back over sea, the longer journeys and the wider relationships are full of suggestions. One refrains from details which have no place in what must be a brief survey of so wide a field. Enough has perhaps been indicated to emphasize the principles involved.

Literature as a means of social instruction has inexhaustible possibilities. The conception of literature as a product, an expression, of social life can be developed. Language itself thought of as a social growth takes on new meaning. The interpretation of a piece of great literature, the reading into it of men's motives, the asking, “Is it true to life?” start fruitful inquiry and illuminating discussion. A careful reading with a class of one of Emerson's essays is a lesson in psychology, in ethics, in history, in language, in literature all at once--and, what is noteworthy, the pupils never suspect that these profound names are lurking beneath the delightful exercise.

The value of the problem in instruction has been fairly recognized in mathematics, physics, and chemistry, but in less exact subjects it has been too much neglected. After all, the real test, if not the best means, of "correlation" is problem-solving-the bringing to bear of all the necessary elements of knowledge upon a given concrete situation. The possibilities of problem-setting are being studied. It is not utopian to set social problems, to describe situations, and to invite solutions. The teacher with a sand box and a few toy houses may set the problem of building a village which shall have houses, schools, churches, factories, stores, etc., appropriate for a specified population in an environment and with transportation facilities indicated at the outset. The discussions and criticisms involved in such a task could not fail to be fruitful. This is only a suggestion of the devices available for stimulating reflection upon the various aspects of social life.

So far stress has been laid upon instruction, upon gaining insight into the nature of social organization; but education is more than instruction. Unless the pupil from all his study of industry and nature, of geography and commerce, of history and literature, gathers appropriate sentiments, selects worthy types of personality and conduct, comes to respond with bounding pulses to the best ideals of personal development, of social service, of loyalty to country, of devotion to righteousness, the whole effort has been futile. Knowledge which is not transmuted into character is abortive.

Yet the problem of moral education is baffling. The dogmatic teaching of virtue is all but hopeless. Ideals are assimilated from the community in so subtle a way that it seems almost impossible to control the individual's development. The teaching of formal ethics comes at a later stage of reflection, and it is a question whether moral philosophy in college has much effect upon character.

The real task is to influence those instinctive, unreflective approvals

and disapprovals with which the individual looks upon men and conduct. There are virtues which our times demand, which it is hard to cultivate. A high ideal of commercial honor, a passion for truth and tolerance, an admiration for political integrity, a deep sense of civic duty, are not unhampered growths in a society like ours.

The idea of self-government in our schools arouses interest. The autocracy of the schoolroom seems an ill preparation for life in a democracy. The experiment of self-control is worth trying, and there is reason to hope for valuable results, but we are not surprised to learn that the ethical standard of the outside community often dominates the school. The "ring" or "machine," favoritism, gross partisanship, wirepulling, log-rolling often find their way into the student government. To arouse feeling among the pupils against forms of conduct which are tolerated, or secretly, if not openly, admired in the outside world, is a difficult and delicate task.

But little by little thru the years, if the right materials are gathered, if sound and sane suggestions come from personalities which inspire respect and affection, these higher impulses may be strengthened into stable virtues. History and literature and life must be searched for noble personalities and high types of conduct, and these must be held up for admiration and emulation wisely, persistently, untiringly. In the earlier years, discussion and analysis have little place. The emotions come without conscious reflection. Later, comparison and debate, if they do not degenerate into arid dialectic, serve a useful purpose. But the emphasis in the socializing of education should rest upon the early stages where character is laid down in emotional valuations of man and morality.

It is in this field of moral education that I would emphasize the plea, which Professor Patten made some years ago, for contemporary heroes. Let pupils search the press and the community for high types of conduct. The fireman, the railway engineer, the life-saver, the miner, the factory hand, the reformer, the philanthropist of today aid the formation of ideals no less than mediæval crusaders or the heroes of Greece and Rome. There are virtues universal, virtues of purity and courage, of loyalty and self-sacrifice, admirablė in all lands and in all ages; but these virtues are interpreted by every people and every epoch. The virtues of the past. must be translated into those of the present. As abstract virtues they are lifeless things; they must be incarnated in personalities before they can have power over the young. Here literature and life lend their

aid.

The great problem of American education, then, is the problem of making better citizens. Even to state this is to perpetrate a platitude, to But the solution of the problem lies in bringing the school into closer relation with life. The studies which have been too

obtrude the obvious.

far abstracted from human experience must be brought back again into contact with the concrete social experience from which they sprang. The highest ideals of co-operation, loyalty, sacrifice, which men have wrought out in the past and present must live again in the personalities of the young. Only mature life can see the full development of character, but the socialized school, under the guidance of a high-minded teacher who sees life whole, may render unvaluable service.

ECONOMICS IN THE PUBLIC SCHOOLS

PRESIDENT GEORGE GUNTON, INSTITUTE

YORK, N. Y.

OF SOCIAL ECONOMICS, NEW

Human progress is measured by the degree in which experience is converted into helpful knowledge. It is the function of science to reduce this knowledge to working principles, and of education to present these principles in teachable form. It is by this process that modern institutions come into existence. There is no important feature of civilization, in religion, ethics, art, science, economics, or politics, that has been or could have been accomplished by any one generation. It is all the result of successful contributions of succeeding generations, thru converting the experience of one into helpful knowledge for the next.

While this work is constantly going on in numerous forms, the institution which today must be more than ever relied upon to render this important service to society is the public school. The efficiency of the schools in rendering this service depends largely upon the extent to which the knowledge they impart is applicable to the conduct and conditions of modern society. As Dr. Nicholas Murray Butler aptly puts it: "The first question to be asked in any course of study is, Does it lead to a knowledge of our contemporary civilization? If not, it is neither efficient

nor liberal."

It is no part of my purpose to detract from the value of any part of the public-school curriculum, but rather to plead that social economics should have a place in the public schools. It will be conceded that in our system of public education those subjects have the greatest claim to consideration which most directly lead to the character-making conditions of life. Nor will it be questioned that this may change with the progress of society. For instance, it is easy to understand that in the Middle Ages, when the common people were outside the pale of social and political recognition, no education was necessary for the masses. That which was necessary, being mostly for the clergy, might well be of a theological and Latin and Greek and abstruse theological doctrines were, of course, the chief requirements of the only educated class. But, as society developed and industry became an important factor in

classical character.

public affairs, education must needs take a broader sweep.

With the rise

of manufactures and commerce it became necessary to extend education to the middle class.

As social life and institutions became more complex, a greater extent and variety of knowledge became necessary, if the future was to have the benefit of the past and progress to continue. So, with the birth to social consciousness of what Lassalle called the "fourth estate," it became necessary to extend education to the common people. Under democratic institutions, where the very form of government and conditions of industry are within the political control of the masses, the character of education thru the common schools becomes a matter of paramount importance to civilization itself. The progress of the last quarter of a century has radically changed the importance of economics as a public-school study. Fifty years ago, for instance, when we were chiefly an agricultural country, with a little domestic manufacture, the industrial problems and social questions growing out of them were comparatively simple; but during the last thirty years this has all changed. We have become dominantly a manufacturing nation; our progress in this regard is unparalleled in the history of mankind. During the last thirty years our manufacturing industries, measured by the value of the output or of the domestic per capita consumption, has increased many times faster than the population. This has given us exceptional advancement in material and social welfare; which in time has brought a tremendous urbanization of our population, with new social problems like the sweatshop, the housing of the poor, the question of sanitation, of public charity, and many other quasi-economic and social problems growing out of city conditions.

On the other hand, this progress has brought with it a radical change in the organization and character of industrial enterprise. The once small individual concerns have been supplanted by corporations, and corporations have been superseded by syndicates, or so-called "trusts." These two sets of circumstances have created two new groups of social problems which are injecting themselves into the institutions of the country. Therefore, intelligent citizenship today involves a different and higher standard of intelligence and broader comprehension of public questions. than fifty years ago.

Moreover, all this material and social progress, which has carried with it the spirit of individual independence, has made the ill-informed citizen a more dangerous element in the community than he was half a century ago. The growth of large industries and immense individual wealth has created in the mind, not only of the laborer, but of the economic layman. generally, a feeling of distrust. They come to view all with whom they are in more or less competitive relation, and especially the rich employing class, as their enemies and the enemies of public welfare. When they enter the field of activity as citizens, whether in municipal, state, or

national affairs, they are dominated by this suspicious feeling which frequently amounts to a social prejudice. They look with distrust upon public officials, and the whole system of administration to them appears in the light of an instrument in the hands of the rich to govern society in their own interest. Nor is this altogether surprising when they see those who should be leaders of public opinion exercising the power of political dictators, buying and selling nominations for public office, blackmailing business corporations under the pressure of coercive legislation, and thru the power thus acquired corrupting the very sources of our political institutions. By these means, in not few instances, a small coterie controls the government of large cities, and even states, and sometimes even the president of the United States is the victim of this unwholesome power. This has done much to beget in the public mind the belief that the rich are corrupting our government, dictating the public policy, and tending to convert our democracy into an oligarchy.

On the other side of the same picture are the city problems, to which I have already referred. There they see the poor ill-housed, huddled in unwholesome quarters under quasi-pestilential conditions. Poverty, vice, and the accompanying social degradation follow in their train. To this picture the revolutionist can point as one of the consequences of the great capitalistic movement, and appeal to the masses to overthrow the existing industrial system and adopt socialism as the only efficient remedy.

One of the greatest safeguards against the threatened disruption off society is the public school. At present, for the great army of youths who go from the public schools to the workshop, there is no mental preparation for intelligently dealing with these subjects. They are left to jostle against their fellows in the workshop, hear and feel the causes for discontent; they read the inflammatory and sensational stuff in the newspapers, listen to the more or less acrimonious discussion of social questions in their shop meetings and organizations; and all without the slightest background of educational preparation for forming rational judgments. The very natural result is that their opinions are made up from feelings and prejudices created by their economic environment. If the public school is to "lead to a knowledge of our contemporary civilization," it must necessarily furnish some mental training on these subjects which lie at the foundation of our social life, and furnish the material out of which public opinion is made and public policy is constructed.

This brings us to the practical aspect of the subject and raises the question of feasibility. In pleading for the introduction of economics into the public school, we may expect numerous objections from the traditional pedagog. It will be urged, with considerable truth, that the public school curriculum is already overloaded; that, instead of the student having more subjects, he should have less. It will also be urged