IBANSACTIONH OF SECTION L. Oil 



the more easily excited nervous oscillations — and yet it must excite the less 

 vis-orous ones. If the thinking be very abstract — e.g., the deduction of a common 

 principle underlying many sense experiences which were not simultaneously 

 received — then it is evident that the stimulation must be of a very specialised 

 kind. The great majority of mankind is unable to stimulate the brain in this 

 way. Instead of keeping so many different brain oscillations simultaneously 

 excited, the nervous energy flows along the path of least natural resistance, and 

 some vigorous element in one of the many images to be compared excludes the 

 other ideas altogether. 



The Herbartian argument against formal education, as well as such 

 psychological and physiological arguments as those of Professor Bagley in bis 

 ' Educative Process,' fall to the ground when examined in connection with the 

 physiological point of view. 



It is well to observe that the ordinary man has little power of abstract 

 reasoning. With most men the nervous energy follows the path of natural least 

 resistance, except so far as they are trained. Inconsistent ideas lie side by side 

 in our minds; we can only direct the energy along the natural path. In other 

 words, we take things at their face value. If we had more practice in com- 

 paring ideas which lie far apart in our minds (the comparison of which has 

 therefore but little immediate interest), we might see i-Av more deeply tban we do. 

 Thus we have no « priori right to expect that an education which follows the 

 path of interest will be the best for producing the highest kind of organisation 

 of which a given brain is capable. With some brains no doubt it will. With 

 others it may lead to superficialit}-. 



An instance of the excessive tendency to do away with formal reasoning is to 

 be found in the amount of geometrical construction and example now usual 

 before the principles of true demonstration are entered on. 



4. Discussion on Experimental Studies in Education. 

 (i) Experimental Studies in Education. By Professor J. A. Green, M.A. 



The grand method of German educational philosophers has held sway long 

 enough to bring the theory of education into some disrepute. The educator is 

 dealing with facts both stubborn and complex. Unless we are to postulate 

 anarchy for one corner of the luiiverse, there are, underlying these facts, uni- 

 formities of sequence and co-existence which it is the aim of educational research 

 to lay bare. 



Teaching is essentially a synthetic process. Like the farmer, the teacher may 

 be said to prepare his ground, sow his seed, and look for a return. But the 

 scientific farmer recognises varieties of soil and adapts his measures to them. 

 His training embraces the study of agricultural chemistry, though it is a long 

 way from tlie test-tube and balance to the plough. At the same time, he does 

 not forget that agriculture is finally au aflair of the field and of the weather. 



Should not education as a subject of University study be approached in a 

 similar way ? Abstract investigations of a scientific and quantitative kind should 

 be possible. These would consist in part, at least, of exercises with individual pupils 

 with the object of a more exact determination of the mental processes of children 

 under instruction. The results arrived at would then be applied to the conditions 

 of the school. The two sides of the work are commonly divorced to the detri- 

 ment of both. The practising school becDmes the demonstration ground of an 

 a priori philosophy, and the laboratory loses sight of the fact that pupils are 

 something more than ideational types. 



The teacher as such is not primarily a researcher, nor should he be. lie 

 wants the result of research in a usable form, and the University Department of 

 Education should be organised with a view to provide them. Some examples of 

 what is being done abroad will indicate po«sibilitie.=! for such a department uu one 

 side of its work. 



