Page:American Journal of Sociology Volume 10.djvu/415

 EDUCATION IN THE SOUTH 399

demand has arisen that such training be provided by the public schools and that "special industrial schools adapted to the pre- vailing industry of each district should be established in all industrial centers." 24

It is the idea of man in relation to social wealth that is to say, the standpoint of the economist that is paramount in the public mind.

Production, the gaining of control over environment, is of great import in the social life ; yet a question of equal importance arises as to the manner in which man functions as a producer. If an industrial education is to produce mechanical workmen able to comprehend only the immediate processes with which they are concerned, the individual producer is narrowed in his conceptions and barred from that element of intelligent appreciation that comes from work executed with a full realization of its social value and meaning. The division line is between the man taught a "trade," capable of following it automatically, and the indus- trially educated individual who has a clear insight into the whole industrial process, its origin and development, and who with this knowledge is able to secure a degree of pleasure in the execution of his work.

From the educational standpoint it is clear that in fitting men to assume a place in society, to share in its industrial life, the individual to be educated must be taken into consideration, the development of his powers and inclinations. This psychological phase cannot be either neglected or made subordinate.

Aside from the individual, there is a distinct social effect. If a class of artisans for economic purposes only is produced, there must result eventually a form of social stagnation, since the creative activity will make no advance under a mechanical regime. The present industrial period in its reaction from the older classi- cal education shows a tendency to move to the other extreme, and give to men only a bare training of the hand that possesses no meaning to them other than the increased power it gives to create goods.

Many southern educators have recognized the result of this

"* Report of Commissioner of Education, 1901, Vol. II, p. 512.