The History of Education / Educational Practice and Progress Considered as a Phase of the Development and Spread of Western Civilization

by Ellwood Patterson Cubberley

14. What does the need for Realschulen indicate as to the evolution of German society and the recuperation from the ravages of war?

15. Compare the beginnings of scientific study at Cambridge with beginnings of new subjects to-day in our schools.

16. Just what does the Cambridge Scheme of Study indicate as being taught there?

SUPPLEMENTARY REFERENCES

* Adamson, J. W. Pioneers of Modern Education, 1600-1700.
Barnard, Henry. German Teachers and Educators.
* Butler, N. M. "The Place of Comenius in the History of Education": in
Proc. N. E. A., 1892, pp. 723-28.
Browning, Oscar, Editor. Milton's Tractate on Education.
* Comenius, J. A. Orbis Pictus (Bardeen; Syracuse).
Hanus, Paul H. "The Permanent Influence of Comenius"; in Educational
Review, vol. 3, pp. 226-36 (March, 1892).
Laurie, S. S. History of Educational Opinion since the
Renaissance.
* Laurie, S. S. John Amos Comenius.
Quick, R. H., Editor. Locke's Thoughts on Education.
* Quick, R. H. Essays on Educational Reformers.
* Vostrovsky, Clara. "A European School of the Time of Comenius (Prague,
1609)"; in Education, vol. 17, pp. 356-60 (February, 1897.)
Wordsworth, Christopher. Scholae Academicae; Studies at the English
Universities in the Eighteenth Century.

CHAPTER XVIII

THEORY AND PRACTICE BY THE MIDDLE OF THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY

We have now reached, in our history of the transition age which began with the Revival of Learning—the great events of which were the recovery of the ancient learning, the rediscovery of the historic past, the reawakening of scholarship, and the rise of religious and scientific inquiry—the end of the transition period, and we are now ready to pass to a study of the development and progress of education in modern times. Before doing so, however, we desire to gather up and state the progress in both educational theory and practice which had been attained by the end of this transition period, and to present, as it were, a cross-section of education at about the middle of the eighteenth century. To do this, then, before passing to a consideration of educational development in modern times, will be the purpose of this chapter. We shall first review the progress made in evolving a theory as to the educational purpose, and then present a cross-section view of the schools of the time under consideration.

I. PRE-EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY EDUCATIONAL THEORIES

THE STATE PURPOSE OF THE GREEKS AND ROMANS. As we saw, early in our study of the rise and progress of the education of peoples, the City-States of Greece were the first consciously to evolve a systematic plan of schooling and a prolonged course of training for those who were to guide and direct the State. In Sparta the training was almost wholly for military efficiency and tribal safety, but in Athens we found a people using a well-worked-out system of training to develop individual initiative, advance civilization, and promote the welfare of the State. The education provided was for but a class, to be sure, and a small ruling class at that, but it was the first evidence of the new western, individualistic, and democratic spirit expressing itself in the education of the young. There also we found, for the first time, the thinkers of the State deeply concerned with the education of the youth of the State, and viewing education as a necessity to make life worth living and to secure the State from dangers, both without and within. The training there given produced wonderful results, and for two centuries the men educated by it ably guided the destinies of Athens.