In the kindergarten it is self-directed play and work; in sloyd, self-directed hand work; in manual training, technical hand and tool work that form the nucleus of method. In a rational education such as I have tried to suggest, it must be self-directed work so arranged as to develop the whole organism, and bring out the moral and æsthetic and emotional and bodily sides of life quite as thoroughly as the intellectual.
To carry this scheme into effect will require a very radical disposition of the school days. If we assume that the college has. been rationalized, and I believe that to be the case at Harvard, and at other places where an elective course of study allows the freedom of the unfolding spirit, then I should put it as one of the first requisites of a sound system of secondary education that it should be broadly and thoroughly preparatory to the college. All the children will not go to college, but as we cherish the ideal of a liberalized and cultured America, we want an increasing number of them to go, and in any case we want the very best education possible for both classes of children—for those who go to college and for those who do not. And I should hold that either the colleges were gravely at fault, or our ideals of middle-class life were gravely at fault, if one educational path led to the one and another educational path led to the other. I can not, therefore, sympathize with that present tendency in public education which is attenuating the culture side of our high schools, in order that they may serve more immediate technical and commercial ends. I can not feel that it is in the province of the public high schools, or of the State that stands back of them, to turn out shopkeepers, clerks, bookkeepers, or artisans. The community life is impoverished by such partial products, when it ought to be enriched by the full measure of a human life. That education will be the best, will be the most truly educational, which leads to the college, even though it find the doors closed.
I have expressed the hope that a deeper realization of the dignity of human life will make the ripe culture of the college more increasingly imperative for every child, and I believe that this result will come about with the growth of the social conscience, and with the increase of that spirit of brotherhood which is even now appearing as a bit of leaven in our midst. I came up from the subway the other day with that exultation in my heart which I think the modern man feels as well as the Greek when he emerges from the nether world into the open sunshine. At the mouth of the pit a little figure was sharply outlined against the sky. It was the figure of a mere child, a little boy. His face was pale and worn. He was standing there drinking in the chill of the pit, attracted by the hope of selling his papers. I could not help saying to myself:
