Education is Continuous.

How often do we hear people say that their education is completed? But if education means the harmonious adjustment of the individual to the progressive changes in the organization and ideals of his community, it is clear that education is life-long: death or a fixed set of habits and prejudices can alone bring the process to an end. The function of the school—primary, secondary or university—is not to educate in this wide sense of the term, indeed it cannot. Education must take place in the actual process of living; the education of a doctor involves practice in the medical art, of a lawyer that of the legal profession, of a citizen that of citizenship. We can learn only by doing; a doctor, lawyer, or citizen only by the practice of their respective arts.

What, then, can the schools do for us? They may make us familiar with our social heritage and equip us with the tools by the use of which we may learn to carry on our life-duties effectively. The value of any system of education, therefore, can be fairly judged only in terms of the character of the citizens it turns out, and their capacity to handle the problems of their social relations.

It is the realisation of these two facts—the increasing complexity of society, and the need of greater insight and wider sympathies among citizens if they are to solve their social problems — that has developed interest in adult education. The young have occupied the centre of the educational stage during the past fifty years. In the half century that lies in front of us the adult will come into this position. The change does not mean that less will be done for the child, for we now realise that the education of the child is beginning to mark time till the education of the adult comes into line. It is now the limited vision of the adult that is the most serious hindrance to the development of fuller educational facilities for the child. We have been too ready to imagine that we may relieve ourselves of civic responsibility by handing over our children to teachers. But adults form perhaps the most important part of the environment of children, and however much we may desire that they shall do what we tell them to do, and not what we do, we shall find that human nature is not built on that plan. If we wish our children to be just, we must be just; page 24 if we wish them to be truthful, we must be truthful; if we wish them to be courageous and earnest we must have done with unworthy fears and slackness.