i2o POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY 



THE RELATION OF SCHOOL ORGANIZATION TO 



INSTRUCTION 1 



By Professor WILBUR S. JACKMAN 



THE UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO 



~N the text of an ancient story we are told that man was made out 

 -*- of the dust of the earth, and according to one version, at least, he 

 was then leaned up against the fence to dry. Afterwards the breath 

 of life was breathed into his nostrils and he became a living soul. This 

 venerable myth, accepted in its substance as truth by a part of the 

 human race for centuries, naturally lent its form to educational theory, 

 and thus profoundly influenced the methods employed in training 

 the young. From earliest times down to a generation ago education 

 was a breathing-in process that simply continued and expanded the 

 original act of creation. Then there arose a new conception concern- 

 ing the making of a man and educational theory is slowly changing its 

 form. Responding to influences from without, life is an unfolding 

 process from within — this is the conception that is now shaping our 

 methods of instruction. 



The most interesting of all subjects of study is the evolution of 

 evolution. That the development and maintenance of the organism 

 depend upon its concessions to environment is a fact that has been 

 recognized, in a general way, from the dawn of the evolutionary idea. 

 The formal statement of the theory of evolution was long anticipated by 

 the practical sense of the world in its knowledge of the dependence of 

 the physical organism upon its material surroundings. But almost half 

 a century has past since that doctrine was stated and even now we 

 but dimly see its profound bearing upon the relation of the spiritual 

 life to spiritual conditions. And the extreme newness of a certain 

 phase of this higher aspect of evolution is evidenced by this meeting 

 itself, which is perhaps the first ever called for the distinct purpose 

 of considering the development of the social nature of the human being 

 under the stimulus of social conditions. 



The particular agency in social development that it is proposed 

 to consider here is the school. It is not intended to deny that there are 

 other agencies that have a similar purpose; it is the intention, merely, 

 to maintain the thesis that within the range of its possibilities the 

 school should be organized so that it may operate as a social institu- 



1 Paper read before The Social Education Congress, Boston, Mass., No- 

 vember 30, 1906. 



