Education exists for the purpose of preparing and assisting children to live. To do that work effectively, it must devote only so much effort to school administration and to school machinery as will perform for boys and girls that very effective service.
No two children are alike, and no two children have exactly similar needs. There are, however, certain kinds of needs which all children have in common. It is obviously impossible to discuss in the abstract the needs of any individual child. It is just as obviously possible to analyze child needs, and to classify them in workable groups. It is true that all children are different; so are all roses different, yet all have petals and thorns in common. Similarly, there are certain needs which are common to all children who play, who grow, who live among their fellows, and who expect to do something in life. The matter may be stated more concretely thus,—
I. The school exists to assist and prepare children to live.
II. Living involves three kinds of needs, which it is the duty of the school to understand and interpret.
1. Needs which the child has because he is a physical being.
2. Needs which result from the child’s surroundings.
3. Needs which arise in connection with the things which the child hopes to do in life.
A further analysis of these groups of needs constitutes the subject matter of the next chapter.
FOOTNOTES:
[19] Sacrificing Children, W. E. Chancellor, Journal of Education, Vol. 77, pp. 564-565 (May 22, 1913).