Outlines of Educational Doctrine

SECTION II. INSTRUCTION I. The Relation of Instruction to Government and Training 39 II. The Aim of Instruction 44 III. The Conditions of Many-sidedness 51 IV. The Conditions De...

SECTION I. REMARKS ON THE TEACHINGS OF PARTICULAR BRANCHES OF STUDY I. Religion 219 II. History 223 III. Mathematics and Nature Study 241 IV. Geography 263 V. The Mother-tongue...

8. The term _virtue_ expresses the whole purpose of education. Virtue is the idea of inner freedom which has developed into an abiding actuality in an individual. Whence, as inn...

20. It is an error, indeed, to look upon the human soul as an aggregate of all sorts of faculties; but this error only becomes worse when, as is usually done, the statement is a...

45. We assume at the outset the existence of all the care and nurture requisite for physical growth and well-being; a bringing up that shall be as free from pampering as from da...

50. Since supervision is not to be vigorous to the point of ever felt pressure, child government, to be effective, requires both gentle and severe measures. In general, this eff...

Children must be kept employed at all events, because idleness leads to misbehavior and lawlessness. Now if the employment consists of useful labor, say in the workshop or on th...

62. The ultimate purpose of instruction is contained in the notion, virtue. But in order to realize the final aim, another and nearer one must be set up. We may term it, _many-s...

66. It becomes obvious at once that a many-sided culture cannot be brought about quickly. The requisite store of ideas is acquired only by successive efforts; but unification, a...

71. Interest means self-activity. The demand for a many-sided interest is, therefore, a demand for many-sided self-activity. But not all self-activity, only the right degree of...

83. Instruction is to be linked to the knowledge that experience provides, and to the ethical sentiments that arise from social intercourse (36). Empirical interest relates dire...

95. Differences in point of view give rise to conflicting opinions concerning not only the treatment, but also the choice of subject-matter for instruction. If, now, first one o...

105. Whether or not instruction will begin well and go on properly depends on a combination of three factors,--the teacher, the pupil, and the subject taught. Failure of the sub...

131. Where many diverse means are to coöperate for the attainment of one end, where many obstacles have to be overcome, where persons of higher, equal, and lower rank enter as f...

136. Training looks toward the pupil’s future. It is founded on hope, and shows itself, to begin with, in patience. It tempers government, the object of which might perhaps be r...

141. While the aim of instruction was rendered sufficiently determinate, as we saw above (17, 64, 65), by the injunction, be perfect, the aim of training, which supplements educ...

143. Our will activities result from ideas. Different masses of ideas give rise to different will action; hence the difficulty experienced in harmonizing and unifying the manifo...

148. Pupils at once active and kindly are not rare, and so far as the ideas of perfection and good-will are concerned, give rise to no anxiety, at least not at first. With a fir...

151. The function of training does not consist, it is true, in always restraining and meddling; still less in ingrafting the practices of others to take the place of the pupil’s...

160. The distinctions relative to character and morality (143–150) furnish the thread of reflection on this subject. Concisely stated, the function of training is to support, to...

195. Owing to the delicate character of the thread of life during the earliest years, care for the body, a subject falling outside the limits of the present discussion, has prec...

203. The real boundary line is fixed not by age, but by that stage of development when the helplessness of the first stage is superseded by control of the limbs and a connected...

217. The boundary line between boyhood and early childhood is fixed, so far as this is possible at all, by the fact that the boy, if allowed to do so, will leave the company of...

227. Whether instruction comes to an end or is continued during this period, all it can accomplish depends now on the fulfilment of the condition that the young man himself rega...

232. The content of religious instruction is for theologians to determine, while philosophy bears witness that no knowledge is able to surpass the trust of religious faith. But...

239. The most common blunder that younger teachers of history are apt to make is that, without intending it, they become increasingly prolix in presentation. It is not that inte...

252. Aptitude for mathematics is not rarer than aptitude for other studies. That the contrary seems true, is owing to a belated and slighted beginning. But that mathematicians a...

263. As to geography, at least two courses may be distinguished. One of these is analytic and begins with the pupil’s immediate neighborhood, the topography of the place, while...

The most general distinction to make is that between understanding and speaking. The distance between the two is a given factor at the time when regular instruction begins. It i...

277. As is well known, the exposition of grammatical distinctions and of the many turns of expression whereby language may become an adequate symbolization of thought, gains ver...

286. The more precise determination of the theory of instruction depends on the nature of particular subjects of instruction, on the individuality of the pupil, and on the exter...

294. Some faults are inherent; they are a part of the pupil’s individuality. Others have sprung up in the course of time; and of these, again, some have been influenced by the f...

305. (1) Where training has not provided for occupation and for the distribution of time, we must always expect to encounter an activity which has no aim, and which forgets its...

C. Training impresses the courtesies of life (counteracts bad manners), consequently:-- (1) the deportment of individuals is made approximately uniform; (2) the number of possib...

320. First of all it is necessary to distinguish between those faults which the pupil commits and those which he has. Not all faults one commits are direct manifestations of tho...

330. On discovering that his own efforts encounter impediments, the individual teacher might easily come to think that society could do everything, if it only would, and if it p...

338. The school system and its relations to local authorities, on the one hand, and to the general government, on the other, form a vast and difficult subject involving not mere...