is the great aim of every life to perform its function well, and it is the great duty of every life to be loyal to its vocation. Hence all education must attempt to prepare the child for the realisation of the ideals of his vocation. In order that the vocation may be fulfilled, all his life, both duty and pleasure, both business and leisure, must be organised in its service. And in so far as all education is a preparation for such a life, all education is vocational. But within vocational education, which, as we have seen, is the whole of education, we may distinguish "general" education from "occupational" education; and the question we have to answer becomes, Ought education in the elementary school to be general or occupational?
In the elementary school occupational education should have no place. The elementary school system does not exist to turn out workmen; it exists to turn out men. It aims at laying the foundations of character, of mental ability, and of manual skill. It is no part of its task to specialise character or intelligence or skill in any one particular direction. It must try as far as it can, in the short years at its disposal, to raise to the highest possible level the general capacities of the child. This is not to say that the work of the child in school must be exclusively book-work. Far from it. Manual work of all kinds—cookery, sewing, gardening, and so on—ought all to have a place in the curriculum of the elementary school. Now these activities are valuable, not because they have a connection with some special occupation, but because of their general educative value in training the child in alertness of mind and
