The organisation of thought, educational and scientificWhitehead, Alfred North
Philosophy
The organisation of thought, educational and scientific
Whitehead, Alfred North
Education
But in considering this description, I must beg you to remember what I
have been insisting on above. In the first place, one train of thought
will not suit all groups of children. For example, I should expect that
artisan children will want something more concrete and, in a sense,
swifter than I have set down here. Perhaps I am wrong, but that is
what I should guess. In the second place, I am not contemplating one
beautiful lecture stimulating, once and for all, an admiring class.
That is not the way in which education proceeds. No; all the time the
pupils are hard at work solving examples, drawing graphs, and making
experiments, until they have a thorough hold on the whole subject.
I am describing the interspersed explanations, the directions which
should be given to their thoughts. The pupils have got to be made to
feel that they are studying something, and are not merely executing
intellectual minuets.
In this connection the excellence of some of the most recent text-books
on elementary algebra emanating from members of this Association,
should create an epoch in the teaching of the subject.
Finally, if you are teaching pupils for some general examination,
the problem of sound teaching is greatly complicated. Have you ever
noticed the zig-zag moulding round a Norman arch? The ancient work is
beautiful, the modern work is hideous. The reason is, that the modern
work is done to exact measure, the ancient work is varied according
to the idiosyncrasy of the workman. Here it is crowded, and there it
is expanded. Now the essence of getting pupils through examinations
is to give equal weight to all parts of the schedule. But mankind is
naturally specialist. One man sees a whole subject, where another can
find only a few detached examples. I know that it seems contradictory
to allow for specialism in a curriculum especially designed for a
broad culture. Without contradictions the world would be simpler, and
perhaps duller. But I am certain that in education wherever you exclude
specialism you destroy life.
We now come to the other great branch of a general mathematical
education, namely Geometry. The same principles apply. The theoretical
part should be clear-cut, rigid, short, and important. Every
proposition not absolutely necessary to exhibit the main connection
of ideas should be cut out, but the great fundamental ideas should
be all there. No omission of concepts, such as those of Similarity
and Proportion. We must remember that, owing to the aid rendered by
the visual presence of a figure, Geometry is a field of unequalled
excellence for the exercise of the deductive faculties of reasoning.
Then, of course, there follows Geometrical Drawing, with its training
for the hand and eye.
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