DEVOTED TO THE SCIENCE, ART, PHILOSOPHY AND LITERATURE OF EDUCATION FRANK HERBERT PALMER, A. M., EDITOR CONTENTS PAGE Jean Jacques Rousseau: Human Derelict and Educational Cobblestones. (Poem). Frederick Herbert Adler. Housing Grades Seven and Twelve. C. F. Switzer. Star of the Mire. (Poem). Helen Cary Chadwick The Farmer and Education. Robert B. Buckham. Practical Literature. Carl Jefferson Weber. 133. 143 144 153 154 158 Visualizing Materials, Their Value and Use in School. Charles Edward Skinner. 167 High School Seniors and International Good-Will. Paul W. Terry 177 The Teacher's Prayer. Amelia (De Wolf) Davis. 192 Book Reviews. 193 BOSTON Published by THE PALMER COMPANY, 120 Boylston Street LONDON B. C.: WM. DAWSON & SONS, Ltd.. CANNON HOUSE, BREAMS BUILDINGS Price 40 Cents $4.00 a Year that represent a reaction against the excessive use of imaginative and fanciful literary material.” 66 ADAMS: Five Little Friends An excellent example of the skillful adaptation of factual material to the interests of primary pupils." It is a happy tale of real children, charmingly illustrated by the Petershams. $.80 LA RUE: The F-U-N Book. Primer Fifteen stories all made up of entirely new material, with vocabulary carefully graded and checked with Thorndike's Teachers' Word Book. $ .68 LA RUE: Under the Story Tree. First Reader LA RUE: In Animal Land. Second Reader These later readers, no less joyous than the first, are also made up of entirely new material. All three are illustrated by the Petershams. Preparing. ROSS: Reading to Find Out 43 games simply described, that provide interesting and effective material for silent reading. The playing of the games affords excellent means of testing reading ability. Two-thirds of the games are illustrated by the Petershams. $.60 THE MACMILLAN COMPANY NEW YORK ATLANTA BOSTON SAN FRANCISCO EDUCATION Devoted to the Science, Art, Philosophy and Literature VOL. XLIV. of Education NOVEMBER, 1923 No. 3 Jean Jacques Rousseau: Human Derelict and Educational Pathfinder CARROLL D. CHAMPLIN, SOUTHWESTERN NORMAL SCHOOL, CALIFORNIA, PA. E VERY age produces its own outstanding characters, and every movement reveals its own instigators and sponsors. The eighteenth century was distinctly a developmental period, and the French Revolution proved to be the catastrophic consummation of decades of distress and generations of slow preparation. More than any other single individual, Jean Jacques Rousseau was responsible for the social awakening that precipitated the Reign of Terror and established the French Republic in its first phase. It is concerning this eccentric and customwrecking Swiss dreamer that I wish to write, and particularly to tell of his incomparable services to education and democracy. Many important facts must be omitted, for this remarkable man was a true dilettante, dabbling in Botany, Music, Poetry, Drama, Philosophy, Theology, Politics and Diplomacy, as well as counselling parents concerning the rearing of their children and advising teachers regarding the most scientific and legitimate processes of education. It will be necessary to relate at some length the story of Rousseau's life, as the events of this notorious career are illuminating, entertaining and even astounding. Rousseau's personal experiences are not an inspiring story, for this temperamental nomad spent many of his years in hypocrisy, shameless relations, and parasitic dependence on the very ones whom he excoriated in his writings. His life is a lie, both his sham morality and his presumptuous reliogosity convicting him of faithlessness, and his insipid sentimentality classifying him with mollycoddles and the uncourageous. He was a coward, cringing before red-blooded men and noble-minded women. He was jealous to distraction of all who contradicted his opinions or challenged his rights. Yet he belongs to the race of giants, for his talents were numerous, his contacts exceptional, and his contribution to the upbuilding of a better civilization tremendous. An eminent English authority, Robert Quick, has said of him: "There is no denying Rousseau's genius. His name was one of the original voices that go sounding and awakening echoes in all lands-everyone who studies education must study Rousseau." A few facts dealing with Rousseau's heredity and early environment are the first biographical items that need to be recorded here. The most remote ancestor of whom we know was Didier Rousseau, a stalwart French Protestant who removed to Geneva to find a haven from religious persecution. This was in 1550. Early in the eighteenth century a descendant named Isaac was employed as a watchmaker in Geneva. He married a clergyman's daughter, a beautiful girl distinguished for refinement, imagination and, unfortunately, morbidity. Isaac Rousseau was self-centered, frivolous, irresponsible and dissipated, his habits and temper frequently involving him in brawls and disgraceful scenes. These were the parents of Jean Jacques, this neurasthenic woman and this unreliable man. The mother died at the birth of the boy, and the father capitulated his parental prerogative in favor of a gentle, sympathetic, but dangerously indulgent aunt. Jean Jacques was precocious, vivacious, ardent and deceitful, soon developing into a sneak, a prevaricator, and a pleasureloving youth. He and his father read many trashy books together, sitting up all night sometimes to finish a lurid, misleading and sensational romance. After this stock of light literature was exhausted, more serious works were read with equal avidity and zeal; and at the tender age of eight Rousseau was reading Plutarch, Ovid, Bossuet, Molière, and other great authors. Rousseau's father was compelled to leave Geneva as the result of criminal violence committed during a drunken orgy. Jean Jacques saw very little of his one remaining parent after this event, and his father was not at all eager to assume the responsibility of caring for his son. An older son had fled from home some time before, and he never returned to his own people, whom he despised and wanted to avoid. At the age of eight Rousseau was sent to live with a family named Lambercier. For two years he found life very pleasant and satisfying. There was no work, very little study, and a great deal of outdoor play. This marked the beginning of Rousseau's attachment to the natural world, and he was never happier than when on a hillside, along a river, or frolicing in a field. An unmerited and unusually severe punishment disrupted this happy relationship and sent Jean back to Geneva to live with an uncle. He was now ten years old, petted, pampered and spineless. He was a good-looking boy, and many young ladies spoiled him further by praising openly his handsome face. He was also exceedingly bright and expressive, winning numerous admirers with his facility in conversation. While with his uncle he had several cases of calflove, and he took an inordinate fancy to every good-looking woman he met. At the age of twelve he failed to make a success when given a chance to study under a notary. He was then apprenticed to an engraver, by whom he was abused and beaten. This despotic master turned him into a cheat and a liar. After |