THE GREATEST NEED IN RESEARCH 329 



everything, but nothing particular about the subject he discusses, is 

 competent to give sane advice as to the rearing of the young. 



In almost every field of human activity outside of education the 

 expert alone, who has become possessed of special knowledge, can gain 

 a hearing and a following. Improvement along most lines of human 

 endeavor has been achieved only by clearing the way of the ' common- 

 sense ' men ; they always block rational progress, for they never pene- 

 trate beneath the surface of any problem. When any particular de- 

 partment of social activity is largely dominated by such men it must 

 certainly lag behind those departments where fact is esteemed more 

 highly than mere fancy, and where searching for truth is more prom- 

 inent than the promulgation of individual opinion. Little was under- 

 stood of the laws of nature until people with scientific interests 

 abandoned the ' common-sense ' notions of the universe which were 

 current among men until within recent times, and devoted themselves 

 to tracking out these laws without preconception or bias. The mind of 

 the ' common-sense ' man, as we find him in daily life, functions only 

 for the purpose of getting his own prejudices adopted by his fellows. 

 He is not fitted, intellectually or temperamentally, to discover the 

 deeper-lying truths in any field. He is a partisan, an advocate, not a 

 truth-seeker; and he must be ejected from every scientific camp before 

 advance can be made. 



Consider what would be the situation to-day in physics, or chem- 

 istry, or electricity, or medicine, or mechanics, or law, if every aspiring 

 person in the community could set himself up as an authority in any 

 of these fields, and he should be given a chance to disseminate his views. 

 In these departments a man who poses as an authority without having 

 mastered at least the rudiments of the subject he treats is cast into 

 outer darkness without ceremony or apology; but he may be welcomed 

 by teachers if his rhetoric is pleasing, and he claims fellowship with 

 the ' common-sense ' tribe, or if he has a reputation for greatness in 

 some sphere of action, though quite remote from education. Educa- 

 tional people have had a liking beyond other persons, perhaps, for 

 generalities and commonplaces and oratory and hero-worship; science 

 has not been emotional enough; it has required too precise thinking, 

 and to appreciate it has involved too elaborate training. 



But we are beginning to see evidences of brighter days ahead. The 

 scientific temper is beginning to show itself in those who treat of 

 education. There is developing in some quarters discontent with the 

 methods that have been pursued in discussing questions of education, 

 and we are just ready to enter upon an era of educational investigation 

 in accord with strict scientific method. Men are coming to realize that 

 traditional educational dogmas are, in considerable part surely, founded 

 upon the shifting sands. In many other fields there would be no rest 



