ganization of society prevailed, the school was
not called upon to take up the practical work; but now society has
become so complex that the use of practical activity is absolutely
essential. Society to-day makes a greater demand than ever before upon
each and all of its members for special skill and knowledge, as well
as for breadth of view. These demands can be met only by such an
improvement in educational facilities as corresponds to the increase
in the social demand. Evidently the school must lay hold of all of the
educational forces within its reach.

In the transitional movement it is not strange that new factors are
being introduced without relation to the educational process as a
whole. The isolation of manual training, sewing, and cooking from the
physical, natural, and social sciences is justifiable only on the
ground that the means of establishing more organic relations are not
yet available. To continue such isolated activities after a way is
found of harnessing them to the educational work is as foolish as to
allow steam to expend itself in moving a locomotive up and down the
tracks without regard to the destiny of the detached train.

This series is an attempt to facilitate the transitional movement in
education which is now taking place by presenting educative materials
in a form sufficiently flexible to be readily adapted to the needs of
the school that has not yet been equipped for manual training, as well
as to the needs of the one that has long recognized practical activity
as an essential factor in its work. Since the experience of the race
in industrial and social processes embodies, better than any other
experiences of mankind, those things which at the same time appeal
to the whole nature of the child and furnish him the means of
interpreting the complex processes about him, this experience has
been made the groundwork of the present series.

In order to gain cumulative results of value in explaining our own
institutions, the materials used have been selected from the life of
Aryan peoples. That we are not yet in possession of all the facts
regarding the life of the early Aryans is not considered a sufficient
reason for withholding from the child those facts that we have when
they can be adapted to his use. Information regarding the early stages
of Aryan life is meager. Enough has been established, however, to
enable us to mark out the main lines of progress through the hunting,
the fishing,