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diff --git a/30661.txt b/30661.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..5916e8c --- /dev/null +++ b/30661.txt @@ -0,0 +1,8876 @@ +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: 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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