The Herbartian psychology applied to education : being a series of essays applying the psychology of Johann Friedrich Herbart / by John Adams.

  • John Adams
Date:
1902
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Licence: In copyright

Credit: The Herbartian psychology applied to education : being a series of essays applying the psychology of Johann Friedrich Herbart / by John Adams. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The University of Glasgow Library. The original may be consulted at The University of Glasgow Library.

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    Reformers^ we find in a foot-note two fables, one by Pestalozzi about two colts, the other by Rousseau about two dogs. The first fable proves that the colts, origi- nally “as like as two eggs,” became widely different through nothing but education. The second fable shows that the vast differences that ultimately mark the two dogs of the same litter who have been “treated precisely alike ” are the direct results of nothing but a difference of temperament. No comment whatever is made upon the contradiction involved, except that Pestalozzi’s fable is “ a fit companion ” to Rousseau’s. Like a nineteenth-century Herodotus Mr. Quick tells the tale as ’twas told to him, and passes on to some- thing else. Almost every characteristic utterance of a great edu- cationist can be matched by its contradiction in the works of some other great educationist. Nor does this state of affairs mark the dark ages of our subject. At the present moment our professional organs teem with quarrels about the merits of conflicting systems of teaching various subjects, while the two most powerful general systems of education — the Froebelian and the Herbartian — are built upon opposing philosophical principles. Little wonder, then, that the teacher, tired of endless quarrels with no helpful outcome, should become dis- gusted with theories and turn his face to the wall of the cave, and be content to be called names. He thinks that there are either no general truths, no science of educa- tion, or that such general truths are not yet available. This ignorance is not to be overcome by supplying
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