Montana labor news., 1939-07-27
OUR CHANGING
WORLD
Capitalism and Education.
Bv IDA H

superfluous query to those stepped
in the MARKHAM doctrine of the basis
of cultures. That u%ndaunted edu- {
Gator of our times, however, the
persevering H. G. Wells, while CIV
ing due credit to the basic nature
of economic forces, believes that
erroneous ideas persisting in society
are to blame for u social debaclei
and, if we can change the mind OF
the human race, or the more capable
portion of it, we shall be able to
bring order and system into our
institutions, and direct mankind for
ward to a conscious and intelligent
civilization.
Education or c%atastrophel says
Wells.
We must develop an education
that can distinguish the useful from
the superficial, the vital from the
traditional, what one learns from his
own reactions to his environment,
and not what someone else thinks
is essential. We must familiarize
the mind with the idea that change
is a necessity in nature-we must
realize the science of an adaptation
to necessity.
It could not be expected that any
given order of society would train
the younger members otherwise
than according to the ideals of that
society. Take notice that we say
ideals and not needs. If the society
presupposes a static order the edu-
cation will be of the past, of the
great deeds of the ancients, of
ancient aphorisms, that, in the
process of time, have come to have
only a general application, or none.
If the given order is in a state OF
flux, from conquests, in%vasions,
change of climate, or new inventions,
the system of education will be shot
through with sporadic attempts to
reconcile the conflicting ideals.
China and Greece may be cited as
examples OF the first type of order
Rome, Germany, America, Japan, OF
the latter.
The reason why a system of ideals
prevails in education instead of one
of needs is that a changing order,
reflected in an adaptation to i'm
mediate demands, unsettles all pre-
existing methods and creates the
habit of being accustomed to change
and threatens the prestige Of those
who profit by the old order. AS ar
ar example, we may point to the Amer
m u lean frontier, the gold rush of '49
K or Australia. During colonial settle
es ment certain sections, as, for in.
u stance, Connecticut, were in VIVA
. might be called a complete state o
anarchy-that is, without laws o.
courts, or any sort of formal govern
ment. And yet the loss of life O.
property was not so great accord
ingly as at the present time. Peopl
were obligated to attend to thei
own affairs and not modest thei
neighbors in order to exist at all.
=
o. The writer was a schoolteache
on by trade-along with the rest of tn
IN members Of her family. She ha
lst been through the usual educationa
lis mill-from which she could neve
to see that she learned anything, a
though acquiring honors in her wori
TO Il may say, parenthetically, that
have nev learned anything OF a
ad academic nature except by reading
1t Our family was a family Of reader
In course of time I left the bushes
ng of a teacher, from interest in othe
work, writing and speaking, whel
me l could learn something outside
-ad books and schoolroom walls.
to Some ten years ago I conceive
he the idea of going through the un
versity work again, with the purpo'
M of studying the educational syste.
try and the substance of what was b.
lily ing taught in the different subject
in to see whether the teaching was |
for to date in economics, history, liter
ture, psychology, and other lines tn
ov- should reflect modernism. II
ave school was n of, let us say, tt
en- half dozen largest universities in Il
n.y. world. The result was interestii
&C." and informing-the subject matt
ON no more interesting than in Il
the decades gone by. But that is anoth
-. story.
I'M
sed DR.. Abraham Flexner, author
ate a work on american Universities
lies in a recent speech before the Leag'
for Political Education, in Ne
the York, said: 1.-THE universities ha'
.ow grown too big; and, in the cour
.ers of that growth, have at once ris'
yer to great heights and sunk to gre
,ort depths; become, in many aspec
Tor merely business enterprises, witho
ion standards, OF much thought OF t
in maintenance of Standards"
ure Of home study and extensi
activities he said.
'These universities, Columbia, t
-wo University of Chicago, and ma
nal state universities, go into the mari
her place, advertising their wretch
the claptrap in newspapers and mae
ZION zines. Some of these activities
, of little short of dishonest"
rity DR.. Flexner then points out sol
of the instances so designated-s'