Direction:
A community or a social group sustains itself through
continuous
self-renewal, and this renewal takes place by
means of the
educational growth of the immature members
of a group.
By various agencies, unintentional and designed,
(5) a society transforms uninitiated
and seemingly alien beings
into robust
trustees of its own resources and ideals.
Education is
thus a fostering, a nurturing, a cultivating and
a
process. Etymologically, the word education means just
a process of
bringing up. When we have the outcome of
(10) the process in mind, we speak of education
as shaping,
forming, molding
activity - that is, a shaping into the standard
form
of social activity.
Since what
is required is a transformation of the quality of
experience,
till it partakes in the interests, purposes, and
(15) ideas current in the social group, the
problem is evidently
not one of
mere physical forming. Things can be physically
transported
in space; they may be bodily conveyed.
Beliefs and
aspirations cannot be physically extracted and
inserted.
How then are they communicated? Given the
(20) impossibility of direct contagion or literal
inculcation, our
problem is
to discover the method by which the young
assimilate
the point of view of the old, or the older bring
the young
into like-mindedness with themselves. The
answer, in
general formulation, is: by means of the action
(25) of the environment in calling out certain
responses. The
required
beliefs cannot be hammered in; the needed
attitudes
cannot be plastered on. But the particular
medium in
which an individual exists leads him to see and
feel one
thing rather than another; it leads him to have
(30) certain plans in order that he may act
successfully with
others; it strengthens some beliefs and weakens others as
a condition
of winning the approval of others. Thus it
gradually
produces in him a certain system of behavior, a
certain
disposition of action. The word "environment"
(35) denotes something more than surroundings
that encompass
an
individual.
They denote
the specific continuity of the surroundings with
his active
tendencies. An inanimate being is, of course,
continuous
with its surroundings; but the environing
(40) circumstances do not, save metaphorically, constitute an
environment. For, the inorganic being is not concerned
with the
influences that affect it. On the other hand, some
things that
are remote in space and time from a living
creature,
especially a human creature, may form his
(45) environment even more truly than some of the
things close
to him. The
things with which a man varies are his genuine
environment.
Thus the activities of the astronomer vary with
the stars.
Of his immediate surroundings, his telescope is
most
intimately his environment. The environment of an
(50) antiquarian, as an antiquarian, consists of
the remote epoch
of human
life with which he is concerned with, and the relics,
inscriptions, etc., by which he establishes connections with
that period.
In brief,
the environment consists of those conditions that
(55) promote or hinder, stimulate or inhibit the
characteristic
activities
of a living being. Water is the environment of a
fish because
it is necessary to the fish's activities - to its
life.
The North
Pole is a significant element in the environment
(60) of an arctic explorer, whether he succeeds
in reaching it or
not, because
it defines his activities, makes them what
they
distinctively are. Just because life signifies not bare
passive
existence, but a way of acting, environment or
medium
signifies what enters into this activity as a
(65) sustaining or
frustrating condition.