Chapter 56 James' Itinerant Education

Many outstanding people are educated in a way that makes the so-called education experts sweat. The father of American psychology William.James, according to the Chinese, can be said to be a generation of masters.Although his "Principles of Psychology" published in 1890 is a book on psychology, it almost includes all the main trends of thought in the West at the end of the 19th century. master. James was born in a wealthy and scholarly family in the United States in the 19th century. His father wanted to provide the children with the most perfect education (William's younger brother, Henry, was also a well-known writer later). They are at home everywhere in the world. They move from the United States to Europe, go around in various European countries, and then return to the United States.

When James was thirteen, his family moved from England to France, then to Sweden, then back to France, then to England, then back to France.These residency and relocations are mainly in line with the opening time of local schools. His father was full of expectations and sent his son to the school he thought was the best, but he was disappointed soon, so he suddenly dropped out of school and moved to another country.James himself did not like this kind of itinerant education, and he felt that he might have lost enough intellectual training because of it. This kind of education method of moving from one culture to another, from one language to another language, may make many modern educators sweat coldly, but the strange thing is that James not only did not suffer from it, but also It is beneficial.His book "Principles of Psychology" fully reflects the results of this international experience.For example, French psychiatry, British philosophy, German experimental psychology, Agassiz's old biology and Darwin's new biology, etc., all of these different schools of thought have been integrated and mastered by him.When psychology just broke away from philosophy and entered the threshold of science, it was hard for us to imagine if someone else could have such skills and vision to write such a book.

No one knows what kind of education is the best.The education received by many outstanding people made the so-called education experts sweat.