1. What is the general function of the school?
  2. What is meant by the school’s being the “melting-pot”?
  3. What objection is there to the expression “getting an education”? What would be a better expression to indicate the purpose of attending school?
  4. What diseases that invade society would be checked if in school the stream of life were rectified?
  5. Why is it desirable that pupils shall not lose their individuality in passing through school?
  6. What is the primary purpose of each school study, for instance, language?
  7. What is the true purpose of grammar?
  8. What do these functions of the school and of its studies teach us regarding the adaptation of subjects and methods to the individual?
  9. Tell something of the work done in vocational guidance in Boston.
  10. Tell something of the methods employed by some corporations in choosing employees naturally fitted for the work.
  11. Tell something of the psychological tests for vocations devised by Professor Münsterberg. (Psychology and Industrial Efficiency, Hugo Münsterberg, Houghton Mifflin Co., 1913.)
  12. What do you think is the practicable way of helping the pupils in your school to develop along the lines of their natural endowment?
  13. What is the effect on society when a man does work for which he is not fitted?
  14. Show some ways in which the interests of the school as a whole may be fostered and a natural development of the class as a whole be secured.
  15. There has been a big fire in town. Show how the interest in this event may be used in the day’s work.
  16. In what ways is one who has had private instruction likely to be a poorer citizen than one who has attended school?
  17. What conditions might cause some of those who go through school to be polluted instead of rectified? Whose fault would it be?
  18. What questions should we ask ourselves about the things that are being done in our schools?

CHAPTER XVIII

POETRY AND LIFE

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Poetry defined.—Poetry has been defined as “a message from the heart of the artist to the heart of the man”; and, seeing that the heart is the center and source of life, it follows that poetry is a means of effecting a transfusion of life. The poet ponders life long and deeply and then gives forth an interpretation in artistic form that is surcharged with the very quintessence of life. The poet absorbs life from a thousand sources—the sky, the forest, the mountain, the sunrise, the ocean, the storm, the child in the mother’s arms, and the man at his work, and then transmits it that the recipient may have a new influx of life. The poet’s quest is life, his theme is life, and his gift to man is life. His mission is to gain a larger access of life and to give life in greater abundance. He gains the meaning of life from the snowflake and the avalanche; from the grain of sand and the fertile valley; from the raindrop and the sea; from the chirp of the cricket and the crashing of the thunder; from the firefly and the lightning’s flash; and from Vesuvius and Sinai. To know life he listens to the baby’s prattle, the mother’s lullaby, and the father’s prayer; he looks upon faces that show joy and sorrow, hope and despair, defeat and triumph; and he feels the pulsations of the tides, the hurricane, and the human heart.

How the poet learns life.—He sits beside the bed of sickness and hears the feeble and broken words that tell of the past, the present, and the future; he visits the field of battle and sees the wreckage of the passions of men; he goes into the dungeon and hears the ravings and revilings of a distorted soul; he visits pastoral scenes where peace and plenty unite in a song of praise; he rides the mighty ship and knows the heartbeats of the ocean; he sits within the church and opens the doors of his soul to its holy influences; he enters the hovel whose squalor proclaims it the abode of ignorance and vice; he visits the home of happiness where industry and frugality pour forth their bounteous gifts and love sways its gentle scepter; and he sits at the feet of his mother and imbibes her gracious spirit.

Transfusion of life.—And then he writes; and as he writes his pen drips life. He knows and feels, and, therefore, he expresses, and his words are the distillations of life. His spiritual percipience has rendered his soul a veritable garden of emotions, and with his pen he transplants these in the written page. And men see and come to pluck the flowers to transplant again in their own souls that they, too, may have a garden like unto his. His élan carries over into the lives of these men and they glow with the ardor of his emotions and are inspired to deeds of courage, of service, and of solace. For every flower plucked from his garden another grows in its stead more beautiful and more fragrant than its fellow, and he is reinspired as he inspires others. And thus in this transfusion of life there is an undertow that carries back into his own life and makes his spirit more fertile.

Aspiration.—When he would teach men to aspire he writes “Excelsior” and so causes them to know that only he who aspires really lives. They see the groundling, the boor, the drudge, and the clown content to dwell in the valley amid the loaves and fishes of animal desires, while the man who aspires is struggling toward the heights whence he may gain an outlook upon the glories that are, know the throb and thrill of new life, and experience the swing and sweep of spiritual impulses. He makes them to know that the man who aspires recks not of cold, of storm, or of snow, if only he may reach the summit and lave his soul in the glory that crowns the marriage of earth and sky. They feel that the aspirant is but yielding obedience to the behests of his better self to scale the heights where sublimity dwells.

Perseverance.—Or he writes the fourth “Æneid” to make men feel that the palm of victory comes only to those who persevere to the end; that duty does not abdicate in favor of inclination; and that the high gods will not hold guiltless the man who stops short of Italy to loiter and dally in Carthage even in the sunshine of a Dido’s smile. When Italy is calling, no siren song of pleasure must avail to lure him from his course, nor must his sail be furled until the keel grates upon the Italian shore. His navigating skill must guide him through the perils of Scylla and Charybdis and the stout heart of manhood must bear him past Mount Ætna’s fiery menace. His dauntless courage must brave the anger of the greedy waves and boldly ride them down. Nor must his cup of joy be full until the wished-for land shall greet his eager eyes.