544 POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY 



conception of education as a lifelong process has been generally 

 accepted. It is no longer conceived to be solely confined within the 

 walls of school, college or university. Many different agencies, — the 

 home, the playground, the press, the pulpit, the lecture platform, the 

 library, the labor union, the store, the shop, the farm, the office, the 

 society — all supplement and complete the work of the school. In con- 

 sidering the duty and work of our public school system at the present 

 time, or at any other period, attention should be paid to the functions 

 which these other institutions are able to perform at the time under 

 consideration. The school is normally a time and labor-saving device, 

 as well as an institution which forms the character and aids in the 

 development of the individual, and in the progress of society. It 

 should convey to the student the accumulated experience of past gen- 

 erations, it ought to show the significance of his daily experience, and 

 coordinate the latter with his studies and investigations; it ought to 

 train him so that he can and will wish to continue his education by 

 the aid of these other secondary educational agencies; and lastly, but 

 not least, it should attempt to supply any deficiencies which change 

 may develop in any one or all of these other agencies. The real func- 

 tion of the school is to adjust the individual to his environment — 

 physical, industrial and social. 



In the study of educational, problems at the present time, two im- 

 portant, but often overlooked or neglected, facts confront the in- 

 vestigator. In the first place, the social environment, the sum total of 

 influences which bear upon the life of the individual, has been increased 

 in extent; in other words, the entire world has been drawn closely into 

 touch. People, intelligence, goods, now come from and go to the most 

 distant parts of the globe quickly, surely and regularly. On the other 

 hand, occupations and certain characteristics of home life have 

 changed so as to tend to produce narrow views of life, and to confine 

 the vast majority of individuals within narrow grooves of action and 

 thought ; the tendency is to cause him to live in " parenthesis," discon- 

 nected from the great world of thought and action. While modern com- 

 munication and transportation, and world markets demand a broader 

 life and tend to produce broad, liberal views of society and of the world ; 

 occupations have been specialized and subdivided until the life of the 

 majority of individuals is cramped. Our daily work and home environ- 

 ment, whether rural or urban, tend to contract and astigmatize our 

 view at the very period when democracy and the idea of a community 

 spirit should thrive and be actually transformed into a reality. This 

 is indeed a grim paradox of modern industrial life. 



The earlier forms of industry gave the worker a relatively broad 

 outlook; division of labor and specialization of industries tend to 

 narrow this vision. As the division becomes more and more minute, 



