The problems developed by the war, and the preparation for it, have led to increased study of the defects of our educational system with proposals to remedy them. One of the first results of the medical examination of those called to the colors was to reveal the fact that a larger proportion of our population than we realized, suffer from physical defects and dis eases. That many of these could have been prevented by early attention, by medical inspec tion of school children, by greater care of their health, and by more attention to physical train ing by the schools is admitted. The question of the duty of the State to pay equal attention to both the physical and the mental well-being of its future citizens is more and more recog nized. If this view is not one of the direct re sults of the war at least we may say that it has been greatly stimulated.
A second discovery growing out of the war was the fact that there was a large element of our population which had not only not been Americanized, but could neither read nor write English. The newly arrived immigrants who later became voters, as well as those who from choice remained aliens, were hardly touched by our public school system. The absurdity of granting citizenship and the franchise to one class, and allowing both classes to perpetuate their own foreign languages and culture, and even to pass these on to their children to the exclusion of our own language and culture, is now seen and appreciated. To expect that such a policy would make the United States safe for democracy, or to expect as a result of this policy that the nation would become unified in spirit, language, and ideals, so that it could act as a unit in a great crisis for its own self-protection, was foolish. Accordingly it is recognized that the function of the school must be extended so as to pre vent such a condition in the future; that the school must extend its opportunities to immi grants and aliens, and indeed that education of emigrants must be made compulsory through continuation schools.
The problem of a teaching force that will be all American, loyal, and in sympathy with the ideals of this country has been brought to light by the war. The tendency to require public teachers to be citizens, and to be free from any taint of disloyalty or antagonism to the ideals of America, is an effect of the war. To teach successfully the ideals for which America now stands as well as the relation of these ideals to our historic past is obviously sible only for one who believes in no other ideals.
Finally there is the relation of education to the reconstruction period following peace. New political, economic and social conditions inevitably mean a new philosophy of education. The old order has even now actually passed, and it is hardly possible for it to return, be cause the conditions on which the old order was based have disappeared. The real pro
pelling power of education is the prevailing political, economic and social forces of a period, plus environment. As these change so must education, its philosophy, curriculum, ideals, institutions, and practices. The war has already forced changes which must inevitably affect the future. Those changes which have taken place, such as governmental regulation of production, distribution and consumption of food and fuel, the principle of co-operation between the government and private industry, governmental regulation of labor supply and wages, and control of transportation facilities— all these mark the beginning of a new political, social and economic order, and hence a new order of education for the future.
National development in the immediate fu ture will be determined largely by the educa tional plans and practices set in motion by the war —a new physical, industrial, and social training, extension of the principle of universal elementary to universal secondary education, so far as possible, with a corresponding increase in the proportion of those receiving a higher education, and the attempt to reach the whole adult population, through extension of the use of the school plant, various types of education, and continuation schools. This program may be supplemented in peace times by use of the great cantonments established by the govern ment, for training men for the problems of peace as well as war, and for the rehabilitation of the disabled soldiers of the war. The pro posed national department of education would do much to correlate existing agencies, to lay down the guiding principles which would standardize minimum requirements and make proposed improvements.
Bibliography.— Dean, Arthur D., 'Our Schools in War Time and After' (Boston 1918) ; various articles in 'Proceedings' of Na tional Educational Association (Washingtoa 1917, 1918) ; 'Report of United States Com mission of Education' (Vol. I, pp. 1-19, Wash ington 1917); 'Education and the War,' six articles by various authors in 'Educational Ad ministration and Supervision' (Vol. IV, no. 1, pp. 1-53, January 1918) ; publications of the Bureau of Education, especially 'Lessons in Community and National Life,' and the series called °Teachers Leaflets,° °Secondary School Circulars," and °Higher Education all of which bear directly on education and the war (Washington 1917, 1918) ; 'The National Emergency in Education,' a pamphlet issued by the National Education Association, contain ing a statement of the nature of the crisis in education and a program for readjustment dur ing and after the war (Washington, June 1918).