=Comparisons.=—­The ignorant man cannot accompany this man upon his mighty excursions, but must remain behind to make what he can of his feeble resources.  The one can penetrate the mysteries of the planets and bring back their secrets; the other must confine his thinking to the weather and the crops.  The one can find entertainment in the Bible and Shakespeare; the other seeks companionship among the cowboys and Indians of the picture-films.  The one sits in rapt delight through an evening of grand opera, reveling on the sunlit summits of harmony; the other can rise no higher in the scale of music than the raucous hand organ.  The one finds keen delight among the masterpieces of art; the other finds his definition of art in the colored supplement.  The one experiences the acme of pleasure in communing with historians, musicians, artists, scientists, and philologists; the other finds such associations the very acme of boredom.  The one finds freedom among the big things of life; the other finds galling bondage.

=Three elements of freedom.=—­There are three elements of freedom that are worthy of emphasis.  These are self-reliance, self-support, and self-respect.  These elements are the trinity that constitute one of the major ultimate aims of the vitalized school.  The school that inculcates these qualities must prove a vital force in the life of the pupil; and the pupil who wins these qualities is well equipped for the work of real living.  These qualities are the golden gateways to freedom, nor can there be a full measure of freedom if either of these qualities be lacking.  Moreover, these qualities are cumulative in their relations to one another.  Self-reliance leads to and engenders self-support, and both these underlie and condition self-respect.  Or, to put the case conversely, there cannot be self-respect in the absence of self-reliance and self-support.

=Self-reliance.=—­It would not be easy to over-magnify the influence of the school that is rightly conducted in the way of inculcating the quality of self-reliance and in causing it to grow into a habit.  Every problem that the boy solves by his own efforts, every obstacle that he surmounts, every failure that he transforms into a success, and every advance he makes towards mastery gives him a greater degree of self-reliance, greater confidence in his powers, and greater courage to persevere.  It is the high privilege of the teacher to cause a boy to believe in himself, to have confidence in his ability to win through.  To this end, she adds gradually to the difficulties of his work, always keeping inside the limits of discouragement, and never fails to give recognition to successful achievements.  In this way the boy gains self-reliance and so plumes himself for still loftier flights.  Day after day he moves upward and onward, until at length he exemplifies the sentiment of Virgil, “They can because they think they can.”