484 PURPOSE IN EDUCATION. 



further investigations before blaming the designer. The faulti- 

 ness of the design may be due to the f aultiness of the instructions 

 given to the designer by his employers. The objects for which 

 the work is to be employed may have been ill-delined, or incom- 

 pletely stated,, either quantitatively, or qualitatively, or both. 

 In education the employers of superintendents and directors are 

 the public. Is anyone prepared to say that directors of education 

 have been properly instructed by the public? Surely not? On 

 the contrary, the public considers that when a director of 

 education has been appointed the whole matter of education is out 

 of its hands, and it merely reserves to itself the right to criticise 

 the system which he evolves. This attitude on the part of the 

 public is due to the assumption that the whole of education is a 

 matter solely for experts, and that no one else can be expected to 

 deal with it elTectively. This view is due to inability to differen- 

 tiate between a design and its purpose. 



This state of mind is not to be wondered at, seeing that the 

 leaders of thought have generally failed to make this same 

 differentiation. The truth of this statement may be illustrated 

 from the pamphlet published by the Commission aforementioned. 

 This pamphlet is intended to inform the public as to the lines on 

 which evidence may be submitted to the Commission. A perusal 

 of the subjects laid down will show that the only evidence called 

 for is on the system which should be adopted, that is on the 

 details of the design. Surely it is self-evident that before a 

 system can be adopted an agreement must first be arrived at as 

 to the purpose which it is to serve? To do otherwise is analagous 

 to asking people to choose a piece of machinery without consider- 

 ing whether it is to be used for pumping water or for driving 

 an aeroplane. There is no indication in the pamphlet of any 

 appreciation of this point. 



The same lack of appreciation of the dift'erence between 

 education and the purpose for which it is to be used is to be found 

 even in books specifically devoted to education. Many, indeed, 

 seem to fail to realize that education is not an end in itself. In 

 those cases where a real attempt is made to deal with the purpose 

 of education one finds that in many instances it merely resolves 

 itself into a definition of education, as such, and is no definition 

 of purpose. In other cases where purpose is actually dealt with, 

 there is a complete lack of agreement and a fatal inability to 

 grasp the essentials. As a proof of this almost any definition, 

 picked at random, will serve. As an example, let us take the 

 definition of Alexander Bain: "Building up the acquired powers 

 of human beings." It is not easv to attach a precise meaning to 

 such a definition, but whp^-ever its exact meaning may be. it is 

 inadenuate. for it imm^^^'nt-ely prompts the further questions: 

 " For what purpose should pr>wers he arnuired by human beings 

 and whv should they be built un?" As another example may 

 be (yivpn tbp words of Tbornq? Burt, which have been quoted 

 with apnroval bv Thiselton TVTark : 



