BIOGRAPHY IN THE SCHOOLS. 543 



lime, because we should be justified in saying, on psychological grounds, 

 that that nature was deficient and defective. This great aspect of 

 civilization ... is a necessary factor in adjusting ourselves to the full 

 richness of human conquest and human acquisition ... we should see 

 to it that the esthetic inheritance is placed side by side with the scien- 

 tific and the literary in the education of the human child."* Among 

 the humanizing elements of education as it should be organized esthetic 

 insight and appreciation rank high. Yet our figures bear testimony 

 to what every one knows without tables of statistics, that art is neglected 

 in the education of the American youth so far as the schools are con- 

 cerned. The fact that high school seniors who can name on an aver- 

 age 5.7 statesmen know only 2.7 painters, sculptors and musicians 

 in all the world's history is too significant to require comment. Is 

 it a fair showing? Does it not indicate an over emphasis of certain 

 lines of school work to the neglect of others, and to the permanent 

 injury of pupils? Does it not indicate an overdoing of the literary 

 side? Are we not too much enslaved to letters and books even in 

 our humanizing ? One may even ask, has the poet any just claim to so 

 much more of the pupil's time and interest, as indicated by the figures, 

 than the artist who bodies forth his ideals on canvas or in stone? 



Finally a word regarding a by-product of the investigation. An 

 examination of the individual papers brings home to one anew that 

 much even of the university student's knowledge is a vague, jumbled 

 patch-work of shadows and blurs. A few instances from a vast number 

 will illustrate the point. We are told that Victor Hugo was a military 

 leader ; that Aristotle and Virgil were great orators ; that Isosceles was 

 a great orator; that Emerson and Bryant and Lowell were English 

 poets, and Bismarck an English statesman; that Komeo was a Eoman 

 writer; that Shakespeare was a Latin author and wrote Julius Caesar; 

 that Macaulay was a Eoman writer and wrote Lays of Ancient Eome. 

 Confusion and haziness are the banes of the university student as they 

 are of all grades of learners. We are in constant danger of over esti- 

 mating the number of clear-cut live facts or principles in the possession 

 of any pupil or student. The question naturally arises, is it not pos- 

 sible that modern education with its wealth of material which it pours 

 forth on students with such lavish hands does not smother and confuse 

 rather than enliven and illumine ? 



* Butler, ' The Meaning of Education,' Ch. I. 



