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CHAPTER III THE PROGRAMME OF STUDIES 1 OF the manifold means used in the work of school education, the studies pursued are by far the most important. Place, playgrounds, games, buildings, apparatus, the general organization of the school, all have their influence, but more influential than all others are the subjects of study to the mastery of which the pupil directs his attention. The teacher is omitted as being an agent rather than a means. The studies give information, exercise observation, judgment, and reason, train the hand, present ideals of life and character, stimulate the emotional nature, and, by rousing an interest in things, thoughts, and actions to which the individual is adapted by nature, they tend to give permanent direction to the volitional life. The Influence of Tradition. The past holds us in an iron grasp. Only by strenuous effort can we break away 1 An attempt has been made to use the terminology adopted by the Committee on College Entrance Requirements as indicated in the following statement: "Three distinct terms seem to be needed: (1) programme of studies, which includes all of the studies offered in a given school; (2) curriculum, which means the group of studies schematically arranged for any pupil or set of pupils; (3) course of study, which means the quantity, quality, and method of the work in any given subject of instruction." - Report, p. 42. from it. It is easy to do what our immediate forbears have done, to see the value of their efforts. It requires original effort and initiative to blaze a new path or even to query seriously whether there may be a better way. The influence of the past upon the high-school programme of studies has been great. As seen in the preceding chapters, the inheritance has been chiefly Greek, Latin, and mathematics. They found place because they had long been there quite as much as because of their educational value demonstrated under critical examination. Only within the last two decades has there developed a definite purpose to test scientifically the educational value of different subjects of study and to be governed by the results. It is a difficult problem, one not to be hastily solved, but it should be attempted. There is no more important question before the world of scientific educators to-day than the determination of educational values, not only with reference to the studies pursued, but also with regard to the times and methods of pursuing them. THE AIM OF EDUCATION The value of any means cannot be determined without a knowledge of the end to which it is a means. The educational value of any subject of study cannot be determined or even intelligently considered unless we have a reasonably clear idea of the end of education, of the result we are striving to attain. Hence the necessity of a brief consideration of this question. Plato conceives the end of philosophy, which is for him education in its highest form, to be the production of the "just man" whom he describes as follows: "The just man does not permit the several elements within him to meddle with one another, or any of them to do the work of others, but he sets in order his own inner life, and is his own master, and at peace with himself." 1 Aristotle defines the summum bonum, which is for him the highest end of education, as "an energy of the soul according to virtue," contemplative or intellectual energy he means; but, as man is a "political animal," he must exercise his energy as becomes a member of society.2 Epicurus and the hedonists generally say that the end of life is happiness, and the ends of education would logically be the preparation of the individual to live and enjoy the life of greatest happiness. Spencer says: "How to live?—that is the essential question for us. Not how to live in the mere material sense only, but in the widest sense. The general problem which comprehends every special problem is the right ruling of conduct in all directions under all circumstances. In what way to treat the body; in what way to treat the 1 "Republic," Bk. IV, 443. "Nichomachean Ethics," Bk. I, Ch. VII, 12. mind; in what way to manage our affairs; in what way to bring up a family; in what way to behave as a citizen; in what way to utilize all those sources of happiness which nature supplies how to use all our faculties to the greatest advantage of ourselves and others how to live completely. And this being the great thing needful for us to learn, is, by consequence, the great thing which education has to teach. To prepare us for complete living is the function which education has to discharge; and the only rational mode of judging of any educational course is to judge in what degree it discharges such function." 1 Professor James says: "In our foregoing talk we were led to frame a very simple conception of what an education means. In the last analysis it consists in the organizing of resources in the human being, of powers of conduct which shall fit him to his social and physical world. An 'uneducated' person is one who is nonplused by all but the most habitual situations. On the contrary, one who is educated is able practically to extricate himself, by means of the examples with which his memory is stored, and of the abstract conceptions which he has acquired, from circumstances in which he never was placed before. Education, in short, cannot be better described than by calling it the organization of acquired habits of conduct and tendencies to behavior."2 Professor Dewey says: "I believe, finally, that education 1 "Treatise on Education," p. II. 2 "Talks to Teachers," p. 29. |