ics as do children. It
is now certain that no formula will provide education for all children.
Each new study of community needs makes it more evident that no system
will supply education for all communities. It is the business of the
educator to study the individual child and the individual community, and
then to provide an education that will assist both to grow normally and
soundly in all of their parts.

V The Final Test of Education

The school is a servant, not a master. In that fact lies its
greatness--the greatness of its opportunity and of its responsibility.
As an institution its object is service--assistance in growth.
Development is the goal of education. Virility, efficiency, citizenship,
manhood, womanhood--these are its legitimate products. Its tools and
formulas are such as will most effectively serve these ends. When the
increase of knowledge leads to new methods and formulas which will prove
more effective than the old ones, then the old ones must be laid aside,
reverently, perhaps, but none the less firmly, and the new ones adopted.
Changes may not be made hastily and without due consideration; but when
experiment has shown that the new device is more advantageous in
furthering the objects of education than the old and tried formulas, a
change is inevitable.

The first and last word on the subject is spoken when this question is
asked and answered: "Does education exist for children, or do children
exist for education?"

If children exist for education, then it is just that an objective
educational standard should be created; it is fair that a hard and fast
course of study be mapped out in conformity with that standard; it is
right that educational machinery be constructed which automatically
turns away from the schools any child who does not conform to the school
system as it is. If children exist for education, they should either
conform to its requirements, or else, if they will not or cannot
conform, they should be mercilessly thrust aside.

If, on the other hand, education exists for children, then the primal
consideration must be child needs. If any one child, or any group of
children, has needs which are not met by existing educational
institutions, then these institutions must be remodeled. If an adequate
congenial education is a part of the birthright of every American child,
then educational institutions must be reorganized and reshaped until
they provide that birthright in the fulle