The Children: Some Educational Problems

This study examines the purposes and methods of education, arguing that instruction is a regulated process by which children acquire and organise experiences to direct future conduct rather than a mere spontaneous development. It surveys how different social agencies and stages of civilisation shape educational ends and notes individual differences in capacity that require varied aims. It considers the state's expanding role in provision, funding, medical inspection, and feeding, and discusses organisational measures to coordinate elementary, secondary, and higher education. The later chapters set out the aims appropriate to physical training, infant, primary, secondary and university instruction before concluding with proposals to resolve contemporary unrest by greater coherence and correlation across the system.