Part 11 (1/2)

Note when the child obeys eagerly and joyously

Note the relation of the various phenorees

(_a_) to the developes of conduct

IV

THE PREPARATION OF THE TEACHER

The possibility of observing the developments of the psychical life of the child as natural phenomena and experimental reactions transforms the _school itself in action_ into a kind of scientific laboratory for the psycho-genetic study of man It will become--perhaps in the near future--the experiist

To prepare such a school as perfectly as possible, is therefore not only to prepare ”a better method for the education of children,” but also to prepare the materials for a renovated science Every one nos that students of natural science require in their laboratories an organization directed to the _preparation_ of the material to be observed To observe a silass slide with cavity for the hanging drop; to have ready ”fresh solutions” in which the living cells may be immersed, to ensure their continued vitality; to have ready soils for cultures, etc For all these ends there are special avocations, those of the so-called ”preparers,” who are not the assistants or helpers of the professor, but _employes_ ere at one time upper servants, and then become superior workmen At the present day they are, however, nearly always theraduates For, indeed, their task is a ical, physical, and chehly they are ”prepared” by a culture analogous to that of the masters of research themselves, the more rapid and secure is theall these laboratories of natural science, only that of ”experied it possible to dispense with an organization for the preparation of the subjects to be observed If to-day a psychologist were told to arrange the work of his preparer, he would take this tomore or less the standard of laboratories of _physics_

But the idea of preparing the living being which produces the phenomenon would not enter hisreater must be the necessity for such an assistant when the subject to be observed is ists consider that they can prepare their ”subjects” by arresting their attention with a word, and explaining to them how they are to proceed in order to respond to the experiment; any unknown person met by chance in the laboratory will serve their purpose In short, the psychologist of to-day behaves soht, observes it for a second and then lets it fly away again; not like the biologist who takes care that his preparations are properly carried out in a scientific laboratory

On the other hand, the picture of psychological developh it be incomplete, which is shown to us in our experiments, demonstrates the subtlety hich it is necessary to present to the child the means of his development and, above all, to respect his liberty; conditions which are essential to ensure that psychical phenomena be revealed and may constitute a true ”material for observation”; all this demands a special environ a whole infinitely superior in coanization to the ordinary natural science laboratories Such a laboratory can only be theto scientificto the ”preparer” graduate

True, all schools would not achieve this lofty scientific ideal But it is indisputable that schools and teachers should all be directing their efforts towards the domain of the experimental sciences The psychical salvation of children is based upon the means and the liberty to live, and these should becoenerations; established as a social and philosophic conception, it should supersede the present ”obligation to provide instruction,” which is a burden not only on State econoor of posterity If the psychical phenomena of the children in the national schools do not tend to enrich psychology, they become ends in themselves, just as the beauty of Nature is an end in itself

The new school, indeed, must not be created for the service of a science, but for the service of living humanity; and teachers will be able to rejoice in the conte the spectacle with science, wrapped in a holy egoism which will exalt their spirits as does every inti souls

It is unquestionable that with this method of education the preparation of the teacher must be made _ex novo_, and that the personality and social importance of the instructress will be transformed thereby

Even after the first desultory experiments hitherto made, a new type of mistress has been evolved; instead of facility in speech, she has to acquire the power of silence; instead of teaching, she has to observe; instead of the proud dignity of one who claims to be infallible, she assumes the vesture of humility

This transforone by the university professor, when the positive sciences began to play their part in the world What a difference between the dignified old-world professor, draped in a robe often erh chair as on a throne, and speaking so authoritatively that students were not only bound to believe all he said, but to swear _in verbo h places to the students that theyfor himself the lowest station, on the bare floor; while the students are all seated, he alone stands, often clad in a gray linen blouse like a workman

The students know that they will be on the way to the highest degree of progress when they are capable of ”verifying” the theses of the professor--nay,their own na contributed to its wealth or having discovered new truths

Dignity and hierarchy in these schools have been superseded by interest in the chemical or physical or natural phenomena to be produced; and in presence of this all the rest disappears The whole arrangement of the laboratory is subject to the saht, all the walls are of glass; if darkness be necessary, the laboratory is so constructed that itof importance is the production of the phenomenon, be this a bad smell or a perfume, an electric spark or the colors of Geissler's tubes, a resonance with Helement of fine dust on a metallic plate in vibration; the shape of a leaf or the contraction of a frog's muscle; the study of the blind spot in the eye or the rhythm of cardiac pulsation; all is equal and all is included; the eager and absorbing quest is the quest of truth It is this which the new generation demands from science, not the oratorical art of the professor, the noble gesture, the quip that lightens the weight of the discourse, the lively peroration of the carefully elaborated harangue, and all those expedients which were once developed by a special art for the express purpose of capturing the attention It is passion for knowledge rather than attention which now ani people, who often co neither the voice nor the appearance of their professor

But this does not connote the absence of love and respect for the master Only, the veneration a reat scientist and benefactor of huly dressed in a linen blouse, differs essentially fro once inspired

The transformation of schools and teachers must now proceed on the sa revolves around a fundamental fact, and this fact is a natural phenomenon, the school will have entered the orbit of science Then the teacher must assume those ”characteristics”

which are necessary in the presence of science

A its devotees we find ”characteristics” independent of the content of thought; in short, physicists, cheh their content of knowledge is entirely different, are nevertheless all students of the positive sciences, and have characteristics which differentiate them from the metaphysicians of the past These characteristics are related, not to the content, but to the y is to take its place a the sciences, it must be characterized by its method; and the teacher must prepare herself, not by means of the content, but by uished by _quality_ even more than by _culture_