History of Education Part 29

This was his only experience in teaching children. "Herbart's experience as a teacher," says De Garmo, "would seem too small a thing to mention--some two or three years in a private family in Switzerland with three children aged respectively eight, twelve, and fourteen. Yet to a man who can see an oak tree in an acorn, who can understand all minds from the study of a few, such an experience may be most fruitful." It is certain that Herbart often drew upon this experience in his later writings. While in Switzerland he visited Pestalozzi, with whom he was deeply impressed. Opinions differ as to the harmony of theory between Pestalozzi and Herbart. Professor Rein thinks that, "In the ideas of Pestalozzi are found the outlines of Herbart's pedagogical structure."

Having decided to devote himself to academic teaching, he gave up his position in Switzerland and went to Bremen for further study. During the two years spent there, he wrote several essays on educational subjects, but gave his chief attention to the study of Greek and mathematics.

=As Professor.=--In 1802 he took the first step in his academic career as _Privat Docent_ at the university of Gottingen. This with him was a period of great literary activity.[156] In 1809, he was called to the chair of philosophy at Konigsberg once occupied by Kant. He calls this "the most renowned chair of philosophy, the place which when a boy I longed for in reverential dreams, as I studied the works of the sage of Konigsberg."[157]

=His Practice School.=--Here he established a pedagogical seminary, having a practice school in which the students instructed children under the criticism of Herbart himself. Concerning his pedagogical activity at Konigsberg, Herbart says, "Among my many duties, the consideration of educational questions is of especial interest to me. But it is not enough to theorize merely; there must be experiment and practice.

Furthermore, I desire to extend the range of my own experience (already covering ten years) in this field. Therefore, I have long had in mind to teach daily for one hour a few selected boys in the presence of such of my students as are familiar with my pedagogical theory. After a little, these students are to take up the work I have begun, and give instruction under my observation. In time, in this way, teachers would be trained, whose method by means of reciprocal observation and discussion must be perfected. As a plan of teaching is valueless without a teacher, and indeed a teacher that is in sympathy with that plan, and is master of the method,--so perhaps a small experimental school, such as I have in mind, would prepare the way for future greater undertakings. There is a word from Kant, 'first experimental schools and then normal schools!'"[158]

This was the first practice school in connection with the chair of pedagogy in a university; the idea, however, does not seem to have taken very deep root, as, with the exception of the celebrated practice school at Jena, under Professor Rein, there is not one now in Germany. Most professors of pedagogy conduct a _Seminar_, in which some practice work with children is done, but none of them maintain a practice school.

=Literary Activity.=--Herbart's literary activity at Konigsberg was great. He worked out his psychological system, and wrote also on philosophy, history, and pedagogy. But his greatest works in the latter field are his "A B C der Anschauung,"[159] and his "Allgemeine Padagogik,"[160] both of which appeared while he was still at Gottingen.[161] In 1833, after twenty-four years in Konigsberg, he returned to Gottingen, where his lifework was completed in 1841. Upon his retirement from Konigsberg, the practice school was closed. Ten years later, a pupil of Herbart, Karl Volkmar Stoy, established the practice school at Jena, of which mention has already been made. Two schools of Herbartians exist in Germany, the Stoy school, which attempts to follow Herbart very closely, and the Ziller school, which is freer in its interpretation of him. The chief exponent of the latter is Professor Wilhelm Rein of Jena, the place which is at present the center of Herbartian activity. In America this movement is under the direction of the National Herbart Society.

=His Pedagogical Work.=--Aside from the educational movements organized by Herbart and his followers, the credit is due to him of being the _first to elevate pedagogy to the dignity of a science_. Professor Rein says, "Herbart has rendered an undisputed service in that he has elevated pedagogics to the rank of a science. No one has ever repented of having become familiar with Herbart's teachings, for, in any case, he has thereby added richly to his own attainments. The development of our people will be fortunate if the education of the youth shall be intrusted more and more to those who stand and work upon the lines laid down by Comenius, Pestalozzi, Herbart.

"The pedagogic thinking of Herbart has indeed borne rich fruit in Germany. Other peoples, also, have been blessed by his teachings. Thus Herbart, whose span of life did not reach to the middle of this century, lives in the present. He created the basis of a science of education, which furnishes a safe starting point for all pedagogical theories, and which bears in itself the most fruitful germs for future development."[162]

=Modern Herbartians= have carried forward that development far beyond its original outline. The terms "many-sided interest," "apperception,"

"concentration," "culture-epochs," "the formal steps of instruction,"

"correlation," and "harmonious development," are phrases that have become common in educational literature. The limits of this volume do not permit a discussion of these subjects. Indeed, many of them belong more properly to the disciples of Herbart, rather than to Herbart himself.[163] Herbart's ideal was that education should aim to produce well-rounded men, fit for all the duties of life; men well developed physically, intellectually, morally, and spiritually. He himself was not one-sided, being an enthusiastic teacher as well as psychologist and philosopher.

FOOTNOTES:

[155] Professor Rein indicates that Herbart discussed educational questions at this period. See "Encyklopadisches Handbuch," Vol. III, p.

468.

[156] For list of works produced, see De Garmo's "Herbart and the Herbartians," p. 17.

[157] Felkin's translation of "Science of Education," p. 16.

[158] Willmann's "Herbart," Vol. II, p. 3.

[159] "The A B C of Observation."

[160] "General Pedagogy."

[161] The best collection of his works is that by Willmann, "Herbart's Padagogische Schriften," which has not been translated into English.

[162] "Encyklopadisches Handbuch der Padagogik," Vol. III, p. 485.

[163] For discussion of these subjects see the Yearbooks of the Herbartian Society, and other works referred to on page 278. For the completest list of references to Herbartian literature, see "Encyklopadisches Handbuch," Vol. III, p. 485.

CHAPTER XLI

MODERN EDUCATORS (_Continued_)

HORACE MANN (1796-1859)

=Literature.=--_Mrs. Mary T. Mann_, Life of Horace Mann; _Hinsdale_, Horace Mann; _Winship_, Horace Mann, the Educator; _Lang_, Horace Mann; _F. W. Parker_, Article in Educational Review, Vol. XII, p. 65; _Wm. T.

Harris_, Educational Review, Vol. XII, p. 105; _Martin_, Education in Ma.s.sachusetts.

Colonel Parker says, "It would be difficult to find a child ten years of age in our sixty-five millions who does not know of Abraham Lincoln or George Washington; but the third, at least, in the list of the builders of the American republic is not known to millions of intelligent people.

Washington and Lincoln represent the highest types of heroism, patriotism, and wisdom in great crises of republic-building; Horace Mann, the quiet inner building, the soul-development of the nation."[164]

Horace Mann was born at Franklin, Ma.s.sachusetts, May 4, 1796. Inured to the hard work of the farm, with but a few weeks' schooling in the winter, never blessed with very rugged health, left at the age of thirteen by the death of his father with the responsibilities of a man, it is no wonder that he "retained only painful recollections of the whole period which ought to be, with every child, a golden age to look back upon."[165]

When nearly twenty years of age, through the influence of Mr. Barrett, an eccentric teacher who came to the village, he decided to go to college, and in six months he prepared for the soph.o.m.ore cla.s.s of Brown University. This preparation was a tremendous undertaking which broke down his health for life. He now had an opportunity to satisfy the cravings for knowledge, which the hardships of his early life had not been able to stifle. He was graduated with the highest honors of his cla.s.s and decided to study law. He spent two years at Brown University as tutor, meanwhile privately studying law, and then resigned that position to enter the law school at Litchfield, Connecticut. Two years later, at the age of twenty-seven, he was admitted to the bar.

=As Statesman.=--He was called upon to serve his state in the legislature, and later as representative in Congress.[166]

The year 1837 marks a new epoch in the educational history of Ma.s.sachusetts. "Although Ma.s.sachusetts had had schools for nearly two centuries, the free school had been, to a great degree, a charity school the country over.... Horace Mann, like Thomas Jefferson, saw clearly that there could be no evolution of a free people without intelligence and morality, and looked upon the common school as the fundamental means of development of men and women who could govern themselves. He saw clearly that the whole problem of the republic which was presenting itself to intelligent educated men rested upon the idea of public education."[167]

=As Educator.=--Accordingly, having secured the pa.s.sage of a law establishing a State Board of Education, Mr. Mann was made its secretary at a salary of one thousand dollars a year. To accept this work, he gave up a lucrative law practice, fine prospects of political preferment, and probable fortune, as well as professional fame. He entered upon an educational campaign full of discouragement, colossal in its undertaking, and sure to arouse bitterest animosities. Of this period Colonel Parker says, "The story of his early struggles in this direction has not yet been written. When it is, it will reveal a profound depth of heroism rarely equaled in the history of the world."

Mr. Mann visited all parts of the state, lecturing to parents and stimulating the teachers. He was often received with coldness, sometimes with active hostility.

=His Annual Reports.=--But he persevered until the whole state was awakened. He continued in this work for twelve years, and presented its results in his Annual Reports, the most remarkable doc.u.ments of American educational literature.[168] In the meantime, he visited Europe, studied the schools, and gave the results of his investigations in his celebrated Seventh Annual Report.

Mr. Martin summarizes the work of Horace Mann during these twelve years as follows: "In the evolution of the Ma.s.sachusetts public schools during these twelve years of Mr. Mann's labors, statistics tell us that the appropriations for public schools had doubled; that more than two million dollars had been spent in providing better schoolhouses; that the wages of men as teachers had increased sixty-two per cent, of women fifty-one per cent, while the whole number of women employed as teachers had increased fifty-four per cent; one month had been added to the average length of the schools; the ratio of private school expenditures to those of the public schools had diminished from seventy-five per cent to thirty-six per cent; the compensation of school committees had been made compulsory, and their supervision was more general and more constant; three normal schools had been established, and had sent out several hundred teachers, who were making themselves felt in all parts of the state."[169]

=Love for the Common Schools.=--He believed most fully in the common school, declaring that, "This inst.i.tution is the greatest discovery ever made by man.... In two grand characteristic attributes, it is supereminent over all others: first in its universality, for it is capacious enough to receive and cherish in its parental bosom every child that comes into the world; and second, in the timeliness of the aid it proffers,--its early, seasonable supplies of counsel and guidance making security antedate danger."

In his first Annual Report Mr. Mann a.s.serts that, "The object of the common school system is to give to every child a free, straight, solid pathway, by which he can walk directly up from the ignorance of an infant to a knowledge of the primary duties of man." Horace Mann could hardly have antic.i.p.ated the kindergarten for the infant years, and the high school at the end of the course, as they now stand in the common school systems of our country. And yet, what has already been accomplished in our educational scheme fulfills the prophecy implied in his words.

The best known and most important of Mr. Mann's written doc.u.ments is his Seventh Annual Report, in which he gives an account of European schools.

Concerning this Mr. Winship says, "He had made a crisis, and his Seventh Report was an immortal doc.u.ment; opposition to the normal schools was never more to be heard in the land, and oral instruction, the word method, and less corporal punishment were certain to come to the Boston schools."[170]

After severing his connection with the State Board of Education, Mr.

Mann served in Congress from 1848 to 1853, and was defeated in his candidacy for governor of Ma.s.sachusetts. At the age of fifty-six he accepted the presidency of Antioch College at Yellow Springs, Ohio, a position which he held until his death in 1859. He closed his last address to the graduating cla.s.s at Antioch with these n.o.ble words: "_Be ashamed to die until you have won some victory for humanity_." He himself had won many great victories for humanity,--in the improvement of the common school systems of his native country; in the establishment of free schools; in the founding of normal schools where teachers might be trained; in the adoption of milder means of discipline; in the improvement of schoolhouses; in the better support of schools; in better methods of instruction; and in the inspiration he gave to teachers for all time. Therefore he at least had no need to be "ashamed to die."

FOOTNOTES:

[164] _Educational Review_, Vol. XII, p. 65.

[165] Mrs. Mann, "Life of Horace Mann," p. 10.

[166] Mr. Mann completed the term made vacant by the death of John Quincy Adams, and was reelected for the two succeeding terms.

[167] Colonel Parker in article cited.

[168] For an a.n.a.lysis of these Reports, see Dr. Harris's article in _Educational Review_, Vol. XII, p. 112.

[169] "Education in Ma.s.sachusetts," p. 174.

[170] "Horace Mann," p. 76.