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H          A          P          T          E          R          II

THE HISTORY OF METHODS

IN order to build up a scientific pedagogy, it is necessary to strike
out in a direction different from that which has been in vogue.

The training of teachers must go on at the same time as the
transformation of the school. If we have teachers trained in
observing and in experimenting, it is right that they should be able
to observe and experiment in the school.

A fundamental requisite for scientific pedagogy ought there-
fore to be a school which allows the spontaneous expressions
axid the individual vitality of the child to have free play. If a
system of teaching is to be founded on the individual study of
the child, it will have to be understood from the observation of
free children, children who are studied and watched over, but not
repressed.

In vain does one expect educational reform from the methodi-
cal examination of the children of today according to the
guidance offered by experimental psychology and by anthropology.
Every branch of the experimental sciences has arisen from the
application of its own special method.

Generally speaking, it is important to define the method,
the technique and after its application to wait for the results which