DETERMINING EDUCATIONAL VALUES 287 



cation, as in hygiene, religion, politics, etc., we must expect that the 

 majority of people who have not become particularly interested in the 

 business will vote to have things continued as they have been, or as they 

 now are. They will resist innovations. They will cry, " Fads ! " 

 " Frills ! " etc., whenever any new topic gains a foothold in the cur- 

 riculum, though they may be progressive enough in their own special 

 field, where they can appreciate the value of new methods suited to con- 

 temporary needs. 



The diversity of opinion regarding values in education, to which 

 attention has been called above, suggests that la} r men as well as teach- 

 ers must look at the matter involved from different points of view. 

 The writer has asked individuals and groups in many sections of our 

 own country, and some of the countries across the sea, what they con- 

 sider the proper standards in determining the value of any study, or 

 any method of teaching, or any principle of discipline; and the responses 

 have impressed the fact that there is no universal mode of appraising 

 values, which is adopted by laymen in deciding any educational problem. 

 Some persons say that a study is valuable in the measure that it con- 

 fers "culture" upon the one who pursues it. Other persons say that 

 the true value of any educative material depends upon the extent to 

 which it trains the mind. Still others feel that no study is of worth 

 which does not contribute to the individual's efficiency in practical life. 



All sorts of figures of speech are used by people in striving to ex- 

 press their conception of the nature of mind and the function of educa- 

 tion. The present writer has heard the remark made time and again 

 that what we must do in the schools is to "strengthen the faculties"; 

 or we must " polish " the mind, for until it has been so treated it is like 

 a " rough diamond," or we must " cultivate " it as we would a field, in 

 order that it may become "fertile"; or the subjects of study should 

 "nourish" the mind, as food nourishes the body; or we should 

 "sharpen" the faculties as we would sharpen an edged tool. The list 

 of figures of speech based on physical objects and phenomena and used 

 to describe educational work might be extended almost ad libitum. 

 The mind is so subtle and complex that we endeavor to make our 

 thinking about it definite and concrete by ascribing to it, at least for 

 purposes of definition, physical properties and characteristics. And 

 individuals as well as communities tend to employ the physical concep- 

 tions most familiar to them in their reactions upon their own environ- 

 ment. People who live on the sea will employ figures of speech differ- 

 ent from those who live in the mountains or on the prairies or in the 

 city. The mechanic will draw his figures of speech from his particular 

 work, and the same will be true of the miner or the merchant or the 

 woodsman. 



Let one ask the people whom he meets on the street, in the recep- 

 tion hall, or in academic halls, what effect the mastering of arith- 



