THE INFLUENCE OF EDUCATION 473 



are judged at school to be laggards are found sometimes at 

 home to be more helpful than their brothers and sisters more 

 adept in studies. Are not these traits worthy of recognition 

 in education? In any case, what is wanted as an educational 

 product is, barring very unusual cases, a balanced person- 

 ahty, and balance is as a rule much more a product of 

 nurture than it is of original nature. 



Finally, contact and interaction between those more 

 gifted and those less gifted is a normal condition of normal 

 education, for one class as much as for the other. It takes all 

 kinds of people to make the world, and as long as society at 

 large is such an intermixture as it is, it is dangerous not to 

 give all a chance to develop to the limit of their capacities. 

 One can appreciate the force of this point by imagining 

 himself as an adult confined to a circle of other adults all 

 superior, and all selected because of native superiority. 

 Most persons would, I think, dread the thought of such an 

 exclusive companionship. To recognize all kinds of abilities 

 and to give them all opportunity is desirable, but specializa- 

 tion on what is regarded at a particular time as superiority 

 would be likely to develop a set of conceited prigs, who for 

 lack of suitable contacts and knowledge of average human 

 nature would be most unsuited for the task of leadership. 



The conclusion at which these remarks are directed is 

 that the greatest knowledge which can be obtained of native 

 tendencies, endowments and shortcomings is of genuine 

 importance to the educator, but it is something to be used 

 within the educational scheme in determining proper meth- 

 ods and materials for each boy and girl, not something which 

 can be employed in a general way to decide the scope and 

 limits of education. The great value of such knowledge is, 

 first, that it shows what education has to build with and upon; " 

 the recognition of native endowments is the perception of 

 educative capital. Without knowledge of them education 

 tends to become an external and hit and miss imposition. 

 With such knowledge, the educator, parent or teacher, can 

 cooperate with traits and forces that already exist. Secondly, 

 such knowledge is a precondition of individualization of 

 education; it is a safeguard against mechanical uniformity, 

 and regimentation. Thirdly, while original gifts constitute the 



