Chapter IX: Biographical History of the Pupil and His Antecedents (3)

Séguin, in his glorious treatise on scientific pedagogy, dedicates
a chapter to the training of the teacher of defective children. The
teacher of abnormal pupils is not an educator, he is a _creator_;
he must have _been born_ with special gifts, as well as to have
perfected himself for this high task. He ought, says Séguin, to
be handsome in person, and strong as well, so that he may attract
and yet command; his glance should be serene, like that of one
who has gained victories through faith and has attained enduring
peace; his manner should be imperturbable as that of one not easily
persuaded to change his mind. In short, he ought to feel beneath
him the solid rock, the foundation of granite on which his feet
are planted and his steps assured. From this solid base, he should
rise commandingly, like a magician. His voice should be gentle,
melodious, and flexible, with bursts of silvery and resounding
eloquence, but always without harshness. Séguin describes the
methods by which the teacher should educate his own voice, speech
and gesture; he should take a course in facial expression and
declamation, like a great actor who is preparing to win favor of
the select and critical public of the proudest capital.

For, as a matter of fact, he must attract the minds and souls of
human beings who are almost inaccessible, beings who form whole
armies in the world, entire peoples, they are so numerous; powerful
human armies that threaten society with terrible punishment and
bring about cruel executions.

But the perfect teacher must possess something more than physical
beauty and acquired art; he must have the loftiness of a soul
ardent for its mission; yet even this may be cultivated and
perfected. The teacher must "perfect himself" in his moral nature.
There are men, who from the moment they make their appearance,
exert a sort of fascination; everyone else becomes silent in their
presence. It is almost as though some natural fluid emanated from
them and spread to the others, so profoundly does everyone feel
the attraction. When such a man speaks, the words seem, as if by
magic, to touch the profoundest recesses of the heart. Hypnotists
and magicians! Conquerors of souls! Valiant souls themselves; souls
with a great mission!

Well, this is more or less what is demanded of the teacher of
abnormal children. He ought to be conscious of his personal dignity
and human virtue, and of a sincere love for the children whom
it is his task to redeem; his own greatness must overcome their
wretchedness. And if he continues to perfect himself and to mount
toward the moral altitudes, cultivating at the same time a love
for his own mission, he will, as if by magic, become an educator;
he will feel that a magic power of suggestion goes forth from him
and conquers; the work of redemption will then seem to accomplish
itself like a conflagration which has been kindled from some
central point and spreads in rolling flames through the dried
undergrowth.

Undoubtedly, the guidance of science is not everything to a
teacher; the better part is given him through his own moral
perfectionment.

4. The biographic history completes the individual study of the pupil and prepares for his diagnosis: combining, to this end, the work of the school with that of the home.

Sergi, in his memorable work, _First Steps in Scientific Pedagogy_, expresses himself as follows: "_the biographic chart is a methodical_ _means for learning to know the body and spirit of the pupil through_ _direct observations_.... And, since pupils may be classified according to tendencies, character and intelligence, the master may rationally divide them into various groups, to which he will give varied treatment, according to the direction in which each group shows the greatest need of education.... And he will place himself in closer association with _the pupils' families_, who should communicate to him their earliest observations regarding the physical and psychological nature of their children."

As a matter of fact, the anthropological movement, through the inquiries necessitated by the compilation of biographic charts, often proves illuminating to the members of the family, in regard to facts and conditions of which they had hitherto remained ignorant (sexual hygiene); in regard to the view they should take of their own children (those who had been regarded as "bad," and who were really ill), in regard to the way they should watch over them and take care of them, etc. Hence it has made a beginning of the practical application of a pedagogic principal that hitherto has only been abstractly visioned, of coordinating the educative work of the family with that of the school. A pedagogic institution which practically realizes this conception, which was hitherto only a utopian dream of pedagogy, is the "Children's House;" because by having school in the home and by having teachers and mothers living together, it results in harmonizing the environment of the family with that of the school, for the furtherance of the great mission of education.

5. The biographic chart will furnish everyone with a document capable of guiding him in his own subsequent self-education.

Sergi says further in the work above quoted:

"The biographic chart should become a _precious document to_ _every man_, if the sort of record of which I speak were continued through a series of years, from the kindergartens upward through the entire course of the secondary schools, because it would contain, in compact and methodical form, the history of his physical and mental life, and he would find it of inestimable advantage both in practical life and in his various social relations."

6. "Lastly, the biographic chart with its gathering of positive data, prepares a great body of scientific material which will be useful, not alone to pedagogy, but also to sociology, medicine, and jurisprudence."

And in the same aforesaid work, Sergi adds: "If, for example, we should gather" (under the guidance of his biographic chart) "biographic notes in the city of Rome alone and in the elementary schools for both sexes, we should have for a single year, an average of fifty thousand observations, taken on entering and leaving school; if we could have them throughout the whole course of elementary instruction, the number of observations would amount to two hundred and fifty thousand.

"Then we should be able to see _in every social class all the_ _individual variations in physical and physiological condition which_ _contribute to the development of the intelligence and to the manifestations_ _of sentiments which play an active part in practical life._ _And all this would have a value of a sociological character._"

This conception of Sergi's is precisely one of the scientific
aspects of biographic histories that is of the highest importance,
provided that they could be recorded in so simple a manner as to
render the researches practically possible, and provided, also,
that they could be gathered with _a scientific uniformity of_
_method_ designed to render international researches harmonious.
We are certainly still very far removed from the time when
international pedagogical congresses will be held for the purpose
of establishing a single model form of biographic chart for each
of the various grades in school; and also an agreement as to the
technical method of taking the anthropological measurements! Before
arriving at this point it will be necessary to make many tentative
efforts and experiments.

But a truly scientific sociology, as well as pedagogy, ought
to emanate from such a study of _human beings in the course
of formation_, because such an enormously large number of
observations as could be gathered in school, will reveal to us
the biologico-social mechanism through which those activities are
formed that are destined to promote the progress of humanity and
civilisation (the new generations).

Medicine and the biological sciences in general entered upon a
new era of exceedingly rapid progress when the microscope made
possible the study of _histology_ and _bacteriology_; well, the
researches _in regard to the individual_ constitute the histology
and bacteriology of social science! When Le Play, in his great
work, _Les Ouvriers Européens_, instituted the "family monograph,"
i.e., the study of household accounts as a basis for "positive
sociology," he was considered as the founder of a true social
science. Because the true needs of men, the mechanism through which
are determined the various personalities that afterward _react upon
society_ as _creative or destructive_ forces, can be discovered
only through studying minutely such needs and mechanisms,
individual by individual, family by family. If Le Play's method,
and consequently _positive social science_, have not as yet made
much progress, this is because of the _difficulty of_ _penetrating
within the family in order to study it_.

From the bio-psychological point of view, if not from that of
the family account book, the biographic chart of the schools is
nevertheless a practical means of contributing to social histology;
it is a field open to research and one which must be crossed by
_every one_ of the individuals who constitute society. Furthermore,
it constitutes a foundation for social embryogeny; because in the
school we may study the _genesis of separate individuals_; the
causes which molded their congenital personality, and those which
brought about its definitive formation. In the words of Le Play,
indorsed by Bodio, this is the only positive material from which
the _legislator_ may draw his inspiration in order to become a true
dispenser of justice to the people and to conduct the far-sighted
reforms that are really necessary for the welfare of society.

Consequently, the anthropologic movement in pedagogy marks an
aspect of scientific reform which is universal.

A direct contribution to pedagogy and at the same time to
scientific sociology is given by the biographic charts in the
"Children's Houses." Since this is a case of _school within the
home_, where the mistress, being domiciled with her scholars, has
them under her charge from the age of two or three years, and where
there is a permanent resident physician to aid in the compilation
of the biographic charts, it is evident that there is a chance of
practically applying both the pedagogic plans for studying the
pupil, and the social plans of Le Play, who by means of family
monographs based upon the family account book, proposed to obtain
nothing more nor less than an index of morality, culture, and
individual needs! And as a matter of fact, the _manner of spending
the_ _salary_, the savings, the squanderings, the purpose for which
money is spent, whether it is for low vices, or for vanity, or for
æsthetic or intellectual pleasures in general, etc., reveal the
state of _civilisation and morality_ in which people _live_. In the
"Children's Houses" such a study of the family is easy because it
is revealed of its own accord, since the families are in contact
with the school; consequently, these "Children's Houses" may serve
to lay a true and practical foundation for _embryogenesis_ and
social histology. In short, the importance of research regarding
the individual goes far beyond the school; it leads the way to
every kind of social reform.

Even medicine, like every other science, is going to build up
a firmer scientific basis through the help of the biographic
charts of the schools: Professor De Sanctis has drawn up models
for examinations, mainly of a medical nature, to be used in
his asylum-schools for defectives; and by thus following the
development of the pupils, he has succeeded in throwing positive
light upon the biopathological mechanism through which an abnormal
psychopathic or neuropathic personality develops; while psychiatry
or neuropathology formerly recorded nothing more of such an
abnormal personality than the episode of the moment at which the
adult patient presented himself at the clinic. Even the individual
criminal has now come to be studied in relation to his genesis, and
jurists who are seeking a scientific basis for their enactments,
should not neglect the individual studies that are being compiled
in the schools for defectives. The biographic chart introduced into
the government reformatories in Italy will also furnish a direct
contribution to social histology, in regard to the genesis of
criminal personalities.

Consequently, the reform which has begun with the introduction of
an anthropological movement into the school and the establishment
of biographic charts, is nothing less than a reform of science as a
whole. Medicine, jurisprudence, and sociology as well as pedagogy,
are laying new foundations upon it.