America, C: Catholic Educational Review, Vol. 20

Excerpt from The Catholic Educational Review, Vol. 20: January-December, 1922

Education, we are told, is a process of adjustment. Under whatever aspect we consider it, this idea Of adjustment to environment strikes us as the determining and dominant idea in education. Spencer's definition of the process as prepara tion for complete living is but another way Of stating the same fact. Now there are, as we know, various agencies by which this adjustment is brought about. Some of these act without conscious direction and exercise their in¿uence upon the human individual in much the same way as environment modi fies the lower forms Of life, both plant and animal. The adjust ment thus attained is known as informal education; and in this sense man is educated by all the sights and sounds, the joys and sorrows, which he encounters, by the character and be havior Of his friends, the nature Of his surroundings, the books he reads (fitch) in short, by all the agents and powers Of whatever kind that act on him from the cradle to the grave (payne).

Ordinarily the term education is restricted to the conscious process and connotes whatever we do for ourselves and what ever is done for us by others for the express purpose Of bring ing us nearer to the perfection Of our nature (mill). This, especially the latter phase - whatever is done for us by others - is what we understand by formal education, not forgetting the fact that the process is an active one largely dependent upon the personal effort of the individual to be educated. Now the agencies by which education in this sense of the term is controlled are five in number, viz., the home, the school.

About the Publisher

Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com

This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.