on intellectual discipline. As it were, they feed the children on sweeties and plumcake, in a strenuous revolt against an austere tradition of too much oatmeal porridge. Nor does home discipline restore the balance. The younger Americans find it difficult to focus their attention on uncongenial tasks. An insidious evil is the tendency on the part of teachers to make lessons interesting by avoiding the harder, duller, and more disciplinary parts of the subjects. Another evil is the excessive encouraging, among young children, of what is called "self-realization", even occasionally to the point of impertinence. 3) Lack of severe discipline leads to a third weakness, – superficiality, – with its attendant evils, exaggeration in language and love of excitement. The Americans do not as yet sufficiently allow for the slow percolation of ideas into the mind. They make too many short cuts. They are too fond of the last new thing. They forget that a pupil gains true independence of taste and judgment by slowly and thoroughly working his way, under guidance and with encouragement, through masterpieces as a whole, and through masses of the same kind of work, often against the grain. All true culture has in it an element of stubbornness and persistence, which must be acquired through the lessons of life, and the lessons of the school, which ought to prepare for life. 4) A fourth danger proceeds from the tendency of American men to become unduly concentrated in business pursuits. Many Americans sterilize part of their nature by too great absorption in the excitement and struggles of commercial competition. This overzeal for business forms an atmosphere which cannot but affect educational ideals. Intense
