The Educational Revival of the Early Nineteenth Century Modern state systems of public education BRIEF COURSE IN THE HISTORY OF EDUCATION PRIMITIVE PEOPLES. CHAPTER I EDUCATION IN ITS SIMPLEST FORM form SIGNIFICANCE OF PRIMITIVE EDUCATION. · Educa- Education tion in its simplest form is found among the primitive societies of its simplest savage and barbarian peoples. Here one finds no school, no method of education consciously recognized as such, and only the slightest differentiation of a teaching class. And yet there is evident the essential characteristic of the educational process - the fitting of the child to his physical and social environment through the appropriation of the experience of previous generations. istics of In our own time society is so complex that one can with difficulty get a grasp of the true nature of the entire educational process and of its relation to social life as a whole. In the Characterprimitive stage, where society is so simple, the general nature, education purpose, method, organization, and result of education are more readily seen readily discovered. By such a study one may arrive at a better comprehension of later more complex stages of educational activity. PRACTICAL EDUCATION. The training in the processes of obtaining food, clothing, and shelter — which are obligations possessing a very direct and insistent character for every individual in primitive society — constitutes their practical education. Yet there is seldom, if ever, a direct, conscious process of training on the part of society. The necessary knowledge hild is obtained by the child through imitation. In the earlier ducation of years this imitation is unconscious. The child in savage and le primitive barbarous tribes plays with miniature imitations of the implerough play ments used by adults. His amusements and games are, similarly, but imitations of the activities of adult life. Indian children play with a log in the water and learn to balance and to paddle as the use of the canoe will later demand. The boys shoot at a mark with the bow and arrow; the girls make utensils of clay and play at the preparation of food. There are few games aside from such imitations. These few, such as a simple ball game, are merely imitations of the sports of adults. is lucation rough ork ducation rough ligious and cial remonies The second stage of this training through imitation is a conscious one. Then both boy and girl assist in the activities of the adults, and must learn by imitation because the work is demanded of them. This demand on the part of the adult, however, is not for the sake of training the child, but for the result of the work. In the art representations of their social activities left by primitive people, there are to be found no evidences of any conscious training of the young by the adult. And in the study of those forms of primitive life that have survived, few practical educational activities, save the two forms of imitation mentioned above, have been found by scientific observers. THEORETICAL EDUCATION. - Another phase of primitive life which occupies much of the time of the adults and possesses educational value for the young, is that connected with ceremonies, dances, and incantations. Such ceremonial performances constitute the religious worship of primitive peoples and are necessary before a hunt, a military expedition, a harvest, the planting of grain, the storing of food, and, in fact, before any important social activity. Inasmuch as they contain explanations of the myths, legends, religious dogmas, scientific or intellectual beliefs, or historical traditions of the respective tribes, all such ceremonials have an educational function. Thus the younger generations are being continually instructed in the lore |