Page:The American Cyclopædia (1879) Volume VI.djvu/422

 414 EDUCATION humanities), should be the foundation of educa- tion, and should be exclusively studied till the pupil went to the university. Basedow, Campe, and Salzinann were the foremost representa- tives of the school which made philanthropy the aim of all education, and conformity to nature its basis. Under the name of eclec- tics are classed those who were the disciples of no exclusive school, but from truly phi- lanthropic motives sought to instruct classes hitherto neglected. Such was the origin of the efforts for the instruction of deaf mutes by Heinicke, Braidwood, the abbe de 1'Epee, and Sicard ; the instruction of the blind by Valen- tin Hatiy, Klein, and Lenne; the institution of Sunday schools by Kobert Kaikes, Oberlin, and others; the organization of reformatories by Odescalchi and Tata Giovanni in Kome, and by the philanthropic society in London ; and many of the special schools of commerce, agri- culture, mines, the arts of design, and other de- partments. In Germany since the latter part of the last century the principles of education have been actively discussed, the most promi- nent writers on the subject, besides some who have been already mentioned, being Sulzer, Miller, Weisse, Ehlers, Busch, Feder, Eese- witz, Gurlitt, Funk, Heusinger, Memeyer, Schwartz, and Beneke. But the man who for the last hundred years has exerted the great- est influence on education is the Swiss Pesta- lozzi. According to the principles developed by him in various writings, education must be- gin early, under the discipline of home and the direction of parental wisdom and power. It must proceed according to the laws of nature, slowly and uninterruptedly, the teacher exci- ting the child to activity and rendering him but a limited amount of assistance. Individuality must be held sacred, and carefully studied and encouraged. Verbal teaching is futile unless it be implanted on previous mental experiences and verified by the senses. A development by merely mental operations, which the Socratic method favors, is vain and harmful, for the child can only utter a judgment concerning an object when he has examined it experi- mentally, and learned precisely to distinguish its qualities and attributes by words. Form, number, and language are the elements of knowledge, the principles by which the mind must be developed ; and a thorough acquaint- ance with them in the various departments of learning constitutes an education. Therefore mental arithmetic, geometry, and the arts of drawing and modelling objects of beauty, are as important exercises as the study of lan- guages. The school should be a place of live- liness and activity, and the scholar should have opportunity to exercise and reveal his power. The system of Pestalozzi has been adopted in the Prussian schools with slight modifications, and has exerted a greater influ- ence than any other on teachers in England, America, and the north of Europe. His system was modified by Fellenberg in his institution at Hofwyl, by Jacotot in the university of Louvain, and by Felbiger, bishop of Sagan, in the schools which he organized. There were combined at Hofwyl an agricultural institute, theoretical and practical, a rural school for the poor, a superior school for the sons of the nobility, an intermediate school for those of the middle classes, and a normal school for the instruction of the teachers of the canton. To Frobel, the founder of the kindergarten, also belongs high honor for his reform in the principles of education. While secondary schools have a long history, public elemen- tary schools for the poor are of modern ori- gin. Although government regulations con- cerning schools had long existed in Prussia, the present system of that country may be said to date from 1794, when the general common law (allgemeines Landrecht), which was pre- pared by order of Frederick the Great and pro- mulgated under his successor, declared all pub- lic schools and institutions of learning to be un- der the supervision of the state, and established regulations for their support, management, in- spection, appointment of teachers, obligatory attendance of pupils, &c. By the same order it was declared that teachers in "the gymnasia and other higher schools have the character of state functionaries." The constitution of 1850 declared that " all public and private establish- ments are under the supervision of authorities named by the state." National education in France may be said to date from 1833. Prior to that time many institutions for secondary, superior, and the highest culture had been lib- erally supported, but the educational wants of the masses had been greatly neglected. In 1831, when Guizot was minister of public in- struction, Victor Cousin was sent to Prussia to study and report upon the educational system of that country. Asa result of this mission a new school law for France was passed in 1833, many features of which still remain. In Eng- land until recently the establishment and main- tenance of schools have been left entirely to the people. In 1834 the government began to make grants in aid of schools, and in 1839 a committee of the privy council on education was constituted for the distribution of the money. The most important step toward gov- ernmental control of education was made in 1870, when grants were authorized for the maintenance of elementary schools and their partial supervision by the government. For a more detailed statement of the historical de- velopment of national education, see COMMON SCHOOLS. In all civilized countries education has come to be regarded by the government as a leading force not only in producing the best results in public intelligence, virtue, and citi- zenship, but also in developing the physical strength, as seen in war, and the material prosperity of the nation, attended with a cor- responding increase of the national wealth. This is attested by the advantage gained in agriculture, commerce, industry, and skilled