PEDAGOGY, prsYAugn'ji, or PEDAGOGICS from pa idagogia, training of children. from 7,-ag(apdy6c, pa ida Tigos, trainer of children, from 7aig, pais, child + a- i(d)or, a fnigog, leader, from im)etv, agein, to lead). The science of culmination: a body of facts and principles bear ing on the aims and method: of effectively equip ping the young for life—aiding (tient in attaining their spiritual majority, and fitting them for their vocation. It is still in its infancy; , paratively few of the problems pertaining to edu cation either in the home or at school are as yet solvod by applying established principle: in a scientific manner. Numerous and eomplex, these problems can he worked out only by the help of the sciences of psychology. physiology. ethics, so ciology. and anthropology, and in the light of the spirit of the time, the ideal: of the nation, and existing local conditions. Any solution of them, indeed, is impossilde, except through the culiipora tion of the various institutions that make up society: the home. the school, the Church, the diverse vocations. and the State in its several functions. That the present time is marked by progress toward more efficient co;Meration be tween these factors is gratifying.
While there are certain fixed factors in edueation, and certain principles of universal application, the greater part of the educational field is char acterized by adjustment and change. With the growth of cities. home life is revolutionized; in vent ions and discoveries make possible and necessary the introduction of new subjects, and the changing of old foreign-born children require a somewhat different curriculum from that of native-born children, city children from country children; in a commercial centre, a high school of commerce is a necessity; an indus community calls for industrial schools; the ehildren of a farming district should have oppor tunity to study the elements Of agriculture; schools of forestry are the natural preventive of the denudation of forest lands; in an age of press ing economic problems, it is an anomalous condi tion that the study of economies should be post poned till the college course. The study of Latin
clearly cannot hal the place in the twen tieth century that it held in the sixteenth or even the nineteenth.
The expansion of modern knowledge and the complexity of modern life are reflected in the modern crowded currieuhun, and in the iurob leins to which it gives rise. In a 'three-IC elementary curriculum. or in a college course con sisting largely of Greek, Latin, and mathematics, the choice of studies was only an academic ques tion; with a multitude of subjects to choose from, the question of educational values becomes vital. This question has been asked and an swered in various ways. With Silencer it took the form: What knowledge is of most worth? Spencer's answer was, Science, by which he meant the scientific habit of mind in mastering those subjects which bear on man's efficiency in society, including, primarily, the natural sciences and history, with literature and art subsidiary to these. Nicholas Murray Butler, in an essay bearing the same title, assigns the highest place to those subjects that afford in the hieheSt degree nurture and exercise to man's spiritual nature. and in this judgment modern educators gen erally agree with him. Attacking this same prob lem at closer quarters. Commissioner William T. Harris asks the question, What groups of sub jects are essential to a complete education? and gives this answer: There are six eoi4dinate groups of studies: (1) Mathematics and physics, which gi\'e us the command of nature quanti tatively: (2) biological science, which gives us the key to the organic phase of nature: (3) lit erature and art, which reveal human nature in its intrinsic form, and show man in his relation to social institutions; (I) grammar and language, and studies allied with them, such as logic and psychology, which enable the mind to know itself analytically: (5) history, or the study of the de velopment of the State and its relations to the individual; (C) religion. which looks at human experience and knowledge in their relation to God. An education which should not provide at least the elements of each group would he incom plete.