e 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
no longer absolute. Sudden crises threaten the stability of nations
and civilizations. Safety lies alone in the ability to go forward,
to progress. Psychology teaches us that if authoritative opinions,
convictions, or "complexes" are stamped upon the plastic brain of
the youth they tend to harden, and he is apt to become a Democrat or
Republican, an Episcopalian or a Baptist, a free trader or a tariff
advocate or a Manchester economist without asking why. Such "complexes"
were probably referred to by the celebrated physician who emphasized
the hopelessness of most individuals over forty. And every reformer and
forum lecturer knows how difficult it is to convert the average audience
of seasoned adults to a new idea: he finds the most responsive groups
in the universities and colleges. It is significant that the "educated"
adult audiences in clubs and prosperous churches are the least open to
conversion, because, in the scientific sense, the "educated" classes
retain complexes, and hence are the least prepared to cope with the
world as it is today. The German system, which has been bent upon
installing authoritative conviction instead of encouraging freedom of
thought, should be a warning to us.

Again, outside of the realm of physical science, our text books have
been controversial rather than impartial, especially in economics and
history; resulting in erroneous and distorted and prejudiced ideas of
events, such for instance, as our American Revolution. The day of the
controversialist is happily coming to an end, and of the writer who
twists the facts of science to suit a world of his own making, or of
that of a group with which he is associated. Theory can now be labelled
theory, and fact, fact. Impartial and painstaking investigation is the
sole method of obtaining truth.

The old system of education benefited only the comparatively few to
whose nature and inclination it was adapted. We have need, indeed, of
classical scholars,