[20] Report of Committee on School Inquiry, p. 61. Published by the

city of New York, 1911-1913.

[21] Figures taken from the financial survey of Grand Rapids, Michigan,

prepared by Dr. H. O. Rugg and published in the survey of that city

published by the Board of Education, 1917, and from the survey of St.

Louis by the same investigator.

[22] The median is that figure above which and below which fall half

the cases. It is, therefore, a suitable sample of the whole group. It

is a better representative figure than the average.

[23] J. F. Bobbitt, “High-School Costs,” in the _School Review_, Vol.

XXIII, No. 8 (1915), p. 526.

[24] G. Lee Fleming, Instructional Costs in the First Six Elementary

Grades. Master’s Thesis, Department of Education, The University of

Chicago, 1916.

CHAPTER V

DELEGATING RESPONSIBILITY FOR CARRYING ON SCHOOLS

CLASS INSTRUCTION GIVEN OVER TO THE TEACHER

Although the community as a whole recognizes the need of education, and

is willing to supply the necessary financial support, it cannot manage

directly the details of school operation. The community cannot decide

what seven-year-old children shall study. The community cannot decide

what ought to be done with a disorderly pupil. It becomes necessary,

therefore, for the community to devise some method of picking out

suitable representatives who can carry on the schools.

The first task to be thus delegated was that of classroom instruction.

One reads in the records of the early town meetings of New England how

the whole community participated in the discussion of all financial

matters and of many problems connected with the course of study. For

example, the site of a schoolhouse, its cost, and its plan have always

been subjects of community discussion. Again, the community has often

decided whether it wants geography taught or certain branches of

mathematics. But when it came to the daily routine of school work, the

community employed a teacher and turned the children over to him.

SUPERVISION

The next stage of representative control was reached when the community

came to a recognition of the necessity of some kind of intelligent

supervision of teachers. Visiting committees were appointed, usually

including the clergyman of the town, to look into the work of the

classes and report to the town meeting.

So long as communities were small and fairly homogeneous in their

social and intellectual characteristics it remained possible to get

on with direct town-meeting control of the schools in all except the

details of teaching classes and the supervision of teachers. One reads,

to be sure, of disagreements at times between the town meeting and the

teacher. The visiting committee and the teacher sometimes had a clash,

and the supporters of each presented their views with vigor before

the whole community. Problems of organization and administration were

not lacking even in those simpler days, but the machinery of school

management was fairly direct and simple.

SKETCH OF DEVELOPMENT OF A SCHOOL SYSTEM

How this direct control of schools became impossible with the growth

of communities can be illustrated by a single example. In the city of

Chicago in its early years the schools were independent of each other.

Indeed, in the first years immediately after the incorporation of the

town, the schools were private schools to which the taxpayers paid a

stipulated sum out of the proceeds of the sale of school lands or out

of district levies. The variable character of the teaching which was

secured under this plan led to the adoption in 1835 of a partially

centralized system of inspection and management. The districts were

left independent in all financial matters, but a central board of

inspectors was provided which was to unify the schools of the town.

This central board was continued after the incorporation of the city,

in 1837, but the districts were left independent in financial matters

even after that date. The districts voted on the amount to be paid to

teachers, on the housing of the schools, and on other matters relating

to taxes. There were district committees to care for these local

financial matters.

Even though the city government was centralized by the incorporation of

1837, the schools remained distinct. The central board of inspectors

adopted certain textbooks, but it appears that the schools paid little

attention to this action. How meager was the district provision for

schools appears in the fact that it was not until 1845 that the first

public-school building was erected.

It is not difficult to imagine the chaos under which such a system

suffered. In 1851 the city council took away from the districts

the power of hiring teachers and gave it to the central board of

inspectors. It also appointed a business manager. The board of

inspectors thus gained in power and influence, but they found

themselves confronted by educational problems which they could

not solve. In 1853 they adopted the plan which was relatively new

in American cities, but was coming into vogue, of appointing a

superintendent of schools. This officer at once graded the children,

organized a uniform course of study, and took steps to equalize

instruction in the schools of the city.

THE COMMUNITY SLOW TO DELEGATE SCHOOL CONTROL

The historical sketch outlined above gives us a clear insight into the

way in which problems of school organization arise. The community must

delegate the work of carrying on schools. There is a natural hesitation

in intrusting this important work to anyone. As a result, the community

is constantly taking a hand, even in these latter days, in all kinds

of school discussions. Sometimes the whole city is drawn into a

discussion of school matters. Sometimes the individual parent, in his

capacity as a citizen, attempts to take into his hands the authority

of the community, especially when the way in which the schools are

being managed seems to him to be unfavorable to the interests of his

children.

LIMITS OF AUTHORITY AND RESPONSIBILITY NOT CLEAR

The various officials who are created in the process of developing a

representative system of school control often find themselves unable to

determine the limits of their authority or responsibility. For example,

it is almost impossible to determine where the duties of a business

manager end and the functions of the superintendent begin. Thus,

when it comes to the employment of teachers and the determination of

salaries, the question arises whether these matters should be settled

on educational grounds or on financial grounds, or on both.

Especially acute is the problem of determining the proper relation

of the board of inspectors to the teachers and superintendent. The

inspectors, or the board of education as they have come to be called,

are chosen as the immediate representatives of the community. They

are citizens in whom the community has general confidence, but they

are not charged, as was pointed out above, with the daily tasks

of teaching. The board must accordingly appoint teachers and a

superintendent. These latter are selected because they have training

and technical qualifications which the community needs in the schools.

The technical officers have in an important sense an independent place

in the educational system. It will be remembered that the teacher

was the first one to whom the community delegated responsibility

for the schools. Not infrequently the community finds its board of

representative citizens on one side of a school issue and its technical

officers on the other side.

Take a commonplace example. In the development of the course of study

it has come to pass that many new subjects have been introduced which

cost a great deal. Manual training and domestic science, as was shown

in the last chapter, are expensive. Superintendents and teachers are

enthusiastic about the educational value of these subjects. Sometimes

the board of education has to curtail the expenditures involved because

the community does not seem to be prepared to pay the price. If the

board is supreme and the superintendent is its servant, how can a

campaign of explanation be organized which will show the community what

is needed? On the other hand, if the superintendent is at liberty to go

directly to the community without the consent or sympathy of the board,

complications arise which are not difficult to imagine.

STATEMENT BY A PUBLIC EDUCATION ASSOCIATION

A series of difficulties in the administration of the schools of

Chicago brought out from the Public Education Association of that city

a statement of the relation between the board of education and the

technical officers of the schools which illustrates so clearly the

matters discussed in the foregoing paragraphs that it may properly be

quoted at length.

WHAT IS A REPRESENTATIVE BOARD OF EDUCATION?

Some people want the school board to be large, so that everyone may

be represented. They think that it is desirable that there should

be members on the board from every district in the city, every

nationality, the various trades, and the various professions.

A board cannot be made into a representative body in this sense. It

would never be large enough to include everybody, and it would be

unwieldy in action. What is needed is a small board that will be broad

in its interests, that will ask many questions covering all sections

of the city, and that can act promptly. This board should have laid

before it carefully drawn plans touching all the interests of the

community.

This small board has to decide general policies and select the people

to carry out these policies. It should not operate the schools but

should see that they are operated. It should require evidence from

the people who operate the schools showing that they are doing it

successfully. It should demand and issue reports that are clear and

intelligible to the whole community.

THE FUNCTIONS OF A BOARD OF EDUCATION

The functions of the board of education have never been fully

understood in American cities because it has been thought of as

the means employed by the people to conduct the schools. This is a

wrong notion. The people want trained teachers and trained officers

to conduct the schools. The people want the board of education to

organize the schools so that they shall employ the most expert people

who can be secured.

HOW A GOOD BOARD GETS THE WORK DONE

This statement leads to a consideration of the second group of people

who have to do with the school organization. The schools could not get

on without trained teachers. There was a time when each parent taught

his own child. That was in the days when there wasn’t much to teach.

To-day the parent places his child in the care of a specialist. The

parent has come to the specialist because the parent has confidence

that the specialist knows how to take care of the children. Teachers

are not mere hirelings and nurses, inferior to the children; teachers

are trained specialists.

As the system grows more complex there appear several classes of

specialists—some who know how to deal with the pupils, some who know

how to provide the children with proper seats and proper ventilation,

some who know how to make courses of study, and some who keep the

records of the schools.

Furthermore, the school system grows complicated on the material side.

Buildings have to be erected and cared for. Land has to be evaluated

and cared for. Some people think that all this is an open book to

everyone who is in business. The fact is that knowledge of school

equipment is just as highly specialized knowledge as knowledge of

railroad equipment. A wholesale grocer would not think of himself as

competent to estimate the cost of Pullman cars just because he knows

about business. The better school systems now have accounting methods

in schools which bring out such matters as the cost per unit of

teaching in high schools and elementary schools, the standard cost of

instruction in different subjects, and the cost of school equipments

as related to their sanitary and hygienic fitness.

Every complete school system has its business interests in the hands

of competent specialists who know about school costs in detail and in

particular.

MAKING THE MACHINE WORK SMOOTHLY

By the time a school system reaches the point where it has all these

specialists, it becomes necessary to give much attention to the

central planning of a scheme of operation which shall make the whole

machine work smoothly. There must be a central office where management

is provided. In setting up this central office there has been a great

deal of experimenting. Sometimes a teacher has been put in charge;

sometimes a board member, in such case the president of the board

has taken charge. Some years ago the city of Cleveland tried the

experiment of putting a business manager in charge. This business

manager appointed the superintendent of instruction. If one goes

back into the history of Chicago, he finds that a business manager

to take charge of school lands was appointed two years before the

superintendent of instruction was appointed.

Gradually out of all the experimenting there has arisen a new type of

school officer, a superintendent of schools who is a trained school

manager. This manager does not teach; he does not shovel coal into

the furnaces in the schools; he does exactly what the head of any

great corporation does; he organizes the undertaking. He must know

human nature; he must know how to get reports; he must know how to

tell the people about the needs of their schools; he must know how to

straighten out tangles; and he must know how to judge results. This

manager must give his whole time to getting the machinery to work and

keeping it in order.

In a large school system the manager’s office will be subdivided

and there will need to be some further organization to keep it from

falling apart. There will be one person in such an office who will

know more about heating school buildings and one who will know about

the quality of teaching. The more the subdivision the more precautions

necessary to hold all parts of the system together.[25]

REPORT OF COMMITTEE OF SUPERINTENDENTS

Another recent document which throws much light on the problem of

the relation between school officers is a report presented to the

Department of Superintendence, a division of the National Education

Association. This report opens with extracts from a number of letters

from superintendents in all parts of the country. The discussion then

proceeds as follows:

OBSOLETE ADMINISTRATION SYSTEM

The impression which a careful study of this material [referring to

the material upon which the report is based] makes on one’s mind is

the painful one that most administrative situations are undefined

and shifting. Schools are administered, sometimes well, sometimes

badly, but in most cases without clear definition of responsibility

or authority. Public interests are fortunately protected in most

instances, but the machinery is the primitive machinery of the

vigilance committee, with now the superintendent, now the board of

education, now the city council, now a parents’ association, trying to

determine what steps shall be taken to promote public welfare.

STATUS OF SUPERINTENDENCY VARIES

In such a situation the accidents of personal influence play

an unjustifiable part. Several of the letters from successful

superintendents state explicitly or show between the lines that they

are entirely in control of the policies of the schools. Some go so far

as to say that any effort to define the responsibilities and authority

of the superintendent would curtail their influence and would

therefore be undesirable. At the other end of the scale are reports

which show that the superintendent is shorn of all influence. In many

cases he is little more than a clerk, dependent from day to day on

the accidents of the board’s attitude for the meager authority which

he tries to exercise. In some cases he goes to the board meeting only

when especially invited. He has teachers sent to him by the board, and

he knows nothing about the financial management of the system. Such a

superintendent usually recommends the adoption of a state law endowing

his office with rights.

The extreme situations referred to above may occur within a single

state, showing that there is no such thing as a typical and clearly

defined American school administration.

DISTRICT CONTROL DISCARDED SYSTEM OF SCHOOL ADMINISTRATION

The origin of the present situation is not far to seek. American

schools were first controlled by the citizens of the district.

They met in intimate neighborhood groups and settled the problems

relating to their children. Communities were fairly homogeneous, the

course of study was simple, school buildings were all about equally

unsanitary, and teachers were equally untrained. A majority vote was a

democratic and accepted method of carrying the community through these

undesirables.

AN EFFECTIVE SUBSTITUTE TO BE DISCOVERED

Within a half century all this has changed. We know to-day that

every center in a state is involved in the behavior of each of its

communities. Indeed, our generation is witnessing the assumption by

the federal government of an influence and authority in education

which is without precedent in American history. This is not the place

to comment at length on these changes, but one result is absolutely

certain—the simple district control of schools is gone. It remains for

us to decide what we shall have in its place. What we have to-day is a

series of experiments of every variety that can be set up through the

exercise of human imagination. Most of these experiments are going on

behind closed doors. Most of them involve sooner or later a conflict

of authority. Very few of them are understood by the people of the

communities in which they exist.

DANGERS OF THIS PERIOD OF ADJUSTMENT

The result is, first, much clumsy administration, even where

everybody acts in the spirit of most cordial coöperation. Matters

of vital importance to the school are delayed. Secondly, baneful

agencies, seeking to profit unjustly, can set up in the school

system influences which would have no weight if there were clear

and definite responsibility and authority. Thirdly, the people of

the community, being uncertain about what is going on, often become

restless and critical and unwilling to give adequate support to the

schools. Fourthly, the teaching staff sometimes becomes demoralized

and relatively inefficient, at times the disorganization goes so far

that teachers are actually and openly antagonistic to the board or

superintendent, or both.[26]

ORGANIZATION UNDER SCIENTIFIC PRINCIPLES

It is by no means simple to prescribe a remedy for the difficulties

which these quotations have described. When a democratic community

delegates its unlimited powers to a number of different classes of

people, there is sure to be a succession of problems of adjustment.

Ultimately all parties will come to recognize the fact that educational

problems can be solved only when a full study of the situation is

substituted for personal opinion. Every party will have to be ready to

acknowledge the supremacy of a thorough scientific statement of the

conditions and results of school work.

Fortunately, examples are not far to seek of school administration

which is based on scientific study. Two conspicuous examples will serve

the purposes of this exposition.

CONTROL OF SCHOOL WORK THROUGH TESTS

In the city of Detroit there has been carried on for the last three

years a systematic series of tests in the fundamental school subjects.

The teachers-in-training in the city normal school are given courses

in tests and in the interpretation of results so that they carry into

the school from year to year the type of preparation which makes them

intelligent and sympathetic from the first.

At first some unhappy results followed the wholesale measurement of

results. Many of the teachers thought that the method was arbitrary

and that their work would be misrepresented. Even the good teachers

were afraid. They had been accustomed to the purely personal type of

supervision based on opinion and answerable, when occasion demanded,

by opinion. The teachers who were not sure of the success of their

work were violent in their objections. The Board of Education, which

at the beginning of the testing was composed of some of the cheapest

politicians in the city, led the attack on what they termed a fad and a

theory.

Experience has, however, justified in fullest measure supervision by

a measurement of results. It has become increasingly clear to all

teachers that tests show clearly where the work is strong and where it

is weak. Not only so, but the tests help the teacher to determine with

precision the exact points where the results need to be improved.

Above and beyond this, however, is the advantage which has come to the

schools in their relation to the community. No longer is it necessary

for teachers to speak in uncertain terms of their work. If the

community will listen, it is possible for the Detroit school officials

to make clear by scientific reports based on tests exactly what is

going on in every school and in every grade.

The community showed its appreciation of the type of school management

which was intelligent enough to base itself on exact studies of results

by doing away absolutely with the corrupt and inefficient board and

electing in its place a group of thoroughly representative citizens who

are supporting scientific management and developing the schools along

lines dictated by such management.

The example of Detroit is by no means the only one which could be

cited. An increasing number of cities are revising their courses,

training their teachers, and educating the communities by similar

methods.

A STUDY OF THE BUILDING NEEDS OF A CITY

One other example must suffice for the present, since the subsequent

chapters of this book are devoted to the treatment in outline of the

various types of scientific inquiry which ought to govern school

organization. This example is borrowed from a report prepared in 1916

by the superintendent of schools of the city of Minneapolis.

In a pamphlet entitled “A Million a Year” there is laid before the

citizens of Minneapolis a clear statement, first, of what they had

been doing in the way of erecting school buildings for the seven years

preceding the report. The report then shows in detail what buildings

cost, through a careful analysis of the records for earlier buildings.

Then come statements of the uses of schools and the conditions which

determine the kind of building which should be put up in each section

of the city. Estimates are given in great detail of the needs for five

years, and the city is asked to act on the situation as thus described.

The spirit of the study can be clearly seen from the introduction,

which is worth repeating in full.

Why a five-year school building program? The reasons are: that the

Board of Education may be able to calculate for some time ahead

the financial resources available to meet building needs as these

develop; that the numerous children of those sections of the city

whose citizenry may not be over-insistent and persistent in their

demands for improved and enlarged school accommodations may be as

well provided as the children of other sections whose needs, real

or fancied, are vigorously and incessantly pushed; in short, that

there may be established and carried out a deliberately formulated,

comprehensive and consistent policy of providing adequate and

equitable building accommodations for all children of the city.

The program, as herein outlined, is the result of nearly a year’s

study by the Board of Education, by a special committee of the Board,

and by the executive officers of the Board.

In making this study and in formulating this program, the Board has

invited and has received the suggestions and the coöperation of

Parents and Teachers’ Associations throughout the city. Two public

hearings on the subject were given, to which each of the sixty-two

associations was invited to send representatives. Each association

was also invited to submit in writing the needs of the district

represented as it saw them.

A generous, indeed an almost unanimous, response was received to both

these invitations. The educational policies involved in the program

have been discussed by the principals of the schools and by the

Educational Council. It has been the effort of the Board throughout

to enlist the thoughtful help of those chiefly and most immediately

concerned.

The program is published now in order to give still wider publicity

to the interests it represents. It is still a tentative program,

subject to such modifications as may result from further study by

the Board and from suggestions and criticisms that may come from any

one interested, whether individual citizen or organization. Such

suggestions and criticisms the Board invites.

This program, modified as it may be, will be made the basis of

necessary legislation, which is to be the first step in carrying it

out. Such legislation, to provide the necessary funds, whether by bond

issue or special tax levy, will be sought of the next Legislature.

The people of Minneapolis should understand clearly that the Board

of Education has no means whatever of carrying into effect this, or

any other, building program, for the Board has no power to raise one

cent of money, either by bond issue or through tax levy. The State

Legislature only has power to authorize bond issues and tax levies; on

the authorization of the State Legislature, only the City Council may

sell bonds. On recommendation of the Board of Tax Levy, the Board of

Education may levy taxes within the maximum approved.

The Board of Education, representing the people of the city in their

educational interests, is formulating this building program. If this

program meets the approval of the people, the Board of Education will

be pleased to carry it into effect. Before the Board can do this,

however, the people, through their representatives in the Legislature,

in the Board of Tax Levy, and in the City Council, must provide the

necessary funds.[27]

THE ERRORS OF DEMOCRACY

The funds asked for were voted by the people. It would not be a

complete statement of the facts, however, to omit the statement that an

unfavorable reaction came in the form of a new board of education which

at once began to blockade the kind of policy represented by this study.

American cities proceed slowly to a full realization of the

possibilities of a satisfactory school organization. Democracy always

masters its problems slowly and after many slips. The hopeful fact is

that more communities are providing agencies for the scientific study

of their school problems and are following in their organization the

results of such study.

EXERCISES AND READINGS

In most communities there arise, from time to time, demands for new

school legislation, or there occur controversies within the board of

education or with regard to the superintendent of schools and his

authority. As a practical lesson in democratic government the study of

the changes that occur at such a time is very informing.

If there is no such exceptionally clear exhibition of the complexity

of our public-school government, let the student find out what are the

personal and professional characteristics of some board of education.

Would it be better, in some city known to the student, to elect a board

or to have it appointed? Is a definition by law of the rights and

duties of a superintendent advantageous, or should the superintendent

acquire all the power and influence he can get from the board? Should a

board of education examine textbooks? Should it determine the scale of

salaries to be paid to teachers?

If a class does very poorly in a test in arithmetic, what are some of

the different interpretations that can be put on this fact? Is the

superintendent responsible, or the teacher, or the home?

Our American cities change teachers and superintendents frequently.

What are the elements of cost which enter into such a change?

The best kind of material for reading under this chapter is a

superintendent’s school report or one of the reports of a survey of a

city school system.

CUBBERLEY, E. P., and others. Portland Survey. School Efficiency

Series. World Book Company. This is one of the first strong school

surveys, and takes up very fully the functions of the different

officers of the school system. The parts dealing with administration

are largely the work of Professor Cubberley, whose work on

administration was referred to under the last chapter.

MACANDREW, W. The Public and its School. World Book Company. A

humorous report dealing in an interesting and striking way with a

number of administrative problems.

Seventeenth Yearbook of the National Society for the Study of

Education. Part II. The Measurement of Educational Products. Prepared

by the National Association of Directors of Educational Research.

Public School Publishing Co., Bloomington, Illinois. This report gives

a comprehensive survey of the work which is being done by efficiency

experts in public-school systems.

FOOTNOTES:

[25] _Bulletin No. 1_ of the Public Education Association of Chicago,

1917, pp. 3-5.

[26] Report of the Committee on Relation between Boards of Education

and Superintendents, in _Journal of the National Education

Association_, Vol. I, No. 9 (May, 1917), pp. 967-968.

[27] A Million a Year, pp. v-vi. Monograph No. 1, published by the

Board of Education, Minneapolis, Minnesota, 1916.

CHAPTER VI

THE SCHOOL BUILDING

THE BUILDING AS AN EVIDENCE OF A COMMUNITY’S EDUCATIONAL VIEWS

A study of school buildings furnishes in very concrete form evidence

of the new spirit which has come into school organization. The

old-fashioned school building was copied from the church. In its

externals it often showed its antecedents by the tower and steeple,

which sometimes housed the bell and sometimes served merely as an

ornament. In its interior there was little or no evidence of careful

adaptation of the space to its uses. Small windows, high from the floor

and narrow in the space admitting light, were scattered along three

sides of the room. Across the fourth side of the room was a raised

platform for the teacher. The roof was high and made the space below

difficult to heat. A stove was the means of heating; it gave out an

excess of heat to the immediate neighborhood and proved inadequate for

making the remote corners habitable. The seats were narrow benches,

often without backs. In the schools of earlier days these benches ran

around the room, the pupils facing the wall, to which was fastened a

board that served as a desk on which the pupil might write or lay his

book. In later schools the benches were arranged in rows, the desk of

one row economically furnishing a back for the bench in front. Add

to all this a common drinking cup in a pail of water and sanitary

arrangements of the most primitive type, and we have a picture of

almost complete disregard for human comfort and hygiene. More than

this, we see in such a school building the clearest evidence of a

conception of education which was limited to the barest rudiments.

There was no provision for varied activities in a school building of

the older type. Kitchens in which the girls learn to cook, shops for

the boys, laboratories for courses in science, playrooms and libraries,

to say nothing of swimming pools and baths, were never thought of,

because the course of study was limited strictly to the three R’s.

[Illustration: FIG. 6. Floor plan of a typical school building of the

old style]

The modern school building is the embodiment of a wholly new conception

of education. The building is constructed with the utmost deference to

the demands of hygiene. The placing of windows, the means of heating

and ventilating, the style and arrangement of seats, have all been

considered in every possible detail. When the demands of hygiene have

been met, the various needs of the school are studied, and the rooms

and equipment are arranged with the fullest possible regard for an

enriched course of study. The exterior of the building reflects the

interest of the community in æsthetics. It is commonly surrounded by an

ample playground and often has a garden as well. These changes from the

barren buildings of earlier days show that education is thought of as

related to the common life of children.

CONTRASTS IN PLANS OF RURAL SCHOOLS

A number of concrete contrasts will perhaps serve to give the reader

who is likely to be familiar only with modern school equipment some

idea of the long road that has been traveled in the evolution of the

American school system.

[Illustration: FIG. 7. Floor plan of a well-arranged one-teacher rural

school of minimum cost]

A ground plan furnished by a bulletin of the Bureau of Education[28]

shows (Fig. 6) the old-fashioned one-room school with its small

windows and inadequate heating. The light from these windows is

badly distributed. The wide wall spaces between windows leave long

dark spaces across the room. The fact that there are windows on many

sides makes it necessary for someone to face glaring lights on bright

days and results in all sorts of cross lights and shadows. The other

features of the plan, including the stove, were commented on in an

earlier paragraph.

A second ground plan (Fig. 7) shows a well-arranged, simple rural

school. The light comes from one side of the room. There is provision

for many different activities, and a system of ventilating and heating

has been substituted for the stove of former days. The stove is

inclosed in a jacket. Into this jacket opens an intake which brings

fresh air from outside. A pipe carries the heated air to various parts

of the room, insuring its adequate distribution.

The externals of the situation are depicted in Fig. 8.

[Illustration: FIG. 8. An old and a new rural school]

CONTRASTS IN URBAN ELEMENTARY SCHOOLS

The evolution is even more impressive when it appears in the

many-roomed schoolhouses of a city system. The following paragraphs

and figures from the Cleveland survey show how complete has been the

transformation of a half century:

The type of building erected during the 50’s is well represented

by the Alabama School, although this particular building was not

completed until 1861. Several buildings of this general type are

still in use in the city.... In these early buildings the rooms were

large and accommodated enormous numbers of children. Classes ranged

from 100 to 200 in each room. There was hardly a square foot of waste

space in these buildings. Originally they contained no corridors, no

wardrobes, no toilets, no storerooms, no running water, and no heating

plants except stoves.[29] [Figs. 9 A and 9 B.]

The Empire School, completed in the fall of 1915, represents the most

modern type of school architecture. It is entirely fireproof and so

constructed that new wings may be added for future extensions without

injuring either the utility or the symmetry of the building. In

appearance these newest buildings are great improvements over their

immediate predecessors and educationally they are far superior. The

windows are banked in sets of five and the masonry is so shaped as

to cut off a minimum of light. Auditoriums have slanted floors like

theaters, are unobstructed by pillars, and have real stages instead of

platforms.

Gymnasiums for boys and for girls, swimming pool, playrooms, toilets,

shower baths, auditorium, library, shops, and domestic science rooms

can all be shut off from the rest of the building so that they can

be conveniently used for social and community center purposes. In

these schools mouldings are done away with, doors have no paneling,

corners of floors and ceilings are smooth and rounded, stairways have

solid balustrades, and every endeavor is made to leave dust and dirt

no lodging place. Piping for vacuum cleaning, and the most modern

heating, ventilating, and regulating apparatus are installed.[30]

[Figs. 10 A and 10 B.]

[Illustration: FIG. 9 A. Ground plan of Alabama School]

[Illustration: FIG. 9 B. Exterior of Alabama School]

[Illustration: FIG. 10 A. Ground plan of Empire School]

[Illustration: FIG. 10 B. Exterior of Empire School]

A HIGH-SCHOOL BUILDING OF THE EARLY TYPE

A similar lesson may be drawn from the study of high-school buildings

of successive generations. The following quotation from the Denver

survey shows how limited was the earlier conception of the school and

its doings.

The course of study in this school [the East Side High School] was

from the first a rigorous, disciplinary course, dominated by literary

and classical interests. The issue between science and the classics

was clearly drawn even in the early years of the East Side High

School’s history, but the victory has always been with the literary

subjects....

The kind of a course of study which was thought of as necessary in

those early days reflected itself in the kind of a building which

was erected. The East Side High School building was, in its day, a

conspicuous model of high-school architecture. The high ceilings and

great corridors and large classrooms showed the generous intention

of the citizens of Denver. There were, however, no gymnasium, no

lunch room, no shop for manual training, and no special equipments

for science courses. In short, the East Side High School stands as a

conservative example of a school, strong in its early days, but unable

in these days to take on the progressive features of a first-class

high school because of physical limitations and because of the

hampering traditions which come from a successful past.[31]

THE HYGIENE OF LIGHTING

Lest the individual teacher should regard these matters of architecture

as very remote from his or her personal interests, let us comment on

the evil effects of neglect of some of the hygienic problems which the

modern school is designed to solve.

When light is badly distributed, there is a strain on the eyes which

results in unfavorable physiological conditions. These unfavorable

conditions sometimes take the form of a congestion of the blood vessels

in and around the eye, with consequent feelings of discomfort and

inability to work. These unfavorable results may appear both in pupils

and in the teacher. The conditions are not clearly recognizable through

any signs of fatigue which the person affected can readily localize,

for we have no sense organ giving direct sensations of fatigue. The

result is that the person is unable to do his work, but does not know,

unless he has made a special study of the problem, what the difficulty

is or how to remedy it. Evidently the problem of lighting cannot be

left to natural judgment, and every physical appliance for proper

control and distribution of illumination should be provided.

THE HYGIENE OF VENTILATION AND HEATING

In regard to ventilation and heating the situation is much the same

as with lighting. Until recently all public buildings were without

special provisions for ventilation, it being assumed that enough

air would come in through doors and windows. The private dwelling

was the model followed in this matter. A dwelling occupied by a few

people leaks enough fresh air so that even when all the windows are

closed the air is tolerable. When fifty or a hundred people in a

public building are crowded into a space that is proportionately much

smaller than the space in a dwelling and when, furthermore, through

improvements in methods of construction the leakage of fresh air is

almost entirely stopped, the situation calls for artificial means of

introducing air and distributing it. The situation with regard to

fresh air is complicated in all colder climates by the necessity of

producing and conserving artificial heat. Modern heating arrangements

are capable of maintaining large buildings at a summer temperature even

in the coldest weather, but in order to do this at reasonable cost the

building must be made as nearly air-tight as possible. The temperatures

secured through artificial-heating plants have also brought another

evil. The air raised to a high temperature is abnormal in humidity

because it is taken from outdoors, where it is cold and the humidity

is low, and is raised by heating to a condition where it can absorb a

great quantity of moisture. Such air is very dry and takes moisture in

an excessive degree from the moist linings of the human respiratory

tracts and thus irritates and fatigues the people exposed to the dry

air, becoming a serious menace to comfort and even to health. To meet

these difficulties it has been necessary to introduce into all public

buildings artificial ventilating and humidifying systems. Even in

one-room rural schools, where the simpler types of architecture must

still be adhered to, it is common, as pointed out above, to jacket the

stove, thus making it possible to circulate fresh air and to introduce

an evaporation reservoir which will render the humidity more nearly

normal. Above all it is important that teachers understand that these

matters cannot be left to mere chance. Life indoors is artificial at

best, and its conditions must be guarded as carefully as possible.

HYGIENIC EQUIPMENT

Not merely has the plan of the building been improved, but the

equipment has also been thoroughly worked over. Drinking fountains

or individual drinking cups have taken the place of the pail and the

common dipper. Toilets have been furnished in a way which makes it

possible to keep them clean and wholesome.

The matter of seats may be discussed from both points of view suggested

in earlier paragraphs, that is, from the point of view of attention to

the health and comfort of pupils and from the point of view of the work

which pupils have to do in school. The old uncomfortable benches have

given place to comfortable individual seats which, in the best-equipped

schools, have been made adjustable so that they fit the individual

pupil. Where this complete adjustment to individual size is not

provided, at least an approximation is secured by seats of two or three

heights in each room. Desks with broad, smooth, sloping tops have been

added to make writing and other kinds of school work easy. The most

recent improvements have to do with the storage of books and materials.

Formerly the pupil’s knees were wedged below the storage drawer, or the

working top of the desk was inconveniently or unhygienically high. The

storage drawer is now being relegated to a position under the chair or

to a locker on the side of the room.

RELATION OF EQUIPMENT TO THE COURSE OF STUDY

The adaptation of the desk to the pupil’s work has been carried to

the full limit in the shops and drawing rooms and domestic-science

laboratories where work benches and laboratory equipment have been

substituted for the conventional seats. That much remains to be

accomplished is vividly set forth in the following extract from the

writing of one of the most suggestive critics of the present-day

school. In the second chapter of “The School and Society” Professor

Dewey writes:

Some few years ago I was looking about the school supply stores in the

city, trying to find desks and chairs which seemed thoroughly suitable

from all points of view—artistic, hygienic, and educational—to the

needs of the children. We had a good deal of difficulty in finding

what we needed, and finally one dealer, more intelligent than the

rest, made this remark: “I am afraid we have not what you want. You

want something at which the children may work; these are all for

listening.” That tells the story of the traditional education. Just as

the biologist can take a bone or two and reconstruct the whole animal,

so, if we put before the mind’s eye the ordinary schoolroom, with

its rows of ugly desks placed in geometrical order, crowded together

so that there shall be as little moving room as possible, desks

almost all of the same size, with just space enough to hold books,

pencils and paper, and add a table, some chairs, the bare walls, and

possibly a few pictures, we can reconstruct the only educational

activity that can possibly go on in such a place. It is all made “for

listening”—for simply studying lessons out of a book is only another

kind of listening; it marks the dependency of one mind upon another.

The attitude of listening means, comparatively speaking, passivity,

absorption; that there are certain ready-made materials which are

there, which have been prepared by the school superintendent, the

board, the teacher, and of which the child is to take in as much as

possible in the least possible time.

There is very little place in the traditional schoolroom for the child

to work. The workshop, the laboratory, the materials, the tools with

which the child may construct, create, and actively inquire, and

even the requisite space, have been for the most part lacking. The

things that have to do with these processes have not even a definitely

recognized place in education. They are what the educational

authorities who write editorials in the daily papers generally term

“fads” and “frills.” A lady told me yesterday that she had been

visiting different schools trying to find one where activity on the

part of the children preceded the giving of information on the part

of the teacher, or where the children had some motive for demanding

the information. She visited, she said, twenty-four different schools

before she found her first instance.[32]

These paragraphs serve to indicate the close relation between school

equipment and the course of study. Since the above criticism was

written, general conditions have undergone a radical change. Shops

have become common, and there is an increasing emphasis on activities.

Correspondingly, there is a change in the conception of the course of

study, as we shall see in later chapters.

MODERN SCHOOL CONSTRUCTION AND COSTS

In the meantime the erection of buildings with shops, auditoriums,

laboratories, kitchens, and gymnasiums has given rise to new and urgent

problems. First, the cost of these new buildings is great, and many

school boards are driven to ask whether the community can afford to

erect them. The superintendent of schools of New York City recently

reported to the Board of Education of that city that a building program

would have to be adopted which would cost the city $40,000,000 in a

period of five years. In order to provide buildings many cities have

been obliged to issue bonds which will fall, in the years to come, as

a financial burden on the generation which is being educated in the

buildings.

The urgency of these financial problems is aggravated by the fact that

in many school systems the elaborate buildings are not used to the full

extent of their capacity. Indeed, it comes to be a most interesting

economic and educational problem to inquire what is the capacity of one

of these buildings. For example, what does an auditorium represent in

the way of actual enlargement of the school plant? Is it merely a place

in which the school may come together for a general exercise once a

week, or should it be used every day? If it is used for twenty minutes

or half an hour every morning, should it be closed during the remainder

of the day? As a matter of public economy should it be made available

to adults at hours when it is not needed for school purposes, as, for

example, in the evening or in the late afternoon?

Such questions as the foregoing multiply with every new addition to the

buildings. The old buildings equipped only for study and recitations

were economical in the extreme; the new buildings are often lavish.

THE GARY PLAN FOR DISTRIBUTING PUPILS AND ENLARGING THE SCOPE OF SCHOOL

WORK

To meet the problems of economy and of adaptation of buildings to

educational needs, ingenious ways of rotating classes have been

devised. The most conspicuous experiment of this type is that worked

out by Superintendent Wirt in Gary, Indiana. Indeed, Superintendent

Wirt has advocated the most elaborate extension of the school building

and its grounds and a corresponding expansion of the school program.

For him the school playground becomes an additional space of great

importance in rotating the pupils. Shops and laboratories are to be

kept full all day and even in the evening; corridors are to be used as

assembly rooms and recreational spaces. He goes so far as to draw the

churches and the public library into his plan. With all these available

places in which pupils may be instructed, a program is adopted which

provides that each room with its special teacher be continuously

engaged in some kind of teaching. Pupils are sent from room to room,

the theory being that each room shall be kept full at all hours and

that each pupil shall get all the different kinds of advantages which

the elaborate course of study offers. The reorganization of grade

work which is necessary to carry out this program reaches deeper than

the addition of new subjects. To make rotation complete, each teacher

must be a special teacher and the pupils must move from room to room.

Even the lowest grades must be organized under what is known as the

departmental plan. Thus, even a second-grade child gets his reading

with one teacher and his arithmetic with another.

REQUIREMENTS TO BE MET WHEN THE GARY PLAN IS ADOPTED

The Gary plan is a very striking example of the relation between the

school plant and the school program. In many quarters this relation has

not been clearly recognized. For example, some school boards, hearing

that twice as many pupils can be accommodated in a Gary building as

in an ordinary school building, have instructed the superintendents

in their own towns to adopt the Gary plan. The superintendent has to

answer: We have an old four-square building which is full in every

available corner, there are no shops, and the play space is inadequate.

He often has to go further and question the advisability of

departmentalizing the teaching in the lower grades. He is sometimes

convinced that a daily program which includes many kinds of activity

is distracting and undesirable. The adoption of a new building plan

involves the course of study, and the adoption of a new policy with

reference to the course of study involves the use of the building.

The interesting fact for our immediate purposes is that educational

questions that have to do with the content of the course of study and

with the methods of teaching are always related to considerations

regarding the building.

THE CONSTRUCTION OF CONSOLIDATED SCHOOLS

Not only does the school building reflect the internal needs of

the school organization which it houses, but there is also a close

relation between the school and the distribution of the population in

the community. A sparsely settled community invariably used to have a

one-room school, because the distances which pupils must travel are

such that it is difficult to bring together enough pupils to justify

a larger building. The one-room building is likely, however, to offer

only the most meager educational opportunities. There is only one

teacher. There are no adequate provisions for the pupils who are

supposed to be studying, because this one teacher in the one room must

be hearing a class recite on some subject at practically every period

in the day. The one-room building does not satisfy the progressive

community. The device which has been adopted is that of consolidating

a number of one-room schools and transporting the pupils through the

necessary distances to make possible large schools with separate rooms

for pupils of different ages. A consolidated school has facilities

which are impossible in a one-room school. These facilities cannot be

described without discussing the course of study and also the building

and equipment.

The following quotation gives an example of such a discussion:

In Harrison County, Miss., about 8 miles out from the Gulf and in a

typical south Mississippi rural community, may be found the Wool

Market consolidated school, the subject of this brief study. Three

medium-sized one-teacher schools—Coalville, King, and Oakhead—were

brought together two years ago to form this school near the Wool

Market post office, on the Biloxi River.

The new house, built by private subscription at a cost of about

$2,000, was located within 2 miles of all the children in two of the

old districts, while a transportation wagon was used to bring in from

25 to 30 pupils from the Oakhead district, about 3 miles from the new

schoolhouse. The territory of the new school covers 27 square miles

and now has within its bounds 134 children of legal school age.

Each of the teachers in the abandoned schools, having from 30 to

40 recitations daily to cover the eight grades of the elementary

and grammar grades, had no time to do high-school work, and on that

account had no high-school pupils. As a result of those conditions

the patrons who were able financially to bear the expense sent their

children out of the community to school as soon as they were ready

for the high school, at an annual cost of from $150 to $200, while

the larger number were forced to turn aside to take up life’s duties

and responsibilities with only the meager training obtained in these

little schools. Such conditions obtain in three-fourths of the schools

in the South. The Wool Market consolidated school, now serving the

same territory, has 23 high-school pupils—16 in the ninth grade, 5

in the tenth grade, and 2 in the eleventh grade—and 20 pupils in the

music and expression classes under special teachers.

The aggregate average attendance for the original schools was 60

pupils, according to the records, while the average attendance now

in the consolidated school is 110 pupils, with an enrollment of

125. There are only 9 children of school age in the district not

in school. In the old schools the number was too small to form an

attractive social center and to justify the employment of special

teachers, but the new school is fast becoming the center of all social

activities of this larger community, employs special teachers in music

and expression, and has in the faculty teachers qualified to give

instruction in practical agriculture and domestic science. In the

interhigh-school contests last spring the Wool Market consolidated

school, though only two years old, captured a fair share of the

medals in declamation and recitation, while the girls’ basketball team

claims the county championship.

The school is located on 5 acres of land, which are used for

playgrounds, school garden, and practical agricultural demonstration

work. Dr. Welch, the community physician, lectures to the school once

a week on hygiene and school and home sanitation; and Mr. W. A. Cox, a

trustee of the school and a practical farmer and horticulturist, gives

the school weekly lectures on agricultural, horticultural, and allied

subjects.

After trying the consolidated school two years the patrons and other

citizens of the Wool Market community voluntarily levied a tax of $7

per thousand on the property of the district to support the school for

an eight or nine months’ session.

COMPARATIVE STATISTICS

Cost of the three teachers in old school per month $128

Aggregate attendance in the three schools 60

Average cost per pupil per month $2.13

Cost of the three teachers in the elementary and

grammar-school grades of the consolidated school

per month $150

Entire cost of the one transportation wagon per month $50

Average cost per pupil per month in same grades $2.22

Cost of the four teachers in entire school and of the

school wagon per month $280

Average cost per pupil for the elementary and high

school $2.54

The Wool Market school, with its four teachers and adequate

high-school advantages, costs the community only 41 cents per pupil,

or a total of $45 per month more than the three little one-teacher

schools. To send the 23 high-school pupils out of the community

for their high-school education would cost the community at least

$1,000 more than this entire school cost the community and county for

eight months. Mr. W. A. Cox, referred to above, is authority for the

statement that the value of land in the community had increased during

the two years as a result of the good school from $10 per acre to $25

per acre.

What has been accomplished in the Wool Market school can be done in

almost any community in the South. This and similar instances that

might be mentioned lend strength to the contention that adequate

school advantages can be provided for the country children in the

community near the farm home.[33]

EXERCISES AND READINGS

A new school building with twelve recitation rooms is to be built.

Shall the windows of the classrooms open to the north and south or

to the east and west? Shall the lockers for coats and hats be in the

general corridors or shall there be a cloakroom off each room? How high

shall the blackboards be from the floor? How many sides of the room

shall be supplied with blackboards? How high shall each step be in

the stairways? If the building is designed to accommodate six hundred

pupils, what rooms besides the recitation rooms shall be provided? How

big should the auditorium be? Should it have a large stage? Shall the

toilets be in the basement or on each floor? Is it legitimate to spend

money on a teachers’ rest room? Where should the principal’s office be?

Is there any difference between the kind of school building to be

recommended in San Antonio, Texas, and Minneapolis, Minnesota? What

color should the walls of a classroom be? How much playground space

should there be around a school building designed for six hundred

pupils?

Should school buildings be frame buildings? Should doors open into the

building? What is a fire drill, and why is it required?

Report of a Study of Certain Phases of the Public-School System of

Boston, Massachusetts, made under the auspices of the Boston Finance

Commission, _Document 87_ (1916), pp. 185-213. Reprinted by Teachers

College.

STRAYER, G. D. Score Card for School Buildings. Teachers College.

TERMAN, L. M. The Building Situation and Medical Inspection. Denver

School Survey. Published by the Denver School Survey Committee.

FOOTNOTES:

[28] Fletcher B. Dressler, “Rural School Houses and Grounds.” _Bulletin

No. 12_, United States Bureau of Education, 1914.

[29] Leonard P. Ayres and May Ayres, School Buildings and Equipment, p.

23. Cleveland Education Survey. Published by the Survey Committee of

the Cleveland Foundation, 1916.

[30] Ibid. p. 35.

[31] Report of the School Survey of School District Number One in the

City and County of Denver, pp. 134-135. Published by the School Survey

Committee, Denver, Colorado, 1916.

[32] John Dewey, The School and Society, pp. 47-49. The University of

Chicago Press, 1907.

[33] Communication by W. H. Smith, State Superintendent of Public

Instruction, Mississippi. Published as part of the monograph entitled

“Consolidation of Rural Schools and Transportation of Pupils at Public

Expense,” in _Bulletin No. 30_, United States Bureau of Education, 1914

(edited by A. C. Monahan), pp. 82-84.

CHAPTER VII

GROUPING PUPILS IN CLASSES

TRANSITION TO PROBLEMS OF INTERNAL ORGANIZATION

The preceding chapters have dealt, for the most part, with aspects

of school organization which are external to the classroom and to

the operations of instruction. The external organization is set up,

however, for the sole purpose of making class work possible. We

shall progress, therefore, in our statement of educational problems

and principles by turning to the consideration in detail of the

organization of the groups to which instruction is given.

The connection of this problem with the one discussed in the last

chapter is not difficult to trace. Where a community is small and has

few children, a one-room building will serve to house the school.

Economy dictates the employment of a single teacher. This one teacher

must divide his or her time as best possible in giving instruction to

pupils some of whom are very young and others of whom are more mature.

On the other hand, where the community is large or where the school

is consolidated, a many-room building is required, and the lines of

division between groups are drawn in a fashion quite impossible in the

one-room school.

ECONOMY A FIRST MOTIVE FOR GROUPING

Some of the simplest motives back of the grouping of pupils into

classes are financial. Instruction can be administered economically to

a number of pupils when it would be prohibitively expensive to provide

a teacher for each learner. Indeed, the demand for large classes in

city schools becomes so urgent that it is often necessary to point out

the danger of carrying economy so far that it will defeat the purposes

of instruction.

SOCIAL INFLUENCE AN IMPORTANT MOTIVE

On the other hand, it can be shown that even where the motive

of economy is not pressing, there are valid educational grounds

for grouping pupils into classes. Pupils help each other through

their natural social relations. The wholesome rivalry and mutual

suggestiveness provided by the class furnish a much better atmosphere

for teaching than does the isolation of individual instruction.

Somewhere between the huge class dictated by economy and the small

class diminishing to a single individual is the ideal group in point of

size for successful teaching.

GROUPING IN THE ONE-ROOM SCHOOL

There are other characteristics than size, however, to be considered

in making up proper groups. In order to discover some of these

characteristics, it will be well to consider certain concrete types of

grouping exhibited in schools.

The type of grouping in the one-room, one-teacher school is in many

respects the freest which can be found. The teacher can organize the

school with no conflicts in program, because the whole program consists

in distributing his own time. The classes can be of any size that the

teacher’s judgment determines. The reasons for the grouping are purely

and simply those which appeal to the teacher.

Under such circumstances what happens? The teacher naturally puts in

one group the pupils who are for the first time taking up school work.

In other groups he puts those pupils who have approximately the same

attainments in each subject. In the classes beyond the first many

complications arise. There are some pupils who read well but seem to

be deficient in knowledge of number. Other pupils with a taste for

arithmetic are very forward in that branch and do only indifferently

well in reading and spelling. It is not uncommon in the one-room school

for the teacher to regard these differences in ability in particular

subjects as adequate reasons for distributing the pupils differently

in different subjects. It comes about in the course of time that one

and the same pupil will be in the third reading class, in the fourth

geography class, and in the fifth or sixth class in arithmetic, while

another pupil who has attained to the fifth reader will be lingering

behind in the third class in arithmetic.

COURSES OF INSTRUCTION IN RELATION TO THE PROBLEM OF GROUPING

We find ourselves led by the discussion of groupings to a consideration

of different levels of difficulty in subjects of instruction and to

the rate of progress of each individual in each subject. The teacher

in the one-room school has no difficulty in seeing the wisdom of

holding together those pupils who have a common grade of knowledge

in geography. In like fashion the class in arithmetic must be as

homogeneous as possible. There is, however, no recognized demand that a

certain section of geography be coupled in the education of any child

with any particular section of arithmetic. Pupils are grouped in the

one-room school with reference to each subject considered by itself.

NEW PROBLEMS OF GROUPING IN LARGE SCHOOLS

When schools grow to the size where pupils are put into different

rooms, as in an eight-room building, a problem arises which was never

faced in the one-room school. It is the problem of carrying a group of

pupils through all the subjects at the same rate. Thus, when the pupils

in an ordinary city school have been grouped together in arithmetic,

there are obvious advantages from an administrative point of view in

keeping them together in reading and in geography. In ordinary practice

the graded school assumes that it is possible to find means of keeping

the group together for long periods in all subjects.

This assumption leads to the necessity of asking a kind of question

which did not confront the teacher in the one-room school. The kind

of question which comes up in the graded school can be illustrated as

follows: When a pupil is old enough and intellectually mature enough to

study the products and industries of North America in his geography,

what phase of arithmetic will be appropriate to hold his attention and

stimulate his thinking? When a pupil is old enough to read the history

of his own city, what other reading material will insure real effort on

his part?

The one-room school escapes these questions for the most part because

it is at liberty to allow the pupil to take a different pace in

each subject. The one-room school is a place where the subjects

of instruction taken in their totality, or the curriculum, as the

whole series of subjects may be called, is usually not recognized as

important. Each subject has a sequence of its own, but the curriculum

as a whole is not thought out. In the graded school the curriculum is

one of the matters of major importance. The graded school not only

grades pupils; it grades subject-matter of instruction. The importance

of this contrast cannot be overemphasized. Many of the problems of the

modern school arise at this point.

FUNDAMENTALLY DIFFERENT VIEWS ON THE CURRICULUM

Let us consider certain cases which will make clear the importance

of the contrast. The following extract from the report of the state

superintendent of schools in Maine sets forth a definite view on the

matters under discussion:

_More Careful System._ The number of pupils in ungraded schools is

shown to be 29,089, a decrease of 1986 from the figures shown for the

previous year. It is clear that the work of the schools is becoming

more carefully systematized. This fact is further attested by the

reduction in the number of schools not using a course of study. In

1904 there were 2323 schools that were reported as following no

definite outline of studies. In 1913 this number had dropped to 827

and, as indicated by this report, has now been further reduced to 670.

This change, already increasing to no small extent the efficiency

of the schools, suggests a promise of the greater advantages that

would follow the adoption of a course that would in essentials be

uniform for the state. While an absolute uniformity that would prevent

individual initiative and wise experimentation would retard progress

and is not to be desired, there is much to be said in favor of an

agreement on established and essential points for all parts of the

state school system.[34]

On the other hand, practical efforts are being made in many quarters

to overcome the rigidity of the graded system by devising methods of

taking the individual out of the group whenever the course of study

proves to be inapplicable to his particular needs. In Fond du Lac,

Wisconsin, the elementary schools have their programs for the various

grades so arranged that language comes for every grade at exactly the

same hour in the day; in like fashion, all arithmetic classes are held

at the same time, and so with geography and the other subjects. Through

this arrangement it is possible for a child who is backward in a single

subject to withdraw from the group with which he spends most of the day

and to go for the period to another class where he receives a different

type of instruction in the subject in which he is behind.

At Gary the schools are so organized that certain teachers in certain

rooms teach a particular subject; the general freedom of organization

secured in this way is utilized to shift pupils from room to room, thus

breaking up the grading system. The possibilities of this arrangement

are described in the following quotation:

If a boy is weak in some particular subject, it is possible to give

him double work in that subject. Let us say a 4A boy is weak in

arithmetic. It is possible for a time for him to omit some of his

special activities and take arithmetic with the 4B class also, thus

permitting double time in arithmetic. If he is weak in all of his

regular studies it is easy to drop him out of his special activities

for a time and permit him to do double work in the regular studies.

The special activities are of such a sort that he can return to his

classes there without difficulty.[35]

THE UNGRADED CLASS IN GRADED SCHOOLS

Another type of experiment is seen in the so-called ungraded class. In

many large schools a room is set apart under an especially skillful

teacher where pupils who are for any reason out of joint with the

curriculum may receive personal attention. Many of these ungraded rooms

are so conducted that bright pupils, through a little personal help,

are prepared to skip a grade and thus advance more rapidly than the

ordinary pupil. Backward children, especially those who are backward

in only a single subject, are helped enough to restore them to their

classes. Where it is found that pupils are subnormal and permanently

unable to keep in line with others of like age, the ungraded class may

become a special class. The teacher is then given authority to take all

liberty with the subject-matter of instruction and fit it to the needs

of the pupils. Sometimes in such special classes reading is practically

abandoned and time is devoted to various forms of handwork.

CASES WHERE FAILURES SHOW THE URGENCY OF THE GRADING PROBLEM

The foregoing paragraphs have, it is to be hoped, made clear the fact

that the grouping of pupils and the organization of the curriculum are

closely interrelated problems. The same lesson can be taught by a study

of the actual operations of certain school systems which are organized

under the graded system.

Fig. 11 shows certain records of failures in the elementary schools of

Cleveland for one half of the year 1914. A failure on the part of a

child in any school can have no other meaning than this: the child was,

at the time of his failure, in the wrong group for his intellectual

advantage. There is no effort in such a remark to place the blame for

the child’s failure. Perhaps the child who fails is indolent. Perhaps

the work is too difficult for him. Whatever the reason, failure means

that the pupil and the system of grading are out of joint with each

other. Hence, when we find pupils failing, we know that the grading

system is not working perfectly.

In the figure the diagram at the left shows the percentage of

nonpromotions in each grade. About 17 per cent failed in the first

grade, about 12 per cent in the second, and so on. It may be well to

comment briefly on the high percentage in the first grade. This is

due to the fact that some pupils enter school when they are immature.

Many pupils lose a great many days of schooling in the first years

through contagious diseases, which, as shown by school statistics,

are contracted more commonly during the first years than later. The

family does not take care of attendance as carefully in the first year

as later. The first year supplies the test which in many cases brings

evidence of mental deficiency. These and other reasons explain the high

percentage of nonpromotions in the first year. The reduced percentage

in the second year is explained by the fact that a part of the task of

adjusting pupils to the graded system and to the curriculum has been

accomplished in the first grade.

[Illustration: FIG. 11. Record of nonpromotions and failures in

Cleveland, 1914]

The record given in the diagram for the third, fourth, and fifth grades

is an impressive exhibition of increasing incoördination between the

pupils and the work of the school. So striking is the difficulty in

these later grades that we are led to ask for an explanation. This is

supplied in part by the diagram in the middle of the figure and by the

one at the right. These present the records of failures in two of the

most important school subjects.

A record of constantly diminishing failures in reading is exhibited in

the middle diagram. This shows that the teachers judge that the pupils

improve steadily in reading. There is a satisfactory response to the

methods of teaching reading and to the demands of the upper grades.

Those pupils who have difficulty in reading in the lower grades are

held back or are helped to master the art. The evident fact is that

improvement in reading is, according to the record, continuous and

satisfactory.

The diagram at the right shows the record in arithmetic. Here is the

cause of many of the nonpromotions shown in the diagram at the left.

Failures mount up in the middle grades at a rate which shows with

manifest clearness that something is radically wrong.

One may venture several remarks in the presence of such records. It

does not seem likely that the pupils are stupid, since it is shown

that they can read. It is to be noted that they do not have any option

about taking arithmetic, nor do they determine what arithmetic they

shall study. They are evidently not getting a section of arithmetic

in each of the grades which suitably parallels the reading which is

administered to them.

EFFORTS TO ADJUST INSTRUCTION TO PUPILS

The conditions shown in the figure are paralleled in many school

systems. The result is that school officers, seeing the difficulty of

doing justice to the pupils, have made radical changes in the grading

system in order to meet individual needs. Two extracts from reports by

superintendents will show the extent to which school systems will go.

A study of the performances of the failures in Boise has convinced the

entire force that the repeater is generally a quitter, and does about

as poor work in his second attempt as in his first trial at the work

of a given grade. The stamp of disapproval has been placed upon him.

He starts on his second attempt with a grievance against the teacher

and the entire institution. The parents as well as the child feel

injured, so that the teacher must combat both the antagonism of the

home and the hostility of the pupil, who has been trained for failure

and not for success, and who becomes either morbidly sensitive or

brazenly indifferent. What the laggard would probably do as a repeater

is therefore quite definitely known. If he were permitted to advance,

he could hardly do worse and he might do better. It is less expensive

and more human to promote him than it is to degrade him. This view

of the situation is generally accepted in Boise. The standard for

promoting the dull pupil is entirely individual. He is not compelled

to do all the work of his present grade before he is permitted to pass

to the next. He is even allowed to pass on without manifesting enough

ability to justify the hope that he may be able to do the work of the

advanced grade. The question is reduced to the one consideration:

Would he do better if advanced than he would as a repeater?[36]

Ten years ago no pupil could enter the Newton High School, no

matter what his age or educational need, who had not completed

satisfactorily all the work of the grammar schools; and a considerable

portion—probably one-third to one-half—of all Newton children were

then leaving school at fourteen to sixteen years of age with only part

of an elementary school education. To-day any boy or girl who needs

secondary school instruction—and most boys and girls of high school

age, fourteen or fifteen, do need such instruction—may enter some

department of the Newton high schools, whether grammar school work has

been completed or not; and nearly all—probably from eighty to ninety

per cent—of our children are now getting secondary training before

leaving school.[37]

READJUSTMENTS OF THE CURRICULUM

There are other and more fundamental remedies for some of the evils

of the graded system. The curriculum can be readjusted. Where any

considerable number of pupils fail in a particular subject, it is

highly probable that the material of instruction or the method of

presentation or both ought to be modified. In some cases pupils ought

to be taken out of the regular grades and treated as special cases. The

city of Cincinnati was a pioneer in recognizing the need of special

curricula for special types of pupils. The whole country has in recent

years come to recognize the importance of taking children who are

mentally backward or slow out of the grades. Less commonly there is

a recognition of the importance of specially arranged courses for the

bright pupils.

In the city of St. Louis the curriculum of each grade is administered

in units of ten weeks for each section. At the end of each ten weeks

a readjustment is possible so that the bright pupils may go forward

and the slow pupils may proceed more deliberately. There are at the

end of each period of ten weeks a number of promotions which carry

individual pupils forward two quarters. The curriculum is so arranged

that a rapidly promoted pupil does not omit any essential part of the

subjects, while the slow pupil has ample opportunity for drill and

review.

The grading of the material used in instruction in particular subjects

has also been recognized as a problem of the first importance. One of

the most thoroughly studied subjects is spelling. Ayres[38] took the

thousand words which several investigations had shown to be the most

commonly used in ordinary life and tried them out on the pupils of

eighty-four cities. As a result of those trials he is able to state

that a certain list of words will be spelled with a given percentage of

error by pupils of the third grade and with a less percentage of error

by pupils of the fourth, fifth, and higher grades. Thus the material of

instruction in spelling is graded, not by arbitrarily selecting what

the teacher thinks will be appropriate, but by trying out the actual

ability of pupils in eighty-four cities.

PROBLEMS OF GROUPING IN HIGH SCHOOL

Thus far the problem of grouping has been discussed from the point of

view of the elementary school. The problems of the high school are

different in detail, but no less impressive. In the first place, the

failures in high-school subjects show the same lack of systematic

ordering of the curriculum that was observed in the elementary records

cited above. For example, from the survey of the Denver high schools

we may borrow a series of percentages showing the failures in various

subjects in the five high schools.

TABLE VI. PERCENTAGES OF FAILURES IN THE CHIEF SUBJECTS OF INSTRUCTION

IN THE FIVE HIGH SCHOOLS OF DENVER IN JUNE, 1915[39]

==============================================================

| East |North |South | West |Manual

| High | High | High | High | High

|School |School |School |School |School

——————————————————————+——————-+———-———+———-———+———————+——————-

English I | 23 | 15 | 11 | 9 | 31

English II | 14 | 16 | 10 | 11 | 23

English III | 16 | 3 | 2 | 15 | 20

English IV | 3 | 1 | 2 | 8 | 13

| | | | |

Mathematics I | 23 | 24 | 26 | 28 | 50

Mathematics II | 17 | 21 | 28 | 20 | 19

Commercial arithmetic | 46 | 16 | 33 | — | —

| | | | |

Elementary science | 13 | 9 | 14 | 21 | 7

Botany | 21 | 14 | 14 | 14 | 24

Physics | 10 | 15 | 18 | 17 | 34

Chemistry | 0 | 4 | 14 | 6 | 20

Physiography | 11 | 15 | 12 | — | —

| | | | |

History | | | | |

Ancient | 12 | 17 | 11 | 10 | 15

English | 12 | 17 | 7 | 5 | —

Medieval and modern | 12 | 9 | 8 | 8 | 13

American | — | 7 | — | — | —

| | | | |

Latin I | 22 | 16 | 10 | 29 | 40

Latin II | 14 | 20 | 14 | 11 | 18

| | | | |

German I | 20 | 15 | 24 | 5 | 19

German II | 19 | 2 | 3 | 0 | 0

==============================================================

Table VI is worthy of careful study. Let us compare English I and

II, which are required of all students, with Mathematics I and II,

which are also required. In almost every case the percentage of

failures in mathematics is greater. This goes to show either that

the grading in mathematics is more exacting or that the students are

less well qualified to carry the courses. The exception to the rule

that mathematics shows more failures than English, which appears in

the second year of the Manual High School, suggests that possibly

the students in that school see the importance of mathematics as

a professional course. The difficulty with this explanation is

the enormous mortality in that school in the first-year course in

mathematics. Perhaps the pupils who are likely to fail are dropped

during the first year.

While the failures in mathematics are uniformly higher than in English,

the policy of the different schools is strikingly different. In the

East High School the two subjects are about alike, while in the West

High School the failures in mathematics are relatively very high.

Such contrasts become more impressive if we draw the records in Latin

into consideration. In the West High School, Latin in the first year is

like mathematics, while in the South High School it is like English.

Elementary science also shows wide divergences in practice.

A number of startling facts appear if the table is made a subject of

careful study. What these facts mean is not difficult to set forth. The

subjects now included in the curriculum of the high school are only

imperfectly adjusted to the abilities of the students. The community

has a right to question instruction which results in failure on the

part of one student out of four. It certainly must be aroused at the

lack of coördination between schools within a single system which show

differences as marked as those exhibited in Table VI.

Other problems in the grading of high-school students and the

subject-matter in which they are given instruction grow out of the

laxity which has crept into the administration of the elective system.

Thus, if we consider certain subjects which are open to students of

different classes, such as the first course in Spanish or French or the

course in ancient history, we find that senior students are allowed to

enter the same class as freshmen because the organization of separate

divisions would be too expensive. The result is either a reduction

of the requirement in class work to the level of the more immature

student or undue effort to bring the lower student to a reasonable

understanding of the subject.

ILLEGITIMATE REASONS FOR PROMOTING PUPILS

The problems which have been pointed out will perhaps be seen most

vividly if some types of promotion are cited which are likely to

interfere with instruction.

Sometimes the school allows a pupil to move up a grade or class,

although it is known that he has not done the work below, because

the parents of the child have influence and it does not seem safe to

antagonize them.

Sometimes the pressure of numbers in the lower grades or classes is so

great that the teacher sends a pupil on in order to make room for the

younger pupils, even when it is evident that the pupil will not be able

to carry the higher work.

Sometimes the teacher in a given grade is anxious to unload the

backward or disorderly and therefore incompetent pupil on someone else,

and since the open road is into the next higher grade, the child is

sent on.

Promotion is sometimes controlled by the calendar. Because the date

for closing the schools has arrived, and the long vacation is at hand,

pupils are declared to have completed the work whether they have or

not.

Sometimes it is more or less explicitly argued that the backward pupil

is larger than the other children of like intellectual attainments and

he should therefore be sent to the upper-grade room where the seats are

larger.

When such reasons for promotion are deliberately set down in black and

white, they are evidently not legitimate reasons. Many a pupil has,

however, been dealt with on exactly such grounds.

EXPERIMENTS AND STUDIES WHICH AIM TO SUPPLY BOTH INDIVIDUAL INSTRUCTION

AND CLASS INSTRUCTION

The indefensible reasons given above for advancing pupils ought to

make anyone who expects to become a teacher the more ready to turn

to the careful study of the problem. It is undoubtedly a social and

financial necessity that pupils be grouped in classes. It is equally

necessary for purposes of administration that the groups have some kind

of permanency and some degree of internal uniformity. It is certainly

legitimate that the individual’s needs be asserted to the extent of

freeing him from absolute subordination to the interests of the group.

Such a statement of the case would seem to dictate a double type of

instruction which will recognize more than does the present rigid class

system the need of individual freedom and the value of class solidarity.

Many experiments have been tried in the effort to solve this problem.

The Batavia system, so called, puts two teachers into a room, one to

supervise individual work and one to teach groups. There are various

systems of individual promotion which advance a pupil whenever he is

ready.

Recently Principal Allen[40] of the high school of Springfield,

Illinois, has developed a system of supervised study in which the

students put themselves through certain prepared exercises and in this

part of their work receive individual help and are allowed to progress

at their own individual rate. Later the class meets for recitation as

a group. The recitation group is made to depend for its composition on

the rate at which students complete the individual exercises. The class

is accordingly readjusted frequently, and in order to provide time for

individual work the length of its meetings is somewhat less than the

conventional high-school period.

The instructional plan thus arranged requires certain readjustments of

the program and certain divisions of labor among the teachers which

differ from the ordinary. But, above all, it calls for the separation

of those aspects of the subjects of instruction which are suitable for

individual work from those aspects which are suited to class exercises.

ARRANGEMENT OF THE MATERIALS OF INSTRUCTION

We are constantly brought back by our discussions of the organization

of classes to a consideration of the curriculum. The materials of

instruction are capable of advantageous and economical use only when

they are adapted to pupils. Our next problem, therefore, is to consider

some of the general principles which underlie the organization of the

general curriculum and of particular subjects.

EXERCISES AND READINGS

What are some of the limitations in the training of a child who gets

his education from a private tutor rather than as a member of a class?

Show that the most satisfactory size for a class depends in large

measure on the subject of instruction. In certain subjects, such as

typewriting and bookkeeping, instruction often becomes almost purely

individual instruction. Observe such a class and describe the method of

instruction.

If terminology is employed in a strict way, a “course” refers to a

series of lessons in a single subject, a “curriculum” to a coherent

group of courses. What devices are adopted in high schools to compel

students to think of curricula rather than courses? What are the

advantages and what are the evils of the elective system?

What is the highest percentage of failures which ought to be tolerated

in a class? What conditions affect your answer to the foregoing

question? Is a “stiff” course the best course? What class in high

school has the “stiffest” requirements?

Dealing with the illegitimate methods of promotion enumerated in the

closing paragraphs of the chapter, describe some thoroughly practical

method of handling each situation without making the mistake indicated.

HOLMES, W. H. School Organization and the Individual Child. The Davis

Press, Worcester, Massachusetts. Contains a list of references on the

subject.

FOOTNOTES:

[34] Report of the State Superintendent of Public Schools of the State

of Maine, for the School Year Ending June 30, 1914, p. 21.

[35] John Franklin Bobbitt, “The Elimination of Waste in Education,” in

_Elementary School Teacher_, Vol. XII (1912), pp. 266-267.

[36] Special report of the Boise Public Schools (June, 1915), pp. 17-18.

[37] F. E. Spaulding, The Newton Public Schools, Annual Report of the

School Committee, Newton, Massachusetts, Vol. LXXIV (1913), pp. 18-19.

[38] Leonard P. Ayres, A Measuring Scale for Ability in Spelling. The

Russell Sage Foundation, 1915.

[39] The Work of the Schools. Part II of the Report of the School

Survey of Denver, p. 158. Published by the School Survey Committee,

Denver, Colorado, 1916.

[40] For a fuller discussion of this experiment, see pp. 237-238.

CHAPTER VIII

THE TRADITIONAL CURRICULUM AND ITS REORGANIZATION

IMPORTANCE OF A STUDY OF THE CURRICULUM

The last chapter failed of its purpose if it did not concentrate the

attention of the reader on the school curriculum. The organized body of

materials of instruction constitutes one of the most important factors

which enter into the life of the school system. Along with the board

of education, with the grading system, and with the staff of teachers

and supervisory officers stands the curriculum as a kind of dominating

personality always exercising a leading influence in the determination

of every educational policy. It will be the business of this chapter to

open the discussion of the curriculum by commenting on the history of

courses of study and by pointing out some of the changes which recent

years have wrought.

THE SPECIALIZED CURRICULUM OF HIGHER SCHOOLS

If one goes back to the beginnings of any school system, it will always

be found that the original courses of study grow directly out of the

intellectual ideals of the times. For example, if one goes back to the

beginnings of medieval universities, he finds that these institutions

grew up because there was an interest in certain well-defined bodies

of ideas. At Bologna one Irnerius had made himself acquainted with

the laws of the northern Italian cities, and students came from all

Europe to hear him expound these laws. The course of study was directly

related to a specific demand.

A professional theological curriculum was organized at the time of the

founding of the early American universities. Harvard was at first a

school for the training of clergymen. At that time there was no demand

for lawyers trained in the New World. The law came from England, and

from the same source came the lawyers. Medicine had hardly developed

into a profession. Preaching and listening to sermons were, on the

other hand, among the most absorbing occupations of the colonists, and

Harvard was established to provide those who could preach. The courses

of study were arranged according to the traditions of the single

profession towards which the graduates were aiming.

PROBLEMS OF GENERALIZING A SPECIALIZED CURRICULUM

We may pursue this example further as typical of the complications

which ultimately grow up around any course of study. The original

purpose of Harvard was expanded with the passing years. A demand

arose for lawyers and doctors; in the effort to meet this demand the

institution was divided into separate schools. Still later students

came to college seeking a general training not leading to any

profession. Through all these changes in the demands of the student

body the original courses of study have persistently battled their way

down to the present. No clearer evidence can be found than this, that

courses of study once created become vital factors in all the later

life of the school. The college courses of study were in the first

place the product of a particular professional demand. While satisfying

this particular demand they became strong enough so that at a later

period they have often dominated educational policies.

It is too flippant a remark to say that the classical education of the

clerical period became the fashion and that later generations were

afraid to be out of fashion, but something of this sort is what really

happened. The traditions of a generation are hard to break. The father

who took Greek as a part of his education hesitates to see his son

enter upon life without the same equipment. Courses of study thus come

to have an intellectual sanction which it is extraordinarily difficult

to break down.

TRADITIONAL CHARACTER OF MATHEMATICS COURSES IN HIGH SCHOOLS

Another example of no less impressive a type can be drawn from the

high-school curriculum of the present time. There is hardly a tradition

of high schools which is more fixed than that of requiring algebra in

the first year and geometry later. This practice persists even though

it is a well-known fact that in many schools failures in high-school

algebra are more numerous than in any other high-school course. Also,

there is a clear recognition of the fact that by being required of all

students in the first year algebra is in effect made the prerequisite

of admission to the courses in science and literature which are open

only to students who have reached the later years of the high school.

The question which the student of education must raise is this: How did

algebra secure this position of commanding importance, and how does it

hold this position when experience shows that so many students cannot

take it with success? The answer to these questions throws a strong

light on the nature of the curriculum.

Mathematics in general gained a preëminent position in the educational

scheme of the Western World as far back as the fifth century before

Christ, in the days of Pythagoras. The branches of mathematics which

were chiefly cultivated in those days were geometry and arithmetic.

Geometry flourished as an experimental science, and arithmetic

consisted in the most elaborate speculations about prime numbers

and the properties of odd and even numbers. After these sciences had

reached a certain maturity they were transferred to the University

of Alexandria, where, in the third century before Christ, Euclid

formulated the principles of geometry into the logical form which has

persisted to our own time. If one asks why the same service was not

rendered for arithmetic at the University of Alexandria, the answer

is to be found in the fact that the Greeks had no adequate method of

expressing number. They used a system of letters even more clumsy than

the system employed by the Romans after them. If one needs further

demonstration of the reason why arithmetic did not develop in the

classical world, let him try to multiply DCCLXXVII by XCIX. Arithmetic

was very little cultivated, therefore, while geometry was put into

perfect logical form. Since arithmetic was so little developed in the

ancient world, algebra never succeeded in getting a real start.

Geometry, thus launched as a systematized branch of learning superior

to arithmetic, has held its place through all generations. In the

medieval institutions the perfect logical form of geometry was fully

recognized. Geometry was used to sharpen the logic of many a mind.

Arithmetic developed only so far as it was needed for the practical

purposes of daily life.

In due time there came into Europe oriental scholars who brought with

them that marvelous invention—the Arabic numerals. They brought also

the science of algebra with its profound abstractions. The Arabic

numerals soon superseded the clumsy Roman numerals, and the common

man found that he could easily deal with the practical matters of

life by means of this number system which rendered all calculations

simple. With arithmetic of the new type came algebra. The scientists

of Europe found that the algebraic methods opened up possibilities of

mathematical reasoning which were of the first importance to science.

Algebra and arithmetic flourished. But did these two newcomers in any

degree disturb the position of geometry? Not at all. Algebra may be as

abstract as any subject in the curriculum, but its historical relations

were from the first with arithmetic, while geometry was related to

logic and the higher subjects. Geometry has continued since 300 B.C. to

be a higher course. The situation in the high schools of to-day is in

no sense due to a careful study of the degree of abstraction involved

in geometry and algebra. It is in no sense a recognition of the fact

that geometry was the first of the two subjects to develop. The present

situation can be understood only by recognizing the strength of

tradition and the persistence of a practice when once it gets itself

established.

The situation is the more impressive because even a superficial study

of the intellectual needs of pupils shows that there ought to be

instruction in the lower grades in the discrimination of forms and

designs. One does not master the forms even of common things until his

attention has been turned to them again and again. The consequences to

the curriculum of the elevation of geometry to the upper school are

far-reaching in a negative as well as in a positive way. Space study

has been kept out of the lower schools because the only orthodox form

of space study is the geometry of the higher schools. Space study ought

to have a place in the curriculum of every grade.

In the case of algebra, on the other hand, tradition has operated to

keep the subject in the lower classes of the high school. That it would

be better to change this situation appears in the fact that textbooks

in algebra have in recent years been made much easier in the effort to

fit the subject to pupils’ needs, in the fact that some high schools

have made it elective, and in the fact that some high schools have

rearranged the whole subject-matter of mathematics, breaking up the

historical lines of division.

SUGGESTIONS OF NEW SUBJECTS

Other evidences that the curriculum is in need of radical reform appear

when one notes that schools are curiously blind in the subjects which

they omit. A recent writer has pointed out in a very interesting way

the weakness of the ordinary school in its failure to give children any

training in the use of money. A quotation from his introductory chapter

will show the force of his criticism.

Most people if suddenly asked, “What financial training did you have

as a child?” would probably say, “None.” If asked, “What financial

training are you giving your own children?” many parents would give

the same answer. All parents, however, do incidentally give lessons in

finance and a few give definite instruction with regard to money.

The teacher, if thus questioned, would usually say something about

arithmetic or perhaps refer to some system of money-saving that is

being operated by the school. Much has really been done that educates

children financially, but probably not one person in ten has ever

seriously studied the problem of the need of financial training of

children and of how that need at each age may best be met.

A moment’s reflection tells one that many adults do not know how to

spend their money wisely and that still fewer know how to keep it

safely or invest it successfully. Every day we see people spending

money in ways that bring little satisfaction. Others are tortured by

the fear of losing what they have, while still others are investing in

schemes that promise much and yield little or nothing.

Charity workers are especially impressed with the inability of poor

people to spend wisely the little money they get. One woman whose

family was in a starving condition spent all of the dollar that was

given her for canned lobster, and another in a similar situation had a

picture taken.

Rich sons and daughters often spend the money accumulated by their

fathers in even more foolish ways. In general it is only the common

people who have had much experience in saving and spending money, who

spend it wisely and many of these have paid a high price for their

knowledge. If carefully planned financial training were given, the

number spending wisely would doubtless be greatly increased.[41]

PRESENT-DAY SOCIAL DEMANDS

Other suggestions are being made these days for a change in the course

of study. Sometimes the suggestions take the form of social movements.

Such social movements often come in the form of violent criticisms

of existing practices. These criticisms will be understood only when

it is recognized that back of them there is often a social pressure

which has not been understood and is now finding voice in a demand

that requires immediate attention. It will be well for us to seek some

examples of this type in order that we may come to understand that the

school system is answerable at all times not merely to earlier social

ideals which were incorporated into courses of study but also to the

new ideals which arise with the later developments of community life.

An example of the type we are seeking appears in a study which was

made in 1913 in the city of Minneapolis. The following extracts from

an article published on March 10 in the _Morning Tribune_ of that city

state the case fully:

A year ago a group of men and women interested in the welfare of boys

and girls, and somewhat acquainted with conditions that confront them

upon their entrance into industrial life, decided that it was time to

make a survey of the city. There had been much talk of training for

the trades in the public schools, and apparently there was reasonable

ground for this advocacy....

Was there a real demand, or was this a new educational fad sweeping

across the country, to be lost in the great abyss of educational

nostrums, along with vertical writing and basketry? That was to be

determined.

Educators are usually learned men; but this world generally does

not ascribe to them an abundance of sound sense. These learned men

have charge of the greatest plant in the world—our schools. A half

million employees are at work at an annual expense to the nation of

$450,000,000. The product of this institution should be manhood and

womanhood, efficient to take its place in the world of workers, and

firmly established in habits of right thinking and noble action. Yet

who is accounted efficient for the work of to-day?

Certainly not the armorer, no matter how skilled—for what need have

we of him? Possibly not the bootmaker; for the best and latest in

boots come from big factories. And so rapidly do industries change

that confusion awaits the man still using methods of ten years ago. No

system of education can be efficient until the conditions of life to

which pupils go are thoroughly known. No manufacturer would think of

setting his machines to make “what-nots” or muzzle-loading guns; they

were all right in their day but that day is now yesterday. The first

thing for the man of business is to know what the market demands. And

the managers of the schools must explore their market to know what is

demanded of the education factory. That is the reason for this survey.

The commission was made up of persons well known in the city and

representative of differing interests....

Ten months were spent in gathering the information, and a month in

studying it and getting it into shape for presentation. The tables have

been arranged in the following order: First, a set of three tables,

showing the sources of the material studied, by school, by age, by

grade, and by nationality, and the causes of retardation; second, a

table showing upon whom the responsibility should be placed for the

child’s leaving school; third, four tables setting forth the reasons

for leaving school, and the economic status of the family; fourth,

a table indicating the education of the children after leaving the

public school; and fifth, five tables showing the industrial history of

each child, his wages, the number of jobs, the kind of work, and his

advancement.

In the discussion comparisons are frequently made with similar reports

from other cities, and following these are the conclusions reached by

the committee and recommendations for further work.

It will not be possible to give in detail all the results thus

obtained. It must suffice to repeat here the figures which summarize

the table of causes for leaving school. The percentages of pupils

leaving for each cause are given with the statement of the cause.

Ill health 5.7 per cent

Had to go to work 35.5 per cent

Child’s desire to earn money 8.2 per cent

Kept vacation work 2.6 per cent

Disliked or not interested in school 29.6 per cent

Trouble with teacher 3.1 per cent

Failure to pass 1.1 per cent

Further public school not worth while 14.2 per cent

The number of pupils who leave because they do not like school or do

not believe it worth while is disturbingly large. That there should

be so pronounced an adverse judgment on the part of pupils is perhaps

to be explained in a measure by their immaturity and restlessness;

but part of the school’s problem is to meet this immaturity and

restlessness and to train the pupils with full regard to all that goes

to make up their individual tastes and abilities.

It is especially important that a careful study be made of all

available recommendations for improving the situation. We turn,

therefore, to some of the leading recommendations of the Minneapolis

commission:

That as rapidly as would be economical, the schools be organized on

the “six-three-and-three” plan, beginning differentiated courses in

the B seventh grade. These courses should follow three broad lines:

(1) Leading toward the academic courses in high schools. (2) Toward

the commercial courses, or directly to business. (3) Toward manual

training in high school, or directly to manufacturing and mechanical

pursuits.

That preparation for the trades can be best and most economically

closely related to working conditions, while the necessary skill shall

be gained in actual work under the usual commercial conditions.

That the membership of the Thomas Arnold school be enlarged to include

all boys who have reached the age of fifteen and have not yet reached

the seventh grade. And that a similar school be organized for girls.

That a department of vocational guidance be organized.

That, as an adjunct to the board of education, an advisory commission

of 15 members, composed of employees, employers and educators, be

established, whose duty it shall be to report changes in the demands

of business and industry, and to advise modifications of the course of

study to meet these new demands.

That a law should be enacted, making it mandatory that a boy shall

be either in school or at work up to his eighteenth year, and that

the department of vocational guidance be charged with the duty of

enforcing such a provision.

This report has been reproduced at length because it furnishes a

concrete example of the kind of demand which is being made on many

sides for a complete remaking of the curriculum. The comments about

school officers are also typical of much that is being laid at the door

of the present-day pedagogue. Better than any theoretical answer to

these critics is a careful study of the whole problem of reorganizing

the curriculum.

TRADITIONAL NEGLECT OF INDUSTRIAL EDUCATION ON THE PART OF THE PUBLIC

The reasonableness of the demand that the schools prepare boys and

girls for their work in the world raises at once the question: Why have

the schools ever neglected this need? The answer to this question is

supplied in part by the remoter history of schools which was touched

on in an earlier chapter and in the early paragraphs of this chapter.

European and American schools first dealt with professional and

theological problems and have accordingly always had a strong leaning

toward the literary subjects.

The early history of the American educational system throws light

on this particular matter in a way which will help the reader to

understand the present situation with regard to industrial education

and traditional education.

At the same time that the New England colonies were passing laws

establishing schools where children were to learn to read the Bible,

they provided in such laws as the following for training in industrial

lines. The Connecticut law of 1650 provides that “all parents and

masters do breed and bring up their children and apprentices in some

honest lawful labor, or employment, either in husbandry or some other

trade profitable for themselves and the commonwealth, if they will

not nor cannot train them up in learning, to fit them for higher

employments, and if any of the selectmen, after admonition by them

given to such masters of families, shall find them still negligent of

their duty, ... the said selectmen, with the help of two magistrates,

shall take such children or apprentices from them, and place them with

some masters for years, boys until they come to be twenty-one, and

girls to eighteen years of age complete.”

The conception of responsibility which lies back of this law is

wholly different from that expressed in the legislation providing for

reading-schools. A public officer was put in charge of reading. He was

stimulated to carry on his work by the rewards which he received in

the way of compensation for his services. The control of industrial

education by the public was very slight. We can imagine some selectman

whose attention was by chance drawn to a neglected child, debating with

himself the wisdom of setting in motion the magistrates and his fellow

selectmen in enforcing this somewhat vague law. The fact is that the

law was not enforced. It became a dead letter, and public attention to

vocational education has no history in this country until recent years,

when the pressure of industrial competition has forced its recognition.

In the early days of the nation’s life the absence of any definite

plan for public vocational education of young people was not a serious

matter. Industrial life was relatively simple, and the family lived

close to its sources of supplies. The family was able to take care

of the children’s preparation for industrial life without aid or

interference from the state. But social and industrial conditions have

changed. With the development of factories, of elaborate systems of

transportation, and of urban life it is no longer possible for the

family to train the children, and the demand begins to be urgently felt

that some agency give adequate preparation for the practical later

life of the children, and that more especially where families are not

well-to-do.

For a long period after this demand was felt the school went on with

its specialized task, and the public was complacent to see the school

neglect vocational training. The specialized task of the school, as

thought of in those days, was to teach reading and the other subjects

which naturally attached themselves to the literary tendencies that

grew up in a reading-school. Private institutions, such as business

colleges, sprang up as agencies for satisfying the demand for special

vocational training. These were tuition schools and secured their

students in many cases by criticizing the public school as incompetent

and wasteful. In some cases employers, realizing the necessity of

training their workers, made it a part of their industrial organization

to teach certain branches of the trades. In other cases, a boy going

into an occupation which had no regular training-school, either in a

private institution or in the industrial plant, got his training as

best he could by accepting a low wage and blundering along until he

learned his trade. Even to-day the private training of young people for

industry is conducted on a scale that shows how new is the idea that

the public school is responsible in any degree for such training.

THE DEMAND FOR REVISION OF THE CURRICULUM

The historical sketch given above illustrates, as do the earlier

examples presented in this chapter, the natural conservatism of

the school curriculum on the one hand and the inevitableness of an

expansion of the school on the other. Historically, the common school

had no duties in the direction of vocational training. But we are

beginning to realize that it is not profitable to try to throw off

responsibility. To-day the school must cope with an urgent social

problem. The curriculum was and is literary in its major content. The

problem of the future is to expand it so that it shall combine with its

literary content a new and productive body of vocational training.

SUMMARY

Our study of the curriculum has established, first, the important fact

that courses of study are real factors to be dealt with in any school

situation; second, the motives which give rise to particular forms

of instruction are superseded in the course of school history by new

social needs. Nevertheless, the curriculum tends to persist, and often

because of its conservatism becomes a menace to progress. Suggestions

for innovations come through the insights of individuals or through the

formulation of social demands. Whatever the source of suggestions for

change, the student of education will find his problem in the fact that

the curriculum is undergoing change as is every other phase of modern

life. How to understand the changes that are imminent and how to direct

them into productive channels is a major problem of the science of

education.

EXERCISES AND READINGS

Find new subjects other than those mentioned in the text which have

been introduced into either the high-school curriculum or into the

curriculum of the grades. Within the older courses find some new topics

which have been introduced. New subjects in general are not looked on

as entirely respectable. Why is this? What should be done to make them

respectable?

Why does training for vocation seem less respectable than conventional

school work? What is to be done to meet this situation?

Do people in general know what changes ought to be made in the

curriculum? Note that the Minneapolis study found difficulties. For

these it had clear scientific evidence. Did it have equally clear

grounds for its recommendations? Should it have had? How could it

secure evidence of this latter type?