more sharply defined and more perceptible. + +--This feature penetrates all exclusively caste-education. The +aristocracy exiles itself on this account from its native country, +speaks a foreign language, loves its literature, adopts foreign customs, +lives in foreign countries--in Italy, Paris, &c. In this way man becomes +distinguished from others. But that man should strive thus to +distinguish himself has its justification in the mystery of his birth, +and this is assuredly always the principle of the caste-state in which +it exists. The castes lead to genealogical records, which are of the +greatest importance in determining the destiny of the individual. The +Brahmin may strike down one of a lower caste who has defiled him by +contact, without becoming thereby liable to punishment; rather would he +be to blame if he did not commit the murder. Thus formerly was it with +the officer who did not immediately kill the citizen or the common +soldier who struck him a blow, &c.-- + + 191. The East Indian culture is far deeper and richer than the +Chinese. The theoretical culture includes Reading, Writing, and +Arithmetic; but these are subordinate, as mere means for the higher +activities of Poetry, Speculation, Science, and Art. The practical +education limits itself strictly by the lines of caste, and since the +caste system constitutes a whole in itself, and each for its permanence +needs the others, it cannot forbear giving utterance suggestively to +what is universally human in the free soul, in a multitude of fables +(Hitopadesa) and apothegms (sentences of Bartrihari). Especially for the +education of princes is a minor of the world sketched out. + +--Xenophon's Cyropedia is of Greek origin, but it is Indian in its +thought.-- + + +III. _Monkish Education._ + + 192. Family Education demands unconditional obedience towards parents +and towards all who stand in an analogous position. Caste Education +demands unconditional obedience to the duties of the caste. The family +punishes by whipping; the caste, by excommunication, by loss of honor. +The opposition to nature appears in both systems in the form of a rigid +ceremonial, distinguishing between the differences arising from nature. +The family as well as the caste has within it a manifold fountain of +activity, but it has also just as manifold a limitation of the +individual. Spirit is forced, therefore, to turn against nature in +general. It must become indifferent to the family. But it must also +oppose history, and the fixed distinctions of division of labor as +necessitated by nature. It must become indifferent to work and the +pleasure derived from it. That it may not be conditioned either by +nature or by history, it denies both, and makes its action to consist in +producing an abstinence from all activity. + + 193. Such an indifference towards nature and history produces the +education which we have called monkish. Those who support this sect care +for food, clothing, and shelter, and for these material contributions, +as the laity, receive in return from those who live this contemplative +life the spiritual contribution of confidence in the blessings which +wait upon ascetic contemplation. The family institution as well as the +institution of human labor is subordinated to abstract isolation, in +which the individual lives only for the purification of his soul. All +things are justified by this end. Castes are found no more; only those +are bound to the observance of a special ceremonial who as nuns or monks +subject themselves to the unconditional obedience to the rules of the +cloister, these rules solemnly enjoining on the negative side celibacy +and cessation from business, and on the positive side prayer and +perfection. + +[Sidenote: _Buddhistic Education--System of Active Education._] + + 194. In the school of the Chinese Tao-tse, and in the command to the +Brahmin after he has established a family to become a recluse, we find +the transition as it actually exists to the Buddhistic Quietism which +has covered the rocky heights of Thibet with countless cloisters, and +reared the people who are dependent upon it into a childlike amiability, +into a contented repose. Art and Science have here no value in +themselves, and are regarded only as ministering to religion. To be able +to read in order to mutter over the prayers is desirable. With the +premeditated effort in the state of a monk to reduce self to nothing as +the highest good, the system of passive education attains its highest +point. But the spirit cannot content itself in this abstract and dreamy +absence of all action, though it demands a high stage of culture, and it +has recourse therefore to action, partly on the positive side to conquer +nature, partly to double its own existence in making history. Inspired +with affirmative courage, it descends triumphantly from the mountain +heights, and fears secularization no more. + + +SECOND GROUP. + +THE SYSTEM OF ACTIVE EDUCATION. + + 195. Active Education elevates man from his abstract subjection to +the family, the caste, asceticism, into a concrete activity with a +definite aim which subjects those elements as phases of its mediation, +and grants to each individual independence on the condition of his +identity with it. These aims are the military state, the future after +death, and industry. There is always an element of nature present from +which the activity proceeds; but this no longer appears, like the +family, the caste, the sensuous egotism, as immediately belonging to the +individual, but as something outside of himself which limits him, and, +as his future life, has an internal relation to him, yet is essential to +him and assigns to him the object of his activity. The Persian has as an +object of conquest, other nations; the Egyptian, death; the Phoenician, +the sea. + + +I. _Military Education._ + + 196. That education which would emancipate a nation from the passivity +of abstraction must throw it into the midst of an historical activity. A +nation finds not its actual limits in its locality: it can forsake this +and wander far away from it. Its true limit is made by another nation. +The nation which knows itself to be actual, turns itself therefore +against other nations in order to subject them and to reduce them to the +condition of mere accidents of itself. It begins a system of conquest +which has in itself no limitations, but goes from one nation to another, +and extends its evil course indefinitely. The final result of this +attack is that it finds itself attacked and conquered. + +--The early history of the Persian is twofold: the patriarchal in the +high valleys of Iran, and the religio-hierarchical among the Medes. We +find under these circumstances a repetition of the principal +characteristics of the Chinese, Indian, and Buddhist educations. In +ancient Zend there were also castes. Among the Persians themselves, as +they descended from their mountains to the conquest of other nations, +there was properly only a military nobility. The priesthood was +subjected to the royal power which represented the absolute power of +actuality. Of the Persian kings, Cyrus attacked Western Asia; Cambyses, +Africa; Darius and Xerxes, Europe; until the reaction of the spiritually +higher nationality did not content itself with self-preservation, but +under the Macedonian Alexander made the attack on Persia itself.-- + + 197. Education enjoined upon the Persians (1) to speak the truth; (2) +to learn to ride and to use the bow and arrow. There is implied in the +first command a recognition of actuality, the negation of all dreamy +absorption, of all fantastical indetermination; and in this light the +Persian, in distinction from the Hindoo, appears to be considerate and +reasonable. In the second command is implied warlike practice, but not +that of the nomadic tribes. The Persian fights on horseback, and thus +appears in distinction from the Indian hermit seclusion and the quietism +of the Lamas as restless and in constant motion. + +--The Family increases in value as it rears a large number of warriors. +Many children were a blessing. The king of Persia gave a premium for all +children over a certain number. Nations were drawn in as nations by war; +hence the immense multitude of a Persian army. Everything--family, +business, possessions--must be regardlessly sacrificed to the one aim of +war. Education, therefore, cultivated an unconditional, all-embracing +obedience to the king, and the slightest inclination to assert an +individual independence was high treason and was punished with death. In +China, on the contrary, duty to the family is paramount to duty to the +state, or rather is itself duty to the state. The civil officer who +mourns the loss of one of his family is released during the period of +mourning from the duties of his function.-- + + 198. The theoretical education, which was limited to reading, writing, +and to instruction, was, in the usages of culture, in the hands of the +Magians, the number of whom was estimated at eighty thousand, and who +themselves had enjoyed the advantages of a careful education, as is +shown by their gradation into Herbeds, Moheds, and Destur-Moheds; i.e. +into apprentices, journeymen, and masters. The very fundamental idea of +their religion was military; it demanded of men to fight on the side of +the king of light, and guard against the prince of darkness and evil. It +gave to him thus the honor of a free position between the world-moving +powers and the possibility of a self-creative destiny, by which means +vigor and chivalrous feeling were developed. Religion trained the +activity of man into actualization on this planet, increasing by its +means the dominion of the good, by purifying the water, by planting +trees, by extirpating troublesome wild beasts. Thus it increased bodily +comfort, and no longer, like the monk, treated this as a mere negative. + + +II. _Priestly Education._ + + 199. War has in death its force. It produces this, and by its means +decides who shall serve and who obey. But the nation that finds its +activity in war, though it makes death its absolute means, yet finds its +own limit in death. Other nations are only its boundaries, which it can +overpass in fighting with and conquering them. But death itself it can +never escape, whether it come in the sands of the desert--which buried +for Cambyses an army which he sent to the oracle of the Libyan Ammon--or +in the sea, that scorns the rod of the angry despot, or by the sword of +the freeman who guards his household gods. On this account, that people +stands higher that in the midst of life reflects on death, or rather +lives for it. The education of such a nation must be priestly because +death is the means of the transition to the future life, and +consequently equivalent to a new birth, and becomes a religious act. +Neither the family-state, nor the caste-state, nor the monkish nor +military-state, are hierarchies in the sense that the leading of the +national life by a priesthood produces. But in Egypt this was actually +the case, because the chief educational tribunal was the death-court +which concerned only the dead, in awarding to them or denying them the +honor of burial as the result of their whole life, but in its award +affected also the honor of the surviving family. + + 200. General education here limited itself to imparting the ability +to read, write, and calculate. Special education consisted properly only +in an habitual living into a definite business within the circle of the +Family. In this fruitful and warm land the expense of supporting +children was very small. The division into classes was without the cruel +features of the Indian civilization, and life itself in the narrow Nile +valley was very social, very rich, very full of eating and drinking, +while the familiarity with death heightened the force of enjoyment. In a +stricter sense only, the warriors, the priests, and the kings, had, +properly speaking, an education. The aim of life, which was to determine +in death its eternal future, to secure for itself a passage into the +still kingdom of Amenth, manifested itself externally in the care which +they expended on the preservation of the dead shell of the immortal +soul, and on this account worked itself out in building tombs which +should last for ever. The Chinese builds a wall to secure his +family-state from attack; the Hindoo builds pagodas for his gods; the +Buddhist erects for himself monastic cells; the Persian constructs in +Persepolis the tomb of his kings, where they may retire in the evening +of their lives after they have rioted in Ecbatana, Babylon, and Susa; +but the Egyptian builds his own tomb, and carries on war only to protect +it. + + +III. _Industrial Education._ + + 201. The system of active education was to find its solution in a +nation which wandered from the coast of the Red Sea to the foot of the +Lebanon mountains on the Mediterranean, and ventured forth upon the sea +which before that time all nations had avoided as a dangerous and +destructive element. The Phoenician was industrial, and needed markets +where he could dispose of the products of his skill. But while he sought +for them he disdained neither force nor deceit; he planted colonies; he +stipulated that he should have in the cities of other nations a portion +for himself; he urged the nations to adopt his pleasures, and insensibly +introduced among them his culture and even his religion. The education +of such a nation must have seemed profane, because it fostered +indifference towards family and one's native land, and made the restless +and passionate activity subservient to gain. The understanding and +usefulness rose to a higher dignity. + + 202. Of the education of the Phoenicians we know only so much as to +enable us to conclude that it was certainly various and extensive: among +the Carthaginians, at least, that their children were practised in +reading, writing, and arithmetic, in religious duties; secondly, in a +trade; and, finally, in the use of arms, is not improbable. Commerce +became with the Phoenicians a trade, the egotism of which makes men dare +to plough the inhospitable sea, and to penetrate eagerly the horror of +its vast distances, but yet to conceal from other nations their +discoveries and to wrap them in a veil of fable. + +--It is a beautiful testimony to the disposition of the Greeks, that +Plato and others assign as a cause of the low state of Arithmetic and +Mathematics among the Phoenicians and Egyptians the want of a free and +disinterested seizing of them.-- + + +THIRD GROUP. + +THE SYSTEM OF INDIVIDUAL EDUCATION. + + 203. One-sided passivity as well as one-sided activity is subsumed +under Individuality, which makes itself into its own end and aim. The +Phoenician made gain his aim; his activity was of a utilistic character. +Individuality as a pedagogical principle is indeed egotistic in so far +as it endeavors to achieve its own peculiarity, but it is at the same +time noble. It desires not to _have_ but to _be_. Individuality also +begins as natural, but it elevates nature by means of art to ideality. +The solution of beauty is found in culture, since this renounces the +charm of appearance for the knowledge of the True. The sthetic +individuality is followed by the practical, which has indeed no natural +basis, but proceeds from an artificial basis as a state formed for a +place of refuge. In order internally to create a unity in this, is +framed a definite code of laws; in order externally to assure it, the +invincible warrior is demanded. Education is therefore, more exactly +speaking, juristic and military practice. The morality of the state is +loosened as it reduces into its mechanism one nation after another, +until the individuality, become dmonic, makes its war-hardened legions +tremble with weakness. We characterize this individuality as dmonic +because it desires recognition simply for its own sake. Not for its +beauty and culture, not for its knowledge of business and its bravery, +only for its peculiarity as such does it claim value, and in the effort +to secure this it is ready to hazard life itself. In its +naturally-growing existence this individuality is deep, but at the same +time without self-limit. The nations educate themselves to this +individuality when they destroy the world of Roman world--that of +self-limit and balance--which they find. + + +I. _sthetic Education._ + + 204. The system of individual education begins with the +transfiguration of the immediate individuality into beauty. On the side +of nature this system is passion, for individuality is given through +nature; but on the side of spirit it is active, for spirit must +determine itself to restrain its measure as the essence of beauty. + + 205. Here the individual is of value only in so far as he is +beautiful. At first beauty is apprehended as natural, but then it is +carried over into the realm of spirit, and the Good is posited as +identical with the Beautiful. The ideal of sthetic education remains +always that there shall be also an external unity of the Good with the +Beautiful, of Spirit with Nature. + +--We cannot here give in detail the history of Greek Education. It is +the best known among us, and the literature in which it is worked out is +very widely spread. Among the common abridged accounts we mention here +only the works of Jacobs, of Cramer & Bekker's "Charinomos." We must +content ourselves with mentioning the turning-points which follow from +the nature of the principle.-- + + 206. Culture was in Greece thoroughly national. Education gave to the +individual the consciousness that he was a Greek and no barbarian, a +free man and so subject only to the laws of the state, and not to the +caprice of any one person. Thus the nationality was freed at once from +the abstract unity of the family and from the abstract distinction of +caste, while it appeared with the manifold talents of individuals of +different races. Thus the Dorian race held as essential, gymnastics; the +olians, music; the Ionics, poetry. The olian individuality was +subsumed in the history of the two others, so that these had to proceed +in their development with an internal antagonism. The education of the +Dorian race was national education in the fullest sense of the word; in +it the education of all was the same, and was open to all, even +including the young women; among the Ionic race it was also in its +content truly national, but in its form it was varied and unlike, and, +for those belonging to various great families, private. The former, +reproducing the Oriental phase of abstract unity, educated all in one +mould; the latter was the nursery of particular individualities. + + 207. (1) Education in the heroic age, without any systematic +arrangement on the subject, left each one perfectly free. The people +related the histories of the adventures of others, and through their own +gave material to others again to relate stories of them. + +--The Greeks began where the last stage of the active system of +education ended--with piracy and the seizure of women. Swimming was a +universal practice among the sea-dwelling Greeks, just as in +England--the mistress of the ocean--rowing is the most prominent +exercise among the young men, and public regattas are held.-- + + 208. (2) In the period of state-culture proper, education developed +itself systematically; and gymnastics, music, and grammatics, or +literary culture, constituted the general pedagogical elements. + + 209. Gymnastics aimed not alone to render the body strong and agile, +but, far more, to produce in it a noble carriage, a dignified and +graceful manner of appearance. Each one fashioned his body into a +living, divine statue, and in the public games the nation crowned the +victor. + +--Their love of beautiful boys is explicable not merely by their +interest in beautiful forms, but especially by their interest in +individuality. The low condition of the women could not lie at the +foundation of it, for among the Spartans they were educated as nearly as +possible like the men, and yet among them and the Cretans the love of +boys was recognized in their legislation. To be without a beloved +([Greek: aits]), or a lover ([Greek: eispnlas]), was among them +considered as disgraceful as the degradation of the love by unchastity +was contemptible. What charm was there, then, in love? Manifestly only +beauty and culture. But that a person should be attracted by one and not +by another can be accounted for only by the peculiar character, and in +so far the boy-love and the man-friendship which sprang from it, among +the Greeks, are very characteristic and noteworthy phenomena.-- + + 210. It was the task of Music, by its rhythm and measure, to fill the +soul with well-proportioned harmony. So highly did the Greeks prize +music, and so variously did they practise it, that to be a musical man +meant the same with them as to be a cultivated man with us. Education in +this respect was very painstaking, inasmuch as music exercises a very +powerful influence in developing discreet behavior and self-possession +into a graceful naturalness. + +--Among the Greeks we find an unrestricted delight in nature--a +listening to her manifestations, the tone of which betrays the +subjectivity of things as subjectivity. In comparison with this tender +sympathy with nature of the Greeks--who heard in the murmur of the +fountains, in the dashing of the waves, in the rustling of the trees, +and in the cry of animals, the voice of divine personality--the sight +and hearing of the Eastern nations for nature is dull.-- + + 211. The stringed instrument, the cithern, was preferred by the Greeks +to all wind instruments because it was not exciting, and allowed the +accompaniment of recitation or song, i.e. the contemporaneous activity +of the spirit in poetry. Flute-playing was first brought from Asia Minor +after the victorious progress of the Persian war, and was especially +cultivated in Thebes. They sought in vain afterwards to oppose the wild +excitement raised by its influence. + + 212. Grammar comprehended Letters ([Greek: grammata]), i.e. the +elements of literary culture, reading and writing. Much attention was +given to correct expression. The Fables of sop, the Iliad, and the +Odyssey, and later the tragic poets, were read, and partly learned by +heart. The orators borrowed from them often the ornament of their +commonplace remarks. + + 213. (3) The internal growth of what was peculiar to the Grecian State +came to an end with the war for the Hegemony. Its dissolution began, and +the philosophical period followed the political. The beautiful ethical +life was resolved into thoughts of the True, Good, and Beautiful. +Individuality turned more towards the internal, and undertook to subject +freedom, the existing regulations, laws and customs, to the criticism of +reason as to whether these were in and for themselves universal and +necessary. The Sophists, as teachers of Grammar, Rhetoric, and +Philosophy, undertook to extend the cultivation of Reflection; and this +introduced instability in the place of the immediate fixed state of +moral customs. Among the women, the _Hetr_ undertook the same +revolution; in the place of the [Greek: potnia mtr] appeared the +beauty, who isolated herself in the consciousness of her charms and in +the perfection of her varied culture, and exhibited herself to the +public admiration. The tendency to idiosyncrasy often approached +wilfulness, caprice and whimsicality, and opposition to the national +moral sense. A Diogenes in a tub became possible; the soulless but +graceful frivolity of an Alcibiades charmed, even though it was +externally condemned; a Socrates completed the break in consciousness, +and urged upon the system of the old morality the pregnant question, +whether Virtue could be taught? Socrates worked as a philosopher who was +to educate. Pythagoras had imposed upon his pupils the abstraction of a +common, exactly-defined manner of living. Socrates, on the contrary, +freed his disciples--in general, those who had intercourse with +him--leading them to the consciousness of their own individuality. He +revolutionized the youth in that he taught them, instead of a +thoughtless obedience to moral customs, to seek to comprehend their +purpose in the world, and to rule their actions according to it. +Outwardly he conformed in politics, and in war as at Marathon; but in +the direction of his teaching he was subjective and modern. + + 214. This idea, that Virtue could be taught, was realized especially +by Plato and Aristotle; the former inclining to Dorianism, the latter +holding to the principle of individuality in nearly the modern sense. As +regards the pedagogical means--Gymnastics, Music, and Grammar--both +philosophers entirely agreed. But, in the seizing of the pedagogical +development in general, Plato asserted that the education of the +individual belonged to the state alone, because the individual was to +act wholly in the state. On the other hand, Aristotle also holds that +the state should conduct the education of its citizens, and that the +individual should be trained for the interest of the state; but he +recognizes also the family, and the peculiarity of the individual, as +positive powers, to which the state must accord relative freedom. Plato +sacrificed the family to the state, and must therefore have sacred +marriages, nurseries, and common and public educational institutions. +Each one shall do only that which he is fitted to do, and shall work at +this only for the sake of perfecting it: to what he shall direct his +energies, and in what he shall be instructed, shall be determined by the +government, and the individuality consequently is not left free. +Aristotle also will have for all the citizens the same education, which +shall be common and public; but he allows, at the same time, an +independence to the family and self-determination to the individual, so +that a sphere of private life presents itself within the state: a +difference by means of which a much broader sway of individuality is +possible. + +--These two philosophers have come to represent two very different +directions in Pedagogics, which at intervals, in certain stages of +culture, reappear--the tyrannical guardianship of the state which +assumes the work of education, tyrannical to the individual, and the +free development of the liberal state-education, in opposition to +idiosyncrasy and fate.-- + + 215. The principle of sthetic individuality reaches its highest +manifestation when the individual, in the decay of public life, in the +disappearance of all beautiful morality, isolates himself, and seeks to +gain in his isolation such strength that he can bear the changes of +external history around him with composure--"ataraxy." The Stoics sought +to attain this end by turning their attention inward into pure +internality, and thus, by preserving the self-determination of abstract +thinking and willing, maintaining an identity with themselves: the +Epicureans endeavored to do the same, with this difference however, that +they strove after a positive satisfaction of the senses by filling them +with concrete pleasurable sensations. As a consequence of this, the +Stoics isolated themselves in order to maintain themselves in the +exclusiveness of their internal unconditioned relation to themselves, +while the Epicureans lived in companies, because they achieved the +reality of their pleasure-seeking principle through harmony of feeling +and through the sweetness of friendship. In so far the Epicureans were +Greeks and the Stoics Romans. With both, however, the beauty of +manifestation was secondary to the immobility of the inner feeling. The +plastic attainment of the Good and the Beautiful was cancelled in the +abstraction of thinking and feeling. This was the advent of the Roman +principle among the Greeks. + + 216. The pedagogical significance of Stoicism and Epicureanism +consists in this, that, after the moral life in public and in private +were sundered from each other, the individual began to educate himself, +through philosophical culture, into stability of character, for which +reason the Roman emperors particularly disliked the Stoics. At many +times, a resignation to the Stoic philosophy was sufficient to make one +suspected. But, at last, the noble emperor, in order to win himself a +hold in the chaos of things, was forced himself to become a Stoic and to +flee to the inaccessible stillness of the self-thinking activity and the +self-moving will. Stoics and Epicureans had both what we call an ideal. +The Stoics used the expression "kingdom"; as Horace says, sarcastically, +"_Sapiens rex est nisi--pituita molesta est_." + + +II. _Practical Education._ + + 217. The truth of the solution of the beautiful individuality is the +promise of the activity conformable to its purpose [i.e. teleological +activity], which on the one hand considers carefully end and means, and +on the other hand seeks to realize the end through the corresponding +means, and in this deed subjects mere beauty of form. The practical +individuality is therefore externally conditioned, since it is not its +own end like the Beautiful, whether Stoical or Epicurean, but has an +end, and finds its satisfaction not so much in this after it is attained +as in the striving for its attainment. + + 218. The education of this system begins with very great simplicity. +But after it has attained its object, it abandons itself to using the +results of sthetic culture as a recreation without any specific object. +What was to the Greeks a real delight in the Beautiful became therefore +with the Romans simply an sthetic amusement, and as such must finally +be wearisome. The earnestness of individuality made itself in mysticism +into a new aim, which was distinguished from the original one in that it +concealed in itself a mystery and exacted a theoretically sthetic +practice. + + 219. (1) The first epoch of Roman education, as properly Roman, was +the juristic-military education of the republic. The end and aim of the +Roman was Rome; and Rome, as from the beginning an eclectic state, could +endure only while its laws and external politics were conformable to +some end. It bore the same contradiction within itself as in its +external attitude. This forced it into robbery, and the plebeians were +related to the patricians in the same way, for they robbed them +gradually of all their privileges. On this account education directed +itself partly to giving a knowledge of the Law, partly to communicating +a capacity for war. The boys were obliged to commit to memory and recite +the laws of the twelve tables, and all the youths were subject to +military service. The Roman possessed no individuality of native growth, +but one mediated through the intermingling of various fugitives, which +developed a very great energy. Hence from the first he was attentive to +himself, he watched jealously over the limits of his rights and the +rights of others, measured his strength, moderated himself, and +constantly guarded himself. In contrast with the careless cheerfulness +of the Greeks, he therefore appears gloomy. + +--The Latin tongue is crowded with expressions which paint presence of +mind, effort at reflection, a critical attitude of mind, the importance +of personal control: as _gravitas morum, sui compos esse, sibi constare, +austeritas, vir strenuus, vir probus, vitam honestam gerere, sibimet +ipse imperare_, &c. The Etruscan element imparted to this earnestness an +especially solemn character. The Roman was no more, like the Greek, +unembarrassed at naturalness. He was ashamed of nakedness; _verecundia, +pudor_, were genuinely Roman. _Vitam prferre pudori_ was shameful. On +the contrary, the Greek gave to Greeks a festival in exhibiting the +splendor of his naked body, and the inhabitants of Crotona erected a +statue to Philip only because he was so perfectly beautiful. Simply to +be beautiful, only beautiful, was enough for the Greek. But a Roman, in +order to be recognized, must have done something for Rome: _se bene de +republica mereri_.-- + + 220. In the first education of children the agency of the mother is +especially influential, so that woman with the Romans took generally a +more moral, a higher, and a freer position. It is worthy of remark that +while, as the beautiful, she set the Greeks at variance, among the +Romans, through her ethical authority, she acted as reconciler. + + 221. The mother of the Roman helped to form his character; the father +undertook the work of instruction. When in his fifteenth year the boy +exchanged the _toga prtextata_ for the _toga virilis_, he was usually +sent to some relative, or to some jurist, as his guardian, to learn +thoroughly, under his guidance, of the laws and of the state; with the +seventeenth began military service. All education was for a long time +entirely a private affair. On account of the necessity of a mechanical +unity in work which war demands, the greatest stress was laid upon +obedience. In its restricted sense education comprised Reading, Writing, +and Arithmetic; the last being, on account of its usefulness, more +esteemed by the Romans than by the Greeks, who gave more time to +Geometry. The schools, very characteristically, were called _Ludi_, +because their work was, in distinction from other practice, regarded +simply as a recreation, as play. + +--The Roman recognized with pride this distinction between the Greek and +himself; Cicero's Introduction to his Essay on Oratory expresses it. To +be practical was always the effort of the reflective character of the +Romans, which was always placing new ends and seeking the means for +their attainment; which loved moderation, not to secure beauty thereby, +but respected it as a means for a happy success (_medium tenuere +beati_); which did not possess serene self-limitation, or [Greek: +sphrosyn], but calculation _quid valeant humeri, quid ferre recusent_; +but which, in general, went far beyond the Greeks in persistency of +will, in _constantia animi_. The schools were at first held publicly in +shops; hence the name _trivium_. Very significant for the Roman is the +predicate which he conferred upon theoretical subjects when he called +them _artes bon_, _optim_, _liberales_, _ingenu_, &c., and brought +forth the practical element in them.-- + + 222. (2) But the practical education could no longer keep its ground +after it had become acquainted with the sthetic. The conquest of +Greece, Asia Minor, and Egypt, made necessary, in a practical point of +view, the acquisition of the Grecian tongue, so that these lands, so +permeated with Grecian culture, might be thoroughly ruled. The Roman of +family and property, therefore, took into his service Greek nurses and +teachers who should give to his children, from their earliest years, +Greek culture. It is, in the history of education, a great evil when a +nation undertakes to teach a foreign tongue to its youth. Then the +necessity of trade with the Greeks caused the study of Rhetoric, so that +not only in the deliberations of the senate and people, but in law, the +ends might be better attained. Whatever effort the Roman government made +to prevent the invasion of the Greek rhetorician was all in vain. The +Roman youth sought for this knowledge, which was so necessary to them in +foreign lands, e.g. in the flourishing school of rhetoric on the island +of Rhodes. At last, even the study of Philosophy commended itself to the +practical Roman, in order that he might recover for himself confidence +amid the disappointments of life. When his practical life did not bring +him any result, he devoted himself in his poverty to abstract +contemplation. The Greeks would have Philosophy for its own sake; the +ataraxy of the Stoics, Epicureans, and Skeptics even, desired the result +of a necessary principle; but the Roman, on the contrary, wished to lift +himself by philosophemes above trouble and misfortune. + +--This direction which Philosophy took is noteworthy, not alone in +Cicero and Seneca, but at the fall of the Roman empire, when Boethius +wrote in his prison his immortal work on the consolations of +Philosophy.-- + + 223. The earnestness which sought a definite end degenerated in the +very opposite of activity with him who had no definite aim. The idleness +of the wealthy Roman, who felt himself to be the lord of a limitless +world, devoted itself to dissipation and desire for enjoyment, which, in +its entire want of moderation, abused nature. The finest form of the +extant education was that in _belles-lettres_, which also for the first +time came to belong to the sphere of Pedagogics. There had been a +degeneration of art in India and Greece, and also an artistic trifling. +But in Rome there arose a pursuit of art in order to win a certain +consideration in social position, and to create for one's self a +recreation in the emptiness of a soul satiated with sensual debauchery. +Such a seizing of art is frivolous, for it no longer recognizes its +absoluteness, and subordinates it as a means to subjective egotism. +Literary _salons_ then appear. + +--In the introduction to his _Cataline_, Sallust has painted +excellently this complete revolution in the Roman education. The younger +Pliny in his letters furnishes ample material to illustrate to us this +pursuit of _belles-lettres_. In Nero it became idiotic. We should +transgress our prescribed limits did we enter here into particulars. An +analysis would show the perversion of the sthetic into the practical, +the sthetic losing thereby its proper nature. But the Roman could not +avoid this perversion, because, according to his original aim, he could +not move except towards the _utile et honestum_.-- + + 224. (3) But this pursuit of fine art, this aimless parade, must at +last weary the Roman. He sought for himself again an object to which he +could vigorously devote himself. His sovereignty was assured, and +conquest as an object could no more charm him. The national religion had +fallen with the destruction of the national individuality. The soul +looked out over its historical life into an empty void. It sought to +establish a relation between itself and the next world by means of +dmonic forces, and in place of the depreciated nationality and its +religion we find the eclecticism of the mystic society. There were, it +is true, in national religions certain secret signs, rites, words, and +meanings; but now, for the first time in the history of the world, there +appeared mysteries as pedagogical societies, which concerned themselves +only with private things and were indifferent to nationality. Everything +was profaned by the roughness of violence. Man believed no longer in the +old gods, and the superstitious faith in ghosts became only a thing fit +to frighten children with. Thus man took refuge in secrecy, which had +for his satiety a piquant charm. + + 225. The education of the mysteries was twofold, theoretical and +practical. In the theoretical we find a regular gradation of symbols and +symbolical acts through which one seemed gradually to attain to the +revelation of the secret; the practical contained a regular gradation of +ascetic actions alternating with an abandonment to wild orgies. Both +raised one from the rank of the novice to that of the initiated. In the +higher orders they formed an ethical code of laws, and this form +Pedagogics has retained in all such secret culture, _mutatis mutandis_, +down to the Illuminati. + +--In the Roman empire, its Persian element was the worship of Mithras; +its Egyptian, that of Isis; its Grecian, the Pythagorean doctrines. All +these three, however, were much mingled with each other. The Roman +legions, who really no longer had any native country, bore these +artificial religions throughout the whole world. The confusion of +excitement led often to Somnambulism, which was not yet understood, and +to belief in miracles. Apollonius of Tyana, the messiah of Ethnicism, is +the principal figure in this group; and, in comparison with him, +Jamblichus appears only as an enthusiast and Alexander of Abonoteichos +as an impostor.-- + + +III. _Abstract Individual Education._ + + 226. What the despair of the declining nations sought for in these +mysteries was Individuality, which in its singularity is conscious of +the universality of the rational spirit, as its own essence. This +individuality existed more immediately in the Germanic race, which +nevertheless, on account of its nature, formed first in Christianity its +true actualization. It can be here only pointed out that they most +thoroughly, in opposition to nature, to men, and to the gods, felt +themselves to be independent; as Tacitus says, "_Securi adversus +homines, securi adversus Deos_." This individuality, which had only +itself for an end, must necessarily be destroyed, and was saved only by +Christianity, which overcame and enlightened its dmonic and defiant +spirit. We cannot speak here of a system of Education. Respect for +personality, the free acknowledgment of the claims of woman, the loyalty +to the leader chosen by themselves, loyalty to their friends (the idea +of fellowship),--these features should all be well-noted, because from +them arose the feudalism of the middle ages. What Csar and Tacitus tell +us of the education of the Germans expresses only the emancipation of +individuality, which in its immediate crudeness had no other form in +which to manifest itself than wars of conquest. + +--To the Roman there was something dmonic in the German. He perceived +dimly in him his future, his master. When the Romans were to meet the +Cimbri and Teutons in the field, their commander had first to accustom +them for a whole day to the fearful sight of the wild, giant-like +forms.-- + + +SECOND DIVISION. + +THE SYSTEM OF THEOCRATIC EDUCATION. + + 227. The system of National Education founded its first stage on the +substantial basis of the family-spirit; its second stage on the division +of the nation by means of division of labor which it makes permanent in +castes; its third stage presents the free opposition of the laity and +clergy; in its next phase it makes war, immortality, and trade, by +turns, its end; thirdly, it posits beauty, patriotic youth, and the +immediateness of individuality, as the essence of mankind, and at last +dissolves the unity of nationality in the consciousness that all nations +are really one since they are all human beings. In the intermixture of +races in the Roman world arises the conception of the human race, the +_genus humanum_. Education had become eclectic: the Roman legions +levelled the national distinctions. In the wavering of all objective +morality, the necessity of self-education in order to the formation of +character appeared ever more and more clearly; but the conception, which +lay at the foundation, was always, nevertheless, that of Roman, Greek, +or German education. But in the midst of these nations another system +had striven for development, and this did not base itself on the natural +connection of nationality, but made this, for the first time, only a +secondary thing, and made the direct relation of man to God its chief +idea. In this system God himself is the teacher. He manifests to man His +will as law, to which he must unconditionally conform for no other +reason than that He is the Lord, and man His servant, who can have no +other will than His. The obedience of man is therefore, in this system, +abstract until through experience he gradually attains to the knowledge +that the will of God has in it the very essence of his own will. +Descent, Talent, Events, Work, Beauty, Courage,--all these are +indifferent things compared with the subjection of the human to the +divine will. To be well-pleasing to God is almost the same as belief in +Him. Without this identity, what is natural in national descent is of no +value. According to its form of manifestation, Judaism is below the +Greek spirit. It is not beautiful, but rather grotesque. But in its +essence, as the religion of the contradiction between the idea and its +existence, it goes beyond nature, which it perceives to be established +by an absolute, conscious, and reasonable Will; while the Greek +concealed from himself only mythically his dependence on nature, on his +mother-earth. The Jews have been preserved in the midst of all other +culture by the elastic power of the thought of God as One who was free +from the control of nature. The Jews have a patriotism in common with +the Romans. The Maccabees, for example, were not inferior to the Romans +in greatness. + +--Abraham is the genuine Jew because he is the genuinely faithful man. +He does not hesitate to obey the horrible and inhuman command of his +God. Circumcision was made the token of the national unity, but the +nation may assimilate members to itself from other nations through this +rite. The condition always lies in belief in a spiritual relation to +which the relation of nationality is secondary. The Jewish nation makes +proselytes, and these are widely different from the _Socii_ of the +Romans or the _Metoeci_ of the Athenians.-- + + 228. To the man who knows Nature to be the work of a single, +incomparable, rational Creator, she loses independence. He is negatively +freed from her control, and sees in her only an absolute means. As +opposed to the fanciful sensuous intuitions of Ethnicism, this seems to +be a backward step, but for the emancipation of man it is a progress. He +no longer fears Nature but her Lord, and admires Him so much that prose +rises to the dignity of poetry in his telological contemplation. Since +man stands over and beyond nature, education is directed to morality as +such, and spreads itself out in innumerable limitations, by means of +which the distinction of man from nature is expressly asserted as a +difference. The ceremonial law appears often arbitrary, but in its +prescriptions it gives man the satisfaction of placing himself as will +in relation to will. For example, if he is forbidden to eat any +specified part of an animal, the ground of this command is not merely +natural--it is the will of the Deity. Man learns therefore, in his +obedience to such directions, to free himself from his self-will, from +his natural desires. This exact outward conformity to subjectivity is +the beginning of wisdom, the purification of the will from all +individual egotism. + +--The rational substance of the Law is found always in the Decalogue. +Many of our modern much-admired authors exhibit a superficiality +bordering on shallowness when they comment alone on the absurdity of the +miracles, and abstract from the profound depth of the moral struggle, +and from the practical rationality of the ten commandments.-- + + 229. Education in this theocratical system is on one side patriarchal. +The Family is very prominent, because it is considered to be a great +happiness for the individual to belong from his very earliest life to +the company of those who believe in the true God. On its other side it +is hierarchical, as its ceremonial law develops a special office, which +is to see that obedience is paid to its multifarious regulations. And, +because these are often perfectly arbitrary, Education must, above all, +practise the memory in learning them all, so that they may always be +remembered. The Jewish monotheism shares this necessity with the +superstition of ethnicism. + + 230. But the technique proper of the mechanism is not the most +important pedagogical element of the theocracy. We find this in its +historical significance, since its history throughout has a pedagogical +character. For the people of God show us always, in their changing +intercourse with their God, a progress from the external to the +internal, from the lower to the higher, from the past to the future. Its +history, therefore, abounds in situations very interesting in a +pedagogical point of view, and in characters which are eternal models. + + 231. (1) The will of God as the absolute authority is at first to +them, as law, external. But soon God adds to the command to obedience, +on one hand, the inducement of a promise of material prosperity, and on +the other hand the threat of material punishment. The fulfilment of the +law is also encouraged by reflection on the profit which it brings. But, +since these motives are all external, they rise finally into the insight +that the law is to be fulfilled, not on their account, but because it is +the will of the Lord; not alone because it is conducive to our +happiness, but also because it is in itself holy, and written in our +hearts: in other words, man proceeds from the abstract legality, through +the reflection of eudmonism, to the internality of moral sentiment--the +course of all education. + +--This last stand-point is especially represented in the excellent +Gnomic of Jesus Sirach--a book so rich in pedagogical insight, which +paints with master-strokes the relations of husband and wife, parents +and children, master and servants, friend and friend, enemy and enemy, +and the dignity of labor as well as the necessity of its division. This +priceless book forms a side-piece from the theocratic stand-point to the +_Republic_ of Plato and his laws on ethical government.-- + + 232. (2) The progress from the lower to the higher appeared in the +conquering of the natural individuality. Man, as the servant of Jehovah, +must have no will of his own; but selfish naturalness arrayed itself so +much the more vigorously against the abstract "Thou shalt," allowed +itself to descend into an abstraction from the Law, and often reached +the most unbridled extravagance. But since the Law in inexorable might +always remained the same, always persistent, in distinction from the +inequalities of the deed of man, it forced him to come back to it, and +to conform himself to its demands. Thus he learned criticism, thus he +rose from naturalness into spirit. This progress is at the same time a +progress from necessity to freedom, because criticism always gradually +opens a way for man into insight, so that he finds the will of God to be +the truth of his own self-determination. Because God is one and +absolute, there arises the expectation that His Will will become the +basis for the will of all nations and men. The criticism of the +understanding must recognize a contradiction in the fact that the will +of the true God is the law of only one nation; feared by other nations, +moreover, by reason of their very worship of God as a gloomy mystery, +and detested as _odium generis humani_. And thus is developed the +thought that the isolation of the believers will come to an end as soon +as the other nations recognize their faith as the true one, and are +received into it. Thus here, out of the deepest penetration of the soul +into itself, as among the Romans out of the fusion of nations, we see +appear the idea of the human race. + + 233. (3) The progress from the past to the future unfolded the ideal +servant of God who fulfils all the Law, and so blots out the empirical +contradiction that the "Thou shalt" of the Law attains no adequate +actuality. This Prince of Peace, who shall gather all nations under his +banner, can therefore have no other thing predicated of him than +Holiness. He is not beautiful as the Greeks represented their ideal, not +brave and practical as was the venerated _Virtus_ of the Romans; he does +not place an infinite value on his individuality as the German does: but +he is represented as insignificant in appearance, as patient, as humble, +as he who, in order to reconcile the world, takes upon himself the +infirmities and disgrace of all others. The ethnical nations have only a +lost Paradise behind them; the Jews have one also before them. From this +belief in the Messiah who is to come, from the certainty which they have +of conquering with him, from the power of esteeming all things of small +importance in view of such a future, springs the indestructible nature +of the Jews. They ignore the fact that Christianity is the necessary +result of their own history. As the nation that is to be (_des +Seinsollens_), they are merely a historical nation, the nation among +nations, whose education--whenever the Jew has not changed and corrupted +its nature through modern culture--is still always patriarchal, +hierarchal, and mnemonic. + + +THIRD DIVISION. + +THE SYSTEM OF HUMANITARIAN EDUCATION + + 234. The systems of national and theocratic education came to the +same result, though by different ways, and this result is the conception +of a human race in the unity of which the distinctions of different +nations find their Truth. But with them this result is only a +conception, being a thing external to their actuality. They arrive at +the painting of an ideal of the way in which the Messiah shall come. But +these ideals exist only in the mind, and the actual condition of the +people sometimes does not correspond to them at all, and sometimes only +very relatively. The idea of spirit had in these presuppositions the +possibility of its concrete actualization; one individual man must +become conscious of the universality and necessity of the will as being +the very essence of his own freedom, so that all heteronomy should be +cancelled in the autonomy of spirit. Natural individuality appearing as +national determinateness was still acknowledged, but was deprived of its +abstract isolation. The divine authority of the truth of the individual +will is to be recognized, but at the same time freed from its +estrangement towards itself. While Christ was a Jew and obedient to the +divine Law, he knew himself as the universal man who determines himself +to his own destiny; and while only distinguishing God, as subject, from +himself, yet holds fast to the unity of man and God. The system of +humanitarian education began to unfold from this principle, which no +longer accords the highest place to the natural unity of national +individuality, nor to the abstract obedience of the command of God, but +to that freedom of the soul which knows itself to be absolute necessity. +Christ is not a mere ideal of the thought, but is known as a living +member of actual history, whose life, sufferings and death for freedom +form the security as to its absolute justification and truth. The +sthetic, philosophical, and political ideal are all found in the +universal nature of the Christian ideal, on which account no one of them +appears one-sided in the life of Christ. The principle of Human Freedom +excludes neither art, nor science, nor political feeling. + + 235. In its conception of man the humanitarian education includes both +the national divisions and the subjection of all men to the divine law, +but it will no longer endure that one should grow into an isolating +exclusiveness, and another into a despotism which includes in it +somewhat of the accidental. But this principle of humanity and human +nature took root so slowly that its presuppositions were repeated within +itself and were really conquered in this reproduction. These stages of +culture were the Greek, the Roman, and the Protestant churches, and +education was metamorphosed to suit the formation of each of these. + +--For the sake of brevity we would wish to close with these general +definitions; the unfolding of their details is intimately bound up with +the history of politics and of civilization. We shall be contented if we +give correctly the general whole.-- + + 236. Within education we can distinguish three epochs: the monkish, +the chivalric, and that education which is to fit one for civil life. +Each of these endeavored to express all that belonged to humanity as +such; but it was only after the recognition of the moral nature of the +Family, of Labor, of Culture, and of the conscious equal title of all +men to their rights, that this became really possible. + + +I. _The Epoch of Monkish Education._ + + 237. The Greek Church seized the Christian principle still abstractly +as deliverance from the world, and therefore, in the education +proceeding from it, it arrived only at the negative form, positing the +universality of the individual man as the renunciation of self. In the +dogmatism of its teaching, as well as in the ascetic severity of its +practical conduct, it was a reproduction of the theocratic principle. +But when this had assumed the form of national centralization, the Greek +Church dispensed with this, and, as far as regards its form, it returned +again to the quietism of the Orient. + + 238. The monkish education is in general identical in all religions, +in that, through the egotism of its way of living and the stoicism of +its way of thinking, through the separation of its external existence +and the mechanism of a thoughtless subjection to a general rule as well +as to the special command of superiors, it fosters a spiritual and +bodily dulness. The Christian monachism, therefore, as the fulfilment of +monachism in general, is at the same time its absolute dissolution, +because, in its merely abstracting itself from the world instead of +affirmatively conquering it, it contradicts the very principle of +Christianity. + + 239. We must notice as the fundamental error of this whole system, +that it does not in free individuality seek to produce the ideal of +divine-humanity, but to copy in external reproduction its historical +manifestation. Each human being must individually offer up as sacrifice +his own individuality. Each biography has its Bethlehem, its Tabor, and +its Golgotha. + + 240. Monachism looks upon freedom from one's self and from the world +which Christianity demands only as an abstract renunciation of self, +which it seeks to compass, like Buddhism, by the vow of poverty, +chastity, and obedience, which must be taken by each individual for all +time. + +--This rejection of property, of marriage, and of self-will, is at the +same time the negation of work, of the family, and of responsibility for +one's actions. In order to avoid the danger of avarice and covetousness, +of sensuality and of nepotism, of error and of guilt, monachism seizes +the convenient way of abstract severance from all the objective world +without being able fully to carry out this negation. Monkish Pedagogics +must, in consequence, be very particular about an external separation of +their disciples from the world, so as to make the work of abstraction +from the world easier and more decided. It therefore builds cloisters in +the solitude of deserts, in the depth of forests, on the summits of +mountains, and surrounds them with high walls having no apertures; and +then, so as to carry the isolation of the individual to its farthest +possible extreme it constructs, within these cloisters, cells, in +imitation of the ancient hermits--a seclusion the immediate consequence +of which is the most limitless and most paltry curiosity.-- + + 241. Theoretically the monkish Pedagogics seeks, by means of the +greatest possible silence, to place the soul in a state of spiritual +immobility, which at last, through the want of all variety of thought, +goes over into entire apathy, and antipathy towards all intellectual +culture. The principal feature of the practical culture consists in the +misapprehension that one should ignore Nature, instead of morally +freeing himself from her control. As she, again and again asserts +herself, the monkish discipline proceeds to misuse her, and strives +through fasting, through sleeplessness, through voluntary self-inflicted +pain and martyrdom, not only to subdue the wantonness of the flesh, but +to destroy the love of life till it shall become a positive loathing of +existence. In and for itself the object of the monkish vow--property, +the family, and will--is not immoral. The vow is, on this account, very +easy to violate. In order to prevent all temptation to this, monkish +Pedagogics invents a system of supervision, partly open, partly secret, +which deprives one of all freedom of action, all freshness of thinking +and of willing, and all poetry of feeling, by means of the perpetual +shadow of spies and informers. The monks are well versed in all +police-arts, and the regular succession of the hierarchy spurs them on +always to distinguish themselves in them. + + 242. The gloomy breath of this education penetrated all the relations +of the Byzantine State. Even the education of the emperor was infected +by it; and in the strife for freedom waged by the modern Greeks against +the Turks, the _Igumeni_ of the cloisters were the real leaders of the +insurrection. The independence of individuality, as opposed to monkish +abstraction, more or less degenerates into the crude form of soldier and +pirate life. And thus it happened that this principle was not left to +appear merely as an exception, but to be built up positively into +humanity; and this the German world, under the guidance of the Roman +Church, undertook to accomplish. + + +II. _The Epoch of Chivalric Education._ + + 243. The Romish Church negated the abstract substantiality of the +Greeks through the practical aim which she in her sanctity in works +founded, and by means of which she raised up German individuality to the +idealism of chivalry, i.e. a free military service in behalf of +Christendom. + + 244. It is evident that the system of monkish education was taken up +into this epoch as one of its elements, being modified to conform to it: +e.g. the Benedictines were accustomed to labor in agriculture and in the +transcribing of books, and this contradicted the idea of monachism, +since that in and for itself tends to an absolute forgetfulness of the +world and a perfect absence of all activity in the individual. The +begging orders were public preachers, and made popular the idea of love +and unselfish devotion to others. They labored toward self-education, +especially by means of the ideal of the life of Christ; e.g. in Tauler's +classical book on the Imitation of Jesus, and in the work of +Thomas--Kempis which resembles it. Through a fixed contemplative +communion with the conception of the Christ who suffered and died for +Love, they sought to find content in divine rest and self-abandonment. + + 245. German chivalry sprang from Feudalism. The education of those +pledged to military duty had become confined to practice in the use of +arms. The education of the chivalric vassals pursued the same course, +refining it gradually through the influence of court society and through +poetry, which devoted itself either to the relating of graceful tales +which were really works of art, or to the glorification of woman. Girls +were brought up without especial care. The boy until he was seven years +old remained in the hands of women; then he became a lad (a young +gentleman), and learned the manner of offensive and defensive warfare, +on foot and on horseback; between his sixteenth and eighteenth year, +through a formal ceremony (the laying on of the sword), he was duly +authorized to bear arms. But whatever besides this he might wish to +learn was left to his own caprice. + + 246. In contradistinction to the monkish education, Chivalry placed an +infinite value on individuality, and this it expressed in its extreme +sensibility to the feeling of honor. Education, on this account, +endeavored to foster this reflection of the self upon itself by means of +the social isolation in which it placed knighthood. The knight did not +delight himself with common possessions, but he sought for him who had +been wronged, since with him he could find enjoyment as a conqueror. He +did not live in simple marriage, but strove for the piquant pleasure of +making the wife of another the lady of his heart, and this often led to +moral and physical infidelity. And, finally, the knight did not obey +alone the general laws of knightly honor, but he strove, besides, to +discover for himself strange things, which he should undertake with his +sword, in defiance of all criticism, simply because it pleased his +caprice so to do. He _sought adventures_. + + 247. The reaction against the innumerable number of fantastic +extravagancies arising from chivalry was the idea of the spiritual +chivalry which was to unite the cloister and the town, abstract +self-denial and military life, separation from the world and the +sovereignty of the world--an undeniable advance, but an untenable +synthesis which could not prevent the dissolution of chivalry--this +chivalry, which, as the rule of the stronger, induced for a long time +the destruction of all regular culture founded on principles, and +brought a period of absence of all education. In this perversion of +chivalry to a grand vagabondism, and even to robbery, noble souls often +rushed into ridiculous excesses. This decline of chivalry found its +truth in Citizenship, whose education, however, did not, like the +[Greek: polis] and the _civitas_ of the ancients, limit itself to +itself, but, through the presence of the principle of Christianity, +accepted the whole circle of humanity as the aim of its culture. + + +III. _The Epoch of Education fitting one for Civil Life._ + + 248. The idea of the State had gradually worked itself up to a higher +plane with trade and industry, and found in Protestantism its spiritual +confirmation. Protestantism, as the self assurance of the individual +that he was directly related to God without any dependence on the +mediation of any man, rose to the truth in the autonomy of the soul, and +began out of the abstract phantasmagoria of monachism and chivalry to +develope Christianity, as the principle of humanitarian education, into +concrete actuality. The cities were not merely, in comparison with the +clergy and the nobility, the "third estate"; but the citizen who himself +managed his commonwealth, and defended its interests with arms, +developed into the citizen of a state which absorbed the clergy and +nobility, and the state-citizen found his ultimate ideal in pure +Humanity as cognized through reason. + + 249. The phases of this development are (1) Civil education as such, +in which we find chivalric education metamorphosed into the so-called +noble, both however being controlled as to education, within Catholicism +by Jesuitism, within Protestantism by Pietism. (2) Against this tendency +to the church, we find reacting on the one hand the devotion to a study +of antiquity, and on the other the friendly alliance to immediate +actuality, i.e. with Nature. We can name these periods of Pedagogics +those of its ideals of culture. (3) But the truth of all culture must +forever remain moral freedom. After Education had arrived at a knowledge +of the meaning of Idealism and Realism, it must seize as its absolute +aim the moral emancipation of man into Humanity; and it must conform its +culture by this aim, since technical dexterity, friendly adroitness, +proficiency in the arts, and scientific insight, can attain to their +proper rank only through moral purity. + + +_1. Civil Education as such._ + + 250. The one-sidedness of monkish and chivalric education was +cancelled by civil education inasmuch as it destroyed the celibacy of +the monk and the estrangement of the knight from his family, doing this +by means of the inner life of the family; for it substituted, in the +place of the negative emptiness of the duty of holiness of the celibate, +the positive morality of marriage and the family; while, instead of the +abstract poverty and the idleness of the monkish piety and of +knighthood, it asserted that property was the object of labor, i.e. it +asserted the self-governed morality of civil society and of commerce; +and, finally, instead of the servitude of the conscience in +unquestioning obedience to the command of others, and instead of the +freakish self-sufficiency of the caprice of the knights, it demanded +obedience to the laws of the commonwealth as representing his own +self-conscious, actualized, practical Reason, in which laws the +individual can recognize and acknowledge himself. + +--As this civil education left free the sensuous enjoyment, freedom in +this was without bounds for a time, until, after men became accustomed +to labor and to their freedom of action, the possibility of enjoyment +created from within outward a moderation which sumptuary laws and +prohibitions of gluttony, drunkenness, &c., could never create from the +external side. What the monk inconsistently enjoyed with a bad +conscience, the citizen and the clergyman could take possession of as a +gift of God. After the first millennium of Christianity, when the earth +had not, according to the current prophecies, been destroyed, and after +the great plague in the fourteenth century, there was felt an immense +pleasure in living, which manifested itself externally in the fifteenth +century in delicate wines, dainty food, great eating of meat, drinking +of beer, and, in the domain of dress, in peaked shoes, plumes, golden +chains, bells, &c. There was much venison, but, as yet, no potatoes, tea +and coffee, &c. The feeling of men was quarrelsome. For a more exact +painting of the Education of this time, very valuable authors are +Sebastian Brant, Th. Murner, Ulrich von Hutten, Fischart, and Hans +Sachs. Gervinus is almost the only one who has understood how to make +this material useful in its relation to spirit.-- + + 251. In contrast with the heaven-seeking of the monks and the +sentimental love-making of the knight, civil education established, as +its principle, Usefulness, which traced out in things their conformity +to a proposed end in order to gain as great a mastery over them as +possible. The understanding was trained with all exactness that it might +clearly seize all the circumstances. But since family-life did not allow +the egotism of the individual ever to become as great as was the case +with the monk and the knight, and since the cheer of a sensuous +enjoyment in cellar and kitchen, in clothing and furniture, in common +games and in picturesque parades, penetrated the whole being with soft +pleasure, there was developed with all propriety and sobriety a +house-morality, and, with all the prose of labor, a warm and kindly +disposition, which left room for innocent merriment and roguery, and +found, in conformity to religious services, its serious transfiguration. +Beautiful burgher-state, thou wast weakened by the thirty years' war, +and hast been only accidentally preserved sporadically in Old England +and in some places in Germany, only to be at last swept away by the +flood of modern world-pain, political sophistry, and anxiety for the +future! + + 252. The citizen paid special attention to public education, +heretofore wholly dependent upon the church and the cloister; he +organized city schools, whose teachers, it is true, for a long time +compassed only accidental culture, and were often employed only for +tumultuous and short terms. The society of the brotherhood of the +Hieronymites introduced a better system of instruction before the close +of the fourteenth century, but education had often to be obtained from +the so-called travelling scholars (_vagantes_, _bacchantes_, +_scholastici_, _goliardi_). The teachers of the so-called _schol +exteriores_, in distinction from the schools of the cathedral and +cloister, were called now _locati_, then _stampuales_--in German, +_Kinder-Meister_. The institution of German schools soon followed the +Latin city schools. In order to remove the anarchy in school matters, +the citizens aided the rise of universities by donations and +well-invested funds, and sustained the street-singing of the city +scholars (_currende_), an institution which was well-meant, but which +often failed of its end because on the one hand it was often misused as +a mere means of subsistence, and on the other hand the sense of honor of +those to whom it was devoted not unfrequently became, through their +manner of living, lowered to humiliation. The defect of the monkish +method of instruction became ever more apparent, e.g. the silly tricks +of their mnemotechnique, the utter lack of anything which deserved the +name of any practical knowledge, &c. The necessity of instruction in the +use of arms led to democratic forms. Printing favored the same. Men +began to concern themselves about good text-books. Melanchthon was the +hero of the Protestant world, and as a pattern was beyond his time. His +Dialectics, Rhetoric, Physics, and Ethics, were reprinted innumerable +times, commented upon, and imitated. After him Amos Comenius, in the +seventeenth century, had the greatest influence through his _Didactica +Magna_ and his _Janua Reserta_. In a narrower sphere, treating of the +foundation of Gymnasial Philology, the most noticeable is Sturm of +Strasburg. The universities in Catholic countries limited themselves to +the Scholastic Philosophy and Theology, together with which we find +slowly struggling up the Roman Law and the system of Medicine from +Bologna and Salerno. But Protestantism first raised the university to +any real universality. Tbingen, Knigsberg, Wittenberg, Jena, Leipzic, +Halle, Gttingen, &c., were the first schools for the study of all +sciences, and for their free and productive pursuit. + + 253. The Commons, which at first appeared with the clergy and the +nobility as the Third Estate, formed an alliance with monarchy, and both +together produced a transformation of the chivalric education. +Absolutism reduced the knights to mere nobles, to whom it truly conceded +the prerogative of appointment as spiritual prelates as well as officers +and counsellors of state, but only on the condition of the most complete +submission; and then, to satisfy them, it invented the artificial +drinking festivals, of a splendid life at court, and a +temptingly-impressive sovereignty of beauty. In this condition, the +education of the nobles was essentially changed in so far as to cease to +be alone military. To the art of war, which moreover was made so very +much milder by the invention of fire-arms, must be now added an activity +of the mind which could no longer dispense with some knowledge of +History, Heraldry, Genealogy, Literature, and Mythology. Since the +French nation soon enough gave tone to the style of conversation, and +after the time of Louis XIV. controlled the politics of the continent, +the French language, as conventional and diplomatic, became a constant +element in the education of the nobility in all the other countries of +Europe. + +--Practically the education of the noble endeavored to make the +individual quite independent, so that he should, by means of the +important quality of an advantageous personal appearance and the +prudence of his agreeable behavior, make himself into a ruler of all +other men, capable of enjoying his own position, i.e. he should copy in +miniature the manners of an absolute sovereign. To this was added an +empirical knowledge of men by means of ethical maxims, so that they +might discover the weak side of every man, and so be able to outwit him. +_Mundus vult decipi, ergo decipiatur._ According to this, every man had +his price. They did not believe in the Nemesis of a divine destiny; on +the contrary, disbelief in the higher justice was taught. One must be so +elastic as to suit himself to all situations, and, as a caricature of +the ancient ataraxy, he must acquire as a second nature a manner +perfectly indifferent to all changes, the impassibility of an +aristocratic repose, the amphibious _sang-froid_ of the "gentleman." The +man in the world as the man of the world sought his ideal in endless +dissimulation, and in this, as the flowering of his culture, he took the +highest interest. Intrigue, in love as well as in politics, was the soul +of the nobleman's existence.-- + +--They endeavored to complete the refinement of manners by sending the +young man away with a travelling tutor. This was very good, but +degenerated at last into the mechanism of the foolish travelling of the +tourist. The noble was made a foreigner, a stranger to his own country, +by means of his abode at Paris or Venice, while the citizen gradually +outstripped him in genuine culture.-- + + 254. The education of the citizen as well as that of the noble was +taken possession of, in Catholic countries by the Jesuits, in Protestant +countries by the Pietists: by the first, with a military strictness; by +the second, in a social and effeminate form. Both, however, agreed in +destroying individuality, inasmuch as the one degraded man into a +will-less machine for executing the commands of others, and the other +deadened him in cultivating the feeling of his sinful worthlessness. + + +(_a_) _Jesuitic Education._ + + 255. Jesuitism combined the maximum of worldly freedom with an +appearance of the greatest piety. Proceeding from this stand-point, it +devoted itself in education to elegance and showy knowledge, to +diplomacy and what was suitable and convenient in morals. To bring the +future more into its power, it adapted itself not only to youth in +general, but especially to the youth of the nobler classes. To please +these, the Jesuits laid great stress upon a fine deportment. In their +colleges dancing and fencing were well-taught. They knew how well they +should by this course content the noble, who had by preference usurped +the name of Education for this technical way of giving formal expression +to personality. + +--In instruction they developed so exact a mechanism that they gained +the reputation of having model school regulations, and even Protestants +sent their children to them. From the close of the sixteenth century to +the present time they have based their teaching upon the _ratio et +institutio Studiorum Societatis Jesu_ of Claudius Aquaviva, and, +following that, they distinguish two courses of teaching, a higher and a +lower. The lower included nothing but an external knowledge of the Latin +language, and some fortuitous knowledge of History, of Antiquities, and +of Mythology. The memory was cultivated as a means of keeping down free +activity of thought and clearness of judgment. The higher course +comprehended Dialectics, Rhetoric, Physics, and Morals. Dialectics +appeared in the form of Sophistry. In Rhetoric, they favored the +polemical-emphatic style of the African fathers of the Church and their +pompous phraseology; in Physics, they stopped with Aristotle, and +especially advised the reading of the books _De Generatione et +Corruptione_, and _De Coelo_, on which they commented after their +fashion; finally, in Morals casuistic skepticism was their central +point. They made much of Rhetoric on account of their sermons, giving to +it much attention, and introduced especially Declamation. Contriving +showy public examinations under the guise of Latin School Comedies, they +thus amused the public, disposed them to approval, and at the same time +quite innocently practised the pupil in dissimulation.-- + +--Diplomacy in behavior was made necessary to the Jesuits as well by +their strict military discipline as by their system of reciprocal +mistrust, espionage, and informing. Abstract obedience was a reason for +any act of the pupils, and they were freed from all responsibility as to +its moral justification. This empirical exact following out of all +commands, and refraining from any criticism as to principles, created a +moral indifference, and, from the necessity of having consideration for +the peculiarities and caprices of the superior on whom all others were +dependent, arose eye-service, and the coldness of isolation sprang from +the necessity which each felt of being on his guard against every other +as against a tale-bearer. The most deliberate hypocrisy and pleasure in +intrigue merely for the sake of intrigue--this most refined poison of +moral corruption--were the result. Jesuitism had not only an interest in +the material profit, which, when it had corrupted souls, fell to its +share, but it also had an interest in the process of corruption. With +absolute indifference as to the idea of morality, and absolute +indifference as to the moral quality of the means used to attain its +end, it rejoiced in the superiority of secrecy, of the accomplished and +calculating understanding, and in deceiving the credulous by means of +its graceful, seemingly-perfect, moral language.-- + +--It is not necessary to speak here of the morality of the Order. It is +sufficiently recognized as the contradiction, that the idea of morality +insists upon the eternal necessity of every deed, but that in the +realizing of the action all determinations should be made relative and +should vary with the circumstances. As to discipline, they were always +guided by their fundamental principle, that body and soul, as in and for +themselves one, could vicariously suffer for each other. Thus penitence +and contrition were transformed into a perfect materialism of outward +actions, and hence arose the punishments of the Order, in which fasting, +scourging, imprisonment, mortification, and death, were formed into a +mechanical artificial system.-- + + +(_b_) _Pietistic Education._ + + 256. Jesuitism would make machines of man, Pietism would dissolve +him in the feeling of his sinfulness: either would destroy his +individuality. Pietism proceeded from the principle of Protestantism, +as, in the place of the Catholic Pelagianism with its sanctification by +works, it offered justication by faith alone. In its tendency to +internality was its just claim. It would have even the letters of the +Bible translated into the vivacity of sentiment. But in its execution it +fell into the error of one-sidedness in that it placed, instead of the +actuality of the spirit and its freedom, the confusion of a limited +personality, placing in its stead the personality of Christ in an +external manner, and thus brought back into the very midst of +Protestantism the principle of monachism--an abstract renunciation of +the world. Since Protestantism has destroyed the idea of the cloister, +it could produce estrangement from the world only by exciting public +opinion against such elements of society and culture which it +stigmatized as _worldly_ for its members, e.g. card-playing, dancing, +the theatre, &c. Thus it became negatively dependent upon works; for +since its followers remained in reciprocal action with the world, so +that the temptation to backsliding was a permanent one, it must watch +over them, exercise an indispensable moral-police control over them, and +thus, by the suspicion of each other which was involved, take up into +itself the Jesuitical practice, although in a very mild and affectionate +way. Instead of the forbidden secrecy of the cloister, it organized a +separate company, which we, in its regularly constituted assembly, call +a conventicle. Instead of the cowl, it put on its youth a dress like +that of the world, but scant and ashen-colored; it substituted for the +tonsure closely-cut hair and shaven beard, and it often went beyond the +obedience of the monks in its expression of pining humility and prudish +composure. Education within such a circle could not well recognize +nature and history as manifestations of God, but it must consider them +to be limitations to their union with God, from which death can first +then completely release them. The soul which knew that its home could be +found only in the future world, must feel itself to be a stranger upon +the earth, and from such an opinion there must arise an indifference and +even a contempt for science and art, as well as an aversion for a life +of active labor, though an unwilling and forced tribute might be paid to +it. Philosophy especially was to be shunned as dangerous. Bible +lectures, the catechism and the hymn-book, were the one thing needful to +the "poor in spirit." Religious poetry and music were, of all the arts, +the only ones deserving of any cultivation. The education of Pietism +endeavored, by means of a carefully arranged series of representations, +to create in its disciples the feeling of their absolute nothingness, +vileness, godlessness, and abandonment by God, in order to displace the +torment of despair as to themselves and the world by a warm, dramatic, +and living relation to Christ--a relation in which all the Eroticism of +the mystical passion of the begging-friars was renewed in a somewhat +milder form and with a strong tendency to a sentimental sweetishness. + + +_2. The Ideal of Culture._ + + 257. Civil Education arose from the recognition of marriage and the +family, of labor and enjoyment, of the equality of all before the Law, +and of the duty of self-determination. Jesuitism in the Catholic world +and Pietism in the Protestant were the reaction against this +recognition--a return into the abstract asceticism of the middle ages, +not however in its purity, but mixed with some regard for worldly +possessions. In opposition to this reaction the commonwealth produced +another, in which it undertook to deliver individuality by means of a +reversed alienation. On the one hand, it absorbed itself in the +conception of the Greek-Roman world. In the practical interests of the +present, it externalized man in a past which held to the present no +immediate relation, or it externalized him in the affairs which were to +serve him as means of his comfort and enjoyment; it created an abstract +idealism--a reproduction of the old view of the world--or an abstract +Realism in a high appreciation of things which should be considered of +value only as a means. In one direction, Individuality proceeded towards +a dead nationality; in the other, towards an unlimited +world-commonwealth. In one case, the ideal was the sthetic +republicanism of the Greeks; in the other, the utilitarian +cosmopolitanism of the Romans. But, in considering the given +circumstances, both united in the feeling of humanity, with its +reconciliatory and pitying gentleness toward the beggar or the criminal. + + +(_a_) _The Humanitarian Ideal._ + + 258. The Oriental-theocratic education is immanent in Christian +education through the Bible. Through the mediation of the Greek and +Roman churches the views of the ancient world were subsumed but not +entirely subdued. To accomplish this was the problem of humanitarian +education. It aimed to teach the Latin and Greek languages, expecting +thus to secure the action of a purely humane disposition. The Greeks and +Romans being sharply marked nationalities, how could one cherish such +expectations? It was possible only relatively in contradiction, partly +to a provincial population from whom all genuine political sense had +departed, partly to a church limited by a confessional, to which the +idea of humanity as such had become almost lost in dogmatic +fault-findings. The spirit was refreshed in the first by the +contemplation of the pure patriotism of the ancients, and in the second +by the discovery of Reason among the heathen. In contrast to +formlessness distracted by the want of all ideal of culture of +provincialism and dogmatic confusions, we find the power of +representation of ancient art. The so-called uselessness of learning +dead languages imparted to the mind, it knew not how, an ideal drift. +The very fact that it could not find immediate profit in its knowledge +gave it the consciousness of a higher value than material profit. The +ideal of the Humanities was the truth to Nature which was found in the +thought-painters of the ancient world. The study of language merely with +regard to its form, must lead one involuntarily to the actual seizing of +its content. The Latin schools were fashioned into _Gymnasia_, and the +universities contained not merely professors of Eloquence, but also +teachers of Philology. + + +(_b_) _The Philanthropic Ideal._ + + 259. The humanitarian tendency reached its extreme in the abstract +forgetting of the present, and the omitting to notice its just claim. +Man discovered at last that he was not at home with himself in Rome and +Athens. He spoke and wrote Latin, if not like Cicero, at least like +Muretius, but he often found himself awkward in expressing his meaning +in his mother-tongue. He was often very learned, but he lacked judgment. +He was filled with enthusiasm for the republicanism of Greece and Rome, +and yet at the same time was himself exceedingly servile to his +excellent and august lords. Against this gradual deadening of active +individuality, the result of a perverted study of the classics, we find +now reacting the education of enlightenment, which we generally call the +philanthropic. It sought to make men friendly to the immediate course of +the world. It placed over against the learning of the ancient languages +for their own sake, the acquisition of the more needful branches of +Mathematics, Physics, Geography, History, and the modern languages, +calling these the real studies. Nevertheless it often retained the +instruction in the Latin language because the Romance languages have +sprung from it, and because, through its long domination, the universal +terminology of Science, Art, and Law, is rooted in it. Philanthropy +desired to develope the social side of its disciple through an abstract +of practical knowledge and personal accomplishments, and to lead him +again, in opposition to the hermit-like sedentary life of the +book-pedant, out into the fields and the woods. It desired to imitate +life even in its method, and to instruct pleasantly in the way of play +or by dialogue. It would add to the simple letters and names the +contemplation of the object itself, or at least of its representation by +pictures; and in this direction, in the conversation-literature which it +prepared for children, it sometimes fell into childishness. It performed +a great service when it gave to the body its due, and introduced simple, +natural dress, bathing, gymnastics, pedestrian excursions, and a +hardening against the influences of wind and weather. As this +Pedagogics, so friendly to children, deemed that it could not soon +enough begin to honor them as citizens of the world, it was guilty in +general of the error of presupposing as already finished in its children +much that it itself should have gradually developed; and as it wished to +educate the European as such, or rather man as such, it came into an +indifference concerning the concrete distinctions of nationality and +religion. It coincided with the philologists in placing, in a concealed +way, Socrates above Christ, because he had worked no miracles, and +taught only morality. In such a dead cosmopolitanism, individuality +disappeared in the indeterminateness of a general humanity, and saw +itself forced to agree with the humanistic education in proclaiming the +truth of Nature as the pedagogical ideal, with the distinction, that +while Humanism believed this ideal realized in the Greeks and Romans, +Philanthropism found itself compelled to presuppose an abstract notion, +and often manifested a not unjustifiable pleasure in recognizing in the +Indians of North America, or of Otaheite, the genuine man of nature. +Philosophy first raised these conceptions to the idea of the State, +which fashioned the cognition of Reason and of the reform which follows +from its idea, into an organic element in itself. + +--The course which the developing of the philanthropic ideal has taken +is as follows: (1) Rousseau in his writings, _Emile_ and the _Nouvelle +Heloise_, first preached the evangel of Natural Education, the +abstraction from History, the negation of existing culture, and the +return to the simplicity and innocence of nature. Although he often +himself testified in his experience his own proneness to evil in a very +discouraging way, he fixed as an almost unlimited axiom in French and +German Pedagogics his principal maxim, that man is by nature good. (2) +The reformatory ideas of Rousseau met with only a very infrequent and +sporadic introduction among the Romanic nations, because among them +education was too dependent on the church, and retained its +cloister-like seclusion in seminaries, colleges, &c. In Germany, on the +contrary, it was actualized, and the _Philanthropia_, established by +Basedow in Dessau, Brunswick, and Schnepfenthal, made experiments, which +nevertheless very soon departed somewhat from the ultraism of Basedow +and had very excellent results. (3) Humanity existed _in concreto_ only +in the form of nations. The French nation, in their revolution, tried +the experiment of abstracting from their history, of levelling all +distinctions of culture, of enthroning a despotism of Reason, and of +organizing itself as humanity, pure and simple. The event showed the +impossibility of such a beginning. The national energy, the historical +impulse, the love of art and science, came forth from the midst of the +revolutionary abstraction, which was opposed to them, only the more +vigorously. The _grande nation_, their _grande arme_, and +_gloire_--that is to say, for France--absorbed all the humanitarian +phases. In Germany the philanthropic circle of education was limited to +the higher ranks. There was no exclusiveness in the _Philanthropia_, for +there nobles and citizens, Catholics and Protestants, Russians and +Swiss, were mingled; but these were always the children of wealthy +families, and to these the plan of education was adapted. Then appeared +Pestalozzi and directed education also to the lower classes of +society--those which are called, not without something approaching to a +derogatory meaning, _the people_. From this time dates popular +education, the effort for the intellectual and moral elevation of the +hitherto neglected atomistic human being of the non-property-holding +multitude. There shall in future be no dirty, hungry, ignorant, awkward, +thankless, and will-less mass, devoted alone to an animal existence. We +can never rid ourselves of the lower classes by having the wealthy give +something, or even their all, to the poor, so as to have no property +themselves; but we can rid ourselves of it in the sense that the +possibility of culture and independent self-support shall be open to +every one, because he is a human being and a citizen of the +commonwealth. Ignorance and rudeness and the vice which springs from +them, and the malevolent frame of mind against the human race, which are +bound up with crime--these shall disappear. Education shall train man to +self-conscious obedience to law, as well as to kindly feeling towards +the erring, and to an effort not merely for their removal but for their +improvement. But the more Pestalozzi endeavored to realize his ideal of +human dignity, the more he comprehended that the isolated power of a +private man could not attain it, but that the nation itself must make +their own education their first business. Fichte by his lectures first +made the German nation fully accept these thoughts, and Prussia was the +first state which, by her public schools and her conscious preparation +for defence, broke the path for National Education; while among the +Romanic nations, in spite of their more elaborate political formalism, +it still depends partly upon the church and partly upon the accident of +private enterprise. Pestalozzi also laid a foundation for a national +pedagogical literature by his story of _Leonard and Gertrude_. This book +appeared at first in 1784, i.e. in the same year in which Schiller's +_Robbers_ and Kant's _Critique of Pure Reason_ announced a new phase in +the Drama and in Philosophy.-- + +--The incarnation of God, which was, up to the time of the Reformation, +an esoteric mystery of the Church, has since then become continually +more and more an exoteric problem of the State.-- + + +_3. Free Education._ + + 260. The ideal of culture of the humanitarian and the philanthropic +education was taken up into the conception of an education which +recognizes the Family, social caste, the Nation, and Religion, as +positive elements of the practical spirit, but which will know each of +these as determined from within through the idea of humanity, and laid +open for reciprocal dialectic with the rest. Physical development shall +become the subject of a national system of gymnastics fashioned for use, +and including in itself the knowledge of the use of arms. Instruction +shall, in respect to the general encyclopdic culture, be the same for +all, and parallel to this shall run a system of special schools to +prepare for the special avocations of life. The method of instruction +shall be the simple representation of the special idea of the subject, +and no longer the formal breadth of an acquaintance with many subjects +which may find outside the school its opportunity, but within it has no +meaning except as the history of a science or an art. Moral culture must +be combined with family affection and the knowledge of the laws of the +commonwealth, so that the dissension between individual morality and +objective legality may ever more and more disappear. Education shall, +without estranging the individual from the internality of the family, +accustom him more and more to public life, because criticism of this is +the only thing which can prevent the cynicism of private life, the +half-ness of knowledge and will, and the spirit of caste, which has so +extensively prevailed. The individual shall be educated into a +self-consciousness of the essential equality and freedom of all men, so +that he shall recognize and acknowledge himself in each one and in all. +But this essential and solid unity of all men shall not evaporate into +the insipidity of a humanity without distinctions, but instead it shall +realize the form of a determinate individuality and nationality, and +shall enlighten the idiosyncrasy of its nation into a broad humanity. +The unrestricted striving after Beauty, Truth, and Freedom, actually +through its own strength and immediately, not merely mediately through +ecclesiastical consecration, will become Religion. + +The Education of the State must rise to a preparation for the +unfettered activity of self-conscious Humanity. + + + THE SCIENCE OF EDUCATION. + + A PARAPHRASE OF DR. KARL ROSENKRANZ'S + PAEDAGOGIK ALS SYSTEM. + + BY ANNA C. BRACKETT. + + ST. LOUIS: + G. I. JONES AND COMPANY. + 1878. + + + Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1878, by + WILLIAM T. HARRIS, + In the office of the Librarian of Congress, at Washington. + + +PREFACE. + + +The translation of "Pedagogics as a System" was prepared and published +five years ago. The wide demand for it that has made itself known since +that time, especially in normal schools, has proved the value of such +works in the domain of education. At the same time, the difficulty the +students have always found in its use--a difficulty inseparable from any +translation of a German metaphysical treatise--has led us to the +conviction that a paraphrase into a more easily understood form is a +necessity, if the thought of Rosenkranz is to be appropriated by the +very class who are most in need of it. As was remarked in the preface to +the translation, we have in English no other work of similar size which +contains so much that is valuable to those engaged in the work of +education. It is no compendium of rules or formulas, but rather a +systematic, logical treatment of the subject, in which the attention is, +as it were, concentrated upon the whole problem of education, while that +problem is allowed to work itself out before us. To paraphrase the +text--or, rather, to translate it from the metaphysical language in +which it at present appears into a language more easy of +comprehension--without losing the real significance of the statements, +is the task which is here undertaken. Free illustrations and suggestions +have been interwoven to give point and application to the thoughts and +principles stated. This translation, or paraphrase, follows the +paragraphs of the original and of the first translation. The analysis of +the whole work, as it appeared in the original translation, is appended +at the end of the "Introduction," as a guide to the student. + + + + +THE SCIENCE OF EDUCATION. + + +INTRODUCTION. + + 1. The science of Pedagogics may be called a secondary science, +inasmuch as it derives its principles from others. In this respect it +differs from Mathematics, which is independent. As it concerns the +development of the human intelligence, it must wait upon Psychology for +an understanding of that upon which it is to operate, and, as its means +are to be sciences and arts, it must wait upon them for a knowledge of +its materials. The science of Medicine, in like manner, is dependent on +the sciences of Biology, Chemistry, Physics, etc. Moreover, as Medicine +may have to deal with a healthy or unhealthy body, and may have it for +its province to preserve or restore health, to assist a natural process +(as in the case of a broken bone), or to destroy an unnatural one (as in +the case of the removal of a tumor), the same variety of work is imposed +upon Education.[1] + + 2. Since the rules of Pedagogics must be extremely flexible, so that +they may be adapted to the great variety of minds, and since an infinite +variety of circumstances may arise in their application, we find, as we +should expect, in all educational literature room for widely differing +opinions and the wildest theories; these numerous theories, each of +which may have a strong influence for a season, only to be overthrown +and replaced by others.[2] It must be acknowledged that educational +literature, as such, is not of a high order. It has its cant like +religious literature. Many of its faults, however, are the result of +honest effort, on the part of teachers, to remedy existing defects, and +the authors are, therefore, not harshly to be blamed. It is also to be +remembered that the habit of giving reproof and advice is one fastened +in them by the daily necessity of their professional work.[3] + + 3. As the position of the teacher has ceased to be undervalued, there +has been an additional impetus given to self-glorification on his part, +and this also--in connection with the fact that schools are no longer +isolated as of old, but subject to constant comparison and +competition--leads to much careless theorizing among its teachers, +especially in the literary field. + + 4. Pedagogics, because it deals with the human spirit, belongs, in a +general classification of the sciences, to the philosophy of spirit, and +in the philosophy of spirit it must be classified under the practical, +and not the merely theoretical, division. For its problem is not merely +to comprehend the nature of that with which it has to deal, the human +spirit--its problem is not merely to influence one mind (that of the +pupil) by another (that of the teacher)--but to influence it in such a +way as to produce the mental freedom of the pupil. The problem is, +therefore, not so much to obtain performed works as to excite mental +activity. A creative process is required. The pupil is to be forced to +go in certain beaten tracks, and yet he is to be so forced to go in +these that he shall go of his own freewill. All teaching which does not +leave the mind of the pupil free is unworthy of the name. It is true +that the teacher must understand the nature of mind, as he is to deal +with mind, but when he has done this he has still his main principle of +action unsolved; for the question is, knowing the nature of the mind, +How shall he incite it to action, already predetermined in his own mind, +without depriving the mind of the pupil of its own free action? How +shall he restrain and guide, and yet not enslave? + +If, in classifying all sciences, as suggested at the beginning of this +section, we should subdivide the practical division of the Philosophy of +Spirit, which might be called Ethics, one could find a place for +Pedagogics under some one of the grades of Ethics. The education which +the child receives through the influence of family life lies at the +basis of all other teaching, and what the child learns of life, its +duties, and possibilities, in its own home, forms the foundation for all +after-work. On the life of the family, then, as a presupposition, all +systems of Education must be built. In other words, the school must not +attempt to initiate the child into the knowledge of the world--it must +not assume the care of its first training; that it must leave to the +family.[4] But the science of Pedagogics does not, as a science, +properly concern itself with the family education, or with that point of +the child's life which is dominated by the family influence. That is +education, in a certain sense, without doubt, but it does not properly +belong to a science of Pedagogics. But, on the other hand, it must be +remembered that this science, as here expounded, presupposes a previous +family life in the human being with whom it has to deal. + + 5. Education as a science will present the necessary and universal +principles on which it is based; Education as an art will consist in the +practical realization of these in the teacher's work in special places, +under special circumstances, and with special pupils. In the skillful +application of the principles of the science to the actual demands of +the art lies the opportunity for the educator to prove himself a +creative artist; and it is in the difficulty involved in this practical +work that the interest and charm of the educator's work consists. + +The teacher must thus adapt himself to the pupil. But, in doing so, he +must have a care that he do not carry this adaptation to such a degree +as to imply that the pupil is not to change; and he must see to it, +also, that the pupil shall always be worked upon by the matter which he +is considering, and not too much by the personal influence of the +teacher through whom he receives it.[5] + + 6. The utmost care is necessary lest experiments which have proved +successful in certain cases should be generalized into rules, and a +formal, dead creed, so to speak, should be adopted. All professional +experiences are valuable as material on which to base new conclusions +and to make new plans, but only for that use. Unless the day's work is, +every day, a new creation, a fatal error has been made. + + 7. Pedagogics as a science must consider Education-- + + (1) In its general idea; + + (2) In its different phases; + + (3) In the special systems arising from this general idea, + acting under special circumstances at special times.[6] + + 8. With regard to the First Part, we remark that by Education, in its +general idea, we do not mean any mere history of Pedagogics, nor can any +history of Pedagogics be substituted for a systematic exposition of the +underlying idea. + + 9. The second division considers Education under three heads--as +physical, intellectual, and moral--and forms, generally, the principal +part of all pedagogical treatises. + +In this part lies the greatest difficulty as to exact limitation. The +ideas on these divisions are often undefined and apt to be confounded, +and the detail of which they are capable is almost unlimited, for we +might, under this head, speak of all kinds of special schools, such as +those for war, art, mining, etc. + + 10. In the Third Part we consider the different realizations of the +one general idea of Pedagogics as it has developed itself under +different circumstances and in different ages of the world. + +The general idea is forced into different phases by the varying +physical, intellectual, and moral conditions of men. The result is the +different systems, as shown in the analysis. The general idea is one. +The view of the end to be obtained determines in each case the +actualization of this idea. Hence the different systems of Education are +each determined by the stand-point from which the general ideal is +viewed. Proceeding in this manner, it might be possible to construct a +history of Pedagogics, _ priori_, without reference to actual history, +since all the possible systems might be inferred from the possible +definite number of points of view. + +Each lower stand-point will lead to a higher, but it will not be lost in +it. Thus, where Education, for the sake of the nation,[7] merges into +the Education based on Christianity, the form is not thereby destroyed, +but, rather, in the transition first attains its full realization. The +systems of Education which were based on the idea of the nation had, in +the fullness of time, outgrown their own limits, and needed a new form +in order to contain their own true idea. The idea of the nation, as the +highest principle, gives way for that of Christianity. A new life came +to the old idea in what at first seemed to be its destruction. The idea +of the nation was born again, and not destroyed, in Christianity. + + 11. The final system, so far, is that of the present time, which thus +is itself the fruit of all the past systems, as well as the seed of all +systems that are to be. The science of Pedagogics, in the consideration +of the system of the present, thus again finds embodied the general idea +of education, and thus returns upon itself to the point from whence it +set out. In the First and Second Parts there is already given the idea +which dominates the system found thus necessarily existing in the +present. + + + {FIRST PART. {Its Nature. + {In its General {Its Form. + { Idea. {Its Limits. + { + {SECOND PART. {Physical. + {In its Special {Intellectual. + { Elements. {Moral. + { + { { { {Family China. + { { {Passive. {Caste India. + { { { {Monkish Thibet. + { { { + { { { {Military Persia. + { {National. {Active {Priestly Egypt. + { { { {Industrial Phoenicia. + { { { + { { { {sthetic Greece. + E { { {Individual. {Practical Rome. + D { { { {Abstract {Northern. + U { { { { Individual{ Barbarians. + C { { + A { {Theocratic. . . . . . . . . . . . Jews. + T { { + I { {Monkish. + O {THIRD PART. { + N {In its { + { Particular { + { Systems. { + { {Chivalric. + { { + { {Humanitarian. {For Special {Jesuitic. + { { { Callings. {Pietistic. + { { + { { {The + { { { {Humanistic. + { {For Civil {To achieve { + { { Life. { an Ideal of {The + { { { Culture. {Philanthropic + { { { {Movement. + { { { + { { {For Free Citizenship. + + + + +FIRST PART. + +The General Idea of Education. + + + 12. A full treatment of Pedagogics must distinguish-- + + (1) The nature of Education; + + (2) The form of Education; + + (3) The limits of Education. + + +_I.--The Nature of Education._ + + 13. The nature of Education is determined by the nature of mind, the +distinguishing mark of which is that it can be developed only from +within, and by its own activity. Mind is essentially free--_i.e._, it +has the capacity for freedom--but it cannot be said to possess freedom +till it has obtained it by its own voluntary effort. Till then it cannot +be truly said to be free. Education consists in enabling a human being +to take possession of, and to develop himself by, his own efforts, and +the work of the educator cannot be said to be done in any sense where +this is not accomplished. In general, we may say that the work of +education consists in leading to a full development of all the inherent +powers of the mind, and that its work is done when, in this way, the +mind has attained perfect freedom, or the state in which alone it can be +said to be truly itself.[8] + +The isolated human being can never become truly man. If such human +beings (like the wild girl of the forest of Ardennes) have been found, +they have only proved to us that reciprocal action with our fellow +beings is necessary for the development of our powers. Caspar Hauser, in +his subterranean prison, will serve as an example of what man would be +without men. One might say that this fact is typified by the first cry +of the newly-born child. It is as if the first expression of its +seemingly independent life were a cry for help from others. On the side +of nature the human being is at first quite helpless. + + 14. Man is, therefore, the only proper object of education. It is true +that we speak of the education of plants and of animals, but we +instinctively apply other terms when we do so, for we say "raising" +plants, and "training" animals. When we "train" or "break" an animal, it +is true that we do, by pain or pleasure, lead him into an exercise of a +new activity. But the difference between this and Education consists in +the fact that, though he possessed capacity, yet by no amount of +association with his kind would he ever have acquired this new +development. It is as if we impress upon his plastic nature the imprint +of our loftier nature, which imprint he takes mechanically, and does not +himself recognize it as his own internal nature. We train him for our +recognition, not for his own. But, on the contrary, when we educate a +human being, we only excite him to create for himself, and out of +himself, that for which he would most earnestly strive had he any +appreciation of it beforehand, and in proportion as he does appreciate +it he recognizes it joyfully as a part of himself, as his own +inheritance, which he appropriates with a knowledge that it is his, or, +rather, is a part of his own nature. He who speaks of "raising" human +beings uses language which belongs only to the slave-dealer, to whom +human beings are only cattle for labor, and whose property increases in +value with the number. + +Are there no school-rooms where Education has ceased to have any +meaning, and where physical pain is made to produce its only possible +result--a mechanical, external repetition? The school-rooms where the +creative word--the only thing which can influence the mind--has ceased +to be used as the means are only plantations, where human beings are +degraded to the position of lower animals. + + 15. When we speak of the Education of the human race, we mean the +gradual growth of the nations of the earth, as a whole, towards the +realization of self-conscious freedom. Divine Providence is the teacher +here. The means by which the development is effected are the various +circumstances and actions of the different races of men, and the pupils +are the nations. The unfolding of this great Education is generally +treated of under the head of Philosophy of History. + + 16. Education, however, in a more restricted sense, has to do with the +shaping of the individual. Each one of us is to be educated by the laws +of physical nature--by the relations into which we come with the +national life, in its laws, customs, etc., and by the circumstances +which daily surround us. By the force of these we find our arbitrary +will hemmed in, modified, and forced to take new channels and forms. We +are too often unmindful of the power with which these forces are daily +and hourly educating us--_i.e._, calling out our possibilities into +real existence. If we set up our will in opposition to either of these; +if we act in opposition to the laws of nature; if we seriously offend +the laws, or even the customs, of the people among whom we live; or if +we despise our individual lot, we do so only to find ourselves crushed +in the encounter. We only learn the impotence of the individual against +these mighty powers; and that discovery is, of itself, a part of our +education. It is sometimes only by such severe means that God is +revealed to the man who persistently misunderstands and defies His +creation. All suffering brought on ourselves by our own violation of +laws, whether natural, ethical, or divine, must be, however, thus +recognized as the richest blessing. We do not mean to say that it is +never allowable for a man, in obedience to the highest laws of his +spiritual being, to break away from the fetters of nature--to offend the +ethical sense of his own people, or to struggle against the might of +destiny. Reformers and martyrs would be examples of such, and our +remarks above do not apply to them, but to the perverse, the frivolous, +and the conceited; to those who are seeking in their action, not the +undoubted will of God, but their own individual will or caprice. + + 17. But we generally use the word Education in a still narrower +sense than either of these, for we mean by it the working of one +individual mind upon or within another in some definite and premeditated +way, so as to fit the pupil for life generally, or for some special +pursuit. For this end the educator must be relatively finished in his +own education, and the pupil must possess confidence in him, or +docility. He must be teachable. That the work be successful, demands the +very highest degree of talent, knowledge, skill, and prudence; and any +development is impossible if a well-founded authority be wanting in the +educator, or docility on the part of the pupil. + +Education, in this narrowest and technical sense, is an outgrowth of +city or urban life. As long as men do not congregate in large cities, +the three forces spoken of in 16--_i.e._, the forces of nature, +national customs, and circumstances--will be left to perform most of the +work of Education; but, in modern city life, the great complication of +events, the uncertainty in the results--though careful forethought has +been used--the immense development of individuality, and the pressing +need of various information, break the power of custom, and render a +different method necessary. The larger the city is, the more free is the +individual in it from the restraints of customs, the less subjected to +curious criticism, and the more able is he to give play to his own +idiosyncrasies. This, however, is a freedom which needs the counterpoise +of a more exact training in conventionalities, if we would not have it +dangerous. Hence the rapid multiplication of educational institutions +and systems in modern times (one chief characteristic of which is the +development of urban life). The ideal Telemachus of Fenelon differs very +much from the real Telemachus of history. Fenelon proposed an education +which trained a youth to reflect, and to guide himself by reason. The +Telemachus of the heroic age followed the customs ("use and wont") of +his times with _nave_ obedience. The systems of Education once +sufficient do not serve the needs of modern life, any more than the +defenses once sufficient against hostile armies are sufficient against +the new weapons adopted by modern warfare. + + 18. The problem with which modern Education has to deal may be said, +in general terms, to be the development in the individual soul of the +indwelling Reason, both practical (as will) and theoretical (as +intellect). To make a child good is only a part of Education; we have +also to develop his intelligence. The sciences of Ethics and Education +are not the same. Again, we must not forget that no pupil is simply a +human being, like every other human being; he is also an individual, and +thus differs from every other one of the race. This is a point which +must never be lost sight of by the educator. Human beings may be--nay, +must be--educated in company, but they cannot be educated simply in the +mass. + + 19. Education is to lead the pupil by a graded series of exercises, +previously arranged and prescribed by the educator, to a definite end. +But these exercises must take on a peculiar form for each particular +pupil under the special circumstances present. Hasty and inconsiderate +work _may_, by chance, accomplish much; but no work which is not +_systematic_ can advance and fashion him in conformity with his tenure, +and such alone is to be called Education; for Education implies both a +comprehension of the end to be attained and of the means necessary to +compass that end. + + 20. Culture, however, means more and more every year; and, as the +sum total of knowledge increases for mankind, it becomes necessary, in +order to be a master in any one line, to devote one's self almost +exclusively to that. Hence arises, for the teacher, the difficulty of +preserving the unity and wholeness which are essential to a complete +man. The principle of division of labor comes in. He who is a teacher by +profession becomes one-sided in his views; and, as teaching divides and +subdivides into specialities, this abnormal one-sideness tends more and +more to appear. Here we find a parallelism in the profession of +Medicine, with a corresponding danger of narrowness; for that, too, is +in a process of constant specialization, and the physician who treats +nervous diseases is likely to be of the opinion that all trouble arises +from that part of the organism, or, at least, that all remedies should +be applied there. This tendency to one-sideness is inseparable from the +progress of civilization and that of science and arts. It contains, +nevertheless, a danger of which no teacher should be unwarned. An +illustration is furnished by the microscope or telescope; a higher power +of the instrument implies a narrower field of view. To concentrate our +observation upon one point implies the shutting out of others. This +difficulty with the teacher creates one for the pupil. + +In this view one might be inclined to judge that the life of the savage +as compared with that of civilized man, or that of a member of a rural +community as compared with that of an inhabitant of a city, were the +more to be desired. The savage has his hut, his family, his cocoa-palm, +his weapons, his passions; he fishes, hunts, amuses himself, adorns +himself, and enjoys the consciousness that he is the center of a little +world; while the denizen of a city must often acknowledge that he is, so +to speak, only one wheel of a gigantic machine. Is the life of the +savage, therefore, more favorable to human development? The +characteristic idea of modern civilization is: The development of the +individual as the end for which the State exists. The great empires of +Persia, Egypt, and India, wherein the individual was of value only as he +ministered to the strength of the State, have given way to the modern +nations, where individual freedom is pushed so far that the State seems +only an instrument for the good of the individual. From being the +supreme end of the individual, the State has become the means for his +advancement into freedom; and with this very exaltation of the value of +the mere individual over the State, as such, there is inseparably +connected the seeming destruction of the wholeness of the individual +man. But the union of State and individual, which was in ancient times +merely mechanical, has now become a living process, in which constant +interaction gives rise to all the intellectual life of modern +civilization. + + 21. The work of Education being thus necessarily split up, we have +the distinction between general and special schools. The work of the +former is to give general development--what is considered essential for +all men; that of the latter, to prepare for special callings. The former +should furnish a basis for the latter--_i.e._, the College should +precede the Medical School, etc., and the High School the Normal. In the +United States, owing to many causes, this is unfortunately not the case. + +The difference between city and country life is important here. The +teacher in a country school, and, still more, the private tutor or +governess, must be able to teach many more things than the teacher in a +graded school in the city, or the professor in a college or university. +The danger on the one side is of superficiality, on the other of +narrowness. + + 22. The Education of any individual can be only relatively finished. +His possibilities are infinite. His actual realization of those +possibilities must always remain far behind. The latter can only +approximate to the former. It can never reach them. The term "finishing +an education" needs, therefore, some definition; for, as a technical +term, it has undoubtedly a meaning. An immortal soul can never complete +its development; for, in so doing, it would give the lie to its own +nature. We cannot speak properly, however, of educating an idiot. Such +an unfortunate has no power of generalization, and no conscious +personality. We can train him mechanically, but we cannot educate him. +This will help to illustrate the difference, spoken of in 14, between +Education and Mechanical training. + +We obtain astonishing results, it is true, in our schools for idiots, +and yet we cannot fail to perceive that, after all, we have only an +external result. We produce a mechanical performance of duties, and yet +there seems to be no actual mental growth. It is an exogenous, and not +an endogenous, growth, to use the language of Botany.[9] Continual +repetition, under the most gentle patience, renders the movements easy, +but, after all, they are only automatic, or what the physicians call +reflex. + +We have the same result produced in a less degree when we attempt to +teach an intelligent child something which is beyond his active +comprehension. A child may be taught to do or say almost anything by +patient training, but, if what he is to say is beyond the power of his +mental comprehension, and hence of his active assimilation, we are only +training him as we train an animal ( 14), and not educating him. We +call such recitations parrot recitations, and, by our use of the word, +express exactly in what position the pupils are placed. An idiot is only +a case of permanently arrested development. What in the intelligent +child is a passing phase is for the idiot a fixed state. We have idiots +of all grades, as we have children of all ages. + +The above observations must not be taken to mean that children should +never be taught to perform operations in arithmetic which they do not, +in cant phrase, "perfectly understand," or to learn poetry whose whole +meaning they cannot fathom. Into this error many teachers have fallen. + +There can be no more profitable study for a teacher than to visit one of +these numerous idiot schools. He finds the alphabet of his professional +work there. As the philologist learns of the formation and growth of +language by examining, not the perfectly formed languages, but the +dialects of savage tribes, so with the teacher. In like manner more +insight into the philosophy of teaching and of the nature of the mind +can be acquired by teaching a class of children to read than in any +other grade of work. + + +_II.--The Form of Education._ + + 23. The general form of Education follows from the nature of mind. +Mind is nothing but what it itself creates out of its own activity. It +is, at first, mind as undeveloped or unconscious (in the main); but, +secondly, it acquires the power of examining its own action, of +considering itself as an object of attention, as if it were a quite +foreign thing--_i.e._, it reflects (in this stage it is really ignorant +that it is studying its own nature); and, finally, it becomes conscious +that this, which it had been examining, and of whose existence it is +conscious, is its own self: It attains self-consciousness. It is through +this estrangement from itself, given back to itself again and restored +to unity, but it is no longer a simple, unconscious unity. In this third +state only can it be said to be free--_i.e._, to possess itself. +Education cannot create; it can only help to develop into reality the +previously-existent possibility; it can only help to bring forth to +light the hidden life. + + 24. All culture, in whatever line, must pass through these two +stages of estrangement and of reunion; the reunion being not of two +different things, but the recognition of itself by thought, and its +acceptance of itself as itself. And the more complete is the +estrangement--_i.e._, the more perfectly can the thought be made to +view itself as a somewhat entirely foreign to itself, to look upon it as +a different and independent somewhat--the more complete and perfect will +be its union with and acceptance of its object as one with itself when +the recognition does finally take place. Through culture we are led to +this conscious possession of our own thought. Plato gives to the +feeling, with which knowledge must necessarily begin, the name of +wonder. But wonder is not knowledge; it is only the first step towards +it. It is the half-terrified attention which the mind fixes on an +object, and the half-terror would be impossible did it not dimly +forebode that it was something of its own nature at which it was +looking. The child delights in stories of the far-off, the strange, and +the wonderful. It is as if they hoped to find in these some solution to +themselves--a solution which they have, as it were, asked in vain of +familiar scenes and objects. Their craving for such is the proof of how +far their nature transcends all its known conditions. They are like +adventurous explorers who push out to unknown regions in hopes of +finding the freedom and wealth which lies only within themselves. They +want to be told about things which they never saw, such as terrible +conflagrations, banditti life, wild animals, gray old ruins, Robinson +Crusoes on far-off, happy islands. They are irresistibly attracted by +whatever is highly colored and dazzlingly lighted. The child prefers the +story of Sinbad the Sailor to any tales of his own home and nation, +because mind has this necessity of getting, as it were, outside of +itself so as to obtain a view of itself. As the child grows to youth he +is, from the same reasons, desirous of traveling. + + 25. Work may be defined as the activity of the mind in a conscious +concentration on, and absorption in, some object, with the purpose of +acquiring or producing it. Play is the activity of the mind which gives +itself up to surrounding objects according to its own caprice, without +any thought as to results. The Educator gives out work to the pupil, but +he leaves him to himself in his play. + + 26. It is necessary to draw a sharp line between work and play. If the +Educator has not respect for work as an activity of great weight and +importance, he not only spoils the relish of the pupil for play, which +loses all its charm of freedom when not set off by its antithesis of +earnest labor, but he undermines in the pupil's mind all respect for any +real existence. On the other hand, he who does not give to the child +space, time, and opportunity for play prevents the originality of his +pupil from free development through the exercise of his creative +ingenuity. Play sends the child back to his work refreshed, because in +it he loses himself without constraint and according to his own fancy, +while in work he is required to yield himself up in a manner prescribed +for him by another. + +Let the teacher watch his pupils while at play if he would discover +their individual peculiarities, for it is then that they unconsciously +betray their real propensities. This antithesis of work and play runs +through the entire life, the form only of play varying with years and +occupations. To do what we please, as we please, and when we please, not +for any reason, but just because we please, remains play always. +Children in their sports like nothing better than to counterfeit what is +to be the earnest work of their after-lives. The little girl plays with +her dolls, and the boy plays he is a soldier and goes to mimic wars. + +It is, of course, an error to suppose that the play of a child is +simply muscular. The lamb and the colt find their full enjoyment in +capering aimlessly about the field. But to the child play would be +incomplete which did not bring the mind into action. Children derive +little enjoyment from purely muscular exercise. They must at the same +time have an object requiring mental action to attain it. A number of +children set simply to run up and down a field would tire of the +exercise in five minutes; but put a ball amongst them and set them to a +game and they will be amused by it for hours. + +Exceptional mental development is always preceded, and is, indeed, +produced by, an exceptional amount of exercise in the form of play on +the part of the special faculties concerned. The peculiar tendencies +exhibited in play are due to the large development of particular +faculties, and the ultimate giant strength of a faculty is brought about +by play. The genius is no doubt born, not made; but, although born, it +would dwindle away in infancy were it not for the constant exercise +taken in play, which is as necessary for development as food for the +maintenance of life. + + 27. Work should never be treated as if it were play, nor play as if it +were work. Those whose work is creative activity of the mind may find +recreation in the details of science; and those, again, whose vocation +is scientific research can find recreation in the practice of art in its +different departments. What is work to one may thus be play to another. +This does not, however, contradict the first statement. + + 28. It is the province of education so to accustom us to different +conditions or ways of thinking and acting that they shall no longer seem +strange or foreign to us. When these have become, as we say, "natural" +to us--when we find the acquired mode of thinking or acting just what +our inclination leads us to adopt unconsciously, a _Habit_ has been +formed. A habit is, then, the identity of natural inclination with the +special demands of any particular doing or suffering, and it is thus the +external condition of all progress. As long as we require the conscious +act of our will to the performance of a deed, that deed is a somewhat +foreign to ourselves, and not yet a part of ourselves. The practical +work of the educator may thus be said to consist in leading the mind of +the pupil over certain lines of thought till it becomes "natural" or +spontaneous for him to go by that road. Much time is wasted in schools +where the pupil's mind is not led aright at first, for then he has to +unlearn habits of thought which are already formed. The work of the +teacher is to impress good methods of studying and thinking upon the +minds of his pupils, rather than to communicate knowledge. + + 29. It is, at first sight, entirely indifferent what a Habit shall +relate to--_i.e._, the point is to get the pupil into the way of +forming habits, and it is not at first of so much moment what habit is +formed as that a habit is formed. But we cannot consider that there is +anything morally neutral in the abstract, but only in the concrete, or +in particular examples. An action may be of no moral significance to one +man, and under certain circumstances, while to another man, or to the +same man under different circumstances, it may have quite a different +significance, or may possess an entirely opposite character. Appeal must +be made, then, to the individual conscience of each one to decide what +is and what is not permissible to that individual under the given +circumstances. Education must make it its first aim to awaken in the +pupil a sensitiveness to spiritual and ethical distinctions which knows +that nothing is in its own nature morally insignificant or indifferent, +but shall recognize, even in things seemingly small, a universal human +significance. But, yet, in relation to the highest interests of morality +or the well-being of society, the pupil must be taught to subordinate +without hesitation all that relates exclusively to his own personal +comfort or welfare for the well-being of his fellow-men, or for moral +rectitude. + +When we reflect upon habit, it at once assumes for us the character of +useful or injurious. The consequences of a habit are not indifferent. + +Whatever action tends as a harmonious means to the realization of our +purpose is desirable or advantageous, and whatever either partially +contradicts or wholly destroys it is disadvantageous. Advantage and +disadvantage being, then, only relative terms, dependent upon the aim or +purpose which we happen to have in view, a habit which may be +advantageous to one man under certain circumstances may be +disadvantageous to another man, or even to the same man, under other +circumstances. Education must, then, accustom the youth to consider for +himself the expediency or inexpediency of any action in relation to his +own vocation in life. He must not form habits which will be inexpedient +with regard to that. + + 31. There is, however, an _absolute_ distinction of habits as morally +good and bad. From this absolute stand-point we must, after all, decide +what is for us allowable or forbidden, what is expedient and what +inexpedient. + + 32. As to its form, habit may be either passive or active. By passive +habit is meant a habit of composure which surveys undisturbed whatever +vicissitudes, either external or internal, may fall to our lot, and +maintains itself superior to them all, never allowing its power of +acting to be paralyzed by them. It is not, however, merely a stoical +indifference, nor is it the composure which comes from inability to +receive impressions--a sort of impassivity. It is that composure which +is the highest result of power. Nor is it a selfish love of ease which +intentionally withdraws itself from annoyances in order to remain +undisturbed. It is not manifested because of a desire to be out of these +vicissitudes. It is, while in them, to be not of them. It is the +composure which does not fret itself over what it cannot change. The +soul that has built for itself this stronghold of freedom within itself +may vividly experience joy and sorrow, pain and pleasure, and yet +serenely know that it is intrenched in walls which are inaccessible to +their attacks, because it knows that it is infinitely superior to all +that may chance or change. What is meant by active habit in distinction +from passive habit is found in our external activity, as skill, +facility, readiness of information, etc. It might be considered as the +equipping of our inner selves for active contest with the external +world; while passive habit is the fortifying of our inner selves against +the attack of the external world. The man who possesses habit in both +these forms impresses himself in many different ways on the outer world, +while at the same time, and all the time, he preserves intact his +personality from the constant assaults of the outer world. He handles +both spear and shield. + + 33. All education, in whatever line, must work by forming habits +physical, mental, or moral. It might be said to consist in a conversion +of actions which are at first voluntary, by means of repetition, into +instructive actions which are performed, as we say, naturally--_i.e._, +without any conscious volition. We teach a child to walk, or he teaches +himself to walk by a constant repetition of the action of the will upon +the necessary muscles; and, when the thinking brain hands over the +mechanism to the trained spinal cord, the anxious, watchful look +disappears from the face, and the child talks or laughs as he runs: then +that part of his education is completed. Henceforth the attention that +had been necessary to manage the body in walking is freed for other +work. This is only an illustration, easily understood, of what takes +place in all education. Mental and moral acts, thoughts, and feelings in +the same way are, by repetition, converted into habits and become our +nature; and character, good or bad, is only the aggregate of our habits. +When we say a person has no character, we mean exactly this: that he has +no fixed habits. But, as the great end of human life is freedom, he must +be above even habit. He must not be wholly a machine of habits, and +education must enable him to attain the power of breaking as well as of +forming habits, so that he may, when desirable, substitute one habit for +another. For habits may be ( 29), according to their nature, proper or +improper, advantageous or disadvantageous, good or bad; and, according +to their form, may be ( 32) either the acceptance of the external by +the internal or the reaction of the internal upon the external. Through +our freedom we must be able, not only to renounce any habit formed, but +to form a new and better one. Man should be supreme above all habits, +wearing them as garments which the soul puts on and off at will. It must +so order them all as to secure for itself a constant progress of +development into still greater freedom. In this higher view habits +become thus to our sight only necessary accompaniments of imperfect +freedom. Can we conceive of God, who is perfect Freedom, as having any +habits? We might say that, as a means toward the ever-more decided +realization of the Good, we must form a habit of voluntarily making and +breaking off habits. We must characterize as bad those habits which +relate only to our personal convenience or enjoyment. They are often not +essentially blameworthy, but there lies in them a hidden danger that +they may allure us into luxury or effeminacy. It is a false and +mechanical way of looking at the affair to suppose that a habit which +had been formed by a certain number of repetitions can be broken off by +an equal number of refusals. We can never utterly renounce a habit which +we decide to be undesirable for us except through decision and firmness. + + 34. Education, then, must consider the preparation for authority and +obedience ( 17); for a rational ordering of one's actions according to +universal principles, and, at the same time, a preservation of +individuality ( 18); for work and play ( 25); for habits of +spontaneity or originality ( 28). To endeavor by any set rules to +harmonize in the pupil these opposites will be a vain endeavor, and +failure in the solution of the problem is quite possible by reason of +the freedom of the pupil, of surrounding circumstances, or of mistakes +on the part of the teacher, and the possibility of this negative result +must, therefore, enter as an element of calculation into the work +itself. All the dangers which may in any way threaten the youth must be +considered in advance, and he must be fortified against them. While we +should not intentionally expose the youth to temptation in order to +prove his strength of resistance, neither should we, on the other hand, +endeavor to seclude him from all chance of dangerous temptation. To do +the former would be satanic; while to do the latter would be ridiculous, +useless, and in fact dangerous in the highest degree, for temptation +comes more from within than from without, and any secret inclination +will in some way seek, or even create, its own opportunity for +gratification. The real safety from sin lies, not in seclusion of one's +self from the world[10]--for all the elements of worldliness are innate +in each individual--but in an occupying of the restless activity in +other ways, in learning and discipline; these being varied as time goes +on, according to the age and degree of proficiency. Not to crush out, +but to direct, the child's activity, whether physical or mental, is the +key to all real success in education. The sentimentalism which has, +during the last few years, in this country (the United States), tended +to diminish to so great an extent the actual work to be performed by our +boys and girls, has set free a dangerous amount of energy whose new +direction gives cause for grave alarm. To endeavor to prevent the youth +from all free and individual relations with the real world, implies a +never-ending watch kept over him. The consciousness of being thus +"shadowed" destroys in the youth all elasticity of spirit, all +confidence, and all originality. A constant feeling of, as it were, a +detective police at his side obscures all sense of independent action, +systematically accustoming him to dependence. Though, as the +tragic-comic story of Peter Schlemihl shows, the loss of a man's own +shadow may involve him in a series of fatalities,[11] yet to be +"shadowed" constantly by a companion, us in the pedagogical system of +the Jesuits, undermines all naturalness. And, if we endeavor to guard +too strictly against what is evil and wrong, the pupil reacts, bringing +all his intelligence into the service of his craft and cunning, till the +would-be educator stands aghast at the discovery of such evil-doing as +he had supposed impossible under his strict supervision. Within the +circle of whatever rules it may be found necessary to draw around the +young there must always be left space for freedom. Pupils should always +be led to see that all rules against which they fret are only of their +own creation; and that as grave-stones mark the place where some one has +fallen, so every law is only a record of some previous wrong-doing. The +law "Thou shalt not kill" was not given till murder had been committed. +In other words, the wrong deed preceded the law against it, and perfect +obedience is the same as perfect freedom. No obedience except that which +we gain from the pupil's own convictions has real educational +significance. + + 35. If there appears in the youth any decided deformity opposed to +the ideal which we would create in him, we should at once inquire into +its history and origin. The negative and positive are so closely +related, and depend so intimately on each other, in our being that what +appears to us to be negligence, rudeness, immorality, foolishness, or +oddity may arise from some real necessity of the pupil which in its +process of development has only taken a wrong direction. + + 36. If it should appear, on such examination, that the wrong action +was the result of avoidable ignorance, of caprice, or willfulness on the +part of the pupil, this calls for a simple prohibition on the part of +the teacher, no reason being assigned. His authority must be sufficient +for the pupil without any reason. When the fault is repeated, and the +pupil is old enough to understand, then only should the grounds of the +prohibition be stated with it. This should, however, be done in few +words, and the educator must never allow himself to lose, in a doctrinal +lecture, the idea of discipline. If he do, the pupil will soon forget +that it was his own misbehavior which was the cause of all the remarks. +The statement of the reason must be honest, and must be presented to the +youth on the side most easy for him to appreciate. False reasons are not +only morally wrong, but they lead the mind astray. We also commit a +grave error when we try to unfold to the youth all the possible +consequences of his wrong act, for those possible consequences are too +far off to affect his mind. The long lecture wearies him, especially if +it be in a stereotyped form; and with teachers who are fault-finding, +and who like to hear themselves talk, this is apt to be the case. Still +more unfortunate would it be if we really should affect the lively +imagination of a sensitive youth by our description of the wretchedness +to which his wrong-doing, if persisted in, might lead him, for then the +conviction that he has already taken one step in that direction may +produce in him a fear which in the future man may become terrible +depression and lead to degradation. + + 37. If to censure we add the threat of punishment, we have then what +in common language is called scolding. + +If threats are made, the pupil must be made to feel that they will be +faithfully executed according to the word. + +The threat of punishment is, however, to be avoided; for circumstances +may arise which will render its fulfillment not only objectionable, but +wrong, and the teacher will then find himself in the position of Herod +and bound "for his oath's sake" to a course of action which no longer +seems the best. Even the law in affixing a penalty to definite crimes +allows a certain latitude in a maximum and minimum of awarded +punishment. + + 38. It is only after other means of reformation have been tried, and +have failed, that punishment is justifiable for error, transgression, or +vice. When our simple prohibition ( 36), the statement of our reason +for the prohibiting ( 36), and threat of punishment ( 37) have all +failed, then punishment comes and intentionally inflicts pain on the +youth in order to force him by this last means to a realization of his +wrong-doing. And here the punishment must not be given for general bad +conduct or for a perverse disposition--those being vague +generalities--but for a special act of wrong-doing at that time. He +should not be punished because he is naturally bad or because he is +generally naughty, but for this one special and particular act which he +has committed. Thus the punishment will act on the general disposition, +not directly, but through this particular act, as a manifestation of the +disposition. Then it will not accuse the innermost nature of the +culprit. This way of punishment is not only demanded by justice, but it +is absolutely necessary in view of the fact of the sophistry inherent in +human nature which is always busy in assigning various motives for its +actions. If the child understands, then, that he is punished for that +particular act which he knows himself to have committed, he cannot feel +the bitter sense of injustice and misunderstanding which a punishment +inflicted for general reasons, and which attributes to him a depravity +of motives and intentions, so often engenders. + + 39. Punishment as an educational means must, nevertheless, be always +essentially corrective, since it seeks always to bring the youth to a +comprehension of his wrong-doing and to a positive alteration in his +behavior, and, hence, has for its aim to improve him. At the same time +it is a sad testimony of the insufficiency of the means which have +been previously tried. We should on no account aim to terrify the +youth by physical force, so that to avoid that he will refrain from +doing the wrong or from repeating a wrong act already done. This would +lead only to terrorism, and his growing strength would soon put him +beyond its power and leave him without motive for refraining from +evil. Punishment may have this effect in some degree, but it should, +above all, be made to impress deeply upon his mind the eternal truth +that the evil deed is never allowed in God's universe to act +unrestrained and according to its own will, but that the good and true +is the only absolute power in the world, and that it is never at a +loss to avenge any contradiction of its will and design. + +It may be questioned whether the moral teaching in our schools be not +too negative in its measures; whether it do not confine itself too much +to forbidding the commission of the wrong deed, and spend too little +force in securing the performance of the right deed. Not a simple +refraining from the wrong, but an active doing of the right would be the +better lesson to inculcate. + +In the laws of the state the office of punishment is first to satisfy +justice,[12] and only after this is done can the improvement of the +criminal be considered. If government should proceed on the same basis +as the educator, it would make a grave mistake, for it has to deal, not +with children, but with adults, to whom it concedes the dignity of full +responsibility for all their acts. It has not to consider the reasons, +either psychological or ethical, which prompted the deed. The actual +deed is what it has first of all to deal with, and only after that is +considered and settled can it take into view any mitigating +circumstances connected therewith, or any peculiarity of the individual. +The educator, on the other hand, has to deal with those who are immature +and only growing toward responsibility. As long as they are under the +care of a teacher, he is at any rate partially accountable for what they +do. We must never confound the nature of punishment in the State with +that of punishment as an educational means. + + 40. As to punishment, as with all other work in education, it can +never be abstractly determined beforehand, but it must be regulated with +a view to the individual pupil and his peculiar circumstances. What it +shall be, and how and when administered, are problems which call for +great ingenuity and tact on the part of the educator. It must never be +forgotten that punishments vary in intensity at the will of the +educator. He fixes the standard by which they are measured in the +child's mind. Whipping is actual physical pain, and an evil in itself to +the child. But there are many other punishments which involve no +physical pain, and the intensity of which, as felt by the child, varies +according to an artificial standard in different schools. "To sit under +the clock" was a great punishment in one of our public schools--not that +the seat was not perfectly comfortable, but that one was never sent +there to sit unless for some grave misdemeanor. The teacher has the +matter in his own hands, and it is well to remember this and to grade +his punishments with much caution, so as to make all pass for their full +value. In some schools even suspension is so common that it does not +seem to the pupil a very terrible thing. "Familiarity breeds contempt," +and frequency implies familiarity. A punishment seldom resorted to will +always seem to the pupil to be severe. As we weaken, and in fact +bankrupt, language by an inordinate use of superlatives, so, also, do we +weaken any punishment by its frequent repetition. Economy of resources +should be always practiced. + + 41. In general, we might say that, for very young children, corporal +punishment is most appropriate; for boys and girls, isolation; and for +older youth, something which appeals to the sense of honor. + + 42. (1) Corporal punishment implies physical pain. Generally it +consists of a whipping, and this is perfectly justifiable in case of +persistent defiance of authority, of obstinate carelessness, or of +malicious evil-doing, so long or so often as the higher perceptions of +the offender are closed against appeal. But it must not be administered +too often, or with undue severity. To resort to deprivation of food is +cruel. But, while we condemn the false view of seeing in the rod the +only panacea for all embarrassing questions of discipline on the +teacher's part, we can have no sympathy for the sentimentality which +assumes that the dignity of humanity is affected by a blow given to a +child. It is wrong thus to confound self-conscious humanity with +child-humanity, for to the average child himself a blow is the most +natural form of retribution, and that in which all other efforts at +influence at last end. The fully grown man ought, certainly, not to be +flogged, for this kind of punishment places him on a level with the +child; or, where it is barbarously inflicted, reduces him to the level +of the brute, and thus absolutely does degrade him. In English schools +the rod is said to be often used; if a pupil of the first class, who is +never flogged, is put back into the second, he becomes again subject to +flogging. But, even if this be necessary in the schools, it certainly +has no proper place in the army and navy. + + 43. (2) To punish a pupil by isolation is to remove him temporarily +from the society of his fellows. The boy or girl thus cut off from +companionship, and forced to think only of himself, begins to understand +how helpless he is in such a position. Time passes wearily, and he is +soon eager to return to the companionship of parents, brothers and +sisters, teachers and fellow-students. + +But to leave a child entirely by himself without any supervision, and +perhaps in a dark room, is as wrong as to leave two or three together +without supervision. It often happens when they are kept after school by +themselves that they give the freest rein to their childish wantonness, +and commit the wildest pranks. + + 44. (3) Shutting children up in this way does not touch their sense +of honor, and the punishment is soon forgotten, because it relates only +to certain particular phases of their behavior. But it is quite +different when the pupil is isolated from his fellows on the ground that +by his conduct he has violated the very principles which make civilized +society possible, and is, therefore, no longer a proper member of it. +This is a punishment which touches his sense of honor, for honor is the +recognition of the individual by others as their equal, and by his +error, or by his crime, he had forfeited his right to be their equal, +their peer, and has thus severed himself from them. + +The separation from them is thus only the external form of the real +separation which he himself has brought to pass within his soul, and +which his wrong-doing has only made clearly visible. This kind of +punishment, thus touching the whole character of the youth and not +easily forgotten, should be administered with the greatest caution lest +a permanent loss of self-respect follow. When we think our wrong-doing +to be eternal in its effects, we lose all power of effort for our own +improvement. + +This sense of honor cannot be developed so well in family life, because +in the family the ties of blood make all in a certain sense equal, no +matter what may be their conduct. He who has by wrong-doing severed +himself from society is still a member of the family, and within its +sacred circle is still beloved, though it may be with bitter tears. No +matter how wrong he may have been, he still can find there the deepest +sympathy, for he is still father, brother, etc. It is in the contact of +one family with another that the feeling of honor is first developed, +and still more in the contact of the individual with an institution +which is not bound to him by any natural ties, but is an organism +entirely external to him. Thus, to the child, the school and the +school-classes offer a means of development which can never be found in +the family. + +This fact is often overlooked by those who have the charge of the +education of children. No home education, no private tutorship, can take +the place of the school as an educational influence. For the first time +in his life the child, on being sent to school, finds himself in a +community where he is responsible for his own deeds, and where he has no +one to shield him. The rights of others for whom he has no special +affection are to be respected by him, and his own are to be defended. +The knowledge gained at the school is by no means the most valuable +acquisition there obtained. It must never be forgotten by the teacher +that the school is an institution on an entirely different basis from +the family, and that personal attachment is not the principle on which +its rule can be rightly based. + + 45. This gradation of punishment from physical pain, up through +occasional isolation, to the touching of the innermost sense of honor is +very carefully to be considered, both with regard to the different ages +at which they are severally appropriate and to the different discipline +which they necessarily produce. Every punishment must, however, be +always looked at as a means to some end, and is thus transitory in its +nature. The pupil should always be conscious that it is painful to the +teacher to punish him. Nothing can be more effectual as a means of cure +for the wrong-doer than to perceive in the manner and tone of the voice, +in the very delay with which the necessary punishment is administered, +that he who punishes also suffers in order that the wrong-doer may be +cured of his fault. The principle of vicarious suffering lies at the +root of all spiritual healing. + + +_III.--The Limits of Education._ + + 46. As far as the external form of education is concerned, its limit +is reached in the instrumentality of punishment in which we seek to turn +the activity which has been employed in a wrong direction into its +proper channel, to make the deed positive instead of negative, to +substitute for the destructive deed one which shall be in harmony with +the constructive forces of society. But education implies its real +limits in its definition, which is to build up the individual into +theoretical and practical Reason. When this work goes properly on, the +authority of the educator, as authority, necessarily loses, every day, +some of its force, as the guiding principles come to form a part of the +pupil's own character, instead of being super-imposed on him from +without through the mediation of the educator. What was authority +becomes now advice and example; unreasoning and implicit obedience +passes into gratitude and affection. The pupil wears off the rough edges +of his crude individuality, which is transfigured, so to speak, into the +universality and necessity of Reason, but without losing his identity in +the process. Work becomes enjoyment, and Play is found only in a change +of activity. The youth takes possession of himself, and may now be left +to himself. There are two widely differing views with regard to the +limits of education; one lays great stress on the powerlessness of the +pupil and the great power of the teacher, and asserts that the teacher +must create something out of the pupil. + +This view is often seen to have undesirable results, where large +numbers are to be educated together. It assumes that each pupil is only +"a sample of the lot" on whom the teacher is to affix his stamp, as if +they were different pieces of goods from some factory. Thus +individuality is destroyed, and all reduced to one level, as in +cloisters, barracks, and orphan asylums, where only one individual seems +to exist. Sometimes it takes the form of a theory which holds that one +can at will flog anything into or out of a pupil. This may be called a +superstitious belief in the power of education. The opposite extreme may +be found in that system which advocates a "severe letting alone," +asserting that individuality is unconquerable, and that often the most +careful and circumspect education fails of reaching its aim because the +inherent nature of the youth has fought against it with such force as to +render abortive all opposing efforts. This idea of Pedagogy produces a +sort of indifference about means and ends which would leave each +individuality to grow as its own instinct and the chance influences of +the world might direct. The latter view would, of course, preclude the +possibility of any science of education, and make the youth only the +sport of blind fate. The comparative power of inherited tendencies and +of educational appliances is, however, one which every educator should +carefully study. Much careless generalization has been made on this +topic, and opinion is too often based upon some one instance where +accurate observation of methods and influences have been wanting. + + 47. Education has necessarily a definite _subjective limit_ in the +individuality of the youth, for it can develop in him only that which +exists in him as a possibility. It can lead and assist, but it has no +power to create. What nature has denied to a man education cannot give +him, any more than it can on the other hand annihilate his original +gifts, though it may suppress, distort, and measurably destroy them. And +yet it is impossible to decide what is the real essence of a man's +individuality until he has left behind him the years of growth, because +it is not till then that he fully attains conscious possession of +himself. Moreover, at this critical time many traits which were supposed +to be characteristic may prove themselves not to be so by disappearing, +while long-slumbering and unsuspected talents may crop out. Whatever has +been forced upon a child, though not in harmony with his individuality, +whatever has been driven into him without having been actively accepted +by him, or having had a definite relation to his culture--will remain +perhaps, but only as an external foreign ornament, only as a parasitic +growth which weakens the force of his real nature. But we must +distinguish from these little affectations which arise from a +misconception of the limits of individuality that effort of imitation +which children and young people often exhibit in trying to copy in their +own actions those peculiarities which they observe and admire in +perfectly-developed persons with whom they may come in contact. They see +a reality which corresponds to their own possibility, and the +presentiment of a like or a similar attainment stirs them to imitation, +although this external imitation may be sometimes disagreeable or +ridiculous to the lookers-on. We ought not to censure it too severely, +remembering that it springs from a positive striving towards true +culture, and needs only to be properly directed, and never to be roughly +put down. + + 48. _The objective limit_ of education consists in the means +which can be applied for it. That the capacity for culture should exist +is the first condition of success, but it is none the less necessary +that it be cultivated. But how much cultivation shall be given to it +must depend in very great degree on the means which are practicable, and +this will undoubtedly again depend on the worldly possessions and +character of the family to which the pupil belongs. If he comes of a +cultivated and refined family, he will have a great advantage at the +start over his less favored comrades; and, with regard to many of the +arts and sciences, this limitation of education is of great +significance. But the means alone will not answer. Without natural +capacity, all the educational apparatus possible is of no avail. On the +other hand, real talent often accomplishes incredible feats with very +limited means; and, if the way is only once open, makes of itself a +center of attraction which draws to itself as with magnetic power the +necessary means. Moral culture is, however, from its very nature, raised +above such dependence. + +If we fix our thought on the subjective limit--that of individuality ( +47)--we detect the ground for that indifference which lays little stress +on education ( 46, end). If, on the other hand, we concentrate our +attention on the means of culture, we shall perceive the reason of the +other extreme spoken of--of that pedagogical despotism ( 46) which +fancies that it is able to prescribe and enforce at will upon the pupil +any culture whatever, without regard to his special characteristics. + + 49. Education comes to its _absolute limit_ when the pupil has +apprehended the problem which he is to solve, has comprehended the means +which are at his disposal, and has acquired the necessary skill in using +them. The true educator seeks to render himself unnecessary by the +complete emancipation of the youth. He works always towards the +independence of the pupil, and always with the design of withdrawing so +soon as he shall have reached this stand-point, and of leaving him to +the full responsibility for his own deeds. To endeavor to hold him in +the position of a pupil after this time has been reached would be to +contradict the very essence of education, which must find its result in +the independent maturity of the youth. The inequality which formerly +existed between pupil and teacher is now removed, and nothing becomes +more oppressive to the former than any endeavor to force upon him the +authority from which, in reality, his own efforts have freed him. But +the undue hastening of this emancipation is as bad an error as an effort +after delay. The question as to whether a person is really ready for +independent action--as to whether his education is finished--may be +settled in much the same way in education as in politics. When any +people has progressed so far as to put the question whether they are +ready for freedom, it ceases to be a question; for, without the inner +consciousness of freedom itself, the question would never have occurred +to them. + + 50. But, although the pupil may rightly now be freed from the hands of +instructors, and no longer obtain his culture through them, it is by no +means to be understood that he is not to go on with the work himself. He +is now to educate himself. Each must plan out for himself the ideal +toward which he must daily strive. In this process of +self-transformation a friend may aid by advice and example, but he +cannot educate, for the act of educating necessarily implies inequality +between teacher and pupil. The human necessity for companionship gives +rise to societies of different kinds, in which we may, perhaps, say that +there is some approach to educating their members, the necessary +inequality being supplied by various grades and orders. They presuppose +education in the usual sense of the word, but they wish to bring about +an education in a higher sense, and, therefore, they veil the last form +of their ideal in mystery and secrecy. + +By the term _Philister_ the Germans indicate the man of a civilized +state who lives on, contented with himself and devoid of any impulse +towards further self-culture. To one who is always aspiring after an +Ideal, such a one cannot but be repulsive. But how many are they who do +not, sooner or later, in mature life, crystallize, as it were, so that +any active life, any new progress, is to them impossible? + + +ANALYSIS AND COMMENTARY. + + 1. Pedagogics is not a complete, independent science by itself. It +borrows the results of other sciences [_e.g._, it presupposes the +science of Rights, treating of the institutions of the family and civil +society, as well as of the State; it presupposes the science of +anthropology, in which is treated the relations of the human mind to +nature. Nature conditions the development of the individual human being. +But the history of the individual and the history of the race presents a +continual emancipation from nature, and a continual growth into freedom, +_i.e._, into ability to know himself and to realize himself in the +world by making the matter and forces of the world his instruments and +tools. Anthropology shows us how man as a natural being--_i.e._, as +having a body--is limited. There is climate, involving heat and cold and +moisture, the seasons of the year, etc.; there is organic growth, +involving birth, growth, reproduction, and decay; there is race, +involving the limitations of heredity; there is the telluric life of the +planet and the circulation of the forces of the solar system, whence +arise the processes of sleeping, waking, dreaming, and kindred +phenomena; there is the emotional nature of man, involving his feelings, +passions, instincts, and desires; then there are the five senses, and +their conditions. Then, there is the science of phenomenology, treating +of the steps by which mind rises from the stage of mere feeling and +sense-perception to that of self-consciousness, _i.e._, to a +recognition of mind as true substance, and of matter as mere phenomenon +created by Mind (God). Then, there is psychology, including the +treatment of the stages of activity of mind, as so-called "faculties" of +the mind, _e.g._, attention, sense-perception, imagination, conception, +understanding, judgment, reason, and the like. Psychology is generally +made (by English writers) to include, also, what is here called +anthropology and phenomenology. After psychology, there is the science +of ethics, or of morals and customs; then, the Science of Rights, +already mentioned; then, Theology, or the Science of Religion, and, +after all these, there is Philosophy, or the Science of Science. Now, it +is clear that the Science of Education treats of the process of +development, by and through which man, as a merely natural being, +becomes spirit, or self-conscious mind; hence, it presupposes all the +sciences named, and will be defective if it ignores nature, or mind, or +any stage or process of either, especially Anthropology, Phenomenology, +Psychology, Ethics, Rights, sthetics, or Science of Art and Literature, +Religion, or Philosophy]. + + 2. The scope of pedagogics being so broad, and its presuppositions so +vast, its limits are not well defined, and its treatises are very apt to +lack logical sequence and conclusion; and, indeed, frequently to be mere +collections of unjustified and unexplained assumptions, dogmatically set +forth. Hence the low repute of pedagogical literature as a whole. + + 3. Moreover, education furnishes a special vocation, that of teaching. +(All vocations are specializing--being cut off, as it were, from the +total life of man. The "division of labor" requires that each individual +shall concentrate his endeavors and be a _part_ of the whole). + + 4. Pedagogics, as a special science, belongs to the collection of +sciences (already described, in commenting on 1) included under the +philosophy of Spirit or Mind, and more particularly to that part of it +which relates to the will (ethics and science of rights, rather than to +the part relating to the intellect and feeling, as anthropology, +phenomenology, psychology, sthetics, and religion. "Theoretical" +relates to the _intellect_, "practical" relates to the _will_, in this +philosophy). The province of practical philosophy is the investigation +of the nature of freedom, and the process of securing it by +self-emancipation from nature. Pedagogics involves the conscious +exertion of influence on the part of the will of the teacher upon the +will of the pupil, with a purpose in view--that of inducing the pupil to +form certain prescribed habits, and adopt prescribed views and +inclinations. The entire science of mind (as above shown), is +presupposed by the science of education, and must be kept constantly in +view as a guiding light. The institution of the _family_ (treated in +practical philosophy) is the starting-point of education, and without +this institution properly realized, education would find no solid +foundation. The right to be educated on the part of children, and the +duty to educate on the part of parents, are reciprocal; and there is no +family life so poor and rudimentary that it does not furnish the most +important elements of education--no matter what the subsequent influence +of the school, the vocation, and the state. + + 5. Pedagogics as science, distinguished from the same as an art: the +former containing the abstract general treatment, and the latter taking +into consideration all the conditions of concrete individuality, +_e.g._, the peculiarities of the teacher and the pupil, and all the local +circumstances, and the power of adaptation known as "tact." + + 6. The special conditions and peculiarities, considered in education +as an art, may be formulated and reduced to system, but they should not +be introduced as a part of the _science_ of education. + + 7. Pedagogics has three parts: first, it considers the idea and nature +of education, and arrives at its true definition; second, it presents +and describes the special provinces into which the entire field of +education is divided; third, it considers the historical evolution of +education by the human race, and the individual systems of education +that have arisen, flourished, and decayed, and their special functions +in the life of man. + + 8. The scope of the first part is easy to define. The history of +pedagogics, of course, contains all the ideas or definitions of the +nature of education; but it must not for that reason be substituted for +the scientific investigation of the nature of education, which alone +should constitute this first part (and the history of education be +reserved for the third part). + + 9. The second part includes a discussion of the threefold nature of +man as body, intellect, and will. The difficulty in this part of the +science is very great, because of its dependence upon other sciences +(_e.g._, upon physiology, anthropology, etc.), and because of the +temptation to go into details (_e.g._, in the practical department, to +consider the endless varieties of schools for arts and trades). + + 10. The third part contains the exposition of the various national +standpoints furnished (in the history of the world) for the bases of +particular systems of education. In each of these systems will be found +the general idea underlying all education, but it will be found existing +under special modifications, which have arisen through its application +to the physical, intellectual, and ethical conditions of the people. But +we can deduce the essential features of the different systems that may +appear in history, for there are only a limited number of systems +possible. Each lower form finds itself complemented in some higher form, +and its function and purpose then become manifest. The systems of +"national" education (_i.e._, Asiatic systems, in which the +individuality of each person is swallowed up in the substantiality of +the national idea--just as the individual waves get lost in the ocean on +whose surface they arise) find their complete explanation in the systems +of education that arise in Christianity (the preservation of human life +being the object of the nation, it follows that when realized abstractly +or exclusively, it absorbs and annuls the mental independence of its +subjects, and thus contradicts itself by destroying the essence of what +it undertakes to preserve, _i.e._, life (soul, mind); but within +Christianity the principle of the state is found so modified that it is +consistent with the infinite, untrammelled development of the +individual, intellectually and morally, and thus not only life is saved, +but spiritual, free life is attainable for each and for all). + + 11. The history of pedagogy ends with the present system as the latest +one. As science sees the future ideally contained in the present, it is +bound to comprehend the latest system as a realization (though +imperfect) of the ideal system of education. Hence, the system, as +scientifically treated in the first part of our work, is the system with +which the third part of our work ends. + + 12. The nature of education, its form, its limits, are now to be +investigated. ( 13-50.) + + 13. The nature of education determined by the nature of Mind or +Spirit, whose activity is always devoted to realizing for itself what it +is potentially--to becoming conscious of its possibilities, and to +getting them under the control of its will. Mind is potentially free. +Education is the means by which man seeks to realize in man his +possibilities (to develop the possibilities of the race in each +individual). Hence, education has freedom for its object. + + 14. Man is the only being capable of education, in the sense above +defined, because the only conscious being. He must know himself ideally, +and then realize his ideal self, in order to become actually free. The +animals not the plants may be _trained_, or _cultivated_, but, as devoid +of self-consciousness (even the highest animals not getting above +impressions, not reaching ideas, not seizing general or abstract +thoughts), they are not realized for _themselves_, but only for us. +(That is, they do not know their ideal as we do.) + + 15. Education, taken in its widest compass, is the education of the +human race by Divine Providence. + + 16. In a narrower sense, education is applied to the shaping of the +individual, so that his caprice and arbitrariness shall give place to +rational habits and views, in harmony with nature and ethical customs. +He must not abuse nature, nor slight the ethical code of his people, nor +despise the gifts of Providence (whether for weal or woe), unless he is +willing to be crushed in the collision with these more substantial +elements. + + 17. In the narrowest, but most usual application of the term, we +understand by "education" the influence of the individual upon the +individual, exerted with the object of developing his powers in a +conscious and methodical manner, either generally or in special +directions, the educator being relatively mature, and exercising +authority over the relatively immature pupil. Without authority on the +one hand and obedience on the other, education would lack its ethical +basis--a neglect of the will-training could not be compensated for by +any amount of knowledge or smartness. + + 18. The general province of education includes the development of the +individual into the theoretical and practical reason immanent in him. +The definition which limits education to the development of the +individual into ethical customs (obedience to morality, social +conventionalities, and the laws of the state--Hegel's definition is here +referred to: "The object of education is to make men ethical") is not +comprehensive enough, because it ignores the side of the _intellect_, +and takes note only of the _will_. The individual should not only be man +in general (as he is through the adoption of moral and ethical +forms--which are _general_ forms, customs, or laws, and thus the forms +imposed by the _will_ of the _race_), but he should also be a +self-conscious subject, a particular individual (man, through his +intellect, exists for himself as an individual, while through his +general habits and customs he loses his individuality and spontaneity). + + 19. Education has a definite object in view and it proceeds by grades +of progress toward it. The systematic tendency is essential to all +education, properly so called. + + 20. Division of labor has become requisite in the higher spheres of +teaching. The growing multiplicity of branches of knowledge creates the +necessity for the specialist as teacher. With this tendency to +specialties it becomes more and more difficult to preserve what is so +essential to the pupil--his rounded human culture and symmetry of +development. The citizen of modern civilization sometimes appears to be +an artificial product by the side of the versatility of the savage man. + + 21. From this necessity of the division of labor in modern times there +arises the demand for two kinds of educational institutions--those +devoted to general education (common schools, colleges, etc.), and +special schools (for agriculture, medicine, mechanic arts, etc). + + 22. The infinite possibility of culture for the individual leaves, +of course, his actual accomplishment a mere approximation to a complete +education. Born idiots are excluded from the possibility of education, +because the lack of universal ideas in their consciousness precludes to +that class of unfortunates anything beyond a mere mechanical training. + + 23. Spirit, or mind, makes its own nature; it _is_ what it produces--a +self-result. From this follows the _form_ of education. It commences +with (1) undeveloped mind--that of the infant--wherein nearly all is +potential, and but little is actualized; (2) its first stage of +development is self-estrangement--it is absorbed in the observation of +objects around it; (3) but it discovers laws and principles +(universality) in external nature, and finally identifies them with +reason--it comes to recognize itself in nature--to recognize conscious +mind as the creator and preserver of the external world--and thus +becomes at home in nature. Education does not create, but it +emancipates. + + 24. This process of self-estrangement and its removal belongs to all +culture. The mind must fix its attention upon what is foreign to it, and +penetrate its disguise. It will discover its own substance under the +seeming alien being. Wonder is the accompaniment of this stage of +estrangement. The love of travel and adventure arises from this basis. + + 25. Labor is distinguished from play: The former concentrates its +energies on some object, with the purpose of making it conform to its +will and purpose; play occupies itself with its object according to its +caprice and arbitrariness, and has no care for the results or products +of its activity; work is prescribed by authority, while play is +necessarily spontaneous. + + 26. Work and Play: the distinction between them. In play the child +feels that he has entire control over the object with which he is +dealing, both in respect to its existence and the object for which it +exists. His arbitrary will may change both with perfect impunity, since +all depends upon his caprice; he exercises his powers in play according +to his natural proclivities, and therein finds scope to develope his own +individuality. In work, on the contrary, he must have respect for the +object with which he deals. It must be held sacred against his caprice, +must not be destroyed nor injured in any way, and its object must +likewise be respected. His own personal inclinations must be entirely +subordinated, and the business that he is at work upon must be carried +forward in accordance with its own ends and aims, and without reference +to his own feelings in the matter. + +Thus work teaches the pupil the lesson of self-sacrifice (the right of +superiority which the general interest possesses over the particular), +while play develops his personal idiosyncrasy. + + 27. Without play, the child would become more and more a machine, and +lose all freshness and spontaneity--all originality. Without work, he +would develop into a monster of caprice and arbitrariness. + +From the fact that man must learn to combine with man, in order that the +individual may avail himself of the experience and labors of his +fellow-men, self-sacrifice for the sake of combination is the great +lesson of life. But as this should be _voluntary_ self-sacrifice, +education must train the child equally in the two directions of +spontaneity and obedience. The educated man finds recreation in change +of work. + + 28. Education seeks to assimilate its object--to make what was alien +and strange to the pupil into something familiar and habitual to him. +[The pupil is to attack, one after the other, the foreign realms in the +world of nature and man, and conquer them for his own, so that he can be +"at home" in them. It is the necessary condition of all growth, all +culture, that one widens his own individuality by this conquest of new +provinces alien to him. By this the individual transcends the narrow +limits of particularity and becomes generic--the individual becomes the +species. A good definition of education is this: it is the process by +which the individual man elevates himself to the species.] + + 29. (1) Therefore, the first requirement in education is that the +pupil shall acquire the habit of subordinating his likes and dislikes to +the attainment of a rational object. + +It is necessary that he shall acquire this indifference to his own +pleasure, even by employing his powers on that which does not appeal to +his interest in the remotest degree. + + 30. Habit soon makes us familiar with those subjects which seemed so +remote from our personal interest, and they become agreeable to us. The +objects, too, assume a new interest upon nearer approach, as being +useful or injurious to us. That is useful which serves us as a means for +the realization of a rational purpose; injurious, if it hinders such +realization. It happens that objects are useful in one sense and +injurious in another, and _vice versa_. Education must make the pupil +capable of deciding on the usefulness of an object, by reference to its +effect on his permanent vocation in life. + + 31. But _good and evil_ are the ethical distinctions which furnish the +absolute standard to which to refer the question of the usefulness of +objects and actions. + + 32. (2) Habit is (a) _passive_, or (b) _active_. The passive habit +is that which gives us the power to retain our equipoise of mind in the +midst of a world of changes (pleasure and pain, grief and joy, etc). The +active habit gives us skill, presence of mind, tact in emergencies, etc. + + 33. (3) Education deals altogether with the formation of habits. For +it aims to make some condition or form of activity into a second nature +for the pupil. But this involves, also, the breaking up of previous +habits. This power to break up habits, as well as to form them, is +necessary to the freedom of the individual. + + 34. Education deals with these complementary relations (antitheses): +(a) authority and obedience; (b) rationality (_general_ forms) and +individuality; (c) work and play; (d) habit (general custom) and +spontaneity. The development and reconciliation of these opposite sides +in the pupil's character, so that they become his second nature, removes +the phase of constraint which at first accompanies the formal +inculcation of rules, and the performance of prescribed tasks. The +freedom of the pupil is the ultimate object to be kept in view, but a +too early use of freedom may work injury to the pupil. To remove a pupil +from all temptation would be to remove possibilities of growth in +strength to resist it; on the other hand, to expose him needlessly to +temptation is fiendish. + + 35. Deformities of character in the pupil should be carefully traced +back to their origin, so that they may be explained by their history. +Only by comprehending the historic growth of an organic defect are we +able to prescribe the best remedies. + + 36. If the negative behavior of the pupil (his bad behavior) results +from ignorance due to his own neglect, or to his wilfulness, it should +be met directly by an act of authority on the part of the teacher (and +without an appeal to reason). An appeal should be made to the +understanding of the pupil only when he is somewhat mature, or shows by +his repetition of the offence that his proclivity is deep-seated, and +requires an array of all good influences to reinforce his feeble +resolutions to amend. + + 37. Reproof, accompanied by threats of punishment, is apt to +degenerate into scolding. + + 38. After the failure of other means, punishment should be resorted +to. Inasmuch as the punishment should be for the purpose of making the +pupil realize that it is the consequence of his deed returning on +himself, it should always be administered for some particular act of +his, and this should be specified. The "overt act" is the only thing +which a man can be held accountable for in a court of justice; although +it is true that the harboring of evil thoughts or intentions is a sin, +yet it is not a crime until realized in an overt act. + + 40. Punishment should be regulated, not by abstract rules, but in view +of the particular case and its attending circumstances. + + 41. Sex and age of pupil should be regarded in prescribing the mode +and degree of punishment. Corporal punishment is best for pupils who are +very immature in mind; when they are more developed they may be punished +by any imposed restraint upon their free wills which will isolate them +from the ordinary routine followed by their fellow-pupils. (Deprivation +of the right to do as others do is a wholesome species of punishment for +those old or mature enough to feel its effects, for it tends to secure +respect for the regular tasks by elevating them to the rank of rights +and privileges.) For young men and women, the punishment should be of a +kind that is based on a sense of honor. + + 42. (1) Corporal punishment should be properly administered by means +of the rod, subduing wilful defiance by the application of force. + + 48. (2) Isolation makes the pupil realize a sense of his dependence +upon human society, and upon the expression of this dependence by +coperation in the common tasks. Pupils should not be shut up in a dark +room, nor removed from the personal supervision of the teacher. (To shut +up two or more in a room without supervision is not isolation, but +association; only it is association for mischief, and not for study.) + + 44. (3) Punishment based on the sense of honor may or may not be based +on isolation. It implies a state of maturity on the part of the pupil. +Through his offence the pupil has destroyed his equality with his +fellows, and has in reality, in his inmost nature, isolated himself from +them. Corporal punishment is external, but it may be accompanied with a +keen sense of dishonor. Isolation, also, may, to a pupil, who is +sensitive to honor, be a severe blow to self-respect. But a punishment +founded entirely on the sense of honor would be wholly internal, and +have no external discomfort attached to it. + + 45. The necessity of carefully adapting the punishment to the age +and maturity of the pupil, renders it the most difficult part of the +teacher's duties. It is essential that the air and manner of the teacher +who punishes should be that of one who acts from a sense of painful +duty, and not from any delight in being the cause of suffering. Not +personal likes and dislikes, but the rational necessity which is over +teacher and pupil alike, causes the infliction of pain on the pupil. + + 46. Punishment is the final topic to be considered under the head of +"Form of Education." + +In the act of punishment the teacher abandons the legitimate province of +education, which seeks to make the pupil rational or obedient to what is +reasonable, as a habit, and from his own free will. The pupil is +punished in order that he may be _made_ to conform to the rational, by +the application of constraint. Another will is substituted for the +pupil's, and good behavior is produced, but not by the pupil's free act. +While education finds a negative limit in punishment, it finds a +positive limit in the accomplishment of its legitimate object, which is +the emancipation of the pupil from the state of imbecility, as regards +mental and moral self-control, into the ability to direct himself +rationally. When the pupil has acquired the discipline which enables him +to direct his studies properly, and to control his inclinations in such +a manner as to pursue his work regularly, the teacher is no longer +needed for him--he becomes his own teacher. + +There may be two extreme views on this subject--the one tending towards +the negative extreme of requiring the teacher to do everything for the +pupil, substituting his will for that of the pupil, and the other view +tending to the positive extreme, and leaving everything to the pupil, +even before his will is trained into habits of self-control, or his mind +provided with the necessary elementary branches requisite for the +prosecution of further study. + + 47. (1) The subjective limit of education (on the negative side) is to +be found in the individuality of the pupil--the limit to his natural +capacity. + + 48. (2) The objective limit to education lies in the amount of time +that the person may devote to his training. It, therefore, depends +largely upon wealth, or other fortunate circumstances. + + 49. (3) The absolute limit of education is the positive limit (see +46), beyond which the youth passes into freedom from the school, as a +necessary instrumentality for further culture. + + 50. The pre-arranged pattern-making work of the school is now done, +but self-education may and should go on indefinitely, and will go on if +the education of the school has really arrived at its "absolute" +limit--_i.e._, has fitted the pupil for self-education. Emancipation +from the school does not emancipate one from learning through his +fellow-men. Man's spiritual life is one depending upon coperation with +his fellow-men. Each must avail himself of the experience of his +fellow-men, and in turn communicate his own experience to the common +fund of the race. Thus each lives the life of the whole, and all live +for each. School-education gives the pupil the instrumentalities with +which to enable him to participate in this fund of experience--this +common life of the race. After school-education comes the still more +valuable education, which, however, without the school, would be in a +great measure impossible. + + + + +ERRATA. + + + 26. Last two paragraphs should be within quotation marks, being from +an English author. + + 29. The second and third paragraphs belong to 30.--the numbering +being omitted. + + 33. Line four--"instructive" should be "intuitive." + + + + +SECOND PART. + +The Special Elements of Education. + + + 51. Education is the development of the theoretical and practical +Reason which is inborn in the human being. Its end is to be accomplished +by the labor which transforms a condition, existent at first only as an +ideal, into a fixed habit, and changes the natural individuality into a +glorified humanity. When the youth stands, so to speak, on his own feet, +he is emancipated from education, and education then finds its limit. +The special elements which may be said to make up education are the +life, the cognition, and the will of man. Without the first, the real +nature of the soul can never be made really to appear; without +cognition, he can have no genuine will--_i.e._, one of which he is +conscious; and without will, no self-assurance, either of life or of +cognition. It must not be forgotten that these three so-called elements +are not to be held apart in the active work of education; for they are +inseparable and continually interwoven the one with the other. But none +the less do they determine their respective consequences, and sometimes +one, sometimes another has the supremacy. In infancy, up to the fifth or +sixth year, the physical development, or mere living, is the main +consideration; the next period, that of childhood, is the time of +acquiring knowledge, in which the child takes possession of the theory +of the world as it is handed down--a tradition of the past, such as man +has made it through his experience and insight; and finally, the period +of youth must pave the way to a practical activity, the character of +which the self-determination of the will must decide. + + 52. We may, then, divide the elements of Pedagogics into three +sections: (1) the physical, (2) the intellectual, (3) the practical. +(The words "orthobiotics," "didactics," and "pragmatics" might be used +to characterize them.) + +sthetic training is only an element of the intellectual, as social, +moral, and religious training are elements of the practical. But because +these latter elements relate to external things (affairs of the world), +the name pragmatics, is appropriate. In so far as education touches on +the principles which underlie ethics, politics, and religion, it concurs +with those sciences, but it is distinguished from them in the capacity +which it imparts for solving the problems presented by the others. + +The scientific order of topics must be established through the fact that +the earlier, as the more abstract, constitute the condition of their +presupposed end and aim, and the later because the more concrete +constitute the ground of the former, and consequently their final cause, +or the end for which they exist; just as in human beings, life in the +order of time comes before cognition, and cognition before will, +although life really presupposes cognition, and cognition will. + + +FIRST DIVISION. + +PHYSICAL EDUCATION, OR ORTHOBIOTICS. + + + 53. Only when we rightly comprehend the process of life may we know +how to live aright. Life, the "circle of eternal change," is constantly +transforming the inorganic into the organic, and after using it, +returning it again to the realm of the inorganic. Whatever it does not +assimilate of that which it has taken in simply as a stimulant, and +whatever has become dead, it separates from itself and rejects. The +organism is in perfect health when it accomplishes this double task of +organizing and disorganizing. On the comprehension of this single fact +all laws of physical health or of hygiene are based. This idea of the +essence of life is expressed by Goethe in his Faust, where he sees the +golden buckets perpetually rising and sinking.[13] When the equilibrium +of the upward and downward motion is disturbed, we have disease. When +the motion ceases we have death, in which the whole organism becomes +inorganic, and the "dust returns to dust." + + 54. It follows from this that not only in the organism as a whole, but +in every organ, and every part of every organ, this restless change of +the inorganic to the organic is going on. Every cell has its own +history, and this history is only the same as that of the whole of which +it forms a part. Activity is then not inimical to the organism, but is +the appointed means by which the progressive and retrogressive +metamorphoses must be carried out. In order that the process may go on +harmoniously, or, in other words, that the body may be healthy, the +whole organism, and every part of it in its own way, must have its +period of productive activity and then also its period of rest in which +it finds renewal of strength for another period of activity. Thus we +have waking and sleep, inspiration and expiration of air. Periodicity is +the law of life. When we understand the relative antagonism (their stage +of tension) of the different organs, and their cycles of activity, we +shall hold the secret of the constant self-renewal of life. This thought +finds expression in the old fairy stories of "The Search after the +Fountain of Youth." And the figure of the fountain, with its rising and +falling waters, doubtless finds its origin in the dim comprehension of +the endless double movement, or periodicity of life. + + 55. When to any organ, or to the whole organism, not sufficient time +is allowed for it to withdraw into itself and to repair waste, we are +conscious of fatigue. While the other organs all rest, however, one +special organ may, as if separated from them, sustain a long-continued +effort of activity even to the point of fatigue, without injury--as, +_e.g._, the lungs in talking while all the other members are at rest. +But, on the other hand, it is not well to talk and run at the same time. + +The idea that the body may be preserved in a healthy state longer by +sparing it--_i.e._, by inactivity--is an error which springs from a +false and mechanical conception of life. It is just as foolish to +imagine that health depends on the abundance and excellence of food, for +without the power of assimilating the food taken, nourishment of +whatever kind does more harm than good; all real strength develops from +activity alone. + + 56. Physical education, according as it relates to the repairing, the +muscular, or the emotional activities, is divided into (1) diatetics, +(2) gymnastics, (3) sexual education. In the direct activity of life +these all interact with each other, but for our purposes we are obliged +to speak of them as if they worked independently. Moreover, in the +development of the human being, they come into maturity of development +in a certain order: nutrition, muscular growth, sexual maturity. But +Pedagogics can treat of these only as they are found in the infant, the +child, and the youth; for with the arrival of mature life, education is +over. + + +FIRST CHAPTER. + +_Diatetics._ + + + 57. By diatetics we mean the art of repairing the constant waste of +the system, and, in childhood, of also building it up to its full form +and size. Since in reality each organism has its own way of doing this, +the diatetical practice must vary somewhat with sex, age, temperament, +occupation, and circumstances. The science of Pedagogics has then, in +this department, only to enunciate general principles. If we go into +details, we fall into triviality. Nothing can be of more importance for +the whole life than the way in which the physical education is managed +in the very first stages of development. So generally is this fact +accepted, that almost every nation has its own distinct system, which +has been carefully elaborated. Many of these systems, no doubt, are +characterized by gross errors, and widely differ as to time, place, and +character, and yet they all have a justification for their peculiar +form. + + 58. The best food for the infant in the first months of its life is +its mother's milk. The employment of another nurse, if a general custom, +as in France, is highly objectionable, since with the milk the child is +likely to imbibe to some extent his physical and ethical nature. The +milk of an animal can never supply the place to a child of that of its +own mother. In Walter Scott's story of _The Fair Maid of Perth_, Eachim +is represented as timorous by nature, having been nourished by a white +doe after the death of his mother. + + 59. When the teeth make their appearance, it is a sign that the child +is ready for solid food; and yet, till the second teeth appear, light, +half-solid food and vegetables should constitute the principal part of +the diet. + + 60. When the second teeth have come, then the organism demands both +vegetable and animal food. Too much meat is, doubtless, harmful. But it +is an error to suppose that man was intended to eat vegetables alone, +and that, as some have said, the adoption of animal food is a sign of +his degeneracy. + +The Hindoos, who live principally on a vegetable diet, are not at all, +as has been asserted, a mild and gentle race. A glance into their +stories, especially their erotic poetry, proves them to be quite as +passionate as any other people. + + 61. Man is an omnivorous being. Children have, therefore, a natural +desire to taste of every thing. With them, eating and drinking have +still a poetic side, and there is a pleasure in them which is not wholly +the mere pleasure of taste. Their proclivity to taste of every thing +should not, therefore, be harshly censured, unless it is associated with +disobedience, or pursued in a clandestine manner, or when it betrays +cunning and greediness. + + 62. Children need much sleep, because they are growing and changing so +fast. In later years, waking and sleeping must be regulated, and yet not +too exactly. + + 63. The clothing of children should follow the form of the body, and +should be large enough to give them free room for the unfettered +movement of every limb in play. + +The Germans do more rationally for children in the matter of sleep and +of dress than in that of food, which they often make too rich, and +accompany with coffee, tea, etc. The clothing should be not only +suitable in shape and size, it must also be made of simple and +inexpensive material, so that the child may not be hampered in his play +by the constant anxiety that a spot or a rent may cause fault to be +found with him. If we foster in the child's mind too much thought about +his clothes, we tend to produce either a narrow-mindedness, which treats +affairs of the moment with too much respect and concerns itself with +little things, or an empty vanity. Vanity is often produced by dressing +children in a manner that attracts attention. (No one can fail to remark +the peculiar healthful gayety of German children, and to contrast it +with the different appearance of American children. It is undoubtedly +true that the climate has much to do with this result, but it is also +true that we may learn much from that nation in our way of treating +children. Already we import their children's story-books, to the +infinite delight of the little ones, and copies of their children's +pictures are appropriated constantly by our children's magazines and +picture-books. It is to be greatly desired that we should adopt the very +sensible custom which prevails in Germany, of giving to each child its +own little bed to sleep in, no matter how many may be required; and, in +general, we shall not go far astray if we follow the Germans in their +treatment of their happy children.) + + 64. Cleanliness is a virtue to which children should be trained, not +only for the sake of their physical health, but also because it has a +decided moral influence. Cleanliness will not have things deprived of +their distinctive and individual character, and become again a part of +original chaos. It is only a form of order which remands all things, +dirt included, to their own places, and will not endure to have things +mixed and confused. All adaptation in dress comes from this same +principle. When every thing is in its proper place, all dressing will be +suitable to the occasion and to the wearer, and the era of good taste in +dress will have come. Dirt itself, as Lord Palmerston so wittily said, +is nothing but "matter out of place." Cleanliness would hold every +individual thing strictly to its differences from other things, and for +the reason that it makes pure air, cleanliness of his own body, of his +clothing, and of all his surroundings really necessary to man, it +develops in him the feeling for the proper limitations of all existent +things. (Emerson says: "Therefore is space and therefore is time, that +men may know that things are not huddled and lumped, but sundered and +divisible." He might have said, "Therefore is cleanliness.") + + +SECOND CHAPTER. + +_Gymnastics._ + + + 65. Gymnastics is the art of cultivating in a rational manner the +muscular system. The activity of the voluntary muscles, which are under +the control of the brain, in distinction from the involuntary, which are +under the control of the spinal cord, renders possible the connection of +man with the external world, and acts in a reflex manner back upon the +involuntary or automatic muscles for the purposes of repair and +sensation. Because the activity of muscle-fibre consists in the change +from contraction to expansion, and the reverse, gymnastics must use a +constant change of movements which shall not only make tense, but relax +the muscles that are to be exercised. + + 66. The gymnastic art among any people will always bear a certain +relation to its art of war. So long as fighting consists mainly of +personal, hand-to-hand encounters of two combatants, so long will +gymnastics turn its chief effort towards the development of the greatest +possible amount of individual strength and dexterity. But after the +invention of fire-arms of long range has changed the whole idea of war, +the individual becomes only one member of a body, the army, the +division, or the regiment, and emerges from this position into his +individuality again only occasionally, as in sharpshooting, in the +onset, or in the retreat. Modern gymnastics, as an art, can never be the +same as the ancient art, for this very reason: that because of the loss +of the individual man in the general mass of combatants, the matter of +personal bravery is not of so much importance as formerly. The same +essential difference between ancient and modern gymnastics, would result +from the subjective, or internal character of the modern spirit. It is +impossible for us, in modern times, to devote so much thought to the +care of the body and to the reverential admiration of its beauty as did +the Greeks. + +The Turners' Unions and Turners' Halls in Germany belonged to the period +of intense political enthusiasm in the German youth, and had a political +significance. Now they have come back again to their place as an +instrument of education, and seem in great cities to be of much +importance. In mountainous countries, and in country life generally, a +definite gymnastic drill is of much less importance, for much and varied +exercise is of necessity a constant part of the daily life of every one. + +The constant opportunity and the impulse to recreation helps in the same +direction. In cities, on the contrary, there is not free space enough +either in houses or yards for children to romp to their heart's and +body's content. For this reason a gymnasium is here useful, so that they +may have companionship in their plays. For girls this exercise is less +necessary. Dancing may take its place, and systematic exercise should be +used only where there is a tendency to some weakness or deformity. They +are not to become Amazons. On the other hand, boys need the feeling of +comradeship. It is true they find this in some measure in school, but +they are not there perfectly on an equality, because the standing is +determined to some extent by his intellectual ability. The academic +youth cannot hope to win any great preminence in the gymnastic hall, +and running, climbing, leaping, and lifting do not interest him very +much as he grows older. He takes a far more lively interest in exercises +which have a military character. In Germany the gymnastic art is very +closely united with the art of war. + +(The German idea of a woman's whole duty--to knit, to sew, and to obey +implicitly--is perhaps accountable for what Rosenkranz here says of +exercise as regards girls. We, however, who know that the most frequent +direct cause of debility and suffering in our young women is simply and +solely a want of muscular strength, may be pardoned for dissenting from +his opinion, and for suggesting that dancing is not a sufficient +equivalent for the more violent games of their brothers. We do not fear +to render them Amazons by giving them more genuine and systematic +exercise, both physically and intellectually.) + + 67. The main idea of gymnastics, and indeed of all exercise, is to +give the mind control over its natural impulses, to make it master of +the body which it inhabits, and of itself. Strength and dexterity must +combine to give us a sense of mastership. Strength by itself produces +the athlete, dexterity by itself the acrobat. Pedagogics must avoid both +these extremes. Neither must it base its teaching of gymnastics on the +idea of utility--as, _e.g._, that man might save his life by swimming, +should he fall into the water, and hence swimming should be taught, etc. + +The main thought must be always to enable the soul to take full and +perfect possession of the organism, so as not to have the body form a +limit or fetter to its action in its dealings with the external world. +We are to give it a perfect instrument in the body, in so far as our +care may do so. Then we are to teach it to use that instrument, and +exercise it in that use till it is complete master thereof. + +(What is said about the impropriety of making athletes and acrobats may +with justice be also applied to what is called "vocal gymnastics;" +whence it comes that we have too often vocal athletes and acrobats in +our graduates, and few readers who can read at sight, without difficulty +or hesitation, and with appreciation or enjoyment, one page of good +English.) + + 68. There are all grades of gymnastic exercises, from the simple to +the most complex, constituting a system. At first sight, there seems to +be so much arbitrariness in these things that it is always very +satisfactory to the mind to detect some rational system in them. Thus we +have movements (_a_) of the lower extremities, (_b_) of the upper, (_c_) +of the whole body, with corresponding movements, alternately, of the +upper and of the lower extremities. We thus have leg, arm, and trunk +movements. + + 69. (1) The first set of movements, those of the legs and feet, are of +prime importance, because upon them depends the carriage of the whole +body. They are (_a_) walking, (_b_) running, (_c_) leaping; and each of +these, also, may have varieties. We may have high and low leaping, and +running may be distinguished as to whether it is to be a short and +rapid, or a slow and long-continued movement. We may also walk on +stilts, or run on skates. We may leap with a pole, or without one. +Dancing is only an artistic and graceful combination of these movements. + + 70. (2) The second set comprises the arm movements, which are about +the same as the preceding, being (_a_) lifting, (_b_) swinging; (_c_) +throwing. The use of horizontal poles and bars, as well as climbing and +dragging, belong to lifting. Under throwing, come quoit and ball-playing +and bowling. These movements are distinguished from each other not only +quantitatively, but qualitatively; as, for instance, running is not +merely rapid walking; it is a different kind of movement from walking, +as the position of the extended and contracted muscles is different. + + 71. (3) The third set of exercises, those of the trunk, differ from +the other two, which should precede it, in that they bring the body into +contact with an object in itself capable of active resistance, which it +has to subdue. This object may be an element (water), an animal, or a +human being; and thus we have (_a_) swimming, (_b_) riding, (_c_) +fighting in single combat. In swimming we have the elastic fluid, water, +to overcome by means of arm and leg movements. This may be made very +difficult by a strong current, or by rough water, and yet we always have +here to strive against an inanimate object. On the contrary, in +horseback riding we have to deal with something that has a self of its +own, and the contest challenges not our strength alone, but also our +skill and courage. The motion is therefore very complex, and the rider +must be able to exercise either or all of these qualities at need. But +his attention must not be wholly given to his horse, for he has to +observe also the road, and indeed every thing around him. One of the +greatest advantages of horseback riding to the overworked student or the +business man lies doubtlessly in the mental effort. It is impossible for +him to go on revolving in his mind the problems or the thoughts which +have so wearied or perplexed him. His whole attention is incessantly +demanded for the management of his horse, for the observation of the +road, which changes its character with every step, and with the objects, +far or near, which are likely to attract the attention of the animal he +rides. Much good, doubtless, results from the exercise of the muscles of +the trunk, which are not in any other motion called into such active +play, but much also from the unavoidable distraction of the mind from +the ordinary routine of thought, which is the thing most needed. When +the object which we are to subdue, instead of being an animal, is a man +like ourselves, as in single combat, we have exercise both of body and +mind pushed to its highest power. We have then to oppose an intelligence +which is equal to our own, and no longer the intelligence of an +unreasoning animal. Single combat is the truly chivalrous exercise; and +this also, as in the old chivalry time, may be combined with +horsemanship. + +In single combat we find also a qualitative distinction, and this of +three kinds: (_a_) boxing and wrestling, (_b_) fighting with canes or +clubs, and (_c_) rapier and sword fencing. The Greeks carried wrestling +to its highest pitch of excellence. Among the British, a nation of +sailors, boxing is still retained as a national custom. Fencing with a +cane or stick is much in use among the French artisan class. The cane is +a sort of refined club. When the sword or rapier makes its appearance, +we come to mortal combat. The southern European excels in the use of the +rapier; the Germans in that of the sword. The appearance of the pistol +marks the degeneracy of the art of single combat, as it makes the weak +man equal to the strong, and there is therefore no more incentive to +train the body to strength in order to overcome an enemy. (The trained +intelligence, the quick eye, the steady hand, the wary thought to +perceive and to take advantage of an opportunity--these are the +qualities which the invention of gunpowder set up above strength and +brute force. The Greek nation, and we may say Greek mythology and art, +would have been impossible with gunpowder; the American nation +impossible without it.) + + +THIRD CHAPTER. + +_Sexual Education._ + + +[This chapter is designed for parents rather than for teachers, and is +hence not paraphrased here. A few observations are, however, in place.] +Great care is necessary at the period of youth that a rational system of +food and exercise be maintained. But the general fault is in the +omission of this care in preceding years. One cannot neglect due +precautions for many years, and then hope to repair the damage caused, +by extreme care for one or two years. + +Special care is necessary that the brain be not overworked in early +years, and a morbid excitation of the whole nervous system thereby +induced. We desire to repress any tendency to the rapid development of +the nervous system. Above all, is the reading of the child to be +carefully watched and guarded. Nothing can be worse food for a child +than what are called sensational romances. That the reading of such +tends to enfeeble and enervate the whole thinking power is a fact which +properly belongs to the intellectual side of our question not yet +reached, and may be here merely mentioned. But the effect on the +physical condition of the youth, of such carelessly written sensational +stories, mostly of the French type, and full of sensuous, if not sensual +suggestions, is a point not often enough considered. The teacher cannot, +perhaps, except indirectly, prevent the reading of such trash at home. +But every influence which he can bring to bear towards the formation of +a purer and more correct taste, he should never omit. Where there is a +public library in the town, he should make himself acquainted with its +contents, and give the children direct help in their selection of books. + +This is an external means. But he should never forget that every +influence which he can bring to bear in his daily work to make science +pleasant and attractive, and every lesson which he gives in the use of +pure, correct English, free from exaggeration, from slang, and from +mannerism, goes far to render such miserable and pernicious trash +distasteful even to the child himself. + +Every example of thorough work, every pleasure that comes from the +solving of a problem or the acquisition of a new fact, is so much +fortification against the advances of the enemy; while all shallow half +work, all pretence or show tend to create an appetite in the child's +mind which shall demand such food. + +The true teacher should always have in his mind these far-away and +subtle effects of his teaching; not present good or pleasure either for +himself or his pupil, but the far-off good--the distant development. +That idea would free him from the notion, too common in our day, that +the success or failure of his efforts is to be tested by any adroitly +contrived system of examinations; or still worse, exhibitions. His +success can alone be tested by the future lives of his pupils--by their +love for, or dislike of, new knowledge. His success will be marked by +their active growth through all their lives; his failure, by their early +arrested development. + + + + +AN OUTLINE OF EDUCATIONAL PSYCHOLOGY. + +BY WM. T. HARRIS. + +[TO BE USED AS AN INTRODUCTION TO PARAGRAPHS 81 TO 102 OF ROSENKRANZ'S +PEDAGOGICS.] + + +I. + + What beings can be educated; the plant has reaction + against its surroundings in the form of nutrition; the + animal has reaction in the form of nutrition and feeling; + Aristotle calls the life of the plant the "nutritive + soul," and the life of the animal the "sensitive soul." + + The life of the plant is a continual reproduction of new + individuals--a process of going out of one individual into + another--so that the particular individual loses its + identity, although the identity of the species is + preserved. + +That which is dependent upon external circumstances, and is only a +circumstance itself, is not capable of education. Only a "self" can be +educated; and a "self" is a conscious unity--a "self-activity," a being +which is through itself, and not one that is made by surrounding +conditions. + +Again, in order that a being possess a capacity for education, it must +have the ability to realize within itself what belongs to its species or +race. + +If an acorn could develop itself so that it could realize, not only its +own possibility as an oak, but its entire species, and all the varieties +of oaks within itself, and without losing its particular individuality, +it would possess the capacity for education. But an acorn, in reality, +cannot develop its possibility without the destruction of its own +individuality. The acorn vanishes in the oak tree, and the crop of +acorns which succeeds is not again the same acorn, except in _kind_ or +species. "The species lives, but the individual dies," in the vegetable +world. + +So it is in the animal world. The brute lives his particular life, +unable to develop within himself the form of his entire species, and +still less the form of all animal life. And yet the animal possesses +self-activity in the powers of locomotion, sense-perception, feeling, +emotion, and other elementary shapes. Both animal and plant react +against surroundings, and possess more or less power to assimilate what +is foreign to them. The plant takes moisture and elementary inorganic +substances, and converts them into nutrition wherewith to build its +cellular growth. The animal has not only this power of nutrition, which +assimilates its surroundings, but also the power of _feeling_, which is +a wonderful faculty. _Feeling_ reproduces within the organism of the +animal the external condition; it is an ideal reproduction of the +surroundings. The environment of the plant may be seized upon and +appropriated in the form of sap, or in the form of carbonic acid, for +the nourishment of that plant; but there is no ideal reproduction of the +environment in the form of _feeling_, as in the animal. + +In the activity of _feeling_, the animal transcends his material, +corporeal limits--lives beyond his mere body, and participates in the +existence of all nature. He reproduces within himself the external. Such +being the nature of the activity of _feeling_, which forms the +distinguishing attribute that divides animals from plants, the question +meets us at the outset, "Why is not the animal capable of education? Why +can he not realize within himself his entire species or race, as man +can?" + +In order to settle this fundamental question, we must study carefully +the scope and limits of this activity, which we have termed "Feeling," +and which is known under many names--as, sensation, sensibility, +sensitivity, sense-perception, intuition, and others. + +Education aims to develop the mind as intellect and will. It must know +what it is to develop, and learn to distinguish higher or more complete +stages of intellect and will from those which are rudimentary. + +Again, the discussion of mind begins properly with the first or most +undeveloped manifestation--at the stage where it is common to brutes and +human beings. Hence we may begin our study of educational psychology at +this point where the distinction between animal and plant appears, and +where the question of the capacity for education arises. + +When we understand the relation of feeling or sensibility to the higher +manifestations of mind, we shall see in what consists a capacity for +education, and we shall learn many essentials in regard to the matter +and method, the _what_ and the _how_ of education. + +A general survey of the world discovers that there is inter-action +among its parts. This is the verdict of science, as the systematic form +of human experience. In the form of gravitation we understand that each +body depends upon every other body, and the annihilation of a particle +of matter in a body would cause a change in that body which would affect +every other body in the physical universe. Even gravitation, therefore, +is a manifestation of the whole universe in each part of it, although it +is not a manifestation which exists _for_ that part, because the part +does not _know_ it. + +There are other forms wherein the whole manifests itself in each part of +it--as, for example, in the phenomena of light, heat, and possibly in +magnetism and electricity. These forms of manifestation of the external +world upon an individual object are destructive to the individuality of +the object. If the nature of a thing is stamped upon it from without, it +is an element only, and not a self; it is dependent, and belongs to that +on which it depends. It does not possess itself, but belongs to that +which _makes_ it, and which gives evidence of ownership by continually +modifying it. + +But the plant, as we just now said, has some degree of self-activity, +and is not altogether made by the totality of external conditions. The +growth of the plant is through assimilation of external substances. It +reacts against its surroundings and digests them, and grows through the +nutrition thus formed. + +All beings that cannot react against surroundings and modify them, lack +individuality. Individuality begins with this power of reaction and +modification of external surroundings. Even the power of cohesion is a +rudimentary form of reaction and of special individuality. + +In the case of the plant, the reaction is _real_, but not also _ideal_. +The plant acts upon its food, and digests it, or assimilates it, and +imposes its _form_ on that which it draws within its organism. It does +not, however, reproduce within itself the externality as that external +exists for itself. It does not form within itself an idea, or even a +feeling of that which is external to it. Its participation in the +external world is only that of _real_ modification of it or through it; +either the plant digests the external, or the external limits _it_, and +prevents its growth, so that where one begins the other ceases. Hence it +is that the elements--the matter of which the plant is composed, that +which it has assimilated even--still retain a large degree of foreign +power or force--a large degree of externality which the plant has not +been able to annul or to digest. The plant-activity subdues its food, +changes its shape and its place, subordinates it to its use; but what +the matter brings with it, and still retains of the world beyond the +plant, does not exist for the plant; the plant cannot read or interpret +the rest of the universe from that small portion of it which it has +taken up within its own organism. And yet the history of the universe is +impressed on each particle of matter, as well within the plant as +outside of it, and it could be understood were there capacities for +recognizing it. + +The reaction of the life of the plant upon the external world is not +sufficient to constitute a fixed, abiding individuality. With each +accretion there is some change of particular individuality. Every growth +to a plant is by the sprouting out of new individuals--new plants--a +ceaseless multiplication of individuals, and not the preservation of the +same individual. The species is preserved, but not the particular +individual. Each limb, each twig, even each leaf is a new individual, +which grows out from the previous growth as the first sprout grew from +the seed. Each part furnishes a soil for the next. When a plant no +longer sends out new individuals, we say it is dead. The life of the +plant is only a life of nutrition. + +Aristotle called vegetable life "the nutritive soul," and the life of +the animal the "feeling," or _sensitive_ soul. Nutrition is only an +activity of preservation of the general form in new individuals, it is +only the life of the species, and not the life of the permanent +individual. + +Therefore we see that in the vegetable world we do not possess a being +that can be educated--for no individual of it can realize _within_ +itself the species; its realization of the species is a continual +process of going out of itself in new individuals, but no activity of +_return_ to itself, so as to preserve _the identity_ of an individual. + + +II. + + Feeling is a unity of the parts of an organism everywhere + present in it; feeling is also an ideal reproduction of + the external surroundings; feeling is therefore a + synthesis of the internal and external. Aristotle joins + locomotion and desire to feeling, as correlates; how + desire is a more explicit recognition of the unity of the + external and internal than the first form of feeling is; + feeling reproduces the external without destroying its + externality, while nutrition receives the external only + after it has destroyed its individuality and assimilated + it; desire is the side of feeling that unfolds into will. + +With feeling or sensibility we come to a being that reacts on the +external world in a far higher manner, and realizes a more wonderful +form of individuality. + +The animal possesses, in common with the plant, a process of +assimilation and nutrition. Moreover, he possesses a capacity to _feel_. +Through _feeling_, or sensation, all of the parts of his extended +organism are united in one centre. He is one individual, and not a +bundle of separate individuals, as a plant is. With feeling, likewise, +are joined _locomotion_ and _desire_. For these are counterparts of +feeling. He feels--_i.e._, lives as one indivisible unity throughout his +organism and controls it, and moves the parts of his body. Desire is +more than mere feeling. Mere feeling alone is the perception of the +external within the being, hence an ideal reproduction of the external +world. In feeling, the animal exists not only within himself, but also +passes over his limit, and has for object the reality of the external +world that limits him. Hence it is the perception of his finiteness--his +limits are his defects, his needs, wants, inadequateness--his separation +from the world as a whole. In feeling, the animal perceives his +separation from the rest of the world, and also his union with it. +Feeling expands into desire when the external world, or some portion of +it, is seen as ideally belonging to the limited unity of the animal +being. It is beyond the limit, and ought to be assimilated within the +limited individuality of the animal. + +Mere _feeling_, when attentively considered, is found to contain these +wonderful features of self-activity: it reproduces for itself the +external world that limits it; it makes for itself an ideal object, +which includes its own self and its not-self at the same time. It is a +higher form than mere nutrition; for nutrition destroys the nature of +such externality as it receives into itself, while feeling preserves the +external in its foreign individuality. + +But through _feeling_ the animal ascends to _desire_, and sees the +independent externality as an object for its acquisition, and through +locomotion it is enabled to seize and appropriate it in a degree which +the plant did not possess. + + +III. + + The various forms of feeling--its specialization: (_a_) + touch, the feeling of mere limits, the indifferent + external independence of the organism and its + surroundings; (_b_) taste, feeling of the external object + when it is undergoing dissolution by assimilation; (_c_) + smell, the feeling of chemical dissolution in general; + (_d_) hearing, the feeling of the resistance of bodies + against attacks: sound being vibration caused by elastic + reaction against attacks on cohesion; (_e_) seeing, the + feeling of objects in their independence, without + dissolution or attack; plant life, nutrition, a process in + which the individuality is not preserved either in time or + in space; animal life, as feeling, preserves its + individuality as regards space, but not as regards time. + +Having noted these important characteristics of the lower orders of +life, and found that _reaction_ from the part against the whole--from +the internal against the external--belongs to plant life and animal +life, we may now briefly mention the ways in which feeling is +particularized. In the lower animals it is only the feeling of touch; in +higher organisms it becomes also localized as seeing, hearing, taste, +and smell. These forms of sense-perception constitute a scale (as it +were) of feeling. With touch, there is reproduction of externality, but +the ideality of the reproduction is not so complete as in the other +forms. With taste, the feeling cognizes the external object as +undergoing dissolution, and assimilation within its own organism. We +taste only what we are beginning to destroy by the first process of +assimilation--that of eating. In smell, we perceive chemical dissolution +of bodies. In seeing and hearing, we have the forms of _ideal_ +sensibility. Hearing perceives the attack made on the individuality of +an external thing, and its reaction in vibrations, which reveal to us +its internal nature--its cohesion, etc. In seeing, we have the highest +form of sense-perception as the perception of things in their external +independence--not as being destroyed chemically, like the objects of +taste and smell; not as being attacked and resisting, like the objects +which are known through the ear; not as mere limits to our organism, as +in the sense of touch. + +Sense-perception, as the developed realization of the activity of +feeling, belongs to the animal creation, including man as an animal. + +We have not yet, therefore, answered the question of capacity for +education, so far as it concerns a discrimination between man and +the brute. We have only arrived at the conclusion that the vegetable +world does not possess the capacity for education, because its +individual specimens are no complete individuals, but only transitory +phases manifesting the species by continual reproduction of +new individuals which are as incomplete as the old ones. Plant life +does not possess that self-activity which returns into itself in the +same individual--if we may so express it; it goes out of one individual +into another perpetually. Its identity is that of the _species_, +but not of the _individual_. + +How is it with the animal--with the being which possesses sensibility, +or feeling? This question recurs. In feeling there is a reaction, +just as in the plant. This reaction is, however, in an ideal +form--the reproduction of the external without assimilation of it--and +especially is this the case in the sense of _sight_, though it is true +of all forms of sensation to a less degree. + +But all forms of sensibility are limited and special; they refer only +to the _present_, in its forms of _here_ and _now_. The animal cannot feel +what is not here and now. Even seeing is limited to what is present +before it. When we reflect upon the significance of this limitation +of sense-perception, we shall find that we need some higher form of +self-activity still before we can realize the species in the individual, +_i.e._, before we can obtain the true individual--the permanent +individuality. + +The defect in plant life was, that there was neither identity of +individuality in space nor identify in time. The growth of the +plant destroyed the individuality of the seed with which we began, +so that it was evanescent in time; it served only as the starting-point +for new individualities, which likewise, in turn, served again the same +purpose; and so its growth in space was a departure from itself as +individual. + +The animal is a preservation of individuality as regards space. He +returns into himself in the form of _feeling_ or _sensibility_; but as +regards time, it is not so--feeling being limited to the present. +Without a higher activity than feeling, there is no continuity of +individuality in the animal any more than in the plant. Each new moment +is a new beginning to a being that has feeling, but not memory. + +Thus the individuality of mere feeling, although a far more perfect +realization of individuality than that found in plant life, is yet, +after all, not a continuous individuality for itself, but only for the +species. + +In spite of the ideal self-activity which appertains to feeling, even +in sense-perception, only the species lives in the animal and the +individual dies, unless there be higher forms of activity. + + +IV. + + Representation is the next form above sense-perception. + The lowest phase of representation is recollection, which + simply repeats for itself a former sense-perception or + series of sense-perceptions; in representation the mind is + free as regards external impressions; it does not require + the presence of the object, but recalls it without its own + time and place; fancy and imagination are next higher than + recollection, because the mind not only recalls images, + but makes new combinations of them, or creates them + altogether; attention is the appearance of the will in the + intellect; with attention begins the separation of the + transient from the variable in perception; memory is the + highest form of representation; memory deals with general + forms--not mere images of experience, but general types of + objects of perception; memory, in this sense, is + productive as well as reproductive; with memory arises + language. + +Here we pass over to the consideration of higher forms of intellect and +will. + +While mere sensation, as such, acts only in the presence of the +object--reproducing (ideally), it is true, the external object, the +faculty of representation is a higher form of self-activity (or of +reaction against surrounding conditions), because it can recall, at its +own pleasure, the ideal object. Here is the beginning of emancipation +from the limitations of time. + +The self-activity of representation can summon before it the object that +is no longer present to it. Hence its activity is now a double one, for +it can seize not only what is now and here immediately before it, but it +can compare this present object with the past, and identify or +distinguish between the two. Thus recollection or representation may +become _memory_. + +As memory, the mind achieves a form of activity far above that of +sense-perception or mere recollection. It must be noted carefully that +mere recollection or representation, although it holds fast the +perception in time (making it permanent), does not necessarily +constitute an activity completely emancipated from time, nor indeed very +far advanced towards it. It is only the beginning of such emancipation. +For mere recollection stands in the presence of the special object of +sense-perception; although the object is no longer present to the senses +(or to mere feeling), yet the image is present to the representative +perception, and is just as much a particular here and now as the object +of sense-perception. There intervenes a new activity on the part of the +soul before it arrives at memory. Recollection is not memory, but it is +the activity which grows into it by the aid of the activity of +attention. + +The special characteristics of objects of the senses are allowed to drop +away, in so far as they are unessential and merely circumstantial, and +gradually there arises in the mind the type--the _general form_--of the +object perceived. This general form is the object of memory. Memory +deals therefore with what is general, and a type, rather than with what +is directly recollected or perceived. + +The activity by which the mind ascends from sense-perception to memory +is the activity of attention. Here we have the appearance of the will in +intellectual activity. Attention is the control of perception by means +of the will. The senses shall no longer passively receive and report +what is before them, but they shall choose some definite point of +observation, and neglect all the rest. + +Here, in the act of attention we find _abstraction_, and the greater +attainment of freedom by the mind. The mind abstracts its view from the +many things before it, and concentrates on one point. + +Educators have for many ages noted that the habit of attention is the +first step in intellectual education. With it we have found the point of +separation between the animal intellect and the human. Not attention +simply--like that with which the cat watches by the hole of a mouse--but +attention which arrives at results of abstraction, is the distinguishing +characteristic of educative beings. + +Attention abstracts from some things before it and concentrates on +others. Through attention grows the capacity to discriminate between +the special, particular object and its general type. Generalization +arises, but not what is usually called generalization--only a +more elementary form of it. Memory, as the highest form of +representation--distinguishing it from mere recollection, which +reproduces only what has been perceived--such memory deals with the +general forms of objects, their continuity in time. Such activity of +memory, therefore, does not reproduce mere images, but only the +concepts or general ideas of things, and therefore it belongs to the +stage of mind that uses language. + + +V. + + Language marks the arrival at the stage of thought--at the + stage of the perception of universals--hence at the + possibility of education; language fixes the general types + which the productive memory forms; each one of these + types, indicated by a word, stands for a possible infinite + of sense-perceptions or recollections; the word _tree_ + stands for all the trees that exist, and for all that have + existed or will exist. Animals do not create for + themselves a new world of general types, but deal only + with the first world of particular objects; hence they are + lost in the variety and multiplicity of continuous + succession and difference. Man's sense-perception is with + memory; hence always a recognition of the object as not + wholly new, but only as an example of what he is mostly + familiar with. Intellectual education has for its object + the cultivation of reflection; reflection is the Platonic + "Reminiscence," which retraces the unconscious processes + of thought + +Language is the means of distinguishing between the brute and the +human--between the animal soul, which has continuity only in the species +(which pervades its being in the form of _instinct_), and the _human_, +soul, which is immortal, and possessed of a capacity to be educated. + +There is no language until the mind can perceive general types of +existence; mere proper names nor mere exclamations or cries do not +constitute language. All words that belong to language are +significative--they "_express_" or "_mean_" something--hence they are +conventional symbols, and not mere individual designations. Language +arises only through common consent, and is not an invention of one +individual. It is a product of individuals acting together as a +community, and hence implies the ascent of the individual into the +species. Unless an individual could ascend into the species he could not +_understand_ language. To know words and their meaning is an activity of +divine significance; it denotes the formation of universals in the +mind--the ascent above the here and now of the senses, and above the +representation of mere images, to the activity which grasps together the +general conception of objects, and thus reaches beyond what is transient +and variable. + +Doubtless the nobler species of animals possess not only +sense-perception, but a considerable degree of the power of +representation. They are not only able to recollect, but to imagine or +fancy to some extent, as is evidenced by their dreams. But that animals +do not generalize sufficiently to form for themselves a new objective +world of types and general concepts, we have a sufficient evidence in +the fact that they do not use words, or invent conventional symbols. +With the activity of the symbol-making form of representation, which we +have named Memory, and whose evidence is the invention and use of +language, the true form of individuality is attained, and each +individual human being, as mind, may be said to be the entire species. +Inasmuch as he can form universals in his mind, he can realize the most +abstract thought; and he is conscious. Consciousness begins when one can +seize the pure universal in the presence of immediate objects here and +now. + +The sense-perception of the mere animal, therefore, differs from that of +the human being in this:-- + +The human being knows himself as subject that sees the object, while the +animal sees the object, but does not separate himself, as universal, +from the special act of seeing. To know that I am I, is to know the most +general of objects, and to carry out abstraction to its very last +degree; and yet this is what all human beings do, young or old, savage +or civilized. The savage invents and uses language--an act of the +species, but which the species cannot do without the participation of +the individual. + +It should be carefully noted that this activity of generalization which +produces language, and characterizes the human from the brute, is not +the generalization of the activity of thought, so-called. + +It is the preparation for thought. These general types of things are the +things which thought deals with. Thought does not deal with mere +immediate objects of the senses; it deals rather with the objects which +are indicated by words--_i.e._, general objects. + +Some writers would have us suppose that we do not arrive at general +notions except by the process of classification and abstraction, in the +mechanical manner that they lay down for this purpose. The fact is that +the mind has arrived at these general ideas in the process of learning +language. In infancy, most children have learned such words as _is_, +_existence_, _being_, _nothing_, _motion_, _cause_, _change_, _I_, +_you_, _he_, etc., etc. + +But the point is not the mere arrival at these ideas. Education does +not concern itself with that; it does not concern itself with children +who have not yet learned to talk--that is left for the nursery. + +It is the process of becoming conscious of these ideas by reflection, +with which we have to concern ourselves in education. Reflection is +everywhere the object of education. Even when the school undertakes to +teach pupils the correct method of observation--how to use the senses, +as in "object-lessons"--it all means _reflective_ observation, +_conscious_ use of the senses; it would put this in the place of the +_nave_ spontaneity which characterizes the first stages of +sense-perception. + +We must not underrate these precepts of pedagogy because we find that +they are not what it claims for them--_i.e._, they are not methods of +first discovery, and of arrival at principles, but only methods of +reflection, and of recognizing what we have already learned. We see that +Plato's "Reminiscence" was a true form of statement for the perception +of truths of reflection. The first knowing is utterly unconscious of its +own method; the second or scientific form of knowing, which education +develops, is a knowing in which the mind knows its method. Hence it is a +knowing which knows its own necessity and universality. + + +VI. + + Education presupposes the stage of mind reached in + productive memory; it deals with reflection; four stages + of reflection: (_a_) sensuous ideas perceive things; (_b_) + abstract ideas perceive forces or elements of a process; + (_c_) concrete idea perceives one process, a pantheistic + first principle, persistent force; (_d_) absolute idea + perceives a conscious first principle, absolute person. + +We have considered in our psychological study thus far the forms of life +and cognition, contrasting the phase of nutrition with that of feeling, +or sensibility. We have seen the various forms of feeling in +sense-perception, and the various forms of representation as the second +phase of intellectual activity--the forms of recollection, fancy, +imagination, attention, and memory. We draw the line between the animals +capable of education and those not capable of it, at the point of memory +defined--not as recollection, but as the faculty of general ideas or +conceptions, to which the significant words of language correspond. + +With the arrival at language, we arrive at education in the human sense +of the term; with the arrival at language, we arrive at the view of the +world at which thought as a mental process begins. As sense-perception +has before it a world of _present_ objects, so thought has before it a +world of general concepts, which language has defined and fixed. + +It is true that few persons are aware that language stands for a world +of general ideas, and that reflection has to do with this world of +universals. Hence it is, too, that so much of the so-called science of +education is very crude and impractical. Much of it is materialistic, +and does not recognize the self-activity of mind; but makes it out to be +a correlation of physical energies--derived from the transmutation of +food by the process of digestion, and then by the brain converted into +thought. + +Let us consider now the psychology of thinking, or reflection, and at +first in its most inadequate forms. As a human process, the knowing is +always a knowing by universals--a re-cognition, and not simple +apprehension, such as the animals, or such as beings have that do not +use language. The process of development of stages of thought begins +with sensuous ideas, which perceive mere individual, concrete, real +objects, as it supposes. In conceiving these, it uses language and +thinks general ideas, but it does not know it, nor is it conscious of +the relations involved in such objects. This is the first stage of +reflection. The world exists for it as an innumerable congeries of +things, each one independent of the other, and possessing +self-existence. It is the stand-point from which atomism would be +adopted as the philosophic system. Ask it what the ultimate principle of +existence is, and it would reply, "Atoms." + +But this view of the world is a very unstable one, and requires very +little reflection to overturn it, and bring one to the next basis--that +of _abstract ideas_. When the mind looks carefully at the world of +things, it finds that there is dependence and interdependence. Each +object is related to something else, and changes when that changes. Each +object is a part of a process that is going on. The process produced it, +and the process will destroy it--nay, it is destroying it now, while we +look at it. We find, therefore, that things are not the true beings +which we thought them to be, but processes _are_ the reality. Science +takes this attitude, and studies out the history of each thing in its +rise and its disappearance, and it calls this history the truth. This +stage of thinking does not believe in _atoms_ or in _things_; it +believes in _forces_ and _processes_--"abstract ideas"--because they are +negative, and cannot be seen by the senses. This is the dynamic +stand-point in philosophy. + +Reflection knows that these abstract ideas possess more truth, more +reality, than the "things" of sense-perception; the force is more real +than the thing, because it outlasts a thing,--it causes things to +originate, and to change, and disappear. + +This stage of abstract ideas or of negative powers or forces finally +becomes convinced of the essential unity of all processes and of all +forces; it sets up the doctrine of the _correlation of forces_, and +believes that persistent force is the ultimate truth, the fundamental +reality of the world. This we may call a concrete idea, for it sets up a +principle which is the origin of all things and forces, and also the +destroyer of all things, and hence more real than the world of things +and forces; and because this idea, when carefully thought out, proves to +be the idea of self-determination--self-activity. + +Persistent force, as taught us by the scientific men of our day, is the +sole ultimate principle, and as such it gives rise to all existence by +its self-activity, for there is nothing else for it to act upon. It +causes all origins, all changes, and all evanescence. It gives rise to +the particular forces--heat, light, electricity, magnetism, etc.--which +in their turn cause the evanescent forms which sense-perception sees as +"things." + +We have described three phases:-- + + I. Sensuous Ideas perceive "things." + II. Abstract Ideas perceive "forces." + III. Concrete Idea perceives "persistent force." + +In this progress from one phase of reflection to another, the intellect +advances to a deeper and truer reality[14] at each step. + +Sense-ideas which look upon the world as a world of independent objects, +do not cognize the world truly. The next step, abstract ideas, cognizes +the world as a process of forces, and "things" are seen to be mere +temporary equilibria in the interaction of forces; "each thing is a +bundle of forces." But the concrete idea of the Persistent force sees a +deeper and more permanent reality underlying particular forces. It is +one ultimate force. In it all multiplicity of existences has vanished, +and yet it is the source of all particular existence. + +This view of the world, on the stand-point of concrete idea, is +pantheistic. It makes out a one supreme principle which originates and +destroys all particular existences, all finite beings. It is the +stand-point of Orientalism, or of the Asiatic thought. Buddhism and +Brahminism have reached it, and not transcended it. It is a necessary +stage of reflection in the mind, just as much as the stand-point of the +first stage of reflection, which regards the world as composed of a +multiplicity of independent things; or the stand-point of the second +stage of reflection, which looks upon the world as a collection of +relative existences in a state of process. + +The final stand-point of the intellect is that in which it perceives the +highest principle to be a self-determining or self-active Being, +self-conscious, and creator of a world which manifests him. A logical +investigation of the principle of "persistent force" would prove that +this principle of Personal Being is presupposed as its true form. Since +the "persistent force" is the sole and ultimate reality, it originates +all other reality only by self-activity, and thus is self-determined. +Self-determination implies self-consciousness as the true form of its +existence. + +These four forms of thinking, which we have arbitrarily called +_sensuous_, _abstract_, _concrete_, and _absolute_ ideas, correspond to +four views of the world: (1) as a congeries of independent things; (2) +as a play of forces; (3) as the evanescent appearance of a negative +essential power; (4) as the creation of a Personal Creator, who makes it +the theatre of the development of conscious beings in his image. Each +step upward in ideas arrives at a more adequate idea of the true +reality. _Force_ is more real than _thing_; persistent force than +particular forces; Absolute Person is more real than the force or forces +which he creates. + +This final form of thinking is the only form which is consistent with +the theory of education. Each individual should ascend by education into +participation--_conscious_ participation--in the life of the species. +Institutions--family, society, state, church--all are instrumentalities +by which the humble individual may avail himself of the help of the +race, and live over in himself its life. The highest stage of thinking +is the stage of insight. It sees the world as explained by the principle +of Absolute Person. It finds the world of institutions a world in +harmony with such a principle. + + + [1] The parallelism between these two sciences, Medicine + and Education, is an obvious point, which every student + will do well to consider. + + [2] This will again remind the student of the theories of + treatment in medicine in diseases which, in the + seventeenth century, were treated only by bleeding and + emetics, are now treated by nourishing food, and no + medicines, etc. + + [3] The teacher will do well to consider the probable + result of the constant association with mental inferiors + entailed by his work, and also to consider what + counter-irritant is to be applied to balance, in his + character, this unavoidable tendency. + + [4] The age at which the child should be subject to the + training of school life, or Education, properly so-called, + must vary with different races, nations, and different + children. + + [5] The best educator is he who makes his pupils + independent of himself. This implies on the teacher's part + an ability to lose himself in his work, and a desire for + the real growth of the pupil, independent of any personal + fame of his own--a disinterestedness which places + education on a level with the noblest occupations of man. + + [6] See analysis. + + [7] Asiatic systems of Education have this basis (see + 178 of the original). + + [8] The definition of freedom here implied is this: Mind + is free when it knows itself and wills its own laws. + + [9] Perhaps, however slow the growth, there is real + progress in liberating the imprisoned soul (?) + + [10] "When me they fly, I am the wings."--_Emerson._ + + [11] The story of Peter Schlemihl, by Chamisso, may be + read in the English translation published in "Hedge's + German Prose Writers." + + [12] That is, punishment is retributive and not + corrective. Justice requires that each man shall have the + fruits of his own deeds; in this it assumes that each and + every man is free and self-determined. It proposes to + treat each man as free, and as the rightful owner of his + deed and its consequences. If he does a deed which is + destructive to human rights, it shall destroy his rights + and deprive him of property, personal freedom, or even of + life. But corrective punishment assumes immaturity of + development and consequent lack of freedom. It belongs to + the period of nurture, and not to the period of maturity. + The tendency in our schools is, however, to displace the + forms of mere corrective punishment (corporal + chastisement), and to substitute for them forms founded on + retribution--_e.g._, deprivation of privileges. See secs. + 42 and 43. + + [13] Faust; Part I., Scene I. "How all weaves itself into + the Whole! Each works and lives in the other! How the + heavenly influences ascend and descend, and reach each + other the golden buckets!" + + [14] Hume, in his famous sketch of the Human + Understanding, makes all the perceptions of the human mind + resolve themselves into two distinct kinds: _impressions_ + and _ideas_. "The difference between them consists in the + degrees of force and liveliness with which they strike + upon the mind, and make their way into our thought and + consciousness. Those perceptions which enter with the most + force and violence we may name _impressions_, and under + this name include all our sensations, passions, and + emotions, as they make their first appearance in the soul. + By _ideas_, I mean the faint images of these in thinking + and reasoning." "The identity which we ascribe to the mind + of man is only a fictitious one." + + From this we see that his stand-point is that of "sensuous + ideas," the first stage of reflection. The second or third + stage of reflection, if consistent, would not admit the + reality to be the object of sense-impressions, and the + abstract ideas to be only "faint images." One who holds, + like Herbert Spencer, that persistent force is the + ultimate reality--"the sole truth, which transcends + experience by underlying it"--ought to hold that the + generalization which reaches the idea of unity of force is + the truest and most adequate of thoughts. And yet Herbert + Spencer holds substantially the doctrine of Hume, in the + words: "We must predicate nothing of objects too great or + too multitudinous to be mentally represented, or we must + make our predications by means of extremely inadequate + representations of such objects--mere symbols of them." + (Page 27 of "First Principles.") + + + + + + + +End of Project Gutenberg's Pedagogics as a System, by Karl Rosenkranz + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK PEDAGOGICS AS A SYSTEM *** + +***** This file should be named 30661-8.txt or 30661-8.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + https://www.gutenberg.org/3/0/6/6/30661/ + +Produced by Jonathan Ingram, Turgut Dincer and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net (This +file was produced from images generously made available +by The Internet Archive/American Libraries.) + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: Pedagogics as a System + +Author: Karl Rosenkranz + +Translator: Anna C. Brackett + +Release Date: December 13, 2009 [EBook #30661] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: UTF-8 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK PEDAGOGICS AS A SYSTEM *** + + + + +Produced by Jonathan Ingram, Turgut Dincer and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net (This +file was produced from images generously made available +by The Internet Archive/American Libraries.) + + + + + + +</pre> + + + + +<div class="box"><p> +Transcriber's note:<br /> +Many words in the text are spelled +with or without a hyphen; these are +not corrected as both forms occur +with almost same frequency and the +hyphenated form might indicate an emphasis +in words such as re-formation.</p> +</div> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_1" id="Page_1"> </a></span><br /><br /></p> + +<h1>PEDAGOGICS</h1> +<h4>AS A</h4> +<h1>SYSTEM.</h1> + +<h5>By Dr. KARL ROSENKRANZ,</h5> + +<h5><i>Doctor of Theology and Professor of Philosophy at the University +of Königsberg.</i></h5> + +<h6>TRANSLATED FROM THE GERMAN</h6> + +<h5>By ANNA C. BRACKETT.</h5> + + +<h5>(<i>Reprinted from Journal of Speculative Philosophy.</i>)</h5> + + +<h5>ST. LOUIS, MO.:<br /> +<small>THE R. P. STUDLEY COMPANY, PRINTERS, CORNER MAIN & OLIVE STS.</small><br /> +1872.</h5> +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_2" id="Page_2"> </a></span></p> + +<hr /> +<h5>Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1872, by<br /> +WILLIAM T. HARRIS,<br /> +In the Office of the Librarian of Congress at Washington.</h5> +<hr /> +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_3" id="Page_3"> </a></span></p> + + +<h4>A N A L Y S I S.</h4> +<hr /> +<table width="100%" summary="education" border="0"> + +<tr> +<td class="td17_20" rowspan="32">Education</td> +<td class="td17_20" rowspan="3"><a href="#FIRST">PART I.</a><br />In its General<br /> Idea.</td> +<td class="td17"><a href="#nature">Its Nature.</a></td> +<td class="td17"> </td> +<td class="td17"> </td> +<td class="td17"> </td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="td17"><a href="#form">Its Form.</a></td> +<td class="td17"> </td> +<td class="td17"> </td> +<td class="td17"> </td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="td17"><a href="#limits">Its Limits.</a></td> +<td class="td17"> </td> +<td class="td17"> </td> +<td class="td17"> </td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="td17"> </td> +<td class="td17"> </td> +<td class="td17"> </td> +<td class="td17"> </td> +<td class="td17"> </td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="td17_20" rowspan="3"><a href="#SECOND">PART II.</a><br />In its Special Elements.</td> +<td class="td17"><a href="#physical">Physical.</a></td> +<td class="td17"> </td> +<td class="td17"> </td> +<td class="td17"> </td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="td17"><a href="#intellectual">Intellectual.</a></td> +<td class="td17"> </td> +<td class="td17"> </td> +<td class="td17"> </td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="td17"><a href="#moral">Moral.</a></td> +<td class="td17"> </td> +<td class="td17"> </td> +<td class="td17"> </td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="td17"> </td> +<td class="td17"> </td> +<td class="td17"> </td> +<td class="td17"> </td> +<td class="td17"> </td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="td17_20" rowspan="24"><a href="#THIRD">PART III.</a><br />In its Particular Systems.</td> +<td class="td17_20" rowspan="12"><a href="#national">National.</a></td> +<td class="td17_20" rowspan="3"><a href="#passive">Passive.</a></td> +<td class="td17"><a href="#family">Family</a></td> +<td class="td17">China.</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="td17"><a href="#caste">Caste</a></td> +<td class="td17">India.</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="td17"><a href="#monkish">Monkish</a></td> +<td class="td17">Thibet.</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="td17"> </td> +<td class="td17"> </td> +<td class="td17"> </td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="td17_20" rowspan="3"><a href="#active">Active.</a></td> +<td class="td17"><a href="#military">Military.</a></td> +<td class="td17">Persia.</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="td17"><a href="#priestly">Priestly</a></td> +<td class="td17">Egypt.</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="td17"><a href="#industrial">Industrial</a></td> +<td class="td17">Phœnicia.</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="td17"> </td> +<td class="td17"> </td> +<td class="td17"> </td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="td17_20" rowspan="4"><a href="#individual">Individual.</a></td> +<td class="td17"><a href="#aesthetic">Æsthetic</a></td> +<td class="td17">Greece.</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="td17"><a href="#practical">Practical</a></td> +<td class="td17">Rome.</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="td17_20"><a href="#abstract">Abstract<br /> Individual</a></td> +<td class="td17">Northern<br /> Barbarians.</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="td17"> </td> +<td class="td17"> </td> +<td class="td17"> </td> +<td class="td17"> </td> +<td class="td17"> </td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="td17" colspan="3"><a href="#theocratic">Theocratic.</a> . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . </td> +<td class="td17">Jews.</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="td17"> </td> +<td class="td17"> </td> +<td class="td17"> </td> +<td class="td17"> </td> +<td class="td17"> </td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="td17_20" rowspan="9"><a href="#humanitarian">Humanitarian.</a></td> +<td class="td17"><a href="#monkish2">Monkish.</a></td> +<td class="td17"> </td> +<td class="td17"> </td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="td17"> </td> +<td class="td17"> </td> +<td class="td17"> </td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="td17"><a href="#chivalric">Chivalric.</a></td> +<td class="td17"> </td> +<td class="td17"> </td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="td17"> </td> +<td class="td17"> </td> +<td class="td17"> </td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="td17_20" rowspan="3"><a href="#civil">For Civil Life.</a></td> +<td class="td17_20"><a href="#special">For Special<br />Callings.</a></td> +<td class="td17"><a href="#jesuitic">Jesuitic.</a><br /><a href="#pietistic">Pietistic.</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="td17"> </td> +<td class="td17"> </td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="td17_20"><a href="#ideal">To achieve<br />an Ideal of<br /> Culture.</a></td> +<td class="td17"><a href="#humanities">The Humanities.</a><br /> <br /><a href="#philanthropic">The Philanthropic<br />Movement.</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="td17"> </td> +<td class="td17"> </td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="td17" colspan="2"><a href="#free">For Free Citizensip.</a></td> +</tr> + +</table> + +<hr /> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_5" id="Page_5"> </a></span></p> + +<h2>PEDAGOGICS AS A SYSTEM.</h2> + +<hr /> + +<div class="blockquot"><p class="indent">[Inquiries from teachers in different sections of the country as to the sources +of information on the subject of Teaching as a Science have led me to believe +that a translation of Rosenkranz's Pedagogics may be widely acceptable and +useful. It is very certain that too much of our teaching is simply empirical, +and as Germany has, more than any other country, endeavored to found it +upon universal truths, it is to that country that we must at present look for +a remedy for this empiricism.<br /><br /></p> + +<p class="indent">Based as this is upon the profoundest system of German Philosophy, no more +suggestive treatise on Education can perhaps be found. In his third part, as +will be readily seen, Rosenkranz follows the classification of National ideas +given in Hegel's Philosophy of History. The word "Pedagogics," though it +has unfortunately acquired a somewhat unpleasant meaning in English—thanks +to the writers who have made the word "pedagogue" so odious—deserves +to be redeemed for future use. I have, therefore, retained it in the +translation.<br /><br /></p> + +<p class="indent">In order that the reader may see the general scope of the work, I append in +tabular form the table of contents, giving however, under the first and second +parts, only the main divisions. The minor heads can, of course, as they +appear in the translation, be easily located.—<i>Tr.</i>]</p></div> + + + +<hr /> +<h4>INTRODUCTION.</h4> + + +<p><a name="S1" id="S1"></a>§ 1. The science of Pedagogics cannot be derived from a +simple principle with such exactness as Logic and Ethics. It +is rather a mixed science which has its presuppositions in +many others. In this respect it resembles Medicine, with +which it has this also in common, that it must make a distinction +between a sound and an unhealthy system of education, +and must devise means to prevent or to cure the latter. +It may therefore have, like Medicine, the three departments +of Physiology, Pathology, and Therapeutics.</p> + +<p><a name="S2" id="S2"></a>§ 2. Since Pedagogics is capable of no such exact definitions +of its principle and no such logical deduction as other +sciences, the treatises written upon it abound more in shallowness +than any other literature. Short-sightedness and arrogance +find in it a most congenial atmosphere, and criticism + +<span class='pagenum'><a class="tooltip" name="Page_6" id="Page_6"><span><i>Pedagogics as a System.</i></span>6</a></span> + +and declamatory bombast flourish in perfection as nowhere +else. The literature of religious tracts might be considered to +rival that of Pedagogics in its superficiality and assurance, +if it did not for the most part seem itself to belong, through +its ascetic nature, to Pedagogics. But teachers as persons +should be treated in their weaknesses and failures with the +utmost consideration, because they are most of them sincere +in contributing their mite for the improvement of education, +and all their pedagogic practice inclines them towards administering +reproof and giving advice.</p> + +<p><a name="S3" id="S3"></a>§ 3. The charlatanism of educational literature is also fostered +by the fact that teaching has become one of the most +profitable employments, and the competition in it tends to +increase self-glorification.</p> + +<p>—When "Boz" in his "Nicholas Nickleby" exposed the +horrible mysteries of an English boarding-school, many +teachers of such schools were, as he assures us, so accurately +described that they openly complained he had aimed his +caricatures directly at them.—</p> + +<p><a name="S4" id="S4"></a>§ 4. In the system of the sciences, Pedagogics belongs to +the Philosophy of Spirit,—and in this, to the department of +Practical Philosophy, the problem of which is the comprehension +of the necessity of freedom; for education is the conscious +working of one will on another so as to produce itself +in it according to a determinate aim. The idea of subjective +spirit, as well as that of Art, Science, and Religion, forms +the essential condition for Pedagogics, but does not contain +its principle. If one thinks out a complete statement of Practical +Philosophy (Ethics), Pedagogics may be distributed +among all its grades. But the point at which Pedagogics itself +becomes organic is the idea of the Family, because in the +family the difference between the adults and the minors enters +directly through the naturalness of spirit, and the right +of the children to an education and the duty of parents +towards them in this respect is incontestable. All other +spheres of education, in order to succeed, must presuppose a +true family life. They may extend and complement the business +of teaching, but cannot be its original foundation.</p> + +<p>—In our systematic exposition of Education, we must not +allow ourselves to be led into error by those theories which + +<span class='pagenum'><a class="tooltip" name="Page_7" id="Page_7"><span><i>Pedagogics as a System.</i></span>7</a></span> + +do not recognize the family, and which limit the relation of +husband and wife to the producing of children. The Platonic +Philosophy is the most worthy representative of this class. +Later writers who take great pleasure in seeing the world +full of children, but who would subtract from the love to a +wife all truth and from that to children all care, exhibit in +their doctrine of the anarchy of love only a sickly (but yet +how prevalent an) imitation of the Platonic state.—</p> + +<p><a name="S5" id="S5"></a>§ 5. Much confusion also arises from the fact that many do +not clearly enough draw the distinction between Pedagogics +as a science and Pedagogics as an art. As a science it busies +itself with developing <i>à priori</i> the idea of Education in the +universality and necessity of that idea, but as an art it is the +concrete individualizing of this abstract idea in any given +case. And in any such given case, the peculiarities of the +person who is to be educated and all the previously existing +circumstances necessitate a modification of the universal aims +and ends, which modification cannot be provided for beforehand, +but must rather test the ready tact of the educator who +knows how to make the existing conditions fulfil his desired +end. It is exactly in doing this that the educator may show +himself inventive and creative, and that pedagogic talent can +distinguish itself. The word "art" is here used in the same +way as it is used when we say, the art of war, the art of government, +&c.; and rightly, for we are talking about the +possibility of the realization of the idea.</p> + +<p>—The educator must adapt himself to the pupil, but not to +such a degree as to imply that the pupil is incapable of change, +and he must also be sure that the pupil shall learn through his +experience the independence of the object studied, which remains +uninfluenced by his variable personal moods, and the +adaptation on the teacher's part must never compromise this +independence.—</p> + +<p><a name="S6" id="S6"></a>§ 6. If conditions which are local, temporal, and individual, +are fixed as constant rules, and carried beyond their proper +limits, are systematized as a valuable formalistic code, unavoidable +error arises. The formulæ of teaching are admirable +material for the science, but are not the science itself.</p> + +<p><a name="S7" id="S7"></a>§ 7. Pedagogics as a science must (1) unfold the general +idea of Education; (2) must exhibit the particular phases into + +<span class='pagenum'><a class="tooltip" name="Page_8" id="Page_8"><span><i>Pedagogics as a System.</i></span>8</a></span> + +which the general work of Education divides itself, and (3) +must describe the particular standpoint upon which the general +idea realizes itself, or should become real in its special +processes at any particular time.</p> + +<p><a name="S8" id="S8"></a>§ 8. The treatment of the first part offers no difficulty. It +is logically too evident. But it would not do to substitute for +it the history of Pedagogics, simply because all the conceptions +of it which appear in systematic treatises can be found +there.</p> + +<p>—Into this error G. Thaulow has fallen in his pamphlet on +Pedagogics as a Philosophical Science.—</p> + +<p><a name="S9" id="S9"></a>§ 9. The second division unfolds the subject of the physical, +intellectual and practical culture of the human race, and +constitutes the main part of all books on Pedagogy. Here +arises the greatest difficulty as to the limitations, partly because +of the undefined nature of the ideas, partly because of +the degree of amplification which the details demand. Here +is the field of the widest possible differences. If e.g. one +studies out the conception of the school with reference to the +qualitative specialities which one may consider, it is evident +that he can extend his remarks indefinitely; he may speak +thus of technological schools of all kinds, to teach mining, +navigation, war, art, &c.</p> + +<p><a name="S10" id="S10"></a>§ 10. The third division distinguishes between the different +standpoints which are possible in the working out of the conception +of Education in its special elements, and which therefore +produce different systems of Education wherein the general +and the particular are individualized in a special manner. +In every system the general tendencies of the idea of education, +and the difference between the physical, intellectual and +practical culture of man, must be formally recognized, and +will appear. The How is decided by the standpoint which +reduces that formalism to a special system. Thus it becomes +possible to discover the essential contents of the history of +Pedagogics from its idea, since this can furnish not an indefinite +but a certain number of Pedagogic systems.</p> + +<p>—The lower standpoint merges always into the higher, and in +so doing first attains its full meaning, e.g.: Education for the +sake of the nation is set aside for higher standpoints, e.g. +that of Christianity; but we must not suppose that the national + +<span class='pagenum'><a class="tooltip" name="Page_9" id="Page_9"><span><i>Pedagogics as a System.</i></span>9</a></span> + +phase of Education was counted as nought from the +Christian standpoint. Rather it itself had outgrown the limits +which, though suitable enough for its early stage, could no +longer contain its true idea. This is sure to be the case in +the fact that the national individualities become indestructible +by being incorporated into Christianity—a fact that contradicts +the abstract seizing of such relations.—</p> + +<p><a name="S11" id="S11"></a>§ 11. The last system must be that of the present, and since +this is certainly on one side the result of all the past, while +on the other seized in its possibilities it is determined by the +Future, the business of Pedagogics cannot pause till it reaches +its ideal of the general and special determinations, so that +looked at in this way the Science of Pedagogics at its end +returns to its beginning. The first and second divisions already +contain the idea of the system necessary for the Present.</p> + +<hr /> + +<div class="center"><a name="FIRST" id="FIRST"></a>FIRST PART.</div> + +<div class="center">The General Idea of Education.</div> + + +<p><a name="S12" id="S12"></a>§ 12. The idea of Pedagogics in general must distinguish,</p> + +<p class="margin2"> +(1) The nature of Education in general;<br /> +(2) Its form;<br /> +(3) Its limits. +</p> + + +<div class="center"><a name="nature" id="nature"></a>I.</div> + +<div class="center"><i>The Nature of Education.</i></div> + +<p><a name="S13" id="S13"></a>§ 13. The nature of Education is determined by the nature +of mind—that it can develop whatever it really is only by its +own activity. Mind is in itself free; but if it does not actualize +this possibility, it is in no true sense free, either for itself +or for another. Education is the influencing of man by man, +and it has for its end to lead him to actualize himself through +his own efforts. The attainment of perfect manhood as the +actualization of the Freedom necessary to mind constitutes +the nature of Education in general.</p> + +<p>—The completely isolated man does not become man. Solitary +human beings who have been found in forests, like the +wild girl of the forest of Ardennes, sufficiently prove the fact +that the truly human qualities in man cannot be developed +without reciprocal action with human beings. Caspar Hauser +in his subterranean prison is an illustration of what man + +<span class='pagenum'><a class="tooltip" name="Page_10" id="Page_10"><span><i>Pedagogics as a System.</i></span>10</a></span> + +would be by himself. The first cry of the child expresses in +its appeals to others this helplessness of spirituality on the +side of nature.—</p> + +<p><a name="S14" id="S14"></a>§ 14. Man, therefore, is the only fit subject for education. +We often speak, it is true, of the education of plants and +animals; but even when we do so, we apply, unconsciously +perhaps, other expressions, as "raising" and "training," in order +to distinguish these. "Breaking" consists in producing in +an animal, either by pain or pleasure of the senses, an activity +of which, it is true, he is capable, but which he never +would have developed if left to himself. On the other hand, +it is the nature of Education only to assist in the producing +of that which the subject would strive most earnestly to develop +for himself if he had a clear idea of himself. We speak +of raising trees and animals, but not of raising men; and it +is only a planter who looks to his slaves only for an increase +in their number.</p> + +<p>—The education of men is quite often enough, unfortunately, +only a "breaking," and here and there still may be found +examples where one tries to teach mechanically, not through +the understanding power of the creative <span class="smcap">WORD</span>, but through +the powerless and fruitless appeal to physical pain.—</p> + +<p><a name="S15" id="S15"></a>§ 15. The idea of Education may be more or less comprehensive. +We use it in the widest sense when we speak of +the Education of the race, for we understand by this expression +the connection which the acts and situations of different +nations have to each other, as different steps towards +self-conscious freedom. In this the world-spirit is the teacher.</p> + +<p><a name="S16" id="S16"></a>§ 16. In a more restricted sense we mean by Education the +shaping of the individual life by the forces of nature, the +rhythmical movement of national customs, and the might of +destiny in which each one finds limits set to his arbitrary will. +These often mould him into a man without his knowledge. +For he cannot act in opposition to nature, nor offend the ethical +sense of the people among whom he dwells, nor despise +the leading of destiny without discovering through experience +that before the Nemesis of these substantial elements his +subjective power can dash itself only to be shattered. If he +perversely and persistently rejects all our admonitions, we +leave him, as a last resort, to destiny, whose iron rule must + +<span class='pagenum'><a class="tooltip" name="Page_11" id="Page_11"><span><i>Pedagogics as a System.</i></span>11</a></span> + +educate him, and reveal to him the God whom he has misunderstood.</p> + +<p>—It is, of course, sometimes not only possible, but necessary +for one, moved by the highest sense of morality, to act in opposition +to the laws of nature, to offend the ethical sense of +the people that surround him, and to brave the blows of destiny; +but such a one is a sublime reformer or martyr, and we +are not now speaking of such, but of the perverse, the frivolous, +and the conceited.—</p> + +<p><a name="S17" id="S17"></a>§ 17. In the narrowest sense, which however is the usual one, +we mean by Education the influence which one mind exerts on +another in order to cultivate the latter in some understood and +methodical way, either generally or with reference to some +special aim. The educator must, therefore, be relatively +finished in his own education, and the pupil must possess +unlimited confidence in him. If authority be wanting on the +one side, or respect and obedience on the other, this ethical +basis of development must fail, and it demands in the very +highest degree, talent, knowledge, skill, and prudence.</p> + +<p>—Education takes on this form only under the culture which +has been developed through the influence of city life. Up to +that time we have the naïve period of education, which holds +to the general powers of nature, of national customs, and of +destiny, and which lasts for a long time among the rural +populations. But in the city a greater complication of events, +an uncertainty of the results of reflection, a working out of +individuality, and a need of the possession of many arts +and trades, make their appearance and render it impossible +for men longer to be ruled by mere custom. The Telemachus +of Fenelon was educated to rule himself by means of reflection; +the actual Telemachus in the heroic age lived simply +according to custom.—</p> + +<p><a name="S18" id="S18"></a>§ 18. The general problem of Education is the development +of the theoretical and practical reason in the individual. If +we say that to educate one means to fashion him into morality, +we do not make our definition sufficiently comprehensive, because +we say nothing of intelligence, and thus confound education +and ethics. A man is not merely a human being, but +as a reasonable being he is a peculiar individual, and different +from all others of the race.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a class="tooltip" name="Page_12" id="Page_12"><span><i>Pedagogics as a System.</i></span>12</a></span></p> + +<p><a name="S19" id="S19"></a>§ 19. Education must lead the pupil by an interconnected +series of efforts previously foreseen and arranged by the +teacher to a definite end; but the particular form which this +shall take must be determined by the peculiar character of +the pupil's mind and the situation in which he is found. +Hasty and inconsiderate work may accomplish much, but only +<i>systematic</i> work can advance and fashion him in conformity +with his nature, and the former does not belong to education, +for this includes in itself the idea of an end, and that of the +technical means for its attainment.</p> + +<p><a name="S20" id="S20"></a>§ 20. But as culture comes to mean more and more, there +becomes necessary a division of the business of teaching +among different persons, with reference to capabilities and +knowledge, because as the arts and sciences are continually +increasing in number, one can become learned in any one +branch only by devoting himself exclusively to it, and hence +becoming one-sided. A difficulty hence arises which is also +one for the pupil, of preserving, in spite of this unavoidable +one-sidedness, the unity and wholeness which are necessary +to humanity.</p> + +<p>—The naïve dignity of the happy savage, and the agreeable +simplicity of country people, appear to very great advantage +when contrasted on this side with the often unlimited +narrowness of a special trade, and the endless curtailing of +the wholeness of man by the pruning processes of city life. +Thus the often abused savage has his hut, his family, his +cocoa tree, his weapons, his passions; he fishes, hunts, plays, +fights, adorns himself, and enjoys the consciousness that he +is the centre of a whole, while a modern citizen is often only +an abstract expression of culture.—</p> + +<p><a name="S21" id="S21"></a>§ 21. As it becomes necessary to divide the work of teaching, +a difference between general and special schools arises +also, from the needs of growing culture. The former present +in different compass all the sciences and arts which are included +in the term "general education," and which were +classified by the Greeks under the general name of Encyclopædia. +The latter are known as special schools, suited to +particular needs or talents.</p> + +<p>—As those who live in the country are relatively isolated, +it is often necessary, or at least desirable, that one man should + +<span class='pagenum'><a class="tooltip" name="Page_13" id="Page_13"><span><i>Pedagogics as a System.</i></span>13</a></span> + +be trained equally on many different sides. The poor tutor +is required not only to instruct in all the sciences, he must +also speak French and be able to play the piano.—</p> + +<p><a name="S22" id="S22"></a>§ 22. For any single person, the relation of his actual education +to its infinite possibilities can only be approximately +determined, and it can be considered as only relatively finished +on any one side. Education is impossible to him who +is born an idiot, since the want of the power of generalizing +and of ideality of conscious personality leaves to such an unfortunate +only the possibility of a mechanical training.</p> + +<p>—Sägert, the teacher of the deaf mutes in Berlin, has made +laudable efforts to educate idiots, but the account as given in +his publication, "Cure of Idiots by an Intellectual Method, +Berlin, 1846," shows that the result obtained was only external; +and though we do not desire to be understood as denying +or refusing to this class the possession of a mind <i>in potentia</i>, +it appears in them to be confined to an embryonic +state.—</p> + + +<div class="center"><a name="form" id="form"></a>II.</div> + +<div class="center"><i>The Form of Education.</i></div> + +<p><a name="S23" id="S23"></a>§ 23. The general form of Education is determined by the +nature of the mind, that it really is nothing but what it makes +itself to be. The mind is (1) immediate (or potential), but (2) +it must estrange itself from itself as it were, so that it may +place itself over against itself as a special object of attention; +(3) this estrangement is finally removed through a further acquaintance +with the object—it feels itself at home in that on +which it looks, and returns again enriched to the form of immediateness. +That which at first appeared to be another than +itself is now seen to be itself. Education cannot create; it +can only help to develop to reality the previously existent +possibility; it can only help to bring forth to light the hidden +life.</p> + +<p><a name="S24" id="S24"></a>§ 24. All culture, whatever may be its special purport, must +pass through these two stages—of estrangement, and its removal. +Culture must hold fast to the distinction between the +subject and the object considered immediately, though it has +again to absorb this distinction into itself, in order that the +union of the two may be more complete and lasting. The +subject recognizes then all the more certainly that what at + +<span class='pagenum'><a class="tooltip" name="Page_14" id="Page_14"><span><i>Pedagogics as a System.</i></span>14</a></span> + +first appeared to it as a foreign existence, belongs to it as its +own property, and that it holds it as its own all the more by +means of culture.</p> + +<p>—Plato, as is known, calls the feeling with which knowledge +must begin, wonder; but this can serve as a beginning +only, for wonder itself can only express the tension between +the subject and the object at their first encounter—a tension +which would be impossible if they were not in themselves +identical. Children have a longing for the far-off, the strange, +and the wonderful, as if they hoped to find in these an explanation +of themselves. They want the object to be a genuine +object. That to which they are accustomed, which they see +around them every day, seems to have no longer any objective +energy for them; but an alarm of fire, banditti life, wild +animals, gray old ruins, the robin's songs, and far-off happy +islands, &c.—everything high-colored and dazzling—leads +them irresistibly on. The necessity of the mind's making +itself foreign to itself is that which makes children prefer to +hear of the adventurous journeys of Sinbad than news of +their own city or the history of their nation, and in youth +this same necessity manifests itself in their desire of travelling.—</p> + +<p><a name="S25" id="S25"></a>§ 25. This activity of the mind in allowing itself to be +absorbed, and consciously so, in an object with the purpose of +making it his own, or of producing it, is <i>Work</i>. But when the +mind gives itself up to its objects as chance may present +them or through arbitrariness, careless as to whether they +have any result, such activity is <i>Play</i>. Work is laid out for +the pupil by his teacher by authority, but in his play he is +left to himself.</p> + +<p><a name="S26" id="S26"></a>§ 26. Thus work and play must be sharply distinguished +from each other. If one has not respect for work as an important +and substantial activity, he not only spoils play for +his pupil, for this loses all its charm when deprived of the +antithesis of an earnest, set task, but he undermines his respect +for real existence. On the other hand, if he does not +give him space, time, and opportunity, for play, he prevents +the peculiarities of his pupil from developing freely through +the exercise of his creative ingenuity. Play sends the pupil +back refreshed to his work, since in play he forgets himself + +<span class='pagenum'><a class="tooltip" name="Page_15" id="Page_15"><span><i>Pedagogics as a System.</i></span>15</a></span> + +in his own way, while in work he is required to forget himself +in a manner prescribed for him by another.</p> + +<p>—Play is of great importance in helping one to discover +the true individualities of children, because in play they may +betray thoughtlessly their inclinations. This antithesis of +work and play runs through the entire life. Children anticipate +in their play the earnest work of after life; thus the +little girl plays with her doll, and the boy pretends he is a +soldier and in battle.—</p> + +<p><a name="S27" id="S27"></a>§ 27. Work should never be treated as if it were play, nor +play as if it were work. In general, the arts, the sciences, and +productions, stand in this relation to each other: the accumulation +of stores of knowledge is the recreation of the mind +which is engaged in independent creation, and the practice +of arts fills the same office to those whose work is to collect +knowledge.</p> + +<p><a name="S28" id="S28"></a>§ 28. Education seeks to transform every particular condition +so that it shall no longer seem strange to the mind or in +anywise foreign to its own nature. This identity of consciousness, +and the special character of anything done or endured +by it, we call Habit [habitual conduct or behavior]. It conditions +formally all progress; for that which is not yet become +habit, but which we perform with design and an exercise +of our will, is not yet a part of ourselves.</p> + +<p><a name="S29" id="S29"></a>§ 29. As to Habit, we have to say next that it is at first +indifferent as to what it relates. But that which is to be +considered as indifferent or neutral cannot be defined in the +abstract, but only in the concrete, because anything that is +indifferent as to whether it shall act on these particular men, +or in this special situation, is capable of another or even +of the opposite meaning for another man or men for the same +men or in other circumstances. Here, then, appeal must be +made to the individual conscience in order to be able from +the depths of individuality to separate what we can permit +to ourselves from that which we must deny ourselves. The +aim of Education must be to arouse in the pupil this spiritual +and ethical sensitiveness which does not recognize anything +as <i>merely</i> indifferent, but rather knows how to seize in +everything, even in the seemingly small, its universal human +significance. But in relation to the highest problems he + +<span class='pagenum'><a class="tooltip" name="Page_16" id="Page_16"><span><i>Pedagogics as a System.</i></span>16</a></span> + +must learn that what concerns his own immediate personality +is entirely indifferent.</p> + +<p><a name="S30" id="S30"></a>§ 30. Habit lays aside its indifference to an external action +through reflection on the advantage or disadvantage of the +same. Whatever tends as a harmonious means to the realization +of an end is advantageous, but that is disadvantageous +which, by contradicting its idea, hinders or destroys it. Advantage +and disadvantage being then only <i>relative</i> terms, a +habit which is advantageous for one man in one case may be +disadvantageous for another man, or even for the same man, +under different circumstances. Education must, therefore, +accustom the youth to judge as to the expediency or inexpediency +of any action in its relation to the essential vocation +of his life, so that he shall avoid that which does not promote +its success.</p> + +<p><a name="S31" id="S31"></a>§ 31. But the <i>absolute</i> distinction of habit is the moral distinction +between the good and the bad. For from this standpoint +alone can we finally decide what is allowable and what +is forbidden, what is advantageous and what is disadvantageous.</p> + +<p><a name="S32" id="S32"></a>§ 32. As relates to form, habit may be either passive or active. +The passive is that which teaches us to bear the vicissitudes +of nature as well as of history with such composure +that we shall hold our ground against them, being always +equal to ourselves, and that we shall not allow our power of +acting to be paralyzed through any mutations of fortune. +Passive habit is not to be confounded with obtuseness in receiving +impressions, a blank abstraction from the affair in +hand which at bottom is found to be nothing more than a +selfishness which desires to be left undisturbed: it is simply +composure of mind in view of changes over which we have no +control. While we vividly experience joy and sorrow, pain +and pleasure—inwoven as these are with the change of seasons, +of the weather, &c.—with the alternation of life and +death, of happiness and misery, we ought nevertheless to +harden ourselves against them so that at the same time in +our consciousness of the supreme worth of the mind we shall +build up the inaccessible stronghold of Freedom in ourselves.—Active +habit [or behavior] is found realized in a wide range +of activity which appears in manifold forms, such as skill, + +<span class='pagenum'><a class="tooltip" name="Page_17" id="Page_17"><span><i>Formation of Habits.</i></span>17</a></span> + +dexterity, readiness of information, &c. It is a steeling of +the internal for action upon the external, as the Passive is a +steeling of the internal against the influences of the external.</p> + +<p><a name="S33" id="S33"></a>§ 33. Habit is the general form which instruction takes. +For since it reduces a condition or an activity within ourselves +to an instinctive use and wont, it is necessary for +any thorough instruction. But as, according to its content, it +may be either proper or improper, advantageous or disadvantageous, +good or bad, and according to its form may be the +assimilation of the external by the internal, or the impress +of the internal upon the external, Education must procure +for the pupil the power of being able to free himself from +one habit and to adopt another. Through his freedom he +must be able not only to renounce any habit formed, but to +form a new one; and he must so govern his system of habits +that it shall exhibit a constant progress of development into +greater freedom. We must discipline ourselves, as a means +toward the ever-changing realization of the Good in us, constantly +to form and to break habits.</p> + +<p>—We must characterize those habits as bad which relate +only to our convenience or our enjoyment. They are often +not blamable in themselves, but there lies in them a hidden +danger that they may allure us into luxury or effeminacy. +But it is a false and mechanical way of looking at the affair +if we suppose that a habit which has been formed by a certain +number of repetitions can be broken by an equal number +of denials. We can never renounce a habit utterly except +through a clearness of judgment which decides it to be undesirable, +and through firmness of will.—</p> + +<p><a name="S34" id="S34"></a>§ 34. Education comprehends also the reciprocal action of +the opposites, authority and obedience, rationality and individuality, +work and play, habit and spontaneity. If we imagine +that these can be reconciled by rules, it will be in vain +that we try to restrain the youth in these relations. But a +failure in education in this particular is very possible through +the freedom of the pupil, through special circumstances, or +through the errors of the educator himself. And for this very +reason any theory of Education must take into account in +the beginning this negative possibility. It must consider beforehand +the dangers which threaten the pupil in all possible + +<span class='pagenum'><a class="tooltip" name="Page_18" id="Page_18"><span><i>Protection against Temptation.</i></span>18</a></span> + +ways even before they surround him, and fortify him against +them. Intentionally to expose him to temptation in order to +prove his strength, is devilish; and, on the other hand, to +guard him against the chance of dangerous temptation, to +wrap him in cotton (as the proverb says), is womanish, ridiculous, +fruitless, and much more dangerous; for temptation +comes not alone from without, but quite as often from within, +and secret inclination seeks and creates for itself the +opportunity for its gratification, often perhaps an unnatural +one. The truly preventive activity consists not in an abstract +seclusion from the world, all of whose elements are innate in +each individual, but in the activity of knowledge and discipline, +modified according to age and culture.</p> + +<p>—If one endeavors to deprive the youth of all free and individual +intercourse with the world, one only falls into a +continual watching of him, and the consciousness that he is +watched destroys in him all elasticity of spirit, all confidence, +all originality. The police shadow of control obscures all +independence and systematically accustoms him to dependence. +As the tragi-comic story of Peter Schlemihl shows, +one cannot lose his own shadow without falling into the saddest +fatalities; but the shadow of a constant companion, as +in the pedagogical system of the Jesuits, undermines all +naturalness. And if one endeavors too strictly to guard +against that which is evil and forbidden, the intelligence of +the pupils reacts in deceit against such efforts, till the educators +are amazed that such crimes as come often to light can +have arisen under such careful control.—</p> + +<p><a name="S35" id="S35"></a>§ 35. If there should appear in the youth any decided moral +deformity which is opposed to the ideal of his education, the +instructor must at once make inquiry as to the history of its +origin, because the negative and the positive are very closely +connected in his being, so that what appears to be negligence, +rudeness, immorality, foolishness, or oddity, may arise from +some real needs of the youth which in their development +have only taken a wrong direction.</p> + +<p><a name="S36" id="S36"></a>§ 36. If it should appear on such examination that the +negative action was only a product of wilful ignorance, of caprice, +or of arbitrariness on the part of the youth, then this +calls for a simple prohibition on the part of the educator, no + +<span class='pagenum'><a class="tooltip" name="Page_19" id="Page_19"><span><i>Reproof and Punishment.</i></span>19</a></span> + +reason being assigned. His authority must be sufficient to +the pupil without any reason. Only when this has happened +more than once, and the youth is old enough to understand, +should the prohibition, together with the reason therefor, be +given.</p> + +<p>—This should, however, be brief; the explanation must +retain its disciplinary character, and must not become extended +into a doctrinal essay, for in such a case the youth +easily forgets that it was his own misbehavior which was the +occasion of the explanation. The statement of the reason +must be honest, and it must present to the youth the point +most easy for him to seize. False reasons are morally blamable +in themselves, and they tend only to confuse. It is a great +mistake to unfold to the youth the broadening consequences +which his act may bring. These uncertain possibilities seem +to him too powerless to affect him particularly. The severe +lecture wearies him, especially if it be stereotyped, as is apt +to be the case with fault-finding and talkative instructors. +But more unfortunate is it if the painting of the gloomy +background to which the consequences of the wrong-doing of +the youth may lead, should fill his feelings and imagination +prematurely with gloomy fancies, because then the representation +has led him one step toward a state of wretchedness +which in the future man may become fearful depression and +degradation.—</p> + +<p><a name="S37" id="S37"></a>§ 37. If the censure is accompanied with a threat of punishment, +then we have the same kind of reproof which in daily +life we call "scolding;" but if reproof is given, the pupil +must be made to feel that it is in earnest.</p> + +<p><a name="S38" id="S38"></a>§ 38. Only when all other efforts have failed, is punishment, +which is the real negation of the error, the transgression, or +the vice, justifiable. Punishment inflicts intentionally pain +on the pupil, and its object is, by means of this sensation, to +bring him to reason, a result which neither our simple prohibition, +our explanation, nor our threat of punishment, has +been able to reach. But the punishment, as such, must not +refer to the subjective totality of the youth, or his disposition +in general, but only to the act which, as result, is a +manifestation of the disposition. It acts mediately on the disposition, +but leaves the inner being untouched directly; and + +<span class='pagenum'><a class="tooltip" name="Page_20" id="Page_20"><span><i>Correction</i> <span class="smcap">versus</span> <i>Satisfaction of Justice.</i></span>20</a></span> + +this is not only demanded by justice, but on account of the +sophistry that is inherent in human nature, which desires to +assign to a deed many motives, it is even necessary.</p> + +<p><a name="S39" id="S39"></a>§ 39. Punishment as an educational means is nevertheless +essentially corrective, since, by leading the youth to a proper +estimation of his fault and a positive change in his behavior, +it seeks to improve him. At the same time it stands as a sad +indication of the insufficiency of the means previously used. +On no account should the youth be frightened from the commission +of a misdemeanor, or from the repetition of his negative +deed through fear of punishment—a system which leads +always to terrorism: but, although it may have this effect, it +should, before all things, impress upon him the recognition +of the fact that the negative is not allowed to act as it will +without limitation, but rather that the Good and the True +have the absolute power in the world, and that they are never +without the means of overcoming anything that contradicts +them.</p> + +<p>—In the statute-laws, punishment has the opposite office. +It must first of all satisfy justice, and only after this is done +can it attempt to improve the guilty. If a government should +proceed on the same basis as the educator it would mistake +its task, because it has to deal with adults, whom it elevates +to the honorable position of responsibility for their own acts. +The state must not go back to the psychological ethical genesis +of a negative deed. It must assign to a secondary rank +of importance the biographical moment which contains the +deed in process and the circumstances of a mitigating character, +and it must consider first of all the deed in itself. It is +quite otherwise with the educator; for he deals with human +beings who are relatively undeveloped, and who are only +growing toward responsibility. So long as they are still +under the care of a teacher, the responsibility of their deed +belongs in part to him. If we confound the standpoint in +which punishment is administered in the state with that in +education, we work much evil.—</p> + +<p><a name="S40" id="S40"></a>§ 40. Punishment as a negation of a negation, considered +as an educational means, cannot be determined <i>à priori</i>, but +must always be modified by the peculiarities of the individual +offender and by the peculiar circumstances. Its administration + +<span class='pagenum'><a class="tooltip" name="Page_21" id="Page_21"><span><i>Three Kinds of Punishment.</i></span>21</a></span> + +calls for the exercise of the ingenuity and tact of the +educator.</p> + +<p><a name="S41" id="S41"></a>§ 41. Generally speaking, we must make a distinction between +the sexes, as well as between the different periods of +youth; (1) some kind of corporal punishment is most suitable +for children, (2) isolation for older boys and girls, and (3) +punishment based on the sense of honor for young men and +women.</p> + +<p><a name="S42" id="S42"></a>§ 42. (1) Corporal punishment is the production of physical +pain. The youth is generally whipped, and this kind of punishment, +provided always that it is not too often administered +or with undue severity, is the proper way of dealing with wilful +defiance, with obstinate carelessness, or with a really perverted +will, so long or so often as the higher perception is +closed against appeal. The imposing of other physical punishment, +e.g. that of depriving the pupil of food, partakes of +cruelty. The view which sees in the rod the panacea for all +the teacher's embarrassments is censurable, but equally undesirable +is the false sentimentality which assumes that the +dignity of humanity is affected by a blow given to a child, +and confounds self-conscious humanity with child-humanity, +to which a blow is the most natural form of reaction, in which +all other forms of influence at last end.</p> + +<p>—The fully-grown man ought never to be whipped, because +this kind of punishment reduces him to the level of the child, +and, when it becomes barbarous, to that of a brute animal, +and so is absolutely degrading to him. In the English schools +the rod is much used. If a pupil of the first class be put back +into the second at Eton, he, although before exempt from +flogging, becomes liable to it. But however necessary this +system of flogging of the English aristocracy may be in the +discipline of their schools, flogging in the English army is a +shameful thing for the free people of Great Britain.—</p> + +<p><a name="S43" id="S43"></a>§ 43. (2) By Isolation we remove the offender temporarily +from the society of his fellows. The boy left alone, cut off +from all companionship, and left absolutely to himself, suffers +from a sense of helplessness. The time passes heavily, and +soon he is very anxious to be allowed to return to the company +of parents, brothers and sisters, teachers and fellow-pupils.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a class="tooltip" name="Page_22" id="Page_22"><span><i>Sense of Honor in the Pupil.</i></span>22</a></span></p> + +<p>—To leave a child entirely to himself without any supervision, +even if one shuts him up in a dark room, is as mistaken +a practice as to leave a few together without supervision, +as is too often done where they are kept after school, when +they give the freest rein to their childish wantonness and +commit the wildest pranks.—</p> + +<p><a name="S44" id="S44"></a>§ 44. (3) This way of isolating a child does not touch his +sense of honor at all, and is soon forgotten because it relates to +only one side of his conduct. It is quite different from punishment +based on the sense of honor, which, in a formal +manner, shuts the youth out from companionship because +he has attacked the principle which holds society together, +and for this reason can no longer be considered as belonging +to it. Honor is the recognition of one individual by +others as their equal. Through his error, or it may be his +crime, he has simply made himself unequal to them, and in +so far has separated himself from them, so that his banishment +from their society is only the outward expression of the +real isolation which he himself has brought to pass in his +inner nature, and which he by means of his negative act only +betrayed to the outer world. Since the punishment founded on +the sense of honor affects the whole ethical man and makes +a lasting impression upon his memory, extreme caution is +necessary in its application lest a permanent injury be inflicted +upon the character. The idea of his perpetual continuance +in disgrace, destroys in a man all aspiration for +improvement.</p> + +<p>—Within the family this feeling of honor cannot be so actively +developed, because every member of it is bound to +every other immediately by natural ties, and hence is equal +to every other. Within its sacred circle, he who has isolated +himself is still beloved, though it may be through tears. +However bad may be the deed he has committed, he is never +given up, but the deepest sympathy is felt for him because +he is still brother, father, &c. But first in the contact of one +family with another, and still more in the contact of an individual +with any institution which is founded not on natural +ties, but is set over against him as a distinct object, this feeling +of honor appears. In the school, and in the matter of +ranks and classes in a school, this is very important.—</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a class="tooltip" name="Page_23" id="Page_23"><span><i>Limits of Education.</i></span>23</a></span></p> + +<p><a name="S45" id="S45"></a>§ 45. It is important to consider well this gradation of +punishment (which, starting with sensuous physical pain, +passes through the external teleology of temporary isolation +up to the idealism of the sense of honor), both in relation to +the different ages at which they are appropriate and to the +training which they bring with them. Every punishment +must be considered merely as a means to some end, and, in so +far, as transitory. The pupil must always be deeply conscious +that it is very painful to his instructor to be obliged to punish +him. This pathos of another's sorrow for the sake of his +cure which he perceives in the mien, in the tone of the voice, +in the delay with which the punishment is administered, will +become a purifying fire for his soul.</p> + + +<div class="center"><a name="limits" id="limits"></a>III.</div> + +<div class="center"><i>The Limits of Education.</i></div> + +<p><a name="S46" id="S46"></a>§ 46. The form of Education reaches its limits with the idea +of punishment, because this is the attempt to subsume the +negative reality and to make it conformable to its positive +idea. But the limits of Education are found in the idea of its +nature, which is to fashion the individual into theoretical and +practical rationality. The authority of the Educator at last +becomes imperceptible, and it passes over into advice and example, +and obedience changes from blind conformity to free +gratitude and attachment. Individuality wears off its rough +edges, and is transfigured into the universality and necessity +of Reason without losing in this process its identity. Work +becomes enjoyment, and he finds his play in a change of +activity. The youth takes possession of himself, and can be +left to himself.</p> + +<p>—There are two widely differing views with regard to the +limits of Education. One lays great stress on the weakness +of the pupil and the power of the teacher. According to this +view, Education has for its province the entire formation of +the youth. The despotism of this view often manifests itself +where large numbers are to be educated together, and with +very undesirable results, because it assumes that the individual +pupil is only a specimen of the whole, as if the school +were a great factory where each piece of goods is to be +stamped exactly like all the rest. Individuality is reduced + +<span class='pagenum'><a class="tooltip" name="Page_24" id="Page_24"><span><i>The Limits of Individuality.</i></span>24</a></span> + +by the tyranny of such despotism to one uniform level till all +originality is destroyed, as in cloisters, barracks, and orphan +asylums, where only one individual seems to exist. There is +a kind of Pedagogy also which fancies that one can thrust +into or out of the individual pupil what one will. This may +be called a superstitious belief in the power of Education.—The +opposite extreme disbelieves this, and advances the policy +which lets alone and does nothing, urging that individuality +is unconquerable, and that often the most careful and +far-sighted education fails of reaching its aim in so far as it +is opposed to the nature of the youth, and that this individuality +has made of no avail all efforts toward the obtaining of +any end which was opposed to it. This representation of the +fruitlessness of all pedagogical efforts engenders an indifference +towards it which would leave, as a result, only a sort of +vegetation of individuality growing at hap-hazard.—</p> + +<p><a name="S47" id="S47"></a>§ 47. <i>The limit of Education is</i> (1) <i>a Subjective one</i>, a +limit made by the individuality of the youth. This is a +definite limit. Whatever does not exist in this individuality as +a possibility cannot be developed from it. Education +can only lead and assist; it cannot create. What Nature +has denied to a man, Education cannot give him any more +than it is able, on the other hand, to annihilate entirely his +original gifts, although it is true that his talents may be +suppressed, distorted, and measurably destroyed. But the +decision of the question in what the real essence of any one's +individuality consists can never be made with certainty till +he has left behind him his years of development, because it +is then only that he first arrives at the consciousness of his +entire self; besides, at this critical time, in the first place, +much knowledge only superficially acquired will drop off; +and again, talents, long slumbering and unsuspected, may +first make their appearance. Whatever has been forced upon +a child in opposition to his individuality, whatever has been +only driven into him and has lacked receptivity on his +side, or a rational ground on the side of culture, remains attached +to his being only as an external ornament, a foreign +outgrowth which enfeebles his own proper character.</p> + +<p>—We must distinguish from that affectation which arises +through a misunderstanding of the limit of individuality, the + +<span class='pagenum'><a class="tooltip" name="Page_25" id="Page_25"><span><i>Limit in the Means of Education.</i></span>25</a></span> + +way which many children and young persons have of supposing +when they see models finished and complete in grown +persons, that they themselves are endowed by Nature with +the power to develop into the same. When they see a reality +which corresponds to their own possibility, the presentiment +of a like or a similar attainment moves them to an +imitation of it as a model personality. This may be sometimes +carried so far as to be disagreeable or ridiculous, but +should not be too strongly censured, because it springs from +a positive striving after culture, and needs only proper +direction.—</p> + +<p><a name="S48" id="S48"></a>§ 48. (2) <i>The Objective limit of Education</i> lies in the +means which can be appropriated for it. That the talent for +a certain culture shall be present is certainly the first thing; +but the cultivation of this talent is the second, and no less +necessary. But how much cultivation can be given to it extensively +and intensively depends upon the means used, and +these again are conditioned by the material resources of the +family to which each one belongs. The greater and more +valuable the means of culture which are found in a family +are, the greater is the immediate advantage which the culture +of each one has at the start. With regard to many of the +arts and sciences this limit of education is of great significance. +But the means alone are of no avail. The finest educational +apparatus will produce no fruit where corresponding +talent is wanting, while on the other hand talent often +accomplishes incredible feats with very limited means, and, if +the way is only once open, makes of itself a centre of attraction +which draws to itself with magnetic power the necessary +means. The moral culture of each one is however, fortunately +from its very nature, out of the reach of such dependence.</p> + +<p>—In considering the limit made by individuality we recognize +the side of truth in that indifference which considers +Education entirely superfluous, and in considering the means +of culture we find the truth in the other extreme of pedagogical +despotism, which fancies that it can command whatever +culture it chooses for any one without regard to his individuality.—</p> + +<p><a name="S49" id="S49"></a>§ 49. (3) <i>The Absolute limit of Education</i> is the time when +the youth has apprehended the problem which he has to + +<span class='pagenum'><a class="tooltip" name="Page_26" id="Page_26"><span><i>Arrival at the age of Majority.</i></span>26</a></span> + +solve, has learned to know the means at his disposal, and has +acquired a certain facility in using them. The end and aim +of Education is the emancipation of the youth. It strives to +make him self-dependent, and as soon as he has become so +it wishes to retire and to be able to leave him to the sole +responsibility of his actions. To treat the youth after he has +passed this point of time still as a youth, contradicts the very +idea of Education, which idea finds its fulfilment in the attainment +of majority by the pupil. Since the accomplishment of +education cancels the original inequality between the educator +and the pupil, nothing is more oppressing, nay, revolting +to the latter than to be prevented by a continued dependence +from the enjoyment of the freedom which he has earned.</p> + +<p>—The opposite extreme of the protracting of Education beyond +its proper time is necessarily the undue hastening of +the Emancipation.—The question whether one is prepared +for freedom has been often opened in politics. When any +people have gone so far as to ask this question themselves, +it is no longer a question whether that people are prepared +for it, for without the consciousness of freedom this question +would never have occurred to them.—</p> + +<p><a name="S50" id="S50"></a>§ 50. Although educators must now leave the youth free, +the necessity of further culture for him is still imperative. +But it will no longer come directly through them. Their +pre-arranged, pattern-making work is now supplanted by self-education. +Each sketches for himself an ideal to which in +his life he seeks to approximate every day.</p> + +<p>—In the work of self-culture one friend can help another +by advice and example; but he cannot educate, for education +presupposes inequality.—The necessities of human nature +produce societies in which equals seek to influence each +other in a pedagogical way, since they establish by certain +steps of culture different classes. They presuppose Education +in the ordinary sense. But they wish to bring about Education +in a higher sense, and therefore they veil the last form of +their ideal in the mystery of secrecy.—To one who lives on +contented with himself and without the impulse toward self-culture, +unless his unconcern springs from his belonging to +a savage state of society, the Germans give the name of +Philistine, and he is always repulsive to the student who is +intoxicated with an ideal.—</p> +<hr /> +<p><span class='pagenum'><a class="tooltip" name="Page_27" id="Page_27"><span> </span>27</a></span></p> + +<div class="center"><a name="SECOND" id="SECOND"></a>SECOND PART.</div> + +<div class="center">The Special Elements of Education.</div> + + +<p><a name="S51" id="S51"></a>§ 51. Education in general consists in the development in +man of his inborn theoretical and practical rationality; it +takes on the form of labor, which changes that state or +condition, which appears at first only as a mere conception, +into a fixed habit, and transfigures individuality into +a worthy humanity. Education ends in that emancipation +of the youth which places him on his own feet. The +special elements which form the concrete content of all Education +in general are the Life, Cognition, and Will of man. +Without life mind has no phenomenal reality; without cognition, +no genuine, i.e. conscious, will; and without will, +no self-assurance of life and of cognition. It is true that +these three elements are in real existence inseparable, and +that consequently in the dialectic they continually pass over +into one another. But none the less on this account do they +themselves prescribe their own succession, and they have +a relative and periodical ascendancy over each other. In +Infancy, up to the fifth or sixth year, the purely physical +development takes the precedence; Childhood is the time of +learning, in a proper sense, an act by which the child gains +for himself the picture of the world such as mature minds, +through experience and insight, have painted it; and, finally, +Youth is the transition period to practical activity, to which +the self-determination of the will must give the first impulse.</p> + +<p><a name="S52" id="S52"></a>§ 52. The classification of the special elements of Pedagogics +is hence very simple: (1) the Physical, (2) the Intellectual, +(3) the Practical. (We sometimes apply to these the +words Orthobiotics, Didactics, and Pragmatics.)</p> + +<p>—Æsthetic training constitutes only an element of the education +of Intellectual Education, just as social, moral, and +religious training form elements of Practical Education. But +because these latter elements concern themselves with what + +<span class='pagenum'><a class="tooltip" name="Page_28" id="Page_28"><span><i>Physical Education.</i></span>28</a></span> + +is external, the name "Pragmatics" is appropriate. In this +sphere, Pedagogics should coincide with Politics, Ethics, and +Religion; but it is distinguished from them through the aptitude +which it brings with it of putting into practice the problems +of the other three. The scientific arrangement of these +ideas must therefore show that the former, as the more abstract, +constitutes the conditions, and the latter, as the more +concrete, the ground of the former, which are presupposed; +and in consequence of this it is itself their principal teleological +presupposition, just as in man the will presupposes +the cognition, and cognition life; while, at the same time, +life, in a deeper sense, must presuppose cognition, and cognition +will.—</p> + + +<div class="center"><a name="physical" id="physical"></a><span class="smcap">First Division.</span></div> + +<div class="center">PHYSICAL EDUCATION.</div> + +<p><a name="S53" id="S53"></a>§ 53. The art of living rightly is based upon a comprehension +of the process of Life. Life is the restless dialectic +which ceaselessly transforms the inorganic into the organic, +but at the same time creates out of itself another inorganic, +in which it separates from itself whatever part of the inorganic +has not been assimilated, which it took up as a stimulant, +and that which has become dead and burned out. The +organism is healthy when its reality corresponds to this idea +of the dialectic, of a life which moves up and down, to and +fro; of formation and re-formation, of organizing and disorganizing. +All the rules for Physical Education, or of Hygiene, +are derived from this conception.</p> + +<p><a name="S54" id="S54"></a>§ 54. It follows from this that the change of the inorganic +to the organic is going on not only in the organism as a whole, +but also in its every organ and in every part of every organ; +and that the organic as soon as it has attained its highest +point of energy, is again degraded to the inorganic and +thrown out. Every cell has its history. Activity is, therefore, +not contradictory to the organism, but favors in it the +natural progressive and regressive metamorphosis. This process +can go on harmoniously; that is, the organism can be +in health only when not only the whole organism, but each +special organ, is allowed, after its productive activity, the +corresponding rest and recreation necessary for its self-renewal. +We have this periodicity exemplified in waking + +<span class='pagenum'><a class="tooltip" name="Page_29" id="Page_29"><span><i>Dietetics.</i></span>29</a></span> + +and sleeping, also in exhalation and inhalation, excretion +and taking in of material. When we have discovered the +relative antagonism of the organs and their periodicity, we +have found the secret of the perennial renewal of life.</p> + +<p><a name="S55" id="S55"></a>§ 55. Fatigue makes its appearance when any organ, or the +organism in general, is denied time for the return movement +into itself and for renovation. It is possible for some one +organ, as if isolated, to exercise a great and long-continued +activity, even to the point of fatigue, while the other organs +rest; as e.g. the lungs, in speaking, while the other parts are +quiet; on the other hand, it is not well to speak and run at +the same time. The idea that one can keep the organism in +better condition by inactivity, is an error which rests upon a +mechanical apprehension of life. Equally false is the idea +that health depends upon the quantity and excellence of the +food; without the force to assimilate it, it acts fatally rather +than stimulatingly. <i>True strength arises only from activity.</i></p> + +<p>—The later physiologists will gradually destroy, in the +system of culture of modern people, the preconceived notion +which recommended for the indolent and lovers of pleasure +powerful stimulants, very fat food, &c. Excellent works exist +on this question.—</p> + +<p><a name="S56" id="S56"></a>§ 56. Physical Education, as it concerns the repairing, the +motor, or the nervous, activities, is divided into (1) Dietetics, +(2) Gymnastics, (3) Sexual Education. In real life these activities +are scarcely separable, but for the sake of exposition +we must consider them apart. In the regular development of +the human being, moreover, the repairing system has a relative +precedence to the motor system, and the latter to the +sexual maturity. But Pedagogics can treat of these ideas +only with reference to the infant, the child, and the youth.</p> + + +<div class="center">FIRST CHAPTER.</div> + +<div class="center"><i>Dietetics.</i></div> + +<p><a name="S57" id="S57"></a>§ 57. Dietetics is the art of sustaining the normal repair of +the organism. Since this organism is, in the concrete, an +individual one, the general principles of dietetics must, in +their manner of application, vary with the sex, the age, the +temperament, the occupation, and the other conditions, of the +individual. Pedagogics as a science can only go over its general + +<span class='pagenum'><a class="tooltip" name="Page_30" id="Page_30"><span><i>Dietetics.</i></span>30</a></span> + +principles, and these can be named briefly. It we attempt +to speak of details, we fall easily into triviality. So very +important to the whole life of man is the proper care of his +physical nature during the first stages of its development, +that the science of Pedagogics must not omit to consider the +different systems which different people, according to their +time, locality, and culture, have made for themselves; many, +it is true, embracing some preposterous ideas, but in general +never devoid of justification in their time.</p> + +<p><a name="S58" id="S58"></a>§ 58. The infant's first nourishment must be the milk of its +mother. The substitution of a nurse should be only an exception +justified alone by the illness of the mother; as a +rule, as happens in France, it is simply bad, because a foreign +physical and moral element is introduced into the family +through the nurse. The milk of an animal can never be as +good for a child.</p> + +<p><a name="S59" id="S59"></a>§ 59. When the teeth appear, the child is first able to eat +solid food; but, until the second teeth come, he should be fed +principally on light, fluid nourishment, and on vegetable diet.</p> + +<p><a name="S60" id="S60"></a>§ 60. When the second teeth are fully formed, the human +being is ready for animal as well as vegetable food. Too +much meat is not good; but it is an anatomical error to suppose +that man, by the structure of his stomach, was originally +formed to live alone on vegetable diet, and that animal +food is a sign of his degeneracy.</p> + +<p>—The Hindoos, who subsist principally on vegetable diet, +are not, as has been often asserted, a very gentle race: a +glance into their history, or into their erotic poetry, shows +them to be quite as passionate as other peoples.—</p> + +<p><a name="S61" id="S61"></a>§ 61. Man is omnivorous. Children have therefore a natural +desire to taste of everything. For them eating and drinking +possess a kind of poetry; there is a theoretic ingredient +blended with the material enjoyment. They have, on this +account, a proneness to indulge, which is deserving of punishment +only when it is combined with disobedience and +secrecy, or when it betrays cunning and greediness.</p> + +<p><a name="S62" id="S62"></a>§ 62. Children need much sleep, because they are undergoing +the most active progressive metamorphosis. In after-life +sleep and waking should be subjected to periodical regulation, +but not too exactly.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a class="tooltip" name="Page_31" id="Page_31"><span><i>Gymnastics.</i></span>31</a></span></p> + +<p><a name="S63" id="S63"></a>§ 63. The clothing of children should be adapted to them; +i.e. it should be cut according to the shape of the body, and +it must be loose enough to allow free play to their desire for +movement.</p> + +<p>—With regard to this as well as to the sleeping arrangements +for children, less in regard to food—which is often +too highly spiced and too liberal in tea, coffee, &c.—our age +has become accustomed to a very rational system. The clothing +of children must be not only comfortable, but it should be +made of simple and cheap material, so that the free enjoyment +of the child may not be marred by the constant internal +anxiety that a rent or a spot may bring him a fault-finding +or angry word. From too great care as to clothing, may arise +a meanness of mind which at last pays too great respect to +it, or an empty frivolity. This last may be induced by dressing +children too conspicuously.—</p> + +<p><a name="S64" id="S64"></a>§ 64. Cleanliness is a virtue to which children should be +accustomed for the sake of their physical well-being, as well +as because, in a moral point of view, it is of the greatest significance. +Cleanliness will not endure that things shall be +deprived of their proper individuality through the elemental +chaos. It retains each as distinguished from every other. +While it makes necessary to man pure air, cleanliness of +surroundings, of clothing, and of his body, it develops in him +a sense by which he perceives accurately the particular limits +of being in general.</p> + + +<div class="center">SECOND CHAPTER.</div> + +<div class="center"><i>Gymnastics.</i></div> + +<p><a name="S65" id="S65"></a>§ 65. Gymnastics is the art of systematic training of the +muscular system. The action of the voluntary muscles, which +are regulated by the nerves of the brain, in distinction from +the involuntary automatic muscles depending on the spinal +cord, while they are the means of man's intercourse with the +external world, at the same time re-act upon the automatic +muscles in digestion and sensation. Since the movement of +the muscular fibres consists in the change of contraction and +expansion, it follows that Gymnastics must bring about a +change of movement which shall both contract and expand +the muscles.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a class="tooltip" name="Page_32" id="Page_32"><span><i>Gymnastics.</i></span>32</a></span></p> + +<p><a name="S66" id="S66"></a>§ 66. The system of gymnastic exercise of any nation corresponds +always to its way of fighting. So long as this +consists in the personal struggle of a hand-to-hand contest, +Gymnastics will seek to increase as much as possible individual +strength and adroitness. As soon as the far-reaching +missiles projected from fire-arms become the centre of all the +operations of war, the individual is lost in a body of men, out +of which he emerges only relatively in sharp-shooting, in the +charge, in single contests, and in the retreat. Because of this +incorporation of the individual in the one great whole, and +because of the resulting unimportance of personal bravery, +modern Gymnastics can never be the same as it was in ancient +times, even putting out of view the fact that the subjectiveness +of the modern spirit is too great to allow it to devote +so much attention to the care of the body, and the admiration +of its beauty, as was given by the Greeks.</p> + +<p>—The Turners' unions and halls in Germany belong to the +period of subjective enthusiasm of the German student population, +and had a political significance. At present, they +have been brought back to their proper place as an Educational +means, and they are of great value, especially in large +cities. Among the mountains, and even in the country towns, +a special institution for bodily exercise is less necessary, for +the matter takes care of itself. The attractions of the situation +and the games help to foster it. In great cities, however, +the houses are often destitute of halls or open places +where the children can take exercise in their leisure moments. +In these cities, therefore, there must be some gymnastic hall +where the sense of fellowship may be developed. Gymnastics +are not so essential for girls. In its place, dancing is +sufficient, and gymnastics should be employed for them only +where there exists any special weakness or deformity, when +they may be used as a restorative or preservative. They are +not to become Amazons. The boy, on the contrary, needs to +acquire the feeling of good-fellowship. It is true that the +school develops this in a measure, but not fully, because it +determines the standing of the boy through his intellectual +ambition. The academical youth will not take much interest +in special gymnastics unless he can gain preëminence therein. +Running, leaping, climbing, and lifting, are too meaningless + +<span class='pagenum'><a class="tooltip" name="Page_33" id="Page_33"><span><i>Gymnastics.</i></span>33</a></span> + +for their more mature spirits. They can take a lively +interest only in the exercises which have a warlike character. +With the Prussians, and some other German states, the +art of Gymnastics identifies itself with military concerns.—</p> + +<p><a name="S67" id="S67"></a>§ 67. The real idea of Gymnastics must always be that the +spirit shall rule over its naturalness, and shall make this an +energetic and docile servant of its will. Strength and adroitness +must unite and become confident skill. Strength, carried +to its extreme produces the athlete; adroitness, to its +extreme, the acrobat. Pedagogics must avoid both. All immense +force, fit only for display, must be held as far away +as the idea of teaching Gymnastics with the motive of utility; +e.g. that by swimming one may save his life when he falls +into the water, &c. Among other things, this may also be a +consequence; but the principle in general must always remain: +the necessity of the spirit of subjecting its organism of +the body to the condition of a perfect means, so that it may +never find itself limited by it.</p> + +<p><a name="S68" id="S68"></a>§ 68. Gymnastic exercises form a series from simple to +compound. There appears to be so much arbitrariness in +them that it is always very agreeable to the mind to find, on +nearer inspection, some reason. The movements are (1) of +the lower, (2) of the upper extremities; (3) of the whole body, +with relative striking out, now of the upper, now of the +lower extremities. We distinguish, therefore, foot, arm, and +trunk movements.</p> + +<p><a name="S69" id="S69"></a>§ 69. (1) The first series of foot-movements is the most +important, and conditions the carriage of all the rest of the +body. They are (<i>a</i>) walking; (<i>b</i>) running; (<i>c</i>) leaping: each +of these being capable of modifications, as the high and the +low leap, the prolonged and the quick run. Sometimes we +give to these different names, according to the means used, +as walking on stilts; skating; leaping with a staff, or by +means of the hands, as vaulting. Dancing is only the art of +the graceful mingling of these movements; and balancing, +only one form of walking.</p> + +<p><a name="S70" id="S70"></a>§ 70. (2) The second series embraces the arm-movements, +and it repeats also the movements of the first series. It includes +(<i>a</i>) lifting; (<i>b</i>) swinging; (<i>c</i>) throwing. All pole and +bar practice comes under lifting, also climbing and carrying. + +<span class='pagenum'><a class="tooltip" name="Page_34" id="Page_34"><span><i>Gymnastics.</i></span>34</a></span> + +Under throwing, come quoit and ball-throwing, and nine-pin +playing. All these movements are distinguished from each +other, not only quantitatively but also qualitatively, in the +position of the stretched and bent muscles; e.g. running is +something different from quick walking.</p> + +<p><a name="S71" id="S71"></a>§ 71. (3) The third series, or that of movements of the +whole body, differs from the preceding two, which should +precede it, in this, that it brings the organism into contact +with a living object, which it has to overcome through its +own activity. This object is sometimes an element, sometimes +an animal, sometimes a man. Our divisions then are +(<i>a</i>) swimming; (<i>b</i>) riding; (<i>c</i>) fighting, or single combat. In +swimming, one must conquer the yielding liquid material of +water by arm and foot movements. The resistance met on +account of currents and waves may be very great, but it is +still that of a will-less and passive object. But in riding +man has to deal with a self-willed being whose vitality calls +forth not only his strength but also his intelligence and courage. +The exercise is therefore very complicated, and the rider +must be able perpetually to individualize it according to the +necessity; at the same time, he must give attention not only +to the horse, but to the nature of the ground and the entire +surroundings. But it is only in the struggle with men that +Gymnastics reaches its highest point, for in this man offers +himself as a living antagonist to man and brings him into +danger. It is no longer the spontaneous activity of an unreasoning +existence; it is the resistance and attack of intelligence +itself with which he has to deal. Fighting, or single +combat, is the truly chivalrous exercise, and this may be +combined with horsemanship.</p> + +<p>—In the single combat there is found also a qualitative +modification, whence we have three systems: (<i>a</i>) boxing and +wrestling; (<i>b</i>) fencing with sticks; and (<i>c</i>) rapier and broad-sword +fencing. In the first, which was cultivated to its highest +point among the Greeks, direct immediateness rules. In +the boxing of the English, a sailor-like propensity of this +nation, fist-fighting is still retained as a custom. Fencing +with a stick is found among the French mechanics, the so-called +<i>compagnons</i>. Men often use the cane in their contests; +it is a sort of refined club. When we use the sword or rapier, + +<span class='pagenum'><a class="tooltip" name="Page_35" id="Page_35"><span><i>Sexual Education.</i></span>35</a></span> + +the weapon becomes deadly. The Southern Europeans excel +in the use of the rapier, the Germans in that of the sword. +But the art of single combat is much degenerated, and the +pistol-duel, through its increasing frequency, proves this degeneration.—</p> + + +<div class="center">THIRD CHAPTER.</div> + +<div class="center"><i>Sexual Education.</i></div> + +<div class="blockquot"><p><span class="smcap">Note.</span>—The paragraphs relating to Sexual Education are designed for parents +rather than for teachers, the parent being the natural educator of the family and +sexual education relating to the preservation and continuance of the family. +This chapter is accordingly, for the most part, omitted here. It contains judicious +reflections, invaluable to parents and guardians.—<i>Tr.</i></p></div> + +<p><a name="S72" id="S72"></a>§ 72. Gymnastic exercises fall naturally into a systematic +arrangement determined by the chronological order of development +through infancy, childhood, and youth. Walking, +running, and leaping belong, to the first period; lifting, swinging, +and throwing, to the second; swimming, riding, and +bodily contests, to the third, and these last may also be continued +into manhood. But with the arrival at youth, a new +epoch makes its appearance in the organism. It prepares +itself for the propagation of the species. It expands the individual +through the need which he feels of uniting himself +with another individual of the same species, but who is a +polar opposite to him, in order to preserve the two in a new +individual. The blood rushes more vigorously; the muscular +strength becomes more easily roused into activity; an +indefinable impulse, a sweet melancholy takes possession +of the being. This period demands a special care in the +educator.</p> + +<p><a name="S73" id="S73"></a>§ 73. The general preventive guards must be found in a +rational system of food and exercise. By care in these directions, +the development of the bones, and with them of the +brain and spinal cord at this period, may be led to a proper +strength, and that the easily-moulded material may not be +perverted from its normal functions in the development of +the body to a premature manifestation of the sexual instinct.</p> + +<p><a name="S74" id="S74"></a>§ 74. Special forethought is necessary lest the brain be too +early over-strained, and lest, in consequence of such precocious +and excessive action, the foundation for a morbid excitation +of the whole nervous system be laid, which may easily + +<span class='pagenum'><a class="tooltip" name="Page_36" id="Page_36"><span><i>Intellectual Education—Psychological Faculties.</i></span>36</a></span> + +lead to effeminate and voluptuous reveries, and to brooding +over obscene representations. The excessive reading of novels, +whose exciting pages delight in painting the love of the +sexes for each other and its sensual phases, may lead to this, +and then the mischief is done.</p> + + +<div class="center"><span class="smcap">Second Division.</span></div> + +<div class="center"><a name="intellectual" id="intellectual"></a>INTELLECTUAL EDUCATION.</div> + +<p><a name="S80" id="S80"></a>§ 80. <i>Mens sana in corpore sano</i> is correct as a pedagogical +maxim, but false in the judgment of individual cases; because +it is possible, on the one hand, to have a healthy mind in an +unhealthy body, and, on the other hand, an unhealthy mind +in a healthy body. To strive after the harmony of soul and +body is the material condition of all proper activity. The +development of intelligence presupposes physical health. +Here we are to speak of the science of the art of Teaching. +This had its condition on the side of nature, as was before +seen, in physical Education, but in the sphere of mind it is +related to Psychology and Logic. It unites, in Teaching, considerations +on Psychology as well as a Logical method.</p> + + +<div class="center">FIRST CHAPTER.</div> + +<div class="center"><i>The Psychological Presupposition.</i></div> + +<p><a name="S81" id="S81"></a>§ 81. If we would have a sound condition of Philosophy, it +must, in intellectual Education, refer to the conception of +mind which has been unfolded in Psychology; and it must +appear as a defect in scientific method if Psychology, or at +least the conception of the theoretical mind, is treated again +as within Pedagogics. We must take something for granted. +Psychology, then, will be consulted no further than is requisite +to place on a sure basis the pedagogical function which +relates to it.</p> + +<p><a name="S82" id="S82"></a>§ 82. The conception of <i>attention</i> is the most important to +Pedagogics of all those derived from Psychology. Mind is +essentially self-activity. Nothing exists for it which it does +not itself posit as its own. We hear it not seldom implied +that something from outside conditions must make an impression +on the mind, but this is an error. Mind lets nothing +act upon it unless it has rendered itself receptive to it. +Without this preparatory self-excitation the object does not + +<span class='pagenum'><a class="tooltip" name="Page_37" id="Page_37"><span><i>Psychological Faculties.</i></span>37</a></span> + +really penetrate it, and it passes by the object unconsciously +or indifferently. The horizon of perception changes for each +person with his peculiarities and culture. Attention is the +adjusting of the observer to the object in order to seize it in +its unity and diversity. Relatively, the observer allows, for +a moment, his relation to all other surroundings to cease, so +that he may establish a relation with this one. Without this +essentially spontaneous activity, nothing exists for the mind. +All result in teaching and learning depends upon the clearness +and strength with which distinctions are made, and the +saying, <i>bene qui distinguit bene docit</i>, applies as well to the +pupil.</p> + +<p><a name="S83" id="S83"></a>§ 83. Attention, depending as it does on the self-determination +of the observer, can therefore be improved, and the pupil +made attentive, by the educator. Education must accustom +him to an exact, rapid, and many-sided attention, so that +at the first contact with an object he may grasp it sufficiently +and truly, and that it shall not be necessary for him always +to be adding to his acquisitions concerning it. The twilight +and partialness of intelligence which forces us always to new +corrections because a pupil at the very commencement did +not give entire attention, must not be tolerated.</p> + +<p><a name="S84" id="S84"></a>§ 84. We learn from Psychology that mind does not consist +of distinct faculties, but that what we choose to call so are only +different activities of the same power. Each one is just as +essential as the other, on which account Education must grant +to each faculty its claim to the same fostering care. If we +would construe correctly the axiom <i>a potiori fit denominatio</i> +to mean that man is distinguished from animals by thought, +and that mediated will is not the same as thought, we must +not forget that feeling and representing are not less necessary +to a truly complete human being. The special direction +which the activity of apprehending intelligence takes are +(1) Perception, (2) Conception, (3) Thinking. Dialectically, +they pass over into each other; not that Perception rises into +Conception, and Conception into Thinking, but that Thinking +goes back into Conception, and this again into Perception. +In the development of the young, the Perceptive faculty is +most active in the infant, the Conceptive in the child, and the + +<span class='pagenum'><a class="tooltip" name="Page_38" id="Page_38"><span><i>The Intuitive Epoch.</i></span>38</a></span> + +Thinking in the youth; and thus we may distinguish an intuitive, +an imaginative, and a logical epoch.</p> + +<p>—Great errors arise from the misapprehension of these different +phases and of their dialectic, since the different forms +which are suitable to the different grades of youth are mingled. +The infant certainly thinks while he perceives, but this +thinking is to him unconscious. Or, if he has acquired perceptions, +he makes them into conceptions, and demonstrates +his freedom in playing with them. This play must not be +taken as mere amusement; it also signifies that he takes +care to preserve his self-determination, and his power of +idealizing, in opposition to the pleasant filling of his consciousness +with material. Herein the delight of the child for +fairy tales finds its reason. The fairy tale constantly destroys +the limits of common actuality. The abstract understanding +cannot endure this arbitrariness and want of fixed conditions, +and thus would prefer that children should read, instead, +home-made stories of the "Charitable Ann," of the "Heedless +Frederick," of the "Inquisitive Wilhelmine," &c. Above all, +it praises "Robinson Crusoe," which contains much heterogeneous +matter, but nothing improbable. When the youth +and maiden of necessity pass over into the earnestness of real +life, the drying up of the imagination and the domination of +the understanding presses in.—</p> + + +<div class="center">I. <i>The Intuitive Epoch.</i></div> + +<p><a name="S85" id="S85"></a>§ 85. Perception, as the beginning of intellectual culture, +is the free grasping of a content immediately present to the +spirit. Education can do nothing directly toward the performance +of this act; it can only assist in making it easy:—(1) +it can isolate the subject of consideration; (2) it can give +facility in the transition to another; (3) it can promote the +many-sidedness of the interest, by which means the return +to a perception already obtained has always a fresh charm.</p> + +<p><a name="S86" id="S86"></a>§ 86. The immediate perception of many things is impossible, +and yet the necessity for it is obvious. We must then +have recourse to a mediated perception, and supply the lack +of actual seeing by representations. But here the difficulty +presents itself, that there are many objects which we are not + +<span class='pagenum'><a class="tooltip" name="Page_39" id="Page_39"><span><i>The Intuitive Epoch.</i></span>39</a></span> + +able to represent of the same size as they really are, and we +must have a reduced scale; and there follows a difficulty in +making the representation, as neither too large nor too small. +An explanation is then also necessary as a judicious supplement +to the picture.</p> + +<p><a name="S87" id="S87"></a>§ 87. Pictures are extremely valuable aids to instruction +when they are correct and characteristic. Correctness must +be demanded in these substitutes for natural objects, historical +persons and scenes. Without this correctness, the picture, +if not an impediment, is, to say the least, useless.</p> + +<p>—It is only since the last half of the seventeenth century, +i.e. since the disappearance of real painting, that the picture-book +has appeared as an educational means; first of all, +coming from miniature painting. Up to that time, public life +had plenty of pictures of arms, furniture, houses, and churches; +and men, from their fondness for constantly moving +about, were more weary of immediate perception. It was +only afterwards when, in the excitement of the thirty-years' +war, the arts of Sculpture and Painting and Christian and +Pagan Mythology became extinct, that there arose a greater +necessity for pictured representations. The <i>Orbis Rerum +Sensualium Pictus</i>, which was also to be <i>janua linguarum +reserata</i>, of Amos Comenius, appeared first in 1658, and was +reprinted in 1805. Many valuable illustrated books followed. +Since that time innumerable illustrated Bibles and histories +have appeared, but many of them look only to the pecuniary +profit of the author or the publisher. It is revolting to +see the daubs that are given to children. They are highly +colored, but as to correctness, to say nothing of character, +they are good for nothing. With a little conscientiousness +and scientific knowledge very different results could be obtained +with the same outlay of money and of strength. The +uniformity which exists in the stock of books which German +book-selling has set in circulation is really disgraceful. +Everywhere we find the same types, even in ethnographical +pictures. In natural history, the illustrations were often +drawn from the imagination or copied from miserable models. +This has changed very much for the better. The same +is true of architectural drawings and landscapes, for which +we have now better copies.—</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a class="tooltip" name="Page_40" id="Page_40"><span><i>The Intuitive Epoch.</i></span>40</a></span></p> + +<p><a name="S88" id="S88"></a>§ 88. Children have naturally a desire to collect things, and +this may be so guided that they shall collect and arrange +plants, butterflies, beetles, shells, skeletons, &c., and thus +gain exactness and reality in their perception. Especially +should they practise drawing, which leads them to form exact +images of objects. But drawing, as children practise it, +does not have the educational significance of cultivating in +them an appreciation of art, but rather that of educating the +eye, as this must be exercised in estimating distances, sizes, +and colors. It is, moreover, a great gain in many ways, if, +through a suitable course of lessons in drawing, the child is +advanced to a knowledge of the elementary forms of nature.</p> + +<p>—That pictures should affect children as works of art is +not to be desired. They confine themselves at first to distinguishing +the outlines and colors, and do not yet appreciate +the execution. If the children have access to real works of +art, we may safely trust in their power, and quietly await +their moral or æsthetic effect.—</p> + +<p><a name="S89" id="S89"></a>§ 89. In order that looking at pictures shall not degenerate +into mere diversion, explanations should accompany them. +Only when the thought embodied in the illustration is pointed +out, can they be useful as a means of instruction. Simply +looking at them is of as little value towards this end as is +water for baptism without the Holy Spirit. Our age inclines +at present to the superstition that man is able, by means +of simple intuition, to attain a knowledge of the essence of +things, and thereby dispense with the trouble of thinking. +Illustrations are the order of the day, and, in the place of +enjoyable descriptions, we find miserable pictures. It is in +vain to try to get behind things, or to comprehend them, except +by thinking.</p> + +<p><a name="S90" id="S90"></a>§ 90. The ear as well as the eye must be cultivated. Music +must be considered the first educational means to this end, +but it should be music inspired by ethical purity. Hearing +is the most internal of all the senses, and should on this +account be treated with the greatest delicacy. Especially +should the child be taught that he is not to look upon speech +as merely a vehicle for communication and for gaining information; +it should also give pleasure, and therefore he +should be taught to speak distinctly and with a good style, + +<span class='pagenum'><a class="tooltip" name="Page_41" id="Page_41"><span><i>The Imaginative Epoch.</i></span>41</a></span> + +and this he can do only when he carefully considers what he +is going to say.</p> + +<p>—Among the Greeks, extraordinary care was given to musical +cultivation, especially in its ethical relation. Sufficient +proof of this is found in the admirable detailed statements +on this point in the "Republic" of Plato and in the last book +of the "Politics" of Aristotle. Among modern nations, also, +music holds a high place, and makes its appearance as a constant +element of education. Piano-playing has become general, +and singing is also taught. But the ethical significance +of music is too little considered. Instruction in music often +aims only to train pupils for display in society, and the tendency +of the melodies which are played is restricted more +and more to orchestral pieces of an exciting or bacchanalian +character. The railroad-gallop-style only makes the nerves +of youth vibrate with stimulating excitement. Oral speech, +the highest form of the personal manifestation of mind, was +also treated with great reverence by the ancients. Among +us, communication is so generally carried on by writing and +reading, that the art of speaking distinctly, correctly, and +agreeably, has become very much neglected. Practice in +declamation accomplishes, as a general thing, very little in +this direction. But we may expect that the increase of public +speaking occasioned by our political and religious assemblies +may have a favorable influence in this particular.—</p> + +<div class="center">II. <i>The Imaginative Epoch.</i></div> + +<p><a name="S91" id="S91"></a>§ 91. The activity of Perception results in the formation of +an internal picture or image of its ideas which intelligence +can call up at any time without the sensuous, immediate presence +of its object, and thus, through abstraction and generalization, +arises the conception. The mental image may (1) be +compared with the perception from which it sprang, or (2) it +may be arbitrarily altered and combined with other images, +or (3) it may be held fast in the form of abstract signs or symbols +which intelligence invents for it. Thus originate the +functions (1) of the verification of conceptions, (2) of the creative +imagination, and (3) of memory; but for their full development +we must refer to Psychology.</p> + +<p><a name="S92" id="S92"></a>§ 92. (1) The mental image which we form of an object may + +<span class='pagenum'><a class="tooltip" name="Page_42" id="Page_42"><span><i>The Imaginative Epoch.</i></span>42</a></span> + +be correct; again, it may be partly or wholly defective, if we +have neglected some of the predicates of the perception which +presented themselves, or in so far as we have added to it other +predicates which only seemingly belonged to it, and which +were attached to it only by its accidental empirical connection +with other existences. Education must, therefore, foster the +habit of comparing our conceptions with the perceptions from +which they arose; and these perceptions, since they are liable +to change by reason of their empirical connection with +other objects, must be frequently compared with our conceptions +previously formed by abstractions from them.</p> + +<p><a name="S93" id="S93"></a>§ 93. (2) We are thus limited in our conceptions by our +perceptions, but we exercise a free control over our conceptions. +We can create out of them, as simple elements, the +manifold mental shapes which we do not treat as given to us, +but as essentially our own work. In Pedagogics, we must not +only look upon this freedom as if it were only to afford gratification, +but as the reaction of the absolute ideal native +mind against the dependence in which the empirical reception +of impressions from without, and their reproduction in +conceptions, place it. In this process, it does not only fashion +in itself the phenomenal world, but it rather fashions out +of itself a world which is all its own.</p> + +<p><a name="S94" id="S94"></a>§ 94. The study of Art comes here to the aid of Pedagogics, +especially with Poetry, the highest and at the same time the +most easily communicated. The imagination of the pupil +can be led by means of the classical works of creative imagination +to the formation of a good taste both as regards +ethical value and beauty of form. The proper classical works +for youth are those which nations have produced in the earliest +stages of their culture. These works bring children face +to face with the picture which mind has sketched for itself in +one of the necessary stages of its development. This is the +real reason why our children never weary of reading Homer +and the stories of the Old Testament. Polytheism and the +heroism which belongs to it are just as substantial an element +of childish conception as monotheism with its prophets and +patriarchs. We stand beyond both, because we are mediated +by both, and embrace both in our stand-point.</p> + +<p>—The purest stories of literature designed for the amusement + +<span class='pagenum'><a class="tooltip" name="Page_43" id="Page_43"><span><i>The Imaginative Epoch.</i></span>43</a></span> + +of children from their seventh to their fourteenth year, +consist always of those which were honored by nations and +the world at large. One has only to notice in how many +thousand forms the stories of Ulysses are reproduced by +the writers of children's tales. Becker's "Tales of Ancient +Times," Gustav Schwab's most admirable "Sagas of Antiquity," +Karl Grimm's "Tales of Olden Times," &c., what were +they without the well-talking, wily favorite of Pallas, and +the divine swine-herd? And just as indestructible are the +stories of the Old Testament up to the separation of Judah +and Israel. These patriarchs with their wives and children, +these judges and prophets, these kings and priests, are by no +means ideals of virtue in the notion of our modern lifeless +morality, which would smooth out of its pattern-stories for +the "dear children" everything that is hard and uncouth. +For the very reason that the shadow-side is not wanting here, +and that we find envy, vanity, evil desire, ingratitude, craftiness, +and deceit, among these fathers of the race and leaders +of "God's chosen people," have these stories so great an +educational value. Adam, Cain, Abraham, Joseph, Samson, +and David, have justly become as truly world-historical types +as Achilles and Patroclus, Agamemnon and Iphigenia, Hector +and Andromache, Ulysses and Penelope.—</p> + +<p><a name="S95" id="S95"></a>§ 95. There may be produced also, out of the simplest and +most primitive phases of different epochs of culture of one +and the same people, stories which answer to the imagination +of children, and represent to them the characteristic features +of the past of their people.</p> + +<p>—The Germans possess such a collection of their stories in +their popular books of the "Horny Sigfried," of the "Heymon +Children," of "Beautiful <i>Magelone</i>," "Fortunatus," "The +Wandering Jew," "Faust," "The Adventurous Simplicissimus," +"The <i>Schildbürger</i>," "The Island of Felsenburg," +"Lienhard and Gertrude," &c. Also, the art works of the +great masters which possess national significance must be +spoken of here, as the Don Quixote of Cervantes.—</p> + +<p><a name="S96" id="S96"></a>§ 96. The most general form in which the childish imagination +finds exercise is that of fairy-tales; but Education must +take care that it has these in their proper shape as national +productions, and that they are not of the morbid kind + +<span class='pagenum'><a class="tooltip" name="Page_44" id="Page_44"><span><i>The Imaginative Epoch.</i></span>44</a></span> + +which poetry so often gives us in this species of literature, +and which not seldom degenerate to sentimental caricatures +and silliness.</p> + +<p>—The East Indian stories are most excellent because they +have their origin with a childlike people who live wholly in +the imagination. By means of the Arabian filtration, which +took place in Cairo in the flourishing period of the Egyptian +caliphs, all that was too characteristically Indian was excluded, +and they were made in the "Tales of Scheherezade," +a book for all peoples, with whose far-reaching power in +child-literature, the local stories of a race, as e.g. Grimm's +admirable ones of German tradition, cannot compare. Fairy-tales +made to order, as we often see them, with a mediæval +Catholic tendency, or very moral and dry, are a bane to the +youthful imagination in their stale sweetness. We must +here add, however, that lately we have had some better success +in our attempts since we have learned to distinguish +between the naïve natural poetry, which is without reflection, +and the poetry of art, which is conditioned by criticism +and an ideal. This distinction has produced good fruits +even in the picture-books of children. The pretensions +of the gentlemen who printed illustrated books containing +nothing more solid than the alphabet and the multiplication +table have become less prominent since such men as Speckter, +Fröhlich, Gutsmuths, Hofman (the writer of "Slovenly +Peter"), and others, have shown that seemingly trivial things +can be handled with intellectual power, if one is blessed +with it, and that nothing is more opposed to the child's +imagination than the <i>childishness</i> with which so many writers +for children have fallen when they attempted to descend with +dignity from their presumably lofty stand-point. Men are +beginning to understand that Christ promised the kingdom +of heaven to little children on other grounds than because +they had as it were the privilege of being thoughtless and +foolish.—</p> + +<p><a name="S97" id="S97"></a>§ 97. For youth and maidens, especially as they approach +manhood and womanhood, the cultivation of the imagination +must allow the earnestness of actuality to manifest +itself in its undisguised energy. This earnestness, no longer +through the symbolism of play but in its objective reality, + +<span class='pagenum'><a class="tooltip" name="Page_45" id="Page_45"><span><i>The Imaginative Epoch.</i></span>45</a></span> + +must now thoroughly penetrate the conceptions of the youth +so that it shall prepare him to seize hold of the machinery of +active life. Instead of the all-embracing Epos they should +now read Tragedy, whose purifying process, through the +alternation of fear and pity, unfolds to the youth the secret +of all human destiny, sin and its expiation. The works best +adapted to lead to history on this side are those of biography—of +ancient times, Plutarch; of modern times, the autobiographies +of Augustine, Cellini, Rousseau, Goethe, Varnhagen, +Jung Stilling, Moritz, Arndt, &c. These autobiographies +contain a view of the growth of individuality through its +inter-action with the influences of its time, and, together with +the letters and memoirs of great or at least note-worthy men, +tend to produce a healthy excitement in the youth, who must +learn to fight his own battles through a knowledge of the +battles of others. To introduce the youth to a knowledge of +Nature and Ethnography no means are better than those of +books of travel which give the charm of first contact, the joy +of discovery, instead of the general consciousness of the conquests +of mind.</p> + +<p>—If educative literature on the one hand broadens the field +of knowledge, on the other it may also promote its elaboration +into ideal forms. This happens, in a strict sense, through +philosophical literature. But only two different species of +this are to be recommended to youth: (1) well-written treatises +which endeavor to solve a single problem with spirit +and thoroughness; or, (2) when the intelligence has grown +strong enough for it, the classical works of a real philosopher. +German literature is fortunately very rich in treatises +of this kind in the works of Lessing, Herder, Kant, Fichte, +Schleiermacher, Humboldt, and Schiller. But nothing does +more harm to youth than the study of works of mediocrity, +or those of a still lower rank. They stupefy and narrow the +mind by their empty, hollow, and constrained style. It is +generally supposed that these standard works are too difficult, +and that one must first seize them in this trivial and +diluted form in order to understand them. This is one of the +most prevalent and most dangerous errors, for these Introductions +or Explanations, easily-comprehended Treatises, +Summary Abstracts, are, because of their want of originality + +<span class='pagenum'><a class="tooltip" name="Page_46" id="Page_46"><span><i>The Imaginative Epoch.</i></span>46</a></span> + +and of the acuteness which belongs to it, much more difficult +to understand than the standard work itself from which they +drain their supplies. Education must train the youth to the +courage which will attempt standard works, and it must not +allow any such miserable preconceived opinions to grow up +in his mind as that his understanding is totally unable to +comprehend works like Fichte's "Science of Knowledge," the +"Metaphysics" of Aristotle, or Hegel's "Phenomenology." +No science suffers so much as Philosophy from this false +popular opinion, which understands neither itself nor its authority. +The youth must <i>learn how to learn to understand</i>, +and, in order to do this, he must know that one cannot immediately +understand everything in its finest subdivisions, and +that on this account he must have patience, and must resolve +to read over and over again, and to think over what he has +read.—</p> + +<p><a name="S98" id="S98"></a>§ 98. (3) Imagination returns again within itself to perception +in that it replaces, for conceptions, perceptions themselves, +which are to remind it of the previous conception. +These perceptions may resemble in some way the perception +which lies at the basis of the conception, and be thus more or +less symbolical; or they may be merely arbitrary creations of +the creative imagination, and are in this case pure signs. In +common speech and writing, we call the free retaining of +these perceptions created by imagination, and the recalling +of the conceptions denoted by them, <i>Memory</i>. It is by no +means a particular faculty of the mind, which is again subdivided +into memory of persons, names, numbers, &c. As to +its form, memory is the stage of the dissolution of conception; +but as to its content, it arises from the interest which +we take in a subject-matter. From this interest results, +moreover, careful attention, and from this latter, facility in +the reproductive imagination. If these acts have preceded, +the fixing of a name, or of a number, in which the content interesting +us is as it were summed up, is not difficult. When +interest and attention animate us, it seems as if we did not +need to be at all troubled about remembering anything. All +the so-called mnemonic helps only serve to make more difficult +the act of memory. This act is in itself a double function, +consisting of, first, the fixing of the sign, and second, + +<span class='pagenum'><a class="tooltip" name="Page_47" id="Page_47"><span><i>The Logical Epoch.</i></span>47</a></span> + +the fixing of the conception subsumed under it. Since the +mnemonic technique adds to these one more conception, +through whose means the things with which we have to deal +are to be fixed in order to be able freely to express them in +us, it trebles the functions of remembering, and forgets that +the mediation of these and their relation—wholly arbitrary +and highly artificial—must also be remembered. The true +help of memory consists in not helping it at all, but in simply +taking up the object into the ideal regions of the mind +by the force of the infinite self-determination which mind +possesses.</p> + +<p>—Lists of names, as e.g. of the Roman emperors, of the +popes, of the caliphs, of rivers, mountains, authors, cities, +&c.; also numbers, as e.g. the multiplication table, the melting +points of minerals, the dates of battles, of births and +deaths, &c., must be learned without aid. All indirect means +only serve to do harm here, and are required as self-discovered +mediation only in case that interest or attention has +become weakened.—</p> + +<p><a name="S99" id="S99"></a>§ 99. The means to be used, which result from the nature +of memory itself, are on the one hand the pronouncing and +writing of the names and numbers, and on the other, repetition; +by these we gain distinctness and certainty.</p> + +<p>—All artificial contrivances for quickening the memory +vanish in comparison with the art of writing, in so far as +this is not looked at as a means of relieving the memory. +That a name or a number should be this or that, is a mere +chance for the intelligence, an entirely meaningless accident +to which we have unconditionally to submit ourselves as unalterable. +The intelligence must be accustomed to put upon +itself this constraint. In science proper, especially in Philosophy, +our reason helps to produce one thought from +others by means of the context, and we can discover names +for the ideas from them.—</p> + + +<div class="center">III. <i>The Logical Epoch.</i></div> + +<p><a name="S100" id="S100"></a>§ 100. In Conception there is attained a universality of +intellectual action in so far as the empirical details are +referred to a <i>Schema</i>, as Kant called it. But the <i>necessity</i> +of the connection is wanting to it. To produce this is the + +<span class='pagenum'><a class="tooltip" name="Page_48" id="Page_48"><span><i>The Logical Epoch.</i></span>48</a></span> + +task of the thinking activity, which frees itself from all representations, +and with its clearly defined determinations +transcends conceptions. The Thinking activity frees itself +from all sensuous representations by means of the processes +of Conception and Perception. Comprehension, Judgment, +and Syllogism, develop for themselves into forms which, as +such, have no power of being perceived by the senses. But +it does not follow from this that he who thinks cannot return +out of the thinking activity and carry it with him into the +sphere of Conception and Perception. The true thinking activity +deprives itself of no content. The abstraction affecting +a logical purism which looks down upon Conception and +Perception as forms of intelligence quite inferior to itself, is +a pseudo-thinking, a morbid and scholastic error. Education +will be the better on its guard against this the more it has +led the pupil by the legitimate road of Perception and Conception +to Thinking. Memorizing especially is an excellent +preparatory school for the Thinking activity, because it +gives practice to the intelligence in exercising itself in abstract +ideas.</p> + +<p><a name="S101" id="S101"></a>§ 101. The fostering of the Sense of Truth from the earliest +years up, is the surest way of leading the pupil to gain +the power of thinking. The unprejudiced, disinterested yielding +to Truth, as well as the effort to shun all deception and +false seeming, are of the greatest value in strengthening the +power of reflection, as this considers nothing of value but the +actually existing objective circumstances.</p> + +<p>—The indulging an illusion as a pleasing recreation of the +intelligence should be allowed, while lying must not be +tolerated. Children have a natural inclination for mystifications, +for masquerades, for raillery, and for theatrical performances, +&c. This inclination to illusion is perfectly normal +with them, and should be permitted. The graceful kingdom +of Art is developed from it, as also the poetry of conversation +in jest and wit. Although this sometimes becomes +stereotyped into very prosaic conventional forms of speech, +it is more tolerable than the awkward honesty which takes +everything in its simple literal sense. And it is easy to +discover whether children in such play, in the activity of free +joyousness, incline to the side of mischief by their showing + +<span class='pagenum'><a class="tooltip" name="Page_49" id="Page_49"><span><i>The Logical Presupposition or Method.</i></span>49</a></span> + +a desire of satisfying their selfish interest. Then they must +be checked, for in that case the cheerfulness of harmless +joking gives way to premeditation and dissimulation.—</p> + +<p><a name="S102" id="S102"></a>§ 102. An acquaintance with logical forms is to be recommended +as a special educational help in the culture of intelligence. +The study of Mathematics does not suffice, because +it presupposes Logic. Mathematics is related to Logic in the +same way as Grammar, the Physical Sciences, &c. The logical +forms must be known explicitly in their pure independent +forms, and not merely in their implicit state as immanent in +objective forms.</p> + + +<div class="center">SECOND CHAPTER.</div> + +<div class="center"><i>The Logical Presupposition or Method.</i></div> + +<p><a name="S103" id="S103"></a>§ 103. The logical presupposition of instruction is the order +in which the subject-matter develops for the consciousness. +The subject, the consciousness of the pupil, and the activity +of the instructor, interpenetrate each other in instruction, +and constitute in actuality one whole.</p> + +<p><a name="S104" id="S104"></a>§ 104. (1) First of all, the subject which is to be learned +has a specific determinateness which demands in its representation +a certain fixed order. However arbitrary we may desire +to be, the subject has a certain self-determination of its +own which no mistreatment can wholly crush out, and this +inherent immortal reason is the general foundation of instruction.</p> + +<p>—To illustrate; however one may desire to manipulate a +language in teaching it, he cannot change the words in it, or +the inflections of the declensions and conjugations. And the +same restriction is laid upon our inclinations in the different +divisions of Natural History, in the theorems of Arithmetic, +Geometry, &c. The theorem of Pascal remains still the theorem +of Pascal, and will always remain so.—</p> + +<p><a name="S105" id="S105"></a>§ 105. (2) But the subject must be adapted to the consciousness +of the pupil, and here the order of procedure and the +exposition depend upon the stage which he has reached intellectually, +for the special manner of the instruction must +be conditioned by this. If he is in the stage of perception, +we must use the illustrative method; if in the stage of conception, +that of combination; and if in the stage of reflection + +<span class='pagenum'><a class="tooltip" name="Page_50" id="Page_50"><span><i>The Logical Presupposition or Method.</i></span>50</a></span> + +that of demonstration. The first exhibits the object directly, +or some representation of it; the second considers it according +to the different possibilities which exist in it, and turns +it around on all sides; the third questions the necessity of the +connection in which it stands either with itself or with others. +This is the natural order from the stand-point of the scientific +intelligence: first, the object is presented to the perception; +then combination presents its different phases; and, finally, +the thinking activity circumscribes the restlessly moving reflection +by the idea of necessity. Experiment in the method +of combination is an excellent means for a discovery of relations, +for a sharpening of the attention, for the arousing of a +many-sided interest; but it is no true dialectic, though it be +often denoted by that name.</p> + +<p>—Illustration is especially necessary in the natural sciences +and also in æsthetics, because in both of these departments +the sensuous is an essential element of the matter dealt +with. In this respect we have made great progress in charts +and maps. Sydow's hand and wall maps and Berghaus's physical +atlas are most excellent means of illustrative instruction; +also Burmeister's zoölogical atlas.—</p> + +<p><a name="S106" id="S106"></a>§ 106. The demonstrative method, in order to bring about +its proof of necessity, has a choice of many different ways. +But we must not imagine, either that there are an unlimited +number, and that it is only a chance which one we shall take; +or that they have no connection among themselves, and run, +as it were, side by side. It is not, however, the business of +Pedagogics to develop different methods of proof; this belongs +to Logic. We have only to remember that, logically +taken, proof must be analytic, synthetic, or dialectic. Analysis +begins with the single one, and leads out of it by induction +to the general principle from which its existence results. +Synthesis, on the contrary, begins with a general which is +presupposed as true, and leads from this through deduction +to the special determinations which were implicit in it. The +regressive search of analysis for a determining principle is +<i>Invention</i>; the forward progress of synthesis from the simple +elements seeking for the multiplicity of the single one is +<i>Construction</i>. Each, in its result, passes over into the other; +but their truth is found in the dialectic method, which in each + +<span class='pagenum'><a class="tooltip" name="Page_51" id="Page_51"><span><i>The Logical Presupposition or Method.</i></span>51</a></span> + +phase allows unity to separate into diversity and diversity +to return into unity. While in the analytic as well as in the +synthetic method the mediation of the individual with the +general, or of the general with the individual, lets the phase +of particularity be only subjectively connected with it in +the dialectic method, we have the going over of the general +through the particular to the individual, or to the self-determination +of the idea, and it therefore rightly claims the title +of the genetic method. We can also say that while the inventive +method gives us the idea (notion) and the constructive +the judgment, the genetic gives us the syllogism which leads +the determinations of reflection back again into substantial +identity.</p> + +<p><a name="S107" id="S107"></a>§ 107. (3) The active mediation of the pupil with the content +which is to be impressed upon his consciousness is the +work of the teacher, whose personality creates a method +adapted to the individual; for however clearly the subject +may be defined, however exactly the psychological stage of +the pupil may be regulated, the teacher cannot dispense with +the power of his own individuality even in the most objective +relations. This individuality must penetrate the whole with +its own exposition, and that peculiarity which we call his +<i>manner</i>, and which cannot be determined <i>à priori</i>, must appear. +The teacher must place himself on the stand-point of +the pupil, i.e. must adapt himself; he must see that the abstract +is made clear to him in the concrete, i.e. must illustrate; +he must fill up the gaps which will certainly appear, +and which may mar the thorough seizing of the subject, i.e. +must supply. In all these relations the pedagogical tact of +the teacher may prove itself truly ingenious in varying the +method according to the changefulness of the ever-varying +needs, in contracting or expanding the extent, in stating, or +indicating what is to be supplied. The true teacher is free from +any superstitious belief in any one procedure as a sure specific +which he follows always in a monotonous bondage. This +can only happen when he is capable of the highest method. +The teacher has arrived at the highest point of ability in +teaching when he can make use of all means, from the loftiness +of solemn seriousness, through smooth statement, to the play +of jest—yes, even to the incentive of irony, and to humor.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a class="tooltip" name="Page_52" id="Page_52"><span><i>The Subjects of Instruction.</i></span>52</a></span></p> + +<p>—Pedagogics can be in nothing more specious than in its +method, and it is here that charlatanism can most readily +intrude itself. Every little change, every inadequate +modification, is proclaimed aloud as a new or an improved +method; and even the most foolish and superficial changes +find at once their imitators, who themselves conceal their insolence +behind some frivolous differences, and, with laughable +conceit, hail themselves as inventors.—</p> + + +<div class="center">THIRD CHAPTER.</div> + +<div class="center"><i>Instruction.</i></div> + +<p><a name="S108" id="S108"></a>§ 108. All instruction acts upon the supposition that there +is an inequality between present knowledge and power and +that knowledge and power which are not yet attained. To +the pupil belong the first, to the teacher the second. Education +is the act which gradually cancels the original inequality +of teacher and pupil, in that it converts what was at first +the property of the former into the property of the latter, +and this by means of his own activity.</p> + + +<div class="center">I. <i>The Subjects of Instruction.</i></div> + +<p><a name="S109" id="S109"></a>§ 109. The pupil is the apprentice, the teacher the master, +whether in the practice of any craft or art, or in the exposition +of any systematic knowledge. The pupil passes from +the state of the apprentice to that of the master through +that of the journeyman. The apprentice has to appropriate +to himself the elements; journeymanship begins as he, by +means of their possession, becomes independent; the master +combines with his technical skill the freedom of production. +His authority over his pupil consists only in his knowledge +and power. If he has not these, no external support, no trick +of false appearances which he may put on, will serve to create +it for him.</p> + +<p><a name="S110" id="S110"></a>§ 110. These stages—(1) apprenticeship, (2) journeymanship, +(3) mastership—are fixed limitations in the didactic +process; they are relative only in the concrete. The standard +of special excellence varies with the different grades of +culture, and must be varied that it may have any historical +value. The master is complete only in relation to the journeyman +and apprentice; to them he is superior. But on the + +<span class='pagenum'><a class="tooltip" name="Page_53" id="Page_53"><span><i>The Subjects of Instruction.</i></span>53</a></span> + +other hand, in relation to the infinity of the problems of his +art or science, he is by no means complete; to himself he +must always appear as one who begins ever anew, one who +is ever striving, one to whom a new problem ever rises from +every achieved result. He cannot discharge himself from +work, he must never desire to rest on his laurels. He is the +truest master whose finished performances only force him on +to never-resting progress.</p> + +<p><a name="S111" id="S111"></a>§ 111. The real possibility of culture is found in general, +it is true, in every human being; nevertheless, empirically, +there are distinguished: (1) Incapacity, as the want of all +gifts; (2) Mediocrity; (3) Talent and Genius. It is the part +of Psychology to give an account of all these. Mediocrity +characterizes the great mass of mechanical intelligences, +those who wait for external impulse as to what direction +their endeavors shall take. Not without truth, perhaps, may +we say, that hypothetically a special talent is given to +each individual, but this special talent in many men never +makes its appearance, because under the circumstances in +which it finds itself placed it fails to find the exciting occasion +which shall give him the knowledge of its existence. +The majority of mankind are contented with the mechanical +impulse which makes them into something and impresses +upon them certain determinations.—Talent shows itself by +means of the confidence in its own especial productive possibility, +which manifests itself as an inclination, as a strong +impulse, to occupy itself with the special object which constitutes +its content. Pedagogics has no difficulty in dealing +with mechanical natures, because their passivity is only +too ready to follow prescribed patterns. It is more difficult +to manage talent, because it lies between mediocrity and +genius, and is therefore uncertain, and not only unequal to +itself, but also is tossed now too low, now too high, is by +turns despondent and over-excited. The general maxim for +dealing with it is to remove no difficulty from the subject +to which its efforts are directed.—Genius must be treated +much in the same way as Talent. The difference consists +only in this, that Genius, with a foreknowledge of its +creative power, usually manifests its confidence with less +doubt in a special vocation, and, with a more intense thirst + +<span class='pagenum'><a class="tooltip" name="Page_54" id="Page_54"><span><i>The Subjects of Instruction.</i></span>54</a></span> + +for culture, subjects itself more willingly to the demands of +instruction. Genius is in its nature the purest self-determination, +in that it lives, in its own inner existence, the necessity +which exists in the thing. But it can assign to the New, which +is in it already immediately and subjectively, no value if this +has not united itself to the already existing culture as its +objective presupposition, and on this ground it thankfully +receives instruction.</p> + +<p><a name="S112" id="S112"></a>§ 112. But Talent and Genius offer a special difficulty to +education in the precocity which often accompanies them. +But by precocity we do not mean that they early render +themselves perceptible, since the early manifestation of gifts +by talent and genius, through their intense confidence, is +to be looked at as perfectly legitimate. But precocity is +rather the hastening forward of the human being in feeling +and moral sense, so that where in the ordinary course of nature +we should have a child, we have a youth, and a man in +the place of a youth. We may find precocity among those +who belong to the class of mediocrity, but it is developed +most readily among those possessed of talent and genius, because +with them the early appearance of superior gifts may +very easily bring in its train a perversion of the feelings and +the moral nature. Education must deal with it in so far as +it is inharmonious, so that it shall be stronger than the demands +made on it from without, so that it shall not minister +to vanity; and must take care, in order to accomplish this, +that social naturalness and lack of affectation be preserved +in the pupil.</p> + +<p>—Our age has to combat this precocity much more than +others. We find e.g. authors who, at the age of thirty years, +in which they publish their collected works or write their +biography, are chilly with the feelings of old age. Music has +been the sphere in which the earliest development of talent +has shown itself, and here we find the absurdity that the +cupidity of parents has so forced precocious talents that children +of four or five years of age have been made to appear +in public.—</p> + +<p><a name="S113" id="S113"></a>§ 113. Every sphere of culture contains a certain quantity +of knowledge and ready skill which may be looked at, as it +were, as the created result of the culture. It is to be wished + +<span class='pagenum'><a class="tooltip" name="Page_55" id="Page_55"><span><i>The Subjects of Instruction.</i></span>55</a></span> + +that every one who turns his attention to a certain line of +culture could take up into himself the gathered learning which +controls it. In so far as he does this, he is professional. The +consciousness that one has in the usual way gone through a +school of art or science, and has, with the general inheritance +of acquisition, been handed over to a special department, creates +externally a beneficial composure which is very favorable +to internal progress. We must distinguish from the +professional the amateur and the self-taught man. The amateur +busies himself with an art, a science, or a trade, without +having gone through any strict training in it. As a rule, he +dispenses with elementary thoroughness, and hastens towards +the pleasure which the joy of production gives. The conscious +amateur confesses this himself, makes no pretension to mastership, +and calls himself—in distinction from the professional, +who subjects himself to rules—an unlearned person. +But sometimes the amateur, on the contrary, covers over his +weakness, cherishes in himself the self-conceit that he is +equal to the heroes of his art or science, constitutes himself +the first admirer of his own performances, seeks for their want +of recognition in external motives, never in their own want +of excellence; and, if he has money, or edits a paper, is intoxicated +with being the patron of talent which produces +such works as he would willingly produce or pretends to produce. +The self-taught man has often true talent, or even genius, +to whose development nevertheless the inherited culture +has been denied, and who by good fortune has through his +own strength worked his way into a field of effort. The self-taught +man is distinguished from the amateur by the thoroughness +and the industry with which he acts; he is not only +equally unfortunate with him in the absence of school-training, +but is much less endowed. Even if the self-taught man +has for years studied and practised much, he is still haunted +by a feeling of uncertainty as to whether he has yet reached +the stand-point at which a science, an art, or a trade, will receive +him publicly—of so very great consequence is it that +man should be comprehended and recognized by man. The +self-taught man therefore remains embarrassed, and does not +free himself from the apprehension that he may expose some +weak point to a professional, or he falls into the other extreme—he + +<span class='pagenum'><a class="tooltip" name="Page_56" id="Page_56"><span><i>The Act of Learning.</i></span>56</a></span> + +becomes presumptuous, steps forth as a reformer, +and, if he accomplishes nothing, or earns only ridicule, he +sets himself down as an unrecognized martyr by an unappreciative +and unjust world.</p> + +<p>—It is possible that the amateur may transcend the stage +of superficiality and subject himself to a thorough training; +then he ceases to be an amateur. It is also possible that the +self-taught man may be on the right track, and may accomplish +as much or even more than one trained in the usual +way. In general, however, it is very desirable that every one +should go through the regular course of the inherited means +of education, partly that he may be thorough in the elements, +partly to free him from the anxiety which he may feel lest +he in his solitary efforts spend labor on some superfluous +work—superfluous because done long before, and of which he, +through the accident of his want of culture, had not heard. +We must all learn by ourselves, but we cannot teach ourselves. +Only Genius can do this, for it must be its own leader +in the new paths which it opens. Genius alone passes beyond +where inherited culture ceases. It bears this in itself as of +the past, and which it uses as material for its new creation; +but the self-taught man, who would very willingly be a genius, +puts himself in an attitude of opposition to things +already accomplished, or sinks into oddity, into secret arts +and sciences, &c.—</p> + +<p><a name="S114" id="S114"></a>§ 114. These ideas of the general steps of culture, of special +gifts, and of the ways of culture appropriate to each, +which we have above distinguished, have a manifold connection +among themselves which cannot be established <i>à priori</i>. +We can however remark that Apprenticeship, the Mechanical +Intelligence, and the Professional life; secondly, Journeymanship, +Talent, and Amateurship; and, finally, Mastership, +Genius, and Self Education, have a relationship to each other.</p> + +<div class="center">II. <i>The Act of Learning.</i></div> + +<p><a name="S115" id="S115"></a>§ 115. In the process of education the interaction between +pupil and teacher must be so managed that the exposition by +the teacher shall excite in the pupil the impulse to reproduction. +The teacher must not treat his exposition as if it were +a work of art which is its own end and aim, but he must always + +<span class='pagenum'><a class="tooltip" name="Page_57" id="Page_57"><span><i>The Act of Learning.</i></span>57</a></span> + +bear in mind the need of the pupil. The artistic exposition, +as such, will, by its completeness, produce admiration; +but the didactic, on the contrary, will, through its perfect +adaptation, call out the imitative instinct, the power of new +creation.</p> + +<p>—From this consideration we may justify the frequent +statement that is made, that teachers who have really an elegant +diction do not really accomplish so much as others who +resemble in their statements not so much a canal flowing +smoothly between straight banks, as a river which works its +foaming way over rocks and between ever-winding banks. +The pupil perceives that the first is considering himself +when he speaks so finely, perhaps not without some self-appreciation; +and that the second, in the repetitions and the +sentences which are never finished, is concerning himself +solely with <i>him</i>. The pupil feels that not want of facility or +awkwardness, but the earnest eagerness of the <i>teacher</i>, is the +principal thing, and that this latter uses rhetoric only as a +means.—</p> + +<p><a name="S116" id="S116"></a>§ 116. In the act of learning there appears (1) a mechanical +element, (2) a dynamic element, and (3) one in which the +dynamic again mechanically strengthens itself.</p> + +<p><a name="S117" id="S117"></a>§ 117. As to the mechanical element, the right time must +be chosen for each lesson, an exact arrangement observed, +and the suitable apparatus, which is necessary, procured. It +is in the arrangement that especially consists the educational +power of the lesson. The spirit of scrupulousness, of accuracy, +of neatness, is developed by the external technique, +which is carefully arranged in its subordinate parts according +to its content. The teacher must therefore insist upon it +that work shall cease at the exact time, that the work be well +done, &c., for on these little things many greater things ethically +depend.</p> + +<p>—To choose one's time for any work is often difficult +because of the pressure of a multitude of demands, but in +general it should be determined that the strongest and keenest +energy of the thinking activity and of memory—this being +demanded by the work—should have appropriated to it the +first half of the day.—</p> + +<p><a name="S118" id="S118"></a>§ 118. The dynamical element consists of the previously + +<span class='pagenum'><a class="tooltip" name="Page_58" id="Page_58"><span><i>The Act of Learning.</i></span>58</a></span> + +developed power of Attention, without which all the exposition +made by the teacher to the pupil remains entirely foreign +to him, all apparatus is dead, all arrangement of no +avail, all teaching fruitless, if the pupil does not by his free +activity receive into his inner self what one teaches him, and +thus make it his own property.</p> + +<p><a name="S119" id="S119"></a>§ 119. This appropriation must not limit itself, however, to +the first acquisition of any knowledge or skill, but it must +give free existence to whatever the pupil has learned; it must +make it perfectly manageable and natural, so that it shall +appear to be a part of himself. This must be brought about +by means of Repetition. This will mechanically secure that +which the attention first grasped.</p> + +<p><a name="S120" id="S120"></a>§ 120. The careful, persistent, living activity of the pupil +in these acts we call Industry. Its negative extreme is Laziness, +which is deserving of punishment inasmuch as it passes +over into a want of self-determination. Man is by nature lazy. +But mind, which is only in its act, must resolve upon activity. +This connection of Industry with human freedom, +with the very essence of mind, makes laziness appear blameworthy. +The really civilized man, therefore, no longer knows +that absolute inaction which is the greatest enjoyment to the +barbarian, and he fills up his leisure with a variety of easier +and lighter work. The positive extreme of Industry is the +unreasonable activity which rushes in breathless chase from +one action to another, from this to that, straining the person +with the immense quantity of his work. Such an activity, +going beyond itself and seldom reaching deliberation, is unworthy +of a man. It destroys the agreeable quiet which in +all industry should penetrate and inspire the deed. Nothing +is more repulsive than the beggarly pride of such stupid laboriousness. +One should not endure for a moment to have +the pupil, seeking for distinction, begin to pride himself on an +extra industry. Education must accustom him to use a regular +assiduity. The frame of mind suitable for work often +does not exist at the time when work should begin, but more +frequently it makes its appearance after we have begun. The +subject takes its own time to awaken us. Industry, inspired +by a love and regard for work, has in its quiet uniformity a +great force, without which no one can accomplish anything + +<span class='pagenum'><a class="tooltip" name="Page_59" id="Page_59"><span><i>The Act of Learning.</i></span>59</a></span> + +essential. The world, therefore, holds Industry worthy of +honor; and to the Romans, a nation of the most persistent +perseverance, we owe the inspiring words, "<i>Incepto tantum +opus est, cætera res expediet</i>"; and, "<i>Labor improbus omnia +vincit</i>."</p> + +<p>—"Every one may glory in his industry!" This is a true +word from the lips of a truly industrious man, who was also +one of the most modest. But Lessing did not, however, mean +by them to charter Pharisaical pedantry. The necessity +sometimes of giving one's self to an excess of work injurious +to the health, generally arises from the fact that he has not +at other times made use of the requisite attention to the necessary +industry, and then attempts suddenly and as by a +forced march to storm his way to his end. The result of such +over-exertion is naturally entire prostration. The pupil is +therefore to be accustomed to a generally uniform industry, +which may extend itself at regular intervals without his +thereby overstraining himself. What is really gained by a +young man who has hitherto neglected time and opportunity, +and who, when examination presses, overworks himself, +perhaps standing the test with honor, and then must +rest for months afterwards from the over-effort? On all such +occasions attention is not objective and dispassionate, but +rather becomes, through anxiety to pass the examination, +restless and corrupted by egotism; and the usual evil result +of such compulsory industry is the ephemeral character of +the knowledge thus gained. "Lightly come, lightly go," +says the proverb.—</p> + +<p>—A special worth is always attached to study far into the +night. The student's "midnight lamp" always claims for itself +a certain veneration. But this is vanity. In the first place, it +is injurious to contradict Nature by working through the +night, which she has ordained for sleep; secondly, the question +is not as to the number of hours spent in work and their +position in the twenty-four, but as to the quality of the work. +With regard to the value of my work, it is of no moment +whatsoever whether I have done it in the morning or in the +evening, or how long I have labored, and it is of no consequence +to any one except to my own very unimportant self. + +<span class='pagenum'><a class="tooltip" name="Page_60" id="Page_60"><span><i>The Act of Learning.</i></span>60</a></span> + +Finally, the question presents itself whether these gentlemen +who boast so much of their midnight work do not sleep in +the daytime!—</p> + +<p><a name="S121" id="S121"></a>§ 121. But Industry has also two other extremes: seeming-laziness +and seeming-industry. Seeming-laziness is the neglecting +of the usual activity in one department because a man +is so much more active in another. The mind possessed with +the liveliest interest in one subject buries itself in it, and, because +of this, cannot give itself up to another which before +had engrossed the attention. Thus it appears more idle than +it is, or rather it appears to be idle just because it is more industrious. +This is especially the case in passing from one +subject of instruction to another. The pupil should acquire +such a flexibility in his intellectual powers that the rapid +relinquishment of one subject and the taking up of another +should not be too difficult. Nothing is more natural than +that when he is excited he should go back to the subject that +has just been presented to him, and that he, feeling himself +restrained, shall remain untouched by the following lesson, +which may be of an entirely different nature. The young +soul is brooding over what has been said, and is really exercising +an intensive activity, though it appears to be idle. +But in seeming-industry all the external motives of activity, +all the mechanism of work, manifest themselves noisily, while +there is no true energy of attention and productivity. One +busies himself with all the apparatus of work; he heaps up +instruments and books around him; he sketches plans; he +spends many hours staring into vacancy, biting his pen, +gazing at words, drawings, numbers, &c. Boys, under the +protection of so great a scaffolding for work erected around +them, often carry on their own amusements. Men, who arrive +at no real concentration of their force, no clear defining +of their vocation, no firm decision as to their action, dissipate +their power in what is too often a great activity with absolutely +no result. They are busy, very busy; they have hardly +time to do this thing because they really wish or ought to +do that; but, with all their driving, their energy is all dissipated, +and nothing comes from their countless labors.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a class="tooltip" name="Page_61" id="Page_61"><span><i>The Modality of the Process of Teaching.</i></span>61</a></span></p> + + +<div class="center">III. <i>The Modality of the Process of Teaching.</i></div> + +<p><a name="S122" id="S122"></a>§ 122. Now that we have learned something of the relation +of the teacher to the taught, and of the process of learning +itself, we must examine the mode and manner of instruction. +This may have (1) the character of contingency: the way in +which our immediate existence in the world, our life, teaches +us; or it may be given (2) by the printed page; or (3) it may +take the shape of formal oral instruction.</p> + +<p><a name="S123" id="S123"></a>§ 123. (1) For the most, the best, and the mightiest things +that we know we are indebted to Life itself. The sum of perceptions +which a human being absorbs into himself up to the +fourth or fifth year of his life is incalculable; and after this +time we involuntarily gain by immediate contact with the +world countless ideas. But especially we understand by the +phrase "the School of Life," the ethical knowledge which we +gain by what happens in our own lives.</p> + +<p>—If one says, <i>Vitæ non scholæ discendum est</i>, one can +also say, <i>Vita docet</i>. Without the power exercised by the +immediate world our intelligence would remain abstract and +lifeless.—</p> + +<p><a name="S124" id="S124"></a>§ 124. (2) What we learn through books is the opposite of +that which we learn through living. Life <i>forces</i> upon us the +knowledge it has to give; the book, on the contrary, is entirely +passive. It is locked up in itself; it cannot be altered; +but it waits by us till we wish to use it. We can read it rapidly +or slowly; we can simply turn over its leaves—what in +modern times one calls reading;—we can read it from beginning +to end or from end to beginning; we can stop, begin +again, skip over passages, or cut them short, as we like. To +this extent the book is the most <i>convenient</i> means for instruction. +If we are indebted to Life for our perceptions, we must +chiefly thank books for our understanding of our perceptions. +We call book-instruction "dead" when it lacks, for the exposition +which it gives, a foundation in our perceptions, or when +we do not add to the printed description the perceptions +which it implies; and the two are quite different.</p> + +<p><a name="S125" id="S125"></a>§ 125. Books, as well as life, teach us many things which +we did not previously intend to learn directly from them. +From foreign romances e.g. we learn, first of all, while we +read them for entertainment, the foreign language, history + +<span class='pagenum'><a class="tooltip" name="Page_62" id="Page_62"><span><i>The Modality of the Process of Teaching.</i></span>62</a></span> + +or geography, &c. We must distinguish from such books +as those which bring to us, as it were accidentally, a knowledge +for which we were not seeking, the books which are +expressly intended to instruct. These must (<i>a</i>) in their consideration +of the subject give us the principal results of any +department of knowledge, and denote the points from which +the next advance must be made, because every science arises +at certain results which are themselves again new problems; +(<i>b</i>) in the consideration of the particulars it must be exhaustive, +i.e. no essential elements of a science must be omitted. +But this exhaustiveness of execution has different meanings +according to the stand-points of those for whom it is made. +How far we shall pass from the universality of the principal +determinations into the multiplicity of the Particular, into +the fulness of detail, cannot be definitely determined, and +must vary, according to the aim of the book, as to whether +it is intended for the apprentice, the journeyman, or the master; +(<i>c</i>) the expression must be precise, i.e. the maximum of +clearness must be combined with the maximum of brevity.</p> + +<p>—The writing of a text-book is on this account one of the +most difficult tasks, and it can be successfully accomplished +only by those who are masters in a science or art, and who +combine with great culture and talent great experience as +teachers. Unfortunately many dabblers in knowledge undervalue +the difficulty of writing text-books because they think +that they are called upon to aid in the spread of science, and +because the writing of compendiums has thus come to be an +avocation, so that authors and publishers have made out of +text-books a profitable business and good incomes. In all +sciences and arts there exists a quantity of material which +is common property, which is disposed of now in one way, +now in another. The majority of compendiums can be distinguished +from each other only by the kind of paper, printing, +the name of the publisher or bookseller, or by arbitrary +changes in the arrangement and execution. The want of +principle with which this work is carried on is incredible. +Many governments have on this account fixed prices for text-books, +and commissioners to select them. This in itself is +right and proper, but the use of any book should be left optional, +so that the one-sidedness of a science patronized by + +<span class='pagenum'><a class="tooltip" name="Page_63" id="Page_63"><span><i>The Modality of the Process of Teaching.</i></span>63</a></span> + +government as it were patented, may not be created through +the pressure of such introduction. A state may through its +censorship oppose poor text-books, and recommend good +ones; but it may not establish as it were a state-science, a +state-art, in which only the ideas, laws and forms sanctioned +by it shall be allowed. The Germans are fortunate, in consequence +of their philosophical criticism, in the production of +better and better text-books, among which may be mentioned +Koberstein's, Gervinus', and Vilmar's Histories of Literature, +Ellendt's General History, Blumenbach's and Burmeister's +Natural History, Marheineke's text-book on Religion, +Schwegler's History of Philosophy, &c. So much the more +unaccountable is it that, with such excellent books, the evil +of such characterless books, partly inadequate and partly in +poor style, should still exist when there is no necessity for it. +The common style of paragraph-writing has become obnoxious, +under the name of Compendium-style, as the most stiff +and affected style of writing.—</p> + +<p><a name="S126" id="S126"></a>§ 126. A text-book must be differently written according +as it is intended for a book for private study or for purposes +of general circulation. If the first, it must give more, and +must develop more clearly the internal relations; if the second, +it should be shorter, and proceed from axiomatic and +clear postulates to their signification, and these must have +an epigrammatic pureness which should leave something to +be guessed. Because for these a commentary is needed which +it is the teacher's duty to supply, such a sketch is usually +accompanied by the fuller text-book which was arranged +for private study.</p> + +<p>—It is the custom to call the proper text-book the "small" +one, and that which explains and illustrates, the "large" +one. Thus we have the Small and the Large Gervinus, &c.—</p> + +<p><a name="S127" id="S127"></a>§ 127. (3) The text-book which presupposes oral explanation +forms the transition to Oral instruction itself. Since +speech is the natural and original form in which mind manifests +itself, no book can rival it. The living word is the most +powerful agent of instruction. However common and cheap +printing may have rendered books as the most convenient +means of education—however possible may have become, +through the multiplication of facilities for intercourse and + +<span class='pagenum'><a class="tooltip" name="Page_64" id="Page_64"><span><i>The Modality of the Process of Teaching.</i></span>64</a></span> + +the rapidity of transportation, the immediate viewing of human +life, the most forcible educational means, nevertheless +the living word still asserts its supremacy. In two cases +especially is it indispensable: one is when some knowledge +is to be communicated which as yet is found in no compendium, +and the other when a living language is to be taught, +for in this case the printed page is entirely inadequate. One +can learn from books to understand Spanish, French, English, +Danish, &c., but not to speak them; to do this he must hear +them, partly that his ear may become accustomed to the +sounds, partly that his vocal organs may learn correctly to +imitate them.</p> + +<p><a name="S128" id="S128"></a>§ 128. Life surprises and overpowers us with the knowledge +which it gains; the book, impassive, waits our convenience; +the teacher, superior to us, perfectly prepared in comparison +with us, consults our necessity, and with his living +speech uses a gentle force to which we can yield without +losing our freedom. Listening is easier than reading.</p> + +<p>—Sovereigns e.g. seldom read themselves, but have servants +who read to them.—</p> + +<p><a name="S129" id="S129"></a>§ 129. Oral instruction may (1) give the subject, which is +to be learned, in a connected statement, or (2) it may unfold +it by means of question and answer. The first decidedly presupposes +the theoretical inequality of the teacher and the +taught. Because one can speak while many can listen, this +is especially adapted to the instruction of large numbers. +The second method is either that of the catechism or the dialogue. +The catechetical is connected with the first kind of +oral instruction above designated because it makes demand +upon the memory of the learner only for the answer to one +question at a time, and is hence very often and very absurdly +called the Socratic method. In teaching by means of the dialogue, +we try, by means of a reciprocal interchange of thought, +to solve in common some problem, proceeding according to the +necessary forms of reason. But in this we can make a distinction. +One speaker may be superior to the rest, may hold +in his own hand the thread of the conversation and may guide +it himself; or, those who mingle in it may be perfectly equal +in intellect and culture, and may each take part in the development +with equal independence. In this latter case, this + +<span class='pagenum'><a class="tooltip" name="Page_65" id="Page_65"><span><i>The Modality of the Process of Teaching.</i></span>65</a></span> + +true reciprocity gives us the proper dramatic dialogue, which +contains in itself all forms of exposition, and may pass +from narration, description, and analysis, through satire and +irony, to veritable humor. When it does this, the dialogue +is the loftiest result of intelligence and the means of its purest +enjoyment.</p> + +<p>—This alternate teaching, in which the one who has been +taught takes the teacher's place, can be used only where +there is a content which admits of a mechanical treatment. +The Hindoos made use of it in very ancient times. Bell and +Lancaster have transplanted it for the teaching of poor children +in Europe and America. For the teaching of the conventionalities—reading, +writing, and arithmetic—as well as +for the learning by heart of names, sentences, &c., it suffices, +but not for any scientific culture. Where we have large numbers +to instruct, the giving of the fully developed statement +(the first form) is necessary, since the dialogue, though it may +be elsewhere suitable, allows only a few to take part in it. +And if we take the second form, we must, if we have a large +number of pupils, make use of the catechetical method only. +What is known as the conversational method has been sometimes +suggested for our university instruction. Diesterweg in +Berlin insists upon it. Here and there the attempt has been +made, but without any result. In the university, the lecture +of the teacher as a self-developing whole is contrasted with +the scientific discussion of the students, in which they as +equals work over with perfect freedom what they have heard. +Diesterweg was wrong in considering the lecture-system as +the principal cause of the lack of scientific interest which he +thought he perceived in our universities. Kant, Fichte, Schelling, +Schleiermacher, Wolf, Niebuhr, &c., taught by lectures +and awakened the liveliest enthusiasm. But Diesterweg is +quite right in saying that the students should not be degraded +to writing-machines. But this is generally conceded, +and a pedantic amount of copying more and more begins to +be considered as out of date at our universities. Nevertheless, +a new pedantry, that of the wholly extempore lecture, +should not be introduced; but a brief summary of the extempore +unfolding of the lecture may be dictated and serve a +very important purpose, or the lecture may be copied. The + +<span class='pagenum'><a class="tooltip" name="Page_66" id="Page_66"><span><i>The Modality of the Process of Teaching.</i></span>66</a></span> + +great efficacy of the oral exposition does not so much consist +in the fact that it is perfectly free, as that it presents to immediate +view a person who has made himself the bearer of a +science or an art, and has found what constitutes its essence. +Its power springs, above all, from the genuineness of the +lecture, the originality of its content, and the elegance of its +form: whether it is written or extemporized, is a matter of +little moment. Niebuhr e.g. read, word for word, from his +manuscript, and what a teacher was he!—The catechetical +way of teaching is not demanded at the university except in +special examinations; it belongs to the private work of the +student, who must learn to be industrious of his own free +impulse. The private tutor can best conduct reviews.—The +institution which presupposing the lecture-system combines +in itself original production with criticism, and the connected +exposition with the conversation, is the <i>seminary</i>. It pursues +a well-defined path, and confines itself to a small circle +of associates whose grades of culture are very nearly the +same. Here, therefore, can the dialogue be strongly developed +because it has a fixed foundation, and each one can +take part in the conversation; whereas, from the variety of +opinions among a great number, it is easily perverted into +an aimless talk, and the majority of the hearers, who have +no chance to speak, become weary.—</p> + +<p><a name="S130" id="S130"></a>§ 130. As to the way in which the lecture is carried out, it +may be so arranged as to give the whole stock of information +acquired, or, without being so exact and so complete, it may +bring to its elucidation only a relatively inexact and general +information. The ancients called the first method the esoteric +and the second the exoteric, as we give to such lectures +now, respectively, the names <i>scholastic</i> and <i>popular</i>. The +first makes use of terms which have become technical in +science or art, and proceeds syllogistically to combine the +isolated ideas; the second endeavors to substitute for technicalities +generally understood signs, and conceals the exactness +of the formal conclusion by means of a conversational +style. It is possible to conceive of a perfectly methodical +treatment of a science which at the same time shall be generally +comprehensible if it strives to attain the transparency +of real beauty. A scientific work of art may be correctly said + +<span class='pagenum'><a class="tooltip" name="Page_67" id="Page_67"><span><i>The Modality of the Process of Teaching.</i></span>67</a></span> + +to be popular, as e.g. has happened to Herder's <i>Ideas on the +Philosophy of the History of Mankind</i>.</p> + +<p>—Beauty is the element which is comprehended by all, +and as we declare our enmity to the distorted picture-books, +books of amusement, and to the mischievous character of +"Compendiums," so we must also oppose the popular publications +which style themselves <i>Science made Easy</i>, &c., +in order to attract more purchasers by this alluring title. +Kant in his <i>Logic</i> calls the extreme of explanation Pedantry +and Gallantry. This last expression would be very characteristic +in our times, since one attains the height of popularity +now if he makes himself easily intelligible to ladies—a +didactic triumph which one attains only by omitting everything +that is profound or complicated, and saying only what +exists already in the consciousness of every one, by depriving +the subject dealt with of all seriousness, and sparing +neither pictures, anecdotes, jokes, nor pretty formalities of +speech. Elsewhere Kant says: "In the effort to produce in +our knowledge the completeness of scholarly thoroughness, +and at the same time a popular character, without in the +effort falling into the above-mentioned errors of an affected +thoroughness or an affected popularity, we must, first of all, +look out for the scholarly completeness of our scientific +knowledge, the methodical form of thoroughness, and first +ask how we can make really popular the knowledge methodically +acquired at school, i.e. how we can make it easy and +generally communicable, and yet at the same time not supplant +thoroughness by popularity. For scholarly completeness +must not be sacrificed to popularity to please the people, +unless science is to become a plaything or trifling." It is +perfectly plain that all that was said before of the psychological +and the logical methods must be taken into account +in the manner of the statement.—</p> + +<p><a name="S131" id="S131"></a>§ 131. It has been already remarked (§ <a href="#S21">21</a>), in speaking of +the nature of education, that the office of the instructor must +necessarily vary with the growing culture. But attention +must here again be called to the fact, that education, in whatever +stage of culture, must conform to the law which, as the +internal logic of Being, determines all objective developments +of nature and of history. The Family gives the child his first + +<span class='pagenum'><a class="tooltip" name="Page_68" id="Page_68"><span><i>The Modality of the Process of Teaching.</i></span>68</a></span> + +instruction; between this and the school comes the teaching +of the tutor; the school stands independently as the antithesis +of the family, and presents three essentially different +forms according as it imparts a general preparatory instruction, +or special teaching for different callings, or a universal +scientific cultivation. Universality passes over through particularizing +into individuality, which contains both the general +and the particular freely in itself. All citizens of a state +should have (1) a general education which (<i>a</i>) makes them +familiar with reading, writing, and arithmetic, these being +the means of all theoretical culture; then (<i>b</i>) hands over to +them a picture of the world in its principal phases, so that +they as citizens of the world can find their proper status on +our planet; and, finally, it must (<i>c</i>) instruct him in the history +of his own state, so that he may see that the circumstances +in which he lives are the result of a determined past in +its connection with the history of the rest of the world, and +so may learn rightly to estimate the interests of his own country +in view of their necessary relation to the future. This +work the elementary schools have to perform. From this, +through the <i>Realschule</i> (our scientific High School course) they +pass into the school where some particular branch of science +is taught, and through the Gymnasium (classical course of a +High School or College) to the University. From its general +basis develop (2) the educational institutions that work towards +some special education which leads over to the exercise +of some art. These we call Technological schools, where one +may learn farming, mining, a craft, a trade, navigation, war, +&c. This kind of education may be specialized indefinitely +with the growth of culture, because any one branch is capable +in its negative aspect of such educational separation, as +e.g. in foundling hospitals and orphan asylums, in blind and +deaf and dumb institutions. The abstract universality of +the Elementary school and the one-sided particularity of the +Technological school, however, is subsumed under a concrete +universality, which, without aiming directly at utility, treats +science and art on all sides as their own end and aim. <i>Scientia +est potentia</i>, said Lord Bacon. Practical utility results +indirectly through the progress which Scientific Cognition +makes in this free attitude, because it collects itself out of + +<span class='pagenum'><a class="tooltip" name="Page_69" id="Page_69"><span><i>The Modality of the Process of Teaching.</i></span>69</a></span> + +the dissipation through manifold details into a universal +idea and attains a profounder insight thereby. This organism +for the purpose of instruction is properly called a University. +By it the educational organization is perfected.</p> + +<p>—It is essentially seen that no more than these three types +of schools can exist, and that they must all exist in a perfectly +organized civilization. Their titles and the plan of +their special teaching may be very different among different +nations and at different times, but this need not prevent the +recognition in them of the ideas which determine them. Still +less should the imperfect ways in which they manifest themselves +induce us to condemn them. It is the modern tendency +to undervalue the University as an institution which we had +inherited from the middle ages, and with which we could at +present dispense. This is an error. The university presents +just as necessary a form of instruction as the elementary +school or the technological school. Not the abolition of the +university, but a reform which shall adapt it to the spirit of +the age, is the advance which we have to make. That there +are to be found outside of the university men of the most +thorough and elegant culture, who can give the most excellent +instruction in a science or an art, is most certain. But +it is a characteristic of the university in its teaching to do +away with contingency which is unavoidable in case of private +voluntary efforts. The university presents an organic, +self-conscious, encyclopædic representation of all the sciences, +and thus is created to a greater or less degree an intellectual +atmosphere which no other place can give. Through this, all +sciences and their aims are seen as of equal authority—a personal +stress is laid upon the connection of the sciences. The +imperfections of a university, which arise through the rivalry +of external ambition, through the necessity of financial success, +through the jealousy of different parties, through scholarships, +&c., are finitudes which it has in common with all +human institutions, and on whose account they are not all to +be thrown away.—Art academies are for Art what universities +are for Science. They are inferior to them in so far as +they appear more under the form of special schools, as schools +of architecture, of painting, and conservatories of music; +while really it may well be supposed that Architecture, + +<span class='pagenum'><a class="tooltip" name="Page_70" id="Page_70"><span><i>The Modality of the Process of Teaching.</i></span>70</a></span> + +Sculpture, Painting, Music, the Orchestra, and the Drama, +are, like the Sciences, bound together in a <i>Universitas artium</i>, +and that by means of their internal reciprocal action +new results would follow.—Academies, as isolated master-schools, +which follow no particular line of teaching, are +entirely superfluous, and serve only as a <i>Prytaneum</i> for +meritorious scholars, and to reward industry through the +prizes which they offer. In their idea they belong with the +university, this appearing externally in the fact that most of +their members are university professors. But as institutions +for ostentation by which the ambition of the learned was +flattered, and to surround princes with scientific glory as +scientific societies attached to a court, they have lost all significance. +They ceased to flourish with the Ptolemies and +the Egyptian caliphs, and with absolute monarchical governments.—In +modern times we have passed beyond the abstract +jealousy of the so-called Humanities and the Natural Sciences, +because we comprehend that each part of the totality can +be realized in a proper sense only by its development as relatively +independent. Thus the <i>gymnasium</i> has its place as that +elementary school which through a general culture, by means +of the knowledge of the language and history of the Greeks +and Romans, prepares for the university; while, on the other +hand, the <i>Realschule</i>, by special attention to Natural Science +and the living languages, constitutes the transition to the +technological schools. Nevertheless, because the university +embraces the Science of Nature, of Technology, of Trade, of +Finance, and of Statistics, the pupils who have graduated +from the so-called high schools (<i>höhern Bürgerschulen</i>) and +from the <i>Realschulen</i> will be brought together at the university.—</p> + +<p><a name="S132" id="S132"></a>§ 132. The technique of the school will be determined in +its details by the peculiarity of its aim. But in general every +school, no matter what it teaches, ought to have some system +of rules and regulations by which the relation of the pupil to +the institution, of the pupils to each other, their relation to +the teacher, and that of the teachers to each other as well as +to the supervisory authority, the programme of lessons, the +apparatus, of the changes of work and recreation, shall be +clearly set forth. The course of study must be arranged so + +<span class='pagenum'><a class="tooltip" name="Page_71" id="Page_71"><span><i>The Modality of the Process of Teaching.</i></span>71</a></span> + +as to avoid two extremes: on the one hand, it has to keep in +view the special aim of the school, and according to this it +tends to contract itself. But, on the other hand, it must consider +the relative dependence of one specialty to other specialties +and to general culture. It must leave the transition +free, and in this it tends to expand itself. The difficulty is +here so to assign the limits that the special task of the school +shall not be sacrificed and deprived of the means of performance +which it (since it is also always only a part of the whole +culture) receives by means of its reciprocal action with other +departments. The programme must assign the exact amount +of time which can be appropriated to every study. It must +prescribe the order in which they shall follow each other; +it must, as far as possible, unite kindred subjects, so as to +avoid the useless repetition which dulls the charm of study; +it must, in determining the order, bear in mind at the same +time the necessity imposed by the subject itself and the psychological +progression of intelligence from perception, through +conception, to the thinking activity which grasps all. It must +periodically be submitted to revision, so that all matter which +has, through the changed state of general culture, become out +of date, may be rejected, and that that which has proved itself +inimitable may be appropriated; in general, so that it may +be kept up to the requirements of the times. And, finally, the +school must, by examinations and reports, aid the pupil in +the acquirement of a knowledge of his real standing. The +examination lets him know what he has really learned, and +what he is able to do: the report gives him an account of his +culture, exhibits to him in what he has made improvement +and in what he has fallen behind, what defects he has shown, +what talents he has displayed, what errors committed, and +in what relation stands his theoretical development to his +ethical status.</p> + +<p>—The opposition of the <i>Gymnasia</i> to the demands of the +agricultural communities is a very interesting phase of educational +history. They were asked to widen their course so +as to embrace Mathematics, Physics, Natural History, Geography, +and the modern languages. At first they stoutly resisted; +then they made some concessions; finally, the more +they made the more they found themselves in contradiction + +<span class='pagenum'><a class="tooltip" name="Page_72" id="Page_72"><span><i>The Modality of the Process of Teaching.</i></span>72</a></span> + +with their true work, and so they produced as an independent +correlate the <i>Realschule</i>. After this was founded, the +gymnasium returned to its old plan, and is now again able +to place in the foreground the pursuit of classical literature +and history. It was thus set free from demands made upon +it which were entirely foreign to its nature.—The examination +is, on one side, so adapted to the pupil as to make him +conscious of his own condition. As to its external side, it +determines whether the pupil shall pass from one class to +another or from one school to another, or it decides whether +the school as a whole shall give a public exhibition—an exhibition +which ought to have no trace of ostentation, but +which in fact is often tinctured with pedagogical charlatanism.—</p> + +<p><a name="S133" id="S133"></a>§ 133. The Direction of the school on the side of science must +be held by the school itself, for the process of the intellect in +acquiring science, the progress of the method, the determinations +of the subject matter and the order of its development, +have their own laws, to which Instruction must submit itself +if it would attain its end. The school is only one part of the +whole of culture. In itself it divides into manifold departments, +together constituting a great organism which in manifold +ways comes into contact with the organism of the state. +So long as teaching is of a private character, so long as it is +the reciprocal relation of one individual to another, or so long +as it is shut up within the circle of the family and belongs +to it alone, so long it has no objective character. It receives +this first when it grows to a school. As in history, its first +form must have a religious character; but this first form, in +time, disappears. Religion is the absolute relation of man +to God which subsumes all other relations. In so far as Religion +exists in the form of a church, those who are members +of the same church may have instruction given on the nature +of religion among themselves. Instruction on the subject +is proper, and it is even enjoined upon them as a law—as a +duty. But further than their own society they may not extend +their rule. The church may exert itself to make a religious +spirit felt in the school and to make it penetrate all +the teaching; but it may not presume, because it has for its +subject the absolute interest of men, the interest which is + +<span class='pagenum'><a class="tooltip" name="Page_73" id="Page_73"><span><i>The Modality of the Process of Teaching.</i></span>73</a></span> + +superior to all others, to determine also the other objects of +Education or the method of treating them. The technical acquisitions +of Reading, Writing and Arithmetic, Drawing and +Music, the Natural Sciences, Mathematics, Logic, Anthropology +and Psychology, the practical sciences of finance and +the municipal regulations, have no direct relation to religion. +If we attempt to establish one, there inevitably appears in +them a morbid state which destroys them; not only so, but +piety itself disappears, for these accomplishments and this +knowledge are not included in its idea.</p> + +<p>—Such treatment of Art and Science may be well-meant, +but it is always an error. It may even make a ludicrous impression, +which is a very dangerous thing for the authority +of religion. If a church has established schools, it must see +to it that all which is there taught outside of the religious +instruction, i.e. all of science and art, shall have no direct +connection with it as a religious institution.—</p> + +<p><a name="S134" id="S134"></a>§ 134. The Church, as the external manifestation of religion, +is concerned with the absolute relation of man, the relation +to God, special in itself as opposed to his other relations; +the State, on the contrary, seizes the life of a nation according +to its <i>explicit totality</i>. The State should conduct the education +of all its citizens. To it, then, the church can appear +only as a school, for the church instructs its own people concerning +the nature of religion, partly by teaching proper, that +of the catechism, partly in quite as edifying a way, by preaching. +From this point of view, the State can look upon the +church only as one of those schools which prepare for a +special avocation. The church appears to the State as that +school which assumes the task of educating the religious element. +Just as little as the church should the state attempt +to exercise any influence over Science and Art. In this they +are exactly alike, and must acknowledge the necessity which +both Science and Art contain within themselves and by which +they determine themselves. The laws of Logic, Mathematics, +Astronomy, Morals, Æsthetics, Physiology, &c., are entirely +independent of the state. It can decree neither discoveries +nor inventions. The state in its relations to science occupies +the same ground as it should do with relation to the freedom +of self-consciousness. It is true that the church teaches man, + +<span class='pagenum'><a class="tooltip" name="Page_74" id="Page_74"><span><i>The Modality of the Process of Teaching.</i></span>74</a></span> + +but it demands from him at the same time belief in the truth +of its dogmas. It rests, as the real church, on presupposed +authority, and sinks finally all contradictions which may be +found in the absolute mystery of the existence of God. The +state, on the contrary, elaborates its idea into the form of +laws, i.e. into general determinations, of whose necessity it +convinces itself. It seeks to give to these laws the clearest possible +form, so that every one may understand them. It concedes +validity only to that which can be proved, and sentences +the individual according to the external side of the <i>deed</i> (overt +act) not, as the church does, on its internal side—that of <i>intention</i>. +Finally, it demands in him consciousness of his +deed, because it makes each one responsible for his own deed. +It has, therefore, the same principle with science, for the proof +of necessity and the unity of consciousness with its object +constitute the essence of science. Since the state embraces +the school as one of its educational organisms, it is from its +very nature especially called upon to guide its regulation in +accordance with the manifestation of consciousness.</p> + +<p>—The church calls this "profanation." One might say +that the church, with its mystery of Faith, always represents +the absolute problem of science, while the state, as to its form, +coincides with science. Whenever the state abandons the +strictness of proof—when it begins to measure the individual +citizen by his intention and not by his deed, and, in place of +the clear insight of the comprehending consciousness, sets up +the psychological compulsion of a hollow mechanical authority, +it destroys itself.—</p> + +<p><a name="S135" id="S135"></a>§ 135. Neither the church nor the state should attempt to +control the school in its internal management. Still less can +the school constitute itself into a state within the state; for, +while it is only one of the means which are necessary for developing +citizens, the state and the church lay claim to the +whole man his whole life long. The independence of the +school can then only consist in this, that it raises within the +state an organ which works under its control, and which as +school authority endeavors within itself to befriend the needs +of the school, while externally it acts on the church and state +indirectly by means of ethical powers. The emancipation of +the school can never reasonably mean its abstract isolation, + +<span class='pagenum'><a class="tooltip" name="Page_75" id="Page_75"><span><i>The Modality of the Process of Teaching.</i></span>75</a></span> + +or the absorption of the ecclesiastical and political life into +the school; it can signify only the free reciprocal action of +the school with state and church. It must never be forgotten +that what makes the school a school is not the total process +of education, for this falls also within the family, the state, +and the church; but that the proper work of the school is +the process of instruction, knowledge, and the acquirement, +by practice, of skill.</p> + +<p>—The confusion of the idea of Instruction with that of +Education in general is a common defect in superficial treatises +on these themes. The Radicals among those who are in +favor of so-called "Emancipation," often erroneously appeal +to "free Greece" which generally for this fond ignorance is +made to stand as authority for a thousand things of which it +never dreamed. In this fictitious Hellas of "free, beautiful +humanity," they say the limits against which we strive to-day +did not exist. The histories of Anaxagoras, Protagoras, Diagoras, +Socrates, Aristotle, Theophrastus, and of others, who +were all condemned on account of their "impiety," tell quite +another story.—</p> + +<p><a name="S136" id="S136"></a>§ 136. The inspection of the school may be carried out in +different ways, but it must be required that its special institutions +shall be embraced and cared for as organized and +related wholes, framed in accordance with the idea of the +state, and that one division of the ministry shall occupy itself +exclusively with it. The division of labor will specially affect +the schools for teaching particular avocations. The prescription +of the subjects to be studied in each school as appropriate +to it, of the course of study, and of the object thereof, +properly falls to this department of government, is its immediate +work, and its theory must be changed according to the +progress and needs of the time. Niemeyer, Schwarz, and +others, have made out such plans for schools. Scheinert +has fully painted the <i>Volkschule</i>, Mager the <i>Bürgerschule</i>, +Deinhard and Kapp the <i>Gymnasium</i>. But such delineations, +however correct they may be, depend upon the actual sum of +culture of a people and a time, and must therefore continually +modify their fundamental Ideal. The same is true of the methods +of instruction in the special arts and sciences. Niemeyer, +Schwarz, Herbart, in their sketches of Pedagogics, Beneke in + +<span class='pagenum'><a class="tooltip" name="Page_76" id="Page_76"><span><i>Education of the Will.</i></span>76</a></span> + +his <i>Doctrine of Education</i>, and others, have set forth in detail +the method of teaching Reading, Writing and Arithmetic, +Languages, Natural Science, Geography, History, &c. Such +directions are, however, ephemeral in value, and only relatively +useful, and must, in order to be truly practical, be always +newly laid out in accordance with universal educational +principles, and with the progress of science and art.</p> + +<p>—The idea that the State has the right to oversee the school +lies in the very idea of the State, which is authorized, and +under obligation, to secure the education of its citizens, and +cannot leave their fashioning to chance. The emancipation +of the school from the State, the abstracting of it, would lead +to the destruction of the school. There is no difficulty in Protestant +States in the free inter-action of school and church, +for Protestantism has consciously accepted as its peculiar +principle individual freedom as Christianity has presented it. +For Catholic States, however, a difficulty exists. The Protestant +clergyman can with propriety oversee the <i>Volkschule</i>, +for here he works as teacher, not as priest. In the Protestant +church there are really no Laity according to the original +meaning of the term. On the contrary, Catholic clergymen +are essentially priests, and as such, on account of the unconditional +obedience which, according to their church, they have +to demand, they usurp the authority of the State. From this +circumstance arise, at present, numberless collisions in the +department of school supervision.—</p> + + +<div class="center"><span class="smcap">Third Division.</span></div> + +<div class="center">PRAGMATICS (EDUCATION OF THE WILL).</div> + +<p><a name="S137" id="S137"></a>§ 137. Both Physical and Intellectual Education are in the +highest degree practical. The first reduces the merely natural +to a tool which mind shall use for its own ends; the second +guides the intelligence, by ways conformable to its nature, +to the necessary method of the act of teaching and learning, +which finally branches out into an objective national life, +into a system of mutually dependent school organizations. +But in a narrower sense we mean by practical education the +methodical development of the Will. This phrase more clearly +expresses the topic to be considered in this division than +others sometimes used in Pedagogics [<i>Bestrebungs vermögen</i>, + +<span class='pagenum'><a class="tooltip" name="Page_77" id="Page_77"><span><i>Social Culture.</i></span>77</a></span> + +conative power]. The will is already the subject of a science +of its own, i.e. of Ethics; and if Pedagogics would proceed in +anywise scientifically, it must recognize and presuppose the +idea and the existence of this science. It should not restate in +full the doctrines of freedom of duty, of virtue, and of conscience, +although we have often seen this done in empirical +works on Pedagogics. Pedagogics has to deal with the idea +of freedom and morality only so far as it fixes the technique +of their process, and at the same time it confesses itself to +be weakest just here, where nothing is of any worth without +a pure self-determination.</p> + +<p><a name="S138" id="S138"></a>§ 138. The pupil must (1) become civilized; i.e. he must +learn to govern, as a thing external to him, his natural +egotism, and to make the forms which civilized society has +adopted his own. (2) He must become imbued with morality; +i.e. he must learn to determine his actions, not only with +reference to what is agreeable and useful, but according to +the principle of the Good; he must become virtually free, +form a character, and must habitually look upon the necessity +of freedom as the absolute measure of his actions. +(3) He must become religious; i.e. he must discern that the +world, with all its changes, himself included, is only phenomenal; +the affirmative side of this insight into the emptiness +of the finite and transitory, which man would so willingly +make everlasting, is the consciousness of the <i>absolute</i> existing +in and for itself, which, in its certainty of its truth, not +torn asunder through the process of manifestation, constitutes +no part of its changes, but, while it actually presents them, +permeates them all, and freely distinguishes itself from them. +In so far as man relates himself to God, he cancels all finitude +and transitoriness, and by this feeling frees himself from the +externality of phenomena. Virtue on the side of civilization +is Politeness; on that of morality, Conscientiousness; and +on that of religion, Humility.</p> + + +<div class="center">FIRST CHAPTER.</div> + +<div class="center"><i>Social Culture.</i></div> + +<p><a name="S139" id="S139"></a>§ 139. The social development of man makes the beginning +of practical education. It is not necessary to suppose a special +social instinct. The inclination of man to the society of + +<span class='pagenum'><a class="tooltip" name="Page_78" id="Page_78"><span><i>Social Culture.</i></span>78</a></span> + +men does not arise only from the identity of their nature, but +is also in certain cases affected by particular relations. The +natural starting-point of social culture is the Family. But +this educates the child for Society, and by means of Society +the individual passes over into relations with the world at +large. Natural sympathy changes to polite behavior, and +this to the dexterous and circumspect deportment, whose +truth nevertheless is first the ethical purity which combines +with the wisdom of the serpent the harmlessness of the dove.</p> + +<p><a name="S140" id="S140"></a>§ 140. (1) The Family is the natural social circle to which +man primarily belongs. In it all the immediate differences +which exist are compensated by the equally immediate unity +of the relationship. The subordination of the wife to the +husband, of the children to their parents, of the younger children +to their elder brothers and sisters, ceases to be subordination, +through the intimacy of love. The child learns +obedience to authority, and in this it gives free personal +satisfaction to its parents and enjoys the same. All the relations +in which he finds himself there are penetrated by the +warmth of implicit confidence, which can be replaced for the +child by nothing else. In this sacred circle the tenderest +emotions of the heart are developed by the personal interest +of all its members in what happens to any one, and thus the +foundation is laid of a susceptibility to all genuine or real +friendship.</p> + +<p>—Nothing more unreasonable or inhuman could exist than +those modern theories which would destroy the family and +would leave the children, the offspring of the anarchy of free-love, +to grow up in public nurseries. This would appear to +be very humanitarian; indeed these socialists talk of nothing +but the interests of humanity—they are never weary of +uttering their insipid jests on the institution of the family, +as if it were the principle of all narrow-mindedness. Have +these fanatics, who are seeking after an abstraction of humanity, +ever examined our foundling-hospitals, orphan asylums, +barracks, and prisons, to discover in some degree to +what an atomic state of barren cleverness a human being +grows who has never formed a part of a family? The Family +is only one phase in the grand order of the ethical organization; +but it is the substantial phase from which man passively + +<span class='pagenum'><a class="tooltip" name="Page_79" id="Page_79"><span><i>Social Culture.</i></span>79</a></span> + +proceeds, but into which, as he founds a family of his own, +he actively returns. The child lives in the Family in the +common joy and grief of sympathy for all, and, in the emotion +with which he sees his parents approach death while he +is hastening towards the full enjoyment of existence, experiences +the finer feelings which are so powerful in creating in +him a deeper and more tender understanding of everything +human.—</p> + +<p><a name="S141" id="S141"></a>§ 141. (2) The Family rears the children not for itself but +for the civil society. In this we have a system of morals producing +externally a social technique, a circle of fixed forms +of society. This technique endeavors to subdue the natural +roughness of man, at least as far as it manifests itself externally. +Because he is spirit, man is not to yield himself to +his immediateness; he is to exhibit to man his naturalness +as under the control of spirit. The etiquette of propriety on +the one hand facilitates the manifestation of individuality +by means of which the individual becomes interesting to others, +and on the other hand, since its forms are alike for all, it +makes us recognize the likeness of the individual to all others +and so makes their intercourse easier.</p> + +<p>—The conventional form is no mere constraint; but essentially +a protection not only for the freedom of the individual, +but much more the protection of the individual against the +rude impetuosity of his own naturalness. Savages and peasants +for this reason are, in their relations to each other, by +no means as unconstrained as one often represents them, but +hold closely to a ceremonious behavior. There is in one of +Immerman's stories, "The Village Justice," a very excellent +picture of the conventional forms with which the peasant +loves to surround himself. The scene in which the townsman +who thinks that he can dispense with forms among the +peasants is very entertainingly taught better, is exceedingly +valuable in an educational point of view. The feeling of +shame which man has in regard to his mere naturalness is +often extended to relations where it has no direct significance, +since this sense of shame is appealed to in children in reference +to things which are really perfectly indifferent externalities.—</p> + +<p><a name="S142" id="S142"></a>§ 142. Education with regard to social culture has two + +<span class='pagenum'><a class="tooltip" name="Page_80" id="Page_80"><span><i>Social Culture.</i></span>80</a></span> + +extremes to avoid: the youth may, in his effort to prove his +individuality, become vain and conceited, and fall into an +attempt to appear interesting; or he may become slavishly +dependent on conventional forms, a kind of social pedant. +This state of nullity which contents itself with the mechanical +polish of social formalism is ethically more dangerous +than the tendency to a marked individuality, for it betrays +emptiness; while the effort towards a peculiar differentiation +from others, to become interesting to others, indicates power.</p> + +<p><a name="S143" id="S143"></a>§ 143. When we have a harmony of the manifestation of +the individual with the expression of the recognition of the +equality of others we have what is called deportment or politeness, +which combines dignity and grace, self-respect and +modesty. We call it when fully complete, Urbanity. It treats +the conventional forms with irony, since, at the same time +that it yields to them, it allows the productivity of spirit to +shine through them in little deviation from them, as if it were +fully able to make others in their place.</p> + +<p>—True politeness shows that it remains master of forms. +It is very necessary to accustom children to courtesy and to +bring them up in the etiquette of the prevailing social custom; +but they must be prevented from falling into an absurd +formality which makes the triumph of a polite behavior to +consist in a blind following of the dictates of the last fashion-journal, +and in the exact copying of the phraseology and +directions of some book on manners. One can best teach and +practise politeness when he does not merely copy the social +technique, but comprehends its original idea.—</p> + +<p><a name="S144" id="S144"></a>§ 144. (3) But to fully initiate the youth into the institutions +of civilization one must not only call out the feelings of +his heart in the bosom of the family, not only give to him the +formal refinement necessary to his intercourse with society; +it must also perform to him the painful duty of making him +acquainted with the mysteries of the ways of the world. This +is a painful duty, for the child naturally feels an unlimited +confidence in all men. This confidence must not be destroyed, +but it must be tempered. The mystery of the way of the +world is the deceit which springs from selfishness. We must +provide against it by a proper degree of distrust. We must +teach the youth that he may be imposed upon by deceit, dissimulation, + +<span class='pagenum'><a class="tooltip" name="Page_81" id="Page_81"><span><i>Moral Culture.</i></span>81</a></span> + +and hypocrisy, and that therefore he must not +give his confidence lightly and credulously. He himself must +learn how he can, without deceit, gain his own ends in the +midst of the throng of opposing interests.</p> + +<p>—Kant in his Pedagogics calls that worldly-wise behavior +by which the individual is to demean himself in opposition +to others, Impenetrability. By its means man learns how to +"manage men." In Lord Chesterfield's letters to his son, we +have pointed out the true value of egotism in its relation to +morals. All his words amount to this, that we are to consider +every man to be an egotist, and to convert his very +egotism into a means of finding out his weak side; i.e. to +flatter him by exciting his vanity, and by means of such flattery +to ascertain his limits. In common life, the expression +"having had experiences" means about the same thing as +having been deceived and betrayed.—</p> + + +<div class="center"><a name="moral" id="moral"></a>SECOND CHAPTER.</div> + +<div class="center"><i>Moral Culture.</i></div> + +<p><a name="S145" id="S145"></a>§ 145. The truth of social culture lies in moral culture. +Without this latter, every art of behavior remains worthless, +and can never attain the clearness of Humility and Dignity +which are possible to it in its unity with morality. For the +better determination of this idea Pedagogics must refer to +Ethics itself, and can here give the part of its content which +relates to Education only in the form of educational maxims. +The principal categories of Ethics in the domain of morality +are the ideas of Duty, Virtue, and Conscience. Education +must lay stress on the truth that nothing in the world has +any absolute value except will guided by the right.</p> + +<p><a name="S146" id="S146"></a>§ 146. Thence follows (1) the maxim relating to the idea +of Duty, that we must accustom the pupil to unconditional +obedience to it, so that he shall perform it for no other reason +than that it is duty. It is true that the performance of a +duty may bring with it externally a result agreeable or disagreeable, +useful or harmful; but the consideration of such +connection ought never to determine us. This moral demand, +though it may appear to be excessive severity, is the absolute +foundation of all genuine ethical practice. All "highest + +<span class='pagenum'><a class="tooltip" name="Page_82" id="Page_82"><span><i>Moral Culture.</i></span>82</a></span> + +happiness theories," however finely spun they may be, when +taken as a guide for life, lead at last to Sophistry, and this +to contradictions which ruin the life.</p> + +<p><a name="S147" id="S147"></a>§ 147. (2) Virtue must make actual what duty commands, +or, rather, the actualizing of duty is Virtue. And here we +must say next, then, that the principal things to be considered +under Virtue are (<i>a</i>) the dialectic of particular virtues, +(<i>b</i>) renunciation, and (<i>c</i>) character.</p> + +<p><a name="S148" id="S148"></a>§ 148. (<i>a</i>) From the dialectic of particular virtues there +follows the educational maxim that we must practise all +virtues with equal faithfulness, for all together constitute an +ethical system complete in itself, in which no one is indifferent +to another.</p> + +<p>—Morality should recognize no distinction of superiority +among the different virtues. They reciprocally determine +each other. There is no such thing as one virtue which shines +out above the others, and still less should we have any special +gift for virtue. The pupil must be taught to recognize +no great and no small in the virtues, for that one which may +at first sight seem small is inseparably connected with that +which is seemingly the greatest. Many virtues are attractive +by reason of their external consequences, as e.g. industry because +of success in business, worthy conduct because of the +respect paid to it, charity because of the pleasure attending +it; but man should not practise these virtues because he enjoys +them: he must devote the same amount of self-sacrifice +and of assiduity to those virtues which (as Christ said) are +to be performed in secret.—</p> + +<p>—It is especially valuable, in an educational respect, to +gain an insight, into the transition of which each virtue is +empirically capable, into a negative as well as into a positive +extreme. The differences between the extremes and the +golden mean are differences in quality, although they arrive +at this difference in quality by means of difference +in quantity. Kant has, as is well known, attacked the +Aristotelian doctrine of the ethical μεσοτες, since he was considering +the qualitative difference of the mind as differentiating +principle; this was correct for the subject with which +he dealt, but in the objective development we do arrive on + +<span class='pagenum'><a class="tooltip" name="Page_83" id="Page_83"><span><i>Moral Culture.</i></span>83</a></span> + +the other hand at the determination of a quantitative limit; +e.g. a man, with the most earnest intention of doing right, +may be in doubt whether he has not, in any task, done more +or less than was fitting for him.—</p> + +<p>—As no virtue can cease its demands for us, no one can +permit any exceptions or any provisional circumstances to +come in the way of his duties. Our moral culture will always +certainly manifest itself in very unequal phases if we, out of +narrowness and weakness, neglect entirely one virtue while +we diligently cultivate another. If we are forced into such unequal +action, we are not responsible for the result; but it is +dangerous and deserves punishment if we voluntarily encourage +it. The pupil must be warned against a certain moral +negligence which consists in yielding to certain weaknesses, +faults, or crimes, a little longer and a little longer, because he +has fixed a certain time after which he intends to do better. +Up to that time he allows himself to be a loiterer in ethics. +Perhaps he will assert that his companions, his surroundings, +his position, &c., must be changed before he can alter his internal +conduct. Wherever education or temperament favors +sentimentality, we shall find birth-days, new-year's day, confirmation +day, &c., selected as these turning points. It is not +to be denied that man proceeds in his internal life from epoch +to epoch, and renews himself in his most internal nature, nor +can we deny that moments like those mentioned are especially +favorable in man to an effort towards self-transformation +because they invite introspection; but it is not to be +endured that the youth, while looking forward to such a moment, +should consciously persist in his evil-doing. If he does, +we shall have as consequences that when the solemn moment +which he has set at last arrives, at the stirring of the first +emotion he perceives with terror that he has changed nothing +in himself, that the same temptations are present to him, the +same weakness takes possession of him, &c. In our business, +in our theoretical endeavors, &c., it may certainly happen +that, on account of want of time, or means, or humor, we may +put off some work to another time; but morality stands on +a higher plane than these, because it, as the concrete absoluteness +of the will, makes unceasing demand on the whole +and undivided man. In morality there are no vacations, no + +<span class='pagenum'><a class="tooltip" name="Page_84" id="Page_84"><span><i>Moral Culture.</i></span>84</a></span> + +interims. As we in ascending a flight of stairs take good care +not to make a single mis-step, and give our conscious attention +to every step, so we must not allow any exceptions in +moral affairs, must not appoint given times for better conduct, +but must await these last as natural crises, and must +seek to live in time as in Eternity.—</p> + +<p><a name="S149" id="S149"></a>§ 149. (<i>b</i>) From Renunciation springs the injunction of +self-government. The action of education on the will to form +habits in it, is discipline or training in a narrower sense. +Renunciation teaches us to know the relation in which we +in fact, as historical persons, stand to the idea of the Good. +From our empirical knowledge of ourselves we derive the +idea of our limits; from the absolute knowledge of ourselves +on the other hand, which presents to us the nature of Freedom +as our own actuality, we derive the conception of the resistless +might of the genuine will for the good. But to actualize this +conception we must have practice. This practice is the proper +renunciation. Every man must devise for himself some special +set of rules, which shall be determined by his peculiarities +and his resulting temptations. These rules must have +as their innermost essence the subduing of self, the vanquishing +of his negative arbitrariness by means of the universality +and necessity of the will.</p> + +<p>—In order to make this easy, the youth may be practised +in renouncing for himself even the arbitrariness which is +permitted to him. One often speaks of renunciation as if it +belonged especially to the middle ages and to Catholicism; +but this is an error. Renunciation in its one-sided form as +relying on works, and for the purpose of mortification, is +asceticism, and belongs to them; but Renunciation in general +is a necessary determination of morals. The keeping +of a journal is said to assist in the practice of virtue, but its +value depends on how it is kept. To one it may be a curse, +to another a blessing. Fichte, Göthe, Byron, and others, have +kept journals and have been assisted thereby; while others, +as Lavater, have been thwarted by them. Vain people will +every evening record with pen and ink their admiration of +the correct course of life which they have led in the day devoted +to their pleasure.—</p> + +<p><a name="S150" id="S150"></a>§ 150. (<i>c</i>) The result of the practice in virtue, or, as it is + +<span class='pagenum'><a class="tooltip" name="Page_85" id="Page_85"><span><i>Moral Culture.</i></span>85</a></span> + +commonly expressed, of the individual actualization of freedom, +is the methodical determinateness of the individual will +as Character. This conception of character is formal, for it +contains only the identity which is implied in the ruling of a +will on its external side as constant. As there are good, strong +and beautiful characters, so there are also bad, weak, and +detestable ones. When in Pedagogics, therefore, we speak +so much of the building up of a character, we mean the making +permanent of a direction of the individual will towards +the actualization of the Good. Freedom ought to be the character +of character. Education must therefore observe closely +the inter-action of the factors which go to form character, viz., +(α) the temperament, as the natural character of the man; +(β) external events, the historical element; (γ) the energy +of the Will, by which, in its limits of nature and history, it +realizes the idea of the Good in and for itself as the proper +ethical character. Temperament determines the Rhythm of +our external manifestation of ourselves; the events in which +we live assign to us the ethical problem, but the Will in its +sovereignty stamps its seal on the form given by these potentialities. +Pedagogics aims at accustoming the youth to +freedom, so that he shall always measure his deed by the +idea of the Good. It does not desire a formal independence, +which may also be called character, but a real independence +resting upon the conception of freedom as that which is absolutely +necessary. The pedagogical maxim is then: Be +independent, but be so through doing Good.</p> + +<p>—According to preconceived opinion, stubbornness and +obstinacy claim that they are the foundation of character. +But they may spring from weakness and indeterminateness, +on which account one needs to be well on his guard. +A gentle disposition, through enthusiasm for the Good, may +attain to quite as great a firmness of will. Coarseness and +meanness are on no account to be tolerated.—</p> + +<p><a name="S151" id="S151"></a>§ 151. (3) We pass from the consideration of the culture of +character to that of conscience. This is the relation which +the moral agent makes between himself as manifestation and +himself as idea. It compares itself, in its past or future, with +its nature, and judges itself accordingly as good or bad. This +independence of the ethical judgment is the soul proper of + +<span class='pagenum'><a class="tooltip" name="Page_86" id="Page_86"><span><i>Religious Culture.</i></span>86</a></span> + +all morality, the negation of all self-deception and of all +deception through another. The pedagogical maxim is: Be +conscientious. Be in the last instance dependent only +upon the conception which thou thyself hast of the idea of +the Good!</p> + +<p>—The self-criticism prompted by conscience hovers over +all our historical actuality, and is the ground of all our rational +progress. Fichte's stern words remain, therefore, eternally +true: "He who has a bad character, must absolutely +create for himself a better one."—</p> + + +<div class="center">THIRD CHAPTER.</div> + +<div class="center"><i>Religious Culture.</i></div> + +<p><a name="S152" id="S152"></a>§ 152. Social culture contains the formal phase, moral culture +the real phase, of the practical mind. Conscience forms +the transition to religious culture. In its apodeictic nature, +it is the absoluteness of spirit. The individual discerns in +the depths of its own consciousness the determinations of +universality and of necessity to which it has to subject itself. +They appear to it as the voice of God. Religion makes its +appearance as soon as the individual distinguishes the Absolute +from himself as personal, as a subject existing for itself +and therefore for him. The atheist remains at the stage of +insight into the absoluteness of the logical and physical, +æsthetic and practical categories. He may, therefore, be +perfectly moral. He lacks religion, though he loves to characterize +his uprightness by this name, and to transfer the +dogmatic determinations of positive religion into the ethical +sphere. It belongs to the province of religion that I demean +myself towards the Absolute not only as toward that which +is my own substance, and that in relation to it not I alone +am the subject, but that to me also the substance in itself is +a personal subject for itself. If I look upon myself as the +only absolute, I make myself devoid of spiritual essence. I +am only absolute self-consciousness, for which, because it as +idea relates only to itself, there remains only the impulse to +a persistent conflict with every self-consciousness not identical +with it. Were this the case, such a self-consciousness +would be only theoretical irony. In religion I know the Absolute +as essence, when I am known by him. Everything else, + +<span class='pagenum'><a class="tooltip" name="Page_87" id="Page_87"><span><i>Religious Culture.</i></span>87</a></span> + +myself included, is finite and transitory, however significant +it may be, however relatively and momentarily the Infinite +may exist in it. As existence even, it is transitory. The +Absolute, positing itself, distinguishing itself from itself in +unity with itself, is always like to itself, and takes up all the +unrest of the phenomenal world back again into its simple +essence.</p> + +<p><a name="S153" id="S153"></a>§ 153. This process of the individual spirit, in which it rises +out of the multiplicity of all relations into union with the +Absolute as the substantial subject, and in which nature and +history are united, we may call, in a restricted sense, a +change of heart [Gemuth]. In a wider sense of the word we +give this name to a certain sentimental cheerfulness (light-heartedness), +a sense of comfort—of little significance. The +highest emotions of the heart culminate in religion, whose +warmth is inspired by practical activity and conscientiousness.</p> + +<p><a name="S154" id="S154"></a>§ 154. Education has to fit man for religion. (1) It gives +him the conception of it; (2) it endeavors to have this conception +actualized in him; (3) it subordinates the theoretical +and practical process in fashioning him to a determinate +stand-point of religious culture.</p> + +<p>—In the <i>working out</i> or detailed treatment of Pedagogics, +the position which the conception of religion occupies is very +uncertain. Many writers on Education place it at the beginning, +while others reserve it for the end. Others naïvely +bring it forward in the midst of heterogeneous surroundings, +but know how to say very little concerning it, and urge teachers +to kindle the fire of religious feeling in their pupils by +teaching them to fear God. Through all their writing, we +hear the cry that in Education nothing is so important as +Religion. Rightly understood, this saying is quite true. The +religious spirit, the consciousness of the Absolute, and the +reverence for it, should permeate all. Not unfrequently, however, +we find that what is meant by religion is theology, or +the church ceremonial, and these are only one-sided phases +of the total religious process. The Anglican High-Church +presents in the colleges and universities of England a sad +example of this error. What can be more deadening to the +spirit, more foreign to religion, than the morning and evening + +<span class='pagenum'><a class="tooltip" name="Page_88" id="Page_88"><span><i>Theoretical Process of Religious Culture.</i></span>88</a></span> + +prayers as they are carried on at Oxford and Cambridge with +machine-like regularity! But also to England belongs the +credit of the sad fact, that, according to Kohl's report, there +live in Manchester, Liverpool, Birmingham, and London, +thousands of men who have never enjoyed any teaching in +religion, have never been baptized, who live absolutely without +religion in brutal stupidity. Religion must form the culminating +point of Education. It takes up into itself the didactical +and practical elements, and rises through the force of +its content to universality.—</p> + + +<div class="center">I. <i>The Theoretical Process of Religious Culture.</i></div> + +<p><a name="S155" id="S155"></a>§ 155. Religion, in common with every content of the spirit, +must pass through three stages of feeling, conception, and +comprehension. Whatever may be the special character of +any religion it cannot avoid this psychological necessity, +either in its general history or in the history of the individual +consciousness. The teacher must understand this process, +partly in order that he may make it easier to the youth, +partly that he may guard against the malformation of the +religious feeling which may arise through the fact of the +youth's remaining in one stage after he is ready for another +and needs it. Pedagogics must therefore lay out beforehand +the philosophy of religion, on which alone can be found the +complete discussion of this idea.</p> + +<p><a name="S156" id="S156"></a>§ 156. (1) Religion exists first as religious feeling. The +person is still immediately identical with the Divine, does +not yet distinguish himself from the absoluteness of his being, +and is in so far determined by it. In so far as he feels +the divine, he is a mystery to himself. This beginning is +necessary. Religion cannot be produced in men from the +external side; its genesis belongs rather to the primitive +depths in which God himself and the individual soul are essentially +one.</p> + +<p>—The educator must not allow himself to suppose that he +is able to make a religion. Religion dwells originally in every +individual soul, for every one is born of God. Education +can only aid the religious feeling in its development. As far +as regards the psychological form, it was quite correct for +Schleiermacher and his followers to characterize the absoluteness + +<span class='pagenum'><a class="tooltip" name="Page_89" id="Page_89"><span><i>Theoretical Process of Religious Culture.</i></span>89</a></span> + +of the religious feeling as the feeling of dependence, for +feeling is determined by that which it feels; it depends upon +its content. But in so far as God constitutes the content of +the feeling, there appears the opposite of all dependence or absolute +emancipation. I maintain this in opposition to Schleiermacher. +Religion lifts man above the finite, temporal and +transitory, and frees him from the control of the phenomenal +world. Even the lowest form of religion does this; and when +it is said that Schleiermacher has been unjustly criticized +for this expression of dependence, this distinction is overlooked.—</p> + +<p><a name="S157" id="S157"></a>§ 157. But religious feeling as such rises into something +higher when the spirit distinguishes the content of this religious +feeling from any other content which it also feels, represents +it clearly to itself, and places itself over against it +formally as a free individual.</p> + +<p>—But we must not understand that the religious feeling is +destroyed in this process; in rising to the form of distinct +representation, it remains at the same time as a necessary +form of the Intelligence.—</p> + +<p><a name="S158" id="S158"></a>§ 158. If the spirit is held back and prevented from passing +out of the simplicity of feeling into the act of distinguishing +the perception from what it becomes, the conception—if its +efforts towards the forming of this conception are continually +re-dissolved into feeling, then feeling, which was as the first +step perfectly healthy and correct, will become morbid and +degenerate into a wretched mysticism. Education must, +therefore, make sure that this feeling is not destroyed by the +progress of its content into perception and conception on the +side of psychological form, but rather that it attains truth +thereby.</p> + +<p><a name="S159" id="S159"></a>§ 159. (2) Conception as the ideally transformed perception +dissects the religious content on its different sides, and +follows each of these to its consequence. Imagination controls +the individual conceptions, but by no means with that +absoluteness which is often supposed; for each picture has +in itself its logical consequence to which imagination must +yield; e.g. if a religion represents God as an animal, or as +half animal and half man, or as man, each of these conceptions +has in its development its consequences for the imagination.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a class="tooltip" name="Page_90" id="Page_90"><span><i>Theoretical Process of Religious Culture.</i></span>90</a></span></p> + +<p><a name="S160" id="S160"></a>§ 160. We rise out of the stage of Conception when the spirit +tries to determine the universality of its content according +to its necessity, i.e. when it begins to think. The necessity +of its pictures is a mere presupposition for the imagination. +The thinking activity, however, recognizes not only the contradiction +which exists between the sensuous, limited form +of the individual conception, and the absolute nature of its +content, but also the contradiction in which the conceptions +find themselves with respect to each other.</p> + +<p><a name="S161" id="S161"></a>§ 161. If the spirit is prevented from passing out of the +varied pictures of conception to the supersensuous clearness +and simplicity of the thinking activity—if the content which +it already begins to seize as idea is again dissolved into the +confusion of the picture-world, then the religion of imagination, +which was a perfectly proper form as the second step, +becomes perverted into some form of idolatry, either coarse +or refined. Education must therefore not oppose the thinking +activity if the latter undertakes to criticize religious conceptions; +on the contrary, it must guide this so that the discovery +of the contradictions which unavoidably adhere to +sensuous form shall not mislead the youth into the folly of +throwing away, with the relative untruth of the form, also +the religious content in general.</p> + +<p>—It is an error for educators to desire to keep the imagination +apart from religious feeling, but it is also an error to +detain the mind, which is on its formal side the activity of +knowing, in the stage of imagination, and to desire to condemn +it thence into the service of canonical allegories. The +more, in opposition to this, it is possessed with the charm of +thinking, the more is it in danger of condemning the content +of religion itself as a mere fictitious conception. As a transition-stage +the religion of imagination is perfectly normal, +and it does not in the least impair freedom if, for example, +one has personified evil as a living Devil. The error does +not lie in this, but in the making absolute these determinate, +æsthetic forms of religion. The reaction of the thinking +activity against such æsthetic absolutism then undertakes +in its negative absolutism to despise the content also, as if +it were a mere conception.—</p> + +<p><a name="S162" id="S162"></a>§ 162. (3) In the thinking activity the spirit attains that + +<span class='pagenum'><a class="tooltip" name="Page_91" id="Page_91"><span><i>Theoretical Process of Religious Culture.</i></span>91</a></span> + +form of the religious content which is identical with that of its +simple consciousness, and above which there is no other for the +intelligence as theoretical. But we distinguish three varieties +in this thinking activity: the abstract, the reflective, and +the speculative. The Abstract gives us the religious content +of consciousness in the form of abstractions or dogmas, i.e. +propositions which set up a definition as a universal, and +add to it another as the reason for its necessity. The Reflective +stage busies itself with the relation of dogmas to each +other, and with the search for the grounds on which their necessity +must rest. It is essentially critical, and hence skeptical. +The explanation of the dogmas, which is carried on in +this process of reasoning and skeptical investigation, is completed +alone in speculative thinking, which recognizes the +free unity of the content and its form as its own proper self-determination +of the content, creating its own differences. +Education must know this stage of the intelligence, partly +that it may in advance preserve, in the midst of its changes, +that repose which it brings into the consciousness; partly +that it may be able to lead to the process of change itself, in +accordance with the organic connection of its phases. We +should prevent the criticism of the abstract understanding +by the reflective stage as little as we should that of the imagination +by the thinking activity. But the stage of reflection +is not the last possibility of the thinking activity, although, +in the variety of its skepticism it often takes itself for such, +and, with the emptiness of mere negation to which it holds, +often brings itself forward into undesirable prominence. It +becomes evident, in this view, how very necessary for man, +with respect to religion, is a genuine philosophical culture, +so that he may not lose the certainty of the existence of the +Absolute in the midst of the obstinacy of dogmas and the +changes of opinions.</p> + +<p><a name="S163" id="S163"></a>§ 163. Education must then not fear the descent into dogmatic +abstraction, since this is an indispensable means for +theoretical culture in its totality, and the consciousness cannot +dispense with it in its history. But Education has, in the +concrete, carefully to discern in which of these stages of +culture any particular consciousness may be. For if for +mankind as a race the fostering of philosophy is absolutely + +<span class='pagenum'><a class="tooltip" name="Page_92" id="Page_92"><span><i>Practical Process of Religious Culture.</i></span>92</a></span> + +necessary, it by no means follows that this necessity exists +for each individual. To children, to women, e.g. for all kinds +of simple and limited lives, the form of the religion of the +imagination is well suited, and the form of comprehension +can come only relatively to them. Education must not, then, +desire powerfully and prematurely to develop the thinking +activity before the intelligence is really fully grown.</p> + +<p>—The superficial thinking which many teachers demand +in the sphere of religion is no less impractical than the want +of all guidance into rightly ordered meditations on religious +subjects. It is natural that the lower form of intelligence +should, in contrast with the higher, appear to be frivolous, +because it has no need of change of form as the higher has, +and on this account it looks upon the destruction of the form +of a picture or a dogma as the destruction of religion itself. +In our time the idea is very prevalent that the content itself +must change with the changing of the psychological form, +and that therefore a religion in the stage of feeling, of conception, +and of comprehension, can no longer be the same in +its essence. These suppositions, which are so popular, and +are considered to be high philosophy, spring from the superficiality +of psychological inquiry.—</p> + +<p><a name="S164" id="S164"></a>§ 164. The theoretical culture of the religious feeling endeavors +therefore with the freedom of philosophical criticism +to elevate the presupposition of Reason in the religious content +to self-assured insight by means of the proof of the +necessity of its determinations. This is the only reasonable +pedagogical way not only to prevent the degeneration of the +religious consciousness into a miserable mysticism or into +frivolity, but also to remove these if they are already existent.</p> + +<p>—External seclusion avails nothing. The crises of the +world-historical changes in the religious consciousness find +their way through the thickest cloister walls; the philosopher +Reinhold was a pupil of the Jesuits, the philosopher +Schad of the Benedictines.—</p> + + +<div class="center">II. <i>The Practical Process of Religious Culture.</i></div> + +<p><a name="S165" id="S165"></a>§ 165. The theoretical culture is truly practical, for it gives +man definite conceptions and thoughts of the Divine and his + +<span class='pagenum'><a class="tooltip" name="Page_93" id="Page_93"><span><i>Practical Process of Religious Culture.</i></span>93</a></span> + +relation to him. But in a narrower sense that culture is practical +which relates to the Will as such. Education has in this +respect to distinguish (1) consecration—religious feeling in +general,—(2) the induction of the youth into the forms of a +positive religion, and (3) his reconciliation with his lot.</p> + +<p><a name="S166" id="S166"></a>§ 166. (1) Religious feeling presupposes morality as an indispensable +condition without which it cannot inculcate its +ideas. But if man from a merely moral stand-point places +himself in relation to the idea of Duty as such, the ethical +religious stand-point differs from it in this, that it places the +necessity of the Good as the self-determination of the divine +Will and thus makes of practice a personal relation to God, +changing the Good to the Holy and the Evil to Sin. Education +must therefore first accustom the youth to the idea, that +in doing the Good he unites himself with God as with the +absolute Person, but that in doing Evil he separates himself +from him. The feeling that he through his deed comes into +contact with God himself, positively or negatively, deepens +the moral conduct to an intense sensibility of the heart.</p> + +<p><a name="S167" id="S167"></a>§ 167. (2) The religious sense which grows in the child that +he has an uninterrupted personal relation to the Absolute as +a person, constitutes the beginning of the practical forming +of religion. The second step is the induction of the child into +the objective forms of worship established in some positive +religion. Through religious training the child learns to renounce +his egotism; through attendance on religious services +he learns to give expression to his religious feeling in prayer, +in the use of symbols, and in church festivals. Education +must, however, endeavor to retain freedom with regard to +these forms, so that they shall not be confounded with Religion +itself. Religion displays itself in these ceremonies, but +they as mere forms are of value only in so far as they, while +externalities, are manifestations of the spirit which produces +them.</p> + +<p>—If the mechanism of ceremonial forms is taken as religion +itself, the service of God degenerates into the false service +of religion, as Kant has designated it in <i>Religion within +the Limits of Pure Reason</i>. Nothing is more destructive to +the sensibility to all real religious culture than the want of +earnestness with which prayers, readings from the Bible, + +<span class='pagenum'><a class="tooltip" name="Page_94" id="Page_94"><span><i>Practical Process of Religious Culture.</i></span>94</a></span> + +attendance on church, the communion, &c., are often practised +by teachers. But one must not conclude from this extreme +that an ignorance of all sacred forms in general would be +more desirable for the child.—</p> + +<p><a name="S168" id="S168"></a>§ 168. (3) It is possible that a man on the stand-point of +ecclesiastical religious observances may be fully contented; +he may be fully occupied in them, and perfect his life thereby +in perfect content. But by far the greater number of men +will see themselves forced to experience the truth of religion +in the hard vicissitudes of their lot, since they carry on some +business, and with that business create for themselves a +past whose consequences condition their future. They limit +themselves through their deeds, whose involuntary-voluntary +authors they become; involuntary in so far as they are challenged +to the deeds from the totality of events, voluntary in so +far as they undertake them and bring about an actual change +in the world. The history of the individual man appears +therefore on the one hand, if we consider its material, as the +work of circumstances; but on the other hand, if we reflect +on the form, as the act of a self-determining actor. Want of +freedom (the being determined through the given situation) +and freedom (the determination to the act) are united in +actual life as something which is exactly so, and cannot +become anything else as final. The essence of the spiritual +being stands always over against this unavoidable limitation +as that which is in itself infinite, which is beyond all history, +because the absolute spirit, in and for itself, has no history. +That which one calls his history is only the manifesting of +himself, and his everlasting return out of this manifestation +into himself an act which in absolute spirit coincides with +the transcending of all manifestation. From the nature which +belongs to him there arises for the individual spirit the impulse +towards a holy life, i.e. the being freed from his history +even in the midst of its process. He gratifies this impulse +negatively through the considering of what has happened as +past and gone, as that which lives now only ideally in the +recollection; and positively through the positing of a new +actual existence in which he strives to realize the idea of freedom +which constitutes his necessity, as purer and higher than +before. This constant new-birth out of the grave of the past + +<span class='pagenum'><a class="tooltip" name="Page_95" id="Page_95"><span><i>Practical Process of Religious Culture.</i></span>95</a></span> + +to the life of a more beautiful future is the genuine reconciliation +with destiny. The false reconciliation may assume +different forms. It may abstain from all action because man +through this limits himself and becomes responsible. This +is to despair of freedom, which condemns the spirit to the +loss of itself since its nature demands activity. The abstract +quietism of the Indian penitents, of the Buddhists, of the fanatical +ascetics, of the Protestant recluses, &c., is an error of +this kind. The man may become indifferent about the ethical +determinateness of his deeds. In this case he acts; but +because he has no faith in the necessary connection of his +deeds through the means of freedom, a connection which he +would willingly ascribe to mere chance, he loses his spiritual +essence. This is the error of indifference and of its frivolity, +which denies the open mystery of the ruling of destiny. Education +must therefore imbue man with respect for external +movements of history and with confidence in the inexhaustibleness +of the progressive human spirit, since only by producing +better things can he affirmatively elevate himself above +his past. This active acknowledgment of the necessity of +freedom as the determining principle of destiny gives the +highest satisfaction to which practical religious feeling may +arrive, for blessedness develops itself in it—that blessedness +which does not know that it is circumscribed by finitude +and transitoriness, and which possesses the immortal courage +to strive always anew for perfection with free resignation +at its non-realization, so that happiness and misery, +pleasure and pain, are conquered by the power of disinterested +self-sacrifice.</p> + +<p>—The escape from action in an artificial absence of all +events in life, which often sinks to a veritable brutalizing of +man, is the distinguishing feature of all monkish pedagogics. +In our time there is especial need of a reconciliation between +man and destiny, for all the world is discontented. The worst +form of discontent is when one is, as the French say, <i>blasé</i>; +though the word is not, as many fancy, derived originally +from the French, but from the Greek βλαζειν, +to wither. It is +true that all culture passes through phases, each of which +becomes momentarily and relatively wearisome, and that in +so far one may be <i>blasé</i> in any age. But in modern times + +<span class='pagenum'><a class="tooltip" name="Page_96" id="Page_96"><span><i>Absolute Process of Religious Culture.</i></span>96</a></span> + +this state of feeling has increased to that of thorough disgust—disgust +which nevertheless at the same time demands enjoyment. +The one who is <i>blasé</i> has enjoyed everything, felt +everything, mocked at everything. He has passed from the +enjoyment of pleasure to sentimentality, i.e. to rioting in +feeling; from sentimentality to irony with regard to feeling, +and from this to the torment of feeling his entire weakness +and emptiness as opposed to these. He ridicules this also, +as if it were a consolation to him to fling away the universe +like a squeezed lemon, and to be able to assert that in pure +nothingness lies the truth of all things. And yet nevertheless +this irony furnishes the point on which Education can +fasten, in order to kindle anew in him the religious feeling, +and to lead him back to a loving recognition of actuality, to +a respect for his own history. The greatest difficulty which +Education has to encounter here is the coquetry, the miserable +eminence and self-satisfaction which have undermined +the man and made him incapable of all simple and natural +enjoyment. It is not too much to assert that many pupils of +our <i>Gymnasia</i> are affected with this malady. Our literature +is full of its products. It inveighs against its dissipation, +and nevertheless at the same time cannot resist a certain kind +of pleasure in it. Diabolical sentimentality!—</p> + + +<div class="center">III. <i>The Absolute Process of Religious Culture.</i></div> + +<p><a name="S169" id="S169"></a>§ 169. In comparing the stages of the theoretical and practical +culture of the religious feeling their internal correspondence +appears. Feeling, as immediate knowledge, and the +consecration of the sense by means of piety; imagination with +all its images, and the church services with their ceremonial +observances; finally, the comprehending of religion as the +reconciliation with destiny, as the internal emancipation +from the dominion of external events—all these correspond +to each other. If we seize this parallelism all together, we +have the progress which religion must make in its historical +process, in which it (1) begins as natural; (2) goes on to historical +precision, and (3) elevates this to a rational faith. +These stages await every man in as far as he lives through +a complete religious culture, but this may be for the individual +a question of chance.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a class="tooltip" name="Page_97" id="Page_97"><span><i>Absolute Process of Religious Culture.</i></span>97</a></span></p> + +<p><a name="S170" id="S170"></a>§ 170. (1) A child has as yet no definite religious feeling. +He is still only a possibility capable of manifold determinations. +But, since he is a spirit, the essence of religion +is active in him, though as yet in an unconscious form. The +substance of spirit attests its presence in every individual, +through his mysterious impulse toward the absolute and +towards intercourse with God. This is the initiatory stage +of natural religion, which must not be confounded with the +religion which makes nature the object of worship (fetichism, +&c.)</p> + +<p><a name="S171" id="S171"></a>§ 171. (2) But while the child lives into this in his internal +life, he comes in contact with definite forms of religion, and +will naturally, through the mediation of the family, be introduced +to some one of them. His religious feeling takes now +a particular direction, and he accepts religion in one of its +historical forms. This positive religion meets the precise +want of the child, because it brings into his consciousness, +by means of teaching and sacred rites, the principal elements +which are found in the nature of religion.</p> + +<p><a name="S172" id="S172"></a>§ 172. (3) In contradistinction to the natural basis of religious +feeling, all historical religions rest on the authoritative +basis of revelation from God to man. They address themselves +to the imagination, and offer a system of objective +forms of worship and ceremonies. But spirit, as eternal, as +self-identical, cannot forbear as thinking activity to subject +the traditional religion to criticism and to compare it as +a phenomenal existence. From this criticism arises a religion +which satisfies the demands of the reason, and which, +by means of insight into the necessity of the historical process, +leads to the exercise of a genuine toleration towards its +many-sided forms. This religion mediates between the unity +of the thinking consciousness and the religious content, while +this content, in the history of religious feeling, appears theoretically +as dogma, and practically as the command of an +absolute and incomprehensible authority. It is just as simple +as the unsophisticated natural religious feeling, but its +simplicity is at the same time master of itself. It is just as +specific in its determinations as the historical religion, but +its determinateness is at the same time universal, since it is +worked out by the thinking reason.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a class="tooltip" name="Page_98" id="Page_98"><span><i>Absolute Process of Religious Culture.</i></span>98</a></span></p> + +<p><a name="S173" id="S173"></a>§ 173. Education must superintend the development of the +religious consciousness towards an insight into the necessary +consequence of its different stages. Nothing is more absurd +than for the educator to desire to avoid the introduction of +a positive religion, or a definite creed, as a middle stage between +the natural beginning of religious feeling and its end +in philosophical culture. Only when a man has lived through +the entire range of one-sided phases—through the crudeness +of such a concrete individualizing of religion, and has come +to recognize the universal nature of religion in a special form +of it which excludes other forms—only when the spirit of a +congregation has taken him into its number, is he ripe to +criticize religion in a conciliatory spirit, because he has then +gained a religious character through that historical experience. +The self-comprehending universality must have such +a solid basis as this in the life of the man; it can never form +the beginning of one's culture, but it may constitute the end +which turns back again to the beginning. Most men remain +at the historical stand-point. The religion of reason, as that +of the minority, constitutes in the different religions the invisible +church, which seeks by progressive reform to purify +these religions from superstition and unbelief. It is the duty +of the state, by making all churches equal in the sight of the +law, to guard religion from the temptation of impure motives, +and, through the granting of such freedom to religious individuality, +to help forward the unity of a rational insight into +religion which is distinct from the religious feeling only in +its form, not in its content. Not a philosopher, but Jesus +of Nazareth freed the world from all selfishness and all +bondage.</p> + +<p><a name="S174" id="S174"></a>§ 174. With this highest theoretical and practical emancipation, +the general work of education ends. It remains now +to be shown how the general idea of Education shapes its +special elements into their appropriate forms. From the nature +of Pedagogics, which concerns itself with man in his +entirety, this exposition belongs partly to the history of culture +in general, partly to the history of religion, partly to the +philosophy of history. The pedagogical element in it always +lies in the ideal which the spirit of a nation or of an age creates +out of itself, and which it seeks to realize in its youth.</p> +<hr /> +<p><span class='pagenum'><a class="tooltip" name="Page_99" id="Page_99"><span><i>Particular Systems of Education.</i></span>99</a></span></p> + +<div class="center"><a name="THIRD" id="THIRD"></a>THIRD PART.</div> + +<div class="center">Particular Systems of Education.</div> + + +<p><a name="S175" id="S175"></a>§ 175. The definite actuality of Education originates in the +fact that its general idea is individualized, according to its +special elements, in a specific statement which we call a +pedagogical principle. The number of these principles is +not unlimited, but from the idea of Education contains only +a certain number. If we derive them therefore, we derive at +the same time the history of Pedagogics, which can from its +very nature do nothing else than make actual in itself the +possibilities involved in the idea of Education. Such a derivation +may be called an <i>à priori</i> construction of history, but +it is different from what is generally denoted by this term in +not pretending to deduce single events and characters. All +empirical details are confirmation or illustration for it, but it +does not attempt to seek this empirical element <i>à priori</i>.</p> + +<p>—The history of Pedagogics is still in the stage of infancy. +At one time it is taken up into the sphere of Politics; at another, +into that of the history of Culture. The productions +of some of the most distinguished writers on the subject are +now antiquated. Cramer of Stralsund made, in 1832, an excellent +beginning in a comprehensive and thorough history of +Pedagogy; but in the beginning of his second part he dwelt +too long upon the Greeks, and lost himself in too wide an exposition +of practical Philosophy in general. Alexander Kapp +has given us excellent treatises on the Pedagogics of Aristotle +and Plato. But with regard to modern Pedagogics we +have relatively very little. Karl v. Raumer, in 1843, began +to publish a history of Pedagogics since the time of the +revival of classical studies, and has accomplished much of +value on the biographical side. But the idea of the general +connection and dependence of the several manifestations has +not received much attention, and since the time of Pestalozzi +books have assumed the character of biographical confessions. + +<span class='pagenum'><a class="tooltip" name="Page_100" id="Page_100"><span><i>Particular Systems of Education.</i></span>100</a></span> + +Strümpell, in 1843, developed the Pedagogics of Kant, +Fichte, and Herbart.—</p> + +<p><a name="S176" id="S176"></a>§ 176. Man is educated by man for humanity. This is the +fundamental idea of all Pedagogics. But in the shaping of +Pedagogics we cannot begin with the idea of humanity as +such, but only with the natural form in which it primarily +manifests itself—that of the nation. But the naturalness of +this principle disappears in its development, since nations +appear in interaction on each other and begin dimly to perceive +their unity of species. The freedom of spirit over nature +makes its appearance, but to the spirit explicitly in the +transcendent form of abstract theistic religion, in which God +appears as the ruler over Nature as merely dependent; and +His chosen people plant the root of their nationality no +longer in the earth, but in this belief. The unity of the +abstractly natural and abstractly spiritual determinateness +is the concrete unity of the spirit with nature, in which it +recognizes nature as its necessary organ, and itself as in its +nature divine. Spirit in this stage, as the internal presupposition +of the two previously named, takes up into itself on +one hand the phase of nationality, since this is the form of its +immediate individualization; but it no longer distinguishes +between nations as if they were abstractly severed the one +from the other, as the Greeks shut out all other nations +under the name of barbarians. It also takes up into itself +the phase of spirituality, since it knows itself as spirit, +and knows itself to be free from nature, and yet it does not +estrange itself as the Jews did in their representation of pure +spirit, in reference to which nature seems to be only the work +of its caprice. Humanity knows nature as its own, because +it knows the Divine spirit and its creative energy manifesting +itself in nature and history, as also the essence of its own +spirit. Education can be complete only with Christianity as +the religion of humanity.</p> + +<p><a name="S177" id="S177"></a>§ 177. We have thus three different systems of religion—(1) +the National; (2) the Theocratic; and (3) the Humanitarian. +The first works in harmony with nature since it educates +the individual as a type of his species. The original nationality +endeavors sharply to distinguish itself from others, and +to impress on each person the stamp of its uniform type. + +<span class='pagenum'><a class="tooltip" name="Page_101" id="Page_101"><span><i>System of National Education.</i></span>101</a></span> + +One individual is like every other, or at least should be so. +The second system in its manner of manifestation is identical +with the first. It even marks the national difference more +emphatically; but the ground of the uniformity of the individuals +is with it not merely the natural common interest, +but it is the consequence of the spiritual unity, which abstracts +from nature, and as history, satisfied with no present, +hovers continually outside of itself between past and future. +The theocratic system educates the individual as the servant +of God. He is the true Jew only in so far as he is this; the +genealogical identity with the father Abraham is a condition +but not the principle of the nationality. The third system +liberates the individual to the enjoyment of freedom as his +essence, and educates the human being within national limits +which no longer separate but unite, and, in the consciousness +that each individual, without any kind of mediation, +has a direct relation to God, makes of him a man who knows +himself to be a member of the spiritual world of humanity. +We can have no fourth system beyond this. From the side +of the State-Pedagogics we might characterize these systems +as that of the nation-State, the God-State, and the +humanity-State. From the time of the establishment of the +last, no one nation can attain to any sovereignty over the +others. By means of the world-religion of Christianity, the +education of nations has come to the point of taking for its +ideal, man as determining himself according to the demands +of reason.</p> + + +<div class="center"><a name="national" id="national"></a><span class="smcap">First Division.</span></div> + +<div class="center">THE SYSTEM OF NATIONAL EDUCATION.</div> + +<p><a name="S178" id="S178"></a>§ 178. The National is the primitive system of education, +since the family is the organic starting-point of all education, +and is in its enlargement the basis of nationality.</p> + +<p>—Education is always education of the mind. Even unorganized +nations, those in a state of nature, the so-called savage +nations, are possessed of something more than a mere +education of the body; for, though they set much value upon +gymnastic and warlike practice and give much time to them, +they inculcate also respect for parents, for the aged, and +for the decrees of the community. Education with them is +essentially family training, and its content is natural love + +<span class='pagenum'><a class="tooltip" name="Page_102" id="Page_102"><span><i>System of National Education.</i></span>102</a></span> + +and reverence. We cannot deny that the finer forms of those +to which we are accustomed are wanting. Besides, education +among all these people of nature is very simple and much +the same, though great differences in its management may +exist arising from differences of situation or from temperament +of race.—</p> + +<p><a name="S179" id="S179"></a>§ 179. National Education is divided into three special systems: +(1) Passive, (2) Active, (3) Individual. It begins with +the humility of an abstract subjection to nature, and ends +with the arrogance of an abstract rejection of nature.</p> + +<p><a name="S180" id="S180"></a>§ 180. Man yields at first to the natural authority of the +family; he obeys unconditionally its behests. Then he substitutes +for the family, as he goes on his culture, the artificial +family of his caste, to whose rules he again unconditionally +yields. To dispense with this artificialty and this tyranny, +at last he abstracts himself from the family and from culture. +He flees from both, and becoming a monk he again subjects +himself to the tyranny of his order. The monks presents to +us the mere type of his species.</p> + +<p><a name="S181" id="S181"></a>§ 181. This absolute abstraction from nature and from culture, +this quietism of spiritual isolation, is the ultimate result +of the Passive system. In opposition to this, the Active +system seeks the positive vanquishing of naturalness. Its +people are courageous. They attack other nations in order +to rule over them as conquerors. They live for the continuation +of their life after death, and build for themselves on this +account tombs of granite. They brave the dangers of the sea. +The abstract prose of the patriarchal-state, the fantastic chimeras +of the caste-state, the ascetic self-renunciation of the +cloister-state, yield gradually to the recognition of actuality; +and the fundamental principle of Persian education consisted +in the inculcation of veracity.</p> + +<p><a name="S182" id="S182"></a>§ 182. But the nationality which is occupied with simple, +natural elements—other nations, death, the mystery of the +ocean—may revert to the abstractions of the previous stage, +which in education often take on cruel forms—nay, often +truly horrible. First, when the spirit begins not only to suspect +its true nature, but rather to recognize itself as the true +essence; and when the God of Light places as the motto on +his temple the command to self-knowledge, the natural individuality + +<span class='pagenum'><a class="tooltip" name="Page_103" id="Page_103"><span><i>System of Passive Education.</i></span>103</a></span> + +becomes free. Neither the passive nor the active +system understands the free self-distinction of the individual +from the rest. In them, to be an individuality is a betrayal +of the very idea of their existence, and even the suspicion of +such a charge suffices utterly and mercilessly to destroy the +one to whom it refers. Even the solitary individuality of the +despot is not the one-ness of free individuality: he is only +an example of his kind; only in his kind is he singular. +Nationality rises to individuality through the free dialectic +of its race, wherein it dissolves its own presupposition.</p> + +<p><a name="S183" id="S183"></a>§ 183. Nevertheless individuality must always proceed +from naturalness. Esthetically it seeks nature, but the nature +of the activity itself, in order, by penetrating it with +mind, to make of it a work of art; practically it seeks it, +partly to disdain it in gloomy resignation, partly to enjoy it +in excessive sensual ecstasy, demoniacally to heighten the +extravagance of its own internal feeling in wild revels.</p> + +<p>—The Germans were not savage in the common signification +of this term. They were men each one of whom constituted +himself willingly a centre for others, or, if this was not the +case, renounced them in proud self-sufficiency. All the glory +and all the disgrace of our race lies in the power of individualizing +which is divinely breathed into our veins. As a natural +element, if this be not controlled, it degenerates easily +into intractableness, into violence. The Germans need therefore, +in order to be educated, severe service, the imposition of +difficult tasks; and for this reason they appropriate to themselves, +now the Roman law, now the Greek philology, now +Gallic usages, &c., in order to work off their superfluous +strength in such opposition. The natural reserve of the German +found its solvent in Christianity. By itself, as the history +of the German race shows, it would have been destroyed +in vain distraction. First of all, the German race, in the confidence +of its immediate consciousness, ventured forth upon +the sea, and managed the ship upon its waves as if they rode +a charger.—</p> + + +<div class="center"><a name="passive" id="passive"></a>FIRST GROUP.</div> + +<div class="center">THE SYSTEM OF PASSIVE EDUCATION.</div> + +<p><a name="S184" id="S184"></a>§ 184. All education desires to free man from his finitude, +to make him ethical, to unite him with God. It begins therefore + +<span class='pagenum'><a class="tooltip" name="Page_104" id="Page_104"><span><i>Family Education.</i></span>104</a></span> + +with a negative relation to naturalness, but at once falls +into a contradiction of its aim, which is to convert the opposition +to nature into a natural necessity. Spirit subjects the +individual (1) to the rule of the family as naturally spiritual; +(2) to the rule of the caste as to a principle in itself spiritual, +mediated through the division of labor, which it nevertheless, +through its power of being inherited, joins again to the +family; (3) to the abstract self-determination of the monkish +quietism, which turns itself away as well from the family as +from work, and constitutes this flight from nature and history, +this absolute passivity, into an educational ideal.</p> + +<p>—We shall not here enter into the details of this system, +but simply endeavor to remove from their differences the +want of clearness which is generally found involved in any +mention of them, so that the phrases of hierarchical and +theocratical education are used without any historical accuracy.—</p> + + +<div class="center">I. <i><a name="family" id="family"></a>Family Education.</i></div> + +<p><a name="S185" id="S185"></a>§ 185. The Family, as the organic starting-point of all education, +makes the beginning. The nation looks upon itself as +a family. Among all unorganized people education is family-education, +though they are not conscious of its necessity. +Identical in principle with these people, but distinguished +from them in its consciousness of it, the Chinese nation, in +their laws, regulations, and customs, have constituted the +family the absolute basis of their life and the only principle +of their education.</p> + +<p><a name="S186" id="S186"></a>§ 186. The natural element of the family is found in marriage +and relationship; the spiritual, in love. We may call +the nature of family feeling which is the immediate unity of +both elements, by the name of Piety. In so far as this appears +not merely as a substantial feeling but at the same +time as law, there arises from it the subordination of the +abstract obedience of the woman as wife to the husband, of +children to the parents, of the younger children to the elder. +In this obedience man first renounces his self-will and his +natural roughness; he learns to master his passions, and to +conduct himself with deferential gentleness.</p> + +<p>—When the principle ruling the family is transferred to +political relations, there arises the tyranny of the Chinese + +<span class='pagenum'><a class="tooltip" name="Page_105" id="Page_105"><span><i>Caste Education.</i></span>105</a></span> + +state, which cannot be fully treated here. We find everywhere +in it an analogical relation to that of parents and children. +In China the ruler is the father and mother of the +country; the civil officers are representatives of a paternal +authority, &c. It follows that in school the children will be +ranked according to their age. The authority of parents over +children is according to the principle entirely unconditional, +but in actuality very mild. The abandonment of daughters +by the poorest classes in the great cities is not objected to, +for the government rears the children in orphan asylums, +where they are cared for by nurses appointed by the state.—</p> + +<p><a name="S187" id="S187"></a>§ 187. The distinction of these relations which are conditioned +by nature takes on the external shape of a definite +ceremonial, the learning of which is a chief element of education. +In conformity with the naturalness of the whole +principle all crimes against it are punished by whipping, +which does not necessarily entail dishonor. In order to lead +man to the mastery of himself and to obedience to those who +are naturally set over him, education develops an endless +number of fragmentary maxims to keep attention ever watchful +over himself, and his behavior always fenced in by a code +of prescriptions.</p> + +<p>—We find in such moral sentences the substance of what +is called, in China, Philosophy.—</p> + +<p><a name="S188" id="S188"></a>§ 188. The theoretical education includes Heading, Writing—i.e. +painting the letters with a brush—Arithmetic, and +the making of verses. But the ability to do these things is +not looked at as means of culture but as ends in themselves, +and to fit one therefore for the undertaking of state offices. +The Chinese possess formally all the means for literary culture—printing, +libraries, schools, and academies; but the +worth of these is not great. Their value has been often over-rated +because of their external resemblance to those found +among us.</p> + + +<div class="center">II. <i><a name="caste" id="caste"></a>Caste Education.</i></div> + +<p><a name="S189" id="S189"></a>§ 189. The members of the Family are certainly immediately +distinguished among each other as to sex and age, but +this difference is entirely immaterial as far as the nature of +their employment goes. In China, therefore, every man can +attain any position; he who is of humblest birth in the great + +<span class='pagenum'><a class="tooltip" name="Page_106" id="Page_106"><span><i>Caste Education.</i></span>106</a></span> + +state-family can climb to the highest honor. But the progress +of spirit now becomes so mediated that the division of +labor shall be made the principle on which a new distinction +shall arise in the family: each one shall perfect himself only +in that labor which was allotted to him as his own through +his birth into a particular family. This fatalism (caste-distinction) +breaks up the life, but increases its tension, for +spirit works on the one hand towards the deepening of its +distinctions; on the other, towards leading them back into +the unity which the natural determining directly opposes.</p> + +<p><a name="S190" id="S190"></a>§ 190. The chief work of education thus consists in teaching +each one the rights and duties of his caste so that he +shall act only exactly within their limits, and not pollute himself +by passing beyond them. As the family-state concerns +itself with fortifying the natural distinction by a far-reaching +and vigorous ceremonial, so the caste-state must do the same +with the distinction of class. A painful etiquette becomes +more and more endless in its requisitions the higher the caste, +in order to make the isolation more sharply defined and more +perceptible.</p> + +<p>—This feature penetrates all exclusively caste-education. +The aristocracy exiles itself on this account from its native +country, speaks a foreign language, loves its literature, +adopts foreign customs, lives in foreign countries—in Italy, +Paris, &c. In this way man becomes distinguished from others. +But that man should strive thus to distinguish himself +has its justification in the mystery of his birth, and this is +assuredly always the principle of the caste-state in which it +exists. The castes lead to genealogical records, which are +of the greatest importance in determining the destiny of the +individual. The Brahmin may strike down one of a lower +caste who has defiled him by contact, without becoming +thereby liable to punishment; rather would he be to blame +if he did not commit the murder. Thus formerly was it with +the officer who did not immediately kill the citizen or the +common soldier who struck him a blow, &c.—</p> + +<p><a name="S191" id="S191"></a>§ 191. The East Indian culture is far deeper and richer than +the Chinese. The theoretical culture includes Reading, Writing, +and Arithmetic; but these are subordinate, as mere +means for the higher activities of Poetry, Speculation, Science, + +<span class='pagenum'><a class="tooltip" name="Page_107" id="Page_107"><span><i>Buddhistic Education.</i></span>107</a></span> + +and Art. The practical education limits itself strictly +by the lines of caste, and since the caste system constitutes a +whole in itself, and each for its permanence needs the others, +it cannot forbear giving utterance suggestively to what is +universally human in the free soul, in a multitude of fables +(Hitopadesa) and apothegms (sentences of Bartrihari). Especially +for the education of princes is a minor of the world +sketched out.</p> + +<p>—Xenophon's Cyropedia is of Greek origin, but it is Indian +in its thought.—</p> + + +<div class="center">III. <i><a name="monkish" id="monkish"></a>Monkish Education.</i></div> + +<p><a name="S192" id="S192"></a>§ 192. Family Education demands unconditional obedience +towards parents and towards all who stand in an analogous +position. Caste Education demands unconditional obedience +to the duties of the caste. The family punishes by whipping; +the caste, by excommunication, by loss of honor. The +opposition to nature appears in both systems in the form of +a rigid ceremonial, distinguishing between the differences +arising from nature. The family as well as the caste has +within it a manifold fountain of activity, but it has also just +as manifold a limitation of the individual. Spirit is forced, +therefore, to turn against nature in general. It must become +indifferent to the family. But it must also oppose history, +and the fixed distinctions of division of labor as necessitated +by nature. It must become indifferent to work and the pleasure +derived from it. That it may not be conditioned either +by nature or by history, it denies both, and makes its action +to consist in producing an abstinence from all activity.</p> + +<p><a name="S193" id="S193"></a>§ 193. Such an indifference towards nature and history +produces the education which we have called monkish. +Those who support this sect care for food, clothing, and +shelter, and for these material contributions, as the laity, +receive in return from those who live this contemplative +life the spiritual contribution of confidence in the blessings +which wait upon ascetic contemplation. The family institution +as well as the institution of human labor is subordinated +to abstract isolation, in which the individual lives only +for the purification of his soul. All things are justified by +this end. Castes are found no more; only those are bound + +<span class='pagenum'><a class="tooltip" name="Page_108" id="Page_108"><span><i>Buddhistic Education—System of Active Education.</i></span>108</a></span> + +to the observance of a special ceremonial who as nuns or +monks subject themselves to the unconditional obedience to +the rules of the cloister, these rules solemnly enjoining on +the negative side celibacy and cessation from business, and +on the positive side prayer and perfection.</p> + +<p><a name="S194" id="S194"></a>§ 194. In the school of the Chinese Tao-tse, and in the command +to the Brahmin after he has established a family to +become a recluse, we find the transition as it actually exists +to the Buddhistic Quietism which has covered the rocky +heights of Thibet with countless cloisters, and reared the people +who are dependent upon it into a childlike amiability, +into a contented repose. Art and Science have here no value +in themselves, and are regarded only as ministering to religion. +To be able to read in order to mutter over the prayers +is desirable. With the premeditated effort in the state of a +monk to reduce self to nothing as the highest good, the system +of passive education attains its highest point. But the +spirit cannot content itself in this abstract and dreamy absence +of all action, though it demands a high stage of culture, +and it has recourse therefore to action, partly on the +positive side to conquer nature, partly to double its own +existence in making history. Inspired with affirmative courage, +it descends triumphantly from the mountain heights, +and fears secularization no more.</p> + + +<div class="center"><a name="active" id="active"></a>SECOND GROUP.</div> + +<div class="center">THE SYSTEM OF ACTIVE EDUCATION.</div> + +<p><a name="S195" id="S195"></a>§ 195. Active Education elevates man from his abstract +subjection to the family, the caste, asceticism, into a concrete +activity with a definite aim which subjects those elements as +phases of its mediation, and grants to each individual independence +on the condition of his identity with it. These +aims are the military state, the future after death, and industry. +There is always an element of nature present from +which the activity proceeds; but this no longer appears, +like the family, the caste, the sensuous egotism, as immediately +belonging to the individual, but as something outside +of himself which limits him, and, as his future life, has an +internal relation to him, yet is essential to him and assigns +to him the object of his activity. The Persian has as an + +<span class='pagenum'><a class="tooltip" name="Page_109" id="Page_109"><span><i>Military Education.</i></span>109</a></span> + +object of conquest, other nations; the Egyptian, death; the +Phœnician, the sea.</p> + +<div class="center">I. <i><a name="military" id="military"></a>Military Education.</i></div> + +<p><a name="S196" id="S196"></a>§ 196. That education which would emancipate a nation +from the passivity of abstraction must throw it into the midst +of an historical activity. A nation finds not its actual limits +in its locality: it can forsake this and wander far away from +it. Its true limit is made by another nation. The nation +which knows itself to be actual, turns itself therefore against +other nations in order to subject them and to reduce them +to the condition of mere accidents of itself. It begins a +system of conquest which has in itself no limitations, but +goes from one nation to another, and extends its evil course +indefinitely. The final result of this attack is that it finds +itself attacked and conquered.</p> + +<p>—The early history of the Persian is twofold: the patriarchal +in the high valleys of Iran, and the religio-hierarchical +among the Medes. We find under these circumstances a +repetition of the principal characteristics of the Chinese, Indian, +and Buddhist educations. In ancient Zend there were +also castes. Among the Persians themselves, as they descended +from their mountains to the conquest of other +nations, there was properly only a military nobility. The +priesthood was subjected to the royal power which represented +the absolute power of actuality. Of the Persian kings, +Cyrus attacked Western Asia; Cambyses, Africa; Darius +and Xerxes, Europe; until the reaction of the spiritually +higher nationality did not content itself with self-preservation, +but under the Macedonian Alexander made the attack +on Persia itself.—</p> + +<p><a name="S197" id="S197"></a>§ 197. Education enjoined upon the Persians (1) to speak +the truth; (2) to learn to ride and to use the bow and +arrow. There is implied in the first command a recognition +of actuality, the negation of all dreamy absorption, of all +fantastical indetermination; and in this light the Persian, in +distinction from the Hindoo, appears to be considerate and +reasonable. In the second command is implied warlike practice, +but not that of the nomadic tribes. The Persian fights +on horseback, and thus appears in distinction from the Indian + +<span class='pagenum'><a class="tooltip" name="Page_110" id="Page_110"><span><i>Priestly Education.</i></span>110</a></span> + +hermit seclusion and the quietism of the Lamas as restless +and in constant motion.</p> + +<p>—The Family increases in value as it rears a large number +of warriors. Many children were a blessing. The king of +Persia gave a premium for all children over a certain number. +Nations were drawn in as nations by war; hence the +immense multitude of a Persian army. Everything—family, +business, possessions—must be regardlessly sacrificed to the +one aim of war. Education, therefore, cultivated an unconditional, +all-embracing obedience to the king, and the slightest +inclination to assert an individual independence was high +treason and was punished with death. In China, on the contrary, +duty to the family is paramount to duty to the state, +or rather is itself duty to the state. The civil officer who +mourns the loss of one of his family is released during the +period of mourning from the duties of his function.—</p> + +<p><a name="S198" id="S198"></a>§ 198. The theoretical education, which was limited to reading, +writing, and to instruction, was, in the usages of culture, +in the hands of the Magians, the number of whom was estimated +at eighty thousand, and who themselves had enjoyed +the advantages of a careful education, as is shown by their +gradation into Herbeds, Moheds, and Destur-Moheds; i.e. into +apprentices, journeymen, and masters. The very fundamental +idea of their religion was military; it demanded of men +to fight on the side of the king of light, and guard against the +prince of darkness and evil. It gave to him thus the honor +of a free position between the world-moving powers and +the possibility of a self-creative destiny, by which means +vigor and chivalrous feeling were developed. Religion trained +the activity of man into actualization on this planet, increasing +by its means the dominion of the good, by purifying the +water, by planting trees, by extirpating troublesome wild +beasts. Thus it increased bodily comfort, and no longer, like +the monk, treated this as a mere negative.</p> + + +<div class="center">II. <i><a name="priestly" id="priestly"></a>Priestly Education.</i></div> + +<p><a name="S199" id="S199"></a>§ 199. War has in death its force. It produces this, and +by its means decides who shall serve and who obey. But the +nation that finds its activity in war, though it makes death +its absolute means, yet finds its own limit in death. Other + +<span class='pagenum'><a class="tooltip" name="Page_111" id="Page_111"><span><i>Priestly Education.</i></span>111</a></span> + +nations are only its boundaries, which it can overpass in +fighting with and conquering them. But death itself it can +never escape, whether it come in the sands of the desert—which +buried for Cambyses an army which he sent to the +oracle of the Libyan Ammon—or in the sea, that scorns the +rod of the angry despot, or by the sword of the freeman who +guards his household gods. On this account, that people +stands higher that in the midst of life reflects on death, or +rather lives for it. The education of such a nation must be +priestly because death is the means of the transition to the +future life, and consequently equivalent to a new birth, and +becomes a religious act. Neither the family-state, nor the +caste-state, nor the monkish nor military-state, are hierarchies +in the sense that the leading of the national life by a +priesthood produces. But in Egypt this was actually the +case, because the chief educational tribunal was the death-court +which concerned only the dead, in awarding to them or +denying them the honor of burial as the result of their whole +life, but in its award affected also the honor of the surviving +family.</p> + +<p><a name="S200" id="S200"></a>§ 200. General education here limited itself to imparting the +ability to read, write, and calculate. Special education consisted +properly only in an habitual living into a definite business +within the circle of the Family. In this fruitful and warm +land the expense of supporting children was very small. The +division into classes was without the cruel features of the Indian +civilization, and life itself in the narrow Nile valley was +very social, very rich, very full of eating and drinking, while +the familiarity with death heightened the force of enjoyment. +In a stricter sense only, the warriors, the priests, and the kings, +had, properly speaking, an education. The aim of life, which +was to determine in death its eternal future, to secure for +itself a passage into the still kingdom of Amenth, manifested +itself externally in the care which they expended on the preservation +of the dead shell of the immortal soul, and on this +account worked itself out in building tombs which should +last for ever. The Chinese builds a wall to secure his family-state +from attack; the Hindoo builds pagodas for his gods; +the Buddhist erects for himself monastic cells; the Persian + +<span class='pagenum'><a class="tooltip" name="Page_112" id="Page_112"><span><i>Industrial Education.</i></span>112</a></span> + +constructs in Persepolis the tomb of his kings, where they +may retire in the evening of their lives after they have rioted +in Ecbatana, Babylon, and Susa; but the Egyptian builds +his own tomb, and carries on war only to protect it.</p> + +<div class="center">III. <i><a name="industrial" id="industrial"></a>Industrial Education.</i></div> + +<p><a name="S201" id="S201"></a>§ 201. The system of active education was to find its solution +in a nation which wandered from the coast of the Red +Sea to the foot of the Lebanon mountains on the Mediterranean, +and ventured forth upon the sea which before that time +all nations had avoided as a dangerous and destructive element. +The Phœnician was industrial, and needed markets +where he could dispose of the products of his skill. But +while he sought for them he disdained neither force nor deceit; +he planted colonies; he stipulated that he should have +in the cities of other nations a portion for himself; he urged +the nations to adopt his pleasures, and insensibly introduced +among them his culture and even his religion. The education +of such a nation must have seemed profane, because it +fostered indifference towards family and one's native land, +and made the restless and passionate activity subservient to +gain. The understanding and usefulness rose to a higher +dignity.</p> + +<p><a name="S202" id="S202"></a>§ 202. Of the education of the Phœnicians we know only +so much as to enable us to conclude that it was certainly various +and extensive: among the Carthaginians, at least, that +their children were practised in reading, writing, and arithmetic, +in religious duties; secondly, in a trade; and, finally, +in the use of arms, is not improbable. Commerce became +with the Phœnicians a trade, the egotism of which makes +men dare to plough the inhospitable sea, and to penetrate +eagerly the horror of its vast distances, but yet to conceal +from other nations their discoveries and to wrap them in a +veil of fable.</p> + +<p>—It is a beautiful testimony to the disposition of the +Greeks, that Plato and others assign as a cause of the low +state of Arithmetic and Mathematics among the Phœnicians +and Egyptians the want of a free and disinterested seizing +of them.—</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a class="tooltip" name="Page_113" id="Page_113"><span><i>Individual Education—Æsthetic Education.</i></span>113</a></span></p> + +<div class="center"><a name="individual" id="individual"></a>THIRD GROUP.</div> + +<div class="center">THE SYSTEM OF INDIVIDUAL EDUCATION.</div> + +<p><a name="S203" id="S203"></a>§ 203. One-sided passivity as well as one-sided activity is +subsumed under Individuality, which makes itself into its +own end and aim. The Phœnician made gain his aim; his +activity was of a utilistic character. Individuality as a pedagogical +principle is indeed egotistic in so far as it endeavors +to achieve its own peculiarity, but it is at the same time +noble. It desires not to <i>have</i> but to <i>be</i>. Individuality also +begins as natural, but it elevates nature by means of art to +ideality. The solution of beauty is found in culture, since +this renounces the charm of appearance for the knowledge +of the True. The æsthetic individuality is followed by the +practical, which has indeed no natural basis, but proceeds +from an artificial basis as a state formed for a place of refuge. +In order internally to create a unity in this, is framed a +definite code of laws; in order externally to assure it, the +invincible warrior is demanded. Education is therefore, more +exactly speaking, juristic and military practice. The morality +of the state is loosened as it reduces into its mechanism +one nation after another, until the individuality, become dæmonic, +makes its war-hardened legions tremble with weakness. +We characterize this individuality as dæmonic because +it desires recognition simply for its own sake. Not for its +beauty and culture, not for its knowledge of business and its +bravery, only for its peculiarity as such does it claim value, +and in the effort to secure this it is ready to hazard life itself. +In its naturally-growing existence this individuality is deep, +but at the same time without self-limit. The nations educate +themselves to this individuality when they destroy the world +of Roman world—that of self-limit and balance—which they +find.</p> + + +<div class="center"><a name="aesthetic" id="aesthetic"></a>I. <i>Æsthetic Education.</i></div> + +<p><a name="S204" id="S204"></a>§ 204. The system of individual education begins with the +transfiguration of the immediate individuality into beauty. +On the side of nature this system is passion, for individuality +is given through nature; but on the side of spirit it is active, +for spirit must determine itself to restrain its measure as the +essence of beauty.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a class="tooltip" name="Page_114" id="Page_114"><span><i>Æsthetic Education.</i></span>114</a></span></p> + +<p><a name="S205" id="S205"></a>§ 205. Here the individual is of value only in so far as he +is beautiful. At first beauty is apprehended as natural, but +then it is carried over into the realm of spirit, and the +Good is posited as identical with the Beautiful. The ideal +of æsthetic education remains always that there shall be also +an external unity of the Good with the Beautiful, of Spirit +with Nature.</p> + +<p>—We cannot here give in detail the history of Greek Education. +It is the best known among us, and the literature in +which it is worked out is very widely spread. Among the +common abridged accounts we mention here only the works +of Jacobs, of Cramer & Bekker's "Charinomos." We must +content ourselves with mentioning the turning-points which +follow from the nature of the principle.—</p> + +<p><a name="S206" id="S206"></a>§ 206. Culture was in Greece thoroughly national. Education +gave to the individual the consciousness that he was a +Greek and no barbarian, a free man and so subject only to +the laws of the state, and not to the caprice of any one person. +Thus the nationality was freed at once from the abstract +unity of the family and from the abstract distinction of caste, +while it appeared with the manifold talents of individuals of +different races. Thus the Dorian race held as essential, gymnastics; +the Æolians, music; the Ionics, poetry. The Æolian +individuality was subsumed in the history of the two others, +so that these had to proceed in their development with an +internal antagonism. The education of the Dorian race was +national education in the fullest sense of the word; in it the +education of all was the same, and was open to all, even +including the young women; among the Ionic race it was also +in its content truly national, but in its form it was varied and +unlike, and, for those belonging to various great families, +private. The former, reproducing the Oriental phase of abstract +unity, educated all in one mould; the latter was the +nursery of particular individualities.</p> + +<p><a name="S207" id="S207"></a>§ 207. (1) Education in the heroic age, without any systematic +arrangement on the subject, left each one perfectly +free. The people related the histories of the adventures of +others, and through their own gave material to others again +to relate stories of them.</p> + +<p>—The Greeks began where the last stage of the active + +<span class='pagenum'><a class="tooltip" name="Page_115" id="Page_115"><span><i>Æsthetic Education.</i></span>115</a></span> + +system of education ended—with piracy and the seizure of +women. Swimming was a universal practice among the sea-dwelling +Greeks, just as in England—the mistress of the +ocean—rowing is the most prominent exercise among the +young men, and public regattas are held.—</p> + +<p><a name="S208" id="S208"></a>§ 208. (2) In the period of state-culture proper, education +developed itself systematically; and gymnastics, music, and +grammatics, or literary culture, constituted the general pedagogical +elements.</p> + +<p><a name="S209" id="S209"></a>§ 209. Gymnastics aimed not alone to render the body +strong and agile, but, far more, to produce in it a noble carriage, +a dignified and graceful manner of appearance. Each +one fashioned his body into a living, divine statue, and in the +public games the nation crowned the victor.</p> + +<p>—Their love of beautiful boys is explicable not merely by +their interest in beautiful forms, but especially by their +interest in individuality. The low condition of the women +could not lie at the foundation of it, for among the Spartans +they were educated as nearly as possible like the men, and +yet among them and the Cretans the love of boys was recognized +in their legislation. To be without a beloved (ἀïιτης), +or a lover (εἴσπνηλας), was among them considered as disgraceful +as the degradation of the love by unchastity was +contemptible. What charm was there, then, in love? Manifestly +only beauty and culture. But that a person should be +attracted by one and not by another can be accounted for +only by the peculiar character, and in so far the boy-love +and the man-friendship which sprang from it, among the +Greeks, are very characteristic and noteworthy phenomena.—</p> + +<p><a name="S210" id="S210"></a>§ 210. It was the task of Music, by its rhythm and measure, +to fill the soul with well-proportioned harmony. So +highly did the Greeks prize music, and so variously did they +practise it, that to be a musical man meant the same with +them as to be a cultivated man with us. Education in this +respect was very painstaking, inasmuch as music exercises a +very powerful influence in developing discreet behavior and +self-possession into a graceful naturalness.</p> + +<p>—Among the Greeks we find an unrestricted delight in +nature—a listening to her manifestations, the tone of which +betrays the subjectivity of things as subjectivity. In comparison + +-<span class='pagenum'><a class="tooltip" name="Page_116" id="Page_116"><span><i>Æsthetic Education.</i></span>116</a></span> + +with this tender sympathy with nature of the Greeks—who +heard in the murmur of the fountains, in the dashing +of the waves, in the rustling of the trees, and in the cry of +animals, the voice of divine personality—the sight and hearing +of the Eastern nations for nature is dull.—</p> + +<p>§ 211. The stringed instrument, the cithern, was preferred +by the Greeks to all wind instruments because it was not exciting, +and allowed the accompaniment of recitation or song, +i.e. the contemporaneous activity of the spirit in poetry. +Flute-playing was first brought from Asia Minor after the +victorious progress of the Persian war, and was especially cultivated +in Thebes. They sought in vain afterwards to oppose +the wild excitement raised by its influence.</p> + +<p>§ 212. Grammar comprehended Letters (γράμματα), i.e. the +elements of literary culture, reading and writing. Much +attention was given to correct expression. The Fables of +Æsop, the Iliad, and the Odyssey, and later the tragic poets, +were read, and partly learned by heart. The orators borrowed +from them often the ornament of their commonplace remarks.</p> + +<p>§ 213. (3) The internal growth of what was peculiar to the +Grecian State came to an end with the war for the Hegemony. +Its dissolution began, and the philosophical period followed +the political. The beautiful ethical life was resolved into +thoughts of the True, Good, and Beautiful. Individuality +turned more towards the internal, and undertook to subject +freedom, the existing regulations, laws and customs, to the +criticism of reason as to whether these were in and for themselves +universal and necessary. The Sophists, as teachers of +Grammar, Rhetoric, and Philosophy, undertook to extend +the cultivation of Reflection; and this introduced instability +in the place of the immediate fixed state of moral customs. +Among the women, the <i>Hetæræ</i> undertook the same revolution; +in the place of the πότνια μήτηρ appeared the beauty, +who isolated herself in the consciousness of her charms and +in the perfection of her varied culture, and exhibited herself +to the public admiration. The tendency to idiosyncrasy often +approached wilfulness, caprice and whimsicality, and opposition +to the national moral sense. A Diogenes in a tub became +possible; the soulless but graceful frivolity of an Alcibiades +charmed, even though it was externally condemned; a Socrates + +-<span class='pagenum'><a class="tooltip" name="Page_117" id="Page_117"><span><i>Æsthetic Education.</i></span>117</a></span> + +completed the break in consciousness, and urged upon the +system of the old morality the pregnant question, whether Virtue +could be taught? Socrates worked as a philosopher who +was to educate. Pythagoras had imposed upon his pupils the +abstraction of a common, exactly-defined manner of living. +Socrates, on the contrary, freed his disciples—in general, those +who had intercourse with him—leading them to the consciousness +of their own individuality. He revolutionized the +youth in that he taught them, instead of a thoughtless obedience +to moral customs, to seek to comprehend their purpose +in the world, and to rule their actions according to it. +Outwardly he conformed in politics, and in war as at Marathon; +but in the direction of his teaching he was subjective +and modern.</p> + +<p><a name="S214" id="S214"></a>§ 214. This idea, that Virtue could be taught, was realized +especially by Plato and Aristotle; the former inclining to +Dorianism, the latter holding to the principle of individuality +in nearly the modern sense. As regards the pedagogical +means—Gymnastics, Music, and Grammar—both philosophers +entirely agreed. But, in the seizing of the pedagogical +development in general, Plato asserted that the education of +the individual belonged to the state alone, because the individual +was to act wholly in the state. On the other hand, Aristotle +also holds that the state should conduct the education of +its citizens, and that the individual should be trained for the +interest of the state; but he recognizes also the family, and +the peculiarity of the individual, as positive powers, to which +the state must accord relative freedom. Plato sacrificed the +family to the state, and must therefore have sacred marriages, +nurseries, and common and public educational institutions. +Each one shall do only that which he is fitted to do, +and shall work at this only for the sake of perfecting it: to +what he shall direct his energies, and in what he shall be +instructed, shall be determined by the government, and the +individuality consequently is not left free. Aristotle also +will have for all the citizens the same education, which shall +be common and public; but he allows, at the same time, an +independence to the family and self-determination to the individual, +so that a sphere of private life presents itself within + +<span class='pagenum'><a class="tooltip" name="Page_118" id="Page_118"><span><i>Æsthetic Education.</i></span>118</a></span> + +the state: a difference by means of which a much broader +sway of individuality is possible.</p> + +<p>—These two philosophers have come to represent two very +different directions in Pedagogics, which at intervals, in certain +stages of culture, reappear—the tyrannical guardianship +of the state which assumes the work of education, tyrannical +to the individual, and the free development of the liberal +state-education, in opposition to idiosyncrasy and fate.—</p> + +<p><a name="S215" id="S215"></a>§ 215. The principle of æsthetic individuality reaches its +highest manifestation when the individual, in the decay of public +life, in the disappearance of all beautiful morality, isolates +himself, and seeks to gain in his isolation such strength +that he can bear the changes of external history around him +with composure—"ataraxy." The Stoics sought to attain this +end by turning their attention inward into pure internality, +and thus, by preserving the self-determination of abstract +thinking and willing, maintaining an identity with themselves: +the Epicureans endeavored to do the same, with this +difference however, that they strove after a positive satisfaction +of the senses by filling them with concrete pleasurable +sensations. As a consequence of this, the Stoics isolated +themselves in order to maintain themselves in the exclusiveness +of their internal unconditioned relation to themselves, +while the Epicureans lived in companies, because they +achieved the reality of their pleasure-seeking principle +through harmony of feeling and through the sweetness of +friendship. In so far the Epicureans were Greeks and the +Stoics Romans. With both, however, the beauty of manifestation +was secondary to the immobility of the inner feeling. +The plastic attainment of the Good and the Beautiful was +cancelled in the abstraction of thinking and feeling. This +was the advent of the Roman principle among the Greeks.</p> + +<p><a name="S216" id="S216"></a>§ 216. The pedagogical significance of Stoicism and Epicureanism +consists in this, that, after the moral life in public +and in private were sundered from each other, the individual +began to educate himself, through philosophical culture, into +stability of character, for which reason the Roman emperors +particularly disliked the Stoics. At many times, a resignation +to the Stoic philosophy was sufficient to make one suspected. + +<span class='pagenum'><a class="tooltip" name="Page_119" id="Page_119"><span><i>Practical Education.</i></span>119</a></span> + +But, at last, the noble emperor, in order to win himself +a hold in the chaos of things, was forced himself to +become a Stoic and to flee to the inaccessible stillness of the +self-thinking activity and the self-moving will. Stoics and +Epicureans had both what we call an ideal. The Stoics used +the expression "kingdom"; as Horace says, sarcastically, +"<i>Sapiens rex est nisi—pituita molesta est</i>."</p> + + +<div class="center">II. <a name="practical" id="practical"></a><i>Practical Education.</i></div> + +<p><a name="S217" id="S217"></a>§ 217. The truth of the solution of the beautiful individuality +is the promise of the activity conformable to its purpose +[i.e. teleological activity], which on the one hand considers +carefully end and means, and on the other hand seeks +to realize the end through the corresponding means, and in +this deed subjects mere beauty of form. The practical individuality +is therefore externally conditioned, since it is not +its own end like the Beautiful, whether Stoical or Epicurean, +but has an end, and finds its satisfaction not so much in this +after it is attained as in the striving for its attainment.</p> + +<p><a name="S218" id="S218"></a>§ 218. The education of this system begins with very great +simplicity. But after it has attained its object, it abandons +itself to using the results of æsthetic culture as a recreation +without any specific object. What was to the Greeks a real +delight in the Beautiful became therefore with the Romans +simply an æsthetic amusement, and as such must finally be +wearisome. The earnestness of individuality made itself in +mysticism into a new aim, which was distinguished from the +original one in that it concealed in itself a mystery and exacted +a theoretically æsthetic practice.</p> + +<p><a name="S219" id="S219"></a>§ 219. (1) The first epoch of Roman education, as properly +Roman, was the juristic-military education of the republic. +The end and aim of the Roman was Rome; and Rome, as +from the beginning an eclectic state, could endure only while +its laws and external politics were conformable to some end. +It bore the same contradiction within itself as in its external +attitude. This forced it into robbery, and the plebeians were +related to the patricians in the same way, for they robbed +them gradually of all their privileges. On this account +education directed itself partly to giving a knowledge of the +Law, partly to communicating a capacity for war. The boys + +<span class='pagenum'><a class="tooltip" name="Page_120" id="Page_120"><span><i>Practical Education.</i></span>120</a></span> + +were obliged to commit to memory and recite the laws of the +twelve tables, and all the youths were subject to military +service. The Roman possessed no individuality of native +growth, but one mediated through the intermingling of +various fugitives, which developed a very great energy. +Hence from the first he was attentive to himself, he watched +jealously over the limits of his rights and the rights of others, +measured his strength, moderated himself, and constantly +guarded himself. In contrast with the careless cheerfulness +of the Greeks, he therefore appears gloomy.</p> + +<p>—The Latin tongue is crowded with expressions which +paint presence of mind, effort at reflection, a critical attitude +of mind, the importance of personal control: as <i>gravitas morum, +sui compos esse, sibi constare, austeritas, vir strenuus, +vir probus, vitam honestam gerere, sibimet ipse imperare</i>, &c. +The Etruscan element imparted to this earnestness an especially +solemn character. The Roman was no more, like the +Greek, unembarrassed at naturalness. He was ashamed of nakedness; +<i>verecundia, pudor</i>, were genuinely Roman. <i>Vitam +præferre pudori</i> was shameful. On the contrary, the Greek +gave to Greeks a festival in exhibiting the splendor of his +naked body, and the inhabitants of Crotona erected a statue +to Philip only because he was so perfectly beautiful. Simply +to be beautiful, only beautiful, was enough for the Greek. +But a Roman, in order to be recognized, must have done +something for Rome: <i>se bene de republica mereri</i>.—</p> + +<p><a name="S220" id="S220"></a>§ 220. In the first education of children the agency of the +mother is especially influential, so that woman with the +Romans took generally a more moral, a higher, and a freer +position. It is worthy of remark that while, as the beautiful, +she set the Greeks at variance, among the Romans, through +her ethical authority, she acted as reconciler.</p> + +<p><a name="S221" id="S221"></a>§ 221. The mother of the Roman helped to form his character; +the father undertook the work of instruction. When +in his fifteenth year the boy exchanged the <i>toga prætextata</i> +for the <i>toga virilis</i>, he was usually sent to some relative, or +to some jurist, as his guardian, to learn thoroughly, under +his guidance, of the laws and of the state; with the seventeenth +began military service. All education was for a long +time entirely a private affair. On account of the necessity of + +<span class='pagenum'><a class="tooltip" name="Page_121" id="Page_121"><span><i>Practical Education.</i></span>121</a></span> + +a mechanical unity in work which war demands, the greatest +stress was laid upon obedience. In its restricted sense education +comprised Reading, Writing, and Arithmetic; the last +being, on account of its usefulness, more esteemed by the +Romans than by the Greeks, who gave more time to Geometry. +The schools, very characteristically, were called <i>Ludi</i>, +because their work was, in distinction from other practice, +regarded simply as a recreation, as play.</p> + +<p>—The Roman recognized with pride this distinction between +the Greek and himself; Cicero's Introduction to his +Essay on Oratory expresses it. To be practical was always +the effort of the reflective character of the Romans, which +was always placing new ends and seeking the means for +their attainment; which loved moderation, not to secure +beauty thereby, but respected it as a means for a happy success +(<i>medium tenuere beati</i>); which did not possess serene +self-limitation, or σωφροσύνη, but calculation <i>quid valeant +humeri, quid ferre recusent</i>; but which, in general, went +far beyond the Greeks in persistency of will, in <i>constantia +animi</i>. The schools were at first held publicly in shops; +hence the name <i>trivium</i>. Very significant for the Roman +is the predicate which he conferred upon theoretical subjects +when he called them <i>artes bonæ, optimæ, liberales, ingenuæ</i>, +&c., and brought forth the practical element in them.—</p> + +<p><a name="S222" id="S222"></a>§ 222. (2) But the practical education could no longer keep +its ground after it had become acquainted with the æsthetic. +The conquest of Greece, Asia Minor, and Egypt, made necessary, +in a practical point of view, the acquisition of the Grecian +tongue, so that these lands, so permeated with Grecian +culture, might be thoroughly ruled. The Roman of family +and property, therefore, took into his service Greek nurses +and teachers who should give to his children, from their earliest +years, Greek culture. It is, in the history of education, +a great evil when a nation undertakes to teach a foreign +tongue to its youth. Then the necessity of trade with the +Greeks caused the study of Rhetoric, so that not only in the +deliberations of the senate and people, but in law, the ends +might be better attained. Whatever effort the Roman government +made to prevent the invasion of the Greek rhetorician +was all in vain. The Roman youth sought for this + +<span class='pagenum'><a class="tooltip" name="Page_122" id="Page_122"><span><i>Practical Education.</i></span>122</a></span> + +knowledge, which was so necessary to them in foreign lands, +e.g. in the flourishing school of rhetoric on the island of +Rhodes. At last, even the study of Philosophy commended +itself to the practical Roman, in order that he might recover +for himself confidence amid the disappointments of life. +When his practical life did not bring him any result, he devoted +himself in his poverty to abstract contemplation. The +Greeks would have Philosophy for its own sake; the ataraxy +of the Stoics, Epicureans, and Skeptics even, desired the result +of a necessary principle; but the Roman, on the contrary, +wished to lift himself by philosophemes above trouble and +misfortune.</p> + +<p>—This direction which Philosophy took is noteworthy, not +alone in Cicero and Seneca, but at the fall of the Roman empire, +when Boethius wrote in his prison his immortal work on +the consolations of Philosophy.—</p> + +<p><a name="S223" id="S223"></a>§ 223. The earnestness which sought a definite end degenerated +in the very opposite of activity with him who had no +definite aim. The idleness of the wealthy Roman, who felt +himself to be the lord of a limitless world, devoted itself to +dissipation and desire for enjoyment, which, in its entire +want of moderation, abused nature. The finest form of the +extant education was that in <i>belles-lettres</i>, which also for the +first time came to belong to the sphere of Pedagogics. There +had been a degeneration of art in India and Greece, and also +an artistic trifling. But in Rome there arose a pursuit of art +in order to win a certain consideration in social position, and +to create for one's self a recreation in the emptiness of a soul +satiated with sensual debauchery. Such a seizing of art is +frivolous, for it no longer recognizes its absoluteness, and +subordinates it as a means to subjective egotism. Literary +<i>salons</i> then appear.</p> + +<p>—In the introduction to his <i>Cataline</i>, Sallust has painted +excellently this complete revolution in the Roman education. +The younger Pliny in his letters furnishes ample material to +illustrate to us this pursuit of <i>belles-lettres</i>. In Nero it +became idiotic. We should transgress our prescribed limits +did we enter here into particulars. An analysis would show +the perversion of the æsthetic into the practical, the æsthetic +losing thereby its proper nature. But the Roman could not + +<span class='pagenum'><a class="tooltip" name="Page_123" id="Page_123"><span><i>Practical Education.</i></span>123</a></span> + +avoid this perversion, because, according to his original aim, +he could not move except towards the <i>utile et honestum</i>.—</p> + +<p><a name="S224" id="S224"></a>§ 224. (3) But this pursuit of fine art, this aimless parade, +must at last weary the Roman. He sought for himself again +an object to which he could vigorously devote himself. His +sovereignty was assured, and conquest as an object could no +more charm him. The national religion had fallen with the +destruction of the national individuality. The soul looked +out over its historical life into an empty void. It sought to +establish a relation between itself and the next world by +means of dæmonic forces, and in place of the depreciated nationality +and its religion we find the eclecticism of the mystic +society. There were, it is true, in national religions certain +secret signs, rites, words, and meanings; but now, for the first +time in the history of the world, there appeared mysteries as +pedagogical societies, which concerned themselves only with +private things and were indifferent to nationality. Everything +was profaned by the roughness of violence. Man believed +no longer in the old gods, and the superstitious faith +in ghosts became only a thing fit to frighten children with. +Thus man took refuge in secrecy, which had for his satiety +a piquant charm.</p> + +<p><a name="S225" id="S225"></a>§ 225. The education of the mysteries was twofold, theoretical +and practical. In the theoretical we find a regular +gradation of symbols and symbolical acts through which one +seemed gradually to attain to the revelation of the secret; +the practical contained a regular gradation of ascetic actions +alternating with an abandonment to wild orgies. Both raised +one from the rank of the novice to that of the initiated. In +the higher orders they formed an ethical code of laws, and +this form Pedagogics has retained in all such secret culture, +<i>mutatis mutandis</i>, down to the Illuminati.</p> + +<p>—In the Roman empire, its Persian element was the worship +of Mithras; its Egyptian, that of Isis; its Grecian, the +Pythagorean doctrines. All these three, however, were much +mingled with each other. The Roman legions, who really +no longer had any native country, bore these artificial religions +throughout the whole world. The confusion of excitement +led often to Somnambulism, which was not yet understood, +and to belief in miracles. Apollonius of Tyana, the + +<span class='pagenum'><a class="tooltip" name="Page_124" id="Page_124"><span><i>Individual Education—Theocratic Education.</i></span>124</a></span> + +messiah of Ethnicism, is the principal figure in this group; +and, in comparison with him, Jamblichus appears only as an +enthusiast and Alexander of Abonoteichos as an impostor.—</p> + + +<div class="center"><a name="abstract" id="abstract"></a>III. <i>Abstract Individual Education.</i></div> + +<p><a name="S226" id="S226"></a>§ 226. What the despair of the declining nations sought +for in these mysteries was Individuality, which in its singularity +is conscious of the universality of the rational spirit, +as its own essence. This individuality existed more immediately +in the Germanic race, which nevertheless, on account +of its nature, formed first in Christianity its true actualization. +It can be here only pointed out that they most thoroughly, +in opposition to nature, to men, and to the gods, felt +themselves to be independent; as Tacitus says, "<i>Securi adversus +homines, securi adversus Deos</i>." This individuality, +which had only itself for an end, must necessarily be destroyed, +and was saved only by Christianity, which overcame and +enlightened its dæmonic and defiant spirit. We cannot speak +here of a system of Education. Respect for personality, the +free acknowledgment of the claims of woman, the loyalty to +the leader chosen by themselves, loyalty to their friends (the +idea of fellowship),—these features should all be well-noted, +because from them arose the feudalism of the middle ages. +What Cæsar and Tacitus tell us of the education of the Germans +expresses only the emancipation of individuality, which +in its immediate crudeness had no other form in which to +manifest itself than wars of conquest.</p> + +<p>—To the Roman there was something dæmonic in the +German. He perceived dimly in him his future, his master. +When the Romans were to meet the Cimbri and Teutons +in the field, their commander had first to accustom them +for a whole day to the fearful sight of the wild, giant-like +forms.—</p> + + +<div class="center"><a name="theocratic" id="theocratic"></a><span class="smcap">Second Division.</span></div> + +<div class="center">THE SYSTEM OF THEOCRATIC EDUCATION.</div> + +<p><a name="S227" id="S227"></a>§ 227. The system of National Education founded its first +stage on the substantial basis of the family-spirit; its second +stage on the division of the nation by means of division of +labor which it makes permanent in castes; its third stage +presents the free opposition of the laity and clergy; in its + +<span class='pagenum'><a class="tooltip" name="Page_125" id="Page_125"><span><i>System of Theocratic Education.</i></span>125</a></span> + +next phase it makes war, immortality, and trade, by turns, +its end; thirdly, it posits beauty, patriotic youth, and the +immediateness of individuality, as the essence of mankind, +and at last dissolves the unity of nationality in the consciousness +that all nations are really one since they are all +human beings. In the intermixture of races in the Roman +world arises the conception of the human race, the <i>genus humanum</i>. +Education had become eclectic: the Roman legions +levelled the national distinctions. In the wavering of all +objective morality, the necessity of self-education in order +to the formation of character appeared ever more and more +clearly; but the conception, which lay at the foundation, was +always, nevertheless, that of Roman, Greek, or German education. +But in the midst of these nations another system had +striven for development, and this did not base itself on the +natural connection of nationality, but made this, for the first +time, only a secondary thing, and made the direct relation +of man to God its chief idea. In this system God himself is +the teacher. He manifests to man His will as law, to which +he must unconditionally conform for no other reason than that +He is the Lord, and man His servant, who can have no other +will than His. The obedience of man is therefore, in this system, +abstract until through experience he gradually attains to +the knowledge that the will of God has in it the very essence +of his own will. Descent, Talent, Events, Work, Beauty, Courage,—all +these are indifferent things compared with the subjection +of the human to the divine will. To be well-pleasing +to God is almost the same as belief in Him. Without this +identity, what is natural in national descent is of no value. +According to its form of manifestation, Judaism is below the +Greek spirit. It is not beautiful, but rather grotesque. But +in its essence, as the religion of the contradiction between +the idea and its existence, it goes beyond nature, which it +perceives to be established by an absolute, conscious, and +reasonable Will; while the Greek concealed from himself +only mythically his dependence on nature, on his mother-earth. +The Jews have been preserved in the midst of all +other culture by the elastic power of the thought of God as +One who was free from the control of nature. The Jews +have a patriotism in common with the Romans. The Maccabees, + +<span class='pagenum'><a class="tooltip" name="Page_126" id="Page_126"><span><i>System of Theocratic Education.</i></span>126</a></span> + +for example, were not inferior to the Romans in +greatness.</p> + +<p>—Abraham is the genuine Jew because he is the genuinely +faithful man. He does not hesitate to obey the horrible and +inhuman command of his God. Circumcision was made the +token of the national unity, but the nation may assimilate +members to itself from other nations through this rite. The +condition always lies in belief in a spiritual relation to which +the relation of nationality is secondary. The Jewish nation +makes proselytes, and these are widely different from the +<i>Socii</i> of the Romans or the <i>Metoeci</i> of the Athenians.—</p> + +<p><a name="S228" id="S228"></a>§ 228. To the man who knows Nature to be the work of +a single, incomparable, rational Creator, she loses independence. +He is negatively freed from her control, and sees in her +only an absolute means. As opposed to the fanciful sensuous +intuitions of Ethnicism, this seems to be a backward step, +but for the emancipation of man it is a progress. He no +longer fears Nature but her Lord, and admires Him so much +that prose rises to the dignity of poetry in his telological +contemplation. Since man stands over and beyond nature, +education is directed to morality as such, and spreads itself +out in innumerable limitations, by means of which the distinction +of man from nature is expressly asserted as a difference. +The ceremonial law appears often arbitrary, but in its +prescriptions it gives man the satisfaction of placing himself +as will in relation to will. For example, if he is forbidden +to eat any specified part of an animal, the ground of this +command is not merely natural—it is the will of the Deity. +Man learns therefore, in his obedience to such directions, to +free himself from his self-will, from his natural desires. This +exact outward conformity to subjectivity is the beginning +of wisdom, the purification of the will from all individual +egotism.</p> + +<p>—The rational substance of the Law is found always in +the Decalogue. Many of our modern much-admired authors +exhibit a superficiality bordering on shallowness when +they comment alone on the absurdity of the miracles, +and abstract from the profound depth of the moral struggle, +and from the practical rationality of the ten commandments.—</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a class="tooltip" name="Page_127" id="Page_127"><span><i>System of Theocratic Education.</i></span>127</a></span></p> + +<p><a name="S229" id="S229"></a>§ 229. Education in this theocratical system is on one side +patriarchal. The Family is very prominent, because it is +considered to be a great happiness for the individual to belong +from his very earliest life to the company of those who +believe in the true God. On its other side it is hierarchical, +as its ceremonial law develops a special office, which is to +see that obedience is paid to its multifarious regulations. +And, because these are often perfectly arbitrary, Education +must, above all, practise the memory in learning them all, so +that they may always be remembered. The Jewish monotheism +shares this necessity with the superstition of ethnicism.</p> + +<p><a name="S230" id="S230"></a>§ 230. But the technique proper of the mechanism is not +the most important pedagogical element of the theocracy. +We find this in its historical significance, since its history +throughout has a pedagogical character. For the people of +God show us always, in their changing intercourse with their +God, a progress from the external to the internal, from the +lower to the higher, from the past to the future. Its history, +therefore, abounds in situations very interesting in a pedagogical +point of view, and in characters which are eternal +models.</p> + +<p><a name="S231" id="S231"></a>§ 231. (1) The will of God as the absolute authority is at +first to them, as law, external. But soon God adds to the +command to obedience, on one hand, the inducement of a +promise of material prosperity, and on the other hand the +threat of material punishment. The fulfilment of the law is +also encouraged by reflection on the profit which it brings. +But, since these motives are all external, they rise finally +into the insight that the law is to be fulfilled, not on their +account, but because it is the will of the Lord; not alone because +it is conducive to our happiness, but also because it is +in itself holy, and written in our hearts: in other words, man +proceeds from the abstract legality, through the reflection of +eudæmonism, to the internality of moral sentiment—the +course of all education.</p> + +<p>—This last stand-point is especially represented in the +excellent Gnomic of Jesus Sirach—a book so rich in pedagogical +insight, which paints with master-strokes the relations +of husband and wife, parents and children, master and servants, + +-<span class='pagenum'><a class="tooltip" name="Page_128" id="Page_128"><span><i>System of Theocratic Education.</i></span>128</a></span> + +friend and friend, enemy and enemy, and the dignity +of labor as well as the necessity of its division. This priceless +book forms a side-piece from the theocratic stand-point +to the <i>Republic</i> of Plato and his laws on ethical government.—</p> + +<p><a name="S232" id="S232"></a>§ 232. (2) The progress from the lower to the higher appeared +in the conquering of the natural individuality. Man, +as the servant of Jehovah, must have no will of his own; but +selfish naturalness arrayed itself so much the more vigorously +against the abstract "Thou shalt," allowed itself to +descend into an abstraction from the Law, and often reached +the most unbridled extravagance. But since the Law in +inexorable might always remained the same, always persistent, +in distinction from the inequalities of the deed of +man, it forced him to come back to it, and to conform himself +to its demands. Thus he learned criticism, thus he rose +from naturalness into spirit. This progress is at the same +time a progress from necessity to freedom, because criticism +always gradually opens a way for man into insight, so +that he finds the will of God to be the truth of his own self-determination. +Because God is one and absolute, there arises +the expectation that His Will will become the basis for the +will of all nations and men. The criticism of the understanding +must recognize a contradiction in the fact that the will of +the true God is the law of only one nation; feared by other +nations, moreover, by reason of their very worship of God as +a gloomy mystery, and detested as <i>odium generis humani</i>. +And thus is developed the thought that the isolation of the +believers will come to an end as soon as the other nations +recognize their faith as the true one, and are received into it. +Thus here, out of the deepest penetration of the soul into +itself, as among the Romans out of the fusion of nations, we +see appear the idea of the human race.</p> + +<p><a name="S233" id="S233"></a>§ 233. (3) The progress from the past to the future unfolded +the ideal servant of God who fulfils all the Law, and so blots +out the empirical contradiction that the "Thou shalt" of the +Law attains no adequate actuality. This Prince of Peace, +who shall gather all nations under his banner, can therefore +have no other thing predicated of him than Holiness. He +is not beautiful as the Greeks represented their ideal, not + +<span class='pagenum'><a class="tooltip" name="Page_129" id="Page_129"><span><i>System of Humanitarian Education.</i></span>129</a></span> + +brave and practical as was the venerated <i>Virtus</i> of the +Romans; he does not place an infinite value on his individuality +as the German does: but he is represented as insignificant +in appearance, as patient, as humble, as he who, +in order to reconcile the world, takes upon himself the infirmities +and disgrace of all others. The ethnical nations have +only a lost Paradise behind them; the Jews have one also +before them. From this belief in the Messiah who is to come, +from the certainty which they have of conquering with him, +from the power of esteeming all things of small importance +in view of such a future, springs the indestructible nature of +the Jews. They ignore the fact that Christianity is the necessary +result of their own history. As the nation that is +to be (<i>des Seinsollens</i>), they are merely a historical nation, +the nation among nations, whose education—whenever the +Jew has not changed and corrupted its nature through modern +culture—is still always patriarchal, hierarchal, and mnemonic.</p> + + +<div class="center"><a name="humanitarian" id="humanitarian"></a><span class="smcap">Third Division.</span></div> + +<div class="center"><span class="smcap">The System of Humanitarian Education</span></div> + +<p><a name="S234" id="S234"></a>§ 234. The systems of national and theocratic education +came to the same result, though by different ways, and this +result is the conception of a human race in the unity of which +the distinctions of different nations find their Truth. But +with them this result is only a conception, being a thing +external to their actuality. They arrive at the painting of an +ideal of the way in which the Messiah shall come. But these +ideals exist only in the mind, and the actual condition of the +people sometimes does not correspond to them at all, and +sometimes only very relatively. The idea of spirit had in +these presuppositions the possibility of its concrete actualization; +one individual man must become conscious of the +universality and necessity of the will as being the very essence +of his own freedom, so that all heteronomy should be +cancelled in the autonomy of spirit. Natural individuality +appearing as national determinateness was still acknowledged, +but was deprived of its abstract isolation. The divine +authority of the truth of the individual will is to be recognized, +but at the same time freed from its estrangement +towards itself. While Christ was a Jew and obedient to the + +<span class='pagenum'><a class="tooltip" name="Page_130" id="Page_130"><span><i>System of Humanitarian Education.</i></span>130</a></span> + +divine Law, he knew himself as the universal man who determines +himself to his own destiny; and while only distinguishing +God, as subject, from himself, yet holds fast to the +unity of man and God. The system of humanitarian education +began to unfold from this principle, which no longer +accords the highest place to the natural unity of national +individuality, nor to the abstract obedience of the command +of God, but to that freedom of the soul which knows itself +to be absolute necessity. Christ is not a mere ideal of the +thought, but is known as a living member of actual history, +whose life, sufferings and death for freedom form the security +as to its absolute justification and truth. The æsthetic, +philosophical, and political ideal are all found in the universal +nature of the Christian ideal, on which account no one of +them appears one-sided in the life of Christ. The principle +of Human Freedom excludes neither art, nor science, nor +political feeling.</p> + +<p><a name="S235" id="S235"></a>§ 235. In its conception of man the humanitarian education +includes both the national divisions and the subjection of all +men to the divine law, but it will no longer endure that one +should grow into an isolating exclusiveness, and another +into a despotism which includes in it somewhat of the accidental. +But this principle of humanity and human nature +took root so slowly that its presuppositions were repeated +within itself and were really conquered in this reproduction. +These stages of culture were the Greek, the Roman, and the +Protestant churches, and education was metamorphosed to +suit the formation of each of these.</p> + +<p>—For the sake of brevity we would wish to close with these +general definitions; the unfolding of their details is intimately +bound up with the history of politics and of civilization. +We shall be contented if we give correctly the general +whole.—</p> + +<p><a name="S236" id="S236"></a>§ 236. Within education we can distinguish three epochs: +the monkish, the chivalric, and that education which is to fit +one for civil life. Each of these endeavored to express all +that belonged to humanity as such; but it was only after the +recognition of the moral nature of the Family, of Labor, of +Culture, and of the conscious equal title of all men to their +rights, that this became really possible.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a class="tooltip" name="Page_131" id="Page_131"><span><i>Epoch of Monkish Education.</i></span>131</a></span></p> + +<div class="center"><a name="monkish2" id="monkish2"></a>I. <i>The Epoch of Monkish Education.</i></div> + +<p><a name="S237" id="S237"></a>§ 237. The Greek Church seized the Christian principle +still abstractly as deliverance from the world, and therefore, +in the education proceeding from it, it arrived only at the +negative form, positing the universality of the individual +man as the renunciation of self. In the dogmatism of its +teaching, as well as in the ascetic severity of its practical conduct, +it was a reproduction of the theocratic principle. But +when this had assumed the form of national centralization, +the Greek Church dispensed with this, and, as far as regards +its form, it returned again to the quietism of the Orient.</p> + +<p><a name="S238" id="S238"></a>§ 238. The monkish education is in general identical in all +religions, in that, through the egotism of its way of living and +the stoicism of its way of thinking, through the separation +of its external existence and the mechanism of a thoughtless +subjection to a general rule as well as to the special command +of superiors, it fosters a spiritual and bodily dulness. +The Christian monachism, therefore, as the fulfilment of +monachism in general, is at the same time its absolute dissolution, +because, in its merely abstracting itself from the +world instead of affirmatively conquering it, it contradicts +the very principle of Christianity.</p> + +<p><a name="S239" id="S239"></a>§ 239. We must notice as the fundamental error of this +whole system, that it does not in free individuality seek to +produce the ideal of divine-humanity, but to copy in external +reproduction its historical manifestation. Each human +being must individually offer up as sacrifice his own individuality. +Each biography has its Bethlehem, its Tabor, and +its Golgotha.</p> + +<p><a name="S240" id="S240"></a>§ 240. Monachism looks upon freedom from one's self and +from the world which Christianity demands only as an abstract +renunciation of self, which it seeks to compass, like +Buddhism, by the vow of poverty, chastity, and obedience, +which must be taken by each individual for all time.</p> + +<p>—This rejection of property, of marriage, and of self-will, +is at the same time the negation of work, of the family, and +of responsibility for one's actions. In order to avoid the +danger of avarice and covetousness, of sensuality and of +nepotism, of error and of guilt, monachism seizes the convenient + +-<span class='pagenum'><a class="tooltip" name="Page_132" id="Page_132"><span><i>Epoch of Monkish Education.</i></span>132</a></span> + +way of abstract severance from all the objective world +without being able fully to carry out this negation. Monkish +Pedagogics must, in consequence, be very particular about +an external separation of their disciples from the world, so +as to make the work of abstraction from the world easier and +more decided. It therefore builds cloisters in the solitude of +deserts, in the depth of forests, on the summits of mountains, +and surrounds them with high walls having no apertures; +and then, so as to carry the isolation of the individual to its +farthest possible extreme it constructs, within these cloisters, +cells, in imitation of the ancient hermits—a seclusion the immediate +consequence of which is the most limitless and most +paltry curiosity.—</p> + +<p><a name="S241" id="S241"></a>§ 241. Theoretically the monkish Pedagogics seeks, by +means of the greatest possible silence, to place the soul in a +state of spiritual immobility, which at last, through the want +of all variety of thought, goes over into entire apathy, and +antipathy towards all intellectual culture. The principal +feature of the practical culture consists in the misapprehension +that one should ignore Nature, instead of morally freeing +himself from her control. As she, again and again asserts +herself, the monkish discipline proceeds to misuse her, and +strives through fasting, through sleeplessness, through voluntary +self-inflicted pain and martyrdom, not only to subdue +the wantonness of the flesh, but to destroy the love of life +till it shall become a positive loathing of existence. In and +for itself the object of the monkish vow—property, the family, +and will—is not immoral. The vow is, on this account, +very easy to violate. In order to prevent all temptation to +this, monkish Pedagogics invents a system of supervision, +partly open, partly secret, which deprives one of all freedom +of action, all freshness of thinking and of willing, and all +poetry of feeling, by means of the perpetual shadow of spies +and informers. The monks are well versed in all police-arts, +and the regular succession of the hierarchy spurs them +on always to distinguish themselves in them.</p> + +<p><a name="S242" id="S242"></a>§ 242. The gloomy breath of this education penetrated all +the relations of the Byzantine State. Even the education of +the emperor was infected by it; and in the strife for freedom +waged by the modern Greeks against the Turks, the <i>Igumeni</i> + +<span class='pagenum'><a class="tooltip" name="Page_133" id="Page_133"><span><i>Epoch of Chivalric Education.</i></span>133</a></span> + +of the cloisters were the real leaders of the insurrection. The +independence of individuality, as opposed to monkish abstraction, +more or less degenerates into the crude form of +soldier and pirate life. And thus it happened that this principle +was not left to appear merely as an exception, but to +be built up positively into humanity; and this the German +world, under the guidance of the Roman Church, undertook +to accomplish.</p> + + +<div class="center"><a name="chivalric" id="chivalric"></a>II. <i>The Epoch of Chivalric Education.</i></div> + +<p><a name="S243" id="S243"></a>§ 243. The Romish Church negated the abstract substantiality +of the Greeks through the practical aim which she in +her sanctity in works founded, and by means of which she +raised up German individuality to the idealism of chivalry, +i.e. a free military service in behalf of Christendom.</p> + +<p><a name="S244" id="S244"></a>§ 244. It is evident that the system of monkish education +was taken up into this epoch as one of its elements, being +modified to conform to it: e.g. the Benedictines were accustomed +to labor in agriculture and in the transcribing of +books, and this contradicted the idea of monachism, since +that in and for itself tends to an absolute forgetfulness of the +world and a perfect absence of all activity in the individual. +The begging orders were public preachers, and made popular +the idea of love and unselfish devotion to others. They +labored toward self-education, especially by means of the +ideal of the life of Christ; e.g. in Tauler's classical book on +the Imitation of Jesus, and in the work of Thomas-à-Kempis +which resembles it. Through a fixed contemplative communion +with the conception of the Christ who suffered and +died for Love, they sought to find content in divine rest and +self-abandonment.</p> + +<p><a name="S245" id="S245"></a>§ 245. German chivalry sprang from Feudalism. The education +of those pledged to military duty had become confined +to practice in the use of arms. The education of the chivalric +vassals pursued the same course, refining it gradually through +the influence of court society and through poetry, which +devoted itself either to the relating of graceful tales which +were really works of art, or to the glorification of woman. +Girls were brought up without especial care. The boy until +he was seven years old remained in the hands of women; + +<span class='pagenum'><a class="tooltip" name="Page_134" id="Page_134"><span><i>Epoch of Chivalric Education.</i></span>134</a></span> + +then he became a lad (a young gentleman), and learned the +manner of offensive and defensive warfare, on foot and on +horseback; between his sixteenth and eighteenth year, +through a formal ceremony (the laying on of the sword), he +was duly authorized to bear arms. But whatever besides +this he might wish to learn was left to his own caprice.</p> + +<p><a name="S246" id="S246"></a>§ 246. In contradistinction to the monkish education, Chivalry +placed an infinite value on individuality, and this it +expressed in its extreme sensibility to the feeling of honor. +Education, on this account, endeavored to foster this reflection +of the self upon itself by means of the social isolation +in which it placed knighthood. The knight did not delight +himself with common possessions, but he sought for him +who had been wronged, since with him he could find enjoyment +as a conqueror. He did not live in simple marriage, +but strove for the piquant pleasure of making the wife of +another the lady of his heart, and this often led to moral and +physical infidelity. And, finally, the knight did not obey +alone the general laws of knightly honor, but he strove, besides, +to discover for himself strange things, which he should +undertake with his sword, in defiance of all criticism, simply +because it pleased his caprice so to do. He <i>sought adventures</i>.</p> + +<p><a name="S247" id="S247"></a>§ 247. The reaction against the innumerable number of +fantastic extravagancies arising from chivalry was the idea +of the spiritual chivalry which was to unite the cloister and +the town, abstract self-denial and military life, separation +from the world and the sovereignty of the world—an undeniable +advance, but an untenable synthesis which could not +prevent the dissolution of chivalry—this chivalry, which, as +the rule of the stronger, induced for a long time the destruction +of all regular culture founded on principles, and brought +a period of absence of all education. In this perversion of +chivalry to a grand vagabondism, and even to robbery, noble +souls often rushed into ridiculous excesses. This decline of +chivalry found its truth in Citizenship, whose education, however, +did not, like the πόλις and the <i>civitas</i> of the ancients, +limit itself to itself, but, through the presence of the principle +of Christianity, accepted the whole circle of humanity as +the aim of its culture.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a class="tooltip" name="Page_135" id="Page_135"><span><i>Education of Civil Life—Civil Education.</i></span>135</a></span></p> + +<div class="center"><a name="civil" id="civil"></a>III. <i>The Epoch of Education fitting one for Civil Life.</i></div> + +<p><a name="S248" id="S248"></a>§ 248. The idea of the State had gradually worked itself +up to a higher plane with trade and industry, and found in +Protestantism its spiritual confirmation. Protestantism, as +the self assurance of the individual that he was directly +related to God without any dependence on the mediation of +any man, rose to the truth in the autonomy of the soul, and +began out of the abstract phantasmagoria of monachism and +chivalry to develope Christianity, as the principle of humanitarian +education, into concrete actuality. The cities were +not merely, in comparison with the clergy and the nobility, +the "third estate"; but the citizen who himself managed his +commonwealth, and defended its interests with arms, developed +into the citizen of a state which absorbed the clergy and +nobility, and the state-citizen found his ultimate ideal in pure +Humanity as cognized through reason.</p> + +<p><a name="S249" id="S249"></a>§ 249. The phases of this development are (1) Civil education +as such, in which we find chivalric education metamorphosed +into the so-called noble, both however being +controlled as to education, within Catholicism by Jesuitism, +within Protestantism by Pietism. (2) Against this tendency +to the church, we find reacting on the one hand the devotion +to a study of antiquity, and on the other the friendly alliance +to immediate actuality, i.e. with Nature. We can +name these periods of Pedagogics those of its ideals of +culture. (3) But the truth of all culture must forever remain +moral freedom. After Education had arrived at a +knowledge of the meaning of Idealism and Realism, it must +seize as its absolute aim the moral emancipation of man +into Humanity; and it must conform its culture by this aim, +since technical dexterity, friendly adroitness, proficiency in +the arts, and scientific insight, can attain to their proper rank +only through moral purity.</p> + +<div class="center"><a name="special" id="special"></a><i>1. Civil Education as such.</i></div> + +<p><a name="S250" id="S250"></a>§ 250. The one-sidedness of monkish and chivalric education +was cancelled by civil education inasmuch as it destroyed +the celibacy of the monk and the estrangement of +the knight from his family, doing this by means of the inner + +<span class='pagenum'><a class="tooltip" name="Page_136" id="Page_136"><span><i>Civil Education.</i></span>136</a></span> + +life of the family; for it substituted, in the place of the negative +emptiness of the duty of holiness of the celibate, the +positive morality of marriage and the family; while, instead +of the abstract poverty and the idleness of the monkish piety +and of knighthood, it asserted that property was the object of +labor, i.e. it asserted the self-governed morality of civil society +and of commerce; and, finally, instead of the servitude +of the conscience in unquestioning obedience to the command +of others, and instead of the freakish self-sufficiency of the +caprice of the knights, it demanded obedience to the laws of +the commonwealth as representing his own self-conscious, +actualized, practical Reason, in which laws the individual +can recognize and acknowledge himself.</p> + +<p>—As this civil education left free the sensuous enjoyment, +freedom in this was without bounds for a time, until, after +men became accustomed to labor and to their freedom of +action, the possibility of enjoyment created from within outward +a moderation which sumptuary laws and prohibitions +of gluttony, drunkenness, &c., could never create from the +external side. What the monk inconsistently enjoyed with +a bad conscience, the citizen and the clergyman could +take possession of as a gift of God. After the first millennium +of Christianity, when the earth had not, according to +the current prophecies, been destroyed, and after the great +plague in the fourteenth century, there was felt an immense +pleasure in living, which manifested itself externally +in the fifteenth century in delicate wines, dainty food, great +eating of meat, drinking of beer, and, in the domain of dress, +in peaked shoes, plumes, golden chains, bells, &c. There was +much venison, but, as yet, no potatoes, tea and coffee, &c. +The feeling of men was quarrelsome. For a more exact +painting of the Education of this time, very valuable authors +are Sebastian Brant, Th. Murner, Ulrich von Hutten, +Fischart, and Hans Sachs. Gervinus is almost the only one +who has understood how to make this material useful in its +relation to spirit.—</p> + +<p><a name="S251" id="S251"></a>§ 251. In contrast with the heaven-seeking of the monks +and the sentimental love-making of the knight, civil education +established, as its principle, Usefulness, which traced out +in things their conformity to a proposed end in order to gain + +<span class='pagenum'><a class="tooltip" name="Page_137" id="Page_137"><span><i>Civil Education.</i></span>137</a></span> + +as great a mastery over them as possible. The understanding +was trained with all exactness that it might clearly seize +all the circumstances. But since family-life did not allow the +egotism of the individual ever to become as great as was the +case with the monk and the knight, and since the cheer of a +sensuous enjoyment in cellar and kitchen, in clothing and +furniture, in common games and in picturesque parades, +penetrated the whole being with soft pleasure, there was developed +with all propriety and sobriety a house-morality, +and, with all the prose of labor, a warm and kindly disposition, +which left room for innocent merriment and roguery, +and found, in conformity to religious services, its serious +transfiguration. Beautiful burgher-state, thou wast weakened +by the thirty years' war, and hast been only accidentally +preserved sporadically in Old England and in some +places in Germany, only to be at last swept away by the +flood of modern world-pain, political sophistry, and anxiety +for the future!</p> + +<p><a name="S252" id="S252"></a>§ 252. The citizen paid special attention to public education, +heretofore wholly dependent upon the church and the +cloister; he organized city schools, whose teachers, it is true, +for a long time compassed only accidental culture, and were +often employed only for tumultuous and short terms. The +society of the brotherhood of the Hieronymites introduced a +better system of instruction before the close of the fourteenth +century, but education had often to be obtained from the so-called +travelling scholars (<i>vagantes</i>, <i>bacchantes</i>, <i>scholastici</i>, +<i>goliardi</i>). The teachers of the so-called <i>scholæ exteriores</i>, +in distinction from the schools of the cathedral and cloister, +were called now <i>locati</i>, then <i>stampuales</i>—in German, <i>Kinder-Meister</i>. +The institution of German schools soon followed +the Latin city schools. In order to remove the anarchy in +school matters, the citizens aided the rise of universities by +donations and well-invested funds, and sustained the street-singing +of the city scholars (<i>currende</i>), an institution which +was well-meant, but which often failed of its end because on +the one hand it was often misused as a mere means of subsistence, +and on the other hand the sense of honor of those +to whom it was devoted not unfrequently became, through +their manner of living, lowered to humiliation. The defect + +<span class='pagenum'><a class="tooltip" name="Page_138" id="Page_138"><span><i>Civil Education.</i></span>138</a></span> + +of the monkish method of instruction became ever more +apparent, e.g. the silly tricks of their mnemotechnique, the +utter lack of anything which deserved the name of any practical +knowledge, &c. The necessity of instruction in the use +of arms led to democratic forms. Printing favored the same. +Men began to concern themselves about good text-books. +Melanchthon was the hero of the Protestant world, and as a +pattern was beyond his time. His Dialectics, Rhetoric, Physics, +and Ethics, were reprinted innumerable times, commented +upon, and imitated. After him Amos Comenius, in the +seventeenth century, had the greatest influence through his +<i>Didactica Magna</i> and his <i>Janua Reserta</i>. In a narrower +sphere, treating of the foundation of Gymnasial Philology, +the most noticeable is Sturm of Strasburg. The universities +in Catholic countries limited themselves to the Scholastic +Philosophy and Theology, together with which we find +slowly struggling up the Roman Law and the system of +Medicine from Bologna and Salerno. But Protestantism first +raised the university to any real universality. Tübingen, +Königsberg, Wittenberg, Jena, Leipzic, Halle, Göttingen, +&c., were the first schools for the study of all sciences, and +for their free and productive pursuit.</p> + +<p>253. The Commons, which at first appeared with the clergy +and the nobility as the Third Estate, formed an alliance with +monarchy, and both together produced a transformation of +the chivalric education. Absolutism reduced the knights to +mere nobles, to whom it truly conceded the prerogative of +appointment as spiritual prelates as well as officers and counsellors +of state, but only on the condition of the most complete +submission; and then, to satisfy them, it invented the +artificial drinking festivals, of a splendid life at court, and a +temptingly-impressive sovereignty of beauty. In this condition, +the education of the nobles was essentially changed in +so far as to cease to be alone military. To the art of war, +which moreover was made so very much milder by the invention +of fire-arms, must be now added an activity of the mind +which could no longer dispense with some knowledge of +History, Heraldry, Genealogy, Literature, and Mythology. +Since the French nation soon enough gave tone to the style +of conversation, and after the time of Louis XIV. controlled + +<span class='pagenum'><a class="tooltip" name="Page_139" id="Page_139"><span><i>Civil Education.</i></span>139</a></span> + +the politics of the continent, the French language, as conventional +and diplomatic, became a constant element in the education +of the nobility in all the other countries of Europe.</p> + +<p>—Practically the education of the noble endeavored to +make the individual quite independent, so that he should, by +means of the important quality of an advantageous personal +appearance and the prudence of his agreeable behavior, +make himself into a ruler of all other men, capable of enjoying +his own position, i.e. he should copy in miniature the +manners of an absolute sovereign. To this was added an +empirical knowledge of men by means of ethical maxims, so +that they might discover the weak side of every man, and +so be able to outwit him. <i>Mundus vult decipi, ergo decipiatur.</i> +According to this, every man had his price. They +did not believe in the Nemesis of a divine destiny; on the +contrary, disbelief in the higher justice was taught. One +must be so elastic as to suit himself to all situations, and, +as a caricature of the ancient ataraxy, he must acquire as a +second nature a manner perfectly indifferent to all changes, +the impassibility of an aristocratic repose, the amphibious +<i>sang-froid</i> of the "gentleman." The man in the world as the +man of the world sought his ideal in endless dissimulation, +and in this, as the flowering of his culture, he took the highest +interest. Intrigue, in love as well as in politics, was the +soul of the nobleman's existence.—</p> + +<p>—They endeavored to complete the refinement of manners +by sending the young man away with a travelling tutor. +This was very good, but degenerated at last into the mechanism +of the foolish travelling of the tourist. The noble was +made a foreigner, a stranger to his own country, by means +of his abode at Paris or Venice, while the citizen gradually +outstripped him in genuine culture.—</p> + +<p><a name="S254" id="S254"></a>§ 254. The education of the citizen as well as that of the +noble was taken possession of, in Catholic countries by the +Jesuits, in Protestant countries by the Pietists: by the first, +with a military strictness; by the second, in a social and +effeminate form. Both, however, agreed in destroying individuality, +inasmuch as the one degraded man into a will-less +machine for executing the commands of others, and the other +deadened him in cultivating the feeling of his sinful worthlessness.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a class="tooltip" name="Page_140" id="Page_140"><span><i>Jesuitic Education.</i></span>140</a></span></p> + +<div class="center"><a name="jesuitic" id="jesuitic"></a>(<i>a</i>) <i>Jesuitic Education.</i></div> + +<p><a name="S255" id="S255"></a>§ 255. Jesuitism combined the maximum of worldly freedom +with an appearance of the greatest piety. Proceeding +from this stand-point, it devoted itself in education to elegance +and showy knowledge, to diplomacy and what was +suitable and convenient in morals. To bring the future more +into its power, it adapted itself not only to youth in general, +but especially to the youth of the nobler classes. To please +these, the Jesuits laid great stress upon a fine deportment. +In their colleges dancing and fencing were well-taught. They +knew how well they should by this course content the noble, +who had by preference usurped the name of Education for +this technical way of giving formal expression to personality.</p> + +<p>—In instruction they developed so exact a mechanism that +they gained the reputation of having model school regulations, +and even Protestants sent their children to them. From +the close of the sixteenth century to the present time they +have based their teaching upon the <i>ratio et institutio Studiorum +Societatis Jesu</i> of Claudius Aquaviva, and, following +that, they distinguish two courses of teaching, a higher and +a lower. The lower included nothing but an external knowledge +of the Latin language, and some fortuitous knowledge +of History, of Antiquities, and of Mythology. The memory +was cultivated as a means of keeping down free activity of +thought and clearness of judgment. The higher course comprehended +Dialectics, Rhetoric, Physics, and Morals. Dialectics +appeared in the form of Sophistry. In Rhetoric, they +favored the polemical-emphatic style of the African fathers +of the Church and their pompous phraseology; in Physics, +they stopped with Aristotle, and especially advised the reading +of the books <i>De Generatione et Corruptione</i>, and <i>De +Cœlo</i>, on which they commented after their fashion; finally, +in Morals casuistic skepticism was their central point. They +made much of Rhetoric on account of their sermons, giving +to it much attention, and introduced especially Declamation. +Contriving showy public examinations under the guise of +Latin School Comedies, they thus amused the public, disposed +them to approval, and at the same time quite innocently +practised the pupil in dissimulation.—</p> + +<p>—Diplomacy in behavior was made necessary to the Jesuits +as well by their strict military discipline as by their system + +<span class='pagenum'><a class="tooltip" name="Page_141" id="Page_141"><span><i>Pietistic Education.</i></span>141</a></span> + +of reciprocal mistrust, espionage, and informing. Abstract +obedience was a reason for any act of the pupils, and they +were freed from all responsibility as to its moral justification. +This empirical exact following out of all commands, +and refraining from any criticism as to principles, created a +moral indifference, and, from the necessity of having consideration +for the peculiarities and caprices of the superior on +whom all others were dependent, arose eye-service, and the +coldness of isolation sprang from the necessity which each +felt of being on his guard against every other as against a +tale-bearer. The most deliberate hypocrisy and pleasure in +intrigue merely for the sake of intrigue—this most refined +poison of moral corruption—were the result. Jesuitism had +not only an interest in the material profit, which, when it +had corrupted souls, fell to its share, but it also had an interest +in the process of corruption. With absolute indifference +as to the idea of morality, and absolute indifference as to the +moral quality of the means used to attain its end, it rejoiced +in the superiority of secrecy, of the accomplished and calculating +understanding, and in deceiving the credulous by +means of its graceful, seemingly-perfect, moral language.—</p> + +<p>—It is not necessary to speak here of the morality of the +Order. It is sufficiently recognized as the contradiction, that +the idea of morality insists upon the eternal necessity of +every deed, but that in the realizing of the action all determinations +should be made relative and should vary with the +circumstances. As to discipline, they were always guided +by their fundamental principle, that body and soul, as in and +for themselves one, could vicariously suffer for each other. +Thus penitence and contrition were transformed into a +perfect materialism of outward actions, and hence arose the +punishments of the Order, in which fasting, scourging, imprisonment, +mortification, and death, were formed into a +mechanical artificial system.—</p> + + +<div class="center"><a name="pietistic" id="pietistic"></a>(<i>b</i>) <i>Pietistic Education.</i></div> + +<p><a name="S256" id="S256"></a>§ 256. Jesuitism would make machines of man, Pietism +would dissolve him in the feeling of his sinfulness: either +would destroy his individuality. Pietism proceeded from +the principle of Protestantism, as, in the place of the Catholic +Pelagianism with its sanctification by works, it offered justication + +<span class='pagenum'><a class="tooltip" name="Page_142" id="Page_142"><span><i>Pietistic Education.</i></span>142</a></span> + +by faith alone. In its tendency to internality was its +just claim. It would have even the letters of the Bible translated +into the vivacity of sentiment. But in its execution it +fell into the error of one-sidedness in that it placed, instead +of the actuality of the spirit and its freedom, the confusion of +a limited personality, placing in its stead the personality of +Christ in an external manner, and thus brought back into the +very midst of Protestantism the principle of monachism—an +abstract renunciation of the world. Since Protestantism has +destroyed the idea of the cloister, it could produce estrangement +from the world only by exciting public opinion against +such elements of society and culture which it stigmatized as +<i>worldly</i> for its members, e.g. card-playing, dancing, the theatre, +&c. Thus it became negatively dependent upon works; +for since its followers remained in reciprocal action with the +world, so that the temptation to backsliding was a permanent +one, it must watch over them, exercise an indispensable +moral-police control over them, and thus, by the suspicion of +each other which was involved, take up into itself the Jesuitical +practice, although in a very mild and affectionate way. +Instead of the forbidden secrecy of the cloister, it organized +a separate company, which we, in its regularly constituted +assembly, call a conventicle. Instead of the cowl, it put on +its youth a dress like that of the world, but scant and ashen-colored; +it substituted for the tonsure closely-cut hair and +shaven beard, and it often went beyond the obedience of +the monks in its expression of pining humility and prudish +composure. Education within such a circle could not +well recognize nature and history as manifestations of God, +but it must consider them to be limitations to their union +with God, from which death can first then completely release +them. The soul which knew that its home could be found +only in the future world, must feel itself to be a stranger +upon the earth, and from such an opinion there must arise +an indifference and even a contempt for science and art, as +well as an aversion for a life of active labor, though an unwilling +and forced tribute might be paid to it. Philosophy +especially was to be shunned as dangerous. Bible lectures, +the catechism and the hymn-book, were the one thing needful +to the "poor in spirit." Religious poetry and music were, +of all the arts, the only ones deserving of any cultivation. The + +<span class='pagenum'><a class="tooltip" name="Page_143" id="Page_143"><span><i>The Ideal of Culture.—The Humanitarian Ideal.</i></span>143</a></span> + +education of Pietism endeavored, by means of a carefully +arranged series of representations, to create in its disciples +the feeling of their absolute nothingness, vileness, godlessness, +and abandonment by God, in order to displace the torment +of despair as to themselves and the world by a warm, +dramatic, and living relation to Christ—a relation in which +all the Eroticism of the mystical passion of the begging-friars +was renewed in a somewhat milder form and with a strong +tendency to a sentimental sweetishness.</p> + + +<div class="center"><a name="ideal" id="ideal"></a><i>2. The Ideal of Culture</i>.</div> + +<p><a name="S257" id="S257"></a>§ 257. Civil Education arose from the recognition of marriage +and the family, of labor and enjoyment, of the equality +of all before the Law, and of the duty of self-determination. +Jesuitism in the Catholic world and Pietism in the Protestant +were the reaction against this recognition—a return into the +abstract asceticism of the middle ages, not however in its +purity, but mixed with some regard for worldly possessions. +In opposition to this reaction the commonwealth produced +another, in which it undertook to deliver individuality by +means of a reversed alienation. On the one hand, it absorbed +itself in the conception of the Greek-Roman world. In the +practical interests of the present, it externalized man in a +past which held to the present no immediate relation, or it +externalized him in the affairs which were to serve him as +means of his comfort and enjoyment; it created an abstract +idealism—a reproduction of the old view of the world—or an +abstract Realism in a high appreciation of things which +should be considered of value only as a means. In one direction, +Individuality proceeded towards a dead nationality; in +the other, towards an unlimited world-commonwealth. In +one case, the ideal was the æsthetic republicanism of the +Greeks; in the other, the utilitarian cosmopolitanism of the +Romans. But, in considering the given circumstances, both +united in the feeling of humanity, with its reconciliatory and +pitying gentleness toward the beggar or the criminal.</p> + + +<div class="center"><a name="humanities" id="humanities"></a>(<i>a</i>) <i>The Humanitarian Ideal.</i></div> + +<p><a name="S258" id="S258"></a>§ 258. The Oriental-theocratic education is immanent in +Christian education through the Bible. Through the mediation +of the Greek and Roman churches the views of the ancient + +<span class='pagenum'><a class="tooltip" name="Page_144" id="Page_144"><span><i>The Philanthropic Ideal.</i></span>144</a></span> + +world were subsumed but not entirely subdued. To +accomplish this was the problem of humanitarian education. +It aimed to teach the Latin and Greek languages, +expecting thus to secure the action of a purely humane disposition. +The Greeks and Romans being sharply marked +nationalities, how could one cherish such expectations? It +was possible only relatively in contradiction, partly to a provincial +population from whom all genuine political sense had +departed, partly to a church limited by a confessional, to +which the idea of humanity as such had become almost lost +in dogmatic fault-findings. The spirit was refreshed in the +first by the contemplation of the pure patriotism of the ancients, +and in the second by the discovery of Reason among +the heathen. In contrast to formlessness distracted by the +want of all ideal of culture of provincialism and dogmatic +confusions, we find the power of representation of ancient +art. The so-called uselessness of learning dead languages +imparted to the mind, it knew not how, an ideal drift. The +very fact that it could not find immediate profit in its knowledge +gave it the consciousness of a higher value than material +profit. The ideal of the Humanities was the truth to +Nature which was found in the thought-painters of the ancient +world. The study of language merely with regard to +its form, must lead one involuntarily to the actual seizing of +its content. The Latin schools were fashioned into <i>Gymnasia</i>, +and the universities contained not merely professors of +Eloquence, but also teachers of Philology.</p> + + +<div class="center"><a name="philanthropic" id="philanthropic"></a>(<i>b</i>) <i>The Philanthropic Ideal.</i></div> + +<p><a name="S259" id="S259"></a>§ 259. The humanitarian tendency reached its extreme in +the abstract forgetting of the present, and the omitting to +notice its just claim. Man discovered at last that he was not +at home with himself in Rome and Athens. He spoke and +wrote Latin, if not like Cicero, at least like Muretius, but he +often found himself awkward in expressing his meaning in +his mother-tongue. He was often very learned, but he lacked +judgment. He was filled with enthusiasm for the republicanism +of Greece and Rome, and yet at the same time was +himself exceedingly servile to his excellent and august lords. +Against this gradual deadening of active individuality, the +result of a perverted study of the classics, we find now reacting + +<span class='pagenum'><a class="tooltip" name="Page_145" id="Page_145"><span><i>The Philanthropic Ideal.</i></span>145</a></span> + +the education of enlightenment, which we generally call +the philanthropic. It sought to make men friendly to the +immediate course of the world. It placed over against the +learning of the ancient languages for their own sake, the +acquisition of the more needful branches of Mathematics, +Physics, Geography, History, and the modern languages, +calling these the real studies. Nevertheless it often retained +the instruction in the Latin language because the Romance +languages have sprung from it, and because, through its long +domination, the universal terminology of Science, Art, and +Law, is rooted in it. Philanthropy desired to develope the +social side of its disciple through an abstract of practical +knowledge and personal accomplishments, and to lead him +again, in opposition to the hermit-like sedentary life of the +book-pedant, out into the fields and the woods. It desired +to imitate life even in its method, and to instruct pleasantly +in the way of play or by dialogue. It would add to the simple +letters and names the contemplation of the object itself, +or at least of its representation by pictures; and in this direction, +in the conversation-literature which it prepared for +children, it sometimes fell into childishness. It performed +a great service when it gave to the body its due, and introduced +simple, natural dress, bathing, gymnastics, pedestrian +excursions, and a hardening against the influences of wind and +weather. As this Pedagogics, so friendly to children, deemed +that it could not soon enough begin to honor them as citizens +of the world, it was guilty in general of the error of presupposing +as already finished in its children much that it itself +should have gradually developed; and as it wished to educate +the European as such, or rather man as such, it came +into an indifference concerning the concrete distinctions of +nationality and religion. It coincided with the philologists +in placing, in a concealed way, Socrates above Christ, because +he had worked no miracles, and taught only morality. +In such a dead cosmopolitanism, individuality disappeared +in the indeterminateness of a general humanity, and saw +itself forced to agree with the humanistic education in proclaiming +the truth of Nature as the pedagogical ideal, with +the distinction, that while Humanism believed this ideal realized +in the Greeks and Romans, Philanthropism found itself + +<span class='pagenum'><a class="tooltip" name="Page_146" id="Page_146"><span><i>The Philanthropic Ideal.</i></span>146</a></span> + +compelled to presuppose an abstract notion, and often manifested +a not unjustifiable pleasure in recognizing in the Indians +of North America, or of Otaheite, the genuine man of +nature. Philosophy first raised these conceptions to the idea +of the State, which fashioned the cognition of Reason and of +the reform which follows from its idea, into an organic element +in itself.</p> + +<p>—The course which the developing of the philanthropic +ideal has taken is as follows: (1) Rousseau in his writings, +<i>Emile</i> and the <i>Nouvelle Heloise</i>, first preached the evangel +of Natural Education, the abstraction from History, the negation +of existing culture, and the return to the simplicity and +innocence of nature. Although he often himself testified in +his experience his own proneness to evil in a very discouraging +way, he fixed as an almost unlimited axiom in French +and German Pedagogics his principal maxim, that man is by +nature good. (2) The reformatory ideas of Rousseau met +with only a very infrequent and sporadic introduction among +the Romanic nations, because among them education was +too dependent on the church, and retained its cloister-like +seclusion in seminaries, colleges, &c. In Germany, on the +contrary, it was actualized, and the <i>Philanthropia</i>, established +by Basedow in Dessau, Brunswick, and Schnepfenthal, +made experiments, which nevertheless very soon departed +somewhat from the ultraism of Basedow and had very +excellent results. (3) Humanity existed <i>in concreto</i> only in +the form of nations. The French nation, in their revolution, +tried the experiment of abstracting from their history, of levelling +all distinctions of culture, of enthroning a despotism +of Reason, and of organizing itself as humanity, pure and +simple. The event showed the impossibility of such a beginning. +The national energy, the historical impulse, the +love of art and science, came forth from the midst of the revolutionary +abstraction, which was opposed to them, only the +more vigorously. The <i>grande nation</i>, their <i>grande armée</i>, +and <i>gloire</i>—that is to say, for France—absorbed all the +humanitarian phases. In Germany the philanthropic circle +of education was limited to the higher ranks. There was no +exclusiveness in the <i>Philanthropia</i>, for there nobles and citizens, +Catholics and Protestants, Russians and Swiss, were +mingled; but these were always the children of wealthy + +<span class='pagenum'><a class="tooltip" name="Page_147" id="Page_147"><span><i>The Philanthropic Ideal.</i></span>147</a></span> + +families, and to these the plan of education was adapted. +Then appeared Pestalozzi and directed education also to the +lower classes of society—those which are called, not without +something approaching to a derogatory meaning, <i>the people</i>. +From this time dates popular education, the effort for the +intellectual and moral elevation of the hitherto neglected +atomistic human being of the non-property-holding multitude. +There shall in future be no dirty, hungry, ignorant, +awkward, thankless, and will-less mass, devoted alone to an +animal existence. We can never rid ourselves of the lower +classes by having the wealthy give something, or even their +all, to the poor, so as to have no property themselves; but +we can rid ourselves of it in the sense that the possibility of +culture and independent self-support shall be open to every +one, because he is a human being and a citizen of the commonwealth. +Ignorance and rudeness and the vice which +springs from them, and the malevolent frame of mind against +the human race, which are bound up with crime—these shall +disappear. Education shall train man to self-conscious obedience +to law, as well as to kindly feeling towards the erring, +and to an effort not merely for their removal but for their +improvement. But the more Pestalozzi endeavored to realize +his ideal of human dignity, the more he comprehended that +the isolated power of a private man could not attain it, but +that the nation itself must make their own education their +first business. Fichte by his lectures first made the German +nation fully accept these thoughts, and Prussia was the first +state which, by her public schools and her conscious preparation +for defence, broke the path for National Education; +while among the Romanic nations, in spite of their more +elaborate political formalism, it still depends partly upon +the church and partly upon the accident of private enterprise. +Pestalozzi also laid a foundation for a national pedagogical +literature by his story of <i>Leonard and Gertrude</i>. +This book appeared at first in 1784, i.e. in the same year in +which Schiller's <i>Robbers</i> and Kant's <i>Critique of Pure Reason</i> +announced a new phase in the Drama and in Philosophy.—</p> + +<p>—The incarnation of God, which was, up to the time of the +Reformation, an esoteric mystery of the Church, has since +then become continually more and more an exoteric problem +of the State.—</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a class="tooltip" name="Page_148" id="Page_148"><span><i>Free Education.</i></span>148</a></span></p> + +<div class="center"><a name="free" id="free"></a><i>3. Free Education.</i></div> + +<p><a name="S260" id="S260"></a>§ 260. The ideal of culture of the humanitarian and the +philanthropic education was taken up into the conception of +an education which recognizes the Family, social caste, the +Nation, and Religion, as positive elements of the practical +spirit, but which will know each of these as determined from +within through the idea of humanity, and laid open for reciprocal +dialectic with the rest. Physical development shall become +the subject of a national system of gymnastics fashioned +for use, and including in itself the knowledge of the use of +arms. Instruction shall, in respect to the general encyclopædic +culture, be the same for all, and parallel to this shall run +a system of special schools to prepare for the special avocations +of life. The method of instruction shall be the simple +representation of the special idea of the subject, and no +longer the formal breadth of an acquaintance with many +subjects which may find outside the school its opportunity, +but within it has no meaning except as the history of a science +or an art. Moral culture must be combined with family +affection and the knowledge of the laws of the commonwealth, +so that the dissension between individual morality and +objective legality may ever more and more disappear. Education +shall, without estranging the individual from the internality +of the family, accustom him more and more to public +life, because criticism of this is the only thing which can +prevent the cynicism of private life, the half-ness of knowledge +and will, and the spirit of caste, which has so extensively +prevailed. The individual shall be educated into a +self-consciousness of the essential equality and freedom of +all men, so that he shall recognize and acknowledge himself +in each one and in all. But this essential and solid unity of +all men shall not evaporate into the insipidity of a humanity +without distinctions, but instead it shall realize the form of +a determinate individuality and nationality, and shall enlighten +the idiosyncrasy of its nation into a broad humanity. +The unrestricted striving after Beauty, Truth, and Freedom, +actually through its own strength and immediately, not +merely mediately through ecclesiastical consecration, will +become Religion.</p> + +<p>The Education of the State must rise to a preparation for +the unfettered activity of self-conscious Humanity.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_1b" id="Page_1b"> </a></span></p> + +<hr /> + +<h1>THE SCIENCE OF EDUCATION.</h1> + +<h4>A PARAPHRASE OF DR. KARL ROSENKRANZ'S<br /> +PAEDAGOGIK ALS SYSTEM.</h4> +<hr /> +<h3>BY ANNA C. BRACKETT.</h3> +<hr /> + +<h4>ST. LOUIS:<br /> +G. I. JONES AND COMPANY.<br /> +1878.</h4> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_2b" id="Page_2b"> </a></span></p> + +<h5> +Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1878, by<br /> +WILLIAM T. HARRIS,<br /> +In the office of the Librarian of Congress, at Washington.</h5> +<hr /> +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_3b" id="Page_3b"> </a></span></p> + +<h3>PREFACE.</h3> + + +<p>The translation of "Pedagogics as a System" was prepared and +published five years ago. The wide demand for it that has made +itself known since that time, especially in normal schools, has proved +the value of such works in the domain of education. At the same +time, the difficulty the students have always found in its use—a difficulty +inseparable from any translation of a German metaphysical +treatise—has led us to the conviction that a paraphrase into a more +easily understood form is a necessity, if the thought of Rosenkranz +is to be appropriated by the very class who are most in need of it. +As was remarked in the preface to the translation, we have in English +no other work of similar size which contains so much that is valuable +to those engaged in the work of education. It is no compendium of +rules or formulas, but rather a systematic, logical treatment of the +subject, in which the attention is, as it were, concentrated upon the +whole problem of education, while that problem is allowed to work +itself out before us. To paraphrase the text—or, rather, to translate +it from the metaphysical language in which it at present appears into +a language more easy of comprehension—without losing the real significance +of the statements, is the task which is here undertaken. +Free illustrations and suggestions have been interwoven to give point +and application to the thoughts and principles stated. This translation, +or paraphrase, follows the paragraphs of the original and of the +first translation. The analysis of the whole work, as it appeared in +the original translation, is appended at the end of the "Introduction," +as a guide to the student.</p> +<hr /> +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_5b" id="Page_5b"> </a></span></p> + +<h3>THE SCIENCE OF EDUCATION.</h3> +<hr /> + +<h4>INTRODUCTION.</h4> + +<p><a name="S1b" id="S1b"></a>§ 1. The science of Pedagogics may be called a secondary +science, inasmuch as it derives its principles from others. +In this respect it differs from Mathematics, which is independent. +As it concerns the development of the human intelligence, +it must wait upon Psychology for an understanding of +that upon which it is to operate, and, as its means are to be +sciences and arts, it must wait upon them for a knowledge of +its materials. The science of Medicine, in like manner, is +dependent on the sciences of Biology, Chemistry, Physics, +etc. Moreover, as Medicine may have to deal with a healthy +or unhealthy body, and may have it for its province to preserve +or restore health, to assist a natural process (as in the +case of a broken bone), or to destroy an unnatural one (as in +the case of the removal of a tumor), the same variety of work +is imposed upon Education.<a name="FNanchor_1" id="FNanchor_1"></a><a href="#Footnote_1" class="fnanchor">1</a></p> + +<p><a name="S2b" id="S2b"></a>§ 2. Since the rules of Pedagogics must be extremely +flexible, so that they may be adapted to the great variety of +minds, and since an infinite variety of circumstances may arise +in their application, we find, as we should expect, in all educational +literature room for widely differing opinions and the +wildest theories; these numerous theories, each of which + +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_6b" id="Page_6b">6</a></span> + +may have a strong influence for a season, only to be overthrown +and replaced by others.<a name="FNanchor_2" id="FNanchor_2"></a><a href="#Footnote_2" class="fnanchor">2</a> It must be acknowledged +that educational literature, as such, is not of a high order. +It has its cant like religious literature. Many of its faults, +however, are the result of honest effort, on the part of teachers, +to remedy existing defects, and the authors are, therefore, +not harshly to be blamed. It is also to be remembered that +the habit of giving reproof and advice is one fastened in them +by the daily necessity of their professional work.<a name="FNanchor_3" id="FNanchor_3"></a><a href="#Footnote_3" class="fnanchor">3</a></p> + + +<p><a name="S3b" id="S3b"></a>§ 3. As the position of the teacher has ceased to be +undervalued, there has been an additional impetus given to +self-glorification on his part, and this also—in connection with +the fact that schools are no longer isolated as of old, but subject +to constant comparison and competition—leads to much +careless theorizing among its teachers, especially in the literary +field.</p> + +<p><a name="S4b" id="S4b"></a>§ 4. Pedagogics, because it deals with the human spirit, +belongs, in a general classification of the sciences, to the +philosophy of spirit, and in the philosophy of spirit it must be +classified under the practical, and not the merely theoretical, +division. For its problem is not merely to comprehend the +nature of that with which it has to deal, the human spirit—its +problem is not merely to influence one mind (that of the +pupil) by another (that of the teacher)—but to influence it +in such a way as to produce the mental freedom of the pupil. +The problem is, therefore, not so much to obtain performed +works as to excite mental activity. A creative process is +required. The pupil is to be forced to go in certain beaten +tracks, and yet he is to be so forced to go in these that he shall +go of his own freewill. All teaching which does not leave +the mind of the pupil free is unworthy of the name. It is +true that the teacher must understand the nature of mind, as + + +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_7b" id="Page_7b">7</a></span> + +he is to deal with mind, but when he has done this he has still +his main principle of action unsolved; for the question is, +knowing the nature of the mind, How shall he incite it to +action, already predetermined in his own mind, without +depriving the mind of the pupil of its own free action? How +shall he restrain and guide, and yet not enslave?</p> + + +<p>If, in classifying all sciences, as suggested at the beginning +of this section, we should subdivide the practical division of the +Philosophy of Spirit, which might be called Ethics, one could +find a place for Pedagogics under some one of the grades of +Ethics. The education which the child receives through the +influence of family life lies at the basis of all other teaching, +and what the child learns of life, its duties, and possibilities, +in its own home, forms the foundation for all after-work. On +the life of the family, then, as a presupposition, all systems of +Education must be built. In other words, the school must +not attempt to initiate the child into the knowledge of the +world—it must not assume the care of its first training; that +it must leave to the family.<a name="FNanchor_4" id="FNanchor_4"></a><a href="#Footnote_4" class="fnanchor">4</a> But the science of Pedagogics +does not, as a science, properly concern itself with the family +education, or with that point of the child's life which is dominated +by the family influence. That is education, in a certain +sense, without doubt, but it does not properly belong to a +science of Pedagogics. But, on the other hand, it must be +remembered that this science, as here expounded, presupposes +a previous family life in the human being with whom it has to +deal.</p> + +<p><a name="S5b" id="S5b"></a>§ 5. Education as a science will present the necessary +and universal principles on which it is based; Education as +an art will consist in the practical realization of these in the +teacher's work in special places, under special circumstances, +and with special pupils. In the skillful application of the +principles of the science to the actual demands of the art lies +the opportunity for the educator to prove himself a creative +artist; and it is in the difficulty involved in this practical + +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_8b" id="Page_8b">8</a></span> + +work that the interest and charm of the educator's work +consists.</p> + + +<p>The teacher must thus adapt himself to the pupil. But, in +doing so, he must have a care that he do not carry this adaptation +to such a degree as to imply that the pupil is not to +change; and he must see to it, also, that the pupil shall always +be worked upon by the matter which he is considering, and +not too much by the personal influence of the teacher through +whom he receives it.<a name="FNanchor_5" id="FNanchor_5"></a><a href="#Footnote_5" class="fnanchor">5</a></p> + +<p><a name="S6b" id="S6b"></a>§ 6. The utmost care is necessary lest experiments which +have proved successful in certain cases should be generalized +into rules, and a formal, dead creed, so to speak, should be +adopted. All professional experiences are valuable as material +on which to base new conclusions and to make new plans, +but only for that use. Unless the day's work is, every day, a +new creation, a fatal error has been made.</p> + +<p><a name="S7b" id="S7b"></a>§ 7. Pedagogics as a science must consider Education—</p> + +<p class="margin2"> +(1) In its general idea;<br /> + +(2) In its different phases;<br /> + +(3) In the special systems arising from this general idea, +acting under special circumstances at special times.<a name="FNanchor_6" id="FNanchor_6"></a><a href="#Footnote_6" class="fnanchor">6</a></p> + +<p><a name="S8b" id="S8b"></a>§ 8. With regard to the First Part, we remark that by Education, +in its general idea, we do not mean any mere history of +Pedagogics, nor can any history of Pedagogics be substituted +for a systematic exposition of the underlying idea.</p> + +<p><a name="S9b" id="S9b"></a>§ 9. The second division considers Education under three +heads—as physical, intellectual, and moral—and forms, generally, +the principal part of all pedagogical treatises.</p> + +<p>In this part lies the greatest difficulty as to exact limitation. +The ideas on these divisions are often undefined and +apt to be confounded, and the detail of which they are capable +is almost unlimited, for we might, under this head, speak + +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_9b" id="Page_9b">9</a></span> + +of all kinds of special schools, such as those for war, art, +mining, etc.</p> + +<p><a name="S10b" id="S10b"></a>§ 10. In the Third Part we consider the different realizations +of the one general idea of Pedagogics as it has developed itself +under different circumstances and in different ages of the world.</p> + +<p>The general idea is forced into different phases by the +varying physical, intellectual, and moral conditions of men. +The result is the different systems, as shown in the analysis. +The general idea is one. The view of the end to be obtained +determines in each case the actualization of this idea. Hence +the different systems of Education are each determined by the +stand-point from which the general ideal is viewed. Proceeding +in this manner, it might be possible to construct a history +of Pedagogics, <i>à priori</i>, without reference to actual history, +since all the possible systems might be inferred from the +possible definite number of points of view.</p> + +<p>Each lower stand-point will lead to a higher, but it will not +be lost in it. Thus, where Education, for the sake of the +nation,<a name="FNanchor_7" id="FNanchor_7"></a><a href="#Footnote_7" class="fnanchor">7</a> merges into the Education based on Christianity, the +form is not thereby destroyed, but, rather, in the transition +first attains its full realization. The systems of Education +which were based on the idea of the nation had, in the fullness +of time, outgrown their own limits, and needed a new +form in order to contain their own true idea. The idea of the +nation, as the highest principle, gives way for that of Christianity. +A new life came to the old idea in what at first +seemed to be its destruction. The idea of the nation was +born again, and not destroyed, in Christianity.</p> + +<p><a name="S11b" id="S11b"></a>§ 11. The final system, so far, is that of the present time, +which thus is itself the fruit of all the past systems, as well as +the seed of all systems that are to be. The science of Pedagogics, +in the consideration of the system of the present, thus again +finds embodied the general idea of education, and thus returns +upon itself to the point from whence it set out. In the First +and Second Parts there is already given the idea which dominates +the system found thus necessarily existing in the present.</p> +<hr /> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_10b" id="Page_10b">10</a></span></p> +<table width="100%" summary="education" border="0"> + +<tr> +<td class="td17_20" rowspan="32">Education</td> +<td class="td17_20" rowspan="3">PART I.<br />In its General<br /> Idea.</td> +<td class="td17">Its Nature.</td> +<td class="td17"> </td> +<td class="td17"> </td> +<td class="td17"> </td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="td17">Its Form.</td> +<td class="td17"> </td> +<td class="td17"> </td> +<td class="td17"> </td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="td17">Its Limits.</td> +<td class="td17"> </td> +<td class="td17"> </td> +<td class="td17"> </td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="td17"> </td> +<td class="td17"> </td> +<td class="td17"> </td> +<td class="td17"> </td> +<td class="td17"> </td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="td17_20" rowspan="3">PART II.<br />In its Special<br /> Elements.</td> +<td class="td17">Physical.</td> +<td class="td17"> </td> +<td class="td17"> </td> +<td class="td17"> </td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="td17">Intellectual.</td> +<td class="td17"> </td> +<td class="td17"> </td> +<td class="td17"> </td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="td17">Moral.</td> +<td class="td17"> </td> +<td class="td17"> </td> +<td class="td17"> </td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="td17"> </td> +<td class="td17"> </td> +<td class="td17"> </td> +<td class="td17"> </td> +<td class="td17"> </td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="td17_20" rowspan="24">PART III.<br />In its Particular<br /> Systems.</td> +<td class="td17_20" rowspan="12">National.</td> +<td class="td17_20" rowspan="3">Passive.</td> +<td class="td17">Family</td> +<td class="td17">China.</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="td17">Caste</td> +<td class="td17">India.</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="td17">Monkish</td> +<td class="td17">Thibet.</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="td17"> </td> +<td class="td17"> </td> +<td class="td17"> </td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="td17_20" rowspan="3">Active.</td> +<td class="td17">Military.</td> +<td class="td17">Persia.</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="td17">Priestly</td> +<td class="td17">Egypt.</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="td17">Industrial</td> +<td class="td17">Phœnicia.</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="td17"> </td> +<td class="td17"> </td> +<td class="td17"> </td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="td17_20" rowspan="4">Individual.</td> +<td class="td17">Æsthetic</td> +<td class="td17">Greece.</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="td17">Practical</td> +<td class="td17">Rome.</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="td17_20">Abstract<br /> Individual</td> +<td class="td17">Northern<br /> Barbarians.</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="td17"> </td> +<td class="td17"> </td> +<td class="td17"> </td> +<td class="td17"> </td> +<td class="td17"> </td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td class="td17" colspan="3">Theocratic. . . . . . . . . . . . . . .</td> +<td class="td17">Jews.</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="td17"> </td> +<td class="td17"> </td> +<td class="td17"> </td> +<td class="td17"> </td> +<td class="td17"> </td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="td17_20" rowspan="9">Humanitarian.</td> +<td class="td17">Monkish.</td> +<td class="td17"> </td> +<td class="td17"> </td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="td17"> </td> +<td class="td17"> </td> +<td class="td17"> </td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="td17">Chivalric.</td> +<td class="td17"> </td> +<td class="td17"> </td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="td17"> </td> +<td class="td17"> </td> +<td class="td17"> </td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="td17_20" rowspan="3">For Civil<br /> Life.</td> +<td class="td17_20">For Special<br /> Callings.</td> +<td class="td17">Jesuitic.<br />Pietistic.</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="td17"> </td> +<td class="td17"> </td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="td17_20">To achieve<br /> an Ideal<br /> of Culture.</td> +<td class="td17">The Humanities.<br /> <br />The Philanthropic<br /> Movement.</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="td17"> </td> +<td class="td17"> </td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="td17" colspan="2">For Free Citizensip.</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="td17"> </td> +<td class="td17"> </td> +</tr> + +</table> + +<hr /> + +<div class="center">FIRST PART.</div> + +<div class="center"><b>The General Idea of Education.</b></div> + + +<p><a name="S12b" id="S12b"></a>§ 12. A full treatment of Pedagogics must distinguish—<br /> + +(1) The nature of Education;<br /> + +(2) The form of Education;<br /> + +(3) The limits of Education.</p> + + +<div class="center"><a name="nature2" id="nature2"></a><i>I.—The Nature of Education</i>.</div> + +<p><a name="S13b" id="S13b"></a>§ 13. The nature of Education is determined by the nature of +mind, the distinguishing mark of which is that it can be developed +only from within, and by its own activity. Mind is essentially +free—<i>i.e.</i>, it has the capacity for freedom—but it +cannot be said to possess freedom till it has obtained it by its +own voluntary effort. Till then it cannot be truly said to be +free. Education consists in enabling a human being to take +possession of, and to develop himself by, his own efforts, and +the work of the educator cannot be said to be done in any +sense where this is not accomplished. In general, we may +say that the work of education consists in leading to a full +development of all the inherent powers of the mind, and that +its work is done when, in this way, the mind has attained +perfect freedom, or the state in which alone it can be said to +be truly itself.<a name="FNanchor_8" id="FNanchor_8"></a><a href="#Footnote_8" class="fnanchor">8</a></p> + +<p>The isolated human being can never become truly man. If +such human beings (like the wild girl of the forest of Ardennes) +have been found, they have only proved to us that reciprocal +action with our fellow beings is necessary for the development + + +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_12b" id="Page_12b">12</a></span> + +of our powers. Caspar Hauser, in his subterranean +prison, will serve as an example of what man would be without +men. One might say that this fact is typified by the first cry +of the newly-born child. It is as if the first expression of its +seemingly independent life were a cry for help from others. +On the side of nature the human being is at first quite helpless.</p> + + +<p><a name="S14b" id="S14b"></a>§ 14. Man is, therefore, the only proper object of education. +It is true that we speak of the education of plants and of animals, +but we instinctively apply other terms when we do so, for we +say "raising" plants, and "training" animals. When we +"train" or "break" an animal, it is true that we do, by pain +or pleasure, lead him into an exercise of a new activity. But +the difference between this and Education consists in the fact +that, though he possessed capacity, yet by no amount of association +with his kind would he ever have acquired this new +development. It is as if we impress upon his plastic nature +the imprint of our loftier nature, which imprint he takes +mechanically, and does not himself recognize it as his own +internal nature. We train him for our recognition, not for his +own. But, on the contrary, when we educate a human being, +we only excite him to create for himself, and out of himself, +that for which he would most earnestly strive had he any +appreciation of it beforehand, and in proportion as he does +appreciate it he recognizes it joyfully as a part of himself, as +his own inheritance, which he appropriates with a knowledge +that it is his, or, rather, is a part of his own nature. He +who speaks of "raising" human beings uses language which +belongs only to the slave-dealer, to whom human beings are +only cattle for labor, and whose property increases in value +with the number.</p> + +<p>Are there no school-rooms where Education has ceased to +have any meaning, and where physical pain is made to produce +its only possible result—a mechanical, external repetition? The +school-rooms where the creative word—the only thing which +can influence the mind—has ceased to be used as the means +are only plantations, where human beings are degraded to the +position of lower animals.</p> + +<p><a name="S15b" id="S15b"></a>§ 15. When we speak of the Education of the human +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_13b" id="Page_13b">13</a></span> +race, we mean the gradual growth of the nations of the earth, +as a whole, towards the realization of self-conscious freedom. +Divine Providence is the teacher here. The means by which +the development is effected are the various circumstances and +actions of the different races of men, and the pupils are the +nations. The unfolding of this great Education is generally +treated of under the head of Philosophy of History.</p> + +<p><a name="S16b" id="S16b"></a>§ 16. Education, however, in a more restricted sense, +has to do with the shaping of the individual. Each one of us +is to be educated by the laws of physical nature—by the relations +into which we come with the national life, in its laws, +customs, etc., and by the circumstances which daily surround +us. By the force of these we find our arbitrary will hemmed +in, modified, and forced to take new channels and forms. We +are too often unmindful of the power with which these forces +are daily and hourly educating us—<i>i. e.</i>, calling out our possibilities +into real existence. If we set up our will in opposition +to either of these; if we act in opposition to the laws of nature; +if we seriously offend the laws, or even the customs, of +the people among whom we live; or if we despise our +individual lot, we do so only to find ourselves crushed in +the encounter. We only learn the impotence of the individual +against these mighty powers; and that discovery is, +of itself, a part of our education. It is sometimes only by +such severe means that God is revealed to the man who persistently +misunderstands and defies His creation. All suffering +brought on ourselves by our own violation of laws, whether +natural, ethical, or divine, must be, however, thus recognized +as the richest blessing. We do not mean to say that it is +never allowable for a man, in obedience to the highest laws of +his spiritual being, to break away from the fetters of nature—to +offend the ethical sense of his own people, or to struggle +against the might of destiny. Reformers and martyrs +would be examples of such, and our remarks above do not +apply to them, but to the perverse, the frivolous, and the conceited; +to those who are seeking in their action, not the undoubted +will of God, but their own individual will or caprice.</p> + +<p><a name="S17b" id="S17b"></a>§ 17. But we generally use the word Education in a still + +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_14b" id="Page_14b">14</a></span> + +narrower sense than either of these, for we mean by it the +working of one individual mind upon or within another in +some definite and premeditated way, so as to fit the pupil for +life generally, or for some special pursuit. For this end the +educator must be relatively finished in his own education, and +the pupil must possess confidence in him, or docility. He +must be teachable. That the work be successful, demands the +very highest degree of talent, knowledge, skill, and prudence; +and any development is impossible if a well-founded +authority be wanting in the educator, or docility on the part +of the pupil.</p> + +<p>Education, in this narrowest and technical sense, is an outgrowth +of city or urban life. As long as men do not congregate +in large cities, the three forces spoken of in § <a href="#S16">16</a>—<i>i.e.</i>, +the forces of nature, national customs, and circumstances—will +be left to perform most of the work of Education; +but, in modern city life, the great complication of +events, the uncertainty in the results—though careful forethought +has been used—the immense development of individuality, +and the pressing need of various information, break +the power of custom, and render a different method necessary. +The larger the city is, the more free is the individual in it +from the restraints of customs, the less subjected to curious +criticism, and the more able is he to give play to his own +idiosyncrasies. This, however, is a freedom which needs the +counterpoise of a more exact training in conventionalities, if +we would not have it dangerous. Hence the rapid multiplication +of educational institutions and systems in modern times +(one chief characteristic of which is the development of urban +life). The ideal Telemachus of Fenelon differs very +much from the real Telemachus of history. Fenelon proposed +an education which trained a youth to reflect, and to guide himself +by reason. The Telemachus of the heroic age followed +the customs ("use and wont") of his times with <i>naïve</i> obedience. +The systems of Education once sufficient do not +serve the needs of modern life, any more than the defenses +once sufficient against hostile armies are sufficient against the +new weapons adopted by modern warfare.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_15b" id="Page_15b">15</a></span></p> + +<p><a name="S18b" id="S18b"></a>§ 18. The problem with which modern Education has to +deal may be said, in general terms, to be the development in +the individual soul of the indwelling Reason, both practical +(as will) and theoretical (as intellect). To make a child +good is only a part of Education; we have also to +develop his intelligence. The sciences of Ethics and Education +are not the same. Again, we must not forget that no +pupil is simply a human being, like every other human +being; he is also an individual, and thus differs from every +other one of the race. This is a point which must never +be lost sight of by the educator. Human beings may be—nay, +must be—educated in company, but they cannot be educated +simply in the mass.</p> + +<p><a name="S19b" id="S19b"></a>§ 19. Education is to lead the pupil by a graded series +of exercises, previously arranged and prescribed by the educator, +to a definite end. But these exercises must take on a +peculiar form for each particular pupil under the special circumstances +present. Hasty and inconsiderate work <i>may</i>, by +chance, accomplish much; but no work which is not <i>systematic</i> +can advance and fashion him in conformity with his +tenure, and such alone is to be called Education; for Education +implies both a comprehension of the end to be attained +and of the means necessary to compass that end.</p> + +<p><a name="S20b" id="S20b"></a>§ 20. Culture, however, means more and more every +year; and, as the sum total of knowledge increases for mankind, +it becomes necessary, in order to be a master in any one +line, to devote one's self almost exclusively to that. Hence +arises, for the teacher, the difficulty of preserving the unity and +wholeness which are essential to a complete man. The principle +of division of labor comes in. He who is a teacher +by profession becomes one-sided in his views; and, as teaching +divides and subdivides into specialities, this abnormal one-sideness +tends more and more to appear. Here we find a parallelism +in the profession of Medicine, with a corresponding +danger of narrowness; for that, too, is in a process of constant +specialization, and the physician who treats nervous diseases +is likely to be of the opinion that all trouble arises from +that part of the organism, or, at least, that all remedies should + +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_16b" id="Page_16b">16</a></span> + +be applied there. This tendency to one-sideness is inseparable +from the progress of civilization and that of science and arts. +It contains, nevertheless, a danger of which no teacher should +be unwarned. An illustration is furnished by the microscope +or telescope; a higher power of the instrument implies a narrower +field of view. To concentrate our observation upon one +point implies the shutting out of others. This difficulty with +the teacher creates one for the pupil.</p> + +<p>In this view one might be inclined to judge that the life of +the savage as compared with that of civilized man, or that of a +member of a rural community as compared with that of an +inhabitant of a city, were the more to be desired. The savage +has his hut, his family, his cocoa-palm, his weapons, his passions; +he fishes, hunts, amuses himself, adorns himself, and +enjoys the consciousness that he is the center of a little world; +while the denizen of a city must often acknowledge that he is, +so to speak, only one wheel of a gigantic machine. Is the life +of the savage, therefore, more favorable to human development? +The characteristic idea of modern civilization is: The +development of the individual as the end for which the State +exists. The great empires of Persia, Egypt, and India, +wherein the individual was of value only as he ministered to +the strength of the State, have given way to the modern +nations, where individual freedom is pushed so far that the +State seems only an instrument for the good of the individual. +From being the supreme end of the individual, the State has +become the means for his advancement into freedom; and +with this very exaltation of the value of the mere individual +over the State, as such, there is inseparably connected the seeming +destruction of the wholeness of the individual man. But +the union of State and individual, which was in ancient times +merely mechanical, has now become a living process, in which +constant interaction gives rise to all the intellectual life of +modern civilization.</p> + +<p><a name="S21b" id="S21b"></a>§ 21. The work of Education being thus necessarily +split up, we have the distinction between general and special +schools. The work of the former is to give general development—what +is considered essential for all men; that of the + +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_17b" id="Page_17b">17</a></span> + +latter, to prepare for special callings. The former should +furnish a basis for the latter—<i>i.e.</i>, the College should precede +the Medical School, etc., and the High School the Normal. +In the United States, owing to many causes, this is unfortunately +not the case.</p> + +<p>The difference between city and country life is important +here. The teacher in a country school, and, still more, the +private tutor or governess, must be able to teach many +more things than the teacher in a graded school in the city, or +the professor in a college or university. The danger on the +one side is of superficiality, on the other of narrowness.</p> + +<p><a name="S22b" id="S22b"></a>§ 22. The Education of any individual can be only relatively +finished. His possibilities are infinite. His actual +realization of those possibilities must always remain far behind. +The latter can only approximate to the former. It can +never reach them. The term "finishing an education" needs, +therefore, some definition; for, as a technical term, it has undoubtedly +a meaning. An immortal soul can never complete +its development; for, in so doing, it would give the lie to its +own nature. We cannot speak properly, however, of educating +an idiot. Such an unfortunate has no power of generalization, +and no conscious personality. We can train him mechanically, +but we cannot educate him. This will help to +illustrate the difference, spoken of in § <a href="#S14">14</a>, between Education +and Mechanical training.</p> + +<p>We obtain astonishing results, it is true, in our schools for +idiots, and yet we cannot fail to perceive that, after all, we +have only an external result. We produce a mechanical performance +of duties, and yet there seems to be no actual mental +growth. It is an exogenous, and not an endogenous, growth, +to use the language of Botany.<a name="FNanchor_9" id="FNanchor_9"></a><a href="#Footnote_9" class="fnanchor">9</a> Continual repetition, under +the most gentle patience, renders the movements easy, but, +after all, they are only automatic, or what the physicians call +reflex.</p> + +<p>We have the same result produced in a less degree when we + +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_18b" id="Page_18b">18</a></span> + +attempt to teach an intelligent child something which is beyond +his active comprehension. A child may be taught to do +or say almost anything by patient training, but, if what he is +to say is beyond the power of his mental comprehension, and +hence of his active assimilation, we are only training him as +we train an animal (§ <a href="#S14">14</a>), and not educating him. We +call such recitations parrot recitations, and, by our use of the +word, express exactly in what position the pupils are placed. +An idiot is only a case of permanently arrested development. +What in the intelligent child is a passing phase is for the idiot a +fixed state. We have idiots of all grades, as we have children +of all ages.</p> + + +<p>The above observations must not be taken to mean that +children should never be taught to perform operations in arithmetic +which they do not, in cant phrase, "perfectly understand," +or to learn poetry whose whole meaning they cannot +fathom. Into this error many teachers have fallen.</p> + +<p>There can be no more profitable study for a teacher than to +visit one of these numerous idiot schools. He finds the alphabet +of his professional work there. As the philologist learns +of the formation and growth of language by examining, not +the perfectly formed languages, but the dialects of savage +tribes, so with the teacher. In like manner more insight into +the philosophy of teaching and of the nature of the mind can +be acquired by teaching a class of children to read than in +any other grade of work.</p> + + +<div class="center"><a name="form2" id="form2"></a><i>II.—The Form of Education.</i></div> + +<p><a name="S23b" id="S23b"></a>§ 23. The general form of Education follows from the +nature of mind. Mind is nothing but what it itself creates +out of its own activity. It is, at first, mind as undeveloped or +unconscious (in the main); but, secondly, it acquires the power +of examining its own action, of considering itself as an object +of attention, as if it were a quite foreign thing—<i>i.e.</i>, it reflects +(in this stage it is really ignorant that it is studying its own nature); +and, finally, it becomes conscious that this, which it had +been examining, and of whose existence it is conscious, is its + +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_19b" id="Page_19b">19</a></span> + +own self: It attains self-consciousness. It is through this +estrangement from itself, given back to itself again and restored +to unity, but it is no longer a simple, unconscious unity. +In this third state only can it be said to be free—<i>i.e.</i>, to possess +itself. Education cannot create; it can only help to develop +into reality the previously-existent possibility; it can +only help to bring forth to light the hidden life.</p> + +<p><a name="S24b" id="S24b"></a>§ 24. All culture, in whatever line, must pass through +these two stages of estrangement and of reunion; the reunion +being not of two different things, but the recognition of +itself by thought, and its acceptance of itself as itself. And +the more complete is the estrangement—<i>i.e.</i>, the more perfectly +can the thought be made to view itself as a somewhat +entirely foreign to itself, to look upon it as a different and +independent somewhat—the more complete and perfect will be +its union with and acceptance of its object as one with itself when +the recognition does finally take place. Through culture we are +led to this conscious possession of our own thought. Plato +gives to the feeling, with which knowledge must necessarily +begin, the name of wonder. But wonder is not knowledge; +it is only the first step towards it. It is the half-terrified +attention which the mind fixes on an object, and the half-terror +would be impossible did it not dimly forebode that it was +something of its own nature at which it was looking. The +child delights in stories of the far-off, the strange, and the +wonderful. It is as if they hoped to find in these some solution +to themselves—a solution which they have, as it were, +asked in vain of familiar scenes and objects. Their craving +for such is the proof of how far their nature transcends all its +known conditions. They are like adventurous explorers who +push out to unknown regions in hopes of finding the freedom +and wealth which lies only within themselves. They want to +be told about things which they never saw, such as terrible +conflagrations, banditti life, wild animals, gray old ruins, Robinson +Crusoes on far-off, happy islands. They are irresistibly +attracted by whatever is highly colored and dazzlingly lighted. +The child prefers the story of Sinbad the Sailor to any tales +of his own home and nation, because mind has this necessity + +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_20b" id="Page_20b">20</a></span> + +of getting, as it were, outside of itself so as to obtain a view +of itself. As the child grows to youth he is, from the same +reasons, desirous of traveling.</p> + +<p><a name="S25b" id="S25b"></a>§ 25. Work may be defined as the activity of the mind +in a conscious concentration on, and absorption in, some object, +with the purpose of acquiring or producing it. Play is the +activity of the mind which gives itself up to surrounding objects +according to its own caprice, without any thought as to +results. The Educator gives out work to the pupil, but he +leaves him to himself in his play.</p> + +<p><a name="S26b" id="S26b"></a>§ 26. It is necessary to draw a sharp line between work +and play. If the Educator has not respect for work as an activity +of great weight and importance, he not only spoils the +relish of the pupil for play, which loses all its charm of freedom +when not set off by its antithesis of earnest labor, but he +undermines in the pupil's mind all respect for any real existence. +On the other hand, he who does not give to the child +space, time, and opportunity for play prevents the originality +of his pupil from free development through the exercise of his +creative ingenuity. Play sends the child back to his work +refreshed, because in it he loses himself without constraint and +according to his own fancy, while in work he is required to +yield himself up in a manner prescribed for him by another.</p> + +<p>Let the teacher watch his pupils while at play if he would +discover their individual peculiarities, for it is then that they +unconsciously betray their real propensities. This antithesis +of work and play runs through the entire life, the form only +of play varying with years and occupations. To do what we +please, as we please, and when we please, not for any reason, +but just because we please, remains play always. Children in +their sports like nothing better than to counterfeit what is to be +the earnest work of their after-lives. The little girl plays with +her dolls, and the boy plays he is a soldier and goes to mimic +wars.</p> + +<p>It is, of course, an error to suppose that the play of a child is +simply muscular. The lamb and the colt find their full enjoyment +in capering aimlessly about the field. But to the +child play would be incomplete which did not bring the mind + +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_21b" id="Page_21b">21</a></span> + +into action. Children derive little enjoyment from purely +muscular exercise. They must at the same time have an object +requiring mental action to attain it. A number of children +set simply to run up and down a field would tire of the +exercise in five minutes; but put a ball amongst them and set +them to a game and they will be amused by it for hours.</p> + +<p>Exceptional mental development is always preceded, and is, +indeed, produced by, an exceptional amount of exercise in the +form of play on the part of the special faculties concerned. +The peculiar tendencies exhibited in play are due to the large +development of particular faculties, and the ultimate giant +strength of a faculty is brought about by play. The genius is +no doubt born, not made; but, although born, it would dwindle +away in infancy were it not for the constant exercise taken +in play, which is as necessary for development as food for the +maintenance of life.</p> + +<p><a name="S27b" id="S27b"></a>§ 27. Work should never be treated as if it were play, nor +play as if it were work. Those whose work is creative activity +of the mind may find recreation in the details of science; and +those, again, whose vocation is scientific research can find recreation +in the practice of art in its different departments. +What is work to one may thus be play to another. This does +not, however, contradict the first statement.</p> + +<p><a name="S28b" id="S28b"></a>§ 28. It is the province of education so to accustom us to different +conditions or ways of thinking and acting that they shall +no longer seem strange or foreign to us. When these have +become, as we say, "natural" to us—when we find the acquired +mode of thinking or acting just what our inclination +leads us to adopt unconsciously, a <i>Habit</i> has been formed. A +habit is, then, the identity of natural inclination with the special +demands of any particular doing or suffering, and it is +thus the external condition of all progress. As long as we require +the conscious act of our will to the performance of a deed, +that deed is somewhat foreign to ourselves, and not yet a +part of ourselves. The practical work of the educator may +thus be said to consist in leading the mind of the pupil over +certain lines of thought till it becomes "natural" or spontaneous +for him to go by that road. Much time is wasted in + +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_22b" id="Page_22b">22</a></span> + +schools where the pupil's mind is not led aright at first, for +then he has to unlearn habits of thought which are already +formed. The work of the teacher is to impress good methods +of studying and thinking upon the minds of his pupils, rather +than to communicate knowledge.</p> + +<p><a name="S29b" id="S29b"></a>§ 29. It is, at first sight, entirely indifferent what a Habit +shall relate to—<i>i.e.</i>, the point is to get the pupil into the way +of forming habits, and it is not at first of so much moment +what habit is formed as that a habit is formed. But we cannot +consider that there is anything morally neutral in the abstract, +but only in the concrete, or in particular examples. An +action may be of no moral significance to one man, and under +certain circumstances, while to another man, or to the same +man under different circumstances, it may have quite a different +significance, or may possess an entirely opposite character. +Appeal must be made, then, to the individual conscience of each +one to decide what is and what is not permissible to that individual +under the given circumstances. Education must make +it its first aim to awaken in the pupil a sensitiveness to spiritual +and ethical distinctions which knows that nothing is in its +own nature morally insignificant or indifferent, but shall recognize, +even in things seemingly small, a universal human significance. +But, yet, in relation to the highest interests of morality +or the well-being of society, the pupil must be taught to subordinate +without hesitation all that relates exclusively to his own +personal comfort or welfare for the well-being of his fellow-men, +or for moral rectitude.</p> + +<p>When we reflect upon habit, it at once assumes for us the +character of useful or injurious. The consequences of a habit +are not indifferent.</p> + +<p>Whatever action tends as a harmonious means to the realization +of our purpose is desirable or advantageous, and whatever +either partially contradicts or wholly destroys it is disadvantageous. +Advantage and disadvantage being, then, only +relative terms, dependent upon the aim or purpose which we +happen to have in view, a habit which may be advantageous to +one man under certain circumstances may be disadvantageous +to another man, or even to the same man, under other circumstances. + +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_23b" id="Page_23b">23</a></span> + +Education must, then, accustom the youth to consider +for himself the expediency or inexpediency of any action in +relation to his own vocation in life. He must not form habits +which will be inexpedient with regard to that.</p> + +<p><a name="S31b" id="S31b"></a>§ 31. There is, however, an <i>absolute</i> distinction of habits as +morally good and bad. From this absolute stand-point we +must, after all, decide what is for us allowable or forbidden, +what is expedient and what inexpedient.</p> + +<p><a name="S32b" id="S32b"></a>§ 32. As to its form, habit may be either passive or active. +By passive habit is meant a habit of composure which surveys +undisturbed whatever vicissitudes, either external or internal, +may fall to our lot, and maintains itself superior to them all, +never allowing its power of acting to be paralyzed by them. It +is not, however, merely a stoical indifference, nor is it the composure +which comes from inability to receive impressions—a +sort of impassivity. It is that composure which is the highest +result of power. Nor is it a selfish love of ease which intentionally +withdraws itself from annoyances in order to remain +undisturbed. It is not manifested because of a desire to be +out of these vicissitudes. It is, while in them, to be not of +them. It is the composure which does not fret itself over +what it cannot change. The soul that has built for itself this +stronghold of freedom within itself may vividly experience +joy and sorrow, pain and pleasure, and yet serenely know that +it is intrenched in walls which are inaccessible to their attacks, +because it knows that it is infinitely superior to all that may +chance or change. What is meant by active habit in distinction +from passive habit is found in our external activity, as skill, +facility, readiness of information, etc. It might be considered +as the equipping of our inner selves for active contest with +the external world; while passive habit is the fortifying of our +inner selves against the attack of the external world. The +man who possesses habit in both these forms impresses himself +in many different ways on the outer world, while at the +same time, and all the time, he preserves intact his personality +from the constant assaults of the outer world. He handles +both spear and shield.</p> + +<p><a name="S33b" id="S33b"></a>§ 33. All education, in whatever line, must work by forming + +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_24b" id="Page_24b">24</a></span> + +habits physical, mental, or moral. It might be said to consist +in a conversion of actions which are at first voluntary, by +means of repetition, into instructive actions which are performed, +as we say, naturally—<i>i.e.</i>, without any conscious volition. +We teach a child to walk, or he teaches himself to walk by +a constant repetition of the action of the will upon the necessary +muscles; and, when the thinking brain hands over the mechanism +to the trained spinal cord, the anxious, watchful look disappears +from the face, and the child talks or laughs as he runs: +then that part of his education is completed. Henceforth the attention +that had been necessary to manage the body in walking +is freed for other work. This is only an illustration, easily understood, +of what takes place in all education. Mental and +moral acts, thoughts, and feelings in the same way are, by +repetition, converted into habits and become our nature; +and character, good or bad, is only the aggregate of our habits. +When we say a person has no character, we mean exactly this: +that he has no fixed habits. But, as the great end of human +life is freedom, he must be above even habit. He must not +be wholly a machine of habits, and education must enable him +to attain the power of breaking as well as of forming habits, so +that he may, when desirable, substitute one habit for another. +For habits may be (§ <a href="#S29">29</a>), according to their nature, proper or +improper, advantageous or disadvantageous, good or bad; and, +according to their form, may be (§ <a href="#S32">32</a>) either the acceptance +of the external by the internal or the reaction of the internal +upon the external. Through our freedom we must be able, not +only to renounce any habit formed, but to form a new and +better one. Man should be supreme above all habits, wearing +them as garments which the soul puts on and off at will. It +must so order them all as to secure for itself a constant progress +of development into still greater freedom. In this higher +view habits become thus to our sight only necessary accompaniments +of imperfect freedom. Can we conceive of God, +who is perfect Freedom, as having any habits? We might say +that, as a means toward the ever-more decided realization of the +Good, we must form a habit of voluntarily making and breaking +off habits. We must characterize as bad those habits which + +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_25b" id="Page_25b">25</a></span> + +relate only to our personal convenience or enjoyment. They +are often not essentially blameworthy, but there lies in them a +hidden danger that they may allure us into luxury or effeminacy. +It is a false and mechanical way of looking at the +affair to suppose that a habit which had been formed by a +certain number of repetitions can be broken off by an equal +number of refusals. We can never utterly renounce a habit +which we decide to be undesirable for us except through decision +and firmness.</p> + +<p><a name="S34b" id="S34b"></a>§ 34. Education, then, must consider the preparation for +authority and obedience (§ <a href="#S17">17</a>); for a rational ordering of one's +actions according to universal principles, and, at the same time, +a preservation of individuality (§ <a href="#S18">18</a>); for work and play +(§ <a href="#S25">25</a>); for habits of spontaneity or originality (§ <a href="#S28">28</a>). To +endeavor by any set rules to harmonize in the pupil these opposites +will be a vain endeavor, and failure in the solution of +the problem is quite possible by reason of the freedom of the +pupil, of surrounding circumstances, or of mistakes on the +part of the teacher, and the possibility of this negative result +must, therefore, enter as an element of calculation into the work +itself. All the dangers which may in any way threaten the +youth must be considered in advance, and he must be fortified +against them. While we should not intentionally expose the +youth to temptation in order to prove his strength of resistance, +neither should we, on the other hand, endeavor to seclude him +from all chance of dangerous temptation. To do the former +would be satanic; while to do the latter would be ridiculous, +useless, and in fact dangerous in the highest degree, for temptation +comes more from within than from without, and any secret +inclination will in some way seek, or even create, its own opportunity +for gratification. The real safety from sin lies, not +in seclusion of one's self from the world<a name="FNanchor_10" id="FNanchor_10"></a><a href="#Footnote_10" class="fnanchor">10</a>—for all the elements +of worldliness are innate in each individual—but in an occupying +of the restless activity in other ways, in learning and discipline; +these being varied as time goes on, according to the +age and degree of proficiency. Not to crush out, but to direct, + +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_26b" id="Page_26b">26</a></span> + +the child's activity, whether physical or mental, is the key to all +real success in education. The sentimentalism which has, during +the last few years, in this country (the United States), tended +to diminish to so great an extent the actual work to be performed +by our boys and girls, has set free a dangerous amount +of energy whose new direction gives cause for grave alarm. +To endeavor to prevent the youth from all free and individual +relations with the real world, implies a never-ending watch +kept over him. The consciousness of being thus "shadowed" +destroys in the youth all elasticity of spirit, all confidence, and +all originality. A constant feeling of, as it were, a detective +police at his side obscures all sense of independent action, systematically +accustoming him to dependence. Though, as the +tragic-comic story of Peter Schlemihl shows, the loss of a man's +own shadow may involve him in a series of fatalities,<a name="FNanchor_11" id="FNanchor_11"></a><a href="#Footnote_11" class="fnanchor">11</a> yet to be +"shadowed" constantly by a companion, us in the pedagogical +system of the Jesuits, undermines all naturalness. And, +if we endeavor to guard too strictly against what is evil and +wrong, the pupil reacts, bringing all his intelligence into the +service of his craft and cunning, till the would-be educator +stands aghast at the discovery of such evil-doing as he had +supposed impossible under his strict supervision. Within the +circle of whatever rules it may be found necessary to draw +around the young there must always be left space for freedom. +Pupils should always be led to see that all rules against which +they fret are only of their own creation; and that as grave-stones +mark the place where some one has fallen, so every law is +only a record of some previous wrong-doing. The law "Thou +shalt not kill" was not given till murder had been committed. +In other words, the wrong deed preceded the law against it, +and perfect obedience is the same as perfect freedom. No obedience +except that which we gain from the pupil's own convictions +has real educational significance.</p> + + +<p><a name="S35b" id="S35b"></a>§ 35. If there appears in the youth any decided deformity +opposed to the ideal which we would create in him, we should at + +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_27b" id="Page_27b">27</a></span> + +once inquire into its history and origin. The negative and +positive are so closely related, and depend so intimately on +each other, in our being that what appears to us to be negligence, +rudeness, immorality, foolishness, or oddity may +arise from some real necessity of the pupil which in its process +of development has only taken a wrong direction.</p> + + +<p><a name="S36b" id="S36b"></a>§ 36. If it should appear, on such examination, that the +wrong action was the result of avoidable ignorance, of caprice, +or willfulness on the part of the pupil, this calls for a simple prohibition +on the part of the teacher, no reason being assigned. +His authority must be sufficient for the pupil without any +reason. When the fault is repeated, and the pupil is old +enough to understand, then only should the grounds of the +prohibition be stated with it. This should, however, be done +in few words, and the educator must never allow himself to +lose, in a doctrinal lecture, the idea of discipline. If he do, +the pupil will soon forget that it was his own misbehavior +which was the cause of all the remarks. The statement of +the reason must be honest, and must be presented to the youth +on the side most easy for him to appreciate. False reasons +are not only morally wrong, but they lead the mind astray. +We also commit a grave error when we try to unfold to the +youth all the possible consequences of his wrong act, for those +possible consequences are too far off to affect his mind. The +long lecture wearies him, especially if it be in a stereotyped +form; and with teachers who are fault-finding, and who like to +hear themselves talk, this is apt to be the case. Still more +unfortunate would it be if we really should affect the lively +imagination of a sensitive youth by our description of the +wretchedness to which his wrong-doing, if persisted in, might +lead him, for then the conviction that he has already taken +one step in that direction may produce in him a fear which in +the future man may become terrible depression and lead to +degradation.</p> + +<p><a name="S37b" id="S37b"></a>§ 37. If to censure we add the threat of punishment, we +have then what in common language is called scolding.</p> + +<p>If threats are made, the pupil must be made to feel that +they will be faithfully executed according to the word.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_28b" id="Page_28b">28</a></span></p> + +<p>The threat of punishment is, however, to be avoided; for circumstances +may arise which will render its fulfillment not only +objectionable, but wrong, and the teacher will then find himself +in the position of Herod and bound "for his oath's sake" to a +course of action which no longer seems the best. Even the +law in affixing a penalty to definite crimes allows a certain +latitude in a maximum and minimum of awarded punishment.</p> + +<p><a name="S38b" id="S38b"></a>§ 38. It is only after other means of reformation have been +tried, and have failed, that punishment is justifiable for error, +transgression, or vice. When our simple prohibition (§ <a href="#S36">36</a>), +the statement of our reason for the prohibiting (§ <a href="#S36">36</a>), and threat +of punishment (§ <a href="#S37">37</a>) have all failed, then punishment comes +and intentionally inflicts pain on the youth in order to force +him by this last means to a realization of his wrong-doing. And +here the punishment must not be given for general bad conduct +or for a perverse disposition—those being vague generalities—but +for a special act of wrong-doing at that time. He should +not be punished because he is naturally bad or because he is +generally naughty, but for this one special and particular act +which he has committed. Thus the punishment will act on the +general disposition, not directly, but through this particular +act, as a manifestation of the disposition. Then it will not +accuse the innermost nature of the culprit. This way of +punishment is not only demanded by justice, but it is absolutely +necessary in view of the fact of the sophistry inherent in +human nature which is always busy in assigning various +motives for its actions. If the child understands, then, that he +is punished for that particular act which he knows himself to +have committed, he cannot feel the bitter sense of injustice +and misunderstanding which a punishment inflicted for general +reasons, and which attributes to him a depravity of motives +and intentions, so often engenders.</p> + +<p><a name="S39b" id="S39b"></a>§ 39. Punishment as an educational means must, nevertheless, +be always essentially corrective, since it seeks always to +bring the youth to a comprehension of his wrong-doing and to +a positive alteration in his behavior, and, hence, has for its aim +to improve him. At the same time it is a sad testimony of +the insufficiency of the means which have been previously tried. + +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_29b" id="Page_29b">29</a></span> + +We should on no account aim to terrify the youth by physical +force, so that to avoid that he will refrain from doing the +wrong or from repeating a wrong act already done. This +would lead only to terrorism, and his growing strength would +soon put him beyond its power and leave him without motive +for refraining from evil. Punishment may have this effect in +some degree, but it should, above all, be made to impress deeply +upon his mind the eternal truth that the evil deed is never +allowed in God's universe to act unrestrained and according to +its own will, but that the good and true is the only absolute +power in the world, and that it is never at a loss to avenge any +contradiction of its will and design.</p> + +<p>It may be questioned whether the moral teaching in our +schools be not too negative in its measures; whether it do +not confine itself too much to forbidding the commission of the +wrong deed, and spend too little force in securing the performance +of the right deed. Not a simple refraining from the +wrong, but an active doing of the right would be the better +lesson to inculcate.</p> + +<p>In the laws of the state the office of punishment is first to +satisfy justice,<a name="FNanchor_12" id="FNanchor_12"></a><a href="#Footnote_12" class="fnanchor">12</a> and only after this is done can the improvement +of the criminal be considered. If government should +proceed on the same basis as the educator, it would make a +grave mistake, for it has to deal, not with children, but with +adults, to whom it concedes the dignity of full responsibility +for all their acts. It has not to consider the reasons, either +psychological or ethical, which prompted the deed. The +actual deed is what it has first of all to deal with, and only +after that is considered and settled can it take into view any + +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_30b" id="Page_30b">30</a></span> + +mitigating circumstances connected therewith, or any peculiarity +of the individual. The educator, on the other hand, +has to deal with those who are immature and only growing +toward responsibility. As long as they are under the care of +a teacher, he is at any rate partially accountable for what they +do. We must never confound the nature of punishment in the +State with that of punishment as an educational means.</p> + + +<p><a name="S40b" id="S40b"></a>§ 40. As to punishment, as with all other work in education, +it can never be abstractly determined beforehand, but it must be +regulated with a view to the individual pupil and his peculiar +circumstances. What it shall be, and how and when administered, +are problems which call for great ingenuity and tact on +the part of the educator. It must never be forgotten that +punishments vary in intensity at the will of the educator. He +fixes the standard by which they are measured in the child's +mind. Whipping is actual physical pain, and an evil in itself +to the child. But there are many other punishments which +involve no physical pain, and the intensity of which, as felt by +the child, varies according to an artificial standard in different +schools. "To sit under the clock" was a great punishment +in one of our public schools—not that the seat was +not perfectly comfortable, but that one was never sent there +to sit unless for some grave misdemeanor. The teacher has +the matter in his own hands, and it is well to remember this +and to grade his punishments with much caution, so as to +make all pass for their full value. In some schools even suspension +is so common that it does not seem to the pupil a +very terrible thing. "Familiarity breeds contempt," and frequency +implies familiarity. A punishment seldom resorted to +will always seem to the pupil to be severe. As we weaken, +and in fact bankrupt, language by an inordinate use of superlatives, +so, also, do we weaken any punishment by its frequent +repetition. Economy of resources should be always +practiced.</p> + +<p>§ 41. In general, we might say that, for very young children, +corporal punishment is most appropriate; for boys and girls, +isolation; and for older youth, something which appeals to the +sense of honor.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_31b" id="Page_31b">31</a></span></p> + +<p><a name="S42b" id="S42b"></a>§ 42. (1) Corporal punishment implies physical pain. Generally +it consists of a whipping, and this is perfectly justifiable +in case of persistent defiance of authority, of obstinate carelessness, +or of malicious evil-doing, so long or so often as the +higher perceptions of the offender are closed against appeal. +But it must not be administered too often, or with undue severity. +To resort to deprivation of food is cruel. But, while +we condemn the false view of seeing in the rod the only panacea +for all embarrassing questions of discipline on the teacher's +part, we can have no sympathy for the sentimentality +which assumes that the dignity of humanity is affected by +a blow given to a child. It is wrong thus to confound self-conscious +humanity with child-humanity, for to the average +child himself a blow is the most natural form of retribution, +and that in which all other efforts at influence at last end. +The fully grown man ought, certainly, not to be flogged, for +this kind of punishment places him on a level with the child; +or, where it is barbarously inflicted, reduces him to the level of +the brute, and thus absolutely does degrade him. In English +schools the rod is said to be often used; if a pupil of the first +class, who is never flogged, is put back into the second, he becomes +again subject to flogging. But, even if this be necessary +in the schools, it certainly has no proper place in the army +and navy.</p> + +<p><a name="S43b" id="S43b"></a>§ 43. (2) To punish a pupil by isolation is to remove him +temporarily from the society of his fellows. The boy or girl +thus cut off from companionship, and forced to think only of +himself, begins to understand how helpless he is in such a +position. Time passes wearily, and he is soon eager to return +to the companionship of parents, brothers and sisters, +teachers and fellow-students.</p> + +<p>But to leave a child entirely by himself without any supervision, +and perhaps in a dark room, is as wrong as to leave two +or three together without supervision. It often happens when +they are kept after school by themselves that they give the +freest rein to their childish wantonness, and commit the wildest +pranks.</p> + +<p><a name="S44b" id="S44b"></a>§ 44. (3) Shutting children up in this way does not touch + +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_32b" id="Page_32b">32</a></span> + +their sense of honor, and the punishment is soon forgotten, +because it relates only to certain particular phases of their +behavior. But it is quite different when the pupil is isolated +from his fellows on the ground that by his conduct he has +violated the very principles which make civilized society +possible, and is, therefore, no longer a proper member of it. +This is a punishment which touches his sense of honor, for +honor is the recognition of the individual by others as their +equal, and by his error, or by his crime, he had forfeited his +right to be their equal, their peer, and has thus severed +himself from them.</p> + +<p>The separation from them is thus only the external form of +the real separation which he himself has brought to pass within +his soul, and which his wrong-doing has only made clearly +visible. This kind of punishment, thus touching the whole +character of the youth and not easily forgotten, should be +administered with the greatest caution lest a permanent loss of +self-respect follow. When we think our wrong-doing to be +eternal in its effects, we lose all power of effort for our own +improvement.</p> + +<p>This sense of honor cannot be developed so well in family +life, because in the family the ties of blood make all in a certain +sense equal, no matter what may be their conduct. He +who has by wrong-doing severed himself from society is still a +member of the family, and within its sacred circle is still beloved, +though it may be with bitter tears. No matter how +wrong he may have been, he still can find there the deepest +sympathy, for he is still father, brother, etc. It is in the contact +of one family with another that the feeling of honor is +first developed, and still more in the contact of the individual +with an institution which is not bound to him by any natural +ties, but is an organism entirely external to him. Thus, to the +child, the school and the school-classes offer a means of development +which can never be found in the family.</p> + +<p>This fact is often overlooked by those who have the charge +of the education of children. No home education, no private +tutorship, can take the place of the school as an educational +influence. For the first time in his life the child, on being + +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_33b" id="Page_33b">33</a></span> + +sent to school, finds himself in a community where he is responsible +for his own deeds, and where he has no one to shield +him. The rights of others for whom he has no special affection +are to be respected by him, and his own are to be defended. +The knowledge gained at the school is by no means +the most valuable acquisition there obtained. It must never +be forgotten by the teacher that the school is an institution on +an entirely different basis from the family, and that personal +attachment is not the principle on which its rule can be rightly +based.</p> + +<p><a name="S45b" id="S45b"></a>§ 45. This gradation of punishment from physical pain, up +through occasional isolation, to the touching of the innermost +sense of honor is very carefully to be considered, both with +regard to the different ages at which they are severally appropriate +and to the different discipline which they necessarily +produce. Every punishment must, however, be always looked +at as a means to some end, and is thus transitory in its nature. +The pupil should always be conscious that it is painful to the +teacher to punish him. Nothing can be more effectual as a +means of cure for the wrong-doer than to perceive in the manner +and tone of the voice, in the very delay with which the +necessary punishment is administered, that he who punishes +also suffers in order that the wrong-doer may be cured of his +fault. The principle of vicarious suffering lies at the root of +all spiritual healing.</p> + +<div class="center"><a name="limits2" id="limits2"></a><i>III.—The Limits of Education.</i></div> + +<p><a name="S46b" id="S46b"></a>§ 46. As far as the external form of education is concerned, +its limit is reached in the instrumentality of punishment in +which we seek to turn the activity which has been employed in +a wrong direction into its proper channel, to make the deed +positive instead of negative, to substitute for the destructive +deed one which shall be in harmony with the constructive +forces of society. But education implies its real limits +in its definition, which is to build up the individual into +theoretical and practical Reason. When this work goes properly +on, the authority of the educator, as authority, necessarily + +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_34b" id="Page_34b">34</a></span> + +loses, every day, some of its force, as the guiding principles +come to form a part of the pupil's own character, instead of +being super-imposed on him from without through the mediation +of the educator. What was authority becomes now advice +and example; unreasoning and implicit obedience passes +into gratitude and affection. The pupil wears off the rough +edges of his crude individuality, which is transfigured, so to +speak, into the universality and necessity of Reason, but without +losing his identity in the process. Work becomes enjoyment, +and Play is found only in a change of activity. The +youth takes possession of himself, and may now be left to himself. +There are two widely differing views with regard to the +limits of education; one lays great stress on the powerlessness +of the pupil and the great power of the teacher, and asserts +that the teacher must create something out of the pupil.</p> + +<p>This view is often seen to have undesirable results, where +large numbers are to be educated together. It assumes that +each pupil is only "a sample of the lot" on whom the teacher +is to affix his stamp, as if they were different pieces of goods +from some factory. Thus individuality is destroyed, and all +reduced to one level, as in cloisters, barracks, and orphan asylums, +where only one individual seems to exist. Sometimes it +takes the form of a theory which holds that one can at will +flog anything into or out of a pupil. This may be called a +superstitious belief in the power of education. The opposite +extreme may be found in that system which advocates a "severe +letting alone," asserting that individuality is unconquerable, +and that often the most careful and circumspect education +fails of reaching its aim because the inherent nature of the +youth has fought against it with such force as to render abortive +all opposing efforts. This idea of Pedagogy produces a +sort of indifference about means and ends which would leave +each individuality to grow as its own instinct and the chance +influences of the world might direct. The latter view would, +of course, preclude the possibility of any science of education, +and make the youth only the sport of blind fate. The comparative +power of inherited tendencies and of educational appliances +is, however, one which every educator should carefully + +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_35b" id="Page_35b">35</a></span> + +study. Much careless generalization has been made on this +topic, and opinion is too often based upon some one instance +where accurate observation of methods and influences have +been wanting.</p> + +<p><a name="S47b" id="S47b"></a>§ 47. Education has necessarily a definite <i>subjective limit</i> +in the individuality of the youth, for it can develop in him only +that which exists in him as a possibility. It can lead and +assist, but it has no power to create. What nature has denied +to a man education cannot give him, any more than it can on +the other hand annihilate his original gifts, though it may +suppress, distort, and measurably destroy them. And yet it is +impossible to decide what is the real essence of a man's individuality +until he has left behind him the years of growth, +because it is not till then that he fully attains conscious +possession of himself. Moreover, at this critical time many +traits which were supposed to be characteristic may prove +themselves not to be so by disappearing, while long-slumbering +and unsuspected talents may crop out. Whatever has been +forced upon a child, though not in harmony with his individuality, +whatever has been driven into him without having been +actively accepted by him, or having had a definite relation to +his culture—will remain perhaps, but only as an external +foreign ornament, only as a parasitic growth which weakens +the force of his real nature. But we must distinguish from +these little affectations which arise from a misconception of +the limits of individuality that effort of imitation which +children and young people often exhibit in trying to copy in +their own actions those peculiarities which they observe and +admire in perfectly-developed persons with whom they may +come in contact. They see a reality which corresponds to their +own possibility, and the presentiment of a like or a similar +attainment stirs them to imitation, although this external +imitation may be sometimes disagreeable or ridiculous to the +lookers-on. We ought not to censure it too severely, remembering +that it springs from a positive striving towards true +culture, and needs only to be properly directed, and never to +be roughly put down.</p> + +<p><a name="S48b" id="S48b"></a>§ 48. <i>The objective limit</i> of education consists in the means + +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_36b" id="Page_36b">36</a></span> + +which can be applied for it. That the capacity for culture +should exist is the first condition of success, but it is none the +less necessary that it be cultivated. But how much cultivation +shall be given to it must depend in very great degree on the +means which are practicable, and this will undoubtedly again +depend on the worldly possessions and character of the family +to which the pupil belongs. If he comes of a cultivated and +refined family, he will have a great advantage at the start over +his less favored comrades; and, with regard to many of the arts +and sciences, this limitation of education is of great significance. +But the means alone will not answer. Without natural capacity, +all the educational apparatus possible is of no avail. On +the other hand, real talent often accomplishes incredible feats +with very limited means; and, if the way is only once open, +makes of itself a center of attraction which draws to itself as +with magnetic power the necessary means. Moral culture is, +however, from its very nature, raised above such dependence.</p> + +<p>If we fix our thought on the subjective limit—that of individuality +(§ <a href="#S47">47</a>)—we detect the ground for that indifference +which lays little stress on education (§ <a href="#S46">46</a>, end). If, on the +other hand, we concentrate our attention on the means of culture, +we shall perceive the reason of the other extreme spoken +of—of that pedagogical despotism (§ <a href="#S46">46</a>) which fancies that +it is able to prescribe and enforce at will upon the pupil any +culture whatever, without regard to his special characteristics.</p> + +<p><a name="S49b" id="S49b"></a>§ 49. Education comes to its <i>absolute limit</i> when the pupil +has apprehended the problem which he is to solve, has comprehended +the means which are at his disposal, and has acquired +the necessary skill in using them. The true educator seeks to +render himself unnecessary by the complete emancipation of +the youth. He works always towards the independence of the +pupil, and always with the design of withdrawing so soon as +he shall have reached this stand-point, and of leaving him to +the full responsibility for his own deeds. To endeavor to hold +him in the position of a pupil after this time has been reached +would be to contradict the very essence of education, which +must find its result in the independent maturity of the youth. +The inequality which formerly existed between pupil and + +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_37b" id="Page_37b">37</a></span> + +teacher is now removed, and nothing becomes more oppressive +to the former than any endeavor to force upon him the authority +from which, in reality, his own efforts have freed him. +But the undue hastening of this emancipation is as bad an +error as an effort after delay. The question as to whether a +person is really ready for independent action—as to whether +his education is finished—may be settled in much the same +way in education as in politics. When any people has progressed +so far as to put the question whether they are ready +for freedom, it ceases to be a question; for, without the inner +consciousness of freedom itself, the question would never have +occurred to them.</p> + +<p><a name="S50b" id="S50b"></a>§ 50. But, although the pupil may rightly now be freed from +the hands of instructors, and no longer obtain his culture +through them, it is by no means to be understood that he is +not to go on with the work himself. He is now to educate +himself. Each must plan out for himself the ideal toward which +he must daily strive. In this process of self-transformation a +friend may aid by advice and example, but he cannot educate, +for the act of educating necessarily implies inequality between +teacher and pupil. The human necessity for companionship +gives rise to societies of different kinds, in which we may, perhaps, +say that there is some approach to educating their members, +the necessary inequality being supplied by various grades +and orders. They presuppose education in the usual sense of +the word, but they wish to bring about an education in a higher +sense, and, therefore, they veil the last form of their ideal in +mystery and secrecy.</p> + +<p>By the term <i>Philister</i> the Germans indicate the man of a +civilized state who lives on, contented with himself and devoid +of any impulse towards further self-culture. To one who is +always aspiring after an Ideal, such a one cannot but be repulsive. +But how many are they who do not, sooner or later, in +mature life, crystallize, as it were, so that any active life, any +new progress, is to them impossible?</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_38b" id="Page_38b">38</a></span></p> + +<div class="center">ANALYSIS AND COMMENTARY.</div> + + +<p><a name="S1c" id="S1c"></a>§ 1. Pedagogics is not a complete, independent science by itself. +It borrows the results of other sciences [<i>e.g.</i>, it presupposes the +science of Rights, treating of the institutions of the family and civil +society, as well as of the State; it presupposes the science of anthropology, +in which is treated the relations of the human mind to nature. +Nature conditions the development of the individual human being. +But the history of the individual and the history of the race presents +a continual emancipation from nature, and a continual growth into +freedom, <i>i.e.</i>, into ability to know himself and to realize himself in +the world by making the matter and forces of the world his instruments +and tools. Anthropology shows us how man as a natural being—<i>i.e.</i>, +as having a body—is limited. There is climate, involving heat +and cold and moisture, the seasons of the year, etc.; there is organic +growth, involving birth, growth, reproduction, and decay; there is +race, involving the limitations of heredity; there is the telluric life +of the planet and the circulation of the forces of the solar system, +whence arise the processes of sleeping, waking, dreaming, and +kindred phenomena; there is the emotional nature of man, involving +his feelings, passions, instincts, and desires; then there are the five +senses, and their conditions. Then, there is the science of phenomenology, +treating of the steps by which mind rises from the stage of +mere feeling and sense-perception to that of self-consciousness, <i>i.e.</i>, +to a recognition of mind as true substance, and of matter as mere +phenomenon created by Mind (God). Then, there is psychology, +including the treatment of the stages of activity of mind, as +so-called "faculties" of the mind, <i>e.g.</i>, attention, sense-perception, +imagination, conception, understanding, judgment, reason, and the like. +Psychology is generally made (by English writers) to include, also, +what is here called anthropology and phenomenology. After psychology, +there is the science of ethics, or of morals and customs; then, the +Science of Rights, already mentioned; then, Theology, or the Science +of Religion, and, after all these, there is Philosophy, or the Science of +Science. Now, it is clear that the Science of Education treats of +the process of development, by and through which man, as a merely + +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_39b" id="Page_39b">39</a></span> + +natural being, becomes spirit, or self-conscious mind; hence, it +presupposes all the sciences named, and will be defective if it ignores +nature, or mind, or any stage or process of either, especially Anthropology, +Phenomenology, Psychology, Ethics, Rights, Æsthetics, +or Science of Art and Literature, Religion, or Philosophy].</p> + +<p><a name="S2c" id="S2c"></a>§ 2. The scope of pedagogics being so broad, and its presuppositions +so vast, its limits are not well defined, and its treatises are very apt +to lack logical sequence and conclusion; and, indeed, frequently to +be mere collections of unjustified and unexplained assumptions, +dogmatically set forth. Hence the low repute of pedagogical literature +as a whole.</p> + +<p><a name="S3c" id="S3c"></a>§ 3. Moreover, education furnishes a special vocation, that of +teaching. (All vocations are specializing—being cut off, as it were, +from the total life of man. The "division of labor" requires that +each individual shall concentrate his endeavors and be a <i>part</i> of the +whole).</p> + +<p><a name="S4c" id="S4c"></a>§ 4. Pedagogics, as a special science, belongs to the collection of +sciences (already described, in commenting on § <a href="#S1">1</a>) included under +the philosophy of Spirit or Mind, and more particularly to that part +of it which relates to the will (ethics and science of rights, rather +than to the part relating to the intellect and feeling, as anthropology, +phenomenology, psychology, æsthetics, and religion. "Theoretical" +relates to the <i>intellect</i>, "practical" relates to the <i>will</i>, in this philosophy). +The province of practical philosophy is the investigation +of the nature of freedom, and the process of securing it by self-emancipation +from nature. Pedagogics involves the conscious exertion +of influence on the part of the will of the teacher upon the will +of the pupil, with a purpose in view—that of inducing the pupil to +form certain prescribed habits, and adopt prescribed views and inclinations. +The entire science of mind (as above shown), is presupposed +by the science of education, and must be kept constantly +in view as a guiding light. The institution of the <i>family</i> (treated in +practical philosophy) is the starting-point of education, and without +this institution properly realized, education would find no solid +foundation. The right to be educated on the part of children, and +the duty to educate on the part of parents, are reciprocal; and there +is no family life so poor and rudimentary that it does not furnish the +most important elements of education—no matter what the subsequent +influence of the school, the vocation, and the state.</p> + +<p><a name="S5c" id="S5c"></a>§ 5. Pedagogics as science, distinguished from the same as an art: +the former containing the abstract general treatment, and the latter + +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_40b" id="Page_40b">40</a></span> + +taking into consideration all the conditions of concrete individuality, +<i>e.g.</i>, the peculiarities of the teacher and the pupil, and all the local +circumstances, and the power of adaptation known as "tact."</p> + +<p><a name="S6c" id="S6c"></a>§ 6. The special conditions and peculiarities, considered in education +as an art, may be formulated and reduced to system, but they +should not be introduced as a part of the <i>science</i> of education.</p> + +<p><a name="S7c" id="S7c"></a>§ 7. Pedagogics has three parts: first, it considers the idea and +nature of education, and arrives at its true definition; second, it presents +and describes the special provinces into which the entire field +of education is divided; third, it considers the historical evolution of +education by the human race, and the individual systems of education +that have arisen, flourished, and decayed, and their special functions +in the life of man.</p> + +<p><a name="S8c" id="S8c"></a>§ 8. The scope of the first part is easy to define. The history of +pedagogics, of course, contains all the ideas or definitions of the +nature of education; but it must not for that reason be substituted +for the scientific investigation of the nature of education, which alone +should constitute this first part (and the history of education be +reserved for the third part).</p> + +<p><a name="S9c" id="S9c"></a>§ 9. The second part includes a discussion of the threefold nature +of man as body, intellect, and will. The difficulty in this part of the +science is very great, because of its dependence upon other sciences +(<i>e.g.</i>, upon physiology, anthropology, etc.), and because of the +temptation to go into details (<i>e.g.</i>, in the practical department, to +consider the endless varieties of schools for arts and trades).</p> + +<p><a name="S10c" id="S10c"></a>§ 10. The third part contains the exposition of the various +national standpoints furnished (in the history of the world) for the +bases of particular systems of education. In each of these systems +will be found the general idea underlying all education, but it will be +found existing under special modifications, which have arisen through +its application to the physical, intellectual, and ethical conditions of +the people. But we can deduce the essential features of the different +systems that may appear in history, for there are only a limited +number of systems possible. Each lower form finds itself complemented +in some higher form, and its function and purpose then become +manifest. The systems of "national" education (<i>i.e.</i>, Asiatic systems, +in which the individuality of each person is swallowed up in the +substantiality of the national idea—just as the individual waves get +lost in the ocean on whose surface they arise) find their complete explanation +in the systems of education that arise in Christianity (the +preservation of human life being the object of the nation, it follows + +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_41b" id="Page_41b">41</a></span> + +that when realized abstractly or exclusively, it absorbs and annuls the +mental independence of its subjects, and thus contradicts itself by +destroying the essence of what it undertakes to preserve, <i>i.e.</i>, life +(soul, mind); but within Christianity the principle of the state is +found so modified that it is consistent with the infinite, untrammelled +development of the individual, intellectually and morally, and +thus not only life is saved, but spiritual, free life is attainable for +each and for all).</p> + +<p><a name="S11c" id="S11c"></a>§ 11. The history of pedagogy ends with the present system as +the latest one. As science sees the future ideally contained in the +present, it is bound to comprehend the latest system as a realization +(though imperfect) of the ideal system of education. Hence, the +system, as scientifically treated in the first part of our work, is the +system with which the third part of our work ends.</p> + +<p><a name="S12c" id="S12c"></a>§ 12. The nature of education, its form, its limits, are now to be +investigated. (§§ <a href="#S13">13</a>-50.)</p> + +<p><a name="S13c" id="S13c"></a>§ 13. The nature of education determined by the nature of Mind +or Spirit, whose activity is always devoted to realizing for itself what +it is potentially—to becoming conscious of its possibilities, and to +getting them under the control of its will. Mind is potentially free. +Education is the means by which man seeks to realize in man his +possibilities (to develop the possibilities of the race in each individual). +Hence, education has freedom for its object.</p> + +<p><a name="S14c" id="S14c"></a>§ 14. Man is the only being capable of education, in the sense +above defined, because the only conscious being. He must know +himself ideally, and then realize his ideal self, in order to become +actually free. The animals not the plants may be <i>trained</i>, or <i>cultivated</i>, +but, as devoid of self-consciousness (even the highest animals +not getting above impressions, not reaching ideas, not seizing general +or abstract thoughts), they are not realized for <i>themselves</i>, but +only for us. (That is, they do not know their ideal as we do.)</p> + +<p><a name="S15c" id="S15c"></a>§ 15. Education, taken in its widest compass, is the education of +the human race by Divine Providence.</p> + +<p><a name="S16c" id="S16c"></a>§ 16. In a narrower sense, education is applied to the shaping of +the individual, so that his caprice and arbitrariness shall give place to +rational habits and views, in harmony with nature and ethical customs. +He must not abuse nature, nor slight the ethical code of his +people, nor despise the gifts of Providence (whether for weal or +woe), unless he is willing to be crushed in the collision with these +more substantial elements.</p> + +<p><a name="S17c" id="S17c"></a>§ 17. In the narrowest, but most usual application of the term, + +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_42b" id="Page_42b">42</a></span> + +we understand by "education" the influence of the individual upon +the individual, exerted with the object of developing his powers in a +conscious and methodical manner, either generally or in special +directions, the educator being relatively mature, and exercising +authority over the relatively immature pupil. Without authority on +the one hand and obedience on the other, education would lack +its ethical basis—a neglect of the will-training could not be compensated +for by any amount of knowledge or smartness.</p> + +<p><a name="S18c" id="S18c"></a>§ 18. The general province of education includes the development +of the individual into the theoretical and practical reason immanent +in him. The definition which limits education to the development of +the individual into ethical customs (obedience to morality, social +conventionalities, and the laws of the state—Hegel's definition is +here referred to: "The object of education is to make men ethical") +is not comprehensive enough, because it ignores the side of the <i>intellect</i>, +and takes note only of the <i>will</i>. The individual should not only +be man in general (as he is through the adoption of moral and +ethical forms—which are <i>general</i> forms, customs, or laws, and thus +the forms imposed by the <i>will</i> of the <i>race</i>), but he should also be +a self-conscious subject, a particular individual (man, through his +intellect, exists for himself as an individual, while through his general +habits and customs he loses his individuality and spontaneity).</p> + +<p><a name="S19c" id="S19c"></a>§ 19. Education has a definite object in view and it proceeds by +grades of progress toward it. The systematic tendency is essential +to all education, properly so called.</p> + +<p><a name="S20c" id="S20c"></a>§ 20. Division of labor has become requisite in the higher spheres +of teaching. The growing multiplicity of branches of knowledge +creates the necessity for the specialist as teacher. With this tendency +to specialties it becomes more and more difficult to preserve what +is so essential to the pupil—his rounded human culture and symmetry +of development. The citizen of modern civilization sometimes +appears to be an artificial product by the side of the versatility of +the savage man.</p> + +<p><a name="S21c" id="S21c"></a>§ 21. From this necessity of the division of labor in modern times +there arises the demand for two kinds of educational institutions—those +devoted to general education (common schools, colleges, etc.), +and special schools (for agriculture, medicine, mechanic arts, etc).</p> + +<p><a name="S22c" id="S22c"></a>§ 22. The infinite possibility of culture for the individual leaves, +of course, his actual accomplishment a mere approximation to a +complete education. Born idiots are excluded from the possibility of +education, because the lack of universal ideas in their consciousness + +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_43b" id="Page_43b">43</a></span> + +precludes to that class of unfortunates anything beyond a mere +mechanical training.</p> + +<p><a name="S23c" id="S23c"></a>§ 23. Spirit, or mind, makes its own nature; it <i>is</i> what it produces—a +self-result. From this follows the <i>form</i> of education. It +commences with (1) undeveloped mind—that of the infant—wherein +nearly all is potential, and but little is actualized; (2) its first stage +of development is self-estrangement—it is absorbed in the observation +of objects around it; (3) but it discovers laws and principles +(universality) in external nature, and finally identifies them with reason—it +comes to recognize itself in nature—to recognize conscious +mind as the creator and preserver of the external world—and thus +becomes at home in nature. Education does not create, but it emancipates.</p> + +<p><a name="S24c" id="S24c"></a>§ 24. This process of self-estrangement and its removal belongs to +all culture. The mind must fix its attention upon what is foreign to +it, and penetrate its disguise. It will discover its own substance +under the seeming alien being. Wonder is the accompaniment of this +stage of estrangement. The love of travel and adventure arises from +this basis.</p> + +<p><a name="S25c" id="S25c"></a>§ 25. Labor is distinguished from play: The former concentrates +its energies on some object, with the purpose of making it conform to +its will and purpose; play occupies itself with its object according to +its caprice and arbitrariness, and has no care for the results or products +of its activity; work is prescribed by authority, while play is +necessarily spontaneous.</p> + +<p><a name="S26c" id="S26c"></a>§ 26. Work and Play: the distinction between them. In play the +child feels that he has entire control over the object with which he is +dealing, both in respect to its existence and the object for which it +exists. His arbitrary will may change both with perfect impunity, +since all depends upon his caprice; he exercises his powers in play according +to his natural proclivities, and therein finds scope to develope +his own individuality. In work, on the contrary, he must have +respect for the object with which he deals. It must be held sacred +against his caprice, must not be destroyed nor injured in any +way, and its object must likewise be respected. His own personal +inclinations must be entirely subordinated, and the business that he +is at work upon must be carried forward in accordance with its +own ends and aims, and without reference to his own feelings in the +matter.</p> + +<p>Thus work teaches the pupil the lesson of self-sacrifice (the right +of superiority which the general interest possesses over the particular), +while play develops his personal idiosyncrasy.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_44b" id="Page_44b">44</a></span></p> + +<p><a name="S27c" id="S27c"></a>§ 27. Without play, the child would become more and more a machine, +and lose all freshness and spontaneity—all originality. Without +work, he would develop into a monster of caprice and arbitrariness.</p> + +<p>From the fact that man must learn to combine with man, in order +that the individual may avail himself of the experience and labors +of his fellow-men, self-sacrifice for the sake of combination is the +great lesson of life. But as this should be <i>voluntary</i> self-sacrifice, +education must train the child equally in the two directions of spontaneity +and obedience. The educated man finds recreation in change +of work.</p> + +<p>§ 28. Education seeks to assimilate its object—to make what +was alien and strange to the pupil into something familiar and habitual +to him. [The pupil is to attack, one after the other, the foreign +realms in the world of nature and man, and conquer them for his own, +so that he can be "at home" in them. It is the necessary condition +of all growth, all culture, that one widens his own individuality by +this conquest of new provinces alien to him. By this the individual +transcends the narrow limits of particularity and becomes generic—the +individual becomes the species. A good definition of education +is this: it is the process by which the individual man elevates himself +to the species.]</p> + +<p><a name="S29c" id="S29c"></a>§ 29. (1) Therefore, the first requirement in education is that the +pupil shall acquire the habit of subordinating his likes and dislikes to +the attainment of a rational object.</p> + +<p>It is necessary that he shall acquire this indifference to his own +pleasure, even by employing his powers on that which does not appeal +to his interest in the remotest degree.</p> + +<p><a name="S30c" id="S30c"></a>§ 30. Habit soon makes us familiar with those subjects which +seemed so remote from our personal interest, and they become agreeable +to us. The objects, too, assume a new interest upon nearer approach, +as being useful or injurious to us. That is useful which serves +us as a means for the realization of a rational purpose; injurious, if +it hinders such realization. It happens that objects are useful in one +sense and injurious in another, and <i>vice versa</i>. Education must +make the pupil capable of deciding on the usefulness of an object, by +reference to its effect on his permanent vocation in life.</p> + +<p><a name="S31c" id="S31c"></a>§ 31. But <i>good and evil</i> are the ethical distinctions which furnish +the absolute standard to which to refer the question of the usefulness +of objects and actions.</p> + +<p><a name="S32c" id="S32c"></a>§ 32. (2) Habit is (a) <i>passive</i>, or (b) <i>active</i>. The passive habit +is that which gives us the power to retain our equipoise of mind in the + +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_45b" id="Page_45b">45</a></span> + +midst of a world of changes (pleasure and pain, grief and joy, etc). +The active habit gives us skill, presence of mind, tact in emergencies, +etc.</p> + +<p><a name="S33c" id="S33c"></a>§ 33. (3) Education deals altogether with the formation of habits. +For it aims to make some condition or form of activity into a second +nature for the pupil. But this involves, also, the breaking up of previous +habits. This power to break up habits, as well as to form them, +is necessary to the freedom of the individual.</p> + +<p><a name="S34c" id="S34c"></a>§ 34. Education deals with these complementary relations (antitheses): +(a) authority and obedience; (b) rationality (<i>general</i> +forms) and individuality; (c) work and play; (d) habit (general custom) +and spontaneity. The development and reconciliation of these +opposite sides in the pupil's character, so that they become his second +nature, removes the phase of constraint which at first accompanies +the formal inculcation of rules, and the performance of prescribed +tasks. The freedom of the pupil is the ultimate object to be kept in +view, but a too early use of freedom may work injury to the pupil. +To remove a pupil from all temptation would be to remove possibilities +of growth in strength to resist it; on the other hand, to expose +him needlessly to temptation is fiendish.</p> + +<p><a name="S35c" id="S35c"></a>§ 35. Deformities of character in the pupil should be carefully +traced back to their origin, so that they may be explained by their +history. Only by comprehending the historic growth of an organic +defect are we able to prescribe the best remedies.</p> + +<p><a name="S36c" id="S36c"></a>§ 36. If the negative behavior of the pupil (his bad behavior) +results from ignorance due to his own neglect, or to his wilfulness, +it should be met directly by an act of authority on the part of the +teacher (and without an appeal to reason). An appeal should be +made to the understanding of the pupil only when he is somewhat +mature, or shows by his repetition of the offence that his proclivity +is deep-seated, and requires an array of all good influences to reinforce +his feeble resolutions to amend.</p> + +<p><a name="S37c" id="S37c"></a>§ 37. Reproof, accompanied by threats of punishment, is apt to degenerate +into scolding.</p> + +<p><a name="S38c" id="S38c"></a>§ 38. After the failure of other means, punishment should be +resorted to. Inasmuch as the punishment should be for the purpose +of making the pupil realize that it is the consequence of his +deed returning on himself, it should always be administered for +some particular act of his, and this should be specified. The +"overt act" is the only thing which a man can be held accountable +for in a court of justice; although it is true that the harboring + +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_46b" id="Page_46b">46</a></span> + +of evil thoughts or intentions is a sin, yet it is not a crime until +realized in an overt act.</p> + +<p><a name="S40c" id="S40c"></a>§ 40. Punishment should be regulated, not by abstract rules, but in +view of the particular case and its attending circumstances.</p> + +<p><a name="S41c" id="S41c"></a>§ 41. Sex and age of pupil should be regarded in prescribing the +mode and degree of punishment. Corporal punishment is best for +pupils who are very immature in mind; when they are more developed +they may be punished by any imposed restraint upon their free wills +which will isolate them from the ordinary routine followed by their +fellow-pupils. (Deprivation of the right to do as others do is a +wholesome species of punishment for those old or mature enough to +feel its effects, for it tends to secure respect for the regular tasks by +elevating them to the rank of rights and privileges.) For young men +and women, the punishment should be of a kind that is based on a +sense of honor.</p> + +<p><a name="S42c" id="S42c"></a>§ 42. (1) Corporal punishment should be properly administered by +means of the rod, subduing wilful defiance by the application of +force.</p> + +<p><a name="S43c" id="S43c"></a>§ 48. (2) Isolation makes the pupil realize a sense of his dependence +upon human society, and upon the expression of this dependence +by coöperation in the common tasks. Pupils should not be shut up in a +dark room, nor removed from the personal supervision of the teacher. +(To shut up two or more in a room without supervision is not isolation, +but association; only it is association for mischief, and not for +study.)</p> + +<p><a name="S44c" id="S44c"></a>§ 44. (3) Punishment based on the sense of honor may or may +not be based on isolation. It implies a state of maturity on the part +of the pupil. Through his offence the pupil has destroyed his +equality with his fellows, and has in reality, in his inmost nature, +isolated himself from them. Corporal punishment is external, +but it may be accompanied with a keen sense of dishonor. Isolation, +also, may, to a pupil, who is sensitive to honor, be a severe blow to +self-respect. But a punishment founded entirely on the sense of +honor would be wholly internal, and have no external discomfort +attached to it.</p> + +<p><a name="S45c" id="S45c"></a>§ 45. The necessity of carefully adapting the punishment to the +age and maturity of the pupil, renders it the most difficult part of the +teacher's duties. It is essential that the air and manner of the +teacher who punishes should be that of one who acts from a sense of +painful duty, and not from any delight in being the cause of suffering. +Not personal likes and dislikes, but the rational necessity which + +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_47b" id="Page_47b">47</a></span> + +is over teacher and pupil alike, causes the infliction of pain on the +pupil.</p> + +<p><a name="S46c" id="S46c"></a>§ 46. Punishment is the final topic to be considered under the head +of "Form of Education."</p> + +<p>In the act of punishment the teacher abandons the legitimate province +of education, which seeks to make the pupil rational or obedient +to what is reasonable, as a habit, and from his own free will. The pupil +is punished in order that he may be <i>made</i> to conform to the rational, +by the application of constraint. Another will is substituted for the +pupil's, and good behavior is produced, but not by the pupil's free +act. While education finds a negative limit in punishment, it +finds a positive limit in the accomplishment of its legitimate object, +which is the emancipation of the pupil from the state of imbecility, +as regards mental and moral self-control, into the ability to direct +himself rationally, When the pupil has acquired the discipline which +enables him to direct his studies properly, and to control his inclinations +in such a manner as to pursue his work regularly, the teacher +is no longer needed for him—he becomes his own teacher.</p> + +<p>There may be two extreme views on this subject—the one tending +towards the negative extreme of requiring the teacher to do everything +for the pupil, substituting his will for that of the pupil, and +the other view tending to the positive extreme, and leaving everything +to the pupil, even before his will is trained into habits of self-control, +or his mind provided with the necessary elementary branches +requisite for the prosecution of further study.</p> + +<p><a name="S47c" id="S47c"></a>§ 47. (1) The subjective limit of education (on the negative +side) is to be found in the individuality of the pupil—the limit to his +natural capacity.</p> + +<p><a name="S48c" id="S48c"></a>§ 48. (2) The objective limit to education lies in the amount of +time that the person may devote to his training. It, therefore, +depends largely upon wealth, or other fortunate circumstances.</p> + +<p><a name="S49c" id="S49c"></a>§ 49. (3) The absolute limit of education is the positive limit +(see § <a href="#S46">46</a>), beyond which the youth passes into freedom from the +school, as a necessary instrumentality for further culture.</p> + +<p><a name="S50c" id="S50c"></a>§ 50. The pre-arranged pattern-making work of the school is now +done, but self-education may and should go on indefinitely, and will +go on if the education of the school has really arrived at its "absolute" +limit—<i>i.e.</i>, has fitted the pupil for self-education. Emancipation +from the school does not emancipate one from learning +through his fellow-men. Man's spiritual life is one depending upon +coöperation with his fellow-men. Each must avail himself of the + +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_48b" id="Page_48b">48</a></span> + +experience of his fellow-men, and in turn communicate his own +experience to the common fund of the race. Thus each lives the +life of the whole, and all live for each. School-education gives the +pupil the instrumentalities with which to enable him to participate in +this fund of experience—this common life of the race. After school-education +comes the still more valuable education, which, however, +without the school, would be in a great measure impossible.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="ERRATA" id="ERRATA"></a>ERRATA.</h2> + + +<p>§ 26. Last two paragraphs should be within quotation marks, being from an +English author.</p> + +<p>§ 29. The second and third paragraphs belong to § 30.—the numbering being +omitted.</p> + +<p>§ 33. Line four—"instructive" should be "intuitive."</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_49b" id="Page_49b">49</a></span></p> + +<div class="center">SECOND PART.</div> + +<div class="center">The Special Elements of Education.</div> + + +<p><a name="S51c" id="S51c"></a>§ 51. Education is the development of the theoretical and +practical Reason which is inborn in the human being. Its +end is to be accomplished by the labor which transforms a +condition, existent at first only as an ideal, into a fixed habit, +and changes the natural individuality into a glorified humanity. +When the youth stands, so to speak, on his own feet, he is +emancipated from education, and education then finds its +limit. The special elements which may be said to make up +education are the life, the cognition, and the will of man. +Without the first, the real nature of the soul can never be +made really to appear; without cognition, he can have no genuine +will—<i>i.e.</i>, one of which he is conscious; and without +will, no self-assurance, either of life or of cognition. It must +not be forgotten that these three so-called elements are not to +be held apart in the active work of education; for they are inseparable +and continually interwoven the one with the other. But +none the less do they determine their respective consequences, +and sometimes one, sometimes another has the supremacy. In +infancy, up to the fifth or sixth year, the physical development, +or mere living, is the main consideration; the next +period, that of childhood, is the time of acquiring knowledge, +in which the child takes possession of the theory of the world +as it is handed down—a tradition of the past, such as man +has made it through his experience and insight; and finally, +the period of youth must pave the way to a practical activity, +the character of which the self-determination of the will must +decide.</p> + +<p><a name="S52c" id="S52c"></a>§ 52. We may, then, divide the elements of Pedagogics into + +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_50b" id="Page_50b">50</a></span> + +three sections: (1) the physical, (2) the intellectual, (3) the +practical. (The words "orthobiotics," "didactics," and +"pragmatics" might be used to characterize them.)</p> + +<p>Æsthetic training is only an element of the intellectual, +as social, moral, and religious training are elements of the +practical. But because these latter elements relate to external +things (affairs of the world), the name pragmatics, is appropriate. +In so far as education touches on the principles which +underlie ethics, politics, and religion, it concurs with those +sciences, but it is distinguished from them in the capacity +which it imparts for solving the problems presented by the +others.</p> + +<p>The scientific order of topics must be established through +the fact that the earlier, as the more abstract, constitute the condition +of their presupposed end and aim, and the later because +the more concrete constitute the ground of the former, and +consequently their final cause, or the end for which they exist; +just as in human beings, life in the order of time comes before +cognition, and cognition before will, although life really presupposes +cognition, and cognition will.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h3><a name="FIRST_DIVISION" id="FIRST_DIVISION"></a>FIRST DIVISION.</h3> + +<div class="center">PHYSICAL EDUCATION, OR ORTHOBIOTICS.</div> + + +<p><a name="S53c" id="S53c"></a>§ 53. Only when we rightly comprehend the process of +life may we know how to live aright. Life, the "circle of +eternal change," is constantly transforming the inorganic into +the organic, and after using it, returning it again to the realm of +the inorganic. Whatever it does not assimilate of that which it +has taken in simply as a stimulant, and whatever has become +dead, it separates from itself and rejects. The organism is in +perfect health when it accomplishes this double task of organizing +and disorganizing. On the comprehension of this +single fact all laws of physical health or of hygiene are based. +This idea of the essence of life is expressed by Goethe in his +Faust, where he sees the golden buckets perpetually rising + +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_51b" id="Page_51b">51</a></span> + +and sinking.<a name="FNanchor_13" id="FNanchor_13"></a><a href="#Footnote_13" class="fnanchor">13</a> When the equilibrium of the upward and downward +motion is disturbed, we have disease. When the motion +ceases we have death, in which the whole organism becomes +inorganic, and the "dust returns to dust."</p> + +<p><a name="S54c" id="S54c"></a>§ 54. It follows from this that not only in the organism as +a whole, but in every organ, and every part of every organ, +this restless change of the inorganic to the organic is going on. +Every cell has its own history, and this history is only the +same as that of the whole of which it forms a part. Activity +is then not inimical to the organism, but is the appointed +means by which the progressive and retrogressive metamorphoses +must be carried out. In order that the process may +go on harmoniously, or, in other words, that the body may be +healthy, the whole organism, and every part of it in its own +way, must have its period of productive activity and then +also its period of rest in which it finds renewal of strength for +another period of activity. Thus we have waking and sleep, +inspiration and expiration of air. Periodicity is the law of +life. When we understand the relative antagonism (their stage +of tension) of the different organs, and their cycles of activity, +we shall hold the secret of the constant self-renewal of life. This +thought finds expression in the old fairy stories of "The +Search after the Fountain of Youth." And the figure of the +fountain, with its rising and falling waters, doubtless finds its +origin in the dim comprehension of the endless double movement, +or periodicity of life.</p> + +<p><a name="S55c" id="S55c"></a>§ 55. When to any organ, or to the whole organism, not sufficient +time is allowed for it to withdraw into itself and to +repair waste, we are conscious of fatigue. While the other +organs all rest, however, one special organ may, as if separated +from them, sustain a long-continued effort of activity +even to the point of fatigue, without injury—as, <i>e.g.</i>, the lungs +in talking while all the other members are at rest. But, on +the other hand, it is not well to talk and run at the same time.</p> + + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_52b" id="Page_52b">52</a></span></p> + +<p>The idea that the body may be preserved in a healthy state +longer by sparing it—<i>i.e.</i>, by inactivity—is an error which +springs from a false and mechanical conception of life. It is +just as foolish to imagine that health depends on the abundance +and excellence of food, for without the power of assimilating +the food taken, nourishment of whatever kind does more harm +than good; all real strength develops from activity alone.</p> + +<p><a name="S56c" id="S56c"></a>§ 56. Physical education, according as it relates to the repairing, +the muscular, or the emotional activities, is divided +into (1) diatetics, (2) gymnastics, (3) sexual education. +In the direct activity of life these all interact with each other, +but for our purposes we are obliged to speak of them as if +they worked independently. Moreover, in the development +of the human being, they come into maturity of development +in a certain order: nutrition, muscular growth, sexual maturity. +But Pedagogics can treat of these only as they are +found in the infant, the child, and the youth; for with the +arrival of mature life, education is over.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<div class="center"><span class="smcap">First Chapter.</span></div> + +<div class="center"><i>Diatetics.</i></div> + + +<p><a name="S57c" id="S57c"></a>§ 57. By diatetics we mean the art of repairing the constant +waste of the system, and, in childhood, of also building it up to +its full form and size. Since in reality each organism has its +own way of doing this, the diatetical practice must vary +somewhat with sex, age, temperament, occupation, and circumstances. +The science of Pedagogics has then, in this department, +only to enunciate general principles. If we go into +details, we fall into triviality. Nothing can be of more importance +for the whole life than the way in which the physical +education is managed in the very first stages of development. +So generally is this fact accepted, that almost every nation has +its own distinct system, which has been carefully elaborated. +Many of these systems, no doubt, are characterized by gross +errors, and widely differ as to time, place, and character, and +yet they all have a justification for their peculiar form.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_53b" id="Page_53b">53</a></span></p> + +<p><a name="S58c" id="S58c"></a>§ 58. The best food for the infant in the first months of its +life is its mother's milk. The employment of another nurse, +if a general custom, as in France, is highly objectionable, +since with the milk the child is likely to imbibe to some extent +his physical and ethical nature. The milk of an animal +can never supply the place to a child of that of its own mother. +In Walter Scott's story of <i>The Fair Maid of Perth</i>, Eachim +is represented as timorous by nature, having been nourished +by a white doe after the death of his mother.</p> + +<p><a name="S59c" id="S59c"></a>§ 59. When the teeth make their appearance, it is a sign that +the child is ready for solid food; and yet, till the second teeth +appear, light, half-solid food and vegetables should constitute +the principal part of the diet.</p> + +<p><a name="S60c" id="S60c"></a>§ 60. When the second teeth have come, then the organism +demands both vegetable and animal food. Too much meat is, +doubtless, harmful. But it is an error to suppose that man +was intended to eat vegetables alone, and that, as some have +said, the adoption of animal food is a sign of his degeneracy.</p> + +<p>The Hindoos, who live principally on a vegetable diet, are +not at all, as has been asserted, a mild and gentle race. A +glance into their stories, especially their erotic poetry, proves +them to be quite as passionate as any other people.</p> + +<p><a name="S61c" id="S61c"></a>§ 61. Man is an omnivorous being. Children have, therefore, +a natural desire to taste of every thing. With them, eating +and drinking have still a poetic side, and there is a pleasure +in them which is not wholly the mere pleasure of taste. +Their proclivity to taste of every thing should not, therefore, +be harshly censured, unless it is associated with disobedience, +or pursued in a clandestine manner, or when it betrays cunning +and greediness.</p> + +<p><a name="S62c" id="S62c"></a>§ 62. Children need much sleep, because they are growing +and changing so fast. In later years, waking and sleeping +must be regulated, and yet not too exactly.</p> + +<p><a name="S63c" id="S63c"></a>§ 63. The clothing of children should follow the form of +the body, and should be large enough to give them free room +for the unfettered movement of every limb in play.</p> + +<p>The Germans do more rationally for children in the matter +of sleep and of dress than in that of food, which they often + +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_54b" id="Page_54b">54</a></span> + +make too rich, and accompany with coffee, tea, etc. The +clothing should be not only suitable in shape and size, it must +also be made of simple and inexpensive material, so that the +child may not be hampered in his play by the constant anxiety +that a spot or a rent may cause fault to be found with him. +If we foster in the child's mind too much thought about his +clothes, we tend to produce either a narrow-mindedness, which +treats affairs of the moment with too much respect and concerns +itself with little things, or an empty vanity. Vanity +is often produced by dressing children in a manner that +attracts attention. (No one can fail to remark the peculiar +healthful gayety of German children, and to contrast it with +the different appearance of American children. It is undoubtedly +true that the climate has much to do with this result, but +it is also true that we may learn much from that nation in our +way of treating children. Already we import their children's +story-books, to the infinite delight of the little ones, and +copies of their children's pictures are appropriated constantly +by our children's magazines and picture-books. It is to be +greatly desired that we should adopt the very sensible custom +which prevails in Germany, of giving to each child its own little +bed to sleep in, no matter how many may be required; and, +in general, we shall not go far astray if we follow the Germans +in their treatment of their happy children.)</p> + +<p><a name="S64c" id="S64c"></a>§ 64. Cleanliness is a virtue to which children should be +trained, not only for the sake of their physical health, but also +because it has a decided moral influence. Cleanliness will not +have things deprived of their distinctive and individual character, +and become again a part of original chaos. It is only a +form of order which remands all things, dirt included, to their +own places, and will not endure to have things mixed and +confused. All adaptation in dress comes from this same principle. +When every thing is in its proper place, all dressing +will be suitable to the occasion and to the wearer, and the era +of good taste in dress will have come. Dirt itself, as Lord +Palmerston so wittily said, is nothing but "matter out of +place." Cleanliness would hold every individual thing strictly +to its differences from other things, and for the reason that it + +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_55b" id="Page_55b">55</a></span> + +makes pure air, cleanliness of his own body, of his clothing, and +of all his surroundings really necessary to man, it develops in +him the feeling for the proper limitations of all existent +things. (Emerson says: "Therefore is space and therefore is +time, that men may know that things are not huddled and +lumped, but sundered and divisible." He might have said, +"Therefore is cleanliness.")</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<div class="center"><span class="smcap">Second Chapter.</span></div> + +<div class="center"><i>Gymnastics.</i></div> + + +<p><a name="S65c" id="S65c"></a>§ 65. Gymnastics is the art of cultivating in a rational +manner the muscular system. The activity of the voluntary +muscles, which are under the control of the brain, in distinction +from the involuntary, which are under the control +of the spinal cord, renders possible the connection of man +with the external world, and acts in a reflex manner back +upon the involuntary or automatic muscles for the purposes +of repair and sensation. Because the activity of muscle-fibre +consists in the change from contraction to expansion, and the +reverse, gymnastics must use a constant change of movements +which shall not only make tense, but relax the muscles that +are to be exercised.</p> + +<p><a name="S66c" id="S66c"></a>§ 66. The gymnastic art among any people will always +bear a certain relation to its art of war. So long as fighting +consists mainly of personal, hand-to-hand encounters of two +combatants, so long will gymnastics turn its chief effort +towards the development of the greatest possible amount of +individual strength and dexterity. But after the invention +of fire-arms of long range has changed the whole idea +of war, the individual becomes only one member of a body, +the army, the division, or the regiment, and emerges from +this position into his individuality again only occasionally, +as in sharpshooting, in the onset, or in the retreat. Modern +gymnastics, as an art, can never be the same as the ancient +art, for this very reason: that because of the loss of the +individual man in the general mass of combatants, the matter + +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_56b" id="Page_56b">56</a></span> + +of personal bravery is not of so much importance as formerly. +The same essential difference between ancient and modern +gymnastics, would result from the subjective, or internal +character of the modern spirit. It is impossible for us, in +modern times, to devote so much thought to the care of the +body and to the reverential admiration of its beauty as did +the Greeks.</p> + +<p>The Turners' Unions and Turners' Halls in Germany belonged +to the period of intense political enthusiasm in the +German youth, and had a political significance. Now they +have come back again to their place as an instrument of education, +and seem in great cities to be of much importance. In +mountainous countries, and in country life generally, a definite +gymnastic drill is of much less importance, for much and +varied exercise is of necessity a constant part of the daily life +of every one.</p> + +<p>The constant opportunity and the impulse to recreation +helps in the same direction. In cities, on the contrary, there +is not free space enough either in houses or yards for children +to romp to their heart's and body's content. For this reason +a gymnasium is here useful, so that they may have companionship +in their plays. For girls this exercise is less necessary. +Dancing may take its place, and systematic exercise should be +used only where there is a tendency to some weakness or deformity. +They are not to become Amazons. On the other +hand, boys need the feeling of comradeship. It is true they +find this in some measure in school, but they are not there +perfectly on an equality, because the standing is determined to +some extent by his intellectual ability. The academic youth +cannot hope to win any great preëminence in the gymnastic +hall, and running, climbing, leaping, and lifting do not interest +him very much as he grows older. He takes a far more +lively interest in exercises which have a military character. In +Germany the gymnastic art is very closely united with the art +of war.</p> + +<p>(The German idea of a woman's whole duty—to knit, to +sew, and to obey implicitly—is perhaps accountable for what +Rosenkranz here says of exercise as regards girls. We, however + +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_57b" id="Page_57b">57</a></span>, + +who know that the most frequent direct cause of debility +and suffering in our young women is simply and solely a want of +muscular strength, may be pardoned for dissenting from his +opinion, and for suggesting that dancing is not a sufficient +equivalent for the more violent games of their brothers. We +do not fear to render them Amazons by giving them more +genuine and systematic exercise, both physically and intellectually.)</p> + +<p><a name="S67c" id="S67c"></a>§ 67. The main idea of gymnastics, and indeed of all exercise, +is to give the mind control over its natural impulses, to +make it master of the body which it inhabits, and of itself. +Strength and dexterity must combine to give us a sense +of mastership. Strength by itself produces the athlete, +dexterity by itself the acrobat. Pedagogics must avoid both +these extremes. Neither must it base its teaching of gymnastics +on the idea of utility—as, <i>e.g.</i>, that man might save his +life by swimming, should he fall into the water, and hence +swimming should be taught, etc.</p> + +<p>The main thought must be always to enable the soul to +take full and perfect possession of the organism, so as not to +have the body form a limit or fetter to its action in its dealings +with the external world. We are to give it a perfect instrument +in the body, in so far as our care may do so. Then we +are to teach it to use that instrument, and exercise it in that +use till it is complete master thereof.</p> + +<p>(What is said about the impropriety of making athletes and +acrobats may with justice be also applied to what is called +"vocal gymnastics;" whence it comes that we have too +often vocal athletes and acrobats in our graduates, and few +readers who can read at sight, without difficulty or hesitation, +and with appreciation or enjoyment, one page of good +English.)</p> + +<p><a name="S68c" id="S68c"></a>§ 68. There are all grades of gymnastic exercises, from the +simple to the most complex, constituting a system. At first +sight, there seems to be so much arbitrariness in these +things that it is always very satisfactory to the mind to detect +some rational system in them. Thus we have movements +(<i>a</i>) of the lower extremities, (<i>b</i>) of the upper, (<i>c</i>) of the + +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_58b" id="Page_58b">58</a></span> + +whole body, with corresponding movements, alternately, of the +upper and of the lower extremities. We thus have leg, arm, +and trunk movements.</p> + +<p><a name="S69c" id="S69c"></a>§ 69. (1) The first set of movements, those of the legs and +feet, are of prime importance, because upon them depends the +carriage of the whole body. They are (<i>a</i>) walking, (<i>b</i>) running, +(<i>c</i>) leaping; and each of these, also, may have varieties. +We may have high and low leaping, and running may be +distinguished as to whether it is to be a short and rapid, or a +slow and long-continued movement. We may also walk on +stilts, or run on skates. We may leap with a pole, or without +one. Dancing is only an artistic and graceful combination +of these movements.</p> + +<p><a name="S70c" id="S70c"></a>§ 70. (2) The second set comprises the arm movements, +which are about the same as the preceding, being (<i>a</i>) lifting, +(<i>b</i>) swinging; (<i>c</i>) throwing. The use of horizontal poles and +bars, as well as climbing and dragging, belong to lifting. +Under throwing, come quoit and ball-playing and bowling. +These movements are distinguished from each other not only +quantitatively, but qualitatively; as, for instance, running is not +merely rapid walking; it is a different kind of movement from +walking, as the position of the extended and contracted muscles +is different.</p> + +<p><a name="S71c" id="S71c"></a>§ 71. (3) The third set of exercises, those of the trunk, +differ from the other two, which should precede it, in that they +bring the body into contact with an object in itself capable of +active resistance, which it has to subdue. This object may be +an element (water), an animal, or a human being; and thus we +have (<i>a</i>) swimming, (<i>b</i>) riding, (<i>c</i>) fighting in single combat. +In swimming we have the elastic fluid, water, to overcome by +means of arm and leg movements. This may be made very +difficult by a strong current, or by rough water, and yet we +always have here to strive against an inanimate object. On +the contrary, in horseback riding we have to deal with +something that has a self of its own, and the contest challenges +not our strength alone, but also our skill and courage. The +motion is therefore very complex, and the rider must be able +to exercise either or all of these qualities at need. But his<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_59b" id="Page_59b">59</a></span> +attention must not be wholly given to his horse, for he has to +observe also the road, and indeed every thing around him. One +of the greatest advantages of horseback riding to the overworked +student or the business man lies doubtlessly in the +mental effort. It is impossible for him to go on revolving in +his mind the problems or the thoughts which have so wearied +or perplexed him. His whole attention is incessantly demanded +for the management of his horse, for the observation +of the road, which changes its character with every step, and +with the objects, far or near, which are likely to attract the +attention of the animal he rides. Much good, doubtless, results +from the exercise of the muscles of the trunk, which are not in +any other motion called into such active play, but much also +from the unavoidable distraction of the mind from the ordinary +routine of thought, which is the thing most needed. When +the object which we are to subdue, instead of being an animal, is +a man like ourselves, as in single combat, we have exercise both +of body and mind pushed to its highest power. We have then +to oppose an intelligence which is equal to our own, and no +longer the intelligence of an unreasoning animal. Single combat +is the truly chivalrous exercise; and this also, as in the old +chivalry time, may be combined with horsemanship.</p> + +<p>In single combat we find also a qualitative distinction, and +this of three kinds: (<i>a</i>) boxing and wrestling, (<i>b</i>) fighting +with canes or clubs, and (<i>c</i>) rapier and sword fencing. The +Greeks carried wrestling to its highest pitch of excellence. +Among the British, a nation of sailors, boxing is still retained +as a national custom. Fencing with a cane or stick is much +in use among the French artisan class. The cane is a sort of +refined club. When the sword or rapier makes its appearance, +we come to mortal combat. The southern European excels +in the use of the rapier; the Germans in that of the sword. +The appearance of the pistol marks the degeneracy of the art +of single combat, as it makes the weak man equal to the +strong, and there is therefore no more incentive to train the +body to strength in order to overcome an enemy. (The trained +intelligence, the quick eye, the steady hand, the wary thought +to perceive and to take advantage of an opportunity—these<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_60b" id="Page_60b">60</a></span> +are the qualities which the invention of gunpowder set up +above strength and brute force. The Greek nation, and we +may say Greek mythology and art, would have been impossible +with gunpowder; the American nation impossible without +it.)</p> + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<div class="center"><span class="smcap">Third Chapter.</span></div> + +<div class="center"><i>Sexual Education.</i></div> + + +<p>[This chapter is designed for parents rather than for teachers, +and is hence not paraphrased here. A few observations are, +however, in place.] Great care is necessary at the period of +youth that a rational system of food and exercise be maintained. +But the general fault is in the omission of this care in +preceding years. One cannot neglect due precautions for +many years, and then hope to repair the damage caused, by extreme +care for one or two years.</p> + +<p>Special care is necessary that the brain be not overworked +in early years, and a morbid excitation of the whole nervous +system thereby induced. We desire to repress any tendency +to the rapid development of the nervous system. Above all, +is the reading of the child to be carefully watched and +guarded. Nothing can be worse food for a child than what are +called sensational romances. That the reading of such tends +to enfeeble and enervate the whole thinking power is a fact +which properly belongs to the intellectual side of our question +not yet reached, and may be here merely mentioned. But the +effect on the physical condition of the youth, of such carelessly +written sensational stories, mostly of the French type, and +full of sensuous, if not sensual suggestions, is a point not often +enough considered. The teacher cannot, perhaps, except indirectly, +prevent the reading of such trash at home. But every +influence which he can bring to bear towards the formation of a +purer and more correct taste, he should never omit. Where +there is a public library in the town, he should make himself +acquainted with its contents, and give the children direct help +in their selection of books.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_61b" id="Page_61b">61</a></span></p> + +<p>This is an external means. But he should never forget that +every influence which he can bring to bear in his daily work +to make science pleasant and attractive, and every lesson +which he gives in the use of pure, correct English, free from +exaggeration, from slang, and from mannerism, goes far to +render such miserable and pernicious trash distasteful even to +the child himself.</p> + +<p>Every example of thorough work, every pleasure that comes +from the solving of a problem or the acquisition of a new +fact, is so much fortification against the advances of the enemy; +while all shallow half work, all pretence or show tend to +create an appetite in the child's mind which shall demand such +food.</p> + +<p>The true teacher should always have in his mind these far-away +and subtle effects of his teaching; not present good or +pleasure either for himself or his pupil, but the far-off good—the +distant development. That idea would free him from the +notion, too common in our day, that the success or failure of +his efforts is to be tested by any adroitly contrived system of +examinations; or still worse, exhibitions. His success can +alone be tested by the future lives of his pupils—by their +love for, or dislike of, new knowledge. His success will be +marked by their active growth through all their lives; his failure, +by their early arrested development.</p> +<hr /> +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_62b" id="Page_62b">62</a></span></p> + +<h3>AN OUTLINE OF EDUCATIONAL PSYCHOLOGY.</h3> +<hr /> +<h4>BY WM. T. HARRIS.</h4> +<hr /> +<h5>[TO BE USED AS AN INTRODUCTION TO PARAGRAPHS 81 TO 102 OF ROSENKRANZ'S +PEDAGOGICS.]</h5> + + +<div class="center">I.</div> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>What beings can be educated; the plant has reaction against its surroundings in the +form of nutrition; the animal has reaction in the form of nutrition and feeling; Aristotle +calls the life of the plant the "nutritive soul," and the life of the animal the "sensitive +soul."</p> + +<p>The life of the plant is a continual reproduction of new individuals—a process of +going out of one individual into another—so that the particular individual loses its +identity, although the identity of the species is preserved.</p></div> + +<p>That which is dependent upon external circumstances, and is only +a circumstance itself, is not capable of education. Only a "self" +can be educated; and a "self" is a conscious unity—a "self-activity," +a being which is through itself, and not one that is made by +surrounding conditions.</p> + +<p>Again, in order that a being possess a capacity for education, it +must have the ability to realize within itself what belongs to its +species or race.</p> + +<p>If an acorn could develop itself so that it could realize, not only +its own possibility as an oak, but its entire species, and all the varieties +of oaks within itself, and without losing its particular individuality, +it would possess the capacity for education. But an acorn, +in reality, cannot develop its possibility without the destruction of its +own individuality. The acorn vanishes in the oak tree, and the crop +of acorns which succeeds is not again the same acorn, except in <i>kind</i> +or species. "The species lives, but the individual dies," in the +vegetable world.</p> + +<p>So it is in the animal world. The brute lives his particular life, +unable to develop within himself the form of his entire species, and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_63b" id="Page_63b">63</a></span> +still less the form of all animal life. And yet the animal possesses +self-activity in the powers of locomotion, sense-perception, feeling, +emotion, and other elementary shapes. Both animal and plant react +against surroundings, and possess more or less power to assimilate +what is foreign to them. The plant takes moisture and elementary +inorganic substances, and converts them into nutrition wherewith to +build its cellular growth. The animal has not only this power of +nutrition, which assimilates its surroundings, but also the power of +<i>feeling</i>, which is a wonderful faculty. <i>Feeling</i> reproduces within the +organism of the animal the external condition; it is an ideal reproduction +of the surroundings. The environment of the plant may be +seized upon and appropriated in the form of sap, or in the form of +carbonic acid, for the nourishment of that plant; but there is no +ideal reproduction of the environment in the form of <i>feeling</i>, as in +the animal.</p> + +<p>In the activity of <i>feeling</i>, the animal transcends his material, corporeal +limits—lives beyond his mere body, and participates in the +existence of all nature. He reproduces within himself the external. +Such being the nature of the activity of <i>feeling</i>, which forms the distinguishing +attribute that divides animals from plants, the question +meets us at the outset, "Why is not the animal capable of education? +Why can he not realize within himself his entire species or +race, as man can?"</p> + +<p>In order to settle this fundamental question, we must study carefully +the scope and limits of this activity, which we have termed +"Feeling," and which is known under many names—as, sensation, +sensibility, sensitivity, sense-perception, intuition, and others.</p> + +<p>Education aims to develop the mind as intellect and will. It must +know what it is to develop, and learn to distinguish higher or more +complete stages of intellect and will from those which are rudimentary.</p> + +<p>Again, the discussion of mind begins properly with the first or +most undeveloped manifestation—at the stage where it is common +to brutes and human beings. Hence we may begin our study of +educational psychology at this point where the distinction between +animal and plant appears, and where the question of the capacity for +education arises.</p> + +<p>When we understand the relation of feeling or sensibility to the +higher manifestations of mind, we shall see in what consists a capacity +for education, and we shall learn many essentials in regard to the +matter and method, the <i>what</i> and the <i>how</i> of education.</p> + +<p>A general survey of the world discovers that there is inter-action<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_64b" id="Page_64b">64</a></span> +among its parts. This is the verdict of science, as the systematic +form of human experience. In the form of gravitation we understand +that each body depends upon every other body, and the +annihilation of a particle of matter in a body would cause a change +in that body which would affect every other body in the physical +universe. Even gravitation, therefore, is a manifestation of the whole +universe in each part of it, although it is not a manifestation which +exists <i>for</i> that part, because the part does not <i>know</i> it.</p> + +<p>There are other forms wherein the whole manifests itself in +each part of it—as, for example, in the phenomena of light, heat, +and possibly in magnetism and electricity. These forms of manifestation +of the external world upon an individual object are destructive +to the individuality of the object. If the nature of a thing +is stamped upon it from without, it is an element only, and not a self; +it is dependent, and belongs to that on which it depends. It does +not possess itself, but belongs to that which <i>makes</i> it, and which +gives evidence of ownership by continually modifying it.</p> + +<p>But the plant, as we just now said, has some degree of self-activity, +and is not altogether made by the totality of external conditions. +The growth of the plant is through assimilation of external substances. +It reacts against its surroundings and digests them, and +grows through the nutrition thus formed.</p> + +<p>All beings that cannot react against surroundings and modify +them, lack individuality. Individuality begins with this power of +reaction and modification of external surroundings. Even the power +of cohesion is a rudimentary form of reaction and of special individuality.</p> + +<p>In the case of the plant, the reaction is <i>real</i>, but not also <i>ideal</i>. +The plant acts upon its food, and digests it, or assimilates it, and +imposes its <i>form</i> on that which it draws within its organism. It does +not, however, reproduce within itself the externality as that external +exists for itself. It does not form within itself an idea, or even +a feeling of that which is external to it. Its participation in the +external world is only that of <i>real</i> modification of it or through it; +either the plant digests the external, or the external limits <i>it</i>, and +prevents its growth, so that where one begins the other ceases. +Hence it is that the elements—the matter of which the plant is +composed, that which it has assimilated even—still retain a large +degree of foreign power or force—a large degree of externality +which the plant has not been able to annul or to digest. The plant-activity +subdues its food, changes its shape and its place, subordinates +it to its use; but what the matter brings with it, and still <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_65b" id="Page_65b">65</a></span>retains +of the world beyond the plant, does not exist for the plant; the +plant cannot read or interpret the rest of the universe from that +small portion of it which it has taken up within its own organism. +And yet the history of the universe is impressed on each particle +of matter, as well within the plant as outside of it, and it could be +understood were there capacities for recognizing it.</p> + +<p>The reaction of the life of the plant upon the external world is not +sufficient to constitute a fixed, abiding individuality. With each +accretion there is some change of particular individuality. Every +growth to a plant is by the sprouting out of new individuals—new +plants—a ceaseless multiplication of individuals, and not the preservation +of the same individual. The species is preserved, but not the +particular individual. Each limb, each twig, even each leaf is a new +individual, which grows out from the previous growth as the first +sprout grew from the seed. Each part furnishes a soil for the next. +When a plant no longer sends out new individuals, we say it is dead. +The life of the plant is only a life of nutrition.</p> + +<p>Aristotle called vegetable life "the nutritive soul," and the life of +the animal the "feeling," or <i>sensitive</i> soul. Nutrition is only an +activity of preservation of the general form in new individuals, it is +only the life of the species, and not the life of the permanent individual.</p> + +<p>Therefore we see that in the vegetable world we do not possess a +being that can be educated—for no individual of it can realize <i>within</i> +itself the species; its realization of the species is a continual process +of going out of itself in new individuals, but no activity of <i>return</i> to +itself, so as to preserve <i>the identity</i> of an individual.</p> + + + +<div class="center">II.</div> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>Feeling is a unity of the parts of an organism everywhere present in it; feeling is also +an ideal reproduction of the external surroundings; feeling is therefore a synthesis of +the internal and external. Aristotle joins locomotion and desire to feeling, as correlates; +how desire is a more explicit recognition of the unity of the external and internal than +the first form of feeling is; feeling reproduces the external without destroying its externality, +while nutrition receives the external only after it has destroyed its individuality +and assimilated it; desire is the side of feeling that unfolds into will.</p></div> + +<p>With feeling or sensibility we come to a being that reacts on the +external world in a far higher manner, and realizes a more wonderful +form of individuality.</p> + +<p>The animal possesses, in common with the plant, a process of assimilation +and nutrition. Moreover, he possesses a capacity to <i>feel</i>. +Through <i>feeling</i>, or sensation, all of the parts of his extended organism +are united in one centre. He is one individual, and not a bundle<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_66b" id="Page_66b">66</a></span> +of separate individuals, as a plant is. With feeling, likewise, are joined +<i>locomotion</i> and <i>desire</i>. For these are counterparts of feeling. He +feels—<i>i.e.</i>, lives as one indivisible unity throughout his organism +and controls it, and moves the parts of his body. Desire is more than +mere feeling. Mere feeling alone is the perception of the external +within the being, hence an ideal reproduction of the external world. +In feeling, the animal exists not only within himself, but also passes +over his limit, and has for object the reality of the external world +that limits him. Hence it is the perception of his finiteness—his +limits are his defects, his needs, wants, inadequateness—his separation +from the world as a whole. In feeling, the animal perceives +his separation from the rest of the world, and also his union with it. +Feeling expands into desire when the external world, or some portion +of it, is seen as ideally belonging to the limited unity of the animal +being. It is beyond the limit, and ought to be assimilated within the +limited individuality of the animal.</p> + +<p>Mere <i>feeling</i>, when attentively considered, is found to contain +these wonderful features of self-activity: it reproduces for itself the +external world that limits it; it makes for itself an ideal object, which +includes its own self and its not-self at the same time. It is a higher +form than mere nutrition; for nutrition destroys the nature of such +externality as it receives into itself, while feeling preserves the +external in its foreign individuality.</p> + +<p>But through <i>feeling</i> the animal ascends to <i>desire</i>, and sees the +independent externality as an object for its acquisition, and through +locomotion it is enabled to seize and appropriate it in a degree which +the plant did not possess.</p> + + +<div class="center">III.</div> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>The various forms of feeling—its specialization: (<i>a</i>) touch, the feeling of mere limits, +the indifferent external independence of the organism and its surroundings; (<i>b</i>) taste, +feeling of the external object when it is undergoing dissolution by assimilation; +(<i>c</i>) smell, the feeling of chemical dissolution in general; (<i>d</i>) hearing, the feeling of the +resistance of bodies against attacks: sound being vibration caused by elastic reaction +against attacks on cohesion; (<i>e</i>) seeing, the feeling of objects in their independence, +without dissolution or attack; plant life, nutrition, a process in which the individuality is +not preserved either in time or in space; animal life, as feeling, preserves its individuality +as regards space, but not as regards time.</p></div> + +<p>Having noted these important characteristics of the lower orders of +life, and found that <i>reaction</i> from the part against the whole—from +the internal against the external—belongs to plant life and animal +life, we may now briefly mention the ways in which feeling is particularized. +In the lower animals it is only the feeling of touch; in<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_67b" id="Page_67b">67</a></span> +higher organisms it becomes also localized as seeing, hearing, taste, +and smell. These forms of sense-perception constitute a scale (as it +were) of feeling. With touch, there is reproduction of externality, +but the ideality of the reproduction is not so complete as in the other +forms. With taste, the feeling cognizes the external object as +undergoing dissolution, and assimilation within its own organism. +We taste only what we are beginning to destroy by the first process +of assimilation—that of eating. In smell, we perceive chemical +dissolution of bodies. In seeing and hearing, we have the forms of +<i>ideal</i> sensibility. Hearing perceives the attack made on the individuality +of an external thing, and its reaction in vibrations, which +reveal to us its internal nature—its cohesion, etc. In seeing, we +have the highest form of sense-perception as the perception of things +in their external independence—not as being destroyed chemically, +like the objects of taste and smell; not as being attacked and resisting, +like the objects which are known through the ear; not as mere +limits to our organism, as in the sense of touch.</p> + +<p>Sense-perception, as the developed realization of the activity of +feeling, belongs to the animal creation, including man as an animal.</p> + +<p>We have not yet, therefore, answered the question of capacity for +education, so far as it concerns a discrimination between man and +the brute. We have only arrived at the conclusion that the vegetable +world does not possess the capacity for education, because its +individual specimens are no complete individuals, but only transitory +phases manifesting the species by continual reproduction of +new individuals which are as incomplete as the old ones. Plant life +does not possess that self-activity which returns into itself in the +same individual—if we may so express it; it goes out of one individual +into another perpetually. Its identity is that of the <i>species</i>, +but not of the <i>individual</i>.</p> + +<p>How is it with the animal—with the being which possesses sensibility, +or feeling? This question recurs. In feeling there is a reaction, +just as in the plant. This reaction is, however, in an ideal +form—the reproduction of the external without assimilation of it—and +especially is this the case in the sense of <i>sight</i>, though it is true +of all forms of sensation to a less degree.</p> + +<p>But all forms of sensibility are limited and special; they refer only +to the <i>present</i>, in its forms of <i>here</i> and <i>now</i>. The animal cannot feel +what is not here and now. Even seeing is limited to what is present +before it. When we reflect upon the significance of this limitation +of sense-perception, we shall find that we need some higher form of +self-activity still before we can realize the species in the individual<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_68b" id="Page_68b">68</a></span> +<i>i.e.</i>, before we can obtain the true individual—the permanent +individuality.</p> + +<p>The defect in plant life was, that there was neither identity of +individuality in space nor identify in time. The growth of the +plant destroyed the individuality of the seed with which we began, +so that it was evanescent in time; it served only as the starting-point +for new individualities, which likewise, in turn, served again the same +purpose; and so its growth in space was a departure from itself as +individual.</p> + +<p>The animal is a preservation of individuality as regards space. He +returns into himself in the form of <i>feeling</i> or <i>sensibility</i>; but as regards +time, it is not so—feeling being limited to the present. Without +a higher activity than feeling, there is no continuity of individuality +in the animal any more than in the plant. Each new moment +is a new beginning to a being that has feeling, but not memory.</p> + +<p>Thus the individuality of mere feeling, although a far more perfect +realization of individuality than that found in plant life, is yet, +after all, not a continuous individuality for itself, but only for the +species.</p> + +<p>In spite of the ideal self-activity which appertains to feeling, even +in sense-perception, only the species lives in the animal and the +individual dies, unless there be higher forms of activity.</p> + + +<div class="center">IV.</div> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>Representation is the next form above sense-perception. The lowest phase of representation +is recollection, which simply repeats for itself a former sense-perception or +series of sense-perceptions; in representation the mind is free as regards external +impressions; it does not require the presence of the object, but recalls it without its own +time and place; fancy and imagination are next higher than recollection, because the +mind not only recalls images, but makes new combinations of them, or creates them +altogether; attention is the appearance of the will in the intellect; with attention begins +the separation of the transient from the variable in perception; memory is the highest +form of representation; memory deals with general forms—not mere images of experience, +but general types of objects of perception; memory, in this sense, is productive as +well as reproductive; with memory arises language.</p></div> + +<p>Here we pass over to the consideration of higher forms of intellect +and will.</p> + +<p>While mere sensation, as such, acts only in the presence of the +object—reproducing (ideally), it is true, the external object, the +faculty of representation is a higher form of self-activity (or of +reaction against surrounding conditions), because it can recall, at its +own pleasure, the ideal object. Here is the beginning of emancipation +from the limitations of time.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_69b" id="Page_69b">69</a></span></p> + +<p>The self-activity of representation can summon before it the object +that is no longer present to it. Hence its activity is now a double one, +for it can seize not only what is now and here immediately before it, +but it can compare this present object with the past, and identify or +distinguish between the two. Thus recollection or representation may +become <i>memory</i>.</p> + +<p>As memory, the mind achieves a form of activity far above that of +sense-perception or mere recollection. It must be noted carefully +that mere recollection or representation, although it holds fast the perception +in time (making it permanent), does not necessarily constitute +an activity completely emancipated from time, nor indeed very far +advanced towards it. It is only the beginning of such emancipation. +For mere recollection stands in the presence of the special object of +sense-perception; although the object is no longer present to the +senses (or to mere feeling), yet the image is present to the representative +perception, and is just as much a particular here and now as +the object of sense-perception. There intervenes a new activity on +the part of the soul before it arrives at memory. Recollection is not +memory, but it is the activity which grows into it by the aid of the +activity of attention.</p> + +<p>The special characteristics of objects of the senses are allowed to +drop away, in so far as they are unessential and merely circumstantial, +and gradually there arises in the mind the type—the <i>general form</i>—of +the object perceived. This general form is the object of memory. +Memory deals therefore with what is general, and a type, rather than +with what is directly recollected or perceived.</p> + +<p>The activity by which the mind ascends from sense-perception to +memory is the activity of attention. Here we have the appearance +of the will in intellectual activity. Attention is the control of perception +by means of the will. The senses shall no longer passively +receive and report what is before them, but they shall choose some +definite point of observation, and neglect all the rest.</p> + +<p>Here, in the act of attention we find <i>abstraction</i>, and the greater +attainment of freedom by the mind. The mind abstracts its view +from the many things before it, and concentrates on one point.</p> + +<p>Educators have for many ages noted that the habit of attention is +the first step in intellectual education. With it we have found the +point of separation between the animal intellect and the human. +Not attention simply—like that with which the cat watches by the +hole of a mouse—but attention which arrives at results of abstraction, +is the distinguishing characteristic of educative beings.</p> + +<p>Attention abstracts from some things before it and concentrates + +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_70b" id="Page_70b">70</a></span> + +on others. Through attention grows the capacity to discriminate +between the special, particular object and its general type. Generalization +arises, but not what is usually called generalization—only a +more elementary form of it. Memory, as the highest form of representation—distinguishing +it from mere recollection, which reproduces +only what has been perceived—such memory deals with the +general forms of objects, their continuity in time. Such activity of +memory, therefore, does not reproduce mere images, but only the +concepts or general ideas of things, and therefore it belongs to the +stage of mind that uses language.</p> + + +<div class="center">V.</div> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>Language marks the arrival at the stage of thought—at the stage of the perception +of universals—hence at the possibility of education; language fixes the general types +which the productive memory forms; each one of these types, indicated by a word, +stands for a possible infinite of sense-perceptions or recollections; the word <i>tree</i> stands +for all the trees that exist, and for all that have existed or will exist. Animals do not +create for themselves a new world of general types, but deal only with the first world +of particular objects; hence they are lost in the variety and multiplicity of continuous +succession and difference. Man's sense-perception is with memory; hence always +a recognition of the object as not wholly new, but only as an example of what he +is mostly familiar with. Intellectual education has for its object the cultivation of +reflection; reflection is the Platonic "Reminiscence," which retraces the unconscious +processes of thought</p></div> + +<p>Language is the means of distinguishing between the brute and +the human—between the animal soul, which has continuity only in +the species (which pervades its being in the form of <i>instinct</i>), and the +<i>human</i>, soul, which is immortal, and possessed of a capacity to be +educated.</p> + +<p>There is no language until the mind can perceive general types +of existence; mere proper names nor mere exclamations or cries +do not constitute language. All words that belong to language are +significative—they "<i>express</i>" or "<i>mean</i>" something—hence they +are conventional symbols, and not mere individual designations. +Language arises only through common consent, and is not an invention +of one individual. It is a product of individuals acting together +as a community, and hence implies the ascent of the individual into +the species. Unless an individual could ascend into the species he +could not <i>understand</i> language. To know words and their meaning +is an activity of divine significance; it denotes the formation of +universals in the mind—the ascent above the here and now of the +senses, and above the representation of mere images, to the activity +which grasps together the general conception of objects, and thus +reaches beyond what is transient and variable.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_71b" id="Page_71b">71</a></span></p> + +<p>Doubtless the nobler species of animals possess not only sense-perception, +but a considerable degree of the power of representation. +They are not only able to recollect, but to imagine or fancy to some +extent, as is evidenced by their dreams. But that animals do not +generalize sufficiently to form for themselves a new objective world +of types and general concepts, we have a sufficient evidence in the +fact that they do not use words, or invent conventional symbols. +With the activity of the symbol-making form of representation, +which we have named Memory, and whose evidence is the invention +and use of language, the true form of individuality is attained, and +each individual human being, as mind, may be said to be the entire +species. Inasmuch as he can form universals in his mind, he can +realize the most abstract thought; and he is conscious. Consciousness +begins when one can seize the pure universal in the presence of +immediate objects here and now.</p> + +<p>The sense-perception of the mere animal, therefore, differs from +that of the human being in this:—</p> + +<p>The human being knows himself as subject that sees the object, +while the animal sees the object, but does not separate himself, as +universal, from the special act of seeing. To know that I am I, is +to know the most general of objects, and to carry out abstraction +to its very last degree; and yet this is what all human beings do, +young or old, savage or civilized. The savage invents and uses +language—an act of the species, but which the species cannot do +without the participation of the individual.</p> + +<p>It should be carefully noted that this activity of generalization +which produces language, and characterizes the human from the +brute, is not the generalization of the activity of thought, so-called.</p> + +<p>It is the preparation for thought. These general types of things +are the things which thought deals with. Thought does not deal +with mere immediate objects of the senses; it deals rather with the +objects which are indicated by words—<i>i.e.</i>, general objects.</p> + +<p>Some writers would have us suppose that we do not arrive at general +notions except by the process of classification and abstraction, +in the mechanical manner that they lay down for this purpose. The +fact is that the mind has arrived at these general ideas in the process +of learning language. In infancy, most children have learned such +words as <i>is</i>, <i>existence</i>, <i>being</i>, <i>nothing</i>, <i>motion</i>, <i>cause</i>, <i>change</i>, <i>I</i>, <i>you</i>, +<i>he</i>, etc., etc.</p> + +<p>But the point is not the mere arrival at these ideas. Education +does not concern itself with that; it does not concern itself with + +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_72b" id="Page_72b">72</a></span> + +children who have not yet learned to talk—that is left for the nursery.</p> + +<p>It is the process of becoming conscious of these ideas by reflection, +with which we have to concern ourselves in education. Reflection +is everywhere the object of education. Even when the school +undertakes to teach pupils the correct method of observation—how +to use the senses, as in "object-lessons"—it all means <i>reflective</i> +observation, <i>conscious</i> use of the senses; it would put this in the +place of the <i>naïve</i> spontaneity which characterizes the first stages of +sense-perception.</p> + +<p>We must not underrate these precepts of pedagogy because we +find that they are not what it claims for them—<i>i.e.</i>, they are not +methods of first discovery, and of arrival at principles, but only +methods of reflection, and of recognizing what we have already +learned. We see that Plato's "Reminiscence" was a true form of +statement for the perception of truths of reflection. The first knowing +is utterly unconscious of its own method; the second or scientific +form of knowing, which education develops, is a knowing in which +the mind knows its method. Hence it is a knowing which knows its +own necessity and universality.</p> + + +<div class="center">VI.</div> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>Education presupposes the stage of mind reached in productive memory; it deals with +reflection; four stages of reflection: (<i>a</i>) sensuous ideas perceive things; (<i>b</i>) abstract +ideas perceive forces or elements of a process; (<i>c</i>) concrete idea perceives one process, +a pantheistic first principle, persistent force; (<i>d</i>) absolute idea perceives a conscious +first principle, absolute person.</p></div> + +<p>We have considered in our psychological study thus far the forms +of life and cognition, contrasting the phase of nutrition with that of +feeling, or sensibility. We have seen the various forms of feeling in +sense-perception, and the various forms of representation as the +second phase of intellectual activity—the forms of recollection, +fancy, imagination, attention, and memory. We draw the line +between the animals capable of education and those not capable of +it, at the point of memory defined—not as recollection, but as the +faculty of general ideas or conceptions, to which the significant words +of language correspond.</p> + +<p>With the arrival at language, we arrive at education in the human +sense of the term; with the arrival at language, we arrive at the view +of the world at which thought as a mental process begins. As sense-perception +has before it a world of <i>present</i> objects, so thought has + +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_73b" id="Page_73b">73</a></span> + +before it a world of general concepts, which language has defined +and fixed.</p> + +<p>It is true that few persons are aware that language stands for a +world of general ideas, and that reflection has to do with this world of +universals. Hence it is, too, that so much of the so-called science of +education is very crude and impractical. Much of it is materialistic, +and does not recognize the self-activity of mind; but makes it out to +be a correlation of physical energies—derived from the transmutation +of food by the process of digestion, and then by the brain converted +into thought.</p> + +<p>Let us consider now the psychology of thinking, or reflection, and +at first in its most inadequate forms. As a human process, the knowing +is always a knowing by universals—a re-cognition, and not simple +apprehension, such as the animals, or such as beings have that +do not use language. The process of development of stages of +thought begins with sensuous ideas, which perceive mere individual, +concrete, real objects, as it supposes. In conceiving these, it uses +language and thinks general ideas, but it does not know it, nor is it +conscious of the relations involved in such objects. This is the first +stage of reflection. The world exists for it as an innumerable congeries +of things, each one independent of the other, and possessing +self-existence. It is the stand-point from which atomism would be +adopted as the philosophic system. Ask it what the ultimate principle +of existence is, and it would reply, "Atoms."</p> + +<p>But this view of the world is a very unstable one, and requires +very little reflection to overturn it, and bring one to the next basis—that +of <i>abstract ideas</i>. When the mind looks carefully at the world +of things, it finds that there is dependence and interdependence. Each +object is related to something else, and changes when that changes. +Each object is a part of a process that is going on. The process +produced it, and the process will destroy it—nay, it is destroying it +now, while we look at it. We find, therefore, that things are not the +true beings which we thought them to be, but processes <i>are</i> the +reality. Science takes this attitude, and studies out the history of +each thing in its rise and its disappearance, and it calls this history +the truth. This stage of thinking does not believe in <i>atoms</i> or in +<i>things</i>; it believes in <i>forces</i> and <i>processes</i>—"abstract ideas"—because +they are negative, and cannot be seen by the senses. This +is the dynamic stand-point in philosophy.</p> + +<p>Reflection knows that these abstract ideas possess more truth, more +reality, than the "things" of sense-perception; the force is more + +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_74b" id="Page_74b">74</a></span> + +real than the thing, because it outlasts a thing,—it causes things to +originate, and to change, and disappear.</p> + +<p>This stage of abstract ideas or of negative powers or forces finally +becomes convinced of the essential unity of all processes and of all +forces; it sets up the doctrine of the <i>correlation of forces</i>, and +believes that persistent force is the ultimate truth, the fundamental +reality of the world. This we may call a concrete idea, for it sets +up a principle which is the origin of all things and forces, and also +the destroyer of all things, and hence more real than the world of +things and forces; and because this idea, when carefully thought +out, proves to be the idea of self-determination—self-activity.</p> + +<p>Persistent force, as taught us by the scientific men of our day, is +the sole ultimate principle, and as such it gives rise to all existence +by its self-activity, for there is nothing else for it to act upon. It +causes all origins, all changes, and all evanescence. It gives rise to +the particular forces—heat, light, electricity, magnetism, etc.—which +in their turn cause the evanescent forms which sense-perception +sees as "things."</p> + +<p>We have described three phases:—</p> + +<p class="margin2"> +I. Sensuous Ideas perceive "things."<br /> +II. Abstract Ideas perceive "forces."<br /> +III. Concrete Idea perceives "persistent force." +</p> + +<p>In this progress from one phase of reflection to another, the intellect +advances to a deeper and truer reality<a name="FNanchor_14" id="FNanchor_14"></a><a href="#Footnote_14" class="fnanchor">14</a> at each step.</p> + + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_75b" id="Page_75b">75</a></span></p> + + +<p>Sense-ideas which look upon the world as a world of independent +objects, do not cognize the world truly. The next step, abstract +ideas, cognizes the world as a process of forces, and "things" are +seen to be mere temporary equilibria in the interaction of forces; +"each thing is a bundle of forces." But the concrete idea of the +Persistent force sees a deeper and more permanent reality underlying +particular forces. It is one ultimate force. In it all multiplicity +of existences has vanished, and yet it is the source of all particular +existence.</p> + +<p>This view of the world, on the stand-point of concrete idea, is +pantheistic. It makes out a one supreme principle which originates +and destroys all particular existences, all finite beings. It is the +stand-point of Orientalism, or of the Asiatic thought. Buddhism +and Brahminism have reached it, and not transcended it. It is a +necessary stage of reflection in the mind, just as much as the stand-point +of the first stage of reflection, which regards the world as composed +of a multiplicity of independent things; or the stand-point of +the second stage of reflection, which looks upon the world as a collection +of relative existences in a state of process.</p> + +<p>The final stand-point of the intellect is that in which it perceives +the highest principle to be a self-determining or self-active Being, +self-conscious, and creator of a world which manifests him. A logical +investigation of the principle of "persistent force" would prove that +this principle of Personal Being is presupposed as its true form. Since +the "persistent force" is the sole and ultimate reality, it originates +all other reality only by self-activity, and thus is self-determined. +Self-determination implies self-consciousness as the true form of its +existence.</p> + +<p>These four forms of thinking, which we have arbitrarily called <i>sensuous</i>, +<i>abstract</i>, <i>concrete</i>, and <i>absolute</i> ideas, correspond to four views +of the world: (1) as a congeries of independent things; (2) as a +play of forces; (3) as the evanescent appearance of a negative +essential power; (4) as the creation of a Personal Creator, who makes +it the theatre of the development of conscious beings in his image. +Each step upward in ideas arrives at a more adequate idea of the true +reality. <i>Force</i> is more real than <i>thing</i>; persistent force than particular +forces; Absolute Person is more real than the force or forces +which he creates.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_76b" id="Page_76b">76</a></span></p> + +<p>This form of thinking is the only form which is consistent with +the theory of education. Each individual should ascend by education +into participation—<i>conscious</i> participation—in the life of the species. +Institutions—family, society, state, church—all are instrumentalities +by which the humble individual may avail himself of the help of the +race, and live over in himself its life. The highest stage of thinking +is the stage of insight. It sees the world as explained by the principle +of Absolute Person. It finds the world of institutions a world +in harmony with such a principle.<br /><br /></p> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_1" id="Footnote_1"></a><a href="#FNanchor_1"><span class="label">1</span></a> The parallelism between these two sciences, Medicine and Education, is an +obvious point, which every student will do well to consider.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_2" id="Footnote_2"></a><a href="#FNanchor_2"><span class="label">2</span></a> This will again remind the student of the theories of treatment in medicine +in diseases which, in the seventeenth century, were treated only by bleeding and +emetics, are now treated by nourishing food, and no medicines, etc.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_3" id="Footnote_3"></a><a href="#FNanchor_3"><span class="label">3</span></a> The teacher will do well to consider the probable result of the constant association +with mental inferiors entailed by his work, and also to consider what +counter-irritant is to be applied to balance, in his character, this unavoidable +tendency.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_4" id="Footnote_4"></a><a href="#FNanchor_4"><span class="label">4</span></a> The age at which the child should be subject to the training of school life, or +Education, properly so-called, must vary with different races, nations, and different +children.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_5" id="Footnote_5"></a><a href="#FNanchor_5"><span class="label">5</span></a> The best educator is he who makes his pupils independent of himself. This +implies on the teacher's part an ability to lose himself in his work, and a desire +for the real growth of the pupil, independent of any personal fame of his own—a +disinterestedness which places education on a level with the noblest occupations +of man.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_6" id="Footnote_6"></a><a href="#FNanchor_6"><span class="label">6</span></a> See analysis.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_7" id="Footnote_7"></a><a href="#FNanchor_7"><span class="label">7</span></a> Asiatic systems of Education have this basis (see § <a href="#S178">178</a> of the original).</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_8" id="Footnote_8"></a><a href="#FNanchor_8"><span class="label">8</span></a> The definition of freedom here implied is this: Mind is free when it knows +itself and wills its own laws.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_9" id="Footnote_9"></a><a href="#FNanchor_9"><span class="label">9</span></a> Perhaps, however slow the growth, there is real progress in liberating the +imprisoned soul (?)</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_10" id="Footnote_10"></a><a href="#FNanchor_10"><span class="label">10</span></a> "When me they fly, I am the wings."—<i>Emerson.</i></p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_11" id="Footnote_11"></a><a href="#FNanchor_11"><span class="label">11</span></a> The story of Peter Schlemihl, by Chamisso, may be read in the English translation +published in "Hedge's German Prose Writers."</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_12" id="Footnote_12"></a><a href="#FNanchor_12"><span class="label">12</span></a> That is, punishment is retributive and not corrective. Justice requires that +each man shall have the fruits of his own deeds; in this it assumes that each +and every man is free and self-determined. It proposes to treat each man as free, +and as the rightful owner of his deed and its consequences. If he does a deed +which is destructive to human rights, it shall destroy his rights and deprive him of +property, personal freedom, or even of life. But corrective punishment assumes +immaturity of development and consequent lack of freedom. It belongs to the +period of nurture, and not to the period of maturity. The tendency in our +schools is, however, to displace the forms of mere corrective punishment (corporal +chastisement), and to substitute for them forms founded on retribution—<i>e.g.</i>, +deprivation of privileges. See secs. 42 and 43.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_13" id="Footnote_13"></a><a href="#FNanchor_13"><span class="label">13</span></a> Faust; Part I., Scene I. "How all weaves itself into the Whole! Each +works and lives in the other! How the heavenly influences ascend and descend, +and reach each other the golden buckets!"</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_14" id="Footnote_14"></a><a href="#FNanchor_14"><span class="label">14</span></a> Hume, in his famous sketch of the Human Understanding, makes all the perceptions +of the human mind resolve themselves into two distinct kinds: <i>impressions</i> +and <i>ideas</i>. "The difference between them consists in the degrees of force and +liveliness with which they strike upon the mind, and make their way into our +thought and consciousness. Those perceptions which enter with the most force +and violence we may name <i>impressions</i>, and under this name include all our sensations, +passions, and emotions, as they make their first appearance in the soul. +By <i>ideas</i>, I mean the faint images of these in thinking and reasoning." "The +identity which we ascribe to the mind of man is only a fictitious one."</p> + +<p>From this we see that his stand-point is that of "sensuous ideas," the first stage +of reflection. The second or third stage of reflection, if consistent, would not admit +the reality to be the object of sense-impressions, and the abstract ideas to +be only "faint images." One who holds, like Herbert Spencer, that persistent +force is the ultimate reality—"the sole truth, which transcends experience by +underlying it"—ought to hold that the generalization which reaches the idea of +unity of force is the truest and most adequate of thoughts. And yet Herbert +Spencer holds substantially the doctrine of Hume, in the words: "We must +predicate nothing of objects too great or too multitudinous to be mentally represented, +or we must make our predications by means of extremely inadequate +representations of such objects—mere symbols of them." 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You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: Pedagogics as a System + +Author: Karl Rosenkranz + +Translator: Anna C. Brackett + +Release Date: December 13, 2009 [EBook #30661] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK PEDAGOGICS AS A SYSTEM *** + + + + +Produced by Jonathan Ingram, Turgut Dincer and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net (This +file was produced from images generously made available +by The Internet Archive/American Libraries.) + + + + + + + +-------------------------------------+ + | Transcriber's note: | + | | + | Many words in the text are spelled | + | with or without a hyphen; these are | + | not corrected as both forms occur | + | with almost same frequency and the | + | hyphenated form might indicate an | + | emphasis in words such as | + | re-formation. | + +-------------------------------------+ + + + + + PEDAGOGICS + AS A + SYSTEM. + + By Dr. KARL ROSENKRANZ, + + _Doctor of Theology and Professor of Philosophy at the University + of Koenigsberg._ + + TRANSLATED FROM THE GERMAN + + By ANNA C. BRACKETT. + + + (_Reprinted from Journal of Speculative Philosophy._) + + + ST. LOUIS, MO.: + THE R. P. STUDLEY COMPANY, PRINTERS, CORNER MAIN & OLIVE STS. + 1872. + + Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1872, by + WILLIAM T. HARRIS, + In the Office of the Librarian of Congress at Washington. + + + + + ANALYSIS. + + {FIRST PART. {Its Nature. + {In its General {Its Form. + { Idea. {Its Limits. + { + {SECOND PART. {Physical. + {In its Special {Intellectual. + { Elements. {Moral. + { + { { { {Family China. + { { {Passive. {Caste India. + { { { {Monkish Thibet. + { { { + { { { {Military Persia. + { {National. {Active {Priestly Egypt. + { { { {Industrial Phoenicia. + { { { + { { { {AEsthetic Greece. + E { { {Individual. {Practical Rome. + D { { { {Abstract {Northern. + U { { { { Individual{ Barbarians. + C { { + A { {Theocratic. . . . . . . . . . . . Jews. + T { { + I { {Monkish. + O {THIRD PART. { + N {In its { + { Particular { + { Systems. { + { {Chivalric. + { { + { {Humanitarian. {For Special {Jesuitic. + { { { Callings. {Pietistic. + { { + { { {The + { { { {Humanistic. + { {For Civil {To achieve { + { { Life. { an Ideal of {The + { { { Culture. {Philanthropic + { { { {Movement. + { { { + { { {For Free Citizenship. + + +PEDAGOGICS AS A SYSTEM. + + + [Inquiries from teachers in different sections of the + country as to the sources of information on the subject of + Teaching as a Science have led me to believe that a + translation of Rosenkranz's Pedagogics may be widely + acceptable and useful. It is very certain that too much of + our teaching is simply empirical, and as Germany has, more + than any other country, endeavored to found it upon + universal truths, it is to that country that we must at + present look for a remedy for this empiricism. + + Based as this is upon the profoundest system of German + Philosophy, no more suggestive treatise on Education can + perhaps be found. In his third part, as will be readily + seen, Rosenkranz follows the classification of National + ideas given in Hegel's Philosophy of History. The word + "Pedagogics," though it has unfortunately acquired a + somewhat unpleasant meaning in English--thanks to the + writers who have made the word "pedagogue" so + odious--deserves to be redeemed for future use. I have, + therefore, retained it in the translation. + + In order that the reader may see the general scope of the + work, I append in tabular form the table of contents, + giving however, under the first and second parts, only the + main divisions. The minor heads can, of course, as they + appear in the translation, be easily located.--_Tr._] + + + + +INTRODUCTION. + + +Sec. 1. The science of Pedagogics cannot be derived from a simple principle +with such exactness as Logic and Ethics. It is rather a mixed science +which has its presuppositions in many others. In this respect it +resembles Medicine, with which it has this also in common, that it must +make a distinction between a sound and an unhealthy system of education, +and must devise means to prevent or to cure the latter. It may therefore +have, like Medicine, the three departments of Physiology, Pathology, and +Therapeutics. + +Sec. 2. Since Pedagogics is capable of no such exact definitions of its +principle and no such logical deduction as other sciences, the treatises +written upon it abound more in shallowness than any other literature. +Short-sightedness and arrogance find in it a most congenial atmosphere, +and criticism and declamatory bombast flourish in perfection as nowhere +else. The literature of religious tracts might be considered to rival +that of Pedagogics in its superficiality and assurance, if it did not +for the most part seem itself to belong, through its ascetic nature, to +Pedagogics. But teachers as persons should be treated in their +weaknesses and failures with the utmost consideration, because they are +most of them sincere in contributing their mite for the improvement of +education, and all their pedagogic practice inclines them towards +administering reproof and giving advice. + +Sec. 3. The charlatanism of educational literature is also fostered by the +fact that teaching has become one of the most profitable employments, +and the competition in it tends to increase self-glorification. + +--When "Boz" in his "Nicholas Nickleby" exposed the horrible mysteries +of an English boarding-school, many teachers of such schools were, as he +assures us, so accurately described that they openly complained he had +aimed his caricatures directly at them.-- + +Sec. 4. In the system of the sciences, Pedagogics belongs to the Philosophy +of Spirit,--and in this, to the department of Practical Philosophy, the +problem of which is the comprehension of the necessity of freedom; for +education is the conscious working of one will on another so as to +produce itself in it according to a determinate aim. The idea of +subjective spirit, as well as that of Art, Science, and Religion, forms +the essential condition for Pedagogics, but does not contain its +principle. If one thinks out a complete statement of Practical +Philosophy (Ethics), Pedagogics may be distributed among all its grades. +But the point at which Pedagogics itself becomes organic is the idea of +the Family, because in the family the difference between the adults and +the minors enters directly through the naturalness of spirit, and the +right of the children to an education and the duty of parents towards +them in this respect is incontestable. All other spheres of education, +in order to succeed, must presuppose a true family life. They may extend +and complement the business of teaching, but cannot be its original +foundation. + +--In our systematic exposition of Education, we must not allow +ourselves to be led into error by those theories which do not recognize +the family, and which limit the relation of husband and wife to the +producing of children. The Platonic Philosophy is the most worthy +representative of this class. Later writers who take great pleasure in +seeing the world full of children, but who would subtract from the love +to a wife all truth and from that to children all care, exhibit in their +doctrine of the anarchy of love only a sickly (but yet how prevalent an) +imitation of the Platonic state.-- + +Sec. 5. Much confusion also arises from the fact that many do not clearly +enough draw the distinction between Pedagogics as a science and +Pedagogics as an art. As a science it busies itself with developing _a +priori_ the idea of Education in the universality and necessity of that +idea, but as an art it is the concrete individualizing of this abstract +idea in any given case. And in any such given case, the peculiarities of +the person who is to be educated and all the previously existing +circumstances necessitate a modification of the universal aims and ends, +which modification cannot be provided for beforehand, but must rather +test the ready tact of the educator who knows how to make the existing +conditions fulfil his desired end. It is exactly in doing this that the +educator may show himself inventive and creative, and that pedagogic +talent can distinguish itself. The word "art" is here used in the same +way as it is used when we say, the art of war, the art of government, +&c.; and rightly, for we are talking about the possibility of the +realization of the idea. + +--The educator must adapt himself to the pupil, but not to such a degree +as to imply that the pupil is incapable of change, and he must also be +sure that the pupil shall learn through his experience the independence +of the object studied, which remains uninfluenced by his variable +personal moods, and the adaptation on the teacher's part must never +compromise this independence.-- + +Sec. 6. If conditions which are local, temporal, and individual, are fixed +as constant rules, and carried beyond their proper limits, are +systematized as a valuable formalistic code, unavoidable error arises. +The formulae of teaching are admirable material for the science, but are +not the science itself. + +Sec. 7. Pedagogics as a science must (1) unfold the general idea of +Education; (2) must exhibit the particular phases into which the general +work of Education divides itself, and (3) must describe the particular +standpoint upon which the general idea realizes itself, or should become +real in its special processes at any particular time. + +Sec. 8. The treatment of the first part offers no difficulty. It is +logically too evident. But it would not do to substitute for it the +history of Pedagogics, simply because all the conceptions of it which +appear in systematic treatises can be found there. + +--Into this error G. Thaulow has fallen in his pamphlet on Pedagogics as +a Philosophical Science.-- + +Sec. 9. The second division unfolds the subject of the physical, +intellectual and practical culture of the human race, and constitutes +the main part of all books on Pedagogy. Here arises the greatest +difficulty as to the limitations, partly because of the undefined nature +of the ideas, partly because of the degree of amplification which the +details demand. Here is the field of the widest possible differences. If +e.g. one studies out the conception of the school with reference to the +qualitative specialities which one may consider, it is evident that he +can extend his remarks indefinitely; he may speak thus of technological +schools of all kinds, to teach mining, navigation, war, art, &c. + +Sec. 10. The third division distinguishes between the different standpoints +which are possible in the working out of the conception of Education in +its special elements, and which therefore produce different systems of +Education wherein the general and the particular are individualized in a +special manner. In every system the general tendencies of the idea of +education, and the difference between the physical, intellectual and +practical culture of man, must be formally recognized, and will appear. +The How is decided by the standpoint which reduces that formalism to a +special system. Thus it becomes possible to discover the essential +contents of the history of Pedagogics from its idea, since this can +furnish not an indefinite but a certain number of Pedagogic systems. + +--The lower standpoint merges always into the higher, and in so doing +first attains its full meaning, e.g.: Education for the sake of the +nation is set aside for higher standpoints, e.g., that of +Christianity; but we must not suppose that the national phase of +Education was counted as nought from the Christian standpoint. Rather it +itself had outgrown the limits which, though suitable enough for its +early stage, could no longer contain its true idea. This is sure to be +the case in the fact that the national individualities become +indestructible by being incorporated into Christianity--a fact that +contradicts the abstract seizing of such relations.-- + +Sec. 11. The last system must be that of the present, and since this is +certainly on one side the result of all the past, while on the other +seized in its possibilities it is determined by the Future, the business +of Pedagogics cannot pause till it reaches its ideal of the general and +special determinations, so that looked at in this way the Science of +Pedagogics at its end returns to its beginning. The first and second +divisions already contain the idea of the system necessary for the +Present. + + + + +FIRST PART. + +The General Idea of Education. + + +Sec. 12. The idea of Pedagogics in general must distinguish, + + (1) The nature of Education in general; + (2) Its form; + (3) Its limits. + + +I. + +_The Nature of Education._ + +Sec. 13. The nature of Education is determined by the nature of mind--that +it can develop whatever it really is only by its own activity. Mind is +in itself free; but if it does not actualize this possibility, it is in +no true sense free, either for itself or for another. Education is the +influencing of man by man, and it has for its end to lead him to +actualize himself through his own efforts. The attainment of perfect +manhood as the actualization of the Freedom necessary to mind +constitutes the nature of Education in general. + +--The completely isolated man does not become man. Solitary human +beings who have been found in forests, like the wild girl of the forest +of Ardennes, sufficiently prove the fact that the truly human qualities +in man cannot be developed without reciprocal action with human beings. +Caspar Hauser in his subterranean prison is an illustration of what man +would be by himself. The first cry of the child expresses in its appeals +to others this helplessness of spirituality on the side of nature.-- + +Sec. 14. Man, therefore, is the only fit subject for education. We often +speak, it is true, of the education of plants and animals; but even when +we do so, we apply, unconsciously perhaps, other expressions, as +"raising" and "training," in order to distinguish these. "Breaking" +consists in producing in an animal, either by pain or pleasure of the +senses, an activity of which, it is true, he is capable, but which he +never would have developed if left to himself. On the other hand, it is +the nature of Education only to assist in the producing of that which +the subject would strive most earnestly to develop for himself if he had +a clear idea of himself. We speak of raising trees and animals, but not +of raising men; and it is only a planter who looks to his slaves only +for an increase in their number. + +--The education of men is quite often enough, unfortunately, only a +"breaking," and here and there still may be found examples where one +tries to teach mechanically, not through the understanding power of the +creative WORD, but through the powerless and fruitless appeal to +physical pain.-- + +Sec. 15. The idea of Education may be more or less comprehensive. We use it +in the widest sense when we speak of the Education of the race, for we +understand by this expression the connection which the acts and +situations of different nations have to each other, as different steps +towards self-conscious freedom. In this the world-spirit is the teacher. + +Sec. 16. In a more restricted sense we mean by Education the shaping of +the individual life by the forces of nature, the rhythmical movement of +national customs, and the might of destiny in which each one finds +limits set to his arbitrary will. These often mould him into a man +without his knowledge. For he cannot act in opposition to nature, nor +offend the ethical sense of the people among whom he dwells, nor despise +the leading of destiny without discovering through experience that +before the Nemesis of these substantial elements his subjective power +can dash itself only to be shattered. If he perversely and persistently +rejects all our admonitions, we leave him, as a last resort, to destiny, +whose iron rule must educate him, and reveal to him the God whom he has +misunderstood. + +--It is, of course, sometimes not only possible, but necessary for one, +moved by the highest sense of morality, to act in opposition to the laws +of nature, to offend the ethical sense of the people that surround him, +and to brave the blows of destiny; but such a one is a sublime reformer +or martyr, and we are not now speaking of such, but of the perverse, the +frivolous, and the conceited.-- + +Sec. 17. In the narrowest sense, which however is the usual one, we mean by +Education the influence which one mind exerts on another in order to +cultivate the latter in some understood and methodical way, either +generally or with reference to some special aim. The educator must, +therefore, be relatively finished in his own education, and the pupil +must possess unlimited confidence in him. If authority be wanting on the +one side, or respect and obedience on the other, this ethical basis of +development must fail, and it demands in the very highest degree, +talent, knowledge, skill, and prudence. + +--Education takes on this form only under the culture which has been +developed through the influence of city life. Up to that time we have +the naive period of education, which holds to the general powers of +nature, of national customs, and of destiny, and which lasts for a long +time among the rural populations. But in the city a greater complication +of events, an uncertainty of the results of reflection, a working out of +individuality, and a need of the possession of many arts and trades, +make their appearance and render it impossible for men longer to be +ruled by mere custom. The Telemachus of Fenelon was educated to rule +himself by means of reflection; the actual Telemachus in the heroic age +lived simply according to custom.-- + +Sec. 18. The general problem of Education is the development of the +theoretical and practical reason in the individual. If we say that to +educate one means to fashion him into morality, we do not make our +definition sufficiently comprehensive, because we say nothing of +intelligence, and thus confound education and ethics. A man is not +merely a human being, but as a reasonable being he is a peculiar +individual, and different from all others of the race. + +Sec. 19. Education must lead the pupil by an interconnected series of +efforts previously foreseen and arranged by the teacher to a definite +end; but the particular form which this shall take must be determined by +the peculiar character of the pupil's mind and the situation in which he +is found. Hasty and inconsiderate work may accomplish much, but only +_systematic_ work can advance and fashion him in conformity with his +nature, and the former does not belong to education, for this includes +in itself the idea of an end, and that of the technical means for its +attainment. + +Sec. 20. But as culture comes to mean more and more, there becomes +necessary a division of the business of teaching among different +persons, with reference to capabilities and knowledge, because as the +arts and sciences are continually increasing in number, one can become +learned in any one branch only by devoting himself exclusively to it, +and hence becoming one-sided. A difficulty hence arises which is also +one for the pupil, of preserving, in spite of this unavoidable +one-sidedness, the unity and wholeness which are necessary to humanity. + +--The naive dignity of the happy savage, and the agreeable simplicity of +country people, appear to very great advantage when contrasted on this +side with the often unlimited narrowness of a special trade, and the +endless curtailing of the wholeness of man by the pruning processes of +city life. Thus the often abused savage has his hut, his family, his +cocoa tree, his weapons, his passions; he fishes, hunts, plays, fights, +adorns himself, and enjoys the consciousness that he is the centre of a +whole, while a modern citizen is often only an abstract expression of +culture.-- + +Sec. 21. As it becomes necessary to divide the work of teaching, a +difference between general and special schools arises also, from the +needs of growing culture. The former present in different compass all +the sciences and arts which are included in the term "general +education," and which were classified by the Greeks under the general +name of Encyclopaedia. The latter are known as special schools, suited to +particular needs or talents. + +--As those who live in the country are relatively isolated, it is often +necessary, or at least desirable, that one man should be trained equally +on many different sides. The poor tutor is required not only to instruct +in all the sciences, he must also speak French and be able to play the +piano.-- + +Sec. 22. For any single person, the relation of his actual education to its +infinite possibilities can only be approximately determined, and it can +be considered as only relatively finished on any one side. Education is +impossible to him who is born an idiot, since the want of the power of +generalizing and of ideality of conscious personality leaves to such an +unfortunate only the possibility of a mechanical training. + +--Saegert, the teacher of the deaf mutes in Berlin, has made laudable +efforts to educate idiots, but the account as given in his publication, +"Cure of Idiots by an Intellectual Method, Berlin, 1846," shows that the +result obtained was only external; and though we do not desire to be +understood as denying or refusing to this class the possession of a mind +_in potentia_, it appears in them to be confined to an embryonic +state.-- + + +II. + +_The Form of Education._ + +Sec. 23. The general form of Education is determined by the nature of the +mind, that it really is nothing but what it makes itself to be. The mind +is (1) immediate (or potential), but (2) it must estrange itself from +itself as it were, so that it may place itself over against itself as a +special object of attention; (3) this estrangement is finally removed +through a further acquaintance with the object--it feels itself at home +in that on which it looks, and returns again enriched to the form of +immediateness. That which at first appeared to be another than itself is +now seen to be itself. Education cannot create; it can only help to +develop to reality the previously existent possibility; it can only help +to bring forth to light the hidden life. + +Sec. 24. All culture, whatever may be its special purport, must pass +through these two stages--of estrangement, and its removal. Culture must +hold fast to the distinction between the subject and the object +considered immediately, though it has again to absorb this distinction +into itself, in order that the union of the two may be more complete and +lasting. The subject recognizes then all the more certainly that what at +first appeared to it as a foreign existence, belongs to it as its own +property, and that it holds it as its own all the more by means of +culture. + +--Plato, as is known, calls the feeling with which knowledge must begin, +wonder; but this can serve as a beginning only, for wonder itself can +only express the tension between the subject and the object at their +first encounter--a tension which would be impossible if they were not in +themselves identical. Children have a longing for the far-off, the +strange, and the wonderful, as if they hoped to find in these an +explanation of themselves. They want the object to be a genuine object. +That to which they are accustomed, which they see around them every day, +seems to have no longer any objective energy for them; but an alarm of +fire, banditti life, wild animals, gray old ruins, the robin's songs, +and far-off happy islands, &c.--everything high-colored and +dazzling--leads them irresistibly on. The necessity of the mind's making +itself foreign to itself is that which makes children prefer to hear of +the adventurous journeys of Sinbad than news of their own city or the +history of their nation, and in youth this same necessity manifests +itself in their desire of travelling.-- + +Sec. 25. This activity of the mind in allowing itself to be absorbed, and +consciously so, in an object with the purpose of making it his own, or +of producing it, is _Work_. But when the mind gives itself up to its +objects as chance may present them or through arbitrariness, careless as +to whether they have any result, such activity is _Play_. Work is laid +out for the pupil by his teacher by authority, but in his play he is +left to himself. + +Sec. 26. Thus work and play must be sharply distinguished from each other. +If one has not respect for work as an important and substantial +activity, he not only spoils play for his pupil, for this loses all its +charm when deprived of the antithesis of an earnest, set task, but he +undermines his respect for real existence. On the other hand, if he does +not give him space, time, and opportunity, for play, he prevents the +peculiarities of his pupil from developing freely through the exercise +of his creative ingenuity. Play sends the pupil back refreshed to his +work, since in play he forgets himself in his own way, while in work he +is required to forget himself in a manner prescribed for him by another. + +--Play is of great importance in helping one to discover the true +individualities of children, because in play they may betray +thoughtlessly their inclinations. This antithesis of work and play runs +through the entire life. Children anticipate in their play the earnest +work of after life; thus the little girl plays with her doll, and the +boy pretends he is a soldier and in battle.-- + +Sec. 27. Work should never be treated as if it were play, nor play as if it +were work. In general, the arts, the sciences, and productions, stand in +this relation to each other: the accumulation of stores of knowledge is +the recreation of the mind which is engaged in independent creation, and +the practice of arts fills the same office to those whose work is to +collect knowledge. + +Sec. 28. Education seeks to transform every particular condition so that it +shall no longer seem strange to the mind or in anywise foreign to its +own nature. This identity of consciousness, and the special character of +anything done or endured by it, we call Habit [habitual conduct or +behavior]. It conditions formally all progress; for that which is not +yet become habit, but which we perform with design and an exercise of +our will, is not yet a part of ourselves. + +Sec. 29. As to Habit, we have to say next that it is at first indifferent +as to what it relates. But that which is to be considered as indifferent +or neutral cannot be defined in the abstract, but only in the concrete, +because anything that is indifferent as to whether it shall act on these +particular men, or in this special situation, is capable of another or +even of the opposite meaning for another man or men for the same men or +in other circumstances. Here, then, appeal must be made to the +individual conscience in order to be able from the depths of +individuality to separate what we can permit to ourselves from that +which we must deny ourselves. The aim of Education must be to arouse in +the pupil this spiritual and ethical sensitiveness which does not +recognize anything as _merely_ indifferent, but rather knows how to +seize in everything, even in the seemingly small, its universal human +significance. But in relation to the highest problems he must learn that +what concerns his own immediate personality is entirely indifferent. + +Sec. 30. Habit lays aside its indifference to an external action through +reflection on the advantage or disadvantage of the same. Whatever tends +as a harmonious means to the realization of an end is advantageous, but +that is disadvantageous which, by contradicting its idea, hinders or +destroys it. Advantage and disadvantage being then only _relative_ +terms, a habit which is advantageous for one man in one case may be +disadvantageous for another man, or even for the same man, under +different circumstances. Education must, therefore, accustom the youth +to judge as to the expediency or inexpediency of any action in its +relation to the essential vocation of his life, so that he shall avoid +that which does not promote its success. + +Sec. 31. But the _absolute_ distinction of habit is the moral distinction +between the good and the bad. For from this standpoint alone can we +finally decide what is allowable and what is forbidden, what is +advantageous and what is disadvantageous. + +Sec. 32. As relates to form, habit may be either passive or active. The +passive is that which teaches us to bear the vicissitudes of nature as +well as of history with such composure that we shall hold our ground +against them, being always equal to ourselves, and that we shall not +allow our power of acting to be paralyzed through any mutations of +fortune. Passive habit is not to be confounded with obtuseness in +receiving impressions, a blank abstraction from the affair in hand which +at bottom is found to be nothing more than a selfishness which desires +to be left undisturbed: it is simply composure of mind in view of +changes over which we have no control. While we vividly experience joy +and sorrow, pain and pleasure--inwoven as these are with the change of +seasons, of the weather, &c.--with the alternation of life and death, of +happiness and misery, we ought nevertheless to harden ourselves against +them so that at the same time in our consciousness of the supreme worth +of the mind we shall build up the inaccessible stronghold of Freedom in +ourselves.--Active habit [or behavior] is found realized in a wide range +of activity which appears in manifold forms, such as skill, dexterity, +readiness of information, &c. It is a steeling of the internal for +action upon the external, as the Passive is a steeling of the internal +against the influences of the external. + +[Sidenote: _Formation of Habits._] + +Sec. 33. Habit is the general form which instruction takes. For since it +reduces a condition or an activity within ourselves to an instinctive +use and wont, it is necessary for any thorough instruction. But as, +according to its content, it may be either proper or improper, +advantageous or disadvantageous, good or bad, and according to its form +may be the assimilation of the external by the internal, or the impress +of the internal upon the external, Education must procure for the pupil +the power of being able to free himself from one habit and to adopt +another. Through his freedom he must be able not only to renounce any +habit formed, but to form a new one; and he must so govern his system of +habits that it shall exhibit a constant progress of development into +greater freedom. We must discipline ourselves, as a means toward the +ever-changing realization of the Good in us, constantly to form and to +break habits. + +--We must characterize those habits as bad which relate only to our +convenience or our enjoyment. They are often not blamable in themselves, +but there lies in them a hidden danger that they may allure us into +luxury or effeminacy. But it is a false and mechanical way of looking at +the affair if we suppose that a habit which has been formed by a certain +number of repetitions can be broken by an equal number of denials. We +can never renounce a habit utterly except through a clearness of +judgment which decides it to be undesirable, and through firmness of +will.-- + +Sec. 34. Education comprehends also the reciprocal action of the +opposites, authority and obedience, rationality and individuality, work +and play, habit and spontaneity. If we imagine that these can be +reconciled by rules, it will be in vain that we try to restrain the +youth in these relations. But a failure in education in this particular +is very possible through the freedom of the pupil, through special +circumstances, or through the errors of the educator himself. And for +this very reason any theory of Education must take into account in the +beginning this negative possibility. It must consider beforehand the +dangers which threaten the pupil in all possible ways even before they +surround him, and fortify him against them. Intentionally to expose him +to temptation in order to prove his strength, is devilish; and, on the +other hand, to guard him against the chance of dangerous temptation, to +wrap him in cotton (as the proverb says), is womanish, ridiculous, +fruitless, and much more dangerous; for temptation comes not alone from +without, but quite as often from within, and secret inclination seeks +and creates for itself the opportunity for its gratification, often +perhaps an unnatural one. The truly preventive activity consists not in +an abstract seclusion from the world, all of whose elements are innate +in each individual, but in the activity of knowledge and discipline, +modified according to age and culture. + +[Sidenote: _Protection against Temptation._] + +--If one endeavors to deprive the youth of all free and individual +intercourse with the world, one only falls into a continual watching of +him, and the consciousness that he is watched destroys in him all +elasticity of spirit, all confidence, all originality. The police shadow +of control obscures all independence and systematically accustoms him to +dependence. As the tragi-comic story of Peter Schlemihl shows, one +cannot lose his own shadow without falling into the saddest fatalities; +but the shadow of a constant companion, as in the pedagogical system of +the Jesuits, undermines all naturalness. And if one endeavors too +strictly to guard against that which is evil and forbidden, the +intelligence of the pupils reacts in deceit against such efforts, till +the educators are amazed that such crimes as come often to light can +have arisen under such careful control.-- + +Sec. 35. If there should appear in the youth any decided moral deformity +which is opposed to the ideal of his education, the instructor must at +once make inquiry as to the history of its origin, because the negative +and the positive are very closely connected in his being, so that what +appears to be negligence, rudeness, immorality, foolishness, or oddity, +may arise from some real needs of the youth which in their development +have only taken a wrong direction. + +Sec. 36. If it should appear on such examination that the negative action +was only a product of wilful ignorance, of caprice, or of arbitrariness +on the part of the youth, then this calls for a simple prohibition on +the part of the educator, no reason being assigned. His authority must +be sufficient to the pupil without any reason. Only when this has +happened more than once, and the youth is old enough to understand, +should the prohibition, together with the reason therefor, be given. + +--This should, however, be brief; the explanation must retain its +disciplinary character, and must not become extended into a doctrinal +essay, for in such a case the youth easily forgets that it was his own +misbehavior which was the occasion of the explanation. The statement of +the reason must be honest, and it must present to the youth the point +most easy for him to seize. False reasons are morally blamable in +themselves, and they tend only to confuse. It is a great mistake to +unfold to the youth the broadening consequences which his act may bring. +These uncertain possibilities seem to him too powerless to affect him +particularly. The severe lecture wearies him, especially if it be +stereotyped, as is apt to be the case with fault-finding and talkative +instructors. But more unfortunate is it if the painting of the gloomy +background to which the consequences of the wrong-doing of the youth may +lead, should fill his feelings and imagination prematurely with gloomy +fancies, because then the representation has led him one step toward a +state of wretchedness which in the future man may become fearful +depression and degradation.-- + +[Sidenote: _Reproof and Punishment._] + +Sec. 37. If the censure is accompanied with a threat of punishment, then we +have the same kind of reproof which in daily life we call "scolding;" +but if reproof is given, the pupil must be made to feel that it is in +earnest. + +Sec. 38. Only when all other efforts have failed, is punishment, which is +the real negation of the error, the transgression, or the vice, +justifiable. Punishment inflicts intentionally pain on the pupil, and +its object is, by means of this sensation, to bring him to reason, a +result which neither our simple prohibition, our explanation, nor our +threat of punishment, has been able to reach. But the punishment, as +such, must not refer to the subjective totality of the youth, or his +disposition in general, but only to the act which, as result, is a +manifestation of the disposition. It acts mediately on the disposition, +but leaves the inner being untouched directly; and this is not only +demanded by justice, but on account of the sophistry that is inherent in +human nature, which desires to assign to a deed many motives, it is even +necessary. + +[Sidenote: _Correction_ VERSUS _Satisfaction of Justice._] + +Sec. 39. Punishment as an educational means is nevertheless essentially +corrective, since, by leading the youth to a proper estimation of his +fault and a positive change in his behavior, it seeks to improve him. At +the same time it stands as a sad indication of the insufficiency of the +means previously used. On no account should the youth be frightened from +the commission of a misdemeanor, or from the repetition of his negative +deed through fear of punishment--a system which leads always to +terrorism: but, although it may have this effect, it should, before all +things, impress upon him the recognition of the fact that the negative +is not allowed to act as it will without limitation, but rather that the +Good and the True have the absolute power in the world, and that they +are never without the means of overcoming anything that contradicts +them. + +--In the statute-laws, punishment has the opposite office. It must first +of all satisfy justice, and only after this is done can it attempt to +improve the guilty. If a government should proceed on the same basis as +the educator it would mistake its task, because it has to deal with +adults, whom it elevates to the honorable position of responsibility for +their own acts. The state must not go back to the psychological ethical +genesis of a negative deed. It must assign to a secondary rank of +importance the biographical moment which contains the deed in process +and the circumstances of a mitigating character, and it must consider +first of all the deed in itself. It is quite otherwise with the +educator; for he deals with human beings who are relatively undeveloped, +and who are only growing toward responsibility. So long as they are +still under the care of a teacher, the responsibility of their deed +belongs in part to him. If we confound the standpoint in which +punishment is administered in the state with that in education, we work +much evil.-- + +Sec. 40. Punishment as a negation of a negation, considered as an +educational means, cannot be determined _a priori_, but must always be +modified by the peculiarities of the individual offender and by the +peculiar circumstances. Its administration calls for the exercise of the +ingenuity and tact of the educator. + +[Sidenote: _Three Kinds of Punishment._] + +Sec. 41. Generally speaking, we must make a distinction between the sexes, +as well as between the different periods of youth; (1) some kind of +corporal punishment is most suitable for children, (2) isolation for +older boys and girls, and (3) punishment based on the sense of honor for +young men and women. + +Sec. 42. (1) Corporal punishment is the production of physical pain. The +youth is generally whipped, and this kind of punishment, provided always +that it is not too often administered or with undue severity, is the +proper way of dealing with wilful defiance, with obstinate carelessness, +or with a really perverted will, so long or so often as the higher +perception is closed against appeal. The imposing of other physical +punishment, e.g. that of depriving the pupil of food, partakes of +cruelty. The view which sees in the rod the panacea for all the +teacher's embarrassments is censurable, but equally undesirable is the +false sentimentality which assumes that the dignity of humanity is +affected by a blow given to a child, and confounds self-conscious +humanity with child-humanity, to which a blow is the most natural form +of reaction, in which all other forms of influence at last end. + +--The fully-grown man ought never to be whipped, because this kind of +punishment reduces him to the level of the child, and, when it becomes +barbarous, to that of a brute animal, and so is absolutely degrading to +him. In the English schools the rod is much used. If a pupil of the +first class be put back into the second at Eton, he, although before +exempt from flogging, becomes liable to it. But however necessary this +system of flogging of the English aristocracy may be in the discipline +of their schools, flogging in the English army is a shameful thing for +the free people of Great Britain.-- + +Sec. 43. (2) By Isolation we remove the offender temporarily from the +society of his fellows. The boy left alone, cut off from all +companionship, and left absolutely to himself, suffers from a sense of +helplessness. The time passes heavily, and soon he is very anxious to be +allowed to return to the company of parents, brothers and sisters, +teachers and fellow-pupils. + +--To leave a child entirely to himself without any supervision, even if +one shuts him up in a dark room, is as mistaken a practice as to leave a +few together without supervision, as is too often done where they are +kept after school, when they give the freest rein to their childish +wantonness and commit the wildest pranks.-- + +[Sidenote: _Sense of Honor in the Pupil._] + +Sec. 44. (3) This way of isolating a child does not touch his sense of +honor at all, and is soon forgotten because it relates to only one side +of his conduct. It is quite different from punishment based on the sense +of honor, which, in a formal manner, shuts the youth out from +companionship because he has attacked the principle which holds society +together, and for this reason can no longer be considered as belonging +to it. Honor is the recognition of one individual by others as their +equal. Through his error, or it may be his crime, he has simply made +himself unequal to them, and in so far has separated himself from them, +so that his banishment from their society is only the outward expression +of the real isolation which he himself has brought to pass in his inner +nature, and which he by means of his negative act only betrayed to the +outer world. Since the punishment founded on the sense of honor affects +the whole ethical man and makes a lasting impression upon his memory, +extreme caution is necessary in its application lest a permanent injury +be inflicted upon the character. The idea of his perpetual continuance +in disgrace, destroys in a man all aspiration for improvement. + +--Within the family this feeling of honor cannot be so actively +developed, because every member of it is bound to every other +immediately by natural ties, and hence is equal to every other. Within +its sacred circle, he who has isolated himself is still beloved, though +it may be through tears. However bad may be the deed he has committed, +he is never given up, but the deepest sympathy is felt for him because +he is still brother, father, &c. But first in the contact of one family +with another, and still more in the contact of an individual with any +institution which is founded not on natural ties, but is set over +against him as a distinct object, this feeling of honor appears. In the +school, and in the matter of ranks and classes in a school, this is very +important.-- + +Sec. 45. It is important to consider well this gradation of punishment +(which, starting with sensuous physical pain, passes through the +external teleology of temporary isolation up to the idealism of the +sense of honor), both in relation to the different ages at which they +are appropriate and to the training which they bring with them. Every +punishment must be considered merely as a means to some end, and, in so +far, as transitory. The pupil must always be deeply conscious that it is +very painful to his instructor to be obliged to punish him. This pathos +of another's sorrow for the sake of his cure which he perceives in the +mien, in the tone of the voice, in the delay with which the punishment +is administered, will become a purifying fire for his soul. + + +III. + +_The Limits of Education._ + +Sec. 46. The form of Education reaches its limits with the idea of +punishment, because this is the attempt to subsume the negative reality +and to make it conformable to its positive idea. But the limits of +Education are found in the idea of its nature, which is to fashion the +individual into theoretical and practical rationality. The authority of +the Educator at last becomes imperceptible, and it passes over into +advice and example, and obedience changes from blind conformity to free +gratitude and attachment. Individuality wears off its rough edges, and +is transfigured into the universality and necessity of Reason without +losing in this process its identity. Work becomes enjoyment, and he +finds his play in a change of activity. The youth takes possession of +himself, and can be left to himself. + +--There are two widely differing views with regard to the limits of +Education. One lays great stress on the weakness of the pupil and the +power of the teacher. According to this view, Education has for its +province the entire formation of the youth. The despotism of this view +often manifests itself where large numbers are to be educated together, +and with very undesirable results, because it assumes that the +individual pupil is only a specimen of the whole, as if the school were +a great factory where each piece of goods is to be stamped exactly like +all the rest. Individuality is reduced by the tyranny of such despotism +to one uniform level till all originality is destroyed, as in cloisters, +barracks, and orphan asylums, where only one individual seems to exist. +There is a kind of Pedagogy also which fancies that one can thrust into +or out of the individual pupil what one will. This may be called a +superstitious belief in the power of Education.--The opposite extreme +disbelieves this, and advances the policy which lets alone and does +nothing, urging that individuality is unconquerable, and that often the +most careful and far-sighted education fails of reaching its aim in so +far as it is opposed to the nature of the youth, and that this +individuality has made of no avail all efforts toward the obtaining of +any end which was opposed to it. This representation of the +fruitlessness of all pedagogical efforts engenders an indifference +towards it which would leave, as a result, only a sort of vegetation of +individuality growing at hap-hazard.-- + +[Sidenote: _The Limits of Individuality._] + +Sec. 47. _The limit of Education is_ (1) _a Subjective one_, a limit made +by the individuality of the youth. This is a definite limit. Whatever +does not exist in this individuality as a possibility cannot be +developed from it. Education can only lead and assist; it cannot create. +What Nature has denied to a man, Education cannot give him any more than +it is able, on the other hand, to annihilate entirely his original +gifts, although it is true that his talents may be suppressed, +distorted, and measurably destroyed. But the decision of the question in +what the real essence of any one's individuality consists can never be +made with certainty till he has left behind him his years of +development, because it is then only that he first arrives at the +consciousness of his entire self; besides, at this critical time, in the +first place, much knowledge only superficially acquired will drop off; +and again, talents, long slumbering and unsuspected, may first make +their appearance. Whatever has been forced upon a child in opposition to +his individuality, whatever has been only driven into him and has lacked +receptivity on his side, or a rational ground on the side of culture, +remains attached to his being only as an external ornament, a foreign +outgrowth which enfeebles his own proper character. + +--We must distinguish from that affectation which arises through a +misunderstanding of the limit of individuality, the way which many +children and young persons have of supposing when they see models +finished and complete in grown persons, that they themselves are endowed +by Nature with the power to develop into the same. When they see a +reality which corresponds to their own possibility, the presentiment of +a like or a similar attainment moves them to an imitation of it as a +model personality. This may be sometimes carried so far as to be +disagreeable or ridiculous, but should not be too strongly censured, +because it springs from a positive striving after culture, and needs +only proper direction.-- + +[Sidenote: _Limit in the Means of Education._] + +Sec. 48. (2) _The Objective limit of Education_ lies in the means which can +be appropriated for it. That the talent for a certain culture shall be +present is certainly the first thing; but the cultivation of this talent +is the second, and no less necessary. But how much cultivation can be +given to it extensively and intensively depends upon the means used, and +these again are conditioned by the material resources of the family to +which each one belongs. The greater and more valuable the means of +culture which are found in a family are, the greater is the immediate +advantage which the culture of each one has at the start. With regard to +many of the arts and sciences this limit of education is of great +significance. But the means alone are of no avail. The finest +educational apparatus will produce no fruit where corresponding talent +is wanting, while on the other hand talent often accomplishes incredible +feats with very limited means, and, if the way is only once open, makes +of itself a centre of attraction which draws to itself with magnetic +power the necessary means. The moral culture of each one is however, +fortunately from its very nature, out of the reach of such dependence. + +--In considering the limit made by individuality we recognize the side +of truth in that indifference which considers Education entirely +superfluous, and in considering the means of culture we find the truth +in the other extreme of pedagogical despotism, which fancies that it can +command whatever culture it chooses for any one without regard to his +individuality.-- + +Sec. 49. (3) _The Absolute limit of Education_ is the time when the youth +has apprehended the problem which he has to solve, has learned to know +the means at his disposal, and has acquired a certain facility in using +them. The end and aim of Education is the emancipation of the youth. It +strives to make him self-dependent, and as soon as he has become so it +wishes to retire and to be able to leave him to the sole responsibility +of his actions. To treat the youth after he has passed this point of +time still as a youth, contradicts the very idea of Education, which +idea finds its fulfilment in the attainment of majority by the pupil. +Since the accomplishment of education cancels the original inequality +between the educator and the pupil, nothing is more oppressing, nay, +revolting to the latter than to be prevented by a continued dependence +from the enjoyment of the freedom which he has earned. + +--The opposite extreme of the protracting of Education beyond its proper +time is necessarily the undue hastening of the Emancipation.--The +question whether one is prepared for freedom has been often opened in +politics. When any people have gone so far as to ask this question +themselves, it is no longer a question whether that people are prepared +for it, for without the consciousness of freedom this question would +never have occurred to them.-- + +[Sidenote: _Arrival at the age of Majority._] + +Sec. 50. Although educators must now leave the youth free, the necessity of +further culture for him is still imperative. But it will no longer come +directly through them. Their pre-arranged, pattern-making work is now +supplanted by self-education. Each sketches for himself an ideal to +which in his life he seeks to approximate every day. + +--In the work of self-culture one friend can help another by advice and +example; but he cannot educate, for education presupposes +inequality.--The necessities of human nature produce societies in which +equals seek to influence each other in a pedagogical way, since they +establish by certain steps of culture different classes. They presuppose +Education in the ordinary sense. But they wish to bring about Education +in a higher sense, and therefore they veil the last form of their ideal +in the mystery of secrecy.--To one who lives on contented with himself +and without the impulse toward self-culture, unless his unconcern +springs from his belonging to a savage state of society, the Germans +give the name of Philistine, and he is always repulsive to the student +who is intoxicated with an ideal.-- + + + + +SECOND PART. + +The Special Elements of Education. + + +Sec. 51. Education in general consists in the development in man of his +inborn theoretical and practical rationality; it takes on the form of +labor, which changes that state or condition, which appears at first +only as a mere conception, into a fixed habit, and transfigures +individuality into a worthy humanity. Education ends in that +emancipation of the youth which places him on his own feet. The special +elements which form the concrete content of all Education in general are +the Life, Cognition, and Will of man. Without life mind has no +phenomenal reality; without cognition, no genuine, i.e. conscious, will; +and without will, no self-assurance of life and of cognition. It is true +that these three elements are in real existence inseparable, and that +consequently in the dialectic they continually pass over into one +another. But none the less on this account do they themselves prescribe +their own succession, and they have a relative and periodical ascendancy +over each other. In Infancy, up to the fifth or sixth year, the purely +physical development takes the precedence; Childhood is the time of +learning, in a proper sense, an act by which the child gains for himself +the picture of the world such as mature minds, through experience and +insight, have painted it; and, finally, Youth is the transition period +to practical activity, to which the self-determination of the will must +give the first impulse. + +Sec. 52. The classification of the special elements of Pedagogics is hence +very simple: (1) the Physical, (2) the Intellectual, (3) the Practical. +(We sometimes apply to these the words Orthobiotics, Didactics, and +Pragmatics.) + +--AEsthetic training constitutes only an element of the education of +Intellectual Education, just as social, moral, and religious training +form elements of Practical Education. But because these latter elements +concern themselves with what is external, the name "Pragmatics" is +appropriate. In this sphere, Pedagogics should coincide with Politics, +Ethics, and Religion; but it is distinguished from them through the +aptitude which it brings with it of putting into practice the problems +of the other three. The scientific arrangement of these ideas must +therefore show that the former, as the more abstract, constitutes the +conditions, and the latter, as the more concrete, the ground of the +former, which are presupposed; and in consequence of this it is itself +their principal teleological presupposition, just as in man the will +presupposes the cognition, and cognition life; while, at the same time, +life, in a deeper sense, must presuppose cognition, and cognition +will.-- + + +FIRST DIVISION. + +PHYSICAL EDUCATION. + +Sec. 53. The art of living rightly is based upon a comprehension of the +process of Life. Life is the restless dialectic which ceaselessly +transforms the inorganic into the organic, but at the same time creates +out of itself another inorganic, in which it separates from itself +whatever part of the inorganic has not been assimilated, which it took +up as a stimulant, and that which has become dead and burned out. The +organism is healthy when its reality corresponds to this idea of the +dialectic, of a life which moves up and down, to and fro; of formation +and re-formation, of organizing and disorganizing. All the rules for +Physical Education, or of Hygiene, are derived from this conception. + +Sec. 54. It follows from this that the change of the inorganic to the +organic is going on not only in the organism as a whole, but also in its +every organ and in every part of every organ; and that the organic as +soon as it has attained its highest point of energy, is again degraded +to the inorganic and thrown out. Every cell has its history. Activity +is, therefore, not contradictory to the organism, but favors in it the +natural progressive and regressive metamorphosis. This process can go on +harmoniously; that is, the organism can be in health only when not only +the whole organism, but each special organ, is allowed, after its +productive activity, the corresponding rest and recreation necessary for +its self-renewal. We have this periodicity exemplified in waking and +sleeping, also in exhalation and inhalation, excretion and taking in of +material. When we have discovered the relative antagonism of the organs +and their periodicity, we have found the secret of the perennial renewal +of life. + +Sec. 55. Fatigue makes its appearance when any organ, or the organism in +general, is denied time for the return movement into itself and for +renovation. It is possible for some one organ, as if isolated, to +exercise a great and long-continued activity, even to the point of +fatigue, while the other organs rest; as e.g. the lungs, in speaking, +while the other parts are quiet; on the other hand, it is not well to +speak and run at the same time. The idea that one can keep the organism +in better condition by inactivity, is an error which rests upon a +mechanical apprehension of life. Equally false is the idea that health +depends upon the quantity and excellence of the food; without the force +to assimilate it, it acts fatally rather than stimulatingly. _True +strength arises only from activity._ + +--The later physiologists will gradually destroy, in the system of +culture of modern people, the preconceived notion which recommended for +the indolent and lovers of pleasure powerful stimulants, very fat food, +&c. Excellent works exist on this question.-- + +Sec. 56. Physical Education, as it concerns the repairing, the motor, or +the nervous, activities, is divided into (1) Dietetics, (2) Gymnastics, +(3) Sexual Education. In real life these activities are scarcely +separable, but for the sake of exposition we must consider them apart. +In the regular development of the human being, moreover, the repairing +system has a relative precedence to the motor system, and the latter to +the sexual maturity. But Pedagogics can treat of these ideas only with +reference to the infant, the child, and the youth. + + +FIRST CHAPTER. + +_Dietetics._ + + +Sec. 57. Dietetics is the art of sustaining the normal repair of the +organism. Since this organism is, in the concrete, an individual one, +the general principles of dietetics must, in their manner of +application, vary with the sex, the age, the temperament, the +occupation, and the other conditions, of the individual. Pedagogics as a +science can only go over its general principles, and these can be named +briefly. It we attempt to speak of details, we fall easily into +triviality. So very important to the whole life of man is the proper +care of his physical nature during the first stages of its development, +that the science of Pedagogics must not omit to consider the different +systems which different people, according to their time, locality, and +culture, have made for themselves; many, it is true, embracing some +preposterous ideas, but in general never devoid of justification in +their time. + +Sec. 58. The infant's first nourishment must be the milk of its mother. The +substitution of a nurse should be only an exception justified alone by +the illness of the mother; as a rule, as happens in France, it is simply +bad, because a foreign physical and moral element is introduced into the +family through the nurse. The milk of an animal can never be as good for +a child. + +Sec. 59. When the teeth appear, the child is first able to eat solid food; +but, until the second teeth come, he should be fed principally on light, +fluid nourishment, and on vegetable diet. + +Sec. 60. When the second teeth are fully formed, the human being is ready +for animal as well as vegetable food. Too much meat is not good; but it +is an anatomical error to suppose that man, by the structure of his +stomach, was originally formed to live alone on vegetable diet, and that +animal food is a sign of his degeneracy. + +--The Hindoos, who subsist principally on vegetable diet, are not, as +has been often asserted, a very gentle race: a glance into their +history, or into their erotic poetry, shows them to be quite as +passionate as other peoples.-- + +Sec. 61. Man is omnivorous. Children have therefore a natural desire to +taste of everything. For them eating and drinking possess a kind of +poetry; there is a theoretic ingredient blended with the material +enjoyment. They have, on this account, a proneness to indulge, which is +deserving of punishment only when it is combined with disobedience and +secrecy, or when it betrays cunning and greediness. + +Sec. 62. Children need much sleep, because they are undergoing the most +active progressive metamorphosis. In after-life sleep and waking should +be subjected to periodical regulation, but not too exactly. + +Sec. 63. The clothing of children should be adapted to them; i.e. it should +be cut according to the shape of the body, and it must be loose enough +to allow free play to their desire for movement. + +--With regard to this as well as to the sleeping arrangements for +children, less in regard to food--which is often too highly spiced and +too liberal in tea, coffee, &c.--our age has become accustomed to a very +rational system. The clothing of children must be not only comfortable, +but it should be made of simple and cheap material, so that the free +enjoyment of the child may not be marred by the constant internal +anxiety that a rent or a spot may bring him a fault-finding or angry +word. From too great care as to clothing, may arise a meanness of mind +which at last pays too great respect to it, or an empty frivolity. This +last may be induced by dressing children too conspicuously.-- + +Sec. 64. Cleanliness is a virtue to which children should be accustomed for +the sake of their physical well-being, as well as because, in a moral +point of view, it is of the greatest significance. Cleanliness will not +endure that things shall be deprived of their proper individuality +through the elemental chaos. It retains each as distinguished from every +other. While it makes necessary to man pure air, cleanliness of +surroundings, of clothing, and of his body, it develops in him a sense +by which he perceives accurately the particular limits of being in +general. + + +SECOND CHAPTER. + +_Gymnastics._ + + +Sec. 65. Gymnastics is the art of systematic training of the muscular +system. The action of the voluntary muscles, which are regulated by the +nerves of the brain, in distinction from the involuntary automatic +muscles depending on the spinal cord, while they are the means of man's +intercourse with the external world, at the same time re-act upon the +automatic muscles in digestion and sensation. Since the movement of the +muscular fibres consists in the change of contraction and expansion, it +follows that Gymnastics must bring about a change of movement which +shall both contract and expand the muscles. + +Sec. 66. The system of gymnastic exercise of any nation corresponds always +to its way of fighting. So long as this consists in the personal +struggle of a hand-to-hand contest, Gymnastics will seek to increase as +much as possible individual strength and adroitness. As soon as the +far-reaching missiles projected from fire-arms become the centre of all +the operations of war, the individual is lost in a body of men, out of +which he emerges only relatively in sharp-shooting, in the charge, in +single contests, and in the retreat. Because of this incorporation of +the individual in the one great whole, and because of the resulting +unimportance of personal bravery, modern Gymnastics can never be the +same as it was in ancient times, even putting out of view the fact that +the subjectiveness of the modern spirit is too great to allow it to +devote so much attention to the care of the body, and the admiration of +its beauty, as was given by the Greeks. + +--The Turners' unions and halls in Germany belong to the period of +subjective enthusiasm of the German student population, and had a +political significance. At present, they have been brought back to their +proper place as an Educational means, and they are of great value, +especially in large cities. Among the mountains, and even in the country +towns, a special institution for bodily exercise is less necessary, for +the matter takes care of itself. The attractions of the situation and +the games help to foster it. In great cities, however, the houses are +often destitute of halls or open places where the children can take +exercise in their leisure moments. In these cities, therefore, there +must be some gymnastic hall where the sense of fellowship may be +developed. Gymnastics are not so essential for girls. In its place, +dancing is sufficient, and gymnastics should be employed for them only +where there exists any special weakness or deformity, when they may be +used as a restorative or preservative. They are not to become Amazons. +The boy, on the contrary, needs to acquire the feeling of +good-fellowship. It is true that the school develops this in a measure, +but not fully, because it determines the standing of the boy through his +intellectual ambition. The academical youth will not take much interest +in special gymnastics unless he can gain preeminence therein. Running, +leaping, climbing, and lifting, are too meaningless for their more +mature spirits. They can take a lively interest only in the exercises +which have a warlike character. With the Prussians, and some other +German states, the art of Gymnastics identifies itself with military +concerns.-- + +Sec. 67. The real idea of Gymnastics must always be that the spirit shall +rule over its naturalness, and shall make this an energetic and docile +servant of its will. Strength and adroitness must unite and become +confident skill. Strength, carried to its extreme produces the athlete; +adroitness, to its extreme, the acrobat. Pedagogics must avoid both. All +immense force, fit only for display, must be held as far away as the +idea of teaching Gymnastics with the motive of utility; e.g. that by +swimming one may save his life when he falls into the water, &c. Among +other things, this may also be a consequence; but the principle in +general must always remain: the necessity of the spirit of subjecting +its organism of the body to the condition of a perfect means, so that it +may never find itself limited by it. + +Sec. 68. Gymnastic exercises form a series from simple to compound. There +appears to be so much arbitrariness in them that it is always very +agreeable to the mind to find, on nearer inspection, some reason. The +movements are (1) of the lower, (2) of the upper extremities; (3) of the +whole body, with relative striking out, now of the upper, now of the +lower extremities. We distinguish, therefore, foot, arm, and trunk +movements. + +Sec. 69. (1) The first series of foot-movements is the most important, and +conditions the carriage of all the rest of the body. They are (_a_) +walking; (_b_) running; (_c_) leaping: each of these being capable of +modifications, as the high and the low leap, the prolonged and the quick +run. Sometimes we give to these different names, according to the means +used, as walking on stilts; skating; leaping with a staff, or by means +of the hands, as vaulting. Dancing is only the art of the graceful +mingling of these movements; and balancing, only one form of walking. + +Sec. 70. (2) The second series embraces the arm-movements, and it repeats +also the movements of the first series. It includes (_a_) lifting; (_b_) +swinging; (_c_) throwing. All pole and bar practice comes under lifting, +also climbing and carrying. Under throwing, come quoit and +ball-throwing, and nine-pin playing. All these movements are +distinguished from each other, not only quantitatively but also +qualitatively, in the position of the stretched and bent muscles; e.g. +running is something different from quick walking. + +Sec. 71. (3) The third series, or that of movements of the whole body, +differs from the preceding two, which should precede it, in this, that +it brings the organism into contact with a living object, which it has +to overcome through its own activity. This object is sometimes an +element, sometimes an animal, sometimes a man. Our divisions then are +(_a_) swimming; (_b_) riding; (_c_) fighting, or single combat. In +swimming, one must conquer the yielding liquid material of water by arm +and foot movements. The resistance met on account of currents and waves +may be very great, but it is still that of a will-less and passive +object. But in riding man has to deal with a self-willed being whose +vitality calls forth not only his strength but also his intelligence and +courage. The exercise is therefore very complicated, and the rider must +be able perpetually to individualize it according to the necessity; at +the same time, he must give attention not only to the horse, but to the +nature of the ground and the entire surroundings. But it is only in the +struggle with men that Gymnastics reaches its highest point, for in this +man offers himself as a living antagonist to man and brings him into +danger. It is no longer the spontaneous activity of an unreasoning +existence; it is the resistance and attack of intelligence itself with +which he has to deal. Fighting, or single combat, is the truly +chivalrous exercise, and this may be combined with horsemanship. + +--In the single combat there is found also a qualitative modification, +whence we have three systems: (_a_) boxing and wrestling; (_b_) fencing +with sticks; and (_c_) rapier and broad-sword fencing. In the first, +which was cultivated to its highest point among the Greeks, direct +immediateness rules. In the boxing of the English, a sailor-like +propensity of this nation, fist-fighting is still retained as a custom. +Fencing with a stick is found among the French mechanics, the so-called +_compagnons_. Men often use the cane in their contests; it is a sort of +refined club. When we use the sword or rapier, the weapon becomes +deadly. The Southern Europeans excel in the use of the rapier, the +Germans in that of the sword. But the art of single combat is much +degenerated, and the pistol-duel, through its increasing frequency, +proves this degeneration.-- + + +THIRD CHAPTER. + +_Sexual Education._ + + + NOTE.--The paragraphs relating to Sexual Education are + designed for parents rather than for teachers, the parent + being the natural educator of the family and sexual + education relating to the preservation and continuance of + the family. This chapter is accordingly, for the most + part, omitted here. It contains judicious reflections, + invaluable to parents and guardians.--_Tr._ + +Sec. 72. Gymnastic exercises fall naturally into a systematic arrangement +determined by the chronological order of development through infancy, +childhood, and youth. Walking, running, and leaping belong, to the first +period; lifting, swinging, and throwing, to the second; swimming, +riding, and bodily contests, to the third, and these last may also be +continued into manhood. But with the arrival at youth, a new epoch makes +its appearance in the organism. It prepares itself for the propagation +of the species. It expands the individual through the need which he +feels of uniting himself with another individual of the same species, +but who is a polar opposite to him, in order to preserve the two in a +new individual. The blood rushes more vigorously; the muscular strength +becomes more easily roused into activity; an indefinable impulse, a +sweet melancholy takes possession of the being. This period demands a +special care in the educator. + +Sec. 73. The general preventive guards must be found in a rational system +of food and exercise. By care in these directions, the development of +the bones, and with them of the brain and spinal cord at this period, +may be led to a proper strength, and that the easily-moulded material +may not be perverted from its normal functions in the development of the +body to a premature manifestation of the sexual instinct. + +Sec. 74. Special forethought is necessary lest the brain be too early +over-strained, and lest, in consequence of such precocious and excessive +action, the foundation for a morbid excitation of the whole nervous +system be laid, which may easily lead to effeminate and voluptuous +reveries, and to brooding over obscene representations. The excessive +reading of novels, whose exciting pages delight in painting the love of +the sexes for each other and its sensual phases, may lead to this, and +then the mischief is done. + + +SECOND DIVISION. + +INTELLECTUAL EDUCATION. + +Sec. 80. _Mens sana in corpore sano_ is correct as a pedagogical maxim, but +false in the judgment of individual cases; because it is possible, on +the one hand, to have a healthy mind in an unhealthy body, and, on the +other hand, an unhealthy mind in a healthy body. To strive after the +harmony of soul and body is the material condition of all proper +activity. The development of intelligence presupposes physical health. +Here we are to speak of the science of the art of Teaching. This had its +condition on the side of nature, as was before seen, in physical +Education, but in the sphere of mind it is related to Psychology and +Logic. It unites, in Teaching, considerations on Psychology as well as a +Logical method. + + +FIRST CHAPTER. + +_The Psychological Presupposition._ + + +Sec. 81. If we would have a sound condition of Philosophy, it must, in +intellectual Education, refer to the conception of mind which has been +unfolded in Psychology; and it must appear as a defect in scientific +method if Psychology, or at least the conception of the theoretical +mind, is treated again as within Pedagogics. We must take something for +granted. Psychology, then, will be consulted no further than is +requisite to place on a sure basis the pedagogical function which +relates to it. + +Sec. 82. The conception of _attention_ is the most important to Pedagogics +of all those derived from Psychology. Mind is essentially self-activity. +Nothing exists for it which it does not itself posit as its own. We hear +it not seldom implied that something from outside conditions must make +an impression on the mind, but this is an error. Mind lets nothing act +upon it unless it has rendered itself receptive to it. Without this +preparatory self-excitation the object does not really penetrate it, and +it passes by the object unconsciously or indifferently. The horizon of +perception changes for each person with his peculiarities and culture. +Attention is the adjusting of the observer to the object in order to +seize it in its unity and diversity. Relatively, the observer allows, +for a moment, his relation to all other surroundings to cease, so that +he may establish a relation with this one. Without this essentially +spontaneous activity, nothing exists for the mind. All result in +teaching and learning depends upon the clearness and strength with which +distinctions are made, and the saying, _bene qui distinguit bene docit_, +applies as well to the pupil. + +Sec. 83. Attention, depending as it does on the self-determination of the +observer, can therefore be improved, and the pupil made attentive, by +the educator. Education must accustom him to an exact, rapid, and +many-sided attention, so that at the first contact with an object he may +grasp it sufficiently and truly, and that it shall not be necessary for +him always to be adding to his acquisitions concerning it. The twilight +and partialness of intelligence which forces us always to new +corrections because a pupil at the very commencement did not give entire +attention, must not be tolerated. + +[Sidenote: _Psychological Faculties._] + +Sec. 84. We learn from Psychology that mind does not consist of distinct +faculties, but that what we choose to call so are only different +activities of the same power. Each one is just as essential as the +other, on which account Education must grant to each faculty its claim +to the same fostering care. If we would construe correctly the axiom _a +potiori fit denominatio_ to mean that man is distinguished from animals +by thought, and that mediated will is not the same as thought, we must +not forget that feeling and representing are not less necessary to a +truly complete human being. The special direction which the activity of +apprehending intelligence takes are (1) Perception, (2) Conception, (3) +Thinking. Dialectically, they pass over into each other; not that +Perception rises into Conception, and Conception into Thinking, but that +Thinking goes back into Conception, and this again into Perception. In +the development of the young, the Perceptive faculty is most active in +the infant, the Conceptive in the child, and the Thinking in the youth; +and thus we may distinguish an intuitive, an imaginative, and a logical +epoch. + +--Great errors arise from the misapprehension of these different phases +and of their dialectic, since the different forms which are suitable to +the different grades of youth are mingled. The infant certainly thinks +while he perceives, but this thinking is to him unconscious. Or, if he +has acquired perceptions, he makes them into conceptions, and +demonstrates his freedom in playing with them. This play must not be +taken as mere amusement; it also signifies that he takes care to +preserve his self-determination, and his power of idealizing, in +opposition to the pleasant filling of his consciousness with material. +Herein the delight of the child for fairy tales finds its reason. The +fairy tale constantly destroys the limits of common actuality. The +abstract understanding cannot endure this arbitrariness and want of +fixed conditions, and thus would prefer that children should read, +instead, home-made stories of the "Charitable Ann," of the "Heedless +Frederick," of the "Inquisitive Wilhelmine," &c. Above all, it praises +"Robinson Crusoe," which contains much heterogeneous matter, but nothing +improbable. When the youth and maiden of necessity pass over into the +earnestness of real life, the drying up of the imagination and the +domination of the understanding presses in.-- + + +I. _The Intuitive Epoch._ + +Sec. 85. Perception, as the beginning of intellectual culture, is the free +grasping of a content immediately present to the spirit. Education can +do nothing directly toward the performance of this act; it can only +assist in making it easy:--(1) it can isolate the subject of +consideration; (2) it can give facility in the transition to another; +(3) it can promote the many-sidedness of the interest, by which means +the return to a perception already obtained has always a fresh charm. + +Sec. 86. The immediate perception of many things is impossible, and yet +the necessity for it is obvious. We must then have recourse to a +mediated perception, and supply the lack of actual seeing by +representations. But here the difficulty presents itself, that there are +many objects which we are not able to represent of the same size as they +really are, and we must have a reduced scale; and there follows a +difficulty in making the representation, as neither too large nor too +small. An explanation is then also necessary as a judicious supplement +to the picture. + +Sec. 87. Pictures are extremely valuable aids to instruction when they are +correct and characteristic. Correctness must be demanded in these +substitutes for natural objects, historical persons and scenes. Without +this correctness, the picture, if not an impediment, is, to say the +least, useless. + +--It is only since the last half of the seventeenth century, i.e. since +the disappearance of real painting, that the picture-book has appeared +as an educational means; first of all, coming from miniature painting. +Up to that time, public life had plenty of pictures of arms, furniture, +houses, and churches; and men, from their fondness for constantly moving +about, were more weary of immediate perception. It was only afterwards +when, in the excitement of the thirty-years' war, the arts of Sculpture +and Painting and Christian and Pagan Mythology became extinct, that +there arose a greater necessity for pictured representations. The _Orbis +Rerum Sensualium Pictus_, which was also to be _janua linguarum +reserata_, of Amos Comenius, appeared first in 1658, and was reprinted +in 1805. Many valuable illustrated books followed. Since that time +innumerable illustrated Bibles and histories have appeared, but many of +them look only to the pecuniary profit of the author or the publisher. +It is revolting to see the daubs that are given to children. They are +highly colored, but as to correctness, to say nothing of character, they +are good for nothing. With a little conscientiousness and scientific +knowledge very different results could be obtained with the same outlay +of money and of strength. The uniformity which exists in the stock of +books which German book-selling has set in circulation is really +disgraceful. Everywhere we find the same types, even in ethnographical +pictures. In natural history, the illustrations were often drawn from +the imagination or copied from miserable models. This has changed very +much for the better. The same is true of architectural drawings and +landscapes, for which we have now better copies.-- + +Sec. 88. Children have naturally a desire to collect things, and this may +be so guided that they shall collect and arrange plants, butterflies, +beetles, shells, skeletons, &c., and thus gain exactness and reality in +their perception. Especially should they practise drawing, which leads +them to form exact images of objects. But drawing, as children practise +it, does not have the educational significance of cultivating in them an +appreciation of art, but rather that of educating the eye, as this must +be exercised in estimating distances, sizes, and colors. It is, +moreover, a great gain in many ways, if, through a suitable course of +lessons in drawing, the child is advanced to a knowledge of the +elementary forms of nature. + +--That pictures should affect children as works of art is not to be +desired. They confine themselves at first to distinguishing the outlines +and colors, and do not yet appreciate the execution. If the children +have access to real works of art, we may safely trust in their power, +and quietly await their moral or aesthetic effect.-- + +Sec. 89. In order that looking at pictures shall not degenerate into mere +diversion, explanations should accompany them. Only when the thought +embodied in the illustration is pointed out, can they be useful as a +means of instruction. Simply looking at them is of as little value +towards this end as is water for baptism without the Holy Spirit. Our +age inclines at present to the superstition that man is able, by means +of simple intuition, to attain a knowledge of the essence of things, and +thereby dispense with the trouble of thinking. Illustrations are the +order of the day, and, in the place of enjoyable descriptions, we find +miserable pictures. It is in vain to try to get behind things, or to +comprehend them, except by thinking. + +Sec. 90. The ear as well as the eye must be cultivated. Music must be +considered the first educational means to this end, but it should be +music inspired by ethical purity. Hearing is the most internal of all +the senses, and should on this account be treated with the greatest +delicacy. Especially should the child be taught that he is not to look +upon speech as merely a vehicle for communication and for gaining +information; it should also give pleasure, and therefore he should be +taught to speak distinctly and with a good style, and this he can do +only when he carefully considers what he is going to say. + +--Among the Greeks, extraordinary care was given to musical cultivation, +especially in its ethical relation. Sufficient proof of this is found in +the admirable detailed statements on this point in the "Republic" of +Plato and in the last book of the "Politics" of Aristotle. Among modern +nations, also, music holds a high place, and makes its appearance as a +constant element of education. Piano-playing has become general, and +singing is also taught. But the ethical significance of music is too +little considered. Instruction in music often aims only to train pupils +for display in society, and the tendency of the melodies which are +played is restricted more and more to orchestral pieces of an exciting +or bacchanalian character. The railroad-gallop-style only makes the +nerves of youth vibrate with stimulating excitement. Oral speech, the +highest form of the personal manifestation of mind, was also treated +with great reverence by the ancients. Among us, communication is so +generally carried on by writing and reading, that the art of speaking +distinctly, correctly, and agreeably, has become very much neglected. +Practice in declamation accomplishes, as a general thing, very little in +this direction. But we may expect that the increase of public speaking +occasioned by our political and religious assemblies may have a +favorable influence in this particular.-- + + +II. _The Imaginative Epoch._ + +Sec. 91. The activity of Perception results in the formation of an internal +picture or image of its ideas which intelligence can call up at any time +without the sensuous, immediate presence of its object, and thus, +through abstraction and generalization, arises the conception. The +mental image may (1) be compared with the perception from which it +sprang, or (2) it may be arbitrarily altered and combined with other +images, or (3) it may be held fast in the form of abstract signs or +symbols which intelligence invents for it. Thus originate the functions +(1) of the verification of conceptions, (2) of the creative imagination, +and (3) of memory; but for their full development we must refer to +Psychology. + +Sec. 92. (1) The mental image which we form of an object may be correct; +again, it may be partly or wholly defective, if we have neglected some +of the predicates of the perception which presented themselves, or in so +far as we have added to it other predicates which only seemingly +belonged to it, and which were attached to it only by its accidental +empirical connection with other existences. Education must, therefore, +foster the habit of comparing our conceptions with the perceptions from +which they arose; and these perceptions, since they are liable to change +by reason of their empirical connection with other objects, must be +frequently compared with our conceptions previously formed by +abstractions from them. + +Sec. 93. (2) We are thus limited in our conceptions by our perceptions, but +we exercise a free control over our conceptions. We can create out of +them, as simple elements, the manifold mental shapes which we do not +treat as given to us, but as essentially our own work. In Pedagogics, we +must not only look upon this freedom as if it were only to afford +gratification, but as the reaction of the absolute ideal native mind +against the dependence in which the empirical reception of impressions +from without, and their reproduction in conceptions, place it. In this +process, it does not only fashion in itself the phenomenal world, but it +rather fashions out of itself a world which is all its own. + +Sec. 94. The study of Art comes here to the aid of Pedagogics, especially +with Poetry, the highest and at the same time the most easily +communicated. The imagination of the pupil can be led by means of the +classical works of creative imagination to the formation of a good taste +both as regards ethical value and beauty of form. The proper classical +works for youth are those which nations have produced in the earliest +stages of their culture. These works bring children face to face with +the picture which mind has sketched for itself in one of the necessary +stages of its development. This is the real reason why our children +never weary of reading Homer and the stories of the Old Testament. +Polytheism and the heroism which belongs to it are just as substantial +an element of childish conception as monotheism with its prophets and +patriarchs. We stand beyond both, because we are mediated by both, and +embrace both in our stand-point. + +--The purest stories of literature designed for the amusement of +children from their seventh to their fourteenth year, consist always of +those which were honored by nations and the world at large. One has only +to notice in how many thousand forms the stories of Ulysses are +reproduced by the writers of children's tales. Becker's "Tales of +Ancient Times," Gustav Schwab's most admirable "Sagas of Antiquity," +Karl Grimm's "Tales of Olden Times," &c., what were they without the +well-talking, wily favorite of Pallas, and the divine swine-herd? And +just as indestructible are the stories of the Old Testament up to the +separation of Judah and Israel. These patriarchs with their wives and +children, these judges and prophets, these kings and priests, are by no +means ideals of virtue in the notion of our modern lifeless morality, +which would smooth out of its pattern-stories for the "dear children" +everything that is hard and uncouth. For the very reason that the +shadow-side is not wanting here, and that we find envy, vanity, evil +desire, ingratitude, craftiness, and deceit, among these fathers of the +race and leaders of "God's chosen people," have these stories so great +an educational value. Adam, Cain, Abraham, Joseph, Samson, and David, +have justly become as truly world-historical types as Achilles and +Patroclus, Agamemnon and Iphigenia, Hector and Andromache, Ulysses and +Penelope.-- + +Sec. 95. There may be produced also, out of the simplest and most primitive +phases of different epochs of culture of one and the same people, +stories which answer to the imagination of children, and represent to +them the characteristic features of the past of their people. + +--The Germans possess such a collection of their stories in their +popular books of the "Horny Sigfried," of the "Heymon Children," of +"Beautiful _Magelone_," "Fortunatus," "The Wandering Jew," "Faust," "The +Adventurous Simplicissimus," "The _Schildbuerger_," "The Island of +Felsenburg," "Lienhard and Gertrude," &c. Also, the art works of the +great masters which possess national significance must be spoken of +here, as the Don Quixote of Cervantes.-- + +Sec. 96. The most general form in which the childish imagination finds +exercise is that of fairy-tales; but Education must take care that it +has these in their proper shape as national productions, and that they +are not of the morbid kind which poetry so often gives us in this +species of literature, and which not seldom degenerate to sentimental +caricatures and silliness. + +--The East Indian stories are most excellent because they have their +origin with a childlike people who live wholly in the imagination. By +means of the Arabian filtration, which took place in Cairo in the +flourishing period of the Egyptian caliphs, all that was too +characteristically Indian was excluded, and they were made in the "Tales +of Scheherezade," a book for all peoples, with whose far-reaching power +in child-literature, the local stories of a race, as e.g. Grimm's +admirable ones of German tradition, cannot compare. Fairy-tales made to +order, as we often see them, with a mediaeval Catholic tendency, or very +moral and dry, are a bane to the youthful imagination in their stale +sweetness. We must here add, however, that lately we have had some +better success in our attempts since we have learned to distinguish +between the naive natural poetry, which is without reflection, and the +poetry of art, which is conditioned by criticism and an ideal. This +distinction has produced good fruits even in the picture-books of +children. The pretensions of the gentlemen who printed illustrated books +containing nothing more solid than the alphabet and the multiplication +table have become less prominent since such men as Speckter, Froehlich, +Gutsmuths, Hofman (the writer of "Slovenly Peter"), and others, have +shown that seemingly trivial things can be handled with intellectual +power, if one is blessed with it, and that nothing is more opposed to +the child's imagination than the _childishness_ with which so many +writers for children have fallen when they attempted to descend with +dignity from their presumably lofty stand-point. Men are beginning to +understand that Christ promised the kingdom of heaven to little children +on other grounds than because they had as it were the privilege of being +thoughtless and foolish.-- + +Sec. 97. For youth and maidens, especially as they approach manhood and +womanhood, the cultivation of the imagination must allow the earnestness +of actuality to manifest itself in its undisguised energy. This +earnestness, no longer through the symbolism of play but in its +objective reality, must now thoroughly penetrate the conceptions of the +youth so that it shall prepare him to seize hold of the machinery of +active life. Instead of the all-embracing Epos they should now read +Tragedy, whose purifying process, through the alternation of fear and +pity, unfolds to the youth the secret of all human destiny, sin and its +expiation. The works best adapted to lead to history on this side are +those of biography--of ancient times, Plutarch; of modern times, the +autobiographies of Augustine, Cellini, Rousseau, Goethe, Varnhagen, Jung +Stilling, Moritz, Arndt, &c. These autobiographies contain a view of the +growth of individuality through its inter-action with the influences of +its time, and, together with the letters and memoirs of great or at +least noteworthy men, tend to produce a healthy excitement in the +youth, who must learn to fight his own battles through a knowledge of +the battles of others. To introduce the youth to a knowledge of Nature +and Ethnography no means are better than those of books of travel which +give the charm of first contact, the joy of discovery, instead of the +general consciousness of the conquests of mind. + +--If educative literature on the one hand broadens the field of +knowledge, on the other it may also promote its elaboration into ideal +forms. This happens, in a strict sense, through philosophical +literature. But only two different species of this are to be recommended +to youth: (1) well-written treatises which endeavor to solve a single +problem with spirit and thoroughness; or, (2) when the intelligence has +grown strong enough for it, the classical works of a real philosopher. +German literature is fortunately very rich in treatises of this kind in +the works of Lessing, Herder, Kant, Fichte, Schleiermacher, Humboldt, +and Schiller. But nothing does more harm to youth than the study of +works of mediocrity, or those of a still lower rank. They stupefy and +narrow the mind by their empty, hollow, and constrained style. It is +generally supposed that these standard works are too difficult, and that +one must first seize them in this trivial and diluted form in order to +understand them. This is one of the most prevalent and most dangerous +errors, for these Introductions or Explanations, easily-comprehended +Treatises, Summary Abstracts, are, because of their want of originality +and of the acuteness which belongs to it, much more difficult to +understand than the standard work itself from which they drain their +supplies. Education must train the youth to the courage which will +attempt standard works, and it must not allow any such miserable +preconceived opinions to grow up in his mind as that his understanding +is totally unable to comprehend works like Fichte's "Science of +Knowledge," the "Metaphysics" of Aristotle, or Hegel's "Phenomenology." +No science suffers so much as Philosophy from this false popular +opinion, which understands neither itself nor its authority. The youth +must _learn how to learn to understand_, and, in order to do this, he +must know that one cannot immediately understand everything in its +finest subdivisions, and that on this account he must have patience, and +must resolve to read over and over again, and to think over what he has +read.-- + +Sec. 98. (3) Imagination returns again within itself to perception in that +it replaces, for conceptions, perceptions themselves, which are to +remind it of the previous conception. These perceptions may resemble in +some way the perception which lies at the basis of the conception, and +be thus more or less symbolical; or they may be merely arbitrary +creations of the creative imagination, and are in this case pure signs. +In common speech and writing, we call the free retaining of these +perceptions created by imagination, and the recalling of the conceptions +denoted by them, _Memory_. It is by no means a particular faculty of the +mind, which is again subdivided into memory of persons, names, numbers, +&c. As to its form, memory is the stage of the dissolution of +conception; but as to its content, it arises from the interest which we +take in a subject-matter. From this interest results, moreover, careful +attention, and from this latter, facility in the reproductive +imagination. If these acts have preceded, the fixing of a name, or of a +number, in which the content interesting us is as it were summed up, is +not difficult. When interest and attention animate us, it seems as if we +did not need to be at all troubled about remembering anything. All the +so-called mnemonic helps only serve to make more difficult the act of +memory. This act is in itself a double function, consisting of, first, +the fixing of the sign, and second, the fixing of the conception +subsumed under it. Since the mnemonic technique adds to these one more +conception, through whose means the things with which we have to deal +are to be fixed in order to be able freely to express them in us, it +trebles the functions of remembering, and forgets that the mediation of +these and their relation--wholly arbitrary and highly artificial--must +also be remembered. The true help of memory consists in not helping it +at all, but in simply taking up the object into the ideal regions of the +mind by the force of the infinite self-determination which mind +possesses. + +--Lists of names, as e.g. of the Roman emperors, of the popes, of the +caliphs, of rivers, mountains, authors, cities, &c.; also numbers, as +e.g. the multiplication table, the melting points of minerals, the dates +of battles, of births and deaths, &c., must be learned without aid. All +indirect means only serve to do harm here, and are required as +self-discovered mediation only in case that interest or attention has +become weakened.-- + +Sec. 99. The means to be used, which result from the nature of memory +itself, are on the one hand the pronouncing and writing of the names and +numbers, and on the other, repetition; by these we gain distinctness and +certainty. + +--All artificial contrivances for quickening the memory vanish in +comparison with the art of writing, in so far as this is not looked at +as a means of relieving the memory. That a name or a number should be +this or that, is a mere chance for the intelligence, an entirely +meaningless accident to which we have unconditionally to submit +ourselves as unalterable. The intelligence must be accustomed to put +upon itself this constraint. In science proper, especially in +Philosophy, our reason helps to produce one thought from others by means +of the context, and we can discover names for the ideas from them.-- + + +III. _The Logical Epoch._ + +Sec. 100. In Conception there is attained a universality of intellectual +action in so far as the empirical details are referred to a _Schema_, as +Kant called it. But the _necessity_ of the connection is wanting to it. +To produce this is the task of the thinking activity, which frees itself +from all representations, and with its clearly defined determinations +transcends conceptions. The Thinking activity frees itself from all +sensuous representations by means of the processes of Conception and +Perception. Comprehension, Judgment, and Syllogism, develop for +themselves into forms which, as such, have no power of being perceived +by the senses. But it does not follow from this that he who thinks +cannot return out of the thinking activity and carry it with him into +the sphere of Conception and Perception. The true thinking activity +deprives itself of no content. The abstraction affecting a logical +purism which looks down upon Conception and Perception as forms of +intelligence quite inferior to itself, is a pseudo-thinking, a morbid +and scholastic error. Education will be the better on its guard against +this the more it has led the pupil by the legitimate road of Perception +and Conception to Thinking. Memorizing especially is an excellent +preparatory school for the Thinking activity, because it gives practice +to the intelligence in exercising itself in abstract ideas. + +Sec. 101. The fostering of the Sense of Truth from the earliest years up, +is the surest way of leading the pupil to gain the power of thinking. +The unprejudiced, disinterested yielding to Truth, as well as the effort +to shun all deception and false seeming, are of the greatest value in +strengthening the power of reflection, as this considers nothing of +value but the actually existing objective circumstances. + +--The indulging an illusion as a pleasing recreation of the +intelligence should be allowed, while lying must not be tolerated. +Children have a natural inclination for mystifications, for masquerades, +for raillery, and for theatrical performances, &c. This inclination to +illusion is perfectly normal with them, and should be permitted. The +graceful kingdom of Art is developed from it, as also the poetry of +conversation in jest and wit. Although this sometimes becomes +stereotyped into very prosaic conventional forms of speech, it is more +tolerable than the awkward honesty which takes everything in its simple +literal sense. And it is easy to discover whether children in such play, +in the activity of free joyousness, incline to the side of mischief by +their showing a desire of satisfying their selfish interest. Then they +must be checked, for in that case the cheerfulness of harmless joking +gives way to premeditation and dissimulation.-- + +Sec. 102. An acquaintance with logical forms is to be recommended as a +special educational help in the culture of intelligence. The study of +Mathematics does not suffice, because it presupposes Logic. Mathematics +is related to Logic in the same way as Grammar, the Physical Sciences, +&c. The logical forms must be known explicitly in their pure independent +forms, and not merely in their implicit state as immanent in objective +forms. + + +SECOND CHAPTER. + +_The Logical Presupposition or Method._ + + +Sec. 103. The logical presupposition of instruction is the order in which +the subject-matter develops for the consciousness. The subject, the +consciousness of the pupil, and the activity of the instructor, +interpenetrate each other in instruction, and constitute in actuality +one whole. + +Sec. 104. (1) First of all, the subject which is to be learned has a +specific determinateness which demands in its representation a certain +fixed order. However arbitrary we may desire to be, the subject has a +certain self-determination of its own which no mistreatment can wholly +crush out, and this inherent immortal reason is the general foundation +of instruction. + +--To illustrate; however one may desire to manipulate a language in +teaching it, he cannot change the words in it, or the inflections of the +declensions and conjugations. And the same restriction is laid upon our +inclinations in the different divisions of Natural History, in the +theorems of Arithmetic, Geometry, &c. The theorem of Pascal remains +still the theorem of Pascal, and will always remain so.-- + +Sec. 105. (2) But the subject must be adapted to the consciousness of the +pupil, and here the order of procedure and the exposition depend upon +the stage which he has reached intellectually, for the special manner of +the instruction must be conditioned by this. If he is in the stage of +perception, we must use the illustrative method; if in the stage of +conception, that of combination; and if in the stage of reflection that +of demonstration. The first exhibits the object directly, or some +representation of it; the second considers it according to the different +possibilities which exist in it, and turns it around on all sides; the +third questions the necessity of the connection in which it stands +either with itself or with others. This is the natural order from the +stand-point of the scientific intelligence: first, the object is +presented to the perception; then combination presents its different +phases; and, finally, the thinking activity circumscribes the restlessly +moving reflection by the idea of necessity. Experiment in the method of +combination is an excellent means for a discovery of relations, for a +sharpening of the attention, for the arousing of a many-sided interest; +but it is no true dialectic, though it be often denoted by that name. + +--Illustration is especially necessary in the natural sciences and also +in aesthetics, because in both of these departments the sensuous is an +essential element of the matter dealt with. In this respect we have made +great progress in charts and maps. Sydow's hand and wall maps and +Berghaus's physical atlas are most excellent means of illustrative +instruction; also Burmeister's zooelogical atlas.-- + +Sec. 106. The demonstrative method, in order to bring about its proof of +necessity, has a choice of many different ways. But we must not imagine, +either that there are an unlimited number, and that it is only a chance +which one we shall take; or that they have no connection among +themselves, and run, as it were, side by side. It is not, however, the +business of Pedagogics to develop different methods of proof; this +belongs to Logic. We have only to remember that, logically taken, proof +must be analytic, synthetic, or dialectic. Analysis begins with the +single one, and leads out of it by induction to the general principle +from which its existence results. Synthesis, on the contrary, begins +with a general which is presupposed as true, and leads from this through +deduction to the special determinations which were implicit in it. The +regressive search of analysis for a determining principle is +_Invention_; the forward progress of synthesis from the simple elements +seeking for the multiplicity of the single one is _Construction_. Each, +in its result, passes over into the other; but their truth is found in +the dialectic method, which in each phase allows unity to separate into +diversity and diversity to return into unity. While in the analytic as +well as in the synthetic method the mediation of the individual with the +general, or of the general with the individual, lets the phase of +particularity be only subjectively connected with it in the dialectic +method, we have the going over of the general through the particular to +the individual, or to the self-determination of the idea, and it +therefore rightly claims the title of the genetic method. We can also +say that while the inventive method gives us the idea (notion) and the +constructive the judgment, the genetic gives us the syllogism which +leads the determinations of reflection back again into substantial +identity. + +Sec. 107. (3) The active mediation of the pupil with the content which is +to be impressed upon his consciousness is the work of the teacher, whose +personality creates a method adapted to the individual; for however +clearly the subject may be defined, however exactly the psychological +stage of the pupil may be regulated, the teacher cannot dispense with +the power of his own individuality even in the most objective relations. +This individuality must penetrate the whole with its own exposition, and +that peculiarity which we call his _manner_, and which cannot be +determined _a priori_, must appear. The teacher must place himself on +the stand-point of the pupil, i.e. must adapt himself; he must see that +the abstract is made clear to him in the concrete, i.e. must illustrate; +he must fill up the gaps which will certainly appear, and which may mar +the thorough seizing of the subject, i.e. must supply. In all these +relations the pedagogical tact of the teacher may prove itself truly +ingenious in varying the method according to the changefulness of the +ever-varying needs, in contracting or expanding the extent, in stating, +or indicating what is to be supplied. The true teacher is free from any +superstitious belief in any one procedure as a sure specific which he +follows always in a monotonous bondage. This can only happen when he is +capable of the highest method. The teacher has arrived at the highest +point of ability in teaching when he can make use of all means, from the +loftiness of solemn seriousness, through smooth statement, to the play +of jest--yes, even to the incentive of irony, and to humor. + +--Pedagogics can be in nothing more specious than in its method, and it +is here that charlatanism can most readily intrude itself. Every little +change, every inadequate modification, is proclaimed aloud as a new or +an improved method; and even the most foolish and superficial changes +find at once their imitators, who themselves conceal their insolence +behind some frivolous differences, and, with laughable conceit, hail +themselves as inventors.-- + + +THIRD CHAPTER. + +_Instruction._ + + +Sec. 108. All instruction acts upon the supposition that there is an +inequality between present knowledge and power and that knowledge and +power which are not yet attained. To the pupil belong the first, to the +teacher the second. Education is the act which gradually cancels the +original inequality of teacher and pupil, in that it converts what was +at first the property of the former into the property of the latter, and +this by means of his own activity. + + +I. _The Subjects of Instruction._ + +Sec. 109. The pupil is the apprentice, the teacher the master, whether in +the practice of any craft or art, or in the exposition of any systematic +knowledge. The pupil passes from the state of the apprentice to that of +the master through that of the journeyman. The apprentice has to +appropriate to himself the elements; journeymanship begins as he, by +means of their possession, becomes independent; the master combines with +his technical skill the freedom of production. His authority over his +pupil consists only in his knowledge and power. If he has not these, no +external support, no trick of false appearances which he may put on, +will serve to create it for him. + +Sec. 110. These stages--(1) apprenticeship, (2) journeymanship, (3) +mastership--are fixed limitations in the didactic process; they are +relative only in the concrete. The standard of special excellence varies +with the different grades of culture, and must be varied that it may +have any historical value. The master is complete only in relation to +the journeyman and apprentice; to them he is superior. But on the other +hand, in relation to the infinity of the problems of his art or science, +he is by no means complete; to himself he must always appear as one who +begins ever anew, one who is ever striving, one to whom a new problem +ever rises from every achieved result. He cannot discharge himself from +work, he must never desire to rest on his laurels. He is the truest +master whose finished performances only force him on to never-resting +progress. + +Sec. 111. The real possibility of culture is found in general, it is true, +in every human being; nevertheless, empirically, there are +distinguished: (1) Incapacity, as the want of all gifts; (2) Mediocrity; +(3) Talent and Genius. It is the part of Psychology to give an account +of all these. Mediocrity characterizes the great mass of mechanical +intelligences, those who wait for external impulse as to what direction +their endeavors shall take. Not without truth, perhaps, may we say, that +hypothetically a special talent is given to each individual, but this +special talent in many men never makes its appearance, because under the +circumstances in which it finds itself placed it fails to find the +exciting occasion which shall give him the knowledge of its existence. +The majority of mankind are contented with the mechanical impulse which +makes them into something and impresses upon them certain +determinations.--Talent shows itself by means of the confidence in its +own especial productive possibility, which manifests itself as an +inclination, as a strong impulse, to occupy itself with the special +object which constitutes its content. Pedagogics has no difficulty in +dealing with mechanical natures, because their passivity is only too +ready to follow prescribed patterns. It is more difficult to manage +talent, because it lies between mediocrity and genius, and is therefore +uncertain, and not only unequal to itself, but also is tossed now too +low, now too high, is by turns despondent and over-excited. The general +maxim for dealing with it is to remove no difficulty from the subject to +which its efforts are directed.--Genius must be treated much in the same +way as Talent. The difference consists only in this, that Genius, with a +foreknowledge of its creative power, usually manifests its confidence +with less doubt in a special vocation, and, with a more intense thirst +for culture, subjects itself more willingly to the demands of +instruction. Genius is in its nature the purest self-determination, in +that it lives, in its own inner existence, the necessity which exists in +the thing. But it can assign to the New, which is in it already +immediately and subjectively, no value if this has not united itself to +the already existing culture as its objective presupposition, and on +this ground it thankfully receives instruction. + +Sec. 112. But Talent and Genius offer a special difficulty to education in +the precocity which often accompanies them. But by precocity we do not +mean that they early render themselves perceptible, since the early +manifestation of gifts by talent and genius, through their intense +confidence, is to be looked at as perfectly legitimate. But precocity is +rather the hastening forward of the human being in feeling and moral +sense, so that where in the ordinary course of nature we should have a +child, we have a youth, and a man in the place of a youth. We may find +precocity among those who belong to the class of mediocrity, but it is +developed most readily among those possessed of talent and genius, +because with them the early appearance of superior gifts may very easily +bring in its train a perversion of the feelings and the moral nature. +Education must deal with it in so far as it is inharmonious, so that it +shall be stronger than the demands made on it from without, so that it +shall not minister to vanity; and must take care, in order to accomplish +this, that social naturalness and lack of affectation be preserved in +the pupil. + +--Our age has to combat this precocity much more than others. We find +e.g. authors who, at the age of thirty years, in which they publish +their collected works or write their biography, are chilly with the +feelings of old age. Music has been the sphere in which the earliest +development of talent has shown itself, and here we find the absurdity +that the cupidity of parents has so forced precocious talents that +children of four or five years of age have been made to appear in +public.-- + +Sec. 113. Every sphere of culture contains a certain quantity of +knowledge and ready skill which may be looked at, as it were, as the +created result of the culture. It is to be wished that every one who +turns his attention to a certain line of culture could take up into +himself the gathered learning which controls it. In so far as he does +this, he is professional. The consciousness that one has in the usual +way gone through a school of art or science, and has, with the general +inheritance of acquisition, been handed over to a special department, +creates externally a beneficial composure which is very favorable to +internal progress. We must distinguish from the professional the amateur +and the self-taught man. The amateur busies himself with an art, a +science, or a trade, without having gone through any strict training in +it. As a rule, he dispenses with elementary thoroughness, and hastens +towards the pleasure which the joy of production gives. The conscious +amateur confesses this himself, makes no pretension to mastership, and +calls himself--in distinction from the professional, who subjects +himself to rules--an unlearned person. But sometimes the amateur, on the +contrary, covers over his weakness, cherishes in himself the +self-conceit that he is equal to the heroes of his art or science, +constitutes himself the first admirer of his own performances, seeks for +their want of recognition in external motives, never in their own want +of excellence; and, if he has money, or edits a paper, is intoxicated +with being the patron of talent which produces such works as he would +willingly produce or pretends to produce. The self-taught man has often +true talent, or even genius, to whose development nevertheless the +inherited culture has been denied, and who by good fortune has through +his own strength worked his way into a field of effort. The self-taught +man is distinguished from the amateur by the thoroughness and the +industry with which he acts; he is not only equally unfortunate with him +in the absence of school-training, but is much less endowed. Even if the +self-taught man has for years studied and practised much, he is still +haunted by a feeling of uncertainty as to whether he has yet reached the +stand-point at which a science, an art, or a trade, will receive him +publicly--of so very great consequence is it that man should be +comprehended and recognized by man. The self-taught man therefore +remains embarrassed, and does not free himself from the apprehension +that he may expose some weak point to a professional, or he falls into +the other extreme--he becomes presumptuous, steps forth as a reformer, +and, if he accomplishes nothing, or earns only ridicule, he sets himself +down as an unrecognized martyr by an unappreciative and unjust world. + +--It is possible that the amateur may transcend the stage of +superficiality and subject himself to a thorough training; then he +ceases to be an amateur. It is also possible that the self-taught man +may be on the right track, and may accomplish as much or even more than +one trained in the usual way. In general, however, it is very desirable +that every one should go through the regular course of the inherited +means of education, partly that he may be thorough in the elements, +partly to free him from the anxiety which he may feel lest he in his +solitary efforts spend labor on some superfluous work--superfluous +because done long before, and of which he, through the accident of his +want of culture, had not heard. We must all learn by ourselves, but we +cannot teach ourselves. Only Genius can do this, for it must be its own +leader in the new paths which it opens. Genius alone passes beyond where +inherited culture ceases. It bears this in itself as of the past, and +which it uses as material for its new creation; but the self-taught man, +who would very willingly be a genius, puts himself in an attitude of +opposition to things already accomplished, or sinks into oddity, into +secret arts and sciences, &c.-- + +Sec. 114. These ideas of the general steps of culture, of special gifts, +and of the ways of culture appropriate to each, which we have above +distinguished, have a manifold connection among themselves which cannot +be established _a priori_. We can however remark that Apprenticeship, +the Mechanical Intelligence, and the Professional life; secondly, +Journeymanship, Talent, and Amateurship; and, finally, Mastership, +Genius, and Self Education, have a relationship to each other. + + +II. _The Act of Learning._ + +Sec. 115. In the process of education the interaction between pupil and +teacher must be so managed that the exposition by the teacher shall +excite in the pupil the impulse to reproduction. The teacher must not +treat his exposition as if it were a work of art which is its own end +and aim, but he must always bear in mind the need of the pupil. The +artistic exposition, as such, will, by its completeness, produce +admiration; but the didactic, on the contrary, will, through its perfect +adaptation, call out the imitative instinct, the power of new creation. + +--From this consideration we may justify the frequent statement that is +made, that teachers who have really an elegant diction do not really +accomplish so much as others who resemble in their statements not so +much a canal flowing smoothly between straight banks, as a river which +works its foaming way over rocks and between ever-winding banks. The +pupil perceives that the first is considering himself when he speaks so +finely, perhaps not without some self-appreciation; and that the second, +in the repetitions and the sentences which are never finished, is +concerning himself solely with _him_. The pupil feels that not want of +facility or awkwardness, but the earnest eagerness of the _teacher_, is +the principal thing, and that this latter uses rhetoric only as a +means.-- + +Sec. 116. In the act of learning there appears (1) a mechanical element, +(2) a dynamic element, and (3) one in which the dynamic again +mechanically strengthens itself. + +Sec. 117. As to the mechanical element, the right time must be chosen for +each lesson, an exact arrangement observed, and the suitable apparatus, +which is necessary, procured. It is in the arrangement that especially +consists the educational power of the lesson. The spirit of +scrupulousness, of accuracy, of neatness, is developed by the external +technique, which is carefully arranged in its subordinate parts +according to its content. The teacher must therefore insist upon it that +work shall cease at the exact time, that the work be well done, &c., for +on these little things many greater things ethically depend. + +--To choose one's time for any work is often difficult because of the +pressure of a multitude of demands, but in general it should be +determined that the strongest and keenest energy of the thinking +activity and of memory--this being demanded by the work--should have +appropriated to it the first half of the day.-- + +Sec. 118. The dynamical element consists of the previously developed power +of Attention, without which all the exposition made by the teacher to +the pupil remains entirely foreign to him, all apparatus is dead, all +arrangement of no avail, all teaching fruitless, if the pupil does not +by his free activity receive into his inner self what one teaches him, +and thus make it his own property. + +Sec. 119. This appropriation must not limit itself, however, to the first +acquisition of any knowledge or skill, but it must give free existence +to whatever the pupil has learned; it must make it perfectly manageable +and natural, so that it shall appear to be a part of himself. This must +be brought about by means of Repetition. This will mechanically secure +that which the attention first grasped. + +Sec. 120. The careful, persistent, living activity of the pupil in these +acts we call Industry. Its negative extreme is Laziness, which is +deserving of punishment inasmuch as it passes over into a want of +self-determination. Man is by nature lazy. But mind, which is only in +its act, must resolve upon activity. This connection of Industry with +human freedom, with the very essence of mind, makes laziness appear +blameworthy. The really civilized man, therefore, no longer knows that +absolute inaction which is the greatest enjoyment to the barbarian, and +he fills up his leisure with a variety of easier and lighter work. The +positive extreme of Industry is the unreasonable activity which rushes +in breathless chase from one action to another, from this to that, +straining the person with the immense quantity of his work. Such an +activity, going beyond itself and seldom reaching deliberation, is +unworthy of a man. It destroys the agreeable quiet which in all industry +should penetrate and inspire the deed. Nothing is more repulsive than +the beggarly pride of such stupid laboriousness. One should not endure +for a moment to have the pupil, seeking for distinction, begin to pride +himself on an extra industry. Education must accustom him to use a +regular assiduity. The frame of mind suitable for work often does not +exist at the time when work should begin, but more frequently it makes +its appearance after we have begun. The subject takes its own time to +awaken us. Industry, inspired by a love and regard for work, has in its +quiet uniformity a great force, without which no one can accomplish +anything essential. The world, therefore, holds Industry worthy of +honor; and to the Romans, a nation of the most persistent perseverance, +we owe the inspiring words, "_Incepto tantum opus est, caetera res +expediet_"; and, "_Labor improbus omnia vincit_." + +--"Every one may glory in his industry!" This is a true word from the +lips of a truly industrious man, who was also one of the most modest. +But Lessing did not, however, mean by them to charter Pharisaical +pedantry. The necessity sometimes of giving one's self to an excess of +work injurious to the health, generally arises from the fact that he has +not at other times made use of the requisite attention to the necessary +industry, and then attempts suddenly and as by a forced march to storm +his way to his end. The result of such over-exertion is naturally entire +prostration. The pupil is therefore to be accustomed to a generally +uniform industry, which may extend itself at regular intervals without +his thereby overstraining himself. What is really gained by a young man +who has hitherto neglected time and opportunity, and who, when +examination presses, overworks himself, perhaps standing the test with +honor, and then must rest for months afterwards from the over-effort? On +all such occasions attention is not objective and dispassionate, but +rather becomes, through anxiety to pass the examination, restless and +corrupted by egotism; and the usual evil result of such compulsory +industry is the ephemeral character of the knowledge thus gained. +"Lightly come, lightly go," says the proverb.-- + +--A special worth is always attached to study far into the night. The +student's "midnight lamp" always claims for itself a certain veneration. +But this is vanity. In the first place, it is injurious to contradict +Nature by working through the night, which she has ordained for sleep; +secondly, the question is not as to the number of hours spent in work +and their position in the twenty-four, but as to the quality of the +work. With regard to the value of my work, it is of no moment whatsoever +whether I have done it in the morning or in the evening, or how long I +have labored, and it is of no consequence to any one except to my own +very unimportant self. Finally, the question presents itself whether +these gentlemen who boast so much of their midnight work do not sleep in +the daytime!-- + +Sec. 121. But Industry has also two other extremes: seeming-laziness and +seeming-industry. Seeming-laziness is the neglecting of the usual +activity in one department because a man is so much more active in +another. The mind possessed with the liveliest interest in one subject +buries itself in it, and, because of this, cannot give itself up to +another which before had engrossed the attention. Thus it appears more +idle than it is, or rather it appears to be idle just because it is more +industrious. This is especially the case in passing from one subject of +instruction to another. The pupil should acquire such a flexibility in +his intellectual powers that the rapid relinquishment of one subject and +the taking up of another should not be too difficult. Nothing is more +natural than that when he is excited he should go back to the subject +that has just been presented to him, and that he, feeling himself +restrained, shall remain untouched by the following lesson, which may be +of an entirely different nature. The young soul is brooding over what +has been said, and is really exercising an intensive activity, though it +appears to be idle. But in seeming-industry all the external motives of +activity, all the mechanism of work, manifest themselves noisily, while +there is no true energy of attention and productivity. One busies +himself with all the apparatus of work; he heaps up instruments and +books around him; he sketches plans; he spends many hours staring into +vacancy, biting his pen, gazing at words, drawings, numbers, &c. Boys, +under the protection of so great a scaffolding for work erected around +them, often carry on their own amusements. Men, who arrive at no real +concentration of their force, no clear defining of their vocation, no +firm decision as to their action, dissipate their power in what is too +often a great activity with absolutely no result. They are busy, very +busy; they have hardly time to do this thing because they really wish or +ought to do that; but, with all their driving, their energy is all +dissipated, and nothing comes from their countless labors. + + +III. _The Modality of the Process of Teaching._ + +Sec. 122. Now that we have learned something of the relation of the teacher +to the taught, and of the process of learning itself, we must examine +the mode and manner of instruction. This may have (1) the character of +contingency: the way in which our immediate existence in the world, our +life, teaches us; or it may be given (2) by the printed page; or (3) it +may take the shape of formal oral instruction. + +Sec. 123. (1) For the most, the best, and the mightiest things that we know +we are indebted to Life itself. The sum of perceptions which a human +being absorbs into himself up to the fourth or fifth year of his life is +incalculable; and after this time we involuntarily gain by immediate +contact with the world countless ideas. But especially we understand by +the phrase "the School of Life," the ethical knowledge which we gain by +what happens in our own lives. + +--If one says, _Vitae non scholae discendum est_, one can also say, _Vita +docet_. Without the power exercised by the immediate world our +intelligence would remain abstract and lifeless.-- + +Sec. 124. (2) What we learn through books is the opposite of that which we +learn through living. Life _forces_ upon us the knowledge it has to +give; the book, on the contrary, is entirely passive. It is locked up in +itself; it cannot be altered; but it waits by us till we wish to use it. +We can read it rapidly or slowly; we can simply turn over its +leaves--what in modern times one calls reading;--we can read it from +beginning to end or from end to beginning; we can stop, begin again, +skip over passages, or cut them short, as we like. To this extent the +book is the most _convenient_ means for instruction. If we are indebted +to Life for our perceptions, we must chiefly thank books for our +understanding of our perceptions. We call book-instruction "dead" when +it lacks, for the exposition which it gives, a foundation in our +perceptions, or when we do not add to the printed description the +perceptions which it implies; and the two are quite different. + +Sec. 125. Books, as well as life, teach us many things which we did not +previously intend to learn directly from them. From foreign romances +e.g. we learn, first of all, while we read them for entertainment, the +foreign language, history or geography, &c. We must distinguish from +such books as those which bring to us, as it were accidentally, a +knowledge for which we were not seeking, the books which are expressly +intended to instruct. These must (_a_) in their consideration of the +subject give us the principal results of any department of knowledge, +and denote the points from which the next advance must be made, because +every science arises at certain results which are themselves again new +problems; (_b_) in the consideration of the particulars it must be +exhaustive, i.e. no essential elements of a science must be omitted. But +this exhaustiveness of execution has different meanings according to the +stand-points of those for whom it is made. How far we shall pass from +the universality of the principal determinations into the multiplicity +of the Particular, into the fulness of detail, cannot be definitely +determined, and must vary, according to the aim of the book, as to +whether it is intended for the apprentice, the journeyman, or the +master; (_c_) the expression must be precise, i.e. the maximum of +clearness must be combined with the maximum of brevity. + +--The writing of a text-book is on this account one of the most +difficult tasks, and it can be successfully accomplished only by those +who are masters in a science or art, and who combine with great culture +and talent great experience as teachers. Unfortunately many dabblers in +knowledge undervalue the difficulty of writing text-books because they +think that they are called upon to aid in the spread of science, and +because the writing of compendiums has thus come to be an avocation, so +that authors and publishers have made out of text-books a profitable +business and good incomes. In all sciences and arts there exists a +quantity of material which is common property, which is disposed of now +in one way, now in another. The majority of compendiums can be +distinguished from each other only by the kind of paper, printing, the +name of the publisher or bookseller, or by arbitrary changes in the +arrangement and execution. The want of principle with which this work is +carried on is incredible. Many governments have on this account fixed +prices for text-books, and commissioners to select them. This in itself +is right and proper, but the use of any book should be left optional, so +that the one-sidedness of a science patronized by government as it were +patented, may not be created through the pressure of such introduction. +A state may through its censorship oppose poor text-books, and recommend +good ones; but it may not establish as it were a state-science, a +state-art, in which only the ideas, laws and forms sanctioned by it +shall be allowed. The Germans are fortunate, in consequence of their +philosophical criticism, in the production of better and better +text-books, among which may be mentioned Koberstein's, Gervinus', and +Vilmar's Histories of Literature, Ellendt's General History, +Blumenbach's and Burmeister's Natural History, Marheineke's text-book on +Religion, Schwegler's History of Philosophy, &c. So much the more +unaccountable is it that, with such excellent books, the evil of such +characterless books, partly inadequate and partly in poor style, should +still exist when there is no necessity for it. The common style of +paragraph-writing has become obnoxious, under the name of +Compendium-style, as the most stiff and affected style of writing.-- + +Sec. 126. A text-book must be differently written according as it is +intended for a book for private study or for purposes of general +circulation. If the first, it must give more, and must develop more +clearly the internal relations; if the second, it should be shorter, and +proceed from axiomatic and clear postulates to their signification, and +these must have an epigrammatic pureness which should leave something to +be guessed. Because for these a commentary is needed which it is the +teacher's duty to supply, such a sketch is usually accompanied by the +fuller text-book which was arranged for private study. + +--It is the custom to call the proper text-book the "small" one, and +that which explains and illustrates, the "large" one. Thus we have the +Small and the Large Gervinus, &c.-- + +Sec. 127. (3) The text-book which presupposes oral explanation forms the +transition to Oral instruction itself. Since speech is the natural and +original form in which mind manifests itself, no book can rival it. The +living word is the most powerful agent of instruction. However common +and cheap printing may have rendered books as the most convenient means +of education--however possible may have become, through the +multiplication of facilities for intercourse and the rapidity of +transportation, the immediate viewing of human life, the most forcible +educational means, nevertheless the living word still asserts its +supremacy. In two cases especially is it indispensable: one is when some +knowledge is to be communicated which as yet is found in no compendium, +and the other when a living language is to be taught, for in this case +the printed page is entirely inadequate. One can learn from books to +understand Spanish, French, English, Danish, &c., but not to speak them; +to do this he must hear them, partly that his ear may become accustomed +to the sounds, partly that his vocal organs may learn correctly to +imitate them. + +Sec. 128. Life surprises and overpowers us with the knowledge which it +gains; the book, impassive, waits our convenience; the teacher, superior +to us, perfectly prepared in comparison with us, consults our necessity, +and with his living speech uses a gentle force to which we can yield +without losing our freedom. Listening is easier than reading. + +--Sovereigns e.g. seldom read themselves, but have servants who read to +them.-- + +Sec. 129. Oral instruction may (1) give the subject, which is to +be learned, in a connected statement, or (2) it may unfold it by means +of question and answer. The first decidedly presupposes the theoretical +inequality of the teacher and the taught. Because one can speak while +many can listen, this is especially adapted to the instruction of large +numbers. The second method is either that of the catechism or the +dialogue. The catechetical is connected with the first kind of oral +instruction above designated because it makes demand upon the memory of +the learner only for the answer to one question at a time, and is hence +very often and very absurdly called the Socratic method. In teaching by +means of the dialogue, we try, by means of a reciprocal interchange of +thought, to solve in common some problem, proceeding according to the +necessary forms of reason. But in this we can make a distinction. One +speaker may be superior to the rest, may hold in his own hand the thread +of the conversation and may guide it himself; or, those who mingle in it +may be perfectly equal in intellect and culture, and may each take part +in the development with equal independence. In this latter case, this +true reciprocity gives us the proper dramatic dialogue, which contains +in itself all forms of exposition, and may pass from narration, +description, and analysis, through satire and irony, to veritable humor. +When it does this, the dialogue is the loftiest result of intelligence +and the means of its purest enjoyment. + +--This alternate teaching, in which the one who has been taught takes +the teacher's place, can be used only where there is a content which +admits of a mechanical treatment. The Hindoos made use of it in very +ancient times. Bell and Lancaster have transplanted it for the teaching +of poor children in Europe and America. For the teaching of the +conventionalities--reading, writing, and arithmetic--as well as for the +learning by heart of names, sentences, &c., it suffices, but not for any +scientific culture. Where we have large numbers to instruct, the giving +of the fully developed statement (the first form) is necessary, since +the dialogue, though it may be elsewhere suitable, allows only a few to +take part in it. And if we take the second form, we must, if we have a +large number of pupils, make use of the catechetical method only. What +is known as the conversational method has been sometimes suggested for +our university instruction. Diesterweg in Berlin insists upon it. Here +and there the attempt has been made, but without any result. In the +university, the lecture of the teacher as a self-developing whole is +contrasted with the scientific discussion of the students, in which they +as equals work over with perfect freedom what they have heard. +Diesterweg was wrong in considering the lecture-system as the principal +cause of the lack of scientific interest which he thought he perceived +in our universities. Kant, Fichte, Schelling, Schleiermacher, Wolf, +Niebuhr, &c., taught by lectures and awakened the liveliest enthusiasm. +But Diesterweg is quite right in saying that the students should not be +degraded to writing-machines. But this is generally conceded, and a +pedantic amount of copying more and more begins to be considered as out +of date at our universities. Nevertheless, a new pedantry, that of the +wholly extempore lecture, should not be introduced; but a brief summary +of the extempore unfolding of the lecture may be dictated and serve a +very important purpose, or the lecture may be copied. The great efficacy +of the oral exposition does not so much consist in the fact that it is +perfectly free, as that it presents to immediate view a person who has +made himself the bearer of a science or an art, and has found what +constitutes its essence. Its power springs, above all, from the +genuineness of the lecture, the originality of its content, and the +elegance of its form: whether it is written or extemporized, is a matter +of little moment. Niebuhr e.g. read, word for word, from his manuscript, +and what a teacher was he!--The catechetical way of teaching is not +demanded at the university except in special examinations; it belongs to +the private work of the student, who must learn to be industrious of his +own free impulse. The private tutor can best conduct reviews.--The +institution which presupposing the lecture-system combines in itself +original production with criticism, and the connected exposition with +the conversation, is the _seminary_. It pursues a well-defined path, and +confines itself to a small circle of associates whose grades of culture +are very nearly the same. Here, therefore, can the dialogue be strongly +developed because it has a fixed foundation, and each one can take part +in the conversation; whereas, from the variety of opinions among a great +number, it is easily perverted into an aimless talk, and the majority of +the hearers, who have no chance to speak, become weary.-- + +Sec. 130. As to the way in which the lecture is carried out, it may be so +arranged as to give the whole stock of information acquired, or, without +being so exact and so complete, it may bring to its elucidation only a +relatively inexact and general information. The ancients called the +first method the esoteric and the second the exoteric, as we give to +such lectures now, respectively, the names _scholastic_ and _popular_. +The first makes use of terms which have become technical in science or +art, and proceeds syllogistically to combine the isolated ideas; the +second endeavors to substitute for technicalities generally understood +signs, and conceals the exactness of the formal conclusion by means of a +conversational style. It is possible to conceive of a perfectly +methodical treatment of a science which at the same time shall be +generally comprehensible if it strives to attain the transparency of +real beauty. A scientific work of art may be correctly said to be +popular, as e.g. has happened to Herder's _Ideas on the Philosophy of +the History of Mankind_. + +--Beauty is the element which is comprehended by all, and as we declare +our enmity to the distorted picture-books, books of amusement, and to +the mischievous character of "Compendiums," so we must also oppose the +popular publications which style themselves _Science made Easy_, &c., in +order to attract more purchasers by this alluring title. Kant in his +_Logic_ calls the extreme of explanation Pedantry and Gallantry. This +last expression would be very characteristic in our times, since one +attains the height of popularity now if he makes himself easily +intelligible to ladies--a didactic triumph which one attains only by +omitting everything that is profound or complicated, and saying only +what exists already in the consciousness of every one, by depriving the +subject dealt with of all seriousness, and sparing neither pictures, +anecdotes, jokes, nor pretty formalities of speech. Elsewhere Kant says: +"In the effort to produce in our knowledge the completeness of scholarly +thoroughness, and at the same time a popular character, without in the +effort falling into the above-mentioned errors of an affected +thoroughness or an affected popularity, we must, first of all, look out +for the scholarly completeness of our scientific knowledge, the +methodical form of thoroughness, and first ask how we can make really +popular the knowledge methodically acquired at school, i.e. how we can +make it easy and generally communicable, and yet at the same time not +supplant thoroughness by popularity. For scholarly completeness must not +be sacrificed to popularity to please the people, unless science is to +become a plaything or trifling." It is perfectly plain that all that was +said before of the psychological and the logical methods must be taken +into account in the manner of the statement.-- + +Sec. 131. It has been already remarked (Sec. 21), in speaking of the nature +of education, that the office of the instructor must necessarily vary +with the growing culture. But attention must here again be called to the +fact, that education, in whatever stage of culture, must conform to the +law which, as the internal logic of Being, determines all objective +developments of nature and of history. The Family gives the child his +first instruction; between this and the school comes the teaching of the +tutor; the school stands independently as the antithesis of the family, +and presents three essentially different forms according as it imparts a +general preparatory instruction, or special teaching for different +callings, or a universal scientific cultivation. Universality passes +over through particularizing into individuality, which contains both the +general and the particular freely in itself. All citizens of a state +should have (1) a general education which (_a_) makes them familiar with +reading, writing, and arithmetic, these being the means of all +theoretical culture; then (_b_) hands over to them a picture of the +world in its principal phases, so that they as citizens of the world can +find their proper status on our planet; and, finally, it must (_c_) +instruct him in the history of his own state, so that he may see that +the circumstances in which he lives are the result of a determined past +in its connection with the history of the rest of the world, and so may +learn rightly to estimate the interests of his own country in view of +their necessary relation to the future. This work the elementary schools +have to perform. From this, through the _Realschule_ (our scientific +High School course) they pass into the school where some particular +branch of science is taught, and through the Gymnasium (classical course +of a High School or College) to the University. From its general basis +develop (2) the educational institutions that work towards some special +education which leads over to the exercise of some art. These we call +Technological schools, where one may learn farming, mining, a craft, a +trade, navigation, war, &c. This kind of education may be specialized +indefinitely with the growth of culture, because any one branch is +capable in its negative aspect of such educational separation, as e.g. +in foundling hospitals and orphan asylums, in blind and deaf and dumb +institutions. The abstract universality of the Elementary school and the +one-sided particularity of the Technological school, however, is +subsumed under a concrete universality, which, without aiming directly +at utility, treats science and art on all sides as their own end and +aim. _Scientia est potentia_, said Lord Bacon. Practical utility results +indirectly through the progress which Scientific Cognition makes in this +free attitude, because it collects itself out of the dissipation through +manifold details into a universal idea and attains a profounder insight +thereby. This organism for the purpose of instruction is properly called +a University. By it the educational organization is perfected. + +--It is essentially seen that no more than these three types of schools +can exist, and that they must all exist in a perfectly organized +civilization. Their titles and the plan of their special teaching may be +very different among different nations and at different times, but this +need not prevent the recognition in them of the ideas which determine +them. Still less should the imperfect ways in which they manifest +themselves induce us to condemn them. It is the modern tendency to +undervalue the University as an institution which we had inherited from +the middle ages, and with which we could at present dispense. This is an +error. The university presents just as necessary a form of instruction +as the elementary school or the technological school. Not the abolition +of the university, but a reform which shall adapt it to the spirit of +the age, is the advance which we have to make. That there are to be +found outside of the university men of the most thorough and elegant +culture, who can give the most excellent instruction in a science or an +art, is most certain. But it is a characteristic of the university in +its teaching to do away with contingency which is unavoidable in case of +private voluntary efforts. The university presents an organic, +self-conscious, encyclopaedic representation of all the sciences, and +thus is created to a greater or less degree an intellectual atmosphere +which no other place can give. Through this, all sciences and their aims +are seen as of equal authority--a personal stress is laid upon the +connection of the sciences. The imperfections of a university, which +arise through the rivalry of external ambition, through the necessity of +financial success, through the jealousy of different parties, through +scholarships, &c., are finitudes which it has in common with all human +institutions, and on whose account they are not all to be thrown +away.--Art academies are for Art what universities are for Science. They +are inferior to them in so far as they appear more under the form of +special schools, as schools of architecture, of painting, and +conservatories of music; while really it may well be supposed that +Architecture, Sculpture, Painting, Music, the Orchestra, and the Drama, +are, like the Sciences, bound together in a _Universitas artium_, and +that by means of their internal reciprocal action new results would +follow.--Academies, as isolated master-schools, which follow no +particular line of teaching, are entirely superfluous, and serve only as +a _Prytaneum_ for meritorious scholars, and to reward industry through +the prizes which they offer. In their idea they belong with the +university, this appearing externally in the fact that most of their +members are university professors. But as institutions for ostentation +by which the ambition of the learned was flattered, and to surround +princes with scientific glory as scientific societies attached to a +court, they have lost all significance. They ceased to flourish with the +Ptolemies and the Egyptian caliphs, and with absolute monarchical +governments.--In modern times we have passed beyond the abstract +jealousy of the so-called Humanities and the Natural Sciences, because +we comprehend that each part of the totality can be realized in a proper +sense only by its development as relatively independent. Thus the +_gymnasium_ has its place as that elementary school which through a +general culture, by means of the knowledge of the language and history +of the Greeks and Romans, prepares for the university; while, on the +other hand, the _Realschule_, by special attention to Natural Science +and the living languages, constitutes the transition to the +technological schools. Nevertheless, because the university embraces the +Science of Nature, of Technology, of Trade, of Finance, and of +Statistics, the pupils who have graduated from the so-called high +schools (_hoehern Buergerschulen_) and from the _Realschulen_ will be +brought together at the university.-- + +Sec. 132. The technique of the school will be determined in its details by +the peculiarity of its aim. But in general every school, no matter what +it teaches, ought to have some system of rules and regulations by which +the relation of the pupil to the institution, of the pupils to each +other, their relation to the teacher, and that of the teachers to each +other as well as to the supervisory authority, the programme of lessons, +the apparatus, of the changes of work and recreation, shall be clearly +set forth. The course of study must be arranged so as to avoid two +extremes: on the one hand, it has to keep in view the special aim of the +school, and according to this it tends to contract itself. But, on the +other hand, it must consider the relative dependence of one specialty to +other specialties and to general culture. It must leave the transition +free, and in this it tends to expand itself. The difficulty is here so +to assign the limits that the special task of the school shall not be +sacrificed and deprived of the means of performance which it (since it +is also always only a part of the whole culture) receives by means of +its reciprocal action with other departments. The programme must assign +the exact amount of time which can be appropriated to every study. It +must prescribe the order in which they shall follow each other; it must, +as far as possible, unite kindred subjects, so as to avoid the useless +repetition which dulls the charm of study; it must, in determining the +order, bear in mind at the same time the necessity imposed by the +subject itself and the psychological progression of intelligence from +perception, through conception, to the thinking activity which grasps +all. It must periodically be submitted to revision, so that all matter +which has, through the changed state of general culture, become out of +date, may be rejected, and that that which has proved itself inimitable +may be appropriated; in general, so that it may be kept up to the +requirements of the times. And, finally, the school must, by +examinations and reports, aid the pupil in the acquirement of a +knowledge of his real standing. The examination lets him know what he +has really learned, and what he is able to do: the report gives him an +account of his culture, exhibits to him in what he has made improvement +and in what he has fallen behind, what defects he has shown, what +talents he has displayed, what errors committed, and in what relation +stands his theoretical development to his ethical status. + +--The opposition of the _Gymnasia_ to the demands of the agricultural +communities is a very interesting phase of educational history. They +were asked to widen their course so as to embrace Mathematics, Physics, +Natural History, Geography, and the modern languages. At first they +stoutly resisted; then they made some concessions; finally, the more +they made the more they found themselves in contradiction with their +true work, and so they produced as an independent correlate the +_Realschule_. After this was founded, the gymnasium returned to its old +plan, and is now again able to place in the foreground the pursuit of +classical literature and history. It was thus set free from demands made +upon it which were entirely foreign to its nature.--The examination is, +on one side, so adapted to the pupil as to make him conscious of his own +condition. As to its external side, it determines whether the pupil +shall pass from one class to another or from one school to another, or +it decides whether the school as a whole shall give a public +exhibition--an exhibition which ought to have no trace of ostentation, +but which in fact is often tinctured with pedagogical charlatanism.-- + +Sec. 133. The Direction of the school on the side of science must be held +by the school itself, for the process of the intellect in acquiring +science, the progress of the method, the determinations of the subject +matter and the order of its development, have their own laws, to which +Instruction must submit itself if it would attain its end. The school is +only one part of the whole of culture. In itself it divides into +manifold departments, together constituting a great organism which in +manifold ways comes into contact with the organism of the state. So long +as teaching is of a private character, so long as it is the reciprocal +relation of one individual to another, or so long as it is shut up +within the circle of the family and belongs to it alone, so long it has +no objective character. It receives this first when it grows to a +school. As in history, its first form must have a religious character; +but this first form, in time, disappears. Religion is the absolute +relation of man to God which subsumes all other relations. In so far as +Religion exists in the form of a church, those who are members of the +same church may have instruction given on the nature of religion among +themselves. Instruction on the subject is proper, and it is even +enjoined upon them as a law--as a duty. But further than their own +society they may not extend their rule. The church may exert itself to +make a religious spirit felt in the school and to make it penetrate all +the teaching; but it may not presume, because it has for its subject the +absolute interest of men, the interest which is superior to all others, +to determine also the other objects of Education or the method of +treating them. The technical acquisitions of Reading, Writing and +Arithmetic, Drawing and Music, the Natural Sciences, Mathematics, Logic, +Anthropology and Psychology, the practical sciences of finance and the +municipal regulations, have no direct relation to religion. If we +attempt to establish one, there inevitably appears in them a morbid +state which destroys them; not only so, but piety itself disappears, for +these accomplishments and this knowledge are not included in its idea. + +--Such treatment of Art and Science may be well-meant, but it is always +an error. It may even make a ludicrous impression, which is a very +dangerous thing for the authority of religion. If a church has +established schools, it must see to it that all which is there taught +outside of the religious instruction, i.e. all of science and art, shall +have no direct connection with it as a religious institution.-- + +Sec. 134. The Church, as the external manifestation of religion, is +concerned with the absolute relation of man, the relation to God, +special in itself as opposed to his other relations; the State, on the +contrary, seizes the life of a nation according to its _explicit +totality_. The State should conduct the education of all its citizens. +To it, then, the church can appear only as a school, for the church +instructs its own people concerning the nature of religion, partly by +teaching proper, that of the catechism, partly in quite as edifying a +way, by preaching. From this point of view, the State can look upon the +church only as one of those schools which prepare for a special +avocation. The church appears to the State as that school which assumes +the task of educating the religious element. Just as little as the +church should the state attempt to exercise any influence over Science +and Art. In this they are exactly alike, and must acknowledge the +necessity which both Science and Art contain within themselves and by +which they determine themselves. The laws of Logic, Mathematics, +Astronomy, Morals, AEsthetics, Physiology, &c., are entirely independent +of the state. It can decree neither discoveries nor inventions. The +state in its relations to science occupies the same ground as it should +do with relation to the freedom of self-consciousness. It is true that +the church teaches man, but it demands from him at the same time belief +in the truth of its dogmas. It rests, as the real church, on presupposed +authority, and sinks finally all contradictions which may be found in +the absolute mystery of the existence of God. The state, on the +contrary, elaborates its idea into the form of laws, i.e. into general +determinations, of whose necessity it convinces itself. It seeks to give +to these laws the clearest possible form, so that every one may +understand them. It concedes validity only to that which can be proved, +and sentences the individual according to the external side of the +_deed_ (overt act) not, as the church does, on its internal side--that +of _intention_. Finally, it demands in him consciousness of his deed, +because it makes each one responsible for his own deed. It has, +therefore, the same principle with science, for the proof of necessity +and the unity of consciousness with its object constitute the essence of +science. Since the state embraces the school as one of its educational +organisms, it is from its very nature especially called upon to guide +its regulation in accordance with the manifestation of consciousness. + +[Sidenote: _The Modality of the Process of Teaching._] + +--The church calls this "profanation." One might say that the church, +with its mystery of Faith, always represents the absolute problem of +science, while the state, as to its form, coincides with science. +Whenever the state abandons the strictness of proof--when it begins to +measure the individual citizen by his intention and not by his deed, +and, in place of the clear insight of the comprehending consciousness, +sets up the psychological compulsion of a hollow mechanical authority, +it destroys itself.-- + +Sec. 135. Neither the church nor the state should attempt to control the +school in its internal management. Still less can the school constitute +itself into a state within the state; for, while it is only one of the +means which are necessary for developing citizens, the state and the +church lay claim to the whole man his whole life long. The independence +of the school can then only consist in this, that it raises within the +state an organ which works under its control, and which as school +authority endeavors within itself to befriend the needs of the school, +while externally it acts on the church and state indirectly by means of +ethical powers. The emancipation of the school can never reasonably mean +its abstract isolation, or the absorption of the ecclesiastical and +political life into the school; it can signify only the free reciprocal +action of the school with state and church. It must never be forgotten +that what makes the school a school is not the total process of +education, for this falls also within the family, the state, and the +church; but that the proper work of the school is the process of +instruction, knowledge, and the acquirement, by practice, of skill. + +--The confusion of the idea of Instruction with that of Education in +general is a common defect in superficial treatises on these themes. The +Radicals among those who are in favor of so-called "Emancipation," often +erroneously appeal to "free Greece" which generally for this fond +ignorance is made to stand as authority for a thousand things of which +it never dreamed. In this fictitious Hellas of "free, beautiful +humanity," they say the limits against which we strive to-day did not +exist. The histories of Anaxagoras, Protagoras, Diagoras, Socrates, +Aristotle, Theophrastus, and of others, who were all condemned on +account of their "impiety," tell quite another story.-- + +Sec. 136. The inspection of the school may be carried out in different +ways, but it must be required that its special institutions shall be +embraced and cared for as organized and related wholes, framed in +accordance with the idea of the state, and that one division of the +ministry shall occupy itself exclusively with it. The division of labor +will specially affect the schools for teaching particular avocations. +The prescription of the subjects to be studied in each school as +appropriate to it, of the course of study, and of the object thereof, +properly falls to this department of government, is its immediate work, +and its theory must be changed according to the progress and needs of +the time. Niemeyer, Schwarz, and others, have made out such plans for +schools. Scheinert has fully painted the _Volkschule_, Mager the +_Buergerschule_, Deinhard and Kapp the _Gymnasium_. But such +delineations, however correct they may be, depend upon the actual sum of +culture of a people and a time, and must therefore continually modify +their fundamental Ideal. The same is true of the methods of instruction +in the special arts and sciences. Niemeyer, Schwarz, Herbart, in their +sketches of Pedagogics, Beneke in his _Doctrine of Education_, and +others, have set forth in detail the method of teaching Reading, Writing +and Arithmetic, Languages, Natural Science, Geography, History, &c. Such +directions are, however, ephemeral in value, and only relatively useful, +and must, in order to be truly practical, be always newly laid out in +accordance with universal educational principles, and with the progress +of science and art. + +--The idea that the State has the right to oversee the school lies in +the very idea of the State, which is authorized, and under obligation, +to secure the education of its citizens, and cannot leave their +fashioning to chance. The emancipation of the school from the State, the +abstracting of it, would lead to the destruction of the school. There is +no difficulty in Protestant States in the free inter-action of school +and church, for Protestantism has consciously accepted as its peculiar +principle individual freedom as Christianity has presented it. For +Catholic States, however, a difficulty exists. The Protestant clergyman +can with propriety oversee the _Volkschule_, for here he works as +teacher, not as priest. In the Protestant church there are really no +Laity according to the original meaning of the term. On the contrary, +Catholic clergymen are essentially priests, and as such, on account of +the unconditional obedience which, according to their church, they have +to demand, they usurp the authority of the State. From this circumstance +arise, at present, numberless collisions in the department of school +supervision.-- + + +THIRD DIVISION. + +PRAGMATICS (EDUCATION OF THE WILL). + +Sec. 137. Both Physical and Intellectual Education are in the highest +degree practical. The first reduces the merely natural to a tool which +mind shall use for its own ends; the second guides the intelligence, by +ways conformable to its nature, to the necessary method of the act of +teaching and learning, which finally branches out into an objective +national life, into a system of mutually dependent school organizations. +But in a narrower sense we mean by practical education the methodical +development of the Will. This phrase more clearly expresses the topic to +be considered in this division than others sometimes used in Pedagogics +[_Bestrebungs vermoegen_, conative power]. The will is already the +subject of a science of its own, i.e. of Ethics; and if Pedagogics would +proceed in anywise scientifically, it must recognize and presuppose the +idea and the existence of this science. It should not restate in full +the doctrines of freedom of duty, of virtue, and of conscience, although +we have often seen this done in empirical works on Pedagogics. +Pedagogics has to deal with the idea of freedom and morality only so far +as it fixes the technique of their process, and at the same time it +confesses itself to be weakest just here, where nothing is of any worth +without a pure self-determination. + +Sec. 138. The pupil must (1) become civilized; i.e. he must learn to +govern, as a thing external to him, his natural egotism, and to make the +forms which civilized society has adopted his own. (2) He must become +imbued with morality; i.e. he must learn to determine his actions, not +only with reference to what is agreeable and useful, but according to +the principle of the Good; he must become virtually free, form a +character, and must habitually look upon the necessity of freedom as the +absolute measure of his actions. (3) He must become religious; i.e. he +must discern that the world, with all its changes, himself included, is +only phenomenal; the affirmative side of this insight into the emptiness +of the finite and transitory, which man would so willingly make +everlasting, is the consciousness of the _absolute_ existing in and for +itself, which, in its certainty of its truth, not torn asunder through +the process of manifestation, constitutes no part of its changes, but, +while it actually presents them, permeates them all, and freely +distinguishes itself from them. In so far as man relates himself to God, +he cancels all finitude and transitoriness, and by this feeling frees +himself from the externality of phenomena. Virtue on the side of +civilization is Politeness; on that of morality, Conscientiousness; and +on that of religion, Humility. + + +FIRST CHAPTER. + +_Social Culture._ + + +Sec. 139. The social development of man makes the beginning of practical +education. It is not necessary to suppose a special social instinct. The +inclination of man to the society of men does not arise only from the +identity of their nature, but is also in certain cases affected by +particular relations. The natural starting-point of social culture is +the Family. But this educates the child for Society, and by means of +Society the individual passes over into relations with the world at +large. Natural sympathy changes to polite behavior, and this to the +dexterous and circumspect deportment, whose truth nevertheless is first +the ethical purity which combines with the wisdom of the serpent the +harmlessness of the dove. + +Sec. 140. (1) The Family is the natural social circle to which man +primarily belongs. In it all the immediate differences which exist are +compensated by the equally immediate unity of the relationship. The +subordination of the wife to the husband, of the children to their +parents, of the younger children to their elder brothers and sisters, +ceases to be subordination, through the intimacy of love. The child +learns obedience to authority, and in this it gives free personal +satisfaction to its parents and enjoys the same. All the relations in +which he finds himself there are penetrated by the warmth of implicit +confidence, which can be replaced for the child by nothing else. In this +sacred circle the tenderest emotions of the heart are developed by the +personal interest of all its members in what happens to any one, and +thus the foundation is laid of a susceptibility to all genuine or real +friendship. + +--Nothing more unreasonable or inhuman could exist than those modern +theories which would destroy the family and would leave the children, +the offspring of the anarchy of free-love, to grow up in public +nurseries. This would appear to be very humanitarian; indeed these +socialists talk of nothing but the interests of humanity--they are never +weary of uttering their insipid jests on the institution of the family, +as if it were the principle of all narrow-mindedness. Have these +fanatics, who are seeking after an abstraction of humanity, ever +examined our foundling-hospitals, orphan asylums, barracks, and prisons, +to discover in some degree to what an atomic state of barren cleverness +a human being grows who has never formed a part of a family? The Family +is only one phase in the grand order of the ethical organization; but it +is the substantial phase from which man passively proceeds, but into +which, as he founds a family of his own, he actively returns. The child +lives in the Family in the common joy and grief of sympathy for all, +and, in the emotion with which he sees his parents approach death while +he is hastening towards the full enjoyment of existence, experiences the +finer feelings which are so powerful in creating in him a deeper and +more tender understanding of everything human.-- + +Sec. 141. (2) The Family rears the children not for itself but for the +civil society. In this we have a system of morals producing externally a +social technique, a circle of fixed forms of society. This technique +endeavors to subdue the natural roughness of man, at least as far as it +manifests itself externally. Because he is spirit, man is not to yield +himself to his immediateness; he is to exhibit to man his naturalness as +under the control of spirit. The etiquette of propriety on the one hand +facilitates the manifestation of individuality by means of which the +individual becomes interesting to others, and on the other hand, since +its forms are alike for all, it makes us recognize the likeness of the +individual to all others and so makes their intercourse easier. + +--The conventional form is no mere constraint; but essentially a +protection not only for the freedom of the individual, but much more the +protection of the individual against the rude impetuosity of his own +naturalness. Savages and peasants for this reason are, in their +relations to each other, by no means as unconstrained as one often +represents them, but hold closely to a ceremonious behavior. There is in +one of Immerman's stories, "The Village Justice," a very excellent +picture of the conventional forms with which the peasant loves to +surround himself. The scene in which the townsman who thinks that he can +dispense with forms among the peasants is very entertainingly taught +better, is exceedingly valuable in an educational point of view. The +feeling of shame which man has in regard to his mere naturalness is +often extended to relations where it has no direct significance, since +this sense of shame is appealed to in children in reference to things +which are really perfectly indifferent externalities.-- + +Sec. 142. Education with regard to social culture has two extremes to +avoid: the youth may, in his effort to prove his individuality, become +vain and conceited, and fall into an attempt to appear interesting; or +he may become slavishly dependent on conventional forms, a kind of +social pedant. This state of nullity which contents itself with the +mechanical polish of social formalism is ethically more dangerous than +the tendency to a marked individuality, for it betrays emptiness; while +the effort towards a peculiar differentiation from others, to become +interesting to others, indicates power. + +Sec. 143. When we have a harmony of the manifestation of the individual +with the expression of the recognition of the equality of others we have +what is called deportment or politeness, which combines dignity and +grace, self-respect and modesty. We call it when fully complete, +Urbanity. It treats the conventional forms with irony, since, at the +same time that it yields to them, it allows the productivity of spirit +to shine through them in little deviation from them, as if it were fully +able to make others in their place. + +--True politeness shows that it remains master of forms. It is very +necessary to accustom children to courtesy and to bring them up in the +etiquette of the prevailing social custom; but they must be prevented +from falling into an absurd formality which makes the triumph of a +polite behavior to consist in a blind following of the dictates of the +last fashion-journal, and in the exact copying of the phraseology and +directions of some book on manners. One can best teach and practise +politeness when he does not merely copy the social technique, but +comprehends its original idea.-- + +Sec. 144. (3) But to fully initiate the youth into the institutions of +civilization one must not only call out the feelings of his heart in the +bosom of the family, not only give to him the formal refinement +necessary to his intercourse with society; it must also perform to him +the painful duty of making him acquainted with the mysteries of the ways +of the world. This is a painful duty, for the child naturally feels an +unlimited confidence in all men. This confidence must not be destroyed, +but it must be tempered. The mystery of the way of the world is the +deceit which springs from selfishness. We must provide against it by a +proper degree of distrust. We must teach the youth that he may be +imposed upon by deceit, dissimulation, and hypocrisy, and that therefore +he must not give his confidence lightly and credulously. He himself must +learn how he can, without deceit, gain his own ends in the midst of the +throng of opposing interests. + +--Kant in his Pedagogics calls that worldly-wise behavior by which the +individual is to demean himself in opposition to others, +Impenetrability. By its means man learns how to "manage men." In Lord +Chesterfield's letters to his son, we have pointed out the true value of +egotism in its relation to morals. All his words amount to this, that we +are to consider every man to be an egotist, and to convert his very +egotism into a means of finding out his weak side; i.e. to flatter him +by exciting his vanity, and by means of such flattery to ascertain his +limits. In common life, the expression "having had experiences" means +about the same thing as having been deceived and betrayed.-- + + +SECOND CHAPTER. + +_Moral Culture._ + + +Sec. 145. The truth of social culture lies in moral culture. Without this +latter, every art of behavior remains worthless, and can never attain +the clearness of Humility and Dignity which are possible to it in its +unity with morality. For the better determination of this idea +Pedagogics must refer to Ethics itself, and can here give the part of +its content which relates to Education only in the form of educational +maxims. The principal categories of Ethics in the domain of morality are +the ideas of Duty, Virtue, and Conscience. Education must lay stress on +the truth that nothing in the world has any absolute value except will +guided by the right. + +Sec. 146. Thence follows (1) the maxim relating to the idea of Duty, that +we must accustom the pupil to unconditional obedience to it, so that he +shall perform it for no other reason than that it is duty. It is true +that the performance of a duty may bring with it externally a result +agreeable or disagreeable, useful or harmful; but the consideration of +such connection ought never to determine us. This moral demand, though +it may appear to be excessive severity, is the absolute foundation of +all genuine ethical practice. All "highest happiness theories," however +finely spun they may be, when taken as a guide for life, lead at last to +Sophistry, and this to contradictions which ruin the life. + +Sec. 147. (2) Virtue must make actual what duty commands, or, rather, the +actualizing of duty is Virtue. And here we must say next, then, that the +principal things to be considered under Virtue are (_a_) the dialectic +of particular virtues, (_b_) renunciation, and (_c_) character. + +Sec. 148. (_a_) From the dialectic of particular virtues there follows the +educational maxim that we must practise all virtues with equal +faithfulness, for all together constitute an ethical system complete in +itself, in which no one is indifferent to another. + +--Morality should recognize no distinction of superiority among the +different virtues. They reciprocally determine each other. There is no +such thing as one virtue which shines out above the others, and still +less should we have any special gift for virtue. The pupil must be +taught to recognize no great and no small in the virtues, for that one +which may at first sight seem small is inseparably connected with that +which is seemingly the greatest. Many virtues are attractive by reason +of their external consequences, as e.g. industry because of success in +business, worthy conduct because of the respect paid to it, charity +because of the pleasure attending it; but man should not practise these +virtues because he enjoys them: he must devote the same amount of +self-sacrifice and of assiduity to those virtues which (as Christ said) +are to be performed in secret.-- + +--It is especially valuable, in an educational respect, to gain an +insight, into the transition of which each virtue is empirically +capable, into a negative as well as into a positive extreme. The +differences between the extremes and the golden mean are differences in +quality, although they arrive at this difference in quality by means of +difference in quantity. Kant has, as is well known, attacked the +Aristotelian doctrine of the ethical [Greek: mesotes], since he was +considering the qualitative difference of the mind as differentiating +principle; this was correct for the subject with which he dealt, but in +the objective development we do arrive on the other hand at the +determination of a quantitative limit; e.g. a man, with the most earnest +intention of doing right, may be in doubt whether he has not, in any +task, done more or less than was fitting for him.-- + +--As no virtue can cease its demands for us, no one can permit any +exceptions or any provisional circumstances to come in the way of his +duties. Our moral culture will always certainly manifest itself in very +unequal phases if we, out of narrowness and weakness, neglect entirely +one virtue while we diligently cultivate another. If we are forced into +such unequal action, we are not responsible for the result; but it is +dangerous and deserves punishment if we voluntarily encourage it. The +pupil must be warned against a certain moral negligence which consists +in yielding to certain weaknesses, faults, or crimes, a little longer +and a little longer, because he has fixed a certain time after which he +intends to do better. Up to that time he allows himself to be a loiterer +in ethics. Perhaps he will assert that his companions, his surroundings, +his position, &c., must be changed before he can alter his internal +conduct. Wherever education or temperament favors sentimentality, we +shall find birth-days, new-year's day, confirmation day, &c., selected +as these turning points. It is not to be denied that man proceeds in his +internal life from epoch to epoch, and renews himself in his most +internal nature, nor can we deny that moments like those mentioned are +especially favorable in man to an effort towards self-transformation +because they invite introspection; but it is not to be endured that the +youth, while looking forward to such a moment, should consciously +persist in his evil-doing. If he does, we shall have as consequences +that when the solemn moment which he has set at last arrives, at the +stirring of the first emotion he perceives with terror that he has +changed nothing in himself, that the same temptations are present to +him, the same weakness takes possession of him, &c. In our business, in +our theoretical endeavors, &c., it may certainly happen that, on account +of want of time, or means, or humor, we may put off some work to another +time; but morality stands on a higher plane than these, because it, as +the concrete absoluteness of the will, makes unceasing demand on the +whole and undivided man. In morality there are no vacations, no +interims. As we in ascending a flight of stairs take good care not to +make a single mis-step, and give our conscious attention to every step, +so we must not allow any exceptions in moral affairs, must not appoint +given times for better conduct, but must await these last as natural +crises, and must seek to live in time as in Eternity.-- + +Sec. 149. (_b_) From Renunciation springs the injunction of +self-government. The action of education on the will to form habits in +it, is discipline or training in a narrower sense. Renunciation teaches +us to know the relation in which we in fact, as historical persons, +stand to the idea of the Good. From our empirical knowledge of ourselves +we derive the idea of our limits; from the absolute knowledge of +ourselves on the other hand, which presents to us the nature of Freedom +as our own actuality, we derive the conception of the resistless might +of the genuine will for the good. But to actualize this conception we +must have practice. This practice is the proper renunciation. Every man +must devise for himself some special set of rules, which shall be +determined by his peculiarities and his resulting temptations. These +rules must have as their innermost essence the subduing of self, the +vanquishing of his negative arbitrariness by means of the universality +and necessity of the will. + +--In order to make this easy, the youth may be practised in renouncing +for himself even the arbitrariness which is permitted to him. One often +speaks of renunciation as if it belonged especially to the middle ages +and to Catholicism; but this is an error. Renunciation in its one-sided +form as relying on works, and for the purpose of mortification, is +asceticism, and belongs to them; but Renunciation in general is a +necessary determination of morals. The keeping of a journal is said to +assist in the practice of virtue, but its value depends on how it is +kept. To one it may be a curse, to another a blessing. Fichte, Goethe, +Byron, and others, have kept journals and have been assisted thereby; +while others, as Lavater, have been thwarted by them. Vain people will +every evening record with pen and ink their admiration of the correct +course of life which they have led in the day devoted to their +pleasure.-- + +Sec. 150. (_c_) The result of the practice in virtue, or, as it is +commonly expressed, of the individual actualization of freedom, is the +methodical determinateness of the individual will as Character. This +conception of character is formal, for it contains only the identity +which is implied in the ruling of a will on its external side as +constant. As there are good, strong and beautiful characters, so there +are also bad, weak, and detestable ones. When in Pedagogics, therefore, +we speak so much of the building up of a character, we mean the making +permanent of a direction of the individual will towards the +actualization of the Good. Freedom ought to be the character of +character. Education must therefore observe closely the inter-action of +the factors which go to form character, viz., ([Greek: a]) the +temperament, as the natural character of the man; ([Greek: b]) external +events, the historical element; ([Greek: g]) the energy of the Will, by +which, in its limits of nature and history, it realizes the idea of the +Good in and for itself as the proper ethical character. Temperament +determines the Rhythm of our external manifestation of ourselves; the +events in which we live assign to us the ethical problem, but the Will +in its sovereignty stamps its seal on the form given by these +potentialities. Pedagogics aims at accustoming the youth to freedom, so +that he shall always measure his deed by the idea of the Good. It does +not desire a formal independence, which may also be called character, +but a real independence resting upon the conception of freedom as that +which is absolutely necessary. The pedagogical maxim is then: Be +independent, but be so through doing Good. + +--According to preconceived opinion, stubbornness and obstinacy claim +that they are the foundation of character. But they may spring from +weakness and indeterminateness, on which account one needs to be well on +his guard. A gentle disposition, through enthusiasm for the Good, may +attain to quite as great a firmness of will. Coarseness and meanness are +on no account to be tolerated.-- + +Sec. 151. (3) We pass from the consideration of the culture of character +to that of conscience. This is the relation which the moral agent makes +between himself as manifestation and himself as idea. It compares +itself, in its past or future, with its nature, and judges itself +accordingly as good or bad. This independence of the ethical judgment is +the soul proper of all morality, the negation of all self-deception and +of all deception through another. The pedagogical maxim is: Be +conscientious. Be in the last instance dependent only upon the +conception which thou thyself hast of the idea of the Good! + +--The self-criticism prompted by conscience hovers over all our +historical actuality, and is the ground of all our rational progress. +Fichte's stern words remain, therefore, eternally true: "He who has a +bad character, must absolutely create for himself a better one."-- + + +THIRD CHAPTER. + +_Religious Culture._ + + +Sec. 152. Social culture contains the formal phase, moral culture the real +phase, of the practical mind. Conscience forms the transition to +religious culture. In its apodeictic nature, it is the absoluteness of +spirit. The individual discerns in the depths of its own consciousness +the determinations of universality and of necessity to which it has to +subject itself. They appear to it as the voice of God. Religion makes +its appearance as soon as the individual distinguishes the Absolute from +himself as personal, as a subject existing for itself and therefore for +him. The atheist remains at the stage of insight into the absoluteness +of the logical and physical, aesthetic and practical categories. He may, +therefore, be perfectly moral. He lacks religion, though he loves to +characterize his uprightness by this name, and to transfer the dogmatic +determinations of positive religion into the ethical sphere. It belongs +to the province of religion that I demean myself towards the Absolute +not only as toward that which is my own substance, and that in relation +to it not I alone am the subject, but that to me also the substance in +itself is a personal subject for itself. If I look upon myself as the +only absolute, I make myself devoid of spiritual essence. I am only +absolute self-consciousness, for which, because it as idea relates only +to itself, there remains only the impulse to a persistent conflict with +every self-consciousness not identical with it. Were this the case, such +a self-consciousness would be only theoretical irony. In religion I know +the Absolute as essence, when I am known by him. Everything else, myself +included, is finite and transitory, however significant it may be, +however relatively and momentarily the Infinite may exist in it. As +existence even, it is transitory. The Absolute, positing itself, +distinguishing itself from itself in unity with itself, is always like +to itself, and takes up all the unrest of the phenomenal world back +again into its simple essence. + +Sec. 153. This process of the individual spirit, in which it rises out of +the multiplicity of all relations into union with the Absolute as the +substantial subject, and in which nature and history are united, we may +call, in a restricted sense, a change of heart [Gemuth]. In a wider +sense of the word we give this name to a certain sentimental +cheerfulness (light-heartedness), a sense of comfort--of little +significance. The highest emotions of the heart culminate in religion, +whose warmth is inspired by practical activity and conscientiousness. + +Sec. 154. Education has to fit man for religion. (1) It gives him the +conception of it; (2) it endeavors to have this conception actualized in +him; (3) it subordinates the theoretical and practical process in +fashioning him to a determinate stand-point of religious culture. + +--In the _working out_ or detailed treatment of Pedagogics, the +position which the conception of religion occupies is very uncertain. +Many writers on Education place it at the beginning, while others +reserve it for the end. Others naively bring it forward in the midst of +heterogeneous surroundings, but know how to say very little concerning +it, and urge teachers to kindle the fire of religious feeling in their +pupils by teaching them to fear God. Through all their writing, we hear +the cry that in Education nothing is so important as Religion. Rightly +understood, this saying is quite true. The religious spirit, the +consciousness of the Absolute, and the reverence for it, should permeate +all. Not unfrequently, however, we find that what is meant by religion +is theology, or the church ceremonial, and these are only one-sided +phases of the total religious process. The Anglican High-Church presents +in the colleges and universities of England a sad example of this error. +What can be more deadening to the spirit, more foreign to religion, than +the morning and evening prayers as they are carried on at Oxford and +Cambridge with machine-like regularity! But also to England belongs the +credit of the sad fact, that, according to Kohl's report, there live in +Manchester, Liverpool, Birmingham, and London, thousands of men who have +never enjoyed any teaching in religion, have never been baptized, who +live absolutely without religion in brutal stupidity. Religion must form +the culminating point of Education. It takes up into itself the +didactical and practical elements, and rises through the force of its +content to universality.-- + + +I. _The Theoretical Process of Religious Culture._ + +Sec. 155. Religion, in common with every content of the spirit, must pass +through three stages of feeling, conception, and comprehension. Whatever +may be the special character of any religion it cannot avoid this +psychological necessity, either in its general history or in the history +of the individual consciousness. The teacher must understand this +process, partly in order that he may make it easier to the youth, partly +that he may guard against the malformation of the religious feeling +which may arise through the fact of the youth's remaining in one stage +after he is ready for another and needs it. Pedagogics must therefore +lay out beforehand the philosophy of religion, on which alone can be +found the complete discussion of this idea. + +Sec. 156. (1) Religion exists first as religious feeling. The person is +still immediately identical with the Divine, does not yet distinguish +himself from the absoluteness of his being, and is in so far determined +by it. In so far as he feels the divine, he is a mystery to himself. +This beginning is necessary. Religion cannot be produced in men from the +external side; its genesis belongs rather to the primitive depths in +which God himself and the individual soul are essentially one. + +--The educator must not allow himself to suppose that he is able to +make a religion. Religion dwells originally in every individual soul, +for every one is born of God. Education can only aid the religious +feeling in its development. As far as regards the psychological form, it +was quite correct for Schleiermacher and his followers to characterize +the absoluteness of the religious feeling as the feeling of dependence, +for feeling is determined by that which it feels; it depends upon its +content. But in so far as God constitutes the content of the feeling, +there appears the opposite of all dependence or absolute emancipation. I +maintain this in opposition to Schleiermacher. Religion lifts man above +the finite, temporal and transitory, and frees him from the control of +the phenomenal world. Even the lowest form of religion does this; and +when it is said that Schleiermacher has been unjustly criticized for +this expression of dependence, this distinction is overlooked.-- + +Sec. 157. But religious feeling as such rises into something higher when +the spirit distinguishes the content of this religious feeling from any +other content which it also feels, represents it clearly to itself, and +places itself over against it formally as a free individual. + +--But we must not understand that the religious feeling is destroyed in +this process; in rising to the form of distinct representation, it +remains at the same time as a necessary form of the Intelligence.-- + +Sec. 158. If the spirit is held back and prevented from passing out of the +simplicity of feeling into the act of distinguishing the perception from +what it becomes, the conception--if its efforts towards the forming of +this conception are continually re-dissolved into feeling, then feeling, +which was as the first step perfectly healthy and correct, will become +morbid and degenerate into a wretched mysticism. Education must, +therefore, make sure that this feeling is not destroyed by the progress +of its content into perception and conception on the side of +psychological form, but rather that it attains truth thereby. + +Sec. 159. (2) Conception as the ideally transformed perception dissects +the religious content on its different sides, and follows each of these +to its consequence. Imagination controls the individual conceptions, but +by no means with that absoluteness which is often supposed; for each +picture has in itself its logical consequence to which imagination must +yield; e.g. if a religion represents God as an animal, or as half animal +and half man, or as man, each of these conceptions has in its +development its consequences for the imagination. + +Sec. 160. We rise out of the stage of Conception when the spirit tries to +determine the universality of its content according to its necessity, +i.e. when it begins to think. The necessity of its pictures is a mere +presupposition for the imagination. The thinking activity, however, +recognizes not only the contradiction which exists between the sensuous, +limited form of the individual conception, and the absolute nature of +its content, but also the contradiction in which the conceptions find +themselves with respect to each other. + +Sec. 161. If the spirit is prevented from passing out of the varied +pictures of conception to the supersensuous clearness and simplicity of +the thinking activity--if the content which it already begins to seize +as idea is again dissolved into the confusion of the picture-world, then +the religion of imagination, which was a perfectly proper form as the +second step, becomes perverted into some form of idolatry, either coarse +or refined. Education must therefore not oppose the thinking activity if +the latter undertakes to criticize religious conceptions; on the +contrary, it must guide this so that the discovery of the contradictions +which unavoidably adhere to sensuous form shall not mislead the youth +into the folly of throwing away, with the relative untruth of the form, +also the religious content in general. + +--It is an error for educators to desire to keep the imagination apart +from religious feeling, but it is also an error to detain the mind, +which is on its formal side the activity of knowing, in the stage of +imagination, and to desire to condemn it thence into the service of +canonical allegories. The more, in opposition to this, it is possessed +with the charm of thinking, the more is it in danger of condemning the +content of religion itself as a mere fictitious conception. As a +transition-stage the religion of imagination is perfectly normal, and it +does not in the least impair freedom if, for example, one has +personified evil as a living Devil. The error does not lie in this, but +in the making absolute these determinate, aesthetic forms of religion. +The reaction of the thinking activity against such aesthetic absolutism +then undertakes in its negative absolutism to despise the content also, +as if it were a mere conception.-- + +Sec. 162. (3) In the thinking activity the spirit attains that form of the +religious content which is identical with that of its simple +consciousness, and above which there is no other for the intelligence as +theoretical. But we distinguish three varieties in this thinking +activity: the abstract, the reflective, and the speculative. The +Abstract gives us the religious content of consciousness in the form of +abstractions or dogmas, i.e. propositions which set up a definition as a +universal, and add to it another as the reason for its necessity. The +Reflective stage busies itself with the relation of dogmas to each +other, and with the search for the grounds on which their necessity must +rest. It is essentially critical, and hence skeptical. The explanation +of the dogmas, which is carried on in this process of reasoning and +skeptical investigation, is completed alone in speculative thinking, +which recognizes the free unity of the content and its form as its own +proper self-determination of the content, creating its own differences. +Education must know this stage of the intelligence, partly that it may +in advance preserve, in the midst of its changes, that repose which it +brings into the consciousness; partly that it may be able to lead to the +process of change itself, in accordance with the organic connection of +its phases. We should prevent the criticism of the abstract +understanding by the reflective stage as little as we should that of the +imagination by the thinking activity. But the stage of reflection is not +the last possibility of the thinking activity, although, in the variety +of its skepticism it often takes itself for such, and, with the +emptiness of mere negation to which it holds, often brings itself +forward into undesirable prominence. It becomes evident, in this view, +how very necessary for man, with respect to religion, is a genuine +philosophical culture, so that he may not lose the certainty of the +existence of the Absolute in the midst of the obstinacy of dogmas and +the changes of opinions. + +Sec. 163. Education must then not fear the descent into dogmatic +abstraction, since this is an indispensable means for theoretical +culture in its totality, and the consciousness cannot dispense with it +in its history. But Education has, in the concrete, carefully to discern +in which of these stages of culture any particular consciousness may be. +For if for mankind as a race the fostering of philosophy is absolutely +necessary, it by no means follows that this necessity exists for each +individual. To children, to women, e.g. for all kinds of simple and +limited lives, the form of the religion of the imagination is well +suited, and the form of comprehension can come only relatively to them. +Education must not, then, desire powerfully and prematurely to develop +the thinking activity before the intelligence is really fully grown. + +--The superficial thinking which many teachers demand in the sphere of +religion is no less impractical than the want of all guidance into +rightly ordered meditations on religious subjects. It is natural that +the lower form of intelligence should, in contrast with the higher, +appear to be frivolous, because it has no need of change of form as the +higher has, and on this account it looks upon the destruction of the +form of a picture or a dogma as the destruction of religion itself. In +our time the idea is very prevalent that the content itself must change +with the changing of the psychological form, and that therefore a +religion in the stage of feeling, of conception, and of comprehension, +can no longer be the same in its essence. These suppositions, which are +so popular, and are considered to be high philosophy, spring from the +superficiality of psychological inquiry.-- + +Sec. 164. The theoretical culture of the religious feeling endeavors +therefore with the freedom of philosophical criticism to elevate the +presupposition of Reason in the religious content to self-assured +insight by means of the proof of the necessity of its determinations. +This is the only reasonable pedagogical way not only to prevent the +degeneration of the religious consciousness into a miserable mysticism +or into frivolity, but also to remove these if they are already +existent. + +--External seclusion avails nothing. The crises of the world-historical +changes in the religious consciousness find their way through the +thickest cloister walls; the philosopher Reinhold was a pupil of the +Jesuits, the philosopher Schad of the Benedictines.-- + + +II. _The Practical Process of Religious Culture._ + +Sec. 165. The theoretical culture is truly practical, for it gives man +definite conceptions and thoughts of the Divine and his relation to him. +But in a narrower sense that culture is practical which relates to the +Will as such. Education has in this respect to distinguish (1) +consecration--religious feeling in general,--(2) the induction of the +youth into the forms of a positive religion, and (3) his reconciliation +with his lot. + +Sec. 166. (1) Religious feeling presupposes morality as an indispensable +condition without which it cannot inculcate its ideas. But if man from a +merely moral stand-point places himself in relation to the idea of Duty +as such, the ethical religious stand-point differs from it in this, that +it places the necessity of the Good as the self-determination of the +divine Will and thus makes of practice a personal relation to God, +changing the Good to the Holy and the Evil to Sin. Education must +therefore first accustom the youth to the idea, that in doing the Good +he unites himself with God as with the absolute Person, but that in +doing Evil he separates himself from him. The feeling that he through +his deed comes into contact with God himself, positively or negatively, +deepens the moral conduct to an intense sensibility of the heart. + +Sec. 167. (2) The religious sense which grows in the child that he has an +uninterrupted personal relation to the Absolute as a person, constitutes +the beginning of the practical forming of religion. The second step is +the induction of the child into the objective forms of worship +established in some positive religion. Through religious training the +child learns to renounce his egotism; through attendance on religious +services he learns to give expression to his religious feeling in +prayer, in the use of symbols, and in church festivals. Education must, +however, endeavor to retain freedom with regard to these forms, so that +they shall not be confounded with Religion itself. Religion displays +itself in these ceremonies, but they as mere forms are of value only in +so far as they, while externalities, are manifestations of the spirit +which produces them. + +--If the mechanism of ceremonial forms is taken as religion itself, the +service of God degenerates into the false service of religion, as Kant +has designated it in _Religion within the Limits of Pure Reason_. +Nothing is more destructive to the sensibility to all real religious +culture than the want of earnestness with which prayers, readings from +the Bible, attendance on church, the communion, &c., are often practised +by teachers. But one must not conclude from this extreme that an +ignorance of all sacred forms in general would be more desirable for the +child.-- + +Sec. 168. (3) It is possible that a man on the stand-point of +ecclesiastical religious observances may be fully contented; he may be +fully occupied in them, and perfect his life thereby in perfect content. +But by far the greater number of men will see themselves forced to +experience the truth of religion in the hard vicissitudes of their lot, +since they carry on some business, and with that business create for +themselves a past whose consequences condition their future. They limit +themselves through their deeds, whose involuntary-voluntary authors they +become; involuntary in so far as they are challenged to the deeds from +the totality of events, voluntary in so far as they undertake them and +bring about an actual change in the world. The history of the individual +man appears therefore on the one hand, if we consider its material, as +the work of circumstances; but on the other hand, if we reflect on the +form, as the act of a self-determining actor. Want of freedom (the being +determined through the given situation) and freedom (the determination +to the act) are united in actual life as something which is exactly so, +and cannot become anything else as final. The essence of the spiritual +being stands always over against this unavoidable limitation as that +which is in itself infinite, which is beyond all history, because the +absolute spirit, in and for itself, has no history. That which one calls +his history is only the manifesting of himself, and his everlasting +return out of this manifestation into himself an act which in absolute +spirit coincides with the transcending of all manifestation. From the +nature which belongs to him there arises for the individual spirit the +impulse towards a holy life, i.e. the being freed from his history even +in the midst of its process. He gratifies this impulse negatively +through the considering of what has happened as past and gone, as that +which lives now only ideally in the recollection; and positively through +the positing of a new actual existence in which he strives to realize +the idea of freedom which constitutes his necessity, as purer and higher +than before. This constant new-birth out of the grave of the past to the +life of a more beautiful future is the genuine reconciliation with +destiny. The false reconciliation may assume different forms. It may +abstain from all action because man through this limits himself and +becomes responsible. This is to despair of freedom, which condemns the +spirit to the loss of itself since its nature demands activity. The +abstract quietism of the Indian penitents, of the Buddhists, of the +fanatical ascetics, of the Protestant recluses, &c., is an error of this +kind. The man may become indifferent about the ethical determinateness +of his deeds. In this case he acts; but because he has no faith in the +necessary connection of his deeds through the means of freedom, a +connection which he would willingly ascribe to mere chance, he loses his +spiritual essence. This is the error of indifference and of its +frivolity, which denies the open mystery of the ruling of destiny. +Education must therefore imbue man with respect for external movements +of history and with confidence in the inexhaustibleness of the +progressive human spirit, since only by producing better things can he +affirmatively elevate himself above his past. This active acknowledgment +of the necessity of freedom as the determining principle of destiny +gives the highest satisfaction to which practical religious feeling may +arrive, for blessedness develops itself in it--that blessedness which +does not know that it is circumscribed by finitude and transitoriness, +and which possesses the immortal courage to strive always anew for +perfection with free resignation at its non-realization, so that +happiness and misery, pleasure and pain, are conquered by the power of +disinterested self-sacrifice. + +--The escape from action in an artificial absence of all events in +life, which often sinks to a veritable brutalizing of man, is the +distinguishing feature of all monkish pedagogics. In our time there is +especial need of a reconciliation between man and destiny, for all the +world is discontented. The worst form of discontent is when one is, as +the French say, _blase_; though the word is not, as many fancy, derived +originally from the French, but from the Greek [Greek: blazein], to +wither. It is true that all culture passes through phases, each of which +becomes momentarily and relatively wearisome, and that in so far one may +be _blase_ in any age. But in modern times this state of feeling has +increased to that of thorough disgust--disgust which nevertheless at the +same time demands enjoyment. The one who is _blase_ has enjoyed +everything, felt everything, mocked at everything. He has passed from +the enjoyment of pleasure to sentimentality, i.e. to rioting in feeling; +from sentimentality to irony with regard to feeling, and from this to +the torment of feeling his entire weakness and emptiness as opposed to +these. He ridicules this also, as if it were a consolation to him to +fling away the universe like a squeezed lemon, and to be able to assert +that in pure nothingness lies the truth of all things. And yet +nevertheless this irony furnishes the point on which Education can +fasten, in order to kindle anew in him the religious feeling, and to +lead him back to a loving recognition of actuality, to a respect for his +own history. The greatest difficulty which Education has to encounter +here is the coquetry, the miserable eminence and self-satisfaction which +have undermined the man and made him incapable of all simple and natural +enjoyment. It is not too much to assert that many pupils of our +_Gymnasia_ are affected with this malady. Our literature is full of its +products. It inveighs against its dissipation, and nevertheless at the +same time cannot resist a certain kind of pleasure in it. Diabolical +sentimentality!-- + + +III. _The Absolute Process of Religious Culture._ + +Sec. 169. In comparing the stages of the theoretical and practical culture +of the religious feeling their internal correspondence appears. Feeling, +as immediate knowledge, and the consecration of the sense by means of +piety; imagination with all its images, and the church services with +their ceremonial observances; finally, the comprehending of religion as +the reconciliation with destiny, as the internal emancipation from the +dominion of external events--all these correspond to each other. If we +seize this parallelism all together, we have the progress which religion +must make in its historical process, in which it (1) begins as natural; +(2) goes on to historical precision, and (3) elevates this to a rational +faith. These stages await every man in as far as he lives through a +complete religious culture, but this may be for the individual a +question of chance. + +Sec. 170. (1) A child has as yet no definite religious feeling. He is still +only a possibility capable of manifold determinations. But, since he is +a spirit, the essence of religion is active in him, though as yet in an +unconscious form. The substance of spirit attests its presence in every +individual, through his mysterious impulse toward the absolute and +towards intercourse with God. This is the initiatory stage of natural +religion, which must not be confounded with the religion which makes +nature the object of worship (fetichism, &c.) + +Sec. 171. (2) But while the child lives into this in his internal life, he +comes in contact with definite forms of religion, and will naturally, +through the mediation of the family, be introduced to some one of them. +His religious feeling takes now a particular direction, and he accepts +religion in one of its historical forms. This positive religion meets +the precise want of the child, because it brings into his consciousness, +by means of teaching and sacred rites, the principal elements which are +found in the nature of religion. + +Sec. 172. (3) In contradistinction to the natural basis of religious +feeling, all historical religions rest on the authoritative basis of +revelation from God to man. They address themselves to the imagination, +and offer a system of objective forms of worship and ceremonies. But +spirit, as eternal, as self-identical, cannot forbear as thinking +activity to subject the traditional religion to criticism and to compare +it as a phenomenal existence. From this criticism arises a religion +which satisfies the demands of the reason, and which, by means of +insight into the necessity of the historical process, leads to the +exercise of a genuine toleration towards its many-sided forms. This +religion mediates between the unity of the thinking consciousness and +the religious content, while this content, in the history of religious +feeling, appears theoretically as dogma, and practically as the command +of an absolute and incomprehensible authority. It is just as simple as +the unsophisticated natural religious feeling, but its simplicity is at +the same time master of itself. It is just as specific in its +determinations as the historical religion, but its determinateness is at +the same time universal, since it is worked out by the thinking reason. + +Sec. 173. Education must superintend the development of the religious +consciousness towards an insight into the necessary consequence of its +different stages. Nothing is more absurd than for the educator to desire +to avoid the introduction of a positive religion, or a definite creed, +as a middle stage between the natural beginning of religious feeling and +its end in philosophical culture. Only when a man has lived through the +entire range of one-sided phases--through the crudeness of such a +concrete individualizing of religion, and has come to recognize the +universal nature of religion in a special form of it which excludes +other forms--only when the spirit of a congregation has taken him into +its number, is he ripe to criticize religion in a conciliatory spirit, +because he has then gained a religious character through that historical +experience. The self-comprehending universality must have such a solid +basis as this in the life of the man; it can never form the beginning of +one's culture, but it may constitute the end which turns back again to +the beginning. Most men remain at the historical stand-point. The +religion of reason, as that of the minority, constitutes in the +different religions the invisible church, which seeks by progressive +reform to purify these religions from superstition and unbelief. It is +the duty of the state, by making all churches equal in the sight of the +law, to guard religion from the temptation of impure motives, and, +through the granting of such freedom to religious individuality, to help +forward the unity of a rational insight into religion which is distinct +from the religious feeling only in its form, not in its content. Not a +philosopher, but Jesus of Nazareth freed the world from all selfishness +and all bondage. + +Sec. 174. With this highest theoretical and practical emancipation, the +general work of education ends. It remains now to be shown how the +general idea of Education shapes its special elements into their +appropriate forms. From the nature of Pedagogics, which concerns itself +with man in his entirety, this exposition belongs partly to the history +of culture in general, partly to the history of religion, partly to the +philosophy of history. The pedagogical element in it always lies in the +ideal which the spirit of a nation or of an age creates out of itself, +and which it seeks to realize in its youth. + + + + +THIRD PART. + +Particular Systems of Education. + + +Sec. 175. The definite actuality of Education originates in the fact that +its general idea is individualized, according to its special elements, +in a specific statement which we call a pedagogical principle. The +number of these principles is not unlimited, but from the idea of +Education contains only a certain number. If we derive them therefore, +we derive at the same time the history of Pedagogics, which can from its +very nature do nothing else than make actual in itself the possibilities +involved in the idea of Education. Such a derivation may be called an _a +priori_ construction of history, but it is different from what is +generally denoted by this term in not pretending to deduce single events +and characters. All empirical details are confirmation or illustration +for it, but it does not attempt to seek this empirical element _a +priori_. + +--The history of Pedagogics is still in the stage of infancy. At one +time it is taken up into the sphere of Politics; at another, into that +of the history of Culture. The productions of some of the most +distinguished writers on the subject are now antiquated. Cramer of +Stralsund made, in 1832, an excellent beginning in a comprehensive and +thorough history of Pedagogy; but in the beginning of his second part he +dwelt too long upon the Greeks, and lost himself in too wide an +exposition of practical Philosophy in general. Alexander Kapp has given +us excellent treatises on the Pedagogics of Aristotle and Plato. But +with regard to modern Pedagogics we have relatively very little. Karl v. +Raumer, in 1843, began to publish a history of Pedagogics since the time +of the revival of classical studies, and has accomplished much of value +on the biographical side. But the idea of the general connection and +dependence of the several manifestations has not received much +attention, and since the time of Pestalozzi books have assumed the +character of biographical confessions. Struempell, in 1843, developed the +Pedagogics of Kant, Fichte, and Herbart.-- + +[Sidenote: _Particular Systems of Education._] + +Sec. 176. Man is educated by man for humanity. This is the fundamental idea +of all Pedagogics. But in the shaping of Pedagogics we cannot begin with +the idea of humanity as such, but only with the natural form in which it +primarily manifests itself--that of the nation. But the naturalness of +this principle disappears in its development, since nations appear in +interaction on each other and begin dimly to perceive their unity of +species. The freedom of spirit over nature makes its appearance, but to +the spirit explicitly in the transcendent form of abstract theistic +religion, in which God appears as the ruler over Nature as merely +dependent; and His chosen people plant the root of their nationality no +longer in the earth, but in this belief. The unity of the abstractly +natural and abstractly spiritual determinateness is the concrete unity +of the spirit with nature, in which it recognizes nature as its +necessary organ, and itself as in its nature divine. Spirit in this +stage, as the internal presupposition of the two previously named, takes +up into itself on one hand the phase of nationality, since this is the +form of its immediate individualization; but it no longer distinguishes +between nations as if they were abstractly severed the one from the +other, as the Greeks shut out all other nations under the name of +barbarians. It also takes up into itself the phase of spirituality, +since it knows itself as spirit, and knows itself to be free from +nature, and yet it does not estrange itself as the Jews did in their +representation of pure spirit, in reference to which nature seems to be +only the work of its caprice. Humanity knows nature as its own, because +it knows the Divine spirit and its creative energy manifesting itself in +nature and history, as also the essence of its own spirit. Education can +be complete only with Christianity as the religion of humanity. + +Sec. 177. We have thus three different systems of religion--(1) the +National; (2) the Theocratic; and (3) the Humanitarian. The first works +in harmony with nature since it educates the individual as a type of his +species. The original nationality endeavors sharply to distinguish +itself from others, and to impress on each person the stamp of its +uniform type. One individual is like every other, or at least should be +so. The second system in its manner of manifestation is identical with +the first. It even marks the national difference more emphatically; but +the ground of the uniformity of the individuals is with it not merely +the natural common interest, but it is the consequence of the spiritual +unity, which abstracts from nature, and as history, satisfied with no +present, hovers continually outside of itself between past and future. +The theocratic system educates the individual as the servant of God. He +is the true Jew only in so far as he is this; the genealogical identity +with the father Abraham is a condition but not the principle of the +nationality. The third system liberates the individual to the enjoyment +of freedom as his essence, and educates the human being within national +limits which no longer separate but unite, and, in the consciousness +that each individual, without any kind of mediation, has a direct +relation to God, makes of him a man who knows himself to be a member of +the spiritual world of humanity. We can have no fourth system beyond +this. From the side of the State-Pedagogics we might characterize these +systems as that of the nation-State, the God-State, and the +humanity-State. From the time of the establishment of the last, no one +nation can attain to any sovereignty over the others. By means of the +world-religion of Christianity, the education of nations has come to the +point of taking for its ideal, man as determining himself according to +the demands of reason. + + +FIRST DIVISION. + +THE SYSTEM OF NATIONAL EDUCATION. + +Sec. 178. The National is the primitive system of education, since the +family is the organic starting-point of all education, and is in its +enlargement the basis of nationality. + +--Education is always education of the mind. Even unorganized nations, +those in a state of nature, the so-called savage nations, are possessed +of something more than a mere education of the body; for, though they +set much value upon gymnastic and warlike practice and give much time to +them, they inculcate also respect for parents, for the aged, and for the +decrees of the community. Education with them is essentially family +training, and its content is natural love and reverence. We cannot deny +that the finer forms of those to which we are accustomed are wanting. +Besides, education among all these people of nature is very simple and +much the same, though great differences in its management may exist +arising from differences of situation or from temperament of race.-- + +Sec. 179. National Education is divided into three special systems: (1) +Passive, (2) Active, (3) Individual. It begins with the humility of an +abstract subjection to nature, and ends with the arrogance of an +abstract rejection of nature. + +Sec. 180. Man yields at first to the natural authority of the family; he +obeys unconditionally its behests. Then he substitutes for the family, +as he goes on his culture, the artificial family of his caste, to whose +rules he again unconditionally yields. To dispense with this +artificialty and this tyranny, at last he abstracts himself from the +family and from culture. He flees from both, and becoming a monk he +again subjects himself to the tyranny of his order. The monks presents +to us the mere type of his species. + +Sec. 181. This absolute abstraction from nature and from culture, this +quietism of spiritual isolation, is the ultimate result of the Passive +system. In opposition to this, the Active system seeks the positive +vanquishing of naturalness. Its people are courageous. They attack other +nations in order to rule over them as conquerors. They live for the +continuation of their life after death, and build for themselves on this +account tombs of granite. They brave the dangers of the sea. The +abstract prose of the patriarchal-state, the fantastic chimeras of the +caste-state, the ascetic self-renunciation of the cloister-state, yield +gradually to the recognition of actuality; and the fundamental principle +of Persian education consisted in the inculcation of veracity. + +Sec. 182. But the nationality which is occupied with simple, natural +elements--other nations, death, the mystery of the ocean--may revert to +the abstractions of the previous stage, which in education often take on +cruel forms--nay, often truly horrible. First, when the spirit begins +not only to suspect its true nature, but rather to recognize itself as +the true essence; and when the God of Light places as the motto on his +temple the command to self-knowledge, the natural individuality becomes +free. Neither the passive nor the active system understands the free +self-distinction of the individual from the rest. In them, to be an +individuality is a betrayal of the very idea of their existence, and +even the suspicion of such a charge suffices utterly and mercilessly to +destroy the one to whom it refers. Even the solitary individuality of +the despot is not the one-ness of free individuality: he is only an +example of his kind; only in his kind is he singular. Nationality rises +to individuality through the free dialectic of its race, wherein it +dissolves its own presupposition. + +Sec. 183. Nevertheless individuality must always proceed from naturalness. +Esthetically it seeks nature, but the nature of the activity itself, in +order, by penetrating it with mind, to make of it a work of art; +practically it seeks it, partly to disdain it in gloomy resignation, +partly to enjoy it in excessive sensual ecstasy, demoniacally to +heighten the extravagance of its own internal feeling in wild revels. + +--The Germans were not savage in the common signification of this term. +They were men each one of whom constituted himself willingly a centre +for others, or, if this was not the case, renounced them in proud +self-sufficiency. All the glory and all the disgrace of our race lies in +the power of individualizing which is divinely breathed into our veins. +As a natural element, if this be not controlled, it degenerates easily +into intractableness, into violence. The Germans need therefore, in +order to be educated, severe service, the imposition of difficult tasks; +and for this reason they appropriate to themselves, now the Roman law, +now the Greek philology, now Gallic usages, &c., in order to work off +their superfluous strength in such opposition. The natural reserve of +the German found its solvent in Christianity. By itself, as the history +of the German race shows, it would have been destroyed in vain +distraction. First of all, the German race, in the confidence of its +immediate consciousness, ventured forth upon the sea, and managed the +ship upon its waves as if they rode a charger.-- + + +FIRST GROUP. + +THE SYSTEM OF PASSIVE EDUCATION. + +Sec. 184. All education desires to free man from his finitude, to make him +ethical, to unite him with God. It begins therefore with a negative +relation to naturalness, but at once falls into a contradiction of its +aim, which is to convert the opposition to nature into a natural +necessity. Spirit subjects the individual (1) to the rule of the family +as naturally spiritual; (2) to the rule of the caste as to a principle +in itself spiritual, mediated through the division of labor, which it +nevertheless, through its power of being inherited, joins again to the +family; (3) to the abstract self-determination of the monkish quietism, +which turns itself away as well from the family as from work, and +constitutes this flight from nature and history, this absolute +passivity, into an educational ideal. + +--We shall not here enter into the details of this system, but simply +endeavor to remove from their differences the want of clearness which is +generally found involved in any mention of them, so that the phrases of +hierarchical and theocratical education are used without any historical +accuracy.-- + + +I. _Family Education._ + +Sec. 185. The Family, as the organic starting-point of all education, makes +the beginning. The nation looks upon itself as a family. Among all +unorganized people education is family-education, though they are not +conscious of its necessity. Identical in principle with these people, +but distinguished from them in its consciousness of it, the Chinese +nation, in their laws, regulations, and customs, have constituted the +family the absolute basis of their life and the only principle of their +education. + +Sec. 186. The natural element of the family is found in marriage and +relationship; the spiritual, in love. We may call the nature of family +feeling which is the immediate unity of both elements, by the name of +Piety. In so far as this appears not merely as a substantial feeling but +at the same time as law, there arises from it the subordination of the +abstract obedience of the woman as wife to the husband, of children to +the parents, of the younger children to the elder. In this obedience man +first renounces his self-will and his natural roughness; he learns to +master his passions, and to conduct himself with deferential gentleness. + +--When the principle ruling the family is transferred to political +relations, there arises the tyranny of the Chinese state, which cannot +be fully treated here. We find everywhere in it an analogical relation +to that of parents and children. In China the ruler is the father and +mother of the country; the civil officers are representatives of a +paternal authority, &c. It follows that in school the children will be +ranked according to their age. The authority of parents over children is +according to the principle entirely unconditional, but in actuality very +mild. The abandonment of daughters by the poorest classes in the great +cities is not objected to, for the government rears the children in +orphan asylums, where they are cared for by nurses appointed by the +state.-- + +Sec. 187. The distinction of these relations which are conditioned by +nature takes on the external shape of a definite ceremonial, the +learning of which is a chief element of education. In conformity with +the naturalness of the whole principle all crimes against it are +punished by whipping, which does not necessarily entail dishonor. In +order to lead man to the mastery of himself and to obedience to those +who are naturally set over him, education develops an endless number of +fragmentary maxims to keep attention ever watchful over himself, and his +behavior always fenced in by a code of prescriptions. + +--We find in such moral sentences the substance of what is called, in +China, Philosophy.-- + +Sec. 188. The theoretical education includes Heading, Writing--i.e. +painting the letters with a brush--Arithmetic, and the making of verses. +But the ability to do these things is not looked at as means of culture +but as ends in themselves, and to fit one therefore for the undertaking +of state offices. The Chinese possess formally all the means for +literary culture--printing, libraries, schools, and academies; but the +worth of these is not great. Their value has been often over-rated +because of their external resemblance to those found among us. + + +II. _Caste Education._ + +Sec. 189. The members of the Family are certainly immediately +distinguished among each other as to sex and age, but this difference is +entirely immaterial as far as the nature of their employment goes. In +China, therefore, every man can attain any position; he who is of +humblest birth in the great state-family can climb to the highest honor. +But the progress of spirit now becomes so mediated that the division of +labor shall be made the principle on which a new distinction shall arise +in the family: each one shall perfect himself only in that labor which +was allotted to him as his own through his birth into a particular +family. This fatalism (caste-distinction) breaks up the life, but +increases its tension, for spirit works on the one hand towards the +deepening of its distinctions; on the other, towards leading them back +into the unity which the natural determining directly opposes. + +Sec. 190. The chief work of education thus consists in teaching each one +the rights and duties of his caste so that he shall act only exactly +within their limits, and not pollute himself by passing beyond them. As +the family-state concerns itself with fortifying the natural distinction +by a far-reaching and vigorous ceremonial, so the caste-state must do +the same with the distinction of class. A painful etiquette becomes more +and more endless in its requisitions the higher the caste, in order to +make the isolation more sharply defined and more perceptible. + +--This feature penetrates all exclusively caste-education. The +aristocracy exiles itself on this account from its native country, +speaks a foreign language, loves its literature, adopts foreign customs, +lives in foreign countries--in Italy, Paris, &c. In this way man becomes +distinguished from others. But that man should strive thus to +distinguish himself has its justification in the mystery of his birth, +and this is assuredly always the principle of the caste-state in which +it exists. The castes lead to genealogical records, which are of the +greatest importance in determining the destiny of the individual. The +Brahmin may strike down one of a lower caste who has defiled him by +contact, without becoming thereby liable to punishment; rather would he +be to blame if he did not commit the murder. Thus formerly was it with +the officer who did not immediately kill the citizen or the common +soldier who struck him a blow, &c.-- + +Sec. 191. The East Indian culture is far deeper and richer than the +Chinese. The theoretical culture includes Reading, Writing, and +Arithmetic; but these are subordinate, as mere means for the higher +activities of Poetry, Speculation, Science, and Art. The practical +education limits itself strictly by the lines of caste, and since the +caste system constitutes a whole in itself, and each for its permanence +needs the others, it cannot forbear giving utterance suggestively to +what is universally human in the free soul, in a multitude of fables +(Hitopadesa) and apothegms (sentences of Bartrihari). Especially for the +education of princes is a minor of the world sketched out. + +--Xenophon's Cyropedia is of Greek origin, but it is Indian in its +thought.-- + + +III. _Monkish Education._ + +Sec. 192. Family Education demands unconditional obedience towards parents +and towards all who stand in an analogous position. Caste Education +demands unconditional obedience to the duties of the caste. The family +punishes by whipping; the caste, by excommunication, by loss of honor. +The opposition to nature appears in both systems in the form of a rigid +ceremonial, distinguishing between the differences arising from nature. +The family as well as the caste has within it a manifold fountain of +activity, but it has also just as manifold a limitation of the +individual. Spirit is forced, therefore, to turn against nature in +general. It must become indifferent to the family. But it must also +oppose history, and the fixed distinctions of division of labor as +necessitated by nature. It must become indifferent to work and the +pleasure derived from it. That it may not be conditioned either by +nature or by history, it denies both, and makes its action to consist in +producing an abstinence from all activity. + +Sec. 193. Such an indifference towards nature and history produces the +education which we have called monkish. Those who support this sect care +for food, clothing, and shelter, and for these material contributions, +as the laity, receive in return from those who live this contemplative +life the spiritual contribution of confidence in the blessings which +wait upon ascetic contemplation. The family institution as well as the +institution of human labor is subordinated to abstract isolation, in +which the individual lives only for the purification of his soul. All +things are justified by this end. Castes are found no more; only those +are bound to the observance of a special ceremonial who as nuns or monks +subject themselves to the unconditional obedience to the rules of the +cloister, these rules solemnly enjoining on the negative side celibacy +and cessation from business, and on the positive side prayer and +perfection. + +[Sidenote: _Buddhistic Education--System of Active Education._] + +Sec. 194. In the school of the Chinese Tao-tse, and in the command to the +Brahmin after he has established a family to become a recluse, we find +the transition as it actually exists to the Buddhistic Quietism which +has covered the rocky heights of Thibet with countless cloisters, and +reared the people who are dependent upon it into a childlike amiability, +into a contented repose. Art and Science have here no value in +themselves, and are regarded only as ministering to religion. To be able +to read in order to mutter over the prayers is desirable. With the +premeditated effort in the state of a monk to reduce self to nothing as +the highest good, the system of passive education attains its highest +point. But the spirit cannot content itself in this abstract and dreamy +absence of all action, though it demands a high stage of culture, and it +has recourse therefore to action, partly on the positive side to conquer +nature, partly to double its own existence in making history. Inspired +with affirmative courage, it descends triumphantly from the mountain +heights, and fears secularization no more. + + +SECOND GROUP. + +THE SYSTEM OF ACTIVE EDUCATION. + +Sec. 195. Active Education elevates man from his abstract subjection to +the family, the caste, asceticism, into a concrete activity with a +definite aim which subjects those elements as phases of its mediation, +and grants to each individual independence on the condition of his +identity with it. These aims are the military state, the future after +death, and industry. There is always an element of nature present from +which the activity proceeds; but this no longer appears, like the +family, the caste, the sensuous egotism, as immediately belonging to the +individual, but as something outside of himself which limits him, and, +as his future life, has an internal relation to him, yet is essential to +him and assigns to him the object of his activity. The Persian has as an +object of conquest, other nations; the Egyptian, death; the Phoenician, +the sea. + + +I. _Military Education._ + +Sec. 196. That education which would emancipate a nation from the passivity +of abstraction must throw it into the midst of an historical activity. A +nation finds not its actual limits in its locality: it can forsake this +and wander far away from it. Its true limit is made by another nation. +The nation which knows itself to be actual, turns itself therefore +against other nations in order to subject them and to reduce them to the +condition of mere accidents of itself. It begins a system of conquest +which has in itself no limitations, but goes from one nation to another, +and extends its evil course indefinitely. The final result of this +attack is that it finds itself attacked and conquered. + +--The early history of the Persian is twofold: the patriarchal in the +high valleys of Iran, and the religio-hierarchical among the Medes. We +find under these circumstances a repetition of the principal +characteristics of the Chinese, Indian, and Buddhist educations. In +ancient Zend there were also castes. Among the Persians themselves, as +they descended from their mountains to the conquest of other nations, +there was properly only a military nobility. The priesthood was +subjected to the royal power which represented the absolute power of +actuality. Of the Persian kings, Cyrus attacked Western Asia; Cambyses, +Africa; Darius and Xerxes, Europe; until the reaction of the spiritually +higher nationality did not content itself with self-preservation, but +under the Macedonian Alexander made the attack on Persia itself.-- + +Sec. 197. Education enjoined upon the Persians (1) to speak the truth; (2) +to learn to ride and to use the bow and arrow. There is implied in the +first command a recognition of actuality, the negation of all dreamy +absorption, of all fantastical indetermination; and in this light the +Persian, in distinction from the Hindoo, appears to be considerate and +reasonable. In the second command is implied warlike practice, but not +that of the nomadic tribes. The Persian fights on horseback, and thus +appears in distinction from the Indian hermit seclusion and the quietism +of the Lamas as restless and in constant motion. + +--The Family increases in value as it rears a large number of warriors. +Many children were a blessing. The king of Persia gave a premium for all +children over a certain number. Nations were drawn in as nations by war; +hence the immense multitude of a Persian army. Everything--family, +business, possessions--must be regardlessly sacrificed to the one aim of +war. Education, therefore, cultivated an unconditional, all-embracing +obedience to the king, and the slightest inclination to assert an +individual independence was high treason and was punished with death. In +China, on the contrary, duty to the family is paramount to duty to the +state, or rather is itself duty to the state. The civil officer who +mourns the loss of one of his family is released during the period of +mourning from the duties of his function.-- + +Sec. 198. The theoretical education, which was limited to reading, writing, +and to instruction, was, in the usages of culture, in the hands of the +Magians, the number of whom was estimated at eighty thousand, and who +themselves had enjoyed the advantages of a careful education, as is +shown by their gradation into Herbeds, Moheds, and Destur-Moheds; i.e. +into apprentices, journeymen, and masters. The very fundamental idea of +their religion was military; it demanded of men to fight on the side of +the king of light, and guard against the prince of darkness and evil. It +gave to him thus the honor of a free position between the world-moving +powers and the possibility of a self-creative destiny, by which means +vigor and chivalrous feeling were developed. Religion trained the +activity of man into actualization on this planet, increasing by its +means the dominion of the good, by purifying the water, by planting +trees, by extirpating troublesome wild beasts. Thus it increased bodily +comfort, and no longer, like the monk, treated this as a mere negative. + + +II. _Priestly Education._ + +Sec. 199. War has in death its force. It produces this, and by its means +decides who shall serve and who obey. But the nation that finds its +activity in war, though it makes death its absolute means, yet finds its +own limit in death. Other nations are only its boundaries, which it can +overpass in fighting with and conquering them. But death itself it can +never escape, whether it come in the sands of the desert--which buried +for Cambyses an army which he sent to the oracle of the Libyan Ammon--or +in the sea, that scorns the rod of the angry despot, or by the sword of +the freeman who guards his household gods. On this account, that people +stands higher that in the midst of life reflects on death, or rather +lives for it. The education of such a nation must be priestly because +death is the means of the transition to the future life, and +consequently equivalent to a new birth, and becomes a religious act. +Neither the family-state, nor the caste-state, nor the monkish nor +military-state, are hierarchies in the sense that the leading of the +national life by a priesthood produces. But in Egypt this was actually +the case, because the chief educational tribunal was the death-court +which concerned only the dead, in awarding to them or denying them the +honor of burial as the result of their whole life, but in its award +affected also the honor of the surviving family. + +Sec. 200. General education here limited itself to imparting the ability +to read, write, and calculate. Special education consisted properly only +in an habitual living into a definite business within the circle of the +Family. In this fruitful and warm land the expense of supporting +children was very small. The division into classes was without the cruel +features of the Indian civilization, and life itself in the narrow Nile +valley was very social, very rich, very full of eating and drinking, +while the familiarity with death heightened the force of enjoyment. In a +stricter sense only, the warriors, the priests, and the kings, had, +properly speaking, an education. The aim of life, which was to determine +in death its eternal future, to secure for itself a passage into the +still kingdom of Amenth, manifested itself externally in the care which +they expended on the preservation of the dead shell of the immortal +soul, and on this account worked itself out in building tombs which +should last for ever. The Chinese builds a wall to secure his +family-state from attack; the Hindoo builds pagodas for his gods; the +Buddhist erects for himself monastic cells; the Persian constructs in +Persepolis the tomb of his kings, where they may retire in the evening +of their lives after they have rioted in Ecbatana, Babylon, and Susa; +but the Egyptian builds his own tomb, and carries on war only to protect +it. + + +III. _Industrial Education._ + +Sec. 201. The system of active education was to find its solution in a +nation which wandered from the coast of the Red Sea to the foot of the +Lebanon mountains on the Mediterranean, and ventured forth upon the sea +which before that time all nations had avoided as a dangerous and +destructive element. The Phoenician was industrial, and needed markets +where he could dispose of the products of his skill. But while he sought +for them he disdained neither force nor deceit; he planted colonies; he +stipulated that he should have in the cities of other nations a portion +for himself; he urged the nations to adopt his pleasures, and insensibly +introduced among them his culture and even his religion. The education +of such a nation must have seemed profane, because it fostered +indifference towards family and one's native land, and made the restless +and passionate activity subservient to gain. The understanding and +usefulness rose to a higher dignity. + +Sec. 202. Of the education of the Phoenicians we know only so much as to +enable us to conclude that it was certainly various and extensive: among +the Carthaginians, at least, that their children were practised in +reading, writing, and arithmetic, in religious duties; secondly, in a +trade; and, finally, in the use of arms, is not improbable. Commerce +became with the Phoenicians a trade, the egotism of which makes men dare +to plough the inhospitable sea, and to penetrate eagerly the horror of +its vast distances, but yet to conceal from other nations their +discoveries and to wrap them in a veil of fable. + +--It is a beautiful testimony to the disposition of the Greeks, that +Plato and others assign as a cause of the low state of Arithmetic and +Mathematics among the Phoenicians and Egyptians the want of a free and +disinterested seizing of them.-- + + +THIRD GROUP. + +THE SYSTEM OF INDIVIDUAL EDUCATION. + +Sec. 203. One-sided passivity as well as one-sided activity is subsumed +under Individuality, which makes itself into its own end and aim. The +Phoenician made gain his aim; his activity was of a utilistic character. +Individuality as a pedagogical principle is indeed egotistic in so far +as it endeavors to achieve its own peculiarity, but it is at the same +time noble. It desires not to _have_ but to _be_. Individuality also +begins as natural, but it elevates nature by means of art to ideality. +The solution of beauty is found in culture, since this renounces the +charm of appearance for the knowledge of the True. The aesthetic +individuality is followed by the practical, which has indeed no natural +basis, but proceeds from an artificial basis as a state formed for a +place of refuge. In order internally to create a unity in this, is +framed a definite code of laws; in order externally to assure it, the +invincible warrior is demanded. Education is therefore, more exactly +speaking, juristic and military practice. The morality of the state is +loosened as it reduces into its mechanism one nation after another, +until the individuality, become daemonic, makes its war-hardened legions +tremble with weakness. We characterize this individuality as daemonic +because it desires recognition simply for its own sake. Not for its +beauty and culture, not for its knowledge of business and its bravery, +only for its peculiarity as such does it claim value, and in the effort +to secure this it is ready to hazard life itself. In its +naturally-growing existence this individuality is deep, but at the same +time without self-limit. The nations educate themselves to this +individuality when they destroy the world of Roman world--that of +self-limit and balance--which they find. + + +I. _AEsthetic Education._ + +Sec. 204. The system of individual education begins with the +transfiguration of the immediate individuality into beauty. On the side +of nature this system is passion, for individuality is given through +nature; but on the side of spirit it is active, for spirit must +determine itself to restrain its measure as the essence of beauty. + +Sec. 205. Here the individual is of value only in so far as he is +beautiful. At first beauty is apprehended as natural, but then it is +carried over into the realm of spirit, and the Good is posited as +identical with the Beautiful. The ideal of aesthetic education remains +always that there shall be also an external unity of the Good with the +Beautiful, of Spirit with Nature. + +--We cannot here give in detail the history of Greek Education. It is +the best known among us, and the literature in which it is worked out is +very widely spread. Among the common abridged accounts we mention here +only the works of Jacobs, of Cramer & Bekker's "Charinomos." We must +content ourselves with mentioning the turning-points which follow from +the nature of the principle.-- + +Sec. 206. Culture was in Greece thoroughly national. Education gave to the +individual the consciousness that he was a Greek and no barbarian, a +free man and so subject only to the laws of the state, and not to the +caprice of any one person. Thus the nationality was freed at once from +the abstract unity of the family and from the abstract distinction of +caste, while it appeared with the manifold talents of individuals of +different races. Thus the Dorian race held as essential, gymnastics; the +AEolians, music; the Ionics, poetry. The AEolian individuality was +subsumed in the history of the two others, so that these had to proceed +in their development with an internal antagonism. The education of the +Dorian race was national education in the fullest sense of the word; in +it the education of all was the same, and was open to all, even +including the young women; among the Ionic race it was also in its +content truly national, but in its form it was varied and unlike, and, +for those belonging to various great families, private. The former, +reproducing the Oriental phase of abstract unity, educated all in one +mould; the latter was the nursery of particular individualities. + +Sec. 207. (1) Education in the heroic age, without any systematic +arrangement on the subject, left each one perfectly free. The people +related the histories of the adventures of others, and through their own +gave material to others again to relate stories of them. + +--The Greeks began where the last stage of the active system of +education ended--with piracy and the seizure of women. Swimming was a +universal practice among the sea-dwelling Greeks, just as in +England--the mistress of the ocean--rowing is the most prominent +exercise among the young men, and public regattas are held.-- + +Sec. 208. (2) In the period of state-culture proper, education developed +itself systematically; and gymnastics, music, and grammatics, or +literary culture, constituted the general pedagogical elements. + +Sec. 209. Gymnastics aimed not alone to render the body strong and agile, +but, far more, to produce in it a noble carriage, a dignified and +graceful manner of appearance. Each one fashioned his body into a +living, divine statue, and in the public games the nation crowned the +victor. + +--Their love of beautiful boys is explicable not merely by their +interest in beautiful forms, but especially by their interest in +individuality. The low condition of the women could not lie at the +foundation of it, for among the Spartans they were educated as nearly as +possible like the men, and yet among them and the Cretans the love of +boys was recognized in their legislation. To be without a beloved +([Greek: aites]), or a lover ([Greek: eispnelas]), was among them +considered as disgraceful as the degradation of the love by unchastity +was contemptible. What charm was there, then, in love? Manifestly only +beauty and culture. But that a person should be attracted by one and not +by another can be accounted for only by the peculiar character, and in +so far the boy-love and the man-friendship which sprang from it, among +the Greeks, are very characteristic and noteworthy phenomena.-- + +Sec. 210. It was the task of Music, by its rhythm and measure, to fill the +soul with well-proportioned harmony. So highly did the Greeks prize +music, and so variously did they practise it, that to be a musical man +meant the same with them as to be a cultivated man with us. Education in +this respect was very painstaking, inasmuch as music exercises a very +powerful influence in developing discreet behavior and self-possession +into a graceful naturalness. + +--Among the Greeks we find an unrestricted delight in nature--a +listening to her manifestations, the tone of which betrays the +subjectivity of things as subjectivity. In comparison with this tender +sympathy with nature of the Greeks--who heard in the murmur of the +fountains, in the dashing of the waves, in the rustling of the trees, +and in the cry of animals, the voice of divine personality--the sight +and hearing of the Eastern nations for nature is dull.-- + +Sec. 211. The stringed instrument, the cithern, was preferred by the Greeks +to all wind instruments because it was not exciting, and allowed the +accompaniment of recitation or song, i.e. the contemporaneous activity +of the spirit in poetry. Flute-playing was first brought from Asia Minor +after the victorious progress of the Persian war, and was especially +cultivated in Thebes. They sought in vain afterwards to oppose the wild +excitement raised by its influence. + +Sec. 212. Grammar comprehended Letters ([Greek: grammata]), i.e. the +elements of literary culture, reading and writing. Much attention was +given to correct expression. The Fables of AEsop, the Iliad, and the +Odyssey, and later the tragic poets, were read, and partly learned by +heart. The orators borrowed from them often the ornament of their +commonplace remarks. + +Sec. 213. (3) The internal growth of what was peculiar to the Grecian State +came to an end with the war for the Hegemony. Its dissolution began, and +the philosophical period followed the political. The beautiful ethical +life was resolved into thoughts of the True, Good, and Beautiful. +Individuality turned more towards the internal, and undertook to subject +freedom, the existing regulations, laws and customs, to the criticism of +reason as to whether these were in and for themselves universal and +necessary. The Sophists, as teachers of Grammar, Rhetoric, and +Philosophy, undertook to extend the cultivation of Reflection; and this +introduced instability in the place of the immediate fixed state of +moral customs. Among the women, the _Hetaerae_ undertook the same +revolution; in the place of the [Greek: potnia meter] appeared the +beauty, who isolated herself in the consciousness of her charms and in +the perfection of her varied culture, and exhibited herself to the +public admiration. The tendency to idiosyncrasy often approached +wilfulness, caprice and whimsicality, and opposition to the national +moral sense. A Diogenes in a tub became possible; the soulless but +graceful frivolity of an Alcibiades charmed, even though it was +externally condemned; a Socrates completed the break in consciousness, +and urged upon the system of the old morality the pregnant question, +whether Virtue could be taught? Socrates worked as a philosopher who was +to educate. Pythagoras had imposed upon his pupils the abstraction of a +common, exactly-defined manner of living. Socrates, on the contrary, +freed his disciples--in general, those who had intercourse with +him--leading them to the consciousness of their own individuality. He +revolutionized the youth in that he taught them, instead of a +thoughtless obedience to moral customs, to seek to comprehend their +purpose in the world, and to rule their actions according to it. +Outwardly he conformed in politics, and in war as at Marathon; but in +the direction of his teaching he was subjective and modern. + +Sec. 214. This idea, that Virtue could be taught, was realized especially +by Plato and Aristotle; the former inclining to Dorianism, the latter +holding to the principle of individuality in nearly the modern sense. As +regards the pedagogical means--Gymnastics, Music, and Grammar--both +philosophers entirely agreed. But, in the seizing of the pedagogical +development in general, Plato asserted that the education of the +individual belonged to the state alone, because the individual was to +act wholly in the state. On the other hand, Aristotle also holds that +the state should conduct the education of its citizens, and that the +individual should be trained for the interest of the state; but he +recognizes also the family, and the peculiarity of the individual, as +positive powers, to which the state must accord relative freedom. Plato +sacrificed the family to the state, and must therefore have sacred +marriages, nurseries, and common and public educational institutions. +Each one shall do only that which he is fitted to do, and shall work at +this only for the sake of perfecting it: to what he shall direct his +energies, and in what he shall be instructed, shall be determined by the +government, and the individuality consequently is not left free. +Aristotle also will have for all the citizens the same education, which +shall be common and public; but he allows, at the same time, an +independence to the family and self-determination to the individual, so +that a sphere of private life presents itself within the state: a +difference by means of which a much broader sway of individuality is +possible. + +--These two philosophers have come to represent two very different +directions in Pedagogics, which at intervals, in certain stages of +culture, reappear--the tyrannical guardianship of the state which +assumes the work of education, tyrannical to the individual, and the +free development of the liberal state-education, in opposition to +idiosyncrasy and fate.-- + +Sec. 215. The principle of aesthetic individuality reaches its highest +manifestation when the individual, in the decay of public life, in the +disappearance of all beautiful morality, isolates himself, and seeks to +gain in his isolation such strength that he can bear the changes of +external history around him with composure--"ataraxy." The Stoics sought +to attain this end by turning their attention inward into pure +internality, and thus, by preserving the self-determination of abstract +thinking and willing, maintaining an identity with themselves: the +Epicureans endeavored to do the same, with this difference however, that +they strove after a positive satisfaction of the senses by filling them +with concrete pleasurable sensations. As a consequence of this, the +Stoics isolated themselves in order to maintain themselves in the +exclusiveness of their internal unconditioned relation to themselves, +while the Epicureans lived in companies, because they achieved the +reality of their pleasure-seeking principle through harmony of feeling +and through the sweetness of friendship. In so far the Epicureans were +Greeks and the Stoics Romans. With both, however, the beauty of +manifestation was secondary to the immobility of the inner feeling. The +plastic attainment of the Good and the Beautiful was cancelled in the +abstraction of thinking and feeling. This was the advent of the Roman +principle among the Greeks. + +Sec. 216. The pedagogical significance of Stoicism and Epicureanism +consists in this, that, after the moral life in public and in private +were sundered from each other, the individual began to educate himself, +through philosophical culture, into stability of character, for which +reason the Roman emperors particularly disliked the Stoics. At many +times, a resignation to the Stoic philosophy was sufficient to make one +suspected. But, at last, the noble emperor, in order to win himself a +hold in the chaos of things, was forced himself to become a Stoic and to +flee to the inaccessible stillness of the self-thinking activity and the +self-moving will. Stoics and Epicureans had both what we call an ideal. +The Stoics used the expression "kingdom"; as Horace says, sarcastically, +"_Sapiens rex est nisi--pituita molesta est_." + + +II. _Practical Education._ + +Sec. 217. The truth of the solution of the beautiful individuality is the +promise of the activity conformable to its purpose [i.e. teleological +activity], which on the one hand considers carefully end and means, and +on the other hand seeks to realize the end through the corresponding +means, and in this deed subjects mere beauty of form. The practical +individuality is therefore externally conditioned, since it is not its +own end like the Beautiful, whether Stoical or Epicurean, but has an +end, and finds its satisfaction not so much in this after it is attained +as in the striving for its attainment. + +Sec. 218. The education of this system begins with very great simplicity. +But after it has attained its object, it abandons itself to using the +results of aesthetic culture as a recreation without any specific object. +What was to the Greeks a real delight in the Beautiful became therefore +with the Romans simply an aesthetic amusement, and as such must finally +be wearisome. The earnestness of individuality made itself in mysticism +into a new aim, which was distinguished from the original one in that it +concealed in itself a mystery and exacted a theoretically aesthetic +practice. + +Sec. 219. (1) The first epoch of Roman education, as properly Roman, was +the juristic-military education of the republic. The end and aim of the +Roman was Rome; and Rome, as from the beginning an eclectic state, could +endure only while its laws and external politics were conformable to +some end. It bore the same contradiction within itself as in its +external attitude. This forced it into robbery, and the plebeians were +related to the patricians in the same way, for they robbed them +gradually of all their privileges. On this account education directed +itself partly to giving a knowledge of the Law, partly to communicating +a capacity for war. The boys were obliged to commit to memory and recite +the laws of the twelve tables, and all the youths were subject to +military service. The Roman possessed no individuality of native growth, +but one mediated through the intermingling of various fugitives, which +developed a very great energy. Hence from the first he was attentive to +himself, he watched jealously over the limits of his rights and the +rights of others, measured his strength, moderated himself, and +constantly guarded himself. In contrast with the careless cheerfulness +of the Greeks, he therefore appears gloomy. + +--The Latin tongue is crowded with expressions which paint presence of +mind, effort at reflection, a critical attitude of mind, the importance +of personal control: as _gravitas morum, sui compos esse, sibi constare, +austeritas, vir strenuus, vir probus, vitam honestam gerere, sibimet +ipse imperare_, &c. The Etruscan element imparted to this earnestness an +especially solemn character. The Roman was no more, like the Greek, +unembarrassed at naturalness. He was ashamed of nakedness; _verecundia, +pudor_, were genuinely Roman. _Vitam praeferre pudori_ was shameful. On +the contrary, the Greek gave to Greeks a festival in exhibiting the +splendor of his naked body, and the inhabitants of Crotona erected a +statue to Philip only because he was so perfectly beautiful. Simply to +be beautiful, only beautiful, was enough for the Greek. But a Roman, in +order to be recognized, must have done something for Rome: _se bene de +republica mereri_.-- + +Sec. 220. In the first education of children the agency of the mother is +especially influential, so that woman with the Romans took generally a +more moral, a higher, and a freer position. It is worthy of remark that +while, as the beautiful, she set the Greeks at variance, among the +Romans, through her ethical authority, she acted as reconciler. + +Sec. 221. The mother of the Roman helped to form his character; the father +undertook the work of instruction. When in his fifteenth year the boy +exchanged the _toga praetextata_ for the _toga virilis_, he was usually +sent to some relative, or to some jurist, as his guardian, to learn +thoroughly, under his guidance, of the laws and of the state; with the +seventeenth began military service. All education was for a long time +entirely a private affair. On account of the necessity of a mechanical +unity in work which war demands, the greatest stress was laid upon +obedience. In its restricted sense education comprised Reading, Writing, +and Arithmetic; the last being, on account of its usefulness, more +esteemed by the Romans than by the Greeks, who gave more time to +Geometry. The schools, very characteristically, were called _Ludi_, +because their work was, in distinction from other practice, regarded +simply as a recreation, as play. + +--The Roman recognized with pride this distinction between the Greek and +himself; Cicero's Introduction to his Essay on Oratory expresses it. To +be practical was always the effort of the reflective character of the +Romans, which was always placing new ends and seeking the means for +their attainment; which loved moderation, not to secure beauty thereby, +but respected it as a means for a happy success (_medium tenuere +beati_); which did not possess serene self-limitation, or [Greek: +sophrosyne], but calculation _quid valeant humeri, quid ferre recusent_; +but which, in general, went far beyond the Greeks in persistency of +will, in _constantia animi_. The schools were at first held publicly in +shops; hence the name _trivium_. Very significant for the Roman is the +predicate which he conferred upon theoretical subjects when he called +them _artes bonae_, _optimae_, _liberales_, _ingenuae_, &c., and brought +forth the practical element in them.-- + +Sec. 222. (2) But the practical education could no longer keep its ground +after it had become acquainted with the aesthetic. The conquest of +Greece, Asia Minor, and Egypt, made necessary, in a practical point of +view, the acquisition of the Grecian tongue, so that these lands, so +permeated with Grecian culture, might be thoroughly ruled. The Roman of +family and property, therefore, took into his service Greek nurses and +teachers who should give to his children, from their earliest years, +Greek culture. It is, in the history of education, a great evil when a +nation undertakes to teach a foreign tongue to its youth. Then the +necessity of trade with the Greeks caused the study of Rhetoric, so that +not only in the deliberations of the senate and people, but in law, the +ends might be better attained. Whatever effort the Roman government made +to prevent the invasion of the Greek rhetorician was all in vain. The +Roman youth sought for this knowledge, which was so necessary to them in +foreign lands, e.g. in the flourishing school of rhetoric on the island +of Rhodes. At last, even the study of Philosophy commended itself to the +practical Roman, in order that he might recover for himself confidence +amid the disappointments of life. When his practical life did not bring +him any result, he devoted himself in his poverty to abstract +contemplation. The Greeks would have Philosophy for its own sake; the +ataraxy of the Stoics, Epicureans, and Skeptics even, desired the result +of a necessary principle; but the Roman, on the contrary, wished to lift +himself by philosophemes above trouble and misfortune. + +--This direction which Philosophy took is noteworthy, not alone in +Cicero and Seneca, but at the fall of the Roman empire, when Boethius +wrote in his prison his immortal work on the consolations of +Philosophy.-- + +Sec. 223. The earnestness which sought a definite end degenerated in the +very opposite of activity with him who had no definite aim. The idleness +of the wealthy Roman, who felt himself to be the lord of a limitless +world, devoted itself to dissipation and desire for enjoyment, which, in +its entire want of moderation, abused nature. The finest form of the +extant education was that in _belles-lettres_, which also for the first +time came to belong to the sphere of Pedagogics. There had been a +degeneration of art in India and Greece, and also an artistic trifling. +But in Rome there arose a pursuit of art in order to win a certain +consideration in social position, and to create for one's self a +recreation in the emptiness of a soul satiated with sensual debauchery. +Such a seizing of art is frivolous, for it no longer recognizes its +absoluteness, and subordinates it as a means to subjective egotism. +Literary _salons_ then appear. + +--In the introduction to his _Cataline_, Sallust has painted +excellently this complete revolution in the Roman education. The younger +Pliny in his letters furnishes ample material to illustrate to us this +pursuit of _belles-lettres_. In Nero it became idiotic. We should +transgress our prescribed limits did we enter here into particulars. An +analysis would show the perversion of the aesthetic into the practical, +the aesthetic losing thereby its proper nature. But the Roman could not +avoid this perversion, because, according to his original aim, he could +not move except towards the _utile et honestum_.-- + +Sec. 224. (3) But this pursuit of fine art, this aimless parade, must at +last weary the Roman. He sought for himself again an object to which he +could vigorously devote himself. His sovereignty was assured, and +conquest as an object could no more charm him. The national religion had +fallen with the destruction of the national individuality. The soul +looked out over its historical life into an empty void. It sought to +establish a relation between itself and the next world by means of +daemonic forces, and in place of the depreciated nationality and its +religion we find the eclecticism of the mystic society. There were, it +is true, in national religions certain secret signs, rites, words, and +meanings; but now, for the first time in the history of the world, there +appeared mysteries as pedagogical societies, which concerned themselves +only with private things and were indifferent to nationality. Everything +was profaned by the roughness of violence. Man believed no longer in the +old gods, and the superstitious faith in ghosts became only a thing fit +to frighten children with. Thus man took refuge in secrecy, which had +for his satiety a piquant charm. + +Sec. 225. The education of the mysteries was twofold, theoretical and +practical. In the theoretical we find a regular gradation of symbols and +symbolical acts through which one seemed gradually to attain to the +revelation of the secret; the practical contained a regular gradation of +ascetic actions alternating with an abandonment to wild orgies. Both +raised one from the rank of the novice to that of the initiated. In the +higher orders they formed an ethical code of laws, and this form +Pedagogics has retained in all such secret culture, _mutatis mutandis_, +down to the Illuminati. + +--In the Roman empire, its Persian element was the worship of Mithras; +its Egyptian, that of Isis; its Grecian, the Pythagorean doctrines. All +these three, however, were much mingled with each other. The Roman +legions, who really no longer had any native country, bore these +artificial religions throughout the whole world. The confusion of +excitement led often to Somnambulism, which was not yet understood, and +to belief in miracles. Apollonius of Tyana, the messiah of Ethnicism, is +the principal figure in this group; and, in comparison with him, +Jamblichus appears only as an enthusiast and Alexander of Abonoteichos +as an impostor.-- + + +III. _Abstract Individual Education._ + +Sec. 226. What the despair of the declining nations sought for in these +mysteries was Individuality, which in its singularity is conscious of +the universality of the rational spirit, as its own essence. This +individuality existed more immediately in the Germanic race, which +nevertheless, on account of its nature, formed first in Christianity its +true actualization. It can be here only pointed out that they most +thoroughly, in opposition to nature, to men, and to the gods, felt +themselves to be independent; as Tacitus says, "_Securi adversus +homines, securi adversus Deos_." This individuality, which had only +itself for an end, must necessarily be destroyed, and was saved only by +Christianity, which overcame and enlightened its daemonic and defiant +spirit. We cannot speak here of a system of Education. Respect for +personality, the free acknowledgment of the claims of woman, the loyalty +to the leader chosen by themselves, loyalty to their friends (the idea +of fellowship),--these features should all be well-noted, because from +them arose the feudalism of the middle ages. What Caesar and Tacitus tell +us of the education of the Germans expresses only the emancipation of +individuality, which in its immediate crudeness had no other form in +which to manifest itself than wars of conquest. + +--To the Roman there was something daemonic in the German. He perceived +dimly in him his future, his master. When the Romans were to meet the +Cimbri and Teutons in the field, their commander had first to accustom +them for a whole day to the fearful sight of the wild, giant-like +forms.-- + + +SECOND DIVISION. + +THE SYSTEM OF THEOCRATIC EDUCATION. + +Sec. 227. The system of National Education founded its first stage on the +substantial basis of the family-spirit; its second stage on the division +of the nation by means of division of labor which it makes permanent in +castes; its third stage presents the free opposition of the laity and +clergy; in its next phase it makes war, immortality, and trade, by +turns, its end; thirdly, it posits beauty, patriotic youth, and the +immediateness of individuality, as the essence of mankind, and at last +dissolves the unity of nationality in the consciousness that all nations +are really one since they are all human beings. In the intermixture of +races in the Roman world arises the conception of the human race, the +_genus humanum_. Education had become eclectic: the Roman legions +levelled the national distinctions. In the wavering of all objective +morality, the necessity of self-education in order to the formation of +character appeared ever more and more clearly; but the conception, which +lay at the foundation, was always, nevertheless, that of Roman, Greek, +or German education. But in the midst of these nations another system +had striven for development, and this did not base itself on the natural +connection of nationality, but made this, for the first time, only a +secondary thing, and made the direct relation of man to God its chief +idea. In this system God himself is the teacher. He manifests to man His +will as law, to which he must unconditionally conform for no other +reason than that He is the Lord, and man His servant, who can have no +other will than His. The obedience of man is therefore, in this system, +abstract until through experience he gradually attains to the knowledge +that the will of God has in it the very essence of his own will. +Descent, Talent, Events, Work, Beauty, Courage,--all these are +indifferent things compared with the subjection of the human to the +divine will. To be well-pleasing to God is almost the same as belief in +Him. Without this identity, what is natural in national descent is of no +value. According to its form of manifestation, Judaism is below the +Greek spirit. It is not beautiful, but rather grotesque. But in its +essence, as the religion of the contradiction between the idea and its +existence, it goes beyond nature, which it perceives to be established +by an absolute, conscious, and reasonable Will; while the Greek +concealed from himself only mythically his dependence on nature, on his +mother-earth. The Jews have been preserved in the midst of all other +culture by the elastic power of the thought of God as One who was free +from the control of nature. The Jews have a patriotism in common with +the Romans. The Maccabees, for example, were not inferior to the Romans +in greatness. + +--Abraham is the genuine Jew because he is the genuinely faithful man. +He does not hesitate to obey the horrible and inhuman command of his +God. Circumcision was made the token of the national unity, but the +nation may assimilate members to itself from other nations through this +rite. The condition always lies in belief in a spiritual relation to +which the relation of nationality is secondary. The Jewish nation makes +proselytes, and these are widely different from the _Socii_ of the +Romans or the _Metoeci_ of the Athenians.-- + +Sec. 228. To the man who knows Nature to be the work of a single, +incomparable, rational Creator, she loses independence. He is negatively +freed from her control, and sees in her only an absolute means. As +opposed to the fanciful sensuous intuitions of Ethnicism, this seems to +be a backward step, but for the emancipation of man it is a progress. He +no longer fears Nature but her Lord, and admires Him so much that prose +rises to the dignity of poetry in his telological contemplation. Since +man stands over and beyond nature, education is directed to morality as +such, and spreads itself out in innumerable limitations, by means of +which the distinction of man from nature is expressly asserted as a +difference. The ceremonial law appears often arbitrary, but in its +prescriptions it gives man the satisfaction of placing himself as will +in relation to will. For example, if he is forbidden to eat any +specified part of an animal, the ground of this command is not merely +natural--it is the will of the Deity. Man learns therefore, in his +obedience to such directions, to free himself from his self-will, from +his natural desires. This exact outward conformity to subjectivity is +the beginning of wisdom, the purification of the will from all +individual egotism. + +--The rational substance of the Law is found always in the Decalogue. +Many of our modern much-admired authors exhibit a superficiality +bordering on shallowness when they comment alone on the absurdity of the +miracles, and abstract from the profound depth of the moral struggle, +and from the practical rationality of the ten commandments.-- + +Sec. 229. Education in this theocratical system is on one side patriarchal. +The Family is very prominent, because it is considered to be a great +happiness for the individual to belong from his very earliest life to +the company of those who believe in the true God. On its other side it +is hierarchical, as its ceremonial law develops a special office, which +is to see that obedience is paid to its multifarious regulations. And, +because these are often perfectly arbitrary, Education must, above all, +practise the memory in learning them all, so that they may always be +remembered. The Jewish monotheism shares this necessity with the +superstition of ethnicism. + +Sec. 230. But the technique proper of the mechanism is not the most +important pedagogical element of the theocracy. We find this in its +historical significance, since its history throughout has a pedagogical +character. For the people of God show us always, in their changing +intercourse with their God, a progress from the external to the +internal, from the lower to the higher, from the past to the future. Its +history, therefore, abounds in situations very interesting in a +pedagogical point of view, and in characters which are eternal models. + +Sec. 231. (1) The will of God as the absolute authority is at first to +them, as law, external. But soon God adds to the command to obedience, +on one hand, the inducement of a promise of material prosperity, and on +the other hand the threat of material punishment. The fulfilment of the +law is also encouraged by reflection on the profit which it brings. But, +since these motives are all external, they rise finally into the insight +that the law is to be fulfilled, not on their account, but because it is +the will of the Lord; not alone because it is conducive to our +happiness, but also because it is in itself holy, and written in our +hearts: in other words, man proceeds from the abstract legality, through +the reflection of eudaemonism, to the internality of moral sentiment--the +course of all education. + +--This last stand-point is especially represented in the excellent +Gnomic of Jesus Sirach--a book so rich in pedagogical insight, which +paints with master-strokes the relations of husband and wife, parents +and children, master and servants, friend and friend, enemy and enemy, +and the dignity of labor as well as the necessity of its division. This +priceless book forms a side-piece from the theocratic stand-point to the +_Republic_ of Plato and his laws on ethical government.-- + +Sec. 232. (2) The progress from the lower to the higher appeared in the +conquering of the natural individuality. Man, as the servant of Jehovah, +must have no will of his own; but selfish naturalness arrayed itself so +much the more vigorously against the abstract "Thou shalt," allowed +itself to descend into an abstraction from the Law, and often reached +the most unbridled extravagance. But since the Law in inexorable might +always remained the same, always persistent, in distinction from the +inequalities of the deed of man, it forced him to come back to it, and +to conform himself to its demands. Thus he learned criticism, thus he +rose from naturalness into spirit. This progress is at the same time a +progress from necessity to freedom, because criticism always gradually +opens a way for man into insight, so that he finds the will of God to be +the truth of his own self-determination. Because God is one and +absolute, there arises the expectation that His Will will become the +basis for the will of all nations and men. The criticism of the +understanding must recognize a contradiction in the fact that the will +of the true God is the law of only one nation; feared by other nations, +moreover, by reason of their very worship of God as a gloomy mystery, +and detested as _odium generis humani_. And thus is developed the +thought that the isolation of the believers will come to an end as soon +as the other nations recognize their faith as the true one, and are +received into it. Thus here, out of the deepest penetration of the soul +into itself, as among the Romans out of the fusion of nations, we see +appear the idea of the human race. + +Sec. 233. (3) The progress from the past to the future unfolded the ideal +servant of God who fulfils all the Law, and so blots out the empirical +contradiction that the "Thou shalt" of the Law attains no adequate +actuality. This Prince of Peace, who shall gather all nations under his +banner, can therefore have no other thing predicated of him than +Holiness. He is not beautiful as the Greeks represented their ideal, not +brave and practical as was the venerated _Virtus_ of the Romans; he does +not place an infinite value on his individuality as the German does: but +he is represented as insignificant in appearance, as patient, as humble, +as he who, in order to reconcile the world, takes upon himself the +infirmities and disgrace of all others. The ethnical nations have only a +lost Paradise behind them; the Jews have one also before them. From this +belief in the Messiah who is to come, from the certainty which they have +of conquering with him, from the power of esteeming all things of small +importance in view of such a future, springs the indestructible nature +of the Jews. They ignore the fact that Christianity is the necessary +result of their own history. As the nation that is to be (_des +Seinsollens_), they are merely a historical nation, the nation among +nations, whose education--whenever the Jew has not changed and corrupted +its nature through modern culture--is still always patriarchal, +hierarchal, and mnemonic. + + +THIRD DIVISION. + +THE SYSTEM OF HUMANITARIAN EDUCATION + +Sec. 234. The systems of national and theocratic education came to the +same result, though by different ways, and this result is the conception +of a human race in the unity of which the distinctions of different +nations find their Truth. But with them this result is only a +conception, being a thing external to their actuality. They arrive at +the painting of an ideal of the way in which the Messiah shall come. But +these ideals exist only in the mind, and the actual condition of the +people sometimes does not correspond to them at all, and sometimes only +very relatively. The idea of spirit had in these presuppositions the +possibility of its concrete actualization; one individual man must +become conscious of the universality and necessity of the will as being +the very essence of his own freedom, so that all heteronomy should be +cancelled in the autonomy of spirit. Natural individuality appearing as +national determinateness was still acknowledged, but was deprived of its +abstract isolation. The divine authority of the truth of the individual +will is to be recognized, but at the same time freed from its +estrangement towards itself. While Christ was a Jew and obedient to the +divine Law, he knew himself as the universal man who determines himself +to his own destiny; and while only distinguishing God, as subject, from +himself, yet holds fast to the unity of man and God. The system of +humanitarian education began to unfold from this principle, which no +longer accords the highest place to the natural unity of national +individuality, nor to the abstract obedience of the command of God, but +to that freedom of the soul which knows itself to be absolute necessity. +Christ is not a mere ideal of the thought, but is known as a living +member of actual history, whose life, sufferings and death for freedom +form the security as to its absolute justification and truth. The +aesthetic, philosophical, and political ideal are all found in the +universal nature of the Christian ideal, on which account no one of them +appears one-sided in the life of Christ. The principle of Human Freedom +excludes neither art, nor science, nor political feeling. + +Sec. 235. In its conception of man the humanitarian education includes both +the national divisions and the subjection of all men to the divine law, +but it will no longer endure that one should grow into an isolating +exclusiveness, and another into a despotism which includes in it +somewhat of the accidental. But this principle of humanity and human +nature took root so slowly that its presuppositions were repeated within +itself and were really conquered in this reproduction. These stages of +culture were the Greek, the Roman, and the Protestant churches, and +education was metamorphosed to suit the formation of each of these. + +--For the sake of brevity we would wish to close with these general +definitions; the unfolding of their details is intimately bound up with +the history of politics and of civilization. We shall be contented if we +give correctly the general whole.-- + +Sec. 236. Within education we can distinguish three epochs: the monkish, +the chivalric, and that education which is to fit one for civil life. +Each of these endeavored to express all that belonged to humanity as +such; but it was only after the recognition of the moral nature of the +Family, of Labor, of Culture, and of the conscious equal title of all +men to their rights, that this became really possible. + + +I. _The Epoch of Monkish Education._ + +Sec. 237. The Greek Church seized the Christian principle still abstractly +as deliverance from the world, and therefore, in the education +proceeding from it, it arrived only at the negative form, positing the +universality of the individual man as the renunciation of self. In the +dogmatism of its teaching, as well as in the ascetic severity of its +practical conduct, it was a reproduction of the theocratic principle. +But when this had assumed the form of national centralization, the Greek +Church dispensed with this, and, as far as regards its form, it returned +again to the quietism of the Orient. + +Sec. 238. The monkish education is in general identical in all religions, +in that, through the egotism of its way of living and the stoicism of +its way of thinking, through the separation of its external existence +and the mechanism of a thoughtless subjection to a general rule as well +as to the special command of superiors, it fosters a spiritual and +bodily dulness. The Christian monachism, therefore, as the fulfilment of +monachism in general, is at the same time its absolute dissolution, +because, in its merely abstracting itself from the world instead of +affirmatively conquering it, it contradicts the very principle of +Christianity. + +Sec. 239. We must notice as the fundamental error of this whole system, +that it does not in free individuality seek to produce the ideal of +divine-humanity, but to copy in external reproduction its historical +manifestation. Each human being must individually offer up as sacrifice +his own individuality. Each biography has its Bethlehem, its Tabor, and +its Golgotha. + +Sec. 240. Monachism looks upon freedom from one's self and from the world +which Christianity demands only as an abstract renunciation of self, +which it seeks to compass, like Buddhism, by the vow of poverty, +chastity, and obedience, which must be taken by each individual for all +time. + +--This rejection of property, of marriage, and of self-will, is at the +same time the negation of work, of the family, and of responsibility for +one's actions. In order to avoid the danger of avarice and covetousness, +of sensuality and of nepotism, of error and of guilt, monachism seizes +the convenient way of abstract severance from all the objective world +without being able fully to carry out this negation. Monkish Pedagogics +must, in consequence, be very particular about an external separation of +their disciples from the world, so as to make the work of abstraction +from the world easier and more decided. It therefore builds cloisters in +the solitude of deserts, in the depth of forests, on the summits of +mountains, and surrounds them with high walls having no apertures; and +then, so as to carry the isolation of the individual to its farthest +possible extreme it constructs, within these cloisters, cells, in +imitation of the ancient hermits--a seclusion the immediate consequence +of which is the most limitless and most paltry curiosity.-- + +Sec. 241. Theoretically the monkish Pedagogics seeks, by means of the +greatest possible silence, to place the soul in a state of spiritual +immobility, which at last, through the want of all variety of thought, +goes over into entire apathy, and antipathy towards all intellectual +culture. The principal feature of the practical culture consists in the +misapprehension that one should ignore Nature, instead of morally +freeing himself from her control. As she, again and again asserts +herself, the monkish discipline proceeds to misuse her, and strives +through fasting, through sleeplessness, through voluntary self-inflicted +pain and martyrdom, not only to subdue the wantonness of the flesh, but +to destroy the love of life till it shall become a positive loathing of +existence. In and for itself the object of the monkish vow--property, +the family, and will--is not immoral. The vow is, on this account, very +easy to violate. In order to prevent all temptation to this, monkish +Pedagogics invents a system of supervision, partly open, partly secret, +which deprives one of all freedom of action, all freshness of thinking +and of willing, and all poetry of feeling, by means of the perpetual +shadow of spies and informers. The monks are well versed in all +police-arts, and the regular succession of the hierarchy spurs them on +always to distinguish themselves in them. + +Sec. 242. The gloomy breath of this education penetrated all the relations +of the Byzantine State. Even the education of the emperor was infected +by it; and in the strife for freedom waged by the modern Greeks against +the Turks, the _Igumeni_ of the cloisters were the real leaders of the +insurrection. The independence of individuality, as opposed to monkish +abstraction, more or less degenerates into the crude form of soldier and +pirate life. And thus it happened that this principle was not left to +appear merely as an exception, but to be built up positively into +humanity; and this the German world, under the guidance of the Roman +Church, undertook to accomplish. + + +II. _The Epoch of Chivalric Education._ + +Sec. 243. The Romish Church negated the abstract substantiality of the +Greeks through the practical aim which she in her sanctity in works +founded, and by means of which she raised up German individuality to the +idealism of chivalry, i.e. a free military service in behalf of +Christendom. + +Sec. 244. It is evident that the system of monkish education was taken up +into this epoch as one of its elements, being modified to conform to it: +e.g. the Benedictines were accustomed to labor in agriculture and in the +transcribing of books, and this contradicted the idea of monachism, +since that in and for itself tends to an absolute forgetfulness of the +world and a perfect absence of all activity in the individual. The +begging orders were public preachers, and made popular the idea of love +and unselfish devotion to others. They labored toward self-education, +especially by means of the ideal of the life of Christ; e.g. in Tauler's +classical book on the Imitation of Jesus, and in the work of +Thomas-a-Kempis which resembles it. Through a fixed contemplative +communion with the conception of the Christ who suffered and died for +Love, they sought to find content in divine rest and self-abandonment. + +Sec. 245. German chivalry sprang from Feudalism. The education of those +pledged to military duty had become confined to practice in the use of +arms. The education of the chivalric vassals pursued the same course, +refining it gradually through the influence of court society and through +poetry, which devoted itself either to the relating of graceful tales +which were really works of art, or to the glorification of woman. Girls +were brought up without especial care. The boy until he was seven years +old remained in the hands of women; then he became a lad (a young +gentleman), and learned the manner of offensive and defensive warfare, +on foot and on horseback; between his sixteenth and eighteenth year, +through a formal ceremony (the laying on of the sword), he was duly +authorized to bear arms. But whatever besides this he might wish to +learn was left to his own caprice. + +Sec. 246. In contradistinction to the monkish education, Chivalry placed an +infinite value on individuality, and this it expressed in its extreme +sensibility to the feeling of honor. Education, on this account, +endeavored to foster this reflection of the self upon itself by means of +the social isolation in which it placed knighthood. The knight did not +delight himself with common possessions, but he sought for him who had +been wronged, since with him he could find enjoyment as a conqueror. He +did not live in simple marriage, but strove for the piquant pleasure of +making the wife of another the lady of his heart, and this often led to +moral and physical infidelity. And, finally, the knight did not obey +alone the general laws of knightly honor, but he strove, besides, to +discover for himself strange things, which he should undertake with his +sword, in defiance of all criticism, simply because it pleased his +caprice so to do. He _sought adventures_. + +Sec. 247. The reaction against the innumerable number of fantastic +extravagancies arising from chivalry was the idea of the spiritual +chivalry which was to unite the cloister and the town, abstract +self-denial and military life, separation from the world and the +sovereignty of the world--an undeniable advance, but an untenable +synthesis which could not prevent the dissolution of chivalry--this +chivalry, which, as the rule of the stronger, induced for a long time +the destruction of all regular culture founded on principles, and +brought a period of absence of all education. In this perversion of +chivalry to a grand vagabondism, and even to robbery, noble souls often +rushed into ridiculous excesses. This decline of chivalry found its +truth in Citizenship, whose education, however, did not, like the +[Greek: polis] and the _civitas_ of the ancients, limit itself to +itself, but, through the presence of the principle of Christianity, +accepted the whole circle of humanity as the aim of its culture. + + +III. _The Epoch of Education fitting one for Civil Life._ + +Sec. 248. The idea of the State had gradually worked itself up to a higher +plane with trade and industry, and found in Protestantism its spiritual +confirmation. Protestantism, as the self assurance of the individual +that he was directly related to God without any dependence on the +mediation of any man, rose to the truth in the autonomy of the soul, and +began out of the abstract phantasmagoria of monachism and chivalry to +develope Christianity, as the principle of humanitarian education, into +concrete actuality. The cities were not merely, in comparison with the +clergy and the nobility, the "third estate"; but the citizen who himself +managed his commonwealth, and defended its interests with arms, +developed into the citizen of a state which absorbed the clergy and +nobility, and the state-citizen found his ultimate ideal in pure +Humanity as cognized through reason. + +Sec. 249. The phases of this development are (1) Civil education as such, +in which we find chivalric education metamorphosed into the so-called +noble, both however being controlled as to education, within Catholicism +by Jesuitism, within Protestantism by Pietism. (2) Against this tendency +to the church, we find reacting on the one hand the devotion to a study +of antiquity, and on the other the friendly alliance to immediate +actuality, i.e. with Nature. We can name these periods of Pedagogics +those of its ideals of culture. (3) But the truth of all culture must +forever remain moral freedom. After Education had arrived at a knowledge +of the meaning of Idealism and Realism, it must seize as its absolute +aim the moral emancipation of man into Humanity; and it must conform its +culture by this aim, since technical dexterity, friendly adroitness, +proficiency in the arts, and scientific insight, can attain to their +proper rank only through moral purity. + + +_1. Civil Education as such._ + +Sec. 250. The one-sidedness of monkish and chivalric education was +cancelled by civil education inasmuch as it destroyed the celibacy of +the monk and the estrangement of the knight from his family, doing this +by means of the inner life of the family; for it substituted, in the +place of the negative emptiness of the duty of holiness of the celibate, +the positive morality of marriage and the family; while, instead of the +abstract poverty and the idleness of the monkish piety and of +knighthood, it asserted that property was the object of labor, i.e. it +asserted the self-governed morality of civil society and of commerce; +and, finally, instead of the servitude of the conscience in +unquestioning obedience to the command of others, and instead of the +freakish self-sufficiency of the caprice of the knights, it demanded +obedience to the laws of the commonwealth as representing his own +self-conscious, actualized, practical Reason, in which laws the +individual can recognize and acknowledge himself. + +--As this civil education left free the sensuous enjoyment, freedom in +this was without bounds for a time, until, after men became accustomed +to labor and to their freedom of action, the possibility of enjoyment +created from within outward a moderation which sumptuary laws and +prohibitions of gluttony, drunkenness, &c., could never create from the +external side. What the monk inconsistently enjoyed with a bad +conscience, the citizen and the clergyman could take possession of as a +gift of God. After the first millennium of Christianity, when the earth +had not, according to the current prophecies, been destroyed, and after +the great plague in the fourteenth century, there was felt an immense +pleasure in living, which manifested itself externally in the fifteenth +century in delicate wines, dainty food, great eating of meat, drinking +of beer, and, in the domain of dress, in peaked shoes, plumes, golden +chains, bells, &c. There was much venison, but, as yet, no potatoes, tea +and coffee, &c. The feeling of men was quarrelsome. For a more exact +painting of the Education of this time, very valuable authors are +Sebastian Brant, Th. Murner, Ulrich von Hutten, Fischart, and Hans +Sachs. Gervinus is almost the only one who has understood how to make +this material useful in its relation to spirit.-- + +Sec. 251. In contrast with the heaven-seeking of the monks and the +sentimental love-making of the knight, civil education established, as +its principle, Usefulness, which traced out in things their conformity +to a proposed end in order to gain as great a mastery over them as +possible. The understanding was trained with all exactness that it might +clearly seize all the circumstances. But since family-life did not allow +the egotism of the individual ever to become as great as was the case +with the monk and the knight, and since the cheer of a sensuous +enjoyment in cellar and kitchen, in clothing and furniture, in common +games and in picturesque parades, penetrated the whole being with soft +pleasure, there was developed with all propriety and sobriety a +house-morality, and, with all the prose of labor, a warm and kindly +disposition, which left room for innocent merriment and roguery, and +found, in conformity to religious services, its serious transfiguration. +Beautiful burgher-state, thou wast weakened by the thirty years' war, +and hast been only accidentally preserved sporadically in Old England +and in some places in Germany, only to be at last swept away by the +flood of modern world-pain, political sophistry, and anxiety for the +future! + +Sec. 252. The citizen paid special attention to public education, +heretofore wholly dependent upon the church and the cloister; he +organized city schools, whose teachers, it is true, for a long time +compassed only accidental culture, and were often employed only for +tumultuous and short terms. The society of the brotherhood of the +Hieronymites introduced a better system of instruction before the close +of the fourteenth century, but education had often to be obtained from +the so-called travelling scholars (_vagantes_, _bacchantes_, +_scholastici_, _goliardi_). The teachers of the so-called _scholae +exteriores_, in distinction from the schools of the cathedral and +cloister, were called now _locati_, then _stampuales_--in German, +_Kinder-Meister_. The institution of German schools soon followed the +Latin city schools. In order to remove the anarchy in school matters, +the citizens aided the rise of universities by donations and +well-invested funds, and sustained the street-singing of the city +scholars (_currende_), an institution which was well-meant, but which +often failed of its end because on the one hand it was often misused as +a mere means of subsistence, and on the other hand the sense of honor of +those to whom it was devoted not unfrequently became, through their +manner of living, lowered to humiliation. The defect of the monkish +method of instruction became ever more apparent, e.g. the silly tricks +of their mnemotechnique, the utter lack of anything which deserved the +name of any practical knowledge, &c. The necessity of instruction in the +use of arms led to democratic forms. Printing favored the same. Men +began to concern themselves about good text-books. Melanchthon was the +hero of the Protestant world, and as a pattern was beyond his time. His +Dialectics, Rhetoric, Physics, and Ethics, were reprinted innumerable +times, commented upon, and imitated. After him Amos Comenius, in the +seventeenth century, had the greatest influence through his _Didactica +Magna_ and his _Janua Reserta_. In a narrower sphere, treating of the +foundation of Gymnasial Philology, the most noticeable is Sturm of +Strasburg. The universities in Catholic countries limited themselves to +the Scholastic Philosophy and Theology, together with which we find +slowly struggling up the Roman Law and the system of Medicine from +Bologna and Salerno. But Protestantism first raised the university to +any real universality. Tuebingen, Koenigsberg, Wittenberg, Jena, Leipzic, +Halle, Goettingen, &c., were the first schools for the study of all +sciences, and for their free and productive pursuit. + +Sec. 253. The Commons, which at first appeared with the clergy and the +nobility as the Third Estate, formed an alliance with monarchy, and both +together produced a transformation of the chivalric education. +Absolutism reduced the knights to mere nobles, to whom it truly conceded +the prerogative of appointment as spiritual prelates as well as officers +and counsellors of state, but only on the condition of the most complete +submission; and then, to satisfy them, it invented the artificial +drinking festivals, of a splendid life at court, and a +temptingly-impressive sovereignty of beauty. In this condition, the +education of the nobles was essentially changed in so far as to cease to +be alone military. To the art of war, which moreover was made so very +much milder by the invention of fire-arms, must be now added an activity +of the mind which could no longer dispense with some knowledge of +History, Heraldry, Genealogy, Literature, and Mythology. Since the +French nation soon enough gave tone to the style of conversation, and +after the time of Louis XIV. controlled the politics of the continent, +the French language, as conventional and diplomatic, became a constant +element in the education of the nobility in all the other countries of +Europe. + +--Practically the education of the noble endeavored to make the +individual quite independent, so that he should, by means of the +important quality of an advantageous personal appearance and the +prudence of his agreeable behavior, make himself into a ruler of all +other men, capable of enjoying his own position, i.e. he should copy in +miniature the manners of an absolute sovereign. To this was added an +empirical knowledge of men by means of ethical maxims, so that they +might discover the weak side of every man, and so be able to outwit him. +_Mundus vult decipi, ergo decipiatur._ According to this, every man had +his price. They did not believe in the Nemesis of a divine destiny; on +the contrary, disbelief in the higher justice was taught. One must be so +elastic as to suit himself to all situations, and, as a caricature of +the ancient ataraxy, he must acquire as a second nature a manner +perfectly indifferent to all changes, the impassibility of an +aristocratic repose, the amphibious _sang-froid_ of the "gentleman." The +man in the world as the man of the world sought his ideal in endless +dissimulation, and in this, as the flowering of his culture, he took the +highest interest. Intrigue, in love as well as in politics, was the soul +of the nobleman's existence.-- + +--They endeavored to complete the refinement of manners by sending the +young man away with a travelling tutor. This was very good, but +degenerated at last into the mechanism of the foolish travelling of the +tourist. The noble was made a foreigner, a stranger to his own country, +by means of his abode at Paris or Venice, while the citizen gradually +outstripped him in genuine culture.-- + +Sec. 254. The education of the citizen as well as that of the noble was +taken possession of, in Catholic countries by the Jesuits, in Protestant +countries by the Pietists: by the first, with a military strictness; by +the second, in a social and effeminate form. Both, however, agreed in +destroying individuality, inasmuch as the one degraded man into a +will-less machine for executing the commands of others, and the other +deadened him in cultivating the feeling of his sinful worthlessness. + + +(_a_) _Jesuitic Education._ + +Sec. 255. Jesuitism combined the maximum of worldly freedom with an +appearance of the greatest piety. Proceeding from this stand-point, it +devoted itself in education to elegance and showy knowledge, to +diplomacy and what was suitable and convenient in morals. To bring the +future more into its power, it adapted itself not only to youth in +general, but especially to the youth of the nobler classes. To please +these, the Jesuits laid great stress upon a fine deportment. In their +colleges dancing and fencing were well-taught. They knew how well they +should by this course content the noble, who had by preference usurped +the name of Education for this technical way of giving formal expression +to personality. + +--In instruction they developed so exact a mechanism that they gained +the reputation of having model school regulations, and even Protestants +sent their children to them. From the close of the sixteenth century to +the present time they have based their teaching upon the _ratio et +institutio Studiorum Societatis Jesu_ of Claudius Aquaviva, and, +following that, they distinguish two courses of teaching, a higher and a +lower. The lower included nothing but an external knowledge of the Latin +language, and some fortuitous knowledge of History, of Antiquities, and +of Mythology. The memory was cultivated as a means of keeping down free +activity of thought and clearness of judgment. The higher course +comprehended Dialectics, Rhetoric, Physics, and Morals. Dialectics +appeared in the form of Sophistry. In Rhetoric, they favored the +polemical-emphatic style of the African fathers of the Church and their +pompous phraseology; in Physics, they stopped with Aristotle, and +especially advised the reading of the books _De Generatione et +Corruptione_, and _De Coelo_, on which they commented after their +fashion; finally, in Morals casuistic skepticism was their central +point. They made much of Rhetoric on account of their sermons, giving to +it much attention, and introduced especially Declamation. Contriving +showy public examinations under the guise of Latin School Comedies, they +thus amused the public, disposed them to approval, and at the same time +quite innocently practised the pupil in dissimulation.-- + +--Diplomacy in behavior was made necessary to the Jesuits as well by +their strict military discipline as by their system of reciprocal +mistrust, espionage, and informing. Abstract obedience was a reason for +any act of the pupils, and they were freed from all responsibility as to +its moral justification. This empirical exact following out of all +commands, and refraining from any criticism as to principles, created a +moral indifference, and, from the necessity of having consideration for +the peculiarities and caprices of the superior on whom all others were +dependent, arose eye-service, and the coldness of isolation sprang from +the necessity which each felt of being on his guard against every other +as against a tale-bearer. The most deliberate hypocrisy and pleasure in +intrigue merely for the sake of intrigue--this most refined poison of +moral corruption--were the result. Jesuitism had not only an interest in +the material profit, which, when it had corrupted souls, fell to its +share, but it also had an interest in the process of corruption. With +absolute indifference as to the idea of morality, and absolute +indifference as to the moral quality of the means used to attain its +end, it rejoiced in the superiority of secrecy, of the accomplished and +calculating understanding, and in deceiving the credulous by means of +its graceful, seemingly-perfect, moral language.-- + +--It is not necessary to speak here of the morality of the Order. It is +sufficiently recognized as the contradiction, that the idea of morality +insists upon the eternal necessity of every deed, but that in the +realizing of the action all determinations should be made relative and +should vary with the circumstances. As to discipline, they were always +guided by their fundamental principle, that body and soul, as in and for +themselves one, could vicariously suffer for each other. Thus penitence +and contrition were transformed into a perfect materialism of outward +actions, and hence arose the punishments of the Order, in which fasting, +scourging, imprisonment, mortification, and death, were formed into a +mechanical artificial system.-- + + +(_b_) _Pietistic Education._ + +Sec. 256. Jesuitism would make machines of man, Pietism would dissolve +him in the feeling of his sinfulness: either would destroy his +individuality. Pietism proceeded from the principle of Protestantism, +as, in the place of the Catholic Pelagianism with its sanctification by +works, it offered justication by faith alone. In its tendency to +internality was its just claim. It would have even the letters of the +Bible translated into the vivacity of sentiment. But in its execution it +fell into the error of one-sidedness in that it placed, instead of the +actuality of the spirit and its freedom, the confusion of a limited +personality, placing in its stead the personality of Christ in an +external manner, and thus brought back into the very midst of +Protestantism the principle of monachism--an abstract renunciation of +the world. Since Protestantism has destroyed the idea of the cloister, +it could produce estrangement from the world only by exciting public +opinion against such elements of society and culture which it +stigmatized as _worldly_ for its members, e.g. card-playing, dancing, +the theatre, &c. Thus it became negatively dependent upon works; for +since its followers remained in reciprocal action with the world, so +that the temptation to backsliding was a permanent one, it must watch +over them, exercise an indispensable moral-police control over them, and +thus, by the suspicion of each other which was involved, take up into +itself the Jesuitical practice, although in a very mild and affectionate +way. Instead of the forbidden secrecy of the cloister, it organized a +separate company, which we, in its regularly constituted assembly, call +a conventicle. Instead of the cowl, it put on its youth a dress like +that of the world, but scant and ashen-colored; it substituted for the +tonsure closely-cut hair and shaven beard, and it often went beyond the +obedience of the monks in its expression of pining humility and prudish +composure. Education within such a circle could not well recognize +nature and history as manifestations of God, but it must consider them +to be limitations to their union with God, from which death can first +then completely release them. The soul which knew that its home could be +found only in the future world, must feel itself to be a stranger upon +the earth, and from such an opinion there must arise an indifference and +even a contempt for science and art, as well as an aversion for a life +of active labor, though an unwilling and forced tribute might be paid to +it. Philosophy especially was to be shunned as dangerous. Bible +lectures, the catechism and the hymn-book, were the one thing needful to +the "poor in spirit." Religious poetry and music were, of all the arts, +the only ones deserving of any cultivation. The education of Pietism +endeavored, by means of a carefully arranged series of representations, +to create in its disciples the feeling of their absolute nothingness, +vileness, godlessness, and abandonment by God, in order to displace the +torment of despair as to themselves and the world by a warm, dramatic, +and living relation to Christ--a relation in which all the Eroticism of +the mystical passion of the begging-friars was renewed in a somewhat +milder form and with a strong tendency to a sentimental sweetishness. + + +_2. The Ideal of Culture._ + +Sec. 257. Civil Education arose from the recognition of marriage and the +family, of labor and enjoyment, of the equality of all before the Law, +and of the duty of self-determination. Jesuitism in the Catholic world +and Pietism in the Protestant were the reaction against this +recognition--a return into the abstract asceticism of the middle ages, +not however in its purity, but mixed with some regard for worldly +possessions. In opposition to this reaction the commonwealth produced +another, in which it undertook to deliver individuality by means of a +reversed alienation. On the one hand, it absorbed itself in the +conception of the Greek-Roman world. In the practical interests of the +present, it externalized man in a past which held to the present no +immediate relation, or it externalized him in the affairs which were to +serve him as means of his comfort and enjoyment; it created an abstract +idealism--a reproduction of the old view of the world--or an abstract +Realism in a high appreciation of things which should be considered of +value only as a means. In one direction, Individuality proceeded towards +a dead nationality; in the other, towards an unlimited +world-commonwealth. In one case, the ideal was the aesthetic +republicanism of the Greeks; in the other, the utilitarian +cosmopolitanism of the Romans. But, in considering the given +circumstances, both united in the feeling of humanity, with its +reconciliatory and pitying gentleness toward the beggar or the criminal. + + +(_a_) _The Humanitarian Ideal._ + +Sec. 258. The Oriental-theocratic education is immanent in Christian +education through the Bible. Through the mediation of the Greek and +Roman churches the views of the ancient world were subsumed but not +entirely subdued. To accomplish this was the problem of humanitarian +education. It aimed to teach the Latin and Greek languages, expecting +thus to secure the action of a purely humane disposition. The Greeks and +Romans being sharply marked nationalities, how could one cherish such +expectations? It was possible only relatively in contradiction, partly +to a provincial population from whom all genuine political sense had +departed, partly to a church limited by a confessional, to which the +idea of humanity as such had become almost lost in dogmatic +fault-findings. The spirit was refreshed in the first by the +contemplation of the pure patriotism of the ancients, and in the second +by the discovery of Reason among the heathen. In contrast to +formlessness distracted by the want of all ideal of culture of +provincialism and dogmatic confusions, we find the power of +representation of ancient art. The so-called uselessness of learning +dead languages imparted to the mind, it knew not how, an ideal drift. +The very fact that it could not find immediate profit in its knowledge +gave it the consciousness of a higher value than material profit. The +ideal of the Humanities was the truth to Nature which was found in the +thought-painters of the ancient world. The study of language merely with +regard to its form, must lead one involuntarily to the actual seizing of +its content. The Latin schools were fashioned into _Gymnasia_, and the +universities contained not merely professors of Eloquence, but also +teachers of Philology. + + +(_b_) _The Philanthropic Ideal._ + +Sec. 259. The humanitarian tendency reached its extreme in the abstract +forgetting of the present, and the omitting to notice its just claim. +Man discovered at last that he was not at home with himself in Rome and +Athens. He spoke and wrote Latin, if not like Cicero, at least like +Muretius, but he often found himself awkward in expressing his meaning +in his mother-tongue. He was often very learned, but he lacked judgment. +He was filled with enthusiasm for the republicanism of Greece and Rome, +and yet at the same time was himself exceedingly servile to his +excellent and august lords. Against this gradual deadening of active +individuality, the result of a perverted study of the classics, we find +now reacting the education of enlightenment, which we generally call the +philanthropic. It sought to make men friendly to the immediate course of +the world. It placed over against the learning of the ancient languages +for their own sake, the acquisition of the more needful branches of +Mathematics, Physics, Geography, History, and the modern languages, +calling these the real studies. Nevertheless it often retained the +instruction in the Latin language because the Romance languages have +sprung from it, and because, through its long domination, the universal +terminology of Science, Art, and Law, is rooted in it. Philanthropy +desired to develope the social side of its disciple through an abstract +of practical knowledge and personal accomplishments, and to lead him +again, in opposition to the hermit-like sedentary life of the +book-pedant, out into the fields and the woods. It desired to imitate +life even in its method, and to instruct pleasantly in the way of play +or by dialogue. It would add to the simple letters and names the +contemplation of the object itself, or at least of its representation by +pictures; and in this direction, in the conversation-literature which it +prepared for children, it sometimes fell into childishness. It performed +a great service when it gave to the body its due, and introduced simple, +natural dress, bathing, gymnastics, pedestrian excursions, and a +hardening against the influences of wind and weather. As this +Pedagogics, so friendly to children, deemed that it could not soon +enough begin to honor them as citizens of the world, it was guilty in +general of the error of presupposing as already finished in its children +much that it itself should have gradually developed; and as it wished to +educate the European as such, or rather man as such, it came into an +indifference concerning the concrete distinctions of nationality and +religion. It coincided with the philologists in placing, in a concealed +way, Socrates above Christ, because he had worked no miracles, and +taught only morality. In such a dead cosmopolitanism, individuality +disappeared in the indeterminateness of a general humanity, and saw +itself forced to agree with the humanistic education in proclaiming the +truth of Nature as the pedagogical ideal, with the distinction, that +while Humanism believed this ideal realized in the Greeks and Romans, +Philanthropism found itself compelled to presuppose an abstract notion, +and often manifested a not unjustifiable pleasure in recognizing in the +Indians of North America, or of Otaheite, the genuine man of nature. +Philosophy first raised these conceptions to the idea of the State, +which fashioned the cognition of Reason and of the reform which follows +from its idea, into an organic element in itself. + +--The course which the developing of the philanthropic ideal has taken +is as follows: (1) Rousseau in his writings, _Emile_ and the _Nouvelle +Heloise_, first preached the evangel of Natural Education, the +abstraction from History, the negation of existing culture, and the +return to the simplicity and innocence of nature. Although he often +himself testified in his experience his own proneness to evil in a very +discouraging way, he fixed as an almost unlimited axiom in French and +German Pedagogics his principal maxim, that man is by nature good. (2) +The reformatory ideas of Rousseau met with only a very infrequent and +sporadic introduction among the Romanic nations, because among them +education was too dependent on the church, and retained its +cloister-like seclusion in seminaries, colleges, &c. In Germany, on the +contrary, it was actualized, and the _Philanthropia_, established by +Basedow in Dessau, Brunswick, and Schnepfenthal, made experiments, which +nevertheless very soon departed somewhat from the ultraism of Basedow +and had very excellent results. (3) Humanity existed _in concreto_ only +in the form of nations. The French nation, in their revolution, tried +the experiment of abstracting from their history, of levelling all +distinctions of culture, of enthroning a despotism of Reason, and of +organizing itself as humanity, pure and simple. The event showed the +impossibility of such a beginning. The national energy, the historical +impulse, the love of art and science, came forth from the midst of the +revolutionary abstraction, which was opposed to them, only the more +vigorously. The _grande nation_, their _grande armee_, and +_gloire_--that is to say, for France--absorbed all the humanitarian +phases. In Germany the philanthropic circle of education was limited to +the higher ranks. There was no exclusiveness in the _Philanthropia_, for +there nobles and citizens, Catholics and Protestants, Russians and +Swiss, were mingled; but these were always the children of wealthy +families, and to these the plan of education was adapted. Then appeared +Pestalozzi and directed education also to the lower classes of +society--those which are called, not without something approaching to a +derogatory meaning, _the people_. From this time dates popular +education, the effort for the intellectual and moral elevation of the +hitherto neglected atomistic human being of the non-property-holding +multitude. There shall in future be no dirty, hungry, ignorant, awkward, +thankless, and will-less mass, devoted alone to an animal existence. We +can never rid ourselves of the lower classes by having the wealthy give +something, or even their all, to the poor, so as to have no property +themselves; but we can rid ourselves of it in the sense that the +possibility of culture and independent self-support shall be open to +every one, because he is a human being and a citizen of the +commonwealth. Ignorance and rudeness and the vice which springs from +them, and the malevolent frame of mind against the human race, which are +bound up with crime--these shall disappear. Education shall train man to +self-conscious obedience to law, as well as to kindly feeling towards +the erring, and to an effort not merely for their removal but for their +improvement. But the more Pestalozzi endeavored to realize his ideal of +human dignity, the more he comprehended that the isolated power of a +private man could not attain it, but that the nation itself must make +their own education their first business. Fichte by his lectures first +made the German nation fully accept these thoughts, and Prussia was the +first state which, by her public schools and her conscious preparation +for defence, broke the path for National Education; while among the +Romanic nations, in spite of their more elaborate political formalism, +it still depends partly upon the church and partly upon the accident of +private enterprise. Pestalozzi also laid a foundation for a national +pedagogical literature by his story of _Leonard and Gertrude_. This book +appeared at first in 1784, i.e. in the same year in which Schiller's +_Robbers_ and Kant's _Critique of Pure Reason_ announced a new phase in +the Drama and in Philosophy.-- + +--The incarnation of God, which was, up to the time of the Reformation, +an esoteric mystery of the Church, has since then become continually +more and more an exoteric problem of the State.-- + + +_3. Free Education._ + +Sec. 260. The ideal of culture of the humanitarian and the philanthropic +education was taken up into the conception of an education which +recognizes the Family, social caste, the Nation, and Religion, as +positive elements of the practical spirit, but which will know each of +these as determined from within through the idea of humanity, and laid +open for reciprocal dialectic with the rest. Physical development shall +become the subject of a national system of gymnastics fashioned for use, +and including in itself the knowledge of the use of arms. Instruction +shall, in respect to the general encyclopaedic culture, be the same for +all, and parallel to this shall run a system of special schools to +prepare for the special avocations of life. The method of instruction +shall be the simple representation of the special idea of the subject, +and no longer the formal breadth of an acquaintance with many subjects +which may find outside the school its opportunity, but within it has no +meaning except as the history of a science or an art. Moral culture must +be combined with family affection and the knowledge of the laws of the +commonwealth, so that the dissension between individual morality and +objective legality may ever more and more disappear. Education shall, +without estranging the individual from the internality of the family, +accustom him more and more to public life, because criticism of this is +the only thing which can prevent the cynicism of private life, the +half-ness of knowledge and will, and the spirit of caste, which has so +extensively prevailed. The individual shall be educated into a +self-consciousness of the essential equality and freedom of all men, so +that he shall recognize and acknowledge himself in each one and in all. +But this essential and solid unity of all men shall not evaporate into +the insipidity of a humanity without distinctions, but instead it shall +realize the form of a determinate individuality and nationality, and +shall enlighten the idiosyncrasy of its nation into a broad humanity. +The unrestricted striving after Beauty, Truth, and Freedom, actually +through its own strength and immediately, not merely mediately through +ecclesiastical consecration, will become Religion. + +The Education of the State must rise to a preparation for the +unfettered activity of self-conscious Humanity. + + + THE SCIENCE OF EDUCATION. + + A PARAPHRASE OF DR. KARL ROSENKRANZ'S + PAEDAGOGIK ALS SYSTEM. + + BY ANNA C. BRACKETT. + + ST. LOUIS: + G. I. JONES AND COMPANY. + 1878. + + + Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1878, by + WILLIAM T. HARRIS, + In the office of the Librarian of Congress, at Washington. + + +PREFACE. + + +The translation of "Pedagogics as a System" was prepared and published +five years ago. The wide demand for it that has made itself known since +that time, especially in normal schools, has proved the value of such +works in the domain of education. At the same time, the difficulty the +students have always found in its use--a difficulty inseparable from any +translation of a German metaphysical treatise--has led us to the +conviction that a paraphrase into a more easily understood form is a +necessity, if the thought of Rosenkranz is to be appropriated by the +very class who are most in need of it. As was remarked in the preface to +the translation, we have in English no other work of similar size which +contains so much that is valuable to those engaged in the work of +education. It is no compendium of rules or formulas, but rather a +systematic, logical treatment of the subject, in which the attention is, +as it were, concentrated upon the whole problem of education, while that +problem is allowed to work itself out before us. To paraphrase the +text--or, rather, to translate it from the metaphysical language in +which it at present appears into a language more easy of +comprehension--without losing the real significance of the statements, +is the task which is here undertaken. Free illustrations and suggestions +have been interwoven to give point and application to the thoughts and +principles stated. This translation, or paraphrase, follows the +paragraphs of the original and of the first translation. The analysis of +the whole work, as it appeared in the original translation, is appended +at the end of the "Introduction," as a guide to the student. + + + + +THE SCIENCE OF EDUCATION. + + +INTRODUCTION. + +Sec. 1. The science of Pedagogics may be called a secondary science, +inasmuch as it derives its principles from others. In this respect it +differs from Mathematics, which is independent. As it concerns the +development of the human intelligence, it must wait upon Psychology for +an understanding of that upon which it is to operate, and, as its means +are to be sciences and arts, it must wait upon them for a knowledge of +its materials. The science of Medicine, in like manner, is dependent on +the sciences of Biology, Chemistry, Physics, etc. Moreover, as Medicine +may have to deal with a healthy or unhealthy body, and may have it for +its province to preserve or restore health, to assist a natural process +(as in the case of a broken bone), or to destroy an unnatural one (as in +the case of the removal of a tumor), the same variety of work is imposed +upon Education.[1] + +Sec. 2. Since the rules of Pedagogics must be extremely flexible, so that +they may be adapted to the great variety of minds, and since an infinite +variety of circumstances may arise in their application, we find, as we +should expect, in all educational literature room for widely differing +opinions and the wildest theories; these numerous theories, each of +which may have a strong influence for a season, only to be overthrown +and replaced by others.[2] It must be acknowledged that educational +literature, as such, is not of a high order. It has its cant like +religious literature. Many of its faults, however, are the result of +honest effort, on the part of teachers, to remedy existing defects, and +the authors are, therefore, not harshly to be blamed. It is also to be +remembered that the habit of giving reproof and advice is one fastened +in them by the daily necessity of their professional work.[3] + +Sec. 3. As the position of the teacher has ceased to be undervalued, there +has been an additional impetus given to self-glorification on his part, +and this also--in connection with the fact that schools are no longer +isolated as of old, but subject to constant comparison and +competition--leads to much careless theorizing among its teachers, +especially in the literary field. + +Sec. 4. Pedagogics, because it deals with the human spirit, belongs, in a +general classification of the sciences, to the philosophy of spirit, and +in the philosophy of spirit it must be classified under the practical, +and not the merely theoretical, division. For its problem is not merely +to comprehend the nature of that with which it has to deal, the human +spirit--its problem is not merely to influence one mind (that of the +pupil) by another (that of the teacher)--but to influence it in such a +way as to produce the mental freedom of the pupil. The problem is, +therefore, not so much to obtain performed works as to excite mental +activity. A creative process is required. The pupil is to be forced to +go in certain beaten tracks, and yet he is to be so forced to go in +these that he shall go of his own freewill. All teaching which does not +leave the mind of the pupil free is unworthy of the name. It is true +that the teacher must understand the nature of mind, as he is to deal +with mind, but when he has done this he has still his main principle of +action unsolved; for the question is, knowing the nature of the mind, +How shall he incite it to action, already predetermined in his own mind, +without depriving the mind of the pupil of its own free action? How +shall he restrain and guide, and yet not enslave? + +If, in classifying all sciences, as suggested at the beginning of this +section, we should subdivide the practical division of the Philosophy of +Spirit, which might be called Ethics, one could find a place for +Pedagogics under some one of the grades of Ethics. The education which +the child receives through the influence of family life lies at the +basis of all other teaching, and what the child learns of life, its +duties, and possibilities, in its own home, forms the foundation for all +after-work. On the life of the family, then, as a presupposition, all +systems of Education must be built. In other words, the school must not +attempt to initiate the child into the knowledge of the world--it must +not assume the care of its first training; that it must leave to the +family.[4] But the science of Pedagogics does not, as a science, +properly concern itself with the family education, or with that point of +the child's life which is dominated by the family influence. That is +education, in a certain sense, without doubt, but it does not properly +belong to a science of Pedagogics. But, on the other hand, it must be +remembered that this science, as here expounded, presupposes a previous +family life in the human being with whom it has to deal. + +Sec. 5. Education as a science will present the necessary and universal +principles on which it is based; Education as an art will consist in the +practical realization of these in the teacher's work in special places, +under special circumstances, and with special pupils. In the skillful +application of the principles of the science to the actual demands of +the art lies the opportunity for the educator to prove himself a +creative artist; and it is in the difficulty involved in this practical +work that the interest and charm of the educator's work consists. + +The teacher must thus adapt himself to the pupil. But, in doing so, he +must have a care that he do not carry this adaptation to such a degree +as to imply that the pupil is not to change; and he must see to it, +also, that the pupil shall always be worked upon by the matter which he +is considering, and not too much by the personal influence of the +teacher through whom he receives it.[5] + +Sec. 6. The utmost care is necessary lest experiments which have proved +successful in certain cases should be generalized into rules, and a +formal, dead creed, so to speak, should be adopted. All professional +experiences are valuable as material on which to base new conclusions +and to make new plans, but only for that use. Unless the day's work is, +every day, a new creation, a fatal error has been made. + +Sec. 7. Pedagogics as a science must consider Education-- + + (1) In its general idea; + + (2) In its different phases; + + (3) In the special systems arising from this general idea, + acting under special circumstances at special times.[6] + +Sec. 8. With regard to the First Part, we remark that by Education, in its +general idea, we do not mean any mere history of Pedagogics, nor can any +history of Pedagogics be substituted for a systematic exposition of the +underlying idea. + +Sec. 9. The second division considers Education under three heads--as +physical, intellectual, and moral--and forms, generally, the principal +part of all pedagogical treatises. + +In this part lies the greatest difficulty as to exact limitation. The +ideas on these divisions are often undefined and apt to be confounded, +and the detail of which they are capable is almost unlimited, for we +might, under this head, speak of all kinds of special schools, such as +those for war, art, mining, etc. + +Sec. 10. In the Third Part we consider the different realizations of the +one general idea of Pedagogics as it has developed itself under +different circumstances and in different ages of the world. + +The general idea is forced into different phases by the varying +physical, intellectual, and moral conditions of men. The result is the +different systems, as shown in the analysis. The general idea is one. +The view of the end to be obtained determines in each case the +actualization of this idea. Hence the different systems of Education are +each determined by the stand-point from which the general ideal is +viewed. Proceeding in this manner, it might be possible to construct a +history of Pedagogics, _a priori_, without reference to actual history, +since all the possible systems might be inferred from the possible +definite number of points of view. + +Each lower stand-point will lead to a higher, but it will not be lost in +it. Thus, where Education, for the sake of the nation,[7] merges into +the Education based on Christianity, the form is not thereby destroyed, +but, rather, in the transition first attains its full realization. The +systems of Education which were based on the idea of the nation had, in +the fullness of time, outgrown their own limits, and needed a new form +in order to contain their own true idea. The idea of the nation, as the +highest principle, gives way for that of Christianity. A new life came +to the old idea in what at first seemed to be its destruction. The idea +of the nation was born again, and not destroyed, in Christianity. + +Sec. 11. The final system, so far, is that of the present time, which thus +is itself the fruit of all the past systems, as well as the seed of all +systems that are to be. The science of Pedagogics, in the consideration +of the system of the present, thus again finds embodied the general idea +of education, and thus returns upon itself to the point from whence it +set out. In the First and Second Parts there is already given the idea +which dominates the system found thus necessarily existing in the +present. + + + {FIRST PART. {Its Nature. + {In its General {Its Form. + { Idea. {Its Limits. + { + {SECOND PART. {Physical. + {In its Special {Intellectual. + { Elements. {Moral. + { + { { { {Family China. + { { {Passive. {Caste India. + { { { {Monkish Thibet. + { { { + { { { {Military Persia. + { {National. {Active {Priestly Egypt. + { { { {Industrial Phoenicia. + { { { + { { { {AEsthetic Greece. + E { { {Individual. {Practical Rome. + D { { { {Abstract {Northern. + U { { { { Individual{ Barbarians. + C { { + A { {Theocratic. . . . . . . . . . . . Jews. + T { { + I { {Monkish. + O {THIRD PART. { + N {In its { + { Particular { + { Systems. { + { {Chivalric. + { { + { {Humanitarian. {For Special {Jesuitic. + { { { Callings. {Pietistic. + { { + { { {The + { { { {Humanistic. + { {For Civil {To achieve { + { { Life. { an Ideal of {The + { { { Culture. {Philanthropic + { { { {Movement. + { { { + { { {For Free Citizenship. + + + + +FIRST PART. + +The General Idea of Education. + + +Sec. 12. A full treatment of Pedagogics must distinguish-- + + (1) The nature of Education; + + (2) The form of Education; + + (3) The limits of Education. + + +_I.--The Nature of Education._ + +Sec. 13. The nature of Education is determined by the nature of mind, the +distinguishing mark of which is that it can be developed only from +within, and by its own activity. Mind is essentially free--_i.e._, it +has the capacity for freedom--but it cannot be said to possess freedom +till it has obtained it by its own voluntary effort. Till then it cannot +be truly said to be free. Education consists in enabling a human being +to take possession of, and to develop himself by, his own efforts, and +the work of the educator cannot be said to be done in any sense where +this is not accomplished. In general, we may say that the work of +education consists in leading to a full development of all the inherent +powers of the mind, and that its work is done when, in this way, the +mind has attained perfect freedom, or the state in which alone it can be +said to be truly itself.[8] + +The isolated human being can never become truly man. If such human +beings (like the wild girl of the forest of Ardennes) have been found, +they have only proved to us that reciprocal action with our fellow +beings is necessary for the development of our powers. Caspar Hauser, in +his subterranean prison, will serve as an example of what man would be +without men. One might say that this fact is typified by the first cry +of the newly-born child. It is as if the first expression of its +seemingly independent life were a cry for help from others. On the side +of nature the human being is at first quite helpless. + +Sec. 14. Man is, therefore, the only proper object of education. It is true +that we speak of the education of plants and of animals, but we +instinctively apply other terms when we do so, for we say "raising" +plants, and "training" animals. When we "train" or "break" an animal, it +is true that we do, by pain or pleasure, lead him into an exercise of a +new activity. But the difference between this and Education consists in +the fact that, though he possessed capacity, yet by no amount of +association with his kind would he ever have acquired this new +development. It is as if we impress upon his plastic nature the imprint +of our loftier nature, which imprint he takes mechanically, and does not +himself recognize it as his own internal nature. We train him for our +recognition, not for his own. But, on the contrary, when we educate a +human being, we only excite him to create for himself, and out of +himself, that for which he would most earnestly strive had he any +appreciation of it beforehand, and in proportion as he does appreciate +it he recognizes it joyfully as a part of himself, as his own +inheritance, which he appropriates with a knowledge that it is his, or, +rather, is a part of his own nature. He who speaks of "raising" human +beings uses language which belongs only to the slave-dealer, to whom +human beings are only cattle for labor, and whose property increases in +value with the number. + +Are there no school-rooms where Education has ceased to have any +meaning, and where physical pain is made to produce its only possible +result--a mechanical, external repetition? The school-rooms where the +creative word--the only thing which can influence the mind--has ceased +to be used as the means are only plantations, where human beings are +degraded to the position of lower animals. + +Sec. 15. When we speak of the Education of the human race, we mean the +gradual growth of the nations of the earth, as a whole, towards the +realization of self-conscious freedom. Divine Providence is the teacher +here. The means by which the development is effected are the various +circumstances and actions of the different races of men, and the pupils +are the nations. The unfolding of this great Education is generally +treated of under the head of Philosophy of History. + +Sec. 16. Education, however, in a more restricted sense, has to do with the +shaping of the individual. Each one of us is to be educated by the laws +of physical nature--by the relations into which we come with the +national life, in its laws, customs, etc., and by the circumstances +which daily surround us. By the force of these we find our arbitrary +will hemmed in, modified, and forced to take new channels and forms. We +are too often unmindful of the power with which these forces are daily +and hourly educating us--_i.e._, calling out our possibilities into +real existence. If we set up our will in opposition to either of these; +if we act in opposition to the laws of nature; if we seriously offend +the laws, or even the customs, of the people among whom we live; or if +we despise our individual lot, we do so only to find ourselves crushed +in the encounter. We only learn the impotence of the individual against +these mighty powers; and that discovery is, of itself, a part of our +education. It is sometimes only by such severe means that God is +revealed to the man who persistently misunderstands and defies His +creation. All suffering brought on ourselves by our own violation of +laws, whether natural, ethical, or divine, must be, however, thus +recognized as the richest blessing. We do not mean to say that it is +never allowable for a man, in obedience to the highest laws of his +spiritual being, to break away from the fetters of nature--to offend the +ethical sense of his own people, or to struggle against the might of +destiny. Reformers and martyrs would be examples of such, and our +remarks above do not apply to them, but to the perverse, the frivolous, +and the conceited; to those who are seeking in their action, not the +undoubted will of God, but their own individual will or caprice. + +Sec. 17. But we generally use the word Education in a still narrower +sense than either of these, for we mean by it the working of one +individual mind upon or within another in some definite and premeditated +way, so as to fit the pupil for life generally, or for some special +pursuit. For this end the educator must be relatively finished in his +own education, and the pupil must possess confidence in him, or +docility. He must be teachable. That the work be successful, demands the +very highest degree of talent, knowledge, skill, and prudence; and any +development is impossible if a well-founded authority be wanting in the +educator, or docility on the part of the pupil. + +Education, in this narrowest and technical sense, is an outgrowth of +city or urban life. As long as men do not congregate in large cities, +the three forces spoken of in Sec. 16--_i.e._, the forces of nature, +national customs, and circumstances--will be left to perform most of the +work of Education; but, in modern city life, the great complication of +events, the uncertainty in the results--though careful forethought has +been used--the immense development of individuality, and the pressing +need of various information, break the power of custom, and render a +different method necessary. The larger the city is, the more free is the +individual in it from the restraints of customs, the less subjected to +curious criticism, and the more able is he to give play to his own +idiosyncrasies. This, however, is a freedom which needs the counterpoise +of a more exact training in conventionalities, if we would not have it +dangerous. Hence the rapid multiplication of educational institutions +and systems in modern times (one chief characteristic of which is the +development of urban life). The ideal Telemachus of Fenelon differs very +much from the real Telemachus of history. Fenelon proposed an education +which trained a youth to reflect, and to guide himself by reason. The +Telemachus of the heroic age followed the customs ("use and wont") of +his times with _naive_ obedience. The systems of Education once +sufficient do not serve the needs of modern life, any more than the +defenses once sufficient against hostile armies are sufficient against +the new weapons adopted by modern warfare. + +Sec. 18. The problem with which modern Education has to deal may be said, +in general terms, to be the development in the individual soul of the +indwelling Reason, both practical (as will) and theoretical (as +intellect). To make a child good is only a part of Education; we have +also to develop his intelligence. The sciences of Ethics and Education +are not the same. Again, we must not forget that no pupil is simply a +human being, like every other human being; he is also an individual, and +thus differs from every other one of the race. This is a point which +must never be lost sight of by the educator. Human beings may be--nay, +must be--educated in company, but they cannot be educated simply in the +mass. + +Sec. 19. Education is to lead the pupil by a graded series of exercises, +previously arranged and prescribed by the educator, to a definite end. +But these exercises must take on a peculiar form for each particular +pupil under the special circumstances present. Hasty and inconsiderate +work _may_, by chance, accomplish much; but no work which is not +_systematic_ can advance and fashion him in conformity with his tenure, +and such alone is to be called Education; for Education implies both a +comprehension of the end to be attained and of the means necessary to +compass that end. + +Sec. 20. Culture, however, means more and more every year; and, as the +sum total of knowledge increases for mankind, it becomes necessary, in +order to be a master in any one line, to devote one's self almost +exclusively to that. Hence arises, for the teacher, the difficulty of +preserving the unity and wholeness which are essential to a complete +man. The principle of division of labor comes in. He who is a teacher by +profession becomes one-sided in his views; and, as teaching divides and +subdivides into specialities, this abnormal one-sideness tends more and +more to appear. Here we find a parallelism in the profession of +Medicine, with a corresponding danger of narrowness; for that, too, is +in a process of constant specialization, and the physician who treats +nervous diseases is likely to be of the opinion that all trouble arises +from that part of the organism, or, at least, that all remedies should +be applied there. This tendency to one-sideness is inseparable from the +progress of civilization and that of science and arts. It contains, +nevertheless, a danger of which no teacher should be unwarned. An +illustration is furnished by the microscope or telescope; a higher power +of the instrument implies a narrower field of view. To concentrate our +observation upon one point implies the shutting out of others. This +difficulty with the teacher creates one for the pupil. + +In this view one might be inclined to judge that the life of the savage +as compared with that of civilized man, or that of a member of a rural +community as compared with that of an inhabitant of a city, were the +more to be desired. The savage has his hut, his family, his cocoa-palm, +his weapons, his passions; he fishes, hunts, amuses himself, adorns +himself, and enjoys the consciousness that he is the center of a little +world; while the denizen of a city must often acknowledge that he is, so +to speak, only one wheel of a gigantic machine. Is the life of the +savage, therefore, more favorable to human development? The +characteristic idea of modern civilization is: The development of the +individual as the end for which the State exists. The great empires of +Persia, Egypt, and India, wherein the individual was of value only as he +ministered to the strength of the State, have given way to the modern +nations, where individual freedom is pushed so far that the State seems +only an instrument for the good of the individual. From being the +supreme end of the individual, the State has become the means for his +advancement into freedom; and with this very exaltation of the value of +the mere individual over the State, as such, there is inseparably +connected the seeming destruction of the wholeness of the individual +man. But the union of State and individual, which was in ancient times +merely mechanical, has now become a living process, in which constant +interaction gives rise to all the intellectual life of modern +civilization. + +Sec. 21. The work of Education being thus necessarily split up, we have +the distinction between general and special schools. The work of the +former is to give general development--what is considered essential for +all men; that of the latter, to prepare for special callings. The former +should furnish a basis for the latter--_i.e._, the College should +precede the Medical School, etc., and the High School the Normal. In the +United States, owing to many causes, this is unfortunately not the case. + +The difference between city and country life is important here. The +teacher in a country school, and, still more, the private tutor or +governess, must be able to teach many more things than the teacher in a +graded school in the city, or the professor in a college or university. +The danger on the one side is of superficiality, on the other of +narrowness. + +Sec. 22. The Education of any individual can be only relatively finished. +His possibilities are infinite. His actual realization of those +possibilities must always remain far behind. The latter can only +approximate to the former. It can never reach them. The term "finishing +an education" needs, therefore, some definition; for, as a technical +term, it has undoubtedly a meaning. An immortal soul can never complete +its development; for, in so doing, it would give the lie to its own +nature. We cannot speak properly, however, of educating an idiot. Such +an unfortunate has no power of generalization, and no conscious +personality. We can train him mechanically, but we cannot educate him. +This will help to illustrate the difference, spoken of in Sec. 14, between +Education and Mechanical training. + +We obtain astonishing results, it is true, in our schools for idiots, +and yet we cannot fail to perceive that, after all, we have only an +external result. We produce a mechanical performance of duties, and yet +there seems to be no actual mental growth. It is an exogenous, and not +an endogenous, growth, to use the language of Botany.[9] Continual +repetition, under the most gentle patience, renders the movements easy, +but, after all, they are only automatic, or what the physicians call +reflex. + +We have the same result produced in a less degree when we attempt to +teach an intelligent child something which is beyond his active +comprehension. A child may be taught to do or say almost anything by +patient training, but, if what he is to say is beyond the power of his +mental comprehension, and hence of his active assimilation, we are only +training him as we train an animal (Sec. 14), and not educating him. We +call such recitations parrot recitations, and, by our use of the word, +express exactly in what position the pupils are placed. An idiot is only +a case of permanently arrested development. What in the intelligent +child is a passing phase is for the idiot a fixed state. We have idiots +of all grades, as we have children of all ages. + +The above observations must not be taken to mean that children should +never be taught to perform operations in arithmetic which they do not, +in cant phrase, "perfectly understand," or to learn poetry whose whole +meaning they cannot fathom. Into this error many teachers have fallen. + +There can be no more profitable study for a teacher than to visit one of +these numerous idiot schools. He finds the alphabet of his professional +work there. As the philologist learns of the formation and growth of +language by examining, not the perfectly formed languages, but the +dialects of savage tribes, so with the teacher. In like manner more +insight into the philosophy of teaching and of the nature of the mind +can be acquired by teaching a class of children to read than in any +other grade of work. + + +_II.--The Form of Education._ + +Sec. 23. The general form of Education follows from the nature of mind. +Mind is nothing but what it itself creates out of its own activity. It +is, at first, mind as undeveloped or unconscious (in the main); but, +secondly, it acquires the power of examining its own action, of +considering itself as an object of attention, as if it were a quite +foreign thing--_i.e._, it reflects (in this stage it is really ignorant +that it is studying its own nature); and, finally, it becomes conscious +that this, which it had been examining, and of whose existence it is +conscious, is its own self: It attains self-consciousness. It is through +this estrangement from itself, given back to itself again and restored +to unity, but it is no longer a simple, unconscious unity. In this third +state only can it be said to be free--_i.e._, to possess itself. +Education cannot create; it can only help to develop into reality the +previously-existent possibility; it can only help to bring forth to +light the hidden life. + +Sec. 24. All culture, in whatever line, must pass through these two +stages of estrangement and of reunion; the reunion being not of two +different things, but the recognition of itself by thought, and its +acceptance of itself as itself. And the more complete is the +estrangement--_i.e._, the more perfectly can the thought be made to +view itself as a somewhat entirely foreign to itself, to look upon it as +a different and independent somewhat--the more complete and perfect will +be its union with and acceptance of its object as one with itself when +the recognition does finally take place. Through culture we are led to +this conscious possession of our own thought. Plato gives to the +feeling, with which knowledge must necessarily begin, the name of +wonder. But wonder is not knowledge; it is only the first step towards +it. It is the half-terrified attention which the mind fixes on an +object, and the half-terror would be impossible did it not dimly +forebode that it was something of its own nature at which it was +looking. The child delights in stories of the far-off, the strange, and +the wonderful. It is as if they hoped to find in these some solution to +themselves--a solution which they have, as it were, asked in vain of +familiar scenes and objects. Their craving for such is the proof of how +far their nature transcends all its known conditions. They are like +adventurous explorers who push out to unknown regions in hopes of +finding the freedom and wealth which lies only within themselves. They +want to be told about things which they never saw, such as terrible +conflagrations, banditti life, wild animals, gray old ruins, Robinson +Crusoes on far-off, happy islands. They are irresistibly attracted by +whatever is highly colored and dazzlingly lighted. The child prefers the +story of Sinbad the Sailor to any tales of his own home and nation, +because mind has this necessity of getting, as it were, outside of +itself so as to obtain a view of itself. As the child grows to youth he +is, from the same reasons, desirous of traveling. + +Sec. 25. Work may be defined as the activity of the mind in a conscious +concentration on, and absorption in, some object, with the purpose of +acquiring or producing it. Play is the activity of the mind which gives +itself up to surrounding objects according to its own caprice, without +any thought as to results. The Educator gives out work to the pupil, but +he leaves him to himself in his play. + +Sec. 26. It is necessary to draw a sharp line between work and play. If the +Educator has not respect for work as an activity of great weight and +importance, he not only spoils the relish of the pupil for play, which +loses all its charm of freedom when not set off by its antithesis of +earnest labor, but he undermines in the pupil's mind all respect for any +real existence. On the other hand, he who does not give to the child +space, time, and opportunity for play prevents the originality of his +pupil from free development through the exercise of his creative +ingenuity. Play sends the child back to his work refreshed, because in +it he loses himself without constraint and according to his own fancy, +while in work he is required to yield himself up in a manner prescribed +for him by another. + +Let the teacher watch his pupils while at play if he would discover +their individual peculiarities, for it is then that they unconsciously +betray their real propensities. This antithesis of work and play runs +through the entire life, the form only of play varying with years and +occupations. To do what we please, as we please, and when we please, not +for any reason, but just because we please, remains play always. +Children in their sports like nothing better than to counterfeit what is +to be the earnest work of their after-lives. The little girl plays with +her dolls, and the boy plays he is a soldier and goes to mimic wars. + +It is, of course, an error to suppose that the play of a child is +simply muscular. The lamb and the colt find their full enjoyment in +capering aimlessly about the field. But to the child play would be +incomplete which did not bring the mind into action. Children derive +little enjoyment from purely muscular exercise. They must at the same +time have an object requiring mental action to attain it. A number of +children set simply to run up and down a field would tire of the +exercise in five minutes; but put a ball amongst them and set them to a +game and they will be amused by it for hours. + +Exceptional mental development is always preceded, and is, indeed, +produced by, an exceptional amount of exercise in the form of play on +the part of the special faculties concerned. The peculiar tendencies +exhibited in play are due to the large development of particular +faculties, and the ultimate giant strength of a faculty is brought about +by play. The genius is no doubt born, not made; but, although born, it +would dwindle away in infancy were it not for the constant exercise +taken in play, which is as necessary for development as food for the +maintenance of life. + +Sec. 27. Work should never be treated as if it were play, nor play as if it +were work. Those whose work is creative activity of the mind may find +recreation in the details of science; and those, again, whose vocation +is scientific research can find recreation in the practice of art in its +different departments. What is work to one may thus be play to another. +This does not, however, contradict the first statement. + +Sec. 28. It is the province of education so to accustom us to different +conditions or ways of thinking and acting that they shall no longer seem +strange or foreign to us. When these have become, as we say, "natural" +to us--when we find the acquired mode of thinking or acting just what +our inclination leads us to adopt unconsciously, a _Habit_ has been +formed. A habit is, then, the identity of natural inclination with the +special demands of any particular doing or suffering, and it is thus the +external condition of all progress. As long as we require the conscious +act of our will to the performance of a deed, that deed is a somewhat +foreign to ourselves, and not yet a part of ourselves. The practical +work of the educator may thus be said to consist in leading the mind of +the pupil over certain lines of thought till it becomes "natural" or +spontaneous for him to go by that road. Much time is wasted in schools +where the pupil's mind is not led aright at first, for then he has to +unlearn habits of thought which are already formed. The work of the +teacher is to impress good methods of studying and thinking upon the +minds of his pupils, rather than to communicate knowledge. + +Sec. 29. It is, at first sight, entirely indifferent what a Habit shall +relate to--_i.e._, the point is to get the pupil into the way of +forming habits, and it is not at first of so much moment what habit is +formed as that a habit is formed. But we cannot consider that there is +anything morally neutral in the abstract, but only in the concrete, or +in particular examples. An action may be of no moral significance to one +man, and under certain circumstances, while to another man, or to the +same man under different circumstances, it may have quite a different +significance, or may possess an entirely opposite character. Appeal must +be made, then, to the individual conscience of each one to decide what +is and what is not permissible to that individual under the given +circumstances. Education must make it its first aim to awaken in the +pupil a sensitiveness to spiritual and ethical distinctions which knows +that nothing is in its own nature morally insignificant or indifferent, +but shall recognize, even in things seemingly small, a universal human +significance. But, yet, in relation to the highest interests of morality +or the well-being of society, the pupil must be taught to subordinate +without hesitation all that relates exclusively to his own personal +comfort or welfare for the well-being of his fellow-men, or for moral +rectitude. + +When we reflect upon habit, it at once assumes for us the character of +useful or injurious. The consequences of a habit are not indifferent. + +Whatever action tends as a harmonious means to the realization of our +purpose is desirable or advantageous, and whatever either partially +contradicts or wholly destroys it is disadvantageous. Advantage and +disadvantage being, then, only relative terms, dependent upon the aim or +purpose which we happen to have in view, a habit which may be +advantageous to one man under certain circumstances may be +disadvantageous to another man, or even to the same man, under other +circumstances. Education must, then, accustom the youth to consider for +himself the expediency or inexpediency of any action in relation to his +own vocation in life. He must not form habits which will be inexpedient +with regard to that. + +Sec. 31. There is, however, an _absolute_ distinction of habits as morally +good and bad. From this absolute stand-point we must, after all, decide +what is for us allowable or forbidden, what is expedient and what +inexpedient. + +Sec. 32. As to its form, habit may be either passive or active. By passive +habit is meant a habit of composure which surveys undisturbed whatever +vicissitudes, either external or internal, may fall to our lot, and +maintains itself superior to them all, never allowing its power of +acting to be paralyzed by them. It is not, however, merely a stoical +indifference, nor is it the composure which comes from inability to +receive impressions--a sort of impassivity. It is that composure which +is the highest result of power. Nor is it a selfish love of ease which +intentionally withdraws itself from annoyances in order to remain +undisturbed. It is not manifested because of a desire to be out of these +vicissitudes. It is, while in them, to be not of them. It is the +composure which does not fret itself over what it cannot change. The +soul that has built for itself this stronghold of freedom within itself +may vividly experience joy and sorrow, pain and pleasure, and yet +serenely know that it is intrenched in walls which are inaccessible to +their attacks, because it knows that it is infinitely superior to all +that may chance or change. What is meant by active habit in distinction +from passive habit is found in our external activity, as skill, +facility, readiness of information, etc. It might be considered as the +equipping of our inner selves for active contest with the external +world; while passive habit is the fortifying of our inner selves against +the attack of the external world. The man who possesses habit in both +these forms impresses himself in many different ways on the outer world, +while at the same time, and all the time, he preserves intact his +personality from the constant assaults of the outer world. He handles +both spear and shield. + +Sec. 33. All education, in whatever line, must work by forming habits +physical, mental, or moral. It might be said to consist in a conversion +of actions which are at first voluntary, by means of repetition, into +instructive actions which are performed, as we say, naturally--_i.e._, +without any conscious volition. We teach a child to walk, or he teaches +himself to walk by a constant repetition of the action of the will upon +the necessary muscles; and, when the thinking brain hands over the +mechanism to the trained spinal cord, the anxious, watchful look +disappears from the face, and the child talks or laughs as he runs: then +that part of his education is completed. Henceforth the attention that +had been necessary to manage the body in walking is freed for other +work. This is only an illustration, easily understood, of what takes +place in all education. Mental and moral acts, thoughts, and feelings in +the same way are, by repetition, converted into habits and become our +nature; and character, good or bad, is only the aggregate of our habits. +When we say a person has no character, we mean exactly this: that he has +no fixed habits. But, as the great end of human life is freedom, he must +be above even habit. He must not be wholly a machine of habits, and +education must enable him to attain the power of breaking as well as of +forming habits, so that he may, when desirable, substitute one habit for +another. For habits may be (Sec. 29), according to their nature, proper or +improper, advantageous or disadvantageous, good or bad; and, according +to their form, may be (Sec. 32) either the acceptance of the external by +the internal or the reaction of the internal upon the external. Through +our freedom we must be able, not only to renounce any habit formed, but +to form a new and better one. Man should be supreme above all habits, +wearing them as garments which the soul puts on and off at will. It must +so order them all as to secure for itself a constant progress of +development into still greater freedom. In this higher view habits +become thus to our sight only necessary accompaniments of imperfect +freedom. Can we conceive of God, who is perfect Freedom, as having any +habits? We might say that, as a means toward the ever-more decided +realization of the Good, we must form a habit of voluntarily making and +breaking off habits. We must characterize as bad those habits which +relate only to our personal convenience or enjoyment. They are often not +essentially blameworthy, but there lies in them a hidden danger that +they may allure us into luxury or effeminacy. It is a false and +mechanical way of looking at the affair to suppose that a habit which +had been formed by a certain number of repetitions can be broken off by +an equal number of refusals. We can never utterly renounce a habit which +we decide to be undesirable for us except through decision and firmness. + +Sec. 34. Education, then, must consider the preparation for authority and +obedience (Sec. 17); for a rational ordering of one's actions according to +universal principles, and, at the same time, a preservation of +individuality (Sec. 18); for work and play (Sec. 25); for habits of +spontaneity or originality (Sec. 28). To endeavor by any set rules to +harmonize in the pupil these opposites will be a vain endeavor, and +failure in the solution of the problem is quite possible by reason of +the freedom of the pupil, of surrounding circumstances, or of mistakes +on the part of the teacher, and the possibility of this negative result +must, therefore, enter as an element of calculation into the work +itself. All the dangers which may in any way threaten the youth must be +considered in advance, and he must be fortified against them. While we +should not intentionally expose the youth to temptation in order to +prove his strength of resistance, neither should we, on the other hand, +endeavor to seclude him from all chance of dangerous temptation. To do +the former would be satanic; while to do the latter would be ridiculous, +useless, and in fact dangerous in the highest degree, for temptation +comes more from within than from without, and any secret inclination +will in some way seek, or even create, its own opportunity for +gratification. The real safety from sin lies, not in seclusion of one's +self from the world[10]--for all the elements of worldliness are innate +in each individual--but in an occupying of the restless activity in +other ways, in learning and discipline; these being varied as time goes +on, according to the age and degree of proficiency. Not to crush out, +but to direct, the child's activity, whether physical or mental, is the +key to all real success in education. The sentimentalism which has, +during the last few years, in this country (the United States), tended +to diminish to so great an extent the actual work to be performed by our +boys and girls, has set free a dangerous amount of energy whose new +direction gives cause for grave alarm. To endeavor to prevent the youth +from all free and individual relations with the real world, implies a +never-ending watch kept over him. The consciousness of being thus +"shadowed" destroys in the youth all elasticity of spirit, all +confidence, and all originality. A constant feeling of, as it were, a +detective police at his side obscures all sense of independent action, +systematically accustoming him to dependence. Though, as the +tragic-comic story of Peter Schlemihl shows, the loss of a man's own +shadow may involve him in a series of fatalities,[11] yet to be +"shadowed" constantly by a companion, us in the pedagogical system of +the Jesuits, undermines all naturalness. And, if we endeavor to guard +too strictly against what is evil and wrong, the pupil reacts, bringing +all his intelligence into the service of his craft and cunning, till the +would-be educator stands aghast at the discovery of such evil-doing as +he had supposed impossible under his strict supervision. Within the +circle of whatever rules it may be found necessary to draw around the +young there must always be left space for freedom. Pupils should always +be led to see that all rules against which they fret are only of their +own creation; and that as grave-stones mark the place where some one has +fallen, so every law is only a record of some previous wrong-doing. The +law "Thou shalt not kill" was not given till murder had been committed. +In other words, the wrong deed preceded the law against it, and perfect +obedience is the same as perfect freedom. No obedience except that which +we gain from the pupil's own convictions has real educational +significance. + +Sec. 35. If there appears in the youth any decided deformity opposed to +the ideal which we would create in him, we should at once inquire into +its history and origin. The negative and positive are so closely +related, and depend so intimately on each other, in our being that what +appears to us to be negligence, rudeness, immorality, foolishness, or +oddity may arise from some real necessity of the pupil which in its +process of development has only taken a wrong direction. + +Sec. 36. If it should appear, on such examination, that the wrong action +was the result of avoidable ignorance, of caprice, or willfulness on the +part of the pupil, this calls for a simple prohibition on the part of +the teacher, no reason being assigned. His authority must be sufficient +for the pupil without any reason. When the fault is repeated, and the +pupil is old enough to understand, then only should the grounds of the +prohibition be stated with it. This should, however, be done in few +words, and the educator must never allow himself to lose, in a doctrinal +lecture, the idea of discipline. If he do, the pupil will soon forget +that it was his own misbehavior which was the cause of all the remarks. +The statement of the reason must be honest, and must be presented to the +youth on the side most easy for him to appreciate. False reasons are not +only morally wrong, but they lead the mind astray. We also commit a +grave error when we try to unfold to the youth all the possible +consequences of his wrong act, for those possible consequences are too +far off to affect his mind. The long lecture wearies him, especially if +it be in a stereotyped form; and with teachers who are fault-finding, +and who like to hear themselves talk, this is apt to be the case. Still +more unfortunate would it be if we really should affect the lively +imagination of a sensitive youth by our description of the wretchedness +to which his wrong-doing, if persisted in, might lead him, for then the +conviction that he has already taken one step in that direction may +produce in him a fear which in the future man may become terrible +depression and lead to degradation. + +Sec. 37. If to censure we add the threat of punishment, we have then what +in common language is called scolding. + +If threats are made, the pupil must be made to feel that they will be +faithfully executed according to the word. + +The threat of punishment is, however, to be avoided; for circumstances +may arise which will render its fulfillment not only objectionable, but +wrong, and the teacher will then find himself in the position of Herod +and bound "for his oath's sake" to a course of action which no longer +seems the best. Even the law in affixing a penalty to definite crimes +allows a certain latitude in a maximum and minimum of awarded +punishment. + +Sec. 38. It is only after other means of reformation have been tried, and +have failed, that punishment is justifiable for error, transgression, or +vice. When our simple prohibition (Sec. 36), the statement of our reason +for the prohibiting (Sec. 36), and threat of punishment (Sec. 37) have all +failed, then punishment comes and intentionally inflicts pain on the +youth in order to force him by this last means to a realization of his +wrong-doing. And here the punishment must not be given for general bad +conduct or for a perverse disposition--those being vague +generalities--but for a special act of wrong-doing at that time. He +should not be punished because he is naturally bad or because he is +generally naughty, but for this one special and particular act which he +has committed. Thus the punishment will act on the general disposition, +not directly, but through this particular act, as a manifestation of the +disposition. Then it will not accuse the innermost nature of the +culprit. This way of punishment is not only demanded by justice, but it +is absolutely necessary in view of the fact of the sophistry inherent in +human nature which is always busy in assigning various motives for its +actions. If the child understands, then, that he is punished for that +particular act which he knows himself to have committed, he cannot feel +the bitter sense of injustice and misunderstanding which a punishment +inflicted for general reasons, and which attributes to him a depravity +of motives and intentions, so often engenders. + +Sec. 39. Punishment as an educational means must, nevertheless, be always +essentially corrective, since it seeks always to bring the youth to a +comprehension of his wrong-doing and to a positive alteration in his +behavior, and, hence, has for its aim to improve him. At the same time +it is a sad testimony of the insufficiency of the means which have +been previously tried. We should on no account aim to terrify the +youth by physical force, so that to avoid that he will refrain from +doing the wrong or from repeating a wrong act already done. This would +lead only to terrorism, and his growing strength would soon put him +beyond its power and leave him without motive for refraining from +evil. Punishment may have this effect in some degree, but it should, +above all, be made to impress deeply upon his mind the eternal truth +that the evil deed is never allowed in God's universe to act +unrestrained and according to its own will, but that the good and true +is the only absolute power in the world, and that it is never at a +loss to avenge any contradiction of its will and design. + +It may be questioned whether the moral teaching in our schools be not +too negative in its measures; whether it do not confine itself too much +to forbidding the commission of the wrong deed, and spend too little +force in securing the performance of the right deed. Not a simple +refraining from the wrong, but an active doing of the right would be the +better lesson to inculcate. + +In the laws of the state the office of punishment is first to satisfy +justice,[12] and only after this is done can the improvement of the +criminal be considered. If government should proceed on the same basis +as the educator, it would make a grave mistake, for it has to deal, not +with children, but with adults, to whom it concedes the dignity of full +responsibility for all their acts. It has not to consider the reasons, +either psychological or ethical, which prompted the deed. The actual +deed is what it has first of all to deal with, and only after that is +considered and settled can it take into view any mitigating +circumstances connected therewith, or any peculiarity of the individual. +The educator, on the other hand, has to deal with those who are immature +and only growing toward responsibility. As long as they are under the +care of a teacher, he is at any rate partially accountable for what they +do. We must never confound the nature of punishment in the State with +that of punishment as an educational means. + +Sec. 40. As to punishment, as with all other work in education, it can +never be abstractly determined beforehand, but it must be regulated with +a view to the individual pupil and his peculiar circumstances. What it +shall be, and how and when administered, are problems which call for +great ingenuity and tact on the part of the educator. It must never be +forgotten that punishments vary in intensity at the will of the +educator. He fixes the standard by which they are measured in the +child's mind. Whipping is actual physical pain, and an evil in itself to +the child. But there are many other punishments which involve no +physical pain, and the intensity of which, as felt by the child, varies +according to an artificial standard in different schools. "To sit under +the clock" was a great punishment in one of our public schools--not that +the seat was not perfectly comfortable, but that one was never sent +there to sit unless for some grave misdemeanor. The teacher has the +matter in his own hands, and it is well to remember this and to grade +his punishments with much caution, so as to make all pass for their full +value. In some schools even suspension is so common that it does not +seem to the pupil a very terrible thing. "Familiarity breeds contempt," +and frequency implies familiarity. A punishment seldom resorted to will +always seem to the pupil to be severe. As we weaken, and in fact +bankrupt, language by an inordinate use of superlatives, so, also, do we +weaken any punishment by its frequent repetition. Economy of resources +should be always practiced. + +Sec. 41. In general, we might say that, for very young children, corporal +punishment is most appropriate; for boys and girls, isolation; and for +older youth, something which appeals to the sense of honor. + +Sec. 42. (1) Corporal punishment implies physical pain. Generally it +consists of a whipping, and this is perfectly justifiable in case of +persistent defiance of authority, of obstinate carelessness, or of +malicious evil-doing, so long or so often as the higher perceptions of +the offender are closed against appeal. But it must not be administered +too often, or with undue severity. To resort to deprivation of food is +cruel. But, while we condemn the false view of seeing in the rod the +only panacea for all embarrassing questions of discipline on the +teacher's part, we can have no sympathy for the sentimentality which +assumes that the dignity of humanity is affected by a blow given to a +child. It is wrong thus to confound self-conscious humanity with +child-humanity, for to the average child himself a blow is the most +natural form of retribution, and that in which all other efforts at +influence at last end. The fully grown man ought, certainly, not to be +flogged, for this kind of punishment places him on a level with the +child; or, where it is barbarously inflicted, reduces him to the level +of the brute, and thus absolutely does degrade him. In English schools +the rod is said to be often used; if a pupil of the first class, who is +never flogged, is put back into the second, he becomes again subject to +flogging. But, even if this be necessary in the schools, it certainly +has no proper place in the army and navy. + +Sec. 43. (2) To punish a pupil by isolation is to remove him temporarily +from the society of his fellows. The boy or girl thus cut off from +companionship, and forced to think only of himself, begins to understand +how helpless he is in such a position. Time passes wearily, and he is +soon eager to return to the companionship of parents, brothers and +sisters, teachers and fellow-students. + +But to leave a child entirely by himself without any supervision, and +perhaps in a dark room, is as wrong as to leave two or three together +without supervision. It often happens when they are kept after school by +themselves that they give the freest rein to their childish wantonness, +and commit the wildest pranks. + +Sec. 44. (3) Shutting children up in this way does not touch their sense +of honor, and the punishment is soon forgotten, because it relates only +to certain particular phases of their behavior. But it is quite +different when the pupil is isolated from his fellows on the ground that +by his conduct he has violated the very principles which make civilized +society possible, and is, therefore, no longer a proper member of it. +This is a punishment which touches his sense of honor, for honor is the +recognition of the individual by others as their equal, and by his +error, or by his crime, he had forfeited his right to be their equal, +their peer, and has thus severed himself from them. + +The separation from them is thus only the external form of the real +separation which he himself has brought to pass within his soul, and +which his wrong-doing has only made clearly visible. This kind of +punishment, thus touching the whole character of the youth and not +easily forgotten, should be administered with the greatest caution lest +a permanent loss of self-respect follow. When we think our wrong-doing +to be eternal in its effects, we lose all power of effort for our own +improvement. + +This sense of honor cannot be developed so well in family life, because +in the family the ties of blood make all in a certain sense equal, no +matter what may be their conduct. He who has by wrong-doing severed +himself from society is still a member of the family, and within its +sacred circle is still beloved, though it may be with bitter tears. No +matter how wrong he may have been, he still can find there the deepest +sympathy, for he is still father, brother, etc. It is in the contact of +one family with another that the feeling of honor is first developed, +and still more in the contact of the individual with an institution +which is not bound to him by any natural ties, but is an organism +entirely external to him. Thus, to the child, the school and the +school-classes offer a means of development which can never be found in +the family. + +This fact is often overlooked by those who have the charge of the +education of children. No home education, no private tutorship, can take +the place of the school as an educational influence. For the first time +in his life the child, on being sent to school, finds himself in a +community where he is responsible for his own deeds, and where he has no +one to shield him. The rights of others for whom he has no special +affection are to be respected by him, and his own are to be defended. +The knowledge gained at the school is by no means the most valuable +acquisition there obtained. It must never be forgotten by the teacher +that the school is an institution on an entirely different basis from +the family, and that personal attachment is not the principle on which +its rule can be rightly based. + +Sec. 45. This gradation of punishment from physical pain, up through +occasional isolation, to the touching of the innermost sense of honor is +very carefully to be considered, both with regard to the different ages +at which they are severally appropriate and to the different discipline +which they necessarily produce. Every punishment must, however, be +always looked at as a means to some end, and is thus transitory in its +nature. The pupil should always be conscious that it is painful to the +teacher to punish him. Nothing can be more effectual as a means of cure +for the wrong-doer than to perceive in the manner and tone of the voice, +in the very delay with which the necessary punishment is administered, +that he who punishes also suffers in order that the wrong-doer may be +cured of his fault. The principle of vicarious suffering lies at the +root of all spiritual healing. + + +_III.--The Limits of Education._ + +Sec. 46. As far as the external form of education is concerned, its limit +is reached in the instrumentality of punishment in which we seek to turn +the activity which has been employed in a wrong direction into its +proper channel, to make the deed positive instead of negative, to +substitute for the destructive deed one which shall be in harmony with +the constructive forces of society. But education implies its real +limits in its definition, which is to build up the individual into +theoretical and practical Reason. When this work goes properly on, the +authority of the educator, as authority, necessarily loses, every day, +some of its force, as the guiding principles come to form a part of the +pupil's own character, instead of being super-imposed on him from +without through the mediation of the educator. What was authority +becomes now advice and example; unreasoning and implicit obedience +passes into gratitude and affection. The pupil wears off the rough edges +of his crude individuality, which is transfigured, so to speak, into the +universality and necessity of Reason, but without losing his identity in +the process. Work becomes enjoyment, and Play is found only in a change +of activity. The youth takes possession of himself, and may now be left +to himself. There are two widely differing views with regard to the +limits of education; one lays great stress on the powerlessness of the +pupil and the great power of the teacher, and asserts that the teacher +must create something out of the pupil. + +This view is often seen to have undesirable results, where large +numbers are to be educated together. It assumes that each pupil is only +"a sample of the lot" on whom the teacher is to affix his stamp, as if +they were different pieces of goods from some factory. Thus +individuality is destroyed, and all reduced to one level, as in +cloisters, barracks, and orphan asylums, where only one individual seems +to exist. Sometimes it takes the form of a theory which holds that one +can at will flog anything into or out of a pupil. This may be called a +superstitious belief in the power of education. The opposite extreme may +be found in that system which advocates a "severe letting alone," +asserting that individuality is unconquerable, and that often the most +careful and circumspect education fails of reaching its aim because the +inherent nature of the youth has fought against it with such force as to +render abortive all opposing efforts. This idea of Pedagogy produces a +sort of indifference about means and ends which would leave each +individuality to grow as its own instinct and the chance influences of +the world might direct. The latter view would, of course, preclude the +possibility of any science of education, and make the youth only the +sport of blind fate. The comparative power of inherited tendencies and +of educational appliances is, however, one which every educator should +carefully study. Much careless generalization has been made on this +topic, and opinion is too often based upon some one instance where +accurate observation of methods and influences have been wanting. + +Sec. 47. Education has necessarily a definite _subjective limit_ in the +individuality of the youth, for it can develop in him only that which +exists in him as a possibility. It can lead and assist, but it has no +power to create. What nature has denied to a man education cannot give +him, any more than it can on the other hand annihilate his original +gifts, though it may suppress, distort, and measurably destroy them. And +yet it is impossible to decide what is the real essence of a man's +individuality until he has left behind him the years of growth, because +it is not till then that he fully attains conscious possession of +himself. Moreover, at this critical time many traits which were supposed +to be characteristic may prove themselves not to be so by disappearing, +while long-slumbering and unsuspected talents may crop out. Whatever has +been forced upon a child, though not in harmony with his individuality, +whatever has been driven into him without having been actively accepted +by him, or having had a definite relation to his culture--will remain +perhaps, but only as an external foreign ornament, only as a parasitic +growth which weakens the force of his real nature. But we must +distinguish from these little affectations which arise from a +misconception of the limits of individuality that effort of imitation +which children and young people often exhibit in trying to copy in their +own actions those peculiarities which they observe and admire in +perfectly-developed persons with whom they may come in contact. They see +a reality which corresponds to their own possibility, and the +presentiment of a like or a similar attainment stirs them to imitation, +although this external imitation may be sometimes disagreeable or +ridiculous to the lookers-on. We ought not to censure it too severely, +remembering that it springs from a positive striving towards true +culture, and needs only to be properly directed, and never to be roughly +put down. + +Sec. 48. _The objective limit_ of education consists in the means +which can be applied for it. That the capacity for culture should exist +is the first condition of success, but it is none the less necessary +that it be cultivated. But how much cultivation shall be given to it +must depend in very great degree on the means which are practicable, and +this will undoubtedly again depend on the worldly possessions and +character of the family to which the pupil belongs. If he comes of a +cultivated and refined family, he will have a great advantage at the +start over his less favored comrades; and, with regard to many of the +arts and sciences, this limitation of education is of great +significance. But the means alone will not answer. Without natural +capacity, all the educational apparatus possible is of no avail. On the +other hand, real talent often accomplishes incredible feats with very +limited means; and, if the way is only once open, makes of itself a +center of attraction which draws to itself as with magnetic power the +necessary means. Moral culture is, however, from its very nature, raised +above such dependence. + +If we fix our thought on the subjective limit--that of individuality (Sec. +47)--we detect the ground for that indifference which lays little stress +on education (Sec. 46, end). If, on the other hand, we concentrate our +attention on the means of culture, we shall perceive the reason of the +other extreme spoken of--of that pedagogical despotism (Sec. 46) which +fancies that it is able to prescribe and enforce at will upon the pupil +any culture whatever, without regard to his special characteristics. + +Sec. 49. Education comes to its _absolute limit_ when the pupil has +apprehended the problem which he is to solve, has comprehended the means +which are at his disposal, and has acquired the necessary skill in using +them. The true educator seeks to render himself unnecessary by the +complete emancipation of the youth. He works always towards the +independence of the pupil, and always with the design of withdrawing so +soon as he shall have reached this stand-point, and of leaving him to +the full responsibility for his own deeds. To endeavor to hold him in +the position of a pupil after this time has been reached would be to +contradict the very essence of education, which must find its result in +the independent maturity of the youth. The inequality which formerly +existed between pupil and teacher is now removed, and nothing becomes +more oppressive to the former than any endeavor to force upon him the +authority from which, in reality, his own efforts have freed him. But +the undue hastening of this emancipation is as bad an error as an effort +after delay. The question as to whether a person is really ready for +independent action--as to whether his education is finished--may be +settled in much the same way in education as in politics. When any +people has progressed so far as to put the question whether they are +ready for freedom, it ceases to be a question; for, without the inner +consciousness of freedom itself, the question would never have occurred +to them. + +Sec. 50. But, although the pupil may rightly now be freed from the hands of +instructors, and no longer obtain his culture through them, it is by no +means to be understood that he is not to go on with the work himself. He +is now to educate himself. Each must plan out for himself the ideal +toward which he must daily strive. In this process of +self-transformation a friend may aid by advice and example, but he +cannot educate, for the act of educating necessarily implies inequality +between teacher and pupil. The human necessity for companionship gives +rise to societies of different kinds, in which we may, perhaps, say that +there is some approach to educating their members, the necessary +inequality being supplied by various grades and orders. They presuppose +education in the usual sense of the word, but they wish to bring about +an education in a higher sense, and, therefore, they veil the last form +of their ideal in mystery and secrecy. + +By the term _Philister_ the Germans indicate the man of a civilized +state who lives on, contented with himself and devoid of any impulse +towards further self-culture. To one who is always aspiring after an +Ideal, such a one cannot but be repulsive. But how many are they who do +not, sooner or later, in mature life, crystallize, as it were, so that +any active life, any new progress, is to them impossible? + + +ANALYSIS AND COMMENTARY. + +Sec. 1. Pedagogics is not a complete, independent science by itself. It +borrows the results of other sciences [_e.g._, it presupposes the +science of Rights, treating of the institutions of the family and civil +society, as well as of the State; it presupposes the science of +anthropology, in which is treated the relations of the human mind to +nature. Nature conditions the development of the individual human being. +But the history of the individual and the history of the race presents a +continual emancipation from nature, and a continual growth into freedom, +_i.e._, into ability to know himself and to realize himself in the +world by making the matter and forces of the world his instruments and +tools. Anthropology shows us how man as a natural being--_i.e._, as +having a body--is limited. There is climate, involving heat and cold and +moisture, the seasons of the year, etc.; there is organic growth, +involving birth, growth, reproduction, and decay; there is race, +involving the limitations of heredity; there is the telluric life of the +planet and the circulation of the forces of the solar system, whence +arise the processes of sleeping, waking, dreaming, and kindred +phenomena; there is the emotional nature of man, involving his feelings, +passions, instincts, and desires; then there are the five senses, and +their conditions. Then, there is the science of phenomenology, treating +of the steps by which mind rises from the stage of mere feeling and +sense-perception to that of self-consciousness, _i.e._, to a +recognition of mind as true substance, and of matter as mere phenomenon +created by Mind (God). Then, there is psychology, including the +treatment of the stages of activity of mind, as so-called "faculties" of +the mind, _e.g._, attention, sense-perception, imagination, conception, +understanding, judgment, reason, and the like. Psychology is generally +made (by English writers) to include, also, what is here called +anthropology and phenomenology. After psychology, there is the science +of ethics, or of morals and customs; then, the Science of Rights, +already mentioned; then, Theology, or the Science of Religion, and, +after all these, there is Philosophy, or the Science of Science. Now, it +is clear that the Science of Education treats of the process of +development, by and through which man, as a merely natural being, +becomes spirit, or self-conscious mind; hence, it presupposes all the +sciences named, and will be defective if it ignores nature, or mind, or +any stage or process of either, especially Anthropology, Phenomenology, +Psychology, Ethics, Rights, AEsthetics, or Science of Art and Literature, +Religion, or Philosophy]. + +Sec. 2. The scope of pedagogics being so broad, and its presuppositions so +vast, its limits are not well defined, and its treatises are very apt to +lack logical sequence and conclusion; and, indeed, frequently to be mere +collections of unjustified and unexplained assumptions, dogmatically set +forth. Hence the low repute of pedagogical literature as a whole. + +Sec. 3. Moreover, education furnishes a special vocation, that of teaching. +(All vocations are specializing--being cut off, as it were, from the +total life of man. The "division of labor" requires that each individual +shall concentrate his endeavors and be a _part_ of the whole). + +Sec. 4. Pedagogics, as a special science, belongs to the collection of +sciences (already described, in commenting on Sec. 1) included under the +philosophy of Spirit or Mind, and more particularly to that part of it +which relates to the will (ethics and science of rights, rather than to +the part relating to the intellect and feeling, as anthropology, +phenomenology, psychology, aesthetics, and religion. "Theoretical" +relates to the _intellect_, "practical" relates to the _will_, in this +philosophy). The province of practical philosophy is the investigation +of the nature of freedom, and the process of securing it by +self-emancipation from nature. Pedagogics involves the conscious +exertion of influence on the part of the will of the teacher upon the +will of the pupil, with a purpose in view--that of inducing the pupil to +form certain prescribed habits, and adopt prescribed views and +inclinations. The entire science of mind (as above shown), is +presupposed by the science of education, and must be kept constantly in +view as a guiding light. The institution of the _family_ (treated in +practical philosophy) is the starting-point of education, and without +this institution properly realized, education would find no solid +foundation. The right to be educated on the part of children, and the +duty to educate on the part of parents, are reciprocal; and there is no +family life so poor and rudimentary that it does not furnish the most +important elements of education--no matter what the subsequent influence +of the school, the vocation, and the state. + +Sec. 5. Pedagogics as science, distinguished from the same as an art: the +former containing the abstract general treatment, and the latter taking +into consideration all the conditions of concrete individuality, +_e.g._, the peculiarities of the teacher and the pupil, and all the local +circumstances, and the power of adaptation known as "tact." + +Sec. 6. The special conditions and peculiarities, considered in education +as an art, may be formulated and reduced to system, but they should not +be introduced as a part of the _science_ of education. + +Sec. 7. Pedagogics has three parts: first, it considers the idea and nature +of education, and arrives at its true definition; second, it presents +and describes the special provinces into which the entire field of +education is divided; third, it considers the historical evolution of +education by the human race, and the individual systems of education +that have arisen, flourished, and decayed, and their special functions +in the life of man. + +Sec. 8. The scope of the first part is easy to define. The history of +pedagogics, of course, contains all the ideas or definitions of the +nature of education; but it must not for that reason be substituted for +the scientific investigation of the nature of education, which alone +should constitute this first part (and the history of education be +reserved for the third part). + +Sec. 9. The second part includes a discussion of the threefold nature of +man as body, intellect, and will. The difficulty in this part of the +science is very great, because of its dependence upon other sciences +(_e.g._, upon physiology, anthropology, etc.), and because of the +temptation to go into details (_e.g._, in the practical department, to +consider the endless varieties of schools for arts and trades). + +Sec. 10. The third part contains the exposition of the various national +standpoints furnished (in the history of the world) for the bases of +particular systems of education. In each of these systems will be found +the general idea underlying all education, but it will be found existing +under special modifications, which have arisen through its application +to the physical, intellectual, and ethical conditions of the people. But +we can deduce the essential features of the different systems that may +appear in history, for there are only a limited number of systems +possible. Each lower form finds itself complemented in some higher form, +and its function and purpose then become manifest. The systems of +"national" education (_i.e._, Asiatic systems, in which the +individuality of each person is swallowed up in the substantiality of +the national idea--just as the individual waves get lost in the ocean on +whose surface they arise) find their complete explanation in the systems +of education that arise in Christianity (the preservation of human life +being the object of the nation, it follows that when realized abstractly +or exclusively, it absorbs and annuls the mental independence of its +subjects, and thus contradicts itself by destroying the essence of what +it undertakes to preserve, _i.e._, life (soul, mind); but within +Christianity the principle of the state is found so modified that it is +consistent with the infinite, untrammelled development of the +individual, intellectually and morally, and thus not only life is saved, +but spiritual, free life is attainable for each and for all). + +Sec. 11. The history of pedagogy ends with the present system as the latest +one. As science sees the future ideally contained in the present, it is +bound to comprehend the latest system as a realization (though +imperfect) of the ideal system of education. Hence, the system, as +scientifically treated in the first part of our work, is the system with +which the third part of our work ends. + +Sec. 12. The nature of education, its form, its limits, are now to be +investigated. (Sec.Sec. 13-50.) + +Sec. 13. The nature of education determined by the nature of Mind or +Spirit, whose activity is always devoted to realizing for itself what it +is potentially--to becoming conscious of its possibilities, and to +getting them under the control of its will. Mind is potentially free. +Education is the means by which man seeks to realize in man his +possibilities (to develop the possibilities of the race in each +individual). Hence, education has freedom for its object. + +Sec. 14. Man is the only being capable of education, in the sense above +defined, because the only conscious being. He must know himself ideally, +and then realize his ideal self, in order to become actually free. The +animals not the plants may be _trained_, or _cultivated_, but, as devoid +of self-consciousness (even the highest animals not getting above +impressions, not reaching ideas, not seizing general or abstract +thoughts), they are not realized for _themselves_, but only for us. +(That is, they do not know their ideal as we do.) + +Sec. 15. Education, taken in its widest compass, is the education of the +human race by Divine Providence. + +Sec. 16. In a narrower sense, education is applied to the shaping of the +individual, so that his caprice and arbitrariness shall give place to +rational habits and views, in harmony with nature and ethical customs. +He must not abuse nature, nor slight the ethical code of his people, nor +despise the gifts of Providence (whether for weal or woe), unless he is +willing to be crushed in the collision with these more substantial +elements. + +Sec. 17. In the narrowest, but most usual application of the term, we +understand by "education" the influence of the individual upon the +individual, exerted with the object of developing his powers in a +conscious and methodical manner, either generally or in special +directions, the educator being relatively mature, and exercising +authority over the relatively immature pupil. Without authority on the +one hand and obedience on the other, education would lack its ethical +basis--a neglect of the will-training could not be compensated for by +any amount of knowledge or smartness. + +Sec. 18. The general province of education includes the development of the +individual into the theoretical and practical reason immanent in him. +The definition which limits education to the development of the +individual into ethical customs (obedience to morality, social +conventionalities, and the laws of the state--Hegel's definition is here +referred to: "The object of education is to make men ethical") is not +comprehensive enough, because it ignores the side of the _intellect_, +and takes note only of the _will_. The individual should not only be man +in general (as he is through the adoption of moral and ethical +forms--which are _general_ forms, customs, or laws, and thus the forms +imposed by the _will_ of the _race_), but he should also be a +self-conscious subject, a particular individual (man, through his +intellect, exists for himself as an individual, while through his +general habits and customs he loses his individuality and spontaneity). + +Sec. 19. Education has a definite object in view and it proceeds by grades +of progress toward it. The systematic tendency is essential to all +education, properly so called. + +Sec. 20. Division of labor has become requisite in the higher spheres of +teaching. The growing multiplicity of branches of knowledge creates the +necessity for the specialist as teacher. With this tendency to +specialties it becomes more and more difficult to preserve what is so +essential to the pupil--his rounded human culture and symmetry of +development. The citizen of modern civilization sometimes appears to be +an artificial product by the side of the versatility of the savage man. + +Sec. 21. From this necessity of the division of labor in modern times there +arises the demand for two kinds of educational institutions--those +devoted to general education (common schools, colleges, etc.), and +special schools (for agriculture, medicine, mechanic arts, etc). + +Sec. 22. The infinite possibility of culture for the individual leaves, +of course, his actual accomplishment a mere approximation to a complete +education. Born idiots are excluded from the possibility of education, +because the lack of universal ideas in their consciousness precludes to +that class of unfortunates anything beyond a mere mechanical training. + +Sec. 23. Spirit, or mind, makes its own nature; it _is_ what it produces--a +self-result. From this follows the _form_ of education. It commences +with (1) undeveloped mind--that of the infant--wherein nearly all is +potential, and but little is actualized; (2) its first stage of +development is self-estrangement--it is absorbed in the observation of +objects around it; (3) but it discovers laws and principles +(universality) in external nature, and finally identifies them with +reason--it comes to recognize itself in nature--to recognize conscious +mind as the creator and preserver of the external world--and thus +becomes at home in nature. Education does not create, but it +emancipates. + +Sec. 24. This process of self-estrangement and its removal belongs to all +culture. The mind must fix its attention upon what is foreign to it, and +penetrate its disguise. It will discover its own substance under the +seeming alien being. Wonder is the accompaniment of this stage of +estrangement. The love of travel and adventure arises from this basis. + +Sec. 25. Labor is distinguished from play: The former concentrates its +energies on some object, with the purpose of making it conform to its +will and purpose; play occupies itself with its object according to its +caprice and arbitrariness, and has no care for the results or products +of its activity; work is prescribed by authority, while play is +necessarily spontaneous. + +Sec. 26. Work and Play: the distinction between them. In play the child +feels that he has entire control over the object with which he is +dealing, both in respect to its existence and the object for which it +exists. His arbitrary will may change both with perfect impunity, since +all depends upon his caprice; he exercises his powers in play according +to his natural proclivities, and therein finds scope to develope his own +individuality. In work, on the contrary, he must have respect for the +object with which he deals. It must be held sacred against his caprice, +must not be destroyed nor injured in any way, and its object must +likewise be respected. His own personal inclinations must be entirely +subordinated, and the business that he is at work upon must be carried +forward in accordance with its own ends and aims, and without reference +to his own feelings in the matter. + +Thus work teaches the pupil the lesson of self-sacrifice (the right of +superiority which the general interest possesses over the particular), +while play develops his personal idiosyncrasy. + +Sec. 27. Without play, the child would become more and more a machine, and +lose all freshness and spontaneity--all originality. Without work, he +would develop into a monster of caprice and arbitrariness. + +From the fact that man must learn to combine with man, in order that the +individual may avail himself of the experience and labors of his +fellow-men, self-sacrifice for the sake of combination is the great +lesson of life. But as this should be _voluntary_ self-sacrifice, +education must train the child equally in the two directions of +spontaneity and obedience. The educated man finds recreation in change +of work. + +Sec. 28. Education seeks to assimilate its object--to make what was alien +and strange to the pupil into something familiar and habitual to him. +[The pupil is to attack, one after the other, the foreign realms in the +world of nature and man, and conquer them for his own, so that he can be +"at home" in them. It is the necessary condition of all growth, all +culture, that one widens his own individuality by this conquest of new +provinces alien to him. By this the individual transcends the narrow +limits of particularity and becomes generic--the individual becomes the +species. A good definition of education is this: it is the process by +which the individual man elevates himself to the species.] + +Sec. 29. (1) Therefore, the first requirement in education is that the +pupil shall acquire the habit of subordinating his likes and dislikes to +the attainment of a rational object. + +It is necessary that he shall acquire this indifference to his own +pleasure, even by employing his powers on that which does not appeal to +his interest in the remotest degree. + +Sec. 30. Habit soon makes us familiar with those subjects which seemed so +remote from our personal interest, and they become agreeable to us. The +objects, too, assume a new interest upon nearer approach, as being +useful or injurious to us. That is useful which serves us as a means for +the realization of a rational purpose; injurious, if it hinders such +realization. It happens that objects are useful in one sense and +injurious in another, and _vice versa_. Education must make the pupil +capable of deciding on the usefulness of an object, by reference to its +effect on his permanent vocation in life. + +Sec. 31. But _good and evil_ are the ethical distinctions which furnish the +absolute standard to which to refer the question of the usefulness of +objects and actions. + +Sec. 32. (2) Habit is (a) _passive_, or (b) _active_. The passive habit +is that which gives us the power to retain our equipoise of mind in the +midst of a world of changes (pleasure and pain, grief and joy, etc). The +active habit gives us skill, presence of mind, tact in emergencies, etc. + +Sec. 33. (3) Education deals altogether with the formation of habits. For +it aims to make some condition or form of activity into a second nature +for the pupil. But this involves, also, the breaking up of previous +habits. This power to break up habits, as well as to form them, is +necessary to the freedom of the individual. + +Sec. 34. Education deals with these complementary relations (antitheses): +(a) authority and obedience; (b) rationality (_general_ forms) and +individuality; (c) work and play; (d) habit (general custom) and +spontaneity. The development and reconciliation of these opposite sides +in the pupil's character, so that they become his second nature, removes +the phase of constraint which at first accompanies the formal +inculcation of rules, and the performance of prescribed tasks. The +freedom of the pupil is the ultimate object to be kept in view, but a +too early use of freedom may work injury to the pupil. To remove a pupil +from all temptation would be to remove possibilities of growth in +strength to resist it; on the other hand, to expose him needlessly to +temptation is fiendish. + +Sec. 35. Deformities of character in the pupil should be carefully traced +back to their origin, so that they may be explained by their history. +Only by comprehending the historic growth of an organic defect are we +able to prescribe the best remedies. + +Sec. 36. If the negative behavior of the pupil (his bad behavior) results +from ignorance due to his own neglect, or to his wilfulness, it should +be met directly by an act of authority on the part of the teacher (and +without an appeal to reason). An appeal should be made to the +understanding of the pupil only when he is somewhat mature, or shows by +his repetition of the offence that his proclivity is deep-seated, and +requires an array of all good influences to reinforce his feeble +resolutions to amend. + +Sec. 37. Reproof, accompanied by threats of punishment, is apt to +degenerate into scolding. + +Sec. 38. After the failure of other means, punishment should be resorted +to. Inasmuch as the punishment should be for the purpose of making the +pupil realize that it is the consequence of his deed returning on +himself, it should always be administered for some particular act of +his, and this should be specified. The "overt act" is the only thing +which a man can be held accountable for in a court of justice; although +it is true that the harboring of evil thoughts or intentions is a sin, +yet it is not a crime until realized in an overt act. + +Sec. 40. Punishment should be regulated, not by abstract rules, but in view +of the particular case and its attending circumstances. + +Sec. 41. Sex and age of pupil should be regarded in prescribing the mode +and degree of punishment. Corporal punishment is best for pupils who are +very immature in mind; when they are more developed they may be punished +by any imposed restraint upon their free wills which will isolate them +from the ordinary routine followed by their fellow-pupils. (Deprivation +of the right to do as others do is a wholesome species of punishment for +those old or mature enough to feel its effects, for it tends to secure +respect for the regular tasks by elevating them to the rank of rights +and privileges.) For young men and women, the punishment should be of a +kind that is based on a sense of honor. + +Sec. 42. (1) Corporal punishment should be properly administered by means +of the rod, subduing wilful defiance by the application of force. + +Sec. 48. (2) Isolation makes the pupil realize a sense of his dependence +upon human society, and upon the expression of this dependence by +cooeperation in the common tasks. Pupils should not be shut up in a dark +room, nor removed from the personal supervision of the teacher. (To shut +up two or more in a room without supervision is not isolation, but +association; only it is association for mischief, and not for study.) + +Sec. 44. (3) Punishment based on the sense of honor may or may not be based +on isolation. It implies a state of maturity on the part of the pupil. +Through his offence the pupil has destroyed his equality with his +fellows, and has in reality, in his inmost nature, isolated himself from +them. Corporal punishment is external, but it may be accompanied with a +keen sense of dishonor. Isolation, also, may, to a pupil, who is +sensitive to honor, be a severe blow to self-respect. But a punishment +founded entirely on the sense of honor would be wholly internal, and +have no external discomfort attached to it. + +Sec. 45. The necessity of carefully adapting the punishment to the age +and maturity of the pupil, renders it the most difficult part of the +teacher's duties. It is essential that the air and manner of the teacher +who punishes should be that of one who acts from a sense of painful +duty, and not from any delight in being the cause of suffering. Not +personal likes and dislikes, but the rational necessity which is over +teacher and pupil alike, causes the infliction of pain on the pupil. + +Sec. 46. Punishment is the final topic to be considered under the head of +"Form of Education." + +In the act of punishment the teacher abandons the legitimate province of +education, which seeks to make the pupil rational or obedient to what is +reasonable, as a habit, and from his own free will. The pupil is +punished in order that he may be _made_ to conform to the rational, by +the application of constraint. Another will is substituted for the +pupil's, and good behavior is produced, but not by the pupil's free act. +While education finds a negative limit in punishment, it finds a +positive limit in the accomplishment of its legitimate object, which is +the emancipation of the pupil from the state of imbecility, as regards +mental and moral self-control, into the ability to direct himself +rationally. When the pupil has acquired the discipline which enables him +to direct his studies properly, and to control his inclinations in such +a manner as to pursue his work regularly, the teacher is no longer +needed for him--he becomes his own teacher. + +There may be two extreme views on this subject--the one tending towards +the negative extreme of requiring the teacher to do everything for the +pupil, substituting his will for that of the pupil, and the other view +tending to the positive extreme, and leaving everything to the pupil, +even before his will is trained into habits of self-control, or his mind +provided with the necessary elementary branches requisite for the +prosecution of further study. + +Sec. 47. (1) The subjective limit of education (on the negative side) is to +be found in the individuality of the pupil--the limit to his natural +capacity. + +Sec. 48. (2) The objective limit to education lies in the amount of time +that the person may devote to his training. It, therefore, depends +largely upon wealth, or other fortunate circumstances. + +Sec. 49. (3) The absolute limit of education is the positive limit (see Sec. +46), beyond which the youth passes into freedom from the school, as a +necessary instrumentality for further culture. + +Sec. 50. The pre-arranged pattern-making work of the school is now done, +but self-education may and should go on indefinitely, and will go on if +the education of the school has really arrived at its "absolute" +limit--_i.e._, has fitted the pupil for self-education. Emancipation +from the school does not emancipate one from learning through his +fellow-men. Man's spiritual life is one depending upon cooeperation with +his fellow-men. Each must avail himself of the experience of his +fellow-men, and in turn communicate his own experience to the common +fund of the race. Thus each lives the life of the whole, and all live +for each. School-education gives the pupil the instrumentalities with +which to enable him to participate in this fund of experience--this +common life of the race. After school-education comes the still more +valuable education, which, however, without the school, would be in a +great measure impossible. + + + + +ERRATA. + + +Sec. 26. Last two paragraphs should be within quotation marks, being from +an English author. + +Sec. 29. The second and third paragraphs belong to Sec. 30.--the numbering +being omitted. + +Sec. 33. Line four--"instructive" should be "intuitive." + + + + +SECOND PART. + +The Special Elements of Education. + + +Sec. 51. Education is the development of the theoretical and practical +Reason which is inborn in the human being. Its end is to be accomplished +by the labor which transforms a condition, existent at first only as an +ideal, into a fixed habit, and changes the natural individuality into a +glorified humanity. When the youth stands, so to speak, on his own feet, +he is emancipated from education, and education then finds its limit. +The special elements which may be said to make up education are the +life, the cognition, and the will of man. Without the first, the real +nature of the soul can never be made really to appear; without +cognition, he can have no genuine will--_i.e._, one of which he is +conscious; and without will, no self-assurance, either of life or of +cognition. It must not be forgotten that these three so-called elements +are not to be held apart in the active work of education; for they are +inseparable and continually interwoven the one with the other. But none +the less do they determine their respective consequences, and sometimes +one, sometimes another has the supremacy. In infancy, up to the fifth or +sixth year, the physical development, or mere living, is the main +consideration; the next period, that of childhood, is the time of +acquiring knowledge, in which the child takes possession of the theory +of the world as it is handed down--a tradition of the past, such as man +has made it through his experience and insight; and finally, the period +of youth must pave the way to a practical activity, the character of +which the self-determination of the will must decide. + +Sec. 52. We may, then, divide the elements of Pedagogics into three +sections: (1) the physical, (2) the intellectual, (3) the practical. +(The words "orthobiotics," "didactics," and "pragmatics" might be used +to characterize them.) + +AEsthetic training is only an element of the intellectual, as social, +moral, and religious training are elements of the practical. But because +these latter elements relate to external things (affairs of the world), +the name pragmatics, is appropriate. In so far as education touches on +the principles which underlie ethics, politics, and religion, it concurs +with those sciences, but it is distinguished from them in the capacity +which it imparts for solving the problems presented by the others. + +The scientific order of topics must be established through the fact that +the earlier, as the more abstract, constitute the condition of their +presupposed end and aim, and the later because the more concrete +constitute the ground of the former, and consequently their final cause, +or the end for which they exist; just as in human beings, life in the +order of time comes before cognition, and cognition before will, +although life really presupposes cognition, and cognition will. + + +FIRST DIVISION. + +PHYSICAL EDUCATION, OR ORTHOBIOTICS. + + +Sec. 53. Only when we rightly comprehend the process of life may we know +how to live aright. Life, the "circle of eternal change," is constantly +transforming the inorganic into the organic, and after using it, +returning it again to the realm of the inorganic. Whatever it does not +assimilate of that which it has taken in simply as a stimulant, and +whatever has become dead, it separates from itself and rejects. The +organism is in perfect health when it accomplishes this double task of +organizing and disorganizing. On the comprehension of this single fact +all laws of physical health or of hygiene are based. This idea of the +essence of life is expressed by Goethe in his Faust, where he sees the +golden buckets perpetually rising and sinking.[13] When the equilibrium +of the upward and downward motion is disturbed, we have disease. When +the motion ceases we have death, in which the whole organism becomes +inorganic, and the "dust returns to dust." + +Sec. 54. It follows from this that not only in the organism as a whole, but +in every organ, and every part of every organ, this restless change of +the inorganic to the organic is going on. Every cell has its own +history, and this history is only the same as that of the whole of which +it forms a part. Activity is then not inimical to the organism, but is +the appointed means by which the progressive and retrogressive +metamorphoses must be carried out. In order that the process may go on +harmoniously, or, in other words, that the body may be healthy, the +whole organism, and every part of it in its own way, must have its +period of productive activity and then also its period of rest in which +it finds renewal of strength for another period of activity. Thus we +have waking and sleep, inspiration and expiration of air. Periodicity is +the law of life. When we understand the relative antagonism (their stage +of tension) of the different organs, and their cycles of activity, we +shall hold the secret of the constant self-renewal of life. This thought +finds expression in the old fairy stories of "The Search after the +Fountain of Youth." And the figure of the fountain, with its rising and +falling waters, doubtless finds its origin in the dim comprehension of +the endless double movement, or periodicity of life. + +Sec. 55. When to any organ, or to the whole organism, not sufficient time +is allowed for it to withdraw into itself and to repair waste, we are +conscious of fatigue. While the other organs all rest, however, one +special organ may, as if separated from them, sustain a long-continued +effort of activity even to the point of fatigue, without injury--as, +_e.g._, the lungs in talking while all the other members are at rest. +But, on the other hand, it is not well to talk and run at the same time. + +The idea that the body may be preserved in a healthy state longer by +sparing it--_i.e._, by inactivity--is an error which springs from a +false and mechanical conception of life. It is just as foolish to +imagine that health depends on the abundance and excellence of food, for +without the power of assimilating the food taken, nourishment of +whatever kind does more harm than good; all real strength develops from +activity alone. + +Sec. 56. Physical education, according as it relates to the repairing, the +muscular, or the emotional activities, is divided into (1) diatetics, +(2) gymnastics, (3) sexual education. In the direct activity of life +these all interact with each other, but for our purposes we are obliged +to speak of them as if they worked independently. Moreover, in the +development of the human being, they come into maturity of development +in a certain order: nutrition, muscular growth, sexual maturity. But +Pedagogics can treat of these only as they are found in the infant, the +child, and the youth; for with the arrival of mature life, education is +over. + + +FIRST CHAPTER. + +_Diatetics._ + + +Sec. 57. By diatetics we mean the art of repairing the constant waste of +the system, and, in childhood, of also building it up to its full form +and size. Since in reality each organism has its own way of doing this, +the diatetical practice must vary somewhat with sex, age, temperament, +occupation, and circumstances. The science of Pedagogics has then, in +this department, only to enunciate general principles. If we go into +details, we fall into triviality. Nothing can be of more importance for +the whole life than the way in which the physical education is managed +in the very first stages of development. So generally is this fact +accepted, that almost every nation has its own distinct system, which +has been carefully elaborated. Many of these systems, no doubt, are +characterized by gross errors, and widely differ as to time, place, and +character, and yet they all have a justification for their peculiar +form. + +Sec. 58. The best food for the infant in the first months of its life is +its mother's milk. The employment of another nurse, if a general custom, +as in France, is highly objectionable, since with the milk the child is +likely to imbibe to some extent his physical and ethical nature. The +milk of an animal can never supply the place to a child of that of its +own mother. In Walter Scott's story of _The Fair Maid of Perth_, Eachim +is represented as timorous by nature, having been nourished by a white +doe after the death of his mother. + +Sec. 59. When the teeth make their appearance, it is a sign that the child +is ready for solid food; and yet, till the second teeth appear, light, +half-solid food and vegetables should constitute the principal part of +the diet. + +Sec. 60. When the second teeth have come, then the organism demands both +vegetable and animal food. Too much meat is, doubtless, harmful. But it +is an error to suppose that man was intended to eat vegetables alone, +and that, as some have said, the adoption of animal food is a sign of +his degeneracy. + +The Hindoos, who live principally on a vegetable diet, are not at all, +as has been asserted, a mild and gentle race. A glance into their +stories, especially their erotic poetry, proves them to be quite as +passionate as any other people. + +Sec. 61. Man is an omnivorous being. Children have, therefore, a natural +desire to taste of every thing. With them, eating and drinking have +still a poetic side, and there is a pleasure in them which is not wholly +the mere pleasure of taste. Their proclivity to taste of every thing +should not, therefore, be harshly censured, unless it is associated with +disobedience, or pursued in a clandestine manner, or when it betrays +cunning and greediness. + +Sec. 62. Children need much sleep, because they are growing and changing so +fast. In later years, waking and sleeping must be regulated, and yet not +too exactly. + +Sec. 63. The clothing of children should follow the form of the body, and +should be large enough to give them free room for the unfettered +movement of every limb in play. + +The Germans do more rationally for children in the matter of sleep and +of dress than in that of food, which they often make too rich, and +accompany with coffee, tea, etc. The clothing should be not only +suitable in shape and size, it must also be made of simple and +inexpensive material, so that the child may not be hampered in his play +by the constant anxiety that a spot or a rent may cause fault to be +found with him. If we foster in the child's mind too much thought about +his clothes, we tend to produce either a narrow-mindedness, which treats +affairs of the moment with too much respect and concerns itself with +little things, or an empty vanity. Vanity is often produced by dressing +children in a manner that attracts attention. (No one can fail to remark +the peculiar healthful gayety of German children, and to contrast it +with the different appearance of American children. It is undoubtedly +true that the climate has much to do with this result, but it is also +true that we may learn much from that nation in our way of treating +children. Already we import their children's story-books, to the +infinite delight of the little ones, and copies of their children's +pictures are appropriated constantly by our children's magazines and +picture-books. It is to be greatly desired that we should adopt the very +sensible custom which prevails in Germany, of giving to each child its +own little bed to sleep in, no matter how many may be required; and, in +general, we shall not go far astray if we follow the Germans in their +treatment of their happy children.) + +Sec. 64. Cleanliness is a virtue to which children should be trained, not +only for the sake of their physical health, but also because it has a +decided moral influence. Cleanliness will not have things deprived of +their distinctive and individual character, and become again a part of +original chaos. It is only a form of order which remands all things, +dirt included, to their own places, and will not endure to have things +mixed and confused. All adaptation in dress comes from this same +principle. When every thing is in its proper place, all dressing will be +suitable to the occasion and to the wearer, and the era of good taste in +dress will have come. Dirt itself, as Lord Palmerston so wittily said, +is nothing but "matter out of place." Cleanliness would hold every +individual thing strictly to its differences from other things, and for +the reason that it makes pure air, cleanliness of his own body, of his +clothing, and of all his surroundings really necessary to man, it +develops in him the feeling for the proper limitations of all existent +things. (Emerson says: "Therefore is space and therefore is time, that +men may know that things are not huddled and lumped, but sundered and +divisible." He might have said, "Therefore is cleanliness.") + + +SECOND CHAPTER. + +_Gymnastics._ + + +Sec. 65. Gymnastics is the art of cultivating in a rational manner the +muscular system. The activity of the voluntary muscles, which are under +the control of the brain, in distinction from the involuntary, which are +under the control of the spinal cord, renders possible the connection of +man with the external world, and acts in a reflex manner back upon the +involuntary or automatic muscles for the purposes of repair and +sensation. Because the activity of muscle-fibre consists in the change +from contraction to expansion, and the reverse, gymnastics must use a +constant change of movements which shall not only make tense, but relax +the muscles that are to be exercised. + +Sec. 66. The gymnastic art among any people will always bear a certain +relation to its art of war. So long as fighting consists mainly of +personal, hand-to-hand encounters of two combatants, so long will +gymnastics turn its chief effort towards the development of the greatest +possible amount of individual strength and dexterity. But after the +invention of fire-arms of long range has changed the whole idea of war, +the individual becomes only one member of a body, the army, the +division, or the regiment, and emerges from this position into his +individuality again only occasionally, as in sharpshooting, in the +onset, or in the retreat. Modern gymnastics, as an art, can never be the +same as the ancient art, for this very reason: that because of the loss +of the individual man in the general mass of combatants, the matter of +personal bravery is not of so much importance as formerly. The same +essential difference between ancient and modern gymnastics, would result +from the subjective, or internal character of the modern spirit. It is +impossible for us, in modern times, to devote so much thought to the +care of the body and to the reverential admiration of its beauty as did +the Greeks. + +The Turners' Unions and Turners' Halls in Germany belonged to the period +of intense political enthusiasm in the German youth, and had a political +significance. Now they have come back again to their place as an +instrument of education, and seem in great cities to be of much +importance. In mountainous countries, and in country life generally, a +definite gymnastic drill is of much less importance, for much and varied +exercise is of necessity a constant part of the daily life of every one. + +The constant opportunity and the impulse to recreation helps in the same +direction. In cities, on the contrary, there is not free space enough +either in houses or yards for children to romp to their heart's and +body's content. For this reason a gymnasium is here useful, so that they +may have companionship in their plays. For girls this exercise is less +necessary. Dancing may take its place, and systematic exercise should be +used only where there is a tendency to some weakness or deformity. They +are not to become Amazons. On the other hand, boys need the feeling of +comradeship. It is true they find this in some measure in school, but +they are not there perfectly on an equality, because the standing is +determined to some extent by his intellectual ability. The academic +youth cannot hope to win any great preeminence in the gymnastic hall, +and running, climbing, leaping, and lifting do not interest him very +much as he grows older. He takes a far more lively interest in exercises +which have a military character. In Germany the gymnastic art is very +closely united with the art of war. + +(The German idea of a woman's whole duty--to knit, to sew, and to obey +implicitly--is perhaps accountable for what Rosenkranz here says of +exercise as regards girls. We, however, who know that the most frequent +direct cause of debility and suffering in our young women is simply and +solely a want of muscular strength, may be pardoned for dissenting from +his opinion, and for suggesting that dancing is not a sufficient +equivalent for the more violent games of their brothers. We do not fear +to render them Amazons by giving them more genuine and systematic +exercise, both physically and intellectually.) + +Sec. 67. The main idea of gymnastics, and indeed of all exercise, is to +give the mind control over its natural impulses, to make it master of +the body which it inhabits, and of itself. Strength and dexterity must +combine to give us a sense of mastership. Strength by itself produces +the athlete, dexterity by itself the acrobat. Pedagogics must avoid both +these extremes. Neither must it base its teaching of gymnastics on the +idea of utility--as, _e.g._, that man might save his life by swimming, +should he fall into the water, and hence swimming should be taught, etc. + +The main thought must be always to enable the soul to take full and +perfect possession of the organism, so as not to have the body form a +limit or fetter to its action in its dealings with the external world. +We are to give it a perfect instrument in the body, in so far as our +care may do so. Then we are to teach it to use that instrument, and +exercise it in that use till it is complete master thereof. + +(What is said about the impropriety of making athletes and acrobats may +with justice be also applied to what is called "vocal gymnastics;" +whence it comes that we have too often vocal athletes and acrobats in +our graduates, and few readers who can read at sight, without difficulty +or hesitation, and with appreciation or enjoyment, one page of good +English.) + +Sec. 68. There are all grades of gymnastic exercises, from the simple to +the most complex, constituting a system. At first sight, there seems to +be so much arbitrariness in these things that it is always very +satisfactory to the mind to detect some rational system in them. Thus we +have movements (_a_) of the lower extremities, (_b_) of the upper, (_c_) +of the whole body, with corresponding movements, alternately, of the +upper and of the lower extremities. We thus have leg, arm, and trunk +movements. + +Sec. 69. (1) The first set of movements, those of the legs and feet, are of +prime importance, because upon them depends the carriage of the whole +body. They are (_a_) walking, (_b_) running, (_c_) leaping; and each of +these, also, may have varieties. We may have high and low leaping, and +running may be distinguished as to whether it is to be a short and +rapid, or a slow and long-continued movement. We may also walk on +stilts, or run on skates. We may leap with a pole, or without one. +Dancing is only an artistic and graceful combination of these movements. + +Sec. 70. (2) The second set comprises the arm movements, which are about +the same as the preceding, being (_a_) lifting, (_b_) swinging; (_c_) +throwing. The use of horizontal poles and bars, as well as climbing and +dragging, belong to lifting. Under throwing, come quoit and ball-playing +and bowling. These movements are distinguished from each other not only +quantitatively, but qualitatively; as, for instance, running is not +merely rapid walking; it is a different kind of movement from walking, +as the position of the extended and contracted muscles is different. + +Sec. 71. (3) The third set of exercises, those of the trunk, differ from +the other two, which should precede it, in that they bring the body into +contact with an object in itself capable of active resistance, which it +has to subdue. This object may be an element (water), an animal, or a +human being; and thus we have (_a_) swimming, (_b_) riding, (_c_) +fighting in single combat. In swimming we have the elastic fluid, water, +to overcome by means of arm and leg movements. This may be made very +difficult by a strong current, or by rough water, and yet we always have +here to strive against an inanimate object. On the contrary, in +horseback riding we have to deal with something that has a self of its +own, and the contest challenges not our strength alone, but also our +skill and courage. The motion is therefore very complex, and the rider +must be able to exercise either or all of these qualities at need. But +his attention must not be wholly given to his horse, for he has to +observe also the road, and indeed every thing around him. One of the +greatest advantages of horseback riding to the overworked student or the +business man lies doubtlessly in the mental effort. It is impossible for +him to go on revolving in his mind the problems or the thoughts which +have so wearied or perplexed him. His whole attention is incessantly +demanded for the management of his horse, for the observation of the +road, which changes its character with every step, and with the objects, +far or near, which are likely to attract the attention of the animal he +rides. Much good, doubtless, results from the exercise of the muscles of +the trunk, which are not in any other motion called into such active +play, but much also from the unavoidable distraction of the mind from +the ordinary routine of thought, which is the thing most needed. When +the object which we are to subdue, instead of being an animal, is a man +like ourselves, as in single combat, we have exercise both of body and +mind pushed to its highest power. We have then to oppose an intelligence +which is equal to our own, and no longer the intelligence of an +unreasoning animal. Single combat is the truly chivalrous exercise; and +this also, as in the old chivalry time, may be combined with +horsemanship. + +In single combat we find also a qualitative distinction, and this of +three kinds: (_a_) boxing and wrestling, (_b_) fighting with canes or +clubs, and (_c_) rapier and sword fencing. The Greeks carried wrestling +to its highest pitch of excellence. Among the British, a nation of +sailors, boxing is still retained as a national custom. Fencing with a +cane or stick is much in use among the French artisan class. The cane is +a sort of refined club. When the sword or rapier makes its appearance, +we come to mortal combat. The southern European excels in the use of the +rapier; the Germans in that of the sword. The appearance of the pistol +marks the degeneracy of the art of single combat, as it makes the weak +man equal to the strong, and there is therefore no more incentive to +train the body to strength in order to overcome an enemy. (The trained +intelligence, the quick eye, the steady hand, the wary thought to +perceive and to take advantage of an opportunity--these are the +qualities which the invention of gunpowder set up above strength and +brute force. The Greek nation, and we may say Greek mythology and art, +would have been impossible with gunpowder; the American nation +impossible without it.) + + +THIRD CHAPTER. + +_Sexual Education._ + + +[This chapter is designed for parents rather than for teachers, and is +hence not paraphrased here. A few observations are, however, in place.] +Great care is necessary at the period of youth that a rational system of +food and exercise be maintained. But the general fault is in the +omission of this care in preceding years. One cannot neglect due +precautions for many years, and then hope to repair the damage caused, +by extreme care for one or two years. + +Special care is necessary that the brain be not overworked in early +years, and a morbid excitation of the whole nervous system thereby +induced. We desire to repress any tendency to the rapid development of +the nervous system. Above all, is the reading of the child to be +carefully watched and guarded. Nothing can be worse food for a child +than what are called sensational romances. That the reading of such +tends to enfeeble and enervate the whole thinking power is a fact which +properly belongs to the intellectual side of our question not yet +reached, and may be here merely mentioned. But the effect on the +physical condition of the youth, of such carelessly written sensational +stories, mostly of the French type, and full of sensuous, if not sensual +suggestions, is a point not often enough considered. The teacher cannot, +perhaps, except indirectly, prevent the reading of such trash at home. +But every influence which he can bring to bear towards the formation of +a purer and more correct taste, he should never omit. Where there is a +public library in the town, he should make himself acquainted with its +contents, and give the children direct help in their selection of books. + +This is an external means. But he should never forget that every +influence which he can bring to bear in his daily work to make science +pleasant and attractive, and every lesson which he gives in the use of +pure, correct English, free from exaggeration, from slang, and from +mannerism, goes far to render such miserable and pernicious trash +distasteful even to the child himself. + +Every example of thorough work, every pleasure that comes from the +solving of a problem or the acquisition of a new fact, is so much +fortification against the advances of the enemy; while all shallow half +work, all pretence or show tend to create an appetite in the child's +mind which shall demand such food. + +The true teacher should always have in his mind these far-away and +subtle effects of his teaching; not present good or pleasure either for +himself or his pupil, but the far-off good--the distant development. +That idea would free him from the notion, too common in our day, that +the success or failure of his efforts is to be tested by any adroitly +contrived system of examinations; or still worse, exhibitions. His +success can alone be tested by the future lives of his pupils--by their +love for, or dislike of, new knowledge. His success will be marked by +their active growth through all their lives; his failure, by their early +arrested development. + + + + +AN OUTLINE OF EDUCATIONAL PSYCHOLOGY. + +BY WM. T. HARRIS. + +[TO BE USED AS AN INTRODUCTION TO PARAGRAPHS 81 TO 102 OF ROSENKRANZ'S +PEDAGOGICS.] + + +I. + + What beings can be educated; the plant has reaction + against its surroundings in the form of nutrition; the + animal has reaction in the form of nutrition and feeling; + Aristotle calls the life of the plant the "nutritive + soul," and the life of the animal the "sensitive soul." + + The life of the plant is a continual reproduction of new + individuals--a process of going out of one individual into + another--so that the particular individual loses its + identity, although the identity of the species is + preserved. + +That which is dependent upon external circumstances, and is only a +circumstance itself, is not capable of education. Only a "self" can be +educated; and a "self" is a conscious unity--a "self-activity," a being +which is through itself, and not one that is made by surrounding +conditions. + +Again, in order that a being possess a capacity for education, it must +have the ability to realize within itself what belongs to its species or +race. + +If an acorn could develop itself so that it could realize, not only its +own possibility as an oak, but its entire species, and all the varieties +of oaks within itself, and without losing its particular individuality, +it would possess the capacity for education. But an acorn, in reality, +cannot develop its possibility without the destruction of its own +individuality. The acorn vanishes in the oak tree, and the crop of +acorns which succeeds is not again the same acorn, except in _kind_ or +species. "The species lives, but the individual dies," in the vegetable +world. + +So it is in the animal world. The brute lives his particular life, +unable to develop within himself the form of his entire species, and +still less the form of all animal life. And yet the animal possesses +self-activity in the powers of locomotion, sense-perception, feeling, +emotion, and other elementary shapes. Both animal and plant react +against surroundings, and possess more or less power to assimilate what +is foreign to them. The plant takes moisture and elementary inorganic +substances, and converts them into nutrition wherewith to build its +cellular growth. The animal has not only this power of nutrition, which +assimilates its surroundings, but also the power of _feeling_, which is +a wonderful faculty. _Feeling_ reproduces within the organism of the +animal the external condition; it is an ideal reproduction of the +surroundings. The environment of the plant may be seized upon and +appropriated in the form of sap, or in the form of carbonic acid, for +the nourishment of that plant; but there is no ideal reproduction of the +environment in the form of _feeling_, as in the animal. + +In the activity of _feeling_, the animal transcends his material, +corporeal limits--lives beyond his mere body, and participates in the +existence of all nature. He reproduces within himself the external. Such +being the nature of the activity of _feeling_, which forms the +distinguishing attribute that divides animals from plants, the question +meets us at the outset, "Why is not the animal capable of education? Why +can he not realize within himself his entire species or race, as man +can?" + +In order to settle this fundamental question, we must study carefully +the scope and limits of this activity, which we have termed "Feeling," +and which is known under many names--as, sensation, sensibility, +sensitivity, sense-perception, intuition, and others. + +Education aims to develop the mind as intellect and will. It must know +what it is to develop, and learn to distinguish higher or more complete +stages of intellect and will from those which are rudimentary. + +Again, the discussion of mind begins properly with the first or most +undeveloped manifestation--at the stage where it is common to brutes and +human beings. Hence we may begin our study of educational psychology at +this point where the distinction between animal and plant appears, and +where the question of the capacity for education arises. + +When we understand the relation of feeling or sensibility to the higher +manifestations of mind, we shall see in what consists a capacity for +education, and we shall learn many essentials in regard to the matter +and method, the _what_ and the _how_ of education. + +A general survey of the world discovers that there is inter-action +among its parts. This is the verdict of science, as the systematic form +of human experience. In the form of gravitation we understand that each +body depends upon every other body, and the annihilation of a particle +of matter in a body would cause a change in that body which would affect +every other body in the physical universe. Even gravitation, therefore, +is a manifestation of the whole universe in each part of it, although it +is not a manifestation which exists _for_ that part, because the part +does not _know_ it. + +There are other forms wherein the whole manifests itself in each part of +it--as, for example, in the phenomena of light, heat, and possibly in +magnetism and electricity. These forms of manifestation of the external +world upon an individual object are destructive to the individuality of +the object. If the nature of a thing is stamped upon it from without, it +is an element only, and not a self; it is dependent, and belongs to that +on which it depends. It does not possess itself, but belongs to that +which _makes_ it, and which gives evidence of ownership by continually +modifying it. + +But the plant, as we just now said, has some degree of self-activity, +and is not altogether made by the totality of external conditions. The +growth of the plant is through assimilation of external substances. It +reacts against its surroundings and digests them, and grows through the +nutrition thus formed. + +All beings that cannot react against surroundings and modify them, lack +individuality. Individuality begins with this power of reaction and +modification of external surroundings. Even the power of cohesion is a +rudimentary form of reaction and of special individuality. + +In the case of the plant, the reaction is _real_, but not also _ideal_. +The plant acts upon its food, and digests it, or assimilates it, and +imposes its _form_ on that which it draws within its organism. It does +not, however, reproduce within itself the externality as that external +exists for itself. It does not form within itself an idea, or even a +feeling of that which is external to it. Its participation in the +external world is only that of _real_ modification of it or through it; +either the plant digests the external, or the external limits _it_, and +prevents its growth, so that where one begins the other ceases. Hence it +is that the elements--the matter of which the plant is composed, that +which it has assimilated even--still retain a large degree of foreign +power or force--a large degree of externality which the plant has not +been able to annul or to digest. The plant-activity subdues its food, +changes its shape and its place, subordinates it to its use; but what +the matter brings with it, and still retains of the world beyond the +plant, does not exist for the plant; the plant cannot read or interpret +the rest of the universe from that small portion of it which it has +taken up within its own organism. And yet the history of the universe is +impressed on each particle of matter, as well within the plant as +outside of it, and it could be understood were there capacities for +recognizing it. + +The reaction of the life of the plant upon the external world is not +sufficient to constitute a fixed, abiding individuality. With each +accretion there is some change of particular individuality. Every growth +to a plant is by the sprouting out of new individuals--new plants--a +ceaseless multiplication of individuals, and not the preservation of the +same individual. The species is preserved, but not the particular +individual. Each limb, each twig, even each leaf is a new individual, +which grows out from the previous growth as the first sprout grew from +the seed. Each part furnishes a soil for the next. When a plant no +longer sends out new individuals, we say it is dead. The life of the +plant is only a life of nutrition. + +Aristotle called vegetable life "the nutritive soul," and the life of +the animal the "feeling," or _sensitive_ soul. Nutrition is only an +activity of preservation of the general form in new individuals, it is +only the life of the species, and not the life of the permanent +individual. + +Therefore we see that in the vegetable world we do not possess a being +that can be educated--for no individual of it can realize _within_ +itself the species; its realization of the species is a continual +process of going out of itself in new individuals, but no activity of +_return_ to itself, so as to preserve _the identity_ of an individual. + + +II. + + Feeling is a unity of the parts of an organism everywhere + present in it; feeling is also an ideal reproduction of + the external surroundings; feeling is therefore a + synthesis of the internal and external. Aristotle joins + locomotion and desire to feeling, as correlates; how + desire is a more explicit recognition of the unity of the + external and internal than the first form of feeling is; + feeling reproduces the external without destroying its + externality, while nutrition receives the external only + after it has destroyed its individuality and assimilated + it; desire is the side of feeling that unfolds into will. + +With feeling or sensibility we come to a being that reacts on the +external world in a far higher manner, and realizes a more wonderful +form of individuality. + +The animal possesses, in common with the plant, a process of +assimilation and nutrition. Moreover, he possesses a capacity to _feel_. +Through _feeling_, or sensation, all of the parts of his extended +organism are united in one centre. He is one individual, and not a +bundle of separate individuals, as a plant is. With feeling, likewise, +are joined _locomotion_ and _desire_. For these are counterparts of +feeling. He feels--_i.e._, lives as one indivisible unity throughout his +organism and controls it, and moves the parts of his body. Desire is +more than mere feeling. Mere feeling alone is the perception of the +external within the being, hence an ideal reproduction of the external +world. In feeling, the animal exists not only within himself, but also +passes over his limit, and has for object the reality of the external +world that limits him. Hence it is the perception of his finiteness--his +limits are his defects, his needs, wants, inadequateness--his separation +from the world as a whole. In feeling, the animal perceives his +separation from the rest of the world, and also his union with it. +Feeling expands into desire when the external world, or some portion of +it, is seen as ideally belonging to the limited unity of the animal +being. It is beyond the limit, and ought to be assimilated within the +limited individuality of the animal. + +Mere _feeling_, when attentively considered, is found to contain these +wonderful features of self-activity: it reproduces for itself the +external world that limits it; it makes for itself an ideal object, +which includes its own self and its not-self at the same time. It is a +higher form than mere nutrition; for nutrition destroys the nature of +such externality as it receives into itself, while feeling preserves the +external in its foreign individuality. + +But through _feeling_ the animal ascends to _desire_, and sees the +independent externality as an object for its acquisition, and through +locomotion it is enabled to seize and appropriate it in a degree which +the plant did not possess. + + +III. + + The various forms of feeling--its specialization: (_a_) + touch, the feeling of mere limits, the indifferent + external independence of the organism and its + surroundings; (_b_) taste, feeling of the external object + when it is undergoing dissolution by assimilation; (_c_) + smell, the feeling of chemical dissolution in general; + (_d_) hearing, the feeling of the resistance of bodies + against attacks: sound being vibration caused by elastic + reaction against attacks on cohesion; (_e_) seeing, the + feeling of objects in their independence, without + dissolution or attack; plant life, nutrition, a process in + which the individuality is not preserved either in time or + in space; animal life, as feeling, preserves its + individuality as regards space, but not as regards time. + +Having noted these important characteristics of the lower orders of +life, and found that _reaction_ from the part against the whole--from +the internal against the external--belongs to plant life and animal +life, we may now briefly mention the ways in which feeling is +particularized. In the lower animals it is only the feeling of touch; in +higher organisms it becomes also localized as seeing, hearing, taste, +and smell. These forms of sense-perception constitute a scale (as it +were) of feeling. With touch, there is reproduction of externality, but +the ideality of the reproduction is not so complete as in the other +forms. With taste, the feeling cognizes the external object as +undergoing dissolution, and assimilation within its own organism. We +taste only what we are beginning to destroy by the first process of +assimilation--that of eating. In smell, we perceive chemical dissolution +of bodies. In seeing and hearing, we have the forms of _ideal_ +sensibility. Hearing perceives the attack made on the individuality of +an external thing, and its reaction in vibrations, which reveal to us +its internal nature--its cohesion, etc. In seeing, we have the highest +form of sense-perception as the perception of things in their external +independence--not as being destroyed chemically, like the objects of +taste and smell; not as being attacked and resisting, like the objects +which are known through the ear; not as mere limits to our organism, as +in the sense of touch. + +Sense-perception, as the developed realization of the activity of +feeling, belongs to the animal creation, including man as an animal. + +We have not yet, therefore, answered the question of capacity for +education, so far as it concerns a discrimination between man and +the brute. We have only arrived at the conclusion that the vegetable +world does not possess the capacity for education, because its +individual specimens are no complete individuals, but only transitory +phases manifesting the species by continual reproduction of +new individuals which are as incomplete as the old ones. Plant life +does not possess that self-activity which returns into itself in the +same individual--if we may so express it; it goes out of one individual +into another perpetually. Its identity is that of the _species_, +but not of the _individual_. + +How is it with the animal--with the being which possesses sensibility, +or feeling? This question recurs. In feeling there is a reaction, +just as in the plant. This reaction is, however, in an ideal +form--the reproduction of the external without assimilation of it--and +especially is this the case in the sense of _sight_, though it is true +of all forms of sensation to a less degree. + +But all forms of sensibility are limited and special; they refer only +to the _present_, in its forms of _here_ and _now_. The animal cannot feel +what is not here and now. Even seeing is limited to what is present +before it. When we reflect upon the significance of this limitation +of sense-perception, we shall find that we need some higher form of +self-activity still before we can realize the species in the individual, +_i.e._, before we can obtain the true individual--the permanent +individuality. + +The defect in plant life was, that there was neither identity of +individuality in space nor identify in time. The growth of the +plant destroyed the individuality of the seed with which we began, +so that it was evanescent in time; it served only as the starting-point +for new individualities, which likewise, in turn, served again the same +purpose; and so its growth in space was a departure from itself as +individual. + +The animal is a preservation of individuality as regards space. He +returns into himself in the form of _feeling_ or _sensibility_; but as +regards time, it is not so--feeling being limited to the present. +Without a higher activity than feeling, there is no continuity of +individuality in the animal any more than in the plant. Each new moment +is a new beginning to a being that has feeling, but not memory. + +Thus the individuality of mere feeling, although a far more perfect +realization of individuality than that found in plant life, is yet, +after all, not a continuous individuality for itself, but only for the +species. + +In spite of the ideal self-activity which appertains to feeling, even +in sense-perception, only the species lives in the animal and the +individual dies, unless there be higher forms of activity. + + +IV. + + Representation is the next form above sense-perception. + The lowest phase of representation is recollection, which + simply repeats for itself a former sense-perception or + series of sense-perceptions; in representation the mind is + free as regards external impressions; it does not require + the presence of the object, but recalls it without its own + time and place; fancy and imagination are next higher than + recollection, because the mind not only recalls images, + but makes new combinations of them, or creates them + altogether; attention is the appearance of the will in the + intellect; with attention begins the separation of the + transient from the variable in perception; memory is the + highest form of representation; memory deals with general + forms--not mere images of experience, but general types of + objects of perception; memory, in this sense, is + productive as well as reproductive; with memory arises + language. + +Here we pass over to the consideration of higher forms of intellect and +will. + +While mere sensation, as such, acts only in the presence of the +object--reproducing (ideally), it is true, the external object, the +faculty of representation is a higher form of self-activity (or of +reaction against surrounding conditions), because it can recall, at its +own pleasure, the ideal object. Here is the beginning of emancipation +from the limitations of time. + +The self-activity of representation can summon before it the object that +is no longer present to it. Hence its activity is now a double one, for +it can seize not only what is now and here immediately before it, but it +can compare this present object with the past, and identify or +distinguish between the two. Thus recollection or representation may +become _memory_. + +As memory, the mind achieves a form of activity far above that of +sense-perception or mere recollection. It must be noted carefully that +mere recollection or representation, although it holds fast the +perception in time (making it permanent), does not necessarily +constitute an activity completely emancipated from time, nor indeed very +far advanced towards it. It is only the beginning of such emancipation. +For mere recollection stands in the presence of the special object of +sense-perception; although the object is no longer present to the senses +(or to mere feeling), yet the image is present to the representative +perception, and is just as much a particular here and now as the object +of sense-perception. There intervenes a new activity on the part of the +soul before it arrives at memory. Recollection is not memory, but it is +the activity which grows into it by the aid of the activity of +attention. + +The special characteristics of objects of the senses are allowed to drop +away, in so far as they are unessential and merely circumstantial, and +gradually there arises in the mind the type--the _general form_--of the +object perceived. This general form is the object of memory. Memory +deals therefore with what is general, and a type, rather than with what +is directly recollected or perceived. + +The activity by which the mind ascends from sense-perception to memory +is the activity of attention. Here we have the appearance of the will in +intellectual activity. Attention is the control of perception by means +of the will. The senses shall no longer passively receive and report +what is before them, but they shall choose some definite point of +observation, and neglect all the rest. + +Here, in the act of attention we find _abstraction_, and the greater +attainment of freedom by the mind. The mind abstracts its view from the +many things before it, and concentrates on one point. + +Educators have for many ages noted that the habit of attention is the +first step in intellectual education. With it we have found the point of +separation between the animal intellect and the human. Not attention +simply--like that with which the cat watches by the hole of a mouse--but +attention which arrives at results of abstraction, is the distinguishing +characteristic of educative beings. + +Attention abstracts from some things before it and concentrates on +others. Through attention grows the capacity to discriminate between +the special, particular object and its general type. Generalization +arises, but not what is usually called generalization--only a +more elementary form of it. Memory, as the highest form of +representation--distinguishing it from mere recollection, which +reproduces only what has been perceived--such memory deals with the +general forms of objects, their continuity in time. Such activity of +memory, therefore, does not reproduce mere images, but only the +concepts or general ideas of things, and therefore it belongs to the +stage of mind that uses language. + + +V. + + Language marks the arrival at the stage of thought--at the + stage of the perception of universals--hence at the + possibility of education; language fixes the general types + which the productive memory forms; each one of these + types, indicated by a word, stands for a possible infinite + of sense-perceptions or recollections; the word _tree_ + stands for all the trees that exist, and for all that have + existed or will exist. Animals do not create for + themselves a new world of general types, but deal only + with the first world of particular objects; hence they are + lost in the variety and multiplicity of continuous + succession and difference. Man's sense-perception is with + memory; hence always a recognition of the object as not + wholly new, but only as an example of what he is mostly + familiar with. Intellectual education has for its object + the cultivation of reflection; reflection is the Platonic + "Reminiscence," which retraces the unconscious processes + of thought + +Language is the means of distinguishing between the brute and the +human--between the animal soul, which has continuity only in the species +(which pervades its being in the form of _instinct_), and the _human_, +soul, which is immortal, and possessed of a capacity to be educated. + +There is no language until the mind can perceive general types of +existence; mere proper names nor mere exclamations or cries do not +constitute language. All words that belong to language are +significative--they "_express_" or "_mean_" something--hence they are +conventional symbols, and not mere individual designations. Language +arises only through common consent, and is not an invention of one +individual. It is a product of individuals acting together as a +community, and hence implies the ascent of the individual into the +species. Unless an individual could ascend into the species he could not +_understand_ language. To know words and their meaning is an activity of +divine significance; it denotes the formation of universals in the +mind--the ascent above the here and now of the senses, and above the +representation of mere images, to the activity which grasps together the +general conception of objects, and thus reaches beyond what is transient +and variable. + +Doubtless the nobler species of animals possess not only +sense-perception, but a considerable degree of the power of +representation. They are not only able to recollect, but to imagine or +fancy to some extent, as is evidenced by their dreams. But that animals +do not generalize sufficiently to form for themselves a new objective +world of types and general concepts, we have a sufficient evidence in +the fact that they do not use words, or invent conventional symbols. +With the activity of the symbol-making form of representation, which we +have named Memory, and whose evidence is the invention and use of +language, the true form of individuality is attained, and each +individual human being, as mind, may be said to be the entire species. +Inasmuch as he can form universals in his mind, he can realize the most +abstract thought; and he is conscious. Consciousness begins when one can +seize the pure universal in the presence of immediate objects here and +now. + +The sense-perception of the mere animal, therefore, differs from that of +the human being in this:-- + +The human being knows himself as subject that sees the object, while the +animal sees the object, but does not separate himself, as universal, +from the special act of seeing. To know that I am I, is to know the most +general of objects, and to carry out abstraction to its very last +degree; and yet this is what all human beings do, young or old, savage +or civilized. The savage invents and uses language--an act of the +species, but which the species cannot do without the participation of +the individual. + +It should be carefully noted that this activity of generalization which +produces language, and characterizes the human from the brute, is not +the generalization of the activity of thought, so-called. + +It is the preparation for thought. These general types of things are the +things which thought deals with. Thought does not deal with mere +immediate objects of the senses; it deals rather with the objects which +are indicated by words--_i.e._, general objects. + +Some writers would have us suppose that we do not arrive at general +notions except by the process of classification and abstraction, in the +mechanical manner that they lay down for this purpose. The fact is that +the mind has arrived at these general ideas in the process of learning +language. In infancy, most children have learned such words as _is_, +_existence_, _being_, _nothing_, _motion_, _cause_, _change_, _I_, +_you_, _he_, etc., etc. + +But the point is not the mere arrival at these ideas. Education does +not concern itself with that; it does not concern itself with children +who have not yet learned to talk--that is left for the nursery. + +It is the process of becoming conscious of these ideas by reflection, +with which we have to concern ourselves in education. Reflection is +everywhere the object of education. Even when the school undertakes to +teach pupils the correct method of observation--how to use the senses, +as in "object-lessons"--it all means _reflective_ observation, +_conscious_ use of the senses; it would put this in the place of the +_naive_ spontaneity which characterizes the first stages of +sense-perception. + +We must not underrate these precepts of pedagogy because we find that +they are not what it claims for them--_i.e._, they are not methods of +first discovery, and of arrival at principles, but only methods of +reflection, and of recognizing what we have already learned. We see that +Plato's "Reminiscence" was a true form of statement for the perception +of truths of reflection. The first knowing is utterly unconscious of its +own method; the second or scientific form of knowing, which education +develops, is a knowing in which the mind knows its method. Hence it is a +knowing which knows its own necessity and universality. + + +VI. + + Education presupposes the stage of mind reached in + productive memory; it deals with reflection; four stages + of reflection: (_a_) sensuous ideas perceive things; (_b_) + abstract ideas perceive forces or elements of a process; + (_c_) concrete idea perceives one process, a pantheistic + first principle, persistent force; (_d_) absolute idea + perceives a conscious first principle, absolute person. + +We have considered in our psychological study thus far the forms of life +and cognition, contrasting the phase of nutrition with that of feeling, +or sensibility. We have seen the various forms of feeling in +sense-perception, and the various forms of representation as the second +phase of intellectual activity--the forms of recollection, fancy, +imagination, attention, and memory. We draw the line between the animals +capable of education and those not capable of it, at the point of memory +defined--not as recollection, but as the faculty of general ideas or +conceptions, to which the significant words of language correspond. + +With the arrival at language, we arrive at education in the human sense +of the term; with the arrival at language, we arrive at the view of the +world at which thought as a mental process begins. As sense-perception +has before it a world of _present_ objects, so thought has before it a +world of general concepts, which language has defined and fixed. + +It is true that few persons are aware that language stands for a world +of general ideas, and that reflection has to do with this world of +universals. Hence it is, too, that so much of the so-called science of +education is very crude and impractical. Much of it is materialistic, +and does not recognize the self-activity of mind; but makes it out to be +a correlation of physical energies--derived from the transmutation of +food by the process of digestion, and then by the brain converted into +thought. + +Let us consider now the psychology of thinking, or reflection, and at +first in its most inadequate forms. As a human process, the knowing is +always a knowing by universals--a re-cognition, and not simple +apprehension, such as the animals, or such as beings have that do not +use language. The process of development of stages of thought begins +with sensuous ideas, which perceive mere individual, concrete, real +objects, as it supposes. In conceiving these, it uses language and +thinks general ideas, but it does not know it, nor is it conscious of +the relations involved in such objects. This is the first stage of +reflection. The world exists for it as an innumerable congeries of +things, each one independent of the other, and possessing +self-existence. It is the stand-point from which atomism would be +adopted as the philosophic system. Ask it what the ultimate principle of +existence is, and it would reply, "Atoms." + +But this view of the world is a very unstable one, and requires very +little reflection to overturn it, and bring one to the next basis--that +of _abstract ideas_. When the mind looks carefully at the world of +things, it finds that there is dependence and interdependence. Each +object is related to something else, and changes when that changes. Each +object is a part of a process that is going on. The process produced it, +and the process will destroy it--nay, it is destroying it now, while we +look at it. We find, therefore, that things are not the true beings +which we thought them to be, but processes _are_ the reality. Science +takes this attitude, and studies out the history of each thing in its +rise and its disappearance, and it calls this history the truth. This +stage of thinking does not believe in _atoms_ or in _things_; it +believes in _forces_ and _processes_--"abstract ideas"--because they are +negative, and cannot be seen by the senses. This is the dynamic +stand-point in philosophy. + +Reflection knows that these abstract ideas possess more truth, more +reality, than the "things" of sense-perception; the force is more real +than the thing, because it outlasts a thing,--it causes things to +originate, and to change, and disappear. + +This stage of abstract ideas or of negative powers or forces finally +becomes convinced of the essential unity of all processes and of all +forces; it sets up the doctrine of the _correlation of forces_, and +believes that persistent force is the ultimate truth, the fundamental +reality of the world. This we may call a concrete idea, for it sets up a +principle which is the origin of all things and forces, and also the +destroyer of all things, and hence more real than the world of things +and forces; and because this idea, when carefully thought out, proves to +be the idea of self-determination--self-activity. + +Persistent force, as taught us by the scientific men of our day, is the +sole ultimate principle, and as such it gives rise to all existence by +its self-activity, for there is nothing else for it to act upon. It +causes all origins, all changes, and all evanescence. It gives rise to +the particular forces--heat, light, electricity, magnetism, etc.--which +in their turn cause the evanescent forms which sense-perception sees as +"things." + +We have described three phases:-- + + I. Sensuous Ideas perceive "things." + II. Abstract Ideas perceive "forces." + III. Concrete Idea perceives "persistent force." + +In this progress from one phase of reflection to another, the intellect +advances to a deeper and truer reality[14] at each step. + +Sense-ideas which look upon the world as a world of independent objects, +do not cognize the world truly. The next step, abstract ideas, cognizes +the world as a process of forces, and "things" are seen to be mere +temporary equilibria in the interaction of forces; "each thing is a +bundle of forces." But the concrete idea of the Persistent force sees a +deeper and more permanent reality underlying particular forces. It is +one ultimate force. In it all multiplicity of existences has vanished, +and yet it is the source of all particular existence. + +This view of the world, on the stand-point of concrete idea, is +pantheistic. It makes out a one supreme principle which originates and +destroys all particular existences, all finite beings. It is the +stand-point of Orientalism, or of the Asiatic thought. Buddhism and +Brahminism have reached it, and not transcended it. It is a necessary +stage of reflection in the mind, just as much as the stand-point of the +first stage of reflection, which regards the world as composed of a +multiplicity of independent things; or the stand-point of the second +stage of reflection, which looks upon the world as a collection of +relative existences in a state of process. + +The final stand-point of the intellect is that in which it perceives the +highest principle to be a self-determining or self-active Being, +self-conscious, and creator of a world which manifests him. A logical +investigation of the principle of "persistent force" would prove that +this principle of Personal Being is presupposed as its true form. Since +the "persistent force" is the sole and ultimate reality, it originates +all other reality only by self-activity, and thus is self-determined. +Self-determination implies self-consciousness as the true form of its +existence. + +These four forms of thinking, which we have arbitrarily called +_sensuous_, _abstract_, _concrete_, and _absolute_ ideas, correspond to +four views of the world: (1) as a congeries of independent things; (2) +as a play of forces; (3) as the evanescent appearance of a negative +essential power; (4) as the creation of a Personal Creator, who makes it +the theatre of the development of conscious beings in his image. Each +step upward in ideas arrives at a more adequate idea of the true +reality. _Force_ is more real than _thing_; persistent force than +particular forces; Absolute Person is more real than the force or forces +which he creates. + +This final form of thinking is the only form which is consistent with +the theory of education. Each individual should ascend by education into +participation--_conscious_ participation--in the life of the species. +Institutions--family, society, state, church--all are instrumentalities +by which the humble individual may avail himself of the help of the +race, and live over in himself its life. The highest stage of thinking +is the stage of insight. It sees the world as explained by the principle +of Absolute Person. It finds the world of institutions a world in +harmony with such a principle. + + + [1] The parallelism between these two sciences, Medicine + and Education, is an obvious point, which every student + will do well to consider. + + [2] This will again remind the student of the theories of + treatment in medicine in diseases which, in the + seventeenth century, were treated only by bleeding and + emetics, are now treated by nourishing food, and no + medicines, etc. + + [3] The teacher will do well to consider the probable + result of the constant association with mental inferiors + entailed by his work, and also to consider what + counter-irritant is to be applied to balance, in his + character, this unavoidable tendency. + + [4] The age at which the child should be subject to the + training of school life, or Education, properly so-called, + must vary with different races, nations, and different + children. + + [5] The best educator is he who makes his pupils + independent of himself. This implies on the teacher's part + an ability to lose himself in his work, and a desire for + the real growth of the pupil, independent of any personal + fame of his own--a disinterestedness which places + education on a level with the noblest occupations of man. + + [6] See analysis. + + [7] Asiatic systems of Education have this basis (see Sec. + 178 of the original). + + [8] The definition of freedom here implied is this: Mind + is free when it knows itself and wills its own laws. + + [9] Perhaps, however slow the growth, there is real + progress in liberating the imprisoned soul (?) + + [10] "When me they fly, I am the wings."--_Emerson._ + + [11] The story of Peter Schlemihl, by Chamisso, may be + read in the English translation published in "Hedge's + German Prose Writers." + + [12] That is, punishment is retributive and not + corrective. Justice requires that each man shall have the + fruits of his own deeds; in this it assumes that each and + every man is free and self-determined. It proposes to + treat each man as free, and as the rightful owner of his + deed and its consequences. If he does a deed which is + destructive to human rights, it shall destroy his rights + and deprive him of property, personal freedom, or even of + life. But corrective punishment assumes immaturity of + development and consequent lack of freedom. It belongs to + the period of nurture, and not to the period of maturity. + The tendency in our schools is, however, to displace the + forms of mere corrective punishment (corporal + chastisement), and to substitute for them forms founded on + retribution--_e.g._, deprivation of privileges. See secs. + 42 and 43. + + [13] Faust; Part I., Scene I. "How all weaves itself into + the Whole! Each works and lives in the other! How the + heavenly influences ascend and descend, and reach each + other the golden buckets!" + + [14] Hume, in his famous sketch of the Human + Understanding, makes all the perceptions of the human mind + resolve themselves into two distinct kinds: _impressions_ + and _ideas_. "The difference between them consists in the + degrees of force and liveliness with which they strike + upon the mind, and make their way into our thought and + consciousness. Those perceptions which enter with the most + force and violence we may name _impressions_, and under + this name include all our sensations, passions, and + emotions, as they make their first appearance in the soul. + By _ideas_, I mean the faint images of these in thinking + and reasoning." "The identity which we ascribe to the mind + of man is only a fictitious one." + + From this we see that his stand-point is that of "sensuous + ideas," the first stage of reflection. The second or third + stage of reflection, if consistent, would not admit the + reality to be the object of sense-impressions, and the + abstract ideas to be only "faint images." One who holds, + like Herbert Spencer, that persistent force is the + ultimate reality--"the sole truth, which transcends + experience by underlying it"--ought to hold that the + generalization which reaches the idea of unity of force is + the truest and most adequate of thoughts. And yet Herbert + Spencer holds substantially the doctrine of Hume, in the + words: "We must predicate nothing of objects too great or + too multitudinous to be mentally represented, or we must + make our predications by means of extremely inadequate + representations of such objects--mere symbols of them." + (Page 27 of "First Principles.") + + + + + + + +End of Project Gutenberg's Pedagogics as a System, by Karl Rosenkranz + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK PEDAGOGICS AS A SYSTEM *** + +***** This file should be named 30661.txt or 30661.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + https://www.gutenberg.org/3/0/6/6/30661/ + +Produced by Jonathan Ingram, Turgut Dincer and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net (This +file was produced from images generously made available +by The Internet Archive/American Libraries.) + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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