November 3, 1905.] 



SCIENCE, 



565 



The Educative Process. By William Chand- 

 ler Bag LEY. New York, The Macmillan 

 Co. Pp. xix + 358. 



As an attempt to organize the theory and 

 practise of education in accordance with 

 modern scientific thought and the results of 

 psychological and genetic investigations, this 

 book is well worthy of a review in Science. 



In the view here presented, man is distin- 

 guished from other animals not only by his 

 greater capacity to profit by his own experi- 

 ence, but especially by his ability to profit by 

 the experiences of others transmitted to him 

 through social habits and language. Educa- 

 tion is the process by means of which the indi- 

 vidual acquires experiences that will function 

 in rendering more efficient his future action. 

 Formal education incKides the modifying in- 

 fluences, the control of which is consciously 

 assumed either by the individual himself or 

 by some educative agency, such as the home, 

 church or school. The school is most im- 

 portant from the scientific point of view be- 

 cause its influence can be systematized and 

 directed and the results determined. 



Many of the principles of education are the 

 same whatever the aim. The true aim of 

 education may best be described as social 

 efficiency. To be socially efficient a man must 

 (1) pull his own weight, (2) interfere as 

 little as possible with the effort of others, (3) 

 consistently and persistently further progress. 

 Apperception is the reading of meaning into 

 sense impressions and its chief law is ' The 

 unifying of sense impressions into concrete 

 experiences is accomplished through the ad- 

 justments to which the sensations themselves 

 give rise.' The instincts of self preservation 

 and of race preservation are the bases for the 

 lower order of apperceptive systems, while 

 those of the higher order are determined 

 largely by acquired experiences. 



Active attention and work must take the 

 place of passive attention and play. The 

 great work of the school is to produce this 

 result and thus cause the instinctive and the 

 near to be subordinated to the intellectual and 

 remote. Hence education is largely a battle 

 against nature. It should not, however, merely 

 require certain activities, but it should de- 



velop needs that will demand the acquisition 

 of experiences that will be beneficial in mature 

 life. 



Experiences take the form of unconscious 

 habits or of conscious judgments; the first 

 should be unchangeable, the second adaptable. 

 The judgments may be either practical or con- 

 ceptional. A concept is an apperceptive sys- 

 tem made explicit. There is danger of too 

 much dealing with symbols before concepts 

 are developed by experience. Ready-made 

 instead of reasoned judgments are used a 

 great deal. Organization is the important 

 thing in conceptional judgments. 



The stages of child development are a transi- 

 tion stage from six to eight, a formative stage 

 from eight to twelve and the adolescent stage 

 from twelve to eighteen. 



Eormal discipline in the sense of the gen- 

 eralization of a habit is not possible, but ideals 

 may be carried over from one field of effort to 

 another. The chief purpose of education is 

 to develop high ideals. An ideal must be emo- 

 tional as well as intellectual, and it is high as 

 it is abstract, social, remote. Values of 

 studies are classed as utilitarian, conventional, 

 preparatory, theoretical, sentimental. 



In the actual work of teaching, instincts need 

 not development, but utilization, transforma- 

 tion or elimination. Not only should children 

 be given models, but they should be led to ad- 

 mire them. Imitation starts processes and 

 habits are formed by trial and error. Ab- 

 stract teaching should lead to abstract judg- 

 ments, not to more concrete. 



Judgments may be given children ready 

 made (the indirect method) or the child may 

 be placed under conditions that will impel 

 him to form thera himself (the direct method). 

 The indirect method is the principal one in 

 the elementary schools. 



The media of intellectual transmission are 

 oral discussion, books and graphic representa- 

 tion, and of emotional transmission, literature, 

 pictorial and plastic art and music and ora- 

 tory. 



Inductive development lessons are valuable 

 though they have limitations, but deductive 

 development lessons are equally important 

 while the study lesson, the recitation lesson. 



