that justice is not a matter of bestowing indiscriminately the largest possible amount of educational goods. To ignore vocational training and to insist upon providing a liberal education for all on the ground that this is democracy will result in the end in violating the fundamental principle of democracy, namely, justice. For the same reason it is unjust to thrust upon the immature boy or girl the claims of the vocational and the utilitarian in education without giving him an opportunity to discover whether he may not have some better contribution to make to society than merely to earn his bread.

Even more important in modern democracy than either freedom or equity is the notion of fraternity or the feeling of sympathetic like-mindedness. This is, after all, the fundamental state of mind that is required before either freedom or justice can be more than names. There must exist between groups and individuals, classes and conflicting interests, the sympathetic attitude that enables each to enter fully and intelligently into the position of the other. Where sympathy is absent, jealousy and hatred easily arise and strained situations dangerous to the integrity of true democracy. This is strikingly illustrated in the lack of sympathy between the industrial and capitalistic groups in American society. Where like-mindedness is lacking there can be no coöperation and no justice. Sympathy in this sense is more fundamental than mere gregariousness or even sociability. To secure true sympathy in the school there must be something more than the mere mechanical herding of boys and girls together within the walls of the same building. There must be real insight into the lives and the problems of others through the cultivation of the social imagination which enables one to live over the inner life of the other. The catholicity of interests and the natural unspoiled impulses of youth facilitate the cultivation of sympathy and the creation of a democratic like-mindedness.

The natural fruit of sympathy is the spirit of tolerance, one of the rarest of all the virtues and yet one absolutely necessary in a democracy. For tolerance is not a mere negative virtue. It means vastly more than the principle of laissez

faire. It implies a far deeper insight into the moral economy. Tolerance implies a recognition of the right of each to champion his own opinions in the interest of his own self-development even when those opinions may be throughly diverse from those of his fellows. Tolerance looks beyond the individual or the sect to the larger, richer life of the community as a whole. Tolerance, therefore, can only be cultivated from the whole or the social point of view. It is not at home in the atmosphere of the denominational school. But it should pervade the atmosphere and condition every thought and act of the public school. Where it has become an integral part of the character of the prospective citizenship we have one of the best guarantees for an intelligent solution of the problems of democracy.

Sympathetic like-mindedness, the spirit of fair-play and of tolerance should find concrete expression in coöperation. They are but the subjective correlatives of coöperation, and intelligent coöperation comes very near to expressing the very essence of practical democracy. It has been pointed out that of the three great forms of social organization that have arisen in the history of civilization, namely, dominance, competition, and coöperation, the last best expresses the spirit of man and is destined, therefore, to play the leading rôle in the human relationships of the future.1 If the school, then, is to prepare for life in a democracy it should be animated throughout with the spirit of coöperation. We are just beginning to realize the practical possibilities for coöperation in the school.

§ 7. THE TEACHER AND THE SOCIAL CONSCIENCE

Of the three chief instruments utilized by the school as a moral agency, namely, personality, moral training, and moral instruction, the first two take decided precedence over the last in the elementary school. As between the personal influence of the teacher and the disciplinary effect of the school life it is probable, especially in the lower grades, that personality is the most important. And since by far the largest percentage of children is found in the lower grades of the 1 J. H. Tufts, The Ethics of Co peration, pp. 5 f.

elementary school, it follows that the character of the teachers of these grades is of the utmost importance in forming the ethical ideals of the community.

A study of the composition of the teaching population of the elementary schools seems to indicate that apart from the legal and general factors such as training, age, experience, health, and the like affecting the selection of the teacher, there are other forces at work. As a result of the operation of social and economic conditions, "the intellectual possessions of the race are by rather unconscious selection left to a class of people who by social and economic station as well as by training are not eminently fitted for their transmission ". The teachers of the elementary school come predominantly from the farming class where there are large families and where there is economic pressure to enter teaching. Consequently, tastes of this group are not as a rule those of men and women who have had some leisure for the cultivation of the finer things of life. Their salaries, furthermore, are often less than those of the mechanic and the day laborer and effectually preclude the acquiring of cultured tastes even where there is the inclination. Low salaries also explain perhaps the complaint that there is a deterioration especially among the male teachers and that they come to-day from a lower social stratum than formerly. The situation has been aggravated by the increased cost of living. The joint result is that individuals of initiative and talent are discouraged from teaching. A premium is placed upon mediocrity. The profession has little to show in the way of standards or esprit de corps. Craft spirit is largely absent. Yet into the hands of this group is being committed the most important task of transmitting the culture of the past, conserving our great ethical traditions and shaping the ideals of the rising generation.

The problem is still further complicated by the increasing feminization of the teaching profession. In 1919 only 19.9% of our teachers were men. This large percentage of women, themselves mostly young and immature, two-thirds being under thirty, holding a position on the average only two terms and

remaining in the profession on the average only four years, creates a most serious problem for all interested in educational matters. The woman teacher does not as a rule bring to social questions the concreteness and vigor of the man; she does not look upon the teaching profession as permanent and hence refuses to submit to technical preparation and lacks professional pride; she is prone to accept lower wages and thus keep down the economic status of the group; she seldom becomes interested or active in political or communal matters. It has been asserted "teaching can never become a profession, with the social standing and rewards of other professions, until the number of men engaged in it is approximately as large as the number of women."

The status of the teacher is at its worst in the elementary school, where there is contact with the largest percentage of the youth of the community. But conditions at the level of high school and college are far from ideal. If the educative influence of his life and personality is to be effective, the teacher should be able to live a normal and contented existence, thoroughly identifying himself with the institutional life of the community. He should have a definite status, one quite as secure and respected as that of physician or lawyer. Too often he is treated as a mere hireling whose position in the institution he serves is hardly as secure as that of the unionized laborer in the mill. When, true to his convictions, he lifts his voice in protest or in criticism not seldom he is treated as an academic Ishmaelite and banished to the wilderness. This failure on the part of the community to accord to the teacher a respected and independent status is leading teachers to form unions, often identifying themselves with one group in the community, namely, the industrial workers. If this movement continues it will be interesting to observe what effect it will have upon the rôle of the teacher as the one who interprets and transmits to the next generation the fundamental ethical norms that compose the social conscience.

§ 8. THE SCHOOL AND MORAL DISCIPLINE Only second in importance to the influence of the teacher upon the character of the child is the disciplinary effect of the school life. If the child is to be brought into sympathetic and intelligent relations with those great ethical traditions that make society possible, then the school must be made into "a vital social institution ". That is to say, the school must constantly reproduce typical social situations. Where the school has not been socialized the pressure brought to bear on the child will appear arbitrary and negative. Moral habits are built up most effectively not through constant correction but rather through spontaneous self-assertion. In the average school, says Professor Dewey, duties are as a rule" distinctively school duties, not life duties. If we compare this with the wellordered home we find that the duties and responsibilities which the child has to recognize and assume there are not such as belong to the family as a specialized and isolated institution, but flow from the very nature of the social life in which the family participates and to which it contributes. The child ought to have exactly the same motives for right doing and be judged by exactly the same standards in the school, as the adult in the wider social life to which he belongs."

After all, ethical norms when most effective do not appear on the surface of conduct. They are rather the implications, the rational interpretations of ways of acting. When we can assure a school life based upon social insight and an appreciation of the demands of society the ethical norms involved become concrete and living realities. Through conduct constantly repeated until it becomes a habitude the concrete experience is accumulated for the understanding of the principles concerned. It is through action and that for the most part unconscious and habitual that the child lives himself into the moral economy of the school. The skill of the teacher appears in making this process a natural and as far as possible an agreeable one. Professor Sharp thus comments upon the educative effect of the Francis W. Parker school of Chicago: