The curriculum of modern education, and the respective claims of classics and science to be represented in it considered : being the substance of two lectures delivered at the monthly evening meetings of the College of Preceptors, April 11th, & May 9th, 1866 / by Joseph Payne.

  • Payne, Joseph, 1808-1876.
Date:
1866
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The curriculum of modern education, and the respective claims of classics and science to be represented in it considered : being the substance of two lectures delivered at the monthly evening meetings of the College of Preceptors, April 11th, & May 9th, 1866 / by Joseph Payne. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The Royal College of Surgeons of England. The original may be consulted at The Royal College of Surgeons of England.

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    to be of great importance and value. But heaping bricks together, and building a house •with them, are two very different things. The orderly arrangement of facts in the mind im- plies a knowledge of their relation to each other ; and, if carried out to a certain extent, furnishes the ground-work for the establish- ment of those general laws which constitute what is properly called science. Theknowledge, however, of these mutual relations is gained by quiet, earnest brooding over facts, viewing them in every kind of light, comparing them care- fully together for the detection of resemblances and differences, classifying them, experi- menting upon them, and so on. Allowing, then, to science, properly so called, all that can be claimed for it as a con- stituent of the curriculum—and of its im- mense value in education I shall have to speak presently—we must explode, definitely and finally, the notion that these valuable results can be elicited by frittering away the powers of the mind on a great variety ol subjects. Nor must we be led away by the frequently meaningless clamour for “ useful knowledge.” Knowledge which may be un- questionably useful to some persons may not be useful at all to others; therefore, although education is to be a preparation for after life, yet it is to be a general, not a professional, preparation, and cannot pro- vide for minute and special contingencies. The object of education is to form the man, not the baker—the man, not the lawyer—the man, not the civil engineer. What then, we may now inquire, should be the main features of a training, as distinguished from an accumulating, system of instruction ? It should, I conceive, aim at quickening and strengthening the powers of observation and memory, and forming habits of careful and persevering attention ; it should habitu- ate the pupil to distinguish points of difference and recognise those of resemblance, to analyse and investigate, to arrange and classify. It should awaken and invigorate the understand- ing, mature the reason, chasten while it kindles the imagination, exercise the judgment and re- fine the taste. It should cultivate habits of order and precision, and of spontaneous, inde- pendent, and long continued application. It should, in short, be a species of mental gym- nastics, fitted to draw forth, exercise, invigo- rate, and mature all the faculties, so as to exhibit them in that harmonious combination which is at once the index and the result of manly growth. In order to gain the ends I have specified, or indeed any considerable number of them, it is essential that the studies embraced in the training course should be few. We cannot hope to have, in the early stage of life, both quantity and quality. In giving a preference to the latter, we do but consult the exigencies of the case. At the same time, it may be hoped that, because the aim is to enrich and prepare the soil, the ulti- mate harvest will be proportionately bountiful.* I have said that the subjects to be studied in the training course should be few. But I proceed further, and maintain that for the purpose of real discipline it is advisable—nay, even necessary—to concentrate the energies for a long period together on some one general subject, and make that for a time the leading feature, the central study of the course— keeping others in subordination to it. By giving this degree of prominence to some par- ticular branch of instruction, we may hope to have it studied to such an extent, so closely, so accurately, so soundly, so completely, that it may become a real possession to the pupil —a source of vital power, which the mind “will not willingly let die.” The concentration of mind and range of research necessary for this purpose obviously involve many of the advantages I have recently enumerated. In this way, too, the pupil will become fully con- scious of the difference between knowing a thing and knowing something about it, and will be forcibly impressed with the superiority of the former kind of knowledge. This con- viction is of no small importance; for it gives him a clear, experimental appreciation of the agency—the measure and kind of intellectual effort—by which the complete and accurate knowledge was gained, and thus can hardly fail to exercise a valuable influence upon his character. He who has learned by experience the difficulty of obtaining a thorough mastery of a subject, has made no trifling advance in * The opinion of Locke confirms this view. His words are:—The business of education is not, as I think, to perfect the learner in any of the sciences, but to give his mind that freedom, and disposition, and those habits which may enable him to attain every part of knowledge himself.” {^Sonie Thoughts concerning Education.)