Part 3 (1/2)

By a realisation of all this in an entirely neay, by seeing the whole process in the light of the religion of development, the twentieth century will be the century of the child This will come about in tays Adults will first co of the child's character and then the simplicity of the child's character will be kept by adults So the old social order will be able to renew itself

Psychological pedagogy has an exalted ancestry I will not go back to those artists in education called Socrates and Jesus, but I commence with the modern world In the hours of its sunrise, in which ho look back, think we see a futile Renaissance, then as now the spring flowers cae At this period there careat figure of ne, that skeptic who had so deep a reverence for realities In his Essays, in his Letters to the Countess of Gurson, are found all of the elereat Gery, Comenius, Basedow, Pestalozzi, Salzmann, Froebel, Herbart, I do not need to speak

I will only , Herder, Goethe, Kant and others, took the side of natural training In regard to England it is well known that John Locke in his Thoughts on Education, was a worthy predecessor of Herbert Spencer, whose book on education in its intellectual, moral, and physical relations, was the most noteworthy book on education in the last century

It has been noted that Spencer in educational theory is indebted to Rousseau; and that in reat German authorities, whom he certainly did not know, said before him But this does not dihts are very rare Truths which were once new ain from the depth of the ardent personal conviction of a new huhts on the subject of pedagogy as on other subjects, are constantly expressed and re-expressed, shows as that reasonable, or practically untried education has certain principles which are as axio ical principles, as he le Spencer's book it is true has not laid again the foundation of education It can rather be called the crown of the edifice founded by Montaigne, Locke, Rousseau, and the great Gery What is an absolutely novel factor in our tiy of the child, and the systeland, through the scientist Darwin, this new study of the psychology of the child was inaugurated In Germany, Preyer contributed to its extension He has done so partly by a co recollections of childhood on the part of the adult Finally he experi his physical and psychical fatigue and endurance, acuteness of sensation, power, speed, and exactness in carrying out physical and mental tasks He has studied his capacity of attention in emotions and in ideas at different periods of life He has studied the speech of children, association of ideas in children, etc During the study of the psychology of the child, scholars began to substitute for this tery” For it was found that the big-genetic principle was valid for the development both of the psychic and the physical life This principle means that the history of the species is repeated in the history of the individual; a truth substantiated in other spheres; in philology for exanificance for general psychology as ey is for anatoe peoples, of peoples in a natural condition, such as we find in Spencer's Descriptive Sociology or Weitz's Anthropology is extrey of the child

It is in this kind of psychological investigation that the greatest progress has been reat publication, Zeitschrift fur psychologie, etc, there began in 1894 a special departy of education In 1898, there were as many as one hundred and six essays devoted to this subject, and they are constantly increasing

In the chief civilised countries this investigation has uished pioneers, such as Prof Wundt, Prof T H Ribot, and others In Geran in the journalits collaborators soists and psychologists As related to the same subject must be mentioned Wundt's Philosophischen Studien, and partly the Vierteljahrschrift fur Wissenschaftlichie Philosophie In France, there was founded in 1894, the Annee Psychologique, edited by Binet and Beaunis, and also the Bibliotheque de Pedagogie et de Psychologie, edited by Binet In England there are the journals, Mind and Brain

Special laboratories for experiical apparatus and methods of research are found in many places In Germany the first to be founded was that of Wundt in the year 1878 at Leipzig

France has a laboratory for experiy at Paris, in the Sorbonne, whose director is Binet; Italy, one in Roy is zealously pursued As early as 1894, there were in that country twenty-seven laboratories for experiy and four journals There should also be y Recently one has been founded in Gerland and Aations carried out in Kraepelin's laboratory in Heidelberg are of the greatest value for deter what the brain can do in the way of work and ilish specialist has maintained that the future, thanks to the inally creative men, because the receptive activities of modern man will absorb the cooperative powers of the brain to the disadvantage of the productive powers And even if this were not a universally valid stateical certainty, people will so downprocess called a school curriculuy into a psycho-physiological science is to be found in Sweden in the person of Prof Hjaln discoveries in the field of psychology One of his conclusions is that the so-called technical exercises, gy, sloyd, and the like, are not, as they are erroneously called, a relaxation froe in work, but siue

All work, he finds, done under conditions of fatigue is uneconoards the quantity produced or its value as an exercise

Rest should be nothing more than rest,--freedo at all As to fear, he proves, following Binet's investigation in this subject, how corporal discipline, threats, and ridicule lead to cowardice; how all of theseand tend to a diy He shows, thening the nervous syste the character This result co is avoided, partly when children are accustomed to bear caler

Prof Axel Key's investigations on school children have won international recognition In Sweden they have supplied the nificantthe influence of studies on physical development and the results of intellectual overstrain

It is to be hoped that when through eet acquainted with the real nature of children, the school and the home will be freed from absurd notions about the character and needs of the child, those absurd notions which now cause painful cases of physical and psychicalhus in schools and in homes, education

By Helen Key

The Century of the Child

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