164 MY AMERICAN FRIENDS

production continues to be the basis of American
industry it is hard to see what other methods
education could adopt without becoming hope-
lessly estranged from the main currents of the
national life. Whatever one may think of
American civilization in general, and however
conscious one may be of the falling-short in
American education, there can be little doubt
that the two are well adapted one to the other,
in the sense that the training given to young
people corresponds fairly well to the life the vast
majority are likely to lead, though not perhaps
to the life an awakened soul would choose.for
itself, if the choice were given it. If the currents
of a nation's life are running in the wrong direction
it might seem a good thing, from the reformer's
point of view, to set up a type of education
in flat opposition to prevailing tendencies. But
this, if attempted, would lead to social chaos, and
is too much to expect in any case.

From a certain point of view, and one I have
found myself constantly taking, not the schools
alone but the whole country might be described
as one vast polytechnic; perhaps " polytechnic
civilization " would be a better name than
" industrial civilization " for the stage of evolution
through which America is now passing, with all
the Western world at her heels. Technique,
always in process of further refinement, has
imposed itself on everything, invading not only
the world of material objects but the world of