The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1898-02-21
TENDENCIES OF NEW EDUCATION.
Three Objections TO the FrOebel Plan
of Mind Training.
Chicago Post.

To attribute, directly or indirectly, to
Froebel alone most of the educational
ideas with which children are now being
experimental upon is most natural, since
the details of Froebels theories have been
worked out more fully than those of Rous-
seau, Pestalozzi, Comenius, or even Her
bart. But the revolt against the worn-o out
scholasticiSm of the monks and the subSC-
tuition of the idea of self-activity and OBJ
servation Sprang not alone from Froebels
peasant peop1ed hills, but was occurring to
rational minds everywhere, in that revival
of thought known at the renaissance:
The inevitable result is the number or
systems of education which have sprung
into being fully equipped for action. 1t is
as If a chemist should imagine that by
of bodily nutrition into a sort of human
dog biscuit, natural selection of the various
foods by the individual could be done away
with But no combination could wholly suit
all chimes and conditions, and the great OBJ
lection to systems of education Is that none
is more than approximately good. With
much that is good in many Of them their
followers are too likely to display, to quote
Spencer speaking of Pestalozzi, that ten
dency which mankind constantly exhibit to
canonize the forms and practices along with
which any great truth has been bequeathed
to them; their inability to PROSTATE their
intellect before the prophet and swear by
his every word; their proneness to mistake
the clothing of the idea for the idea itself. !"
The idea of Rousseau, of Pestalozzi and
of Froebel, the idea of education by prac-
teal experience of things to be learned, is
rational and commends itself at once. The
involves tendencies which. if unchecked,
may be positively injurious to children.
Four objections to the application of what
is known as the Froebelian idea occur TO
the mind; one, that it does not let the child
alone enough, but guards guides and di-
reefs him at every point from the moment
of birth, and this sort of coddling must de-
feat it's own end-self-education.
Another is that the cultivation of the
powers OF observation II carried ri 9 on TOO
must suffer This danger has been felt by
educators, here and there, for about five
years, and is sometimes suggested as a
cause for the growing immaturity of boys
of ten or twelve who are in schools which
prepare for college. a generation ago boys
We're graduated from college not more than
year later than the age when boys of
this generation are entering, and the fact is
suggestive of faulty methods In prepara-
tory training. Ought we to send the chill
dren of this generation to colleges mere
bundles of self-acqured information so
simplify the early training that they should
have minds we'll trained to record and util-
iZe the facts observed by really great spe
cialists in scientific observation?
The third undesirable tendency of the new
education is that of Withholding books from
the child. making the term book learning
sort of bugbear in education. A recent
writer on educational matters, John Charles
Tarver draws attention to the fact that
the ability to avail himself of recorded
knowledge is a characteristic which distin-
guishes man from the brute. Why should
not the chcild early learn to use the benefit
of past experience in written words? Why
must ne Degln as does his puppy or pet
chicken and explore for himself the untred
world? OF course, a certain amount of this
is inevitable. since man is not vet disem-
bodied intellect but surely 1t is kindness to
give him so much extra labor. We ought
not to be driven the long way around when
good books, cheap and useful, provide a
short cut TO the goal desired.
And finally. an important part of moral
and mental training is likely to be over
looked in the modern expectation that school
work must be wholly pleasurable to the
child. refer to the overcoming of difficult
ties. This is, or should be, a great and real
pleasure to the young minds. The sooner it
is tasted the better but ii is a pleasure on
a higher plane than that Of collecting leaves,
watching the effect of iodine starch or
that of hot water on potatoes. 1t is a pleas
ure which strengthens the moral and INTEL
lectual fiber of a childs whole nature. and
fits him for citizenship as no mere strength
ening of the powers OF observation can pos
sibly do. Real education consists not in q
pleasant, though brief. excursion into the
various arts and sciences. but in the thor
ough cultivation of those mental powers
which make for soundness of Judgment
clearness of intellect and stability of char