The Extension Of University Teaching In England And America - A Study In Practical Pedagogics (1895) (Paperback)

Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: INTRODUCTION SALIENT FEATURES OF EDUCATIONAL PROGRESS IX ENGLAND AND AMERICA. University extension, a term in current use in England since about 1850, has of late come to designate a new and powerful movement in education. It means to-day the' extension of university teaching to persons of any class or condition who are unable to pursue a course of study in residence. The guiding principle throughout is that men and women while busily engaged in the affairs of life are capable of doing systematic intellectual work of an order worthy of university recognition and support, and that to study during one's life-work is a nobler conception than to study for one's life-work. The rapid progress of this movement, specially during the past five years, in which time it has come to assume almost inter national importance, is sufficient warrant for a careful pedagogic account of the aims and methods involved. Such a study, however, must first consider the general conditions under which new forces in systematic education arise and the special circumstances which should make so radical a movement possible and popular among English-speaking people. Conditions of educational reform. Educational.reforms are progressive and powerful in proportion as they harmonize with the spirit of the times, and only when they satisfy legitimate needs of the times do they assume permanent form. Old customs are dropped off as their usefulness disappears and new ones take their places. The evolution in the educational world is largely determined by those gravely important forces which find their expression in the political, industrial, social and intellectual life of a people. Granted an ideal aim ? the perfection of human character, the promotion of happiness, the regeneration of the race, or whateve...