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Sociology and Modern Social Problems

C >> Charles A. Ellwood >> Sociology and Modern Social Problems




Now what is true of crime is equally true of all social problems. They
may be approached from either of three sides:--first, from the
biological side, or the side of physical heredity; second, from the side
of social organization, or the improvement of the social environment;
third, from the side of individual character, or the psychical
adjustment of the individual to society. As Professor Ward and many
other sociologists have emphasized, it is this latter side which is the
most available point of attack on all social problems; for when we have
secured a right attitude of the individual toward society all social
problems will be more than half solved. Thus, as we said at the
beginning of this book, education has a bearing upon every social
problem, and every social problem also has a bearing upon education.
Just how important this reciprocal relationship between education and
social life is, we can appreciate only when we have considered somewhat
more fully the nature of social progress.

The Nature of Social Progress.--Social progress has been defined in many
ways by the social thinkers of the past. Without entering into any
formal definition of social progress, we believe that it will be evident
to the reader of this book that social progress consists, for one thing,
in the more complete adaptation of society to the conditions of life. We
regard those changes as progressive whether they be moral, intellectual,
or material, which bring about a better adaptation of individuals to one
another in society, and of social groups to the requirements of their
existence. Social progress means, in other words, the adaptation of
society to a wider and more universal environment. The ideal of human
progress is apparently adaptation to a perfectly universal environment,
such an adaptation as shall harmonize all factors whether internal or
external, present or remote, in the life of humanity. Social progress
means, therefore, greater harmony among the members of a group. It means
also greater efficiency of those members in performing their work.
Finally, it means greater ability on the part of the group to survive.
Social progress includes, therefore, the ideals of social harmony,
social efficiency, and social survival. Things which do not ultimately
conduce to these ends can scarcely be called progressive.

Now it is evident that adaptation on the part of individuals and groups
to the requirements of life may be in part accomplished by biological
selection, that is, by eliminating the least adapted. But selection is,
after all, a very clumsy and imperfect instrument for securing the
highest type of adaptation. Again, it is evident that a certain degree
of adaptation can be secured through the constraint of government and
law; but only a relatively low type of adaptation can be secured in such
an external way. It is finally evident, therefore, that the highest
type of adaptation in either individual or social life can be secured
only by training the intelligence and moral character of individuals so
that they will be sufficient to meet the requirements of existence.

Another feature of social progress which we have not yet mentioned in
this chapter, though we have noted it repeatedly in earlier chapters, is
the increased complexity of social organization. This increased
complexity is in part due to the mere increase in numbers. It is also
due to the various processes themselves by which wider and more
universal adaptation is brought about in society. Thus, while every
useful mechanical invention aids man to conquer nature, it at the same
time increases the complexity of social life. Now in a more complex
society there is more opportunity for conflicts of habit between
individuals, more opportunity for social maladjustment, and therefore
more opportunity for the failure of some part or all of the group in
achieving a social life characterized by harmony, efficiency, and
capacity for survival. Hence, the adaptation of individuals in the
large and complex groups of modern civilized societies becomes a greater
and greater problem. The regulative institutions of society, such as
government, law, religion, and education, have to grapple with this
problem of adjusting individuals to the requirements of an increasingly
complex social life. No doubt religion, government, and law have a great
function to perform in increasing social regulation, but they can only
perform it effectively after they enlist education on their side.

The Social Function of Education.--We are now prepared to understand the
meaning of educational systems in civilized society and to see what the
true function of education is. Education exists to adapt individuals to
their social life. It is for the purpose of fitting the individual to
take his place in the social group and to add something to the life of
the group. Educational systems exist not to train the individual to
develop his powers and capacity simply as an individual unit, but rather
to fit him effectively to carry on the social life before he actively
participates in it. In other words, the social function of education is
to guide and control the formation of habit and character on the part of
the individual, as well as to develop his capacity and powers, so that
he shall become an efficient member of society. This work is not, at
least in complex civilizations like our own, one which we carry on
simply in order to achieve social perfection, but it is rather something
which is necessary for the survival of large and complex groups.
Otherwise, as we have pointed out, the conflicts in the acquirement of
habit and character on the part of individuals would be so great that
there would be no possibility of their working together harmoniously in
a common social life. Just so far as the system of education is
defective, is insufficient to meet social needs, in so far may we expect
the production of individuals who are socially maladjusted, as shown in
pauperism, defectiveness, and crime.

Education is, then, the great means of controlling habit and character
in complex social groups, and as such it is the chief means to which
society must look for all substantial social progress. It is the
instrument by which human nature may be apparently indefinitely
modified, and hence, also, the instrument by which society may be
perfected. The task of social regeneration is essentially a task of
education.

Education as a Factor in Past Social Evolution.--Does past social
history justify these large claims for education as a factor in social
development? It must be replied that the history of human society
undoubtedly substantiates this position, but even if it did not, we
should still have good ground for claiming that education can be such an
all-powerful factor in the social future. The sociological study of past
civilizations, however, shows quite conclusively that all of them have
depended in one way or another upon educational processes, not only for
continuity, but largely, also, for their development. As we have already
seen, the life history of a culture or a civilization is frequently the
life history of a religion. But religious beliefs, together with the
moral and social beliefs, which become attached to them, were
effectively transmitted only through the instruction of the young. The
religious element did scarcely more than afford a powerful sanction for
the moral and social beliefs upon which the social organization of the
past rested; hence, when we ascribe great importance to the religious
factor in social evolution, we also ascribe, at the same time, great
importance to education, because it was essentially the educational
process, together with religious sanction, which made possible most of
the civilizations and social progress of the past.

Indeed, we have no record of any people of any very considerable culture
that did not employ educational processes to the largest degree to
preserve and transmit that culture from generation to generation.
Culture has been passed down in human history, therefore, essentially by
educational processes. These educational processes have controlled the
formation of habits and character, of ways of thinking and ways of
acting, in successive generations of individuals. The educational
processes have had much more to do, therefore, with the civilizations
and social organization of the past than industrial conditions.
Industrial conditions have been rather relatively external factors in
the social environment to which society has had to adapt itself more or
less. In the same way, political authority has rested on, and been
derived from, the social traditions rather than the reverse. It is
therefore not too much for the sociologist to say, agreeing with Thomas
Davidson, that education is the last and highest method of social
evolution. The lowest method of evolution was by selection, and
_that_, as we have already emphasized, cannot be neglected. The
next method of social evolution apparently to develop was the method of
adaptation by organized authority, and, as we have already seen,
organized authority in society, or social regulation by means of
authority, must indefinitely persist and perhaps increase, rather than
diminish; but the latest and highest method of social evolution is not
through biological selection nor through the exercise of despotic
authority, but through the education of the individual, so that he shall
become adjusted to the social life in habits and character before he
participates in it. Human society may be modified, we now see, best
through modifying the nature of the individual, and the most direct
method to do this is through education.

The Socialized Education of the Future.--If what has been said is
substantially correct, then education should become conscious of its
social mission and purpose. The educator should conserve education as
the chief means of social progress, and education should be directed to
producing efficient members of society. The education of the future must
aim, in other words, not at producing lawyers, physicians, engineers,
but at producing citizens. Education for citizenship means that there
must be radical reconstruction in the educational processes of the
present. The education of the nineteenth century aimed at developing
largely power and capacity in the individual as such. Its implicit, and
oftentimes its avowed, aim was individual success. The popularity of
higher education in the nineteenth century especially rested upon the
cult of individual success. It became, therefore, largely
commercialized, and emphasized chiefly the professions and occupations
which best assured the individual a successful career among a commercial
and industrial people.

It is needless to say that the individualistic, commercialized education
of the latter years of the nineteenth century very often failed to
produce the good citizen. On the contrary, with its ideal of individual
power and success, it frequently produced the cultured freebooter, which
our modern industry has so often afforded examples of. Education,
instead of being a socializing agency and the chief instrument of social
regeneration, became an individualizing agency dissolving the social
order itself.

Very slowly our educators are becoming conscious of the fact that this
type of education is a social menace, and that our educational system
needs reformation from bottom to top in order to become again equal to
the social task imposed upon it by the more complex social conditions of
the twentieth century. Hence the demand for a socialized education,
which is proceeding, not only from sociologists and social workers, but
from the progressive leaders of education itself. What this socialized
education of the future shall be is not the province of this book to
discuss, but a few of its essential characteristics may be noted. As
has already been said, such education will aim, first of all, at
producing the citizen before it aims at producing the lawyer, the
engineer, the physician, or any other professional or occupational type.
No doubt, this means, for one thing, that all individuals shall be
taught to be good fathers and mothers, good neighbors and members of
communities, even more than they are taught the accomplishments of life.
No doubt, also, the socialized education of the future will emphasize
the adjustment of the individual to the industrial order of society,
because it is necessary that individuals shall be producers if they are
to be efficient citizens. The necessity and value of industrial
training in our system of education has already been emphasized in
discussing other social problems. Such training has its place and that
place, as we have already seen, is a very important and fundamental one;
but it must not be forgotten that the relations of men to one another
are more important than the relations of men to nature. In industrial
training, the element which is apt to be emphasized is the relations of
the individual to the physical facts and forces of nature; but this is
only a beginning of the training for citizenship, because good
citizenship consists essentially in harmonious and efficient functioning
in the social group. Therefore, the study of the relationships of men to
one another must be the final and crowning element in a system of social
education. Such studies as history, government, economics, ethics, and
sociology must occupy a larger and larger place in the education of the
future if we are to secure a humanity adjusted to the requirements of
its existence. Historical and sociological instruction should lead up,
moreover, to direct ethical instruction. If the industrial element in
the social life is important, the moral element is even more so, since
it is, as we have already said, the ideal aspect of the social. In some
way or another, our public schools, from the kindergarten up, must make
a place for social and ethical instruction of a direct and explicit
character.

In the higher education, the social sciences must be especially
emphasized, because it is those who receive higher education who become
the leaders of society, and it is important, no matter what occupation
or profession they may serve society in, that they understand the
bearings of their work upon social welfare. They must know their duties
as citizens and understand how society may best be served. In other
words, our higher education should put to the front the ideal, not of
individual power and success, but of social service; and this means
that, in addition to the technical or professional education which the
more highly educated are giving, there must be a sufficient knowledge of
social conditions and of the laws and principles of social progress
given them to enable them to serve society rightly. Intelligent social
service cannot exist without social knowledge.

All this implies that the older idea that education can be given
regardless of content is, from the social point of view, a great
mistake. Social knowledge is necessary, as we have just said, for
efficient social service, and a socialized education can have no other
end than social service. Therefore, sociological knowledge in the
broadest sense should be required in the education of every citizen, and
particularly those who are to become social leaders. Professor Ward has
ably argued that if sufficient information of the facts, conditions, and
laws of human society could be given to all, that alone would bring
about in the highest degree social progress. Whether we agree or not
that the mere giving of information will of itself lead to progressive
or dynamic action in society, it must be admitted that right social
information is indispensable for right social action. As Professor
Cooley has said, "We live in a system, and to achieve right ends, or any
rational ends whatever, we must learn to understand that system."
Hence, the commanding place which sociology and the social sciences
should occupy in the education of all classes, and especially in the
training of the teacher himself.

It is not unreasonable to believe that the development of the social
sciences will show us the way to remove many, if not all, social evils;
and it is also not unreasonable to believe that the knowledge which
these sciences will furnish will stimulate in the vast mass of
individuals an impetus to remove these evils. Moreover, training in the
social sciences will check many of the most menacing tendencies of our
present civilization. For one thing, training in the social sciences
will lessen the practical materialism of modern civilization, for it
will throw the emphasis on the relations of men to one another rather
than on the relations of man to nature. The social sciences, aiming at
the control of the social conditions and of social progress, necessarily
emphasize the higher life of man, and they therefore set before the
student as the goal, not material achievement or individual success, but
the service of man. Again, training in the social sciences will check
the exaggerated individualism, which, as we have already seen, is one of
the most menacing tendencies of our time; for the social sciences show
the solidarity of the society and the interdependence of its parts. They
show that no individual lives to himself, and that his acts evidently
affect the whole of society. Finally, training in the social sciences
will insure the development of true moral freedom in our social life,
for these sciences involve a searching but impersonal criticism of
social institutions and public policies. Now the very breath of life of
a free society is intelligent public criticism of its institutions and
policies. Without this, there can be no change, no progress. But
intelligent criticism implies scientific criticism, that is, criticism
based upon adequate scientific knowledge and without personal bias. This
means the scientific study of institutions and social organization. If
the American people are to perfect their institutions, they must
maintain and develop their moral freedom; and to maintain true moral
freedom, they must encourage the scientific study of social conditions
and institutions. To secure an unbiased attitude toward social and
political problems, to train every citizen for social service, to
reconstruct social organization along scientific lines, it is necessary,
therefore, to give the social sciences an honored place in the education
of all classes and professions.


SELECT REFERENCES


_For brief reading_:

WARD, _Applied Sociology_, Chaps. VIII-XII.
WARD, _Dynamic Sociology_, Vol. II, Chap. XIV.
HORNE, _The Philosophy of Education_, Chaps. IV and V.
DEWEY, _The School and Society_.


_For more extended reading_:

DAVIDSON, _History of Education_.
GRAVES, _History of Education_.
MONROE, _History of Education_.

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