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termed faculties -- attention, memory, thinking, perception, even
the sentiments, are arrangements, associations, and
complications, formed by the interaction of these submerged
presentations with one another and with new presentations.
Perception, for example, is the complication of presentations
which result from the rise of old presentations to greet and
combine with new ones; memory is the evoking of an old
presentation above the threshold of consciousness by getting
entangled with another presentation, etc. Pleasure is the result
of reinforcement among the independent activities of
presentations; pain of their pulling different ways, etc.
The concrete character of mind consists, then, wholly of the
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Democracy and Education
55
various arrangements formed by the various presentations in their
different qualities. The "furniture" of the mind is the mind.
Mind is wholly a matter of "contents." The educational
implications of this doctrine are threefold.
(1) This or that kind of mind is formed by the use of objects
which evoke this or that kind of reaction and which produce this
or that arrangement among the reactions called out. The
formation of mind is wholly a matter of the presentation of the
proper educational materials.
(2) Since the earlier presentations constitute the "apperceiving
organs" which control the assimilation of new presentations,
their character is all important. The effect of new
presentations is to reinforce groupings previously formed. The
business of the educator is, first, to select the proper material
in order to fix the nature of the original reactions, and,
secondly, to arrange the sequence of subsequent presentations on
the basis of the store of ideas secured by prior transactions.
The control is from behind, from the past, instead of, as in the
unfolding conception, in the ultimate goal.
(3) Certain formal steps of all method in teaching may be laid
down. Presentation of new subject matter is obviously the
central thing, but since knowing consists in the way in which
this interacts with the contents already submerged below
consciousness, the first thing is the step of "preparation," --
that is, calling into special activity and getting above the
floor of consciousness those older presentations which are to
assimilate the new one. Then after the presentation, follow the
processes of interaction of new and old; then comes the
application of the newly formed content to the performance of
some task. Everything must go through this course; consequently
there is a perfectly uniform method in instruction in all
subjects for all pupils of all ages.
Herbart's great service lay in taking the work of teaching out of
the region of routine and accident. He brought it into the
sphere of conscious method; it became a conscious business with a
definite aim and procedure, instead of being a compound of casual
inspiration and subservience to tradition. Moreover, everything
in teaching and discipline could be specified, instead of our
having to be content with vague and more or less mystic
generalities about ultimate ideals and speculative spiritual
symbols. He abolished the notion of ready-made faculties, which
might be trained by exercise upon any sort of material, and made
attention to concrete subject matter, to the content,
all-important. Herbart undoubtedly has had a greater influence
in bringing to the front questions connected with the material of
study than any other educational philosopher. He stated problems
of method from the standpoint of their connection with subject
matter: method having to do with the manner and sequence of
presenting new subject matter to insure its proper interaction
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Democracy and Education
56
with old.
The fundamental theoretical defect of this view lies in ignoring
the existence in a living being of active and specific functions
which are developed in the redirection and combination which
occur as they are occupied with their environment. The theory
represents the Schoolmaster come to his own. This fact expresses
at once its strength and its weakness. The conception that the
mind consists of what has been taught, and that the importance of
what has been taught consists in its availability for further
teaching, reflects the pedagogue's view of life. The philosophy [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]