gal rights are not. To an extent
characteristic of no other institution, save that of the state itself,
the school has power to modify the social order. And under our political
system, it is the right of each individual to have a voice in the making
of social policies as, indeed, he has a vote in the determination of
political affairs. If this be true, education is primarily a public
business, and only secondarily a specialized vocation. The layman, then,
will always have his right to some utterance on the operation of the
public schools.

_Education as expert service_

I have said "some utterance," but not "all"; for school-mastering has
its own special mysteries, its own knowledge and skill into which the
untrained layman cannot penetrate. We are just beginning to recognize
that the school and the government have a common problem in this
respect. Education and politics are two functions fundamentally
controlled by public opinion. Yet the conspicuous lack of efficiency and
economy in the school and in the state has quickened our recognition of
a larger need for expert service. But just where shall public opinion
justly express itself, and what shall properly be left to expert
judgment?

_The relations of expert opinion and public opinion_

In so far as broad policies and ultimate ends affecting the welfare of
all are to be determined, the public may well claim its right to settle
issues by the vote or voice of majorities. But the selection and
prosecution of the detailed ways and means by which the public will is
to be executed efficiently must remain largely a matter of specialized
and expert service. To the superior knowledge and technique required
here, the public may well defer.

In the conduct of the schools, it is well for the citizens to determine
the ends proper to them, and it is their privilege to judge of the
efficacy of results. Upon questions that concern all the manifold
details by which children are to be converted into desirable types of
men and women, the expert schoolmaster should be authoritative, at least
to a degree commensurate with his superior knowledge of this very
complex problem. The administration of the schools, the making of the
course of study, the selection of texts, the prescription of methods of
teaching, these are matters with which the people, or their
representatives upon boards of education, cannot deal save with danger
of becoming mere meddlers.

_The discussion of m