The result of this is, that the mother is only too ready to relegate the care of the infant to a nurse. The child sees very little of its mother or father; it is in the family, but not of it. Such a family as this consists really of the parents alone: to all intents and purposes the children are outside it. For these and other reasons, the family is more and more becoming inadequate as an educative institution, and the functions which it ought to perform are more and more being transferred to the school. This process is taking place in all grades of society. At the top of the social scale, children are packed off to a preparatory boarding-school at a very early age; at the lowest levels the child is provided for outside the home in crèches and kindergarten schools, and is often fed, clothed, and supplied with books by the educational authorities. To an ever-increasing extent the school is being forced to undertake the responsibility of the education of the characters of the nation's children.
§ 4. The School. With singular unanimity educators affirm that the ultimate aim of the school is the education of character. "That it should train character is one of the very few general statements about education which meet with universal assent."[1] The English code claims that elementary education should aim at the training of character. "The teachers," it says, "can do much to lay the foundations of conduct. They can endeavour, by example and influence, aided by the sense of discipline that should pervade the school, to implant in the children habits of industry, self-control, and courageous per-
- ↑ Welton: Psychology of Education, p. 463.
