48 INTERNATIONAL CONGRESS OF EDUCATION. 
vation of children that will enable him to know the child, and to recog- 
aize the conditions that are affecting him for good or ill. 
Important as is the study of all human nature, the study of the child is 
of more importance than that of the adult, for the reason that the most 
-mportant truths are more plainly manifested in.the simple, immature 
mind, of which the purpose is single, than in the complex, matured mind, 
of which the emotions are always more or less involved, and, consequently, 
ire manifested more or less indistinctly or indirectly. 
Another reason why the teacher in training should study the child is, 
shat his work of teaching is to be connected with the child. His task is 
to develop the childish mind ; and, valuable as is the study of the adult 
mind, it will not afford the knowledge needed for dealing with children. 
Probably the chief reason why the psychology of the past, and even of 
the present, is not calculated to furnish a working basis for the teacher, 
was and is that it has been, as indeed it still is, a psychology of the 
mature, cultured mind, indicating the result of a complex education, and 
50 does not indicate the mind before it was acted upon by intentional 
‘nstruction. 
To the immature teacher such a psychology must be misleading, as it 
must lead him to expect more from the immature mind than can possibly 
se realized, and thus result in his working above the capacity of his pupil. 
This difficulty is constantly to be met with in English and Scotch psy- 
chology, and to a great extent in that of Germany. The one important 
exception is to be found in the Herbartian psychology, which system was 
evolved from the actual observations and experiments made by Herbart 
npon his own pupils. 
The aim of the teacher in training is to acquire skill in presenting the 
material for knowledge, the subjects of instruction, in such a way that 
she time and energy of both teacher and pupil may be saved ; in such a 
way that the best power of the pupil may be developed. To this end his 
work 1s a constant series of experiments with children, the effects of 
which must be carefully noted, and their desirable or undesirable feat- 
ares accounted for, so that the latter may be avoided, and the former 
secured again and again, 
It may be urged that the regular class-room instruction is sufficiently 
well calculated to afford opportunity for observation and experiment upon 
children. If teaching were what it ought to be, this would perhaps be 
true 5 but that it is insufficient, as at present carried on, is perhaps proven 
by the fact, that, in the case of a great many teachers, the longer they 
seach, the more unobserving, the more unimpressionable, they become in 
"egard to their work. 
As teaching is done at present, probably less of the real child is seen in 
the class-room than in any other place. We have all been in schools 
where automata would seem to serve the purpose of the teacher quite as