566 



SCIENCE. 



[N. S. Vol. XXII. No. 566. 



the drill, the review and the examination les- 

 sons have each an important place. 



Such, with an additional chapter on the 

 ' Hygiene of Instruction,' are the main 

 thoughts of the book very briefly summarized. 

 It is evident that this is a broad systematic 

 treatise far in advance of the traditional peda- 

 gogical work on theory and practise. It gives 

 promise of a body of knowledge founded on 

 the established principles of biology, sociology, 

 psychology, child study and educational prac- 

 tise, that may soon be designated as a science 

 of education without any apologies. 



The biological and psychological aspects of 

 education are most emphasized, and the treat- 

 ment of education reduced to its lowest terms 

 in the earlier chapters is admirable. Hob- 

 house on genetic psychology and Hall on child 

 study are his favorite authorities, while on 

 general psychology most of the leading psy- 

 chologists of the day are referred to and 

 quoted. His facts and principles are, there- 

 fore, generally reliable. 



A very noticeable, though minor, error in 

 his psychology, is shown in his statement that 

 marginal vision is now of no use to man. The 

 most fundamental defect in his early formula- 

 tion of the foundations of the science of edu- 

 cation is his failure to recognize the signifi- 

 cance of other instincts than those concerned 

 directly in self and race preservation. Man 

 with his adaptive instinct of play, curiosity 

 and imitation, and his regulative instincts of 

 morality and religion, to say nothing of his 

 social, collective, constructive, dramatic, ex- 

 pressive and other instincts so much stronger 

 than in animals, is naturally a learning, lan- 

 guage forming, socially organizing animal. 

 The right utilization of these instincts is the 

 keynote of modern education instead of the 

 old idea of the teacher as battling against 

 nature which is expressly endorsed in chapter 

 VI. by this author. Later he recognizes some 

 of these instincts, but he nowhere gives them 

 their true place as powerful springs of action 

 by the proper utilization of which much of 

 the war against nature in education may be 

 charged to the wise direction and regulation 

 of natural activities of children. 



In another respect the book is very unsatis- 



factory to the writer and certainly not in har- 

 mony with present educational movements. 

 This is in his emphasis upon the indirect 

 method of giving readymade judgments and 

 of teaching by means of symbols. He admits 

 the value of learning by experience and the 

 artificial character of most school education, 

 but yields so completely to the old school idea 

 that in discussing media of instruction he 

 omits to mention objects themselves (though 

 in another place he discusses the use of ob- 

 jects, museums and excursions). At the pres- 

 ent time when the best teachers are making 

 great advances in rendering education less 

 artificial through the more extensive and effir 

 cient use of objects and manual activities of 

 all kinds, it is very disappointing to have a 

 work that is so up to date in most respects 

 fail not only in contributing something to 

 this desirable advance, but to even pass it by 

 as of little significance. 



In one other respect the author's position is 

 reactionary and in the light of present day 

 thought and investigation untenable. This is 

 shown in his endorsement of the absurd idea 

 that the study of grammar rather than prac- 

 tise in seeing, hearing and using correct lan- 

 guage is the proper method of learning to use 

 good language forms. In this connection he 

 holds that generally the conscious focusing of 

 the mind upon each step is necessary to the 

 rapid, efficient formation of habits. This is 

 true in a large measure in adult, analytic and 

 synthetic intellectual activities but not at all 

 true of the lower order of intellectual and 

 manual habits, especially of children, in whom 

 the stages of analysis and synthesis are un- 

 difl'erentiated. In such cases the attempt to 

 analyze and focalize on each step retards 

 seriously the formation of habits. If children 

 had to learn to walk, talk, control their 

 bodies, etc., by the method of consciously 

 focusing upon each step in those processes, 

 many more years than are now required would 

 be necessary to a much less perfect establish- 

 ment of those habits. Even with older chil- 

 dren, if the game of ball had to be learned 

 by the method of focusing on each phase of 

 the process, success in catching, batting, etc., 

 would probably take much more of the boys' 



