Chapter VIII: =Remarks on the Plan of Instruction as a Whole=

131. Where many diverse means are to coöperate for the attainment of one end, where many obstacles have to be overcome, where persons of higher, equal, and lower rank enter as factors requiring consideration, it is always a difficult matter to keep the end itself, the one fixed goal, steadily in view. In instruction the difficulty is increased by the fact that no one single teacher can impart the whole, and that consequently a number of teachers are obliged to depend on one another. But for this very reason, however much circumstances may vary the courses of study, the common end, namely, many-sided, well-balanced, well-connected interest, in the achievement of which the true development of mental powers consists, needs to be lifted into prominence as the one thing toward which all details of procedure should point.

132. No more time, we need to realize at the outset, should be demanded for instruction than is consistent with the proviso that the pupils retain their natural buoyancy of spirits. This must be insisted on, and not merely for the sake of health and physical vigor; a more direct argument for our present purpose lies in the fact that all art and labor employed to keep the attention awake will be thwarted by the disinclination to study caused by sitting too long, and even by excessive mental application alone. Forced attention does not suffice for instruction, even though it may be had through disciplinary measures.

It is urgently necessary that every school have not only spacious schoolrooms, but also a playground; it is further necessary that each recitation be followed by an intermission, that after the first two periods permission be granted for exercise in the open air, and that the same permission be given after the third period if there is a fourth to follow.

Still more urgent is the demand that pupils shall not be deprived of their hours of needed recreation by an excessive amount of school work to be done at home. The teacher who loads pupils down with home tasks in order to dispense as much as possible with perhaps uncertain home supervision, substitutes a certain and general evil for a possible and partial one.

The neglect of such precautions has given rise in recent times to very bitter complaints, which will continue to be heard in future for similar reasons. Violent gymnastic exercise is not the means to put a stop to them. They threaten to lead to another extreme--such restrictions upon instruction as will make an inner unity of work impossible.

The subjects of fatigue and school hygiene have now grown to
unexpected dimensions. Many periodicals are devoted to them, while
the volume of literature bearing upon them has passed the stage where
one person can be expected to command it all. In his “Bibliography
of School Hygiene,” published in the “Proceedings of the National
Educational Association for 1898,” Professor William H. Burnham
enumerates four hundred and thirty-six standard works, articles, and
journals dedicated to this cause. Many of these books, like those of
Eulenberg and Bach, or Burgerstein and Netolitzky, comprise hundreds
of pages, being based on extended experiment and research.

133. The time properly belonging to instruction must not be scattered. The deep-rooted practice of assigning two hours per week to one study and two hours to another, each lesson separated from the next by an interval of two or three days, is absurd, because incompatible with continuity of presentation. Of course, if the teacher can stand this arrangement, the pupils will have to endure it.

The subjects of instruction must be taken up in order that each may have its share of continuous time. To give a whole term to each is not always practicable; frequently shorter periods will have to suffice.

Again, one subject must not be split into several, according to the names of its branches. If, for example, we should set apart separate hours for Greek and Roman antiquities and again for mythology in addition to the time designated for the reading of ancient authors, separate hours for the systematic survey of the branches of knowledge besides those reserved for German in the highest class of the gymnasium, separate hours for analytic geometry alongside of algebra, we should tear asunder where we ought to join together, and should dissipate the time at our disposal.

Saving time depends on methods better than these,--on proficiency in presenting a subject and skill in conducting recitations.

Despite the protest here entered, German schools still adhere to the
plan of presenting many subjects simultaneously, few hours per week
being devoted to each. American schools are fairly free from the
reproach, it being an exception to find standard subjects taught less
than four or five times per week.

134. As boys grow older, they may derive a great deal of profit from reading and doing many things by themselves. Following their own choice, they develop in accordance with their individual traits. We question, however, the wisdom of calling for reports on such outside pursuits. Pupils of ordinary capacity should not be made ambitious to imitate what they are not fitted for; extensive reading must not impair feeling and thinking. Breadth of learning is not identical with depth, and cannot make up for lack of depth. Instead of reading, some engage in the study of a fine art. Others are compelled at an early age to give lessons in order to support themselves. These learn while teaching.

The essentials of a coherent scheme of studies must not be dependent on outside reading; they must be embraced in the plan of instruction itself.

135. From beginning to end the course of study must be arranged so as to provide for each of the main classes of interest. The empirical interest, to be sure, is called forth everywhere more easily than any of the other kinds. But religious instruction always fosters sympathetic interest; in this it must have the assistance of history and language study. Æsthetic culture at first depends on the work in the mother-tongue; it is desirable to have, in addition, instruction in singing, which at the same time promotes the health of the pupil. Later on, the ancient classics contribute their share of influence. Training in thinking is afforded by analytic, grammatical, and mathematical instruction; toward the end, also, by the study of history, which then becomes a search for causes and effects. Coöperation of this sort is to be sought everywhere; the authors to be studied must be selected with this end in view, and interpreted accordingly.

If there is a defect in Herbart’s scheme of interests as a guide
to the selection of the studies of the curriculum, it lies in the
fact that the interests named are too exclusively applied to the
pupil’s individual life, and not enough to his life as a member
of the social whole. There is an important sense in which even
natural science, which may be expected to cultivate the speculative
interests, is social; for science becomes truly significant only
when it contributes to the service of men. The fact that we now live
in an industrial age, that life is preserved from disease in so large
a measure, that the well-being of every community is advancing so
rapidly, that universal education is now a fact rather than a dream,
is due to the application of science to human welfare. Consequently,
we are not restricted to a few humanitarian topics, like history and
literature, for the development of our social interests. We find that
every study has its sociological as well as its personal bearings. On
the other hand, since all studies are both subjective and objective
in the interests they arouse, it would be possible to awaken all the
six classes of interest enumerated by teaching but a fraction of
what we now consider needful in a good curriculum. It would seem,
therefore, that the six classes of interest, at best, indicate what
the _quality_ of our teaching should be, not with sufficient accuracy
_what_ subjects should be taught. The latter is determined quite as
much by social as by psychological needs.

SECTION III

TRAINING