Under the present system of mass education by classes, too much stress is laid on teaching and too little on active learning. Vocational learning is side lined. The child is not encouraged to discover on his own powers, thus losing intellectual independence and all capacity to judge for himself. The over-taught child is the advertising-believing propaganda–swallowing, demagogue–led man. Moreover, lessons in class leave him mainly unoccupied, and therefore bored. He has to be coerced into learning what does not interest him and the information acquired mechanically is rapidly forgotten. Quite naturally, lessons in class keep him only superficially preoccupied, keeping the mind largely unoccupied of ideas. A strict external discipline becomes necessary unless there is to be chaos and pandemonium. The child learns to obey, not to control himself. He loses moral as well as intellectual independence.

Such are the main defects in the current system of mass education. Many others could be mentioned, but these are defects of detail and can be classified under one or other of the three main categories of defects - sacrifice of the individual to the system, psychologically unsound methods of teaching and irrational methods of imposing discipline. We need a new system of universal education of the same kind as proved itself so successful in the training of detectives and infants, but modified to be suitable for older boys and girls. We need a system of individual education.