Psychology of education

Critical part

Lebon analyzes the education system in France , as well as in other Romance countries such as Spain , Portugal and Italy , and concludes that all education at all levels of education ( primary , secondary and higher education ) in these countries is based primarily on the mnemonic method. , that is, a simple memorization of knowledge. Pupils are forced to cram a large amount of information, which the pupil has is checked by the system of final exams . Moreover, according to Lebon, most of the knowledge taught is useless for the subsequent professional activity of graduates, that is, in schools, students and students spend many years of their life wasting huge layers of abstract or insignificant knowledge, which they then simply forget about as useless. According to Lebon and other various specialists whose opinions Lebon gives in the book, 9 out of 10 university graduates within a few weeks after passing exams or getting a diploma completely forget most of the learned knowledge, and graduates of physics and mathematics universities after a short time after receiving diplomas no longer able to solve the simplest problems of algebra and geometry . According to Lebon, the university’s higher education, vocational secondary education and secondary school classes do not develop spiritual ( mental ) abilities and only one of the intellectual ones : memory .

Such a tradition of learning has developed in Europe in the opinion of Lebon in the Middle Ages in the seminaries at the monasteries of the Templars , Franciscans , Benedictines , Dominicans and other Christian orders , in which students, future monks and church ministers, taught by brewing and repeated rewriting of religious texts and treatises, as well as studying Latin , on which these texts were written. In the 11th and 12th centuries , the first common universities were founded at monasteries and seminaries in Europe (the traditions of which were adopted from Arabs who had previously been expelled from Spain, Corsica, Italy and France), in which the papacy officially gave the right to teach various Christian orders. With the gradual development of universities and the beginning of secularization and the Reformation of the XVI - XVII centuries, universities became completely secular , but the main mnemonic method of learning knowledge remained the same, adapted for religious texts to be used by monks. For example, the tradition of studying the dead languages ​​of Latin and ancient Greek in modern European universities in Lebon comes directly from the monastic seminaries at monasteries.

By the beginning of the 20th century , a system of examinations had been formed at universities in France and other Romance countries, where knowledge acquired during the years of study was tested. Students , through mechanical memorization (to the detriment of understanding the material and active development of mental and spiritual abilities), studied for the exam as such, and not for knowledge and skill. As Lebon writes, universities teach words, nothing but words in complex, intricate textbooks meant for memorization. Graduates of such an education system are separated from reality by a wall of words and all the power of mind of graduates is accustomed to long years of training to concentrate on words and terms. As a result - the decline of science , technological progress and scientific research in the Romance countries, and vice versa, their flourishing in the Anglo-Saxon and in Germany , where the same programs are taught, but by other methods . The heyday of Japan as a technical and scientific power Lebon explains by direct borrowing of the country's education methods from Germany. The difference in teaching methods, according to Lebon, is decisive for the development of a good specialist who knows his business. Such specialists in all fields of knowledge are obtained in Anglo-Saxon countries ( USA , Great Britain , Australia , Canada ) and Germany by applying an experimental , practical teaching method, teaching the same training programs as in France and other Romance countries, but excluding the mnemonic method from the main .

According to Lebon, the mnemonic system of mechanical bristling is the main source of a huge army of unemployed, dissatisfied and not adapted for labor activity graduates of universities and universities, from which an army of anarchists and revolutionaries is recruited, who, according to Lebon, can do nothing except destruction. It is from the ranks of university graduates who have not found their professional use in view of the futility and abstraction of their knowledge, as well as in aversion to work and discipline, but with huge demands and needs, recruits are recruited into various revolutionary, communist or any other radical political movements, calling for revolution and breaking public order . And it is they, as a rule, ideologues , leaders who make up the core of such movements (Lebon makes this conclusion from his observations of the growing socialist movements in Europe in the early 20th century, which he later developed in his other book, The Psychology of Socialism (1908)). Thus, the deficiencies of the system of education and upbringing of all levels, especially in the Romance countries, Lebon considers one of the main reasons for their technical, intellectual and moral lag.

Constructive part

The second part of the book is devoted to proposals for improving education and upbringing at all levels of the educational system. As a result of a critical review of French education and comparing it with the Anglo-Saxon and German, Lebon, concludes that improvement of education is achieved not by changing the programs, which are all based on memorization, but by changing the teaching methods of these programs. Lebon proposes to take the example of the United States, Britain and Germany, in which training is placed on an experimental, experimental and practical basis. At all levels of education in these countries, emphasis is placed on developing in the student specific skills and abilities , practical and experienced knowledge gained experimentally, directly and personally by the student. That is, there the method of practical mastering of knowledge prevails over the abstract and mnemonic, which, according to Lebon, led these countries to become world leaders in all fields of science and technology. It is the system of education, upbringing and education of the country, as Lebon writes, that is the foundation of its prosperity and power. Summarizing his proposals for improving learning at all levels, Lebon formulates a general law of learning based on a scientific, psychological approach: “ Upbringing is the art of passing the conscious to the unconscious .” ^[2] . That is, all acquired knowledge and skills should be transferred to skills - a person can and knows something without thinking about it, not remembering.

At the same time, all teaching methods should be based on two psychological laws: 1) the law of similar associations and 2) the law of related associations , which should form an artificial, acquired reflex , with which you can both cultivate useful skills and disaccustom to useless or harmful. According to Lebon, this method should make the processes of upbringing and education as efficient as possible . Lebon considers the development of the best qualities of character and intellectual abilities, such as initiative, observation, discipline, diligence, a sense of solidarity and at the same time the ability to act independently, the ability to think, self-control, etc., to be a true goal of education and training. books or simple memorization. These qualities make a person in any profession a high-class professional. Lebon considers morality to be the most important element of education, since the spiritual state determines the true place of a people in civilization , its real power in culture . The very existence of society is determined by the general rules of morality and the common ideals that hold this society together. The most important ideal in the upbringing of Lebon considers the concepts of homeland and homeland , which gives people the same feelings and interests. Without this ideal, the existence, and even more, the prosperity of the people is impossible. Therefore, the moral and ideals Lebon proposes to include in the curriculum.

Specifically, in subjects in schools Lebon offers:

- on the history not to load students with a huge number of dates of battles, dynasties and genealogies of kings and their detailed descriptions that are not needed practically and quickly forgotten, but concentrate on the main events and on studying the main results and products of civilizations, kingdoms and cultures in the form of monuments , works of art and architecture . Having unloaded the students in this way, Lebon believes that the interest and understanding of the historical processes among the students will significantly improve.

- for literature, do not upload analyzes of analyzes, comments and various summaries to the texts, omit the meticulous study of grammar and stylistics on their own, and allow students to read about 100 masterpieces of world literature that a student with the help of a teacher would compare and study himself directly.

- in the study of foreign languages ​​in schools to concentrate on speaking practice, to conduct lessons only in a foreign language. In order to gain a large vocabulary and quickly learn how to read in a foreign language, Lebon proposes a method by which two any similar works of classics are taken, in the native and foreign languages, and 1-2 hours are read daily by one sentence alternately in a foreign language. and translation in native, until the understanding of the foreign text is equal to the text in the native language.

- in the study of mathematical sciences, to begin the study of numbers and their ratios from the concrete, from the real, and only then gradually move on to the abstract, since the child does not immediately understand abstract concepts. Lebon believes that only concrete and material things are available for children and adolescents, and only when there are quite a lot of concrete things, does the person’s unconscious take on the job of putting concrete things into abstract concepts and generalizations, that is, abstract concepts appear in man as they accumulate im experience with concrete things and phenomena . Therefore, Lebon recommends that mathematics with geometry be taught at the beginning experimentally and experimentally.

- in physics and chemistry to teach students mainly in the laboratory , giving them personally in experiments and experiments to check the action of the laws of nature, enclosed in abstract formulas, and also to undergo a large and diverse practice in factories and research laboratories when it comes to university students .

In general, the role of upbringing and education in the life of the country Lebon considers the key, especially in the era of technology , when the decisive role is played not by knowledge in itself, but by the ability to apply it. When the level of knowledge in different countries is generally the same, then the leading role in the world is occupied by those countries, writes Lebon, who know how to apply and develop this knowledge in practice.

The ideas of the book found the greatest support in the USA and the UK. Thus, the former US President Theodore Roosevelt, in his letter to Lebon, assured him that he could rely on Roosevelt’s full support if the authorities in France wanted to change the education system in favor of the methods proposed by Lebon. ^{[3] The} military journal of Great Britain wrote in 1909: “No one could give a better definition of upbringing than the one given by Gustave Lebon:“ Upbringing is the art of passing the conscious to the unconscious. ” The leaders of the English General Staff adopted this law as the fundamental principle of the establishment of unity of doctrine and action in military education, which we needed so much. " ^[4]

• " Thoughts on education " ( John Locke )
• "Emile" "( Jean-Jacques Rousseau )
• "How Gertrude Teaches His Children" "( Pestalozzi )
• "The basis of animal and human culture", "Conditioned reflex" ( Ivan Pavlov )
• "Spiritual education" ( Emile Durkheim )
• "Motivation and Personality", " Maslow 's Pyramid " ( Maslow )

• Upbringing
• Education
• Pedagogy
• Association (Psychology)
• Conditioned reflex
• Tabula rasa
• Ideal
• Progress
• Scientific and technological revolution

• History of Arab civilization (1884)
• History of Indian Civilizations (1887)
• Real equestrian sport (1882)
• Psychological laws of the evolution of nations (1894)
• Psychology of the masses (1895)
• Psychology of Socialism (1898)
• Evolution of matter (1905)
• The Evolution of the Forces of Nature (1907)
• Psychology of Revolutions (1912)
• Psychology of a new time (1920)
• The scientific basis of the philosophy of history (1931)

• The text of the book in the original of the 1920 edition in the public domain.