would see where it went to." They expressed this to the teacher, who helped them to get some paraffin. They thought they ought to have enough, and provided themselves with nearly a pint. They melted this over a spirit lamp out at the ants' hole, meanwhile preventing the ants from going in. When the paraffin was melted, they poured it down. Nearly the whole of it disappeared. Then they commenced to dig the cast up, carefully following its branches in every direction. The discoverers of Herculaneum or Pompeii probably had no greater pleasure than these boys in unearthing their buried city. They broke the cast somewhat, but put it together the best they could, took it in to the class, showed it and explained it, and later had a photograph made of it by another group of boys who had themselves organized into a group which was called the photographic group.

Whether Tarde's hypothesis that all reasoning is social is correct or not, there can be little question that social organization greatly stimulates the process by giving the individual reasoner both the help of criticism and the sense of social serviceableness in cases of success. Altho this whole article has been a plea for what is colloquially called independent reasoning, it should be realized that what is aimed at is rather a displacement of the exclusive approval of the teacher for the broader social interest and approval of the whole class, including here the child within the heart of the teacher. The judgment of his peers, even when unfavorable, cannot be dispensed with by any reasoner. If it is difficult to prove that it is always society which reasons in and thru the individual, at least it is plain that he reasons best who is in free contact with a social environment sufficiently close to his own level to permit of his making and unmaking its opinions, rather than being constantly dominated by a semi-supernatural being who is always right-even when he isn't.

Finally, if such work is possible for children of an early age, it is much more possible higher up, and the principal thing that prevents it is the stereotyped school habit of lecture, text-book, or catechetical instruction. Part of this is a remnant of the "method" disease which formerly infested our

normal schools, and ludicrously enough, seems to hang on with special stubbornness in high schools and colleges, that have, according to their own account, never needed any method. The upper grades and the high schools are pre-eminently adapted to the cultivation of scientific reasoning, and the present dissatisfaction with the laboratory method is not founded on any failure of capacity on the part of the pupils of this age. It is to be attributed to the forcing upon these pupils of a constantly increasing burden of fine measurements, calculation, mere exercises in so-called observation and experiment, from which the wonder, and the penetrating, organizing question that arises from it, has entirely disappeared. It is because the work is dictated from the outside by the teacher, or by authorities above the teacher, that the free spirit of investigation is stifled at its birth. We must return to the beginning, and free our pupils from these trammels.

BOSTON NORMAL SCHOOL

COLIN A. SCOTT

V

PLACE OF APPLIED EDUCATION 1

1

Broadly considered, practical education is that designed for agriculture, the industries, and commercial life. These three great interests make a double demand upon our educational system for special schools of agriculture, technology or mechanics arts, and commerce; and secondly, for a larger recognition of the agricultural, industrial, and commercial elements in our general schemes of education. The recent multiplication of material on every phase of applied education has led to confusion on the part of those working in the different fields, and a general haziness as to the purposes of education in the direction above indicated. Thus it is that stanch upholders of manual training for high schools strongly oppose introducing any manual training into grammar schools; some identified with higher schools of commerce are against secondary schools of commerce; some believing in manual training question the worth of commercial education, and vice versa; and frequently schools in which manual training is taught are termed trade schools and those teaching commercial subjects are considered business colleges. It is too much to hope that any definition of terms or limiting of fields at this time will be final, but may we not, from such a discussion as this, help to clear applied education of some of its confusion and vagueness?

An added element of confusion is the presence of the private school, supported by tuition fees and conducted primarily for profit. In the private schools both instruction and the working tools of instruction, as books, supplies, etc., are paid for by those who attend. Students of the private schools naturally wish an adaptation of their instruction to some direct and immediate end, and the aim of these schools is necessarily different from that of public or community schools.

An address before the Association of Schools and Colleges for the Middle States and Maryland, Annapolis, Md., December 1, 1905.

Public high schools, with private academies and institutes and institutions of college and university rank, supported either entirely or largely by appropriations or bequests are all to be classed as community institutions. Public support and private philanthropy impose a community obligation, and education in schools of this class should be planned with that broad view which considers community needs and community consequences. The aims of the institutions last named should be not the immediate and direct benefit to the individual, but the more remote and indirect advantage to society. Thus it is the duty of the state or social order to make present sacrifices for the knowledge, character, and efficiency of men of the future.*

Confusion exists as to the effect of introducing applied education as an element in general education. Many of the socalled special schools are largely given over to general work, nor does the special element prevent the general work from being done as well in these schools as it is done in other schools of corresponding grade. A detailed discussion under manual training and book work led to the conclusion that, "pupils taking manual training as part of their school work, in regular school hours, accomplish as much academic work as, or more than, those pupils who devote the same number of hours to school work without the manual training. Commercial high schools have been long enough established to show that their teaching of English, modern languages, history, and mathematics need not be inferior to the teaching of these subjects in other sorts of schools. It was the writer's good fortune recently to see something of the excellent grammar schools of Springfield, Mass., and he became convinced that the practical instruction in manual training and home economics given in the seventh and eighth years of those schools strengthened rather than weakened the other work. Applied education in the elementary schools has never been more completely misunderstood or savagely attacked than in New York City. Under the cry "fads and frills," and "neglect of the three R's," the administration of the schools is still being bitterly assailed. But an ' John Stuart Mill, Political economy, book v, ch. xi, sec. 8. 3 Belfield, Report of Commissioner of Labor for 1892, p. 607.

impartial study of the facts will lead to the conclusion that the three R's were never better taught in New York than they have been in the last five years, and in addition the new elements improperly termed fads and frills are giving a new interest in the schools on the part of those who attend and a better equipment to them when they go out from the schools. The fact is that narrowing the scope of educational effort does not necessarily mean an increase of efficiency even in the subjects to which the effort is limited.

It may be necessary to caution against an inference that because I am here upholding a practical education I am perforce antagonistic to all other forms of training. Special education should be provided for those of particular interests and destined to particular careers. To compel every student to take an elaborate practical course would be an injustice, as it would be an injustice to require every one to take a course in Hebrew and Sanskrit, Greek and Latin, higher mathematics, the modern languages, or engineering. There is no one educational panacea for our social ills. Different periods and different classes in the same period make varying demands which the schools should recognize and seek to satisfy. The claims for this broader applied education are two-that it should find a place as a form of special training for large and important classes of modern society, and second, it should make a larger contribution to our system of general education.

To better determine the significance of special schools, we may regard for a moment the threefold aspect of our education. There is one group of subjects that deal primarily with man, such as languages and literature, history. æsthetics and art. Subjects of this sort we call humanities. Another group of subjects is concerned primarily with nature, -the external world in which man lives. Studies from this group are broadly termed sciences. And there is a third unity in our education, just as definite as either of the preceding, which may be denominated the man-and-nature-in-interaction group of studies. Our engineering schools, schools of 4 See Statement of Principals' Club of New York City, EDUCATIONAL Review, June, 1905.