480 HUMAN BIOLOGY 



of intellectual and moral individuality remain. But it is 

 generally weakening. Educational reformers from an early 

 date have denounced the procedure. While perhaps their 

 influence has not been great, the inherent development of 

 universal education has worked against it. The more pupils 

 ther-e are in schools, the greater the heterogeneity among 

 them, and the greater the difficulty in impressing the same 

 stamp upon tKem all and in securing a uniform response. 

 The disregard of personal individualized mental activity 

 resulted in creating aversion to study. Mobile, active 

 children rebelled against constant external imposition and 

 mechanical repetition. Actual results were not correspondent 

 with the eff"orts put forth. The conflict between the active 

 nature of most children and the enforced passivity of study 

 was so unfavorable to genuine learning that the idea arose, 

 and still persists, that the mind is actually averse to learning. 

 Intelligent teachers, perceiving the unsatisfactory result 

 and perhaps themselves bored and nervously strained by the 

 artificial monotony and uniformity sought out almost 

 unconsciously methods that would invoke more active 

 reactions from pupils. The idea of utilizing the interest 

 of pupils in education may be degraded to the level of mere 

 amusement, but in its reality it marks the sound principle 

 of enlisting the active cooperation of. pupils in what they are 

 doing in school. Under such conditions of personal mental 

 activity, it is found that most children like to go to school 

 and enjoy learning. 



As far as elementary schools are concerned the chief 

 stimulus to a more active curriculum undoubtedly proceeded 

 upward from the kindergarten. In higher education, it was 

 promoted by the development of scientific laboratories in 

 which methods of inquiry and discovery took the place of 

 memorizing authoritative statements imposed from without. 

 The method gradually spread to such subjects as literature 

 and history where increasing emphasis was put upon col- 

 lateral readings and library research. As kindergarten 

 methods worked upwards, university methods worked 

 downwards until they tended to meet. Aside from the 

 general influence of scientific method in furthering a change 

 from passive to active learning, the specific efl'ect of a more 



