The logical result is expressed with
literal truth in the words of an American humorist: "It makes no
difference what you teach a boy so long as he doesn't like it."
The counterpart of the isolation of mind from activities dealing
with objects to accomplish ends is isolation of the subject
matter to be learned. In the traditional schemes of education,
subject matter means so much material to be studied. Various
branches of study represent so many independent branches, each
having its principles of arrangement complete within itself.
History is one such group of facts; algebra another; geography
another, and so on till we have run through the entire
curriculum. Having a ready- made existence on their own account,
their relation to mind is exhausted in what they furnish it to
acquire. This idea corresponds to the conventional practice in
which the program of school work, for the day, month, and
successive years, consists of "studies" all marked off from one
another, and each supposed to be complete by itself -- for
educational purposes at least.
Later on a chapter is devoted to the special consideration of the
meaning of the subject matter of instruction. At this point, we
need only to say that, in contrast with the traditional theory,
anything which intelligence studies represents things in the part
which they play in the carrying forward of active lines of
interest. Just as one "studies" his typewriter as part of the
operation of putting it to use to effect results, so with any
fact or truth.
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