THE CONCEPT OF METHOD 



INTRODUCTION 



Juvenis, ohlatis ingeniosis inventis, quaercbam ipse per me 

 possemne invenire etiam non lecto auctore: iinde paulatim ani- 

 madverti me certis regulis uti. 



— Cartesii Cogitationes Privatae. 



There is a fundamental community in the method of human 

 experience which transcends the bounds of space or the Hmita- 

 tions of time. In spite of the apparent multipHcity of the mate- 

 rials and notwithstanding the obvious variety of ways of teach- 

 ing and learning, the underlying process of education is 

 essentially the same, for it involves the organization, the control, 

 and the interpretation of the experience of an individual who 

 is developing his personality in a human environment. When, 

 from the point of view of the race, this process of development 

 is raised to social consciousness, Education comes into being as 

 an organised social process of personal development. 



Since it is conditioned on the one hand by the limitations of 

 the so-called educational materials, and since it is clearly de- 

 pendent, on the other hand, upon the progressive develop- 

 ment of philosophical thought, the method of education has had 

 a varied history and has, at different times, emphasised now 

 one and now another aspect of experience. One has but to 

 glance at the history of education in China, in Greece, in medi- 

 eval Europe, and in present-day America, to realise the great 

 changes that have taken place in the materials of education, and 

 one has only to mention at random such names as Socrates, 

 Milton, Rousseau, and Spencer, to realise that the methods of 

 teaching have differed at least as much in character as in 

 chronology. „ 



