Chapter 79
350. Ma.s.sachusetts: Organizing the First Normal Schools.
(a) The Organizing Law.
(b) Admission and Instruction in.
(c) Mann: Importance of the Normal School.
351. Early Textbooks: Examples of Instruction from (a) Davenport: History of the United States.
(b) Morse: Elements of Geography--Map.
(c) Morse Elements of Geography.
352. Murray: A Typical Teacher's Contract.
353. Bache: The Elementary Schools of Berlin in 1838.
354. Providence: Grading the Schools of.
355. Felkin: Herbart's Educational Ideas.
356. Felkin: Herbart's Educational Ideas Applied.
357. t.i.tchener: Herbart and Modern Psychology.
358. Marenholtz-Bulow: Froebel's Educational Views.
359. Huxley: English and German Universities Contrasted.
360. Huxley: Mid-nineteenth-Century Elementary Education in England.
361. Huxley: Mid-nineteenth-Century Secondary Education in England.
362. Spencer: What Knowledge is of Most Worth?
363. Spencer: Conclusions as to the Importance of Science.
364. Dewey: The Old and New Psychology Contrasted.
365. Ping: Difficulties in Transforming the School.
(a) Relating Education to Life.
(b) The Old Teacher and the New System.
366. Dewey: Socialization of School Work ill.u.s.trated by History.
QUESTIONS ON THE READINGS
1. Contrast the instruction in a German Teachers' Seminary (345) or a French normal school (346) of 1838, as described by Bache, with that of an American normal school of to-day.
2. What do the beginnings of teacher training in England (347, 348) indicate as to conceptions then existing as to the educational process?
3. Show, by comparison, that the beginnings of the American normal school were German, rather than English in origin.
4. Just what educational conditions does Governor Clinton (349) indicate as existing in New York State, in 1827?
5. Contrast the instruction in the early Ma.s.sachusetts normal schools (350) with that in the German (345) and French (346) of about the same time.
6. What do the three professional courses reproduced (345, 346, 350 b) indicate as to the development of pedagogical work by about 1840?
7. Compare the textbook types, given in 351, with modern textbooks in equivalent subjects.
8. Just what light on school teaching, in 1841, does the teacher's contract given (352) throw?
9. State the steps in the evolution of a graded system of schools (353, 354).
10. State the essentials of Herbart's educational ideas (355,356), and the nature of the advances made over his predecessors.
11. State the essentials of Froebel's educational ideas, as explained by the Baroness von Marenholtz-Bulow (358).
12. Explain the difference between the universities of the two nations (359).
13. Contrast elementary education in England (360) with that in the United States at the same period.
14. Would you add anything else to Spencer's requirements to prepare for complete living? What? Why?
15. How do you explain science being "written against in our theologies and frowned upon from our pulpits" (363) when it is of such importance as Spencer concludes?
16. Contrast the old and the new psychology (357, 364).
17. Have the difficulties experienced in the transformation of instruction in China (365) been essentially different than with us? How?
18. Apply Dewey's idea as to the socialization of history (366) to instruction in geography.
SUPPLEMENTARY REFERENCES
Barnard, Henry. _National Education in Europe_.
* Bowen, H. C. _Froebel and Education through Self-Activity_.
Compayre, G. _Herbart and Education by Instruction_.
* De Garmo, Chas. _Herbart and the Herbartians_.
Dewey, John. _The School and Social Progress_. (Nine numbers.) * Dewey, John. _The School and Society_.
Gordy, J. P. _Rise and Growth of the Normal School Idea in the United States_. Circular of Information, United States Bureau of Education, No. 8, 1891.
Hollis, A. P. _The Oswego Movement_.
* Jordan, D. S. "Spencer's Essay on Education"; in _Cosmopolitan Magazine_, vol. xxix, pp. 135-49. (Sept. 1902.) Judd, C. H. _The Training of Teachers in England, Scotland, and Germany_. (Bulletin 35,
* Parker, S. C. _History of Modern Elementary Education_.
Ping Wen Kuo. _The Chinese System of Public Education_.
Spencer, Herbert. _Education: Intellectual, Moral, and Physical_.
Vanderwalker, N. C. _The Kindergarten in American Education_.
CHAPTER XXIX
NEW TENDENCIES AND EXPANSIONS
I. POLITICAL
THE ENLARGED CONCEPTION OF PUBLIC EDUCATION. The new ideas as to the purpose and functions of the State promulgated by English and French eighteenth-century thinkers, and given concrete expression in the American and French revolutions near the close of the century, imparted, as we have seen, a new meaning to the school and a new purpose to the education of a people. In the theoretical discussion of education by Rousseau and the empirical work of Pestalozzi a new individualistic theory for a secular school was created, and this Prussia, for long moving in that direction, first adopted as a basis for the state school system it early organized to serve national ends. The new American States, also long moving toward state organization and control, early created state schools to replace the earlier religious schools; while the French Revolution enthusiasts abolished the religious school and ordered the subst.i.tution of a general system of state schools to serve their national ends.
From these beginnings, as we have seen, the state-school idea has in course of time spread to all continents, and nations everywhere to-day have come to feel that the maintenance of a more or less comprehensive system of state schools is so closely connected with national welfare and progress as to be a necessity for the State (R. 367). In consequence, state ministries for education have been created in all the important world nations; state and local school officials have been provided generally to see that the state purpose in creating schools is carried out; state normal schools for the preparation of teachers have been established; comprehensive state school codes have been enacted or educational decrees formulated; and constantly increasing expenditures for education are to-day derived by taxing the wealth of the State to educate the children of the State.
CHANGE FROM THE ORIGINAL PURPOSE. The original purpose in the establishment of schools by the State was everywhere to promote literacy and citizens.h.i.+p. Under all democratic forms of government it was also to insure to the people the elements of learning that they might be prepared for partic.i.p.ation in the functions of government. [1] This is well expressed in the quotations given (p. 525) from early American statesmen as to the need for the education of public opinion and the diffusion of knowledge among the people. The same ideas were expressed by French writers and statesmen of the time, and by the English after the pa.s.sage of the Reform Bills of 1832 and 1867 (p. 642). With the gradual extension of the franchise to larger and larger numbers of the people, the extension of educational advantages naturally had to follow. The education of new citizens for "their political and civil duties as members of society and freemen" became a necessity, and closely followed each extension of the right to vote. In all democratic governments the growing complexity of modern political society has since greatly enlarged these early duties of the school. To-day, in modern nations where general manhood suffrage has come to be the rule, and still more so in nations which have added female suffrage as well, the continually increasing complexity of the political, economic, and social problems upon which the voters are expected to pa.s.s judgment is such that a more prolonged period of citizens.h.i.+p education is necessary if voters are to exercise, in any intelligent manner, their functions of citizens.h.i.+p. In nations where the initiative, referendum, and recall have been added, the need for special education along political, economic, and social lines has been still further emphasized.
At first instruction in the common-school branches, with instruction in morals or religion added, was regarded as sufficient. In States, such as the German, where religious instruction was retained in the schools, this has been made a powerful instrument in moulding the citizens.h.i.+p and upholding the established order. The history of the different nations has also been used by each as a means for instilling desired conceptions of citizens.h.i.+p, and some work in more or less formal civil government has usually been added. To-day all these means have been proven inadequate for democratic peoples. In consequence, the work in civil government is being changed and broadened into inst.i.tutional and community civics; the work of the elementary school is being socialized, along the lines advocated by Dewey; and instruction in economic principles and in the functions of government is being introduced into the secondary schools. Instead of being made mere teaching inst.i.tutions, engaged in promoting literacy and diffusing the rudiments of learning among the electorate, schools are to- day being called upon to grasp the significance of their political and social relations.h.i.+ps, and to transform themselves into inst.i.tutions for improving and advancing the welfare of the State (R. 368).
THE PROMOTION OF NATIONALITY. In Prussia the promotion of national solidarity was early made an important aim of the school. This has in time become a common national purpose, as there has dawned upon statesmen generally the idea that a national spirit or culture is "an artificial product which transcends social, religious, and economic distinctions,"
and that it "could be manufactured by education" (R. 340). In consequence of this discovery the school has been raised to a new position of importance in the national life, and has become the chief means for developing in the citizens.h.i.+p that national unity and national strength so desirable under present-day world conditions. In the German States, where this function of the school has in recent times been perverted to carry forward imperialistic national ends (R. 342); in France, where it has been intelligently used to promote a rational type of national strength (R.