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CHAPTER VIII.
Herbart and His Disciples
Books of Reference

CHAPTER I.

THE CHIEF AIM OF EDUCATION.

What is the central purpose of education? If we include under this
term all the things commonly assigned to it, its many phases as
represented by the great variety of teachers and pupils, the many
branches of knowledge and the various and even conflicting methods in
bringing up children, it is difficult to find a definition sufficiently
broad and definite to compass its meaning. In fact we shall not
attempt in the beginning to make a definition. We are in search not so
much of a comprehensive definition as of a central truth, a key to the
situation, an aim that will simplify and brighten all the work of
teachers. Keeping in view the end from the beginning, we need a
central organizing principle which shall dictate for teacher and pupil
the highway over which they shall travel together.

We will assume at least that education means the whole bringing up of a
child from infancy to maturity, not simply his school training. The
reason for this assumption is that home, school, companions,
environment, and natural endowment, working through a series of years,
produce a character which is a unit as the resultant of these different
influences and growths. Again, we are compelled to assume that this
aim, whatever it is, is the same for all.

Now what will the average man, picked up at random, say to our
question: What is the chief end in the education of your son? A farmer
wishes his boy to read, write, and cipher, so as to meet successfully
the needs of a farmer's life. The merchant desires that his boy get a
wider reach of knowledge and experience so as to succeed in a livelier
sort of business competition. A university professor would lay out a
liberal course of training for his son so as to prepare him for
intellectual pursuits among scholars and people of culture. This
utilitarian view, which points to success in life in the ordinary
sense, is the prevailing one. We could probably sum up the wishes of a
great majority of the common people by saying, "They desire to give
their children, through education, a better chance in life than they
themselves have had." Yet even these people, if pressed to give
reasons, would admit that the purely utilitarian view is a low one and
that there is something better for every boy and girl than the mere
ability to make a successful living.

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