Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 30.djvu/233

Rh Education," Mr.Spencer presents a series of contrasts between past and present education. From an extreme in physical education followed an extreme in mental education—we are now learning the value of being good animals. Learning by rote or memory is passing away. Learning by rules is disappearing. From this has resulted the post-ponement of once earlier studies to a later time. This also is decidedly by way of contrast. "We have reached object-teaching or culture through observation. Again, we present truths in the concrete, not in the abstract. The seventh and last contrast is shown by the desire we manifest to make all acquirement of knowledge pleasurable. Mr.Spencer calls attention to the common characteristic of these contrasts, viz., an increasing conformity to the methods of Nature. This leads to Pestalozzi's teaching that education must adapt itself to the natural process of mental evolution. After these special considerations, Mr.Spencer announces certain, principles which may serve as guides in the matter of intellectual education until the establishment of a rational psychology. "Proceed from the simple to the complex. Begin in the concrete and end in the abstract. Education must accord, both in mode and arrangement, with the education of mankind considered historically. Education should proceed from the empirical to the rational. Self-development should be encouraged to the fullest extent. The method of instruction should create pleasurable excitement."

Education is to provide for man as a threefold being. The intellect must work upon all the material offered for development, must convert this material into organized knowledge. We now reach a subject that has been thought by almost all educators to present the question of questions, viz.. What subject-matter is best adapted to unfold the complex nature of man? While I regard the high importance thus attached to this question as entirely beside the mark and a serious hindrance, I know that the matter can not be ignored. On all hands people seem constrained to reform education by determining what shall be taught. Let us note, for a moment, the forms of intellectual activity engaged in the acquisition of organized knowledge. These may be phrased as discrimination, detection of identity, and reproduction, both direct and creative. For the natural, proper action of these powers, the material is a matter of comparative indifference. I can analyze, synthesize, and remember, whether I deal with Latin, Greek, mathematics, chemistry, literature, or strictly speculative philosophy. That department which presents the largest number of facts, best classified, will offer most opportunity for the action of the intellect. In all effort to educate, therefore, we should present that branch or those branches only which contain the most facts in the best order.

There was a time when it might have been fairly said that the classical languages alone met the necessity just indicated. After middle-age scholasticism had worn out the patience of men, and