Essays on Educational Reformers

by Robert Hebert Quick

§ 14. Throughout these essays my object has been to collect what seemed to me the most valuable lessons of various Reformers. In doing this I have had to judge and decide what was most valuable, and at times to criticise and differ from my authorities. This may perhaps give rise to the question, Do you then think yourself the superior or at least the equal of the great men you criticise? and I could only reply in all sincerity, I most certainly do not. If I am asked further, what then is my attitude towards them? I reply, it differs very much with different individuals. I cannot say I am prepared to sit at the feet of Mulcaster, or Dury, or Petty. In writing of these men I simply point out very early expression of ideas that following generations have developed partially and we are developing still. When we come to the great leaders we see among them men like Comenius who unite a thorough study of what has already been thought and done with a genius for original thinking, men like Locke with splendid intellectual gifts and a power of happy and clear expression, men like Rousseau with a talent for shaking themselves free from “custom”—custom which “lies upon us with a weight, Heavy as frost and deep almost as life,” and besides this (in his case at least) endowed with a voice to be heard throughout the world. Then again we have men like Pestalozzi who with a genius for investigating, devote their lives to the investigation, and men like Froebel who seem to penetrate to a region above us or at least beyond us, and to talk about it in language which at times only partially conveys a meaning. From all these men we have much to learn; and that we may do this we must come as learners to them. When we thus come we find that the great lessons they teach become clearer and clearer as each takes up wholly or in part what has been taught by his predecessors and adds to it. Some of these lessons we may now receive as established truths and seek to conform our practice to them. But in following our leaders we dare not close our eyes. Before we can know anything we must see it, as Locke says, with our mind’s eye. The great thing is to keep the eye of the mind wide open and always on the lookout for truth. Acting on this conviction I have not blindly accepted the dicta even of the greatest men but have selected those of their lessons which are taught if not by all at least by most of them, and which also seem to evoke “the spontaneous spring of the intelligence towards truth” ([see p. 362, supra]).

§ 15. In reading Froebel however I am conscious that this “spring” is wanting. Before one can accept teaching one must at least understand it, and this preliminary is not always possible when we would learn from Froebel. At times he goes entirely out of sight, and whether the words we hear are the expression of deep truth or have absolutely no meaning at all, I for my part am at times totally unable to determine. But where I can understand him he seems to me singularly wise; and working in the same lines as Pestalozzi he in some respects advances far beyond his great predecessor.

§ 16. Both these men were devotees of science; but instead of finding in science anything antagonistic to religion they looked upon science as the expression of the mind of God. Their belief was just that which Sir Thomas Browne had uttered more than 200 years before in the Religio Medici: “Though we christen effects by their most sensible and nearest causes yet is God the true and infallible cause of all, whose concourse [i.e., concurrence, co-operation] though it be general, yet doth it subdivide itself into the particular actions of everything, and is that spirit by which each singular essence not only subsists but performs its operation.”[175] With this belief Froebel sought to trace everything back to the central Unity, to God. The author of the De Imitatione Christi has said: “The man to whom all things are one, who refers all things to one and sees all things in one, he can stand firm and be at peace in God. Cui omnia unum sunt, et qui omnia ad unum trahit, et omnia in uno videt, potest stabilis esse et in Deo pacificus permanere” (De Im. Xti. lib. i; cap. 3, § 2). So thought Froebel, and his great longing was to refer all things to one and see all things in one. However little we may share this longing we must admit that it is a natural outcome from the Christian religion. If there is One in Whom all “live and move and have their being,” everything should be referred to Him. As Froebel says, “In Allem wirkt und schafft Ein Leben, Weil das Leben All’ ein einz’ger Gott gegeben. (In everything there works and stirs one life, because to all One God has given life.)” So long then as we remain Christians we must agree with Froebel that all true education is founded on Religion. Perhaps in the end we may adopt his high ideal and say with him, “Education should lead and guide man to clearness concerning himself and in himself, to peace with nature, and to unity with God; hence, it should lift him to a knowledge of himself and of mankind, to a knowledge of God and of Nature, and to the pure and holy life to which such knowledge leads.” (E. of M., Hailmann’s t., 5.) “The object of education is the realization of a faithful, pure, inviolate, and hence holy life” (Ib. 4).

§ 17. This is indeed a high ideal: and we naturally ask, If we would work towards it what road would Froebel point out to us? This brings us to his theory of development or, as it has been called since Darwin, evolution. The idea of organic growth was first definitely applied to the young by Pestalozzi, but it was more clearly and consistently applied by Froebel. It has gone forth conquering and to conquer; and though far indeed from being accepted by the teaching profession of this age, it is likely to have a vast influence on the practice of those who will come after them. I therefore give the following statement of it, which seems to me excellent:—

“The first thing to note in the idea of development is that it indicates, not an increase in bulk or quantity (though it may include this), but an increase in complexity of structure, an improvement in power, skill, and variety in the performance of natural functions. We say that a thing is fully developed when its internal organisation is perfect in every detail, and when it can perform all its natural actions or functions perfectly. If we apply this distinction to mind, an increase in bulk will be represented by an increase in the amount of material retained in the mind, in the memory; development will be a perfecting of the structure of the mind itself, an increase of power and skill and variety in dealing with knowledge, and in putting knowledge to all its natural uses. The next thing to consider is how this development is produced. How can we aid in promoting this change from germ to complete organism, from partially developed thing to more highly developed thing? The answer comes from every part of creation with ever-increasing clearness and emphasis—development is produced by exercise of function, use of faculty. Neglect or disuse of any part of an organism leads to the dwindling, and sometimes even to the disappearance, of that part. And this applies not only to individuals, but stretches also from parent to child, from generation to generation, constituting then what we call heredity, or what Froebel calls the connectedness of humanity. Slowly through successive generations a faculty or organ may dwindle and decay, or may be brought to greater and greater perfection. As Froebel puts it, humanity past, present, and future is one continuous whole. The amount of development, then, possible in any particular case plainly depends partly on the original outfit, and partly (and as a rule in a greater measure) on the opportunities there have been for exercise, and the use made of those opportunities. If we wish to develop the hand, we must exercise the hand. If we wish to develop the body, we must exercise the body. If we wish to develop the mind, we must exercise the mind. If we wish to develop the whole human being, we must exercise the whole human being. But will any exercise suffice? Again the answer is clear. Only that exercise which is always in harmony with the nature of the thing, and which is always proportioned to the strength of the thing, produces true development. All other exercise is partially or wholly hurtful. And another condition, evident in every case, becomes still more evident when we apply these laws to the mind. To produce development most truly and effectively, the exercise must arise from and be sustained by the thing’s own activity—its own natural powers, and all of them (as far as these are in any sense connected with the activity proposed) should be awakened and become naturally active. If, for instance, we desire to further the development of a plant, what we have to do is to induce the plant (and the whole of it) to become active in its own natural way, and to help it to sustain that activity. We may abridge the time; we may modify the result; but we must act through and by the plant’s own activity. This activity of a thing’s own self we call self-activity (E. of M., § 9). We generally consider the mind in the light of its three activities of knowing, feeling, and willing. The exercise which aims at producing mental development must be in harmony with the nature of knowing, feeling, and willing, and continually in proportion to their strength. And, further, it is found that the more the activity is that of the whole mind, the more it is the mind’s own activity—self-produced, and self-maintained, and self-directed—the better is the result. In other words, knowing, feeling, and willing must all take their rightful share in the exercise; and, in particular, feeling and willing—the mind’s powers of prompting and nourishing, of maintaining and directing its own activities—must never be neglected” (H. C. Bowen on Ed. of M.).

§ 18. “A divine message or eternal regulation of the Universe there verily is, in regard to every conceivable procedure and affair of man; faithfully following this, said procedure or affair will prosper ... not following this ... destruction and wreck are certain for every affair.” These words of Carlyle’s express Froebel’s thought about education. Before attempting to educate we must do all we can to ascertain the divine message and must then direct our proceedings by it. The divine message must be learnt according to Froebel by studying the nature of the organism we have to assist in developing. Each human being must “develop from within, self-active and free, in accordance with the eternal law. This is the problem and the aim of all education in instruction and training; there can be and should be no other” (Ed. of M., 13). For “all has come forth from the Divine, from God, and is through God alone conditioned. To this it is that all things owe their existence—to the Divine working in them. The Divine element that works in each thing is the true idea (das Wesen) of the thing.” Therefore “the destiny and calling of all things is to develop their true idea, and in so doing to reveal God in outward and through passing forms.”

§19. What we must think of then is the “true idea” which each child should develop. How is this idea to be ascertained? In other words, how are we to learn the Divine Message about the bringing up of children? This Message is given us through the works of God. “In the creation, in nature and the order of the material world, and in the progress of mankind, God has given us the true type (Urbild) of education.”

§ 20. So Froebel would have all educators lay to heart the great principle of the Baconian philosophy: We command Nature only by obeying her. They are to be very cautious how they interfere, and the education they give is to be “passive, following.” Even in teaching they must bear in mind, that “the purpose of teaching is to bring ever more out of man rather than to put more and more into him.” (Ed. of M., 279.) Froebel in fact taught the Pestalozzian doctrine that the function of the educator was that of “benevolent superintendence.”[176]

§21. But if Froebel would thus limit the action of the educator he would greatly extend the action of those educated; and here we see the great principle with which the name of Froebel is likely to be permanently associated. “The starting-point of all that appears, of all that exists, and therefore of all intellectual conception, is act, action. From the act, from action, must therefore start true human education, the developing education of the man; in action, in acting, it must be rooted and must spring up.... Living, acting, conceiving,—these must form a triple chord within every child of man, though the sound now of this string, now of that, may preponderate, and then again of two together.”