THE 



NATURE-STUDY REVIEW 



Vol.14 February, 1918 Mo. 2 



The Humanistic Element in Education 



L. H. Bailey 



President's Address at Annual Meeting 



[The speaker explained that he had discussed "The Science Element in 

 Education" before the Central Association of Science and Mathematics 

 Teachers at Columbus, Ohio, November 30. He stated his point of view in 

 that address: We are born to Things and to Phenomena. The regulated 

 knowledge of Things and Phenomena is Science. As we depend on Things and 

 Phenomena, so is the science of them essential; and what is essential is neces- 

 sarily educational, if we are to live rationally. We are in error in supposing 

 that there is a necessary educational line between "humanities" and "science," 

 and we perpetuate error and hinder progress by the liberal use of these and 

 other catch- words. We are misled by our phrases. In the present address the 

 speaker sought still further to break down the prejudices between what may 

 be called the old-line and the new-line subjects. A full abstract will be found 

 in School Science and Mathematics, and an extract in School and Socie'y, for 

 December 29.] 



We are born to People. Probably our first acquired knowledge 

 is of father and mother. Human forms impress us so early that 

 we never know that we never knew them. Brother, sister, family, 

 the gradually enlarging circle of those of whom the child is "not 

 afraid," make up the early experience. Soon the child begins to 

 have consciousness of the many people, the strange people, those 

 who quickly come and go, those on the street, in wagons, standing 

 on the corners, waiting at the big places. The world is full of 

 folks. 



Soon the individuals begin to separate from the crowd. Faces 

 become so familiar that the child names them and identifies them. 

 Each one is unlike every other one. The child says that some 

 persons are "funny." 



Yet the moving crowd of human beings is the great fact of life. 

 It is the great fact of the earth. These beings are gregarious. 

 They move in long lines. They swarm in great masses. They 

 colonize themselves in tense confusions that we call cities. Now 

 and then one being separates itself and lives apart. That one is 

 queer, clearly an aberrance. Most of us come back to the crowd 



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