"--_Stein_.
"Education is the sum of the reflective efforts by which we aid nature
in the development of the physical, intellectual, and moral faculties
of man in view of his perfection, his happiness, and his social
destination."--_Compayre_.
These attempts to bring the task of education into a comprehensive,
scientific formula are interesting and yet disappointing. They agree
in giving great breadth to education. But in the attempt to be
comprehensive, to omit nothing, they fail to specify that wherein the
_true worth_ of man consists; they fail to bring out into relief the
highest aim as an organizing idea in the complicated work of education
and its relation to secondary aims.
We desire therefore to approach nearer to this problem: _What is the
highest aim of education_?
We will do so by an inquiry into the aims and tendencies of our public
schools. To an outward observer the schools of today confine their
attention almost exclusively to the acquisition of certain forms of
knowledge and to intellectual training, to the mental discipline and
power that come from a varied and vigorous exercise of the faculties.
The great majority of good schoolmasters stand squarely upon this
platform, knowledge and mental discipline.
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