From "A Century of Science"

OUTLINE




INTRODUCTION

The new significance of education

The last century has witnessed an unprecedented development in the
significance of education. One direct consequence has been an
increased reverence for childhood. In this movement which has
increased the dignity of children and schools, two large forces
have been at work,--one social and the other scientific. The
growth of the democratic spirit among men and institutions has made
the education of children a public necessity, and lifted the school
to a position of high social importance. The application of the
theory of evolution to man and his life has revealed human infancy
as one of the largest factors making for the superiority of man in
the struggle for existence, and given to childhood a vast
biological importance. The necessities of democracy and the truths
of science, acting more or less independently of each other, have
given to education a breadth of meaning which it did not possess
before. They have shown that infancy is the largest opportunity
and education the most powerful instrument for the conscious
adjustment of man to the physical and social world in which he
lives.