Produced by Al Haines
Riverside Educational Monographs
EDITED BY HENRY SUZZALLO
PRESIDENT OF THE UNIVERSITY OF WASHINGTONSEATTLE, 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 thesignificance of education. One direct consequence has been anincreased reverence for childhood. In this movement which hasincreased the dignity of children and schools, two large forceshave been at work,—one social and the other scientific. Thegrowth of the democratic spirit among men and institutions has madethe education of children a public necessity, and lifted the schoolto a position of high social importance. The application of thetheory of evolution to man and his life has revealed human infancyas one of the largest factors making for the superiority of man inthe struggle for existence, and given to childhood a vastbiological importance. The necessities of democracy and the truthsof science, acting more or less independently of each other, havegiven to education a breadth of meaning which it did not possessbefore. They have shown that infancy is the largest opportunityand education the most powerful instrument for the consciousadjustment of man to the physical and social world in which helives.
Democracy changes the function of schools
It was the attempt of democracy to educate all of its childrenwhich was the initial and important event that provoked largechanges in our notions of the social function of education. Aslong as the school was for the few, and such it was in the lessliberal periods of history, the school tended to be anauthoritative institution with more or less rigid methods ofprocedure. With fixed ideas of truth and the means of acquiringtruth, it was to a considerable degree unbending in its attitudetoward youth. Even if freedom from economic toil and socialregulation permitted, only the type of mind that could fit theschool's established institutional ways could endure its disciplineand achieve its rewards. Other types of mentality it would notreceive or retain as students. Under such an organization theschool was selective of a special kind of talent. It was not aninstrument, so adjustable in its methods of appeal and instruction,that every manner of child could gain considerable of the wisdom ofthe world. But when a more democratic order was established, thefunction of the school underwent a considerable change. Democracygranted to all men freedom in manhood; to safeguard its privileges,it had to educate all men in childhood. The school for selectedscholars had to be transformed into a school for every variety ofcitizen. With every child sent to school by order of the state,the teacher had to forego his traditional aloofness, and to adjusthis methods of teaching so that every member of the enlarged schoolcommunity could come into a knowledge of the civilization in whichhe lived. With the inclusion of the blind, the deaf, the slow ofmind, and the restless of spirit,—individuals left out of the oldscheme of education and now reverently