It is obvious that the _methods_ of adult education must be different from those in common use in teaching children. The instructor cannot compel attendance; he cannot require submission to his authority; he must realize that he is among people who, though they have not his special knowledge, have yet each his own experience, and he must see the relations of his knowledge to such experience; and in fact he must make himself a student with the others. Now because the methods differ from those of formal education, people frequently infer that the _aim_ also is different. There are many things which would seem to lead to such an inference. In the first place, in all education, attention is focused almost exclusively upon methods of teaching rather than upon the question, “what is an educated person?” Again many of those who are interested in adult education both as instructors or as students have grown up in an environment of traditional education, they have seen the futility and meaninglessness of much that passes for education in the schools and colleges, and are often moved to protest against the system and all its works. I have tried to show that the failure of formal education is the result of the fact that educators frequently do not know what liberal education is. But many people who are irritated with the school system seem never to have raised the question whether what is taught in school is liberal education. They assume that it is what it appears to be, and hence, instead of seeking the meaning of liberal education, they turn away and strive to set up a hastily considered educational aim of their own. Finally, adult students are sometimes very opinionated--especially when they first come to class. Often they have violent prejudices and are extremely “advanced.” Such minds are very much creatures of the popular movement of the hour. The educator, if he is to keep his hold upon these persons, must gain their favor and sustain their interest. The easiest way to gain and keep a following is to make concession to popular prejudice. Classes in adult education, like the reading public, wish to be told what they would like to regard as true. One of the great “truths” for which they often seek support is the belief that the increasing or anticipated supremacy of the mass is “progress.” Men wish adult education to be modern, to reflect current thought and present-day tendencies. In an earlier chapter I tried to show how much of the popular thought that men believe very advanced is really unrecognized Rousseauism. Often the idea of a new start in education is only a survival of Rousseau’s revolt against civilization. Since the influence of Rousseau serves always to rationalize any plebeian wish-fancy whatsoever, it is not surprising that it should sometimes appear to set the goal of adult education. To the degree that the desire for education is genuine and spontaneous, the demand will naturally be for what people think, is education.