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reserved for those who have leisure at command--the leisure due
to superior economic resources. Such things might even be
dangerous to the interests of the controlling class, arousing
discontent or ambitions "beyond the station" of those working
under the direction of others. But an education which
acknowledges the full intellectual and social meaning of a
vocation would include instruction in the historic background of
present conditions; training in science to give intelligence and
initiative in dealing with material and agencies of production;
and study of economics, civics, and politics, to bring the future
worker into touch with the problems of the day and the various
methods proposed for its improvement. Above all, it would train
power of readaptation to changing conditions so that future
workers would not become blindly subject to a fate imposed upon
them. This ideal has to contend not only with the inertia of
existing educational traditions, but also with the opposition of
those who are entrenched in command of the industrial machinery,
and who realize that such an educational system if made general
would threaten their ability to use others for their own ends.
But this very fact is the presage of a more equitable and
enlightened social order, for it gives evidence of the dependence
of social reorganization upon educational reconstruction. It is
accordingly an encouragement to those believing in a better order
to undertake the promotion of a vocational education which does
not subject youth to the demands and standards of the present
system, but which utilizes its scientific and social factors to
develop a courageous intelligence, and to make intelligence
practical and executive.
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Democracy and Education
241
Summary. A vocation signifies any form of continuous activity
which renders service to others and engages personal powers in
behalf of the accomplishment of results. The question of the
relation of vocation to education brings to a focus the various
problems previously discussed regarding the connection of thought
with bodily activity; of individual conscious development with
associated life; of theoretical culture with practical behavior
having definite results; of making a livelihood with the worthy
enjoyment of leisure. In general, the opposition to recognition
of the vocational phases of life in education (except for the
utilitarian three R's in elementary schooling) accompanies the
conservation of aristocratic ideals of the past. But, at the
present juncture, there is a movement in behalf of something
called vocational training which, if carried into effect, would
harden these ideas into a form adapted to the existing industrial
regime. This movement would continue the traditional liberal
or cultural education for the few economically able to enjoy it,
and would give to the masses a narrow technical trade education
for specialized callings, carried on under the control of others.
This scheme denotes, of course, simply a perpetuation of the
older social division, with its counterpart intellectual and
moral dualisms. But it means its continuation under conditions
where it has much less justification for existence. For
industrial life is now so dependent upon science and so
intimately affects all forms of social intercourse, that there is
an opportunity to utilize it for development of mind and
character. Moreover, a right educational use of it would react
upon intelligence and interest so as to modify, in connection
with legislation and administration, the socially obnoxious
features of the present industrial and commercial order. It
would turn the increasing fund of social sympathy to constructive
account, instead of leaving it a somewhat blind philanthropic
sentiment.
It would give those who engage in industrial callings desire and
ability to share in social control, and ability to become masters
of their industrial fate. It would enable them to saturate with
meaning the technical and mechanical features which are so marked
a feature of our machine system of production and distribution.
So much for those who now have the poorer economic opportunities.
With the representatives of the more privileged portion of the
community, it would increase sympathy for labor, create a
disposition of mind which can discover the culturing elements in
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