Essays On Education And Kindred Subjects (Fiscle Part- 11) by Herbert Spencer (best fiction novels to read TXT) 📕

Notions That A Child's Mind Could Be Made To Order; That Its Powers Were

To Be Imparted By The   Schoolmaster; That It Was A Receptacle Into Which

Knowledge Was To Be Put, And There Built Up After The   Teacher's Ideal.

In This Free-Trade Era, However, When We Are Learning That There Is Much

More Self-Regulation In Things Than Was Supposed; That Labour, And

Commerce, And Agriculture, And Navigation, Can Do Better Without

Management Than With It; That Political Governments, To Be Efficient,

Must Grow Up From Within And Not Be Imposed From Without; We Are Also

Being Taught That There Is A Natural Process Of    Mental Evolution Which

Is Not To Be Disturbed Without Injury; That We May Not Force On The

Unfolding Mind Our Artificial Forms; But That Psychology, Also,

Discloses To Us A Law Of    Supply And Demand To Which, If We Would Not Do

Harm, We Must Conform. Thus, Alike In Its Oracular Dogmatism, In Its

Harsh Discipline, In Its Multiplied Restrictions, In Its Professed

Asceticism, And In Its Faith In The   Devices Of    Men, The   Old Educational

Regime Was Akin To The   Social Systems With Which It Was Contemporaneous;

And Similarly, In The   Reverse Of    These Characteristics, Our Modern Modes

Of Culture Correspond To Our More Liberal Religious And Political

Institutions.

But There Remain Further Parallelisms To Which We Have Not Yet Adverted:

That, Namely, Between The   Processes By Which These Respective Changes

Have Been Wrought Out; And That Between The   Several States Of

Heterogeneous Opinion To Which They Have Led. Some Centuries Ago There

Was Uniformity Of    Belief--Religious, Political, And Educational. All Men

Were Romanists, All Were Monarchists, All Were Disciples Of    Aristotle;

And No One Thought Of    Calling In Question That Grammar-School Routine

Under Which All Were Brought Up. The   Same Agency Has In Each Case

Replaced This Uniformity By A Constantly-Increasing Diversity. That

Tendency Towards Assertion Of    The   Individuality, Which, After

Contributing To Produce The   Great Protestant Movement, Has Since Gone On

To Produce An Ever-Increasing Number Of    Sects--That Tendency Which

Initiated Political Parties, And Out Of    The   Two Primary Ones Has, In

These Modern Days, Evolved A Multiplicity To Which Every Year Adds--That

Tendency Which Led To The   Baconian Rebellion Against The   Schools, And

Has Since Originated Here And Abroad, Sundry New Systems Of    Thought--Is

A Tendency Which, In Education Also, Has Caused Divisions And The

Accumulation Of    Methods. As External Consequences Of    The   Same Internal

Change, These Processes Have Necessarily Been More Or Less Simultaneous.

The Decline Of    Authority, Whether Papal, Philosophic, Kingly, Or

Tutorial, Is Essentially One Phenomenon; In Each Of    Its Aspects A

Leaning Towards Free Action Is Seen Alike In The   Working Out Of    The

Change Itself, And In The   New Forms Of    Theory And Practice To Which The

Change Has Given Birth.

While Many Will Regret This Multiplication Of    Schemes Of    Juvenile

Culture, The   Catholic Observer Will Discern In It A Means Of    Ensuring

The Final Establishment Of    A Rational System. Whatever May Be Thought Of

Theological Dissent, It Is Clear That Dissent In Education Results In

Facilitating Inquiry By The   Division In Labour. Were We In Possession Of

The True Method, Divergence From It Would, Of    Course, Be Prejudicial;

But The   True Method Having To Be Found, The   Efforts Of    Numerous

Independent Seekers Carrying Out Their Researches In Different

Directions, Constitute A Better Agency For Finding It Than Any That

Could Be Devised. Each Of    Them Struck By Some New Thought Which Probably

Contains More Or Less Of    Basis In Facts--Each Of    Them Zealous On Behalf

Of His Plan, Fertile In Expedients To Test Its Correctness, And Untiring

In His Efforts To Make Known Its Success--Each Of    Them Merciless In His

Criticism On The   Rest; There Cannot Fail, By Composition Of    Forces, To

Be A Gradual Approximation Of    All Towards The   Right Course. Whatever

Portion Of    The   Normal Method Any One Has Discovered, Must, By The

Constant Exhibition Of    Its Results, Force Itself Into Adoption; Whatever

Wrong Practices He Has Joined With It Must, By Repeated Experiment And

Failure, Be Exploded. And By This Aggregation Of    Truths And Elimination

Of Errors, There Must Eventually Be Developed A Correct And Complete

Body Of    Doctrine. Of    The   Three Phases Through Which Human Opinion

Passes--The Unanimity Of    The   Ignorant, The   Disagreement Of    The

Inquiring, And The   Unanimity Of    The   Wise--It Is Manifest That The   Second

Is The   Parent Of    The   Third. They Are Not Sequences In Time Only, They

Are Sequences In Causation. However Impatiently, Therefore, We May

Witness The   Present Conflict Of    Educational Systems, And However Much We

May Regret Its Accompanying Evils, We Must Recognise It As A Transition

Stage Needful To Be Passed Through, And Beneficent In Its Ultimate

Effects.

Meanwhile, May We Not Advantageously Take Stock Of    Our Progress? After

Fifty Years Of    Discussion, Experiment, And Comparison Of    Results, May

We Not Expect A Few Steps Towards The   Goal To Be Already Made Good? Some

Old Methods Must By This Time Have Fallen Out Of    Use; Some New Ones Must

Have Become Established; And Many Others Must Be In Process Of    General

Abandonment Or Adoption. Probably We May See In These Various Changes,

When Put Side By Side, Similar Characteristics--May Find In Them A

Common Tendency; And So, By Inference, May Get A Clue To The   Direction

In Which Experience Is Leading Us, And Gather Hints How We May Achieve

Yet Further Improvements. Let Us Then, As A Preliminary To A Deeper

Consideration Of    The   Matter, Glance At The   Leading Contrasts Between The

Education Of    The   Past And That Of    The   Present.

The Suppression Of    Every Error Is Commonly Followed By A Temporary

Ascendency Of    The   Contrary One; And So It Happened, That After The   Ages

When Physical Development Alone Was Aimed At, There Came An Age When

Culture Of    The   Mind Was The   Sole Solicitude--When Children Had

Lesson-Books Put Before Them At Between Two And Three Years Old, And The

Getting Of    Knowledge Was Thought The   One Thing Needful. As, Further, It

Usually Happens That After One Of    These Reactions The   Next Advance Is

Achieved By Co-Ordinating The   Antagonist Errors, And Perceiving That

They Are Opposite Sides Of    One Truth; So, We Are Now Coming To The

Conviction That Body And Mind Must Both Be Cared For, And The   Whole

Thing Being Unfolded. The   Forcing-System Has Been, By Many, Given Up;

And Precocity Is Discouraged. People Are Beginning To See That The   First

Requisite To Success In Life, Is To Be A Good Animal. The   Best Brain Is

Found Of    Little Service, If There Be Not Enough Vital Energy To Work It;

And Hence To Obtain The   One By Sacrificing The   Source Of    The   Other, Is

Now Considered A Folly--A Folly Which The   Eventual Failure Of    Juvenile

Prodigies Constantly Illustrates. Thus We Are Discovering The   Wisdom Of

The Saying, That One Secret In Education Is "To Know How Wisely To Lose

Time."

The Once Universal Practice Of    Learning By Rote, Is Daily Falling More

Into Discredit. All Modern Authorities Condemn The   Old Mechanical Way Of

Teaching The   Alphabet. The   Multiplication Table Is Now Frequently Taught

Experimentally. In The   Acquirement Of    Languages, The   Grammar-School Plan

Is Being Superseded By Plans Based On The   Spontaneous Process Followed

By The   Child In Gaining Its Mother Tongue. Describing The   Methods There

Used, The   "Reports On The   Training School At Battersea" Say:--"The

Instruction In The   Whole Preparatory Course Is Chiefly Oral, And Is

Illustrated As Much As Possible By Appeals To Nature." And So

Throughout. The   Rote-System, Like Ether Systems Of    Its Age, Made More Of

The Forms And Symbols Than Of    The   Things Symbolised. To Repeat The   Words

Correctly Was Everything; To Understand Their Meaning Nothing; And Thus

The Spirit Was Sacrificed To The   Letter. It Is At Length Perceived That,

In This Case As In Others, Such A Result Is Not Accidental But

Necessary--That In Proportion As There Is Attention To The   Signs, There

Must Be Inattention To The   Things Signified; Or That, As Montaigne Long

Ago Said--_Sçavoir Par Coeur N'est Pas Sçavoir_.

Along With Rote-Teaching, Is Declining Also The   Nearly-Allied Teaching

By Rules. The   Particulars First, And Then The   Generalisation, Is The   New

Method--A Method, As The   Battersea School Reports Remarks, Which, Though

"The Reverse Of    The   Method Usually Followed, Which Consists In Giving

The Pupil The   Rule First," Is Yet Proved By Experience To Be The   Right

One. Rule-Teaching Is Now Condemned As Imparting A Merely Empirical

Knowledge--As Producing An Appearance Of    Understanding Without The

Reality. To Give The   Net Product Of    Inquiry, Without The   Inquiry That

Leads To It, Is Found To Be Both Enervating And Inefficient. General

Truths To Be Of    Due And Permanent Use, Must Be Earned. "Easy Come Easy

Go," Is A Saying As Applicable To Knowledge As To Wealth. While Rules,

Lying Isolated In The   Mind--Not Joined To Its Other Contents As

Out-Growths From Them--Are Continually Forgotten; The   Principles Which

Those Rules Express Piecemeal, Become, When Once Reached By The

Understanding, Enduring Possessions. While The   Rule-Taught Youth Is At

Sea When Beyond His Rules, The   Youth Instructed In Principles Solves A

New Case As Readily As An Old One. Between A Mind Of    Rules And A Mind Of

Principles, There Exists A Difference Such As That Between A Confused

Heap Of    Materials, And The   Same Materials Organised Into A Complete

Whole, With All Its Parts Bound Together. Of    Which Types This Last Has

Not Only The   Advantage That Its Constituent Parts Are Better Retained,

But The   Much Greater Advantage That It Forms An Efficient Agent For

Inquiry, For Independent Thought, For Discovery--Ends For Which The

First Is Useless. Nor Let It Be Supposed That This Is A Simile Only: It

Is The   Literal Truth. The   Union Of    Facts Into Generalisations _Is_ The

Organisation Of    Knowledge, Whether Considered As An Objective Phenomenon

Or A Subjective One; And The   Mental Grasp May Be Measured By The   Extent

To Which This Organisation Is Carried.

From The   Substitution Of    Principles For Rules, And The   Necessarily

Co-Ordinate Practice Of    Leaving Abstractions Untaught Till The   Mind Has

Been Familiarised With The   Facts From Which They Are Abstracted, Has

Resulted The   Postponement Of    Some Once Early Studies To A Late Period.

This Is Exemplified In The   Abandonment Of    That Intensely Stupid Custom,

The Teaching Of    Grammar To Children. As M. Marcel Says:--"It May Without

Hesitation Be Affirmed That Grammar Is Not The   Stepping-Stone, But The

Finishing Instrument." As Mr. Wyse Argues:--"Grammar And Syntax Are A

Collection Of    Laws And Rules. Rules Are Gathered From Practice; They Are

The Results Of    Induction To Which We Come By Long Observation And

Comparison Of    Facts. It Is, In Fine, The   Science, The   Philosophy Of

Language. In Following The   Process Of    Nature, Neither Individuals Nor

Nations Ever Arrive At The   Science _First_. A Language Is Spoken, And

Poetry Written, Many Years Before Either A Grammar Or Prosody Is Even

Thought Of. Men Did Not Wait Till Aristotle Had Constructed His Logic,

To Reason." In Short, As Grammar Was Made After Language, So Ought It To

Be Taught After Language: An Inference Which All Who Recognise The

Relationship Between The   Evolution Of    The   Race And That Of    The

Individual, Will See To Be Unavoidable.

Of New Practices That Have Grown Up During The   Decline Of    These Old

Ones, The   Most Important Is The   Systematic Culture Of    The   Powers Of

Observation. After Long Ages Of    Blindness, Men Are At Last Seeing That

The Spontaneous Activity Of    The   Observing Faculties In Children Has A

Meaning And A Use. What Was Once Thought Mere Purposeless Action, Or

Play, Or Mischief, As The   Case Might Be, Is Now Recognised As The

Process Of    Acquiring A Knowledge On Which All After-Knowledge Is Based.

Hence The   Well-Conceived But Ill-Conducted System Of    _Object-Lessons_.

The Saying Of    Bacon, That Physics Is The   Mother Of    The   Sciences, Has

Come To Have A Meaning In Education. Without An Accurate Acquaintance

With The   Visible And Tangible Properties Of    Things, Our Conceptions Must

Be Erroneous, Our Inferences Fallacious, And Our Operations

Unsuccessful. "The Education Of    The   Senses Neglected, All After

Education Partakes Of    A Drowsiness, A Haziness, An Insufficiency, Which

It Is Impossible To Cure." Indeed, If We Consider It, We Shall Find That

Exhaustive Observation Is An Element In All Great Success. It Is Not To

Artists, Naturalists, And Men Of