The Purposes Of Education In American Democracy

The Purposes of Education
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Educational Policies Commission

National Education Association of the United States
and tie American Association of School Administrators
1201 Sixteenth Street, Northwest, Washington, D. C

Copyright, 1938

NATIONAL EDUCATION ASSOCIATION OF THE UNITED STATES
Washington, D. C.

First printing, September 1938
Illustrations by BORIS ARTZYBASHEFF

Acknowledgment

A STATEMENT of the purposes of education is a
1 L project of such magnitude and importance
that it has necessarily been considered by the
Educational Policies Commission at each of the
seven meetings it has held during the past three
years, The work in this field has been carried
forward also by a series of conferences directed
by subcommittees of the Commission. An ac-
count of these conferences and their personnel
is given at the end of this book. The report in
its present form was approved for publication
by vote of the Commission on April 25, 1938.
Although the Educational Policies Commission
recognizes that DR. WILLIAM G. CARR, in his
capacity as its Secretary, has contributed to every
pronouncement and publication of the Commis-
sion, his relationship to this particular project has
been unique. The Commission is indebted to Dr.
Carr, not only for much of the structure and
substance of this volume, but especially for its
cogent and vigorous style.

The Educational Policies Commission

Appointed by the National Education Association of the United States
and the American Association of School Administrators

Appointed Members
ALEXANDER J. STODDARD, Chairman

CORNELIA S. ADAIR JOHN K. NORTON

LOTUS D. COFFMAN AGNES SAMUELSON

GEORGE S. COUNTS JOHN A. SEXSON

EDMUND E. DAY PAYSON SMITH

J. B. EDMONSON GEORGE D. STRAYER

FREDERICK M. HUNTER WILLIS A. SUTTON

Ex-Qfficio Members
MYRTLE HOOPER DAHL S. D. SHANKLAND

WlLLARD E. GlVENS REUBEN T. SHAW

Advisory Members
J. W. STUDEBAKER GEORGE F. ZOOK

William G. Carr, Secretary

noi Sixteenth Street, N, W.

Washington, D. C.

Table of Contents

PAGE

Forewords vli

CHAPTER

I. The Nature and Sources of Educational Objec-
tives i

II. The Democratic Processes 7

III. The Objectives of Education: A General Re-

view 39

IV. The Objectives of Self -Realization 51

V. The Objectives of Human Relationship 73

VI. The Objectives of Economic Efficiency 91

VII. The Objectives of Civic Responsibility 109

VIII. Critical Factors in the Attainment of Educa-
tional Purposes 125

Conferences and Personnel 156

Forewords
To the Teacher:

'A million teachers in America have listened to addresses
and read books, articles, reports, and courses of study on
the purposes of education. These talks and publications
sometimes fail to affect what is done in the classroom.
One reason for their limited influence has been the ten-
dency to deal in extremely broad generalizations which,
for classroom procedure, could mean almost anything and,
therefore, mean almost nothing.

In this book your Educational Policies Commission has
tried to do just two things. First, we have stated what
we think the schools of the United States ought to try
to accomplish. Second, we have described some of the
things which we think need to be done if these purposes
are to be realized. We venture one more discussion on
educational objectives because we hope to carry our analysis
forward to the point where its meaning for the classroom
and the administrative office will be clear.

The introductory chapters, dealing with the relation
between education and democracy, provide a necessary
basis for the rest of the statement. The kind of society in
which we are to live is important for education. The demo-
cratic way of life establishes the purpose of American
education. And the democratic way is being sharply and
sometimes successfully challenged at home and abroad.
These hard facts make the achievement of democracy
through education the most urgent and the most intensely
practical problem facing our profession.

The Commission hopes above all that this book will
lead you to think, for yourself and with others, about the
purposes back of your daily work, to grow in professional

skill and insight, and to hear more clearly than before the
sharp imperatives of your great opportunities and your
great obligations.

To the Layman:

Suppose you were a stockholder in an enterprise with
a million employees, doing a two-billion-dollar business
every year and occupying a plant valued at six billion
dollars. Suppose also that this enterprise had a vital and
direct effect on the welfare, safety, and happiness of you,
your children, and your countrymen, and that it was
concerned with the protection and development of a cer-
tain natural resource worth five times as much as all
our material, mineral, soil, oil, and forest resources put
together. Would you not want to meet occasionally with
representatives of the management and consider with
them and with the other stockholders just what this
great organization Was attempting to do, and how it
could secure the greatest success? You would not sit
back and let your vital interest in this concern go by
default. You would eagerly follow the activities and reports
of the enterprise and you would be found occupying a
front seat at the meetings of the stockholders.

The public schools are not such a business corpora-
tion, but they are even more important. The youth of
America are the natural resource which they are devel-
oping and protecting. The teachers and other workers in
the schools are the employees. The school buildings and
grounds are the plant. Every American citizen is a con-
tributing stockholder, pays taxes for public education, and
sees that his children attend school. Few of us give fur-
ther thought to the matter.

Why do we have schools in this country? What differ-
ences ought the schools to make in the way people think

and act? Every child must attend the schools and the
laws will punish his parents if they do not provide for
his schooling. What is the reason for such strict legisla-
tion? Why are schools so important that everyone in the
community is required to help, through taxation, in their
support? You know that the fire department is to prevent
and extinguish fires, the police department to maintain
order, the public health department to control disease.
Public education has unique and pervasive purposes and
powers which set it in a class by itself.

The purposes which direct education are of the greatest
significance to everyone. The Commission hopes that you
will agree with our analysis of what these purposes ought
to be in the American democracy of 1938. Even if you
do not agree with us, our publication will succeed if it
helps you to think seriously about the great cause of
education. And if you do accept the conclusions of this
book, we invite you, on behalf of the educational profes-
sion, to work with us in making our schools what they
should can must become.

L

THE NATURE AND SOURCES OF EDUCATIONAL
OBJECTIVES 1

If philosophy is for anything if it is not a kind of
mumbling in the dark, a form of busy work it must
shed some light upon the path. Life without it must
be a different sort of thing from life with it. And the
difference -which it makes must be in us. Philosophy,
then, is reflection upon social ideals, and education
is the effort to actualize them in hitman behavior.

JOHN DEWEY.

Educational Objectives Depend on
a Scale of Values.

Every statement of educational purposes, including this
one, depends upon the judgment of some person or group
as to "what is good and what is bad, what is true and what
is false, what is ugly and what is beautiful, what is valuable
and what is worthless, in the conduct of human affairs,
^ Objectives are, essentially, a statement of preferences,
choices, values. These preferences are exercised, these
choices made, these values arranged in a variety of ways.

Educational Purposes Are Rooted
in the Life of a People.

The purposes of schools and other social agencies are not
"discovered" as a prospector strikes a gold-mine. They
evolve; they reflect and interact with the purposes which

1 The terms "aim," ''purpose/* and "objective" are used nere inter-
changeably.

[1]

permeate the life of the people. In each of the phases of
individual and social living, there are elements which people
commend, others which they condemn. Such judgments are
based, in the last analysis, on moral standards or ideals. That
which, out of their intelligence and experience, the people
declare to be good, they will attempt to maintain and per-
petuate for the benefit of their children and their chil-
dren's children. They strive through education to transmit
what they think is good to all the generations to come.

The Objectives of Schools Are a
Form of Social Policy.

A society which exalts force and violence will have one
set of educational aims. A society which values reason,
tranquility, and the paths of peace will have another and
very different set. Again, a society which worships its
ancestors and blindly reverences the past will have and
does have different educational purposes from a society
which recognizes the necessity for adjustment and change.
The educational objectives in each case rest on certain ideas
of good and bad, but these ideas are different in each case
and lead to aims for the schools which differ from one
another as the day from the night.

Educational purposes, then, are a form of social policy,
a program of social action based on some accepted scale
of values. Since the application of these values varies from
place to place and even from day to day, detailed purposes
of education can never be developed so as to be universally
applicable and perpetually enduring. Constant study and
revision are required to keep them meaningful to the people
and effective in the schools. Only the broadest lines of
policy can have more than temporary and local applica-
tion, but these controlling principles are of prepotent
importance. Everything, in fact, depends upon them.

[2]

The early Protestant sects believed It morally necessary
that each person acquire salvation in a certain way. Once
this moral decision was made, certain educational purposes
followed. It was thought necessary, for instance, that each
person consult the Bible at first hand. Hence each person
must learn to read. Given these premises, the subsidiary
purpose of literacy followed inevitably. Today, everyone
takes instruction In reading as a matter of course. Yet a
moment's consideration will show that such instruction
is not justified by the sheer act of reading itself, but rests
upon such considerations as religious necessity, or good
citizenship, or personal enjoyment. The controlling pur-
pose represents a choice of values.

This illustration suggests that many influences determine
the scale of values cherished by a people. The development
and continuing revision of this scale, and the consequent
statements and revisions of educational purposes require
attention to the conditions and trends of social and eco-
nomic life, of practical efficiencies, and of ethical principles.

The Conditions and Trends of Society
Must Be Considered.

.Educational objectives, if they are to be of significant
practical value must not be established in defiance of
known or ascertainable facts concerning the economic and
social situation as it is and as it may become. The values
cherished by individuals and by social groups are the prod-
uct of experience and may be changed by the same force
which created them. In this realm every effort must be
made to substitute tested truth for ignorance and hunches.
Every major change in the structure of human society
from tribal government to nationalism and from chattel
slavery to capitalism has been accompanied by profound
changes in educational purposes. A clear and exact knowl-

[3]

edge of the status and direction of any culture is Indis-
pensable to a statement concerning Its educational purposes.

Social Values Vary in Application.

The principles which guide any society in establishing
its objectives and those of its educational systems are
usually simple, deep-rooted, and persistent. But the ap-
proved conduct which conforms to these principles Is
necessarily complex, variable, and transient. ,New social
and technological developments change the mode of
applying ethical principles to conduct. Vital decisions
change with racial experience. Constant reapplications of
the scale of values to specific problems are necessary.

Thus, the simple distinctions between mine, thine, and
ours, which sufficed for the conduct of life in more primi-
tive times, become immensely complicated in a society
marked by entrepreneurial profits, holding companies,
International finance, and corporate ownership. The de-
sirability of making the distinctions persists; the practical
difficulties in so doing are multiplied and perplexing.

The Methods of Effective Teaching and
Learning Should Be Sought and Utilized.

Scientific studies of the process of education itself affect
the nature of educational objectives. Such studies may
ascertain the degree to which given" objectives are accept-
able to the public, to the profession, or to any segment
thereof. They may discover how universally or how per-
fectly the objectives are or have been attained by any
person or group of persons. They may measure the positive
or negative contributions made to the objectives by the
schools or by other social agencies. They may compare and
evaluate the relative efficiency of various educational agen-

[4]

cies, methods, or materials in approaching the objectives.
They may throw light on the nature of man as learner and
teacher and thus color the entire policy of education.

Ethical Judgments Control the Application
of Other Standards,

The most potent and universal bases for determining
educational objectives, however, are those which deal with
ethical or moral distinctions.

Consider a single example. Schools are expected to pro-
mote a desirable present and future family life for the
children in their care. But why is this purpose given promi-
nence? Clearly, it is emphasized because people generally
believe that the home and the family are wholesome insti-
tutions, capable of contributing to a good and significant
life. If we thought that the home was an unimportant or
worthless institution, we would not include education for
home life among our educational purposes.

This purpose of the school is frequently summarized in
the phrase "worthy home membership." Again, what is
worthy home membership? The objectives of the school
in this area acquire concrete meaning only when that word
"worthy" is defined. This definition must be made, ulti-
mately, upon an ethical basis. We have all known families
ruled by a stern, personal, yet not unkindly autocracy.
Many look with favor on this type of home membership.
Others believe in a mort democratic family regime. Which-
ever party is right, it is clear that the two types of home
membership are quite different and that each would require
a different education. Which of them is the worthy one?
Or are both unworthy? The answer to these questions
involves a choice of values, essentially ethical or moral in
nature. And that ethical choice determines the real pur-
pose of the school in this regard.

[5]

This conclusion is reinforced as we examine the other
great areas in which the schools operate. We are told that
the schools ought to develop good citizens, possessing
ethical character, who make a worthy use of their leisure
time. But what is good, ethical, or worthy?

Every nation is interested in education for "good" citi-
zenship. But the ethical decision as to what is "good" in
this field produces widely variant and indeed opposing
practices at different times and in different parts of the
world. A good American citizen, we think, is humane,
just, and restless under restraint. But these same qualities
may be the marks of a very unacceptable or bad citizen in
the cultures of other times and places.

Quantitative and other scientific studies of current social
problems and social trends, as well as of the nature of the
learning process, are of great value in helping to direct
social policies. Equally important in the selection of either
social or educational policies is the way in which facts are
related to issues and the interpretations placed upon the
facts. Science can help us to determine what the facts are,
but it has no answer to the question as to whether existing
conditions ought to be changed or perpetuated. Science,
physical or social, declares, "These things are so/' Ethics
alone lifts a finger to the things that ought to be.

II.

THE DEMOCRATIC PROCESSES

The critics of democracy have the easiest of tasks
in demonstrating its inefficiency. But there is some-
thing even 'more important than efficiency and expe-
diency, namely, justice. And democracy is the only
social order that is admissible, because it is the only
one consistent with justice. The moral consideration
is supreme. ROBERT BRIFFAULT.

The Social Policy of America Is Democracy.

We have seen that before the objectives of education at
any point of time and place can be stated, people must
decide which of several possible social policies are to claim
their allegiance. We have seen also that this decision hinges
primarily upon certain fundamental judgments of values.
The social policy thus accepted and endorsed by the Amer-
ican people is the continued striving toward the demo-
cratic ideal. A general description of democratic ways of
living is, therefore, an indispensable part of our statement
of educational purposes.

-^ Democratic living is a developing and complex process
in which certain great elements stand out in bold relief.
This chapter attempts to sweep into a few broad general-
izations these minimum essentials of democracy.

The General Welfare.

Democracy prizes a broad humanitarianism, an interest
in the other fellow, a feeling of kinship to other people
more or less fortunate than oneself. One who lives in

[7]

accordance with democracy is interested not only in his
own welfare but in the welfare of others the general
welfare,

Civil Liberty.

Democratic behavior observes and accords to every indi-
vidual certain "unalienable" rights and certain inescapable
corollary responsibilities. One who lives in a democratic
way respects himself. And to self-respect he adds respect
for the moral rights and feelings of others, for the sanctity
of each individual personality.

The Consent of the Governed.

Democratic processes also involve the assent of the people
in matters of social control and the participation of all con-
cerned in arriving at important decisions. This implies that
all the people must have access to the facts which will help
them to reach a wise decision,

The Appeal to Reason.

Peaceful and orderly methods of settling controversial
questions are applied by a democracy to matters of national
and international policy as well as to private disputes. The
callous use of force and violence is rejected as unworthy of
a civilized people.

The Pursuit of Happiness.

Finally, democracy sets high value upon the attainment
of human happiness as a basis for judging the effectiveness
of social life.

We are to examine each of these five ideals of democratic
conduct, seeking from them to derive a general under-

[8]

standing of the purposes of our schools. It is desirable to
preface this examination by a brief sketch of some aspects
of the development of democracy in this country and of its
present status in the world* No comprehensive treatment
is attempted here; the Commission has in preparation a
more extensive report on the historical background of edu-
cational and social purposes.

Democracy and Education Have Developed Together.

The natural environment of America has been unusually
congenial to liberty, yet we have never been entirely free
from arrogance, intolerance, and despotism. Long before
1776 battles for democracy were fought. Traditions of
distinction as between the rich and the poor, the educated
and the ignorant, the governing and the governed, were
imported by the early settlers along with their household
goods. More than one group, learning nothing of sympathy
through its own persecution, sought America's shores, in
the words of the earnest young clergyman, "in order to
worship God in our own way and compel all others to do
the same." Many a European "gentleman" crossed the
Atlantic with full intent to make himself a landlord over
wide domains and to enrich himself at the expense of other
immigrants whose passage he paid. The craftman came,
with what amounted to a monopoly on his particular kind
of training in a country where craftsmen were scarce, with
the clear determination to bring himself to power and
riches through the work of his apprentices.

Education in the Colonies, reflecting these influences,
was primarily the support of various authoritarian groups.
In New England, where public education began, it was the
bulwark of a Protestantism which dictated its content,
methods, and general administration. Other religions, too,
founded their own schools. The wealthy landlord hired

[9]

private teachers to instruct his own children and grudgingly
established inferior charity schools for the poor. In the
towns and small farms along the Eastern Seaboard the
"bound boy" fared a little better. The apprenticeship sys-
tem, however, was the nearest approach to universal educa-
tion which America could claim for nearly two centuries.
Such educational arrangements were a far cry from the
schools of today. There has been a ceaseless struggle for the
extension of education to all. The wresting of educational
opportunity from those who found it a convenient means
of perpetuating a religious belief, and from others, more
worldly-minded, who gained monetary advantage from
the limitation and restriction of educational opportunity,
fills many stirring pages of history.

Democratic Schools Arose from
American Conditions.

Changes in the objectives of education which our fore-
fathers imported from Europe were inevitable. The in-
fluence of frontier and wilderness, the substantial economic
and social equality of the people began to break down Old
World class barriers. Colonists of the second generation
began to demand genuinely American schools schools
which would educate their children for their day and loca-
tion. The inadequacy of the traditional schools was slowly
undermining them. Many a growing boy girls were then
little considered found no school equipped to teach him
what he most needed and hence was obliged to study out-
side any school. Many another was financially unable to pay
for the education provided. The ideas gained by these young
people naturally reflected the influences of life as it was lived
in America rather than life in the atmosphere of the classi-
cal schoolroom. Finally, the isolated schools of each state
were welded into systems of public education free, tax-
no]

supported and open to all, of whatever creed or condition.
At last a universal education, deemed suitable and necessary
for the citizens of a democracy, was envisioned. But the
battle to keep free schools politically, economically, and in-
tellectually free goes on. It may well be that we are now
mobilizing for the greatest conflict of all.

The public schools were launched a century ago under
conditions entirely dissimilar to those of today. Never since
the development of primitive agriculture, say the experts,
have such revolutionary changes occurred in the basic ac-
tivities of life. It has been said that the founding fathers
were nearer to the age of Confucius than we are to them.
Their schools were located in the open country or in small
towns. People were relatively independent and self-sup-
porting. They owed their bread and their shelter to no one
but themselves or to friends and neighbors who were
equally indebted to them. No group or individual was in
position to demand individual liberty in exchange for the
necessities of life.

Science and Invention Have Created
Social Tensions.

But today a new social force of incalculable strength has
disrupted the rural civilization that founded our democ-
racy. The independent, self-sufficient farmer has been suc-
ceeded in many cases by an industrial employee, dependent
for livelihood on persons who may have no direct interest
in him as a human being and who may recognize no re-
sponsibility for his welfare. A new industrial society is here.
New means are found for developing and using the re-
sources of nature. Machinery of every sort multiplies the
strength of man a thousandfold, sees and hears more keenly
than any human senses, and surrounds us by a material
and social environment unlike anything known by any

people of the past. It is clear that if democracy is to func-
tion effectively tinder these new conditions, new require-
ments must be met. Just as religions domination over the
purposes of public education once made room for con-
siderations of personal economic gain and political effi-
ciencies, so now social adjustments arising from the de-
veloping technology urgently demand attention.

It is scarcely necessary to pause to document the fore-
going statements. Everyone can testify to the changes made
in his own habits of living by scientific discoveries and
their applications in industry, medicine, or homemaking.
In the literature of the day these trends are convincingly
summarized. We are told that approximately one and one-
half million new patents were granted during the first third
of the twentieth century. Invention on such a scale, even
though many of the patents are of negligible importance,
must be accompanied by social adjustments or it will be
followed by social collapse. Our food, our travel, our com-
munications, our very lives now depend on an intricate
network of technological processes. A machine has no
philosophy of life, no organs, senses, affections, or passions.
Largely because the social consequences of scientific ad-
vances have not been anticipated or met, we witness eco-
nomic depression, technological unemployment, desolating
wars, and confused loyalties.

Science and Invention Must Serve Humanity.

The gap between traditional social processes and the
material phases of life widens daily. Many social institu-
tions of today are poorly prepared to meet the demands
and make the adjustments required. Inventions designed
to save time, energy, and health and to increase produc-
tivity are somehow followed by unemployment, occupa-
tional diseases, and scarcity of the necessities of life. These

[12]

are the manifestations of a culture in which material prog-
ress has outpaced social control and individual character.
At the present time, humanity, not the machine, is having
to make the required adjustments. New wine ferments
menacingly in old bottles. These tensions can be resolved
only through the application of intelligence and good will.
\ A new birth of freedom freedom which is effective in
QQ an industrial culture is required. Technology places in
our hands the means of freeing ourselves from scarcity.
This great and novel efficiency must be made to serve the
ideals and purposes of democracy.

The time ripens for a new companionship between ethics
and science. An eminent biologist, in the 1937 presidential
address 1 before the American Association for the Advance-
ment of Science, puts the issue succinctly: "As scientists
are inheritors of a noble ethical tradition. . . . The
s^ profession of the scientist, like that of the educator or
religious teacher, is essentially altruistic and should never
\be prostituted to unethical purposes. To us the inestimable
\ privilege is given to add to the store of knowledge, to seek
v* truth not only for truth's sake but also for humanity's sake,
\ and to have a part in the greatest work of all time, namely,
the further progress of the human race through the ad-
vancement of both science and ethics." As this call is
^ heeded, democracy and science will succeed together. The
^ records of the past strongly suggest that the great advances
N in scientific inquiry have been coeval with the great periods
H of democratic ferment.

Certain Modern States Reject Democracy.

Industrial and cultural changes confront the entire
world with perplexing problems of adjustment. And some

1 Conklin, Edwin Grant. "Science and Ethics." Science 86: 595-603;
December 31, 1937.

[13]

modem states have dealt with these problems by means
which are repugnant to democratic ideals.

Of Italy, we are told, "The universities have lost their
old independence." Even the peasants and the children in
rural village schools are propagandized by the radio. The
press is under strict governmental control. Freedom to
know, to think, and to express their thoughts, so essential
to educational processes, are denied the Italian people as far
as it is possible to deny them. 2

Of education in Germany, Charles A. Beard states: "It is
evident from the mass of laws and decrees spread over hun-
dreds of pages that German educational administration is
not concerned merely or even primarily with providing
favorable physical conditions for intellectual and moral
life. , . . Decree after decree shows that it is ... openly
hostile to every manifestation of free inquiry and discus-
sion in the schools from the bottom to the top. The sub-
jects to be taught, the books admitted to schoolrooms, the
papers and magazines bought for libraries, and the very
spirit of instruction are prescribed in minute detail. No
room is left for private opinion. . . . The life and sports
of students as well as the thought and conduct of teachers
are brought within the system of regimentation. The de-
clared purpose and program of education is to crush all
liberty of instruction and all independent search for
truth." 8

Whether the effort is to establish and preserve certain
fixed classes or whether, as in Russia, it is bent on destroy-
ing all class distinctions, the results for education appear
to be the same. Not expansion of thought but crystalliza-
tion of opinion around one point becomes the objective.
"It follows logically that education under the rule of a

2 Poole, Ernest. "Sons of the Wolf." Harper's Magazine 175: 460-69;
October 1937.

s Beard, Charles A. "Education under the Nazis." Foreign Affairs 14:
437-52; April 1936.

CM]

single party which boasts of its monolithic character and
power, which suffers no competitors, must be an authori-
tarian affair. . . First and foremost, authoritarian dicta-
torship means for education a uniformity and fixity of
ideas and faithfulness (stimulated by close scrutiny and
realized through the expulsion from service of those not in
conformity) to orthodoxy in political, social and economic
thinking as defined by the party line/* *

Japan also weaves a net in which the intellectual powers
of her people are entangled. The organization chart of the
Imperial Japanese Department of Education includes a
Bureau of Thought Supervision coordinate with the Bureau
of Higher Education, the Bureau of General Education,
and the Bureau of School Books. The Bureau in question
was created in 1934 when "movements of somewhat radical
character arose to gain the hearts of the people" and "even
teachers and various bodies of youth were found involved
in them/' The staff of the Bureau includes "thought super-
visors" and "thought inspection commissioners** who are
dispatched from headquarters to the various prefectures
"for inspection, for guidance and for supervision in con-
nection with thought matters/* s

The Gains of Many Generations Are at Stake.

The political organization through which education is
controlled thus definitely affects the educational product
which may be desired or expected. These examples have
their chief value for us in providing a sharp contrast with
the objectives of education suitable for a democracy. They
remind us that the safety of democracy will not be assured

4 Woody, Thomas. "Towards a Classless Society Under the Hammer
and Sickle." Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social
Science 182: 140-52; November 1935.

5 Japanese Department of Education. A General Survey of Education
in Japan. Tokyo, 1935. p. 7, 58, 59.

[15]

merely by making education universal. The task is not so
easy as that. The dictatorships have universal schooling and
use this very means to prevent the spread of democratic
doctrines and institutions. American education today plays
a role of world-wide importance. The resistance to be
hurled in this and future generations against the menace
of dictatorship in its proposed reconquest of the world
will stem chiefly from the strength and the clarity of think-
ing of the American citizen. If schools are to help in de-
fense of the democratic ideal, their purposes must be de-
fined in terms of that ideal, and their activities must be
resolutely directed toward it. Those who administer and
teach in the schools must regard the study of democracy as
their first professional responsibility.

GENERAL WELFARE"

The General Welfare Is Promoted
by Human Sympathies.

Ideally, each able-bodied person should provide through
his own efforts for the comfort and welfare of himself and
of those dependent upon him. If this desirable condition
does not exist, a democratic society does not hesitate to take
appropriate forms of governmental action. Such public
activity does not, however, exempt the individual from the
duty of responding to his own natural and kindly impulses.
Personal charity and helpfulness need not be sidetracked
or stifled by the increasing activity of organized relief.

The conduct of those who live in the democratic spirit
is guided by a broad and expanding humanitarianism. Dis-
tress, frustration, unhappiness are of concern to persons
other than the sufferer. The members of a democracy share

its responsibilities no less than Its advantages. Callous in-
difference to the desires and needs of others and short-
sighted concentration on personal welfare are discouraged.
Eadti individual, working alone or cooperatively in private
or public efforts, seeks to prevent, cure, or ameliorate the
sufferings of others, and thus to advance the general wel-
fare. More than that; the democratic way of life seeks not
merely freedom from suffering but also a positively whole-
some, constructive, and abundant life for all.

The General Welfare Places Individuals
above Institutions.

Social institutions are convenient systems of relationships
among individuals, the lengthened shadows of groups of
individual men and women. The State, for example, con-
sists of its members. Destroy all the members and the State
is gone; but destroy the State and the members remain.
Apart from these individuals the social organization has
a merely fictional existence. There can be no such thing as
the welfare of "the State" at the expense of, or in contrast
with, the general welfare of the individuals who compose
it. Man is not made for institutions. Institutions are made
by and for mankind.

The institutions of a democracy are not, therefore, set
up as golden calves to worship or as Molochs demanding
human sacrifice. They sanctify no symbols greater than
man himself. They are subject to adjustments at any time
according to the wisdom, tolerance, and enlightenment of
the individuals who function in them. It is, of course, true
that social institutions are not only inescapable but are
positively essential for individual well-being. Nevertheless,
particular institutions of society can be, and often are,
fundamentally changed in form, function, and authority.

[17]

The General Welfare Is Decreased by the Lag
of Social Institutions.

A savage tribe may exorcise a plague by sacrifices, dances,
incantations. By some coincidence the epidemic abates.
The ceremonies which were observed immediately acquire
a special sanctity. Their value may be entirely fictitious;
better measures may be ready to hand. Yet the mighty
medicine becomes firmly established among the tribal
customs. The ceremonies are repeated on the same date
every year. Those who question the necessity or value of
the ceremony are regarded with suspicion or hatred. I the
skeptic is a member o the tribe he is condemned for flout-
ing the exemplary traditions of his forefathers. If an out-
sider, he is suspected of spreading "subversive" doctrine or
of being the secret tool of an alien tribe.

This resistance which social institutions offer to change
is well known. Man in setting up his social organizations
runs the constant danger of creating, like Frankenstein, a
monster which threatens his own welfare and happiness.
There are several reasons why the momentum of social
institutions is so difficult to check or turn from its well-
worn course. Change brings a perplexing and uncomfort-
able rearrangement of the mental furniture, a painful ad-
justment of established habits of acting and thinking. And
then, change is always uncertain. One can never be abso-
lutely sure how a social institution will work under a new
set of conditions. The proverb about the fire and the frying
pan distills the experience of the race in this dilemma.

Moreover, success in solving grave social problems is
gained with difficulty and people are reluctant to surrender
ways whose effectiveness has been demonstrated, to their
satisfaction at least, in favor of other ways which, though
defensible by every evidence of science and every principle
of logic, are new and untried. The willingness of people to

[18]

suffer accustomed evils rather than risk untried remedies
was remarked by the authors of the Declaration of Inde-
pendence: "Mankind," said they, "are more disposed to
suffer while evils are sufferable than to right themselves
by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed."
A further difficulty in modifying social institutions arises
from the attitude of the persons in control. Minorities who
depend for livelihood or prestige upon keeping an institu-
tion unchanged, and those who derive indirect benefits
from controlling it, often prevent fundamental changes
in the institution itself. Occasionally such vested interest
leads to deliberate untruthfulness and other forms of dis-
honesty in efforts to maintain the institution unchanged,
regardless of the general welfare. But this selfish minority
interest is seldom recognized as such by the general public
or even by the group which exercises it. More often the
minority in control, by wishful thinking, convinces itself
as well as others of the "great social necessity" of some
archaic social institution or agency. An important func-
tion of education, as an agent of the general welfare, is to
encourage a continuing and critical appraisal of the suit-
ability of all existing social institutions to the needs of
people in the current social scene. Obviously, the schools
in a totalitarian state are entirely unable to perform this
function. In a democracy, however, the schools neglect a
proper duty if they fail to promote the general welfare
by reducing the lag between social institutions and human
needs.

Social Customs Are Conservative
Elements.

It is no doubt futile to hope for instantaneous adjustment
of social institutions to every transient desire of restless
humanity. Even if it were possible to make such adapta-

[19]

tions, it would be unnecessary and harmful in many cases.
There is virtue in a certain degree of stability. Social insti-
tutions cannot be built for the moment, like a child's pile
of blocks, without plan and without mortar. Public con-
venience and necessity require institutions which can be
depended upon in an emergency. But the strongest build-
ing ^gives" a little in an earthquake or tornado, while the
building which is completely rigid is easily toppled in ruins.
Social institutions minister to general welfare most fully
when they have an appropriate degree of stability because
of the very fact that they are built to provide a little flexi-
bility in periods of stress and strain.

"CIVIL LIBERTY"

Democracy Endows the Individual with Important
Rights and Duties.

The "essential, necessary, and unalienable rights" of man-
kind include free speech, unhampered access to the facts
on important questions, the voting franchise, religious
liberty, impartial justice, the equal protection of the laws,
and the great triad named in the Declaration of Indepen-
dence lif e, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.

We seldom pause to count these blessings. The right of
a man to speak his mind, to worship according to his con-
science and his training, or not to worship at all, to enjoy
the freedom of the press, to have access to sources of in-
formation, to appeal in criminal cases to a judgment by
his peers, to be governed by laws rather than by the caprice
of men, to be respected even though in a minority
recognition of all these was attained at a great cost which
we today have nearly forgotten.

Not only should each of us in a democracy have these
rights; but each of us must be willing to accord them to

[20]

all the rest, sometimes under extremely difficult conditions.
For example, we must not deny the right of free speech to
another person even though we profoundly disagree with
him. It is easy and natural to seek impartial justice for one's
friends. It is not so easy to grant the same rights to one's
enemies. Nor are these the most arduous of our tasks. For
we must not only grant freedom of speech and press to
friends and opponents alike but we must restrain any third
party from denying these rights to either side in the con-
troversy.

These Rights Presuppose a High
Regard for Humanity.

The basis of all human rights appears to be a respect for
personality, a belief in the worth, a reverence for the essen-
tial sanctity, of all that is human. The members of a suc-
cessful democracy are, therefore, eager to recognize, de-
velop, and protect the unique and valuable traits of each
individual child and adult. They believe that every indi-
vidual, if given the chance, can make at least some contri-
bution to the common welfare and to his own happiness.
They approve Horace Mann's thesis concerning "the ac-
celerating improvability of the human race" and applaud
Emerson's dictum that "all men are capable of living by
reason."

This doctrine of the worth and dignity of every man
received a perennially challenging expression in the ethics
of the founder of Christianity. In economic terms it has
been described as the supremacy of human rights over
property rights. In American literature the dignity and
the unique value of each personality have been celebrated
by the poetry of Whitman and the prose of Thoreau. The
doctrine is revealed as a moving force in American life

[21]

through many social trends, perhaps by none more clearly
than by the gradual extension of the voting franchise.

Thus, the democratic Ideal sharply differs from any and
all theories which regard the individual as a mere instru-
ment for serving the state, the church, the school, or any
other social institution and organization. The individual
must occupy a place of primacy, superior to every institu-
tion he himself has ever devised, the point of reference from
which values are taken, the final criterion of worth. De-
mocracy and education alike find their warrant in respect
for the individual. Democracy strengthens the individual
by requiring much of him. "Even the least of these" is given
every chance to realize his own inherent capacities; demo-
cratic institutions derive their just powers through service
to the individual. Through the achievements of individuals
the democratic process maintains the solidarity of the
group and lifts it to higher planes of civilization.

Education Is the Ultimate Guarantee
of Civil Liberty.

Applied to education, this great doctrine reminds us of
the dangers of mass instruction, dangers which are all the
more deadly because of the superficial efficiency of factory
methods as applied to schools. A truly democratic school
system strives above all else to recognize individual differ-
ences and provide for the development of desirable traits.
Neither democracy nor real education can exist without
each other. From a thousand rostrums the fact that our
democracy needs education has been proclaimed. It is
indeed quite clear that no government based on demo-
cratic principles can long endure In a nation of ignorant
people. But the equally important thesis that our educa-
tion needs democracy has been given less than the con-
sideration it deserves. Opportunity for education to follow

[22]

its natural process of growth, experimentation, change,
development, is afforded only by liberal governments.

The drift of nations toward dictatorship has alarmed
many people, and justifiably so. As a result they are fran-
tically casting about for some means of "saving" democ-
racy. But the greatest menace to the institutions we desire
to perpetuate is within our own borders within us, in-
deed. Safeguarding democracy is no simple task, and many
of its well-meaning friends are in the way of becoming its
worst enemies. They would hamper freedom of speech, if
those who disagree with them are speaking; they would
persecute persons who suggest social innovations; they
would place a halo of sanctity above prized political tra-
ditions. In other words, they would protect democracy by
using the weapons of the dictator. It cannot be done that
way. Democracy must rely on those defenses which are
appropriate to its own nature. It is a growing thing, nour-
ished by the intelligent cooperation of free men. As such,
a liberal education (literally, the education suitable for a
free man) is its only proper defense, and the only defense
necessary.

Social Objectives Are Not Neglected.

Social progress and individual freedom interact; each is
essential to the other. Yet this vital fact is slowly under-
stood. The real nature of social institutions is all too easily
disguised. Only in brief, brilliant flashes of insight has the
individual gained control over his social agencies and
known them for what they are nothing more than sys-
tems of related human activities. The terms university,
church, or state refer to activities which individuals in
certain relationships perform. They achieve a second-hand
reality only through the individuals who use them to
achieve some human purpose.

[23]

Yet throughout almost the whole course of history there
have been those who, to further their own ambitions, would
set institutions over man, their creator, reducing him to a
mere social atom, meaningless outside of some institutional
frame of reference. History conspires with ambition to
obscure the worth of the individual. Myriads of people
have labored to create vast empires, to conquer continents,
to raise skyscrapers and pyramids, to establish well-defined
social and legal codes. Man's works overshadow himself, and
the individual contribution to those stupendous achieve-
ments seems of little worth. It is difficult but necessary to
realize that for him alone those majestic works in the
physical realm were raised; for him alone, those greater
cathedrals of the mental world, systems of government,
economics, education, religion, and family life were lifted.

Emphasis on the liberties of the individual need not de-
tract from the values placed upon group life; neither does
it lessen the need for social objectives. A delicate balance
between individual and social purposes is necessary. Society
can act upon no wiser policy than to allow each of its mem-
bers the freedom essential to his own capacities; this to be
contingent only upon' his recognition of the rights of others
to the same privileges. No other factor in all history has so
impeded progress as have deliberate and unnecessary re-
straints imposed by powerful institutions upon the freedom
of the individual. Only by the attainment of full mental and
spiritual maturity by each of its members can a democracy
create the conditions of its own success.

Men Are Also Endowed -with Important
Differences.

Modern investigations concerning the nature and extent
of individual differences in intelligence, artistic ability,
dexterity, strength, vital capacity, and scores of other
traits indicate how wide is the range of human abilities

[ 24 ]

and how complex is the pattern of each human personality.
These studies suggest the way in which the democratic
doctrine of human values is to be put into effect.

When Thomas Jefferson included among the "self-evi-
dent" truths listed in the Declaration of Independence
that "all men are created equal" he meant to imply that
they are equal in the ethical and legal sense. He certainly
knew that all men are not equally tall or equally intelligent.
The American people have rightly turned to their public
school system as one of the great agencies for bringing
about the ideals set forth in the Declaration of Indepen-
dence. Today there runs, through the procedures of the
classroom, through the arrangements for educational guid-
ance, through textbooks and courses of study, through the
theory of school administration, and even through the
formulae of school finance, the objective of an ever more
equitable distribution of educational opportunity, an in-
creasingly emphatic denial of multiple-track educational
systems based on economic and social distinctions.

This ideal does not, however, require identity of educa-
tional programs but rather equality of educational oppor-
tunity. The two are not necessarily the same. Attempts to
provide identical programs are, in fact, doomed to failure
by the very existence oi individual differences. Democracy
does not require that every child comprehend some abstract
theory which delights the mind of certain gifted pupils.
That would be identity of program but not equality of
opportunity. Democratic school systems, seeking the latter,
will provide for every child an opportunity which that par-
ticular child can really accept, an opportunity not inferior
in its own kind to that given to others. Democracy does not
make one man "as good as another"; it merely seeks to re-
move all artificial barriers and to assist every man to
amount to as much as his ability, character, and industry
permit. ,

125}

"THE CONSENT OF THE GOVERNED"

Popular Government Is a Long-Sought Ideal.

We have been saying. In effect, that democracy Is not
merely a form of political structure; it is a method of liv-
ing. But government does play an important part in en-
couraging and exemplifying democratic processes. Demo-
cratic government, as such, was dimly but hopefully
foreshadowed on this continent in the Mayflower Compact
and announced in its most inspiring' form by the Declara-
tion of Independence, especially in that reference to the
right of the people to change their government so as to
make it "most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness."
The practical operation of this policy was greatly facili-
tated by the writers of the United States Constitution
when they devised many skillful governmental techniques,
including especially the plan of combining federal powers
with substantial amounts of state and local self-govern-
ment. Still more recent developments include the steady
extension of the voting franchise and the establishment
of universal education to make that franchise both intelli-
gent and wholesome.

The separation of the state from all authoritarian con-
trols other than the popular will has been achieved in
theory. Whatever may be the shortcomings in practice,
our theory recognizes no arbitrary controls over govern-
ment, no vested economic, ecclesiastic, or other interest
authorized to over-reach the popular will. From the ulti-
mate popular verdict there is no mundane appeal.

Popular Government without Universal
Education Is a Prologue to Tragedy.

It is easy to see the direct educational implications of
representative and democratic forms of government. We

[26]

need not go very far back in history to find examples of
the fact that mere plebiscite is not necessarily the hall-mark
of democracy. The ballot is a travesty unless it is cast by a
citizen who is not only free to vote as he pleases but also
informed and intelligent with respect to the issues involved.
The men who created the framework of American state-
craft were keenly aware of the vital relation of education
to the new social order which they were forging in the
fires of revolution and controversy. Having committed
themselves to representative government, to a government
dedicated to definite social responsibilities, they turned to
education as a guarantee that the nation so conceived and
so dedicated might endure. They recognized, too, that
mere political education was not enough. They sought the
deepest and surest possible foundation in the arts, indus-
tries, institutions, and amenities of civilization itself. They
recognized that good government and economic welfare
alike rest upon widely shared ideals, wisdom, and knowl-
edge.

Knowledge Is Extended, Particularized,
and Diffused.

The serious difficulties confronting democratic ways of
living are frequently cited. The full audit, however, must
not fail to note the assets. Modern democracies have certain
advantages over those of the past and those advantages
happily provide the particular kind of strengthening which
democracy requires.

First, there is abundance of knowledge. Science and the
specialization of scholarship will never again permit one
man, single-minded, to amass and classify all knowledge
as Aristotle tried to do. Intelligence is potential power-
knowledge alone can transform it into dynamic energy

A second advantage lies in the specificity of knowledge.

[27]

Democracies today have direct, pertinent knowledge to
bring to bear on a particular problem even on those per-
taining to social living, though this last has been long in
coming. We no longer study the stars to gain insight into
the character of an individual or to determine the probable
course of events. We no longer resort to the auguries as a
means of determining foreign policy. Nor need we consult
soothsayers for lack of a better source of advice. Man has
at last discovered that the way to get the facts about a
particular object or event is to study the thing itself.

A third advantage is the universality of "knowledge.
Through universal education the people receive the greatest
of all benefits from a powerful institution without in re-
turn being forced to pay with their freedom. Knowledge
multiplies manyfold the chief defense of democracy. The
liberal governments of the distant past had no system of
education through which enlightenment could be spread.
Today, knowledge that was once the revered possession of
a few has been placed within the reach of all. "Widely
diffused and courageously applied, it affords the means of
attack on social and economic ills. It is a curative, the most
potent remedy possible, not only for the pestilences which
attack the health of the body but also for those evils which
infect the body politic.

The individual, the reason for the existence of democ-
racy, becomes through enlightenment its chief defense.
From humble sources come those who, sharing in the op-
portunity for education, rise to defend the institution
which provides it. Here is a reciprocal process in which
both the group and the individual benefit. The inherent
tendency of man to grow in stature and wisdom is turned
to excellent account. Where shall the peoples of the world
turn for light if the great darkness closes in? Would not
wisdom and experience point to those nations where free-
dom dwells? To individuals whose minds are not crippled

[28]

by shackles? To places where knowledge Is cherished and
extended? To governments whose just powers are derived
from the consent of the governed? "Education has now
become the chief problem of the world, its one holy cause.
The nations that see this will survive, and those that fail
to do so will slowly perish. . . . These must be re-educa-
tion of the will and of the heart as well as of the intellect,
and the ideals of service must supplant those of selfishness
and greed. Nothing else can save us." 2

"THE APPEAL TO REASON"

Democracy Repudiates Violence.

We try to settle our differences by counting noses rather
than by cracking crowns. We try to resolve conflicts by
the process of compromise, conference, debate, search for
pertinent facts, plebiscite, and cooperation, as contrasted
with the use of force. When controversies come, as come
they must, we provide for balloting to ascertain majority
views, accepting the decision with the door always open
for appraisal and review. The entire process is carried on
under the ref ereeship of even-handed justice and with due
regard to minority rights. The innumerable associations,
conferences, and committees which mark the transactions
of American life are another evidence of our reliance upon
peaceful and rational methods.

It is not to be supposed that coercion is unknown in
a democracy. There will long continue to be required that
minimum of coercive restraint which prevents one indi-
vidual or small group of individuals from harming others
or invading their liberties.

2 Hall, G. Stanley. Life and Confessions of a 'Psychologist. New York:
D. Appleton and Co., 1923. p. 21.

[29]

Violence and War Frustrate the
Ideals of Democracy.

Applied in the international sphere, democracy neces-
sarily stands for peace among nations. The resort to aggres-
sive war, declared or undeclared, denies the tenets of de-
mocracy, War and civil riot always encourage the blind
worship of institutions, the suppression of individual rights,
the circumvention of representative government.,

The World War offers an excellent example. It was
fought, we believed, "to make the world safe for democ-
racy/ 5 Now we see nation after nation falling under auto-
cratic rule. Many now laugh at the old slogan in cynical
disillusionment, declaring that the ideal of democracy for
which men and women gave their lives, and more, was a
dream of idealists who refused to face reality. The world
was not made safe for democracy by the World War. It
may not be made safe by any war in the future. It has been
wisely said that there will never be a war between a democ-
racy and an autocracy because the moment war begins,
the former will lose its democratic characteristics. Vio-
lence, whatever its forms, its agents, or its motives, makes
for material destruction, intellectual regimentation, and
spiritual and physical impoverishment.

Constructive means which insure mental, physical, and
economic integrity are essential to the maintenance of the
democratic ideal. There is nothing wrong with the slogan,
"Make the world safe for democracy." But methods must
be chosen to advance this cause which are akin to it in
spirit. Not in democracy but in the unwise and ineffective
means taken for its attainment, does disappointment lie.
To lose faith in democracy is to lose faith in humanity.
Other philosophies require faith in institutions, rather than
in the builders of institutions. Since democracy rests on in-
dividual rights, its chief support must come from each

[30]

citizen and its decay is from the same source. Its oldest and
greatest enemy is the greed, indifference, selfishness of its
members and the inequities which exist within its borders.
It is clearly a function of education to encourage the use
of democratic processes as substitutes for coercion. The
possible contribution of education to the development of
tolerance, reason, and fair play has been clearly demon-
strated. That the ordinary school does too little in develop-
ing these attitudes may be admitted. The omission repre-
sents one of the great areas in which the objectives of edu-
cation need to be reformulated and reemphasized.

The Spirit of Ediication Outweighs
the Forms of Schooling.

The spirit and organization of the school are prepotent.
We shall not enthrone peace and reason, at home or in the
international sphere, merely by conducting model Leagues
of Nations or model Senates in our classrooms, or by
memorizing the Kellogg Pact or the Bill of Rights, or by
teaching children about the cunning habits of their little
Eskimo, Italian, Russian, Japanese, or Ethiopian "cousins,' 5
or by a study of the legal system of the United States. The
attitudes basic to a wholesome viewpoint on controversial
matters will not be created in so simple a manner, though
at appropriate times and places the various devices sug-
gested may prove helpful. There can be no lasting contri-
bution to peace, reason, and order from a school in which
the discipline is based on autocracy; from a school in which
the mainspring of effort is rivalry; from a school in which
the chief purpose is personal advancement; from a school
where the very atmosphere is heavy with intolerance, fear,
and suspicion; from a school that ignores and overwhelms
the living individual personality of each child.

Only from a school which is served by a socially in-

[31]

formed and socially effective teaching personnel; from a
school with a broad, humane, and flexible curriculum; from
a school saturated with the educational philosophy which
commands respect for the personality of each child that it
touches; only from methods of instruction which not only
teach but which actually are democracy and cooperation,
will the appeal to reason be heard and heeded.

"THE PURSUIT OF HAPPINESS"

Opportunity To Secure Happiness
Is a Democratic Ideal.

The purposes that impelled the establishment of this
democracy were different from those that had dominated
other governments. This new nation, established in the
wilderness, was a cooperative endeavor to secure an un-
fettered opportunity for the pursuit of happiness. Other
rights, such as life and liberty, were included but, sig-
nificantly enough, the series culminated in the right to
pursue happiness. The term "happiness" as used here, and
undoubtedly as conceived by the authors of the Declara-
tion of Independence, does not refer merely, or even pri-
marily, to that effervescent and transitory joy that comes
from the exuberance of living, or to the careless excitement
frequently generated by the artificialities of life. Happi-
ness is that abiding contentment that comes from a com-
plete and abundant life, even though such a life includes,
as all lives must, both success and failure, prosperity and
adversity, sunshine and shadow, cradle songs and funeral
hymns. To be happy, we must know the realities of life,
whatever they may be. We must be able to understand
relative values in the midst of confusion, to seek the deeper
meanings beyond the shallow, to desire worthwhile achieve-
ment in the midst of much that is trivial.

[32]

Initiative Is Necessary in the
Pursuit of Happiness.

The mere guarantee of the right to pursue happiness
would be but an empty gesture unless some means were
provided to give effect to this promise. The establishment
of schools did not settle the problem. First occurred the
struggle to make them free. Then came the battle, which
has not been fully won to this day, to make the schools
minister effectively to the varying needs of all the people.
From the beginning the greatest challenge has been to select
and make effective those methods and procedures best
adapted to make real for each individual his right to pursue
happiness. Several aspects of this problem require further
analysis.

In the first place, what will be accomplished by giving
a person the right to pursue happiness without the develop-
ment within him of that initiative, which will lead him
to make an effort to realize his right? Initiative is the
priceless quality that causes one to undertake voluntarily
a search for solutions to problems that confront him. How
futile it would be for an individual to be a citizen in a
democracy and lack initiative! The value to the individual
of the right to pursue happiness lies in his willingness to
claim that right.

Initiative can be developed in the same way in which
other learning takes place; that is, by confronting the
learner with as many kinds of situations as possible that call
for the exercise of initiative under the guidance of an
expert teacher. It is the same pattern that is followed in
teaching a person to read a foreign language, or to walk,
or to swim, or to do problems in mathematics. Day in and
day out, year in and year out, the growing child is sur-
rounded by an environment that presents real problems
for solution. The problems raised by that part of the en-

[33]

vironment which comprises the school should be closely
related to life as it is lived at each age-level and as it will
be lived in the future. The learner is asked to help select
the objectives of his study in order that the learning may
mean more to him and be more directly related to his inter-
ests. Those problems are so chosen that he will want to
solve them, will be challenged to put forth his best effort
to do so, and will understand the practical implications of
the solutions when found. Of course, the problems are
simple and concrete in the early years of life and expand in
complexity as the activities of the learner become more
complicated and abstract.

The educational method of the past was expressed largely
in sentences of the declarative and imperative type. We
told and we commanded. Today, the interrogative and
exclamatory sentences have been added to the process. We
question and we stimulate. The learner is confronted by a
situation that requires a solution; under some circum-
stances he may be told the answer, but usually he is re-
quired to find it for himself. He is asked questions such as:
"What do you suggest?" "What will you do about it?"
"What do you think is the way out?" "Where and how do
you think the problem should be attacked?** He begins to
think, to act, to study, or, in other words, to use his initia-
tive to start out on his search for happiness.

Happiness Involves Wisdom in
Making Judgments.

A second question confronts the schools in this process
of educating the individual to attain success in his pursuit
of happiness. What is to be gained by giving the right to
pursue happiness, by developing the desire and the ten-
dency to begin the search, if we fail so to educate the citizen
that he can and will make the proper choices as, time and

[34]

time again, he comes to an issue? As he grows older he dis-
covers that life becomes more and more complex. He finds
his way through the maze only by choosing as carefully
as he can between an endless variety and succession of alter-
natives.

Can critical judgment be developed through the process
of education, and, if so, how is it done in the schools? We
are dealing again with an acquired ability which comes as
the result of innumerable opportunities to make choices
and to arrive at conclusions, under the guidance of an ex-
pert teacher. In other words, critical judgment is developed
just as is the ability to play chess, or to read a book, or to
solve problems in geometry; that is, by long and continuous
practice under the criticism of someone qualified to evalu-
ate the decisions. The child must learn the value of evi-
dence. He must acquire a reverence for facts, must desire
to find them, and must learn where they can most likely
be secured. There are certain sources of facts, certain re-
positories of knowledge, that have been authenticated
through the years. The student must learn what they are
and acquire the technique of using them, and develop the
habit of turning to them when called upon to solve prob-
lems. He must learn to defer judgment, to consider motives,
to appraise evidence, to classify it, to array it on one side
or the other of his question, and to use it in drawing con-
clusions. This is not the result of a special course of study,
or of a particular part of the educative procedure; it
results from every phase of learning and characterizes every
step of thinking.

Education Is the Key to an
Abundant Life.

Finally, the schools must, in the preparation of the indi-
vidual, search for the types of experiences that will make

[35]

probable the realization of happiness. Somehow, the learner
must come to know what constitutes real happiness, must
learn where it is most likely to be found, must desire to
acquire it for himself and others, and must master the way
of claiming it. For what is the use of establishing a democ-
racy guaranteeing the right to pursue happiness, and of
developing through processes of education the initiative to
search for it and the ability to choose the right path, if we
leave the person unable to recognize happiness when he
finds it, or to interpret its deeper meanings if he recognizes
it?

The ability to claim and live the abundant life is not
innate. It is acquired through long and patient study.
Therefore, the modern school gives a large place to those
subjects and those types of experiences that mankind has
found to satisfy the deeper longings of the soul, and to in-
spire the noblest achievement. Many phases of the curricu-
lum help the individual to supply his needs in relation to
his physical existence; other phases include the skill subjects
which enable one to use his environment and deal with his
fellow-beings; still another phase has to do with the various
forms of expression of human thought and feeling that
constitute the culture of mankind. This last includes our
religion, art, literature, architecture, music, poetry, drama,
and all other forms through which noble thoughts and feel-
ings have been added to the social inheritance and handed
down through the centuries as man's tribute to his Creator
and his gift to posterity.

It is the function of the schools to help every person to
find and use the key that will unlock the riches that are the
common possession of all. Unlike some other inheritances,
this one can be claimed only by those who will prepare
themselves to be worthy of it. Merely dotting our land with
buildings that point their spires heavenward, or hanging
the masterpieces of art on our walls, or making countless

[36]

books available through a thousand libraries, or bringing
the drama of the ages into every city, village, and hamlet,
or making great music available to everyone, does not mean
that all will be able to claim the heritage that these and a
myriad other sources of happiness provide. Only those who
have acquired the methods of interpreting, who have
learned the meanings of the various languages through
which the heritage is transmitted, who have attuned their
eyes and ears, their thoughts and emotions, to catch the
messages that are all about us like the unsensed and un-
caught radio waves which in the dead of night flood the
world only those are educated to succeed in the great task
of happiness.

III.

THE OBJECTIVES OF EDUCATION:
A GENERAL REVIEW

There is only one subject -matter for education,
and that is Life in all its manifestations. Instead of
this single unity, we offer children Algebra, from
which nothing follows; Geometry, from which
nothing follows; Science, from which nothing
follows; History, jrom which nothing follows; a
couple of Languages, never -mastered; and lastly,
most dreary of all, Literature, represented by plays
of Shakespeare, with philological notes and short
analyses of plot and character to be in substance
committed to memory. Can such a list be said to
represent Life, as it is known in the midst of the
living of it? The best that can be said of it is, that
it is a rapid table of contents which a "Deity might
run over in his mind while he was thinking of creat-
ing a world, and had not yet determined how to put
it together. . . . ALFRED N. WHITEHEAD.

The Purposes of Education Have Received the Attention
of Leaders in Thought and Action.

What is education to accomplish? What changes in
human conduct should the schools seek to bring to pass?
Is growth or achievement the fundamental aim of educa-
tion? Should the schools render first loyalty to the promo-
tion of individual welfare or to the general social improve-
ment? Should schools seek primarily to adjust students to
the conditions of life as it is or to impel them to improve
these conditions? Should organized education emphasize
ideals and attitudes or facts and skills? Should the public

[39]

schools try to prepare young people for specific jobs? What
knowledge is of the most worth?

These questions have been found worthy of sustained
and devoted attention by such great philosophers as Plato
and Spencer, such religious leaders as Luther and Loyola,
such men of letters as Milton and Montaigne, such states-
men as Marcus Aurelius and Thomas Jefferson, such scien-
tists as Agassiz and Huxley, and such educators as Comen-
ius, Pestalozzi, and Parker. These great thinkers, and many
more besides, have left us a store of trenchant wisdom and
inspiration regarding the purposes which education and the
schools should promote.

Popular Opinions on the Purposes of the Schools

Are Held.

Interest in the objectives of educational institutions has
not been confined to a few exceptional leaders. Plain citi-
zens, parents, taxpayers, and even the young learners them-
selves have in mind, although more or less confused and
dimly perceived, some notion as to the reasons why they
support and participate in the means of education.

An examination of these popular concepts of educational
purposes would reveal much that is trivial, much that is
inspiring. We ask a child, "Why do you go to school?' 5 He
replies without hesitation, "To get a good report card."
What answer could be fnore conclusive or more pro-
foundly disturbing?

Ask a youth in high school the same question. The an-
swer: "To prepare for college; to be on the team; to be a
better citizen." And the college student may reply: "To
get ahead in the world; to get a better job; to earn more
money; to keep up with my crowd; to learn to make the
most of my life."

Many parents, especially those whose own schooling is

[40]

limited, have a touching faith that the possession of knowl-
edge (particularly the knowledge recorded in books) will
somehow make their children happier, better, more success-
ful. What parent does not share with Enoch Arden

". . . the noble wish
, To save all earnings to the uttermost

And give his child a better bringing-up
Than his had been."

From all of these sources from the writings of leaders
in thought and action, the deliberations of professional
groups, the quick, naive responses of youth, and the dimly-
felt, ill-expressed longings of the ordinary citizen there
emerges an array of stated educational objectives, similar
in some respects, but differing in viewpoint, in form, in
arrangement, in degree of detailed analysis, and in the
methods thought suitable for attaining the desired goals.

A Democratic Way of Life Is the Inclusive Purpose
of American Education.

The general end of education in America at the present
time is the fullest possible development of the individual
within the framework of our present industrialized demo-
cratic sbciety. The attainment of this end is to be observed
in individual behavior or conduct. The term education im-
plies the existence of some person other than the learner, a
person moreover who is interested in the outcome and who
desires to encourage one type of conduct rather than an-
other.

Ideals and values derive their entire practical importance
from the behavior which results from them. The expression
of high ideals accompanied by the doing of wrong is thor-
oughly vicious. Education, therefore, seeks to encourage the
mastery of such knowledge, the acquisition of such atti-
tudes, and the development of such habits as make a socially

[41]

desirable way of living likely to be followed by the learner ,x
The choice of this way of living, as we have already seen,
is primarily determined by the prevailing scale of social and
personal values; that is, by ethical standards in the broad.
The definition of this scale of values is a continuing and
crucial problem of both social and educational policy in
this age or in any other.

We have seen also that the way of living to be encouraged
by the education of the American people is a steadily closer
approximation to the democratic ideal. In the immediately
preceding chapters, the value of this ideal has been defended
and its essentials have been described.

The Aspects of Democratic Living May Be Classified
in Diverse Ways.

We are ready now to set down in some detail a descrip-
tion of the necessary and desirable elements of information,
skill, habit, interest, and attitude which will most surely
promote individual development and encourage democratic
ways of living among the people of this country.

This is a large order which can be carried conveniently
only if it is wrapped up in several smaller packages. There
is a real difficulty at this point. All behavior is interrelated.
Even the facile distinction between the conduct which con-
cerns an individual alone and the gregarious conduct which
the individual shows in his relation with others, eventually
breaks down. What a man does about his own health, for
instance, may be a matter of concern to his family, to his
business associates, to the entire community in which he
lives, perhaps even to the people of the entire world.

It is necessary, nevertheless, for convenience and clarity
in writing and thinking about the purposes of education to
consider separately the various dimensions of total behavior.
One can identify and name various mountain peaks even

[42]

though all of them are part of one unbroken mountain
range and even though the exact spot where one mountain
ends and another begins may not be located. But, in the
process of dividing and subdividing, we must always re-
member that this body of behavior which we dismember
on paper is carried on by a living whole person.

Educational Leaders and Professional Groups Have
Classified the Objectives of Education.

Herbert Spencer, writing in 1860, was perhaps the first
to popularize the classification of human activities as a
basis for classifying educational objectives. He identified
five major classes of human conduct: "(i) self-preserva-
tion, (2) securing the necessaries of life, (3) the rearing
and discipline of offspring, (4) the maintenance of proper
social and political relations, and (5) the activities which
make up the leisure part of life, devoted to the gratification
of the tastes and feelings/ 51

Since Spencer's day scores of similar analyses have been
made and published. One survey discovered 44 such classi-
fications defining a total of 349 different areas of human
activity. 2 There will be no attempt here to review com-
pletely that extensive and interesting literature. A few
illustrations will suffice to suggest its general trend.

Groups of teachers have been particularly active in
stating the aims of education. Representative of their work,
and undoubtedly the most influential of the resulting state-
ments, is the 1918 Report of the Commission on Reorgani-
zation of Secondary Education of the National Education
Association. In twenty years over 130,000 copies of its chief
report have been distributed. Crucial excerpts from that

1 Spencer, Herbert. Education. New York: D. Appleton and Co.,
1861. p. 32.

2 Frederick, O. I., and Farquear, Lucile J. "Problems of Life/* I and II.
School Review 46: 337-45 and 415-22; May and June, 1938.

[43]

document have been reprinted and circulated by the mil-
lions. It is probably the most influential educational docu-
ment issued in this country. The heart of the report is its an-
alysis of individual activity leading to "seven cardinal prin-
ciples of education: (i) health, (2) command of the funda-
mental processes, (3) worthy home-membership, (4) voca-
tion, (5) citizenship, (6) worthy use of leisure, and (7)
ethical character/* 3

Chapman and Counts, 4 a few years later, identified "six
great interests about which human life revolves." Men
must always " (a) care for their bodies, (b) rear their chil-
dren, (c) secure the economic necessities, (d) organize for
civic action, (e) engage in recreation, and (f ) satisfy their
religious cravings."

An important document 5 on the curriculum issued in
1928 identified four general areas of education by listing the
relation of the individual first, to his own growth and de-
velopment; second, to the world of nature; third, to the
systems of organized society; and fourth, to the Power
which in some way orders the development of man and his
universe. "The individual self, nature, society, and God
these four and in particular the adjustments which the In-
dividual self must make constitute the objectives of edu-
cation."

The most detailed analyses of human activities for cur-
riculum building purposes are probably those prepared by
Bobbitt. He adopted the following tenfold classification
of activities: (i) language (social intercommunication) ,

3 U. S. Department of the Interior, Bureau of Education. Cardinal
Principles of Secondary Education. Bulletin, 1918, No. 35. "Washington,
D. C.: Government Printing Office, 1918. 32 p.

* Chapman, James Crosby, and Counts, George S. Principles of Edu-
cation. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Co., 1924. p. 195-365; 437-78.

5 National Education Association, Department of Superintendence.
The Development of the High School Curriculum. Sixth Yearbook.
"Washington, D. C.: the Department, 1928. p. 51-56.

[44]

(2) health (physical fitness) , (3) citizenship, (4) general
social activities (meeting and mingling), (5) spare-time
activities (amusements and recreation), (6) mental fitness,
(7) religion, (8) parental, (9) imspecialized or non-voca-
tional practical activities, and (10) vocational activities.
By analyzing each of these ten areas, lists of literally hun-
dreds of specific objectives were developed. One publication
names 160 specifics in the first nine fields alone, and analyzes
each of these into twenty or more still finer subdivisions. 6

A New Classification Is Proposed.

It should be clear from the preceding discussion that
there is no ultimate virtue in any single classification of ob-
jectives.. The particular analysis followed in this volume
lends itself well to the type of discussion desired. It permits
a reasonable degree of specificity in pronouncement while
avoiding the enmeshment of detail. It is not identical with
any of the above lists, although, in a general way it resem-
bles some of them, as they resemble each other.

Education Is Concerned with the Development
of the Learner.

The first role, or phase of total behavior, is that of the
educated person. Conduct in this field is centered on the
personal development, growth, and learning of the indi-
vidual. It includes his use of the fundamental tools of learn-
ing, his health, his recreation, his personal philosophy. The
placing of these objectives first in the list is not accidental.
They deal with the development of the individual himself .
In a democracy this field is of supreme importance. Success
in this role conditions one's success in every other phase of
life's activities. The purposes of education which fall under

6 Bobbitt, Jolin Franklin. How to Make a Curriculum. Boston:
Houghton Mifflin Co., 1924. p. 7-9.

[45]

this section of total behavior will be referred to as the ob-
jectives of self-realization.

Education Is Concerned with Home, Family,
and Community Life.

A second area is that of home and family relationships
with their immediate and natural extensions to neighbors
and community) Educationally the home is the most power-
ful, as it is perhaps the oldest, of all social institutions.
Good homes and good communities are the basic units of
democracy. The activities of the educated individual which
relate to these immediate, person-to-person contacts are,
therefore, grouped together in a section on the objectives
of human relationship.

Education Is Concerned with Economic Demands.

The next aspect of the activities of the member of a
democratic society includes the economic sphere the crea-
tion and satisfaction of material wants. Here we consider
the education of the individual as a producer, a consumer,
an investor. The importance of such education in providing
the indispensable material basis for comfort, safety, and
even life itself is clear. The objectives within this general
area will be classified under the heading of the objectives of
economic efficiency.

Education Is Concerned with Civic and Social Duties.

Finally, there are the activities of the educated citizen.
They involve his dealings with his government local,
state, and national his relationships with the peoples of
other nations, and his other "long-distance" contacts in

[46]

large-scale collective enterprises. This field of activity is
served by education through the objectives of civic respon-
sibility.

Four Groups of Objectives Are Identified.

To recapitulate, four aspects of educational purpose have
been identified. These aspects center around the person
himself, his relationships to others in home and community,
the 'creation and use of material wealth, and socio-civic
activities. The first area calls for a description of the edu-
cated person; the second, for a description of the educated
member of the family and community group; the third, of
the educated producer or constt-mer; the fourth, of the edu-
cated citizen. The four great groups of objectives thus de-
fined are:

1. The Objectives of Self -Realization

2. The Objectives of Human Relationship

3. The Objectives of Economic Efficiency

4. The Objectives of Civic Responsibility.

* Each of these is related to each of the others. Each is
capable of further subdivision.

Before we begin to discuss separately each of these groups
of educational purposes, several comments regarding the
classification as a whole may be made. It is not intended that
we should think of the purposes of education as a field
which is now neatly divided into four equal quarter-sec-
tions, each of which is in turn to be further surveyed and
staked out into claims. The classification will be more help-
ful if we think of it as a series of four vantage points from
which the purposes of education may be studied, the total
result being a comprehensive view of the whole. In making
our reconnaissance, each field of view will be seen to shade
imperceptibly into the others and into the 'field as a whole.

Furthermore, the school is only one of the many educa-
7^

[47]

tional influences In these various fields of human life. Its
responsibility extends to all of these areas, but in some areas
the weight of education rests on the schools more exclu-
sively than in others. The role of the school is especially
definite in preparing for civic responsibility. The school,
therefore, must condition, and concern itself with, every
phase of civic education. It must concern itself with loyalty
to society as a whole rather than to the political manifesta-
tions of society as revealed in any single institution. Vested
control of this function by the political State leads to dicta-
torship. The field of human relationship is shared by the
school, the home, and the rest of the environment. Educa-
tion in the field of self-realization or personal development
is coming to be more and more a duty of the schools al-
though much of this responsibility necessarily inheres in the
home and the church. Under modern economic and indus-
trial conditions preparation for economic efficiency is
largely a function of the school. A,

Finally, it should be clear that the following four chap-
ters are not in any sense to be regarded as a pattern of in-
struction at any particular educational level. There will
necessarily be variation in the application of the objectives
to instructional need within particular schools, communi-
ties, states, and regions. These are the objectives of educa-
tion qualities and conduct to be encouraged by all educa-
tional agencies for all American citizens.

THE OBJECTIVES OF SELF-REALIZATION

The Inquiring Mind. The educated person has an ap-
petite for learning.

Speech. The educated person can speak the mother
tongue clearly.

Reading. The educated person reads the mother
tongue efficiently.

Writing. The educated person writes the mother
tongue effectively.

Number. The educated person solves his problems of
counting and calculating.

Sight and Hearing. The educated person is skilled in
listening and observing.

Health Knowledge. The educated person understands
the basic facts concerning health and disease.

Health Habits. The educated person protects his own
health and that of his dependents.

Public Health. The educated person works to im-
prove the health of the community.

Recreation. The educated person is participant and
spectator in many sports and other pastimes.

Intellectual Interests. The educated person has mental
resources for the use of leisure.

Esthetic Interests. The educated person appreciates
beauty.

Character. The educated person gives responsible di-
rection to his own life.

IV.
THE OBJECTIVES OF SELF-REALIZATION

And, if we think of it, what does civilization itself
rest upon . . . but rich, luxuriant, varied person-
alism? To that all bends; and it is because toward
such result democracy alone, on anything like Na-
ture's scale, breaks up the limitless fallows of human-
kind, and plants the seed, and gives fair play, that
its claims now precede the rest. The literature, songs,
esthetics, etc., of ft country are of importance prin-
cipally because they furnish the materials and sug-
gestions of personality for the women and men of
that country, and enforce them in a thousand effec-
tive ways.

The purpose of democracy . . . is, through many
transmigrations, and amid endless ridicules, argu-
ments and . ostensible failures, to illustrate, at all
hazards, this doctrine or theory that man, properly
trained in sanest, highest freedom, may and must be-
come a law, and series of laws, unto himself. . . .

WALT WHITMAN.

It is appropriate to begin a survey of educational pur-
poses with a program for the development of the individual
learner. There exists at the moment great pressure on schools
and other social agencies to "mold" the child in the interest
of his future economic efficiency, his future adult citizen-
ship, his future membership in the family. There is real
danger that our preoccupation with "preparedness" in
education may defeat itself by weakening our concern for
the child as he is, as a growing individual human being,
quite apart from remote social preparatory ends.

Here is no unsocial motive, for after all, as we have al-
ready seen, it is only through individual growth that social

[51]

progress can come. The ancient and artificial antithesis be-
tween the individual and society and the concept of a per-
petual struggle between the two is not supported by this
analysis. The realization of "self ,' s as considered here, occurs
through interaction between that "self* and society. It can-
not occur unless the individual effects a satisfactory rela-
tionship to the society in which he moves. If an individual is
to become his own best self, he must constantly be in con-
tact with the best that is in humanity. Thence, he will draw
his highest aspirations, thence his greatest achievements.

The processes of growth, or of self-realization, therefore,
are a primary concern of education, a concern which in-
cludes, but also reaches far beyond, the memorization of the
useful and useless facts which usually makes up the bulk of
the school curriculum. Only as each individual grows in
power to write his own declaration of intellectual inde-
pendence can we keep unfettered the spirit of that other
Declaration written a century and a half ago.

The Educated Person Has an Appetite for Learning.

The educated person in the years of his immaturity has
been started upon a career of life-long learning. With an
active and wide-faring curiosity, even an untutored man
may become an educated person. Without it, the holder of
the most decorative diploma from the highest school in the
land remains essentially uneducated.

The curiosity of the educated person ranges widely over
many topics and probes deeply into a few. Because of the
enormous and growing stock of human knowledge, every
one must be content with a limited education in many fields.
A little knowledge is a wholesome thing; only its misuse is
dangerous.

The educated person finds a sense of intellectual adven-
ture in learning all he can about the world in which he lives

[52]

and about the people, the animals, and the plants which
share his existence on this planet. In addition to this general
learning the educated person, through continuing study,
experience, experiment, and reflection, has made some cor-
ner, however small, in the vast field of knowledge securely
his own by right of personal conquest. Let it be noted in
passing that this learning does not by any means depend
solely upon books. Its sources are as varied as the life of
man. Such an education is not gained in a few years in
school; it is a lifetime enterprise for which formal schooling
should supply a good running start. No great exaggeration
is contained in the observation in the Education of Henry
Adams "They know enough who know how to learn/'

The Educated Person Can Speak the Mother Tongue Clearly.

JgJfrres-"

A mastery of the various arts of using one's own language
is the most universal of all educational objectives. It was a
primary concern of the schools of ancient, as it is of those
of modern, times. It is perhaps an open question which of
the four language arts speaking, listening, writing, and
reading is most important. The ceaseless grind of the
printing presses and the existence of basic literacy among
almost all of the adult population combine to magnify the
importance of the reading aspects of language. Yet the
spoken word remains, for the great majority of American
citizens, the principal channel of receiving and giving in-
formation and of exchanging ideas and feelings. Modern
inventions seem to be emphasizing listening and speaking
activities at the expense of reading as a method of educa-
tion. The telephone, spreading its network throughout the
country, makes possible remote conversation for social as
well as business transactions. The talking motion picture
watched by an average weekly audience of 115,000,000 per-
sons, is another invention which now emphasizes the spoken

[53]

word. Finally, there is that one-way conversation, the radio,
which pours through 30 million loud-speakers enormous
amounts of information and propaganda, as well as material
designed for amusement and recreation. In sum, it has been
estimated that speech is the basis of 90 percent of all our
communication, leaving only 10 percent for writing and
reading.

Since speech in its most rudimentary form is acquired in
the home and elsewhere, it seems to require less highly de-
tailed techniques of teaching than does the acquisition of
the art of reading. This fact, however, scarcely excuses the
school from assuming some share in the responsibility for
improving the ability of the people to express themselves.
Certainly the disparities between actual and desired achieve-
ment are more readily detected in oral speech than in
reading or in any other school subject.

Observers familiar with social life in foreign countries
often comment disparagingly on the aridity of American
efforts at conversation. Even people who are otherwise well
educated frequently lack the ability to converse coherently
and interestingly about any topic, even (or perhaps es-
pecially) about the topic with which they are most fully
acquainted. True, successful conversation is no simple art.
"It is much more than a matter of composing, more than
mere communication of one's ideas; it obviously includes
choosing which ideas to communicate, and which, for the
time at least, to suppress. It may involve finding a topic in
which the vis-a-vis is interested. It involves tone of lan-
guage, tone of voice, manner, all suited to occasion and
personalities. And in addition it involves the ability to an-
ticipate the effect produced." 1 There seems to be no good

1 Hatfield, W. Wilbur, chairman. An Experience Curriculum in
English. A Report of the Curriculum Commission of the National
Council of Teachers of English. New York: D. Appleton-Century Co.,
*935* 3*3 P-

[54]

reason why this ability, so useful for disseminating infor-
mation and increasing the value and satisfaction of social
contacts, should not be more generally included as a definite
aim of instruction in American schools.

To conversation, which is private speaking, we should
add ability in public speaking. The tongue-tied confusion,
or worse, the unorganized loquacity which afflicts many of
us when "called upon" is neither necessary nor wholesome.
The degeneracy of public speaking is by nothing more
clearly shown than by the common reference to a speaker as
a "spellbinder." If more of our people possessed the ability
to speak their minds and their hearts clearly and simply,
they might assume a more critical attitude toward the
demagogues who often aspire to public office. A nation of
Daniel Webster's or Patrick Henry's would, no doubt, be
altogether too voluble and resounding for comfort. But
for the general run of students the schools may well sacri-
fice the studied arts of the orator if they will provide instead
instruction in the ability to state what one knows or be-
lieves in a simple, brief, and direct fashion.

The Educated Person Reads the Mother Tongue Efficiently.

In addition to the eager search for knowledge which the
educated person always exhibits, he needs to have available
every possible means of satisfying his urge to know the
truth. One of the important tools in this quest is an ability
to read. When we teach this skill to a child, we hand him a
passport to cross boundaries of time and space, a letter of
introduction to the great minds in all parts of the world
and in all periods of time. To this ability should be added,
wherever possible, the ability to read in other languages,
although the availability of translations of practically all
important writings makes the possession of a second read-
ing language a matter of less than primary importance and

[55]

one which need be undertaken only by those students who
have at their disposal a relatively long period of formal
education.

There are three kinds of illiterates. First, there are those
persons, now happily few in number, who do not know
how to read. Programs for the reduction of illiteracy among
the adult population, combined with almost universal ele-
mentary schooling, are making this a problem of rapidly
declining importance. There is, however, a second type
the functional illiterate who possesses some degree of skill
in reading but who never reads anything. And there is yet
a third type who possesses the skill to read and who does
read but who never reads anything significant. The last two
types of illiteracy are even more dangerous than the first.
To teach the mechanics of reading without giving guidance
in the selection of reading material and without developing
reading habits is, to put it mildly, wasteful on a colossal
scale. The schools must be concerned with eradicating all
three types of illiteracy.

We must never be content, therefore, to declare our
objective gained when a child has first learned to stumble
through words and sentences. Nine thousand different
books are issued in the United States alone every year. This
is at the rate of a new book every 60 minutes. Magazines,
pamphlets, newspapers represent an even greater mass pro-
duction. The schools must, as part of the program in read-
ing, show the child how to select his reading, to read some
things carefully, to skim other books hastily, to reject still
others entirely, to comprehend what he reads and to apply
it in the solution of his problems, to use reading as a means
of experience, and to enjoy to the fullest degree possible
the rich domain of his heritage of world literature. Noth-
ing less than this is a justifiable goal in teaching reading.
The amount, distribution, and quality of reading done by

T561

a population is likely to be an excellent index of cultural
development and social competence.

The Educated Person Writes the Mother Tongue Effectively.

Since every citizen of a democracy should be able and
willing to contribute from his experience and his beliefs
to the solution of the common problems of all, it is clear
that every citizen should be able to write a simple and
straightforward statement in clear, cogent, and legible Eng-
lish. Writing^ activities fall into such functional categories
as letter-writing, formulating announcements, reporting
an experience, writing directions or explanations, and keep-
ing personal memoranda. These expressional activities are
basic to tile teaching and learning of written composition.
They should contrast with the formal theme, the academic
forms of discourse, and literary rhetoric.

In addition to the functional program in written English
there should be provided opportunity for creative expres-
sion, the artistic translation of personal experience into
words. This type of writing may develop the pupil's capac-
ity to value experience for its own sake rather than for any
utilitarian end, and increase his pleasure in the experience
through the effort to translate it into words. The obligation
of the writer to present his ideas legibly is universally recog-
nized. For those students who are likely to spend time in
formal education at the college level or elsewhere, the abil-
ity to write shorthand and to write on the typewriter is a
desirable aid to further learning and, often, to finding a
job. Writing as practiced by the newspaper reporter, the
journalist, and the professional author is a vocational sub-
ject, the treatment of which belongs elsewhere. For these
persons, however, as well as for those whose writing will not
be directly associated with earning a living, the character-
istics of the writing desired consist especially of simplicity,
clarity, honesty, legibility, and brevity.

[57]

The Educated Person Solves His Problems

of Counting and Calculating.

Some acquaintance with numbers' and skill in the funda-
mental operations' of addition, subtraction, multiplication,
and division is an educational objective to be taken for
granted. The skills to be taught in this field and the types
of problems to which these skills are applied should be de-
termined by the kinds of arithmetical calculations which
the ordinary American citizen has occasion to make. Elab-
orate and helpful investigations have been made to bring
these fundamental operations into a position of prominence
and recent revision of the curriculum in many school sys-
tems has resulted in great improvement in arithmetic in-
struction. In addition to skill in mathematics there needs
to be developed an appreciation of the cultural value of
mathematics, and of its usefulness as a mode of thinking
and as a means of interpreting world affairs. 2

Closely associated with the fundamental arithmetical
operations are the elements of intuitional geometry and ap-
plied algebra. Intensive technical study of more advanced
mathematics should be offered to those whose vocational
outlook, future education, or other special interests will
make it necessary or helpful for them to use such knowl-
edge.

New aspects of applied mathematics are constantly de-
veloping and the educational experiences of children and
adults need to be extended to include them. For example,
the presentation of numbers in graphic and tabular form is
becoming extremely common. Children should learn the
rudiments of graphic presentation, particularly since this

2 Williams, K. P., chairman. The "Place of Mathematics in Secondary
Education. Preliminary Report of the Joint Commission of the Mathe-
matical Association of America, Inc., and the National Council of
Teachers of Mathematics. Ann Arbor, Mich.: Edwards Brothers, Inc.,
1938. 70 p.

[58]

form of presenting data is at once so effective and so easy
to misinterpret. The presentation of numerical data in
graphic form is becoming a language with its own grammar
and syntax. It is, however, a language which can ensnare
and deceive the unwary. If children are to be taught that
in the number 376, the 3 is in the hundred's column, the 7
in the ten's, and the 6 in the unit's, why should they not
learn also the proper form for a chart and know that a
chart which lacks certain features is potentially or actually
dishonest and unreliable?

The ability to deal with number and form, the funda-
mentals of mathematics, has always been a basic human
need. In an age such as ours where almost every phase of
life is strongly marked by applied science and technology,
the appreciation and use of basic mathematical skills and
concepts offer significant assistance for self-realization.

The Educated Person Is Skilled in Listening
and Observing.

"With a fine disregard of orthography, the fundamental
skills of learning have been traditionally referred to as the
three R's reading, writing, and arithmetic. The scope of
these basic skills needs extension. The true fundamentals
of learning include much more than those three which have
been enumerated. Most of our knowledge is gained, and
most of our thinking engendered, by other methods, par-
ticularly by speaking and other means of self-expression,
by listening, by observing, and finally by reflecting on what
we have read, written, counted, calculated, said and done,
heard and seen. Hazlitt's remark that "it is better to be able
neither to read nor write than to be able to do nothing else,"
is in point here.

The traditional three R's, it is true, require for their
mastery, a certain intensive application which is probably

[59]

unnecessary for the other cultural fundamentals. But this
does not mean that some training in the other fundamentals
is unnecessary. It requires less skill, no doubt, to watch with
some comprehension a moving-picture version of "Treas-
ure Island" than it does to read the book of the same title.
Both may be wholesome activities for an educated person.
If so, is it not a part of the fundamental cultural equipment
to be able to extract from a play, a motion picture, a radio,
program, or even from the observed events of everyday life
their utmost in the possibilities of life-enrichment? There
are, in short, more than three "tool subjects," and schools
should be concerned with securing the greatest possible
proficiency in the use of all of them. If the rudiments of
some skills are acquired outside of the school, the school's
task remains, nevertheless, that of perfecting the effective
use of these more common tools and of promoting safe-
guards against their exploitation to the disadvantage of the
individual.

The Educated Person Understands the Basic Facts
Concerning Health and Disease.

Health is a factor which conditions our success in all
undertakings, personal and social. For that reason schools
properly place great emphasis on health as an outcome of
education. For the educated person the first requirement in
the field of health is an inoculation against superstition,
voodoo, witchcraft, and humbug in the fields of medicine
and human biology. The best serum now available for this
purpose is scientific knowledge concerning the human mind
and body as a functioning organism. Thus protected, the
educated person looks with sturdy skepticism on the claims
of the makers of patent medicines for the ills of the body
and the appeals of the large tribe of pseudo-psychologists
who claim to minister to the mind diseased.

[60]

The national health survey completed in 1938 by the
Public Health Service showed that six million people in the
United States are incapacitated by illness or accidents on a
typical winter day. In one year there occur twenty-two
million illnesses disabling for a week or longer. The average
person is disabled approximately ten days out of every year.
People ignorantly waste many millions of dollars on need-
less illness and on useless or harmful patent medicines,
spiritualistic seances, mind healers, and a sorry train of sim-
ilar nostrums and quacks. The schools would save more
than their own total cost if they could see to it that the
oncoming generation of adults used its resources for health
more wisely.

The Educated Person Protects His Own Health
and That of His Dependents.

Knowing what is necessary for maintaining health in
body and mind, the educated person so conducts his life as
to respect these great rules of the game. For himself and his
family he tries to secure competent medical advice and
treatment with special attention to the early discovery and
treatment of remedial defects and a systematic plan of
health inventory and illness prevention.

Knowledge of the structure of the human body is in-
complete and of little value without knowledge of how the
various parts operate. The instructional emphasis here
should be positive, dealing with the healthful functioning
of the human organism, rather than with the breakdown
of this function in disease. The approach should be rational
and scientific; should include all the basic biological func-
tions, such as nutrition, respiration, and reproduction;
should be adapted to the maturity and interests of the
learner; and should eventuate in firmly established habits
of healthful living. The scope of health education should

[61]

clearly include the promotion of mental, as well as of physi-
cal, health.

A democracy, with its respect for individual life and
happiness, is dedicated to the proposition that all children
should be well-born, carefully guarded against avoidable
infections, properly nourished in body and mind, and given
an environment in which they can grow into healthful
maturity and have a chance to live long, happily, and well.

Safety from mental and physical disease suggests safety
from accidents. A collision with a ten-ton truck may be as
deadly as a collision with a streptococcus. Accidents cost
the nation one hundred thousand lives and a million injuries
in 1937. An encouraging phase is the steadily declining acci-
dental death rate among children. Much of this gain is ap-
parently attributable to safety instruction. These efforts
should be continued and expanded, with particular em-
phasis on carrying over safety habits into adult life.

The Educated Person Works To Improve the
Health of the Community.

The interests of the educated person in the field of health
are comprehensive. That which he desires for himself in this
field, the educated person desires also for others, knowing
that health is one commodity which is increased in propor-
tion as it is shared. Especially in a democracy, the educated
person will cherish a sincere interest in maintaining the
health standards of the entire community. His humani-
tarian sympathies can here be strongly supported by self-
interest since the transmissible nature of many diseases as-
sures security for the individual only when the entire com-
munity is protected, and safety for the community only
when the health of each individual is maintained. The edu-
cated person, therefore, insists on community, state, and
national health services which not only enforce sanitary

[62]

ordinances and guard against the more obvious epidemic
diseases, but which definitely promote the health of the
entire population. He shows an active concern in all condi-
tions which threaten the safety or injure the health of
others, promotes the health work of schools and other social
agencies, and encourages study and corrective action con-
cerning the economic, physical, and social conditions which
cause disease and imperil health of mind and body.

The Educated Person Is Participant and Spectator
in Many Sports and Other Pastimes.

Under the stress of modern life recreation has become a
first cousin to health. The educated person does not make
the mistake of confusing health with strength. He under-
stands how to utilize both his working time and his leisure
time to the maximum personal and social advantage. His
hours of relaxation from the strain of productive effort are
carefully guarded and wisely used.

The American people stand in urgent need of learning
how to relax. Material success has too long been made our
supreme objective in schools and elsewhere. Psychiatrists
and other physicians are testifying to the mental and bodily
damage caused by the ineptitude of the average American
for the fine art of having a good time out of one's own re-
sources. Many have attained success only to find they have
lost happiness in the process. An extravagant worship of
the unremitting drive of business activity prevails in many
quarters. Even our everyday language betrays this con-
fusion of values; we even speak of the "business" of living,
whereas the principal and important part of living is an art
and not a business. The precepts taught by the school in this
field need to be supported in many cases by changes in what
the schools are actually doing.

Recreational skills may be divided into two general types:

[63]

those which emphasize direct participation and those
which emphasize the role of the spectator. Both are im-
portant.

The participant in recreational activities requires a cer-
tain mental and physical equipment which can be improved
through education. The development of the physical skills,
strength, and agility necessary for participation in a variety
of wholesome games and sports is an important aspect of
education. The athletic and physical education programs of
secondary schools and colleges are moving slowly and tardily
toward a democratic basis which serves the entire group of
students rather than being largely concentrated on a few
favored individuals who "make the team." This trend is
wholesome; it should be accelerated and broadened.

Competitive sports are a powerful and, within limits, a
desirable motivating force in encouraging wholesome bodily
activity, but such competition may do more harm than
good if it centers on a few persons to the neglect of the
majority, if it elevates winning the game over playing the
game, or if the game is too rigorous, exhausting, or other-
wise dangerous. Recreational training, therefore, should
include in its purview the less competitive physical activ-
ities such as walking, camping, swimming, skating, and
various forms of manual and creative arts.

The fact that recreative activity is as essential for adults
as it is for children and youths, and the desirability of pro-
moting common family interests, suggests the importance
of giving training in sports and other activities which are
suitable for both adults and youths. Games and creative
activities which children and youths enjoy and which also
carry over into the interests of adults, have a strong claim
for attention.

Recreation also includes the role of spectator in the
theatre, at the opera, or at the stadium. Only a small pro-

[64]

portion of such activity has learning for its purpose, though
involuntary learning, wholesome or the contrary, may well
occur. Some fear has been expressed lately about the evils
of "spectatoritis" on the ground that the American public
is becoming altogether too concerned over passively watch-
ing others play and not sufficiently interested in taking an
active part. Whatever the present trend may be, there is
little to be gained by debating the relative merits of observ-
ing and participating in various recreational activities.
Most of us are not likely, under present conditions at least,
to get too much of either. We should not quarrel about par-
ticipation versus observation, but should seek to encourage
both. The right balance of these two types of activity
varies with the individual, but for the average person each
actively supports and enriches the other.

There is some tendency to regard the role of spectator at
certain recreational activities as being inferior to others.
Many people feel that a visit to the theatre to watch pro-
fessional actors perform is somehow more wholesome and
worthy than a visit to the baseball park to watch profes-
sional athletes perform. There is probably little justification
for such an attitude. It is true that some ugly and debasing
aspects are associated with professional sport but the pro-
fessional theatre is not always noted for its freedom from
siich influences. It is at least open to question whether there
is anything intrinsically more dramatic and elevating in
watching the struggle on a darkening stage between Mac-
beth and his conscience than in watching under a warm
summer sun a good nine-inning pitching duel. In any case,
we may well teach boys and girls how to watch and appre-
ciate a well-played football or baseball game. Similarly, we
may learn to enjoy taking part in amateur theatricals and
through such activities reap a richer harvest in watching
the performance of professional actors.

[65]

The Educated Person Has Mental Resources
for the Use of Leisure.

Properly defined, the term recreation lias an even wider
meaning than that already developed. Despite a common
misuse of terms, "recreation" is not synonymous with
"exercise/ 5 The former is not, nor should it be, limited to
vigorous large-muscle activities. Is there any good reason
why a curriculum which can include football and baseball
might not also include checkers and even bridge?

Reading, of course, is one of the major forms of recrea-
tion. Skill in the use of printed material for acquiring in-
formation has already been mentioned. Reading for fun
likewise is no unworthy occupation, nor is it one that can
be followed without some preliminary training. Children
should come to know books as a means of acquaintanceship
with other boys and girls, as a way of learning about ani-
mals and birds and plants and stones, of finding out how
people live in the country and in the city, and of enjoying
fairy tales, nonsense rhymes, and stories of wonderland.
From these beginnings emerge the continuing life interests
in recreational reading pursued during adult life to escape
temporarily from reality, to relive common everyday ex-
periences, to satisfy curiosity about human nature and
human motives, to enjoy pleasurable emotional experiences,
to learn of immediate current happenings or of those far
away from one's own environment, and to pursue a hobby.

Fiction, travel, biography, history, or even scientific and
technical materials, may serve these ends depending upon
the interest and purpose of the reader. Even catalogues,
shoppers' leaflets, and railroad time-tables may sometimes
represent recreational reading.

,For many persons the playing of musical instruments,
alone or in orchestras, is a satisfying recreation. Almost
everyone can sing and enjoys doing so; with some training

[66]

for the singer, others may enjoy It too. The rudiments of the
international language of music are for most people easier
to acquire than the art of reading words. We are told that
in Elizabethan England, for example, every educated per-
son had musical competence. Should any child today leave
our schools who has not added to the art of reading words
the simple and pleasure-giving art of reading music?

Painting, sketching, photography, and other forms of
representative art can also be placed within the reach of
many by means of a little preliminary assistance, encourage-
ment, and instruction. The wide and ingenious range of
hobbies must also be included among the constructive recre-
ation possibilities. Under present conditions, leisure-time
interests which require a minimum of expense and equip-
ment are particularly desirable.

None of these matters is unworthy of serious attention
by schools which are earnestly concerned with the demo-
cratic ideal of helping each individual to grow in self-
realization. These are extracurricular in name only; indeed
it is to be doubted whether any elements of the "regular"
curriculum are more truly educative than the activities
associated with recreation. A shallow respect for false and
harmful "standards" has in the past kept the recreative
arts in the place of the poor relation. It is time to place them
in a position of honor at the educational table.

The Educated Person Appreciates Beauty.

Beauty is one of the great desires of the human heart.
Even very young children eagerly and unmistakably re-
spond to beauty in color, rhythm, harmony, and form. A
bright toy is treasured above a dingy one. A cube, a ball,
or a wheel seems to contain in its very contour elements
of form which bring forth the approval and delight of
children.^ is one of the important functions of education

[67]

to help the growing child to seek, to enjoy, and to treasure
beauty throughout his entire life. The delicate colorings of
fine paintings, the balanced masses of sculpture, the strength
and lightness of noble architecture, the rhythm, harmony,
and melody of poetry and music all these should sur-
round the growing child. He should hear beautiful music
and participate in making it. He should make with his own
hands the designs of representative art in order to increase
his understanding and appreciation of the artistic work of
others. These are not easy things to teach and the first re-
quirement for doing so is the teacher's own understanding
and appreciation of the esthetic elements of life. It is more
difficult and much more important to teach a child appre-
ciation of the beauty of poetry than it is to require him to
memorize a poem or to identify the grammatical elements
which enter into its construction. It is easier to teach the
rules which permit one to classify plants than it is to teach
an appreciation of the color and form of flowers.

The importance of the school environment in this con-
nection can hardly be overemphasized. The people of the
United States will not reach their full stature in esthetic
development while their children spend formative years in
school buildings with unkempt grounds, ugly architecture,
and bare or garish walls. The home life of many children is
lived in mean and sordid conditions. This fact increases the
responsibility of the schools to see that the stars are not
completely shut out above their heads, to keep alive in them
the love for the song of a bird, and to stimulate the am-
bitious reach of the soul for the things which enrich it.

The Educated Person Gives Responsible Direction
to His Own Life.

Our democracy, with its necessary and wholesome sepa-
ration of Church and State, gives to every man and yroman
complete freedom of religious belief and opinion. \We all

[68]

have a right, a constitutionally-guaranteed right as well
as a moral one, to choose that form of religious expression
or outlook which we find most completely satisfying. The
public schools are required, by law and by every element
of their tradition, scrupulously to respect this American
doctrine of religious liberty. The inculcation of any par-
ticular religious creed is therefore entirely foreign to the
proper function of public education, although other edu-
cational agencies, particularly the home and the church,
may well be actively concerned with such tuition. Yet
there remain the great problems of human destiny which
will always perplex, inspire, and ennoble the human spirit
problems of the relation of man to that which is beyond
man, of the plan, if plan there be, which directs or con-
ditions human existence on this planet, of the meaning in
human birth, life, aspiration, suffering, and death. That
man is not well educated who ignores these problems. Nor
is he educated who maintains an attitude of cynical indiffer-
ence or of intolerant bigotry toward the efforts of others
to satisfy their spiritual needs. He is educated only when
he understands and appreciates the spiritual and ethical
principles which constitute a central part of the heritage
of the race.

Many Americans find a satisfying answer to religious
questions in the teachings of one or another of the organ-
ized churches. Others find a solution which satisfies them
outside of the framework of organized creeds. Education
for self-realization in a democracy permits these perplexi-
ties to be squarely faced and confers on each of us the
priceless privilege of developing his religious philosophy in
his own way and in an atmosphere of tolerance and free-
dom. The educated man uses this privilege to attain a per-
sonally satisfying religious philosophy.

Out of the sheer necessity for some interpretation of him-
self and his world, each person develops his own philosophy

[69]

of life. This functioning philosophy may be regarded as a
framework through which one views the circumstances of
everyday life, an organizing accumulation of ideas, feelings.,
and attitudes which comprise a basis for the individual's
criticism and evaluation of what comes within his experi-
ence. A philosophy of life is not the exclusive possession of
scholars and priests. It is an everyday necessity. Although
he may be unaware of its existence, or if aware may see no
semblance of its design, each man, nevertheless, is finding
always a certain pattern by which he interprets and con-
ducts his life. He has his own way of meeting the disap-
pointments that are his lot. He possesses some set of values,
some code of ethics, some sense of the esthetic. And he has
a certain faith upon which he relies when his knowledge
has carried him to its ultimate limits. The result of this
philosophy in his everyday life reveals his true religion no
matter to what formal creed, if to any, he may subscribe.

The development of a philosophy of life is highly im-
portant from the standpoint of society as well as from that
of the individual. A man may consecrate himself to the
finest ideals of a great religion, to a loyalty to truth, to de-
votion to human brotherhood, to reverence and aspiration
toward his God. On the other hand, he may interpret vital
matters in terms of the grossest supernaturalism; his inter-
pretation of religion may lead him to persecute those who
strive to find truth by means which he neither approves
nor comprehends; his code of ethical values may lead him
to applaud the most vicious depravity and the most selfish
exploitation. Although such a philosophy may be satis-
factory to its possessor, it is definitely unsatisfactory to
others.

It is of especial concern in an evolving democracy that
educational experience shall develop a strong sense of re-
sponsibility for the direction of one's own affairs. Economic
maladjustments have often conspired with human frailty to

[70]

encourage a degree of indolence and a willingness to saddle
upon others the burdens which are properly one's own.
Whether such dereliction of duty takes the form of allow-
ing one member of the family to carry an unfair share
of the household work, or of idle and luxurious living
without attempting to produce goods or services of social
value, or of failing to vote at important elections, or of
allowing one's front yard to become a neighborhood eye-
sore, or of accepting relief or charity when able to find
suitable employment, this lack of self -responsibility is a
serious threat to democratic ways of living.

Such attitudes are to a large degree a product of faulty
environment and faulty education. A democracy must be
concerned not only with giving every one an opportunity
to hew out his own destiny but must also seek to develop
in each individual strong qualities of initiative, accounta-
bility, and self -direction.

The development of a philosophy of life, or a religion, is
based on the learning process. Like other learning, it is not
fully consummated until it makes a difference in the prac-
tical conduct of one's life. No imposition of the thinking
of another, however well fortified with threats and prom-
ises, can give the individual a ready-made philosophy, or a
set of superior values. Any other mode than following the
processes of education through their natural course of ques-
tioning, testing, and forming judgments, is poorly suited to
self-realization through democratic processes.

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THE OBJECTIVES OF HUMAN
RELATIONSHIP

Respect for Humanity. The educated person puts
human relationships first.

Friendships. The educated person enjoys a rich, sin-
cere, and varied social life.

Cooperation. The educated person can work and play
with others.

Courtesy, The educated person observes the amenities
of social behavior.

Appreciation of the Home. The educated person ap-
preciates the family as a social institution.

Conservation of the Howie* The educated person con-
serves family ideals.

Homemaking. The educated person is skilled in home-
making.

Democracy in the Home. The educated person main-
tains democratic family relationships.

V.

THE OBJECTIVES OF HUMAN RELATIONSHIP

Education maintains and demonstrates human re-
lations indispensable to the good life and to the per-
durance and functioning of a democratic society. In
the classroom and on the playground is woven during
the formative years of youth a texture of knowledge,
habit) aspiration and 'mutual respect which aids in
holding society together and helps to sustain hu-
manity amid all the forms of untried being through
which it must pass.

THE UNIQUE FUNCTION OF EDUCATION
IN AMERICAN DEMOCRACY.

The previous chapter emphasized some important pur-
poses of education with respect to the development of the
individual. The present chapter is devoted to the objectives
of education as related to the more intimate connections
of the individual with his friends, his immediate neighbors,
and the members of his own family group. On the whole,
there is perhaps no field of human activity requiring the
services of education which has been so meagerly dealt with
by the schools. Between the individual's inner life and his
far-flung contacts with 130 million fellow citizens, there
is an important intermediate area of day-to-day, face-to-
face relationships which could be profitably studied by
those directing educational programs.

THE FRIEND AND NEIGHBOR

The Educated Person Puts Human Relationships First.

The impact of education on a developing personality
should lead that person to place human welfare at the very

[73]

summit of his scale of values. He should judge old tradi-
tions and new inventions by the same high and single
standard. "Whatever has an evil effect on human beings
and their relations to each other is to be disapproved,
regardless of the comfort, luxury, or economic gain it
may bring. Too often, modern standards ignore the in-
tangible effects of scientific and social inventions on human
relationships. We tend to approve anything if only it adds
in some small particular to our ease and comfort. The
schools have a definite responsibility for developing a sense
of values which exalts men above money or machinery.

The history of inventions shows the disrupting effects
of their uncontrolled use for economic gain without due
regard to concomitant influences on human relations. New
machinery for the weaving of cloth, for example, while
it made possible a more ample supply of textiles, at one
time deprived thousands of men and women of their means
of livelihood, and degraded the level of living for other
thousands. Many workers died of want before even crude
social and economic adjustments to the new and more
efficient methods of cloth production were made. The
industrial revolution has taken its toll of lives as ruthlessly
and cruelly as any political revolution has ever done. Its
influence still shadows our path and much of the hardship
and strife which have accompanied the struggles between
owner and workman could have been prevented by a
proper concern for the human elements in the situation.

The application of machinery to transportation provides
another example of unfortunate influences arising from
the use of inventions without regard to human values. The
automobile, for example, is highly attractive because of
its speed and comfort. Yet, when we see the automobile
in its total social effect, we remember that it has helped
criminals to escape the reach of the law, that it takes an

[74]

enormous toll of injuries and deaths every day, and that
it has tended to disrupt community and family life. The
school can inculcate an attitude and habit of considering
inventions and social innovations with first regard to the
human aspects of them. The desirable material advantages
of inventions should be conceded, but the "march of
progress" is a travesty unless the superior importance of
human values be made the center of attention.

In short, the educated person learns through practice
to consider the well-being of others. The school is particu-
larly competent to help in this process. It is detached
from commercial and promotional interests to a degree
which makes it more able than any other institution to
appraise conflicting interests in significant terms. Children
in school will probably never again be in a social situation
more favorable for this purpose.

The Educated Person Enjoys a Rich, Sincere,
and Varied Social Life.

When life was simpler than it is now, the satisfaction
of the need for genuine friendships required little atten-
tion on the part of organized social agencies. Today, the
concentration of millions of people in large cities, as well
as other social changes, have made the achievement of a
genuinely social life difficult for many. Social groups are
large and complex and especially so for that growing part
of the population in the metropolitan centers. These nuclei
of population give rise to many special problems relating
to crime, delinquency, divorce, and other aspects of broken
family life. Many children in urban schools have gone
there from the country. From a relatively simple social
environment they are thrust into one which is highly
complex. The same circumstances hold for a large part
of the adult population. Whenever such new adjustments

F751

have to be made, education lias a part to play In facilitating
these changes.

The newcomer to the city misses the spontaneous meet-
ings of neighbors which he formerly knew. The shallow
pretenses of "society" may be substituted for friendly
sociability. He finds that almost every phase of his social
life is highly organized and specialized. He must join some-
thing in order to participate. Among the dozens of groups
and organizations which compete for his attention, there
is none, with the possible exception of the school, where
he is regarded just as an individual. Organizations are in-
terested in what he may contribute or in some one par-
ticular phase of his behavior his religious activities, his
recreational interests, his business or professional career,
his political affiliations, and so on. His nostalgic longing
for the old folks at home, the neighbors " Vay out
yonder," is vividly portrayed on many a stage and screen
and provides a recurrent motif in modern music and liter-
ature. Each of the various separate aspects of his social
life may be nurtured by the efficient and highly organized
social life in the city, but the genuineness represented only
by the relationships of whole personalities to each other is
often lacking. Juvenile delinquency and crime often re-
veal the failure of young people to adjust to this piece-
meal type of social organization. Disintegration in human
relationships finally results in disintegration of personality.

The school can closely parallel the simple, honest, and
sincere forms of community life. It enjoys unique possi-
bilities for providing in the life of the child an integrating
influence. The school can help him to interpret and unify
his detached and seemingly unrelated experiences. The
child may learn several codes of ethics one at church on
Sunday, one taught by the boss with respect to selling
newspapers, and one accepted by his friends at play. In
such a situation the school can never obtain its real objec-

[76]

tives if it is content to regard itself as merely one more
organization to concentrate on one special angle, the intel-
lectual angle, of the personality. Schools should minister
to all phases of the developing personality.

The methods used in encouraging learning are extremely
important as far as developing desirable human relation-
ships is concerned. The work of the classroom is too often
arranged so as to destroy, rather than to create, friendship.
This is especially true when an undesirable amount of com-
petition among pupils is stressed. The bright pupil grows
jealous of his laurels. Every other member of his class looms
as a competitor rather than as an ally. Meanwhile, the less
favored pupil may develop a bitter and natural resentment,
not only against the school which continually places the
mark of failure upon him, but against his more fortunate
classmates who consistently surpass his efforts. The school
which permits and encourages such antagonisms needs to
re-evaluate its purposes and methods in the light of human
relationships. The bookworm who has exchanged friend-
ships for erudition has made a poor bargain at best.

The Educated Person Can Work and ~Play with Others.

Democracy is a highly cooperative undertaking. It can
become more effective if children learn to cooperate in
school. The traditional methods of teaching, however,
stress competition rather than cooperation. Marks of dis-
tinction and honors of all kinds have been showered on the
pupil who surpasses his fellows. Ideally, our schools should
give prizes not to the one who wins more credit for him-
self, but to the one who cooperates most effectively with
others. We pin the badge of failure on the child who is
defeated in a competition rather than on the child wh>
has not learned to cooperate. This not only makes the
social life of the competing children unhappy and unf ruit-

[77]

ful while they are young, but it destroys those impulses
towards friendly cooperative effort which might have
made their lives as adults happier and more wholesome.

As a practical matter, the substitution of cooperation
for competition as the chief motivating force of education
must be accomplished gradually. In many schools, where
the children have known no other guide to learning but
competition, other motivations will have to be introduced
slowly and tactfully. Democratic cooperation in the class-
room, and outside of it, is only possible when the group
works toward some common goal. Each individual shares
the opportunities of leading and of following; each carries
a part of the responsibility; each shares in the total product.
Children should learn through experience, as directly as
possible and at an early stage of their lives, that the com-
bined efForts of a cooperative group can often solve prob-
lems that the ablest individual in the group cannot meet
unaided. The possibilities of cooperation through govern-
ment, cooperative marketing and purchasing, voluntary
associations, credit unions, and similar devices should be
explored by children at appropriate times in their educa-
tional experience.

A reconciliation must here be effected between two de-
sirable and to some extent conflicting outcomes. It is im-
portant that young people gain confidence in their own
individual powers. This calls for a measure of success in
competition with others. A certain degree of self-reliance
is highly important. It is not likely to come except through
demonstrated individual achievement. At the same time
the development of the self should not be allowed to run
to excess. Democracy must have its leaders but they should
be leaders who work in the spirit of cooperation. In the
schools of democracy successful cooperation should be a
part of the experience of all.

[78]

The Educated Person Observes the Amenities
of Social Behavior.

The Chinese, it is said, open a conversation with a new
acquaintance by inquiring, "And what is your honorable
age?" In America we usually say, "What line are you in?"
Every society develops its code of polite behavior, the
lubricating elements in its machinery of human relation-
ships. A genius may be able to get along in defiance of these
amenities. Most people find them inescapable necessities,
sometimes annoying, but usually extremely useful.

Knowledge and practice with respect to one's conduct
at a social gathering, the approved method of introducing
one person to another and of acknowledging an introduc-
tion, the use of "please" and "thank you," table manners
which are not offensive to others, and other similar social
courtesies ought to be learned by every child.

It is true that many of these customs are of little in-
trinsic significance; true, also, that most of them are rooted
in the customs of antiquity and have little current logical
justification. Nevertheless, they simplify and facilitate
social intercourse and thus fulfill an important function.
The educated person has learned these rules of conduct,
with some understanding of their origin and role in social
contacts. He realizes that the origin of all politeness is
courtesy, and that the root of all good manners is consider-
ation for others. So taught, these customs will make easier
and more profitable the development of desirable human
relationships.

HOME AND FAMILY RELATIONSHIPS

Among all social institutions the family holds first place
as a creator and guardian of human values. What the child
shall become depends first of all on the kind of family

[79]

responsible for his upbringing. The home is literally the
nursery of humanity, the matrix of personality during the
most impressionable years, and a continuing influence
throughout life. To what degree a person is fearful or con-
fident, malicious or kindly, ruthless or reasonable, bigoted
and autocratic or tolerant and democratic is perhaps deter-
mined more completely by relationships in early family
life than by any other set of experiences. Not only are
these experiences first in time and prepotent in effect
during childhood, but family relationships continuously
influence the manner in which persons conduct their affairs
in other groups.

One important responsibility of education, therefore, is
to improve and develop home and family life. Effective
discharge of this responsibility requires work with younger
children, with adolescents, and with adults. Children at
various points in their school careers may be helped to
understand the family as a social institution, to acquire
homeniaking skills, and to work out happy and socially
constructive adjustments with members of their immediate
families. Young people may be helped to master and appre-
ciate the specific knowledges and insights needed in mar-
riage, homemaking, and parenthood. Married couples and
parents on the job may be given opportunity to study their
problems and work out ways of handling their obligations.

The Educated Person Appreciates the
Family as a Social Institution.

The family, that is the system of relationships among
parents and offspring, is important everywhere, but the
structure of the family group and family activities and
customs differ from culture to culture, and from age to
age. The size and composition of families, marriage cus-
toms, the obligations of members one to another, and the

[80]

responsibilities of families as units to other social groups
all seem to vary under the influence of climate, topography,
natural resources and the methods of utilizing them, the
dominant forms of social, economic, and political organiza-
tion, and the prevailing ethical standards.

However varied, the institution of the family performs
two fundamental and interrelated sets of services. For the
individual the family provides care and protection while
capacities are maturing, guidance in learning to get along
with others, security, and affection. Biological parenthood
is only the first step. Without protection and nurture, in-
fants could not survive. Without the give and take of
family life they could hardly become social beings. With-
out the affectionate intimacies of the family circle, per-
sonality is not likely to develop normally. Every individual
is thus the product of family life in a social as well as a
biological sense.

For society as a whole the family performs its second
group of essential functions. It regulates sex relationships,
making it possible for men and women to express the
sexual phases of their nature in a socially constructive
manner. It produces future citizens and nurtures them
into adulthood, sharing this responsibility with the schools
and other agencies during middle and later childhood.

If a person understands how fundamental is the role of
the family in human society, he will see social significance
in every home and every family, and he will be more likely
to value his own home and family life. Education should
help to develop this appreciation.

The Educated Person Conserves Family Ideals.

Because of the headlong progress of invention and
science, the forms of family organization are changing.
Chores and common production enterprises were formerly

[81]

training grounds of character. As labor-saving devices elim-
inate or reduce the chores and as consumption becomes the
primary family activity, conflicts tend to arise, not so fre-
quently over who will do what work, but over what share
of the family income each will have for his own use, and
what use each will make, and when, of such family goods
as the radio and the car.

In the modern world women frequently find full-time
employment outside their homes. One-fourth of the wage
earners of the country are women, and of these gainfully
employed women, more than one-third also maintain
homes. It has been estimated that 40 percent of the wealth
of the country is now held by women. Each year, therefore,
economic security becomes a less important motive for
marriage. These tendencies, together with more liberal
divorce laws and a decline in the authority of the church,
are accompanied by higher divorce rates. This trend, in
turn, is complicating the lives of many adults and increas-
ing the hazards of wholesome personality development for
many children.

Economic devolopments have given to those who own
and control capital increased power over others. It is esti-
mated that 80 percent of the families of America live on
incomes of $2,000 per year or less and that half live on
$1,200 per year or less. Millions of persons desiring work
are unable to secure any; other millions work only inter-
mittently. Many a family is forced to live from hand to
mouth on a stop-and-go income. Under such uncertainty,
expenditures cannot be planned. Deprivation and anxiety
alternate with easy thrif tlessness. When the search for work
goes long unrewarded, morale weakens and accusations are
hurled. Hunger lurks at the threshold; tensions rise; tem-
pers snap.

With fewer jobs available, the employment of young
people is delayed. Many remain dependent on their families

[82]

at a period in life when they are most eager to be on their
own. This delayed economic weaning increases the diffi-
culties of establishing independence and adulthood and
results in not a few strained family situations.

Again, the concentration of manufacture and com-
merce has resulted in the crowding of ever larger propor-
tions of the total population into urban centers. The
demand for living quarters sends land prices sky-rocketing
and leads to the construction of smaller rooms and apart-
ments. Crowding and cheap construction bring fire and
disease hazards. Unplanned use of land for building de-
prives children of outdoor play. The prevalence of such
conditions, despite counteracting movements, adversely
affects the lives of many families.

To turn to a quite different influence, each year the
women of the country of child-bearing age taken as a
whole are giving birth to fewer children. This decline in
the birth rate is greater in cities than in the country; it
varies also by regions and by ethnic groups. This means
that more attention may be concentrated on each child
and that older children have less opportunity to learn the
arts of homemaking and parenthood in their own homes.

Most changes in family life stem back to changes in
economic and social organization. However much we may
bemoan the passing of older patterns and ideals, or fear
the coming of new, we cannot hold back this tide of eco-
nomic and social change that is breaking today into every
corner of society. We can, however, with the help of edu-
cation, try to understand it, use it, and control it for the
attainment of our democratic purposes and the preserva-
tion of cherished human values.

The creation of satisfying and socially constructive
family life under these conditions requires unstinting skill,
intelligence, patience, and devotion. The pull of habit
tends to keep us feeling, thinking, and acting as we always

[83]

have. Yet we come to grief when we attempt to meet
new conditions in old ways. For instance, when two and
sometimes several members of a family contribute to the
family income, sooner or later they expect to have a voice
in spending it. For the father whose will has been house-
hold law, adjustment to these expectations involves basic
reorganization of deeply ingrained habits. Yet such co-
operative participation in budgeting and income manage-
ment seems to be indicated by the conditions under which
many family incomes are secured.

Many other adjustments are required of both young
and old. For instance, during adolescent years many par-
ents seek to control every detail of personal expenditures
and friendships. Yet, to remain dependent on parents for
all one's money, continuing in school or simply marking
time unable to find a job, is a grueling experience for that
host of young people who endure it. Consider also the pre-
dicament of many couples today. Under the pressure of
economic hardship or the frustration of ambition, affec-
tions sometimes become strained. To face the situation
realistically and to handle it constructively is more difficult
than to drift into indifference or veiled hostility and then
into divorce; or if the social and financial costs of legal
separation are too high, to live in barren indifference, mean-
while trying to secure the basic satisfactions of life outside
the home.

At such points, then, education has a task. If it can help
people understand the social origin of ideals, how they are
transmitted in family life, how they have changed in the
past and are changing now, it can help them make the
adjustments required. So far as education does help people
make these adjustments, it will be making one of the most
significant contributions both to individual happiness and
to cultural development.

[84]

The Educated Person Is Skilled
in Home-making.

Every member of the family plays a role in the drama of
home and family life. Each role is different and, for all but
the younger members of a family during their more de-
pendent years, constantly fluctuating. Different kinds of
food must be prepared with each year of infancy and early
childhood. Changes in age and fashion dictate what cloth-
ing shall be purchased and how it shall be repaired. Sim-
ilarly, the managing of income, the operation of heating
units, the upkeep. and repair of fixtures and appliances, the
protection and maintenance of health, the special care of
children in sickness and convalescence, the selection of play
equipment and guidance in its use, and many other house-
keeping and homemaking activities change with the ages
of children and of parents, with shifts in income, with
changes in taste and values, and with many other variables.

Not only is each role constantly changing, but now-
adays the players are often called upon to exchange roles.
Here, for example, is a family where the father is out of
work and the mother is able to find a job, leaving him to
be the resident homemaker. Traditional lines between the
man's job and the woman's work are thus erased. Both
sexes and all ages are called upon to take responsibility for
some or all of the tasks of homemaking.

Most persons go a long way in teaching themselves these
homemaking skills, with or without the help of interested
relatives. In addition, girls for three decades past, and more
recently boys, have sought help from schools in mastering
the homemaking skills. The teaching of cooking, budget-
ing, accounting, management of time, routine care of chil-
dren, and consumer purchasing is rising toward a high level
of effectiveness.

Further development of this phase of education should

[85]

give special consideration to new labor-saving and effi-
ciency devices, new distributing and servicing facilities,
and new consumption habits. It should be remembered
also that skills serve in fact as instruments of personality.
The teaching of homemaking skills is an important phase
of family life education, but as in all education the develop-
ment of skills should be correlated with the development
of an understanding of the dynamics of family relation-
ship and of the family as a changing social institution and
with the cultivation of appreciations and insights.

Every homemaker and parent possesses valuable re-
sources in his own wit and in the wisdom developed by
experience. But other resources are also available. Books
contain rich stores of knowledge about housekeeping,
health, nutrition, child care and development, and other
phases of family life. Few persons live beyond the reach
of libraries or traveling library services from which books
on these matters may be secured. In all but a few of the
more remote areas there, are also available the professional
services of doctors, public health workers, home demon-
stration agents, homemaking teachers^ social workers,
and recreation leaders. As time permits, the educated per-
son explores books for knowledge and his neighborhood
for facilities and professional services which may be used
for the welfare of his family. He tests each and makes use
of promising discoveries.

The Educated Person Maintains
Democratic Family Relationships.

The educated person understands that families will
differ one from another, in order the better to meet the
needs of their members, and that family living requires
constant adjustments on the part of each member. Only
when each young person discovers a scale of values which

[86]

he believes socially desirable will he be able to let himself
go in making these adjustments creatively.

Education for family living will deal chiefly with prob-
lems of everyday human relationship problems of chil-
dren in their parental homes; problems of young people
as they struggle to separate themselves from parents and to
enter into comradeships within their own age groups;
problems arising in the cycle of f alling-in-love, engage-
ment, marriage, and the establishment of one's own home;
problems of parents in trying to understand growing chil-
dren and in cheerfully according an increasing measure of
independence to children as they attain maturity. Such
education will seek to make clear the important human
values to be protected in all these different areas of life.

"While the resulting scales of values will be different for
each individual, belief in democratic ideals would result in
certain common behavior. The educated person puts him-
self in the place of other members of the family, both
older and younger. He understands their experiences, en-
joys with them their satisfactions, and undergoes with
them their fears and sorrows. As older persons succeed in
doing this, their assistance to those who are younger be-
comes a spontaneous response to emotional need and so is
more likely to be accepted and used constructively.

When democratic ideals and processes are applied in
family life, plans for enterprises in which the family as a
whole engage are made cooperatively. This includes imme-
diate activities, such as choosing what movie the family
will attend tonight, as well as long-time planning, such
as the making of yearly budgets. Every person expresses
preferences and contributes opinions according to his ex-
perience and ability. No member of the family who is
mature enough to have an opinion on the matter in ques-
tion is disregarded.

In the democratic family the carrying out of family

[87]

plans is also cooperative. Every member of the family has
chores scaled to his ability, time, and interests. Sometimes
these are done alone, sometimes with others. At successive
stages of growth and family development, each accepts as
just a share of the household work commensurate with his
age, ability, and interests and with tasks being carried by
other members of the family. Each exercises initiative in
discharging these responsibilities and seeks to improve his
performance of them.

In the democratic family differences are settled by
reason, persuasion, and compromise. This process works
successfully to the degree that each participant makes an
effort to discover how the other person understands the
situation, and how he feels about it. If older members of
a family rely upon this method, it is generally accepted
by those younger as they mature. Qualifications are neces-
sary: to expect children to be ^reasonable" before they
are mature enough to understand the experiences of others
is to desire the impossible. Again, when health or safety
is in question, the parent's first obligation is protection.

The person who learns how to be democratic in his
family relationships will tend to participate in political
and economic affairs in a democratic manner. It is no acci-
dent that the early home life of many statesmen and other
leaders, whose names are associated with democracy, has
been characterized by broad humanitarianism, cooperative
attacks upon the problems of family living, and the adjust-
ment of differences habitually by methods of reason. To
foster democratic family relationships is to build democ-
racy into the economic, social, and political life of the
nation.

Schools and other agencies of education have a long way
to go before offerings in this phase of education will begin
to meet the need. Although "worthy home membership"
was one of the seven cardinal principles formulated in

[88]

1918, education for home and family life is still unknown
in many schools and a stepchild of the curriculum in others.
Despite advances made during the past twenty years 3 only
about 15 percent of the high school and college students
of the country and probably less than 5 percent of the
parents now engage in any kind of systematic education
for home and family life.

With increasing social and political complications, the
tasks of operating family life and making needed adjust-
ments in its pattern are increasing in difficulty. Education
must bend anew to this work, for the stakes are vital. As
citizens learn and practice in their families that regard for
the common welfare and that use of reason in composing
differences which are essential in the democratic way of
life, they will be predisposed to democratic behavior in
wider relationships, and democracy in the nation will
receive fresh impetus at its source.

T?HE OBJECTIVES OF ECONOMIC
EFFICIENCY

Work. The educated producer knows the satisfaction
of good workmanship.

Occupational Information. The educated producer

understands the requirements and opportunities
for various jobs.

Occupational Choice. The educated producer has se-
lected his occupation.

Occupational Efficiency. The educated producer suc-
ceeds in his chosen vocation.

Occupational Adjustment. The educated producer
maintains and improves his efficiency.

Occupational Appreciation. The educated producer
appreciates the social value of his work.

Personal Economics. The educated consumer plans
the economics of his own life.

Consumer Judgment. The educated consumer de-
velops standards for guiding his expenditures.

Efficiency in Buying. The educated consumer Is an
informed and skillful buyer.

Consumer 'Protection. The educated consumer takes
appropriate measures to safeguard his interests.

VI.

THE OBJECTIVES OF ECONOMIC EFFICIENCY

Use, labor of each for all, is the health and virtue
of all beings. Ich dien, I serve, is a truly royal motto.
And it is the 'mark of nobleness to volunteer the
lowest service, the greatest spirit only attaining to
loumility. ' EMERSON.

The objectives of economic efficiency relate to those
activities which have to do with creating and using goods
and services. At present, the major emphasis in education
for economic efficiency is placed on the productive or voca-
tional phase. It is often the only aspect of economic educa-
tion which receives serious attention. This one-sided em-
phasis is unfortunate. Granting the importance of pro-
ducer education, the equal and corollary importance of
consumer education must not be overlooked. Production
and consumption are related to each other as the back of
the hand is to the palm. The roles of the consumer and the
producer are equally dependent upon education for effi-
ciency.

We begin with the objectives of economic efficiency as
they relate to the production of goods and services.

THE PRODUCER

The Educated Producer Knows the Satisfaction of
Good Workmanship.

In a democracy each person contributes according to his
ability to the essential welfare of all. This means that under
ideal conditions each able-bodied adult follows an occtipa-

[91]

tion for which he or she is fitted by ability, personality, and
training and -which provides goods and services of social
and individual value. It is important that children should
learn that each may properly enjoy the fruits of civiliza-
tion only by doing his part in the work of the world, Work
should be regarded as something to be sought, enjoyed, and
respected rather than as something to be avoided, suffered,
and despised. "Work," as used here, includes the efforts of
the teacher, the doctor, the housewife, the business man,
the artist, as well as the usual shirt-sleeve and white-collar
occupations. Even the younger children can learn the neces-
sity of contributing effort to a common cause. Changing
social conditions make work around the home for children
difficult to arrange. Even at some inconvenience to the
adults, however, such work would prove to be of whole-
some educational value.

In the schools opportunities for real and socially desirable
employment may readily be found. Why should not stu-
dents learn valuable practical arts, contribute to the social
dividend, and save public money by improving and safe-
guarding their own school building? Such work, of course,
should be discontinued when the educational value of stu-
dent participation reaches the point of diminishing returns.

The barrier to providing work opportunities as part of
the educational program is largely traditional. As with
many other realistic educational suggestions, this proposal
is slowly adopted because of an unwillingness to recognize
that there can be educational values occurring outside of
classroom study and book-centered recitation. It is declared
that the students cannot spend time away from Latin
declensions and geometry theorems in order to learn the
value of useful work. Under such circumstances, we must
always try to determine what activity has the maximum
educational value for the particular child concerned.

[92]

Nothing in the foregoing statement should be construed
as indicating approval of exploitive child labor, curtail-
ment of educational opportunity, or the use of children in
occupations in competition with adult employment. Stu-
dents should not be entrusted, of course, with work of a
highly technical nature for which they lack strength or
skill.

The Educated Producer Understands the
Requirements and Opportunities for
Various Jobs.

The classic example of occupational learning is Benjamin
Franklin's story of how he was led by his father from one
shop to another to observe the work of the artisans. Under
the relatively simple economic conditions of that day,
occupational information was easily acquired outside of
organized schooling. The boy learned about farming from
his father and on his occasional visits to the county seat
watched the blacksmith, business men, and the representa-
tives of the other occupations of the day at their work.
( Now all that is changed. There are more specialized occu-
pations, less opportunity for learning on the job, and con-
sequently greater need for the assistance of the school.

The Educated Producer Has Selected
His Occupation.

Most people drift into some occupational field with the
result that there is much wasteful occupational shifting
and many a square peg in a round hole. The more nearly
the age of entry to vocation coincides with complete ma-
turity and all the responsibilities that go with it, the more
imperative it becomes that the first vocational choice be
as nearly right as possible. The future success, happiness,
and efficiency of the individual, to say nothing of the direct
concern of society in the matter, often depend on making

[93]

a proper, though not necessarily a permanent, vocational
adjustment not later than the attainment of adulthood.
The guidance of the school with respect to such vocational
adjustment will help the student to survey the needs and
opportunities for employment and to appraise his own
potentialities and opportunities. It will point out to him
the educational programs which best meet his needs, and
help him to make wisely the choices he will have occasion
to exercise during his secondary school career, during his
induction into his vocation, and during his progress in the
vocation. A statement of the importance of vocational
guidance need not imply that the school personnel is omnis-
cient or gifted with prophecy. Existing methods for ap-
praising individual vocational aptitudes and predicting oc-
cupational trends leave much to be desired and call for
further development through research and experimenta-
tion.

Without vocational guidance, vocational education may
be extremely wasteful. Such guidance, of course, is to be re-
garded merely as one important part of a larger and con-
tinuing process of education involving adjustment of the
individual from childhood to old age in all the areas of
human activity. For youths in secondary schools as well as
those of the later adolescent years who are not in school, the
major problems of guidance are concerned with entrance
into occupational life, adjustment to the withdrawal of
parental support and parental control, establishment of
new family relationships, progress toward economic inde-
pendence, and the commencement of the duties and priv-
ileges of adult citizens.

One of the most striking examples of the need for an
expanded and effective program of vocational guidance
is the existence of certain tutorial and correspondence
schools making extravagant claims for training men and
women in a variety of occupations. There are, it is true.

many excellent schools of this type which conduct voca-
tional training of a high type and render a real educational
service. There is, no doubt, a definite need in American
education for the services of a few such schools. But it has
been necessary for the Federal Trade Commission on occa-
sion to issue warnings to protect the public and control the
more glaring examples of exploitation and quackery in
this field. Well-designed programs of vocational guidance
and education in the public schools should develop, among
other things, the ability of young people to distinguish
between the valid and the spurious types of private enter-
prise in vocational preparation.

The Educated "Producer Succeeds in His
Chosen Vocation.

Education for economic productiveness is affected by
several comparatively recent developments in the per-
sonnel to be served and in the prevailing socio-economic
situation. With reference to the student personnel, there
has been a considerable extension of the period of legally
compulsory school attendance. This legal development is
supported by equally important extensions in the period
of voluntary school attendance, due to restricted employ-
ment opportunities and greater social and individual inter-
est in education.The result of both has been a phenomenal
increase in the number of students in high schools and
colleges. Although this spectacular numerical gain has
occupied the spotlight of attention, it is eclipsed in real
importance for education by the vastly increased range of
interests, social backgrounds, vocational outlooks, intellec-
tual abilities, and manual skills among the student per-
sonnel. Thus the demands on secondary and higher educa-
tion are not merely increased in quantity but are also made
much more diversified and complex,

[95]

Other socio-economic trends are affecting vocational
education. There is a distinctly higher average age and a
resulting greater maturity among those seeking gainful
employment. Among youths unable to find profitable oc-
cupations there is a fertile field for ill-defined but highly
explosive feelings of discontent, unrest, and insecurity.
Among adult workers, changing industrial processes create
a demand for vocational retraining. Workers incapaci-
tated for certain occupations by advancing age, illness, or
disabling accidents also seek vocational rehabilitation.

That preparation for vocational success is a part of the
total educational job is not seriously questioned by anyone.
The chief points at issue at the present time are the extent
to which such vocational preparation should be provided
within the organized schools, and the educational level at
which specialized vocational preparation should begin.
One need only consider the vast differences in the intellec-
tual, physical, and other requirements for vocational suc-
cess in the various occupations, to see that no single simple
formula can determine the role of the school in each case.
In most of the vocations which are usually called "pro-
fessions," it is generally agreed that the school, college, and
university must carry the primary educational responsi-
bility, with some cooperation with the professions con-
cerned through various forms of internship. In the voca-
tional preparation of mechanics of various kinds, differ-
ences of procedure are in order. Skilled occupations which
are carried on quite uniformly in almost every community,
such as carpentry, masonry, and automobile repairing,
can be prepared for effectively by school agencies provided
the demand for workers and the density of population are
such that it is possible to assemble a sufficiently large num-
ber of learners to provide instruction at a reasonable cost
per student. In other occupations of a more specialized
nature, as for example, those of the airplane pilot or the

[96]

ship radio operator, vocational preparation has to be given
either in state or regional training schools or in schools
operated by the employers of the persons in these special-
ized occupations.

Although it is impossible to state in detail the specific
responsibilities of the schools in equipping children with
specialized vocational skills, there are certain general prin-
ciples which seem to be valid. First, the relationship be-
tween vocational education and the employing and the
employed groups must be close, sympathetic, and cooper-
ative. Schools ought to cultivate relationships with industry
and other occupational fields. The term "practical" educa-
tion should not be used solely to describe society's out-of-
school efforts to deal with the occupational preparation.

Second, it is no longer profitable, if indeed it ever was
so, to debate the relative importance of vocational and non-
vocational education. The two are not properly considered
as competitive; they are phases of a single process. An edu-
cational program which, taken as a whole, neglects either
aspect, is incomplete, if not actually harmful. The differ-
ence between vocational and non- vocational studies, then,
is one of emphasis in the individual student's purposes. A
working distinction cannot be based on any single logical
or arbitrary classification of the parts of the curriculum.
When a subject or part of a subject is pursued for the
primary purpose of developing marketable initial skills or
vocational competence, it may be vocational, but the very
same activities undertaken to discover or develop inter-
ests and abilities or to enrich living, become essentially non-
vocational.

Every subject of instruction and every daily lesson may
relate to occupational activities the linguistic, mathe-
matical, scientific, and social as well as the musical, artistic,
homemaking, agricultural, and industrial studies. More-

197}

over, each may contribute a significant share to general
education as a wholeJEvery subject is also, at some stage,
a tryout of the interests and abilities of students. An eve-
ning course, designed primarily to train workers in certain
occupational skills, may be pursued by some students as
a recreational activity, in which latter cases it is essentially
non-vocational. Again, the prospective teacher of French
or of drawing studies French or drawing as part of his
occupational preparation, while other students ordinarily
aim at enrichment of experience.

The principle should also be made clear that when
interests and abilities have been discovered in any field,
opportunities should be provided for their continuous
development without excluding other possible or desirable
Interests or activities. The guidance program should aim
to plan each pupil's total learning activities in harmony
with his interests, abilities, and vocational outlook, and to
provide the necessary safeguards against too early speciali-
zation on the one hand and dissipation of effort and neglect
of abilities on the other hand. This planning, it should
never be forgotten, must be done pupil by pupil. It is not
an activity suitable for mass action.

Again, we must remind ourselves that the advance in
technology in the present century and earlier, the social
and economic dislocations following the World War, and
the cataclysmic sweep of the cycle of boom, depression,
and recovery have brought changes in the social organiza-
tion which are significant for vocational education. Even
a brief enumeration of these changes would include: (i)
the increase of unemployment, particularly in the cities;
(2) the decreased demand for the gainful labor of children
and youth, reflected both in employment policies and in
legislation; (3) delayed entry into full vocational respon-
sibilities; (4) legislation marking the first steps toward

[98]

social security in old age and in time of unemployment;
(5) the increasing specialization of many types of trades
and professions; (6) the mechanization of many agricul-
tural as well as industrial operations; (7) the increase in
the gainful employment of women; (8) a decreasing de-
mand for labor requiring little special training, judgment,
or manual dexterity and an increasing demand for workers
with skill, insight, and adaptability; and (9) increasing
acceptance of public responsibility for the social effective-
ness of the entire population.

These social changes confront America with the need
for informed intelligence and a sense of social responsibility
as well as vocational adequacy among its people. They do
not suggest that the schools diminish their energies in voca-
tional preparation although the period of vocational
specialization may well be postponed in an increasing num-
ber of cases until the completion of a general program of
secondary education. The home and other non-school
agencies help in supplying vocational needs, but they can-
not and do not complete the job. Organized education is
the primary agency which society holds responsible for
seeing to it that these purposes are realized. The school, the
only social agency whose sole business is education, com-
pletes and organizes the work of the other agencies. It
need not in all cases undertake to do the whole educational
job. It may do part of the job and attempt to see that the
rest is done by other agencies.

The Educated Producer Maintains
and Improves His Efficiency.

Perhaps the most significant current development in
American education is the growing recognition that the
responsibility of educational agencies for the welfare of
youth no longer ends with graduation or school leaving.

[99]

The continuous study of the problems of vocational ad-
justment which confront all youth and, to some degree,
all adults, in school and out, must continually modify
educational objectives. The schools and other educational
agencies should develop attitudes which will lead the
worker to attempt to improve his vocational fitness through
constant study of the relationship of his work to that of
other fields. Technological change indicates the wisdom
of widespread opportunity for adult vocational training
and retraining. Workers who, because of technological,
economic, or accidental reasons, find themselves unem-
ployed or unemployable must be helped to make a new
choice of work and to retrain for competency in a new
vocation.

The Educated Producer Appreciates
the Social Value of His WorL

With proper social motives, a vocation may be made
the most compelling purpose of education which we can
set before a pupil. The fundamental subjects of study,
preparation for home life and .citizenship, applied science
and mathematics, and practical economics these and
many other fields when approached from the viewpoint
of the vocation and its related life often take on a richer
meaning. On the whole, America has been fortunately free
from the Old World concept that no "gentleman" can fol-
low any occupation other than that of scholar, priest, or
soldier. A democracy will not separate its work and its
culture. It will not regard one who works as inferior nor
set false distinctions between occupations. One of the im-
portant tasks of education is to extend the worker's insight
into the social utility and significance of his work, the
scientific background of what he is doing, his relation to
other workers, and what his work means to other people.

[100]

The vocational life of many persons now includes an
extremely narrow range of intellectual activity. Until
more fundamental reforms can be devised and secured,
society should take steps through its educational agencies
to ameliorate the undesirable features of this trend. Equally
desirable with a share in material wealth, is a share in the
intellectual resources of the world. For this latter field, the
schools are particularly responsible. Vocational education
in a democracy should stress the contribution of the occu-
pation to the social welfare and temper the all too common
use of personal pecuniary advantage as the primary ob-
jective of learning.

THE CONSUMER

The Educated Consumer Plans the
Economics of His Own Life.

The economic security of many people is highly tenuous.
Disability, the cost of medical care, unpredictable losses
of savings, incomes insufficient to provide a reasonable
living standard, irregular employment, and complete un-
employment are factors which interfere with the best laid
personal economic plans. Individual action, no matter how
prudent or industrious, may be quite inadequate to meet
these hazards to personal economic well-being. These
larger economic adjustments will need to be made by large-
scale social and governmental action. The role of the edu-
cated person in such action may best be considered in con-
nection with the chapter on "The Objectives of Civic
Responsibility/*

Apart from these larger socio-economic adjustments,
however, there is no inconsiderable area for individual care
and discrimination in planning and operating the eco-
nomic phases of life. ,Not all economic insecurity is due
to unemployment and illness. Foolish spending which yields

[101]

no enduring satisfactions or advantages, general gullibility
and thriftlessness, gambling against odds which can be
stated only in astronomical terms these undermine eco-
nomic security and efficiency at all income levels and among
all sorts of people. The educated consumer budgets his
expenditures in the light of good principles as adjusted to
his own particular circumstances and financial ability. He
has learned that small expenditures, constantly repeated,
mount to large totals. He knows that all borrowing costs
the borrower money, and sometimes exorbitantly so. He
knows that instalment buying is a form of borrowing.
He can balance a checkbook. He buys no gold-bricks.
He uses good sense in his savings and understands the rela-
tive advantages of banks, insurance, credit unions, the
postal savings system, government securities, and the vari-
ous types of business investments as a means of developing
and utilizing his reserves. Through such means, the edu-
cated consumer has learned to exercise the highest possible
degree of economic self -responsibility.

The Educated Consumer Develops Standards
for Guiding His Expenditures.

The individual judgments and preferences of the buyer,
weighted in our economy by monetary incomes, determine
the uses to which natural resources and human energies
are put. To the extent that there is ignorance of need and
undesirable standards, there will be discrepancy between
effective demand and the line of general advantage in
terms of health, vigor, beauty, creative activities, and
similar values. Productive energy is misdirected on a grand
scale by unwise consumer judgments.

The consumer's education should seek to improve his
scale of preferences by leading him to evaluate his own
standards. Consumers should be acquainted, therefore,
with the most important conclusions of science and ex-

[102]

perience about liuman needs and the means of meeting
them. Those tastes should be cultivated that are the source
of esthetic enjoyment and the development of those arts
and aptitudes that recreate, enrich experience, and widen
the outlook. At this point of special need in our society
our educational program is weak. Those whose knowledge
is deficient should be familiarized with the most desirable
consumption patterns. This democratization of high-level
consumption is a part of the mass education necessary in
an equalitarian society. A simplification of living or devia-
tion from the approved pattern based on ignorance is not
the same as simplicity or deviation based on deliberate
preference. As a basis for the understanding and appraisal
of their own standards consumers should be acquainted
with the social and esthetic value of other culture groups,
past and present. Attention should be given to the psy-
chology of choice; current consumption standards should
be analyzed and an attempt made to understand and evalu-
ate the forces that have shaped and are now shaping them.
Independence of judgment and discrimination in making
consumption choices are especially to be fostered since in
this realm blind obedience to custom and slavish deference
to the opinion of others are so characteristic.

Education for consumption with the objective outlined
above obviously cannot be limited to one sex; nor can it
without grave hazards be entrusted to those interested in
guiding demand for their own financial advantage. Clearly
also this education cannot be attained through the study
of a single field of knowledge.

The Educated Consumer Is an
Informed and Skillful Buyer.

An important role of the consumer in our society, or of
an unpaid family member to whom the responsibility is

[ 103 ]

delegated, is that of buyer. We are here concerned not with
directing wants but with their economical satisfaction
through market selection. Concretely, the consumer at-
tains this end gets the maximum amount of what he
wants for his money only when he selects the best goods
available at a particular price or when he gets an article
of specified quality at the lowest price available. Thus,
although there is some relationship, education of the con-
sumer for buying is obviously a different matter from
education to form values, to elevate tastes or stimulate
new interests and desires.

Education for buying is not so difficult a task or so far-
reaching in its scope as the education of the consumer as
choice-maker. More fundamental than the economical
satisfaction of wants is their shaping and direction. The
former is, however, a necessity if great economic wastes
are to be avoided. Consumer-buying is now a haphazard
process characterized by mistakes and losses that can be
corrected only by market changes and by education of the
buyer. Here are involved questions of prices and price
changes, quality, quantity, adulteration, substitution of
one commodity for another, fashion and style, instalment
buying, and "sales resistance."

An educational program, designed to increase the buyer's
efficiency, should begin with knowledge of what goods
are available in the market. The buyer must learn what
specific qualities to seek and what to avoid in these goods.
He must discover in other words what makes an article
good and what makes it bad for bis purposes. So far as
the qualities or quantity of specific goods are made known
by means of a standardized nomenclature, the buyer must
know the meaning of such terms. The buyer must know
not only the goods he is buying but the market in which
he buys. The educational program organized for his benefit
should, therefore, give him understanding of marketing

[ 104 ]

agencies and their operation. He should understand the
pricing process under various conditions; he should be
familiar with selling methods; he should be able to evaluate
sales talk, price policies, and market arrangements in
general.

Since buying is today so largely in the hands of women,
education for buying should especially be emphasized in
all educational programs constructed with their special
needs in mind. Education for buying may be considered
as a major part of the vocational training typically, but
not exclusively, needed by women under the current di-
vision of labor in the home.

The Educated Consumer Takes Appropriate
Measures to Safeguard His Interests.

Finally, the intelligent buyer would know his legal reme-
dies in case of injury to health or purse and be familiar with
the special protection given by state or federal statutes or
local ordinances. He should be able to evaluate the ade-
quacy of his legal protection and know what changes are
desirable. He should know which legislative measures pro-
posed would be to his interests and which would be against
them. He should join with other consumers in bringing
about necessary protective legislation. He should learn the
advantages and disadvantages of joining with other con-
sumers for the cooperative purchase of goods, for securing
impartial advice on the relative merits of different brands
and makes, and for securing legislation which is in the
interest of consumers generally.

In all of the aspects of consumer education, sales pro-
motion is today the dominant educative (or mis-educative)
force. This force, by the very circumstances of its exist-
ence, is in the hands of personally interested parties who
must seek to create effective and continuing demand for

[105]

their goods or services. Advertising should, of course, be
truthful but, even if misleading or "false" advertising were
completely eliminated, the need for consumer education
would not be met. Information and skill in choosing and
buying are as important as information and skill in pro-
ducing and selling. Consumer education is a universal
need; it should be provided for all through the schools and
not left to accidental learning*

(^_.A ^TTA A^

THE OBJECTIVES OF CIVIC RESPONSIBILITY

Social Justice, The educated citizen is sensitive to the
disparities of human circumstance.

Social Activity. The educated citizen acts to correct
unsatisfactory conditions.

Social Understanding. The educated citizen seeks to
understand social structures and social processes.

Critical Judgment. The educated citizen has defenses
against propaganda.

Tolerance. The educated citizen respects honest dif-
ferences of opinion.

Conservation. The educated citizen has a regard for
the nation's resources.

Social Applications of Science. The educated citizen
measures scientific advance by its contribution
to the general welfare.

World Citizenship. The educated citizen is a co-
operating member of the world community.

Law Observance. The educated citizen respects the
law.

Economic Literacy. The educated citizen is economi-
cally literate.

Political Citizenship. The educated citizen accepts his
civic duties.

Devotion to Democracy. The educated citizen acts
upon an unswerving loyalty to democratic
ideals.

VII.

THE OBJECTIVES OF Civic RESPONSIBILITY

OUT country -might conceivably be overwhelmed
by superior military force, but our democracy will
never be imperiled by outside attacks. Democracy
is always weakened from within. Only its own feeble-
ness or complacency destroys it. We in Europe see
more clearly than you that democracy dies from lack
of discipline, unwillingness to compromise, group
pressure, corruption, usurpation of public power be-
cause the public h greedy or indifferent. It dies unless
it draws life from- every citizen. Denouncing dictators
gets nowhere. The job of those who believe in the
democratic process is to be positive, not negative, to
build it up, expose and correct its mistakes, keep it
alive.

A statement from Czechoslovakia published
in the New York Times, September 25, 1937.

The Educated Citizen Is Sensitive to
the Disparities of Human Circumstance.

It is of peculiar importance that all the citizens of a
democracy become aware of the extraordinary range of
conditions under which men live. Most of us look at society
with a lens of exceedingly short focus. What lies at a dis-
tance is invisible to us or is recognized only dimly. The
area within which the educated individual ''has a feel" for
the experience of others has been greatly expanded. What
is it like to be a farm laborer? a textile factory operative?
a rolling mill hand? What is involved in living for years
at the bottom? What is It like to live in a slum area? to
survive a flood? to come through a dust storm? What does
it mean to rise from the bottom? Vivid records of these

[109]

and a host of other human experiences can be brought to
the attention of young people through the schools. Excur-
sions to situations within reach of the schools can be used
to good effect. Film material will probably in time serve
the same purpose and bring both nearby and remote en-
vironments before the eyes of children and youths. Litera-
ture, too, affords excellent opportunity for vicarious shar-
ing in the experiences of others. Of course,, undue strain
on youthful emotions is to be avoided, but properly safe-
guarded, the task can be carried through without hazard.

The Educated Citizen Acts To Correct
Unsatisfactory Conditions.

In the light of democratic ideals, current conditions
appear to be far from satisfactory. If the result of sensitiz-
ing the student to the social situation is merely acute obser-
vation or pointless curiosity or a vague sympathy, not
enough has been accomplished. A broad, expanding, and
active humanitarianism should be the personal possession
of all. Fortunately, among children and adolescents, sym-
pathies run strong and the desire to do good is readily
elicited. The schools should seek to give concrete exercise
to these feelings and impulses on the level of the young
people involved. Of course, sentimentality has to be avoided.
It is one thing to wish to relieve human distress; it is some-
thing else to devise measures of relief that are constructive.

The Educated Citizen Seeks To Understand
Social Structures and Social Processes.

With the experts the economists, political scientists,
sociologists, and the rest disagreeing in their interpreta-
tions of social phenomena, the path of the educator under-
taking to deal with social activity is a thorny one. That

[110]

the social sciences are still in an early stage of development
must be frankly recognized. Furthermore, differences in
opinion on social issues arise not alone from the lack of
knowledge and the other difficulties of scientific inquiry,
but even more from the differing sets of values which,
perhaps unknown even to himself, each student brings to
the study of social problems. Making appropriate allow-
ances, however, for inherent difficulties and limitations,
something substantial can be done in giving young people
a more adequate knowledge than they now have of the
nature of the society in which they live. Differences be-
tween wishful and realistic thinking can be exposed, and
the stubbornness of social facts, the momentum of social
processes, and the inertia of social institutions brought
pointedly home.

The Educated Citizen Has "Defenses
Against Propaganda.

The reporting of social events is characteristically loose
and inaccurate, even when not purposely colored or dis-
honest. Let the students find out how well-nigh Impossible
it is to ascertain just what happens in the course of a labor
dispute. Let them follow, through a variety of journals of
differing economic and political attitudes, the day-to-day
record of the occurrences in a local strike. The typical con-
flict of testimony of eye-witnesses, say of an automobile
accident, should be critically examined. The arts of propa-
ganda and of modern advertising should be made known.
The time has come to equip the individual citizen in the
democratic state with reasonable defenses against the pres-
sures of mass thinking and feeling exerted nowadays
through bill-board and poster, press, radio, and film. A
healthy measure of skepticism about social data should
reinforce an aggressive search for reliable information in

[Hi]

the training of youth for more effective participation in
democratic ways of living.

The Educated Citizen Respects
Differences of Opinion.

Even when it is possible to locate all pertinent facts and
to agree concerning these facts, social situations still suggest
to different persons a wide variety of practical, and yet
often sharply conflicting, measures. Tolerance is, of course,
one of the hallmarks of the truly democratic society, and
lack of tolerance one of the sharply distinguishing traits of
the authoritarian state. Tolerance does not imply an
absence of belief and conviction; in fact, were there no
conflicting beliefs and convictions it would be impossible
to exhibit tolerance. Certainly it is clear that no democratic
society can afford to purchase tolerance at the cost of clear
and confident thinking on the part of its citizens. Young
people in the schools need to be taught to reach their own
opinions and within reason to hold to them, at the same
time accepting the fact that others are entitled to differing
opinions honestly reached and similarly defended.

The Educated Citizen Has a Regard
for the Nation's Resources.

Our national life and culture and, indeed, our very ex-
istence depend in the last analysis upon the availability of
essential natural resources and the use which is made of
them. Forests, soils, grasslands, water, minerals, oil, fish,
game, and scenic beauty are among the rich natural endow-
ments of the area of the North American continent covered
by the United States. Realization of the basic importance
of these resources, determination to utilize them for the
common good through long-range planning, and general

[112]

knowledge of appropriate remedial and preventive con-
servation procedures are among the marks of the educated
citizen. Since future welfare and safety depend on those
things, the schools may well assume considerable responsi-
bility for checking the ravages upon the heritage of the
nation made by ignorance, indifference, carelessness, and
unbridled selfishness. Instruction should include conserva-
tion problems of national and regional scope and may be
most effective if organized in connection with the teaching
of the natural sciences and the social studies at all levels of
the school program. The school system will find cordial
allies in this task in many departments of local, state, and
federal government, and in many private agencies. In
passing, it may be noted that there is need for materials on
conservation which are written in a style suited to children
and which are impartial and accurate. Reports of govern-
mental and private investigations frequently meet the
second criterion but seldom satisfy the first. Suitable ma-
terials on conservation should be included in standard text-
books and in other publications for use by children.

The Educated Citizen Measures Scientific
Advance by Its Contribution to the
General Welfare.

We have seen in an earlier chapter how the application of
science and invention to problems of industrial production,
medicine, and human relationship has revolutionized our
social and cultural customs and standards. Yet science in
itself is entirely indifferent to moral values. Thanks to the
discoveries and applications of science, electricity can be
manufactured, stored, harnessed, and transported over
hundreds of miles of wire. And at the end of that journey
it will with perfect neutrality speed a streamlined train,
light a scholar's desk, electrocute a criminal, operate a lif e-

[113]

saving pulmotor, or burn the toast. Again, the intricate
chain of scientific discovery and invention which involves
the manufacture of paper and ink, the linotype, and the
great printing presses will place in our hands with, equal
indifference the finest literature or the veriest trash, the
honest conclusions of the scholar or the most poisonous
propaganda. The methods and findings of science, then,
seek with considerable success to ignore ethical judgments.
But the applications of science to the needs and desires of
man are entirely subject to social and individual control.

Science instruction has been too largely concerned with
attempting to produce scientists rather than with produc-
ing citizens who have an intelligent understanding of the
methods, significance, and application of science, and who
are determined that science shall function in the improve-
ment of the everyday life of the people. The teacher of
English literature, even at the college level, rarely cherishes
the illusion that he is making novelists, poets, and drama-
tists. Science too is, for the mass of the people, a cultural
subject. The emphasis should be placed upon the past and
possible future applications of science to increase the well-
being of mankind.

The Educated Citizen Is a Cooperating
Member of the World Community.

Modern conditions of national interdependence make
membership in the world community inescapable. Educa-
tion should make that membership cooperative and con-
structive. Education which develops a rational and sympa-
thetic attitude toward other nations and their problems is
education of a highly patriotic type. A teacher who finds
it advisable to create suspicion and hatred of other nations,
as a basis for love of one's own country is exhibiting a social
consciousness which is too narrow for the demands of the

twentieth century. The problem here is greater than vigor-
ous education against war. Even the achievement of peace
is not a final goaL Thoughtful persons throughout the
world agree in desiring peace, not merely for its own sake
but also because the necessary conditions for human happi-
ness and development can be attained only under a peaceful
regime.

Deep-seated political, racial, religious, and economic
controversies now prevent the attainment of international
peace. These problems can be adjusted only under condi-
tions of tolerance, fair play, and democracy. To develop
these attitudes so that they function in international affairs
is an important function of education.

Much attention is now very properly centered on the
role of the school in restoring reason and peace to the place
of honor in international affairs. Much is already being done
to acquaint pupils with the nature of existing machinery
for international relations and with the truths of national
history. The contributions of the various races and nations
to civilization and culture, the sufferings and moral degra-
dations brought about by war, and the superior value and
importance of the arts of peace are subjects considered
in many schoolrooms. All this is wholesome and should be
extended.

The Educated Citizen Respects the Law.

All laws and other governmental controls are properly
established by the people and their duly chosen representa-
tives and are subject to popular review and revision. Cer-
tain essential rights of minorities are recognized and appeals
for protection may be carried to the courts if these rights
are invaded. Obedience to constituted authority, as mani-
fested in law, is a necessary element in a well-ordered
society. Disobedience and disrespect for law, on the other

[115]

Hand, are symptoms either of indifference to the welfare
of others or of distrust of democratic processes. As com-
pared with other countries, we are a lawbreaking, though
by no means a lawless, nation. Many factors have been
suggested as causes for the relatively high crime rates in this
country* Whatever the cause, the schools should attempt
through instruction and organization to develop an under-
standing of the nature of law and of its role in human
affairs, to promote habits of willing and intelligent obedi-
ence, and to create an attitude of respect for law and an
appreciation of the inherent dignity of the law-abiding
citizen in a democracy.

Such a program does not commit the schools to an en-
dorsement of every law on the statute books, but it does
suggest that every citizen owes obedience even to laws of
which he does not approve* His remedy is not to flout the
law but to seek to change it. And a democratic government
permits him to do this if he can convince others that such
change would be in the interest of the general welfare.

The Educated Citizen Is Economically
Literate.

Government has always been closely related to economic
problems. Whether or not that relationship is becoming
closer with the passage of time, it is certainly true that the
major problems of public life have important economic
aspects. The issues upon which elections turn, the questions
which agitate the public mind, the problems debated by
legislative bodies, and the agenda of public officers, are
very frequently economic in origin. The citizen of a de-
mocracy, therefore, needs to acquire the information, the
experience, and the willingness to deal constructively with
collective economic problems. Each needs also informa-
nt

tion, experience, and motivation to maintain his own eco-
nomic contribution at a high level.

The person who is economically literate has found out
by direct or vicarious experience, that wealth is produced
by work; that goods and services usually vary greatly in
quality; that some advertising is truthful, some false, and
all of it interested first of all in selling goods, services, or
ideas; that collective expenditures, in cooperatives or in
public finance, for example, may be either good or bad
depending on the attendant circumstances; that getting
something for nothing, through gambling in any of its
forms, always means that the other fellow gets nothing for
something; that every dollar spent is an economic ballot
voting for necessities or for trash; that war is uneconomic
because it uses natural resources to destroy human
resources; and that individual economic advancement
through deceit or exploitation of others is unworthy of
an honest man.

The citizen who is economically literate is acquainted
with certain broad economic issues, conditions, and pro-
cedures. He has become familiar through frequent usage
with currently important economic concepts, with the
ideas of supply and demand, investment and profit, capital
and labor, scarcity and abundance, monopoly, the market,
wages and prices. He is informed concerning the principal
economic developments under public auspices, such as the
Tennessee Valley power projects and the Social Security
laws. He sees these trends and conditions in the light of
their historic antecedents. He knows certain facts which
are crucial to the economic lif e of the country its basic
physical and human resources, its potential and actual pro-
ductivity, the distribution of incomes and wealth, and the
degree of concentration or dispersal of ownership and man-
agement. Only as a growing degree of competence and

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interest in these matters is diffused among the people can
democracy function in the teeth of technological change.

The Educated Citizen Accepts His Civic Duties.

Every American citizen lives under at least three govern-
ments: local, state, and national. This arrangement in itself
makes for complexity. The attempted readjustments of
our political arrangements to a highly industrialized civili-
zation have rapidly increased this complexity during the
past quarter of a century.

It can no longer be accepted as a truism that the person
who is a good citizen in his local community is automati-
cally qualified for citizenship in the state or the nation. The
requirements for the latter have grown to include a broad
knowledge of national political affairs and the ability to
exercise reliable judgment on problems which have their
source far from the home community.

Thus, more and more knowledge must go into the equip-
ment of the educated and intelligent voter. The fact that
thirty million qualified voters do not exercise their fran-
chise, even in the most exciting elections, certainly indicates
a potential danger. It is even more alarming when voters
are ignorant of the issues at stake. All too many of these,
latter have been persuaded to come to the polls with a feel-
ing that their duty is done when they vote, no matter how
little civic information and intelligence support their
decision.

An urgent responsibility of the schools, then, is to lead
the young citizens of America to discover the knowledge,
and the means of obtaining the knowledge, which will
enable them to discharge their duties intelligently. In order
to do this they will need, among other things, to study all
forms of government and economy, the advantages and
disadvantages of each, honestly comparing one with an-

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other. And this judgment has been rendered essential not
only by the complexity of the situation but also by the
efforts made by propagandists to take advantage of the
present confusion.

But the interests of the school do not end with knowl-
edge. The next step is to create the desire to act upon the
judgments which the learners have made. Knowledge is
power only as it is translated into action. Furthermore,
knowledge alone does not lead to right action. For example,
knowledge of human nature is invaluable to teachers and
ministers in helping them to render better services, but it is
just as useful to the confidence man, the pick-pocket, or the
purveyor of falsehood.

The emotional side cannot be neglected, but its education
is a process which requires the utmost care. It is a matter
of greatest moment that feelings have their source in the
individual's tempered judgment, rather than in the notions
and prejudices of some organization or person. It is essential
that future citizens learn that the means for solving the
many distressing social problems of today must be the means
of democracy: discussion, action through legally-provided
channels, change of present governmental machinery when
such change becomes necessary to progress. Force, craft,
bribery, threats, and appeals to emotion are processes of
dictatorship in no way effective in the maintenance of a
democratic form of government.

The citizens of the future need to develop keen judg-
ment in political matters in order to distinguish between
those who would maintain democracy through democratic
processes and those who are endeavoring to destroy its
spirit, while they burn incense on the most conspicuous
altars to the word itself. Governmental problems and the
broader problems of society require calm reasoning, not
hysteria, for their solution. Those who frantically rush to
"give their lives'* for a particular ideology, would many

[H91

times make a greater contribution to the general welfare
if they but gave of their thinking and their time instead.
Devotion may result in unwarranted sacrifice, and still fail
to accomplish the desired ends.

In addition to voting, and voting with a ballot charged
with good intentions, sound reasoning, and basic informa-
tion, there are other civic responsibilities for which the
schools should prepare the present and rising generations.
One of the most important of these relates to the support
of public activities in those spheres where private activity
is not at least equally efficient and productive. The opera-
tion of the postal system, for example, is one among many
accepted public responsibilities. The questions are always
open, however, as to whether other services might not be
added to those presently discharged by governmental agen-
cies and whether, on the contrary, the government is per-
forming services which might be better handled by private
initiative.

The consideration of such questions is a necessary ac-
tivity of an educated citizen and his schooling should fit
him to engage in it. He should learn that there is nothing
inherently bad or inherently virtuous in expanded govern-
mental services; he should understand the circumstances
in modern social life which have brought about the exten-
sion of governmental functions and which make further
extension probable in the future; he should be quick to
devise methods for utilizing public action in the public
interest; and finally he should understand that the process
of taxation according to ability to pay is the means by
which all of us, working together, produce services and
benefits needed by all which each of us working alone
might not be able to create or enjoy.

There are other rights and responsibilities with which the
educated citizen of democracy should be acquainted; for
example, a general but not of course detailed or technical

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knowledge of his rights and responsibilities before the law
as plaintiff, defendant, witness, and juryman. The list of
specific civic responsibilities might be further extended
but the three that have been mentioned intelligent and
socially-minded voting, an appreciation of governmental
services, and a layman's knowledge of the law appear to
be outstanding needs at the present time.

The Educated Citizen Acts upon an Unswerving
Loyalty to Democratic Ideals.

As a people we have come to take our civic privileges all
too lightly. We have no vivid impressions of how we should
be individually affected if our heritage of civil liberties were
lost. We need to be aware of what would happen to educa-
tion, for example, if American democracy should be de-
stroyed. For liberty to think there would soon be substi-
tuted the imposition of approved ideas; for unhampered
judgment, parrot-like repetition of the judgments of
others; for freedom to examine facts and draw the con-
clusions demanded by intellectual honesty, the acceptance
of the whims and prejudices of the party in power.

Most of us have little notion of the century-long struggle
through which our present privileges were won. It is high
time that the drama of this historic record be presented
adequately in our schools. No stone should be left unturned
in the effort to give youth a full realization of what democ-
racy means, of the privileges which it affords, of the ways
and means through which, with work and patience, it is to
be more successfully achieved.

It is important, too, that loyalty to the democratic ideal
and appreciation of its possibilities be supported by an
acute awareness of the factors which threaten it. Although
these factors are not easily identified, certain items would
be included in any comprehensive list.

[121]

First, the aggressiveness of the authoritarian states as well
as other conditions are creating international tensions which
threaten to bring about war. And, as has already been
pointed out, war is poisonous to democracy. Second, our
inadequate control of the application of science and tech-
nology has permitted great concentration of economic
power, has destroyed morale and brought about prolonged
depressions, widespread unemployment, and other social
ills. These conditions are accompanied by unrest, insecurity,
and general dissatisfaction. Another factor which threatens
democracy is the weakening of religious convictions and of
moral codes without the development of adequate ethical
controls to take their place. Again, democracy is always in
danger when government shows itself incapable of meeting
justifiable human needs or when leadership in public affairs
tends to express the momentary popular fancy or selfish
minority interests.

There is also a threat to democracy in that naive equali-
tarianism which refuses to recognize and act upon the in-
dubitable fact that individual human beings differ greatly
from one another in important respects. Whether one be-
lieves that these differences are inborn or acquired may
modify one's opinion as to how they should be treated, but
under any circumstances it is both futile and dangerous to
deny their present existence. Democracy is endangered also
by the resort to force and violence in the settlement of
controversial issues, with the accompanying decay of the
ability and willingness to think dispassionately. Private
control of police and military power and the open violation
of law with impunity are examples of conditions which
elsewhere have led to the downfall of democracy. Democ-
racy must meet conditions created by modern propaganda
which, without control and in the hands of a large number
of minority pressure groups, threatens to destroy even the
semblance of social unity. With these new tools of propa-

[122]

ganda the demagog is given new weapons. In the absence of
a well-informed public opinion he may advocate policies
which are popular without regard for the possibility of
achieving them. By reaching large audiences in effective
ways, he may lead many people to accept proposals which
he, himself, knows are entirely impossible or inexpedient.
A highly complex society which tends to distract the inter-
ests of men and women from civic and social questions is
obviously difficult to operate in a democratic manner.
Finally, we may mention a factor which is, to a degree, an
outcome of all that have been mentioned the lack of social
discipline and unwillingness of many individuals to accept
their just responsibilities for the social welfare. An ignorant
people, who lack access to the facts on social issues or who
lack an appreciation of democratic values, is perhaps the
greatest danger to democracy. An intelligent understand-
ing of these dangers should accompany and intensify loyalty
to democracy as a way of life.

Let it not be thought that responsibility for the attain-
ment of the objectives here described devolves solely upon
the social studies. The entire curriculum, the entire life of
the school, in fact, should be a youthful experience in
democratic living, quickening social inventiveness and agi-
tating the social conscience. So are citizens for the demo-
cratic state successfully educated.

VIII.

CRITICAL FACTORS IN THE ATTAINMENT
OF EDUCATIONAL PURPOSES

To reshape reality by means of ideas is the business
of -man, his proper earthly task; and nothing can be
impossible to a will confident of itself and of its aim.

FRIEDRICH PAULSEN.

The purposes of education proposed in this report 'are
not offered as a complete solution of the problems of Ameri-
can democracy. The results achieved, even by the best
schools today, doubtless fall somewhat short of the objec-
tives we have hopefully proposed. Many schools in which
these goals would be readily accorded lip-service may ac-
tually, though unwittingly, seek very different objectives,
perhaps even objectives of a directly opposing nature. As
in other periods and places, a gap forms between the ideal
and the accomplishment; a disturbing contrast arises be-
tween accepted aims and their attainment in practice.

Many Factors Condition the Success
of Education.

The chief function of this final chapter is to show tljfe
relation between some of the everyday problems of tfie
schools and the objectives proposed in the preceding sec-
tions. For this reason, frank and realistic treatment has
been attempted. In addition, this chapter may serve in a
measure as an overview of the program of the Educational
Policies Commission.

In general, three groups of conditioning factors limit
the school's effectiveness in reaching its objectives: (i) the

[125]

Inherent quality of the human stock which is to be edu-
cated, (2) the effects of other educative and maleducative
agencies outside the schools, and (3) the efficiency of the
schools themselves. The existence of factors which condi-
tion the success of the schools should not harass or discour-
age those responsible for improvement. Every hindrance
to ideal educational progress enlarges the opportunity of
the school.

THE HUMAN STOCK

Variations Exist in the Human Material
To Be Educated.

The school works with human beings. The native and
acquired abilities or disabilities in the individuals whom the
school is attempting to serve constitute not only the basis
of progress, but also stubborn limitations to effective educa-
tional and social progress. No matter how skillfully the
work may be done, there are limits to the adaptations which
the school at present can bring about in the capacities, the
information, the habits, and the dispositions of the indi-
vidual learner. Many children have inherited or acquired
handicaps which, however proficiently the school may
work, interfere with the realization of educational pur-
poses.

The Schools Must Begin with
Children as They Are.

It would, no doubt, be gratifying to teachers of music,
for instance, if every child would learn to appreciate and
understand to the full the intricate beauties of symphonic
music. Every teacher of English literature would be pleased
to find all of his pupils able to read with pleasure and under-
standing the more difficult essays, poems, and plays. Every

[ 126 ]

teacher of economics would, no doubt, like to help every
child to secure a complete understanding of the various
theories of money and banking. Every teacher of indus-
trial arts would be pleased to find each pupil sufficiently
equipped with manual dexterity to learn to do highly
skilled work in that field.

Some few children are so intellectually gifted, so estheti-
cally sensitive, or so apt in manual skills that they seem
scarcely to need either school or teacher. The democratic
ideal requires that no pains be spared to offer a rich and
significant educational program to these gifted children,
to the end that their learning shall have maximum value.

Other children are dull, unresponsive, or clumsy. The
process of education is difficult for them and for their
teachers. Yet these children, too, must be served by the
schools in the interest of the democracy to which the Ameri-
can people rightfully aspire. Although not all learners can
attain to the educational aims set up as desirable, the aims
must be maintained in the interest of all, including those
unable to reach them completely. Otherwise there can be
no social direction for the guidance of this agency of
democracy.

A condition which often prevents the application of this
philosophy is overemphasis on marks and promotions from
grade to grade. These devices can do great damage to edu-
cation if they are regarded by teachers and children as ends
in themselves.

The Objectives of Education Are Goals
To Be Approximated.

Education hitches its wagon to a star. It hopes, aspires,
and struggles. The democratic theory of social life presup-
poses that every child and every other member of society
must have at least some degree of capacity for improve-

[127]

ment and growth. That capacity, however large or small
it may be for any given individual, is the fulcrum for the
lifting power of democracy. The purposes of education
might perhaps be called "directives" more appropriately
than "objectives," although the latter word is sanctioned
by long usage. These purposes indicate the direction toward
which growth should occur. Failure to reach a particular
end-point with perfection by every child does not consti-
tute failure of the school or of the democratic ideal. Failure
comes only when no progress is made.

Once these concepts of approximation and direction are
grasped, the deficiencies in human material change in sig-
nificance. If children are less gifted, in one way or another,
than we could desire, we may be satisfied with a delayed and
approximate attainment of the objectives. But such approx-
imation is not to be regarded as a weak surrender of ideals
to practical demands. On the contrary, to make the ability
of the learner and the efficiency of the school as great as
possible is the practical means by which our ideals may be
approached. It is firmly believed that the objectives pro-
posed in this report could be closely approximated by prac-
tically all boys and girls, provided the maleducative influ-
ences of life outside the schools could be decreased.

OTHER EDUCATIVE FORCES

The Cultural Environment Conditions
the Success of Education.

Among all the factors which affect the efficiency of edu-
cation, none is more powerful or more subtle in operation
than the climate of ideas and customs in which we live.
Some of these cultural surroundings may actually hinder
the attainment of the goals proposed for education. The en-

[128]

vironment of ideas, folk- ways, and social customs, though
often unobstrusive and unrecognized, must be given due
consideration in considering the attainment of educational
purposes. It must be recognized at the same time that this
environment is itself undergoing a continuing change due
to educational efforts and due to changes in the physical
surroundings.

On each child and adult conflicting loyalities pull and
tug, coloring outlooks and directing behavior. The school
itself shares in these tensions and is, in a sense, a party to the
conflict. For example, the viewpoint prevails quite widely
that it is the prerogative of the state to prescribe the school
program and to determine its purposes and that the proper
loyalty of a teacher is to the state and to the political repre-
sentatives of the state. This view which is openly asserted
by totalitarian governments, nevertheless commands a
considerable uncritical following in democracies as well.
The viewpoint postulated in this report and in other
pronouncements of the Educational Policies Commission,
namely, that the responsibility of teachers is to the truth
and to the promotion of the general welfare through the
use of the truth, has not yet been accepted or indeed widely
understood in democracies or elsewhere. Yet a realistic
attempt to determine whether a given series of educational
purposes can be attained must recognize that there will be
serious opposition unless the prevailing concept of educa-
tion to the state is profoundly modified. The new concept
must be accepted in more than theory. The society con-
cerned must vigorously act upon it.

This is perhaps the most striking of many illustrations
which might be given concerning the effect of the uninsti-
tutionalized, ideological factors which condition the suc-
cess of an educational program.

[129]

Schools Often Compete with Maledncative Forces.

Most children are under the direct control and influence
of the school for a relatively brief period of time. Ordi-
narily, a child does not enter school until six years of life
have been completed. Those first years may be lived under
varying conditions. They may be marked by happiness and
abundance or by misery and squalor. However spent, these
years are probably the most important ones, educationally,
of the entire life-span.

Once in school, the average American child now attends
for about ten years. The youth of twenty-one, therefore,
has probably been out of school for more years of his life
than he has been in school. Furthermore, school "y ears " are
not years by the calendar. Only in the larger .cities is the
school open for as much as fifty percent of the days of the
year; and in the smaller cities and rural districts school
terms of five months or less are still quite common. Nor
does the child attend the school all the time it is open. The
schools of the United States were in session, on the average,
about 172 days in 1934, but the actual attendance of each
pupil was only for 146 days. Finally, the school "day" in-
cludes only six hours or so out of the twenty-four. The
average American child probably attends school for some-
thing less than 9,000 hours all told.

During the many hours when the child is not in school a
variety of educational forces are playing upon him. Some of
these forces are distantly related to the objectives of the
school; some have similar or identical objectives; some have
objectives which are directly opposite to those which are
approved by the school. The educative forces of society
outside the school, therefore, occupy an important position
in the control of educational progress.

The school undertakes to teach correct speaking; many
homes and neighborhoods teach just the opposite. The school

[130]

teaches respect for human life, safety, and happiness; many
social practices (a commercialized automobile race or par-
tial enforcement of traffic laws, for example) teach the
opposite. The school teaches healthful living; the incomes
available to many American families compel a low standard
of living which is detrimental to health. The school praises
literary excellence; outside the school children are bom-
barded with printed pulp which debases their speech and
degrades their tastes. The school teaches respect for law
and honest government; the practices of corrupt political
machines teach the opposite. The school teaches temperance
and moderation in all things, "nothing in excess/' as the
Greeks taught; unrestrained and untruthful advertising
(of liquor, for example) and the sequences from some
modern motion pictures teach the opposite. The school
teaches democracy; some aspects of life outside and even
within the school may negate democracy.

The work of the school must be both reparative and
developmental with reference to many of the objectives
proposed. The more time and energy which the school must
allot to repairing the damage done by other agencies, the
less emphasis can be placed on positive effort to attain the
accepted or desirable aims.

It is a strange paradox that a society should spend billions
to support a school system dedicated to certain high pur-
poses and then require it to divert a large part of the money
in order to repair damages which that society itself en-
courages or tolerates. It is even stranger that this society,
and most of the individuals who compose it, sincerely place
a high value on the happiness and future welfare of children
while permitting all sorts of harmful conditions to con-
tinue to destroy the very happiness and welfare so patheti-
cally coveted for the young. At their best the schools can
make boys and girls only a little better than their elders.
Citizens who want young people to assume social respon-

[131]

sibllity cannot look tolerantly on disregard of social re-
sponsibilities among adults.

Many Potentially Educative Forces May
Assist the School.

Encouraging, however, is the fact that many non-school
agencies are constructive helpers in the work that the schools
attempt to do. The objectives of education are cherished
by such agencies no less than by the schools. Furthermore,
even the maleducative forces in American society can be
slowly changed by education itself. Educational gains are
usually cumulative. Each generation strives to give its chil-
dren a better preparation for life than its own.

But optimism and patience are not necessarily associated
with indifference and inactivity. There are some definite
things which schools and teachers may do now, day in and
day out, to improve the quality of human materials and to
remove maleducative influences from the environment of
the learner. While the primary contribution of the school
is its long-range educative service to society, the immediate
measures available for direct action need not be disregarded.
A school which makes a careful, scientific study of the
handicaps and assets of each learner, to the end that he may
be properly guided, has taken the first step to attainment
of its objectives. A school which helps parents in their
homes to do a better job of educating their own children
will have less to correct. A school which links its efforts to
those of other like-motived agencies makes all such efforts
more effective. A school where teachers maintain close con-
tact with the homes of the children and participate in com-
munity activities can more readily offset adverse out-of-
school forces. A school which is a center of wholesome
recreation and education for an entire neighborhood is al-
ready doing much to offset undesirable influences. A school

[132]

which can arrange to be open on Saturdays and Sundays,
in the late afternoons and evenings, as a community center,
is not only grasping a direct educational opportunity but
is making all of its "regular '* work more effective by re-
ducing the effectiveness of opposing forces.

Frequently parent education is the key to helping the
child. Units of educational energy spent on parents may
sometimes go further than the same number of units spent
on the child. If parent education is effective, it does double
duty, first to the parent and then to the child. It is the job
of the home to provide the child with the vitamins of hu-
man emotional development, with security, affection, and
the sense of accomplishment. In the event of the failure of
the community and the home to provide these necessities
of life, the schools or some other social agency must try to
compensate for their lack. 2

EDUCATIONAL PROGRESS

The attainment of better schools may require either
greater knowledge as to the best means of educational
procedure, or the removal of tradition and inertia which
prevent change in desirable direction, or, more commonly,
both of these measures. A few areas in which these require-
ments exist will be briefly treated.

Securing an Adequate Number of Competent
Teachers Is a Critical Problem.

Qualified teachers are essential. The lack of this asset,
however, cannot be solved by caustic criticism of those who
are now teaching in the public schools. After all, every
state has laws governing the certification of teachers and

2 The place of the school among the other public social agencies of
the community is the subject of a separate statement to be issued by
the Educational Policies Commission.

[133]

the present incumbents have met the requirements of
those laws. Often, indeed, voluntarily and at no small per-
sonal sacrifice, they have gone beyond the legally required
minima. Furthermore, it must be remembered that neither
the social nor the economic status of the teaching profes-
sion in general is such as to make it highly attractive to
many of the more capable young people now preparing
for their life work. Nearly one-third of the public school
teachers are paid less than $1,000 a year. The social status
of the teacher in many small American communities con-
fers few satisfactions to compensate for the relatively low
economic status. Under the circumstances it need be no
occasion for astonishment that thousands of teachers are
quite unprepared intellectually or professionally to contri-
bute effectively to worthy educational objectives. Better
status and better qualifications for teachers must be brought
about simultaneously and promptly.

The drag of easy complacency, which makes itself felt
in all social organizations, penetrates in subtle ways into the
affairs of the schoolroom. However, it must not be assumed
that every unfavorable condition existing within the schools
can be ascribed to the professional staff alone. Many of
these unfavorable conditions are subject to only limited con-
trol by the members of the staff. For example, the failure to
use up-to-date books and teaching equipment hampers the
work of many schoolrooms. This -may be due to unprogessive
teaching and administration. In actual fact, however, it is
more commonly due to the unwillingness of the public to
provide sufficient funds for the purchase of equipment.

It is essential that institutions engaged in preparing
teachers have a vision with regard to educational objectives
of a depth and breadth at least equal to that of the public
school systems into which these prospective teachers will
enter. Institutions for preparing teachers should exhibit
an unflagging audacity in their leadership. They should be

[134]

the cutting edge for the advance of the public schools.
There are many existing institutions which meet this re-
quirement admirably. There are some which fail to meet
it almost entirely. There are some institutions engaged in
preparing teachers where the educational philosophy is
fundamentally different from that upon which the objec-
tives proposed in this volume rest. If these objectives are
sound and if the teacher-preparing institutions continue to
ignore them, teachers prepared in such institutions will have
to be retrained in a new philosophy on the job with con-
sequent delay and inefficiency.

If the objectives of American education are to be at-
tained, the gaps in what may be called the "social educa-
tion" of the staff must be narrowed. Creditable work is
being developed in technical training. But the mechanics
of educational administration and teaching can be over-
emphasized at the expense of the underlying social philoso-
phy. The preparation of educational workers should include
a broad general education as well as adequate professional
preparation. The content and scope of the general educa-
tion should differ very little, if any, from that for other
well-educated citizens, and should be directed toward sound
scholarship and a cultural background in the major areas
of human experience. A community should expect its
teachers and school officials to be the representative of a
high level of humane culture. Much of the preparation of
administrators as well as that of teachers now tends to make
them provincials in the geography of interests and to nar-
row rather than broaden their social outlook. The general
education of any worker in the field of education should
acquaint him with the various institutions and forces that
influence modern life and with the dominant current trends
and issues in the major areas of learning sciences, letters,
philosophy, sociology, and economics.

[135]

Conditions Surrounding the Administration
of Education Must Be Improved*

American education developed in part out of conflicts
of contending interests. Among these conflicts were those
which led to the removal of property restrictions on the
ballot; to the abolition of imprisonment for debt; to the
improvement of the conditions of workers generally, and
of women and children especially; to the taxation for school
support; and to other humanitarian and social reforms.
Great statesmen have championed the cause of popular
education in the face of indifference, opposition, or even
physical danger. The history of education in this country
is enriched by the story of men and women, apostolic in
their fervor, tireless in their effort, who took part in these
struggles.

With many educational administrators the proper di-
rection of the public schools continues to be a dedication.
Their faith and courage and energy have been the principal
sources from which the democratic theories of public edu-
cation have sprung into principles and passed into practices
to become convictions with most of the American people.
Some of them profess in their work a simple creed. They
believe that the real values to this world are human values;
that real gains in civilization are made only through the
improvement of mankind; that a nation moves forward
only on the feet of its children; and that the influence of
great teachers outlives that of kings, politicians, or military
leaders of their age. The extension of such faith would
greatly aid education to meet its responsibility in American
democracy.

.Not all public school officials represent the best of the

3 Educational structure and administration have received attention
from the Educational Policies Commission in: The Structure and Admin-
istration of Education in American Democracy. Washington, D. C.: the
Commission, 1938. 128 p.

[136]

profession. Education, like every other human institution,
has a share of novices and mediocrities. For, although there
has been improvement in educational administration there
is much room for more. And with an increase in the interest
of the public, there will be an increased public demand
for administrative leaders who are broadly educated and
genuinely cultivated, inspired by the patriot's dream, and
qualified to perform their technical tasks wisely and effec-
tively. At the earliest opportunity the profession should
establish certain advancing goals for the various types of
school administrative work.

Partisan Political Interference Continues
To Block Educational Progress.

When partisan political considerations enter the school-
room door professional management soon flies out of the
window. The majority of the chief state school officers are
still elected upon political ballot; many others hold office
on conditions which involve partisan political considera-
tions. The county school superintendency in most states re-
mains definitely a political office with minimum attention
to professional qualifications. When school administrators
are chosen on such a basis they are definitely identified with
partisan politics and are often bound by party pledges. The
proper duties of such educational officials require natural
abilities, educational and professional training, and other
qualities which are only rarely reconciled with those quali-
ties which usually commend men to political bosses. The
immediate removal of all forms of political pressure and
interference in the administration of schools would help
greatly in the attainment of educational objectives.*

4 The case for a high degree of freedom in educational matters has
been stated by the Educational Policies Commission in: The Unique
Function of Education in American Democracy. "Washington, D. C.:
the Commission, 1937. 129 p.

[137]

Legislation Exercises Control Over the Curriculum,

Political influence reaches even nearer to the classroom
through legal mandates affecting changes in the school
curriculum. The nature and extent of this influence is
seldom realized by the public. Modifications in the curri-
culum may come about through the initiative of teachers,
research workers, supervisors, and other school people. They
may also come about through the initiative of individuals
and groups of individuals outside the school.

The legal right of the state to determine what shall be
taught in the schools is fully recognized. The methods by
which this right should be exercised is another matter, and
an important educational question. If it goes no farther
than to provide that a particular subject shall be taught,
without specifying the length of time it shall be taught or
what shall be included in the content, then the legal pro-
vision may work little hardship upon curriculum makers,
regardless of whether they believe that subject should be
legally stipulated or not. On the other hand, laws which
prescribe curriculum content, teaching processes, and time
allotments may not only cripple the initiative of the teacher
but prevent the attainment of socially valuable objectives.

Furthermore, laws which obviously reflect the vested
interests of certain minority groups may inject into the
curriculum a body of content that is of neither real interest
to the general public, nor of real value in the attainment
of educational goals.

Local Units of School Administration Are Often Unplanned.

Other administrative conditions that delay or prevent
the attainment of educational aims require brief attention.
Prevailing conditions in many of the small rural schools
obstruct efforts to obtain desirable educational results.

[138]

These schools are staffed as a rule by the least mature and
least well-prepared teachers. There are some rural schools
which seek the educational objectives here proposed, but
they are relatively few in number.

Inadequate instruction in these schools results directly
from inadequacies in the teaching staff. While prepared
and better paid teachers are being recruited, however, it is
possible to make significant improvements with the present
staff by providing sound and helpful supervision, research,
guidance, and health services. To do this with reasonable
economy will, in many States, require the enlargement of
administrative units. Even where consolidation of schools
(into larger attendance units) is impractical or undesirable,
a larger administrative unit, adequately staffed to give the
educational services just mentioned, is entirely possible.

Professional Unity Is Necessary.

Another somewhat related condition that hinders educa-
tional progress is the lack of coordination of the various
parts of the school system. This separateness results in need-
less rivalries, unseemly competition for funds and, most
serious of all, in lack of that articulation which would per-
mit steady progress of children, youths, and adults from one
stage of educational development to another. Colleges and
high schools are still not closely enough in touch with one
another; in some states elementary and secondary schools,
outside of the larger cities, are in entirely separate school
systems; liberal arts colleges and professional schools tend
to regard each other with suspicion; vocational education
at the secondary school level is too often regarded as en-
tirely separate from the general or common educational
program. These are but a few indications of the lack of
unity in American education. An ability and a willingness
to keep the whole educational program in full view need to
be systematically cultivated.

[139]

Progress could be made more eff ectively, and the respon-
sibility of education to American democracy could be met
more readily if the teaching profession could be united in
the support of a few basic ideals. Existing professional or-
ganizations are less effective than they should be because of
lack of a common purpose and common leadership. But
even given appropriate machinery for professional action,
there would remain an urgent need for a professional pro-
gram around which the activity may be centered. 5 It is the
understanding of the Educational Policies Commission that
the development of such a program is one of its principal
responsibilities. For that reason, the Commission has made,
and will continue to make, serious efforts to promote the
study and acceptance of its reports by all branches of the
teaching profession in all parts of the country.

Schools in Ma7ty Communities Are Underfinanced.

Problems in the field of school finances are many and
complex. They involve: (a) questions relating to the most
efficient expenditure of funds already available; (b) ques-
tions relating to means for increasing the total amount of
funds; and (c) questions relating to the distribution of the
burden of school support among various geographical and
political areas and among various socio-economic groups in
the total population.

To remedy the chronic condition of insufficient financial
support is important. The services of qualified workers
cost money; a sufficient number of workers to do an ac-
ceptable job costs still more money; providing these work-
ers with suitable equipment and housing them under favor-
able conditions for work make further inescapable financial
demands. Even a remote approximation to the objectives

5 Structure in professional organizations has been dealt with by the
Commission in: A National Organization for Education. Washington,
D. C.: the Commission, 1937. 47 p.

[140]

proposed is blocked by the overwhelming odds faced by
many poverty-ridden schools today. At the same time, some
critics of the schools look askance on requests for more ap-
propriations until the work of the school is improved. Thus
results an impasse which cannot be broken except by con-
certed efforts to secure more funds and improve the schools
simultaneously.

There are aspects of school work which contribute meag-
erly to the attainment of the objectives of education as here
proposed. Funds should be so allocated that preference is
given to those services of the schools which make the largest
contribution to the objectives for the largest number of
pupils over the longest period of time. Activities which do
not contribute to the objectives should not be financed at
all. This is the real essence of "economy in school finance."

Glaring defects in the tax systems of the localities, states,
and nation continue to be ignored for selfish protection or
partisan expediency. A modern, equitable, and efficient tax
system for providing school revenues is essential. The tax-
able wealth and income of the nation is distributed un-
evenly over its area. Some jurisdictions have relatively
many children and relatively limited taxpaying ability
and vice versa. Measures for equalizing the burden of
school support within and between states are essential.

The removal of these unfavorable financial conditions
confronts us with two problems. First and most important,
our economic order must be made effective enough to pro-
vide the funds necessary for schools which will really ap-
proximate the objectives proposed. The second problem
concerns the ways and means by which the necessary funds
may be secured. This, in turn, involves questions of educa-
tional finance and of public finance in general as well as the
public relations of the school system. 6

6 The Educational Policies Commission lias under way at the present
time a study of the economic bases of school finance.

[HI]

Public Indifference, Antagonism, or
Ignorance Must Be Supplanted by
Effective Lay Relationships.

The ultimate control of American education rests with
the people. The theory of school administration under
which we operate requires that such control be truly repre-
sentative and, at the same time, give appropriate oppor-
tunity for the use of expert professional service in the work
of the schools. Actually, these conditions often fail to de-
velop. The board of education is not always truly repre-
sentative of the entire people with respect to schools. Most
members of school boards display intelligence, honesty, and
devotion to the public welfare; some, however, are not
qualified for their important tasks.

Perhaps the most crucial problem now confronting
American education is the discovery and development of
ways and means for securing competent lay control over
the schools. Our desire to preserve the form and spirit of
democracy confronts us with the necessity for discovering
and opening up channels by which the American people
may really exercise effective control over their interests in
education. Our desire for efficiency and service demands
some feasible working relationship between lay control and
professional work.

The present forms of lay relationship to education are
working imperfectly. Various suggestions for changes have
been advanced. The direct representation of various voca-
tional classes and other special interests on school boards;
the establishment of advisory groups to the school board,
following somewhat the English plan; the limited use of
co-optation as a method of selecting school board members;
the representation of the teaching profession on lay boards
of control; the abolition of school boards in favor of a com-
mission form of government these are some of the more

[H2]

commonly offered proposals. Meanwhile, many lay boards
of education, as variously constituted, continue to render
devoted and invaluable service to public education.

The Schools Have a Responsibility for
Public Opinion with Reference to
Their Own Work.

A share of the responsibility for the existence of defects
within the school system itself must be borne by the general
public. The public has often been indifferent to the prob-
lems and needs of the schools. The public all too frequently
permits political interference with professional matters. It
has refused to heed competent professional advice with re-
gard to the administration and organization of schools. It
has sometimes placed in office school board members who
have been actually dishonest or, at best, grossly unqualified.
Not all of these conditions may be charged entirely to pub-
lic indifference; the necessary professional leadership has
not always been offered. In any case, the ignorance and in-
difference of the public regarding educational objectives,
methods, and problems, are conditions that retard educa-
tional progress and frustrate the achievement of desirable
results. It is the public which must supply the funds for
conducting the work of the schools. It is the public which
selects the state legislators, the boards of education, and the
other agencies which give official sanction to educational
objectives and educational policy.

One of the most damaging evidences of the limitations of
the schools in the past is the very existence of a considerable
body of influential public opinion which is indifferent or
even unfriendly to public education. This condition has
always prevailed to some degree in this country. With few
exceptions, the individuals who compose the public are or
have been under the tutelage of the public school system.

[143]

Yet even today, most of our schools are graduating boys
and girls wlio have little or no appreciation of the essential
role which the public schools play in their own lives and In
a democratic civilization. A wider social intelligence con-
cerning the place of education in American democracy is
needed. The courts, the legislative bodies, family life, recre-
ational agencies, and many other important social Institu-
tions are studied with care, but the school, the one social
institution which directly touches the lives of all American
youth, is rarely discussed within its own walls.

Many intelligent citizens have sincere doubts as to the
wisdom of some modern school procedures. One such honest
and inquiring mind is worth a hundred xininf ormed friends
and a thousand captious critics. To explain and justify de-
sirable departures from tradition is an important and con-
tinuing phase of educational leadership. The laity should
be encouraged especially to consider such educational prob-
lems as the basic social philosophy of the school, objectives,
finance, child health, and public welfare. The contributions
of the laity from such fields as medicine, psychiatry, public
health, public finance, social service, architecture, and the
religious ministry should be sought, as well as the contribu-
tion which every adult should make as a citizen of a democ-
racy. The contribution of parents, as such, through parent-
teacher organizations is exceptionally valuable because of
their Immediate contact with the children and their im-
mediate Interest in their welfare and ' happiness.

Efforts to take the public into account must be supple-
mented by efforts to take the ptiblic into confidence and,
finally, into partnership. "Study groups" represent at pres-
ent and on the whole, too great an emphasis on the first of
these relationships. The depression has shown that an un-
informed public support for education Is quickly enfeebled
in times of stress and may even be a liability rather than

[144]

an asset. Public opinion during the depression not only re-
treated on many occasions from its active support of edu-
cation, but also on many occasions insisted on retrench-
ments in the more modern and constructive aspects of
educational service. Being largely uninformed as to the
real objectives of education in a democracy, the public too
often acquiesced while essentials were discarded as frills and
non-essentials with the weight of tradition behind them
were scrupulously maintained. The entire experience of
the schools in the depression should be carefully studied
to bring to light the sources of weakness which appear most
obvious in the time of greatest strain. 7

The approach to the public as a whole must not be
confused with the approach to the parents of children in
school. The public which supports the schools and the
parents who send their children to schools are overlapping
groups, but they are by no means identical. One of the
most serious errors of educational policy in the past has
been to suppose that if parents were content with the edu-
cation their children were receiving and willing to pay
their taxes for the support of schools, the public relations
of the schools were in a wholesome condition. As a matter
of fact, in 1930 over one-third of all American families
had no children under twenty-one years of age and over
half had no children under ten years of age. These propor-
tions are certainly even higher in 1938. The 1940 census is
likely to show that the majority of American families have
no children of school age. Nor should we forget the existence
of a minority, often very powerful in the formation of
public opinion and in the control of public affairs, which
is not the product of the public schools and which does

7 National Education Association and American Association of School
Administrators, Educational Policies Commission. Research Memoran-
dum on Education in the Depression. New York: Social Science Research
Council, 1937. 173 p. A Bibliography on Education in the Depression.
Washington, D. C.: the Commission, 1937. 118 p.

[145]

not send Its children to them. For these reasons, the inter-
pretation of the school to the supporting public should
be universal, comprehensive, and intelligent. Educational
leadership should stress the value of the school to society
in general, as well as the value which the individual receives. 8

Methods and Materials of Instruction Must Be Remade
To Contribiite to Major Objectives.

The center of emphasis in education is being shifted from
the program of studies to the individual learner. There is
a closer concern with the major strategy of the classroom
as opposed to the minor tactics of subjectmatter arrange-
ment. We are beginning to study each child as a unitary,
unique individual and to offer guidance, in an intelligent
and sympathetic way, to each one in accordance with his
needs. The clinical care and investigation which we provide
for the maladjusted child should not be diminished. But
what social advantage and what personal happiness might
be realized if we exhibited equal concern for the normal and
gifted individuals! This is not merely a question of preven-
tion before cure, or of the "stitch in time." It is not merely
or even primarily a question of saving money for society by
preventing crime and other forms of maladjustment. It is
a question of making each individual maximally competent
to achieve for himself the "pursuit of happiness" and the
other elements of the democratic ideal. This will require
curriculum revision in the light of the stated objectives.

Fundamental Changes Are Necessary.

The process of educational reconstruction must penetrate
deeply; it must not balk at leaping the barriers set up by

8 The numbers and location of the present and future school popula-
tion have been discussed by the Educational Policies Commission in:
The Effect of Population Changes on American Education. Washington,
D. C,: the Commission, 1938. 58 p.

[146]

the traditional school program. It must think beyond mere
"shifting' 5 courses and adding or subtracting "topics."

Here is a scene for the pen of a satirist. Time: 1938. Place:
an American high school. Setting: a democracy struggling
against strangulation in an era marked by confused loyalties
in the political realm, by unrest and deprivation, by much
unnecessary ill-health, by high-pressure propaganda, by war
and the threats of war, by many broken or ill-adjusted
homes, by foolish spending, by high crime rates, by bad
housing, and by a myriad of other urgent, real human
problems. And what are the children in this school, in this
age, in this culture, learning? They are learning that the
square of the sum of two numbers equals the sum of their
squares plus twice their product; that Millard Fillmore was
the thirteenth President of the United States and held office
from January 10, 1850, to March 4, 1853; that the capital
of Honduras is Tegucigalpa; that there were two Pelo-
ponnesian Wars and three Punic Wars; that Latin verbs
meaning command, obey, please, displease, serve, resist, and
the like take the dative; and that a gerund is a neuter verbal
noun used in the oblique cases of the singular and governing
the same case as its verb.

Let there be no misunderstanding. The items of informa-
tion just listed are entirely suitable for study by some
children. But for the great majorty of the boys and girls
who now attend American schools such learning is tran-
sitory and of extremely little value.

Let us be even more specific, with no effort, however,
to be comprehensive. English as now taught in most schools
places too great emphasis on formal grammar and on the
dissection of "classics." Whatever may be the merits of such
exercises as a preparation for a career as an author, the great
majority of American boys and girls will be more profited
by a wide-ranging program of reading for enjoyment and
fact-gathering. A program of instruction in literature

IH7]

which makes people dislike the writings of Shakespeare,
Scott, and Emerson destroys even the possibility of its
own usefulness. Mathematics, as now taught, is a serious
obstacle to many children. The numbers studying advanced
theoretical mathematics should be reduced. An apprecia-
tion of the role of mathematics in civilization, an ability to
deal with general mathematics as applied to everyday prob-
lems, and the fundamental skills of arithmetic should be
provided for general consumption. Languages, ancient and
modern, are now studied by thousands of children who
will never acquire sufficient skill in them to be able to
translate a single page or to conduct the simplest conversa-
tion. Science is too often taught as though it were a prepara-
tion for an engineering college. Much of the instruction
now offered in music, art, and manual training is highly
formalized, aimed at the preparation of technicians rather
than critical users and appreciators. A great deal of voca-
tional education has little relation to success on the job.
History and the other social studies are still so organized
in some schools that little sense of reality is preserved and
direct contact with present issues studiously avoided. All
of this illustrates the general fact that education has, on
the whole, been altogether too much concerned with facts,
and too little concerned with values.

All of these conditions do not exist in many schools;
some of them exist in almost every school; the trend is
distinctly hopeful. The current tendency to reevaluate,
in the light of realistic objectives, all the activities of the
common schools is a wholesome one. It should be speeded up
and greatly widened in its scope. While there is need to
examine present prevailing practices and subjectmatter
to see how they may contribute to the objectives of edu-
cation, this process must be safeguarded against complacent
rationalization. There is even greater need to discover new

[148]

currlcular emphases, new teaching materials, and new
groupings of subjectmatter which will contribute directly
and powerfully to the attainment of the purposes proposed.

Active Participation of Teachers in
Formulating Educational Policy Is
Essential.

The detailed preparation of course of study materials by
teachers, alone or in committees, has often been successfully
undertaken. But such work is significant only if it simul-
taneously increases the insight of the staff into the basic
educational philosophy. To print new educational objec-
tives does not necessarily abolish the old ones. It is relatively
easy to tell teachers what to do. When thus directed, they
usually try sincerely to "go through the motions." In
curriculum revision, however, "the Letter killeth, but the
Spirit giveth life." Vigilance must be constantly employed
to guard against the devastating impact of the printed
word upon independent thought.

The subtleties of the educational process and the infinite
variety of human reactions effectively bar the application
of rules of thumb to the kind of education which truly
serves the objectives of the democratic ideal. The industrial
distinction between the engineer and the routine mechanic
has little value in educational practice. The supreme func-
tion of the school is that of the teacher. Educational progress
results from improved teaching, and in no other way what-
soever. The teaching functions of the school should not
be subordinated to those of administration, research, or
record-keeping.

The proper role of the well-prepared teacher of today
in formulating educational policy is not, however, limited
to the fields of instruction and curriculum-making. In
many school systems definite provisions have been developed

[149]

for teachers to share fully and systematically in the study
of all educational problems and in the development of com-
prehensive educational policies. In earlier years, when most
teachers were transient employees, lacking in professional
preparation and outlook, a case could be made for a benev-
olent dictatorship of the schools by a small group of
administrative officers. Today, in schools where teachers
are as well prepared professionally as the administrative
group, there is need for a complete recognition of their
professional position and of the unique and valuable con-
tribution which they can make to all phases of educational
service. Such recognition will require not only adjustments
in the type of leadership provided by administrators, but
also an enlarged sense of professional responsibility on the
part of a well-prepared teaching staff.

Learning Takes Place in Selecting Purposes
as Well as in Achieving Them.

Schools should promote their objectives by providing for
and encourging greater initiative on the part of the learners
in setting up objectives, selecting methods of study, and
appraising results. An excellent example of such participa-
tion is found in reports to parents formulated by children
and teacher together. The essential problem here is to
identify the learner's interests with adult values. Even in
comparatively recent years, we regarded children as adults
in miniature. Now the pendulum is reaching the other ex-
treme and we see some tendency to treat adolescents (and
even adults) as if they were children. In providing educa-
tional experiences it is possible to do too much as well as
too little. Schools which oversupervise, overstimulate,
and overpower defeat their own purposes. A middle
ground is sought, based on understanding of the nature of
childhood and adolescence and of the existence of social

[150]

trends which limit the possibility of securing gainful oc-
cupation, postpone marriage and parenthood, and in a
thousand other ways fundamentally affect educational
processes and agencies.

High-Pressure Learning May Defeat Its
Own Purpose.

Nursery schools and kindergartens provide carefully
planned periods of relaxation in the midst of the school
day's busy activities. At the other end of the educational
ladder we find some colleges which offer definite provisions
for recreation and rest. Except at these two extremes of
the school experience, education is typically .maintained at
a furious and hard-driving pace. In high schools every
moment of the student's day is carefully scheduled. Time
between classes is brief; the students often move from one
educational exposure to another at double-quick tempo.
Time for the lunch hour is often too limited. Rest periods
after meals and after exercise, which every healthy animal
takes without special instruction, are ordinarily lacking.
Even the hours after school are planned for homework and
various extracurricular activities, all usually good and de-
sirable things in themselves, but each making its demand
for nervous and physical energy.

In some elementary schools there is something approach-
ing the speed-up and stretch-out system. Standards for
mastery of the fundamental skills are more difficult and
insistent than ever before. More efficient methods of teach-
ing and better materials of instruction make it entirely
reasonable to expect a higher degree of accuracy in arith-
metic, a more rapid rate of silent reading and a greater and
more exact mastery of almost all subjects. Along with the
demand for perfection in the tool subjects, the elementary
school program has very wisely been enriched and varied

f 151]

by pupil projects and activities. Furthermore, the introduc-
tion of standardized tests, many of which are administered
with stop-watch precision, has made possible a more rapid
and exacting check-up on certain aspects of the educational
product than ever before.

At this point let it be said, and with emphasis, that one
hundred percent accuracy in the fundamentals, a varied
program of school activities, and the use of standardized
tests under a time limit, with reasonable precautions, are
all good things in themselves. It is the total effect of these
new tendencies which must not be overlooked. Social
and economic trends are causing an increase in the number
of years which the average person spends in school. Some
of this leeway might well be used to allow for a more gradual
mastery of the tools of learning, for the postponement of
some types of learning until greater maturity is attained,
and for a general adjustment of the speed of learning to the
abilities of each child and to the inexorable demands of the
human organism for rest and refreshment. To ignore these
demands makes the race liable to the stern but just punish-
ment of nature.

Measurement of Outcomes Must Be Directly
Related to the Objectives.

Methods of measuring results and the measurement in-
struments themselves are powerful forces in shaping the
real objectives of instruction. For example, it has been
found that the content of instruction in New York high
schools in general closely approximates the content of the
Regent's Examinations, no matter what may be printed on
the first page of course of study bulletins. The program of
evaluation necessarily exerts influence upon the curriculum
program. Ideally, the two should be based on recognition
of the same objectives,

[152]

Measurement should be set up as a means of learning, as
an integral part of the learning process. It is, when properly
considered, not the climax of the act of learning but the
starting point for further learning; while it may write
"finis" to one learning project, it should always beckon the
student on to another. Measurement must be changed from
a promotional hurdle in the road of learning to a gateway
opening on new paths. But before measurement can move
on to these functions it must be broadened in scope.

Most of the standardized testing instruments used in
schools today deal largely with information. The same gen-
eral condition doubtless holds with respect to most non-
standardized written examinations. There should be a much
greater concern with the development of attitudes, inter-
ests, ideals, and habits. To focus tests exclusively on the
acquisition and retention of information may recognize
objectives of education which are relatively unimportant.
Measuring the results of education must be increasingly
concerned with such questions as these: Are the children
growing in their ability to work together for a common
end? Do they show greater skill in collecting and weighing
evidence? Are they learning to be fair and tolerant in situa-
tions where conflicts arise? Are they sympathetic in the
presence of suffering and indignant in the presence of in-
justice? Do they show greater concern about questions of
civic, social, and economic importance? Are they using
their spending money more wisely? Are they becoming
more skillful in doing some useful type of work? Are they
more honest, more reliable, more temperate, more humane?
Are they finding happiness in their present family life? Are
they living in accordance with the rules of health? Are they
[acquiring skills in using all of the fundamental tools of
learning? Are they curious about the natural world about
: them? Do they appreciate, each to the fullest degree possi-
ble, their rich inheritance in art, literature, and music?

[153]

Do they balk at being led around by their prejudices?
These are criteria suitable for estimating the effec-
tiveness of a democratic school system suitable because
directly related to the basic purposes. Until such criteria
assume high importance in measuring educational results,
the stated purposes of education are not likely to penetrate
very fully into practice.

A Complete Catalog of Conditioning Factors
Is Not Attempted.

This final chapter has dealt with certain conditions which
now affect the work of American schools. These conditions
must be improved if the proper and essential objectives of
education in a democracy are to be realized. The weak-
nesses enumerated and the remedies tentatively proposed
are not to be regarded as complete and final statements. A
complete discussion of ways and means for improving
American education would anticipate and include the en-
tire program of an educational policies commission a pro-
gram which in the main is still on the anvil of discussion.
To locate the differences between educational theory and
practice, to arrange these differences according to their
importance, to probe for their causes, to prescribe for their
removal, and to appraise the results of the entire process
these are the persistent tasks of educational leadership.

Conferences and Personnel

The Commission wishes to acknowledge here the assistance of a
large number of people, outside of its own staff and membership, who
have contributed to the development of this report. In May 1936 the
Commission called into conference, at Chicago, a group representing
seven national deliberative committees concerned with problems related
to the purposes of education. Those in attendance included Wilford
M. Aikin, Thomas H. Briggs, George E. Carrothers, Harl R. Douglass,
Fred J. Kelly, Paul T. Rankin, and V. T. Thayer.

Subcommittees of the Commission held conferences on educational
objectives in October 1936, at Cambridge, Massachusetts, and in No-
vember 1936, at San Francisco. The first conference was attended by:
Hollis P. Allen, Francis L. Bailey, John M. Brewer, P. W. L. Cox,
Ernest A. Harding, Henry W. Holmes, C. W. Knudsen, Edwin A.
Lee, Henry Neumann, Bertram E. Packard, James N. Pringle, Harold
Rugg, Warren C. Seyfert, Curtis H. Threlkeld, and Claire Zyve. The
second conference was attended by: Marvin L. Darsie, Percy E. David-
son, Willard S. Ford, Guy Fox, Will French, Paul Hanna, Walter R.
Hepner, C. A. Howard, J. R. Jewell, Grayson N. Kef auver, Vierling
Kersey, R. D. Lindquist, George H. Meredith, A. S. Raubenheimer,
Charles A. Rice, and C. E. Rugh.

In January 1937, the staff of the Commission held a three-day
meeting, in Washington, with experts in general and vocational edu-
cation to secure suggestions on policies in the latter field. Included
in this group were: Richard D. Allen, Edwin A. Lee, William F.
Rasche, and Worcester Warren.

In February 1938, the Commission called together, at Atlantic City,
a group of curriculum specialists in order to determine the viewpoint
of this group on a preliminary draft of the report and in order to
anticipate the possible utility of the report in curriculum building.
Members of this group included: Fred C. Ayer, Doak S. Campbell,
Hollis Caswell, C. L. Cushman, Edgar Draper, J. Cecil Parker, D. R.
Patterson, L, S. Tireman, and L. W. Webb. Helpful suggestions have

[156]

been received also from Maude McBroom, William C. Reudiger, H. B.
Bruner, Luther Gulick, and many others.

Outside of its regular staff, the Commission is indebted for assist-
ance to Edgar "W. Knight for a memorandum on the historical back-
ground of educational objectives; to Hazel Kyrk for assistance in draft-
ing the statement on consumer education; and to Ralph P. Bridgman
for assistance in drafting the statement on education for home and
family life.

Although none of those named above should be held responsible for
any statements in, or omissions from, this document, the Commission
is deeply grateful for their cordial encouragement and helpful co-
operation.

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