The History of the Great Educators

A history of education should explain how educational doctrines are related to the intellectual and social tendencies of the times in which they originated, should expound these doctrines, and should indicate how they affect educational practice. This work does not profess to be a history of education; it confines itself to a exposition of the doctrines of a limited number of representative educators. It does not deal with their lives. in one respect this is a disadvantage, in another an advantage. It is a disadvantage in so far as the lives of the authors frequently help to elucidate their doctrines; it is an advantage in so far as it enables us to avoid the argumentum ad hominem fallacy which is frequently exemplified in histories of education. Students of education are advised to read the texts of the authors along with the chapters on the doctrines here given. For the doctrines of educators only incidentally mentioned in these pages, or entirely omitted from them, they are referred to such a history of education as Monroe’s Text-Book. Other readers will find the chapters designed to give a general idea of the doctrines of the great educators without recourse to other works.