The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1899-03-06

1G SuCA QlSCuSSiO4AS 10 1ASA
SO much in what is said as in what is
left unsaid. The specialist in psychol-
Cgy tells US that the purpose of educa-
ton is to secure harmonious develop
ment of all of the facultieSi tne
neurologist tells US that it is the modl-
fcatiOn of the central nervous system;
the social reformer tells us that ii is
complete living. Each is right from MS
own point of view. but each is one
sided. What we need is such con-
ception OF education as will compre-
hend its various aspects.
An analysis of education shows that
there are two essential factors, the IN
dividual or psychological and the social.
Education is the coordination of these
two factors. 1t is dynamic in character,
the movement being what is well char-
acteriZed by the term organic CIR
cult" This circuit comprehends the
related action and reaction between the
individual and the social mind Inc
social factor corresponds to the curruc-
ulum and represents the school as a
corporate body, while the psychological
represents the method by which the
individual appropriates this social
wealth. The curriculum then represents
social life. 1t is the organized eXper-
fence of the race and each subject Oh
the curriculum is some phase of this
experience Each springs directly from
social life and each returns to social
life again enriched by the contribution
of the individual, who, through educa-
ton, has been brought into active par
ticipation with the race. If the indi-
vidual is deprived of the experience Of
the race, education is thwarted; if the
individual after receiving the wealth
of the race makes no contribution in
the way of increasing that wealth, ed
~ &c Foil 1a.ley
dynamic and under normal conditions
must express itself in activity.
Not only should there be nothing in
the curriculum that has no social value,
but we should see to it that all phases
of social life are represented. Educa-
tion is not true education that iso-
lates parts and treats them as wholes.
There must be vision of The whole of
life and the individual should be taught
his relation to the various parts of this
whole. This is not merely a matter of
school education. The other institutions
of civilization have their part. Much
of the difficulty in the past has arisen
from the narrow view of separation.
We must learn to see the school as one
OF the five fundamental institutions of
civilization and directly related to each
of the others-the home, the church,
the state, ana civil society. Rightly
employed the curriculum can do much
to clarity vague conceptions of the re-
latiGn of the individual to the different
institutions of civilized life. 1t can
show that each represents a fundamen-
tai need of human life and the develop
ment of each is the result of co-opera-
tive effort. It can show how individuals
work together to build up institutions
and how each receives a benefit from
these in proportion to his contribution
to and participation in their life
Al H.
the social value of the curriculum are
party defects in current methods and
partly in the character of the subject
matter presented. Until we recognize
that the child has d body as well as a
mind and that these are organically re-
lated, until we recognize that the child
is first of all motor being and later an
intellectual one we cannot hope to real
.ize high educational ideals. Our meth
DDS must conform to the nature of the
child, not violate every law of mind
and body. There is need of providing
means for the activity of the child.
The curriculum of the primary school
needs reorganizing. 1t should be trans
lated from static to dynamic terms
The question is not go much what the
child shall learn as what he shall DO
But here, as elsewhere, we must not fail
to recognize the relation between doing
and learning, between procc and
product, between action and fought
If action is wisely directed 1t cannot
fail to result in knowledge. The criti-
eisTn to be made or the present primary
education is not that ii aims to give the
child knowledge. but that it defeats its
own end by expecting the child to deal
with the technical stage from the out
set without providing the necessary eg
perience from which the technical is
derived. The child is thus left in ign0r
ance of the purpose. of the work and de-
pyived of a normal motive.
In order to direct the activities of the
child along fruitful channels it is neces-
sary to know what impulses of the
child are dominant in the different
stages of development and whether the
development of these has been bene-
fetal in the history of the race. Those
impulses which have resulted in build
ing up our social institutions are the
ones to be guarded, guided and devel-
oped each at its proper time Those i'm
pulses which the experience Of the race
has shown to be destructive in tendency
should be diverted to harmless chan
nels. The activities most prominent in
the early stages of both the individual
and the race are those connected With
the need of food, clothing and shelter.
These notwithstanding, sewing and
carpentry-should form the nucleus of
the primary curriculum. From actual
experience in supplying these funda-
mental needs the race acquired that
knowledge that is the basis of science,
geography. history, literature and the
fine arts In fact, when traced to its
origin each subject of the curriculum
has its roots in these fundamental &C
Invites of life. The child should par
ticipate in the activities of the race. BY
doing so he is not only developing his
IL f,,l OH
co-ordinating mind and body in the
work, thus. promoting the healthy ac-
ton OF each, but he is realizing his rela-
tions, perhaps only dimly at first bit
none the less vitality, to others; he is
beginning to feel if not yet to know
something of what he has received from
the past, something of the difficulty of
the great achievements of the race, and
the way is being prepared for him to
realize something Of his duty. to the
future.
At present we cannot know precisely
what the different stages Of individual
development are except in q vague way.
The Investigations that are being car
ried on in child study and experimental
psychology will do much toward plac-
ing education on a frmer basis. In the
meantime we mus hold firmly to that
which is well established and feel our
way along new lines.
II is a very common error to introduce
the learner to the technical stage at
once, without affording the experience
from which the technical is distracted
Such teaching leads the learner to the
conclusion that the subject belongs only
to a book When taken in sections
without regard to origin or purpose, the
life forces are interrupted in the move
ment of thought and the study, instead
of being one of growth, of movement, of
purpose becomes a mere juggling with
facts. This criticism is not made upon
the study of form and technique. when