AUTHOR'S PREFACE THIS book is the outgrowth of twelve years of classroom instruction, supplemented by other work in the training of teachers. It is an attempt to present with logical cogency a simple and definite system of principles for guiding educational thought and practice. Elaboration useless for this practical purpose has been avoided. Attention should be called especially to two characteristics of this discussion of the principles of education. (1) Man is here regarded as a person who seeks to attain purposes through means of control and also as a psychophysical organism in a process of adjustment to environment through stimuli and responses; but these two points of view, the confusion of which has led to much erratic thinking in the field of education, have been kept distinct. (2) The importance in the educative process of the appreciation of values is here emphasized as much as is the importance of the knowledge of facts, by which appreciated values may be attained. In this connection, the essential nature and function of history and of literature and the other fine arts are explained, and the methods in accordance with which this subject matter should be taught are definitely presented. Quotations used in this book are evidence of my indebtedness to various authors. I should acknowledge especial indebtedness to my former teachers, including Professors Paul H. Hanus, Hugo Münsterberg, and Josiah Royce at Harvard University; Professors John Dewey, John Angus MacVannel, Frank M. McMurry, and Edward L. Thorndike at Teachers College, Columbia University; and Professor John P. Gordy at Ohio State University. My former colleague Professor W. W. Charters of the Carnegie Institute of Technology has read the entire manuscript and has made valuable suggestions for its improvement. Dean Frank Thilly of Cornell University and my colleagues Professors Max F. Meyer and George H. Sabine have given helpful criticisms of parts of the discussion. I am indebted to my colleagues Professors Frederick M. Tisdel and Robert M. Dewey, who have read the manuscript and are responsible for much improvement in the matter of expression. Acknowledgment is due my former colleague Dean Frank P. Graves of the University of Pennsylvania and his wife, Helen Wadsworth Graves, who have reviewed the proof of the entire book. Acknowledgment for helpful criticism of the manuscript and proof is due my wife, Edith Logan Coursault. A final indebtedness I owe to my parents, who encouraged me to prepare for the profession of teaching. COLUMBIA, MISSOURI, JESSE H. COURSAULT. SUGGESTIONS FOR USING THIS BOOK AS A TEXTBOOK THIS book is adaptable to students in various stages of advancement. The student unacquainted with psychology may omit the sections in which the principles of education are discussed from the point of view of natural science and still find a complete connected account of these principles presented from the point of view to which he has been accustomed in everyday life. Other omissions that may be made in the case of students whose knowledge of education is very limited will be evident to the teacher. The introductory chapter, which explains the purpose and plan of this book, is necessarily more abstract than are the subsequent chapters. As shown on pages 21 and 22, the systematic presentation of the principles of education begins with Chapter II. The student whose previous experience has not prepared him to understand fully the introductory chapter should, therefore, study it at first not for complete mastery, but for whatever insight into the purpose and plan of the subsequent discussion he can gain by the careful reading of it. After he has studied the rest of the book, he will be prepared to understand fully this chapter and should then re-read it. Each chapter and section is prefaced by a brief statement of the essential ideas contained in it. At first the student should regard these statements tentatively as propositions to be explained and verified. After he has X read the discussion, he may regard them as the conclusions of the chapters or of the sections to which they belong. A few references for further study1 with comment upon each and a few problems for solution are given at the end of each chapter. The student himself should find other readings and problems; for when he has acquired the subject matter here presented, he should be able to recognize important discussions of principles of education as well as to review these discussions critically, and to recognize important educational problems as well as to apply the principles in solving them. Since one learns by doing, the importance of applying the principles in the criticism of educational thought and practice and in the solution of educational problems cannot be overestimated. Furthermore, the only adequate evidence that the student understands these principles is his ability to use them. In order to be most useful to the student, the principles of education must be logically organized in his experience. For this reason the subject matter is here presented in logical form. It is desirable, however, that the teacher in using this book as a textbook do not follow too closely the logical order of topics. It would be well, for example, in teaching the chapter entitled How New Purposes Are Made,' to show briefly the application of the conclusions reached to the explanation of the nature of some poem or picture, such as the Twenty-Third Psalm or The Slave Ship, and to the explanation of the method of teaching this poem or picture. The principles developed in the chapter entitled How New Means of Control Are Made 1 For class work, it is desirable that one copy of each important reference book be reserved in the library for each four students in the class. 'Ch. IV. See pp. 397-400, 402-404, and 404-406. 'See pp. 219-221 and 230–231. Ch. V. |