apparent; and to prepare the mind by the first impressions of the objects for a general acquaintance with this department of science" (How Gertrude Teaches). The only way to help children "to a real development of their mental faculties is: (1) Gradually to enlarge the sphere of their intuition, i.e., to increase the number of objects falling under their own immediate perception. (2) To impress upon them those perceptions of which they have become conscious with certainty, clearness and precision. (3) To impart to them a comprehensive knowledge of language, for the expression of whatever has become, or is becoming, an object of their consciousness, in consequence either of the spontaneous impulse of their own nature, or of the assistance of instruction" (How Gertrude Teaches). The educator must find out the objects best suited to call forth every sense: the actions which shall arouse the activity of every faculty of the child: the proper gradation of the simplicity and complexity of such objects and actions, so that they shall be in accordance with the increasing capacity of the senses, and the extension of the powers. Both objects and actions should be presented in attractive, powerful and pleasant forms. If this be done the effects will be most truly educative; and the child will be as animated and happy in its school hours as in its playtime. If the food necessary for fulness of life is properly presented it is only necessary to lead children, never to drive them, to it. Since the beginning of the human race, men have been trying to make easier the progress of the learner from the elements of the culture of the power of intuition to the elements of the culture of the power of thought; and at raising the common sense which is gained by the simple perception of objects of Nature to the level of the logical certainty of the power of thought and judgment. The educator has to continue this. The work of the educator is to see that the child's human instincts are exercised in human affairs; and to do this by causing self-activity and self-realisation from within, not by dictating or enforcing a cut-and-dried system from without. He must secure the positive quickening of what is good; not the mere repression of what is evil, in the child. Truth must be so cultivated that falsehood is, as it were, crowded out: the intellectual and moral powers must be made so strong that the sensuous powers are overwhelmed. In the mind of the educator there must always be the clear and conscious aim of serving the divine nature in the child, so as to help it to its full development, and in no way to hinder or harm it. But the educator must serve only the life and the law of the child's nature, not its whims or its personal preferences. Instruction must be given through a series of exercises so graduated by the educator, that the startingpoint is, in every case, well within the comprehension of the pupil; and the consecutive progress through the series must always exercise the pupil's powers, without exhausting them, so that there is a continuous, easy and attractive progress, in which knowledge and the practical application of it are always closely connected. In concluding this study of Pestalozzi as a thinker we will give five outline summaries of his theory of education. Three of these are by men who knew Pestalozzi well, and worked with him-Fischer, Niederer and Dr. Mayo; and two of them are by able commentators on Pestalozzi's theories-Morf and Payne. MAYO. 1. Education should be essentially religious: Its end and aim should be to lead a creature, born for immortality, to that conformity to the image of God in which the glory and happiness of immortality consists. 2. It should be essentially moral-Moral instruction, to be availing, must be the purified and elevated expression of a moral life, actually pervading the scene of education. 3. It must be directed by an influence essentially parental. 4. It should be essentially organic- the development of the human faculties (moral, intellectual and physical) from within, by a process of expansion and growth; through selfactivity and liberty. 5. The development of all the faculties should be harmonious: to preserve the equipoise within the mental, moral and physical spheres, and between the three. 6. It should be based on intuitions. 7. It should be gradual and progressive-every age has its own mental, moral and physical claims. 8. It should be free and natural, not cramped, confined and servile. 9. It should be analytical-everything taught should be reduced to its simplest elements. PAYNE. 1. The principles of education are not to be devised ab extra; they are to be sought for in human nature. 2. This nature is an organic nature-a plexus of bodily, intellectual and moral capabilities, ready for development, and struggling to develop themselves. 3. Self-development begins with the impressions received by the mind from external objects. These impressions (called sensations), when the mind be-. comes conscious of them, group themselves into These are registered in the mind as perceptions. conceptions or ideas, and constitute that elementary knowledge which is the basis of all knowledge. 4. All education (including instruction) must be grounded on the learner's own observation (Anschauung) at first hand-on his own personal experience. This is the true basis of all knowledge. 4 (cont.). First the reality, then the symbol; first the thing, then the word, not vice versa. 5. That which the learner has gained by his own observation and which, as a part of his personal experience is incorporated with his mind, he knows and can describe or explain in his own words. His competency to do this is the measure of the accuracy of his observation, and consequently of his knowledge. 6. The education conducted by the formal educator has both a negative and a positive side. The former consists in removing impediments, so as to afford scope for the learner's self-development. The latter is to stimulate the learner to the exercise of his powers, to furnish materials and occasion for the exercise, and to superintend and maintain the action of the machinery. 7. Personal experience necessitates the advancement of the learner's mind from the near and actual, with which he is in contact, and which he can deal with himself, to the more remote; therefore from the concrete to the abstract, from particulars to generals, from the known to the unknown. This is the method of elementary education; the opposite proceedingthe usual proceeding of our traditional teaching. is the scientific method-a method suited only to the advanced learner, who, it assumes, is already trained by the elementary method. MORF. 7. The instructor must dwell upon each step long enough to ensure that the child gets a thorough grasp of, and control over, the new matter. 8. The chief aim of elementary instruction is to develop and increase the powers of the child's mind, not the acquisition of know ledge or skill. 9. With knowledge must come power, with information skill. 10. The relations between educator and pupil, and school discipline in particular, must be based on and controlled by love. II. The individuality of the pupil must be sacred to the educator. PAYNE. 8. Practical aptness or faculty, depends more on habits gained by the assiduous oft-repeated exercise of the learner's active powers than on knowledge alone. Knowing and doing must, however, proceed together. The chief aim of all education (including instruction) is the development of the learner's powers. 9. Spontaneity and self-activity are the necessary conditions under which the mind educates itself and gains power and independence. |