442 Living in a World of Change 



suit and diminishing concern with completion. In relation to 

 education it means that we are gradually eliminating the 

 idea that education is a process which is to be completed in 

 preparation for something to come later. The move- 

 ment for adult education, which at the moment receives 

 considerable attention from professional educators, is but 

 the emergence of this changed outlook into common con- 

 sciousness. 



Memorization has gradually yielded the center of the 

 school to other tasks. More and more is education concerned 

 with teaching people the effective use of the thinking process 

 as an instrument in the solution of problems. Less and less 

 is education concerned with teaching people what they are to 

 think. Teaching what to remember can mean at best the 

 perpetuation of what has been acquired. It makes no pro- 

 vision for testing or for revaluating. It represents a con- 

 servation and corresponds biologically to heredity. The con- 

 tent of education has indeed been frequently spoken of as the 

 social heredity. 



Teaching to think must often mean the exposure of 

 hallowed conventions to irreverent dissection. It invites 

 youth to challenge institutions that have already forgotten 

 their own origins and justification. It represents the day 

 by day adjustment of living people to actual conditions as 

 found. It makes for change, though not necessarily for 

 improvement. 



Perfection and Ideals 



Some people are disposed to dream of perfection as the 

 end of striving or the incentive to effort. To some of these 

 the evolution idea serves as an additional spur. To others, it 

 is an impossible notion since it reduces man to a " machine " 

 or a beast. Both the idea of perfectibility and the idea of 

 evolution, however, deserve to be considered on their own 

 merits, and with some regard for the pertinent facts. Per- 

 fection suggests fitness in an absolute degree. From the 



