Problems of children of the world

The new education will consider a child with due reference to his heredity, his social position, his national conditioning, his environment and his individual mental and emotional equipment and will seek to throw the entire world of effort open to him, pointing out that apparent barriers to progress are only spurs to renewed endeavor. They will thus seek to "lead him out" (the true meaning of the world "education") from any limiting condition and train him to think in terms of constructive world citizenship. Growth and still more growth will be emphasized.

The educator of the future will approach the problem of youth from the angle of the children's instinctual reaction, their intellectual capacity and their intuitional potentiality. In infancy and in the earlier school grades, the development of right instinctual reactions will be watched and cultivated; in the later grades, in what is equivalent to the high schools or the secondary schools, the intellectual unfoldment and control of the mental processes will be emphasized; whilst on the colleges and universities the unfoldment of the intuition, the importance of ideas and ideals and the development of abstract thinking and perception will be fostered; this latter phase will be soundly based upon the previous sound intellectual foundation. These three factors - instinct, intellect and intuition - provide the keynotes for the three scholastic institutions through which every young person will pass and through which, today, many thousands do pass.

In the modern schools (grammar or primary schools, high or secondary schools, colleges or

universities) there can be seen an imperfect but symbolic picture of the triple objectives of the coming education: Civilization, Culture and world Citizenship or unity.

The primary schools might be regarded as the custodians of civilization; they should begin to train the child in the nature of the world in which he should play his part, teaching him his place in the group and preparing him for intelligent living and right social relations. Reading, writing and arithmetic, elementary history (with the emphasis upon world history), geography and poetry will be taught and certain basic and important facts of living imparted, plus the inculcation of self-control.

The secondary schools will regard themselves as the custodians of culture; they should emphasize the larger values of history and literature and give some understanding of art. They should begin to train the boy or girl for that future profession or mode of life which it is obvious will condition them. Citizenship will then be taught in larger terms and the world of true values be pointed out and idealism consciously and definitely cultivated. The practical application of ideals will be emphasized.

Our colleges and universities should be a higher extension of all that has been already done. They should beautify and complete the structure already erected and should deal more directly with the world of meaning. International problems - economic, social, political and religious - should be considered and the man or woman related still more definitely to the world as a whole. This is no way indicates neglect of individual or national problems or undertakings, but it seeks to incorporate them into the whole as integral and effective parts, and thus avoids the separative attitudes which have brought about the downfall of our modern world.

It might prove later (when true religion is again restored) that this training will be fundamentally spiritual, using the word to mean understanding, helpfulness, brotherhood, right human relations and a belief in the reality of the world behind the phenomenal scene. The fitting of a man for citizenship in the kingdom of God is not a religious activity to be handled exclusively by the churches and through theological teachings, though there is much that they can do to help. It is surely the task of the higher education, giving purpose and significance to all that has been done.

The following sequence suggests itself as we consider the curriculum to be planned for the youth of the immediate generations:

Primary education.......Civilization............ages: 4-12

Secondary education...Culture...................ages: 12-18

Higher education.......World citizenship. ages: 18-25

In the future, education will make a far wider use of psychology than heretofore. A trend in this direction is already to be seen. The nature - physical, vital, emotional and mental - of the boy or girl will be carefully investigated and his incoherent life purposes directed along right lines; he will be taught to recognize himself as the one who acts, who feels and who thinks. Thus, the responsibility of the central "I", or the occupant of the body will be taught. This will alter the entire present attitude of the youth of the world to their surroundings and foster, from their earliest days. the recognition of a part to be played and a responsibility to be assumed.

Education will be regarded as a method of preparation for that useful and interesting future. It, therefore, becomes increasingly apparent that the coming education could be defined in a new and broader sense as the Science of Right Human Relations and of Social Organization. This gives a comparatively new purpose to any curriculum imparted and yet indicates that nothing hitherto included need be excluded, only a better motivation will be obvious and a nationalistic, selfish presentation avoided. If history is, for instance, presented on the basis of the conditioning ideas which have led humanity onward and not on the basis of aggressive wars and international or national thievery, then education will concern itself with the right perception and use of ideas, of their transformation into working ideals and their application as the will-to-beauty.

Thus, a much-needed alteration of humanity's aims from our present competitive and materialistic objectives into those that will more fully express the Golden Rule will come about and right relations between individuals, groups, parties, nations and throughout the entire international world will be established.