A SUMMARIZED PROGRAM OF ACTION
Out of this war we are going to have a new spirit and method in
education. England has already begun to evaluate its present system.
It has issued a report on the assistance which education, if properly
directed, can give to industry and commerce after the war. The results
of a recent investigation afford--so the report states--a convincing
proof of the necessity of improving and extending the provisions
hitherto made for instruction and training in scientific studies as a
necessary foundation for fruitful research.
The report goes on to say that, in a sense unknown to former
generations, England has become a part of Europe; and in the interest
not merely of commerce but of the intelligent conduct of national
affairs an adequate knowledge of the languages--and, through the
languages, of the literatures, histories, and civilizations of European
countries--should be in the possession of a far larger proportion of
its population than in the past. It states that particular subjects of
instruction in the high schools and institutes cannot be divorced
from the consideration of their organization and of their curricula
as a whole, if a proper balance of studies is to be secured and if
higher education is to be truly liberal and humane in its spirit and
influence. It insists that access to the schools must be rendered
easier for native ability wherever it is found, and affirms again
and again that the needs of the nation cannot be satisfied merely by
changes affecting higher education or by a provision of educational
facilities confined to scholars of special gifts and abilities. It
closes by saying that the future will make new and increased demands,
especially in a democratic community, on the health, character, and
intelligence of every citizen; and these demands can only be met
by comprehensive and far-reaching improvements and developments of
elementary education.
[Illustration: Military engineering will become a popular and necessary
part of the curricula of our colleges and technical institutes. A class
in suspension-bridge work at Wentworth Institute, Boston, Massachusetts.]
[Illustration: Military preparedness of college boys and schoolboys
includes other activities than merely drilling. Trench drainage, one
of a score of war emergency courses, at Wentworth Institute, Boston,
Massachusetts.]
[Illustration: Returned convalescent soldiers, who would be idle but
for the opportunity offered to brush up their education. Ogden Military
Convalescent Hospital.]
[Illustration: A corner of the printing and photo-engraving shop at
Manitoba Military Convalescent Hospital, Winnipeg. These men have been
assigned to courses of reëducation because of inability to return to
their former occupations.]
The individual-industrial-efficiency idea which we obtained from
Germany will have to be interpreted in America not for military
purposes, but in terms of personal and vocational service for the
nation. Just as the academic militarism of the Old World has been found
wanting and has been gradually transformed into the mobilization of
all forces behind the lines on an entirely new basis and conception of
what may be done by a people in time of war, so we in this country
shall learn that we may in times of peace, through efficient and
effective living, prepare for defense. In this preparation we may
learn that improved elementary education, that vocational training,
that bringing into the schools the Boy Scout spirit, that teaching
of sanitation and personal hygiene, that organizing our courses on a
unit and project basis, that developing systems of student service
in school life, that extending school facilities to adults, and a
hundred other things which have been thought of as fads and pedagogical
idiosyncrasies will, to quote the New York State law relative to
military equivalents, "specifically prepare for service useful to the
state in the maintenance of defense, in the promotion of public safety,
in the conservation and development of the state's resources, or in the
construction and maintenance of public improvements." Truly, a program
for peace as well as for war.
The school board and its executive officer, the superintendent, should
do everything to save the school buildings for school purposes. They
are literally factories turning out, it is hoped, handmade products;
and in time of war their service should be increased rather than
diminished. To use them as hospitals will be a mistake,--better by far
confiscate department stores. Bring the war into the schools in the
spirit already interpreted in preceding chapters, but do not take the
schools into the war.
Do not eliminate studies indiscriminately. Evaluate if you will,--and
this is always well,--but wholesale cutting out is to be avoided. It
may be that the cost and value of instruction in freehand drawing
will have to be compared with the permanent value of the study of
Latin. It may be that instead of adding to the vocational department
a machine-shop equipment, which is always expensive, it will be
discovered that a coöperative course can be developed, employing the
equipment of a neighboring factory, and that all the school need
furnish is a teacher for blackboard work in mathematics, drawing, and
science. It is likely that a longer school day will be advisable and
also a longer school year. It is quite probable that the introduction
of the methods of the Boy Scout movement into the public schools will
be found superior to some of the present teaching of nature study,
recreational work, civics, and conduct.
Provision must be made for filling the places of the male teachers
who will be drafted. Many of these will be instructors in science
and mathematics. It ought to be possible to secure the services of
retired civil or mechanical engineers for teaching these subjects. It
is feasible to draft into service married women who have once taught.
It is to be hoped that the government will eventually recognize that
educational enterprise as well as industrial enterprise ought to
furnish grounds for exemption. As war comes closer to us provision
must be made for keeping the schools open twelve months in the year,
and from eight in the morning until ten at night for six days in the
week. Every child up to the age of 14 must be kept in school. It is
the best place for him, provided, of course, the school rises to its
full height,--and it is taken for granted that it will. The physical
condition of the younger children especially should be watched very
carefully. The teacher should discover the conditions at home. It
may be that some pupils have had no breakfast and are not likely to
have a suitable lunch or even a supper. Some will have to be fed
in the schools, and here is an opportunity for the older girls in
domestic-science classes. Some will report certain home conditions
that will require that the school make a report to the local Red Cross
chapter or some other relief agency. Again there is opportunity for the
older girls to serve through their knowledge of home nursing, infant
feeding, and first aid.
If the war strikes us hard, we may have to think of part-time work for
children above 14, but we must never let the children get away from
us as they have in England. We must control the exodus. We must not
abrogate the existing compulsory-attendance laws and the existing labor
laws. We must not interpret these laws with laxity and shut our eyes
while the children go by us on their way to work. We may do well to
amend these laws if in so doing we can incorporate useful labor into
the educative process. In other words, we must be constructive in any
part-time measures which are adopted. The educative value of profitable
labor need not be lost.
It will be well for us to look into the real value of military training
for schoolboys before we adopt in a wholesale fashion obsolete
militarism. The value of wooden-gunism is questionable. Physical
training, vocational training, athletics, Boy Scout work, team play,
and discipline are far more valuable. Military drill given in addition
to these activities may be advisable. However, on this point there is
still a difference of opinion. But to give formal military instruction
without considering its adaptability to the methods used in modern
warfare and the training incident to effective preparation for them is
neither military preparedness on the one hand nor sensible educational
procedure on the other.
School boards ought to organize at once vocational courses to secure
state and national aid, and seek from the legislature state aid for
directors of community gardens, as, from now on, these will be a
permanent feature of community life. Some sort of provision ought to be
made relative to bringing agriculture into the city school or taking
the city boy to agriculture. A country branch of a city school is
possible. Play and recreation centers must be developed. The increase
of juvenile offenses in both England and France during this war has
been tremendous. Many of these offenses are committed by children who
are still at school. There is much evidence that owing to the absence
of military service of their fathers,--and, perhaps even more, of
their elder brothers,--the industrial employment of their mothers, the
darkened streets, and other circumstances, many school children are
suffering from the lack of proper care and discipline and are exposed
to serious risks of deterioration. These conditions have been mitigated
through the establishment of evening play centers, which provide the
children with suitable occupation and amusement after school hours.
The principal of a school can play a large part in a war-emergency
program. He can develop the idea of War Savings among the children in
his school. Announcement has been made that the government intends to
develop the War Savings Certificate plan of England. These certificates
are perhaps better adapted to persons of small means than a Liberty
Bond. The United States Treasury Department has set forth a plan for
advertising and selling these certificates through the public schools
of the nation. The aim is to have every pupil an owner of a "little
baby bond" and a participant in a democratic plan of government
security. A campaign for thrift has been started. The schools must do
their part.
The principal can organize patriotic meetings at which he can explain
the purposes of the Red Cross, the Liberty Loan, and the garden and
conservation movements. He can distribute pamphlets relating to war
service. In a small community he can be the leader of the Red Cross
movement, only he must always remember that he is to work with state
and national organizations and is not to write to Washington when he
can perhaps step across the street to local headquarters or write
directly to state headquarters. Of course, he will follow closely the
printed directions with reference to bandages, shipping, etc., for
the general organization has put more thought into it and gained more
experience than he could possibly gather.
Obviously the principal ought to allow no competition between school
organizations and local organizations. If the local organization is
strong and effective, he ought to work under it. If it is not, he may
well work over it. By all means he should inform pupils of the meaning
of the war, that they in turn may carry word to their parents; and such
work is not always limited to districts where people are foreign born.
There may be as much need for such work in the West as in New York
City. A Western farmer is reported as saying that he did not care who
owned the country or whether the Germans took it or not so long as he
sold his wheat crop.
The principal may direct a state census on some particular data for
which state authorities may call. He should bring together various
bulletins issued by state and national governments which concern food
production and conservation, sanitation, public health, nursing,
dietetics, etc., and by publishing lists of such material in newspapers
and posting them on school bulletin boards, bring the information
within them to the people who need it most. He should make the hall
exercises in the school mean more than ever. Let us hope that "America"
may be sung with more vim, and that the principal will know the second
stanza. The "Marseillaise" and other national songs of our allies
may be sung. Of course a service flag made by the girls in the school
hangs prominently in the assembly hall, and each of its stars speaks
for a teacher, a student, or a graduate who represents the life-giving
contribution of the school to the cause of democracy.
The country-school principal has a great deal to do. His work differs
from that of the city principal in that he may be a recognized leader
in almost everything, while the city principal must necessarily
coöperate with individuals and organizations. The principal in the
open country can be the local agent for seed and fertilizer and for
the distribution of farmers' bulletins. In fact, he may be the local
representative for the state departments of education, of agriculture,
of labor, and of health.
He ought to use judgment in excusing boys from school for farm work.
He will know the exact circumstances under which a boy goes to work.
He will know whether he is working on his father's farm or that of a
neighbor. He can help that boy with his lessons so that he can do some
studying at home and keep up with his classes. And in the late fall,
when the boys return to school from their farm work, he can organize
a special class in order that they may satisfactorily make up their
studies. This extra work on his part and that of his coworkers will
make one of the answers to the call to the colors which comes to every
man and woman in this country.
A city principal can organize an agricultural course in his city
school, and obtain a state-aided teacher for giving agricultural theory
in the winter in connection with biological science, and have this
teacher take a group of boys into the country in the spring. He can
always think of his boys as going out to farm work on the basis of an
organized group, and on that basis only. A teacher from his school
might go with these boys and serve as their leader. It is probable that
educational experiments of this nature will lead eventually to country
branches of city schools.
It is clear that the industrial and trade schools, because of the
very nature of their purpose, may render unusual service, but they
must start out with the idea that they are to take their directions
from the state boards of control of vocational education rather than
go off at a tangent independent of any state or national movement. It
must be remembered that provision has been made for a national system
of vocational education with a Federal Board of Vocational Education
guiding it, and that every state board having charge of vocational
education is working in conjunction with the national board. We must
keep in mind that the Federal Board of Vocational Education is in
close touch with the National Council of Defense at Washington, and
consequently with all departments of the national government which
concern war measures. For a local school to jeopardize its chances for
national and state aid through failure to follow a program provided by
these authorities, or to develop types of work which are out of accord
with national needs, will not be the part of wisdom or common sense.
These schools must not forget that their primary function is to make
mechanics and not army supplies, but if they are called upon to do
the latter work, or if they can do it effectively, they must make it
educational in its aim and not merely productive work.
State officials ought to have inventories made of the equipment of the
vocational schools, with a census of the experience and training of
the instructors, and a state study ought to be made of plans to train
workers for the different branches needed. Such a study would point out
how the semiskilled may become skilled, how the unskilled may become
semiskilled, how the necessary training may be given to specialist
tool makers, and how there can be developed a type of industrial work
suitable for women and girls.
The directors of trade schools will provide opportunities for the
training of foremen in evening classes, or at other times if necessary,
using methods of instruction which will increase their skill in dealing
with green help or unskilled laborers. These men will adjust the
evening schools to run the year round, and also provide for off-time
classes.
In vocational schools of the commercial order, of which we have very
few in the country, provision will be made for short-unit courses in
commercial practice for women and girls to fit them to take the place
of men drafted.
As has already been stated, it is very likely that the day vocational
schools will have comparatively few pupils during the war period, as
young persons who ordinarily go to these schools will have readily
obtained work in factories. However, such youth can still be instructed
if the school will go to the factory and there establish training
courses.
The present is a good time to develop commercial courses which have
a vocational purpose, and which have methods more in accord with the
definition of vocational training. The commercial departments in the
majority of our high schools rather indifferently train stenographers,
typists, and clerks. They do not even attempt to train salesmen and
saleswomen, index and statistical clerks, comptometer operators, etc.
Very few of the commercial courses have either the definiteness of
aim of the industrial and trade schools or the practical contact with
actual commercial practice which will be necessary if they are to meet
the requirements of modern business. Commercial schools have not yet
caught the spirit of part-time, off-time, or short-unit programs.
The manual-training teacher will find plenty to do; that is, if
the state departments of education furnish him definite data and
specifications for war-emergency work. It will be practically useless
for him to carry on special work in any large way unless the field of
service of the boy workers is organized in some such way as is the Red
Cross work. If boxes are needed for packing supplies, a working drawing
of the same ought to be furnished by the state department. If hospital
furniture, such as bed racks and tables, is needed, the articles should
be standardized in order that they may be made in quantities and may
be serviceable when they reach the source of need. The same is true
of splints. The reason for the great accomplishment of the French and
Canadian boys in the making of splints used temporarily on the field of
service is that they have been furnished with very definite directions
as to size, material, and method of making.
It cannot be too emphatically stated that the war-service work of
the elementary and secondary schools needs definite direction from
the state departments of education if the unity of effort based upon
directions common to all are to result not only in effective work but
also in fulfilling the social and civic purposes which are behind the
service.
This is an opportune time for the manual-training teacher to abandon
his set of models. They should have been set aside long ago. His
war-service duties will give an additional motive for socializing
his work. In small cities and villages where there is plenty of land
available for cultivation the director of manual training, on the
first of May, ought to change his title and assume his duties as
director of community gardens. He should have been preparing for this
work by giving instruction in garden work in the manual-training room
during March and April. Meanwhile he should have interested adults of
the community in the plan of a garden where both old and young might
work, and should have brought together civic forces to accomplish the
purpose--a purpose which is educational, social, recreational, and
useful.
Dealing with boys under fifteen, as the average manual-training teacher
will, it is possible for him to develop a type of manual arts which
will serve to create or arouse a set of industrial interests helpful
to the boy in determining his life career. With every temptation to a
pupil to leave school, the manual-training teacher will now have an
unusual opportunity to make his work so attractive and economically so
helpful that the boy may see the advantage of paying no attention to
industrial-service inducements.
This is a time for increasing the field of usefulness of the industrial
arts in connection with the problems involved in the junior high
school. This type of school is certain to meet with increased favor
during and after the war, and the reasons are both educational and
administrative.
So much has already been said in several places in this book about the
service which cooking and sewing teachers may render, that it is hardly
necessary in this place to do more than give a very brief summary. As
supplies for cooking lessons become more expensive, the cooking teacher
must make more of demonstrations to pupils, and less, perhaps, of
actual practice. The war recipes which she uses must be mimeographed or
printed and given the pupils to take home. She must organize classes
for adults in unit courses and hold them afternoons and evenings. In
fact, she might well have the mothers come with the children during
the regular session and receive some special instructions which the
children receive. She will be busy the year round; her larger work
will begin when the schools close, in that she will start her canning
and community-club work. A situation can easily be conceived wherein
she will have in reality very little teaching responsibility in the
classroom. She will be looked upon as the community organizer for
all types of food conservation, and some of her older girls will, in
all probability, be teaching in the regular classes. Of course, she
will interest all the children in the school in saving bottles, jars,
crocks, large-mouthed bottles, tumblers, small wooden pails, etc. for
containers for the jams, preserves, and fruit juices which will be put
up. She will obtain all the new bulletins on processes of drying and
dehydrating. Perhaps she may have initiative enough to discover a fruit
crop which will not be picked except through her efforts. Perhaps she
will find an orphan asylum in the community filled with boys and girls
who can pick this fruit crop.
The sewing teacher has more than enough to do. If the Red Cross chapter
does not keep her busy, then she can keep the chapter active. With the
price of materials as high as it is now and the quality as poor, there
is plenty of opportunity to look over, in every home, the last year's
wardrobe. She might organize a Thrift Club. Enthusiastic youth will do
almost anything under the name of "club."
It is to be hoped that every girl in the school above the age of ten
will enroll in the sewing class and not sit idly by while a few do
all the work. Very likely the household-arts teacher will organize a
home-cadet unit, just as the boys will be organized into farm-cadet
units. The girls will have their pledge of loyalty and perhaps will
wear their chevrons, badges, or buttons, and will enroll for specific
work in food, clothing, or shelter projects.
The agricultural teacher will have more than he can do. An effective
teacher in normal periods is always busy with his supervision of
home-project work, preparation of material for classroom teaching,
gathering of laboratory exhibits, etc. But in war time he must carry
on his shoulders still larger burdens. In the early spring he will
discontinue his formal agricultural teaching to the special vocational
group and broaden his work to include those who have not regularly
enrolled in the agricultural course. To the latter he will give some
very definite suggestions for immediate use on the farm; while the boys
who have been with him all winter will be excused from school to give
their entire time to their home projects. To those who have recently
come into the class there will be given special work in the classroom
which they may practice outside of school hours and which they can
follow for full time during the summer.
He will have a good deal to do with the farm-cadet idea, and in the
winter he will doubtless be thinking of the type of camp which he
will establish or with which he will be connected. He may decide that
he can do best by organizing a labor-distributing camp on his own
initiative, or that he will serve as an assistant at the state-farm
training camp, or that he will take his boys, if they are village boys,
to the outskirts of the village and establish a coöperative camp; or
he may get in touch with the teacher of biology in a city school and
offer the country schoolhouse and his services for a training camp
made up of city boys. It is assumed that he is in close touch with the
county farm agent; perhaps he is the local representative of the club
work which the United States Department of Agriculture is promoting;
and, of course, he is taking the responsibility of acting as agent in
his territory for the United States Boys' Working Reserve,--a really
wonderful organization full of immense possibilities.
This Boys' Working Reserve movement started under the auspices of the
United States Department of Labor in coöperation with the Council of
National Defense, for the purpose of mobilizing young men between the
ages of 16 and 21 for productive labor in the war emergency.
During the summer of 1917 the Reserve confined its activities
principally to giving federal recognition to those youths who, as
members of state organizations, had worked at least three weeks
on farms or in food production. At present it is organized in 40
states and in the District of Columbia. Recently it has extended
its activities to include industrial occupations. Each boy who is
physically fit and who, with the consent of his parents, has taken
the oath of service, is enrolled as a recruit and given an enrollment
button and a certificate bearing the great seal of the United States.
When he has worked faithfully and capably for the stated period, he is
awarded a federal bronze badge of honor.
After January 1, 1918, thirty-six days of eight hours each are to be
required on the farm or in food production in order to earn the badge.
In industrial occupations the boy will be required to work at least
sixty days of eight hours in some occupation considered essential in
helping the nation in the conduct of the war, in order to receive
recognition.
The national director, Mr. William E. Hall, encourages every boy to
remain in school and in spare time to pursue some vocational training
to make himself capable of performing a productive war service, in
the expectation that he will be awarded a badge of honor when he has
actually entered an essential occupation. It is expected that we shall
soon see a registered army of young men ordinarily not available,
which may be used to fill the gaps in the labor ranks caused by war
activities.
The Reserve has been indorsed by President Wilson in the following
language:
Permit me to express my great appreciation of the work
undertaken by the United States Boys' Working Reserve of the
Employment Service of Department of Labor. To give to the young men
between the ages of 16 and 21 the privilege of spending their spare
time in productive enterprise without interrupting their studies at
school, while their older brothers are battling in the trenches and
on the seas, must greatly increase the means of providing for the
forces at the front and the maintenance of those whose services are
needed here. It is a high privilege, no less than a patriotic duty,
to help support the nation by devoted and intelligent work in this
great crisis.
Theodore Roosevelt, in writing of the good work which the Reserve is
doing, says, in part:
I am glad that you intend to encourage the training of the boys
to prepare for some essential industry where they can take the
place of a man called to the front. One of the great benefits you
confer is that of making the boy realize that he is part of Uncle
Sam's team; that he is doing his share in this great war; that he
holds his services in trust for the nation; and that though it is
proper to consider the question of material gain and the question
of his own desires, yet that what he must most strongly consider at
this time is where his services will do most good to our people as
a whole.
The teachers of America, as well as the boys, are making themselves a
part of Uncle Sam's team; and they too hold their services in trust
for the nation. The Junior Red Cross movement in the schools has
swept the country. The school children have advertised and sold bonds
of the second Liberty Loan.[12] The teachers of cooking are serving
as local representatives for the food administrator at Washington.
Agricultural teachers have pledged themselves as community workers for
the summer of 1918. Manual-training teachers are developing plans for
substituting garden projects in the spring for the manual-training
models of the schoolroom. Technical colleges and institutes are filled
with students in uniform. Industrial and trade schools on the seacoast
are planning to discard their house carpentry for shipbuilding
courses. County superintendents of schools are studying government
bulletins for the last word in preserving and drying farm products on
a large scale, in order that they may give directions to the schools.
Teachers in academic schools have enlisted for service on relief, loan,
garden, thrift, and conservation committees. Men who were leaders and
supervisors of farm-cadet camps in 1917 are planning for similar work
in the future on a larger and improved basis. Programs for teachers'
institutes and state associations of teachers now include the topics:
"What can our schools do in war time?" and "Our schools after the war."
[12] In New York City 63,900 applications for bonds, having a total
value of $7,881,100, were obtained directly by principals, teachers,
and pupils, and forwarded by the principals to the local Bond committee
or the banks.
These efforts of the teachers and the pupils respond to our President's
appeal that each of us must do his share in making the world safe for
democracy.
At present, to be sure, we center our thoughts on how to make the world
safe for democracy. But what of the future? What of the contribution
of the schools after the war? Should not the schools then center their
aims and methods on making _democracy safe for the world_? If the
people themselves are to be masters, must they not be provided with
an education making for mastership? Is it not well for us to examine
our present schools to determine whether they are making a democracy
which will be safe for the world? Have we a system of education
which actually gives an opportunity for every child to make the most
of himself? Have we a liberalized course of study which actually
stimulates and develops intellectual and aesthetic interests in
music, art, literature, science, travel, and history? Have we evolved
a socialized education developing moral habits, civic incentives,
possession and use of ethical ideals and standards for a successful
group life? Has our formative process been able to bring about
refinements of social behavior beyond the point required for group
participation? Have we arrived at the point where we can say that our
people have even the common culture which it is expected all members
of a democracy shall possess, to say nothing about the development of
individual culture, which is a possession of the interested individual
and his congenial fellows? How far have we gone in recognizing that
"by-education" which comes through a child's self-direction of his
natural or spontaneous learning instincts and impulses?
How much have we accomplished in giving educational and vocational
guidance to children between the ages of 12 and 16? What has been
done in the way of fulfilling the national obligation to teach the
strangers within our gates our language and the principles and forms
of our civic life? What has been our program for subnormals in order
that they may be prepared for independent living in the competitive
social order? Have we established clear-cut distinctions between
subnormal and crippled cases that must remain custodial and those that
can be prepared for independent existence? What are we doing in the
way of education for delinquents? To what extent have we utilized the
discovery that these antisocial manifestations of youth are results of
heredity, or of inferior homes, or of a lack of playgrounds, or of poor
schools?
Have the schools missed a great opportunity for giving moral, civic,
and physical training to youth by failing to absorb the Boy Scout and
Camp Fire Girl movements and thus failing to grasp the full educational
significance of the methods adopted by those who so well understand
adolescent youth? Are the disciplinary methods of the teachers and the
general internal management of the schools such as will develop among
pupils a democracy which is safe even in the schoolroom? What have
we done in determining what is desirable and feasible for extending
general education to average adults who have early entered upon
specialized occupations?
How far have we gone in our program of vocational education to
recognize and to provide for the influence of automatic machinery upon
the physical, mental, and vocational welfare of workers? Have we so
thoroughly grasped the idea of an educational democracy that no child
in our schools is disadvantaged by the section of the state or of the
country in which he happens to be born?
Have we in our vocational training set up any program for the
industrial training of women which recognizes that the modern problem
of women's work concerns the following of some productive vocation
away from home? Have we even begun to realize that every person should
have definite vocational training with such distinctive purpose back
of it that it will produce the skill, knowledge, ideals, and general
experience that function in distinct callings?
Have we even thought of a program of education for leisure which will
develop enduring tastes and interests established toward the enrichment
of the individual and indirectly of social life? Do we fully understand
that to make democracy safe for the world all people should have some
leisure or time apart from vocational, civic, and physical necessities
of life, that such leisure should be filled with sociability,
amusement, recreation, and satisfaction of the aesthetic and physical
desires, and that the public schools must in some measure provide for
these?
Will a democracy proclaiming equality of opportunity as its ideal
require an education which unites from the beginning of the child's
school life, and for all pupils of the school, learning and social
application, ideas and practice, work and recognition of the meaning
of what is done? Or can a democracy be developed by dividing the
public-school system into parts, one of which pursues traditional
methods with incidental improvements, and another in which children
"learn through their hands" and are given only the "essential features"
of the traditional bookwork?
All that the schools are now doing in war time, and much more which
they are not yet doing, to make the world safe for democracy, may be
effectively used after war time to make democracy safe for the world.
INDEX
Agricultural education, establishment of, in city schools, 156, 314;
home-project work, 321;
relation of, to farm-cadet service, 322
Agricultural labor, resolutions of New York State Board of Regents in
regard to, 95;
shortage of, 136;
farm-garden permits for, 159;
release of schoolboys for, 161-163;
justification for employment of boys for, 164;
German women and children in, 236, 242, 243;
English children in farm work, 236-240;
organizing boys for, 246-256;
example of distribution of, 255-256;
social significance of boys in, 270-271;
age distinctions of boys, 274;
types of farm employers, 280-282
Attendance laws, abrogating of, in England, 135;
types of action possible in regard to, 138-139;
action of various states in regard to, 140-143;
lessons to be learned from England, 144-146;
modification of, 155;
changes in New York State, 157-159;
enlistment for farm service in New York State and relation to,
160-161;
relaxing, for agricultural work, 237-239;
constructive policy in amending, 309
Aviation schools, 98
Blind, the, reëducating, 211-213, 215
Boy Scouts, 87, 130, 140, 172, 306, 309, 328
Camp Fire Girls, 328
Canada, convalescent homes for disabled soldiers in, 215;
work of Military Hospitals Commission in, 228-231;
boys for farm work in, 247
Census, agricultural, by schools of New York State, 24, 277;
school principal may direct, 312
Claxton, P. P., 92, 146-150
Colleges, continuance of, during war time, 80-83, 92;
spirit of mobilization of, 83-86;
war-emergency courses in, 86-90, 96-103;
maintenance of academic status of, 91, 93-94;
field of service for departments of psychology in, 101-103;
contribution of geological departments of, 105;
effect of war on curricula of, 111;
demand for graduates of, 147-148
Commercial schools, indefiniteness of aim in, 316-317;
short-unit and part-time courses in, 317
Community canning clubs. _See_ Conservation of food
Conservation of food, need of, 25-28;
saving of waste in New York City, 29-31;
Columbia lectures
on, 87-88;
canning clubs, 125-127, 320;
drying and evaporating, 126-127, 320;
county superintendents' duties, 326
Continuation schools, enacting of laws for, 155
Council for National Defense, 94, 96, 315
Cripples, reëducating the, 211-233
Democracy, teaching of, 149-150;
making safe for the world, 326;
leisure necessary for, 329
Disabled soldiers, reëducating the, 211-233
Domestic arts, new spirit of teaching, 118;
criticism of existing teaching of, 192;
improvements in teaching, 193-194;
Thrift Club, 321
Domestic science, new spirit of teaching, 119;
teaching adults, 122, 319;
traveling kitchens, 124;
demonstration train, 124;
war recipes, 319;
home cadets, 321
Education, effect of war on, 113-114;
equal opportunity for, 327;
socialized, 327;
vocational guidance in, 327;
for subnormals and cripples, 328.
_See also_ Colleges, Commercial Schools, Schools, etc.
Employment of children, care exercised in, 146;
out of school hours, 149;
divergent points of view in regard to, 150-151;
recognizing work impulses in, 151-152;
occupational study of a group of boys, 186-190;
"blind-alley occupations," 190-191;
waste of boy power, 191
England's schools, use of buildings in war, 18-20;
as distributing agencies for information, 23-24;
compiling of National Register by, 24;
open days for parents, 28;
traveling kitchens in, 29, 124;
thrift teaching in, 31-32;
training semiskilled workers in, 59-60, 66, 75-76;
productive work of technical schools, 60-61;
courses in cantonments, 101-102;
garden work as substitute for manual training in, 121-122;
short courses in cookery in, 123;
training cooks for army, 128;
furnishing meals to children in, 129;
furnishing soldiers' kits and hospital equipment, 132-134;
abrogating attendance laws, 135, 137-138;
restricting labor of school children, 144-146;
children for farm work, 236-240;
plans for supervision of schoolboy farm labor, 240-242;
reorganization of, 304
Evening schools, trade-extension work in, 72;
training of foremen in, 316
Farm cadets, organization of, in New York State, 172;
reason for organizing, 234-245;
plan for use of, 246, 272-274;
rearrangement of school program for, 247-248, 313-314;
wages of, 249, 250, 253, 261, 262, 265, 267, 278;
agreements and contracts, 251-252, 279-280, 282-287;
New York State plan, 253-254;
physical examination, 264, 274-275;
enlistment blanks, 276
Farm-labor camps, explanation of, 245;
Massachusetts plan, 248-253;
agreements and contracts, 251-252, 265;
illustration of different types of, 256-261;
food cost and preparation, 258, 295-297;
menus, 259;
recreation, 260, 297;
wages, 261, 262, 265, 267-269;
labor distribution, 261-262, 266-268;
personal equipment, 262, 292;
camp equipment, 262, 264, 268;
illustration of training type, 263-266;
agricultural instruction in, 267, 297-299;
flying-squadron type, 267-268, 302-303;
leadership, 273, 287-292;
sanitation, 295;
definitions of various types, 298-303
Federal Board of Vocational Education, 54-55, 314-315
France, reëducation of disabled soldiers in, 214-225
French schools, use of buildings in war, 20-21;
war financing helped by teachers of, 39-40;
teaching the meaning of the war in, 41, 44-46;
changing aspects of, due to war, 41, 51-52;
sewing for soldiers in, 133;
part-time, 155;
normal schools' contribution to war service, 199;
Red Cross work, 208
German schools, efficiency spirit of, 17, 104;
contribution to agricultural labor, 242-243;
conservation of natural resources in, 243-244;
industrial-efficiency idea in, 305
History, teaching of, 46-47
Industrial and trade schools, contribution of, to manufacturing needs,
60;
war-emergency courses in, 63, 314-315;
question of production in, 66-67;
readjustment in war time, 71;
open in summer, 72-73;
part-time classes in, 74-76;
teaching of hygiene in, 77;
producing farm-camp equipment, 252;
inventories of equipment, 315;
state study of possible war uses of, 315
Junior Red Cross, 207, 209-210
Labor, war demands for, 58;
industrial schools meeting shortage of, 61, 68-69;
one method of training, 61-64;
educative value of, 152-153
Liberty Loan bonds, and the schools, 37-39, 311, 325
Library, service of, in war time, 104-105
Manual training, garden work in place of, 130-131;
war-service work in, 131-132, 317-319;
making Red Cross splints, 206, 317;
abandoning models, 318;
in connection with junior high schools, 319
Military equivalents, recognition of, in New York State, 171, 305;
experience in England, France, and Germany, 173;
necessity of conscious service, 174, 177-180;
types of occupations having, 175-176;
"Moral Equivalent of War," 176;
an example of, in
agriculture, 181-185;
an example of, in industry, 186-189;
farm labor as a military equivalent, 254
Military training, exemptions from, 165, 167;
compulsory in New York State, 166;
in high schools, 167-170;
including employed boys, 168, 170-171;
vocational training in relation to, 173;
adaptability of, 309
"Moral Equivalent of War," 176
National Board for Historical Service, 46
National Council of Defense, 94, 96, 315
National Security League, 49-50, 140
National Society for the Promotion of Industrial Education, 64
Naval schools, description of, 77-79
Off-time classes, importance of, 72
Part-time education, opportunity for, 74-75;
war-emergency courses in, 154-155;
enacting laws for, 155;
farm work and, 240;
as an economy measure, 308-309
Patriotism, teaching meaning of the war, 42;
necessity for teaching, 42-44, 48-49;
topics in relation to, 50-51
Physical training, compulsory in New York State, 166;
recommendations of New Jersey Commission in regard to, 167-170;
importance of, from military standpoint, 168-169;
advantages of, over military training, 309
Posters, war, 129-130
Practical arts, definition of, 116;
project plan of teaching, 117-118;
influence of war-service work on, 117
Principal, war duties of, 33-34, 310-314
Red Cross, work for, in schools, 194, 196-198, 311;
a state plan of school service to, 200-201;
use of knitting machines, 202;
work for, in Troy, N.Y., 202-205;
making splints, 206;
Home Service division of, 207-208;
Junior Red Cross, 207, 209-210;
what can be done in schools for, 207;
reporting home conditions to, 308
Reëducation, the problem of the physically handicapped, 211-213;
relation to federal insurance, 213;
a government problem, 214;
instruction for the blind in France, 215;
L'École Joffre, 216-219;
instruction in vocational subjects in France, 218-221, 224-225;
percentage capable of, in France, 222;
the problem in the United States, 225-228;
industrial accidents and, 232
Roosevelt, Theodore, 11, 324-325
Rural schools, agricultural labor under direction of, 153-154;
camp in connection with, 302
School boards, in relation to war service, 306-307;
provisions of, for drafted teachers, 307-308;
organization of vocational courses by, 310;
planning for agriculture by, 310;
work of, for avoiding juvenile delinquency, 310
School principals, 33-34, 310-314
Schools, as distributing centers for pamphlets, etc., 22, 311;
furnishing lunches to children in, 128-129, 308;
opportunity for poster work in, 129-130;
maintaining efficiency of, 146;
keeping children in, 147, 308;
postponement of construction work for, 149;
agricultural activities in rural, 153;
lengthening terms and hours of, 308.
_See also_ Commercial schools, French schools, etc.
Smith-Hughes Bill, 54, 57
Teachers, work of, in promoting French government loans, 39-40;
opportunities of, to teach history, 46-49;
New York State directions to, 119-121;
service of, on committees, 326;
war-service programs of, 326
Technical institutes: war-service courses in Wentworth Institute,
Boston, 106-107;
Pratt Institute, Brooklyn, 107-108;
Dunwoody Institute, Minneapolis, 108-111
Thrift, necessity for, 31-33;
practice of, in England, 31-32, 36-37;
teaching of, 35;
campaign for, 311;
Thrift Club, 321
Trade schools. _See_ Industrial and trade schools
Traveling kitchens, 29, 124
Unit courses, organization of, 73-74;
utility of, 306
United States Boys' Working Reserve, 163-164, 322-324
Vocational education, definition of, 53;
federal grants for, 54-55;
federal requirements of, 56;
adjustment of, to industrial needs, 59;
standardization of products, 195;
"safety-first" instruction in, 212;
opportunity for teachers in, 233;
influence of automatic machinery on, 329;
for distinct callings, 329
War Savings certificates, in England, 36-37;
in the United States, 311
Wilson, Woodrow, 1, 54, 72-73, 81-82, 209, 324
ANNOUNCEMENTS
BOOKS OF WAR-TIME INTEREST
Upon the schools falls in great measure the responsibility of training
and fitting the nation for service. To support the schools in
fulfilling this tremendous duty is the purpose of the two following
books.
OUR SCHOOLS IN WAR TIME--AND AFTER
By ARTHUR D. DEAN, Professor of Vocational Education, Teachers
College, Columbia University, and Supervising Officer, Bureau of
Vocational Training, New York State Military Training Commission.
335 pages, $1.25.
A book to challenge the spirit of every loyal American. It describes
the war work being done by schools in this country and others, and
gives practical suggestions for promoting the work in this country.
Conservation of food and other lessons in thrift, vocational education,
Red Cross and other community work, and reëducation of the disabled are
only a few of the important topics emphasized.
Eight inserts of photographic illustrations concretely visualize the
subject for the reader.
FOOD PROBLEMS
By A. N. FARMER, Superintendent of Schools, Evanston, Ill., and
JANET R. HUNTINGTON, State Department of Public Instruction, Wis.
27 cents, list price, or 20 cents, net, to boards of education,
teachers, and schools; carriage extra.
This book aims to introduce lessons of thrift into the home by
utilizing the enormous influence of the schools upon national thought
and habit. It embodies in arithmetical problems of the most practical
nature principles upheld by the Food Administration. Where the book has
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and their parents have attacked with more determination the most
important, the underlying, problem--food conservation. To insure for
this book the immediate and wide distribution that it merits, Ginn and
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INDUSTRIAL ARTS IN THE SCHOOL
EXAMPLES OF INDUSTRIAL EDUCATION
By FRANK MITCHELL LEAVITT, The University of Chicago. 330
pages, $1.25
The movement for industrial education is a part of a recent great
educational advance. This volume discusses the history and practice
of the movement to bring about universal and appropriate education,
especially in its relation to existing social, economic, and
educational institutions. The author outlines a constructive plan for
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helpful suggestions for bringing such organization into vital relation
with the present system. Full descriptions of existing classes and
schools serve as examples to illustrate the general principles of their
classification.
FINE AND INDUSTRIAL ARTS IN ELEMENTARY SCHOOLS
By WALTER SARGENT, The University of Chicago. 132 pages,
illustrated, 75 cents
The present wide acceptance of the manual arts as an important part of
general education is rapidly removing them from the class of special
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upon questions arising from this readjustment. The distinctive
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the organization of progressive instruction, and reasonable standards
of attainment from year to year are among the subjects given careful
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in the elementary grades, which forms the basis for the more detailed
suggestions which follow.
HOW CHILDREN LEARN TO DRAW
By WALTER SARGENT and ELIZABETH E. MILLER, The University of
Chicago. 264 pages, illustrated, $1.00
A new and decidedly fresh viewpoint is at once apparent in this book,
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Palmer: Play Life in the First Eight Years 1.20
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BOOKS ON VOCATIONAL GUIDANCE
BUSINESS EMPLOYMENTS
By FREDERICK J. ALLEN, Vocation Bureau of Boston. 218 pages,
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A comprehensive and thorough-going survey of business in its three
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READINGS IN VOCATIONAL GUIDANCE
By MEYER BLOOMFIELD, Director of the Vocation Bureau of Boston.
xv + 723 pages, $2.25.
This volume represents an extensive collection of the most note-worthy
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VOCATIONAL AND MORAL GUIDANCE
By JESSE BUTTRICK DAVIS, Vocational Director of Schools, Grand
Rapids, Mich. 303 pages, $1.25.
A significant volume into the preparation of which have gone several
years of practical experiment upon the problems of vocational guidance.
The result is a book invaluable in its wealth of definite and workable
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OCCUPATIONS
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WHEATLEY, Superintendent of Schools, Middletown, Conn. 357 pages,
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This is a textbook for the student's own use, planned to cover both
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* * * * * *
Transcriber's note:
Spelling was made consistent.
Punctuation was corrected without comment.