PROBLEMS IN EDUCATIONAL THEORY 75 



too, that finer realism which modern art shares with modern aspira- 

 tions in the field of morals, a realism which aims at essential rather 

 than merely conventional truth and righteousness. Even where most 

 secular it is mildly religious, with that pervasive religion which is 

 an overflow from creeds and rituals. It enjoys a fine catholicity 

 of human interest, a neighborliness to which no man is a foreigner 

 nor a Samaritan. It disengages itself from the partisanship of the 

 sects and sections of other institutions; for even where most bound 

 by ecclesiastical or other dependence, it is influenced by that rising 

 respect for the personality of the learner which in our day restrains 

 those who would do violence to the honest convictions of even a little 

 child. 



The great movement in education here referred to has gone forward 

 in unison with the other great movements in human culture which 

 have made our civilization what it is to-day. Only patient and 

 critical and clear-sighted historical research can reveal the real trend 

 and significance of these movements, but they are plainly connected 

 with those views of human life which in the eighteenth century were 

 ushered in with the doctrine of the rights of man, and with a demo- 

 cratic conception of social relations. Education in modern schools 

 seems to tend toward democracy everywhere, even in lands where 

 every effort is put forth to prevent such an outcome. It accents 

 the tendency toward democracy which it finds already at hand - 

 a tendency not necessarily toward a democratic as opposed to a 

 monarchical form of government, but toward the democracy of fair 

 opportunity for every man. It is out of this play of currents, 

 strivings, and ideals that the individualism of our time has arisen - 

 an individualism more sharply conscious of itself because of its inter- 

 play with a new spirit of collectivism which has arisen along with it. 

 It has come to pass that as our education has become less narrowly 

 institutional, more widely universal, it has come to lay new emphasis 

 on the responsibility of individuals, each of whom is to render his 

 peculiar service to society. It seeks to discover in each his best 

 aptitude for such service, and to raise that aptitude to its highest 

 efficiency through training. The fine adjustment of individualism 

 to collectivism, in a school intended to perpetuate and promote the 

 best things of our time, is a problem of educational theory as well 

 as of educational practice, and calls for a much more searching 

 inquiry into the place and meaning of modern scholastic freedom 

 than any that has yet been made. 



The growth of such freedom, in making way for the individual in 

 the training of the schools, has made way also for a psychological 

 treatment of educational problems. In the modern school such 

 approach to educational doctrine from the side of psychology is an 

 indispensable accompaniment of the attempt to make education 



