zarre, the
gaudy, and the superficial. He knows that there are real values in life
that are worthy of his powers and best efforts, and these real values
are the goal of his endeavors. Moreover, he has achieved freedom, and so
is not fettered by precedent, convention, or fads. He is free to
establish precedents, to violate the conventions when a great principle
is at stake, and to ignore fads. He can stand unabashed in the presence
of the learned of the earth, and can understand the heartbeats of life,
because he has had experience both of learning and of life. And being a
free man his life is fuller and richer, and he knows when and how to
bestow the help that will give to others a sense of freedom and make
life for them a greater boon.

QUESTIONS AND EXERCISES

1. Account for the production of some of our greatest religious
literature in prison or in exile. Give other instances than the one
mentioned by the author.

2. Give your idea of the author's concept of the terms "bondage" and
"freedom."

3. Add to the instances noted in this chapter where ignorance has
produced bondage.

4. Defend the assertion that the cost of ignorance in our country
exceeds the cost of education. The total amount spent for public
education in 1915 slightly exceeded $500,000,000.

5. How do the typical recitations of your school contribute to the
happiness of your pupils? Be specific.

6. How may lack of thoroughness limit freedom? Illustrate.

7. How may education give rise to self-reliance? Self-respect?

8. Show that national and religious freedom depend upon education.

CHAPTER XXIII

EXAMINATIONS

=Prelude.=--When the vitalized school has finally been achieved there
will result a radical departure from the present procedure in the matter
of examinations. A teacher in the act of preparing a list of examination
questions of the traditional type is not an edifying spectacle. He has a
text-book open before him from which he extracts nuts for his pupils to
crack. It is a purely mechanical process and only a mechanician could
possibly debase intelligence and manhood to such unworthy uses. Were it
not so pathetic it would excite laughter. But this teacher is the victim
of tradition. He knows no other way. He made out examination questions
in accordance with this plan fifteen years ago and the heavens didn't
fall; then why, pray, change the method? Besides, men and women who were
thus examined when they were children in