PRESENT PROBLEMS IN THE THEORY OF EDUCATION 



BY ELMER ELLSWORTH BROWN 



[Elmer Ellsworth Brown, Commissioner of Education, United States, 1906; 

 Professor of Theory and Practice of Education, University of California, 1898- 

 1906. b. Kiantone, Chautauqua County, New York, August 28, 1861. Gradu- 

 ated, Illinois State Normal University, 1881; University of Michigan, 1889; 

 Ph.D. Halle-Wittenberg, Prussia. Principal of public schools, Belvidere, 

 Illinois, 1881-84; Asst. State Secretary, Young Men's Christian Associations, 

 Illinois, 1884-87; Principal High School, Jackson, Michigan, 1890-91; Acting 

 Assistant Professor, Science and Art of Teaching, University of Michigan, 

 1891-92; Associate Professor, University of California, 1892-93; Professor, 

 ibid. 1893- . Author of Notes on Children's Drawings; Making of Our Middle 

 Schools; Origin of American State Universities; and other various addresses 

 and articles.] 



IT would be gratifying if we might speak of educational theory as 

 the system of positive knowledge in the domain of education. But if 

 we limited the term to things known and the sure interpretation 

 thereof, there would be little to tell in any account of what that 

 theory covers. We must extend our use of the word to include not 

 only established truths, but also hypotheses which have been worked 

 out with a good degree of care, on the basis of some knowledge of the 

 facts involved, - - hypotheses which may accordingly be regarded as 

 fairly started on the way to a place in the body of established truth. 

 It is better, however, that we should stop here and not include, under 

 the term theory, the whole body of unsifted educational suggestion 

 and sudden educational sentiment which men commonly have in 

 mind when they speak of educational theories. 



Any well-rounded theory of education must include an orderly 

 survey of the results of educational experience and the interpreta- 

 tion of that experience in terms of philosophical system. The 

 empirical and the philosophical elements are both indispensable. 

 It is impossible, however, to devote equal consideration to both 

 elements in so brief a paper as this, and the emphasis will accordingly 

 be thrown on the empirical side, with only occasional reference to 

 the ultimate conceptions of philosophy. 



Because of its instrumental relation to the solution of all other 

 problems, the methodology of educational inquiry may be regarded 

 as the first of present problems in the theory of education. It seems 

 advisable, accordingly, to begin our examination of problems with 

 some consideration of this preliminary problem. 1 



1 It is hardly to be supposed that any one will confuse the methodology of 

 research, here referred to, with the methodology of training and instruction, 

 which receives much more attention in pedagogical treatises. There is, in fact, 

 a real and highly significant connection between the two. 



