Imagens da página
PDF
ePub

Steele, Geo. M., Rudimentary Eco-

nomics, 202.

Stewart, Seth T., Plane and Solid
Geometry, 512.

St. Paul, Minn., The New School

Law in, 372.

Supervision, City School, 256, 362,
482.

Sutcliffe, John D., Handcraft, 96.
Teaching University for London, A,
282.

Thurber, Samuel, Essays of Macau-
lay, etc., 511.
THURSTON, R. H.-Cotterill and
Slade's Lessons in Applied Me-
chanics, 193.

THWING, CHARLES F.-Seelye's
Duty, 404.

Tilden, John N., A Commercial
Geography, 509.

Training College for Teachers at
Oxford, A Proposed, 207.
Unethical Education, 310.
Universities, The Present Condition
of the German, 28; Universities
and Professional Education, 77; A
Teaching University for London,
282.
University

Extension, American

[blocks in formation]

VENABLE, CHARLES S.-Graham's
Geometry of Position, 87.
WAGGENER, LESLIE-Cooke's Guide
Book to the Works of Robert
Browning, 85.

WALKER, FRANCIS A.-The Place
of Schools of Technology in Ameri-
can Education, 209; on American
Scientific Schools, 276.
WATKINS, ALBERT B.-Recent
Changes in the Regents' Examina-
tions in the State of New York,
368.
WHEELER, BENJAMIN IDE.-Seyf-
fert's Dictionary of Classical An-
tiquities, 290.

White, Greenough, Philosophy of
American Literature, 186.
Will, The Education of the, 57.
WILLIAMS, STEPHEN G.-Hug and
Stead's Switzerland, 83.
WINCHESTER, CHARLES

F.-

[blocks in formation]

NIVERS

CALIFORNS

EDUCATIONAL REVIEW

JUNE, 1891.

I.

APPLICATIONS OF PSYCHOLOGY IN EDUCATION.

"It is in

What is
What is

Professor Royce, in a most suggestive paper, recently published (EDUCATIONAL REVIEW, I: 15, 121), has observed that what the teacher has first and chiefly to gain from the study of psychology, is the psychological spirit; that is, the love and the skill that are required for the purposes of mental diagnosis. The teacher should be a naturalist, in the habit of observing the mental life of children for its own sake. this fashion that naturalists always have to work. here in this live thing? Why does it move thus? it doing? What feelings does it appear to have? What type of rudimentary intelligence is it showing? Ask such things not because they will give you a systematic theory, but because they will help you to form the habit of watching minds." This is admirably said. But it is not quite all that is necessary; for the teacher is not only an observing naturalist. He is an agent appointed to solve problems, to produce effects on a living organism, to modify forces, which begin by being psychological, but end by being social.

One way of stating the problem is the following: "The child must be developed into an harmonious organism." This formula is more ambiguous than it sounds. For an organism implies a medium, and the medium in which the psychic organism of the child is to live consists of ideas. Harmony of the organism, therefore, means its adjustment to ideas. But ideas also constitute integral parts of this mental organism. Therefore harmony means adjustment of internal ideas, or those existing in

the mind, to external ideas, or those existing in the social mind, or imposed by the constitution of things. But again, all ideas are not accessible to all minds; and therefore minds do not live in the same media, but are often in worlds widely remote, even when the bodies of these minds are in close propinquity with one another. Each mind selects, creates, the world in which it is to live. And conversely, all the events which have transpired in the history of the world are but the outward realization of ideas which have been associated with brains like these. Despotisms, wars, revolutions, pyramids, crusades, inquisitions, cathedrals, dynasties, religions, sciences-all are only projected thoughts. Of what fearful importance is it, then, to know what thoughts shall spring up in the growing brain, and, if possible, how to modify their nature and their sequence!

The problems of psychology and education are so interesting, and their points of contact so numerous, that for a brief discussion it is equally necessary and difficult to make a choice. I will make this choice in favor of the theme which is most prominently forced upon the attention of all teachers. This is the process by which a child acquires the knowledge which it is the business of the teacher to impart. I may state this subject in the form of a definite problem, as follows:

Given, a child with a small amount of knowledge spontaneously acquired, to increase his knowledge in directions where spontaneous activity would not suffice for the acquisition. Knowledge of a thing out of the mind constitutes an idea in the mind. Therefore, the problem of imparting knowledge to the child may be stated as the problem of exciting or generating ideas in the child's mind.

I do not propose to discuss this problem exactly from the practical point of view. Nor have I to suggest any very new methods of practical instruction. I desire rather to inquire into the principles which underlie methods already in operation. For as soon as we examine into the matter a little, we find that some of the most commonplace tasks of the school involve processes which are complex, intricate, and to

a considerable extent mysterious. A sense of this intricacy and this mystery cannot, of course, directly tell the teacher how to solve the educational problem, but it may, nevertheless, often guide him insensibly to principles which will prove fruitful for this solution. At all events, the theoretical discussion is interesting for all who care, not only that a thing should be done, but that the how and wherefore of the doing should be understood.

The child who is patiently or impatiently waiting to be taught, has a brain which, in some mysterious manner, functions during the process of learning. He is expected to remember what has been told him, and must do so in accordance with the laws of memory; and when he forgets, it is probable that these laws have been thwarted or violated. The knowledge spontaneously acquired before the child is old enough to go to school, chiefly concerns sensible objects; and the laws of the formation of sense perception become, i therefore, of the greatest importance to the teacher. This is true, not only for this earliest knowledge, but also because a large amount of all subsequent knowledge continues to consist of material furnished by the senses, and because, also, these sense perceptions constitute the type and model, if not the origin, of all subsequent ideas. And when we find that all thoughts are blent with feelings and volitions; that the mind acts as a unit, and not as a bundle of separate faculties; then as we try to interest the child in a subject by kindling his feelings, or by employing his restless energies in some active work, we can remember that there is a philosophical basis for such a method, that the latter is not a mere practical device for making study agreeable and the child less rebellious, but that it is grounded in the deepest nature of the mind and brain.

Let me return now to my original proposition: "The problem of imparting knowledge means the problem of generating ideas in the child's mind." Therefore, we must point out at once that it does not mean simply presenting a verbal statement to the child, and requesting him to learn this by heart. Such

« AnteriorContinuar »