Practical Education, Volume I

Richard Lovell EdgeworthProject Gutenberg · United StatesDec 2019

3.6

Word count: 653K words
Chapters: 66

Summary

Project Gutenberg was the first provider of free electronic books, or eBooks. Michael Hart, founder of Project Gutenberg, invented eBooks in 1971 and his memory continues to inspire the creation of eBooks and related technologies today.Practical Education, Volume I by Maria Edgeworth and Richard Lovell EdgeworthAuthor: Edgeworth, Richard Lovell, 1744-1817,Language: English, Class: LB: Education: Theory and practice of education, Release Date: May 7, 2009

Editor's review

Practical Education, Volume I is the first volume of an educational treatise co-authored by the late-eighteenth-century British educators Maria Edgeworth and Richard Lovell Edgeworth, here offered by Project Gutenberg as a free eBook. The work is pioneering in the history of education: it advocates cultivating children's reason and judgment through observation and experience, opposes rote instruction and corporal punishment, and emphasizes learning through play, conversation, and practical affairs. Its examples are drawn largely from everyday scenes of home education; the discussion is detailed and combines theory with practical guidance, conveying the Enlightenment's confidence in rational education. For today's readers it is both a primary source for understanding the evolution of modern Western educational thought and a historical reference for approaches to child-rearing. It is suitable for readers interested in the history of education, Enlightenment thought, or home education. Because it was written long ago, some views carry the limitations of their era and should be read critically in historical context rather than accepted wholesale. As a free electronic edition, it is easy to search and compare, and is especially suited to use alongside courses or research on the history of education.

Who it's for

A good fit for

Researchers of educational history and Enlightenment thought seeking primary sources
Parents and home-education practitioners concerned with cultivating children's reason
Students of teacher training or education as supplementary course reading
General readers interested in eighteenth-century British society and education

Not a good fit for

Readers seeking modern evidence-based parenting plans or ready-to-use techniques
Readers who struggle with English originals and do not intend to use a translation
Teachers expecting a systematic textbook structure or a complete curriculum framework

Reading tips

Read the preface and table of contents first to grasp the book's arguments, then select chapters by theme
Note points that differ from contemporary educational views as material for discussion
Read alongside biographical and Enlightenment-era background materials on the Edgeworths
Compare with Rousseau's educational ideas in Emile to understand what it critiques and inherits

About the publisher

Project Gutenberg United States · Founded in 1971

Project Gutenberg is a digital publishing project focused on public-domain ebooks. Its publishing direction centers on classic literary works whose copyright has expired, covering genres such as poetry, drama, fiction, and epic. Representative books include Lyrical Ballads by Wordsworth and Coleridge, Proust's Du côté de chez Swann, Shakespeare's Macbeth and The Complete Works of William Shakespeare, Homer's The Iliad, Dante's La Divina Comèdia: Purgatòri, Cervantes's The History of Don Quixote, Volume 2, and Grahame's The Wind in the Willows. Its author resources consist mainly of classic Western writers such as Wordsworth, Proust, Shakespeare, Homer, Dante, Cervantes, Grahame, and Tolstoy. Its publishing feature is the provision of freely accessible ebooks in EPUB and Kindle formats; it is not a traditional publisher, and publicly available information is limited.

FAQ

Is this book an English original, and how demanding is it?

It is an English original, released free by Project Gutenberg. Late-eighteenth-century English has long sentences and archaic diction; readers with university-level English can work through it with a dictionary, and those who only want the gist can start with the introduction and chapter summaries before selecting key passages.

Are the educational views in this book still applicable today?

Its emphasis on observation, conversation, and experiential learning, and its opposition to corporal punishment and rote memorization, remain valuable reference points. Some specific practices and views on gender, however, reflect the limitations of their era; it should be read critically as a historical text rather than adopted directly as a modern parenting guide.

How does Volume I relate to the later volumes?

This is the first volume of Practical Education, laying out educational principles and issues of early upbringing. Later volumes continue the same framework, discussing education at different ages and in different subjects. Reading in volume order is recommended to grasp the full arc of the authors' argument.

Comments

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About the author

Richard Lovell Edgeworth Author · Anglo-Irish · 1744–1817

Richard Lovell Edgeworth (1744–1817) was an Anglo-Irish inventor, writer and educationalist. Born in Bath, England, he settled for a long time in County Longford, Ireland. He co-authored Practical Education (1798) with his daughter Maria Edgeworth, advocating an approach that follows children's natural inclinations and cultivates their abilities through practice and observation; the work exerted a certain influence on later educational thought. He was also an enthusiastic mechanical inventor, working in fields such as telegraphy, vehicles and surveying instruments, and he wrote memoirs that preserve firsthand material on his life and ideas. Three of his works are held in this collection, including the first and second volumes of Practical Education and a selection from his memoirs.