rivalrous disposition emphasizes the memorizing of subject matter, not learning. The "cram and exam" system is a means of enabling pupils to display their superiority in absorbing and remembering for a short time, but it is futile for stimulating intellectual interest. It is futile also for stimulating even rivalry in any but the brightest pupils for the inferior ones know they have no chance to win high marks. Pupils often have intellectual interests that might be aroused by interesting studies. "Spontaneous and disinterested desire for knowledge is not at all uncommon in the young, and might be easily aroused in many in whom it remains latent. But it is remorselessly checked by teachers who think only of examinations, diplomas, and degrees. . From first to last there is nothing but one long drudgery of examination tips and text-book facts. The most intelligent, at the end, are disgusted with learning, longing only to forget it and to escape into a life of action." 22

The stimulation of rivalry in education causes inefficiency in the economic organization, for it makes brain and hand workers too rivalrous to do their work efficiently. They are too eager for promotion or pay without working for it; too much given to speculating where their work will lead to, and too little to doing it thoroughly and with the concentration that would cause it to lead somewhere; too much given to looking upon others as rivals instead of as colleagues in the teamwork of the organization; too much given to attending to what others, as rivals, are doing, and too little to attending to their own work.

The appeal to the rivalrous disposition does not encourage—it discourages the action of the intellectual disposition. Marks and prizes accustom pupils to expect, for assiduity in their studies, satisfaction other than that of the intellectual impulses, and discourage work for the intellectual satisfaction of doing the work "right." A student who has been trained to work under the stimulus of rivalry will be apt to continue dependent on that stimulus and to fail in work in which there is no satisfaction to be got except that of doing it right. Therefore, tasks in school or college should not be such as to arouse no interest in themselves, so that students have to be aroused by stimulating rivalry. They should be such as to stimulate the intellectual impulses so that the task will be done as nearly perfectly as possible for perfection's sake.

When things are done for the sake of doing them right, there is 22 Russell, op. cit., 174-175.

none of the hurry involved in doing things to satisfy some extraneous impulse. For instance, in working for pay, the sooner it is done, the sooner the impulse for pay is satisfied-hence the hurry. In working to win recognized superiority, the sooner the thing is done, the sooner the success is recognized, praised and then must be again surpassedhence the hurry and strain of rivalry. Doing work right for its own sake eliminates the distraction of fruitless hurry and increases power of concentration. The enjoyment of work for work's sake is enhanced if there are comrades who also are doing work for work's sake. The school with its close associations is, therefore, an admirable place for stimulating intellectual impulses. Work that appeals to pupils as worth doing for its own sake "involves just as much persistence and concentration as the work which is given by the sternest advocate of disciplinary drill. The latter requires the pupil to strive for ends which he cannot see, so that he has to be kept at the task by means of offering artificial ends, marks, and promotions, and by isolating him in an atmosphere where his mind and senses are not being constantly besieged by the call of life which appeals so strongly to him. But the pupil presented with a problem, the solution of which will give him an immediate sense of accomplishment and satisfied curiosity, will bend all his powers to the work; the end itself will furnish the stimulus necessary to carry him through the drudgery."

"23

There prevails a distrust of the intellectual disposition. It is due to the tendency of this disposition to discredit the conventional social control in the family, in industry, and in the social order generally. In the family the child is from his earliest years subjected to the influence of his elders. Infants are so constantly attended to, and their attention is so constantly engaged with their elders, that they have little opportunity for their own devices,-for looking at and manipulating objects, trying their own vocalization, and bringing their own little purposes to pass. If given an opportunity to develop the intellectual instincts of visualization, manipulation, vocalization, and mental control, they would enjoy a variety of instinctive action and would be less inclined to fret than if dependent on the attention of others. Older children, also, are subjected to the influence of their elders in a way to limit very narrowly their opportunity for intellectual initiative. This is seldom encouraged in children. "It will be said that the joy of mental adventure must be rare, that there are few 28 Dewey, op cit., 302-303.

who can appreciate it, and that ordinary education can take no account of" it. "The joy of mental adventure is far commoner in the young than in grown men and women. Among children it is very It is rare in later life because everything is done to kill it during education. Men fear thought as they fear nothing else on earth. . . . Thought is .. merciless to privilege, established institutions, and comfortable habits, . . . indifferent to authority

common,

24

"But if thought is to become the possession of the many, not the privilege of the few, we must have done with fear. It is fear that holds men back-fear lest their cherished beliefs should prove delusions, fear lest the institutions by which they live should prove harmful, Parents and teachers are solicitous for any bright boy or girl whose impulse for thinking leads him or her to question and doubt the accepted beliefs. Wherefore, public and higher education everywhere exercises a restraint on the intellectual impulses; there is little encouragement of intellectual adventure.

The foregoing analysis of the conflict of interests in public education has emphasized the stimulation and training of the intellect. The social purpose of education is, however, the development of the whole personality through a sense of social responsibility and social adjustment. But this requires intellect to such a degree that intellectual development has sometimes been exclusively emphasized. As pointed out in a preceding chapter,25 intelligence involves sympathy as well. The finer the sensibilities and the sympathetic appreciation the more adequate the intelligence. Conversely, the more dull the sensibilities, the more exclusively the individual feels his own impulses and the more selfish he becomes. At one extreme is the exquisitely conscientious person, at the other the delinquent who is abnormally insensitive and oblivious to others in his impulses for satisfaction.26 Though the faculty of sensitive appreciation is born and not made, born sensitiveness throughout our population is going to waste for lack of the encouragement that ought to be given it in the public schools. However, such a condition is not necessarily permanent, as becomes evident. to a teacher of social science when he sees children eagerly appreciating problems of social relations from which prejudices shut out the parents. What is the conclusion? That if the parents had been edu24 Russell, op. cit., 178-179.

25 Chapter IV.

26 Healy, The Individual Delinquent, 400-413, 755.

cated as children are sometimes educated, if they had developed intelligence instead of using what they learned to confirm preconceived notions and fix prejudices, they would be what the children are becoming-capable of playing their part in social adjustment.

P

CHAPTER XXV

THE CONFLICT OF INTERESTS IN PUBLIC

EDUCATION (CONCLUDED)

ERSONALITY develops through organization of the dis

positions in the course of adjustment in the various social relations. What processes are involved in this organization? The encouragement of sympathetic and intellectual impulses, though it involves the inhibition of others, does not involve their complete denial. On the contrary it results in their more healthy action. For, since the satisfaction of any disposition depends on its readiness for satisfaction, the inhibition of dispositions that are over-stimulated in the present social order results in that readiness which is necessary for their healthy action. Especially among classes with abundant means of satisfaction is the promotion of readiness important. Children need to be taught control of the primal instincts, to endure hunger to the point where they will enjoy and vigorously masticate coarse food, to brave cold, to disregard the pleasures of ease and the varied means of petty display. They should be taught to prefer action to passive indulgence. It is easier to restrain indulgence for the sake of some other satisfaction, than to "will" restraint. Control should, therefore, be taught by giving children opportunities for the joys of general physical activity, wholesome social gatherings and general mental activity. They should be taught to see how slight is the satisfaction of momentary indulgences as compared with the continuing joy of a sense of strong readiness of a variety of dispositions. This form of control is to be distinguished from impulsive self-denial, which we see in austere communities, and austere periods of history, where restraint to the point of annoyance, instead of strong readiness, was cultivated. To inculcate the ideal of strong readiness is one of the essential functions of child-training.

Self-control involves, also intelligent selection in the organization of the dispositions. First, children must be taught to emphasize the satisfaction of dispositions which originally have, or may develop,