ABSTRACT
IT is difficult to state concretely the educational aims of a modern nation. Up to a certain point the training the boy or girl of to-day requires as equipment for a particular trade or profession can be quite definitely set forth. There are certain things that must be acquired for efficient workmanship, regarding which every one is more or less agreed. But it is not so easy to define the requirements for the wider vocation of life that underlies all individual vocations. Usually we take refuge in some general statement of aim and ask for “general culture” or for “a preparation for complete living,” without pressing for any precise specification of what is implied in “general culture” or “complete living”. In practice such definiteness as is attained is due to the educational tradition. In times of rapid social change like those through which we are passing that, however, is not enough. Our traditions express the practical wisdom of the past, and to that extent they are bound to fail us when we come face to face with the new situations of the present and the future. In these circumstances how are we as educators to make our purposes plain enough to ourselves to meet the needs of our age?
