William James, Herbert Spencer and the Dilemma of Peeing Dogs

Brussels, Belgium

Newport Beach, California

William James once wrote, regarding Herbert Spencer's theory that the human brain is like clay, and that it is impressed and absorbs the influences around it, that: 

"a race of dogs bred for generations, say in the Vatican, would have characters of visual shape, sculptured in marble, presented to their eyes, in every variety of form and combination," and the result of generations of dogs bred and raised in an environment rich in art, would make them "dissociate and discriminate before long the finest shades of these particular characters. In a word, they would infallibly become, if time were given, accomplished connoisseurs of sculpture."

But James argues, based on his own observations of his dog, that this probably won't happen. Instead, our Vatican bred dogs would remain interested - connoisseurs - of who peed on which statue.

Perhaps as educators we can sympathize with those, hypothetical trainers in the Vatican who have spent their lives hoping their dogs would come to appreciate the fine art around them, only to watch them raise their legs or run exuberantly to the next statue to check out who among them had left their mark. This is not to say that we all haven't observed several students have an "ah ha!" moment. And most educators will tell you that that moment is what they wait for as teachers.

But let's take up the problem and turn it towards pedagogy. If Spencer is right, then simply dropping students in an environment rich in culture, art, history, etc. should form the mind. But James tells us that there is fundamentally something more that is going on here. For James it is an underlying "interest" of the mind towards its object, not the object, that fosters the connoisseur. So, how do we inspire that "interest" in our students? And what stands behind the interest? Where does the interest come from? For James "mind" involves the relation of the "inner" to the "outer. Mind "contains all sort of laws - those of infancy, of wit, of taste, decorum, beauty, morals and so forth, as well as perception of fact."

I think we need to move away from a simple behaviorist model that we can change "mind" by rigging the learning environment in a certain fashion. Instead, a holistic education, that incorporates aesthetic judgments, and asks students to grapple with moral issues (historical as well as contemporary), and to contemplate metaphysics (the meaning of life and our place in the universe), and an education system that extends outwards into the community and incorporates parents, neighborhoods, etc. is the only chance we have to foster an "ah ha" moment for our students and help some to "lower the leg."