L, — EDUCATION. 195 



notable instance of this tendency. The educational process is assumed 

 to start, not from the child's sensations (as nineteenth-century theoiy 

 was so apt to maintain), but rather from his motor reactions to certain 

 perceptual objects — objects of vital importance to him and to his species 

 under primitive conditions, and therefore appealing to certain instinctive 

 impulses. Further, the child's activities in the school should be, not 

 indeed identical with, but continuous with, the activities of his subse- 

 quent profession or trade. Upon these grounds handicraft should now 

 find a place in every school curriculum. It will be inserted both for 

 its own sake, and for the sake of its connections with other subjects, 

 whether they be subjects of school life, of after life, or of human life 

 generally. 



(4) As a result of recent psychological work, more attention is now 

 being paid to the emotional, moral, and esthetic activities. This is a 

 second instance of the same reaction from excessive intellectualism. 

 Education in this country has ever claimed to form character as well as 

 to impart knowledge. Formerly, this aim characterised the Public 

 Schools rather than the public elementary schools. Eecently, however, 

 much has been done to infuse into the latter something of the spirit of 

 the Public Schools. The principle of self-government, for example, has 

 been applied with success not only in certain elementary schools, but 

 also in several colonies for juvenile delinquents. And, in the latter 

 case, its success has been attributed by the initiators directly to the 

 fact that it is the corollary of sound child-psychology. 



Bearing closely upon the subject of moral and emotional training 

 is the work of the psycho-analysts. Freud has shown that many forms 

 of mental inefficiency in later life — both major (such as hysteria, 

 neurosis, certain kinds of ' shell-shock,' &c.) and minor (such as lapses 

 of memory, of action, slips of tongue and pen) — are traceable to the 

 repression of emotional experiences in earlier Hfe. The principles 

 themselves may, perhaps, still be regarded as, in part, a matter of 

 controversy. But the discoveries upon which they are based vividly 

 illustrate the enormous importance of the natural instincts, interests, 

 and activities inherited by the child as part of his biological equip- 

 ment; and, together with the work done by Enghsh psychologists such 

 as Shand and McDougall upon the emotional basis of character, have 

 already had a considerable influence upon educational theory in this 

 country. 



(5) Increasing emphasis is now being laid upon freedom for indi- 

 vidual effort and initiative. Here, again, the corollaries drawn from the 

 psycho-analytic doctrines as to the dangers of repression are most sug- 

 gestive. Already a better understanding of child-nature has led to the 

 substitution of ' internal ' for ' external ' discipline ; and the pre-deter- 

 mmed routine demanded of entire classes is giving way to the growing 

 recognition of the educational value of spontaneous efforts initiated by 

 the individual, alone or in social co-operation with his fellows. 



In appealing for greater freedom still, the new psychology is in line 

 with the more advanced educational experiments, such as the work done 

 by Madame Montessori and the founders of the Little Commonwealth; 



(6) The hygiene and technique of mental work is itself being based 



03 



