324 Proceedings of the Royal Society 
metic. These and other methods are the result of the immense 
attention which has been bestowed on the question of primary 
teaching. 
(2.) Public opinion has pronounced against much that was char¬ 
acteristic of the Pestalozzian system. From the principle that 
children should be taught nothing that they could not understand, 
there was deduced the practice of much abstract and formal 
lecturing, totally unsuited to children from six to nine years of 
age. Thus, lessons on the theory of number were made to precede 
empirical teaching of arithmetic. While much stilted talk was 
used both about the children and to the children, it was found that, 
in many cases, they were suffered to go through school without 
learning to read and write. A general reaction set in against the 
idea of intellectual training in common schools. 
(3.) This tendency of public opinion was taken up and ratified 
by the Gfovernment. In October 1854, Regulative , or Minutes from 
the Office of Public Instruction in Berlin, were issued, which bear 
a close analogy in some points to the revised code of Mr Lowe. 
The object of these minutes was to restrict the teaching in elemen¬ 
tary schools to a few humble and necessary subjects, and to ensure 
these subjects being efficiently taught. In direct opposition to 
Pestalozzi, the Regulative proceeded on the principle that, in an 
elementary school, it is not the object to develope the child’s 
reasoning faculties, or to give him knowledge, but only to give him 
the power of doing certain things ;— Konnen , and not ivissen, was 
to be the result to be produced. The schools were to turn out the 
children in possession of the actual capacities (fertigkeiten) of reading, 
writing, and ordinary ciphering, and everything outside of this range 
was to be sternly excluded. Thus the children were on no account 
to learn grammar, as this is an abstract, logical thing, suited to the 
high school; whereas, in an elementary school, children should 
learn to use their own language correctly by practice, and not by 
rules. Even mental arithmetic was to be excluded, as being a 
needless fatigue of the brain. Of secular subjects, in addition to 
the three K-s, only singing was as a general rule to be taught, 
for the sake of practising the voice and ear. Only church tunes 
and national songs were to be permitted, the words being previ¬ 
ously well studied and explained. History and geography were 
