Subject
matter then becomes a ready-made systematized classification of
the facts and principles of the world of nature and man. Method
then has for its province a consideration of the ways in which
this antecedent subject matter may be best presented to and
impressed upon the mind; or, a consideration of the ways in which
the mind may be externally brought to bear upon the matter so as
to facilitate its acquisition and possession. In theory, at
least, one might deduce from a science of the mind as something
existing by itself a complete theory of methods of learning, with
no knowledge of the subjects to which the methods are to be
applied. Since many who are actually most proficient in various
branches of subject matter are wholly innocent of these methods,
this state of affairs gives opportunity for the retort that
pedagogy, as an alleged science of methods of the mind in
learning, is futile; -- a mere screen for concealing the
necessity a teacher is under of profound and accurate
acquaintance with the subject in hand.
But since thinking is a directed movement of subject matter to a
completing issue, and since mind is the deliberate and
intentional phase of the process, the notion of any such split is
radically false. The fact that the material of a science is
organized is evidence that it has already been subjected to
intelligence; it has been methodized, so to say. Zoology as a
systematic branch of knowledge represents crude, scattered facts
of our ordinary acquaintance with animals after they have been
subjected to careful examination, to deliberate supplementation,
and to arrangement to bring out connections which assist
observation, memory, and further inquiry.
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