Indiana State University - Sycamore Yearbook (Terre Haute, IN)

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. THE NORMAL ADVANCE 5 xx It isnit enough to create a definite reactive be- . havior in response to certain formal stimuli. It must be a reactive behavior capable of doing the worlds work. It isnit enough to secure altruistic emotions. Our educative processes must produce an altruistic intellect and an al- truistic will. It is evident that the character of the educa- tional aim will determine very largely the order and kind of materials used in the teaching pro- ceSs. The aim should serve as a standard in the selection of materials and any serious at- tempt to guide teachers in a mastery of better methods must include an adequate discussion of it. a But to have an aim in education without a definite notion of a route to its realization is to construct a pedagogical utopia. Of necessity, therefore, method involves, secondly, a knowl- edge of just those phases of the curriculum that Will lead to the realization of an adequate aim. Doubtless this has been our greatest stumbling block in the past. We have apparently been alert to the most Vital needs of society; we have generally accepted the advance in inductive psychology; and yet, owing to our educational obtuseness due to a lack of proper stimulation, we have retained required subjects in the cur- riculum that are hoary with tradition. Latin has ear-marks of this character. There was a time when .the Latin language was saturated with the culture of the world. The securing of this culture necessitated oneis acquiring the key to itea reading knowledge of Latin. Later tra- ditionalists added other virtures to it. They argued that a thoro study of the dead languages created in the student a generalized power as well as furnished the basic knowledge of our English words. These values of the traditional- ists have been dislodged by recent observation and research. Nevertheless we are holding on tenaciously to Latin in the required courses of our secondary schools and colleges. Why should we still hold on to these lower rungs of our linguistic ladder since this early culture is now amply expressed in English? That a marked generalized power of reflection is acquired from a study of Latin is most vigorously denied by recent investigators in psychology. The last main argument, namely: that a better under- standing of English results from a study of Latin roots ignores the dynamic character of the content of a language in its adjustment to racial progress. This argument has also lost much of its force by the introduction of simplified spell- ing. Many of the English words have lost their root connections in this saner orthography. What has been argued against Latin and Greek by the progressives may be equally ap- plied to parts or all of many other subjects. Place geography, a history of dates and events, a purely deductive grammar, formal spelling, and any partially deductive science, are a few of the many expressions of form at the expense of content. ' In addition to a knowledge of the aim of edu- cation and an understanding of the materials that will best realize it, it is pertinent that we know, thirdly, something of the child. We should know his stages of mental growth and the interpretative attitudes characteristic of these stages. Without such a knowledge we are apt to present the wrong order or kind of sub- ject-matter. Time and energy may be wasted in teaching technical grammar to a child that is most interested in the art of expression. Moral theory may be repulsive to children at an age when they find pleasure in moral prac- tice. It is evident on the face of it that we must know the child in order to judiciously se- lect and present subject-matter to him. With a thoro knowledge of these things, one' ought to be fitted for artistic teaching. Most persons, however, can sight examples of those who understand subject-matter exceedingly well; who are clear in their notion of the aim of education; and who are well versed in psy- chology and child-study; and yet are relatively poor teachers. The presentation of well chosen subject-mat- ter to children whose interpretative attitudes are well understood and in a manner to best realize an adequate educational aim is, fourthly, another significant factor in method of teach-

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4 THE NORMAL ADVANCE common experiences. One hardly expects the son of a skilled marble player to possess a more 'skilled thumb than the other boys of the com- munity; nor the son of an expert billiard player to have more skilled eyes and muscles for di- recting the billiard one than his fellows; nor the'child of a blacksmith to have a right arm decidedly larger than the left. Examples are legion in support of this contention. This bio- logical hypothesis seems to strike at the very heart of progress. It calls our attention to this problem: how can the race increase in voca- tional skill and civic insight, if each generation sinks to the same level as that of its predeces- sors? If acquired nerve paths were the only factor involved there could be little or no ad- vance. Fortunately there are other factors to be considered in human progress. That effort is not accumulative is only true biologically, certainly in no other sense. Biologically speak- ing the child of today has inherited nothing of the tendency and habit acquired by his ances- tors either thru accidental or purposed applica- tion. In this particular the race has gained nothing by its long experience. Barring this, the child is their of all the ages? Tho he has not inherited the particular literary skill ac- quired by Shakespeare and Browning, yet he has inherited ttHamleth, and tiMacbethf, tiPippa Passesih and ctRabbi Ben Ezra? and tho he has not inherited the artistic skill of Turner and Landseer, he has inherited ttThe Mouth of the Seinell and ttThe Fighting Tem- erariefi tiShoeing the Bay Mareih and ctThe Monarch of the Glen? And tho he has not in- herited the power in statesmanship acquired by Franklin, J efferson and Hamilton; or the mili- tary skill acquired by Washington and Grant, he has inherited the government projected and protected by these men. He has not inherited the skill in Socratic questioning acquired by Plato, or the pedgogic ability acquired by Froebel, Pestolozzi, and Horace Mann, and yet he -has inherited our great school system which has been materially influenced by the teaching of these men. Tho this phase of biological re- search denies the inheritance of acquired ten- dencies to react to stimuli, it in no way bars i us from inheriting a highly organized social structure with its varied interests and.responsi- bilities. Nor does it bar us from the possibility of inheriting a higher degree of nervous energy and a more eliicient co-ordination of nervous elements, both of which may be transmitted thru chance variation or thru the combination of accented qualities in the parents. The spe- cific social accomplishments that are crystal- , Zized in and thru institutional life, plus a plas- . tic nervous system with strong individual and generic tendencies, is the Heritage of Formal E ducation. . The problem of the teacher is here tentatively a suggested. He must take these elements-the immature child with strong individual and gen- , eric tendencies on the one hand, and the mater- ials of education telements of social progressi 0n the other, and so stimulate the one by the correct presentation of the other, that thru self- ' activity this. immature child frees itself from the limitations that these materials naturally i impose upon it. Such a process, when intelli- I gently directed, is method in teaching. To se- cure an intelligent control of this process is the function of educational theory and practice. It involves, first, a thoro knowledge of the aim of education. Without a definite notion of the needs of the society of the near future, the teacher cannot intelligently lead the child to an adequate realization of its social responsi- bility nor to a reactive behavior that will meet that responsibility. ' Efficient teachers must be 'idealists, since it is their function to prepare children to fit into a social and economic struc- ture that is notably dynamic in character. But worthy ideals are the outgrowth of present reals. This imposes upon the teacher the re- sponsibility of acquainting herself with the. civic and economic life of the present in view of- its future bearing. A knowledge of subject- matter alone is not sufiicient for the teacher. She must know the social bearing of such sub- ject-matter when acquired. She should know whether it will prepare the child for a life of dreaming or a life of doing.

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6 THE NORMAL ADVANCE s -'fw . ing. This includes the whole scope of devices employed by the tactful teacher. There has been a varied phraseology employed to express this quality in the teacher. Solomon called it wisdom, some have called it tact, others insight, while still others have styled it, in the verna- cular, gumption or perchance good-horse-sense. It is believed by many that the power to em- ploy devices is an inherited characteristic; hence the expressionsttteachers are born not made? University professors have often held this view. They have failed to note individual differences in children and consequently to recognize the fact that one may be trained in the use of appropriate devices as well as in a knowledge of subject-matter. Indeed, many writers on pedagogy have done little more than imply this Vital phase of method. It has been considered the bi-product of a knowledge of subject-matter and psychology, rather than a distinct factor in the teaching process. Doubt- less this has resulted from a careless examina- tion of the relative experiences of the efiicient and the inefficient teacher. The one thru ex- perience, including instruction, has grasped the significance of devices in teaching; while the other, because of a lack of such expenrienoe and instruction, is ignorant of their importance. It is, then, the duty of the student of method thence of all teachersy to investigate the chang- ing social status of his time in order to deter- mine the needs of his own and the nextgenera- tion; to examine the subject-matter of the cur- riculum in View of its power to realize these - anticipated needs; to know the generic and in- dividual characteristics of the child that he may better know the time that such materials may be effectually presented; and to know the ex- periences 0f the child that he may press the keys that will set vibrating those elements that are relevant to the subject-matter to be learned, or to supply them in the event they are lacking. The recognition of the teachers need of those tools of teaching was the genesis of professional courses for teachers. It gave immortality to Pestilozzi, Froebel, Herbart, and Horace Mann, and won the publicis sanction of normal train- ing throughout the world. It is in anticipation of such an equipment that young men and young women of worth are lilling the Normal schools today. And well they may. The field of education never looked so promising as it does now and there has never been a greater call for professionally trained teachers than at this time. This general appreciation of the fundamental principles in teaching is most en- couraging. The Code of Hammurabi WALDO F. MITCHELL, '10 Many centuries before Alexander the Great led his Macedonian Phalanx through Baby- lonia, and many ages before Moses led the Israelites out of Egypt, a civilization rich in culture and government had grown up along . the Tigris-Euphrates valley. Many ages before Moses received the Tablets of the Law from the hand of God, Hammurabi was giving his peo- ple at Babylon laws for their good governing. When Abraham was building up the Hebrew nation in Canaan, Hammurabi tor, as his- torians think, Amraphel, king of Shinar, Gene- . sis 140 was giving his subjects precepts upon monuments of stone. Perhaps the most famous of his monuments is the black diofite found at Susa in December, 1901, by the French expedi- tion under M. de MorganaThiS was about eight feet in height, and was broken into three pieces. It is called, The Code of Hammurabi. - On the front side is an engraving which represents Hammurabi in the act of receiving the Code from the sun god. The manuscript consists of three parts, including the Epilogue and Pro- logue. One feature of the Epilogue gives the