E
V. THE TEACHER-POLITICIAN
VI. SUBLIME CHAOS
VII. DEMOCRACY
VIII. PATRIOTISM
IX. WORK AND LIFE
X. WORDS AND THEIR CONTENT
XI. COMPLETE LIVING
XII. THE TIME ELEMENT
XIII. THE ARTIST TEACHER
XIV. THE TEACHER AS AN IDEAL
XV. THE SOCIALIZED RECITATION
XVI. AGRICULTURE
XVII. THE SCHOOL AND THE COMMUNITY
XVIII. POETRY AND LIFE
XIX. A SENSE OF HUMOR
XX. THE ELEMENT OF HUMAN INTEREST
XXI. BEHAVIOR
XXII. BOND AND FEAR
XXIII. EXAMINATIONS
XXIV. WORLD-BUILDING
XXV. A TYPICAL VITALIZED SCHOOL

THE VITALIZED SCHOOL

CHAPTER I

TEACHING SCHOOL

=Life and living compared.=--There is a wide difference between
school-teaching and teaching school. The question "Is she a
school-teacher?" means one thing; but the question "Can she teach
school?" means quite another. School-teaching may be living; but
teaching school is life. And any one who has a definition of life can
readily find a definition for teaching school. Much of the criticism of
the work of the schools emanates from sources that have a restricted
concept of life. The artisan who defines life in terms of his own trade
is impatient with much that the school is trying to do. He would have
the scope of the school narrowed to his concept of life. If art and
literature are beyond the limits of his concept, he can see no warrant
for their presence in the school. The work of the schools cannot be
standardized until life itself is standardized, and that is neither
possible nor desirable. The glory of life is that it does not have
fixity, that it is ever crescent.

=Teaching defined.=--Teaching school may be defined, therefore, as the
process of interpreting life by the laboratory method. The teacher's
work is to open the gates of life for the pupils. But, before these
gates can be opened, the teacher must know what and where they are. This
view of the teacher's work is neither fanciful nor fantastic; quite the
contrary. Life is the common heritage of people young and old, and the
school should be so organized and administered as to teach people how to
use this heritage to the best advantage both for themselves and for
others. If a child should be absent from school altogether, or if he
should be incarcerated in prison from his sixth to his eighteenth year,
he would still have life. But, if he is in school during those twelve
years, he is supposed to have life that is of b