3. That the first stage in learning is of large importance, and
requires high skill on the part of the teacher.
4. That the thing to be learned is of less importance than the pupil
learning.
5. That proper brain development demands that pressure and one-sided
education alike be avoided.
6. That the mother tongue should be taught first and well, and should
be the language of the school from six to twelve.
7. That music and drawing should be taught.
8. That reading and writing at least should be the common right of
all, and that girls should be given equal opportunity with boys.
9. That training colleges for teachers should be established and
maintained.
The modern nature of many of Mulcaster's proposals may be seen from the table of contents of his volume (R. 226). Mulcaster, like Comenius, thought far in advance of his age, and in consequence his book was soon and for long forgotten. Yet what Quick [1] says of him is very true:
It would have been a vast gain to all Europe if Mulcaster had been followed instead of Sturm. He was one of the earliest advocates of the use of the vernacular instead of Latin, and good reading and writing in English were to be secured before Latin was begun. His elementary course included five things: English reading, English writing, drawing, singing, playing a musical instrument. If this were made to occupy the school time up to twelve, Mulcaster held that more would be done between twelve and sixteen than between seven and seventeen in the ordinary (Latin grammar school) way. There would be a further gain in that the children would not be set against learning.
John Locke, and the disciplinary theory of education. Another commanding figure in seventeenth-century pedagogical thought was the English scholar, philosopher, teacher, physician, and political writer, John Locke (1632- 1704). In the preceding chapter we pointed out the place of Locke as a writer on the education of the sons of the English gentry, and illustrated by an extract from his Thoughts (R. 216) the importance he placed on such a practical type of education as would prepare a gentleman's son for the social and political demands of a world fast becoming modern. Locke's place in the history of education, though, is of much more importance than was there (p. 402) indicated. Locke was essentially the founder of modern psychology, based on the application of the methods of modern scientific investigation to a study of the mind, [2] and he is also of importance in the history of educational thought as having set forth, at some length and with much detail, the disciplinary conception of the educational process.