Chapter 2

A SURVEY OF MODERN EDUCATION

The precepts which govern moral education and instruction.

Child expected to acquire virtues by imitation, instead of development

Domination of the child's will the basis of education

It is the teacher who forms the child's mind. How he teaches.

Teacher's path beset with difficulties under the present system

Advanced experts prepare the schemata of instruction

Some outlines of "model lessons" used in the schools

Comparison of a "model lesson" for sense development with the Montessori method

Experimental psychology, not speculative psychology, the basis of Montessori teaching

False conceptions of the "art of the teacher" illustrated by model lessons

Positive science makes its appearance in the schools

Discoveries of medicine: distortions and diseases

Science has not fulfilled its mission in its dealings with children.

Diseases of school children treated, causes left undisturbed

Discoveries of experimental psychology: overwork; nervous exhaustion

Science is confronted by a mass of unsolved problems.

Laws governing fatigue still unknown

Toxines produced by fatigue and their antitoxins

Joy in work the only preventative of fatigue

Real experimental science, which shall liberate the child, not yet born