Educational values

Front matter

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Preface

The purpose of the present volume is stated in the Introduction, and a brief outline of the treatment is there presented. The book has grown gradually out of the early attempts of the writer to organize the methods of teaching upon a rational basis. Lacking such a basis of organization, the task of equipping candidates for educational service with the experience that the preceding generations of teachers had accumulated seemed well-nigh hopeless. Lacking such a system, also, the adequate evaluation of new methods and new tendencies could not be satisfactorily accomplished. The terminology developed in the following chapters has proved helpful to the writer in his own classroom work. It is hoped that it may prove suggestive to others, and it is for this reason that it is presented.

The time is perhaps not yet ripe for a final statement of educational functions ; this must await the satisfactory development of the science of psychology, especially in the field of the higher thought-processes and in the field of the emotions. The recent investigations in these two fields, however, seem to warrant at the present time a tentative restateriient of educational doctrine. The time will never be ripe for a final statement of educational values, for values vary with the varying conceptions of the end of education. But in the proposed distinction between functions and values there is indicated, it is hoped, a group of educational

VI PREFACE

problems that may, after patient and painstaking investigation, be solved once for all. These are the problems of function ; and the failure to make this distinction between the problems of function which can be solved by an appeal to positive science, and the problems of value which must ever recur with the changing conceptions of educational aims, lies at the basis of much of the present confusion in our educational discussions. All of the chapters in the present volume have undergone many changes and revisions since they were first projected. These changes have been made at the suggestion of the friends of the writer, who have been so good as to go over the material from time to time and to point out the defects. That the present treatment is still so far from adequate is not at all the fault of these men ; without their kindly criticism, the writer would never have been spurred on to make the changes that now seem to him to constitute by far the most valuable portions of the book. To Mr. C. M. McConn, Registrar of the University of Illinois, and formerly Principal of the University Academy and Supervisor of Practice Teaching ; Superintendent E. A. Turner of the Training Department, Illinois State Normal University; Superintendent H. B. Wilson, of Decatur, Illinois; and Professor T. H. Briggs, of the Eastern Illinois Normal School, the writer's gratitude is due for this invaluable service. He would also acknowledge his indebtedness to his colleagues, Professor S. S. Colvin, Professor L. F. Anderson, and Dr. E. L. Norton, for many valuable suggestions.

Urbana, Illinois,

December 31, 19 10.

THE CONTROLS OF CONDUCT

Chapter I

I. Meaning of" conduct-control " ; instinct as a control of behavior in lower organisms. 2. Complexity of human conduct conditioned by complex nervous system ; hereditary and environmental forces as conditioning the two large classes of conduct-controls. 3. Inherited controls of conduct ; distinction between reflex and instinctive movement. 4. Instincts in the human organisms ; the adaptive instincts. 5. Relation of the adaptive instincts to education. 6. Individualistic instincts and their relation to education. 7. Sex and parental instincts and their relations to education. 8. Social instincts ; educational significance of cooperation and sacrifice. 9. The important human instincts are general rather than specific in their operation. 10, Three-fold problem of education with reference to instincts : sublimation, confirmation, utilization I

Chapter II

A. Specific Habits

I. The conservation of experience as the paramount problem of education ; conduct-controls as products of experience. 2. Classivii

VIU TABLE OF CONTENTS fication of conduct-controls engendered by experience. 3. Habits as controls of conduct ; definition of a specific habit ; limitations of instinctive tendencies to form habits ; law of habit-building. 4. Limitations and dangers of habit-formation. 5. Objections to the term '• generalized habit "; meaning of " mental " habits 14

CHAPTER in

B. Ideas, Meanings, Concepts, Facts, and Principles

I. Preliminary definition of terms ; ideas, etc., as intellectual controls. 2. Function of ideas in bringing past experience consciously to bear on present situations ; types of ideas ; illustrations. 3. " Meaning " as a " cue " to adjustment. 4. Concept as a synonym of idea and meaning. 5. An analysis of the influence of ideas in guiding conduct. 6. Facts and principles as formulations of relations existing between ideas. 7. Facts and principles function in guiding conduct as ideas function. 8. Methodology of ideas, facts, and principles ; significance of the concrete. 9. The law of concept-building ; limitations of the " inductive " method of teaching. 10. Distinction between development and instruction ; types of school exercises important in fixing ideas, facts, and principles, ii. Controls of this group important as "guides" to conduct; distinguished from " ends " or " purposes " 26

CHAPTER IV The Acquired Controls of Conduct C. Ideals and Emotionalized Standards

I. Conduct fundamentally controlled, not by the stimuli from the environment, but by the needs of the organism. 2. These needs are reflected first in the instincts, later in conscious purposes. 3. Relation of purpose to instinct. 4. Contributions of experience to consciousness of purpose. 5. Operation of ideals and standards in realization of purpose. 6. Structural • distinction between idea and ideal ; illustrations. 7. Functional

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distinction between idea and ideal ; the former a guide to realization of purpose, the latter an end or motive of conduct. 8. The ethical "virtues" as standards of conduct. 9. The methodology of inspiration 54

CHAPTER V The Acquired Controls of Conduct

D. Prejudices and Tastes. E. Attitudes and Perspectives. Summary

I. Prejudices as products of the repeated functioning of ideals. 2. Tastes as related to prejudices. 3. Attitudes as the resultant of the operation of facts and principles. 4. The advantages of recognizing prejudices, tastes, and attitudes as controls of conduct; the doctrine of Bewusstseinslagen ; the doctrine of mental attitudes. 5. Relation of prejudices and attitudes to habit. 6. Prejudices and attitudes often determined by personality of teacher and general atmosphere of school. 7. Methods of teaching are not radically modified by recognizing prejudices and attitudes as important outcomes of the educative process ; the principal point of practical application is in connection with the organization of subject-matter. 8. General summary of Chapters II-V. 9. Advantages of the proposed classification of conduct-controls 64

CHAPTER VI The Limitations of Educative Forces in Modifying Conduct

I. Capacity to depart from the customary conduct of the race in the direction of improved efficiency is one of the marks of " genius." 2. Tentative statement of the relation of education to the development of genius : {a) education must raise genius to the race level. 3. {U) Educative forces may correct an otherwise unfortunate physical or physiological condition, and so permit genius to operate. 4. (r) Beyond this, the appearance of genius must be attributed to the factors of organic variation ; the a priori argument to the contrary may be met on its own ground. 5. Investigations in the field of mental inheritance support this view: {a) Investigations into the conditions of

TABLE OF CONTENTS eminence (Galton, de Candolle, Odin, Cattell) ; {b) Investigations of heredity in royalty (Woods) ; (r) Studies of consanguineal resemblances in mental traits (Pearson, Galton, Thorndike). 6. Restatement of the conditions under which education can affect inherent capacity : (a) where environmental forces are equal, differences will be due to heredity. 7. (^) Where environmental forces are radically different, great differences in conduct-types result. 8. {c) Genius raises the race to higher levels of conduct, education supports it at these levels. 9. {d) While civilization is only a "veneer" of improved conduct, it constitutes the most important distinction between advanced and backward peoples. 10. {i) Moral traits probably more amenable to modifying influence than intellectual capacity. 11. (/) The relation of environmental influences to the factors of zeal, ability, and capacity for work ; relation between heredity and training to be expressed as a product rather than as a sum. 12. General conclusion: power of education over conduct-controls may be increased when education clearly understands the processes that it employs. 13. Negative evidence purposely emphasized .... 78

CHAPTER VII The Criterion of Value

Problem of the chapter. 2. The criterion of social efficiency as the standard for measuring educational values. 3. Criticisms of the social aim of educatioii ; (a) its objective nature which possibly minimizes the importance of aesthetic factors. 4. Answers to this objection. 5. Reasons why social aim should hold the position of primacy. 6. Relation of intelligent choice to the primitive sanctions of pleasure and pain. 7. (3) Acceptance of social aim still leaves open the question, What is the aim of society ? 8. Socially valuable achievement as the aim of life. 9. Acceptance of this aim does not rule out the emotions. 10. This conception provides a place in educational psychology for the ethical concept of Duty . . .107

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CHAPTER VIII The Rubrics of Function and Value PAGB

I. Foiiner discussions of educational values have confused problems of function with problems of" value. 2, Distinction between these two types. 3. Classification of functions. 4. Classification of values ; (a) utilitarian values. 5. Utilitarian values represented chiefly by (i) habits of skill, and (2) facts and principles. 6. Young's distinction between direct and contingent utility. 7. {b) Preparatory values ; their nature. 8. Illustrations of preparatory values. 9. (<r) Conventional values ; illustrations. 10. Socializing values 117

CHAPTER IX Values to be Realized in Fulfilling the Training

Functions

I. Analysis of an average day's conduct in adult life seems to show very little direct influence of formal education ; this chapter proposes to examine the values of the habits fixed by school activities. 2. (a) Utilitarian value of habits gained from school exercises in language. 3. Utilitarian importance of training in reading. 4. The automatisms of number, and their economic importance. 5. Music and drawing from point of view of utility. 6. Manual training and economic efficiency. 7. {b) Preparatory value of habits ; the language arts. 8. The number arts. 9. Drawing and music. 10. Manual training, ii. Preparatory value of the principal secondary subjects. 12. {c) The conventional value of habits. 13. (^) The socializing value of habits. 14. Habit -building the most important task of elementary education ; dangers and sources of waste involved in habit-building 128

CHAPTER X Values to be Realized in Fulfilling the Instructional

Functions

I. {a) Utilitarian values of ideas, facts, and principles ; from the point of view of general education, this value is small.

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2. Arithmetic as the most important instructional subject from this point of view. 3. Utilitarian value of grammatical principles. 4. Geographical facts possess slight utilitarian value. 5. The utility of historical facts ; Spencer's contention ; its fallacies. 6. Spencer's view of the utility of physiology ; reasons why the utilitarian values of physiology are so infrequently realized. 7. Other subjects of the elementary curriculum. 8. Conclusions with regard to elementary curriculum. 9. The secondary curriculum presents a similar condition. 10. English instruction in the high schools with reference to economic efficiency. II. Foreign-language instruction. 12. Contingent utility of secondary mathematics. 13. Why secondary science fails to realize utilitarian values ; present tendencies that may correct this condition. 14. History and civics are not important from standpoint of utility. 15. Conclusions with regard to both elementary and secondary curriculums ; importance of training in the art of study. 16. (^) Conventional value of knowledge as such admittedly slight; where such values are to be realized, the process may be justified usually upon another basis. 17. (<:) Preparatory values of knowledge are especially important, especially in the development of concepts and meanings. 18. (d) The socializing value of knowledge is important in that facts and principles must form the guides for the realization of social ideals ; illustrations. 19. Suggestions for enriching the curriculum from the social point of view ; importance of agriculture ; importance of educative materials drawn from tbe local environment I39

CHAPTER XI Values to be Realized in Fulfilling Inspirational

Functions

Chief emphasis in this and following chapters will be upon socializing values. 2. Restatement of difference between idea and ideal. 3. Importance of the emotional element in the development of ideals ; the individualistic instincts as sources of emotional force. 4. The sex and parental instincts and the ideals dependent upon them. 5. The adaptive instincts as sources of ideals. 6. Ideals that are based upon the play instincts. 7. The

TABLE OF CONTENTS XUl instinct of imitation as the basis for ideals of construction. 8. The ideal of reverence and its instinctive basis. 9. The ideal of achievement. 10. Educative forces influence the development of ideals both directly and indirectly; the direct influence the specific theme of the present chapter. 1 1. History, biography, and Hterature as media for the transmission of ideals ; illustrations from history. 12. The socializing importance of national ideals ; function of history in engendering these forces.

13. Universal ideals engendered by a study of general history.

14. Sources of the emotional force necessary to render national ideals effective. 15. Literature as a source of ideals. 16. The basic themes of fiction and the drama represent fundamental instincts. 17. Ideals are crystallized in plastic art; difficulty of utilizing these as educative materials. 18. A similar condition confronts the educator in connection with music. 19. Religion as a source of ideals. 20. Instinctive forces to which religion appeals. 21. Summary. 22. Tentative list of ideals which may be directly engendered by educative forces . .156

CHAPTER XII Values to be Realized in Fulfilling Disciplinary Functions

I. The present status of the formal-discipline controversy. 2. Historical sketch of the controversy ; James's testimony ; Hinsdale's conclusions. 3. The Thorndike-Wopdworth experiments. 4. Thorndike's conclusions. 5. Norsworthy's investigations. 6. The Montana experiment. 7. General conclusions from these data negative. 8. The doctrine of transfer through ideals. 9. Ruediger's confirmation of this doctrine. 10. Importance of the emotional element, ii. General evidence in favor of transfer through a conscious process : (a) Ebert-Meumann experiments; (3) Coover-Angell experiments; (<:) Winch's experiments; (d) Fracker's experiments; (e) Ruger's experiments. 12. General conclusion. 13. Importance of the doctrine of transfer through ideals in furnishing a " cue " for educational method; illustrations. 14. Conditions under which disciplinary functions may be fulfilled. 15. Possibilities of conflict in values. 16. Illustrations of such a conflict in pure vs. applied science ; brief for pure science. 1 7. Brief for

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applied science; Gilbert's experiment. i8. Solution of the antinomy. 19. The case for pure mathematics. 20. General conclusions with regard to science and mathematics. 21. The case for the ancient languages. 22. Conclusions with regard to the ancient languages. 23. A tentative list of ideals that may be engendered by fulfilling disciplinary functions . .180

CHAPTER XIII Values to be Realized in Fulfilling Recreative Functions

I. Recreative functions may be made to realize important socializing values. 2. Justification for fulfilling recreative functions: {a) a pleasurable state of mind increases the availability of energy. 3. {d) Instinctive pleasures sometimes inconsistent with social welfare; necessity for replacing these with higher pleasures. 4. Materials that may fulfill recreative functions: literature, art, and music. 5. Why these functions are often inadequately fulfilled; (a) the technique of teaching has not been sufficiently diff"erentiated as yet. 6. (^) Literature especially is often given an artificial difficulty in competition with other subjects. 7. (c) It is often assumed in practice that every pupil may be made to admire every form of art. 8. History as a source of recreative tastes. 9. Manual training and recreation. 10. Nature study and appreciation of nature. II. Other materials of the curriculum 216

CHAPTER XIV Values to be Realized in Fulfilling Interpretive Functions

I. Restatement of definitions of attitudes and perspectives. 2. Difference between educated and uneducated individuals in general and specialized adjustments due to differences in these factors; illustrations of the operation of attitudes. 3. " Negative " adjustment : its importance in life and its relation to general as distinguished from vocational education; illustrations. 4. Effective attitudes and perspectives free the mind from the incubus of superstition; importance of solving perplexing problems irrespective of their direct economic bearing. 5. Materials that may be made to fulfill an interpretive function; the natural

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sciences. 6. Science underlies all arts. 7. The chief function of history is interpretive. 8. The interpretive functions of literature. 9. The importance of coherent theory in holding facts together 229

CHAPTER XV The School Environment as a Source of Educative Materials

Purpose of the chapter. 2. Habits and ideals the important resultants of school life as such. 3. Difficulties confronting the teacher in so organizing school life as to make it issue in valuable controls. 4. The reaction of youth against adult control and direction. 5. The high-school fraternity problem in this connection. 6. Ideals and prejudices that may come out of school life; the ideal of social conduct. 7. The ideals of self-government; difficulties and dangers of self-governing bodies of pupils. 8. The ideals of democracy. 9. The importance of " habit -likeness " in civilized society 242

INTRODUCTION Purpose and Plan of Treatment

That education is, in the last analysis, a process of modifying conduct, is the fundamental thesis of the following discussions. These discussions have a threefold purpose. In the first place, they will attempt to classify the controls of conduct,- and to describe the various ways in which educative materials may influence these controls. In the second place, they will attempt to evaluate, in terms of the social aim of education, the controls that education may furnish. In the third place, they will outline the specific methods through the operation of which educative materials may be made to fulfill the functions that are recognized as possessing value when measured by the social criterion. This last problem will be touched only incidentally in the present volume, leaving for subsequent treatment the systematic analysis of methods of organization and teaching in the light of the principles and hypotheses here developed.

The first five chapters present a classification of the controls of conduct. The inborn or inherited controls are treated briefly in Chapter I, the chief emphasis being laid upon tbe relation of the instincts to education. In the four sub. ^quent chapters, the conduct-controls that result from experience are discussed in detail, with the

XVm INTRODUCTION

aim of indicating the genesis of these controls, and the general methods which education may employ to develop them. In this connection, the following factors are considered in detail : (a) specific habits ; (b) ideas, concepts, meanings, facts, and principles, — generically, "knowledge," furnishing "interpolated" controls of conduct; (c) ideals and emotionaHzed standards, furnishing "final" or "ultimate" controls of conduct; (d) prejudices and tastes, which may be looked upon as resultants of ideals and standards; and (e) attitudes and perspectives, which may be looked upon as resultants of the "knowledge" group.

In Chapter VI, the limitations of educative forces in developing conduct-controls are briefly considered. In this connection, the more important investigations in the field of mental inheritance are summarized, and an attempt is made to reconcile the results of these investigations with the aims and purposes of education.

In Chapter VII, the ultimate aim of education is formulated as "social efficiency." The principal objections that have been urged against this conception are considered, and the arguments in favor of accepting social efficiency as the criterion of educational value are briefly outlined.

The two terms " function " and "value" are sharply differentiated in Chapter VIII, — the former being referred to the psychological processes t'irough which educative materials engender conduct ^controls ; the latter being reserved to include the judf;xAents regarding

INTRODUCTION XIX

the worth of the controls thus engendered when measured by the accepted criterion of value. Functions are then grouped under the following heads : (a) the training function, resulting in specific habits ; (b) the instructional function, resulting in ideas, concepts, facts, and principles; (c) the inspirational function, resulting in ideals and emotionalized standards ; (d) the disciplinary function, resulting in ideals of method or procedure ; (e) the recreative function, resulting in tastes ; (/) the interpretive function, resulting in attitudes and perspectives. The classification of values follows, in the main, the customary grouping : (a) the utilitarian value attaches to controls which promote simple economic efficiency; (b) the preparatory value attaches to controls that do not necessarily function as direct guides or ends of social or economic conduct, but which form the basis for the acquisition of controls that do so function ; (c) the conventional value attaches to controls that possess worth only in so far as society takes it for granted that each individual shall be governed by them ; (d) the socializing value attaches to controls that, while unnecessary from the narrow economic and conventional points of view, make possible social stability and insure social progress. Chapters IX-XIV consider in detail the values that may be realized in fulfilling the six functions outlined above. This treatment involves a rapid survey of the elementary and secondary curriculums, and the effort is made to show how present problems of organization and method may be modified by the perspective which is

XX INTRODUCTION

furnished by the principles of function and value. Among other problems, the present controversy concerning "formal discipline" and the transfer of training is discussed in detail (Chapter XII), and the functions of "general" education, as distinguished from specialized or vocational education, are outlined in Chapters XII, XIII, and XIV.

The life of the school as a source of educative materials is briefly treated in the concluding chapter, the chief emphasis being placed upon the valuable habits and ideals that may be made to issue from the proper type of school organization.

PART I THE CONTROLS OF CONDUCT

Chapter I

I. The first problem is to make clear the meaning of the term "conduct-control" as this term is used in the following pages. Conduct or behavior implies an adjustment or response of the organism to some form of stimulation. Among the lower orders of life, this response is relatively simple. The range of adjustment is limited. A comparatively few types of behavior exhaust the possibilities. They consist in single, often unrelated, movements which follow upon the appropriate stimulation sometimes as mechanically as the ringing of an electric bell follows upon the pushing of the button. While such reactions vary with general external conditions, and with the general physiological state or "tone" of the organism, relative uniformity is their fundamental characteristic, and this relative uniformity is due to the narrow physiological and anatomical range of possible variation. It may be laid down as a general rule that, under the same physiological conditions, the same response inevitably follows upon the same stimulus.

Jennings characterizes the conduct of the lower animal forms in the following words: " What a given organism does under stimulation is Umited by its action system, and within these limits is determined largely by its physiological condition at the time stimulation occurs. In the lowest organism the action system confines the variations in behavior within rather narrow limits, and the different physiological conditions distinguishable are few in number ; hence the behavior is less varied than in the higher animals. But the difference is one of degree, not of kind." ^

2. With the advance of the organism in complexity of structure, and with the organization of differentiated parts and the consequent specialization of the functions of these parts, there is an accompanying development in the complexity, organization, and specialization of conduct. Specialized sets of cells fulfill specialized functions in the economy of the animal's life. Nutrition, respiration, locomotion, and reproduction are taken care of by separate tissues, each adapted to do its own specific work, and each depending upon the others for the service which this high degree of specialization prevents it from doing for itself.

The problem of adjustment in a complex animal form becomes, therefore, highly complicated. A multitude of activities must be made to work together harmoniously for the welfare of the organism as a whole. In meeting this problem there has been developed in the more complicated animal forms a master-tissue, — the nervous

* H. S. Jennings : Behavior of the Lower Organisms, New York, IQ06, p. 281.

system. This master-tissue serves not only to harmonize the activities of the various groups of cells that fulfill the different functions of respiration, nutrition, locomotion, and reproduction, but also, in the highest organisms, to retain, in some way the mechanism of which is now shrouded in mystery, the experiences that the organism has undergone in the past, to bring these experiences to bear upon the problems of present adjustment, and — in man, at least — to project adjustment into the future in time or into the distant in space and adapt the organism to situations that are not present or proximate.

3. Human behavior represents the most complicated known type of adjustment, and the nervous system that governs it is the most complicated and highly organized tissue that has, so far as is now known, been developed by natural selection. Through the nervous system operate the forces that control conduct, and while it is impossible in the present state of our knowledge accurately to describe the mechanism of control, two large factors that are of especial significance to our present problem may be readily distinguished. These are (i) heredity, and (2) experience.

In so far as both of these factors condition human conduct, — in so far as human conduct is governed in part by hereditary influences and in part by experiential influences, — we may speak of heredity and environment as the two large rubrits of ''conduct-controls." Under each rubric, more specific controls are to be identified, as the following analysis will indicate.

4. Inherited Controls of Conduct. — These include (i) simple reflex movements, and (2) the more complicated instinctive movements and the conscious impulses with which the latter may be correlated. The spontaneous winking of the eyes is a type of reflex movement, and the ^'control" of conduct in this instance is the tendency of a reflex nerve center to respond mechanically to a certain type of stimulation, — in this case an irritation of the sensory nerve endings in the cornea. An instinctive movement may be regarded as an organization of simpler reflex movements. It is, as it were, a chain of reflexes, the completion of one movement forming the stimulus for the "setting off" of the next, and so on until the chain is completed. Instinctive movements are further complicated by the fact that they are commonly for the benefit of the body as a whole, rather than for the benefit of any one particular part or organ, and also by the fact that they are frequently initiated by a conscious "impulse " and, in general, are more frequently correlated with conscious processes than are the simpler reflexes.^ The nest-building activities of birds represent a very complex type of instinctive movement, running

1 Cf. E. A. Kirkpatrick : Genetic Psychology, New York, 1909, p. 92 : " Where the reaction is of a part of the organism only, it is more properly called a reflex ; while more complex reactions of many parts for the good of the whole organism are designated as instincts. In the lower organisms reactions are largely reflex, while in higher animals, instincts become more and more prominent."

its course through a large number of simple reflexes until the important end has been attained. It is not probable that the bird is conscious of the end, but there is every reason to believe that conscious processes are correlated with many of the separate movements. In general, then, a group of coordinated activities controlled by inherited and not by experiential factors is called an instinctive movement, and the inherited tendency toward such movement is known as an instinct.

5. Human conduct, like that of the lower animals, is subject to these instinctive controls. It is with these that education must start, and upon these its processes must ultimately be based, no matter how far it goes or how elaborately it organizes and refines its methods. It is essential, therefore, that the student of education understand the nature of instinct and the relation of educative processes to instinctive forces.

While no type of instinctive tendency is without its relation to education, certain classes of instincts are particularly significant in this connection. Of the greatest importance, perhaps, are the adaptive instincts, — play, curiosity, imitation, and repetition.

The instinct of play manifests itself in the spontaneous impulse to activity of various sorts that has no end or purpose other than the mere enjoyment which this activity brings. '^ Spencer maintained that the function of this activity was simply to provide an outlet for the "excess energy" accumulated in the system. Karl Groos, however, called attention to the fact that the purely spontaneous plays of childhood very frequently involve adjustments essential to the preservation of life under primitive conditions. Thus among all races of people certain uniform types of play-activity are to be found, — "hide-and-seek" and other hunting games which tend to develop certain types of skill needed in hunting; "prisoner's base" and similar games of mimic warfare; playing with dolls, which gives expression to the maternal impulse. Groos's conclusion that the play impulse has developed through natural selection as a means of adapting the organism to its future environment has been a very fruitful contribution to the theory of childhood. It was one of the earliest recognitions of a principle that has done much to enlighten educational practice, — the principle, namely, that there has been provided in the adaptive instincts a "natural" basis for the educative process. ^

Curiosity as an adaptive instinct expresses itself in the unreasoned impulse to investigate, — to determine the nature especially of what is new and strange in one's environment, — without conscious reference to the use to which the knowledge thus obtained may be put. This impulse to investigate beyond the immediate needs of the moment is obviously the basis of all knowledge and its adaptive function is clearly apparent.^