The History of Education Part 40

1. HUMANISTIC REALISM

A NEW AIM IN INSTRUCTION. Humanistic realism represents the beginning of the reaction against form and style and in favor of ideas and content. The humanistic realists were in agreement with the cla.s.sical humanists that the old cla.s.sical literatures and the Bible contained all that was important in the education of youth. The ancient literatures, they held, presented "not only the widest product of human intelligence, but practically all that was worthy of man's attention." The two groups differed, however, in that the cla.s.sical humanists conceived the aim of education to be the mastery of the vocabulary and style of Cicero, and the production of a new race of Roman youths for a revived Latin scholarly world, while the new humanistic realists wanted to use the old literatures as a means to a new end--that of teaching knowledge that would be useful in the world in which they lived. Monroe has so well expressed the humanistic-realist att.i.tude that a pa.s.sage from his History is worth quoting here. He says:

Not only did ancient philosophy contain the true philosophy of this life, but languages were the key to the real understanding of the Christian religion. Not only did mastery of these languages give power of speech, and hence influence over one's fellows; but, if military science was to be studied, it could in no place be better searched for than in Caesar and in Xenophon; was agriculture to be practiced, no better guide was to be found than Virgil or Columella; was architecture to be mastered, no better way existed than through Vitruvius; was geography to be considered, it must be through Mela or Solinus; was medicine to be understood, no better means than Celsus existed; was natural history to be appreciated, there was no more adequate source of information than Pliny and Seneca. Aristotle furnished the basis of all the sciences, Plato of all philosophy, Cicero of all inst.i.tutional life, and the Church Fathers and the Scriptures of all religion.

EXPONENTS OF HUMANISTIC REALISM. The Dutch international scholar Erasmus (1467?-1536) (p. 274), the Frenchman Rabelais (1483-1553), and the English poet Milton (1608-74) stand as the clearest representatives of this new humanistic realism.

Erasmus had clearly distinguished between the education of words and the education of things, had pointed out the ease with which real truth is learned and retained, and had urged the study of the content rather than the form of the ancient authors. In his _System of Studies_ he said:

From these very authors (Latin and Greek), whom we read for the sake of improving our language, incidentally, in no small degree is a knowledge of things gathered.

In his _Ciceronian_ he had ridiculed those who mistook the form for the spirit of the ancients.

The French non-conforming monk, cure, physician, and university scholar, Francois Rabelais, in his satirical _Life of Gargantua_ (1535) and _The Heroic Deeds of Pantagruel_ (1533) had set forth, even more clearly, the idea of obtaining from a study of the ancient authors (R. 210) knowledge that would be useful. Writing largely in the character of a clown and a fool, because such was a safer method, he protested against the formal, shallow, and insincere life of his age. He made as vigorous a protest against medievalism and formalism as he dared, for he lived in a time when new ideas were dangerous commodities for one to carry about or to try to express. He ridiculed the old scholastic learning, set forth the idea of using the old cla.s.sics for realistic as well as humanistic ends, and also advocated physical, moral, social, and religious education in the spirit of the best writers and teachers of the Italian Renaissance. His book was extensively read and had some influence in shaping thinking, though Rabelais's importance in the history of education lies rather in his influence on later educational thinkers than on the life of his time.

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 121. FRANcOIS RABELAIS (1483-1553)]

Perhaps the clearest example of humanistic realism is found in the writings of the English poet and humanitarian, John Milton. His _Tractate on Education_ (1644) was extensively read, and was influential in shaping educational practice in the non-conformist secondary academies which arose a little later in England. Still later his ideas indirectly somewhat influenced American development.

Milton first gives us an excellent statement of the new religious-civic aim of post-Reformation education (R. 211), and then points out the defects of the existing education, whereby boys "spend seven or eight years merely in sc.r.a.ping together so much miserable Latine and Greek, as might be learnt otherwise easily and delightfully in one year." He then presents his plan for "a compleat and generous Education" for "n.o.ble and gentle youths," and tells "how all this may be done between twelve and one and twenty, less time than is now bestowed in pure trifling at Grammar and Sophistry." The course of study he outlines (R. 212) is enormous. The first year, that is beginning at twelve, the boy is to learn Latin grammar, arithmetic, and geometry, and to read simple Latin and Greek.

During the next three or four years the pupil is to master Greek, and to study agriculture, geography, natural philosophy, physiology, mathematics, fortification, engineering, architecture, and natural history, all by reading the chief writings of the ancients, in prose and poetry, on these subjects. During the remaining years to twenty-one the pupil, similarly, is to obtain ethical instruction from the Greeks and the Bible; learn Hebrew, Greek, Roman, and Saxon law; learn Italian and Hebrew; and study economics, politics, history, logic, rhetoric, and poetry by reading selected ancient authors. What Rabelais suggested in jest for his giant, Milton adopted as a program for the school. In addition, in thoroughly characteristic modern English fashion, he makes careful provision for daily exercise and play. Aside, though, from its impossibility of accomplishment except by a superior few, Milton's plan is thoroughly representative of the new humanistic-realistic point of view-that is, that education should impart useful information, though the information as Milton conceived it was to be drawn almost entirely from the books of the ancients.

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 122. JOHN MILTON (1608-74)]

EDUCATIONAL RESULTS OF HUMANISTIC REALISM. The importance of humanistic realism in the history of education lies largely in that it was the first of a series of reactions that led later to sense-realism--that is, to the study of science and the application of scientific method in the schools.

In England it possesses still larger importance. Milton had called his inst.i.tution an "Academy." [1] After the restoration of the Stuarts (Charles II, 1660), some two thousand non-conforming clergymen were "dispossessed" by the Act of Conformity (1662; R. 166), and soon after this the children of Non-Conformists were excluded from the grammar schools and universities. Many of these clergymen now turned to teaching as a means of earning a livelihood and serving their people, and the ideas of the non-conformist Milton were influential in turning the schools thus established even further toward the study of useful subjects. Many of the new schools offered instruction in the modern languages, logic, rhetoric, ethics, geography, astronomy, algebra, geometry, trigonometry, surveying, navigation, history, oratory, economics, and natural and moral philosophy, as well as the old cla.s.sical subjects. All teaching, too, was done in English, and the study of English language and literature was emphasized.

This made these non-conformist academies in many respects superior to the older Latin grammar schools. After the enactment of the Toleration Act, in 1689, these schools were allowed to incorporate and were gradually absorbed into the existing Latin grammar-school system of England, but unfortunately without producing much change in the character of these older inst.i.tutions.

The idea of offering instruction in these new studies was in time carried to America, where better results were obtained. At first a few of the subjects, such as the mathematical studies, surveying, navigation, and English, were introduced into the existing Latin grammar or other schools of secondary grade. Especially was this true in the colonies south of New England. After 1751, and especially after about 1780, distinct Academies arose in the United States (chapter XVIII), whose purpose was to offer instruction in all these new subjects of study. From these our modern high schools have been derived.

II. SOCIAL REALISM

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 123. MICHEL DE MONTAIGNE (1533-92)]

MONTAIGNE AND LOCKE. Social realism represents a still further reaction away from the humanistic schools. It was the natural reaction of practical men of the new world against a type of education that tended to perpetuate the pedantry of an earlier age, by devoting its energies to the production of the scholar and professional man to the neglect of the man of affairs.

The social realists were small in number, but powerful because of their important social connections and wealth, and they were very determined to have an education suited to their needs, even if they had to create it themselves (R. 213). The French n.o.bleman, scholar, author, and civic officer, M. de Montaigne (1533-92), and the English philosopher, John Locke (1632-1704), were the clearest exponents of this new point of view, though it found expression in the writings of many others. Each declared for a practical, useful type of education for the young boy who was to live the life of a gentleman in the world of affairs.

Neither had any sympathy with the colleges and grammar schools of the time (R. 214), and both rejected the school for the private tutor. This tutor must be selected with great care, and first of all must be a well-bred gentleman--a man, as Montaigne says, "who has rather a well-made than a well-filled head" (R. 215). Locke cautions that "one fit to educate and form the Mind of a young Gentleman is not every where to be found," and of the common type of teacher he asks, "When such an one has empty'd out into his Pupil all the Latin and Logick he has brought from the University, will that Furniture make him a fine Gentleman?" (R. 216).

Both condemn the school training of their time, and both urge that the tutor train the judgment and the understanding rather than the memory. To impart good manners rather than mere information, and to train for life in the world rather than for the life of a scholar, seem to both of fundamental importance in the education of a boy. "The great world," says Montaigne, "is the mirror wherein we are to behold ourselves. In short, I would have this to be the book my young gentleman should study with the most attention." "Latin and Learning," says Locke, "make all the Noise; and the main Stress is laid upon Proficiency in Things a great Part whereof belong not to a Gentleman's Calling; which is to have the Knowledge of a Man of Business, a Carriage suitable to his Rank, and to be eminent and useful to his Country, according to his Station" (R. 216).

Both emphasized the importance of travel abroad as an important factor in the education of a gentleman.

THEIR PLACE IN THE HISTORY OF EDUCATION. Both Montaigne and Locke were concerned alone with the education of the sons of gentlemen, individuals now coming rapidly into prominence to dispute place in the world of affairs with the higher n.o.bility on the one hand and the clergy on the other. With the education of any other cla.s.s Montaigne never concerned himself. As for Locke, he was later appointed a King's Commissioner, with certain oversight of the poor, and for the education of the children of such he drew up a careful report which, in true English fashion, provided for their training in workhouses and their apprenticeship to a trade (R.

217). He wrote nothing with regard to the education of the children of middle-cla.s.s workers and tradesmen. Both authors also deal entirely with the work of a tutor, and not with the work of a teacher in a school.

Neither deals specifically with elementary education, but rather with what, in Europe, would be called the secondary-school period in the education of a boy. Locke was extensively read by the gentry of England, as expressive of the best current practice of their cla.s.s, and his ideas as to education were also of some influence in shaping the instruction of the non-conformist teachers in the academies there. His place in the history of education is also of some importance, as we shall point out later, for the disciplinary theory of education which he set forth. Still more, Locke later exerted a deep influence on the writings of Rousseau (chapter XXI), and hence helped materially to shape modern educational theory.

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 124. JOHN LOCKE (1631-1704)]

THE NEW SCHOOLS FOR THE SONS OF THE GENTRY. Both Montaigne and Locke, in their emphasis on the importance of a practical education for the social and political demands of a gentleman concerned with the affairs of the modern world, represent a still further reaction against the humanistic schools of the time than did the humanistic realists whom we have just considered. Still more, both are expressive of the att.i.tude of the n.o.bility and gentry of the time, who had almost deserted the schools as pedantic inst.i.tutions of little value. France was then the great country of Europe, and French language, French political ideas, French manners, and French tutors found their way into all neighboring lands. A new social and political ideal was erected--that of the polished man of the world, who could speak French, had traveled, knew history and politics, law and geography, heraldry and genealogy, some mathematics and physics with their applications, could use the sword and ride, was adept in games and dancing, and was skilled in the practical affairs of life.

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 125. AN ACADEMIE DES ARMES From an early eighteenth-century Parisian poster, advertising an Academy.]

To give such training the French created numerous Academies in their cities. A writer of 1649 states that there were twelve such inst.i.tutions at that time in Paris alone. Not infrequently some n.o.bleman was at the head. Boys were first educated at home by tutors, and then sent to the Academy to be trained in riding, the military arts, fortification, mathematics, the modern languages, and the many graces of a gentleman. The Englishman, John Evelyn, who was in France in 1644, thus describes the French Academies:

At the Palais Cardinal in Paris I frequently went to see them ride and exercise the Greate Horse, especially at the Academy of Monsieur du Plessis, and de Veau, whose scholes of that art are frequented by the n.o.bility; and here also young gentlemen are taught to fence, daunce, play on musiq, and something in fortifications and mathematics.

At Richelieu, near Tours, belongs an Academy where besides the exercise of the horse, armes, dauncing, etc., all the sciences are taught in the vulgar French by Professors stipendiated by the great Cardinal. The Academy of Juilly included some study of physical science, mathematics, geography, heraldry, French history, Italian, and Spanish, besides the riding and gentlemanly arts.

In England the tutor in the home became the type form for the education of the sons of a gentleman, the boys frequently being sent abroad to complete their education. In German lands, which in the seventeenth century were in close sympathy with French life and thought, Heidelberg being a center for the dissemination of French ideas, the French academy idea was copied, and what were called _Ritterakademieen_ (knightly academies) were founded in the numerous court cities [2] for the education, along such lines, of the sons of the many grades of the German n.o.bility. Between 1620 and 1780, before the rise of the German nationalistic movement which sought to replace French ideas by native German culture, was the great period of these German court schools, and during this period they bestowed on the sons of the German n.o.bility the courtly and military education of the French academies. The education of the n.o.bility was in consequence segregated from the intellectual life of other cla.s.ses. "Gallants" and "pedants" were the respective outputs of the two types of schools.

III. SENSE REALISM

THE NEW EDUCATIONAL AIMS OF THIS GROUP. This represented a still further and more important step in advance than either of the preceding. In a very direct way sense realism in education was an outgrowth of the organizing work of Francis Bacon. Its aim was:

(1) To apply the same inductive method formulated by Bacon for the sciences to the work of education, with a view to organizing a general method which would greatly simplify the instructional process, reduce educational work to an organized system, and in consequence effect a great saving of time; and

(2) To replace the instruction in Latin by instruction in the vernacular, [3] and to subst.i.tute new scientific and social studies, deemed of greater value for a modern world, for the excessive devotion to linguistic studies.

The sixteenth century had been essentially a period of criticism in education, and the leading thinkers on education, as in other lines of intellectual activity, were not in the schools. In the seventeenth century we come to a new group of men who attempted to think out and work out in practice the ideas advanced by the critics of the preceding period. In the seventeenth century we have, in consequence, the first serious attempt to formulate an educational method since the days of the Athenian Greeks and the treatise of Quintilian.

The possibility of formulating an educational method that would simplify the educational process and save time in instruction, appealed to a number of thinkers, in different lands. This group of thinkers, due to their new methods of attack and thought, the German historian of education, Karl von Raumer, has called _Innovators_. The chief pedagogical ideas of the Innovators were:

1. That education should proceed from the simple to the complex, and the concrete to the abstract.

2. That things should come before rules.

3. That students should be taught to a.n.a.lyze, rather than to construct.

4. That each student should be taught to investigate for himself, rather than to accept or depend upon authority.

5. That only that should be memorized which is clearly understood and of real value.

6. That restraint and coercion should be replaced by interest in the studies taught.

7. That the vernacular should be used as the medium for all instruction.

8. That the study of real things should precede the study of words about things.

9. That the order and course of Nature be discovered, and that a method of teaching based on this then be worked out.

10. That physical education should be introduced for the sake of health, and not merely to teach gentlemanly sports.

11. That all should be provided with the opportunity for an education in the elements of knowledge. This to be in the vernacular.

12. That Latin and Greek be taught only to those likely to complete an education, and then through the medium of the mother tongue.