,were ,you ,ever a ,child8 ,,by ,,the ,,same ,,author ,,moon-,,calf1 a ,,novel ,,the ,,briary-,,bush1 a ,,novel ,were ,you ,ever a ,child8 by ,floyd ,dell ,second ,edition1 with a ,new ,preface ,illustration ,new ,york ,alfred ,a ,knopf #aiba ,,copyright1 #aiai1 #aiba1 ,,by ,,alfred ,a4 ,,knopf1 ,,inc4 ,,printed ,,in ,,the ,,united ,,states ,,of ,,america ,,to ,,the ,,school ,,teachers ,,of ,,my ,,childhood ,,in ,,token ,,of ,,forgiveness ,preface ,this book is intended as an explanation of the new educational ideals and methods now being fostered and developed1 under great difficulties1 by courageous educators1 in various schools for the most part outside the public school system4 ,these schools are 8experimental0 in the sense that they are demonstrating upon a small scale the vast possibilities of a modern kind of education4 ,the importance of these schools consists not so much in the advantages which they are now able to give to a few of our children1 but rather in the prophetic vision they afford of all youth growing up with the same advantages4 ,before that can happen1 the public must discover what the new education signifies1 and why the old educational system is unable to keep up with the demands of modern civilization4 ,this book attempts only a small part of such a tremendous task of enlightenment4 ,but it does undertake a brief review of the educational situation in the light of our present scientific knowledge of human nature--and more especially1 of the human nature of the child4 ,education may be said to be1 essentially1 an adjustment between the child and the age in which he lives4 ,that adjustment can be a painless and happy one2 at present it is a sort of civil war4 ,this book deals precisely with the special problems involved in the difficult process of reconciling the nature of the child with the nature of our twentieth-century machine-culture4 ,the method chosen in these pages for the exposition of this situation is one which many readers will consider unduly flippant1 particularly in those passages which deal with the failure of the old educational system4 ,but one might as well laugh at that failure as cry over it2 for it is a ridiculous as well as a pathetic failure4 ,the important thing is to recognize that it is a failure1 and to lend a hand if we can in the creating of a better kind of education4 ,f4 ,d4 ,contents ,i ,the ,child #ac ,,ii ,the ,school ,building #bb ,,iii ,the ,teacher #bg ,,iv ,the ,book #cf ,v ,the ,magic ,theory of ,education #dg ,,vi ,the ,caste ,system of ,education #ec ,,vii ,the ,canonization of ,book-,magic #eh ,,viii ,the ,conquest of ,culture in ,america #fc ,,ix ,smith1 ,jones and ,robinson #fi ,x ,employer vs4 ,trade ,unionist #gd ,,xi ,the ,goose-,step #gg ,,xii ,the ,gary ,plan #hj ,,xiii ,learning to ,work #hc ,,xiv ,learning to ,play #ij ,,xv ,first and ,last ,things #if ,,xvi ,the ,child as ,artist #ajj ,,xvii ,the ,artist as a ,child #aae ,,xviii ,the ,drama of ,education #abd ,,xix ,the ,drama of ,life #acb ,,xx ,curiosity #acg ,,xxi ,the ,right to be ,wrong #adi ,,xxii ,enterprise #aeg ,,xxiii ,democracy #afg ,,xxiv ,responsibility #agc ,,xxv ,love #ahj ,,xxvi ,education in #aidg ,a4 ,d4 #aij ,were ,you ,ever a ,child8 ,were ,you ,ever a ,child8 ,were you ever a child8444 ,i ask out of no indecent curiosity as to your past4 ,but ,i wish to address only those who would naturally be interested in the subject of ,education4 ,those who haven't been children themselves are in many respects fortunate beings2 but they lack the background of bitter experience which makes this1 to the rest of us1 an acutely interesting theme--and they might just as well stop reading right here4 ,i pause to allow them to put the book aside4444 ,with my remaining audience1 fit though few1 ,i feel that ,i can get down at once to the brass tacks of the situation4 ,we have all been educated--and just look at us6 ,we ourselves1 as products of an educational system1 are sufficiently damning evidence against it4 ,if we think of what we happily might have been1 and then of what we are1 we cannot but concede the total failure or the helpless inadequacy of our education to educe those possibilities of ours into actuality4 ,looking back on those years upon years which we spent in school1 we know that something was wrong4 ,in this respect our adult convictions find impressive support in our earlier views on the subject4 ,if we will remember1 we did not1 at the time1 exactly approve of the school system4 ,many of us1 in fact1 went in for ,i4 ,w4 ,w4 tactics--especially sabotage4 ,our favourite brand of sabotage was the 8withdrawal of efficiency0--in our case a kind of instinctive passive resistance4 ,amiable onlookers1 such as our parents or the board of education1 might have thought that we were learning something all the while2 but that's just where we fooled 'em6 ,there were1 of course1 a few of us who really learned and remembered everything--who could state off-hand1 right now1 if anybody asked us1 in what year ,norman the ,conqueror landed in ,england4 ,but the trouble is that so few people ask us6 ,there was one bit of candour in our schooling--at its very end4 ,they called that ending a ,commencement4 ,and so indeed we found it4 ,bewildered1 unprepared1 out of touch with the realities1 we commenced then and there to learn what life is like4 ,we found it discouraging or inspiriting in a thousand ways2 but the thing which struck us at the time most forcibly was that it was in every respect quite unlike school4 ,the values which had obtained there1 did not exist outside4 ,one could not cram for a job as if it were an examination2 one could not get in the good graces of a machine as if it were a teacher2 the docility which won high 8marks0 in school was called lack of enterprise in the business world1 dulness in social life1 stupidity in the realm of love4 ,the values of real life were new and different4 ,we had been quite carefully prepared to go on studying and attending classes and taking examinations2 but the real world was not like that4 ,it was full of adventure and agony and beauty2 its politics were not in the least like the pages of the ,civics ,text-,book2 its journalism and literature had purposes and methods undreamed of by the professor who compiled 7from other text-books compiled by other professors7 the ,english ,composition ,book2 going on the road for a wholesale house was a geographical emprise into whose fearful darknesses even the ,advanced ,geography ,course threw no assisting light2 the economics of courtship and marriage and parenthood had somehow been overlooked by the man who ,lectured upon that ,subject4 ,whether we had studied our lessons or not2 whether we had passed our examinations triumphantly1 or just got through by the skin of our teeth--what difference did it make1 to us or to the world8 ,and what to us now are those triumphs and humiliations1 the failure or success of school1 except a matter of occasional humorous reminiscence8 ,what would we think of a long and painful and expensive surgical operation of which it could be said afterward that it made not the slightest difference to the patient whether it succeeded or failed8 ,yet1 judged by results in later life1 the difference between failing and succeeding in school is merely the difference between a railroad collision and a steamboat explosion1 as described by ,uncle ,tom3 8,if you's in a railroad smash-up1 why--thar yo' is6 ,but if yo's in a steamboat bus'-up1 why--whar is yo'80 ,it is our task1 however1 to investigate this confused catastrophe1 and fix the responsibility for its casualties4 ,i4 ,the ,child ,education1 as popularly conceived1 includes as its chief ingredients a ,child1 a ,building1 ,text-,books1 and a ,teacher4 ,obviously1 one of them must be to blame for its going wrong4 ,let us see if it is the ,child4 ,we will put him on the witness stand3 ,q4 ,who are you8 ,a4 ,i am a foreigner in a strange land4 ,q4 ,what6 ,a4 ,please1 sir1 that's what everybody says4 ,sometimes they call me a little angel2 the poet ,wordsworth says that ,i come trailing clouds of glory from ,heaven which is my home4 ,on the other hand1 ,i am often called a little devil2 and when you see the sort of things ,i do in the comic supplements1 you will perhaps be inclined to accept that description4 ,i really don't know which is right1 but both opinions seem to agree that ,i am an immigrant4 ,q4 ,speak up so that the jury can hear4 ,have you any friends in this country8 ,a4 ,no1 sir--not exactly4 ,but there are two people1 a woman and a man1 natives of this land1 who for some reason take an interest in me4 ,it was they who taught me to speak the language4 ,they also taught me many of the customs of the country1 which at first ,i could not understand4 ,for instance1 my preoccupation with certain natural--the rest of the sentence stricken from the record4 ,q4 ,you need not go into such matters4 ,i fear you still have many things to learn about the customs of the country4 ,one of them is not to allude to that side of life in public4 ,a4 ,yes1 sir2 so those two people tell me4 ,i'm sure ,i don't see why4 ,it seems to me a very interesting and important-- ,q4 ,that will do4 ,now as to those people who are looking after you3 ,are your relations with them agreeable8 ,a4 ,nominally1 yes4 ,but ,i must say that they have treated me in a very peculiar way1 which has aroused in me a deep resentment4 ,you see1 at first they treated me like a king--in fact1 like a ,kaiser4 ,i had only to wave my hand and they came running to know what it was ,i wanted4 ,i uttered certain magic syllables in my own language1 and they prostrated themselves before me1 offering me gifts4 ,when they brought the wrong gifts1 ,i doubled up my fists and twisted my face1 and gave vent to loud cries--and they became still more abject1 until at last ,i was placated4 ,q4 ,that is what is called parental love4 ,what then8 ,a4 ,i naturally regarded them as my slaves4 ,but presently they rebelled4 ,one of them1 of whom ,i had been particularly fond1 commenced to make me drink milk from a bottle instead of from-- ,q4 ,yes1 yes1 we understand4 ,and you resented that8 ,a4 ,i withdrew the light of my favour from her for a long time4 ,i expressed my disappointment in her4 ,i offered freely to pardon her delinquency if she would acknowledge her fault and resume her familiar duties4 ,but perhaps ,i did not succeed in conveying my meaning clearly1 for at this time ,i had no command of her language4 ,at any rate1 my efforts were useless4 ,and her reprehensible conduct was only the first of a series of what seemed to me indignities and insults4 ,i was no longer a king4 ,i was compelled to obey my own slaves4 ,in vain ,i made the old magic gestures1 uttered the old talismanic commands--in vain even my doubling up of fists and twisting of face and loud outcries2 the power was gone from these things4 ,yet not quite all the power--for my crying was at least a sort of punishment to them1 and as such ,i often inflicted it upon them4 ,q4 ,you were a naughty child4 ,a4 ,so they told me4 ,but ,i only felt aggrieved at my new helplessness1 and wished to recover somewhat of my old sense of power over them4 ,but as ,i gradually acquired new powers ,i lost in part my feeling of helplessness4 ,i also found that there were other beings like myself1 and we conducted magic ceremonies together in which we transformed ourselves and our surroundings at will4 ,these delightful enterprises were continually being interrupted by those other people1 our parents1 who insisted on our learning ever more and more of their own customs4 ,they wished us to be interested in their activities1 and they were pleased when we asked questions about things we did not understand4 ,yet there were some questions which they would not answer1 or which they rebuked us for asking1 or to which they returned replies that1 after consultation among ourselves1 we decided were fabulous4 ,so we were compelled to form our own theories about these things4 ,we asked1 for instance-- ,q4 ,please confine your answers to the questions4 ,that is another matter not spoken of in public2 though to be quite frank with you1 public taste seems to be changing somewhat in this respect4 ,a4 ,i am very glad to hear it4 ,i would like to know-- ,q4 ,not now1 not now4--,you say you have learned by this time many of the customs of the country8 ,a4 ,oh1 yes1 sir6 ,i can dress myself1 and wash my face 7though perhaps not in a manner quite above criticism71 count the change which the grocer gives me1 tell the time by a clock1 say 8,yes1 ma'am0 and 8,thank you0--and ,i am beginning to be adept in the great national game of baseball4 ,q4 ,have you decided what you would do if you were permitted to take part in our adult activities8 ,a4 ,i would like to be a truck-driver4 ,q4 ,why8 ,a4 ,because he can whip the big horses4 ,q4 ,do you know anything about machinery8 ,a4 ,no1 sir2 ,i knew a boy who had a steam-engine1 but he moved away before ,i got a chance to see how it worked4 ,q4 ,you spoke of truck-driving just now4 ,do you know where the truck-driver is going with his load8 ,a4 ,no1 sir4 ,q4 ,do you know where he came from8 ,a4 ,no1 sir4 ,q4 ,do you know what a factory is8 ,a4 ,yes1 sir2 ,jim's father got three fingers cut off in a factory4 ,q4 ,do you know where the sun rises and sets8 ,a4 ,it rises in the ,east and sets in the ,west4 ,q4 ,how does it get from the ,west back to the ,east during the night8 ,a4 ,it goes under the earth4 ,q4 ,how8 ,a4 ,it digs a tunnel6 ,q4 ,what does it dig the tunnel with8 ,a4 ,with its claws4 ,q4 ,who was ,george ,washington8 ,a4 ,he was the ,father of his country1 and he never told a lie4 ,q4 ,would you like to be a soldier8 ,a4 ,yes4 ,q4 ,if we let you take part in the government of our country1 what ticket would you vote8 ,a4 ,the ,republican ticket4 ,my father is a ,republican4 ,q4 ,what would you do if you had ten cents8 ,a4 ,i'd go to see ,charley ,chaplin in the moving-picture show4 ,q4 ,thank you4 ,you can step down4 ,a4 ,yes1 sir4 ,where is my ten cents8 ,and now1 gentlemen1 you have heard the witness4 ,he has told the truth--and nothing but the truth--and he would have told the whole truth if ,i had not been vigilant in defence of your modesty4 ,he is1 as he says1 a foreigner1 incompletely naturalized4 ,in certain directions his development has proceeded rapidly4 ,he shows a patriotism and a sense of political principles which are quite as mature as most of ours4 ,but in other directions there is much to be desired4 ,he does not know what kind of world it is he lives in1 nor has he any knowledge of how he could best take his place1 with the most satisfaction to himself and his fellow-men1 in that world--whether as farmer or engineer1 poet or policeman1 or in the humbler but none the less necessary capacities of dustman or dramatic critic4 ,it would be idle for us to pretend that we think it will be easy for him to learn all this4 ,but without this knowledge he is going to be a nuisance--not without a certain charm 7indeed1 ,i know several individuals who have remained children all their lives1 and they are the most delightful of companions for an idle hour71 but still1 by reason of incapacity and irresponsibility1 an undesirable burden upon the community3 unable to support himself1 and simply not to be trusted in the responsible relations of marriage and parenthood4 ,we simply can't let him remain in his present state of ignorance4 ,and yet1 how is he ever going to be taught8 ,you have seen just about how far private enterprise is likely to help him4 ,that man and woman of whom he told us have other things to do besides teach him4 ,and if he is turned over to special private institutions1 we have no guarantee that they will not take advantage of his helplessness1 keep him under their control and rob him of freedom of movement for a long term of years1 set him to learning a mass of fabulous or irrelevant information1 instil in him a fictitious sense of its value by a system of prizes and punishments1 and finally turn him out into our world no better prepared to take his proper part in it than he was before2 and thus1 having wasted his own time1 he would have to waste ours by compelling us to teach him all over again4 ,in fact1 the difficulty of dealing with him appears so great that ,i am moved to make the statesmanlike proposal--never before1 ,i believe1 presented to the public--of passing a law which will prevent this kind of undesirable immigration altogether4 ,shall we abolish the ,child8 ,the only other reasonable alternative is for us to undertake this difficult and delicate business of education ourselves--assume as a public responsibility the provision of a full opportunity for this helpless1 wistful1 stubborn little barbarian to find out about the world and about himself4 ,well1 shall we do that8 ,let us not allow any false sentimentality to affect our decision4444 ,the vote seems to be in favour of giving him his chance4 ,very well6 ,,ii4 ,the ,school ,building ,it is clear that what is most of all the matter with the child is his sense of helplessness4444 ,he told us how he lost inevitably his position of ,king in the magic realm of infancy--a kingship only to be recovered fragmentarily in dreams and in the fantasies of play--how he discovered himself to be little and weak and clumsy and ignorant of the ways of the strange real world4 ,it is clear too that the chief difference which separates us from childhood is the acquisition of a few powers1 physical and intellectual1 which make us feel to some extent masters of our world4 ,does not education1 then1 first of all consist in giving to children a progressive sense of power1 through a physical and intellectual mastery of their environment8 ,and would not the acquisition of an adequately increasing mastership deprive the child of any need for those outbursts of rage and malice and mischief which are today the most characteristic trait of childhood1 and which are only his attempt to deny his shameful helplessness8 ,shall we not try at the outset to make the child feel that he is a useful and important part of our world8 ,the answer to these questions being 8,yes10 we now turn to the building in which what now passes for education is conducted1 and inquire whether it answers this primary requirement4 ,but first of all1 let us free our minds from any lingering superstitions we may cherish with reference to school buildings4 ,let us get over the notion that school-buildings are sacrosanct1 like churches4 ,i am inclined to think that we have transferred to the school building some of our traditional respect for churches4 ,we feel that it is a desecration to allow dances and political meetings to be held there4 ,we seem to regard with jealous pride the utter emptiness and uselessness of our school buildings after hours2 it is a kind of ceremonial wastefulness which appeals to some deep-seated ridiculous barbaric sense of religious taboo in us4 ,well1 we must get over it if we are to give the children a square deal4 ,if it should turn out that the school building is wrong1 we must be prepared to abolish it4 ,and we must get over our notion that a school building is necessary in order for a school to exist4 ,the most famous school in the world had no building at all--only a stretch of outdoors1 with some grass and a few plane trees4 ,of course1 the ,greeks were fonder of the open air than we are1 and their winters were less severe4 ,and then1 too1 the ,greek idea of education was simpler than ours4 ,it comprised simply athletics and philosophy and one or two other aristocratic subjects which ,i forget at the moment--art being regarded as manual labour1 just as the drama was considered a religious function1 and government a kind of communal festivity6 ,and1 of course1 the ,persian theory of education--to be able to ride1 shoot1 and tell the truth--could be carried out under the open sky better than anywhere else4 ,but our aims are more elaborate1 and it may very well be true--in fact1 ,i have been convinced of it all along--that much of our educational process should be carried on indoors4 ,but let us not be too hasty in conceding the ,school ,building's right to existence4 ,there is another side to the question4 ,the trouble is1 once you give a ,school ,building permission to exist1 it straightway commences to put on semi-sacerdotal airs--as if it were a kind of outcast but repentant church4 ,it arranges itself into dingy little secular chapels1 with a kind of furtive pulpit in front for the teacher1 and a lot of individual pews for the mourners4 ,it makes the chemistry laboratory1 which it regards as a profane intruder1 feel cramped and uncomfortable2 it puts inconveniences in the way of the gymnasium2 and it is dreadfully afraid some one will think that the assembly hall will look like a theatre2 while as for carpentry and printing shops1 ateliers for sculpture groups1 and a furnace for the pottery class1 it feels that it has lost caste utterly if it is forced to admit them2 nor will it condescend to acknowledge such a thing as a kitchen-garden in its back yard as having any relation to itself4 ,you can well understand that if it has these familiar adjuncts of everyday life1 it will seem just like part of the ordinary world2 and so it tries its hardest to keep them out1 and generally succeeds pretty well4 ,but since what we started out to do was to teach children what the world of reality is like1 it is necessary that they should be in and of the real world4 ,and since the real world outside is not1 unfortunately1 fully available for educational purposes1 it is necessary to provide them with the real world on a smaller scale--a world in which they can1 without danger1 familiarize themselves with their environment in its essential aspects--a world which is theirs to observe1 touch1 handle1 take apart and put back together again1 play with1 work with1 and become master of2 a world in which they have no cause to feel helpless or weak or useless or unimportant2 a world from which they can go into the great world outside without any abrupt transition--a world1 in short1 in which they can learn to be efficient and happy human beings4 ,the ,school ,building1 imposing upon our credulity and pretending to be too sacred for these purposes1 needs to be taken down from its pedestal4 ,it may be permitted to have a share in the education of our youth if it will but remember that it is no more important in that process than a garden1 a swimming tank1 a playground1 the library around the corner1 the woods where the botany class goes1 or the sky overhead that exhibits its constellations gladly at the request of the science teacher4 ,let it humble itself while there is yet time1 and not expect its little guests to keep silence within its walls as if they were in a church1 for it may even yet be overthrown--and replaced by a combination theatre-gymnasium-studio-office-and-mode l-factory building4 ,and then it will be sorry6 ,,iii4 ,the ,teacher ,shall the ,teacher be abolished8444 ,what's that you say8--,oh1 but surely not before she has had a hearing6--the worst criminal deserves that much consideration4 ,i beg of you to let me speak one moment in her behalf4--,ah1 thank you1 my friends4 7,sister1 you had a tight squeak just then6 ,if it hadn't been for my presence of mind and my habitual coolness in the presence of infuriated mobs1 ,i hate to think what would have happened4--,and now let me see3 what can ,i say in your behalf8 ,h'm4444 ,h'm44447 ,my friends1 this unhappy woman 7for we shall centre our attention on the female of the species7 is more sinned against than sinning4 ,reflect6 ,the status of women in the ,united ,states has changed in the last fifty years4 ,modern industry has almost utterly destroyed the old pioneer home with its partnership-marriage2 ambitious young men no longer have an economic need for capable women-partners2 women have lost their wonted economic value as potential helpers1 and their capacity for motherhood appears to the largest section of young manhood in the aspect of a danger rather than a blessing4 ,women have1 to be sure1 acquired a new value1 in the eyes of a smaller class of economically 8arrived0 men1 as a sign of their 8arrival0--that is1 they are desired as advertisements of their husbands' economic status4 ,in one sense1 the task of demonstrating the extent of a husband's income is easier than the pioneer task of helping take care of a farm and raising a houseful of babies2 but1 after all1 such a career does require either natural talent or a high degree of training in the graceful habits of conspicuous idleness and honorific extravagance4 ,and1 whether it is that the vast majority of women spurned such a career as an essentially immoral one1 or whether they were not really up to its requirements1 or whether the demand was found to be more than met by the hordes of candidates turned out yearly by the boarding-schools--whatever the reason1 the fact remains that a large number of women began to see the necessity and to conceive the desirability of some career other than marriage4 ,but industrial evolution1 which had destroyed their former opportunities1 had failed to make any considerable or at least any decent room for them in the industrial scheme4 ,most particularly was this true for the young women of the middle class4 ,they were unable to go into the professions or the respectable trades1 and unwilling 7for excellent reasons7 to enter the factories2 they were given no opportunity to learn how to do anything--they were 7quite against their will1 but inevitably7 condemned to profound ignorance of the most important things in the world--work and love2 and so1 naturally1 they became ,teachers4 ,the world did not want them1 and so they stayed out of the world1 in that drab1 quasi-religious edifice1 the ,school ,building1 and prepared others to go into the world4444 ,good ,heavens6 do you suppose for a minute1 if this unfortunate woman had known enough about ,anything in ,particular to get a respectable job outside1 that she would have stayed in there to teach ,everything in ,general8#a ,do you suppose she wants to be a ,teacher8 ,do you suppose she likes pretending to be adept in a dozen difficult subjects at once1 inflicting an impossible ideal of 8order0 upon the forty restless children whom her weary1 amateur1 underpaid efforts at instruction have failed to interest1 spending her days in the confronting of an impossible task and her nights in the 8correcting0 of an endless series of written proofs of her failure--and1 on top of that1 being denied most of her human rights8 ,the munition-factory girls at least had their fling when the day's work was over2 but she is expected to be a ,vestal4 ,in some places she can't get married without losing her job2 in ,new ,york1 if she is married1 she can't have a baby6 ,no--it is her misfortune1 not her fault1 that she is what she is4 ,in fact1 ,i think that if we could have managed to keep the war going a little longer1 she would have pretty much abolished herself4 ,abdication is becoming popular1 and she among all the monarchs is not the least uncomfortable and restricted and hedged in by useless divinity4 ,her abdication will be as disturbing an event as the ,russian ,revolution4 ,the ,russians were accustomed to their ,czar2 but they just had to learn to get along without him4 ,and perhaps a similar lesson is in store for us4444 ,you find it a little difficult to imagine what ,school would be like without ,teachers8 ,well1 for one thing1 it would be more like the rest of the world than it is now--and that1 we agreed1 was what we wanted4 ,where else1 indeed1 except in ,school1 do you find ,teachers8 ,the rest of the world manages to get along without them very well4 ,perhaps it is merely a superstition that they are needed in ,school6 ,let us inquire into the matter4 ,what do people in the outside world do when they want to learn something8 ,they go to somebody who knows about it1 and ask him4 ,they do not go to somebody who is reputed to know about everything--except1 when they are very young1 to their parents3 and they speedily become disillusioned about that variety of omniscience4 ,they go to somebody who might reasonably be expected to know about the particular thing they are interested in4 ,when a man buys a motor-car1 he does not say to himself3 8,where can ,i find somebody who can teach me how to run a motor-car and dance the tango and predict a rise on the stock-market80 ,he does not look in the telephone directory under ,t4 ,he just gets an experienced driver to teach him4 ,and when the driver tells him that this is the self-starter1 and proceeds to start the car with it1 a confidence is established which makes him inclined to believe all he can understand of what he is presently told about the mysterious functions of the carburetor4 ,he does not even inquire if the man has taken vows of celibacy4 ,he just pays attention and asks questions and tries to do the thing himself1 until he learns4 ,but this case1 of course1 assumes an interest of the pupil in the subject1 a willingness and even a desire to learn about it1 a feeling that the matter is of some importance to himself4 ,and come to think of it1 these motives are generally present in the learning that goes on in the outside world4 ,it is only in ,school that the pupil is expected to be unwilling to learn4 ,when you were a child1 and passed the door of the village blacksmith shop1 and looked in1 day after day1 you saw the blacksmith heating a piece of iron red hot in the furnace1 or twisting it deftly with his pincers1 or dropping it sizzling into a tub of water1 or paring a horse's hoofs1 or hammering in the silvery nails with swift blows2 you admired his skill1 and stood in awe of his strength2 and if he had offered to let you blow the bellows for him and shown you how to twist a red-hot penny1 that would have been a proud moment4 ,it would also have been an educational one4 ,but suppose there had been a new shop set up in the town1 and when you looked in at the open door you saw a man at work painting a picture2 and suppose a bell rang just then1 and the man stopped painting right in the middle of a brush-stroke1 and commenced to read aloud 8,how ,they ,brought the ,good ,news from ,ghent to ,aix02 and suppose when he was half way through1 the bell rang again1 and he said1 8,we will go on with that tomorrow10 and commenced to chisel the surface of a piece of marble2 and then1 after a little1 somewhat exhaustedly1 started in to play 8,the ,rock of ,ages0 on a flute1 interrupting the tune to order you to stand up straight and not whisper to the little boy beside you4 ,there's no doubt what you would think of him2 you would know perfectly well that he was crazy2 people don't do things in that way anywhere in the world1 except in school4 ,and even if he had assured you that painting and poetry1 sculpture and music1 were later in your life going to be matters of the deepest importance and interest1 and that you should start in now with the determination of becoming proficient in the arts1 it would not have helped much4 ,not very much4 ,it's nonsense that children do not want to learn4 ,everybody wants to learn4 ,and everybody wants to teach4 ,and the process is going on all the time4 ,all that is necessary is to put a person who knows something--really knows it--within the curiosity-range of some one who doesn't know it3 the process commences at once4 ,it is almost irresistible4 ,in the interest of previous engagements one has to tear one's self away from all sorts of opportunities to learn things which may never be of the slightest use but which nevertheless are alluring precisely because one does not know them4 ,people talk about children being hard to teach1 and in the next breath deplore the facility with which they acquire the 8vices40 ,that seems strange4 ,it takes as much patience1 energy and faithful application to become proficient in a vice as it does to learn mathematics4 ,yet consider how much more popular poker is than equations6 ,but did a schoolboy ever drop in on a group of teachers who had sat up all night parsing1 say1 a sentence in ,henry ,james1 or seeing who could draw the best map of the ,north ,atlantic ,states8 ,and when you come to think of it1 it seems extremely improbable that any little boy ever learned to drink beer by seeing somebody take a tablespoonful once a day4 ,i think that if there were no teachers--no hastily and superficially trained ,vestals who were supposed to know everything--but just ordinary human beings who knew passionately and thoroughly one thing 7but you'd be surprised to find what a lot of other knowledge that would incidentally comprise67 and who had the patience to show little boys and girls how to do that thing--we might get along without ,immaculate ,omniscience pretty well4 ,of course1 we'd have to pay them more1 because they could get other jobs out in the larger world2 and besides1 you couldn't expect to get somebody who knows how to do something1 for the price you are accustomed to pay those who only know how to teach everything4 ,nor need the change necessarily be abrupt4 ,it could probably be effected with considerable success by firing all the teachers at the beginning of the summer vacations1 and engaging their services as human beings for the next year4 ,many of them would find no difficulty at all in readjusting themselves4444 ,,iv4 ,the ,book ,of the ingredients of the educational catastrophe1 the only one remaining to be discussed is the ,book4 ,is it to blame for the failure of the process which has brought us to our present state of elaborate ignorance1 and ought it to be abolished8 ,what have books got to do with education1 anyway8 ,not half as much as most people think6 ,if education is learning to be a civilized human being1 books have their place in it4 ,but civilized life is composed of a number of things besides books--it contains machinery1 art1 political organization1 handicraft1 flowers and birds1 and other things too numerous to mention1 all of which are notoriously capable of being learned about in the great world outside without the use of books4 ,if in the great world outside the school1 then why not in the little world inside the school8 ,not that the use of books should be ever avoided anywhere for the sake of the avoidance4 ,books are a convenience--or an inconvenience1 as the case may be4 ,like other valuable human utilities1 they are frequently a nuisance if obtruded in the place of better things4 ,every intelligent person has the same attitude toward books that he has toward his sweetheart's photograph3 if she is out of reach1 if the picture furnishes him his only way of seeing her1 he values it profoundly2 but if she is in the next room1 he does not linger with the image4 ,true1 he may fall in love with the picture first--the picture may reveal to him the girl whom otherwise he might never have appreciated2 and books do make us appreciate aspects of reality which we have neglected4 ,but in education books are not an adequate substitute for direct contact with the realities with which they deal1 precisely because they do not give the sense of power which only comes from direct contact with reality4 ,it is the function of books to assist in that educational contact--not to take the place of it4 ,there is1 indeed1 a sense in which books are the most egregious fraud ever perpetrated upon a world hungry for the knowledge which is power4 ,i am reminded of the scene in 8,the ,wild ,duck10 when the father returns home from a grand dinner party4 ,he has promised to bring his little daughter some sweetmeats or cake--and he has forgotten to do so4 ,but--he grandly draws from his pocket a piece of printed matter--8,here1 my child1 is the menu3 you can sit down and read about the whole dinner60 ,poor little ,hedvig knew that she wasn't getting anything to eat2 but some of us don't realize that for years and years2 we dutifully masticate the innutritious contents of text-books while we are starving for a taste of reality4 ,take geography1 for instance4 ,i know quite well that it was not the intention of the author of the text-book which ,i studied that ,i should conceive the state of ,illinois as yellow and the neighbouring state of ,indiana as pale green3 but ,i do to this day4 ,they were not realities to me1 but pictures in a book2 and they were not realities because they had no relation whatever to real experience4 ,if ,i had been asked to draw a map of the school grounds1 with the boys' side distinguished by one colour and the girls' by another1 that convention would thereafter have seemed only what it was4 ,if ,i had drawn a map of the town ,i lived in1 ,i would have been thenceforth unable1 ,i am sure1 to see a map without feeling the realities of stream and wood and hill and house and farm of which it is a conventional abstraction4 ,i would1 in short1 have learned something about geography4 ,the very word would have acquired a fascinating significance--the depiction of the surface of the earth6 whereas all the word geography actually means to me now is--a large flat book4 ,and if an aviator should stop me and ask which is the way to ,illinois1 ,i couldn't for my life tell him3 but if you brought me that old geography book and opened it to the map of the ,united ,states1 ,i could put my finger on ,illinois in the dark6 ,you see1 ,illinois is for me not a part of the real world--it is a yellow picture in a large flat book4 ,in the same way1 ,i have the impression that the ,american ,revolution happened in a certain thick book bound in red cloth--not by any chance in the ,new ,york and ,new ,england whose streets ,i have walked in4 7,and1 for that matter1 as ,i have later discovered1 much of the ,american ,revolution of the school histories--such as the ,boston ,tea-,party as described--did not happen anywhere except in the pages of such text-books74 ,the only thing ,i know about the crossing of the ,delaware1 for example1 is that it is a ,leading ,fact of ,american ,history1 and occurred on the right hand page1 a little below and to the left of a picture4 ,and this conception of historical events as a series of sentences occurring in a certain order on a certain page1 seems to me the inevitable consequence of learning history from a text-book4 ,there are other objections to the use of text-books4 ,one is their frequent perversion or suppression of truth for moral1 patriotic or sentimental reasons3 in this respect they are like practically all books intended for children4 ,they are generally pot-boilers written by men of no standing in the intellectual or even in the scholastic world4 ,but even when a text-book is written by a man of real learning1 the absence of a critical audience of his equals seems often to deprive him of a stimulus necessary to good writing1 and leave him free to indulge in long-repressed childishnesses of his own which he would never dare exhibit to a mature public4 ,and even when text-books are neither grossly incompetent nor palpably dishonest1 there is nevertheless almost invariably something cheap and trashy about their composition which repels the student who can choose his own books4 ,why should they be inflicted upon helpless children8 ,even if all text-books were miracles of accuracy and order1 even if they all showed literary talent of a high degree1 their usefulness would still be in question4 ,if children are to be given a sense of the reality of the events which they study1 they must get some feeling of contact with the facts4 ,and to this project the use of a text-book is fatal4 ,let us turn to history once more4 ,i take it that a text-book of history1 as intended and as used1 is a book which tells everything which it is believed necessary for the pupil to know4 ,right there it divorces itself1 completely and irrevocably1 from the historical category4 ,history is not a statement of what people ought to know4 ,history is an inquiry into the nature and relationship and significance of past events4 ,not a pronouncement upon these things1 but a searching into them4 ,now the outstanding fact about past events is that they happened some time ago4 ,the historian does not1 to begin with1 know what happened1 let alone how and why it happened4 ,he is dependent upon other people's reports4 ,his chief task is often to determine the comparative accuracy of these various reports4 ,and when we read the writings of a real historian1 the sense of contact we have with the events under discussion comes from our feeling that we have listened to a crowd of contrary witnesses1 and1 with our author's assistance1 got at the truth behind their words4 ,more than that1 the historian himself is addressing you1 not as if he thought you had never read anything on the subject before and never would again1 but with implicit or explicit reference to the opinions of other historians4 ,he is himself only one of a crowd of witnesses1 from all of whose testimony he expects you to form your own opinion of those past events which none of you will ever meet face to face4 ,compare this with the school text-book4 ,it was evidently written by ,omniscience ,itself1 for it does not talk as if the facts were in the slightest doubt1 as if there were any two opinions about them1 as if it were necessary to inquire into the past to find out something about it4 ,it does not condescend to offer an opinion in agreement or in controversy with the views of others4 ,it does not confess any difficulty in arriving at a just conclusion4 ,no--it says ,this happened and ,that happened4 ,perhaps it is all true as gospel4 ,but facts so presented are abstractions1 devoid of the warmth and colour of reality4 ,even the schools have learned how uninteresting dates are4 ,but they do not realize that dates are uninteresting because1 since nobody can possibly doubt them1 it does no good whatever to believe in them4 ,it is only those truths which need the assistance of our belief that engage our interest4 ,it is only then that they concern us4 ,we are interested in politics because it is the process of making up our minds about the future2 and we are interested in history1 when we are interested1 because it is the process of making up our minds about the past4 ,by eliminating the text-book1 or by using it simply as a convenient syllabus and chronological guide to an inquiry into the significance and relationship of the events of the past1 with the aid of every good historical work available for reference1 the study of history would become a matter of concern to the pupil2 and the past1 looked at from several angles1 and down a felt perspective of time1 would become real4 ,i am aware that this is done in the higher flights of the educational system4 ,but why is it that the easy and profitable methods of learning are put off so long and the hardest and most profitless forced upon children8 ,is it that easier learning means harder teaching8 ,i am not sure of that2 the only difficulty about such a method as ,i have described would be in the mere change from the old to the new4 ,no1 ,i think the real trouble lies in the superstition of the ,book4 ,this may be seen in the teaching of mathematics4 ,before they come to school1 children have usually learned to count1 and learned easily because they were counting real objects4 ,the objective aspect of mathematics is almost immediately lost sight of in school4 ,even the blackboard affords no release from the book1 for who ever saw a blackboard outside a schoolroom8 ,mathematics comes to seem something horribly useless4 ,the child simply does not believe that people ever go through these tortures when they grow up4 ,even the suggestive fables into which the 8examples0 are sometimes cast1 fail to convince him4 8,if a carpenter--0 8,a salesman has--0 ,but he is neither a carpenter nor a salesman4 ,he is a weary child1 and he is not going to pretend to be a carpenter or a salesman unless he gets some fun out of it4 ,the thing about a carpenter or a salesman which appeals to the child's imagination is something other than mathematics4 ,no1 the printed word does not suffice4 ,but let him be a carpenter or salesman for the nonce1 let him with saw or sugar-scoop in hand find it to be necessary to add1 subtract1 multiply1 divide and deal in fractions1 and he will rise undaunted to the occasion4 ,and1 having found in actual practice just what his difficulties are1 he will cheerfully use book and blackboard4 ,where there's a will there's a way1 and mathematics has only to come to seem a desirable acquisition to become an easily mastered one4 ,i should say that the ideal way of teaching a boy of eight mathematics--including1 if necessary1 trigonometry--is as a part of the delightful task of constructing a motorcycle4 ,i remember that ,i gained in twenty-four hours an insight into the mysteries of ,english grammar which ,i had failed to get in the #abjj odd lessons previously inflicted on me in school--and ,i gained that insight in writing my first short story4 ,when an effect that you yourself want to achieve depends on a preposition or a fraction1 then1 and only then1 are such things humanly worth knowing4 ,if you want to see the most terrific and damning criticism of text-books1 open one of them which has been used by a child1 and see it written there on the margins in fretful and meandering curleques1 which say as plainly as the handwriting on ,belshazzar's wall1 8,i have weighed this book in the balance and found it wanting4 ,it does not interest me4 ,it leaves my spirit vexed and impatient40 ,i have estimated that the scrawl-work in a single average schoolbook1 if unwound and placed end to end1 would extend along the ,lincoln ,highway from ,weehawken1 ,n4 ,j41 to ,davenport1 ,ia42 while the total energy which goes into the making of these scrawls each day in the public schools of ,new ,york ,city alone1 would be sufficient to hoist a grand piano to the top of the ,woolworth building4 ,the grand total for the ,united ,states of the soul-power that dribbles out into these ugly pencilings1 amounts to a huge ,niagara of wasted energy4 ,the ,book1 as the centre of our educational process1 must be demoted4 ,it is a good servant1 but a bad master4 ,and only as a servant can it be tolerated--as an adjunct to the gardens and workshops and laboratories and kitchens and studios and playgrounds of the school-world4 ,v4 ,the ,magic ,theory of ,education ,but these are not the only superstitions which have muddled the educational process4 ,you have heard that favourite speech of the condemned criminal3 8,i never had no education40 ,he does not refer to moral education2 he is not complaining that he was never instructed as to the sacredness of life and private property4 ,he means that he never studied arithmetic and geography and spelling--or not enough to mention4 ,he means that geography1 etc41 would have saved him from a life of crime and a finish behind the bars4 ,and you have heard some unlettered parent1 come from a foreign shore1 repeat over and over3 8,my boy1 he get education4 ,i no have education4 ,but my boy--he get education40 ,or words to that effect4 ,true2 his boy will have a better chance than he himself had2 he may become ,president of the ,united ,states or of a ,fruit ,trust4 ,and it is equally true of the other man1 that if he had learned arithmetic in school instead of sneak-thievery from the ,carmine street gang1 he would probably now be making shoes in a factory instead of in ,sing ,sing4 ,there is much plain common sense in both these views of education4 ,but there is more of plain folk-mysticism4 ,both speakers think of themselves as having had to struggle along in the ordinary natural way1 in the one case by day-labour and in the other by petty larceny2 and they contrast their lot with that of the fortunate ones who by means of an esoteric kind of knowledge have found an easy way of life4 ,this knowledge1 they believe1 is reposed exclusively in certain difficult and officially designated books1 which can be made to yield their secrets only through a process called going-to-school1 and by the aid of a kind of public functionary called a teacher4 ,this mysterious and beneficent procedure is the popular conception of education4 ,the school building and the teacher are the later and more external elements of the cult4 ,it is at heart a belief in the magic--one might call it the black-and-white magic--of books4 ,now the essence of the belief in magic is the wish of the weak person to be strong--magic being the short straight line in the wish-world from weakness to strength4 ,think for a moment of some childhood fairy tale4 ,the ,hero is not the strong man4 ,it is the wicked ,giant who is strong4 ,the rle of brute force is always played by malevolent powers4 ,the ,hero1 stripped of his magical appurtenances1 is not much to look at4 ,almost invariably he is the youngest of the family1 and is often represented as diminutive in size or stature4 ,and the older the fairy tale1 the more physically insignificant he is4 ,it is only later1 when the motif of romantic love enters into folk-fiction1 that the hero must be tall and handsome4 ,at the earlier period he is frankly a weakling1 as ,man in primitive times no doubt felt himself to be1 in comparison with the mastodon and the aurochs2 and frequently he is regarded at the outset by the rest of the family with contempt1 as no doubt was ,man by the other animals when his great ,adventure began4 ,like ,man1 the fairy-tale hero is confronted with an impossible task--sometimes by a whole series of such tasks1 which he must somehow perform successfully if he wishes to survive2 and1 by no superior strength1 but by some blessed help from outside1 a singing bush1 a talking bird1 by the aid of some supernatural weapon1 and1 above all1 by the use of some talismanic ,word1 he achieves his exploits4 ,thus does the weakling1 the youngest child1 the harassed prey of hateful powers1 become the ,giant-,killer1 the ,dragon-,slayer1 the ,conquering ,hero6 ,it is very human1 this pathetic assertion that weakness must turn into strength4 ,and1 if it had not been for such a confidence1 primitive ,man might very well have given up the game1 surrendered the field to his contemporaries of the animal kingdom4 ,and this confidence might1 somewhat fancifully1 be described as a previsionary sense in early ,man of the larger destinies of his race4 ,in very truth1 the weakness from which it sprang was the thing which made possible these larger destinies4 ,for the unlimited adaptations of mankind are due precisely to his weakness4 ,it is because ,man lacked the horns of the bull and the teeth of the tiger that he was forced to invent the club1 the spear1 the sword1 the bow-and-arrow2 it was because he lacked the fleetness of the deer that he had to tame and teach the horse to carry him2 because he felt himself to be intolerably inferior to bird and fish that he could not rest content until he had invented the airplane and the submarine4 ,in short1 because he was the weakest of all the creatures on earth1 he had to take refuge from the terrible truth in a childish but dynamic wish-dream of becoming--by some mysterious help from outside--the lord of creation4 ,fairy lore may be read as a record of the ancient awe and gratitude of mankind to the miracles of human adaptation which served that childish wish4 ,the all-powerful fairy wand is simply that unnatural and hence supernatural thing1 the stick1 broken from a magically helping tree and made to serve a human purpose2 the sceptre of royalty is that same magic stick preserved to us in the lingering fairy-tale of monarchy4 ,but more potent even than the magic of wand or sword in fairy lore is the magic of words4 ,and truly enough it was the miracle of language which made the weakest creature on earth the strongest4 ,writing1 that mysterious silent speech1 holding in leash the unknown powers of the magic word until it met the initiate eye1 must have had for mankind a special awe and fascination1 a quality of ultimate beauty and terror4444 ,this flavour of magical potency still clings to the ,book4 ,it is the greatest of the mysterious helps by which ,man makes his dream of power come true4 ,who can blame the poor jailbird who thinks that there was1 in the dull1 incompetent pages of the text-books which you and ,i carried so unwillingly to school1 an ,open ,sesame to a realm of achievement beyond his unaided power to reach6 ,and who can blame the poor immigrant parent if he regards the officially designated ,books which his children bring home from school as a talisman against those harsh evils of the world which he in his ignorance has had to suffer6 ,but the magic theory is not the only popular superstition about education4 ,there is another1 even more deeply and stubbornly rooted in the human mind4 ,,vi4 ,the ,caste ,system of ,education ,now what has ,caste to do with ,education8 ,quite as much as ,magic4 ,you shall see4 ,from the point of view of the student of education1 the ,caste system appears as a method of simplifying the hereditary transmission of knowledge--in short1 as a primitive method of education4 ,this will be the more readily apparent if we glance for a moment at its prehistoric origins4 ,before man was man1 he was an animal4 ,he relied1 like the rest of the animals1 on a psychically easy--and lazy--mode of adaptation to reality4 ,he had a specific set of 8instinctive0 reactions to familiar stimuli4 ,doubt had not entered his soul4 ,he had no conflicting impulses to torment him4 ,his bag of instinctive animal tricks sufficed4 ,but something happened to mar the easy perfection of his state4 ,some change in environmental conditions1 perhaps1 made his set of definite reactions inadequate4 ,for the first time he didn't know exactly how to meet the situation4 ,conflicting impulses shook his mind2 doubt entered his soul--and ,thought was born4 ,man thought because he had to think4 ,but he hated to1 because it was the hardest thing he had ever done6 ,he learned--unwillingly--more and more about how to live2 he increased the number and the complexity of his adaptations2 but he sought always to codify these adaptations into something resembling the bag of tricks which he had had to leave behind4 ,and when it came to passing on the knowledge of these new adaptations to the younger generation--when it came1 in short1 to education--he did the job in as easy a way as he conscientiously could4 ,you have seen a cat teaching her kittens how to catch mice1 or a pair of birds teaching their young ones to fly4 ,it is so simple6 ,the thing to be learned is easy--easy1 because the cat is formed to catch mice and the bird to fly4 ,and1 once mastered1 these tricks and a few others as simple constitute the sum of animal education4 ,there is no more to learn2 these equip the animal to deal successfully with reality4 ,how a human parent must envy ,tabby the simplicity and certainty of her task6 ,she has only to go on the theory that a cat is an animal which lives by catching mice in order to fulfil her whole educational duty4 ,and human parents did desire 7as indeed1 consciously or unconsciously1 they do yet7 such a simplification of their task4 ,primitive mankind wanted to pass on to the new generation a simple bag of tricks4 ,of course1 there is no specific bag of tricks which suffices ,man to live by2 he is what he is precisely by virtue of a capacity for unlimited adaptation to environment4 ,if the bag of monkey-tricks had sufficed1 about all we know now would be how to climb trees and pick cocoanuts4 ,our ancestors learned because they must2 and they passed on what they had learned to their successors--but in a form dictated by their wish to keep human behaviour as near as possible to the simple and easy character of animal life4 ,they put on the brakes4 ,because mankind already knew more than it thought one animal species ought to have to know1 it started to divide itself into sub-species4 ,the division into the male and female sub-species came first--and has lasted longest4 ,the young men were educated for war and the chase1 and the young women for domestic duties4 ,and this is essentially a division not of physical but rather of intellectual labour4 ,it was a separation of the burden of knowing how to behave in life's emergencies--a separation which by its simplicity gave such satisfaction to the primitive mind that he hated and feared any disturbance of it4 ,to this day a man is not so much ashamed of doing 8woman's work0 as of seeming to know how to do it4 ,it is no disgrace for a man to sew on a button--provided he does it clumsily2 and the laugh with which men and women greet each other's awkward intrusions into each other's 8spheres of effort0 is a reassurance to the effect that the real taboo against knowing how has not been violated4 ,it is for this reason that women had so much harder a time to fight their way into the 8masculine0 professions to which a preliminary education was necessary than to enter the factories1 where only strength was supposed to be required2 and why 7aside from the economic reasons7 they have so much difficulty in entering trades which must be learned by apprenticeship4 ,an interesting echo of this primitive taboo is to be found in ,new ,york ,city1 where a telephone girl who wants to study the science which underlies her labours would find in certain public schools that the electricity classes are for boys exclusively4 ,the other social and economic groups into which mankind divided itself tended to perpetuate themselves as simulated sub-species by the transmission of special knowledge along strict hereditary lines4 ,crafts of every sort--whether metal-working or magic1 architecture or agriculture1 seafaring or sheep-breeding1 even poetry and prostitution--came more and more to be inherited1 until among some of the great ancient peoples the caste system became the foundation of society4 ,ultimately the caste system per se was shattered by the demand of the process which we call civilization for a more variously adaptable creature--for human beings4 ,but it survives almost intact in certain class educational institutions1 such as the finishing schools for girls--institutions devoted to teaching the particular bag of tricks which will enable those who learn them to occupy successfully and without further adaptation a hereditary 7or quasi-hereditary7 position in society--to be a 8finished0 and perfect member of a definite and unchanging human sub-species4 ,the most potent harm which the caste theory of education has effected1 however1 is in its stultification of the true magic of the written word4 ,let us see how that came about4 ,,vii4 ,the ,canonization of ,book-,magic ,it was inevitable that the particular kind of knowledge which is represented by books should become the property of a certain caste2 and it was inevitable that this caste should confine the hereditary transmission of that knowledge chiefly to such works as had been transmitted from the previous generation4 ,fortunately1 the literate caste could not extinguish literature4 ,for the presumptively less sacred writings which had been denied entrance to the canon because they were new were1 so to speak1 allowed to lie around loose where everybody could get at them4 ,thus the true magic of book-knowledge was released from the boundaries of caste1 and became more and more a universal property4 ,but nobody had any great respect for this growing body of 8profane0 literature4 ,popular awe was reserved for the body of sacred literature in the possession of the specifically literate caste4 ,frequently the distinction was marked by a deliberate difference in the languages or characters in which the two kinds of literature were written--sacred literature being written in the older1 hieratic writing which nobody not of the literate caste could read4 ,note the result at this stage of the process3 it is precisely those books which are1 on the whole1 least likely to be of present value to mankind1 which are regarded with superstitious reverence4 ,the most striking example is found in pre-revolutionary ,china1 where the relics of an age utterly out of touch with the newer achievements in human adaptation were learned by heart in the schools and made the basis of civil-service examinations4 ,at this point of our ideal but not at all fanciful sketch1 a new factor enters--class jealousy4 ,the literate caste is found to be associated and partly identified with the leisure class4 ,sacred literature has become leisure class literature1 and the aspirations of the less fortunate classes toward leisure class prerogatives include a special desire1 tinged with the old superstitious reverence1 for the forbidden books4 ,these were more or less unconsciously supposed to be1 if not actually responsible for1 at least bound up with1 leisure class power4 ,and finally the great democratizing movements in which some enterprising lower class wrests from some moribund leisure class its possessions1 seizes triumphant hold on its 8classics0 and makes them a general possession4 ,this sketch is so pieced together from all times and places that it may decidedly seem to need the reinforcement of evidence4 ,let us therefore call to the stand that young man over there who looks like an ,intelligent ,young ,immigrant4 ,he comes unabashed1 and we proceed to question him3 ,q4 ,do you buy books8 ,a4 ,yes1 of course4 ,q4 ,admirable6 ,you need a new pair of shoes1 and yet you buy books6 ,well1 what books do you buy8 ,a4 ,havelock ,ellis1 ,edward ,carpenter1 ,zola1 ,nietzsche-- ,q4 ,see here1 you must be a ,socialist6 ,a4 ,yes4 ,what of it8 ,q4 ,what of it6 ,why1 ,i'm talking about ,reverence1 and you haven't got any4 ,you're not looking for the noblest utterances of mankind1 you're looking for weapons with which to cut your way through the jungle of contemporary hypocrisies6 ,a4 ,of course4 ,q4 ,well1 how do you expect me to prove my theory by you8 ,you are excused6 ,we'll have to try again4 ,there's another one4 ,eager ,young ,immigrant1 thirsting for the treasures locked in our ,english tongue4 ,come here1 my lad4 ,q4 ,what books do you read8 ,shaw and ,veblen1 by any chance8 ,a4 ,no1 sir4 ,i'm going to the ,english ,literature class at the social settlement1 and ,i'm reading the 8,idylls of the ,king40 ,i've read ,addison's ,essays and ,shakespeare1 and ,i'm going to take up the ,iliad4 ,q4 ,the classics1 eh8 ,a4 ,yes1 sir4 ,all the things they study at college6 ,q4 ,h'm4 ,ever hear of ,dr4 ,eliot's ,five-,foot ,shelf8 ,a4 ,yes1 sir--,i own it4 ,q4 ,how much do you make a week8 ,a4 ,eighteen dollars4 ,q4 ,thank you4 ,that's all6 ,and there you are6 ,but please don't misunderstand me4 ,disparagement of the classics as such is far from being the point of my remarks6 ,one may regard the piano as a noble instrument1 and yet point out the unprecedented sale of pianos during the war as an example of the influence of class jealousy in interior decoration4 ,for observe that it is not the intrinsic merit of book or piano which wins the regard of the class long envious of its 8betters0 and now able by a stroke of luck to parade its class paraphernalia2 it is the stamp of caste that makes it desirable3 an accordion1 which merely makes music1 would not serve the purpose6 ,that boy who owns ,dr4 ,eliot's ,five-,foot ,shelf does not want mere vulgar enlightenment2 he wants an acquaintance with such books as have an aura of hereditary academic approval4 ,and it is for the same reason that ,latin and ,greek have so apparently fixed a place in our public education4 ,they were part of the system of educating gentlemen's sons in ,england2 and what was good enough to be threshed into the hides of gentlemen's sons is good enough for us6 ,,viii4 ,the ,conquest of ,culture in ,america ,the first organized schools in ,america were theological seminaries4 ,this was due to the fact that the ,new ,england colonies were theocracies1 church-states4 ,no one not a member of the church had any political rights4 ,and the heads of the church were the heads of the state4 ,in this special kind of class government it naturally followed that theology was the prime study of ambitious youth4 ,but as the colonies grew more prosperous and the rule of the more godly became as a matter of fact the rule of the more rich1 the theological seminaries of ,new ,england changed by degrees into more easily recognizable imitations of the great gentlemen's sons' schools in old ,england4 ,such1 in particular1 was the theo-aristocratic genesis of ,harvard and ,yale4 ,the gentlemen's sons' school was thus our first1 and for a long time our only1 educational achievement4 ,the humble theocratic beginnings of these institutions did indeed leave a quasi-democratic tradition which made it possible for not only the sons of the well-to-do1 but for the ambitious son of poor parents1 to secure the knowledge of ,latin and ,greek necessary to fit them to exploit and rule a virgin continent4 ,but beneath this cultural perfection1 to meet the needs of the great mass of the people1 there was no organized or public education whatever4#b ,the result was a vast illiteracy such as still exists in many parts of the ,south today4 ,the private and pitiful efforts of the lower classes to secure an education took the form of paying some old woman to teach their children 8the three ,r's40 ,of these three ,r's the last has a significance of its own4 ,it is there by virtue of a realistic conviction1 born of harsh experience4 ,a man may not be able to 8figure10 and yet know that he is being cheated4 ,and so far as getting along in a buying-and-selling age is concerned1 ',rithmetic has an importance even more fundamental than ,readin' and ',ritin'4 ,yet in the list it stands modestly last--for it is a late and vulgar intruder into sacred company4 ,even in a young commercial nation1 the old belief in the rescuing magic of the ,word still holds its place in the aspiring mind4 ,but why1 you ask1 quarrel with this wholesome reverence for books8 ,well--suppose the working class acquired such a reverence for books that it refused to believe it was being ,educated unless it was being taught something out of a book6 ,suppose it worshipped books so much that when you offered its children flowers and stars and machinery and carpenters' tools and a cook-stove to play with in order to learn how to live--suppose it eyed you darkly and said3 8,now1 what are you trying to put over on me80 ,but that is to anticipate4 ,it was due to the organized effort of the working class that public education was at last provided for ,american children4 ,our free public school system came into existence in the thirties as a result of trade union agitation4#c ,its coming into existence is a great good upon which we need not dwell4 ,but its subsequent history needs to be somewhat elucidated4 ,the public school system was founded firmly upon the three ,r's4 ,but these were plainly not enough4 ,it had to be enlarged to meet our needs--and to satisfy our genuine democratic pride in it4 ,so wings were thrown out into the fields of history and geography4 ,and then8 ,there was still an earth-full of room for expansion4 ,but no1 it was builded up--,up6 ,and why8 ,the metaphor is a little troublesome1 but you are to conceive1 pinnacled dim in the intense inane1 or suspended from heaven itself1 the gentlemen's sons' school4 ,and this was what our public school system was striving to make connections with4 ,and lo6 at last it succeeded6 ,the structure beneath was rickety--fantastic--jerry-built--everyth ing sacrificed to the purpose of providing a way to climb ,up ,there2 but the purpose was fulfilled4 ,the democratic enthusiasm which created the public school had in fact been unaccompanied by any far-seeing theory of what education ought to be4 ,and so that splendid enthusiasm1 after its initial conquest of the three ,r's1 proceeded to a conquest of ,greek and ,latin and the whole traditional paraphernalia of aristocratic education4 ,every other purpose of public education was1 for the time being lost sight of1 forgotten1 ignored1 in the proud attempt to create a series of stairs which led straight up to the colleges4 ,the high school became a preparatory school for college1 and the courses were arranged1 rearranged and deranged1 with that intent4 ,final examinations were systematized1 supervised and regulated to secure the proper penultimate degree of academic achievement--as for instance by the famous ,regents' examinations4 ,the public school lost its independence--which was worth nothing2 and its opportunity--which was worth everything4 ,it remains a monument to the caste ideal of education4 ,for the theory which underlay the scheme was that every ,american boy and girl who wanted an education should have the whole thing in bang-up style4 ,what was good enough for gentlemen's sons was none too good for us4 ,that there might be no mistake about it1 the states erected their own colleges1 with plenty of free scholarships to rob ignorance of its last excuse4 ,these state colleges1 while furnished with various realistic and technical adjuncts1 and lacking in the authentic hereditary aura of their great ,eastern predecessors1 were still echoes1 sometimes spirited and more often forlorn1 of the aristocratic tradition of centuries agone4 ,with the reluctant addition of a kindly scheme for keeping very young children in school1 the system now stretched from infancy to full manhood1 and embraced--in theory--the whole educable population of the ,united ,states4 ,in its utter thoroughness of beneficent intention1 the system was truly sublime4 ,the only trouble was that it didn't work4 ,,ix4 ,smith1 ,jones and ,robinson ,at this point there seems to be an interruption from somebody at the back of the hall4--,louder1 please6 ,what's that you say8 8,i thought10 says the voice1 8that this was to be a discussion of education4 ,it sounds to me more like a monologue4 ,when do we get a chance to talk80 ,oh1 very well6 ,if you think you can do this thing better than ,i can1 go ahead4 ,suppose you tell us why the ,american public school system failed to work6--,one at a time1 please4 ,mr4--er--,smith has the floor4 ,he will be followed in due order by ,mr4 ,jones and ,mr4 ,robinson4 ,and then ,i hope everybody will be satisfied4 ,yes1 ,mr4 ,smith8 ,,mr4 ,,smith3 8,i am one of the so-called victims of our ,american public school system4 ,i went to grammar school1 to high school1 and then to college4 ,you say that is what the system is for--to lead up to college4 ,well1 it worked in my case4 ,my parents were poor1 but ,i studied hard and got a free scholarship1 and ,i worked my way through college by tending furnaces in the morning and tutoring at night4 ,you say college is designed to impart a gentleman's sons' education4 ,well1 ,i got that kind of education4 ,and what ,i want to know is1 what's wrong with me8 ,i can't say ,i feel particularly stultified by my educational career60 ,no1 no1 ,mr4 ,smith1 don't stop4 ,go right on6 ,,mr4 ,,smith 7continuing73 8,i will admit that ,i have sometimes wished ,i had taken some kind of technical course instead of the straight classical4 ,but ,i didn't want to be an engineer or chemist1 so why should ,i8 ,in fact ,i didn't know exactly what ,i wanted to be4444 ,i suppose my education might not unreasonably have been expected to help me understand myself better4 ,and ,i confess that when ,i came out into the world with my ,a4,b4 ,i did feel a bit helpless4 ,but ,i managed to find a place for myself1 and ,i get along very well4 ,i can't say that ,i make any definite use of my college education1 but ,i rather think it's been an advantage40 ,thank you for being so explicit4 ,mr4 ,jones next4 ,mr4 ,jones1 you have just heard ,mr4 ,smith's splendid testimonial to the value of a college education--how it has unlocked for him the ages' accumulated wealth of literature1 of science1 of art--how it has put him in vivid touch with the world in which he lives--how it has made him realize his own powers1 and given him a serene confidence in his ability to use them wisely--how fully it has equipped him to live in this complex and difficult age--in a word1 how it has helped him to become all that a twentieth century ,american citizen should be6 ,have you1 ,mr4 ,jones1 anything to add to his account of these benefits8 ,,mr4 ,,jones3 8,your coarse sarcasm1 if aimed at me1 is misdirected4 ,i never went to college4 ,i didn't want to tend furnaces1 so when ,i finished high school ,i got a job4 ,but there's something to this gentleman's sons' stuff4 ,i had four years' start of ,smith1 but ,i feel that he's got a certain advantage over me just because he is a college man4 ,now why is that1 ,i'd like to know8 ,i could have gone to college too1 if ,i had cared enough about it4 ,but studying didn't interest me4 ,i was bored with high school40 ,exactly1 ,mr4 ,jones4 ,and some hundreds of thousands of others were also so bored with high school that even the prestige which a college education confers1 could not tempt them to further meaningless efforts4 ,you have explained a large part of the breakdown of our public school system4 ,in theory--but ,mr4 ,robinson wishes to speak4 ,,mr4 ,,robinson3 8,theory--theory--theory6 ,i think it's about time a few facts were injected into this alleged discussion6 ,the fact ,i'm interested in is just this3 ,i quit school when ,i was twelve years old4 ,i had just finished grammar school4 ,i couldn't go to high school4 ,i had to go to work4 ,what have your theories of education got to do with me80 ,everything1 ,mr4 ,robinson6 ,you smashed one theory to pieces1 you were about to be condemned to a peculiar kind of slavery by another theory1 and you were rescued after a fashion by a third theory4 ,you are1 to begin with1 the rock upon which the good ship ,education foundered4 ,as ,i was about to say when ,i was interrupted3 the grandiose ideal of a gentleman's sons' education for every ,american boy failed--because there were some millions of ,american boys like you who could not go to college1 and some hundreds of thousands of others like ,mr4 ,jones here1 who would not--who did not feel that it was worth the necessary effort4 ,and these vast hordes of you going out into the world at the age of twelve to sixteen with only the precarious beginning of a leisure class culture1 became the educational problem which the last generation has been trying to solve4 ,x4 ,employer vs4 ,trade ,unionist ,it was the ,american ,business ,man who proposed the first 8practical0 reform2 and if you have any doubt of the validity of the ,caste theory1 note what happened4 ,the ,american ,business ,man knew that these millions of youths were going to enter his shops and factories2 they were not going to be members of a leisure class1 they were going to be wage-slaves2 and so he proposed to educate them to be efficient wage-slaves4 ,and he might have succeeded in imposing his capitalistic version of the ,caste theory of education upon our public schools1 had it not been for the trade unions1 who perceived in these capitalist plans a means of breaking down their own apprentice system4 8,what6 turn the schools into training-schools for strikebreakers8 ,no60 they said--and they bitterly opposed every attempt to introduce industrial training into the schools1 and mustered to their aid the old notions of the ,magic of ,books4 8,let the children have an education0--meaning book-learning2 8it will be time enough for them to learn to work when they leave school10 was the general verdict4 ,and so in this clash of economic interests1 one theory warred with another1 and the theory of ,education as a mysterious communion with the ,magic of ,books happily won4 ,happily--for though the controversy had its unfortunate results1 in the fixing of a prejudice in the minds of the working people against industrial education1 we should not fail to realize that in that controversy the trade unions were right4 ,we do not want to educate the children of the poor in this twentieth century to be a human sub-species2 it would be better to give them fragments of a leisure class education than fix them into the wage-slave mould2 it would be better that they learned ,greek and ,latin 7or1 for that matter1 ,sanscrit67 than merely a trade4 ,it would be better to turn them out as they came in1 helpless and ignorant1 than to make them into efficient machines4 ,but such a choice is not necessary4 ,it is possible to have an education which produces human beings who are neither out of touch with their age nor hopelessly confined within it--a generation which will be the masters and not the slaves of its environment4 ,the outlines of such an educational system were already being drawn1 in theory and even experimentally in fact4 ,but these radical proposals threatened to cost more money than governments are accustomed to expend on peaceful and constructive enterprises4 ,yet something had to be done in response to a popular sense of the imperfections of our system4 ,something was done accordingly4 ,,xi4 ,the ,goose-,step ,bear in mind that the necessities of the case required something which would not cost any money1 which would leave the system really intact1 and yet which would impress beholders with the fact of ,progress4 ,the device which answered to this description was copied from ,prussia and informed with the essence of the ,prussian spirit--a quasi-military ,uniformity4 ,there is nothing1 indeed1 so impressive to the observer as the sight of everybody doing exactly the same thing at the same time4 ,and when that thing is totally unnecessary and very difficult1 the effect is to stun the mind into a bewildered admiration4 ,hence the preposterously military aspect of the schools of yesterday--the marching in line out to recess and back again4 ,hence the drillmaster airs of the teaching force--as1 for instance1 the ,new ,york teacher who boasted1 8,i said to my pupils1 #8,all who live on ,blank street raise their hands1' and then ,i turned to talk to the superintendent1 forgetting to say #8,hands down'--and five minutes later1 when ,i looked around1 those ,blank street children still had their hands up4 ,that's what ,i call discipline60 ,and hence the reprimand to the other ,new ,york teacher because1 when she came back from a visit to ,italy1 she told the geography class about her journey and passed around picture postcards1 instead of hearing the children recite the appointed ,lesson from the appointed ,book at the appointed ,hour4 ,think how it sounds for a city superintendent to be able to pull out his watch and say to a visitor3 8,at this moment every sixth grade pupil1 in every school in the whole city1 is opening his geography60 ,that is ,system1 and it must not be deranged in order to interest a mere roomful of children in the realities of geography for half an hour6 ,i experienced some of the benefits of the ,goose-,step ,system myself1 back in ,illinois--and ,i know just how a child feels about it4 ,he feels just as you would feel if at the conclusion of a theatrical performance you were commanded to 8,rise6 ,turn6 ,pass60 ,he feels humiliated and ridiculous4 ,he feels that he is being made a fool of4 ,the ,goose-,step ,system is not intended to make its little victims feel happy2 it is only intended to impress beholders with the fact of ,progress4 ,and this kind of ,systematization1 this fake reform1 has been the only serious contribution to ,american educational practice in the public schools during the life of the generation to which you and ,i belong--until within the last few years4 ,fortunately1 another crisis arose4 ,in every large city the attendance at the public schools outgrew the school capacities1 and it became necessary to put many children on a 8half-time0 basis4 ,and this scandal demanded relief4 ,it still demands relief4 ,and at present we are faced with a choice between two methods of relief4 ,one method is familiar--to turn the grammar schools into adjuncts of capitalist shops and factories4 ,it is the system now approved by the educational authorities of most of the large cities1 including ,new ,york4 ,the other is a sane and democratic proposal for education on scientific principles1 for the benefit of the child and of the race4 ,,xii4 ,the ,gary ,plan ,it was in the nature of a happy accident that this sane and democratic proposal came before the public as a practical alternative to the scheme of turning the grammar schools into adjuncts of capitalist shops and factories4 ,it happened that a man named ,wirt solved in the schools of ,gary1 ,indiana1 the problem of accommodating two pupils with a desk built for one4 ,he did this by the simple means of abolishing the private and exclusive character of the desks4 ,by having one-half the pupils come a little later and leave a little later than the other half1 and use the desks which the others had just vacated for the gymnasium or workshop or assembly room1 it was found that there were desks enough for all4 ,and because this plan made it unnecessary to spend some millions of dollars on new school-buildings1 he was invited to come to ,new ,york and put his plan in practice there4 ,if that had been all there was to the ,gary system1 it might have been adopted peacefully enough4 ,but the ,gary system was a real and hence a revolutionary kind of education1 and so it met with immediate and bitter hostility4 ,it made the child and his needs the center of the whole process of education4 ,it undertook to give him a chance to learn how to live4 ,it made the school to a large extent a replica of the world outside4 ,it gave him machinery and gardens and printing presses to play with and learn from4 ,and right there it aroused the suspicions of working class parents1 who were afraid their children were not going to get enough ,book-learning4 ,it demanded something of teachers besides routine and discipline and stoic patience2 and though they came with experience to be its most enthusiastic advocates1 they were in prospect roused to angry opposition4 ,it abolished the semi-sacerdotal dignities of the school-building1 and thus offended a deep-lying superstitious reverence in a public which regarded education as something set apart from life4 ,it clashed with the bureaucratic fads of the higher educational authorities1 and provoked them to financial sabotage4 ,and finally it was dragged into politics1 where as the pet project of an administration of bureaucratic reform officials it was held up to popular scorn4 ,but the ideal of education which was implicit in the ,gary plan is still up for judgment4 ,,xiii4 ,learning to ,work ,here1 then1 is the situation as it stands4 ,our education is out of relation to the time in which we live4 ,it is breaking down under the pressure of economic forces which demands that it turn out people who do not have to be re-educated by modern industry4 ,it cannot remain as it is4 ,it will either be made the instrument of a democratic culture which accepts the present but foresees the future2 or it will fall into the hands of those who are planning to make it a training school for wage-slaves4 ,here is the latter program1 as described by the superintendent of schools in a great ,american city3 8,three years ago the elimination of pupils from the upper grades of our elementary schools and the demands of industry led us to experiment with industrial education in the grades4444 ,our controlling idea was that adolescent boys and girls standing on the threshold of industrial life should be grouped in prevocational schools in which they would receive1 in addition to instruction in formal subjects1 such instruction and training in constructive activities as would develop aptitudes and abilities of distinct economic value4 ,at present the opportunity to rotate term by term through various shops is afforded in seven schools to approximately #c1jjj boys and girls in the #gth1 #hth and #ith years40 ,between these two programs you must choose4 ,either efficient democratic education1 or efficient capitalistic education4 8,but10 asks some one1 8what is there to choose between them8 ,democratic education and capitalistic education both seem to me to consist in turning the school into a workshop40 ,not at all6 ,the democratic plan is rather to turn the workshop into a school4 ,that may seem like a large order1 but ,i may as well confess to you at once that the democratic scheme proposes ultimately to bring the whole of industry within the scope of the educational system3 nothing less6 ,but the benevolent assimilation of industry by education in the interest of human progress and happiness1 is one thing2 and the swallowing of the public school system by industry in the interest of the employing class1 is quite another4 ,for the present1 however1 democratic education merely brings the workshop into the school1 so that the processes of industry may be the more readily mastered2 while capitalist education merely sends the school-child into its workshops1 in order that he may become more effectively exploitable4 ,the difference should be sufficiently obvious3 in the school-workshops of capitalism the child is taught how to work for somebody else1 how to conduct mechanical operations in an industrial process over which he has no control2 in the democratic workshops of the school he learns to use those processes to serve his own creative wishes4 ,in the one he is taught to be a wage-slave--and bear in mind that this refers to the children of the poor--for the rich have their own private schools for their own children4 ,in the other1 the child learns to be a free man4 ,that is just what irritates the capitalist reformers of our public school system4 ,since the children of the poor are going to be factory hands1 what is the use of their having learned to be free men8 ,they might as well have learned ,greek and ,latin1 for all the use it is going to be to them6 ,and that is why you must exercise your choice4 ,the merits are not quite all on one side of the question4 ,there are disadvantages in the democratic plan of education4 ,these disadvantages have nowhere been made more clear than by ,h4 ,g4 ,wells in his fantastic scientific parable1 8,the ,first ,men in the ,moon40 ,you will remember that his explorers visited the ,moon in a queer sort of air-craft1 and found there a people with institutions quite unlike our own4 ,they too1 however1 had classes1 and they had solved the problem of the education of these classes in a forthright manner which is utterly unlike our timid human compromises4 ,one of the visitors from ,earth thus describes the ,lunar ,system3 8,in the ,moon 444 every citizen knows his place4 ,he is born to that place1 and the elaborate discipline of training and education and surgery he undergoes fits him at last so completely to it that he has neither ideas nor organs for any purpose beyond it4 #8,why should he8' ,phi-oo would ask4 ,if1 for example1 a ,selenite is destined to be a mathematician1 his teachers and trainers set out at once to that end4 ,they check the incipient disposition to other pursuits1 they encourage his mathematical bias with a perfect physiological skill4 ,his brain grows1 or at least the mathematical faculties of his brain grow1 and the rest of him only so much as is necessary to sustain this essential part of him4 ,at last1 save for rest and food1 his one delight lies in the exercise and display of his faculty1 his one interest in its application1 his sole society with other specialists in his own line4 ,his brain grows continually larger1 at least so far as the portions engaging in mathematics are concerned2 they bulge ever larger and seem to suck all life and vigour from the rest of his frame2 his limbs shrivel1 his heart and digestive organs diminish1 his insect face is hidden under its bulging contours4 ,his voice becomes a mere stridulation for the stating of formulae2 he seems dead to all but properly enunciated problems4444 ,and so he attains his end4444 8,the bulk of these insects1 however1 444 are1 ,i gather1 of the operative working class4 #8,machine hands1' indeed1 some of these are in actual nature--it is no figure of speech2 the single tentacle of the mooncalf-herdsman is profoundly modified for clawing1 lifting1 guiding1 the rest of them no more than necessary subordinate appendages to these important parts 444 others again have flat feet for treadles1 with ankylosed joints2 and others--who ,i have been told are glass-blowers--seem mere lung-bellows4 ,but every one of these common ,selenites ,i have seen at work is exquisitely adapted to the social need it meets4444 8,the making of these various sorts of operatives must be a very curious and interesting process4444 ,quite recently ,i came upon a number of young ,selenites confined in jars from which only the fore limbs protruded1 who were being compressed to become machine minders of a special sort4 ,the extended #8hand' in this highly developed system of technical education is stimulated by irritants and nourished by injections1 while the rest of the body is starved4 ,phi-oo1 unless ,i misunderstood him1 explained that in the earlier stages these queer little creatures are apt to display signs of suffering in their various cramped situations1 but they easily become indurated to their lot2 and he took me on to where a number of flexible-limbed messengers were being drawn out and broken in4 ,it is quite unreasonable1 ,i know1 but such glimpses of the educational methods of these beings affect me disagreeably4 ,i hope1 however1 that may pass off1 and ,i may be able to see more of this aspect of their wonderful social order4 ,that wretched looking hand-tentacle sticking out of its jar seemed to have a sort of limp appeal for lost possibilities2 it haunts me still1 although1 of course1 it is really in the end a far more humane proceeding than our earthly method of leaving children to grow into human beings and then making machines of them40 ,the ,lunar system has indeed much to be said for it2 and the capitalist plan of wage-slave education has at least the merit of being a definite step in that direction4 ,,xiv4 ,learning to ,play 8,but in either case10 exclaims an indignant mother1 8the child ceases to be a child--under either the democratic or the capitalistic plan--0 ,no1 madam6 ,the object of a genuine democratic education is to enable him to remain always a child4 8,then10 says another interlocutor1 8,i must have misunderstood you4 ,i thought you conceived of education as growing-up40 ,growing up1 yes--out of the helplessness1 the fear1 the misery of childhood1 which come only from weakness and ignorance3 growing up into knowledge and power4 8,but putting aside forever his toys and games10 protests the mother4 8,forgetting how to play60 ,no1 madam4 ,learning rather to take realities for his toys1 and entering blithely into the fascinating and delightful game of life4 ,forget how to play8 ,that is what he is condemned to now4 ,it is a pity4 ,and that is precisely what we want to change4 8,by setting him to work80 ,what6 are we to quibble over words8 ,tell me1 then1 what is the difference between work and play8 ,or rather1 to shorten the argument1 let me tell you4 ,play is effort which embodies one's own creative wishes1 one's own dreams4 ,work is any kind of effort which fails to embody such wishes and such dreams4444 ,when you were first married1 and began to keep house--under difficulties1 it may be--was that work or play1 madam8 ,do not be afraid of being sentimental--we are among friends4 ,is it not true that at first1 while it was a part of the dream of companionship1 while it seemed to you to be making that dream come true1 it was play--no matter how much effort it took8 ,and is it not true that when it came to seem to you merely something that had to be done1 it was work1 no matter how easily performed8--,and you1 my friend1 who built a little house in the country with your own hands for pleasure1 and worked far beyond union hours in doing it--was not that play8 ,it was your own house1 you say4 ,just so2 and it is the child's own house1 that cave in the woods which he toils so cheerfully to create4 ,and it was their own house1 the cathedral which the artisans and craftsmen of the middle ages created so joyously--the realization of a collective wish to which the creative fancy of every worker might make its private contribution4 ,you know1 do you not1 why we cannot build cathedrals now8 ,because craftsmen are no longer children at play--that is to say1 no longer free men4 ,they toil at something which is no affair of theirs1 because they must4 ,they have become the more or less unwilling slaves of a system of machine production1 which they have not yet gained the knowledge and power to take and use to serve their own creative dreams4 ,but men do not like to work2 they like to play4 ,they want to be the masters and not the slaves of the machine-system4 ,that is why they have struggled so fiercely to climb out of the class of slaves into the class of masters2 it has been that hope which has sustained them in what would otherwise have seemed an intolerable condition4 ,and that is why1 as such a hope goes glimmering1 they join together to wrest from their employers some control over the conditions under which they work2 and also why their employers so often prefer to lose money in strikes rather than concede such control--for the sense of mastery is dearer even than profits4 ,that is1 incidentally1 why so many workers prefer a white collar job to a decent union wage--because it permits them to fancy themselves a part of the master class4 ,and finally1 that is why the industrial system is now at the point of breakdown--because a class of workers who have no sense of mastery over their jobs cannot and will not take enough interest in their work to meet the new and stupendous demands upon production4 ,when pressure is put upon them1 they revolt--and hell is raised1 but not the production-rate4 ,every production manager knows that even our most efficient industries are producing far less than their maximum2 and he knows why4 ,the psychology of slavery does not make for efficiency4 ,there was a time when inefficiency didn't matter--when infants in agony from lack of sleep and girls terrorized by brutal foremen could produce more than could be sold1 and were preferable to workers who had to be bargained with4 ,capitalism denied the worker the right to dare to think his job his own4 ,but the wiseacres of capitalism now encourage the worker to believe his interests identical with those of his employer2 they take out some of his wages and give it back to him in a separate envelope and call it 8profit-sharing40 ,but the production manager knows that such a mess of doubtful pottage will scarcely take the place of their birthright4 ,he knows that he has got out of the workers the utmost that their slave psychology will permit4 ,he knows that there is no use to go on telling them that the business is their affair4 ,he knows that the only thing left to be done is to make it their affair--to put into their collective control not only wages and hours1 but what they create and how they create it4 ,the job must be theirs before they can put into it the energy of free men4 ,their creative wish alone can bring production to its maximum4 ,but that is not what he is paid to do4 ,he1 too1 is denied the right to shape industry to his dream2 he may not make it efficient2 he must try to make it more profitable4 ,he1 too1 is a slave 444 a slave who wishes his master would set him free to play for a while with this great beautiful toy4 ,he would show us how to increase production by #ajj per cent on four hours work a day4 ,he would show us how work could be made a joy to everybody4 ,he would--but what is the use8 ,he sits and looks out the window and wishes that something would happen4 ,perhaps these young men and women who have learned to play with machinery1 who know it as a splendid toy and not as a hateful tyrant1 who want to use it to make themselves and the world happier--perhaps a generation of such workers1 the products of a democratic and efficient educational system1 will have the knowledge and the power to take and use this machinery to serve their own creative dream of a useful and happy new society4444 ,madam1 have ,i answered your question8 ,,xv4 ,first and ,last ,things 8,but is there nothing in the world of any importance except machinery80 ,thank you for reminding me6 ,we are all inclined to be too much preoccupied with the importance of machinery4 ,i confess that ,i have been so ever since1 as a child1 ,i took my father's watch apart and found myself unable to cope with the problem of putting it back together again4 ,but note for a moment the pragmatic significance of such an infantile predicament4 ,of what use would it have been for some infinitely wise person to say to me3 8,child1 do not attach so much importance to those wheels and springs6 ,they are interesting1 in a way2 but how much less interesting than the birds1 the flowers and the stars60--what good1 ,i ask you1 would such counsel have been to me at that moment8 ,i wanted to get that watch put back together before something terrible happened to me4 ,and mankind as a whole seems to me to be in much the same situation4 ,for the best of reasons1 it has to master the problem presented by a machine civilization--lest something terrible happen4 ,its preoccupation is born of fear4 ,the flowers and stars 7it thinks7 can wait3 they are not so dangerous4 ,and yet the infinitely wise person would have been right4 ,machinery must be ranked among 7so to speak7 the minor poetry of the universe4 ,the astronomic epic1 the botanical lyric1 the biological drama1 are1 from any point of view not prejudiced by our fears1 more important4 ,it is only because we are so acutely conscious1 all of us1 of the failure of our educational system in the matter of preparing us to exist unbewilderedly in the midst of a machine civilization1 that ,i have put such emphasis on the adequacy of the new education in dealing with that problem4 ,it is of importance only as food is important to a starving man--merely so4 ,and if you have heard enough about the place of machinery in education-- ,i see that you have4 ,very well1 then we will go on to the matters of real importance4 ,what are they8 7,my rhetorical questions1 it seems1 are always being taken literally6 ,i was about to tell you myself1 but ,i suppose we shall have to listen to that elderly gentleman over there1 who evidently has the answer ready47 ,very well1 sir4 ,what are they8 8,i am glad to hear that you have disposed at last of the crassly materialistic aspect of your theme1 and are about to deal with its spiritual aspects4 ,for these are naturally its more important aspects4 ,and if you ask me to specify more particularly what these are1 ,i can only reply in old-fashioned language1 and say that the important things in life1 and hence in education1 are ,beauty1 ,truth and ,goodness4 ,i trust that you agree with me80 ,certainly1 sir4 ,beauty and ,truth and ,goodness--or1 if you will permit me to translate these eighteenth century abstractions into our contemporary terminology--the cultivation of the creative faculties1 of disinterested curiosity1 and of personal relationships1 undoubtedly constitute the chief ends of democratic cultural endeavor4 ,these1 indeed1 together with what you would call ,usefulness and what we would call technical efficiency1 comprise pretty much of the whole of existence4 ,not all of it--but quite enough to take as the subject of our new inquiry4 ,how can education encourage and develop1 not in a few individuals1 but in the masses of the people1 the creative faculties which are the source of beauty8--for it must conceive its task in these broad terms if it is to be a democratic education4 ,how can it foster in these same masses that rare growth1 disinterested curiosity1 from which come the fruits of philosophy and science8 ,and how can education deal effectively with the dangerous emotions of personal relationship8 ,the task seems at first glance so difficult that it will be well for us to ask at the outset whether it can be accomplished at all6 ,,xvi4 ,the ,child as ,artist ,in this matter1 most decidedly1 we need expert advice4 ,let us start with ,beauty4 ,the one who best understands ,beauty is undoubtedly the ,artist4 ,let us call in the ,artist4444 ,will you question him1 or shall ,i8 ,you prefer to do it yourself1 ,i see4 ,very well1 then--but please try to get to the point as soon as possible6 ,,the ,,questioner4 ,what we want to know is this3 is it possible to teach the child to become an artist8 ,,the ,,artist4 ,he is an artist already4 ,,the ,,questioner4 ,what do you mean6 ,,the ,,artist4 ,just what ,i say4 ,the child is an artist2 and the artist is always a child4 ,the greatest periods of art have always been those in which artists had the direct1 nave1 unspoiled vision of the child4 ,the aim of our best artists today is to recover that vision4 ,they are trying to see the world as children see it1 and to record their vision of it as a child would do4 ,have you ever looked at children's drawings--not the sort of things they are taught to do by mistaken and mischievous adults1 but the pictures that are the natural expressions of their creative impulses8 ,and haven't you observed that modern paintings are coming to be more and more like such pictures8 ,,the ,,questioner4 ,well--er1 yes1 ,i had noticed something of the kind6 ,but is that sort of thing necessarily art8 ,i mean--well1 ,i don't want to attempt to argue with you on a subject in which you are an expert1 but-- ,,the ,,artist4 ,oh1 that's all right6 ,the modern artist is ready to discuss art with anybody--the more ignorant of the subject1 the better6 ,you see1 we want art to cease to be the possession of a caste--we want it to belong to everybody4 ,as a member of the human race1 your opinions are important to us4 ,,the ,,questioner4 ,that is very kind of you4 ,i fear it is rather in the nature of a digression1 but1 since ,i may ask without fear of seeming presumptuous1--are those horrid misshapen green nudes of ,matisse1 and those cubical blocks of paint by ,i-forget-his-name1 and all that sort of thing--are they your notion of what art should be8 ,,the ,,artist4 ,mine8 ,oh1 not at all6 ,they are merely two out of a thousand contemporary attempts to recover the nave childlike vision of which ,i spoke4 ,if you will compare them with a child's drawing1 or with a picture by a ,navajo ,indian1 or with the sketch of an aurochs traced on the wall of his cave by one of our remote ancestors1 you will note an essential difference4 ,those artists were not trying to be nave and childlike2 they were nave and childlike4 ,the chief merit of our modern efforts1 in my personal opinion1 is in their quality as a challenge to traditional and mistaken notions of what art should be--an advertisement1 startling enough1 and sometimes maliciously startling1 of the artist's belief that he has the right to be first of all an artist4 ,,the ,,questioner4 ,now we are coming to the point4 ,what is an artist8 ,,the ,,artist4 ,i told you1 a child4 ,and by that1 ,i mean one who plays with his materials--not one who performs a set and perhaps useful task with them4 ,a creator-- ,,the ,,questioner4 ,but a creator of what8 ,not of ,beauty1 by any chance8 ,,the ,,artist4 ,incidentally of ,beauty4 ,,the ,,questioner4 ,there we seem to disagree4 ,if those horrid pictures-- ,,the ,,artist4 ,suppose you tell me what ,beauty is4 ,,the ,,questioner4 ,it seems to me quite simple4 ,beauty is--well--a thing is either beautiful1 or it isn't4 ,and-- ,,the ,,artist4 ,just so2 the only trouble is that so few of us are able to agree whether it is or isn't4 ,you yourself have doubtless changed your opinions about what is beautiful many times in the course of your career as an art-lover2 and the time may come when you will cherish some horrid nude of ,matisse's as your dearest possession4 ,let us admit1 like the wise old poet1 that ,beauty is not a thing which can be argued about4 ,it can only be produced4 ,,the ,,questioner4 ,but if we don't know what ,beauty is1 how can we produce it8 ,,the ,,artist4 ,i have already told you--as the incidental result of creative effort4 ,,the ,,questioner4 ,effort to create what8 ,,the ,,artist4 ,oh1 anything4 ,,the ,,questioner4 ,are you joking8 ,,the ,,artist4 ,i never was more serious in my life4 ,and ,i should really inform you that ,i am merely repeating the familiar commonplaces of modern esthetics4 ,beauty is the incidental result of the effort to create a house1 a sword1-- ,,the ,,questioner4 ,or a shoe8 ,,the ,,artist4 ,yes4 ,i have some peasant shoes from ,russia which are very beautiful4 ,you can see shoes which are works of art in any good museum4 ,,the ,,questioner4 ,but hardly in any boot-shop window6 ,,the ,,artist4 ,those shoes were not created--they were done as a set task4 ,they were not made by peasants or craftsmen for pleasure--they were made by wage-slaves who did them only because they must4 ,do not for a moment imagine that it is the difference in materials or shape that matters--it is the difference in the spirit with which they are made4 ,i have seen modern shoes which are works of art--because they were made by a bootmaker who is an artist and does what pleases himself4 ,,the ,,questioner4 ,do they please anybody else8 ,,the ,,artist4 ,eh8 ,,the ,,questioner4 ,would you be seen wearing them8 ,,the ,,artist4 ,would ,i be seen drinking my coffee from a cup that had been turned on a wheel by a man who loved the feel of the clay under his fingers and who knew just the right touch to give the brim8 ,was ,richard ,coeur du ,lion's sword less a sword because it had been made by an artist who dreamed over the steel instead of by a tired man in a hurry8 ,i cannot afford to wear shoes made by my bootmaker-artist friend--but ,i wish ,i could1 for they fit6 ,,the ,,questioner4 ,will you give me his address8--,i beg your pardon--,please go on4 ,,the ,,artist4 ,i was about to say1 you wrong the artist if you think that he is not interested in utility4 ,it is only because utility has become bound up with slavery that artists and people with artistic impulses revolt against it and in defiance produce utterly and fantastically useless things4 ,this will be so1 as long as being useful means being a slave4 ,but art is not an end in itself2 it had its origin1 and will find its destiny1 in the production of useful things4 ,for example-- ,,the ,,questioner4 ,yes1 do let us get down to the concrete6 ,,the ,,artist4 ,suppose you are out walking in a hilly country1 and decide to whittle yourself a stick4 ,your wish is to make something useful4 ,but you can't help making it more than useful4 ,you can't help it1 because1 if you are not in a hurry1 and nobody else is bossing the job1 you find other impulses besides the utilitarian one coming in to elaborate your task4 ,shall ,i name those impulses8 ,,the ,,questioner4 ,if you will4 ,,the ,,artist4 ,i am not a psychologist1 but ,i would call them the impulse to command and the impulse to obey4 ,,the ,,questioner4 ,to command and obey what8 ,,the ,,artist4 ,your material1 whatever it is--paint and canvas1 words1 sounds1 clay1 marble1 iron4 ,in this case1 the stick of wood4 ,,the ,,questioner4 ,i'm afraid ,i do not quite-- ,,the ,,artist4 ,the impulse to command comes first--the impulse to just show that stick who is master6 the desire to impose your imperial will upon it4 ,i suppose you might call it ,vanity4 ,and that impulse alone would result in your making something fantastic and grotesque or strikingly absurd--and yet beautiful in its way4 ,but it is met and checked by the other impulse--the impulse to obey4 ,no man that ever whittled wood but has felt that impulse4 ,he feels that he must not do simply what he wants to do1 but also what the wood wants done to it4 ,the real artist does not care to treat marble as if it were soft1 nor paint and canvas as though they were three-dimensional4 ,he could if he wanted to--but he respects his medium4 ,there is an instinctive pleasure in letting it have its way4 ,i suppose you might call it ,reverence4 ,and this ,vanity and this ,reverence1 the desire to command and the desire to obey1 when they are set free in the dream and effort of creation1 produce something which is more than useful4 ,that something more is what we call ,beauty4--,do you care to have me go further into the mechanics of beauty8 ,,the ,,questioner4 ,well--er--,i suppose now that we have got this far into the subject1 we might as well get to the end of it4 ,go on6 ,,the ,,artist4 ,what ,i am about to tell you is the only really important thing about art4 ,unfortunately1 the facts at issue have never been studied by first-class scientific minds1 and so they lack a proper terminology to make them clear4 ,in default of such a scientific terminology1 we are forced to use the word 8rhythm0 in the special sense in which artists understand it4 ,you speak of the movements of a dance as being rhythmic4 ,the artist understands the word to refer to the relation of these movements to each other and above all to the emotion which they express4 ,and to him the whole world is a dance1 full of rhythmic gestures4 ,the gesture of standing still1 or of being asleep1 is also rhythmic2 the body is itself a gesture--he will speak of the rhythm of the line of a lifted arm or a bent knee4 ,trees that lift their branches to the sky1 and rocks that sleep on the ground have their rhythms--every tree and every rock its own special rhythm4 ,the rhythm of a pine tree is different from that of a palm--the rhythm of granitic rocks different from that of limestone4 ,so far the matter is simple enough4 ,but the relations of these rhythms to each other are also rhythmic4 ,these relations are in fact so manifold that they constitute a chaos4 ,but in this chaos each person feels a different rhythm2 and1 according as he has the power1 transmits his sense of it to us through a rhythmic treatment of his medium4 ,in the presence of his work1 we feel what he has felt about the world2 but we feel something more than that--we feel also the rhythm of the struggle in the artist between his impulse to command and his impulse to obey4 ,our own impulses of vanity and of reverence go out to welcome his power and his faithfulness4 ,and just as there are gay rhythms and sad rhythms in the gesture of movement1 so there are magnificent rhythms and trivial rhythms in the gesture of a soul facing the chaos of the world4 ,what has he found worth while to play with1 and how has he played with it8 ,what kind of creator is he8 ,ability to feel and express significant rhythm--that is nine-tenths of art4 ,,the ,,questioner4 ,but my dear fellow1 how are we to teach all this to children8 ,,the ,,artist4 ,very simply3 by giving them a knife and a piece of wood4 ,,the ,,questioner4 ,well1 really6 ,,the ,,artist4 ,and crayons and clay and singing-games and so forth4--,but perhaps you prefer to show them pictures of alleged masterpieces1 and tell them1 8,this is great art60 ,they will believe you1 of course2 and they will hate great art ever afterwards--just as they hate great poetry1 and for the same excellent reason3 because1 presented to them in that way1 it is nothing but a damned nuisance4 ,yet the child who enjoys hearing and telling a story has in him the capacity to appreciate and perhaps to create the greatest of stories2 and the child who enjoys whittling a block of wood has in him the capacity to appreciate and perhaps to create the greatest art6 ,,the ,,questioner4 ,then you do not think children can be taught to appreciate art by looking at photographic reproductions of it8 ,,the ,,artist4 ,i would hardly expect a ,fiji ,islander to become an appreciator of civilized music by letting him look at my phonograph records4 ,the dingy-brownish photograph of a gloriously colored painting has even less educational value--for it lies about the original4 ,do you know that there are thousands and thousands of ,american school children who think that the great masterpieces of the world's painting are the color of axle-grease8 ,they are never told that their own free efforts with colored crayons are more like ,botticelli in every sense than any photograph could possibly be2 but it is true4 ,,the ,,questioner4 ,but don't you want them to respect ,botticelli8 ,,the ,,artist4 ,no4 ,i want them to look at ,botticelli's pictures as they look at those of another child--free to criticize1 free to dislike1 free to scorn4 ,for only when you are free to despise1 are you free to admire4 ,after all1 who was ,botticelli8 ,another child4 ,perhaps they may prefer ,goya-- ,,the ,,questioner4 ,or the ,sunday comic supplement6 ,,the ,,artist4 ,a healthy taste4 ,and if they know what drawing is1 though having used a pencil themselves1 they will prefer the better comic pictures to the worse1 and be ready to appreciate ,goya and ,daumier--who were the super-,sunday-supplement comic artists of their day4 ,,the ,,questioner4 ,left to themselves they may come to like ,goya1 as you say2 but will they ever come to appreciate such a masterpiece as ,leonardo's ,last ,supper without some more formal teaching8 ,,the ,,artist4 ,do you call it 8teaching0 to talk solemnly to children in language they cannot understand8 ,if they are making pictures themselves1 and being assisted in their enthusiastic experiments by a real artist instead of a teacher1 they will naturally wonder why their friend should have the photograph of the ,last ,supper in the portfolio from which he is always taking out some picture in order to illustrate his answers to their questions4 ,and having wondered1 they will ask why1 and their friend will tell them2 and perhaps they will get some of their friends enthusiasm1 and perhaps not4 ,but they will know that the real human being who is like themselves does like that picture4 ,,the ,,questioner4 ,but it makes no difference whether they like it or not8 ,,the ,,artist4 ,you can't compel them to like it1 can you8 ,you can only compel them to pretend that they do4 ,,the ,,questioner4 ,can't you teach them what is called 8good taste08 ,,the ,,artist4 ,only too easily4 ,and their 8good taste0 will lead them infallibly to prefer the imitations of what they have been taught to praise1 and quite as infallibly to reject the great new art of their generation4 ,they will think some new ,whistler a pot of paint flung in the public's face1 and the next ,cezanne a dauber4 ,,the ,,questioner4 ,then you don't approve of good taste6 ,,the ,,artist4 ,every artist despises it1 and the people who have it4 ,we know quite well that the people who pretend to like ,titian and ,turner1 because they have been carefully taught that it is the thing to do1 would have turned up their noses at ,titian and ,turner in their own day--because they were not on the list of dead artists whom it was the fashion to call great2 they know moreover that these same people of good taste are generally incapable of distinguishing between a beautiful and an ugly wall-paper1 between a beautiful and an ugly plate1 or even between a beautiful and an ugly necktie6 ,outside the bounds of their memorized list1 they have no taste whatever4 ,,the ,,questioner4 ,cannot good taste be taught so as to include the whole of life8 ,,the ,,artist4 ,it would take too much time4 ,and thank ,god for that6 ,for good taste is simply a polite pretense by which we cover up our lack of that real sense of beauty which comes only from intimate acquaintance with creative processes4 ,the most cultivated people in the world cannot produce beauty by merely having notions about it4 ,but the most uncultivated people in the world cannot help producing beauty if only they have time to dream as they work--if only they have freedom to let their work become something besides utilitarian4 ,,the ,,questioner4 ,you think1 then1 that education should not concern itself with good taste1 but rather with creative effort8 ,,the ,,artist4 ,exactly4 ,,the ,,questioner4 ,you say that children are artists already8 ,,the ,,artist4 ,and that artists are children4 ,,the ,,questioner4 ,then the task of education in respect to them would seem to be easy6 ,,the ,,artist4 ,no--on the contrary1 infinitely hard6 ,,the ,,questioner4 ,what do you mean8 ,the ,artist4 ,i have said that children are artists and that artists are children4 ,the task of education is to help them to grow up4 ,,the ,,questioner4 ,new difficulties6 ,,the ,,artist4 ,and tremendous ones6 ,but if ,i am to discuss them1 you must keep still for a while and let me talk in my own fashion4 --,very well1 ladies and gentlemen4 ,shall we adjourn for lunch1 and when we reassemble here give the ,artist the platform for half an hour8 ,what is the sentiment of the meeting8 ,the ,ayes have it4 ,,xvii4 ,the ,artist as a ,child ,without any further delay1 the ,artist shall now address you4--,please take the platform1 sir6 8,my friends6 ,we are gathered here today to consider how to implant in the youthful and innocent minds which are entrusted to our care the beneficent and holy influences of that transcendent miracle which we know as ,art4 ,sacred and mysterious subject that it is1 we approach it with bated--0 ,wait6 wait6 ,there is some mistake here1 ,i am sure4 ,just a moment6-- 8,we approach with bated breath these austere and sacred--0 ,stop1 ,i say6 8,austere and sacred regions--0 ,usher1 will you please throw this fellow out6 ,he is not the man we were listening to this morning--he is a rank impostor1 who has disguised himself as an artist in order to befuddle our deliberations with mystagogical cant4 ,if you will pull off that false beard1 ,i think you will find that he is a well-known ,chautauqua lecturer4444 ,aha1 ,i thought so6--,shame on you6 ,and now get out of here as quickly as you can6--,ah1 there comes the real ,artist--late1 as usual4 ,what have you to say for yourself8 8,i'm sorry--,i got to thinking of something else1 and nearly forgot to come back here4 ,which brings me at once to the heart of what ,i want to say4 ,artists1 as ,i have said1 are children--and1 children that they are1 they forget the errands upon which the world sends them4 ,they forget1 because these errands are not part of their own life4 ,you reproach us with being careless and irresponsible--but if you will study the child at play or the artist at work1 you will discover that he is not careless or irresponsible in regard to his own concerns4 ,but this deep divorce between the concerns of the artist and the child and the concerns of the world is the tragic problem for which we now seek a solution4 ,the world has been unable to solve it4 ,it has only made the breach deeper4 8,for the world does not know that its work can be play1 that adult life can be a game like the games of children1 only with more desperate and magnificent issues4 ,it does not reflect that we gather sticks in the wood with infinite happy patience and labour to build our bonfires because those bonfires are our own dream creatively realized2 and it cannot think of any better way to get us to bring in the wood for the kitchen stove than to say1 #8,johnny1 ,i've told you three times to bring in that wood1 and if you can't mind ,i'll have your father interview you in the woodshed4' ,in brief1 it presents our participation in adult life as meaningless toil performed at the bidding of another under coercion4 ,and the whole of adult life gradually takes on this same aspect4 ,we are to do the bidding of another in office or factory because otherwise we will starve4 8,so the child-artist unwillingly becomes a slave4 ,but there are some children who rebel against slavery4 ,they prefer to keep their dreams4 ,they are regarded with disapproval and anxiety by their families1 who tell them that they must grow up4 ,but they do not want to grow up into slavery4 ,they want to remain free4 ,they want to make their dreams come true4 8#8,but who will pay for your dreams8' the world asks4 ,and it is not pleasant to face the possibility of starving to death4 ,and so they comfort themselves with the illusion of fame and wealth4 ,sometimes their families are cajoled into investing in this rather doubtful speculative enterprise1 and the child-artist becomes an artist-child1 supported through life by his parents1 and playing busily at his art4 ,sometimes the speculation turns out well financially1 the illusion of success becomes a reality2 but this1 however gratifying to the artist as a justification of his career1 is not his own reason for being an artist4 ,the #8successful' artist has a childlike pleasure in the awe of really grown-up people at the material proofs of his importance2 and if he has given hostages to fortune1 if he must support a family of his own1 he may ploddingly reproduce the happy accidents of his creative effort which gained him these rewards2 but he feels that in so doing he has ceased to be a free man and become a slave--and all too often1 as we know from the shocked comment of the world1 he renounces these rewards1 becomes a child at play again1 and lets his wife and children get along as best they may4 ,he yearns1 perhaps1 for fame--as a sort of public consent to his going on being a child4 ,but whether he starves in the garret or bows from his limousine to admiring crowds1 what he really wants of the world is just permission to play4 ,he is not interested in the affairs of the world4 8,there are exceptions1 of course4 ,there are poets and musicians and painters who take an interest in the destinies of mankind2 but this is regarded by their fellow-artists as a kind of heresy or disloyalty--much as school children 7or college boys7 regard the behaviour of one who really takes his school work seriously4 ,the public also is accustomed to regard the artist as a child2 they laugh at his #8ideas' about practical affairs--though often enough they adopt his ideas in dead earnest later4 ,shelley1 for instance1 proposed to conduct campaigns of education by dropping leaflets from balloons4 #8,a quaint idea1 characteristic of his visionary and impractical mind1' said his biographers2 and then1 having laughed at the idea1 the world in its ,great ,war proceeds to adopt that idea and carry it out on a tremendous scale4444 8,when the child refuses to be a slave1 he is thenceforth excluded by common consent from the affairs of the grown-up world4 ,and as the breach widens between the artist and the world1 as the world becomes more and more committed to slavery1 the artist is more consciously and wilfully a child4 ,he is forbidden by the growing public opinion of his group to write or sing about human destinies4 #8,the artist must not be a propagandist1' it is declared indignantly4 ,and finally it comes to such a pass that it is not artistic good-form for the artist to tell stories which the public can understand--the painter is prohibited from making images which the common man is able to recognize--the musician scorns to compose tunes which anybody could dance to or whistle6 ,and all this is simply the child's defiance to the world--his games are his own1 and the grown-ups can keep their hands off6 ,if adult life is slavery 7which it is71 he will be damned before he will have anything to do with it4 8,and he is damned--damned to a childishness which contains only the stubborn wilfulness of the child's playing1 but has forgotten its motive4 ,that motive is different from his4 ,he has changed from the child who played at being a man1 to a man who plays at being a child4 ,the child's dreams were large1 and his are small4 ,the child took all life for his province--was by turns a warrior1 a blacksmith1 a circus-rider1 a husband1 a store-keeper1 a fireman1 a savage1 an undertaker4 ,the child-artist wanted to play at everything4 ,the artist-child has renounced these magnificent ambitions4 ,the world may conscript him to fight in its wars1 but he refuses to bother his head as to what they are about2 if he finds that he has to walk up-town because there is a street-car strike1 he is mildly annoyed1 but 7,i am describing an extreme but not infrequent type7 he declines to interest himself in the labour movement2 he escapes from the responsibilities of a serious love-affair on the ground that #8an artist should never marry'2 he pays his grocery bills1 or leaves them unpaid1 but the co-operative movement bores him2 and so on6 ,he is content to live in that little corner of life in which he can play undisturbed by worldly interests4 ,this type1 ,i have said1 is not infrequent2 its perfect exemplars1 the artists who were so completely children that they did not even know of the existence of the outside world1 are revered as the saints of art1 and often as its martyrs1 which in truth they were2 and they are admired by thousands of young artists who only aspire to such perfection1 while shamefacedly admitting that they themselves are tainted with ordinary human interests4 8,this is what the world has done to us2 it has made us choose between being children in a tiny sphere all our lives1 or going into the larger world of reality as slaves4 ,and ,i think we have made the right choice4 ,for we have kept alive in our childish folly the flame of a sacred revolt against slavery4 ,we have succeeded in making the world envious of our freedom4 ,we have shown it the only way to be happy4 8,but the artist cannot get along without the world4 ,his art springs from the commonest impulses of the human race1 and those impulses are utilitarian at root2 the savage who scratched the aurochs on the wall of his cave was hungry for meat and desirous of luck in the hunting tomorrow2 the primitive ,greeks who danced their seasonal dances from which sprang the glory of dramatic art1 wanted the crops to grow2 and that which we call great art everywhere is great only because it springs from a communal hunger and fulfils a communal wish4 ,when art becomes divorced from the aspirations of the common man1 all its technical perfection will not keep it alive2 it revolts against its own technical perfection1 and goes off into quaint and austere quests for new truths upon which to nourish itself2 and only when it discovers the common man and fulfils his unfulfilled desires1 does it flourish again4 ,art must concern itself with the world1 or perish4 8,nor can the world get along without the artist4 ,slavery cannot keep it going--it needs the free impulses of the creative spirit4 ,it needs the artist1 not as a being to scorn and worship by turns1 but as the worker-director of its activities4 ,it needs the artist as blacksmith1 husband1 and store-keeper--as teacher1 priest1 and statesman4 ,only so can it endure and fulfil its destinies4 8,but if the artist is to be all these things1 if he is to enter into the activities of the real world instead of running away from them1 he must grow up4 ,and that is the task of education3 to make a man of him without killing the artist4 ,we must begin1 then1 before the artist in him is killed2 we must begin with the child4 ,so far as ,i can see1 the school as it exists at present is utterly and hopelessly inadequate to the task4 ,it requires a special mechanism1 which happily exists in the outside world1 and need only be incorporated into the educational system1 in order to provide a medium of transition between the dream-creations of childhood and the realistic creativity of adult life4 ,this mechanism is the ,theatre40 ,,xviii4 ,the ,drama of ,education 8,but why--in the name of all that is beautiful6--why the ,theatre80 ,ah6 ,who uttered that agonized cry of protest8 ,he comes forward4 8,it was ,i who spoke4 ,do not1 ,i beg of you1 as you love ,beauty1 have any truck with the ,theatre4 ,leave it alone--avoid it--flee it as you would the pestilence6 ,i know what ,i am talking about60 ,and who1 pray1 are you8 8,i am an ,actor60 ,well1 well6--this is rather curious4 8,not at all6 ,who should know better than the ,actor the dreadful truth about the ,theatre--that it is the home of a base triviality1 the citadel of insincerity1 the last refuge of everything that is banal in thought and action60 ,really1 the ,theatre seems to have no friends nowadays except the professors who teach play-writing in the colleges6 ,but ,i think we should hear what our friend the ,artist has to say in its defence4 ,,the ,,artist4 8,there is nothing wrong with the ,theatre except what is wrong with the whole of modern life4 ,our newspapers are base and trivial1 our politics are insincere1 and the products of our slave-system of production have a banality which ,broadway could scarcely surpass4 ,in all these fields of effort1 as in the ,theatre1 the creative spirit has surrendered to the slave-system4 ,but in the ,theatre1 and in no place else in the world1 we find the modes of child-life1 of primitive creative activity1 surviving intact into adult life4 ,what is costume but the #8dressing-up' of childhood1 the program with its cast of characters but a way of saying #8,let's pretend6'--what1 in short1 is the ,playhouse but a house of ,play8 ,it is all there--the singing and dancing1 the make-believe1 the whole paraphernalia of child creativity3 it is true that the game is played by children who are not free to create their own dreams1 who must play always at some one else's bidding1 half children and half slaves6 ,but--and this is its importance to us--the ,theatre is the place where the interests of the child meet and merge into those of the adult4 ,it is the natural transition between dreams and realities4 ,and it is thereby the bridge across the gulf that separates art from the world4 8,let me explain4 ,when ,i use the phrase #8,the ,theatre1' ,i am not thinking of the dramatic arts in any restricted and special sense4 ,for the ,theatre1 as the original source of all the arts1 the spring from which half a hundred streams have poured1 into the separate arts of music1 dancing1 singing1 poetry1 pageantry1 and what not--the ,theatre in its historic aspect as the spirit of communal festivity--is significant to us not as the vehicle of a so-called dramatic art1 separate and distinct from the arts which go to make it up1 but rather as the institution which preserves the memory of the common origin of all these arts and which still has the power to unite them in the service of a common purpose4 ,in the ,theatre1 as in the child's playing1 they are not things alien from each other and isolate from life1 but parts of each other and of a greater thing--the expressing of a common emotion4 8,so when ,i speak of making the ,theatre a part of the educational system in the interest of art and artists1 ,i mean to suggest a union of all the arts in the expression of communal purposes and emotions through a psychological device of which the ,theatre1 even in its contemporary form1 stands as a ready-to-hand example4 8,i cannot be sufficiently grateful to the ,theatre for continuing to exist1 in however trivial or base a form4 ,suppose it had perished for ever from the earth6 ,who would be so daring a theorist as to conceive the project of bringing together the story-teller1 the poet1 the musician1 the singer1 the dancer1 the pantomimist1 the painter1 in the co-operative enterprise of creating #8one common wave of thought and joy lifting mankind again'8 ,who1 if such a thing were proposed1 would have any idea what was being talked about8 ,as it is1 however1 ,i can point to any musical comedy on ,broadway and say1 #8,what ,i mean is something like that1 only quite different6' 8,different1 because the communal emotions which these artists would have joined themselves together to express would hardly be1 if they were left free to decide the question themselves1 the mere emotions of mob-anxiety1 mob-lasciviousness and mob-humour which are the three motifs of commercial drama4 ,no1 you have to pay people to get them to take part in that dull and tawdry game6 ,when they do things to suit themselves1 as they sometimes adventurously do even now1 it is something that it is more fun to play at4 ,as free men and women they cannot help being artists1 they must needs choose that their play shall be a #8work of art whose rhythms fulfil some deep wish of the human soul4--'0 8,just a moment6 ,some one1 ,i think1 wants to ask a question4--,louder1 please60 8,i said--this is all very well as a plea for a ,free ,theatre1 but what has it to do with ,education80 ,,the ,,artist4 8,evidently ,i have not made myself clear4 ,the problem of ,education with respect to ,art is to keep alive the child's creative impulses1 and use them in the real world of adult life4 ,we don't want to kill the artist in him2 nor do we want to keep him a child all his life in some tiny corner of the world1 apart from its serious activities4 ,we don't want the slave who has forgotten how to play1 nor the dreamer who is afraid of realities4 ,we want an education which will merge the child's play into the man's life1 the artist's dreams into the citizen's labours4 ,the ,theatre--0 8,excuse me1 but what ,i can't see is how a ,children's ,theatre is going to do all that6 ,even if you put a theatre in every school-building--0 ,,the ,,artist4 8,you quite mistake my meaning4 ,i would rather confiscate the theatres and put a school into each of them2 and so1 for that matter1 would ,i do with the factories6 ,but1 unfortunately1 ,i am not ,minister of ,public ,education4 ,in default of that1 what ,i propose is small enough--but it is not so small as you suppose when you think that ,i want to set children to rehearsing plays and making scenery for a school play4 ,i propose rather that the spirit of the ,theatre--the spirit of creative play--should enter into every branch of the school work1 until the school itself becomes a ,theatre--a gorgeous1 joyous1 dramatic festival of learning-to-live4 8,think how real ,history would become if it were dramatized by the children themselves6 ,i do not mean its merely picturesque moments1 but its real meanings1 acted out--the whole drama of human progress--a group of cave-men talking of the days before men knew how to make fire--,chaldean traders1 ,babylonian princes1 ,egyptian slaves1 each with his story to tell--,greek citizens discussing politics just before the election--a wounded ,london artisan hiding from the ,king's soldiers in a garret1 and telling his shelterer the true story of ,wat ,tyler's rebellion--a ,french peasant just before the ,revolution1 and his son who has been reading a strange book by that man ,rousseau in which it is declared that there is no such thing as the ,divine ,right of ,kings4444 8,mathematics as an organized creative effort centering around real planning and building and measuring and calculating4444 8,geography--a magnificent voyaging in play all round the world and in reality all round the town and surrounding countryside4444 ,a scientific investigation of the natural resources of the community1 its manufactures1 exports and imports1 discussed round bonfires in the woods by the committee at the end of a long day's tramp1 and the final drawing up of their report1 to be illustrated on the screen by photographs taken by themselves4444 ,the adventure of map-making4444 87,you get the idea1 don't you8 ,you see why it is more real than ordinary education--because it is all play67 8,and all these delightful games brought together in grand pageants--instead of examinations6--every half year4444 8,that is what ,i mean4 8,making whatever teaching of art there may be1 part and parcel with these activities--and using the school-theatre1 if one exists1 not to produce ,sheridan's #8,rivals' in1 but as a convenience to the presentation of the drama of their own education2 but in any case making all their world a stage1 not forgetting that first and best stage of all1 ,god's green outdoors6 8,no1 ,i say1 ,i do not want to put a theatre into every school--,i want every school to be a ,theatre in which a ,guild of ,young ,artists will learn to do the work of the world without ceasing to be free and happy4 8,i hope ,i have succeeded in making myself clear80 ,,xix4 ,the ,drama of ,life ,as to his immediate proposals1 ,i think the ,artist has made himself quite clear4 ,but he opened up an interesting vista of possibilities when he spoke of being ,minister of ,public ,education4 ,he said he couldn't do certain things because he wasn't ,minister of ,public ,education4 ,what we would like very much to know is what he would do if he were6--,do you mind telling us8 ,,the ,,artist4 8,in the first place ,i would set fire to--,but you are sure ,i am not taking up your time unduly80 ,no1 no6 ,go on6 ,,the ,,artist4 8,i would set fire to the coat-tails of all the present boards of education who are now running our educational system in complete indifference to the interests of the child4 ,i would institute democratic control3 turn the school system over to the ,national ,guild of ,young ,artists4 ,my career as an educational autocrat would necessarily stop right there1 so far as the internal revolutionizing of education is concerned--for what ,i have been telling you is simply what ,i think the children themselves would do with the schools if they were allowed to run them4 8,but ,education1 as ,i understand it1 does not stop short with the school--it extends throughout all life4 ,it is what ,i would call the civilizing process4 ,and there is much to be done to many departments of life before they can become part of a real civilizing process4 ,i will describe only one1 but not the least fundamental of these changes--the democratizing of the ,theatre4 ,or rather1 as ,i should say1 turning it into a school4 8,a school of what8 you will ask4 ,a school of life1 of aspiration1 of progress1 of civilization4 ,it can be all these things if it becomes the ,people's ,theatre4 ,therefore1 as ,minister of ,public ,education1 ,i propose to confiscate the ,theatres and turn them over to the ,people4 8,but again1 when ,i speak of #8,the ,theatre1' ,i do not mean merely the buildings in which plays are given4 ,i mean all those arts which are part of communal creativity4 ,i propose to unite them all in communal festivals of human progress4 ,i do not propose that we shall begin by holding classes in the ,hippodrome--though that will come4 ,i propose to begin with solemn and magnificent national holiday pageants similar to those which were so frequently and gorgeously celebrated during the days of the great ,french ,revolution--0 ,at this moment a policeman approaches the stage4 8,i wish to warn the speaker that everything he says is being taken down in shorthand by one of our men1 and if he wants to finish his speech the less he says about ,revolution the better4 ,that's all40 ,,the ,,artist4 8,thank you6 ,i should have said1 during the days of a certain great political and social upheaval which laid the foundations of modern life in general1 and of our gallant ally1 the ,french ,republic1 in particular4 ,the historic festivals of which ,i speak were in charge of the great artists and composers of the nation1 and their art and music were used to express the common emotion and purpose of the ,people4 ,so it will be with ours4 ,our artists will unite to express the new ideals of mankind1 and together with each other and with the ,people1 will lay the foundations of a new and democratic art4 8,it is here that the theatres1 which will already be in charge of the guilds of artists1 will come into play4 ,for the new art must have a solid basis in popular emotions such as only the theatre can give4 ,they will therefore present plays which criticize the old slave-system1 satirize its manners1 its traditional heroes1 its ideals2 plays which invest with tragic dignity the age-long struggle of the ,people against oppressive institutions and customs2 plays which creatively foreshadow a new popular culture and morality2 and plays which celebrate the final victory of the ,people in their revolutionary strug--0 ,another policeman3 8,are ye making an address on education1 or trying to incite to riot8 ,l'ave that word ,revolution alone4--,this is the second time we're warning ye40 ,,the ,,artist4 8,i'm sorry4 ,i had hoped to show the influence of the national aspirations of a great ,celtic people upon their artistic life1 and the final flowering of their dreams in a certain political and social upheaval--0 ,,the ,,policeman4 8,oh1 ye mean the ,irish ,revolution8 ,that's different6 ,ye're all right4 ,go on60 ,,the ,,artist4 8,my time1 however1 is short4 ,i shall leave to your imagination the means to be used in furthering these aims by the democratization of technical artistic culture4 ,i shall speak only of its spiritual aspects4 ,the ,theatre1 as ,i have said1 will take the lead in preparing for the new day by presenting plays which will teach the ,people courage and confidence in their destiny1 teach them to scorn the ideals of the traditional past1 deepen their sense of community with the ,people in all lands in their world-wide struggle for freedom1 and make them face the future with a clear and unshakable resolution1 an indomitable will to victory4 8,if ,i had time1 ,i should like to tell you how this educational program is already being carried out1 in spite of the greatest difficulties1 by a certain ,slavic nation--0 ,another interruption6--by a red-faced1 dictatorial1 imperatorial personage who has been sitting there all this time1 swelling with rage and awaiting his opportunity4 ,he speaks3 8,officer6 ,i am a member of the ,board of ,education1 and ,i demand that you arrest that man as a ,bolshevik agitator60 7,tumultuous scenes47 ,,xx4 ,curiosity ,let us1 my friends1 pass over this unfortunate incident1 and get on to the next thing as quickly as possible4 ,the next thing on our program is ,truth4 ,the one who best understands ,truth is undoubtedly the ,philosopher4--,here he is1 and we shall commence without delay4 ,will some one volunteer to conduct the examination8 ,thank you1 madam4 ,go right ahead4 ,,the ,,lady4 ,we wish to ask you a few questions4 ,,the ,,philosopher4 ,certainly1 madam4 ,what about8 ,,the ,,lady4 ,about ,truth4 ,,the ,,philosopher4 ,dear1 dear6 ,,the ,,lady4 ,whom are you addressing8 ,,the ,,philosopher4 ,i beg your pardon6--,it was only an exclamation of surprise4 ,it has been so long since anybody has talked to me about ,truth4 ,how quaint and refreshing6 ,,the ,,lady4 ,please do not be frivolous4 ,,the ,,philosopher4 ,i am sorry--but really1 it is amusing4 ,tell me1 to which school do you belong8 ,,the ,,lady4 ,to the ,julia ,richmond ,high ,school1 if you must know--though ,i don't see what that has to do with ,truth4 ,,the ,,philosopher4 ,oh6 ,you mean you are a school-teacher6 ,,the ,,lady4 ,certainly4 ,doesn't that suit you8 ,,the ,,philosopher4 ,it delights me4 ,i feared at first you might be a ,hegelian1 or even a ,platonist4 ,now that ,i find you are a ,pragmatist like myself-- ,,the ,,lady4 ,pragmatist8 ,yes1 ,i have heard of ,pragmatism4 ,william ,james--summer course in ,philosophy4 ,but why do you think ,i am a ,pragmatist8 ,,the ,,philosopher4 ,a school-teacher must be a pragmatist1 madam1 or go mad4 ,if you really believed the human brain to be an instrument capable of accurate thinking1 your experiences with your pupils and your principal1 not to speak of your boards of education1 would furnish you a spectacle of human wickedness and folly too horrible to be endured4 ,but you realize that the poor things were never intended to think4 ,,the ,,lady4 ,that's true2 they're doing the best they can1 aren't they8 ,they just can't believe anything they don't want to believe6 ,,the ,,philosopher4 ,that is to say1 man is not primarily a thinking animal--he is a creature of emotion and action4 ,,the ,,lady4 ,especially action4 ,they are always in such a hurry to get something done that they really can't stop to think about it6 ,but ,i'm afraid all this is really beside the point4 ,what we want to know is why the school fails so miserably in its attempt to teach children to think8 ,,the ,,philosopher4 ,perhaps it is in too much of a hurry4 ,but are you sure you really want children to learn to think8 ,,the ,,lady4 ,of course we do6 ,,the ,,philosopher4 ,the greatest part of life1 you know1 can be lived without thought4 ,we do not think about where we put our feet as we walk along an accustomed road4 ,we leave that to habit4 ,we do not think about how to eat1 once we have learned to do it in a mannerly way4 ,the accountant does not think about how to add a column of figures--he has his mind trained to the task4 ,and there is little that cannot be done by the formation of proper habits1 to the complete elimination of thought4 ,the habits will even take care of the regulation of the emotions4 ,for all practical purposes1 don't you agree with me that thinking might be dispensed with8 ,,the ,,lady4 ,i hardly know whether to take you seriously or not-- ,,the ,,philosopher4 ,can you deny what ,i say8 ,,the ,,lady4 ,but--but life isn't all habit4 ,we must think--in order to make--decisions4 ,,the ,,philosopher4 ,it is not customary4 ,we let our wishes fight it out1 and the strongest has its way4 ,but ,i once knew a man who did think in order to make his decisions4 ,the result was that he always made them too late4 ,and what was worse1 the habit grew upon him4 ,he got to thinking about everything he wanted to do1 with the result that he couldn't do anything4 ,i told him that he'd have to stop thinking--that it wasn't healthy4 ,finally he went to a doctor1 and sure enough the doctor told him that it was a well known disease--a neurosis4 ,its distinguishing mark was that the patient always saw two courses open to him everywhere he turned--two alternatives1 two different ways of doing something1 two women between whom he must choose1 two different theories of life1 and so on to distraction4 ,the reason for it1 the doctor said1 was that the patient's will1 that is to say the functioning of his emotional wish-apparatus1 had become deranged1 and the burden of decision was being put upon a part of the mind incapable of bearing it--the logical faculty4 ,he cured my friend's neurosis1 and now he thinks no more about the practical affairs of life than you or ,i or anybody else4 ,so you see thinking is abnormal--even dangerous4 ,why do you want to teach children to think8 ,,the ,,lady4 ,well--it is rather taken for granted that the object of education is learning to think4 ,,the ,,philosopher4 ,but is that true8 ,if it is1 why do you teach your children the multiplication table1 or the rule that the square of the hypotenuse of a right triangle is equal to the sum of the squares of the other two sides--unless in order to save them the trouble of thinking8 ,by the way1 what is the capital of ,tennessee1 and when did ,columbus discover ,america8 ,,the ,,lady4 ,nashville1 #adib4 ,why8 ,,the ,,philosopher ,you didn't have to stop to think1 did you8 ,your memory has been well trained4 ,but if you will forgive the comparison1 so has my dog's been well trained2 when ,i say1 #8,towser1 show the lady your tricks1' he goes through an elaborate performance that would gladden your heart1 for he is an apt pupil2 but ,i don't for a moment imagine that ,i have taught him to think4 ,,the ,,lady4 ,then you don't want children taught the multiplication table8 ,,the ,,philosopher44 ,i8 ,most certainly ,i do4 ,and so far as ,i am concerned1 ,i would gladly see a great many other short cuts in mathematics taught1 so as to save our weary human brains the trouble of thinking about such things4 ,i am in fact one of the ,honorary ,vice-,presidents of the ,society for the ,elimination of ,useless ,thinking4 ,,the ,,lady4 ,i am afraid you are indulging in a jest4 ,,the ,,philosopher44 ,i am afraid ,i am4 ,but if you knew ,philosophers better you would realize that it is a habit of ours to jest about serious matters4 ,it is one of our short-cuts to wisdom4 ,read your ,plato and ,william ,james again4 ,delightful humorists1 both of them1 ,i assure you4 ,i fear you went to them too soberly1 and in too much of a hurry4 ,,the ,,lady4 ,doubtless your jokes have a historic sanctity1 since you say so1 but ,i do not feel that they have advanced our inquiry very much4 ,,the ,,philosopher4 ,i abhor myself and repent in dust and ashes4 ,what do you want to know8 ,,the ,,lady4 ,i want to know what is the use of thinking8 ,,the ,,philosopher4 ,ah1 my jest was not in vain1 if it provoked you to that4 ,i should call that question the evidence of a real thought4 ,,the ,,lady4 ,well1 what is the answer8 ,,the ,,philosopher4 ,oh1 please don't stop1 now that you have made such a good start6 ,think again1 and answer your own question4 ,,the ,,lady4 ,hm4444 ,,the ,,philosopher4 ,yes8 ,,the ,,lady4 ,i was thinking of ,newton and the apple4 ,if it hadn't been for ,newton's ability to think1 he would never have formulated the law of gravitation4 ,,the ,,philosopher4 ,and what a pity that would have been--wouldn't it8 ,,the ,,lady4 ,you mean that it makes very little practical difference to us8 ,,the ,,philosopher4 ,it would if the town were being bombarded4 ,the ,newtonian calculations are considered useful by the artillery schools4 ,but it is true that it was ,newton and not an artillery officer who made them4 ,,the ,,lady4 ,you mean that the artillery captain would have been too intent on practical matters8 ,,the ,,philosopher4 ,and in too much of a hurry4 ,then there's the steam-engine4 ,useful invention--the very soul of hurry4 ,who invented it--some anxious postilion who thought horses were too slow8 ,or somebody whose mind was so empty of practical concerns that it could be intrigued by a tea-kettle8 ,and by the way1 it was ,stephenson1 wasn't it1 who applied the steam-principle to locomotion8 ,i've a very poor memory1 but ,i think ,watt's engine was just a toy4 ,no practical use whatever4 ,other people found out the practical uses for it4 ,arkwright4 ,fulton4 ,hoe4 ,et cetera4 ,,the ,,lady4 ,i see4 ,the results of thinking may be put to use afterward1 but the motive for thinking is not the desire to produce such results4 ,i wonder if that is true8 ,,the ,,philosopher4 ,what is the common reproach against philosophers and scientists8 ,,the ,,lady4 ,that they are impractical4 ,but inventors-- ,,the ,,philosopher4 ,did you ever know an inventor8 ,,the ,,lady4 ,yes4444 ,,the ,,philosopher4 ,was he rich8 ,,the ,,lady4 ,he starved to death4 ,,the ,,philosopher4 ,why8 ,,the ,,lady4 ,because every one said that his invention was very wonderful1 but not of the slightest use to anybody4444 ,yes1 it's true4 ,,the ,,philosopher4 ,that the results of thinking do not provide the motive for thinking8 ,,the ,,lady4 ,yes4 ,,the ,,philosopher4 ,then what is the motive for thinking8 ,,the ,,lady4 ,just--curiosity1 ,i suppose6 ,,the ,,philosopher4 ,disinterested curiosity8 ,,the ,,lady4 ,yes4 ,,the ,,philosopher4 ,then in the interests of scientific truth we should cultivate disinterested curiosity8 ,,the ,,lady4 ,doubtless4 ,,the ,,philosopher4 ,how would you go about doing so8 ,,the ,,lady4 ,i don't know4 ,,the ,,philosopher4 ,by hurriedly thrusting upon the minds of the children in your charge so great a multitude of interests as to leave them no time to wonder about anything8 ,,the ,,lady4 ,that would hardly seem to be the way to do it4 ,but-- ,,the ,,philosopher4 ,when ,newton looked at his famous apple1 was there anyone there who said1 8,now1 ,newton1 look at this apple4 ,look at this apple1 ,i say6 ,consider the apple4 ,first1 it is round4 ,second1 it is red4 ,third1 it is sweet4 ,this is the ,truth about apples4 ,now let me see if you have grasped what ,i have told you4 ,what are the three leading facts about apples8 ,what6 ,don't you remember8 ,shame on you6 ,i fear ,i will have to report you to the mayor60--did anything like that happen8 ,,the ,,lady4 ,newton was not a child4 ,,the ,,philosopher4 ,you should have talked to ,newton's family about him4 ,that is just what they said he was6 ,i will admit that if you left children free to wonder about things instead of forcing the traditional aspects of those things upon their attention1 they might not all become great scientists4 ,but are you a great archaeologist8 ,,the ,,lady4 ,no6 ,,the ,,philosopher4 ,did you ever go on a personally conducted tour of the ruins of ,rome1 and have the things you were to see and think pointed out to you by a guide8 ,,the ,,lady4 ,yes1 and ,i hated it6 ,,the ,,philosopher4 ,you are not a great archaeologist and you never expect to be one1 and yet you thought you could get more out of those ruins yourself than with the assistance of that pesky guide4 ,you preferred to be free--to see or not to see1 to wonder and ponder and look again or pass by4 ,and don't you think the children in your charge might enjoy their trip a little more if they didn't have to listen to the mechanically unctuous clatter of a guide8 ,,the ,,lady4 ,if one could only be sure they wouldn't just waste their time6 ,,the ,,philosopher4 ,madam1 are you quite sure that you1 as a teacher1 are not wasting your time8 ,,the ,,lady4 ,you make me wonder whether that may not be possible4 ,but sheer idleness-- ,,the ,,philosopher4 ,was ,newton busy when he lay down under that tree8 ,did he have an appointment with the apple8 ,did he say he would give it ten minutes1 and come again next day if it seemed worth while8 ,what is disinterested curiosity1 in plain ,english8 ,,the ,,lady4 ,idle curiosity--,i fear4 ,,the ,,philosopher4 ,i fear you are right4 ,then you would say that the way to approach ,truth1 in school and out1 is to cultivate idle curiosity8 ,,the ,,lady4 ,i did not intend to say anything of the kind4 ,but you compel me to say it4 ,,the ,,philosopher4 ,i compel you8 ,deny it if you wish6 ,,the ,,lady4 ,i thought you were going to answer my questions1 and you have been making me answer yours6 ,,the ,,philosopher4 ,that is also an ancient habit of our profession4 ,but since you have now arrived1 of your own free will1 at an inescapable if uncomfortable conclusion1 you can now have no further need for my services1 and ,i bid you all good day6 ,,xxi4 ,the ,right to be ,wrong ,one moment6--,i take it1 my friends1 we are agreed in demanding of the ,philosopher that he condescend to some concrete and practical suggestions in regard to education4--,briefly1 please6 ,,the ,,philosopher4 8,you must draw your own conclusions4 ,traditional education is based on the assumption that knowledge is a mass of information which can be given to the child in little dabs at regular intervals4 ,we know1 however1 that the education based on this assumption is a failure4 ,it kills rather than stimulates curiosity2 and without curiosity1 information is useless4 ,we are thus forced to realize that knowledge does not reside outside the child1 but in the contact of the child with the world through the medium of curiosity4 ,and thus the whole emphasis of education is changed4 ,we no longer seek to educate the child--we only attempt to give him the opportunity to educate himself4 ,he alone has the formula of his own specific needs2 none of us is wise enough to arrange for him the mysterious series of beautiful and poignant contacts with reality by which alone he can #8learn4' ,this means that he must choose his own lessons4 ,and if you think that1 left to choose1 he would prefer no lessons at all1 you are quite mistaken4 ,let me remind you that children are notoriously curious about everything--everything except1 as you will very justly point out1 the things people want them to know4 ,it then remains for us to refrain from forcing any kind of knowledge upon them1 and they will be curious about everything4 ,you may imagine that they will prefer only the less complex kinds of knowledge2 but do you regard children's games as simple8 ,they are in fact exceedingly complex4 ,and they are all the more interesting because they are complex4 ,we ourselves with our adult minds1 penetrate cheerfully into the complexities of baseball1 or embroidery1 or the stock-market1 following the lead of some natural curiosity2 and if our minds less often penetrate into the complexities of music1 or science1 it is because these things have associations which bring them within the realm of the dutiful4 ,evolutionary biology is far more interesting than stamp-collecting2 but it is1 unfortunately1 made to seem not so delightfully useless1 and hence it is shunned by adolescent boys and girls4 ,but postage-stamp collecting can be made as much a bore as biology2 it needs only to be put into the schools as a formal course4 8,consider for a moment the boy stamp-collector4 ,his interest in his collection is in the nature of a passion4 ,does it astonish you that passionateness should be the fruit of idle curiosity8 ,then you need to face the facts of human psychology4 ,the boy's passion for his collection of stamps is akin to the passion of the scientist and the poet4 ,do you desire of children that they should have a similar passion for arithmetic1 for geography1 for history8 ,then you must leave them free to find out the interestingness of these things4 ,there is no way to passionate interest save through the gate of curiosity2 and curiosity is born of idleness4 ,but doubtless you have a quite wrong notion of what idleness means4 ,idleness is not doing nothing4 ,idleness is being free to do anything4 ,to be forced to do nothing is not idleness1 it is the worst kind of imprisonment4 ,being made to stand in the corner with one's face to the wall is not idleness--it is punishment4 ,but getting up on ,saturday morning with a wonderful day ahead in which one may do what one likes--that is idleness4 ,and it leads straight into tremendous expenditures of energy4 ,there is a saying1 #8,the devil finds some mischief still for idle hands to do4' ,yes1 but why should the devil have no competition8 ,and that1 as ,i understand it1 is the function of education--to provide for idle and happy children fascinating contacts with reality--through games1 tools1 books1 scientific instruments1 gardens1 and older persons with passionate interests in science and art and handicraft4 8,such a place would in a few respects resemble the schools we know2 but the spirit would be utterly different from the spirit of traditional education4 ,the apparatus for arousing the child's curiosity would be infinitely greater than the meagre appliances of our public schools2 but however great1 the child would be the centre of it all--not as the object of a process1 but as the possessor of the emotions by force of which all these outward things become ,education4 8,but1 you may ask1 what has all this to do with truth8 ,simply this4 ,we have been forcing children to memorize alleged facts4 ,a fact so memorized cannot be distinguished from a falsehood similarly memorized4 ,and so we may very well say that we have failed to bring truth into education4 ,for truth is reality brought into vital contact with the mind4 ,it makes no difference whether we teach children that the earth is round or flat1 if it means nothing to them either way4 ,for truth does not reside in something outside the child's mind2 reality becomes truth only when it is made a part of his living4 8,but1 you will protest--and you will protest the more loudly the more you know of children--that their processes of thought are illogical1 fantastic and wayward4 ,and you will ask1 ,do ,i mean that we must respect the child's error in order to cultivate in him a love of truth8 ,yes1 ,i do mean just that6 ,do ,i mean that we must respect the child's belief that the earth is flat1 you ask8 ,more than that1 we must respect a thousand obscure and pervasive childish notions1 such as the notion that a hair from a horse's tail will turn into a pollywog if left in the rainbarrel1 or the notion that the way to find a lost ball is to spit on the back of the hand1 repeat an incantation couched in such words as #8,spit1 ,spit1 tell me where the ball is6' and then strike it with the palm of the other hand4 ,you can doubtless supply a thousand instances of the kind of childhood thinking to which ,i refer4 ,but for simplicity's sake1 let us use the childish notion that the earth is flat as a convenient symbol for them all4 ,and ,i say that if we do not respect the error1 we shall not have any real success in convincing the child of the truth4 ,we shall easily persuade him that the globe in the schoolroom is round--that the picture of the earth in the geography-book is round--but not that the familiar earth upon which he walks is anything but flat6 ,at best1 we shall teach him a secondary1 literary1 schoolroom conception to put beside his workaday one4 ,and1 in the long run1 we shall place a scientific conception of things in general beside his primitive childish superstitions--but we shall scarcely displace them2 and when it comes to a show-down in his adult life1 we shall find him acting in accordance with childish superstitions rather than with scientific knowledge4 ,most of us1 as adults1 are full of such superstitions1 and we act accordingly1 and live feebly and fearfully2 for we have never yielded to the childish magical conception of the world the respect that is due to it as a worthy opponent of scientific truth--we have assumed that we were persuaded of truth1 while in reality truth has never yet met error in fair fight in our minds4 8,if you wish to convince a friend of something1 do you not first seek to find out what he really thinks about it1 and make him weigh your truth and his error in the same balance8 ,but in dealing with children1 we fail to take account of their opinions at all4 ,we say1 #8,you must believe this because it is so4' ,if they do believe it1 they have only added one more superstition to their collection4 ,truths are not true because somebody says so2 nor even because everybody says so2 they are true only because they fit in better with all the rest of life than what we call errors--because they bear the test of living--because they work out4 ,and this way of discovering truth is within the capacity of the youngest school-child4 ,if you can get him to state candidly and without shame his doubtless erroneous ideas about the world1 and give him leave to prove their correctness to you1 you will have set in motion a process which is worthy to be called education2 for it will constitute a genuine matching of theory with theory in his mind1 a real training in inductive logic1 and what conclusions he reaches will be truly his4 ,when he sees in a familiar sunset1 as he will see with a newly fascinated eye1 the edge of the earth swinging up past the sun--then astronomy will be real to him1 and full of meaning--and not a collection of dull facts that must be remembered against examination-day4 8,this means that we must treat children as our equals4 ,education must embody a democratic relationship between adults and children4 ,children must be granted freedom of opinion--and freedom of opinion means nothing except the freedom to believe a wrong opinion until you are persuaded of a right one4 ,they1 moreover1 must be the judges of what constitutes persuasion4 ,you have asked me for practical and concrete suggestions in regard to education4 ,i will make this one before ,i go3 when ,i find an astronomy class in the first grade engaged in earnest debate as to whether the earth is round or flat1 ,i will know that our school system has begun to be concerned for the first time with the inculcation of a love of truth4 ,for1 like ,milton1 ,i can not praise a fugitive and cloistered virtue1 unexercised and unbreathed1 that never sallies out and sees her adversary1 but slinks out of the race1 where that immortal garland is to be run for1 not without dust and heat4--,i thank you for your attention60 ,,xxii4 ,enterprise ,and so we come to ,goodness--and at the same time to a change in our program4 ,after calling on the ,artist as an expert to testify in regard to ,beauty1 and the ,philosopher to tell us about ,truth1 it would seem that we should hear about ,goodness from a moralist4 ,so1 no doubt1 you expected--and so ,i had originally intended4 ,but it cannot have failed to secure your notice that our experts pursued a somewhat unconventional line of argument4 ,the ,artist told us that the way to teach children to love ,beauty was to leave them free to hate it if they chose4 ,the ,philosopher said that the way to inculcate in children a love of ,truth was to leave them free to hold wrong opinions4 ,now it is all very well to talk that way about ,beauty and ,truth4 ,we might perhaps be persuaded to take such risks1 so long as only ,beauty and ,truth were involved4 ,but ,goodness is a different matter4 ,it simply would not do for us to hear any one who proposed a similar course in regard to conduct4 ,imagine any one suggesting that the way to teach children to be good is to leave them free to be bad6 ,but that is just what ,i am afraid would happen if we called an expert on ,morals to the stand4 ,i have observed twenty or thirty of them shuffling their notes and their feet and waiting to be called on4 ,but ,i do not trust them4 ,no6 ,goodness is not going to be treated in so irreverent a fashion while ,i am running this discussion4 ,i am going to see that this subject is treated with becoming reverence4 ,and as the only way of making absolutely sure of this1 ,i am going to address you myself4 ,we want children to grow up to be good men and women2 and we want to know how the school can assist in this process4 ,first1 we must define goodness2 and ,i shall suggest the rough outline of such a definition1 which we must presently fill up in detail1 by saying that goodness is living a really civilized life4 ,and as one's conduct is not to be measured or judged except as it affects others1 we may say that goodness is a matter of civilized relationships between persons4 ,and furthermore1 as the two most important things in life are its preservation and perpetuation1 the two fields of conduct in which it is most necessary to be civilized are ,work and ,love4 ,let us first deal with ,work and find out what constitutes civilized conduct in that field4 ,we all exist1 as we are accustomed to remind ourselves1 in a world where one must work in order to live4 ,that1 in a broad sense1 is true2 but there are certain classes of persons exempt from any such actual compulsion2 and with respect to almost any specific individual outside of those classes1 it is generally possible for him to escape from that compulsion if he chooses4 ,take any one of us here2 you1 for instance4 ,if you really and truly did not want to work1 you could find a way to avoid it2 you could get your wife or your mother to support you by taking in washing or doing stenography--or1 if they refused1 you could manage to become the victim of some accident which would disable you from useful labor and enable you to spend your days peacefully in an institution4 ,but you prefer to work2 and the fact is that you like work4 ,you are unhappy because you don't get a chance to do the work you could do best1 or because you have not yet found the work you can do well2 but you have energies which demand expression in work4 ,and if you turn to the classes which are exempt from any compulsion to work1 you find the rich expending their energies either in the same channels as everybody else1 or organizing their play until its standards of effort are as exacting as those of work2 you find women who are supported by their husbands rebelling against the imprisonment of the idle home1 and seeking in all directions for employment of their energies2 and as for the third class of those who do not have to work in order to live1 we find that even idiots are happier when set at basket-weaving4 ,if we attempt to moralize upon the basis of these facts1 we arrive at a conclusion something like this3 it is right to use one's energies in organized effort--the more highly organized the better4 ,and if we ask what is the impulse or trait or quality which makes people turn from an easy to a hard life1 from loafing to sport1 from sport to work1 and which makes them contemptuous of each other and of themselves if they neglect an opportunity or evade a challenge to go into something still harder and more exacting--if we ask what it is that despite all our pretensions of laziness pushes us up more and more difficult paths of effort1 we are obliged to call it ,enterprise4 ,and when we face the fact that ,enterprise is a love of difficulties for their own sake1 we realize that the normal human being has1 within certain limits1 a pleasure in pain3 for it is painful to run a race1 to learn a language1 to write a sonnet1 to put through a deal--and pleasurable precisely because it is1 within these limits1 painful4 ,if it is too easy1 there is no fun in it4 ,the extremer sorts of enterprise we call courage and heroism4 ,but though we admire the fireman who risks his life in a burning building1 we would not admire the man who deliberately set fire to his own bed in order to suffer the pangs of torture by fire2 nor1 although we admire the airmen who come down frozen from high altitudes1 would we applaud a man who locked himself in a refrigerator over the week-end in order to suffer the torture of great cold4 ,we would feel1 in both these hypothetical cases1 that there was no relevancy of their action to the world of reality4 ,but upon this point our emotions are after all uncertain4 ,we do not begrudge applause to the football-star who is carried from the field with a broken collar-bone1 or to the movie-star who drives a motor-car off a cliff into the sea1 though it is quite clear that these actions are relevant to and significant in the world of fantasy rather than the world of reality4 ,what it comes down to is the intelligibility of the action4 ,does it relate to any world1 of reality or of fantasy1 which we can understand1 which has any significance for us8 ,when we turn to the child1 we find that normally he has no lack of enterprise4 ,but his enterprise is relevant to a world of childish dreaming to which we have lost the key4 ,his activities are largely meaningless to us--that is why we are so annoyed by them4 ,and1 in the same way1 our kinds of enterprise are largely meaningless to him4 ,that is why he usually objects so strongly to lessons and tasks4 ,they interrupt and interfere with the conduct of his own affairs4 ,he is as outraged at having to stop his play to put a shovelful of coal on the furnace1 as a sober business man would be at being compelled1 by some strange and tyrannical infantile despotism1 to stop dictating letters and join1 at some stated hour1 in a game of ring-around-the-rosy4 ,most of what we object to as misconduct in children is a natural rebellion against the intrusion of an unimaginative adult despotism into their lives4 ,nevertheless1 it is our adult world that they are going to have to live in1 and they must learn to live in it4 ,and it is true1 moreover1 that much of their enterprise is capable of finding as satisfactory employment in what we term the world of reality as in their world of dreams4 ,what we commonly do1 however1 is to convince them by punishment and scolding that our world of reality is unpleasant4 ,what we ought to do is to make it more agreeable1 more interesting1 more fascinating1 than their world of dreams4 ,our friend the ,artist has already told us how this may be done1 and our friend the ,philosopher has given some oblique hints on the same subject4 ,i merely note here that the school is the place in which the transition from the world of dreams to the world of realities may be best effected4 ,but there are various kinds of enterprise in our adult world4 ,it is undoubtedly enterprising to hold up a pay-train1 a la ,jesse ,james4 ,but though when the act involves real daring1 we cannot withhold an instinctive admiration1 yet we know that it is wrong4 ,why wrong8 ,because such acts disorganize and discourage1 and if unchecked would ruin1 the whole elaborate system of enterprise by which such trains are despatched and such money earned4 ,it is obvious that train-robbery and wage-labor cannot fairly compete with one another2 that if train-robbery goes on long enough1 nobody will do wage-labor1 and there will eventually cease to be pay-trains to rob4 ,the law does not take cognizance of these reasons1 but punishes train-robbery as a crime against property4 ,yet if we look into the matter for a moment1 we realize that loyalty to any property system ultimately rests upon the conviction that its destruction would result in the total frustration of the finer sorts of human enterprise2 it is for this reason that conservative people always persuade themselves that any change in the economic arrangements of society1 from a new income-tax to communism1 is a kind of train-robbery1 bound to end in universal piracy and ruin4 ,and this moral indignation1 whether in any given instance appropriate or not--or whether1 as in the case of many piratical kinds of business enterprise1 left for long in abeyance--is the next step in our human morality4 ,if we ask ourselves1 why should not human enterprise turn into a welter of primitive piracy1 with all the robbers robbing each other1 we are compelled to answer that in the long run it would not be interesting4 ,for1 although destruction is temporarily more exciting1 it is only construction that is permanently interesting4 ,and if we ask why it is more interesting1 we find that it is because it is harder4 ,it is too easy to destroy4 ,destruction may be occasionally a good thing1 as a tonic1 something to give to individuals or populations a sense of power2 but their most profound instinct is toward creation4 ,but the child1 by reason of the primitive stage of his development1 tends to engage rather more enthusiastically in destruction as a mode of enterprise than in creation4 ,he tires of building1 and it is a question whether or not the pleasure he takes in knocking over his houses of blocks does not exceed his pleasure in building them4 ,he prefers playing at hunting and war to playing at keeping house4 ,and his imagination responds more readily to the robber-exploits of ,robin ,hood than to the ,stories of ,great ,inventors4 ,this is a fact1 but it need not discourage us4 ,what is necessary is for him to learn the interestingness of creation4 ,if what he builds is not a house of blocks on the nursery floor1 but a wigwam in the woods1 his destructive energies are likely to be satisfied in cutting down the saplings with which to build it4 ,this simply means that his destructive energies have become subordinated to his constructive ones1 as they are in adult life4 ,but they cannot become so subordinated until what he constructs is wholly the result of his own wishes1 and until moreover it is more desirable as the starting-point of new creative activities than as something to destroy4 ,those conditions are fulfilled whenever a group of children play together and have free access to the materials with which to construct4 ,and that is what the school is for--to provide the materials1 and the freedom1 and be the home of a process by which children learn that it is more fun to create than to destroy4 ,,xxiii4 ,democracy ,but in our adult world1 there is still another moral quality demanded of our human enterprise4 ,it is not merely better to create than to destroy1 but it is better to create something which is useful1 or desirable1 to others4 ,our moral attitude is a little uncertain upon this point1 for the artist knows that his coarsest and easiest kind of enterprise is likely to be valued by others1 and his finer and more difficult enterprises neglected and scorned4 ,and so he has the impulse to work only for himself2 nevertheless1 he realizes that if he does work only for himself he is doing wrong4 ,for he really feels a deep-lying moral obligation to work for others--a moral obligation which comes1 of course1 from his egoistic need of the spiritual sustenance of praise4 ,the fact is that others are necessary to him1 and that his work must please others4 ,so if he ignores the crowd1 it is because he wishes to compel it to take something better than what it asked for4 ,and this democratic quality in enterprise becomes the third test of civilized life4 ,does a given action fit in everybody else's scheme as well as in your own3 and1 if it conflicts with the outside scheme1 is it with a fundamentally altruistic intention8 ,there are prophets and false prophets and of those who take the difficult course of disagreeing with their fellows1 the best we can immediately demand of them is that they afflict us because they think it good for us and not because they do not care4 ,yet even so they differ from us at their peril4 ,for we are to be the final judges of whether we are being imposed on or not4 ,if we do not1 after full consideration1 feel that we can play our game if ,napoleon or the ,kaiser plays his1 we put him out of business4 ,now the child has a certain natural tendency toward the ,napoleon-,kaiser attitude4 ,he began1 as we pointed out some time ago1 by being an infantile emperor4 ,he likes it4 ,and being deposed by his parents does not alter his royalist convictions4 ,for he has not merely been deposed--he has seen another king set up in his place4 ,and one reason why parents are not the best persons to teach children democracy1 is that they are the authors of the whole succession of enthronements and deposings which constitute the early history of a family4 ,no1 the children need a change of air--a chance to forget their ,wars of the ,roses and to take their places in a genuine democracy4 ,the place for them to learn democracy 7though ,i believe this has been said before7 is the school4 ,for in a properly conducted school there is an end of jealous little princes and princesses squabbling over prestige and appealing to the ,power ,behind the ,throne2 in such a school1 conduct in general and work in particular is performed not with reference to such prestige as a reward1 but with reference to their individual wishes in democratic composition with the wishes of their fellows4 ,but this will be true only if they find at school something different from what they have left at home4 ,and what they have left at home may be described as a couple of well-meaning1 bewildered and helpless people who are half the slaves of the children and half tyrants over them4 ,it is unfortunate1 but it is true1 that the first that children learn of human relationships1 is by personal experience of a relationship which is on both sides tyrannical and slavish4 ,they naturally expect all their relationships with the adult world1 if not with each other1 to be conducted on this same pattern4 ,they expect to find father and mother over again in the school-teacher4 ,they hope to find the slave and fear to find the tyrant4 ,but it is necessary that they should face the adult world into which they must grow up1 as equals2 and therefore they must begin to learn the lesson of equality4 ,the school1 by providing a kind of association between adults and children which is free from the emotional complexes of the home1 can teach that lesson4 ,there is1 however1 so much intellectual confusion about what equality means that we must be quite clear on that point before we go on4 ,at any moment of our careers1 we are the servant of others1 in the sense of being their follower1 helper1 disciple or right-hand man2 and the master of still others1 in that we are their leader1 counsellor or teacher4 ,we can hardly conduct an ordinary conversation without assuming1 and usually shifting several times1 these rles4 ,and these relationships extend far beyond the bounds of acquaintanceship1 for one can scarcely read a book or write an article without creating such relationships for the moment with unknown individuals4 ,in all the critical and important moments of one's life one is inevitably a leader or a follower4 ,but in adult civilized life1 these relationships are fluid2 they change and exchange with each other4 ,and they are fluid because they are free4 ,you and ,i can choose1 though perhaps not consciously1 our leaders and our helpers2 we are not condemned to stand in any fixed relationship to any other person4 ,and this freedom to be servant of whom we please1 and master of whom we can1 is equality4 ,if ,i want to know about fishing-tackle1 ,i will sit at your feet and learn1 and if you will condescend to lead the expedition in quest of these articles ,i will be your obedient follower2 while if you happened to want advice about pens1 pencils1 ink1 or typewriter-ribbons1 you would1 ,i trust1 yield a similar deference to me4 ,we have no shame in serving nor any egregious pride in directing each other1 because we are equals4 ,we are equals because we are free to become each other's master and each other's servant whenever we so desire4 ,but the relationship of parents and children is not free4 ,parents cannot choose their children1 and must serve their helplessness willy-nilly4 ,children cannot choose their parents1 and must obey them anyhow4 ,it is a rare triumph of parenthood--and doubtless also of childhood--when children and parents become friends1 and serve and obey each other not because they must but because they really like to4 ,but schools can easily take up the task which parents are only with the greatest difficulty able to accomplish1 and dissolve the infantile tyrant-and-slave relationship to the grown-up world4 ,the grown-up people in the school can be the child's equals4 ,they can become so by ceasing to encourage the notion which the child carries with him from the home1 that adults are beings of a different caste4 ,once they regard an adult as a person like themselves--which1 ,heaven knows1 he is6--children will discover quickly enough his admirable qualities1 and his special abilities1 and pay them the tribute of admiration and emulation4 ,there is no human reason why a child should not admire and emulate his teacher's ability to do sums1 rather than the village bum's ability to whittle sticks and smoke cigarettes2 the reason why the child doesn't is plain enough--the bum has put himself on an equality with them and the teacher has not4 ,,xxiv4 ,responsibility ,but there is yet another quality which civilized standards demand of our human enterprise4 ,people hate a quitter--and particularly the quitter whose defection leaves other people under the obligation to finish what he has started4 ,we demand of a person that he should refrain from starting what he can't finish4 ,this is a demand not only for democratic intentions1 but for common sense and ordinary foresight4 ,he shouldn't undertake a job that involves other people's putting their trust in him1 unless he can really carry it through4 ,and if he finds in the middle of it that he has1 as the saying goes1 8bit off more than he can chaw10 he ought to try to stick it out at whatever cost to himself4 ,if other people have believed he could do it1 he must not betray their faith4 ,this feeling is at the heart of what we ordinarily call telling the truth1 as well as the foundation of the custom of paying one's debts4 ,we don't really care how much a man perjures his own immortal soul by lying1 but we do object to his fooling other people by it4 ,we are all so entangled with each other1 so dependent upon each other1 that none of us can plan and create with any courage or confidence unless we can depend on others to do what they say they will do4 ,but our feeling goes deeper than the spoken word--we want people to behave in accordance with the promise of their actions4 ,we despise the person who seems1 and who lets us believe that he is1 wiser or more capable than he turns out to be4 ,we even resent a story that promises at the beginning to be more interesting than it is when it gets going4 ,and in regard to work1 the thing which we value above any incidental brilliancy in its performance1 is the certainty that it will be finished4 ,hence the pride in finishing any task1 however disagreeable1 once started4 ,this is the hardest thing that children have to learn--not to drop their work when they get tired of it4 ,but it should be obvious that there is only one way for children to learn this1 and that it is not by anything which may be said or done in punishment or rebuke from the authority which imposes the task4 ,it is not to be learned at all so long as the task is imposed by any one outside the child himself4 ,the child who is sent on an errand may forget1 and not be ashamed4 ,but the child who has volunteered to go on an errand--not as a pretty trick to please the ,authorities1 but because of a sense of the importance of the errand and of his own importance in doing it--that child has assumed a trust1 which he will not be likely to violate4 ,but suppose1 nevertheless1 that he does forget4 ,here we come to the ethics of punishment--a savage ritual which we generally quite fail to understand4 ,let us take a specific case4 ,a group of boys are building a house in the woods1 and they run out of nails4 ,penrod says he will go home and get some from the tool-chest in the barn4 ,he goes2 and on the way1 he meets a boy who offers to take him to the movies1 where ,charlie ,chaplin is on exhibition4 ,penrod reflects upon his duty2 but he says to himself that he will go in and see one reel of ,charlie ,chaplin1 and then hurry away4 ,but the inimitable ,charles lulls him into forgetfulness of realities1 and when he emerges from the theatre it is nigh on dinner time4 ,penrod realizes his predicament1 and rehearses two or three fancy stories to account for his failure to return with the nails2 but he realizes that none of them will hold4 ,he wishes that a wagon would run over him and break his leg1 so that he would have a valid excuse4 ,but no such lucky accident occurs4 ,how is he going to face the gang next day8 ,he has set himself apart from them1 exiled himself1 by his act4 ,the question is1 how is he going to get back8 ,now in the psychology of children and savages1 there is happily a means for such reinstatement4 ,this means is the discharge of the emotions--in the offender and in the group against which he has offended--of shame on the one hand and anger on the other1 which together constitute the barrier against his return4 ,that is1 if they can express their anger by1 let us say1 beating him up1 that anger no longer exists1 they are no longer offended4 ,while if he can by suffering such punishment pay the debt of his offence1 he thereby wipes it out of existence1 and at the same time cleanses himself from the shame of committing it4 ,as the best conclusion of an unpleasant incident1 he is ready to offer himself for such punishment4 ,for children understand the barbaric ritual of punishment when it really has the barbaric ritual significance4 ,but the punishment must be inflicted by the victim's peers4 ,there are few adults who can with any dignity inflict punishment upon children--for the dignity with which punishment is given depends upon the equality of the punisher and the punished1 and on the implicit understanding that if the case had happened to be different the rles would have been reversed4 ,it will be perceived that this leaves discipline entirely a matter for children to attend to among themselves1 with no interference by adults1 and no imposition of codes of justice beyond their years and understanding4 ,punishment1 in this sense1 cannot be meted out unless the aggrieved parties are angry and the aggressor ashamed2 but let no adult imagine that he can tell whether an offending child is ashamed or not4 ,shame is a destructive emotion which a healthy child tries to repress4 ,he does not say1 8,i am sorry40 ,he brazens out his crime until he provokes the injured parties to an anger which explodes into swift punishment1 after which he is one of them again and all is well4 ,but the abdication of adults from the office of judge-jury-and-executioner of naughty children1 destroys the last vestiges of the caste system which separates children from adults4 ,it puts an end to superimposed authority1 and to goodness as a conforming to the mysterious commands of such authority4 ,it places the child in exactly such a relationship to a group of equals as he will bear in adult life1 and it builds in him the sense of responsibility for his actions which is the final demand that civilization makes upon the individual4 ,and the importance of the school as a milieu for such a process is in its opportunity to undo at once1 early in life1 the psychological mischief brought about1 almost inevitably1 by the influences of the home4 ,there6--,i have let the cat out of the bag4 ,i had intended to be very discreet1 and say nothing that could possibly offend anybody4 ,but ,i have said what will offend everybody--except parents4 ,they1 goodness knows1 are fully aware that a home is no place to bring children up4 ,they see what it does to the children plainly enough4 ,but we1 the children1 are so full of repressed resentments against the tyrannies inflicted upon us by our parents1 and so full of repressed shame at the slavery to which we subjected them1 that we cannot bear to hear a word said against them4 ,the sentimentality with which we regard the home is an exact measure of the secret grudge we actually bear against it4 ,woe to the person who is so rash as to say what we really feel6--,but the mischief is done1 and ,i may as well go on and say in plain terms that the function of the school is to liberate the children from the influences of parental love4 ,for parental love--as any parent will tell you--is a bond that constrains too tyrannically on both sides to permit of real friendship1 which is a relationship between equals4 ,the child goes to school in order to cease to be a son or daughter--and incidentally in order to permit the two harassed adults at home to cease in some measure to be father and mother4 ,the child must become a free human being2 and he can do so only if he finds in school1 not a new flock of parents1 but adults who can help him to learn the lesson of freedom and friendship4 ,but that is something which ,i can discuss better in dealing with the subject of ,love4 ,,xxv4 ,love ,remember that it is not my fault that we find ourselves discussing so inflammable a topic6 ,but if you insist on knowing what education can do to bring our conduct in the realm of love up to the standard of civilization1 ,i can but answer your question4 ,we have found that in the realm of work1 civilization demands of us ,enterprise1 and ,democracy1 and ,responsibility4 ,and ,i think that all the demands of civilization upon our conduct in the realm of love might be summed up in the same terms4 ,we despise those persons who are afraid of adventure in love2 who in devotion to some mawkish dream-ideal1 turn away from the more difficult and poignant realities of courtship and marriage2 and we are beginning to despise those whose enterprise is too cheaply satisfied in prostitution or in the undemocratic masculine exploitation of women of inferior economic status2 and not only the crasser offences against sexual morality1 but a thousand less definable but not less real offences within the realm of legal marriage1 may be described as attempts to evade responsibility4 ,i leave you to work out the implications of this system of morals for yourself4 ,what ,i particularly want to speak of here is the effect of parental influences upon children with respect to their later love-life1 and the function of education in dissolving those influences4 ,it is no secret that adults generally have not yet learned how to be happy in love4 ,and the reason for that1 aside from the economic obstacles to happiness which do not come within the scope of our inquiry1 is that they are still children4 ,they are seeking to renew in an adult relationship the bond which existed between themselves and their parents in infancy4 ,or they are seeking to settle a long-forgotten childish grudge against their parents1 by assuming the parental rle in this new relationship4 ,and in both efforts1 they find themselves encouraged by each other4 ,naturally enough6 ,a woman likes to discover1 and enjoys 8mothering10 the child in her husband2 she likes to find also in him the god and hero which her father was to her in her infancy4 ,and a happy marriage is one in which a man is at any moment unashamedly her child or 7let us not shrink from using these infantile and romantic terms67 her god4 ,but it is a bore to have to mother a man all the time2 it is in fact slavery4 ,and it is equally a bore to have to look up to a man all the time and think him wise and obey him2 for that also is slavery4 ,the happy marriage has something else--the capacity for swift and unconscious change and interchange of these rles4 ,the happy lovers can vary the tenor of their relationship because they are free to be more than one thing to each other4 ,and they have that freedom because they are equals4 ,that equality is comradeship1 is friendship4 ,do not imagine that friendship in love implies any absence of that profound worship and self-surrender which is characteristic of the types of love that are modelled upon the infantile and parental patterns4 ,this is as ridiculous as it would be to suppose that equality in other fields of life means that no one shall ever lead and no one ever follow4 ,equality in love means only the freedom to experience all1 instead of compulsion to experience only a part1 of the emotional possibilities of love in a single relationship4 ,i would gladly explicate this aspect of my theme in some detail1 were it not that it might incidentally comprise a catalogue of domestic difficulties and misunderstandings at once too tragic and too ridiculous--and some of you might object to my unfolding what you would consider to be your own unique and private woes in public4 ,i will1 therefore1 only point out that even what we term the civilized part of mankind is far from measuring up to this demand of civilization in the world of love1 the demand for equality4 ,it may seem somewhat of an impertinence to blame this fact upon the early influences of the home1 when there are so many outstanding customs and laws and economic conditions which are founded on the theory of the inequality of men and women4 ,but these customs and laws and conditions are in process of change--and the home influences of which ,i speak are not4 ,our problem is to consider if these influences may not be dissolved by the school4 ,for1 mark you1 what happens when they are not6 ,wedded love1 as based upon those undissolved influences1 comes into a kind of disgrace2 serious-minded men and women ask themselves whether such a bondage is tolerable2 a thousand dramas and novels expose the iniquities of the thing2 and the more intellectually adventurous in each generation begin to wonder if the attempt at faithful and permanent love ought not to be abandoned4 ,let me relate only one widely typical--and perhaps only too-familiar--instance4 ,a boy grows up poisoned with mother-love--er1 ,i mean1 petted and praised and waited upon by his mother1 until he finds the outside world1 with its comparative indifference to his wonderfulness1 a very cold place indeed4 ,nevertheless1 he adjusts himself to it1 becomes a man1 and falls in love4 ,with whom does he fall in love8 ,perhaps with a girl like his mother2 or perhaps with one quite opposite to her in all respects1--for he may have conceived an unconscious resentment against his mother1 for betraying him by her praise into expecting too much of an unfeeling world4 ,but in any case1 he is going to experience again1 in his relationship with his sweetheart1 the ancient delights of being mothered4 ,he is going to respond to that pleasure so unmistakably as to encourage the girl in further demonstrations of motherliness4 ,he is in fact going to reward her more for motherliness than for any other trait in her possession4 ,and the girl1 who wants a lover and a husband and a man1 is going to find herself with a child on her hands4 ,but that is not the worst4 ,if the girl does not rebel against the situation1 the man is likely to1 when he finds out just what it is4 ,for he1 too1 despite his unconscious infantilism1 wants a girl and a sweetheart and a wife4 ,and when he realizes that he is being sealed up again in the over-close1 over-sweet love-nest of his infancy1 that he is becoming a baby1 he revolts4 ,he does not realize what has happened--he only knows that he no longer cherishes a romantic love for her4 ,naturally4 ,romantic love is a love between equals4 ,she has become his mother--and he flees her1 and perhaps goes through life seeking and escaping from his mother in half a hundred women4 ,when this happens1 we call him a ,don ,juan or a libertine or a scoundrel or a fool4 ,but that does not alter his helplessness in the grip of infantile compulsions4 ,i do not wish to exaggerate the ability of education to dissolve1 without the aid of a special psychic technique1 any deeply-rooted infantile dispositions of this sort2 but1 aside from such flagrant cases1 there are thousands of well-conducted men and women who just fail to free themselves sufficiently from the emotions of childhood to be happy in love4 ,besides their own selves1 the sensible adult beings that they believe they are1 there are within them pathetic and absurd children whose demands upon the relationship well-nigh tear it to pieces4 ,it is in regard to these that it seems not improbable that a civilized education could secure their happiness for them4 ,and it would do so by supplanting the emotionally over-laden atmosphere of the home with the invigorating air of equality4 ,i refer in particular to equality between the sexes4 ,so long as girls and boys are to any extent educated separately1 encouraged to play separately1 and treated as different kinds of beings1 the remoteness hinders the growth of real friendship between the sexes1 and leaves the mind empty of any realistic concepts which would serve to resist the transfer to the other sex1 at the romantic age1 of repressed infantile feelings about the beloved parent4 ,what we have to deal with in children might without much exaggeration be described as the disinclination of one who has been a lover to become a friend4 ,the emotions of the boy towards his mother are so rich and deep that he is inclined to scorn the tamer emotions of friendship with girl-children4 7,notoriously1 he falls in love first with older women in whom he finds some idealized image of his mother47 ,he is contemptuous of little girls because they are not the mother-goddess of his infancy4 ,what he must learn1 and the sooner the better1 is that girls are interesting human beings1 that they are good comrades and jolly playfellows4 ,he must learn to like them for what they are4 ,ordinarily1 the love-life of the adolescent boy is a series of more or less shocked discoveries that the women upon whom he has set his youthful fancy do not1 in fact1 correspond to his infantile dream4 ,half the difficulties of marriage are involved in the painful adjustment of the man to the human realities of his beloved2 the other half being1 of course1 the similarly painful adjustment of the girl to similar human realities4 ,he could be quite happy with her1 were the other dear charmer1 his infantile ideal1 away4 ,and it is one of the functions of education to chase this ideal away1 to dissolve the early emotional bond to the parent1 by making the real world in general and the real other sex in particular so humanly interesting that it will be preferred to the infantile fantasy4 ,i may be mistaken1 but ,i think that half of this task will be easy enough4 ,girls1 ,i am sure1 are only in appearance and by way of saving their face1 scornful of the activities of boys2 they will be glad enough to join with them on terms of complete equality1 and ready to admire and like them for what they humanly are4 ,it will not be so easy to persuade boys to admire and like girls for what they are2 and it will be the business of the school to dramatize unmistakably for these young masculine eyes the human interestingness of the other sex--to give the girls a chance to show their actual ability to compete on equal and non-romantic terms with boys in all their common undertakings4 ,to make realities more interesting than dreams--that is the task of education4 ,and of all the realities whose values we ignore1 in childish preoccupation with our feeble dreams1 the human realities of companionship which each sex has to offer the other are among the richest4 ,despite all our romantic serenadings1 men and women have only begun to discover each other4 ,just as1 despite our solemn sermonizings on the blessedness of work1 we have only begun to discover what creative activity can really mean to us4 ,work and love6-- ,a ,,voice4 8,won't you please come back to the subject of education80 ,what6 ,is it possible--is it credible--is it conceivable--that you have been following this discussion thus far1 and have not yet realized that education includes everything on earth1 and in the heavens above and the waters beneath8 ,come back to the subject of education6 ,why1 it is impossible to wander away from the subject of education6 ,i defy you to do so4 ,all the books that have ever been written1 all the pictures that have ever been painted1 all the songs ever sung1 all the machines ever invented1 all the wars and all the governments1 all the joyous and sorry loves of men and women1 are but part of that vast process1 the education of mankind4 ,when you leave this discussion1 you will not have dropped the subject2 you will continue it in your next conversation1 whether it be with your employer or your sweetheart or your milkman4 ,you cannot get away from it4 ,and though you perish1 and an earthquake overwhelms your city in ruins1 and the continent on which you live sinks in the sea1 something that you have done or helped to do1 something which has been a part of your life1 the twisted fragments of the office building where you went to work or the old meerschaum pipe you so patiently coloured1 will be dug up and gazed upon by future generations1 and what you can teach them by these poor relics if by nothing else1 will be a part of their education4444 ,,xxvi4 ,education in #aidg ,a4 ,d4 ,by way of epilogue1 let us be ,utopian1 after the fashion of ,plato and ,h4 ,g4 ,wells4 ,let me1 as a returned traveller from the not-too-distant future1 picture for you concretely the vaster implications of education in1 say1 the year #aidg1 as illustrated by the public school in the village of ,pershing1 ,n4 ,y4 99 99 99 99 99 8,but which is the school-building80 ,i asked my guide4 ,he laughed4 8,i am surprised at you10 he said4 8,surprised that you should ask such a question60 8,why80 ,i demanded innocently4 8,because10 he said1 8in the files of our historical research department ,i once came across a faded copy of a quaint old war-time publication called the ,liberator4#d ,it attracted my attention because it appeared to have been edited by a grizzled old fire-eater whom ,i recently met1 ,major ,general ,eastman1 the head of our ,war ,college4 ,in those days1 it seems1 he thought he was a pacifist4 ,time's changes60 8,ah1 yes--,general ,eastman4 ,i remember him well10 ,i said4 8,but what has that got to do with--0 8,in that curious little magazine was an article on education4 ,it was signed by you4 ,don't you remember what you wrote8 ,didn't you believe what you said8 ,or didn't you fully realize that you were living in a time when prophecies come true8 ,you ask me where the school-building is4 ,why1 there isn't any school-building40 ,we were standing in the midst of a little park1 about the size of a large city block1 bordered by a theatre1 a restaurant1 an office-building1 several handsome factory buildings of the newer and more cheerful style1 a library1 a newspaper plant1 and a church4 ,my companion pointed to one of the buildings4 8,that10 he said1 8is the children's theatre4 ,there they present their own plays and pageants4 ,in connection with the work there they learn singing and dancing1 scene painting1 and costume4 ,of course they also learn about plays--,i suppose from your primitive point of view you would say that we conduct a course in dramatic literature4 ,but all those antique phrases of early educational practice have passed out of use4 ,we would say that the children are learning to develop their creative impulses4 ,we consider our theatre very important in that respect4 ,it is the beginning of everything4 8,next in importance1 perhaps1 are those factories4 ,they include a carpenter shop1 a pottery1 and a machine shop4 ,here is made everything which is used throughout the school4 ,and there is the power house which furnishes the electric current for the whole establishment4 ,you understand1 of course1 that the boys and girls get a complete theoretical as well as practical grasp of the facts they are dealing with--there is no neglect of what ,i suppose you would call book-learning1 here4 8,over there is the textile and garment factory1 which designs and makes the costumes for the plays and pageants4 ,you will not be surprised to learn that the garment-makers at any given period are the most active supporters of the propaganda for an outdoor theatre4 ,it would give them a chance to do more costumes6444 8,yes1 we have politics here4 ,the question of an outdoor theatre is being agitated very warmly just now4 ,the pupils have complete control of the school budget of expenditure4 ,there is only so much money to spend each year1 you see1 at present1 though there is a movement on foot to make the institution self-supporting2 but ,i'm afraid that will depend on the political situation4 ,ultimately1 of course1 we expect to put the whole of industry under the ,department of ,education4444 ,but ,i'm afraid that's going too deeply into a situation you could hardly be expected to understand4 8,at any rate to return to our school1 the opposition to the outdoor theatre is from the scientific groups1 who want an enlargement of their laboratories4444 ,the architectural and building groups are neutral--they are working on plans for both projects1 and all they want is that the question should be settled one way or the other at once1 so they can go to work4 ,there will be a meeting tonight1 at which a preliminary vote will be taken4 ,yes1 our politics are quite old-fashioned--,greek1 in fact4 8,the shops8 ,they are managed by shop committees of the workers4 ,distribution of products to the various groups which use them is effected through a distributing bureau1 which has charge of the book-keeping and so forth4 ,there has been a change in distribution recently1 however4 ,at first the shops merely made what was ordered by the various groups1 and requisitions were the medium of exchange4 ,but the shops became experimental and enterprising1 and produced what they liked on the chance of its being wanted4 ,this made a show-place necessary1 and as for various reasons ordinary money became the medium of exchange1 the show-place became a kind of department store4 ,then some of the groups decided to use part of their subsidy in advertising in the school newspaper and magazines4 ,they are working out some very interesting principles in their advertising1 too1 as you will find4 ,they have to tell the truth4444 8,there is the printing establishment4 ,no1 the paper and the magazines are not self-supporting--though the school advertising helps4 ,they're subsidized4 ,we quite believe in that4 8,and there--you can get a glimpse of the greenhouses and gardens4 ,botany and so forth4444 ,the library is the centre of the research groups4 ,history1 sociology1 economics--finding out what and why4 ,very informal and very earnest1 as you'll find4444 ,the groups8 ,oh1 the time one stays in each group varies with the individual4 ,but every one likes to be able to boast quietly of an ,m4 ,p4--that means a #8masterpiece' in the old mediaeval sense2 a piece of work that shows you've passed the apprentice stage--in a reasonable number of departments4 ,some ,admirable ,crichtons go in for an ,m4 ,p4 in everything6444 8,the restaurant--that's quite important4 ,the cooking groups give a grand dinner every little while1 and everybody goes and dines quite in state1 with dancing afterward4 ,we learn the best of bourgeois manners--makes it quite impossible to distinguish an immigrant's child from the scions of our old families4 ,the result is that the best families are discarding their manners in order to retain their distinction6 ,very amusing4444 8,the church8 ,you mean that building over there1 ,i suppose8 ,that isn't a church--not in the sense you mean4 ,it's our meeting place4 ,you see1 since your time churches have come to be used so much for meetings that when our architecture group came to plan an assembly hall it was quite natural for them to choose the ecclesiastical style4 ,anyway1 ,i understand it's a return to their original purpose44440 8,but10 ,i said1 8this school is just like the world outside60 8,except10 he said1 8in one particular4 ,in the world outside we still have certain vestiges of class privilege and exploitation--considerably toned down from their former asperities1 but still recognizable as relics of capitalism4 ,in the school we have play1 production and exchange as they would exist in the outside world if these things were to be done and managed wholly with the intention of making better and wiser and happier citizens4 ,the difference1 of course1 is simply that one is run with an educational and the other with a productive intention40 8,the difference seems to me10 ,i remarked1 8that your school is really democratic and your adult world isn't quite40 8,that is one way of putting it10 he conceded4 8,and ,i should think10 ,i said warmly1 8that after going to these schools1 your people would want the rest of the world run on exactly the same plan40 8,it does rather have that effect10 he admitted cautiously4 8,in fact1 the ,educational party1 as it is called1 is very rapidly rising into power4 ,since you are unfamiliar with our politics1 ,i should explain that the ,educational party was formed1 after the unfortunate events of #aibe1 by the amalgamation of the ,united ,engineers1 the ,o4 ,g4 ,u41 and the ,farmers' ,league4 ,its chief figure is the sainted ,madame ,goldman1 the organizer of the ,women's ,battalion in the ,first ,colonial ,war44440 8,what surprises me10 ,i interrupted1 8is that your conservatives--0 8,tut6 we have no conservatives--they call themselves ,moderates40 8,i am surprised1 then1 that your ,moderates allow such schools to exist6 ,of course they will revolutionize any society in which they are60 8,well10 said my companion1 8but what could they do8 ,once you begin making schools for the children1 you start out on the principle that education is learning how to live--and you end here40 ,i pondered this4 8,not necessarily10 ,i said at last4 8,you might have ended with schools in which the children of the poor were taught how to be efficient wage-slaves40 8,ah1 yes10 said my friend1 8but they smashed that attempt away back in #aibd40 8,did they8 ,i'm very glad to hear it60 ,i cried4444 8,by the bye1 how much do these schools cost--all over the country80 8,less per year than we spent per day on the ,second ,colonial ,war4444 ,but this is enough of description4 ,you shall see for yourself4 ,come60 he said4 ,we started toward the theatre4 8,play10 he was saying1 8is according to our ideas more fundamental and more important in life than work4 ,consequently the theatre--0 ,but what he said about the theatre would take us far from anything which we are now accustomed to consider education4 ,it involves no less a heresy than the calm assumption that the artist type is the highest human type1 and that the chief service which education can perform for the future is the deliberate cultivation of the faculty of 8creative dreaming40444 ,i venture to quote only one sentence3 8,mankind needs more poets40 ,,appendix ,a ,,definition ,,of ,,progressive ,,education 7,from a bulletin issued by the ,progressive ,education ,association1 ,washington1 ,d4 ,c47 8,the aim of ,progressive ,education is the freest and fullest development of the individual1 based upon the scientific study of his physical1 mental1 spiritual1 and social characteristics and needs4 8,progressive ,education as thus defined implies the following conditions3 8#a4 ,,freedom ,,to ,,develop ,,naturally 8,the conduct of the pupil should be self-governed according to the social needs of his community1 rather than by arbitrary laws4444 ,full opportunity for initiative and self-expression should be provided1 together with an environment rich in interesting material that is available for the free use of every pupil4 8#b4 ,,interest ,,the ,,motive ,,of ,,all ,,work 8,interest should be satisfied and developed through3 7#a7 ,direct and indirect contact with the world and its activities1 and use of the experience thus gained4 7#b7 ,application of knowledge gained1 and correlation between different subjects4 7#c7 ,the consciousness of achievement4 8#c4 ,,the ,,teacher ,a ,,guide1 ,,not ,a ,,task-,,master 8444 ,progressive teachers will encourage the use of all the senses1 training the pupils in both observation and judgment2 and instead of hearing recitations only1 will spend most of the time teaching how to use various sources of information1 including life activities as well as books2 how to reason about the information thus acquired2 and how to express forcefully and logically the conclusions reached4 ,teachers will inspire a desire for knowledge1 and will serve as guides in the investigations undertaken1 rather than as task-masters4 ,to be a proper inspiration to their pupils1 teachers must have ample opportunity and encouragement for self-improvement and for the development of broad interests4 8#d4 ,,scientific ,,study ,,of ,,pupil ,,development 8,school records should 444 include both objective and subjective reports on those physical1 mental1 moral1 and social characteristics which affect both school and adult life1 and which can be influenced by the school and the home4 ,such records should be used as a guide for the treatment of each pupil1 and should also serve to focus the attention of the teacher on the all-important work of development1 rather than on simply teaching subject matter4 8#e4 ,,greater ,,attention ,,to ,,all ,,that ,,affects ,,the ,,child',s ,,physical ,,development 8,one of the first considerations of ,progressive ,education is the health of the pupils4 ,much more room in which to move about1 better light and air1 clean and well ventilated buildings1 easier access to the out of doors and greater use of it1 are all necessary4 ,there should be frequent use of adequate playgrounds4444 8#f4 ,,co-,,operation ,,between ,,school ,,and ,,home ,,to ,,meet ,,the ,,needs ,,of ,,child-,,life 8,the school should provide1 with the home1 as much as possible of all that the natural interests and activities of the child demand1 especially during the elementary school years4 ,it should give opportunity for manual experience for both boys and girls1 for home-making1 and for healthful recreation of various kinds4444 ,these conditions can come about only through intelligent co-operation between parents and teachers4 ,it is the duty of the parents to know what the school is doing and why4444 8#g4 ,,the ,,progressive ,,school ,a ,,leader ,,in ,,educational ,,movements 8,the ,progressive ,school should be 444 a laboratory where new ideas if worthy meet encouragement2 where tradition alone does not rule1 but the best of the past is leavened with the discoveries of today1 and the result is freely added to the sum of educational knowledge4 87,the ,association is not committed1 and never can be1 to any particular method or system of education4 ,in regard to such matters it is simply a medium through which improvements and developments worked out by various agencies can be presented to the public470 ,,footnotes3 #a ,it will1 ,i hope1 be clear that these remarks apply specifically to the grammar school teacher who does have to teach everything4 ,the case is less desperate in the higher reaches of our school system4 #b ,except in ,dutch ,new ,york1 and in ,massachusetts4 #c 8,the one dominant feature of this labour movement #ahbd-ahcf was the almost fanatical insistence upon the paramount importance of education4 ,in political platforms1 in resolutions of public meetings1 and in the labour press1 the statement is repeated over and over1 that the fundamental demand of labour is for an adequate system of education4444 8,to this movement1 more than to any other single cause1 if not more than to all other causes combined1 is due the common school system of the ,united ,states4444 ,when the movement died out in #ahce to #ahcg 444 ,horace ,mann was leading the #8educational revival1' and the common school was an established institution in nearly every state40--,a4 ,m4 ,simons3 8,social ,forces in ,american ,history40 #d ,in which some of these chapters originally appeared1 and to which my thanks are due for the privilege of republication4 ,,transcriber',s ,,notes3 ,italicized text is surrounded by underscores3 italics4 ,obvious typographical errors have been corrected4 ,inconsistencies in hyphenation have been standardized4