62 6 POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



is sometimes said, the Committee of Five, since it is the report of 

 one third of the committee on the Correlation of Primary Stud- 

 ies, that has become most noted. Though these are ostensibly on 

 different subjects, the report on secondary schools could not fail 

 to take into account the previous school training, nor could the 

 primary work be reported without a long look forward. 



Both reports aim at progressive effort for the improvement of 

 the lower schools, and are valuable contributions to the educa- 

 tional literature of the age. The specific suggestions of the two 

 apparently differ less than the guiding principles that seem to 

 have moved the committees. For, consciously or unconsciously, 

 the one seems to have the eye fixed upon certain established ideals 

 of culture and scholarship which are held as the standards for the 

 colleges, and hence, it is assumed, must be the goal of effort for 

 the lower schools. In the other report we seem to hear the note 

 of a different philosophy a reaching forward toward all the pos- 

 sible activities of the child's future. Yet in this also there is an 

 ideal which beckons onward ; but it is not found in traditional 

 types. It is based on the complex needs of our great American 

 life to prepare the child to understand and to meet those needs 

 and to direct the forces of the future. 



If it be said that the collegiate standards are shaped according 

 to the same ideal, the answer must be : Perhaps so ; yet the 

 American people will not accept their standards at second hand, 

 or as established for them by a single class in the community. In 

 determining their own educational needs, the great middle class 

 of the people is also in the jury box. The schools that are " for 

 the people " must be planned in a good degree " by the people," 

 instead of following wholly the lead of the highly educated few. 



There is a time-honored maxim of the universities that educa- 

 tional influences proceed from the top downward. But, like all 

 epigrams, it is a brilliant half-truth. There is no " top " to edu- 

 cation, or if there be it is higher than all human standards, reach- 

 ing into the very heavens. And this is a ladder over which the 

 angels must pass both ways, ascending and descending upon it. 

 The way must be kept open, and the touch must be free all along 

 the line. There must be no dividing gap where either type of 

 thought can say to the other, " Thus far shalt thou go and no 

 farther." Especially in the high school should there be the 

 largest welcome to good influences from either side. Then the 

 one that can show the largest sympathy and most intelligent 

 understanding of the whole problem will have the greatest influ- 

 ence in the final shaping of affairs. 



Yet even as I write a growing doubt arises. Is there really 

 any such conflict in the forces that move educational affairs as 

 we sometimes think ? Or, if there be, is it wholly to be depre- 



