UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA 
 AT LOS ANGELES 
 
 GIFT OF 
 
 Dr . ERIIEST C . MOORE
 
 THE EDUCATION 
 
 OF 
 
 TO-MORROW 
 
 The Adaptation of School Curricula to 
 Economic Democracy 
 
 BY 
 ARLAND D. WEEKS 
 
 FR0FES60B OF BDUCATION, NORTH DAKOTA AGRICULTURAL COLLEGE 
 
 WITH AN INTRODUCTION BY 
 
 M. V. O'SHEA 
 
 PROFESSOR OF EDUCATION, UNIVERSITY OF WISCONSIN 
 
 "Wew ll?orft 
 
 STURGIS & WALTON 
 
 COMPANY 
 
 1913
 
 Copyright 1913 
 By STURGIS & WALTON COMPANY 
 
 Set up and electrotyped. Published April, 1913
 
 LtO 
 
 ... VJ 4 I ^ 
 
 4 
 
 INTRODUCTION 
 
 \ One in touch with educational thought to-day 
 ^ in any progressive country realises that there 
 ^^ is great diversity of opinion regarding the 
 value of the work now being done in the schools. 
 During the past ten years the present writer, 
 in the discharge of certain special duties, has 
 found it necessary to read many hundreds of 
 ^ editorials in the leading newspapers at home 
 fj and abroad regarding contemporary educational 
 5 practices. While in many cases there has been 
 ^ hearty praise of both the curriculum and the 
 methods in the schools of to-day, yet the deep- 
 ^ est impression made by the reading of these 
 ^ editorials has been that there is widespread 
 popular discontent with educational institutions 
 as they are now conducted. The expression of 
 dissatisfaction seems to be more open and ag- 
 gressive in America and in England than else- 
 where; but even in Germany, whose school 
 system has of late been held up to the world 
 as a model, there is developing a vigorous op- 
 position to the traditional regime, in respect 
 
 .^ 
 
 21 5^f^'95
 
 Introduction 
 
 alike to studies and to the methods of present- 
 ing them. 
 
 In our own country, there are many who feel 
 that the whole educational system has lost its 
 anchor, and is drifting upon stormy seas. It 
 is freely claimed by these critics that pupils do 
 not come from the schools to-day as well trained 
 for practical life as were the pupils of half a 
 century ago, when teaching was a more or less 
 haphazard undertaking. It is said that grad- 
 uates of the elementary and the high school 
 are in these times ill-prepared for responsi- 
 bilities of any sort. It is the usual thing to 
 read editorials charging that boys and girls 
 with their diplomas are as a rule inaccurate in 
 tasks requiring precision in thought and action ; 
 and they are said not to be methodical, or 
 faithful, or independent, or effective in any use- 
 ful activity. In short, they are not fitted for 
 the needs of every-day life. 
 
 The schools are condemned again because, as 
 it is claimed, they have introduced subjects 
 which have only temporary, and perhaps little 
 more than sentimental, value. Without at- 
 tempting here to be mathematically precise, it 
 may be said that there is published in every 
 city in this country one or more newspapers 
 which are continually attacking the schools on
 
 Introduction 
 
 account of the ''fads" and the ''frills" which, 
 it is claimed, are being given more attention 
 than the "substantials" in education. One who 
 will take the trouble so to do may in the course 
 of a few weeks read hundreds of editorials 
 upon the "degeneracy" of the elementary 
 schools, since, according to the critics, they 
 have abandoned the thorough teaching of arith- 
 metic, reading, writing, and spelling, and are 
 wasting their energies largely upon the teach- 
 ing of music, drawing, nature study, history, 
 literature, manual training, and domestic 
 science. 
 
 The gradual spread of the elective system 
 in the high schools, colleges, and universities 
 has drawn from a considerable part of the 
 press of this country a spirited and continuous 
 warfare, while it has at the same time won 
 warm support from the majority, perhaps, of 
 our people. The almost complete disappear- 
 ance of Greek, and the gradual elimination of 
 Latin from the high schools, especially in the 
 states west of the Ohio River, are apparently 
 distressing to many persons, if their views are 
 correctly presented through the editorial utter- 
 ances of the daily press and the magazines. It 
 is urged by some that modern studies, — as his- 
 tory, English literature, French, German, com-
 
 Introduction 
 
 merce, science, industrial subjects and the like, 
 — cannot ''strengthen" the "sinews of the 
 mind" as can Latin and Greek. Then, too, 
 there are still among us those devotees of an- 
 cient culture, who feel that modem civilisation 
 is crude and materialistic compared with the 
 glorious civilisation of ancient Greece and 
 Rome ; and one whose mental life is not moulded 
 on the Greek and Roman models cannot be said 
 to be educated in the true sense. 
 
 The distress of the idealists is revealed in 
 a recent expression of a prominent editor, who 
 claims that "educational science regards the 
 development of the inner life as the true course, 
 and yet it is almost entirely neglected in both 
 common school and college. A material edu- 
 cation is the one sought, and though this is 
 against all philosophy, it is kept up by the 
 clatter and clamour of the world's perverted 
 ideals. The energy of the school's purpose is 
 diverted almost wholly to how to make a living, 
 while how to live, which is the greatest quest, 
 is quite neglected." 
 
 The present-day school finds itself between 
 Scylla and Charybdis. Not only is it denounced 
 by those who regard contemporary civilisation 
 as degenerate, — as tending toward the exalta- 
 tion of what is materialistic and sensuous ; it is 
 
 iv
 
 Introduction 
 
 attacked with equal ardour and earnestness by 
 those who feel that it is lagging behind in the 
 progress of civilisation. A considerable pro- 
 portion of the more important and influential 
 newspapers in this country — those which prob- 
 ably reflect prevailing opinion most accurately 
 — are constantly saying that the school as it 
 exists among us is not fully adapted to the 
 needs of the times. It is teaching topics which, 
 if they ever had value, have ceased to possess 
 it to any extent, because of the changed condi- 
 tions in contemporary life. Men everywhere 
 are urging the schools to free themselves from 
 the shackles of tradition, and teach the young 
 those things which will interpret modern life 
 for them, and give them power to put their 
 interpretations into practical operation for 
 their own good and that of their fellows. For 
 instance, teachers are being advised to cease 
 teaching mere exercise problems in arithmetic, 
 and to put in their place problems that relate 
 directly to modern commercial, industrial, agri- 
 cultural, and urban life. Let arithmetic, they 
 say, be curtailed so that room may be made for 
 studies that deal with important matters, as 
 sanitation, nutrition, common diseases, home- 
 making, plant and animal life, city and town 
 government, the methods of corporations, the
 
 Introduction 
 
 danj^ers to our civilisation from political cor- 
 ruption, and so on ad libitum. And tlie modi- 
 fications and abridgment which are being de- 
 manded in respect to arithmetic, are being 
 urged also in regard to grammar, spelling, pen- 
 manship, reading, and geography. 
 
 The present volume should assist our people, 
 whether laymen or teachers, to see more clearly 
 than they have done heretofore the fundamental 
 principles in view of which the problems of 
 studies and of methods of teaching must be 
 solved. Professor Weeks maintains that true 
 knowledge always assists its possessor to ad- 
 just himself to the world in which he lives. 
 It gives him insight into the constitution of 
 some phase of his environment, and skill in 
 adapting himself to it, or in utilising it to min- 
 ister to his needs. The majority of serious 
 students of education throughout the world to- 
 day hold to this as the right view of genuine 
 knowledge, and Professor Weeks is certainly 
 justified in making it the basis of his system 
 of educational values. In an interesting and 
 satisfactory way he has analysed the situations 
 in which the typical individual is placed, which 
 determine the types of knowledge which he 
 must acquire in order that he may successfully 
 solve the problems presented in every-day life.
 
 Introduction 
 
 It seems to the writer that Professor Weeks 
 has made a distinct contribution to contempo- 
 rary educational theory in his lucid discussion 
 of the three sorts of knowledge — productional, 
 distributional, and consumptional — which must 
 be presented in the curricula of the schools in 
 order that the welfare of the individual and of 
 the group may be preserved and promoted. 
 
 There are some people to-day who maintain 
 that the importance of the school in society 
 is immensely overrated. They say that the 
 newspapers, magazines, and similar agencies 
 are of primary importance in disseminating 
 useful knowledge among the people. But any 
 one who will read Part Two of this volume will 
 probably be convinced, even if he approaches 
 the subject as a sceptic, that the school does, 
 and always must, play the all-important role 
 in making knowledge effective in the lives of 
 the rising generation. It is the one institution 
 established by society for the purpose of in- 
 ducting the young into the wisdom accumulated 
 by the race in its efforts to increase the sum 
 total of happiness among men, and to lessen the 
 pains due to lack of understanding of man's 
 environments, social and physical. Professor 
 Weeks recognises the value of numerous agen- 
 cies for the education of the people, but he
 
 Introduction 
 
 very properly makes them singly and collec- 
 tively subservient to the school. It is likely 
 that the majority of people in America will 
 endorse this view; but it would be of distinct 
 advantage in American life if communities 
 everywhere would recognise the supreme im- 
 portance of the school in conserving and im- 
 proving our democratic institutions. 
 
 The writer predicts that no one will read 
 Part Three of this volume without being im- 
 pressed with the necessity of introducing into 
 our school certain types of knowledge which 
 now are not found there at all, or are given 
 but slight attention. The author presents the 
 matter from the right standpoint, for he takes 
 life exactly as it is being lived in typical com- 
 munities, and examines the outcome in physical 
 and social well-being. He finds that people 
 fail to attain many of the things toward which 
 they strive, mainly because of lack of appro- 
 priate knowledge, and he contends that this 
 knowledge should be generally supplied to pu- 
 pils in the schools. 
 
 It cannot be expected that every one who will 
 read this volume will endorse all the views that 
 are presented, because little stress is laid 
 herein upon the so-called culture studies, though 
 they are not excluded from the curricula which
 
 Introduction 
 
 the author proposes. But for the most part it is 
 assumed that if pupils in the schools are given 
 the knowledge which will enable them to adjust 
 themselves effectively to the social and physical 
 situations in which they are placed, they will 
 receive culture in the process. Professor 
 Weeks is certainly in accord with the best 
 thought in America to-day in his position on 
 this question. The older view of culture, as 
 consisting in the learning of ancient languages 
 and histories, has been generally abandoned, 
 as well by those who teach the classics as by 
 those who exalt modern subjects. We are 
 coming to believe that the cultivated man is 
 the one who knows how to handle himself effec- 
 tively in every-day life. He will not offend 
 people, and he will not shirk his responsibility 
 in pulling his own oar. He will not attach value 
 to learning for its own sake. He will praise 
 that sort of information only that can be utilised 
 in some manner in adapting oneself harmo- 
 niously to the people among whom one lives, 
 or in utilising natural forces to serve him and 
 his fellows in their needs. The author has 
 presented this conception of education and of 
 culture in a clear, concrete, and convincing man- 
 ner. 
 In this volume Professor Weeks deals with
 
 Introduction 
 
 very properly makes tliem singly and collec- 
 tively subservient to the school. It is likely 
 that the majority of people in America will 
 endorse this view; but it would be of distinct 
 advantage in American life if communities 
 everywhere would recognise the supreme im- 
 portance of the school in conserving and im- 
 proving our democratic institutions. 
 
 The writer predicts that no one will read 
 Part Three of this volume without being im- 
 pressed with the necessity of introducing into 
 our school certain types of knowledge which 
 now are not found there at all, or are given 
 but slight attention. The author presents the 
 matter from the right standpoint, for he takes 
 life exactly as it is being lived in typical com- 
 munities, and examines the outcome in physical 
 and social well-being. He finds that people 
 fail to attain many of the things toward which 
 they strive, mainly because of lack of appro- 
 priate knowledge, and he contends that this 
 knowledge should be generally supplied to pu- 
 pils in the schools. 
 
 It cannot be expected that every one who will 
 read this volume will endorse all the views that 
 are presented, because little stress is laid 
 herein upon the so-called culture studies, though 
 they are not excluded from the curricula which
 
 Introduction 
 
 the author proposes. But for the most part it is 
 assumed that if pupils in the schools are g-iven 
 the knowledge which will enable them to adjust 
 themselves effectively to the social and physical 
 situations in which they are placed, they will 
 receive culture in the process. Professor 
 Weeks is certainly in accord with the best 
 thought in America to-day in his position on 
 this question. The older view of culture, as 
 consisting in the learning of ancient languages 
 and histories, has been generally abandoned, 
 as well by those who teach the classics as by 
 those who exalt modern subjects. We are 
 coming to believe that the cultivated man is 
 the one who knows how to handle himself effec- 
 tively in every-day life. He will not offend 
 people, and he will not shirk bis responsibility 
 in pulling his own oar. He will not attach value 
 to learning for its own sake. He will praise 
 that sort of information only that can be utilised 
 in some manner in adapting oneself harmo- 
 niously to the people among whom one lives, 
 or in utilising natural forces to serve liim and 
 his fellows in their needs. The author has 
 presented this conception of education and of 
 culture in a clear, concrete, and convincing man- 
 ner. 
 In this volume Professor Weeks deals with
 
 Introduction 
 
 subjects of large and general importance, and 
 he has chosen a style and a vocabulary which 
 are suited to the scope and dignity of his theme. 
 His conception of knowledge and of education 
 is a dynamic one; he has firm convictions re- 
 garding the importance of the problems which 
 he considers, and his style partakes of the 
 vigorous and positive character of his think- 
 ing. The work as a whole should prove of dis- 
 tinct service, not only to educational people, 
 but to laymen who are interested in educational 
 progress and in social improvement. 
 
 M. V. O'Shea. 
 Madison, Wisconsin. 
 January 14th, 1913.
 
 CONTENTS 
 
 PART ONE 
 KINDS OF KNOWLEDGE 
 
 CHAPTEB PAGE 
 
 I The Use of Information 3 
 
 II The Producer's Knowledge 9 
 
 III The Science of Distribution 20 
 
 IV Knowing How to Consitme 35 
 
 PART TWO 
 THE DIFFUSION OF KNOWLEDGE 
 
 V They Say 61 
 
 VI Printers' Ink 57 
 
 VII The Specialist 69 
 
 VIII The Fiest Teacheb 78 
 
 IX Other Agencies 86 
 
 X The School 104 
 
 PART THREE 
 
 THE MAKING OF THE CUmilCULUM 
 
 XI The Curriculum and Democracy 125 
 
 Xn Knowledge Values 135 
 
 XIII Some Places Where Knowledge is Needed . . 168 
 
 XIV A Democratised Cubbiculum: 202 
 
 XV Iif Conclusion 217
 
 PAET ONE 
 KINDS OF KNOWLEDGE
 
 Some considerations regarding the nature 
 and function of knowledge, the main relations 
 of life in which knowledge is of use, the 
 agencies for the diffusion of knowledge, espe- 
 cially the school, and the conditions under 
 which the movement for social welfare and 
 democracy may be promoted through the cur- 
 riculum are offered in the following pages.
 
 THE EDUCATION OF 
 TO-MORROW 
 
 I 
 
 The Use of Information 
 
 Imagine a person deprived of his stock of 
 knowledge. His nature would propel him along 
 purely instinctive lines, but in each situation 
 in which he found himself he would suffer se- 
 riously for lack of consciousness of past expe- 
 rience. The instinct of sociability might draw 
 him toward a fireside group, but he would 
 know neither how to act with reference to 
 others nor how to protect himself from the dan- 
 gers of fire. Were he to cross a railroad track 
 the instinct of curiosity would likely hold him 
 on the rails till run down by the train. De- 
 prived of his former experience with railroads 
 and the knowledge gained from others' expe- 
 rience with railroads, our hypothetical person 
 would no doubt fall an early victim to the dan- 
 gers of the railroad crossing. 
 
 3
 
 The Education of To-morrow 
 
 Similarly with a multitude of situations re- 
 quiring adjustments on the part of the indi- 
 vidual. The mental picture of a former 
 situation and its results leads to the avoidance 
 or the repetition of the original experience. 
 The more knowledge one has of former expe- 
 riences the better able is he to choose wisely 
 among new situations that present themselves. 
 Deprived of images, which are virtually a 
 photographic collection for reference purposes, 
 the individual would forever be debating the 
 wisdom of alternatives and exposed at every 
 turn to the disasters of unwise choices. No 
 evolutionary attainment of the organism is 
 comparable to the mental process which effects 
 a restoration of the past for purposes of guid- 
 ance as to future movements and decisions. 
 
 Knowledge enables one to meet the require- 
 ments of environment, while lack of it involves 
 maladjustment entailing unnecessary friction, 
 waste, loss and suffering and in extreme cases 
 death. Knowledge vastly conserves effort and 
 directs energies aright. Eepresenting as it 
 does the significant experience one himself has 
 had as well as the experience of the race so far 
 as assimilated through the processes of learn- 
 ing, one's knowledge saves from numberless 
 hazards and points the way to economies and 
 
 4
 
 The Use of Information 
 
 system in relation to environment. Knowledge 
 sets the screws of adjustment, enablijig the or- 
 ganism to accommodate itself to variations. 
 It warns by citing appropriate examples from 
 the past. Its function is to promote cor- 
 respondence between organism and environ- 
 ment. 
 
 Since the function of knowledge is to artic- 
 ulate the individual with his environment, it is 
 evident that what is valuable knowledge to one 
 may be worthless knowledge to another, except 
 so far as all individuals have needs in common. 
 It will not do to pass upon this or that quantum 
 of knowledge absolutely. The values of knowl- 
 edge are ever relative to the individual him- 
 self. 
 
 The question of the functional value of knowl- 
 edge is, then, largely a personal one. Is Greek 
 a valuable knowledge? It was to individual 
 Greeks in Greece. It is less so to the Greek in 
 America who sells fruit to Americans. To the 
 American? That depends. But the question 
 must be discussed always with reference to par- 
 ticular individuals or classes having needs in 
 common. 
 
 To evaluate knowledge for the individual re- 
 quires acquaintance with the relations which he 
 will sustain to his environment. What will he 
 
 5
 
 The Education of To-morrow 
 
 do during the rest of his life? Where will 
 he live? A polar explorer would perish on the 
 knowledge that would keep alive a traveller in 
 Africa. Will he marry and have children? 
 Does his health require special attention? 
 What are his interests? 
 
 But these questions cannot all be answered, 
 even by the person himself. Regardless of in- 
 tentions and plans the individual always to 
 some extent finds that his expected environ- 
 ment presents surprises. New needs arise. 
 Changes come unbidden. The expected career 
 is dislocated and vicissitudes multiply. We 
 have not only the individual, with his expecta- 
 tions and traits, to deal with, but animate and 
 inanimate nature, and a fluid social environ- 
 ment. Collision and contact with a complex 
 environment precipitate difficulties, and hour 
 by hour maladjustments threaten. Evidently 
 no one can foresee all the relations of life for 
 which articulatory knowledge will be required. 
 Yet correspondence with environment, life it- 
 self, depends upon the presence of knowledge 
 at points of need. 
 
 Admitting the difficulty of supplying the in- 
 dividual with knowledge which will avail at 
 every point of need, there can be no question 
 as to the superlative importance of equipping 
 
 6
 
 The Use of Information 
 
 him with that approximating his needs as nearly 
 as possible. 
 
 One should be supplied with knowledge for 
 at least the more frequent exigencies. The 
 function of knowledge is peculiarly well illus- 
 trated in the physician's prescription. He 
 brings experience to bear upon a maladjust- 
 ment, and disease is diagnosed and a remedy 
 applied. One's stock of knowledge should as 
 far as possible enable him to protect himself 
 against maladjustment, real or threatened. In 
 fact, to live is to keep oneself in conformity 
 with the requirements of one's surroundings, 
 and the highest wisdom is to know how to do it. 
 Of this knowledge one cannot possess too much, 
 and of it he should possess all that is possible. 
 Education should supply knowledge of maximal 
 value in effecting the articulation between or- 
 ganism and environment. 
 
 Grant that with the fullest and most careful 
 pro\dsion of knowledge there would exist rela- 
 tions for which one's supply of knowledge 
 would be insufficient, and many of such exist. 
 Yet may not the fundamental relations be sin- 
 gled out and utilised as principles for the organ- 
 isation and inculcation of information? A can- 
 vass of the fundamental relations which people 
 most frequently and seriously sustain to their 
 
 7
 
 The Education of To-morrow 
 
 environments suggests itself. The next step in 
 the efficiency of the educative process is a study 
 of special relations and needs, and the formula- 
 tion and impartation of knowledge specifically 
 adapted to promote adjustment. Fundamental 
 principles governing the values of knowledge, 
 and surveys reporting the dominant needs, 
 from which the principles may be derived, are 
 indispensable for a rational system of instruc- 
 tion. There is need of standards for the evalu- 
 ation of knowledge based upon its importance 
 in adjustment. 
 
 As a step toward determining what classes 
 of facts have most value and most deserve im- 
 partation, it seems desirable to note the major 
 social relations of the individual, especially 
 as illustrated in economic situations. Some 
 knowledge values may fall outside of economic 
 category, but an attempt may be warranted to 
 classify knowledge and appraise its values 
 from the standpoint of the three fundamental 
 social processes of Production, Distribution 
 and Consumption. 
 
 8
 
 n 
 
 The Peoducer's Knowledge 
 
 The production of wealth lies at the basis of 
 social organisation and individual well-being. 
 Civilisation advances only as supported by ade- 
 quate wealth production. The slums of city 
 and country exist largely by reason of insuffi- 
 cient wealth on which to base the higher attain- 
 ments. The production of wealth, implying 
 participation in its production and the presence 
 of the product, is fundamental in social im- 
 portance. 
 
 In view of the basal nature of production we 
 should expect to find an extensive knowledge 
 associated with wealth-producing processes. 
 And indeed there is an enormous body of facts 
 grouped about the various arts concerned with 
 production. Productional knowledge is scat- 
 tered everywhere throughout society. Wher- 
 ever values are created by primary processes 
 there may be distinguished the tji^e of past ex- 
 perience to which the world owes its steady 
 accumulation of useful commodities. The 
 
 9
 
 The Education of To-morrow 
 
 farmer, weaver, butcher, blacksmith, miner, 
 bookbinder and fisherman each represent a 
 special art based upon and concerned with 
 more or less extensive bodies of knowledge. In 
 some cases this knowledge is of the merest sort, 
 a thin empiricism barely sufficient for the ordi- 
 nary needs of the calling and failing in times 
 of exigency. In other cases the empirical be- 
 ginnings of the science related to the art have 
 been broadened out by successive generations 
 of workers and elevated by scholars into im- 
 posing sciences. 
 
 Knowledge related to the elementary arts 
 consists largely in observations of the be- 
 haviour of materials and experience in dealing 
 with them. Many workers can hardly be said 
 even to possess knowledge touching their em- 
 ployments. Learning the processes by imita- 
 tion and continuing by habit, it is possible for 
 the wealth producer to illustrate automatism 
 rather than active intelligence. Conscious ap- 
 preciation of the truths involved in produc- 
 tional processes might, however, be regarded 
 as an ideal. 
 
 In the building up of a science from its em- 
 pirical beginnings quantities of experience not 
 closely associated with production may be in- 
 corporated. There arises a bulk of knowledge, 
 
 10
 
 The Producer's Knowledge 
 
 within itself representing all grades of rele- 
 vancy to the productional art. In the grading 
 of knowledge for instructional purposes there 
 must always be discrimination between that 
 which is essential to production and that which 
 is speculatively or logically a part of the ex- 
 tended science. The most practical science, in 
 origin and general purpose, may become hyper- 
 organised and attenuated beyond evident ap- 
 plicability to the processes of wealth produc- 
 tion. 
 
 Not only the arts of the miner, fisherman, 
 and weaver constitute the activities of produc- 
 tion. Values are created by the transportation 
 of commodities, physically, and by their legal 
 transference. The boatman, the express com- 
 pany, the banker and the attorney participate 
 in wealth production in a real though secondary 
 way. Declarations that all wealth comes from 
 the soil or that the farmer is the only producer 
 overstate the case against the secondary pro- 
 ducers, — who not infrequently absorb a pri- 
 mary portion of the final value. 
 
 Most important of all are the services of 
 those who contribute fertilising ideas at any 
 point along the route of production. Inventors, 
 whether of machines or methods, be they steam 
 engines, card index systems or savings banks, 
 
 11
 
 The Education of To-morrow 
 
 supply an invaluable element in the produe- 
 tional process, and are exponents of forms of 
 productional knowledge of the greatest signifi- 
 cance. 
 
 The legislator, who promotes measures for 
 the control of weeds or the safety of wealth 
 when produced; the policeman, who chases 
 burglars; and the teacher, who dispenses pro- 
 ductional information to pupils, alike assist in 
 the creation of goods. In fact nearly all occu- 
 pations have originated in production, and most 
 occupations are still concerned with it directly. 
 Many occupations, however, have become 
 quasi parasitical, and indeed few of the occu- 
 pations of secondary production have not de- 
 veloped a partial parasitism, but the concern 
 that declares 100% dividends and cuts a 
 "melon" betimes for the stockholders, the ur- 
 ban plutocrat, and the attorney whose fee for a 
 single case exceeds the life earnings of a dozen 
 average producers advance the production of 
 wealth, though it may be from only a single 
 point of usefulness surrounded by a vast pe- 
 numbra of parasitism. The productional func- 
 tion of kings was undoubted when they fought 
 off invaders while the primary producers went 
 about their business unmolested. Generally 
 speaking, every occupation is the centre around 
 
 12
 
 The Producer's Knotvledge 
 
 which an amount of productional knowledge is 
 organised. 
 
 Every form of useful toil and all serviceable 
 emplojTnents rest upon special types of knowl- 
 edge. Every person, so far as he is a producer, 
 employs knowledge peculiar to wealth creation. 
 Non-producing individuals, or parasites, even 
 if possessing productional knowledge, make no 
 use of it, and rarely have an extensive acquaint- 
 ance with such. Workers of the lowest grades, 
 the unskilled, are notable for their lack of pro- 
 ductional information. Factory routine is in- 
 consistent with the possession of an ample 
 amount of broader productional knowledge, 
 and the operative presents a sorry appearance 
 when detached from the niche in factory serv- 
 ice, by which he has become limited through 
 years of labor. There is an intimate relation 
 between the kind and extent of one's produc- 
 tional knowledge and his value to society, his 
 social status and his profit-taking advantages. 
 The ranking and position of millions of wage 
 earners and the directors of industrial enter- 
 prises are determined largely by the informa- 
 tion possessed as to processes. 
 
 The mine operator knows much about the 
 possibilities of mining not known to the man at 
 the mouth of the shaft. The lumber expert by 
 
 13
 
 The Education of To-morrow 
 
 applying high forms of productional knowledge 
 assumes a position of immense superiority over 
 the chopper. Each producer is equipped with a 
 measure of productional knowledge sufficing to 
 put him in at least partial adjustment to the 
 wide social fact of production. To perfect 
 one's industrial adjustment, to prepare for the 
 ideal relation to productivity, and to achieve a 
 larger measure of opportunity and equality 
 with others in dealing with the forces and ma- 
 terials which produce wealth would, however, 
 require a far more general diffusion of the ma- 
 jor facts underlying all wealth production and 
 a laying bare of much esoteric information now 
 closely guarded. 
 
 Productional knowledge is of all forms of 
 knowledge most readily appraised. Of what 
 value is knowledge of how to kill buffaloes or 
 make coats of mail? Inasmuch as such knowl- 
 edge could not be marketed, it is evident that 
 its value, as related to the production of values, 
 would be zero. It might have other than pro- 
 ductional values, but with such we are not now 
 concerned. The dollar is the test of the im- 
 portance of the knowledge of production. 
 That knowledge which enables one to do things 
 that pay, in money, and make things that sell 
 
 14
 
 The Producer's Knowledge 
 
 has a legitimate claim to classification as pro- 
 ductional. 
 
 It would be an error to evaluate all knowl- 
 edge as we here evaluate productional knowl- 
 edge. There are other veiy important types 
 of knowledge whose values are not commen- 
 surable with the money unit. But in the case 
 of the type of knowledge under consideration 
 there is the satisfying feature of definite meas- 
 urement in unmistakable terms. It is perfectly 
 proper to declare such and such knowledge 
 worthless or of slight value, when speaking of 
 the individual's relation to the productional 
 feature of his environment. To the extent to 
 which productional knowledge enters into the 
 ideal mental equipment we may know with fair 
 certainty the value of many facts one learns. 
 What these values are for particular facts 
 must be determined in particular cases. As 
 the judge applies principles of law to new sets 
 of facts, so in the process of instruction the 
 money test is to be applied to productional 
 knowledge. The man who would apply the 
 money test to all types of knowledge is not more 
 extreme than the one who would entirely spurn 
 the money test. 
 
 Productional knowledge enables one to come 
 15
 
 The Education of TtMrnomm 
 
 into smiable adjustment witii the pihase of his 
 environment eonsisting of the arts and oeeopa- 
 tions whose pnrpose is the creation of wealth by 
 the application of labor and intelligence to ma- 
 terials which nature affords. And, one should 
 add, the creation of real as contrasted with 
 fictitions valnes. The finesse which raises the 
 price of a vacant lot to an absnrd level or forces 
 np the price of farm lands beyond that war- 
 ranted by what they will prodnce is distinctly 
 a spurions wealth prodnction resting on knowl- 
 edge that has no claim to be classe^l with the 
 sciences of production. 
 
 The possession of prodnctional knowledge of 
 primary nature may be tested by what one can 
 do, what he can make, what occupations he is 
 master of, and, in many cases, by the ease with 
 which he secnres gainful employment. The 
 last test, is, however, an illiisive one, as history 
 affords examples of real producers starving 
 and nnemployed while those possessing little or 
 no prodnctional knowledge, bnt rather profit- 
 ing by a different type of knowledge, luxnriated 
 in the goods prodnced by those who alone knew 
 well how to prodnce. 
 
 The feeling of helplessness which the college 
 graduate sometimes experiences when his insti- 
 tntional education is completed and he is abont 
 
 16
 
 The Producer's Knozcledge 
 
 to plunge into the activities of mature years 
 often represents a pancity of prodnctional 
 facts, though such feeling of helplessness may 
 coexist with a fair supply of the elementary 
 knowledge of production, as how to hoe com 
 or feed sheep. Many a person feels the hollow 
 sham of a life poorly adjusted to prodnctional 
 arts. Only by extensive class training may one 
 subdue the instinctive demand for that knowl- 
 edge which enables one to produce. The deep- 
 est needs of human nature are honoured in learn- 
 ing how to make things and fabricate crude 
 materials into tools and further products. 
 This knowledge exists in the consciousness of 
 multitudes of workers, in many cases never hav- 
 ing been committed to print; in the nooks and 
 comers of labour ; in books and technical publi- 
 cations; and scattered thinly throughout liter- 
 ature; for example, the "parable of the sower" 
 is a lesson in farming. The conventional 
 studies of the schools, as the three K's, eon- 
 tribute in some degree to the fund of prodnc- 
 tional information. The carpenter employs 
 reading, writing and arithmetic when he notes 
 descriptions and sets down calculations for the 
 building of a table or chair. The prodnctional 
 value of knowledge seemingly unrelated to pro- 
 duction is suggested when one calls to mind 
 
 17
 
 The Education of To-morrow 
 
 that the chair by common consent the most ad- 
 mirable was produced by a poet and a dreamer 
 — the Morris chair. 
 
 The natural sciences embody large amounts 
 of the knowledge of production, and their prog- 
 ress is synchronous with the increase of the 
 world's wealth. A distinction is possible, how- 
 ever, in the productional and the non-produc- 
 tional content of the various sciences, as phys- 
 ics, biology, chemistry and geology. In the 
 main production has looked to science and sci- 
 ence has aimed to assist production. 
 
 Productional values appear in all the sci- 
 ences dealing with man, as sociology, physi- 
 ology, psychology and medicine. In Cuban 
 cigar factories readers are said to be employed 
 to read to the cigar makers as they work, evi- 
 dently the result being not unfavourable to the 
 output. The poet who inspires men with ambi- 
 tion resulting in increased activity, or the mu- 
 sician who invigorates to determined effort 
 conduces as truly to the wealth total as the 
 most energetic captain of industry. Literature 
 and art are not to be overlooked in tracing the 
 knowledge which affects the stream of wealth. 
 One may easily undervalue the contributions of 
 the less evidently productional types of knowl- 
 
 18
 
 The Producer's KTWtvledge 
 
 edge, and, while properly laying stress upon the 
 fact that directly functions for wealth, err in 
 denying productional values to the more ab- 
 stract mental products. 
 
 19
 
 in 
 
 The Science of Distribution 
 
 Wealth once produced is distributed among 
 the individuals comprising society. Produc- 
 tion is the first step, distribution the second. 
 If one could imagine a state in which production 
 occurred without social effort and in which 
 every one enjoyed exactly what he produced, 
 there would be no elaborate social process of 
 distribution giving rise to a peculiar type of 
 knowledge. Modem production requires the 
 concerted efforts of many individuals, and 
 rarely does the producer see before him the 
 completed article, or have tangible evidence of 
 the exact degree to which he has contributed to 
 the values of manufactured goods. Even the 
 most solitary savage, making his bow and ar- 
 rows in the seclusion of a hidden cave, could 
 hardly be said to have produced these without 
 social assistance, if not in the gathering of the 
 materials, at least in obtaining the ideas con- 
 trolling their manufacture ; and certainly when 
 
 20
 
 The Science of Distribution 
 
 produced these implements were of social 
 service. The credit for the production of even 
 the simplest article of wealth is diffused among 
 numbers of people, and no one can say he is 
 the sole producer concerned. The privilege of 
 sharing in the value created by many is ac- 
 cordingly asserted by many, and the stream of 
 wealth is tapped at many points by rule of 
 law, custom, and agreement as well as by fraud, 
 strategy and imposition. Property has a so- 
 cial origin and a social destination. 
 
 A complex social mechanism for the inter- 
 change of commodities has been developed along 
 with socialised production. The man who 
 raises more wheat than he can use makes use 
 of the social machinery for the interchange of 
 goods when he sells his excess wheat and buys 
 in turn coffee or nails. Ships, freight cars and 
 banks are called into existence because of the 
 need of the primary producer to exchange his 
 goods for the products of others. Transpor- 
 tation and banking are activities not less im- 
 portant than those represented by mines and 
 farms. The producer must of necessity rely 
 upon the activities of others for transportation 
 and allied services. It is to be noted, however, 
 that in the losing hold of his goods, as he must, 
 the producer is exposed to evils, especially that 
 
 21
 
 The Education of To-morrow 
 
 of not securing in return for his goods their 
 fair equivalent. 
 
 The importance of suitable adjustment to dis- 
 tribution, of adequate participation in what has 
 been produced, is greater than that of adjust- 
 ment to mere production. One must be in ad- 
 justment with the social process of distribution, 
 he must share in the product, or he perishes. 
 One can live without being a producer, but 
 share in distribution he must. Maladjustment 
 at this point is beggary or death. 
 
 Adjustment to the distributional phase of 
 one 's environment is effected by the application 
 of a type of knowledge radically different from 
 that concerned with production. Indeed one 
 may be adept as a producer and so inept in dis- 
 tributional knowledge that his existence is 
 threatened. Consider the skilled slave as an 
 example, or the peasant. Possessing fair pro- 
 ductional knowledge, these suffer exploitation 
 because of lack of the type of knowledge which 
 functions in distribution. The peasant, the 
 slave, and expropriated workers, ancient and 
 modern, represent knowledge of how to produce 
 but lack of knowledge as efficient distributees. 
 On the other hand, versed in distributional 
 knowledge, individuals may substitute them- 
 selves in the place of deserving producers and 
 
 22
 
 The Science of Distribution 
 
 maintaiii themselves in advantageous adjust- 
 ment to wealth. 
 
 Knowledge makes the difference between the 
 effective producer and the individual incapable 
 of production, and likewise special knowledge 
 distinguishes the efficient distributee from the 
 inefficient distributee. It has been the fortune 
 of humanity that distributional knowledge 
 should have been often restricted to classes, 
 while in turn productional knowledge has also 
 been a class possession. But since to share in 
 wealth is vastly more advantageous than merely 
 to produce, the classes characterised by distri- 
 butional knowledge have uniformly fattened and 
 developed while the highly deserving producer 
 has historically gone scantily fed and poorly 
 clad. It avails little that one be an efficient 
 producer unless he be qualified as a distribu- 
 tee. To qualify as such he must acquire a 
 special type of knowledge. 
 
 This t}i)e of knowledge or experience is that 
 which makes one a successful taker of wealth as 
 distinguished from that which enables one to be 
 a successful maker or producer. It is that 
 which functions in the securing of advantageous 
 prices for labour or commodities, incomes, sal- 
 aries, revenues and grants. This iyj>Q of ex- 
 perience is associated with the taking of profits, 
 
 23
 
 The Education of To-morrow 
 
 whether competitive or monopoly profits, rents 
 and interest. The doctrines built up with ref- 
 erence to the descent of property by inheritance 
 are an important phase of distributional knowl- 
 edge and inure to the benefit of the classes who 
 already possess wealth. The network of laws 
 guiding the destination of wealth, and govern- 
 mental methods, are a part of the body of dis- 
 tributional knowledge. 
 
 A peculiarity of distributional knowledge is 
 its traditional character. The sanctity of age 
 attaches to the customs, laws and constitutions 
 embodying the maxims and experiences form- 
 ing the property code. This type of knowledge 
 functions for the benefit of individuals often 
 without activity on their part. Long estab- 
 lished distributional experience makes the 
 casual heir or the scion of privilege its ben- 
 eficiary without initiative on his part. The 
 king, the nobility, the aristocracy, the law- 
 makers and men at points of economic strategy 
 throughout society continue the practices of 
 successful distributees of the past, impress upon 
 society the rules under which distribution has 
 heretofore taken place, and upon occasion re- 
 adjust the rules for their advantage. 
 
 Thus it has come about that there is no fiuxed 
 relation between one's productional efficiency 
 
 24
 
 The Science of Distribution 
 
 and his efficiency as a taker or distributee. In 
 many cases the eminent producer is the eminent 
 taker. In a multitude of instances, on the other 
 hand, the individual receives only enough, un- 
 der the law of wages, to enable his continued 
 production, regardless of the extent to which 
 he contributes to the total of wealth production. 
 Wages bear no fixed relation to the profits of 
 a business. In fact the separation of produc- 
 tion from distribution is evidenced by the ab- 
 sence of any attempt to appraise exactly what 
 each producer really adds to the total of wealth. 
 The parasite, complete or partial, may accord- 
 ingly take more wealth than efficient producers. 
 Distributional efficiency implies a good knowl- 
 edge of popular psychology. A recent writer ^ 
 notes the surpassing skill with which upper 
 class Englishmen assert their claims to privi- 
 lege by the merest shading of behaviour and sub- 
 tle revelations of expectations of deference. 
 A delicate effulgence of personality compelling 
 subjugation is one of the priceless inheritances 
 of wealth-taking classes. The momentum ac- 
 quired at an earlier time by means of preten- 
 tious establishments suffices to compel a respect, 
 in non-democratic countries at least, conducing 
 to perquisites and distinct allowances from the 
 
 1 Collier, Price: "England and the English." 
 25
 
 The Education of To-morrow 
 
 social wealth. Even in America, courts in 
 passing upon the validity of contracts to which 
 wealthy infants are a party and in determining 
 the sufficiency of allowances for minors and 
 others recognise the former state of the individ- 
 ual and his accustomed scale of living as guid- 
 ing principles. A nobleman arrested in 
 Chicago for vagrancy made what was his- 
 torically a legitimate plea when he argued that 
 being a nobleman he was exempt from work. 
 
 Long experience has taught successful dis- 
 tributees the value of show, trappings, elabor- 
 ate garb, ceremony, hauteur and conventional 
 sanctions as related to the facility with which 
 incomes may be enjoyed and adjustment to the 
 social process of distribution maintained. Such 
 experience has crystallised into quasi esoteric 
 knowledge distinguishing eminent takers. 
 
 Under modem conditions the most efficient 
 distributional knowledge is perhaps that func- 
 tioning in the operation of trusts and monop- 
 olies. The organisation and inwardness of 
 great corporations have been relatively obscure 
 to the general public while inuring to colossal 
 fortunes of small numbers. Even when trust 
 organisation is understood in outline by the 
 rank and file of producers, ignorance of how to 
 proceed to correct and equalise the flow of so- 
 
 26
 
 The Science of Distribution 
 
 cial wealth leaves the distributional experts, the 
 trust promoters and their attorneys, in prac- 
 tically undisturbed possession. 
 
 In the ordinary pursuits of a complex society 
 many illustrations of the critical nature of 
 special distributional knowledge will occur to 
 one. The banker represents a type of knowl- 
 edge which brings almost certain rewards often 
 quite in disproportion to services rendered. 
 He is the beneficiary of occupational expe- 
 riences and an expert in applying a type of 
 knowledge to income purposes. The middle- 
 man, while performing a legitimate function un- 
 der present conditions, would find his occupa- 
 tion gone did the primary producers command 
 sufficient distributional knowledge, did pro- 
 ducers know how to organise. Milk producers, 
 to whom by any fair appraisal of services and 
 risks should be allowed a major share of the 
 price to the consumer, receive quite commonly 
 in the cities some two cents to the middleman's 
 eight cents of the ten cents paid by the con- 
 sumer. This discrepancy registers the igno- 
 rance of distributional knowledge on the part of 
 the milk producer and its possession by the 
 middleman. Inability to get one's price meas- 
 ures his ignorance of the knowledge of distribu- 
 tion, or the ignorance of the class to which he 
 
 27
 
 Tlie Education of To-morrow 
 
 belongs and by whose ignorance he is bound. 
 There can be little question as to the contribu- 
 tions to the wealth total made respectively by 
 a competent president of a great state univer- 
 sity and a supreme court judge in the state of 
 New York. Each, inheriting the results of dis- 
 tributional knowledge associated with the law 
 or with teaching, profits as judge or suffers as 
 academician to the extent of thousands of dol- 
 lars a year by comparison, regardless of their 
 contributions to production. The attorney who 
 affixes a large red seal, made unnecessary by 
 statute, because his client will more willingly 
 pay a sizable fee for an impressive document, 
 is an example of a type of exploitative func- 
 tionary. Eake-offs, undue profits, excessive 
 fees, and trade tricks, collateral oftentimes with 
 legitimate services and values, attest the dis- 
 junction of the producer's and the distributee's 
 knowledge and prove the peculiar advantages of 
 the latter. 
 
 Poverty may be caused either by lack of pro- 
 ductional knowledge or the lack of the knowl- 
 edge of distribution. Frequently it is the lat- 
 ter. To know how to produce is not enough. 
 One must enter into the special knowledge 
 which qualifies for participating in the division 
 of values if he is to avoid poverty. 
 
 28
 
 The Science of Distribution 
 
 Inasmuch as all the rules and practices of 
 distribution rest ultimately upon government, 
 existing by authorisation of law or tacit permis- 
 sion of lawmaking bodies, the test of qualifica- 
 tions with reference to the knowledge of 
 distribution may fairly be said to be one 's civic 
 enlightenment. Knowledge of how to vote me- 
 chanically is now universal, but knowing how 
 to produce desired effects by use of the ballot 
 is in its infancy. The election of false leaders, 
 the lack of control over leaders once chosen by 
 ballot, the indirectness of expression of opin- 
 ion by the personal ballot, and the indifference 
 which prevails as to legislation in progress 
 alike attest a widespread ignorance of the re- 
 lation of government to distribution and general 
 welfare. 
 
 Indeed so undeveloped is the faculty con- 
 cerned with the central means of control over 
 distribution, government, that in large num- 
 bers of instances, involving hundreds of thou- 
 sands of voters, the strike is preferred to the 
 effective means of correcting faulty distribu- 
 tion, that of governmental action. The indi- 
 vidual or class suffering maladjustment to 
 environment expressed in terms of income 
 should strike, not blindly or violently as so 
 commonly occurs, but rather by means of special 
 
 29
 
 The Education of To-morrow 
 
 knowledge applied through political channels to 
 the general mechanism of distribution, the faults 
 of which they seek to correct. To strike at the 
 polls would evince a higher degree of economic 
 insight, inasmuch as laws and customs amend- 
 able by law, comprise the code regulating the 
 apportionment of wealth. 
 
 Enormous wealth centralised in few hands, 
 concomitant with extreme poverty as seen in 
 slums comprising half a city^s population; 
 vast sums bestowed at the caprice of owners in 
 the disposition of which the public has no voice ; 
 the expropriation of great numbers, and swol- 
 len fortunes; the intrusion of the agents of 
 wealth in legislatures, courts, and the press; 
 the testimony of probate courts showing the 
 small minority leaving estates of any value ; the 
 increasing amount of tenancy in city dwellings 
 and upon farms; the reduction of great num- 
 bers to profitless salaried and wage positions — 
 these are evidences of ignorance among pro- 
 ducers with reference to the knowledge func- 
 tioning for distribution. 
 
 Distributional knowledge in part is knowl- 
 edge of law and how to effect changes in the 
 laws. It includes knowing how to organise 
 bodies, how to conduct meetings, how to make 
 parliamentary motions, how to draw bills, and 
 
 30
 
 The Science of Distribution 
 
 to direct legislation. Economic history, soci- 
 ology, civic and political science, psychology, 
 economic histoiy and theories, constitutional 
 law, comparative legislation, and jurispru- 
 dence represent this type of knowledge. A 
 very large body of knowledge essential in the 
 distributional relationship is that to be de- 
 rived from the inner workings of concerns and 
 offices indentified with large incomes. The 
 gazetting of the actual incomes received by 
 various distributees and more exact knowledge 
 of how incomes are actually secured, by what 
 services rendered, would tend to democratise 
 society in economic relations. At present the 
 incomes of the public employe, the teacher and 
 the postal clerk, are listed for general perusal, 
 whereas the incomes, large or small, of num- 
 bers, drawn likewise from the total of social 
 wealth, are unknown even to the tax assessor. 
 The revelations as to income which would fol- 
 low an income tax would form no unimportant 
 part of the information needed to equip the 
 public for dealing with the question of distri- 
 bution. 
 
 The knowledge of distribution would be im- 
 perfect indeed if it failed to include any science 
 that might be organised as to the reasonable- 
 ness of unequal incomes. So far as possible, 
 
 31
 
 The Education of To-morrow 
 
 principles consistent with a high level of pro- 
 duction and general welfare should be formu- 
 lated regulating the flow of wealth to indi- 
 viduals and providing for such inequalities of 
 income as social welfare demands. However 
 incomplete such a formulation might be, it 
 could not be less acceptable than a traditional 
 code that directs a lordly current of income to 
 an immured imbecile, commands the efforts of 
 thousands of underpaid department store girls 
 in behalf of a brace of adolescents, and sur- 
 prises collateral heirs with the riches of a de- 
 cedent who was but faintly aware of their ex- 
 istence. 
 
 The importance of distributional knowledge 
 is proved by the appointment of a country life 
 commission by President Roosevelt, the pur- 
 pose of which was to inquire into the rea- 
 sons for the low standard of living and relative 
 submergence of the American farmer, repre- 
 senting over one-third of the national popula- 
 tion. Here is a class of primary producers, 
 never charged with lack of industry or avoid- 
 ance of hardship, at such economic disadvan- 
 tage that their condition becomes the concern 
 of publicists. While the farmer was found to 
 lack to some extent in productional knowledge, 
 
 32
 
 The Science of Distribution 
 
 it was clear that he chiefly lacked in making 
 himself felt as entitled to distribution. Prices 
 both upon what he sells and what he buys have 
 been set for him by others, naturally to his dis- 
 advantage. Only civic and political insight 
 can avail to lift him from semi-serfdom, unless 
 he be lifted through the charitable efforts of 
 those who identify his prosperity with their af- 
 fluence. 
 
 A test of one's productional knowledge was 
 found to be what one can make, what goods he 
 can prepare for use, what he can do to increase 
 the world's supply of commodities. A test of 
 one's distributional knowledge, or a test of 
 that of the class with which one is identified, is 
 rather how much one's income is, how much 
 wealth he receives, how much he possesses. 
 Rarely indeed would the amount received ex- 
 actly measure the amount produced, while dis- 
 crepancies would be the rule. 
 
 It is not to be inferred that knowledge of 
 both production and distribution are not found 
 in the same individual. Fortunately this is 
 very often the case, indeed almost ine\'itable. 
 The knowledge of the expert bank burglar, as 
 such, is that of distribution, and his whole 
 career might illustrate complete exemption 
 
 33
 
 The Education of To-morrow 
 
 from production. The slave, on the other hand, 
 would exemplify production only. Between 
 such extremes the various classes represent the 
 active employment of the two types of know- 
 ledge in differing combinations. 
 
 34
 
 IV 
 
 Knowing How To Consume 
 
 Speciaij types of knowledge are organised, as 
 we have seen, about the social processes of 
 production and distribution. To a remarkable 
 degree the knowledge which exists under the 
 various sciences may be referred to economic 
 processes. Let us pursue the classification of 
 knowledge by economic principles still further 
 and try to discover whether or not there is a 
 fairly well-defined group of experiences pre- 
 served as conscious knowledge related to the 
 final link in the economic chain, consumption. 
 Any individual sustains a multitude of special 
 relations to his environment, but perhaps prac- 
 tically all these many relations may be referred 
 to one or another of the three economic cate- 
 gories. Do not production, distribution and 
 consumption comprise all one's relations, es- 
 pecially if by consumption we understand the 
 individual's relations to all that may be en- 
 joyed, appreciated and made use of? If we in- 
 clude as consumptional knowledge that which 
 
 35
 
 The Education of To-morrow 
 
 tends to maintain the consumer in fit physical 
 and mental condition for the consumptional re- 
 lation to environment, there seems little chance 
 of error in applying economic terms in the 
 classification of experiences. 
 
 Wealth is produced, is distributed according 
 to social experience or knowledge, and the 
 knowledge underlying skill as individual 
 takers, and passes to its final stage in consump- 
 tion. It is obvious that efficient consumers 
 must employ an extensive amount of knowl- 
 edge in the supreme relation of use. The use 
 of things produced surely must imply the ap- 
 plication of a multitude of past experiences 
 existing as organised sciences or as informal 
 information. 
 
 The importance of such knowledge may be 
 inferred from instances where it is lacking. 
 The ignorance existing among primitive peo- 
 ples with respect to the use of articles con- 
 sumed with appreciation by the civilised is in 
 point. Works of art, musical instruments, 
 complex tools and mechanisms, soap, literature, 
 and various foods of civilisation have no mean- 
 ing or use for the native of Queensland or 
 Borneo. The aborigines lack in experience for 
 the consumptional relation. A similar short- 
 age of experience is revealed in cases where 
 
 36
 
 Knowing How to Consume 
 
 men who perhaps have been notable producers 
 and immense takers of wealth find themselves 
 unable to enjoy widely. One may be a trained 
 producer and an efficient taker of wealth and 
 yet be a highly inefficient consumer. The case 
 of the retired farmer is often cited as an ex- 
 ample of an individual lacking in knowledge of 
 how to consume. After a lifetime spent in 
 creating and accumulating a competency, he 
 often finds his range of enjoyments is small 
 indeed. 
 
 Primary consumption has to do with food, 
 clothing and housing. The need of special 
 knowledge to enable one to adjust himself 
 properly to these cannot be questioned. The 
 food relation covers many particulars, rang- 
 ing from table manners to scientific dietaries. 
 Education with reference to the standard of 
 living bears directly upon quality and kinds of 
 foods, the texture and fashions of clothing, and 
 the sanitation and conveniences of homes. 
 Maladjustment to the consumptional relation 
 in these respects is revealed in ill-cooked, un- 
 wisely selected foods, unhygienic and uncom- 
 fortable clothes and poorly appointed houses, 
 coexisting with the material means of better- 
 ment. A lack of consumptional knowledge 
 frequently appears in connection with produc- 
 
 37 
 
 21 ^on;
 
 The Education of To-morrow 
 
 tional and distributional inefficiency, but con- 
 sumptional ignorance may easily be distin- 
 guished. 
 
 This type of knowledge is particularly in- 
 volved in maintaining physical well-being. 
 Good health and high bodily efficiency afford 
 an indispensable basis for happy correspond- 
 ence with environment and appreciation of 
 whatever Mnd. The prevalence of disease and 
 untimely death, the mistreatment of the body 
 by neglect, medicines or overstrain, faulty 
 regimen and aches and pains argue ignorance 
 of knowledge of prime importance. Hygienic 
 information accordingly ranks high in the con- 
 sumptional relation. 
 
 The requirements of rational family life are 
 met best with the assistance of knowledge 
 gleaned from cultured and well-ordered family 
 experiences. It is probably not extravagant 
 to say that but a mere fraction of the total num- 
 ber of families are at all exemplary in their 
 standards or would not profit immensely by ac- 
 quiring different ideals. Certainly in the care 
 of the child ignorance prevails widely, and the 
 disastrous blunders of even well-intentioned 
 parents in engaging the respect and confidence 
 of their children and shaping them into ad- 
 mirable characters are illustrated in every com- 
 
 38
 
 Knowing How to Consume 
 
 munity, — often in families prominent for ef- 
 ficiency in other lines. The science of rearing 
 children physically and mentally comprises, in 
 view of the critical relation of family life to 
 individual welfare, either of parent or child, 
 wife or husband, no slight portion of the knowl- 
 edge which is particularly concerned with con- 
 sumption. 
 
 In the spending of money there is required 
 an amount of consumptional knowledge too 
 often lacking. Consider the number of occa- 
 sions during a year when one buys something, 
 especially if charged with the expenditure of 
 family funds. How often indecision and worry 
 attest the lack of such information as makes 
 for the wisest purchasing. The commonest 
 articles of purchase, as food and clothing, 
 make demands upon one's store of information 
 which he is fortunate if able to meet. The ex- 
 tent of unwise or ignorant purchasing is very 
 large, few consumers being well prepared to 
 buy with knowledge of materials and cost of 
 manufacture. Faulty taste claims victims by 
 the ten thousand and even gives character to 
 manufacturing enterprises. It was Stevenson, 
 I believe, who said he could better endure the 
 paying of too much for a thing than the finding 
 out that he had bought something he did not 
 
 39
 
 The Education of To-morrow 
 
 want. The number of things bought which one 
 by any cultivated standard of taste ought not 
 to want is not small. Grant that tastes differ, 
 so do opinions on any subject until the unanim- 
 ity of the wise is attained. For some diver- 
 gence of taste there is good reason, but for the 
 avoidance of crudities and often expensive bar- 
 barisms in material possessions can it be 
 doubted that there is need of the development 
 and popularisation of a science of what to 
 want and what to buy? 
 
 Such knowledge as bears upon judging the 
 worth and excellence of objects viewed or pur- 
 chased, whether works of art or millinery and 
 textiles, architectural plans or plush uphol- 
 stery, is consumptional. From one point of 
 view, civilisation is the acquiring of wants, and 
 the character of civilisation is determined by 
 what wants have precedence. The knowledge 
 which illuminates wants and guides in deciding 
 what wants to satisfy and what wants to 
 modify, resist or promote, evidently is of the 
 most fundamental character. 
 
 Especially in connection with avowed recrea- 
 tion and the pursuit of happiness is the need 
 of cultural guidance experienced. The ''work 
 conscience" characteristic of not a few faith- 
 ful producers, a conscience which makes holi- 
 
 40
 
 Knowina How to Consume 
 
 day seem unholy, demonstrates how completely 
 consumptional interests may be atrophied, it 
 matters not whether by influences of puritan- 
 ism or as a result of occupational concentration 
 of attention. The ideal of enjojTuent belongs 
 to consumptional science. To the child play is 
 the main business of life. It might well be 
 part of the main business of everybody's life, 
 all becoming free in spirit, unhaunted by self- 
 reproach in hours of diversion. 
 
 Play and recreation are social in their na- 
 ture and involve relations with others. Self- 
 ish enjoyment is almost a contradiction in 
 terms. Whatever knowledge bears, then, upon 
 fitness for social relationships forms part of 
 the total of consumptional science. How to 
 dress acceptably, how to converse with profit, 
 how to deal pleasantly with others are included 
 in that body of experiences which further ad- 
 justment to consumption. 
 
 A special knowledge underlies appreciation 
 of literature, music and art. One must be 
 trained to appreciate. That knowledge which 
 effects an understanding of the finer things is 
 peculiarly that of consumption. The range of 
 human enjojTuent is from crude appetite to 
 things esthetic. Many a residence, landscape, 
 town, city, back yard and railroad station are 
 
 41
 
 The Education of To-morrow 
 
 to be found which might be transformed under 
 widely diffused knowledge qualifying the pub- 
 lic to appraise the beautiful and resent the 
 ugly. As with material objects so with 
 thoughts and sentiments. Certain types of 
 published matter would lose their hold were 
 knowledge of what to read and admire more 
 available. 
 
 That knowledge is consumptional which 
 bears upon the enjoyment of utilities of any 
 kind. The more highly prepared one is to 
 utilise and enjoy a variety of goods and values 
 the more fully he represents sufficiency of this 
 knowledge. The consumption of goods is es- 
 pecially characteristic of leisure and leisured 
 classes, who are above all others equipped with 
 experience as consumers. Eecreation and re- 
 tirement, holidays, vacations and periods of 
 freedom from productive labour are particu- 
 larly identified with the consumptional process. 
 
 The inefficient consumer cares little about 
 many utilities and is characterised by meagre 
 tastes, few desires, slight discrimination among 
 values and non-appreciation of the arts which 
 adorn leisure and thrive in luxurious surround- 
 ings. The man who has few interests to fill 
 in his leisure periods or engage him in joy- 
 ful exercises may be classed as lacking in con- 
 
 42
 
 Knowing How to Consume 
 
 sumptional knowledge, no matter how able a 
 producer of wealth in his working hours or how 
 proficient as a distributee. 
 
 Consumptional knowledge may abound in 
 those who produce little and have little. The 
 cultured hobo serves for illustration. While in 
 many cases there is a dearth of consumptional 
 standards, in other cases the individual has 
 more desires than he can gratify, desires 
 which he could gratify with more wealth. 
 Whether in all cases with increase in wealth 
 the individual would increase his consumption 
 wisely is open to question. While the consum- 
 ing power is indefinitely large in a community, 
 ever beyond the power of available wealth to 
 satisfy, it does not follow that were wealth af- 
 forded for the satisfaction of wants, consump- 
 tion would follow well-chosen lines. There is 
 need of education for wise consumption. 
 Long experience on the part of favoured classes 
 results in adroit consumption. Below the level 
 of riches, the possibility of increasing happi- 
 ness by supplying individuals with consump- 
 tional guidance is unlimited, and even among 
 the wealthy classes the need of improving 
 standards of living and improving taste is far 
 from negligible. 
 
 The efficient consumer has taste and knows 
 43
 
 The Education of To-morrow 
 
 values. He goes without some things and buys 
 only what satisfies and enriches life. Intoxi- 
 cants and ear-rings, inartistic furniture and 
 bad music are pitfalls of those who have suf- 
 fered under-development in appreciations. 
 How grievous may be ignorance of the good 
 choice and use of things is well illustrated in 
 the case of the reservation Indian, whose pur- 
 chasing is ruinous and whose scale of values is 
 inconsistent with his welfare. So meagre has 
 been the maintenance of large numbers in so- 
 ciety that exemplary consumption, neither 
 weazened by poverty nor by omissions of cul- 
 ture, finds too little realisation. 
 
 In seeking out those bodies of knowledge 
 which have historically underlain consumption 
 one naturally looks to the information as- 
 sociated with eminent consumers, the rich. 
 And we here find emphasis placed on good 
 manners, polite learning, miscellaneous infor- 
 mation, knowledge of leading families, kings, 
 military leaders, and history with a genea- 
 logical bias. Certain languages, as French, as- 
 sociated with the fine arts and romantic 
 themes, and implying travel in foreign lands, 
 rank high. Acquaintance with sports and 
 games and recreational records and anecdotes 
 figures in leisure class knowledge. How to 
 
 44
 
 Knowing How to Consume 
 
 wear clothes of quality, dress punctiliously and 
 gradedly for occasions, as appear at courts, 
 manage subordinates, converse wittily and 
 avoid irregularities of behaviour known as bad 
 form are items in the trained consumer's code. 
 The training given not long since in a girls' 
 school in the South consisting of learning in- 
 numerable quotations from authors for use in 
 conversation was decidedly consumptional. 
 
 Much of the experience developed historic- 
 ally among the upper classes commends itself 
 to good sense and its possession may be counted 
 a consumptional ideal for all. Because of 
 the inherent worth of upper class consump- 
 tional knowledge or because of its critical im- 
 portance for gaining admission to aristocratic 
 circles, education has made much use of this 
 type of knowledge, especially in the higher 
 schools. Quite apart from the uses of con- 
 sumptional knowledge for social preferment, 
 the advantages of knowing the rational and 
 satisfying use of wealth, in large or small 
 quantities, are transcendent. 
 
 It may appear to do violence to facts to refer 
 moral truths to economics for reclassification. 
 Moral experience or knowledge arises from the 
 individual's contact with environment along 
 the line of the great economic relations. 
 
 45
 
 The Education of To-morrow 
 
 There is an ethics of production, an ethics of 
 distribution, and no less an ethics of consump- 
 tion. Thou shalt labour, is productional 
 morals ; thou shalt not steal, is a distributional 
 precept; thou shalt not kill, or interfere with 
 another's enjoyment of wealth, is part of a 
 moral code based upon consumption. What- 
 ever interferes by intent with another's fitness 
 for the enjoyment of wealth and welfare, what- 
 ever produces maladjustment in the consump- 
 tional relation to material commodities or the 
 higher values of beauty and contemplation, 
 violates a code of ethics referable in the last 
 analysis to an economic basis. Moral instruc- 
 tion is demanded lest perverse happenings oc- 
 cur to disturb the individual in his primary 
 economic relations. The perfection of the in- 
 dividual's adjustment in these relations to en- 
 vironment gives the cue to evolutionary 
 morals. 
 
 Indeed a higher than the current moral code 
 may emerge when not only is the individual's 
 right to the cruder features of consumption 
 recognised, but his right is honoured to par- 
 ticipate in the charms of landscapes, now only 
 to be reached by expensive travel, of music con- 
 fined to loci of culture, and art stationary in 
 far cities. The ethics of maximum consump- 
 
 46
 
 Knowing How to Consume 
 
 tion would supply deficiencies in the present 
 code. 
 
 While certain kinds of knowledge function in 
 more than one economic relation, in consump- 
 tional science may be included poetry, music, 
 hygiene, fiction, foreign languages, dietetics, 
 house planning, geography, astronomy, and in 
 general those classes of facts that enable one 
 to use things well, maintain proper standards 
 of dress and deportment, satisfy curiosity, and 
 enter into the higher values in which an in- 
 creasingly complex civilisation abounds. 
 
 The peculiar relation of consumptional prac- 
 tices to public welfare lays emphasis upon 
 knowing how to use things without harming 
 others. The criminal and the drunkard would 
 be harmless if they lived on Crusoe's Island. 
 Vice, crime, intolerance, inebriety, and gam- 
 bling imply low ideals of consumption. The 
 social etfects of what one does by way of en- 
 joyment are not to be lost sight of, indeed they 
 are exactly what one should keep in mind. 
 
 And not only in negative ways may consump- 
 tional science be of public benefit, but also in 
 the joint undertakings of public libraries, 
 parks, playgrounds and the common utlisa- 
 tion of facilities which public ownership af- 
 fords and promises. One does not need to own 
 
 47
 
 The Education of To-morrow 
 
 a thing to enjoy it. Nothing is detracted from 
 a beautiful landscape that thousands besides 
 oneself have access to it. The desire for ex- 
 clusiveness of enjoyment or possession is 
 doomed to give way to the rising ideal of the 
 widest possible use of wealth and to the new 
 psychology of service. 
 
 48
 
 PAET TWO 
 THE DIFFUSION OF KNOWLEDGE 
 
 49
 
 The curriculum is but one of several agencies 
 for the diffusion of knowledge, and it is 
 therefore well to note the characteristics and 
 efficiency of various other instrumentalities be- 
 fore dealing more particularly with the cur- 
 riculum itself, to the end that the province of 
 the curriculum may be defined more exactly 
 and ways noted in which the curriculum may 
 supplement other agencies or correct their de- 
 fects. 
 
 50
 
 V 
 
 They Say 
 
 Bearing in mind that knowledge is simply ex- 
 perience, functioning mainly if not wholly for 
 the adjustment of the individual to the social 
 processes of production, distribution and con- 
 sumption, the need of a ready command of 
 knowledge effecting suitable relations to en- 
 vironment at once suggests itself. Knowledge 
 to be valuable must apply at points of need and 
 continue a favourable adjustment or cure 
 maladjustment to environment. As soon as ex- 
 perience functioning for adjustment becomes 
 predetermined it sinks into relatively uncon- 
 scious habits, and finally into instinctive reac- 
 tions and automatisms. The type of experi- 
 ence with which we are now concerned is that 
 which exists as consciously retained and con- 
 sciously employed impressions and inferences. 
 
 The utilisation of such knowledge presup- 
 poses a system of retention, both social and in- 
 dividual, and a system of convection or diffu- 
 sion of knowledge to points of need. 
 
 Social retention comprises those means by 
 51
 
 The Education of To-morrow 
 
 which knowledge is handed down from genera- 
 tion to generation. In this process oral tra- 
 dition and written records have been effective. 
 Likewise monuments, public works, ancient 
 roads, edifices, statuary and implements, fos- 
 sils and relics of all sorts serve to convey in- 
 formation of earlier times. One of the prob- 
 lems of civilisation is to perfect the means of 
 social retention. Books hold first place as in- 
 strumentalities of social retention. By the re- 
 publication of knowledge as paper and bindings 
 decay, and especially by republication ac- 
 companied by critical winnowings of materials 
 most valuable to posterity, and the making of 
 compendiums and digests, the essentials of 
 knowledge gleaned in the past may be kept 
 flowing indefinitely. 
 
 Eetention with the individual rests upon the 
 power of memory, whose laws and limitations 
 are fairly well understood. Memory is the cen- 
 tral feature in the individual's mental equip- 
 ment, not only in that it supplies in numberless 
 cases the former experience serving at once to 
 put the individual in correct adjustment, but 
 also in that the reasonings necessary for ad- 
 justment to novel situations employ materials 
 supplied by memory from former experiences. 
 
 But no matter how broad one 's direct experi- 
 52
 
 They Say 
 
 ence with tlie physical and social world may 
 have been, the requirements of modern life de- 
 mand a knowledge far in excess. Possibly in 
 the most primitive state man needed to know 
 little not accumulated through his own direct 
 experience, but in a complex society the knowl- 
 edge that may be gained by experience in the 
 narrow sense of the term is hopelessly inade- 
 quate. To one's direct experience must be 
 added essential experiences from millions of 
 alien situations. ^Yhat others have learned by 
 direct experience furnishes the bulk, it may be, 
 of what any one should know. 
 
 This need of sharing in the experience of 
 others gives rise in turn to the necessity of 
 effective methods of diffusing knowledge. A 
 new situation presents itself. The individual 
 may proceed in this order. He first asks, what 
 experience have I had which will show me how 
 to act? Failing of a specific experience wliich 
 will guide by duplication, he then inquires, 
 what experiences have I had containing ele- 
 ments or principles applicable to this new sit- 
 uation? At this point he leaves the realm of 
 his former direct experience, passes over to 
 the experiences of others, and seeks for a case 
 or rule of which he has heard or read which 
 will solve the difficulty. 
 
 53
 
 The Education of To-morrow 
 
 The diffusion of knowledge either by educa- 
 tional institutions or by other agencies would 
 be beside the mark were it not for the inade- 
 quacy of individual experience or the infirmities 
 of individual memory. Individual limitations, 
 however, coupled with more exacting re- 
 quirements upon one than the world has ever 
 before known, compel increasing attention to 
 the agencies for the convection of knowledge to 
 points of need. 
 
 Of the agencies for the diffusion of knowl- 
 edge common report or informal communica- 
 tion between man and man is ancient and fairly 
 effective. The parent shows the child how to 
 carry on the arts of life and transmits much of 
 his stock of information in the form of advice, 
 tales, admonitions, anecdote and narration. 
 Social intercourse sets free a considerable vol- 
 ume of essential knowledge along with much 
 that is purely repetitious or revived for the 
 exigencies of conversation. The meeting of 
 strangers results in additions to one's stock of 
 ideas and prepares one for adjustments repre- 
 sented by the stranger's travels and exploits. 
 Whenever two or three are gathered together, 
 there may be observed the process of simple 
 communication, which, while abounding in un- 
 important detail and faulty induction, serves 
 
 54
 
 They Say 
 
 to flush the nooks and crannies of society with 
 ideas and useful precepts. 
 
 Limitations to the efficacy of simple com- 
 munication are set by one's social opportu- 
 nities and by class lines. Class knowledge per- 
 colates slowly from group to group, and a great 
 amoimt of knowledge common to occupations 
 and social sets never finds its way freely 
 throughout the masses, due to lack of social 
 contact of the representatives of the various 
 groups. 
 
 Within one's own group, touching points of 
 competition, dissembling and secretiveness pre- 
 vail to a degree. Competitors converse pro- 
 fusely with one another, and by preference with 
 one another, but the knowledge which one holds 
 essential to his advantage in competition for 
 trade, votes, reputation or income, rarely plays 
 a part in the information rehearsed. Altruism, 
 it is true, dictates that helpful information 
 be generously published, but there is a con- 
 cealed residuum. The broad view that what- 
 ever helps another helps oneself rarely pre- 
 vails fully over the desire to monopolise kinds 
 of information identified with one's survival in 
 competition. Sometimes there is revealed dis- 
 like lest occupational knowledge become a com- 
 mon possession. It comes about that strategic 
 
 55
 
 The Education of To-morrow 
 
 knowledge is kept in the background while ap- 
 parently unreserved utterance occupies the 
 stage. 
 
 The informality of simple communication 
 lends itself to jumbled impressions and the ac- 
 cumulation of inferior knowledge. By a singu- 
 lar agglutinative process fama distorts and 
 amplifies until the truth is lost or hidden under 
 mounds of rubbish. It is against all the in- 
 stincts of dramatisation and excitement that 
 one should not make a good story out of any 
 material at hand. The fiction-weaving im- 
 pulse vitiates many reports that if true would 
 be less interesting. Learning to brace oneself 
 against first reports and general rumors be- 
 comes accordingly one of the first lessons of a 
 useful life. 
 
 But whatever other agencies for the diffu- 
 sion of knowledge may be set up, the service of 
 simple communication remains fundamental in 
 promoting adjustments. The word dropped at 
 the right moment, the mother's warning to the 
 child, the friendly suggestion, the brief direc- 
 tion to workers, the cry for help, as particulars 
 in the mighty stream of the social interchange 
 of ideas, illustrate how large a part in the 
 learning process is played by simple communi- 
 cation. 
 
 56
 
 VI 
 
 Printers' Ink 
 
 Any not convinced of the omnipresence of the 
 newspaper by the printed page which appears 
 on every living-room table, in barber shops, on 
 store counters, and is thrust under one's eyes 
 on train and street, or wrapped around one's 
 legs by swirling winds, need only consult 
 the thick volume comprising the American 
 Newspaper Annual to be impressed with per- 
 haps the most pregnant fact of modern life, the 
 ubiquity of print. Tens of thousands of daily 
 and weekly newspapers with a combined issu- 
 ance of many billion copies a year bombard the 
 public with such a mass of printed matter as 
 the world never before knew. When one con- 
 siders that a small daily with a circulation of 
 20,000 prints and distributes in the course of 
 a year over 7,000,000 papers and that the mod- 
 erate sized metropolitan daily sends out from 
 75,000,000 to 100,000,000 newspapers a year, 
 the total newspaper output assumes pro- 
 portions unwieldy if expressed in figures 
 
 57
 
 The Education of To-morrow 
 
 and hopelessly beyond vivid comprehension. 
 Morning and evening, day in and day out, the 
 newspaper makes its way to the understanding. 
 A considerable number, especially in cities, see 
 more than one newspaper a day while there are 
 few even on the remotest farm or ranch who 
 do not read a weekly paper. Many read little 
 else than newspapers. 
 
 In view of the vast office of the newspaper 
 as an intellectual medium, it is well to note its 
 merits and defects as a Imowledge-diffusing 
 agency. The newspaper is a teacher, a 
 preacher, a school. It instructs and informs. 
 The public is its pupils and parishioners. It 
 even supersedes conversation and simple com- 
 munication, as witness the irritation of a news- 
 paper reader disturbed by a question, or the 
 absorption in the morning paper of the man of 
 ambiguous manners who reads on indifferent 
 to his wife's attempts to engage him in dis- 
 cussion. So forcefully has the newspaper ap- 
 pealed to the public that an observer^ be- 
 lieves the newspaper to have imposed upon the 
 American people distinct mental traits, which 
 he characterises as a "newspaper intelli- 
 gence." 
 
 The newspaper has unparalleled efficiency so 
 
 1 President Schurman of Cornell University. 
 
 58
 
 Printers' Ink 
 
 far as securing the unremitting attention of 
 a very large number of pupils, the public. 
 Neither the church nor the school equals it in 
 either particular. It takes no vacations and 
 its classes are never dismissed. The news- 
 paper pursues even when one would flee. It 
 exerts constant pressure, and by cheapness, ap- 
 peal to human interests, and commercial tactics 
 leaves no stone unturned to make and hold 
 readers. 
 
 In manner of presenting information the 
 newspaper has even set standards of efficiency. 
 The cumbrous style of writing is discarded for 
 terse language and graphic description. The 
 general change to direct style in literature is 
 no doubt largely traceable to newspaper meth- 
 ods of expression. Composition that cannot be 
 understood at a glance and by readers un- 
 trained in mental grasp gives way to a style of 
 open writing, especially illustrated in head lines 
 and advertisements, which has conferred some 
 benefits upon expression in general, rendering 
 Milton's ^'Areopagitica" unacceptable as a 
 model of English. Regardless of the kind of 
 knowledge dispensed by the newspaper, it has 
 contributed vastly to ideals of universality of 
 diffusion. 
 
 Many causes no doubt conspire to determine 
 59
 
 The Education of To-morrow 
 
 what the newspaper diffuses. No one talking 
 to a child would deal in knowledge for the un- 
 derstanding of which there had been no pre- 
 vious preparation or was of a nature not readily 
 understood. Whether there is not much know- 
 ledge which might be imparted, but which is 
 commonly thought to be too difficult to be con- 
 veyed, is a question that need merely be re- 
 ferred to here; the fact remains that if one is 
 to engage the immediate attention of child or 
 reader, he must offer materials of superior at- 
 tractiveness. This the newspaper does, and 
 accordingly the nature of the material printed 
 is largely governed by the real or supposed 
 capacity and interests of the particular news- 
 paper's constituency. The newspaper reader 
 is less amenable to solid instruction than the 
 pupil in a classroom, for upon slight umbrage 
 the former cancels his subscription or buys a 
 different paper, whereas the latter is held to 
 instruction, in the lower schools by the attend- 
 ance officer, and in the higher institutions of 
 learning by compulsions that may not be disre- 
 garded. The newspaper reader is held to his 
 lesson by the application of the doctrine of in- 
 terest elaborated into a demoralising coddling, 
 a fact that greatly limits the teaching value of 
 the press. Whether the editor believes in the 
 
 60
 
 Printers' Ink 
 
 worth of the matter printed or not, if the read- 
 ers of the paper are believed to fancy reports 
 of distant scandal, the personal habits of dis- 
 tinguished people, the engagements of yoimg 
 women one has never known, or the bearing of 
 a murderer on his way to execution, accounts 
 are provided. In short the newspaper con- 
 cedes to the prejudices and ignorance of the 
 reader with a subservience demoralising to its 
 value as a mentor, provided its publication is 
 not dictated by other than purely commercial 
 motives. To the extent to which readers want 
 what is good for them all newspapers diffuse 
 knowledge of unquestioned quality. 
 
 The attempt to please as wide a circle of 
 readers as possible leads to the inclusion in 
 newspapers of materials miscellaneous and of 
 all degrees of importance. The news is as 
 broad as readers' interests in what is going on 
 in the world. Naturally in the publication of 
 an enormous volume of information there must 
 be much which has but the slightest value, rank- 
 ing with mere perceptional knowledge of a 
 repetitious kind. The swollen volume of the 
 news is largely due to the repetition of typical 
 cases. The newspaper item relative to the 
 prominent citizen reappears in slightly vary- 
 ing form year after year — never too often in 
 
 61
 
 The Education of To-morrow 
 
 the eyes of tliis influential subscriber and pa- 
 tron. The accident or loss by fire is dis- 
 cursively treated and a bulk of news is attained 
 which in part balances the advertising sections. 
 The sense of climax is fed by special articles 
 forecasting with circumlocution or dramatis- 
 ing casualties and criminal trials. 
 
 From the standpoint of evaluated knowledge, 
 when one boiler explosion or murder enters 
 one's stock of knowledge, other cases, unless 
 embodying new principles, are mere junk ex- 
 cept to persons specially affected. In the 
 knowledge diffused by the current press repeti- 
 tion of types occurs interminably. For tliis 
 reason a besotted reader may remain substan- 
 tially ignorant though full of information, and 
 per contra one may get along very well, once 
 grounded in knowledge, if he rarely reads a 
 newspaper closely. The value of newspapers 
 aside from the knowledge-diffusing function is 
 not under discussion. As sources of entertain- 
 ment and business mediums newspapers repre- 
 sent services not involved in a comparison of 
 the newspaper with other agencies for the dif- 
 fusion of knowledge. The timeliness of the in- 
 formation afforded is an important part of the 
 service rendered. 
 
 The idea of news is that of the report of 
 62
 
 Printers' Ink 
 
 happenings rather than the exhaustive treat- 
 ment of causes or the search for principles. 
 One will meet thousands of references to auto- 
 mobiles, but look in vain for a scientific de- 
 scription of the gasoline motor. Innumerable 
 allusions are made to crime, but for studies of 
 the causes of crime we must look to the crimi- 
 nologist, who deals with crime with a delibera- 
 tion impossible to the reporter intent on copy. 
 The obvious aspects of multitudes of situations 
 are immediately reflected in the newspaper, but 
 for inductions from data one must seek else- 
 where. Usually the startling and more objec- 
 tive features of happenings are taken up in the 
 newspaper. The failure of a bank is an- 
 nounced in bold type, but the history which lies 
 back of this event, with its fulness of economic, 
 personal, institutional and occupational data 
 and inference, can find little place in the hasty 
 recital of bankruptcy jostled by items thrust 
 upon the editor's desk from all parts of the 
 world. To the student and specialist must be 
 referred the fuller analysis of events which in 
 their surface manifestations are news and in 
 their deeper meaning science. 
 
 The lack of system characterising news makes 
 the newspaper a faulty teacher. The mind of 
 the scientist represents an orderly arrange- 
 
 63
 
 The Education of To-morrow 
 
 ment and structure of knowledge. To perfect 
 this arrangement in the learner's mind re- 
 quires reasonable attention to the way in which 
 ideas are assembled and presented. The 
 proper association of ideas is of extreme im- 
 portance. Mere masses of facts precipitated 
 upon one's mind, no matter how interesting 
 separately, have less instructional value, being 
 less perfectly retained and assimilated, than 
 when presented in orderly sequence. And in- 
 deed the habit of seeing particulars as a sys- 
 tem, developed by receiving knowledge in that 
 form, distinguishes the trained mind from the 
 type of scatterbrain suggested by the term 
 ''newspaper intelligence." The unwisdom of 
 employing the newspaper as the main source of 
 one's mental materials is evident. The effects 
 of showering quantities of miscellaneous and 
 unorganised ideas upon immature minds, 
 whether young or old, are from this standpoint 
 not desirable. 
 
 In the generosity of news offered there is to 
 be found much that makes for increased pro- 
 duction of wealth. Market reports, weather 
 prognostications, allusions to improved meth- 
 ods of production, descriptions of new inven- 
 tions of use on the farm or in factories, items 
 facilitating business or urging co-operation, 
 
 64
 
 Printers' Ink 
 
 and the warnings implied in accounts of acci- 
 dents, faulty constructions, disease, and idle- 
 ness unite to make the newspaper in a sense a 
 useful manual of knowledge bearing upon pro- 
 duction. Of course the connected information 
 underlying a complete trade or profession is 
 never more than merely suggested. 
 
 The culture popularised by the newspaper 
 varies with particular publications and shows 
 a wide range of standards. Both intelligent 
 and unintelligent consumption are promoted. 
 Accounts of the diversions of people who are 
 noted rather for conspicuous than rational con- 
 sumption tend to set up practices inconsistent 
 with the best use of wealth. False ideals of 
 enjoyment are thus encouraged and simpler, 
 saner pleasures in a sense sti.gmatised. The 
 lack of individuality shown in servility to 
 kaleidoscopic fasliions and the awed submis- 
 sion to the reports of what "they" are doing 
 or thinking are unchecked by the newspaper's 
 influence. In the field of standards of living 
 the press supplies a heterogeneity of example 
 without real guidance. Plowever, newspaper 
 reading tends beyond question to raise con- 
 sumptional ideals. The knowledge that some 
 one else is enjoying a vacation, going abroad, 
 visiting in the country, sending his boy to col- 
 
 65
 
 The Education of To-morrow 
 
 lege, purchasing a piano, riding in an automo- 
 bile, and installing a hot water heating system 
 spurs to a higher standard of living. The most 
 backward individuals and communities are 
 those by whom newspapers are little read. 
 Even where wealth is not possessed to put into 
 effect the higher consumptional ideal, the 
 newspaper reader in downright poverty has a 
 surface acquaintance with practically all the 
 means of spending money and is no mean critic 
 of the manner in which large consumers dress, 
 travel and eat. 
 
 Again, in the field of distribution, the news- 
 paper exhibits great catholicity in its columns. 
 Here the newspaper in fact performs a func- 
 tion not performed by the church and very 
 slightly attempted by the schools, that of in- 
 forming the public on political questions. 
 Subordination to the interests of office seekers 
 and private individuals limits the service of 
 the press in this particular, but what one paper 
 suppresses another may publish, and the civic 
 instruction of the public comes more largely 
 from the press than from any other source. 
 The newspaper tells who is elected to office, re- 
 views legislation, comments on political situa- 
 tions, excoriates policies and illuminates the 
 workings of government. Current progress in 
 
 66
 
 Printers* Ink 
 
 understanding political conditions and lines of 
 reform rests quite fully upon the notable ef- 
 forts of the press to diffuse civic knowledge. 
 The newspaper is the citizen's library for the 
 understanding of government. 
 
 An increasing amount of the esoteric knowl- 
 edge of which the extremely wealthy have been 
 the beneficiaries has been made known, with 
 the result that society hangs on the verge of 
 reorganisation with reference to the control 
 of corporations and the amelioration of slum 
 and pauper conditions. The effect of knowl- 
 edge is conduct. The mere publication of a 
 fact leads to so many results that to the agency 
 making the facts known must be credited a 
 primary service in improving the conditions 
 under which distribution takes place. 
 
 The frequency of issue of newspapers and 
 magazines leads the public to look chiefly to 
 them for reports of current political develop- 
 ments. These publications naturally become 
 the principal means of distributing political in- 
 formation and their influence is correspond- 
 ingly great. 
 
 The knowledge imparted by the school be- 
 comes effective when the student arrives at 
 the age of active participation in the life of the 
 citizen, but that dispensed by the press in the 
 
 67
 
 The Education of To-morrow 
 
 morning may become a rule of action in council 
 or congress, at the polls or on the street before 
 nightfall. With the fuller and more impartial 
 treatment of political themes the press could 
 hardly have a rival as a distributer of civic 
 information. 
 
 ^
 
 VII 
 
 The Specialist 
 
 Much of the most important knowledge is con- 
 fined to the mind of the specialist. AYliether 
 this is due to the inadequacy and inefficiency 
 of other agencies of diffusion or the excess of 
 vital knowledge over the capacity of the single 
 brain may be a question. In view of the fact 
 that the world's supply of important principles 
 is really small, it might seem that the specialist 
 exists to afford personal services rather than 
 as an indispensable rej)ository of learning. 
 
 One may specialise in either useless or use- 
 ful information. Prodigies of curious learn- 
 ing who flounder in the important adjustments 
 of life are an example of the former, and the 
 physician, lawj^er, architect, and pharmacist 
 are examples of the latter class. The special- 
 ist usually does things for pay, applying in the 
 operation knowledge of at least partially eso- 
 teric character. In so far as his services in- 
 volve skill due to special training resulting in 
 habits, the specialist represents proficiency as 
 
 69
 
 The Education of To-morrow 
 
 distinguished from information. One attorney 
 might, for example, employ another to do what 
 he himself might do if he had the time, or a 
 person well informed as to pulling teeth might 
 not urge his services in this occupation from 
 lack of practical experience which the dentist 
 possesses. However, the specialist fairly rep- 
 resents assortments of knowledge with which 
 the layman is rarely acquainted under present 
 conditions. 
 
 A double tendency appears with regard to 
 the knowledge identified with the specialist. 
 Knowledge subject to specialisation seems, on 
 the one hand, to flow increasingly out into the 
 stream of common information, but on the other 
 the increase of information along certain lines 
 seems to maintain the specialist's reservoir of 
 knowledge at a rather high level. The appear- 
 ance of preventive medicine and public health 
 officers tends to popular diffusion of medical 
 knowledge, but possibly the advances in medical 
 information will result in accumulations which 
 by no ordinary means may be made a public 
 possession. Certainly the specialist commands 
 knowledge in detail as the layman, however well 
 versed in principles, cannot rival. 
 
 The tendency of special knowledge to mingle 
 with the current of general information is 
 
 70
 
 The Specialist 
 
 abundantly illustrated. Knowledge of arithme- 
 tic was at one time esoteric, and the arithmetical 
 specialist solved simple arithmetical problems 
 for pay, presumably with an air of mystery. 
 As arithmetic has become a commonplace of 
 learning, not implying that the possessor of 
 such learning is well informed, so other classes 
 of information have quite lost any character of 
 mystery, and the specialist is saved by bulk of 
 information rather than by its essential myste- 
 riousness and distance from common under- 
 standing. 
 
 Public welfare would seem to demand that 
 any information of vital significance should be 
 made as available as possible to the ordinary 
 citizen. Accordingly the specialist to be of 
 greatest social usefulness should become a free 
 dispenser of knowledge, as can hardly be the 
 case when his income depends in part upon 
 maintaining a degree of secrecy. "Were the suc- 
 cess of the physician measured by the extent to 
 which his fund of information became a common 
 possession and were physicians free to promote 
 public health without thought of commercialis- 
 ing their information, the good effects would 
 be obvious. It is a misfortune that in many 
 occupations or professions the specialist has 
 little or no incentive, or indeed has incen- 
 
 71
 
 The Education of To-morrow 
 
 tives to the contrary, to make his knowledge 
 public. 
 
 The sick frequently need advice in the early 
 stages of disease which they do not receive. 
 The physician has the information which they 
 need. Fearing expense they keep away from 
 the physician's office, and the physician with- 
 holds counsel. A vast amount of sickness and 
 numberless deaths would be prevented if the 
 phj^'sician's stock of knowledge were put more 
 at the service of those in need of medical advice. 
 The modern physician is in the position of the 
 mathematician of the middle ages who solved 
 problems for pay. 
 
 The dependence of the physician upon com- 
 pensation from the patient militates against 
 any but the more superficial instruction of the 
 latter. Few explanations are forthcoming, and 
 the seeker after medical knowledge carries an 
 unintelligible prescription to the pharmacist for 
 remedies for a complaint about whose cause and 
 nature he is but dimly informed. The physi- 
 cian's waiting room is filled with people who 
 are too old to go to school and whose chief ail- 
 ment is ignorance. Altruism will not, however, 
 support the physician's family, and time can- 
 not be taken to give lectures in hygiene. 
 
 It is unfortunate that the objective point in 
 72
 
 The Specialist 
 
 the physician's career should not be the elimina- 
 tion of disease and decrease in the number of 
 those seeking medical attention. A case, be- 
 yond question very rare, was that of a physician 
 who was made health officer in a small city in 
 the West. Asked why he did so little to im- 
 prove health conditions in the city, he replied 
 that ''there was nothing in it." He owned a 
 hosijital, it may be added. Despite the gener- 
 osity which characterises physicians as a class, 
 a trait growing out of acquaintance with pain 
 and destitution, the most important service pos- 
 sible, that of teaching how to avoid sickness, is 
 greatly limited by the fact that the physician 
 must sell his knowledge to ignorance without 
 impairing the market. One step further in so- 
 cial evolution and the physician through com- 
 plete state support may realise an ambition 
 which is not lacking among physicians, that of 
 giving their knowledge without thought of pri- 
 vate compensation. 
 
 The physician, attorney, dentist and engineer 
 are essentially bureaus of information requiring 
 merely subsidy to become state institutions. 
 With state support so far as their services as 
 diffusers of information of general interest are 
 concerned, the banks of dammed-up knowledge 
 would be still further cut and a larger flow of 
 
 73
 
 The Education of To-morrow 
 
 practical wisdom issue. The aim of popular 
 enlightenment implies that the specialist's serv- 
 ices inure to the general welfare as not possible 
 under a system of the commercial retailing of 
 information. The state-supported specialist, 
 found in governmental departments and insti- 
 tutions of learning, is an instrumentality for 
 advancing knowledge beyond present limits and 
 increasing the volume of popular information. 
 The pansophic ideal has given way to the 
 ideal of specialisation in learning. No longer 
 do men presume to be equally proficient in all 
 fields of knowledge, or as did Bacon, take all 
 knowledge to be their province. Indeed the 
 ideal of specialisation has become so pro- 
 nounced that some affect a simplicity as unbe- 
 coming as pretentious. A pansophic ideal, lim- 
 ited to the more salient and usable items of 
 knowledge, is not a bad ideal. Divesting sci- 
 ences of their scaffolding of details and ignor- 
 ing the elements of scholasticism which adhere 
 to learning, a catholicity of information, cover- 
 ing the main fields of what is most valuable, is 
 quite possible, as illustrated in the mental out- 
 fit of university presidents, publicists, and men 
 of affairs. And plain people under right in- 
 struction may acquire such information as tends 
 to longevity, self-support, varied interests, 
 
 74
 
 The Specialist 
 
 happy social and family relations, breadth of 
 outlook and the touching of life on all sides, — 
 which are not irrelevant tests of a practical 
 pansophism. If one distinguishes between 
 knowledge which actually makes for adjustment 
 and knowledge which consists of what some one 
 has said or written, whether involved in prac- 
 tical relations or not, — mere mental products, 
 — the aim of acquiring what one needs to know 
 becomes a modest one. 
 
 Lifelong study of a particular field does not 
 mean that there is so much valuable information 
 in that field as to employ one 's efforts for many 
 years. The specialist may spend much time in 
 winnowing out truths that when made available 
 require but slight time for the learning. The 
 inventor may spend a lifetime in reducing to 
 tangible truth the ideas that inspire his efforts, 
 but the invention once completed, a knowledge 
 of its uses is so readily gained that very un- 
 developed individuals may be seen running ma- 
 chinery which only genius could have made 
 possible. The practical knowledge of the auto- 
 mobile is acquired in a moment of time as com- 
 pared with the period spent in its invention. 
 The knowledge of the use of a thing is in- 
 finitely less laborious than that of its creation. 
 For such reasons the learning rei^resented by 
 
 75
 
 The Education of To-morrow 
 
 the specialist is easily exploited by the layman 
 and the specialist's bulk of information affords 
 no criterion of that which the non-specialist 
 should aspire to make his own. Years are spent 
 in securing merely negative results or in clear- 
 ing the way to tested knowledge. Such labours 
 in no sense are commensurate with mass of val- 
 uable information. It would be unfortunate if 
 impressiveness of research in laboratories or 
 libraries were to discourage from attempts to 
 learn widely and to deal vigorously with such 
 information as the research of others provides. 
 The audacity which characterised the earlier 
 scientists and which shows in the undaunted 
 spirit of the unsophisticated who attack the 
 compilations of science with no fear of defeat 
 is worthy of cultivation in an age of massive 
 specialisation. 
 
 The dejection which so many feel when in a 
 large library has only a moderate justification. 
 The adolescent feels that unless he reads all 
 the books on the shelves his future is imperilled. 
 Age brings a clearer view, and to the mature 
 the books which terrorise the novice telescope 
 together through the elimination of repetitions, 
 and yield but a nugget where seemed a moun- 
 tain of solid ore. A better appreciation of the 
 situations in life which call for knowledge re- 
 
 76
 
 The Specialist 
 
 tires a multitude of books from consideration. 
 Realisation that what interested this author 
 will never concern you, that your adjustments 
 require a knowledge different or already at- 
 tained, buttresses self-respect. Books which 
 in earlier years seemed to be to live by become 
 mere dust-covered incidents. The bookless, in 
 their distrust of the wisdom of such as put 
 their trust in books, point a lesson in the rela- 
 tive values of knowledge which should be reas- 
 suring in a period when the specialist and his 
 compilations tend to make the unwary apolo- 
 getic for having been born without even the 
 rudiments of an education. 
 
 The specialist is no doubt to play a larger and 
 still larger part in social economy. Merely to 
 live under complex conditions involves knowl- 
 edge greater than the individual, no matter how 
 industrious, can secure at first hand. The in- 
 dividual's brain becomes organised with the 
 larger sensorium of an increasing number of 
 expert truth seekers. To make the results of 
 the specialist's investigations more accessible 
 to the general public is a matter of the greatest 
 importance. 
 
 77
 
 VIII 
 
 The First Teacher 
 
 At an early date the priest arose as a con- 
 servator and dispenser of socially retained 
 knowledge. The art of writing is closely identi- 
 fied with the priest class in primitive societies. 
 The learned class originally was that consisting 
 of those who knew the religious traditions of 
 the tribe, its crude cosmogonies, the rites and 
 ceremonies attendant upon the control of the 
 weather, the growth of crops, the embarrass- 
 ment of enemies, and the exorcism of evil influ- 
 ences and spirits. The body of information 
 with which the primitive learned class dealt 
 comprised a certain amount of verifiable knowl- 
 edge and large masses of pseudo science. Elab- 
 orate mythologies were developed as a joyful 
 exercise of imagination and the dramatic in- 
 stinct and a rough attempt to explain the 
 phenomena of the world by anthropomorphism. 
 The priest invented characters to preserve 
 knowledge, essayed to organise knowledge and 
 attempted to acquire knowledge beyond the pale 
 
 78
 
 The First Teacher 
 
 of the senses. Imparting socially retained 
 knowledge and nescience to apprentices to his 
 caste, the priest became the first formal teacher. 
 The history of education is a record of the 
 priest as teacher, with an increasing divergence 
 appearing between secular and clerical concep- 
 tions and the emergence of the theory of the 
 complete separation of church and state in edu- 
 cational matters. 
 
 The cleavage between the priest and secular 
 teacher intensified with the growth of critical 
 evaluation of knowledge. It was inevitable 
 that much of the primitive accumulations should 
 be found unreliable. With the invention of in- 
 struments and methods for discovering truths, 
 and with the work of prior experimenters to 
 build on, the tentative scientist soon came into 
 collision with the class who laid claim to all 
 necessary knowledge and were not solicitous to 
 apply tests of value. The battle between sci- 
 ence and theology was waged frightfully during 
 the middle ages, was continued with much bit- 
 terness in the controversies that centred about 
 Darwinism in the nineteenth centurj^ and re- 
 verberates even in the twentieth century'-. 
 
 The struggle has resulted in the practical re- 
 tirement of the clergy from the field of science. 
 The modern clergjTnan, instead of denouncing 
 
 79
 
 The Education of To-morrow 
 
 and deprecating the teacher of science, turns 
 over to him a certain domain of knowledge, re- 
 serving to himself a province characterised by 
 more difficult demonstration and broader in- 
 ductions. 
 
 To what extent the warfare of theology 
 against science in past centuries arose from 
 occupational motives is an interesting question, 
 probably deserving more attention than it has 
 received. There can be but little question but 
 that a desire to protect the prerogatives of a 
 class by shielding and maintaining an occupa- 
 tional type of knowledge figured largely in the 
 persecution of the non-conforming scientist and 
 intellectual insurgent, represented in the burn- 
 ing of Bruno, the imprisonment of Eoger Ba- 
 con, the terrors of Andreas Vesalius and the 
 dead of the Spanish inquisition. As princes 
 fought for lands and spilled blood for aggran- 
 disement, so clerics may have striven to protect 
 a strategic position, losing sight of the higher 
 aim of truth in defending a privilege. The 
 startled resentment which to-day kindles when 
 divergent medical or educational practice is an- 
 nounced or theories advanced may be a key to 
 a better appreciation of a period of history 
 known unfavourably for the bloodshed of schol- 
 ars. 
 
 80
 
 The First Teacher 
 
 Self-imposed confinement to a literature 
 has greatly narrowed the knowledge-diffusing 
 function of the church. Were the church free 
 to depart from a closely limited field of informa- 
 tion and embark upon a broader career of 
 knowledge diffusion, preaching lessons in sci- 
 entific hygiene, agriculture, law, medicine, in- 
 vestments, politics and economics, its function 
 in helping to put individuals in right adjust- 
 ment to their physical and social surround- 
 ings would be vastly increased. The clergy- 
 man's function becomes that of personal ser\dce 
 and the church loses its hereditary character of 
 school. Clerical service rendered in behalf 
 of the needy and discouraged and in behalf of 
 community improvement becomes the typical 
 service of the church, and the knowledge-diffus- 
 ing function, represented in the early union of 
 church and school and in the New England 
 preacher, who was the repository of learning in 
 his community, is quite fully transferred to sec- 
 ular educational institutions. 
 
 Current tendencies in the church are signifi- 
 cant. Fewer young men are preparing for the 
 ministry. The closed church has become com- 
 mon, especially in the smaller towns and in the 
 country". The indifference of men to church 
 services is pronounced. Theological seminaries 
 
 81
 
 The Education of To-morrow 
 
 of repute are abandoned or decadent. But 
 along" with atrophy there is new growth. The 
 clergyman who, abandoning repetitious dis- 
 course, launches out into sociology and reform, 
 engaging in social service related to immediate 
 needs, attracts a following and builds up impos- 
 ing activities. Teaching science in popular 
 form, more particularly a type whose laboratory 
 is life, the progressive clergyman makes a place 
 for himself beyond the reach of atrophy. 
 
 The difficulties of the clergyman who would 
 live by the traditions of the church as a school 
 are increased by the relatively small number of 
 persons not reading extensively. Even the uni- 
 versity professor finds it difficult to surj^rise 
 with unexpected information. At least a su- 
 perficial general knowledge of science is abroad, 
 and the successful teaching of adults requires a 
 specialisation in subjects possible when, as in 
 a college, various branches of knowledge are 
 taught and cultivated intensively, but hardly 
 possible under the conditions in which the 
 clergyman labours. 
 
 The future clergyman will no doubt become a 
 practitioner of knowledge, similar to the at- 
 torney, rather than continue the function which 
 first characterised his class, that of fonnal in- 
 struction. The knowledge practised, prescribed 
 
 82
 
 Tlie First Teacher 
 
 and promoted by him will include an ethical code 
 of traditional orig'in but modified and adapted 
 to meet modern conditions, and will embody a 
 fresh accession of knowledge derived from con- 
 temporary science. While still a teacher, and 
 the church still a school, the clergyman and the 
 church will probably become far more closely 
 related to social service than to formal instruc- 
 tion. The shifting to a new basis of effort is 
 evident in the many signs of change. 
 
 The general observance of a day of rest on 
 Sunday and the fairly common legal recognition 
 of Sunday give the church access to the atten- 
 tion of adults afforded no other educational 
 agency. The capacity of church buildings fa- 
 vours their use for instructional purposes. 
 At least by co-operation with lecturers and 
 specialists the church might easily maintain 
 courses of instruction supplementing the 
 formal curricula of the higher schools. 
 
 Improvement in method as well as change in 
 matter would affect the efficiency of the church. 
 The method of dogmatic statement, as in the for- 
 mal homily, precludes debate. The unmodified 
 lecture method of teaching, with no opportunity 
 for pedagogical discussions, places the typical 
 sermon or exhortation on a somewhat low level 
 of instructional efficiency. 
 
 83
 
 The Education of To-morrow 
 
 The special contributions of church instruc- 
 tion have been along the line of higher consump- 
 tional efficiency. In the middle ages religious 
 instruction essayed to prepare the individual 
 for meeting the requirements of an ideal future 
 environment. Later tendencies have empha- 
 sised adjustment to life as it now is. Practi- 
 cally no knowledge of direct productional 
 quality has been imparted, saving that related 
 to the monastic industries. The dignity of 
 labour or rather the duty of toiling in content- 
 ment has been preached with effects upon pro- 
 duction. The knowledge of the use of things, 
 of attitude toward the material values of this 
 world, of a scale of worth, has ever been incul- 
 cated. 
 
 The larger emphasis upon consumptional in- 
 struction is evidenced by the high place taken 
 by forms and ceremony, music, architecture, 
 colour, dress and decorum of formal services. 
 Those most appreciative of all forms of art have 
 usually been strongly attracted. The collateral 
 literature of the church, its hymns and litanies 
 and the sublimated phrase and finished aphor- 
 ism, appeals especially to those fitted by nature 
 or traditions for the enjojTiient of rare values. 
 Relatively less stress has been placed upon how 
 goods should be produced or distributed, the 
 
 84
 
 The First Teacher 
 
 current practices in these relations receiving but 
 secondary attention. 
 
 Increase in volume of knowledge lias com- 
 pelled the establishment of special agencies for 
 the diffusion of knowledge, with which the 
 church, in its knowledge-diffusing function, has 
 been unable to keep pace. In this function the 
 church has played in the past an impressive 
 part, but neither by present organisation nor by 
 catholicity of ideals as to knowledge values, does 
 the church seem likely to overtake in diffusional 
 efficiency the specially created instrumentalities 
 whose sole purpose is the discovery of new 
 truths and the dissemination of learning and 
 which are supported by the public as a whole 
 with singleness of purpose. 
 
 85
 
 IX 
 
 Other Agencies 
 
 Simple communication, the church, the press 
 and the specialist are more or less efficient dif- 
 fusers of knowledge more or less relevant to 
 the needs of life. Other agencies are also em- 
 ployed, and the need of still further agencies for 
 effective distribution is becoming widely felt. 
 Whatever knowledge exists in any one's con- 
 sciousness or preserved in print, having a bear- 
 ing upon human welfare, should be sent to the 
 points of need. That any one should suffer or 
 undergo loss from lack of information which 
 might be issued to him is a tragedy. Wlierever 
 exists a person who is injured through igno- 
 rance, to that point of need the agencies for the 
 diffusion of knowledge should transmit the nec- 
 essary information. 
 
 But knowledge alone is not sufficient. Ca- 
 pacity and intelligence must be present. Very 
 true, but since capacity and intelligence arise, 
 in the long run, from the presence of knowledge 
 and the attempt to make use of it, the personal 
 
 86
 
 Other Agencies 
 
 factors required for the good use of knowledge 
 are very closely associated with the process of 
 diffusion. Diffusion becomes the central fact in 
 the process of raising intelligence to the level 
 required for the good use of knowledge sup- 
 plied, and the indispensable condition of fa- 
 vourable adjustment to environment. 
 
 One commonly thinks of books as a chief 
 means of diffusion, and as such they underlie 
 the work of specific agencies. Books often fail 
 to give as much assistance as one might expect. 
 The average reader needs direction in finding 
 what he would profit by, and the material of 
 real value to him may exist as items of informa- 
 tion scattered through many volumes, a particu- 
 lar book often containing but little of impor- 
 tance for the purpose for which the search is 
 made. The reader who is not a specialist is 
 therefore often as much in need of direction as 
 of books alone. The assistance rendered by 
 well-organised libraries constitutes a most im- 
 portant step in successful diffusion. The 
 great number of books and their bewildering 
 appeals lessen the likelihood of the casual read- 
 er's wise use of them. 
 
 The interpreter of books is a necessity. 
 Print is weak compared with oral explanation, 
 accompanied by discussion and query. The 
 
 87
 
 The Education of To-morrow 
 
 public meeting, the convention, tlie civic center 
 at which free discussion is encouraged, and the 
 exhaustive consideration of essential items of 
 knowledge, possible when a company is assem- 
 bled and attention is fixed, make for lasting im- 
 pressions not usual in ordinary reading. 
 
 As an outgrowth of classroom instruction va- 
 rious forms of college extension have appeared. 
 Extension recognises the fact that adults who 
 cannot attend classes have needs for informa- 
 tion which should be immediately met. Uni- 
 versity extension, developed in England, and at- 
 tempted later in the United States, catered to 
 the interests of higher culture in communities by 
 lecturers who discussed literature and science. 
 This form of extension has been superseded 
 largely by the extension of knowledge bearing 
 upon the more obvious needs of various classes, 
 as farmers, mechanics and housewives. Agri- 
 cultural colleges have set standards of efficiency 
 in this form of activity. Lecture courses and 
 correspondence study for those living at a dis- 
 tance from the higher institutions of learning 
 are a means of a broader diffusion than is pos- 
 sible when the ideal of institutional service is 
 that of retailing information merely to those 
 who can enter the college gates. The whole 
 public becomes, under the ideals of extension, 
 
 88
 
 Other Agencies 
 
 the student body, and no small effort is spent 
 in diagnosing the needs of the audience and 
 transmitting pertinent facts to cure maladjust- 
 ments. A large issuance of bulletins and leaf- 
 lets, press letters and timely notes, serves to 
 place required information before the eyes of 
 readers at seasonable times. Given a basis of 
 general information on the part of the recipient 
 of such information, the practical aid thus ren- 
 dered is at once measured in increased crops 
 and better methods, better health and improved 
 conditions of living. Keplies to letters of in- 
 quiry addressed to scientists and experts, espe- 
 cially such as are connected with government 
 exjjeriment stations, form no small part of ex- 
 tension acti\dties. Thousands of letters are re- 
 ceived annually by various departments whose 
 work covers such fields as farm mechanics, 
 soil chemistry, seed testing, gardening, animal 
 industry, dairying, forestry, poultry raising, 
 and similar lines. Indeed the letters written in 
 connection with such inquiries are said to form 
 the largest correspondence school in the world. 
 Bulletin literature giving the results of investi- 
 gations of practical subjects, as paints, foods, 
 tillage, varieties of grains, fruits and vegetables, 
 issued by the federal department of agriculture 
 or by the colleges and experiment stations, is of 
 
 89
 
 The Education of To-morrow 
 
 great volume and tends to better methods of 
 production. Some bulletin literature misses 
 the mark by being written from the standpoint 
 of the experimenter rather than with only the 
 needs of the reader in view. Methods of ar- 
 riving at conclusions are of less popular inter- 
 est than the specific rules and useful facts which 
 investigations have established. The editing of 
 scientific bulletins for economy of the reader's 
 time and brevity of statement requires careful 
 attention. 
 
 Among extension activities that of providing 
 clubs and local organisations with materials of 
 use in debates, as bibliographies, subjects for 
 discussion and pamphlets and articles, marks a 
 forward step in preparing the public for civic 
 duties. Assistance in the understanding of 
 timely questions, whose discussion involves 
 serious study of political and economic prin- 
 ciples, can hardly fail to advance greatly the dis- 
 crimination of the public in regard to parties, 
 platforms, and public men. 
 
 A form of educational extension is that illus- 
 trated in the efforts of salesmen to enlighten 
 buyers as to the quality of goods and the uses, 
 advantages and makeup of manufactured ar- 
 ticles, especially machinery. Lessons in physics 
 accompany the sale of engines, agricultural im- 
 
 90
 
 Other Agencies 
 
 plements, vehicles, heating systems and "wind- 
 mills. Such lessons may fall from the lips of 
 the salesman or be thrust upon the inquirer in 
 the form of pamphlets and circulars. Individu- 
 als, like backward nations, may be mentally 
 awakened and extensively informed by the sales- 
 man. The instruction thus given is likely to be 
 one sided and unsystematic, but that a fair 
 amount of scientific information accompanies 
 the sale of manufactured articles is beyond ques- 
 tion. 
 
 Society has formally designed or suddenly im- 
 provised means of placing within reach of the 
 individual knowledge required in many of his 
 more obvious relations. The diffusional system 
 is far from perfect, however, many defects being 
 notorious. While the mass of mankind are en- 
 abled to get along after a fashion in the new 
 situations whose demands can be met only by 
 the application of former experience, or loiowl- 
 edge, the more perfect adjustments contem- 
 plated in civilised society fairly require a more 
 highly developed diffusional system. The ideal 
 is the placing of any knowledge at the disposal 
 of any one at any time of need. The impossi- 
 bility of doing this by storing the mind with all 
 useful information in the early years, an ideal 
 intimated by the term, a finished education, must 
 
 91
 
 The Education of To-morrow 
 
 be acknowledged. An approximation to the 
 highest ideal of diffusion is declared in the 
 words of Ezra Cornell, founder of Cornell Uni- 
 versity, '*I would found an institution where 
 any person can find instruction in any study." 
 Add to this aim that of causing the information 
 to find any person, and the ambitions of diffu- 
 sion are announced. 
 
 With the realisation that individual memory 
 is unable to provide the items of information 
 needed from time to time, dependence upon ref- 
 erence works and emergency helps has in- 
 creased. The lawyer does not hope to know a 
 tithe of the law. If he knows where to find the 
 law his professional conscience for scholarship 
 is placated. Such knowledge as is needed for 
 his more usual services is available from mem- 
 ory. In a sense the creation of a more highly 
 developed diffusional system is the expansion 
 of the idea of reference works. The state-paid 
 specialist or governmental department to which 
 one turns for information in exigencies is the 
 encyclopedia metamorphosed by evolution. De- 
 pendence upon reference agencies is likely still 
 further to increase with the expansion of learn- 
 ing and the complexity of relations to which 
 one is subject. The more mobile one's en\dron- 
 ment, the more one shifts his position geograph- 
 
 92
 
 Other Agencies 
 
 ically or socially, as by promotion, election to 
 office or change of residence, the more likely that 
 he will feel the need of asking questions. The 
 improvement of the means of supplying a 
 needed fact to any inquirer is therefore one of 
 the more urgent, if less obtrusive and conspicu- 
 ous, problems of social economy. 
 
 Some have looked in the direction of the 
 schools for the solution of this problem, and 
 university, college, and high school extension 
 have been thought to promise a solution. To a 
 very large degree these institutions may solve 
 the problem. The possibility of a considerable 
 development of extension work based on teach- 
 ing departments is large, and no doubt barely 
 realised. There is no reason why the teacher 
 of physics or agriculture, art or education, 
 should not touch the public at many points and 
 teach those outside his classes as well as those 
 within. The teacher's efforts, however, will no 
 doubt be mainly directed to the young people 
 who meet him from day to day, and who can 
 give their time to systematic study. Indeed the 
 strategic point in all public education is the 
 classroom with its quota of receptive students 
 whose interests as learners are undisturbed by 
 business and social interruptions. 
 
 But a fair contribution to popular enlighten- 
 93
 
 The Education of To-morrow 
 
 ment may be made by teachers through extra- 
 mural teaching provided the spirit of being of 
 public service animates the teacher. Why 
 should not the teacher of law, medicine, litera- 
 ture, sociology or psychology make use of any 
 opportunities not inconsistent with his class- 
 room duties to bring under his instruction men 
 and women unable to attend regular classes? 
 A better point of view and insight into the rela- 
 tion of his subject to general welfare is no small 
 part of the advantage of such double service on 
 the part of the instructors. Certainly any in- 
 cidental opportunities for such extra-class 
 teaching should be welcomed. 
 
 That there is an incompatibility between ex- 
 tensive extra-class teaching and the highest ef- 
 ficiency as a college or high school instructor 
 is beyond question. It is found that popular 
 lecturing requires a different kind of ability 
 than does institutional work and that the di- 
 vision of time between class and extension ac- 
 tivities makes for losses. The simplicity and 
 repetition which must characterise instruction 
 designed for audiences but slightly acquainted 
 with particular subject matter would be out of 
 place in college classes, whose acquaintance with 
 various bodies of information may be assumed 
 from their previous training. The populariser 
 
 &4
 
 Other Agencies 
 
 may deal in illustrations and ungrouped facts 
 in ways which are unnecessary in advanced 
 classes, in this respect employing the methods 
 of the teacher in the elementary schools. The 
 development of college extension to its fuller 
 usefulness will doubtless demand the division of 
 teaching function between the professor and the 
 field instructor. Two faculties will need exist, 
 one devoting its main efforts to a chosen number 
 who attend the higher institutions, and the other 
 going forth as emissaries of a gospel of science 
 adapted to the humblest and most frequently ex- 
 perienced needs. The organisation of distinct 
 departments of extension in the higher institu- 
 tions with statTs who make a special study of 
 what communities need in the way of timely 
 information and of means to supply such in- 
 formation seems to foreshadow the evolution of 
 the college with reference to the teaching of 
 adults not in actual attendance. 
 
 A variety of methods of conducting extra- 
 mural instruction have appeared, of which the 
 farmers' institute affords an interesting exam- 
 ple. A number of specialists in agriculture and 
 domestic science may spend a day or two, or as 
 in a plan emploj^ed at the Iowa State College, a 
 week, in a place, giving short lessons on prac- 
 tical topics, and demonstrations of better meth- 
 
 95
 
 The Education of To-morrow 
 
 ods, constituting a peripatetic school of most 
 utilitarian philosophy. If conducted in the win- 
 ter months, when large attendance may be se- 
 cured, such institutes result in the tuition of 
 many thousands who otherwise would be unim- 
 pressed with the importance of scientific meth- 
 ods, reading but slightly or giving little heed to 
 the less emphatic statement of similar ideas in 
 farm papers. Speakers at farmers' institutes 
 are called upon for counsel between times and 
 perform services with respect to crops and farm 
 management like those which the physician per- 
 forms with reference to disease. The addresses 
 delivered during a year in a given state form a 
 volume of peculiarly valuable information for 
 producers. 
 
 Similar to the farmers ' institute in nature and 
 scope of instruction are the vocational short 
 courses offered at various colleges and univer- 
 sities. Courses of a few days or a few weeks 
 are organised for any who may care to attend 
 them, no entrance examinations or credentials 
 being called for. Farmers, their wives and 
 children in this way attend college for a short 
 time for instruction in beekeeping, dairying, 
 horticulture, poultry raising, farm accounts, 
 animal husbandry, veterinary science, steam and 
 gasoline engineering, farm mechanics, drainage, 
 
 96
 
 Other Agencies 
 
 cooking, and sewing. The establishment of such 
 short courses at high schools prepared to teach 
 agricultural subjects enlarges the influence of 
 such instruction and relieves the higher institu- 
 tions of the burden of maintaining a special 
 staff of instructors and of providing room for 
 the large number who wish to attend. Young 
 men and women of the country find in the win- 
 ter short courses given at high schools or col- 
 leges a valuable opportunity. 
 
 The need for educational agencies differing 
 in methods from the secondary and higher 
 schools which maintain long courses and exact 
 substantial requirements for entrance is met in 
 part by business schools of bookkeeping, type- 
 writing and shorthand, by Y. M. C. A. and 
 Y. "W. C. A. classes, by night and continuation 
 schools, and by private correspondence schools. 
 With the decline of apprenticeship and the 
 growing unimportance of the home as a school 
 of industry has come about a demand for voca- 
 tional instruction which the public schools have 
 as yet in large measure been unable to afford. 
 A multitude of educational expedients are re- 
 sorted to pending the development of the public 
 schools and universities into adequate institu- 
 tions for the free instruction of the host of 
 young people who under present conditions of 
 
 97
 
 The Education of To-morrow 
 
 wealtli distribution have but little time that 
 may be spent in formal instruction. The pub- 
 lic school system can be of ideal service only 
 when the state insures to every young person 
 not only the facilities of education which con- 
 sist of buildings and instructors, but also main- 
 tenance sufficient to enable one to accept the 
 education which the state provides. Until such 
 maintenance is assured expedients will be nec- 
 essary to reach the youth employed in offices 
 and shops with such information as they most 
 urgently need. 
 
 A larger development of agencies to supply 
 information to points of need is made necessary 
 by the multitude of situations in which one must 
 play an unexpected part. Expansion of the 
 school system to include a wider range of sub- 
 ject matter and to reach a larger number of 
 students, either in residence or otherwise, will 
 do much to meet demands for information, but 
 the required information will often need to be 
 supplied by agencies that can reach the person 
 in need at a moment's notice wherever he may 
 be situated. Such service contemplates a finer 
 elaboration of knowledge diffusion than college 
 extension, as at present understood, attempts. 
 Hardly a day, even an hour, passes during which 
 one does not experience the need of information 
 
 98
 
 Other Agencies 
 
 which he might with delay and some trouble find 
 out for himself, or regarding which he is at utter 
 loss. In one's daily employment expense and 
 poor results are entailed very frequently for the 
 lack of information which might be made im- 
 mediately available. Reference books supply a 
 part of such information, but probably a major- 
 ity of the important questions that arise in the 
 daily life of the majority of people go unan- 
 swered, books not being at hand and the person 
 who knows not being of immediate acquaint- 
 ance. In fact ignorance is accepted as a normal 
 condition and a trial and error method meet- 
 ing emergencies and commoner demands be- 
 comes the practice. The instinct to ask 
 questions becomes atrophied and adults go about 
 their work and diversion mechanically, quite 
 oblivious to the possibility of improving their 
 adjustments by invoking the aid of knowledge. 
 Maladjustments are accepted as a matter of 
 course, and preventable loss and hardship are 
 undergone in a spirit of resignation bom of the 
 failure of knowledge-diffusing agencies to im- 
 press upon the pu])lic the habit of inquiry'. 
 When one finds himself in a position wlioro his 
 own knowledge fails, the first thought should be 
 of a source from which appropriate knowledge 
 may be obtained. How often on the contrary 
 
 99
 
 The Education of To-morrow 
 
 is ignorance accepted as inevitable. **I don't 
 know," is the common expression rather than, 
 "I am nnable to find out." 
 
 To encourage the tendency to seek informa- 
 tion when needed and to minister to the individ- 
 ual in his exigencies, enlargement of the diffu- 
 sional system seems necessary. The almost 
 universal use of the telephone supplies a factor 
 which might be employed to bridge the final 
 gulf of ignorance, provided the agency existed 
 at the other end for responding to the inquirer. 
 A national information department with bu- 
 reaus in localities suggests itself. Local bu- 
 reaus might be set up in public libraries or in 
 connection with educational institutions, to 
 which queries might be addressed. Certainly 
 no one person can be his own information bu- 
 reau under the complexities of modern life, and 
 assuredly there is no one, however resourceful, 
 engaged in active business or professional pur- 
 suits who would not profit immensely by being 
 enabled to call at once upon such dispensaries. 
 The present public library and college exten- 
 sion department represent the tadpole stage of 
 a greater diffusional system. 
 
 The assembling and convenient classification 
 of all important knowledge, particularly with 
 
 100
 
 Other Agencies 
 
 reference to that needed in the various com- 
 munities, and the development of a bureau force 
 of prescriptionists of information, with the 
 highest ingenuity of ofiice economy at their com- 
 mand, would effect a junction of supply and 
 demand in the world of knowledge, making for 
 the avoidance of human ills and positive gains 
 for civilisation. It should be possible for any 
 one at any time to call upon such state-sup- 
 ported bureaus for any needed information, 
 which, if not afforded immediately by the local 
 bureau, might be transmitted to the local bu- 
 reau from the central department, which with 
 its staffs of experts in the discovery and organ- 
 isation of data for general use would be a clear- 
 ing house of the world's stock of tested knowl- 
 edge. The employment by such national 
 department of agents to advise inquirers at 
 their places of business or farms and give spe- 
 cific instruction, illustrated in the assistance 
 given to farmers by visiting experts in Belgium, 
 Holland, and to some extent in the United States 
 to-day, would be implied in the scheme of dif- 
 fusion suggested. The teaching of the young, 
 which is the main province of the schools, would 
 thus be supplemented by a comprehensive sys- 
 tem for transmitting to any one in need such 
 
 101
 
 The Education of To-morrow 
 
 facts and principles from the total of organised 
 knowledge as the exigencies of the moment 
 might demand. 
 
 Indeed the congestion of information repre- 
 sented in the masses of published data, and 
 scientific articles and statistics now accumulated 
 in government departments and institutions of 
 learning and research, and by the publications 
 of penal, charitable and other institutions, sug- 
 gests the importance of establishing more effi- 
 cient means of getting information to the public. 
 Mountains of reports, bulletins, consular docu- 
 ments, and of miscellaneous printed matter, 
 from national, state, municipal and other public 
 sources, as well as similar matter from private 
 sources, are prepared with the hope that the 
 public will burrow its way through, or that the 
 person concerned will scent the item of interest 
 through tons of paper. The miscarriage of in- 
 formation and its wasteful oblivion when of- 
 fered in such forms are notorious. The print- 
 ing of matter for public use is but a step toward 
 its proper employment. Personal services are 
 necessary in order that the inquirer may not 
 have to constitute himself an expert librarian 
 or investigator and spend days or months in 
 collating information which system should make 
 available at request. Merely to make govem- 
 
 102
 
 Other Agencies 
 
 mental publications serve the purpose for which 
 they are prepared requires special means of dif- 
 fusion. 
 
 If in addition to making governmental pub- 
 lications more available a national department 
 of information sought to collect the essential 
 knowledge contained in other publications, and 
 especially attempted to bring together for ap- 
 plication to daily needs such information as 
 lies scattered and unorganised, in print or 
 not in print, the value of its services would be 
 immeasurable. 
 
 With the establishment of ampler means of 
 diffusion not only the victim of ignorance but 
 the man who professes a special knowledge 
 would benefit. The contractor, plumber, 
 trained nurse or physician often must confess 
 ignorance because of non-access to an organised 
 knowledge bearing upon their emplojTiients. 
 With stores of vocational information opened 
 through system there would need be little delay 
 in learning whether a cast iron pipe rusts less 
 full or empty, or whether a proposed artesian 
 well is within or without an artesian basin. 
 
 103
 
 X 
 
 The School 
 
 Thb particular agency established for the dif- 
 fusion of knowledge is the school. Other 
 agencies have preceded and others supplement 
 and coexist. But to the school we look as the 
 principal agency in the diffusion of knowledge. 
 The urgent importance of equipping all with a 
 maximum amount of valuable information, long 
 known or newly attained, which is felt increas- 
 ingly in the multiplying relations of civilisation, 
 serves to direct all eyes to the school and centre 
 the interests and sympathies of all upon educa- 
 tion as the guardian of what is good from the 
 past and applicable to present needs. 
 
 The greater amount of information required 
 now than formerly as a preparation for life and 
 the longer period of school attendance give the 
 school a strategic position in society. A virtual 
 monopoly of the pupil's attention for the first 
 one fourth or third of his life is, under ideal 
 conditions, assured. During this period such 
 ideas and portions of accumulated knowledge as 
 
 104
 
 The School 
 
 may be acceptable fo administrators of educa- 
 tion have almost exclusive claims upon the 
 learner. The opportunity of the school to shape 
 individual character and social conditions 
 through the medium of instruction appears cor- 
 respondingly wide. 
 
 The services of the school in the diffusion of 
 knowledge are registered in ever-increasing en- 
 lightenment and store of information among all 
 classes. The attainment of almost universal lit- 
 eracy is one of the greatest triumphs of the edu- 
 cational system. Learning to read opens up the 
 long road of social and personal advancement 
 and were the results of three centuries of popu- 
 lar education to be judged merely by the reces- 
 sion of illiteracy all the expenditures for 
 education would be justified. Reading knowl- 
 edge has the peculiar merit of being indispensa- 
 ble in nearly all the relations of life. There are 
 facts which one needs at rare intervals, or in a 
 narrow and infrequent range of relations, but 
 reading knowledge is concerned in so many re- 
 lations during all the years of life that no other 
 knowledge is comparable to that of how to read. 
 
 Much knowledge has flowed among the peo- 
 ple through other channels than the schools and 
 much which might have flowed through school 
 channels has been dammed up for lack of outlet 
 
 105
 
 The Education of To-morrow 
 
 in the teaching system, but in the wide dissem- 
 ination of the fundamentals of knowledge as 
 embodied in geography, natural history, arith- 
 metic, language, and the elements of various 
 sciences and cultures, differing with the period 
 and grade of school, the services of the school 
 have been such as to make even the feeble be- 
 ginnings of instruction represented by the little 
 red schoolhouse synonymous with the upbuild- 
 ing of the nation. 
 
 Among the peculiar advantages of the school 
 is the recitation. Much of what we merely read 
 we do not remember. KJiowledge needs to be 
 impressed to be at one's command. Class dis- 
 cussions tend to fix points in mind. Examina- 
 tions are a device to encourage remembering. 
 The casual reader does not master a subject as 
 does the student. The school employs various 
 means for making knowledge a real possession. 
 Other agencies may offer a larger bulk of in- 
 formation, but none impresses lessons more 
 thoroughly. 
 
 That there are limitations to the efficiency of 
 the school, arising from historical or other 
 causes, may be frankly recognised. 
 
 The importance of stimulating intelligence 
 and establishing thought habits has no doubt 
 had much to do with the origin and persistence 
 
 106
 
 The School 
 
 of the educational theory that it matters little 
 •what one studies so long as he studies some- 
 thing. Mental training has been sought 
 through the agency of knowledge not commend- 
 ing itself primarily for its applicability to the 
 later life of the learner, except as it results in 
 increased mental power and acceptable tenden- 
 cies. Under this theory considerable indiffer- 
 ence has appeared with reference to the 
 intrinsic value of information imparted, and 
 kinds of knowledge of doubtful utilitarian value 
 have for development purposes been ranked 
 high. 
 
 The prevalence of the disciplinary conception 
 of subject matter as contrasted with that of util- 
 ity has had much to do with the nature of ma- 
 terials descending to the present day through 
 the traditional curriculum. Knowledge which 
 entered the curriculum at an early period for 
 practical uses has in some cases been retained 
 after becoming relatively unpractical, for dis- 
 ciplinary reasons, and a mass of knowledge of 
 indifferent practical character has found lodg- 
 ment in curricula in default of strict evalua- 
 tion for practical values. Not only so, but the 
 gleaning of knowledge of intrinsic value and its 
 incorporation in the curriculum have been kept 
 in abeyance because of the dominance of the 
 
 107
 
 The Education of To-morrow 
 
 theory that it matters little what one learns pro- 
 vided he studies devotedly. Not to underrate 
 the vast services of the school as a diffuser of 
 valuable information, it is undeniable that inef- 
 ficiency has prevailed due to the unnecessary 
 antithesis of discipline and information. 
 
 So important is intelUgence in applying items 
 of knowledge and the happy knack of making 
 use of facts, that were non-utilitarian informa- 
 tion far superior for purposes of mental gym- 
 nastic it would need be conceded a wise practice 
 to fill curricula with such material. But it 
 can hardly be contended to-day that any pecu- 
 liar merit inheres in subject matter not relevant 
 to the needs of life. There are no mental fac- 
 ulties or powers which may be trained by non- 
 utilitarian knowledge which may not be equally 
 well trained by means of knowledge of intrinsic 
 value. Memory, reasoning, imagination, sensi- 
 bility and observation surely are highly involved 
 in the learning of information which one will 
 use in effecting necessary adjustments to the 
 world. Moreover, it seems reasonable that such 
 knowledge as one will make use of in later years 
 should be the same as that which might afford 
 the best mental drill and stimulation. Train- 
 ing the mind is the setting up of habits among 
 the conscious processes, and habits are special 
 
 108
 
 The School 
 
 in their nature. One may be trained to have 
 good judgment in dealing with certain data and 
 prove most injudicious in dealing with other 
 matters. The more unrelated to life the ma- 
 terials of study are the more likely would seem 
 the attainment of mental traits at cross pur- 
 poses with the needs of Hfe. It seems a ques- 
 tionable proceeding to train the mind 
 exclusively upon any class of facts not to be 
 employed in one's relations to environment. 
 Ways of looking at things and judging realities 
 may be deeply atfected by the kind of matter 
 one's attention has been given to during the 
 formative period. The burden of proof rests 
 upon the advocate of any system of training 
 mental faculties in which is not employed the 
 knowledge which the individual will probably 
 use in making his future adjustments. 
 
 Much has been taught because it was easiest 
 to teach in that the materials were most avail- 
 able. No subject matter is more abundant than 
 the forms of language. No subject meets tests 
 of value better than language, but on the other 
 hand, carried to extremes, possibly no subject 
 matter can be more useless. The existence of 
 the great classical languages with an extensive 
 literature afforded an opportunity in teaching 
 materials which was not sufficiently resisted. 
 
 109
 
 The Education of To-morrow 
 
 The difficulties of organising science by induc- 
 tion were avoided in the hyperdevelopment of 
 language instruction. 
 
 Command of one 's native language makes for 
 production, gives the instrument for adjustment 
 to distribution and satisfies through literature 
 the higher needs. Acquaintance with foreign 
 languages promotes these ends in diminishing 
 scale and varying with individuals. In appar- 
 ent disregard of the application to life of the 
 words and rules of foreign language, academic 
 instruction has laid emphasis upon verbal at- 
 tainments, and many curricula if stripped of 
 their content of foreign language would show 
 the utmost poverty. 
 
 Other types of knowledge have entered the 
 curriculum on a plane far removed from daily 
 needs. Metaphysics and logic, as cultivated 
 especially in the middle ages, elaborated ma- 
 terials obtainable by introspection and shunned 
 tests of practical efficiency. 
 
 Historical materials have been readily avail- 
 able and have, like languages, occupied much 
 space in curricula. Perhaps no kind of learn- 
 ing requires more careful winnowing to ex- 
 clude inert and even deleterious matter. In 
 history quantities of material may be found 
 which are of all grades of importance or of 
 
 110
 
 The School 
 
 none. The value of historical obliviscence in 
 promoting progress is not to be overlooked. 
 The individual would remain a child in many 
 respects if he forgot nothing. The childish 
 grudge, the wrong way of doing things, the 
 faulty conclusion, and the repulsive detail are 
 happily forgotten. So far as history parades 
 the barbarities, pseudo science, battles and de- 
 ficiencies of race infancy, it supplies undesirable 
 suggestions. The law, perhaps the least pro- 
 gressive of professions, takes its character from 
 the predominance of historical elements in the 
 lawyer's training. History should be so inter- 
 preted and presented that the pupil would not 
 feel the full force of ancient examples, if un- 
 desirable, constructive suggestions should be 
 disentangled and unwise fascinations guarded 
 against. Details of history, so abundant and 
 easily employed to build courses, may have lit- 
 tle place in one's equipment for the relations of 
 to-day. Indeed the reviewing of systems of 
 thought and social practices from the earlier 
 centuries tends toward an atavism. The school- 
 boy who after studying battles expresses regret 
 because Japan and the United States do not go 
 to war, and the Greek instructor whose outlook 
 upon modern life is from a standpoint two thou- 
 sand years removed, are examples. We need 
 
 111
 
 The Education of To-morrow 
 
 to forget liberally, while remembering wisely 
 what has happened in the past. Substantial 
 political progress and hopeful social innovations 
 have come from pioneer communities, as New 
 Zealand, Australia, and the United States, espe- 
 cially the West, where people have forgotten 
 relatively more of the past, where historical 
 knowledge is thin and far away. But in old 
 communities, where even the merest trifle of 
 family or neighbourhood gossip is embalmed 
 for years and where hoary institutions and 
 landmarks cite eternally to the past, the very 
 fundamental of advancement is defeated — ob- 
 liviscence. 
 
 So clogged with inert and inherently useless 
 items of knowledge may become various studies 
 that often the student of certain types of curric- 
 ula is surprised when he finds that his school 
 knowledge actually plays a part in his adjust- 
 ments. Often he seeks in vain for instances 
 where facts learned have proved of unmistak- 
 able value to him. In need of knowledge many 
 times a day to effect relations he relies in many 
 cases upon knowledge from extra-academic 
 sources. He has learned languages that are not 
 spoken by those with whom he deals, and 
 amassed knowledge that does not function no- 
 ticeably in his occupation and his home. He is 
 
 112
 
 The School 
 
 puzzled daily by problems to which his school- 
 acquired information does not apply, and pre- 
 ventable mistakes and losses show deficiencies 
 in instruction. Inquiry made of graduates as 
 to the extent to which various studies have 
 helped them after leaving the school often leads 
 to disclosures far from complimentary to the 
 value of certain courses as providers of us- 
 able information. Ammunition has been sup- 
 plied that does not fit the gun that must be used. 
 The bridge, in Caesar's Commentaries, is re- 
 placed by a different structure, about which 
 nothing to the point is known. Stray facts 
 about the classical bustard and the Andean con- 
 dor, of a certain value beyond doubt, help little 
 in the successful raising of poultry. 
 
 The lack of a larger amount of knowledge of 
 unquestionable value in the curriculum is partly 
 due to the diflSculty and expense of going afield 
 for more valuable information. The teacher 
 has been a conduit of the most accessible knowl- 
 edge, that which has entailed little expense. 
 Cheapness has been a principle governing the 
 organisation and impartation of knowledge in 
 schools. Subjects requiring apparatus and spe- 
 cial facilities for demonstration and illustration 
 have tardily gained admission to the more com- 
 mon schools. A classical college may be 
 
 113
 
 The Education of To-morrow 
 
 equipped with the materials of instruction at 
 about the cost of a high-bred cow for a school of 
 agriculture. 
 
 While it is true that the most valuable knowl- 
 edge consists of principles rather than percep- 
 tions of objects, and that the objectification of 
 knowledge may easily be carried to extremes, 
 the modest financing necessary to the teaching 
 of certain kinds of knowledge has too often been 
 lacking. Technical instruction has accordingly 
 lagged far behind types requiring less outlay. 
 
 The curriculum has been a faulty vehicle of 
 needed knowledge because of the dependent po- 
 sition of the teacher. Financial insecurity as 
 well as conservative supervision of materials 
 by the community has operated to reduce the 
 curriculum to conformity with prevailing no- 
 tions. Darwinism first made its way into the 
 universities, later into the high schools, and is 
 still on the waiting list of the elementary 
 schools. Public opinion has not been educated 
 to defer to the superior knowledge of the com- 
 petent teacher in matters coming particularly 
 within his range. 
 
 This limitation applies especially to instruc- 
 tion in civic questions. A free discussion of 
 taxation, the tariff, parties or the franchises of 
 local public service corporations would be im- 
 
 114
 
 The School 
 
 possible in the school. Accordingly the teacher 
 when dealing with political matters tends to 
 confine himself measurably to slavery, Henry 
 Vni, wildcat banking, the corn laws of Eng- 
 land, and cooled-off relics of past political bat- 
 tles. The contributions directly operating to 
 civic betterment coming from the schools are 
 limited. Only political questions which have 
 ceased to be active figure freely in instruction. 
 In view of the fact that perhaps the greatest 
 gap in ditfusion to-day is that in distributional 
 knowledge, the limitations of the school with 
 reference to imparting timely information are 
 the more conspicuous. Such limitations, how- 
 ever, are not necessarily irremediable. 
 
 Indeed the teacher determines the size of the 
 flow of knowledge of whatever sort. Any inef- 
 ficiency of the school as a diffuser of informa- 
 tion needed in the affairs of life rests largely 
 upon the practice designated as ''selling educa- 
 tional positions to the lowest bidder." Great 
 numbers of teachers are young and hastily pre- 
 pared and are inadequate as conduits of vital 
 information. Even where so-called profes- 
 sional training is imparted, which happens per- 
 haps in less than fifty per cent, of the cases, 
 the outlying information of the teacher is often 
 meagre and far short of what should bo 
 
 115
 
 The Education of To-morrow 
 
 available for instmction. Cultivated, broadly 
 read, large-minded men and women of maturity 
 and experience are rare in the common schools. 
 Narrowness of experience or interests on the 
 part of the teacher leads to stereotyped infor- 
 mation and unfortunate omissions. The first 
 requisite for dispensing knowledge making for 
 life adjustments is that the instructor have a 
 vivid consciousness of the more usual situations 
 in which knowledge will be required in the stu- 
 dent's later years. Such consciousness is not 
 common in the young teacher. The highest ex- 
 cellence of teaching can hardly be possible be- 
 fore maturity. The principle of cheapness in 
 education, which limits the contact of the teacher 
 with other people and opportunities for growth, 
 results disastrously upon his fitness for know- 
 ing and dispensing information of most worth in 
 the pupil's after life. So beside the mark may 
 be perfunctory teaching that many self-made 
 men bear witness to the fact that while not hav- 
 ing attended schools they nevertheless have ac- 
 quired through other agencies a stock of knowl- 
 edge in quality and quantity as excellent as that 
 gained by those who have attended schools for 
 years. 
 
 Certain ideals gained in experience with 
 young children persist and affect the efficiency 
 
 116
 
 The School 
 
 of the teacher. To the young child the whole 
 world is novelty and one fact is as important 
 as another. The teaching of the obvious be- 
 comes an educational practice not soon enough 
 discontinued. Bulky details of little signifi- 
 cance, which in any event would be very likely 
 picked up later in the course of casual experi- 
 ence, become substitutes for knowledge not 
 likely to be picked up and of more critical im- 
 portance. The fact, frequently illustrated, that 
 a child may omit a number of years of instruc- 
 tion and later measure up with children who 
 have never missed a day of school would indi- 
 cate that a large bulk of information may be 
 imparted which is unimportant or is implied in 
 the child's extra-school experience. This posi- 
 tion is supported also by the success obtained 
 by judicious parents in keeping absentee chil- 
 dren up with their classes by means of a short 
 period of instruction a day. A considerable 
 percentage of what is taught is pedagogical 
 surplusage. The practice of teaching the obvi- 
 ous, legitimate in the child's earliest days, be- 
 comes a barrier to school eflBciency if continued, 
 in that it admits into the curriculum too much 
 circumstantial information. Prolixity, the bane 
 of many courses in the higher institutions, evi- 
 denced in swollen syllabi and jjlethoric depart- 
 
 117
 
 The Education of To-morrow 
 
 mental courses, and in corpulent books whose 
 essence would require but a pamphlet, may have 
 its roots in the ideals of the primary class. 
 
 Aside from the perfection of educational 
 machinery and the development of a teaching 
 class of scholarship and maturity, the establish- 
 ment of principles applying in the testing of 
 materials for knowledge values seems indis- 
 pensable to the higher efficiency of the school as 
 a diffuser of information. Confined to impart- 
 ing but a small fraction of the total of knowl- 
 edge, one would think no question could be of 
 greater significance than that of the choice of 
 materials. Every item and scrap of informa- 
 tion should deserve its place in the information 
 which the schools impart. 
 
 In the main the intent of curriculum makers 
 has been to supply such knowledge as is needed 
 in life. Various accidents and uncontrolled 
 tendencies have, however, conspired to deflect 
 the aim. Every school study represents a mass 
 of experience with the world, and it is only with 
 reference to comparative values that educa- 
 tional reconstruction is warranted. Whether 
 the more salient relations of life are reflected 
 in the content of studies is a necessary inquiry, 
 but that the studies offered in schools in the 
 past have been based upon certain relations to 
 
 118
 
 The School 
 
 life cannot be denied. Tlie actual choice of 
 items of knowledge with which to build curric- 
 ula has been swayed, however, by a variety 
 of considerations in addition to considerations 
 of evident utility. 
 
 The school is destined to become an all-im- 
 portant agency for knowledge diffusion. Ham- 
 pered by the theory of formal discipline, it has 
 dealt too little with vital facts. But this theory 
 is becoming a thing of the past. The qualifi- 
 cations of teachers have been low, but better 
 teachers are arriving. Masses of inert, con- 
 ventional knowledge have clogged curricula, 
 but the tendency is to substitute learning of 
 proved value. Knowledge easily organised in 
 pedagogical form has been too much taught, 
 while knowledge by which to live has been 
 learned by chance. There must be careful 
 evaluations of knowledge, as well as excellence 
 of school equipment and general administration. 
 
 In the performance of its duties as a central 
 agency for accomplishing civilisation by means 
 of knowledge preserved and disseminated, the 
 school is undergoing change and improvement 
 hardly paralleled by any other institution. 
 From being the jest of literature the teacher has 
 arrived at a status of service and social recog- 
 nition which affords marked contrast with edu- 
 
 119
 
 The Education of To-morrow 
 
 cational conditions even a half century ago. 
 Educational effort is characterised by unremit- 
 ting inquiry as to better ways of carrying out 
 the trust imposed by the public and wholesome 
 unrest and aspiration for higher standards and 
 excellence of performance. When the indi- 
 vidual ceases to plan larger and better things in 
 his own life he bids for stagnation, not to say 
 decline, and much the same may be said of oc- 
 cupations and professions. That an employ- 
 ment is subjected to close scrutiny for defects 
 and the discovery of means of larger service is 
 a notable evidence of its evolution. 
 
 Eeadjustment to the demands of modem life 
 characterises education as perhaps few other 
 professions or branches of service. Educa- 
 tional questions are discussed with insistence 
 and vigour, and guiding principles are being 
 beaten out in a catholic research in which not 
 only teachers and school administrators but 
 the general public take part. Experimentation 
 in curricula and institutions is steadily yield- 
 ing results whose good effects are becoming 
 obvious. From being confined to serving a rela- 
 tively small number in limited ways the school 
 aspires to reach all with the broadest assistance. 
 Apprenticeship and home teacliing having les- 
 sened, the school extends its influence into new 
 
 120
 
 The School 
 
 channels of instruction, presenting instruction 
 for the technical pursuits, through the higher 
 institutions especially, and bringing moral and 
 cultural influence to bear supplementary to fam- 
 ily nurture. 
 
 121
 
 PART THREE 
 THE MAKING OF THE CURRICULUM 
 
 123
 
 c 
 
 XI 
 
 The Ctjreiculum and Democracy 
 
 Democracy depends not only upon the general 
 diffusion of knowledge, but upon the kinds of 
 knowledge diffused. Confined to knowledge of 
 production, the individual is slave, peasant or 
 exploited factory operative. Knowledge of con- 
 sumption alone makes one a parasite, while 
 those expert in distributional knowledge wax 
 rich and govern. It has commonly been ac- 
 cepted that democracy can survive only in na- 
 tions of popular education. The f ramers of our 
 government realised its importance, and pro- 
 vision for schools was made from the first. 
 Jefferson and Washington were clear-sighted in 
 their perception of the need of popular educa- 
 tion. Likewise labour leaders have from the 
 first espoused the cause of popular education, 
 believing that in it lies the means of greater 
 equality. 
 
 But it by no means follows that popular edu- 
 cation guarantees democracy. Indeed it may be 
 the source of undemocratic conditions, it may 
 
 125
 
 The Education of To-morrow 
 
 thwart democracy, unless the kinds of learning 
 dispensed are such as to promote democracy. 
 Does any one fancy that the teaching of history 
 in the German schools promotes democracy? 
 The mere fact of popular education by no means 
 assures democracy. Popular education may 
 promote democracy only when the curriculum 
 prepares the individual for the three great eco- 
 nomic processes of production, distribution and 
 consumption. When the significant types of 
 knowledge are unreservedly diffused through- 
 out society class distinctions melt and democ- 
 racy, so far as nature permits, must prevail. 
 
 How must the curriculum be formed in a 
 democracy? First, all should be trained as pro- 
 ducers. If all are trained as producers there 
 will be a tendency for all to continue to be pro- 
 ducers. Even very wealthy people who have 
 been trained to produce would no doubt con- 
 tinue to be useful, empty and extravagant leis- 
 ure having few attractions. Aimless idleness 
 does not appeal to the man or woman who has 
 been schooled in industry. Moreover, were 
 every one trained to produce, which means edu- 
 cated to do some useful thing in the home, on 
 the farm, in the shop or factory, in commercial 
 establishments or in professions whose services 
 inure to increased production, there would be 
 
 126
 
 The Curriculum and Democracy 
 
 throughout society an appreciation of the work- 
 man's needs and life which would make for sym- 
 pathy and the square deal. If the sheltered 
 classes knew from actual experience how slow 
 and painful often are the processes of produc- 
 tion, would there not be a new spirit in the 
 world? Let one raise even one cabbage, he will 
 then feel like paying the farmer a dollar for a 
 head. Think of the human experience repre- 
 sented in the package of codfish which the 
 grocer hands over the counter in the security 
 of the village store. Men risked their lives, 
 with women and children waiting on the shore, 
 to capture that codfish. There is danger lest in 
 the opulence of modem life and cities the funda- 
 mentals of production be lost sight of and whole- 
 some sympathies be dulled. It is often noticed 
 that when children of aristocratic families take 
 industrial work in school they undergo a change 
 of attitude. We can hardly expect one to be 
 democratic in sentiments and in political ex- 
 pression if unacquainted with the conditions of 
 labour. No democracy is possible without com- 
 mon acquaintance with production. Every pub- 
 lic school should accordingly teach every pupil 
 a reasonable amount of productional knowledge 
 and train suitably in productional processes. 
 The spirit of equality is engendered from ac- 
 
 127
 
 The Education of To-morrow 
 
 quaintance with the fundamental processes 
 of production. Acquainted with labour, the 
 wealthy on the one hand and the tramp on the 
 other tend toward democratic citizenship. 
 
 Not alone for the creation of democratic senti- 
 ment is industrial training desirable for every 
 child. Production raises society to a level be- 
 low which democracy starves for lack of ma- 
 terial support. The most progressive classes 
 and nations are those where there is high wealth 
 production. It is the skilled workman in Ger- 
 many who is leading the way to better condi- 
 tions in government. The producer is not only 
 likely to be alert in social relations, but it is the 
 massing of wealth from his labour which en- 
 ables society to rise above the philosophy of 
 serfdom. The slum dweller is a political reac- 
 tionary. Advanced ideas receive little welcome 
 below the level of skilled labour. 
 
 Training for consumption is equally neces- 
 sary to democracy, and it is in the school that 
 the more lasting lessons may be learned as to 
 what to want and how to use. If the child from 
 the poverty-stricken home learns what art and 
 music have to offer for human happiness, what 
 recreation and hygiene mean, what books and 
 travels yield for the expansion of life, and what 
 the amenities of life are, such child will grow up 
 
 128
 
 The Curriculum and Democracy 
 
 with redeeming aspirations not to be quenched 
 without a struggle for democratic opportunity. 
 The school may be a nursery of acceptable 
 wants. But on the other hand, if the cooking 
 classes aim to prepare meals on seven cents a 
 day the normal ambition for a full meal may be 
 distinctly discouraged. Let us say it frankly, 
 our children should be taught to want many 
 things beyond their reach. They should be 
 made pungently but optimistically discontented 
 with anything short of a generous life. Eesig- 
 nation and contentment with little are not vir- 
 tues so long as privations are due to social mal- 
 adjustments instead of the limitations of na- 
 ture. No one should grumble because the day 
 is hot, but he has a right to protest if an ice 
 trust doubles the price of ice that cools the 
 baby's milk. Democracy requires that the cur- 
 riculum offer a proportionate amount of infor- 
 mation of a want-producing type. Let there be 
 democracy of wants and democracy of satisfac- 
 tion follows. But there can never be political 
 or economic democracy while numbers are will- 
 ing to eat stale lunches in the sun. There is 
 enough or can be enough wealth in the world to 
 satisfy every reasonable want. It does not re- 
 quire a large amount of money to satisfy every 
 want of fairly well-trained consumers. Elimi- 
 
 129
 
 The Education of To-morrow 
 
 nating the wastes of competitive consumption 
 and the so-called conspicuous consumption, both 
 phenomena of undemocratic character, the 
 amount of wealth required per person in a civ- 
 ilised country for the satisfaction of wants 
 would be easily within the possibilities of pro- 
 ductive forces. Democracy has no motive 
 power except in similarity in the strength and 
 number of wants among different classes. 
 
 Economic democracy is rapidly being substi- 
 tuted in popular thought for theoretical polit- 
 ical democracy. This means the abolition of un- 
 necessary extremes of possession. The pluto- 
 crat and the pauper are alike foreign to the ideal 
 of economic democracy. A more equitable dis- 
 tribution of wealth is the desideratum. The 
 great public school system, then, would it has- 
 ten democracy, needs throw its forces toward 
 the solution of the problems which lie in the 
 way of more equitable distribution. Various 
 studies and many specific topics of research here 
 suggest themselves in connection with the knowl- 
 edge corresponding to wealth distribution, but 
 whatever specific materials of instruction are 
 employed the net result should be an under- 
 standing of the forces which to-day determine 
 the distribution of wealth and of the reasonable- 
 ness of remedies proposed for ushering in eco- 
 
 130
 
 The Curriculum and Democracy 
 
 nomic democracy. Assuredly in the face of the 
 greatest problem of modern cmlisation, the 
 distribution of wealth, the curriculum as one of 
 the greatest stores of information should con- 
 tain a large amount of the knowledge of distri- 
 bution. 
 
 Democracy is born, partly of general infor- 
 mation, but especially of knowledge of distribu- 
 tion. This is the critical information in the 
 reshaping of society in the direction of equal 
 rights. The new democracy of the United 
 States to-day is growing up fed by the maga- 
 zines which reveal a hitherto hidden knowledge 
 of how wealth is apportioned. Things have 
 been as they have been because the voter **did 
 not know." 
 
 Let us say, then, that the three types of 
 knowledge should be combined in the curricu- 
 lum. They should no doubt be combined in 
 about equal proportions, varying somewhat with 
 the previous instruction of the child, especially 
 that received at home and from his associations. 
 The child from the wealthy home would require 
 less instruction for consumption or that of a 
 different character from that of greatest profit 
 to the child from the tenements or the farm. 
 The farm boy, while especially in need of more 
 exact productional information than he has re- 
 
 131
 
 The Education of To-morrow 
 
 ceived on the farm, is especially in need of con- 
 sumptional guidance. He needs to be taught 
 recreation, social usage, speech and admira- 
 tions. The children of the lower economic 
 strata need lessons in citizenship and politics. 
 Now a public school system may contain all 
 these types of knowledge and yet miss the point 
 by differentiating pupils among the types of 
 learning. It is not only necessary to have the 
 various knowledges in curricula, but it is es- 
 sential for democracy that the three types be 
 combined in the education of every child. If 
 one school offers nothing but productional in- 
 formation and training, and another offers pre- 
 dominantly cultural or consumptional training, 
 and still another is identified mainly (which 
 rarely if ever happens in the public schools) 
 with distributional knowledge, you have an edu- 
 cational mechanism from which infallibly issue 
 social inequalities. Trade schools are very 
 good. They are needed. The rich manufac- 
 turer, on the lookout for labour, and the poor 
 man favour trade schools. Society needs 
 skilled producers. But let us not lose sight of 
 the fact that teaching a trade is but a part of 
 the duty of education. The necessity for trade 
 training should not, by design, inadvertence or 
 faulty pedagogy, be permitted to interfere with 
 
 132
 
 The Curriculum and Democracy 
 
 the development of the curriculum into perfect 
 harmony with the ideals of democracy. 
 
 The need of productional specialisation is in- 
 deed great, but much training to that end may 
 very properly bo postponed to the age of eight- 
 een or beyond — to an age when specialisation 
 ceases to clash with the best interests of the in- 
 dividual and society. The forcing down of 
 specialisation toward the early years of life is 
 undesirable. It is not even to be excused be- 
 cause ''the boy must go to work," for what of 
 our civilisation if children may not be allowed 
 to stay in schools? The state, which provides 
 education for all, halts in an illogical position 
 until those for whom education is provided are 
 enabled to accept the education which it offers. 
 
 Moreover, are we not hasty in admitting the 
 claims of productional specialisation? The di- 
 vision of labour has proceeded to great lengths. 
 Can it go much furtlier? Is it not still the man 
 of general intelligence who is in command? A 
 good many manufactured articles, produced 
 under minute division of labour, are really not 
 very necessary. The educator should not, it 
 would seem, feel a very heavy responsibilitj^ to 
 hasten the industrial maturation of the boy who 
 will assist say in the manufacture of giant fire 
 crackers or chewing gum. We are at a critical 
 
 133
 
 The Education of To-morrow 
 
 point in the shaping of popular education. 
 Shall we recognise social inequalities as they 
 exist to-day and perpetuate them by means of 
 unduly ditferentiated curricula and schools, 
 attendance upon which deflects the pupil to- 
 ward a social class? Shall education yield to 
 undemocratic tendencies or shall it on the other 
 hand correct undesirable inequalities in society 
 by bringing to bear its irresistible pressure? 
 Certain it is that education has it in its power 
 to control deeply the currents of civilisation. 
 What China was for a thousand years was de- 
 termined by the Chinese classics in the hands of 
 her school children. The Jew has been nur- 
 tured on his peculiar literature. The stamp of 
 one's learning is ineffaceable. "Would we pro- 
 mote democracy, let us have a care to the kinds 
 of information used in public schools. There 
 are tests to be applied to the minutias of infor- 
 mation, but here we are concerned with classes 
 of information. It is vital to democracy that 
 the pupil be supplied with ample and pertinent 
 knowledge fitting him for the fullest contact 
 with society in the great relations of produc- 
 tion, distribution and consumption. 
 
 134
 
 XII 
 
 Knowledge Values 
 
 There is an instinct and a passion for knowl- 
 edge, which shows clearly in the intense 
 curiosity of children. Human nature might be 
 graphically represented by a question mark. 
 This instinct for knowledge is so greedy that 
 rather than wait for tested knowledge, small 
 in quantity, the individual will often satisfy 
 the craving by accumulating a large bulk of 
 spurious or worthless information. The false 
 science of primitive peoples, their cumbrous 
 mythologies, the unconscionable rubbish of the 
 middle ages, and the abundant pseudo knowl- 
 edge that exists to-day are evidences of the 
 inherent unpopularity of the sentiment ex- 
 pressed by Bill Nye, ''I'd rather be ignorant 
 than know so darned much that ain't so." The 
 attitude of the scientist, that of suspended 
 judgment and critical evaluation of ideas, 
 marks a high level in race or individual. 
 
 Before entering upon an examination of the 
 values of knowledge there is need of caution 
 
 135
 
 The Education of To-morrow 
 
 lest mental products miscalled knowledge be 
 confused with knowledge. Of philosophy 
 President Jordan has said: ''Philosophy is 
 not truth; when it becomes such it is science." 
 Knowledge may be likened to money some of 
 which was coined in ancient times and some 
 of which is fresh from the mint. And like 
 coinage, knowledge, so-called, may embrace 
 counterfeit values. Into the circulating me- 
 dium of the mental world have been injected 
 large issues of spurious products. These con- 
 sist of dreams, whims, fancies, random impres- 
 sions, unverified opinion, dubious pronounce- 
 ments, erratic inferences, preconceptions, 
 prejudices, faulty history, mythological, super- 
 sensational and intuitional phantasms, imper- 
 fect observations and bizarre doctrines. 
 
 Knowledge is something in the mind that 
 corresponds to reality. It is the product of 
 experience. It is the result of one's direct ex- 
 perience with the world or the direct expe- 
 rience of others which is annexed by processes 
 of learning to one's experience. 
 
 I do not know by direct experience that 
 Julius Cassar invaded Britain. That is a fact 
 that is incorporated in my knowledge from the 
 experience of witnesses. We have direct ex- 
 perience with relatively few of the facts that 
 
 136
 
 Knowledge Values 
 
 form our stock of knowledge, but all facts not 
 of our direct experience have been gleaned 
 by the direct experience of others of our own 
 or past times. All knowledge rests back upon 
 the operation of the senses, and any combina- 
 tions of ideas, as in inventions, whether in me- 
 chanics, philosophy, literature or mathematics, 
 are, if real knowledge, verifiable by tests of 
 direct experience. Thinkers and inventors by 
 combining ideas gathered from their own and 
 others' direct experience create what may be 
 styled anticipatory knowledge, that is, a knowl- 
 edge which is subsequently verified by expe- 
 rience. In any case, however, knowledge to 
 be real must square with experience. 
 
 The most compact and serviceable knowl- 
 edge is that which consists of verified princi- 
 ples and general ideas. The billions of sep- 
 arate experiences of individuals with reality 
 are amenable to classification more or less 
 complete. The uniformities of nature permit 
 the formulation of general principles. We 
 know well at what temperature water will boil 
 under a given air pressure. The specific grav- 
 ity of gold may be settled once for all. Stead- 
 ily science has mastered and reduced to class 
 the multitudinous phenomena of the physical 
 world. In the world of life and growth, espe- 
 
 137
 
 The Education of To-morrow 
 
 cially in dealing with the most complex form 
 of life, man, the perception of general princi- 
 ples and the discovery of unvarying uniformity 
 makes slower progress. A network of inter- 
 twining laws challenges to supreme effort in 
 the fields of sociology, medicine, psychology, 
 and education. 
 
 The welfare of society demands not only that 
 the curriculum represent the fundamental 
 classes of knowledge, but also that whatever is 
 taught, the facts themselves, should be of 
 real value. The relatively worthless should 
 give way to the more profitable. If knowledge 
 exists for purposes of adjustment, it should be 
 possible to evaluate facts according to their 
 actual service in promoting right relations. 
 The schools dispense a vast amount of informa- 
 tion. There is a vast amount lying outside of 
 the curriculum. Is there material in the cur- 
 riculum that ought to come out and is there ma- 
 terial outside the curriculum which ought to go 
 in? By what are we to be guided in saying 
 whether a piece of information should be taught 
 in schools ? By what principles may knowledge 
 now in the curriculum be judged? In view of 
 the past of education it seems unwise to as- 
 sume that the maximum of utility is repre- 
 sented in the conventional studies or that a 
 
 138
 
 Knowledge Values 
 
 gleaning of knowledge from non-scholastic 
 sources for inclusion in the curriculum would 
 not be a profitable undertaking. How may we 
 know what to choose and what to reject? 
 
 First there is the test of introspection. 
 Wliat are the situations in my life in which I 
 need knowledge? Where have I been at a dis- 
 advantage because of ignorance? What losses, 
 failures, blunders, sufferings and omissions 
 have occurred because of lack of information? 
 In view of the large area of life which humanity 
 shares in common, an area lying outside the 
 pale of our specialisations and vicissitudes, we 
 may derive the values of knowledge to no small 
 extent from recollections of our own experience 
 and our consciousness of limitations and cir- 
 cumstances to-day. It should not be necessary 
 to learn the more valuable lessons of life by 
 experience. They should be learned in schools. 
 
 That information of the utmost value for ad- 
 justment lies outside of the curriculum is 
 shown, for example, by the non-inclusion of that 
 which deals with sex relations. On the other 
 hand, when reputable persons say that they are 
 not aware of the value to them of such and such 
 subjects which they pursued in school, the char- 
 acter of such subjects is seriously impeached. 
 A banker, who was formerly a teacher, ques- 
 
 139
 
 The Education of To-morrow 
 
 tions the value of the ** objective complement" 
 and similar topics in grammar. We should be 
 impressed with such comments. Indeed, and 
 here let the humility of educators assert it- 
 self — is it not for the man outside of the 
 schools to say what shall be taught? At least 
 is it not from the experiences of the mul- 
 titude that the educator has any warrant what- 
 ever for electing this or that bit of information 
 for impartation? Possibly the criticism of the 
 layman would not be a safe guide to educational 
 reconstruction, but the life experiences of the 
 layman nevertheless are the data from which 
 the schools may infer what to teach. Let the 
 information by which one thrives, and for lack 
 of which another suffers, in body, purse or re- 
 pute be panned out of the gravel of inert mat- 
 ter. In this process the testimony of mature 
 persons of discrimination should be given much 
 weight. No more than a court should give de- 
 cisions without taking testimony, should the 
 educator decide the merits of information with- 
 out the weighing of evidence. 
 
 The collecting of evidence as to the demon- 
 strated value of curriculum materials should be 
 a distinct and positive activity. Judicial no- 
 tice, so to speak, has already been taken by 
 progressive teachers of what is going on in the 
 
 140
 
 X Knowledge Values 
 
 world abont and the glacier of educational in- 
 heritance has been thawed deeply in spots, but 
 for the further den^elopment of education it 
 would perhaps be a wise project to establish 
 educational commissions for the taking of tes- 
 timony relative to information values, calling 
 as witnesses men and women of all classes — 
 physicians, editors, farmers, cooks, bookkeep- 
 ers, invalids, criminals and outcasts. Guided 
 by such evidence curriculum makers would 
 be able to expunge non-vital information and 
 incorporate in courses of study the most 
 important items. There would result fewer 
 cases of misfortune from ignorance. Is it 
 not begging the question to assume that the 
 conventional studies contain the saving knowl- 
 edge? Are there not many studies as yet un- 
 organised but representing welfare intensely? 
 Instead of a few textbooks, a dozen or two for 
 a high school course, possibly there should be 
 a hundred — of varying sizes. 
 
 It would be well to submit school books to the 
 criticism of men and women whose experience 
 has peculiarly qualified them for appraising the 
 value of items of information contained therein. 
 For example, the banker should be a good judge 
 of the relevance of the items and problems 
 gathered under the head of banking in arithme- 
 
 141
 
 The Education of To-morrow 
 
 tic. The physician, who deals largely with the 
 results of ignorance, should be in a position to 
 advise what to leave out and what to include in 
 a textbook on physiology and hygiene. Were 
 physicians to testify in regard to the cur- 
 riculum there would be fewer cases where the 
 knowledge to live by is omitted in favour of that 
 which perhaps forms a part of a logical system 
 but which may not bear so directly upon well 
 being. From persons who have failed might 
 be drawn suggestions for success. 
 
 Assuming a curriculum comprising in well- 
 balanced proportions the knowledge underlying 
 production, consumption and distribution, let 
 us note any principles applying to the choice of 
 particular materials. 
 
 Productional knowledge related to the more 
 important industries and most tending to an 
 abundant creation of wealth is evidently a de- 
 sideratum. The industries the most funda- 
 mental and employing the largest numbers 
 would accordingly make the largest demands 
 for expression in curriculum form. Of such 
 are agriculture, manufacturing, mining, trade 
 and transportation. The impossibility of fore- 
 seeing accurately at an early age what occupa- 
 tion the child will pursue suggests the wisdom 
 of scattering throughout the entire public 
 
 142
 
 Knowledge Values 
 
 school system fundamental knowledge from the 
 primary wealth -producing occupations. Even 
 should the child enter secondary industries or 
 professional life the knowledge of the arts and 
 industries which have a racial and economic 
 priority will make for wider sympathies and a 
 sense of social interdependence. Misunder- 
 standing and class antagonism could hardly 
 exist if all were taught in the schools the simple 
 elementary lessons of tilling the soil, caring for 
 domestic animals, and working with the com- 
 moner tools. For the girl an acquaintance 
 with the productive work of the home, as cook- 
 ing, caring for the sick, making clothes, elimi- 
 nating waste, gardening, repairing and making 
 over materials, and acquiring domestic arts 
 would be indispensable. The fact that the ma- 
 jority of women contribute to production as 
 homekeepers is sufficient warrant for teaching 
 to all the fundamentals of homekeeping science. 
 A goodly proportion of what the boy and girl 
 learn in the school from the very first should 
 consist of knowledge assorted from the basic 
 wealth-producing arts and industries, and none 
 should escape this instruction. 
 
 With inert materials cast out of the curri- 
 culum the amount that might be learned about 
 productional processes in a few years would be 
 
 143
 
 The Education of To-morrow 
 
 found surprisingly large. Every one might 
 know the essentials of one if not several trades. 
 The productional incapacity of most persons is 
 due to not having been taught. How long would 
 it take under good instruction at a proper age 
 to learn the plumber's or baker's trade? The 
 existence of a large amount of unskilled labour 
 is a reproach to educational efficiency. Why 
 should not every one be a skilled worker, or at 
 least fundamentally prepared for skilled work? 
 The essentials of the great productive indus- 
 tries may easily be supplied to all, as a basis 
 for any later specialisation and as a remedy for 
 social misunderstandings and class aloofness. 
 The experience of thousands is that their in- 
 struction in school veered away from the arts 
 and industries and left the learner every year 
 a little further away from the employments to 
 which the prime creation of wealth is due. The 
 possibility of teaching a large quantity of pro- 
 ductional knowledge without indifference to 
 other desired kinds is doubtless but slightly 
 realised. 
 
 In administering productional knowledge to 
 younger learners the insistence of the factory 
 for skill should be largely disregarded. Skill 
 results from, knowledge applied to a process 
 during a considerable time. To train highly 
 144
 
 Knowledge Values 
 
 skilled workmen requires a length of time not at 
 the command of the public school with its com- 
 plex duties. A broad productional knowledge 
 is possible in the schools, the impartation of 
 which should not be interfered with by pro- 
 longed attention to the acquiring of skill. 
 
 An important element in productional knowl- 
 edge is that having to do with natural resources, 
 wealth resting upon natural resources and hu- 
 man effort. The right attitude toward nature 
 in its economic aspects leads to increased pro- 
 duction. The wastes of fertility by erosion and 
 the disposal by ordinary methods of sewage, 
 bearing invaluable phosphorus, and the eco- 
 nomic importance of birds deserve considera- 
 tion. The bounty of nature, whether of forests, 
 fish, fur-bearing animals, coal mines, scenery, 
 or waters available for irrigation, dictates 
 many a specific lesson making for the con- 
 tinued well-being of man. 
 
 Inculcating the spirit of joyful labour would 
 result in vastly increased production. ^Vhile 
 extreme effort is made in a limited number of 
 industrial situations to-day to exploit the avail- 
 able energy of workers, dawdling and unhappy 
 leisure also prevail. Some are driven to the 
 verge of exhaustion, while among large classes, 
 as the children of well-to-do parents living in 
 
 145
 
 The Education of To-morrow 
 
 cities, women of the prosperous type, and men 
 of means or easy professional demands, exist 
 ennui and discontent due to lack of plain work. 
 If such industries as poultry raising, garden- 
 ing, farming, stock raising, woodworking, and 
 other employments possible at or near home 
 were taught, the amount of energy set free in 
 wealth creation would be much greater, and 
 many a bored citizen would experience the 
 pleasure that comes only from physical expres- 
 sion. The cult of sports and games entails one 
 of the greatest losses of productive energy. 
 Barred by caste considerations from employ- 
 ments pursued by inefficient distributees, aristo- 
 cratic classes developed expensive and time- 
 consuming sports. While games and sports 
 have peculiar values not here questioned, can 
 there be any doubt as to the studied irrelevance 
 of much recreation and its testimony to a wrong 
 attitude toward labour? Knowledge taught 
 with a view to bringing about a rational atti- 
 tude toward taking part in raising things and 
 making things of real use would swell the total 
 of real wealth in a large degree. To the non- 
 productive cult of sports and games the educa- 
 tional system has yielded too ready assent. 
 
 In a word the schools should teach how 
 wealth is created, from what created, and the 
 
 146
 
 Knowledge Values 
 
 spirit of creation. The typical tools used in the 
 various major industries should be made fa- 
 miliar to all by explanation and use. The evo- 
 lution of tools and instruments suggests an im- 
 portant chapter in such instruction. As direct 
 acquaintance as is possible should be sought 
 with the characteristic processes in agriculture 
 and in the manufacture of iron, wood, fibres, 
 metals and materials of commonest use. The 
 conditions uniting to maintain a high level of 
 production, as health, cheerfulness, aesthetic ap- 
 preciation and productional organisation, re- 
 quire special attention. Such conditions as 
 paralyse production, as indifference and ani- 
 mosity toward the work on which one is en- 
 gaged, call for remedies that the curriculum 
 might prescribe in its studies of production. 
 
 All should be familiar with the principal ma- 
 terials employed in manufacturing processes, 
 whatever their origin. A great deal of ob- 
 scurity rests upon materials in common use as 
 meats, paper, spices, gums, metals, foods, 
 grains, and pottery. Perhaps the industries of 
 one's own neighbourhood are understood, but 
 often not even these. The industrial worker 
 may not even have a vision of the processes 
 through which the article to which he con- 
 tributes a part passes, and his vision of the 
 
 147
 
 The Education of To-morrow 
 
 origin of materials is often unbelievably 
 limited. Despite bulkiness of publications and 
 the altitude of the brick walls of factories and 
 the breadth of acres comprising farms, there 
 is little in the productional system which may 
 not be readily apprehended in outline and serve 
 as a basis for a far more general productional 
 intelligence than prevails. One may spend a 
 lifetime in thought upon improvements of the 
 mowing machine, but a few moments ' consider- 
 ation suffices to inform the student of its prin- 
 ciples. 
 
 The school may wisely attempt to inspire 
 with inventiveness, resolution, the adventure 
 sanctioned by civilisation, and the spirit of per- 
 sonal achievement in making two blades grow 
 in place of one. The pride of large production 
 may be encouraged, and the producer be made 
 to rise in the social scale to his proper level. 
 The suggestion of ideals of production, taking 
 the place of anti-pro ductional militarism and 
 commercial exploitation, makes for increase in 
 the world's wealth. 
 
 A general survey of the methods of produc- 
 ing and acquaintance with the principles apply- 
 ing in the various industries, foreign as well as 
 local, are desirable during the earlier years of 
 one's life and before the choice of an employ- 
 
 148
 
 Knowledge Values 
 
 ment is fixed. Some concession may be made 
 to local materials and processes, but the impos- 
 sibility of wisely determining careers by the ac- 
 cident of locality of birth, or childish impres- 
 sions, is evident to every one who remembers 
 his first ambitions as to a life occupation. The 
 inability of the immature to decide their life oc- 
 cupations admitted, the foisting upon them of 
 premature determination of vocation is to be 
 guarded against. Because a boy is born in a 
 fishing village in no way commits him to smell 
 mackerel the rest of his days. The flow of 
 profits to an industry may wisely be allowed to 
 determine who and how many should engage in 
 it. 
 
 Whatever facts having productional value 
 are assembled in the curriculum, they should 
 be referable to the principle of maximal use- 
 fulness. In determining the relative utility of 
 productional knowledge the experience of ex- 
 pert observers should count for much. If many 
 have felt the need of certain information many 
 times, such information commends itself for ad- 
 mission to the curriculum. By interviewing 
 producers, and the unskilled who have failed 
 for lack of specific information, it should be 
 possible to construct studies having a maximum 
 of facts promoting the welfare of the would-be 
 
 149
 
 The Education of To-morrow 
 
 producer. The main lines of industry are to be 
 sought out, and the most common and indis- 
 pensable products noted. The forces playing a 
 part in the creation of the volume of goods are 
 to be analysed and the significant fact having 
 value as a guide to future production carefully 
 retained. Knowledge which lurks in the 
 trades, where indeed much productional knowl- 
 edge has developed unnoticed by the schools, 
 should yield its more valuable portions for the 
 building of a body of learning for general im- 
 partation. What knowledge do they have who 
 are skilful, industrious, employed! What do 
 they lack, who, rich or poor, are ignorant of 
 production, consuming without adding to the 
 world's wealth? The inquirer may find in 
 the workshop, the quarry, the factory, and on 
 the farm typical situations calling for knowl- 
 edge, and from such situations that produc- 
 tional knowledge having greatest worth may be 
 derived. Ask yourself when you see a watch, a 
 garden, an engine, a gun, a pound of butter, a 
 sack of flour, a typewriter, a pencil, a can of 
 fruit, a picture moulding, a wicker chair, a tile 
 floor, a nickel-plated knob, a printed page, a 
 piece of lead, a silk tie, or a button, what you 
 know about making these things. Ignorance 
 points to defects in education and suggests ad- 
 
 150
 
 Knowledqe Values 
 
 ditions to the course of study. Notice how 
 many times a day you find yourself in need of 
 knowledge, especially if you start out to make 
 anything. Perhaps you were trained to use but 
 not to produce, to wear but not to shear the 
 fleece. Were it not for the knowledge picked 
 up casually outside of the school, the student 
 would oftentimes be the most helpless of beings. 
 Not until the curriculum pursued during the 
 earlier years of schooling, to confine the discus- 
 sion to the period ending with the close of the 
 high school course or thereabouts, is sufficiently 
 based on the productional needs of the indi- 
 vidual and society can it be defended as a gen- 
 erous preparation for life or merit enthusiastic 
 public support. 
 
 The productional aspect of the work of the 
 teacher, physician, lawyer, statesman, and busi- 
 ness man should not be overlooked, but more 
 truly discriminated. Not in the manipulation 
 of crude materials does production alone exist. 
 The productivity of ideas and of system in 
 carrying on business demands liberal treatment 
 in a curriculum designed to maintain or in- 
 crease wealth production. 
 
 Did the production of wealth imply its dis- 
 tribution in proportion to one's contributions 
 to the wealth total, one's knowledge as a pro- 
 
 151
 
 The Education of To-morrow 
 
 ducer would also suffice for him as consumer. 
 But tlie fact that wealth is not divided upon the 
 basis of one's contribution to its production is 
 obvious. There accordingly arises a need for 
 the incorporation in the curriculum of kinds of 
 knowledge fitting the individual to make sure 
 of his share of the wealth total. What prin- 
 ciples should govern in the selection of cur- 
 riculum materials designed to train the efficient 
 distributee ? 
 
 Some light is thrown upon this question by 
 considering the knowledge characteristic of 
 those who are successful takers of wealth and 
 the knowledge or ignorance of others who share 
 imperfectly in what is produced. What sort of 
 knowledge is it which enables one to share 
 freely in the social total of wealth and lacking 
 which another receives only the amount re- 
 quired for crude maintenance? That knowl- 
 edge which is the advantage of one class and 
 whose absence is a primary cause of the eco- 
 nomic disadvantage of other classes is evidently 
 such as curricula formed under the democratic 
 ideal should include. 
 
 The intimate relation naturally existing be- 
 tween one's efficiency as maker and taker is 
 not to be disregarded. To a large degree 
 poverty is due to absence of production, and 
 
 152
 
 Knowledge Values 
 
 to make the individual a larger producer is to 
 increase his receipt of wealth. Unless wealth 
 is created there can be none to apportion, and 
 even under a faulty distributional system the 
 inefficient distributee is bound to receive more 
 wealth as his share if he live where a high 
 level of production prevails. The skilled 
 labourer requires a certain amount to live on to 
 maintain his productional efficiency, and regard- 
 less of whether or not he knows how to assert 
 his claim to income he is sure to be lifted to a 
 standard of living not possible in communities 
 where a low level of production obtains. 
 Despite such considerations, however, the ad- 
 vantage of special distributional information is 
 notorious. The inventor may not rely upon 
 even vast contribution to wealth to insure him 
 income, and on the other hand the riches of 
 ambiguous promoters may rest on a basis of 
 production so slight as to be negligible. 
 
 The peasant and sweatshop operative are 
 notable as inefficient distributees, and alike rep- 
 resent ignorance of certain classes of facts. 
 Their indifference to civic administration and 
 public questions, and their blind adoption of 
 social conventions, tend to their imdoing. The 
 Russian peasant goes to war to support the pri- 
 vate business deals of the court clique. The 
 
 153
 
 The Education of To-morrow 
 
 sweatshop worker gives his vote away or is 
 jockeyed out of it by specialists in politics. In- 
 difference to acquiring the ballot and ignorance 
 in its use account in some measure for meagre 
 incomes. Ignorance of law and government 
 characterises the impoverished classes every- 
 where. Such knowledge as makes for intelli- 
 gent voting and dispels obscurity as to the true 
 inwardness of political manoeuvres and govern- 
 mental policies lies at the threshold of dis- 
 tributional equity. 
 
 The farmer is an example of the individual 
 bound by custom and blind to the operation of 
 distributional laws. Historically, with special 
 exceptions, the farmer has been ultra conserva- 
 tive in regard to political opportunity. He has 
 voted "straight" and accepted policies if la- 
 belled with traditional names. His economic dis- 
 advantage issues from political lethargy, which 
 some have been pleased to term stability. He 
 has looked for leadership to men from other 
 callings, and has uniformly been represented in 
 legislation by men whose first obligations were 
 to other occupations and other interests. How 
 complete a divorce between productional ability 
 and civic efficiency may exist is illustrated in 
 the necessity felt by the labour party in Austra- 
 lia to select their leaders from the younger men 
 
 154
 
 Knowledge Values 
 
 in the professions, whose fidelity might be 
 counted on and whose insight into government 
 was superior. To the practice of securing 
 such leadership the labour party in Australia 
 owes much of its recent success. The American 
 farmer has lacked in civic information and has 
 been unsuccessful in effectuating a real repre- 
 sentation of his interests through his supposed 
 representatives. Such knowledge as would 
 qualify the farmer, labourer and housewife to 
 mould the laws, either by personal attainment 
 or by making use of the talents of others, evi- 
 dently should be liberally supplied as parts of 
 an ideal curriculum by which these classes are 
 mentally nourished. 
 
 Knowledge affording an historical and socio- 
 logical approach to public questions is of high 
 value. With advancing civilisation evolution 
 must supersede revolution. The interlocking 
 of all social interests makes revolutionary 
 change destructive and puts a higher value upon 
 constructive measures than upon blunt demands 
 and drastic revolts. For the evolutionary ap- 
 proach to civic problems related to distribution 
 a large view of social principles and economic 
 history is demanded. This the curriculum 
 should make possible. 
 
 The prominence of organisation in affecting 
 155
 
 The Education of To-morrow 
 
 income suggests a large field of necessary in- 
 formation. The competition of individual 
 with individual has increasingly disappeared 
 before competition of group with individual, a 
 most unequal contest, which in turn must yield 
 to competition of group with group. The in- 
 dividual who stands unorganised before organi- 
 sation suffers exploitation without possibility 
 of successful resistance. His salvation depends 
 upon his seeking shelter under an organisation 
 with others in like status. The depredations 
 of the trust are made possible by the unorgan- 
 ised status of large numbers, who might by spe- 
 cial organisations, or, preferably, by engaging 
 an already formed organisation, their govern- 
 ment, set up defences against monopoly profits, 
 extortionate charges, and the seizing of nat- 
 ural resources. 
 
 "What organisation is, how effected, its rela- 
 tion to existing laws, its evolution, the testi- 
 mony of other countries with reference to the 
 evils, benefits and control of organisations, and 
 the special information involved in advancing 
 desirable and checking undesirable organisa- 
 tions must enter into the public consciousness 
 far more than heretofore if the extremes of 
 wealth and poverty which are mounting up 
 under modem conditions are to be replaced by 
 
 156
 
 Knowledge Values 
 
 such diffusion of wealth as makes for general 
 welfare. Drill in organising meetings, putting 
 questions and appointing committees should be 
 among the exercises of all public schools. Any- 
 thing like economic parity is impossible as long 
 as the knowledge peculiar to organisation is a 
 sealed book to large numbers. 
 
 Of special importance is the knowledge which 
 reveals how government may go astray. The 
 problem of graft has engaged the best energies 
 of special students. Able writers have visited 
 the very laboratories of graft and, so to speak, 
 microscopically examined graft cultures. Yet 
 the difficulty of learning the devious ways of 
 graft has been so great, notwithstanding the 
 simplicity of the subject to the initiated, that 
 the general public is still in the kindergarten 
 class with reference to fulness of knowledge 
 about this most important subject. The cur- 
 riculum should certainly contain the most sig- 
 nificant facts that have been established on the 
 subject of the relation of private interests to 
 city, state and national government and fairly 
 show the typical ways in which dishonest or 
 overtempted men betray the public. Let graft, 
 as a preventive study, by all means find a place 
 in the ci\dc instruction imparted in the schools, 
 care being taken lest the cunning of grafters 
 
 157
 
 The Education of To-morrow 
 
 be an ideal rather than an object of aversion. 
 
 Knowledge should be laid bare to the public, 
 through the curriculum, touching the operation 
 of laws that have much to do with perpetuating 
 or creating miscarriage in distribution. The 
 tariff, under which many believe the swollen 
 fortunes of some and the anemic fortunes of 
 others have been determined, requires illumina- 
 tion with the aim of general welfare in view. 
 Untested tariif theory and ex parte legislation 
 should give way to intelligence on so important 
 a matter. The confessed ignorance of a large 
 part of the public on such a matter as the tariff 
 argues how destitute of vital distributional in- 
 formation much of the teaching of the past 
 generation has been. Such ignorance is prima 
 facie evidence of serious omissions in a course 
 of study in public schools designed among other 
 aims to help the citizen to suitable adjustment 
 in his economic relations. 
 
 The enormous power of systems of taxation 
 to throw wealth to and from distributees must 
 be reckoned with in compiling that information 
 which makes for intelligent citizenship. And 
 upon this subject popular ignorance is notori- 
 ous. Were the subject of taxation as well 
 understood generally as the military strategy 
 
 158
 
 Knowledge Values 
 
 of the American revolution, a system of assess- 
 ment that persecutes two hundred dollar pianos 
 and is indifferent to millions in stocks and 
 bonds would ere this have been materially modi- 
 fied. Wherever law or custom affects income, 
 there exists a node around which educational 
 subject matter should be organised. 
 
 Far too little light is shed by the educational 
 system upon the transmission of wealth by in- 
 heritance. So uncritical is the popular atti- 
 tude with regard to the subject of inheritance 
 that grave injury is often suffered without com- 
 plaint. The right to transmit property is a 
 purely legal invention, resting upon social ap- 
 proval. The decedent by the fact of his death 
 loses physical control of his goods. Such 
 rights as exist with reference to their disposal 
 thereafter are conceded by society. It accord- 
 ingly implies a non-alertness among the public 
 when legacies are passed irrespective of the in- 
 terests of the public as occurs when vast 
 amounts of socially created wealth descend by 
 will — of the individual. The critical relation 
 of the laws of inheritance to married women 
 should itself make imperative a far greater il- 
 lumination of the general subject than is com- 
 mon. Much of the knowledge, which attorneys 
 
 159
 
 The Education of To-morrow 
 
 and probate judges mainly possess, on the de- 
 scent of property should be a common posses- 
 sion. 
 
 The possibilities of wealth arising from in- 
 terest-taking appeal more especially to the in- 
 itiated. The relation to individual welfare of 
 military expenses, necessitating the issuance 
 of national bonds on which the citizen and his 
 descendants will pay charges, deserves more at- 
 tention than it receives. The almost limitless 
 power of capital over states, municipalities, and 
 nations, through loans representing a mortgage 
 on the future production of society, would if 
 more graphically appreciated, militate against 
 extravagant expenditures. Indeed the poorer 
 the individual is the more is his need, ap- 
 parently, of schooling in interest. The usuri- 
 ous loan office exploits the ignorance which pre- 
 vails among the needy as to the significance of 
 interest. 
 
 The rule which should prevail governing the 
 choice of distributional subject matter for the 
 curriculum is that of consulting the points of 
 distributional maladjustment in society and 
 formulating knowledge specifically designed to 
 effect improvement. The essential fact is to 
 be sought which gives exploitative power to the 
 large taker of wealth, and ignorance of which 
 
 160
 
 Knowledge Values 
 
 lames the inefficient distributee. If two men 
 produce an equal amount of wealth, and one 
 grows rich and another poor, let the knowledge 
 functioning to produce the disparity be sought 
 out and thrown into the stream of common in- 
 formation. If the lawyer's office or the lobby of 
 the capitol holds secrets inuring to the hardship 
 of the average citizen and giving the insider 
 unconscionable advantage, let such knowledge 
 be disseminated. Occupational knowledge, so 
 far as it is distributional in character, 
 should be a common mental content, that 
 greater fairness may exist in the relations of all 
 toward the wealth total. 
 
 The curriculum should open to receive infor- 
 mation not now included, knowledge which in 
 some cases needs be dug out of its matrix in 
 quasi predatory occupations. Such informa- 
 tion as tends to place equal producers of wealth 
 on a parity as distributees and correct the 
 anomalies which are everywhere attracting the 
 attention of thinking men is highly desirable. 
 The curriculum of the more common schools is 
 notably lean in information vital to distribu- 
 tees. And indeed what little appears under the 
 term civics or political science is often a mere 
 formalism affording little real insight. Of the 
 two governments, that on paper and that of 
 
 161
 
 The Education of To-morrow 
 
 reality, knowledge of the latter is for practical 
 purposes quite superior. 
 
 In the choice of subject matter whose pur- 
 pose is adjustment to ideal standards of living, 
 principles are to be observed which rest on the 
 most usual needs of consumption. Such knowl- 
 edge as is commonly employed in the culture of 
 the refined and discriminating commends itself. 
 Models of living based on wise and worthy char- 
 acters form no small part of desired culture. 
 Considering the limits which must always pre- 
 vail with reference to the wealth the individual 
 may employ for the gratification of his wants, 
 the economical expenditure of money and the 
 avoidance of waste in the use of materials are 
 especially important. The opening of the 
 gates to larger consumption by social owner- 
 ship, as of parks, art galleries, books and facili- 
 ties for travel indefinitely expands the possi- 
 bilities of consumption. 
 
 As a basis of well-being health deserves spe- 
 cial emphasis. Both ideals of physical perfec- 
 tion and specific information for the preserva- 
 tion of health and for longevity are required. 
 All enjoyment of wealth miscarries in the ab- 
 sence of physical integrity. 
 
 Eelated to hygienic knowledge is that which 
 inspirits life by recreation and diversion. 
 
 162
 
 Knotvledg^e Values 
 
 Those who do not know how to play and who 
 fall victims to too great intensity and concen- 
 tration in business suggest a wider diffusion of 
 knowledge tending to increase the joys of life. 
 Many who are the most laborious, and who be- 
 cause of their services as producers would es- 
 pecially seem to merit relaxation, are untutored 
 in diversion and spend monotonous lives. The 
 spirit of play, rightly directed, is an important 
 element in the training of efficient consumers. 
 
 Art, poetry, music, travel and social situa- 
 tions of aesthetic tone, are identified with the 
 higher uses of wealth. It is unfair to deprive 
 the learner of such introductory knowledge of 
 the higher goods as will ena])le him to find sol- 
 ace in literature and artistic creations. The 
 blacksmith who can read with appreciation and 
 see with feeling is a type which more evenly 
 balanced curricula should make more com- 
 mon. Shakespeare is a part of an ideal equip- 
 ment of knowledge as well as how to count. 
 The indictment against polite learning is not 
 that it is in itself not related to welfare, but 
 that the schools too often have in emphasis 
 upon it fallen short of fitting for the various 
 other demands of environment. Emphasis has 
 been placed upon partly irrelevant culture and 
 some of the basic knowledge required for rais- 
 
 163
 
 The Education of To-morrow 
 
 ing standards of living among all classes has 
 received too little attention. 
 
 Eelevant consumptional knowledge is of su- 
 perior importance inasmuch as the processes of 
 production and distribution culminate in the 
 use of goods. To produce and share is merely 
 a step toward the application of what is pro- 
 duced to the various needs of the user of com- 
 modities. It is only unwise or excessive con- 
 sumptional or cultural training which may 
 merit criticism. 
 
 It may be objected that the enjoyments of 
 life are far broader than implied in the con- 
 sumption of manufactured articles and goods 
 having commercial value and that the higher 
 values are those to which economic terms do not 
 apply. For example, friendship is not bought 
 or sold. But even the higher values appear in 
 association with leisure, health and a pros- 
 perity resting upon wealth accumulation, and a 
 liberal use of the word consumption may be 
 permitted to include the amenities and rela- 
 tionships which thrive best where wealth 
 abounds and in social strata inheriting the cul- 
 ture which formerly acquired wealth made pos- 
 sible. 
 
 Under-education for consumption is revealed 
 in low standards of popular music, shapeless 
 
 164
 
 Knowledge Values 
 
 architecture, ill-kept homes and streets, unjusti- 
 fiable fashions and sensationalism in literature 
 and manners. Great areas of life exist, as in 
 the slums, where there is lack of knowledge as 
 to how to make good use of what little wealth 
 is at hand. Intemperance, vice, gluttony, the 
 unwise use of patent medicines, crass be- 
 haviour, and psychical deafness to the higher 
 notes in human life, wherever displayed, show 
 the need of instruction in the consumptional re- 
 lation. Barbaric display and the unrestrained 
 expenditure of money for caprice and emula- 
 tion and the erosion of wealth through so-called 
 high life indicate that not alone in slums and 
 hovels is revealed the prevalence of faulty con^ 
 sumption. 
 
 How inadequate the culture which leaves the 
 multitude lacking in essentials of rational cul- 
 ture may be inferred. A conventionalised cul- 
 ture, with over-attention to the more excep- 
 tional social situations, has failed to give the 
 help to the ordinary consumer which it should 
 be the aim of the school to provide. Foreign 
 language, with its insinuation of ample means 
 to meet the expenses of travel and leisure for 
 social intercourse in distant capitals, exotic 
 art pursued as introductory to seeing originals 
 in European galleries, and ideals of sport de- 
 
 165
 
 The Education of To-morrow 
 
 veloped in the leisure class par excellence of 
 England have figured in cultural training often 
 to the neglect of instruction making for wise ex- 
 penditures and simple enjoyments among the 
 ninety and nine who have but a few dollars to 
 spend. 
 
 As deeply affecting the circumstances under 
 which happiness is attained, moral training be- 
 comes of imperative value in the school. The 
 present lack of definiteness in moral aims, re- 
 sulting from the collision of evolution and stat- 
 icism, of a moral code derived from the theory 
 of present adjustment and of one of tradition, 
 should not long militate against efficient moral 
 instruction. By consulting the maladjust- 
 ments from which one suffers and which are 
 traceable to the volition of others, it becomes 
 merely a matter of inquiry and scholarship to 
 set up a moral code fairly comprehensive. A 
 code so derived must necessarily be one of de- 
 tail, and while built on long recognised moral 
 aphorisms will surpass traditional codes in ful- 
 ness of specifications. So much of moral con- 
 duct is habit rather than the conscious recogni- 
 tion of principles, that moral instruction which 
 does not particularise is but slightly efficient. 
 The learner must know that this, that and the 
 other particular act lead to specific injuries. 
 
 166
 
 Knowledge Values 
 
 WMle uniting on the same general moral prin- 
 ciples men make war for or against human 
 slavery or cut one another's throats for the 
 good of a cause theoretically common. The 
 value of general principles as incomparably 
 useful knowledge in many of the relations of 
 life yields to the superior value of specific 
 habits in the moral sphere. The general prin- 
 ciple in physics will be applied by the carpenter 
 if he remembers it, but to insure the applica- 
 tion of a moral principle, with personal ad- 
 vantage surging contrariwise, the principle 
 must be imbedded in a moral habit having in 
 itself strong compulsion. 
 
 167
 
 SoMB Places Where Knowledge Is 
 Needed 
 
 Partioulaely on tlie side of the relations of the 
 citizen to government is there need of instruc- 
 tion. A large number of the political evils of 
 the day flow directly from torpor and lack of 
 vision on the part of the average citizen. The 
 ignorance of the voter is the opportunity of 
 the grafter. When it is still doubted if the 
 voter is sufficiently informed to warrant direct 
 legislation and truly democratic government, as 
 opposed to the delegation of governing power 
 to legislative or representative bodies, there can 
 be no question as to the imperfect civic knowl- 
 edge of large numbers of the electorate. 
 
 Current history teems with evidences of the 
 need of a more thoroughgoing training for citi- 
 zenship than the world as yet knows. Society 
 cannot safely permit small groups to be the 
 only possessors of the special knowledge of 
 government. Democracy implies that every 
 citizen be something of an expert in govern- 
 
 168
 
 Some Places Where Knowledge is Needed 
 
 ment, certainly to the extent of discretion re- 
 garding public questions. 
 
 The multiplication of offices and boards ne- 
 cessitates more than casual preparation along 
 legal lines. To be an intelligent client requires 
 more knowledge of law than the schools as yet 
 equip the graduate with. 
 
 The universal tendency to conduct business 
 in corporate organisations calls for a wider 
 knowledge of corporation law. References to 
 the organisation of new corporations for busi- 
 ness, banking, religious and other purposes 
 abound. Real estate transfers imply an exten- 
 sive law. The increase in the number of public 
 offices and the fair probability that the citizen 
 will be asked to serve in some public capacity 
 suggest the wisdom of more widely diffused in- 
 formation relative to public office, and espe- 
 cially acquaintance with the highest ideals of 
 office holding, with no small attention to notable 
 cases, ancient and modern, of exemplary serv- 
 ice rendered the public by office holders. 
 
 Not less than the office holder does the voter 
 need a preparation rarely afforded. It com- 
 monly occurs that the leading name on a ticket 
 receives many more votes than candidates for 
 other offices. Lack of interest is usually asso- 
 ciated with lack of knowledge. Agencies have 
 
 169
 
 The Education of To-morrow 
 
 yet to be created that will provide the voter an 
 adequate supply of actual information regard- 
 ing candidates and measures. The extent of 
 genuinely enlightened voting in a popular elec- 
 tion can be only estimated, but it is likely that 
 blind and ignorant voting prevails to a degree 
 that should cause the greatest concern in view 
 of the tendency to transfer law making from 
 so-called representative bodies to the people. 
 
 When in various state elections only 60 or 70 
 per cent, of the total vote is polled it is evidence 
 that there is indifference based on lack of un- 
 derstanding issues and candidates. Even in 
 the most uneventful village campaign it is prob- 
 able that there are dormant issues which if ex- 
 ploited would mean much to the community. 
 Indifference, whether among the undeveloped 
 and thoughtless or among the educated, implies 
 ignorance of civic possibilities. 
 
 Education in government would presumably 
 do away with bribery. The informed voter 
 realises that the advantage to the state, which 
 is his advantage concurrently, accruing from 
 the best possible use of his ballot far outweighs 
 in value the market price of ballots in his com- 
 munity. Accordingly no price that may be of- 
 fered will tempt the voter of enlightenment and 
 imagination. Lacking knowledge to evaluate 
 
 170
 
 Some Places Where Knowledge is Needed 
 
 the ballot, the voter is a willing victim to gift 
 cigars, political beer keg parties, and passes and 
 franks distributed by corporations. 
 
 It has been thought that the rural voter was 
 largely immune to bribery. That the rural 
 voter has, in this respect, been idealised is sup- 
 ported by such revelations as those of Adams 
 County, Ohio, in which county nearly 2,000 in- 
 dictments were returned for the sale of votes 
 in the election of 1910, and about the same num- 
 ber of convictions had, one-third of the total 
 voting population of the county being disfran- 
 chised and otherwise penalised. Such condi- 
 tions prevailing in an agricultural county of a 
 State which as properly as Virginia might 
 be called the "mother of presidents," and sim- 
 ilar conditions being believed to exist in coun- 
 ties in northern Ohio popularly known as 
 ** boodle counties," and in other States, the im- 
 provability of the country voter seems evident. 
 
 To a large extent popular ignorance of law 
 might and should be remedied. At least a 
 bird's-eye view of the field of law might be had 
 and an acquaintance with the central ideas and 
 the great landmarks be gained. Though it is 
 said that the man who is his own lawyer has a 
 fool for a client, a general knowledge of the 
 main legal doctrines, and especially a knowl- 
 
 171
 
 The Education of To-morrow 
 
 edge of the historical background of decisions 
 and rules is desirable. The law itself would 
 profit from having its mysteries exposed to 
 Philistine gaze and any irrationalities treated 
 lightly. Largeness of view quite often de- 
 velops outside a science or occupation and re- 
 form movements are begun that would not 
 originate among those most intimately con- 
 cerned. The tendency in various sciences is to 
 simplify phraseology and select the fundamen- 
 tals for diffusion throughout society. In many 
 fields class knowledge is being freed and voca- 
 tional secrets exposed. There is as much need 
 of legal extension as of agricultural extension 
 or college extension in any line. 
 
 The need of popular knowledge of law is seen 
 in unwise litigation, unconsciousness of legal 
 rights and remedies, confusion with reference 
 to legislation, and expensive mistakes. Igno- 
 rance is always expensive, but in law partic- 
 ularly so. 
 
 The interrelation of ignorance, intemperance 
 and crime is forcibly put by Warden Wolfer 
 of the Minnesota state prison at Stillwater, who 
 says: *' Ignorance, or lack of education, and 
 intemperance travel hand in hand. It is my 
 belief, based upon 38 years' prison experience, 
 
 172
 
 Some Places Where Knowledge is Needed 
 
 that ignorance and intemperance are the di- 
 rect cause of at least 80 per cent, of all crimes 
 committed." 
 
 The cost of crime is so enormous that it 
 would seem a step of the greatest economy for 
 additional educational expenditures to be made 
 with a view to decreasing the expense of it. 
 The State of Iowa expends as much upon the 
 penal and charitable institutions of the State 
 as is spent upon all the state institutions of 
 learning within its borders. If educational ef- 
 fort were focussed upon crime prevention, the 
 saving in the expense for crime would no 
 doubt pay many times for the special instruc- 
 tion. 
 
 The vast cost of crime is inferable from num- 
 berless references in the press to criminal in- 
 terference with life and property, to court and 
 jail expenses, and to poUce and other forms of 
 protection requiring heavy outlays of money. 
 A statement of the cost of crime is quoted : 
 
 ''Crime costs the United States $100,000 an 
 hour. 
 
 The yearly cost of crime in America is esti- 
 mated at $1,373,000,000. 
 
 If crime could be checked absolutely for eight 
 months the savings would pay the national 
 debt, $964,000,000. 
 
 173
 
 The Education of To-morrow 
 
 The annual imports of the nation are $100,- 
 000,000 less in value than the cost of its crime. 
 
 American gold mines yield less than half the 
 nation's annual crime expense. 
 
 The market value of all the horses, sheep and 
 cattle in the country is about the same as the 
 annual crime bill. 
 
 The coal, wheat and wool produced annually 
 in this country represent a value about the 
 same as the annual cost of crime." 
 
 More practical moral instruction reaching 
 every child seems to be called for. Were the 
 nature and results of trouble-creating acts made 
 known in ways pedagogically effective, a large 
 percentage of juvenile delinquency, due in large 
 part to ignorance and inexperience, would be 
 avoided. There is need of a rational, workable 
 system of ethics and of expert methods of 
 moral teaching. 
 
 The improvement of standards, resulting in 
 decrease of crime, better ideals, more rational 
 ways and larger happiness, is surely one of 
 the major duties of education. This duty can 
 be performed successfully only when a careful 
 inventory of ethical and cultural lapses is made 
 and specific instruction devised against such 
 maladjustments. 
 
 174
 
 Some Places Where Knowledge is Needed 
 
 The losses and sufferings due to preventable 
 ill health tax the imagination. A large part of 
 the country population and the city population 
 as well suffer from unnecessary ill health. 
 Good health is an important factor in the pro- 
 duction of wealth, let alone the satisfaction of 
 good health to the individual in his life as a 
 consumer. The need of knowledge along health 
 lines is "wddely attested. Nowhere does igno- 
 rance exact heavier penalties. 
 
 1,500,000 persons die in the United States 
 every year, many of the deaths being prevent- 
 able. It is estimated, no doubt too conserva- 
 tively, that for every death there are two 
 additional persons sick, a total of 3,000,000 sick. 
 The greater part of the sickness is preventable. 
 Inasmuch as well taken care of persons are al- 
 most never sick, it is probable that 95% of all 
 sickness could readily be prevented. Esti- 
 mates of the economic losses each year in the 
 United States due to sickness range from 
 $1,500,000,000 to $3,000,000,000. If by far the 
 greater part of sickness could be prevented, 
 there would seem to be no more profitable un- 
 dertaking than the promotion of health, and 
 no form of knowledge more urgently needed 
 in curricula than effective hygienic science. 
 
 175
 
 The Education of To-morrow 
 
 Tuberculosis might be made as rare as small- 
 pox, but on the other hand the death rate is 
 high from the disease, being 183.6 per 100,000 
 in 1907. 500,000 persons in the United States 
 are suffering from tuberculosis. One-seventh 
 of all deaths are due to it. The economic loss 
 in the United States in 1909 from tuberculosis 
 is estimated at almost 50% above the value of 
 the wheat crop of the country. 
 
 In 1908 there were 35,000 deaths from typhoid 
 fever and 350,000 cases in the United States. 
 Local sanitation, it is said, would have pre- 
 vented 75% of the cases, while sanitation for 
 the country at large would have prevented most 
 of the remaining cases. Whole families in the 
 country are often almost exterminated by ty- 
 phoid fever developed from infected wells and 
 unsanitary surroundings. 
 
 Typhoid has been nearly eliminated in com- 
 munities where intelligent precautions have 
 been taken. The results of education appear 
 at once in decrease of the death rate from this 
 disease. About 80% of the cases of typhoid 
 develop from drinking impure water, a cause 
 easily removed by simple scientific methods. 
 
 Pneumonia causes a high death rate, in some 
 cities one-sixth of the number of deaths. Meth- 
 ods of prevention, similar to those for tubercn- 
 
 176
 
 Some Places Where Knowledge is Needed 
 
 losis, are well established and would prevent 
 the majority of cases if intelligently employed. 
 
 In a recent statement by E. E. Kittenhouse, 
 president of the Provident Savings Life Assur- 
 ance Society of New York, the assertion is made 
 that annually in the United States human lives 
 equaling the population of the State of North 
 Dakota are sacrificed through ignorance and 
 neglect of reasonable and known preventive 
 measures, and that preventable disease and ac- 
 cident yearly destroy more lives than have been 
 lost in all the country's wars since the Declara- 
 tion of Independence. 
 
 The waste of life due to the ignorance and 
 carelessness of mothers is evidenced by a state- 
 ment made by Mrs. C. W. Greene that of the 
 200,000 deaths of infants annually in the United 
 States 52% are preventable. 
 
 Fearful losses of life and economic waste re- 
 sult yearly from preventable accidents. In 
 1907 2,500 persons were killed and 6,000 seri- 
 ously injured in coal mining. For the year 
 ending with June 30th, 1908, the railroads of 
 the United States killed 10,188 and injured 
 104,230 more. Of the killed 381 were passen- 
 gers, and of the injured 11,556 were passengers. 
 » Of the 29,000,000 persons working in the 
 United States it is stated that 500,000 are killed 
 
 177
 
 The Education of To-morrow 
 
 or crippled each year, a greater number than 
 were killed or injured in the Japanese-Russian 
 War. President Van Hise of the University of 
 "Wisconsin says it is certain that proper pre- 
 cautionary measures might reduce the accidents 
 to one-tenth of the present number. 
 
 A large number of hunting accidents are re- 
 ported each year. More than 100 persons lost 
 their lives in 1906 from hunting accidents. 
 Very few occurred from mistaking persons for 
 deer or other large game. The United States 
 Department of Agriculture, which made an in- 
 vestigation of hunting accidents, reports that 
 many accidents are due to gross carelessness in 
 the use of firearms, such as pulling a gun out 
 of a boat by the muzzle, looking down the barrel 
 of a loaded gun and the handling of guns by 
 uninstructed boys. The 22-calibre rifle and the 
 shot gun prove more dangerous than heavy 
 guns. Proper instruction in gun handling 
 would no doubt reduce the accidents from fire- 
 arms to a negligible number. 
 
 The extreme prevalence of accidents as shown 
 suggests the need of better knowledge of dan- 
 gerous employments and risky situations. Not 
 a day passes without its toll of avoidable mis- 
 haps, entailing pain, expense, household sorrow 
 and permanent injury. The situations in which 
 
 178
 
 Some Places Where Knowledge is Needed 
 
 accidents occur are continually being repeated, 
 but adequate warning is rarely given, and in- 
 dividuals learn by experience of the most ex- 
 pensive kind. Mere prohibitions as usually 
 given are not effective. Suppose the injunc- 
 tion is, ''Do not let gasoline escape," or, *'Do 
 not jump from a moving train." Such admo- 
 nitions unsupported by evidence and discussion 
 have little weight with the young or inexpe- 
 rienced. Were a manual of accidents prepared 
 in the spirit of science and widely known, tens 
 of thousands of accidents, petty or grave, with 
 their incidental expense, would be avoided 
 every year. Hundreds of typical accident sit- 
 uations could be demonstrated in laboratories 
 and lecture rooms, and thus an effective expe- 
 rience be had without the no more educational, 
 but wasteful and needless, experience of real 
 accident. It is questionable if people need to 
 learn nearly so much by ''experience." The 
 purpose of education is to substitute learning 
 by understanding for learning by experience. 
 
 If this boy had been taught the necessary 
 lesson in applied physics the family residence 
 might not have been burned. That water will 
 spread an oil fire should be well known. 
 
 179
 
 The Education of To-morrow 
 
 EXPLOSION OF A LAMP. 
 
 Cando, N. D., Jan. 8. — The farm residence 
 formerly owned by S. S. Thomas near Zion 
 was burned to the ground with all its contents. 
 Mrs. S. S. Thomas, daughter and youngest son, 
 left early in the evening to attend the literary 
 society meeting. 
 
 After getting his mother and brother and sis- 
 ter started, Edward, the oldest son who re- 
 mained at home, went into the house and was 
 preparing to read until time to retire. He 
 found the large kerosene lamp in need of oil 
 and filled and lighted it, setting it on the stand 
 near the sofa. He had not read long when the 
 lamp exploded; realising that quick action was 
 necessary, he went to the kitchen and got the 
 water pail and threw the water onto the oil, 
 which caused it to sjDread, setting fire to the 
 carpet and curtains. He fought desperately to 
 extinguish the flames but it was too late, so he 
 started taking out as much of the furniture as 
 possible.^ 
 
 If every school child were effectively taught 
 the danger of descending into wells, and knew 
 how to test for dangerous gases, such fatalities 
 as the following would be less frequent. 
 
 1 From a newspaper. 
 
 180
 
 Some Places Where Knowledge is Needed 
 
 Cornelius Larson and son Carl near the 
 Junction were working on their well Monday, and 
 the son went into the well to do some work and 
 was overcome by dead air and died in a short 
 time. The father went to see the reason of his 
 son not coming up and was also overcome. He 
 is in a serious condition and hopes are enter- 
 tained for his recovery. The unfortunate 
 young man was employed in the law office of 
 Attorney Ames, at May\^ille, which position he 
 resigned on Saturday. The funeral was held 
 from the Bruflat church to-day.^ 
 
 In view of the tremendous losses by avoid- 
 able fires it would seem that the schools should 
 teach the science of avoiding fires. Why should 
 there not be a chapter in the school text-book 
 discussing in sufficient detail the various ways 
 in which fires originate? Very likely the fire 
 insurance companies of the countiy could sup- 
 ply data on the origin of fires that could be 
 utilised as a chapter in physics or elementary 
 science. By teaching fire protection the schools 
 might perform an economic service reimbursing 
 the public in no small degree for educational 
 expenditures. Simple laboratory exercises il- 
 lustrating the origin of fires, and a few lectures 
 
 1 From a newspaper. 
 
 181
 
 The Education of To-morrow 
 
 would doubtless eventually greatly reduce losses 
 by fire, which amount to over a million dollars 
 a day in the United States. 
 
 The use of patent medicines is suggestive. 
 The case against patent medicines is put in a 
 nutshell by Professor J. B. Tingle of Toronto. 
 He says, ' ' Of patent medicines it is safe to say 
 that a few are useful in certain cases, most of 
 them are entirely without medicinal value, and 
 some are decidedly harmful. All of them are 
 enormously expensive to the purchaser, and no 
 single one contains anything that is not well 
 known to the competent medical practitioner." 
 
 The high percentage of alcohol in various 
 patent medicines is prima facie evidence against 
 their value. 
 
 Whisky is an innocent ingredient compared 
 with opiates and coal tar products. Numbers 
 of well authenticated cases of the death of chil- 
 dren from sleep-inducing nostrums are on 
 record, and serious heart disorders are traced 
 to headache and neuralgia cures. 
 
 Nobody seems to know how much the public 
 spends annually for patent medicines. Judg- 
 ing by the number of drug stores and the shelf 
 space occupied by patent medicines, the amount 
 of advertising by medicine firms, the estates of 
 
 182
 
 Some Places Where Knowledge is Needed 
 
 patent medicine makers and frequency of allu- 
 sion to taking patent medicines, it is probable 
 that millions of dollars are wasted every month 
 on nostrums. In one district in a large city the 
 sales of one patent medicine amounted in one 
 month to $6,300 and of another to $2,800. One 
 writer estimates the amount spent annually for 
 patent medicines in the United States at $100,- 
 000,000. A drug salesman in North Dakota 
 estimates that three-fourths of the population 
 in his territory use patent medicines, poor peo- 
 ple buying most in an effort to do without doc- 
 tors. 
 
 That the public suffers in health and purse 
 from ignorance of the nature of commodities 
 offered for sale is clear in the case of foods. 
 The consumer has been and still is largely in 
 the dark regarding the quality and make-up of 
 the food he puts into his mouth, and feeds to 
 invalids and infants. 
 
 Investigations show that almost all coffee 
 contains chicory. Some contains groimd peas, 
 beans and bread crusts. Imitation coffee beans 
 are coloured with Venetian red and burnt um- 
 ber. Low grade coffee beans are varnished 
 with chrome yellow — a poison — and with a mix- 
 ture of eggs preserved in formaldehyde. 
 
 183
 
 The Education of To-morrow 
 
 Cocoas are adulterated with starches, arrow 
 root and cocoa shells. Teas are adulterated 
 with elm and willow leaves. Butter is coloured 
 with aniline dyes and adulterated with marrow 
 fat and water. E. F. Ladd, food commissioner 
 of North Dakota, found that fully 95% of the 
 butchers of the State were using preservatives 
 containing injurious sulphites or borates. 
 Maraschino cherries are bleached with brine 
 and sulphurous acid, then loaded with glucose 
 or sugar and coloured with coal tar dye or 
 cochineal. 
 
 Horseradish, cheese, pepper, buckwheat flour, 
 potted beef, turkey and chicken, canned beans, 
 peas and corn, codfish, com meal, fruits, jams, 
 jellies, lard, meats, mushrooms, oleomargarine, 
 oysters, pineapple, rye flour, sausage, tapioca, 
 tomatoes and other edibles have been adulter- 
 ated and marketed to millions of consumers in 
 ignorance of what they were buying and to the 
 injury of health and purse. Adulterations of 
 many kinds of foods and of many brands of 
 food have been discovered. Books are written 
 on food adulterations and college courses given 
 to the subject. The economic loss is conjec- 
 tural, but that millions a year have been 
 taken by the frauds of adulteration cannot be 
 doubted. 
 
 184
 
 Some Places Where Knowledge is Needed 
 
 Knowledge of materials should extend to 
 weights and measures. A weight-and-measure 
 consciousness, inculcated by education, would 
 mean much for popular welfare. It is esti- 
 mated by the Bureau of Municipal Research of 
 New York City that the people of that city are 
 robbed of at least $13,000,000 a year by short 
 weight. This means that 1,000 families could 
 be provided with an annual income of $1,300 
 from this minor method of stealing as practised 
 in one city. 
 
 Investigations made in New York City by the 
 Bureau indicated that in Manhattan 44% of all 
 scales, 59% of all measures, and 66% of all 
 weights defrauded the purchaser. 
 
 Out of 37 stores in Poughkeepsie only 4 had 
 correct apparatus. An investigator bought 24 
 pounds of butter in different stores in central 
 New York. Only 3 of the 24 pounds were full 
 weight. In Newark, Hoboken, Jersey City, 
 Montclair, Orange, New Brunswick, Trenton 
 and Camden, New Jersey, only 6% of 549 deal- 
 ers visited had no deceptive weights and meas- 
 ures. Similar conditions have been found in 
 Boston, Chicago, Detroit and Cleveland. A 
 firm of scale manufacturers in New York City 
 with an output of 100,000 scales a year made 
 false scales and advertised to merchants that 
 
 185
 
 The Education of To-morrow 
 
 the scales would soon pay for themselves. In 
 Massachusetts it was found that "in almost all 
 instances % barrel sacks of flour do not contain 
 2414 pounds of flour." 
 
 A recent bulletin from the University of Wis- 
 consin states that ''over $10,000,000,000 is spent 
 in the United States annually for food, shelter 
 and clothing and that 90% of this vast sum is 
 spent by women who have had no training 
 which would fit them to spend this money wisely 
 and to the best advantage." 
 
 Every consumer pays dearly for ignorance 
 of materials. We look more and more to the 
 specialist for expert knowledge, but we cannot 
 delegate fully to him the function of judging the 
 quality of purchases. The purchaser must al- 
 ways be to a large extent his own specialist and 
 expert. Why should not every school in the 
 land teach how to judge the clothes on one's 
 back? If teachable knowledge of fabrics is not 
 now available, could not such knowledge be 
 readily organised and its essentials popular- 
 ised? In the meantime silks fraudulently 
 loaded with mineral matter, and furs from im- 
 possible animals are freely sold. 
 
 An incident of which the writer was a witness 
 is in point. A woman came into a tailor's shop 
 carrying a piece of goods costing over $20 and 
 
 186
 
 Some Places Where Knotvledge is Needed 
 
 supposed by her to be pongee silk. She came 
 to ask the tailor if there was any way of remov- 
 ing the spots caused by water falling on the 
 goods. The goods was mined if the water spots 
 could not be removed. It became evident that 
 the goods was but a spurious pongee which was 
 ruined by water. The piece was practically 
 worthless. The woman's inability to test goods 
 before buying caused a money loss that was reg- 
 istered in household deprivations. 
 
 Advertisements rarely give scientific descrip- 
 tions of goods offered, the appeal being to the 
 popularity of the dealer or the brand. Soaps 
 of indifferent or even injurious nature are 
 freely marketed. Many of those sold cheap 
 for laundry purposes are actually much more 
 expensive than higher priced soaps of better 
 grade. The relative values of different kinds 
 of coal is an important subject upon which too 
 little is popularly known. Cement construc- 
 tion is of interest to large numbers. Expen- 
 sive errors in its use are to be seen in crumbling 
 basement walls and imioerfect sidewalks and 
 structures. 
 
 The time was, perhaps, when there was less 
 need of knowing the quality of goods bought, 
 as dealing was more direct between man and 
 man, and the exploitation of ignorance was less 
 
 187
 
 The Education of To-morrow 
 
 attempted or less successful. Moreover, the 
 vast increase in kinds of goods offered for sale 
 has opened up opportunities for exploiting the 
 buyer, for knowledge of quality has not kept 
 pace with manufacturing. It is hardly too 
 much to say that were the citizen informed 
 upon the quality and original cost of the goods 
 he buys, changes affecting the distribution of 
 population and of wealth would be realised in 
 society. The extent to which gains are made 
 out of the buyer's ignorance is far greater than 
 at first glance appears. 
 
 Silks are adulterated with mercerised cotton 
 and artificial silks are made from cellulose. 
 Such a thing as pure silk is rare, although con- 
 sumers buy great quantities of supposedly pure 
 silk. In dyeing, silks are weighted with sugar, 
 starch, and tin chloride, increasing the weight 
 as much as 150%. Silk fabrics have been 
 found that were over 70% tin. 
 
 Dr. Pellew of Columbia University says: 
 "Last winter I tried hard to get a piece of 
 white taffeta that was not markedly weighted. 
 I visited the department stores and the best 
 dry goods houses in New York City, and was 
 told that no such material now existed. The 
 best I could do was to find a piece in which the 
 
 188
 
 Some Places Where Knowledge is Needed 
 
 warp was fairly pure and the woof well 
 weighted." "Practically there is no such 
 thing as pure silk," says Professor Mary 
 Woolman of Columbia University. 
 
 Linen is freely adulterated and sold as gen- 
 uine. "All linen" collars, handkerchiefs, and 
 towels are frequently found all or largely cot- 
 ton. Cotton has not as yet been much adulter- 
 ated but it is predicted that if the price of cot- 
 ton rises high enough, cotton too will be sold 
 under fraudulent representations. 
 
 Woollen goods contain many a fraud in imi- 
 tation of sheep's clothing. Blankets, dress 
 goods and underwear bought for all wool are 
 often found largely cotton. Cotton thread is 
 veneered with wool, and by heat, moisture and 
 pressure short woollen threads are felted on 
 cotton fabrics. Cotton fibres are mixed with 
 wool. Old woollens, as discarded clothing, car- 
 pets, rags, stockings, underwear and tailors' 
 scraps, are mechanically shredded and used as 
 adulterants. Such second hand wool is rela- 
 tively worthless because of short fibres and 
 treatment in chemical baths. 
 
 Manufacturers and dealers are able to de- 
 fraud the public with adulterated textiles 
 simply through the ignorance of the public. 
 
 189
 
 The Education of To-morrow 
 
 The public needs to know textiles or to know how 
 to secure protection by utilising the knowledge 
 of specialists. 
 
 With 60% of the adult wage earners of the 
 United States receiving a wage of $600 or less 
 a year, the importance of avoiding losses 
 through adulteration is evident. 
 
 Investments require a special knowledge. 
 A New York banking house publishes the state- 
 ment that the loss in this country due to bad 
 or speculative investments is $640,000,000 
 yearly. One meets hardly a man who does not 
 have a quantity of worthless stock or who 
 has not lost through speculative investment. 
 Small sums of money saved painfully in poor 
 families are invested with fear and trembling, 
 and often lost. 
 
 The man who as a boy studied the subject of 
 percentage or stocks and bonds in the arithmetic 
 gained, it is true, important and serviceable 
 knowledge. Such knowledge is fundamental. 
 However, such knowledge is inadequate; 
 it should be supplemented by knowledge of 
 the conditions surrounding problems in per- 
 centage and stocks and bonds. "Business 
 practice" as set forth in school manuals is dif- 
 ferent from business practice in reality. Why 
 
 190
 
 Sovie Places Where Knowledge is Needed 
 
 should not knowledge of real business practice 
 find a place in books of instruction? So long 
 as fear depresses the small investor there is 
 need of more explicit teaching. Exploitation 
 rests upon the ignorance of the exploited. The 
 inner workings of the commercial, investment 
 and banking world might easily find a place in 
 any scheme of education that purjoorts to be 
 practical, vital and democratic. 
 
 Even the teaching of general caution in in- 
 vestment would save the public millions of dol- 
 lars. Without special instruction the average 
 man would not believe, for example, that upon 
 finding that a mining prospect was absolutely 
 worthless men would organise a company, and 
 start east to market the stock, simply because 
 they needed the money. Nor would one ordi- 
 narily expect that city lots bought in good 
 faith, but unseen, should be found at the bot- 
 tom of a lake. Knowledge of cases of cheating 
 should be made known. That the public is 
 gullible is no very great reproach to the public 
 but a very great reproach to the agencies of in- 
 struction, which permit a conspiracy of si- 
 lence, while sometimes puttering with kinds of 
 knowledge of no appreciable worth. 
 
 The schools would render a large economic 
 service if they taught how to avoid being vic- 
 
 191
 
 The Education of To-morrow 
 
 timised and defrauded. A list of all known 
 swindles properly indexed and annotated 
 would serve a valuable purpose. The victim 
 of swindle often conceals his experience and 
 takes no steps to warn others. The widest 
 publicity should be given to schemes for fraud, 
 and to trade practices where business success 
 rests upon concealment of facts. 
 
 The economic importance of education for 
 the prevention of susceptibility to fraud is im- 
 plied in a current press note. Are not the 
 agencies of public instruction responsible for 
 the existence of a "sucker list"? 
 
 ''Postmaster General Hitchcock has been do- 
 ing notable work in prosecuting swindlers who 
 make use of the mails. In the past year 78 
 prosecutions have been conducted successfully, 
 firms and corporations being brought to ac- 
 count that have robbed the public of more than 
 $100,000,000 in the past five years. One of the 
 most notorious of the swindling firms was Burr 
 Brothers, with offices in Chicago, Seattle and 
 other cities. They sold stock in fake mining, 
 oil and railroad companies, amounting to mil- 
 lions. Their mail on the day of their arrest 
 contained $20,000. A long list of names known 
 as the 'sucker list' was taken." 
 
 The citizen usually lacks knowledge of the 
 192
 
 Some Places Where Knowledge is Needed 
 
 character and profits of concerns dealt with 
 and of means to employ to prevent his exploita- 
 tion by them. He should be supplied with both 
 classes of facts. 
 
 The prevalence of cases of maladjustment to 
 mechanical en\'ironment deserves special recog- 
 nition in education. Even a fair knowledge of 
 physics seems insufficient, inasmuch as many 
 who have such knowledge fail to make the nec- 
 essary connection between general principles 
 and particular situations. A special physics 
 of household appliances, of farm machines, and 
 of the mechanisms met with on the street and 
 in buildings is desirable. The housewife 
 should know the construction of the gas metre, 
 for example. Education should effect the ad- 
 justment of the individual to the mechanisms 
 with which he comes in contact. The extent of 
 his need to know machinery should be the meas- 
 ure of instruction actually provided. 
 
 The use of ''modern conveniences" in houses 
 leads to many exhibitions of ignorance. The 
 family of a travelling man was nearly driven 
 out of doors by a foul smell. A plumber ex- 
 plained that the sewer trap in the basement 
 should be kept filled with water. A profes- 
 
 193
 
 The Education of To-morrow 
 
 sional man, a college graduate, paid a plumb- 
 er's bill to learn that sediment should be drawn 
 off occasionally from a pipe in which muddy 
 water is heated. The expense bill due to igno- 
 rance of mechanical appliances in common use 
 runs into large figures. 
 
 The instances where ignorance of mechanical 
 principles has resulted in losses, not to say dis- 
 asters, are innumerable and of common knowl- 
 edge. They range from the case of the woman 
 who attempts to sharpen her scissors by draw- 
 ing the blades between the V-shaped cor- 
 rugated prongs of a knife sharpener, thus ruin- 
 ing the scissors, to the merchant who orders 
 out an expensive hot water heating plant which 
 has become useless because of a thick accumu- 
 lation of soot between heating coils that quite 
 cuts off the heat from the water. 
 
 Ignorance of mechanisms is illustrated by 
 the following reported cases. 
 
 Some people left a house containing a hot 
 water system and did not draw off the radia- 
 tors. When they returned the system had 
 frozen and through ignorance they started a 
 very hot fire which caused the pipes to burst. 
 A great expense was thus incurred. 
 
 194
 
 Some Places Where Knowledge is Needed 
 
 The engineer of a traction engine learned to 
 run the engine in a purely empirical way. The 
 effects of dirty and impure water in scaling the 
 boiler and sticking the safety valve and water 
 gauge were not understood. Eesult, — explo- 
 sion killing two men and wrecking the machine. 
 
 A certain man thought that he could do his 
 threshing cheaper by buying a machine him- 
 self. So he looked some over which were not 
 so very large and not very expensive. After 
 he had used the rig purchased for two or three 
 days he found that the engine would not do the 
 work. The company would not take back the 
 engine. 
 
 The importance of adequate instruction in 
 farm machinery is convincingly set forth by ex- 
 perts, who recognise the vast aggregate invest- 
 ment in farm machinery and the almost com- 
 plete lack of instruction on the part of farmers 
 properly to buy, set up and use. 
 
 The 1907 report of the secretary of agricul- 
 ture says: ''The continued scarcity of farm 
 labour in almost all the agricultural regions in 
 this country makes necessary tlie employment 
 of farm machinery on an even more extensive 
 scale than has hitherto prevailed. The total 
 
 195
 
 The Education of To-morrow 
 
 value of implements and machinery on farms 
 in this country, according to the last census, 
 was $761,261,500, an average of $133 per farm 
 and of 90 cents per acre of farm land. Much 
 of this machinery is elaborate and complicated 
 in construction and requires mechanical skill 
 and genius for its most efficient operation and 
 care. In very many cases it is also essential 
 that the farmer should understand how to re- 
 pair such machinery. It represents an impor- 
 tant part of the farmer's invested capital upon 
 which he must earn or pay interest. That there 
 is an enormous waste of money due to neglect 
 and unskilful handling of this part of the farm 
 equipment must be obvious to any one who has 
 travelled through the regions where it is most 
 used." 
 
 Continuing he says: *'No more significant 
 change is taking place in American agriculture 
 than the extent to which different kinds of mo- 
 tive power are taking the place of men and ani- 
 mals. The use of the traction engine and auto- 
 mobile in place of the horse on country roads, 
 and the employment of gasoline, steam, wind, 
 and electric power to operate mowers, thresh- 
 ers, ploughs, feed cutters, corn buskers, and 
 dairy machinery are illustrations of epoch-mak- 
 ing changes that are now going on on every 
 
 196
 
 Some Places Where Knowledge Is Needed 
 
 modern American farm. On one ranch in Cali- 
 fornia there is $60,000 worth of farm machinery 
 operated by some other power than ani- 
 mals or man. For want of proper information 
 these changes are involving farmers in serious 
 mistakes and large losses. They buy motors 
 not suited to their requirements or which they 
 do not know how to operate. They buy ma- 
 chineiy not adapted to their conditions and 
 cause its rapid destruction by not knowing how 
 to care for it. 
 
 There is made and sold each year in this 
 country about $100,000,000 worth of farm ma- 
 chinery. Fully one-half of this goes into the 
 hands of men who do not know how to select it 
 wisely or to keep it in proper condition. The 
 waste which results runs into millions of dol- 
 lars annually." 
 
 While the need of mechanical knowledge is 
 universal the farmer especially has come to re- 
 quire an extensive knowledge of machinery. 
 Methods of agriculture have developed toward 
 the mechanical. If he is not to be at the mercy 
 of others the farmer of to-day must be versed 
 in mechanics. He needs to know what ma- 
 chines to buy and their principles of construc- 
 tion. Expert service required to set up or re- 
 pair his machines costs heavily. The loss due 
 
 197
 
 The Education of To-morrow 
 
 to neglect of machinery and inability to make 
 simple repairs costs the farming class dearly. 
 To decide among makes in purchasing taxes 
 one's knowledge of materials and mechanics. 
 
 A steady lessening of soil fertility over large 
 areas implies ignorance of proper methods of 
 farming. Exploitative farming has resulted in 
 serious loss of phosphorus from the soil, an 
 element that can with great difficulty be re- 
 placed, as nature affords but a limited supply. 
 The worn-out tobacco lands of Virginia, and 
 lands in New York, Ohio and various other 
 States have been seriously depleted in phos- 
 phorus. One-third of the State of Illinois is 
 said to be deficient in phosphorus, and the 
 cropped fields of Wisconsin have lost more 
 than a third of that element. 
 
 The falling off of the wheat yield in northern 
 California, in the Willamette Valley, and in the 
 Dakotas is ascribed in part to the loss of phos- 
 phorus. Continuous grain raising, so widely 
 practised, results in serious soil exhaustion. 
 It is inconceivable that farmers acquainted 
 with the chemical elements of the soil and hav- 
 ing a tolerance of science would persist in ulti- 
 mately ruinous methods. Education is needed 
 with reference to the losses of chemical ele- 
 
 198
 
 Some Places Where Knotcledge Is Needed 
 
 ments from the soil due to the exportation of 
 grains, the waste of manure, and the draining 
 away of soil constituents in the millions of tons 
 of sewage poured into the rivers and sea. 
 
 One of the sources of loss is the improper 
 selection of seed. The importance of good ani- 
 mal stock for breeding purposes is coming to 
 be appreciated by the farmer, but he is still in- 
 different to the possibilities of high bred wheat, 
 oats and other crops. A writer on the subject 
 of seed selection in North Dakota, President J. 
 H. "Worst, estimates that the right selection of 
 seed wheat would result in an increase of five 
 bushels to the acre for the State, representing 
 a gain of between twenty and twenty-five mil- 
 lions of dollars annually to the farmers of the 
 State. The same writer asserts that an equal 
 amount in addition would be gained by right 
 cultivation. 
 
 Plant diseases, largely controllable by scien- 
 tific methods, entail enormous losses. Oat 
 smut cost the farmers of Wisconsin $4,500,000 
 annually, some years ago, according to R. A. 
 Moore. The formaldehyde treatment of seed 
 barley and oats makes unnecessary any loss of 
 these crops from smut. The losses the country 
 over from plant diseases total into hundreds of 
 millions of dollars. 
 
 199
 
 The Education of To-morrow 
 
 North Dakota produces about 60% of the flax 
 produced in the United States, but the crop will 
 soon be lost to the State, according to 0. 0. 
 Churchill, unless great care is used in control- 
 ling flax wilt, a parasitic disease of the plant. 
 Methods of control have been satisfactorily de- 
 veloped. It remains with the educability of the 
 farmer to decide the future of flax in the State. 
 
 Crop losses from weeds can be very largely 
 eliminated by scientific methods. These meth- 
 ods are cutting or pulling, cleaning seed grain, 
 burning stubble and composting manure, culti- 
 vation, smothering and spraying. Instruction 
 of farmers in these methods would greatly re- 
 duce money losses from weeds, annually reach- 
 ing many millions of dollars. 
 
 Ignorance of the need of drainage and of how 
 to drain farm lands needs to be overcome. 
 Out of 100 farms entered in a "model farm" 
 contest in 1906, in North Dakota, not five were 
 found, by Thomas Shaw, which were not suffer- 
 ing from lack of drainage, ''and where the crop 
 had not suffered, and suffered severely and 
 very materially because the land had not been 
 sufficiently drained." 
 
 He adds that ''it is no exaggeration to say 
 that there have been millions of dollars lost to 
 the Red Eiver Valley on account of the lack of 
 
 200
 
 Some Places Where Knowledge Is Needed 
 
 drainage to the lands." The mere statement 
 of these conditions raises a presumption that the 
 educational agencies to which the farmers must 
 look for aid have not yet succeeded in getting 
 their attention or in imparting a saving knowl- 
 edge. 
 
 Losses from animal diseases are large and 
 mostly preventable. The losses for 1907 were 
 estimated for the United States at $267,000,000. 
 The diseases included hog cholera, cattle tick, 
 scabies, tuberculosis, anthrax and others. The 
 economic value of knowledge functioning for 
 the prevention of animal diseases is evident. 
 
 The selection of knowledge for diffusion by 
 the school or other agencies should be in re- 
 sponse to needs as exhibited in the various re- 
 lations of the individual. Adjustments in ac- 
 tual progress and maladjustments resulting in 
 losses and sufferings, of which the foregoing 
 are merely illustrative, are signboards to the 
 choice of information to be made available by 
 diffusional agencies. 
 
 201
 
 XIV 
 
 A Democratised Curriculum 
 
 Assuming the evaluation of information, the 
 formulation of a curriculum in outline may be 
 attempted. The importance of a properly bal- 
 anced curriculum can hardly be overestimated. 
 All children in the public schools should have 
 nearly the same studies up to about the age of 
 eighteen, when differentiation of studies for 
 vocational reasons may properly occur. Every 
 year and grade should offer a combination of 
 the three main types of knowledge, adapted to 
 the capacity of the learner. 
 
 Heretofore there has been little differentia- 
 tion of courses among the pupils in the elemen- 
 tary schools. The three R's with more re- 
 cently added studies, such as physiology, music, 
 drawing, nature study and hand work, have 
 been freely offered to all pupils of the public 
 schools. There are not wanting advocates, 
 however, of the plan of distinguishing among 
 pupils at an early age, giving those who are 
 from poor families a maximum of productional 
 
 202
 
 A Democratised Curriculum 
 
 subject matter wliile instructing others in a 
 wider range of subjects. It is to be hoped that 
 there may be no cleavage in the elementary- 
 schools which may tend to class divisions in so- 
 ciety. 
 
 In the field of secondary school education 
 there are numerous examples of curricula 
 not evenly proportioned among the significant 
 types of knowledge, and it is with reference to 
 high schools that the problem of a democratic 
 curriculum is most acute. High school cur- 
 ricula of the more usual type contain a su- 
 perabundance of consumptional subject matter. 
 This may be accounted for on the ground that 
 until somewhat recently the high school catered 
 to a prosperous class in society whose children 
 were destined for college or for a scale of liv- 
 ing above that of the wage-earner. The extent 
 to which foreign languages have appeared in 
 high schools implies the consumptional aim. 
 While sciences are freely offered in high schools 
 of the consumptional type, they frequently are 
 presented in such form as not to meet espe- 
 cially well the needs of the producer. The gen- 
 eral information or cultural value of botany or 
 physics may be emphasised rather than the ac- 
 tual uses of these subjects. 
 
 Another type of high school, on the other 
 203
 
 The Education of To-morrow 
 
 hand, exalts the productional aim at the ex- 
 pense of the consumptional. The trade high 
 school and the agricultural high school may go 
 to this extreme. 
 
 Among the colleges and universities, con- 
 siderations of democracy, so far as it depends 
 upon studies, are not so urgent, inasmuch as 
 the student is supposed to have reached a ma- 
 turity at which specialisation need not inter- 
 fere with citizenship, and it is probable that if 
 the secondary and elementary schools did their 
 work according to democratic ideals there 
 would be no need of anxiety with regard to the 
 specialisation of the student in his choice of 
 studies in the higher institutions. As the case 
 stands, however, it is a question if the gradu- 
 ates from the engineering courses of our uni- 
 versities always have sufficient education for 
 citizenship. In agricultural colleges, similarly, 
 the rapid development of purely productional 
 studies and the pressure from the public for in- 
 crease of agricultural production tend to result 
 in the graduation of students who, while 
 eminently trained for production, are perhaps 
 often inadequately trained as consumers and 
 distributees. 
 
 Institutions giving a disproportionate 
 amount of attention to distributional knowl- 
 
 204
 
 A Democratised Curriculum 
 
 edge do not seem to exist. Indeed it is hardly- 
 possible to give an example of a curriculum hav- 
 ing even a suitable amount of such informa- 
 tion. The courses of study offered in law 
 schools seem most nearly to represent the cur- 
 riculum of distribution. 
 
 As an example of the predominantly cultural 
 or consumptional curriculum, so frequently 
 found in American high schools, the following 
 courses of study, of the Tyler County High 
 School, Middlebourne, West Virginia, are 
 given : 
 
 
 FIRST YEAR 
 
 FIRST 
 
 SEMESTER SECOND SEMESTEB 
 
 Algebra 
 
 Algebra 
 
 English 
 
 English 
 
 History 
 
 History 
 
 Latin 
 
 Latin 
 
 Drawing 
 
 Drawing 
 
 Music 
 
 Music 
 
 
 SECOND YEAR 
 
 FIRST 
 
 SEMESTER SECOND SEMESTEB 
 
 Algebra 
 
 Geometry 
 
 English 
 
 English 
 
 History 
 
 History 
 
 Latin 
 
 Latin 
 
 Drawing 
 
 Drawing 
 
 Music 
 
 Music 
 
 205
 
 The Education of To-morrow 
 
 THIRD YEAR 
 
 FIEST SEMESTEB 
 
 Geometry 
 
 English 
 
 History and Civics 
 
 Physics or Chemistry 
 
 Latin (optional) 
 
 Music (optional) 
 
 Drawing (optional) 
 
 SECOND SEMESTER 
 
 Geometry 
 
 English 
 
 History and Civics 
 
 Physics or Chemistry 
 
 Latin (optional; 
 
 Music (optional) 
 
 Drawing (optional) 
 
 FOURTH YEAR 
 
 FIEST SEMESTEB SBXJOND SEMESTER 
 
 English 
 
 Botany or Zoology 
 
 Latin ( optional ) 
 
 Teachers' Course (optional) 
 
 Music ( optional ) 
 
 Drawing (optional) 
 
 English 
 
 Botany or Zoology 
 
 Latin (optional) 
 
 Teachers' Course (optional) 
 
 Music ( optional ) 
 
 Drawing (optional) 
 
 At the other extreme is the almost exclu- 
 sively productional curriculum of the Lowell 
 Textile School, which follows : 
 
 COTTON MANUFACTURING 
 FIRST YEAR 
 
 FIRST TERM 
 
 Mechanism 
 Mechanical Drawing 
 Mathematics 
 
 Hand Loom Weaving and Ele- 
 ments of Design 
 
 Elementary Chemistry 
 
 English 
 
 German or French 
 
 Physical Culture 
 
 206
 
 A Democratised Curriculum 
 
 SECOND TEBM 
 
 Cotton Carding, Drawing and 
 Spinning 
 
 Textile Design, Cloth Anal- 
 ysis, Hand Loom Weaving 
 
 Elementary Inorganic and Or- 
 ganic Chemistry 
 
 Mechanism 
 Mathematics 
 Machine Drawing 
 German 
 English 
 Physical Culture 
 
 SECOND YEAR 
 
 FIRST TERM 
 
 Cotton Carding, Drawing and 
 Spinning 
 
 Textile Design 
 
 Power Weaving 
 
 Textile Chemistry and Dye- 
 ing 
 
 Machine Drawing 
 Steam Engineering 
 Weaving Mechanism 
 Physics 
 Industrial History 
 
 Cotton Spinning 
 Textile Design 
 Power Weaving 
 Textile Chemistry 
 
 ing Lecture 
 Dyeing Laboratory 
 
 SECOND TEaJM 
 
 Machine Drawing 
 Hydraulics 
 
 Strength of Materials 
 and Dye- Physics (Elementary 
 tricity) 
 Industrial History 
 
 THIRD YEAR 
 
 Elec- 
 
 riBST TERM 
 
 Cotton Yarn Manufacture Power Weaving 
 
 Knitting 
 
 Textile Design, Cloth Con- 
 struction 
 
 Cotton Finishing 
 Mill Engineering 
 Advanced Electricity 
 
 SECOND TERM 
 
 Cotton Yarn Manufacture 
 Knitting 
 
 Textile Design, Cloth Con- 
 Btruction 
 
 Power Weaving 
 Cotton Finishing 
 Mill Engineering 
 Thesis 
 
 207
 
 The Education of To-morrow 
 
 Another example of a secondary school cur- 
 riculum offering little except productional sub- 
 ject matter is that of the Crookston, Minnesota, 
 School of Agriculture, as follows: 
 
 Blacksmithing 
 Carpentry 
 Military drill 
 
 COURSE OF STUDY 
 FIRST YEAR 
 
 FIRST TERM 
 
 Farm Botany ; 
 
 Drawing 
 
 Music 
 
 Farm Mathematics 
 
 Poultry 
 
 Social Culture 
 
 English 
 
 Agriculture 
 
 }r Cooking 
 or J Physical Training 
 I Sewing 
 
 SECOND TERM 
 
 Farm Botany 
 
 English 
 
 Music 
 
 Study of Breeds 
 
 Poultry 
 
 Carpentry 
 
 Drawing Farm Buildings 
 
 Blacksmithing 
 
 Military Drill 
 
 Cooking 
 
 Laundering 
 
 Drawing Farm Houses 
 
 Physical Training 
 
 Sewing 
 
 208
 
 A DemGcratised Curriculum 
 
 stock Judging 
 Breeding 
 Military Drill 
 Gymnasium 
 
 Field Crops 
 Military Drill 
 Gymnasium 
 
 SECOND YEAR 
 
 FIRST TEKSI 
 
 Agricultural Physics 
 
 Dairying 
 
 Fruit Growing 
 
 Musio 
 Farm Accounts 
 
 Cooking 
 
 Household Art 
 Physical Training 
 Sewing 
 
 SECOND TERM 
 
 Agricultural Chemistry 
 
 Dairying 
 
 Music 
 
 Agricultural Physics 
 
 Vegetable Gardening 
 
 'Cook in? 
 
 Home Management 
 "] Physical Training 
 Sewing 
 
 THIRD YEAR 
 
 FIRST TERM 
 
 Agricultural Chemistry 
 
 Forestry 
 Entomology and Zoology 
 Algebra (optional) 
 Handling Grain and "^ 
 
 Machinery Cooking 
 
 Veterinary Science L or J Sewing 
 
 Gymnasium Music 
 
 Music or Military Drill 
 
 209
 
 The Education of To-morrow 
 
 SECOND TERM 
 
 Civics or Geometry 
 Plant Propagation 
 Algebra (optional) 
 
 Dressing and Curing 
 
 Meats 
 Stock Judging 
 Feeding 
 
 Soils and Fertilisers 
 Veterinary Science 
 
 Meats 
 
 Home Economy 
 
 Cooking 
 
 Domestic Chemistry 
 
 Domestic Hygiene 
 
 Sewing 
 
 A curriculum, admirable in its formal recog- 
 nition of production and consumption, is that 
 of the Petersham, Massachusetts, Agricultural 
 High School, as follows: 
 
 FIRST YEAR 
 
 Algebra 
 
 Agriculture (Boys) 
 Domestic Science (Girls) 
 Book-keeping 
 Ancient History 
 Elementary Physics 
 
 English (Composition) 
 
 Spelling 
 
 Drawing 
 
 Music 
 
 Rhetoricals 
 
 SECOND YEAR 
 
 Geometry 
 
 Agriculture ( Boys ) 
 Domestic Science (Girls) 
 Manual Training 
 French or German 
 English (American Litera- 
 ture) 
 
 English History 
 
 Elementary Chemistry 
 
 Spelling 
 
 Drawing 
 
 Music 
 
 Rhetoricals 
 
 210
 
 A Democratised Curriculum 
 
 THIRD YEAR 
 
 Agriculture (Boys) Physics (Laboratory) 
 
 Domestic Science (Girls) English 
 
 Manual Training French or Grcrman 
 
 Biology Spelling 
 
 Botany Drawing 
 
 United States History and Music 
 
 Civil Government Rhetoricals 
 Physiology 
 
 FOURTH YEAR 
 
 Agriculture ( Boys ) Astronomy 
 
 Floriculture (Girls) Trigonometry and Surveying 
 
 Chemistry (Laboratory) French or German 
 
 Zoology Spelling 
 
 Geology Drawing 
 
 English (Rhetoric) Music 
 
 English (Literature) 
 
 One of the most interesting offerings of dis- 
 tributional subject matter is that from the de- 
 partments of political economy and political 
 science of the University of Wisconsin. The 
 potency for democracy of distributional subject 
 matter may be fairly inferred from the fact 
 that Wisconsin is styled our ''model common- 
 wealth," that to a large extent the leaders of 
 reform movements in Wisconsin have been edu- 
 cated at the University, and that these depart- 
 ments have been the seed plots of their politi- 
 cal ideas. The following subjects are taught 
 in these departments : 
 
 211
 
 The Education of To-morrow 
 
 Elements of Economic Science 
 
 Elementary Sociology- 
 Elements of Public Finance 
 
 The Elements of Money and 
 Banking 
 
 Business Administration 
 
 Commercial Law 
 
 Industrial Evolution and its 
 Problems 
 
 History of Economic Thought 
 
 Modem Socialism 
 
 Labour Problems 
 
 Labour Legislation 
 
 Problems in Taxation 
 
 Agricultural Economics 
 
 Economic Statistics 
 
 Financial History of the 
 United States 
 
 Corporation Finance and Se- 
 curities 
 
 The Money Market 
 
 A SUGGESTED CUREICULUM 
 
 The following outline of studies is offered as 
 satisfying the requirements for a democratic 
 curriculum. The period covered is from the 
 pupil's entrance to school up to the end of 
 secondary school attendance. "With the excep- 
 tion of trades, the studies are designed for 
 both boys and girls and for all students alike. 
 The various subjects may or may not corre- 
 spond with subjects as at present organised. 
 A large number of text-books, of as brief com- 
 
 212 
 
 Corporation Economics 
 
 Insurance Economics 
 
 Charities and Corrections 
 
 Public Utilities 
 
 Socialism 
 
 Value and Prices 
 
 The Distribution of Wealth 
 
 Monopolies and Trusts 
 
 The Constitution of the United 
 States 
 
 History of English and Amer- 
 ican Law 
 
 Jurisprudence 
 
 Municipal Grovemment 
 
 State Administration 
 
 Federal Administration 
 
 Party Government 
 
 The Theory and Practice of 
 Legislation 
 
 Current Political Topics
 
 A Ttemocratised Curriculum 
 
 pass as possible, is contemplated. The bulki- 
 ness of the course is apparent rather than real, 
 inasmuch as the various subjects are thought of 
 as stripped of all surplusage. Division into 
 grades and years is a matter of school adminis- 
 tration not important in connection with the 
 purpose for which the curriculum is suggested, 
 i. e., the nature and relative proportions of 
 subject matter. 
 
 PRODUCTION 
 Language (vernacular) 
 
 Practical Mathematics, including portions of arithmetic, al- 
 gebra and geometry 
 
 Elements of Manufacturing, — materials, processes, mechanical 
 drawing, manual training 
 
 Elements of Agriculture, — soils, crops, animals, etc. 
 
 The Sciences, — productional phases of botany, physics, geology, 
 mineralogy, chemistry, etc. 
 
 Conservation of Wealth, — sanitation, fire prevention, natural 
 resources 
 
 Trades, — brief courses in many trades, as housekeeping, farm- 
 ing, carpentry, printing, plumbing, railroading, stenog- 
 raphy, dressmaicing, nursing, etc., etc., according to choice. 
 
 DISTRIBUTION 
 
 Current Political Events and Slavery 
 
 Social Movements Feudalism 
 
 Economic History The Elective Franchise 
 
 The Distribution of Wealth Inheritance 
 
 War Taxation 
 
 International Peace Political Parties 
 
 213
 
 The Education of To-morrow 
 
 Comparative Government 
 
 Direct Legislation 
 
 Labour Organisations 
 
 Socialism 
 
 Money 
 
 Graft 
 
 Corporations 
 
 The Middleman 
 
 Banking 
 
 Insurance 
 
 Modern Business 
 
 Charity 
 
 Old Age Relief 
 Investments 
 Frauds 
 Cooperation 
 
 Parliamentary Practice 
 Sociology 
 Law- 
 Constitutions 
 Civics 
 
 CONSUMPTION 
 
 Literature 
 
 History 
 
 Music 
 
 Painting 
 
 Sculpture 
 
 Architecture 
 
 Ethics 
 
 Foreign Languages 
 
 Sciences, — non-productional 
 
 aspects 
 Recreations, — golf, tennis, 
 
 boating, swimming, etc. 
 The Stage 
 
 Travels 
 
 Qualities of Goods 
 Home and Personal Appoint- 
 ments 
 Social Usage 
 Grammar 
 Elocution 
 Logic 
 Philosophy 
 Floriculture 
 Hygiene 
 Vice 
 Crime 
 
 In the administration of the cnrriculum the 
 part of the teacher is of great importance. No 
 subject matter can be prepared in text-book 
 form so well as not to require a large amount 
 of adaptation to the pupil by the teacher in 
 charge. The interpolation of information by 
 
 214
 
 A Democratised Curriculum 
 
 the teacher and especially the emphasising of 
 the more valuable points in lessons are activi- 
 ties taking precedence over formal outlines. 
 Higher efficiency in the curriculum depends in 
 no small degree upon the resourcefulness, ini- 
 tiative, breadth of view and experience of the 
 teacher. 
 
 The rejection of relatively valueless informa- 
 tion calls for the united efforts of teachers and 
 text-book writers. The making over of sub- 
 jects by internal changes is possible to a large 
 degree through the work of text-book writers. 
 The writer of text-books in history may, for ex- 
 ample, bring into prominence certain features, 
 as inventions and ideals, and throw into the 
 background others, as royalty and war. The 
 bulk of knowledge at hand makes the election 
 of some facts to the exclusion of others an edu- 
 cational necessity, and the task of elimination 
 is therefore inevitable. The choice of the bet- 
 ter portions should accordingly be easy. 
 
 Educational use of materials of a mythical 
 nature is to be carefully judged. The fact that 
 children enjoy myths is one reason for letting 
 them have them, but on the other hand there is 
 a question as to the wisdom of employing ideas 
 not true, especially if their untruth is not 
 rigidly faced. Spurious knowledge hinders the 
 
 215
 
 The Education of To-morrow 
 
 reception of reliable, and confuses the child in 
 his attempts to unravel the mysteries about 
 him. Credulity on the one hand, or suspicion 
 of science and a slovenly attitude of mind, may 
 probably be traced in some individuals to over- 
 much acquaintance with the unrealities of child- 
 ren's literature. Few adults are free from 
 superstitions and half truths genetically re- 
 lated to the fairy tales, myths and falsified ac- 
 counts of nature's operations so abundant in 
 the materials supplied children. 
 
 216
 
 XV 
 
 In Conclusion 
 
 Knowledge arises out of the contact of the in- 
 dividual with his environment and has value as 
 it plays a part in subsequent adjustments. 
 Its worth is to be judged by the extent to which 
 it enters into the relations of life and operates 
 to promote wellbeing and correspondence with 
 the various elements of environment. Many 
 mental products are spurious knowledge. Of 
 the knowledge which is real much consists of 
 items of minor value for adjustmental pur- 
 poses. 
 
 To determine what kinds of knowledge are of 
 most importance the major social or economic 
 relations of man must be considered. The in- 
 dividual lives immersed in social relationships 
 and evidently most important kinds of knowl- 
 edge arise in connection with experiences in the 
 social relations. The social facts of the pro- 
 duction, distribution and consumption of 
 wealth are the main trunks of experience along 
 which life advances, and sciences and informal 
 
 217
 
 The Education of To-morrow 
 
 information have accumulated related to these 
 social facts. Man as a producer, distributee 
 and consumer undergoes experiences in these 
 relations resulting in imposing compilations of 
 information as well as in multitudes of sepa- 
 rate observations not found in detail in books. 
 The consumptional relation, however, involves 
 the appreciation of not only goods of immedi- 
 ate necessity, but the higher fabrications of 
 skill and genius, as music, poetry, statuary, ar- 
 chitecture, and elegancies and, as well, appre- 
 ciation of human and moral relationships and 
 values associated with cultivated tastes and ex- 
 tended ideals. The position of consumption 
 and appreciation as the final mode of experi- 
 ence, presupposing the production and distri- 
 bution of wealth, correspondingly exalts con- 
 sumptional knowledge and gives peculiar 
 worth to accumulations of experience which 
 teach how to make the best use of things and 
 to respond to the highest values of manufac- 
 tured, natural or moral utilities. 
 
 To live happily implies a sufficient posses- 
 sion of the knowledge which has accumulated 
 through the experiences of oneself and others 
 in the past, such knowledge serving to guide ex- 
 actly or as forming the basis of ideals. The 
 child and the savage, lacking the benefits of 
 
 218
 
 In Conclusion 
 
 vicarious experience, illustrate by contrast tlie 
 importance of an adequate supply of function- 
 ing information. The critical importance of a 
 sufficient supply of evaluated information cre- 
 ates a fundamental problem of social admini- 
 stration, that of the diffusion of knowledge. 
 
 The diffusion of knowledge is realised by va- 
 rious agencies. Informal or simple communi- 
 cation, as by conversation, the church, the 
 press, the specialist and the school system are 
 means of realising the diffusion of knowledge. 
 Other means supplementary to those now de- 
 veloped and a further enlargement of existing 
 agencies of diffusion are made necessary by 
 the insistent demands made upon the individ- 
 ual for vicarious experience with which to meet 
 the exigencies of life under increasing complex 
 and fluctuating conditions. Agencies of diffu- 
 sion should make it possible for any person to 
 obtain any information at any time for any 
 situation. Such an aim contemplates a far 
 higher diffusional efficiency. 
 
 Of the agencies of diffusion the school is of 
 prime importance. Historically the school has 
 accomplished much toward providing the in- 
 dividual with knowledge needed, but various 
 limitations of usefulness have been evidenced. 
 The doctrine of formal discipline, resulting in 
 
 219
 
 The Education of To-morrow 
 
 emphasis upon training of mind rather than 
 upon content of mind, has been inconsistent 
 with the largest usefulness of the school as a 
 diffusional agency. Traditional and unevalu- 
 ated subject matter has been dispensed through 
 the curriculum to the neglect of that meeting 
 tests of utility. Tests of utility have in fact 
 neither been systematically and thoroughly 
 sought nor freely admitted as desirable. The 
 school, too, has been a means of social ambition 
 catering rather to the classes than to the 
 masses. Instead of democratising society 
 through the curriculum the school has in cases 
 organised curricula of consumptional sub- 
 ject matter of a sort derived from leisure class 
 experiences, neglecting both that type of con- 
 sumptional matter which might elevate the 
 standards of living among the poor and also 
 productional subject matter. 
 
 Current tendencies are toward the correc- 
 tion of certain faults of conventional curricu- 
 la. The introduction of productional subject 
 matter tends to reform the curriculum in 
 an important particular. With the introduc- 
 tion of productional studies, however, there is 
 danger of a possible neglect of consumptional 
 matter of the right kind, but more particularly 
 of the continued absence from the curriculum 
 
 220
 
 In Conclusion 
 
 of a type of knowledge, of all kinds the most 
 strategic for democracy, that related to the dis- 
 tribution of wealth. Trade school curricula 
 made up of exclusively productional content 
 have a tendency to form wealth creators rather 
 than citizens capable of taking part in political 
 movements whose aim is equality of conditions 
 and democracy of opportunity. Democracy 
 cannot exist unless the individual is supplied 
 with the three main types of knowledge, and 
 any curriculum in the public schools below the 
 higher institutions in which the student is not 
 provided with knowledge making him a pro- 
 ducer of wealth, an intelligent user of wealth 
 and an enlightened citizen fitted to participate 
 in the regulation of the distribution of wealth, 
 would infallibly undo democratic institutions if 
 not corrected by extra-scholastic agencies of 
 knowledge diffusion. 
 
 The inheritance of large bodies of subject 
 matter through the curriculum, ever in excess 
 of the mental capacity of the student, tends to 
 obscure the need of developing new materials 
 for instruction. Accordingly large quantities 
 of information of vital significance are quasi 
 esoteric, existing as occupational and class 
 experience and inuring to the benefit of the 
 initiated only. The economic advantage of pri- 
 
 221
 
 The Education of To-morrow 
 
 vate information is such that heroic efforts are 
 necessary to discover and make accessible the 
 hidden knowledges upon which inequalities 
 have been based in the past and by which the 
 few triumph over the many in spite of demo- 
 cratic theory. The stubborn efforts required 
 to unearth and compile a limited store of in- 
 formation in regard to graft and the baffled at- 
 tempts of even inquisitorial bodies to get at 
 the inwardness of predatory corporations sug- 
 gest how valued by the beneficiary such knowl- 
 edge is, and by contrast suggest how beside the 
 mark much knowledge dispensed in the conven- 
 tional curriculum has been. The social re- 
 sults of equally distributed knowledge may be 
 estimated from the changes produced in any 
 community by setting forth the full facts re- 
 garding any public business. The evils of so- 
 ciety flow rather from lack of information than 
 from lack of capacity to understand. The in- 
 termingled ancestry of all classes implies a fair 
 parity of capacity, a fact which is evidenced in 
 the primary school more often than the re- 
 verse. The rejection, then, of quantities of ma- 
 terial found in curricula and the inclusion of 
 more carefully evaluated information repre- 
 senting the individual's interests in his major 
 
 222
 
 In Conclusion 
 
 social and economic relations are steps toward 
 greater educational efficiency. 
 
 The function of knowledge in making pos- 
 sible proper adjustments to environment im- 
 plies that points of need in society be accepted 
 as guides to the choice of materials for diffu- 
 sion. A diagnosis of the results of ignorance 
 or a discovery of those relationships specially 
 calling for information should precede the set- 
 ting up of curricula and direct the efforts of 
 formal agencies of diffusion. Knowledge is a 
 remedy for maladjustments, which may be re- 
 ported from social surveys. Disease, crime, 
 poverty, economic disadvantage, unskilled la- 
 bour, parasitism, juvenile delinquency, wasteful 
 methods of production or other evidence of 
 wrong living bespeaks the need of particular 
 knowledge directed to cure the maladjustment. 
 
 The curriculum is an increasingly influential 
 vehicle for the diffusion of knowledge. In the 
 earlier years of childhood, it is true, the volume 
 of knowledge sent through the curriculum is 
 relatively small due to the child's mental 
 calibre. But with the expanding intelligence 
 of the child the curriculum becomes one of the 
 chief means of disseminating information. In- 
 deed the orderly arrangement and impartation 
 
 223
 
 The Education of To-morrow 
 
 of facts by means of the curriculum give it a 
 peculiar advantage among all agencies. 
 
 Improvement in the efificiency of the curricu- 
 lum requires a critical appraisal of the value 
 of its content. Subjects as grammar, physics, 
 mathematics, history and language, need to be 
 taken apart and remade according to principles 
 derived from observations of utility. There is 
 no good reason why a subject, as Latin, should 
 not be tested as to its utility in a given com- 
 munity. The extent to which kinds of knowl- 
 edge actually function in the relations of life 
 is ascertainable. There need be little guess 
 work as to the extent to which algebra plays a 
 part in adjustments, for example. Under the 
 theory that it matters little what one studies 
 so long as he studies something, irrelevant 
 knowledge has held too large a place in the cur- 
 riculum, which fact reminds one of the tale of 
 the old professor of mathematics who upon dis- 
 covering a new mathematical formula ex- 
 claimed, *' There, thank God nobody can ever 
 use that!" 
 
 The educational world should resolve itself 
 into a commission to take testimony as to what 
 knowledge is proved of most worth and to sub- 
 stitute the valuable for the relatively unimpor- 
 tant. The time-honored practice of teaching 
 
 224
 
 In Conclusion 
 
 unevaluated information is hardly in keeping 
 with the highest welfare. Scores of subjects 
 or topics not in the curriculum ought to be in, 
 and divers conventionalised studies might be 
 dismantled as such with benefit to the diffusion 
 of vital knowledge. 
 
 The curriculum for the formative years 
 should contain materials selected for their ap- 
 plicability to the later life of the pupil, insofar 
 as his life may be forecasted in the light of ex- 
 perience and directed under democratic ideals 
 of what the citizen should know and be. What 
 is taught should be of no untried or unappraised 
 character. The individual is to be put in ad- 
 justment to his environment, whose demands 
 are definite and capable of broad classification 
 if not of specific discovery. 
 
 The fusion in the curriculum of the knowl- 
 edge derived through human experience with 
 the productional, distributional and consump- 
 tional aspects of environment is of prime im- 
 portance. The seminary which has in mind 
 only consumptional culture, and the trade 
 school which makes no provision for civic in- 
 fluence and the worthy use of goods when pro- 
 duced, and the school which aims at mental dis- 
 cipline regardless of the content of subjects 
 taught as determined by objective tests, are 
 
 225
 
 The Education of To-morrow 
 
 alike faulty. A liberal education, and every 
 child is surely entitled to such, provides with 
 such information as makes for suitable rela- 
 tions, not merely to a phase of experience, but 
 to the wide circle of vital needs of whatever 
 grade. 
 
 Education is capable of rendering services to 
 humanity which as yet can hardly be conceived, 
 but educational reconstruction is no light task. 
 Once firmly grounded in democratic theory, 
 however, the working out of special materials 
 to be included in the curriculum — the ten thou- 
 sand and one bits of knowledge of demonstrated 
 superior value — may proceed year by year 
 under many willing hands. 
 
 THE END 
 
 226
 
 INDEX
 
 INDEX 
 
 Accidents, 177- 
 Adams County, 171 
 Adulteration of food, 183- 
 Aprricultural colleges, 204 
 Animal diseases, 201 
 Areopagitica, 59 
 Arithmetic, 71 
 Art, 41-, 163 
 Asking questions, 99- 
 
 Bacon, 74 
 Bacon. Roger, 80 
 Banking, 21 
 Bill Nve, 135 
 Books, '52, 87 
 Bribery, 170- 
 Bulletin literature, 89- 
 Bruno, 80 
 
 Bureau of Municipal Re- 
 search, 185 
 Burglar, 33 
 
 Cheapness, principle of, 113, 
 114, 116 
 
 Cheating, 191 
 
 Church, and consumptional 
 knowledge, 84- 
 knowledge-diffusing func- 
 tion of, 81-, 85 
 
 Churchill. 200 
 
 Civic enliglitcnment, 29 
 
 Civic questions in school, 114- 
 
 Clergvman, 82- 
 
 Collie'r, 25 
 
 Communication, 54- 
 
 Consunier, 42- 
 
 Consumption, knowledge of, 
 36- 
 
 primary, 37 
 
 training for necessary, 128- 
 Consumptional knowledge, in- 
 cludes what, 47 
 
 superior value of, 164 
 Continuation schools, 97 
 Cornell, 92 
 Corporations, 26 
 Country life commission, 32- 
 Creduli'ty, 216 
 Crime, cost of, 173- 
 Crookston School of Agricul- 
 ture, 208- 
 Curriculum, 50, 131- 
 
 consumptional, 205- 
 
 differentiation, 202- 
 
 productional, 206- 
 
 requirements, 125- 
 
 suggested, 212- 
 
 Darwinism, 114 
 Death in well, 181 
 Democracy of wants, 129- 
 Diffusion, need of, 51, 53- 
 Disciplinary conception, 107- 
 Distrihutional knowledge, con- 
 sists of what, 30- 
 
 rule for choice of, 160- 
 
 test of, 33 
 
 traditional, 24- 
 
 value of, 27- 
 Distribution of wealth, 20 
 
 science of, 22- 
 Division of labour, 133 
 Drainage, 200- 
 
 229 
 
 Economic democracy, 130, 131 
 Educational commissions, 141
 
 Index 
 
 Educational readjustment, 
 
 119- 
 Engineering in universities, 
 
 204 
 Evolution and revolution, 155 
 Explosion of a lamp, 180 
 Extension, at agricultural 
 colleges, 88- 
 assistance to clubs, 90 
 high school, 93 
 ideal of, 92 
 need of, 98- 
 university, 88 
 
 Factory routine, 13 
 Fama, 56 
 Family life, 38- 
 Farmer, 32-, 154, 155 
 Farmers' institute, 95- 
 Farm machinery, 195- 
 Fires, teaching how to avoid, 
 
 181- 
 Flax wilt, 200 
 Food adulteration, 183- 
 French, 44 
 
 Government, 29- 
 Governmental publication3, 
 
 102- 
 Graft, 157 
 Greek, 5 
 Greene, 177 
 Health, 38 
 
 High school curricula, 203- 
 History, 110- 
 Home, productive work of, 
 
 143 
 Hygiene, 162 
 
 Ignorance of materials, 186- 
 Incomes, publicity for, 31 
 reasonableness of unequal, 
 31- 
 Tndian, 44 
 Infant mortality, 177 
 
 230 
 
 Information, and evils of so- 
 ciety, 222 
 convenient classification of, 
 100- 
 Inheritance of wealth, 159- 
 Inquisition, 80 
 Intelligence, 86-, 108- 
 Intemperance, 165, 172- 
 Interest-taking, 160 
 Inventions, 11- 
 Inventor, 153 
 Investments, 190 
 Iowa State College, 95 
 
 Jefferson, 125 
 Jordan, 136 
 
 Knowledge, classified, 8 
 consumptional, 47, 164- 
 definition of, 136 
 distributional, 24-, 27-, 30-, 
 
 33, 160- 
 evaluation of, 138- 
 false, 136 
 function of, 3- 
 orderly structure of, 63- 
 productional, 9- 
 values to be tested, 118, 
 
 119 
 when valuable, 51 
 
 Labour party in Australia, 
 
 154- 
 Labour, unskilled, 144 
 Language, instruction, 109- 
 Law, 169 
 
 Liberal education, 226 
 Linen, 189 
 Literature, 41- 
 Logic, 110 
 Lowell Textile Schools, 206- 
 
 Maladjustments, 223 
 Materials in manufacturing 
 processes, 147, 148
 
 Index 
 
 Maximum usefulness, princi- 
 ple of, 149- 
 Mechanical environment, 193- 
 Memory, 52 
 Metaphysics, 110 
 Middleman, 27 
 Modern conveniences, 193- 
 Moore, 109 
 Morals, 45- 
 Moral training, 166- 
 Morris chair. 18 
 Music, 41, 163 
 Myths, 215- 
 
 National information depart- 
 ment, 100- 
 Natural resources, 145 
 Newspaper, circulation, 57- 
 and consumptional ideals, 
 
 65- 
 and direct style, 59 
 and knowledge of distribu- 
 tion, 66- 
 newspaper intelligence, 58 
 News, nature of, 59- 
 
 Ont smut, 190 
 Ohliviscence, Ill- 
 Organization, need of, 155- 
 
 Pansophic ideal, 74, 75 
 Parable of the sower, 17 
 Patent medicines, 182- 
 Pellew, 188 
 Petersham Agricultural High 
 
 School, 210- 
 Philosophy, 136 
 Physician, 72- 
 Plant diseases. 199- 
 Piioujnonia, 176- 
 Poet. IS 
 Poetry, 163 
 Political evils and ignorance, 
 
 168 
 
 Popular lecturing, 94, 95 
 
 Poverty, 28 
 
 Priest as teacher, 78 
 
 Principles, most serviceable 
 knowledge, 137 
 
 Production, activities of, 11- 
 knowledge of, 9- 
 need of common acquaint- 
 ance with, 126- 
 
 Productional knowledge, test 
 of. 14- 
 
 Productivity of ideas, 151 
 
 Professional training, 115 
 
 Property, 21 
 
 Public welfare, 47- 
 
 Peading, 105 
 Recitation, 106 
 Recreation, 40- 
 
 need of training for, 162- 
 Replies to letters, 89 
 Retention, social, 51- 
 Rittenhouse, 177 
 Roosevelt, 32 
 
 Salesman. 90, 91 
 Scales, 18.5- 
 School, 104-, 219- 
 
 current tendencies, 220- 
 Schurman, 58 
 
 Secretary of agriculture, 195- 
 Peed selection, 199 
 Sermon, 83 
 Shaw, 200 
 
 Sickness, cost of, 175 
 Silks, 188- 
 Skill, 144- 
 Soaps, 187 
 
 Social ownership, 162 
 Soil fertility, 108- 
 Specialist, 69-, 71- 
 Specialisation, 133 
 Spending. 39- 
 Sports and games, 146 
 
 231
 
 Index 
 
 studies, revision of, 224- 
 Strikes, 29- 
 Suclcer list, 192 
 Sunday, 83 
 
 Tariff, 158 
 Taxation, 158- 
 Teacher, 115, 116, 214- 
 Teaching, extra-mural, 94 
 Teaching the obvious, 117- 
 Telephone, 100 
 Textbooks, number of, 141 
 Theology and science, 79- 
 Tingle, 182 
 Tobacco lands, 198 
 Trade schools, 132- 
 Transportation, 21 
 Trusts. 26 
 Tuberculosis, 175- 
 Tyler County High School, 
 205- 
 
 Typhoid, 176 
 
 Universitj' of Wisconsin, 186, 
 211- 
 
 Van Hise, 178 
 
 Vesalius, Andreas, 80 
 Vocation, determination of, 
 
 149 
 Vocational short courses, 96- 
 Voting, ignorant, 169- 
 
 Wages, 25 
 
 Washington, 125 
 
 Wealth, centralised, 30 
 
 Weeds, 200 
 
 Weights and measures. 185- 
 
 Wheat yield. 198- 
 
 Woollens, 189 
 
 Woolman, 189 
 
 Work conscience, 40 
 
 Worst, 199 
 
 232
 
 UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA AT LOS ANGELES 
 
 THE UNIVERSITY LIBRARY 
 
 This book is DUE on the last date stamped below 
 
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