1.
Development when it is interpreted in comparative terms, that is, with
respect to the special traits of child and adult life, means the
direction of power into special channels: the formation of habits
involving executive skill, definiteness of interest, and specific
objects of observation and thought. But the comparative view is not
final. The child has specific powers; to ignore that fact is to stunt
or distort the organs upon which his growth depends. The adult uses his
powers to transform his environment, thereby occasioning new stimuli
which redirect his powers and keep them developing. Ignoring this fact
means arrested development, a passive accommodation. Normal child and
normal adult alike, in other words, are engaged in growing. The
difference between them is not the difference between growth and no
growth, but between the modes of growth appropriate to different
conditions. With respect to the development of powers devoted to coping
with specific scientific and economic problems we may say the child
should be growing in manhood. With respect to sympathetic curiosity,
unbiased responsiveness, and openness of mind, we may say that the adult
should be growing in childlikeness. One statement is as true as the
other.
Three ideas which have been criticized, namely, the merely privative
nature of immaturity, static adjustment to a fixed environment, and
rigidity of habit, are all connected with a false idea of growth or
development,—that it is a movement toward a fixed goal. Growth is
regarded as having an end, instead of being an end. The
educational counterparts of the three fallacious ideas are first, failure
to take account of the instinctive or native powers of the young; secondly,
failure to develop initiative in coping with novel situations; thirdly,
an undue emphasis upon drill and other devices which secure automatic
skill at the expense of personal perception. In all cases, the adult
environment is accepted as a standard for the child. He is to be
brought up to it.
Natural instincts are either disregarded or treated as
nuisances—as obnoxious traits to be suppressed, or at all events
to be brought into conformity with external standards. Since conformity
is the aim, what is distinctively individual in a young person is
brushed aside, or regarded as a source of mischief or anarchy.
Conformity is made equivalent to uniformity. Consequently, there are
induced lack of interest in the novel, aversion to progress, and dread
of the uncertain and the unknown. Since the end of growth is outside of
and beyond the process of growing, external agents have to be resorted
to to induce movement toward it. Whenever a method of education is
stigmatized as mechanical, we may be sure that external pressure is
brought to bear to reach an external end.
