28477 EDUCATION AS A UNIVERSITY SUBJECT; ITS HISTORY, PRESENT POSITION. AND PROSPECTS. BY DAVID ROSS, M.A., B.Sc., PRINCIPAL, CHURCH OF SCOTLAND TRAINING COLLEGE, GLASGOW; MEMBER OF CONVOCATION, GLASGOW: JAMES MACLEHOSE & SONS, 61 ST VINCENT ST., MDCCCLXXXIII Οὐ γὰρ ἔστι περὶ ὅτου θειοτέρου ἂν ἄνθρωπος βουλεύσαιτο, ἢ περὶ παιδείας καὶ αὑτοῦ καὶ τῶν αὑτοῦ οἰκείων.— Plato. THE total unacquaintance with the science of pædagogic, and with all that has been written about it, in which the intending schoolmaster is, in England, suffered to remain, has, I am convinced, injurious effects both on our schoolmasters and on our schools.—Mr. Matthew Arnold. To those who maintain that schoolmastering wants no theory, and can have no science, the true reply is this: The old system of use and wont-the "blind hands" system, as we may call it has broken down. A theory we must have, and if it turns out that we can have no science, this will be a very bad business for everybody. Those who now oppose themselves to scientific inquiry, are no more to be accounted of than so many Mrs. Partingtons trying to sweep back the Atlantic.-Rev. Mr. Quick in opening lecture of Cambridge Course for Teachers. 66 EDUCATION AS A UNIVERSITY SUBJECT. AT the late Educational Congress in Aberdeen1 the Aberdeen following Resolution was unanimously adopted: Congress. "That this meeting considers that there ought to be "instituted Chairs of Education in the Universities of "Aberdeen and Glasgow, and that a Faculty or SubFaculty of Education, with powers to give a Special "Teachers' Degree, should be constituted in all the "Scotch Universities." A full discussion elicited but very slight divergence of opinion as to the details; on the main point all the speakers were agreed. Among those who spoke were two clergymen of different denominations, a University Professor, two Principals of Training Colleges, the Rector of a Grammar or Higher Class Public School, and two old parochial schoolmasters. On any other educational question of importance it would, I think, be difficult to secure unanimity in a group so heterogeneous, its members having in some respects interests so diverse. It may, therefore, be accepted that the University recognition of Education carries with it many advantages, some of which influence one party and some another. For a detailed account of these advantages Professor Laurie's new volume on The Training of Teachers may be consulted, especially his inaugural address delivered on the Prof. Pillans, 828. occasion of the founding of the Chair of the Institutes and History of Education in the University of Edinburgh. The Aberdeen resolution commits the Educational Institute of Scotland to immediate and definite action. The time is opportune, for the Endowed Schools Commission is at work, and a University Executive Commission is promised. Of these bodies the former may be expected to procure the funds, or part of them, and the latter to supply the authority needed to realise the project. At this juncture, therefore, it cannot but be useful to review the history of the question, particularly in Scotland, to examine how far and on what conditions education has been accorded University recognition, and to formulate our claims so as to meet the objections of some, and secure the co-operation of all who have the good of our profession at heart. 66 I. -HISTORY. 66 In 1834 Professor Pillans, speaking of “ A Plan for Establishing a Lectureship on Didactics in one or “two of our Universities," which he had first announced in 1828, says, "The tone of kindliness in which minis"ters and members of the House of Commons generally "have spoken of popular education, and testified their "desire to see it flourish in every part of the empire, encourages us to return to the subject, and even to "extend the recommendation to all the four Universi"ties of Scotland, being satisfied that there is no means "within our reach that will be found at once so 66 66 effectual, so little costly, and so practicable as the "institution of four such lectureships." 1 The subject continued to interest Professor Pillans throughout his life; the longer he observed the educational condition of the country, the more he reflected upon the remedies to be applied, the more was he assured of the value of his scheme. 1 Edinburgh Review. July, 1834. Meanwhile plans first adopted to meet the educa- Education tional wants of England influenced our country also. Department. The Training College system, necessary in England, was introduced into Scotland where it was less required, and where it modified most extensively, and that not in the line of our traditions, the Normal School system of Mr. Stow. Philanthropic minds had suddenly become alarmed at the rapid growth of our cities, and the great development of an urban population of a low type, whose educational destitution was extreme. Parliamentary aid was asked and obtained, and a new educational system was gradually developed side by side with an old, tried, and valued system, with which, however, it had little in common. The country was 1839-46. too intent upon securing school accommodation and an adequate number of teachers, too confident in the value of those crude instruments the pupil teachers, too well satisfied with results of the most mechanical kind, to devote attention to the formative and the refining in education, or to care from what standpoint the teacher viewed his duties, or the pupils regarded their labours. Scotland, In 1847 the Educational Institute of Scotland was Educational formed "for the purpose of promoting sound learning, Institute of "and of advancing the interests of education in Scotland." 1847. From the first the Institute regarded education both as a science and an art. The third resolution adopted at the preliminary meeting is—"That in further prose"cuting the object of the Association it seems expedient that a knowledge of the theory and practice "of education be more widely disseminated among the profession by means of public lectures, the institu"tion of libraries, and such other means as may after"wards seem advisable." A series of lectures was given in Edinburgh in the winter of 1847-48, of which Dr. Schmitz, formerly Rector of the Edinburgh High School, says, "The lectures were numerously attended by teachers in Edinburgh and its immediate vicinity, and the "public took considerable interest in them." And Dr. |