Part 43 (2/2)

Vostrovsky, Clara ”A European School of the Tiue, 1609)”; in _Education_, vol 17, pp 356-60 (February, 1897) Wordsworth, Christopher _Scholae Acadehteenth Century_

CHAPTER XVIII

THEORY AND PRACTICE BY THE MIDDLE OF THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY

We have now reached, in our history of the transition age which began with the Revival of Learning--the great events of which were the recovery of the ancient learning, the rediscovery of the historic past, the reawakening of scholarshi+p, and the rise of religious and scientific inquiry--the end of the transition period, and we are now ready to pass to a study of the developress of education in ather up and state the progress in both educational theory and practice which had been attained by the end of this transition period, and to present, as it were, a cross-section of education at about the hteenth century To do this, then, before passing to a consideration of educational development in modern times, will be the purpose of this chapter We shall first review the progressa theory as to the educational purpose, and then present a cross-section view of the schools of the time under consideration

I PRE-EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY EDUCATIONAL THEORIES

THE STATE PURPOSE OF THE GREEKS AND ROMANS As , early in our study of the rise and progress of the education of peoples, the City-States of Greece were the first consciously to evolve a syste for those ere to guide and direct the State In Sparta the training was almost wholly for military efficiency and tribal safety, but in Athens we found a people using a orked-out syste to develop individual initiative, advance civilization, and promote the welfare of the State The education provided was for but a class, to be sure, and a s class at that, but it was the first evidence of the neestern, individualistic, and de itself in the education of the young

There also we found, for the first time, the thinkers of the State deeply concerned with the education of the youth of the State, and viewing education as a necessity to ers, both without and within The training there given produced wonderful results, and for two centuries the uided the destinies of Athens

The essentials of this Greek training were later embodied in the private- adventure school system that arose in Rome, which was adapted to conditions and needs there, and which was used for the training of a few Roman youths of the wealthier fah, never attained the importance or rendered the service that characterized education at Athens, and never became an instrument of the State used consciously for State ends One Roman writer, Quintilian, as we have seen (R 25), worked out a careful state a youth for a public career, and this, the first practical treatise on education, was for long highly prized as the best- written statement of the educational art

THE FUTURE-LIFE CONCEPTION OF THE CHRISTIANS With the decline of Roman power and influence, and the victory of Christianity throughout the Roman world, the State conception of education was entirely lost to western Europe, and ain arose in the western world The Church now became the State, and the need for any education for secular life almost entirely passed away For centuries the aim was almost entirely a preparation for life in the world to coes this attitude continued, suppleer education of a few to carry on the work of the Church here below

After the tenth century we noted the rise of some more or less independent study in some of the monastery and cathedral schools, and after the twelfth century the rise of _studia generalia_ roups of the few interested in a studious life These in turn gave rise to the university foundations, and to the beginning of independent and secular study once , the recovery of the ancient manuscripts, the revival of the study of Greek in the West, the founding of libraries, the invention of paper and printing, and the revival of trade and coive a new direction to scholarly study, and as a result a new race of scholars, more or less independent of the Church, now arose in western Europe They were, however, a class, and a very sh the result of their as the creation of a new humanistic secondary school, this still ministered to the needs of but a few This feas intended either for the service of the Church, for the governmental service of the tohich had by this tiovern principalities or states

For the great mass of the people, whose purpose in life was to work and believe and obey, agriculture, warfare, the rising trades with their guilds (p 209), and the services of the Church constituted almost all in the way of education which they ever received To be useful to his overlord and master here and to be saved hereafter were the chief life- purposes of the common man The former he must himself undertake in order to be able to live at all; the latter the Church undertook to supply to those who followed her teachings

THE RISE OF THE VERNACULAR RELIGIOUS SCHOOL For the first time in history, if we except the schools of the early Christian period, the Protestant Revolts created a deious school for all The Protestant theory as to personal _versus_ collective salvation involved as a consequence the idea of the education of all in the essentials of the Christian faith and doctrine The aim was the saed froe and faith and effort To be saved, oneof the Word of God, and this necessitated instruction To this end, in theory at least, schools had to be established to educate the young for membershi+p in the new type of Church relationshi+p Reading the vernacular, a little counting and writing, in Teutonic countries a little ious Primer (R 202), the Catechism, and the Bible, now came to constitute the subject matter of a new vernacular school for the children of Protestants, and to a certain extent in time for the children of Catholics as well As we pointed out earlier (p 353), between this new type of school for religious ends and the older Latin grammar school for scholarly purposes there was almost no relationshi+p, and the two developed wholly independently of one another In the Latin grammar schools one studied to become a scholar and a leader in the political or ecclesiastical world; in the vernacular religious school one learned to read that he ht be able to read the Catechism and the Bible, and to know the will of the Heavenly Father There was scarcely any other purpose to the maintenance of the elementary vernacular schools This condition continued until well into the eighteenth century

[Illustration: FIG 129 A FRENCH SCHOOL BEFORE THE REVOLUTION (After an etching by Boisseau, 1730-1809)]

EARLY UNSUCCESSFUL EDUCATIONAL REFORMERS Back in the seventeenth century, as we have pointed out in the preceding chapter, a very earnest effort was er conception of the educational process into the eleious material from the textbooks, to substitute a human- welfare purpose for the exclusively life-beyond view, and to transfor and religion

Coious school a potent instru new subject-methods for its hich would be in harmony with the new scientific procedure so well stated by Francis Bacon Coure in seventeenth- century pedagogical thought He reasoned out and introduced us to the whole modern conception of the educational process and purpose, and gave to the school of the people a solid theoretical and practical basis

Living, though, at an unfortunate period in human history, he was able to awaken little interest either in rational teaching- to the advancement of the welfare of mankind Instead he roused suspicion and distrust by the innovations and progressive refor method (Rs 218, 219) was not at the tiotten, while the fundaical reforms which he proposed and introduced were lost aain and reestablished in a later and a e

Another unsuccessful reformer of some importance, and one whose work antedated that of both Ratke and Comenius, was the London schoolmaster, Richard Mulcaster (1531-1611), for twenty-five years headmaster of the famous Merchant Taylors' School, and later Master of Saint Paul's School

In 1581 he issued his _Positions_, a pedagogical work so far in advance of his time, and written in such a heavy and affected style, that it passed alland, and did not becos he stood for became the fundaht These were:

1 That the end and aim of education is to develop the body and the faculties of the mind, and to help nature to perfection

2 That all teaching processes should be adapted to the pupil taught

3 That the first stage in learning is of large ih skill on the part of the teacher

4 That the thing to be learned is of less i

5 That proper brain development demands that pressure and one-sided education alike be avoided

6 That the ht first and well, and should be the language of the school from six to twelve