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PROBLEMS OF EDUCATIONAL 
 READJUSTMENT 
 
 BY 
 
 DAVID SNEDDEN, Ph.D. 
 
 Commissioner of Education, Massachusetts 
 
 BOSTON NEW YORK CHICAGO 
 
 HOUGHTON MIFFLIN COMPANY 
 (fflfoe Stibergibe pvt$0 Cambrib0e 
 
»$ 
 
 COPYRIGHT, I913, BY DAVID SNEDDEN 
 ALL RIGHTS RESERVED 
 
 For permission to use in this volume papers that have 
 previously been published as magazine articles, ac- 
 knowledgment is made to the Atlantic Monthly, the 
 Educational Review, Education, the School Review, 
 Vocational Education, and the Journal of Educational 
 Psychology. 
 
 Cfcc Ribersibe $re&c 
 
 CAMBRIDGE . MASSACHUSETTS 
 U . S . A 
 
 ©CI.A350306 
 
PREFACE 
 
 How shall education be made efficient? 
 Undiscriminating critics have always con- 
 demned the schools for their failure to pro- 
 duce a higher type of men and women ; but 
 now the large majority of educators are them- 
 selves convinced that the traditional processes 
 of training and instruction are far from rend- 
 ering efficient educational service. In all direc- 
 tions men and women, moved by the vision of 
 a brighter future on earth, are striving to 
 promote human well-being. Education is but 
 one of the phases of this newer social economy. 
 It, too, is certainly capable of being made 
 more purposeful, more scientific, less blind in 
 its methods, less doubtful as to its results. 
 
 But educational processes can be improved 
 only as particular phases or fields of education 
 are singled out for consideration and construc- 
 tive effort. It is probable, for example, that 
 American primary education, judged by valid 
 
iv PREFACE 
 
 standards, would be found to be far more 
 efficient than that designed for young persons 
 from twelve to fourteen years of age, or that 
 designed for youths from fourteen to eighteen 
 years of age. Again, careful analysis might 
 show that the customary education of the high 
 school is fairly effective for that minority who 
 are qualified to pass to institutions of higher 
 learning; while for the large majority, to 
 whom it represents the final stage of system- 
 atic cultural education, it may be of little 
 actual service. The problem is one to be con- 
 sidered as it touches particular groups of chil- 
 dren or particular aims to be realized. 
 
 In each of the following papers a particular 
 educational problem is isolated for purposes 
 of analysis and discussion. In each case the 
 problem is one growing out of contemporary 
 efforts to render education more effective by 
 defining purposes or aims in a scientific man- 
 ner, and to secure methods designed to achieve 
 these purposes. 
 
 There can be but little question that the 
 most characteristic weakness of American edu- 
 
PREFACE v 
 
 cation, as that concerns young persons from 
 twelve to eighteen years of age, is to be found 
 in its failure to formulate valid aims. Being 
 guided by no sufficient aims, it is inevitable 
 that the educational practice followed shall 
 waver between the Scylla of custom-made (and 
 therefore blind) method on the one hand, and 
 the Charybdis of purely empirical device on 
 the other. 
 
 The following papers, with one exception, 
 treat of but a few of the fundamental prob- 
 lems growing out of the unscientific aims of 
 contemporary education as that is designed 
 for adolescents. What do we mean by culture, 
 social efficiency, or liberal education? What 
 is vocational education, and how is it related 
 to general education? What are some broad 
 principles of method by which profitable re- 
 sults are to be achieved? These questions are 
 at least implicit in the discussion of each topic 
 presented. 
 
 The papers have been written with a view 
 to provoking further discussion of the ques- 
 tions involved. If it be true that in the field 
 
vi PREFACE 
 
 of general secondary education we have as 
 yet few aims that are educationally serviceable 
 or valid, then we must address ourselves to 
 this field of study before we can either deter- 
 mine subject-matter or elaborate right method. 
 An illustration may serve to make this clear. 
 
 If, for example, we ask the question as to 
 why girls should, as a condition of graduat- 
 ing from the ordinary high school course, be 
 required to study algebra, we shall be given 
 two sorts of replies, each based on certain con- 
 ceptions of educational aim. The first answer 
 will be to the effect that algebra is a neces- 
 sary part of a secondary education, that it is 
 prescribed for admission to college, etc. But 
 if it be further asked why the subject is re- 
 quired in secondary education or for admission 
 to college, we receive the familiar replies that 
 the study of algebra has peculiar merit as a 
 means of " training the mind," " giving cul- 
 ture," "leading to a comprehension of the 
 universe," " serving as a foundation for voca- 
 tional efficiency," etc. 
 
 It is evident that no school subject can 
 
PREFACE vii 
 
 rightly be regarded as an end in itself. But 
 equally it should be clear that the vague and 
 general ends stated above are as yet so inde- 
 terminate and illusory as to serve little or no 
 useful purpose in enabling us to determine, 
 in the first place, whether algebra study should 
 be required at all, and in the second, as to the 
 methods to be followed and specific results to 
 be sought in teaching it. 
 
 Somewhere in the cultural, social, and voca- 
 tional utilities of modern life are to be found 
 the determining aims of education; and in 
 large measure these must be analyzed and 
 studied one by one. The educator must evolve 
 a philosophy of the educative process as a 
 whole ; but he must learn to seek his goal by 
 successive steps and stages, each clearly pre- 
 visioned in relation to the whole. 
 
 D. S. 
 
CONTENTS 
 
 I. New Education and Educational Read- 
 justment 1 
 
 II. The New Basis of Method 33 
 
 III. What is Liberal Education? 65 
 
 IV. Why Study History? 88 
 
 V. The Practical Arts in Liberal Educa- 
 tion 113 
 
 VI. Differentiated Programs of Study for 
 
 Older Children in Elementary Schools 130 
 
 VII. The Opportunity of the Small High 
 
 School 154 
 
 Vm. Debatable Issues in Vocational Education 183 
 
 IX. Problems in the Psychology of Voca- 
 tional Education . . 211 
 
 X. Centralized vs. Localized Administration 
 
 of Public Education 233 
 
 Index 261 
 
PROBLEMS OF EDUCATIONAL 
 READJUSTMENT 
 
 THE NEW EDUCATION AND EDUCATIONAL 
 READJUSTMENT 
 
 Is there a new education ? There certainly 
 is a new education in the same sense that 
 there is a new industrial order, a new practice 
 of medicine, a new philanthropy. The new 
 education, as yet but partially evolved, owes 
 its origins, on the one hand, to the develop- 
 ment of scientific knowledge, and on the 
 other, to the spread of democratic ideals. Sci- 
 ence has revolutionized agriculture, commerce, 
 communication, and warfare; and it is now 
 bringing in a new education. Strivings to- 
 wards democracy, expressed in the newer 
 social economy, have transformed government, 
 religion, and social organization; the new ed- 
 
2 EDUCATIONAL READJUSTMENT 
 
 ucation is in part the product of the same 
 influences. 
 
 What we call, for convenience, the new 
 education is at present an exceedingly com- 
 posite affair. In large part it is a matter of 
 new ideals rather than of new practice. The 
 breakdown of faith in older customs and doc- 
 trines is always accompanied by a boundless 
 disposition to launch new experiments and to 
 form new parties or cults. While in some 
 slight measure the new education may already 
 have influenced social evolution, it is prima- 
 rily the demands of contemporary civilization 
 which are forcing readjustments in education. 
 This new civilization is compelling education 
 to define anew its purposes, to extend the 
 range of its activities, and to improve upon 
 its ancient methods. 
 
 In education, as in many other forms of 
 institutional life, the present is a period of 
 acute transition. Education has hitherto rested 
 upon a foundation of custom ; it must here- 
 after rest upon a basis of scientific knowledge. ~ 
 Its aims and practices have been in large 
 
THE NEW EDUCATION 3 
 
 measure the slowly derived products of the 
 method of " trial and success." A civilization, 
 or any institution needful to civilized life, 
 can develop only to a limited degree upon the 
 basis of the " trial and success " method, the 
 results of which are crystallized into custom- 
 ary practice and dogma. Only up to a certain 
 point in social evolution, is the " custom " basis 
 efficient; beyond that, it is wasteful and re- 
 tarding. 
 
 Modern history presents many of the char- 
 acteristics of periods of transition in the sev- 
 eral forms of institutional life. The industrial 
 processes of the eighteenth century rested 
 everywhere on a basis of social habit; the 
 modern transformation of industry, due to the 
 application of scientific knowledge, has been a 
 painful but a glorious process. The produc- 
 tivity of human labor has undoubtedly been 
 increased many fold thereby, but it is not clear 
 that the accompanying social readjustments 
 have been more than partially beneficent. 
 Modern agriculture, with its adjunct of cheap 
 transportation, differs, at its best, immeasur- 
 
4 EDUCATIONAL READJUSTMENT 
 
 ably from the agriculture of even seventy-five 
 years ago. But the transformation now going 
 on here is even yet chaotic in many of its as- 
 pects, and is attended still by the disappear- 
 ance of cherished institutions which were 
 themselves the slow outgrowth of the ancient 
 customs of tillage and soil ownership. 
 
 The " arts of healing " of our grandfathers, 
 the product of ages of selective effort, have 
 given way to the modern science of medicine. 
 But people still cling to the dogmas and cures 
 of the older medicine as to cherished heir- 
 looms, and not all of the changes accompany- 
 ing the development of the " new medicine " 
 have been fortunate. In this transition from 
 social habit to medical science, we have seen 
 the conflicts of opinion, the destruction of 
 old beliefs, the ineffective pretensions of prac- 
 tices based upon half -tested science, and, in 
 many cases, the same overtaxing of the powers 
 of readjustment, which make all great social 
 revolutions painful, and often productive also 
 of skepticism and disorder. 
 
 In education we are as yet nearer the be- 
 
THE NEW EDUCATION 5 
 
 ginning than the end of a great period of 
 transformation. <It is inevitable that this should 
 be so because of the complex and obscure 
 character of the sciences upon which, ulti- 
 mately, all educational practice must rest. 
 The physical sciences, which are to a great 
 extent basal to industry, war, and communi- 
 cation, were the first to reach a considerable 
 stage of development ; while chemistry, and 
 the biological sciences, which underlie medi- 
 cine, and also agriculture, have now a long 
 period of development behind them. But psy- 
 chology and sociology, the contributions of 
 which are fundamental to a science of edu- 
 cation, are themselves as yet undeveloped and 
 indefinite. 
 
 But sufficient progress has been made in 
 the evolution of the "new education" to con- 
 vince nearly all careful students that the old 
 order has already been largely outgrown. The 
 demands of contemporary society for a more 
 purposeful, a more comprehensive, and a more 
 efficient system of preparing the young for 
 adult life, are insistent and of increasing de- 
 
6 EDUCATIONAL READJUSTMENT 
 
 finiteness. Confidence in the dogmas and 
 customary practices of the older education is 
 steadily lessening. Forces outside the field of 
 education altogether are compelling a variety 
 of readjustments in its aims and methods. 
 Among educators themselves the disposition 
 grows to regard education as a suitable field 
 for experimental effort and systematic inquiry. 
 They are no less ready than the critics outside 
 the profession to share in the deliberate chal- 
 lenging of long established doctrines. 
 
 A widespread development of the new edu- 
 cation must prove a very difficult matter. 
 Not only are scientific foundations in psychol- 
 ogy and sociology as yet insufficiently devel- 
 oped; experimentation along new lines of 
 educational practice is beset with unusual 
 handicaps of every description. The respon- 
 sibilities of administering education are com- 
 monly so great as to retard or even to prevent 
 the growth of the scientific temper on the part 
 of executive officers ; the public, while tolerant 
 enough of new hobbies or "faith cures" in 
 education, is hostile to experimental effort 
 
THE NEW EDUCATION 7 
 
 as such ; while education as a field of human 
 enterprise hardly attracts as yet the spirits 
 that delight in exploration and settlement in 
 new regions. 
 
 The present period of transition in educa- 
 tion, therefore, presents problems of readjust- 
 ment which are especially difficult to deal 
 with because many changes must be made at 
 a time when our available knowledge is insuf- 
 ficient to guide us aright. It has sometimes 
 been found necessary in American railroading 
 to build a new bridge, to take the place of 
 an old, while traffic continued to move over 
 the rails. If we can imagine such an under- 
 taking imposed upon men who did not pos- 
 sess, and could not at the time obtain access 
 to, the organized knowledge that governs in 
 bridgebuilding, we should then have a situa- 
 tion somewhat analogous to that which pre- 
 vails in contemporary public education in 
 America when institutions dealing with nearly 
 20,000,000 young persons, employing about 
 500,000 public servants and expending annu- 
 ally nearly $500,000,000, must, on the basis 
 
8 EDUCATIONAL READJUSTMENT 
 
 o£ little-tested knowledge, be transformed to 
 meet the requirements of a new and complex 
 social order. 
 
 The conditions which give rise to the de- 
 mand for a new education are not unlike those 
 which are forcing transformations in religion, 
 in government, in international relations, in 
 the social side of industry, in the administra- 
 tion of justice, and in the family relationship. 
 Profounder insight, on the one hand, and 
 greater sensitiveness to human deficiency, on 
 the other, — these are the twin forces every- 
 where operative in convincing men that human 
 incapacity, suffering, and waste can be reduced, 
 and life be made better through the more pur- 
 poseful use of such scientific knowledge as 
 every day becomes more accessible. 
 
 However lacking we may still be in detailed 
 knowledge as to how the demands upon the 
 new education are to be met, the broad lines 
 of the readjustments that will have to be made 
 are now evident. The older education was a 
 social agency having fairly well-defined aims, 
 a limited adaptability, and fixed methods em- 
 
THE NEW EDUCATION 9 
 
 pirically derived; and it had evolved an ad- 
 ministrative organization suited to its scope 
 and purposes. The new education will obviously 
 have to possess far wider and more purposeful 
 aims ; its range of adaptability will, of necessity, 
 be immeasurably greater; its methods must 
 rest on a scientific basis ; and its organization 
 must become complex and flexible in order to 
 produce an efficient combination of democratic 
 control and technical direction. In each of these 
 directions a wide range of problems is certain 
 to be encountered, some of which are even now 
 capable of being formulated and examined. 
 
 The aims and scope of the new education must 
 be defined in terms of social economy as that 
 subject is coming to be conceived. The words 
 "social economy" are now employed to de- 
 scribe comprehensively the numerous studies 
 and practices which deal consciously with the 
 practical problems of reducing suffering and 
 waste of life, and of promoting human well- 
 being. Society, developing self-consciousness, 
 and aided by various forms of available scien- 
 
10 EDUCATIONAL READJUSTMENT 
 
 tific knowledge, finds an enlarging field of 
 opportunity for the promotion of human wel- 
 fare by the application of tested knowledge 
 to a great variety of social conditions and 
 through many agencies. Prevention and cure 
 of disease by concerted action, control of the 
 conditions giving rise to crime and moral de- 
 linquency, improvement of the conditions of 
 labor, furtherance of the agencies making for 
 culture, civic idealism, and economic efficiency 
 — these are but a few of the phases of con- 
 scious social action comprehended under the 
 phrase "social economy/' 
 
 All experience is proving conclusively that 
 the best purposes of an efficient social econ- 
 omy are to be realized through processes that 
 are essentially educational — that is, by the 
 conscious control of the formation of habits, 
 of the development of ideals, and of the im- 
 parting of knowledge during the immature 
 period of the lives of those who are yet to 
 carry the full responsibilities of citizenship. 
 Education, then, is a phase, and a large phase, 
 of social economy. 
 
THE NEW EDUCATION 11 
 
 But this interpretation of education operates 
 inevitably to modify in far-reaching ways the 
 prevailing conceptions as to educational aims, 
 and especially those aims which should govern 
 in that educational agency called the school. 
 
 For it now becomes clear that there are many 
 agencies which, with more or less conscious- 
 ness of purpose, are concerned in education. 
 The home, the church, the workshop, and the 
 playground are the most ancient of these; 
 while the stage, the press, the club, and the 
 library are also potent under modern condi- 
 tions. But in America none of the foregoing 
 is in any substantial degree under the direct 
 control of that social agency which expresses 
 the collective will of all, namely, the State. 
 Each is private or corporate in character and 
 subject to influences which may reduce or 
 nullify its better educational possibilities. 
 
 The public school is to-day the chief agency 
 to which society must turn in its efforts to 
 realize the more far-reaching aims of the 
 newer education. It is socially expedient and 
 necessary that all educational purposes which 
 
12 EDUCATIONAL READJUSTMENT 
 
 other agencies will not voluntarily assume 
 shall be realized in and by the public school 
 in some form ; and the extent to which this re- 
 sponsibility shall be taken over by the schools 
 must, apparently, increase steadily. 
 
 If the home fails to give instruction in hy- 
 giene essential to the requirements of whole- 
 some and sanitary living, as these are now 
 understood, then the school may be expected 
 to assume this function. If the farm and the 
 workshop cannot do what they once did in fit- 
 ting young people to perform productive work 
 efficiently, then schools under public support 
 and control will certainly be created for this 
 purpose. If the street and vacant lot prove 
 ineffective or harmful as agencies for the edu- 
 cation to be realized through play, then cor- 
 responding facilities will be developed under 
 the oversight of some form of public school. 
 If, for certain groups, the church proves un- 
 equal to the problems of education in higher 
 forms of idealism, then sooner or later we shall 
 find society requiring that the public schools 
 shall discover ways of doing the needed work. 
 
THE NEW EDUCATION 13 
 
 If press and stage prove, under private and 
 commercial control, but sorry educational 
 agencies, then it will be inevitable that a so- 
 ciety, desirous of keeping pure the fountains 
 of early insight and ideals, will demand that 
 the public school discover ways of providing 
 substitute or countervailing influences. 
 
 The last half-century has witnessed in all 
 civilized countries an enormous enlargement 
 of the functions of the public school. Much 
 of this has been opposed and misunderstood 
 because the underlying conditions have not 
 been fully comprehended or have failed to win 
 ready acceptance. As the various sciences have 
 developed, the importance of using the schools 
 as means of diffusing the knowledge thus or- 
 ganized has been slowly realized. As the desir- 
 ability of giving all persons some acquaint- 
 ance with art, literature, and history has 
 asserted itself in conjunction with the shaping 
 of the ideals of democratic society, the school 
 has offered itself or has been drafted for this 
 purpose. As the changing home finds itself 
 less favorably placed to give varied and con- 
 
14 EDUCATIONAL EE ADJUSTMENT 
 
 crete introductions to the vocational arts, the 
 demand that the school assume this responsi- 
 bility becomes insistent. 
 
 What are the probable limits of this dele- 
 gation of responsibility and function to the 
 school ? That is one of the unsolved problems 
 of modern social economy. But some phases of 
 the situation are now intelligible. The school, 
 from being a rival and competing educational 
 force, must, in the new order, become a con- 
 sciously complementary, and deliberately co- 
 operating, agency. The school of the older 
 organization often played at cross-purposes 
 with the home; it disparaged the education 
 to be found in the workshop devoted to pro- 
 ductive activity; in recent years it often sep- 
 arated itself sharply from the church ; and it 
 ignored or antagonized such educational forces 
 as playground, press, and stage. The school 
 of the past doubtless found it necessary and 
 desirable to take this position in order that it 
 might, thus fortified by its exclusiveness, 
 achieve its best results. 
 
 But such a condition can no longer persist. 
 
THE NEW EDUCATION 15 
 
 It is out of harmony with the prevailing con- 
 ceptions and the requirements of an effective 
 social economy. It is wasteful of human 
 energy, and it nullifies the best of educational 
 endeavors. It leads to no organic constructive 
 policy. 
 
 In the new education, the school must com- 
 prehend its position and responsibilities as 
 one of several educational agencies, each ca- 
 pable of functions which the other cannot 
 effectively perform ; but it must be perceived 
 that the school has a peculiar responsibility, 
 perhaps superior to that of any of the other 
 agencies. In the school, the educational pro- 
 cess must be visioned as a whole; and from 
 the school must radiate the influences which 
 will invigorate and direct the educational 
 activities of other institutions. Hence, the 
 school must cooperate actively, sympatheti- 
 cally, and purposefully with the home, the 
 church, the shop, the playground, the press, 
 the stage, the club, and the library in their 
 efforts to shape youth into serviceable man- 
 hood and womanhood. Society is manifesting 
 
16 EDUCATIONAL READJUSTMENT 
 
 a growing tendency not only to place upon 
 the school responsibility for the discharge of 
 such desirable educational functions as other 
 agencies cannot or will not perform; it is 
 also making the school, in a sense, the final 
 custodian on behalf of the State of the child's 
 educational well-being. In the school will un- 
 doubtedly develop those supplemental agencies 
 designed, in the case of limited classes of de- 
 fective, delinquent, and otherwise exceptional 
 children, to make up for the deficiencies of 
 other educational agencies. Here also will 
 center those other forms of oversight and 
 direction designed to compel needful action 
 on the part of private and corporate agencies, 
 where these touch and influence the develop- 
 ment of childhood. 
 
 It will be no small problem, in this con- 
 nection, to prevent the school from unduly 
 aggrandizing educational authority. So to re- 
 adjust its attitude as to give full scope, with 
 sympathetic cooperation, to other agencies 
 will not be easy in view of the historic atti- 
 tude of educators. Nevertheless, we read even 
 
THE NEW EDUCATION 17 
 
 now of school credit being given for work of 
 a useful nature performed at home; of agri- 
 cultural schools in which the practical work 
 is done on the "home farm"; of "part time" 
 arrangements between shop and school for 
 vocational training ; of vacation reading being 
 required and counted towards college credit; 
 of home practice in hygiene being purpose- 
 fully integrated with school instruction in 
 that subject; of physical work of a service- 
 able nature being accepted in lieu of gym- 
 nasium training; of wage-earning employ- 
 ment being required as a necessary phase in 
 completing courses in commercial training; 
 and of cooperation between the school and 
 the theater to the ends that the two forces 
 may reinforce each other. These manifesta- 
 tions but foreshadow the more varied develop- 
 ments which are surely destined to appear 
 when the larger educational vision shall de- 
 velop. 
 
 Having defined its aims in terms of a sound 
 social economy, and having differentiated 
 
18 EDUCATIONAL READJUSTMENT 
 
 among various educational agencies as to the 
 scope and character of their respective con- 
 tributions to the totality of the educational 
 process, the new education encounters a vari- 
 ety of problems of adaptation among the in- 
 dividuals and groups of individuals with whom 
 it deals. The older education had a limited 
 field of vision as to the social need it was to 
 serve; its aims were relatively narrow, specific, 
 and immediate. In the schools it ministered 
 in the main to a restricted social class ; hence, 
 its programs were uniform and lacking in 
 flexibility. 
 
 The large problem of social economy, as 
 expressed in the ideals of democracy, is to 
 enable each individual to make the most of 
 himself, while at the same time contributing 
 in as large degree as possible to the general 
 well-being. There are distinct limits of an 
 economic nature, however, to the social obli- 
 gation to educate and otherwise to assist each 
 individual towards self-realization. Moreover, 
 it is certain that individuals vary enormously 
 among themselves as to their inheritance of 
 
THE NEW EDUCATION 19 
 
 capacities for the attainment of skill, insight, 
 and ideal. As the possible scope and purposes 
 of education increase, the boundaries of soci- 
 ety's obligations on the one hand and the in- 
 dividual's capacities on the other come into 
 view. A uniform program of education is no 
 longer possible. To an indefinite extent pro- 
 grams must be adapted to varying groups. 
 
 Here we distinguish the subnormal in in- 
 tellect and we modify programs of training to 
 their needs. We shall yet do much also to 
 assist the supernormal to outmarch our slow- 
 footed courses of study. Again, we discover 
 varying tastes and deep-seated interests, sug- 
 gesting the possibilities of enriching society 
 by the cultivation of special talents. We find 
 many youths in need of systematic training 
 for vocational competency — an education 
 which can only be given by public schools; 
 but vocational education must be as varied as 
 are the occupations demanding skill and tech- 
 nical knowledge. The multiplicity of subjects 
 has become so great within the field of the 
 traditional school program as to force sec- 
 
20 EDUCATIONAL READJUSTMENT 
 
 ondary school and college to provide endless 
 forms of adaptation by allowing election of 
 studies. 
 
 Below the college and secondary school is 
 to be found as yet but slight adaptation in 
 courses of study; but it is inevitable that 
 great flexibility should develop here as well. 
 This will not be confined to the field com- 
 monly occupied by the so-called school studies; 
 it must extend into the as yet slightly explored 
 regions of physical, moral, and vocational 
 education. 
 
 It is sometimes urged that the demands of 
 democracy require uniformity of educational 
 program. There must be no class education, 
 as in Europe, it is said. This attitude reflects 
 the influence of certain famous misunderstand- 
 ings of the Declaration of Independence and 
 of the motto of Revolutionary France. In na- 
 tive capacity and in educational need people 
 are unequal at birth and can in no way be 
 made equal. An educational system, suited to 
 the needs of democracy, must be indefinitely 
 flexible in order that each may have before 
 
THE NEW EDUCATION 21 
 
 him the educational opportunities which shall 
 enable him best to serve society and himself. 
 They who oppose the establishment of effective 
 trade schools because they suspect that these 
 tend to create class distinctions forget what 
 sharp class distinctions are even now enforced 
 by uniform programs of studies appealing only 
 to those possessing unusual powers of abstract 
 thinking. 
 
 A flexible system of education, indefinitely 
 varied to meet the needs of different groups, 
 must, of course, in a democratic society, simply 
 establish open doors of opportunity. The son 
 of the washerwoman must be able to go to the 
 university if his talents justify it ; and equally 
 the son of the banker should be able to find 
 his field of opportunity in a trade school, if his 
 interests lie in that direction. Prescription and 
 forced classification there must of necessity 
 be ; but only as determined by the incapacity 
 of the individual to profit from a given type 
 of opportunity. Such forced classification now 
 prevails extensively in our undemocratic school 
 system, and is the more indefensible because 
 
22 EDUCATIONAL READJUSTMENT 
 
 of the limited range of educational opportunity 
 offered in contemporary secondary schools and 
 colleges. No extension of the range and scope 
 of educational opportunity can operate to in- 
 tensify class distinctions as these now prevail 
 in America. A flexible system of educational 
 opportunities will have the opposite effect. 
 
 To teachers and to those engaged in the 
 training of teachers, the most interesting and 
 at the same time most difficult of the problems 
 of the new education are to be found in con- 
 nection with the developments of effective 
 methods of teaching, after general aims and 
 questions of adaptation have been measurably 
 settled. 
 
 Every person, in greater or less degree, pos- 
 sesses an instinct for teaching ; while among 
 every people at every period there exists a vast 
 body of" teaching customs which are readily 
 transmitted from generation to generation. 
 Under the conditions which prevailed until 
 very recently, the combination of the teach- 
 ing instinct with prevailing customs sufficed 
 
THE NEW EDUCATION 23 
 
 to give a body of teaching methods sufficient 
 for the existing needs of education in home, 
 church, and school. 
 
 But the methods thus developed (the word 
 covers methods of organizing known bodies 
 of knowledge and experience for teaching pur- 
 poses as well as actual method of presentation) 
 were, naturally, unscientific ; they lacked flex- 
 ibility, and especially they were unadapted 
 to the carrying-out of the nicer adjustments 
 demanded when broader educational aims de- 
 veloped. 
 
 It was long ago evident to such educa- 
 tional geniuses as Comenius, Rousseau, and 
 Froebel that in education, no less than in other 
 forms of human activity, where custom played 
 a large part, the letter was always in danger 
 of being allowed to kill the spirit. Form was 
 ever tending to take the place of substance. 
 Methods of educating, taking their start in 
 some period of rapid change, soon grew stereo- 
 typed and rigid. Modes of practice, inspired 
 and projected by great leaders, were taken up 
 by cults composed of persons unable fully to 
 
24 EDUCATIONAL READJUSTMENT 
 
 apprehend them, and soon degenerated into 
 crystallized forms and ceremonies. 
 
 It is now apparent that for the new educa- 
 tion, teaching methods transmitted as custom 
 products (social habits) will not suffice. It 
 matters not that these should owe their origins 
 to the genius of a leader, rather than to the 
 selective action of time. So innumerable are 
 the adjustments required by the new educa- 
 tion, on account of its varied aims and possible 
 adaptations, that only a body of method, based 
 on a scientific study of the processes of the 
 learning mind of the child as a practical reality, 
 will suffice. 
 
 Efforts to evolve new and better methods 
 on a basis of insight into the learning processes 
 have given rise to much of the educational 
 unrest of recent years. Naturally, the con- 
 servatives in education, like those in religion, 
 politics, industry, and elsewhere, prefer the 
 established custom procedures and resent all 
 attempts to evaluate old methods and to de- 
 vise new ones. Nevertheless, some progress is 
 being made, some of it due to the " trial and 
 
THE NEW EDUCATION 25 
 
 success " methods stimulated by loss of faith 
 in old ways, and some of it due to newly ac- 
 quired knowledge of child nature. We may 
 say roughly that the program of primary edu- 
 cation has already been materially modified by 
 the newer methods, while in the more advanced 
 grades and in the secondary school there has 
 been a profound disturbance of thought and 
 attitude, but as yet little of practical accom- 
 plishment. 
 
 The most marked feature of the newer de- 
 velopments in this field is the discovery that 
 the older education had formulated all its con- 
 scious methods of teaching on one plane of 
 learning capacity. All its music was composed, 
 if the figure may be permitted, in one key. 
 Subject-matter was organized to be memorized 
 or learned by rote ; and where the ends aimed 
 at did not permit this, as in penmanship, the 
 drill methods employed were strictly analogous 
 to those of memorization. All subjects were 
 taught in the same general way, and the only 
 available means of testing learning consisted 
 in examining memorization. Rarely was it 
 
26 EDUCATIONAL READJUSTMENT 
 
 thought necessary or deemed possible to go 
 deeper and to test the actual functioning of 
 knowledge or habit in terms of life's larger 
 utilities. 
 
 To many other processes of education, now 
 consciously recognized, the older education 
 indeed made contributions ; but in an almost 
 wholly unorganized and methodless way. 
 Education through play, the self-active quest 
 of knowledge, the subtle influence of sugges- 
 tion in numberless directions, the upbuilding 
 of ideals — these had their place ; but on 
 these planes of learning, there existed no text- 
 books or teachers' manuals, no approved de- 
 vices and methods, no testing of results. 
 
 It should not be a matter of surprise that 
 in the general field of method the new educa- 
 tion is encountering so many problems of re- 
 adjustment. In a subsequent chapter attention 
 will be called to the probability that, as be- 
 tween the methods of teaching based on forced 
 memorization and drill, and those utilizing self- 
 activity in large measure, there is a subtle but 
 real opposition. If such is the case, the new me- 
 
THE NEW EDUCATION 27 
 
 thods must in many cases be something vastly 
 different from mere refinements of the old. 
 They must be differently grounded and derived. 
 The new education will no more be satisfied 
 with reliance upon a blind instinct of teaching 
 in affecting the deeper reaches of the child's 
 life than is modern medicine satisfied with 
 only the instincts of tenderness, sympathy, and 
 self-sacrifice in the nurse. Education through 
 play, through the influence of personality, and 
 through giving scope to the creative capaci- 
 ties will require its own basal methods no less 
 than that other education which, in seeking 
 results in the teaching of spelling, multipli- 
 cation tables, and grammar, has produced the 
 methods of drill and memorization. But such 
 methods must be based on scientific insight 
 no less than are the nurses' conceptions of 
 aseptic cleanliness. The new education has as 
 one of its large obligations to discover the 
 various foundations of educational method. 
 
 We may, finally, consider the readjustments 
 necessary in the public administration of the 
 
28 EDUCATIONAL READJUSTMENT 
 
 new education. For, whatever be our convic- 
 tions as to the proper sphere of government, 
 we must admit that a large and probably in- 
 creasing part of education will have to be car- 
 ried on as a public enterprise. Public funds 
 will be required to support it ; and public di- 
 rection and control must follow the employ- 
 ment of public funds. 
 
 But the administration of education by the 
 State presents features of a peculiar character. 
 Evidently, expert service will be more and 
 more needed ; but equally an intimate union 
 of education with public sentiment and opin- 
 ion will always be required. In the adminis- 
 tration of public education, therefore, we find 
 that the pressing problems of democracy are 
 acutely in evidence. 
 
 No system of public education can long re- 
 main vital and effective if it does not have an 
 intelligent and approving public opinion sup- 
 porting it. The citizen's money must support 
 the schools ; a large part of the time and hap- 
 piness, as well as sometimes the health and 
 future possibilities, of his children are in the 
 
THE NEW EDUCATION 29 
 
 custody of the teachers; and it is probable 
 that the school will assert its responsibility in 
 requiring that home education shall also be 
 effective. Complex relations of this kind are 
 possible only when intimate mutual under- 
 standing and confidence prevail. Democratic 
 society seeks to procure these conditions by 
 localizing the administration of public edu- 
 cation, by giving the popular will free scope 
 in selecting representatives on lay governing 
 bodies, and by giving such laymen large au- 
 thority over teachers and school practices. 
 
 But the new education cannot develop with- 
 out expert service and the conditions which 
 make expert service possible. Teachers must 
 not only be well trained for their work ; they 
 must be, as far as practicable, chosen from 
 the ablest members of the community; and 
 they should work under conditions which make 
 effectiveness possible. Teaching must become 
 a profession, and an attractive profession. 
 Proper selection of candidates for teaching, 
 proper training, proper compensation, proper 
 tenure, proper freedom from unwarranted in- 
 
30 EDUCATIONAL READJUSTMENT 
 
 terference — these are but a few of the con- 
 ditions essential to the expert direction of the 
 new education. 
 
 Can democratic government produce these 
 conditions? Can popular control resist the 
 tendencies of professions to become bureau- 
 cratic and to alienate themselves from popular 
 demands? 
 
 It is evident that to achieve the ends of ef- 
 fective administration, the new education will 
 necessitate many readjustments of prevailing 
 practices. Some of these are discussed in a 
 subsequent chapter. Here it only remains to 
 point out that to administer public education 
 successfully will bring into relief and perhaps 
 contribute to the solution of the problems of 
 an expert, specialized service, working under 
 and leading the popular will. Public education 
 will require its expert service ; but this expert 
 service must of necessity be capable of edu- 
 cating not merely the children of each gener- 
 ation, but the generation itself. Educators 
 must interpret their problems in terms of so- 
 ciety as a whole. They must lead in the de- 
 
THE NEW EDUCATION 31 
 
 velopment of chieftainship for no traditional 
 or adventitious reasons, but by sheer ability 
 to win confidence on their own merits. Edu- 
 cators must trust the public ; and they must 
 wisely fashion a public which they can trust. 
 Publicity is but one of the instruments to this 
 end ; the creation of active channels of com- 
 munication between specialists and laymen is 
 no less important. 
 
 We cannot now predict the forms of organi- 
 zation by means of which a union of the serv- 
 ices of experts and of the supporting attitude 
 of the public is to be effected. It may be that 
 for this purpose the school will have to be 
 regarded as the primary unit of administration 
 to a greater extent than is now the case. The 
 city will require for financial and other gen- 
 eral management of the schools a small central 
 school board and the highly specialized serv- 
 ices of experts ; but, because in each school 
 are to be gathered teachers and supervising 
 specialists, it may prove expedient to create, 
 for the district served by such a school com- 
 mittee, a council, representing lay interests 
 
32 EDUCATIONAL READJUSTMENT 
 
 and capable of being made a means of diffus- 
 ing knowledge regarding the aims, needs, and 
 achievement of the school. By devices of this 
 nature, it may prove possible to realize the 
 cooperation which is indispensable to an ef- 
 ficient system of modern schools serving in, 
 and supported by, a democracy. 
 
II 
 
 THE NEW BASIS OF METHOD 
 
 The study of the art and science of educa- 
 tion to-day involves, among other phases, con- 
 sideration of the learning processes as these 
 are connected with the various subjects making 
 up the curricula of our schools. The study of 
 method may be approached from either one of 
 two standpoints. On the one hand, in connec- 
 tion with the organization of the content and 
 in the development of devices of presentation 
 of the special subjects, such as the mechanics 
 of reading, number work, writing, chemistry, 
 French, drawing, and the others, we obtain 
 the studies of special method ; on the other 
 hand, when the educational process is viewed 
 less with reference to the mastery of special 
 subjects and more with reference to the physi- 
 ological and psychological processes involved, 
 we have general method. In the former case 
 the peculiar characteristics of various forms of 
 
34 EDUCATIONAL READJUSTMENT 
 
 subject-matter largely determine method ; in 
 the latter, the main influence comes from a 
 consideration of the educational ends to be 
 attained, as these may be expressed in terms 
 of habits to be formed, appreciations to be 
 stimulated, knowledge to be acquired, and 
 ideals to be developed. A study of the learn- 
 ing process, when special method is under con- 
 sideration, tends to expend its effort on sub- 
 ject-matter ; while the influence of the study 
 of general method is to emphasize the powers 
 and processes of the learner himselfc 
 
 Historically it would seem to be true, except 
 at rare intervals, that the development of the 
 art of teaching tended to center about the 
 thing which it was deemed desirable to have 
 the child learn. Hence the processes of trial, 
 experiment, and selection have tended to pro- 
 duce an elaborate body of method — method 
 of organization of subject-matter as well as 
 method of presentation — in connection with 
 each one of the studies. Each division of 
 mathematics, each phase of the study of the 
 vernacular, writing, drawing, Latin, manual 
 
THE NEW BASIS OF METHOD 35 
 
 training, history, each one of the sciences — 
 in every case we find a more or less detailed 
 and elaborated methodology. And running 
 through it all we find one prominent charac- 
 teristic : the organization of subjects for teach- 
 ing purposes seems to have been effected by 
 mature and scholarly minds which have made 
 but grudging acknowledgment that the limita- 
 tions and peculiarities of the child mind might 
 have to be taken into account in making the 
 learning process most effective. Only seldom, 
 historically speaking, have textbooks been writ- 
 ten or other organizations of the subject-matter 
 of special studies been produced by those who, 
 either by virtue of keen sympathy and intui- 
 tion, or even owing to long experience, could 
 enter easily into the interests, capacities, and 
 points of view of children. And it must be 
 remembered that it has been chiefly in the 
 organization of the special subjects that, in 
 the past, conscious method manifested itself. 
 Note how the adult and scholarly mind has 
 worked in producing the teaching organiza- 
 tions of the special school subjects. In propor- 
 
36 EDUCATIONAL READJUSTMENT 
 
 tion as knowledge has developed in each sub- 
 ject, underlying principles have come into view 
 and logical system has developed. Through 
 long experience and study the mature mind 
 comes to grasp the general outlines and prin- 
 ciples of a study, and, having found a few 
 simple keys to the whole, which simplifies it 
 for him, he immediately assumes that such 
 order should be most effective in teaching 
 children. Not many years ago the student of 
 script letters was able to discern a few simple 
 elements of which nearly all the letters were 
 composed. What more natural than that a 
 scheme of penmanship teaching (now happily 
 obsolete) should be developed which would 
 involve as the central feature of its method 
 the complete preliminary mastery of these 
 elements ? Again, it is found that drawing in 
 many of its phases involves the application of 
 a few elemental forms ; and, naturally, systems 
 of drawing for children have been developed 
 which require that years shall be spent in drill 
 on these elemental forms. The varied pro- 
 cesses of applied arithmetic may be compre- 
 
THE NEW BASIS OF METHOD 37 
 
 hended in a small number of fundamental 
 rules ; the complexity of machines may be re- 
 solved into six or even two fundamental forms ; 
 the study of the plant world may be approached 
 through the classifications which order and 
 simplify it; and so on for each subject which 
 enters into the schools. And in each case that 
 logical order inherent in the subject has been 
 seized upon by the adult maker of schemes 
 of study as giving the most effective basis of 
 method for teaching purposes. 
 
 So long as teachers failed to study the learn- 
 ing process as conditioned partly by the limi- 
 tations and peculiar powers of the child's mind, 
 it was natural that this should be true. To the 
 discoverer and admirer of organization in the 
 various divisions of knowledge, it was inevit- 
 able to think of these as exhibiting the most 
 effective way for the young learner. If all 
 penmanship may be reduced to a half-dozen 
 fundamental forms, why not secure the mas- 
 tery of these at the outset ? If all reading in- 
 volves the alphabet, and the ability to unite 
 its members into untold numbers of meaning- 
 
38 EDUCATIONAL READJUSTMENT 
 
 ful and meaningless syllables, why not give 
 the first two or three years to drill on letters 
 and syllables ? If the mastery of tool processes 
 seems to involve, sooner or later, a limited 
 number of detailed and very special types of 
 skill, why not strive for these at the outset, 
 as has been done in certain types of manual 
 training? There have been times when the 
 study of a foreign language began and con- 
 tinued long with its grammar ; when the study 
 of literature was mostly a study of the lives of 
 authors and lists of their work ; when the study 
 of music, at least in the schools, was mainly a 
 study of the written technique of music ; when 
 the study of history was an attempted mastery 
 of the dates and the far-reaching generaliza- 
 tions of history. We have seen the study of 
 physics by beginners confined mainly to tasks 
 in quantitative work, because the mature mind 
 finds quantitative method so serviceable. Not 
 long since the teaching of biology by many 
 teachers was organized on the basis of a logical 
 system beginning with the most elemental 
 forms. While it may not be true that all of 
 
THE NEW BASIS OF METHOD 39 
 
 our studies still exhibit these vices at their 
 worst, it may well be questioned whether the 
 studies as we have them organized for chil- 
 dren, especially in the upper elementary grades 
 and secondary schools, are not even yet prim- 
 arily determined in their method by logical 
 and other considerations quite external to the 
 intrinsic capacities of the learner himself. 
 
 On the other hand, when the educator tends 
 to study the learning processes largely apart 
 from special subjects of study or apart from 
 the bias which a too exclusive consideration 
 of subject-matter seems to give, and more with 
 reference to the child as a self-active organ- 
 ism, developing in a material and social en- 
 vironment which in itself is stimulating and 
 educative, it is natural that the traditional 
 school subjects should receive less considera- 
 tion. For, under these circumstances, the edu- 
 cator realizes that, in any environment, a large 
 part of the sum-total of learning is quite inde- 
 pendent of artificial direction and manipula- 
 tion. Nature has so equipped the child with 
 instincts and impulses that he literally must 
 
40 EDUCATIONAL READJUSTMENT 
 
 learn. A thousand physical adjustments, some 
 of them very complex, he will learn even if 
 deprived of human example. In the presence 
 of human example the mere exercise of the 
 instincts of imitation and invention gives him 
 speech and numberless other social habits and 
 appreciations. During the years ordinarily 
 given to school life, the youth will, if a savage, 
 or if loose among his fellows and his elders, 
 acquire a vast range of useful habits, signifi- 
 cant knowledge, and influential ideals. For all 
 this learning no schools need be provided, no 
 teachers' salaries paid, no textbooks or schemes 
 of study organized. Even more significant, 
 there are required no long hours of confine- 
 ment at hard desks, no penalties and rewards, 
 and no final examinations. It is all part of 
 the natural growth process, as spontaneous as 
 the play of animals or the flowering of plants. 
 Viewing education from this side, it is na- 
 tural that the enthusiastic man who is little 
 concerned with special subjects should desire 
 to make all education simply a somewhat wider 
 and somewhat more directed form of that edu- 
 
THE NEW BASIS OF METHOD 41 
 
 cational process which nature organized for 
 human beings long before schools were dreamed 
 of. Method, from this standpoint, becomes 
 less a matter of the fine adjustment of this or 
 that bit of external knowledge or process of 
 acquiring skill, than of providing a rich en- 
 vironment and a field for free expression of 
 native powers, to the end that the child will, 
 through sheer force of the unrestricted, but 
 guided and aided, growth process, reach the 
 higher levels of habit, appreciation, knowl- 
 edge, and ideal. Under the influence of this 
 conception, the belief develops that in each 
 department of human knowledge and attain- 
 ment there is somewhere an order of approach 
 and development which closely corresponds to 
 the natural growth process and which is the 
 most effective teaching order on the one side 
 and learning order on the other. The essence 
 of method, as here conceived, consists in put- 
 ting the child in an environment of suitable 
 stimuli and then allowing the natural learning 
 powers to do their inevitable work. Not the 
 perfect organization of subject-matter accord- 
 
42 EDUCATIONAL READJUSTMENT 
 
 ing to logical schemes, it is asserted, but the 
 presentation of it in ways that correspond to 
 the child's native powers, is the function of 
 true educational method. If the child has in- 
 herently a thirst for knowledge, why may we 
 not lead him into an environment of knowl- 
 edge, geographical, historical, or scientific, 
 and leave him free until his natural demand 
 for aid in organizing it shall again call on 
 us for additional suggestion ? If the unspoiled 
 child craves expression through speech, through 
 drawing, and through constructive activities, 
 why should we organize this or that scheme 
 which is denaturalized by adult experience 
 rather than provide him the tools, the objects, 
 and the suggestion which will suffice to draw 
 forth his own activities? So questions the 
 theorist in this field, but it must be admitted 
 that he can as yet point to no well-developed 
 scheme of instruction based on his theory. 
 
 The influence of this conception has, how- 
 ever, been sufficiently great in recent years to 
 produce considerable modification in educa- 
 tional method. In some slight degree it has 
 
THE NEW BASIS OF METHOD 43 
 
 tended to introduce new kinds of subject- 
 matter. More important for present purposes, 
 it has tended to affect the methods of organ- 
 izing and presenting the traditional subjects 
 — for, after all, the schools may not aim at 
 the complete educative process, and their field 
 is largely determined by the traditional or- 
 ganizations of knowledge and skill which we 
 call subjects — and in providing certain new 
 ideas as to educational aims. In much of pri- 
 mary teaching the logical organization of sub- 
 ject-matter has largely given way to a teach- 
 ing order, empirically determined, which is 
 sometimes called psychological or natural, and 
 which is unquestionably more effective and 
 economical. With regard to the subjects more 
 adapted to older children we hear it constantly 
 insisted that we must search for a more peda- 
 gogical order for the reason that the older 
 and more artificial order of organizing and 
 presenting subject-matter fails to interest pu- 
 pils, fails to produce a valuable permanent 
 result, and tends to bring school education 
 into disrepute. 
 
44 EDUCATIONAL READJUSTMENT 
 
 It can easily be shown that in the primary 
 schools of to-day children are rarely taught 
 penmanship, reading, and number according 
 to the more strictly logical methods once in 
 vogue. Drills on the alphabet and on the ele- 
 mental forms of letters as used in writing are 
 not necessarily abandoned, but they follow a 
 considerable time after the pupil's introduc- 
 tion to printed and written words as some- 
 thing nearly allied to the objects about which 
 he thinks and cares. Primary teaching has 
 found avenues of approach from the object, 
 through the picture and other concrete repre- 
 sentation, and on to the purely abstract sym- 
 bol which, whatever their inherent lack of 
 system, as that appeals to the adult mind, con- 
 stitute a far more effective order for the naive 
 powers of the young learner than any which 
 preceded. In the teaching of drawing we are 
 now in the midst of a transition from the 
 logical, uninteresting, and, for the majority 
 of children, less effective formal processes to 
 more natural processes (natural from the stand- 
 point of the child learner), but which are still 
 
THE NEW BASIS OF METHOD 45 
 
 experimental. The same transition is in process 
 in manual work. It is recognized that the child, 
 left to himself in an environment that is full of 
 suggestion towards constructive activity due 
 to the presence of tools, the opportunity to 
 use them, and the suggestion of elders at 
 work, becomes spontaneously an imitator and 
 develops powers and interests which no formal 
 processes of teaching can give. Left to him- 
 self, the child uses tools, first with little pur- 
 pose, then in a deliberate attempt to realize 
 aims and projects partly due to suggestion 
 and partly due to invention. But, as educa- 
 tors clearly see, the forms of manual training 
 which have already largely become traditional 
 take little account of childish capacities, and 
 derive their chief principles of organization and 
 method from the carefully studied experiences 
 of mature workers. These forms of manual 
 training not only do not encourage naive child- 
 ish tendencies, but even flout them by laying 
 an embargo upon the child's native desires to 
 experiment and to try to make things which 
 have for him a genuine significance in use. 
 
46 EDUCATIONAL READJUSTMENT 
 
 Recent developments in the teaching of 
 mathematics point also to the influence of the 
 conception that logical organization of subject- 
 matter is not a final basis for the method of 
 the teaching order. For it is believed by the 
 proponents of the so-called Perry movement 
 that the central deficiency in the teaching of 
 mathematics at the present time is the too 
 great insistence upon the logical and abstract, 
 to the exclusion of the concrete and applied. 
 Teaching geometry largely through its appli- 
 cations certainly appears at war with the sim- 
 ple and orderly teaching that is based on the 
 strictly logical organization of that subject; 
 but experience may show that there are many 
 paths through applied geometry which reach 
 the real goal of learning more effectively 
 than the traditional approaches. Among the 
 sciences, it is apparent that in the best teach- 
 ing of nature study, modern method is coming 
 nearer to a more natural order, as concerns 
 the learner. It is noteworthy that biology in 
 secondary education, whether under that name, 
 or as botany and zoology, has attempted many 
 
THE NEW BASIS OF METHOD 47 
 
 schemes based upon the logical organization 
 of subject-matter which appeals to the mature 
 scientist, but without success ; and that in the 
 best secondary schools it is now following 
 various experimental orders which are frankly 
 claimed to be psychological or pedagogical in 
 their nature. 
 
 Illustrations might be multiplied. On both 
 sides of the question are camps of those who 
 teach geography, to some extent teachers in 
 one, and geographers in the other. The his- 
 torians have given the world new definitions 
 of history and new tests of its organization, 
 and are insisting that those who teach history 
 to children shall accept their criteria ; and edu- 
 cators who think they understand children are 
 waiting expectantly for the man who is at once 
 historian and also learned in, or intuitive of, 
 the ways of growing youth. In some respects 
 a natural method in selecting and presenting 
 the materials of literature has been found for 
 all the grades ; but so far it is not believed 
 that the American secondary school shows 
 traces of this influence, though the English 
 
48 EDUCATIONAL READJUSTMENT 
 
 secondary school has felt it to some extent. 
 In the teaching of modern languages there 
 are methods called natural, but whether they 
 are actually pedagogical is still a question of 
 fact. 
 
 The foregoing account presents in outline 
 two great and in large part opposed theoretic 
 foundations of method. The first grows out 
 of the exclusive consideration of those phases 
 of human experience which are chosen as the 
 subjects of school education, and is primarily 
 characterized by the logical organization which 
 develops in the mind of the adult student and 
 the most inclusive thinker ; this logical order 
 and full content modified, reduced, and diluted 
 only where painful experience renders it abso- 
 lutely necessary to make certain accommoda- 
 tions to the child's immaturity (or stupidity, 
 as some are prone to think). The second repre- 
 sents an attempt to utilize to the full the pos- 
 sibilities of the learning processes which are a 
 part of the natural inheritance, the teacher 
 acting as a guide, example, and purveyor of 
 
THE NEW BASIS OF METHOD 49 
 
 opportunities for learning rather than dictator 
 of content and method. In the first, the thing 
 to be taught determines method ; in the second, 
 natural processes of learning claim chief at- 
 tention. The ultimate ends are not greatly 
 different; under both theories there is sub- 
 stantial agreement as to the elements of the 
 social inheritance whose mastery must be made 
 the end of school education. The essential 
 opposition lies in the methods of attaining 
 these ends. 
 
 The educational literature of the day 
 abounds in criticism of each theory and espe- 
 cially of the observed results of the application 
 of each theory. It is believed by many educa- 
 tors that schemes of teaching built largely 
 through study of subject-matter are failing to 
 produce results. Especially is this believed to 
 be true in the field of secondary education 
 where the influences of recent pedagogical 
 thinking have, as yet, hardly been felt. It is 
 contended that formal education does not 
 function in any kind of genuine experience, 
 or that it functions abnormally. Faulty method 
 
50 EDUCATIONAL READJUSTMENT 
 
 produces mental sterility, and compels the 
 children to forsake the school in order to gain 
 contact with reality, as that answers to their 
 instinctive demands. In some quarters it is 
 believed that many of the evils growing out 
 of wrong methods of teaching which take 
 little account of the natural capacities and 
 limitations of children are insidious in their 
 nature and, detected long after the harm has 
 been done, cannot be traced to their real cause. 
 Good ground can be found for the assertion 
 that the too logical organization of subject- 
 matter (which means, in effect, that it becomes 
 too much removed from the processes of learn- 
 ing on the natural level) may be responsible 
 for a subtle arrest of development in the men- 
 tal and moral nature of the child, comparable, 
 in its results, to premature and maladjusted 
 physical labor on the body. Attempts at learn- 
 ing carried along in opposition to the natural 
 processes result finally in a paralysis of inter- 
 est and an incapacity for spontaneous and 
 active effort in the fields of human experience 
 involved. Hence the seeming paradox that we 
 
THE NEW BASIS OF METHOD 51 
 
 may, by extensive teaching of English litera- 
 ture (in ways remote from natural), destroy 
 all taste and appreciation for the kinds of 
 literature which we teach. Hence the proba- 
 bility that modern methods of teaching science 
 in secondary schools may, except in a few 
 cases, destroy the native curiosity and interest 
 which, if permitted or encouraged to grow in 
 more natural ways, might result in permanent 
 increase of pleasure and capacity in these 
 fields. Hence the observed fact that wrong 
 methods of teaching religion and morality, 
 methods themselves the outgrowth of too ex- 
 clusive consideration of the subject as it ap- 
 pealed to mature leaders and thinkers, have 
 operated so as to stultify true development in 
 these directions. In general the criticism is 
 repeatedly advanced that the limitations of a 
 pedagogy built largely on considerations of 
 the logical order of subject-matter are not 
 found so much in the immediately recognized 
 difficulties of teaching as in the permanent 
 arrest of development which ultimately super- 
 venes. From the standpoint of the modern 
 
52 EDUCATIONAL READJUSTMENT 
 
 educator there is something quite pathetic in 
 the ease with which children can be artifieial- 
 ized in the educative process. They can be 
 taught schemes of language, literature, science, 
 history, and other studies with apparent good 
 result, and can be successfully crammed for the 
 tests which examinations provide. It is only 
 when we consider the deeper significance of it 
 all, say the critics, in producing individual 
 and social arrest of development and ultimate 
 decay, that we can realize that nature has es- 
 tablished certain paths of educational pro- 
 cedure which cannot be greatly ignored except 
 at our peril. 
 
 On the other hand, schemes of method 
 based more nearly on the supposed natural 
 process are frequently open to the criticism 
 that the interest they evoke is temporary rather 
 than permanent, that they fail to produce the 
 concrete results in habit and knowledge which 
 the world demands, that they tend to make of 
 the youth a barbarian or " natural savage " 
 rather than the refined and molded man de- 
 manded by modern society. Where the move- 
 
THE NEW BASIS OF METHOD 53 
 
 ment for a less artificial education has had its 
 effect on method, it is claimed that there has 
 been a decline in certain measurable kinds of 
 efficiency. Children read and write less well 
 than formerly; their arithmetical knowledge 
 is imperfect and unusable ; their knowledge of 
 history and geography is vague and mixed with 
 much error ; their execution in drawing, lan- 
 guage, and manual work is slipshod and char- 
 acterized by low ideals and lack of standards. 
 What does it profit a child if he have great 
 interest in learning to spell if he never learn 
 to spell ? As was said before, primary teach- 
 ing has unquestionably justified the change 
 in the basis of method ; but it can hardly be 
 said that the same is true of the attempts to 
 reorganize the subjects of the upper grades 
 and the high school. 
 
 To the criticisms of the second theory it 
 may be answered, of course, that any method- 
 ology based on a consideration of the natural 
 learning processes must be a matter of slow 
 growth and that we can hardly expect any 
 great achievements until, in the upper schools, 
 
54 EDUCATIONAL READJUSTMENT 
 
 methods shall have been experimentally worked 
 out, as they have already been worked out in 
 the primary schools. But this is small satis- 
 faction in view of the fact that it is especially 
 in the maturer pupils that the world demands 
 some tangible evidence of the results of edu- 
 cation. 
 
 Where, then, can the practical educator of 
 to-day find a sound basis of method, one that 
 will combine a maximum of good with a mini- 
 mum of evil ? The writer believes that a care- 
 ful study of the best educational experiments 
 of recent times and of the processes involved 
 in procuring excellent results in the physical, 
 moral, and vocational education of individuals 
 and groups in the past will show that in all 
 best method there is involved a conscious or 
 unconscious recognition of the two large prin- 
 ciples discussed above, but each in a definite 
 relation to particular stages of the learning 
 process. In individuals or among groups of 
 individuals education has become sterile, 
 cramping, and repulsive when its votaries have 
 
THE NEW BASIS OF METHOD 55 
 
 too greatly intruded the adult point of view 
 and the mechanical forms of adult thinking 
 on youth ; and on the other hand, when en- 
 thusiastic teachers and educational prophets 
 have been able to supplant traditional subjects 
 and methods with others supposed to lie near 
 to the lines of natural and unforced develop- 
 ment, there has been a failure to realize the 
 habits, forms of skill, and definite knowledge 
 which social conditions demand. But when- 
 ever and wherever it has been possible to com- 
 bine the two principles it would seem that 
 education has more nearly approximated a 
 maximum of efficiency. 
 
 On the basis of this accumulated experience 
 it would seem, for example, other things being 
 equal, that in organizing human experience 
 for the purpose of teaching young children, 
 the pedagogical rather than the logical order 
 should receive consideration, but that with 
 increasing maturity of mind there might be a 
 gradual shifting of emphasis to the logical. 
 Again, other things being equal, and age be- 
 ing left out of consideration, it would appear 
 
56 EDUCATIONAL READJUSTMENT 
 
 that the early contact of the child or youth 
 with a new field of human experience which 
 is to be made his through the learning process, 
 should be governed by pedagogical rather 
 than logical considerations. Again, within any 
 study which is long pursued for the sake of a 
 considerable body of habit or knowledge, it 
 would seem desirable to vary the procedure 
 from natural to logical and the reverse around 
 each fairly large unit which might develop 
 within that subject-matter. The reasons for 
 this shifting from one organizing principle of 
 method to another lie in the fact that under- 
 lying all formal, logical, and highly systema- 
 tized learning is a substratum of kindled feel- 
 ing and interest, crude first-hand knowledge, 
 and aspiration and ideal such as spring from 
 large self-activity. These rough, undifferenti- 
 ated, and pervasive qualities are best developed 
 by those forms of learning which approximate 
 the spontaneous. They seem to be basal to 
 permanent interests and to the fullest develop- 
 ment of organized and systematized habit and 
 knowledge to be acquired later. The idea might 
 
THE NEW BASIS OF METHOD 57 
 
 be expressed in another way by saying that 
 the true educative process consists in first pro- 
 viding abundant opportunities for that devel- 
 opment, in connection with any study or prac- 
 tice, which comes from the largely spontaneous 
 exercise of the instincts and other natural 
 capacities ; and then in proceeding to build 
 on this foundation the habit, skill, knowledge, 
 and ideal which are demanded of civilized con- 
 ditions, and which require what we term arti- 
 ficial organization on the one hand to corre- 
 spond to artificial requirements, or logical on 
 the other as best exhibiting the grasp which 
 experience and insight have attained in the 
 world of knowledge. 
 
 A few examples will make this clear. The 
 child in a stimulating environment of imple- 
 ments and suggestion naturally seeks to ex- 
 press himself through drawing. His early 
 drawing is crude, imperfect, and shows lack 
 of knowledge of elemental principles. But in 
 freely expressing himself the child gains a 
 body of experience and some skill which may 
 be fundamental to later development in this 
 
58 EDUCATIONAL READJUSTMENT 
 
 direction. Play, of course, provides an analo- 
 gous situation in the fields of physical, social, 
 and vocational development. Or take the case 
 of a boy provided with the means and sugges- 
 tion for work in physical science. Left to him- 
 self such a boy reads, experiments, procures 
 crude results, all of which may not apparently 
 advance him far in the systematic study of 
 physical principles or in the acquisition of 
 skill of manipulation. Yet there is good reason 
 for suspecting that the boy who does not have 
 opportunity for this stage of development 
 (which is not now allowed by the schools) 
 comes to the systematic study of physics with 
 an insufficient background of experience and 
 interest, and these cannot be developed by 
 the logically arranged courses of experiments 
 and study of principles found in the schools. 
 It may well be questioned, in view of the re- 
 sults in our schools, whether the systematic 
 study of literature in upper grades should not 
 be preceded by an extensive provision of op- 
 portunities for reading, largely along the line 
 of the natural tendencies, exercised, of course, 
 
THE NEW BASIS OF METHOD 59 
 
 in an environment of wholesome material 
 and suggestion. Similarly in the field of his- 
 tory. To the child, as to primitive man, his- 
 tory is more than a cold account of facts ; it 
 is something which involves feeling, imagina- 
 tion, ideal. Left to himself the child may tend 
 to gather his experience of the past and re- 
 mote from song, picture, tale, myth, novel, and 
 epic as well as from the books which offer 
 more exact statements of fact. Whether we 
 study the lives of peoples or the biographies 
 of individuals, we have yet no evidence that 
 the approach to history through the above chan- 
 nels is not the most natural and, in the long run, 
 most effective. The danger, of course, lies in 
 the fact that so many individuals are allowed 
 to stop before they have acquired some of the 
 methods and content of exact historical study. 
 But no less great at the present time is the 
 danger that young children will be fed on 
 historian's history, which is good for the his- 
 torian, but may be husks for children. Illus- 
 trations might be multiplied from other sub- 
 jects of ordinary curricula. 
 
60 EDUCATIONAL READJUSTMENT 
 
 Can we, then, say that we have already with 
 us to some extent a new basis of method? 
 Can we not in connection with any study or 
 pursuit of the schools recognize that what 
 might be called the processes and methods of 
 spontaneous learning require recognition up 
 to a certain point, after which a transition 
 should be made to the methods begotten of 
 mature human wisdom acting on past experi- 
 ence? It seems to the writer that we have al- 
 ready a partial recognition of these large facts, 
 but that in connection with certain schools 
 and types of education we refuse to allow 
 ourselves to escape the habits and preposses- 
 sions of tradition, or that the school teacher 
 allows himself to be enslaved by methods de- 
 veloped in schools where mature people study. 
 A great difficulty lies in the general unwill- 
 ingness to make education an experimental 
 field of applied science and art. When, in any 
 given subject of study, we have a carefully 
 worked out logical organization, it involves 
 a courageous and adventurous disposition 
 to depart from it and to seek in the wilds 
 
THE NEW BASIS OF METHOD 61 
 
 that organization which will carry more of an 
 appeal to, and be more effective with, the 
 beginning student. In the absence of any 
 complete or helpful knowledge of genetic psy- 
 chology, every teacher who would utilize the 
 natural processes of learning as foundations 
 for later systematization of knowledge and 
 habit |is obliged to experiment, and some- 
 times almost blindly. Here the methods of 
 trial and error and selection are yet largely 
 necessary. 
 
 It is, however, essential that the educa- 
 tor get some conception of the principles in- 
 volved. Doubtless we can say of much Ameri- 
 can primary education that it recognizes the 
 principles, so far as small children are con- 
 cerned. Yet it is of importance that we recog- 
 nize that, after all, it may not be a question 
 of age that is involved so much as the rela- 
 tion of the content and development of the 
 mind to a study or practice (or, more signifi- 
 cant, the large units within these) which is 
 about to be taken up. It may be that even 
 the fairly mature mind, approaching a unit of 
 
62 EDUCATIONAL READJUSTMENT 
 
 knowledge or practice with which it has thus 
 far no connections, should make its first 
 approaches largely along the planes closely 
 related to natural learning. It may be that 
 the chief weakness of our secondary educa- 
 tion is that it fails to make allowance for 
 a modicum of natural learning before the 
 highly systematic organizations of material 
 are taken up. It may be that the constant 
 complaint in high school and college of the 
 immaturity and unpreparedness of the stu- 
 dent has its real source, not in the lack of 
 technical skill and specific knowledge, but 
 in the unpreparedness of attitude and inter- 
 est and basal experience which in so many 
 cases are not the fruits of our present me- 
 thods. 
 
 No basis of method can be successful in a 
 permanent way which does not recognize, on 
 the one hand, the fundamental and pervasive 
 character of the learning processes which na- 
 ture developed long before the advent of 
 modern culture ; nor, on the other hand, 
 the imperative demands of modern social 
 
THE NEW BASIS OF METHOD 63 
 
 and cultural life in regulating, organizing, 
 and rendering efficient these same learning 
 processes along specific lines. It should be 
 apparent that the logical organization of sub- 
 ject-matter represents something very use- 
 ful as a basis of method, if not introduced 
 too prematurely in the mental and moral 
 evolution of the child. What is needed is 
 care in providing the child, as a prelimin- 
 ary to learning on the artificial level, with an 
 abundance of experience on the natural plane. 
 Sometimes the home does this, and it is easy to 
 see that the more immediate industrial life of 
 the farm and the shop in past centuries was a 
 rich source of this basal experience. But if the 
 home does not provide it, whether in cultural, 
 social, or vocational directions, then the school 
 must do so, in the interests of effective edu- 
 cation. The new basis of method involves, on 
 the one hand, a guarantee of this fundamental 
 experience as a basis of motive, interest, and 
 first-hand knowledge ; but it also involves the 
 necessity of building on this foundation a 
 structure of organized habit, systematized 
 
64 EDUCATIONAL READJUSTMENT 
 
 knowledge, and efficient ideal, which subse- 
 quent course of learning may very fully in- 
 volve the logical and artificial organization of 
 subject-matter. 
 
Ill 
 
 WHAT IS LIBERAL EDUCATION? 
 
 Is liberal education losing in power to at- 
 tract youth? This is alleged in many quarters. 
 In college^and secondary school, the studies 
 which wear a vocational aspect are being pre- 
 ferred, we are told, to those that minister to 
 the larger ideals of life. Education toward 
 practical achievement is being sought by an 
 increasing number of students, while the num- 
 bers of those seeking in the humanities the 
 elevating influences which a higher civiliza- 
 tion needs do not increase proportionately. 
 The advocates of an effective vocational edu- 
 cation are not infrequently embarrassed by 
 the charge that they are promoting the decay 
 of much that makes for kindled ideal, sympa- 
 thetic insight and personal culture. They 
 have not always the hardihood to suggest that 
 perhaps the waning of interest in liberal edu- 
 cation may be occasioned largely by lack of 
 adaptation in its own instruments and methods. 
 
66 EDUCATIONAL READJUSTMENT 
 
 May it not be possible that the demand for 
 the essentials of liberal education is no less 
 strong than formerly, but that ancient ways 
 of meeting it no longer suffice ? 
 
 Clearly, better foundations are needed for 
 liberal education in school and college. Pro- 
 fessors and teachers of the liberal arts still 
 reflect in a measure the ideals and methods of 
 the cloister and of the leisured world in which 
 their calling found its aristocratic and exclu- 
 sive origins. Quite naturally, they are usually 
 strong in their faiths, and resentful of scrutiny 
 into the social validity of their purposes ; and 
 it would be surprising if, under the circum- 
 stances, they proved themselves able to evalu- 
 ate in any fundamental way the effectiveness 
 of their means and methods in promoting cul- 
 ture and social worth under modern demo- 
 cratic conditions. 
 
 Schoolmen — teachers of the liberal arts in 
 school and college — can be credited with a 
 fine devotion to the study of those fields of 
 knowledge in which their scholarly interests 
 lie j but, with rare exceptions, they have not 
 
WHAT IS LIBERAL EDUCATION? 67 
 
 been students of teaching. They have mas- 
 tered subject-matter, the means of education, 
 — but not pedagogy, the art of effectively ap- 
 plying the means. They have not yet evolved 
 a satisfactory philosophy of liberal education 
 to supersede the store of educational dogmas, 
 psychological misconceptions, and cultural 
 mysticisms which they inherited. 
 
 Yet our schools and colleges are thronged 
 as never before by those seeking or sent to 
 seek higher education. Over a million boys 
 and girls, under no legal compulsion, now 
 pursue the traditional types of liberal learning 
 in public secondary schools in America ; and 
 the men and women in the colleges are to be 
 numbered by hundreds of thousands. But 
 much of the work done in these institutions 
 is without clear purpose, and is therefore 
 largely futile as regards the finer ends of 
 liberal education. 
 
 Efficiency in education, as elsewhere in the 
 regions of conscious effort, involves on the 
 one hand a fairly clear conception of goals to 
 be reached, and on the other a degree of cer- 
 
68 EDUCATIONAL READJUSTMENT 
 
 titude as to the probable functioning of the 
 means and methods employed. Our institutions 
 devoted to liberal education are not able to ap- 
 ply to themselves tests of efficiency along these 
 lines ; they have no acceptable formulations of 
 their purposes ; and equally (and partly as a 
 consequence) they have no sufficient evidence 
 as to the efficacy of the procedures which they 
 use. These schools receive the picked person- 
 alities of the community, from the standpoint 
 both of natural inheritance and of social sur- 
 roundings. Intelligent men and women nat- 
 urally expect the schools to enhance in marked 
 degree the civic and cultural possibilities of 
 these young people. Neither parents nor pub- 
 lic are satisfied with the results. In spite of 
 the large attendance in school and college, 
 faculties allege that there is a waning of in- 
 terest in intellectual pursuits. Students are 
 perfunctory in their devotion to serious studies, 
 except to those appealing to practical motives. 
 Vocational education seems often to have the 
 stronger claims on attention and interest. Be- 
 cause of the greater efficiency of its procedures 
 
WHAT IS LIBERAL EDUCATION? 69 
 
 it may, indeed, tend to attract students at an 
 age when, for them, a further liberal education, 
 if effective, would be preferable. 
 
 Vocational education is capable, at best, of 
 making only partial and somewhat incidental 
 contributions to liberal education, no matter 
 how we conceive the latter. A democracy 
 surely needs liberal education, widely de- 
 veloped, as something distinct from voca- 
 tional capacity. The lawyer can be given, 
 somehow, interests in music and art quite un- 
 connected with his vocation ; the farmer may 
 have his tastes for literature, sociology, or as- 
 tronomy; and the machinist may touch with 
 some appreciation, in his leisure hours, such 
 remote fields as the plant-world, or the interior 
 decoration of a home. 
 
 May we not, in fact, still find it desirable 
 to defend, in a degree, liberal education in 
 terms of its differences from vocational edu- 
 cation; not indeed in disparagement of the 
 latter, as the cloistered schoolman has done, 
 but as furnishing the vital complementary 
 factors to it? Man, to be of use to himself, 
 
70 EDUCATIONAL READJUSTMENT 
 
 and to society, must be a producer of utilities 
 of some sort ; and it is folly to disparage this 
 function, or to deny its importance in any 
 sane scheme of education. But man is also a 
 consumer ; he is a user of the endlessly varied 
 output of the labor and inspiration of others. 
 To produce little and consume much is a char- 
 acteristic of parasitical forms of life ; but to 
 produce well and consume badly gives us, in the 
 human sphere, narrow, illiberal, self-limiting, 
 and ultimately self-destroying individualities. 
 The modern world insists on specialization in 
 productive activities as the keynote to effi- 
 ciency ; but it must learn to insist equally on 
 the democratization and universalizing of fine 
 consuming capacities as a condition of main- 
 taining the larger forms of social life. One of 
 the vices almost always inherent in certain 
 forms of social aristocracy, is the artificial 
 specialization of some consuming functions. 
 
 Are there not revealed in the distinctions 
 here presented the clues to the methods and 
 functions of liberal education ? Man stands in 
 a twofold relationship to the world ; he is a 
 
WHAT IS LIBERAL EDUCATION? 71 
 
 producer of utilities, and also a consumer. As 
 producer, he writes books, or constructs ma- 
 chines, or produces wheat, or builds houses, 
 or heals the sick, or conveys travelers ; and for 
 any of these activities he can be trained. As 
 consumer, however, he is inspired by books, 
 served by machines, nourished by bread, shel- 
 tered by houses, healed by physicians, and 
 carried by railways ; and for the wise and pro- 
 fitable exercise of these activities he can also 
 be trained. He specializes in production ; but 
 manufacture, and printing, and steam enable 
 him to universalize in consumption. What we 
 call the social inheritance — knowledge, ideals, 
 institutions, inventions, all capitalized in more 
 or less permanent forms — is at the disposal 
 of any qualified user. In a world of specialized 
 producers, each person sufficiently trained in 
 utilization has for his enjoyment and service 
 endless stores of science, of art, of religious 
 ideals, of political capacity, and of economic 
 resources. 
 
 The world needs able producers, and edu- 
 cation to that end will never be amiss ; but it 
 
72 EDUCATIONAL READJUSTMENT 
 
 also needs, as a condition of social well-being, 
 consumers who can utilize material and spirit- 
 ual products to their own advantage, and also 
 to the advantage of those who are of high 
 grade among producers. Do I buy inferior 
 newspapers, when better are available ? I not 
 only injure myself, but I lend my influence to 
 lowering the standards of newspaper produc- 
 tion. Does one prefer cheap and ephemeral 
 fiction to the standard writings of the great 
 masters ? Not only does he fail to realize his 
 own best good, but he becomes measurably re- 
 sponsible for the failure of other potential great 
 masters to reach the stage of high creative work. 
 Do we, as a people, reward with our approval 
 and patronage unscientific medical attendance, 
 conscienceless political service, and life-impair- 
 ing industrial activity ? We pay, as a rule, our 
 own penalty; but society is also permanently 
 the loser in scientific medicine, in political hon- 
 esty, and in genuinely efficient industry. 
 
 Is not the essence of liberal education to 
 be found in the conception of man as a user? 
 
WHAT IS LIBERAL EDUCATION? 73 
 
 Is it possible to call a man liberally educated, 
 who, as a user, habitually makes inferior 
 choices from the fields of art, literature, re- 
 ligion, applied science, convivial association, 
 political leadership, and travel? Fortunately, 
 we no longer hold the older notion that cul- 
 ture is inseparable from certain specialized 
 forms of appreciation, such as ability to read 
 Greek, speak French, recite sonnets, or discuss 
 the latest fiction ; and we are slowly learning 
 to conceive it as something deeper than the 
 mere possession of etiquette and a set of con- 
 ventions. 
 
 The liberally educated man of the twenti- 
 eth century will not be the member of a nar- 
 row cult. From many quarters will it prove 
 possible, as a famous university president has 
 told us, to derive the training and experience 
 which make for liberal education ; and it is 
 futile to expect that all liberally educated men 
 shall exhibit powers of appreciation in the 
 same fields. Life is short, and the world of 
 ideals, knowledge, and specialized service 
 grows constantly larger. If all men read, we 
 
74 EDUCATIONAL READJUSTMENT 
 
 are under obligation to seek to produce better 
 standards of reading ; but this does not mean 
 that we shall bar from the ranks of the liber- 
 ally educated, on this account alone, the man 
 who has no Latin; nor he who, perchance, 
 may not have read Browning; nor even one 
 who frankly confesses a general distaste for 
 classical literature. 
 
 Perhaps, in the more democratic society of 
 the future, we shall find more satisfactory 
 universal tests of liberal education in those 
 regions of activity where large numbers have 
 social contact. To-day we all buy and use 
 pictures — in newspaper, magazine, moving- 
 picture show, billboard exhibition, and, less 
 commonly, in art gallery and in the house- 
 hold ; how much of liberal education for this 
 purpose can a more purposive system of school 
 training give us ? We are all users of the out- 
 put of the modern loom; according to the 
 character of the demand, this output may be 
 prevailingly flimsy, inartistic, unhygienic, and 
 the product of shop conditions which promote 
 poverty, ill health, and low morals. Will not 
 
WHAT IS LIBERAL EDUCATION? 75 
 
 right ideas of liberal education insist on ele- 
 vating these conditions, and socializing this 
 form of consumption? Again, that field of so- 
 cial activity which we term politics has evolved 
 a form of specialized service for which com- 
 pensation is given as in other fields. Voting 
 means simply collective employment of this 
 specialized service toward the performance of 
 particular functions. In a democracy, it has 
 seemed desirable to allow large numbers to 
 share, directly or indirectly, in the employ- 
 ment of public servants. The essence of gen- 
 eral civic education is to produce good em- 
 ployers of civic workers, that is, persons who 
 will have a fairly clear conception of the task 
 to be done, and who will know how to choose 
 efficient and honest employees. From this 
 standpoint, shall we continue to be able to 
 call a man liberally educated for the condi- 
 tions of modern life who manifests incapacity 
 and professes indifference in exercising his 
 social responsibility in the joint purchase of 
 expert political service? 
 
76 EDUCATIONAL READJUSTMENT 
 
 Now, if the conception of liberal education 
 here put forth is valid, it is necessary that we 
 realize how far the methods of modern aca- 
 demic training are alien to it. Not so much, 
 perhaps, is this true in professed purpose as 
 in methods and results. A careful examina- 
 tion of the pedagogic practice (largely tradi- 
 tional and customary, of course, rather than 
 consciously purposive) of secondary school 
 and college of liberal arts will show the per- 
 sistence of methods derived rather from an 
 ancient vocational education, and ill serving 
 the purposes of liberal learning. 
 
 At bottom, it would seem that popular ob- 
 jection to so-called liberal education rests 
 largely on a widespread, though seldom ar- 
 ticulate, conviction that it is not liberalizing. 
 Does the study of the historic " humanities," 
 as carried on in a modern atmosphere, produce 
 the "humane" man, — the man who, as in 
 the olden view, saw profoundly, thought 
 deeply, sympathized widely, and became a 
 blessed source of high ideals, correct think- 
 ing, and benign sentiment? Are our high 
 
WHAT IS LIBERAL EDUCATION? 77 
 
 school graduates liberally educated to utilize 
 and thereby to improve service in the making 
 of books, the preaching of sermons, the nur- 
 ture of children, the policing of cities, the 
 administration of charity, and the presenta- 
 tion of plays? Is the organized training of 
 the average college of liberal arts (not the 
 college life, since often, by chance or design, 
 this is unquestionably liberalizing) such as to 
 produce high-grade appreciation and effective 
 powers of utilization in the fields of citizen- 
 ship, art, social intercourse, religion? 
 
 It seems highly probable that, because of 
 the prevailing haziness of thinking regarding 
 the valid and practicable ends of liberal educa- 
 tion, there is ineffective organization of means. 
 What, for example, has the obligatory study 
 of algebra or geometry on the part of ninety- 
 five per cent of the more than half-million 
 high school girls in America to do with their 
 liberal education? Some seventy per cent, 
 probably, of all boys and girls in our public 
 high schools are constantly studying Latin, 
 that ancient and extolled instrument of lib- 
 
78 EDUCATIONAL READJUSTMENT 
 
 eral education ; but, as commonly studied, by 
 grammatical methods, and without persistent 
 interest, what part does it play, except in rare 
 instances, in the liberal education of American 
 youth? These subjects, it will be said, are 
 prescribed merely as the preliminary instru- 
 ments of a later liberal education; but what 
 is this? Are the instruments ever actually 
 used, and with what effect? Does such edu- 
 cation, in truth, "function"? where, and to 
 what extent ? 
 
 Again, the large purposes of science-teach- 
 ing, enunciated at intervals since the days of 
 Spencer and Huxley, are acceptable and ad- 
 mirable from the standpoint of liberal educa- 
 tion; but in spite of laboratories and innu- 
 merable courses in college and secondary 
 school, do not these purposes still remain 
 largely unrealized? What, after all, for the 
 , average youth, has the prevailing study of 
 physics, of chemistry, and of biology to do 
 with liberal education? The methods cur- 
 rently employed are those of formal voca- 
 tional education; high school and college 
 
WHAT IS LIBERAL EDUCATION? 79 
 
 teachers organize their work as if their sole 
 business were to prepare forthcoming special- 
 ists in teaching, medicine, and engineering. 
 Once in a generation each institution may get 
 a real teacher of science from the standpoint 
 of inspiration, insight, culture — in a word, 
 liberal education; but the rank and file are 
 technicians only. The popular verdict is that 
 science, pure or applied, is not yet in practice 
 a feature of liberal education. 
 
 The same criticism applies to other subjects. 
 Our secondary schools and colleges multiply 
 courses in history. We all feel, vaguely, that 
 in history, if anywhere, should be found valu- 
 able means of liberal education. But scientific 
 methods, an insufficient pedagogy, and a pre- 
 vailing lack of social insight (perhaps better 
 called sociological insight) have contributed 
 to the sterilization of this subject as a soil for 
 the growth of ideals, sentiments, and useful 
 social knowledge. 
 
 Obviously, we need a revision of the phil- 
 osophy and methods of liberal education. 
 Surely, no one can contend that in a world 
 
80 EDUCATIONAL READJUSTMENT 
 
 growing daily richer in all kinds of resources, 
 — spiritual, intellectual, esthetic, material, — 
 and in specialized service, we do not need 
 education towards wise utilization on a high 
 social plane. The democratic and universal 
 character of this education must be assured. 
 Let it not be forgotten that extra-school agen- 
 cies, and these often of an irresponsible sort, 
 are always active in leading the consumer 
 towards anything but the finer forms of utiliza- 
 tion. The Sunday newspaper and the cheap 
 magazine become the literature of the major- 
 ity; the billboard, vaudeville, and moving- 
 picture show give to the people not only 
 romance, but art as well ; the convivial asso- 
 ciation of the drinking-place is substituted for 
 more refined and restrained intercourse ; and 
 advertising, which now costs annually far 
 more than the total outlay for all forms of or- 
 ganized education, incessantly fashions tastes 
 and standards in the use of clothing, orna- 
 ment, food, and habitation, as well as in litera- 
 ture, music, and political service. 
 
 Many of the foregoing agencies are good ; 
 
WHAT IS LIBERAL EDUCATION? 81 
 
 but they are seldom capable of producing 
 from within themselves the higher standards, 
 and they often fail to lend themselves to the 
 wider social purposes needed by the age in 
 which we live. The school is the one institu- 
 tion under more or less of public control, 
 which is charged, in so far as it deliberately 
 ministers to liberal education, with responsi- 
 bility for the elevation and diffusion of higher 
 standards of appreciation and utilization. A 
 purposive program to this end is a present 
 educational need. When it shall be evolved, 
 it seems probable that, in comparison with it, 
 our pitiful drills in algebra, Latin, textbook 
 physics, ancient history, elementary logic, and 
 English composition, will make a poor exhi- 
 bition as supposed means of genuine liberal 
 education. 
 
 How can such a program be formulated? 
 It seems to the writer that the first condition 
 is a statement of the aims of liberal education 
 in terms of demonstrable utilities, — a state- 
 ment which shall consist neither of mere de- 
 
82 EDUCATIONAL READJUSTMENT 
 
 scriptions of means and subjects of study, nor 
 of vague and perhaps mystical generalizations. 
 "Culture," "mental training," "esthetic ap- 
 preciation," " the scientific spirit," are all too 
 uncertain, too complex, and perhaps, in their 
 general aspects, too impracticable of realiza- 
 tion, to serve usefully as formulated goals of 
 educational effort; and, on the other hand, 
 subjects of study, the so-called liberal arts, as 
 condensed, formalized, and desiccated by the 
 schoolmaster, in textbook and manual, are 
 rarely, in themselves, utilities, but merely in- 
 struments or means. It may be desirable that 
 a high school girl should be induced or com- 
 pelled to study algebra, but surely this should 
 not be for the sake of the algebra itself; and 
 it is educational faith and dogma, not certitude 
 and science, which now declare that out of 
 such study she will emerge keener of mind, 
 stronger in self-control, or elevated in useful 
 ideals. As found in practice to-day, liberal 
 education directs its efforts towards mastery 
 of certain subjects; these are certainly only 
 means to further ends, which are either not 
 
WHAT IS LIBERAL EDUCATION? 83 
 
 yet defined or rest largely on a basis of tradi- 
 tion and mysticism. 
 
 But modern education should prove equal 
 to the task of discovering and formulating, as 
 educational ends, a large variety of interests, 
 forms of appreciation, and powers of utiliza- 
 tion, all having worth to the individual and 
 to society. Having found valid and attainable 
 aims, it could then develop ways and means 
 of realizing them. 
 
 A few examples may indicate what is here 
 meant. In the study of music, proficiency in 
 execution can be attained by but few; but 
 fine appreciation should be possible to many. 
 Might not a program of music-teaching in 
 secondary schools be devised with the latter 
 end only in view ? It is doubtful if we yet 
 have any tested methods for this purpose ; but 
 these would follow a definition of such pur- 
 pose. Again, suppose it were made a con- 
 trolling end of certain civic education in the 
 high school to produce a fairly definite at- 
 titude toward, and comprehension of, the 
 problems of the joint employment of public 
 
84 EDUCATIONAL READJUSTMENT 
 
 servants: namely, voting. What kind of a 
 pedagogic program could be devised to that 
 end ? To take another example, what could a 
 college do if it sought to evoke by educational 
 means, not the scientific attitude in general, 
 which is at best a questionable possibility, but 
 a constructively scientific attitude toward the 
 modern reporting and publication of alleged 
 news? Or if a high school were to seek to 
 elevate the consuming capacities of its students 
 in the field of the drama, would its faculty pro- 
 vide for an analytical study of Shakespearean 
 plays, or would it strive to evoke fairly good 
 results through amateur playwrights and actors 
 from within the student body itself ? Again, 
 how shall we give to the youth who is to be a 
 future householder, taste in the choice of ma- 
 terial surroundings — by the study of formal 
 drawing and physics, or by the exercise of the 
 constructive interests of the amateur furniture- 
 maker and interior decorator — the work of 
 the manual-training shops ? 
 
 The second condition governing the formu- 
 lation of a more vital program of liberal edu- 
 
WHAT IS LIBERAL EDUCATION? 85 
 
 cation, as defined above, would seem to re- 
 quire a lessening of the aloofness of such 
 education, as now carried on. An ancient type 
 of spiritual-mindedness was clearly character- 
 ized by its contempt for worldly things, its 
 insistence on the all-importance of things be- 
 yond this earth ; our so-called liberal education 
 preserves even yet some cloistral aspects, in 
 its distrust of worldly things, its shrinking 
 from too close contact with actualities of the 
 present. Perhaps this attitude was desirable 
 when culture of any considerable degree was 
 necessarily the product, as well as the posses- 
 sion, of an exclusive and leisure class ; and, 
 just as the modern world is richer, in all prob- 
 ability, for the monastic detachment of the 
 churches which permitted the ripening of cer- 
 tain social tendencies, so, possibly, an exclu- 
 sive ancient culture has fertilized modern life. 
 But what is here called liberal education not 
 only ought to be democratic and popular : it 
 is, in forms good or bad, actually that to-day. 
 The school may ignore its responsibilities; 
 other less disinterested agencies will continue 
 
86 EDUCATIONAL READJUSTMENT 
 
 actively at work. All people in modern society 
 are being subjected to never-ceasing influences 
 ■which debase or improve their consuming 
 capacities. 
 
 A system of liberal education which main- 
 tains old traditions of intellectual or social 
 aloofness cannot serve well under modern con- 
 ditions. Our academic studies are, on this 
 ground, open to criticism. Many of them are 
 organized and presented too much with refer- 
 ence to their " pure " aspects — that is, with- 
 out regard to their applications in contempo- 
 rary life and activity. As a consequence, they 
 fail to " function " in life, social and individual, 
 as it is now lived ; that is, the results in terms 
 of ideals and knowledge in action, namely, in 
 " works," are not realized. 
 
 Can we not devise a system of liberal educa- 
 tion which will find its foundations in the best 
 things of the here and now? Literature and art 
 are all about us; science and faith offer their 
 daily contributions; history is in the making 
 to-day; industry pours forth its wares; and 
 children, no less than adults, are sharing in the 
 
WHAT IS LIBERAL EDUCATION? 87 
 
 dynamic activities of contemporary social life. 
 Not in the things of the past, but in those of 
 the present, should liberal education find its 
 beginnings as well as its results. Fortified 
 by the resources, interest, and insight thus 
 obtained, it can be made to embrace areas 
 of culture and power which are relatively re- 
 mote and abstract. 
 
 Cannot our teachers of the liberal arts, 
 while holding their high ideals and conserv- 
 ing their refined interests and tastes, yet keep 
 themselves in vital contact with the world of 
 people and of things in which their real work 
 is to be accomplished? Is any other course 
 open to the supporters of a liberal education 
 which shall meet modern requirements of 
 pedagogy on the one hand, and of democratic 
 society on the other? 
 
IV 
 
 WHY STUDY HISTORY? 
 
 The citizen of the modern state has, as his 
 chief occupation, the getting of a living. He 
 finds himself, however, a member of a very 
 complex society, to the operations of which 
 he is supposed to give a certain amount of 
 time and energy apart from that demanded 
 for his vocation. He has his assigned role in 
 the social drama ; but on the modern stage of 
 democracy he is in effect also obliged to assist 
 in deciding on the composition of the play 
 and in dictating the conditions and methods 
 of its performance. 
 
 The royal rulers of the past, if they were 
 wise, gave painstaking and sometimes fierce 
 attention to the education of the princes who 
 were to succeed to the responsibilities of gov- 
 erning. Modern democracies do not ignore 
 the need of educating those who have final 
 authority in government — namely, voting 
 
WHY STUDY HISTORY? 89 
 
 citizens ; but available evidence seems to indi- 
 cate that they are far from having developed 
 scientific programs for such education. The 
 public school everywhere makes possible, in- 
 deed, the ready diffusion of information. Read- 
 ing, writing, and familiarity with books, to- 
 gether with the ready availability of cheap 
 printed matter, have developed on an exten- 
 sive scale the possibilities of collective and 
 fluent, even though superficial and unstable, 
 thinking. But there is as yet scant training 
 and instruction in public schools (and hardly 
 more in private schools) that is purposeful and 
 scientific to the end of forming right social 
 habits, of evoking useful social ideals, or of 
 fixing serviceable social knowledge. These 
 important educational purposes are as yet 
 served largely by extra-school agencies such 
 as the press, and innumerable voluntary organ- 
 izations, few of which are wholly disinterested. 
 Our schools hold aloof, partly from fear of 
 invading fields wherein take place the con- 
 flicts of partisanship, but also from ignorance 
 as to how purposeful programs of broad and 
 
90 EDUCATIONAL READJUSTMENT 
 
 effective civic education can be worked out 
 and applied. 
 
 But the public is not satisfied with the in- 
 adequate civic education given through the 
 schools ; and now the schools themselves are 
 exhibiting symptoms of wholesome discontent. 
 American public high schools with their mil- 
 lion and more pupils, including a very large 
 proportion of those of our young people who 
 are fitted by nature and opportunity to assume 
 leadership, are being appealed to as the re- 
 sponsible agencies in training for citizenship. 
 No thoughtful person can escape the convic- 
 tion that our secondary schools ought to be in 
 peculiar measure the meeting-places wherein 
 should be developed the attitudes of mind, 
 the ideals, and the types of insight which 
 make for the broader civic or social useful- 
 ness. Secondary schools are found every- 
 where; they claim the finer quality of our 
 youth ; and these they hold during that won- 
 derful period when childhood passes into man- 
 hood and womanhood — the stage of growth 
 about which, from the dawn of human life, 
 
WHY STUDY HISTORY? 91 
 
 apparently, have clustered the rites, ceremo- 
 nies, and trials which have signalized child- 
 hood's flowering into useful adult life. 
 
 The schools are, indeed, doing something 
 toward training for citizenship ; but much of 
 that training is incidental, vaguely defined, 
 and probably ineffectual. We are assured, al- 
 though hesitatingly, that the study of history 
 has been given a prominent place in the cur- 
 riculum of contemporary secondary education 
 with this end in view. The public has certainly 
 encouraged the increased study of history ; in 
 the face of diminishing interest in the clas- 
 sics, and even in certain of the sciences, and 
 in spite of a growing demand for quasi-voca- 
 tional subjects, history courses have more than 
 held their own. Men who think at all believe 
 that neither princes nor voters can have per- 
 spective suitable to their responsibilities with- 
 out the study of history. In spite of the 
 historian's skepticism, men will continue to 
 believe that past experience must somehow 
 provide guidance for present and future ac- 
 
92 EDUCATIONAL READJUSTMENT 
 
 tion. Civic ideals are expected to take root 
 and grow best wherever the records of former 
 achievement and aspiration are gathered and 
 made intelligible. 
 
 The popular faith in the efficacy of history- 
 study has borne fruit in the recent enormous 
 development of that subject in American col- 
 leges. It has also assumed marked prominence 
 in the programs of secondary schools ; and 
 with it are not infrequently linked short 
 courses in civil government and economics. 
 This interest is primarily due to the convic- 
 tion that the citizen — voter or not — needs a 
 purposeful civic education, if he is to be pre- 
 pared to meet the responsibilities of the mod- 
 ern social organization. Religious education 
 is now seldom tolerated in public schools ; 
 and other means seem to decline in effective- 
 ness as a means of the broader social training. 
 Such innate qualities as fear and the instinct 
 of submission to authority which once suf- 
 ficed in a measure as foundations for moral 
 and ethical training are not adapted to mod- 
 ern conditions of democracy and of the sci- 
 
WHY STUDY HISTORY? 93 
 
 entific attitude toward the problems of life. 
 The social or group life of the schools is, as a 
 rule, rich in possibilities of habituating ado- 
 lescents to certain lines of social conduct; 
 and it contributes to the formation of a vari- 
 ety of effective, though limited, social ideals. 
 Too often, however, the habits and ideals thus 
 developed fail to contribute to the fuller civic 
 growth essential in a democracy; they may 
 even in subtle ways serve to arrest that growth 
 on the plane of what is psychologically analo- 
 gous to the class, "gang," or tribal stage of 
 social evolution. In spite of its avowed aims, 
 the American secondary school, in its sponta- 
 neous social life, often exhibits striking mani- 
 festations of class or caste consciousness; and 
 at heart it often falls far short of the ideals 
 of democracy. 
 
 A program of conscious and effective civic 
 education (using the term broadly to include 
 all forms of training and instruction which 
 aim purposefully to fit the individual for 
 " group " or social life) is unquestionably the 
 need of every democratic society ; and espe- 
 
94 EDUCATIONAL READJUSTMENT 
 
 cially is this so under modern conditions where 
 so large a part of social action must be devel- 
 oped on the plane of intelligent understanding 
 and above the planes of the instinctive and 
 of the customary or the f olkway. In America, 
 we have to-day no such program. We attempt 
 to use the study of history to this end, but in a 
 half-hearted and futile way. We also utilize 
 some formal studies of political frameworks, 
 calling such studies civil government, as a 
 means of direct civic education. Judged by 
 results, however, these strivings express little 
 more than aspirations. 
 
 But can an effective program of civic edu- 
 cation be composed, in any considerable part, 
 of the courses in history as that general sub- 
 ject is now organized and taught in secondary 
 schools? Or is any extensive study of that 
 subject a necessary prerequisite to other studies 
 which may be more purposefully directed 
 toward education for citizenship? It is the 
 writer's conviction that the study of history, 
 as now carried on in secondary schools, does 
 
WHY STUDY HISTORY? 95 
 
 not "function" in appreciable modifications 
 of civic attitudes, ideals, or knowledge ; nor 
 does such study contribute essential or valuable 
 elements to other studies which may be organ- 
 ized in the interests of civic or social education. 
 
 That an effective preparation for citizenship 
 should involve study of history is beyond 
 question ; but our present history courses are 
 shaped along wrong lines, and are pedagogi- 
 cally unadapted to the ends sought. It is not 
 so much a question of poor teachers, but rather 
 one of faultily conceived aims, wrong orienta- 
 tion, and the use of pedagogical methods which 
 defeat the true ends of social education. 
 
 Perhaps it is not intended that the study of 
 history in secondary schools shall "function" 
 in the shape of improved capacity for the re- 
 sponsibilities of citizenship. This position is 
 often taken by historians and by history teach- 
 ers themselves j they disavow any such "prac- 
 tical " purposes in their work. They claim 
 that the study of history must hold a place 
 with that of the "pure" sciences, and with 
 the pursuit of art " for its own sake." We can 
 
96 EDUCATIONAL READJUSTMENT 
 
 understand and approve this view when it 
 affects that relatively small number of individ- 
 uals who have special tastes and interests in 
 the study of history as a means of general cul- 
 ture, and who may even aspire to constructive 
 effort in this field. 
 
 But if we accept this position, why press 
 for the extensive use of history studies in sec- 
 ondary education? Does not the subject in 
 that case belong to the category of educational 
 luxuries? Should publicly supported education 
 be asked to address itself at great expense to 
 such ends? The fact is that teachers aud 
 writers of history have not yet honestly and 
 adequately faced the question, " To what ends 
 should the study of history be made a part of 
 secondary education?" Most of the books 
 and articles dealing with this general subject 
 are either lacking in concreteness or they rest 
 on psychological interpretations of the learn- 
 ing processes which should be discarded. It is, 
 of course, true, that it is as yet impossible to 
 formulate in terms of demonstrable educa- 
 tional utilities the aims of several other sub- 
 
WHY STUDY HISTORY? 97 
 
 jects now taught in secondary schools. No one 
 has yet demonstrated with any degree of 
 finality just why girls should be encouraged 
 to study mathematics, or what should be the 
 controlling aims in the study of Latin. These 
 matters still belong in the domain of enduring 
 faiths ; but the case of history study is ren- 
 dered serious because of the growing popu- 
 larity of the subject on the one hand, and the 
 obvious need of a more adequate social edu- 
 cation on the other. Because teachers of his- 
 tory do not certainly know what results they 
 seek, in terms of valid educational utilities, 
 their efforts seem to be largely wasted, if 
 measured in terms of better citizenship. The 
 amounts of time and of conscientious labor 
 now given to the subject are great ; but the 
 seed seems in large measure thrown upon a 
 rock. Agencies outside the school and often 
 irresponsible as regards the larger needs of 
 society are to-day fashioning the civic habits, 
 ideals, and knowledge which underlie social 
 conduct. The responsibility of the schools, and 
 especially of secondary schools, in this connec- 
 
98 EDUCATIONAL READJUSTMENT 
 
 tion, is one not to be ignored ; they must 
 equip themselves anew with instruments of 
 tested worth and they must learn to use them 
 in the service of the social well-being of the 
 present and the future. 
 
 History courses, as now found, especially in 
 secondary schools, reflect only the most super- 
 ficial pedagogical organization. A subject of 
 study is pedagogically organized along right 
 lines when its materials and indicated methods 
 of presentation are of such a nature as to serve 
 the purposes of economical and effective me- 
 diation between learning capacities, on the 
 one hand, and the attainment of ascertained 
 educational goals, on the other. What ultimate 
 objects are to be attained in teaching to first- 
 year pupils in high school Grecian and Roman 
 history ? Until this question is answered, there 
 can be, obviously, no organization of the sub- 
 ject-matter of ancient history of a nature suit- 
 able for effective teaching ; nor can profitable 
 methods of presentation be formulated. 
 
 It is not enough to say that the object to 
 
WHY STUDY HISTORY? 99 
 
 be kept in view is simply the intellectual 
 mastery of so much ancient history. There 
 are more fundamental questions : Why is the 
 learning of this history more important than 
 the learning of other history? What con- 
 ditions determine the elimination and reten- 
 tion respectively of the innumerable facts and 
 elements of the history taught ? Can we guar- 
 antee that Grecian and Roman history, as 
 taught, will " function " as knowledge, power, 
 or culture? What are the native intellectual 
 powers of youth, and what the experience 
 already acquired which may be utilized in 
 rendering the teaching of such history peda- 
 gogically sound ? Finally, what are the meth- 
 ods best adapted to realize the aims which 
 may eventually appear to have validity ? These 
 are questions to which the attention of the 
 writers and especially of the teachers of his- 
 tory have not yet been sufficiently turned, so 
 far at least as secondary schools are concerned. 
 As respects both aims and methods, the vari- 
 ous courses of history teaching are still in es- 
 sential respects unexplored territory. 
 
100 EDUCATIONAL READJUSTMENT 
 
 Indeed, as abler and more scientific men 
 contribute to the writing and interpretation 
 of history, the subject seems often to become 
 less rather than more available, as a rule, for 
 school purposes. History is for the historian 
 more and more a record of the sum total of 
 those social events and processes which have 
 significance to mature and scholarly minds. 
 Generalization and interpretation play a con- 
 stantly increasing part in the evolution of the 
 subject; thus bringing into greater promi- 
 nence elements of an abstract nature. These 
 are assimilated with difficulty, and often with 
 only verbal content by youthful minds; and 
 the empty knowledge resulting avails neither 
 for personal culture nor for social usefulness. 
 Furthermore, both historian and history teacher 
 tend to organize and interpret the sources of 
 history without reference to the significance 
 or applicability of these to the problems of 
 present and future social life. However neces- 
 sary this procedure may be in the interests of 
 " pure " or scientific history, it is inevitable 
 that the teaching of history as something 
 
WHY STUDY HISTORY? 101 
 
 detached from and unrelated to contemporary 
 experience will seriously and often fatally im- 
 pair its pedagogical value and availability, so 
 far as the large majority of younger students 
 is concerned. 
 
 It may, indeed, with Nietzsche, be ques- 
 tioned whether, for the average person, the 
 study of history has significance except on 
 the basis of a receptive capacity born of con- 
 temporary interests and experiences. " He de- 
 sires to experience something for himself, and 
 feel a close-knit, living system of experiences 
 growing within himself. But his desire is 
 drowned and dizzied in the sea of shams, as 
 if it were possible to sum up in a few years 
 the highest and notablest experiences of an- 
 cient times, and the greatest times too." 
 
 Following the thought of Nietzsche, it is 
 probable that historian's history, and espe- 
 cially when desiccated and capsuled into handy 
 textbooks, can be profitable only to ripened 
 students, possessed of unusual capacity for 
 abstract thinking. For all others, though we 
 may force certain portions of such general- 
 
102 EDUCATIONAL READJUSTMENT 
 
 ized and condensed history into mental cold- 
 storage chambers, it remains inert and devoid 
 of social worth. The mind is, indeed, able at 
 every stage of growth to extract from the 
 materials of history, as the plant extracts 
 from the soil, intellectual and spiritual food, 
 if that is made available. Indeed, in the lower 
 grades of the elementary schools much has 
 already been accomplished in this direction. 
 At appropriate stages, the fables, hero tales, 
 stories of achievement, and biographies are 
 drawn upon to meet evident interests and to 
 reinforce and idealize current experience. But 
 in the upper grades and in high schools we 
 still cling to the belief that highly condensed 
 generalizations and masses of dried statements 
 of facts can " function " as enduring educa- 
 tion in history, to say nothing of any fruc- 
 tifying effects on social attitude, ideal, or 
 insight. We have as yet only foreshadow- 
 ings of a pedagogy of the subject which shall 
 make it the handmaid of vital social education. 
 History teaching fails to serve as an instru- 
 ment of civic education in the secondary school 
 
WHY STUDY HISTORY? 103 
 
 because its aims are undefined and its organi- 
 zation and study are pedagogically unsound. 
 Further developments in the direction of the 
 purposes and methods now generally approved 
 will not help the situation. We must face the 
 question of a broader civic education anew; 
 and we must find for that purpose means and 
 methods among which what is now recog- 
 nized as history will, indeed, play an impor- 
 tant but not a controlling part. 
 
 What must be the character and scope of 
 an effective program of education towards 
 citizenship ? And what part will the study of 
 history play therein ? At the outset, it should 
 be noted that the instincts of fear and of sub- 
 mission to authority play a less prominent 
 role in social control than was formerly the 
 case. An effective social control (which is the 
 final object of all civic and moral, and of much 
 of religious, education) must henceforth rest in 
 large measure on intelligent action. Through 
 long periods, society organized itself about 
 the social instincts; and, later, also for long 
 
104 EDUCATIONAL READJUSTMENT 
 
 periods, it widened, deepened, and strength- 
 ened itself on the basis of customs and other 
 elements of a social inheritance in which the 
 products of scientific thinking played but 
 small part. But these later ages, characterized 
 by aspirations toward democracy, on the one 
 hand, and by dispositions toward scientific 
 method, on the other, require that social con- 
 trol shall utilize in increasing measure the 
 instruments and methods of intelligence. 
 
 The broader social education will, of course, 
 not only continue to recognize and to use the 
 social instincts, but it will shape them into 
 useful habits ; it will make and reshape, where 
 necessary, these social habits which we call 
 customs, and it will seek to make right atti- 
 tudes and right conduct customary ; but in 
 ways and to degrees hitherto little understood 
 and, perhaps, not always approved, it will seek 
 to render intelligible the forms and motives 
 of right conduct. It will do this through in- 
 terpreting contemporary social action and 
 through idealizing the higher forms of service 
 and of participation in living society. 
 
WHY STUDY HISTORY? 105 
 
 To this end the various social agencies must 
 be brought into more effective cooperation. 
 Home, church, workshop, playground, press, 
 and stage are all agencies of social education. 
 But, because these are not directly the crea- 
 tions of the state, their share in social educa- 
 tion is in large degree beyond present public 
 control and direction. The public school, how- 
 ever, is the instrument of the state ; and to it 
 the state gives residuary responsibilities in the 
 broader program of civic education. What 
 other agencies cannot or will not do in an 
 effective and practicable scheme of social edu- 
 cation, the public school must do. Especially 
 will it fall to the school to do much in pro- 
 moting social knowledge and in developing 
 fruitful social ideals. 
 
 The modern study of pedagogy renders it 
 certain that the school will best accomplish 
 its mission in this field by utilizing in a fun- 
 damental and vital way the social environ- 
 ment of its pupils. The school itself is a liv- 
 ing, dynamic society ; the school is situate in 
 the midst of a social milieu which exemplifies 
 
106 EDUCATIONAL READJUSTMENT 
 
 unnumbered forms of social activity, and which 
 abounds in opportunities for those most effec- 
 tive forms of social education, namely, partici- 
 pation in social activities, on the one hand, 
 and, on the other, observation of such activi- 
 ties in cases where participation is impracti- 
 cable. 
 
 But intelligent study of educational proc- 
 esses also proves that, building at first on the 
 foundations of suggestive and vital experience, 
 the mind is soon able to utilize materials 
 brought from afar. On the levels of compre- 
 hension made possible by concrete contact 
 with contemporary life, the pupil is able to 
 reach out in space and time and to draw to 
 himself with profit the contributions in verbal 
 and other forms which history, geography, lit- 
 erature, art, and the like have to make. 
 
 Thus, the study of history has, indeed, a 
 place in the broader social training of youth; 
 but it must serve as the handmaid of a richer 
 and more composite subject than has yet been 
 described in the curricula of secondary educa- 
 tion. In ways not yet clearly foreseen, we must 
 
WHY STUDY HISTORY? 107 
 
 discover how to utilize the social environment 
 as a means for the objective study of social 
 science, as this is capable of being learned by 
 adolescent youth. In the execution of the 
 programs thus formed, we shall, from time to 
 time, and often in large measure, draw upon 
 the records of past achievement and ideal for 
 those things which will cause our students to 
 discriminate, to stay ready generalization, and 
 to feel the inspiration of great thoughts and 
 noble actions. 
 
 But the formulation of this program of 
 social education is not easy. It involves an 
 intelligent understanding of the stages of in- 
 tellectual achievement normally possible to 
 adolescents at various stages of growth. 
 Teachers in college and school are as yet 
 none too firmly convinced of the possibilities 
 of the study of pedagogy ; and their attitude 
 is as unsympathetic as it is uncomprehending 
 toward the study of such improved methods 
 of teaching as must rest rather on knowledge 
 of the learning processes in children than on 
 knowledge of the subject-matter of studies. 
 
108 EDUCATIONAL READJUSTMENT 
 
 Nevertheless, many beginnings have been made. 
 The programs o£ the elementary schools, espe- 
 cially in the lower grades, offer many sugges- 
 tions. Here and there secondary school-teachers 
 have sensed the futility of prevailing methods 
 and are striving for something better. Numer- 
 ous textbooks on the teaching of civics are avail- 
 able ; and these show a steady evolution toward 
 the ideals of concrete social education. Vari- 
 ous sociologists have pointed the way, even 
 though as yet uncertainly. A few of the prom- 
 inent historians have themselves felt the pres- 
 sure of the new demand, and have turned aside 
 from their own constructive work to reflect 
 upon the problems of secondary education. 
 
 In our progress toward a functioning social 
 education in which the study of history shall 
 play its part, we must recognize the necessity 
 of basing our efforts, except in rare instances, 
 on contemporary and local experience. At the 
 outset this requires that we shall first dis- 
 criminate those levels or elements of social 
 life which are normally comprehensible by 
 children at different stages of development. 
 
WHY STUDY HISTORY? 109 
 
 Very young children, indeed, are able to pos- 
 sess themselves of those phases of social life 
 and experience which are embodied in stories, 
 fables, and biographies as currently adapted ; 
 and from these, under right teaching, they 
 are capable of profiting greatly as regards 
 social education. At later stages of growth, 
 boys and girls can be led to comprehend and 
 to interpret in fairly broad ways a wide range 
 of economic activities ; and the insight and 
 ideals thus developed may be greatly rein- 
 forced by suitable studies of the correspond- 
 ing economic activities characteristic of vari- 
 ous historic periods. 
 
 Experience will show us that as mental and 
 spiritual growth take place, there arrives a 
 time when large numbers of children become 
 vitally interested in group action along quasi- 
 political lines. Achievement and observation 
 in this field should lay the foundations for 
 that insight which will make the study of the 
 political activities of various historical periods 
 comprehensible and suggestive. 
 
 Thus, we shall find at every stage of evolv- 
 
110 EDUCATIONAL READJUSTMENT 
 
 ing intelligence in youth manifestations of 
 interests which may be utilized in furthering 
 the development of social insight and ideal in 
 new directions and to new degrees of inten- 
 sity; and to the program organized for this 
 purpose history must make its contributions. 
 In fact, must we not discover and cultivate 
 such interests before we can proceed? In the 
 last analysis, no effective social education, and 
 apparently no effective study of history is pos- 
 sible without them. 
 
 With greater maturity will appear, at least 
 in some of our pupils, capacities for more ab- 
 stract thinking, and for more comprehensive 
 generalization. At this stage, an understand- 
 ing of the causes and consequences of the 
 world-wide interchange of Canadian wheat, 
 Rocky Mountain copper, Manchester cottons, 
 Brazilian coffee, and Australian wools will 
 give sufficient foundations for studies of the 
 struggle for India, the rise of Italian cities, 
 and of the conquests of the valley of the 
 Nile. These studies, however, may not inter- 
 est all; and for those who care for them, in most 
 
WHY STUDY HISTORY? Ill 
 
 cases, they should be regarded as means only 
 to a useful knowledge of contemporary social 
 life — knowledge which ultimately " func- 
 tions" in control of some sort. Only in the 
 case of the exceptional student may we ex- 
 pect the delightful study of history " for its 
 own sake" to become an absorbing pursuit; 
 and certainly nothing in the program here set 
 forth will prevent such a consummation. 
 
 The plan of civic (or social) education here 
 foreshadowed is nowhere yet organized, at 
 least in the field of secondary education where 
 it most properly applies. In French public 
 schools earnest strivings after a broad program 
 of moral or "patriotic" education as a substi- 
 tute for the discarded instruction in theology, 
 have produced something analogous to it; but 
 the French scheme is still in an experimental 
 stage and is, in many respects, rendered in- 
 effective by the practice still prevalent in 
 French education of basing nearly all peda- 
 gogical devices on a psychology which is char- 
 acteristic only of adult minds. We have every 
 right to expect that out of our American col- 
 
112 EDUCATIONAL READJUSTMENT 
 
 leges, where education is being studied more 
 and more as a science, shall come men of con- 
 structive mind who will do for history as a 
 means for social education what kindred minds 
 have recently been doing for history as a field 
 for scientific inquiry. Mommsen, as we are 
 told by Professor James Harvey Robinson, 
 was able to achieve a name as a historian, and 
 yet remain long ignorant of such funda- 
 mentals in historical interpretation as the ice- 
 age and totemism. In an era of educational 
 progress like our own, we shall not have to 
 wait long, it is to be hoped, for leaders who 
 will broaden the vision of the teachers of his- 
 tory and will cause them to see the real mean- 
 ing of an education that makes for social 
 efficiency. 
 
V 
 
 THE PRACTICAL ARTS IN LIBERAL EDUCATION 
 
 The place of the manual arts has been much 
 discussed recently with especial reference to 
 vocational education. Some recent excellent 
 papers also present, with new points of view, 
 the bearing of the subject on general or lib- 
 eral education. The writer's experience with 
 certain administrative aspects of both voca- 
 tional and liberal education suggests a few 
 queries which appear worthy of discussion at 
 the present time. 
 
 Thanks to the developments of the last 
 twenty-five years, we have a great body of 
 experience on which to draw ; and while much 
 of it fails to assist our constructive thinking, 
 it lends itself at least to the drawing of con- 
 clusions of a negative nature. 
 
 We shall be able to discuss this department 
 of education more profitably if we confine our- 
 selves to a fairly definite field. At the risk of 
 
114 EDUCATIONAL READJUSTMENT 
 
 seeming to narrow the territory unduly, the 
 writer asks consideration of the queries and 
 discussion hereafter presented, in connection 
 with the area of child life comprehended be- 
 tween the ages of twelve and fourteen — the 
 last two years or grades found in the typical 
 American eight-grade elementary school ; and 
 in order that there may be no uncertainty as 
 to the scope of the subject, he purposes to 
 employ the term " practical arts " as a com- 
 prehensive phrase to include all such branches, 
 studies, or exercises such as manual training, 
 manual arts, cooking, sewing, agriculture, 
 printing, and related subjects, in which the 
 conspicuous element in process and realization 
 is manual activity in pursuit of concrete and 
 objective ends, which are capable of being 
 identified with the fruits of the vocational 
 activities of mankind. These studies are, there- 
 fore, contrasted with those which constitute the 
 rest of the elementary school program which 
 are relatively abstract and involve a more intel- 
 lectual approach. The following seem now to 
 be important problems for discussion : — 
 
PRACTICAL ARTS IN LIBERAL EDUCATION 115 
 
 1. Are not the practical arts, as factors in the 
 program o£ studies for the upper grades, suf- 
 fering from a confusion of partially contradic- 
 tory aims? 
 
 The error seems widespread that the same 
 procedures will enable us to realize equally 
 the ends of liberal and of vocational education. 
 Experience now proves that we can accomplish 
 the purposes of vocational education in a se- 
 lected field by the choice of appropriate means 
 and methods. However, these make partial 
 and, often, only incidental contributions to 
 some of the important ends of liberal edu- 
 cation, which is education, not in produc- 
 tion, but in broad and socialized utilization; 1 
 
 1 Liberal education may be defined in various ways, but 
 to the writer, the most serviceable definition is to be made 
 by contrasting liberal with vocational education in the same 
 way that production and consumption (or utilization) are 
 contrasted in social and economic life. Vocational education 
 is designed to make of a person an efficient producer ; liberal 
 education may be designed to make of him an effective con- 
 sumer or user. The liberally educated man utilizes the prod- 
 ucts and services of many producers; but because of his 
 education he uses them well, both in the individual and in the 
 social sense. Through the'effective utilization of such products 
 and services he raises the plane of his own life ; and, none the 
 less, he elevates the sources of the goods and labor which he 
 
116 EDUCATIONAL READJUSTMENT 
 
 whereas, the procedures suited to a true liberal 
 education may develop relatively little in the 
 way of vocational power. The two forms of 
 training face, if not in opposite, at least in 
 widely divergent directions, as the experience 
 of the ages testifies ; yet in practical arts teach- 
 ing to-day we are striving simultaneously to 
 follow both paths. The results are disappoint- 
 ing to the partisans of each purpose ; and the 
 practical arts teacher meets the usual fate of 
 him who seeks to serve two masters. 
 
 2. Is it worth while to insist on the vocational 
 aim in the practical arts group of studies, when 
 these constitute but a single feature, and often 
 a minor one, in a program of general or lib- 
 eral education ? 
 
 Vocational education is increasingly neces- 
 sary, and we shall see it constantly develop in 
 
 employs. He uses good literature, rather than bad ; he ex- 
 acts from other producers expert rather than untrained and 
 fraudulent service; in his contacts he puts a premium upon 
 good taste, refinement, and right morality ; and in the sphere 
 of more material consumption, his demands lead to improve- 
 ment both in the quality of the goods he obtains and in the 
 social conditions surrounding their production. His utiliza- 
 tion elevates himself and also the world because of his appre- 
 ciation, his insight, his sympathy. 
 
PRACTICAL ARTS IN LIBERAL EDUCATION 117 
 
 appropriate public schools, and under condi- 
 tions which promote in it real efficiency. In 
 the general school, however, time as well as 
 other essential elements are insufficient to 
 permit the realization of genuine vocational 
 power. Efforts in the direction of producing 
 vocational efficiency as a by-product in a 
 scheme of general education only take us into 
 the land of make-believe. We have far too 
 much of the resulting sham vocational educa- 
 tion in America at the present time. On the 
 other hand, the practical arts can be made to 
 play an active and fruitful part in a scheme 
 of liberal education. Let a boy in the spirit of 
 the amateur make a few articles of wood, of 
 metal, and of clay ; lead him to try his hand 
 at cloth-making, at tillage, and at printing; 
 induce him to build on the resulting basis of 
 rich, even though fragmentary, experience, 
 some comprehension of the social significance 
 of the regions of enterprise into which he has 
 made curious incursions — will he not, on this 
 account, be a larger, more intelligent, more 
 social man? Will he not more surely enter 
 
118 EDUCATIONAL READJUSTMENT 
 
 into the broad and civic utilization of the 
 world in which he finds himself, because of 
 the vital contacts thus made possible ? Voca- 
 tional ideals, and capacity for intelligent vo- 
 cational choice/may come from this wide, even 
 though superficial, participation ; but we have 
 no right to expect from it much in the way of 
 direct vocational training. The schoolmaster 
 has erred in thinking of vocational education 
 as a semi-holiday affair, in which boys work 
 in shops whilst wearing clean cuffs. Liberal 
 education for child as well as man may well 
 involve along with its more controlled aspects, 
 leisure, the following of strong tastes, and the 
 spirit and effort of the amateur, as he pursues 
 his avocation; vocational education must be 
 more serious, more effortful, closer to the 
 realities of practical life in respect to the 
 hours, discipline, surroundings, and strivings 
 of productive labor. Let not vocational edu- 
 cation come too early ; neither let it be too 
 long deferred ; but especially let it not be lost 
 in following the will o' the wisp of manual 
 training. 
 
PRACTICAL ARTS IN LIBERAL EDUCATION 119 
 
 A valuable contribution to liberal educa- 
 tion can be derived from the practical arts, 
 although pedagogic formalism has largely 
 prevented this result hitherto; and not the 
 least important element will be the economic 
 insight, the industrial intelligence and sympa- 
 thy which, as Dean Russell shows, can be built 
 up around the youthful amateur's participa- 
 tion in suitable phases of human occupation. 
 Should we not, then, in practical arts studies, 
 frankly differentiate liberal from practical 
 aims, and quite firmly relegate the latter to 
 the vocational schools ? 
 
 3. Is it worth while in the practical arts 
 branches to defend longer a pedagogy of aims 
 and methods based on psychological concep- 
 tions which are being discarded in other de- 
 partments of education ? 
 
 The very phrase " manual training " sug- 
 gests the older notion that specific and inten- 
 sive training in a restricted field would lead to 
 general powers of habit, insight, and ideal. 
 The idea still survives in the persistent efforts 
 of writers on manual training to schematize 
 
120 EDUCATIONAL READJUSTMENT 
 
 " logical " courses, to enforce " type " studies, 
 and to compel generalized appreciation of 
 such qualities as the "artistic" and "work- 
 manship." The failure to recognize the ge- 
 netic order in the development of the powers 
 of childhood is not confined to practical arts 
 teaching, hy any means; but such failure is 
 peculiarly disastrous in a department where 
 we had a right to expect such substantial and 
 valid results of liberal education as permanent 
 interests in the finer material things of life, 
 heightened appreciation of the output of shop 
 and farm, and socialized experience in a variety 
 of the channels of human effort. Would it not 
 be better to take our practical arts subjects 
 out of the cloudland of educational mysticism, 
 and to rehabilitate them in a world where 
 youthful instincts, contemporary ideals, a grow- 
 ing range of possibilities of social utilization, 
 and the crudeness of childish and adolescent 
 powers all have due recognition and interpre- 
 tation? The normal child is insatiable in his 
 desires to express in constructive activities and 
 with concrete materials his dawning appreci- 
 
PRACTICAL ARTS IN LIBERAL EDUCATION 121 
 
 ation of the world in which he finds himself ; 
 his efforts evolve gradually from the largely 
 purposeless activities which serve for physical 
 growth, through those which minister con- 
 sciously to the play instinct, and into others 
 which foreshadow purposeful efficiency in the 
 quest of the utilities of civilized adult lif e. Can 
 our courses in practical arts not do more to seize 
 upon and work with, instead of at cross-pur- 
 poses to, these fundamental growth-processes ? 
 Should not the youth whose creative instincts 
 are strong, and who is destined to be a more 
 or less socialized consumer of many wares 
 from many hands, be encouraged toward a 
 varied, even though amateurish, participation 
 in productive effort ? Can we afford, in face 
 of these opportunities, and in the limited time 
 at our disposal, to lose ourselves in the formal- 
 isms, the correlations, the logical sequences, 
 the questionable ideals of "finish," "thorough- 
 ness," and "artistic quality," which have 
 seemed to afflict the pedagogy of manual 
 training, and, to a less degree, that of the 
 household arts and the arts of tillage ? Would 
 
122 EDUCATIONAL READJUSTMENT 
 
 it be greatly amiss to proclaim as our chief 
 purpose in practical arts education, an enriched 
 and varied experience along lines largely sug- 
 gested by the interplay of youthful instincts 
 and environmental influence, not least of 
 which last would be the sympathetic sugges- 
 tion of the child's teacher ? Even though such 
 a purpose were to result in a considerable in- 
 dividualization of programs; in the general 
 substitution of concrete " projects," each func- 
 tioning directly in some preconceived end of 
 worthy personal satisfaction, for schematized 
 steps in instruction; and in the development 
 of only moderate standards of thoroughness 
 and artistic quality ; might we not, neverthe- 
 less, expect a more vital interest, a more real 
 growth, and a richer contribution to the im- 
 portant ends of liberal education, because of 
 the extent to which appeal is made to individ- 
 ual initiative and other qualities of self-active 
 childhood ? Granted the extraordinary admin- 
 istrative difficulties involved in such a pro- 
 gram, we shall never learn how to deal with 
 the difficulties in this sphere of action until 
 
PRACTICAL ARTS IN LIBERAL EDUCATION 123 
 
 we know toward what goals and under what 
 impelling motives we are moving. 
 
 4. Is it profitable to permit practical arts 
 subjects to be deflected from their important 
 purposes by considerations of correlation ? 
 
 This query is less pertinent in relation to 
 upper-grade work than elsewhere; neverthe- 
 less, even here a satisfactory theory of the pur- 
 poses of practical arts instruction is confused 
 by over-insistence on correlation. It must be 
 recognized, of course, that we may yet evolve 
 a program of school activities in which certain 
 large strands or units of organized effort fun- 
 damentally related, on the one hand, to the 
 needs of genetic development in the individual, 
 and, on the other, to the educative contribu- 
 tions of the environment, shall form the sources 
 and provide the motives for the specialized 
 and often fragmentary activities which now 
 constitute the program of studies in the ele- 
 mentary school. This possibility should not, 
 however, be made the pretext for the artificial 
 attempts at correlation often found. Drawing 
 and other art subjects, mathematics, science, 
 
124 EDUCATIONAL READJUSTMENT 
 
 vernacular language, literature, history, and 
 hygiene, all have their applications in practical 
 arts teaching, and this subject, also, makes at 
 least incidental contributions to them in turn. 
 A natural and unforced correlation is open to 
 no objection ; but most prevailing schemes to 
 that end are impractical, unpedagogical, and 
 fruitful of harm to all subjects involved. It 
 may be doubted whether even the attempt to 
 drive drawing and manual training in the 
 double harness of correlation has not injured 
 the teaching of each subject. In other words, 
 until the Herbartian conceptions of a reor- 
 ganized scheme of studies shall have reached 
 the stage of a developed and tested program 
 of teaching method, ought we not to regard 
 each principal subject as involving its own es- 
 sential aims, means, and methods, the realiza- 
 tion of which can be assisted by a moderate 
 amount of natural correlation, but which the 
 supposed interests of a unified program must 
 not be permitted to nullify ? 
 
 5. In the present stage of educational the- 
 ory, can we not find abundant justification for 
 
PRACTICAL ARTS IN LIBERAL EDUCATION 125 
 
 practical arts instruction based on a wide 
 range of units, or projects, selected from the 
 principal fields of industry, agriculture, and 
 household arts, each adapted to the powers 
 and active interests of the stage of youthful 
 development to be ministered to, and each de- 
 signed to make only such exactions on the 
 pupil as regards thoroughness, scientific analy- 
 sis, elaborateness, and conscious application 
 of art and science, as shall prove fairly natural 
 and profitable ? 
 
 Men and women till the soil, fashion objects 
 of wood, work metals, weave cloth, make 
 clothing, prepare foods, print books, build 
 houses, shape vessels of clay, manufacture 
 shoes, erect machines. In these and other 
 fields, applying creative activities to materials, 
 they achieve self -development and a beneficent 
 mastery of nature. From each of these fields 
 it is possible to select units of achievement 
 adapted to the powers of youth and tending 
 to elicit its ambitious efforts. Furthermore, 
 a large number of these projects function 
 actively in the personal needs or social envi- 
 
126 EDUCATIONAL READJUSTMENT 
 
 ronment of youth ; and they lend themselves 
 as useful means of interpreting contemporary 
 economic life, of stimulating vocational ideals, 
 and of calling forth latent powers. Hence 
 such a program contributes genuinely to lib- 
 eral education, giving insight, appreciation, 
 and ideals with reference to broad social utili- 
 zation. 
 
 Suppose that the boy of twelve or fourteen 
 choose his projects from the following : the 
 growing of selected vegetables or other plants ; 
 the making of pieces of playground apparatus 
 or articles of furniture for the home ; the 
 varnishing of a school desk ; the cleaning and 
 repairing of a bicycle, faucet, lock, or sewing 
 machine ; the sharpening of a collection of 
 cutlery used at home ; the half-soling of a few 
 pairs of shoes ; the constructing of some steps 
 of concrete ; the binding of some sets of 
 magazines ; the mounting of photographs or 
 framing of pictures ; the preparing of articles 
 of food used in camp ; the printing of a 
 pamphlet; and the executing of hundreds of 
 other undertakings which educational inge- 
 
PRACTICAL ARTS IN LIBERAL EDUCATION 127 
 
 nuity can discover. If, within the capacity of 
 the school, and the directive power of the 
 teacher, he makes choices, and carries his pro- 
 jects to a successful outcome ; if, in doing so, 
 he reads, designs, compares, and is led to com- 
 prehend such scientific and artistic principles 
 as are not too deeply involved in his work, 
 will he not have obtained a substantial addi- 
 tion to liberal education ? Is it of fundamental 
 importance that he shall have completed all 
 the steps in some abstract series of exercises ? 
 Suppose he has not reached the degree of 
 thoroughness, precision, artistic or scientific 
 appreciation commonly exacted by craftsman's 
 standards — can we not apply here the same 
 tests of childish growth and unfoldment that 
 we avail ourselves of in other departments of 
 the program of studies ? 
 
 6. In the seventh and eighth grades, must 
 not the practical arts, as described above, al- 
 ways be taught by a departmental or special 
 teacher, equipped to give guidance in as many 
 of the foregoing lines as possible ? 
 
 There is no other practicable way ; such a 
 
128 EDUCATIONAL READJUSTMENT 
 
 teacher can hardly be expected to reach a 
 journeyman's capacity in each of the special 
 subjects, but he must have worked in all those 
 from which projects are drawn. He must be a 
 "handy" man, resourceful, ingenious, sym- 
 pathetic with childish crudities. It is improb- 
 able that any woman can carry out the pro- 
 gram described for boys ; and, equally, only a 
 woman should give the work for girls. The 
 importance of holding to the amateur's stand- 
 ards and spirit rather than to those of the 
 journeyman must be insisted on. 
 
 The foregoing theory of manual or practi- 
 cal arts teaching finds analogies in certain 
 other subjects of the elementary school curric- 
 ulum, such as literature, music, history, hy- 
 giene, practical science, and civics. In the 
 early stages of each of these subjects, modern 
 pedagogy insists on the utilization of units 
 touching the dominant interests, and not re- 
 mote from the spontaneous learning powers 
 of children. Literary selections which readily 
 carry themselves into the graces of childhood ; 
 
PRACTICAL ARTS IN LIBERAL EDUCATION 129 
 
 songs easily learned and retained ; biogra- 
 phies, myths, and historical stories ; attractively 
 presented descriptions, interpretations, and 
 admonitions regarding the conservation of 
 health ; explanations of natural phenomena, 
 calculated to satisfy native and induced curi- 
 osity ; and actual contact with, and conscious 
 service in, the environing activities of social 
 life — these are some of the instances where 
 the ends of a true liberal education of children 
 are being achieved by pedagogical procedures 
 wherein logical organization of subject-mat- 
 ter, formalism of method, and abstract stand- 
 ards remote from childhood are at a discount. 
 Each subject presents later steps wherein or- 
 ganization along more rigid lines, and the em- 
 ployment of the more artificial learning pro- 
 cesses, may be necessary ; but the foundations 
 of interest, imagination, and appreciation have 
 then been laid. In practical arts teaching the 
 place for drill, systematic approach, and ap- 
 proximation of journeyman's standards, is in 
 the vocational school. 
 
VI 
 
 DIFFERENTIATED PROGRAMS OF STUDY FOR 
 OLDER CHILDREN IN ELEMENTARY SCHOOLS 
 
 In attempting to compare American with 
 European systems of education, the writer has 
 reached the following conclusions, among 
 others : (a) In the education of younger chil- 
 dren, of approximately the ages five to twelve, 
 American elementary schools compare favor- 
 ably in spirit, methods, and results with cor- 
 responding schools in European countries; 
 but (6), on the other hand, American schools 
 are as a rule relatively inefficient, so far as the 
 education of the large majority of children of 
 the ages from twelve to sixteen is concerned. 
 
 The following are some of the phases of 
 this subject worthy of fuller consideration: — 
 
 (a) American children go to school willingly 
 during their earlier years. The classroom dis- 
 cipline in the lower grades is mild and the 
 atmosphere homelike. Teachers are interested, 
 and usually appear to be equal to the tasks set 
 
PROGRAMS OF STUDY 131 
 
 before them. The program of studies presents 
 certain definite goals in reading, writing, spell- 
 ing, and arithmetic, in which subjects progress 
 is, as a rule, obvious. Other subjects of study 
 of a less formal nature, such as general read- 
 ing and literature, music, drawing, hygiene, 
 practical arts, and nature study serve to vital- 
 ize the more formal subjects. The children 
 gain steadily in powers of expression, and at 
 the same time grow in general experience and 
 powers of appreciation. 
 
 (b) On the other hand, in the upper grades 
 of the elementary schools and in the case of 
 retarded children beyond the ages of eleven 
 or twelve, teachers in American schools often 
 have great difficulty in making their work in- 
 teresting and significant to their pupils. Some 
 subjects, such as geography, history, and arith- 
 metic, have had their most interesting phases 
 presented in the lower grades. After the age 
 of twelve, in most American schools, little 
 visible progress is made in ability to read 
 aloud, to use the pen, to compose, to sing, to 
 speak effective English, and to perform the 
 
132 EDUCATIONAL READJUSTMENT 
 
 simpler operations in arithmetic. For these 
 older pupils, educational goals, as formulated, 
 seem to lack in purposefulness. The outlines 
 of study in such subjects as geography, his- 
 tory, and literature tend to be over-ambitious, 
 whilst pedagogical methods employed in teach- 
 ing arithmetic, drawing, and the various phases 
 of English expression are often unsound. In 
 home and library reading, as a rule, older 
 pupils continue to manifest a growing capacity 
 and interest, but in most other subjects atten- 
 tion and application are weak and the results 
 uncertain. The older and less ambitious teach- 
 ers transform nearly all the work of these 
 grades into a dull drill in which routine memo- 
 rization plays the largest part. The younger 
 and more ambitious teachers seem often to be 
 wrestling with tasks that are beyond them. 
 Manual training, arithmetic, and history are 
 often taught by women teachers who seem un- 
 able to make these subjects vital and signifi- 
 cant to the boys of their classes. 
 
 (c) A considerable percentage of boys and 
 girls of twelve to fifteen years of age belong 
 
PROGRAMS OF STUDY 133 
 
 to what is known as the retarded class, being 
 from two to five grades behind the point at 
 which they should have been had they entered 
 school at the usual age and made steady prog- 
 ress thereafter. For these retarded pupils, the 
 work of the lower grades is manifestly un- 
 suited. A boy of thirteen in a fourth grade is 
 usually an educational misfit of the most pro- 
 nounced character, no matter how excellent 
 the teaching in that grade may be. It is sel- 
 dom that teachers of the lower grades are able 
 to take personal interest in retarded pupils. 
 They have neither the time, ability, nor dis- 
 position to deal with pedagogical problems 
 presented by older boys and girls. 
 
 (d) At or about the age of fourteen a con- 
 stantly increasing number of American chil- 
 dren enter the public high school. More than 
 half of these, as a rule, will attend not over 
 two years. At present, something over one 
 per cent of the population of the United States 
 is in constant attendance on secondary schools. 
 No longer do these schools attract only the 
 children of cultivated homes or of parents 
 
134 EDUCATIONAL READJUSTMENT 
 
 having ample means. Laborers and other per- 
 sons of moderate means now send their chil- 
 dren in large numbers to high, school for one 
 or two years of education beyond that obtain- 
 able in the elementary school. But for those 
 pupils who stay but one to two years in the 
 high school the usual programs of study are 
 ineffective and barren. The first two years of 
 the traditional high school program offer, as 
 a rule, but a limited range of subjects, and 
 these are of an essentially preparatory nature. 
 Algebra, geometry, ancient and modern foreign 
 languages, ancient history, English literature, 
 and English expression — these represent the 
 staple program, and their pedagogic treatment 
 is commonly formal and abstract. Teachers of 
 the first and second year subjects in the high 
 school are often young, inexperienced, and 
 without special training. The formal courses 
 presented in English, foreign languages, math- 
 ematics, and similar subjects may be the best 
 preparation for pupils destined to finish high 
 school work and pass into college, but any 
 careful examination of the work of those classes 
 
PROGRAMS OF STUDY 135 
 
 of students who are not preparing for college 
 will show that the educational outcome for 
 them is small indeed. Not infrequently the 
 character of the work presented and the 
 methods employed exert a decidedly negative 
 influence in the shape of a destruction of in- 
 tellectual interests and the creation of distaste 
 for all forms of study and school work. Every- 
 where in our high schools may be found large 
 numbers of pupils of only moderate ability 
 and ambition who are being educated in the 
 company of others who are destined to go to 
 college. The less bright pupils are handicapped 
 at every stage of their educational career. Even 
 when commercial subjects and the practical 
 arts are introduced into high school curricu- 
 lums, these subjects are either inaccessible to 
 first and second year pupils or else are treated 
 in a formal manner as introductory to some- 
 thing more substantial to come later. It is 
 often said that the rapid increase in attendance 
 on high schools is proof of the satisfactory 
 character of their early work. There is little 
 substantial evidence that this is the case, how- 
 
136 EDUCATIONAL READJUSTMENT 
 
 ever. The large increase of attendance is pri- 
 marily due to social changes and the ambition 
 of parents that their children shall not enter 
 on vocational occupations too soon and shall 
 not in the mean time remain idle. A constantly 
 enlarging proportion of parents desire to pro- 
 vide a cultural education for their children 
 beyond the fourteenth year. They are not, 
 however, prepared to carry the burden beyond 
 the sixteenth year of the life of the boy or 
 girl, the age at which the nature of the pupil, 
 on the one hand, and the calls of industry, on 
 the other, are apt to unite in effectively ap- 
 pealing to the vocational interests of young 
 people. Nowhere in American secondary edu- 
 cation is a systematic provision made for the 
 cultural education of youths from fourteen to 
 sixteen years of age. For pupils who drop out 
 at this later age, therefore, the charge must 
 hold that the latter part of their education has 
 been relatively ineffective. 
 
 If the education of American children of 
 twelve to sixteen years of age is to be rendered 
 
PROGRAMS OF STUDY 137 
 
 more effective, several kinds of constructive 
 action are necessary. Teachers may be better 
 trained ; more scientific pedagogical methods 
 in subjects already taught may be devised ; 
 the active cooperation of the home and other 
 educational agencies may be increased ; and 
 vocational schools for children over fourteen 
 years of age, paralleling schools devoted to 
 liberal education, may be organized. Obvi- 
 ously, the traditional European practice of 
 making relatively more costly provision for 
 children of the more favored classes, as such, 
 cannot be tolerated in America. Equality of 
 educational opportunity is to be regarded as 
 a guiding principle in whatever may be done 
 in public schools. 
 
 It is the belief of the writer that the most 
 necessary changes toward rendering the phases 
 of education here under consideration more 
 effective are essentially administrative. They 
 involve an increasing flexibility in curriculums 
 and more purposeful programs of study than 
 are at present available. The special problems 
 involved may be presented in the shape of a 
 
138 EDUCATIONAL READJUSTMENT 
 
 series of questions to which, for the sake of 
 eliciting discussion, tentative answers express- 
 ing one point of view are appended : — 
 
 1. Is not the uniform program of study now 
 commonly obtaining in the seventh and eighth 
 grades of the American elementary school 
 overloaded with different subjects ? 
 
 English literature, the various branches of 
 English expression, history, geography, arith- 
 metic, drawing, practical arts, hygiene, and 
 music are always found ; attempts are con- 
 stantly being made to introduce into the upper 
 grades such subjects as foreign language, al- 
 gebra, constructive geometry, bookkeeping, 
 and special phases of industrial arts. In many 
 of these studies, the standards are necessarily 
 superficial to a marked degree. For the teach- 
 ing of some of them, schools are quite lacking 
 in suitable equipment, and teachers are defi- 
 cient in training. It is impossible to avoid the 
 conclusion that the prevailing effort in Amer- 
 ican elementary education to keep the pro- 
 gram of study uniform for all children alike 
 leads to superficiality, mal-adaptation and an 
 
PROGRAMS OF STUDY 139 
 
 overtaxing of the resources of the average 
 teacher. 
 
 2. Is it desirable that in our American ele- 
 mentary schools, opportunities should exist 
 for the beginnings of foreign language study 
 on the part of such pupils as need or desire 
 it, at or about the age of twelve ? 
 
 It is generally conceded that a foreign lan- 
 guage, rightly taught, can be more effectively 
 learned at the age of twelve than later. The 
 most conspicuous advantage possessed by Eu- 
 ropean school children over American is found 
 in the opportunities afforded them to begin 
 foreign language study relatively early. Prob- 
 ably few American children, as compared with 
 European, should be induced to study a for- 
 eign language ; but there are the best of reasons 
 why opportunities should exist for those who 
 have special talents in this direction or for 
 whom a higher education is a matter of strong 
 probability. It should be evident, however, 
 that it is easily possible to waste time in the 
 study of foreign languages. Unless such lan- 
 guages are taught by effective pedagogical 
 
140 EDUCATIONAL READJUSTMENT 
 
 methods, time devoted to this field may be 
 wholly misspent. Only in one way can such 
 study be made effective. Special classes must 
 be formed of those having the ability and the 
 desire to apply themselves to the subject, and 
 competent special teaching provided. It is evi- 
 dent that this can only be brought about 
 through the inauguration of a flexible program 
 of elementary education for the upper grades. 
 Obviously, objection should be made to any 
 program of elementary education making 
 mandatory the study of a foreign language. 
 Attempts of this character commonly fail in 
 the American scheme of elementary education, 
 and it is to be expected that they should fail. 
 
 3. Is it desirable that pupils of twelve to 
 fourteen years of age should be offered the 
 opportunity to take substantial courses in the 
 practical arts ? 
 
 Every administrator is aware that a consid- 
 erable number of boys and girls find in the 
 various divisions of the practical arts oppor- 
 tunities for expression and interest not to be 
 obtained in other subjects. The introduction 
 
PROGRAMS OF STUDY 141 
 
 of manual training and manual arts has ac- 
 complished something in this direction. Never- 
 theless, the one and a half or two hours per 
 week usually devoted to this subject is insuf- 
 ficient time in which to produce satisfactory 
 results either for pupils or teachers. There is 
 no defensible reason why the school day 
 should not be longer for older children than 
 is found in the prevailing practice at present ; 
 and there are good reasons why special classes 
 in the practical arts, employing as much as 
 ten or twelve hours per week, should be or- 
 ganized. Obviously, such courses should not 
 be made obligatory upon all pupils, but should 
 be alternative to other types of work having 
 demonstrated educational value. Here again, 
 flexibility in the program of education for 
 older children should be permitted. 
 
 4. Is it desirable that pupils of from twelve 
 to fourteen years of age should have as an 
 option, alternative to courses in foreign lan- 
 guage or in practical arts, in the elementary 
 school, a course of from eight to ten hours 
 per week, consisting primarily of commercial 
 
142 EDUCATIONAL READJUSTMENT 
 
 arithmetic, the beginnings of bookkeeping, 
 business penmanship, business English, and 
 typewriting ? 
 
 Such a course would offer fairly definite 
 goals and would tend to produce on the part 
 of pupils electing it fairly definite and tan- 
 gible educational results. A certain measure 
 of preparation for some future vocation would 
 undoubtedly follow from this as from courses 
 previously discussed, although the vocational 
 aim for children of the elementary school 
 period should never be dominant. Typewrit- 
 ing, business English, etc., are subjects that 
 can readily be learned by pupils from twelve 
 to fourteen years of age. 
 
 5. In view of the foregoing, is it not prac- 
 ticable and desirable, where upper-grade 
 classes are sufficiently numerous, to organize 
 the higher work of the elementary school in 
 such a way that certain studies, such as Eng- 
 lish literature, English expression, history, 
 civics, geography, music, hygiene, and the 
 like, shall be taken in common by all pupils ; 
 while, in addition, any one of four possible 
 
PROGRAMS OF STUDY 143 
 
 options may be taken by groups of pupils to 
 complete their respective programs of study ; 
 these options to consist of (a) a foreign lan- 
 guage and mathematics; (b) practical arts 
 (for boys), arithmetic and drawing ; (c) prac- 
 tical arts (for girls), arithmetic and art study ; 
 and (d) commercial subjects? 
 
 As the curriculum of the elementary school 
 is now organized, such alternative programs 
 would seem to present the maximum possible 
 adaptation to the needs of different classes of 
 young people. Each program would involve 
 desirable forms and amounts of general edu- 
 cation, while at the same time providing cer- 
 tain studies adapted to the needs and inter- 
 ests of those various groups of children who 
 would probably desire to prepare for college 
 on the one hand, and on the other for voca- 
 tional schools and for practical life. 
 
 6. In order that such a plan might be 
 made administratively feasible, would it not 
 be practicable in cities and other populous 
 centers to establish separate schools for chil- 
 dren from twelve to fourteen years of age, 
 
144 EDUCATIONAL READJUSTMENT 
 
 leaving the education of children under twelve 
 to local schools, staffed, perhaps, entirely by 
 women teachers and principals? 
 
 7. Would not such concentration of the 
 older pupils make possible the introduction 
 of departmental teaching, the employment of 
 a larger proportion of men teachers, and a 
 more satisfactory working equipment for older 
 children ? 
 
 In the city of Fitchburg, Massachusetts, is 
 found a central school of this character, con- 
 taining about one third of the seventh and 
 eighth grade pupils of that city. Children 
 may come to this school from any part of 
 Fitchburg. In it the children may take any 
 one of four programs of study, substantially 
 as outlined above. It is expected that pupils 
 finishing any one of these divisions will find 
 in the high school or in vocational schools 
 opportunities for a continuation of their work. 
 The advantages here found to result from the 
 concentration of seventh and eighth grades are 
 many. Apart from the possible adaptation of 
 the curriculum to the needs of pupils, discip- 
 
PROGRAMS OP STUDY 145 
 
 plinary difficulties are lessened and a more 
 effective contact with the high school is made 
 possible. The esprit de corps of such a school 
 becomes marked. 
 
 8. Is the plan herein proposed an effective 
 substitute for the intermediate high school, as 
 this is known in certain of the Western cities 
 of the United States ? 
 
 For many years articles have appeared in 
 educational magazines defending the six years' 
 high school plan. This is designed to have 
 the effect of reducing the elementary school 
 period to six years. Most of the arguments 
 urged in favor of the six years' high school 
 are sound, provided such a high school could 
 give due consideration to the varying educa- 
 tional needs of the young people which it re- 
 ceives. If the plan of the six years' high 
 school means that subjects similar to those 
 now found in the high school should monop- 
 olize the program and that teaching would be 
 mainly in the hands of young, untrained col- 
 lege graduates, then there exist reasons for 
 hoping that another approach analogous to 
 
146 EDUCATIONAL READJUSTMENT 
 
 that described above be devised whereby flexi- 
 bility in upper-grade work may be obtained. 
 
 9. In a program of the kind here discussed, 
 what place should be made for retarded chil- 
 dren from twelve to fourteen years of age ? 
 
 Obviously, these should not be permitted to 
 remain in the elementary schools organized 
 for children of the first six grades. They 
 should be brought to the same centers as pu- 
 pils of the seventh and eighth grades and 
 should there be organized into special classes, 
 perhaps sharing in some of the departmental 
 work of the regularly promoted pupils. For 
 example, the practical arts work adapted to 
 seventh and eighth grade pupils, as described 
 above, might in large degree be suitable for 
 retarded pupils, whereas special departmental 
 classes in English, arithmetic, and the like 
 might be arranged. 
 
 10. Would there not be a tendency on the 
 part of all pupils to take the foreign language 
 or literary program described above, in view of 
 the probability that pupils having superior home 
 advantages would perhaps seek such a course ? 
 
PROGRAMS OF STUDY 147 
 
 In some cases this result would probably 
 follow. Much would depend upon the spirit 
 of those in charge of the various programs. 
 Experience already shows that the right kind 
 of a course in practical arts would prove a 
 very satisfactory alternative to a modern lan- 
 guage course. No one of the above programs 
 of study should, of course, exclude from the 
 opportunities for higher education, but also 
 it should be obvious that the pursuit of one 
 of them, to the exclusion of any other, would 
 entail advantages and disadvantages with re- 
 spect to the higher schools. A pupil taking 
 the modern language and algebra program in 
 the higher grades of the elementary school 
 should obviously gain a year in the general 
 high school ; whereas, another pupil taking 
 the commercial program, described above, 
 would possess advantages in taking up high 
 school commercial work. A pupil with the 
 foreign language would necessarily require 
 more time in the commercial program and the 
 pupil having the commercial courses in the 
 elementary school would probably require ad- 
 
148 EDUCATIONAL READJUSTMENT 
 
 ditional time in the general high school pro- 
 gram. 
 
 11. In the case of a large number of chil- 
 dren from fourteen to sixteen years of age 
 what reorganization of the currently accepted 
 program of study is desirable ? 
 
 In several States, it is now an accepted pol- 
 icy to provide vocational schools for young 
 people who have passed the period of compul- 
 sory education, usually at the age of fourteen. 
 We are justified in expecting this movement 
 for vocational schools to develop rapidly. But 
 in the estimation of the writer, an equally 
 great educational need in secondary education 
 at the present time is the organization of pro- 
 grams of liberal secondary education, adapted 
 to young people who will probably leave 
 school at or about the age of sixteen. To a 
 great extent, the doors of industry and of the 
 commercial callings are closing to youths 
 under sixteen. Parents are increasingly solicit- 
 ous that their children shall have the advan- 
 tages of at least two years of education beyond 
 the elementary school. The years from four- 
 
PROGRAMS OF STUDY 149 
 
 teen to sixteen in the life of the average young 
 person offer great opportunities for a vital, 
 liberal education as this affects both personal 
 culture and civic efficiency. 
 
 The secondary school curriculum with its 
 various programs of study now offers little of 
 educational value to the pupil who can remain 
 at most but two years. As indicated above, 
 the subjects are generally preparatory to more 
 advanced study of a general or vocational na- 
 ture. Methods of teaching are formal and ill- 
 adapted to the development of the tastes, in- 
 terests, and insights which should characterize 
 liberal education. This condition obtains even 
 in the quasi-vocational courses, such as those 
 designed to lead to the commercial callings, 
 and to industrial arts pursuits. In the so-called 
 commercial program of the typical high school, 
 the subjects of study for the first two years 
 are commonly vocational only to a slight ex- 
 tent, being organized and presented rather 
 with a view to the studies which are to be pur- 
 sued during the third and fourth years of the 
 course. The number of students "remaining 
 
150 EDUCATIONAL READJUSTMENT 
 
 throughout the course is, as is well known, 
 small. 
 
 A complete scheme of secondary education 
 should include not only one or more of the 
 four-year programs as now commonly found, 
 but also, in the estimation of the writer, flex- 
 ible two-year programs of study, all containing 
 English literature, English expression, general 
 science, social science, and an option from one 
 of the four great fields of practical arts study 
 — namely, agriculture, industrial arts, house- 
 hold arts, and commerce. 
 
 What are the principal objections that may 
 be urged against the administrative changes 
 herein suggested? 
 
 These may be discussed under three 
 heads : — 
 
 (1) The proposed scheme, it will be claimed, 
 is more expensive and involves administrative 
 difficulties. To a degree these objections are 
 well founded. The execution of the plan will 
 perhaps involve a considerable increase in 
 departmental teaching. Teachers under this 
 
PROGRAMS OF STUDY 151 
 
 arrangement should of necessity command bet- 
 ter salaries. As the work is differentiated, a 
 certain amount of it should be placed in charge 
 of men teachers only. In towns and cities of 
 large area, it may prove necessary to give fi- 
 nancial assistance for transportation to pupils 
 attending the central schools, although this is 
 not commonly done in connection with high 
 schools. Flexible programs of study always 
 require considerable effort on the part of 
 superintendents and other administrators in 
 making necessary adjustments. Nevertheless, 
 it is believed that both from the standpoint of 
 expense and from the standpoint of adminis- 
 trative difficulty, the changes proposed will 
 be amply justified in the greater educational 
 return which they make possible. 
 
 (2) It will be charged that the proposed 
 plan is undemocratic and that it looks to a 
 relatively early segregation of different groups 
 of children. It should be recognized that cer- 
 tain faults common in European secondary 
 education are entirely absent from the plan. 
 In the first place, no fees are charged to 
 
152 EDUCATIONAL READJUSTMENT 
 
 pupils. Hence all of the courses are equally 
 accessible. Again, the only qualification to be 
 required for entrance to any course is the 
 ability to carry the work of that course. There 
 is no essential reason why children of poor 
 people should not take the longer programs, 
 if their parents so desire. In the third place, 
 it is assumed that the fullest possible infor- 
 mation will be given to parents and others in 
 an advisory relation to children with a view to 
 assisting them in making choices of appro- 
 priate programs of study. Finally, in all pro- 
 grams proposed, certain subjects are presumed 
 to be taught in common and to all pupils. 
 There might be good reasons for organizing 
 the classes in such a way that pupils from all 
 divisions of a given school should be mingled 
 in groups wherein the subjects common to all 
 programs are taught. It is difficult to see how 
 the operation of the proposed plan will in any 
 way involve an undemocratic segregation of 
 pupils according to class. 
 
 (3) It will be claimed that some of the pro- 
 grams involve over-emphasis on the vocational 
 
PROGRAMS OF STUDY 153 
 
 aspects of the curriculum. It "will be observed, 
 of course, that none of the differentiated pro- 
 grams in the elementary school or in the gen- 
 eral high school are intended to be controlled 
 by the purpose of fitting for vocations. Vari- 
 ous branches of the practical arts are intro- 
 duced primarily because of their administra- 
 tive worth in promoting educational interests 
 and in giving the background of reality for 
 the more abstract studies. It is true that prac- 
 tical arts work, as given, should operate in 
 such a way as to further the development of 
 vocational ideals and should assist the pupil 
 in finding the lines of his probable vocational 
 strength. Nevertheless, all programs of study 
 are only incidentally vocational. Practical arts 
 subjects must be tested primarily by their 
 capacity to contribute to liberal rather than 
 to vocational education. 
 
VII 
 
 THE OPPORTUNITY OF THE SMALL HIGH 
 SCHOOL 
 
 Dr. Thorndike has shown, 1 on the basis 
 of the figures contained in the annual reports 
 of the National Bureau of Education, that, in 
 the United States, public secondary schools 
 which have only one or two teachers are in 
 excess of all the others ; while in high schools 
 having fewer than four teachers are enrolled 
 over one third of all the secondary school 
 pupils of the country. In Massachusetts, ap- 
 proximately forty per cent of the high schools 
 have fewer than four teachers. 
 
 From the standpoint of the colleges, and also 
 from that of many speakers at our larger edu- 
 cational gatherings, these small high schools 
 may seem to be rather poor, understaffed, and 
 generally ineffective institutions ; but, looked 
 at as the principal cultural agencies in some- 
 
 1 Educational Review, vol. xxxiii, p. 245. 
 
THE SMALL HIGH SCHOOL 155 
 
 what sparsely settled regions, usually agricul- 
 tural, where a considerable percentage of high- 
 grade men and women are born and reared, 
 they assume a large importance. 
 
 These schools are rarely without a few 
 pupils preparing for college. The teachers are 
 usually recent college graduates, as yet un- 
 able to interpret education except in terms of 
 college courses still fresh in memory. The 
 college, through its entrance requirements, 
 indicates detailed and definite standards to be 
 met. Hence, quite naturally, the work of the 
 small, undermanned secondary school is cus- 
 tomarily one long struggle to bring a limited 
 number of boys and girls to the point of get- 
 ting into college with some degree of credit. 
 The test thus imposed on the faculty of the 
 school is concrete and easily comprehended 
 by the community. Teachers are judged by 
 the success of their pupils in meeting the re- 
 quirements of higher institutions. None of 
 the other standards and ideals of secondary 
 education, so often discussed in general, and 
 so seldom in specific, terms at educational and 
 
156 EDUCATIONAL READJUSTMENT 
 
 kindred gatherings, have much weight with 
 the small high school. Its teachers are of 
 sheer necessity followers, not originators ; and 
 they have their hands full in seeking to meet 
 the very specifically formulated requirements 
 imposed by the colleges. 
 
 Thus restricted in its scope, it is undoubt- 
 edly true that the small high school has 
 largely failed to serve as effectively as is 
 ideally possible the local community needs 
 as represented in that large majority of its 
 pupils, for whom a higher education is out of 
 the question. Naturally, high school teachers, 
 as well as college critics and examiners, do 
 not admit this. Somewhere in the past origi- 
 nated the belief that for any and all persons 
 certain abstract studies, such as algebra, Latin, 
 ancient history, physics, and the like, possess 
 an exceptional value in unfolding the powers 
 of the mind and in developing or imparting 
 that elusive quality called culture; on this 
 belief the accepted curriculum rests. These 
 studies play an important part, of course, as 
 tools in higher education as usually organ- 
 
THE SMALL HIGH SCHOOL 157 
 
 ized ; but that, in the shape which they ordi- 
 narily take when presented as means of col- 
 lege preparation, they should be assumed to 
 have other kinds of educational utility, is one 
 of the mysteries of contemporary educational 
 thinking. Probably an explanation is to be 
 found in the disposition of many persons to 
 reason according to the principle of post hoc, 
 ergo propter hoc. Young people who have 
 had these studies succeed better, as a rule, 
 in the world than those who have not, whether 
 judged by standards of material success or of 
 cultural development. But in fact the pupils 
 who pass well in a secondary school program 
 of abstract studies are ordinarily a picked lot, 
 in respect to both inheritance and environ- 
 ment. They are those for whom culture and 
 prosperity are, in a degree at least, inevitable, 
 no matter what the school program may be. 
 The conviction, however, is slowly spreading 
 that the traditional program of the small high 
 school is, for those who do not reach college, 
 a relatively futile affair when viewed from the 
 standpoint of any one of the three possible 
 
158 EDUCATIONAL READJUSTMENT 
 
 aims of secondary education, namely, voca- 
 tional efficiency, civic capacity, and personal 
 culture. There is a growing demand, often 
 inarticulate, in communities supporting such 
 schools, but rinding more definite expression 
 in circles where these problems can be sys- 
 tematically studied, that the artificial restric- 
 tions imposed on general secondary education 
 be relaxed, and that such education be meas- 
 urably readjusted so as to serve more accept- 
 ably the actual needs of the community. 
 
 The response to this demand is, even now, 
 partially felt. At first hesitatingly, then whole- 
 heartedly, important institutions of higher 
 education have modified their standards. They 
 do not aim to lower their requirements, as 
 expressed in the general ability of entrants to 
 do good college work ; but they manifest a 
 wholesome disposition to let the high schools 
 do their proper work in their own way and to 
 accept the results, provided only the gradu- 
 ates of these schools will in college " make 
 good " by their ability to do serious and effec- 
 tive higher study. We may now hope that the 
 
THE SMALL HIGH SCHOOL 159 
 
 time is forever past when colleges could harass 
 secondary schools by their capricious insist- 
 ence on special topics, texts, or time-tables in 
 algebra, French, chemistry, and other tradi- 
 tional subjects. A period during which the 
 colleges nursed the high schools was doubtless 
 necessary; but apron strings have been cut, 
 and our great institutions of higher learning 
 are opening a new era by reposing increased 
 confidence in the management of secondary 
 schools. 
 
 As a consequence a heavy responsibility 
 now devolves upon the public high school. It 
 must define its true aims — a thing it has never 
 done — and must work out a pedagogy of 
 means and methods, towards which general 
 subject a not uncommon attitude even yet is 
 that of the farmer who, after carefully inspect- 
 ing and feeling of the dromedary in the circus, 
 muttered, " There ain't no such animal." 
 Those responsible for the administration of the 
 small high school must needs give especial 
 attention to a determination of what is meant 
 by community needs, on the one hand, and the 
 
160 EDUCATIONAL READJUSTMENT 
 
 educational possibilities of different groups of 
 children of secondary school age, on the other. 
 The present is an era of opportunity for the 
 small high school. Let it recognize its neces- 
 sary limitations; let it explore its possible field; 
 let it undertake to realize its unquestionably 
 great possibilities. 
 
 For the sake of calling forth discussion, 
 and as a means of indicating his own growing 
 convictions, the writer wishes to support the 
 following theses relative to an effective func- 
 tioning of the small high school. These theses 
 are not designed to serve as a basis of plans 
 and programs of action for the present, but 
 as fragmentary contributions towards a theory 
 of secondary education, which may eventually 
 become the source of such plans and programs. 
 
 1. The small high school must remain pri- 
 marily a school of liberal, as contrasted with 
 vocational, education. Effective vocational 
 training in any field is practicable only with 
 specially prepared teachers, special equipment, 
 and specially arranged conditions. Attempts 
 
THE SMALL HIGH SCHOOL 161 
 
 at genuine vocational education in the small 
 high school, as commonly organized, whether 
 in agricultural, industrial, commercial, or 
 household arts subjects, are foredoomed to 
 failure unless carried on in fully specialized 
 departments. Otherwise the so-called voca- 
 tional training which results is likely to be a 
 sham and an imposition. 
 
 2. On the other hand, every small high 
 school should maintain work in one or more 
 lines of practical arts, but avowedly with ref- 
 erence to the possible contributions of the 
 subject to the valid ends of liberal or general 
 education. Manual training, household arts, 
 agriculture, and such commercial studies as 
 typewriting and elementary bookkeeping can 
 be made valuable factors in liberal education ; 
 and they will also make incidental contribu- 
 tions to vocational ideals. But it is important 
 that neither the community nor the pupil be 
 deceived into thinking of any of these sub- 
 jects, when pursued a few hours each week, 
 as developing genuine vocational skill and 
 capacity. 
 
162 EDUCATIONAL READJUSTMENT 
 
 3. The small high school must recognize 
 that preparation for college is, for a small but 
 important minority of its pupils, a necessary 
 and valuable function; but it must equally 
 recognize that for a majority of its pupils prep- 
 aration for the realities of the cultural and 
 civic life of the local community is a supremely 
 important purpose. It must learn in addition 
 that, even in view of the greatly modernized 
 college admission requirements now being de- 
 veloped, the two aims are not to be realized 
 through the same means and methods. In the 
 high school the future college student should 
 learn the use of certain tools which for the 
 boy not going to college will be needless. 
 
 4. The small high school must especially 
 learn to serve, and in growing measure as 
 standards of living improve, the needs of a 
 very large class of boys and girls hardly yet 
 recognized in American secondary education — 
 those, namely, who will, and probably should, 
 leave school at or near the age of sixteen, the 
 age at which, through all the periods of civi- 
 lization, the vast majority of young people 
 
THE SMALL HIGH SCHOOL 163 
 
 have begun serious participation in the voca- 
 tional occupations of life. 
 
 5. The small high school, and it is to be 
 hoped the large also, must learn that in the 
 liberal education of young persons two quite 
 different methods of approach are required as 
 between different subjects, and often between 
 unlike phases of the same subject. Naturally, 
 the provinces for the two types of methods 
 shade into each other and sharp distinctions 
 are undesirable, even though for purposes of 
 description they must be temporarily drawn. 
 
 The first type embraces those methods of 
 teaching, the largest outcome of which is 
 appreciation. The satisfaction of natural or 
 induced curiosity, the nurture of the native 
 instincts towards unforced growth in feeling 
 and intelligence — these purposes should con- 
 trol in this phase of instruction. A child hears 
 a story or song, reads a book for pleasure, 
 makes an excursion with a friend, attends a 
 good play or moving-picture show, visits a 
 picture gallery, listens to an illustrated lecture 
 on a scientific subject : the net results of these 
 
164 EDUCATIONAL READJUSTMENT 
 
 experiences and contacts are new accessions of 
 resources of intellect and feeling, with perhaps 
 little gain, relatively, in ability to organize, 
 express, and apply the knowledge and senti- 
 ment thus developed. For lack of a better 
 term, we may call the educational ends and 
 methods here illustrated those of appreciation. 
 The second aspect of method appears when 
 the definite purpose of teaching is the devel- 
 opment of power towards execution or expres- 
 sion of some sort. The study of a foreign 
 language should result in ability to use it ; of 
 mathematics and science in advanced stages, 
 in the ability to organize and apply to further 
 pursuits the knowledge thus obtained. Any 
 extensive development of cultural or civic (to 
 say nothing of vocational) power requires the 
 strenuous and purposeful mastery of what may 
 be called intellectual tools, methods, and ma- 
 terials. This mastery can be achieved, as a 
 rule, only when the learner is in a willing or 
 cooperative attitude. The high school of to- 
 day, by its methods, seems, in all subjects, to 
 aim mainly at power in execution or applica- 
 
THE SMALL HIGH SCHOOL 165 
 
 tion, but its methods are as yet not consciously 
 pedagogical. The result is that it finds in its 
 pupils an absence of interest and an indispo- 
 sition towards self-help. 
 
 Of the two methods of learning here con- 
 trasted, the first deliberately invokes and sus- 
 tains the relatively spontaneous learning capac- 
 ities, and organizes means and methods towards 
 that end; while the second utilizes processes of 
 learning that are relatively artificial. The 
 average textbook in science presupposes the 
 second rather than the first method. In fact, 
 but a small part of high school education, as 
 organized, is directed to what is here called 
 learning for appreciation. The unorganized 
 activities of English and American secondary 
 schools are, on the other hand, full of such 
 spontaneous elements, notwithstanding that 
 such activities as these are often the reverse of 
 uplifting. A very real pedagogic difficulty in 
 organized secondary education yet exists in the 
 imperfect adjustment, or in the lack of adjust- 
 ment, of the two kinds of training. 
 
 The writer believes that in, at least, the 
 
166 EDUCATIONAL READJUSTMENT 
 
 introductory stages of literature, general sci- 
 ence, social science, and practical arts, when 
 these subjects are designed for students likely 
 to leave school early, the controlling end 
 should be deep and varied appreciation ; 
 whereas in vocational subjects, in English 
 expression, and in the later stages of science 
 and mathematics, the controlling purpose 
 should be power in application, expression, 
 and execution. Until the distinction of method 
 here suggested is developed, it seems unlikely 
 that the small high school can do much for 
 true culture and social development as ends of 
 secondary education. It should not be forgot- 
 ten that a large part of what we vaguely call 
 culture springs from the first method, and, 
 perhaps, from it only, but only when interest 
 and self-active effort are enlisted. 
 
 6. The small high school must recognize 
 that with respect to the means and methods of 
 stimulating interest and appreciation it has a 
 relatively wide field, whereas in the matter of 
 subjects and phases of subjects calling for 
 power in application and execution its limita- 
 
THE SMALL HIGH SCHOOL 167 
 
 tions are pronounced and besetting. Lectures, 
 pictures, musical recitals, moving-picture pres- 
 entations, good libraries, excursions, partici- 
 pation in civic activities, interpretations of 
 science by talks and readings, activity in some 
 phase of practical arts by means of participa- 
 tion on the amateur's level — all these may 
 prove rich and easily accessible sources of cul- 
 ture. But mastery of a foreign language, sys- 
 tematic study of literary selections, drill in 
 the arts of vernacular expression, laboratory 
 exercise in science work, and productive effort 
 in some field of the practical arts all require 
 specialization of teaching power such as the 
 small high school can only to a limited degree 
 afford. In power-producing studies, as con- 
 trasted with appreciation-favoring opportuni- 
 ties, the small high school must restrict its 
 field to what it can do well. 
 
 What, then is the minimum curriculum a 
 small high school can have and fairly meet 
 the above ends ? The writer believes that the 
 following most nearly serves these purposes : — 
 
168 EDUCATIONAL READJUSTMENT 
 
 FIRST AND SECOND YEARS 
 
 Non-College-Preparatory College-Preparatory 
 
 1. English literature 6. English literature (1) 
 
 2. English language 7. English language (2) 
 
 3. General science 8. Selected from (3-5) 
 
 4. Social science 9. Mathematics 
 
 5. Practical arts 10. Foreign language 
 
 11. 
 12. 
 13. 
 
 14. 
 
 THIRD AND FOURTH YEARS 
 
 Selected from 16 ' En S 1 ! sh ^^ature 
 
 college-preparatory ' ° g 11 § 
 
 courses (16-20) 
 
 18. Science 
 
 19. Foreign language 
 
 15. Practical arts 2Q. History 
 
 This proposed curriculum for the small high 
 school presents two programs of study. The 
 first is designed for youths not seeking col- 
 lege preparation, but intending to terminate 
 their general education during or at the close 
 of the high school course ; while the second 
 is planned to provide adequate preparation 
 for college work. 
 
 But a further distinction is apparent. The 
 first two years' work of the high school is 
 organized primarily to minister to the needs 
 of those who will probably end their general 
 education at or about sixteen, but on the 
 
THE SMALL HIGH SCHOOL 169 
 
 assumption that a portion of such work will 
 also prove valuable for those who are prob- 
 ably destined for college. On the other hand, 
 the last two years of the curriculum give 
 prominence to considerations of college prep- 
 aration, with the understanding that for the 
 student who continues in school without in- 
 tending to enter college the college prepara- 
 tory studies, while perhaps not the most valu- 
 able, are in the small high school the most 
 effective provision that can be made. An 
 analysis of the curriculum into its constituent 
 elements will make this general distinction 
 clearer. It will be understood that the dog- 
 matic and direct form of presentation is ren- 
 dered necessary by the space limitations of 
 the present paper. 
 
 1. The two-year course in English litera- 
 ture in both programs should be, in content 
 and method of presentation, such as intelli- 
 gent persons, solicitous, on the one hand, as 
 to the establishment of good tastes and stand- 
 ards of judgment in general reading, and on, 
 the other, acquainted with the strong inter- 
 
170 EDUCATIONAL READJUSTMENT 
 
 ests and the general learning capacities of 
 young adolescents, would design for those 
 youths who will probably terminate their lib- 
 eral school education at or about sixteen years 
 of age. 
 
 We do not yet know in detail what such a 
 course should contain, nor have we much 
 available knowledge of the methods that would 
 be appropriate in its presentation. In this 
 matter, our college professors of English can 
 as yet, because of their scholastic associations, 
 give us but little help ; and it may be doubted 
 whether even high school teachers of the sub- 
 ject, as it is now organized, with their estab- 
 lished prepossessions, can give satisfactory 
 guidance. 
 
 It may well be doubted whether the so- 
 called English classics should figure largely 
 in such a course. It would appear self-evident 
 that it should contribute to evident elevation 
 of taste in the reading of contemporary liter- 
 ary productions, as found in newspaper, maga- 
 zine, and book form. It would appear to be 
 folly to endeavor to secure, at large expense 
 
THE SMALL HIGH SCHOOL 171 
 
 of time and energy, and with uncertain re- 
 sults, abiding interests in fields into which 
 the large majority of fairly well-educated 
 people do not even now habitually enter. 
 
 Furthermore, it may be questioned whether 
 in this course literature should be at all closely 
 correlated with the study of oral and written 
 expression in the vernacular. The writer be- 
 lieves that careful study would show that in 
 most American high schools to-day the inti- 
 mate correlation of language study and lit- 
 erature, such as prevails in the general sub- 
 ject called English, results neither in literary 
 appreciation nor in powers of effective expres- 
 sion. The two purposes require for their attain- 
 ment very different pedagogic methods ; and 
 it may be doubted whether the same teacher 
 should, as is usually the case in high schools, 
 teach both subjects. At any rate, in English 
 designed solely " for life," literature and the 
 arts of expression should receive independent 
 consideration. 
 
 2. In contrast with the study of literature, 
 in which the controlling aim should be appre- 
 
172 EDUCATIONAL READJUSTMENT 
 
 ciation, the study of (English) language in this 
 program should be designed mainly to give 
 power in the arts of expression in English, 
 and on a level appropriate and practicable for 
 that large majority who are to have no college 
 training. Here, again, few if any precedents 
 exist. The pedagogy of the problem has not 
 been studied because the problem itself has 
 not as yet been clearly differentiated and 
 formulated. 
 
 3. After literature and expression in Eng- 
 lish, no subject has a more appropriate place 
 in a program of liberal education designed 
 primarily for persons destined probably to 
 enter upon practical life at sixteen than gen- 
 eral science. This science cannot be psycho- 
 logy, or botany, or zoology, or physiology, or 
 physics, or chemistry, or geology, or astro- 
 nomy, or geography, but should consist of 
 large units or topics from several or all of 
 those subjects, and all presented from the 
 standpoint of appreciation and insight, as 
 contrasted with power to use. Little organized 
 material for teaching purposes in this field is 
 
THE SMALL HIGH SCHOOL 173 
 
 yet available, and progress will be slow until 
 there is developed a vital pedagogy of second- 
 ary school teaching. In general, the science 
 subjects contemplated should aim to interpret 
 the significant phases of the material envi- 
 ronment of the youth, so far as his capacity 
 normally permits; and this process should 
 produce large appreciation, permanent inter- 
 ests, and a measure of insight. 
 
 4. No less indispensable to the liberal edu- 
 cation of American youth than general science 
 is social science, meaning thereby that appre- 
 ciative understanding of the social environ- 
 ment which is essential, not only to citizenship, 
 but to effective living. For this subject neither 
 content nor method is yet available. A limited 
 amount of civics is, of course, found in Ameri- 
 can high schools. Increasing attention has, in 
 recent years, been given to history, but the ad- 
 vocates of that study in the secondary school 
 have, as yet, been unable to show us how it 
 actually "functions" in any kind of civic or 
 social efficiency. Perhaps it is not intended to 
 do so, but the other purposes, whatever they 
 
174 EDUCATIONAL READJUSTMENT 
 
 are, should be denned and proved valuable; 
 otherwise the subject is in danger of being 
 relegated to the museum of discarded educa- 
 tional machinery. 
 
 But whether our leaders in history teaching 
 will have it so or not, those who can detach 
 themselves from educational traditions and who 
 are accustomed to face the facts of youth and 
 society know that a two-year course constructed 
 of suitable units from civics, economics, ethics, 
 and other constituents of social science, en- 
 riched with vital and pertinent contributions 
 from history, both that which is made and 
 that which is to-day making, can be devised. 
 They know, furthermore, that such a course, 
 planned for youths from fourteen to sixteen, 
 can be made to yield valuable contributions 
 to moral and civic capacity, as well as to pro- 
 vide abackground for future vocational studies. 
 Teachers for this work are not yet avail- 
 able; nor are manuals and textbooks; but 
 given the right conception of the pedagogic 
 need and method, these things will soon fol- 
 low. 
 
THE SMALL HIGH SCHOOL 175 
 
 5. The small high school cannot be a voca- 
 tional school in any true sense of that word, 
 but this does not mean that it shall forego all 
 attempts to keep its boys and girls in contact 
 with the practical arts by which men and 
 women must live and which are therefore, like 
 the earth beneath, the sky above, and the so- 
 cial life all about, among the great realities of 
 life. That is no liberal education which ignores 
 the possibilities that adolescence presents, of 
 an illuminating and inspiring contact with 
 those realms of achievement wherein men con- 
 trol the material world to the uses of humanity. 
 In this general subject, contact and participa- 
 tion on the amateur's level are the essential 
 basal elements of method. 
 
 Under practical arts we may recognize four 
 distinct departments — namely, agriculture, 
 the industries, the commercial occupations, and 
 the household arts. A small high school can, 
 even when articulating its work closely with 
 similar work in the upper grades of the ele- 
 mentary school, carry but one or two of these 
 divisions. In a rural community agricultural 
 
176 EDUCATIONAL READJUSTMENT 
 
 and household arts training might well com- 
 prise all the practical arts work. 
 
 The controlling aim in this field should not 
 be direct vocational skill or even knowledge 
 designed to be applied in specific callings, but 
 rather the broad, appreciative insight and sym- 
 pathetic contact which will result in high 
 standards of utilization and a measure of vo- 
 cational idealism. Units of work, each lead- 
 ing to visible and serviceable achievement, 
 should be made available for the youthful am- 
 ateur's contact with human vocations; and 
 these should constitute ports of embarkation 
 for excursions into fields of related art, his- 
 tory, economics, science, and mathematics. It 
 will be observed that the non-college-prepara- 
 tory program contains, in the first two years, 
 no mathematics, it being assumed that the 
 needful mathematical practice for those leav- 
 ing school at sixteen can be obtained in con- 
 junction with the practical arts work. 
 
 6-10. During the first two years of the 
 high school curriculum, students desiring to 
 prepare for college should take mathematics 
 
THE SMALL HIGH SCHOOL 177 
 
 and a foreign language ; and also the two 
 English branches and one other subject from 
 the non-preparatory program. The study of 
 mathematics and the foreign language should 
 be designed to give direct power in the use 
 of these subjects as tools in college work. 
 The teaching should be intensive, the stand- 
 ards high, and, in mathematics, at least, 
 acquaintance with the methods of using the 
 subject as an instrument should be made 
 concrete, perhaps along lines suggested by 
 the Perry movement in England. But to 
 students probably not going to college it 
 should be made clear that high school math- 
 ematics, as the subject is customarily pre- 
 sented, has probably little educational value in 
 comparison with other subjects which should 
 be available. 
 
 11-14. During the third and fourth years 
 of the curriculum, the small school under 
 consideration can well afford to give its chief 
 consideration to the minority (perhaps by this 
 time a majority) of its pupils who contemplate 
 study beyond the high school. But, if equip- 
 
178 EDUCATIONAL READJUSTMENT 
 
 ment and other facilities permit, boys and 
 girls not seeking college preparation should 
 have opportunity to supplement a program 
 made up of selected studies from the prepar- 
 atory list, with practical arts courses. Con- 
 ceivably these might be made to assume the 
 character required to produce vocational effi- 
 ciency, in which, by a part-time or other ar- 
 rangement, half the student's time might be 
 given to practical and productive work in the 
 calling selected, and a portion of the remainder 
 to related technical studies. But this could be 
 accomplished only through special teachers 
 and modified internal organization of the 
 school. 
 
 16-20. Third and fourth year preparatory 
 subjects should, in content and method of 
 presentation, follow lines adjudged sound by 
 college authorities as means of college prepa- 
 ration. The foreign language begun in the first 
 year is here continued with a view to giving 
 a genuine mastery of that subject; English, 
 as a study of literature and of the arts of ex- 
 pression, is pursued intensively ; while science 
 
THE SMALL HIGH SCHOOL 179 
 
 and history are also so taught as to produce 
 power in using these subjects as instrumen- 
 talities. 
 
 In this connection attention should be called 
 to the preposterous attempts on the part of 
 small high schools to teach two or more foreign 
 languages. Seldom have such schools the 
 means of teaching one at all adequately ; but 
 it is unbelievable that so many of them should 
 palm off on the public so-called Latin, French, 
 and German teaching which is not even a fair 
 imitation of language teaching according to 
 any adequate standard. Let the small high 
 school never attempt more than one foreign 
 language ; let it teach that intensively through 
 four years ; let it permit no pupil to continue 
 in the subject who has not real capacity for 
 it; and, incidentally, let the school obtain as a 
 teacher of this subject one who knows some- 
 thing about it — if a modern language, one 
 who can understand and use it. Americans 
 are hospitable to shams, and yield to self-delu- 
 sion no less in education than in other mat- 
 ters; but in no other respect are we more 
 
180 EDUCATIONAL EEADJUSTMENT 
 
 imposed upon than in the high school teaching 
 of foreign language. 
 
 The foregoing hypothetical organization of 
 a high school curriculum is presented -with a 
 view to eliciting discussion and constructive 
 suggestion. It cannot be regarded as a program 
 of action for the present time — it contains 
 too many features which are yet ill-defined 
 and in need of experimental demonstration. 
 The writer hopes that within the next few 
 years considerable progress will be made in 
 testing particular phases of this and similar 
 plans. Already, indeed, there are many enter- 
 prising and careful teachers who are seeking 
 to reorganize special subjects. General science 
 suited to the first and second high school 
 years — have we not already some foreshadow- 
 ings of possible courses in this field? Here 
 and there are English teachers who are feeling 
 their way towards a fuller and richer utiliza- 
 tion of the world's store of reading-matter as 
 a means of developing genuine culture in the 
 case of youths of fifteen or sixteen years of 
 
THE SMALL HIGH SCHOOL 181 
 
 age. Even in the ill-defined field above called 
 social science, we have in many current exam- 
 ples of the teaching of civics, local economics, 
 industrial history, and ethics, and in the pur- 
 poseful development of the historic sense, and 
 the conscious kindling of social ideals, instances 
 which show what may eventually he done in 
 a broad program of the wider civic or social 
 education. 
 
 Can the small high school carry out the 
 proposed program? It is certainly not more 
 pretentious than many now followed. By a 
 proper alternation of studies by years, two 
 teachers should be able to present all the sub- 
 jects, although, manifestly, these teachers will 
 carry heavy loads. But on what other terms 
 can we obtain an effective secondary education 
 for the sparsely settled community? There 
 are various needs to be met, of which prepara- 
 tion of a few students for college is not the 
 most important. Let the small high school 
 learn to define and meet these needs; let the 
 makers of textbooks, manuals, and programs 
 of secondary education realize the opportuni- 
 
182 EDUCATIONAL READJUSTMENT 
 
 ties which are now offered to develop a more 
 effective scheme of liberal education in the 
 thousands of small schools in America ; and 
 let educators define and elaborate the purposes 
 of true liberal education. The problem of an 
 efficient secondary education even in the small 
 high school is not an insoluble one. 
 
VIII 
 
 DEBATABLE ISSUES IN VOCATIONAL 
 EDUCATION 
 
 Education is a complex and difficult sub- 
 ject. Vocational education — which is but one 
 of several kinds of education — is itself intri- 
 cate and presents many unlike phases. We 
 have now passed through the stage of propa- 
 ganda in vocational education and we may 
 expect that henceforth progress in its theory 
 and practice will come largely as we disen- 
 tangle elements of the general subject, segre- 
 gate particular issues, and analyze the prob- 
 lems into their component factors. Some of 
 the problems of vocational education require 
 no further debate among well-informed and 
 progressive men. But there are other issues 
 which still need close study, and with refer- 
 ence to which marked differences of opinion 
 should be expected. 
 
 The following are some of the principles in 
 
184 EDUCATIONAL READJUSTMENT 
 
 regard to which we can assume that intelli- 
 gent persons are substantially in agreement, 
 or at least that agreement would follow an 
 understanding of the development of the the- 
 ory and practice of vocational education in 
 Germany, Denmark, France, Scotland, and 
 America during the last dozen years. 
 
 1. The presence in any society of a rela- 
 tively large proportion of skillful and intelli- 
 gent workers, and directors of these workers, 
 constitutes a national asset; and any country 
 permitting a large proportion of its youth to 
 grow to maturity untrained as regards skill, 
 unformed as regards habits of industry, and 
 unintelligent as respects economic processes, 
 is thereby impairing the quality of its national 
 endowment. 
 
 2. Economic changes and the advance of 
 scientific knowledge have rendered relatively 
 ineffective such historic non-school agencies 
 of vocational education as the workshop with 
 its apprenticeship system, the farm, and the 
 home. The average youth of to-day has, on 
 the whole, less opportunity to learn the arts 
 
VOCATIONAL EDUCATION 185 
 
 of industry under controlled conditions than 
 had the youth of a century or more ago. 
 
 3. For many callings, at least, vocational 
 education can be carried on in specialized in- 
 stitutions or schools wherein the controlling 
 object is to produce recognized types of voca- 
 tional efficiency. 
 
 4. It is in no way inconsistent with accepted 
 ideals of public policy that the State should 
 support and control schools for vocational ed- 
 ucation; and the limits to such support and 
 control are to be found only in the effective- 
 ness of the work which such specialized insti- 
 tutions can be made to do. 
 
 5. Vocational education under school con- 
 ditions cannot be carried on by the methods 
 and agencies that have become familiar in 
 connection with general or academic educa- 
 tion. Vocational education requires the evo- 
 lution of means and methods peculiar to itself, 
 and, to a degree at least, quite dissimilar to 
 those found in general education. 
 
 6. Effective vocational education presents 
 three distinct aspects, namely, practical partic- 
 
186 EDUCATIONAL READJUSTMENT 
 
 ipation in productive work ; technical studies 
 related to the productive work; and general 
 vocational studies designed to enhance voca- 
 tional intelligence and ideals. For many call- 
 ings and for various grades of natural ability 
 the right conduct of vocational education re- 
 quires that practical participation in produc- 
 tion should be the basis upon which are to be 
 built technical studies and the related general 
 vocational studies. 
 
 7. Little can be done effectively in the 
 direction of "generalized vocational educa- 
 tion" or education by a series of exercises de- 
 signed to prove equally adapted to prepara- 
 tion for a variety of callings ; hence, general 
 courses in drawing, mathematics, manual train- 
 ing, commercial studies, applied science, agri- 
 culture, etc., however much they may seem to 
 imitate the procedures of a true vocational 
 education, are, nevertheless, usually ineffective 
 and uneconomical as contributing to vocational 
 efficiency. 
 
 8. The principal elements of vocational ed- 
 ucation can only be imparted by persons who 
 
VOCATIONAL EDUCATION 187 
 
 are themselves masters of the craft or the call- 
 ing which is to be taught. 
 
 9. A rightly organized and effective voca- 
 tional education makes important contributions 
 to mental development, to the establishment 
 of cultural interests, and to the development 
 of civic capacity. These are, under right con- 
 ditions of teaching, important and valuable 
 by-products of vocational education. 
 
 The general acceptance of the foregoing 
 principles serves to some degree to define the 
 sphere and necessities of vocational education. 
 It must be looked upon as a social necessity 
 in proportion as, on the one hand, skill and 
 intelligence on the part of the worker consti- 
 tute both individual and social assets, and as, 
 on the other, historic agencies prove unable 
 to meet these needs. Vocational education in 
 any and all practical forms is as much en- 
 titled to state support and control as any other 
 form of education. The final test is a lofty 
 social expediency. Vocational education and 
 liberal education require essentially unlike 
 methods, and it may be expected that, as a 
 
188 EDUCATIONAL READJUSTMENT 
 
 rule, teachers habituated to the procedures 
 of the one will prove correspondingly un- 
 adapted to the necessities of the other. Gen- 
 eralized forms of so-called vocational education 
 are apt to be as ineffective for vocational pur- 
 poses as would be the procedures of liberal edu- 
 cation itself for this purpose, owing to their lack 
 of adaptation to specific ends and their fail- 
 ure to "function." Hence, in the promotion 
 of vocational education the traditions of man- 
 ual training, drawing, mathematics, commer- 
 cial teaching, etc., must be taken with large 
 reserve. Vocational education must find its 
 point of departure primarily in the various 
 divisions of the active world of productive 
 effort- — the occupations which men and 
 women now follow. From these it must in each 
 case work back and so elaborate the means 
 and methods capable of producing a fairly 
 high and enduring type of vocational effi- 
 ciency. The final test of vocational education 
 is the degree to which it is able to connect 
 itself with right standards of efficiency in the 
 economic world. To this end not only is it 
 
VOCATIONAL EDUCATION 189 
 
 necessary that the principal teachers should 
 be skilled workers themselves, but that also 
 every separate vocational department should 
 hold itself close to advisers who are employers 
 and employed in the industry. 
 
 Among the debatable issues of vocational 
 education the following 1 may be said to claim 
 immediate attention, since the organization 
 and administration of vocational schools now 
 being founded will be determined largely by 
 the answers to the questions raised. 
 
 1. To what extent and in what ways can 
 day vocational education and liberal education 
 be carried on together or in close connection? 
 
 As long as boys and girls are under the 
 direction of the State in public schools it seems 
 to many persons desirable that some portion 
 of their education should be directed purpose- 
 fully towards the end of culture and citizen- 
 ship. The authorities in charge of vocational 
 schools, therefore, feel constrained to set 
 apart a certain amount of time for purposes 
 of liberal education. 
 
190 EDUCATIONAL READJUSTMENT 
 
 But experience is demonstrating that in the 
 initial stages of vocational education a large 
 degree of concentration on the work at hand 
 is essential on the part of the learner. A va- 
 riety of school habits acquired in the processes 
 of obtaining a general education are antago- 
 nistic to a workmanlike attitude. Efficiency in 
 any vocation requires the early formation of 
 a variety of special habits of attention, appli- 
 cation, order, thoroughness, and industry. 
 These are by-products and can be developed 
 only under conditions approximately those of 
 the workshop. For the beginner in the shop, 
 surroundings, clothing, hours of work, rate 
 of output, attention to detail, and salability of 
 product should be those found in the world of 
 practical affairs where young persons begin 
 productive work. Any other standards will 
 lead to trifling, to dilettantism, and to the 
 formation of bad habits. 
 
 Hence the necessity that in vocational 
 schools the standards of vocational education 
 should control to the degree found essential 
 to the development of vocational efficiency. 
 
VOCATIONAL EDUCATION 191 
 
 Given this condition, place may be found in 
 the program for some general education, but 
 the latter must be so organized as not to in- 
 terfere with the systematic vocational work. 
 For example, studies not connected with the 
 processes of vocational training should prob- 
 ably not be followed during the active work- 
 ing day. For older pupils such studies might 
 be arranged to fall outside the regular work- 
 ing hours, in the afternoon or evening. 
 
 In an industrial school boys might be en- 
 couraged to form reading or musical clubs for 
 purposes of self-culture, some of which might 
 meet in the evening. Classes might be organ- 
 ized for the teaching of literature in the even- 
 ing to boys engaged in vocational schools 
 during the day. 
 
 It is doubtful if at any time hours should 
 be taken out of the working day for system- 
 atic training in general subjects, owing to the 
 injurious reaction such an arrangement would 
 have on the program of vocational education. 
 In actual life the vocation must claim those 
 hours of the individual's time when the work- 
 
'192 EDUCATIONAL READJUSTMENT 
 
 ing energies are at their maximum strength. 
 Leisure hours in afternoon and evening, and 
 holidays, can be devoted to cultural purposes. 
 The program of the vocational school should 
 approximate the program of action to be 
 called for by the working world. This does 
 not mean, of course, that those contributions 
 which a well-developed program of vocational 
 education can make to civic training and to 
 the development of culture are to be ignored 
 or neglected. In fact, it is certain that a 
 rightly organized system of vocational educa- 
 tion will do much, as was previously indicated, 
 to develop culture and civic capacity. 
 
 2. For what callings is systematic vocational 
 education under school conditions possible ? 
 
 It has long been obvious that vocational 
 education under school conditions is possible 
 for many callings. Medicine, law, theology, 
 war, engineering, and teaching have already 
 committed much if not all of their systema- 
 tized vocational training to schools. In agri- 
 culture, some of the commercial callings, and 
 such trades as plumbing, bricklaying, electric- 
 
VOCATIONAL EDUCATION 193 
 
 wiring, sign-painting, machine-shop practice, 
 cabinetmaking, printing, and others, many ex- 
 amples now exist to show that vocational edu- 
 cation for the rank and file of workers, to the 
 extent of from one half to two thirds of the 
 usual apprenticeship standard of accomplish- 
 ment, is entirely feasible in schools. 
 
 Whether schools can be organized, the train- 
 ing of which will prove of value, from the 
 standpoint of the individual as well as from 
 the standpoint of the industry, for such occu- 
 pations as those of the sailor, the locomotive 
 engineer, the salesman, the teamster, the mo- 
 torman, the miner, and the workers in our 
 innumerable specialized manufacturing indus- 
 tries, is still a question. It is believed by some 
 that where machinery has been much perfected 
 and where there is a progressive tendency to 
 employ highly specialized workers, industrial 
 efficiency is largely a question of organization 
 rather than the training of the individual 
 worker. On the other hand, many persons be- 
 lieve that for almost any type of productive 
 work a large amount of training in the special 
 
194 EDUCATIONAL READJUSTMENT 
 
 habits of industry and application as well as 
 in industrial intelligence is possible in specially 
 arranged vocational schools. 
 
 Social questions are here involved which are 
 as yet obscure. For example? it may be said that 
 present-day manufacturing industries have 
 adapted themselves to an existing unskilled 
 labor supply, but we have no evidence yet as 
 to what those same industries would do if they 
 could employ as workers persons more mature 
 and better trained. 
 
 Where highly specialized industries are able 
 to take advantage of the labor of women or 
 youths, evidence is still lacking of the extent 
 to which such employment entails a social 
 loss in the shape of large numbers of persons 
 who become prematurely unfitted for any pro- 
 ductive industry and become perhaps a burden 
 on society. Granting that an organized sys- 
 tem of vocational education might not result 
 in the immediate enhancement of vocational 
 efficiency in the specialized employment of the 
 kind here described, it is yet not impossible 
 that it would result in a permanent enhance- 
 
VOCATIONAL EDUCATION 195 
 
 ment of ultimate efficiency to such a degree 
 as more than to justify the outlay involved. 
 Furthermore, training of the right sort might 
 enable young workers to fit for other and more 
 suitable occupations. 
 
 It is the writer's conviction that in the 
 course of time we shall learn that for highly 
 specialized occupations, in which no special 
 training seems to be immediately necessary, 
 nevertheless, vocational training along the lines 
 of some productive employment, which would 
 suffice to establish habits of industry, applica- 
 tion, and an attitude of industrial intelligence, 
 would amply justify any fair outlay, provided 
 such training were practical and, perhaps, 
 opened the way to more advanced occupations. 
 
 In view of our uncertainty regarding the 
 extent to which vocational education is pos- 
 sible along lines hitherto undeveloped, a wise 
 social policy should open the way for experi- 
 mental schools. There is no reason why a vo- 
 cational school, on a small scale, should not be 
 established wherever a well-developed industry 
 seems to offer openings for persons of training 
 
196 EDUCATIONAL READJUSTMENT 
 
 and intelligence. Probably, as will hereafter 
 be shown, the most effective approach may be 
 through part-time schemes or evening classes, 
 at least for the more mature young workers 
 who can thus, on the one hand, have the ad- 
 vantage of shop experience corresponding to 
 that which prevailed in the days of apprentice- 
 ship, and, on the other, a careful training in 
 related processes and subjects to the end that 
 broader vocational efficiency may result. 
 
 3. What can be done for purposes of voca- 
 tional education in the case of both boys and 
 girls from fourteen to sixteen years of age? 
 
 It has become an established feature of 
 American public school policy to insist on 
 reserving the years to fourteen for purposes 
 of general education. On the other hand, in 
 many callings wherein young persons may be 
 expected to find prolonged employment, en- 
 trance before the age of sixteen is not per- 
 mitted, sometimes owing to protective legisla- 
 tion, sometimes to custom, and sometimes 
 to the proved inability of the worker under 
 
VOCATIONAL EDUCATION 197 
 
 this age to handle the required work effec- 
 tively. 
 
 Many persons still believe that the period 
 from fourteen to sixteen will ultimately be re- 
 served for the purposes of a further general or \ 
 liberal education. This anticipates a time when 
 the economic necessity for early employment 
 will not be so pressing as at present. Others 
 again are of the opinion that during those 
 two years it will be possible to find some forms 
 of vocational education which will lead to a 
 considerable degree of effective preparation 
 for a variety of callings. 
 
 Contemporary experience seems to show 
 that for large numbers of boys and girls it is 
 not only economically, but educationally, im- 
 portant that shortly after the age of fourteen 
 they should find themselves in an atmosphere 
 of productive work, whether that be in a voca- 
 tional school or in actual employment, and 
 that it is the function of the educational sys- 
 tem to utilize these years for the purposes of 
 laying broad foundations for future vocational 
 efficiency. It is entirely possible that experi- 
 
198 EDUCATIONAL READJUSTMENT 
 
 ence will show that the most profitable voca- 
 tional education can be accomplished by taking 
 the boys or girls during these years and giving 
 them quite specific training for some definite 
 occupation, not necessarily with the expecta- 
 tion that such occupation will invariably be fol- 
 lowed, but for the purpose of having specific 
 educational goals and of being able to test the 
 efficiency of means and methods followed. 
 Persons with long experience in industrial 
 training, or in the pursuit of the industries 
 themselves, often assert that what they seek 
 in their young employees is not so much 
 specific skill for the work in hand, but a vari- 
 ety of industrial habits, such as orderliness, 
 thrift, industry, appreciation of rate of work, 
 and other similar qualities. These cannot be 
 produced by means of the manual training 
 courses now in vogue in some schools or by 
 means of the ordinary procedures of general 
 or liberal education. It seems much more 
 probable that an effective program of voca- 
 tional education for one calling may lay the 
 foundation for these habits in such a way that 
 
VOCATIONAL EDUCATION 199 
 
 they can be in a degree transferred to another. 
 We may have parallel examples of this in the 
 fact that boys trained on the farm are so often 
 able to adapt themselves to various industrial 
 callings with a large degree of success. We 
 find further evidence in the fact that those 
 young persons who succeed in one line of ap- 
 prenticeship often rise to a considerable degree 
 of success in another calling. 1 
 
 It now seems probable that for purposes of 
 genuine vocational education there can be no 
 effective substitute for a systematic striving 
 towards vocational efficiency in some distinct 
 lines or fields of work. Only in this way can 
 active motives be enlisted. Only in this way 
 can the constructive activities of youth be 
 taken advantage of and the strong desires 
 of most young persons of fifteen years and 
 over to do real work in the world be utilized. 
 This may mean that we shall find it expedient 
 to take youths under sixteen and give them 
 
 1 The tentative solution here proposed has been seriously 
 called into question by some of the most intelligent leaders 
 in vocational education. The writer suggests it, however, for 
 further discussion. 
 
200 EDUCATIONAL READJUSTMENT 
 
 opportunities to procure vocational training in 
 trades or vocations that prove most teachable 
 under school conditions, in the expectation 
 that, even if they do not follow the activities 
 for which they have been trained, they will, 
 nevertheless, have acquired a large equipment 
 of habit and insight which are of advantage 
 in many related fields of possible employment. 
 
 It is probable that even where the years from 
 fourteen to sixteen can be given to general 
 education including courses in the practical 
 arts, the latter will, in their successive stages, 
 approximate the conditions of productive 
 industry enriched by broad appreciation and 
 made intelligible by instruction in principle. 
 
 Any plan for vocational education of young 
 persons must, while early giving attention to 
 practical productive work, also aim to produce 
 the ideals and wide knowledge which relate to 
 vocations for which preparation is being made. 
 Vocational knowledge and intelligence, how- 
 ever, must grow out of the conditions of the 
 productive work. Therein are to be found the 
 sources of its growth, as well as the centers of 
 
VOCATIONAL EDUCATION 201 
 
 evolution for vocational intelligence, adaptive- 
 ness, and enthusiasm. This leads to a consid- 
 eration of the next important debatable issue 
 in vocational education. 
 
 4. How far, in the successive stages of day- 
 vocational education in schools, shall emphasis 
 be laid on productive work, and how far on 
 studies and practices, which, while not con- 
 stituting productive work, are nevertheless 
 designed to enlarge in a permanent way in- 
 dustrial intelligence and lay broad foundations 
 for future skill ? 
 
 It will be recalled that one of the battles 
 that had to be won with reference to voca- 
 tional education was the establishment of the 
 idea that a considerable part of this training 
 must be under conditions approximating those 
 in the industry. Hence, not only must there 
 be advisory committees composed of persons 
 actually concerned with the industry, and 
 teachers who themselves have been trained in 
 the industry, but also other conditions ap- 
 proximating those of commercial establish- 
 ments should be provided. Shop hours, shop 
 
202 EDUCATIONAL READJUSTMENT 
 
 clothing, and provision that a considerable 
 part of the product shall be capable of being 
 marketed were insisted upon. 
 
 In the earlier stages there was a disposition 
 to regard the concrete or productive work as 
 an incident in the process of vocational edu- 
 cation. Later the proposal was made that ap- 
 proximately half the time given by the youth 
 to vocational education should be confined to 
 productive practical work, the remaining half 
 to go to the related general and technical 
 vocational study. Recent experience seems to 
 show, however, that during the initial stages 
 of industrial training far more prominence 
 should be given to participation in productive 
 work than has hitherto been assumed. In fact, 
 in view of the habits and attitude brought to 
 the vocational schools by the pupils coming 
 from the elementary schools, it seems desirable 
 that there should be a fairly sharp break with 
 the methods and traditions of academic train- 
 ing. It seems desirable that, even as a measure 
 of administration, it should be insisted that 
 during the boy's first few months of attend- 
 
VOCATIONAL EDUCATION 203 
 
 ance in the industrial school his time and 
 energy should be almost wholly absorbed in 
 mastering the elementary conditions of pro- 
 ductive work. Hence, it seems desirable that 
 he should spend perhaps the full working day 
 in the workshop under shop conditions ; that 
 mathematics, drawing, and such other subjects 
 as he should employ in connection with the 
 productive work should be taken incidentally 
 from that productive work; and that with re- 
 gard to dress, habits of work, etc., he shall 
 become, as it were, completely adapted to the 
 atmosphere of the shop. 
 
 Experience seems to show that, during the 
 early stages in vocational training, the funda- 
 mental interests in the case of most youths 
 center in concrete productive work ; and that 
 where they do not do so it is desirable that 
 such interests should be established. When, 
 through a few months' concentrated experi- 
 ence, the learner has fully grasped the prac- 
 tical principles of a definite calling, and has 
 developed a definite amount of skill therein, 
 the time is appropriate for a wider treatment of 
 
204 EDUCATIONAL READJUSTMENT 
 
 the subject. After this it is possible to begin 
 studies of those phases of drawing, mathe- 
 matics, and other subjects which have a dis- 
 tinct bearing on the vocation for which train- 
 ing is being had, and which are closely related 
 to the projects already worked out. Under 
 these conditions, it becomes practicable to 
 develop, in connection with a somewhat less 
 amount of productive work, the studies which 
 relate to it, and for which, as time goes by, 
 separate provision can be made in classrooms 
 under charge of teachers who may, in some 
 instances, confine themselves to purely tech- 
 nical subjects. It seems highly probable that 
 in this way a thoroughgoing and honest 
 vocational education can be started. Further- 
 more, as the students progress through this 
 course, some will drop by the wayside, and 
 those who have the qualities most suitable for 
 the making of foremen and other leaders will 
 continue ; and for these a further develop- 
 ment of the more abstract and technical studies 
 will be highly desirable. Such a course as 
 this does not lead to any loss of time on the 
 
VOCATIONAL EDUCATION 205 
 
 part of those who have neither the capacity nor 
 the inclination to remain a considerable time 
 in the school. On the other hand, it also makes 
 ample provision for the development of those 
 having qualities and inclinations making for 
 the development of a higher type of efficiency. 
 
 5. How far can the economy and effective- 
 ness of vocational education be increased by 
 cooperative arrangements for part-time work 
 between industries and the school system ? 
 
 Vocational education, if it is to have spe- 
 cially equipped working establishments wherein 
 all of its phases may be effectively carried on, 
 will prove expensive. Furthermore, in many 
 instances the school will find itself at a rela- 
 tive disadvantage in providing the conditions 
 of productive work and in disposing of the 
 product. 
 
 Logically, the simple program of vocational 
 education would seem to be that which would 
 provide for the acquisition of practical experi- 
 ence in actual workshops, and for the pro- 
 cesses of related instruction in schools. 
 
 The problem seems to be to a large extent 
 
206 EDUCATIONAL READJUSTMENT 
 
 one of cooperation. It is obvious that in any- 
 part-time education the youth's practical work 
 should be so adjusted that he may pass on 
 from stage to stage, in order to acquire the 
 solid experience necessary as a foundation not 
 only for subsequent development but for his 
 technical studies. But the policy of shifting 
 the young worker from job to job, in order 
 that he may acquire a wide range of experi- 
 ence, may, it is claimed, interfere with the 
 discipline of the workshop and its organized 
 productive processes. 
 
 Furthermore, it is necessary that the school 
 should be in a position closely to relate its 
 work to the practical experience of the stu- 
 dent. To accomplish this under the school 
 conditions requires that teachers themselves 
 should be in close touch with, if not in actual 
 participation in, the productive work of the 
 establishment. 
 
 Cooperation to accomplish these purposes is 
 entirely possible, but it is difficult to achieve. 
 Logically, a part-time system promises the 
 maximum of result in the way of vocational 
 
VOCATIONAL EDUCATION 207 
 
 training. It insures the practical and direct 
 character of such training. It compels the 
 youth to feel from the start the moral and 
 intellectual conditions of the industry into 
 which he proposes to go. 
 
 It is not impossible that the ultimate solu- 
 tion of this problem will be found in a variety 
 of flexible schemes adapted to specific indus- 
 tries. For example, in the machine-shop in- 
 dustry generally it may prove most effective 
 to have the period from fourteen to sixteen 
 given entirely to vocational school training 
 with strong emphasis placed on the practical 
 work, that at the close of this period of school 
 training some of the boys will enter shops, 
 reserving some hours for part-time work or 
 taking evening classes for purposes of advance- 
 ment ; and that, on the other hand, those most 
 capable of abstract thinking will continue in 
 studies of a much more technical, as contrasted 
 with work of a practical, character. 
 
 6. In evening vocational education, how 
 far is it desirable that the program shall in- 
 volve topics or units of training that are short, 
 
208 EDUCATIONAL READJUSTMENT 
 
 specific, and the outcome of which can be 
 clearly understood by the learner? 
 
 It has hitherto been customary in organiz- 
 ing programs of evening vocational work for 
 persons already employed to confine such 
 courses to the more abstract studies, such as 
 drawing, mathematics, applied science, ac- 
 counting, etc. In later developments, a cer- 
 tain amount of shop practice has also been 
 introduced, but this likewise has been of a 
 more or less general nature, intended to give 
 the progressive learner familiarity with gen- 
 eral principles. 
 
 Experience now demonstrates, however, that, 
 considering the type of worker coming to the 
 evening classes, and taking account also of 
 the needs which he presents, it may be desir- 
 able to organize evening work on a very much 
 more concrete basis, and particularly in units 
 so short and specific that the learner himself 
 may not only easily comprehend their bearing 
 on his particular needs, but may be able, within 
 limits, to test himself as to his progress in 
 mastering that which is presented. 
 
VOCATIONAL EDUCATION 209 
 
 Hence, there seems to be every reason for 
 believing that evening vocational work should, 
 to an increasing extent, organize itself in the 
 shape of specific units of achievement in math- 
 ematics, drawing, science, etc., which have an 
 immediate and direct bearing on the work 
 which the person is following during the day. 
 Machine-shop practice and the learning of spe- 
 cific operations might also be arranged for 
 in evening classes, provided that the work is 
 so organized that the learner may, for exam- 
 ple, in a course of a dozen lessons or six weeks 
 of attendance, find himself gaining in specific 
 power. 
 
 The objection, of course, may be made that 
 no general preparation can come from such a 
 procedure as this. Experience, however, shows 
 that most learners will gradually build up, as 
 it were, a series of units of effective power 
 when the training is thus organized. 
 
 The foregoing are a few of the problems of 
 vocational education with reference to which 
 there is now needed fuller analysis, discussion, 
 
210 EDUCATIONAL READJUSTMENT! 
 
 and experimentation. A large amount of money 
 will be invested in this form of education within 
 the next few years ; state and even national 
 policies will be formulated ; and a variety of 
 unworkable proposals may be expected. The 
 time is more than ripe for a closer study of 
 various special phases of the general subject. 
 
IX 
 
 PROBLEMS IN THE PSYCHOLOGY OP 
 VOCATIONAL EDUCATION 
 
 Within recent years the term " vocational 
 education " has come into fairly common use 
 as designating any kind of education whose 
 controlling purpose is to give preparation for 
 recognized callings or groups of related call- 
 ings. Medical and other forms of professional 
 training, education for the various commercial 
 occupations, specialized preparation for the 
 trades, and manufacturing pursuits, agricul- 
 tural education, nautical education, and train- 
 ing for the arts of the household — these are 
 all, where organized towards a preconceived 
 end of efficiency in useful employment, forms 
 of vocational education. 
 
 There is a sense in which it may be said 
 that vocational education has always existed 
 and is even now universal. All persons, except 
 infants, the aged, and other helpless members 
 
212 EDUCATIONAL KEADJUSTMENT 
 
 of society, have always had to exert some 
 strength, skill, or cunning in obtaining a 
 livelihood, and for this they have had to have 
 powers based on active bodily and mental ca- 
 pacities, on the one hand, and experience, acci- 
 dentally or systematically acquired, on the other. 
 Strictly speaking, there is no such thing as 
 " unskilled labor," but there is much brawn 
 and experience in the labor markets of the 
 world which is available for fairly ready trans' 
 fer to various occupations requiring only the 
 more common forms of strength, skill, and 
 intelligence — qualities which are more or less 
 automatically produced through the growth 
 processes which bring such native instincts 
 as imitation into conjunction with society's 
 customs. 
 
 But it is also true that vocational education 
 of a more or less purposeful sort has long 
 existed. The widespread disposition of elder 
 workers in all ages to enlist in useful employ- 
 ments, first by suggestion and then by coercion, 
 the efforts of children is the result of a genu- 
 ine teaching instinct. The learning instincts 
 
PROBLEMS IN PSYCHOLOGY 213 
 
 of youth are always complemented, in the so- 
 cial order, by the teaching instincts of the 
 mature, manifested by parents and others in 
 the social environment. The rites of initiation, 
 while often religious or cultural in their con- 
 scious purposes, not infrequently had an inti- 
 mate bearing on some vocational capacity, like 
 that of soldier, hunter, sailor, craftsman, 
 tiller of the soil, or household worker. It is 
 historically certain that the vocational educa- 
 tion of the Middle Ages — that of the pro- 
 fessional orders (priestly, military, medical, 
 etc.), commercial guilds, and crafts guilds — 
 was the most elaborate the world has yet seen. 
 It was fortified and elaborated not only by the 
 customs and ideals of the period, but by care- 
 fully worked-out legislation. 
 
 When, therefore, we discuss current prob- 
 lems of vocational education, it should be with 
 a full appreciation of the widespread historic 
 and also contemporaneous existence of un- 
 numbered forms of such education, many of 
 them doubtless more or less imperfect, inade- 
 quate, and decadent. Our discussion assumes 
 
214 EDUCATIONAL READJUSTMENT 
 
 the probable evolution of specialized agencies, 
 namely, vocational schools, to procure the train- 
 ing for productive work which modern social 
 conditions demand and for which existing 
 agencies other than schools seem inadequate. 
 We should furthermore recognize that for cer- 
 tain forms of vocational education — e.g., 
 medical, legal, theological, normal, engineer- 
 ing, military, and some commercial — the use- 
 fulness of specific schools, as supplanting or 
 supplementing the clumsy, if not futile, meth- 
 ods of apprenticeship or educationally unsys- 
 tematic participation in the simpler stages of 
 the employment, has long been accepted. 
 
 The modern demand is not for vocational 
 schools for the so-called professional callings, 
 for which, in the main, systematic preparation 
 is now begun at the mature age of eighteen 
 to twenty-two ; it is for schools which shall 
 give ordered and effective vocational training 
 for younger learners, — those from fourteen 
 to eighteen years of age, — and for whom the 
 most promising callings are found in the more 
 or less skilled trades, in commercial occupa- 
 
PROBLEMS IN PSYCHOLOGY 215 
 
 tions, in agriculture, and in the household 
 arts. Sometimes this demand is actuated by a 
 conviction that the present non-school agencies 
 are less effective than formerly, both in pro- 
 ducing efficient workers and in saving boys 
 and girls from submergence in unskilled and 
 insufficiently productive labor ; and sometimes 
 by a recognition of the fact that in many con- 
 temporary callings the entrance of applied art 
 and science has been of such a nature as to 
 create a need for new types of vocational edu- 
 cation which can be procured only through 
 school agencies. 
 
 Contemporary students of vocational educa- 
 tion are convinced that it will introduce new 
 and complicated problems of educational psy- 
 chology. The elaborate mechanisms of liberal 
 education which have long evolved in custom 
 and theory and which are being but now 
 slowly rationalized, such as textbooks, syllabi, 
 recitation, lectures, memoriter tests, note- 
 books, blackboards, laboratories, specialized 
 subject-matter logically organized, individual- 
 ized study, imaginary contacts with concrete 
 
216 EDUCATIONAL READJUSTMENT 
 
 situations, — all these will doubtless prove 
 hopelessly inadequate to vocational education 
 under school conditions, even though the per- 
 sistent character of these mechanisms will 
 constantly tend to be manifest. It is doubt- 
 ful also, whether satisfactory precedents for 
 method and organization of vocational educa- 
 tion in the common occupations, with their 
 large emphasis on skill, can be obtained from 
 vocational schools preparing for the profes- 
 sions, partly because of the relatively academic 
 character of professional education and partly 
 because of the unusual type of mind found in 
 the student qualified for and electing to pur- 
 sue professional study. 
 
 The most fundamental problem in voca- 
 tional education is that which relates to the 
 place in such training to be occupied by actual 
 participation in the processes of the occupa- 
 tion itself. The older forms of vocational edu- 
 cation were based largely on such participation. 
 The boy became a hunter by hunting, a weaver 
 by taking the simpler tasks with his master, a 
 
PROBLEMS IN PSYCHOLOGY 217 
 
 tiller of the soil by gradually absorbing knowl- 
 edge and evolving skill as a co-worker with 
 father or employer. But we now clearly recog- 
 nize that certain forms of vocational power 
 and flexibility are acquired with difficulty, if 
 at all, under an apprenticeship system resting 
 mainly on the psychological foundations of 
 imitation and suggestion. These limitations 
 are more acutely felt in proportion as, on the 
 one hand, industry becomes departmentalized, 
 and, on the other, as art and science become 
 more purposefully applied. Herein is found 
 the second large problem of vocational edu- 
 cation. The workshop alone may give the 
 prospective machinist skill in tool manipu- 
 lation, but it cannot give in any effective 
 way the mastery of drawing, of mechanics, 
 of mathematics, of industrial economics, and 
 of industrial hygiene, without which he has 
 but limited capacity for growth or for play- 
 ing any satisfactory role as citizen and mas- 
 ter of his own destinies. The ordinary farm 
 as an educational institution can give little 
 of the science which the modern world places 
 
218 EDUCATIONAL READJUSTMENT 
 
 at the disposal of the properly taught tiller of 
 the soil. 
 
 In fact, in nearly all vocations there may be 
 distinguished two types of elements, namely, 
 skill and other products of direct experience 
 in the occupation itself, and, in addition, cer- 
 tain types of knowledge, ideal, and power hav- 
 ing form and content outside the specific 
 occupation, but capable of application to it. 
 The student of stenography learns English 
 only to a slight degree in the study of stenog- 
 raphy, but good English is essential to that 
 calling and must be acquired either previous 
 to, simultaneously with, or subsequent to the 
 acquisition of skill in stenography. The car- 
 penter needs drawing and certain forms of 
 mathematics in his craft; the cabinetmaker 
 needs design; the homemaker, various forms 
 of science, such as bacteriology and chemistry, 
 to say nothing of applied art ; and the farmer 
 needs economics, soil physics, and bookkeep- 
 ing as tools of his calling. 
 
 Now, since it would appear that the intel- 
 lectually prehensile powers of the youthful 
 
PROBLEMS IN PSYCHOLOGY 219 
 
 mind are great and active, it is natural for an 
 unreflecting pedagogy to seek the mastery of 
 these more intellectual elements of vocational 
 efficiency in advance of the youth's entry on 
 the serious and more direct pursuit of his call- 
 ing. Is drawing a useful tool to the mechanic, 
 the weaver, the commercial traveler, and even 
 to the farmer and the homemaker? Teach 
 drawing, then, to youth in advance of his be- 
 ing summoned to the practical school of ap- 
 prenticeship. Should the modern contributions 
 of bacteriology be at the disposal of the farmer, 
 the nurse, the food-packer, and the housewife ? 
 Teach bacteriology in the schools, say educa- 
 tional theorists, and thereby accomplish an 
 important part of vocational training. 
 
 This method of approach, indeed, has been 
 largely characteristic of those higher forms of 
 vocational education called professional. The 
 prospective engineer is first drilled in general 
 mathematics, drawing, and other more or less 
 logically organized fields of special knowledge 
 and, occasionally, skill. The prospective med- 
 ical practitioner first gives his attention to gen- 
 
220 EDUCATIONAL READJUSTMENT 
 
 eral chemistry, biology, and physiology. The 
 teacher's first year in the normal school is 
 given to psychology, history of education, 
 and other "basal" subjects. 
 
 It is not certain, of course, that even in 
 professional education the above pedagogic 
 order is the most effective. It may only be 
 the one most available under existing condi- 
 tions in professional schools and of educa- 
 tional tradition. Even now we see legal educa- 
 tion substituting the " case method " for the 
 dreary introductions through Blackstone and 
 other purveyors of " fundamental principles." 
 Dissecting-room, clinic, and hospital appren- 
 ticeship seem to play a larger part than for- 
 merly in legitimate medical education, and a 
 metropolitan university now proposes to make 
 actual service in water and milk analysis and 
 other municipal activities in sanitation a rec- 
 ognized part of the training of those who are 
 later to practice the arts of healing and of 
 disease prevention. Laboratory, workshop, 
 and summer camp are being more extensively 
 employed in training engineers, and it would 
 
PROBLEMS IN PSYCHOLOGY 221 
 
 appear that, barring here and there a defender 
 of the old order, the professors in engineering 
 colleges are attaching less importance, rela- 
 tively, to the extensive preliminary study by 
 their students of pure mathematics, pure 
 science, and other " theoretical " subjects. 
 
 But whatever the case in professional edu- 
 cation, there can be little question as to the 
 futility, in the vocational education of youths 
 from fourteen to eighteen years of age for the 
 common occupations of life, of a pedagogy 
 based on an initial mastery of the more in- 
 tellectual elements of vocation. Experience 
 has already revealed many impediments to the 
 process. Neither motive nor ability, as found 
 in such youths, is sufficient to enable them to 
 master the fundamentals in science and art 
 preliminary to the application of these in vo- 
 cation. Professional students, as a rule, be- 
 long to an intellectually select class, distin- 
 guished largely by its capacity for abstract 
 thinking and constructive imagination. Every 
 step in the boy's " running the gantlet " from 
 the primary school to the doors of the pro- 
 
222 EDUCATIONAL READJUSTMENT 
 
 fessional school is designed to discover and 
 promote these qualities. But the typical 
 worker in the wage-earning callings is distin- 
 guished by his " concreteness " of mind. Skill 
 in execution, not grasp of principles, is the 
 demand made upon him by his nature, his 
 surroundings, and the idealism of his calling. 
 He can utilize, not the principal contributions 
 of the sciences and arts, but important sections 
 and suggestions, here and there, from them. 
 The loom-fixer, the machinist, the farmer, the 
 bookkeeper, and the chainman are greatly in 
 need of certain specific helps from mathemat- 
 ics. Neither time, capacity, nor inclination 
 permit them to seek their necessary needles in 
 the haystack of general mathematics ; they de- 
 sire to leave the winnowing process to special- 
 ists (perhaps schoolmasters) with time and 
 capacity for that sort of work. The farmer 
 cannot be meteorologist, chemist, and biologist, 
 but he needs certain " derivative products " 
 from those sciences badly, and he claims that 
 his vocational education should put him in 
 possession of them. In the great majority of 
 
PROBLEMS IN PSYCHOLOGY 223 
 
 everyday vocations, taking account of the 
 qualities of those who are to follow them, the 
 system of providing in advance the "intel- 
 lectual" as contrasted with the "experiential" 
 elements seems destined to failure. Some 
 educators of shrewd insight suspect that this 
 may also prove true in " general " or " liberal" 
 education ; but, whatever the event may show 
 in that field, we are now compelled to assume 
 that effective vocational education requires 
 a pedagogy in which the results of practical 
 experience in a calling shall be closely interre- 
 lated with processes designed to procure suffi- 
 cient grasp of the more intellectual elements. 
 This constitutes the basis of the several large 
 problems of an educational psychology of 
 vocational education. 
 
 Vocational education must either provide, 
 or intimately relate itself to, the acquisition 
 of practical experience, and it must discover 
 ways of adding thereto the more intellectual 
 elements without relying on the logical organ- 
 ization and external and detached character 
 of the subjects making these contributions. 
 
224 EDUCATIONAL KEADJUSTMENT 
 
 Theoretically considered, from the stand- 
 points both of economy and of efficiency, it 
 would seem that the most promising method 
 of organizing true vocational education would 
 be to allow the workshop, the farm, the com- 
 mercial establishment, and the household to 
 continue their historic educational function, 
 namely, that of providing by actual work un- 
 der normal conditions of employment the 
 "experiential" basis, the vocational school, 
 so-called, coming in to supplement with the 
 appropriate "intellectual" elements. This 
 arrangement, indeed, is that contemplated by 
 the so-called "part-time" or "continuation" 
 type of vocational training. The vocational 
 evening school also exemplifies the application 
 of this principle to the needs of more mature 
 students. In practice, the weakness of joint 
 or "cooperative" programs of vocational edu- 
 cation of this sort is their lack of integration. 
 The practical experience acquired in the work- 
 shop — here used as a general term for any 
 place where actual experience in productive 
 work is had under conditions commercially 
 
PROBLEMS IN PSYCHOLOGY 225 
 
 characteristic of the occupation — is likely to 
 be specialized and without educational se- 
 quence or organization. The school work is 
 prone to develop a theoretic organization, with 
 the result that its returns in knowledge, spe- 
 cialized skill, etc., may be more or less per- 
 manently placed in mental cold storage. Much 
 evening instruction is o£ this " non-function- 
 ing" character; only the rare student can 
 bridge the gap and carry his freightage of 
 theory into application. 
 
 Even when we shall have reached a full 
 social realization of the law that the plastic 
 years of youth should be at least partly re- 
 served for learning, and when employers and 
 teachers shall have learned to cooperate in 
 arranging that practical and productive work 
 shall be made to contribute its best educational 
 results, it may prove necessary in certain vo- 
 cational fields to bring a workshop into the 
 school in order to obtain a proper integration 
 of practical and theoretic elements in voca- 
 tional training. In the making of the stenog- 
 rapher, for example, this is now done, because 
 
226 EDUCATIONAL READJUSTMENT 
 
 commercial " shop " conditions cannot tolerate 
 the mere learner. In a hundred other direc- 
 tions this may also prove to be the case. 
 
 We shall have to turn eventually to edu- 
 cational psychology to assist us in organizing 
 this practical work so as to get a working re- 
 sultant between standards of skill, on the one 
 hand, and extent of ground to be covered, on 
 the other. How long shall the learning ma- 
 chinist use one tool in a single type of opera- 
 tion ? Until he has skill and speed equal to 
 the commercial demand, or only until he has 
 a sufficient basis of experience to enable him 
 to grasp the related supplemental studies 
 and to start "right" in his later shop work? 
 Only a scientific study of the problem by edu- 
 cators appreciative of the meaning of "indus- 
 trial efficiency in the long run " can tell. 
 In the mean time, without prejudice to what 
 educational psychology and commercial de- 
 mand may eventually prove to be the valid 
 method, it is the privilege, if not the duty, of 
 vocational teachers and of employers to con- 
 tinue to guess to the best of their ability. 
 
PROBLEMS IN PSYCHOLOGY 227 
 
 But a still more serious problem for educa- 
 tional psychology is to be found in the 
 " method " of organizing and presenting the 
 more intellectual elements of the various vo- 
 cations to young learners. Ages of experience 
 in apprenticeship should have given us many 
 clues to the organization of the practical side 
 of the student's program. Schools of liberal 
 education long ago established logical orders 
 of subject-matter organization in the theo- 
 retic fields of the sciences, arts, and histories 
 upon which vocational education must draw. 
 But, as already indicated, experience shows 
 that we cannot utilize these subjects as now 
 organized in the training of the rank and file 
 of workers. Few, if any, precedents yet exist 
 for the organization of programs of study and 
 practice in the more intellectual phases of 
 vocational training. Tell a machine-shop in- 
 structor not to require of his pupils a system- 
 atic course in mechanical drawing, but to 
 base a series of drawing lessons on the prac- 
 tical work which his pupils are doing from 
 day to day, and he complains that they " must 
 
228 EDUCATIONAL READJUSTMENT 
 
 first learn the principles." Tell a normal- 
 school teacher that the best psychology of 
 education, at least for normal-school young 
 women, should probably grow out of and be 
 built upon their daily problems of teaching, 
 and he or she, too, will raise embarrassing 
 questions as to terminology and " general 
 principles," and will conclude by asking if 
 any authoritative textbook exemplifies the 
 " new method." Ask a teacher in an agricul- 
 tural school, whose boys may be doing very 
 practical and even scientific work (the result 
 of suggestion), in growing corn and raising 
 poultry, to forego the teaching of systematic 
 chemistry, botany, physics, bacteriology, etc., 
 in favor of " agricultural science," and he will 
 look dazed, while forlornly and helplessly set- 
 ting to work to do as he is asked. We are re- 
 quiring these teachers to construct a new type 
 of pedagogical material. Except in the pri- 
 mary school, educational psychology hardly 
 furnishes even the help of analogous situa- 
 tions. Nevertheless, in the vocational school 
 claiming to be effective we must fight persist- 
 
PROBLEMS IN PSYCHOLOGY 229 
 
 ently for a new pedagogic organization of 
 subject-matter wherein practice must form 
 the groundwork and point of departure for 
 the more theoretic studies. Ideally, we are 
 seeking a program wherein concrete and vital 
 experience, gradually interpreted and illu- 
 minated into a unity of skill and comprehension 
 of principles in their application to the calling, 
 shall be the outcome of vocational education. 
 We dare not in genuine vocational education 
 content ourselves, on the practical side of such 
 training, with the fool's paradise of imitation 
 and sham participation in the real work of 
 life, such as manual training exercises, the 
 sprouting of a few seeds, the embroidering of 
 doilies, the making of pastries, and amateur- 
 ish dabbling with typewriting and bookkeep- 
 ing, nor shall we find in systematized mathe- 
 matics, drawing, chemistry, economics, and 
 kindred subjects the forms of organization 
 and methods of presentation adapted to the 
 need of our pupils. We are face to face with a 
 new department of education, largely a modern 
 development, wherein we have no more science 
 
230 EDUCATIONAL READJUSTMENT 
 
 to guide us than in other departments and 
 vastly less of tradition. 
 
 It may be hoped that because we have such a 
 paucity of tradition progress will be the more 
 rapid. If we could persuade a few investigators 
 to take this as their field, such might be the 
 case. Unfortunately, the harried teachers in 
 our vocational schools can give little time to 
 constructive programs, although it is hard to 
 see how they can succeed in their work until 
 they shall have accomplished something in 
 this direction. The administrative authorities 
 of such schools have their problems in forcing 
 a place for the practical work and in prevent- 
 ing a relapse into the stereotyped pedagogical 
 methods evolved in the ages of bookish sec- 
 ondary education — an education which has 
 rarely discovered, much less studied, the learner, 
 but the votaries of which, like Hindoo mystics, 
 contemplative of their bodies, have focused 
 their attention on subject-matter until self- 
 hypnotization has rendered them oblivious to 
 the world of external actualities. 
 
PROBLEMS IN PSYCHOLOGY 231 
 
 We may summarize, then, as follows: — 
 
 1. Vocational education is a distinctive 
 type of education, especially when promoted 
 under school conditions. It presents distinctive 
 new problems to the educational psychologist. 
 
 2. Present experience seems to demonstrate 
 that a large — perhaps major — place must 
 be given in vocational education to productive 
 work, graduated by stages, in the occupations 
 themselves. Historic experience may assist in 
 shaping the programs of this work, but ulti- 
 mately careful experimental studies of the 
 processes by which skill — flexible and capa- 
 ble of growth — may be developed, must be 
 made. 
 
 3. Skill and other products of direct expe- 
 riential contact with vocational situations con- 
 stitute a considerable part of a complete voca- 
 tional education, but a no less important part 
 will be found in the knowledge, auxiliary 
 forms of skill, and ideals which function in 
 the larger, more flexible, and more prolonged 
 vocational efficiency. For education in these 
 latter elements in the case of youths of four- 
 
232 EDUCATIONAL READJUSTMENT 
 
 teen to eighteen years of age, existing peda- 
 gogic processes, whether scientific or custom- 
 ary, offer as yet little assistance. This is 
 peculiarly a field for constructive scientific 
 study. 
 
CENTRALIZED VS. LOCALIZED ADMINISTRA- 
 TION OF PUBLIC EDUCATION 
 
 Localized and democratic administration 
 of public education is characterized by the fol- 
 lowing qualities : The constitution of the State 
 authorizes and establishes public instruction 
 only in most general terms ; State legislation 
 regarding it is not specific, and is largely per- 
 missive; schools and school systems are ad- 
 ministered and supervised mainly by laymen 
 holding office for short periods and quite re- 
 sponsive to public opinion ; the areas of admin- 
 istration for important functions are small, such 
 as districts, or wards of cities ; town meetings 
 or public elections are competent to decide a 
 variety of administrative questions, such as ap- 
 propriating money, selecting textbooks, locat- 
 ing schoolhouses, and deciding on new types of 
 education; and State officials have mainly advis- 
 ory powers, or at most certain powers of veto. 
 
234 EDUCATIONAL READJUSTMENT 
 
 Centralized administration, on the other 
 hand, exhibits the following characteristics : 
 The State constitution fixes many administra- 
 tive details, such as types of schools that may 
 be permitted, maximum tax levies that may be 
 imposed, methods to be employed in distribut- 
 ing funds, and qualifications and compensa- 
 tions for certain offices ; the State legislature, 
 by statute and by its control of municipal gov- 
 ernment, regulates a variety of the details of 
 administration, thus reducing the possibilities 
 of initiative and variation in the local com- 
 munity; administrative functions are trans- 
 ferred from the smaller to the larger areas, as 
 when certification of teachers, selection of text- 
 books, formation of courses of study, inspec- 
 tion of schools, conduct of institutes, and other 
 administrative functions become the duties of 
 State officials, or when the district or the part 
 of the city has to yield its authority to the 
 county or to the consolidated city; popular 
 meetings and elections diminish in number and 
 effectiveness, their powers being conveyed to 
 representative boards ; lay boards decrease in 
 
ADMINISTRATION OF EDUCATION 235 
 
 size, their members are appointed rather than 
 elected, and the members' terms of office are 
 prolonged, thus removing them from the im- 
 mediate control of the popular will ; under the 
 lay boards appear experts whose functions 
 increase at the expense of the board, whose 
 tenure becomes relatively secure, and who are 
 not necessarily representative of, or informed 
 with regard to, the local opinion and will. 
 
 The history of American education shows 
 that centralization in one form or another has 
 been a progressive tendency for more than 
 half a century in nearly all the States of the 
 Union. This movement is parallel to a similar 
 evolution which has taken place in almost all 
 other departments of social economy, such as 
 business, government, charity and philan- 
 thropy, research, etc. At bottom it is a prod- 
 uct of two factors : the demand for efficiency 
 and economy, on the one hand ; and the 
 growth of intelligence, means of communi- 
 cation, and organizing ability, on the other. 
 If, under organizing ability, we include the 
 
236 EDUCATIONAL READJUSTMENT 
 
 capacity of a democracy to select wise leaders 
 and to maintain an effective oversight on the 
 actions of these, then it may be said that the 
 degree to which centralization at any time may 
 proceed must be the resultant of the two fac- 
 tors mentioned above. 
 
 Centralized administration of public educa- 
 tion may have, at any given period, some good 
 and some bad effects. Other things remaining 
 equal, it promotes efficiency in the following 
 directions : — 
 
 (a) It develops uniformity over large areas, 
 with the accompanying possibilities of econ- 
 omy. Types of educational effort may be co- 
 ordinated, official bodies reduced, conflicting 
 jurisdiction adjusted, and the material means 
 of instruction provided on a large scale. 
 
 (b) It permits the collective wisdom of the 
 larger area to control the actions of the smaller, 
 to maintain at least a minimum level of cultural 
 uniformity, and thus to prevent local develop- 
 ments hostile to the best interests of the State. 
 The State may determine the minimum amount 
 of money to be given locally to public educa- 
 
ADMINISTRATION OF EDUCATION 237 
 
 tion ; it may aid weaker localities ; it may in- 
 spect the results of local educational effort; 
 and it may enforce the establishment of new 
 types of education; in a similar way, the 
 county as opposed to the smaller areas, or the 
 city as opposed to its divisions, may enforce 
 conditions of efficiency better than the more 
 minute divisions. 
 
 (c) It makes possible the substitution of 
 carefully-planned and coordinated policies for 
 the vagaries and immature schemes of purely 
 local administration with its popular control 
 and inexpert management. A large city, or 
 county, or other area, or the State, in inaugu- 
 rating new policies may have specialists plan- 
 ning the work even for years before the first 
 step is taken. Information from various sources 
 may be collected, and experiments conducted, 
 before the promulgation of a new policy. 
 
 (d) Finally, centralized administration makes 
 possible the introduction and development of 
 the expert. Undoubtedly this is its most im- 
 portant contribution to efficiency. In propor- 
 tion as the primitive art of educational admin- 
 
238 EDUCATIONAL READJUSTMENT 
 
 istration becomes complex and is transformed 
 into a field of applied science, the presence of 
 specially qualified experts becomes indispen- 
 sable. But the development of the expert 
 seems to be possible only in divisions large 
 either in area or population and under condi- 
 tions of control which are not purely demo- 
 cratic as democracy was understood in the 
 primitive life of America. Among the types 
 of expert service already past the experimental 
 stage of development in American education 
 may be mentioned the architect, to plan and 
 supervise the erection of school buildings ; the 
 man who is at once physician and educator, to 
 direct various aspects of physical education, 
 such as medical inspection, physical training, 
 and to supervise the hygienic conditions of in- 
 struction ; the business manager, to attend to 
 the financial affairs of the school system ; the 
 statistician, who directs the making of school 
 records and reports, and who is able to utilize 
 these so as to derive conclusions suggestive of 
 new administrative procedures ; the specialized 
 supervisor of instruction, whether of some 
 
ADMINISTRATION OF EDUCATION 239 
 
 division of the educational system, as kinder- 
 gartens, rural schools, grammar grades so- 
 called, or high school, or of instruction in 
 some type of subject-matter, such as music or 
 manual arts ; or, finally, the superintendent, 
 the earliest of the experts to be developed, 
 and the man who must yet stand at the head 
 of any system, expressing its most genuine de- 
 mands and coordinating the various aspects of 
 its activities in the interest, first, of the indi- 
 vidual child, and, second, in the final welfare 
 of the State. 
 
 Not only have the most successful attempts 
 at centralization thus far made possible the 
 utilization of these experts ; they create in 
 turn new fields of leadership for which we 
 may soon expect able men and women to pre- 
 pare themselves. American education is rap- 
 idly developing the profession of superintend- 
 ent of schools, an office which has no exact 
 counterpart elsewhere, but which must become 
 indispensable to educational progress. Other 
 types of specialized experts must soon be pro- 
 vided. The development of physical education 
 
240 EDUCATIONAL READJUSTMENT 
 
 in the broad sense of that word must give us 
 yet the man who is physician and educator 
 combined ; the direction of vocational educa- 
 tion will require experts who can devote their 
 lives and a long period of training to this 
 work ; and some day we must produce leaders 
 who can strike out plans for moral or social 
 training and superintend their execution. It is 
 in evidence that educational finances, school 
 architecture, the selection of textbooks, the 
 education of defectives and delinquents, and 
 the adjustment of children to practical life 
 through employment bureaus will all in turn 
 demand their experts. These are all conditions 
 of true educational efficiency; and their de- 
 velopment through and under experts requires 
 an increasing centralized administration of 
 public education. 
 
 On the other hand, certain evils tend to 
 follow in the train of centralized administra- 
 tion of public education. The most conspicu- 
 ous of these are : — 
 
 (a) Lack of adaptability. Communities vary 
 
ADMINISTRATION OF EDUCATION 241 
 
 in their characteristics, needs, and ability to 
 support varying forms of public schools. One 
 portion of a city may differ from another, 
 rural areas ma}^ differ from urban areas, and 
 districts populated by foreigners may present 
 special needs. Uniform schemes administered 
 by central authorities fail in flexibility, and 
 become mechanical. Until we know much 
 better than we now do the genuine aims of 
 public education, uniform schemes may work 
 marked harm through failure to meet local 
 needs. This evil is not, of course, an inherent 
 one in centralized administration, since expert 
 direction may eventually produce flexibility, 
 if there is intelligent local demand for it; but 
 it is a usual accompaniment. 
 
 (b) Akin to this unwelcome result is the 
 waning of popular interest. Localized and pop- 
 ular administration of education has produced 
 in all sections of America a more intense pub- 
 lic interest and activity than has any other 
 form of social action. Some forms of political 
 activity may thrive and develop without pop- 
 ular interest; not so public education. The 
 
242 EDUCATIONAL READJUSTMENT 
 
 best of school education must blend inti- 
 mately with home and community interests ; 
 the absence or withdrawal of this cooperation 
 chills and mechanizes school agencies. Much 
 of the effectiveness of American education 
 has been realized, in spite of its imperfect 
 administration, largely owing to the popular 
 devotion to its ideals and processes. In the 
 face of centralizing tendencies it is hard 
 to keep alive local interest; for the most 
 genuine form comes only when the imme- 
 diate community has enough control of the 
 administrative machinery to make its will 
 felt. 
 
 (c) Equally serious is the effect of central- 
 ization in diminishing possibilities for varia- 
 tion and experiment. President Butler has 
 declared that spontaneity is the characteris- 
 tic feature of American education. Not only 
 has the public school itself been indigenous to 
 each State, but to a large extent all the special 
 features of public education have had a local 
 and spontaneous development. Within each 
 State communities have vied with each other, 
 
ADMINISTRATION OF EDUCATION 243 
 
 have embarked upon experiments, have devel- 
 oped and fixed variations in new directions. 
 Speaking in biological terms the variability 
 of American education has been enormous, 
 which, considering the conditions, has resulted 
 in much progress. Ultimately society will reach 
 the point where, as now in the case of medi- 
 cine, it will support conscious experimentation 
 on a large scale in education, but until then, 
 we can hardly afford to surrender the oppor- 
 tunities, however crude and wasteful, which 
 exist in a decentralized form of educational 
 administration, especially when the spirit of 
 experimentation and competition still prevails. 
 Lack of variability as in the case of adapta- 
 bility is not an inherent evil of centralized 
 administration, but a probable tendency in the 
 pre-scientific stages in which public education 
 still exists. 
 
 (d) Finally, we have to note that adminis- 
 trative centralization tends to entail the evils 
 of bureaucracy, and not less when it is in 
 charge of experts with more or less perma- 
 nent tenure. These experts must inevitably 
 
244 EDUCATIONAL READJUSTMENT 
 
 tend towards group solidarity, having kindred 
 sentiments and interests, both in pursuit of 
 social satisfaction and while endeavoring to 
 accomplish mutual improvement. The rela- 
 tions of the experts towards the public tend to 
 become official and formal. In time, a bureau- 
 cracy may be formed, with distinctively anti- 
 social tendencies. 
 
 We have now described in somewhat ex- 
 treme contrast the desirable and undesirable 
 effects of the centralized administration to- 
 wards which our American public school sys- 
 tems are, with occasional exceptions, steadily 
 tending. There remain for consideration the 
 means by which some adjustments between 
 local and popular administration, on the one 
 hand, and centralized and expert administra- 
 tion, on the other, can be effected so as to 
 produce the maximum of social good. Many 
 such adjustments have already been made in 
 an empiric fashion, and many more are theo- 
 retically feasible. The evolution of English 
 government, as Lowell indicates at numerous 
 
ADMINISTRATION OF EDUCATION 245 
 
 points, 1 has produced a variety of means of 
 combining local and central control so as to 
 minimize the evil effects of each. The Educa- 
 tion Bill of 1902, among other recent admin- 
 istrative measures in public education, brings 
 into action a number of devices to produce 
 the same effect. But in most of the American 
 States it can hardly be said that policies of 
 adjustment have reached the plane of political 
 consciousness, notwithstanding the fact that 
 in most State legislatures there is at each ses- 
 sion an almost constant struggle between the 
 opponents and proponents of measures making 
 in turn for centralization or decentralization. 
 Too often the contest is for the preservation 
 of some purely local function or for its com- 
 plete centralization ; not enough do legislators 
 seek constructive measures in the middle 
 ground. But it is possible, through an exami- 
 nation of the results obtained in some States, 
 and on the basis of some European experi- 
 ence, to suggest means of adjustment. Among 
 these are the following : — 
 
 1 A. Lawrence Lowell. The Government of England, 
 2 vols., The Macmillan Company, 1908. 
 
246 EDUCATIONAL READJUSTMENT 
 
 I. The complete exercise of a given func- 
 tion may be divided between two agencies, 
 one of which represents the relatively expert 
 and centralized aspect of administration, the 
 other the more democratic and local. Accord- 
 ing to conditions the initiative will lie with 
 the one or the other of these agencies. 
 
 The following are the principal situations 
 involved in educational administration : — 
 
 (a) The division of power between expert 
 and lay officials. This is already found in a 
 State like New York in which a lay board 
 acts through an expert commissioner of edu- 
 cation ; in those forms of county government 
 found especially in Southern States and in 
 Indiana in which a lay board elects and oper- 
 ates through an expert county superintend- 
 ent ; and especially in cities in which the lay 
 boards have gradually ceased to exercise ad- 
 ministrative functions, but hold themselves 
 responsible for general legislation and for 
 final approval or veto of the acts of the ex- 
 pert superintendent. By law in the State of 
 Ohio and by local provision in the cities of 
 
ADMINISTRATION OF EDUCATION 247 
 
 many other States, boards of education have, 
 after many years of hesitation, given to the 
 superintendent the supreme function of the 
 expert, which is the nomination of those who 
 are to teach or otherwise work in the schools ; 
 in these cases the boards reserve only the 
 right of final veto or approval on the nomi- 
 nations of the superintendent. It is needless 
 here to point out that such a division of 
 power as this serves largely as a corrective to 
 various of the possible evils of centralization 
 discussed above. Giving large powers to the 
 expert, it yet reserves a form of final control 
 to the public and its lay representatives. Such 
 a conscious division of powers is not yet 
 widely found in practice in American States- 
 The State and county superintendents, who 
 should be experts, are in too many instances 
 chosen by popular election for definite terms 
 and are responsible only to the public, all of 
 which conditions preclude the development 
 of the real expert. In some cases State and 
 county boards are really composed of experts, 
 but are only partially allocated to the per- 
 
248 EDUCATIONAL READJUSTMENT 
 
 formance of expert functions. American cities 
 show this division of administrative powers at 
 its best. 
 
 (b) A second form of divided administra- 
 tive power is found in that which is practicable 
 between the more central and the more local 
 agencies, whether these be expert or lay. Illus- 
 trations of this are found where the legislature 
 fixes by statute maxima and minima of taxa- 
 tion, leaving to local communities considerable 
 local option ; or under a minimum salary law 
 which allows the local area to exercise its own 
 option in exceeding the maximum; or where 
 State or other central approval is required for 
 plans of buildings locally drawn ; or in the 
 existence of State courses of study which may 
 or may not be locally adopted ; but especially 
 in the widespread tendency of State prescrip- 
 tion of general features of courses, with op- 
 portunity for fixing the details locally. A 
 striking development of this form of offset to 
 centralization is found in England in which 
 the National Board of Education suggests to 
 local authorities a large number of alternatives 
 
ADMINISTRATION OF EDUCATION 249 
 
 in many aspects of local administration, leav- 
 ing to local authorities responsibility for pro- 
 posing definite plans and specifications. These 
 in turn must be approved by the higher au- 
 thorities before they can become effective. 
 The possibilities of a further development of 
 this division of administrative power in Amer- 
 ican States is great, especially where central- 
 ized administration tends to become too uni- 
 form and incapable of allowing for healthful 
 variation. There is no inherent reason why, 
 for example, the adoption of a State system 
 of textbooks should mean absolute State uni- 
 formity. The State might adopt two or more 
 of the best texts and allow for local choice 
 among these ; or it might adopt a single list 
 for all except those communities which could 
 present good reasons for adopting some other 
 series, which reasons could be approved or 
 negatived by the State authorities. There is 
 inherently no good reason why a course of 
 study should be uniform throughout a large 
 city, except as to its most general features. 
 Probably much greater opportunity for prog- 
 
250 EDUCATIONAL READJUSTMENT 
 
 ress and local adaptation would be found if 
 large schools were each able, within the limits 
 of a very general and minimum course, to 
 make proposals as to details, which should re- 
 ceive the refusal or endorsement of the central 
 city authorities. It is not impossible that as 
 the demands for a richer corporate life within 
 the school increase, the head of the school 
 will be given much greater authority than he 
 is now able to exercise in the choice of his 
 assistants. " But the evidence before the com- 
 mittee points to the conclusion that, in the 
 selection of their assistants, the head teachers 
 of our public elementary schools should as a 
 rule be allowed to have a more effective voice 
 than is now granted to them," says Dr. Sadler 
 in writing the introduction to the recent In- 
 ternational Inquiry on Moral Instruction 
 and Training in the Schools. The State might 
 very well impose on the local community the 
 obligation to support certain amounts or kinds 
 of vocational education, but leave to the lo- 
 cality option as to the details, subject to in- 
 spection. On the other hand, it is probable 
 
ADMINISTRATION OF EDUCATION 251 
 
 that in many States functions now locally ex- 
 ercised exclusively might well be shared with 
 State or higher authorities, as is done to some 
 extent in the certification of teachers. For 
 example, local budgets, salary schedules, and 
 pension schemes might all be made to require 
 approval of higher authorities before final 
 adoption. It can safely be said that centralized 
 administration through division of responsi- 
 bility between central and local authorities has 
 had little more than preliminary development 
 in American education. In the future develop- 
 ments of professional training of teachers after 
 entering on service, in the development of 
 professional oversight of the physical aspects 
 of education, and in provision of moral or 
 civic training, it is entirely possible that the 
 State or other large area must assume increas- 
 ing responsibility, but it is evident that the 
 social effectiveness of this will depend upon a 
 proper division of responsibility between local 
 and central authorities. 
 
 II. Another system of correctives to cen- 
 tralization is that to be found in the existence 
 
252 EDUCATIONAL READJUSTMENT 
 
 of bodies which, in the exercise of more or 
 less localized functions, reflect public opinion, 
 inform official and centralized agencies, and 
 in turn, through the exercise of these powers, 
 are themselves enlightened and have their 
 appreciation of the general system of admin- 
 istration enhanced. For practical purposes we 
 may distinguish two types of effort in this 
 direction : that which involves laymen whose 
 attitude towards the schools is that mainly of 
 the public supporting the schools and inter- 
 ested mainly in the output ; and the relatively 
 minor officials in the system itself who are in 
 most intimate touch with the practical prob- 
 lems. 
 
 (a) State commissions, citizens' unions, 
 parents' associations, public education author- 
 ities of one kind and another have been or- 
 ganized at times to study public education, to 
 contribute to it moral support, and by criti- 
 cism, destructive and constructive, to improve 
 it. Vastly more extensive is the informal co- 
 operation and criticism which emanates from 
 commercial and religious organizations, from 
 
ADMINISTRATION OF EDUCATION 253 
 
 political parties, and from groups of people 
 expressing more or less coherent public opin- 
 ion. In the rudimentary stages of the evolu- 
 tion of educational administration, the last 
 agencies described are quite ample to produce 
 needed intimacy between the public and the 
 schools ; but as administration becomes more 
 complex and highly and even sensitively or- 
 ganized, these crude agencies are not only 
 often unserviceable, but not infrequently posi- 
 tively harmful. Hence the need (since the 
 social necessity which brings forth these forms 
 of expression continues and grows) that or- 
 ganized channels for the accomplishment of 
 these purposes be fostered. Not only should 
 the organization of large and small bodies of 
 laymen to study and criticize the public schools 
 be encouraged, but regular means of com- 
 munication for them should be provided, and 
 when they reach the point of constructive 
 recommendation their findings should invari- 
 ably receive courteous treatment. This will 
 not always be easy, for in proportion as ad- 
 ministration becomes complex will it prove 
 
254 EDUCATIONAL READJUSTMENT 
 
 difficult to cause the layman to be well in- 
 formed ; and the necessary effort to accomplish 
 this can only be justified on the ground that 
 in the long run the resulting cooperation is 
 indispensable to an educational administra- 
 tion that combines efficiency and sensitiveness 
 to public opinion. 
 
 (b) In any centralized system there are large 
 numbers of head masters, teachers, and other 
 minor officials who are in their degree experts 
 and who are closely in touch with practical 
 problems. Like the lay public, these also have 
 their special and local interests in education, 
 and not infrequently they have the same in- 
 ability to comprehend the larger aspects of the 
 problems involved. But their sympathetic un- 
 derstanding, their disposition to cooperate, and 
 especially their knowledge founded on prac- 
 tical acquaintance with problems is essential 
 to the wider administration. One of the early 
 effects of centralization, however, is largely to 
 silence this body. Frequently a measure of 
 suppression is thought necessary from the 
 standpoint of the morale or discipline of the 
 
ADMINISTRATION OF EDUCATION 255 
 
 force. Not infrequently autocratic ideas, bor- 
 rowed from militaristic regimes, provide easy 
 assent to measures taken to render the "force " 
 orderly. And here again it must be confessed 
 there is often great provocation. The theo- 
 rizer, the sciolist, the chronic critic, are found 
 too frequently in the body of teachers and 
 other minor officials. Much freedom allowed 
 to these does tend to demoralization of the 
 teaching force, temporarily at least. But it is 
 evident that a wise system of administration 
 should prove abundantly able to draw on the 
 vast resources of experience available in the 
 ranks, and especially to stimulate the self- 
 activity which results from the exercise of 
 legitimate freedom, without having chaos and 
 disorder result. That form of administration, 
 for example, whether of State, county, or city, 
 which utilizes to a large extent committees 
 and associations either already formed or cre- 
 ated for this purpose, as means of investiga- 
 tion, criticism, suggestion, and constructive 
 action, is surely most effective in the long run. 
 Examples of this kind of cooperation are 
 
256 EDUCATIONAL READJUSTMENT 
 
 readily available, even though in many school 
 systems no regular policy has yet been devel- 
 oped of providing it for a variety of situations. 
 State, divisional, county, and city associations 
 of teachers make recommendations as to legis- 
 lation and occasionally as to administration ; 
 in the formulation of courses of study, com- 
 mittees of teachers or principals are formed to 
 confer and make recommendations; in the 
 selection of textbooks, State or more local 
 boards have often constituted committees to 
 examine books and make tentative recom- 
 mendations. In a few cases committees of 
 teachers have been asked to assist examining 
 boards in preparing questions for teachers' 
 and pupils' examinations. Recent tendencies 
 of colleges to enlist the cooperation of second- 
 ary school teachers in preparing tests for ad- 
 mission to college is another instance of the 
 same tendency. 
 
 It will, of course, be recognized that the 
 communication and cooperation described 
 above exist constantly in an unorganized form 
 in most school systems ; but the fact here to 
 
ADMINISTRATION OF EDUCATION 257 
 
 be emphasized is that in a complex system of 
 administration it is no longer sufficient to de- 
 pend upon casual and unorganized efforts in 
 this direction. So important is the interaction 
 of the various forces of administration that as 
 systems become unwieldy and relationships 
 less intimate and personal, in that proportion 
 is it necessary to organize and set in motion 
 machinery which will systematically effect the 
 same result. This principle has already ob- 
 tained recognition in the conduct of large 
 business affairs ; owing to the sensitive and 
 personal character of public education, the 
 need for such mutual interaction here is much 
 greater. 
 
 In view, then, of the rapid and to a large 
 extent necessary centralization which is every- 
 where taking place in educational administra- 
 tion, it would seem that educators should, as 
 far as practicable, recognize and give effect to 
 principles like the following : — 
 
 1. The evolution of administration should 
 be along such lines as to secure the selection 
 
258 EDUCATIONAL READJUSTMENT 
 
 and retention of a genuine expert at the head 
 of each important administrative function. 
 This principle is widely observed now, espe- 
 cially in municipal school administration, but 
 theglaring exceptions are the popularly elected 
 and therefore largely inexpert county and 
 State superintendents of public instruction in 
 the majority of the States. 
 
 2. Back of the expert, and in ultimate but 
 guarded authority over him, should be a com- 
 mittee or board representing the public and 
 as immediately responsible to the public as 
 possible. Such boards should be restricted as 
 regards administrative initiative and recom- 
 mendation, but their general powers of veto 
 and approval should be large. In many cases 
 State boards of education are at present not 
 of this character; and the majority of city and 
 other school boards do not yet concede to the 
 expert the powers of initiation and recom- 
 mendation here implied. 
 
 3. Administrative policy should seek a con- 
 sistent division of functions between local and 
 central administrative agencies to the end that 
 
ADMINISTRATION OF EDUCATION 259 
 
 flexibility, variation, and mutual understand- 
 ing may result. The examples of this at pres- 
 ent are few and irregular. 
 
 4. Lay agencies and commissions tempo- 
 rary or permanent should be developed widely 
 to represent local sentiment, to study adminis- 
 tration, and finally to express public opinion. 
 These now exist to some extent, but they are 
 sporadic in character and receive little sys- 
 tematic encouragement from administrative 
 authorities. 
 
 5. Similarly, bodies small and large should 
 be freely created or encouraged among the 
 rank and file of the lower officials of the force 
 of experts for the purpose of being charged 
 with a measure of responsibility for reflection 
 of local expert sentiment, for study of prob- 
 lems, and for final recommendations. These 
 bodies now occasionally exist, but no system- 
 atic policy has been adopted with reference 
 to their organization and functioning. 
 
INDEX 
 
 Administration , educational , 233. 
 Agriculture, 114. 
 Appreciation, education for, 163. 
 
 Butler, President, 242. 
 
 Centralized administration of 
 education, 233. 
 
 Citizenship, education for, 75, 
 103. 
 
 Civic education, 91. 
 
 College education, 67. 
 
 College preparatory studies, 155, 
 162, 177. 
 
 Commercial subjects in upper 
 grades, 143. 
 
 Cooperative education, 225, 
 
 Cooperative vocational educa- 
 tion, 205. 
 
 Correlation in practical arts, 123. 
 
 Custom in education, 24. 
 
 Democracy and education, 20. 
 Democracy, education for, 88. 
 Departmental teaching, 144. 
 Differentiation in upper grade 
 
 work, 130. 
 Division of administrative power, 
 
 246,248. 
 
 Education, new, 1. 
 Education for utilization, 69. 
 Educational administration, 27. 
 Educational flexibility, 21. 
 Educational readjustment, 7. 
 Efficiency in educational ad- 
 ministration, 236. 
 
 Elementary education, 130. 
 
 Elementary school, manual train- 
 ing in, 114. 
 
 English expression, 171. 
 
 Evening vocational education, 
 207. 
 
 Executive ability, education for, 
 164. 
 
 Expert in education, 239. 
 
 Expert service, 28. 
 
 Fitchburg, Mass., 144. 
 Flexibility of elementary curric- 
 ulum, 137. 
 Foreign language, 139. 
 French public schools, 111. 
 
 High School, maladjustment in, 
 
 133 ; two years' course in, 148 ; 
 
 increased attendance in, 134 ; 
 
 program for, 168. 
 High schools, small, 154. 
 History as social science, 173. 
 History in elementary schools, 
 
 108. 
 History, study of, 88 ; scientific 
 
 treatment of, 100. 
 Household arts, 114. 
 Humanities, 76. 
 
 Instinct of teaching, 27. 
 Intermediate high school, 
 
 145. 
 Intermediate schools, 143. 
 
 Language, foreign, 179. 
 Liberal education, 65, 160, 163 ; 
 
262 
 
 INDEX 
 
 program of, 81 ; practical arts 
 in, 113; denned, 115. 
 
 Liberal and vocational educa- 
 tion, 185. 
 
 Literature, English, 169. 
 
 Localized administration of edu- 
 cation, 233. 
 
 Logical order in studies, 48, 119. 
 
 Logical organization of subject- 
 matter, 35. 
 
 Lowell, A. Lawence, 245 (foot- 
 note). 
 
 Manual training, 113. 
 
 Manufacturing industries, voca- 
 tional education for, 193. 
 
 Mathematics, 77. 
 
 Memorization, 25. 
 
 Method, 33 ; hasis of, 54 ; in vo- 
 cational education, 227- 
 
 Methods of teaching, 23. 
 
 " Natural " learning, 39, 48. 
 " Natural " learning capacities, 
 
 165. 
 Nietzsche, cited, 101. 
 
 Part-time vocational education, 
 
 205, 224. 
 Pedagogical order, 43, 119. 
 Pedagogic order in vocational 
 
 education, 220. 
 Practical arts, 113, 140, 152 ; in 
 
 small high schools, 161 ; in 
 
 high schools, 175. 
 Practical work in vocational 
 
 education, 216. 
 Primary teaching, 44. 
 Primary grades, success of, 130. 
 Productive work in vocational 
 
 education, 188. 
 Professional education, 213. 
 
 Program of studies, congestion 
 of, 138. 
 
 " Projects " in practical arts, 
 125. 
 
 Psychology of vocational educa- 
 tion, 211. 
 
 Public school, scope of, 11. 
 
 Retardation, 132, 146. 
 Robinson, J. H., 112. 
 Russell, Dean, ref., 119. 
 
 Sadler, Dr., ref., 250. 
 
 Schools, intermediate, 143. 
 
 Science, 78 ; general, 172 ; so- 
 cial, 173. 
 
 Social economy, 9. 
 
 Social instincts, 104. 
 
 Social science, 173. 
 
 Specialized occupations, educa- 
 tion for, 195. 
 
 State control of education, 
 105. 
 
 Teachers' organization, 254. 
 Technical studies in vocational 
 
 education, 218. 
 Thorndyke, Dr., 154. 
 
 " Unit " of learning, 61. 
 
 Variability in education, 243. 
 
 Vocational education, 65 ; de- 
 fined, 115 ; in small high 
 schools, 175 ; issues in, 183; 
 accepted principles regarding, 
 187 ; for what callings, 192 ; 
 for persons from 14 to 16, 
 196, 221 ; productive work in, 
 201 ; psychology, of 211 ; in the 
 Middle Ages, 213. 
 
 Voluntary organizations, 251. 
 
JUL 2 191a 
 
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