In seeking to relate the aim of education to the school activities of boys and girls, it is necessary to inquire concerning the ideals or purposes which actuate them in their regular school work. Ideals of service may be gradually developed, and may eventually come to control in some measure the activities of boys and girls, but these ideals do not normally develop in a school situation in which competition is the dominating factor.  We may discuss at great length the desirability of working for others, and we may teach many precepts which look in the direction of service, and still fail to achieve the purpose for which our schools exist.  An overemphasis upon marks and distinctions, and a lack of attention to the opportunities which the school offers for helpfulness and cooeperation, have often resulted in the development of an individualistic attitude almost entirely opposed to the purpose or aim of education as we commonly accept it.

There is need for much reorganization in our schools in the light of our professed aim.  There are only two places in our whole school system where children are commonly so seated that it is easy for them to work in cooeperation with each other.  In the kindergarten, in the circle, or at the tables, children normally discuss the problems in which they are interested, and help each other in their work.  In the seminar room for graduate students in a university, it is not uncommon to find men working together for the solution of problems in which they have a common interest.  In most classrooms in elementary and in high schools, and even in colleges, boys and girls are seated in rows, the one back of the other, with little or no opportunity for communication or cooeperation.  Indeed, helping one’s neighbor has often been declared against the rule by teachers.  It is true that pupils must in many cases work as individuals for the sake of the attainment of skill, the acquirement of knowledge, or of methods of work, but a school which professes to develop ideals of service must provide on every possible occasion situations in which children work in cooeperation with each other, and in which they measure their success in terms of the contribution which they make toward the achievement of a common end.

The socially efficient individual must not only be actuated by ideals of service, but must in the responses which he makes to social demands be governed by his own careful thinking, or by his ability to distinguish from among those who would influence him one whose solution of the problem presented is based upon careful investigation or inquiry.  Especially is it true in a democratic society that the measure of the success of our education is found in the degree to which we develop the scientific attitude.  Even those who are actuated by noble motives may, if they trust to their emotions, to their prejudices, or to those superstitions which are commonly accepted, engage in activities which are positively harmful to the social group of which they are members.  Our schools should strive to encourage the spirit of inquiry and investigation.