A superficial criticism declares that in the new schools children will
study only "what they like." On the contrary, all subjects requisite for
a wide culture, as well as for the ability to cope with existence in a
highly complex civilization, are insisted upon. It is true, however,
that the trained and gifted teacher is able to discover a method of so
presenting a subject as to seize the imagination and arouse the interest
and industry of a majority of pupils. In the modern schools French, for
example, is really taught; pupils do not acquire a mere smattering of the
language. And, what is more important, the course of study is directly
related to life, and to practical experience, instead of being set forth
abstractly, as something which at the time the pupil perceives no
possibility of putting into use. At one of the new schools in the south,
the ignorant child of the mountains at once acquires a knowledge of
measurement and elementary arithmetic by laying out a garden, of letters
by inscribing his name on a little signboard in order to identify his
patch--for the moment private property. And this principle is carried
through all the grades. In the Gary Schools and elsewhere the making of
things in the shops, the modelling of a Panama Canal, the inspection of
industries and governmental establishments, the designing, building, and
decoration of houses, the discussion and even dramatization of the books
read,--all are a logical and inevitable continuation of the abstract
knowledge of the schoolroom. The success of the direct application of
learning to industrial and professional life may also be observed in such
colleges as those at Cincinnati and Schenectady, where young men spend
half the time of the course in the shops of manufacturing, corporations,
often earning more than enough to pay their tuition.

Children are not only prepared for democratic citizenship by being
encouraged to think for themselves, but also to govern and discipline
themselves. On the moral side, under the authoritative system of lay