Pestalozzi and Locke.

§ 96. Without settling whether this analysis is complete we shall have no difficulty in admitting that both body and mind have faculties by means of which we apprehend, lay hold of, what is true and right; and it is on the use of these faculties that Pestalozzi bases instruction. No Englishman may have found a good word to indicate Anschauung, but one Englishman at least had the idea of it long before Pestalozzi. More than a century earlier Locke had called knowledge "the internal perception of the mind." "Knowing is seeing," said he; "and if it be so, it is madness to persuade ourselves we do so by another man's eyes, let him use never so many words to tell us that what he asserts is very visible" (Supra p. 222).

§ 97. Thus in theory Pestalozzi was, however unconsciously, a follower of Locke. But in practice they went far asunder. Locke's thoughts were constantly occupied with philosophical investigations, and he seems to have made small account of the intellectual power of children, and to have supposed that they cannot "see" anything at all. So he cared little what was taught them, and till they reached the age of reason the tutor might give such lessons as would be useful to "young gentlemen," the avowed object being to "keep them from sauntering." His follower Rousseau preferred that the child's mind should not be filled with the traditional lore of the schoolroom, and that the instructor, when the youth reached the age of twelve, should find "an unfurnished apartment to let." Then came Pestalozzi, and he saw that at whatever age the instructor began to teach the child, he would not find an unfurnished apartment, seeing that every child learns continuously from the hour of its birth. And how does the child learn? Not by repeating words which express the thoughts, feelings, and

Subjects for, and art of, teaching.

experiences of other people,* but by his own experiences and feelings, and by the thoughts which these suggest to him.

§ 98. Elementary education then on its intellectual side is teaching the child to think. The proper subjects of thought for children Pestalozzi held to be the children's surroundings, the realities of their own lives, the things that affect them and arouse their feelings and interests. Perhaps he did not emphasize interest as much as Herbart has done since; but clearly an Anschauung or "intuition" is only possible when the child is interested in the thing observed.

$99. The art of teaching in Pestalozzi's system consists in analyzing the knowledge that the children should acquire about their surroundings, arranging it in a regular sequence, and bringing it to the children's consciousness gradually and in the way in which their minds will act upon it. In this way they learn slowly, but all they learn is their own. They are not like the crow drest up in peacock's feathers, for

* Did Pestalozzi make due allowance for the system of thought which every child inherits? Croom Robertson in "How we came by our Knowledge" (Nineteenth Century, No. 1, March, 1877), without men tioning Pestalozzi, seems to differ from him. Croom Robertson says that "Children being born into the world are born into society, and are acted on by overpowering social influences before they have any chance of being their proper selves. The words and sentences that fall upon a child's ear and are soon upon his lips, express not so much his subjective experience as the common experience of his kind, which becomes as it were an objective rule or measure to which his shall conform. He does, he must, accept what he is told; and in general he is only too glad to find his own experience in accordance with it. We use our incidental, by which I mean our natural subjective experience, mainly to decipher and verify the ready-made scheme of knowledge that is given us en bloc with the words of our mother-tongue" (pp. 117, 118).

"Mastery."

they have not appropriated any dead knowledge (" angelernte todte Begriffe," as Diesterweg has it), and it cannot be said of them, "They know about much, but know nothing (Sie kennen viel und wissen nichts)." Their knowledge is actual knowledge, for they are taught not what to think but to think, and to exercise their powers of observation and draw conclusions from their own experience. The teacher simply furnishes materials and occasions for this exercise in observing, and as it goes on gives his benevolent superintendence.

§ 100. They learn slowly for another reason. According to Pestalozzi the first conceptions must be dwelt upon till they are distinct and firmly fixed. Buss tells us that when he first joined Pestalozzi at Burgdorf the delay over the prime elements seemed to him a waste of time, but that afterwards he was convinced of its being the right plan, and felt that the failure of his own education was due to its

incoherent and desultory character. "Not only," says Pestalozzi, "have the first elements of knowledge in every subject the most important bearing on its complete outline, but the child's confidence and interest are gained by perfect attainment even in the lowest stage of instruction.”*

* One of the most interesting and most difficult problems in teaching is this: How long should the beginner be kept to the rudiments? With young children, to whom ideas come fast, the main thing is no doubt to take care that these ideas become distinct and are made "the intellectual property" of the learners. But after a year or two children will be impatient to "get on," and if they seem "marking time" will be bored and discouraged. Then again in some subjects the elementary parts seem clear only to those who have a conception of the whole. As Diderot says in a passage I have seen quoted from Le Neveu de Rameau, "Il faut être profond dans l'art ou dans la science

The body's part in education.

§ 101. We have seen that Pestalozzi would have children learn to pray, to think, and to work. In schools for the soi-disant "upper classes" the parents or friends af a boy sometimes say, "There is no need for him to work he will be very well off." From this kind of demoralization Pestalozzi's pupils were free. They would have to work, and Pestalozzi wished them to learn to work as soon as possible. In this way he sought to increase their self-respect, and to unite their school-life with their life beyond it.*

§ 102. Pestalozzi was tremendously in earnest, and he wished the children also to take instruction seriously. He was totally opposed to the notion which had found favour with many great authorities as eg., Locke and Basedow, that instruction should always be given in the guise of amusement. "I am convinced," says he, "that such a

pour en bien posséder les éléments." "C'est le milieu et la fin qui éclaircissent les ténèbres du commencement.' The greatest "coach in Cambridge used to “rush" his men through their subjects and then go back again for thorough learning. To be sure, the "scientific method" suitable for young men differs greatly from the "heuristic" or "method of investigation," which is best for children. (See Joseph Payne's Lecture on Pestalozzi.) But even with children we should bear in mind Niemeyer's caution, "Thoroughness itself may become superficial by exaggeration; for it may keep too long to a part and in this way fail to complete and give any notion of the whole" (Quoted by O. Fischer, Wichtigste Päd. 213).

*

Nearly 20 years ago (1871) appeared a paper on 66 Elementary National Education" in which "John Parkin, M.D.," advocated making all our elementary schools industrial, not only for practical purposes, but still more for the sake of physical education. The paper attracted no notice at the time, but now we are beginning to see that the body is concerned in education as well as the mind, and that the mind learns through it "without book." The application of this truth will bring about many changes.

Learning must not be play.

notion will for ever preclude solidity of knowledge, and, for want of sufficient exertions on the part of the pupils, will lead to that very result which I wish to avoid by my principle of a constant employment of the thinking powers. A child must very early in life be taught the lesson that exertion is indispensable for the attainment of knowledge "* (To G., xxiv, p. 117). But he should be taught at the same time that exertion is not an evil, and he should be encouraged, not frightened, into it. Healthy exertion, whether of body or mind, is always attended with a feeling of satisfaction amounting to pleasure, and where this pleasure is absent the instructor has failed in producing proper exertion. As Pestalozzi says, "Whenever children are inattentive and apparently take no interest in a lesson, the teacher should always first look to himself for the reason "† (76.).

* Herbart, when he visited Pestalozzi at Burgdorf, observed that though Pestalozzi's kindness was apparent to all, he took no pains in his teaching to mix the dulce with the utile. He never talked to the children, or joked, or gave them an auecdote. This, however, did not surprise Herbart, whose own experience had taught him that when the subject requires earnest attention the children do not like it the better for the teacher's "fun." "The feeling of clear apprehension," says he, "I held to be the only genuine condiment of instruction" (Herbart's Päd. Schriften, ed. by O. Willmann, j. 89).

+ First look to himself, but there may be other causes of failure as well. The great thing is never to put up contentedly, or even discon tentedly, with failure. In teaching classes of lads from ten to sixteen years old, when I have found the lessons in any subject were not going well, I have sometimes taken the class into my confidence, told them that they no doubt felt as I did that this lesson was a dull one, and asked them each to put on paper what he considered to be the reasons, and also to make any suggestions that occurred to him. In this way I have got some very good hints, and I have always been helped in my effort to understand how the work seemed to the pupils. Every teacher