Herbert Spencer was a 19th-century philosopher and social idealist. Now, his views can be seen as a major part of education. This doctrine was extremely repulsive to the established profession of education in England, where Latin, Greek, and mathematics had been the staples of education for many generations, and were believed to afford the only suitable preparation for the learned professions, public life, and cultivated society. Herbert Spencer and Education Herbert Spencer (April 27, 1820 –December 8, 1903) was a British positivist philosopher, sociologist and educational reformer. Many schools realise, too, that learning by heart and, in general, memorising from books are not the only means of storing the mind of a child. Fifty years ago almost all teachers believed that it was impossible to make school-work interesting, or life-work either; so that the child must be forced to grind without pleasure, in preparation for life’s grind; and the forcing was to be done by experience of the teacher’s displeasure and the infliction of pain. Spencer’s propositions to the effect that the study of science was desirable for artisans, artists, and, in general, for people who were to get their livings through various skills of hand and eye, were received with great incredulity, not to say derision—particularly when he maintained that some knowledge of the theory which underlies an art was desirable for manual practitioners of the art; but the changes of the last fifty years in the practice of the arts and trades may be said to have demonstrated that his views were thoroughly sound. Post was not sent - check your email addresses! News & Events VIEW ALL. In this post, we will examine Spencer’s views and his impact on education. If any dependence is to be placed on the general principles of education that have been laid down, the process of learning to draw should be throughout continuous with those efforts of early childhood, described above as so worthy of encouragement. Due in part to his support of evolution, Spencer was a critic of religion and other fields of the humanities. Liberty Fund, Inc. All rights reserved. iPhone/iPad app . He taught that although gymnastics, military drill, and formal exercises of the limbs are better than nothing, they can never serve in place of the plays prompted by nature. E. Perine) Born in Derby in central England, Spencer was largely self-taught. Although he went to school, he didn’t learn how to read until he was seven years old. Spencer’s objection to the constant exercise of authority and compulsion in schools, families, and the State is felt to-day much more widely than it was in 1858, when he wrote his essay on moral education. His ideas have been floated on a prodigious tide of industrial and social change, which necessarily involved wide-spread and profound educational reform. Herbert Spencer- Social Darwinism Education I. The advent of these new callings has favoured the spread of Spencer’s educational ideas. The third and supreme conviction is that the method of education which produced the teacher himself and the contemporary or earlier scholars, authors, and publicists, must be the righteous and sufficient method. He was well known as "Social Darwinism" father and proposed a theory of applying evolutionary theory to sociology, especially education … He coined the term ‘survival of the fittest’ seven years before Darwin’s publication of his theory of natural history, The Origin of the Species in 1859. The profession of teaching has long been characterised by certain habitual convictions, which Spencer undertook to shake rudely, and even to deride. ( Log Out / Subjects, Introduction The Educational Theory of Herbert Spencer. Fair Use: This material is put online to further the educational goals of Liberty Fund, Inc. Copyright: The text is in the public domain. Through him, the thoughts on education of Comenius, Montaigne, Locke, Milton, Rousseau, Pestalozzi, and other noted writers on this neglected subject are at last winning their way into practice, with the modifications or adaptations which the immense gains of the human race in knowledge and power since the nineteenth century opened have shown to be wise. He revived the the theory of evolution. Presenting a theory of evolution prior to Charles Darwin ’s On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection, Spencer argued that all of life, including education, should take its essential lessons from the findings of the sciences. Enter your email address to subscribe to this blog and receive notifications of new posts by email. He viewed them as impractical and unrelated to contemporary life. The doctrine which was comparatively new ran through all four essays; but was most amply stated in the essay first published in 1859 under the title “What Knowledge is of Most Worth?” In this essay Spencer divided the leading kinds of human activity into those which minister to self-preservation, those which secure the necessaries of life, those whose end is the care of offspring, those which make good citizens, and those which prepare adults to enjoy nature, literature, and the fine arts; and he then maintained that in each of these several classes, knowledge of science was worth more than any other knowledge. The wide adoption of Spencer’s educational ideas has had to await the advent of the new educational administration and the new public interest therein. Notify me of new comments via email. His advocacy of individualism and a highly competitive ethic amongst students and schools plays an important role in education today, e.g. Theory of Value: What knowledge and skills are worthwhile learning? He maintained that “for girls as well as boys the sportive activities to which the instincts impel are essential to bodily welfare.” This principle is now being carried into practice not only for school-children, but for operatives in factories, clerks, and other young persons whose occupations are sedentary and monotonous. The correspondence schools are teaching hundreds of thousands of young people at work in machine-shops, mills, mines, and factories, who believe that they can advance themselves in their several occupations by supplementing their elementary education with correspondence courses, taken while they are at work earning a livelihood in industries that rest ultimately on applications of science. The four essays on education which Herbert Spencer published in a single volume in 1861 were all written and separately published between 1854 and 1859. Spencer's father was a religious dissenter who drifted from Methodism to Quakerism, and who seems to have transmitted to his son an opposition to all forms of authority. Edward Throndike‘s views on behaviorism were also influenced by Spencer. A recent illustration of this extension of the method of observation in teaching to observations made by other people is the new method of giving moral instruction to school children through photographs of actual scenes which illustrate both good morals and bad, the exhibition of the photographs being accompanied by a running oral comment from the teacher. b) Herbert Spencer - “The Utilitarian” He developed an evolutionary utilitarian ethics in which the principles of ethical living are based on the evolutionary changes of organic development. Herbert Spencer was arguably the greatest English philosopher of the 19th century. About. Huxley. Repression and compulsion under penalties however severe fail to reform, and often make bad moral conditions worse. It has been demonstrated that the only useful reformatories are those which diminish the criminal’s liberty of action as little as possible, require him to perform productive labour, educate him for a trade or other useful occupation, and offer him the reward of an abridgment of sentence in return for industry and self-control. Our school goal at École Herbert Spencer Elementary School is focused on the three R’s: respect, responsibility and relationships. Spencer on Social Satire; Herbert Spencer (1820-1903) Bibliography. Herbert Spencer was educated Liberalism: Herbert Spencer is undoubtedly a very important figure in the history of Western political … This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. ... importance of study of nature and fundamentals of science (Eiseman, p. 153); … "The great aim of education is not knowledge but action." Action, practical application and execution is everything. Herbert Spencer (1820-1903) was known as one of the leading Social Darwinists of the 19th century was an English philosopher and prolific writer 4. He was known to be a strong supporter of Darwin's methods of evolution and a … Top 100 Quotes. He was recognized as one of the important social philosophers of the 19th Century. Spencer’s desire to downplay and even remove the humanities on the curriculum puts too much emphasis on material gain and survival. The four essays on education which Herbert Spencer published in a single volume in 1861 were all written and separately published between 1854 and 1859. Chapter: INTRODUCTION. Spencer’s influence runs deep in education. So much scientific training is indeed universally desirable; because good training of the senses to observe accurately is universally desirable, and the collecting, comparing, and grouping of many facts teach orderliness in thinking, and lead up to something which Spencer valued highly in education—“a rational explanation of phenomena.”. Home; Authors; Topics; Quote Of The Day; Site. The Young Men’s Christian Associations in the American cities have become great centres of evening instruction for just such young persons. Spencer was tutored by his father and his uncle in his youth. 1. In all its effects, learning the meaning of things is better than learning the meaning of words.” He answered the question “what knowledge is of most worth?” with the one word—science. Through their variety they could be sympathetic with both individualism and collectivism. 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