American traits from the point of view of a German / by Hugo Münsterberg.

  • Hugo Münsterberg
Date:
1902
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: American traits from the point of view of a German / by Hugo Münsterberg. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    tion. We have on the other side the desire to adjust the school work to the innate talents and likings of the individual, which means giving in the school work no place to that which finds inner resistance in the pupil. In the first case the university method filters down to the school; in the second case the kindergarten method creeps up to the school. In the one case the liberal education of the school is replaced by profes- sional education; in the other case the liberal education is replaced by liberal play. If one of the two tendencies were working alone, its imminent danger would be felt at once; but as they seem to cooperate, the one working from the bottom and the other from the top, each hides for the moment the defects of the other. And yet the coincidence is almost accidental and en- tirely superficial; both desire to make concessions to individual differences. Peter and Paul ought not to have the same school education we are told; but the essential question of what, after all, Peter ought to learn in school must be answered very differently, according as we look at it from the point of view of the kindergarten or from the point of view of professional life; as there is indeed a difference whether I ask what may best suit the taste and liking of Peter, the darling, or whether I ask what Peter, the man, will