PROBLEMS IN EDUCATIONAL THEORY 71 



II. The Central Group of Problems: Relating immediately to the 



Art of Education. 



In this group we may note three problems, all of which are living 

 questions in the education of different peoples to-day, all of which 

 are, moreover, intimately interwoven one with another. They are 

 those of: 



(1) The relation of election to prescription in studies; 



(2) The relation of studies for general culture to vocational studies ; 



(3) The relation of guidance to spontaneity in the methods of 

 instruction. 



The elective system, under some very broad limitations, has long 

 held sway in the German universities. During the past half-century 

 and more it has been making steady progress in the colleges and 

 universities of America. In the higher institutions of other lands its 

 influence is present, and it is working itself out in a great variety of 

 forms. By degrees it has made its way downward into the second- 

 ary schools, and we have even seen something of it in the higher 

 grades of the elementary schools. 



This is a movement in the direction of a larger freedom for the 

 personal development of the individual and of every individual who 

 rises to the higher stages of education. According to different points 

 of view it tends, on the one hand, to the dissolution of some of the 

 best of social bonds ; or, on the other hand, to the fitting of men for 

 a higher service of society. 



Closely connected with the problem of electivism is the problem 

 of the relation of general to vocational training. The principle of 

 election has always been recognized, where permanent castes have 

 not been established, to this extent at least, that a man's vocation 

 has been chosen by him or for him from the several which may have 

 been open; and that some part of his training has been specialized 

 in accordance with this choice. A current tendency runs toward a 

 stronger emphasis on the importance of vocational training, of train- 

 ing for arts and trades as well as for the " learned " professions, and 

 toward the demand that the profession shall be chosen to fit the man 

 even if choices made in earlier years be freely changed as the learner's 

 character and aptitudes become better known. With the growth 

 of election in studies pursued for general culture, the distinction 

 between culture courses and vocational courses has become obscured. 

 In their spirit and methods and subjects of study, general and 

 technical schools have become in a measure assimilated to each other. 

 The implications of this tendency, its advantages and dangers, pre- 

 sent a large problem for theoretical solution. 



The emphasis on individuality and freedom in the choice of course 

 and of studies is accompanied, especially in Anglo-Saxon lands, by 



