The idea that the moral work and worth of the public school system as a
whole are to be measured by its social value is, indeed, a familiar
notion. However, it is frequently taken in too limited and rigid a way.
The social work of the school is often limited to training for
citizenship, and citizenship is then interpreted in a narrow sense as
meaning capacity to vote intelligently, disposition to obey laws, etc.
But it is futile to contract and cramp the ethical responsibility of the
school in this way. The child is one, and he must either live his social
life as an integral unified being, or suffer loss and create friction.
To pick out one of the many social relations which the child bears, and
to define the work of the school by that alone, is like instituting a
vast and complicated system of physical exercise which would have for
its object simply the development of the lungs and the power of
breathing, independent of other organs and functions. The child is an
organic whole, intellectually, socially, and morally, as well as
physically. We must take the child as a member of society in the
broadest sense, and demand for and from the schools whatever is
necessary to enable the child intelligently to recognize all his social
relations and take his part in sustaining them.
To isolate the formal relationship of citizenship from the whole system
of relations with which it is actually interwoven; to suppose that there
is some one particular study or mode of treatment which can make the
child a good citizen; to suppose, in other words, that a good citizen is
anything more than a thoroughly efficient and serviceable member of
society, one with all his powers of body and mind under control, is a
hampering superstition which it is hoped may soon disappear from
educational discussion.
The child is to be not only a voter and a subject of law; he is also to
be a member of a family, himself in turn responsible, in all
probability, for rearing and training of future children, thereby
maintaining the continuity of society. He is to be a worker, engaged in
some occupation which will be of use to society, and which will maintain
his own independence and self-respect. He is to be a member of some
particular neighborhood and community, and must contribute to the values
of life, add to the decencies and graces of civilization wherever he is.
These are bare and formal statements, but if we let our imagination
translate them into their concrete details, we have a wide and varied
scene. For the child properly to take his place in reference to these
various functions means training in science, in art, in history; means
command of the fundamental methods of inquiry and the fundamental tools
of intercourse and communication; means a trained and sound body,
skillful eye and hand; means habits of industry, perseverance; in short,
habits of serviceableness.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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