Essays On Education And Kindred Subjects (Fiscle Part- 11) by Herbert Spencer (best mobile ebook reader TXT) 📖

Science Only, That It Is Needful; It Is

Not Only That The   Physician Depends On It For The   Correctness Of    His

Diagnosis, And That To The   Engineer It Is So Important That Some Years

In The   Workshop Are Prescribed For Him; But We May See That The

Philosopher, Also, Is Fundamentally One Who _Observes_ Relationships Of

Things Which Others Had Overlooked, And That The   Poet, Too, Is One Who

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Sees_ The   Fine Facts In Nature Which All Recognise When Pointed Out,

But Did Not Before Remark. Nothing Requires More To Be Insisted On Than

That Vivid And Complete Impressions Are All-Essential. No Sound Fabric

Of Wisdom Can Be Woven Out Of    A Rotten Raw-Material.

 

 

 

While The   Old Method Of    Presenting Truths In The   Abstract Has Been

Falling Out Of    Use, There Has Been A Corresponding Adoption Of    The   New

Method Of    Presenting Them In The   Concrete. The   Rudimentary Facts Of

Exact Science Are Now Being Learnt By Direct Intuition, As Textures, And

Tastes, And Colours Are Learnt. Employing The   Ball-Frame For First

Lessons In Arithmetic Exemplifies This. It Is Well Illustrated, Too, In

Professor De Morgan's Mode Of    Explaining The   Decimal Notation. M.

Marcel, Rightly Repudiating The   Old System Of    Tables, Teaches Weights

And Measures By Referring To The   Actual Yard And Foot, Pound And Ounce,

Gallon And Quart; And Lets The   Discovery Of    Their Relationships Be

Experimental. The   Use Of    Geographical Models And Models Of    The   Regular

Bodies, Etc., As Introductory To Geography And Geometry Respectively,

Are Facts Of    The   Same Class. Manifestly, A Common Trait Of    These Methods

Is, That They Carry Each Child's Mind Through A Process Like That Which

The Mind Of    Humanity At Large Has Gone Through. The   Truths Of    Number, Of

Form, Of    Relationship In Position, Were All Originally Drawn From

Objects; And To Present These Truths To The   Child In The   Concrete Is To

Let Him Learn Them As The   Race Learnt Them. By And By, Perhaps, It Will

Be Seen That He Cannot Possibly Learn Them In Any Other Way; For That If

He Is Made To Repeat Them As Abstractions, The   Abstractions Can Have No

Meaning For Him, Until He Finds That They Are Simply Statements Of    What

He Intuitively Discerns.

 

 

 

But Of    All The   Changes Taking Place, The   Most Significant Is The   Growing

Desire To Make The   Acquirement Of    Knowledge Pleasurable Rather Than

Painful--A Desire Based On The   More Or Less Distinct Perception, That At

Each Age The   Intellectual Action Which A Child Likes Is A Healthful One

For It; And Conversely. There Is A Spreading Opinion That The   Rise Of    An

Appetite For Any Kind Of    Information Implies That The   Unfolding Mind Has

Become Fit To Assimilate It, And Needs It For Purposes Of    Growth; And

That, On The   Other Hand, The   Disgust Felt Towards Such Information Is A

Sign Either That It Is Prematurely Presented, Or That It Is Presented In

An Indigestible Form. Hence The   Efforts To Make Early Education Amusing,

And All Education Interesting. Hence The   Lectures On The   Value Of    Play.

Hence The   Defence Of    Nursery Rhymes And Fairy Tales. Daily We More And

More Conform Our Plans To Juvenile Opinion. Does The   Child Like This Or

That Kind Of    Teaching?--Does He Take To It? We Constantly Ask. "His

Natural Desire Of    Variety Should Be Indulged," Says M. Marcel; "And The

Gratification Of    His Curiosity Should Be Combined With His Improvement."

"Lessons," He Again Remarks, "Should Cease Before The   Child Evinces

Symptoms Of    Weariness." And So With Later Education. Short Breaks During

School-Hours, Excursions Into The   Country, Amusing Lectures, Choral

Songs--In These And Many Like Traits The   Change May Be Discerned.

Asceticism Is Disappearing Out Of    Education As Out Of    Life; And The

Usual Test Of    Political Legislation--Its Tendency To Promote

Happiness--Is Beginning To Be, In A Great Degree, The   Test Of

Legislation For The   School And The   Nursery.

 

 

 

What Now Is The   Common Characteristic Of    These Several Changes? Is It

Not An Increasing Conformity To The   Methods Of    Nature? The

Relinquishment Of    Early Forcing, Against Which Nature Rebels, And The

Leaving Of    The   First Years For Exercise Of    The   Limbs And Senses, Show

This. The   Superseding Of    Rote-Learnt Lessons By Lessons Orally And

Experimentally Given, Like Those Of    The   Field And Play-Ground, Shows

This. The   Disuse Of    Rule-Teaching, And The   Adoption Of    Teaching By

Principles--That Is, The   Leaving Of    Generalisations Until There Are

Particulars To Base Them On--Show This. The   System Of    Object-Lessons

Shows This. The   Teaching Of    The   Rudiments Of    Science In The   Concrete

Instead Of    The   Abstract, Shows This. And Above All, This Tendency Is

Shown In The   Variously-Directed Efforts To Present Knowledge In

Attractive Forms, And So To Make The   Acquirement Of    It Pleasurable. For,

As It Is The   Order Of    Nature In All Creatures That The   Gratification

Accompanying The   Fulfilment Of    Needful Functions Serves As A Stimulus To

Their Fulfilment--As, During The   Self-Education Of    The   Young Child, The

Delight Taken In The   Biting Of    Corals And The   Pulling To Pieces Of    Toys,

Becomes The   Prompter To Actions Which Teach It The   Properties Of    Matter;

It Follows That, In Choosing The   Succession Of    Subjects And The   Modes Of

Instruction Which Most Interest The   Pupil, We Are Fulfilling Nature's

Behests, And Adjusting Our Proceedings To The   Laws Of    Life.

 

 

 

Thus, Then, We Are On The   Highway Towards The   Doctrine Long Ago

Enunciated By Pestalozzi, That Alike In Its Order And Its Methods,

Education Must Conform To The   Natural Process Of    Mental Evolution--That

There Is A Certain Sequence In Which The   Faculties Spontaneously

Develop, And A Certain Kind Of    Knowledge Which Each Requires During Its

Development; And That It Is For Us To Ascertain This Sequence, And

Supply This Knowledge. All The   Improvements Above Alluded To Are Partial

Applications Of    This General Principle. A Nebulous Perception Of    It Now

Prevails Among Teachers; And It Is Daily More Insisted On In Educational

Works. "The Method Of    Nature Is The   Archetype Of    All Methods," Says M.

Marcel. "The Vital Principle In The   Pursuit Is To Enable The   Pupil

Rightly To Instruct Himself," Writes Mr. Wyse. The   More Science

Familiarises Us With The   Constitution Of    Things, The   More Do We See In

Them An Inherent Self-Sufficingness. A Higher Knowledge Tends

Continually To Limit Our Interference With The   Processes Of    Life. As In

Medicine The   Old "Heroic Treatment" Has Given Place To Mild Treatment,

And Often No Treatment Save A Normal Regimen--As We Have Found That It

Is Not Needful To Mould The   Bodies Of    Babes By Bandaging Them In

Papoose-Fashion Or Otherwise--As In Gaols It Is Being Discovered That No

Cunningly-Devised Discipline Of    Ours Is So Efficient In Producing

Reformation As The   Natural Discipline Of    Self-Maintenance By Productive

Labour; So In Education, We Are Finding That Success Is To Be Achieved

Only By Making Our Measures Subservient To That Spontaneous Unfolding

Which All Minds Go Through In Their Progress To Maturity.

 

 

 

Of Course, This Fundamental Principle Of    Tuition, That The   Arrangement

Of Matter And Method Must Correspond With The   Order Of    Evolution And

Mode Of    Activity Of    The   Faculties--A Principle So Obviously True, That

Once Stated It Seems Almost Self-Evident--Has Never Been Wholly

Disregarded. Teachers Have Unavoidably Made Their School-Courses

Coincide With It In Some Degree, For The   Simple Reason That Education Is

Possible Only On That Condition. Boys Were Never Taught The

Rule-Of-Three Until After They Had Learnt Addition. They Were Not Set To

Write Exercises Before They Had Got Into Their Copybooks. Conic Sections

Have Always Been Preceded By Euclid. But The   Error Of    The   Old Methods

Consists In This, That They Do Not Recognise In Detail What They Are

Obliged To Recognise In General. Yet The   Principle Applies Throughout.

If From The   Time When A Child Is Able To Conceive Two Things As Related

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In Position, Years Must Elapse Before It Can Form A True Concept Of    The

Earth, As A Sphere Made Up Of    Land And Sea, Covered With Mountains,

Forests, Rivers, And Cities, Revolving On Its Axis, And Sweeping Round

The Sun--If It Gets From The   One Concept To The   Other By Degrees--If The

Intermediate Concepts Which It Forms Are Consecutively Larger And More

Complicated; Is It Not Manifest That There Is A General Succession

Through Which Alone It Can Pass; That Each Larger Concept Is Made By The

Combination Of    Smaller Ones, And Presupposes Them; And That To Present

Any Of    These Compound Concepts Before The   Child Is In Possession Of    Its

Constituent Ones, Is Only Less Absurd Than To Present The   Final Concept

Of The   Series Before The   Initial One? In The   Mastering Of    Every Subject

Some Course Of    Increasingly Complex Ideas Has To Be Gone Through. The

Evolution Of    The   Corresponding Faculties Consists In The   Assimilation Of

These; Which, In Any True Sense, Is Impossible Without They Are Put Into

The Mind In The   Normal Order. And When This Order Is Not Followed, The

Result Is, That They Are Received With Apathy Or Disgust; And That

Unless The   Pupil Is Intelligent Enough Eventually To Fill Up The   Gaps

Himself, They Lie In His Memory As Dead Facts, Capable Of    Being Turned

To Little Or No Use.

 

 

 

"But Why Trouble Ourselves About Any _Curriculum_ At All?" It May Be

Asked. "If It Be True That The   Mind Like The   Body Has A Predetermined

Course Of    Evolution--If It Unfolds Spontaneously--If Its Successive

Desires For This Or That Kind Of    Information Arise When These Are

Severally Required For Its Nutrition--If There Thus Exists In Itself A

Prompter To The   Right Species Of    Activity At The   Right Time; Why

Interfere In Any Way? Why Not Leave Children _Wholly_ To The   Discipline

Of Nature?--Why Not Remain Quite Passive And Let Them Get Knowledge As

They Best Can?--Why Not Be Consistent Throughout?" This Is An

Awkward-Looking Question. Plausibly Implying As It Does, That A System

Of Complete _Laissez-Faire_ Is The   Logical Outcome Of    The   Doctrines Set

Forth, It Seems To Furnish A Disproof Of    Them By _Reductio Ad Absurdum_.

In Truth, However, They Do Not, When Rightly Understood, Commit Us To

Any Such Untenable Position. A Glance At The   Physical Analogies Will

Clearly Show This. It Is A General Law Of    Life That The   More Complex The

Organism To Be Produced, The   Longer The   Period During Which It Is

Dependent On A Parent Organism For Food And Protection. The   Difference

Between The   Minute, Rapidly-Formed, And Self-Moving Spore Of    A Conferva,

And The   Slowly-Developed Seed Of    A Tree, With Its Multiplied Envelopes

And Large Stock Of    Nutriment Laid By To Nourish The   Germ During Its

First Stages Of    Growth, Illustrates This Law In Its Application To The

Vegetal World. Among Animals We May Trace It In A Series Of    Contrasts

From The   Monad Whose Spontaneously-Divided Halves Are As Self-Sufficing

The Moment After Their Separation As Was The   Original Whole; Up To Man,

Whose Offspring Not Only Passes Through A Protracted Gestation, And

Subsequently Long Depends On The   Breast For Sustenance; But After That

Must Have Its Food Artificially Administered; Must, When It Has Learned

To Feed Itself, Continue To Have Bread, Clothing, And Shelter Provided;

And Does Not Acquire The   Power Of    Complete Self-Support Until A Time

Varying From Fifteen To Twenty Years After Its Birth. Now This Law

Applies To The   Mind As To The   Body. For Mental Pabulum Also, Every

Higher Creature, And Especially Man, Is At First Dependent On Adult Aid.

Lacking The   Ability To Move About, The   Babe Is Almost As Powerless