view one need not have the exceptional mind and career of a Goethe. A similar faith is wholly possible for the average man. His own experiences are the material out of which it will be constructed, when the social atmosphere is cleared by a vision of better social organization. "The co-operative enterprise of social life is the great summons to ennobling devotion. To make this plain to the common sense of the people, as the summons of war is plain, is the highest aim of education."

The problem of realizing our co-operative society has been viewed from three angles: the fact of social evolution and the flexibility of the mores, the consistency of individual expression with social solidarity, and the essential relation between personal happiness and loyalty to aims of group welfare.1 These perspectives have given ground for encouragement. A study of the inner essence of society, of the intricate nature of social life, would indicate however that we must not be too sanquine of rapid evolution. The mind secures content and expansion by a process called by Professor Hayes "social osmosis." Social osmosis is but another name for association, but the term seems especially expressive of the facts and is enlightening as an educational concept. In physics osmosis means the passage of liquids or gases in both directions through separating membranes. Social osmosis means the passage of suggestions, of ideas and of feelings. When I speak of "my life" what I mean is the content of my stream of consciousness, my sequence of thoughts, feelings, beliefs, sentiments, values, loves, animosities, etc. Language is only the expression of these. What is significant to me in another person is likewise his stream of mental states and activities. "Individual streams of consciousness flow on side by side. . . and between these individual streams of consciousness there is a continual osmosis." Social life is primarily psychic. The psychic activity of one member of society is transfused with those of other members of society, all together forming the process of social life.

1 The problem of the adequacy of available motives for social conduct is discussed more completely and very suggestively in Sociology and Ethics, particularly in chapter 10, on the Ethical Function of Human Predispositions, and chapter 11, on Socialization through the Exercise of Reason.

2 Ibid, 303.

It is evident that substantial progress of a group is not possible unless the uplift extends to all its interdependent units. The wise parent surrounds his child with noble home influences. But the excitements of the neighborhood press relentlessly upon the child's attention. Sometimes the outside influences are elevating, often they are commonplace and vicious. And the child in the unfortunate home may be surrounded from his beginning by streams of evil tendency which condition his conscious life.

The fact that social osmosis is a process present in all environments and moments of life shows the limitations of the school. The language of the sidewalk, the sensational billboard, the sophisticated "movie," the crudities of the colored supplement, the ugliness of neglected streets, the jarrings of an exploitive system of industry, these too are among the contributors to the child's psychic life. An illustration of the limitation on the school is evident also in the degree of character molding in the home during the pre-school age. "Very early and perhaps even before he enters the school room at six, the influence of the family has determined for the child and in the majority of cases for life whether he is to be Catholic or Protestant, Methodist or Presbyterian, standpatter or progressive, whether he is to use refined or degraded speech, be truthful or deceiving, a self-seeker or animated by the social spirit." Why the home influence is so powerful in the early years is stated lucidly in the following passage which is worthy of the meditation of child trainers. "The greatness of this power is due to three well known principles of social psychology: first, the naiveté and suggestibility of the child. The empty mind of the child has at first nothing to oppose to whatever ideas are presented, and it has no predjudice against whatever sentiments are radiated by its associates. Second, the principle of repetition. Even the well-fortified mind stored with accepted tastes, approvals, and beliefs, is so susceptible to the effects of repetition as to give rise to the popular remark that it is only necessary to say a thing often enough in order to have it believed. The child in the home is subjected for years to a repetition of the

1 Intro. to the Study of Sociology, p. 670.

same impressions. Third, the principle of prestige. Elders have tremendous natural prestige with the young."

But

What influences can the school exert in opposition to unfavorable effects of home and neighborhood life? By way of answer an excellent suggestion is made in the sociologist's discussion of the power of prestige. We have seen that by osmotic processes the pupil receives influences from a vast variety of sources. these sources of influence are by no means alike in their effects since some have greater pressure and penetrative power with him than others. When an individual, group, class, or institution is especially effective as a source of social suggestion, sympathetic radiation and imitation, it may be said to have prestige. Fortunately the school exerts prestige. In defense of his opinion the young child asserts, "My teacher said so," or "We do this way at school." Prestige measures the school's power for assuming dominant charge of the child's life.

But the school will not have prestige unless it is respected and loved. When the school in the child's mind is associated with irksome tasks disconnected with concrete realities, a place where his freedom and interests are suppressed, and where joys and enthusiasms are not felt, such a school will not have prestige. On the other hand the child may find in school what his emerging soul has blindly groped for, but what his home and neighborhood have failed to give him, namely, respect for his personality, encourage. ment for his efforts, the joy of achievement, the thrilling exercise of new powers, recognized fairness in dealings with associates, and most of all love and enthusiasms caught by contacts with highminded men and women. With such wholesome human influences and wise methods, combined with a stately building efficiently equipped and artistically surrounded, the school will fortify its prestige and may hope to be the dominant directive agency in the pupil's life.

Our school program requires expansion in the direction of moral training. Educators must make more direct and persis

tent attempts to moralize education. Thinking on this subject is confused. It has become a popular view that nothing can be done "directly," that moral influences are matters of the teacher's personality and of the general atmosphere of the school. But what pearl of great price is ever attained without direct aim and effort? Undoubtedly much can be accomplished in moral training if a comprehensive plan is earnestly undertaken. We have seen that the mores are flexible and that sentiments are acquired. We need to aim at new practices and inculate new sentiments centered about co-operative modes of social life. The spirit of competition in school should give way to co-operation. All opportunities must be used for instilling sentiments in support of the essential traits, reliability, temperance, steadiness and the social spirit. The social spirit in particular we found to be a product of reason; therefore its acquisition is a matter for direct teaching.1 The ability of a school to inculcate these traits should be the mark of its success. We found that ambition is socially directed, and that standards of success are social products. The school can set up standards of success and by them estimate the worth of careers with reference to the common welfare. In so doing it will influence the direction of ambition. The school can broaden the pupil's interests in men and in nature; we found that persons of wide interests are better citizens. The school can give content to the pupil's developing conscience code. In short the school must set about in a direct way to prepare the child for membership in a moralized co-operative society. There is no question that the school already provides moral influences. Our assertion is that efforts in this direction must be vastly increased. "The slow dragging centuries will continue to drag and the destiny of humanity go unfulfilled in spite of all the progress in science and industry, unless there be commensurate progress in morality."2

The following is a brief summary of the argument. Means of control are necessary to secure solidarity in any society. While in very primitive and personal groups instincts and natural traits

1 For a detailed exposition of the place of reason in developing the moral nature, see Sociology and Ethics, chapter 11, on Socialization through the Exercise of Reason. 2 Intro, to the Study of Sociology, p. 670,

may suffice as bonds of cohesion, in well civilized societies somewhat elaborate agencies of control are necessary. Through itsagencies of control the developed society is able consciously and rationally to direct the social process. To direct it wisely it should set up a goal to be attained. We have assumed the goal to be, the increasing realization of good human experience. Society will work for a rational goal only if control is united with enlightenment. Enlightened control depends upon the prevalence of a type of personality characterized by certain social traits. The desired type of personality is attainable by education. We found that the adaptability of the mores, the consistency of individual expression with social progress, and the unity of personal happiness with group welfare, are factors encouraging to the realization of the social ideal. We found also that the osmotic pressure of a variety of retarding influences hamper the school's work of wholesome mind training; but that the school can overcome much of this limitation by establishing its prestige in the pupil's life, and by a more searching and vigorous plan of moral training.