Naturalism in American Education

"As far as we have been able to discover, there is no comprehensive work dealing specifically with naturalism in American education. We feel that such a treatment will be of service, especially when presented from the supernatural or Christian viewpoint, since many educators who adhere to the teachings of Christianity are concerned about the naturalistic trend of our American schools. This, then, is the purpose of the present investigation. The plan of the study is as follows: in Chapter I, naturalism in philosophy and education in general will be reviewed; in Chapters II and III, the introduction of naturalism into American education during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries will be treated; Chapters IV, V, and VI, will be devoted to leading contemporary American exponents of naturalism in education; while Chapter VII will summarize the findings of the studies dealing with the philosophy taught in seventy teacher-training schools and institutions of higher learning in America. In Chapter VIII, some logical consequences of naturalism in philosophy and education will be set forth, in order to show the weakness inherent in the naturalistic position as well as the extremes to which it tends"--Introduction. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2007 APA, all rights reserved).