The Cecil Whig. [volume] (Elkton, Md.) 1841-current, 1894-04-28
STUDY OF EDUCATION
English Has Respectable Place I'm These
Dsys-Methods

loday Enghsh has respectable place
IN the programs of most high schools
and academies. In the best colleges
1t has won an honorable place. Not
SO the study of education. Until re.
Gently, education has been studied
only in professional schools-the nor.
NAL schools for the training of primary
and grammar school teachers. Up to
the present time, l know of no second.
ary school in which at least the history
OF education is studied. College and
university courses on education and
teaching are still quite generally re.
garded as purely professional courses,
designed only tor those who intend to
teach. The idea that education in its
historical, theoretical anc practical
phases deserves to be studied, and to
some extent should be studied by all
college students. irrespective of their
future profession, is still quite as novel
as was the demand which was made
repeatedly and ultimately needed some
years ago that the mother tongue
deserves to be carefully studied BY all
persons seeking liberal education. q
- ust as it was at one time deemed
superfluous to study education. AL
though it is recognized universally that
on the education Of the young the
future welfare of individuals and CT
nations depends, and that consequently
the education of the young is the most
important duty the present generation
owes to the next although it is acknowl
edged that education underlies all the
activities of the race, all the arts both
of peace and war, yet the study of this
important activity itselfis still regarded
by the professional student with
indifference and neglect. What Her
bert Spencer wrote more than thirty
years ago deserves to be urged with
added emphasis today:
Strangely enough, the most glaring
defect in our program OF education is
entirely overlooked. While much is
being done in the detailed improve
ment of our systems in respect both of
matter and manner, the most pressing
desideratum has not yet been recog.
nized as desidera,um. The subiec
which involves all other subjects. and,
therefore, the subject in which the
education of every one should culmi-
nate, is theory and practice OF educa-
ton.
Contrary to what would naturally be
expected, this apathy regarding the
study of education has been most char.
acterlstic OF those who were most liber.
ally educated. Until recently the atti-
tude of many colegebred teachers in
secondary schools and of many college
professors toward courses in education
and teaching was, in general, one of
Indifference sometimes of aggressive
opposition. Naturally, the students
shared the Indifference of the pro-
fessors. Even for future teachers,
for men who should be thor.
oughly equipped at all points for the
exigencies Of their future profession, it
was at one time doubted that instruc-
ton in education and teaching could
be of real value. Indeed, such value
was positively denied. The experience
Of the past, it was held, in formulating
and testing education theories and
practices, unlike the past experience
of the race In all other respects, had
no value In helping the parent and
teacher Of today to avoid useless ex-
periments and false theories. In other
words, in education there is no lesson
in the accumulation of past experience,
everything must be done over again
from the beginning; Plato, Quintilian,
Bacon, Comenius, Locke, Rousseau,
Pestalozzi, Froebel, Herbart and host
of others had no message to humanity,
as regards education, worth attending
to.
The special study of children, ques.
tions of school hygiene, school archi-
lecture, careful comparative study of
city, state and foreign school systems
all these things could have no value to
an ambitious and earnest man who
looked forward to teaching as his life
work. Further, it was held that the
political history of nations, but not the
history of education philosophy and
ethics and psychology, but not the
application of them to the development
of complete manhood and woman
hood natural science, but not the
natural history of children; the study
of existing political institutions and
formative social science, but not of
existing educational institutions and
formative educational science. Today
no subject occupies more important
place 10 the minds of the educated
public than the aims and the practices
involved in education. The discussion
of educational questions is no longer
confined to professional books and
journals, but forms part of the
matter offered to the general public in
the current magazines, and even 10 the
daily papers. Such questions have a
universal interest, for educational prob
lens have to be- solved in every home,
as we'll as in every school and school
system. Finally, in the colleges and
universities the old indifference has
given place to active interest, and the
establishment of departments or OF
courses for the study of education e.
teaching has naturally sos'-