The values accruing from such a learning procedure may be indicated by sketching in broad outline how the study of the geography of the United States takes place if it is to result in an exhibit of products at the close of the study. As the various sections of the country are studied, many sources are used the text in geography, geography readers, magazines, publications issued by large cities and by states, encyclopædias, and the like. Records are built up as the reading and studying proceed. When possible, specimen products are secured by the class. Many of them are gathered through correspondence. After the necessary information is accurately compiled and specimens available are ready, the plan to be used in organizing the exhibit is determined and put into effect. It is hardly necessary to point out that a piece of learning so carried forward would involve many demands for co-operative effort with resulting ethical training effects of great value if all conditions are kept right. No child could read all of the sources used, nor arrange all of the details of such an exhibit alone. Division of labor must be arranged; the things to be done must be fairly apportioned to groups. The pupils should participate in apportioning the work. Each pupil and each group must work with accuracy and thoroughness if the result is to be reliable and dependable. Reports to the entire class must be made by each group as its work progresses. Those reporting must exercise care to be clear, definite, and honest in presenting their findings. Earnest, critical attention must be exercised by those hearing reports. Questions must be asked to bring out meanings. Suggestions of further work and more complete evidence must be made to the reporting group. Other procedures involved in completing this undertaking are so obvious that they need not be detailed here. This type of learning experience, involving such varied co-operation as it does, depends for its success upon genuine, whole-hearted effort upon the part of the various participants, the teacher included. If that is secured throughout, the entire experience of each pupil is highly ethical and carries with it the highest moral training values. The results accruing from such a learning effort are evidently rich and varied. A word of comment only is necessary here from this standpoint. Not only do the pupils master thoroughly the geographic facts and ideas which were the immediate object of the study, but by reason of the type of procedure and wholesomeness of the pupils' attitude, many additional things are learned. The greatness of certain regions and of the entire United States is borne in upon the class. Further, as they work, they become interested in what they are doing and the purpose is set up to carry the undertaking through as well as possible. Not only is the final exhibit made accurate and adequate from the standpoint of the geography involved, but the pupils become anxious to display it attractively and then to have it seen by other classes, by parents and by other persons that it may do all the good possible. The concepts and ideals of accuracy, honesty, thoroughness, helpfulness, fair play and the like pervading such a learning situation tend to be productive of the highest ethical effects. Teachers testify that a case of disorder practically never arises when the class is engaged in such a large and absorbing undertaking. Not only is everyone absorbed in doing his work so that he has no time for negative conduct; but the entire class becomes permeated with a spirit of helpfulness and of seeking to know and do what is right. In the fourth place, the largest ethical values cannot be secured to pupils unless integrity of effort and thoroughness of mastery are secured from each pupil. These qualities, so necessary in learning situations providing large ethical training values, have been so definitely implied in the foregoing that merely stating them here is practically all that is necessary. In studying the geography of the United States with the aim of organizing an exhibit of products, each pupil owes it to himself to do his work honestly and well if he wishes to remain in his class. He also owes it to his classmates to do a piece of work upon which they can depend. Each pupil realizes that a fallacious or partial piece of work not only misleads him and gives him erroneous ideas, but also gives his classmates false concepts and makes false conclusions inevitable from the entire undertaking. This realization of the principle that one's acts affect not only the actor, but all who are touched in any way by them is one of the most central effects possible of achievement in the interest of ethical living. The pupil in The pupil in school, working co-operatively for ends of concern to himself and his group, learns concretely that he lives not unto himself alone, but in binding, far-reaching relations to his classmates and many other people. Discovering through his co-operative efforts in social relations what conduct is proper, then working in accordance with his insight, practising what he sees to be his duty, is the essence of what is desirable here in the establishment of moral character. In the fifth place, the ethical training effects of the work of the school must be cumulative. Just as the child should add to his arithmetical abilities from grade to grade as he progresses through the school, so he should add to his habits and ideals of ethical living from year to year and improve his ability to work and live the righteous life. While this is not the place to suggest the progressive steps to be undertaken from grade to grade in developing ethical character, were I competent to state them, I do wish to emphasize that the conduct of children should improve progressively from grade to grade. As children mature they should react ethically in increasingly complex situations. Their ideas of duty should become clearer and deeper as they mature and their devotion to living the righteous life should become more and more complete. INTERNATIONAL UNDERSTANDING AND THE SCHOOLS T By I. L. KANDEL, Teachers College, Columbia University* HERE is a strong tendency today to make the schools responsible for activities and movements that do not appear to thrive through other organizations. It is unnecessary here to mention any of these. From one point of view it is a healthy sign that the schools are recognized as the most fruitful medium for forming the opinions of coming generations; from another there is a very real danger that the schools may be used for propaganda purposes and that the curriculum may ultimately be unable to bear the load of additional subjects or activities. It is not, therefore, the purpose of this paper to suggest any additions to the already overburdened curriculum of the high school. What do we mean when we talk of international understanding? Broadly speaking, it is that attitude which recognizes the possibilities of service of our own nation and of other nations in a common cause, the cause of humanity, the readiness to realize that other nations along with our own have by virtue of their common humanity the ability to contribute something of worth to the progress of civ ilization. Any other conception would simply mean a return to the Greek division of the world into Greeks and barbarians. This point appears to be so obvious and almost so superficial as not to be worth mentioning. And yet if one *Address before the National Association of Secondary School Principals, at Cincinnati, Feb. 23, 1925 were to analyze the common conception of nationalism, it may be wondered whether and to what extent it really differs from the old Greek nation. For we do tend, in thinking of other nations or of foreigners, to think first of their peculiarities and eccentricities, the features that differentiate them from us rather than those qualities and virtues that make them human beings like ourselves. The basis of international understanding was already sounded two thousand years ago in the Latin poet's "Nihil humanum a me alienum puto," and the common cause to which reference has just been made has nowhere been better summarized than by Carlyle: "Are not all true men that live, or that ever lived, soldiers of the same army, enlisted under Heaven's captaincy to do battle against the same enemy-the empire of Darkness and Wrong? Why should we misknow one another and fight, not against the enemy, but against ourselves, for mere differences of uniform?" The word "international" is today either out of favor and under suspicion or abused through sentimentality. The first because it is associated with communism, bolshevism, or other "isms", with which it has no necessary relations; the second because of emphasis on an idea without content, a superabundant flow of sympathy without appreciation of its implications. One important reason why internationalism may be open to suspicion is due to the mistaken notion that it is opposed to nationalism. Nothing could be further from the truth. Just as true, genuine nationalism or patriotism is impossible without individual self-realization, without loyalty to self, one's family, the various groups that exist for associated living, so international understanding is impossible without loyalty to one's own nation, based on an appreciation of her resources and potential contributions to the progress of mankind. The development of international understanding in the only sense in which it can be used is independent of any consideration of legal or political organizations; it may constitute the basis of these, but only if and when the time is ripe. An international attitude in no way involves a repudiation of patriotism; indeed, because its basis should be a recognition of the part played by other countries as well as our own in the progress of the world, it should intensify patriotism and quicken the consciousness of those things that make our own country great in the service of humanity. What can the school do to promote such international understanding? It is unnecessary, at any rate in the high school period, to add another subject to the curriculum. For a study of international relations there may be room in colleges, but in the high schools the development of international understanding should be a matter of emphasis. The curriculum is ample enough and broad enough to serve the purpose. Underlying the whole work of any school, and irrespective of any larger aim of cultivating certain idealssubject-matter, there is everywhere the What shall be the limits of these ideals in fair play, co-operation, service, justice. practice? Have they served their purpose when applied to ourselves and to our fellow pupils, or are they effective only in so far as they furnish standards of value in our relations to all social, civic, and national questions, and beyond that in the relations of our nation to others, or of ourselves personally to other nationals? Otherwise would we not run the risk of setting up dual standards and the consequent maladjustment that comes from such a condition? can only have validity in so far as they are It is obvious, however, that these ideals based on a knowledge and an appreciation of facts. There is not a subject in the high school curriculum which cannot contribute some knowledge of facts bearing on international relations. And the central feature in our methods today may in all fairness be stated as a desire to cultivate the habit of honestly evaluating facts, of sifting the correct from the incorrect, the logical from the illogical, truth from falsehood. The fundamental weakness in social and political development, a weakness that is universal, is that this critical attitude, which we aim to develop in our schools, is not applied to social and political questions. Here we Here we tend to be creatures of heredity and prejudice. Both national and international understanding require the application of a critical attitude if sane progress is to continue. not an accident that the literary subjects are termed "hunanities"; it is our fault that they are not treated as such and do not serve as a bond that binds centuries and generations together in a consciousness of common service. This point of common service may be somewhat elusive in the spiritual field; but apply it to the sciences, whether pure or applied, and the implication becomes obvious. Scientific progress, except through the utilization of products and ideas and discoveries wherever found, irrespective of national origin, is unthinkable. One has but to think of the number of minds that have gone to the development ment of our modern inventions-the radio, the aeroplane, the telephone, and so on; or of the contributions in the medical sciences which at once become the property of humanity, not of a nation. This does not mean that we need to surrender or minimize our pride in the contributions of our own citizens, but it does mean that we can derive a new ideal of international co-operation and service. The advancement of knowledge is not a national but an international or human service. It should engender the attitude that we cannot utilize the products, spiritual or material, of the citizen of any country and continue to despise his fellow citizens. But a critical attitude that does not have its foundations in a command of facts is mere caviling. What is the equipment in facts or knowledge desirable for an international attitude? They are everywhere present in our curriculum, were we but ready to recognize them. In the field of games and athletics our records are no longer national but world records: in every athletic activity even the smallest nation is today represented in international meets; international college events, and, where distances are not great, as in Europe, international school events are increasing in number. In folk dances, in music, and in art ample opportunities are afforded for emphasizing the contributions of different nations to the world. Music and art, indeed, recognize no national boundaries; we do not or should not think of painters or sculptors or composers or musicians as German or French or Italian or English; they belong to the world; their works are for humanity as a whole. Is not the same thing becoming increasingly true of literature? Is not literature a common spiritual heritage? It is natural for us to thing of British authors as our own; but are not the great writers of other countries gradually assuming a place in our literary world? A book of merit in a foreign language is scarcely a month old before it is translated and becomes ours; and this is equally true of the drama. Admittedly in our preoccupation with grammar and language and examinable achievements we neglect literature, but the opportunity part of is there to be seized, and experiments the world may spell ruin in another. along these lines are not wanting. It is The world is becoming smaller, which The study of geography has the possibilities of both the humanities and the sciences. While on the one hand it deals with the influences of nature on man, it does on the other emphasize how men in different parts of the world live and work and the essential interdependence of humanity for the raw and manufactured products of the world, which manifests itself in the development of transport, means of communication, industry and commerce, and international finance. The effects of dislocaton of industry in one country are felt immediately in another; a change of fashon in one means simply that the common unity of man is increasing. It does not not require a special course in economics to develop the theme today that commercially and industrially the world is one and that few nations are sufficiently blessed with the world's resources to live alone without stagnating. And furthermore, this applies not merely to the exchange of essential commodities but to business as well. The subject that has been most abused everywhere, our own country not excepted, is history. Round this subject, more than round any other, heated controversies have raged and are still raging. And yet what subject has greater possibliities if studied from the point of view of the service of man to man or of nations to the world? It is a platitude to say that the political and military aspects of history have been overemphasized; but is it not possible to retain these and with the addition of a study of the progress of civilization and social organization to develop an attitude which compares the permanent contributions of each nation or period that have resulted on the one hand through war and on the other from the pursuits of peace? What has survived of Greek history-the warlike or peaceful pursuits her literature, science, art and philosophy? Was it not the Greeks who early evolved a system of arbitration of their disputes? Did Rome contribute as Did Rome contribute as much to future generations through war as through the Pax Romana, through building of roads, through her language and her laws, and the first glimmerings of the idea of a law of nations. And similar emphasis can be found without difficulty throughout history, always indicating that, where war and nationalism have abused, severed, and kept apart, everything that has contributed to the benefit of mankind has helped to draw it closer together in a bond of common interests. In the nineteenth century in particular the evidences of a growing sense of internationalism can be taken up in treating the development of international organi zation for human welfare, the abolition of slavery, prison reform, the Red Cross, international congresses, and societies of scholars in different fields, the Universal Postal Union, arbitration treaties culminating in the more recent movements to control or stop wars. Governments may be slow in promoting or adopting such movements, but their peoples, conscious of the need, will continue to increase them. Finally, the study of current events may any morning reveal the interdependence of the peoples of the world. A disaster in Japan or Italy will call forth lurking bonds of sympathy; a new discovery in any field of science will illustrate community of interests; the state of the financial market may affect millions in different corners of the globe. If the new "social studies" or "social sciences" have not been discussed, it is because their content is still in the making, but here, too, the teacher who knows the ramifications of his subject can do much to promote international understanding. In these various ways and by the proper utilization of subjects already available, international understanding may be promoted naturally and in its manifold settings. Above all, let us avoid the addition of a new subject with specialist teachers, for departmentalization and specialization will inevitably lead to thinking in compartments, while what is desired in the development of citizenship, in stimulating patriotism, and in cultivating international understanding is to leave with the pupil a sense of service and the manifold ways in which it can be performed. If the pupil passes out of the high school with a realization, as has been well stated, that civilization has been a collective achievement, in which his nation has borne a proud share along with others, that it is common heritage and a joint responsibility of all nations, he will have gone far toward a realization of international understanding, which implies the recognition of a common humanity, based on common knowledge and devoted to common ends. |