NA TURE 



169 



THURSDAY, OCTOBER 30, 1919. 



EDUCATION AND LIFE. 



Education for the Needs of Life : A Text-book in 

 the Principles of Education. By Dr. I. E. 

 Miller. (Home and School Series.) Pp. vii + 

 353. (New York : The Macmillan Co. ; 

 London : Macmillan and Co., Ltd., 1919.) 

 Price 7s. net. 



DOOKS on education may be roughly divided 

 ••-' into two classes — those to be read and those 

 to be avoided. There need be no hesitation in 

 placing Dr. Miller's work in the former class. 

 It is designed chiefly as a text-book, but may be 

 studied with profit by those who have long passed 

 student days. It is a fresh and attractive re- 

 statement of the educational problem and its sug- 

 gested solution. Education is conceived of as an 

 integral phase of the life process ; its task is to 

 ascertain the child's vital needs and satisfactions, 

 and to prepare him for their discharge or enjoy- 

 ment, as the case may be. The starting-point is 

 the biological adjustment to an environment. But 

 adjustment is not mere passive moulding; it in- 

 cludes also dynamic response by the child. Nor 

 •does environment consist solely of the physical 

 and material world ; it embraces also mental, 

 moral, social, aesthetic, and religious factors. The 

 general treatment of the biological presupposi- 

 tions occupies the first chapter, m the course of 

 which it appears that the several elements involved 

 are the aim of education, the. child, the curriculum, 

 methods, and the teacher. These, therefore, are 

 the titles of the other five chapters. 



Dr. Miller is a trained and sane psychologist, 

 and his chapter on the child is an admirable 

 ■epitome of our present knowledge of the stages 

 of development up to adolescence, with hints for 

 guidance in their treatment. Education must be 

 functional ; it must follow the child ; it must wait 

 upon development ; it must catch the seasons of 

 opportunity. The curriculum and the method 

 must alike be organic to the pupil's capacities and 

 requirements, and the teacher mast by character 

 and training be a person who can adapt him- 

 self to the varying situations which continually 

 ■confront him. No mere structural or mechanical 

 view satisfies the conditions of the problem, for 

 any education deserving of the name must be 

 subjective, not simply superposed. While the 

 author would probably hesitate to subscribe to 

 Rousseau's doctrine that the child should learn no 

 lesson of which he does not see the present need, 

 yet his theory seems to suggest that the appeal 

 must always be through the consciousness of a 

 felt want. He does, indeed, distinctly recognise 

 the remote end — the needs of life ; but as " two 

 points determine a straight line," the present 

 needs of the child and the destination in life are 

 sufficient, he thinks, for the teacher's guidance and 

 the pupil's well-being. But surely education is, like 

 NO. 2609, VOL. 104] 



human progress in general, not a straight line. 

 The analogy is rather that of zigzagging in 

 a mountain ascent, or tacking on a voyage, 

 where the goal is reached by humouring the gale, 

 availing of the currents, and, above all, avoiding 

 the shoals. Or, like the billiard player, the 

 teacher may have to effect a cannon through a 

 series of carefully calculated reactions along 

 numerous lines, and with ultimate dual or 

 multiple aim. 



The volume bears evidence all through of the 

 influence of Profs. Dewey, James, and other 

 American writers, but Dr. Miller is by no means 

 a slavish copyist. Among points of special merit 

 are the treatment of imagination, the fundamental 

 conception of the curriculum in its relation to life, 

 and the plea for generous aesthetic culture based 

 on psychological no less than on practical con- 

 siderations. Dr. Miller writes out of the fullness 

 of knowledge, first-hand acquaintance with the 

 problems he discusses, and a belief in the efficacy 

 of education which is an indispensable qualifica- 

 tion of all workers in the field. But one would 

 welcome a modification of expressions like "to 

 gushingly remark " (p. 29), "to continually re- 

 construct " (p. 242), " run way beyond " (p. 292), 

 and the like. 



MA THEM A TICAL TEXT-BOOKS. 



(i) Introductory Mathematical Analysis. By Dr. 

 W. Paul Webber and Prof. Louis Clark Plant. 

 Pp. xiii + 304. (New York: John Wiley and 

 Sons, Inc. ; London : Chapman and Hall, Ltd., 

 1919.) Price 95. 6d. net. 



(2) Descriptive Geometry. By H. W. Miller. 

 Revised in 191 7 by the Department of General 

 Engineering Drawing. Fourth edition. Pp. v-l- 

 176. (New York : John Wiley and Sons, Inc. ; 

 London : Chapman and Hall, Ltd., 1918.) 

 Price js. net. 



(3) Premiers EUments d'une Thiorie du Quadri- 

 latere Complet. By A. Oppermann. Pp. 76 -t- 

 I plate. (Paris : Gauthier-Villars et Cie, 1919.) 

 Price 4 fr. 



(i) T^HIS book contains the elements of algebra, 

 *■ trigonometry, analytical geometry, and 

 infinitesimal calculus ; it is apparently intended for 

 first-year students at a university. The reviewer 

 does not feel able to recommend the book ; the 

 reason for his opinions will be gathered from the 

 following notes, which may be of use to the 

 authors in the event of their having to prepare 

 another edition : — ■ 



P. 122. It is tacitly assumed that complex 

 numbers obey the ordinary laws of algebra ; the 

 assumption is pointed out in a footnote on 

 p. 240. 



P. 199. The proofs of the formulae for the 

 derivates of irrational and imaginary powers 

 appear to assume what they profess to prove. 

 Incidentally, imaginary poweis do not seem to be 

 defined anywhere in the book. 



K 



