ABSTRACT
Plato 1 puts it down as one of the purposes of cultured life that “we are to generate and educate children, handing on the torch of life, that generation after generation may arise to serve the gods according to law and custom.” Education then is “the attempt on the part of the adult and formed members of the human society to shape the development of the coming generation in accordance with its own ideals of life.” 2 All the educational endeavours may be summed up as the providing, guiding and forming influence of grown up and mature men on the development of the growing ones to make them fit for sharing the rights and duties, the advantages and values which are the basis of human society. The system of education will be fixed by the standard aimed at by the community and expressed by its culture. It is either merely external, making those educated fit subjects of a police state or organisation, or it extends over body and soul, patting the mind and conscience of the pupil under its jurisdiction and forming them in the first place. According to the standard a materialistic, realistic, humanistic and religious education may be distinguished. This standard in the ordinary course of history will be the standard of the community; in cases however of creative and progressive personalities, of men with a prophetic mission, or of real reformers, the standard is outside and above that of the community. It may be the outcome of a genius or of a mission from above or of both.
