Education involves the idea of educating for the future--immediate or remote. It is not ordinarily thought of merely as an experience worth while in itself, but more as a means to an end. It is the process of training individuals in the direction deemed beneficial to them and to society as a collection of individuals. Its scope is as broad as life itself and its aims should be formulated only on the basis of probable future fields of activities of those educated. Some fields of activities are specialized, and engaged in by limited numbers, as for instance agriculture or any other particular vocation, but there are types of activities which should be common to all who live under our form of life and government (Maehr & Maehr, 1996). Education should be arranged to meet probable needs in these common fields.
Education must adjust itself not only to the purposes and ideals but to the non-static conditions of American society as well. The school is not only a social institution but is supplementary to other social institutions in nature and function. The responsibility for various educational services is shared by other agencies. Society, through the agencies of government, sees fit to exercise but very loose control over the educational programs of these organizations. The school must be flexible and must make whatever adjustments the educational interests and the changes in society and social institutions demand.
Social conditions are constantly undergoing changes, many of which not only result in diminishing the educational contributions of institutions other than schools, but also in changing and increasing the nature of the demands upon education. For example, complex economic and political problems make mandatory careful attention to the development of an intelligent suffrage; and the development of cities, the automobile, and organized crime have increased tremendously the needs for moral education in the schools..........
