contented citizenship. Upon the welfare of the individual depends the
welfare of all. Without education, free institutions and universal
suffrage are mockeries; semi-learned masses of the population are at the
mercy of scheming politicians, controversialists, and pseudo-scientific
religionists, and their votes are swayed by prejudice.

In a materialistic competitive order, success in life depends upon the
knack--innate or acquired, and not to be highly rated--of outwitting
one's neighbour under the rules of the game--the law; education is merely
a cultural leaven within the reach of the comparatively few who can
afford to attend a university. The business college is a more logical
institution. In an emulative civilization, however, the problem is to
discover and develop in childhood and youth the personal aptitude or gift
of as many citizens as possible, in order that they may find
self-realization by making their peculiar contribution towards the
advancement of society.

The prevailing system of education, which we have inherited from the
past, largely fails to accomplish this. In the first place, it has been
authoritative rather than scientific, which is to say that students have
been induced to accept the statements of teachers and text books, and
have not been trained to weigh for themselves their reasonableness and
worth; a principle essentially unscientific and undemocratic, since it
inculcates in the future citizen convictions rather than encourages the
habit of open-mindedness so necessary for democratic citizenship. For
democracy--it cannot be too often repeated--is a dynamic thing,
experimental, creative in its very essence. No static set of opinions
can apply to the constantly changing aspect of affairs. New discoveries,
which come upon us with such bewildering rapidity, are apt abruptly to
alter social and industrial conditions, while morals and conventions are