The conception that the psychology of individuals has no intrinsic
connections with logical methods and results is held, curiously enough,
by two opposing schools of educational theory. To one school, the
_natural_[12] is primary and fundamental; and its tendency is to make
little of distinctly intellectual nurture. Its mottoes are freedom,
self-expression, individuality, spontaneity, play, interest, natural
unfolding, and so on. In its emphasis upon individual attitude and
activity, it sets slight store upon organized subject-matter, or the
material of study, and conceives _method_ to consist of various devices
for stimulating and evoking, in their natural order of growth, the
native potentialities of individuals.
[12] Denoting whatever has to do with the natural constitution and
functions of an individual.
[Sidenote: Neglect of the innate logical resources]
[Sidenote: Identification of logical with subject-matter, exclusively]
The other school estimates highly the value of the logical, but
conceives the natural tendency of individuals to be averse, or
at least indifferent, to logical achievement. It relies upon
_subject-matter_--upon matter already defined and classified. Method,
then, has to do with the devices by which these characteristics may be
imported into a mind naturally reluctant and rebellious. Hence its
mottoes are discipline, instruction, restraint, voluntary or conscious
effort, the necessity of tasks, and so on. From this point of view
studies, rather than attitudes and habits, embody the logical factor in
education. The mind becomes logical only by learning to conform to an
external subject-matter. To produce this conformity, the study should
first be analyzed (by text-book or teacher) into its logical elements;
then each of these elements should be defined; finally, all of the
elements should be arranged in series or classes according to logical
formulæ or general principles. Then the pupil learns the definitions one
by one; and progressively adding one to another builds up the logical
system, and thereby is himself gradually imbued, from without, with
logical quality.
[Sidenote: Illustration from geography,]
This description will gain meaning through an illustration. Suppose the
subject is geography. The first thing is to give its definition, marking
it off from every other subject. Then the various abstract terms upon
which depends the scientific development of the science are stated and
defined one by one--pole, equator, ecliptic, zone,--from the simpler
units to the more complex which are formed out of them; then the more
concrete elements are taken in similar series: continent, island, coast,
promontory, cape, isthmus, peninsula, ocean, lake, coast, gulf, bay, and
so on. In acquiring this material, the mind is supposed not only to gain
important information, but, by accommodating itself to ready-made
logical definitions, generalizations, and classifications, gradually to
acquire logical habits.
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