In this way a study of the History of Education will disrupt the teacher’s complacent acceptance of the present, and will enable him to reconstruct his ideas in the light of the peculiar conditions out of which the education of his times has sprung. Whenever historical records do not assist in such an analysis and synthesis of present day problems, they may be frankly dismissed from discussion. This conception of the subject, I have myself, with much reluctance, come to accept. My own regard for the classics, philosophy, and general history as college disciplines has caused me to view with apprehension any disposition to curtail their scope. It now seems clear, however, that the modern tendency to emphasize the functional aspects of the History of Education is both necessary and wise. The present work, therefore, is not a mere condensation of my _History of Education in Three Volumes_, but has been very largely re-written from the new angle. In the first place, I have sought to stress educational institutions and practices, rather than theories that did not find embodiment in the times. This has led to the omission of much that is unessential or more strictly related to philosophy, general history, or literature. For example, even the immortal work of Plato and Aristotle has been epitomized; the entire subject of mysticism and most of scholasticism have been dropped; the masterpieces of such pure theorists as Rabelais, Montaigne, and Mulcaster, are barely mentioned; and the various historical epochs are given only so much detail as may be needed to form a social setting for the educational movements of those periods. Secondly, it has seemed to me that our present problems in education can best be analyzed through a knowledge of the practices that have developed in modern times. Hence, while this book includes an account of all educational endeavor from the day of primitive man to the present, somewhat more than one-half the material is connected with the last two centuries. Even the attractive period of Hellenic activity and the fascinating stories of monasticism and of chivalry have been reduced to a minimum. But, though most of the changes in the earlier half of the work are in the nature of shortening, or have to do with more immediate connections, some topics, notably the development of commerce and cities (Chapter XI) and the analysis of formal discipline (Chapter XVI), have seemed to be so closely connected with subsequent progress as to deserve more adequate treatment. Finally, since this book is intended chiefly for teachers in the United States, I have believed it most helpful to give considerable space to the discussion of American education. The account of each educational movement has included at least an attempt to trace its influence upon the content, method, and organization of education in the United States, while three chapters have been devoted exclusively to the rise of educational systems in this country.