1. The fundamental social point of view of this discussion of the
courses of study of the Cleveland schools is that effective teaching
is preparation for adult life through participation in the activities
of life.
2. The schools of Cleveland devote far more time to reading than do
those of the average city. In too large measure this time is employed
in mastering the mechanics of reading and in the analytical study
of the manner in which the words are combined in sentences and the
sentences in paragraphs. The main object of the reading should be
the mastery of the thought rather than the study of the construction.
Through it the children should gain life-long habits of exploring,
through reading, the great fields of history, industry, applied
science, life in other lands, travel, invention, biography, and
wholesome fiction. To this end the work should be made more extensive
and less intensive. As an indispensable means toward this end the
books should be supplied by the schools instead of being purchased by
the parents.
3. The teaching of spelling should aim to give the pupils complete
mastery over those words which they need to use in writing and it
should instil in them the permanent habit of watching their spelling
as they write. Drill on lists of isolated words should give way to
practice in spelling correctly every word in everything written. The
dictionary habit should be cultivated, and every written lesson should
be a spelling lesson.
4. The time devoted to language, composition, and grammar is about the
same as in the average city. The chief result of the work as done in
Cleveland is to enable the pupil to recite well on textbook grammar
and to pass examinations in the subject. The work in technical grammar
should be continued for the purpose of giving the pupils a
foundation acquaintance with forms, terms, relations, and grammatical
perspective, but this training need not be so extensive and intensive
as at present. The time saved should be given to oral and written
expression in connection with the reading of history, geography,
industrial studies, civics, sanitation, and the like. Facility and
accuracy in oral and written expression are developed through practice
rather than through precept. They are perfected through the conscious
and unconscious imitation of good models rather than through the
advanced study of technical grammar. Only as knowledge is put to work
is it really learned or assimilated.
5. Cleveland gives more time to mathematics than does the average
city. The content of courses in mathematics is to be determined by
human needs. A fundamental need of our scientific age is more accurate
quantitative thinking about our vocations, civic problems, taxation,
income, insurance, expenditures, public improvements, and the
multitude of other public and private problems involving quantities.
We need to think accurately and easily in quantities, proportions,
forms, and relationships. Arithmetic teaching, like the teaching
of penmanship, is for the purpose of providing tools to be used in
matters that lie beyond. The present course of study is of superior
character, providing for efficient elementary training and dispensing
with most of the things of little practical use. The greatest
improvement in the work is to be found in its further carrying over
into the other fields of school work and in applying it in other
classes as well as in the arithmetic class. In the advanced classes
mathematics should be differentiated according to the needs of
different pupils. Algebra should be more closely related to practical
matters and developed in connection with geometry and trigonometry.
6. History receives much less attention in this city than in the
average city. The character of the work is really indicated by the
last sentence of the eighth-grade history assignment: "The text of our
book should be thoroughly mastered." The work is too brief, abstract,
and barren to help the pupils toward an understanding of the social,
political, economic, and industrial problems with which we are
confronted. It should be amply supplemented by a wide range of
reading on social welfare topics. This reading should be biographical,
anecdotal, thrilling dramas of human achievement, rich with
human interest. It should be at every stage on the level with the
understanding and degree of maturity of the pupils so that much
reading can be covered rapidly.
7. In Cleveland, where there has been an almost unequalled amount of
civic discussion and progressive human-welfare effort, the teaching
of civics in the public schools receives too little attention. It is
recommended that the principals and teachers make such a civic survey
as that made in Cincinnati as the method of discovering the topics
that should enter into a grammar-grade course. Not much civics
teaching should be attempted in the intermediate grades, but it should
be given in the higher grades.
8. A new course of study in geography is now being put into use. The
work as laid out in the old manual and as seen in the classrooms
has been forbiddingly formal. It has mainly consisted of the teacher
assigning to the pupils a certain number of paragraphs or pages in
the textbook as the next lesson, and then questioning them next day to
ascertain how much of this printed material they have remembered and
how well. The new course of study recognizes, on the contrary, that
the proper end of geographical teaching is rather to stimulate and
guide the children toward an inquiring interest as to how the world
is made, and the skies above, and the waters round about, and the
conditions of nature that limit and determine in a measure the
development of mankind. To attain this ideal will require in every
school 10 times as adequate provision of geographical reading and
geographical material as is now found in the best equipped school.
9. Drawing and applied art have been taught in Cleveland since
1849. The object of the teaching is to develop an understanding and
appreciation of the principles of graphic art and ability to use these
principles in practical applications. Where this work is done best, it
shows, in both the elementary and high schools, balanced understanding
and complete modernness. What is needed is extension of this best
type of work to all parts of the city through specially trained
departmental teachers.
10. Where teaching of household arts is at its best in Cleveland,
it is of a superior character and should be extended along lines
now being followed. Manual training for boys should be extended and
broadened with a view to giving the pupils real contact with more
types of industry than those represented by the present woodwork.
11. Elementary science finds no place in the course of study of
Cleveland. The future citizens of Cleveland will need an understanding
of electricity, heat, expansion and contraction of gases and solids,
the mechanics of machines, distillations, common chemical reactions,
and the multitude of other matters of science met with daily in their
activities. The schools should help supply this need.
12. Teaching in matters pertaining to health is assigned little time
in the elementary schools, and the time that is assigned to it is
frequently given to something else. The subject gets pushed off the
program by one of the so-called "essentials." A course in hygiene
should be drawn up, and practical applications of the work should be
arranged through having pupils look after the sanitary conditions of
rooms and grounds. The school doctors and nurses should help in this
teaching and practice.
13. Physical training is given about as much time as in the average
city, but without adequate facilities for outdoor and indoor plays
and games. At present the work is too largely of the formal gymnastic
type. Desirable improvements in the course are being advocated by
the directors and supervisors of the work. They are recommending
and introducing, where conditions will permit, the use of games,
athletics, folk dances, and the like. The movement should be promoted
in every possible way.
14. In the elementary schools Cleveland gives more than the average
amount of time to music, but in the high schools the subject is
developed only incidentally and is given no credit. It is a question
whether this arrangement is the right one, and in considering possible
extensions it should be remembered that there are other subjects of
far more pressing immediate necessity.
15. It is impossible in this brief report to discuss adequately so
complicated a matter as that of the teaching of foreign languages in
the high schools, but some of the most important of the questions
at issue have been indicated as matters which the school authorities
should continue to study until satisfactory solutions are reached.
16. Where school work in Cleveland is backward, it is because it has
not yet taken on the social point of view. Where it is progressive, it
is being developed on the basis of human needs. There is much of both
kinds of work in Cleveland.
17. In a city with a population so diversified as is that of
Cleveland, progress should be made steadily and consciously away from
city-wide uniformity in courses of study and methods of teaching.
There should be progressive differentiation of courses to meet the
widely varying needs of the different sorts of children in different
sections of the city.