When all
peoples come to think and yearn toward this goal, hatred and strife will
be banished and peace and righteousness will be enthroned in the hearts of
men. When there has been developed in all the nations of the earth an
ardent love for the true, the beautiful, and the good, civilization will
step up to a higher level and we shall see the dawn of unity.
We who are indulging in dreams of the brotherhood of man must enlarge our
concept of society before we can hope to have our dreams come true. It is
a far cry from society as a strictly American affair to society as a world
affair. The teaching of our schools has had a distinct tendency to
restrict our notion of society to that within our own national boundaries.
In this we convict ourselves of provincialism. Society is far larger than
America, or China, or Russia, or all the islands of the sea in
combination. It may entail some straining at the mental leash to win this
concept of society, but it must be won as a condition precedent to a fair
and just estimate of what the function of education really is and what it
is of which the schoolhouse must be an exponent. Society must be thought
of as including all nations, tribes, and tongues. In our thinking, the
word "society" must suggest the hut that nestles on the mountain-side as
well as the palace that fronts the stately boulevard. It must suggest the
cape that indents the sea as well as the vast plain that stretches out
from river to river.
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