New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1913-08-15
THE CHANGING FAMILY
A Study of the Part 1t Has
Played in Education.

THE PRIMITIVE FAMILY AS AN Ed
UCATIONAL AGENCY. BY Arthur
James Todd, Phi. D., of the Department
of Sociology. University of Illinois. Svo,
pp. tx, 25l G. p Putnam's sons.
Whether or not tho institution Of the
family, as It is to-day, is on its last
legs, is Just now a matter OF consider
able controversial concern. Some folks
hold that when that domestic king
dom TO which the eloquent politician
refers as Mary and the vine-clad cot
tage" goes by the board, so to say.
why then, so TO speak, the jig is up,
every one will light out for himself
and the COLLINS will take the hindmost
Steiner students Of what the amiable
Carlyle called the 'forked radish" re-
gard this view as decidedly senti-
mental. And the family. these point
out, was not born of sentiment. No,
the primitive family seems TO have
been perhaps the earliest form of the
business partnership; and as this firms
business has changed and altered many
times in the course of its age-long evo-
luton, so has the firm shown its fexi-
biity in adjusting itself to changing
conditions. So, indeed the sociologists
ask: Are we not warranted In look
ing for such new adjustments In the
form and content Of the family as to
make 1t = increasingly valuable social
institution" Professor Todd's propo-
sition is that, owing TO changes in the
industrial and religious world. the fam
lily is losing much of the educational
significance for long attached to It,
This, he sc-s, simply means that we
must find other sanctions and other
bases in its place. And his general
conclusion is that the family never has
been the type and foundation Of all
education.
This book is a work addressed to
two classes Of students: those who are
looking for an outline sketch OF the
early evolution OF the family, and those
who may have felt lack Of materials
illustrating methods and organization
OIL DIllHlllNc GuuCdllOiI. ne aulIDT
sketches the various stages in the early
evolution Of the family, showing how it
varied in form and function from age
to age. The problem OF his study is to
determine what part the family has
played throughout It's history in the
process OF education-what actually
has been the educational contribution
of the family. From widely scattered
sources-travels, ethnography, folk
lore, studies in the evolution OF the
law, morals and so on-he has collected
his evidence against the family super
stition" in education. He concludes
that, "on the whole, the primitive fam
lily was rather biologic and economic
than educational in It's function" And
the fact that much Of primitive educa-
ton was genuine social education is
strongly emphasized. Our forefathers
in savagery sadly spared the rod, too.
Professor Todds material covers brief
ly such problems as the economic basis
Of family life, the position Of the wife,
promiscuity, group marriage. divorce,
sex taboos. procreation, myths, primi-
tive moral and vocational instruction,
limitations. puberty ceremonies and so
forth. He traces the varying sense of
relationship between child and parent;
now it is related to its mother. now to
its father. and only in later times to
both. The page plan is that Of Pro-
fessor Summers "Folkways."