There is a marked difference between the education which every
one gets from living with others and the deliberate educating of the young. In
the former case the education is incidental; it is natural and important, but it
is not the express reason of the association. (46) It may be said that the
measure of the worth of any social institution is its effect in enlarging and
improving experience, but this effect is not a part of its original motive.
Religious associations began, for example, in the desire to secure the favor of
overruling powers and to ward off evil influences; family life in the desire to
gratify appetites and secure family perpetuity; systematic labor, for the most
part, because of enslavement to others, etc. (47) Only gradually was the
by-product of the institution noted, and only more gradually still was this
effect considered as a directive factor in the conduct of the institution.
Even today, in our industrial life, apart from certain values of industriousness
and thrift, the intellectual and emotional reaction of the forms of human
association under which the world’s work is carried on receives little attention
as compared with physical output. But in dealing with the young,
the fact of association itself as an immediate human fact, gains in importance.
(48) While it is easy to ignore in our contact with them the effect of our
acts upon their disposition, it is not se easy as in dealing with adults.
The need of training is too evident and the pressure to accomplish a change in
their attitude and habits is too urgent to leave these consequences wholly out
of account. (49) Since our chief business with them is to enable them to
share in a common life we cannot help considering whether or not we are forming
the powers which will secure this ability. If humanity has made some headway
in realizing that the ultimate value of every institution is its distinctively
human effect we may well believe that this lesson has been learned largely
through dealings with the young. (50) We are thus led to
distinguish, within the broad educational process which we have been so far
considering, a more formal kind of education—that of direct tuition or
schooling. In undeveloped social groups, we find very little formal teaching
and training. These groups mainly rely for instilling needed dispositions into
the young upon the same sort of association which keeps adults loyal to their
group.