of geography. What had hitherto not been a human necessity and
therefore not an educational essential became both because of changed
social conditions.

Looking at education from this social point of view it is easy to see
that there was a time when no particular need existed for history,
drawing, science, vocational studies, civics, etc., beyond what one
could acquire by mingling with one's associates in the community.
These were therefore not then essentials for education. It is just
as easy to see that changed social conditions of the present make
necessary for every one a fuller and more systematic range of ideas in
each of these fields than one can pick up incidentally. These things
have thereby become educational essentials. Whether a thing today is
an educational "essential" or not seems to depend upon two things:
whether it is a human necessity today; and whether it is so complex
or inaccessible as to require systematic teaching. The number of
"essentials" changes from generation to generation. Those today who
proclaim the Three R's as the sole "essentials" appear to be calling
from out the rather distant past. Many things have since become
essential; and other things are being added year by year. The normal
method of education in things not yet put into the schools, is
participation in those things. One gets his ideas from watching others
and then learns to do by doing. There is no reason to believe that as
the school lends its help to some of the more difficult things, this
normal plan of learning can be set aside and another substituted. Of
course the schools must take in hand the difficult portions of the
process. Where complicated knowledge is needed, the schools must teach
that knowledge. Where drill is required, they must give the drill. But
the knowledge and the drill should be given in their relation to the
human activities in which they are used. As the school helps young