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diff --git a/29259.txt b/29259.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..8bf3814 --- /dev/null +++ b/29259.txt @@ -0,0 +1,1126 @@ +The Project Gutenberg eBook, The Child and the Curriculum, by John Dewey + + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + + + + +Title: The Child and the Curriculum + + +Author: John Dewey + + + +Release Date: June 28, 2009 [eBook #29259] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-646-US (US-ASCII) + + +***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE CHILD AND THE CURRICULUM*** + + +E-text prepared by Jonathan Ingram, Andrew D. Hwang, and the Project +Gutenberg Online Distributed Proofreading Team (http://www.pgdp.net) from +digital material generously made available by Internet Archive/Canadian +Libraries (http://www.archive.org/details/toronto) + + + +Note: Images of the original pages are available through + Internet Archive/Canadian Libraries. See + http://www.archive.org/details/childandcurricul00deweuoft + + + + + +THE CHILD AND THE CURRICULUM + +by + +JOHN DEWEY + + + + + + + +[Illustration: Publisher's Device] + +The University of Chicago Press +Chicago & London + +The University of Chicago Press, Chicago & London + +The University of Toronto Press, Toronto 5, Canada + +Copyright 1902 by The University of Chicago. All rights reserved. +Published 1902. Twenty-eighth Impression 1966 Printed in the United +States of America + + + + +_The Child and the Curriculum_ + + +Profound differences in theory are never gratuitous or invented. They +grow out of conflicting elements in a genuine problem--a problem +which is genuine just because the elements, taken as they stand, are +conflicting. Any significant problem involves conditions that for the +moment contradict each other. Solution comes only by getting away from +the meaning of terms that is already fixed upon and coming to see the +conditions from another point of view, and hence in a fresh light. But +this reconstruction means travail of thought. Easier than thinking with +surrender of already formed ideas and detachment from facts already +learned is just to stick by what is already said, looking about for +something with which to buttress it against attack. + +Thus sects arise: schools of opinion. Each selects that set of +conditions that appeals to it; and then erects them into a complete and +independent truth, instead of treating them as a factor in a problem, +needing adjustment. + +The fundamental factors in the educative process are an immature, +undeveloped being; and certain social aims, meanings, values incarnate +in the matured experience of the adult. The educative process is the due +interaction of these forces. Such a conception of each in relation to +the other as facilitates completest and freest interaction is the +essence of educational theory. + +But here comes the effort of thought. It is easier to see the conditions +in their separateness, to insist upon one at the expense of the other, +to make antagonists of them, than to discover a reality to which each +belongs. The easy thing is to seize upon something in the nature of the +child, or upon something in the developed consciousness of the adult, +and insist upon _that_ as the key to the whole problem. When this +happens a really serious practical problem--that of interaction--is +transformed into an unreal, and hence insoluble, theoretic problem. +Instead of seeing the educative steadily and as a whole, we see +conflicting terms. We get the case of the child _vs._ the curriculum; of +the individual nature _vs._ social culture. Below all other divisions in +pedagogic opinion lies this opposition. + +The child lives in a somewhat narrow world of personal contacts. Things +hardly come within his experience unless they touch, intimately and +obviously, his own well-being, or that of his family and friends. His +world is a world of persons with their personal interests, rather than +a realm of facts and laws. Not truth, in the sense of conformity to +external fact, but affection and sympathy, is its keynote. As against +this, the course of study met in the school presents material stretching +back indefinitely in time, and extending outward indefinitely into +space. The child is taken out of his familiar physical environment, +hardly more than a square mile or so in area, into the wide world--yes, +and even to the bounds of the solar system. His little span of personal +memory and tradition is overlaid with the long centuries of the history +of all peoples. + +Again, the child's life is an integral, a total one. He passes quickly +and readily from one topic to another, as from one spot to another, +but is not conscious of transition or break. There is no conscious +isolation, hardly conscious distinction. The things that occupy him are +held together by the unity of the personal and social interests which +his life carries along. Whatever is uppermost in his mind constitutes +to him, for the time being, the whole universe. That universe is fluid +and fluent; its contents dissolve and re-form with amazing rapidity. +But, after all, it is the child's own world. It has the unity and +completeness of his own life. He goes to school, and various studies +divide and fractionize the world for him. Geography selects, it +abstracts and analyzes one set of facts, and from one particular point +of view. Arithmetic is another division, grammar another department, and +so on indefinitely. + +Again, in school each of these subjects is classified. Facts are torn +away from their original place in experience and rearranged with +reference to some general principle. Classification is not a matter +of child experience; things do not come to the individual pigeonholed. +The vital ties of affection, the connecting bonds of activity, hold +together the variety of his personal experiences. The adult mind is so +familiar with the notion of logically ordered facts that it does not +recognize--it cannot realize--the amount of separating and reformulating +which the facts of direct experience have to undergo before they can +appear as a "study," or branch of learning. A principle, for the +intellect, has had to be distinguished and defined; facts have had +to be interpreted in relation to this principle, not as they are in +themselves. They have had to be regathered about a new center which is +wholly abstract and ideal. All this means a development of a special +intellectual interest. It means ability to view facts impartially and +objectively; that is, without reference to their place and meaning in +one's own experience. It means capacity to analyze and to synthesize. It +means highly matured intellectual habits and the command of a definite +technique and apparatus of scientific inquiry. The studies as classified +are the product, in a word, of the science of the ages, not of the +experience of the child. + +These apparent deviations and differences between child and curriculum +might be almost indefinitely widened. But we have here sufficiently +fundamental divergences: first, the narrow but personal world of the +child against the impersonal but infinitely extended world of space and +time; second, the unity, the single wholeheartedness of the child's +life, and the specializations and divisions of the curriculum; third, an +abstract principle of logical classification and arrangement, and the +practical and emotional bonds of child life. + +From these elements of conflict grow up different educational sects. +One school fixes its attention upon the importance of the subject-matter +of the curriculum as compared with the contents of the child's own +experience. It is as if they said: Is life petty, narrow, and crude? +Then studies reveal the great, wide universe with all its fulness and +complexity of meaning. Is the life of the child egoistic, self-centered, +impulsive? Then in these studies is found an objective universe of +truth, law, and order. Is his experience confused, vague, uncertain, +at the mercy of the moment's caprice and circumstance? Then studies +introduce a world arranged on the basis of eternal and general truth; a +world where all is measured and defined. Hence the moral: ignore and +minimize the child's individual peculiarities, whims, and experiences. +They are what we need to get away from. They are to be obscured or +eliminated. As educators our work is precisely to substitute for these +superficial and casual affairs stable and well-ordered realities; and +these are found in studies and lessons. + +Subdivide each topic into studies; each study into lessons; each lesson +into specific facts and formulae. Let the child proceed step by step to +master each one of these separate parts, and at last he will have +covered the entire ground. The road which looks so long when viewed in +its entirety is easily traveled, considered as a series of particular +steps. Thus emphasis is put upon the logical subdivisions and +consecutions of the subject-matter. Problems of instruction are problems +of procuring texts giving logical parts and sequences, and of presenting +these portions in class in a similar definite and graded way. +Subject-matter furnishes the end, and it determines method. The child is +simply the immature being who is to be matured; he is the superficial +being who is to be deepened; his is narrow experience which is to be +widened. It is his to receive, to accept. His part is fulfilled when he +is ductile and docile. + +Not so, says the other sect. The child is the starting-point, the +center, and the end. His development, his growth, is the ideal. It +alone furnishes the standard. To the growth of the child all studies +are subservient; they are instruments valued as they serve the needs +of growth. Personality, character, is more than subject-matter. Not +knowledge or information, but self-realization, is the goal. To possess +all the world of knowledge and lose one's own self is as awful a fate in +education as in religion. Moreover, subject-matter never can be got into +the child from without. Learning is active. It involves reaching out +of the mind. It involves organic assimilation starting from within. +Literally, we must take our stand with the child and our departure from +him. It is he and not the subject-matter which determines both quality +and quantity of learning. + +The only significant method is the method of the mind as it reaches +out and assimilates. Subject-matter is but spiritual food, possible +nutritive material. It cannot digest itself; it cannot of its own +accord turn into bone and muscle and blood. The source of whatever +is dead, mechanical, and formal in schools is found precisely in the +subordination of the life and experience of the child to the curriculum. +It is because of this that "study" has become a synonym for what is +irksome, and a lesson identical with a task. + +This fundamental opposition of child and curriculum set up by these +two modes of doctrine can be duplicated in a series of other terms. +"Discipline" is the watchword of those who magnify the course of study; +"interest" that of those who blazon "The Child" upon their banner. The +standpoint of the former is logical; that of the latter psychological. +The first emphasizes the necessity of adequate training and scholarship +on the part of the teacher; the latter that of need of sympathy with the +child, and knowledge of his natural instincts. "Guidance and control" +are the catchwords of one school; "freedom and initiative" of the other. +Law is asserted here; spontaneity proclaimed there. The old, the +conservation of what has been achieved in the pain and toil of the ages, +is dear to the one; the new, change, progress, wins the affection of the +other. Inertness and routine, chaos and anarchism, are accusations +bandied back and forth. Neglect of the sacred authority of duty is +charged by one side, only to be met by counter-charges of suppression +of individuality through tyrannical despotism. + +Such oppositions are rarely carried to their logical conclusion. +Common-sense recoils at the extreme character of these results. They +are left to theorists, while common-sense vibrates back and forward +in a maze of inconsistent compromise. The need of getting theory and +practical common-sense into closer connection suggests a return to our +original thesis: that we have here conditions which are necessarily +related to each other in the educative process, since this is precisely +one of interaction and adjustment. + +What, then, is the problem? It is just to get rid of the prejudicial +notion that there is some gap in kind (as distinct from degree) between +the child's experience and the various forms of subject-matter that make +up the course of study. From the side of the child, it is a question of +seeing how his experience already contains within itself elements--facts +and truths--of just the same sort as those entering into the formulated +study; and, what is of more importance, of how it contains within itself +the attitudes, the motives, and the interests which have operated in +developing and organizing the subject-matter to the plane which it now +occupies. From the side of the studies, it is a question of interpreting +them as outgrowths of forces operating in the child's life, and of +discovering the steps that intervene between the child's present +experience and their richer maturity. + +Abandon the notion of subject-matter as something fixed and ready-made +in itself, outside the child's experience; cease thinking of the child's +experience as also something hard and fast; see it as something fluent, +embryonic, vital; and we realize that the child and the curriculum are +simply two limits which define a single process. Just as two points +define a straight line, so the present standpoint of the child and the +facts and truths of studies define instruction. It is continuous +reconstruction, moving from the child's present experience out into that +represented by the organized bodies of truth that we call studies. + +On the face of it, the various studies, arithmetic, geography, language, +botany, etc., are themselves experience--they are that of the race. They +embody the cumulative outcome of the efforts, the strivings, and the +successes of the human race generation after generation. They present +this, not as a mere accumulation, not as a miscellaneous heap of +separate bits of experience, but in some organized and systematized +way--that is, as reflectively formulated. + +Hence, the facts and truths that enter into the child's present +experience, and those contained in the subject-matter of studies, are +the initial and final terms of one reality. To oppose one to the other +is to oppose the infancy and maturity of the same growing life; it is to +set the moving tendency and the final result of the same process over +against each other; it is to hold that the nature and the destiny of the +child war with each other. + +If such be the case, the problem of the relation of the child and the +curriculum presents itself in this guise: Of what use, educationally +speaking, is it to be able to see the end in the beginning? How does +it assist us in dealing with the early stages of growth to be able to +anticipate its later phases? The studies, as we have agreed, represent +the possibilities of development inherent in the child's immediate crude +experience. But, after all, they are not parts of that present and +immediate life. Why, then, or how, make account of them? + +Asking such a question suggests its own answer. To see the outcome is +to know in what direction the present experience is moving, provided +it move normally and soundly. The far-away point, which is of no +significance to us simply as far away, becomes of huge importance the +moment we take it as defining a present direction of movement. Taken +in this way it is no remote and distant result to be achieved, but a +guiding method in dealing with the present. The systematized and defined +experience of the adult mind, in other words, is of value to us in +interpreting the child's life as it immediately shows itself, and in +passing on to guidance or direction. + +Let us look for a moment at these two ideas: interpretation and +guidance. The child's present experience is in no way self-explanatory. +It is not final, but transitional. It is nothing complete in itself, but +just a sign or index of certain growth-tendencies. As long as we confine +our gaze to what the child here and now puts forth, we are confused and +misled. We cannot read its meaning. Extreme depreciations of the child +morally and intellectually, and sentimental idealizations of him, have +their root in a common fallacy. Both spring from taking stages of a +growth or movement as something cut off and fixed. The first fails +to see the promise contained in feelings and deeds which, taken by +themselves, are uncompromising and repellent; the second fails to see +that even the most pleasing and beautiful exhibitions are but signs, +and that they begin to spoil and rot the moment they are treated as +achievements. + +What we need is something which will enable us to interpret, to +appraise, the elements in the child's present puttings forth and +fallings away, his exhibitions of power and weakness, in the light of +some larger growth-process in which they have their place. Only in this +way can we discriminate. If we isolate the child's present inclinations, +purposes, and experiences from the place they occupy and the part they +have to perform in a developing experience, all stand upon the same +level; all alike are equally good and equally bad. But in the movement +of life different elements stand upon different planes of value. Some of +the child's deeds are symptoms of a waning tendency; they are survivals +in functioning of an organ which has done its part and is passing out of +vital use. To give positive attention to such qualities is to arrest +development upon a lower level. It is systematically to maintain a +rudimentary phase of growth. Other activities are signs of a culminating +power and interest; to them applies the maxim of striking while the +iron is hot. As regards them, it is perhaps a matter of now or never. +Selected, utilized, emphasized, they may mark a turning-point for good +in the child's whole career; neglected, an opportunity goes, never to +be recalled. Other acts and feelings are prophetic; they represent the +dawning of flickering light that will shine steadily only in the far +future. As regards them there is little at present to do but give them +fair and full chance, waiting for the future for definite direction. + +Just as, upon the whole, it was the weakness of the "old education" that +it made invidious comparisons between the immaturity of the child and +the maturity of the adult, regarding the former as something to be got +away from as soon as possible and as much as possible; so it is the +danger of the "new education" that it regard the child's present powers +and interests as something finally significant in themselves. In truth, +his learnings and achievements are fluid and moving. They change from +day to day and from hour to hour. + +It will do harm if child-study leave in the popular mind the impression +that a child of a given age has a positive equipment of purposes and +interests to be cultivated just as they stand. Interests in reality are +but attitudes toward possible experiences; they are not achievements; +their worth is in the leverage they afford, not in the accomplishment +they represent. To take the phenomena presented at a given age as +in any way self-explanatory or self-contained is inevitably to result +in indulgence and spoiling. Any power, whether of child or adult, +is indulged when it is taken on its given and present level in +consciousness. Its genuine meaning is in the propulsion it affords +toward a higher level. It is just something to do with. Appealing to the +interest upon the present plane means excitation; it means playing with +a power so as continually to stir it up without directing it toward +definite achievement. Continuous initiation, continuous starting of +activities that do not arrive, is, for all practical purposes, as bad +as the continual repression of initiative in conformity with supposed +interests of some more perfect thought or will. It is as if the child +were forever tasting and never eating; always having his palate tickled +upon the emotional side, but never getting the organic satisfaction that +comes only with digestion of food and transformation of it into working +power. + +As against such a view, the subject-matter of science and history and +art serves to reveal the real child to us. We do not know the meaning +either of his tendencies or of his performances excepting as we take +them as germinating seed, or opening bud, of some fruit to be borne. The +whole world of visual nature is all too small an answer to the problem +of the meaning of the child's instinct for light and form. The entire +science of physics is none too much to interpret adequately to us what +is involved in some simple demand of the child for explanation of some +casual change that has attracted his attention. The art of Raphael or of +Corot is none too much to enable us to value the impulses stirring in +the child when he draws and daubs. + +So much for the use of the subject-matter in interpretation. Its further +employment in direction or guidance is but an expansion of the same +thought. To interpret the fact is to see it in its vital movement, to +see it in its relation to growth. But to view it as a part of a normal +growth is to secure the basis for guiding it. Guidance is not external +imposition. _It is freeing the life-process for its own most adequate +fulfilment._ What was said about disregard of the child's present +experience because of its remoteness from mature experience; and of the +sentimental idealization of the child's naive caprices and performances, +may be repeated here with slightly altered phrase. There are those who +see no alternative between forcing the child from without, or leaving +him entirely alone. Seeing no alternative, some choose one mode, some +another. Both fall into the same fundamental error. Both fail to see +that development is a definite process, having its own law which can be +fulfilled only when adequate and normal conditions are provided. Really +to interpret the child's present crude impulses in counting, measuring, +and arranging things in rhythmic series involves mathematical +scholarship--a knowledge of the mathematical formulae and relations +which have, in the history of the race, grown out of just such crude +beginnings. To see the whole history of development which intervenes +between these two terms is simply to see what step the child needs to +take just here and now; to what use he needs to put his blind impulse in +order that it may get clarity and gain force. + +If, once more, the "old education" tended to ignore the dynamic quality, +the developing force inherent in the child's present experience, and +therefore to assume that direction and control were just matters of +arbitrarily putting the child in a given path and compelling him to +walk there, the "new education" is in danger of taking the idea of +development in altogether too formal and empty a way. The child is +expected to "develop" this or that fact or truth out of his own mind. He +is told to think things out, or work things out for himself, without +being supplied any of the environing conditions which are requisite to +start and guide thought. Nothing can be developed from nothing; nothing +but the crude can be developed out of the crude--and this is what surely +happens when we throw the child back upon his achieved self as a +finality, and invite him to spin new truths of nature or of conduct +out of that. It is certainly as futile to expect a child to evolve a +universe out of his own mere mind as it is for a philosopher to attempt +that task. Development does not mean just getting something out of the +mind. It is a development of experience and into experience that is +really wanted. And this is impossible save as just that educative medium +is provided which will enable the powers and interests that have been +selected as valuable to function. They must operate, and how they +operate will depend almost entirely upon the stimuli which surround +them and the material upon which they exercise themselves. The problem +of direction is thus the problem of selecting appropriate stimuli for +instincts and impulses which it is desired to employ in the gaining +of new experience. What new experiences are desirable, and thus what +stimuli are needed, it is impossible to tell except as there is some +comprehension of the development which is aimed at; except, in a word, +as the adult knowledge is drawn upon as revealing the possible career +open to the child. + +It may be of use to distinguish and to relate to each other the logical +and the psychological aspects of experience--the former standing for +subject-matter in itself, the latter for it in relation to the child. A +psychological statement of experience follows its actual growth; it is +historic; it notes steps actually taken, the uncertain and tortuous, as +well as the efficient and successful. The logical point of view, on the +other hand, assumes that the development has reached a certain positive +stage of fulfilment. It neglects the process and considers the outcome. +It summarizes and arranges, and thus separates the achieved results from +the actual steps by which they were forthcoming in the first instance. +We may compare the difference between the logical and the psychological +to the difference between the notes which an explorer makes in a new +country, blazing a trail and finding his way along as best he may, +and the finished map that is constructed after the country has been +thoroughly explored. The two are mutually dependent. Without the more +or less accidental and devious paths traced by the explorer there would +be no facts which could be utilized in the making of the complete and +related chart. But no one would get the benefit of the explorer's trip +if it was not compared and checked up with similar wanderings undertaken +by others; unless the new geographical facts learned, the streams +crossed, the mountains climbed, etc., were viewed, not as mere incidents +in the journey of the particular traveler, but (quite apart from the +individual explorer's life) in relation to other similar facts already +known. The map orders individual experiences, connecting them with one +another irrespective of the local and temporal circumstances and +accidents of their original discovery. + +Of what use is this formulated statement of experience? Of what use is +the map? + +Well, we may first tell what the map is not. The map is not a substitute +for a personal experience. The map does not take the place of an actual +journey. The logically formulated material of a science or branch of +learning, of a study, is no substitute for the having of individual +experiences. The mathematical formula for a falling body does not take +the place of personal contact and immediate individual experience with +the falling thing. But the map, a summary, an arranged and orderly +view of previous experiences, serves as a guide to future experience; +it gives direction; it facilitates control; it economizes effort, +preventing useless wandering, and pointing out the paths which lead most +quickly and most certainly to a desired result. Through the map every +new traveler may get for his own journey the benefits of the results +of others' explorations without the waste of energy and loss of time +involved in their wanderings--wanderings which he himself would be +obliged to repeat were it not for just the assistance of the objective +and generalized record of their performances. That which we call a +science or study puts the net product of past experience in the +form which makes it most available for the future. It represents a +capitalization which may at once be turned to interest. It economizes +the workings of the mind in every way. Memory is less taxed because the +facts are grouped together about some common principle, instead of being +connected solely with the varying incidents of their original discovery. +Observation is assisted; we know what to look for and where to look. +It is the difference between looking for a needle in a haystack, and +searching for a given paper in a well-arranged cabinet. Reasoning is +directed, because there is a certain general path or line laid out +along which ideas naturally march, instead of moving from one chance +association to another. + +There is, then, nothing final about a logical rendering of experience. +Its value is not contained in itself; its significance is that of +standpoint, outlook, method. It intervenes between the more casual, +tentative, and roundabout experiences of the past, and more controlled +and orderly experiences of the future. It gives past experience in that +net form which renders it most available and most significant, most +fecund for future experience. The abstractions, generalizations, and +classifications which it introduces all have prospective meaning. + +The formulated result is then not to be opposed to the process of +growth. The logical is not set over against the psychological. The +surveyed and arranged result occupies a critical position in the process +of growth. It marks a turning-point. It shows how we may get the benefit +of past effort in controlling future endeavor. In the largest sense the +logical standpoint is itself psychological; it has its meaning as a +point in the development of experience, and its justification is in its +functioning in the future growth which it insures. + +Hence the need of reinstating into experience the subject-matter of the +studies, or branches of learning. It must be restored to the experience +from which it has been abstracted. It needs to be _psychologized_; +turned over, translated into the immediate and individual experiencing +within which it has its origin and significance. + +Every study or subject thus has two aspects: one for the scientist as a +scientist; the other for the teacher as a teacher. These two aspects are +in no sense opposed or conflicting. But neither are they immediately +identical. For the scientist, the subject-matter represents simply a +given body of truth to be employed in locating new problems, instituting +new researches, and carrying them through to a verified outcome. To him +the subject-matter of the science is self-contained. He refers various +portions of it to each other; he connects new facts with it. He is not, +as a scientist, called upon to travel outside its particular bounds; +if he does, it is only to get more facts of the same general sort. +The problem of the teacher is a different one. As a teacher he is +not concerned with adding new facts to the science he teaches; in +propounding new hypotheses or in verifying them. He is concerned with +the subject-matter of the science as _representing a given stage and +phase of the development of experience_. His problem is that of inducing +a vital and personal experiencing. Hence, what concerns him, as teacher, +is the ways in which that subject may become a part of experience; what +there is in the child's present that is usable with reference to it; +how such elements are to be used; how his own knowledge of the +subject-matter may assist in interpreting the child's needs and doings, +and determine the medium in which the child should be placed in order +that his growth may be properly directed. He is concerned, not with the +subject-matter as such, but with the subject-matter as a related factor +in a total and growing experience. Thus to see it is to psychologize it. + +It is the failure to keep in mind the double aspect of subject-matter +which causes the curriculum and child to be set over against each other +as described in our early pages. The subject-matter, just as it is for +the scientist, has no direct relationship to the child's present +experience. It stands outside of it. The danger here is not a merely +theoretical one. We are practically threatened on all sides. Textbook +and teacher vie with each other in presenting to the child the +subject-matter as it stands to the specialist. Such modification and +revision as it undergoes are a mere elimination of certain scientific +difficulties, and the general reduction to a lower intellectual level. +The material is not translated into life-terms, but is directly offered +as a substitute for, or an external annex to, the child's present life. + +Three typical evils result: In the first place, the lack of any organic +connection with what the child has already seen and felt and loved makes +the material purely formal and symbolic. There is a sense in which it is +impossible to value too highly the formal and the symbolic. The genuine +form, the real symbol, serve as methods in the holding and discovery of +truth. They are tools by which the individual pushes out most surely and +widely into unexplored areas. They are means by which he brings to bear +whatever of reality he has succeeded in gaining in past searchings. But +this happens only when the symbol really symbolizes--when it stands for +and sums up in shorthand actual experiences which the individual has +already gone through. A symbol which is induced from without, which has +not been led up to in preliminary activities, is, as we say, a _bare_ +or _mere_ symbol; it is dead and barren. Now, any fact, whether of +arithmetic, or geography, or grammar, which is not led up to and into +out of something which has previously occupied a significant position +in the child's life for its own sake, is forced into this position. +It is not a reality, but just the sign of a reality which _might_ be +experienced if certain conditions were fulfilled. But the abrupt +presentation of the fact as something known by others, and requiring +only to be studied and learned by the child, rules out such conditions +of fulfilment. It condemns the fact to be a hieroglyph: it would mean +something if one only had the key. The clue being lacking, it remains +an idle curiosity, to fret and obstruct the mind, a dead weight to +burden it. + +The second evil in this external presentation is lack of motivation. +There are not only no facts or truths which have been previously felt +as such with which to appropriate and assimilate the new, but there is +no craving, no need, no demand. When the subject-matter has been +psychologized, that is, viewed as an out-growth of present tendencies +and activities, it is easy to locate in the present some obstacle, +intellectual, practical, or ethical, which can be handled more +adequately if the truth in question be mastered. This need supplies +motive for the learning. An end which is the child's own carries him +on to possess the means of its accomplishment. But when material is +directly supplied in the form of a lesson to be learned as a lesson, the +connecting links of need and aim are conspicuous for their absence. What +we mean by the mechanical and dead in instruction is a result of this +lack of motivation. The organic and vital mean interaction--they mean +play of mental demand and material supply. + +The third evil is that even the most scientific matter, arranged in +most logical fashion, loses this quality, when presented in external, +ready-made fashion, by the time it gets to the child. It has to undergo +some modification in order to shut out some phases too hard to grasp, +and to reduce some of the attendant difficulties. What happens? Those +things which are most significant to the scientific man, and most +valuable in the logic of actual inquiry and classification, drop out. +The really thought-provoking character is obscured, and the organizing +function disappears. Or, as we commonly say, the child's reasoning +powers, the faculty of abstraction and generalization, are not +adequately developed. So the subject-matter is evacuated of its logical +value, and, though it is what it is only from the logical standpoint, is +presented as stuff only for "memory." This is the contradiction: the +child gets the advantage neither of the adult logical formulation, nor +of his own native competencies of apprehension and response. Hence +the logic of the child is hampered and mortified, and we are almost +fortunate if he does not get actual non-science, flat and common-place +residua of what was gaining scientific vitality a generation or two +ago--degenerate reminiscence of what someone else once formulated on the +basis of the experience that some further person had, once upon a time, +experienced. + +The train of evils does not cease. It is all too common for opposed +erroneous theories to play straight into each other's hands. +Psychological considerations may be slurred or shoved one side; they +cannot be crowded out. Put out of the door, they come back through the +window. Somehow and somewhere motive must be appealed to, connection +must be established between the mind and its material. There is no +question of getting along without this bond of connection; the only +question is whether it be such as grows out of the material itself in +relation to the mind, or be imported and hitched on from some outside +source. If the subject-matter of the lessons be such as to have an +appropriate place within the expanding consciousness of the child, if it +grows out of his own past doings, thinkings, and sufferings, and grows +into application in further achievements and receptivities, then no +device or trick of method has to be resorted to in order to enlist +"interest." The psychologized _is_ of interest--that is, it is placed in +the whole of conscious life so that it shares the worth of that life. +But the externally presented material, conceived and generated in +standpoints and attitudes remote from the child, and developed in +motives alien to him, has no such place of its own. Hence the recourse +to adventitious leverage to push it in, to factitious drill to drive it +in, to artificial bribe to lure it in. + +Three aspects of this recourse to outside ways for giving the +subject-matter some psychological meaning may be worth mentioning. +Familiarity breeds contempt, but it also breeds something like +affection. We get used to the chains we wear, and we miss them when +removed. 'Tis an old story that through custom we finally embrace +what at first wore a hideous mien. Unpleasant, because meaningless, +activities may get agreeable if long enough persisted in. _It is +possible for the mind to develop interest in a routine or mechanical +procedure if conditions are continually supplied which demand that mode +of operation and preclude any other sort._ I frequently hear dulling +devices and empty exercises defended and extolled because "the children +take such an 'interest' in them." Yes, that is the worst of it; the +mind, shut out from worthy employ and missing the taste of adequate +performance, comes down to the level of that which is left to it to +know and do, and perforce takes an interest in a cabined and cramped +experience. To find satisfaction in its own exercise is the normal law +of mind, and if large and meaningful business for the mind be denied, it +tries to content itself with the formal movements that remain to it--and +too often succeeds, save in those cases of more intense activity which +cannot accommodate themselves, and that make up the unruly and +_declasse_ of our school product. An interest in the formal apprehension +of symbols and in their memorized reproduction becomes in many pupils +a substitute for the original and vital interest in reality; and all +because, the subject-matter of the course of study being out of relation +to the concrete mind of the individual, some substitute bond to hold it +in some kind of working relation to the mind must be discovered and +elaborated. + +The second substitute for living motivation in the subject-matter is +that of contrast-effects; the material of the lesson is rendered +interesting, if not in itself, at least in contrast with some +alternative experience. To learn the lesson is more interesting than to +take a scolding, be held up to general ridicule, stay after school, +receive degradingly low marks, or fail to be promoted. And very much of +what goes by the name of "discipline," and prides itself upon opposing +the doctrines of a soft pedagogy and upon upholding the banner of effort +and duty, is nothing more or less than just this appeal to "interest" in +its obverse aspect--to fear, to dislike of various kinds of physical, +social, and personal pain. The subject-matter does not appeal; it cannot +appeal; it lacks origin and bearing in a growing experience. So the +appeal is to the thousand and one outside and irrelevant agencies which +may serve to throw, by sheer rebuff and rebound, the mind back upon the +material from which it is constantly wandering. + +Human nature being what it is, however, it tends to seek its motivation +in the agreeable rather than in the disagreeable, in direct pleasure +rather than in alternative pain. And so has come up the modern theory +and practice of the "interesting," in the false sense of that term. The +material is still left; so far as its own characteristics are concerned, +just material externally selected and formulated. It is still just +so much geography and arithmetic and grammar study; not so much +potentiality of child-experience with regard to language, earth, and +numbered and measured reality. Hence the difficulty of bringing the mind +to bear upon it; hence its repulsiveness; the tendency for attention to +wander; for other acts and images to crowd in and expel the lesson. +The legitimate way out is to transform the material; to psychologize +it--that is, once more, to take it and to develop it within the range +and scope of the child's life. But it is easier and simpler to leave it +as it is, and then by trick of method to _arouse_ interest, to _make_ it +_interesting_; to cover it with sugar-coating; to conceal its barrenness +by intermediate and unrelated material; and finally, as it were, to get +the child to swallow and digest the unpalatable morsel while he is +enjoying tasting something quite different. But alas for the analogy! +Mental assimilation is a matter of consciousness; and if the attention +has not been playing upon the actual material, that has not been +apprehended, nor worked into faculty. + +How, then, stands the case of Child _vs._ Curriculum? What shall the +verdict be? The radical fallacy in the original pleadings with which we +set out is the supposition that we have no choice save either to leave +the child to his own unguided spontaneity or to inspire direction upon +him from without. Action is response; it is adaptation, adjustment. +There is no such thing as sheer self-activity possible--because all +activity takes place in a medium, in a situation, and with reference to +its conditions. But, again, no such thing as imposition of truth from +without, as insertion of truth from without, is possible. All depends +upon the activity which the mind itself undergoes in responding to what +is presented from without. Now, the value of the formulated wealth of +knowledge that makes up the course of study is that it may enable the +educator to _determine the environment of the child_, and thus by +indirection to direct. Its primary value, its primary indication, is for +the teacher, not for the child. It says to the teacher: Such and such +are the capacities, the fulfilments, in truth and beauty and behavior, +open to these children. Now see to it that day by day the conditions are +such that _their own activities_ move inevitably in this direction, +toward such culmination of themselves. Let the child's nature fulfil its +own destiny, revealed to you in whatever of science and art and industry +the world now holds as its own. + +The case is of Child. It is his present powers which are to assert +themselves; his present capacities which are to be exercised; his +present attitudes which are to be realized. But save as the teacher +knows, knows wisely and thoroughly, the race-expression which is +embodied in that thing we call the Curriculum, the teacher knows neither +what the present power, capacity, or attitude is, nor yet how it is to +be asserted, exercised, and realized. + + + + + + * * * * * + + + + +Transcriber's note. + +Two half-title pages have been omitted. + + + +***END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE CHILD AND THE CURRICULUM*** + + +******* This file should be named 29259.txt or 29259.zip ******* + + +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: +http://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/2/9/2/5/29259 + + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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