302 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY 



A man's real success in life is determined by two things: the de- 

 gree of development of his faculties and his conduct as a member of 

 society. It follows, therefore, that the two main ends to be sought by 

 a public school are to give the boy command over himself and to teach 

 him how to be a useful citizen. That is to say, public education exists 

 in order to develop human power, and the kinds to be developed by a 

 school are two : social power and personal power. The school must do 

 the most it can to perfect every one of its pupils in the ability to play 

 the largest part possible to him in the life of the community; it must 

 help him, also, to make the most of himself. Of course these two ends 

 of education intertwine ; one can not make a boy a good citizen without 

 making him, at the same time, a better man; neither can one make 

 him a good man without producing, concurrently, a better citizen. To 

 make a boy perform his due part in society he must be taught the arts 

 of social life : how to read, write and cipher, how to comport himself, 

 how to maintain pleasant relations with his kind. Moreover, this body 

 of upgrowing youths must be trained and accustomed to act together, 

 to feel their interdependence, to see the interrelations of the vast social 

 structure perfection in which has made modern civilization possible. 

 But, more than this, the school must, so far as it can, train, foster and 

 direct the physical and moral forces of every individual child towards 

 his highest individual development. 



The boys who enter a counting-house or factory, the girls who take 

 service in a shop or kitchen, the citizens who, in uncounted ways, main- 

 tain their communities and support the sovereign state, must, as a rule, 

 know how to read, write and cipher. To do these things well counts 

 greatly in their favor. That so many do not do them well is a serious 

 charge against the public school. These, however, are not the funda- 

 mental qualities which employers seek and which communities require. 

 They demand health, character, honesty, truth-telling, clean living; 

 they demand willingness to work, readiness to comprehend, quickness 

 of adaptation, fertility of resource, vision; they demand alertness, 

 vigor, self-command, dexterity and muscular control. These things 

 which result, not from set lessons, but from self -discipline, self-reliance, 

 self-knowledge, determine the success of a boy or girl in life, and these 

 qualities the public school must seek to develop through every means 

 and every force at its command. 



Looked at from any point of view, economic or moral, physical 

 health is the fundamental material good of mankind. Yet what con- 

 tribution does the ordinary public school make towards hygiene ? As a 

 rule it crowds fifty or sixty children into a room that, under the most 

 favorable conditions, has fresh air enough for only thirty. It places no 

 bar against the unwashed child, gives him no incentive or opportunity 

 to be clean; therefore most schools contain enough of these effectually 



