The History and Science of Education; For Institutes, Normal Schools, Reading Circles and the Private Self-Instruction of Teachers (Paperback)

This historic book may have numerous typos, missing text or index. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. 1891. Not illustrated. Excerpt: ... THE HISTORY AND SCIENCE OF EDUCATION. THE EVOLUTION OF MIND AND THE CONSEQUENT SCIENCE OF EDUCATION APPLIED TO THE ART OF TEACHING. PREFATORY. Let no one suppose that the higher departments of the teacher's profession are attained without some effort, or that honorable distinction is the result of chance. There is no royal road to preferment here, any more than in other departments of professional life. Here, as elsewhere, "The heights by great men reached and kept, Were not attained by sudden flight; But they, while their companions slept, Were toiling upward in the night." If you expect to rise above the rank of a non-professional teacher and become an educator in the higher and better sense of the term, you must make yourself familiar with the laws that govern the development of the human mind; and you must learn to adapt your teaching to those laws. Having made this advance, you should learn to regard your calling as a profession rather than a trade, and should expect, too, the more desirable positions and the better salaries. Let no one persuade you that to gain such honorable position in the higher departments of educational work at the present time is any trivial matter. There are those who will tell you that there is no science in teaching, and that for you to study the "philosophy of teaching" is to waste your time. How can these people know, having themselves confessedly never "wasted any time" in the study? There are those who will tell you that the salaries paid are inadequate to compensate you for any such outlay of time and labor. The salaries paid where non-professional work will pass unchallenged are as high as are paid for a similar grade of work in other callings, and to expect skilled workmen's wages for unskilled workmen's labor is scarcely h...