for the purpose of making our algebra, German, or Latin of benefit to them. We are to break away from the traditional type of a study-centered high school. We are a person-centered high school. The person is the one we are teaching. We are responsible for the success of the student. That is chiefly what we are put here for. (10: 585)

While it is easy to point out certain fallacies and exaggerations in this quotation, it remains in general as a significant formulation of a policy worked out by a high-school principal and his teachers to adapt the instruction in their school to the needs of all of the pupils who attend it.

Antithesis between liberal and vocational purposes. The immediately preceding discussion was intended to bring out the contrast between the aristocratic, or selective, purposes which formerly prevailed in secondary education and the democratic purposes which are coming to prevail. The other contrast (mentioned above on page 7) is between the conception of liberal purposes and that of vocational purposes. Ordinarily it is assumed that there is some conflict between these two, and the conservative supporters of the old idea of a liberal education deprecate the tendency to introduce and emphasize studies which are related to present-day economic needs.

Progressive revision of meaning of a liberal education.— The insistence of the conservatives upon the old idea of a liberal education as necessarily a classical or literary one has led advocates of a broader secondary education to reformulate the definition of a liberal education in such a way as to justify the newer tendencies and thus to disarm the conservatives by depriving them of their chief symbol, or badge, of pretended superiority. One of the best examples of this revision is the following quotation from a paper by Professor E. P. Cubberly on the question, Does the present trend of vocational education threaten liberal culture?

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Meaning of vocational” and “liberal” is relative to the individual. The whole question of what are liberal and what are vocational

studies can be defined accurately only in terms of individuals. What is vocational for one is liberal for another. The study of chemistry, for example, which is usually classified with the technicalvocational group, and is so for the future chemist or engineer, is broadly liberal when pursued by the classical student. The same is true of geology, biology, economics, or modern industrial history. Conversely, courses in literature, world history, economics, and the life and literature of Greece or Rome would be liberal studies to the technical or the scientific student. Perhaps no greater mistake in terms is made in our educational practice to-day than to say that the high-school student who has had four years of Latin, three of Greek, four of English, two of ancient and medieval history, two of mathematics, and one year of mathematical physics has pursued a liberal-culture course of study. As a matter of fact, his course has been narrowly technical, in that it leads to but a few selected occupations; and he is in no sense liberally educated, for he knows little about the modern world in which he lives. Of the great modifying conceptions which have served to distinguish the nineteenth century he knows almost nothing, and he is ill prepared to take his place as an efficient member of the twentieth century.

Newer studies open liberal and vocational courses to more students. – To the speaker there seems very little to fear and very much to commend in the present trend toward vocational training, and he cannot see that the trend in any way seriously threatens true liberal culture. The introduction of courses in mechanic arts, commerce, agriculture, and household arts will attract to the schools great numbers who in the past have found little of interest in them, and will offer to all classes the chance to combine vocational training with a good education. To the speaker it seems indeed unfortunate, that so many young people have been and still are compelled to choose between a vocation without an education and an education without a vocation. That the introduction of these new subjects will result in a decreased percentage of our young people studying Latin and Greek is not to be denied. Indeed, it is much to be hoped. This, however, would be no blow to liberal culture. Some, of course, obtain liberal culture with such training, and for them it may be the best training possible; but, on the other hand, many

do not, and for such the insistence that such studies are essential to liberal training is no longer tenable.

Modern natural and social sciences give broad outlook upon life.

If we conceive of liberal culture as coming from a study of those subjects which develop the judgment and understanding, enlarge the vision and insight, broaden the human sympathies, train for efficient living, and stimulate such intellectual ambitions as will make one interested in his life work and good company for himself, then liberal culture may come to many different individuals from the study of many different things. A conception of the theory of evolution and of a few of its applications to modern life, such as may be obtained in a study of biology; the great mind-expanding (and I might also add religion-developing) results obtainable from a study of astronomy; a fair understanding of economic laws, obtainable from a study of economics; the growing conception of world relationships, such as may be obtained from a study of commerce or industrial history; the wonderful results of modern science, as opened up by a proper study of physics and chemistry; the awakening and refining of the practical judgment of the girl, such as comes from good courses in domestic science and household economics; or a study of the life, manners, art, government, and literature of Greece or Rome, such as might be given for nonclassical students, wholly in English, and in a single year in a modern high school

any one or all of these may be liberal studies in the truest sense of the term, and the starting point of a life lived in sympathy and in increasing contact with the best in our intellectual inheritance. Such studies as I have enumerated are both liberal and vocational, according to the needs of the boy or girl who studies them.1 (8: 463-465)

While this discussion of a liberal versus a vocational education, as presented by Professor Cubberly, is concerned primarily with the curriculum of the high school, yet the general attitude, or point of view, which it represents would affect also the work of an individual teacher within a given subject. Hence it is related to methods of teaching as well. This will be brought

1 Paragraph headings not in the original.

out in detail in a later chapter on the selection and arrangement of material within a given subject.

Theoretical formulation of the broader purposes of education. In our discussion of the broadening conceptions of the purposes of high-school instruction we have noted the practical importance of the high-school teacher's being aware of the trend of events, have traced historically the transition from the aristocratic and selective purpose to the democratic purpose, and have noted the movement to formulate a revised definition of a liberal education so as to relate it to contemporary life. As a final step in giving students an appreciation of the broader purposes which are coming to prevail, we shall discuss briefly a theoretical formulation of the aims of teaching which may have more or less practical bearing on methods of teaching. The formulation is a slight modification of that presented by Professor E. L. Thorndike in his "Principles of Teaching" (1906).

Ultimate and proximate aims outlined. According to this formulation we may distinguish between the ultimate aims and the proximate aims of teaching. The former are the large, broad, controlling purposes; the latter include more detailed purposes which contribute to the achievement of the former but are more directly related to the daily work of the teacher. These purposes may be tabulated as follows:

Ultimate purposes

1. Social efficiency.

a. Economic.

b. Domestic.

c. Civic.

2. Good will.

3. Harmless enjoyment.

Proximate purposes

1. Health.

2. Information.

3. Habits.

4. Ideals.

5. Interests.

Ultimate purposes. 1. Efficiency in controlling affairs in a social situation. The first of the ultimate purposes, namely, efficiency, suggests the ability to do things effectively,

to control and handle affairs, to get results, to achieve and accomplish. The qualifying term social suggests that the things or affairs that a person needs to be able to control or handle are nearly always parts or phases of social situations in which division of labor and other forms of relationships with people are controlling factors. The subdivision of efficiency into economic, domestic, and civic is suggested by Herbert Spencer's classification of life's activities. It is evident that most persons must be efficient in making a living, in dealing with their family affairs, and in participating in civic or political affairs.

2. Efficiency must be directed by good will, or the endeavor to work for the common good. But efficiency in a social situation, or the ability to control and handle affairs, needs to be directed toward worthy ends. Hence it is necessary to provide for the second ultimate purpose, namely, good will, or the desire and endeavor to work for the common good; for a man may be extremely efficient socially, and yet direct his ability toward purely selfish ends which are opposed to the common good. Unfortunately society is always troubled with just such persons, namely, powerful social leaders who use their efficiency in controlling the affairs of the social group for corrupt purposes. The corrupt political boss is one of the best examples of this type. He may control absolutely the political affairs of a city or a county or a state for a whole generation. He is the most efficient man in the situation; it would be absurd to say that he is socially inefficient; but it is perfectly obvious that he is immoral if our standard of morality is the desire and endeavor to contribute to the common good. 3. Efficiency supplemented by training for the harmless enjoyment of leisure time. But morally directed efficiency in handling affairs does not constitute all of life. The proper enjoyment of one's leisure time deserves large consideration in a scheme of education for persons that do not have to spend all of their time in a struggle for existence. Certainly for a