MENTAL AND PHYSICAL FACTORS INVOLVED IN EDUCATION. 303 



intuitions of the schoolmaster. The position was unassailable so long as 

 mental behaviour was regarded as something lying beyond the reach of 

 exact objective methods of inquiry. The psychologist and the alienist 

 have taught us that this is not the case. The application of mathematics 

 to the solution of its problems is the latest indication of the probability 

 that, in the last resort, mental phenomena are as obedient to law as 

 the things of the material world. 



In response to the request of your Committee, various gentlemen 

 whose names are well known as investigators in this field have expressed 

 their views of the importance of the work. 



Professor Binet, of the Sorbonne, writes, after showing how the 

 artist's study of anatomy should differ in character from that of the 

 doctor, because their object is different : — 



I think the same holds good in regard to the relations of psychology and 

 pedagogy. We shall gradually learn what the real needs of teachers are. 

 Abstract psychological knowledge is of no use to them. They require knowledge 

 of quite a special character, such as will find an immediate application in instruction 

 and education. They should have at command the means of recognising intel- 

 lectual and moral types amongst children ; means of measuring memory and of 

 strengthening it; they should know how to estimate fatigue and how to counteract 

 it. But few, if any, of the psychological treatises of the last twenty years 

 satisfy a demand of that kind. It is therefore necessary for psychologists and 

 teachers to set themselves to the task of creating a science, 'psycho-pedagogy,' 

 which, at the present moment, does not exist. In pursuing inquiries of this kind 

 it is essential that we should not lose sight of their object— namely, that of finding 

 out things that will be useful to a teacher acting in his professional capacity. 

 Everything which is not related to that end should be rigidly excluded. 



Professor Claparede, the fourth edition of whose book ' Psychologie 

 de 1 'Enfant et Pedagogie experimentale, ' is now in the press, has written 

 as follows : — 



The means which must be employed by the educator are not given a priori; 

 they are the outcome of experience. He is concerned in fostering and directing 

 the development of his pupils and in imparting knowledge to them. It is there- 

 fore essential that he should know how this development takes place and how the 

 knowledge he would impart is assimilated. These things science alone can 

 toach us. 



The fact that human possibilities are increasing every day without any corre- 

 sponding increase in the length of human life makes it more and more important 

 to see that our systems of education are as economical and fruitful as possible. 

 The pupil has neither time nor energy to fritter away. The science which can 

 do most for the educator in this matter is the psycho-phy.siology of children. 

 Such a science is as necessary to the teacher as physiology to the physician. This 

 is so obvious that we need not labour the point. 



Some will urge that the experience which is admittedly essential can only be 

 gained by practice. ' It is only by teaching that a good teacher will be made.' 

 It is, of course, true that practice is essential to success in any art, but in this 

 particular case it is surely necessary to reduce to a minimum the period of 

 apprenticeship. The teacher who is left to master his art without any knowledge 

 of the material on which he is working is reduced to experiments in which his 

 pupils suffer. Not un frequently these experiments are very long and very 

 injurious to generations of pupils who undergo them. Practice may in time make 

 up for a want of theoretical knowledge, but the price paid for the period of 

 ignorance is incalculable. What is still worse, the injury done is irreparable. 

 If an incapable engineer builds a bridge which collapses the damage can probably 

 be repaired — at any rate, the bridge can be rebuilt ; not so a human mind. 



It is hardly necessary also to point out that practice makes many bad teachers. 



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