Intelligence work is required. In
political and industrial problems the critic as such can do something,
but unless he can count upon receiving from expert reporters a valid
picture of the environment, his dialectic cannot go far.
Therefore, though here, as in most other matters, "education" is the
supreme remedy, the value of this education will depend upon the
evolution of knowledge. And our knowledge of human institutions is
still extraordinarily meager and impressionistic. The gathering of
social knowledge is, on the whole, still haphazard; not, as it will
have to become, the normal accompaniment of action. And yet the
collection of information will not be made, one may be sure, for the
sake of its ultimate use. It will be made because modern decision
requires it to be made. But as it is being made, there will accumulate
a body of data which political science can turn into generalization,
and build up for the schools into a conceptual picture of the world.
When that picture takes form, civic education can become a preparation
for dealing with an unseen environment.
As a working model of the social system becomes available to the
teacher, he can use it to make the pupil acutely aware of how his mind
works on unfamiliar facts. Until he has such a model, the teacher
cannot hope to prepare men fully for the world they will find. What he
can do is to prepare them to deal with that world with a great deal
more sophistication about their own minds.
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