able contribution to educational theory and practice made thereby. Rousseau has shown that there are characteristic differences at different stages in the child's life, but each "has a perfection or maturity of its own,' and that only as the proper activities are provided for each stage will it reach that maturity or perfection. It can be seen how these principles fulfill his contention that the child must be studied, and mark Rousseau as a progenitor of the child study movement. this sympa standing of child develop ment, rather than from any scientific started child study and in meth ods of teach ing, and gave a great impulse to the modern psy In keeping with this, Rousseau also held that education And through should be conducted according to the way in which the thetic undermind of the child works under the stimulation of the interests that are characteristic of the various periods. This is the fundamental consideration with him in determining the course of study and methods of teaching. principles, he He may, therefore, be credited to a great degree with the marked imincreasing tendency to cease from forcing upon children provements in a fixed method of thinking, feeling, and acting, and for the gradual disappearance of the old ideas that a task is of educational value according as it is distasteful, and that real education consists in overcoming meaningless difficulties. Curiosity and interest are rather to be used as motives for study, and Rousseau therein points the education. way for the Herbartians. It is likewise due to him primarily that we have recognized the need of physical activities and sense training in the earlier development of the child as a foundation for its later growth and learning. To these recommendations may be traced much of the object teaching of Pestalozzianism and the motor expression of Froebelianism. Thus Rousseau made a large contribution to educational method by showing the value of motivation, of creating problems, chological tendencies in Hence Rousseau has had influence upon most ments in edu cational and of utilizing the senses and activities of the child, and may be regarded as the father of the psycholog< ical movements in modern education. He could not, however, have based his study of children and his advanced methods upon any real scientific knowledge, for in his day the 'faculty' psychology absolutely prevailed. Instead of working out his methods from scientific principles, he obtained them, as did Pestalozzi afterwards, through his sympathetic understanding of the child and his ability to place himself in the child's situation and see the world through the eyes of the child. It is not until the time of Herbart that a scientific formulation of method and a scientific system of psychology first appear. The Spread of Rousseau's Doctrines. Thus the influa remarkable ence of Rousseau upon education in all its aspects has been most weighty and far-reaching. It is shown by modern move the library of books since written to contradict, correct, or disseminate his doctrines. During the quarter of a organization, century following the publication of the Emile, probmethod, and content in ably more than twice as many books upon education Europe and were published as in the preceding three-quarters of a America, beginning with century. This epoch-making work created and forced thropinum' of a rich harvest of educational thinking for a century Basedow. after its appearance, and it has affected our ideas upon the 'Philan education from that day to this. As indicated, then, most modern movements in educational organization, method, and content, find their roots in Rousseau, and he is seen to be the intellectual progenitor of Pestalozzi, Herbart, Froebel, Spencer, and many other modern reformers. But his principles did not take immediate hold on the schools themselves, although their influence is manifest there as the nineteenth century advanced. In France they were apparent in the complaints and recommendations concerning schools in many of the cahiers1 that were issued just prior to the revolution, and afterward clearly formed a basis for much of the legislation concerning the universal, free, and secular organization of educational institutions. In England, since there was no national system of schools, little direct impression was made upon educational practice. But in America this revolutionary thought would seem to have had much to do with causing the unrest that gradually resulted in upsetting the aristocratic and formal training of the young and in secularizing and universalizing the public school system. The first definite attempt, however, to put into actual practice the naturalistic education of Rousseau occurred in Germany through the writings of Basedow and the foundation of the 'Philanthropinum,' and is of sufficient importance to demand separate discussion. The erratic spired to re Development of Basedow's Educational Reforms. Johann Bernhard Basedow (1723-1790) was by nature through the the very sort of person to be captivated by Rousseau's Emile, indoctrines. He was talented, but erratic, unorthodox, form the tactless, and irregular in life. He had been prepared at education of the University of Leipzig for the Lutheran ministry, but the day. proved too heretical, and giving up this vocation, became a tutor in Holstein to a Herr von Quaalen's children. With these aristocratic pupils he first developed methods of teaching through conversation and play connected 1 These were lists of grievances and desired reforms prepared by the .various towns and villages throughout France at the request of the king (Louis XVI), in accordance with an old custom. unnatural Through his raised a suffi Elementar with surrounding objects. A few years after this, in 1763, Basedow fell under the spell of Rousseau's Emile, which was most congenial to his methods of thinking and teaching, and turned all his energy toward educational reform. As in the case of Rousseau with education in France, he realized that the German education of the day was sadly in need of just such an antidote as 'naturalism' was calculated to furnish. The school-rooms were dismal and the work was unpleasant, physical training was neglected, and the discipline was severe. Children were regarded as adults in miniature, and were so treated both in their dress and their education. The current schooling consisted largely of instruction in artificial deportment. The study of classics composed the entire intellectual curriculum, and the methods were purely grammatical. As a result, suggestions made by Basedow for educational improvement attained as great popularity as his advanced theological propositions had received abuse. In 1768 by his Address on Schools and Studies, and Schools he their Influence on the Public Weal, he called generally cient subsidy upon princes, governments, ecclesiastics, and others in to publish his power, to assist him financially in certain definite educational reforms. In addition to suggesting that the schools be made nonsectarian and that public incontain prin- struction be placed under a National Council of Educaciples from tion, he proposed that, in contrast to the formal and other sources, unattractive training of the day, education should be werk, and Methodenbuch, which Comenius and as well as from Rousseau. rendered practical in content and playful in method. To assist this reform, he planned to bring out a work on elementary education, which he described in outline. Great interest in his proposals was shown throughout Europe by sovereigns, nobles, prominent men, and rich and poor alike that were interested in a nonsectarian and more effective education. A subsidy to the sum of ten thousand dollars was speedily raised. Six years later, Basedow completed his promised text-book, Elementarwerk, and the companion work for teachers and parents known as Methodenbuch. The Elementarwerk was accompanied by a volume containing one hundred plates, which illustrated the subject matter of the text, but were too large to be bound in with it. In his manuals Basedow does not seem to see the problem exactly as Rousseau did, but accepts some of the old traditions. For instance he retains Latin in his suggested training. Nevertheless, he did get many naturalistic ideas from Rousseau, and through them saw that further study was necessary to answer more fully the problems with which these things were connected. 1 The Elementarwerk clearly combines ideas taken from many sources, including many of the principles of Comenius as well as of Rousseau. It has, in fact, been often referred to as 'the Orbis Pictus of the eighteenth century,' and gives a knowledge of things and words in the form of a dialogue. The Methodenbuch, while not following Rousseau completely, contains many ideas concerning natural training that are suggestive of him. In this study of the nature of children, the book makes some advance upon the Rousselian doctrine by finding that they are especially interested in motion and noise, although Basedow would have shocked Rousseau by being so much under the control of tradition as to sug 1 For the Orbis Sensualium Pictus and its method, see Graves, History of Education during the Transition, p. 274; Great Educators, p. 31. |