The History of Education Part 53

12. What might have been the result in America had the New England Colonies established the school as a parish inst.i.tution, as did the central Colonies?

13. a.n.a.lyze the Ma.s.sachusetts const.i.tutional provision for education, and show what it provided for.

14. Show the similarity of the University of the State of New York to the proposals for governmental control in France.

15. Explain why the French revolutionary ideas as to education were realized so easily in the new United States, whereas France did not realize them until well into the nineteenth century.

16. Compare Jefferson's proposed law with the proposals of Talleyrand for France.

17. Just what type of educational inst.i.tutions did Was.h.i.+ngton have in mind in the quotation from his Farewell Address? John Jay? John Adams?

SELECTED READINGS

In the accompanying Book of Readings the following selections are reproduced:

254. Dabney: The Far-Reaching Influence of Rousseau's Writings.

255. La Chalotais: Essay on National Education.

256. Condorcet: Outline of a Plan for Organizing Public Instruction in France.

257. Report: Founding of the Polytechnic School at Paris.

258. Barnard: Work of the National Convention in France.

(a) Various legislative proposals.

(b) The Law of 1795 organizing Primary Instruction.

259. American States: Early Const.i.tutional Provisions relating to Education.

260. Ohio: Educational Provisions of First Const.i.tution.

261. Indiana: Educational Provisions of First Const.i.tution.

262. American States: Early School Legislation in.

263. Jefferson: Plan for Organizing Education in Virginia.

QUESTIONS ON THE READINGS

1. Explain the conditions of society under which the emotional writings of a man of the type of Rousseau could have made such a deep impression (254) on the nation.

2. In how far do nations to-day accept the theories of La Chalotais (255)?

3. What type of administrative organization was proposed by Condorcet (256)?

4. What does the founding of the Polytechnic School (257) indicate as to the French interest in science?

5. What real progress was made by the National Convention (258 a), and to what degree did it fail? 6. Explain the type of school system proposed and the conception of education lying behind the early const.i.tutional provisions (259) for education in each of the American States.

7. In what respects were the educational provisions of the first Ohio const.i.tution (260) remarkable?

8. In what respects were the educational provisions of the first Indiana const.i.tution (261) remarkable?

9. Characterize the early school legislation reproduced (262).

10. Just what type of educational system did Jefferson propose to organize in Virginia (263)?

SUPPLEMENTARY REFERENCES

Barnard, Henry. _American Journal of Education_, vol. 22, pp.

651-64.

Compayre, G. _History of Pedagogy_, chapters 15, 16, 17.

Cubberley, E. P. _Public Education in the United States_, chapter 3.

CHAPTER XXI

A NEW THEORY AND SUBJECT-MATTER FOR THE ELEMENTARY SCHOOL

In chapters XVII and XVIII we traced the development of educational theory up to the point where John Locke left it after outlining his social and disciplinary theory for the educational process, and in the chapter preceding this one we traced the evolution of a new state theory as to the purpose of education to replace the old religious theory. The new theory as to state control, and the erection of a citizens.h.i.+p purpose for education, made it both possible and desirable that the instruction in the school, and particularly in the vernacular school, should be recast, both in method and content, to bring the school into harmony with the new secular purpose. In consequence, an important reorganization of the vernacular school now took place, and to this transformation of the elementary school we next turn.

I. THE NEW THEORY STATED

ICONOCLASTIC NATURE OF THE WORK OF ROUSSEAU. The inspirer of the new theory as to the purpose of education was none other than the French-Swiss iconoclast and political writer, Jean-Jacques Rousseau, whose work as a political theorist we have previously described. Happening to take up the educational problem as a phase of his activity against the political and social and ecclesiastical conditions of his age, drawing freely on Locke's _Thoughts_ for ideas, and inspired by a feeling that so corrupt and debased was his age that if he rejected everything accepted by it and adopted the opposite he would reach the truth, Rousseau restated his political theories as to the control of man by society and his ideas as to a life according to "nature" in a book in which he described the education, from birth to manhood, of an imaginary boy, emile, and his future wife, Sophie. In the first sentence of the book Rousseau sets forth his fundamental thesis:

All is good as it comes from the hand of the Creator; all degenerates under the hands of man. He forces one country to produce the fruits of another, one tree to bear that of another. He confounds climates, elements, and seasons; he mutilates his dog, his horse, his slave; turns everything topsy-turvy, disfigures everything. He will have nothing as nature made it, not even man himself; he must be trained like a managed horse, trimmed like a tree in a garden.

His book, published in 1762, in no sense outlined a workable system of education. Instead, in charming literary style, with much sophistry, many paradoxes, numerous irrelevant digressions upon topics having no relation to education, and in no systematic order, Rousseau presented his ideas as to the nature and purpose of education. Emphasizing the importance of the natural development of the child (R. 264 a), he contended that the three great teachers of man were nature, man, and experience, and that the second and third tended to destroy the value of the first (R. 264 b); that the child should be handled in a new way, and that the most important item in his training up to twelve years of age was to do nothing (R. 264 c, d) so that nature might develop his character properly (R. 264 e); and that from twelve to fifteen his education should be largely from things and nature, and not from books (R. 264 f). As the outcome of such an education Rousseau produced a boy who, from his point of view, would at eighteen still be natural (R. 264 g) and unspoiled by the social life about him, which, after all, he felt was soon to pa.s.s away (R. 264 i). The old religious instruction he would completely supersede (R. 264 h).

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 163. THE ROUSSEAU MONUMENT AT GENEVA]

So depraved was the age, and so wretched were the educational practices of his time, that, in spite of the malevolent impulse which was his driving force, what he wrote actually contained many excellent ideas, pointed the way to better practices, and became an inspiration for others who, unlike Rousseau, were deeply interested in problems of education and child welfare. One cannot study Rousseau's writings as a whole, see him in his eighteenth-century setting, know of his personal life, and not feel that the far-reaching reforms produced by his _emile_ are among the strangest facts in history.

THE VALUABLE ELEMENTS IN ROUSSEAU'S WORK. Amid his glittering generalities and striking paradoxes Rousseau did, however, set forth certain important ideas as to the proper education of children. Popularizing the best ideas of the Englishman, Locke (p. 433), Rousseau may be said to have given currency to certain conceptions as to the education of children which, in the hands of others, brought about great educational changes. Briefly stated, these were:

1. The replacement of authority by reason and investigation.

2. That education should be adapted to the gradually unfolding capacities of the child.

3. That each age in the life of a child has activities which are normal to that age, and that education should seek for and follow these.

4. That physical activity and health are of first importance.

5. That education, and especially elementary education, should take place through the senses, rather than through the memory.

6. That the emphasis placed on the memory in education is fundamentally wrong, dwarfing the judgment and reason of the child.

7. That catechetical and Jesuitical types of education should be abandoned.

8. That the study of theological subtleties is unsuited to child needs or child capacity.