mentary school will not itself teach occupational subjects. It will be a School of Discovery, whose task it is to understand the child and find out the particular line of his propensities and capacities.[1]
Most important of all, the school must try to instil into the child those ideals without which no true vocation is possible. Most children have ideals of some sort. "Even the dullest clod has his fairy vision. It may be a narrow, even a degrading one; yet it is to him the light which brightens his path, for it shows him a picture which to his mind is better than the reality of his life. He may limit his hopes to sensuous pleasure, to increase of wealth, to ignoble revenge; but the hope inspires him, whatever it may be. On the other hand, one's aspirations may soar to heaven and inspire the earnest struggle of the saint, or seek in highest art the realisation of supremest beauty, or in social service the noblest perfection of human life."[2] The school should aim at securing that the child, with his capacity for cherishing ideals, should take the highest of all as his ideals. If the child forms low ideals, his work will be poor, and the occupation which he chooses will be regarded by him as merely monotonous drudgery, from which he is ever seeking escape. On
- ↑ These remarks have reference only to the elementary school. It seems fairly clear that secondary schools and evening continuation schools should offer courses both on the lines of general cultural education, and in special occupational studies. The great difficulty in the way of the introduction of such occupational instruction is, of course, the expense of providing the numerous specialised courses that would be required. For a valuable statement of experience in Munich, see Kerschensteiner: The Schools and the Nation.
- ↑ Welton: The Psychology of Education, p. 412.
