From Principles of Secondary Education, 1918, Alexander James Ingles CHAPTER X THE AIMS AND FUNCTIONS OF SECONDARY EDUCATION

I. THE AIMS OF SECONDARY EDUCATION 150. The aims of secondary education: their basis. The key to any analysis of aims in education is to be found in an analysis of the activities of life in which people do or should engage. The aims of secondary education, therefore, as of any department of education, must be interpreted in terms of the activities in which individuals may be expected normally to participate. Obviously those activities vary in different societies and at different periods. Obviously also different individuals and different groups of individuals engage in various activities in various ways and to varying degrees. Any complete analysis of the activities in which different individuals and different groups engage would involve an examination of all the multitudinous phases of human life. Such a detailed analysis is, of course, impossible: if it were possible it would be of questionable value, since it would deal with individuals whose lives could not be prophesied. Certain general fields of activity, however, engage practically all individuals in some way and to some degree, furnishing fundamental aims for secondary education. 151. Three fundamental aims of secondary education. Three important groups of activities require the participation of the Individual and establish three fundamental aims for secondary education, as for all education, in America. Those three groups of activities are distinguished accordingly as they involve primarily: (1) participation in the duties of citizenship and in the not-directly economic relations of cooperative group life; (2) participation in the production and distribution of economic utilities; (3) the life of the individual as a relatively free and independent personality. Thus the three fundamental aims of secondary education are: (1) The preparation of the individual as a prospective citizen and cooperating member of society the Social-Civic Aim; (2) The preparation of the individual as a prospective worker and producer the Economic-Vocational Aim; (3) The preparation of the individual for those activities which, while primarily involving individual action, the utilization of leisure, and the development of personality, are of great importance to society the Individualistic-Avocational Aim. It must be recognized that these three aims are not mutually exclusive, but rather that they are in a high degree interrelated and interdependent. Taken together they constitute the Social Aim of secondary education in the broadest sense of the term. Every individual as a social unit is at the same time a citizen, a worker, and a relatively independent personality. The three phases of his life cannot be divorced, and in the secondary school preparation for no one of those phases of life should be neglected. 152. The social-civic aim. The social-civic aim of secondary education involves the preparation of individuals for efficient participation in those activities of society

whose controlling purpose and primary object are desirable forms of social cooperation, e.g., the interrelated activities of people in community life, in making laws, in action according to laws, in political duties, and in general wherever group action and the not-directly economic remains between the individual and the group or between individual and individual are involved. Hence it demands it development of knowledge, habits, abilities, and ideals that will enable the individual efficiently to play his part a social unit in group activities. Adequate preparation for and training in such social activities as are involved in the social-civic aim of secondary education must include among others at least the following purposes: (1) the development of idea and habits of conduct; (2) the development of ideals and habits of cooperation; (3) the development of a knowledge of important social institutions or agencies and their place in the social order, together with appropriate ideals, standards, and habits; (4) the development of a knowledge^ the civic activities involved in community life, together with the related ideals, standards, and habits; (5) the development of a knowledge of the major activities of state aid national life, together with appropriate ideals, standards, and habits; (6) the development of a knowledge of and duties, together with appropriate ides 13, standards, and habits; (7) throughout all secondary education, as far as may be possible, training in social activities through actual participation in the activities of the school itself and the community; (8) throughout all the development conscience or sense of social responsibility Important in any society, the social-civic most important in a democracy. 153. The economic-vocational aim. Political principles development of a social aim is obviously the economic- vocational aim of secondary education involves the preparation of the individual for efficient participation in those activities of society whose controlling purpose and primary object involve economic efficiency. Society makes its demand on every individual to participate in economic activity at least to the extent of "pulling his own load," and economic efficiency is a necessity of modern life to which each must contribute his share. So universal a necessity cannot be neglected by the secondary school unless it can be shown that other social agencies are equal to the task of such preparation. That other social agencies do not accomplish such preparation adequately has been indicated in the preceding chapter. The responsibility, therefore, falls on the school and must be recognized in the aims of secondary education. As long as pupils receiving the benefits of secondary education were drawn from classes whose vocations were almost entirely the higher professions, involving vocational education in higher institutions, the directly vocational aim in the secondary school was subordinated to other aims except in so far as preparation for higher institutions might be conceived as involving indirect contribution to a vocational aim. With the extension of the benefits of secondary education to the non-professional classes greater importance has necessarily been attached to the economic-vocational aim. Adequate preparation for and training in such activities as are involved in the economicvocational aim of secondary education must include, as far as may be possible and

with due reference to the different needs of special groups, the following purposes: (1) the development of the knowledges, skills, and habits involved in vocational activities; (2) some knowledge of the principles of economics; (3) some development of the ideals, standards, and conditions of the economic world; (4) the discovery and development of special interests and aptitudes of different individuals for vocational pursuits; (5) some vocational guidance; (6) the development of an understanding of the significance of various vocations to society; (7) the development of a conception of the relations between fellow-members of a vocation, between different vocational groups, between employee and employer, between producer and consumer; (8) some knowledge of industrial-governmental relations. The degree in which vocational education and training may be appropriate for various groups of pupils in the secondary school obviously must differ. More uniformity is possible in the attainment of the social-civic aim than in the economicvocational aim, since the activities involved in the former are more nearly the same for all individuals. The greater difficulty of attaining the economic-vocational aim is, however, no justification for its neglect ha the secondary school. 154. The individualistic-avocational aim. The individualistic-vocational aim of secondary education involves the preparation of the individual for those activities of life whose primary object and controlling purpose are personal development and personal happiness through the worthy use of leisure. The social-civic and the economic-vocational aims of education are directly and constructively social. Their contributions to social well-being and to social progress are obvious. On the other hand, the individualistic-vocational aim of education is sometimes falsely conceived to be non-social. This is a serious error arising in large part from the fact that its contributions to social well-being and to social progress are, in a sense, indirect and to some extent negative. For centuries academic asceticism has frowned upon any kind of education which frankly or in disguised form favored varied opportunity for the development of personality and for the enjoyment of leisure. Since the individualistic-avocational aim of education deals primarily with the leisure part of life its importance is constantly minimized by educational theorists. Thus Spencer, identified. The terms "culture" and "cultural" are purposely avoided here because of their ambiguity in modern educational thought. Identifying preparation for leisure with preparation for the refinements of life, says:* Accomplishments, the fine arts, belles-lettres, and all those things which, as we say constitute the efflorescence of civilization, should be wholly subordinate to that knowledge and discipline in which civilization rests. As they occupy the leisure part of life, so should they occupy the leisure part of education. The following considerations suggest that such a conception is fallacious. (1) Preparation for the leisure part of life is very far from being confined to "accomplishments, fine arts, belles-lettres," and preparation in such fields would be far from adequate for the proper utilization of leisure, were it possible to provide such training for all. The average individual has from one

quarter to one fifth of his time for leisure. His action during leisure is as much a matter of social concern (at least in a negative sense) as his action in any other part of his life. Within recent years there has been a constant tendency to increase the amount of leisure time at the disposal of the individual. That increase in the amount of leisure has introduced problems of no slight importance for secondary education. (2) While the individual's activities during his leisure time are not designed primarily to make positive contributions to social well-being and to social progress and while they do not tend on the whole to build up society, unless directed along desirable social lines they may and doubtless do tend to interfere seriously with that process, or even, in some cases, to tear civilization down. Vice and social degeneration find fertile soil in leisure. The social menace of the activities of leisure not well guided, where standards, habits, and ideals have not been established along desirable social lines, is by no means slight or unimportant. Let the leisure time of any society be well controlled and there is little danger that such a society will not endure and prosper. Let the leisure time of any society be neglected or misused and there is little hope that it will prosper. (3) The conditions of modern industry have tended (a) to allow the worker an increased amount of leisure time, and (6) to reduce the stimuli and opportunities for personal development and personal enjoyment in and through labor itself. Factory labor has tended to reduce the economic activity of the worker to a level of deadening monotony where either development or enjoyment is reduced to lowest terms. In some way those stimuli and opportunities for personal development and personal enjoyment must be provided in modern life. (4) It is altogether probable that in this country the time is rapidly approaching, if indeed it has not already arrived, when conditions of labor cannot continue to decrease the ultimate efficiency of the worker by failing to allow sufficient leisure for re-creation through recreation. It remains to be seen whether or not the increased leisure and the extended opportunity to utilize leisure may not seriously impair the social efficiency of our society, if greater preparation for the intelligent and sane use of leisure is not provided. Legitimate fields for the carrying-out of the individualisticavocational aim of secondary education may well include, among others, the following: (a) the development of a sense of social responsibility for individual action, even where the primary object is legitimately personal development and personal enjoyment, i.e., a respect for the rights and interests of others; (6) the development of tastes and standards for enjoyment and the use of leisure moral and aesthetic, e.g., in reading, in the theater, in physical recreation, etc.; (c) the development of self-sustaining habits of amusement along desirable lines the development of interests, hobbies, etc., which may prevent one from sinking to grosser pleasures through a lack of higher interests; (d) a knowledge of certain pleasure evils and their results; (e) the development of pleasure interests, where possible, which are at the same time social benefits and means of personal enjoyment. 155. The interrelation of the three aims. It has already been suggested that these three aims of secondary education are not mutually independent, but rather are

interrelated and interdependent, since they represent but three different phases of life which concern each individual. Historically the necessary interrelation of the three aims has not always been properly recognized, with the result that some one of the aims has been emphasized to the neglect or under-valuation of the others. Thus neglect or insufficient attention to the economic-vocational aim in the past is recognized by those familiar with the history of education. Its overemphasis is not impossible in some cases at the present time. Thus the individualistic-avocational aim has received more than its just due at some times in the past. Its neglect is a possibility in some cases at the present time. The possibility of separating the three aims for purposes of objective analysis should not lead to the assumption that they can be separated in the case of any individual's education. No form of secondary education which fails to provide adequately for all three forms of activity can be considered satisfactory. 156. Aims based on traits involved. In the preceding discussion the aims of secondary education have been considered in terms of the activities involved in life. Efficient participation in those activities depends on the employment of physical, mental, moral, and aesthetic traits which must be developed in individuals. Hence the attainment of the aims set is conditioned by the development of physical efficiency, mental efficiency, moral efficiency, and aesthetic efficiency of pupils. These four elements may be conceived as objectives of education cutting crosssections through each of the social aims formulated above, no one of which is attainable without their development. With whichever of the two sets of aims one starts he is bound soon to reach and consider the other. The more promising approach, however, is the social. II. THE FUNCTIONS OF SECONDARY EDUCATION 157. The functions of secondary education. For present purposes the term "functions" is employed to designate certain elements for which secondary education must provide if the aims previously formulated are to be attained. Those functions are determined in part by the nature of society and in part by the nature of the pupils to be educated, factors which in important ways condition the attainment of the aims set. If we conceive of the aims of secondary education as the ultimate goals which it is to attain we must recognize that certain factors must be involved in the attempt to reach those goals. Thus we may conceive of the social-civic aim of secondary education as involving preparation for efficient participation in social-civic life. Many important functions are therein involved, e.g., means of adjusting the individual and his social environment, the development of a "social mind" and social cohesion among groups of individuals, the adjustment of individual differences to the differentiated needs of society, control of the factor of selection in secondary education, educational, moral, social, and vocational guidance.

The remaining sections of this chapter will deal with the following six important functions of secondary education: (1) the adjustive or adaptive function; (2) the integrating function; (3) the differentiating function; (4) the propaedeutic function; (5) the selective function; (6) the diagnostic and directive function. Their relation to the aims of secondary education will appear more clearly from the following discussion. 158. The adjustive or adaptive function. It is a postulate of the social aim of secondary education that it should provide means for the adjustment of the pupil to his social environment. In section 143 (Chapter IX) it was maintained that the social environment to which the secondary-school pupil is to be adjusted is dynamic, not static, and that the rapidity of social change is so great as to warrant the assumption that the social environment in which the present pupil is later to live will in important respects differ from that of the present. The course of social evolution shows clearly that for any one generation the total social organization represents a composite of relatively stable and constant elements of the past and certain elements appropriate to the present. It also implies that the present social organization comprises certain elements which may be expected to remain relatively stable and constant in the near future, and others which we may confidently expect to be either entirely lost or radically modified. This suggests that mere adjustment through the development of relatively fixed habits of reaction is fairly adequate for those elements which may be conceived as destined in all likelihood to remain relatively unchanged in their essential characteristics within the life of the present generation. It suggests also, however, that adjustment alone (in the sense of the establishment of fixed habits of reaction) is insufficient, and that some capacity for readjustment must be developed if the individual is to be prepared for the changing conditions which will inevitably come during his life after the period of formal education. In other words, the adjustive function of secondary education includes both the establishment of certain fixed habits of reaction, certain fixed standards and ideals, and also the development of a capacity to readjust adequately to the changing demands of Me. Tempora mutantur, el nos mutamur in illis, (The times are changed and we are changed in them* ed) is true with regard to the times; it is true of this only in a collective sense and to the extent that readaptation is possible. 159. The integrating function. In section 144 (Chapter IX) the bearing of the social factors of integration and differentiation on secondary education was discussed. It was there pointed out that one of the imperative demands made by society on the secondary school is provision for the development of that amount of likemindedness, of unity in thought, habits, ideals, and standards, requisite for social cohesion and social solidarity. From this arises the integrating function of secondary education, which in this country particularly is constantly acquiring greater and greater importance for a number of reasons. Among these may be mentioned the following: (1) The increasing complexity of life in a modern democracy constantly

increases the amount of common knowledge, of common action, and common ideals necessary. The elementary school is constantly becoming less and less adequate for this need. (2) The increasing heterogeneity of the population in this country tends constantly to increase the diversity of social heredity and therefore to render the process of social integration more necessary and more difficult. (3) The increasing diversity of industrial occupations and of living conditions tends constantly to increase the forces of differentiation demanding increased forces of integration to balance and compensate. (4) Other institutions which formerly operated as integrating agencies have been modified in such a way as to 378 PRINCIPLES OF SECONDARY EDUCATION operate with diminished force in that direction or have proved quite inadequate for that purpose under the changed conditions of society: e.g., the Church and religion. To conceive that the factor of integration is of importance in connection with problems of "class distinction" only is an error. Important as those problems are for a democracy they involve but a part only of a more fundamental problem including other problems of social integration. 160. The differentiating function. The integrating function must at all times be conceived as correlated with the differentiating function of secondary education and the relation between the two functions must be considered as supplemental rather than conflicting, the supplemental relation being necessitated by the relation of the two factors of integration and differentiation in the process of social evolution. As the integrating function of secondary education arises out of the necessity of developing a certain amount of homogeneity out of the heterogeneous population for the purpose of assuring social solidarity, so the differentiating function of secondary education arises out of the necessity of taking advantage of the differences among individuals for the purpose of determining social efficiency. Two facts make this differentiating function in secondary education both possible and necessary: (1) Pupils in the secondary school (the raw material with which secondary education must perforce deal and which conditions its operation) differ greatly in native capacities, in acquired tendencies (especially as conditioned by training outside the school), in interests and aptitudes. Failure to recognize this fundamental fact at any time must inevitably mean failure to do justice to the individual and failure to develop the highest social efficiency out of the raw material available. (2) The diversified needs of modern industrial and social life demand preparation for widely different forms of activity which cannot be provided for all individuals. Moreover, if such universal preparation were possible, it would be extremely wasteful and undesirable. The differentiated activities of life demand differentiated education, the burden of which, as far as formal education is concerned, must be borne by the secondary school. 161. The propaedeutic function. The propaedeutic function of secondary education is merely one phase of the adjustive function, having reference to a part only of secondary-school pupils those preparing to continue their formal education in some higher institution. Preparation for such higher education cannot be considered

as a separate aim of secondary education. It must be considered, however, as a legitimate function of secondary education in the case of those pupils whose preparation for the attainment of the ultimate aims of education may be extended over a longer period of time than that of the great majority. The general aims of the education of such pupils remain the same aims formulated above, namely, the social-civic aim, the economic-vocational aim, and the individualistic-avocational aim. A number of factors, however, affect the attainment of those aims in the case of the pupils who will continue their formal education in some higher institution. A more intensive and more extensive preparation for the social-civic activities is possible; preparation for vocational activities in its direct and specific form is deferred; different forms of preparation for different modes of leisure are possible and justified; a somewhat higher selection of pupils is common, at least with reference to social and economic status. As the activities of such pupils will "function" differently in life after the period of formal education, so must the function of secondary education differ somewhat in the case of such pupils. Common practice tends either to over-estimate or to underestimate the propaedeutic function of secondary education. In the past this function has commonly received altogether too much attention, and the rather definite requirements of preparation for higher education have tended to overbalance the whole economy of secondary education in this country until it became the dominant aim of the secondary school instead of occupying its legitimate place as a contributing function. On the other hand, the present revolt against such a domination of college preparation has in some cases led to a gross under-estimate of the importance of the propaedeutic function of secondary education. This has already been discussed in section 128, and requires no further consideration here, except, perhaps, to recall the fact that secondary-school pupils destined to continue their formal education in higher institutions comprise the largest roughly homogeneous group of pupils in the public secondary school homogeneous in the sense that a complete secondary-school course may be mapped out for this group much more readily than for any other group and in the sense that a rather definite and tangible temporary goal may be set up for their education. Whatever be the particular form that the articulation between secondary education and higher education may eventually assume, it must be recognized that preparation for higher education must be one of the legitimate functions of secondary education. Nevertheless it must also be recognized that it is but one of a number of functions. 162. The selective function. Selection is a necessary function of any form of education, the necessity arising from the factor of individual differences which become an increasingly important factor as the course of education proceeds higher and makes a greater demand on capacity. It was pointed out in Chapter III that individuals differ widely in mental traits. In so far as those differences are due to the limits of capacity set by nature and to rates of development also determined by nature it is clear that, as education demands more and more capacity, with certain

individuals the limits of then* capacity are reached, or, what is more common, the point is approached at which given possible amounts of training produce results incommensurate with the amount of teaching and learning energy expended, and the point of diminishing returns is reached. No amount of training can ever equalize the abilities of individuals whose native capacities differ to any marked degree. Hence selection must inevitably be a function of secondary education. The selective function of secondary education may be viewed from two somewhat different but related aspects. From one aspect selection is commonly considered as involving the elimination of those individuals who are unable to meet the demands set. To this view little objection could be raised, provided, and only provided, that the demands set could be justified. In the past in this country and at present in some countries the demands set were largely based on the assumption that ability and willingness to meet the requirements of certain specified subjects of study with limited range measure intellectual ability in general a theory which itself rests on the further assumption that either all desirable mental traits are involved in the specific subjects selected, or the improvement in the mental traits involved can be transferred to other material. Such a theory is discussed in detail in later sections. For the present it is sufficient to state that the theory must certainly be greatly modified and that it cannot justify emphasis on any small number of subjects in the secondary school as affording adequate training for all or as affording a training which is susceptible of unlimited transfer. In contrast to selection by elimination the second aspect of the selective function of secondary education emphasizes selection by differentiation. Its justification rests on two considerations: (1) that individuals differ in capacities, interests, and the nature of environmental influences, those differences appearing not in the sum total of mental traits, but in the various mental traits as related to each other; (2) that, within limits, training in various specific mental traits or groups of traits is justified from a social viewpoint. In terms of psychology it assumes that different mental traits are found in different individuals in different degrees. In terms of sociology it means that no one subject or group of subjects can claim exclusive place in secondary education and that different subjects or groups of subjects are equally justified from the viewpoint of social economy. In terms of school practice it means that if a pupil lacks ability or interest in one field of study but possesses ability and interest in another, discrimination is justified, and, particularly in the public secondary school, that pupil has a right to receive education in fields for which he possesses ability and interest. He cannot be deprived of the opportunity for education because of inability or lack of interest in some officially favored subject or subjects. 163. The diagnostic and directive function. A phase of the adjustive function, and one closely related to the selective and differentiating functions, is the diagnostic and directive function of secondary education. Social economy and personal efficiency and happiness postulate that each individual, as far as may be possible, should do what he can best do. The determination of what each pupil may best do

and what he may do with the greatest efficiency and happiness cannot be accomplished unless he is brought into contact with a somewhat wide range of experiences, in large part through studies in the secondary school. Hence the school must provide materials to acquaint the pupil with various activities of life, must give him some opportunity to test out and explore his capacities and interests, and must provide some direction and guidance therefore. The mere offering of various forms of instruction does not complete the work of the secondary school. It must, as far as may be possible, add to that function the function of exploring, testing, diagnosing, and directing the education of the pupil. It must permit the pupil to discover and test his own special aptitudes and capacities, and must assist in that process through a thoroughgoing system of educational guidance, including educational guidance and direction in the narrower sense, moral guidance, social guidance, physical guidance, and vocational guidance.

*Wikipedia