THEORETICAL AND PRACTICAL. 5.5625. BY GABRIEL COMPAYRÉ, AUTHOR OF "HISTOIRE DE LA PEDAGOGIE," PROFESSOR IN THE NORMAL TRANSLATED, WITH AN INTRODUCTION, NOtes, BY W. H. PAYNE, A.M., CHANCELLOR OF THE UNIVERSITY OF NASHVILLE AND PRESIDENT OF THE EDITOR OF "PAGE'S THEORY AND PRACTICE LA PEDAGOGIE." BOSTON: D. C. HEATH & CO., PUBLISHERS. TRANSLATOR'S PREFACE. In recent years the literature of education has been enriched by no contributions superior to Compayré's "Histoire de la Pédagogie" and "Cours de Pédagogie, Théorique et Pratique." The qualities that are so conspicuous in the first, wise selection of material, absolute clearness of statement, judicial fairness in the treatment of open questions, critical insight, width of intellectual perspective, elegance of diction, — also characterize the second; and these two volumes may be accepted as the best résumé yet made of the history, the theory, and the practice of education. M. Compayré is too wise, too catholic, and too honest to be an extremist, and his familiarity with the history of education has preserved his respect for the thinkers and teachers of the past, and has saved him from the illusion that a revolution in doctrines and methods is imminent. As the reader proceeds from chapter to chapter he is affected by the words of a judge whose sole preoccupation is the truth, and not of an attorney who is addressing a jurybox. In the wide and wise economy of things, partisans and extremists doubtless have their uses; but the habit of mind that is most worthy of cultivation is temperance, candor, and judicial fairness in dealing with a question so complex and difficult as that of education. This is the prevailing spirit of every volume which has proceeded from the pen of M. Compayré. These lectures will commend themselves to that class of teachers, now happily growing in numbers, who are looking to psychology as the rational basis of their art. They will discover, perchance to their surprise and delight, that psychology is not an occult science, but that the main laws and essential facts of the intellectual life can be expressed in intelligible terms. This subject, like every other upon which man makes a trial of his thought, finally shades off into transcendental vagueness and uncertainty; but happily the portions that have a real value for guidance lie quite within the compass of the common understanding. For the purposes of disinterested science the mind may be analyzed as though it were an inert thing, just as a dead body may be dissected, and most psychologies seem to have been written from this point of view; but for the teacher's use the mind should be studied in its cardinal movements when engaged in the process of learning. Such in the main is M. Compayré's treatment of the subject in Part First of these Lectures. The thoughtful reader can hardly fail to experience the charm of the author's ardent patriotism. In this volume the teacher is considered as enlisted in the service of the state, working for her preservation, her prosperity, her glory; and the common school is a mould out of which shall issue the highest type of republican citizenship. The teacher who surveys his work from this vantageground must be made of poor stuff if he does not feel a conscious pride in his calling, and does not attain a higher success by keeping steadily and clearly in view this goal of his efforts. In America, as in France, the state by deliberate intent as well as by a necessary evolution has become an educator. The public school is a civil institution, but on this account it is neither godless, unchristian, nor immoral. Between the church and the state there has come about a division of functions, and there is no good reason why they may not coöperate as honorable and helpful allies. This thought has never been more tersely and beautifully expressed than in these words by our author: "We shall continue to build on our solid bases of justice, charity, and tolerance the human city, while leaving to the ministers of religion the task of building beside it what Saint Augustine called the city of God." The teacher's happiness and professional improvement both require that he should have an educational creed as an intellectual and moral support. In education, as in politics and religion, a firm belief in certain first principles is necessary in order to give stability to character and to make continuous growth possible. For the ends here pointed out, it is not required that educational creeds should be uniform, the essential thing being merely that each teacher hold fast to some system of probable truth; but it is necessary that each one's creed be elastic enough to accommodate new truths or modifications of old truths. We may well take alarm when we are no longer conscious of such internal modifications of our educational beliefs. The best service a book can render a teacher is to assist him in the formation of his opinions, and for this purpose it must be dispassionate in tone and must carry critical insight into all its discussions. This volume is pervaded by this spirit, so wholesome and helpful, and I experience no little happiness from the thought that by means of this translation I may help American teachers in the formation of a rational educational creed. The catholic spirit everywhere manifested by M. Compayré justifies me in expressing mild and cautious dissent on a few manifestly open questions; and I have ventured to express my thought in a few brief articles in the Appendix. 66 If this volume shall meet the hearty approval that was given the History of Pedagogy," I shall feel anew my obligations to the teaching profession. NASHVILLE, April 1, 1888. W. H. PAYNE |