Grand Forks herald. [volume] (Grand Forks, N.D.) 1916-1955, 1922-11-02

There is what may be called a socio-psycholog-
ical system which is based on the theory that hui
Full acceptance of this theory leads to the convic-;
ton that the individual, if his natural tendencies are
allowed full play, will always prefer that which is
best for him, and that if he shows a preference for
that which is not best, the trouble is not with him,
but with his environment. Naturally, in that case,
the environment must be changed, so that the good
which is now distasteful shall be made pleasant.
Then it will be chosen voluntarily. ~ Il.
Applied in the field of. education this means
that the child must be surrounded by conditions
which make all the processes in his development
easy, and pleasant. If the conditions are not pleas
ant they are wrong, and the wrong must be righted
by devising ways to make the distasteful things &C
ceptable. This applies not only to academic work,
but to work Of every kind. In fact the word work"
cannot be used properly in this connection, because
there is to be no such thing as work. Life is to be
a game, a series. of pleasing episodes, and whatever
%interferes with its development on that basis must
be removed or reformed. ..
There is another conceptional life, one which
includes the assumption that there are such things
as duty and necessity, and that these things often
present themselves in harsh and unpleasant, forms.
One writer who believes in this doctrine is Oliver
La Fargo, who gives us these t%renchant paragraphs
in the current number of Scribner's:
Sound education does not consist of a series of
smatterings it consists of a good, firm knowledge
of certain selected subjects; not so very few sub
jects, either. We have about twelve years before
college age in which to lay the foundation of a boys
education. When he gets to college-if he does go
most OF what he really learns will be specialize
ton in his chosen field. His breadth of education
must be attained at school, and theresalso the facul-
ty for acquiring depth. Yetmore is this true if he
does not go to college. In this space of time, during
most of which the boy is pretty irresponsible, you
cannot get him thoroughly to master alien tongues,
to learn the fundamentals of the history of this earth
and its people, to know its geography, and to get
through the elements of mathematics with some
thing retained, without making him work at work
anything but pleasant.
One might quote a proverb here concerning the
absence of a royal road to learning. A boy may be
enthusiastic over one subject, but to try to make an
average large school, not a special small class, of
average, growing boys rush enthusiastically in the
pursuit of subjunctives, PROTOCOL, ions, and surds
which would be to sink the trust Of education in
folly.
In the first place, you are going to let him finish
his education without learning, possibly, more than
one thing well. You are going to make of him a
smatterer, knowing each subject only in so far as it
holds his interest. Never of his own ~volition will
he dig deep into all those subjects, with their in
Revitable barren-seeming spots. And then, when,
later in life, he wants a few good, solid rocks Of fact,
beaten into his head at an early age. he will find
there nothing but pebbles.