“…The implication has been, consequently, that human nature can be raised to a higher level by an improvement in institutions and laws…it must also be admitted that human nature is composed of most rebellious material, and that the extent to which it can be modified by social and political institutions of any kind is, at best, extremely small…Democracy must stand or fall on a platform of possible human perfectibility…But if it [democracy] is to work better as well as merely longer, it must have some leavening effect on human nature; and the sincere democrat is obliged to assume the power of the leaven…The real vehicle of improvement is education. 

“Far more important than any practical benefit [from the institutional and economic reorganization] would be the indication it afforded of national good faith…It would imply a popular realization that our first experiment [1776] in democratic political and economic organization was founded partly on temporary conditions and partly on erroneous theories.  A new experiment must consequently be made…Its trial would demand both the sacrifice of many cherished interest, habits, and traditions for the sake of remaining true to a more fundamental responsibility and a much larger infusion of disinterested motives into the economic and political system…Public opinion can never be brought to approve any effectual measures, until it is converted to a constructive and consequently to a really educational theory of democracy. 

“Back to the problem of educating the individual lies the problem of collective education.  On the one hand, if the nation is rendered incapable of understanding its own experience by the habit of dealing insincerely with its national purpose, the individual, just in so far as he himself has become highly educated, tends to be divided from his country and his fellow-countrymen.  On the other hand, just in so far as a people is sincerely seeking the fulfillment of its national promise, individuals of all kinds will find their most edifying individual opportunities in serving their country. 

“…The good average American usually wishes to accomplish exclusively by individual education a result which must be partly accomplished by national education.  The nation, like the individual, must go to school; and the national school is not a lecture hall or a library.  Its schooling consists chiefly in experimental collective action aimed at the realization of the collective purpose…No process of merely individual education can accomplish the work of collective education, because the nation is so much more than a groups of individuals. 

“The strongest and most evangelistic movement in American education at the present time is the movement known as progressive education.  A visitor to our schools ordinarily has no difficulty in recognizing a so-called progressive school.  He can usually tell the difference the moment he opens the door.  The progressive school cultivates an atmosphere of activity and freedom which is all its own.  In academic language, the progressive school is a place where children go, not primarily to learn, but to carry on a way of life. 

“… It plays up method, but it is also critical of content of the more conventional curriculum.  It places the individual at the center of the stage; yet it perpetually criticizes the competitive character of the present social order, which indicates that it rejects the philosophy of individualism. 

“We are gradually discovering that the admission of the common man to the status of full recognition means more than an extension of privilege…In its application to industry this recognition obviously means an extensive revision of our conception of property rights and of the function of government.  As applied to organized religion it means a shift of emphasis from eternal salvation to progress through social control. 

“…On the other hand, taking this step [using progressive education as the tool for socialism] means that the question of reorganizing or reinterpreting the established values and institutions of our civilization must receive major attention…in our attempts to “socialize” the school population we are really practicing “imposition” on the sly. 

“…The whole tribe of “absolutes” in our Western world can probably claim kinship with these Platonic realities, from notions of absolute property rights to the absolutes of nationalistic or racial dictatorships and to the theological dictum that this vale of wrath and tears is a hopeless mess and heaven alone is our abiding city.  Whatever the form, the common man is always told that his little affairs do not count in comparison with these august absolutes.  “For a long time these absolutes had things pretty much their own way in the academic world. 

“Progressive education is confronted with the choice of becoming the avowed exponent of democracy [socialism] or else of becoming a set of ingenious devices for tempering the wind to the shorn lamb.  If democracy [socialism] is to have a deep and inclusive human meaning, it must have also a distinctive educational system. 

“This brings us to the most crucial issue in education – the question of the nature and extent of the influence which the school should exercise over the development of the child.  “…I am prepared to defend the thesis that all education contains a large element of imposition… 

“If democracy is to survive, it must seek a new economic foundation… The driving force at the root of this condition, as we have seen, was the frontier and free land.  With the closing of the frontier, the exhaustion of free land, the growth of population, and the coming of large-scale production, the basis of ownership was transformed.  If property rights are to be diffused in industrial society, natural resources and all-important forms of capital will have to be collectively owned… We must, however, insist on two things: first, that technology be released from the fetters and the domination of every type of special privilege; and, second, that the resulting system of production and distribution be made to serve directly the masses of the people.  Within these limits, as I see it, our democratic tradition must of necessity evolve and gradually assume an essentially collectivistic pattern… 

“The important point is that fundamental changes in the economic system are imperative.  Whatever service historic capitalism may have rendered in the past…its days are numbered. 

“…The growth of science and technology has carried us into a new age where ignorance must be replaced by knowledge, competition by cooperation, trust in providence by careful planning, and private capitalism by some form of socialized economy… 

“The objection is of course raised at once that a planned, coordinated, and socialized economy, managed in the interest of the people, would involve severe restrictions on personal freedom.  Undoubtedly in such an economy the individual would not be permitted to do many things that he has customarily done in the past…In exchange for such privileges as these, which only the few could ever enjoy, we would secure the complete and uninterrupted functioning of the productive system and thus lay the foundation for a measure of freedom for the many that mankind has never known in the past…Today only the members of the plutocracy are really free, and even in their case freedom is rather precarious.  If all of us could be assured of material security and abundance, we would be released from economic worries and our energies liberated to grapple with the central problems of cultural advance. 

“…If democracy is to be achieved in the industrial age, powerful classes must be persuaded to surrender their privileges, and institutions deeply rooted in popular prejudice will have to be radically modified or abolished.  And according to the historical record, this process had commonly been attended by bitter struggle and even bloodshed… 

“…If there is to be no break in our tradition of violence, if a bold and realistic program of education is not forthcoming, we can only anticipate a struggle of increasing bitterness terminating in revolution and disaster…This situation gives to teachers an opportunity and a responsibility unique in the annals of education. 

“…The teaching profession, or at least its progressive elements, should eagerly grasp the opportunity which the fates have placed in their hands. 

“Such a vision of what America might become in the industrial age I would introduce into our schools as the supreme imposition…The objection will of course be raised that this is asking teachers to assume unprecedented social responsibilities…Neutrality with respect to the great issues that agitate society, while perhaps theoretically possible, is practically tantamount to giving support to the forces of conservatism.  As Justice Holmes has candidly said in his essay on Natural Law, ‘we all, whether we know it or not, are fighting to make the kind of world that we should like.’  If neutrality is impossible even in the dispensation of justice, whose emblem is the blindfolded goddess, how is it to be achieved in education? 

“To refuse to face the task of creating a vision of a future America immeasurably more just and noble and beautiful that the America of today is to evade the most crucial, difficult, and important educational task.”

“We now conclude the special work of the profession of education.  It has, first of all, broadened its own outlook beyond mere school-keeping to include a concern for significant educative effects wherever found…In particular, considering the great significance of the present economic and social situation the profession will join forces with the other agencies in the effort to bring about such study of this situation as will mean an increasingly intelligent planning of the social and economic processes to the end that life may be better for all. 

“As a first step in such a program the profession must remake its own outlook so as to acquire on and all a truly social point of view…The aim of education will be to help those of each period so to study its problems that they will more surely act intelligently in both private and public affairs.  All must come to expect social changes and adjust their thinking accordingly… 

“In particular, in order to help best in the adult world, a new and much more inclusive education must be planned…It should further help the schools by making parents and the community in general more intelligent as to what should go on in school and therefore more willing to have the schools undertake a really social program.