but the majority of men and women are meant for
other work; many, by their very construction of mind, are unfitted to
become such. And only in the most exceptional cases are the ancient
languages really mastered; a smattering of these, imposed upon the
unwilling scholar by a principle opposed to psychology,--a smattering
from which is derived no use and joy in after life, and which has no
connection with individual inclination--is worse than nothing. Precious
time is wasted during the years when the mind is most receptive. While
the argument of the old school that discipline can only be inculcated
by the imposition of a distasteful task is unsound. As Professor Dewey
points out, unless the interest is in some way involved there can be
no useful discipline. And how many of our university and high school
graduates today are in any sense disciplined? Stimulated interest
alone can overcome the resistance imposed by a difficult task, as any
scientist, artist, organizer or administrator knows. Men will discipline
themselves to gain a desired end. Under the old system of education a
few children succeed either because they are desirous of doing well,
interested in the game of mental competition; or else because they
contrive to clothe with flesh and blood some subject presented as a
skeleton. It is not uncommon, indeed, to recognize in later years with
astonishment a useful citizen or genius whom at school or college we
recall as a dunce or laggard. In our present society, because of archaic
methods of education, the development of such is largely left to chance.
Those who might have been developed in time, who might have found their
task, often become wasters, drudges, and even criminals.

The old system tends to make types, to stamp every scholar in the same
mould, whether he fits it or not. More and more the parents of today
are looking about for new schools, insisting that a son or daughter
possesses some special gift which, under teachers of genius, might be
developed before it is too late. And in most cases, strange to say, the
parents are right. They themselves have been victims of a standardized
system.

A new and distinctly American system of education, designed to meet the
demands of modern conditions, has been put in practice in parts of the
United States. In spite of opposition from school boards, from all
those who cling to the conviction that education must of necessity be an
unpalatable and "disciplinary" proc