CITIZENSHIP AND EDUCATION. The idea that schools and colleges should train for citizenship is one that in a measure depends upon a theory of the state. If the individual exists for the state, then there is no doubt but that any system of education must train the individual in all ways that serve the best inter ests of that state, and that the individual must be forced to follow it. On the other hand, if the state exists for the benefit of the individual, then it is less clear to the average mind that the individual should be forced to receive an education that he does not wish to take, or that his own freedom of action mentally or physically should be interfered with. Between these two extremes there exists a third theory that as the state came into existence to serve the best interests of those in it, the individuals who form it should be willing to do everything in their power to conform to those rules and regulations which will make the state their most effective agent for the purposes for which it grew up. If the state is to be more effective by virtue of having the individual intelligent, then he must get an education; if the state is to be more efficient because the individuals are healthy and strong, then the citizen must take care of his health and train his body. In a democracy the majority of the people deter mine what is best along these lines and the minority has to abide by the decision. In an autocracy it is those in power who so determine and the individuals must conform as long as the few have the force necessary to compel obe dience.
The idea that the individual should be trained or educated along certain lines because of the best interest of the state is not new, though its strength has varied much throughout history, and among peoples even at the same period of history. The Spartans among the Greeks represented the extreme view of the theory that the individual existed for the state, and their educational system was devised along those lines. On the other hand the Athenians represented the via media, or the third theory as presented above, and their educational sys tem was worked out accordingly. The Romans
tended strongly to the Spartan ideals and re garded the Athenians as unpractical and vision ary. After the barbarians had overrun the Roman Empire and the idea of the participation of the citizen in the active work of the state had died out during the Middle Ages, when feudal ism held sway, education, except for the pur poses of the Church, was generally non-existent.
In a way the Church took the place of the state, and the theory that the individual clergyman existed for the good of the Church was per petuated.
It was only during the philosophical theoriz ing of the 18th century that the idea of giving the individual an education because of his inter est to the state began to be revived. The democrats of the French Revolution soon realized that people enfranchised, but without an education, were a dangerous element and would soon lead the ship of state on the rocks of anarchy and thus back into the control of a despot. It was for this reason that Danton in one of the best of his speeches declared: °After bread, education is the first need of the people' It was thus that democracy was fundamentally responsible during the whole course of the 19th century for the demand that the people be educated for the sake of the safety of the state. An ignorant electorate meant eventually the destruction of a democratic state.
It was from a different point of view that the educational reformers Pestalozzi, Herbart and Frocbel approached the question. They were, quite naturally, because of the nature of their civil and economic environments, more impressed with the idea of the importance of education as a means for the economic and social betterment of the individual rather than as a means for preserving the state. It is now to be observed, however, that the two go hand in hand, for the well-to-do citizen is a good citizen. The education which has brought him economic prosperity and social recognition also tends to make him interested in the preservation of the state.