Of the immense number of works on education issued during the last half of the nineteenth century, perhaps the best known are those of Herbert Spencer and of Professor Bain. The former seeks to explain education from the Darwinian standpoint, and the latter to determine from psychology the intellectual value of the various subjects taught in school, and the average age at which they should be taught to children. Of practical English educators during the nineteenth century, the most outstanding names are undoubtedly those of Arnold of Rugby, Thring of Uppingham, and Abbott of the City of London School.
In recent times the advances made in the theoretical and practical studies of the sciences of anthropology, physiology, and psychology have exercised an enormous influence on educational theories and practices. Careful observations of young children by scientific observers like Darwin, Dearborn, and Preyer have added greatly to our knowledge of child-nature; and helped to suggest new methods of studying it and developing it. The result has been the promulgation within the present century of a number of educational methods, some of which, in contrast to the older practices, must seem almost revolutionary. Among these must be remembered the 'Heuristic Method' of teaching science put forward by Professor H. E. Armstrong. The object of the method is to put the student as completely as may be in the position of an original investigator; and it has been classed by writers on education as being, like so many other modern methods, a 'play method'. Froebel in his kindergarten was one of the first to introduce successfully the play method in education, and the 'gifts' by which the plan was carried through were of his own devising; but such cannot be said of Dr. Montessori, whose method of education engrosses so much attention at the present time. The Montessori apparatus was originally devised by Dr. Seguin for the instruction of mental defectives. Dr. Montessori used the apparatus first for the training of young children; but the cardinal feature of the Montessori system is the determined effort to make the child entirely responsible for his own education, and to interfere as little as possible with his development. The apparatus is so contrived that it can only be used in one way if the problem is to be solved; so the child is forced to attend to the differences in size and shape and carefully to compare the different pieces. In addition, the Montessori system attempts to cultivate the social virtues; teaches the children to live and to work and play with others, and so to learn to be well-mannered. The teacher in this system retires into the background, and the children are left to go their own way, to choose their own tasks, and to be their own critics. Great attention is also given to the physical development of the children.