Froebel’s most subtile discovery was the fact of the superiority of women over men, as teachers. Only an honest, brave soul could have made this discovery, for tradition stood like a lion in the way, and prejudice discouraged investigation. But Froebel sought truth for truth’s sake, fearlessly defying tradition and ignoring prejudice; and years of experiment convinced him that the greatest measure of success in infant training was surely attainable through women. That this discovery, so simple, yet so big with grand possibilities, was not made earlier is due to the fact that there is so little really independent thought, so little investigation free from the trammels of prejudice. Now that a great mind has pointed the way it is obvious that Nature, having designed that the years of early childhood should be spent with the mother, must have also designed that women should be the chief educators of children. And it follows, of course, that the education of women is more important than that of men, since it is from them that children receive their first impressions, and since first impressions are indelibly stamped upon the infant mind, giving it form, color, and substance.
In confiding to women this great trust, Froebel imposed upon them an incalculable weight of responsibility. It comprehends the destiny of the human race, involving the problem of its progress or retrogression.
A common first conception of the kindergarten is—a convenient asylum for the children of mothers who desire to be relieved of their care. A more thoughtful study reveals its poetry and sentiment, the innocent joy of the assembly of pupils, the harmony of song, and the grace of motion in the games and dances. A final, large view discloses the true educational principle. The kindergarten is more clearly comprehended after studying the manual training school—moving from the effect to the cause; for as the child is father of the man, so the kindergarten is father of the manual training school. The kindergarten comes first in the order of development, and leads logically to the manual training school. The same principle underlies both. In both it is sought to generate power by dealing with actualities. The corner-stone of both is object-teaching—teaching through things instead of through signs of things. This principle, common to both, is the concrete as opposed to the abstract. The theory of both is that, in teaching, ideas should never be isolated from the objects they represent.[E3] The kindergarten and the manual training school, being one in principle, should have common methods of instruction, varied sufficiently to adapt them to the whole range of school life.
[E3] “This method of object teaching is perhaps the greatest service which the naturalistic school has rendered to the cause of education. Hinted at by Rabelais and Locke, still more largely developed by Rousseau, it has received, in the last century, a more accurate and scientific form, and is probably destined to become the source of a new curriculum in which literature will only hold a secondary place.”—“Educational Theories,” p. 109. By Oscar Browning, M.A. New York: Harper & Brothers, 1885.
CHAPTER XIII.
THE MORAL EFFECT OF MANUAL TRAINING.
Mental Impulses are often Vicious; but the Exertion of Physical Power in the Arts is always Beneficent — hence Manual Training tends to correct vicious mental Impulses. — Every mental Impression produces a moral Effect. — All Training is Moral as well as Mental. — Selfishness is total Depravity; but Selfishness has been Deified under the name of Prudence. — Napoleon an Example of Selfishness. — The End of Selfishness is Disaster; but Prevailing Systems of Education promote Selfishness. — The Modern City an Illustration of Selfishness. — The Ancient City. — Existing Systems of Education Negatively Wrong. — Manual Training supplies the lacking Element. — The Objective must take the Place of the Subjective in Education. — Words without Acts are as dead as Faith without Works.
Education, or training, has two immediate and continuous effects—the development of innate mental qualities or aptitudes and the formation of character. In an orderly logical system of training the development would be harmonious, and the resulting formation of character symmetrical. These are, however, ideal conditions requiring a perfect system of training, and students free from the perversions and deformities growing out of the law of heredity. But under any system of training there is progress—development and character formation. The aphorism, “An idle brain is the devil’s workshop,” expresses only a half-truth. What it means is this: if the mind is not well employed it will be ill employed; or if it is not occupied with good thoughts it will be occupied with evil thoughts. The mind of man is never at rest, in equilibrium, even in a state of barbarism. Indeed this is obvious, since all civilizations are growths from states of savagery. But the barbaric line once passed, development is greatly accelerated, assuming with the evolution of the ages the form of a geometrical progression. The distinguishing characteristic of modern civilization is action. In so far as this action, which may be called the impulsive force of the spirit of the age, is natural and orderly, it constitutes an aid to the processes of education; if otherwise, it is obstructive, hindering them.
The law of mental development is not the exact correlative of the law of physical development. The direct aim of physical training is muscular power; of mental training the aim is mental power and rectitude. Physical power is not intrinsically vicious; it becomes vicious only when exerted under a vicious intellectual impulse. But this is not necessarily true of mental power; for mental power may be gained quite apart from the element of rectitude, in which event it is vicious, and may be exerted in scorn of the accepted standards of right, truth, and justice. As a matter of fact it is often so exerted, and the fact that it is so exerted accounts for the crimes of individuals, the faults of society, and the errors of governments. The constitution of mental power is, then, complex, while that of physical power is simple. If mental power consists of sense perception, or understanding, and moral perception, or rectitude, in due proportion, the issue is a noble character; but if rectitude is wanting, the issue is an evil character. If, on the other hand, there is no interference with the orderly development of physical power, the issue of its exertion is always skill—skill applied in innumerable forms to the uses of man. Only through a mental impulse rendered vicious by the absence of the element of rectitude can physical power be diverted from its naturally beneficent mission.
It follows that most of the evils of civilization flow from an ill-balanced mental constitution—a mental constitution wanting the essential element of rectitude. Since, then, mental development, under certain widely prevailing conditions, is so prolific of evil, and physical development or skill so universally prolific of good, it is obvious that the beneficent influence of the latter should, if practicable, be brought to bear upon the former in educational systems. In a word, may not the two systems of training be so connected in the schools as to cause the manual to react upon the mental, with the effect of greatly stimulating the ethical side of the mind?