k, but diagnosis must
necessarily precede the application of remedies. If we are to reconstruct
education in order to effect a reconstruction of society we must know our
problem in advance, that we may proceed in a rational way. Reconstruction
cannot be made permanently effective by haphazard methods. We must
visualize clearly the objectives of our endeavors in order to obviate
wrong methods and futility. We must have the whole matter laid bare before
our eyes or we shall not get on in the work of reconstruction. It were
more agreeable to dwell upon our achievements, and they are many, but the
process of reconstruction has to do with the affected parts. These must be
our special care, these the realm for our kindly surgery and the arts of
healing. We need to become acutely conscious that the present will become
the past and that there will be a new present which will take on the same
qualities that now characterize our present. We need to feel that the
future will look back to our present and commend or condemn according to
the practices of this generation. And the only way to make a sane and
right future is to create a sane and right present.

CHAPTER THREE

THE FUTURE AS RELATED TO THE PRESENT

In planning a journey the one constant is the destination. All the other
elements are variable, and, therefore, subordinate. So, also, in planning
a course of study. The qualities to be developed through the educational
processes are the constants, while the agencies by which these qualities
are to be attained are subject to change. The course of study provides for
the school activities for the child for a period of twelve years, and it
is altogether pertinent to inquire what qualities we hope to develop by
means of these school activities. To do this effectively we must visualize
the pupil when he emerges from the school period and ask ourselves what
qualities we hope to have him possess at the close of this period. If we
decide upon such qualities as imagination, initiative, aspiration,
appreciation, courage, loyalty, reverence, a sense of responsibility,
integrity, and serenity, we have discovered some of the constants toward
which all the work of the twelve years must be directed. In planning a
course of study toward these constants we do not restrict the scope of the
pupil's activities; quite the reverse. We thus enlarge the concept of
education both for himself and his teachers and emphasize the fact that
educat