758 



SCIENCE 



[N. S. Vol. XXXVIII. No. 987 



The nation's interest in the success of 

 'the forestry movement is very great; the 

 ■contribution of tlie nation through federal 

 ^agencies should be correspondingly liberal. 

 Let the federal government assume its full 

 responsibilities of leadership, assistance 

 and cooperation, and our forest problem 

 will be on the way to certain solution. 



Henry S. Graves 

 Federal Forest Service, 

 Washington, D. C. 



SHE ESSENTIALS OF AN EDUCATION'- 



The official recognition of the subject of 

 ^mental hygiene by the International Con- 

 sgress on School Hygiene is an important 

 'event, indicating formal assent to the prin- 

 '' ciple that thought and conduct can only be 

 ^intelligently discussed when considered in 

 relation to all other forms of human activ- 

 ity. After having been perpetuated for 

 centuries by mechanical repetition, the 

 phrase "a sound mind in a sound body" 

 has suddenly acquired a vital meaning for 

 our civilization. 



Although the honor of presiding at this 

 ■symposium upon mental hygiene is deeply 

 appreciated by me, I am keenly alive to the 

 fact that the force and set of the currents 

 in this movement are already so strong that 

 the question of merit in the selection of 

 your chairman is almost a negligible factor. 

 The common elementary truths of daily 

 life are frequently either ignored or for- 

 gotten. "We go to Switzerland," said 

 Lowell, ' ' to learn the sun rises and to Italy 

 to find out the sky is blue. ' ' In considering 

 what the aims and methods of obtaining an 

 education should be, our attention is so 

 often fixed upon remote unattainable ideals 

 that the really essential factors in the prob- 



1 Chairman 'a address, ' ' Symposium on Mental 

 Hygiene," Fourth International Congress on 

 •■School Hygiene, Buffalo, August 25 to 30, 1913. 



lem are overlooked. The cause of idealism 

 in education, as well as in other matters, is 

 often best served by those who take a direct 

 practical interest in the problems of every- 

 day life. It is an exceedingly dangerous 

 form of sophistry which has recently been 

 promulgated that tends to cast suspicions 

 upon any system of education reflecting 

 either utility of purpose or immediate prac- 

 ticability of application. The value of 

 ideals is commensurate with their practical 

 usefulness, unless we assume with the 

 Buddhist that the summwn honum of hu- 

 man existence is found in passive contem- 

 plation. Mr. Snedden, the Massachusetts 

 commissioner of education, in his recent 

 book^ affirms that many of our academic 

 studies are organized and presented too 

 much with reference to their pure aspects 

 — that is, without regard to their applica- 

 tion in contemporary life and activity. 



Clear ideas in regard to some of the chief 

 characteristics of the educational process 

 will be of material assistance in restating 

 the entire problem of educational reform in 

 terms that shall be favorable, and not an- 

 tagonistic to a rational solution. The suc- 

 cessful execution of this plan will ensure 

 the perpetuation of popular government. 

 A distinguished w^riter recently indicated 

 the direction in which all our hopes for the 

 improvement of political and social condi- 

 tions lie by affirming "the most important 

 problem of democracy is the education of 

 the citizen." 



No intelligent person would dissent from 

 the view that the process of education is in- 

 tended to direct or shape the activities of 

 living beings. Unfortunately, the tendency 

 of the human mind either to contemplate 

 events in the past or to speculate about the 

 future has hitherto left man little time or 

 opportunity to study his own activities or 



2 "Education Readjustment," Houghton, Mif- 

 flin Co., 1913. 



