=Aspirations.=—­This panorama is a picture of life; and the school is life.  Hence the panorama and the school are identical; only the school is larger than the panorama, even though the picture is reduced in size to fit the frame of the school.  The pupils in the school have dreams and aspirations that reach far beyond the limits of the picture of our fancy.  And all these aspirations are a part of life and so are indigenous in the vitalized school.  And woe betide the teacher who would abridge or repress these dreams and aspirations.  They are the very warp and woof of life, and the teacher who would eliminate them would suppress life itself.  That teacher is in sorry business who would fit her pupils out with mental or spiritual strait-jackets, or mold them to some conventional pattern, even though it be her own.  These pupils are the prototypes of the people in our panorama, and are, therefore, animated by like inclinations and desires.

=Desire is fundamental.=—­Here is a boy who is hungry; he desires food.  But so does the man who is passing along the street.  The man is focusing all his mental powers upon the problem of how he shall procure food.  The man’s problem is the boy’s problem and each has a right to a solution of his problem.  The school’s business is to help the boy solve his problem and not to try to quench his desire for food or try to persuade him that no such desire exists.  This desire is one of the native dispositions to which the work of the school is to attach itself.  Desires are fundamental in the scheme of education, the very tentacles that will lay hold upon the school activities and render them effective.  The teacher’s large task is to strengthen and nourish incipient desires and to cause the pupil to hunger and thirst after the means of gratifying them.

=Innate tendencies.=—­Each pupil has a right to his inherent individuality.  The school should not only begin where the boy is, but should begin its work upon what he is.  Only so can it direct him toward what he ought to be.  If the boy would alight at the National Gallery in order to regale himself with the masterpieces of art, why, pray, should the teacher try to curtail this desire and force him into Westminster Abbey?  If she will accompany him into the Gallery and prove herself his friend and guide among the treasures of art, she will, doubtless, experience the joy of hearing him ask her to be his companion through the Abbey later on.  The Abbey is quite right in its way and the boy must visit it soon or late, but to this particular boy the Gallery comes first and he should be led to the Abbey by way of the Gallery.  In school work the parties are all personally conducted, but the rule is that a party is composed of but one person.