CHAPTER V

EDUCATIONAL INSTITUTIONS


THE SCHOOL

As man, in the progress of civilization, became more fully conscious of
the worth of human life and of the possibilities of its development
through educational effort, the providing of special instruction for the
young naturally began to be recognized as a duty. As this duty became
more and more apparent, it gave rise, on the principle of the division
of labour, to corporate, or institutional, effort in this direction. By
this means there has been finally developed the modern school as a fully
organized corporate institution devoted to educational work, and
supported as an integral part of our civil or public obligations.

=Origin of the School.=--To trace the origin of the school, it will be
necessary to look briefly at certain marked stages of the development of
civilization. The earliest and simplest forms of primitive life suggest
a time when the family constituted the only type of social organization.
In such a mode of life, the principle of the division of labour would be
absent, the father or patriarch being the family carpenter, butcher,
doctor, judge, priest, and teacher. In the two latter capacities, he
would give whatever theoretic or practical instruction was received by
the child. As soon, however, as a tribal form of life is met, we find
the tribe or race collecting a body of experience which can be retained