children ran the streets and spent the day in mischief and vice
[9] Sunday being a day of rest and the mills and factories closed, the
children ran the streets and spent the day in mischief and vice. In the
agricultural districts of England farmers were forced to take special
precautions on Sundays to protect their places and crops from the
depredations of juvenile offenders.
the nineteenth century show the general prevalence of the individual
method of instruction
[17] The numerous pictures of schools and educational literature well into
the nineteenth century show the general prevalence of the individual
method of instruction. It was the method in American schools until well
toward the middle of the nineteenth century. To have graded the children
and introduced class instruction in 1684 was an important advance which
the world has been slow in learning.
The reason for this is easy to find. The writings of the earlier
educational reformers were little known; the contributions of Herbart and
Froebel had not as yet been popularized; there was no organized psychology
of the educational process, and no psychology better than that of John
Locke; the detailed Pestalozzian procedure had not as yet been worked out
in the form of teaching technique; the history of the development of
educational theory or of educational practice had not been written; and
almost no philosophy of the educational purpose had been formulated which
could be used in the training-schools. In consequence the training of
teachers, both for elementary and secondary instruction, [22] was almost
entirely in academic subjects, with some talks on school-keeping and class
organization and management added, and at times a little philosophy as to
educational work, such as habit-formation, morality, thinking, and the
training of the will. Educational journalism did not begin in either
Europe or America until near the close of the first quarter of the
nineteenth century, and it was 1850 before it attained any significance,
and 1840 to 1850 before any important pedagogical literature arose. [23]
CHARLEMAGNE AND ALCUIN. In 768 there came to the throne as king of the
great Frankish nation one of the most distinguished and capable rulers of
all time–a man who would have been a commanding personality in any age or
land. His ancestors had developed a great kingdom, and it was his
grandfather who had defeated the Saracens at Tours (p. 113) and driven
them back over the Pyrenees into Spain. This man Charlemagne easily stands
out as one of the greatest figures of all history. For five hundred years
before and after him there is no ruler who matched him in insight, force,
or executive capacity. He is particularly the dominating figure of
mediaeval times. Born in an age of lawlessness and disorder, he used every
effort to civilize and rule as intelligently as possible the great
Frankish kingdom. Wars he waged to civilize and Christianize the Saxon
tribes of northern Germany, to reduce the Lombards of northern Italy to
order, and to extend the boundaries of the Frankish nation. At his death,
in 814, his kingdom had succeeded to most of the western possessions of
the old Roman Empire, including all of what to-day comprises France,
Belgium, Holland, and Switzerland, large portions of what is now western
Germany and northern Italy, and portions of northern Spain. (See Figure
41.)
learner and develops from that the proper modes of scientific
treatment is often called the ‘psychological’ method in
distinction from the logical method of the expert or specialist
The chronological method which begins with the experience of the
learner and develops from that the proper modes of scientific
treatment is often called the ‘psychological’ method in
distinction from the logical method of the expert or specialist.
The apparent loss of time involved is more than made up for by
the superior understanding and vital interest secured. What the
pupil learns he at least understands. Moreover by following, in
connection with problems selected from the material of ordinary
acquaintance, the methods by which scientific men have reached
their perfected knowledge, he gains independent power to deal
with material within his range, and avoids the mental confusion
and intellectual distaste attendant upon studying matter whose
meaning is only symbolic. Since the mass of pupils are never
going to become scientific specialists, it is much more important
that they should get some insight into what scientific method
means than that they should copy at long range and second hand
the results which scientific men have reached. Students will not
go so far, perhaps, in the ‘ground covered,’ but they will be
sure and intelligent as far as they do go. And it is safe to say
that the few who go on to be scientific experts will have a
better preparation than if they had been swamped with a large
mass of purely technical and symbolically stated information. In
fact, those who do become successful men of science are those who
by their own power manage to avoid the pitfalls of a traditional
scholastic introduction into it.