Ontario Normal School Manuals: Science of Education | Page 4

to co-operate with them, and has so adjusted himself to his physical surroundings that he is able to make this co-operation effective, and thus live a socially efficient life.
FACTORS IN SOCIAL EFFICIENCY
=A. Knowledge, a Factor in Social Efficiency.=--The following simple examples will more fully demonstrate the factors which enter into the socially efficient life. The young child, for instance, who lives on the shore of one of our great lakes, may learn through his knowledge of colour to distinguish between the water and the sky on the horizon line. This knowledge, he finds, however, does not enter in any degree into his social life within the home. When on the same basis, however, he learns to distinguish between the ripe and the unripe berries in the garden, he finds this knowledge of service in the community, or home, life, since it enables him to distinguish the fruit his mother may desire for use in the home. One mark of social efficiency, therefore, is to possess knowledge that will enable us to serve effectively in society.
=B. Skill, a Factor in Social Efficiency.=--In the sphere of action, also, the child might acquire skill in making stones skip over the surface of the lake. Here, again, however, the acquired skill would serve no purpose in the community life, except perhaps occasionally to enable him to amuse himself or his fellows. When, on the other hand, he acquires skill in various home occupations, as opening and closing the gates, attending to the furnace, harnessing and driving the horse, or playing a musical instrument, he finds that this skill enables him in some measure to serve in the community life of which he is a member. A second factor in social efficiency, therefore, is the possession of such skill as will enable us to co-operate effectively within our social environment.
=C. Right Feeling, a Factor in Social Efficiency.=--But granting the possession of adequate knowledge and skill, a man may yet fall far short of the socially efficient life. The machinist, for instance, may know fully all that pertains to the making of an excellent engine for the intended steamboat. He may further possess the skill necessary to its actual construction. But through indifference or a desire for selfish gain, this man may build for the vessel an engine which later, through its poor construction, causes the loss of the ship and its crew. A third necessary requisite in social efficiency, therefore, is the possession of a sense of duty which compels us to use our knowledge and skill with full regard to the feelings and rights of others. Thus a certain amount of socially useful knowledge, a certain measure of socially effective skill, and a certain sense of moral obligation, or right feeling, all enter as factors into the socially efficient life.
FORMAL EDUCATION
Assuming that the educator is thus able to distinguish what constitutes a life of worth, and to recognize and in some measure control the stimulations and reactions of the child, it is evident that he should be able to devise ways and means by which the child may grow into a more worthy, that is, into a more socially efficient, life. Such an attempt to control the reactions of the child as he adjusts himself to the physical and social world about him, in order to render him a more socially efficient member of the society to which he belongs, is described as formal education.
CHAPTER II
FORMS OF REACTION
INSTINCTIVE REACTION
Since the educator aims to direct the development of the child by controlling his reactions upon his physical and social surroundings, we have next to consider the forms under which these reactions occur. Even at birth the human organism is endowed with certain tendencies, which enable it to react effectively upon the presentation of appropriate stimuli. Our instinctive movements, such as sucking, hiding, grasping, etc., being inherited tendencies to react under given conditions in a more or less effective manner for our own good, constitute one type of reactive movement. At birth, therefore, the child is endowed with powers, or tendencies, which enable him to adapt himself more or less effectively to his surroundings. Because, however, the child's early needs are largely physical, many of his instincts, such as those of feeding, fighting, etc., lead only to self-preservative acts, and are, therefore, individual rather than social in character. Even these individual tendencies, however, enable the child to adjust himself to his surroundings, and thus assist that physical growth without which, as will be learned later, there could be no adequate intellectual and moral development. But besides these, the child inherits many social and adaptive tendencies--love of approbation, sympathy, imitation, curiosity, etc., which enable him of himself to participate in some measure in the social life about him.
=Instinct and Education.=--Our instincts being inherited tendencies, it follows that