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Book Reviews · Buchbesprechungen

2003 
Professor Derbolav offers here in 72 pages a critical survey of publications in the field of education and adjoining fields. The booklet is dedicated to Theodor Litt on occasion of his 75th birthday, a fact worth mentioning as Prof. Litt's merits are insufficiently known in countries where German is a generally unknown language. The purpose of the survey is the orientation of the student and it must be said here that Prof. Derbolav has composed an utterly useful survey, avoiding entirely the idea of a catalogue with some comments. Naturally the stress is mainly on publications in German, although a number of titles in English and French is discussed or mentioned as well and reference to other linguistic areas is not absent. What could possibly be done from Prof. Derbolav's point of observation, certainly is done skilfully and with penetrating understanding of the relative value of different contributions. It would be futile to point out possible omissions, slight bibliographical mistakes etc. The survey opens with the indication of encyclopedias, reviews etc. in the field. The next chapter brings in a particularly competent light what could be called "theory of education" in the stricter sense. The following summary of the history of education touches upon the painful but very justified remark of Dolch that this branch of the educational sciences is dead in spite of all publications. The author starts from Oswald Kroh's Revision der Erziehung in his next chapter on problems of today in education. I am no admirer of this book and perhaps, here is the indication of a difference between the author and his reviewer also: the questions discussed by him in this chapter are by no means the educational problems of today, unless we think of some problems in the development of systematic thinking on pedagogy. An important problem, too, but the educating world toils with other difficulties and these, too, find their way to educational thinking and publications. The limits of possibility are dangerously near in the chapter on Education and the adjacent fields. Educational psychology, sociology, characterology etc. are represented with a wealth of titles, the discussion is intelligent but in no proportion to the enormous diversity and the prolificacy of publications in these fields. It is particularly laudable that the author remains a watchful guard on the walls of the educational territory and criticizes the vague or ambitious usurpations of many psychologists, psychiatrists, biologists, doctors, sociologists etc. who finally split up the unity of education with a total loss of integration and autochthonic educational understanding and thinking. We must be grateful to Prof. Derbolav for the extraordinary amount of work he did to produce this remarquable booklet. M. J. LANGEVELD, Utrecht
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