Page:American Journal of Sociology Volume 2.djvu/865

 SOME DEMANDS OF SOCIOLOGY UPON PEDAGOGY 849

The precision of his social intelligence in general depends upon the exactness of his knowledge of details in the life which he most intimately shares.

Observation of the structure, functions, and forces of life in one's own community is the normal beginning of true and large social intelligence and action. Even history should begin with the present, not with the past. Just as Gibbon interpreted the tactics of the Roman legions by the knowledge he gained in the British militia, so every student of history is prepared to recon- struct the past only as he possesses correct and adequate concep- tions of the present. Sociological analysis of the anatomy, physi- ology, and psychology of society furnishes the alphabet to spell out the lessons of history.

The only change in school methods which I am urging is the introduction of this laboratory study of the social facts, proc- esses, and forces nearest at hand, as exhibiting typical social relations in all nations, times, and places. This not as a sub- stitute for present subjects in the social sciences, but as* a method of approaching present subjects.

One more demand is urged by sociology upon pedagogy, viz., that all direct or indirect observations of society shall be organized under at least three great categories : first, interde- pendence ; second, order or cooperation ; third, progress or con- tinuity. 1 Unless social information can be construed in at least these three forms nothing can save it from frivolity and barren-

a path-maker in methods of observing and arranging societary facts. Variations of the method are possible to fit different needs, from the kindergarten to the seminar. The University of Chicago Press has just issued a typical study of the City of Gales- burg, upon this plan, an adaptation of the method of Schaffle, by MR. A. W. DUNN. Professor C. R. Henderson's Catechism for Social Observers elaborates the categories of observation. Vide also the Le Play method explained March 1897 in this JOURNAL. Such work can neither displace nor be displaced by another kind of work upon socie- tary material, as represented for example by two recent text-books on sociology, (HI -KINGS' Principles of Sociology (with the syllabus, Theory of Socialization) and FAIRBANKS' Introduction to Sociology, noticed in this JOURNAL, September 1896.

1 1 hope it is superfluous to add that the use of these terms, or of any verbal sub- stitute, is not what I am contending for, but the arrangement of ideas in conceptual form for which philosophers may find above designations convenient.