564 



SCIEI^GE. 



[Vol. IX., No. 227 



slavish following of the growing mind. It is 

 probable that in no two minds do the faculties de- 

 velop in precisely the same order. That curricu- 

 lum is best which is adapted to the greatest num- 

 ber of minds, but no curriculum could be adapted 

 to all minds. Just in proportion as the course of 

 study laid down in school is rigid and unalterable, 

 so far will it fail to reach a large number of those 

 for whom it is intended. Just as, in elementary 

 education, payment by results is opposed to the 

 whole spirit of Pestalozzi's and Froebel's teaching, 

 so in our higher education we cannot obtain the 

 highest level of instruction unless we assign a 

 lower place to examinations. 



There is no fear that in the present day realistic 

 education — the learning of things instead of 

 words — will be neglected. There may, indeed, 

 be a danger lest we should teach things which are 

 not the best worth learning, lest we should waste 

 on mechanical arts or on the lower branches of 

 science powers which ought to be applied to the 

 highest products of the human mind. Gcethe tells 

 us that Wilhelm Meister, a dreamy enthusiast, 

 took his son Felix to be taught in the Paedagogic 

 Province. On returning a year afterwards to see 

 how he was getting on, he could not at first find 

 him ; but, as he was in an open field, he saw in 

 the distance a cloud of dust. The dust developed 

 into a troop of horses ; and out of this troop gal- 

 loped the young Felix, riding a white bare-backed 

 steed, from which he threw himself and fell at his 

 father's feet. The rulers of the Province explained, 

 that, having tried Felix at every thing else, they 

 found that he was most fit for breaking horses, 

 and therefore set him that task. We now see 

 Goethe's dream realized, not only in technical 

 education, but in the schools which are growing 

 up over England for the training of young col- 

 onists. A boy is taken at fourteen, and taught 

 how to build a house, to make his furniture, to 

 manage a farm, to navigate a boat. This is real- 

 istic education with a vengeance ; and the same 

 might be said of mere technical training, where it 

 does not rest upon the basis of general culture. 

 Yet the exti-avagances to which this side of educa- 

 tion may run are slight, compared with those 

 which have for so many years formed the bane of 

 humanism. Some exaggeration is required to re- 

 dress the balance. It is difficult to secure im- 

 provements in education, and it is almost impos- 

 sible to revolutionize an educational system. 

 Educational theorists write as if a single child, 

 willing to be taught every thing, were dealt with 

 by a teacher able to impart every thing. The 

 reality is very different. Children are taught, not 

 singly, but in masses ; and in a crowd the stand- 

 ard of conduct is generally that of the worst 



rather than that of the best. To secure all the at- 

 tention of a large number of children needs con- 

 siderable gifts, and to force a large class into ac- 

 tive co-operation with the instructor is what few 

 teachers can do. Again : a small proportion only 

 of teachers have any special gifts of insight, live- 

 liness, or imagination. They can only carry out 

 the methods in which they have been trained. 

 Once more every traditional system is protected 

 by a large number of means and appliances for 

 study which have grown up under its reign. The 

 very perfection of the school-books makes it easier 

 to study classical literatures and Greek and Eoman 

 history than any similar department of more mod- 

 ern date. The passive resistance of pupils, the ab- 

 sence of useful aids, the want of enterprise in 

 teachers, — all militate against the substitution of 

 a rational education, such as Comenius would 

 have given, for the complete and elaborate drill in 

 the arts of expression which we owe to Sturm 

 and the Jesuits. America has been less spoiled 

 than Europe by the influence of petty traditions ; 

 and it is there, perhaps, that we may look for the 

 rise of a training which will begin with the kin- 

 dergarten, will be inspired in its higher branches 

 by the enthusiasm of Milton, will always pierce 

 through the veil of words to the substance which 

 the words are intended to convey, and, while 

 training to the full the senses of the individual 

 and his mechanical powers, will not fail to set the 

 highest value on the best products of the human 

 mind, and will never, in the pursuit of material 

 science, undervalue the far dearer treasures of 

 poetry and philosophy. 



Oscar Browning. 



TRAINING OF TEACHERS. 



The history of our normal schools is the inside 

 history of the progress of education in the United 

 States. Established by prolonged struggles, main- 

 tained by continual contests, they have been the 

 central point of onward movement. Circum- 

 stances have made them, at the best, but half- 

 measures for the training of teachers. State nor- 

 mal schools are excellent high schools, and a little 

 more. The general standard of admission is that 

 of graduation from grammar schools, eight or 

 nine years' course. Two years are spent in regu- 

 lar high-school studies ; the third year a partial 

 course in pedagogics and methods is begun ; and 

 the fourth year, psychology, pedagogics, methods, 

 and practice form the principal work. Compare 

 this with preparation for other professions, — four 

 years high school, four years college, and then the 

 law, medicine, or theological school. Rarely can 

 a pupil study psychology with any profit until the 



