RIVERSIDE TEXTBOOKS IN EDUCATION EDITED BY ELLWOOD P. CUBBERLEY DEAN OF THE SCHOOL OF EDUCATION LELAND STANFORD JUNIOR UNIVERSITY LIBRARY FEB 1 4 '41 AUTHOR'S PREFACE TWENTY to twenty-five years ago it was common, in our colleges and universities, to offer a general introductory course in Education, open to practically all students. The course usually covered the more important aspects of the subject as it was then developed, was intended for beginning students in education, and served a useful purpose in opening-up the field to those who knew little or nothing as to what constituted its subject-matter and problems. The present writer offered such a course for several years. It was elected by many university students who had no intention of preparing for teaching, and there is good reason for thinking that it served a useful purpose in giving to future citizens, school-board members, legislators, and parents, as well as to those who prepared for teaching, some intelligent idea as to educational practices, problems, and procedures. With the rapid development of Education as a subject which took place after about 1906-08, and the coming of additional professors to the department, the course was finally given up, and what had previously been presented in this general introductory course was divided up among six or seven different university courses. Many of these have in turn since been subdivided, until now, generally over the United States, departments and schools of education offer so many different courses that only the student who specializes in education has a chance to learn, in any comprehensive manner, with what education as a whole deals. Even the special student often has difficulty, at first, in grasping relationships and seeing the full significance of the parts he is studying. |