324 



SCmNGE. 



[N. S. Vol. XI. No. 270. 



periences and ideas that make for their 

 solution. How profound a revolution in 

 the position and service of text-book and 

 teacher, and in methods of instruction de- 

 pending therefrom, would be effected by 

 a sincere recognition of the psychological 

 identity of child and adult in these respects 

 can with difSculty be realized. 



Here again it is not enough that the edu- 

 cational commanders should be aware of 

 the correct educational psychology. The 

 rank and file, just because they are persons 

 dealing with persons, must have a sufficient 

 grounding in the psychology of the matter 

 to realize the necessity and the significance 

 of what they are doing. Any reform insti- 

 tuted without such conviction on the part 

 of those who have to carry it into eifect 

 would never be undertaken in good faith, 

 nor in the spirit which its ideal inevitably 

 demands ; consequently it could lead only 

 to disaster. 



At this point, however, the issue defines 

 itself, somewhat more narrowly. It may 

 be true, it is true, we are told, that some 

 should take hold of psychological methods 

 and conclusions, and organize them with 

 reference to the assistance which they may 

 give to the cause of education. But this is 

 not the work of the teacher. It belongs to 

 the general educational theorist — the mid- 

 dleman between the psychologist and the 

 educational practitioner. He should put 

 the matter into such shape that the teacher 

 may take the net results in the form of 

 advice and rules for action ; but the teacher 

 who comes in contact with the living per- 

 sonalities must not assume the psycholog- 

 ical attitude. If he does he reduces persons 

 to objects, and thereby distorts, or rather 

 destroys, the ethical relationship which is 

 the vital nerve of instruction [Psychology 

 and Life, p. 122, and pp. 136-138). 



That there is some legitimate division 

 of labor between the general educational 

 ^heoriet and the actual instructor, there is 



of course no doubt. As a rule, it will not 

 be the one actively employed in instruction 

 who will be most conscious of the psycho- 

 logical basis and equivalents of the educa- 

 tional work, nor most occupied in finding 

 the pedagogical rendering of psychological 

 facts and principles. Of necessity, the 

 stress of interest will be elsewhere. But 

 we have already found reason for question- 

 ing the possibility of making the somewhat 

 different direction of interest into a rigid 

 dualism of a legislative class on one side 

 and an obedient subject class on the other. 

 Can the teacher ever receive ' obligatory 

 prescriptions '? Can he receive from another 

 a statement of the means by which he is to 

 reach his ends, and not become hopelessly 

 servile in his attitude ? Would not such 

 a result be even worse than the existing 

 mixture of empiricism and inspiration ? — ■ 

 just because it would forever fossilize the 

 empirical element and dispel the inspira- 

 tion which now quickens routine. Can a 

 passive, receptive attitude on the part of 

 the instructor (suggesting the soldier await- 

 ing orders from a commanding general) be 

 avoided, unless the teacher, as a student of 

 psychology, himself sees the reasons and 

 import of the suggestions and rules that are 

 proffered him ? 



I quote a passage that seems of signifi- 

 cance : " Do we not lay a special linking 

 science everywhere else between the theory 

 and practical work ? We have engineering 

 between physics and the practical working- 

 men in the mills ; we have a scientific med- 

 icine between the natural science and the 

 physician" (p. 138). The sentences sug- 

 gest in an almost startling waj^, that the 

 real essence of the problem is found in an 

 organic connection between the two extreme 

 terms — between the theorist and the prac- 

 tical worker — through the medium of the 

 linking science. The decisive matter is the 

 extent to which the ideas of the theorist 

 actually project themselves, through the 



