60 EDUCATIONAL THEORY 



dominated by red-tape. Hence scientific pedagogy plays the role of 

 contributor, state pedagogy that of recipient. It remains entirely 

 free to take just as much as it pleases of the results scientific pedagogy 

 has achieved. 



It is obvious that a more real peril lies in the fact that state peda- 

 gogy is too much influenced by political considerations, since it has 

 the actual power to carry out its purposes. Pedagogy can wield 

 only an ideal power, through the conclusiveness, i. e., and the con- 

 secutiveness of its reasoning. It is only too easy for the political 

 point of view to obscure the comprehension of the social character 

 of education, since it partly overlooks and partly underestimates 

 other elements that cooperate with the state in education, - - the 

 family, i. e., the district and the church. Hence pedagogy can serve 

 as umpire here, and indeed, not merely in the matter of the educa- 

 tional system, but also as regards the actual work of instruction. At 

 this point freedom must preside over scientific activity; here is to be 

 found the peculiar task of pedagogy, which state pedagogy cannot 

 take away. In school legislature, in superintendence, and in the 

 general plan of education where they cooperate, politics is all too dis- 

 posed to claim the w r hole field for herself. But in hodegetics and in 

 didactics pedagogy finds its immediate problem, into which politics 

 neither can nor wills to enter. 



Pedagogy, however, is placed in an entirely false position when it 

 is regarded as in the service of politics in the sense that education is 

 forced into the service of a particular clique or policy that is but 

 a part of the entire fabric of the state, so that that particular policy 

 demands the support of pedagogy. Compliance with such a demand 

 is the surrender of dignity, of all self-respect; it means the renuncia- 

 tion of principles universally valid in favor of the varying points of 

 view of successive governments. On the contrary, philosophical 

 pedagogy maintains in the face of such influences its own independ- 

 ence, rendering thereby to the state as a whole far greater service 

 than if it sought always to point the way of the prevailing political 

 breeze. Pedagogy is only too susceptible to political corruption. 

 Hence the necessity of developing a pedagogy that is coordinate 

 with politics, independent of it, objective and impartial, so that it 

 may be the source of purification and rejuvenation wherever politics 

 has become debased. It were prudent, therefore, for the state to 

 take good heed lest scientific pedagogy suffer from restricted growth, 

 to the end that in the higher institutions of learning, the centre, 

 that is, of mental life, its importance may be appreciated and its 

 development furthered. 



(6) Relation of pedagogy to theology. Finally, let us consider the 

 relation of pedagogy to theology and to the philosophy of religion. 

 It is possible to approach pedagogy either from the standpoint of 



