Concentration

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From A Cyclopedia of Education, edited by Paul Monroe, Ph.D. (New York: The Macmillan Company, 1911, vol. II, pp. 170-1).

The grouping of the work of the school around some central subject. Everything is studied as a phase of this subject, or as contributing to its better comprehension. The core subject may be one of the ordinary studies of the curriculum, or it may be some more universal one, selected because it seems adapted to the task of unification better than any special subject. Concentration may fairly well be characterized as the extreme type of correlation. Subjects are made to support each other by being reduced to phases of one large subject. This method of organizing the course of study undoubtedly favors the highest degree of unity. It proceeds essentially upon the principle that there is an unitary aim of education which is best realized through some fundamental study, and that, in order to contribute to the aim, all other subjects should be subordinated to this.

In general four types of concentration may be distinguished on the basis of the subject chosen as the core of the curriculum:

(1) Concentration about history is the scheme of Ziller, a follower of Herbart. It is based on the idea that the aim of education is the development of character. Now, although ethics seems to be the subject contributing most directly to human character, it is evident that, if it is to prove educative, it must be given content by being related to a body of concrete knowledge, and made interesting and potent with the will. This result is accomplished through history, which may be defined as the study of concrete ethics, or ethics in action. The selection of history as the core subject enabled Ziller to arrange the course of study according to the plan of culture epochs. Literature, art, and even science were studied according to the principle of historical development. This method is especially difficult of application to science, for it involves the study of abandoned scientific ideas before we take up those of the present, and, moreover, renders it exceedingly difficult to give either a reasonably complete or practically useful view of any science. The latter difficulty seems, even when the culture epoch theory is not employed, inherent in any plan of concentration that uses the humanistic studies as a center.

(2) Concentration about universal science. The modern reduction of the humanistic studies to a rationalistic or scientific basis enabled the development of the conception of a universal science dealing with the logically progressive exposition of universal law. Such encyclopedic schemes as those of Comte and Spencer are the outcome of this idea. They find expression in the scheme of concentration about what may be called universal science, of which each subject, when properly studied, constitutes an integral part. Here we have the notion so elaborately developed by Colonel Parker. He regards the aim of education as comprehensive intelligence, insight. His plan has been criticized as laying too much stress upon the scientific as contrasted with social, ethical, and artistic interests, and as considering rather the logical than the psychological order in the arrangement of the material of instruction. It is interesting to note that Colonel Parker emphasized especially geography, as embodying the principles at the development of which he was aiming.

(3) Concentration about geography and economic subjects. The Herbartians in the United States have been prone to emphasize geography as, perhaps, the best center for concentration. When defined as the study of the earth in its relation to human life, it becomes a connecting link between the humanities and science. Professor De Garmo especially has developed a scheme, which he calls one of coordination. He would have three centers of concentration in the curriculum, language and the humanities, mathematics and the sciences, and a third group, which he calls the economic core. This deals with the subjects which bear on the methods by which man accomplishes his aims in the world of nature and society. The elementary phase of the economic subjects appears in geography. It is evident that this group constitutes the natural outcome of the other two, and so may be regarded as the core of the whole curriculum. In this event the scheme is in the last analysis one of concentration about those studies that make for the educational aim of practical efficiency.

(4) Concentration about the social life of the school. It is evident that while Ziller's scheme erred in making inadequate provision for science, Colonel Parker's plan tends rather to the other extreme of rationalism, neglecting somewhat the æsthetic, moral, and religious, as well as the historical. The plan of making the school work center about a school society, which was advocated by Professor Dewey, restores these factors to a leading place. Such a society can, he thinks, be made fairly representative of life. Hence the various special subjects will rise naturally out of a deeper study of its problems. Thus we have, not this or that phase of life, but life itself, as the central subject of the curriculum. The school society cannot, of course, be very complex for the little child. But as the pupils grow older their group activity can evolve until it approximates to the typical social life of today. Two methods governing the development of this society may be employed. It may represent in its successive phases the culture epochs of civilization, or it may begin with reproducing and studying the life of the neighborhood, and gradually enlarge its sphere until the typical social activities of the world have been covered. As the scheme of Ziller aims at moral character, that of Colonel Parker at comprehensive insight, and that of De Garmo at practical efficiency, so that of Dewey may be said to aim at social efficiency.

E. N. H.

See Correlation; Culture epoch.

• De Garmo. Herbert and the Herbartians, (New York.

1896.)

• Dewey, J. School and Society. (Chicago. 1900.)
• Lange. K. Apperception. (Boston. 1893.)
• Parker, F. Talks on Pedagogics, an Outline of the Theory of Concentration. (New York, 1891.)