But in any case, the whole college course will be unified and dominated by a single interest, a single purpose - that of so understanding human life as to be ready and equipped for the practice of it. And this would mean for the college, not another seeking of the way of quick returns, but rather an escape from aimless wanderings in the mere by-paths of knowledge, a resolute climbing on the high road to a unified grasp upon human experience. THE PHILOSOPHY OF EDUCATION1 INAUGURAL ADDRESS BY PRESIDENT JOHN GRIER HIBBEN IN entering formally upon the duties of the high office of president of Princeton University, I wish to present in my inaugural address the essential principles of our philosophy of education. We believe that the chief end of an education is the making of a man. It is the process of developing a power within which enables the human being to dominate the instincts and habits of his animal nature, assert himself as a free personality, and direct his life according to the light of reason. While he is a part of the natural world, man belongs also to the world of mind and of spirit. The particular function of education is to give him the power of freedom and to make him sensible of the duties and worthy of the privileges of a person in the midst of a universe of things. Personality, however, is not mechanically formed from without, but must be evoked from within. The appeal of the teacher, therefore, is constantly directed to the inner spirit of the student, that spirit of life which informs the man and puts him into possession of his powers. The forces which find play in the activities of the mind are like the architectonic principle which is at work in the inner nature of a plant, fashioning it into the form of grace and 1 Reprinted from the North American Review by special permission. beauty. Thus, with the emancipation of a free spirit at the sources of his being, the man within begins to develop both in power and in promise. It is of the very nature of education, however, that it does not result in a complete and finished product, but rather in a progressive process. There is nothing final about it. Its achievements always mark new beginnings. It is the power of an endless life. To say that a man is educated signifies that he has finished merely the preliminary stages of a continuous and progressive development. Education, therefore, must always be defined in terms of life, of growth, of progress. Its peculiar function is the conservation of those great human forces which make for the advancement of knowledge and the civilization of the world. We hear much today of the conservation of our national resources, our forests, the treasures of our mines, and the vast material wealth of our land. But while we are emphasizing the necessity of a national economy we should not overlook the fact that the task of conserving and of developing the resources of the intellectual, moral, and spiritual power in our nation is the one supreme task. To conserve these powers, to cause them to develop and to prevail, to deliver free spirits from the bondage of ignorance and of material impulse, from the bondage of authority, of tradition, of public opinion, of passing fashion, and of prejudice, and to direct these liberated human forces to the highest ends, that is the art of education. There is a common phrase, "to receive an education," against which I would most emphatically protest. No one receives an education any more than he receives health or strength or life. It is the fruit of a firm and intelligent will. It is gained only by active effort, continuous and determined. An education is won by work; and the labors to be undertaken and the end to be attained may all be summed up in the command, Be a person. This is a command which is not merely the work of the teacher, but is essentially an inner compulsion possessing the solemn authority of self-legislation. It is the determination to be something more than a creature of circumstance; it is the purpose to realize in the full measure of one's possibilities the power and the dignity of humanity. While plant and animal develop according to the power which they may possess of adapting themselves to their environment, it is the distinctive characteristic of man that he progresses through his ability to adapt his environment to himself, and thus he determines the world in which he lives. As freedom is the distinctive mark of a vigorous personality, all the processes of education must be directed to secure this essential end. Therefore, the ideal university education may be described as consisting of two phases a phase in which every effort is directed to the attainment of freedom, and, secondly, a progressive phase of development in which the freedom gained in the earlier stages finds for itself varied pursuits and pleasures in the fields of knowledge. Hence it would seem essential that in the early years of one's university experience those studies should be pursued which are peculiarly conducive to the discipline and training of the mind, and eventually to the evolution of a selfdetermining and self-realizing will. They deserve the name of liberal studies so far as they may tend to free the mind from the natural and artificial obstacles to its progressive development. One who is to maintain the health and growth of his intellectual life must come surely at some later period in his development to delight in the tasks of the intellect. To rejoice in the labors of the mind is not a prevailing characteristic of the natural man. As Aristotle has put it, "All men naturally desire knowledge, but not all men desire the labor of learning." It often happens, however, in intellectual discipline, as in the development of moral virility, that a course of action which is done for a time under the stress of a sense of obligation and as a grievous duty, becomes after a time a pleasure and a joy. Just as it is possible to grow into an enthusiasm for that which is right and honorable and of good report, so also it is possible by the discipline of one's intellectual powers to develop an enthusiasm for the activities and pursuits of the mind. The practical problem, therefore, for the teacher, and particularly for a faculty of teachers, is to choose that body of studies which will best produce a spirit of devotion to the cause of knowledge and of joy in its service. Any satisfactory solution of this problem must rest upon the basal principle that true intellectual freedom is gained only through discipline. If there is to be intellectual power in the world it must be the power of a free spirit; and the power of a free spirit in turn can arise only out of a spirit of docility. To this doctrine, however, there are many who would enter a most emphatic dissent. They very stoutly insist that there should be no body of required studies whatsoever in a university, but that each student should follow his own free choice in selecting the particular subjects he may be pleased to pursue, and that such initial exercise of freedom is itself the best training for the wise uses of freedom in general. It is a very serious question indeed, whether the freedom of an ignorant and undisciplined mind may not come to defeat its own ends and purposes. |