ment and The work of these public schools is typical of all educational Seen in corwork in England during all of the eighteenth and the greater poral punishpart of the seventeenth and of the nineteenth centuries. The very extensive use of corporal punishment for the slightest offenses fagging sys tem, as well as in system or deficiencies; the important influence exerted by the fagging of studies system, in which the younger boys served as the personal attendants and servants of the older boys, performing all menial services, such as keeping their rooms, preparing their breakfasts, building fires, running errands, etc.; the custom of governing the school and inflicting punishment in all save the most serious offenses by these same "sixth form " boys; all these indicate how SEAL OF THE FREE GRAMMAR SCHOOL OF LOWTH, FOUNDED BY KING EDWARD child." "virtue and breeding," ed- The motto reads, "Who spares the rod, hates the ucation in the dominant English view had become and continued to be a discipline. tents of the curriculum On the intellectual side the situation was even more striking. Meager conNowhere else can one find dominant for so long a period an elementary and secondary education with such a restricted intellectual content. Beyond the mastery of the rudiments of grammar, which were ordinarily required for entrance, the entire work of from six to nine years was devoted to Latin and Greek prose composition and to the writing of verse, especially in the Latin. This was presumed to develop an appreciation for the classical literature, which constituted the sole content of their curriculum. This régime was hardly questioned until the opening of the nineteenth century, and for more than half a Persistence of education until late in the nine teenth cen ury century additional the merits and demerits of Latin versification were discussed as though the whole question of educational values and of the subjects of study were compassed within these narrow limits. In the great survey of all of these schools in England made of this type by Carlisle, well into the nineteenth century, the curriculum of Winchester is described as follows: "The Latin and Greek Grammars of the College only are used. The routine of Education comprises the Classics throughout, and Composition in Verse and Prose. The other parts of education, such as French, Arithmetic, Mathematics, etc., are not taught in this School." The curriculum is everywhere practically the same, and is given only a sentence or so in the many pages devoted to each school. The reforms since the middle of the century have introduced the modern side, - modern languages and the sciences, but the conception of education is yet much the Dominance of the classics same. In the English universities the spirit until very recent times was similar. The classics and mathematics constituted the bulk of the curriculum. From these, until 1850 at Oxford and until in the Eng- 1851 at Cambridge, the subjects for examination must be chosen. and of mathematics lish uni versities The German plinary type The fact that no one of the great scientists of the nineteenth century either was trained or did his life's work in connection with the universities is one of the most striking evidences of the narrow conception of education prevailing therein. In Germany. No more significant evidence of the hold of this conception upon the German educators could be found than the term applied to their representative school - the gymna Sium, the place for the discipline, training or gymnastic of the mind, as with the old Greek the gymnasium had become, when this higher training of the mind had replaced that previously given to the body. As noted in the previous chapter, the realistic conception of education found no response in the schools until near the middle of the eighteenth century. Even then it was quite slight for schools interests in education the remainder of the century. The narrow humanistic education Other upon the disciplinary basis prevailed almost universally. There represent existed as yet little national spirit that demanded an education as more modern a basis for the unification in spirit of the German people. Such unity in ideas and in spirit as they possessed was largely due to the Church, which controlled education as a means subordinate to itself. The Church here as elsewhere held the disciplinary conception of education. The awakening at the latter half of the eighteenth century, known as the New Humanism, gave to the German people an entirely new conception of the purpose of education. This change relegated the disciplinary thought to a secondary place. The New Humanism would use the classical languages for an entirely different purpose, that of developing individualism and national spirit and vitality, through the spirit teenth cenand substance of the ancient, especially Greek life. Latin the extreme became secondary to Greek, and the formal study for discipline diciplinary and for scholastic form was replaced by the ideal of culture as shown in a life of activity. But political reaction, followed by revolution, produced a decided educational reaction, and the disciplinary idea as the bulwark of authority again became dominant. Even as late as 1892, the German emperor, speaking of the character of the education dominant in the German higher schools, could say: If any one enters into a discussion with these gentlemen [the supporters of the rigid classical gymnasien] on this point, and attempts to show them that a young man ought to be prepared, to some extent at least, for life and its manifold problems, they will tell him that such is not the function of the school, its principal aim being the discipline or gymnastic of the mind, and that if this gymnastic were properly conducted the. young man would be capable of doing all that is necessary in life. I am of the opinion that we can no longer be guided by this doctrine. In America. In our own country, on account of social reasons, the breaking away from the dominance of the old ideas came much earlier. However, the disciplinary idea is held quite widely even yet and controls much of school work. When the The New of the nine Humanism tury modifies view Reforms attempted by the present Emperor The disciplinary education in early American colleges and second ary schools Persistence in the elementary school old Latin grammar schools gave way to the academies, in the later eighteenth century, the first step was made. The encroachment of the sciences and the modern culture subjects in the colleges went on gradually, until by the middle of the nineteenth century they were well established. With the adoption of the elective system, the old disciplinarian basis was largely aban VERBS. Active. Passive. Neuter. COMBINATION OF DISCIPLINARY SCHOOL AND REALISTIC METHOD doned, as it has been since, even in the collegiate study of the classical languages. Strange to say, it was in the field of elementary education that the conception dominated the longer. The idea did not control so completely that subjects valuable for their content were altogether excluded; yet, until recently, the formal studies, such as grammar, arithmetic From The Little Grammarian, Boston, 1819. and spelling, constituted the core and, in quantity, the bulk of the elementary curriculum. The training, or discipline, given by these subjects, was held to be the element of chief importance in the early years of schooling. Little by little, since the opening of the nineteenth century, the content studies, such as literature, history, geography and the natural sciences, have made their way from the academies and secondary schools down into the elementary grades. The reasons underlying these changes are to be discussed in subsequent chapters. SUMMARY Social changes during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries destroyed the practical bearing of the narrow humanistic education. Educational, religious, psychological and professional views united in demanding its perpetuation. This resulted in the formulation of the disciplinary conception of education. According to this view (1) the value of education lies, not in the content of the subjects acquired, but in the process of acquiring them; (2) the correct process or method of education will result in the development of a special mental power which will be applicable to all subjects; (3) for the most part this view also held that the mind was composed of faculties of which especially two, memory and reason, were to be trained by such disciplinary processes. This view continued to survive even after the development of modern psychological and scientific tendencies in education and to receive support from them. To the present day, this conception of education has many supporters. While open to many criticisms, there are some elements of truth in the theory that are altogether independent of these arguments just given. These are, (1) the fact that some subjects, such as language, do have a general functional value; (2) that there is a certain identity in mental processes; (3) and that for certain professions or classes this narrow disciplinary education did furnish a practical functional training. The great theoretical representative of this view is John Locke. He elaborated the bearing of the theory in its relation to physical and moral as well as intellectual training. From the seventeenth century to the present, this conception of education has controlled the work of the secondary schools and the old universities of England, the gymnasien of Germany, and in the earlier period the colleges and secondary schools of America. Its influence in every phase of educational work is apparent at the present time. |