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International Education Series

EDITED BY

WILLIAM T. HARRIS, A. M., LL. D.

VOLUME XIV.

EDITED BY W. T. HARRIS.

Ir is proposed to publish, under the above title, a library for teachers and school managers, and text-books for normal classes. The aim will be to provide works of a useful practical character in the broadest sense. The following conspectus will show the ground to be covered by the series: I.-History of Education. (A.) Original systems as expounded by their founders. (B.) Critical histories which set forth the customs of the past and point out their advantages and defects, explaining the grounds of their adoption, and also of their final disuse.

II.-Educational Criticism. (A.) The noteworthy arraignments which educational reformers have put forth against existing systems: these compose the classics of pedagogy. (B.) The critical histories above mentioned.

III.-Systematic Treatises on the Theory of Education. (A.) Works written from the historical standpoint; these, for the most part, show a tendency to justify the traditional course of study and to defend the prevailing methods of instruction. (B.) Works written from critical standpoints, and to a greater or less degree revolutionary in their tendency.

IV.-The Art of Education. (A.) Works on instruction and discipline, and the practical details of the school-room. (B.) Works on the organization and supervision of schools.

Practical insight into the educational methods in vogue can not be attained without a knowledge of the process by which they have come to be established. For this reason it is proposed to give special prominence to the history of the systems that have prevailed.

Again, since history is incompetent to furnish the ideal of the future, it is necessary to devote large space to works of educational criticism. Criticism is the purifying process by which ideals are rendered clear and potent, so that progress becomes possible.

History and criticism combined make possible a theory of the whole. For, with an ideal toward which the entire movement tends, and an account of the phases that have appeared in time, the connected development of the whole can be shown, and all united into one system.

Lastly, after the science, comes the practice. The art of education is treated in special works devoted to the devices and technical details useful in the school-room.

It is believed that the teacher does not need authority so much as insight in matters of education. When he understands the theory of education and the history of its growth, and has matured his own point of view by careful study of the critical literature of education, then he is competent to select or invent such practical devices as are best adapted to his own wants.

The series will contain works from European as well as American authors, and will be under the editorship of W. T. HARRIS, A. M., LL.D.

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