560. Educational Influence of the Père Girard.—The influence of the Père Girard was not extended simply to Switzerland. It has radiated abroad. His ideas have been disseminated in Italy, propagated by the Abbé Lambruschini and by Enrico Mayer. A journal even has been founded to serve as the organ of the “Girardists” of the Peninsula. In France, Michel, in the Journal de l’éducation pratique, and Rapet in different works,[235] have commended to public attention the methods of the Swiss educator. Finally, it may be remarked that the principles very recently set forth by the Conseil supérieur de l’instruction publique (1880), on the teaching of French in the elementary classes of the lycées, are in great part the echo of the pedagogical doctrine of the Père Girard.
[561. Analytical Summary.—1. In this study we have the third exposition, in historical order,—Rousseau, Pestalozzi, Frœbel,—of the doctrine of nature as applied to education. This doctrine may be summarized as follows:—
The existing order of things is conceived as an animated organism, and is personified under the term Nature. All living things, such as plants, animals, and men, are products of the creative power that is immanent in nature, and each is predetermined to an upward development in the line of growth. This growth is an unfolding from within outward, and each individual thing, as a child, has reached the term of its development when it has grown into the type of its kind. In the case of the human species, this growth is best when it is natural, and it is natural to the degree in which it takes place without the deliberate intervention of art. This process of development is Nature’s work, and its synonym is education. Education is best when it is most natural, that is, when it suffers least from human interference. The question of the relative parts to be played by Nature and by Art in education has given rise to two schools of educators.
2. In Frœbel’s application of this doctrine, the original conception is obscured by three circumstances: 1. his deism; 2. his mysticism or symbolism; 3. his dependence on artificial agents, his “gifts,” and his belief in the potency of abstractions.
3. The Kindergarten has introduced many ameliorations into primary instruction, and its tendency is to make child-life happy through self-activity. Its shortcomings are that it undervalues the acquisition of second-hand knowledge, obscures the distinction between work and play, and indisposes, and perhaps unfits, the pupil to contend with real difficulties.[236]
4. The effect of this new movement in primary instruction upon educational science has been wholesome. It has induced a closer study of child nature, has enlisted the sympathies and affections in support of elementary instruction, and has profoundly modified the conception of the primary school.
5. Whether the Kindergarten is to be maintained apart, as an institution sui generis, or whether it is to lose its identity by the absorption of its spirit into the primary school, is a question for the future. Probably the latter result will follow.
6. The misuse of a good thought is seen in the attempt of the Père Girard to give a distinct moral value to every school exercise. It is the verdict of experience that the moral value of science is greatest when it is taught simply as science, and that the direct teaching of ethics should be conducted on an independent basis.]
[222] Comment Gertrude instruit ses enfants, translated by Darin, p. 204.
[223] See the Aphorisms published by Frœbel in 1821.
[224] See the French translation by Madame de Crombrugghe, Paris, 1881. Also, the English translation by Josephine Jarvis, New York, 1885.
[225] Consequently it is wrong to take Frœbel’s expression in the sense that he wished to establish by the side of each school a garden, a lawn planted with trees and adorned with flower-beds. See Gréard, L’instruction primaire à Paris, 1877, p. 73.
[226] The disciples of Frœbel have modified in different manners his system of gifts. See, for example, the Jardin d’enfants, by Goldammer, French translation by Louis Fournier, 1877.
[227] See on Diesterweg the article by Pécaut, in the Dictionnaire de Pédagogie.
[228] De l’éducation publique. Paris, 1833, p. 158. Naville (1784-1846) founded in 1817, at Vernier, near Geneva, an institute where he applied with success the educative method of the Père Girard.
[229] I am aware that this term is not found in the latest Webster, but I see no other way of expressing the force of the word éducatif, which seems to signify the disciplinary, or rather the culture, value of a study. (P.)
[230] See Chap. III. of Book III. paragraph 1st. Just medium between two extremes.
[231] Here is an example from Père Girard’s arithmetic:—
“A father had the habit of going every evening to the dram-shop, and often left his family at home without bread. During the five years that he led this life, he spent, the first year, 197 francs, the second, 204 francs, the third, 212 francs, and the fourth, 129 francs. How many francs would this unfortunate father have saved if he had not had a taste for drink?” (P.)
[232] Naville, De l’Éducation publique, p. 411.
[233] Explication du plan de Fribourg en Suisse, 1817.
[234] See the interesting articles of Lafargue in the Bulletin pédagogique de l’enseignement secondaire, 1882.
[235] Messieurs Rapet and Michel were associated in the publication of the Cours éducatif de la langue maternelle.
[236] “Man owes his growth, his energy, chiefly to that striving of the will, that conflict with difficulty, which we call effort. Easy, pleasant work does not make robust minds, does not give men a consciousness of their powers, does not train them to endurance, to perseverance, to steady force of will, that force without which all other acquisitions avail nothing.” Dr. Channing.