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    The Meaning of Infancy
    The Meaning of Infancy
    The Meaning of Infancy
    Ebook53 pages44 minutes

    The Meaning of Infancy

    By John Fiske

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    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherArchive Classics
    Release dateNov 26, 2013
    The Meaning of Infancy

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      Book preview

      The Meaning of Infancy - John Fiske

      The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Meaning of Infancy, by John Fiske

      This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.net

      Title: The Meaning of Infancy

      Author: John Fiske

      Release Date: May 15, 2004 [EBook #12359]

      Language: English

      *** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE MEANING OF INFANCY ***

      Produced by Al Haines

      Riverside Educational Monographs

      EDITED BY HENRY SUZZALLO

      PRESIDENT OF THE UNIVERSITY OF WASHINGTON SEATTLE, WASHINGTON

      THE MEANING OF INFANCY

      BY

      JOHN FISKE

      1883

      CONTENTS

      INTRODUCTION

      I. THE MEANING OF INFANCY

           From Excursions of an Evolutionist

      II. THE PART PLAYED BY INFANCY IN THE EVOLUTION OF MAN

           From A Century of Science

      OUTLINE

      INTRODUCTION

      The new significance of education

      The last century has witnessed an unprecedented development in the significance of education. One direct consequence has been an increased reverence for childhood. In this movement which has increased the dignity of children and schools, two large forces have been at work,—one social and the other scientific. The growth of the democratic spirit among men and institutions has made the education of children a public necessity, and lifted the school to a position of high social importance. The application of the theory of evolution to man and his life has revealed human infancy as one of the largest factors making for the superiority of man in the struggle for existence, and given to childhood a vast biological importance. The necessities of democracy and the truths of science, acting more or less independently of each other, have given to education a breadth of meaning which it did not possess before. They have shown that infancy is the largest opportunity and education the most powerful instrument for the conscious adjustment of man to the physical and social world in which he lives.

      Democracy changes the function of schools

      It was the attempt of democracy to educate all of its children which was the initial and important event that provoked large changes in our notions of the social function of education. As long as the school was for the few, and such it was in the less liberal periods of history, the school tended to be an authoritative institution with more or less rigid methods of procedure. With fixed ideas of truth and the means of acquiring truth, it was to a considerable degree unbending in its attitude toward youth. Even if freedom from economic toil and social regulation permitted, only the type of mind that could fit the school's established institutional ways could endure its discipline and achieve its rewards. Other types of mentality it would not receive or retain as students. Under such an organization the school was selective of a special kind of talent. It was not an instrument, so adjustable in its methods of appeal and instruction, that every manner of child could gain considerable of the wisdom of the world. But when a more democratic order was established, the function of the school underwent a considerable change. Democracy granted to all men freedom in manhood; to safeguard its privileges, it had to educate all men in childhood. The school for selected scholars had to be transformed into a school for every variety of citizen. With every child sent to school by order of the state, the teacher had to forego his traditional aloofness, and to adjust his methods of teaching so that every member of the enlarged school community could come into a knowledge of the civilization in which he lived. With the inclusion of the blind, the deaf,

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