not be fully taken care of if they are confined to what is essential for the group as a whole. This implies that in any plastic society the number of groups which must be provided for in the school will be constantly enlarging as society grows more complex and new forms of social service are required.
So one who attempts to estimate educational values in America to-day must appreciate that his work can not endure for all time, except in respect to certain fundamental needs, which must be reasonably permanent for all people under all conditions. But it is manifestly impossible to say in detail what will be essential in the schools fifty years from now. As society becomes differentiated, new needs will arise which will require the establishment of institutions for the training of new groups. If the school is thoroughly plastic, it will from decade to decade revise its curriculum and its methods in respect to the details of its procedure. What is going on in America to-day in the modification of curricula and methods is inevitable in a civilization like our own; and it is bound to continue. Topics of study of importance a hundred years ago may be of relatively little importance to-day. On the other hand, on account of changing social conditions, many topics and subjects may be of worth to-day which would have been of little account a hundred years ago. If the school fulfills its mission, there must be constant evolution, in respect alike to the materials taught and the methods of teaching and of discipline. Nations in which this is not true must sooner or later become decadent.
