204 



NATURE. 



[October 17, 19 12 



what he sees, and not merely what he knows from 

 the rules of perspective he ought to see, we have an 

 appeal to the subjective standard. The teacher is 

 turning from the science of perspective to the art of 

 drawing. 



This illustration is of particular advantage to us in 

 our present work, because it not only exhibits the 

 subjective standard working alongside of the objec- 

 tive, but itintroduces the idea of an exact science in 

 relation to our human organs. Astronomy is an 

 exact science, and yet the problem of the "personal 

 equation " shows that even here the subjective must 

 be taken into account. The " personal equation " is, 

 in fact, nothing but the elimination by quantitative 

 methods of the disturbing subjective elements. It is 

 by similar methods that we must seek to establish an 

 objective standard in education. The difficulty in 

 this subject is very great. Astronom)' and physics 

 touch the subjective only at what may be called the 

 point of application — the point at which they are 

 brought into contact with human life. Their subject- 

 matter is external, and lends itself to objective treat- 

 ment. In education the subject-matter is human 

 nature, which is so complex and involves such volatile 

 elements that it is almost impossible to reduce its 

 working to fixed laws. The same difficulty obviouslv 

 applies in psychology. Itself a comparatively new 

 subject, psychology has great difficulty in getting 

 recognition as a science. For this there are two main 

 reasons. To begin with, psvchologv began life as 

 a branch of philosophy, and scientific men regard 

 with suspicion anything that comes from that quarter. 

 Besides, there was the less reason to make room for 

 the new subject, since it had already a settled place 

 in the hierarchy of studies. The second reason is that 

 which interests us here — the difficulty of establishing 

 an objective standard. The descriptive generalities of 

 Dugald Stewart and Thomas Brown had to give wav 

 to something based upon laws that are generally 

 accepted. The line of least resistance in seeking for 

 an objective standard in psychology is to fall back 

 upon a physiological basis. It is generally admitted 

 that nerve action can be referred to an obiective 

 standard, and by correlating psvchic and bodilv 

 phenomena psychologists are able to get a series of 

 recognised principles on the physical side that mav 

 be easily interpreted in terms of spirit. Psvcho- 

 physics has at least a plausible claim to rank among 

 the sciences, and the unbridged gulf between mind 

 and matter is convenientlv ignored. As a matter of 

 fact, such a generalisation as the Fechner-Weber law 

 ranks parallel with the laws of linear perspective — 

 that is, it is a law that states in an unjustifiablv exact 

 way what ordinarily takes place in the individual ex- 

 perience. While rejecting the materialistic alliance, 

 Herbart, as a psychologist, deliberately set up a 

 mechanical system of ideas as forces, and in this wav 

 established at once an objective standard bv means of 

 which all mental process may be understood and 

 manipulated. So scientific is his svstem that he claims 

 that the interaction of the ideas may be calculated in 

 certain cases by a simple application of the rule of 

 three. With Flerbart, psychology has certainlv been 

 raised to the rank of a science ; but unfortunately it 

 has to be admitted that his objective standard has been 

 illegitimately assumed. 



Just as psychology utilises physiology in its effort to 

 gain a standing as a science, so education is inclined 

 to use psychology. Frequently we hear ps\'chology 

 described as a science, while education is relegated 

 to a place among the arts. It is natural, therefore, for 

 the educator who wishes to claim rank in science to 

 appropriate the scientific status of his auxiliary science. 

 .\s a matter of fact, education has captured psvchology. 

 NO. 2242, VOL. 90] 



This is only one of many cases in which a profession 

 has taken possession of an abstract study, and in this 

 way enabled the abstract study to make real pro- 

 gress. Theology as a study has gained greatly by the 

 fact that it is a compulsory subject for those who are 

 preparing for a great profession. .Astronomy owes a 

 great deal to the support it has received from its 

 practical value to navigators. Physiology would not 

 be what it is to-day had it not become an essential 

 subject in the preparation for the practice of medicine. 

 Physiologists sometimes complain that their subject is 

 hampered by its professors having to waste time in 

 teaching mere medical students ; it is well to remember, 

 however, that but for the demands of the medical 

 profession physiology would have been left to the few 

 private investigators who might be able at their own 

 cost to carry on under adverse conditions the work 

 that is now being done in thousands of well-equipped 

 laboratories. In the same way it is greatly to the 

 advantage of psychology that it has become an essen- 

 tial part of the professional training of teachers. The 

 subject is now receiving an amount of attention that 

 it would never have had but for the support of its 

 connection with the profession of teaching. But after 

 all a teacher is not a mere psychologist : education is 

 more than applied psychology. If education is to rank 

 as a science, it cannot be in virtue of its use of another 

 study that itself has an insecure foothold among the 

 sciences. It must establish for itself an objective 

 standard. 



Mere quantitative manipulation of the elements of a 

 study, if only carried out on a sufficiently large scale, 

 has a tendency to evolve an objective standard, apart 

 from any deliberate search for such a standard. We 

 may gather something from an examination of a 

 standard of this kind that, unexpected and unsought, 

 evolved itself in the ordinary course of educational 

 administration. What Binet and his colleagues and 

 followers have been trying to do of set purpose was, 

 to some extent at least, accomplished automatically by 

 the working of the system of individual examinations 

 under the English and .Scotch codes of elementary 

 education. Binet has drawn up certain tables with the 

 express purpose of testing the intelligence of children 

 at various ages. But we are only at the threshold of 

 investigation work of this kind, and the tests cannot 

 be regarded as satisfactory, either in themselves or in 

 their application. But they have been drawn up with 

 the deliberate purpose of supplying a more or less 

 objective standard of intelligence. Now in the British 

 elementary school codes we have the examination re- 

 quirements from the pupils of difTerent ages set out in 

 a series of tables each corresponding to one of the 

 seven grades known technically as "standards." The 

 purpose of these tables of requirements was not 

 primarily to determine the intelligence of the pupils, 

 but rather to indicate certain minimum amounts of 

 information that had to be communicated in considera- 

 tion of a certain money payment. Yet these tables 

 bear a generic resemblance to those of Binet, and in 

 actual practice the "standards" did win acceptance 

 as a test of intelligence. The requirements were per- 

 haps less scientifically determined than are those of 

 Binet's tests, but their practical value was very much 

 greater, because of the extremely wide range of their 

 application. 



When the codes had been in working order for a 

 score of years it became evident to thoughtful observers 

 that there had arisen a standard of comparison among 

 pupils in elementary schools that was gradually being 

 recognised all over the countr}'. It was an objective 

 standard as was shown by the fact that each of the 

 standards began to have a meaning of its own, apart 

 from the individual school in which a particular pupil 

 happened to be found. No doubt there were differences 



