Introduction 29 



Probable Causes of the Back-to-Nature Movement in 

 Education. 



Schools are comparatively modern inventions. The 

 necessity for education has no doubt been discovered 

 by the race in its struggle for existence. Economic 

 conditions are extremely important factors in human 

 life, causing changes in social conditions by which 

 a multitude of new wants arise, and many new and 

 unexpected requisites for the satisfaction of those 

 wants become necessary. Then, too, varying needs 

 give rise to new ideals in the pursuit of which indi- 

 vidual habits and social customs are formed. Fashion 

 can be explained very satisfactorily from an economic 

 standpoint; and educational theories and practice 

 are not wholly free from a taint of utilitarianism in 

 some strata of human society. 



The struggle for existence assumed a new phase 

 when the race advanced to the higher social stages. 

 In the savage stage it was necessary in the struggle 

 for existence to possess physical strength, courage, 

 endurance, and skill in handling rude weapons of 

 defense and offense in battle. Hence the youth was 

 trained with these ends in view chiefly by the parent. 



In the barbarous stages the struggle for existence 

 demanded some power of associated action in war, 

 and a knowledge of the earth's surface where pasture 

 and water for the flocks could be found; as well as 

 some knowledge of astronomy by which the seasons 

 of the year could be foretold. Hence such education 

 as the Arabs, for instance, have to-day. 



The agricultural stage requires a knowledge of the 

 soil, of stock, of machinery, of the vernacular language 

 of the community, besides reading, writing, spelling, 

 and ciphering. In the agricultural stage this is the 

 limit of education absolutely required, and hence often 

 the extent of schooling which even the farmer boy of 

 to-day receives. 



