The Educational screen (c1922-c1956])

October, 1933 Page 219 of the first as subjective and of the second as ob- jective." .... ".So far as the two (worlds) fit into one another in the e.xptrience of the indivi(UiaI the result is satisfactory .... every misfit in the inter- actions l)etween the two worlds indicates an error somewhere and the need for the removal of that error." While there is such an utter discrepancy between these inner worlds and the outer world, it is mere foolish- ness to ex])ect people to act wisely as citizens—it is mere foolishness to suppose that we can have those bigger men and women that are necessary for the solution of our vast social problems. To summarize: If people must act with relation to the world that each has built within; if these inner worlds are such limited and distorted duplicates of the outer world; if the raw material for building each inner world is gained only from sense experiences; and if no one has been able to get more than a frac- tion of the sense experiences, esj)ecially the sight ex- periences, that he has an instinctive and eager appetite for; then clearly the primary ])roblem ojien for solu- tion, is how to i)rovide a vastly wider range and a vastly increased amount of sense experiences for chil- dren and people everywhere. .\nd in as much as most of the needed exiHiriences of touch, taste, smell and hearing may be gained in connection with the home environment, the problem really is how to provide a vastly tcidcr range and a vastly increased amount of sight experiences for children and adults everywhere. Much is being said to-day about the wider and richer environment in which jieople now live due to the automobile, telephone, radio, movie, etc. This is true to some degree. But great as are the effects of these inventions, it still remains unquestionably true that, for the mass of people from childhood up, their eager appetite to see the world is not being satisfied, and that there is still a ludicrous difference between their inner worlds and the great outer world, especially the great interdependent human world with which they must constantly deal and which they must help to carry on. Undoubtedly many would assume that sufficient pro- vision is made for this need for visual experience, of the young especially, as far as the more advanced countries are concerned, in the schools. Unquestion- ably it is in the most important activity of civilized society where such provision should be made. Let us turn therefore, for a few minutes, to the present day work in our .schools, to inquire particu- larly as to what extent we are providing for this pri- mary mental need for sense experiences, especially for the preeminently important .sense exjieriences of sight, for the millions of oncoming children. What do we find? Well, we find the children gath- ered in their various local comnumities into school classrooms. And what are the children doing during these vital growing years in these classrooms ? In the especially important primary and elementary grades the children spend most of their time in trying to master what are often called "tool" subjects, or "fundamentals"—the mechanics of reading, spelling, and certain fundamental processes in arithmetic. Then they sjjcnd their time on "content" subjects, (or the "social sciences"), geography, history and civics. Now, in the first place, we should note that while humanity is the one thing, as far as we can see, that the world runs for, yet there is not a subject in our schools the sjiecific purpose of which is to see that the oncoming generations become really acquainted with the humanity of to-day. In the socalled "social sciences" of geography, history and civics, the chil- dren are supposed to gain their knowledge of this wonderfully important humanity of to-day. But geography is primarily a study of man's relations to the earth. Even a recent Human or Social Geogra- phy gives this definition of geography,—"The function of modern human geography is to show how the activities of man are influenced by the natural en- vironment." History is a study of humanity's past. Civics and sociology are as yet more a study of the machinery of society and government (along with some practice for the young in dealing with their associates in the local school or community). Here is a matter to be profoundly pondered. It is generally conceded that great dangers threaten Western Civilization because of the extent to which we set up the material means of life, rather than life itself, as the chief aim of our thought and endeavor. For this great blunder our education, because of its extreme emphasis on the means of life, is in large measure responsible. There is no more profound ignorance in the world to-day than the ignorance of the mass of people of one country as to the mass of people in another country, and yet there is not a study in our schools the sjjecific object of which is to see that the oncoming generation becomes really acquainted with the humanity of to-day. At a time when we can pro- duce far more of the material means of life than the people can now buy, the young in the schools are still required to give far more of their time and at- tention to knowledge about the means of life than to life itself. At a time when the world is falling down particularly in its human relationships, there is little done in our schools to clear up the profound ignorance that |)€ople have of our common world-humanity. In the second place, we find that in most of the immensely important years the children spend in the schools, they are sj)ending their time not in dealing directly through their senses ti'ith the great world of reality, but in learning to deal with and dealing with s|X)ken and written languages, spoken and written symbols. As Henry Fairfield Osborn says, "A stu- dent in obtaining his education to-day strives to get hundreds of facts from books to one fact from the world of reality."