The habits of
thought which are so formed under the guidance of teachers and
scholastic traditions have an economic value -- a value as
affecting the serviceability of the individual -- no less real
than the similar economic value of the habits of thought formed
without such guidance under the discipline of everyday life.
Whatever characteristics of the accredited scholastic scheme and
discipline are traceable to the predilections of the leisure
class or to the guidance of the canons of pecuniary merit are to
be set down to the account of that institution, and whatever
economic value these features of the educational scheme possess
are the expression in detail of the value of that institution. It
will be in place, therefore, to point out any peculiar features
of the educational system which are traceable to the
leisure-class scheme of life, whether as regards the aim and
method of the discipline, or as regards the compass and character
of the body of knowledge inculcated. It is in learning proper,
and more particularly in the higher learning, that the influence
of leisure-class ideals is most patent; and since the purpose
here is not to make an exhaustive collation of data showing the
effect of the pecuniary culture upon education, but rather to
illustrate the method and trend of the leisure-class influence in
education, a survey of certain salient features of the higher
learning, such as may serve this purpose, is all that will be
attempted.
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