The Child and the Curriculum
{"WorkMasterId":6299,"WpPageId":281286,"ParentWpPageId":193822,"Slug":"child-and-curriculum","Url":"https://chrisdeasy.com/theos/humanities/philosophy/philosophers/john-dewey/child-and-curriculum/","RelativeUrl":"theos/humanities/philosophy/philosophers/john-dewey/child-and-curriculum/","HasFullText":true,"RawHtmlLength":121451,"CleanHtmlLength":65341,"Kicker":"Philosophy Work","Title":"The Child and the Curriculum","Deck":"Dewey mediates between child-centered experience and organized subject matter through inquiry, growth, and educative reconstruction.","BackLink":{"Text":"Back to John Dewey","Url":"https://chrisdeasy.com/theos/humanities/philosophy/philosophers/john-dewey/"},"AuthorCard":{"Label":"Author","Title":"John Dewey","Url":"https://chrisdeasy.com/theos/humanities/philosophy/philosophers/john-dewey/","MediaHref":"","ImageSrc":"https://chrisdeasy.com/wp-content/uploads/john-dewey-01-portrait-by-underwood-underwood.jpg","ImageAlt":"Underwood and Underwood portrait of John Dewey","FilterTerra":"North America","ClickText":"John Dewey","ClickHref":"https://chrisdeasy.com/theos/humanities/philosophy/philosophers/john-dewey/","Copies":["1859 CE – 1952 CE","Burlington, Vermont","American pragmatist philosopher of instrumentalism, democratic experimentalism, progressive education, inquiry, experience, logic, ethics, aesthetics, public life, science, and naturalistic religion."]},"ContextCards":[{"Label":"Period","Key":"Period:4","Title":"Modern History","DateText":"1800 CE – 1944 CE","Url":"https://chrisdeasy.com/theos/humanities/philosophy/eras-of-thought/philosophers-of-modern-history/"},{"Label":"Era","Key":"Era:11","Title":"Long 19th Century","DateText":"1870 CE – 1913 CE","Url":"https://chrisdeasy.com/theos/humanities/philosophy/eras-of-thought/philosophers-of-modern-history/philosophers-of-the-long-19th-century/"},{"Label":"Composition","Title":"1902 CE","Url":"","DateText":""}],"DateNote":"Displayed as 1902 CE for the published educational-philosophy text.","GeoCards":[{"Label":"Region","Key":"Region:1"},{"Label":"Terra Avita","Key":"TerraAvita:6"},{"Label":"Terra Avita Region","Key":"TerraAvitaRegion:25"},{"Label":"Modern Country","Key":"Country:USA:6"}],"OriginalTitle":"The Child and the Curriculum","Language":"English","DisciplineCards":[{"Label":"Primary Discipline","Key":"Discipline:ethics"},{"Label":"Secondary Discipline","Key":"Discipline:epistemology"}],"Tradition":"American pragmatism; instrumentalism; pragmatic naturalism; democratic experimentalism; progressive education","FullText":{"Title":"Full Text","Copy":"Public-domain full text from Project Gutenberg eBook #29259 .","Url":"","Label":"","Kicker":"","Cards":[]},"CoreThesis":["Dewey mediates between child-centered experience and organized subject matter through inquiry, growth, and educative reconstruction."],"Classification":{"AlternateTitles":"Child and Curriculum","KeyConcepts":"child; curriculum; growth; experience; education; subject matter; inquiry","Methodology":"Direct Dewey work-cluster record based on SEP, IEP, Britannica, Center for Dewey Studies, Dewey scholarship, catalog records, and public edition evidence. No full text is imported.","Structure":"One work-cluster page with explicit integer display year, date note, evidence note, discipline mapping, and public source evidence."},"Arguments":["Dewey mediates between child-centered experience and organized subject matter through inquiry, growth, and educative reconstruction."],"Influence":{"InfluencedBy":"William James, Charles Sanders Peirce, G. W. F. Hegel, Darwinian naturalism, experimental science, Jane Addams and social reform, American democratic institutions, and educational practice.","InfluenceOn":""},"Significance":["Accepted as a direct Dewey work via catalog, bibliography, and scholarship evidence.","Dewey remains central for inquiry, democratic life, public problem-solving, education, experience, habits, art, values, religion as human faith, and experimental social intelligence."],"EvidenceNote":["Accepted as a direct Dewey work via catalog, bibliography, and scholarship evidence."],"MainSections":[{"Kind":"RawSection","Title":"Full Versions","BodyHtml":"\u003cdiv class=\"dz-philo__full-version-grid\"\u003e\n \u003carticle class=\"dz-philo__full-version-card\"\u003e\n \u003cp class=\"dz-philo__full-version-provider\"\u003eProject Gutenberg\u003c/p\u003e\n \u003ch3 class=\"dz-philo__full-version-title\"\u003eProject Gutenberg eBook #29259\u003c/h3\u003e\n \u003cp class=\"dz-philo__full-version-meta\"\u003eHtmlText · Imported\u003c/p\u003e\n \u003ca class=\"dz-philo__full-version-link\" href=\"https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/29259\"\u003eOpen full version\u003c/a\u003e\n \u003c/article\u003e\n \u003c/div\u003e"},{"Kind":"TextSection","Title":"Core Thesis","Paragraphs":["Dewey mediates between child-centered experience and organized subject matter through inquiry, growth, and educative reconstruction."]},{"Kind":"FieldSection","Title":"Classification","Fields":[{"Label":"Alternate Titles","Value":"Child and Curriculum"},{"Label":"Key Concepts","Value":"child; curriculum; growth; experience; education; subject matter; inquiry"},{"Label":"Methodology","Value":"Direct Dewey work-cluster record based on SEP, IEP, Britannica, Center for Dewey Studies, Dewey scholarship, catalog records, and public edition evidence. No full text is imported."},{"Label":"Structure","Value":"One work-cluster page with explicit integer display year, date note, evidence note, discipline mapping, and public source evidence."}]},{"Kind":"TextSection","Title":"Arguments","Paragraphs":["Dewey mediates between child-centered experience and organized subject matter through inquiry, growth, and educative reconstruction."]},{"Kind":"FieldSection","Title":"Influence","Fields":[{"Label":"Influenced By","Value":"William James, Charles Sanders Peirce, G. W. F. Hegel, Darwinian naturalism, experimental science, Jane Addams and social reform, American democratic institutions, and educational practice."},{"Label":"Influence On","Value":"Pragmatism, analytic and continental social philosophy, democratic theory, progressive education, inquiry theory, aesthetics, public philosophy, deliberative democracy, philosophy of science, and American philosophy."}]},{"Kind":"TextSection","Title":"Significance","Paragraphs":["Accepted as a direct Dewey work via catalog, bibliography, and scholarship evidence.","Dewey remains central for inquiry, democratic life, public problem-solving, education, experience, habits, art, values, religion as human faith, and experimental social intelligence."]},{"Kind":"TextSection","Title":"Evidence Note","Paragraphs":["Accepted as a direct Dewey work via catalog, bibliography, and scholarship evidence."]},{"Kind":"RawSection","Title":"Full Text","BodyHtml":"\u003cp class=\"dz-philo__section-copy dz-philo__full-text-source\"\u003ePublic-domain full text from \u003ca href=\"https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/29259\"\u003eProject Gutenberg eBook #29259\u003c/a\u003e.\u003c/p\u003e\n \u003carticle class=\"dz-philo__full-text-body\"\u003e\n\u003ch1 class=\"toc\"\r\n style=\"font-size: 250%;\r\n letter-spacing: 0.1em;\r\n word-spacing: 0.15em;\r\n padding-bottom: 1ex\"\u003e\r\nTHE CHILD\u003cbr /\u003e\r\nAND\u003cbr /\u003e\r\nTHE CURRICULUM\u003c/h1\u003e\r\n\r\n\u003cp class=\"toc\"\r\n style=\"font-size: 100%;\r\n padding-bottom: 0ex\"\u003e\r\n\u003ci\u003eby\u003c/i\u003e\r\n\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\r\n\u003cp class=\"toc\"\r\n style=\"font-size: 150%;\r\n padding-bottom: 8ex\"\u003e\r\n\u003ci\u003eJohn Dewey\u003c/i\u003e\r\n\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\r\n\u003cdiv style=\"text-align: center\"\u003e\r\n\u003cimg src=\"https://chrisdeasy.com/wp-content/uploads/gutenberg-child-and-curriculum-device.png\" width=\"69\" height=\"75\" alt=\"Publisher\u0027s Device\" /\u003e\r\n\u003c/div\u003e\r\n\r\n\u003cp class=\"toc\"\r\n style=\"font-size: 80%;\r\n letter-spacing: 0.2em;\r\n word-spacing: 0.3em;\r\n padding-bottom: 0ex\"\u003e\r\nTHE UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO\u0026nbsp;PRESS\r\n\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\r\n\u003cp class=\"toc\"\r\n style=\"font-size: 50%;\r\n letter-spacing: 0.2em;\r\n word-spacing: 0.5em;\r\n padding-bottom: 0ex\"\u003e\r\nCHICAGO \u0026amp; LONDON\r\n\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003c/div\u003e\r\n\r\n\u003c!–End of TITLE PAGE–\u003e\r\n\r\n\u003cdiv class=\"vskip\"\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\r\n\r\n\u003c!–COPYRIGHT PAGE–\u003e\r\n\u003cdiv class=\"bbox\" style=\"padding-top: 48ex;\"\u003e\r\n\r\n\u003cp class=\"toc\"\r\n style=\"font-variant: small-caps;\r\n padding-bottom: 0ex;\r\n font-size: 90%;\"\u003e\r\nThe University of Chicago Press, Chicago \u0026amp; London\r\n\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\r\n\u003cp class=\"toc\"\r\n style=\" font-size: 90%;\r\n word-spacing: 0.2em;\r\n padding-bottom: 0ex;\"\u003e\r\nThe University of Toronto Press, Toronto\u0026nbsp;5,\u0026nbsp;Canada\r\n\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\r\n\u003cp class=\"toc\"\r\n style=\"font-size: 90%;\r\n word-spacing: 0.15em;\r\n padding-bottom: 0ex;\"\u003e\r\n\u003ci\u003eCopyright 1902 by The University of Chicago. All rights reserved.\r\nPublished 1902. Twenty-eighth Impression 1966\u003c/i\u003e\u003cbr /\u003e\r\n\u003ci\u003ePrinted in the United States of America\u003c/i\u003e\r\n\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003c/div\u003e\r\n\u003c!–End of COPYRIGHT PAGE–\u003e\r\n\r\n\u003cdiv class=\"vskip\"\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\r\n\r\n\u003c!–Duplicate (half-)title pages removed–\u003e\r\n\r\n\u003c!–\u003cdiv class=\"bbox\" style=\"padding: 30ex 1em;\"\u003e\r\n\u003cp class=\"toc\"\u003eTHE CHILD AND THE CURRICULUM\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003c/div\u003e\r\n\r\n\u003cdiv class=\"vskip\"\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\r\n\r\n\u003cdiv class=\"bbox\" style=\"padding: 30ex 1em;\"\u003e\r\n\u003cp class=\"toc\"\u003e\r\nTHE CHILD AND THE\u003cbr /\u003e\r\nCURRICULUM\u003cbr /\u003e\r\n\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003c/div\u003e\r\n–\u003e\r\n\r\n\u003cdiv\u003e\r\n\u003c!– Page 3 –\u003e\r\n\u003cspan class=\u0027pagenum\u0027\u003e\u003ca name=\"Page_3\" id=\"Page_3\"\u003e3\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/span\u003e\r\n\u003c/div\u003e\r\n\r\n\u003ch2\u003e\r\n\u003ci\u003eThe Child and the Curriculum\u003c/i\u003e\u003cbr /\u003e\r\n\u003c/h2\u003e\r\n\r\n\u003cp\u003eProfound differences in theory are never gratuitous or\r\ninvented. They grow out of conflicting elements in a genuine\r\nproblem\u0026mdash;a problem which is genuine just because the elements,\r\ntaken as they stand, are conflicting. Any significant problem involves\r\nconditions that for the moment contradict each other. Solution comes\r\nonly by getting away from the meaning of terms that is already fixed\r\nupon and coming to see the conditions from another\r\n\u003c!– Page 4 –\u003e\r\n\u003cspan class=\u0027pagenum\u0027\u003e\u003ca name=\"Page_4\" id=\"Page_4\"\u003e4\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/span\u003e\r\npoint of view, and hence in a fresh light. But this reconstruction\r\nmeans travail of thought. Easier than thinking with surrender of\r\nalready formed ideas and detachment from facts already learned is just\r\nto stick by what is already said, looking about for something with\r\nwhich to buttress it against attack.\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\r\n\u003cp\u003eThus sects arise: schools of opinion. Each selects that set of\r\nconditions that appeals to it; and then erects them into a complete\r\nand independent truth, instead of treating them as a factor in a\r\nproblem, needing adjustment.\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\r\n\u003cp\u003eThe fundamental factors in the educative process are an immature,\r\nundeveloped being; and certain social aims, meanings, values incarnate\r\nin the matured experience of the adult. The educative process is the\r\ndue interaction of these forces. Such a conception of each in relation\r\nto the other as facilitates completest and freest interaction is the\r\nessence of educational theory.\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\r\n\u003cp\u003eBut here comes the effort of thought. It is easier to see the\r\nconditions in their separateness, to insist upon one at the expense of\r\nthe other, to make antagonists of them, than to discover a reality to\r\nwhich each belongs. The easy thing is to seize upon something in the\r\nnature of the child, or upon something in the developed consciousness\r\nof the adult, and insist upon \u003ci\u003ethat\u003c/i\u003e as the key to the whole\r\nproblem. When this happens a really serious practical\r\nproblem\u0026mdash;that of interaction\u0026mdash;is transformed into an unreal,\r\nand hence insoluble, theoretic problem. Instead of seeing\r\n\u003c!– Page 5 –\u003e\r\n\u003cspan class=\u0027pagenum\u0027\u003e\u003ca name=\"Page_5\" id=\"Page_5\"\u003e5\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/span\u003e\r\nthe educative steadily and as a whole, we see conflicting terms. We\r\nget the case of the child \u003ci\u003evs.\u003c/i\u003e the curriculum; of the individual nature\r\n\u003ci\u003evs.\u003c/i\u003e social culture. Below all other divisions in pedagogic opinion\r\nlies this opposition.\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\r\n\u003cp\u003eThe child lives in a somewhat narrow world of personal\r\ncontacts. Things hardly come within his experience unless they touch,\r\nintimately and obviously, his own well-being, or that of his family\r\nand friends. His world is a world of persons with their personal\r\ninterests, rather than a realm of facts and laws. Not truth, in the\r\nsense of conformity to external fact, but affection and sympathy, is\r\nits keynote. As against this, the course of study met in the school\r\npresents material stretching back indefinitely in time, and extending\r\noutward indefinitely into space. The child is taken out of his\r\nfamiliar physical environment, hardly more than a square mile or so in\r\narea, into the wide world\u0026mdash;yes, and even to the bounds of the\r\nsolar system. His little span of personal memory and tradition is\r\noverlaid with the long centuries of the history of all peoples.\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\r\n\u003cp\u003eAgain, the child\u0027s life is an integral, a total one. He passes\r\nquickly and readily from one topic to another, as from one spot to\r\nanother, but is not conscious of transition or break. There is no\r\nconscious isolation, hardly conscious distinction. The things that\r\noccupy him are held together by the unity of the personal and social\r\ninterests which his life carries along. Whatever is\r\n\u003c!– Page 6 –\u003e\r\n\u003cspan class=\u0027pagenum\u0027\u003e\u003ca name=\"Page_6\" id=\"Page_6\"\u003e6\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/span\u003e\r\nuppermost in his mind constitutes to him, for the time being, the\r\nwhole universe. That universe is fluid and fluent; its contents\r\ndissolve and re-form with amazing rapidity. But, after all, it is the\r\nchild\u0027s own world. It has the unity and completeness of his own\r\nlife. He goes to school, and various studies divide and fractionize\r\nthe world for him. Geography selects, it abstracts and analyzes one\r\nset of facts, and from one particular point of view. Arithmetic is\r\nanother division, grammar another department, and so on\r\nindefinitely.\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\r\n\u003cp\u003eAgain, in school each of these subjects is classified. Facts are\r\ntorn away from their original place in experience and rearranged with\r\nreference to some general principle. Classification is not a matter of\r\nchild experience; things do not come to the individual\r\npigeonholed. The vital ties of affection, the connecting bonds of\r\nactivity, hold together the variety of his personal experiences. The\r\nadult mind is so familiar with the notion of logically ordered facts\r\nthat it does not recognize\u0026mdash;it cannot realize\u0026mdash;the amount of\r\nseparating and reformulating which the facts of direct experience have\r\nto undergo before they can appear as a \"study,\" or branch of\r\nlearning. A principle, for the intellect, has had to be distinguished\r\nand defined; facts have had to be interpreted in relation to this\r\nprinciple, not as they are in themselves. They have had to be\r\nregathered about a new center which is wholly abstract and ideal. All\r\nthis means a development of a special intellectual interest.\r\n\u003c!– Page 7 –\u003e\r\n\u003cspan class=\u0027pagenum\u0027\u003e\u003ca name=\"Page_7\" id=\"Page_7\"\u003e7\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/span\u003e\r\nIt means ability to view facts impartially and objectively; that is,\r\nwithout reference to their place and meaning in one\u0027s own\r\nexperience. It means capacity to analyze and to synthesize. It means\r\nhighly matured intellectual habits and the command of a definite\r\ntechnique and apparatus of scientific inquiry. The studies as\r\nclassified are the product, in a word, of the science of the ages, not\r\nof the experience of the child.\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\r\n\u003cp\u003eThese apparent deviations and differences between child and\r\ncurriculum might be almost indefinitely widened. But we have here\r\nsufficiently fundamental divergences: first, the narrow but personal\r\nworld of the child against the impersonal but infinitely extended\r\nworld of space and time; second, the unity, the single\r\nwholeheartedness of the child\u0027s life, and the specializations and\r\ndivisions of the curriculum; third, an abstract principle of logical\r\nclassification and arrangement, and the practical and emotional bonds\r\nof child life.\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\r\n\u003cp\u003eFrom these elements of conflict grow up different educational\r\nsects. One school fixes its attention upon the importance of the\r\nsubject-matter of the curriculum as compared with the contents of the\r\nchild\u0027s own experience. It is as if they said: Is life petty, narrow,\r\nand crude? Then studies reveal the great, wide universe with all its\r\nfulness and complexity of meaning. Is the life of the child egoistic,\r\nself-centered, impulsive? Then in these studies is found an objective\r\nuniverse of truth, law, and order. Is his experience\r\n\u003c!– Page 8 –\u003e\r\n\u003cspan class=\u0027pagenum\u0027\u003e\u003ca name=\"Page_8\" id=\"Page_8\"\u003e8\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/span\u003e\r\nconfused, vague, uncertain, at the mercy of the moment\u0027s caprice and\r\ncircumstance? Then studies introduce a world arranged on the basis of\r\neternal and general truth; a world where all is measured and\r\ndefined. Hence the moral: ignore and minimize the child\u0027s individual\r\npeculiarities, whims, and experiences. They are what we need to get\r\naway from. They are to be obscured or eliminated. As educators our\r\nwork is precisely to substitute for these superficial and casual\r\naffairs stable and well-ordered realities; and these are found in\r\nstudies and lessons.\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\r\n\u003cp\u003eSubdivide each topic into studies; each study into lessons; each\r\nlesson into specific facts and formulae. Let the child proceed step by\r\nstep to master each one of these separate parts, and at last he will\r\nhave covered the entire ground. The road which looks so long when\r\nviewed in its entirety is easily traveled, considered as a series of\r\nparticular steps. Thus emphasis is put upon the logical subdivisions\r\nand consecutions of the subject-matter. Problems of instruction are\r\nproblems of procuring texts giving logical parts and sequences, and of\r\npresenting these portions in class in a similar definite and graded\r\nway. Subject-matter furnishes the end, and it determines method. The\r\nchild is simply the immature being who is to be matured; he is the\r\nsuperficial being who is to be deepened; his is narrow experience\r\nwhich is to be widened. It is his to receive, to accept. His part is\r\nfulfilled when he is ductile and docile.\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\r\n\u003cdiv\u003e\r\n\u003c!– Page 9 –\u003e\r\n\u003cspan class=\u0027pagenum\u0027\u003e\u003ca name=\"Page_9\" id=\"Page_9\"\u003e9\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/span\u003e\r\n\u003c/div\u003e\r\n\r\n\u003cp\u003eNot so, says the other sect. The child is the starting-point, the\r\ncenter, and the end. His development, his growth, is the ideal. It\r\nalone furnishes the standard. To the growth of the child all studies\r\nare subservient; they are instruments valued as they serve the needs\r\nof growth. Personality, character, is more than subject-matter. Not\r\nknowledge or information, but self-realization, is the goal. To\r\npossess all the world of knowledge and lose one\u0027s own self is as awful\r\na fate in education as in religion. Moreover, subject-matter never can\r\nbe got into the child from without. Learning is active. It involves\r\nreaching out of the mind. It involves organic assimilation starting\r\nfrom within. Literally, we must take our stand with the child and our\r\ndeparture from him. It is he and not the subject-matter which\r\ndetermines both quality and quantity of learning.\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\r\n\u003cp\u003eThe only significant method is the method of the mind as it reaches\r\nout and assimilates. Subject-matter is but spiritual food, possible\r\nnutritive material. It cannot digest itself; it cannot of its own\r\naccord turn into bone and muscle and blood. The source of whatever is\r\ndead, mechanical, and formal in schools is found precisely in the\r\nsubordination of the life and experience of the child to the\r\ncurriculum. It is because of this that \"study\" has become a synonym\r\nfor what is irksome, and a lesson identical with a task.\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\r\n\u003cp\u003eThis fundamental opposition of child and curriculum set up by these\r\ntwo modes of doctrine can be duplicated in a series of\r\n\u003c!– Page 10 –\u003e\r\n\u003cspan class=\u0027pagenum\u0027\u003e\u003ca name=\"Page_10\" id=\"Page_10\"\u003e10\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/span\u003e\r\nother terms. \"Discipline\" is the watchword of those who magnify the\r\ncourse of study; \"interest\" that of those who blazon \"The Child\" upon\r\ntheir banner. The standpoint of the former is logical; that of the\r\nlatter psychological. The first emphasizes the necessity of adequate\r\ntraining and scholarship on the part of the teacher; the latter that\r\nof need of sympathy with the child, and knowledge of his natural\r\ninstincts. \"Guidance and control\" are the catchwords of one school;\r\n\"freedom and initiative\" of the other. Law is asserted here;\r\nspontaneity proclaimed there. The old, the conservation of what has\r\nbeen achieved in the pain and toil of the ages, is dear to the one;\r\nthe new, change, progress, wins the affection of the other. Inertness\r\nand routine, chaos and anarchism, are accusations bandied back and\r\nforth. Neglect of the sacred authority of duty is charged by one side,\r\nonly to be met by counter-charges of suppression of individuality\r\nthrough tyrannical despotism.\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\r\n\u003cp\u003eSuch oppositions are rarely carried to their logical conclusion.\r\nCommon-sense recoils at the extreme character of these results. They\r\nare left to theorists, while common-sense vibrates back and forward in\r\na maze of inconsistent compromise. The need of getting theory and\r\npractical common-sense into closer connection suggests a return to our\r\noriginal thesis: that we have here conditions which are necessarily\r\nrelated to each other in the educative process, since this is\r\nprecisely one of interaction and adjustment.\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\r\n\u003cdiv\u003e\r\n\u003c!– Page 11 –\u003e\r\n\u003cspan class=\u0027pagenum\u0027\u003e\u003ca name=\"Page_11\" id=\"Page_11\"\u003e11\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/span\u003e\r\n\u003c/div\u003e\r\n\r\n\u003cp\u003eWhat, then, is the problem? It is just to get rid of the\r\nprejudicial notion that there is some gap in kind (as distinct from\r\ndegree) between the child\u0027s experience and the various forms of\r\nsubject-matter that make up the course of study. From the side of the\r\nchild, it is a question of seeing how his experience already contains\r\nwithin itself elements\u0026mdash;facts and truths\u0026mdash;of just the same\r\nsort as those entering into the formulated study; and, what is of more\r\nimportance, of how it contains within itself the attitudes, the\r\nmotives, and the interests which have operated in developing and\r\norganizing the subject-matter to the plane which it now occupies. From\r\nthe side of the studies, it is a question of interpreting them as\r\noutgrowths of forces operating in the child\u0027s life, and of discovering\r\nthe steps that intervene between the child\u0027s present experience and\r\ntheir richer maturity.\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\r\n\u003cp\u003eAbandon the notion of subject-matter as something fixed and\r\nready-made in itself, outside the child\u0027s experience; cease thinking\r\nof the child\u0027s experience as also something hard and fast; see it as\r\nsomething fluent, embryonic, vital; and we realize that the child and\r\nthe curriculum are simply two limits which define a single\r\nprocess. Just as two points define a straight line, so the present\r\nstandpoint of the child and the facts and truths of studies define\r\ninstruction. It is continuous reconstruction, moving from the child\u0027s\r\npresent experience out into that represented by the organized bodies\r\nof truth that we call studies.\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\r\n\u003cdiv\u003e\r\n\u003c!– Page 12 –\u003e\r\n\u003cspan class=\u0027pagenum\u0027\u003e\u003ca name=\"Page_12\" id=\"Page_12\"\u003e12\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/span\u003e\r\n\u003c/div\u003e\r\n\r\n\u003cp\u003eOn the face of it, the various studies, arithmetic, geography,\r\nlanguage, botany, etc., are themselves experience\u0026mdash;they are that\r\nof the race. They embody the cumulative outcome of the efforts, the\r\nstrivings, and the successes of the human race generation after\r\ngeneration. They present this, not as a mere accumulation, not as a\r\nmiscellaneous heap of separate bits of experience, but in some\r\norganized and systematized way\u0026mdash;that is, as reflectively\r\nformulated.\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\r\n\u003cp\u003eHence, the facts and truths that enter into the child\u0027s present\r\nexperience, and those contained in the subject-matter of studies, are\r\nthe initial and final terms of one reality. To oppose one to the other\r\nis to oppose the infancy and maturity of the same growing life; it is\r\nto set the moving tendency and the final result of the same process\r\nover against each other; it is to hold that the nature and the destiny\r\nof the child war with each other.\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\r\n\u003cp\u003eIf such be the case, the problem of the relation of the child and\r\nthe curriculum presents itself in this guise: Of what use,\r\neducationally speaking, is it to be able to see the end in the\r\nbeginning? How does it assist us in dealing with the early stages of\r\ngrowth to be able to anticipate its later phases? The studies, as we\r\nhave agreed, represent the possibilities of development inherent in\r\nthe child\u0027s immediate crude experience. But, after all, they are not\r\nparts of that present and immediate life. Why, then, or how, make\r\naccount of them?\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\r\n\u003cdiv\u003e\r\n\u003c!– Page 13 –\u003e\r\n\u003cspan class=\u0027pagenum\u0027\u003e\u003ca name=\"Page_13\" id=\"Page_13\"\u003e13\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/span\u003e\r\n\u003c/div\u003e\r\n\r\n\u003cp\u003eAsking such a question suggests its own answer. To see the outcome is to\r\nknow in what direction the present experience is moving, provided it\r\nmove normally and soundly. The far-away point, which is of no\r\nsignificance to us simply as far away, becomes of huge importance the\r\nmoment we take it as defining a present direction of movement. Taken in\r\nthis way it is no remote and distant result to be achieved, but a\r\nguiding method in dealing with the present. The systematized and defined\r\nexperience of the adult mind, in other words, is of value to us in\r\ninterpreting the child\u0027s life as it immediately shows itself, and in\r\npassing on to guidance or direction.\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\r\n\u003cp\u003eLet us look for a moment at these two ideas: interpretation and\r\nguidance. The child\u0027s present experience is in no way\r\nself-explanatory. It is not final, but transitional. It is nothing\r\ncomplete in itself, but just a sign or index of certain\r\ngrowth-tendencies. As long as we confine our gaze to what the child\r\nhere and now puts forth, we are confused and misled. We cannot read\r\nits meaning. Extreme depreciations of the child morally and\r\nintellectually, and sentimental idealizations of him, have their root\r\nin a common fallacy. Both spring from taking stages of a growth or\r\nmovement as something cut off and fixed. The first fails to see the\r\npromise contained in feelings and deeds which, taken by themselves,\r\nare uncompromising and repellent; the second fails to see that even\r\nthe most pleasing and beautiful exhibitions are but\r\n\u003c!– Page 14 –\u003e\r\n\u003cspan class=\u0027pagenum\u0027\u003e\u003ca name=\"Page_14\" id=\"Page_14\"\u003e14\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/span\u003e\r\nsigns, and that they begin to spoil and rot the moment they are\r\ntreated as achievements.\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\r\n\u003cp\u003eWhat we need is something which will enable us to interpret, to\r\nappraise, the elements in the child\u0027s present puttings forth and\r\nfallings away, his exhibitions of power and weakness, in the light of\r\nsome larger growth-process in which they have their place. Only in\r\nthis way can we discriminate. If we isolate the child\u0027s present\r\ninclinations, purposes, and experiences from the place they occupy and\r\nthe part they have to perform in a developing experience, all stand\r\nupon the same level; all alike are equally good and equally bad. But\r\nin the movement of life different elements stand upon different planes\r\nof value. Some of the child\u0027s deeds are symptoms of a waning tendency;\r\nthey are survivals in functioning of an organ which has done its part\r\nand is passing out of vital use. To give positive attention to such\r\nqualities is to arrest development upon a lower level. It is\r\nsystematically to maintain a rudimentary phase of growth. Other\r\nactivities are signs of a culminating power and interest; to them\r\napplies the maxim of striking while the iron is hot. As regards them,\r\nit is perhaps a matter of now or never. Selected, utilized,\r\nemphasized, they may mark a turning-point for good in the child\u0027s\r\nwhole career; neglected, an opportunity goes, never to be\r\nrecalled. Other acts and feelings are prophetic; they represent the\r\ndawning of flickering light that will shine steadily only in the far\r\nfuture. As\r\n\u003c!– Page 15 –\u003e\r\n\u003cspan class=\u0027pagenum\u0027\u003e\u003ca name=\"Page_15\" id=\"Page_15\"\u003e15\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/span\u003e\r\n regards them there is little at present to do but give them fair and\r\nfull chance, waiting for the future for definite direction.\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\r\n\u003cp\u003eJust as, upon the whole, it was the weakness of the \"old education\"\r\nthat it made invidious comparisons between the immaturity of the child\r\nand the maturity of the adult, regarding the former as something to be\r\ngot away from as soon as possible and as much as possible; so it is\r\nthe danger of the \"new education\" that it regard the child\u0027s present\r\npowers and interests as something finally significant in\r\nthemselves. In truth, his learnings and achievements are fluid and\r\nmoving. They change from day to day and from hour to hour.\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\r\n\u003cp\u003eIt will do harm if child-study leave in the popular mind the\r\nimpression that a child of a given age has a positive equipment of\r\npurposes and interests to be cultivated just as they stand. Interests\r\nin reality are but attitudes toward possible experiences; they are not\r\nachievements; their worth is in the leverage they afford, not in the\r\naccomplishment they represent. To take the phenomena presented at a\r\ngiven age as in any way self-explanatory or self-contained is\r\ninevitably to result in indulgence and spoiling. Any power, whether of\r\nchild or adult, is indulged when it is taken on its given and present\r\nlevel in consciousness. Its genuine meaning is in the propulsion it\r\naffords toward a higher level. It is just something to do\r\nwith. Appealing to the interest upon the present plane means\r\nexcitation; it means playing with a power so as continually\r\n\u003c!– Page 16 –\u003e\r\n\u003cspan class=\u0027pagenum\u0027\u003e\u003ca name=\"Page_16\" id=\"Page_16\"\u003e16\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/span\u003e\r\nto stir it up without directing it toward definite\r\nachievement. Continuous initiation, continuous starting of activities\r\nthat do not arrive, is, for all practical purposes, as bad as the\r\ncontinual repression of initiative in conformity with supposed\r\ninterests of some more perfect thought or will. It is as if the child\r\nwere forever tasting and never eating; always having his palate\r\ntickled upon the emotional side, but never getting the organic\r\nsatisfaction that comes only with digestion of food and transformation\r\nof it into working power.\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\r\n\u003cp\u003eAs against such a view, the subject-matter of science and history\r\nand art serves to reveal the real child to us. We do not know the\r\nmeaning either of his tendencies or of his performances excepting as\r\nwe take them as germinating seed, or opening bud, of some fruit to be\r\nborne. The whole world of visual nature is all too small an answer to\r\nthe problem of the meaning of the child\u0027s instinct for light and\r\nform. The entire science of physics is none too much to interpret\r\nadequately to us what is involved in some simple demand of the child\r\nfor explanation of some casual change that has attracted his\r\nattention. The art of Raphael or of Corot is none too much to enable\r\nus to value the impulses stirring in the child when he draws and\r\ndaubs.\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\r\n\u003cp\u003eSo much for the use of the subject-matter in interpretation. Its\r\nfurther employment in direction or guidance is but an expansion of the\r\nsame thought. To interpret the fact is to see it in its vital\r\n\u003c!– Page 17 –\u003e\r\n\u003cspan class=\u0027pagenum\u0027\u003e\u003ca name=\"Page_17\" id=\"Page_17\"\u003e17\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/span\u003e\r\nmovement, to see it in its relation to growth. But to view it as a\r\npart of a normal growth is to secure the basis for guiding\r\nit. Guidance is not external imposition. \u003ci\u003eIt is freeing the\r\nlife-process for its own most adequate fulfilment.\u003c/i\u003e What was said\r\nabout disregard of the child\u0027s present experience because of its\r\nremoteness from mature experience; and of the sentimental idealization\r\nof the child\u0027s naïve caprices and performances, may be repeated here\r\nwith slightly altered phrase. There are those who see no alternative\r\nbetween forcing the child from without, or leaving him entirely\r\nalone. Seeing no alternative, some choose one mode, some another. Both\r\nfall into the same fundamental error. Both fail to see that\r\ndevelopment is a definite process, having its own law which can be\r\nfulfilled only when adequate and normal conditions are\r\nprovided. Really to interpret the child\u0027s present crude impulses in\r\ncounting, measuring, and arranging things in rhythmic series involves\r\nmathematical scholarship\u0026mdash;a knowledge of the mathematical\r\nformulae and relations which have, in the history of the race, grown\r\nout of just such crude beginnings. To see the whole history of\r\ndevelopment which intervenes between these two terms is simply to see\r\nwhat step the child needs to take just here and now; to what use he\r\nneeds to put his blind impulse in order that it may get clarity and\r\ngain force.\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\r\n\u003cp\u003eIf, once more, the \"old education\" tended to ignore the dynamic\r\nquality, the developing force inherent in the child\u0027s present\r\n\u003c!– Page 18 –\u003e\r\n\u003cspan class=\u0027pagenum\u0027\u003e\u003ca name=\"Page_18\" id=\"Page_18\"\u003e18\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/span\u003e\r\nexperience, and therefore to assume that direction and control were\r\njust matters of arbitrarily putting the child in a given path and\r\ncompelling him to walk there, the \"new education\" is in danger of\r\ntaking the idea of development in altogether too formal and empty a\r\nway. The child is expected to \"develop\" this or that fact or truth out\r\nof his own mind. He is told to think things out, or work things out\r\nfor himself, without being supplied any of the environing conditions\r\nwhich are requisite to start and guide thought. Nothing can be\r\ndeveloped from nothing; nothing but the crude can be developed out of\r\nthe crude\u0026mdash;and this is what surely happens when we throw the\r\nchild back upon his achieved self as a finality, and invite him to\r\nspin new truths of nature or of conduct out of that. It is certainly\r\nas futile to expect a child to evolve a universe out of his own mere\r\nmind as it is for a philosopher to attempt that task. Development does\r\nnot mean just getting something out of the mind. It is a development\r\nof experience and into experience that is really wanted. And this is\r\nimpossible save as just that educative medium is provided which will\r\nenable the powers and interests that have been selected as valuable to\r\nfunction. They must operate, and how they operate will depend almost\r\nentirely upon the stimuli which surround them and the material upon\r\nwhich they exercise themselves. The problem of direction is thus the\r\nproblem of selecting appropriate stimuli for instincts and impulses\r\nwhich it is desired to employ in the gaining\r\n\u003c!– Page 19 –\u003e\r\n\u003cspan class=\u0027pagenum\u0027\u003e\u003ca name=\"Page_19\" id=\"Page_19\"\u003e19\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/span\u003e\r\nof new experience. What new experiences are desirable, and thus what\r\nstimuli are needed, it is impossible to tell except as there is some\r\ncomprehension of the development which is aimed at; except, in a word,\r\nas the adult knowledge is drawn upon as revealing the possible career\r\nopen to the child.\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\r\n\u003cp\u003eIt may be of use to distinguish and to relate to each other the\r\nlogical and the psychological aspects of experience\u0026mdash;the former\r\nstanding for subject-matter in itself, the latter for it in relation\r\nto the child. A psychological statement of experience follows its\r\nactual growth; it is historic; it notes steps actually taken, the\r\nuncertain and tortuous, as well as the efficient and successful. The\r\nlogical point of view, on the other hand, assumes that the development\r\nhas reached a certain positive stage of fulfilment. It neglects the\r\nprocess and considers the outcome. It summarizes and arranges, and\r\nthus separates the achieved results from the actual steps by which\r\nthey were forthcoming in the first instance. We may compare the\r\ndifference between the logical and the psychological to the difference\r\nbetween the notes which an explorer makes in a new country, blazing a\r\ntrail and finding his way along as best he may, and the finished map\r\nthat is constructed after the country has been thoroughly\r\nexplored. The two are mutually dependent. Without the more or less\r\naccidental and devious paths traced by the explorer there would be no\r\nfacts which could be utilized in the making of the complete and\r\nrelated chart. But no\r\n\u003c!– Page 20 –\u003e\r\n\u003cspan class=\u0027pagenum\u0027\u003e\u003ca name=\"Page_20\" id=\"Page_20\"\u003e20\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/span\u003e\r\none would get the benefit of the explorer\u0027s trip if it was not\r\ncompared and checked up with similar wanderings undertaken by others;\r\nunless the new geographical facts learned, the streams crossed, the\r\nmountains climbed, etc., were viewed, not as mere incidents in the\r\njourney of the particular traveler, but (quite apart from the\r\nindividual explorer\u0027s life) in relation to other similar facts already\r\nknown. The map orders individual experiences, connecting them with one\r\nanother irrespective of the local and temporal circumstances and\r\naccidents of their original discovery.\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\r\n\u003cp\u003eOf what use is this formulated statement of experience? Of what use\r\nis the map?\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\r\n\u003cp\u003eWell, we may first tell what the map is not. The map is not a\r\nsubstitute for a personal experience. The map does not take the place\r\nof an actual journey. The logically formulated material of a science\r\nor branch of learning, of a study, is no substitute for the having of\r\nindividual experiences. The mathematical formula for a falling body\r\ndoes not take the place of personal contact and immediate individual\r\nexperience with the falling thing. But the map, a summary, an arranged\r\nand orderly view of previous experiences, serves as a guide to future\r\nexperience; it gives direction; it facilitates control; it economizes\r\neffort, preventing useless wandering, and pointing out the paths which\r\nlead most quickly and most certainly to a desired result. Through the\r\nmap every new traveler may get for his own journey the benefits of the\r\nresults of\r\n\u003c!– Page 21 –\u003e\r\n\u003cspan class=\u0027pagenum\u0027\u003e\u003ca name=\"Page_21\" id=\"Page_21\"\u003e21\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/span\u003e\r\nothers\u0027 explorations without the waste of energy and loss of time\r\ninvolved in their wanderings\u0026mdash;wanderings which he himself would\r\nbe obliged to repeat were it not for just the assistance of the\r\nobjective and generalized record of their performances. That which we\r\ncall a science or study puts the net product of past experience in the\r\nform which makes it most available for the future. It represents a\r\ncapitalization which may at once be turned to interest. It economizes\r\nthe workings of the mind in every way. Memory is less taxed because\r\nthe facts are grouped together about some common principle, instead of\r\nbeing connected solely with the varying incidents of their original\r\ndiscovery. Observation is assisted; we know what to look for and\r\nwhere to look. It is the difference between looking for a needle in a\r\nhaystack, and searching for a given paper in a well-arranged\r\ncabinet. Reasoning is directed, because there is a certain general\r\npath or line laid out along which ideas naturally march, instead of\r\nmoving from one chance association to another.\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\r\n\u003cp\u003eThere is, then, nothing final about a logical rendering of\r\nexperience. Its value is not contained in itself; its significance is\r\nthat of standpoint, outlook, method. It intervenes between the more\r\ncasual, tentative, and roundabout experiences of the past, and more\r\ncontrolled and orderly experiences of the future. It gives past\r\nexperience in that net form which renders it most available and most\r\nsignificant, most fecund for future experience. The abstractions,\r\n\u003c!– Page 22 –\u003e\r\n\u003cspan class=\u0027pagenum\u0027\u003e\u003ca name=\"Page_22\" id=\"Page_22\"\u003e22\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/span\u003e\r\ngeneralizations, and classifications which it introduces all have\r\nprospective meaning.\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\r\n\u003cp\u003eThe formulated result is then not to be opposed to the process of\r\ngrowth. The logical is not set over against the psychological. The\r\nsurveyed and arranged result occupies a critical position in the\r\nprocess of growth. It marks a turning-point. It shows how we may get\r\nthe benefit of past effort in controlling future endeavor. In the\r\nlargest sense the logical standpoint is itself psychological; it has\r\nits meaning as a point in the development of experience, and its\r\njustification is in its functioning in the future growth which it\r\ninsures.\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\r\n\u003cp\u003eHence the need of reinstating into experience the subject-matter of\r\nthe studies, or branches of learning. It must be restored to the\r\nexperience from which it has been abstracted. It needs to be\r\n\u003ci\u003epsychologized\u003c/i\u003e; turned over, translated into the immediate and\r\nindividual experiencing within which it has its origin and\r\nsignificance.\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\r\n\u003cp\u003eEvery study or subject thus has two aspects: one for the scientist\r\nas a scientist; the other for the teacher as a teacher. These two\r\naspects are in no sense opposed or conflicting. But neither are they\r\nimmediately identical. For the scientist, the subject-matter\r\nrepresents simply a given body of truth to be employed in locating new\r\nproblems, instituting new researches, and carrying them through to a\r\nverified outcome. To him the subject-matter\r\n\u003c!– Page 23 –\u003e\r\n\u003cspan class=\u0027pagenum\u0027\u003e\u003ca name=\"Page_23\" id=\"Page_23\"\u003e23\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/span\u003e\r\nof the science is self-contained. He refers various portions of it to\r\neach other; he connects new facts with it. He is not, as a scientist,\r\ncalled upon to travel outside its particular bounds; if he does, it is\r\nonly to get more facts of the same general sort. The problem of the\r\nteacher is a different one. As a teacher he is not concerned with\r\nadding new facts to the science he teaches; in propounding new\r\nhypotheses or in verifying them. He is concerned with the\r\nsubject-matter of the science as \u003ci\u003erepresenting a given stage and\r\nphase of the development of experience\u003c/i\u003e. His problem is that of\r\ninducing a vital and personal experiencing. Hence, what concerns him,\r\nas teacher, is the ways in which that subject may become a part of\r\nexperience; what there is in the child\u0027s present that is usable with\r\nreference to it; how such elements are to be used; how his own\r\nknowledge of the subject-matter may assist in interpreting the child\u0027s\r\nneeds and doings, and determine the medium in which the child should\r\nbe placed in order that his growth may be properly directed. He is\r\nconcerned, not with the subject-matter as such, but with the\r\nsubject-matter as a related factor in a total and growing\r\nexperience. Thus to see it is to psychologize it.\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\r\n\u003cp\u003eIt is the failure to keep in mind the double aspect of\r\nsubject-matter which causes the curriculum and child to be set over\r\nagainst each other as described in our early pages. The\r\nsubject-matter, just as it is for the scientist, has no direct\r\nrelationship to\r\n\u003c!– Page 24 –\u003e\r\n\u003cspan class=\u0027pagenum\u0027\u003e\u003ca name=\"Page_24\" id=\"Page_24\"\u003e24\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/span\u003e\r\nthe child\u0027s present experience. It stands outside of it. The danger\r\nhere is not a merely theoretical one. We are practically threatened on\r\nall sides. Textbook and teacher vie with each other in presenting to\r\nthe child the subject-matter as it stands to the specialist. Such\r\nmodification and revision as it undergoes are a mere elimination of\r\ncertain scientific difficulties, and the general reduction to a lower\r\nintellectual level. The material is not translated into life-terms,\r\nbut is directly offered as a substitute for, or an external annex to,\r\nthe child\u0027s present life.\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\r\n\u003cp\u003eThree typical evils result: In the first place, the lack of any\r\norganic connection with what the child has already seen and felt and\r\nloved makes the material purely formal and symbolic. There is a sense\r\nin which it is impossible to value too highly the formal and the\r\nsymbolic. The genuine form, the real symbol, serve as methods in the\r\nholding and discovery of truth. They are tools by which the individual\r\npushes out most surely and widely into unexplored areas. They are\r\nmeans by which he brings to bear whatever of reality he has succeeded\r\nin gaining in past searchings. But this happens only when the symbol\r\nreally symbolizes\u0026mdash;when it stands for and sums up in shorthand\r\nactual experiences which the individual has already gone through. A\r\nsymbol which is induced from without, which has not been led up to in\r\npreliminary activities, is, as we say, a \u003ci\u003ebare\u003c/i\u003e or\r\n\u003ci\u003emere\u003c/i\u003e symbol; it is dead and barren. Now, any fact, whether of\r\narithmetic, or geography, or grammar,\r\n\u003c!– Page 25 –\u003e\r\n\u003cspan class=\u0027pagenum\u0027\u003e\u003ca name=\"Page_25\" id=\"Page_25\"\u003e25\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/span\u003e\r\nwhich is not led up to and into out of something which has previously\r\noccupied a significant position in the child\u0027s life for its own sake,\r\nis forced into this position. It is not a reality, but just the sign\r\nof a reality which \u003ci\u003emight\u003c/i\u003e be experienced if certain conditions\r\nwere fulfilled. But the abrupt presentation of the fact as something\r\nknown by others, and requiring only to be studied and learned by the\r\nchild, rules out such conditions of fulfilment. It condemns the fact\r\nto be a hieroglyph: it would mean something if one only had the\r\nkey. The clue being lacking, it remains an idle curiosity, to fret and\r\nobstruct the mind, a dead weight to burden it.\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\r\n\u003cp\u003eThe second evil in this external presentation is lack of\r\nmotivation. There are not only no facts or truths which have been\r\npreviously felt as such with which to appropriate and assimilate the\r\nnew, but there is no craving, no need, no demand. When the\r\nsubject-matter has been psychologized, that is, viewed as an\r\nout-growth of present tendencies and activities, it is easy to locate\r\nin the present some obstacle, intellectual, practical, or ethical,\r\nwhich can be handled more adequately if the truth in question be\r\nmastered. This need supplies motive for the learning. An end which is\r\nthe child\u0027s own carries him on to possess the means of its\r\naccomplishment. But when material is directly supplied in the form of\r\na lesson to be learned as a lesson, the connecting links of need and\r\naim are conspicuous for their absence. What we mean\r\n\u003c!– Page 26 –\u003e\r\n\u003cspan class=\u0027pagenum\u0027\u003e\u003ca name=\"Page_26\" id=\"Page_26\"\u003e26\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/span\u003e\r\nby the mechanical and dead in instruction is a result of this lack of\r\nmotivation. The organic and vital mean interaction\u0026mdash;they mean\r\nplay of mental demand and material supply.\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\r\n\u003cp\u003eThe third evil is that even the most scientific matter, arranged in\r\nmost logical fashion, loses this quality, when presented in external,\r\nready-made fashion, by the time it gets to the child. It has to\r\nundergo some modification in order to shut out some phases too hard to\r\ngrasp, and to reduce some of the attendant difficulties. What happens?\r\nThose things which are most significant to the scientific man, and\r\nmost valuable in the logic of actual inquiry and classification, drop\r\nout. The really thought-provoking character is obscured, and the\r\norganizing function disappears. Or, as we commonly say, the child\u0027s\r\nreasoning powers, the faculty of abstraction and generalization, are\r\nnot adequately developed. So the subject-matter is evacuated of its\r\nlogical value, and, though it is what it is only from the logical\r\nstandpoint, is presented as stuff only for \"memory.\" This is the\r\ncontradiction: the child gets the advantage neither of the adult\r\nlogical formulation, nor of his own native competencies of\r\napprehension and response. Hence the logic of the child is hampered\r\nand mortified, and we are almost fortunate if he does not get actual\r\nnon-science, flat and common-place residua of what was gaining\r\nscientific vitality a generation or two ago\u0026mdash;degenerate\r\nreminiscence of what someone else once formulated on the basis of the\r\nexperience that some further person had, once upon a time,\r\nexperienced.\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\r\n\u003cdiv\u003e\r\n\u003c!– Page 27 –\u003e\r\n\u003cspan class=\u0027pagenum\u0027\u003e\u003ca name=\"Page_27\" id=\"Page_27\"\u003e27\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/span\u003e\r\n\u003c/div\u003e\r\n\r\n\u003cp\u003eThe train of evils does not cease. It is all too common for opposed\r\nerroneous theories to play straight into each other\u0027s hands.\r\nPsychological considerations may be slurred or shoved one side; they\r\ncannot be crowded out. Put out of the door, they come back through the\r\nwindow. Somehow and somewhere motive must be appealed to, connection\r\nmust be established between the mind and its material. There is no\r\nquestion of getting along without this bond of connection; the only\r\nquestion is whether it be such as grows out of the material itself in\r\nrelation to the mind, or be imported and hitched on from some outside\r\nsource. If the subject-matter of the lessons be such as to have an\r\nappropriate place within the expanding consciousness of the child, if\r\nit grows out of his own past doings, thinkings, and sufferings, and\r\ngrows into application in further achievements and receptivities, then\r\nno device or trick of method has to be resorted to in order to enlist\r\n\"interest.\" The psychologized \u003ci\u003eis\u003c/i\u003e of interest\u0026mdash;that is, it\r\nis placed in the whole of conscious life so that it shares the worth\r\nof that life. But the externally presented material, conceived and\r\ngenerated in standpoints and attitudes remote from the child, and\r\ndeveloped in motives alien to him, has no such place of its own. Hence\r\nthe recourse to adventitious leverage to push it in, to factitious\r\ndrill to drive it in, to artificial bribe to lure it in.\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\r\n\u003cp\u003eThree aspects of this recourse to outside ways for giving the\r\nsubject-matter some psychological meaning may be worth mentioning.\r\nFamiliarity breeds contempt, but it also breeds something\r\n\u003c!– Page 28 –\u003e\r\n\u003cspan class=\u0027pagenum\u0027\u003e\u003ca name=\"Page_28\" id=\"Page_28\"\u003e28\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/span\u003e\r\nlike affection. We get used to the chains we wear, and we miss them\r\nwhen removed. \u0027Tis an old story that through custom we finally embrace\r\nwhat at first wore a hideous mien. Unpleasant, because meaningless,\r\nactivities may get agreeable if long enough persisted in. \u003ci\u003eIt is\r\npossible for the mind to develop interest in a routine or mechanical\r\nprocedure if conditions are continually supplied which demand that\r\nmode of operation and preclude any other sort.\u003c/i\u003e I frequently hear\r\ndulling devices and empty exercises defended and extolled because \"the\r\nchildren take such an \u0027interest\u0027 in them.\" Yes, that is the worst of\r\nit; the mind, shut out from worthy employ and missing the taste of\r\nadequate performance, comes down to the level of that which is left to\r\nit to know and do, and perforce takes an interest in a cabined and\r\ncramped experience. To find satisfaction in its own exercise is the\r\nnormal law of mind, and if large and meaningful business for the mind\r\nbe denied, it tries to content itself with the formal movements that\r\nremain to it\u0026mdash;and too often succeeds, save in those cases of more\r\nintense activity which cannot accommodate themselves, and that make up\r\nthe unruly and \u003ci\u003edeclassé\u003c/i\u003e of our school product. An interest in\r\nthe formal apprehension of symbols and in their memorized reproduction\r\nbecomes in many pupils a substitute for the original and vital\r\ninterest in reality; and all because, the subject-matter of the course\r\nof study being out of relation to the concrete mind of the individual,\r\nsome substitute bond to hold it in\r\n\u003c!– Page 29 –\u003e\r\n\u003cspan class=\u0027pagenum\u0027\u003e\u003ca name=\"Page_29\" id=\"Page_29\"\u003e29\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/span\u003e\r\nsome kind of working relation to the mind must be discovered and\r\nelaborated.\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\r\n\u003cp\u003eThe second substitute for living motivation in the subject-matter\r\nis that of contrast-effects; the material of the lesson is rendered\r\ninteresting, if not in itself, at least in contrast with some\r\nalternative experience. To learn the lesson is more interesting than\r\nto take a scolding, be held up to general ridicule, stay after school,\r\nreceive degradingly low marks, or fail to be promoted. And very much\r\nof what goes by the name of \"discipline,\" and prides itself upon\r\nopposing the doctrines of a soft pedagogy and upon upholding the\r\nbanner of effort and duty, is nothing more or less than just this\r\nappeal to \"interest\" in its obverse aspect\u0026mdash;to fear, to dislike\r\nof various kinds of physical, social, and personal pain. The\r\nsubject-matter does not appeal; it cannot appeal; it lacks origin and\r\nbearing in a growing experience. So the appeal is to the thousand and\r\none outside and irrelevant agencies which may serve to throw, by sheer\r\nrebuff and rebound, the mind back upon the material from which it is\r\nconstantly wandering.\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\r\n\u003cp\u003eHuman nature being what it is, however, it tends to seek its\r\nmotivation in the agreeable rather than in the disagreeable, in direct\r\npleasure rather than in alternative pain. And so has come up the\r\nmodern theory and practice of the \"interesting,\" in the false sense of\r\nthat term. The material is still left; so far as its own\r\ncharacteristics are concerned, just material externally selected and\r\n\u003c!– Page 30 –\u003e\r\n\u003cspan class=\u0027pagenum\u0027\u003e\u003ca name=\"Page_30\" id=\"Page_30\"\u003e30\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/span\u003e\r\nformulated. It is still just so much geography and arithmetic and\r\ngrammar study; not so much potentiality of child-experience with\r\nregard to language, earth, and numbered and measured reality. Hence\r\nthe difficulty of bringing the mind to bear upon it; hence its\r\nrepulsiveness; the tendency for attention to wander; for other acts\r\nand images to crowd in and expel the lesson. The legitimate way out is\r\nto transform the material; to psychologize it\u0026mdash;that is, once\r\nmore, to take it and to develop it within the range and scope of the\r\nchild\u0027s life. But it is easier and simpler to leave it as it is, and\r\nthen by trick of method to \u003ci\u003earouse\u003c/i\u003e interest, to \u003ci\u003emake\u003c/i\u003e it\r\n\u003ci\u003einteresting\u003c/i\u003e; to cover it with sugar-coating; to conceal its\r\nbarrenness by intermediate and unrelated material; and finally, as it\r\nwere, to get the child to swallow and digest the unpalatable morsel\r\nwhile he is enjoying tasting something quite different. But alas for\r\nthe analogy! Mental assimilation is a matter of consciousness; and if\r\nthe attention has not been playing upon the actual material, that has\r\nnot been apprehended, nor worked into faculty.\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\r\n\u003cp\u003eHow, then, stands the case of Child \u003ci\u003evs.\u003c/i\u003e Curriculum? What\r\nshall the verdict be? The radical fallacy in the original pleadings\r\nwith which we set out is the supposition that we have no choice save\r\neither to leave the child to his own unguided spontaneity or to\r\ninspire direction upon him from without. Action is response; it is\r\nadaptation, adjustment. There is no such thing as sheer self-activity\r\npossible\u0026mdash;because all activity takes place in a medium, in\r\n\u003c!– Page 31 –\u003e\r\n\u003cspan class=\u0027pagenum\u0027\u003e\u003ca name=\"Page_31\" id=\"Page_31\"\u003e31\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/span\u003e\r\na situation, and with reference to its conditions. But, again, no such\r\nthing as imposition of truth from without, as insertion of truth from\r\nwithout, is possible. All depends upon the activity which the mind\r\nitself undergoes in responding to what is presented from without. Now,\r\nthe value of the formulated wealth of knowledge that makes up the\r\ncourse of study is that it may enable the educator to \u003ci\u003edetermine the\r\nenvironment of the child\u003c/i\u003e, and thus by indirection to direct. Its\r\nprimary value, its primary indication, is for the teacher, not for the\r\nchild. It says to the teacher: Such and such are the capacities, the\r\nfulfilments, in truth and beauty and behavior, open to these\r\nchildren. Now see to it that day by day the conditions are such that\r\n\u003ci\u003etheir own activities\u003c/i\u003e move inevitably in this direction, toward\r\nsuch culmination of themselves. Let the child\u0027s nature fulfil its own\r\ndestiny, revealed to you in whatever of science and art and industry\r\nthe world now holds as its own.\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\r\n\u003cp\u003eThe case is of Child. It is his present powers which are to assert\r\nthemselves; his present capacities which are to be exercised; his\r\npresent attitudes which are to be realized. But save as the teacher\r\nknows, knows wisely and thoroughly, the race-expression which is\r\nembodied in that thing we call the Curriculum, the teacher knows\r\nneither what the present power, capacity, or attitude is, nor yet how\r\nit is to be asserted, exercised, and realized.\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\r\n\u003cdiv class=\"vskip\"\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\r\n\r\n\u003cdiv class=\"tnote\"\u003e\r\n\u003ch3\u003eTranscriber\u0027s Note.\u003c/h3\u003e\r\n\r\n\u003cp\u003eTwo half-title pages have been omitted.\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003c/div\u003e\r\n\r\n\u003cp\u003e\u0026nbsp;\u003c/p\u003e\r\n\u003chr class=\"full\" /\u003e\n\u003c/article\u003e"}],"SectionSequence":["Back Link","Work Title","Deck","Author","Period","Era","Composition","Date Note","Region","Terra Avita","Terra Avita Region","Modern Country","Original Title","Language","Primary Discipline","Secondary Discipline","Tradition","Full Versions","Core Thesis","Classification","Arguments","Influence","Significance","Evidence Note","Full Text"],"Counts":{"ContextCards":3,"GeoCards":4,"DisciplineCards":2,"Links":11,"Sections":25,"Styles":3,"Scripts":1}}