every growing man must be largely ready for his new job when it comes to
him. I find very few individuals make any effort to think out better ways
of doing things. They do not anticipate needs, do not keep themselves
fresh at the growing point. If ever they had any imagination they seem to
have lost it, and imagination is needed in a growing business, for it is
through the imagination that one anticipates future changes and so
prepares for them before they come. Accordingly, as a general proposition,
the selection of a man for a vacancy within the organization is more or
less a matter of guesswork. Now and then an ambitious, wide-awake young
man works into the organization and in a very short time is spotted by
various department managers for future promotion, but the number of such
individuals is discouragingly small. The difficulty with which we are
always confronted is that our business grows faster than do those within
it. The men do not keep up with our changes. The business grows away from
them, and quite reluctantly the management is frequently compelled to go
outside for necessary material. We need, at the present time, four or five
subordinate chiefs in various parts of the factory and I can fill none of
the positions satisfactorily from material in hand."

This business man, unconsciously perhaps, puts his finger upon one of the
weak places in our school procedure. He convicts us of stifling and
repressing the imagination of our pupils. For it is a matter of common
knowledge that every normal child is endowed with a vivid imagination when
he enters school. No one will challenge this statement who has entered
into the heart of childhood through the gateway of play. He has seen a rag
doll invested with all the graces of a princess; he has seen empty spools
take on all the attributes of the railway train; and he has seen the
child's world peopled with entities of which the unimaginative person
cannot know. Children revel in the lore of fairyland, and in this realm
nothing seems impossible to them. Their toys are the material which their