The Student-Life of Germany

by William Howitt

But the dawn of a new era soon broke, and the arduous and holy warfare of the Reformation threw light into the darkness of the human mind. Men were now seen to contend for knowledge, and strove to rend asunder the dishonourable bonds which, in a more animal condition, had been riveted upon them. Luther arose, and with him a new order of things in the conduct of schools was called forth. Many worthy schoolmasters, who had already gone forth from the pedagogic brotherhood of Gerhardus Magnus at Deventer, and from the Rhenish Society of Learned Men, founded by Conrad Celtes for the restoration of classical antiquity, had prepared the way for the great Reformers. How illustriously shine out in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries the names of Desiderius Erasmus, Johann Reuchlin, Johann Dalberg, Rudolph Agricola, Wilibald Pirkheimer. They are like sacred signs of an approaching better time for the school affairs of the civilized world; and they all strengthened powerfully the hands of Luther, Melancthon, Zuinglius, since they treated schools, and the whole business of education, in a magnanimous spirit. To point out the active services of these men would lead us too far; it must suffice simply to remark that continually more, and fresh, and faithful teachers came forth, amongst whom, Johann Sturm, Valentin Friedland, also called Trotzendorf, Michael Neander, Johann Casselius, and Christian Hellwich, were especially distinguished. If a great want was still here and there visible, yet the path being once broken open, a retreat was by no means to be thought of, and the discovery of Guttenberg contributed not a little to make this impossible. The labours of Wolfgang Ratich and Johann Amors Comenius are of peculiar importance, whose works are known, and in which they treat of the natural and complete developement of all the powers of the human mind, especially of the understanding and the imagination. Pestalozzi's ideas here lie in embryo before us.

Soon after the appearance of these men, and the springing up of schools framed according to their views, the Jesuits made every exertion to draw the management of education to themselves; and they succeeded to a certain extent, since with their usual political acumen, they easily saw that it was necessary for them entirely to imitate the form and matter of the evangelical schools. But the stratagem of these satellites of the hierarchy was soon seen through, and the best consequences were to be hoped, had not the storms of the Thirty Years' War crushed so many promising germs and scattered so much beautiful fruit. School economy, during such an epoch, could only wearily maintain itself; the miserable management of ignorant teachers, the simple consequence of that fanatical rage, made the prosperity of schools a thing beyond hope. Yet this reaction actually hastened the entrance of a better spirit, which soon found its warmest advocates in Fenelon, Ph. T. Spener, but especially in A. H. Franke.

The activity of the last worthy man had an eminently auspicious influence; and other zealous characters soon enrolled themselves in the list of the friends of knowledge; as Godfried Zeidler, who simplified the mode of spelling; Valentin Hein, and Sulzer, who, 1700-1799, introduced an improved mode of teaching arithmetic. But, unfortunately, there soon grew in the Folk's-schools a deadly poison of all good--Mysticism, which was carried by the teachers to a most mischievous length. Equally blighting lay the pharisaical constraint of evangelical orthodoxy on the school system, not less influentially than that of the Romish hierarchy. It was not till philanthropy raised its head in the middle of the eighteenth century, through the influence of Locke, Rousseau, and Bassedow, that the school system appeared earnestly to seek to improve itself. Locke was the first to treat with a philosophical spirit educational tuition, as a connected whole. T. P. Crousatz followed in the same path. In Germany, the fiery Bassedow, in 1768, took up the Rousseau enthusiasm, and sought to plant the ideas of this philosopher in his native soil.

We imagine that we have so far conducted the reader that he can easily follow the description of the institutions for popular education of our time. We have arrived at the position we recently alluded to, and have with it reached also, that exact point of union whence all that succeeds diverges. Although it yet remains to be shown how the various kinds of schools have gradually developed themselves, we believe we may pass over this part of the subject, as on the one hand all that is necessary may be inferred from what has just been said, and on the other, they are too much a part of the present not to be well known to all. Let us therefore proceed to an illustration of the system of our Folk's-schools, which divide themselves into higher and lower; and in the first place notice the lower, as

THE ELEMENTARY, OR PROPER FOLK'S-SCHOOLS.

In matters of school economy, the Catholics in Germany continued far behind the Protestants, because they cherished the notion that diffusion of knowledge amongst the people was dangerous to the state; and therefore most carefully cut off all possible opportunities for advancing popular instruction; whereas the Protestants, on the contrary, from the last half of the eighteenth century, spared no sacrifice for the promotion of such an object. Such men as Campe, Salzmann, Trapp, rendered services to instruction in a more restricted sense, since they began to reduce the science of tuition to a system; but Rochou was the first who undertook, in the spirit of philanthropy, to work a genuine reformation in the Folk's-schools. Then appeared Pestalozzi, who grounded education on the natural developement of the powers and capacities themselves. His system, which proved its worth in the severe trials that it underwent in the hands of Tillich, Plaman, Schwartz, Ewald, Türk, Ladomus, Herbert, Zeller, Harnisch, Kant, Fichte, Schelling, Jean Paul, Arndt, Pœlitz, Stephani, Dinter, and others, found, by degrees, general acceptance; and our present school system may with perfect justice be styled the Pestalozzian. But for the necessary preparatory education of teachers themselves, earnest care was soon taken, and a great number of school-teacher seminaries were founded, in which this class of men must study and qualify themselves, and which to them must stand in the same relation as the universities to the professors of scientific and general knowledge. By these means the general improvement of the business of education experienced only accelerating circumstances; and now even Catholic countries, particularly those in which many Protestants dwell, ceased to hang back, and there is now scarcely a place in Germany which does not possess a school; scarcely a state whose government has not thrown out a plan of education more or less adapted to its end. Yes; foreign nations themselves now acknowledge the preeminence of Germany in school economy.

On a closer inquiry into the organization of these proper Folk's-schools, the great variety of the same however strikes us, and we cannot here omit to notice a circumstance which is of the most essential importance. In many--yes, in most of the country schools, are the school establishments subdivided according to the different confessions of faith; and this circumstance extends itself even to the schools of the smallest villages. Although the greater part of these are placed under the jurisdiction of a High Board, and are formed, more or less, on a common plan, yet the disadvantage is not to be denied, which must necessarily result from such a system of subdivision. We have observed above how much all Catholic countries lay behind in popular enlightenment, which alone flourishes through popular instruction; and we must, we regret to say, remark that this sorrowful experience again manifests itself as an attribute of these aforesaid school institutions. How very different is it in the Protestant schools! If unlimited freedom of teaching is given to those as well as these, yet the opinions taught are very different, and the consequences of an all-too scrupulous observation of dogmatic forms, not the most agreeable, are seen in the Catholic schools. On the contrary, the Protestant schools follow, free from constraint, every direction of the mind, and the foundation of a philosophical system is here first discernible.

In strong contradistinction to both these, stand the so-called Communal-schools, as those which are intended for children of each denomination. These schools, wherever they exist, exert the most beneficent influence on the people. The foundation pillars of all human happiness. Tolerance and Intelligence, find here the securest guarantees for their enduring existence; since, however much men have striven or may strive to counteract them, it continues still incontestably true, that the first impressions on the minds of children are the most vivid and permanent, and the spirit in later years of life pursues its course in accordance with such impressions. It requires no demonstration to show how rich in blessings is such a school system; and the reader will excuse us turning now to a further pursuit of our theme.

It is particularly to be observed, that various attempts have been made to extend these school regulations so far as to allow boys and girls to be taught altogether in one and the same class. Such experiments were, however, for the most part confined to such places where the circumstances entirely permitted their trial, which was only here and there; and such school dispositions yet exist. But generally, the instruction is given to boys and girls in one building, but in separate rooms.

Before we cast a glance at the mode of school tuition, we will passingly remark, that in most German towns there are, besides the proper Folk's-schools, many establishments for boys and girls, as well for elementary as for more complete education. These stand, however, in no connexion with the Folk's-schools, and do not profess in the slightest degree to employ the same machinery. Yet these educational establishments in the present time deserve so much attention, that to say only what is barely necessary upon them would lead us too far.