We cannot say that every generation of youth becomes a moving force in history. The frightfully complicated organization of our objective society of today works automatically in such a way that the creative energy of youth in the cultural fields may be crushed and completely dried up. Education, while paying steady attention to the development of the more realistic side of cultural life, as represented in politics, economics, and sociology, must at the same time play another role in life. That is to say, so far as the ideal side of life is concerned, it must continually re-evaluate the educational meaning of the methods of teaching what may be looked on as the flowering of human culture, the arts, science, and religion, all of which have value in themselves. This it does by keeping in the center of its vision the uniqueness and inconvertibility of general culture. In these matters it is necessary for educators to expend great efforts so that each individual may reach a definite level of historical and cultural awareness. At this point the question of the gestaltende Idee, in Spranger's sense of the word, becomes a matter of educationl importance. It transcends positivistic knowledge of the objective side of culture and, laying hold of the soul of the free man, gives him the ethical elan which looks toward the future. By giving a central position to this gestaltende Idee, educators can give to the younger generation the possibility of becoming a moving force in history. This they do when they create a community of values in which the individual, retaining his uniqueness, works closely with his fellows in activity of worth.

View full abstract

Dewey emphasizes the present. According to him, the past is the past. The past and the future are nonsense unless they are connected with the present. He sees history as the past of the present, or the history of the prsent. And our aim of history education is to understand present social life. Dewey emphasizes economic and social history especially, because it is practical and expresses the process of growth of present life. In short, Dewey's theory of history, or history of education is also practical.

View full abstract

Modern education is defective in that it fails to provide younger students with a splendid vision of, or outlook on, the future.
The root reason for this deficiency is that it is impossible to construct a national vision with the resources provided by modern culture.
Education must play a leading role in actively creating this type of vision. Consciousness of this theme is especially strong among the educational reconstructionists of America. In this essay I consider the place of vision and its creation in education, especially in history education. My viewpoint is that of a reconstructionist. History education directed toward providing students with vision starts from their desires as the buds which can unfold in vision. The students are then confronted, in connection with modern problems, with different types of vision and their possibilities as they are revealed by history and culture. They are then led to understand history in accord with the laws revealed in the historical problems they have been studying. This way of teaching can, then, contribute to the development of vision in the students.

View full abstract

The unification of the two-fold teleology to be found in Herbart's teaching on personality cultivation has traditionally been sought within the “microcosmos” with the help of his symbolic psychology. Consequently, his educational theory has invited criticism as being subjective and individualistic. However, if we consider the matter from Herbart's own fundamental point of view-that an end is what it is stipulated to be by ethics-it is necessary for us to consider his two-fold teleology within the field of ethics. Man's plurality of interests expressive of possible ends is in the practical world an educational means, but, in addition to this, as bolstered by the notion of perfection in the first place and then by that of educational organization, it eventually acquires ethical and social meaning. In this way, the confrontation of two seemingly opposed ends is seen to be without meaning.
If we carry this analysis a step further, we see that educational organization becomes the actual point of fusion for all ideals and that it is the first condition for the ideal realization of political life. If we take Herbart's thought in an abstract sense, then the relation between politics and education is that of ends and means, but taken in a more restricted sense, politics and education are seen to work in complementarity for the endless expansion of the morality of the people.

View full abstract

This essay, based on Spranger's post-war publications, is reducible to the following points.
(1) In the face of the crisis of modern times man's inner awakening is highlighted as one of the urgent tasks of education.
(2) Much is expected of educators who are animated by worthy educational motives to carry out this task.
(3) The inner growth of an individual takes place in the interplay between cultural creativity and diffusion, in the interaction between historical morality and the conscientious reflectiveness of the individual and in the mutual relationships between the unique world of the individual and the objective, shareable world. Consequently, educational activities as well as the efforts of educators are carried on in the midst of these never ceasing interchanges.
In connection with this third point, special consideration is given to the theme that it is expected that in the very process of carrying on these different kinds of interactions man's inner being is being reached and educated and that at the same time this demands that man clearly grasp the rigorous social and historical conditions in which he lives.

View full abstract