cJa.^- 
 
Williams, Sejnuel G, 
 1889. 
 
 C.RWALCOTT. 
 
 Lfl 25 
 .W5 
 Copy 1 
 
 THE 
 
 HISTORY OF EDUCATION 
 
 ITS VALUE TO TEACHERS 
 
 A PAPER READ BEFORE THE NATIONAL EDUCATIONAL 
 ASSOCIATION, AT NASHVILLE, JULY i8th, 1889 
 
 BY 
 
 PROF. SAMUEL G, \yiLI.IAMS 
 0/ Cornell University 
 
Copy 
 
 1 
 
 ^^^ 
 
 • 4" 
 
 AT The History of Education. 
 
 *^ ITS VALUE TO TEACHERS. 
 
 /^UR present standpoint of educational attainment is obviously 
 ^-^ the result of past efforts. Our entire stock of effective ap- 
 pliances, of approved methods, of tested and confirmed principles, 
 and of valued schemes of organization, has its roots in the past, 
 and often a very remote past ; as have also the various branches 
 of learning which are used as means of intellectual training. So, 
 too, the means which are suited for the higher and more important 
 work of developing character, have been discussed and tested by 
 our predecessors ; their fitness, and the conditions under which 
 the}' are useful, have been in some degree ascertained ; and the 
 limits of their efficiency have been measurably determined. 
 
 Viewed, therefore, in the most general way, we should reason- 
 al>ly expect that an acquaintance with the History of Education 
 would be of great value to all teachers who aim to be something 
 better than mere slaves of routine, — and, happily, the number of 
 such teachers is rapidly increasing. Not only is it true that "the 
 better one knows the rules and principles of his art, the more bold- 
 ly he practices them ;" but also it is certain that the more thor- 
 oughly one understands as teacher the history of the methods he 
 uses, of the principles that he applies, and of the branches that he 
 teaches, the bolder, more intelligent, more ingeniously varied, and 
 more efficient will be likely to be all his operations, and the greater 
 the probability of beneficial improvement ; whilst the possibilit}' 
 that he may be tempted, by a false notion of originality, to the 
 repetition of discredited experiments will be reduced to a minimum. 
 
 I. What is doubtless the most valuable and essential service 
 that may be rendered to teachers by familiarit}- with the History 
 of Education, is one that is but too likely to be overlooked, viz : 
 the enhancement of the abilit}' to take a broad and unprejudiced 
 view of pedagogical questions. The acknowledged tendency of 
 the teacher's vocation is to produce a certain limitation of ideas to 
 a narrow circle, and to foster prejudices in favor of certain famil- 
 iar lines of work, or certain usual modes of doing work. This 
 
4 The History of Education. 
 
 tendency is incident to the very nature of his calling, which brings 
 him into intimate contact chiefly with immature minds, and usu- 
 ally limits his professional activity to the elements of a few 
 branches, which, when they become familiar, seem to the nar- 
 rowed vision to fill the entire round of desirable knowledge. From 
 this limitation of view, since narrowness is proverbially zealous, 
 spring an abundance of pedagogical treatises, discussions, and po- 
 lemics, which too commonly are pretentious rather than valuable, 
 and which, by their distortion and exaggeration of some phase of 
 truth, produce all the effects of error. Such works have given 
 occasion to a writer, in a recent issue of an influential journal of 
 education, to sa3^ with some display of bitterness, in treating of 
 " Low Tone in Teachers," "There is another incubus upon us 
 that may be noted in a word, and that is pedagogical literature. 
 The educational psychologists offer us the most dreadful imposi- 
 tions upon simple-minded teachers who are not learned in philoso- 
 phy. ... Of books on general pedagogy, almost all should be es- 
 chewed : the attempt to read them is purely injurious." It is to 
 be hoped that this statement is a pedagogical exaggeration, — an 
 illustration of a tendency to exaggerate so strong as to display 
 itself even in a rebuke of the results of distorted and one-sided 
 views. 
 
 The most effectual corrective to the tendency in question is to be 
 found in such an enlargement of the horizon of thought and of the 
 limitations of individual experience, as is likely to be gained by a 
 thoughtful study of the History of Education. There we may see 
 depicted gropings after improvement and conflicts of opinion, 
 which were, possibly, no more futile or causeless than those in 
 which we are actors. In its pages we may, with unprejudiced 
 vision, see mirrored the images of struggles wholly analogous to 
 our own " conflict of studies " and of ideas, — the struggle of scho- 
 lasticism against the noble monuments of classic literature ; the 
 struggle of Latinists against the growing literary use of vernacular 
 tongues; the struggle against the cultivation of mathematical sci- 
 ence in old European universities ; the stolid resistance of the bar- 
 baric methods of mere memory cramming, which, in the witty 
 words of Montaigne, made of boys "mere asses loaded with books, 
 to whom, with blows of a whip, was given a pocket-full of science, 
 not to 2ise but to keep,'' to all efforts to utilize the youthful instinct 
 for a knowledge of nature, and so to gain access to the memory 
 through the understanding ; in brief, the perennial warfare which 
 
Its Value to Teachers. 5 
 
 in every age is waged b}' a narrow conservatism entrenched in pre- 
 scriptive use, against even the most enlightened efforts for a closer 
 conformity to nature in methods, or for a truer conformity to the 
 present state of culture in the choice of the subject-matter of studies. 
 If such a study should serve as a salutary warning against our re- 
 luctance to reconsider and, if need be, to revise our means and 
 methods of instruction, and against our natural disposition to think 
 that what we are accustomed to is part of the necessary scheme of 
 things ; if it should dispose us to take a broad and unprejudiced, 
 yet not hast}', view of all educational questions, a view in which 
 self counts for little and the advancement of our profession for 
 much ; if it should incline us to lay a less exclusive emphasis on 
 attainment and more on the development of character ; and if, fur- 
 thermore, as in all other vocations which have to deal with vital 
 human interests, it should confer that justness of judgment, that 
 unerring sagacitj^, that openness of mind to consider all questions 
 impartiall}' on their merits, and that far-seeing comprehensiveness 
 of intelligence which views subjects in all their bearings, thus mak- 
 ing teachers truly statesmen in all that concerns their calling ; who 
 will say that the History of Education would not do to our profes- 
 sion a service of the greatest possible moment ? 
 
 2. The stud}' of educational history can hardly fail to eidiance 
 in every true teacher, his sense of the dignity and importance of 
 his calling, in its relations, not merely to the welfare of individuals, 
 but to the elevation and true greatness of societies and states. It 
 will reveal to him how closely every advance in civilization has 
 been correlated with a corresponding advance in the education of 
 youth, — a correlation so intimate that it would be difficult to de- 
 termine which is effect and which cause. This relation is shown, 
 not merely in the effects of education, recently somewhat studied, 
 in increasing the efficiency of labor, and in dimini.shing those twin 
 blots on civilization, pauperism and crime ; but, on a broader 
 .scale, in the entire history of civilization and of education. In 
 this it becomes manifest that the depth and validity of any civili- 
 zation can be truly estimated only by the thoroughness with which 
 all .social ameliorations and humanitarian developments reach and 
 permeate the masses of the comnumity through an efficient educa- 
 tion. For a civilization may easily be very brilliant, and yet ex- 
 ceedingly superficial. It may exhibit a high degree of perfection 
 of .social arrangements, the benefits of which may reach but a very 
 limited cla.ss ; it may be adorned by many individual examples of 
 
6 The History of Education. 
 
 refinement and elevation of sentiment, and of nobleness of char- 
 acter ; it may be made illustrious by a brilliant and enduring lit- 
 erature ; and yet beneath this shining exterior may seethe a vast 
 mass of popular ignorance, superstition, and semi-barbarism. 
 Such civilizations, whose benefits are limited to a small educated 
 class, either perish from their own limitations, or are forced by in- 
 testine convulsions to educate and elevate the masses as a condi- 
 tion of their own continuance. 
 
 The vital influence of education on national welfare, which the 
 Germans have embodied in the well-known maxim that whatever 
 you would make deeply infliiential in a nation's life, you must 
 first embody in the education of a nation's youth, is no discovery 
 of modern times. Plato and Aristotle, the two greatest philoso- 
 phers of antiquity, show their thorough comprehension of it by 
 incorporating their weighty views on education in treatises of po- 
 litical philosophy, of which they clearly saw that it is an essential 
 part. Plato was .so deeply impressed with its importance, that in 
 two remarkable passages of "The Laws," he proposes that the 
 education of all citizens of both .sexes .should be made compulsory ; 
 and, despairing of the stability of states on any other terms, he 
 would even fix its subject-matter by unalterable laws. 
 
 This lofty view of education as the twin si.ster of civilization, 
 and as the most vital factor in the elevation and transformation of 
 societies and states, needs to be deeply impressed on the conscious- 
 ness of every teacher, that he may ri.se to the full dignity of his 
 calling ; and in no way can it be so effectually inculcated as b}^ a 
 thoughtful study of the History of Education : for here as else- 
 where, the well-known maxim of Seneca holds good, " Longum 
 iter est per praecepta, breve et efficax perexenipla." Already we 
 are beginning to utilize this powerful reformatory influence, in in- 
 .struction on the nature and effects of stimulants, in impressing on 
 young minds the importance of the preservation of forests by the 
 exercises of Arbor Day, and in inculcating respect for labor by 
 some training in constructive work. We shall do our duty in 
 these and other respects more efficiently, the more deepl}' we are 
 penetrated with a .sen.se of the far-reaching effects of all impres- 
 sions made on youthful minds. 
 
 3. Akin to what has just been considered, is the value of the 
 historic lesson, that education like civilization has been a gradual 
 evolution, who.se progress has been marked by a growing adapta- 
 tion of man, at first to his physical, and then to his social and 
 
Its Value to Teachers. 7 
 
 spiritual environment. The course of this evolution may indicate to 
 the educator along what lines future efforts for improvement should 
 be made, and how the}' may be made successful. It should teach 
 him not to undervalue pliysical development and a familiarity 
 with nature's laws, through obedience to which alone, man has been 
 enabled to make nature subservient to his will. It will assure him 
 that when he habituates children and youth to social requirements, 
 and to obedience to justly exerted authority, he is takingnomean 
 step towards their complete spiritual development and emancipa- 
 tion. So too, the slowness of progress, in which the Divine 
 will has determined that every advance step shall be fixed by he- 
 redity, and made permanent only by the slow lapse of time, may 
 .serve to restrain his impatience when his duty calls him to labor, 
 as it often must, amidst ignorant and relatively undeveloped sur- 
 roundings ; and may give him the needful courage to work in 
 God's own waj^ patiently elevating one generation, if but a little, 
 that the succeeding generation may start from a somewhat higher 
 level. 
 
 4. Again, if the past has taught any lesson with more than usual 
 clearness, it is this, that the hopes of our race for a brighter and 
 happier future depend solely on the increasing culture of the largest 
 possible number of its members ; and that this culture must receive 
 its impulse from the higher centers of learning. Nay, more ; it 
 teaches that every step of educational progress has resulted, not 
 from the efforts of ambitious ignorance to struggle upward, but 
 from a helpful influence reaching downward from what is highest 
 in education, and aiding to lift towards itself masses otherwise in- 
 ert and unprogressive ; and that hence the chief hope of mankind 
 for intellectual and spiritual elevation must be found in the spread 
 aiid activity of high-class schools. And this is precisely what 
 might be expected ; for, without such stimulus, the average un- 
 lettered man is but dimly con.scious of his limitations and of his 
 higher needs, if indeed he has any consciousness of them at all. 
 Feeling keenly only the wants, and knowing only the enjoyments, 
 which appeal to the lower side of his nature, unless some impulse 
 comes to him from above, rousing him to an ennobling discontent, 
 and pointing him to gratifications for the higher nature that is dor- 
 mant within him, what hope can be found for his elevation ? Give 
 now to this man even no more than the ability to read fluently, 
 and at once the horizon of his life is enormously enlarged and his 
 pleasures elevated, by bringing him into a possible communion 
 
8 The History of Eihication. 
 
 with the brightest spirits of all times ; and every added enlarge- 
 ment of his mental and spiritual culture, b}' increasing his capa- 
 bility of deriving a larger pleasure from the best stores of the past 
 and present, and by enhancing his sense of personal dignity, di- 
 minishes measurably the temptation to satisfy himself with low 
 and sensual enjoyments. But this elevating stimulus comes always 
 from the highest culture of the times. Thus Solon and Socrates, 
 Plato and Aristotle in Greece, the emigrant Greeks in Rome, the 
 Saracens in their great Spanish schools, the scholars whom the 
 early universities of Italy, France and England sent widely over 
 Europe ; Luther and Melanchthon, Sturm and Comenius in Ger- 
 many, Erasmus and Ramiis, and Montaigne and the .self sacrific- 
 ing I,aSalle in France and Holland, and Bacon, Milton and Locke 
 in England, - not to mention le.ss prominent worthies, nor those of 
 more recent days, — all men endowed with the best learning which 
 their times afforded, have .scattered the beneficent .seeds from which 
 has sprung the widely difFu.sed culture that we enjoy, a culture 
 whose fruits reach, or may reach, the humblest homes. 
 
 From this, the teacher, versed in educational histor}', ma)' gain 
 a higher motive, not only for cherishing and defending secondary 
 schools when he hears their interests a.ssailed on the low g-rounds 
 of supposed present utilitj' ; but for reverencing all higher seats of 
 learning, and hailing with jc}' their advancement, being assured 
 that as they rise the}^ will not only elevate with them the entire 
 system of schools below, but will illumine a wider horizon with a 
 brighter radiance. 
 
 5. To these highly valuable yet, possibly, .somewhat remote 
 considerations which the study of educational history will be likely 
 to press upon the attention of teachers, may be added .some of a 
 more immediate character, in the way partly of suggestion, partly 
 of caution. A.ssuredly the history of Greek education should di- 
 rect our attention forcibly to the need of a greater care in the cul- 
 tivation of our vernacular, and in familiarizing our youth with the 
 treasures of its literature. We .shall learn that the Athenian school- 
 master bestowed admirable care on securing purity of pronuncia- 
 tion, of accent, and of rhythm in his pupils, and promoting an ex- 
 act and harmonious u.se of their native tongue ; that the poems of 
 Homer were their inspired reading book, to which were added the 
 works of the cyclic and lyric poets, and other gems of their national 
 literature ; and that, from the lack of books, much of this litera- 
 ture was firmly imprinted on the memory of youth, there to ger- 
 
Its Vabie to Teachers. 9 
 
 minate and bear its fruit in an unsurpassed national taste. A large 
 part of the scholastic training of boys was thus in the literature of 
 their language ; and Plato deemed the careful selection of this lit- 
 erature of so great moment, from the permanence of the impres- 
 sions made on young minds, that he devotes a considerable part of 
 the Second and Third Books of the "Republic" to an exposition 
 of the principles that should govern the selection of reading for the 
 young. He plainly indicates, both here and in "The lyaws," that 
 the multitudinous writers whose books infest all the highways and 
 bypaths of modern literature, warping the ideas and lowering the 
 taste of j^outh, would have had but a sorry reception in his ideal 
 state, in which the teacher was exi)ected so to preoccupy the minds 
 of the young with what was best in both poetry and prose that 
 there would be no encouragement for the writing of trash. 
 
 The practice of the Athenians, and its well-known results, 
 should suggest to us the expediency of early directing the minds 
 of children to such of our best authors as are most nearly level 
 to their comprehension, trusting that if at first thej' do not clearly 
 understand, they may at least y^^/ their excellence, as was said by 
 the erratic Rosseau of the literature bj' which his young fancy 
 was nourished. Indeed, it should be said that more mature minds 
 even, meet many things in the best books which thej' y^^/ rather 
 than full}^ understand, and which must aw^ait the chance of some 
 favoring experience for their complete elucidation. Should the 
 Athenian example need a more recent enforcement, it may be 
 found in the well-known prevalence among educated Frenchmen 
 of a keen sense for literary form, due largely no doubt, to the con- 
 tinuing influence in the best French schools of Rollin's " Traite 
 des Etudes," in which the careful teaching of the mother tongue 
 with exposition of its best literature, is strongly emphasized and 
 clearly illustrated. 
 
 I, of course, know full well that a movement in the right direc- 
 tion has already been initiated amongst us ; and that, as is usual, 
 it has received its most vigorous impulse from our higher institu- 
 tions of learning. How much of depth or extent this movement 
 has, many of you have good means of knowing ; but it is certain 
 that it is accompanied hy the discouraging intimation that our 
 teachers are unable to present fitl}- the Ijest specimens of our liter- 
 ature, without the aid of editions stuffed to twice or thrice their 
 original bulk, with explanator}' notes, mostly on points that should 
 need no explanation. A distinguished professor of English litera- 
 
TO The History of Education. 
 
 ture very recently said to me that such editions are admirably 
 fitted to repress all literary taste. Let us hope that our teachers 
 ma}^ soon vindicate their ability to present the literature of their 
 mother tongue without such adv^entitious aids. Probabl}^ few 
 things that may be taught in our schools are of such transcendent 
 importance as the inculcation of a taste for good reading ; and 
 none seems to be more generally neglected. The example of the 
 ancient Greeks may teach us a most valuable lesson in this regard. 
 
 6. This same Athenian example may also serve, both to dimin- 
 ish somewhat our confidence in the efficacy of mere grammar 
 study in promoting practical skill in the use of our language, and 
 to lessen the emphasis with which we are wont to demand the 
 study of other languages, not only for their utilitj^ and as a means 
 of intellectual culture, but also as well-nigh indispensable for the 
 mastery of our vernacular, and for a.ssuring correctness of taste. 
 For, it was long after Greek literature had passed the meridian of 
 its splendor, before the first Greek grammar,* or indeed any form- 
 al grammar, made its appearance. The grammar of the Greek 
 school-boy was literary study, without any formal separation of 
 words into classes or analysis of their relations, things which even 
 the wisest philosophers had not yet fully conceived. The}^ learned 
 to use their language correcth^ l)y persistent practice ; they ac- 
 quired delicacy of taste b}^ familiarity with good models. lyike- 
 vvise the Greeks neither knew nor cared to understand any lan- 
 guage but their own ; and yet, knowing only their own language, 
 their poets, orators, and philosophers are still considered almost 
 unapproachable models of literary excellence. 
 
 Here let me not be misconceived by any enthusiastic gramma- 
 rian or polylingtcist ; nor let a covert attack upon favorite branches, 
 which is b}^ no means intended, be read into this paragraph. 
 Probably few who hear me value such studies more highly than I, 
 for their undeniable merits. They are, when rightly employed, a 
 very effective means of intellectual discipline ; and, in the case of 
 many, they become essential as sources of valuable knowledge ; but 
 the assumption that theirstudy is indispensable to the formation of 
 a correct and delicate taste, or to gaining the mastery of one's ver- 
 nacular, is shown to be untrue, not merely b}^ prominent individual 
 examples, but by the history of a nation remarkable for its literary 
 excellence. Such a fact should lead us all to a truer estimate of 
 
 See Karl Schmidt, Geschichte der Padagogik, Vol. i, p. 714, 4th ed. 
 
Its Value to Teachers. ii 
 
 the value of our mother tongue, and to a more discriminate and 
 effective use of its resources, not only in the attractive presenta- 
 tion of its literature, but also in securing from pupils its correct 
 use, and its enrichment during the entire period of their school 
 life. In this respect, our German brethren, orthodox classicists 
 as they are, could teach us a valuable lesson. It is poor educa- 
 tional economy, to say the least, to bestow so much time on the 
 study of formal grammar, which is only a means, as to leave little 
 or none for those exercises that serve to rectify and enlarge the 
 pupil's use of speech, which is the end ; or to neglect the literary 
 treasures of our own language, that we may impart to pupils a 
 knowledge, too often very imperfect, of some other language. 
 
 The very proper and reasonable time limit fixed for such disser- 
 tations as this, will preclude me from doing more than hint at 
 some further suggestions which the perusal of educational history 
 will be likely to convey to intelligent teachers, without going into 
 even the small amount of illustration that has thus far been at- 
 tempted. I will therefore mention a few points very briefly. 
 
 7. Much emphasis is just now rightly laid in many quarters on 
 the teaching of Civics in our schools. The History of Roman 
 Education in the better days of the Republic, illustrates well the 
 importance of such instruction ; both Plato and Aristotle strongly 
 enforce it as essential to good citizenship, as do also our own Mil- 
 ton and Locke, and not a few others. 
 
 8. The advocates of Manual Training will be pleased to meet 
 the views of their early friends, in the proposal of Sir Wm. Petty, 
 1647, and in the works of Comenius and Locke, Rousseau and 
 Pestalozzi ; and to note the well-omened and successful efforts of 
 Ferdinand Kindermann, 1771, to elevate the condition of the Bo- 
 hemian peasantry by introducing into the schools which he estab- 
 lished, rural employments and feminine handiwork. 
 
 9. The power, and the extent of influence of moral and reli- 
 gious ideas, which will be found to give a strong coloring to all 
 educational systems, and even to condition their form in many 
 oriental nations, should rivet the attention of teachers on the ne- 
 cessity of sparing no pains in the development of a right type of 
 character, a duty of the very first importance, and yet which they 
 are but too apt to neglect amid the wearing preoccupations of the 
 school-room. 
 
 10. We are repeatedly reminded how much for success or failure 
 depends on the personality of the teacher, until the well worn les- 
 
12 The History of Educatioii. 
 
 LIBKHKY Uh (^UMOKtoo 
 
 019 877 032 2 
 
 son falls on unheeding ears. With what new force then does not 
 this lesson strike us, when it is embodied in the life-history of men 
 like Ratich and Basedow, both gifted with unusual ability, and the 
 originators of great and promising educational projects, yet both 
 doomed to failure by the defects of their moral organization ; or, 
 when we see Pestalozzi emerging from the ruins of all his under- 
 takings, — ruins caused by his various "unrivalled incapacities" 
 and limitations, — his head crowned with a garland of victory by 
 virtue of " his inexhaustible love for the people, his pure heart, his 
 glowing enthusiasm, and his restless efforts and sacrifices for hu- 
 man welfare through human culture." 
 
 11. A caution against supposing that all that is now worth 
 knowing should be crowded into our school programs, may be con- 
 veyed to us by the history of all earlier schools, in which men so 
 disciplined their powers as to become wise and great, by diligent 
 attention to a list of studies which we would think meagre, — pos- 
 sibly finding it even an advantage that subjects were so few as to 
 leave the current of their progress to an untroubled flow. 
 
 12. And, finally, the pains-taking care that we may see exer- 
 cised in more recent times, by the wisest and most experienced ed- 
 ucators, in weighing, selecting, proportioning, and arranging the 
 .schemes of study for great communities, should be, to those among 
 us who are charged with the administration of schools, both an aid 
 and an encouragement, in the discharge of their difficult and per- 
 plexing duties, inspiring them to labor zealously and prudently in 
 building up what will ultimately be a great American system of 
 schools, — the best and most effective, let us hope, that the world 
 has hitherto seen. 
 
 Such, then, are some of the aids, the suggestions and the inspi- 
 rations which the History of Education can offer to all teachers 
 who will study it aright. Will they not richly repay the trouble 
 of .securing ? 
 
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