The inalienable right of the American citizen to self-improvement and growth must not be sacrificed. Freedom of movement from place to place must be safeguarded, and changes of occupation must not be impossible. The power of adaptability is therefore one of our most valuable assets.

Adaptability in the individual is a long step toward the power to cooperate with others. It has been pointed out that while the Americans are strongly individualistic, corporate spirit is not absent. Mark ([64], p. 37) says:

The prize system is not emphasized because it suggests working against each other rather than together. Children are encouraged to help one another. Cooperative assignments are used. School clubs and organizations are encouraged. Athletics is encouraged because * * * it trains in cooperation. * Obedience is based upon the value of community control in social welfare and not upon external control.

*

Armstrong, in the Mosely Reports ([66], p. 7), says:

They (Americans) have learned to work together and subordinate their individual opinions to an extent which we have difficulty in believing possible.

All of the Mosely committee agree upon the existence of a cooperative spirit among American teachers.

Burstall, however ([12], p. 38), thinks that

Corporate life in the school is not so strong as in the great English public schools. There are no monitors or prefects, who are so important a part of character training with us. Athletics is for the few, not for all, and the need

for social life is not well met.

system of

While it would be unwise to attempt to transplant the the English public school into this country, yet there is truth in what Miss Burstall says. The lesson of cooperation is a hard one for America to learn. Cooperation does not come naturally to us. This is undoubtedly one of the things which need attention and care on the part of our educational leaders. The powerful belief in majority rule will help, but it must be remembered that the American is by original nature strongly individualistic. To attempt to crush this national tendency would be disastrous. The only hope lies in devising some method of redirecting the individualism in such a way as to keep it from interfering with the growth of the cooperative spirit.

One of the characteristics of American education which grows out of the doctrine of the indefinite perfectibility and which is quite frequently stressed is the fact that it is dynamic. It grows. Gizycki ([26], p. 335) says:

One of the fundamental conceptions which Anglo-Saxon educators wish above all to inculcate in their pupils is the faith in the progress of humanity, both mentally and morally.

This belief in progress will tolerate no limitations of the castesystem type. There is a tendency to throw tradition overboard; at least there is a searching type of self-criticism which refuses to tolerate old things simply because they are old. Nothing is looked upon as being absolute or final. This is what Sadler calls "unrest in education." In his discussion of this topic ([76], p. 139), he

says:

This power of candid self-criticism, coupled as it is with deep insight into the complex nature of educational problems and with the old hearty and vigorous belief in the efficiency of school training in the building up of a great nation, shows that at no earlier period has there been so powerful and enlightened a movement for educational progress as is stirring the United States at the present time. The most impressive characteristic of the new movement is that it combines frank and searching self-criticism with a deep and unflinching faith in the power of education to mold the future of a great people, and in its being able, while inspiring all with a sense of national unity and collective responsibility, to preserve and strengthen what is best in individual character.

In another connection Sadler ([76], p. 159) comments more specifically on American criticism:

*

*

*

*

His (Dr. Dewey's) criticism deepens our sense of the intricate difficulty of the problem of industrial reform. * * * His views are a striking expression of the unrest which is at work in American as in European education. * * He has thrown into a philosophic form the instincts of a rather leveling democracy as applied to the problem of educational reform. He frankly avows his hostility to the old tradition, social and educational. * His argument rests on a very sanguine view of human nature and on the assumption that we can safely cut ourselves off from the wisdom latent in a well-established educational tradition. Like Rousseau, he takes it for granted that men, when liberated from the fetters of tradition, will naturally cooperate with one another in happy and fruitful activities. rings through all his writings a revolutionary note.

*

*

**

*

There

This criticism refers to Dr. Dewey's work in his experimental school at Chicago. It was a type that could scarcely avoid shocking a staid Englishman. If that work was revolutionary it was not dangerously so, as subsequent events have proved. But the main point about the last group of criticisms concerning our great educational philosopher is the fact that his ideas breathe the spirit of progress. The same spirit characterizes American educators in general. They have assumed that educational conditions will change, and upon that basis they have done and will continue to do their work. This work may at times lack ballast but it seldom lacks power. Guided by the lessons of history, but not chained to them, the American educational leaders will turn the immense power of American ideals into the channels which lead to universal civilization in its highest and best sense.

Mention has already been made of the fact that the Americans are preeminently a practical-minded people. The boundless economic

opportunity and the hardships of pioneer life left little time for the pursuit of those things which are not of immediate practical value. Waetzoldt says: "As compared to us (the Germans), they (Americans) lack pensiveness, warmth of feeling, tenderness, childlike simplicity, and do not enjoy the fairy life of imagination and heart. They want quick results." Remington ([73], p. 53) says:

The word useful is the keynote of American education. It does not aim at making cultured men although it often turns them out by accident: it aims at making successful men. It supplies not frilling, but true foundations, a pickax rather than a silver-mounted walking cane.

According to Mark ([65], p. 104):

*

* *

*

America believes in the principle of learning by doing *; that education is life rather than a preparation for life. The hand is the instrument of the brain.

ousness.

Some of the critics see danger in this tendency toward utilitarianism. Rowley, in the Mosely Report, says that both America and England engage in "A race for riches at any cost." Both show "an amazing adoration for mediocrity and the commonplace; both worship quantity rather than quality and both are prone to overstrenuRemington ([73], p. 53) thinks that the "American boy looks upon education as a means of following and outstripping his dad in the rapid piling up of dollars." Sadler ([76], p. 140) says: What is going on in America is a fierce struggle between two contending forces and ideals of life. Among the best antidotes of materialism and selfishness are idealism and self-sacrifice in the school. A businesslike idealism is the characteristic feature of American education at its best. This combination of two great qualities will protect the schools from the dangers of vulgar utilitarianism on the one hand and from undue excitement, superficiality, and self-advertisement on the other.

* * *

America believes in securing equality of opportunity to each individual. The environment has been such that the greatest opportunity has been in the economic and practical fields. This has naturally given rise to a great love of physical well-being, which is made possible only by the possession of money. The making of money has therefore become our chief means of self-realization. To some it has become the be-all and end-all of existence. This is an extremity which must be guarded against, and it constitutes one of our most serious educational problems. It is well to keep the dangers of this situation in view, and our critics have a right to call attention to these dangers. But those who criticize us most severely should remember that the privilege of casting stones belongs to the guiltless. It would be hard to prove that Americans are striving after money more keenly than are the people of other nations. Our immigrants seem just as anxious to secure wealth as do our native born. Our ability in a practical way has its drawbacks but it, too, is worth

all that it costs. With all of our materialism and mercenary spirit, no true American would prefer to exchange our pride in honest toil in our favorable environment for "white-handed aristocracy" under

the economic conditions of Europe.

The following ideals and tendencies of American education have been pointed out by those whose criticism has been quoted in this chapter. First and most fundamental is the belief in equality, particularly political equality and equality of opportunity. Out of this doctrine has grown the belief in the indefinite perfectibility of man. This with the absence of a class system, has made possible a progressive and dynamic spirit which is quite unusual in other parts of the world. It has also been the basis of a strong, though irrational interest in education. In spite of pronounced individualism, there is a vigorous emphasis upon nationalization as is shown particularly in our success in the Americanization of the immigrant. Respect for personality is favored in spite of the difficulties which it involves, while individual adaptability and personal initiative are looked upon as two of our most priceless possessions.

Such are the ideals and guiding principles of American education. They are the subconscious forces of our national life, which profoundly affect every phase of our existence. The remaining chapters are concerned with a more detailed study of their influence in the more limited fields of our educational theory and practice.

Chapter II.

THE AMERICAN SCHOOL SYSTEM.

The American school system has had a different history from those of Europe. The European systems are the result of gradual growth in situ, while ours originated in a transplantation of European

ideals into the American wilderness. The people who first came over were highly civilized and possessed definite and conscious ideals when they came. Furthermore, they represented the hardiest, bravest, and most dynamic spirits of Europe. Otherwise they would not have dared to face the dangers and hardships of pioneer life. They brought many of the European ideals with them, but these ideals were sharply refracted upon entering the American environment. Having felt the oppression of European tyranny, it was natural that being left to themselves they should develop in a manner at variance with European practice. A notable example of this is seen in the type of school organization which was developed. Decentralization was the rule, and this found a typical expression in the district system of administration and control. This was a natural outgrowth of individualism, equality, and the love of freedom, yet the ideals of Europe had an influence. In the southern colonies these ideals were represented by the aristocratic and laissez-faire ideals of England, while in the North the most characteristic tendency was a result of the religious ideals centering in Protestantism, and particularly Puritanism, and leading toward governmental control. The latter tendency was the one which finally prevailed. Religious influence was strong at first, but it worked itself out through governmental control of a decentralized type. By the early part of the nineteenth century this decentralization had reached an extreme form which was intolerable. This gave rise to the reforms centering around Horace Mann which started a tendency back toward centralization. This movement, though stubbornly resisted, is still in progress.

This brief survey is necessary in order to understand much of the criticism of American school organization and control. It must be kept constantly in mind that we are concerned with European ideals which have been introduced into a new environment. Some of these ideals failed to function to any great extent in the new surroundings. This was particularly true of European social stratifications. All such notions were replaced by the idea of human equality. Along