Such a work as this cannot, of course, make any pretension to give a general account of the state of German education, even in a single department, since it is founded on the personal experiences and impressions of one journey only. It is thus possible that some practices actually observed in particular schools and institutions, may not be universally prevalent, and that on another occasion, or in another place, a different impression might have been derived. But this seems, from the nature of the case, unavoidable; and as dates and places have in all cases been given, it has been thought better to let the Notes stand for themselves, without the additional information which friends would willingly have supplied, and which the Author, had he been able to see the work through the press, might probably have made use of.

The Editor has, in conclusion, to thank Miss Gurney, Professor Hodgson, and the Rev. R. H. Quick, for many valuable suggestions, and for their kind assistance in revising the proof sheets.

J. F. PAYNE.

SAVILE ROW, LONDON,

September 1876.

PREFACE.

N the following pages I have given an account of a month's visit to

many of the Kindergartens, several of the Primary Schools, and some of the Training Colleges of North Germany. The main

It

purpose I had in view was to investigate the methods and theories of the very earliest education that which begins with children of between the ages of three and eight. was not so much the advanced structure as the foundation that I wished to examine-to see how this foundation was laid, and to form a theoretical judgment on the value of the work. I have long been of opinion that what we especially want in England is a just

estimate of elementary education; meaning by that term what Pestalozzi and Fröbel meant -the earliest stage in the cultivation of children's minds. In England this conception is generally confounded with that of elementary instruction, with which it is, strictly speaking, but remotely connected; and hence all our efforts are directed to instruction, while education or culture is extensively neglected. Instruction that is, the systematic impart

ing of definite knowledge should be the sequel, not the precursor, of the training of the intellectual powers which are to be employed upon the acquisition. In other words, the object of elementary education is to develop the natural faculties, that of elementary instruction to apply them. It would be easy to show this: if we make instruction our chief aim, we necessarily introduce dogmatic, didactic teaching, which, as a rule, depresses the native powers; whereas if we make education—that is, cultivation-our chief aim, we elicit the native powers, and make the best of them.

Entertaining these views of elementary education, I wished to see how far they were carried out in Germany; and after careful observation I am able to report that in the Kindergartens, and in the Primary Schools (those especially of Saxony), they serve as the theoretical basis of the system pursued; and, moreover, that where this theoretical basis is established, there the soundest and most fruitful instruction is secured. The results justify the theory. The question, then, whether we shall educate with a view to instruction as in Germany, or instruct with a view to education as in England, is, I venture to think, answered by the facts. No sane person will challenge a comparison between the average results of German primary education and of ours.

Those who are interested in this important question, will find in my Narrative some of the grounds for forming an opinion upon it, though, as I have intimated, I concerned myself only about the teaching in the Kindergartens, and in the lowest classes of the Primary Schools.

My reasons for thus limiting my examination (besides the want of time) were theseFirst, I wished to judge of the Kindergarten per se, of its value both as a mere occasion for the happy employment of little children's exuberant energies, and with regard to their subsequent education and instruction; secondly, to see the junction of the Kindergarten with the first stage of school instruction, and to estimate its value in this relation; and, thirdly, to examine the lowest classes of schools in which the

children, being over six years of age, had received no preliminary teaching.

The conclusion I arrived at was, that there is a substantial value in the exercises of the Kindergarten, which pleasurably bring out the active powers of the children-their powers of observation, judgment, and invention—and make them at once apt in doing as well as learning.

No apology, perhaps, is needed for the judgments which I have freely expressed on the spirit and the actual methods of elementary teaching in Germany, whether