POLICIES FOR EDUCATION 
IN' AMERICAN DEMOCRACY 




Policies for 

Education in American Democracy 


Educational Policies Commission 

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

1201 Sixteenth Street, N.W., Washington 6, D.C. 



Copyright, 1946 

National Education Association of the United States 
Washington, D.C. 



Foreword 

In response to many requests, the Educational Policies 
Commission here republishes in one volume the essentials 
of three of its previous publications on education’s func¬ 
tions in American democracy, 

This volume has been prepared from the material con¬ 
tained in: The Unique Function of Education in Ameri¬ 
can Democracy (1937), The Education of Free Men in 
American Democracy (1941), and The Fur poses of 
Education in American Democracy (1938), 

The Commission approved the plans for this publication 
on September 17, 1945. 

The Educational Policies Commission wishes to acknowl¬ 
edge its indebtedness to Dr, Charles A. Beard for his 
preparation of the first draft of The Unique Function 
of Education in American Democracy (Book I); to Dr, 
George S. Counts for his aid in preparing The Education 
of Free Men in American Democracy (Book II); and to 
Dr. William G, Carr ,for his contribution in composing 
The Purposes of Education in American Democracy 
(Book III), 



The Educational Policies Commission 

Appointed by the National Education Association of the 
United States and the American Association of School 
Administrators 1 


Appointed Members 
Alexander J. Stoddard, Chairman 


Cornelia S. Adair 
Francis L. Bacon 
Lotus D. Coffman 
James Bryant Conant 
George S. Counts 
Prudence Cutright 
Edmund E. Day 
J. B. Edmonson 
A. C. Flora 
Frederick M. Hunter 
E. W. Jacobsen 
Charles H. Judd 

Pearl A. 


Edwin A. Lee 
John K. Norton 
Paul T. Rankin 
Agnes Samuelson 
John A. Sexson 
Payson Smith 
Maycie Southall 
George D. Stoddard 
George D. Strayer 
Mabel Studebaker 
Willis A. Sutton 
Emily A. Tarbell 
Wanamaker 


Ex Officio Members 


Mary D. Barnes 
Myrtle Hooper Dahl 
Donald Du Shane 
Willard E. Givens 
Charles H. Lake 
Orville C. Pratt 

Beulah 


Carroll R. Reed 
F. L. Schlagle 
S. D, Shankland 
Albert M. Shaw 
Reuben T. Shaw 
A. L. Threlkeld 
. Walker 


Advisers 

J. W, Studebaker George F. Zook 


1 In addition to the members at the time this reprint was authorized, this 
list includes those serving on the Commission during the years in which each 
of the three books in this publication was first published: 1937, 1938, 1941. 



Table of Contents 


Book. I— The Unique Function of Education in Ameri¬ 
can Democracy 

Page 

■I. Circumstances Call upon Educational Leader¬ 
ship To Reconsider Its Position and Obli¬ 
gations in Society. 3 

II. The Founders of the Republic Exalted Edu¬ 
cation as a National Interest. 6 

III. Democracy and Individualism Provided the 

Context for Public Education.24 

IV. Educational Philosophy Was Adapted to the 

Spirit of the Age.34 

V. New Interests and Ideas Demand Educational 

Readjustments.40 

VI. The Nature of Education and Its Obligations J4 

VII. Conditions Requisite for the Discharge of 

Educational Obligations. 79 

Book II— The Education of Free Men in American 

Democracy 

I. The Quality of Democratic Education , . . . 101 

II. The Loyalties of Free Men ........ 112 

III. The Knowledge Necessary for Free Men , . . . 120 










Page 


IV. The Discipline of Free Men.128 

V. Freedom and Control.136 


VI. Government, the Teacher, and the People . . . 145 

Book III— The Purposes of Education in American 

Democracy 

I. The Nature and Sources of Educational Objectives 157 

II. The Democratic Processes.163 

III. The Objectives of Education: A General Review 18 5 

IV. The Objectives of Self-Realization.193 

V. The Objectives of Human Relationship . , . 213 

VI. The Objectives of Economic Efficiency . . . 227 

VII. The Objectives of Civic Responsibility . . . 241 

VIII. Critical Factors in the Attainment of Educational 

Purposes.253 







Book I 

The Unique Function 

of Education 
in 

American Democracy 




1 . 


Circumstances Call upon Educa¬ 
tional Leadership To Reconsider Its 
Position and Obligations in Society 

T he mariner blown out of his course by adverse winds 
and sailing long under clouded heavens among danger¬ 
ous reefs seizes the first opportunity to get his bearings and 
chart his way by fixed marks of sky or land. Likewise in the 
management of human affairs, although the analogy is not 
exact, it is often necessary for leaders of state, the professions, 
and callings, amid great disturbances, to take their reckon¬ 
ings—to recur to first principles. This applies to education as 
well as to other branches of national interest and activity. 
None is independent of the others. None occupies a position 
of impregnable security which permits it to escape the strains 
in domestic or foreign affairs. 

This Adjustment Must Be Made in the 
Terms of Public Interest 

The answer of education to this summons cannot be made 
merely in the technical language of the profession, although 
the imperatives of the profession must be respected. It cannot 
be given simply in camera, in secret committee. It must be made 
in full public view and in the terms of the society which educa¬ 
tion serves, as well as in its own terms. Not for the thoughtless 
and heedless, to be sure, is the statement to be formulated; but 
for that large and influential body of citizens who can distin¬ 
guish between the enduring values of life and the distempers of 
immediate difficulties, political and economic. Yet no citizens 
of the Republic can be left out of the reckoning, for the wel¬ 
fare of all is involved in both the program of education and its 
application. 

[3 ] 



The Center of Observation Is in Society, 

Not Merely in the Educational Profession 

It is not enough, therefore, to fix attention on professional 
conceptions of education alone. Observations must also be taken 
from the center of society, for education, government, econ¬ 
omy, and culture are parts of the same thing. Hence a paradox. 
If educators are to make wide and real the reach of their theory 
and practice, they must step over the boundaries drawn by their 
profession and consider the unity of things. By concentrating 
affections on their sphere of special interest, they will separate 
education from the living body of society. Important as are the 
methods and procedures of education, they are means, not ends; 
and the ends themselves are linked with the genius, spirit, and 
purposes of the society in which education functions, by which 
it is sustained, vitalized, and protected. Yet in stepping over the 
boundaries of their profession to find their bearings, educators 
are at the same time compelled, by the nature of their obliga¬ 
tions, to hold fast to those values of education which endure 
amid the changes and exigencies of society. 

Five Guiding Principles Control 
Our Exploration 

With the challenge of affairs, public and private, so urgent, 
what are the bearings by which to discover our position and 
chart our course? To what principles must we refer in discover¬ 
ing the task of education in American democracy? Five seem 
imperative: 

1. Public education is anchored in the history of American 
civilization and at any given moment operates within the ac¬ 
cumulated heritage of that civilization. 

2. Every system of thought and practice in education is 
formulated with some reference to the ideas and interests domi¬ 
nant or widely cherished in society at the time of its formula¬ 
tion. 


[4] 



3. Once created and systematized, any program of educa¬ 
tional thought and practice takes on professional and institu¬ 
tional stereotypes, and tends to outlast even profound changes 
in the society in which it assumed its original shape. 

4. Any restatement of educational objectives and responsi¬ 
bilities which is rooted in reality takes into account the nature 
of professional obligations and makes adjustments to cope with 
the major changes wrought in society since the last general 
reckoning in education. 

5. Any statement of educational objectives and responsi¬ 
bilities that is not merely theoretical involves a quest for the 
institutional forms and operating practices through which edu¬ 
cation can best attain its ends. 



II. 


The Founders of the Re¬ 
public Exalted Education 
as a National Interest 

I t is out of the historical development of American society 
that have come the ideas, aspirations, knowledge, and work¬ 
ing rules which prevail today and set the task of education. 
There have been borrowings, of course. Beyond the founding 
of the Republic lies a vast background embracing the culture 
of antiquity, the Middle Ages, the Renaissance, and modern 
Europe. From this plenitude of resources American civilization 
has been enriched. But all that has been drawn from other 
times and places has been worked into the American heritage. 
Additional drafts may be made upon other nations in days to 
come. Research will bring new knowledge. Experiments may 
confirm new methods. Novel ideas may bid for favor. The spirit 
of inquiry and invention may be active. The aspirations of the 
living will be stirred by the eternal surge of the human heart. 
Even so, the past, distant and near, has given us our society, 
including all the material, intellectual, and moral manifestations 
with which education must work. 

The Republic Was Founded in an 
Age of High Tension 

The independence of America was established by revolution 
and war, accompanied by inevitable concentration, storm, and 
stress. America had broken with the past in many respects and 
had founded government on a new base—social purpose as dis¬ 
tinguished from the prescriptive rights of class. It was an infant 
republic in a world of warring monarchies. Its leaders were 
searching for ways and means of ensuring the perpetuity of 
government so conceived, developing natural resources, apply¬ 
ing the technical arts, and realizing a better life for the free 
members of society. 


[6] 



Founders of the Republic Laid Stress 
on the Public Interest 

The founders of the American Republic were concerned with 
more than the material aspects of life—with more than the 
exploitation of natural resources, the pursuit of private inter¬ 
ests, and the enrichment of individuals. They were public per¬ 
sonages imbued with a deep sense of social responsibility. They 
had staked their lives and their fortunes on independence and 
the security of the Republic. They had devoted time, energies, 
and talents to the public interest, waging war against a foreign 
foe and against greed and passions in their own midst. With 
justice does a biographer of Washington say: "Excluding his 
boyhood, there were but seven years of his life in which he 
was not engaged in the public service.” 

The early leaders did not subscribe to the economic theory 
that the pursuit of private gain would automatically bring 
about the establishment of independence, the creation of a con¬ 
stitution, or the security and prosperity of the American nation. 
In fact, during the Revolution they had seen gambling in goods 
and securities almost wreck their cause. After victory had been 
won they saw emphasis on personal and sectional interests 
threaten the Union with dissolution. They knew from bitter 
experience that devotion to the public good and self-denial in 
private matters were necessary to the achievement of great 
social ends. Having risked their all in the creation of a nation, 
the ablest among them gave unremitting attention to the study 
of public affairs and the methods calculated to preserve and 
improve the independent society which their labors had brought 
forth. 

The Idea of Government by a Fixed 
Special Interest Was Rejected 

It is true that many extremists relied heavily upon the ancient 
weapon of statecraft—force—for the assurance of social order, 
and looked upon government as an instrument of private ad- 

[7] 



vantage. They would have entrenched great wealth in politics 
by the establishment of high property qualifications on voting 
and office-holding. They would have given life terms to presi¬ 
dents and senators, and restricted popular participation in pub¬ 
lic affairs to the smallest possible limits. They would have 
permanently established a class government—government by 
"the rich and wellborn,” and were largely indifferent to popular 
culture and education. But this faction, though influential, 
was challenged by events. The verdict of the majority finally 
ran against it. The verdict of history condemned it. In the 
course of years the government established by the founders 
of the Republic came to rest on a wide popular base; and with 
the passing of time that base was broadened by constitutional 
enactments and political practices. 

The Democratic Idea 
Was Accepted 

In fact there was in the United States no aristocracy but¬ 
tressed by special privileges in public law to provide support 
for a monarchy or an oligarchy. In the long run the fate of 
government and society had to be entrusted to the wisdom 
and knowledge of a widening mass of people. Some Ameri¬ 
cans accepted that fate with a wry face, but made the best 
of it. Others greeted it as a fulfilment of the principles pro¬ 
claimed in the Declaration of Independence, and as marking 
a humane departure from the despotisms of Europe. This docu¬ 
ment had asserted that all men are created equal, and endowed 
by their Creator with certain inalienable rights, including life, 
liberty, and the pursuit of happiness; that governments derive 
their just powers from the consent of the governed; and that 
the people have the right to alter or abolish any form of gov¬ 
ernment which becomes destructive of these ends. Lifted up 
against the background of European societies founded on 
force and prescriptive privileges, these were revolutionary doc¬ 
trines. The future was to decide whether any government so 
conceived and so dedicated could long endure. 

[81 



Cultural Responsibilities Were 
Imposed on Government 

Concerning the responsibilities of government in matters 
of economy and culture, leaders of the Republic had equally 
positive convictions. They did not conceive government as 
founded on sheer force and confined to the punishment of 
criminals. If doubts arise respecting this matter, they can be 
resolved by reading President Washington’s first inaugural 
address and his first message to Congress. In assuming his duties 
he declared that the preeminence of free government must be 
“exemplified by all the attributes which can win the affections 
of its citizens and command the respect of the world. 1 ’ While 
recognizing the place of force in national defense and the 
maintenance of government, he commended to Congress “the 
advancement of agriculture, commerce, and manufactures by 
all proper means,” and the promotion of science, literature, 
and education. In taking this broad view of statesmanship, 
Washington was profoundly moved by the challenge of the 
occasion, for he said: “The preservation of the sacred fire of 
liberty and the destiny of the republican model of government 
are justly considered, perhaps, as deeply, as finally staked on 
the experiment entrusted to the hands of the American people.” 

The Vital Relation of Education to the 
Social Order Was Recognized 

Having committed themselves to government by popular 
verdict, to a government with high social responsibilities, many 
founders of the American Republic turned to education as 
a guarantee that a government of this type would endure— 
not merely to political education narrowly adapted to the 
genius of American institutions, but to education in the arts, 
sciences, and letters, assuring a deeper foundation in civiliza¬ 
tion itself. If a contemporary, Samuel Blodget, is to be believed, 
the idea of establishing a national institution of learning was 
taken up with General Washington in 1775, while Revolu- 

[9] 



tionary soldiers were quartered in buildings on the campus 
of Harvard College, and Washington then and there approved 
the idea. 1 

American Leaders Turned to 
Educational Planning 

However that may be, it is certain that shortly after in¬ 
dependence was gained, many of the best minds in America 
began to draft comprehensive plans for systems of universal 
education, crowned by a national university. Among them 
was Dr. Benjamin Rush, physician, surgeon-general during 
the Revolutionary War, member of the Continental Congress, 
signer of the Declaration of Independence, and member of 
the Pennsylvania convention that ratified the Constitution. 
In 1786 he published an educational project, with the arrest¬ 
ing title "Thoughts Upon the Mode of Education Proper in 
a Republic.” A few years later the American Philosophical 
Society offered a prize for "the best system of liberal educa¬ 
tion and literary instruction, adapted to the genius of the 
Government of the United States; comprehending also a plan 
for instituting and conducting public schools in this country, 
on principles of the most extensive utility.” The prize was 
divided between Samuel Knox and Samuel H. Smith. Other 
thinkers of the age, including Noah Webster, presented to the 
public large projects for the education of youth in a manner 
appropriate to American society and government. 

Early Educational Plans Were Wide 
and Deep in Compass 

This is no place to describe these plans or to smooth away 
their inconsistencies, but a summary of them shows that Amer¬ 
ican ideas on education are the treasures of high statesman¬ 
ship—not merely the theories of school administrators and 

1 Wesley, Edgar B. Proposed: The University of the United States. Minne¬ 
apolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1936. 83 p. 

[ 10 ] 



teachers. 1 Taking numerous plans of the early Republic col¬ 
lectively, we.may say that they were amazingly broad and 
comprehensive. They projected institutions of learning ex¬ 
tending from the primary schools to a national university in 
charge of research, general instruction, and training for die 
public service. They dealt with education in its widest terms, 
as adapted to the nature of American society and government, 
and as serving the progressive development of individuals and 
society—not the one or the other exclusively—but both as in¬ 
separable. These schemes were not confined to the practical 
arts and subjects of utility in the conduct of government. 
They did emphasize, it is true, the practical and political arts; 
but they went beyond any narrow utilitarianism. They in¬ 
cluded pure science, letters, and all the arts deemed necessary 
for a rich, secure, and enlightened civilization; and they rec¬ 
ognized the truth that both government and economy rest 
upon wisdom, knowledge, and aspirations wider and deeper 
than the interests of immediate marketability. 

The Role of Women in Civilization 
Was Recognized 

In seeking to enrich the moral and intellectual resources 
of society, some of the early educational planners gave atten¬ 
tion to the role of women as makers and bearers of culture. 
They knew from impressive personal experience the part that 
women had taken in the war for independence—for instance, 
in keeping economy running, in furnishing war supplies, in 
sustaining and feeding the spirit of independence in news¬ 
papers, pamphlets, and plays, and in private councils. Leaders 
from General Washington down the line had recognized their 
services and paid open tribute to their part in the great drama. 

It was no accident, then, that Noah Webster, perhaps the 
most indefatigable among the educational leaders, gave special 
consideration to the education of women. He believed 'that 

1 Hansen, Allen O. Liberalism and American Education in the Eighteenth 
Century. New York: Macmillan Co., 1926, 317 p. 

[ 11 ] 



their influence in shaping the underlying ideals and policies of 
the nation was in many ways greater than that of men. Mothers 
gave to youth firm impressions of life’s values and should be 
educated so that they would set youth in the republican way 
of life. Taking this cultural influence into full account, Web¬ 
ster insisted that the education of women "should therefore 
enable them to implant in the tender mind such sentiments 
of virtue, propriety, and dignity as are suited to the freedom 
of our government.” For this reason he insisted that their 
education should not be confined to subjects usually taught 
in schools for girls, but should include science, history, geog¬ 
raphy, contemporary affairs, and all that then passed for the 
social studies. "In a system of education that should embrace 
every part of the community,” he urged, "the female sex 
claims no inconsiderable part of our attention.” 

Freedom of Inquiry Was 
Emphasized 

As befitted the temper of the age, early educational plan¬ 
ners insisted upon unlimited freedom of inquiry and ex¬ 
position in institutions of learning. They cast off a priori 
notions of tradition and brought to the bar of critical examina¬ 
tion all things under the sun”—the works of nature, institu¬ 
tions of church and state, the forms and distribution of 
property, the relations of property to government, the proc¬ 
esses of government, the driving forces of social life, the family 
and its historic role, the maxims of industry and commerce, 
and international affairs. And they did this with insight, a 
wealth of learning, and a firm grasp upon realities. For them, 
liberty of inquiry and exposition was not merely necessary to 
the working of popular institutions. It was indispensable to 
progress in every branch of human affairs. It was one of the 
noblest expressions of life among a free people. "What are the 
means of improving and establishing the Union of the States?” 
This was the question which Noah Webster encountered every- 
w ere in his travels throughout the country in 1781 . "Cus- 


[12] 



tom is the plague of wise men and the idol of fools!” he ex¬ 
claimed. In this spirit, educational planners for the nation 
proposed to throw off denominational control of education, 
and emphasized unhampered scientific research, while cherish¬ 
ing a deep sense of social responsibility. 

Education Was Deemed Indispensable 
to Popular Government 

The men who had set up the new government after the 
Revolution were, as a matter of course, especially concerned 
with political education, with the preparation of the people 
for self-government. The processes of democracy to which 
they were committed, explicitly or implicitly, embraced five 
essential elements: the right of citizens to propose measures 
and policies, the right to discuss freely all proposed policies 
and measures, the right to decide issues at the polls, the obliga¬ 
tion to accept decisions duly made without resort to force, 
and the right to appraise, criticize, and amend decisions so 
made. The preservation of these processes of democracy was 
assured in part, the founders believed, by laws and institutions 
guaranteeing freedom of the press, discussion, and decision, 
but they knew that paper guarantees were not enough. Knowl¬ 
edge and a moral sense were required to sustain domocratic 
processes and to make them constructive, rather than destruc¬ 
tive. "In proportion as the structure of government gives 
force to public opinion,” wrote "Washington in his Farewell 
Address, "it is essential that public opinion should be enlight¬ 
ened.” How? "Promote, then, as an object of primary import¬ 
ance, institutions for the general diffusion of knowledge.” 

Education Was Considered in the Constitutional 
Convention of 1787 

In the convention that framed the Constitution, James 
Madison proposed that Congress be empowered "to establish 
a university,” and Charles Pinckney urged a broader provi- 

[H] 



sion: “to establish seminaries for the promotion of literature 
and the arts and sciences.” At a later time in the convention 
Madison and Pinckney joined in moving for the creation of 
a university. Upon their project Gouverneur Morris remarked: 
“It is not necessary. The exclusive power at the seat of govern¬ 
ment will reach the object.” The motion was lost. No express 
provisions were made in the Constitution for the promotion 
of education, but leaders among the men who framed that 
document certainly believed that the power to perform this 
national service was positively implied. Even Jefferson, speak¬ 
ing later as a strict constructionist, declared that Congress could 
make appropriations of public lands for that purpose. 

George Washington Advocated 
National Aids to Education 

That Washington regarded the fostering of education as 
an obligation of the federal government was made evident 
. in his first annual address to Congress: “Nor am I less per¬ 
suaded that you will agree with me in opinion that there is 
nothing which can better deserve your patronage than the 
promotion of science and literature. Knowledge is in every 
country the surest basis of public happiness. In one in which 
the measures of government receive their impressions so im¬ 
mediately from the sense of the community as in ours .it is 
proportionably essential. To the security of a free constitu¬ 
tion it contributes in various ways . . . Whether this desir¬ 
able object will be best promoted by affording aids to seminaries 
of learning already established, by the institution of a national 
university, or by any other expedients will be well worthy 
of a place in the deliberations of the Legislature.” To other 
colleagues Washington also revealed solicitude for education. 

Washington Took a Broad 
View of Education 

And it was a broad interest. Although Washington, un¬ 
like Jefferson, had not enjoyed the privileges of a college 

[ 14] 



education, and was a man of limited "book knowledge,” he 
had a general and realistic view of education. Speaking of the 
proposed national university, he said: "I have greatly wished 
to see a plan adopted, by which the arts, science, and belles- 
lettres could be taught in their fullest extent, thereby embrac¬ 
ing all the advantages of European tuition, with the means of 
acquiring the liberal knowledge, which is necessary to qualify 
our citizens for the exigencies of public as well as private life; 
and (which with me is a consideration of great magnitude) 
by assembling the youth from the different parts of this rising 
republic, contributing from their intercourse and interchange 
of information to the removal of prejudices, which might 
perhaps sometimes arise from local circumstances.” So deeply 
impressed was he by the utility of such an institution that he 
left a part of his estate by will for the endowment of a uni¬ 
versity in the District of Columbia—a provision never acted 
upon by Congress. 

Thomas Jefferson Made Education 
a Primary Interest 

Although at odds with Washington on many points of pol¬ 
icy and committed, while in the opposition, to a narrow con¬ 
struction of the Constitution, Thomas Jefferson was even more 
deeply and actively concerned with public education than 
the first President. As a biographer has truly said: “Jefferson 
was the first conspicuous advocate, in this country, of cen¬ 
tralization in education, being a thorough believer in state 
aid to higher institutions of learning and free education in the 
common schools supported by local taxation. To him the 
schoolhouse was the fountain-head of happiness, prosperity, 
and good government, and education was ‘a holy cause.’ ” A 
college graduate, a student of the classics, a leader in public 
affairs, interested in every branch of art, science, and letters, 
eager to make broad and deep the cultural foundations of 
democracy, Jefferson dedicated years of his life to the con- 


nn 



sideration and promotion of education in all its phases, from 
elementary instruction to advanced research in universities. 
He was, in many ways, the most highly cultivated man of his 
time, and, among the great directors of national affairs, he 
gave the most thought and personal attention to education. 

His was no mere lip service. He sought to encompass educa¬ 
tion, to discover its possibilities, to give it an exalted and 
permanent position in public policy, and to make it enrich 
and serve the new society rising in America. It was charac¬ 
teristic of his concern that he omitted from the inscription 
which he prepared for his own tomb all mention of the high 
political offices he had held and included the fact that he was 
the founder of the University of Virginia. 

Jefferson’s Elan Included Wide 
Elementary Education 

Jefferson’s plan of education for the state of Virginia em¬ 
braced a scheme for elementary schools in every county, so 
placed that every householder would be within three miles of 
a school. On this base were to be erected district institutions 
of higher learning, so distributed that each student would be 
within a day’s ride of a college. Crowning the structure was 
a university of the highest type dedicated to the freedom of 
the mind and unlimited research for truth. That sons of the 
poor might not be denied the privileges of education, Jefferson 
proposed that "the best genius” of each elementary school, if 
unable to pay his way, should be sent to the secondary school 
at public expense, and that the ablest in each secondary in¬ 
stitution be maintained at the university free of cost. Thus 
the elements of learning were to be made available to all, and 
for the ablest boys, even those without financial resources, the 
pathway to the university was to be opened. Although the 
plan was never enacted into law, Jefferson saw clearly that 
the nation needed talent in public and private affairs, and 
education was to enable talent to flower. 



Jefferson’s Educational Objectives for Lower 
Schools Were Individual and Social 

In no single place did Jefferson summarize his philosophy 
of education, but the following passage from his writings in¬ 
dicates the nature of his thought respecting the ends to be 
attained: 

“(1) To give to every citizen the information he needs 
for the transaction of his own business; 

‘*(2) To enable him to calculate for himself, and to ex¬ 
press and preserve his ideas, his contracts, and accounts, in 
writing; 

“(3) To improve, by reading, his morals and faculties; 

" (4) To understand his duties to his neighbors and coun¬ 
try, and to discharge with competence the functions confided 
to him by either;. 

"(J) To know his rights; to exercise with order and jus¬ 
tice those he retains; to choose with discretion the fiduciary 
of those he delegates; and to notice their conduct with dili¬ 
gence, with candor and judgment; 

"(6) And, in general, to observe with intelligence and 
faithfulness all the social relations under which he shall be 
placed.” 

For His University Jefferson Proclaimed 
Untrammelled Liberty of Inquiry 

As the motto for his University of Virginia, Jefferson chose 
the ancient saying: "And ye shall know the truth, and the 
truth shall make you free.” In that spirit he stipulated com¬ 
plete freedom of inquiry and exposition for the professors, 
self-government for the faculty, and an honor system for the 
students. "I have sworn upon the altar of God,” he exclaimed, 
"eternal hostility against every form of tyranny over the mind 
of man.” 


[17] 



In His University Curriculum Jefferson Emphasized 
the Social and Natural Sciences 

In laying out a program of university work, Jefferson 
placed emphasis on the social and natural sciences in a man¬ 
ner so comprehensive that his project may be still studied with 
advantage, and employed as a guide for educational thought. 
Its great purposes may be summarized in the language of a 
special student of Jeffersonian policies: 

“(1) To form the statesmen, legislators, and judges, on 
whom public prosperity and individual happiness depend; 

"(2) To expound the principles and structure of govern¬ 
ment, the laws which regulate the intercourse of nations, those 
formed municipally for our own government, and a sound 
spirit of legislation; 

"(3) To harmonize and promote the interests of agricul¬ 
ture, manufactures, and commerce, and by well-informed 
views of political economy to give a free scope to the public 
industry; 

"(4) To develop the reasoning faculties of our youth, en¬ 
large their minds, cultivate their morals, and instill in them 
the precepts of virtue and order; and 

"(5) To enlighten them with mathematical and physical 
sciences, which advance the arts, and administer to the health, 
the subsistence, and comforts of human life.” 

To Jefferson nothing human was alien; neither the thought 
of Virgil, nor the invention of a threshing machine. To pre¬ 
serve, advance, and disseminate knowledge in the improve¬ 
ment of individual well-being and social relations was, for 
Jefferson, a passion that endured to his last days. 

Jefferson Regarded Education as a Combined 
National and State Interest 

Despite his immediate concern with education in Virginia, 
Jefferson was also engrossed in education as a national interest. 


[ 18 ] 



In his message of December 2, 1806, he suggested the appro¬ 
priation of public funds “to the great purposes of the public 
education, roads, rivers, canals, and such other objects of pub¬ 
lic improvement as it may be thought proper to add to the 
constitutional enumeration of Federal powers.” He was pre¬ 
pared to amend the Constitution, if necessary, to promote 
education and economic welfare, but he recognized the fact 
that Congress already had some authority over these matters, 
including the power to dedicate public lands to “a national 
establishment of education.” Again, in 1808, in his last mes¬ 
sage, Jefferson called upon Congress to consider the same theme. 
Thus even amid the turmoil of the Napoleonic wars, which 
violently disturbed the politics and economy of the United 
States, the President continued to urge upon Congress and 
the country an interest that lay close to his heart. 

John Quincy Adams Emulated the 
Example of Washington 

With the administration of John Quincy Adams, “the 
heroic period of the Revolution” drew to a close. In a strict 
sense Adams did not belong to it, but as a boy he had gone to 
Europe and assumed the duties of secretary to his father on a 
mission for the Republic then battling for existence. He was 
brought up in the Washington tradition and derived concep¬ 
tions of policy from that source. Having started life as a Fed¬ 
eralist and having transferred his allegiance to the Jeffersonian 
party, Adams found it possible to combine, in his thought, 
elements from the two systems of statesmanship. Unlike James 
Monroe, his immediate predecessor, Adams had no doubts about 
the constitutionality of the broad views entertained by Wash¬ 
ington. With the exception of Jefferson, no President had been 
more deeply interested in natural science and its beneficent 
applications than John Quincy Adams. If he could have had 
his way, the nation’s great endowment in natural resources 
would have been conserved and dedicated to internal improve¬ 
ments, the advancement of science, and the promotion of 

E.W] 



education. It was with extreme bitterness that he spoke of 
the "rapacity” with which politicians "fly at the public lands,” 
engage in "pillage,” and act as "enormous speculators and land- 
jobbers.” 

Adams Urged Congress To "Promote Science, 

Education, and the Arts 

Seeking to resist the pressure for the dissipation of the na¬ 
tional resources, Adams urged upon Congress a broader social 
policy. "The great object of the institution of civil govern¬ 
ment,” he said in his first annual message, "is the improvement 
of the condition of those who are parties to the social compact, 
and no government, in whatever form constituted, can accom¬ 
plish the lawful ends of its institution but in proportion as it 
improves the condition of those over whom it is established. 
Roads and canals, by multiplying and facilitating the com¬ 
munications and intercourse between distant regions and mul¬ 
titudes qf men, are among the most important means of 
improvement. But moral, political, intellectual improvement 
are duties assigned by the Author of Our Existence to social 
no less than to individual man. For the fulfilment of those 
duties governments are invested with power, and to the attain¬ 
ment of the end—the progressive improvement of the condi¬ 
tion of the governed—the exercise of delegated powers is a 
duty as sacred and indispensable as the usurpation of powers not 
granted is criminal and odious. Among the first, perhaps the 
very first, instrument for the improvement of the condition 
of men is knowledge, and to the acquisition of much of the 
knowledge adapted to the wants, the comforts, and enjoyments 
of human life public institutions and seminaries of learning 
are essential.” 

After laying down this controlling principle, Adams then 
urged the promotion of "scientific research and inquiry” in 
geographical and astronomical science,” the exploration of 
national territories and waters, the erection of an astronomical 
observatory "connected with the establishment of an university, 

[ 20 ] 



or separate from it,” the patronage of studies in the science of 
weights and measures, and the revision of the patent laws. Sum¬ 
marizing the powers of Congress, Adams indicated that they 
could be brought into action “by laws promoting the improve¬ 
ment of agriculture, commerce, and manufactures, the cultiva¬ 
tion and encouragement of the mechanic and of the elegant 
arts, the advancement of literature, and the progress of the 
sciences, ornamental and profound.” 

If the language of these reflections and recommendations is 
somewhat stilted, there is no doubt respecting its thought and 
import. Adams had in mind a conception of the nation as a 
civilization and the use of its material, intellectual, and moral 
resources, under public auspices, in “the progressive improve¬ 
ment of the condition of the governed.” The powers of the 
federal government he deemed ample for this purpose and 
refusal to use them, he thought, "would be treachery to the 
most sacred of trusts.” “The spirit of improvement,” he ex¬ 
claimed, “is abroad upon the earth.” Should the federal govern¬ 
ment fall behind state governments in “holding up the torch 
of human improvement to eyes that seek the light?” 

But the Times Were Not Favorable for the 
Promotion of Plans for Education 

Admirable and promising as were many of these plans for 
education, the times were not propitious for bringing them to 
fruition. The great social and economic forces which were to 
call them into being some forty or fifty years after the adop¬ 
tion of the Constitution had not yet appeared. The population 
of America consisted of between three and four million persons, 
thinly scattered over a wide area. Rural civilization predomi¬ 
nated. As late as 1820 less than 5 percent of the total population 
lived in the thirteen cities of eight thousand or over. Slow, 
crude means of transportation and communication resulted in 
isolation for most of the people. Collective action was ex¬ 
tremely difficult. Moreover, the war for independence had ex¬ 
hausted the resources of the government and had left a war 

[ 21 ] 



debt which threatened to keep them depleted over a period of 
years. The people were engrossed with political matters. 

As a consequence of these adverse conditions, education 
declined to its lowest point since schools were founded by the 
colonists. The close of the period found local authority strongly 
entrenched in the administration of education. There was as 
yet no sign of that integration of small local schools into state 
school systems which came within the next fifty years. Al¬ 
though during the early national period the federal government 
began the policy of making land grants which forecast univer¬ 
sal education, such grants are more accurately interpreted as a 
stimulus to the colonization of new territory than as a national 
policy whose primary purpose was to promote education. In 
general the national government followed the policy of leaving 
the provision and administration of education to the states and 
local communities. Educational as well as national consciousness 
was yet to awaken, and it was not until some years after the 
second war with England that plans for popular education 
began to receive serious consideration; then, state plans, not 
national plans, were adopted as the schools passed from an ad¬ 
ministration predominantly local to an administration and con¬ 
trol originating with the state. 


Though Temporarily Rejected, the Educational 
Ideals of the Pounders Remain Basic for 
Contemporary Thought 

It so happened, then, that the founders of the Republic did 
not live to see their ideals realized in the establishment of pub¬ 
lic institutions for education. For this outcome lack of popular 
interest, the opposition of private schools, and poverty of 
financial resources were partly responsible. Doubtless even more 
influential was the popular revolt against the broad conceptions 
of federal policy which they cherished. With the triumph of 
Andrew Jackson in 1828 the principles of the Federalist party, 
with which Washington was associated in spirit, and the prin- 

[ 22 ] 



ciples of the Republican party, which Jefferson led, were re¬ 
pudiated in a surge of democracy that was suspicious of all 
government and soon fell under the dominance of the particu¬ 
larism known as states’ rights. Events thus provided a new 
setting of ideas and interests for the period in which institu¬ 
tions of popular education were actually created and for edu¬ 
cational thought itself. In other words, the age of concentration 
that marked the foundation of the Republic was followed by 
an age of diffusion, in which the security and perpetuity of the 
nation were largely taken for granted, despite the shadows of 
civil dissension. Yet, while the work of establishing ins titutions 
of public education fell principally to the states and communi¬ 
ties, the Union organized by the founders was continued and 
furnished the institutional frame in which economy was being 
nationalized even while particularism seemed triumphant. 


[ 23 ] 



III. 


Democracy and Individualism Provided 
the Context for Public Education 

T aken as a whole the age which opened with the advent 
of Jackson was characterized by an intense, reaction against 
the cultural outlook of Washington, Madison, Jefferson, and 
John Quincy Adams. This reaction culminated in a conception 
that America was not a nation at all, but an aggregation of 
sovereign states, any one of which could legally withdraw from 
the Union at its pleasure. Associated with it, as a matter of 
course, was the repudiation of the idea that the government of 
the United States should be employed in. promoting agriculture, 
manufactures, commerce, and internal improvements; the ad¬ 
vancement of science, literature, and the arts; and the develop¬ 
ment of education. As a corollary, stress was laid on individual 
liberty in economy, individual equality in democracy, and 
individual rights against society. This reaction, by its very na¬ 
ture, meant a dispersion of energies, not a concentration such 
as had carried through the Revolution against Great Britain, 
the establishment of the Constitution, and the formulation of 
economic and social policies on a national scale. It was on this 
tide in American affairs that were floated the philosophy and 
practice of public education which were to become dominant 
in later years. 

The Industrial Revolution 
Made Rapid Headway 

In matters of economy, the second period of American 
history was marked by tendencies that differentiated it from 
the age of the founders. These may be swiftly summarized: 
the rapid rise of machine industries, drivingj handicrafts and 
small shops to the wall; the growth of corporations in industry, 
commerce, and finance, bringing new forms of property own¬ 
ership; the spread of steam transportation in commerce; the 

[ 24 ] 



swift upswing of commercial and industrial cities, raising the 
problem of urban aggregations that had long vexed the Old 
World; periodical crises in economy such as occurred in 1837, 
1846, 18 $7, and 1873, malting acute the uncertainties and 
insecurities of life; the opening wide of national gates to pov¬ 
erty-stricken .immigrants from the Old World; the develop¬ 
ment of a huge body of industrial workers, with labor organiza¬ 
tions, conflicts, and strikes disturbing to social peace; the trans¬ 
formation of slavery from the domestic system of the old days 
into the capitalistic cotton planting system and finally its de¬ 
struction in a civil war; the opening of the Near and Far West 
by farm settlements, with their forms and practices of agrarian 
democracy; the drive of cotton planting into the Southwest 
and the extension of the national domain to the Pacific Coast; 
the alienation of the nation’s immense endowment in land and 
other natural resources into private property, to be exploited 
by private initiative for private profit without control by the 
national government. Thus the relatively compact nation of 
the seaboard was expanded from ocean to ocean, and its econ¬ 
omy—industrial and agricultural—revolutionized by events. 

These New Forces Made for Integration- 
in American Education 

While the dominant political tendency of this period was 
toward the surrender of authority to the states, social and 
economic forces far more powerful and permanent in Ameri¬ 
can life were running against this centrifugal movement. In 
many of the most important phases of local, state, and national 
affairs, coordinating and integrating influences were rapidly 
consolidating the people and were making for unity in customs, 
habits, and interests which were in strong contrast to the highly 
individualized life of the past. The growth of cities, improve¬ 
ment in transportation and communication, the development 
of corporate action by both industry and labor and many other 
evidences of the striking tendency toward group life ended 

[2J] 



forever the long period of isolation and made possible effective 
group action. The collective influence of these mighty forces 
created a solidarity in American life not to be- nullified by 
any contradictory philosophy, by whatever powerful hands 
wielded. 

The schools were among those institutions and agencies which 
were affected by the unifying forces of this period. Within a 
relatively short time, scattered district schools were being 
welded into state school systems under the leadership of such men 
as Carter, Mann, and Barnard. In the cities, schools founded 
by charity and philanthropy were replaced by schools sup¬ 
ported and administered by the civil unit and with the stigma 
of pauperism lifted from those who attended them. Even the 
frontier, injecting as it did powerful disintegrating influences 
into national political life, demanded state school systems to 
provide equality of educational opportunity for its people. At 
the beginning of the Jacksonian period education for the 
masses of the people was little more than a hazy ideal of theorists 
and reformers; by the middle of the century it became an 
actuality for millions of the people. 

E qualitarian Democracy 
Made Swift Gains 

In the sphere of government, the immediate reaction against 
the "aristocratic” features of the early Republic was intense. 
The doctrine of equality had been proclaimed by the Declara¬ 
tion of Independence; now it was applied by the extension of 
the suffrage to white males without distinctions of property 
in law. Appealing to the logic of the theory, women held their 
first national suffrage convention in 1848 and launched a cam- 
paign for universal suffrage. Observing the trend everywhere in 
Western civilization, Thomas Carlyle exclaimed: "Universal 
democracy, whatever we may think of it, has declared itself 
as an inevitable fact of the days in which we live; and he who 
has any chance to instruct, or lead, in his day, must begin by 
admitting that.” 



With the extension of the suffrage came popular election of 
presidential electors, the rise of the party nominating conven¬ 
tions, and the wresting of government from the old "aristoc¬ 
racy of wealth and talents.” For a more or less permanent pub¬ 
lic service were substituted rotation in office, short terms, and 
the spoils system. “The duties of any public office,” declared 
Andrew Jackson, "are so simple or admit of being made so 
simple that any man can in a short time become master of 
them.” Henceforward, for many years, men who had dwelt 
in log cabins or humble homes were to occupy the White House 
so long possessed by gentlemen in powdered wigs and knee 
breeches. 

The Functions of the Federal Government 
Were Curtailed 

Respecting federal economic policies, the upheaval during 
the opening years of the second period was likewise thorough¬ 
going. The national bank was destroyed; for it were substi¬ 
tuted state banks, with their "wildcat” tendencies. Internal 
improvements were found to be unconstitutional and this phase 
of federal activity was slowed down. National aids to com¬ 
merce and shipping were either curtailed or abandoned. In its 
platform of 1844 the Democratic party set forth the political 
science of the membership. It declared that all grants of power 
in the Constitution ought to be strictly construed . . . and 
it is inexpedient and dangerous to exercise doubtful constitu¬ 
tional powers. It proclaimed “an equality of rights and privi¬ 
leges.” The federal government should not “foster one branch 
of industry to the detriment of another.” This government 
has no power to charter a United States bank; such an insti¬ 
tution is “dangerous to our republican institutions and the lib¬ 
erties of the people.” To crown the system of federal retrench¬ 
ment, the Democratic party added a resolution in 18 56 that 
the people of the United States should declare themselves in 
favor of "progressive free trade throughout the world.” 


f 27] 



The Triumph of the Republican Party in 186 5 
Continued the Cultural Tradition of 
Jacksonian Democracy 

Although the triumph of the second Republican party and 
the preservation of the Union in the civil conflict brought a 
reversal of these policies in many respects, they did not effect 
a return to the system of the early Republic. That party took 
for its name the title of Jefferson’s party; and its first great 
leader, Abraham Lincoln, derived ideas and inspiration from 
the teachings of Jefferson. But America did not recover 1789 in 
the victory of 1865. Popular suffrage remained and was 
widened; the political practices of democracy, including the 
spoils system, were continued; the ideal of universal equality 
was strengthened by the abolition of chattel slavery. 

While renewing the patronage of industry, commerce, and 
agriculture by federal action, national leadership continued 
the policy of transforming national resources into private prop¬ 
erty—with swiftness and prodigality. It deplored all federal 
intervention with economy, save that designed to promote 
active interests. At the same time, the Fourteenth Amendment 
to the Constitution, as interpreted by the Supreme Court, re¬ 
stricted social legislation in the states by curtailing their police 
power. If, as sometimes contended, leadership in the second 
half of the nineteenth century combined the Federalism of 
Washington with the Democracy of Jefferson, it certainly did 
not display the whole cultural outlook of these national states¬ 
men; nor did it accord to education the role in civilization 
accepted by Washington, Jefferson, and John Quincy Adams. 

No National Statesman Assumed 
Leadership in Education 

After the close of John Quincy Adams’ administration no 
great leader in national affairs looked all around education, 
plumbed its depths, considered its relation to the nation, and, 
like Washington, Jefferson, and John Quincy Adams, staked 

[ 28 ] 



his reputation upon urging its promotion in every department 
—from elementary instruction to the highest inquiry and re¬ 
search. General tributes were paid to education by national 
statesmen, aspects of it were touched upon, and money was 
voted for its support. But exploration of its relation to govern¬ 
ment, economy, and civilization was neglected by the directors 
of federal affairs after that time. Nor did leaders of great private 
affairs dedicate high talents and powers of mind to this subject. 
They too offered praise to eclucation and generously poured 
out millions for private endowments. Occasionally they lauded, 
if pleased; and protested if displeased; but where in their 
writings, addresses, and testaments did they display anything 
like Washington’s or Jefferson’s encompassing and penetrating 
grasp of the thought, activities, and expositions which they en¬ 
dowed? 

In keeping with the ascendant conceptions of the age, leader¬ 
ship in educational advocacy, surrendered by presidents and 
national statesmen, was carried forward by private citizens, 
local statesmen, and especially professional educators. The 
break with the past was not absolute, of course; but the em¬ 
phasis was different and other conceptions of society, govern¬ 
ment, and public policy prevailed generally. The age was also 
marked for a time by preoccupation with the civil conflict, 
and then with the exploitation of the continental domain, un¬ 
der different auspices and yet under Jacksonian theories of pub¬ 
lic policy, especially with respect to the disposition of natural 
resources, the obligations of government, and the nature of 
its social responsibilities. 

It is true that Congress passed in 18 62 the Morrill Act, grant¬ 
ing land .for the establishment of colleges by the states, and 
later subsidized agricultural experiment stations; that the 
Department of Education, soon reduced to the status of a 
Bureau, was set up in 1867; and that President Ulysses S. Grant 
renewed the old recommendation of a national university in 
his message of 1873. Still these events, however important in 
themselves, were incidents, not primary concerns, in national 

[29] 



politics. Education continued to be entrusted to local inspira¬ 
tion, leadership, and control. 

The Idea of Political and Economic Individualism 
Was Accepted as an Automatic Guarantee 
of Progress and Order 

In turning from the features of economy and politics to the 
general ideas uppermost in this period, we encounter complexi¬ 
ties more difficult to summarize. Yet in the long perspective 
we can discern certain dominant ideas amid the tumult and 
conflict. Perhaps first among them must be placed the idea 
of complete equality for all individuals in government, econ¬ 
omy, and cultural opportunity. With a growing insistence 
this idea rang through the thought of the age. Coupled with it 
was a conception of social policy deemed essential to the realiza¬ 
tion of equality in opportunity. That conception called for 
"giving everybody a chance” to acquire fame and fortune, for 
the transformation of the national domain into private prop¬ 
erty, and for emphasis on individual initiative and liberty in the 
use of property—with government or collective action reduced 
to the minimum. It embraced what John R. Commons calls 
the "mechanical principles of individualism, selfishness, division 
of labor, exchange of commodities, equality, fluidity, liberty, 
and that divine providence which led individuals to benefit each 
other without intending to do so.” That the new social policy 
was a driving influence in the extraordinary development of 
the material resources of the nation can scarcely be contro¬ 
verted. That it appeared to be then the final word in statecraft 
is not surprising to students of intellectual history. 

The ruling~een.ception of the time, ascribed with some dis¬ 
regard for truth to Thomas Jefferson, was succinctly and ap- 
;,propriately stated in 1860 by James Parton, the biographer of 
Andrew Jackson. According to the new creed: "the office of 
government is solely to maintain justice between man and man, 
and between the nation and other nations. It should have noth¬ 
ing to do with carrying letters, supporting schools, digging 

[30] 



canals, constructing railroads, or establishing scientific institu¬ 
tions. Its business is simply to suppress villains, foreign and 
domestic. The people are to be left absolutely free to work out 
their welfare in their own way. . . . Paternal government 
establishes and supports schools; Jeffersonian government or¬ 
dains (or should) that no ignoramus shall vote, and sees to it 
(or should) that no parent, guardian, or master defrauds 
a child, ward, or apprentice of the means of acquiring knowl¬ 
edge. . . . This theory of government, incompletely set 
forth in the writings of Mr. Jefferson, has been recently elab¬ 
orated with singular lucidness and power by an English author, 
Mr. Herbert Spencer, whose work on 'Social Statics’ Mr. Jeffer¬ 
son ought to have lived long enough to read, such keen delight 
would he have had in seeing his cherished opinion stated with 
the clearness of light, and demonstrated as Euclid demonstrates 
propositions in geometry.” This is the system which Carlyle 
characterized as anarchy plus the police constable. That it was 
often violated in practice by Jacksonian democracy, and later 
by other national measures, is evident in the records of history; 
but it was long a prominent characteristic of American thought 
and life. 

Darwinism Fortified the Idea of Individual 
Struggle for Existence 

Powerfully affecting the thought of the age was the idea of 
natural science, theoretical and applied. It was, in brief, the 
idea that the material world, and, to some extent at least, hu¬ 
man affairs, are governed by immutable laws which can be 
revealed by research and employed to effect human purposes. 
Among the many findings reported in the name of science in 
this period was one which fortified the prevailing conception 
of social policy, namely, the theory of the struggle for exist¬ 
ence, associated with Darwinism. Although one-sided in its 
emphasis and oblivious to other factors in the evolution of the 
species, such as mutual aid, it was added to the formulas of 
politics and economics and seemed to lend the sanction of all 


[ 31 ] 



nature to a tooth and claw struggle o£ individuals for wealth 
and position. In the hands of Herbert Spencer, and as popu¬ 
larized in the United States by John Fiske, it lent intellectual, 
if not moral, support to dominant conceptions of economy, 
government, and social policy in general. 

Yet the Evils of Poverty Shadow 
the March of Progress 

Nevertheless, it could not be said that contentment with the 
course of affairs in the United States during these long years 
was universal. Far from it. Coupled all along with praise for 
the acts of the times were dissatisfactions and aspirations com¬ 
ing under the broad head of social reform and manifesting 
themselves in third parties and rifts in the major parties. Even 
before the advent of Jacksonian democracy, and certainly after 
the financial crash of 1837, observers of American society 
called attention, with increasing reiteration, not only to slavery 
in the South but to poverty and degradation in the industrial 
regions of the North. It was not merely in the writings of agi¬ 
tators deemed radical, such as Josiah Warren, Frances Wright, 
and Wendell Phillips, that this concern with distress and 
poverty appeared. Great leaders of American thought—for 
example, Emerson, Horace Greeley, Charles A. Dana, and 
James Russell Lowell—were deeply moved by the human deg¬ 
radation that accompanied “the march of progress.” 

As remedies for the evils discovered, numerous panaceas were 
offered to the public. In the early days of the Jacksonian epoch, 
the project of utopian socialism, or cooperative colonies, was 
powerfully sponsored by leading personalities, among them 
Horace Greeley. When repeated failures damped their ardors 
and hopes, the reformers offered two other methods of coping 
with poverty and degradation, as ways of escape and as promises 
Is of security and liberty. One of them was the plan of the agrar¬ 
ians for giving away the public domain as free homesteads to 
settlers. This, it was argued, would enable the distressed to find 
liberty and a living on the land and permit those who remained 

[32] 



behind to raise their wages by threats of wholesale emigration 
to the West. Into this movement for land reform, utopian so¬ 
cialists and labor leaders finally threw great energies and won 
from Congress the Homestead Act of 1862 . The other grand 
project for eliminating the poverty and wretchedness that 
haunted American society was public education. 



IV. 


Educational Philosophy Was 
Adapted to the Spirit of the Age 

S uch were relevant circumstances in which public educa¬ 
tion, largely a hope in the early days of the Republic, took 
on its philosophy and practice, and flowered into a state system, 
with regional connections and outlook. Such was the general 
context of ideas and interests in which Horace Mann, Henry 
Barnard, Mary Lyon, Emma Willard, Calvin Wiley, J. L. M. 
Curry, William T. Harris, and a veritable host of American 
citizens formulated the theory and built up the institutions of 
public education in the states, with achievements to their credit 
little short of the seven wonders of the world. It was not in a 
shadowy realm of abstractions that they wrought. As the hand 
is subdued to the dye in which it works, so their minds and 
aspirations were conditioned by the essential concerns of the 
age in which their lot was cast. 

That the dominant ideas and interests of the time entered 
into the formulation of the conceptions and objectives of 
education is shown by Curti. 1 Among these conceptions and 
objectives a few stand out impressively. An analysis and classifi¬ 
cation of them are necessary to a comprehension of the educa¬ 
tional system which the early leaders created and bequeathed 
to posterity—the system in which our generation has worked. 
Professor Curti does not say that a single pattern of thought 
existed in identical form in the minds of all leaders who took 
part in founding and developing public schools. Some leaders 
emphasized one aspect; others laid their main stress elsewhere. 
But when their patterns of thought are laid on top of one 

Curti, Merle. The Social Ideas of American Educators. New York: 
Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1935, 613 p, 

[ 34 ] 



another, certain centers of interest correspond, despite dif¬ 
ferences and shadings. 


Education Was Conceived as an Aid 
in Sustaining Democratic Government 

Without making a hazardous attempt to arrange them in 
order of historical importance, we may begin with the em¬ 
phasis on public education as a promise for the fulfilment of the 
democratic ideal, as an instrument for making democratic 
government adequate to the exigencies of society, and as a 
corrective for the evils” of the wider democracy brought 
about by the extension of the suffrage in Jacksonian days. At 
last the decision on momentous questions that had long vexed 
mankind was entrusted to masses of the people, and Horace 
Mann offered public education as the supreme hope for wise 
and just decisions. "The rack, the faggot, and the dungeon,” 
he said, had failed to decide them; "the blood of all the mar¬ 
tyrs” had failed; 'the power of kings aided by the wealth of 
nations had failed. If these issues were ever to be correctly 
settled, Mann thought, "it must be by each party’s laying aside 
its exclusiveness, its pride, its infallibility, its contempt, and, 
by the union of all in some noble plan, to give to another gen¬ 
eration fitter attainments, greater capacities, and that without 
which all other means are worthless—minds free from preju¬ 
dice, and yearning after truth.” 

,Yet there were dangers in the popular experiment. Masses 
of propertyless white men were given the vote and the right 
to hold office. This was a break with history, with the concep¬ 
tions and practices of the men who founded the American Re¬ 
public. In a sense it was, as contended by the opponents at the 
time, revolutionary in nature and import. In opposing a system 
of complete political equality, Daniel Webster, as a member 
of the Massachusetts constitutional convention of 1820, warned 
his auditors that political equality and economic inequality 
were incompatible; that political equality would bring assaults 

[ 31 ] 



on private property, or compel "the holders of estates” to limit 
the right of suffrage. It was with some such warnings in mind 
that Horace Mann, successor of John Quincy Adams in the 
House of Representatives, “turned to universal education as 
the best insurance against mobocracy, confiscatory legislation, 
threats to judicial supremacy, and the spoils system which Jack- 
sonism held so dear.” Public education, it was repeatedly ar¬ 
gued, would develop good citizens, calm popular distempers, 
and make the success of democracy possible. 

The Assimilation of Aliens Was Made 
a Function of Education 

A second function assigned to public education by the leaders 
was the assimilation of the aliens who poured into the country, 
as growing industries and the development of agriculture 
opened the way for them. The thin stream of early republican 
days became a flood at the middle of the nineteenth century, 
and a torrent at the close. Men, women, and children of many 
races, usually poverty-stricken, uneducated, speaking a babel 
of tongues, imbued with other traditions, streamed into the 
United States by the millions. Owners of mines, factories, and 
industries welcomed them; land speculators greeted them with 
effusion. Many of the immigrants crowded into urban areas; 
ethnic groups formed cities of their own within cities, and 
preserved a separatism on which politicians and demagogs 
played in their struggle for power. As historians were fond of 
pointing out, the invasions which disrupted the Roman Empire 
were relatively trivial in point of numbers. To public edu¬ 
cation was assigned the Herculean task of teaching immigrants 
the English language, preparing them for crafts and callings 
in the United States, and instructing them in respect of the 
spirit and practices of American institutions. The fact that 
some European authorities were deliberately emptying their 
poorhouses on our shores gave to this argument for educa¬ 
tion a point which could scarcely be missed. 


[ 36 ] 



Education Was Regarded as an Aid in Assuring Equality 
of Preparation for Economic Opportunity 

Within the policy set for government and economy, the 
public schools were also to prepare boys and girls for making 
the most of their opportunities, for rising in the world to posi¬ 
tions of wealth and influence. American democracy had pro¬ 
claimed equality, had asserted the right of every individual to 
advance as far as his talents could carry him, and had thrown 
open the public domain to swift and unrestricted exploitation. 
An apparently obvious corollary of this policy was the equaliza¬ 
tion of opportunities for all to acquire the knowledge and 
training required for the race in which victory went to talents, 
as distinguished from the privileges of birth. On this aspect of 
public education, organized labor laid heavy emphasis, early 
and late. It demanded public support for education, to remove 
the stigma of pauperism which marked many of the charity 
schools. It opposed mere manual training, as designed to fix 
class lines, and insisted upon a system of education that would 
provide "ladders” to the highest and most lucrative places in 
the country. If America was to be regarded as "the land of 
opportunity,” if opportunities were to be "equal,” then educa¬ 
tion must provide "the equal start.” 

The Undeveloped Resources of the Nation Seemed 
To Offer Endless Economic Opportunity 

The logic of the plan seemed overwhelming. Circumstances 
seemed propitious for its application. American industries were 
young and no one could set limits to their expansion. American 
agriculture had a continental domain to conquer. Debaters in 
Congress pointed out as late as 1852 that, in the preceding sixty 
years, only 100,000,000 acres of the public land had been sold, 
and that 1,400,000,000 remained in the hands of the national 
government. From such figures the conclusion was drawn that 
it would take from four hundred to nine hundred years, at the 
existing rate of sale, to reach the end. With such a pleasing 


[ 37 ] 



economic prospect spread out before them, the sponsors of 
public education could with good reason proclaim opportunity; 
committed to the principle of equality for all, they could plead 
for equal educational facilities. 

Education Set to Work within the 
Frame of a Noble Dream 

By inculcating loyalty to the democratic order, by the train¬ 
ing of citizens, by the assimilation of aliens, and by the equal¬ 
ization of educational opportunities, founders of the public 
schools hoped to realize in America a noble social dream with 
liberty, justice, and welfare for all. In this society careers were 
to be open to everybody, talents were to be efficiently applied in 
the exploitation of the national endowment and the production 
of wealth, and the blessings of civilization were to be shared by 
all. If the initiative of individuals could be given liberty, if they 
could be equipped with knowledge of the practical arts, then 
there would be prosperity and security for American society 
in the years to come. So thought Horace Mann. Oppressed by 
the economic misery which he saw about him, Mann was in¬ 
spired to passionate labor in behalf of education as a hope for an 
escape from poverty. Henry Barnard and Catherine Beecher 
were no less haunted by the spectre; and they likewise looked 
to public education as the means of laying it forever. 

Public Education Forged Ahead 

Driven by the dynamics of these powerful considerations, 
public education made headway against popular indifference 
and privileged hostility,, from small beginnings to magnificence 
of resources and vastness of plant. Heirs 'and followers of this 
tradition accepted its assumptions, worked within its bound¬ 
aries, devised new methods for achieving the original purposes, 
and appeared to expect an endless expansion. 

There were doubters, to be sure. Horace Greeley, the invet¬ 
erate reformer, bluntly asked: "To the child daily sent out from 

r 38 ] 



a rickety hovel or miserable garret to wrestle with Poverty 
and Misery for such knowledge as the teacher can impart, what 
true idea or purpose of Education is possible?” But even Greeley 
came to regard free homesteads as the escape from poverty, 
and in the end conceded the point of the educators. By this 
combination America could be made the land of opportunity; 
through equal education the children of landless farmers, pov¬ 
erty-stricken immigrants, and city slum dwellers might find 
their way outward, if not upward, into security, perhaps 
affluence. 


1391 



V. 


New Interests and Ideas De¬ 
mand Educational Readjustments 


T hus far the popular institutions of government founded 
in the eighteenth century, and widened into the democ¬ 
racy of Jackson and Lincoln, have survived. Indeed they have 
been extended, by the emancipation of slaves, the partial en¬ 
franchisement of Negroes, and the addition of woman suffrage. 
Moreover, other institutions of democracy, such as initiative, 
referendum, recall, and direct primary, have been grafted on 
the original stock. 

The few and simple functions of government prevailing 
in the early period—the functions of "the police state”—have 
been supplemented by functions bewildering in variety—social 
services undreamt of, save by a few, at the middle of the nine¬ 
teenth century, A mere description of them fills volumes. 1 So, 
with the growth of political democracy, the obligations of 
popular government underwent a revolution. 


Over Free Land Sweeps Tenancy 


What became, however, of the "free land” and "unlimited 
resources” which were to furnish opportunities for security and 
a livelihood—for four hundred or nine hundred years? By 
1890, that fictitious year which marked "the closing of the 
frontier,” practically all the good arable land available to home¬ 
steaders had been granted away, and the rest of the free land 
open to settlement was of low quality. By that fateful year 
"only 372,619 homestead entries had been perfected, granting 


Presidents Research Committee, Wesley C. Mitchell, chairman. Recent 
™ TWs m the United States. New York: McGraw-Hill Book Co., 

s ' iL \s ,W v d ? y ’ ^« o11 H - e™* of the Federal Government, 
191)-1932 , New York: McGraw-Hill Book Co., 1934, 577 p. 


[ 40 ] 



48,22 5,73 6 acres to supposed settlers—an area less than that of 
the state of Nebraska and equal only to 3% percent of the 
total territory west of the Mississippi River. By that date more 
than four times as much land had been given to the railroad 
companies.” Between 1870 and 1890, “as the population in¬ 
creased 63 /% percent, manufacturing labor more than doubled 
in number while the total engaged in agriculture grew by only 
about 45 percent.” Surveying the state of things at the end 
of that period, “the Industrial Commission accounted for 
8,395,634 persons engaged in agriculture in 1890, of whom 
3,004,061 were hired laborers. In addition there were no less 
than 1,500,000 tenant workmen. This leaves less than 4,000,000 
persons tilling land of their own, including all the mortgaged 
farms. Only three-eighths of the families of the United States 
were cultivating the soil ‘as owners, tenants, or laborers/ and 
the ratio was declining constantly. Over half of these were on 
an economic basis scarcely if any better than that of the city 
laborer.” 1 The fortunes of farmers, tenants, share croppers, 
field laborers, and migratory agricultural laborers after 189b 
need no recapitulation here. The cumulative effects are re¬ 
corded in the census returns in pitiless figures, revealing cul¬ 
tural implications that reach the very depths of American life. 
School graduates by the millions can no longer look forward 
to free homesteads on which to apply their talents and energies. 

The Call for Conservation Checks the Rush 
of Unrestrained Exploitation 

Within fifty years after they were made, prophecies of op¬ 
portunities in agriculture for four hundred or nine hundred 
years were belied by events. There was no more free arable 
land of real quality. Nearly all the best forest, mineral, and 
grazing land had been alienated for exploitation by private 
enterprise. By that time the government of the United States 
was turning its back upon its historic policies, as indicated by 

1 Shannon, Fred A. "The Homestead Act and the Labor Surplus,” Ameri¬ 
can Historical Review 41:637-51; July 1936. 

[41 J 



the enactment of 1891 which provided for the creation of 
forest reserves on the remaining public domain. Now, in our 
day, the government has been called upon by a half-frantic 
people to irrigate deserts, to protect whole regions against the 
floods that descend from denuded hills, to reforest slashed and 
ruined acres by the million, to restore to grass millions of acres 
that never should have been given to the plough, to do battle 
with dust storms, and to resettle beaten and destitute farming 
families that sought opportunity in the West. Each farmer, as 
Adam Smith might say, knew best what to do with his land; 
but he could not forecast distant results after all farmers had 
long followed their immediate interests—had drained swamps, 
cut down trees, and lowered water levels for regions vast in 
expanse; nor did he know the effect of his own output in the 
market on which his prices and standard of life depended. After 
a comprehensive survey of the tendency of things in the use of 
our natural resources, the engineers of the National Resources 
Board set forth in cold realism, in 193 5, the ruinous prospects 
of land and water resources, unless historic practices are dis¬ 
continued. 

Corporate Ownership Overshadows 
Individual Ownership in Industry 

During the long period in which educational philosophy 
and the public schools were taking form and developing, pro¬ 
found changes were occurring in industrial organization and 
procedure—in that world of economic opportunities for which 
the schools were training millions of pupils annually. In the 
production of staple commodities, the small local plant indi¬ 
vidually or corporately owned, and operated by a small number 
of employees, gave way to the gigantic plant or system of 
plants corporately owned and employing thousands of workers. 
By 1930 corporations owned and controlled approximately 
78 percent of American business wealth, and two hundred of 
the largest corporations owned and controlled about 38 per- 


[42 ] 



cent of all business wealth. In substance this corporate develop¬ 
ment made a revolution in the types of industrial opportuni¬ 
ties and practices prevailing when public education was estab¬ 
lished. It marked a large-scale transfer of individual ownership 
from real property to paper, the creation of heavy fiduciary 
obligations, a thoroughgoing alteration in the working rela¬ 
tions of employers and employees, and the imposition of new 
restraints on possibilities of rising into the ownership and man¬ 
agements of real property. 

Local Economies Are Tied into 
National Economy 

Accompanying this growth of corporate ownership and 
management was a specialization of industry and agriculture 
by commodities, regions, and groups. For diversified local fac¬ 
tories that supplied nearly all community wants were substi¬ 
tuted specialized industries relying upon national and interna¬ 
tional markets for survival and prosperity. For the self-sufficing 
homestead was substituted the one-crop system—the dairy 
farm, the wheat farm, the cattle ranch, or the fruit and vege¬ 
table farm. Inevitably there was a corresponding growth of 
interstate commerce and interdependence among regions, in¬ 
dustries, and occupations. Associated with this growth came an 
integration of specialized industries through industrial corpo¬ 
rations and supercorporations, investment concerns, banking 
institutions, and holding companies—in spite of the anti-trust 
laws designed to restore the forms of early economy. Thus in 
effect, industry and agriculture were nationalized in operation 
and interdependence; wages, hours, and working conditions 
in each region affected wages, hours, and working conditions in 
all regions; and the national consequences of panics or disloca¬ 
tions in economy were intensified. It became scarcely possible 
for any section or staple industry to enjoy prosperity and pro¬ 
vide full employment while other sections or industries were in 
a state of depression. 


t 43 ] 



Individuals in Economy Are 
Organized iri Associations 

Interwoven with these changes in economic practice was 
the organization of participants in production, within in¬ 
dustry and outside—manufacturers, industrial workers and 
farmers. Owners and managers of productive and distributive 
establishments were associated immediately by specialties— 
manufacturers of electrical supplies and retail merchants, for 
example; and they were affiliated vertically and horizontally 
through local, state, and national associations and chambers of 
commerce. In the field of labor a similar process of organiza¬ 
tion occurred, until the major portion of the workers in large 
staple enterprises were organized in independent and company 
unions. Less effectively, but still on a considerable scale, espe¬ 
cially with state and federal assistance, agricultural producers 
were drawn together in cooperative marketing and credit as¬ 
sociations, local and nationwide in scope. No comprehensive 
figures are available, but it is safe to say that only in isolated 
and special cases do individuals in the productive and distribu¬ 
tive processes stand alone, unaffiliated with any economic as¬ 
sociation, and completely free to determine their own working 
rules and to dictate the terms of their own contracts or 
managerial operations. And steadily through the years have 
been developed codes of fair practices limiting the range and 
types of individual activities and opportunities that prevailed 
when the philosophy of public education was first formulated. 

Family Economy Is Disintegrating 

No less significant for national culture, for the fortunes of 
individuals,, and for education, was the loosening of the family 
bonds that existed when industry and agriculture were local- 
’ ized and more or less self-sufficing. For centuries the household 
had been the center of education in the practical arts and the 
humanities—a school of mutual aid and the social virtues in¬ 
dispensable to the state. However intense the struggle for exist - 


[ 44 ] 



ence, mutual aid, collective responsibility, and individual sacri¬ 
fice had marked the economy of the family. It was not without 
reason that Aristotle, writing long before the birth of Christ, 
started his immortal treatise on Politics with a consideration 
of the domestic unit, for, he said, “The family is the association 
established by nature for the supply of men’s everyday wants, 
and the members of it are called by Charandas 'companions of 
the cupboard’ and by Epimendes the Cretan 'companions of 
the manger.* ” Nor is it to be overlooked that the very term 
"economics” is derived from the Greek word meaning "the 
management of household affairs.” 

As long as the family was self-sufficing and intact, its mem¬ 
bers assumed responsibilities for education and group welfare, 
according to capacity; they shared food, clothing, and shelter; 
they perished together in floods, droughts, famines, and wars. 
But when machines and industrial specialization disintegrated 
the household and destroyed the homestead arts, they drew 
members of the domestic unit, young and old, into factories and 
other enterprises beyond the hearth. Although the family re¬ 
mained, its ancient economic ties were broken. Often the "fluid¬ 
ity of labor” enabled its members to escape entirely from home 
and from responsibilities; in millions of cases, even the mothers, 
from primitive times guardians of the household arts and 
sacrificial conservators of family goods became wage-earners 
in shops, factories, and offices. Hence old reliance upon the 
family as a guarantee of security and as a generator of moral 
forces steadily weakened. Long ago educational administration 
felt the shock of this transformation. A restatement of edu¬ 
cational obligations must reckon with its relevant facts. 


The functions of Government Touch 
All Branches of Life and Economy 

With the mechanization of economy and the loosening of 
the family bonds ran the multiplication of government func¬ 
tions and services, to which brief reference has been made. 

[45 ] 



These functions now touch every branch of industry, agricul¬ 
ture, finance, the management of natural resources, employ¬ 
ment, morals, and security. They go far beyond the crude pro¬ 
tection of life and property. Some are regulatory—factory 
legislation, control of utilities, and rules pertaining to industries 
affected with public interest. Other public functions are stimu¬ 
lative—tariffs, subsidies, bounties, and government purchasing 
and lending. In certain fields government has entered oper¬ 
ating economy—the Panama Canal, the Tennessee Valley devel¬ 
opment, parcel post, postal savings, water works, parks, for¬ 
ests, docks, harbor facilities. In many relations government 
cooperates with private enterprise—the Boulder Dam power 
project, the New York subway system, and rural electrification 
(grid projects). With disintegration of town and village suffi¬ 
ciency, with the merging of the family and the community 
into a specialized and integrated economy, governments—fed¬ 
eral, state, and local—assumed social obligations on a huge 
scale: institutional care, old age pensions, and insurance against 
dependency and unemployment. 

The Growth of Public Functions 
Is Cumulative 

The origins of the expansion in public functions may be 
traced back into the nineteenth century, and in some cases, 
beyond. Its municipal manifestations reached' a high point by 
1914; its state forms, in many respects, ran parallel and widened 
as the nineteenth century merged into the twentieth; federal 
functions, in some features, date from the adoption of the Con¬ 
stitution but, in their proliferation, mark the advance of the 
twentieth century. The revolutionary character of the con¬ 
trast is sharply illustrated by a comparison of President Van 
Buren’s refusal to lift a finger in the panic of 1837 with the 
assumption'of heavy obligations by President Hoover in the 
crisis of 1929, and still heavier obligations by President Roose¬ 
velt in 1933. 


[46 ] 



It Is Not the Work of Any 
Single Political Party 

This growth of public functions has been a process of accre¬ 
tion and accumulation. No political party has deliberately and 
consistently favored it. No political party in practice has delib¬ 
erately and consistently opposed it. A study of the votes in 
state legislatures and in the Congress of the United States shows 
that on most of the measures adding to public obligations polit¬ 
ical parties have themselves been divided. The benefits, there¬ 
fore, cannot be ascribed to any party; nor the evils. Indeed the 
growth of public functions has gone on despite the fortunes 
of parties and leaders. With something like the inexorableness 
of a natural process, it has accompanied the development of 
American society over a long period of time, gaining momen¬ 
tum as the nineteenth century turned into the twentieth. 
Critics may condemn; admirers may praise. The fact remains. 
And even the severest critics make discriminations; they would 
preserve some of these functions while abandoning others. 

No Sharp Line Divides Public 
and Private Economy 

So deeply embedded in the texture of economy and social life 
are these government functions that no sharp line divides public 
and private economy. Theory may draw it in words; practice 
and knowledge cannot discover it in the conduct of affairs. 
Thus a transformation in the very structure of American 
society must be recorded since the establishment of educational 
philosophy and practice in the age of Jacksonian democracy. 
At the opening of that period American society was relatively 
simple. With slight sacrifice of truth it could be said that it 
was actually governed by Adam Smith’s "mechanical prin¬ 
ciples.” (See page 30.) In our age, on the other hand, society 
is a complication of individual activities and social relations. 
The individual remains, and individual virtues are still indis¬ 
pensable, But all individuals must in cold fact operate their 


[ 47 ] 



economies and conduct their lives under what John R. Com¬ 
mons calls “the Working Rules of Going Concerns, taking 
many forms and names, such as the common law, statute law, 
shop rules, business ethics, business methods, norms of conduct, 
and so on, which these governing or regulating groups of asso¬ 
ciated individuals have laid down for guidance of transac¬ 
tions.” If anything is known about the actual nature of human 
affairs and human relations, this much is known: All educa¬ 
tional philosophies and activities designed to prepare pupils 
for the real world of going concerns must take account of it 
and cope with its thrusts and demands. Failure to do so means 
an avoidance of truth as well as of obligations. 

The Scientific Method Dissolves 
Old Social Dogmas 

The validity of what has just been said rests upon another 
positive development that has taken place since the advent of 
Jacksonian democracy and the early formulations of educa¬ 
tional philosophy, namely, the wide application of the scientific 
method to the study of human affairs. In essence the applica¬ 
tion of the scientific method means the utmost possible eman¬ 
cipation from the dictates of a priori or dogmatic notions, 
whether of theological revelation, Colbertian mercantilism, 
Ricardian individualism, or Marxian communism. Correlatively 
it means an effort to know things as they have been and now 
are, without reference to preconceived dogmas respecting the 
way they ought to have been and to be. In short, the scientific 
method fostered by learning brought the keen edge of analysis 
to bear on the habitual assumptions of the period which saw 
the establishment of public education. 

The Social Sciences "Present Huge 
Bodies of New Knowledge 

Without doubt those who apply the scientific method are 
human and subject to error, but by employing engines of 

[ 4 «] 



authentication and cross-verification they have created immense 
bodies of knowledge which command authority through the 
consensus of competence. The fruits of their labors are repre¬ 
sented by whole libraries of works written since the age of 
Andrew Jackson—critical and documented history, anthro¬ 
pology, political economy, political science, sociology, psychol¬ 
ogy, and institutional behavior. Despite all conflicts in social 
theory and many shortcomings in presentation, these branches 
of knowledge are so solidly established that theorists and prac¬ 
titioners in government, economy, social relations, and educa¬ 
tion are compelled to use them, unless content to be futile or 
utopian. Although the social sciences have not attained, and in 
the nature of things cannot attain, the exactness of generaliza¬ 
tion reached by the physical sciences, they are as indispensable 
to efficient individual conduct and social practice as technology 
is to machine industry; and reliance on them will increase as 
society grapples resolutely with its problems and potentialities. 

These Transformations Provide a Novel 
Setting for Educational Planning 

It is evident from this summary that the movement of inter¬ 
ests and ideas has created for educational philosophy and prac¬ 
tice a social context which is fundamentally different in many 
respects from the setting in which the founders of the public 
schools worked. American society is no longer a fairly simple 
order of agriculture and manufacturing, in which prudence, 
talents, industry, and thrift are automatically assured places 
and achievements. It is instead a highly complicated association 
controlled by a close mechanism of working rules, public and 
private, which must be effectively observed to assure anything 
like an adequate functioning of either economy or government. 
The opportunities and responsibilities of the individual in this 
society are correspondingly complex. Coping with them calls 
for specialized knowledge, and for a strong spirit of goodwill. 
Simple confidence in the assertion of rights against society, 

[ 49 ] 



which characterized the nineteenth century, is no longer suffi¬ 
cient. It is now everywhere recognized that rights asserted are 
futile unless accompanied by the policy and the competence 
necessary to maintain the kind of society in which rights pro¬ 
claimed can be enjoyed. 

The Task of Recasting Educational Philosophy in 
New Terms Falls on Educational Leadership 

Such being the case, it follows that American society is not 
one iri which the problems of government, economy, and social 
living have been solved for all time, leaving to education the 
simple function of disseminating fixed doctrines and the knowl¬ 
edge of the practical arts—or of serving the authorities imme¬ 
diately in power. On the contrary, it is a society which con¬ 
fronts basic issues at home and in foreign relations, even the 
fundamental issue of preserving the democratic processes them¬ 
selves. In such a society education has creative as well as con¬ 
servative functions and obligations of the highest order. 

If it is said that education must merely follow the State, then 
the question arises, What is the State? The President of the 
United States at the moment? The majority in Congress? The 
majority in the state legislature or the city council? The gov¬ 
ernor or the mayor? Directors of farm organizations, trade 
unions, chambers of commerce, or any minority that can exert 
pressure on the schools? 

This question surely answers itself, at least for all who are 
not prepared to throw overboard the cultural obligations of 
education and accept the dictation of immediate political offi¬ 
cers or special interests. To be sure educational leadership does 
not and cannot ignore other forms of leadership in American 
society; nor does it arrogate to itself infallibility, even within 
its own sphere. But the functions of education in maintaining 
and enriching civilization distinguish it from instant political 
and economic activities, and impose upon it responsibilities 
that are wider and deeper than any mere professional concern. 

[f°] 



Those responsibilities are difficult to know and discharge. That 
goes without saying. But loyalty to the knowledge and aspira¬ 
tion associated with education requires an exploration and 
definition of its obligations, with all the powers of mind and 
understanding available. Belittling our capacities in the pres¬ 
ence of duty, as John Morley said long ago, is as indefensible 
as fostering an unwarranted egotism. 

Summary of the Background 

Public education is anchored in the nature of civilization 
as unfolded. It is thus closely associated with the ideals, policies, 
and institutions of government and economy, as well as the 
arts and sciences. Although some forms of private education 
may be far removed from the hard world of practice, public 
education can maintain no such isolation. Many professional 
representatives, it is true, may properly concentrate on school¬ 
room procedure, methods, and testing, but the leaders who 
determine the content and objectives of instruction must work 
under the immediate impacts of society—its needs, drives, and 
demands. The degree to which these constructive organizers 
are aware of, and informed respecting, the historical and con¬ 
temporary forces pressing upon the schools, may be said to 
mark the state of their preparation for effective leadership. 

Distinguished founders of the Republic deemed education 
indispensable to the perpetuity of the nation, to the realization 
of its ideals, and to the smooth functioning of American 
society. Under the impetus of this deep conviction, they ex¬ 
plored the nature of education, made plans, and urged the 
establishment of institutions of learning appropriate to the 
American setting. Having waged war in a common cause, 
having established a Constitution to form a more perfect union, 
they laid heavy emphasis on the utility of education in over¬ 
coming the disruptive tendencies of particularism and prepar¬ 
ing the people for the discharge of national obligations. In 
so doing they displayed profound insight into the forces requi- 



site to the creation and operation of a great society. They did 
more. They set an impressive example to all those of succeeding 
generations who are called upon to make constructive efforts 
in education on a large scale and under grand conceptions of 
public policy. They demonstrated for all time that education 
is an enterprise worthy of the highest talents, inviting the 
boldest thought, and forever linked with the cultural destiny 
of the nation. 

In the second period of American development public 
education was deemed no less important. Indeed it was so 
highly esteemed that immense sacrifices were made to secure 
its establishment. But this period was marked by an intense 
reaction against the cultural outlook of the founders, by em¬ 
phasis on the sovereignty of the states, by laissez faire in federal 
policy, by the march of equalitarian democracy, and by a pas¬ 
sionate individualism. Not until the close of the civil conflict in 
1865 was it clearly decided that the Union could survive the 
action of these centrifugal forces. In other words, the second 
stage in the growth of American society presented many as¬ 
pects of a sharp antithesis to the first; and they were stamped 
on educational theory and practice. 

Yet the antithesis did not wholly prevail. The unity of the 
nation was preserved, as the founders of the Republic had 
hoped. But it was democratized, in a way which few of them 
contemplated. Liberty was widened by the abolition of slavery. 
A profound stimulus was given to individual enterprise, as 
education equalized opportunity for training. And by a strange 
fate the energies of individual enterprise thus trained in schools 
under state and local auspices, and released in action, swiftly 
rounded out the continent, laced all parts of the country to¬ 
gether by systems of transportation, and bound its sections 
and industries into a national economy. Meanwhile agencies 
of communication merged provincial ideas and thought in a 
larger consensus, such as the founders of the Republic had 
sought to create. 

So it has come about that public education, as in 1789, is 

[J2] 



once more concerned with nstiouiil economy and interests, 
despite its origins in state and local enterprise. Whereas George 
Washington once urged the promotion of education by na¬ 
tional action, states and communities now turn to the federal 
government for aid in carrying on the work which they insisted 
upon starting under their own control. Through the influence 
of common ideals, methods, and associations, public education 
itself draws into a unity of thought and purpose which is 
nationwide in its reach. Even in the most independent com¬ 
munities the impacts of national economy are felt; and the 
social studies which the schools teach are of necessity deeply 
concerned with that economy. The age-long conflict between 
centralism and particularism, between collective interest and 
private interest, has not closed and cannot be closed; but upon 
educational leadership devolves a certain responsibility for 
keeping that conflict within the bounds of exact knowledge, 
goodwill, and the democratic process, and of contributing to 
the formulation of wise and humane decisions. 

So viewed, the association of educational history with the 
encompassing history of American civilization is not a form 
of antiquarianism and dust-sifting. On the contrary by this 
process alone does it seem possible to obtain sure guidance in 
'the formulation of an educational policy corresponding to 
the realities of the living present, now rising out of the past. 



VL 


The Nature of Educa¬ 
tion and Its Obligations 

W hen all chat is associated with education as philosophy 
and reality is brought under review, it presents two 
phases which, though inseparable, may be called for convenience 
intrinsic and extrinsic. While education constantly touches 
the practical affairs of the hour and day, and responds to 
political and economic exigencies, it has its own treasures 
heavy with the thought and sacrifices of the centuries. It 
possesses a heritage of knowledge and heroic examples—ac¬ 
cepted values stamped with the seal of permanence. Yet it 
is more than the inanimate record of tradition, more than 
books, maps, pictures, models, and methods of instruction. 
Education finds expression in the living personalities con¬ 
nected with it, in the relations of board and administration, 
in the associations of teachers and pupils, in attitudes, bearings, 
and skills, in all the nobler impulses of the humanities which 
are sustaining forces of society. Forever affiliated with educa¬ 
tion, in varying degrees of intensity, is the inscrutable urge 
of aspiration and creative intelligence which gives elevation 
to daily duties and seeks the improvement of the heritage. It 
guards those virtues of the race that are vouchsafed to the 
humblest—industry, patience, self-denial, and consideration 
for others, and at the same time it stimulates the more im¬ 
perial gifts of imagination, originality, and invention by which 
the treasures of mankind are enlarged and enriched. Wielding 
no weapons of sheer power, claiming no pomp and circum¬ 
stance of State, education nourishes the underlying values 
upon which State and Society depend for their existence— 
values which outlast transformations in the working rules 
of government and economy, and offer promises of humane 
reconstruction in times of crisis and threatened dissolution. 

[ 54 ] 



Beyond question, the members of the teaching profession do 
not claim to be adequately prepared by natural talents or by 
training for the weighty tasks imposed upon them by educa¬ 
tion. Nor does any Hippocratic oath bind them into a single 
fraternity committed with whole heart to the ideals of their 
own heritage. But even an elementary knowledge of the history 
of education, from crude drawings on the walls of paleolithic 
caves to the complicated activities of the modern university, 
vests in them a fiduciary trust meritorious in itself and to be 
protected against mere coercion and expediency. This trust 
remains a center of interest and affection when that aspect of 
education, called extrinsic, is drawn into consideration and 
the obligations of the schools to government, economy, and 
society are determined and assumed. 

The Intrinsic Features of Education 

No sharp line can be traced between the inmost substances 
of education and the external circumstances that influence it 
and call upon its leadership for services. Yet there is a center 
of gravity in education—a treasury of knowledge, aspirations, 
and values—that endures and is to be cherished against mere 
expediency. This heritage is old in its origins and still ever 
new in contemporaneous thought. It contains some features 
peculiar to America and some that are common to education 
in all ages and all countries, however carried on—under do¬ 
mestic, private, religious, independent, or public auspices. These 
features are indeed primordial for civilization. They represent 
values which the sponsors of democracy from antiquity to 
modern times have deemed essential to humane living and to 
effective self-government. 

This is no place to attempt a distillation of forty cepturies 
of educational thought and aspiration, even vfere the powers 
to undertake it at command. But stress must: be laid on the 
intrinsic and enduring features of education. Otherwise they 
may be neglected amid the pressures of immediate demands 


[ « 1 



upon the schools; and encouragement may be given to the 
menacing conception that education is nothing in itself, is 
a mere servant of triumphant power—political, military, or 
economic. 

It is obvious, and still must be emphasized, that education 
has obligations attached to the profession. The teacher is not 
a soldier, a lawyer, a physician, a businessman, a farmer, or 
an industrial worker. Other callings have their responsibilities. 
Teaching has the responsibilities of its commitments. In its 
heritage is knowledge—of the great classics deemed appropri¬ 
ate for instruction in the schools, of educational philosophy 
from Plato through Rousseau and Froebel to the latest path- 
breakers, of the scientific works employed in the several 
branches of learning, and of the technical works on method 
and practice. It is the duty of teachers, according to their 
powers, to master as much of this knowledge as they can. 

Above all, education has obligations to truth in itself and 
for its own sake—obligations to seek it, defend it, and make 
humane use of it. Education must keep alive memories, linking 
the past with the present and tempering the sensations of 
the hour by reference to the long experiences of the race. It 
must kindle and feed the imagination, by bringing past achieve¬ 
ments of the imagination into view and indicating how new 
forms of science, art, invention, and. human association may 
be called into being. Education must foster aspiration—the 
desire to be more, to acquire greater skill and knowledge, and 
to create. It must cherish beauty as a value in itself and as 
contributing to mental health, power, and pleasure, as adding 
rewards to labor and delight to life. Concerned with truth 
and the great powers of mind and heart, education is bound 
to assert the liberty in which they may flourish, to quicken 
minds, to encourage searching and inventiveness, to employ 
tolerance and the judicial spirit, to inculcate habits of gentle¬ 
ness and justice. On these considerations education has no 
monopoly, to be sure, but its intrinsic obligations fall within 
the broad field thus laid out. 


[ ] 



Guardians of Educational Values Have 
Their'Professional Obligations 

Protecting and enriching the intrinsic powers of education 
is a task for all who are concerned with education, whether as 
teachers, administrators, or lay persons outside the school sys¬ 
tem. It has been their task since the dawn of, civilization, per¬ 
haps earlier. There is ground for faith that the task will never 
be abandoned. The lamps of learning were kindled long ago. 
They have burned in caves and log cabins, as well as in great 
buildings erected by wealth and power. We may be sure that 
no barbarism, new or old, can extinguish them forever. Should 
society enter upon an age of scorn and neglect, even should the 
wrath of men tear down the very walls of school buildings, 
as it burned the library of Alexandria, should one or all these 
lamps be put out, some hands will rekindle them and will de¬ 
fend them for a better day. While paying due heed to the ex¬ 
igencies of times and occasions, educational leadership true to 
its trust must continue to uphold the intrinsic values of educa¬ 
tion. 

Potentials as Well as Heritage 
Enter into Consideration 

But a statement of what has been done and is being done 
by education is not, enough. We have before us a body of 
thought and practice bearing the name of education. That must 
be examined. We have before us current theory and usage. 
With them we must be familiar. Still another step must be 
taken. We do not work in the past or for the mere ends of the 
present. By the very nature of our obligations, we are com¬ 
pelled to face the future. All planning and action have reference 
to it. We cannot plan for the past, nor act in it. The public 
schools are concerned with the coming generations, not with 
the past and the passing. It is in the years ahead, not in any 
ages gone, that these generations will live their lives, carry on 
their work, assert their rights, and discharge their duties. 

[ 57 ] 



The Program of Education 
Is,Never Completed 

By this conception of education, the very idea of completed 
formalism and perfect practice handed down by the past is 
ruled out. Teachers are not pedagogues. They cannot discharge 
their obligations by saying to pupils: “There is your Virgil; 
in the corner are the birches; learn your Virgil.” Society will 
not let them rest content with such a procedure, even if they 
are inclined to do so. Nor are they so inclined. Moved by the 
ancient command to search out all things under the sun and 
by the spirit of science to seek new knowledge endlessly, 
teachers are pioneers, not mere camp followers. Their task 
is not limited to preserving and passing on a heritage of knowl¬ 
edge and treasured experience; they must take account of ad¬ 
vancing knowledge, add to it when they can, sift and create 
as well as accumulate. 

It Grows with the Growth of Humanity 

Unless they do this they fall under the dead hand; knowledge 
will advance without them, in spite of them; and society, 
finding death, not life, in the schools, will withdraw support. 
Or perhaps society itself, deriving no nourishment from edu¬ 
cation and ceasing to grow, will ossify, if not disintegrate. 
Hence, educators cannot abide by the record alone. It unfolds 
in their keeping. They too are stirred by the questing spirit, 
spurred by the examples of the great thinkers and doers whose 
record they keep, stimulated by the currents of thought in 
society itself. So moved, they are literally compelled to enlarge 
their own powers, to enrich their own minds, and ever anew 
to chart their own obligations. Like the human history in which 
it is applied, the program of education is never completed. 
The things that education can do are thus as pressing as the 
things which it has done and does do. For all we know, until 
we have tried to the utmost, the work ahead may be more im¬ 
portant. Hence any definition of education calls for 

[»] 


a con- 



sidefation of what may be done in its name, as well as what has 
been done and is now being carried on. 

Its Source Is Life, Not Merely 
Books and Laws 

Experience, the great jurist Oliver Wendell Holmes has said, 
is the life of the law; no matter how much at times and places 
formalists seek to bind its trunk and stunt its growth. Having 
in front of him the written Constitution of the United States 
and the records telling of its history, another jurist, Thomas 
M. Cooley, declared: “We may think that we have the Consti¬ 
tution all before us; but for practical purposes the Constitution 
is that which the government in its several departments and 
the people in the performance of their duties as citizens recog¬ 
nize and respect as such; and nothing else is. . . . Cervantes 
says: ‘Everyone is the son of his own works.* This is more 
emphatically true of an instrument of government than it 
can possibly be of a natural person.” 

We may have before us all the volumes ever written on the 
intrinsic features of education, all the great treatises on methods 
and procedures, all the curriculums, and the relevant statutes, 
orders, and decrees; yet all of education is not in them. To para¬ 
phrase Judge Cooley, education is that which living educators 
in official positions, and citizens who give their life and thought 
to the promotion of education, recognize and respect as such. 
How could it be otherwise? If, as the poet has said, dead but 
sceptered sovereigns rule us from their tombs, even they rule 
only through the thought, memories, and aspirations of the 
living. Education not only preserves and teaches history; it 
makes history—in some way, large or small, according to the 
conceptions and powers of the educators. 

Education Embraces Knowledge, 

Training, and Aspiration 

Against such a background, nothing less, must any wide- 
reaching statement of education for our times be made. Well 


[ 52 ] 



aware that there is something arbitrary in all definitions, we 
may nevertheless make the attempt. The primary business of 
education, in effecting the promises of American democracy, 
is to guard, cherish, advance, and make available in the life of 
coming generations the funded and growing wisdom, knowl¬ 
edge, and aspirations of the race. This involves the dissemina¬ 
tion of knowledge, the liberation of minds, the development of 
skills, the promotion of free inquiries, the encouragement of 
the creative or inventive spirit, and the establishment of whole¬ 
some attitudes toward order and change—all useful in the good 
life for each person, in the practical arts, and in the mainte¬ 
nance and improvement of American society, as our society, 
in the world of nations. So conceived, education seems to 
transcend our poor powers of accomplishment. It does in fact, 
if perfection be expected; but such is the primary business of 
public education in the United States; theory supports it; 
practice inadequately illustrates and confirms it. 

Knowledge of the Practical and Social Arts 

The knowledge disseminated by the schools has been classi¬ 
fied according to a scheme extending from "essentials” to "or¬ 
naments.” Although fallacious, the classification is convenient 
for the moment. In the first class come all those subjects of in¬ 
struction deemed by general consensus to be necessary to the 
practical arts, namely, reading, writing, arithmetic, and the 
elements of natural science. These branches of learning are re¬ 
garded as independent of time, place, and circumstance—above 
and beyond all partial and partisan interests. In the second class 
come subjects respecting the "working rules of society” in 
both public and private aspects. Although they have been di¬ 
vided into rules of government on the one side and rules of 
private economy on the other—political science and economics 
—their relations in practice admit of no clean-cut division. 
Within this class is embraced knowledge of political ideas and 
institutions, government, liberty, and the processes of democ- 

[ 60 ] 



racy—proposal, discussion, adoption, and appraisal. Here falls 
knowledge of institutions, ideas, and practices, private and pub¬ 
lic, especially connected with the production and distribution 
of wealth—using wealth to include material goods and well¬ 
being. 

Knowledge of the Funded Wisdom and 
Aspirations of the Race 

In the third class of knowledge disseminated by the schools 
are the literature of imagination and aspiration and the so- 
called fine arts, which are often regarded by the thoughtless as 
“ornamental.” In truth they are not mere refinements of life. 
They bear upon and are interwoven with all the technical and 
practical arts supposed to be necessary to the very existence 
of society. They, no less than the practical arts, serve to dis¬ 
tinguish civilization from barbarism. Indeed, it is possible to 
imagine a society of people well-fed and well-governed, and 
still devoid of all the knowledge and interests that make human 
life worth living. Even the maintenance of economy and gov¬ 
ernment depends upon other things than mere technical knowl¬ 
edge and competence. In truth, the distinction between the 
fine and the practical arts is superficial and unreal; a bolt of 
cloth, a piece of furniture, and a steel bridge may be designed 
with a severe eye to use, and in that functional perfection be 
a superb manifestation of "fine” art. 

Without the literature and the arts which keep alive imagina¬ 
tion and aspiration, which reflect taste and give enjoyment, 
industry would be on a low level and government would par¬ 
take of the culture of the barracks. Without the ethical and 
esthetic aspirations reflected in the great literature of the race 
—embodying its funded and accumulating wisdom—govern¬ 
ment, industry, and even the "fine” arts would be without 
form, spirit, and force. Uncontrolled by ethics and esthetics, 
the practical arts may destroy civilization. Apart from them 
civilization is inconceivable and impossible. 


[61 ] 



The Practical, Social, and "Fine” Arts Are 
All Essential Parts of Education 

Hence, while the knowledge which the schools disseminate 
may be classified for convenience into subjects treating of the 
practical arts, the working rules of society, literature, and the 
fine arts, as if there were here a scheme of values to be arranged 
in a hierarchy, the classification and hierarchy are false to 
reality. All these values are necessary to a civilization, and each 
is essential to the existence and development of the others. 
All must be brought within any plan of education designed to 
disseminate knowledge useful in the practical arts, the good 
life, and the maintenance and improvement of society. In 
stating its position, educational leadership, if loyal to its heri¬ 
tage and to the society that sustains the school, must discard the 
conception of a hierarchy of values and insist on the preserva¬ 
tion and advancement of all these branches of knowledge and 
interest. Any curtailments which economic stringency may re¬ 
quire must be proportionately applied. 

Knowledge Alone Is Not Enough — 

Ethics Is Indispensable 

In the definition of public education for the United States 
thus generalized, it is evident, the dissemination of knowledge 
is not the whole business of education. More elusive elements 
are included. The nature of the knowledge to be disseminated 
is qualified by the condition, "useful in the good life and in 
the maintenance and improvement of American society.” Both 
ethics and the nature of American civilization are drawn into 
immediate and inescapable consideration. Knowledge alone 
does not present'imperatives of conduct; nor kindle aspiration 
for the good life; nor necessarily exemplify it. Knowledge of 
chemistry may be employed to poison a neighbor as well as 
to heal the sick. Knowledge of banking may be used to exploit 
and wreck banks as well as in banking practices of unquestioned 
social advantage. There is nothing in a chemical fact, or in a 


[ 62 ] 



financial fact, which necessarily instructs the learner in the 
right use of it. Commands relative to usage come from other 
sources—from the funded wisdom and aspirations of the race, 
whatever elements of expediency may enter into the account. 
Ethics is, therefore, not a side issue with education as here con¬ 
ceived, but is a central concern—a concern that gives direc¬ 
tion to the spread of knowledge. The selection of knowledge 
to be disseminated and emphasis placed on courses of study are 
ethical choices, not categorical commands arising solely out 
of knowledge or out of studies hitherto pursued. 

Educators Carry Ethical 
Responsibilities 

The statement that ethics is a fundamental concern of edu¬ 
cation rests upon the intrinsic heritage of education as well 
as upon immediate experience. The acknowledged leaders and 
sponsors of education in all ages have been in fact ethical 
teachers. Their theories and practices have centered upon en¬ 
during good, not upon evil or indifference to evil. Even those 
leaders of education who have laid emphasis on the scientific 
method as a correct instrument for securing accurate knowl¬ 
edge concerning matters physical and human have proceeded 
upon some ethical assumptions, some conceptions of things 
worth while, either tacit or explicit. No educational leader has 
ever held that teachers may properly organize themselves into 
a band of robbers for the purpose of employing knowledge 
in preying upon society. The very idea is odious to educational 
thought. A declaration of ethical purpose is, therefore, inherent 
in education as theory and practice. 

The Classics of Learning Are Ethical 

Moreover, in the funded wisdom and knowledge which edu¬ 
cation cherishes and expounds are the classical works of the 
world’s ethical teachers. Education would cease to be educa¬ 
tion if it ruled out of consideration Plato’s Republic, the Bible, 


[«] 



or the writings of all such thinkers as Thomas Aquinas, John 
Ruskin, or Ralph Waldo Emerson. Ironical as it may seem, if 
society were stripped of ethical cement it would offer nothing 
to bandits and robbers. Even they thrive on the ethics of others; 
for ethical forces are indispensable to the existence of every 
society, primitive or civilized. By the examples of leaders, by the 
content of the heritage committed to it, education derives from 
ethics and is bound to make ethics a controlling and inspiriting 
concern of its continuing interest. 

Education Includes the Training 
of Body and Spirit 

It is not merely with the transmission of knowledge that 
education is deeply concerned. The functions of the schools 
are not fully described by a summary of programs, curriculum, 
and methods. No written or Spoken words do, or can, com¬ 
pletely convey the meaning of education as the day-to-day 
living force that it is in fact and may be—in the transactions 
of the classroom, in the relations of teacher and pupil, in the 
associations of pupil and pupil, and in the experiences of the 
library and athletic field. Here are exchanges, bearings, and 
influences too subtle for logical expression and exact measure¬ 
ment. Yet we cannot doubt their existence, at least those of 
us who recall our own educational experiences and see teachers 
at work. Here, in the classroom, the auditorium, laboratory, 
and gymnasium, are in constant operation moral and cultural 
forces just as indispensable to civilization as knowledge or any 
material elements—indeed primordial in nature and the pre¬ 
conditions for the civilized uses of material things. We cannot 
set them forth in mathematical tables, nor in parallel columns; 
we can merely hint at their more evident characteristics. 

In classrooms, day by day, thousands of teachers cohls into 
contact with children of all sorts and conditions, races and 
nationalities, religious and ethical backgrounds. From homes 
of every kind—those broken by disputes of parents, wracked 
by the uncertainties and distresses of poverty and unemploy- 

[ <4 ] 



ment, no less than those tranquil in management and supplied 
by the means of material well-being. From homes poor in 
spirit, devoid of art, without books, without interest in things 
above the routine of living and the babble of gossip, thin in 
culture, perhaps tinged with crime, beset by distempers of 
mind, no less than from the homes that represent the best in 
American life. Here in the classrooms is manifest the gamut 
of American civilization. 

The school is not set apart from society on an academic hill. 
Teachers are more constantly and intimately associated with, 
or at least brought into contact with, things great and small 
in American society, high and mean, than the members of any 
other profession, public or private. They must grapple with 
the distempers which society and individual conduct generate, 
while seeking to preserve and to disseminate the best that is in 
its culture. The schools deal with the enduring stresses of hu¬ 
man life, as well as with its enduring values. 

And this they do through the living contacts of teachers 
and the taught, pupil and pupil. Discipline and freedom, au¬ 
thority and responsibility, helpfulness and challenge are made 
living in the spoken word, in attitude, gesture, and behavior. 
When the shortcomings of education are admitted, when the 
pettiness or incompetence of this or that teacher is conceded, 
we have only to imagine what American society would be if 
all public-school buildings were razed and all public education 
abandoned.'This is not to say that there was nothing good be¬ 
fore public education was established, but that public educa¬ 
tion maintains and demonstrates human relations indispensable 
to the good life in itself and to the perdurance and functioning 
of a democratic society. 

Education Fosters the Social 
Virtues by Example 

In the classroom and on the playground, from hour to hour 
and year to year, are in fact exemplified the better virtues 
of the enlarged family. Order and play are balanced, mutual 

«r 

[ 65 ] 



aid and mutual respect are promoted, displays of unleashed pas¬ 
sion are discredited and discouraged, and the give and take of 
the good life are illustrated. Habits of reasoned obedience, il¬ 
luminated by knowledge of consequences, are inculcated. The 
good and the beautiful, without which both the fine arts and 
the practical arts are poverty-stricken and lampless, are incor¬ 
porated in conduct, and in visible signs—books and maps, 
pictures and flowers, or drawings and designs. Even in the 
poorest and most barren schoolroom in the poorest and most 
barren community, education in form and practice rises to 
some height above the lowest common denominators of the 
district; not high enough, by confession, yet to some height. 
Here, so to speak, is a little focus of civilization, a symbol of 
its values, an embodiment of its aspirations in things, words, 
and deeds. Here the values of society appear in miniature, in 
microcosm. Here is woven during the formative years of youth 
a texture of knowledge, habit, aspiration, and mutual respect 
which aids in holding society together, counteracts the divisive 
forces of personal, political, and economic rivalry, and helps 
to sustain humanity amid all the forms of untried being through 
which it must pass. Politics, economics, finance, administration, 
amusements, the practical arts, wars, and even social cyclones 
are phases of life; education is concerned with the whole of 
life and the best of it. It has been so conceived and is now so 
conceived, however faulty and defective the personalities and 
procedures associated with it. Thousands of schools in the 
United States, no doubt, fall far below the ideal standards, but 
that fact is merely evidence of the need for heroic efforts in 
the direction of improvement, not a repudiation of educational 
obligations. 

Education Is Committed to the tAaintenance and 
Improvement of American Society 

Beyond the fiduciary trust vested in it, beyond the heritage 
of ideas and practices which it deems intrinsic values, educa¬ 
tion has other obligations, called for convenience extrinsic. 

[ 66 ] 



It is committed to the maintenance and improvement of Ameri¬ 
can society as now constituted and unfolding, and to the use 
of knowledge and the practical arts in a manner conducive 
to these ends. Outside of society, neither education nor indi¬ 
vidual liberty nor the practical arts can flourish. Those who 
would make a new social order can scarcely imagine that there 
is no good whatever in the present array , of things, or in the 
men and women out of which the new order is to be made. 
Nor will any who fain would limit education to the mere 
maintenance of the present order, assuming that it will not 
change in the future, be bold enough to say that it is utopia, 
a good without possibility of improvement, unmixed with 
evil. Although extremists may enjoy the luxury of such views, 
educators loyal to the knowledge which they are bound by 
their office to cherish cannot accept either of them as a dictate 
for educational theory and practice. If the past is all wrong, 
why study it or hope for the future? If the present is perfection, 
why the poverty and distresses of children in the schoolroom 
and the conflicts of party and interest outside? The sharp an¬ 
tithesis sometimes drawn between those who would have the 
schools create a new social order and those who would confine 
them to a mere defense of a status quo does not correspond to 
the known facts in the case. 

This American Society Is Democratic 

The American society which education aids in maintaining 
and improving is by declaration, profession, and institutional 
organization a democratic society. It is such in truth, however 
far short of the ideal it may fall in many respects. It is not a 
monarchial society. It is not a military dictatorship. It has no 
legally established classes with prescriptive rights of govern¬ 
ment. Children are not assigned to a class by birth and held 
there till death. Its occupation, callings, and professions, and 
the opportunities to enter them are not wholly determined by 
accidents of birth. Gateways are not closed to talents by class 
law. Governments derive their just powers from the consent of 


[ 67 ] 



the governed, and may be altered by the governed through the 
institutions of the law itself. The conflicts of society are to be 
resolved and its problems are to be handled by the processes 
of discussion and popular action. 

It Repudiates Government 
by Sheer Force 

To this type of society the American people are committed 
by their heritage, by long practice, and by their sense of values. 
Other types have existed and now exist. Whatever their di¬ 
versities in external forms, they are distinguished from the 
democratic society in their reliance on force for the establish¬ 
ment of government and the direction of domestic policy. 
The founders of the American Republic were familiar with 
them. They did not foresee the names that were to be applied 
to such societies in coming years; but they understood their 
essence, examined their merits, and rejected them. In establish¬ 
ing the Constitution of the United States by proposal, discus¬ 
sion, and popular decision, instead of resorting to force, as 
advised by hot-heads, they broke the rhythm of history and 
correctly believed that they had set an example to mankind. 
The rejection of the lesson by other societies does not destroy 
the validity of the democratic process for the United States. 

Democracy Nourishes the Free 
Spirit of Science 

It may be said, however, that science and the scientific 
method which American education is bound to nourish are 
neutral, are indifferent to forms of government and the human 
values of democracy; in other words, that science may be mon- 
archial, absolutist, or dictatorial in spirit. Men of science may, 
no doubt, bow to military and police force; they have often 
done just that. But science cannot employ all its powers in 
advancing the boundaries of knowledge, unless it is free to 
inquire and to expound its findings. The age-long conflict be- 

[*«] 



tween science and authority demonstrates the truth of this 
proposition. It so happens, therefore, that the democratic proc¬ 
esses of government are in harmony with the processes by 
which science proceeds from victory to victory. In American 
society citizens are free to inquire, to expound, to propose, 
and to appraise. Constitutional rules declare this freedom. 
Custom sanctions it. Institutions of government protect it. 
Among its many obligations, public education is charged with 
disseminating the knowledge and keeping alive the spirit neces¬ 
sary to the functioning of democracy. In so doing it helps 
to provide the conditions in which science can flourish and 
hence is loyal to the traditions and requirements of science. 


Democracy Rests on Ideals, Institutions, 
and Economy 

The founders and early sponsors of American democracy 
were not under the illusion that it would work automatically 
by the mere counting of heads. Emphasis on eternal vigilance 
was as constant and as noteworthy as their championship of 
the democratic idea. They were poignantly aware that dic¬ 
tatorships had been established on popular distempers; that 
advocates of physical force' had repeatedly appealed to pas¬ 
sion for support. Democracy, they knew, rests upon a moral 
imperative that human life has a value in itself and cannot 
be used for purposes alien to humanity. Unremitting insistence 
upon this value, the development of this moral sense, is an 
obligation of all who teach and lead in democracy. Further¬ 
more, loyalty to the institutions through which democracy 
functions, a willingness to abide by popular verdicts reached 
by due process, and to seek reversal, if desired, by the same 
methods—these too are essential elements of our democratic 
society. Yet, while laying emphasis on moral values and insti¬ 
tutional loyalties, the founders and sponsors of American 
democracy also recognized the basic fact that the forms of 
property and the distribution of wealth—the ways and means 

[»] 



of physical life—bear an inescapable relation to a democratic 
society, to its establishment and maintenance, and to the ad¬ 
justments requisite to its functioning. 

The Philosophy of Democracy Enters into 
the Definition of Education 

In any realistic definition of education for the United 
States, therefore, must appear the whole philosophy and prac¬ 
tice of democracy. Education cherishes and inculcates its 
moral values, disseminates knowledge necessary to its function¬ 
ing, spreads information relevant to its institutions and econ¬ 
omy, keeps alive the creative and sustaining spirit without which 
the letter is dead. The solution of specific problems of democ¬ 
racy devolves upon society. Education does not arrogate that 
function to itself. It does not claim either the competence 
or the sole power—legal or spiritual. But education does pre¬ 
serve and spread knowledge appropriate to the solution of 
specific problems, instills the disciplines essential to the acqui¬ 
sition of knowledge, describes the points of view from which 
problems are discussed, sets forth the assumptions and impera¬ 
tives on which solutions depend, and in the classroom illustrates 
the spirit and procedure in which knowledge and reason are 
applied in coping with the adjustments of society. Whether 
these issues are related to political institutions, to finance and 
taxation, to industry, commerce, and agriculture, to public 
health, to the conservation and use of natural resources, to 
international relations and national defense, education is con¬ 
cerned with them. It presents knowledge relevant to them. 
It sets forth theories and values, from which they are ap¬ 
proached. It illustrates in miniature, apart from the tempers 
and distempers of the political arena, the processes of enlighten¬ 
ment and discussion by which matured decisions are reached. 
Such is the obligation imposed on education by the democratic 
society in which it functions and which it serves. It cannot 
do less than assume the obligation, if loyal to its commitments. 
In so doing it acts not as a mere branch of government, 

[ 70 ] 


as 



one profession among many engaged by government. St stands 
behind, exemplifies, and aids in sustaining all the processes of 
government and society. 

The Assurance of Democratic Society Is 
No Longer Taken for Granted 

A sense of social responsibility has not been absent from 
education at any stage of its development; but for a long time 
the maintenance and improvement of American society were 
taken for granted as the automatic outcomes of individual 
activities. It was once assumed by some thinkers that the pri¬ 
mary function of education was to train individuals so that 
they could rise into callings deemed higher, if not more lucra¬ 
tive. By other thinkers it was assumed that education must 
be concerned essentially with teaching the elements of the 
practical arts, and that the possessors of these elements would 
automatically find just and appropriate opportunities for em¬ 
ploying them in the economy of society. For a period in Ameri¬ 
can history, while the exploitation of the land and resources 
of the continental domain was proceeding and world trade 
expanding without apparent limits, these assumptions seemed 
founded on the realities of American practice. To be sure, 
some elements of history and civics were taught in this age 
of confidence, but instruction in these subjects was often 
so formal as to convey to pupils no sense of their worth or 
importance. It seems in harmony with the record to say that 
for nearly fifty years—from approximately 1870 to 1920— 
education took for granted the future of democratic society 
and, perhaps to a less extent, the eternal validity of the theory 
that both individual prosperity and social security were to 
be automatically assured by the free application of talents 
to personal ends. 

Now the future of democratic society is challenged, not 
only in Europe and Asia, but in quarters by no means obscure 
or negligible in the United States. 


[ 71 ] 



Education Now Lays Emphasis on 
Its Social Obligations 

As organized education turns to the future, then, it discards 
the theory of automatic democracy. It recognizes that rights 
to life, liberty, property, work, and the pursuit of happiness 
are shadows, unless those who claim the rights are competent 
and have the moral power necessary to the creation and main¬ 
tenance of the social arrangements in which rights may be 
realized. If this obligation is staggering in its dimensions, edu¬ 
cational leadership must accept it, acquire the knowledge, 
and put forth the sustained effort calculated to discharge it. 
Here, too, in facing the future, education reemphasizes the 
fact that it is not merely one profession among many, one 
branch of government among many. Its functions are all 
encompassing. Its duties are unique in their human aspects. 


It Must Serve an Associational Economy 

Not only is the automatic theory of democracy challenged 
by events. The very economy in which it was once applied 
with assurance has been altered by events. So far as the major 
branches of manufacture, mining, and transportation are con¬ 
cerned, the associative system of the corporation has been sub¬ 
stituted for individual ownership and management. To a less 
degree this rule holds for distributive branches of economy. 
In the field of industrial labor, freedom of individual movement 
is likewise limited by the associative efforts of independent and 
company unions. Even in agriculture, once the stronghold of 
individual independence, cooperative organizations gain 
strength, for marketing and credit purposes, and to some 
extent for buying. More and more, the fruit grower and 
the dairy farmer, for example, find themselves entering into 
and bound by collective marketing agreements, to which are 
generally attached, by law or custom, standards of quantity 
and quality. 


[ 72 ] 



It Must Prepare Youth for Associational 
life and Activities 

From this situation emerge stubborn facts with which edu¬ 
cational theory and practice must reckon and cope. The over¬ 
whelming majority of the graduates of the schools in the 
cities who enter upon economic activities will be employees 
of corporations, including the managerial, clerical, and in¬ 
dustrial branches. If in business on their own account, they 
will be, in most cases, in corporate business or in enterprises 
to some extent associative in character. If independent in 
theory, they will have collective responsibilities in trade or¬ 
ganizations and will be bound, more or less, by codes of fair 
practice. Graduates who enter employments below the man¬ 
agerial range will, in large proportion, find themselves in 
economic associations of some kind, carrying obligations and 
limitations. Specializing farmers, besides skill and resources, 
will need the knowledge and power requisite for the function¬ 
ing of the associations through which marketing and price 
adjustments are effected. Thus school graduates will, in the 
main, whatever their careers, require knowledge of their as¬ 
sociative obligations and the power to prevent such activities 
from degenerating into antisocial interests. 

The business of society with which education is concerned 
is even more complicated than these few words indicate. The 
private organizations that occupy such a large area of economy 
have associations with one another; organized labor with or¬ 
ganized industry; milk producers’ societies with distributors; 
extractive industries with manufacturing industries, for ex¬ 
ample. The relations already established by practice are numer¬ 
ous and technical; on both sides special knowledge is employed. 

Economic science sets forth this knowledge, with more or 
less completeness. Education disseminates it. The graduates of 
schools will need it, as certainly as technical proficiency, in 
the life and work upon which they are to enter. How are private 
economic associations formed? What are their present struc- 


r 73 ] 



tures? How do they function? What are their rights and obli¬ 
gations? In what relation do the individual and the family 
stand to their forms and activities? If graduates from the 
schools are to have preparation for the real world of economic 
practice, education is compelled to take up these questions. 
To refuse this obligation would be to fall back upon formalism 
and unreality. To education alive to its responsibilities such 
withdrawal is impossible. 

It Must Prepare Citizens for Participation 
in Associational Government 

The chart for educational planning is not yet completed. 
Surrounding these private associations is society, with govern¬ 
ment as its agency. Without the express or tacit .consent of 
government these associations cannot come into being. Once 
in existence they raise problems for government and bring 
pressure upon it. To an increasing degree, in the nation and 
in the states, irrespective of parties and politics, government 
is drawn into the relations and activities of associations. It 
prescribes a great body of law for them. It circumscribes their 
conflicts. It is subject to impulses from their interests. It 
establishes agencies for facilitating their intertrade negotia¬ 
tions and adjustments. It imposes restraints on their practice. 
It is called upon to conserve the natural resources which they 
employ, and to define the "wise uses” of these resources. It 
has balances to maintain, endless adjustments to make. 

Yet this government does not act in a vacuum under its 
own motion. Its officials are chosen directly or indirectly by 
enfranchised citizens. The public functions which they assume, 
the activities which they carry on, are the outcome of popular 
discussion and decision. So it happens then that citizens called 
upon to obey the law are the makers of law; and education 
is invited to do its part in preparing youth for a dual role— 
cooperation in obedience to law and cooperation in determin¬ 
ing the forms and ends of law. 


[ 74 ] 



It Must Aid in Upholding 
Social Values 

All society is concerned with these associations and with 
any government for the moment in power. Society also has 
values which are more than economic or political in nature, 
which are indeed indispensable to economic and political 
operations. Society is concerned with all of culture, with the 
moral code that holds its members together, as well as with 
the trade ethics of particular interests, and the fortunes of 
particular parties. Men and women need to live, but they, 
can be poor in spirit, feeble in powers, hateful in disposition., 
low in civilization, and disruptive in influence, even if rich 
in material goods. ISfo society can be founded on purely pecu¬ 
niary standards, or can endure if so founded, or can give to 
life that richness of satisfaction and opportunity which makes 
it worth the living. And upon education is laid an obligation 
to see that the youth of the land possess the cultural values 
which sustain society, hold the conflicts of politics and economy 
within bounds, and enrich life itself. 

It Faces New Responsibilities for 
the Education of Adtdts 

Developments in machine industries and the deepening pub¬ 
lic interests in the quest for solutions of collective problems 
have also added obligations in adult education to the already 
heavy burdens of the schools. The period of youth is pro¬ 
longed by the restriction of opportunities to enter upon life 
work. The high tempo of industry tends to discard men and 
women from occupations at or near the close of middle life. 
Public health measures, the curtailment of immigration, and 
a declining birth rate raise the proportion of adults in our 
society. The requirements of democratic self-government make 
it necessary for citizens to acquire a wider and deeper knowl¬ 
edge of public questions. Under the impact of these forces, 
schools are compelled to make extra provisions for youth 


[75 ] 



approaching maturity and for men and women with leisure 
at their command—either forced or voluntary leisure. They 
are called upon to open their doors for the reasoned and sober 
discussion of public questions, to maintain forums in which 
the consideration of great issues may proceed. 

All this, no doubt, is both fitting and proper—in keep¬ 
ing with and an expansion of the democratic process of self- 
government. It is not foreign to education. Yet it imposes 
upon leadership in school administration the duty of widen¬ 
ing its horizon and grappling with intellectual and moral 
problems of the highest order. The issues so raised are cer¬ 
tainly not less fundamental than those involved in freedom 
of the press and speech. Indeed by judicious administration, 
representing the general interest, school authorities may well 
supplement the discussions carried on by private agencies, 
such as the press and the radio, make their "public hearings 1 ’ 
less partial and more informative, and contribute even more 
powerfully to the maintenance of democratic methods in 
government. As thus far developed under federal and state 
auspices, adult education in the public schools displays stand¬ 
ards of administrative impartiality and local autonomy that 
promise to keep this channel of communication and inquiry 
free and wide open. The experiments already undertaken, 
refined and extended, will doubtless form a permanent part 
of educational duties in the United States. 


So Defined, Education Is Distinguished 
from Propaganda 

By the conception herewith presented education is distin¬ 
guished from propaganda, but the point deserves amplifica¬ 
tion. It is true that propaganda "in the broadest sense is the 
technique of influencing human action by the manipulation 
of representations” which may take "spoken, written, pictorial, 
or musical form.” Yet in practice propaganda may be more 
accurately characterized as influencing human conduct by 

[ 76 ] 



the manipulation of misrepresentations, or at least partial rep¬ 
resentations, for the advantage of special interests and with 
a view to commanding unquestioning obedience. There may 
be, and often is, a large element of truth in propaganda; with¬ 
out that element even the most ingenious propaganda fails. 

When the purpose of a propaganda is to influence the whole 
of society, however, it means imposing upon all individuals 
slogans, formulas, and patterns of conduct in the interest 
of those in power at the moment or seeking to get into power. 
It is an instrument of a faction or a party. It is the foe of 
scientific exploration, of the open discussion required for the 
winnowing of truths particular and general, and of the prog¬ 
ress that comes from the competition of new devices, ideas, 
processes, and practices. As applied to politics, it usually exalts 
in the name of the state the power of party against the" indi¬ 
vidual, and demands servile acquiescence. In the form of 
Fascism, Individualism, or Marxism, propaganda assumes the 
infallibility of omniscience and pretends to possess a closed 
system of knowledge which enables adepts to prescribe the 
“right thing” in all circumstances and to guarantee the pre¬ 
dicted outcome as good—immediately or in the long run. 
Whatever its guise, it belies single-hearted pursuit of truth 
and is the foe of every educational program committed to 
guarding, enlarging, and disseminating the funded knowl¬ 
edge of the human race. 

To be sure, education cannot be entirely divorced from 
immediate ends and objectives. Yet there is a center of gravity 
in education which is not the center of gravity in propaganda. 
The spirit of education differs from that of propaganda. 
In some respects, as in other matters, it is a question of emphasis, 
but the emphasis is fundamental. The propagandist deliber¬ 
ately refuses to present with all the fairness that human falli¬ 
bility will permit the other positions or points of view which 
enter into competition with his own. He places the interest 
of his group above all other interests. His temper is dogmatic, 
not inquiring or reasoning. He puts forward opinions as 


[ 77 ] 



established facts and closes his mind to new truths incompatible 
with his ends. If education could perchance endorse any of 
his designs, it could not proceed in his spirit or follow his 
methods without violating its trust. By its inescapable obliga¬ 
tions, it has other functions to discharge. 


[ 78 ] 



VII. 


Conditions Requisite for the Dis¬ 
charge of Educational Obligations 

T aken in its fullness, education stands apart from the other 
public services, such as public works and public safety, 
and is distinguished by obligations of its own. It underlies 
and helps to sustain all public services. The schools furnish 
in the main the preliminary discipline upon which training 
for the services is based, and state universities provide tech¬ 
nical instruction necessary for the discharge of professional 
duties. The schools and colleges disseminate knowledge per¬ 
taining to the sciences, arts, and crafts employed in every 
branch of administration. They distribute information and 
promote understanding respecting the services—information 
and understanding calculated to maintain the public support 
and cooperation which enable administrative division to func¬ 
tion effectively. Education also supplies an ethical cement that 
helps to hold together the very civilization in which all services 
operate, upon which they depend for sustenance. American 
society could exist on some level of comfort and convenience 
without improved roads, electric lights, or sanitary codes; it 
did in the eighteenth century and at the same time demon¬ 
strated qualities of true greatness; but it cannot exist upon 
its present level or attain a higher level, with an illiterate and 
ignorant population dominated by low standards of taste, 
subsistence wants, and primitive conceptions of life. 

School Administrators Need 
Special Qualities 

When education is considered in terms purely administra¬ 
tive, distinctions from other services are likewise evident. The 
schoolboards and boards of college trustees responsible for 
the general policies and the administration of education have 


[ 79 ] 



contacts with society and power over individuals that are 
different from, and wider-reaching in subtle consequences than 
those assignee’ for : nstance, to a government commission which 
'■egulates railway rates, passes upon the trade practices of given 
industries, or makes rules for transactions arising from work- 
mens compensation laws, To emphasize this would be to 
repeat all that has been said before. The school superintendent 
also has duties not imposed on any other administrative officer. 
Records and accounts he must keep or scrutinize; estimates 
and reports he must prepare; and other functions of admin¬ 
istrative routine he must perform. In these respects his respon¬ 
sibilities resemble those of administrative officers in general, 
although his statistical statements represent distinct aspects 
of human life and aspirations, as well as money, materials, 
buildings, and supplies; But the superintendent’s obligations 
are more extensive. 

Those of the health commissioner, the superintendent of 
public works, the director of public welfare, and other admin¬ 
istrative officers are not to be underestimated; but their duties 
and contacts with society are limited and specialized. As 
head of a system in which all arts and sciences are taught, 
the school administrator is called upon to possess knowledge 
and intellectual interests that are broader than those of any 
one profession. Without this knowledge and these interests he 
cannot act effectively as the channel of communication be¬ 
tween the schoolboard and the teachers who organize cur¬ 
riculum and carry on instruction, to say nothing of taking 
the leadership expected of him in such matters. As head of 
the schools he is subject to impacts from nearly all the inter¬ 
ests, good and bad, that operate in the community, not merely 
to those touching health, or public works, or the relief of 
dependents. Under his jurisdiction are children from practi¬ 
cally all sections of the community, not merely those affected 
by specific regulations of a police, sanitary, or industrial char¬ 
acter. Literally nothing that goes on in the community is alien 
to him. The very nature of his office imposes peculiar duties 

C 80 ] 



upon him. It is not by speeches at political rallies or by public 
appearances that he discharges them; his work is in the domain 
of knowledge and aspiration; and often the less that is heard 
about it, the better it is done. If, legally speaking, the school 
superintendent is one administrator among many, the term 
is meaningless until the primary functions of education are 
brought into consideration. It is then that the unique charac¬ 
teristics of educational administration become evident and 
present the case for a special administrative relation to the 
general structure of government. 

Yet Education Is One among M any Branches 
of a Growing Public Service—All 
Involving Public Support 

From the point of view of finance and administration, how¬ 
ever,. education is one among many public services associated 
with the rising standards of civilization. Communities de¬ 
mand better highways, more adequate water supplies, improved 
public health administration, hospitals, public works, and 
other technical utilities deemed essential to good living. Like 
education, these services have usually imposed burdens upon tax 
resources and have led not unnaturally to a certain competi¬ 
tion among them for financial support. 

Demand Has Arisen for More Centralized Control 
over All Divisions of Administration 

The pressure of the public services upon the community 
for revenues has been largely responsible for the rise and growth 
of a movement for budget reform and for the consolidation 
of all administrative agencies in a centralized system. Leaders 
in this movement call attention to the increase in expenditures 
rendered necessary by the expansion of public services. They 
point out that as the services have multiplied and outlays have 
strained the resources available, budget-making and the uni¬ 
fication of agencies have become imperative. They insist that 
since resources are limited and curtailments in expenditures 

[81 1 



are demanded, all the services seeking places in the budget 
must be appraised as parts of a common program. Extremists 
among them propose to make educational administration a mere 
branch of the general administration, headed by a single polit¬ 
ical officer, and to treat the school budget as a mere division of 
the general budget. Besides urging these alterations in the posi¬ 
tion of the schools, they advocate a thoroughgoing central¬ 
ization of accounting, purchasing, plant construction, and per¬ 
sonnel administration. 

Any Adaptations to Schemes of Centralization 
Are To Be Made within the Limits 
of Educational Objectives 

Educational administrators recognize the exigencies out of 
which the demand for efficiency and economy has sprung, 
and the community interests which they are designed to serve. 
Where it can be demonstrated that there are net advantages 
in the consolidation or coordination of administrative opera¬ 
tions, it should be effected, so far as the unique services of 
education are not thereby impaired. At all times there should 
be a free exchange of technical experiences and opinions in re¬ 
spect of common administrative processes throughout the entire 
government; and this exchange will be facilitated as the stand¬ 
ards of competence and public responsibility are raised in all 
branches of government. But in these consultations and efforts 
in cooperation, school and college authorities are compelled 
by the obligations of their trusts to safeguard the fundamental 
nature of the educational function, and to point out with 
unceasing reiteration its primary and basic character, its intel¬ 
lectual and moral contributions to the maintenance of the 
society upon which all services depend for their existence and 
support. Whether it is a question of budget-making, the keep¬ 
ing of accounts, the selection of personnel, the purchase of 
supplies, or the construction of school buildings, the indubi¬ 
table requirements of education call for fiscal and administra¬ 
tive distinctions fully adapted to the care and training of youth. 

[ 82 ] 



This does not mean that educational authorities are or should 
be indifferent to the demand that school budgets be made 
and school administration conducted with reference to the 
total financial situation of the community or of the larger 
areas to which they may be related. In the best of jurisdictions 
school budgets are prepared with a view to the requirements 
of the other services and the financial resources available to 
all. In these jurisdictions school authorities are well informed 
respecting the state of general revenues and expenditures and 
do give to appropriate budget-making officers, as well as to 
the public, complete information relative to school receipts 
and outlays. They also seek information on the general situa¬ 
tion from fiscal officers and invite from other specially quali¬ 
fied persons and the public a consideration of the tentative 
educational budget before reaching final determinations. This 
best practice should be more widely extended. By such processes 
of developing information and suggestions, the advantages of 
economy and efficiency may be obtained without surrendering 
that degree of autonomy necessary to the discharge of educa¬ 
tional obligations. Understandings of this character are the 
more readily effected where school superintendents are well 
prepared by training and experience for taking leadership in 
community affairs and for presenting to the public and its 
official representatives the school budget in terms of the human 
values covered by its items; and like demands may properly 
be made upon other administrative officials in their special 
fields. Herein seems to lie the hope for meeting the legitimate 
demands for efficiency and economy in general administration 
while safeguarding the fiduciary trust vested in educational 
authorities by the American system of government. 

Settled Practice Accords a High Degree 
of Administrative Freedom to 
Education at All Levels 

The peculiar nature of education and its functions in society 
have been recognized by the sober judgment of the'American 


[ 83 ] 



people as expressed in constitutions and statutes. This judg¬ 
ment is revealed in many types of administrative authorities 
to which educational responsibilities are assigned by law. These 
vary, no doubt, from state to state, and region to region; but 
one fundamental principle underlies almost all of them. It 
is that authorities, state and local, in charge of the public 
schools and colleges are to stand apart from the executive and 
legislative branches of the government which respond annually, 
biennially, or quadrennially to the majority or plurality of votes 
cast in popular elections at the close of political campaigns. 

The remoteness varies in degree. Members of the schoolboard 
may be chosen by popular vote at a general or special election, 
and thus stand upon an independent basis. As a rule this inde¬ 
pendence in elective trustees is strengthened by renewing only 
a portion of the board at each election, thus assuring a certain 
continuity in policy. If the members are appointed by an execu¬ 
tive authority alone, or in conjunction with the legislative 
branch or one house thereof, they are usually given longer 
terms and provision is made for overlapping tenures so that 
the political agents endowed with appointing power can seldom 
make a clean sweep of the officials in charge of education. 
Moreover, where general administrative control over the schools 
is vested in a board of some kind, practice often permits bipar¬ 
tisan or multipartisan representation. Frequently the school- 
board is given an independent taxing power, within limits, 
and in such circumstances is not even subject to executive 
and legislative control in matters of finance or of educational 
policy in detail. 

Other differences in methods and agencies of control have 
been developed for various levels and branches within the 
school system. The public elementary- and secondary-school 
systems, although creatures of the state, are ordinarily admin¬ 
istered by district, municipal, or county boards of education. 
The colleges and universities which make up the states’ systems 
of higher education are commonly controlled by appointed 
or elected boards of regents. Amid all this diversity of adminis- 


[ 84 ] 



trative machinery, however, a high degree o£ administrative 
freedom is generally provided not only for the local public- 
school systems, but also for state educational administration, 
and for the agencies of higher education and research. The 
discussion here is to be interpreted in inclusive terms; "educa¬ 
tion,” “teachers,” and "schools” refer not merely to the elemen¬ 
tary and secondary fields, but to the higher institutions of 
learning and research as well. 

The Desire To Keep Education out of Partisan 
Politics Is One of the Reasons for 
Administrative Protection 

The removal of educational administration some degree from 
periodical turnovers in regular legislative and executive offices 
is no accident. Although it cannot be said that in the begin¬ 
ning our lawmakers always had a positive philosophy of. 
administrative independence for the schools, they early dis¬ 
cerned a distinction between education and other public-serv¬ 
ice functions. The idea of vesting public power in a board, 
as distinguished from a single elective or appointive officer, 
was, of course, no novelty in the middle period of Ameri¬ 
can history, when the foundations of public education were 
securely laid. There were many American precedents in other 
departments of administration, especially where large powers 
in the determination of policy were assigned to public agencies. 

If the nature of educational functions had not been suffi¬ 
cient to warrant the practice of resorting to boards, the desire 
to escape from the obvious evils of the spoils system and parti¬ 
san squabbles, introduced wholesale in the Jacksonian era, 
might have effected that outcome. Indeed, in some cases, such 
as police and health administration, the board system was 
deliberately adopted with a view to making administration 
at least bipartisan in control and direction. Whatever the de¬ 
termining factor in the case of education, the administration 
of schools was early committed to boards and they were assigned 
a high degree of independence in policy and finance. 


C 85 ] 



Even Administrative Consolidation Recognizes the 
Special Position of Education 

There has been, it is true, a decided reaction against the con¬ 
fusion of independent boards, offices, and commissions -which 
Jacksonian democracy promoted. This reaction has appeared 
in the consolidation of state and local administration in all 
parts of the Union. And it has been assumed by some logicians 
that the concentration of authority will and must continue 
until all public functions are united and organized in hier¬ 
archical form with a single political executive at the top. 
Yet, as a matter of fact along with this powerful movement 
in the direction of administrative unification, practices of 
another tendency have continued or developed, especially in 
connection with education. 

Other Public Functions Are Provided with 
Kindred Safeguards 

For example, from the very beginning of American history 
a certain independence has been assigned to the judiciary. 
Entirely apart from their function of passing upon the con¬ 
stitutionality of statutes, judges deal with vital matters of 
long-time interest, such as crime, civil liberty, property rights, 
and domestic relations. Whatever may be the results of peri¬ 
odical elections, whatever changes legislators may make in the 
civil and criminal law, the new is connected with the old, 
and fundamental matters continue from decade to decade or 
develop slowly under the impact of forces not purely or even 
mainly political. 

On such grounds, judges of superior courts are given life 
terms, or long terms, and seldom is an entire bench renewed 
at a single election. There is also a tendency to make the elec¬ 
tion of judges nonpartisan, by the removal of party symbols 
and designations from the ballot in judicial elections. More¬ 
over, positive restrictions are placed upon the removal of 
judges by political authorities. By and large, the judgment 
of the American people runs against throwing the punishment 

[ 86 ] 



of crime and the adjudication of personal relations into the 
turmoil of annual or biennial elections. 

The removal of public agencies some degree from imme¬ 
diate political turnovers has not been confined to the judiciary. 
Many branches of federal and state administration, especially 
boards and commissions, have been given a special position 
in the frame of government. This is particularly true of agencies 
that have semilegislative and semijudicial, as well as admin¬ 
istrative functions. Striking examples are furnished by the 
Interstate Commerce Commission, the Federal Power Com¬ 
mission, and the Federal Trade Commission. Members of these 
bodies, though appointed by the President and Senate, are 
given long terms. Their tenures are made overlapping, so that 
a certain continuity of competence is assured; and, in the 
ordinary course, single popular elections do not make drastic 
changes in the personnel. In addition, the removal power of 
the President is hedged about by restrictions, with a view to 
attenuating the force of mere partisanship. 

There is basic work that must go on in society whatever 
the cast of the party thought and the direction of particular 
decisions at the polls. With the growth of technological func¬ 
tions in economy and government, this basic work expands 
and the dependence of society upon the competence employed 
in it increases. All these things are now recognized by law, 
incorporated in practice, and sustained by an informed public 
opinion. 

As a matter of fact, in many departments of government 
where the executive has free appointing and removal power, 
competence, tenure, and promotion are safeguarded by 
practice, for reasons similar to those applied by law in many 
instances. A searching study of federal usage in these matters 
of personnel shows that relatively few of the divisions and 
bureaus, about one-fifth of the total number, are purely politi¬ 
cal, in that the heads are likely to be ousted with each party 
turnover. Nearly all the technical divisions—entomology, plant 
industry, forestry, reclamation, chemistry, and public roads, 

[ 87 ] 



for example—are now generally established on the merit basis. 
The worst spoilsman in federal politics would not put an 
untrained real estate agent in charge of research in fixed nitro¬ 
gen. If he were so inclined, the pressure of civic and profes¬ 
sional associations, organized outside the government, would 
place barriers in his way. The most ardent partisanship must 
recognize the expediency, if not the social need, of competence 
in technical and professional branches of the government. 
Even states and municipalities which have no civil service laws 
take some account of this reality by safeguarding competence 
in carrying on the basic functions of government. 

Autonomy Is in Keeping with 
Democratic Principles 

In all this there is no denial of democracy. No public agencies, 
no public policies, are placed beyond the reach of the popular 
verdict as delivered in due course. Democracy requires that 
the judgment of the people must prevail, but American insti¬ 
tutions are designed to assure that in matters fundamental 
the popular judgment be matured. In other words, they do 
not place all rights and obligations of life, liberty, and economy 
at the disposal of the majority or plurality which carries a 
single election for political officers. Such rights are not abso¬ 
lute, nor are they indefensible against government for all time. 
No public officer or private person enjoys privileges forever 
beyond the sovereignty of the seasoned popular verdict. Legal 
safeguards, tenure, and independence, of whatever kind or 
degree, are intended to serve, not to block, the deliberative 
processes of democracy and to guarantee the competent dis¬ 
charge of its primary functions. The principle is ffot to be 
employed as a subterfuge. It is entitled to more than lip service. 
It is so fundamental to the future of democratic society that 
it must be respected, maintained, and defehded, if a way is 
to be steered between government by plebiscite and govern¬ 
ment by privilege, whether newly usurped or entrenched in 
tradition and prescription. 


[«] 



It is within an institutional setting which assures a certain 
competence and continuity of administration that education 
has also been assigned a high degree of independence. This 
independence is no accident of politics and law; it is, at least 
in a large measure, the result of deliberate policy, adopted 
with reference to the broad purposes of education and defended 
on positive grounds. Yet the autonomy so guaranteed does not 
cut education off from society, or from the long-run judg¬ 
ments of the electorate. The protection afforded, such as it is, 
merely runs against the pressure of active and vociferous 
minorities, and to some extent against particular majorities 
which win control of the executive and legislative departments 
ip particular moments on issues other than those of education. 
In due course the deliberate opinion of the community prevails 
in educational administration, as far as general policy goes; 
but even community judgment cannot. overturn the knowl¬ 
edge which education is pledged to cherish and disseminate, 
without destroying education. 

There Are Special Grounds for Vigorously 
Supporting Educational Independence 

But general principles are not enough. In view of the pres¬ 
sures brought upon the schools by organized minorities, in 
view of recent legislation questioning the integrity and loyalty 
of teachers, in view of recent political interference with pro¬ 
fessional. appointments and dismissals, in view of the demand 
that education be placed immediately under the financial con¬ 
trol of executive and legislative authorities, it is necessary to 
go into details. Why does public policy assign a high degree 
of independence to education? 

Scientific Instruction Is Independent 
of Politics 

1. With respect to technical and scientific subjects of in¬ 
struction in the schools, especially those related to the practical 
arts, education is in fact independent of political turnovers 


[ 89 ] 



it the polls. This rule applies to mathematics, the natural 
sciences, and many elements o£ studies less exact in nature. 
The swings of popular majorities do not affect the validity of 
the multiplication table. The law of gravitation operates under 
Democratic as well as Republican or Socialist administrations. 
The conjugation of English and Spanish verbs is not ousted by 
an incoming party fresh from victory. If in a moment of 
excitement a legislature should order the schools to teach that 
the world is flat, educational administration cannot obey, if it 
is to be loyal to knowledge and truth. Where it is necessary 
to formulate a curriculum adapted to the demands of the 
practical arts or community needs of any kind, the selections 
to be made, the methods to be adopted, and the organization 
to be effected must be entrusted to those having technical 
competence, if the very ends of instruction are not to be 
defeated. However able political executives and legislatures 
may be, they can do no more than lay down general princi¬ 
ples of educational policy and must entrust specifications to 
educational authorities. 

The Humanities Have Their 
Independent Imperatives 

2. In the domain of the humanities—literature, the fine arts, 
economics, political science, and sociology, for example—the 
prescriptions of the subjectmatter are less exact than in lan¬ 
guages and the natural sciences; but even in this domain there 
are immense bodies of authentic and exact knowledge which 
competence and loyalty to truth must take into the reckoning. 
Even to enumerate them requires an encyclopedia; for instance, 
the Encyclopedia of the Social Sciences. But illustration may 
be given. The prices of commodities, the wages of labor, and 
the costs of industrial insurance are not accidents, wholly 
subject to legislative fiat, irrespective of prevailing conditions. 
If they were, the Congress of the United States, or at all events 
a sovereign constitutional body could, by mere resolution, 
make everybody rich. 


[ 90 ] 



In human affairs, no less than in the astro-physical universe, 
there are some necessities by which even sovereign political 
force is limited. Although these necessities are not as clear and 
positive as in the physical world, political policy must take 
account of them and accept their requirements, at least in 
the long run. Competence has not yet reduced them to an 
exact science, but competence alone is fitted to explore and 
set forth their boundaries. Hence it must be said in the broad 
field of the humanities, where differences of opinion do appear, 
there are many findings sustained by the general consensus of 
competence. These findings do not dictate policy to political 
authorities, but they do set limits to the operations, methods, 
and results of policy. For this reason even partisanship must 
allow a high degree of liberty to inquiry and teaching in the 
humanities, unless it is totally indifferent to the outcomes of 
its own determinations. Although it is difficult to make this 
as clear to the heedless as the exigencies of the multiplication 
table, intelligence is fully aware of it, at least in sober moments. 

The Teaching of Controversial Questions 
Calls for Judicial Prerogatives 

3. Into cultural subjects, such as history and economics, new 
ideas, or ideas foreign to the accepted thought and practice 
of the community, inevitably come, unless the subjects are 
deliberately distorted. For example, it is impossible to teach 
European history as truth without considering the diverse types 
of political, social, and economic theory and practice which 
have appeared in that history as fact. To state and describe those 
theories and practices with exactness and balance requires ex¬ 
pertness of a high order and a scientific spirit foreign to the 
passionate disputes of partisan debate. Not even the ablest stu¬ 
dent of the subject will claim infallibility or the possession of 
"the whole truth.” But certainly the informed and disciplined 
mind can come nearer to the ideal type of fair and balanced 
instruction in such difficult subjects than the uninformed 
mind inflamed by partisan or sectarian passions. 

[ 91 ] 



Preparation for Citizenship Transcends 
All Partisan Limits 

4. There are wider and more secure reasons for a high 
degree of educational autonomy than the exigencies of mere 
competent instruction in the natural sciences and the social 
studies. They lie in the processes of democratic government itself. 
These processes, as already indicated, involve freedom of citi¬ 
zens to propose measures of government, liberty of discussion, 
unawed and unbought decisions on policies and measures, and 
continuous reexamination and appraisal of their results. These 
processes call for knowledge and an attitude of mind which 
are indispensable to the endurance of democracy. To acquire, 
preserve, and disseminate such knowledge is a primary func¬ 
tion of education. It is likewise the bounden duty of education 
to give that mental training which prepares the people for 
discussion in an informed and equitable spirit, and for the 
acceptance of popular decisions without resort to force, "the 
parent of despotism.” 

In the higher ranges of public education, issues of current 
society must come into instruction unless it is to be sterile and 
false to life. Here under the direction of trained and com¬ 
petent teachers pupils may be taught to look all around 
modern problems, to examine the points of view from which 
discussion proceeds, to acquire exact knowledge, to learn the 
assumptions on which decisions depend, and to develop that 
even temper so necessary to the preservation of democratic 
institutions. When the processes and ends of our democratic 
society are placed above the exigencies of partisan politics and 
the immediate advantages of power, then it becomes evident 
that education as a safeguard and preparation for democratic 
living must not be subjected every hour and in every way 
to the unrestrained control of men and women lifted into 
political office for a brief term by the fortunes of campaigns 
and elections. 


[ 92 ] 



To Education Are Entrusted Enduring 
Interests and Values 

J. Beyond this argument it seems impossible to go. Yet one 
more step seems necessary. Owing to the nature of popular 
usage, there is danger that the term democratic society be 
taken too narrowly, in a mere political sense. Society is more 
than politics. It embraces all culture. And democracy implies 
the widest possible diffusion of culture and all the means essen¬ 
tial to the good life. Committed by its historical and immediate 
obligations to cherishing and advancing the funded wis¬ 
dom, knowledge, and aspirations of the race, education carries 
responsibilities which outrun the fortunes of annual, biennial, 
or quadrennial elections, the ups and downs of parties, the 
twists and turns of public opinion. In a literal sense, education 
is rooted in eternity, despite its proper affiliation with temporal 
events. It is concerned with all the humane interests which 
shape society, government, and public policies, and give rich¬ 
ness to individual life. The very nature of such obligations 
and undertakings accords to education in the United States 
a special position among the administrative services of gov¬ 
ernment. 

The Constitution of the United States and the fundamental 
law of each state guarantee the freedom of inquiry and dis¬ 
cussion which education is under obligation to preserve and 
cherish. That is not all. These constitutions also make provi¬ 
sions for changes which eventuate from freedom of inquiry 
and discussion, besides giving a wide latitude for operations 
of policy within the limits of existing constitutional law. In 
common with all other citizens, teachers are under obligation 
to respect the law; but in common with all other citizens they 
must recognize that changes in the law are constantly before 
the public for consideration. If they observe the dictates of 
truth when they teach the subjects touching government, 
economy, and society, they are compelled to present fairly and 
squarely changes which have been made, great issues of change 


[ 93 ] 



now pending, and the underlying assumptions by which they 
are to be determined. An oath to support a constitution does 
not impose an obligation to condemn and resist changes in it; 
such an oath carries with it an express obligation to support 
provisions which authorize alterations. This is obvious enough 
to seem banal, but confusion in public opinion requires re¬ 
statement. 

School Authorities Have the Obligation 
To Sustain Educational Liberty 

In respect of legislative measures imposing upon schools the 
duty to teach certain subjects or to refrain from teaching them, 
other considerations prevail. The right of political authorities, 
within constitutional limits, and of the electorate through 
proper process, to require the teaching of some subjects and 
the exclusion of others is beyond question. Yet it is the duty 
of educational authorities to scrutinize ordinary legislative acts 
with reference to constitutionality. Surely the guardians of 
education have the same right as any interested private party 
to challenge in the courts any and all infringements of con¬ 
stitutional guarantees. By the very nature of the duties com¬ 
mitted to them, they are especially obligated to do so. An 
individual may sacrifice a right, but public authorities, charged 
with fiduciary responsibilities, cannot do it without betraying 
their trust. No schoolboard is bound to obey a legislative act 
that is judged by proper legal authority to violate the con¬ 
stitution under which it operates. 

Where a duty is legally and properly imposed upon educa¬ 
tional authorities, they are compelled to adjust the discharge 
of that duty to all the responsibilities entrusted to them by 
law. Any other conception would make the whole curriculum 
a sport of passing legislative majorities. To confer upon a 
legislator or an executive in charge of other matters the power 
to prescribe minute rules for education is to declare school- 
boards, superintendents, and teachers unworthy of their office 

[ 94 ] 



and to shake the confidence of pupils in the integrity of 
instruction. 

All These Circumstances Reinforce the Need 
of Legal Protection for Education 

Thus, disturbing events bring forcibly to the foreground the 
necessity for assuring to educational authorities throughout 
the entire school system a wide range of freedom in the deter¬ 
mination of policies and the conduct of the schools. They 
are not entitled to, and do not seek, a position of impregnable 
irresponsibility against society or its matured judgments. They 
do not deny the validity of the claim that community budgets 
must be balanced, by curtailments if necessary, in time of 
stress. They accept the broad principle of democratic control. 
It is against the ravages of transitory politicians engaged in 
mere inquisitorial expeditions that they demand protection. 
They object to having teaching positions in schools and uni¬ 
versities turned into the spoils of office, with continuous unset¬ 
tlements and turnovers from election to election. They protest 
against allowing any legislative or administrative authority, 
chosen for other purposes and mainly engrossed in other busi¬ 
ness, to intervene at will in educational administration; to 
threaten college presidents, superintendents, and teachers with 
reprisals, to upset carefully arranged curriculums- for petty 
reasons; to dictate the purchase of books and materials; to 
locate school buildings with respect to real estate projects; 
and otherwise to subject the schools to passing tempers and the 
demands of private interests. In stating their position, school 
authorities merely say that those responsible for educational 
policies and administration should be in fact responsible, should 
have powers commensurate with their duties, and should be 
immune against sporadic raids by men who are not responsi¬ 
ble. In so contending they simply assert a fundamental prin¬ 
ciple of democracy and sound administration. As a unique 
form of public service, having obligations different from and 



transcending other services, education must insist upon meas¬ 
ures of law designed to assure it that form of autonomy in 
which it can best discharge its particular functions. 

To Legal Safeguards Must Be Added 
Safeguards of the Spirit 

Legal rules, however, are not enough. Institutions of gov¬ 
ernment must be sustained and supplemented by a determined 
spirit and by the efforts of individuals and associations united 
on constructive principles. Educators, no more than citizens 
at large, can expect to enjoy liberty without deserving it, by 
the mere fact of their existence. Human affairs do not run 
that way. Authorities in charge of the schools—boards, admin¬ 
istrators, and teachers alike—and citizens desirous of protect¬ 
ing the educational trust against narrow views and passing 
tempers are themselves under obligation to weight their case 
with values beyond debate. They must be on guard against their 
own special interests and inquire into their own motives. It 
is not enough for them to assert privileges and to criticize in 
general terms political officers who seek economy and efficiency 
in government, or who put forward educational policies for 
public approval. The issue is not one of prescriptive right 
against power. It is rather one of established and demonstrated 
educational services against a short-sighted conception of public 
policies. So cherished and defended, education may confidently 
look forward to securing from society that autonomy and 
economic support to which it is entitled on its merits. 

And Eternal Vigilance Is Necessary 

It may be said that these alarms are without warrant and 
that these principles are obviously taken for granted. Yet 
we have been duly instructed that eternal vigilance is the price 
of liberty. We know that the schools have been and are sub¬ 
jected to the pressures of powerful minorities, seeking to im¬ 
pose their policies, not only by law, but also by threats of 


[ 96 ] 



reprisals. We see upon our statute books an. increasing volume 
of legislation dictating the substance of education and the 
procedures to be followed in the classroom. We see competent 
teachers, principals, state superintendents, and university presi¬ 
dents dismissed for partisan or factional motives that threaten 
the very integrity of learning. To what lengths this tendency 
may go, we have no way of knowing. But concerning the 
animus and logic of some measures and actions there can 
be no doubt. Exact knowledge of current forces and move¬ 
ments is sufficient to forewarn us. The way to insure the integ¬ 
rity of education is to be on guard against violations and to 
adopt practices designed to preserve it against dissensions within 
and attacks from without. No golden road is open to us but 
experience suggests possible procedures. In providing the con¬ 
ditions necessary to the discharge of their obligations, educa¬ 
tional authorities may find guidance in the efforts of constitu¬ 
tion-makers to combine liberty with authority, and progress 
with security. 

This Vigilance Calls for Perfecting the Constitution 
of Self-Government for Education 

Despite numerous conflicts over "autonomy of the schools” 
and "freedom of teaching,” few school authorities have worked 
out for their own guidance a statement of the fundamental 
principles to be employed in resolving such difficulties. Yet in 
a collective view of the best practices now prevailing, we can 
see the broad outlines of a constitution of self-government in 
education already taking form. Here, in the best practices, are 
defined the broad purposes of education and the powers of the 
agencies authorized to carry them into effect. The duties and 
rights of schoolboards, administrators, and teachers in general 
and in particular are set forth. Rules controlling the relations 
of school authorities to other branches of the government, to 
the public, to parents, to superintendents, and to teachers are 
laid down. The obligations of teachers and pupils in classroom 
exercises, especially those involving controversial issues, are 


[ 97 ] 



clarified. Agencies and procedures for the adjudication of dif¬ 
ferences of opinion respecting rights and duties have been 
instituted. It remains for us to unite the fragments, to general¬ 
ize the best achievements, to enlarge upon and illuminate them, 
and to project for the future an educational philosophy and 
practice to which men and women of goodwill may repair, 
trusting that events beyond the horizon will justify, continue, 
and improve the work thus far advanced. 

The Demand for More Enlightenment 
and Greater Effort Is Here 

Many obstacles, no doubt, lie in the way of realizing the 
ideals and discharging the admitted obligations of education. 
The task places a heavy strain on the competence and the 
qualities of administrators and teachers; and the school is 
merely one of the many agencies concerned with education 
in its widest sense. Such contentions are to be readily con¬ 
ceded. The answer, however, is not to lower the objectives 
established, to seek an easier way, or to narrow education 
to the routine of the common denominator in the profession. 
The ideals are clearly before us, in the heritage of education 
and in the prescriptions of its leaders from antiquity to our 
own times. They are by no means the peculiar possession of 
public education; yet public education is bound to cherish 
and expound them. The responsibilities are likewise before us, 
in experiences evident even to the heedless. That the home, the 
church, the press, the radio, and private institutions also share 
the ideals and the responsibilities is recognized and must be 
emphasized. But in no way does this fact diminish the burdens 
of the public schools in their sphere. The degree to which 
administrators and teachers now fall below the highest stand¬ 
ards set for them measures the urgency of the command that 
they enrich their own intellectual and spiritual resources, 
subject themselves to a more exacting discipline, and more 
abundantly deserve the public support through which educa¬ 
tion can attain its ideals and discharge its obligations. 

[98 } 








L 


The Quality of Democratic Education 

A mong the American people may be found many superfi- 
l. cial, partial, and even false conceptions of democracy. 
Deep-seated in the frontier and agrarian tradition is the idea 
that democracy scorns the refinements of life and approves 
crude and even coarse behavior. Yet more extreme is the 
assumption that rude and impudent manners toward the 
well-dressed and the educated are an evidence of peculiar 
devotion to the cause of human liberty. Closely related is the 
notion that democracy is a society without formalities in which 
everyone treats everyone else as if he were a member of the 
family, slapping him on the back, addressing him by his first 
name, and inquiring into his intimate personal life, even though 
he be a stranger. A more worthy variant of the same general 
pattern places the emphasis on simplicity of manners and a 
complete absence of ostentation, particularly on the part of 
persons of wealth or distinguished ancestry. According to yet 
another strain in the American tradition, democracy means 
nothing more than the showing of kindness and benevolence 
to dependents and "persons of no consequence” by men of 
power and influence. 

Of a markedly different order is the view that democracy 
is to be measured by the ease with which an individual of 
enterprise and talent can acquire property, rise in the economic 
and political world, and eventually enroll his name or that 
of his children among the socially elite. According to yet 
another belief, the essential characteristic of democracy is a 
guarantee to the individual that he may do precisely what he 
pleases, that he may renounce all social obligation, that he may 
treat the concerns of others and even the laws of the state with 
contempt. A final limited conception is that a democracy is 
a society in which everybody votes and anybody is qualified 
to hold any kind of public office. Although there may be an 

[ 101 ] 



element of truth in each of these approaches to the nature of 
democracy, they are all superficial and. inadequate. 

Some More Fundamental Conceptions 
of Democracy 

Among the more fundamental conceptions of democracy 
there are four which are more or less widely held by the Amer¬ 
ican people but which in spite of their great merits can scarcely 
be regarded as adequate. 

The first and most generally accepted conception is political 
in character. Derived from the word itself and of very ancient 
lineage, it holds simply that democracy is a form of govern¬ 
ment through which the people rule and which guarantees 
to the individual certain political and civil rights and liberties. 
When applied to all men, regardless of race, class, or religion, 
this is unquestionably a conception of true grandeur and 
must be included in any attempt to clarify the meaning of 
democracy. 

The second conception emphasizes the economic bases of 
human liberty. A democratic order is an order marked by 
freedom of enterprise in which every man is encouraged to 
follow the calling of his choice and is protected in the posses¬ 
sion and enjoyment of the fruits of his labor. Unquestionably 
a democracy without economic foundations is unworthy of 
the name. 

The third conception carries a social emphasis. Democracy 
'is a society of great mobility, a society in which all artificial 
barriers are absent—a society in which the stratification of 
the population into more or less rigid social classes is repudiated 
in principle and rendered impossible in fact. This also is a 
doctrine of surpassing worth which must not be left out of 
the account. The fourth conception, passing beyond govern¬ 
ment, economy, and social structure, places stress on a great 
moral idea. It identifies democracy with a way of life in which 
the individual is made the center of things and is encouraged 
to develop freely according to his own nature. In this concep- 


[ 102 ] 



tion, too, there is a true emphasis which no serious attempt to 
deal with the question can afford to disregard. 

Democracy certainly is each of these things. It has political, 
economic, social, and moral aspects. It is a form of govern¬ 
ment; it is a kind of economy; it is an order of society; it is 
a way of life; it is all of these things together. But it is more. 
Clearly, if it is to meet the challenge of the new despotisms, 
it must possess a dynamic quality and a universal tendency 
that are insufficiently expressed in the above conceptions. It 
must succeed in enlisting the loyalties and evoking the energies 
of men during a period of worldwide social convulsion. It 
must provide guiding principles and purposes for both the 
preservation and the reconstruction of society. 

Democracy as a Great Social Faith 

Democracy is more than institutions and ways of life. It 
is a great social faith which, in response to the yearnings and 
struggles of many races and peoples, has been developing 
through the centuries. 

The articles of the democratic faith have never been codified. 
They are recorded in the carefully preserved sayings and 
writings of the great prophets and seers of mankind, even 
as they may be found in the fugitive utterances and letters 
of ordinary men and women, in the songs and lamentations 
of the oppressed. They are embodied in customs and institu¬ 
tions—in the public school, the Bill of Rights, courts of 
justice, representative legislatures, systems of law, and ethical 
codes. Although the boundaries of this faith are elastic and 
changing, the following articles, related and interwoven, must 
be included: 

First, the individual human being is of surpassing worth 

Second, the earth and human culture belong to all men 

Third, men can and should rule themselves 

Fourth, the human mind can be trusted and should be 
set free 


[ 105 ] 



Fifth, the method of peace is superior to that of war 

Sixth, racial, cultural, and political minorities should be 
tolerated, respected, and valued. 

According to the first and most basic of the articles of the 
democratic faith, an article which embraces or at least provides 
the foundation for all the rest, the individual human being 
is of surpassing worth. Here is a bold and liberating conception, 
holding within itself a perpetual challenge to every form of 
oppression. Individual men are more precious than the earth 
on which they live, more precious than the food and clothing 
which sustains and warms them, more precious than the farms 
and factories and ships by which they gain their livelihood, 
more precious than the paintings and statuary and symphonies 
and all the great works of art by which they are inspired. 
Individual men are more precious than states and principali¬ 
ties, more precious than customs and institutions, more pre¬ 
cious than science and technology, more precious than philoso¬ 
phies and systems of thought, more precious than power and 
fame and glory. Even the Sabbath, symbol of so much that 
is sacred in the Christian tradition, was said by the founder 
of this religion to have been made for man. Individual men 
are not beasts of burden, nor slaves, nor serfs. Neither are 
they cannon fodder nor a commodity to be bought and sold 
in the market. Save only for the conditions of life which 
set them free and the great ideas and hopes which give them 
nobility, for which they should be ready to die if need be, 
men are the most precious things on the earth. 

The second article of the democratic faith is implicit in 
the first; the material earth and human culture belong to all 
men. Whatever may be the appropriate institutional arrange¬ 
ments, the earth with its resources of soil, water, climate, flora, 
fauna, and minerals, with its continents and islands, its oceans 
and seas, its lakes and rivers, its mountains and valleys and 
plains, the earth which makes physical existence possible for 
man is regarded as the exclusive possession of no "superior” 

t 104 3 



race, or people, or class. Likewise human culture, the social 
heritage bequeathed to each new generation by all preceding 
generations of men, the social heritage of tools, machines, and 
buildings, of habits, customs, and folkways, of knowledges, 
appreciations, and values, of ideas, philosophies, and institu¬ 
tions, the social heritage whose nurture raises individual man 
above the brute and bestows upon him the gift of humanity, 
is looked upon as the monopoly of no privileged order of men. 
This second article of the democratic faith repeats the affirma¬ 
tion of the great Judaic-Christian ethic that all men are broth¬ 
ers; it repeats the affirmation of the Declaration of Independ¬ 
ence that all men are created equal. 

The first and second articles of the democratic faith, if taken 
by themselves, might conceivably be acceptable to a benevolent 
despotism; the third lays the political foundation of a society 
of free men. It declares that men can and should rule them¬ 
selves. This article, be it noted, contains not one but two affir¬ 
mations, both equally daring and precious. It affirms not only 
that men should but also that they can rule themselves. Un¬ 
equivocally rejecting autocracy in every form, however hu¬ 
mane, it proclaims the doctrine that all men can and should 
be free, that, both as individuals and as members of society, 
they should share in framing the purposes for which they are 
to live. It repudiates as tyranny the ancient division of men 
into the rulers and the ruled. How daring, also how precious, 
this article is, the American people of the present generation, 
because of their long experience with political liberty, can 
scarcely comprehend. It must suffice to say that, from the 
standpoint of past ages, the very thought that "hewers of 
wood and drawers of water” should raise their voices in the 
councils of the nation is a form of treason—nay, a species of 
blasphemy. Whatever else a democracy may be it is first of 
all a society of free men. 

The fourth article of the democratic faith is a corollary 
of the third; it states without equivocation that the human 
mind can be trusted and should be set free. It implies that 

[ 105 ] 



in the process of rule men should trust their own minds and 
be eternally vigilant in the guarding of those opportunities 
and liberties through which their minds are matured and 
rendered competent. It implies further that they should re¬ 
sist every effort on the part of any class or group to keep them 
in leading strings, to shape their opinions for them, to narrow 
their access to knowledge, to restrict their freedom to inquire 
and to learn. This fourth article of faith also represents a 
recognition of the superiority of the judgment of many over 
the judgment of one, a frank acceptance of the scientific 
method as the only dependable guide to knowledge about the 
affairs of men and society, and a clear recognition of the fact 
that the only trustworthy guardian of freedom is an informed 
and disciplined mind. 

The fifth article of the democratic faith affirms the im¬ 
measurable superiority of the method of peace over the method 
of war in the adjustment of differences and disputes among 
men. Democracy looks upon resort to brute force as a barbaric 
survival from the past and works unceasingly for the day 
when war will be forever banished from the earth. It regards 
peace, moreover, as one of the great goods of life and knows 
that military habits and virtues are profoundly hostile to its 
own spirit. "Wherever democracy goes it strives to substitute 
the method of peace for the method of force. The introduction 
into society of the process of free discussion, criticism, and 
decision by secret ballot as a way of rule constitutes one of 
the supreme achievements of civilized man, or rather per¬ 
haps as an achievement marking the appearance of civilized 
man. It must be evident of course that this fifth article of 
faith, can be operative only in those spheres and in those rela¬ 
tionships where all parties to controversy are loyal to its princi¬ 
ples and are prepared to abide by judgments achieved by its 
procedures. As long as there exists in society a party or in 
the world a state that rejects the method of peace, democracy 
must be ready to meet force with force. While always working 

[ 106 ] 



for a universal acceptance of its faith, it must not neglect 
its own defenses. 

Finally, democracy believes that racial, cultural, aHd political 
minorities should be tolerated, respected, and valued . It rejects 
completely the totalitarian theory that the health of a society 
is to be measured in terms of the extent of conformity and 
acquiescence. On the one hand, it realizes that the human 
values which it prizes most highly, personal integrity and 
charity, are destroyed by the passions aroused in the persecu¬ 
tion and suppression of minorities. Bigotry and intolerance 
are the deadliest enemies of human freedom. On the other 
hand, democracy sees in the minority, in the dissident indi¬ 
vidual or group, a major creative force in society, an instru¬ 
ment of social discovery, invention, and advance. Even here, 
however, there must be a limit to tolerance. Whenever any 
minority employs the liberties of democracy to undermine 
and eventually to corrupt or destroy those liberties, it forfeits 
the guarantees of a free society. While vigilante and mob ac¬ 
tion in such cases should be prevented at all costs, the forces 
of public opinion, of social approval and disapproval, and in 
the last resort of the police power should be brought into full 
play. If democracy permits loyalty to its forms to sap its es¬ 
sential spirit it will be unable to triumph in its struggle 
with despotism. 

America and the Democratic Faith 

The orig ins of the democratic faith are lost in the mists of 
history. Divers ancient peoples, notably the Hebrews, Greeks, 
and Romans, had a part in its early development. Later, cer¬ 
tain Germanic tribes and particularly those that settled in 
Western Europe and on the neighboring islands of Britain 
added to the heritage. More recently the English, the French, 
the Swiss, and the small nations dwelling on the shores of the 
North and Baltic Seas have contributed mightily to the ad¬ 
vance and the clarification of this faith. But of all the nations 
of the modern world America has been most fully and strik- 

[107] 



ingly identified, with the fortunes of democracy. From early 
Colonial, times the great majority of the people migrating to 
this new land were ranged on the side of the battle for popular 
freedom. Drawn largely from the more democratic nations 
of the Old World and from the more democratic elements in 
their own societies, they constituted from the first a positive 
selection in favor of the faith of common men. Then on this 
side of the Atlantic their conditions of life and their experience 
from generation to generation committed them more and 
more to the ways and spirit of democracy. Although there 
have always been contrary and hostile currents among them, 
it has been their identification with the cause of free men that 
has made their history significant. 

The Appeal to Education 

The appeal to the school, and particularly to the public 
school, in the defense of democracy is peculiarly in the logic 
of this tradition. Although many motives and interests found 
expression in the establishment of the great state systems of 
public education in the last century, the conviction that the 
institution was necessary to the preservation and perfection 
of the American form of government and society played a 
powerful role. So today the presence of this conviction in 
the minds of multitudes of citizens constitutes the first line of 
defense against the growing attack upon education. The Ameri¬ 
can people have always assumed, perhaps without subjecting 
the assumption to critical analysis, that the public school is 
of necessity a mighty bulwark of their democracy. They be¬ 
lieve that it has contributed to the equalization of opportunity, 
the weakening of class distinctions, the induction of the immi¬ 
grant into the ways and outlooks of American democracy, 
and the general raising of the level of economic, civic, and 
social understanding and competence. 

The faith of the American people in the school is essentially 
sound. Unquestionably democracy depends on organized edu- 

[ 108 ] 



cation for its survival and improvement. This dependence, 
moreover, is greater today than yesterday, far greater than at 
the time of the founding of the great state systems, incom¬ 
parably greater than in the days of the simple agrarian society 
before science and technology had complicated the problems 
of economy and government. But there is a difficulty here. 
The dependence on education is by no means confined to 
democracy. Every modern society, whether despotic or free, 
must have a far-flung system of schools and special institutions 
for developing the young. It must have such a system or 
perish. So, while the intuitions of the American people are 
sound, they are not particularly illuminating. Indeed, the 
intuitions themselves are in need of illumination. The confu¬ 
sion is due to the fact that the American people as a whole 
have never achieved a clear and adequate comprehension of 
the nature of education in relation to democracy or of the 
nature of democracy in relation to education. The dispelling 
of this confusion is an indispensable first step in harnessing 
the public school most fully to the task of educating a genera¬ 
tion of free men. 

The Nature of Education in Relation 
to Democracy 

The appeal to education in defense of democracy, advanced 
by citizens and teachers alike, is often uncritical. A basic 
source of the difficulty is that, without making their thought 
explicit, these people look upon education as a universal and 
uniform process. They assume that, after due allowances have 
been made for the adjustment of the process to the general 
advancement of knowledge, education is everywhere and at 
all times essentially the same. According to this view, more¬ 
over, education is always on the side of the angels; it is an 
unmixed blessing to all men who receive it; it is the unfailing 
friend and support of the cause of human freedom. It is good 
for democracies and bad for despotisms; or, at any rate, 

[109] 



whereas the former can scarcely have too much of it, the latter 
can endure but little. The dogma is accepted that organized 
education unfailingly enlightens and liberates the mind. 

Democracy is a vast and complex cultural achievement 
in the sphere of human relations and social values. Like all of 
man’s finest achievements, it is extremely delicate and fragile, 
difficult to maintain at the highest level of excellence and easy 
to let follow a course of gradual degradation. Democracy 
exists only in the patterns of behavior, feeling, and thought 
of a people. Let these patterns be destroyed and democracy 
itself is destroyed. And they will be destroyed if they are 
not acquired anew by each generation, acquired by the com¬ 
plicated process of teaching and learning. Much attention 
is devoted in the schools to insure the mastery by the young 
of reading, writing, and arithmetic, of technical skills and 
processes, of the arts and the sciences. This is all very good and 
necessary. But the mastery of the ways of democracy is a far 
more difficult task of teaching and learning, and certainly 
quite as important to free men. The doctrine that children will 
learn these ways, if left to themselves, is as unsound as the 
thought that they would master geometry without the help 
of their elders. 

It follows from this analysis of the problem that the sur¬ 
vival of every complex society is dependent in part on the 
moral quality of a program of organized education. If it 
is to live and prosper, it must have an appropriate kind of 
education—an education that cultivates in the young the 
peculiar dispositions and powers which distinguish it from 
other societies. 

The American people should pass their entire system of 
theory and practice under careful scrutiny with a view to 
.bringing it into more complete and direct harmony with the 
articles of the democratic faith. They should fashion an educa¬ 
tion conceived in the spirit of that faith and devoted to its 
defense and further realization—an education designed to 
prepare their children to guard, to live in, and to develop 

[ HO] 



a free society. More particularly they should fashion an educa¬ 
tion frankly and systematically designed to give to the rising 
generation the loyalties, the knowledge, the discipline of free 
men. In a word, the American public school, through its life 
and program, should proceed deliberately to foster and 
strengthen all those physical, intellectual, and moral traits 
which are the substance of democracy—to incorporate into 
the behavior of boys and girls and youth the great patterns 
of democratic living and faith. 


r HI] 



The Loyalties of Free Men 


T he American people must realize that there are loyalties 
that set men free as well as loyalties that put them in chains. 
If their own ancestors had not been moved to place certain 
values above comfort, security, and even life itself, the founda¬ 
tions of a free society would never have been laid on this 
continent and the inhabitants of the United States today would 
possess no heritage of liberty to guard and bequeath to their 
children. The point cannot be overstressed that democracy, 
as well as autocracy, has its loyalties, that the strength and 
vigor of democracy depends on the strength and vigor of 
these loyalties among its citizens. 

The task of cultivating democratic loyalties in the young 
is a task which the American people have never discharged 
successfully. At the one extreme there have been those who, in 
an effort to teach patriotism, have pursued the blind, formal, 
and uninspiring course of putting the intellect and all the 
creative faculties to sleep. They have contented themselves 
with developing superficial loyalties, conveying understanding 
of neither past nor present, and nurturing the disposition to 
follow the stereotypes and not the spirit of democracy. At the 
other extreme there have been those who, reacting against 
tradition and expressing a spirit of intellectual emancipation, 
have delighted in shaking old loyalties but have failed to arouse 
new ones. They have known all of the questions hut none 
of the answers. They have given to the young all of the doubts 
but none of the affirmations of life. Both the loyalty to stereo¬ 
types of the one extreme and the scorn of loyalty of the other, 
both the neglect of understanding of the former and the one¬ 
sided intellectual emphasis of the latter constitute an invitation 
to the dictator to take over. Under both conceptions education 

[ 112 ] 



lacks life, vision, seriousness, deep moral purpose. Neither can 
be successful in cultivating democratic loyalties in the young. 


What Are the Loyalties of Free Men? 

The free man is loyal to the values and processes of democ¬ 
racy. The free man is loyal: 

First, to himself as a human being of dignity and worth 

Second, to the principle of human equality and brotherhood 

Third, to the process of untrammelled discussion, criticism, 
and group decision 

Fourth, to the ideal of honesty, fair-mindedness, and scien¬ 
tific spirit in the conduct of this process 

Fifth, to the ideal of respect for and appreciation of talent, 
training, character, and excellence in all fields of socially 
useful endeavor 

Sixth, to the obligation and the right to work 

Seventh, to the supremacy of the common good 

Eighth, to the obligation to be socially informed and intelli¬ 
gent. 

The entire program of the public school, the materials of 
instruction, the extracurriculum activities, the methods of 
administration, the human relations within the institution, and 
the connections between school and community should be 
deliberately designed to develop these eight loyalties of free 
men . 1 

First, the free man is loyal to himself as a hitman being of 
dignity and worth. The obligation of the school here is to give 
each pupil a deep feeling of competence, adequacy, and secu¬ 
rity, to bring each individual under its care to maturity and 
freedom. This is the first and most fundamental obligation of 

1 See further: National Education Association and American Association 
of School Administrators, Educational Policies Commission. Learning, the 
Ways of Democracy. Washington, D. C.: the Commission, 1940. 486 p. 

[ H3] 



all democratic education. Through the use of the riches of 
human association and the great heritage of human culture, 
the school should extend to every child the opportunity to grow 
to his full physical, intellectual, and moral stature as a respon¬ 
sible and valued member of a society of equals. It should reject 
all systems of measurement, classification, or instruction that 
submerge the individual or pretend to place him in a fixed 
quantitative relation to another. It should treat every child, 
regardless of his talents, as a unique and precious personality, 
a rightful heir to the cultural inheritance,, meriting the tender 
care and solicitude of society. It should explore fully his abili¬ 
ties, develop his creative powers, and encourage him to feel 
that he can do something of value, that he belongs, that he is 
wanted. While it should give rich opportunity to the gifted, 
it should actively discourage every tendency toward arrogance 
and despotic temper. As it should not debase the weak because 
of their weakness, so it should not elevate the strong to a 
superior moral status by reason of their strength. The school 
should endeavor to arouse in each individual a profound sense 
of self-respect and personal integrity. It should also encourage 
him to participate in bestowing upon others this priceless gift 
of the free person. 

Second, the free -man is loyal to the principle of human equal¬ 
ity and brotherhood. He treats his neighbor, as well as himself, 
as a human being of dignity and worth. In its effort to develop 
this loyalty in the young the school should first of all arrange its 
whole life in harmony with the principle. This means that a 
fraternal and friendly spirit should prevail as fully as possible 
throughout the organization and conduct of the work of the 
school and that a condition of equality, sympathy, and kind¬ 
liness should be'established everywhere. No discrimination based 
upon family, race, nationality, religion, politics, or economic 
status should be tolerated. Differences derived from diverse 
ancestry, life conditions, or personal aptitude or conviction 
should be employed, not to found rival and hostile groups, 
but rather to enrich the common life. Every effort should be 


[ 114 ] 



made to fashion a mentality keenly sensitive and deeply hostile 
to all violations of the principle of equality and brotherhood 
—to poverty, injustice, ruthlessness, special privilege, denial 
of opportunity, persecution of minorities, exploitation of the 
weak, servile relationships; to those social conditions which to¬ 
day dwarf the bodies and souls of millions of American children 
and rob them not only of their democratic heritage, but also of 
their birthright as human beings. Effort should also be made 
to instill into the mind of the pupil a sense of responsibility 
for correcting all such violations. The great ideals of a domestic 
society of free and equal men, of a world society of free and 
equal peoples, living under a regime of peace and law should 
be raised before the young. 

Third, the free man is loyal to the process of untrammelled 
discussion, criticism , and group decision. From the kindergarten 
to the university the school should provide the young with 
continuous opportunity to engage in this process; to acquire 
its skills, knowledges, and dispositions; to see clearly its rela¬ 
tion to the fate of democratic society. It should assume, more¬ 
over, that the thorough mastery of the process constitutes a 
difficult task of learning and that such mastery is not to be 
achieved by the easy expedient of permitting children to do as 
they please. It should recognize that the most careful guidance 
and tuition are necessary. As the school should cultivate in¬ 
tolerance toward the appeal to prestige or position, hostility 
toward the exercise of arbitrary power, mistrust of all purely 
authoritarian pronouncements, so it should cultivate loyalty 
to the method of rational discussion and deliberation. Within 
the framework of democratic ideas and procedures it should 
protect the right of every minority to be heard, of every sincere 
opposition to oppose, even the most feeble and unpopular. 
From the life of the school, loyalty should be transferred to the 
priceless guarantees of the Bill of Rights, to the great liberties 
of thought, belief, speech, press, assemblage, petition, and or¬ 
ganization for which free men have always fought and whose 
changing fortunes record the rise and fall of the democratic 


[ n * 1 



spirit and faith. The young should be led to see that the sup¬ 
pression of these liberties opens the way to violence, civil war, 
dictatorship, the end of a society of free men. 

Fourth, the free man is loyal to the ideal of honesty, fair- 
mindedness, and scientific spirit in the conduct of the demo¬ 
cratic process. The abuse of the process of discussion and criti¬ 
cism may undermine confidence in that process and ultimately 
lead to its overthrow. To employ discussion for the purpose of 
arousing passion or of delaying and sabotaging action, to refuse 
to abide by the decisions of the majority, to engage in the 
methods of conspiracy under the cloak of democracy, to em¬ 
ploy the civil liberties to discredit the Bill of Rights, or to 
nourish openly or secretly the ideas of violence and dictatorship 
is to threaten the foundations of a free society. The school 
should utterly refuse to tolerate such tendencies within its 
domain and should strive to cultivate in the young a deep and 
general hostility toward them. While encouraging criticism of 
institutions, practices, governments, and public persons and 
officials, it should strive to make criticism informed, honest, and 
sober. It should operate on the maxim that comment founded 
on ignorance, gossip, and malice is a threat to the perpetuation 
of free institutions. It should teach the youth of the nation 
that the exercise of the democratic liberties should always be 
attended by a sense of responsibility to the canons of truth and 
decency. The obligation of organized education here is pecu¬ 
liarly heavy. The school should also inculcate a healthy skep¬ 
ticism toward all final and complete solutions to social problems 
and generally cultivate a deep regard for the method and spirit 
of science in the realm of human affairs. 

Fifth, the free man is loyal to the ideal of respect for and 
ippreciation of talent, training, character, and excellence in 
all fields of socially useful endeavor . Although free society 
must always be founded on the principle of human equality, 
on the principle that every man is entitled to equal opportunity 
to develop his powers and to equal consideration before the 
law and in the moral order, it should prize above other societies 


[ 11 



every kind of superiority and excellence. In the words of 
Thomas Jefferson, the “father of American democracy,” it 
should strive both to discover and develop as its richest re¬ 
source the “natural aristocracy of virtue and talents.” Particu¬ 
larly in the great industrial society of today, with its depend¬ 
ence on the accumulation and mastery of precise knowledge 
and with its highly complex and dynamic life patterns and 
problems, this human resource should be fully utilized. Clearly 
the school should keep a perpetual inventory of the abilities 
of the younger generation, provide the best possible training 
for those abilities, and impress upon the young the necessity 
of recognizing and placing in posts of public concern and 
responsibility persons of the highest talent, training, and virtue. 
Also the school should stimulate and prize the achievement of 
excellence in every sphere of life and culture—in production 
and exchange, in government and politics, in literary and 
artistic pursuits, in science and technology, in social thought 
and invention. 

Sixth, the free man is loyal to the idea of the obligation and 
the right to work. Implicit in the principle of human equality 
is the doctrine that every person of sound mind and body 
should engage in some form of socially useful labor. The school 
should propagate this doctrine systematically by both precept 
and example. In the absence of pedagogical considerations to 
the contrary, the individual pupil should be required to carry 
his share of the common load in every department of the pro¬ 
gram. Habits of loafing, of evading tasks, of shifting disagree¬ 
able burdens to others should not be permitted. The necessity 
of labor in human society, from the most primitive to the most 
advanced, should be emphasized and demonstrated. The pop¬ 
ular prejudice that education should furnish an escape from 
the world of toil, that the educated man is morally entitled to 
ride on the backs of the untutored, should be thoroughly rooted 
out of both school and society. At the same time the school 
should develop a comprehensive system of vocational training, 
closely linked with the several branches of the economy, which 

[117] 



would be designed to equip the entire younger generation for 
earning a livelihood. Moreover* as a sense of gratitude toward 
those who do the work of the world, and particularly 
the hard, unpleasant, monotonous, and dangerous work, should 
be instilled into every'youngster, so the idea that social par¬ 
asitism, whether of individuals or classes, is utterly repugnant 
to the spirit of democracy should be vigorously taught. A 
comprehensive effort should be made to attach a sense of 
worthiness and dignity to all forms of socially useful labor. 
Also the school should teach the young that everyone has a right 
to work, not necessarily at the kind of work he would prefer, 
but a genuine right to work nevertheless. This right, necessary 
to provide a solid economic foundation for individual liberty, 
should be acknowledged as a basic human right. 

Seventh, the free man is loyal to the idea of the supremacy 
of the common good. Because of the conditions under which the 
American people gained their livelihood for generations the in¬ 
dividual has tended to neglect the general welfare and concen¬ 
trate his energies on the improvement of his own economic 
position and the advancement of his own personal interests. Even 
the public school has often been regarded as primarily a road to 
individual success. The rise of industrial civilization with its 
close integration and interdependence has made necessary and 
inevitable an increasing measure of common and cooperative 
action—-an increasing amount of social coordination and di¬ 
rection of the economic and social life. There is every reason 
for believing that, if the needed coordination and direction 
cannot be achieved through the processes of cooperation of 
free men, it will come in the form of more or less harsh dicta¬ 
torship. The school should do everything possible, therefore, 
to moderate the egoistic tendencies and strengthen the social 
and cooperative impulses of the rising generation. To accom¬ 
plish this purpose it should not only relate its own life and 
program more closely to the needs and problems of society, but 
should also take the leadership in extending to children and 
youth the opportunity of participating in community activ- 

[ 118 ] 



ities. All of this calls for the teaching of patriotism in its most 
enlightened and humane form. The school should organize its 
resources for the purpose of rearing a generation eager to serve 
community, nation, and mankind in times of peace as well as 
war—able, fearless, incorruptible, and loyal. 

Eighth, the free man is loyal to the obligation to be socially in¬ 
formed and intelligent. Devotion to the common good, how¬ 
ever selfless and single-minded, is not enough. Unless accom¬ 
panied and directed by knowledge and understanding, such 
devotion may lead to bigotry, to intolerance, and even to the 
destruction of the foundations of popular liberty. The obliga¬ 
tion to know must therefore be one of the deepest and most 
universal loyalties in a free society. The excuse of ignorance, 
when the opportunity for knowing exists, cannot be tolerated 
in a democracy. The free man, if he is to remain free, must 
command the knowledge necessary to guard his freedom. To 
this principle there is no alternative. 

The responsibility of organized education in developing this 
loyalty is overwhelming. The next chapter is devoted wholly 
to this question. 


[ 119 ] 



in. 


The Knowledge Necessary for Free Men 

K nowledge has been called the key o£ liberty. Although 
the door to liberty cannot be opened with a single key, it 
certainly cannot be opened without this one. Loyalties alone, ab¬ 
solutely indispensable as they are, cannot do it. Without knowl¬ 
edge men cannot be free; without knowledge men are incapable 
of distinguishing friends from enemies; without knowledge 
men can be led into slavery shouting the battle cry of freedom; 
without knowledge men cannot rule themselves; without 
knowledge men are blind. The long history of mankind shows 
that free men again and again have lost their liberties simply 
because they did not know the consequences of the choices 
which they were making or accepting. Democracy, therefore, 
beyond all other social systems and faiths, must make provision 
for the enlightenment of the people. It must do this or perish. 

The Faith in Knowledge 

One of the major articles of the democratic faith is that the 
human mind can be trusted and should be set free. The road 
to the liberation of the mind is through knowledge and under¬ 
standing. Democracy therefore must be devoted, with an ar¬ 
dent and sustained devotion, to the advancement and dissemi¬ 
nation of knowledge and understanding. 

This means first of all that the spirit of inquiry should be 
sedulously fostered, that the channels of investigation should 
be kept open, that neither vested rights nor special privilege 
should be permitted to halt or pervert this process, that gener¬ 
ous provision should be made by society for the prosecution of 
research and study in all fields, that men should be encouraged 
to abide by the verdict of knowledge. 

This article of faith means also that no barriers should be 
raised to keep knowledge and understanding from the people, 
that, on the contrary, every effort should be made to bring en- 

[ 120 ] 



lightenment to all. Only thus can freedom be preserved and 
strengthened from generation to generation. 

The Question of Relevance 

All forms and kinds of knowledge, however, are not equally 
relevant to the task of serving the cause of political freedom. 
Even a totalitarian regime, though disseminating a vast amount 
of falsehood and propagating a distorted view of history, must 
transmit large bodies of thoroughly dependable knowledge to 
the young, knowledge that will contribute to the achievement 
of the purposes of the dictatorship. Through careful selection, 
knowledge, like loyalties, may assist in producing obedient and 
efficient slaves of state or despot. A democracy should guaran¬ 
tee to the members of each new generation the knowledge, the 
insights, and the understandings that will give them power and 
make them masters of the state and their rulers. It should guar¬ 
antee them knowledge that will enable them to safeguard and 
extend their freedom in the contemporary world—knowledge 
that is relevant to the defense and strengthening of the values, 
purposes, and loyalties of a society of free men. 

The Question of Selection 

The selection of such knowledge from the inexhaustible stores 
available is a task of supreme urgency and difficulty. It is cer¬ 
tainly a task that cannot be performed by children or even by 
a single teacher, however competent and devoted, working in 
isolation from his colleagues. It can be performed adequately 
only by pooling the resources of the profession and enlisting the 
cooperation of all sections of the American community. 

What Are the Patterns of Social Knowledge? 

The approach to the task of selection should be made in terms 
of the needs of a free man bent on guarding and extending his 
liberties. This calls not for the memorization of the dates and 
episodes of history, nor for an encyclopedic comprehension 

[ 121 ] 



of social practices, nor yet for a simple acquaintance with a vast 
number of current "issues,” but rather for insight, understand¬ 
ing, and perspective. 

The free man today is familiar with certain great patterns 
or bodies of social knowledge and thought: 

First, he has knowledge of the nature of man in society 
Second, he has knowledge of the history of mankind 
Third, he has knowledge of the long struggle to liberate the 
human mind and civilize the human heart 
Fourth, he has knowledge of the nature of the present crisis 
Fifth, he has knowledge of the totalitarian movements 
Sixth, he has knowledge of the weaknesses of American 
democracy 

Seventh, he has knowledge of the resources, achievements, 
and promise of American democracy. 

The giving of such knowledge to the young is a responsibility 
of democratic education. 

First, the free man has basic knowledge of the nature of man 
in society. He knows that man is the most variable and versatile 
creature on the earth; that he lives under the compulsion of im¬ 
perious appetites and desires; that he is capable of subjecting 
these cravings to varying degrees of rational control and even 
of sublimation; that he is endowed with inventive and creative 
talents of unpredictable import; that he builds cultures and 
institutions and modes of life which in turn'mold and change 
him, increasing his powers, redirecting his energies, modifying 
and refining the expression of his primitive appetites, and devel¬ 
oping ever new purposes and longings. He knows that, whatever 
their origins, the motives of man, as he is found in history, are 
many, diverse, and conflicting; that he is capable alike of 
heroism and cowardice, selfishness and avarice, mercy and 
cruelty; that he can engage in the noblest and the meanest of 
exploits; that he can throw himself with equal ardor into a 
great crusade for human betterment or into a pogrom or a 
lynching party, into a movement to build or to destroy, to 

t 122 ] 



rescue or to slay. He knows that man is fated to live in no 
particular order of social relationships; that he can fashion 
and sustain both despotisms and free societies; that he can 
be stirred to action by the scoundrel as well as the saint; 
that in times of institutional crisis when old ways falter and 
desires are frustrated he can be led into the most violent and 
irrational forms of behavior. He knows that with such a 
creature the defense and advance of human freedom require 
ceaseless vigilance and are fraught with hazard and uncertainty. 

Second, the free man has basic knowledge of the history of 
mankind . He sees the long human adventure in full perspec¬ 
tive, from the first appearance of man on the earth down 
to the present age of industrial civilization. He is familiar 
with man’s long struggle for mastery in the animal kingdom, 
his wanderings and migrations, and his differentiation into 
races and peoples; with his record of invention and discovery, 
his development of the practical arts, and his advances from 
hunting, fishing, and trapping to agriculture, animal breeding, 
manufacture, and machine industry; with his creation of lan¬ 
guage and number, his founding of the great social institutions 
of family, school, church, and state, his perfection of the arts 
of war and government, and his building of cities, nations, and 
empires; with his search for truth, justice, and beauty, his 
creation of art, religion, science, and philosophy, his efforts 
to penetrate the mystery of existence, to master his earthly 
infirmities, to remake the world in the image of his own hopes 
and ideals. He knows, too, of the wars of classes, sects, and 
peoples, of the triumphs of despots and madmen, of the heroic 
struggles against tyranny and oppression, of the succession 
of social and political systems, of slavery and serfdom in their 
varied phases, of victory and defeat for human freedom, of 
progress and catastrophe. He knows the human story in both 
its darker and brighter shades, those manifestations of stupidity 
and cruelty which place man beneath the brute as well as 
those heroic and sublime episodes and achievements which 
give him the stature of the gods, those tender and selfless acts 


[ 123 ] 



md sentiments which make him only a little lower than the 
angels. He knows the world as it is today, the distribution 
of natural resources and populations, the diverse patterns 
of technical and cultural development, the boundaries of na¬ 
tions and relations of peoples, the rise and spread of the new 
despotisms. 

Third, the free man has basic knowledge of the long struggle 
to liberate the human mind and to civilize the human heart, 
He is at home in the great liberal and humanistic heritage, in 
the thought and achievements of the thinkers, artists, prophets, 
and scientists of all ages and countries. He has followed the 
struggle for freedom of thought, the effort to make the con¬ 
cept of humanity include all peoples and races, and the story 
of democracy from earliest times. With especial care he has 
studied the course of the struggle for human freedom on the 
North American continent—the disintegration of feudal in¬ 
stitutions and outlooks, the leveling influence of the frontier, 
the establishment of the early agrarian democracy, the over¬ 
throw of the system of Negro slavery, the immigration of the 
underprivileged and oppressed of other lands, the rise of or¬ 
ganizations of working people. He is familiar also with the 
struggle to separate church and state, establish the public 
school, foster humanitarian movements, and overthrow the 
principles of authoritarianism in various fields. He is fully 
aware of the great successes of his people. He is equally aware 
of their failures and of the forces and trends tending to obstruct 
and divert the march of their democracy. 

Fourth , the free man has basic knowledge of the nature of 
the present crisis in domestic and world relations. He knows 
that this crisis cannot be traced solely or even chiefly to the 
machinations of evil men, but rather that it is largely a result 
of profound dislocations in the culture and social structure 
produced by advances in science and technology. He realizes 
that these new forces have gradually and ever more rapidly 
transformed the economy and the underlying conditions of 
life—bringing in new forms of production and exchange, 

E 124] 



increasing the role of capital goods, adding invention to in¬ 
vention and discovery to discovery, harnessing the ina nim ate 
forces of nature, creating novel materials and processes, render¬ 
ing obsolete old occupational skills and knowledges, changing 
the modes and instruments of warfare, extending the range 
and speed of communication, widening the reach of the market, 
breaking down family and community boundaries, destroying 
the independence of farm and locality, integrating society on 
an ever vaster scale, producing new class divisions, interests, 
and conflicts, modifying traditional conceptions of property, 
reducing the role of competition in the economy, fostering 
organization and cooperation, placing a premium on planning 
and control, putting new burdens on government, accelerating 
the tempo of life, altering the relations of nations, compound¬ 
ing economic crisis and catastrophe, ushering in an age of po¬ 
tential plenty, creating social maladjustments of unprecedented 
number, intensity, and variety, and generally thrusting men 
into a world vastly extended, intricate, and overwhelming. 
Moreover, he sees technology placing such power in the hands 
of man that he is now able to destroy those natural resources 
which constitute the basis of human society and even shatter 
to bits the delicate fabric of civilization itself through the 
violence of war, revolution, and counter-revolution. 

Fifth, the free man has knowledge of the totalitarian move¬ 
ments. He knows how the dictators, taking advantage of 
the misery and anxiety arising out of the domestic and world 
crisis, held out to their populations the promise of a new 
heaven and a new earth; how they organized their forces in 
a drive for power, employing the democratic processes to de¬ 
stroy faith in democracy, arousing bitter hatreds between 
classes and races, spreading confusion in all ranks and divisions 
of the population, violating the canons of honesty and fairness, 
resorting to individual and mass terror whenever possible, and 
appealing indiscriminately to the vices and virtues of men. 
He knows how totalitarian parties, entering a democracy 
from the outside in the guise of a beneficent international 


[ 12J ] 



movement, served in actuality as agents o£ foreign govern¬ 
ments, undermining the morale of the people, creating di¬ 
visions, and promoting treason. He knows also how totalitarian 
parties, growing out of the domestic soil, exploited the senti¬ 
ment of patriotism to betray the interests of the people and 
the cause of freedom. 

Sixth, the free man has knowledge of the weaknesses of 
American democracy. He knows that the great changes 
wrought by technology have gravely complicated the eco¬ 
nomic foundations of free society, that a strong tendency 
to concentrate ownership of productive property in fewer 
and fewer hands is plainly discernible, that an increasingly 
large proportion of the people have become dependent on 
others for bread, that unfortunate class cleavages are appear¬ 
ing in American life. He realizes keenly that until these tend¬ 
encies are corrected democracy will be in peril. He knows 
also that the far-reaching changes produced by technology 
have created a condition of severe and chronic instability in 
the economy. He is familiar with the recurrence of depressions 
and crises of increasing scope and intensity which throw mil¬ 
lions of men and women out of work, restrict the opportuni¬ 
ties open to youth, keep the level of production far below 
its possibilities, and engender a sense of insecurity and anxiety 
in all ranks of the population. He knows further that the 
emergence of industrial society, with its vastly extended 
boundaries and its complicated structure, is placing enormous 
burdens of understanding and devotion on the shoulders of 
the ordinary citizen. He wonders whether this citizen will 
be able to carry such burdens. In a word, the free man knows 
that American democracy is facing a crisis of unprecedented 
scope and intensity. He knows and is profoundly concerned. 

Seventh, the free man has knowledge of the resources and 
promise of American democracy. He knows that that democ¬ 
racy represents today the hope of the friends of human free¬ 
dom everywhere. He knows that with its unique heritage 
of popular liberty, its long experience with free institutions, 


[ 126 ] 



its matchless natural riches, its advanced technology, and the 
energies and talents of its people, it can defend itself against 
attack from abroad, bring security and relative material 
abundance to all, and at the same time achieve and give sub¬ 
stance to ever higher conceptions of justice, mercy, and beauty. 
He knows that it is possible to revive for the youth of America 
a vision of a good society—good for even the humblest citizen 
—which has been the possession of the American people 
throughout a good part of their history. 

The Obligation of the School 

The program here outlined places upon the school the gravest 
of moral obligations. It entrusts to the teachers, to supervisors 
and administrators, to members of boards of education, to all 
who have any part in shaping the materials of instruction, 
a responsibility of supreme difficulty, urgency, and importance. 
It gives to these people the opportunity to weaken or strengthen 
the heritage of human freedom. If knowledge is to liberate 
the mind, it must be precise and true. To the extent that false¬ 
hood and misrepresentation creep into the teaching, organized 
education betrays the most sacred of trusts and corrupts the 
springs of democracy. Only the highest standards of devotion 
and competence, honesty and integrity can be tolerated. With¬ 
out the slightest desire to deceive or mislead, the school should 
strive to give to the young the knowledge necessary for free 
men. 


[ 127 ] 



IV. 

The Discipline of Free Men 

T he democratic faith is sustained and fulfilled by the disci¬ 
pline of free men. Loyalties and knowledge are not enough. 
Without discipline, loyalties, however deep and abiding, can 
avail but little; without discipline, knowledge, however pre¬ 
cise and comprehensive, must remain ineffectual and sterile. 

The Nature of Discipline 

Discipline means the putting of loyalties and knowledge 
to efficient use, the ordering of life in the light of under¬ 
standing and toward the attainment of purpose. It involves 
the subordination of the near to the remote, of the present 
to the future, of the lesser to the greater good. It involves 
the restraint of the impulse of the moment, the regulation 
of desire, the postponement of satisfaction, the sacrifice of 
immediate comforts and pleasures, the choice of the harder 
Way when the easier way is open. Discipline is never indul¬ 
gent; it may .be rigorously exacting. But it assumes this 
severe form, not because there is virtue in severity, but rather 
because such is the condition of achievement. 

The crucial role of discipline in the life of the individual 
is evident on all sides. Even the most modest success, whatever 
the standards of judgment, requires labor and sacrifice, the 
restraint of impulse, and the intelligent coordination and direc¬ 
tion of energies toward some chosen goal. Whether the goal 
is good or bad from the standpoint of a given set of moral 
values, whether it calls for service to or exploitation of one’s 
fellowmen, whether it is the building of a doll house, the 
winning of an athletic contest, the robbing of a hen coop, the 
amassing of a fortune, the organization of a band of criminals, 
the becoming of a good farmer or carpenter, the cultivation 
of love or friendship, the defeat of an enemy, the attainment 
of a political office, or the achievement of eminence in the 


[ 128 ] 



arts or the sciences, an appropriate discipline is absolutely 
essential. In advancing toward any goal, even the most nefari¬ 
ous, more or less rigorous self-denial is required. 

The role of discipline in the life of society, though perhaps 
less evident, is equally crucial. It is with this question of social 
discipline, moreover, that the present study is primarily con¬ 
cerned. The discipline necessary to sustain and fulfill the demo¬ 
cratic faith must be a social discipline. 

Every society or group must achieve an appropriate dis¬ 
cipline or perish. If it lives wholly in the present, if it shows 
no regard for the future, if it fails to employ knowledge 
in guarding its long-time interests, if it can neither frame nor 
achieve purposes embracing the general welfare, if it is para¬ 
lyzed by conflicting impulses and passions, it cannot long sur¬ 
vive. Without discipline a society suffers decay from within or 
falls a prey to aggression from without. Without discipline 
a society, however vast its material possessions or great its 
membership, is helpless in the presence of crisis. 

Psychologically, social discipline is a form, though a pe¬ 
culiarly severe form, of individual discipline. Since the group 
has no existence apart from its members, those habits and dis¬ 
positions which constitute social discipline must reside in the 
individual. The group calls upon the members to sacrifice 
not only immediate to remote interests, present to future in¬ 
terests, but also personal interests, both immediate and remote, 
present and future, to the general welfare. In times of great 
danger this sacrifice may assume the most extreme forms— 
surrender of property, of loved ones, and even of life itself. 
Such sacrifice is seen in the mother who toils without thought 
of self for the welfare of her family, in the boy who refuses 
to betray the members of his gang, in the citizen who gives 
hours of labor to the work of his political party, in the states¬ 
man who, resisting all temptations to personal aggrandizement, 
devotes his life to the good of his country and the advancement 
of mankind. The welfare of every group rests upon a measure 
of personal sacrifice. 


[ 12?] 



How Can Democratic Discipline Be Achieved? 

From earliest times men have experienced great difficulty 
in achieving the measure and kind of discipline necessary to 
sustain a free society through the generations. The sources of 
this difficulty are many. Some inhere in democracy itself; 
others are found in survivals from preceding ages of bondage; 
yet others are engendered by the ever changing balance of 
social and cultural forces. But perhaps the most serious source 
of difficulty has been the failure of free societies to see the 
problem clearly and to address themselves to the task of develop¬ 
ing in the young the appropriate discipline. The discharge of 
this task is the third essential part of any program of education 
for democracy. 

The achievement of democratic discipline in the young re¬ 
quires the correction of those deficiencies which are altogether 
too widely present in American life and character. The chief 
of these deficiencies are: 

First, misunderstanding of the nature of democracy 

Second, ignorance of social realities 

Third, lethargy and indifference regarding the general welfare 

Fourth, devotion to individual success 

Fifth, susceptibility to demagogy 

Sixth, absence of common loyalties 

Seventh, undemocratic practices and dispositions inherited 
from the past. 

The life and program of the school should be directed 
toward the correction of each of these deficiencies. 

The first deficiency to be corrected is a profound mis¬ 
understanding concerning the nature and imperatives of 
democracy. It is commonly assumed that democracy is a form 
of society which guarantees freely and automatically to its 
members the possession and enjoyment of personal privileges. 
It is sometimes assumed further that the problem of social 
discipline does not appear in a democracy, that such discipline 
is either hostile to the spirit of individual liberty or capable 

[ HO] 



of being acquired without conscious effort on the part of any¬ 
body, that a democratic society very obligingly runs itself 
and requires of its members merely that they attend strictly 
to their own private affairs. The school should demonstrate to 
the young through experience in the community and through 
study of human history and institutions, that no society, 
whether bound or free, can long survive the conduct of life 
in conformity with such misconceptions. 

The second deficiency to be corrected is ignorance on the 
part of the individual of social realities. In a free society, 
where responsibility for great decisions rests upon the ordinary 
citizen, such ignorance in times of crisis may prove fatal. Let 
the devotion of the individual to the common good be ever 
so strong, let his loyalty to all the values of democracy be ever 
so deep, if he is unaware of imminent difficulties and perils, 
he will take no action, he will make no sacrifice, he will con¬ 
centrate on personal interests. The school should direct its 
program of instruction to the overcoming of this condition 
of ignorance and to the arousal in the young of a sense of 
deep concern regarding the future. 

The third deficiency to be corrected is lethargy and indiffer¬ 
ence regarding the general welfare. This state of mind tends 
to be particularly prevalent among persons, both young and 
old, enjoying security and comfort. Such persons often resent 
the intrusion into their pleasant world of harsh and disturb¬ 
ing events. They prefer "to take things easy,” to enjoy week 
ends in the country, to put off until tomorrow, to believe that 
the deluge is not coming, at least not in their time. They are 
unwilling to pay in time and devotion the full price of liberty. 
They refuse to accept responsibility for themselves and even 
become indignant toward those who take seriously their civic 
duties or who would arouse them from their world of slumbers. 
They may salve their consciences by resorting to wishful 
thinking, by convincing themselves that everything is all 
right, by nourishing the delusion that in any event God is 
on their side and that "right” is certain to prevail. Many are 


[ 131 ] 



perhaps overwhelmed by the magnitude of the task of guiding 
the destinies of a nation or by a sense of the helplessness of a 
single individual in the presence of a world in revolution. In 
this situation the school should endeavor, by precept and prac¬ 
tice, to give to every boy and girl a feeling of personal responsi¬ 
bility for participating actively in making, obeying, and en¬ 
forcing social and community decisions. 

A fourth and closely related deficiency to be corrected is 
an inordinate devotion to individual success . If individual 
success were gauged in terms of service to society, there would, 
of course, be no problem here. But in American democracy 
the standards of achievement have tended too largely to be 
nonsocial or narrowly social in character. In obedience to the 
doctrine that each individual should mind his own business, 
that by minding his own business he will contribute most to 
the general welfare, that the “least government is the best,” 
and that able men should not enter public service, the com¬ 
mon interest has been neglected. Worse than that, as the his¬ 
tory of political corruption in the United States shows, a large 
part of the population has come to look upon government 
as a taker of bribes and a dispenser of favors, as an alien interest 
to be outwitted and cheated. American democracy today has 
too few "public men”—too few men who place the welfare 
of society above or on a par with their personal fortunes. To 
survive in times of crisis a democracy, more than any other 
form of society, requires citizens who voluntarily and eagerly 
offer their services to the community. Through its study of 
occupations and careers, through its choice of biography, 
through the conduct of its own life, through its distribution 
of rewards, the school should strive to alter the current stand¬ 
ards of success and achieve a more general devotion to social 
welfare. 

A fifth deficiency to be corrected ■ is susceptibility to the arts 
of demagogy. From ancient times demagogy has been one of 
the most common and fatal diseases of democracy; in these 
years demagogy has been employed successfully in one country 

I 132 ] 



after another to destroy free institutions. Ambitious men, 
thirsting for political preferment and power, flatter the people, 
applauding their vices and acclaiming their errors, pandering 
to their prejudices and passions. Even responsible political 
leaders often hesitate to speak unpleasant truths and make 
promise after promise that cannot be fulfilled. Rival demagogs, 
striving to outbid one another in the popular favor, have been 
known to lead a society from one absurdity to another and 
eventually to disaster. 

The school should reveal to the young the dangers of dema¬ 
gogy, train them in the detection and repudiation of specious 
appeals and programs, and rear them in the hard discipline 
of knowledge and truth. 

A sixth deficiency to he corrected is the absence among the 
people of common loyalties. Every great modem democracy 
is marked by racial, national, religious, and class differences. 
If these differences flame into hatreds of sufficient intensity, 
all sense of community of interest disappears and society de¬ 
generates into a melee of warring factions. As already noted, 
demagogs aggravate these differences and hatreds for purposes 
of personal advantage and the prospective dictator exploits 
them in his struggle for power. The danger lies in the fact that 
full democratic discipline requires a conception of welfare that 
embraces and is felt to embrace all elements of the population. 
In the measure that this condition disappears, common loyal¬ 
ties and purposes, the basis of the discipline of a free society, 
are bound to disintegrate. 

A seventh deficiency to be corrected is a pervasive heritage 
from the past of undemocratic practices and dispositions. 
No people has ever developed a completely democratic discir 
pline, as no people has ever established a true democracy. 
Even in the oldest of the democracies the legacy from a pre¬ 
ceding age of human bondage is preserved in a thousand ways. 
It is evident in the behavior of leaders and those led in politics, 
in the thirst for power by the few and the worship of power by 
the many, in the response of millions to the glamor of military 


f 133 1 



glory and conquest, in the readiness with which multitudes 
violate and surrender political rights. It is not enough therefore 
that the school order its own life in accordance with democratic 
principles. This great institution, through which man deliber¬ 
ately strives to perfect himself, should turn the light of sym¬ 
pathetic criticism and understanding on the life of society and 
obtain the cooperation of other agencies in the progressive 
elimination of the undemocratic heritage from the. past. 

The Teaching of Discipline 

At no time in the history of American education has a con¬ 
certed effort been made to rear a generation in the discipline 
of free men. Indeed, at no time has the teaching profession 
been fully aware of the problem. While there has been much 
talk about discipline, there has been little attempt to relate 
the discussion to the great purposes of democracy. Opposing 
schools of thought on the question have generally assumed 
that in the educative process, as in life, discipline and personal 
liberty are in conflict. But whereas the one has been inclined 
to identify education with discipline, the other has tended to 
associate it with liberty. Though both of these emphases are 
needed in the schools of a free society, the conception of disci¬ 
pline held by the one group is as deficient as the conception of 
liberty held by the other. 

The first school of thought has believed that discipline must 
be imposed by an arbitrary and all-powerful authority; the 
second that it will develop from within in any properly con¬ 
ducted education. The former have believed that men must 
be disciplined before they can be entrusted with liberty; the 
latter that they must be freed from all restraining influences 
before they can achieve the discipline of freedom. The con¬ 
fusion here has arisen from two opposing views of human na¬ 
ture, both of which are fallacious and, in spite of superficial 
differences, fundamentally alike. Members of the first school, 
like all supporters of authoritarian doctrine, have assumed that 
man is evil by nature and must be remade according to a pat- 

r 134] 



tern imposed by some external power; members of the second, 
like all followers of the romantic tradition, have assumed that 
man is good by nature and should be permitted and encouraged 
to develop in accord with his own inner tendencies. The fact 
seems to be that man is neither evil nor good by nature, but 
rather becomes evil or good, according to a given set of stand¬ 
ards, as he grows to maturity in a given society or culture. 

The discipline of free men cannot be achieved by subject¬ 
ing the young for a period of years to the regimen of a slave. 
Neither can it be achieved by allowing the young to follow 
their own impulses and take over the process of education. It 
can be achieved only by living for years according to the ways 
of democracy, by rendering an active devotion to the articles 
of the democratic faith, by striving to make the values and 
purposes of democracy prevail in the world, by doing all of 
these things under the guidance of the knowledge, insight, and 
understanding necessary for free men. That this involves a 
highly complex and difficult process of learning is obvious. It 
requires a school environment and a school life organized de¬ 
liberately to give boys and girls experience in democratic 
living—a school environment and a school life from which 
the obstacles to the achievement of democratic discipline 
are removed. Above all, it requires the influence of a teacher 
who in his activities in both school and community practices 
the discipline of a free man. 


[ 135 ] 



V. 


Freedom and Control 

C ontrol is always a crucial problem of organized educa¬ 
tion. A given program may be rendered ineffective or 
even hostile to its avowed purposes by the mode of control 
adopted. Like loyalties, knowledge, and discipline, the method 
employed should be in harmony with the fundamental princi¬ 
ples and values of the entire educational undertaking. 

The Broad Contours of Democratic Education 

The object of a system of school control is to ensure the 
achievement of purpose and the maintenance through the 
years of the kind of program desired. An understanding of 
the nature of the control adapted to the making of free men 
requires, therefore, a brief review of the broad contours of 
democratic education in relation to society and culture. These 
contours may be outlined in the following six characteristics 
of democratic education: 

First, democratic education is devoted to the realization of 
the democratic faith 

Second, it is marked by integrity and honesty in all relations 
Third, it is sensitive and responsive to the changing condi¬ 
tions of life 

Fourth, it is independent of the passions and narrowly 
partisan struggles of the moment 
Fifth, it is sensitive and responsive to the changing hopes, 
ideals, and problems of the people 
Sixth, it is free from the domination of private persons 
and groups. 

An elaboration of these six characteristics will reveal the 
conditions that the control of democratic education will be 
expected to establish and maintain. 


[ 13«] 



The first characteristic of democratic education has been 
the center of analysis and exposition throughout this volume; 
it has, as its all-embracing object, the realization of the demo¬ 
cratic faith. It is not education for dictatorship, for either 
the old or the new despotisms. Neither is it an education for 
all orders of society and for all moral systems. It is frankly 
an education deliberately and systematically designed to de¬ 
fend, strengthen, and more completely realize in America the 
articles of the democratic faith; to rear a generation of free 
men equipped with the loyalties, the knowledge, the discipline 
necessary to enable them to maintain their heritage of free¬ 
dom and to transmit that heritage in full and growing vigor 
to their children. It is an education designed to imbue boys 
and girls and youth with the courage and the determination 
to struggle for the ever more complete fulfillment of the 
vision of a society of security, liberty, justice, and beauty for 
all. It is an education that takes its social obligations seriously 
and refuses to confine the teaching of democracy to a special 
»subject to be given at a special time by a special teacher. It 
is an education permeated, colored, and shaped throughout 
its entire program by the values, the ideas, the spirit of democ¬ 
racy. The task of establishing and maintaining an education 
of this character in a society beset by the domestic and world 
forces of totalitarianism requires understanding, inventiveness, 
and vigilance. 

The second characteristic of democratic education, like the 
other four still to be considered, is implicit in the first; demo¬ 
cratic education is marked by personal integrity and honesty 
in all relations. From the relations between the janitor and 
the superintendent to the relations between the teacher and 
the pupil, this characteristic represents an application to the 
work and life of the school of the first and most basic article 
! of the democratic faith—belief in the unqualified worth and 
dignity of the individual human being. Since the teacher- 
pupil relation is the vital element in all education, it is im¬ 
perative that this relationship be marked not only by com- 

[137] 



plete integrity and honesty but also by a spirit of mutual 
confidence, respect, and even affection. In a democracy this 
means, above all, that the teacher must express the democratic 
faith in his life; that he must set an. example of probity, fear¬ 
lessness, and sobriety in both school and community; that he 
must avoid even the appearance of suppressing knowledge or 
tempering convictions in response to either reproof or flattery, 
threats or bribes. The teacher-pupil relation is one of the most 
sacred relations in a free society. Let this relation be corrupted 
and the education of free men is rendered impossible. But to 
achieve and maintain this relation pure and undefiled will 
unquestionably arouse the opposition of all enemies of democ¬ 
racy. 

Democratic education, in the third place, is sensitive and 
responsive to the changing conditions of life. The free man 
must be prepared to defend and advance his liberties in the 
world in which he lives and not in some hypothetical world, 
nor in a world that has passed away, nor yet in all possible 
worlds. He must know, moreover, that contemporary society, 
with its sciences and technologies, is highly dynamic, that it 
is capable of changing even basic structures and patterns with 
remarkable swiftness. Particularly must he be made familiar 
through the school with those changes which affect the founda¬ 
tions of American democracy, those deep-flowing currents 
of the culture and the social order which condition the for¬ 
tunes of free institutions through the generations. The point 
to be emphasized here is that while democratic education must 
avoid absorption in the immediate and fleeting event, it can¬ 
not escape into some peaceful Elysium far removed from the 
struggles of men. It must be closely related to and profoundly 
influenced by the course of social and cultural change. Par¬ 
ticularly must teachers be prepared to reveal to the young 
with utter candor and realism those trends and tendencies 
which bring promise or threat to the democratic faith. Indeed, 
amid the profound and bewildering changes of the age they 
should help their pupils to find in the great heritage of hu- 

[138] 



man freedom a stabilizing force, an abiding factor, a source 
of hope, a kind of lode star to give direction and purpose to 
their lives. This also is likely to encounter hostility on the part 
of powerful elements in the community. 

The fourth characteristic of democratic education is the 
complement of the third; although such education is sensitive 
and responsive to social change, it is at the same time inde¬ 
pendent of the passions and narrotvly partisan battles of the 
moment and is dedicated to the service of the long-time inter¬ 
ests of children and society. Democratic education, though an 
integral part of the total social process, does possess an inde¬ 
pendence, a quality, an integrity of its own. It has its own 
canons and obligations which must be protected from the 
heat of the political battle and defended against the en¬ 
croachments of political personages and parties. It must remain 
true to its special purposes and obligations. It must ever seek 
to enlighten, to view in perspective, to keep alive the spirit 
of reason and understanding, to cultivate the method and 
outlook of science. Such an emphasis is easily misunder¬ 
stood even by the friends of democracy. It is sure to be opposed 
by the foes of human freedom. 

Fifth, democratic education is sensitive and responsive to 
the changing hopes, ideals, and problems of a people. It was 
for the purpose of fulfilling certain hopes, of realizing cer¬ 
tain ideals, of solving certain problems of their common life 
that the American people originally established their system 
of public schools. It is, moreover, from the hopes, ideals, and 
problems of the great masses of ordinary men and women that 
democratic education derives its life. The school, therefore, 
must make a special effort to keep close to the people—close 
to farmers, mechanics, clerks, and housewives—close to all 
who by reason of birth and circumstance have received less 
than their rightful share of the cultural heritage—close to 
the humble as well as the proud. If this vital connection is 
severed, democratic education either enters a period of formal¬ 
ism and decay or, losing its devotion to the cause of human 

[ 139 ] 



liberation, becomes the agent of some privileged order or 
tyranny. This is not to say that democratic education merely 
awaits the mature formulations of the people, that it has no 
responsibility to shape and clarify popular hopes, ideals, and 
problems. It does have just such a responsibility. It should 
even go beneath the process of clarification and sharpen sensi¬ 
tivity to the conditions out of which issues arise. But the 
point of central interest here is that teachers, realizing the 
dynamic quality of the age, should keep themselves in the 
stream of history, refuse to become a class apart, identify 
themselves fully with the life of the community, and relate 
the educational program to the interests of all the people. 
Here too is a feature of democratic education which is always 
difficult to maintain and which powerful forces are always 
tending to submerge. 

The sixth and last characteristic of democratic education 
to be considered is the complement of the fifth; though sensi¬ 
tive and responsive to the changing hopes, ideals, and prob¬ 
lems of the masses of the people, democratic education cannot 
permit itself to be drawn into the service of any private per¬ 
son or group. It must be free from the immediate domination 
of any and every minority, class, party, church, sect, or or¬ 
ganization bent on using the school or the, teacher to promote 
its special purposes or its special conception of public purposes. 
Though the school should always be peculiarly sensitive to 
the correction of injustice and to the improvement of the con¬ 
dition of the underprivileged, its central function is to serve, 
not the interests of any part of society, but the general wel¬ 
fare. The hazards and difficulties attending the maintenance 
of this principle in the present age are evident to anyone who 
reads the newspapers, listens to the radio, or even follows the 
conversation of street and market place. Every American 
community, as well as the nation as a whole, literally seethes 
with "pressure groups” which, speaking in the name of the 
common good, strive to promote partisan interests and doc¬ 
trines. Increasingly have these groups sought to shape the pro- 

[ 140 ] 



gram and emphasis of the public school. The right to assemble 
and organize, to criticize, advocate, and petition is, of course, 
one of the most precious rights which a democracy guarantees 
to its citizens. This right, however, creates conditions which 
complicate and make difficult the conduct of a program of edu¬ 
cation for democracy. 

Democratic Education and the Will 
of the Majority 

The dileriuna of public education in a democracy derives 
not from the pressures of minorities, embarrassing and danger¬ 
ous though they may be, but from the unqualified exercise 
of authority by the articulate majority. The widespread be¬ 
lief that the assumption of power over the school by popular 
government (which presumably expresses the collective judg¬ 
ment and will of the citizens) automatically removes all diffi¬ 
culties, requires very critical examination. Of equally doubt¬ 
ful validity is the belief that democratic education may be 
regarded as any education which the people, operating through 
political institutions, may happen to desire or approve. If the 
analysis of the present volume and of the immediately pre¬ 
ceding paragraphs is sound, these beliefs are not to be trusted. 
The touchstone of democratic education is to be found by 
no means in the simple assent or assertion of a majority but 
rather in its power to preserve and advance the cause of 
democracy. If an educational program undermines the loyal¬ 
ties of free men, fails to give the knowledge necessary to the 
defense of human liberty, or cultivates an authoritarian disci¬ 
pline or no discipline at all, it cannot be called democratic 
even though approved by overwhelming popular majorities. 
The fact that a people may have the power or the legal right 
to establish a school program which will eventually lead to 
the abolition of that power or right only makes the problem 
more acute and urgent. If a democracy is to have democratic 
education, the school must be protected not only against the 
assaults of minorities but also from the caprice and ignorance 

[HI] 



of the majority. A central task of democratic education is 
to educate a democracy to desire, to support, and to defend 
a program of democratic education. 

The difficulty arises from a conception of government which 
democracies have inherited from ancient and modern despot¬ 
isms. Under this conception, which is to be found in its pure 
form in contemporary dictatorships, government is all-power¬ 
ful, all-wise, and all-good, justified in doing whatsoever it 
wills within the orbit of its rule and incapable of making a 
mistake or committing a wrong. To this government the 
inhabitants are subjects who find the meaning of life in obey¬ 
ing its commands. Although the democracies have generally 
repudiated the harsher features of this conception and intro¬ 
duced safeguards of personal liberty, they have failed to de¬ 
velop a wholly satisfactory conception of their own. The fact 
that in a democracy the inhabitants are supposed to be free 
men who control government in their own interest and em¬ 
ploy its agencies to serve their purposes seems to have created 
confusion. In practice friends of democracy have not re¬ 
jected wholly the totalitarian doctrine that government can 
do no wrong. If it is founded in some way on the expressed 
will of the people, they are inclined to assume that all of the 
conditions essential to the guarding of human liberty are satis¬ 
fied. This position is fundamentally unsound. 

This crucial problem is brought to focus in the field of edu¬ 
cation. If a democratic society is a society of free men who 
direct government to the service of their purposes, the exer¬ 
cise of governmental authority over the schools and thus over 
the minds of the citizens constitutes something of a contra¬ 
diction. The danger is ever present that a government of 
the moment or of a generation will employ this power to 
Ichange the mentality of a people and convert free men into 
f subjects. If no limits to its action are recognized or respected, 
there is always the possibility that democratically established 
government, through the prescription of educational programs 
and the suppression of thought and the spirit of inquiry, may 

[142] 



gradually mold the character of a people according to the 
totalitarian pattern. The fact that it might do this with the 
purest of motives and in the name of freedom would not af¬ 
fect the consequences. The essence of the matter is that it 
would drive from the school that integrity of person which 
is perhaps the most distinctive characteristic of the free man 
and without which education cannot serve democratic purposes. 
The removal of the danger inhering in governmental control of 
education requires the repudiation of the totalitarian concep" 
tion and the general acceptance in theory and practice of a 
government of limited power and jurisdiction. 

This brings the analysis to the question of ultimate authority 
and loyalty. From the standpoint of education, human liberty, 
and personal integrity, here is the most fundamental distinc¬ 
tion between democracy and despotism. In a totalitarian state 
the authority of government is unlimited and is concentrated 
in the dictatorial power, whether that power be a person, a 
family, a class, a political party, a military caste, or a holy 
order. To this power the individual is required to give un¬ 
qualified and uncritical loyalty; from its decisions and com¬ 
mands, however capricious, he has no recourse. In a living 
and enduring democracy the authority of government is 
limited. It is limited by laws, constitutions, and precedents, 
by institutional arrangements and accepted procedures, even 
by the prevailing ideas of a people. Also the loyalty of the 
citizen is qualified. It is qualified by the legalizing of criticism 
and opposition, by the conception of government as an instru¬ 
ment and servant of the general welfare, by a body of ideals 
and values which transcend the authority of officials and prac¬ 
tices. Whatever may be the incidence of brute power, the in¬ 
dividual in a democracy may claim the moral right to appeal 
from the acts of government to the guarantees of the laws, 
from the guarantees of the laws to inherited conceptions of 
right and wrong, and even from inherited conceptions of 
right and wrong to the voice of his own conscience. Free men 


[ 143 ] 



know that government can do evil—that it can commit the 
most terrible crimes recorded in history. 

The solution of the problem of control of education is not 
to be found in the transfer of all power to the institutions 
and officers of government. Such a solution, even though the 
state is responsive to the general will, constitutes a wholly in¬ 
adequate safeguard of the education of free men, While the 
/voice of the people has been called the voice of God, man’s 
^experience with popular rule demonstrates the falsity of this 
ancient maxim. Government must, of course, play a major 
Tole in the organization and conduct of education. Indeed, 
adequate provision in the modern age for this great service is 
utterly impossible through reliance upon private enterprise 
and resources. But at present the ordinary American citizen 
possesses no adequate conception of the complex body of re¬ 
lations involved in the establishment and maintenance of a 
program of education dedicated to the realization of the 
democratic faith. The control of such a program must express 
a delicate adjustment among the agencies of government, the 
profession of teaching, and the people. 


[ 144 ] 



VI. 


Government, the Teacher, and the People 

C ontrol of democratic education should be lodged com¬ 
pletely with no single authority. The power of any one 
body or agency to shape a process so central to the development 
of free men should always be subject to effective limitations. 
Although ultimate decisions must inevitably rest in some way 
with society as a whole, the conduct of the public school should 
involve the close interaction and cooperation of government, 
the teacher, 1 and the people. If this cooperation is to be most 
effective and fruitful, it must express in the fullest possible 
measure a general condition of mutual trust and understanding 
rather than a precarious balance of rival and jealous forces. To 
each party thus involved in the control of public education— 
to government, to the teacher, and to the people—belong ap¬ 
propriate responsibilities and obligations. 

Responsibilities and Obligations of Government 

The fundamental responsibility of government is to estab¬ 
lish and maintain from generation to generation the broad 
conditions under which the education of free men may be 
carried on. Having set the framework within which the work 
of the school may be conducted, government should guard 
this framework and guarantee to the teaching profession and 
the educational authorities freedom and opportunity for the 
intelligent and loyal discharge of their duties, intervening di¬ 
rectly only in case of evident breach of trust. This, rather 
than the detailed development, administration, and supervision 
of the program of education, is the responsibility of democratic 

1 The term "teacher” as employed here and elsewhere in this discussion 
embraces all members of the educational profession whether engaged, in 
instruction, supervision, or administration. 


[ 14 *] 



government. In discharging this obligation government should: 

First, establish a special authority for the general conduct 
of the public school 

Second, provide generous and sustained financial support 
of the educational undertaking 

Third, insure the broad, thorough, and democratic training 
of the teacher 

Fourth, safeguard the integrity of the teacher 

Fifth, refuse deliberately to make full use of its own power 
over the school. 

The first responsibility of government is the establishing 
of a special authority for the general conduct and supervision 
of the school. The primary object of such a measure is to dis¬ 
sociate education from the fortunes of partisan politics, pro¬ 
tect it in some degree from the passions of the moment, identify 
it with the more abiding interests of society, make it an object 
of especial solicitude on the part of the people, and thus give 
to it a unique status among governmental functions so that 
it may operate according to the canons of democratic educa¬ 
tion and serve most effectively the cause of free men. In origi¬ 
nally setting up special boards to outline broad policies and 
watch over the public school, the American people revealed 
a sound instinct and a remarkable perception of the realities 
in the situation. From the standpoint of the fortunes of democ¬ 
racy, organized education plays a peculiar and exalted role. 
More than any other creature of government it serves the 
more distant future. The consideration to be given supreme 
emphasis here, however, is that democratic education as out¬ 
lined in this volume cannot be conducted successfully under 
the threat of police power. It can be so conducted only when 
guaranteed a large measure of independence and security. 

A second responsibility of democratic government is to 
provide generous and sustained financial support for organized 
education. This is required, first of all, by the basic articles 
of the democratic faitb. According to that faith, the cultural 

r 146] 



heritage of mankind, the heritage that makes possible the in¬ 
tellectual and moral development of the individual, belongs 
to all men and not to any privileged order or race. Since the 
public school is society’s special agency for opening the doors 
of this heritage to the young, it must be made generally and 
evenly accessible to all. The loyalty of a people to the demo¬ 
cratic faith can perhaps be gauged most readily and effectively 
by its effort, in bad times as well as good, to equalize the op¬ 
portunities of organized education and assure to every child 
his full birthright as a human being. A second and equally 
compelling motive for providing generous and sustained ma¬ 
terial support for the public school is social necessity—to 
meet the threat of despotism, to build the spiritual defenses 
of democracy, to insure so far as possible that the entire popu¬ 
lation shall acquire the loyalties, master the knowledge, and 
achieve the discipline of free men. 

Provision for the broad, thorough, and democratic training 
of the teacher constitutes a third responsibility of government. 
The selection and preparation of those who are to be entrusted 
with the immediate conduct of the public school constitute 
an undertaking of the deepest gravity. Only the choicest young 
men and women should be admitted to training—young men 
and women of fine human quality and reared in the tradition 
of democracy. Besides embracing technical preparation equal 
in thoroughness to that required by the most exacting of the 
professions, the program of training should make careful 
provision for equipping these young people to discharge the 
heavy social obligations of the teacher. It should give to them, 
not only the narrower skills and knowledges of the calling, 
but also in exceptional measure the loyalties, the understand¬ 
ings, the discipline of free men. It should communicate to 
them the full scope of their opportunities and responsibilities 
as teachers of democracy; it should imbue them with a sober 
and inspiring conception of their profession. Such a program 
of training should be provided for all teachers and particularly 


[ 147 ] 



for those who aspire to positions of leadership in the educational 
system. Only if government recognizes the seriousness of this 
problem and establishes the rigorous and appropriate type of 
training here suggested can the American public school be 
expected to serve the cause of democracy fully and effectively. 

A fourth responsibility of democratic government is to safe¬ 
guard the integrity of the teacher and to encourage him to 
grow to his full stature. Government should guarantee to the 
teacher of proven worth a just wage, economic security, reason¬ 
able tenure, opportunity for continued study, and protection 
from the assaults of all busybodies and pressure groups seeking 
to impose upon him and the school their special and peculiar 
brands of morals and patriotism. It should guarantee to him 
the right to search without hindrance for the truth and to 
convey truth as he finds it, in conformity with the canons 
of good teaching, to his pupils. It should guarantee to him the 
right to share in shaping educational programs and policies 
and in setting the conditions of his work. 1 It should guarantee 
to him the right to live the life of a full-fledged citizen, to par¬ 
ticipate actively in the political, social, and cultural life of 
his time, to enjoy all the privileges and discharge all the obliga¬ 
tions of a free man. It should guarantee to him the right to 
organize with his fellows and thus to make the collective voice 
of the profession heard in the councils of the local, state, and 
national community. In order that these guarantees may be 
respected and enforced, government should provide for the 
creation of appropriate tribunals before which all grievances 
may be presented and adjudicated. And it should provide the 
measures here outlined for safeguarding the integrity of the 
teacher, not in the interest of teachers, but in the interest of 
the education of free men. If boys and girls and youth are 
not brought under the influence of men and women of the 

‘See further: National Education Association and American Association 
of School Administrators, Educational Policies Commission, The Structure 
and Administration of Education in American Democracy. Washington, 
D. C.i the Commission, 1938. 128 p. 

[148] 



finest type, truly democratic education is not possible. If the 
American people desire to defend the democratic faith against 
assault from within or without, they can scarcely pay too 
high a price to place such men and women in the public schools 
of the country. 

A final responsibility of democratic government in the realm 
of organized education is to restrain itself and refuse to make 
full use of its power. It should of course observe meticulously 
the canons of simple honesty and decency, refusing to be a 
party to the prostitution of the needs of the school to the 
granting of favors, the building of private fortunes, and the 
founding of political machines. Beyond this it should resist 
the tendency, almost universal in the sphere of government, 
to increase and extend its authority—to prescribe the details 
of the educational program, to select textbooks and pass upon 
the methods of instruction, and to usurp gradually the func¬ 
tions and responsibilities of the profession. Democratic educa¬ 
tion cannot live in a strait jacket; it refuses to respond to 
threats and commands; it requires opportunities for delibera¬ 
tion and choice; it thrives only under conditions of trust and 
confidence. While guarding education from the pressures and 
encroachments of other forces, government should not make 
the mistake of imposing a host of its own regulations and 
prescriptions. Rather should it use its great power to guaran¬ 
tee to the public school the freedom essential to the organiza¬ 
tion and conduct of education for democracy. 

Responsibilities and Obligations of the Teacher 

With freedom go corresponding obligations. The state can 
establish and maintain the conditions under which the education 
of free men is possible. It is powerless itself to provide such 
education. To make the possibility actual is the responsibility 
and the opportunity of those who work in the school. In 
order that the teacher may discharge the responsibility and 
rise to the opportunity thus indicated he must: 

[ 149 -] 



First, maintain a steadfast loyalty to the democratic faith 
Second, achieve and sustain high professional competence 
Third, participate actively and intelligently in shaping edu¬ 
cational policy 

Fourth, establish and maintain a condition of mutual trust, 
understanding, and sympathy with the people. 

The first responsibility of the teacher is to maintain a stead¬ 
fast and informed loyalty to the values and processes of democ¬ 
racy, to the several articles of the democratic faith, to the 
interests of children and the cause of human freedom. He 
should see clearly that education is more than subjectmatter, 
that education is fundamentally an adventure in human re¬ 
lationships. He should see too that education is not a neutral 
process and should recognize the far-reaching social, political, 
and moral implications and consequences of all that he under¬ 
takes. In the work of the school and in the life of the com¬ 
munity he should exemplify the spirit of democracy. He 
should struggle without ceasing to apply the articles of this great 
faith to both education and society. He should be among the 
first to sense violations of the principles of democracy, to 
apply these principles to neglected fields, to keep alight the 
lamps of reason, to champion the interests of the under¬ 
privileged and the downtrodden, to combat the forces of to¬ 
talitarianism, whether of domestic or foreign origin—to make 
democracy work. In a word, he should take democracy seriously 
and strive to make it prevail in the world, giving himself fully 
to its service and enlisting at every opportunity the energies 
and enthusiasms of his pupils. An example of democracy in 
his own life, he would exert upon the young a powerful and 
lasting influence for human freedom. 

The second responsibility of the teacher is to achieve and 
sustain a high level of professional competence, to take full 
advantage of the facilities for study and growth provided by 
society. Besides mastering the technical aspects of his calling, 
the teacher should strive to achieve a deep understanding of 

[ HO] 



the nature, history, fortunes, and present condition of democ¬ 
racy in America and the world. At the same time he should 
endeavor to see his calling in relation to the defense and fur¬ 
ther realization of the democratic faith. He should sense in 
teaching something more than a mode of gaining a livelihood, 
something more than a matter of hours, wages, and conditions 
of work, something more even than a career suited to his 
tastes and pursued amid pleasant and stimulating associations 
and surroundings. While resisting stoutly all efforts on the 
part of either privileged groups or the general public to ex¬ 
ploit him, he should see teaching as an opportunity to achieve 
moral purpose in his own life, to participate effectively in a 
vital social undertaking, to labor and fight in the great tradi¬ 
tion of human freedom, to serve his people creatively in one 
of the most critical and dynamic ages of history. The discharge 
of the duties associated with such a calling demands a level and 
quality of competence which no body of teachers anywhere 
in the world has ever fully achieved. But never before has 
any society faced squarely the problem of the education of 
free men. 

A third responsibility of the teacher is to participate actively 
in shaping educational policy and providing educational leader¬ 
ship for community, state, and nation. He should be ready at 
all times to devote time, energy, and thought to improving 
the program of the school and to working for the removal 
of inequalities in educational opportunity. In the struggle to 
abolish autocratic procedures in the conduct of education in¬ 
herited from the past, he should be prepared not only to enjoy 
the privileges of greater freedom but also to assume all neces¬ 
sary responsibilities, however arduous and disagreeable. Thus, 
if he works, as he should, for increased security for members 
of his calling, he should at the same time advocate, devise, and 
support measures necessary for the improvement or the re¬ 
moval from the schools of poor and incompetent workers. 
If the organized profession ever degenerates into a defender 
of its own vested interests, it will insure the bankruptcy of 


[ 151 1 



democratic education. Participation in the shaping of educa¬ 
tional policy, moreover, should be regarded, not as a privilege 
to be enjoyed at the option of the teacher, but as an inescap¬ 
able obligation to discharge. The ultimate success of democratic 
education depends on the readiness and the competence of 
the ordinary teacher to recognize and discharge such obliga¬ 
tions. 

A final responsibility of the teacher is to establish a condition 
of mutual trust, understanding, and sympathy, not only -with 
community leaders and representatives, but with all the people. 
He should realize fully that here is the only trustworthy sup¬ 
port of the democratic faith, that, if by reason of ignorance 
or sloth the people fail, all hope for a society of free men must 
perish from the earth. As he should take advantage of every 
opportunity to establish close and friendly relations with par¬ 
ents and citizens, so he should resist every tendency to erect 
barriers between himself and the community. He should re¬ 
fuse to identify himself with any narrow group or class, to as¬ 
sume a position of social or intellectual superiority, to nourish 
the pretensions and the snobbishness which have sometimes 
characterized the "educated.” He should manifest that natural 
and unaffected spirit which is both aft^quisite of learning and 
a badge of the truly educated, as it is one of the first evidences 
of wisdom. Having established himself in the trust and confi¬ 
dence of the community, he will then be able to make of 
the school a vigorous and effective instrument of American 
democracy. 

Responsibilities and Obligations of the People 

The people—the public, the citizens, the parents—are not 
without heavy responsibilities and obligations in the establish¬ 
ment and maintenance of a program of democratic education. 
Quite apart from their relations to government they have 
duties to discharge. In a democracy public education, like 
politics, is bound by the cultural, civic, and moral abilities 
and qualities of the people. Indeed they constitute both the 

[ 152 ] 



basic source and the final judge of the program of the school. 
Although they may be misguided and perverse, there can be 
no appeal from their decisions. The major responsibilities of 
the people are threefold: 

First, to achieve a more adequate understanding of the nature 
of democratic education 

Second, to guard public education against attacks 

Third, to establish and maintain a condition of mutual trust, 
understanding, and sympathy with the teacher. 

The first responsibility of the people is to achieve a more 
adequate understanding of the nature of the problem of rear¬ 
ing a generation in the democratic faith. In spite of their long 
and deep devotion to the public school, they have never, as 
already indicated, seen this problem clearly and comprehen¬ 
sively. Molded by conceptions prevailing before the emergence 
of their own democracy, they have been content with practices 
and outlooks unsuited and even hostile to the education of free 
men. Today, after a full century of experience, their ideas about 
this crucial enterprise remain defective and inadequate. They 
do not yet see that democratic education possesses a peculiar 
quality which can be attained only under very special condi¬ 
tions. The establishment of such conditions—conditions which 
have been outlined in the foregoing pages—is an obligation 
which they cannot leave with safety to any organized minority 
or to the institutions of government. The entire argument of 
the present volume therefore is addressed quite as much to the 
American people as to the members of the teaching profession. 

The second responsibility of the people, having achieved the 
necessary understanding, is to guard public education against^ 
attacks from powerful and interested minorities. This 
they must take their civic obligations in relation to tl 
of the school far more seriously than they have bee 
do in the past. They must inform themselves on the 
endeavor to place on boards of education persons v 
stand the meaning of education for democracy and aj 


[ in ] 



to give that meaning substance. They must be alert to all efforts 
on the part of groups and organizations to pervert the process 
of tuition to their special purposes and be ready to support the 
constituted authorities in the discharge of their duties. This is 
difficult, but it is not enough. Something far more difficult is 
necessary. They must practice self-control. They themselves 
must refrain from ill-considered attempts to run the public 
school. 

The third responsibility of the people is to establish and main¬ 
tain a condition of mutual trusty understanding, and sympathy 
with the teacher. Their obligation here is no less than that of the 
profession. They should know that in the measure that this bond 
is broken, in the measure that the teacher is made to feel himself 
an alien in the community, the school cannot serve as an agency 
for the education of free men. They should see that personal 
integrity is an indispensable qualification for anyone who would 
serve as guide and counselor of the young in a democracy. Par¬ 
ticularly should they exercise caution and forbearance in be¬ 
lieving charges of disloyalty sometimes made by uninformed 
and malicious persons and groups against members of the pro¬ 
fession. Being drawn from practically all ranks of the popula¬ 
tion and having been reared under the influence of American 
life and institutions, teachers as a class are thoroughly repre¬ 
sentative of their people and deeply devoted to the ideals and 
interests of their country. Parents and citizens, therefore, if 
they believe in democratic education, should, be quick to give 
to the teacher the confidence essential to the encouragement 
of honest and thoughtful instruction. In the relations between 
school and community a spirit of tolerance and charity is re¬ 
quired from both sides. 


[1M] 







I. 


The Nature and Sources of Educational 
Objectives 1 

Educational Objectives Depend on 
a Scale of Values 

E very statement of educational purposes, including this one, 
depends upon the judgment of some person or group as to 
what is good and what is bad, what is true and what is false, 
what is ugly and what is beautiful, what is valuable and what is 
worthless, in the conduct of human affairs. Objectives are, es¬ 
sentially, a statement of preferences, choices, values. These 
preferences are exercised, these choices made, these values ar¬ 
ranged in a variety of ways. 

Educational Purposes Are Rooted 
in the Life of a People 

The purposes of schools and other social agencies are not 
"discovered” as a prospector strikes a gold-mine. They evolve; 
they reflect and interact with the purposes which permeate the 
life of the people. In each of the phases of individual and social 
living, there are elements which people commend, others which 
they condemn. Such judgments are based, in the last analysis, 
on moral standards or ideals. That which, out of their intelli¬ 
gence and experience, the people declare to be good, they will 
attempt to 'maintain and perpetuate for the benefit of their 
children and their children’s children. They strive through edu¬ 
cation to transmit what they think is good to ail the generations 
to come. 

1 The terms "aim,” "purpose,” and "objective” are used here inter¬ 
changeably. 


[ 1 * 7 ] 



The Objectives of Schools Are a 
Form of Social Policy 

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

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

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

This illustration suggests that many influences determine the 


[US] 



scale of values cherished by a people. The development and 
continuing revision of this scale, and the consequent state¬ 
ments and revisions of educational purposes, require attention 
to the conditions and trends of social and economic life, of 
practical efficiencies, and of ethical principles. 

The Conditions and Trends of Society 
Must Be Considered 

Educational objectives, if they are to be of significant prac¬ 
tical value, must not be established in defiance of known or 
ascertainable facts concerning the economic and social situa¬ 
tion as it is and as it may become. The values cherished by 
individuals and by social groups are the product of experience 
and may be changed by the same force which created them. 
In this realm every effort must be made to substitute tested 
truth for ignorance and hunches. Every major change in the 
structure of human society from tribal government to na¬ 
tionalism and from chattel slavery to capitalism has been ac¬ 
companied by profound changes in educational purposes. 
A clear and exact knowledge of the status and direction of any 
culture is indispensable to a statement concerning its educa¬ 
tional purposes. 

Social Values Vary in Application 

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

Thus, the simple distinctions between mine, thine, and 
ours which sufficed for the conduct of life in more primitive 
times, become immensely complicated in a society marked 





by entrepreneurial profits, holding companies, international 
fiftance, and corporate ownership. The desirability of making 
the distinctions persists; the practical difficulties in so doing 
are multiplied and perplexing. 

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

Scientific studies of the process of education itself affect 
the nature of educational objectives. Such 'studies may ascer¬ 
tain the degree to which given objectives are acceptable to 
the public, to the profession, or to any segment thereof. They 
may discover how universally or how perfectly the objectives 
are or have been attained by any person or group of persons. 
They may measure the positive or negative contributions made 
to the objectives by the schools or by other social agencies. 
They may compare and evaluate the relative efficiency of 
various educational agencies, methods, or materials in ap¬ 
proaching the objectives. They may throw light on the nature 
of man as learner and teacher and thus color the entire policy 
of education. 

Ethical Judgments Control the Application 
of Other Standards 

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

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


[ wo ] 



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

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

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

Quantitative and other scientific studies of current social 
problems and social trends, as well as of the nature of the 
learning process, are of great value in helping to direct social 
policies. Equally important in the selection of either social or 
educational policies is the way in which facts are related to 
issues and the interpretations placed upon the facts. Science 
can help us to determine what the facts are, but it has no 
answer to the question as to whether existing conditions ought 


[ 161 ] 



to be changed or perpetuated. Science, physical or social, de¬ 
clares, "These things are so.” Ethics alone lifts a finger to the 
things that ought to be. 


[ 162 ] 



n. 


The Democratic Processes 

The Social Policy of America is Democracy 

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

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

The General Welfare 

Democracy prizes a broad humanitarianism, an interest in 
the other fellow, a feeling of kinship to other people more or 
less fortunate than oneself. One who lives in accordance with 
democracy is interested not only in his own welfare but in 
the welfare of others—the general welfare. 

Civil Liberty 

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


[ 1*3 ] 



The Consent of the Governed 

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

The Appeal to Reason 

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

The Pursuit of Happiness 

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

We are to examine each of these five ideals of democratic 
conduct, seeking from them to derive a general understanding 
of the purposes of our schools. It is desirable to preface this 
examination by a brief sketch of some aspects of the develop¬ 
ment of democracy in this country and of its present status 
in the world. 

Democracy and Education Have Developed Together 

The natural environment of America has been unusually con¬ 
genial to liberty, yet we have never been entirely free from 
arrogance, intolerance, and despotism. Long before 1776 battles 
for democracy were fought. Traditions of distinction as be¬ 
tween the rich and the poor, the educated and the ignorant, 
the governing and the governed, were imported by the early 
settlers along with their household goods. More than one group, 
learning nothing of sympathy through its own persecution, 


[1«4] 



sought America’s shores, in the words of the earnest young 
clergyman, “in order to worship God in our own way and 
compel all others to do the same.” Many a European “gentle¬ 
man” crossed the Atlantic with full intent to make himself a 
landlord over wide domains and to enrich himself at the 
expense of other immigrants whose passage he paid. The crafts¬ 
man came, with what amounted to a monopoly on his partic¬ 
ular kind of training in a country where craftsmen were 
scarce, with the clear determination to bring himself to power 
and riches through the work of his apprentices. 

Education in the Colonies, reflecting these influences, was 
primarily the support of various authoritarian groups. In New 
England, where public education began, it was the bulwark of 
a Protestantism which dictated its content, methods, and gen¬ 
eral administration. Other religions, too, founded their own 
schools. The wealthy landlord hired private teachers to instruct 
his own children and grudgingly established inferior charity 
schools for the poor. In the towns and small farms along the 
Eastern Seaboard the “bound boy” fared a little better. The 
apprenticeship system, however, was the nearest approach to 
universal education which America could claim for nearly two 
centuries. 

Such educational arrangements were a far cry from the 
schools of today. There has been a ceaseless struggle for the 
extension of education to all. The wresting of educational 
opportunity from those who found it a convenient means 
of perpetuating a religious belief, and from others, more 
worldly-minded, who gained monetary advantage from the 
limitation and restriction of educational opportunity, Alls 
many stirring pages of history. 

Democratic Schools Arose from 
American Conditions 

Changes in the objectives of education which our forefathers 
imported from Europe were inevitable. The influence of 


t 16? ] 



frontier and wilderness, the substantial economic and social 
equality of the people began to break down Old World class 
barriers. Colonists of the second generation began to demand 
genuinely American schools—schools which would educate 
their children for their day and location. The inadequacy of 
the traditional schools was slowly undermining them. Many a 
growing boy—girls were then little considered—found no 
school equipped to teach him what he most needed and hence 
was obliged to study outside any school. Many another was 
financially unable to pay for the education provided. The ideas 
gained by these young people naturally reflected the influences 
of life as it was lived in America rather than life in the atmos¬ 
phere of the classical schoolroom. Finally, the isolated schools 
of each state were welded into systems of public education— 
free, tax-supported and open to all, of whatever creed or 
condition. At last a universal education, deemed suitable and 
necessary for the citizens of a democracy, was envisioned. But 
the battle to keep free schools politically, economically, and in¬ 
tellectually free goes on. 

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

Science and Invention Have Created 
Social Tensions 

But today a new social force of incalculable strength has 
disrupted the rural civilization that founded.our democracy. 

[ l««] 



The independent, self-sufficient farmer has been succeeded in 
many cases by an industrial employee, dependent for liveli¬ 
hood on persons who may have no direct interest in him as a 
human being and who may recognize no responsibility for his 
welfare. A new industrial society is here. New means are found 
for developing and using the resources of nature. Machinery of 
every sort multiplies the strength of man a thousandfold, sees 
and hears more keenly than any human senses, and surrounds 
us by a material and social environment unlike anything known 
by any people of the past. It is clear that if democracy is to 
function effectively under these new conditions, new require¬ 
ments must be met. Just as religious domination over the pur¬ 
poses of public education once made room for considerations 
of personal economic gain and political efficiencies, so now social 
adjustments arising from the developing technology urgently 
demand attention. 

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


[ 167 ] 



Science and Invention Must Serve Humanity 

The gap between traditional social processes and the material 
phases of life widens daily. Many social institutions of today are 
poorly prepared to meet the demands and make the adjust¬ 
ments required. Inventions designed to save time, energy, and 
health and to increase productivity are somehow followed by 
unemployment, occupational diseases, and scarcity of the ne¬ 
cessities of life. These are the manifestations of a culture in 
which material progress has outpaced social control and indi¬ 
vidual character. At the present time, humanity, not the 
machine, is having to make the required adjustments. New wine 
ferments menacingly in old bottles. These tensions can be 
resolved only through the application of intelligence and good¬ 
will. A new birth of freedom—freedom which is effective in 
an industrial culture—is required. Technology places in our 
hands the means of freeing ourselves from scarcity. This great 
and novel efficiency must be made to serve the ideals and pur¬ 
poses of democracy. 

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

1 Conklin, Edwin G. "Science and Ethics." Science 86: 39J-603; De¬ 
cember 31, 1937. 


[ 168 ] 



“The General Welfare" 

The General Welfare Is Promoted 
by Human Sympathies 

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

The conduct of those who live in the democratic spirit is 
guided by a broad and expanding humanitarianism. Distress, 
frustration, unhappiness are of concern to persons other than 
the sufferer. The members of a democracy share its responsi¬ 
bilities no less than its advantages. Callous indifference to the 
desires and needs of others and short-sighted concentration on 
personal welfare are discouraged. Each individual, working 
alone or cooperatively in private or public efforts, seeks to 
prevent, cure, or ameliorate the sufferings of others, and thus 
to advance the general welfare. More than that, the democratic- 
way of life seeks not merely freedom from suffering but also 
a positively wholesome, constructive, and abundant life for all. 

The General Welfare Places Individuals 
above Institutions 

Social institutions are convenient systems of relationships 
among individuals, the lengthened shadows of groups of indi¬ 
vidual men and women. The state, for example, consists of 
its members. Destroy all the members and the state is gone; 
but destroy the state and the members remain. Apart' from 
these individuals the social organization has a merely fictional 
existence. There can be no such thing as the welfare of “the 
state” at the expense of, or in contrast with, the general wel- 


[ 



fare of the individuals who compose it. Man is not made for 
institutions. Institutions are made by and for mankind. 

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

The General Welfare is Decreased by the Lag 
of Social Institutions 

A savage tribe may exorcise a plague by sacrifices, dances, 
incantations. By some coincidence the epidemic abates. The 
ceremonies which were observed immediately acquire a special 
sanctity. Their value may be entirely fictitious; better measures 
may be ready at hand. Yet the mighty medicine becomes firmly 
established among the tribal customs. The ceremonies are re¬ 
peated on the same date every year. Those who question the 
necessity or value of the ceremony are regarded with sus¬ 
picion or hatred. If the skeptic is a member of the tribe he is 
condemned for flouting the exemplary traditions of his fore¬ 
fathers. If an outsider, he is suspected of spreading "subversive” 
doctrine or of being the secret tool of an alien tribe. 

This resistance which social institutions offer to change is 
well known. Man in setting up his social organizations runs 
the constant danger of creating, like Frankenstein, a monster 
which threatens his own welfare and happiness. There are 
several reasons why the momentum of social institutions is 
so difficult to check or turn from its well-worn course. Change 
brings a perplexing and uncomfortable rearrangement of the 
mental furniture, a painful adjustment of established habits of 


r 170] 



acting and thinking. And then, change is always uncertain. 
One can never be absolutely sure how a social institution will 
work under a new set of conditions. The proverb about the 
fire and the frying pan distills the experience of the race 
in this dilemma. 

Moreover, success in solving grave social problems is gained 
with difficulty and people are reluctant to surrender ways 
whose effectiveness has been demonstrated, to their satisfaction 
at least, in favor of other ways which, though defensible by 
every evidence of science and every principle of logic, are new 
and untried. The willingness of people to suffer accustomed 
evils rather than risk untried remedies was remarked by the 
authors of the Declaration of Independence: "Mankind,” said 
they, "are more disposed to suffer while evils are sufferable 
than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they 
are accustomed.” 

A further difficulty in modifying social institutions arises 
from the attitude of the persons in control. Minorities who 
depend for livelihood or prestige upon keeping an institution 
unchanged, and those who derive indirect benefits from con¬ 
trolling it, often prevent fundamental changes in the insti¬ 
tution itself. Occasionally such vested interest leads to deliberate 
untruthfulness and other forms of dishonesty in efforts to 
maintain the institution unchanged, regardless of the general 
welfare. But this selfish minority interest is seldom recognized 
as such by the general public or even by the group which 
exercises it. More often the minority in control, by wishful 
thinking, convinces itself as well as others of the "great social 
necessity” of some archaic social institution or agency. An 
important function of education, as an agent of the general 
welfare, is to encourage a continuing and critical appraisal 
of the suitability of all existing social institutions to the needs of 
people in the current social scene. The schools neglect a proper 
duty if they fail to promote the general welfare by reducing 
the lag between social institutions and human needs. 


[ 171 ] 



Social Customs Arc Conservative Elements 

It is no doubt futile to hope for instantaneous adjustment of 
social institutions to every transient desire of restless humanity. 
Even if it were possible to make such adaptations, it would be 
unnecessary and harmful in many cases. There is virtue in a 
certain degree of stability. Social institutions cannot be built 
for the moment, like a child’s pile of blocks, without plan and 
without mortar. Public convenience and necessity require 
institutions which can be depended upon in an emergency. 
But the strongest building "gives” a little in an earthquake or 
tornado, while, the building which is completely rigid is easily 
toppled in ruins. Social institutions minister to general welfare 
most fully when they have an appropriate degree of stability be¬ 
cause of the very fact that they are built to provide a little 
flexibility in periods of stress and strain. 

"Civil Liberty” 

Democracy Endows the Individual 
with Important Rights and Duties 

The "essential, necessary, and inalienable rights” of mankind 
include free speech, unhampered access to the facts on im¬ 
portant questions, the voting franchise, religious liberty, im¬ 
partial justice, the equal protection of the laws, and the great 
triad named in the Declaration of Independence—life, liberty, 
and the pursuit of happiness. 

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

Not only should each of us in a democracy have these rights, 
but each of us must be willing to accord them to all the rest, 


[ 172 ] 



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

These Rights Presuppose a High 
Regard for Humanity 

The basis of all human rights appears to be a respect for 
personality, a belief in the worth, a reverence for the essential 
sanctity, of all that is human. The members of a successful de¬ 
mocracy are, therefore, eager to recognize, develop, and protect 
the unique and valuable traits of each individual child and 
adult. They believe that every individual, if given the chance, 
can make at least some contribution to the common welfare 
and to his own happiness. They approve Horace Mann’s thesis 
concerning "the accelerating improvability of the human race” 
and applaud Emerson’s dictum that “all men are capable of 
living by reason.” 

This doctrine of the worth and dignity of every man received 
a perennially challenging expression in the ethics of the founder 
of Christianity. In economic terms it has been described 
as the supremacy of human rights over property rights. In 
American literature the dignity and the unique value of each 
personality have been celebrated by the poetry of Whitman and 
the prose of Thoreau. The doctrine is revealed as a moving force 
in American life through many social trends, perhaps by none 
more clearly than by the gradual extension of the voting fran¬ 
chise. 

Thus, the democratic ideal sharply differs from any and all 
theories which regard the individual as a mere instrument for 
serving the state, the church, the school, or any other social 


C 173 1 



institution and organization. The individual must occupy a 
place of primacy, superior to every institution he himself has 
ever devised, the point of reference from which values are taken, 
the final criterion of worth. Democracy and education alike 
find their warrant in respect for the individual. Democracy 
strengthens the individual by requiring much of him. “Even 
the least of these” is given every chance to realize his own in¬ 
herent capacities; democratic institutions derive their just 
powers through service to the individual. Through the achieve¬ 
ments of individuals the democratic process maintains the 
solidarity of the group and lifts it to higher planes of civiliza¬ 
tion. 

Social Objectives Are Not Neglected 

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

Yet throughout almost the whole course of history there have 
been those who, to further their own ambitions, would set in¬ 
stitutions over man, their creator, reducing him to a mere social 
atom, meaningless outside of some institutional frame of refer¬ 
ence. History conspires with ambition to obscure the worth 
of the individual. Myriads of people have labored to create vast 
empires, to conquer continents, to raise skyscrapers and pyra¬ 
mids, to establish well-defined social and legal codes. Man’s 
works overshadow himself, and the individual contribution to 
those stupendous achievements seems of little worth. It is dif¬ 
ficult but necessary to realize that for him alone those majestic 
works in the physical realm were raised; for him alone, those 

[ 174 ] 



greater cathedrals of the mental world, systems of government, 
economics, education, religion, and family life were lifted. 

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

Men Are Also Endowed with Important Differences 

Modern investigations concerning the nature and extent of 
individual differences in intelligence, artistic ability, dexterity, 
strength, vital capacity, and scores of other traits indicate how 
wide is the range of human abilities and how complex is the 
pattern of each human personality. These studies suggest the 
way in which the democratic doctrine of human values is to 
be put into effect. 

When Thomas Jefferson included among the “self-evident’' 
truths listed in the Declaration of Independence that “all men 
are created equal” he meant to imply that they are equal in 
the ethical and legal sense. He certainly knew that all men are 
not equally tall or equally intelligent. The American people 
have rightly turned to their public-school system as one of the 
great agencies for bringing about the ideals set forth in the 
Declaration of Independence. Today there runs, through the 
procedures of the classroom,, through the arrangements for 
educational guidance, through textbooks and courses of study, 
through the theory of school administration, and even through 
the formulae of school finance, the objective of an evermore 


[17J] 



equitable distribution of educational opportunity, an increas¬ 
ingly emphatic denial of multiple-track educational systems 
based on economic and social distinctions. 

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

"The Consent of the Governed” 

Popular Government Is a Long-Sought Ideal 

We have been saying, in effect, that democracy is not merely 
a form of political structure; it is a method of living. But gov¬ 
ernment does play an important part in encouraging and ex¬ 
emplifying democratic processes. Democratic .government, as 
such, was dimly but hopefully foreshadowed on this continent 
in the Mayflower Compact and announced in its most inspiring 
form by the Declaration of Independence, especially in that 
reference to the right of the people to change their govern¬ 
ment so, as to make it "most likely to effect their Safety and 
Happiness.” The practical operation of this policy was greatly 
facilitated by the writers of the United States Constitution 
when they devised many skillful governmental techniques, in¬ 
cluding especially the plan of combining federal powers with 
substantial amounts of state and local self-government. Still 
more recent developments include the steady extension of the 


1176 ) 



voting franchise and the establishment of universal education 
to make that franchise both intelligent and wholesome. 

The separation of the state from all authoritarian controls 
other than the popular will has been achieved in theory. What¬ 
ever may be the shortcomings in practice, our theory recog¬ 
nizes no arbitrary controls over government, no vested eco¬ 
nomic, ecclesiastic, or other interest authorized to over-reach 
the popular will. From the ultimate popular verdict there is 
no mundane appeal. 

Popular Government without Universal Education 
Is a Prologue to Tragedy 

It is easy to see the direct educational implications of rep¬ 
resentative and democratic forms of government. We need not 
go very far back in history to find examples of the fact that 
mere plebiscite is not necessarily the hall-mark of democracy. 
The ballot is a travesty unless it is cast by a citizen who is not 
only free to vote as he pleases but also informed and intelligent 
with respect to the issues involved. 

The men who created the framework of American statecraft 
were keenly aware of the vital relation of education to the new 
social order which they were forging in the fires of revolution 
and controversy. Having committed themselves to represen¬ 
tative government, to a government dedicated to definite social 
responsibilities, they turned to education as a guarantee that 
the nation so conceived and so dedicated might endure. They 
recognized, too, that mere political education was not enough. 
They sought the deepest and surest possible foundation in the 
arts, industries, institutions, and amenities of civilization itself, 
They recognized that good government and economic welfare 
alike rest upon widely shared ideals, wisdom, and knowledge. 

Knowledge Is Extended, Particularized, and Diffused 

The serious difficulties confronting democratic ways of living 
are frequently cited. The full audit, however, must not fail to 
note the assets. Modern democracies have certain advantages 


t 177] 



over those of the past and those advantages happily provide 
the particular kind of strengthening which democracy requires. 

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

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

A third advantage is the universality of knowledge. Through 
universal education the people receive the greatest of all bene¬ 
fits from a powerful institution without in return being forced 
to pay with their freedom. Knowledge multiplies manyfold 
the chief defense of democracy. 

"The Appeal to Reason” 

Democracy Repudiates Violence 

We try to settle our differences by counting noses rather 
than by cracking crowns. We try to resolve conflicts by the 
process of compromise, conference, debate, search for pertinent 
facts, plebiscite, and cooperation, as contrasted with the use 
of force. When controversies come, as come they must, we 
provide for balloting to ascertain majority views, accepting 
the decision with the door always open for appraisal and re¬ 
view. The entire process is carried on under the refereeship of 
even-handed justice and with due regard to minority rights. The 
innumerable associations, conferences, and committees which 

[ 178 ] 



mark tlie transactions of American life are another evidence 
of our reliance upon peaceful and rational methods. 

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

It is clearly a function of education to encourage the use of 
democratic processes as substitutes for coercion. The possible 
contribution of education to the development of tolerance, 
reason, and fair play has been clearly demonstrated. That the 
ordinary school does too little in developing these attitudes 
may be admitted. The omission represents one of the great 
areas in which the objectives of education need to be reformu¬ 
lated and reemphasized. 

The Spirit of Education Outweighs 
the Forms of Schooling 

The spirit and organization of the school are prepotent. 
There can be no lasting contribution to peace, reason, and 
order from a school in which the discipline is based on autoc¬ 
racy; from a school in which the mainspring of effort is 
rivalry; from a school in which the chief purpose is personal ad¬ 
vancement; from a school where the very atmosphere is heavy 
with intolerance, fear, and suspicion; from a school that ig¬ 
nores and overwhelms the living individual personality of each 
child. 

Only from a school which is served by a socially informed 
and socially effective teaching personnel; from a school with 
a broad, humane, and flexible curriculum; from a school sat¬ 
urated with the educational philosophy which commands re¬ 
spect for the personality of each child that it touches; only 
from methods of instruction which not only teach but which 
actually are democracy and cooperation, will the appeal to 
reason be heard and heeded. 


[ 17 ?] 



“The Pursuit of Happiness” 

Opportunity To Secure Happiness 
Is a Democratic Ideal 

The purposes that impelled the establishment of this democ¬ 
racy were different from those that had dominated other gov¬ 
ernments. This new nation, established in the wilderness, was 
a cooperative endeavor to secure an unfettered opportunity 
for the pursuit of happiness. Other rights, such as life and 
liberty, were included but, significantly enough, the series cul¬ 
minated in the right to pursue happiness. The term "happiness” 
as used here, and undoubtedly as conceived by the authors of 
the Declaration of Independence, does not refer merely, or 
even primarily, to that effervescent and transitory joy that 
comes from the exuberance of living, or to the careless excite¬ 
ment frequently generated by the artificialities of life. Happi¬ 
ness is that abiding contentment that comes from a complete 
and abundant life, even though such a life includes, as all lives 
must, both success and failure, prosperity and adversity, sun¬ 
shine and shadow, cradle songs and funeral hymns. To be 
happy, we must know the realities of life, whatever they may 
be. We must be able to understand relative values in the midst 
of confusion, to seek the deeper meanings beyond the shallow, 
to desire worthwhile achievement in the midst of much that 
is trivial. 

Initiative Is Necessary in the 
Pursuit of Happiness 

The mere guarantee of the right to pursue happiness would 
be but an crftpty gesture unless some means were provided to 
give effect to this promise. The establishment of schools did 
not settle the problem. First occurred the struggle to make 
them free. Then came the battle, which has pot been fully won 
to this day, to make the schools minister effectively to the vary¬ 
ing needs of all the people. From the beginning the greatest 
challenge has been to select and make effective those methods 


[ 180 ] 



and procedures best adapted to make real for each individual 
his right to pursue happiness. Several aspects of this problem 
require further analysis. 

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

Initiative can be developed in the same way in which other 
learning takes place; that is, by confronting the learner with 
as many kinds of situations as possible that call for the exer¬ 
cise of initiative under the guidance of an expert teacher. It 
is the same pattern that is followed in teaching a person to read 
a foreign language, or to walk, or to swim, or to do problems 
in mathematics. Day in and day out, year in and year out, 
the growing child is surrounded by an environment that pre¬ 
sents real problems for solution. The problems raised by that 
part of the environment which comprises the school should be 
closely related to life as it is lived at each age-level and as it 
will be lived in the future. The learner is asked to help select 
the objectives of his study in order that the learning may mean 
more to him and be more directly related to his interests. Those 
problems are so chosen that he will want to solve them, will 
be challenged to put forth his best effort to do so, and will un¬ 
derstand the practical implications of the solutions when found. 
Of course, the problems are simple and concrete in the early 
years of life and expand in complexity as the activities of the 
learner become more complicated and abstract. 

The educational method of the past was expressed largely in 
sentences of the declarative and imperative type. We told and 
we commanded. Today, the interrogative and exclamatory 
sentences have been added to the process. We question and we 


[ 1 * 1 ] 



stimulate. The learner is confronted by a situation that requires 
a solution; under some circumstances he may be told the an¬ 
swer, but usually he is required to find it for himself. He is 
asked questions such as: “What do you suggest?” “What will 
you do about it?” “What do you think is the way out?” “Where 
and how do you think the problem should be attacked?” He 
begins to think, to act, to study, or, in other words, to use his 
initiative to start out on his search for happiness. 

Happiness Involves Wisdom in 
Making Judgments 

A second question confronts the schools in this process of 
educating the individual to attain success in his pursuit of hap¬ 
piness. What is to be gained by giving the right to pursue hap¬ 
piness, by developing the desire and the tendency to begin the 
search, if we fail so to educate the citizen that he can and will 
make the proper choices as, time and time again, he comes to an 
issue? As he grows older he discovers that life becomes more and 
more complex. He finds his way through the maze only by 
choosing as carefully as he can between an endless variety and 
succession of alternatives. 

Can critical judgment be developed through the process of 
education, and, if so, how is it done in the schools? We are 
dealing again with an acquired ability which comes as the re¬ 
sult of innumerable opportunities to make choices and to arrive 
at conclusions, under the guidance of an expert teacher. In 
other words, critical judgment is developed just as is the ability 
to play chess, or to read a book, or to solve problems in geom¬ 
etry; that is, by long and continuous practice under the criti¬ 
cism of someone qualified to evaluate the decisions. The child 
must learn the value of evidence. He must acquire a reverence 
for facts, must desire to find them, and must learn where they 
can most likely be secured. There are certain sources of facts, 
certain repositories of knowledge, that have been authenticated 
through the years. The student must learn what they are and 


[ 182 ] 



acquire the technique of using them, and develop the habit 
of turning to them when called upon to solve problems. He 
must learn to defer judgment, to consider motives, to appraise 
evidence, to classify it, to array it on one side or the other of his 
question, and to use it in drawing conclusions. This is not the 
result of a special course of study or of a particular part of the 
educative procedure; it results from every phase of learning 
and characterizes every step of thinking. 

Education Is the Key to an Abundant Life 

Finally, the schools must, in the preparation of the individ¬ 
ual, search for the types of experiences that will make prob¬ 
able the realization of happiness. Somehow, the learner must 
come to know what constitutes real happiness, must learn where 
it is most likely to be found, must desire to acquire it for him¬ 
self and others, and must master the way of claiming it. For 
what is the use of establishing a democracy guaranteeing the 
right to pursue happiness, and of developing through processes 
of education the initiative to search for it and the ability to 
choose the right path, if we leave the person unable to recog¬ 
nize happiness when he finds it, or to interpret its deeper mean¬ 
ings if he recognizes it? 

The ability to claim and live the abundant life is not innate. 
It is acquired through long and patient study. Therefore, the 
modern school gives a large place to those subjects and those 
types of experiences that mankind has found to satisfy the 
deeper longings of the soul, and to inspire the noblest achieve¬ 
ment. Many phases of the curriculum help the individual to 
supply his needs in relation to his physical existence; other 
phases include the skill subjects which enable one to use his 
environment and deal with his fellow-beings; stilly another 
phase has to do with the various forms of expression of human 
thought and feeling that constitute the culture of mankind. 
This last includes our religion, art, literature, architecture, 
music, poetry, drama, and all other forms through which noble 

[183] 



thoughts and feelings have been added to the social inheritance 
and handed down through the centuries as man’s tribute to his 
Creator and his gift to posterity. 

It is the function of the schools to help every person to find 
and use the key that will unlock the riches that are the com¬ 
mon possession of all. Unlike some other inheritances this one 
can be claimed only by those who will prepare themselves to 
be worthy of it. Merely dotting our land with buildings that 
point their spires heavenward, of hanging the masterpieces of 
our art on our walls, or making countless books available 
through a thousand libraries, or bringing the drama of the 
ages into every city, village, and hamlet, or making great music 
available to everyone, does not mean that all will be able to 
claim the heritage that these and a myriad other sources of 
happiness provide. Only those who have acquired the methods 
of interpreting, who have learned the meanings of the various 
languages through which the heritage is transmitted, who 
have attuned their eyes and ears, their thoughts and emo¬ 
tions, to catch the messages that are all about us like the 
unsensed and uncaught radio waves which, in the dead of 
night, flood the world—only those are educated to succeed in 
the great task of happiness. 


[ 184 ] 



m. 


The Objectives of Education: 

A General Review 

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

W hat is education to accomplish? What changes in hu¬ 
man conduct should the schools seek to bring to pass? 
Is growth or achievement the fundamental aim of education? 
Should the schools render first loyalty to the promotion of in¬ 
dividual welfare or to the general social improvement? Should 
schools seek primarily to adjust students to the conditions of 
life as it is or to impel them to improve these conditions? Should 
organized education emphasize ideals and attitudes or facts 
and skills? Should the public schools' try to prepare young 
people for specific jobs? What knowledge is of the most worth? 

These questions have been found worthy of sustained and 
devoted attention by such great philosophers as Plato and Spen¬ 
cer, such religious leaders as Luther and Loyola, such men of 
letters as Milton and Montaigne, such statesmen as Marcus 
Aurelius and Thomas Jefferson, such scientists as Agassiz and 
Huxley, and such educators as Comenius, Pestalozzi, and Park¬ 
er. These great thinkers, and many more besides, have left us 
a store of trenchant wisdom and inspiration regarding the pur¬ 
poses which education and the schools should promote. 

Popular Opinions on the Purposes of 
the Schools Are Held 

Interest in the objectives of educational institutions has not 
been confined to a few exceptional leaders. Plain citizens, par¬ 
ents, taxpayers, and even the young learners themselves have 
in mind, although more or less confused and dimly perceived, 
some notion as to the reasons why they support and participate 
in the means of education. 


[1SJ] 



An examination of these popular concepts o£ educational 
purposes would reveal much that is trivial, much that is in¬ 
spiring. We ask a child, “Why do you go to school?” He replies 
without hesitation, “To get a good report card.” What answer 
could be more conclusive—or more profoundly disturbing? 

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

Many parents, especially those whose own schooling is lim¬ 
ited, have a touching faith that the possession of knowledge 
(particularly the knowledge recorded in books) will somehow 
make their children happier, better, more successful. What 
parent does not share with Enoch Arden 

. . . the noble wish 
To save all earnings to the uttermost 
And give his child a better bringing-up 
Than his had been. 

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

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

The general end of education in America at the present time 
is the fullest possible development of the individual within the 
framework of our present industrialized democratic society. 
The attainment of this end is to be observed in individual be¬ 
havior or conduct. The term "education” implies the existence 
of some person other than the learner, a person moreover who 


[18S] 



is interested in the outcome and who desires to encourage one 
type of conduct rather than another. 

Ideals and values derive their entire practical importance 
from the behavior which results from them. The expression of 
high ideals accompanied by the doing of wrong is thoroughly vi¬ 
cious. Education, therefore, seeks to encourage the mastery of 
such knowledge, the acquisition of such attitudes, and the de¬ 
velopment of such habits as make a socially desirable way of 
living likely to be followed by the learner. 

The choice of this way of living, as we have already seen, is 
primarily determined by the prevailing scale of social and per¬ 
sonal values; that is, by ethical standards in the broad. The 
definition of this scale of values is a continuing and crucial 
problem of both social and educational policy. 

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

The Aspects of Democratic Living May 
Be Classified in Diverse Ways 

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

This is a large order which can be carried conveniently only 
if it is wrapped up in several smaller packages. There is a real 
difficulty at this point. All behavior is interrelated. Even the 
facile distinction between the conduct which concerns an indi¬ 
vidual alone and the gregarious conduct which the individual 
shows in his relation With others, eventually breaks down. 
What a man does about his own health, for instance, may be 
a matter of concern to his family, to his business associates, to 


[ 187 ] 



the entire community in which he lives, perhaps even to the 
people of 'the entire world. 

It is necessary, nevertheless, for convenience and clarity in 
writing .and thinking about the purposes of education to con¬ 
sider separately the various dimensions of total behavior. One 
can identify and name various mountain peaks even though 
all of them are part of one unbroken mountain range and even 
though the exact spot where one mountain ends and another 
begins may not be located. 

There is no ultimate virtue in any single classification of ob¬ 
jectives. The particular analysis followed in this volume lends 
itself well to the type of discussion desired. It permits a reason¬ 
able degree of specificity in pronouncement while avoiding 
the enmeshment of detail. 

Education Is Concerned with the 
Development of the Learner 

The first role, or phase of total behavior, is that of the edu¬ 
cated person. Conduct in this field is centered on the personal 
development, growth, and learning of the individual. It in¬ 
cludes his use of the fundamental tools of learning, his health, 
his recreation, his personal philosophy. The placing of these ob¬ 
jectives first in the list is not accidental.'They deal with the 
development of the individual himself. In a democracy this 
field is of supreme importance. Success in this role conditions 
one’s success in every other phase of life’s activities. The pur¬ 
poses of education which fall under this section of total be¬ 
havior will be referred to as the objectives of self-realization. 

Education Is Concerned with Home, Family, 
and Community Life 

A second area is that of home and family relationships with 
their immediate and natural extensions to neighbors and com¬ 
munity. Educationally the home is the most powerful, as it is 
perhaps the oldest, of all social institutions. Good homes and 
good communities are the basic units of democracy. The activ- 

f 188 ] 



ities of the educated individual which relate to these immediate, 
person-to-person contacts are, therefore, grouped together in 
a section on the objectives of human relationship. 

Education Is Concerned with Economic Demands 

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

Education Is Concerned with Civic and Social Duties 

Finally, there are the activities of the educated citizen. They 
involve his dealings with his government—local, state, and 
national—his relationships with the peoples of other nations, 
and his other “long-distance” contacts in large-scale collective 
enterprises. This field of activity is served by education through 
the objectives of civic responsibility. 

Four Groups of Objectives Are Identified 

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

1. The Objectives of Self-Realization 

2. Tbe Objectives of Human Relationship 

3. The Objectives of Economic Efficiency 

4. The Objectives of Civic Responsibility. 


[ 189 ] 



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

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

Furthermore, the school is only one of the many educational 
influences in these various fields of human life. Its responsibility 
extends to all of these areas, but in some areas the weight of edu¬ 
cation rests on the schools more exclusively than in others. 
The role of the school is especially definite in preparing for 
civic responsibility. The school, therefore, must condition, and 
concern itself with, every phase of civic education. It must 
concern itself with loyalty to society as a whole rather than 
to the political manifestations of society as revealed in any 
single institution. Vested control of this function by the politi¬ 
cal state leads to dictatorship. The field of human relationship 
is shared by the school, the home, and the rest of the environ¬ 
ment. Education in the field of self-realization or personal 
development is coming to be more and more a duty of the 
schools although much of this responsibility necessarily inheres 
in the home and the church. Under modern economic and 
industrial conditions preparation for economic efficiency is 
largely a function of the school. 

Finally, it shoqld be clear that the following four chapters 
are not in any sense to be regarded as a pattern of instruction 
at any particular educational level. There will necessarily be 
variation in the application of the objectives to instructional 

[190] 



need within particular schools, communities, states, and re¬ 
gions. These are the objectives of education—qualities and con¬ 
duct to be encouraged by all educational agencies for all 
American citizens. 


[i»l] 



THE OBJECTIVES OF SELF-REALIZATION 

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

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

Reading, The educated person reads the mother tongue 
efficiently. 

Writing. The educated person writes the mother tongue 
effectively. 

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

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

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

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

Public Health. The educated person works to improve 
the health of the community. 

Recreation. The educated person is participant and spec¬ 
tator in many sports and other pastimes. 

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

Esthetic Interests. The educated person appreciates 
beauty. 

Character. The educated person gives responsible direc¬ 
tion to his own life. 


11 »] 



IV. 


The Objectives of Self-Realization 

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

Here is no unsocial motive, for after all, as we have already 
seen, it is only through individual growth that social progress 
can come. The ancient and artificial antithesis between the 
individual and society and the concept of a perpetual struggle 
between the two is not supported by this analysis. The realiza¬ 
tion of "self,” as considered here, occurs through interaction 
between that "self” and society. It cannot occur unless the in¬ 
dividual effects a satisfactory relationship to the society in 
which he moves. If an individual is to become his own best self, 
he must constantly be in contact with the best that is in 
humanity. Thence, he will draw his highest aspirations, thence 
his greatest achievements. 

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


[19J] 



The Educated Person Has an Appetite for Learning 

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

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

The educated person finds a sense of intellectual adventure 
in learning all he can about the world in which he lives and 
about the people, the animals, and the plants which share his 
existence on this planet. In addition to this general learning 
the educated person, through continuing study, experience, ex¬ 
periment, and reflection, has made some corner, however small 
in the vast field of knowledge securely his own by right of 
personal conquest. Let it be noted in passing that this learning 
does not by any means depend solely upon books. Its sources are 
as varied as the life of man. Such an education is not gained in a 
few years in school; it is a lifetime enterprise for which formal 
schooling should supply a good running start. No great exag¬ 
geration is contained in the observation in the Education of 
Henry Adams —“They know enough who know how to learn.” 

The Educated Person Can Speak the Mother Tongue Clearly 

A mastery of the various arts of using one’s own language is 
the most universal of all educational objectives. It was a primary 
concern of the schools of ancient, as it is of those of modern, 
times. It is perhaps an open question which of the four language 
arts—speaking, listening, writing, and reading—is most im¬ 
portant. The ceaseless grind of the printing presses and the 
existence of basic literacy among almost all of the adult popu¬ 
lation combine to magnify the importance of the reading 

[1*4] 



aspects of language. Yet the spoken, word remains, for the great 
majority of American citizens, the principal channel of re¬ 
ceiving and giving information and of exchanging ideas and 
feelings. Modern inventions seem to be emphasizing listening 
and speaking activities at the expense of reading as a method 
of education. The telephone, spreading its network throughout 
the country, makes possible remote conversation for social as 
well as business transactions. The talking motion picture, 
watched by an average weekly audience of 115 million persons, 
is another invention which now emphasizes the spoken word. 
Fina y, there is that one-way conversation, the radio, which 
pours through 30 million loud-speakers enormous amounts of 
in ormation and propaganda, as well as material designed for 
amusement and recreation. In sum, it has been estimated that 
speech is the basis of 90 percent of all our communication, 
leaving only 10 percent for writing and reading. 

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


Observers familiar with social life in foreign countries often 
comment disparagingly on the aridity of American efforts at 
conversation. Even people who are otherwise well educated 
frequently lack the ability to converse coherently and interest¬ 
ingly about any topic, even (or perhaps especially) about the 
topic with which they are most fully acquainted. True, success¬ 
ful conversation is no simple art. "It is much more than a mat¬ 
ter of composing, more than mere communication of one’s 
ideas; it obviously includes choosing which ideas to communi¬ 
cate, and which, for the time at least, to suppress. It may in¬ 
volve finding a topic in which the vis-a-vis is interested. It 


[ 195 ] 



involves tone of language, tone of voice, manner, all suited to 
occasion and personalities. And in addition it involves the abil¬ 
ity to anticipate the effect produced.” 1 There seems to be no 
good reason why this ability, so useful for disseminating in¬ 
formation and increasing the value and satisfaction of social 
contacts, should not be more generally included as a definite 
aim of instruction in American schools. 

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

The Educated Person Reads the Mother Tongue Efficiently 

In addition to the eager search for knowledge which the edu¬ 
cated person always exhibits, he needs to have available every, 
possible means of satisfying his urge to know the truth. One of 
the important tools in this quest is an ability to read. When we 
teach this skill to a child, we hand him a passport to Cross 
boundaries of time and space, a letter .of introduction tb the 
great minds in all parts of the world and in all periods of time. 
To this ability should be added, wherever possible, the ability 
to read in other languages, although the availability of transla- 

1 Hatfield, Walter W., chairman, An Experience Curriculum in English. 
A Report of the Curriculum Commission of the National Council of 
Teachers of English. New York: D. Appleton-Century Co., 193 5. 323 p. 


[1W] 



tions of practically all important writings makes the possession 
of a second reading language a matter of less than primary 
importance and one which need be undertaken only by those 
students who have at their disposal a relatively long period of 
formal education. 

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

We must never be content, therefore, to declare our objec¬ 
tive gained when a child has first learned to stumble through 
words and sentences. Nine thousand different books are issued 
in the United States alone every year. This is at the rate of a 
new book every sixty minutes. Magazines, pamphlets, and 
newspapers represent an even greater mass production. The 
schools must, as part of the program in reading, show the 
child how to select his reading, to read some things carefully, 
to skim other books hastily, to reject still others entirely, to 
comprehend what he reads and to apply it in the solution of 
his problems, to use reading as a means of experience, and to 
enjoy to the fullest degree possible the rich domain of his herit¬ 
age of world literature. Nothing less than this is a justifiable 
goal in teaching reading. The amount, distribution, and quality 
of reading done by a population is likely to be an excellent 
index of cultural development and social competence. 

[ 197 ] 



The Educated Person "Writes the Mother Tongue Effectively 

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

In addition to the functional program in written English 
there should be provided opportunity for creative expression, 
the artistic translation of personal experience into words. This 
type of writing may develop the pupil’s capacity to value ex¬ 
perience for its own sake rather than for any utilitarian end, 
and increase his pleasure in the experience through the effort 
to translate it into words. The obligation of the writer to pre¬ 
sent his ideas legibly is universally recognized. For those stu¬ 
dents who are likely to spend time in formal education at the 
college level or elsewhere, the ability to write shorthand and 
to write on the typewriter is a desirable aid to further learning 
and, often, to finding a job. Writing as practiced by the news¬ 
paper reporter, the journalist, and the professional author is 
a vocational subject, the treatment of which belongs elsewhere, i 
For these persons, however, as well as for those whose writing 
will not be directly associated with earning a living, the char¬ 
acteristics of the writing desired consist especially of simplicity, 
clarity, honesty, legibility, and brevity. 

The Educated Person Solves His Problems 
of Counting and Calculating 

Some acquaintance with numbers and skill in the funda¬ 
mental operations of addition, subtraction, multiplication, and 
division is an educational objective to be taken for granted. 


[ 198 ] 



The skills to be taught in this field and the types of problems 
to which these skills are applied should be determined by 
the kinds of arithmetical calculations which the ordinary 
American citizen has occasion to make. Elaborate and helpful 
investigations have been made to bring these fundamental 
operations into a position of prominence, and recent revision 
of the curriculum in many school systems has resulted in great 
improvement in arithmetic instruction. In addition to skill in 
mathematics there needs to be developed an appreciation of 
the cultural value of mathematics, and of its usefulness as a 
mode of thinking and as a means of interpreting world affairs.* 

Closely associated with the fundamental arithmetical oper¬ 
ations are the elements of intuitional geometry and applied al¬ 
gebra. Intensive technical study of more advanced mathematics 
should be offered to those whose vocational outlook, future 
education, or other special interests will make it necessary or 
helpful for them to use such knowledge. 

New aspects of applied mathematics are constantly develop¬ 
ing and the educational experiences of children and adults need 
to be extended to include them. For example, the presentation 
of numbers in graphic and tabular form is becoming extremely 
common. Children should learn the rudiments of graphic pres¬ 
entation, particularly since this form of presenting data is at 
once so effective and so easy to misinterpret. The presentation 
of numerical data in graphic form is becoming a language with 
its own grammar and syntax. It is, however, a language which 
can ensnare and deceive the unwary. If children are to be taught 
that in the number 376, the 3 is in the hundred’s column, the 7 
in the ten’s, and the 6 in the unit’s, why should they not learn 
also the proper form for a chart and know that a chart which 
lacks certain features is potentially or actually dishonest and 
unreliable? 


*'Williams, K. P., chairman. The Place of Mathematics in Secondary Edu¬ 
cation. Preliminary Report of the Joint Commission of the Mathematical 
Association of America, Inc. and the National' Council of Teacher* of 
Mathematics. Ann Arbor, Mich.: Edwards Brothers, Inc., 1938. 70 p. 

[ 199 ] 



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

The Educated Person Is Skilled in Listening 
and Observing 

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

The traditional three R’s, it is true, require for their mastery, 
a certain intensive application which is probably unnecessary 
for the other cultural fundamentals. But this does not mean 
that some training in the other fundamentals is unnecessary. 
It requites less skill, ho doubt, to watch with some compre¬ 
hension a moving-picture version of Treasure Island than 
it does to read the book of the same title. Both may be whole¬ 
some activities for an educated person. If so, is it not a part of 
the fundamental cultural equipment to be able to extract from 
a play, a motion picture, a radio program, or even from the 
observed events of everyday life their utmost in the possibilities 
of life enrichment? There are, in short, more than three "tool 
subjects,” and schools should be concerned with securing the 
.greatest possible proficiency in the use of all of them. If the 
rudiments of some skills are acquired outside of the school, 


[ 200 ] 



die school’s task remains, nevertheless, that of perfecting the 
effective use of these more common tools and of promoting 
safeguards against their exploitation to the disadvantage of 
the individual. 

The Educated Person Understands the Basic Facts 
Concerning Health and Disease 

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

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

The Educated Person Protects His Ou>n Health 
and That of His Dependents 

Knowing what is necessary for maintaining health in body 
and mind, the educated person so conducts his life as to re- 

[ 201 ] 



spect these great rules of the game. For himself and his family 
he tries to secure competent medical advice and treatment 
with special attention to the early discovery and treatment 
of remedial defects and a systematic plan of health inventory 
and illness prevention. 

Knowledge of the structure of the human body is incom¬ 
plete and of little value without knowledge of how the various 
parts operate. The instructional emphasis here should be posi¬ 
tive, dealing with the healthful functioning of the human 
organism, rather than with the breakdown of this function 
in disease. The approach should be rational and scientific; should 
include all the basic biological functions, such as nutrition, 
respiration, and reproduction; should be adapted to the ma¬ 
turity and interests of the learner; and should eventuate in 
firmly established habits of healthful living. The scope of 
health education should clearly include the promotion of 
mental as well 'as of physical health. 

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

Safety from mental and physical disease suggests safety 
from accidents. A collision with a ten-ton truck may be as 
deadly as a collision with a streptococcus. The steadily de¬ 
clining accidental death rate among children is apparently 
attributable to safety instruction. These efforts should be 
continued and expanded, with particular emphasis on carry¬ 
ing over safety habits into adult life. 

The Educated Person Works To Improve the 
Health of the Community 

The interests of the educated person in the field of health 
are comprehensive. That which he desires for himself in this 
field, the educated person desires also for others, knowing 


[ 202 ] 



that health is one commodity which is increased in proportion 
as it is shared. Especially in a democracy, the educated person 
will cherish a sincere interest in maintaining the health stand¬ 
ards of the entire community. His humanitarian sympathies 
can here be strongly supported by self-interest since the trans¬ 
missible nature of many diseases assures security for the in¬ 
dividual only when the entire community is protected, and 
safety for the community only when the health of each indi¬ 
vidual is maintained. The educated person, therefore, insists 
on community, .state, and national health services which not 
only enforce sanitary ordinances and guard against the more 
obvious epidemic diseases, but which definitely promote the 
health of the entire population. He shows an active concern 
in all conditions which threaten the safety or injure the health 
of others, promotes the health work of schools and other 
social agencies, and encourages study and corrective action 
concerning the economic, physical, and social conditions which 
cause disease and imperil health of mind and body. 

The Educated Person Is Participant and Spectator 
in Many Sports and Other Pastime r 

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

The American people stand in urgent need of learning how 
to relax. Material success has too long been made our supreme 
objective in schools and elsewhere. Psychiatrists and other 
physicians are testifying to the mental and bodily damage 
caused by the ineptitude of the average American for the 
fine art of having a good time out of one s own resources. 
Many have attained success only to find they have lost happi¬ 
ness in the process. An extravagant worship of the unremit- 

[ 203 J 



ting drive of business activity prevails in many quarters. 
Even our everyday language betrays this confusion of values; 
we even speak of the '‘business” of living, whereas the principal 
and important part of living is an art and not a business. The 
precepts taught by the school in this field need to be supported 
in many cases by changes in what the schools are actually doing. 

Recreational skills may be divided into two general types: 
those which emphasize direct participation, and those which 
emphasize the role of the spectator. Both are important. 

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

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

The fact that recreative activity is as essential for adults as 
it is for children and youths, and the desirability of promoting 
common family interests, suggests the importance of giving 
training in sports and other activities which are suitable for 
both adults and youths. Games and creative activities which 


[ 204 ] 



children and youths enjoy and which also carry over into the 
interests of adults have a strong claim for attention. 

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

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


[ 20 $ ] 



The Educated Person Has Mental Resources 
for the Use of Leisure 

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

Reading, of course, is one of the major forms of recreation. 
Skill in the use of printed material for acquiring information 
has already been mentioned. Reading for fun likewise is no 
unworthy occupation, nor is it one that can be followed with¬ 
out some preliminary training. Children should come to know 
books as a means of acquaintanceship with other boys and 
girls, as a way of learning about animals and birds and plants 
and stones, of finding out how people live in the country 
and iii the city, and of enjoying fairy tales, nonsense rhymes, 
and stories of wonderland. From these beginnings emerge the 
continuing life interests in recreational reading pursued during 
adult life to escape temporarily from reality, to relive common 
everyday experiences, to satisfy curiosity about human nature 
and human motives, to enjoy pleasurable emotional experiences, 
to learn of immediate current happenings or of those far away 
from one’s own environment, and to pursue a hobby. 

Fiction, travel, biography, history, or even scientific and 
technical materials may serve these ends depending upon the 
interest and purpose of the reader. Even catalogues, shoppers’ 
leaflets, and railroad timetables may sometimes represent recrea¬ 
tional reading. 

For many persons the playing of musical instruments, alone 
or in orchestras, is a satisfying recreation. Almost everyone 
can sing and enjoys doing so; with some training for the singer, 
others may enjoy it too. The rudiments of the international 
language of music are for most people easier to acquire than 
the art of reading words. We are told that in Elizabethan 

[ 20 <] 



England, fdr example, every educated person had musical 
competence. Should any child today leave our schools who 
has not added to the art of reading words the simple and 
pleasure-giving art of reading music? 

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

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

The Educated Person Appreciates Beauty 

Beauty is one of the great desires of the human heart. Even 
very young children eagerly and unmistakably -respond to 
beauty in color, rhythm, harmony, and form. A bright toy 
is treasured above a dingy one. A cube, a ball, or a wheel seems 
to contain in its very contour elements of form which bring 
forth the approval and delight of children. It is one of the 
important functions of education to help the growing child 
to seek, to enjoy, and to treasure beauty throughout his entire 
life. The delicate colorings of fine paintings, the balanced 
masses of sculpture, the strength and lightness of noble archi¬ 
tecture, the rhythm, harmony, and melody of poetry and 
music—all these should surround the growing child. He should 
bear beautiful music and participate in making it. He should 


[ 207 ] 



make with his own hands the designs of representative art 
in order to increase his understanding and appreciation of the. 
artistic work of others. These are not easy things to teach and 
the first requirement for doing so is the teacher’s own under¬ 
standing and appreciation of the esthetic elements of life. It 
is more difficult and much more important to teach a child 
appreciation of the beauty of poetry than it is to require him 
to memorize a poem or to identify the grammatical elements 
which enter into its construction. It is easier to teach the 
rules which permit one to classify plants than it is to teach 
an appreciation of the color and form of flowers. 

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

The Educated Person Gives Responsible Direction 
to His Own Life 

Our democracy, with its necessary and wholesome sepa¬ 
ration of Church and State, gives to every man and woman 
complete freedom of religious belief and opinion. We all have 
a right, a constitutionally guaranteed right as well as a moral 
one, to choose that form of religious expression or outlook 
which we find most completely satisfying. The public schools 
are required, by law and by every element of their tradition, 
scrupulously to respect this American doctrine of religious 
liberty. The inculcation of any particular religious creed is 
therefore entirely foreign to the proper function of public 
education, although other educational agencies, particularly 


[ 208 ] 



the home and the church, may well he actively concerned with 
such tuition. Yet there remain the great problems of human 
destiny which will always perplex, inspire, and ennoble the 
human spirit—problems of the relation of man to that which 
is beyond man, of the plan, if plan there be, which directs or 
conditions human existence on this planet, of the meaning in 
human birth, life, aspiration, suffering, and death. That man 
is not well educated who ignores these problems. Nor is he 
educated who maintains an attitude of cynical indifference 
or of intolerant bigotry toward the efforts of others to satisfy 
their spiritual needs. He is educated only when he understands 
and appreciates the spiritual and ethical principles which 
constitute a central part of the heritage of the race. 

Many Americans find a satisfying answer to religious ques¬ 
tions in the teachings of one or another of the organized 
churches. Others find a solution which satisfies them outside 
of the framework of organized creeds. Education for self- 
realization in a democracy permits these perplexities to be 
squarely faced and confers on each of us the priceless privilege 
of developing his religious philosophy in his own way and in 
an atmosphere of tolerance and freedom. The educated man 
uses this privilege to attain a personally satisfying religious 
philosophy. 

Out of the sheer necessity for some interpretation of him¬ 
self and his world, each person develops his own philosophy 
of life. This functioning philosophy may be regarded as a 
framework through which one views the circumstances of 
everyday life, an organizing accumulation of ideas, feelings, 
and attitudes which comprise a basis for the individual’s criti¬ 
cism and evaluation of what comes within his experience. A 
philosophy of life is not the exclusive possession of scholars 
and priests. It is an everyday necessity. Although he may be 
unaware of its existence, or if aware may see no semblance 
of its design, each man, nevertheless, is finding always a certain 
pattern by which he interprets and conducts his life. He has 
his own way of meeting the disappointments that are his lot. 

[ 209 ] 



He possesses some set of values, some code of ethics, some sense 
of the esthetic. And he has a certain faith upon which he relies 
when his knowledge has carried him to its ultimate limits. The 
result of this philosophy in his everyday life reveals his true 
religion no matter to what formal creed, if to any, he may 
subscribe. 

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

It is of especial concern in an evolving democracy that 
educational experience shall develop a strong sense of re¬ 
sponsibility for the direction of one’s own affairs. Economic 
maladjustments have often conspired with human frailty to en¬ 
courage a degree of indolence and a willingness to saddle upon 
others the burdens which are properly one’s own. Whether 
such dereliction of duty takes the form of allowing one mem¬ 
ber of the family to carry an unfair share of the household 
work, or of idle and luxurious living without attempting to 
produce goods or services of social value, or of failing to vote 
at important elections, or of allowing one’s front yard to be¬ 
come a neighborhood eyesore, or of accepting relief or charity 
when able to find suitable employment, this lack of self¬ 
responsibility is a serious threat to democratic ways of living. 

Such attitudes are to a large degree a product of faulty 
environment and faulty education. A democracy must be 
concerned not only with giving everyone an opportunity to 

[ 210 ] 



hew out his own destiny but must also seek to develop in each 
individual strong qualities of initiative, accountability, and 
self-direction. 

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


[211 ] 



THE OBJECTIVES OF HUMAN 
RELATIONSHIP 

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

Friendships, The educated person enjoys a rich, sincere, 
and varied social Life. 

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

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

Appreciation of the Home. The educated person appre¬ 
ciates the family as a social institution. 

Conservation of the Home. The educated person con¬ 
serves family ideals. 

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

Democracy in the Home. The educated person maintains 
democratic family relationships. 


[ 212 ] 



V. 


The Objectives of Human Relationship 

T he previous chapter emphasized some important purposes 
of education with respect to the development of the in¬ 
dividual. The present chapter is devoted to the objectives 
of education as related to the more intimate connections of 
the individual with his friends, his immediate neighbors, and 
the members of his own family group. On the whole, there 
is perhaps no field of human activity requiring the services 
of education which has been so meagerly dealt with by the 
schools. Between the individual’s inner life and his far-flung 
contacts with 130 million fellow citizens, there is an im¬ 
portant intermediate area of day-to-day, face-to-face relation¬ 
ships which could be profitably studied by those directing 
educational programs. 

The Friend and Neighbor 

The Educated Person Puts Human Relationships First 

The impact of education on a developing personality should 
lead that person to place human welfare at the very summit of 
his scale of values. He should judge old traditions and new 
inventions by the same high and single standard. Whatever 
has an evil effect on human beings and their relations to each 
other is to be disapproved, regardless of the comfort, luxury, 
or economic gain it may bring. Too often, modern standards 
ignore the intangible effects of scientific and social inventions 
on human relationships. We tend to approve anything if only 
it adds in some small particular to our ease and comfort. 
The schools have a definite responsibility for developing a 
sense of values which exalts men above money or machinery. 
The history of inventions shows the disrupting effects of 
their uncontrolled use for economic gain without due regard 


[213 1 



to concomitant influences on human relations. New machinery 
for the weaving of cloth, for example, while it made possible 
a more ample supply of textiles, at one time deprived thousands 
of men and women of their means of livelihood, and degraded 
the level of living for- other thousands. Many workers died of 
want before even crude social and economic adjustments to 
the new and more efficient methods of cloth production were 
made. The industrial revolution has taken its toll of lives as 
ruthlessly and cruelly as any political revolution has ever done. 
Its influence still shadows our path and much of the hardship 
and strife which have accompanied the struggles between 
owner and workman could have been prevented by a proper 
concern for the human elements in the situation. 

The application of machinery to transportation provides 
another example of unfortunate influences arising from the 
use of inventions without regard to human values. The auto¬ 
mobile, for example, is highly attractive because of its speed 
and comfort. Yet, when we see the automobile in its total 
social effect, w^ remember that it has helped criminals to escape 
the reach of the law, that it takes an enormous toll of injuries 
and deaths every day, and that it has tended to disrupt com¬ 
munity and family life. The school can inculcate an attitude 
and habit of considering inventions and social innovations 
with first regard to the human aspects of them. The desirable 
material advantages of inventions should be conceded, but the 
"march of progress” is a travesty unless the superior importance 
of human values be made the center of attention. 

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


[ 214 ] 



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

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

The newcomer to the city misses the spontaneous meetings 
of neighbors which he formerly knew. The shallow pretenses 
of "society 11 may be substituted for friendly sociability, He 
finds that almost every phase of his social life is highly or¬ 
ganized and specialized. He must join something in order to 
participate. Among the dozens of groups and organizations 
which compete for his attention, there is none, with the possible 
exception of the school, where he is regarded just as an indi¬ 
vidual. Organizations are interested in what he may contribute 
or in some one particular phase of his behavior—his religious 
activities, his recreational interests, his business or professional 
career, his political affiliations, and so on. His nostalgic long¬ 
ing for the old folks at home, the neighbors " ’way out yonder,” 
is vividly portrayed on many a stage and screen! and provides 
a recurrent motif in modern music and literature. Each of the 
various separate aspects of his social life may be nurtured by 
the efficient and highly organized social life in the city, but 


f2U ] 



the genuineness represented only by the relationships of whole 
personalities to each other is often lacking. Juvenile delin¬ 
quency and crime often reveal the failure of young people 
to adjust to this piecemeal type of social organization. Dis¬ 
integration in human relationships finally results in disintegra¬ 
tion of personality. 

The school can closely parallel the simple, honest, and sin¬ 
cere forms of community life. It enjoys unique possibilities 
for providing in the life of the child an integrating influence. 
The school can help him to interpret and unify his detached 
and seemingly unrelated experiences. The child may learn 
several codes of ethics—one at church on Sunday, one taught 
by the boss with respect to selling newspapers, and one ac¬ 
cepted by his friends at play. In such a situation the school 
can never obtain its real objectives if it is content to regard 
itself as merely one more organization to concentrate on one 
special angle, the intellectual angle, of the personality. Schools 
should minister to all phases of the developing personality. 

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


[ 216 ] 



The Educated Person Can Work and Play with Others 

Democracy is a highly cooperative undertaking. It can be¬ 
come more effective if children learn to cooperate in school. 
The traditional methods of teaching, however, stress competi¬ 
tion rather than cooperation. Marks of distinction and honors 
of all kinds have been showered on the pupil who surpasses 
his fellows. Ideally, our schools should give prizes not to the 
one who wins more credit for himself, but to the one who 
cooperates most effectively with others. We pin the badge of 
failure on the child who is defeated in a competition rather 
than on the child who has not learned to cooperate. This not 
only makes the social life of the competing children unhappy 
and unfruitful while they are young, but it destroys those 
impulses towards friendly cooperative effort which might have 
made their lives as adults happier and more wholesome. 

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

A reconciliation must here be effected between two desirable 
and to some extent conflicting outcomes. It is important that 


[ 217 ] 



young people gain confidence in their own individual powers. 
This calls for a measure of success in competition with others. 
A certain degree of self-reliance is highly important. It is not 
likely to come except through demonstrated individual achieve¬ 
ment. At the same time the development of the self should not 
be allowed to run to excess. Democracy must have its leaders 
but they should be leaders who work in the spirit of cooperation. 
In the schools of democracy successful cooperation should be 
a part of the experience of all. 

The Educated Person Observes the Amenities 
of Social Behavior 

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

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

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


[ 218 ] 



toms will make easier and more profitable the development 
of desirable human relationships. 

Home and Family Relationships 

Among all social institutions the family holds first place as 
a creator and guardian of human values. What the child shall 
become depends first of all on the kind of family responsible 
for his upbringing. The home is literally the nursery of hu¬ 
manity, the matrix of personality during the most impression¬ 
able years, and a continuing influence throughout life. To 
what degree a person is fearful or confident, malicious or kindly, 
ruthless or reasonable, bigoted and autocratic or tolerant and 
democratic is perhaps determined more completely by relation¬ 
ships in early family life than by any other set of experiences. 
Not only are these experiences first in time and prepotent in 
effect during childhood, but family relationships continuously 
influence the manner in which persons conduct their affairs 
in other groups. 

One important responsibility of education, therefore, is 
to improve and develop home and family life. Effective dis¬ 
charge of this responsibility requires work with younger chil¬ 
dren, with adolescents, and with adults. Children at various 
points in their school careers may be helped to understand 
the family as a social institution, to acquire homemaking 
skills, and to work out happy and socially constructive ad¬ 
justments with members of their immediate families. Young 
people may be helped to master and appreciate the specific 
knowledges and insights needed in marriage, homemaking, 
and parenthood. Married couples and parents on the job may 
be given opportunity to study their problems and work out 
ways of handling their obligations. 

The Educated Person Appreciates the 
Family as a Social Institution 

The family, that is the system of relationships among parents 
and offspring, is important everywhere, but the structure of 

[ 21 ?] 



the family group and family activities and customs differ 
from culture to culture and from age to age. The size and 
composition of families, marriage customs, the obligations of 
members one to another, and the responsibilities of families 
as units to other social groups all seem to vary under the in¬ 
fluence of climate, topography, natural resources and the 
methods of utilizing them, the dominant forms of social, eco¬ 
nomic, and political organization, and the prevailing ethical 
standards. 

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

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

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

The Educated Person Conserves Family Ideals 

Because of the headlong progress of invention and science, 
the forms of family organization are changing. Chores and 


[ 220 ] 



common production enterprises were formerly training grounds 
of character. As labor-saving devices eliminate or reduce the 
chores and as consumption becomes the primary family ac¬ 
tivity, conflicts tend to arise, not so frequently over who will 
do what work, but over what share of the family income each 
will have for his own use, and what use each will make, and 
when, of such family goods as the radio and the car. 

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

Again, the concentration of manufacture and commerce 
has resulted in the crowding of ever larger proportions of the 
total population into urban centers. The demand for living 
quarters sends land prices skyrocketing and leads to the con¬ 
struction of smaller rooms and apartments. Crowding and 
cheap construction bring fire and disease hazards. Unplanned 
use of land for building deprives children of outdoor play. 
The prevalence of such conditions, despite counteracting move¬ 
ments, adversely affects the lives of many families. 

Most changes in family life stem back to changes in eco¬ 
nomic and social organization. However much we may be¬ 
moan the passing of older patterns and ideals, or fear the 
coming of new, we cannot hold back this tide of economic and 
social change that is breaking today into every corner of so¬ 
ciety. We can, however, with the help of education, try to 
understand it. use it, and control it for the attainment of our 


[221 ] 



democratic purposes and the preservation of cherished human 
values. 

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

The Educated Person Is Skilled 
in Homemaking 

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

Most persons go a long way in teaching themselves these 
homemaking skills, with or without the help of interested 
relatives. In addition, girls for three decades past, and more 
recently boys, have sought help from schools in mastering the 
homemaking skills. The teaching of cooking, budgeting, ac¬ 
counting, management of time, routine care of children, and 
consumer purchasing is rising toward a high level of effec¬ 
tiveness. 


[ 222 ] 



Further development of this phase of education should give 
special consideration to new labor-saving and efficiency de¬ 
vices, new distributing, and servicing facilities, and new con¬ 
sumption habits. It should be remembered also that skills serve 
in fact as instruments of personality. The teaching of home¬ 
making skills is an important phase of family life education, 
but as in all education the development of skills should be cor¬ 
related with the development of an understanding of the 
dynamics of family relationship and of the family as a chang¬ 
ing social institution and with the cultivation of apprecia¬ 
tions and insights. 

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

The Educated Person Maintains 
Democratic Family Relationships 

The educated person understands that families will differ 
one from another, in order the better to meet the needs of 
their members, and that family living requires constant ad¬ 
justments on the part of each member. Only when each young 
person discovers a scale of values which he believes socially 
desirable will he be able to let himself go in making these ad¬ 
justments creatively. 


[ 223 ] 



Education for family living will deal chiefly with problems 
of everyday human relationship—problems of children in their 
parental homes; problems of young people as they struggle 
to separate themselves from parents and to enter into comrade¬ 
ships within their own age groups; problems arising in the 
cycle of falling-in-love, engagement, marriage, and the estab¬ 
lishment of one’s own home; problems of parents in trying to 
understand growing children and in cheerfully according an 
increasing measure of independence to children as they attain 
maturity. Such education will seek to make clear the important 
human values to be protected in all these different areas of 
life, 

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

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

In the democratic family the carrying out of family plans 
is also cooperative. Every member of the family has chores 
scaled to his ability, time, and interests. Sometimes these are 
done alone, sometimes with others. At successive stages of 
growth and family development, each accepts as just a share 
of the household work commensurate with his age, ability, 

[ 224] 



and interests and with tasks being carried by other members 
of the family. 

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

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

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


[ 225 ] 



THE OBJECTIVES OF ECONOMIC 
EFFICIENCY 

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

Occupational Information. The educated producer un¬ 
derstands the requirements and opportunities for 
various jobs. 

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

Occupational Efficiency. The educated producer succeeds 
in his chosen vocation. 

Occupational Adjustment. The educated producer main¬ 
tains and improves his efficiency. 

Occupational Appreciation. The educated producer ap¬ 
preciates the social value of his work. 

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

Consumer Judgment. The educated consumer develops 
standards for guiding his expenditures. 

Efficiency in Buying. The educated consumer is an in¬ 
formed and skillful buyer. 

Consumer Protection. The educated consumer takes ap¬ 
propriate measures to safeguard his interests. 


[ 226 ] 



VI. 


The Objectives of Economic Efficiency 

T he objectives of economic efficiency relate to those activities 
which have to do with creating and using goods and services. 
At present, the major emphasis in education for economic 
efficiency is placed on the productive or vocational phase. It 
is often the only aspect of economic education which receives 
serious attention. This one-sided emphasis is unfortunate. Grant¬ 
ing the importance of producer education, the equal and corol¬ 
lary importance of consumer education must not be overlooked. 
Production and consumption are related to each other as the 
back of the hand is to the palm. The roles of the consumer 
and the producer are equally dependent upon education for 
efficiency. 

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

The Producer 

The Educated Producer Knows the Satisfaction of 
Good Workmanship 

In a democracy each person contributes, according to his 
ability, to the essential welfare of all. This means that under 
ideal conditions each able-bodied adult follows an occupa¬ 
tion for which he or she is fitted by ability, personality, and 
training and which provides goods and services of social and 
individual value. It is important that children should learn 
that each may properly enjoy the fruits of civilization only 
by doing his part in the work of the world. Work should be 
regarded as something to be sought, enjoyed, and respected 
rather than as something to be avoided, suffered, and despised. 
"Work,” as used here, includes the efforts of the teacher, the 
doctor, the housewife, the businessman, the artist, as well 
as the usual shirt-sleeve and white-collar occupations. Even 


[ 227 ] 



the younger children can learn the necessity of contributing 
effort to a common cause. Changing social conditions make 
work around the home for children difficult to arrange. Even 
at some inconvenience to the adults, however, such work would 
prove to be of wholesome educational value. 

In the schools opportunities for real and socially desirable 
employment may readily be found. Why should not students 
learn valuable practical arts, contribute to the social dividend, 
and save public money by improving and safeguarding their 
own school building? Such work, of course, should be discon¬ 
tinued when the educational value of student participation 
reaches the point of diminishing returns. 

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

Nothing in the foregoing statement should be construed 
as indicating approval of exploitive child labor, curtailment 
of educational opportunity, or the use of children in occupa¬ 
tions in competition with adult employment. Students should 
not be entrusted, of course, with work of a highly technical 
nature for which they lack strength or skill. 

The Educated Producer Understands the 
Requirements and Opportunities for 
Various Jobs 

The classic example of occupational learning is Benjamin 
Franklin’s story of how he was led by his father from one shop 
to another to observe the work of the artisans. Under the 


[ 228 ] 



relatively simple economic conditions of that day, occupational 
information was easily acquired outside of organized schooling. 
The boy learned about farming from his father and on his 
occasional visits to the county seat watched the blacksmith, 
businessmen, and the representatives of the other occupations 
of the day at their work. Now all that is changed. There are 
more specialized occupations, less opportunity for learning 
on the job, and consequently greater need for the assistance 
of the school. 

The Educated Producer Has Selected 
His Occupation 

Most people drift into some occupational field with the result 
that there is much wasteful occupational shifting and many 
a square peg in a round hole. The more nearly the age of entry 
to vocation coincides with complete maturity and all the re¬ 
sponsibilities that go with it, the more imperative it becomes 
that the first vocational choice be as nearly right as possible. 
The future success, happiness, and efficiency of the individual, 
to say nothing of the direct concern of society in the matter, 
often depend on making a proper, though not necessarily a 
permanent, vocational adjustment not later than the attain¬ 
ment of adulthood. The guidance of the school with respect to 
such vocational adjustment will help the student to survey 
the needs and opportunities for employment and to appraise 
his own potentialities and opportunities. It will point out to 
him the educational programs which best meet his needs and 
help him to make wisely the choices he will have occasion 
to exercise during his secondary-school career, during his in¬ 
duction into his vocation, and during his progress in the voca¬ 
tion. A statement of the importance of vocational guidance 
need not imply that the school personnel is omniscient or gifted 
with prophecy. Existing methods for appraising individual 
vocational aptitudes and predicting occupational trends call for 
further development through research and experimentation. 

Without vocational guidance, vocational education may be 


[ 229 ] 



extremely wasteful. Such guidance, of course, is to be regarded 
merely as one important part of a larger and continuing pro¬ 
cess of education involving adjustment of the individual from 
childhood to old age in all the areas of human activity. For 
youths in secondary schools as well as those of the later adolescent 
years who are not in school, the major problems of guidance 
are concerned with entrance into occupational life, adjustment 
to the withdrawal of parental support and parental control, es¬ 
tablishment of new family relationships, progress toward eco¬ 
nomic independence, and the commencement of the duties 
and privileges of adult citizens. 

One of the most striking examples of the need for an expanded 
and effective program of vocational guidance is the existence of 
certain tutorial and correspondence schools making extravagant 
claims for training men and women in a variety of occupations. 
There are, it is true, many excellent schools of this type which 
conduct vocational training of a high type and render a real 
educatidnal service. There is, no doubt, a definite need in Ameri¬ 
can education for the services of a few such schools. But it has 
been necessary for the Federal Trade Commission on occasion 
to issue warnings to protect the public and control the more 
glaring examples of exploitation and quackery in this field. 
Well-designed programs of vocational guidance and education 
in the public schools should develop, among other things, the 
ability of young people to distinguish between the valid and the 
spurious types of private enterprise in vocational preparation. 

The Educated Producer Succeeds 
in His Chosen Vocation 1 

That preparation for vocational success is a part of the total 
educational job is not seriously questioned by anyone. The chief 
points at issue at the present time are the extent to which such 
vocational preparation should be provided within the organized 

1 A more recent discussion of the subject may be found in Education For 
All American Youth, Washington, D. C.: the Commission, 1944. 421 p. 

[ 230 ] 



schools and the educational level at which specialized vocational 
preparation should begin. One need only consider the vast dif¬ 
ferences in the intellectual, physical, and other requirements for 
vocational success in the various occupations to see that no single 
simple formula can determine the role of the school in each case. 
In most of the vocations which are usually called “professions,” 
it is generally agreed that the school, college, and university 
must carry the primary educational responsibility, with some 
cooperation with the professions concerned through various 
forms of internship. In the vocational preparation of mechanics 
of various kinds, differences of procedure are in order. Skilled 
occupations which are carried on quite uniformly in almost ev¬ 
ery community, such as carpentry, masonry, and automobile re¬ 
pairing, Can be prepared for effectively by school agencies pro¬ 
vided the demand for workers and the density of population are 
such that it is possible to assemble a sufficiently large number of 
learners to provide instruction at a reasonable cost per student. 
In other occupations of a more specialized nature, vocational 
preparation has to be given either in state or regional training 
schools or in schools operated by the employers of the persons 
in these specialized occupations. 

Although it is impossible to state in detail the specific respon¬ 
sibilities of the schools in equipping children with specialized 
vocational skills, there are certain general principles which seem 
to be valid. First, the relationship between vocational education 
and the employing and the employed groups must be close, sym¬ 
pathetic, and cooperative, Schools ought to cultivate relation¬ 
ships with industry and other occupational fields. The term 
"practical” education should not be used solely to describe so¬ 
ciety’s out-of-school efforts to deal with the occupational prep¬ 
aration. 

Second, it is no longer profitable, if indeed it ever were, to 
debate the relative importance of vocational and nonvocational 
education. The two are not properly considered as competi¬ 
tive: they are phases of a single process. An educational pro¬ 
gram which, taken as a whole, neglects either aspect, is in- 

[231 ] 



complete, if not actually harmful. The difference between 
vocational and nonvocational studies, then, is one of emphasis 
in the individual student’s purposes. A working distinction 
cannot be based on any single logical or arbitrary classification 
of the parts of the curriculum. When a subject or part of 
a subject is pursued for the primary purpose of developing 
marketable initial skills or vocational competence, it may be 
vocational; but the very same activities, undertaken to dis¬ 
cover or develop interests and abilities or to enrich living, 
become essentially nonvocational. 

Every subject of instruction and every daily lesson may relate 
to occupational activities—the linguistic, mathematical, scien¬ 
tific, and social as well as the musical, artistic, homemaking, 
agricultural, and industrial studies. Moreover, each may con¬ 
tribute a significant share to general education as a whole. Every 
subject is also, at some stage, a tryout of the interests and abilities 
of students. An evening course, designed primarily to train 
workers in certain occupational skills, may be pursued by some 
students as a recreational activity, in which latter cases it is 
essentially nonvocational. Again, the prospective teacher of 
French or of drawing studies French or drawing as part of his 
occupational preparation, while other students ordinarily aim 
at enrichment of experience. 

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


[ 232 ] 



The Educated Producer Maintains 
and improves His Efficiency 

Perhaps the most significant current development in Ameri¬ 
can education is the growing recognition that the responsibility 
of educational agencies for the welfare of youth no longer ends 
with graduation or school leaving. The continuous study of the 
problems of vocational adjustment which confront all youth 
and, to some degree, all adults, in school and out, must contin¬ 
ually modify educational objectives. The schools and other edu¬ 
cational agencies should develop attitudes which will lead the 
worker to attempt to improve his vocational fitness through 
constant study of the relationship of his work to that of other 
fields. Technological change indicates the wisdom of widespread 
opportunity for adult vocational training and retraining. Work¬ 
ers who, because of technological, economic, or accidental rea¬ 
sons, find themselves unemployed or unemployable must be 
helped to make a new choice of work and to retrain for com¬ 
petency in a new vocation. 

The Educated Producer Appreciates 
the Social Value of His Work 

With proper social motives, a vocation may be made the most 
compelling purpose of education which we can set before a 
pupil. The fundamental subjects of study, preparation for home 
life and citizenship, applied science and mathematics, and prac¬ 
tical economics—these and many other fields when approached 
from the viewpoint of the vocation and its related life often 
take on a richer meaning. On the whole, America has been 
fortunately free from the Old World concept that no “gentle¬ 
man” can follow any occupation other than that of scholar, 
priest, or soldier. A democracy will not separate its work and its 
culture. It will not regard one who works as inferior nor set 
false distinctions between occupations. One of the important 
tasks of education is to extend the worker’s insight into the 
social utility and significance of his work, the scientific back- 

[ Hi 1 



ground of what he is doing, his relation to other workers, and 
what his work means to other people. 

The vocational life of many persons now includes an ex¬ 
tremely narrow range of intellectual activity. Until more funda¬ 
mental reforms can be devised and secured, society should take 
steps through its educational agencies to ameliorate the undesir¬ 
able features of this trend. Equally desirable with a share in 
material wealth is a share in the intellectual resources of the 
world. For this latter field, the schools are particularly respon¬ 
sible. Vocational education in a democracy should stress the con¬ 
tribution of the occupation to the social welfare and temper the 
all too common use of personal pecuniary advantage as the pri¬ 
mary objective of learning. 

The Consumer 

The Educated Consumer Plans the 
Economics of His Oum Life 

The economic security of many people is highly tenuous. Dis¬ 
ability, the cost of medical care, unpredictable losses of savings, 
incomes insufficient to provide a reasonable living standard, ir¬ 
regular employment, and complete unemployment are factors 
which interfere with the best laid personal economic plans. In¬ 
dividual action, no matter how prudent or industrious, may be 
quite inadequate to meet these hazards to personal economic 
well-being. These larger economic adjustments will need to be 
made by large-scale social and governmental action. The role of 
the educated person in such action may best be considered in 
connection with the chapter on "The Objectives of Civic Re¬ 
sponsibility.” 

Apart from these larger socio-economic adjustments, how¬ 
ever, there is no inconsiderable area for individual care and 
discrimination in planning and operating the economic phases 
of life. Not all economic insecurity is due to unemployment and 
illness. Foolish spending which yields no enduring satisfactions 
or advantages, general gullibility and thriftlessness, gambling 


[ 234 ] 



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

The Educated Consumer Develops Standards 
For Guiding His Expenditures 

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

The consumer’s education should seek to improve his scale 
of preferences by leading him to evaluate his own standards. 
Consumers should be acquainted, therefore, with the most im¬ 
portant conclusions of science and experience about human 
needs and the means of meeting them. Those tastes should be 
cultivated that are the source of esthetic enjoyment and the 
development of those arts and aptitudes that recreate, enrich 
experience, and widen the outlook. At this point of special need 
in our society our educational program is weak. Those whose 

[ 23 5 ] 



knowledge is deficient should be familiarized with the most de¬ 
sirable consumption patterns. This democratization of high- 
level consumption is a part of the mass education necessary in 
an equalitarian society. A simplification of living or deviation 
from the approved pattern based on ignorance is hot the same as 
simplicity or deviation based on deliberate preference. As a basis 
for the understanding and appraisal of their own standards con¬ 
sumers should be acquainted with the social and esthetic value 
of other culture groups, past and present. Attention should be 
given to the psychology of choice; current consumption stand¬ 
ards should be analyzed and an attempt made to understand and 
evaluate the forces that have shaped and are now shaping them. 
Independence of judgment and discrimination in making con¬ 
sumption choices are especially to be fostered since in this realm 
blind obedience to custom and slavish deference to the opinion 
of others are so characteristic. 

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

T he Educated Consumer Is an 
Informed and Skillful Buyer 

An important role of the consumer in our society, or of an 
unpaid family member to whom the responsibility is delegated, 
is that of buyer. We are here concerned not with directing 
wants but with their economical satisfaction through market 
selection. Concretely, the consumer attains this end—gets the 
maximum amount of what he wants for his money—only when 
he selects the best goods available at a particular price or when 
he gets an article of specified quality at the lowest price available. 
Thus, although there is some relationship, education of the con¬ 
sumer for buying is obviously a different matter from education 


[ 236 ] 



to form values, to elevate tastes or stimulate new interests and 
desires. 

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

An educational program, designed to increase the buyer’s 
efficiency, should begin with knowledge of what goods are 
available in the market. The buyer must learn what specific 
qualities to seek and what to avoid in these goods. He must 
discover, in other words, what makes an article good and what 
makes it bad for bis purposes . So far as the qualities or quantity 
of specific goods are made known by means of a standardized 
nomenclature, the buyer must know the meaning of such terms. 
The buyer must know not only the goods he is buying but the 
market in which he buys. The educational program organized 
for his benefit should, therefore, give him understanding of 
marketing agencies and their operation. He should understand 
the pricing process under various conditions; he should be fa¬ 
miliar with selling methods; he should be able to evaluate sales 
talk, price policies, and market arrangements in general. 

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


[ 237 ] 



The Educated Consumer Takes Appropriate 
Measures to Safeguard His Interests 

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

In all of the aspects of consumer education, sales promotion 
is today the dominant educative (or miseducative) force. This 
force, by the very circumstance of its existence, is in the hands 
of personally interested parties who must seek to create effective 
and continuing demand for their goods or services. Advertising 
should, of course, be truthful but, even if misleading or “false” 
advertising were completely eliminated, the need for consumer 
education would not be met. Information and skill in choosing 
and buying are as important as information and skill in pro¬ 
ducing and selling. Consumer education is a universal need; 
it should be provided for all through the schools and not left 
to accidental learning. 


[ 238 ] 




THE OBJECTIVES OF CIVIC RESPONSIBILITY 

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

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

Social Understanding. The educated citizen seeks to un¬ 
derstand social structures and social processes. 

Critical Judgment. The educated citizen has defenses 
against propaganda. 

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

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

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

World Citizenship. The educated citizen is a cooperat¬ 
ing member of the world community. 

Law Observance. The educated citizen respects the law. 

| Economic Literacy. The educated citizen is economi¬ 
cally literate. 

Political Citizenship. The educated citizen accepts his 
civic duties. 

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


[ 240 ] 



VII. 


The Objectives of Civic Responsibility 

The Educated Citizen Is Sensitive 

to the Disparities of Human Circumstance 

I T is of peculiar importance that all the citizens of a democracy 
become aware of the extraordinary range of conditions under 
which men live. Most of us look at society with a lens of ex¬ 
ceedingly short focus. What lies at a distance is invisible to 
us or is recognized only dimly. The area within which the edu¬ 
cated individual "has a feel” for the experience of others has 
been greatly expanded. What is it like to be a farm laborer? 
a textile factory operative? a rolling mill hand? What is in¬ 
volved in living for years at the bottom? What is it like to live 
in a slum area? to survive a flood? to come through a dust 
storm? What does it mean to rise from the bottom? Vivid records 
of these and a host of other human experiences can be brought 
to the attention of young people through the schools. Excur¬ 
sions to situations within reach of the schools can be used to 
good effect. Film material will probably in time serve the same 
purpose and bring both nearby and remote environments before 
the eyes of children and youths. Literature, too, affords ex¬ 
cellent opportunity for vicarious sharing in the experiences 
of others. Of course, undue strain on youthful emotions is to 
be avoided, but properly safeguarded, the task can be carried 
through without hazard. 

The Educated Citizen Acts To Correct 
Unsatisfactory Conditions 

In the light of democratic ideals, current conditions appear 
to be far from satisfactory. If the result of sensitizing the 
student to the social situation is merely acute observation or 
pointless curiosity or a vague sympathy, not enough has been 
accomplished. A broad, expanding, and active humanitarianism 

[ 241 ] 



should be the personal possession of all. Fortunately, among 
children and adolescents, sympathies run strong and the desire 
to do good is readily elicited. The schools should seek to give 
concrete exercise to these feelings and impulses on the level of 
the young people involved. Of course, sentimentality has to 
be avoided. It is one thing to wish to relieve human dis¬ 
tress; it is something else to devise measures of relief that are 
constructive. 

The Educated Citizen Seeks To Understand 
Social Structures and Social Processes 

With the experts—the economists, political scientists, sociolo¬ 
gists, and the rest—disagreeing in their interpretations of social 
phenomena, the path of the educator undertaking to deal with 
social activity is a thorny one. That the social sciences are still 
in an early stage of development must be frankly recognized. 
Furthermore, differences in opinion on social issues arise not 
alone from the lack of knowledge and the other difficulties of 
scientific inquiry, but even more from the differing sets of 
values which, perhaps unknown even to himself, each student 
brings to the study of social problems. Making appropriate al¬ 
lowances, however, for inherent difficulties and limitations, 
something substantial can be done in giving young people 
a more adequate knowledge than they now have of the nature 
of the society in which they live. Differences between wishful 
and realistic thinking can be exposed and the momentum of 
social processes and the inertia of social institutions brought 
home. 

The Educated Citizen Has Defenses 
Against Propaganda 

The reporting of social events is characteristically loose and 
inaccurate, even when not purposely colored or dishonest. Let 
the students find out how well-nigh impossible it is to ascer¬ 
tain just what happens in the course of a labor dispute. Let 
them follow, through a variety of journals of differing aco- 

[ 242 ] 



nomic and political attitudes, the day-to-day record of the 
occurrences in a local strike. The typical conflict o£ testimony 
of eyewitnesses, say of an automobile accident, should be 
'critically examined. The arts of propaganda and of modern 
advertising should be made known. The time has come to 
equip the individual citizen in the democratic state with 
reasonable defenses against the pressures of mass thinking and 
feeling exerted nowadays through billboard and poster, press, 
radio, and film. A healthy measure of skepticism about social 
data should reinforce an aggressive search for reliable informa¬ 
tion in the training of youth for more effective participation 
in democratic ways of living. 

The Educated Citizen Respects 
Differences of Opinion 

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

The Educated Citizen Has a Regard 
for the Nation’s Resources 

Our national life and culture and, indeed, our very ex¬ 
istence depend in the last analysis upon the availability of 

[ 243 ] 



essential natural resources and the use which is made o£ them. 
Forests, soils, grasslands, water, minerals, oil, fish, game, and 
scenic beauty are among the rich natural endowments o£ 
the area of the North American continent covered by the 
United States. Realization of the basic importance of these 
resources, determination to utilize them for the common good 
through long-range planning, and general knowledge of ap¬ 
propriate remedial and preventive conservation procedures 
are among the marks of the educated citizen. Since future 
welfare and safety depend on those things, the schools may 
well assume considerable responsibility for checking the rav¬ 
ages upon the heritage of the nation made by ignorance, in¬ 
difference, carelessness, and unbridled selfishness. Instruction 
should include conservation problems of national and regional 
scope and may be most effective if organized in connection 
with the teaching of the natural sciences and the social stud¬ 
ies at all levels of the school program. The school system will 
find cordial allies in this task in many departments of local, 
state, and federal government, and in many private agencies. 
In passing, it may be noted that there is need for materials 
on conservation which are written in a style suited to children 
and which are impartial and accurate. Reports of governmental 
and private investigations frequently meet the second cri¬ 
terion but seldom Satisfy the first. Suitable materials on con¬ 
servation should be included in standard textbooks and in 
other publications for use by children. 

The Educated Citizen Measures Scientific 
Advance by Its Contribution to the 
General W elf are 

We have seen in an earlier chapter how the application of 
science and invention to problems of industrial production, 
medicine, and human relationship has revolutionized our so¬ 
cial and cultural customs and standards. Yet science in itself 
is entirely indifferent to moral values. Thanks to the dis¬ 
coveries and applications of science, electricity can be manu- 

[ 244 ] 



factured, stored, harnessed, and transported over hundreds 
of miles of wire. And at the end of that journey it will with 
perfect neutrality speed a streamlined train, light a scholar’s 
desk, electrocute a criminal, operate a lifesaving pulmotor, 
or burn the toast. Again, the intricate chain of scientific 
discovery and invention which involves the manufacture of 
paper and ink, the linotype, and the great printing presses 
will place in our hands with equal indifference the finest 
literature or the veriest trash, the honest conclusions of the 
scholar or the most poisonous propaganda. The methods and 
findings of science, then, seek with considerable success to 
ignore ethical judgments. But the applications of science to 
the needs and desires of man are entirely subject to social 
and individual control. 

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

The Educated Citizen Is a Cooperating 
Member of the World Community 1 

Modern conditions of national interdependence make mem¬ 
bership in the world community inescapable. Education should 
make that membership cooperative and constructive. 

Much is already being done to acquaint pupils with the 
nature of existing machinery for international relations and 

1 For a more thorough discussion of this subject, see Education and the 
People’s Peace. 'Washington, D. C.: the Commission, 1943. 61 p. 

[ 245 ] 



with the truths of national history. The contributions of 
the various races and nations to civilization and culture, 
the sufferings and moral degradations brought about by war, 
and the superior value and importance of the arts of peace 
are subjects considered in many schoolrooms. All this is whole¬ 
some and should be extended. 

The Educated Citizen Respects the Law 

All laws and other governmental controls are properly 
established by the people and their duly chosen representa¬ 
tives and are subject to popular review and revision. Cer¬ 
tain essential rights of minorities are recognized and appeals 
for protection may be carried to the courts if these rights 
are invaded. Obedience to constituted authority, as mani¬ 
fested in law, is a necessary element in a well-ordered so¬ 
ciety. Disobedience and disrespect for law, on the other 
hand, are symptoms either of indifference to the welfare 
of others or of distrust of democratic processes. As com¬ 
pared with other countries, we are a lawbreaking, though 
by no means a lawless, nation. Many factors have been sug¬ 
gested as causes for the relatively high crime rates in this 
country. Whatever the cause, the schools should attempt 
through instruction and organization to develop an under¬ 
standing of the nature of law and of its role in human af¬ 
fairs, to promote habits of willing and intelligent obedi¬ 
ence, and to create an attitude of respect for law and an 
appreciation of the inherent dignity of the law-abiding citi¬ 
zen in a democracy. 

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

[24* ] 



The Educated Citizen Is Economically 
Literate 

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

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

The citizen who is economically literate is acquainted with 
certain broad economic issues, conditions, and procedures. 
He has become familiar through frequent usage with cur¬ 
rently important economic concepts, with the ideas of sup¬ 
ply and demand, investment and profit, capital and labor, 
scarcity and abundance, monopoly, the market, wages and 


[ 247 ] 



prices. He knows certain facts which are crucial to the eco¬ 
nomic life, of the country—its basic physical and human 
resources, its potential and actual productivity, the distribu¬ 
tion of incomes and wealth, and the degree of concentration 
or dispersal of ownership and management. Only as a grow¬ 
ing degree of competence and interest in these matters is 
diffused among the people can democracy function in the 
teeth of technological change. 

The Educated Citizen Accepts His Civic Duties 

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

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

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

An urgent responsibility of the schools, then, is to lead 
the young citizens of America to discover the knowledge, 
and the means of obtaining the knowledge, which will en¬ 
able them to discharge their duties intelligently. In order 

[ 248 ] 



to do this they will need, among other things, to stud/ all 
forfns of government and economy, the advantages and dis¬ 
advantages of each, honestly comparing one with another. 
And this judgment has been rendered essential not only by 
the complexity of the situation but also by the efforts made 
by propagandists to take advantage of the present confusion. 

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

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

The citizens of the future need to develop keen judg¬ 
ment in political matters in order to distinguish between those 
who would maintain democracy through democratic processes 
ajjd those who are endeavoring to destroy its spirit, while 
they burn incense on the most conspicuous altars to the word 
itself. Governmental problems and the broader problems of 
society require calm reasoning, not hysteria, for their solution. 

[24?] 



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

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

There are other rights and responsibilities with which the 
educated citizen of democracy should be acquainted; for ex¬ 
ample, a general but not of course detailed or technical knowl¬ 
edge of his rights and responsibilities before the law as plaintiff, 
defendant, witness, and juryman. The list of specific civic 
responsibilities might be further extended but the three that 
have been mentioned—intelligent and socially minded voting, 
an appreciation of governmental services, and a layman’s 
knowledge of the law—appear to be outstanding needs at 
the present time. 


[ 250 ] 



!T^ Educated Citizefz j\cts upon art TJTtsxi/eTving 
Loyalty to Democratic Ideals 

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

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

First, our inadequate control of the application of science 
and technology has brought about at intervals prolonged de¬ 
pressions, widespread unemployment, and other social ills, ac¬ 
companied by unrest, insecurity, and general dissatisfaction. 

Another factor which threatens democracy is the weakening 
of religious convictions and of moral codes without the de¬ 
velopment of adequate ethical controls to take their place. 

Again, democracy is always in danger when government 
shows itself incapable of meeting justifiable human needs or 
when leadership in public affairs tends to express the momen¬ 
tary popular fancy or selfish minority interests. 

There is a threat to democracy in that naive equalitarianism 
which refuses to recognize and act upon the indubitable fact 
that individual human beings differ greatly from one another 
in important respects. Whether one believes that these differ¬ 
ences are inborn or acquired may modify one’s opinion as to 
how they should be treated, but under any circumstances it 
is both futile and dangerous to deny their present existence. 

Democracy is endangered also by the resort to force and vio¬ 
lence in the settlement of controversial issues, with the accom¬ 
panying decay of the ability and willingness to think dispassion- 

[ 251 ] 



ately. Private control of police and military power and the 
open violation'of law with impunity are examples of conditions 
which elsewhere led to the downfall of democracy. 

Democracy must meet conditions created by modern propa¬ 
ganda which, without control and in the hands of pressure 
groups, threatens to destroy even the semblance of social 
unity. With these new tools of propaganda the demagog is 
given new weapons. In the absence of a well-informed public 
opinion he may advocate policies which are popular without 
regard for the possibility of achieving them. By reaching 
large audiences in effective ways, he may lead many people 
to accept proposals which he, himself, knows are entirely im¬ 
possible or inexpedient. 

A highly complex society which tends to distract the inter¬ 
ests of men and women from civic and social questions is 
obviously difficult to operate in a democratic manner. 

Finally, we may mention a factor which is, to a degree, an 
outcome of all that have been mentioned—the lack of social 
discipline and unwillingness of many individuals to accept 
their just responsibilities for the social welfare. An ignorant 
people, who lack access to the facts on social issues or who 
lack an appreciation of democratic values, is perhaps the great¬ 
est danger to democracy. An intelligent understanding of 
these dangers should accompany and intensify loyalty to democ¬ 
racy as a way of life. 

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


[ 2S2 ] 



VIII. 


Critical Factors in the Attainment 
of Educational Purposes 

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

Many Factors Condition the Success 
of Education 

The chief function of this final chapter is to show the 
relation between some of 'the everyday problems of the schools 
and the objectives proposed in the preceding sections. For this 
reason, frank and realistic treatment has been attempted. 

In general, three groups of conditioning factors limit the 
school’s effectiveness in reaching its objectives: (1) the inherent 
quality of the human stock which is to be educated, (2) the 
effects of other educative and maleducative agencies outside 
the schools, and (3) the efficiency of the schools themselves. 
The existence of factors which condition the success of the 
schools should not harass or discourage those responsible for 
improvement. Every hindrance to ideal educational progress 
enlarges the opportunity of the school. 

[ 253 ] 



The Human Stock 


Variations Exist in the Human Material 
To Be Educated 

The school works with human beings. The native and ac¬ 
quired abilities or disabilities in the iixdividuals whom the school 
is attempting to serve constitute not only the basis of progress, 
but also stubborn limitations to effective educational and social 
progress. No matter how skillfully the work may be done, 
there are limits to the adaptations which the school at present 
can bring about in the capacities, the information, the habits, 
and the dispositions of the individual learner. Many children 
have inherited or acquired handicaps which, however profi¬ 
ciently the school may work, interfere with the realization of 
educational purposes. 

The Schools Must Begin with 
Children as They Are 

It would, no doubt, be gratifying to teachers of music, 
for instance, if every child would learn to appreciate and under¬ 
stand to the full the intricate beauties of symphonic music. 
Every teacher of English literature would be pleased to find 
all of his pupils able to read with pleasure and understanding 
the more difficult essays, poems, and plays. Every teacher of 
economics would, no doubt, like to help every child to secure 
a complete understanding of the various theories of money 
and banking. Every teacher of industrial arts would be pleased 
to find each pupil sufficiently equipped with manual dexterity 
to learn to do highly skilled work in that field. 

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


[2S4 ] 



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

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

The Objectives of Education Are Goals 
To Be Approximated 

Education hitches its wagon to a star. It hopes, aspires, and 
struggles. The democratic theory of social life presupposes that 
every child and every other member of society must have at 
least some degree of capacity for improvement and growth. 
That capacity, however large or small it may be for any given 
individual, is the fulcrum for the lifting power of democracy. 
The purposes of education might perhaps be called "directives” 
more appropriately than "objectives,” although the latter word 
is sanctioned by long usage. These purposes indicate the direction 
toward which growth should occur. Failure to reach a par¬ 
ticular end point with perfection by every child does not con¬ 
stitute failure of the school or of the democratic ideal. Failure 
comes only when no progress is made. 

Once these concepts of approximation and direction are 
grasped,' the deficiencies in human material change in signifi¬ 
cance. If children are less gifted, in one way or another, than 
we could desire, we may be satisfied with a delayed and ap¬ 
proximate attainment of the objectives. But such approxima¬ 
tion is not to be regarded as a weak surrender of ideals to 

[255 ] 



practical demands. On the contrary, to make the ability of 
the learner and the efficiency of the school as great as possible 
is the practical means by which our ideals may be approached. 
It is firmly believed that the objectives proposed in this report 
could be closely approximated by practically all boys and girls, 
provided the maleducative influences of life outside the schools 
could be decreased. 

Other Educative Forces 

The Cultural Environment Conditions 
the Success of Education 

Among all the factors which affect the efficiency of edu¬ 
cation, none is more powerful or more subtle in operation than 
the climate of ideas and customs in which we live. Some of 
these cultural surroundings may actually hinder the attain¬ 
ment of the goals proposed for education. The environment of 
ideas, folkways, and social customs, though often unobtrusive 
and unrecognized, must be given due consideration in consider¬ 
ing the attainment of educational purposes. It must be recog¬ 
nized at the same time that this environment is itself undergoing 
a continuing change due to educational efforts and due to 
changes in the physical surroundings. 

On each child and adult conflicting loyalties pull and tug, 
coloring outlooks and directing behavior. The school itself 
shares in these tensions and is, in a sense, a party to the con¬ 
flict. For example, the viewpoint prevails quite widely that 
it is the prerogative of the state to prescribe the school program 
and to determine its purposes and that the proper loyalty of 
a teacher is to the state and to the political representatives of 
the state. That the responsibility of teachers is to the truth 
and to the promotion of the general welfare through the use 
of the truth has not yet been accepted or indeed widely under¬ 
stood in democracies or elsewhere. Yet a realistic attempt to 
determine whether a given series of educational purposes can 
be attained must recognize that there will be serious opposition 

[ 2 ] 



unless the prevailing concept of education’s relation to the 
state is profoundly modified. 

This is perhaps the most striking of many illustrations which 
might be given concerning the effect of the uninstitutionalized, 
ideological factors which condition the success of an educational 
program. 


Schools Often Compete with Maleducative Forces 

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

Once in school, the average American child now attends for 
about ten years. The youth of twenty-one, therefore, has prob¬ 
ably been out of school for more years of his life than he has 
been in school. Furthermore, school "years” are not years by 
the calendar. The schools of the United States were in session, 
on the average, about 174 days in 1942, but the actual atten¬ 
dance of each pupil was only for 149 days. The school "day” 
includes only six hours or so out of the twenty-four. The aver¬ 
age American child probably attends school for something 
less than nine thousand hours all told. 

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


[ 217 ] 



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

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

It is a strange paradox that a society should spend billions 
to support a school system dedicated to certain high purposes 
and then require it to divert a large part of the money in order 
to repair damages which that society itself encourages or toler¬ 
ates. It is even stranger that this society, and most of the in¬ 
dividuals who .compose it, sincerely place a high value on the 
happiness and future welfare of children while permitting all 
sorts of harmful conditions to continue to destroy the very 
happiness and welfare so pathetically coveted for the young. 
At their best the schools can make boys and girls only a little 
better than their elders. Citizens who want young people to 
assume social responsibility cannot look tolerantly on disregard 
of social responsibilities among adults. 

tzJH 



Many Potentially Educative Forces May 
Assist the School 

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

But optimism and patience are not necessarily associated 
with indifference and inactivity. There are some definite things 
which schools and teachers may do now, day in and day out, 
to improve the quality of human materials and to remove 
maleducative influences from the environment of the learner. 
While the primary contribution of the school is its long-range 
educative service to society, the immediate measures available 
for direct action need not be disregarded. A school which makes 
a careful, scientific study of the handicaps and assets of each 
learner, to the end that he may be properly guided, has taken 
the first step to attainment of its objectives. A school which 
helps parents in their homes to do a better job of educating 
their own children will have less to correct. A school which 
links its efforts to those of other like-motived agencies makes 
all such efforts more effective. A school where teachers main¬ 
tain close contact with the homes of the children and participate 
in community activities can more readily offset adverse out-of¬ 
school forces. A school which is a center of wholesome recrea¬ 
tion and education for an entire neighborhood is already doing 
much to offset undesirable influences. A school which can ar¬ 
range to be open on Saturdays and Sundays, in the late after¬ 
noons and evenings, as a community center, is not only grasp¬ 
ing a direct educational opportunity but is making all of its 
"regular” work more effective by reducing the effectiveness 
of opposing forces. 


[ 259 ] 



Frequently parent education is the key to helping the child. 
Units of educational energy spent on parents may sometimes 
go further than the same number of units spent on the child. 
If parent education is effective, it does double duty, first to 
the parent and then to the child. It is the job of the home to 
provide the child with the vitamins of human emotional de¬ 
velopment, with security, affection, and the sense of accomplish¬ 
ment. In the event of the failure of the community and the 
home to provide these necessities of life, the schools or some 
other social agency must try to compensate for their lack. 1 

Educational Progress 

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

Securing an Adequate Number of Competent 
Teachers Is a Critical Problem 

Qualified teachers are essential. The lack of this asset, how¬ 
ever, cannot be solved by caustic criticism of those who are 
now teaching in the public schools. After all, every state has 
laws governing the certification of teachers and the present 
incumbents have met the requirements of those laws. Often, 
indeed, voluntarily and at no small personal sacrifice, they 
have gone beyond the legally required minima. Furthermore, 
it must be remembered that neither the social nor the eco¬ 
nomic status of the teaching profession in general is such as 
to make it highly attractive to many of the more capable 
young people now preparing for their life work. Nearly one- 
fourth of the public-school teachers are paid less than $1200 a 

1 The place of the school among the other public social agencies of the 
community is discussed in Social Services and the Schools issued by the 
Educational Policies Commission. 


[260 ] 



year. The social status of the teacher in many small American 
communities confers few satisfactions to compensate for the 
relatively low economic status. Under the circumstances it 
need be no occasion for astonishment that thousands of teachers 
are quite unprepared intellectually or professionally to con¬ 
tribute effectively to worthy educational objectives. Better 
status and better qualifications for teachers must be brought 
about simultaneously and promptly. 

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

It is essential that institutions engaged in preparing teachers 
have a vision with regard to educational objectives of a depth 
and breadth at least equal to that of the public-school systems 
into which these prospective teachers will enter. Institutions 
for preparing teachers should exhibit an unflagging audacity 
in their leadership. They should be the cutting edge for the 
advance of the public schools. There are many existing institu¬ 
tions which meet this requirement admirably. There are some 
which fail to meet it almost entirely. There are some institutions 
engaged in preparing teachers where the educational philosophy 
is fundamentally different from that upon which the objectives 
proposed in this volume rest. If these objectives are sound and 
if the teacher-preparing institutions continue to ignore them, 
teachers prepared in such institutions will have to be retrained 
in a new philosophy on the job with consequent delay and 

inefficiency. 


[261 ] 



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

Conditions Surrounding the Administration 
of Education Must Be Improved 2 

American education developed in part out of conflicts of 
contending interests. Among these conflicts were those which 
led to the removal of property restrictions on the ballot; to 
the abolition of imprisonment for debt; to the improvement 
of the conditions of workers generally, and of women and 
children especially; to the taxation for school support; and to 
other humanitarian and social reforms. Great statesmen have 

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


[ 262 ] 



championed the cause of popular education in the face of in¬ 
difference, opposition, or even physical danger. The history of 
education in this country is enriched by the story of men and 
women, apostolic in their fervor, tireless in their effort, who 
took part in these struggles. 

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

Not all public-school officials represent the best of the profes¬ 
sion. Education, like every other human institution, has a share 
of novices and mediocrities. For, although there has been im¬ 
provement in educational administration there is much room for 
more. And with an increase in the interest of the public, there 
will be an increased public demand for administrative leaders 
who are broadly educated and genuinely cultivated, inspired 
by the patriot’s dream, and qualified to perform their technical 
tasks wisely and effectively. At the earliest opportunity the pro¬ 
fession should establish certain advancing goals for the various 
types of school administrative work. 

Vartisan Political Interference Continues 
To Block Educational Progress 

When partisan political considerations enter the schoolroom 
door professional management soon flies out of the window. 
The majority of the chief state school officers are still elected 

[263 1 



upon political ballot; many others hold office on conditions 
which involve partisan political considerations. The county 
school superintendency in most states remains definitely a 
political office with minimum attention to professional qualifica¬ 
tions, 'When school administrators are chosen on such a basis 
they are definitely identified with partisan politics and are 
often bound by party pledges. The proper duties of such edu¬ 
cational officials require natural abilities, educational and pro¬ 
fessional training, and other qualities which are only rarely 
reconciled with those qualities which usually commend men to 
political bosses. The immediate removal of all forms of political 
pressure and interference in the administration of schools would 
help greatly in the attainment of educational objectives.* 

Legislation Exercises Control over the Curriculum 

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

The legal right of the state to determine what shall be taught 
in the schools is fully recognized. The methods by which this 
right should be exercised is another matter, and an important 
educational question. If it goes no farther than to provide that 
a particular subject shall be taught, without specifying the 
length of time it shall be taught or what shall be included in 
the content, then the legal provision may work little hardship 
upon curriculum makers, regardless of whether they believe 
that subject should be legally stipulated or not. On the other 

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


[ 264 ] 



hand, laws which prescribe curriculum content, teaching proc¬ 
esses, and time allotments may not only cripple the initiative 
of the teacher but prevent the attainment of socially valuable 
objectives. 

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

Local Units of School Administration Are Often Unplanned 

Other administrative conditions that delay or prevent the 
attainment of educational aims require brief attention. Pre¬ 
vailing conditions in many of the small rural schools obstruct 
efforts to obtain desirable educational results. These schools are 
staffed as a rule by the least mature and least well-prepared 
teachers. There are some rural schools which seek the educa¬ 
tional objectives here proposed, but they are relatively few in 
number. 

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

Professional Unity Is Necessary 

Another somewhat related condition that hinders educa¬ 
tional progress is the lack of coordination of the various parts 
of the school system. This separateness results in needless rival¬ 
ries, unseemly competition for funds, and, most serious of all, 
in lack of that articulation which would permit steady progress 


[ 265 ] 



of children, youths, and adults from one stage of educational 
development to another. Colleges and high schools are still not 
closely enough in touch with one another; in some states ele¬ 
mentary and secondary schools, outside of the larger cities, are 
in entirely separate school systems; liberal arts colleges and 
professional schools tend to regard each other with suspicion; 
vocational education at the secondary-school leyel is too often 
regarded as entirely separate from the general or common 
educational program. These are but a few indications of the 
lack of unity in American education. An ability and a willing¬ 
ness to keep the whole educational program in full view need 
to be systematically cultivated. 

Schools in Many Communities Are Underfinanced 

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

To remedy the chronic condition of insufficient financial 
support is important. The services of qualified workers cost 
money; a sufficient number of workers to do an acceptable job 
costs still more money; providing these workers with suitable 
equipment and housing them under favorable conditions for 
work make further inescapable financial demands. Even a remote 
approximation to the objectives proposed is blocked by the 
overwhelming odds faced by many poverty-ridden schools 
today. At the same time, some critics of the schools look askance 
on requests for more appropriations until the work of the 
school is improved. Thus results an impasse which cannot be 
broken except by concerted efforts to secure more funds and 
improve the schools simultaneously. 

There are aspects of schoolwork which contribute meagerly 
to the attainment of the objectives of education as here pro- 


[ 266 ] 



posed. Funds should be so allocated that preference is given to 
those services of the schools which make the largest contribu¬ 
tion to the objectives for the largest number of pupils over the 
longest period of time. Activities which do not contribute to 
the objectives should not be financed at all. This is the real 
essence of "economy in school finance.” 

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

The removal of these unfavorable financial conditions con¬ 
fronts us with two problems. First and most important, our 
economic order must be made effective enough to provide the 
funds necessary for schools which will really approximate the 
objectives proposed. The second problem concerns the ways 
and means by which the necessary funds may be secured. This, 
in turn, involves questions of educational finance and of public 
finance in general as well as the public relations of the school 
system. 4 

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

The ultimate control of American education rests with the 
people. The theory of school administration under which we 
operate requires that such control be truly representative and, 
at the same time, gives appropriate opportunity for the use 
of expert professional service in the work of the schools. 
Actually, these conditions often fail to develop. The board 

4 The Educational Policies Commission discusses the economic bases of 
school finance in Education and Economic Well-Being in American Democ¬ 
racy. 


[ 267 ] 



of education is not always truly representative of the entire 
people with respect to schools. Most members of schoolboards 
display intelligence, honesty, and devotion to the public wel¬ 
fare; some however, are not qualified for their important tasks. 

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

The present forms of lay relationship to education are work¬ 
ing imperfectly. Various suggestions for changes have been 
advanced. The direct representation of various vocational 
classes and other special interests on schoolboards; the establish¬ 
ment of advisory groups to the schoolboard, following some¬ 
what the English plan; the limited use of co-optation as a 
method of selecting schoolboard members; the representation 
of the teaching profession on lay boards of control; the aboli¬ 
tion of schoolboards in favor of a commission form of govern¬ 
ment—these are some of the more commonly offered proposals. 
Meanwhile, many lay boards of education, as variously consti¬ 
tuted, continue to render devoted and invaluable service to 
public education. 

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

A share of the responsibility for the existence of defects 
within the school system itself must be borne by the general 
public. The public has often been indifferent to the problems 
and needs of the schools. The public all too frequently permits 
political interference with professional matters. It has refused 
to heed competent professional advice with regard to the ad- 


[ 268 ] 



ministration and organization of schools. It has sometimes 
placed in office, schoolboard members who have been actually 
dishonest or, at best, grossly unqualified. Not all of these con¬ 
ditions may be charged entirely to public indifference; the nec¬ 
essary professional leadership has not always been offered. In 
any case, the ignorance and indifference of the public regarding 
educational objectives, methods, and problems are conditions 
that retard educational progress and frustrate the achievement 
of desirable results. It is the public which must supply the funds 
for conducting the work of the schools. It is the public which 
selects the state legislators, the boards of education, and the 
other agencies which give official sanction to educational objec¬ 
tives and educational policy. 

One of the most damaging evidences of the limitations of 
the schools in the past is the very existence of a' considerable 
body of influential public opinion which is indifferent or even 
unfriendly to public education. This condition has always pre¬ 
vailed to some degree in this country. With few exceptions, the 
individuals who compose the public are or have been under the 
tutelage of the public-school system. Yet even today, most of 
our schools are graduating boys and girls who have little or 
no appreciation of the essential role which the public schools 
play in their own lives and in a democratic civilization. A 
wider social intelligence concerning the place of education in 
American democracy is needed. The courts, the legislative 
bodies, family life, recreational agencies, and many other im¬ 
portant social institutions are studied with care, but the school, 
the one social institution which directly touches the lives of all 
American youth, is rarely discussed within its own walls. 

Many intelligent citizens have sincere doubts as to the wis¬ 
dom of some modern school procedures. One such honest and 
inquiring mind is worth a hundred uninformed friends and a 
thousand captious critics. To explain and justify desirable 
departures from tradition is an important and continuing phase 
of educational leadership. The laity should be encouraged espe¬ 
cially to consider such educational problems as the basic social 

[ 2 69 1 



philosophy of the school, objectives, finance, child health, and 
public welfare. The contributions of the laity from such fields 
as medicine, psychiatry, public health, public finance, social 
service, architecture, and the religious ministry should be 
sought, as well as the contribution which every adult should 
make as a citizen of a democracy. The contribution of parents, 
as such, through parent-teacher organizations is exceptionally 
valuable because of their immediate contact with the children 
and their immediate interest in their welfare and happiness. 

Efforts to take the public into account must be supplemented 
by efforts to take the public into confidence and, finally, into 
partnership. 

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

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

Fundamental Changes Are Necessary 

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


[ 270 ] 



traditional school program. It must think beyond mere "shift¬ 
ing” courses and adding or subtracting "topics.” 

Here is a scene for the pen of a satirist. Place: an American 
high school. Setting: An era marked by confused loyalties, by 
unrest and deprivation, by much unnecessary ill-health, by 
high-pressure propaganda, by war, by the aftermath of war, 
by many broken or ill-adjusted homes, by foolish spending, by 
high crime rates, by bad housing, and by a myriad of other 
urgent, real human problems. And what are the children in this 
school, in this age, in this culture, learning? They are learning 
that the square of the sum of two numbers equals the sum of 
their squares plus twice their product; that Millard Fillmore 
was the thirteenth President of the United States and held office 
from January 10, 18 50, to March 4, 18 53; that the capital of 
Honduras is Tegucigalpa; that there were two Peloponnesian 
Wars and three Punic Wars; that Latin verbs meaning com¬ 
mand, obey, please, displease, serve, resist, and the like take 
the dative; and that a gerund is a neuter verbal noun used in 
the oblique cases of the singular and governing the same case as 
its verb. 

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

Let us be even more specific, with no effort, however, to be 
comprehensive. English as now taught in most schools places 
too great emphasis on formal grammar and on the dissection 
of "classics.” Whatever may be the merits of such exercises as 
a preparation for a cgjreer as an author, the great majority of 
American boys and girls will profit more by a wide-ranging 
program of reading for enjoyment and fact-gathering. A pro¬ 
gram of instruction in literature which makes people dislike the 
writings of Shakespeare, Scott, and Emerson destroys even the 
possibility of its own usefulness. Mathematics, as now taught, 
is a serious obstacle to many children. The numbers studying 


[271 ] 



advanced theoretical mathematics should be reduced. An ap¬ 
preciation of the role of mathematics in civilization, and ability 
to deal with general mathematics as applied to everyday prob¬ 
lems, and the fundamental skills of arithmetic should be pro¬ 
vided for general consumption. Languages, ancient and mod¬ 
ern, are now studied by thousands of children who will never 
acquire sufficient skill in them to be able to translate a single 
page or to conduct the simplest conversation. Science is too 
often taught as though it were a preparation for an engineering 
college, Much of the instruction now offered in music, art, and 
manual training is highly formalized, aimed at the preparation 
of technicians rather than critical users and appreciators. A 
great deal of vocational education has little relation to success 
on the job. History and the other social studies are still so 
organized in some schools that little sense of reality is preserved 
and direct contact with present issues studiously avoided. All 
of this illustrates the general fact that education has, on the 
whole, been altogether too much concerned with facts, and 
too little concerned with values. 

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

Active Participation of Teachers in 
Formulating Educational Policy Is 
Essential 

The detailed preparation of course of study materials by 

[ 272 ] 



teachers, alone or in committees, has often been successfully 
undertaken. But such work is significant only if it simulta¬ 
neously increases the insight of the staff into the basic educa¬ 
tional philosophy. To print new educational objectives does 
not necessarily abolish the old ones. It is relatively easy to tell 
teachers what to do. When thus directed, they usually try 
sincerely to "go through the motions.” In curriculum revision, 
however, "the Letter killeth, but the Spirit giveth life.” Vigi¬ 
lance must be constantly employed to guard against the devas¬ 
tating impact of the printed word upon independent thought. 

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

The proper role of the well-prepared teacher of today in 
formulating educational policy is not, however, limited to the 
fields of instruction and curriculum-making. In many school 
systems definite provisions have been developed for teachers 
to share fully and systematically in the study of all educational 
problems and in the development of comprehensive educational 
policies. In earlier years, when most teachers were transient 
employees, lacking in professional preparation and outlook, a 
case could be made for a benevolent dictatorship of the schools 
by a small group of administrative officers. Today, in schools 
where teachers are as well prepared professionally as the admin¬ 
istrative group, there is need for a complete recognition of their 
professional position and of the unique and valuable contribu¬ 
tion which they can make to all phases of educational service. 
Such recognition will require not only adjustments in the type 
of leadership provided by administrators, but also an enlarged 

[ 273 ] 



sense of professional responsibility on the part of a well- 
prepared teaching staff. 

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

Schools should promote their objectives by providing for 
and encouraging greater initiative on the part of the learners 
in setting up objectives, selecting methods of study, and ap¬ 
praising results. An excellent example of such participation is 
found in reports to parents formulated by children and teacher 
together. The essential problem here is to identify the learner’s 
interests with adult values. Even in comparatively recent years, 
we regarded children as adults in miniature. Now the pendulum 
is reaching the other extreme and we see some tendency to treat 
adolescents (and even adults) as if they were children. In pro¬ 
viding educational experiences it is possible to do too much as 
well as too little. Schools which oversupervise, overstimulate, 
and overpower defeat their own purposes. A middle ground is 
sought, based on understanding of the nature of childhood and 
adolescence and of the existence of social trends which limit the 
possibility of securing gainful occupation, postpone marriage 
and parenthood, and in a thousand other ways fundamentally 
affect educational processes and agencies. 

High-Pressure Learning May Defeat Its 
Chun Purpose 

Nursery schools and kindergartens provide carefully planned 
periods of relaxation in the midst of the school day’s busy 
activities. At the other end of the educational ladder we find 
some colleges which offer definite provisions for recreation and 
rest. Except at these two extremes of the school experience, 
education is typically maintained at a furioPs and hard-driving 
pace. In high schools every moment of the student’s day is care¬ 
fully scheduled. Time between classes is brief; the students 
often move from one educational exposure to another at 

[ 274 ] 



double-quick tempo. Time for the lunch hour is often too 
limited. Rest periods after meals and after exercise, which 
every healthy animal takes without special instruction, are 
ordinarily lacking. Even the hours after school are planned for 
homework and various extracurriculum activities, all usually 
good and desirable things in themselves,- but each making its 
demand for nervous and physical energy. 

In some elementary schools there is something approaching 
the speed-up and stretch-out system. Standards for mastery of 
the fundamental skills are more difficult and insistent than ever 
before. More efficient methods of teaching and better materials 
of instruction make it entirely reasonable to expect a higher 
degree of accuracy in arithmetic, a more rapid rate of silent 
reading, and a greater and more exact mastery of almost all 
subjects. Along with the demand for perfection in the tool 
subjects, the elementary-school program has very wisely been 
enriched and varied by pupil projects and activities. Further¬ 
more, the introduction of standardized tests, many of which 
are administered with stop-watch precision, has made possible 
a more rapid and exacting checkup on certain aspects of the 
educational product than ever before. 

At this point let it be said, and with emphasis, that 100 per¬ 
cent accuracy in the fundamentals, a varied program of school 
activities, and the use of standardized tests under a time limit, 
with reasonable precautions, are all good things in themselves. 
It is the total effect of these new tendencies which must not 
be overlooked. Social and economic trends are causing an 
increase in the number of years which the average person 
spends in school. Some of this leeway might well be used to 
allow for a more gradual mastery of the tools of learning, for 
the postponement of some types of learning until greater 
maturity is attained, and for a general adjustment of the speed 
of learning to the abilities of each child and to the inexorable 
demands of the human organism for rest and refreshment. To 
ignore these demands makes the race liable to- the stern but 
just punishment of nature. 

[27S ] 



Measurement of Outcomes Must Be Directly 
Related to the Objectives 

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

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

Most of the standardized testing instruments used in schools 
today deal largely with information. The same general condition 
doubtless holds'with respect to most nonst'andardized written 
examinations. There should be a much greater concern with 
the development of attitudes, interests, ideals, and habits. To 
focus tests exclusively on the acquisition and retention of in¬ 
formation may recognize objectives of education which are 
relatively unimportant. Measuring the results of education 
must be increasingly concerned with such questions as these: 
Are the children growing in their ability to work together for 
a common end? Do they show greater skill in collecting and 
weighing evidence? Are they learning to be fair and tolerant 
in situations where conflicts arise? Are they sympathetic in the 
presence of suffering and indignant in the presence of injustice? 
Do they show greater concern about questions of civic, social, 


[ 2 761 



and economic importance? Are they using their spending 
money more wisely? Are they becoming more skillful in doing 
some useful type of work? Are they more honest, more reliable, 
more temperate, more humane? Are they finding happiness 
in their present family life? Are they living in accordance with 
the rules of health? Are they acquiring skills in using all of the 
fundamental tools of learning? Are they curious about the 
natural world about them? Do they appreciate, each to the 
fullest degree possible, their rich inheritance in art, literature, 
and music? Do they balk at being led around by their prejudices? 

These are criteria suitable for estimating the effectiveness of 
a democratic school system—suitable because directly related 
to the basic purposes. Until such criteria assume high impor¬ 
tance in measuring educational results, the stated purposes of 
education are not likely to penetrate very fully into practice. 

A Complete Catalogue of Conditioning Factors 
Is Not Attempted 

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



[ 277 ]