The Irish standard., 1905-09-02
AN ABLE PAPER
Rev. DR.. Shields, of Catholic
University of America,
Writes on Problem Of Teaching
In Catholic schools.

UGf. LII. uOLldS z. 0uleluS Oh CQe
Catholic University of America, who
came to the coast to address the Sec
ond annual session of Catholic teach.
ers at Santa Monica, has recently con-
tributed the following interesting ar
ticle on the problem of teaching in
Catholic schools to the "Tidings":
To begin with concrete facts, we
may ask what it is that makes the
difference between the good teacher
and the poor teacher. Why is it that
the one succeeds so we'll in the school.
room, while the other, in spite of
earnestness and patient effort, is often
failure? The answer, as you well
know, is given in one word: 1t is diff
renee of method. Whatever results
may have been gotten in centuries of
educational experience, certain it is
that right method is essential to good
teaching. In fact, there is no teach
ing without some sort of method; the
only question is whether the method
be of the right sort. Our professor is
familiar with the methods employed
in teaching the various school SUBJ
jects: He knows just how lesson
should be given in geography and how
it differs from a lecture in philosophy
He is acquainted with the so-called
devices" which so many teachers
seize upon with eagerness as short
cuts to success. But the important
point is that he knows how to esti-
mate each device and each special
method at it's true value. He has in
his wider knowledge certain criteria
which enable him to discern both the
excellence and the weakness of any
scheme no matter by whom it may be
proposed.
Among these criteria, we may set in
the first rank the question: How far
given method conforms to the nature
Of the pupils mind? And this we may
translate into the other question:
How far does this method further the
development of the mind? The an
swer evidently pre-supposes a knowl-
edge of the laws of mental develop.
ment. 1t is not sufficinet to under
stand in Il general way that the mind
grows and then take our chances on
having our method fit in more or less
perfectly with that growth. The mind
develops in definite ways-according
to laws that are, in part at least, al
ready formulated. To make the state
ment of these laws perfect, is now the
principal business of psychology, And,
therefore, the tests which are applied
to educational method must be, in the
first instance, psychological.
Psychology, need scarcely say, deals
with one form, and that the highest,
of vital function. The laws of mental
activity are special forms of the larger
laws which govern al, life. The very
fact that man is substantially one be-
ing must lead us to expect close
correspondence between organic func-
ton and mental process. And the
further truth on which Christian phi
losophy insists. the truth, namely, that
the soul is the source of all vital
manifestation, implies harmonious &C
ton and harmonious development Of
the bodily life and the mental. The
study, then, of psychology, quite nat
urally opens out into the wider realm
of biology-to find in the science OF
life as such the Interpretation and the
deeper meaning of the laws which we
first discover in the mind itself
Thus, the examination of any meth.
cd inevitably takes us away from the
empirical, from the mere matter OF
detail-first to the laws of psychology
and then to the more comprehensive
principles on which biology rests.
Need | add, in this presence, that both
these sciences receive their final in
depreciation from philosophy-the sci
ence that deals with the nature OF
mind, its origin and its destiny? In
the light of these ultimate truths, we
judge, not indeed of any particular
method of education, but of the funda-
mental assumptions on which educa.
ton as whole is based and by which
its aims and Ideals are determined.
The professor Of the science of educa.
ton will certainly be led sooner or
later to dwell upon these underlying
truths. He will realize, the more he
ponders them, that there is the clos
est connection between philosophy and
education-or rather that education is
the systematic and concrete express
sion at any time, of the philosophy
which then prevails.
If there could be any doubt on this
point it would easily be dissipated by
turning to the past. For whether we
survey the centuries that are nearer
to us or look beyond them to the
Middle Ages, the beginning Of Chris.
tianity, the pref Christianity of Greece
and Rome, the same lesson invariably
comes home to us. Parallel to the his
tory of philosophy is the history Of
education: and not simply parallel but
interacting and intertwined. If we
would understand in It's fulness the
meaning of modern thought, we must