Development of his pedagogy through

tutorial experience.

Interpreted and supplemented Pestalozzi's principles.

tional theories. Just before graduation (1797), however, Herbart left the university to become private tutor to the three sons of the governor of Interlaken, Switzerland, and during the next three years he obtained in this way a most valuable experience. The five extant reports that he made on the methods he used and on his pupils' progress reveal thus early the germs of his elaborate system. The youthful pedagogue seems to have recognized the individual variations in children, and to have shown a due regard for the respective ages of his pupils. He also sought, by means of his favorite work, the Odyssey, to develop in them the elements of morality and a 'many-sided interest.' This early experience, rather than his ingenious system of psychology and metaphysics, which he afterward developed in explanation, was the real foundation of his pedagogy, and furnished him with the concrete examples of the characteristics and individualities of children that appear in all his later works. He ever afterward maintained that a careful study of the development of a few children was the best preparation for a pedagogical career, and eventually made an experience of this kind the main element in his training of teachers.

While still in Switzerland, Herbart met Pestalozzi and was greatly attracted by the underlying principles of that reformer. He paid a visit to the institute at Burgdorf in 1799, and during the next two years, while at Bremen completing his interrupted university course, he undertook to advocate and render more scientific the thought of the Swiss educator. Here he wrote a sympathetic essay On Pestalozzi's Latest Writing, 'How Gertrude Teaches Her Children,' and made his interpretation

i

of Pestalozzi's Idea of an A B C of Observation (see p. 286). Next Herbart lectured on pedagogy at the University of Göttingen. The treatises he wrote there seem to have become more critical toward the Pestalozzian methods, and he no longer strives to conceal their vagueness and want of system. Sense perception, he holds with Pestalozzi, does supply the first elements of knowledge, but the material of the school course should be definitely arranged with reference to the general purpose of instruction, which is moral self-realization. This position on the moral aim of education he made especially explicit and complete in his work on The Science of Education The Science of (1806).

Education.

practice school.

His Work at Königsberg and Göttingen. In 1809 Herbart was called to the chair of philosophy at Königsberg, and there established his now historic pedagogical seminary and the small practice school connected with Seminary and it. The students, who taught in the practice school under the supervision and criticism of the professor, were intending to become school principals and inspectors, and, through the widespread work and influence of these young Herbartians the educational system of Prussia and of every other state in Germany was greatly advanced. In his numerous publications at Königsberg, Herbart devoted himself chiefly to works on a system of psychology as a basis for his pedagogy. After serving nearly a quarter of a century here, he returned to Göttingen as professor of philosophy, and the last eight years of his life were spent in expanding his pedagogical positions. Here he issued the first edition of his Outlines of Outlines of Educational Doctrine (1835), which gives an exposition Doctrine. of his educational system when fully matured. It con

Educational

An afterthought.

by outside

world.

tains brief references to his mechanical metaphysics and psychology, but is a most practical and well-organized discussion of the educational process.

Herbart's Psychology.-Herbart's metaphysical psychology seems to have been an after-thought developed to afford a basis for the method of pedagogical procedure that he had worked out of his tutorial experience and his acquaintance with the Pestalozzian practice. But some explanation of this elaborate psychology may serve to make clearer his educational principles. For the most Mind built up part he holds that the mind is built up by the outside world, and he is generally supposed to have left no place for instincts or innate characteristics and tendencies. With him the simplest elements of consciousness are 'ideas,' which are atoms of mind stuff thrown off from the soul in endeavoring to maintain itself against external stimuli. Once produced by this contact of the soul with its environment, the ideas become existences with their own dynamic force, and constantly strive to preserve combination of themselves. They struggle to attain as nearly as possible to the summit of consciousness, and each idea tends to draw into consciousness or heighten those allied to it, and to depress or force out those which are unlike. Each new idea or group of ideas is heightened, modified, or rejected, according to its degree of harmony or conflict with the previously existing ideas. In other words, all new ideas are interpreted through those already in consciousness. In accordance with this principle, which Herbart called 'apperception,' the teacher can secure interest and the attention of the pupil to any new idea or set of ideas and have him retain it, only through making use of his previous body of related knowledge.

Genesis and

ideas.

'Apperception.'

Attainment of

Hence the educational problem becomes how to present new material in such a way that it can be 'apperceived' or incorporated with the old, and the mind of the pupil is largely in the hands of the teacher, since he can make or modify his 'apperception masses,' or systems of ideas. The Aim, Content, and Method of Education.-Accordingly, Herbart holds that the purpose of education should be to establish moral and religious character. He character as believes that this final aim can be attained through aim. instruction, and that, to determine how this shall furnish a 'moral revelation of the world,' a careful study must be made of each pupil's thought masses, temperament, and mental capacity. There is not much likelihood of the pupil's receiving ideas of virtue that will develop into glowing ideals of conduct when his studies do not appeal to his thought systems and are consequently regarded with indifference and aversion. They must coalesce with the ideas he already has, and thus touch his life. But Herbart does not limit 'interest' to a temporary stimulus for the performance of certain school tasks; he advocates the building up by education of certain broad interests that may become permanent Many-sided sources of appeal in life. Instruction must be so selected and arranged as not only to relate itself to the previous experience of the pupil, but as also to reveal and establish all the relations of life and conduct in their fullness.

interest.

In analyzing this 'many-sided interest,' Herbart holds that ideas and interests spring from two main sources,'experience,' which furnishes us with a knowledge of nature, and 'social intercourse,' from which come the sentiments toward our fellowmen. Interests may, there- 'Knowledge' fore, be classed as belonging to (1) 'knowledge' or to tion' interests. and 'participa

(2) 'participation.' These two sets of interests, in turn, Herbart divides into three groups each. He classed the 'knowledge' interests as (a) 'empirical,' appealing directly to the senses; (b) 'speculative,' seeking to perceive the relations of cause and effect; and (c) 'æsthetic,' resting upon the enjoyment of contemplation. The 'participation' interests are divided into (a) ‘sympathetic,' dealing with relations to other individuals; (b) 'social,' including the community as a whole; and (c) 'religious,' treating one's relations to the Divine. Instruction must, therefore, develop all these interests, and, to correspond with the two main groups, Herbart and 'scientific' divides all studies into two branches, the (1) 'historical,'

'Historical'

subjects.

'Correlation' and 'concentration.'

including history, literature, and languages; and the (2) 'scientific,' embracing mathematics, as well as the natural sciences. Although recognizing the value of both groups, Herbart especially stressed the 'historical,' on the ground that history and literature are of greater importance as the sources of moral ideas and sentiments.

But, while all the subjects, 'historical' and 'scientific,' are needed for a 'many-sided interest,' and the various studies have for convenience been separated and classified by themselves, Herbart holds that they must be so arranged in the curriculum as to become unified and an organic whole, if the unity of the pupil's consciousness is to be maintained. This position forecasts the emphasis upon 'correlation,' or the unification of studies, so common among his followers. The principle was further developed by later Herbartians under the name of 'concentration,' or the unifying of all subjects around one or two common central studies, such as literature or history. But the selection and articulation of the subject