Outlines of Educational Doctrine

by Johann Friedrich Herbart

But it would be an error to argue that one who is being initiated into one subject ought to combine with that subject a second, third, or fourth, on the ground that subjects one, two, three, and four are essentially interrelated. This conclusion holds for scholars, who, so far as they are personally concerned, have long passed beyond preliminary pedagogical considerations, and even in their case it applies only to those branches which are intimately connected with their specialties; it has nothing to do with the psychological conditions by which the course of education must be governed. Only too frequently do masses of ideas remain isolated despite the fact that the objects corresponding to them are most intimately and necessarily interconnected; and such isolation could not have been prevented by merely starting work in a large web of erudition in a number of places.

The case is different where certain studies constitute the necessary preparation for thorough knowledge of one kind or another. Here we are right in concluding that one who cannot master the former is equally unable to get hold of the latter.[24]

[24] These remarks upon correlation are instructive in view of later developments of the Herbartian school in Germany. The reader is referred to discussions in the First and Second Year-Books of the National Herbart Society.

[220.] It is difficult to deal with the rare instances of tardy development unless we find that they are due to neglected health, or to lack of assistance in enlarging the range of experience, and to failure to change the mode of instruction. Here an attempt may be made to supply what is wanting. But even where the rate of progress becomes more rapid at once, the teacher’s efforts will have turned out favorably only when the boy gives also clear proof of a vigorous striving for advancement.

[221.] To revert to fundamental ethical principles, particular mention of the ideas of justice and equity needs to be made in this connection. These ideas issue from reflection on human relations; they are consequently less accessible to early childhood, which finds itself subordinated everywhere to the family. The boy, on the other hand, lives more among his peers, and the necessary corrections are not always administered so promptly as to leave no time for independent judgment. Not infrequently voluntary association takes place among boys, personal authority plays a part, and even usurpation of power is not rare. Now, education has to provide for clear ethical concepts and for government and training besides. But not only that; it must also furnish the kind of instruction that will exhibit similar but remote relations, for purposes of unbiassed contemplation. Such instruction must borrow its material from poetry and history.

[222.] To history we are referred by still another consideration. As has already been shown ([206]–[211]), the idea of good-will points to the necessity of religious culture; and this relies for support on stories, old stories at that. The expansion of the pupil’s power of thought which is here demanded must be generally attained, even though very incompletely, in every course of instruction, that of the village school included.

[223.] Another fixed goal, the importance of which exceeds even that of reading and writing, is furnished by arithmetic, which gives clearness to the common concepts of experience, and is indispensable in the practical affairs of life.

[224.] Decimal arithmetic no pupil would be likely to think out by himself; he would very certainly not invent Bible history. Both must accordingly be regarded as belonging preëminently to the province of synthetic instruction, which always involves the difficult problem of how to assure its entrance, as a potent factor, into existing masses of ideas. As to this, it would be a blunder to conclude that, since Bible history and history as a whole, arithmetic and mathematics as a whole, hang together, there is also a corresponding pedagogical connection ([219]). But so much is certain, that the efficiency of a group of ideas increases with expansion and with multiplied association. It will be an advantage, therefore, to Bible history and to arithmetic, if as wide a range is given to historical and mathematical teaching as circumstances and ability permit, even if the conditions should be such that a many-sided culture is not to be expected.

[225.] The subjects next to be considered in the choice of material for instruction are poetry and natural history, great care being taken not to disregard the necessary sequence. The time for fables and stories should not be curtailed; it is important to make sure that boys do not lose the taste for them too early. The easiest and safest facts of zoölogy will have been presented already in connection with the picture-books of childhood. The right moment for introducing the elements of botany has arrived when the boy is collecting plants. Foreign languages would be assigned the lowest place, if particular circumstances did not in many cases lend them a special importance. The ancient classical languages, at any rate, form to such an extent the basis of the study of theology, of jurisprudence, and of medicine, they are so necessary to all higher scholarship, that they will always constitute the fundamental branches of instruction in academic preparatory schools.

It is obvious, however, that the extent of instruction depends too much on external conditions of rank and means to permit a definite prescription of instruction-material for all cases. Far less dependent is the development of many-sided interest in its relation to branches of study. If the limits set to the latter are narrow, it is still the business of instruction to secure an approximation to many-sided culture; while under highly favorable circumstances the very abundance of educational help must put the teacher on his guard against losing sight of the real aim of instruction.