486 POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



of secondary education is to lay broad, general, catholic founda- 

 tions for the successful conduct of life. We should defeat our- 

 selves by indulging in any specialty, however commendable in 

 itself. What we are after is culture, and the power and perfection 

 that come through culture. It is no new motive. On the con- 

 trary, it is a very old motive, as old as the birth of the human 

 spirit itself. But it is still the motive underlying all that new 

 movement in education of which manual training, sloyd, and the 

 kindergarten form so prominent a part. I believe that not all the 

 men and women taking part in the movement would agree to 

 such a statement of motive. Some at least among them would 

 assign more special and technical ends. I make the statement, 

 however, quite unreservedly. What does distinguish the new 

 movement is that in the choice of methods it differs somewhat 

 radically from the older efforts. Be kind enough, then, at the 

 outset to distinguish between motive and method, between ends 

 and means. 



In speaking about the present demands upon the school I do 

 not think we hit the mark when we confine ourselves to the in- 

 dustrial demands, or the economic demands, or the social demands, 

 or to any other one aspect of a very complex problem. Nor do I 

 think we get any place when we propose to offer in satisfaction of 

 these demands any one panacea. I would stand rather upon a 

 broader platform, and ask your sympathy and consent to a much 

 more catholic solution. 



The problem of education is forever presenting this double in- 

 terrogation point : What do you want ? How are you going to 

 get it ? They are very definite questions, and it is easy enough 

 to give equally definite answers so long as one confines one's self to 

 general terms. We want culture, and the power and perfection 

 that come through culture. We shall get it by surrounding the 

 child with those influences that make for culture. But when we 

 come to translate these general terms into something more spe- 

 cific, and, still more, when we come to translate our words into 

 action, it is then that the difficulty comes; it is then that the 

 educational sun goes under a cloud. Yet, as we love education, 

 we must go on forever asking these questions, and we must go 

 on forever trying to answer them. What we should pray for is 

 clearness. 



One of the most difficult branches in the modern school cur- 

 riculum is apparently mathematics. We are prone to grade the 

 children by their progress in this one branch. Yet it is not essen- 

 tially difficult. If you will analyze it for a moment, mathematical 

 study is but a study of the quantitative relations of life. It is 

 consequently axiomatic. It needs for its mastery only clear state- 

 ment. Higher and lower mathematics are equally easy of com- 



