THE VITALIZING PRINCIPLE IN EDUCATION.

EDWARD J. KUNZE,

Professor and Head, Dept. of Industrial Engineering, The Pennsylvania State College.

Were we to seek an answer to the question, what is the fundamental impelling force in intellectual advancement, we would doubtless find it in "man thinking," for man thinking is man progressing, man developing, man perfecting. The act of perfecting is primarily a volitional act. The question then resolves itself into, how may we best cause man to first conceive of the real value of this endowment and then to find continued delight in its exercise.

Engineering has long been known as an attractive subject. Engineering students usually work harder than those taking a general course of study such as one in the liberal arts especially when the latter is taken with no specific aim in view. Engineering students do not burn their books nor do they leave their lecture notes behind them when they are graduated from the college or university: There is a spirit of greater permanency surrounding their work. It appears that engineering teachers have, as a rule, rested on this important advantage over general courses of study. Engineers are not in the habit of analyzing their work as teachers in the same logical and scientific manner that they apply to their engineering problems: They are less rational and more empirical in their teaching methods. Dr. Mann* makes the statement that of the group of representative colleges investigated in his report, "38 per cent. of the professors spend no time at all in study to increase their understanding of educational methods," "only 2 per cent. spending more than 10 per cent. of their time in this manner. This condition is

"A Study of Engineering Education," p. 101.

not strange when we realize that the engineer is not required to spend a single hour of special training for teaching in order to receive a teaching position. Most engineers assume the vocation of teaching either directly after graduation from a technical college or after spending a term of years in professional practice. Selections for directing positions are usually based solely on success in private practice. Frequently this very success draws attention and energy away from the work of teaching. Was it not Dr. Swain who first warned us that we must be first teachers and then engineers ?

The sciences of education and of psychology are almost entirely devoted to the consideration of the child. Genetic psychology should certainly be studied by all who would profess a knowledge of these subjects but why stop with adolescence? Every college of education maintains a course in general methods. Why not offer, in some of these colleges, courses in which a critical study is made of laboratory methods in engineering and of similar subjects that are of direct interest to engineering teachers and in which actual and reliable tests could be made of different phases of engineering teaching and results arrived at in that scientific manner which becomes an engineer and thus enable the teaching engineer to secure a definite basis for his method of teaching. Especially well could this be done during the summer session. Dr. Mann has pointed out* the absolute necessity for the scientific construction of future engineering curricula. This opens a new and fruitful field for experimental psychology and experimental pedagogy and it is believed that soon some alert and progressive university will accept the opportunity usefulness in this line offers.

Whenever the shortcomings of our work in teaching engineering have been bared the concern seems to have been almost altogether with individual courses of study or with the teachers; too little concern, it seems to the speaker, has been evidenced with the student to determine how he functions or rather just why he does not function. Regarding *"A Study of Engineering Education," pp. 56 and 57.

students, Emerson says "we do not give them a training as if we believed in their noble nature." It is not sufficient to fill the student with facts nor is this primarily very important. Importance rests in the interconnection of facts. The student should add some of his own individuality to the world's stock of ideas. He should be led to make over what he hears and reads into a product of his own. It should become a part of himself. He does not really know a subject unless he can use it. He should be led to have opinions, to state them and to put them into action. We must develop the thought that is vague in the student's mind: The thought may be sure but it needs some nuture, some open channel for action. "The measure of the teacher's success, says Osborne, "is the degree in which ideas come, not from him but from his pupils." Dr. Swain in his excellent little treatise on "How to Study," addressed to the student, shows clearly that he had this idea in mind.

We come back now to our original question: How may we secure "student-thinking"? It does not matter materially whether that thinking is done along one channel or another so long as it shall be "productive thinking" as Huxley puts it, or "inventive thinking" as Eliot expresses it, or as Professor Angel defines reasoning, "purposive thinking." The problem before us is to cause the student to acquire those faculties that permit him to examine data with discrimination and apprehend facts, to make precise comparisons and see existing relations, to draw accurate inferences and comprehend all the conditions involved, to exercise judgment and to solve problems. In order that he may do these things, we must first cause him to become interested in mental occupation in order that he may concentrate his attention. He must receive some motive power to cause him to acquire a degree of enthusiasm. We attend to that in which we are interested; that which has excited in us a motive for its consideration. All voluntary activities are directed toward some definite end, the attainment of which we consider of value. Long and hard consecutive thinking absolutely requires some

personal initiative and there must be a motive for this compelling action of the will. Until thought is linked with purpose there is no intelligent accomplishment. The efferent processes must be developed; we have paid all attention to the afferent processes.

Formerly it was thought, and to a great extent the opinion is still maintained, that manual training derives its virtue directly from the motions made. It was said "the mind is taught through the hand" therefore it made little difference what sort of work was done so long as the motions were executed. While Comenius was the first to bring out the educational value of manual training, and Rousseau and Pestalozzi laid much stress upon providing this kind of exercise, Froebel was the first to indicate the true significance of manual occupations. He made practical applications of the view that the mind is "productive and creative." Children were expected to "think and do." We now understand that the virtue of the work is largely in retaining attention and in starting the thought process and therefore we must agree that the sort of work done has a vital influence on the establishment of the thought process. A healthy interest must therefore be aroused. Shakespeare has Lucentio say to Tranio "No profit grows where is no pleasure ta 'en: In brief, Sir, study what you most affect," and in contemporary literature, Winston Churchill writes "the whole attitude toward life should be changed that life should appear a bright thing rather than a dark thing, that labour should be willing, vicarious, instead of forced and personal."

Interest is a function of the mind; its nature, as well as its intensity varies with the age, environment, and mental development of the person; its nature follows closely the order of development of the intellectual organism, i. e., from the lower to the higher levels. The sensory areas of the brain function first, then the motor areas and lastly the higher levels which involve the reasoning powers. The development of the higher centers depends upon that of the lower. It is clear therefore that the nature of the stimulii that

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arouse interest in college students differs fundamentally and widely from that which similarly affects pupils of the high schools and grade schools. The interest that is desired for college men is not that which makes a subject entertaining but that which holds the student to his task until it is completed. Nothing is worth doing in mature life that is without details that are dull. In the latter sense, President Schurmann speaks of interest as the greatest word in education, and Dr. De Garmo says "The physical and mental satisfactions growing out of them (interests in problems of life) lend to labors that to us would be repulsive, a joy that makes even such a life worth living.”

It has long been recognized in manual training that there is a natural tendency to seek repetition of those stimuli that give satisfaction to the organism. The satisfaction comes from the ability to do. It can be shown that a like satisfaction exists in repeating non-manual intellectual processes along lines familiar to the student. We are interested in what is familiar to us and find pleasure in perfecting our knowledge along such lines. Wagnerian music is not generally popular, but appreciation of it grows with repetition, and if one makes himself familiar with the drama and the motiva before hearing the opera it is appreciated much more. No man will have initiative in a certain line until he has some knowledge along that line. Therefore, to keep interest alive in any subject we must develop the thought process from the familiar to the unknown. We find here one factor in our vitalizing principle. It will be seen that we are reversing the usual process in that we first observe effect and then seek the cause; a deductive process. We are substituting an analytical for a synthetical method. This consideration sets up a "felt-need" as Dean Akeley calls it.* Recently Columbia University recognized this idea when the method of presenting the subject of history was entirely changed. Hereafter the history course at Columbia will start with contemporaneous history and the causes for the present state sought by * Bul. S. P. E. E., December, 1916, p. 197.