Part 40 (1/2)

1 HUMANISTIC REALISM

A NEW AIM IN INSTRUCTION Huainst form and style and in favor of ideas and content The hureement with the classical humanists that the old classical literatures and the Bible contained all that was important in the education of youth The ancient literatures, they held, presented ”not only the widest product of huence, but practically all that orthy of roups differed, however, in that the classical humanists conceived the aim of education to be the mastery of the vocabulary and style of Cicero, and the production of a new race of Roman youths for a revived Latin scholarly world, while the new humanistic realists wanted to use the old literatures as a e that would be useful in the world in which they lived Monroe has so well expressed the hue fro here He says:

Not only did ancient philosophy contain the true philosophy of this life, but languages were the key to the real understanding of the Christian religion Not only did ive power of speech, and hence influence over one's fellows; but, if military science was to be studied, it could in no place be better searched for than in Caesar and in Xenophon; was agriculture to be practiced, no better guide was to be found than Virgil or Columella; was architecture to be eography to be considered, it h Mela or Solinus; was medicine to be understood, no better means than Celsus existed; was natural history to be appreciated, there was no more adequate source of information than Pliny and Seneca Aristotle furnished the basis of all the sciences, Plato of all philosophy, Cicero of all institutional life, and the Church Fathers and the Scriptures of all religion

EXPONENTS OF HUMANISTIC REALISM The Dutch international scholar Erasmus (1467?-1536) (p 274), the Frenchlish poet Milton (1608-74) stand as the clearest representatives of this new huuished between the education of words and the education of things, had pointed out the ease hich real truth is learned and retained, and had urged the study of the content rather than the form of the ancient authors In his _System of Studies_ he said:

From these very authors (Latin and Greek), e read for the sake of iree is a knowledge of things gathered

In his _Ciceronian_ he had ridiculed those who mistook the form for the spirit of the ancients

The French non-confor monk, cure, physician, and university scholar, Francois Rabelais, in his satirical _Life of Gargantua_ (1535) and _The Heroic Deeds of Pantagruel_ (1533) had set forth, evenfroe that would be useful Writing largely in the character of a clown and a fool, because such was a safer ainst the fororous a protest against medievalism and formaliserous commodities for one to carry about or to try to express He ridiculed the old scholastic learning, set forth the idea of using the old classics for realistic as well as humanistic ends, and also advocated physical, ious education in the spirit of the best writers and teachers of the Italian Renaissance His book was extensively read and had soh Rabelais's importance in the history of education lies rather in his influence on later educational thinkers than on the life of his time

[Illustration: FIG 121 FRANcOIS RABELAIS (1483-1553)]

Perhaps the clearest exalish poet and humanitarian, John Milton His _Tractate on Education_ (1644) was extensively read, and was influential in shaping educational practice in the non-conforland Still later his ideas indirectly soives us an excellent stateious-civic aim of post-Reformation education (R 211), and then points out the defects of the existing education, whereby boys ”spend seven or eight years ether so ht be learnt otherwise easily and delightfully in one year” He then presents his plan for ”a coentle youths,” and tells ”how all this may be done between twelve and one and twenty, less ti at Grammar and Sophistry” The course of study he outlines (R 212) is enor at twelve, the boy is to learn Latin graeo the next three or four years the pupil is to raphy, natural philosophy, physiology, , architecture, and natural history, all by reading the chief writings of the ancients, in prose and poetry, on these subjects During the re years to twenty-one the pupil, similarly, is to obtain ethical instruction from the Greeks and the Bible; learn Hebrew, Greek, Roman, and Saxon law; learn Italian and Hebrew; and study econoic, rhetoric, and poetry by reading selected ancient authors What Rabelais suggested in jest for his giant, Milton adopted as a prograhly characteristic lish fashi+on, he makes careful provision for daily exercise and play Aside, though, from its impossibility of accohly representative of the new humanistic-realistic point of view-that is, that education should ih the information as Milton conceived it was to be drawn almost entirely from the books of the ancients

[Illustration: FIG 122 JOHN MILTON (1608-74)]

EDUCATIONAL RESULTS OF HUMANISTIC REALISM The importance of huely in that it was the first of a series of reactions that led later to sense-realism--that is, to the study of science and the application of scientific land it possesses still larger importance Milton had called his institution an ”Academy” [1] After the restoration of the Stuarts (Charles II, 1660), soymen were ”dispossessed” by the Act of Conformity (1662; R 166), and soon after this the children of Non-Conforray a livelihood and serving their people, and the ideas of the non-confor the schools thus established even further toward the study of useful subjects Many of the new schools offered instruction in the raphy, astronoation, history, oratory, economics, and natural and moral philosophy, as well as the old classical subjects All teaching, too, was done in English, and the study of English language and literature was emphasized

This made these non-conforrammar schools After the enactment of the Toleration Act, in 1689, these schools were allowed to incorporate and were gradually absorbed into the existing Latin graland, but unfortunately without producing e in the character of these older institutions

The idea of offering instruction in these new studies was in time carried to America, where better results were obtained At first a few of the subjects, such as the lish, were introduced into the existing Latin grarade Especially was this true in the colonies south of New England After 1751, and especially after about 1780, distinct Academies arose in the United States (chapter XVIII), whose purpose was to offer instruction in all these new subjects of study Froh schools have been derived

II SOCIAL REALISM

[Illustration: FIG 123 MICHEL DE MONTAIGNE (1533-92)]

MONTAIGNE AND LOCKE Social realism represents a still further reaction away from the humanistic schools It was the natural reaction of practical ainst a type of education that tended to perpetuate the pedantry of an earlier age, by devoting its energies to the production of the scholar and professional lect of the man of affairs

The social realists were small in number, but powerful because of their important social connections and wealth, and they were very determined to have an education suited to their needs, even if they had to create it themselves (R 213) The French noblene (1533-92), and the English philosopher, John Locke (1632-1704), were the clearest exponents of this new point of view, though it found expression in the writings of many others Each declared for a practical, useful type of education for the young boy as to live the life of a gentleman in the world of affairs

Neither had any syrammar schools of the time (R 214), and both rejected the school for the private tutor This tutor reat care, and first of all ne says, ”who has rather a well-made than a well-filled head” (R 215) Locke cautions that ”one fit to educate and for Gentleman is not every where to be found,” and of the common type of teacher he asks, ”When such an one has eick he has brought from the University, will that Furniture make him a fine Gentle of their tiood manners rather than mere information, and to train for life in the world rather than for the life of a scholar, seem to both of fundareat world,” says Montaigne, ”is the mirror wherein we are to behold ourselves In short, I would have this to be the book entle,” says Locke, ”make all the Noise; and the reat Part whereof belong not to a Gentlee of a Man of Business, a Carriage suitable to his Rank, and to be e to his Station” (R 216)

Both emphasized the importance of travel abroad as an ientleman

THEIR PLACE IN THE HISTORY OF EDUCATION Both Montaigne and Locke were concerned alone with the education of the sons of gentle rapidly into proher nobility on the one hand and the clergy on the other With the education of any other class Montaigne never concerned hi's Coht of the poor, and for the education of the children of such he drew up a careful report which, in true English fashi+on, provided for their training in workhouses and their apprenticeshi+p to a trade (R

217) He wrote nothing with regard to the education of the children of middle-class workers and tradesmen Both authors also deal entirely with the work of a tutor, and not with the work of a teacher in a school