218 



POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



of harmony with this point of view 'the 

 book will have no interest' — all this 

 serves to place the entire volume in so 

 misleading and unfortunate a position 

 that it would have been far better, 

 rather than have it thus introduced, to 

 have left the work untranslated. Under 

 its present auspices it will prove to be 

 a useful convenience to many, but a 

 source of misconception and a stumbling- 

 block to many more. 



EDUCATION. 



Dtjbtng the later part of the eight- 

 eenth century the conception of educa- 

 tion as one phase of the development of 

 the individual was established. There 

 followed attention to the methodologic- 

 al aspect of the subject which resulted 

 in the basing of the method of educa- 

 tion upon psychology, instead of upon 

 more or less fantastic analogies with na- 

 ture. During the latter half of the pres- 

 ent century has been established the 

 conception of education as a social proc- 

 ess, as one phase of human develop- 

 ment. As a result, the historical and 

 social aspects of education are becoming 

 more scientific. There has been no his- 

 tory or historical sketch of education 

 for the English reading public that pos- 

 sessed historic and scientific value until 

 the recent appearance of Prof. Thomas 

 Davidson's 'History of Education.' The 

 author defines education as conscious 

 human evolution and attempts to 

 sketch the history of education in terms 

 of dominant evolutionary thought. Fre- 

 quently the author is guilty of that 

 generality that has brought much of 

 sociological thought into disrepute. His 

 definition of education is so broad that 

 it would include political and other 

 phases of evolution that are conscious 

 processes so far as the race is con- 

 cerned. However, the revision of old 

 ideas or the formulation of new ones 

 is certain to provoke disagreement con- 

 cerning essentials or details. It is the 

 attempt that is significant in this case. 

 It is but an earnest of the future. There 

 is further evidence to this more scientific 



conception of the history of education. 

 Hitherto the historical aspect of educa- 

 tion has not passed beyond the bio- 

 graphical stage. But educational biog- 

 raphy is now being written from this 

 broader point of view. The interest is 

 less in the individual and more in 

 his relation to social practices and de- 

 veloping ideas. This attitude is best il- 

 lustrated in the issues of the 'Great 

 Educator Series,' edited by Prof. Nicho- 

 las Murray Butler. The latest issue, 

 'Comenius and the Beginnings of Edu- 

 cational Reform,' by Will S. Monroe, is 

 well up to the higher standard set by 

 previous issues. Comenius was to edu- 

 cation what his contemporaries, Bacon 

 and Descartes, were to science and phi- 

 losophy. A biographical sketch of Co- 

 menius from this point of view, such as 

 Mr. Monroe gives, is a valuable contri- 

 bution to the literature of the new as- 

 pect of education. 



Dk. L. Viereck publishes in the Ed- 

 ucational Review an article narrating 

 how even in the German gymnasium 

 Latin is losing its traditional position. 

 A movement is gaining ground looking 

 toward beginning the study of Latin 

 not in the lowest class of the gymna- 

 sium, but only after three years, thus 

 leaving six years for the language. In 

 this case Greek is begun two years later 

 and is confined to the last four years of 

 the course. This plan has the obvious 

 advantage of not requiring boys to de- 

 cide on their career in life at the age of 

 ten years, but permits students of the 

 'real' gymnasium and of the traditional 

 gymnasium to carry on the same studies 

 for the first three years. The system, 

 which was first tried in Frankfort in 

 1892, had a year ago been adopted in 

 twenty-one schools and appears to be 

 favored by the Prussian Government. 

 Other straws showing how the current 

 is setting in Germany are the estab- 

 lishment within a year of a doctorate 

 in applied science and the decision that 

 hereafter the doctor's diploma shall be 

 written in German instead of Latin. 



