Page:Education and Art in Soviet Russia (1919).djvu/16

 of industry to have acquired a power greater than could ever have fallen to the son of a king. And so in our century, in the old empire of Russia, that miracle for which Plato so wistfully waited has come. Someone who desires a common ownership of capital, and am aristocracy not of wealth but of real merit and ability, has come into the possession of absolute power. And what we learn in the leaves of this book is the joyful news that this great savior of the world has proceeded at once, and with all the power, energy, brains and wealth at his disposal, to make permanent the growth of the seeds of the republic, by revolutionizing the system of education.

It is a great deal to say that the self-interest of the lower classes when banded together accords with an impersonal interest in the welfare of man. The assertion rests, of course, upon profounder considerations than can be advanced here. But whatever exceptions must be made to it, they do not appear in the material which is presented in this volume. These documents reveal not only a determination to make the schools of the New Russia "revolutionary," but also, and still more clearly, a determination to make them wise. It seems as though the very genius of Plato—who is the spiritual father of the "modern movement" in education—presides over this bureau of the people's enlightenment. I believe the most advanced philosophers of that modern movement—which is in our country for the most part merely a speculation—will find themselves at home in these reports of what is beginning to be done in Russia. To me, at least, much as I have believed in the possibility of ideal developments once the capitalistic obstacle was removed, the degree in which such a development appears already in these fragments of the most vital news from Moscow, is astonishing. I want to add to them a paragraph which appeared in the very first decree of the Commissar of Education, issued in the days immediately following the Bolshevik revolution. I quote it from the Appendix of John Reed's book, "Ten Days that Shook the World":

"One must emphasize the difference between instruction and education. Instruction is the transmission of ready knowledge by the teacher to his pupil. Education is a creative process. The personality of the individual is being 'educated' throughout life, is being formed, grows richer in content, stronger and more perfect.

"The toiling masses of the people—the workmen, the