The History of Educational Theory and Practice
The historical method of studying education was the first which was cultivated in institutions which undertook the training of teachers. The history of education divides readily into two branches: one deals with the history of educational theories, the other with the history of actual school practices. The history of theories is the easier of the two branches to cultivate because it consists chiefly in a review of the writings left behind by writers who discuss educational problems. Thus the earlier histories of education laid great emphasis on the writings of Plato and Quintilian, of Comenius and Locke, of Rousseau and Pestalozzi. Reviews of earlier writers were, however, of little real influence in molding modern practice, and the history of theories had only a very indirect influence on teachers.
More significant by far is the recent movement which studies practices in schools, especially the schools of one’s own country. The development of arithmetic or grammar in American schools is illuminating as showing both the direction in which we are moving and the kinds of forces which operate in reformulating the course of study. Earlier chapters have aimed to suggest the value of such studies, especially Chapters II and III.