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experience, in short. If it is not, then when the time and place
come for it to be used as a means or
instrumentality, it will be in just that much handicapped. Never
having been realized or appreciated for itself, one will miss
something of its capacity as a resource for other ends.
It equally follows that when we compare studies as to their
values, that is, treat them as means to something beyond
themselves, that which controls their proper valuation is found
in the specific situation in which they are to be used. The way
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Democracy and Education
182
to enable a student to apprehend the instrumental value of
arithmetic is not to lecture him upon the benefit it will be to
him in some remote and uncertain future, but to let him discover
that success in something he is interested in doing depends upon
ability to use number.
It also follows that the attempt to distribute distinct sorts of
value among different studies is a misguided one, in spite of the
amount of time recently devoted to the undertaking. Science for
example may have any kind of value, depending upon the situation
into which it enters as a means. To some the value of science
may be military; it may be an instrument in strengthening means
of offense or defense; it may be technological, a tool for
engineering; or it may be commercial -- an aid in the successful
conduct of business; under other conditions, its worth may be
philanthropic -- the service it renders in relieving human
suffering; or again it may be quite conventional -- of value in
establishing one's social status as an "educated" person. As
matter of fact, science serves all these purposes, and it would
be an arbitrary task to try to fix upon one of them as its "real"
end. All that we can be sure of educationally is that science
should be taught so as to be an end in itself in the lives of
students--something worth while on account of its own unique
intrinsic contribution to the experience of life. Primarily it
must have "appreciation value. " If we take something which
seems to be at the opposite pole, like poetry, the same sort of
statement applies. It may be that, at the present time, its
chief value is the contribution it makes to the enjoyment of
leisure. But that may represent a degenerate condition rather
than anything necessary. Poetry has historically been allied
with religion and morals; it has served the purpose of
penetrating the mysterious depths of things. It has had an
enormous patriotic value. Homer to the Greeks was a Bible, a
textbook of morals, a history, and a national inspiration. In
any case, it may be said that an education which does not succeed
in making poetry a resource in the business of life as well as in
its leisure, has something the matter with it -- or else the
poetry is artificial poetry.
The same considerations apply to the value of a study or a topic
of a study with reference to its motivating force. Those
responsible for planning and teaching the course of study should
have grounds for thinking that the studies and topics included
furnish both direct increments to the enriching of lives of the
pupils and also materials which they can put to use in other
concerns of direct interest. Since the curriculum is always
getting loaded down with purely inherited traditional matter and
with subjects which represent mainly the energy of some
influential person or group of persons in behalf of something
dear to them, it requires constant inspection, criticism, and
revision to make sure it is accomplishing its purpose. Then
there is always the probability that it represents the values of
adults rather than those of children and youth, or those of
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Democracy and Education
183
pupils a generation ago rather than those of the present day.
Hence a further need for a critical outlook and survey. But
these considerations do not mean that for a subject to have
motivating value to a pupil (whether intrinsic or instrumental)
is the same thing as for him to be aware of the value, or to be
able to tell what the study is good for.
In the first place, as long as any topic makes an immediate
appeal, it is not necessary to ask what it is good for. This is
a question which can be asked only about instrumental values.
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