394 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY 



years of childhood this need is most urgent, but may be regarded as 

 always necessary in the nascent stages of any instinct. The instincts 

 that pertain to vocation are born in adolescence, and agriculture, 

 whether as a means or as an end, furnishes ideal materials and situa- 

 tions with which to work. 



Akin to this kinesthetic factor is the value to the young of discov- 

 ering and exercising his power of control over natural forces. Hitherto 

 much of the work of the school has trained a passive contemplation of 

 the things which concern an education. Here is a subject that incites 

 to action and rewards in a material way the efforts of the youth to take 

 a hand in directing the outcome. He thus gains a much-needed train- 

 ing in his power to get results and produce something of value to 

 society. 26 



There is an educational factor of great and peculiar value known to 

 our pioneer grandparents as hardship, but which we prefer to think 

 sufficiently covered by the term responsibility. The educational value 

 of responsibility has long been known, but to create situations for its 

 exercise is an unheard of thing in education. 27 Perhaps it will never 

 be possible to prescribe experiences that can be as valuable as the real 

 crises of life, nor to be able to prejudge the ability of youth to arise to 

 the occasion when the crisis comes. But if the attempt is to be made 

 by the school to develop a sense of responsibility for the successful issue 

 of an undertaking — and who shall say what the school may not under- 

 take for the good of the young — certainly no one who has ever made 

 the investment which even a small agricultural undertaking entails, and 

 which can neither be delegated nor hastened, can deny the possibilities 

 of this subject. 



' ' James, Hall, Dewey, Mosso, Wundt, Baldwin and others are preaching a 

 new gospel. They are saying that the child's thought is never dissociated from 

 his muscles; that every idea has a motor aspect; that mind is in one sense a 

 middle term between the senses and the muscles; that it functions for the pur- 

 pose of guiding conduct; that an idea is not complete until it is realized in 

 action. . . . 



' ' Viewed from the psychological standpoint it appears that muscular experi- 

 ences are essential to the gaining of clear, definite, effective ideas in the world. ' ' 

 — O'Shea, "Dynamic Factors in Education," pp. 27-29. 



28 ' ' Properly thou hast no other knowledge but what thou hast got by work- 

 ing: the rest is all a hypothesis of knowledge; a thing to be argued in schools, 

 a thing floating in the clouds, in endless logical vortices, till we try and fix it." 

 — Carlyle, ' ' Past and Present ; The Blessedness of Work. ' ' 



' ' The pupil must learn what nature is by trying what he can do with it ; 

 thus he measures it in terms of his own strength and skill, and discovers how it 

 can be manipulated; and it is this experience that holds vital knowledge, and 

 that enlists genuine interest." — O'Shea, "Dynamic Factors in Education," p. 52. 



27 ' ' One of the last sentiments to be developed in human nature is the sense 

 of responsibility ... in the development of which our carefully nurtured and 

 protected youth of student age . . . have had little training. ' ' — Hall, ' ' Adoles- 

 cence," Vol. II., p. 415. 



