Professor Simon Laurie held the Bell Chair of Education at the University
of Edinburgh from 1876 until he retired in 1903. Along with the Chair at
St Andrews University his was the first Chair in education in the Commonwealth.
He published a wide range of books and articles: the University Library
holds 28 books and major documents written by him.
He was a dominant figure in Scottish education, with interests ranging
from primary schools to higher education. He might be best described as
a philosophical psychologist, with his published lectures showing him to
be anticipating the ideas of stages of intellectual development. He was
arguing in 1892 that young children could be stimulated through learning
materials to move from a 'passive perception' in learning to 'active conception'.
Simon Laurie described the role of the person whose students are preparing
to be teachers as:
“ To give the students
of the subject an ideal and also a method, but above all to inspire them
with a sense of the infinite importance and delicacy of their task. He
has to show them that they are not mere extractors of lessons, but trainers
of the human spirit; and also, how animated by this large conception,
they may, in teaching subjects, educate minds. He will expose the popular
fallacy that the school master's work is a drudgery, and convince his
students that it is a privilege.”
The above information was provided
by
Professor Noel Entwhistle, 1999
......
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