Social Education

uch work ought to be provided in the school itself. When this is done such work will measure the rest of the work that is undertaken. It will be known to what extent the pupils have actually gained by their dictated courses of study if they apply the results of these to social needs, or if, in attempting to carry out their own social projects, they revert voluntarily to the classic themes of education. If pupils spontaneously organize themselves for the purpose of studying certain aspects of nature, to that extent the dictated nature study is justified. If they carry out, by their own efforts and the help which they solicit from others, an historical inquiry in which they become interested, or an arithmetical calculation based on their own wonder or others' needs, or write and act a drama representing their own ideals of life, the way in which they do these things, and the ideas which govern them, will show whether they have been fructified by the dictated courses of study or left untouched by them. When one lights a fire it ought to keep on burning without a constant application of matches or too much work with the bellows. The result of education should be a self-feeding fire. The only way to test it is for the teacher not to hope, but actually to see whether or not it will burn alone. Certain parts of the school system, particularly the special and private schools, the trade schools, some manual training schools, and professional schools generally, are notwitho...