TEACHING BOYS AND GIRLS
I The New School Machinery
The influence which the industrial changes of the past hundred years has
had on education is considerable. With the transformation of the home
workshop into the factory has come the transition from rural and village
life to life in great industrial cities and towns. The introduction of
specialized machinery has placed upon education the burden of vocational
training. More important still, it has so augmented the size of the
educational problem that an intricate system of school machinery has
been devised to keep the whole in order.
The rural, or village, school was a one or two-room affair, housing a
handful of pupils. Aside from matters of discipline, the administration
of the school was scarcely a problem. General superintendents, associate
superintendents, compulsory attendance laws, card index systems, and
purchasing departments were unknown. The school was a simple, personal
business conducted by the teacher in very much the same way that the
corner grocer conducted his store--on faith and memory.
The growth of cities and towns necessitated the introduction of
elaborate school machinery. In place of a score of pupils, thousands,
tens, and even hundreds of thousands were placed under the same general
authority. City life made some form of administrative machinery
inevitable.
The increasing size of the school system,--and in new, growing cities
the school system increases with a rapidity equal to the rate of growth
of the population,--leads to increase in class size. A school of twenty
pupils is still common in rural districts. In the elementary grades of
American city schools, investigators find fifty, sixty, and in some
extreme cases, seventy pupils under the charge of one teacher, while the
average number, per teacher, is about forty.
Recrimination is idle. The obvious fact remains that the rate of growth
in school population is greater than the rate of growth in the school
plant. The schools in many cities have not caught up with their
educational problem. The result is a multiplication of administrative
problems, not the least of which is the question of class size.
II Rousseau Versus a Class of Forty
A toilsome journey it is from the education of an individual child by an
individual teacher (Rousseau's Emile) to the education of forty children
by one teacher (the normal class in American elementary city schools).
Rousseau pictured an ideal; we face a reality--complex, expanding, at
times almost menacing.
The difference between Rousseau's ideal and the modern actuality is more
serious than it appears superficially. Rousseau's idea permitted the
teacher to treat the child as an individuality, studying the traits and
peculiarities of the pupil, building up where weakness appeared, and
directing freakish notions and ideas into conventional channels. The
modern city school with one teacher and forty pupils places before the
teacher a constant temptation, which at times reaches the proportions of
an overmastering necessity, to treat the group of children as if each
child were like all the rest. A teacher who can individualize forty
children, understand the peculiarities of each child, and teach in a way
that will enable each of the children to benefit fully by her
instruction, is indeed a master, perhaps it would be fairer to say a
super-master in pedagogy. A class of forty is almost inevitably taught
as a group.
There is another feature about the large school system which is even
more disastrous to the welfare of the individual child. Rousseau studied
the individual to be educated, and then prescribed the course of study.
The city teacher, no matter how intimately she may be acquainted with
the needs of her children, has little or no say in deciding upon the
subjects which she is to teach her class. Such matters are for the most
part determined by a group of officials--principals, superintendents,
and boards of education,--all of whom are engaged primarily in
administrative work, and some of whom have never taught at all, nor
entered a psychological laboratory, nor engaged in any other occupation
that would give first-hand, practical, or theoretical knowledge of the
problems encountered in determining a course of study.
A course of study must be devised, however, even though some of the
responsible parties have no first-hand knowledge of the points at issue.
The method by which it is devised is of peculiar importance to this
discussion. The administrative officials, having in mind an average
child, prepare a course of study which will meet that average child's
needs. Theoretically, the plan is admirable. It suffers from one
practical defect,--there is no such thing as an average child.
III The Fallacious "Average"
Averages are peculiarly tempting to Americans. They supply the same
deeply-felt want in statistics that headlines do in newspapers. They
tell the story at a glance. In this peculiar case the story is
necessarily false.
An average may be taken only of like things. It is possible to average
the figures 3, 4, and 8 by adding them together and dividing by 3. The
average is 5. Such a process is mathematically correct, because all of
the units comprising the 3, 4, and 8 are exactly alike. One of the
premises of mathematics is that all units are alike, hence they may be
averaged.
Unlike mathematical units, all children are different. They differ in
physical, in mental, and in spiritual qualities. Their hair is different
in color and in texture. Their feet and hands vary in size. Some
children are apt at mathematics, others at drawing, and still others at
both subjects. Some children have a strong sense of moral
obligation,--an active conscience,--others have little or no moral
stamina. No two children in a family are alike, and no two children in a
school-room are alike. After an elaborate computation of hereditary
possibilities, biologists announce that the chance of any two human
creatures being exactly alike is one in five septillions. In simple
English, it is quite remote.
IV The Five Ages of Childhood
A very ingenious statement of the case is made by Dr. Bird T. Baldwin.
Children, says Dr. Baldwin, have five ages,--
1. A chronological age,
2. A physical age,
3. A mental age,
4. A moral age,
5. A school age.
Two children, born on the same day, have the same age in years. One is
bound to grow faster than the other in some physical respect. Therefore
the two children have different physical ages, or rates of development.
In the same way they have differing mental and moral ages. The school
age, a resultant of the first three, is a record of progress in school.
Even when children are born on the same day, the chances that they will
grow physically, mentally, and morally at exactly the same rate, and
will make exactly the same progress in school, are remote indeed. School
children are, therefore, inevitably different.
V Age Distribution in One Grade
A very effective illustration of the differences in chronological age,
in school age, and in the rate of progress in school is furnished in the
1911 report of the superintendent of schools for Springfield, Mass.
There are in this report a series of figures dealing with the ages, and
time in school, of fifth-grade pupils in Springfield. The first table
shows the number of years in school and the age of all the fifth-grade
pupils.
TABLE 1
_Age and Time in School, Fifth Grade, Springfield, December, 1911_
Years in Ages
School 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 Total
-----------------------------+---+-----------------------------------
1 .. .. .. .. .. ..| 1| .. .. .. .. .. .. .. 1
2 .. .. .. 2 1 1| 1| 2 2 .. .. .. .. .. 9
3 .. .. .. 6 38 25| 9| .. 1 1 .. .. .. .. 80
4 .. .. .. .. 162 200| 63| 12 10 3 .. .. .. .. 450
-----------------------------+---+-----------------------------------
5 .. .. .. .. 17 178|131| 47 14 2 .. .. .. .. 389
-----------------------------+---+-----------------------------------
6 .. .. .. .. 1 11|120| 60 29 3 .. .. .. .. 224
7 .. .. .. .. .. 1| 3| 46 29 8 1 .. 1 .. 88
8 .. .. .. .. .. ..| 1| 4 17 4 1 .. .. .. 28
9 .. .. .. .. .. ..| ..| .. .. 4 1 .. .. .. 5
10 .. .. .. .. .. ..| ..| .. .. 1 .. .. .. .. 1
11 .. .. .. .. .. ..| ..| .. .. .. .. .. .. ..
12 .. .. .. .. .. ..| ..| .. .. .. .. .. .. ..
13 .. .. .. .. .. ..| ..| .. .. .. .. .. .. ..
Total .. .. .. 8 219 416|329| 171 102 26 3 .. 1 .. 1,275
-----------------------------+---+-----------------------------------
Theoretically, children in Springfield enter the school at six, and
spend one year in each grade. If all of the children in the Springfield
schools had lived up to this theory, there would be 1,275 eleven years
of age, and 1,275 in the fifth grade. A glance at the table shows that
only 131, or about 10 per cent of the children, are both eleven years of
age and five years in the school. Among the 1,275 fifth-grade children,
389, or 31 per cent, have been in school five years, and 329, or 26 per
cent, are eleven years of age.
The superintendent follows this general table with other tables giving a
more detailed analysis of over and under age pupils, and of rate of
progress in school.
TABLE 2
_Age and Progress Groups of Fifth-Grade Pupils in Springfield,
December, 1911_
Young | Normal | Over-age | Total
| | |
Per | Per | Per | Per
No. Cent | No. Cent | No. Cent | No. Cent
Rapid 435 34 | 74 6 | 31 2 | 540 42
Normal 195 16 | 131 10 | 63 5 | 389 31
Slow 13 1 | 124 10 | 209 16 | 346 27
--- -- | --- -- | --- -- | ----- ---
Total 643 51 | 329 26 | 303 23 | 1,275 100
The inferences from Table 2 are very clear. Of the 1,275 fifth-grade
pupils, 435, or 34 per cent, are not only under-age for the grade, but
they have progressed at more than normal speed. They are the
exceptionally capable pupils of the grade. At the other extreme we find
209 children, or 16 per cent of all in the grade, who need special
attention because they are both over-age and slow. Feeble-minded
children rarely advance beyond the second grade; hence we know that none
of these are feeble-minded, but among their number will be found many
who will be little profited by the ordinary curriculum; 110 of them are
already 12 years old, and 75 are 13 years old. A majority of them will,
in all probability, drop out of school as soon as they reach the age of
14, unless prior to that time some new element of interest is introduced
that will make a strong appeal; for example, some activity toward a
vocation.
A further study of the over-age column shows that 31 pupils, 2 per cent,
are over-age, but they have reached their present position in less than
usual time; while 63 of them, also over-age, have required the full five
years to reach their present grade position. Unless by limiting the
required work of these over-age pupils to the essentials, or by some
administrative arrangement involving special grouping with relatively
small numbers in a class, so that we can in the one case maintain, and
in the other case bring about, accelerated progress, there is little
likelihood that any large number will remain in school to complete the
ninth grade, much less take a high school course; for four years hence
their ages will range from 16 to 18 years. The 124 pupils who are of
normal age, but slow, are also subjects for special attention, for they
have repeated from one to three grades, or have failed to secure from
two to six half-yearly promotions, and are in danger of acquiring the
fatal habit of failure, if they have not already acquired it.
The superintendent then goes on to emphasize the imperative duty resting
on each principal, to examine and to understand the varying capacities
of individual children in his school. Without such an understanding real
educational progress cannot be made.
This study is most illuminating. Nothing could more effectually show
variation in individual children than the difference in one city grade
of the most obvious of characteristics--age and progress in school. The
infinitely greater variations in the subtle characteristics that
distinguish children can be more readily guessed at than measured. Under
these circumstances, the attempt to prepare studies for an "average
child" is manifestly futile. The course may be organized, but it will
hardly meet the needs of large numbers of the individual children who
take it.
VI Shall Child or Subject Matter Come First?
The old education presupposed an average child, and then prepared a
course of study which would fit his needs. The new education recognizes
the absurdity of averaging unlike quantities, and accepts the ultimate
truth that each child is an individual, differing in needs, capacity,
outlook, energy, and enthusiasm from every other child. An arithmetic
average can be struck, but when it is applied to children it is a
hypothetical and not a real quantity. There is not, and never will be,
an average child; hence, a school system planned to meet the needs of
the average child fits the needs of no child at all.
Mathematics may be taught to the average child. So may history and
geography. While subject matter comes first in the minds of educators, a
course of study designed to meet average conditions is a possibility.
The moment, however, that the schools cease to teach subjects and begin
to teach boys and girls, such a proceeding is out of the question.
The temptation in a complex school system, where children are grouped by
hundreds and thousands, to allow the detail of administration to overtop
the functions of education is often irresistible. The teacher with
forty pupils learns to look upon her pupils as units. The superintendent
and principals, seeking ardently for an overburdened commercial ideal
named "efficiency," sacrifice everything else to the perfection of the
mechanism. Among the smooth clicking cogs, child individuality has only
the barest chance for survival.
VII The Vicious Practices of One "Good" School
There are school systems in which organization has overgrown child
welfare, in which pedagogy has usurped the place of teaching. In such
systems the teacher teaches the prescribed course of study, whether or
no. The officers of administration, aiming at some mechanical ideal,
shape the schools to meet the requirements of system.
The proneness of some teachers and school administrators alike to
overemphasize mechanics, and to underemphasize the welfare of individual
children is well illustrated in a recent statement by Dr. W. E.
Chancellor, who, in writing of a first-hand investigation made in a city
in the Northeast, describes a condition which he says "I know by fairly
authoritative reports does exist in a considerable number of cities and
towns--not merely in a school here and there, but generally and
characteristically.
"In the city to which I definitely refer," Dr. Chancellor continues, "I
found that the intermediate and grammar grade teachers had
systematically, deliberately, and successfully sacrificed hundreds of
boys and girls upon the altar of examinations to the fetish of good
schools. They have been so anxious to have good schools that they have
kept an average of 20 per cent of their pupils one grade lower than they
belong. In some schools the average runs to above 35 per cent.
"Some teachers and some school superintendents cannot see that the
school is simply a machine for developing boys and girls; cannot see
that the machine in itself is worthless save as it contributes to human
welfare. A school may be so good as actually to damage the souls and
bodies of human beings. It damages their souls when the machine
operators, seeking 75 per cent in every subject, keep boys and girls in
grammar schools until they average sixteen years of age."[19] Dr.
Chancellor continues with a stinging arraignment of school officials who
sacrifice children to systems.
The article strikes an answering chord in the experiences of many men
and women. A friend came recently to our bungalow, and, with a troubled
face, spoke of his daughter's ill-health.
"She is not sick," he said, "but just ailing. These first May days have
taken her appetite. She needs the country air."
The daughter was a dear little girl of twelve--any one might have envied
the father of his treasure--and we offered to keep her with us for a
month in the country, and to go over her school work with her every day.
The father accepted our proposal on the spot, but two days later he came
back to say that he could not make the arrangements.
"It cannot be done," he explained, "because the school will not let her
off. I told the principal about my daughter's health and showed him the
advantage of a month in the country with her school work carefully
supervised. Her school is rather crowded, and as I want her to go on
with her class in the autumn, I asked him if he could arrange to keep
her place for her. In reply he said,--
"'I cannot do as you wish. Such cases as yours interfere seriously with
the working of the school.'"
VIII Boys and Girls--The One Object of Educational Activity
Perhaps our language was not as temperate as it should have been, but we
told that father something which we would fain repeat until every
educator and every parent in the United States has heard it and written
it on the tables of his heart,--
THE ONE OBJECT OF EDUCATION IS TO ASSIST AND PREPARE
CHILDREN TO LIVE.
Why have we established a billion-dollar school system in the United
States? Is it to pay teachers' salaries, to build new school houses, and
to print text-books by the million? Hardly. These things are incidents
of school business, but they are no more reason for the school's
existence than fertilizer and seed are reasons for making a garden.
Gardens are cultivated in order to secure plants and flowers; the school
organization of which Americans so often boast exists to educate
children.
"Of course," you exclaim, "we knew that before." Did you? Then why was
my friend forced to choose between the wreck of his daughter's health
and the disarrangement of a bit of school machinery? Why is Dr.
Chancellor able to describe a situation existing "generally and
characteristically," in which the welfare of children is bartered away
for high promotion averages? The truth is that society still tolerates,
and often accepts, the belief that the purpose of education is the
formation of a school system. We have yet to learn that, to use Herbert
Spencer's phrase, the object of education is the preparation of
children for complete living.
Education exists for the purpose of preparing and assisting children to
live. To do that work effectively, it must devote only so much effort to
school administration and to school machinery as will perform for boys
and girls that very effective service.
No two children are alike, and no two children have exactly similar
needs. There are, however, certain kinds of needs which all children
have in common. It is obviously impossible to discuss in the abstract
the needs of any individual child. It is just as obviously possible to
analyze child needs, and to classify them in workable groups. It is true
that all children are different; so are all roses different, yet all
have petals and thorns in common. Similarly, there are certain needs
which are common to all children who play, who grow, who live among
their fellows, and who expect to do something in life. The matter may be
stated more concretely thus,--
I. The school exists to assist and prepare children to live.
II. Living involves three kinds of needs, which it is the duty
of the school to understand and interpret.
1. Needs which the child has because he is a physical being.
2. Needs which result from the child's surroundings.
3. Needs which arise in connection with the things which the
child hopes to do in life.
A further analysis of these groups of needs constitutes the subject
matter of the next chapter.
FOOTNOTES:
[Footnote 19: Sacrificing Children, W. E. Chancellor, Journal of
Education, Vol. 77, pp. 564-565 (May 22, 1913).]