Page:American Journal of Sociology Volume 3.djvu/578

 564 THE AMERICAN JOURNAL OF SOCIOLOGY

relief ? Can we select the book, the game, the picture, the person likely to have an educating and uplifting influence on a boy of a certain type ? Do we not rather find our knowledge inaccurate, our ideas vague and valueless, our judgments faulty : \Ve are trying to do something which we do not know how to do. This is the explanation of our failures lack of special training. Small wonder that instead of good we find evil results. We have pla\ed at healing the ills of society. If society were wise enough, it would forbid our experiments, for the same reason that the law makes the practice of medicine without a license a criminal offense.

Classes in philanthropy seem to me a practical and hopeful solution of our difficulty. Since the weakness is ignorance, the remedy is study. In planning the classes, the definite end in view should be kept constantly in mind. This end is to supply special training to the large body of workers, mostly women, who, as volunteers, supplement the work of those who take up philanthropy as a profession.

The plans for the classes involve several important considerations. At the beginning the classes should be small, and the members should be carefully selected, because one end to be accomplished in the formation of the first class is the discovery of those who are specially fitted to become teachers of subsequent classes. Every effort to popularize the course should be dis- couraged. A class of a dozen or fifteen of those having superior natural ability and general education will be better than a class of thirty or forty with medium ability and education. It is also important that members should take their work seriously, give to it the amount of time planned, and attend regularly the sessions of the class. I am well aware that these methods will 'be questioned, and that anyone trying to form a class on this basis will meet with opposition. It will be said : "Oh, but you will shut out so many who ought to be interested in these questions. The occasional attendance of those who cannot do the regular work can surely do no harm." This common plea shows an ignorance of fundamental pedagogical princi- ples. The primary aim of the teacher is to instruct, not to interest. Class work inevitably seeks the level of the inferior mind ; the occasional attend- ance of stragglers distracts attention, wastes time, and dampens enthusiasm.

The securing of the teacher will at first be difficult. A salaried worker, e. g. t the superintendent of the charity organization society, if he has the scientific spirit and adds to practical experience a university training, would be a happy choice. But unfortunately, owing to the fact that philanthropy has not yet been widely recognized as a profession, this plan cannot be depended upon. It does not seem to me that experience in practical work is an absolute sine qua non for the teacher of the class. A thorough scientific training and teaching ability are much more important. He should, of course, by cooperation with local workers, keep the class in close touch with the practical application of principles. It is feasible for one proposing to