The farmer and mechanic. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 18??-19??, 1912-06-04
WILLIAM JAMES AND
THE ART OF
Though He Did Not Teach a System
of Pedagogy, His Books Are Full
of Educational Applications"

sum uD for the Review" something
Of the contributions of William james
to educational thought, l must con
fess TO being somewhat overwhelmed
by the magnitude of the task. For
what James has given to education
cannot be summed up in formulas,
ticketed and labeled. He wrote but
one book bearing directly on educa-
tiona questions. and Talks to
Teachers owes it's popularity more
to the informal essays wit h which it
concludes than to the more formal
pedagogical lectures which furnish its
main reason for being. In the library
copy Of this volume, which lies open
before me at the Table Of Con
tents some student hand has writ
ten after the essay ION a Certain
Blindness in Human Beings the
words, underlined and followed by an
exclamation point, Read It!' This,
and not any Of the more strictly pro
feSSional contents, stood out from the
rest Of the volume for at least one
reader: and what student comment
has decreed, let the critic be chary
Of denying,
The truth is that James taught no
system Of pedagogy. He was not at
home in that strange n hybrid Ian
guage which has lately been dubbed
"pedaguese." Indeed, he was rather
inclined to deny that psychology lis
something from which you can de-
duce definite programs and schemes
and methods Of instruction for inn
mediate schoOlrOom use THE
science of psychology" he says, and
whatever science of general peda-
gogics may be based on it. are in
fact much like the science Of war.
Nothing is simpler or more definite
than the principles Of either. In war.
all you have to do is to work your
enemy into a position from which
the natural obstacles prevent him
from escaping if he tries to-; then to
fall on him in numbers superior to
his own. at a moment when you have
led him to think you far away; and
so. with a minimum of exposure Of
YOU own rOopS to hack his forces
to pieces. and take the remainder
prisoners. Just so, in teaching, YOU
must simply work your pupil into
such a state of interest in what you
are going to teach him that every
other object Of attention is banished
from his mind; then reveal it to him
so impreSSively that he will remem-
Der the occasion to his dying day; and
finally fill him with ~devouring curl
osity to know what the next steps in
connection with the subject are. The
principles being so plain, there would
be nothing but victories for the mast
ers OF the science. either on the battle
field or in the schoolroom, If they
did not both have to make their ap-
Dlication to an incalculable quantity
in the shape of the mind Of their
opponent"
But while James taught no peda-
gogical system. while he had nothing
but contempt for pedagogical jargon
and Drecept 'frothed up in journals
and Institutes. till its outlines often
threaten to be lost in a kind of vast
uncertainty" yet none the less there
is hardly a chapter Of his writings,
from the Principles Of Psychology
with its two fat volumes, down to the
little essay on The Energies of
Men, which has not a direct bear
ing on education in the widest sense
OF the word. From this point OF
vie. his whole system is shot through
and through with a p~edagogic pur-
pose. He does not so much Offer
"educational ~apnlications'' as he
makes education the very fibre Of his
thinking. alike in psychology an6
philosophy. For him, all must issue
in action. must find it's value in tn
conduct it inspires. This "~organiza.
ton Of tendencies to behavior is edu
cation. and it is at the same time thu
highest service rendered by psychol
E and by philosophy. ~Pragmatisn
might almost be described as tn
teachers philosophy. Action become,
with him at once the test and tn
result of truth it is the starting pOin
and the goal of education, the prob
lem Of psychology. the sanction O
philosophy. Conceived in such
spirit. no system of psychology or Q
philosophy could possibly escape
tremendous ~pedagogic significance.
And so it has come about that thi
man. who taught no educational sys
tenn. formulated no pedagogical creed
has had more influence on moderl
educational thought. both directly
and through the books and the teach
ers he has inspired. thar any othe
contemporary writer with the singl
exception of Stanley Hall. 1t is a
influence which. in order to be an
preciated at It's full value, must b
viewed in the light Of educational ten
denotes as he found them. Only b
giving his educational conception
their proper setting in the educations