Psychology should be taught on the genetic
basis of animals and children, and one of its tap-roots should be
developed from the love of infancy and youth, than which nothing in
all the world is more worthy. If a woman Descartes ever arises, she
will put life before theory, and her watchword will be not _cogito,
ergo sum_, [I think, therefore I am] but _sum, ergo cogito_ [I am,
therefore I think]. The psychology of sentiments and feelings and
intuitions will take precedence of that of pure intellect; ethics will
be taught on the basis of the whole series of practical duties and
problems, and the theories of the ultimate nature of right or the
constitution of conscience will have small place.
Domesticity will be taught by example in some ideal home building by a
kind of laboratory method. A nursery with all carefully selected
appliances and adjuncts, a dining-room, a kitchen, bedroom, closets,
cellars, outhouses, building, its material, the grounds, lawn,
shrubbery, hothouse, library, and all the other adjuncts of the hearth
will be both exemplified and taught. A general course in pedagogy,
especially its history and ideals, another in child study, and finally
a course in maternity the last year taught broadly, and not without
practical details of nursing, should be comprehensive and culminating.
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