the school curriculum consists in the fact that, as a representation of
social life, it may not keep pace with the social changes taking place
outside the school. This may result in the school giving its pupils
forms of knowledge which at the time have little functional value, or
little relation to present life about the child. An example of this was
seen some years ago in the habit of having pupils spend considerable
time and energy in working intricate problems in connection with British
currency. This currency having no practical place in life outside the
school, the child could see no connection between that part of his
school work and any actual need. Another marked example of this tendency
will be met in the History of Education in connection with the
educational practice of the last two centuries in continuing the
emphasis placed on the study of the ancient languages, although the
functional relation of these languages to everyday life was on the
decline, and scientific knowledge was beginning to play a much more
important part therein. While the school curriculum may justly represent
the life of past periods of civilization so far as these reflect on, and
aid in the interpreting of, the present, it is evident that in so far as
the child experiences the past without any reference to present needs,
the connection which should exist between the school and life outside
the school must tend to be destroyed.

=C. May be Non-progressive.=--As a corollary to the above, is the fact
that the school, when not watchful of the changes going on without the
school, may fail to represent in its curriculum new and important phases
of the community life. At the present time, for example, it is a
debatable question whether the school curriculum is, in the matter of
our industrial life, keeping pace with the changes taking place in the
community. It is in this connection that one of the chief dangers of the
school text-book is to be found. The text is too often looked upon as a