violating school rules, and thus negatively, if not positively, is
contributing to the good of the school. I have nothing to say against
these motives so far as they go, but they are inadequate. The relation
between the piece of work to be done and affection for a third person is
external, not intrinsic. It is therefore liable to break down whenever
the external conditions are changed. Moreover, this attachment to a
particular person, while in a way social, may become so isolated and
exclusive as to be selfish in quality. In any case, the child should
gradually grow out of this relatively external motive into an
appreciation, for its own sake, of the social value of what he has to
do, because of its larger relations to life, not pinned down to two or
three persons.

But, unfortunately, the motive is not always at this relative best, but
mixed with lower motives which are distinctly egoistic. Fear is a motive
which is almost sure to enter in,--not necessarily physical fear, or
fear of punishment, but fear of losing the approbation of others; or
fear of failure, so extreme as to be morbid and paralyzing. On the other
side, emulation and rivalry enter in. Just because all are doing the
same work, and are judged (either in recitation or examination with
reference to grading and to promotion) not from the standpoint of their
personal contribution, but from that of _comparative_ success, the
feeling of superiority over others is unduly appealed to, while timid
children are depressed. Children are judged with reference to their
capacity to realize the same external standard. The weaker gradually
lose their sense of power, and accept a position of continuous and
persistent inferiority. The effect upon both self-respect and respect
for work need not be dwelt upon. The strong learn to glory, not in their
strength, but in the fact that they are stronger. The child is
prematurely launched into the region of individualistic competition, and
this in a direction where competition is least applicable, namely, in
intellectual and artistic matters, whose law is cooperation and
participation.

Next, perhaps, to the evils of passive absorption and of competition for
external standing come, perhaps, those which result from the eternal
emphasis upon preparation for a remote future. I do not refer here to
the waste of energy and vitality that accrues when children, who live so
largely in the immediate present, are appealed to in the name of