PURPOSE OP THE SCHOOL. 



what Goethe learnt in his youth in this manner, and 

 how much importance he assigned to this instruction by 

 observation. 



PURPOSE OF THE SCHOOL. 



What compensation can the country school offer to 

 the village child for the lack of the manifold incentives 

 which the fortunate child of the city finds in family and 

 school, and in the many-sided influences of city circum- 

 stances ? The goal of education is certainly the same 

 for the city awd the country school in all essentials. But 

 how different in reality is the shaping of the knowledge 

 arid capacity acquired by the one or the other, as to 

 choice, measure and treatment. This difference is un- 

 avoidable, but it surely is necessary only in a certain 

 degree. If it is apparent even in the double class 

 school (schools with two teachers), how much more 

 pronounced must it be in the school of one class, which 

 is the rule in the country, in so many large districts. 

 Here the instruction of the whole offspring of the com- 

 munity, and not of one generation alone, rests upon the 

 shoulders of one man. Ponder this thought, and one 

 will be obliged to confess that this problem is one of 

 the weightiest, most unanswerable and difficult to solve 

 of our day.* Since the education of the people even in 

 cities can only be effected in the midst of ah abundance 

 of power and means of instruction and exciting influ- 

 ences, by the concentration of great, well-organized ef- 

 forts extending over years, the question arises : Is not 

 every patriot, every friend of youth and man in duty 

 bound to think what are the means by which the public 

 school, whether in city or country, shall reach its goal 



* This difference does not exist in America. TR. 



