School educationMason, Charlotte M. (Charlotte Maria)
Philosophy
School education
Mason, Charlotte M. (Charlotte Maria)
Education -- Curricula; Education -- Philosophy
=Psychologies are many.=—But, alas, psychologies are many, and
educational denominations are bitterly opposed to one another. We must
feel our way to some test by which we can discern a working psychology
for our own age; for, like all science, psychology is progressive. What
worked even fifty years ago will not work to-day, and what fulfils our
needs to-day will not serve fifty years hence; there is no last word to
be said upon education; it evolves with the evolution of the race. At
the same time, that there should be at least half a dozen systems in the
field, no one of them entirely satisfactory even to the persons who adopt
it, shows that we, who practise education, should at any rate attempt to
know what are the requirements of a sound system of psychology.
=Conditions of an Adequate System.=—That system which shall be of use to
practical people in giving purpose, unity and continuity to education,
must satisfy the following demands:—_It must be adequate_, covering
the whole nature of man and his relations with all that is other than
himself. _It must be necessary_, that is, no other equally adequate
psychology should present itself; and _it must touch at all points the
living thought of the age_; that is, it must not be a by-issue to be
discussed by specialists at their leisure, but the intelligent man in the
street should feel its movement to be in step with the two or three great
ideas by which the world is just now being educated.
=Sacredness of the Person.=—Among the thoughts which the mysterious
Zeitgeist is employing to bring us up, I think we may put first _the
sacredness of the person_. Every person is interesting to us to-day.
The interviewer does more than satisfy vulgar curiosity; what he has
to tell is equally welcome to us all, whether he interviews the London
‘step-girl,’ the costermonger, the man of the book-barrow, ’Arry and
’Arriet out for a holiday, an ambassador, an author, an artist, a royal
personage; every detail that will help us to realise the personality
of one or other is more than welcome. So, too, of what is called the
‘Kailyard’ literature; it rests on a sound basis. Literary merit it may
or may not have, but it tells us what we want to know—everyday details
about the people, any people, of any county, or of any country. Slang
dictionaries, collections of folk-lore, big biographies which tell us
minutely how a man dines and breakfasts, walks and sleeps, all is grist
to our mill. We set an enormous and, I think, an increasing value upon
_persons_, simply, _per se_; and any system of psychology which is to
appeal to us must bring the _person_ to the fore. He may be influenced
by this and that; but he, himself, the indefinable person, of whom we
are sensible while he is yet in arms, and of whom we never finally lose
sight, however he be marred by vice and misery, must play for himself
the game of life, and shape for himself those influences of environment,
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account