could likewise be connected with some of the important facts given in the discussion of the general nature of the sciences,1 and in the discussion of the method of teaching control subject matter. Such cross references would add to the practical interest of the student in the study of the principles and would help him to carry over the earlier formulations of principles to their applications when later he takes up systematically the study of these applications.

THE PRINCIPLES OF EDUCATION

CHAPTER I

THE PURPOSE AND PLAN OF THIS BOOK

In educational thought and practice, there is need of guiding principles which conform to the truths established by modern science and philosophy. It is the purpose of this book to make these principles simple, definite, and clear. The truths established by science and philosophy are revealed from two points of view, — that of natural science, which describes and explains man in the light of physical causation as an organism responding to stimuli from the environment; and that of teleology, which regards him in the light of final causation as a person controlled by purposes and ideas. The principles of education derived from these two points of view may be made more easily available by reducing them to a single system through the translation of those derived from the point of view of natural science, which is more accurate, into the terms of teleology, which is easier. The method adopted here for presenting the principles of education is to analyze into its factors the process of human development which education is to control, and to find how these factors unite in doing their work.

I

Every student of education should critically revise, in the light of modern science and philosophy, the principles which guide his judgments of educational thought and practice.

The purpose of this book is to make simple, definite, and clear, a body of principles which should guide in educational thought and practice. Every student of

education has certain fundamental beliefs, or principles, which he uses as standards in judging the truth or falsity of educational ideas and practices, upon which, as an explanatory basis, he organizes his knowledge of educational matters, and in the light of which he sees new difficulties to be overcome and new problems to be solved. He may not be able to state these principles in systematic form; indeed, he may not even recognize them as principles. But he has them nevertheless. He must have them in order to know what else in education is worth while. To call them to mind, he need only consider such questions as whether the state should establish separate agricultural or trades schools; whether state aid to schools in poorer localities is just to taxpayers in wealthier localities; whether Latin, industrial arts, or some other subject matter should be included in the common school curriculum; what subjects in the curriculum should be elective and what subjects should be required; how science, history, or literature should be taught; to what extent telling should enter into teaching; what the values of interest and effort in school work are; whether there should be a difference between preparation for college and preparation for life. To deal intelligently with these educational problems, to deal intelligently with any educational problems, even where scientific measurement is made use of, one must have some fundamental ideas as to the nature of education and the part which education plays in the drama of life.

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The ordinary source of these principles is a more or less faulty popular tradition. Many of them have grown up in the popular mind and have become embalmed in the common expressions of the language. From time to time they have appeared as new ideas, but with the pass

ing of generations they became common habits of thought and now appear with the cloak of authority as "common sense." Just as people speak of the sun's "rising" and "setting" as if by its own motion, although for three hundred years science has taught differently, so they entertain with regard to the fundamentals of education many ideas that are antiquated and untrue. Indeed, even persons who have made some progress in the study of education are often handicapped by the inadequate popular ideas to which they have been accustomed since childhood and which are as much a part of their mental equipment as the language they speak. Among these popular fallacies, some of which are in conflict one with another, are the beliefs that our ideas of things in the external world are copies of the things themselves; that these copies are impressed upon the mind through the senses; that the mind is composed of general powers, or faculties, which can be developed by special exercise; that the chief aim of education is knowledge; that the most valuable effect of literature and music is refined pleasure; that the child's undirected interests are the only guides to what he should study; that the most valuable result of education is mental discipline and strength gained through effort in learning.

Because the principles of education are of such fundamental importance, and because the popular common sense" beliefs are so often untrue, every student of education should revise critically his basic ideas of the subject and make them conform to the truths established by modern science and philosophy. Failure to do this abandons him to the fallacies of popular judgment in educational matters; it leaves him with an inadequate basis for explaining and organizing modern educational

truths, and consequently without easily available guides for educational practice; and it consigns him to the futile task of trying to solve false problems which arise in any attempt to carry out principles that are not true. Illustrations will make this statement plainer. The erroneous popular belief that literature is merely for refined pleasure would lead one to misjudge the importance of this subject in the course of study. The belief that ideas of things in the external world are copies of those things acquired through the senses would be an inadequate basis for explaining, and therefore an inadequate basis for organizing for use, the steps by which a person acquires knowledge through solving problems by means of hypotheses. The erroneous popular belief that the most valuable result of education is mental discipline and strength gained through effort in learning, and the conflicting, but equally erroneous, belief that the child's undirected interests are the only guides to what he should study, would lead respectively to the one-sided problems of what should be in the curriculum merely because it requires effort and furnishes discipline, and what should be in merely because it excites interest.

Special studies in the field of education, such as educational psychology, the theory of teaching, and school administration, as well as more general subject matter, such as ethics, sociology, biology, general psychology, history, logic, epistemology, and metaphysics, reveal valid principles of education. None of them, however, covers the whole field of education. Each reveals principles of education from a special angle. All are more or less isolated and lack that organization which includes all points of view, which comprehends all of the fundamental principles, and which closely unites them into a