SECTION A EDUCATIONAL THEORY 



(Hall 12, September 24, 3 p. m.) 



CHAIRMAN: PROFESSOR CHARLES DEGARMO, Cornell University. 

 SPEAKERS: PROFESSOR WILHELM REIN, University of Jena. 



PROFESSOR ELMER E. BROWN, University of California. 

 SECRETARY: DR. G. M. WHIPPLE, Cornell University. 



THE PLACE AND OFFICE OF PEDAGOGY IN THE 

 UNIVERSITY 



BY WILHELM REIN 



(Translated by Dr. Percy Hughes, of Columbia University'} 



[Wilhelm Rein, Professor of Pedagogy, University of Jena, since 188G. b. Eise- 

 nach (Thiiringen), August 10, 1847. Graduated, University of Eisenach, 

 1866; student, Jena, Heidelberg, and Leipzig; Ph.D. University of Rostock; 

 Litt.D. Victoria University, Manchester, England. Teacher, Real-gymnasium, 

 Barmen, 1871-72; Professor and Director of Normal at Eisenach, 1872-86. 

 Author of Theory and Practice of Teaching in Primary Schools; Encyclopedic 

 Handbook of Pedagogy; System of Pedagogy; and other works on pedagogy.] 



CENTURIES have passed since Bacon, in inspired words, foretold 

 the empire of philosophy and of scientific knowledge. In these 

 days that empire has been realized. It has spread over all civilized 

 peoples, binding them together with some invisible power. And 

 hand in hand with this growth there has gone on, as in a tree, an 

 inner development that has knit ring to ring, while it has produced 

 also continually new extensions of the roots, so that the gold of 

 scientific knowledge might be won even from the most secret veins. 



Within this immense empire, which the mind of any one man no 

 more can comprehend, pedogogy, to the present time, has lacked 

 recognition as one link of the great chain of interconnected sciences. 

 Only in isolated instances has it won for itself a place. Is its fate, 

 then, that of the poet in Schiller's Teilung der Erde, who appeared 

 on the scene only when Jove had assigned every seat to the dwellers 

 of Olympus? If so, why fared it thus? 



This result is the effect of several causes, which on closer inspection 

 must be adjudged the work of mere prejudice. 



In the first place it is often urged that pedagogy is not a science 

 but an art. Perhaps the thought here is that expressed by Gregory 

 of Nazianz: " The education of man is the art of arts; of all crea- 

 tive activities it has the greatest variety of aspects, and is the 

 richest in problems." Or perhaps the thought is that of Melancthon's 



