Science in Public Affairs 



overpressure and without premature detail to 

 right habits of thought. It follows from this that 

 the teacher's calling, from the elementary school 

 upwards, is rising fast in its professional status. 

 It needs a liberal education as a necessary part 

 of its equipment. And, as this becomes clear, 

 the old relationship between the clergy and the 

 elementary school teachers becomes irrelevant. 

 A new relationship, not less cordial but on quite 

 a different basis, will take its place. 



Ill 



In every country a number of underlying con- 

 ditions affect the problem of educational reform. 

 Some are psychological, others economic. Each 

 group affects the other, but of the two the 

 psychological conditions are the more difficult to 

 analyse and yet at least as dangerous to disregard. 

 When the subtle implications of educational influ- 

 ence are kept in mind, when we remember how 

 intimately connected it is with home life, individual 

 judgment, belief, manners, taste, social organisa- 

 tion and national aims, we realise at once that 

 an educational system is not a thing like a system 

 of electric traction or gas lighting, which can be 

 reproduced at will in one country or another 

 according to the progress of invention and of 

 scientific skill. The roots of an educational system 

 go deep into the past. Its form is determined by 

 historical and social conditions which cannot be 

 ignored, though the latter may in time be changed 



