Its supreme importance is due to the fact that all the pupils expect to
live in a democracy, and, unless they learn democracy, life cannot
attain to its maximum of agreeableness for them nor can they make the
largest possible contributions to the well-being of society. It has been
said that the seventeenth century saw Versailles; the eighteenth century
saw the Earth; and the nineteenth century saw Humanity. Then the very
pertinent question is asked, "Which century will see Life?" We who love
our country and our form of government fondly hope that we may be the
first to see Life, and, if this privilege falls to our lot, we must come
to see life through the medium of democracy.
=The vitalized school a democracy.=--Life seems to be an abstract
something to many people, but it must become concrete before they can
really see it as it is. Democracy is a means, therefore, of transforming
abstract life into concrete life, and so we are to come into a fuller
comprehension of life through the gateway of democracy. The vitalized
school is a laboratory of life and, at the same time, it is the most
nearly perfect exemplification of democracy. The nearer its approach to
perfection in exemplifying the spirit and workings of a democracy, the
larger service it renders society. If the outflow from the school into
society is a high quality of democracy, the general tone of society will
be improved.
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