But turn your eyes upon the actual state of things, and see if schools and teachers are fulfilling their honorable missions. “Everywhere we have seen such teachers and masters, who knew nothing themselves and could teach nothing that was good and useful; they did not even know how to learn and to teach” (5: p. 117). Luther’s innovation in education was to liberate children from this strait-jacketness of instruction and discipline, and to bring in the air of freedom, cheerfulness, broad-mindedness, and respect for the child’s growing personality. “It is dangerous to isolate the young. It is necessary, on the contrary, to allow young people to hear, see, learn all sorts of things, while all the time observing the restraints and rules of honor. Enjoyment and recreation are as necessary for children as food and drink” (5: p. 119). The individuality of the child should be respected and nourished. “A child intimidated by bad treatment is irresolute in all he does. He who has trembled before his parents will tremble all his life at the sound of a leaf which rustles in the wind” (5: p. 119). As to the subject-matter of instruction, religion, classical languages and Hebrew, history, music, and mathematics should be taught. Luther speaks slightingly of the mediæval learning of philosophy as “the devil’s rubbish,” which was “acquired with too great cost, labor, and harm,” and wanted to substitute for it the study of history, conceived as the source of the real knowledge of the world. He attaches also a high importance to music, as a means of emotional culture, even saying that “unless a schoolmaster know how to sing, I think him of no account” (5: p. 119). “Knightly sport” is to be encouraged as a means of physical culture. To remedy “the greatest evil in every place”--i.e., the lack of teachers--he emphasizes the urgent need of special training for them. The best of the pupils, boys and girls, are to be selected, kept a longer time in school, given special instructors, and libraries opened for their use. The professional training of teachers as well as the education of the people is the duty of the authorities.