Adolescence is both a biological process and a social-cultural transition. The juvenile organism undergoes a process of growth and maturation as it moves toward adult size and functional capacity, and, more or less concurrently, the individual must pass through a transition from the status and conduct of a child to the responsibilities of the adult. The suitable adjustment of these processes, each to the other, and the appropriate direction and timing of the demands made by adults upon the developing adolescent are important factors in the ease and adequacy of growing up in our culture.

As pointed out in other chapters of this yearbook, the boy and girl during the second decade of life face certain life tasks as unescapable aspects of their biological maturation and of their induction into adult living. In this process they are exposed to the influence of many cultural agencies. The principal medium through which culture operates is, in earlier childhood, the family.

THE IDEA OF A WORLD ORDER HAS haunted the dreams of man for untold centuries. Again and again individuals have arisen to proclaim such a goal as the supreme endeavor to which man should sacrifice all else. Some have had a vision of a world united through acceptance of a transcendent religion or of human brotherhood, seeking in a common faith the resolution of conflicts and differences. Others have sought to create unity through the sword of conquest. Still others have relied upon the slow process of education or upon political and parliamentary devices for mediating opposing interests.

GENERAL EDUCATION, as suggested in I a previous article, faces the task of rebuilding the older conceptual world (which is being destroyed by modern science) upon the emerging scientific ideas, conceptions, and-beliefs of today and tomorrow. General education also must reconstruct the areas of ethical belief and conduct that have likewise suffered disintegration.

THE SUBJECT of general education today is giving rise to considerable discussion and much controversy. Many of those engaged in educational work are almost openly resistant to proposals for the development of general education, which they regard as a threat to their own professional purposes and standards. Others are attempting to channel the demand for general education into the support of their special interests and designs. In this situation there is need for some clarification of the aims and purposes of general education as contrasted with the training that is usually provided in educational programs.