Das Humane Gymnasium by Robert BurgerReview by: Esa SantalaInternational Review of Education / Internationale Zeitschrift für Erziehungswissenschaft /Revue Internationale de l'Education, Vol. 11, No. 3 (1965), pp. 376-377Published by: SpringerStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/3442030 .

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376 BOOK REVIEWS - BUCHBESPRECHUNGEN

Burger, Robert, Das Humane Gymnasium. Zur Hygiene und Psycho?

logie der hoheren Schule. Freiburg: Herder 1964. pp. 150. DM 9.80.

In connection with school reforms attention has also been paid to health edu? cation offered by the school. Nowadays it is considered a general task of the school and no longer just a special duty of the instructor in physical education. The entire school work is to be organized in such a way as to serve, in addition to the actual didactic goals (determined by the content of the subject matter), also the mental and physical health of the pupils.

One of the new books surveying this problem is Das humane Gymnasium by Dr. Robert Burger. The book has been dedicated to Dr. Hans Zulliger, a pioneerin mental hygiene within the school, and on the back of the cover page with the dedication we find a quotation from a book by Zulliger: With regard to the pro? tection of the mental health of the pupils it is very important to find the right dosage of all obstacles introduced to them.

Burger finds that owing to diversity in curricula and school work as well as to

specialization at a too early stage, there are serious deficiencies and even hygienic dangers in secondary schools: lack of insight into human motivation and the

development of value hierarchies as well as one-sided accentuation of some values. The author makes a thorough investigation of education as a whole, and he

finds that physical education, though still prominent, is in a somewhat discrimi- nated position. He claims that, e.g., the posture of children is generally poor and

emphasizes the point made by German orthopedists, namely that postural defects

may be a serious cause of some somatic and mental illnesses or deviations in children. In view of this they demand a larger curriculum in physical education, and school

buildings which are better planned and equipped. There should be sports grounds in the vicinity of schools as well as swimming pools especially for use by school children. Burger points out that these factors are essential pre-requisites for ef? fective health education.

Naturally, in connection with health education, attention is paid also to the

targets set up by the school, to school examinations, to expectations and methods of individual teachers. Burger suggests planned cooperation. He thinks that the curriculum should cover a greater amount of basic knowledge in natural science as well as information about the human being, his goals and unconscious drives. The author has examined the teaching methods of the secondary school and finds them often somewhat unpsychological. When demanding the re-consideration of the

general goals of education and, especially, the principles of rationality he also

emphasizes the differences between different phases of the learning process and the

appropriate motivation required for them. At the end of his book Burger suggests a special programme for health education.

It covers special tasks for each level of development. The handling of these matters is left to the teachers in physical education who, for this purpose, should have basic information in anatomy, physiology, orthopedics, hygiene, school hygiene, biology of physical exercises and first aid in case of accidents.

The book Das humane Gymnasium is not a report on results of research, though the reader is made acquainted with some research work by the author. Typical of the book is a strong subjective tendency against the 'old school'. Burger feels

personal responsibility for the education of the young generation, and he finds the

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analyses bibliographiques 377

mere distribution of objective information impersonal, mechanistic, and repelling. A school striving for total education takes care of the health of the pupil at all levels, and Das humane Gymnasium emphasizes certain principles which are a part of this care.

Esa Santala, Jyvaskyla (Finland)

The American Association of Colleges for Teacher Education, Freedom with Responsibility in Teacher Education. Seventeenth Yearbook.

Washington: The American Ass. of Colleges for Teacher Education 1964.

pp. 217. $3.50.?

The title of this Yearbook is somewhat misleading. It is never an easy task, having decided upon a central theme, to ensure that all contributions to a conference or to a volume will manifestly discuss aspects of that theme. In only one section of this Yearbook, however, do the papers begin to come to grips with the issues

implied in the central theme which is its title. The volume fails into three sections which do not correspond to the sections as

set out in the table of contents. Following the Presidential Address is the Fifth Charles W. Hunt Lecture delivered by Dr. Conant and papers which discuss Conant's views. The second group of papers deals with a variety of topics inter?

esting in themselves and some of which have relation to the central theme. The third section, as is appropriate in the proceedings of the Annual Meeting of the

Association, is devoted to committee reports and to other matters of specific interest to the members.

For the reader outside the United States, the address by Dr. Conant - "The Certification of Teachers" and the papers in which Dr. Conant's views are discussed, are likely to be of the greatest interest. In his address, which is best read in the context of his book The Education of American Teachers, Conant discusses "the various ways in which a state may endeavour to insure that the teachers in its

public schools are well prepared and competent to teach". His discussion assumes, on the one hand, the existence of local education authorities and, on the other, the fact that the preparation of American teachers is, or should be, the function of universities or of "Liberal Arts" colleges.

Conant rejects the practice, common in the United States, of State education authorities requiring for certification the completion of a number of approved university or college courses. He also rejects as unworkable in practice the general adoption of a procedure whereby a State authority accepts, after appraisal a pro? gramme of preparation devised by individual colleges. He has even less confidence in certification of teachers based on the appraisal of college or university programmes by a national professional group.

Conant's proposed solution places the greatest emphasis upon the importance of

practice teaching and he would use the student's performance in the classroom as the major criterion of evaluation, within the college or university, of all courses followed by the student. To this end he would wish to see appointed professors with a special responsibility for practice teaching who not only possessed academic

qualifications but also had had recent experience in classroom practice, a combi? nation of qualifications somewhat akin to those of clinical professors in a medical

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