It remains only to point out (what will receive more ample
attention later) that the reconstruction of experience may be
social as well as personal
It remains only to point out (what will receive more ample
attention later) that the reconstruction of experience may be
social as well as personal. For purposes of simplification we
have spoken in the earlier chapters somewhat as if the education
of the immature which fills them with the spirit of the social
group to which they belong, were a sort of catching up of the
child with the aptitudes and resources of the adult group. In
static societies, societies which make the maintenance of
established custom their measure of value, this conception
applies in the main. But not in progressive communities. They
endeavor to shape the experiences of the young so that instead of
reproducing current habits, better habits shall be formed, and
thus the future adult society be an improvement on their own.
Men have long had some intimation of the extent to which
education may be consciously used to eliminate obvious social
evils through starting the young on paths which shall not produce
these ills, and some idea of the extent in which education may be
made an instrument of realizing the better hopes of men. But we
are doubtless far from realizing the potential efficacy of
education as a constructive agency of improving society, from
realizing that it represents not only a development of children
and youth but also of the future society of which they will be
the constituents.