STANDARDS IN EDUCATION
WITH SOME CONSIDERATION OF
THEIR RELATION TO
INDUSTRIAL TRAINING
ARTHUR HENRY CHAMBERLAIN, B.S., A.M.
DEAN AND PROFESSOR OF EDUCATION
THROOP POLYTECHNIC INSTITUTE
NEW YORK : CINCINNATI : CHICAGO
AMERICAN BOOK COMPANY
COPYRIGHT, 1908, BY
ARTHUR HENRY CHAMBERLAIN
ENTERED AT STATIONERS' HALL, LONDON
W. p. i
INTRODUCTION
THE following pages contain a brief discussion of the
crucial factors in modern, particularly in modern elemen-
tary education. Not only do the aims of education in
general and the special elements in good character, re-
ceive attention ; but the curriculum in the Elementary
School, the method of its presentation, the method of
training teachers, and the duties of parents toward school
work, are also all included for discussion. Possibly the
main criticism of the work is the fact that it undertakes
altogether too much. Yet, that there is much need of
good books of this kind on Education is not to be ques-
tioned.
The point of view represented by the author is very
advantageous. While quite familiar with Elementary Ed-
ucation in all its phases, he has received the training of
the specialist in Industrial and Technical Education.
He has made an advanced study of Educational problems
at Columbia University, and has for some years been
engaged in the training of teachers, and in administrative
work in a school of technology. The problems here dis-
cussed are, therefore, handled in a concrete way, and
fully in the spirit of modern times.
Inasmuch as the author frequently presents the views
3
4 STANDARDS IN EDUCATION
of prominent authorities, in addition to his own, the book
possesses the important advantage of real breadth of
treatment. The theses, summarizing the substance of
each chapter, are of much value, and the fact that they
are placed at the close of each chapter, rather than at the
beginning, is a detail of merit. The " Topics for Study "
that in each case follow the theses, are extremely sug-
gestive, and the definite references to works of recog-
nized authority for a further study of these topics,
map out the way for the student to post himself quite
thoroughly on modern educational problems.
FRANK M. McMuRRY.
Teachers College,
Columbia University.
AUTHOR'S PREFACE
FOR some years past the writer has been privileged to
instruct in normal classes students preparing for the
teaching profession, as well as those of experience in
one or another field of educational service, and with him,
as with others having to do with this particular problem,
the question has frequently arisen : What text shall we
use as the general basis for and guide in our work ?
With the passing of the old pyschology pass also many
of the books in this line. While with beginners, texts
may be selected that will present the subject of psychol-
ogy in such manner as to fit the student to study the
facts of human nature, many of the texts on education
attempt to cover such a broad field of psychology, peda-
gogy and method as entirely to bewilder. Then, too, the
more mature normal or training school student stands in
need of a text that shall set forth certain of the great
educational principles (or tJie principle of education, if
you will), and lead to a consideration of the present
needs of the school. The books on general pedagogy
will not accomplish this, and the philosophic treatise
touches one main issue simply, or is too technical for
class use.
In many of the books dealing with educational prob-
5
6 STANDARDS IN EDUCATION
lems, the terms, references and phraseology used, imply
a broader knowledge than that possessed by most teach-
ers. Many of the books are written by specialists for
specialists, and this fact alone carries them beyond the
range of the majority of teachers. The present volume
has been prepared for the parent and the general reader
as well as for the pedagogue and the student. It is in-
tended to have a relation to life as well as to lessons, and to
show how the life at school and the life outside of school
may be conducted in harmony toward a common end.
It seems to be clear that the student needs not so much
an exposition of theories or a philosophic or historic
treatise, as the knowledge of a few fundamental facts
and principles regarding his profession and his relation
to it ; an understanding of the purpose of education and
the reasons for the establishment of the curriculum he
uses. In discussing the value of educational systems,
we must look not merely to the number and character
of school buildings, to libraries and equipments, to the
amount of moneys expended, and to the material results
of the student's work. The true value or worth of any
system of education is to be found within the individuals
themselves, the product of the school. We must apply
a dynamic, rather than an external test, when we at-
tempt to formulate standards.
In the pages that follow the endeavor has been made
to meet these requirements. The book is intended to be
suggestive rather than exhaustive, the author making no
claim to completeness. He has to ask himself many of
AUTHOR'S
the questions herein asked the student. Education in its
formative period many times falls short of exact defini-
tions, and education at its best is hardly a matter of
statistics. The aim, too, has been to avoid the use of
terms that in themselves need defining, the thought
being that a simple form of expression would best suit
the purpose of the book, whether used as a text, as a
basis for study and discussion in class, as a reference
book, or as a work for the general reader. While cer-
tain of the principles touched upon apply equally to all
fields of school instruction, the book is intended mainly
for those interested in the problems of elementary
education.
In the attempt to make the pages readable, illustra-
tion has been resorted to frequently. At the close of
each chapter a general summary is given as a recapitu-
lation. The " Topics for Study " following each chap-
ter will be found particularly helpful as suggestive of the
various important questions' and issues that may be taken
up in detail, or of which implication is made in the text.
The student will be able to amplify this list. It has not
seemed wise to burden the text with foot-note references
which the reader will never look up, but under the head
" Consult " will be found a list of the more important
books and references on a given topic.
Whatever is said of the school of the past is said not in
the spirit of carping criticism, but that the demand for
something broader and more rational in our schools may
be made clear. This demand for a purposeful curriculum
8 STANDARDS IN EDUCATION
has made necessary many times a repetition in form of
expression or in statement, which it has not always seemed
wise to eliminate.
The author finds great difficulty in making the usual
statement of obligation and indebtedness to those who
have given him help and inspiration, the number being
almost as large as the great body of teachers with whom
he has come in contact. Not only is he indebted to those
whose words are quoted in these pages and to many other
writers and teachers, but to that large number of sincere,
zealous, noble-hearted men and women, called the com-
mon school teachers, without whom the great work of
education would be impossible.
The writer cannot refrain, however, from expressing
his special indebtedness to one who not only with his pen,
but by voice and presence gave to him, as he gave to
hundreds of others, his first clear conception of the real
meaning of teaching. He consulted with Colonel Francis
W. Parker, upon the content of the present volume, only
a few days before the latter's untimely death and feels that
he cannot do better than here repeat what he then wrote.
" No other name has been so closely interwoven with edu-
cational thought and practice as has his. The measures
that the Colonel advocated three decades past, and for
which he was then derided and ridiculed, are to-day prac-
tised in every good school in the land. Look as we may
for the cause of the better and more common sense
methods in the primary education of to-day, and we find
it was the changes and reforms that the Colonel advo-
AUTHOR'S
cated and used years ago in the schools at Quincy and
at the Cook County Normal School.
" What sympathy he had for the struggling teacher,
what love for the child, what reverence for the Infinite,
what hatred for selfishness and wrong, what hope for
humanity. To see him was an inspiration, to hear him
speak was a mental and spiritual uplift, to work with him
a revelation. Through his efforts the work of the teacher
has been elevated from a vocation to the chiefest of pro-
fessions. The study of pedagogy has through his teach-
ing been made real and tangible. He has proven to all
the world that the school should exist for the child, that
in it the child should find his fullest expression and be
led to expand and grow into his perfect self."
He wishes also to acknowledge the assistance given by
his friend and teacher, Doctor Frank M. McMurry of
Teachers College, Columbia University, who has been
kind enough to read these pages and to write an intro-
duction for the book ; and to express his gratitude to
Miss Kathrine Lois Scobey of the University School,
Chicago, for her careful criticism and helpful suggestion,
and to his brother, Professor James Franklin Chamber-
lain of the State Normal School, Los Angeles, who has
worked through every page of the manuscript. He is
indebted to Mr. James C. Miller of the Provincial Nor-
mal School, Calgary, Canada, for valuable assistance, and
to Professor Charles Emory Barber of Throop Poly-
technic Institute, who has read the proof and made the
analytical table of contents.
io STANDARDS IN EDUCATION
His hope is that those who study these pages may be
led to a fuller realization than that commonly held of
the meaning of the school and of education.
A. H. C.
Throop Polytechnic Institute,
Pasadena, California.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
CHAPTER I
PAGE
THE AIM OF EDUCATION 19
Universal recognition of the necessity for education The at-
tempts to establish an ideal in education Lack of harmony
between the Real and the Ideal Notwithstanding the fail-
ure to realize the Ideal, every age has developed great men
Difficulty of evaluating the Ideal of another Plato and the
Practical Aristotle and the Ideal The problem of Edu-
cation Dual nature of this problem: how to develop the
individual and to preserve his subserviency to society This
duality not antagonistic; society and the individual insep-
arable from each other The modern school weak on the
sociological side The standard is defective; it does not give
due emphasis to social obligation Relation of culture, dis-
cipline and knowledge Differentiation of matter and
method Education builds for the future: hence cannot be
exclusively "practical" Psycho-sociological elements of
self-control, responsibility, leadership Development of
originality and indivicfcuality that is initiative.
CHAPTER II
THE ELEMENTARY CURRICULUM: ITS MOTIVE AND
CONTENT 37
The educational unrest Unrest first noticeable in secondary
schools Practice not in harmony with standards In prac-
tice the school is arranged for the few rather than for the
many The elementary school most important because
ii
12 STANDARDS IN EDUCATION
PAGE
fundamental Elementary curriculum out of adjustment
Curriculum does not square with life Causes of discontin-
uance in school The knowledge of most worth The
broadening of programs has frequently shallowed results
Necessity for adjustment as seen in the teaching of arithme-
ticIn the teaching of language In the teaching of
geography In the industrial arts Expression as essential
as impression The thought side in industrial processes
should have more emphasis Industrial training a most
valuable element in development The old Psychology out-
grownThe hand and the brain should act in unison
Complexity of society such that present industrial bias
reaches every member of it The metamorphic period in
Education; Dr. Hall's characterization Personality of the
teacher a vital factor in readjustment Readjustment nec-
essary because of new interpretation of life and new stand-
ards School not apart from life but a part of life Cur-
riculum must be actually in accord with the spirit of the age
Relation of school life to civic life must be clear to teacher
and pupil.
CHAPTER III
INDUSTRIAL TRAINING: ITS AIM AND SCOPE ... 68
The traditional subjects and their development The intro-
duction of "manual training" Inadequacy of the term
"manual training" Reasons for manual training in the
curriculum essentially the same as reasons for the other sub-
jects Special reasons advanced Appreciation of the dig-
nity of labor Satisfaction of creative activity of the child
Development of understanding of our industrial life
Recreation resulting from a change of occupation Promo-
tion of physical development Elevates moral standards
Develops manual dexterity May serve as a foundation
TABLE OF CONTENTS 13
PAGE
for trades Reenforces and clarifies the traditional "book
subjects" Typical systems of manual training The
exercise system as developed in Russia The completed-
model system: Sloydin Sweden The rigid systematizing
of sloyd in America devitalizes it Manual training may
degenerate into lessons rather than life Many teachers fail
to appreciate the underlying principles Others fail to ad-
just these principles to a growing child in a changing en-
vironment An illustration from the Philippines Shall
boys and girls have the same work ? Shall the occupation
be fitted to the child, or the child to the occupation ? Tech-
nique not the end of work Danger of too great freedom
in self-expression and initiative Great value of industrial
art is its assistance to the child in the conquest of his en-
vironment.
CHAPTER IV
THE MEANING OF CORRELATION 102
Correlation, concentration, coordination require definition
Concentration as defined by Herbart Meaning of inter-
relation The group-idea in correlation; coordinate groups
The individual subject of study as a center; concentration
The child as the real center toward which effort is di-
rected Humanistic and formal studies Development
means conformity to law Self -activity a governing force
Distinction between correlation and concentration In-
definiteness of pedagogical nomenclature Distinction be-
tween coordination and concentration Unification and
isolation Coordination and the group-idea Correlation
in coordinate groups Unification and relative values
Reasons for unity found in the individual Correlation not
possible at every point Correlation finds greatest op-
portunity in lower grades Correlation only the " logical
14 STANDARDS IN EDUCATION
PAGE
balance" Social and industrial conditions of to-day re-
quires a unifying of the elementary curriculum.
CHAPTER V
THE BASIS OF ETHICAL TRAINING 118
Increasing necessity for moral training in a nation so strongly
filled with the spirit of indiridualism The school, being
life in minature, is the natural teacher of morals Early
moral instruction not separable from religious instruction
The fundamental purposes of the school Formal moral
instruction lacking in vitality The child should see that
ethics must appear in the concrete as conduct Character
a part of, not apart from, daily life.
(a) Interest: Interest is vital in any instruction The child
interested in things before symbols School too often ut-
terly unlike life Some reasons for the study of that which
does not interest The fighting impulse, the desire for
mastery must be aroused The easy task not necessarily
interesting The difficult task not necessarily uninteresting
The knowledge of a dominant interest the teacher's ally.
(b) Attention: Voluntary and involuntary attention Atten-
tion without effort Involuntary attention develops into
voluntary attention Overtaxing may lead to instability in
mental attitude.
(c) Discipline: Close relation of interest and attention to
discipline Outward sign of discipline The discovery of
the dominant interest may turn a refractory boy Obe-
dience must become choice Actual cooperation difficult to
secure Obedience and character Rules underlying dis-
cipline: regularity, punctuality, silence, industry Interre-
lation of society and the individual Morality not inherent;
it must be developed Moral education not knowledge bat
life Example and experience better than precept School
TABLE OP CONTENTS 15
PAGE
the chief agency in the teaching of morals Morals and re-
ligion Difficulty of separating religion from sectarian
teaching Religious element essential to true morality
Morals and the emotions He who feels the right has the
advantage of him who merely knows the right.
CHAPTER VI
THE SIGNIFICANCE OF HABIT 149
Habit a vital element in character An act done tends to de-
velop a desire to repeat the act The blazed trail; the line of
least resistance The parallel between the mental and the
physical habit Building and breaking habits not reverse
processes Habit is acquired only through doing: repeti-
tion Difficulty of breaking old habits The readiest way
is to substitute the new In acquiring habits the mind and
body must be kept occupied.
CHAPTER VII
THE CURRICULUM IN OPERATION 158
Formal discipline and mental development Impossibility of
grasping all knowledge The ideals of school and of life
identical The old and the "new" education A unified
course of seven groups correlated.
(a) Physical Training and Its Place: Necessity for physical
training Need of supervision and systematization Sug-
gestions for schools without special equipment Danger
of overstrain Athletics: some arguments in their favor
Competition and specialization Professionalism and its
dangers Some data in track and field athletics, football
and baseball Athletics should be for all, and should in-
crease standards of efficiency in scholarship Physical con-
dition in the schoolroom The teacher and the games.
(b) The Industrial Arts and Their Place: Clay-modeling,
1 6 STANDARDS IN EDUCATION
PAGE
tiles, pottery Basketry and weaving Paper and card-
board Metal-work, bent iron, copper, brass, etc. Wood-
work.
CHAPTER VIII
STUDY AND PREPARATION 189
(a) At Home: Why home study has seemed necessary The
danger of overburdening young children The lack of di-
rection in study at home Responsibility rests upon both
teacher and parent Much of the danger avoided if home
work be made chiefly along industrial lines.
(b) At School: School rather than the home the place for
formal study Necessity of learning how to study The
advantage of the study -recitation.
CHAPTER IX
THE RECITATION PROCESS 199
(a) Selection of Material: No method without matter Local
conditions determine the subjects to be studied The
curriculum should be both interesting and serviceable
Text -books as guides Teachers should have much liberty
of choice in selecting material, as they are responsible for
results Text-books, and subsidiary study from reading,
conversation, observation and experience.
(b) Development of the Plan: A lesson worth giving is worth
planning Circumstances may alter the routine of the
plan The plan lessens danger of haphazard work.
(c) Assignment of Lesson: The topic The value of definite
assignment The pupil a judge of his own ability He is
not to be deprived of his privilege of effort.
(d) How to Study: Concentration Clear thinking and
exact expression Individual thought to be encouraged
Kindergarten methods in the upper grades.
TABLE OF CONTENTS 17
PAOl
(e) Hearing the. Lesson vs. Teaching: The question and
answer method The teacher's contribution The study -
recitation The art of questioning The pupil as teacher
Encouragement as necessary as adverse criticism Exam-
inations: their value and their danger.
CHAPTER X
TRAINING, PROFESSIONAL GROWTH AND RECOMPENSE
OF THE TEACHER 219
(A) INITIAL PREPARATION
(a) Knowledge of Subject-Matter: High School requirements
for admission to Normal Schools Subject-matter and
method.
(b) Value of Psychology: Psychology the interpretation of
human nature Its difficulties Laws vs. the application of
laws A misfit in text-books Vague terminology in psy-
chology The value of experience.
(c) Attitude of Prospective Teacher: Reasons for entering the
profession Attitude of the High School is academic At-
titude of the Normal School is professional The teacher
is a stimulator of thought.
(d) Ability to Teach: Selective province of the Training School.
(B) THE TEACHER'S READING
The value of books Discrimination in reading Reading
and discussion Read and criticise, compare, and judge
(C) THE TEACHER'S ASSOCIATES
Benefits of association The teacher's place in society.
(D) CONTACT WITH THE ISSUES OF LIFE
(a) Standards of Morality: Advantage of a wide range of in-
terests Elevation of moral standards.
Standards 2
i8 STANDARDS IN EDUCATION
(b) Material and Industrial Development: The teacher in
touch with commercial and industrial interests The va-
rious problems of daily life have a relation to school life.
(c) ^Esthetic Feeling: Culture and the Arts.
(E) READING CIRCLES, EXTENSION COURSES, CORRE-
SPONDENCE AND SUMMER SCHOOLS
(F) TEACHERS' MEETINGS, INSTITUTES, AND CONVENTIONS
(G) QUALITIES ESSENTIAL TO GROWTH
Honesty Open-mindedness Spirit of responsibility Fear-
lessness Simplicity Tactfulness Willingness and the
gospel of work Order and system Discrimination, con-
centration, judgment.
(H) THE RECOMPENSE
Not to be measured in terms of dollars or honors, but in terms
of value of service.
STANDARDS IN EDUCATION
CHAPTER I
THE AIM OF EDUCATION
MORE than a century past, our fathers, single minded
to the best interests of education, essayed to enunciate
what to us still seems to be a fundamental principle, that
"religion, morality and knowledge being necessary to
good government and the happiness of mankind, schools
and the means of education shall ever be en-
Necessity couraged." At all times and in all places
for Educa- .
tionhashad education of one kind or another has been
Recognition ne ^ to ^ e a necess ity> looking toward the best
and fullest development of the individuals in a
tribe, community or nation. The question has never
been, " Shall we educate ? " The query rather has been,
" What shall we study, and how ? " But a hundred
years in the study of educational thought and achieve-
ment is as yesterday. The dweller in early Egypt, in
Babylon, in Assyria, and in Phoenicia, the Persian and
the Roman, the Greek and the Hindu, the Jew and the
Japanese, each has endeavored in his own way to work
out his individual problems, and consciously or uncon-
sciously to follow Paul's admonition : " Prove all things ;
hold fast that which is good."
19
20 STANDARDS IN EDUCATION
Education has long been denned, but as we to-day
glance back over the centuries we find it difficult to true
the definition of any particular people to the practice of
their educational doctrine, much less are we able to
square the practice of yesterday with the theory of to-
morrow. And whatever may be said of the needs and
necessities of those who have so worthily
preceded us, or of the broad strides educa-
ti on has taken, there can be no doubt that
to-day, as never before, we are looking for
the prophet to lead us, and more than ever before are
realizing that the mighty dynamic changes in our indus-
trial and social atmosphere demand that a deeper and
more significant interpretation be placed upon our defini-
tion of education, and that the practices thereof be laid
in accordance with such interpretation.
Here and there the worth of a system is exemplified
in the life and achievement of a great soul.
More than four centuries before Christ and
upon the plains a short call from Rome, a
product of the education of the day left his
plow in the furrow and with the sword of the soldier and
the robe of the dictator, between sunset and sunset,
saved the Roman army from defeat. Then, leaving
power, and glory, and the acclaim of the multitude, Cin-
cinnatus returned to the occupation of his fathers. Al-
fred, gathering his Saxons to drive out the invading hosts,
Columbus, seeking a new world through uncharted seas,
Luther, thundering for reforms in church administration,
THE AIM OF EDUCATION 21
Washington, upholding a nation's courage at Valley
Forge, "dumb for himself unless it were to God, but for
his barefoot soldiers eloquent," Lincoln, striking the
shackles from millions of slaves, the work of these as
teachers of men is clearly traced upon the pages of his-
tory and reflected in the lives of their fellows.
Often enough do we listen to the words of the philoso-
pher on the meaning of school, to the ideal utterances of
the theorist, to the academic statements of the narrow-
minded and conservative, and often enough do we con-
demn the results achieved in the past as spiritless and
formal. What call, however, have we to criticise the
work of an Aristotle or a Herbart, a Bacon
Peonaf or an Erasmus ? For has it not been written
standards to as much for the educationalist as for the
other money changers, " Who shall ascend into the
hill of the Lord?" And the answer: Not
the rich, necessarily, nor the powerful nor the gifted, but
" he that hath clean hands and a pure heart."
How difficult then to analyze the word or work of
another. For Plato, education must make only for spir-
itual growth and with him spiritual development had
nothing in common with the material world. To think
of the present was not to be tolerated, for he tells us
in the Republic that " practical arts are degrading."
Hence, all training must be of that ideal character that
shall consider only a future state. The philosophy of
Plato here seems to be narrowing ; but as Putnam points
out, it was after all Plato whose writings seem to have
22 STANDARDS IN EDUCATION
forecast the modern kindergarten and the doctrine of
"learning to do by doing."*
Aristotle, on the other hand, seems to be the warm
humanist who plans to meet the requirements of every-
day life and who insists that perfect citizenship is the
goal toward which education should tend. We gather
from Aristotle's Politics, that if a man prove virtuous in
character, no further concern need be felt for his future.
Nevertheless, the so-called practical does not cover the
whole of the Aristotelian philosophy. Note what he
says : " To be always in quest of what is useful is not
becoming to high minded men and freemen." And in a
study of other great minds, Socrates and Seneca, Agric-
ola and Sturm, Ascham, Rabelais, Bacon, Comenius,
Francke, Rousseau, Froebel, Spencer, Locke and Mann,
it is found that all have agreed and disagreed, and that
as yet no one has entirely erected the superstructure of
the education needed to-day.
It is held by some that education is the reconstruction
of experience. They believe that neither preparation for
life, nor information, is the goal, but hold with Aristotle
that to work toward an ultimate moral character simply,
is to stop short of the desired end. It is always neces-
sary, I believe, in such an undertaking as the one in which
we are now engaged, to pause, and, following the lead of
Daniel Webster, to return to the original point of de-
parture that we may be sure of having an established
premise.
* A Manual of Pedagogics, p. 17.
THE AIM OF EDUCATION 23
The question then is : For what does the school stand ?
What is education ? Education, say some, is
Question,- training for life. To which answer is made
The Aim of that it is more than a training for life ; it is
Education
life itself. To meet such a requirement edu-
cation should bring into action all the abilities of the pupil,
or, as O'Shea puts it, "the ideal attributes that exist in
potentia in the human spirit." * It should develop in
him all essential qualities and virtues, should make him
master of himself mentally, physically, and morally, should
help him to appreciate and value only the good and to dis-
card the relatively bad, should prepare him for more com-
plete living ; should in short, be the means by which he
shall be enabled to take his place in the great world of
life and action as a unit in a complete social order. If
the lesson to be learned is that of mutual helpfulness, then
education should look toward teaching men how best to
perform this service.
It seems to be plain that any education worthy the
name, considers the present as well as the future of the
individual, or to put it another way, considers the present
and hence the future of the individual. Characters must
be formed, not alone that ultimate good may be accom-
plished, but that the standards of society may be raised
here and now.
This brings us at once to the dual nature of our prob-
lem the individual upon the one hand, and society
upon the other ; and hence, the psychological and the
* Education as Adjustment, p. 62.
24 STANDARDS IN EDUCATION
sociological elements are both to be considered. The
T ^-^ i relation of the individual to society gives us
Individual ' **
vs. society ; the sociological view, while the psychological
i?au h nd- aspects are determined by the relation of
cioiogicai tne individual to himself.
Elements . . .
Society is made up of a group of individu-
als. The individual lives in society, is a part of society,
is responsible to society, and helps to determine and mold
the tone or character of the social atmosphere. Society,
however, sets the standards, and the individual must con-
form, in great measure, to these standards as set. On
the other hand, while being responsible and owing du-
ties to society, the individual must demand something of
himself as well. But while these two sets of duties, of in-
dividual to society, and of individual to self, are distinct
and may be segregated, the one from the other, there is
no sharp line of demarcation between the two. That is,
the one cannot be considered, practically, without the
other, for what is best for the individual is best for society ;
and conversely, what is for the best interests of society
will prove of greatest value to the individual.
Professor MacVannel points out* that just as the in-
dividual is a unity whose life is in the proc-
ess of ma king, of organization, so is he also
the interest a unity in, or an intrinsic part of, a larger unity
of the Indi-
viduai of society which is in the process of organi-
zation as well. If society is to perpetuate
*"The Philosophy of Education," Teachers College Record, vol. 5,
no. 4, sec. 5.
THE AIM OF EDUCATION 25
and strengthen itself, and if the individual is to exist and
prosper, the latter must, many times, merge his desires
in the will of society, and to a greater or less degree for-
sake personal or selfish ends for the common well-being.
In the material world this duality of psychological
and sociological elements is noted. Society demands
an article, a brick, it may be, or a dynamo, or a bucket.
Society needs the article and thereby sets the standard.
The What is the social phase of our problem. How to
produce the article, to carry it over in the various proc-
esses of manufacture from the raw material to the com-
pleted state, to transport from place to place, the cheap-
est and most effective methods of advertising, these
have to do with the psychological phase.
That raw materials of the average present day cur-
riculum are not designed to touch deeply the
sociological element in experience can readily
sociological be shown. The evolutionary process, the un-
foldment of the child's powers, presupposes
a widening of the child's experience, a growth from
within, through the presentation of certain study mate-
rials. But the boy or the girl, the product of the school,
has little opportunity to react upon society. Or per-
haps one might better say the individual has not gained
that which will enable him to react with profit upon so-
ciety. Knowledge is not power, unless knowledge can
be transformed into terms of power producing energy.
The mere knowing a thing is not always significant in
itself. The thing known must have some relation to the
26 STANDARDS IN EDUCATION
conditions, the needs, the desires, the life, of the society
of which the individual is only one of the component
parts. The facts of knowledge must be capable of ap-
plication looking towards the satisfying of needs and the
raising of standards, and the training of the individual
must be such as to make possible the interpretation of
such application.
But the question is here raised : How does it happen
that the raw materials of which we have been speaking,
the school studies, have not been such as to meet the
sociological and the psychological demands ? Have the
school men of the past been blind to the interests of
society ? Has too little thought been used in consider-
ing the best development of the individual ? It may be
answered, I submit, that the standard of the school has
sprung from the belief that knowledge is power, that
facts educate, that mental gymnastics produce the man.
The standard of the real school must be found in actual
life. It must be based upon the natural
^ tendencies of the individual ; it must grow
standards out of a knowledge of the child as a social
should be , .
Found being ; it must recognize the home, the com-
munity, the factory, the shop, the farm ; it
must consider civil, industrial, social and moral institu-
tions. Any curriculum worthy a place in our schools
must be built upon a clear conception that reason stands
superior to fact, that expression is worth more than
technique, that human sympathy transcends in value the
printed pages of a book.
THE AIM OF EDUCATION 27
According as we hold one or another view of the un-
derlying principles of education and of the
i8 ~ real P rovince of tne SChool, do we trans-
Information late the school studies into terms of value
and attribute to them relative worths. To
some the school stands for culture, and the curriculum
should be so ordered as to promote this culture side of
the child's life. Some think rather in terms of disci-
pline and insist that school studies should make for this
end. Others again would place information as the chief
element to be considered. Shall the value of school
studies, however, be found to exist within the studies
themselves and is it to be determined by the nature of such
studies ? If society sets the standard, how can there be
several possible values ? With several standards set up,
there is, as Dr. Dewey says, "no conception of any sin-
gle unifying principle the extent and way in which a
study brings the pupil to consciousness of his social en-
vironment, and confers upon him the ability to interpret
his own powers from the standpoint of their possibilities
in social use, is the ultimate and unified standard." *
It is, of course, unsafe to say that mathematics and
the languages make for discipline chiefly, that the study
of English brings culture, that history lends itself to the
informational side of development. The fact is that
under the best conditions, mathematics is cultural and
informational as well as disciplinary in value ; the Eng-
lish group of studies may be made to cover as wide a
* Ethical Principles Underlying Education, p. 1 8.
28 STANDARDS IN EDUCATION
field as mathematics and Latin, while history may bring
as complete a development as any school subject. To
say that one study makes for culture and another for
discipline means simply that the standard for culture or
for discipline comes from the individual, not from society.
Culture, in the terms of our discussion, means possibili-
ties for development, open mindedness, honesty, the
sense of service awakened, not merely varnish and
veneer. Information implies knowledge, to be sure, but
knowledge that not only can be used, but that is carried
over and made a part of the lives of others to the end
that all are advantaged thereby. Discipline suggests
not only the analytic mind and the trained muscle, but
the sympathetic soul and the teachable spirit as well.
In this connection, notice how broad is the definition
of culture as given by Bosenquet. " Culture," he says,
" is the habit of mind instinct with purpose, conscious of
the continuity and connection of human events, able and
industrious ; capable of discriminating the great from the
trivial."
Method, too, is a determining element in the value of
studies, for the comparative worth of any given body of
subject-matter to the individual, or to society, is deter-
mined in no small degree by the manner of
presentation. While it is true that subject-
subject- matter and method are not distinct, but ex-
Matter and .
Method ist as two sides of experience, the psycholog-
ical and the social, it remains to be said,
however, that for the practical purposes of the teacher
THE AIM OF EDUCATION 29
and the school, it is eminently necessary that they
be clearly distinguished, the one from the other. It
has long been insisted by some, and assumed by others,
that in a course of training, for example, the method was
of chief concern : that if the teacher in embryo could
secure a knowledge of method, an understanding of how
to do the given thing, that a knowledge of subject-matter
itself, of the definite facts connected with the particular
line of work, could be somehow grasped at a later time.
The fallacy of this view is apparent to all who consent
for a moment to consider seriously the issues involved.
How utterly inconsistent to endeavor to formulate a
method, or to act intelligently under one, until a knowl-
edge is had of that upon which method is based. Many
of our normal schools have this lesson yet to learn, and
educational institutions the country over, not only of ele-
mentary and secondary, but of collegiate grade, would do
well to select the subject-matter of the curriculum with
more care than has been manifest in the past. Indeed
the necessity for a knowledge of subject-matter be-
fore training or method work is attempted, is one of
the strongest possible arguments in favor of normal
and professional schools admitting as students only
those who have had a previous thorough, academic
training. Once subject-matter has been selected in
any school, the work should be made more intensive
than we now find it more intensive from the stand-
point of thought values, and also from that of exe-
cution.
3 o STANDARDS IN EDUCATION
All this does not in any manner whatsoever contradict
what has been said previously regarding
present a thought and expression being paramount.
well as Fu- , ,
ture Needs It means that a knowledge at first hand
sidere C d n " of things that have a valid place in society,
not only for the future but in the present,
is to be the first essential. It means, as Dr. Dewey
tells us, that " The present has its claims. It is in edu-
cation, if anywhere, that the claims of the present
should be controlling," and this is in accord with the
words of President Butler, " Education is the adjust-
ment of the individual to the spiritual possessions of the
race." It means what Browning means, when he says :
"Let things be not seem,
I counsel rather, do and nowise dream!
Earth's young significance is all to learn;
The dead Greek lore lies buried in the Urn,
Where he who seeks fire finds ashes."
And self-control, leadership, responsibility is it the
duty of the school to undertake the task of
Self-Control, , M ,, -,
Leadership, inculcating m its pupils these elements so
andRespon- essential to success? Must the time be
sibility in
the school placed, and the thought of education be cen-
tered, upon these factors, when it might be
troubling itself with the real facts of knowledge ? The
question is put only to have one answer returned. What
of the city where the members of the police number as
many as the teachers engaged in the schools ? What of
houses of correction, of the institutions of reform, the
THE AIM OF EDUCATION 31
prisons, the courts of justice, and to a lesser extent of the
hospitals, asylums, and homes for the unfortunate and
distressed ? In the lack of self-control, in the inability to
interpret properly the demands of society or to perform
its duties, having learned them, in unstableness of char-
acter, to the end that the right is lost sight of and the
stronger powers of leadership in others prevail, is found
the cause of much of the weakness underlying our social
organization. Could the school teach effectively the
lesson of self-control, we need have little fear of results
when the product of the system is thrown among the
currents of the world. " What now is the most impor-
tant attribute of man as a moral being ? May we not
answer, the faculty of self-control ? This it is which
forms a chief distinction between the human being and
the brute. It is in virtue of this that man is defined as
a creature ' looking before and after.' It is in their larger
endowment of this that the civilized races are superior to
the savage. In supremacy of this consists one of the
perfections of the ideal man." * And here the tact and
ability of the teacher shows itself. It is the teacher who,
at his best, stands between the child and the various ex-
periences that await him. The teacher, from his larger
store of knowledge, directs the child toward, and intro-
duces him to, these forms of experience, which are es-
pecially adapted to bring out and develop the element
of control, pointing the way that the pupil may in
the shortest possible time and with the least expendi-
* Spencer : Social Statics, " The Rights of Children," p. 86.
32 STANDARDS IN EDUCATION
ture of misdirected energy, adjust himself to his environ-
ment.
Rigid adherence to tradition, extreme rulings, and
deeply furrowed acceptances of the past do
not lend themselves to initiative, to open-
itiltive rln " mindedness to leadership, to self-control.
What would have been the achievements of
a Michael Angelo or a Raphael, a Wagner or a Beetho-
ven, a Goethe or an Emerson, a Franklin or a Newton,
a Gladstone or a Lincoln, had these minds not felt free
to reach forth in any direction, free to accept all the in-
spiration that came to them from the past, free to ignore
all the narrowing influences so apparent in the life and
work of most of us, free to express themselves naturally,
and clearly, and without restraint ?
William Wallace gives us as clear a statement as
could well be formulated, of the ideal of an education
that will educate. " Mental health and wealth," he says,
"do not depend upon a mere accumulation of single
facts, but upon solid ideas of what life is and ought to be,
and what the world around us really means ; it does not
lie in confinement to a fragmentary life, limited in its
range of view, and moving forever in the same monoto-
nous routine, but in a large and free scope of experience ;
nor does it lie in the degree of variety and intensity to
which we can bring our sensations and aspirations, but
in acquiring the proper estimate of values, in calming
the turmoil of temper and gaining at once sweetness
and light, that gentle reasonableness which, though not
THE AIM OF EDUCATION 33
less free to receive impressions than in the beginning of
life, is at the same time matured by experience to a
wiser judgment of their comparative worth. The true
idea of a fully developed personality does not consist
merely in a keen intellectual acumen, nor in an intense
but inactive susceptibility to the moods of happy feeling,
nor in a perpetual unresting activity ; it involves a bal-
ance of all these elements."* And this experience,
these forces that play backward and forward, in school
and out, touching the pupil in his every occupation, that
have direct bearing upon his present and that can be
appreciated by him, shall we not consider these rather
than attempt to introduce him to vague and indefinite
elements ?
As I stood, some time since, beside the rude dwellings
of a simple people in a western desert and watched the
natives as they worked at rug weaving or in fashioning a
basket, I recalled the question put to one of these people
by an eastern woman : " Isn't it too bad," said she, "that
you live so far away ? " And the native woman, re-
turning a wondering glance, replied, " I don't live far
away, I live right here."
While the work of the school must be such as to
fit those who form the school community to adjust
themselves to the society in which they individually
may find themselves, it must not be forgotten that
the child can interpret only in the light of present
experiences.
* Lectures and Essays on Natural Theology and Ethics, p. 297.
Standards 3
34 STANDARDS IN EDUCATION
THESES
1. The value of education has been recognized by all
peoples, but from various standpoints.
2. The aim of education is the matter of chief con-
cern at present.
3. The consideration of the relation of the individual
to society involves the study of two elements, the psy-
chological and the sociological.
4. In determining standards, culture, discipline and
information values are variously considered as basic.
5. Method and subject-matter are separate and dis-
tinct factors.
6. The school should inculcate in its members self-
control, leadership, and responsibility, and thus develop
initiative.
TOPICS FOR STUDY
1. What were the educational ideals in early Egypt,
India, China ? Compare with our present standards.
2. What important features of our present day educa-
tion seem tc have had their foundations in the civiliza-
tion of Greece and of Rome ?
3. What are the main facts to be considered in en-
deavoring to determine the aims of education ?
4. Show that the acceptance of a common standard
does not presuppose similar methods, or identical applica-
tion of principles, in the working out of the problems in-
volved.
THE AIM OF EDUCATION 35
5. Show how a knowledge of the past in history and
achievement is of value in present-day development.
6. When society " demands an article," does the de-
mand originate with society or with an individual, one
of the units of which society is composed ? Is this de-
mand ever custom or fashion, and where do these origi-
nate ?
7. Consider the source of the tendency to retain the
useful and to eliminate the superficial. Does the prin-
ciple of the Biological Conception have any bearing or
application here ?
8. Discuss fully the value of pure knowledge ; of
knowing for the sake of knowing without regard to ap-
plication of facts of knowledge.
9. Make a list of subjects that seem to lend them-
selves chiefly to culture giving ; to information ; to dis-
cipline.
10. How are we to determine what subjects should be
taught and the relative value of each ?
11. Discuss the extent to which the school would be
handicapped by the elimination of any one of the several
subjects now taught.
12. Compare the courses of study of the more im-
portant normal schools of the country as to relative
time spent upon the various educational courses, psy-
chology, pedagogy, history of education, school law,
methods, school economy, school management, school
administration and the like, Can you reconcile the dis-
crepancy between the time spent upon psychology and
36 STANDARDS IN EDUCATION
that given to consideration of the problems of school
management ?
CONSULT
BAGLEY The Educative Process.
BUTLER Meaning of Education, pp. 3-36.
DEWEY School and Society.
GORDY A Broader Elementary Education, chaps, i
to 8, inc.
GREENWOOD Successful Teaching, pp. 11-19.
HANUS Educational Aims and Educational Values,
chap. i.
HERBART Science of Education, pp. 1-121.
HINSDALE Art of Study, chap. 5.
HORNE Psychological Principles of Education, pp. 1-79.
McMuRRY Elements of General Method, chaps, i & 2,
pp. 1-84.
MONROE Text-Book in the History of Education, pp.
1-220.
MOORE Science of Study, chaps. 3, 4, & 5.
O'SHEA Education as Adjustment, chaps. 4, 5, & 15.
PAINTER Great Pedagogical Essays:
( "Laws" of Plato, pp. 0-32.
Selections \ _ .. .
,. < Politics of Aristotle, pp. 34-60.
( Horace Mann, pp. 385-398.
PARKER Talks on Pedagogics, chaps, i & 16.
PUTNAM Manual of Pedagogics, chaps, i & 13.
SEELEY Elementary Pedagogy, chaps, i, 2, & 3.
Foundation of Education, chaps. 20 & 21.
History of Education, pp. 1-88.
THORNDIKE Principles of Teaching, chaps, i, 15, & 16.
CHAPTER II
THE ELEMENTARY CURRICULUM: ITS
MOTIVE AND CONTENT
THE thoughts laid down in the following pages are
centered around certain ideas which, less than a dec-
ade ago, began to take definite shape in many minds.
These ideas, while even now somewhat vague, were in the
earlier days chaotic. Beginning about the time I have
indicated, the student of education could not have failed
to notice a certain unrest in matters educational ; an un-
rest voicing and manifesting itself in somewhat different
manner and with more positive expression than formerly.
I am likely to be reminded that this unrest took shape
full three decades past and that a constant
An Educa- change and steady advancement have been
tional Unrest
Noticeable noticeable ever since. Some are perhaps
willing to go further and to say that since the
times of John Locke and Comenius, of Rousseau and
Pestalozzi, of Froebel and Herbart, educational thought
and practice have ever been moving toward a higher
level. More than this, we should probably all agree
that certain fundamental principles laid down in Aris-
totle's Ethics or in Plato's Republic, are not outgrown at
the present day.
37
38 STANDARDS IN EDUCATION
Granting this, however, we must admit that the past
few years have wrought an additional change on the face
of educational affairs. True, many do not see this; or
seeing, will not admit. They must, however, eventually
concede it.
For a long time past it has been the secondary school
that has first received the attention of educators, when a
new order of things seems imminent or desirable in the
public school. So in England, in Germany, in America,
has the secondary condition been discussed. The full
force and significance of these discussions is now being
felt by what is far the most important and vital part of
the whole educational organization of the present the
elementary public school of America.
Mr. Michael E. Sadler, a thorough English education-
alist, has thrown much light upon the problem in his re-
port on " The Unrest in Secondary Education in Ger-
many and Elsewhere." * Other prominent German,
English, and French school men have agitated the prob-
lem, while with us, as exponents of a broader elemen-
tary school curriculum, may be mentioned, Dr. William
T. Harris, Professor John Fiske, Colonel Francis W.
Parker, President Nicholas Murray Butler, President
Charles W. Eliot, Dr. G. Stanley Hall, Professor William
James, Dr. Frank M. McMurry, Professor John Dewey,
not to speak of a host of others. These men have, each
in his own way, been insistent in demanding in our school
work something that shall be real rather than artificial,
* Special Reports on Educational Subjects, vol. 9, pp. 1-191.
THE ELEMENTARY CURRICULUM 39
vital rather than indifferent. They have pleaded for an
education such as has been aimed at, but is as yet far
short of realization.
Upon certain of the most important and fundamental
principles underlying our educational fabric,
Lack of Ap- there is and has been an almost unanimous
plication of
Principle agreement. It is only when we as individ-
uals come to the practice of these princi-
ples, only when an application is made, that a serious
disagreement is noticeable. Indeed, it is only too fre-
quently the case that no application is attempted. How
clearly in the past has the purpose of the school been
stated, and how almost universal has been the acceptance
of the definition. In actual practice the work has not
been in harmony with the stated purpose of the school.
There is little contention as to the function the child is
to serve when he becomes part of the world in which he
shall eventually find himself. Our methods as practised,
however, would be hardly recognizable as having any
foundation in the thought for future citizenship. Theory
and practice are at variance, and as a result violence has
been done the child ; the past has kept its hold upon the
school and we have held to old courses of study, dusty
with layers of tradition, or mildewed by decades of
bigotry.
In some instances, to be sure, the better in the old ed-
ucation has been displaced by the less valuable in the so-
called new. Subject has been added to subject, scheme
to scheme, creed to creed, until pupils and teachers alike
4 o STANDARDS IN EDUCATION
find themselves in an educational maze, from which only
the freedom of the outside world can extricate them.
This unrest then, of which I have been speaking, is
felt from the kindergarten through the uni-
schooiAd- versitv. From what was at first a feeling,
ministered J
in the inter- there has developed a conviction that our
Fe'w f * schools have too long existed for the benefit
of the few. The upper grades are adminis-
tered in the interest of the six per cent,* who pass from
the primary years; high school courses of study are
carried on with the view of meeting the requirements of
a fortunate one per cent which is graduated from them ;
while college and university curricula take into account
only a meager number, who through circumstance or by
birth are enabled to avail themselves of the advantages
of a higher education. What our elementary schools
should furnish above all else, is the elements of such
culture and thought-bearing subjects as shall the better
introduce the pupil into the social, the industrial, the
moral life of the day. In this regard the school of ele-
mentary grade is at present a long call from squaring
with its avowed mission.
The importance of our subject is apparent, for, with
due regard to all kinds and grades of school work, we
must recognize that the elementary is the most important
school department. Why ? First, because it furnishes
the foundation upon which the future educational super-
structure must rest and has to do with the child at his
*Report, Commissioner of Education^ 1903, vol. I, p. xvi.
THE ELEMENTARY CURRICULUM 41
most impressionable period, and second, because the great
mass of children obtain all the school education they ever
receive in the elementary school.
We may therefore ask ourselves the following ques-
tions : First, How does the elementary school of the pres-
ent meet the demands imposed here and now ? Second,
At what points in the curriculum is adjustment necessary ?
Third, How may the proper conditions be brought about ?
That our elementary schools are superior to those of
the past there can be no question. It is just
as true that the y do not meet the present
notAde- day conditions and necessities. So strongly
has the tide set in favor of something of a
more rational nature, and so evidently has a feeling of
unrest been sweeping over the country that many pro-
gressive localities have already instituted radical changes ;
and literature setting forth the real state of affairs and
offering valuable suggestions as to the subject-matter of
the curriculum has not been wanting. It is Emerson
who says, " Is it possible that I who get indefinite quan-
tities of sugar, hominy, cotton, buckets, crockery ware
and letter paper, by simply signing my name to a check
in favor of John Smith & Co., traders, get the fair share
of exercise to my faculties by that act which nature in-
tended for me, in making all these farfetched matters im-
portant to my comfort ? It is Smith himself, and his
carriers, and dealers and manufacturers ; it is the sailor,
the hydrographer, the butcher, the negro, the hunter and
the planter who intercepted the sugar of the sugar and
42 STANDARDS IN EDUCATION
the cotton of the cotton. They have got the education,
I only the commodity."
The great masses of boys and girls who are early
compelled to take up the problems of actual
ShouMTeet life > sh uld find in the SCh o1 that whkh haS
the Needs of been prepared expressly for them and which
best meets their needs. They find instead,
work better suited to those who, whether they will or
not, enter and take advantage of upper school work.
With the proper adjustment of elementary school courses,
all that great mass of pupils who leave below high school
age would go out better prepared to take part in the
life before them, and many who now leave school at an
early age, would continue their work into and beyond the
high school.
To reach the great mass of boys and girls, and not
only to reach them but to keep them in school for a
somewhat longer period, is then our problem. The tend-
ency of educational thought is to this end. His time
in school is much too short for the boy to acquire those
elements that make for moral uplift, industrial knowl-
edge, social ideas and the faculty of leadership. The
reader will appreciate, I am sure, that I have in mind the
unnumbered many who progress no further than the ele-
mentary school.
Various are the causes of noncontinuance at school :
poverty, sickness, overcrowding, poor enforcement of
attendance laws, inability to keep pace with a given class,
indifference, the monotonous grind of the ordinary re-
THE ELEMENTARY CURRICULUM 43
view all conspire to lessen the tuition in school. More
than all else, however, and deeper and more
No^contL- fundamental than these, is the fact that af-
uance in ter the pupil enters the school, the latter does
not furnish tJiat which is demanded in actual
life. The supposition has been that the school is the
medium through which the pupil is enabled to determine
the line of work, occupation or profession he is best
fitted to enter, after first bestowing upon him a general
culture, universally essential. Should this be the correct
view, which it probably is in part only, the present
courses of study would not work to the desired end.
In his masterful address before the Department of
Superintendence at Atlanta, Georgia, Dr. Frank M. Mc-
Murry charges that the common school curriculum is
seriously overcrowded, but questions whether there is
pressure from without. He says : " When we get be-
yond the three R's, spelling, and a modicum of geog-
raphy, and grammar, there is no public pressure brought
to bear upon teachers compelling them to cover any
recorded amount." * Is there pressure then from
within ? Just as pressure is being brought to bear
upon the high school by the university above it, so is
the elementary school being unduly influenced by the
school of secondary grade. As an example of this, our
high schools all over the country have added to their
courses advanced or university algebra. Mathematics
teachers themselves admit that with the exception of a
* Proceedings of the Department of Superintendence, 1904, p. 31.
44 STANDARDS IN EDUCATION
very few of those who pass on to the higher institutions
of learning, the students will make little or no use of
this study. It is exceedingly abstract and difficult ; and
the time would better be spent upon some subject that
is in fact of high school grade. In the same way the
grammar grades are being afflicted with elementary al-
gebra, with technical English, complicated grammatical
forms and with a quantity of material that has no place
below the high school.
" To teach men how they may learn to grow independ-
ently and for themselves is perhaps the greatest service
that one man can do for another,"* says one ; but this
cannot be done through the use of our present curricu-
lum. " That knowledge is of most worth," says Presi-
dent Jordan, " which can be most directly wrought into
the fabric of our lives. That discipline of most value
which will best serve us in quietly unfolding our own
individualities." With a more serviceable curriculum,
Ruskin would have had less cause to declare that
"Modern Education for the most part signifies giving
people the faculty of thinking wrongly on every conceiv-
able subject of importance to them." No wonder the
old song ran :
"There's a lot of things that never go by rule;
There's an awful lot of knowledge
That you never get at college,
There's a lot of things you never learn at school."
* Jowett, in a letter to Palgrave: Life and Letters, Abbott and Camp-
bell, vol. i, p. 414.
THE ELEMENTARY CURRICULUM 45
To speak further of the unfitness of the present day
curriculum to meet present needs would be
tO deal With P latitudes - Let "S Consider at
all school what points adjustment maybe made. To
Subjects \ J 1111.
say where such adjustment should begin
would be an almost hopeless task. In arithmetic and
language, in history and geography, in reading, and even
in more progressive schools, where such work is given as
nature study, manual training and art subjects, the husk
is too often mistaken for the kernel. The form rather
than the content is made the chief issue; the symbol is
made to stand for the thing. The spirit is lost, the
letter is the goal.
It is not my purpose to suggest an addition of subjects
to an already overfull curriculum. I suggest rather an
enrichment of the school work through a process of
elimination, and by intensifying at many points. In the
schools of the past the work was usually well done,
and if the curriculum was narrow, meager and unin-
viting, it was conscientious and thorough. Little by
little, while our schools have increased in efficiency, they
seem many times to have lost the thoroughgoing char-
acter and sincerity so noticeable in those of former
times. With an accumulation of subjects we must guard
against superficiality and shallowness. It is now gener-
ally admitted that we do not so much need additions to
the curriculum in the form of new subjects, as a filtering
out of subjects so that we shall teach and teach better
only the essentials.
46 STANDARDS IN EDUCATION
In the elementary school it is perhaps in arithmetic
and language, including reading, that the most pressing
need of adjustment is seen.
The object teaching in these subjects furnished an ad-
vanced step over the older methods. But
what do we find ? In arithmetic, for exam-
ple, to use a crude illustration, the 2 + 2 = 4 problem, typi-
cal of the abstract, lifeless form of work so long adhered
to, was changed to the so-called concrete form, and read,
two apples and two apples are four apples. A moment's
thought, however, will convince us that the latter form
of the problem lies nearly or quite as far from the con-
crete as did the former. Here, too, it grows out of a
mere statement of fact and not of the life interests of
the pupil. It should find its application in an immediate
need. " A thing is concrete when it is in the midst of
its meanings ; a word to be concrete must not be disso-
ciated from the idea for which it stands, but should ap-
pear in its context, in the midst of its settings." *
Much of the arithmetic now taught in the schools
would come naturally to the pupil without the aid of
school or teacher, if we could but be patient. On the
other hand, it is not safe to say what portion of the en-
tire arithmetic work would better be eliminated from the
curriculum ; certainly a large part of it. I find children
of sixth and seventh grade ability doing whole pages of
problems under the heading time. After the table of
measures has been committed, there are scores of prob-
* Borrowed from Professor Frank M. McMurry.
THE ELEMENTARY CURRICULUM 47
1cm s of which this is a type : Multiply I hour, 14 min-
utes and 25 seconds by 13. When questioned as to
what they are doing, these pupils, as bright and well
taught as the vast majority, answer that they are multi-
plying. If questioned further as to why they are doing
this particular thing, they say, " to get the answer."
Ella Calista Wilson, in her recent book, Pedagogues
and Parents, tells us that when a child she determined,
as she put it, " to make a decent arithmetic " when she
should be " big." What a commentary upon arithmetics
and our use of them !
Look at it from whatever side you will, the idea is
forced upon you that the curriculum of the elementary
school is not calculated to meet the demands of the boy
or girl. The child may be able to tell you the least
common multiple of 4, 8 and 1 6, or the greatest common
divisor of 3, 6 and 9, but it is doubtful if he can tell you
why in New York City the market price per dozen of
oranges is greater than that of apples, or why in certain
parts of the country railroad engines use wood rather
than coal for fuel. And the saddest part of the whole
matter is that after he closes his arithmetic, the pupil will
probably never have need for the facts he has learned re-
garding the least common multiple or the greatest com-
mon divisor.
It may not be going too far to say that the newsboy
upon the street, rough and unkempt, has a completer
knowledge of arithmetic that fits for life than have his
fellows in the school. It is recorded that a New Hamp-
48 STANDARDS IN EDUCATION
shire schoolboy, with the mountains for playmates, studied
geology from a text-book, but was unable to say if he had
ever seen an igneous rock. Thinking fathers and mothers
are expressing a preference for the arithmetic given in
the well-ordered commercial school, to that taught in the
grades of the public school, and this for the simple rea-
son that they find the former to be of actual value in the
life work of the individual.
At many points the arithmetic should be simplified
and reduced. What necessity is there for spending so
much time and energy upon such topics as Longitude
and Time, Partial Payments, Involution, Evolution, Pro-
gression, Least Common Multiple, Greatest Common Di-
visor, complicated problems in Stocks and Bonds, and so
on and so on ? Aside from something spoken of vaguely
as mental discipline and development) the pupil gains lit-
tle other than a bad conscience, an abhorrence for arith-
metic and a dislike for school.
Teachers constantly complain that students come to
them lacking in knowledge of arithmetical processes and
in ability to apply principles they are supposed to have
learned. Surely this inability is not due to lack of time
spent upon the subject of arithmetic, as in most schools
it is upon the program continuously for the first eight
years of school life.
I have suggested that in language and reading adjust-
ment is needed. One of the chief functions
Language
of the elementary school should be to give
the child a love for reading and an appreciation for good
THE ELEMENTARY CURRICULUM 49
literature. To train in the use of simple, direct and cor-
rect language is indeed a necessary part of the work.
But above all else the child or the man who is not at
home with books, who does not make friends with the
finest in literature, who does not read and from his read-
ing draw inspiration and enthusiasm and power for good,
has been cheated of the best that the school should
give. It is the book, many times, which keeps the
boy from being idle. Idleness breeds crime ; and thous-
ands of boys are idle because, as they say, there is
nothing to do ; no place to go. Consequently they are
often in the company of those from whom they learn
only evil.
In language work the child may be able to supply the
missing words in the text, but does he contribute a read-
able paper in the history class, or speak intelligently when
giving an explanation ? In reading, the words may be
spoken, but is the selection one having any connec-
tion with the child's needs ? Will it broaden and deepen
his sympathies, extend his knowledge of things worth
while, and force him to feel, and be and live his better
self?
The reading matter offered the grammar-school boy
or girl should be carefully selected and the pupil guided
in his reading. The short stories of which the news-
papers and magazines are now full are doing much to
create fragmentary and unorganized reading. To inter-
pret the printed page and to give meaning and life to the
sentence is an art indeed. It is an uncommon experi-
Standards 4
50 STANDARDS IN EDUCATION
ence to find a student of high school age who can gather
from his reading the thought therein contained and give it
clearly and easily to his listeners. In fact, the average
pupil finds difficulty in reading properly his problem in
arithmetic ; and failure in chemistry and physics is often
due to faulty interpretation of the text.
The subject of geography furnishes a further illustra-
tion of the necessity for an adjustment of the
elementary curriculum. Few teachers there
are indeed, who have not, in some measure at least, swung
away from the lifeless method of teaching geography
from the text-book a method that assumes that geog-
raphy teaching means the locating of cities, the bound-
ing of states, and the tracing of water courses. For the
most part, however, we find as yet very little of real ge-
ography taught in the schools. Memory is relied upon ;
thought is not developed.
In a recent examination of text-books in geography,
looking toward the adoption of a text for school use, ten
books were chosen for examination and from these the
five best were selected. As one test of the relative
merits of these several texts, the following method was
employed. Beginning in each text at the portion deal-
ing with the United States, the first one hundred ques-
tions were chosen. Out of these one hundred questions
one book contained not a single question involving any
element of thought ; a second book contained three ques-
tions of thought value ; a third, eleven such questions ; a
fourth, thirty-two ; and the fifth book, forty-seven. In
THE ELEMENTARY CURRICULUM 51
other words, our best texts in geography upon the market
to-day, if we may judge upon the basis of this examination,
consider memory work of more importance than thought
processes. More value is placed upon the ability to lo-
cate a mountain system upon the map or to name the
three longest rivers in a given area, than to know why
Chicago is situated advantageously as to commerce and
manufacture, or why there is more rainfall in the Con-
necticut valley than in southwestern New Mexico.
No more, however, may the pupil's time be spent upon
vague, indefinite things or upon those of little value : mere
facts and figures, dates and places, locations, boundaries
and battles. Each of these has a place, but to the grade
pupil so much can be given that is rich and vitalizing
that great care must be exercised in the choosing. It is
no longer a question of what is good in education ; it is a
question rather of what is best.
Geography in its commercial, its industrial and social
phases, may be made to appeal wonderfully to the pupil's
interest and bring him into close touch with everyday
experiences of life. Problems with a geographical setting
should be substituted for isolated processes. Instead of
abstract, arithmetical facts, problems regarding the actual
tonnage of vessels, the quantity of turpentine, copper or
codfish produced in a given locality, computation of the
cost of transportation and of the turning of the raw mate-
rial into the finished product, and consideration of the vari-
ous mathematical processes involved, these may well
have a place in the school work and will serve to illus-
52 STANDARDS IN EDUCATION
trate the point under discussion, that arithmetic is
as necessary to a proper understanding of geogra-
phy as is reading and language to an appreciation of
number.
One more illustration will suffice. That branch of
school knowledge that may properly fall un-
fcuiustriai der the head of the manua i or industrial arts
also offers a field for adjustment. The so-
called traditional subjects are thought subjects mainly.
We have said, and truly, that book lessons only do not
meet the demands of the developing child, as little ex-
pression accompanies the learning process. There is
ample impression ; there is slight expression. In order
to get the most from our history or arithmetic or lan-
guage, the motor element must come in.
While the introduction of hand work in school has
done much good, we have here swung as far
Bothlmpres- . . . , , .. .
sion and EX- to the opposite side, and while expression is
not lackin & the thought element plays all too
any school small a part in our manual training courses.
Neither in work at the bench, in sewing, in
the cooking room, in the various hand work processes,
nor in the art subjects, is the power to make or construct
necessarily supplemented by the power to think. This
last is due in large measure to the fact that for the most
part the child is not allowed to put himself into the work.
He follows arbitrarily some set of exercises or a fixed cur-
riculum and performs in a more or less mechanical man-
ner a prescribed course of work, and this without par-
THE ELEMENTARY CURRICULUM 53
ticular reference to its fitness for his own individual
needs.
" You can teach a man," says Ruskin, " to draw a
straight line and to cut one, to strike a curved line and
to carve it, and to cut and carve any number of given
lines with admirable speed and perfect precision, and you
find his work perfect of its kind ; but if you ask him to
think about any of these forms, to consider if he cannot
find any better in his own head, he stops ; his execution
becomes hesitating, he thinks, and, ten to one he thinks
wrong ; ten to one he makes a mistake in the first touch
he gives his work as a thinking being. But you have
made a man of him for all that. He was only a ma-
chine before, an animated tool."
If it is true that a lesson in history is really valuable
only when, out of the data and lists of facts,
Thought in the pupils draw conclusions and reason from
Industrial /-r > rr
Processes cause to effect and from effect to cause,
seeking an explanation of laws and princi-
ples in the life of the day, so may we believe that in the
manual processes the thought side must be emphasized
by reasoning out the why, and by seeking to develop
new or independent methods of procedure.
May not work of a constructive nature, the industrial
processes, properly carried on, furnish one
of the foun dation stones of the future pri-
Work in mary school curriculum ? Dr. Dewey says
School
that the curriculum should be " so selected
and organized as to provide the material for affording
54 STANDARDS IN EDUCATION
the child a consciousness of the world in which he has
to play a part, and the relations he has to meet."* Ac-
cepting this, are not the media of the shop, the labora-
tory, the studio, the garden, best suited to bring about
the desired results ?
In an address before the Department of Superintend-
ence at Cincinnati, in February, 1903, President Eliot
said : " I believe there is as much mental training in
manual work as in any book whatsoever " ; and again, " I
believe there is more value in manual work than in nine-
tenths of the arithmetic in the schools."
Teachers generally seem to be recognizing the fact
that in no way can we so well form a school that shall
be paralleled with, rather than angular to, the actual,
everyday life of the child and the adult, as by adjusting
our programs to the industrial and social forms that go
to make up our everyday existence.
How long shall we allow a false psychology to hamper us
and to shape our school work a psychology
Psychology 7 which is largely responsible for the stereo-
typed form that hand work has taken in the
past ? This psychology, true enough, has in a measure
recognized the child as the most vital element to be con-
sidered, but being based upon false assumptions, the
practices growing out of the application of this psychol-
ogy have left the child largely out of the educational
equation. This so-called faculty psychology has insisted
that the mind is cut up into divisions, each division being
* Ethical Principles Underlying Education, p. 26.
THE ELEMENTARY CURRICULUM 55
devoted to a given mental faculty or process. These
faculties or attributes of the mind are parceled out and
labeled as memory, judgment, imagination, reason, and
the like, each faculty being trained through the presen-
tation and assimilation of certain study material. Not
only is this held to be true, but more ; it is conceived
that such habits as neatness, exactness, precision, hon-
esty and accuracy, are developed through the perform-
ance of certain tasks, or by engaging in various motor
exercises. In other words, a particular faculty or habit
is trained, not so much in a general way along with other
tendencies, but in a special sense, by a special method,
or through a particular medium. One conclusion to be
drawn from this is that the student, careful, accurate
and discriminating in his manual work, will exemplify
these qualities in all other school departments.
That this is not the case in its broadest conception,
there seems little room for doubt. " Acute powers of
observation and memory might be developed by studying
Chinese characters. Acuteness in reasoning might be
got by discussion of the scholastic subtleties of the Mid-
dle Ages. The simple fact is that there is no isolated
faculty of observation, or memory, or reasoning, any more
than there is an original faculty of blacksmithing, car.
pentering or steam engineering. These faculties simply
mean that particular impulses and habits have been co-
ordinated and framed with reference to accomplishing
certain definite kinds of work. Precisely the same
thing holds for the so-called mental faculties. They are
56 STANDARDS IN EDUCATION
not powers in themselves but such only with reference
to the ends to which they are put, the services which
they have to perform. Hence, they cannot be located
or discussed as powers upon a theoretical, but only upon
a practical, basis. We need to know the social situation
with reference to which the individual will have to use
ability to observe, recollect, imagine and reason, before
we can get any intelligent and concrete basis for
telling what a training of mental powers actually means,
either in the general principles or in its working
details." *
To be sure a boy made careful in the shop has a ten-
dency to be careful in the recitation room.
Help* lntife This is one of the stron g arguments in favor
Formation of o f manual training in the school. Since the
Eight Habits ,
manual processes are transparent, so far as
teacher and pupil are concerned, and since in dealing
with them slight opportunity is offered for deception, we
have in the arts a mighty power for good, making for
the establishment of right habits. While certain so-
called " faculties " may not be trained, it is perhaps true
that the individual will here form habits of mind that
will render him more efficient than he would other-
wise be.
The change in present day thought does not mini-
mize the value of handwork. It will appeal to many
who can be reached through no other channel. Out-
ward form, technique, system and sequence, while hav-
*Dewey: Ethical Principles Underlying Education, p. 13.
THE ELEMENTARY CURRICULUM 57
in- a legitimate place, must be subordinated to thought,
to values, and to utility. We must realize, too, that the
truly utilitarian is not far removed from the truly educa-
tional, and that the essence of the one is the essential
in the other.
In discussing the motive and content of the curriculum,
we shall have to consider the complexity of
ofso P ciety y our industrial life and the deep significance
of the industrial processes to every member
of society. In an ever increasing ratio, we are, through
these changes, becoming creatures of interdependence.
The coat I wear, the bread and the fruit and the sugar
that contributed to my last meal, the telephone that calls
me from my task, the stove that makes it possible for me
to warm my room, and the roof that now shelters me,
the bicycle that conveys me to town, and the paper
upon which is written the welcome letter I receive, are
necessities and comforts and luxuries, and for which I
am indebted to my fellows in this and the farthest lands
of the sea. No longer do we supply ourselves with our
daily needs, but through an industrial and economic reci-
procity, each one in turn becomes, in fact, " his brother's
keeper."
The industrial argument is not external as might seem
to be the case at first blush. It is dynamic, rather. Be-
cause the nation is rapidly developing a manufacturing
and industrial bias, it does not follow that there is only
a passing significance here to the schools. The demand
for changed conditions is psychologic, expressing itself
58 STANDARDS IN EDUCATION
through the commercial spirit ; it comes from within ;
and more and more are we beginning to see that work
to be educational must be purposeful. As Professor
Jackman puts it, " The first demand of the mind is
for motive." *
It is not necessary to elaborate further. Enough has
been said to show that in each school subject there is
ample need of adjustment, of cutting down and of en-
richment of the subject-matter.
In his article, Experiments upon Children, Dr. G. Stan-
ley Hall speaks of the present as a " metamorphic pe-
riod " in education and then goes on to say : " A mere
list of fads now in practice in various places would make
a long article. Idiotic busy work in the lower grades ;
learning to read without knowing the alphabet, so that
occasionally children old enough to use the dictionary
have to make up their arrears of knowledge to do so;
blob drawing ; typewriting and shorthand in high school ;
four foreign languages for boys and girls in the early
teens who have almost nothing in their minds to express
in the vernacular ; Latin and algebra in the grammar
school ; wood and iron work in manual training courses
that are wooden in intelligence and iron in their inflexi-
bility ; sharply demarcated schools and theories of physi-
cal training which will not harmonize and give the chil-
dren the best in all ; metaphysics of the effete German
school for kindergartners, who ought to know something
of nursing as taught to high school graduates and to
* Elementary School Teacher, vol. 5, p. 60.
THE ELEMENTARY CURRICULUM 59
know the child's body which at that age most needs
cure ; interest in the finished product, which is used for
show, rather than in educational values ; everywhere and
perhaps especially in English, content and substance sub-
ordinated to form ; method whipped up to a sillabub that
suggests an analogy between the graduates of certain nor-
mal schools and the mediaeval barber's apprentice, who
could set up for himself only when he could whip two
ounces of soap into barrels of lather ; the mechanism of
marks and hearing lessons, instead of teaching ; the
college dominating the high school, which is really
the people's college, with its excessive entrance exam-
inations ; distraction among the multiplicity of differ-
ent topics, these are some of the dangers, of which
some are universal, and others dominant in certain
places." *
While we may not subscribe to all that Dr. Hall says,
we should at least be in accord with the spirit of his mes-
sage. The curriculum has indeed been broadened, while
at the same time it has not been made sufficiently deep.
In just the same degree that school work does not furnish
power, does not put the pupil in possession of himself, in
just so far is it failing in its mission.
There is one factor, however, that must not be over-
looked in our discussion ; a factor that rises
as a Facto^ above system, or curriculum, a factor that
is greater than means or methods or courses
of study : a factor without which our schools are poor
* Good Housekeeping, vol. 37, no. 4, p. 338.
60 STANDARDS IN EDUCATION
indeed : the personality of the teacher. It is the
teacher who must work out and frame the curricu-
lum to suit the needs of his particular boys and girls ;
and it is the influence of the teacher that will shape and
mold the habits and lives of his pupils. It is the
teacher of energy, of spirit, of will, of moral stamina and
intensity of purpose who will impress himself upon those
under his care. The teacher who will be content only
with the best is the teacher we want. The story is told
of the bugler who played the advance that sent the men
into battle. But the commanding officer, feeling hedged
about and doubtful of success, ordered that a retreat be
played. " Captain," replied the bugler, " I never learned
to play a retreat." We want no retreats, we want only
advances. There is an ever increasing place for the
teacher of purpose and of power ; there should be no
place for the one. of doubt and dishonesty.
How then shall the proper adjustment of the elemen-
tary school curriculum be brought about ? The answer
maybe given readily; but the actual work of adjustment
is difficult to carry on, mainly, because, as before stated,
the standard of the school has sprung from the belief
that knowledge is power. Not until men are sufficiently
broad-minded to realize that the life of the present, so
different from that of their own early days, so much
more intricate and complex than was that of our fathers,
demands a new interpretation ; not until they see clearly
that "new times demand new measures and new men,"
and are able to apply the life standards to the processes
/ ///-; ]<IJ-:.\IENTARY CURRICULUM 6l
of the six-hour school day ; not until they can give rea-
son based upon common sense for such practices, shall
we be able to see how the curriculum is to be adjusted
and shall we be active in accomplishing this adjustment.
"The works of God are all for naught,
Unless our eyes in seeing,
See underneath the thing, the thought
That animates its being."
We shall see to it then, in shaping our curriculum,
that abstract principle be thrown into the background,
and that live, vital issues, those more in accord with the
Zcit Geist the spirit of the age, be in evidence. Con-
tent must be substituted for form, and the real must take
the place of the symbol, the thing done rather than the
thing said, must stand ; the deed, the act, the accom-
plishment, not mere feeling or emotion, must hold sway.
No longer can the school be considered as a thing of and
by itself. It must rise or fall as a part of the great so-
cial life of the child's existence. In the institutional life
of the day, the school is recognized as one of the instru-
ments through which expression manifests itself. It is a
link in the chain made by the home, the school, the
church, the state, the outside world. The school can no
longer be regarded as a separate element, an existence,
per sc, where the child is to receive instruction that he
may later live. He must live at school as he should live
at home, or on the street, or in the shop, or at the forge.
He must step from the school into the work of life,
whereas now, preparation for his life's work must be
62 STANDARDS IN EDUCATION
made after leaving the superficial atmosphere of the
school.
I have tried to show the necessity of shaping the cur-
riculum of the elementary school to meet the demands
of the progressive spirit of our day, and I have endeav-
ored to indicate certain points at which adjustment
should be made and to suggest how the changes may be
brought about; for the curriculum must be developed
from within, not built up from without ; it must be fitted
to the child, not the child fitted to it.
I would not be understood as saying that every ele-
ment in our present day courses should be stricken out.
Indeed, I have attempted to show that many times the
older, more conservative thought, stands superior to a
modern whim or tendency. We shall find the truth of
Disraeli's saying that "It is easier to criticise than to
correct." And we must remember that "the letter
killeth, the spirit giveth life."
Three points, it seems to me, have been determined,
looking toward the betterment of the elementary school
curriculum. First, the arrangement of the courses of
study must be such as to fit the needs and conditions of
the individual student : in other words, the work given
shall have some reference to the pupil's capacity and to
his life after leaving school. Second, there must be a
rational coming together of home, school and outside
world, so that the child may see the necessity for and ap-
preciate the underlying principles animating the whole.
Third % teachers must come to their work not only pre-
THE ELEMENTARY CURRICULUM 63
pared as to subject-matter, but possessing enthusiasm,
sympathy, high ideals, and the ability to obtain the co-
ition of parents and patrons.
Finally, is it not easy to see that we have been making,
through our primary school curricula, a different sort of
life in the schoolroom from that actually existing outside
of it ; a life not at all real and certainly not ideal ? The
lack of interest has been mainly on account of this. So
different is the atmosphere of the school from that of
real life that the pupil does not recognize the school ele-
ments as having vital bearing or application outside the
school. In the school he works for show, for standing,
and while ready with the facts, loses or never finds their
true meaning or application.
With a program that shall fit the child's needs will
come an increased desire to continue in school, a live in-
terest in its many problems, an increased student attitude.
Then, too, will the child see more clearly his relations to
his fellows, his individual duties and responsibilities, and
while recognizing his own worth, will at the same time
appreciate the meaning and significance of the commu-
nity, the society, the social whole of which he is only one
of the units.
THESES
1 . An unrest in educational matters is apparent, which,
beginning in the secondary school, now shows clearly in
the school of elementary grade.
2. There is general agreement upon underlying educa-
64 STANDARDS IN EDUCATION
tional principles, but little unity in application of the
same.
3. The school is planned to meet the needs of the few;
school courses should appeal to the mass.
4. Since past and present standards in education differ,
and since the school must be in harmony with the real
life of the individual, adjustment in school courses must
be made all along the line and in all subjects.
5. In too great a degree the elementary school is domi-
nated by the institutions of secondary grade.
6. Arithmetic, Language, Geography and Industrial
Arts are used as illustrations of the necessity for adjust-
ment throughout the school.
7. As so-called thought subjects in the past contained
little of the expressive element, so the present work in
industrial lines touches too lightly the thought side.
8. Constructive work built upon a sane foundation is
invaluable. The best in both the early and present day
education is necessary to a proper adjustment of the
curriculum, that the pupil may find his place in society.
9. The personality of the teacher is, in the last analy-
sis, the main factor to be considered.
TOPICS FOR STUDY
1. What is the meaning of a socialized curriculum ?
2. Is further unity in school subjects desirable? Con-
sider the question as to whether we can have unity with-
out uniformity.
3. The elementary school as a social center.
THE ELEMENTARY CURRICULUM 65
4. The elementary school as a neighborhood or com-
munity center.
5. What part should imitation play in the work of the
various grades? Originality? Are imitation and origi-
nality antagonistic elements, or is one the foundation of
the other?
6. Consider fully as to whether the school, as a
community, finds its standards in the individual or in
society. Does the mass or the reformer mold public
opinion ?
7. Are school hours too long ? Why should the school
year not extend over the full twelve months?
8. Are school duties too absorbing?
9. The average recitation time in the elementary school
is increasing. Discuss the advantages of increasing the
time of recitation, and of the study period.
10. Outside preparation for elementary pupils.
1 1 . To what extent should the teacher assume care of
pupils after school hours or at such times as the school
is not in session ?
1 2. Management of games and sports by the teacher.
13. Show to what extent the school makes for and
suppresses leadership.
14. Consider the relation of the pupil, the parent and
the teacher in the actual making of the course of study.
15. The statement is made frequently that the envi-
ronment must be considered when constructing the
course of study. Show how this is true, and discuss
the relation of environment to curriculum.
Standards 5
66
STANDARDS IN EDUCATION
1 6. Should there be a closer union between the ele-
mentary and the secondary school ? Study the problem
of a closer articulation of school courses.
17. Make a list of all topics in arithmetic that could
well be dropped. Do the same for each of the other
subjects. What could be done in the time that is
gained by such elimination ?
1 8. Show whether the subject, the method, or the
teacher, is the matter of chief importance. What part
does the text-book and administration play? Is your
answer the same in all cases ?
CONSULT
BALDWIN Industrial Social Education.
BRYAN The Basis of Practical Teaching.
BUTLER The Meaning of Education.
DEWEY My Educational Creed.
Psychology and Social Practice, Psychologi-
cal Review, vol. 7, no. 2.
Psychological Aspects of the School Curricu-
lum, Educational Review, April, 1897, vol.
*3> PP- 35 6 -369.
The Child and the Curriculum.
The School and Society.
Ethical Principles Underlying Education.
DOPP The Place of Industries in Elementary
Education.
BUTTON, The Curriculum of the Elementary School,
PEARSON, AND in Teachers College Record, vol. 5,
RICHARDS no. 2.
Till-. ELEMENTARY CURRICULUM
67
ELIOT Educational Reform, chaps. 7, 8, n; see
also addresses in proceedings of Cincin-
nati meeting of the Department of Super-
intendence, 1903.
FROEBEL Education of Man.
GORDY A Broader Elementary Education.
HALL Experiments upon Children, in Good House-
keeping, Oct., 1903.
HANUS Attempted Improvements in the Course of
Study, in Educational Review, Dec., 1896,
vol. 12, pp. 435-452.
HARRIS Psychological Foundations of Education.
The Correlation of Studies, Report of Com-
mittee of Fifteen on Elementary Educa-
tion.
HENDERSON A New Program in Education.
Education and the Larger Life.
McMuRRY, C. Elements of General Method.
McMuRRY The Curriculum of the Speyer School, in
AND BURKS Teachers College Record, vol. 4, no. i.
O'SHEA Education as Adjustment.
PARKER Talks on Pedagogics.
PAYNE Public Elementary School Curricula.
SADLER The Unrest in Secondary Education.
SPENCER Education.
WILSON Pedagogues and Parents.
CHAPTER III
INDUSTRIAL TRAINING: ITS AIM AND SCOPE
IT is because that branch of school knowledge usually
spoken of as industrial training is being so generally in-
troduced into our courses of study and because so few
parents or teachers, aside from the specialist, claim ade-
quate acquaintance with its deeper educational value,
that the subject is here considered. From their compara-
tively new position as special subjects, given in a few
localities only, manual training, domestic science and
other industrial processes are becoming so general through-
out certain districts that patrons and educational folk
the country over are discussing their many phases; and the
regular grade teacher is being forced to the consideration
of problems of method, of material, and of forms of work.
Some years ago I was asked by one of our leading school
men why I advocated the introduction of manual train-
ing into the curriculum. Said he, "I have repeatedly
asked teachers of manual training this question and have
received no satisfactory reply to my query. They suggest
always some impossible result to be accomplished or
some vague form of development to be reached. What
then," he insisted, "is the educational value of the sub-
ject?" My reply was that should he give me his reasons
68
INDUSTRIAL TRAINING 69
for advocating history and science as school subjects, I
would probably in like terms return him the answer he
drsiivd. Laying aside the consideration of relative values,
the same principles underlie the one that are at the base
of the other. It is safe to say that many are now willing
to accept this view of the matter.
To speak of the development, during the past three
decades, of any school subject, is obviously a task of no
mean proportions. Even the traditional studies of the
curriculum, reading, grammar, history, mathematics, have
undergone radical change and modification, though in
their foundations they have been more or less fixed for a
considerable length of time. Using geography as a type
of this change, we find the content and method, in many
quarters at least, almost totally different from that of a
few years past. While hand work is a comparatively new
subject and need not be considered as existing, for school
purposes at least, prior to thirty years ago, the more
modern and generally accepted practices in this field have
little in common with those of the earlier date, or of
twenty or of even a half score years past. To what are
these changes due and what is their significance in the
educational life of the day ?
It will not be necessary to consider at length the history
of the manual training movement, or to trace
totheintro- m detail i ts growth to the present time.
Handwork ^^ s ^ as k een ^ one a & am an< ^ again, and
has, perhaps, been necessary to make clear
the educational demands for hand work. Discussions
70 STANDARDS IN EDUCATION
have been brought forward and arguments made upon
the principles underlying the manual occupations; the
psychological point of view has been exploited; the growth
of brain areas and brain tracts resulting from action of
motor centers has been dwelt upon; the threefold de-
velopment of the individual, that of the mental, moral
and physical natures has been declared impossible with-
out the aid of manual training; education of a so-called
all around character, of head, hand and heart, has had
able advocates. But while these ideas have been put
forward in perfectly good faith and while certain of the
principles involved are considered sound at the present
day, it is nevertheless true that delightful theory and vain
imaginings have prompted many of them and upon these
have been constructed courses of study that cannot last
or that have entirely passed away.
Manual training, hand work, motor activity, construct-
ive work, industrial education : these are some
The Name o f the terms suggested to indicate the work
Purpose proposed to satisfy the creative tendency in
the individual. The term manual training
is the one most commonly in use, but it is now being ar-
gued by many that it does not convey fully, nor correctly,
the idea or significance of the processes in question.
Manual training implies training of a manual nature
only; and at the present time, this is but one of the ob-
jects to be sought through industrial processes. Hence,
the suggestion of the term, manual or industrial arts.
Of the various reasons advanced for the introduction
INDUSTRIAL TRAINING 71
of hand work into the curriculum, the following may be
taken as being of chief importance. It must not be sup-
posed that any individual advocate would advance all
of the several reasons here given, because the particular
exponent generally has in mind a specific purpose which
he hopes to see realized through the introduction of the
hand work processes.
First. Manual training, properly directed and carried
on, will create in the mind of the individual a love for
work, and an appreciation of the dignity of honest labor,
such as can be had in no other way.
Second. The natural activity of the pupil, an activity
that is native and that must find expression, is given freer
play in the hand work processes than elsewhere in school.
Third. The industrial side of our work-a-day existence,
calling to us as it does from every hand, gains an added
clearness in the minds of those boys and girls who engage
in manual work in school.
Fourth. The immature mind of the pupil demands rest
and recreation from the continuous application to book
studies. The introduction of hand work relieves the ten-
sion and returns the pupil to his other tasks, quickened
and refreshed in body and mind.
Fijth. The physical development of the pupil is pro-
moted by doing such work as calls for bodily strength
and action. He stands rather than sits and is enabled to
assume healthful positions.
Sixth. The subject being rather concrete than other-
wise, and something in which deception cannot readily
72 STANDARDS IN EDUCATION
find a place, the moral standards of the pupil are raised.
Any defect is readily observed by both pupil and teacher,
the transparency of the work making it comparatively
difficult for sham to be substituted for honest endeavor.
Seventh. Those who pursue work of a constructive na-
ture are likely to possess a general dexterity or handi-
ness, a deftness of hand in execution. The dexterity or
ability to use one's hands, to handle materials and master
tools is to be considered from the educative side only.
In this connection it is not thought of as reaching over
into the field of bread-winning.
Eighth. Work in the manual training room, of what-
ever nature it may be or whatever form it may assume,
will lay the foundation of a trade that may finally be
carried to a more complete development.
Ninth. Since the concrete and the objective appeal to
the untrained mind, as the abstract, abstruse conception
cannot, the books or traditional subjects are made clear
where reenforced by the more tangible productions of the
manual training room.
Let us examine each of these several propositions in
turn and endeavor to discover the strength in each.
The necessity for a tolerant spirit on the part of those
who do not engage in physical labor toward
tnose whose support comes through toil and
struggle, is increasingly evident. In these
days of strife between capital and labor, of combination
of money and union of men, of industrial competition and
narrow margins, the dignity of hand labor should be ap-
INDUSTRIAL TRAINING 73
predated by every thinking man and woman. According
to the last census of the United States, the number of those
following some gainful occupation was something over
twenty-nine millions, of which in round numbers, thirty-
hve per cent were engaged in agriculture, twenty-four per
cent in mechanical and manufacturing lines, nineteen per
cent in domestic and personal service, sixteen per cent in
trade and transportation, and four per cent in professional
pursuits. It will thus be seen that much of the work ac-
complished is carried on through the physical energies
of our people.
Those who have examined this question most closely,
affirm that in schools where manual training work is
carried on, the sons of the wealthy and the sons of the
poor stand side by side at the bench or the forge. The
dust of labor covers each alike. The same problems con-
front one as do the other; and each in turn has these prob-
lems to work out and solve. They sympathize, one with
the other, in disappointments and failures; and each re-
joices with his fellow when success attends him. They
touch elbows, and there grows up between them a kin-
ship that poverty upon the one hand and wealth upon the
other cannot dispel. There can be no doubt, that, more
and more, these conditions are being realized, and that
people from all walks of life are being advantaged thereby.
All present day education insists upon the necessity for
activity on the part of the child. The philosophy of Plato,
the theories of Pestalozxzi, and the utterances of Froebel
cried out for something in school work that should
74 STANDARDS IN EDUCATION
keep the child free and active and allow him to expand
and grow in a normal manner. The ne-
The DC- cessity for activity in development has, in-
Activity 01 deed, been appreciated and understood since
early times. The developing mind is an active
mind. The immature body is a growing body. Building,
making, creating, destroying, these are inherent traits in
the child and are recognized by the exponents of any ra-
tional educational plan. Says Colonel Francis W. Parker,
when speaking of manual training as being one of the
many modes of expression: "Making, or manual training,
has done more for the human race than the exercise of any
if not all, of the other modes of expression. It is abso-
lutely indispensable to normal, physical development; it
has had a mighty influence upon brain building." *
In doors and out, at school or at home, the normal
child expresses himself in terms of movement, of activity.
The industrial arts will bring to the child through the
various media, opportunity for such activity.
The complexity and the deep significance of the in-
dustrial processes to every member of so-
ciety are considerations worthy our attention.
The industrial spirit of the day continually
demands translation and interpretation at the hands of
the child. The "what is it?" and "why?" form of ques-
tion is ever being put. Contact with the materials of
the manual training room, a study of the raw products,
and participation in the various processes will assist
* Talks on Pedagogics, p. 253.
INDUSTRIAL TRAINING 75
toward a more complete understanding of our industrial
life.
"An education which cultivates the industrial spirit is
the best education the school can give; it is the only all
round education; it is the only human education; it is the
only education based on the self activity of the pupil and
is therefore the only education which will satisfy the de-
mands of our day and generation; potent beyond any-
thing we have yet tried, it diminishes pauperism and
crime, which are increasing out of all proportion to the
growth of population, in spite of our present methods of
training." *
It is then, perhaps not too much to say that contact
with the actual materials of the shop and the laboratory,
the kitchen and the garden, will awaken the individual
to a consciousness of the value and significance of the
many industrial phases that touch him en every side and
help to shape his very existence.
No parent or teacher, no one who has studied child
nature, but knows how impossible it is for
TheNeces- the mind to hold itself to any set task for
sityfor . *
change more than a short time. To realize this
difficulty, let the adult, the reader, indeed,
endeavor to hold himself to the consideration of a given
topic to the exclusion of all else. Only as the mind is
concentrated upon the subject in hand, only as the at-
tention is directed toward the desired end is the particular
*W. S. Mack, 26th Anmtal Report, Moline, 111., Public Schools, 1899,
P-33-
76 STANDARDS IN EDUCATION
lesson or task truly considered. After a short period of
such attention, the mind will wander and adjust itself to
other things, returning, perhaps, to take up again the
desired problem. This means that as much may be ac-
complished in a short period with concentrated effort, as
by endeavoring to hold the mind for prolonged reaches
of time, only to find the attention wandering and desultory
and the ideas vague. Change, with the mind as with the
body, is rest; and if the pupil, when wearied, can take
up some manual occupation he will return later to his
books, fresh and ready to engage again in the more purely
mental processes.
Says Dr. Albert Shaw: "Seek in every subject of study,
especially in the lower grades, to provide motor activity,
at least as an accompaniment of study and recitation. If
possible, however, invent means which shall use up the
motor tendencies and at the same time make a contribut-
ing part of the more purely thought work required of the
child. In short, let some doing accompany all the child's
efforts to learn."
In schools where such forms of work are provided,
that the pupil may readily change from the one to the
other, much improvement has been found. The pupil
looks forward to his manual work with pleasure, and
attacks with vigor and energy the problems of his daily
recitations.
There can be no question of the desirability of the
strong body. The time has long since passed when to be
a student means to be an invalid and a weakling. The
INDUSTRIAL TRAINING 77
pair student of the monastery with his book for com-
panion is no longer the symbol for educa-
tion - Jt is > perhaps, the duty of the school
to make for physical and bodily growth, fully
as much as it is to minister to the mental side of the pupil's
nature. Many schoolrooms are admirably suited to pre-
vent physical growth. In a close fitting seat, leaning over
upon a desk several sizes too small, or reaching up to one
as much too large, with shoulders stooped and chest com-
pressed, many a boy and girl is, through the long hours
of the day, assuming harmful and dangerous bodily
positions. Instead of being free and unhampered, pupils
are many times cramped and warped.
Muscular action and exercise of the larger organs of
movement are provided for in any rational form of the
industrial arts. If the child sits, he may usually be in a
healthful position; if he stands or walks about, his move-
ments are free. He works with materials that offer re-
sistance to his efforts and with tools that demand strength
in their mastery. The effects of certain necessary harmful
bodily attitudes are counteracted and undeveloped muscles
are strengthened.
The more concrete the work in hand, the less likely is
doubt and uncertainty to play a part. In
grammar or history, a mistake upon the
cult pupil's part may easily pass unchallenged.
The student glides over an error consciously
or without intent; and even the teacher may not detect
the fault. In a word, both teacher and pupil may be de-
78 STANDARDS IN EDUCATION
ceived. In the shop or in the cooking room it is quite
different. Be the box too long or too short, the metal too
thick or too thin, the joint too loose, the basket askew,
the stitches uneven, or the ingredients improper in pro-
portion, little doubt need enter the pupil's mind as to
the Tightness of his work. He can see and have pointed
out to him the fault or defect, and can himself usually
tell when the same is remedied.
How often do we find the pupil in his book lesson, be-
lieving thoroughly that he understands the subject, when
later it becomes apparent that he does not! Simply re-
peating something, memorizing a statement, or working
through an abstract problem, does not prove that there is
an understanding of the same.
There has been no lack of manual training advocates,
especially among the parents themselves, to
Dexterity P ut forward the claims for a general dex-
terity of hand. Work of a constructive na-
ture, when taken up by the boy in school, will, they affirm,
render him handy at making and repairing things, and
these people will tell you that this is the chief benefit to
be derived from a study of the manual arts. Certain it is
that many friends of manual training consider the ability
to use a knowledge gained, toward useful and purposeful
ends, a desideratum. As a rule, however, they do not
think in terms of its industrial, or economic, or commercial
value, but rather in terms of its so-called educational
worth. In other words, while desiring that industrial
work be directed in useful channels, they look upon it in
INDUSTRIAL TRAINING 79
the light of an added tool that will assist in further de-
velopment, rather than as a factor bringing immediate
results.
A sharp line is drawn by most advocates between the
teaching of the industrial arts for the pur-
P se f learning a trade upon the one hand,
and for what is spoken of as the purely forma-
tive side, upon the other; there have all along been those
who have ably put forward the idea that hand work in
schools should not only aim at, but should prepare di-
rectly for, some one of the many trades in which the pupil
might engage. Many persons, a majority no doubt, do
not discriminate between manual training for general
purposes and the work carried on in the regular trade
school; and since the elements of so many trades are of
necessity found to exist in the work done in the various
school shops, the chief value attaching to hand work is
conceived to be in furnishing the foundations for some one
or more of these several trades.
That the province of the real trade school is distinct
from the field of the manual arts in the regular school,
and that the two must not be confused, need not be con-
sidered at length here. Since, however, to earn one's
livelihood is quite legitimate, rather than degrading, and
since the making of things without the application of
knowledge gained is no longer thought of as being edu-
cational, the trade and educational phases are, in the
last analysis, not in conflict. True it is that the boy or the
girl, having intelligently pursued work in manual train-
8o STANDARDS IN EDUCATION
ing, is enabled to take up and carry forward not only the
plans worked out by others, but is capable of originating
problems. His ability in self-expression and his power
of individual initiative is quickened.
The writer was told recently by the manager of a large
furniture factory, that the most difficult undertaking con-
nected with his business was the securing of efficient men
to plan and direct new enterprises; that more than else-
where, in the graduates of the manual training high school,
were they finding the men they desired. I could give so
many instances hi line with the above that individual cases
would lose their worth.
Objective teaching in the school has long been looked
upon as being of extreme value. In the man-
Teacidn ua ^ training the pupil approaches more nearly
clarifies the tangible product than elsewhere in school
Mental
Concepts work. When the industrial processes are
used, not so much as an end in themselves,
nor merely from the standpoint of a school subject, but
as a medium of expression, the other subjects are illumi-
nated. The shadows are thrown into relief, so to speak.
It is claimed that the problem in mathematics or the ex-
periment in science, which heretofore has proved only so
many words to the pupil, is readily understood when the
model or bit of apparatus made by the student, is used
for illustration.
When carried to its final analysis, this point brings one
to the idea of the correlation of manual processes with
other school work. Some declare that when thus con-
INDUSTRIAL TRAINING 81
, manual training will be the " handmaid" of the
other subjects and will thus become degraded. Those
who hold this view are, of course, making the subject,
rather than the child, the object of chief concern. Any
rational unifying of subjects can result only in benefit to
all.
With this brief consideration of the more important
claims made for the introduction of hand work into the
school, we may now turn to a somewhat general discus-
sion of the field of the industrial arts.
The so-called exercise system of manual training is
that first put into actual practice in Russia
system 6 1 * 6 ^^ * s s P^ en ^ usually as the Russian
system. It is very probably true that work
of the nature indicated was actually begun in France.
The exercise system, worked out largely in the secondary
and technical schools, and at a date earlier than the in-
troduction of hand work into the grades, comprised as the
term implies, a series of abstract exercises. Using wood
as the material to illustrate the thought, certain typical
tool processes would be considered, such as cross or rip-
sawing, chiseling, the construction of various joints, and
so on. In sewing, to illustrate further, various stitches
were practised upon a bit of fabric prepared for such
work; buttonholes were made and buttons fastened,
sample pieces of cloth being used. Later on in the course,
indeed, these abstract exercises frequently found ex-
pression in a completed article.
These exercises, whether in wood, iron, cloth or other
Standards 6
82 STANDARDS IN EDUCATION
material, were based upon supposed difficulty in tool
manipulation, the simple movements being followed in
regular order by the more difficult. Under this system, as
a general rule, and in most places, the exercises or articles
made became the property of the school, to be disposed
of as desired.
Teaching was carried on in the mass, little use being
made of the individual form of instruction. The ex-
ercises, too, were given in direct order and in some in-
stances, as pertains in certain Danish schools to-day, the
class worked as a unit, until someone dropped behind or
forged ahead of his fellows, when the class would pause
that all might again start at a given signal and proceed
in harmony as before.
The exercise system, under which the abstract task was
performed, was the forerunner of the model
system* 6 system, which comprehended the making of
complete objects. This in itself was a long
step forward, the models being thought of as articles of
use. What is known as the Swedish Sloyd or Slojd em-
phasizes more clearly than anything else this model
scheme of hand work. Again taking wood as the illus-
trative material, although at first paper, rushes, iron and
other materials were used, a number of objects were pre-
sented, carefully arranged and graded as to difficulty of
construction, considered chiefly with reference to tool
manipulation. It was therefore necessary to determine
what tool, or what particular exercise with a given tool,
presented the least difficulty. As before stated, this same
INDUSTRIAL TRAINING 83
principle was applied to other forms of hand work; sew-
ing, for example, to use the illustration before given.
In this manner the pupil was carried along by regular
steps, from the simple to the complex, from the known to
the unknown, from the concrete to the abstract.
Here, as under the exercise system, the sequence was
arranged mainly upon the basis of difficulty in tool ma-
nipulation, without consideration of necessity or choice, or
varying ability in the pupils. The models were made in
both rectilinear and curvilinear form to be tested not
only with measuring tools, but also with the eye and sense
of touch. They became the property of the student by
whom they were constructed.
While those advocating such a scheme as is here men-
tioned, realized that the abstract would not
what is satisfy, they failed many times to under-
stand that the model could be nearly or quite
as far removed from the concrete as the exercise itself.
Here again, as under the exercise system, the thing is
made because it is the next object in the series or course,
and not necessarily because any particular need or desire
on the part of the child calls for the making of such an
object. No demand may arise from the pupil himself
for a flower stick or a keyboard, a hammock or an apron.
He makes the board or stick, in some instances putting
it to use or perhaps giving it away; frequently it is left at
school, or if carried home it is stored in the attic or laid
aside in the bureau drawer to be exhibited to visitors.
We cannot write the history of the past by writing
84 STANDARDS IN EDUCATION
simply the history of the savage in the jungle. We can
write the history of the past only by coming from the past
into the present, by tracing the development of past acts
into present achievement and present needs. So, too,
with education. It is not enough to stop with the past,
to trace certain culture epochs, and to do primitive things
in a primitive fashion. The school life and the later life
of the pupil as well, must be consulted and the work laid
in accordance with life's demands, consistent, of course,
with the best development of the child.
Tradition and habit are stubborn enemies if misdi-
rected. Says the author of a recent bit of
SStaSed fiction: "^ is wonderful what a fund of use-
less information some people assimilate and
cling to with persistent determination worthy of a better
cause." This might well furnish the text for what I
shall say regarding the industrial phases of the subject.
It is not an extravagant statement to make, that many
of the principles supposed to be at the foundation of our
manual courses, principles borrowed in a sense from
the Swedes, the Russians, or the French, have never been
considered by them as being principles at all. Or to
put it another way, while with Europeans, from whom
certain of our ideas in manual training were originally bor-
rowed, the application of the principles has been chang-
ing, we have kept too closely to traditional lines. More-
over, many of the ideas put forward by these people in
years past, as fundamental, have been discarded for
more rational ones, while we who copy from our neigh-
INDUSTRIAL TRAINING 85
bors have not informed ourselves of their advance and
still continue to worship the old.
As an example of this, take the course of study idea as
exemplified in the sloyd, of which we have been speaking.
Sloyd has in many places fallen into disrepute. To make
plant labels and flower sticks and hammer handles is not,
say some, necessarily educational or industrial. It is,
to be sure, manual, and tradition forces many to adhere
to the practices of course work. Many of those who sup-
pose they are following the principles as laid down by
Dr. Salomon himself, the original exponent of the sloyd
system, are as far from the reality as they could well be;
and many others, perhaps the larger number of manual
training teachers in our own country to-day, are una-
ware that Salomon did not, in his later years for his own
country even, advocate the same principles and methods
to which he adhered in an earlier day. Could he see the
work as carried on by many who insist they are teaching
sloyd, he would cry out against the practices as being
narrow and mean and spiritless.
Most of those, too, who have abandoned the term sloyd
and attached another horse to their cart, will, if they
analyze fully their work, find it is as far from the indus-
trial and the actual as is the product of the old school. I
know school men of broad education, open minded and
scholarly, who still refuse to believe that the manual
training of to-day has a place of importance in the school.
For these men I have no word of criticism. They are, I
fear, in a measure, justified in their attitude, their belief
86 STANDARDS IN EDUCATION
being based upon their knowledge of manual training
as they see it in the cities and towns with which they are
familiar. What they have seen is work in one or another
material, articles produced by certain tool manipula-
tions articles supposed, indeed, to be of actual use.
The results, however, even though of superior technical
quality and produced under the guidance of a teacher of
mechanical attainments, are not educational. They do
not touch deeply and thoroughly the interests and needs
and environment of the people. They have to do, not
with life, but with lessons.
This matter of the real as opposed to the artificial in
manual training was brought home to me
Real vs. most forcibly in two ways at the St. Louis
Artificial
exposition. It was remarkable that while in
high school work some little attention was given to what
might be considered the thought processes, in almost every
elementary school course shown, a traditional sameness
was apparent, the flower sticks and the plant labels being
always in evidence. What a welcome change, however,
when one visited the exhibits from the country of the mar-
velous little Filipino. Those who saw this exhibit will
recall what a vast array of native hand work was shown,
rugs, baskets, articles of furniture, utensils for house-
hold use, tools, decorative materials, these and a host
of other things were exhibited, all work calling for con-
structive ability and appreciation of design. It was with
a feeling of delight that I observed some of the specimens
of handicraft of the children of these islands, so useful, so
INDUSTRIAL TRAINING 87
beautiful, and made from the materials with which the
makers were surrounded. As I examined these products,
a young man, an American teacher in the Islands, asked
if he might show me the best work in manual training
done by the school children, something that would
point clearly to the fact that they were being educated.
I was dragged to a sacred part of the exhibit and shown
a glass case, with a "Do not handle" sign, containing
some of the most uselessly useful objects, from the stand-
point of the makers, that could be conceived. There were
bits of cloth with sample stitches, pin bowls, flower sticks
again, corner shelves for bric-a-brac and more of like char-
acter made of wood (much of it being American wood) by
American tools, under American teachers, and containing
elements neither of utility nor beauty.
I left the exhibit more saddened than disgusted. In-
stead of directing the native abilities and natural artistic
tendencies along channels making for thought and power
and for advancement mentally, commercially and in-
dustrially, we are trying to cast them in a mold that has
been fashioned to fit a race decades in advance, and,
withal, a mold that is man made and too often, from
the standpoint of utility and beauty, defective.
This incident I have used as an illustration. Have I
made the case too strong? I am simply putting the mat-
ter at its utmost point to illustrate more clearly the great
principle under discussion. There are many intermediate
stations, I grant you; but those who are familiar only
with the work in their immediate neighborhood or in a
88 STANDARDS IN EDUCATION
particular school, would marvel at some of the wonders
to be seen in the educational world. It is remarkable
how slight consideration is given locality and environ-
ment in the make-up of a course of study. How much
more important that the child in any given locality should
learn to make the best possible use of the materials which
nature has provided at hand than that he should deal with
the product of the distant place and follow the work laid
down for his foreign brother, in order that at a given
moment every pupil in the universe may be working upon
exactly the same thing. Even though the plea of utility
may sometimes be made, one usually finds that little
mental energy in construction is demanded.
Let us have a real, live, industrial form of work in this
day when the topic which overshadows in public interest
is "the industrial and commercial development of this
country, and the training which should be given our youth in
the public schools, colleges, universities, and special schools
to best fit them for the changing conditions which the twen-
tieth century is bringing to them." * This is a wholesome
sentiment and is in accord with what has already been said.
There remains, however, one side of the question of
industrial education yet to be emphasized,
Ible^or U Gi"rl8 that f hand WOrk f r S irls ' Moi>e and mOI>e
attention is being given such work in the
schools, but too frequently it is from the sentimental stand-
point. The boys have manual training, consequently we
must provide some work with which the girls may occupy
* Convocation Council, State of New York, 1905.
INDUSTRIAL TRAINING 89
tlu-ir time during such periods. Such an argument is no
argument at all.
The time has passed when any thinking man or woman
will advocate the same kind or type of work for boys and
girls alike. In the early grades all may engage in similar
occupations, but differentiation should not be long de-
layed and work suitable to the aptitudes, desires and needs
of girls should be offered and required.
At present, aside from art training and physical cul-
ture, no industrial work is given the girls save sewing and
cooking, and these in the upper grammar grades and a
few special high schools. It is unnecessary to enter here
into a discussion as to why these arts cannot or are not
taught in the home. Such economic and sociological
questions are involved as seem to be a barrier to home
teaching, although the value of home instruction is un-
questioned. Continuous courses through the grades, the
high school and the college should be offered. Not only
sewing and cooking in the narrower aspects, but a study
of the chemistry of foods, simple analysis, marketing in
its economic aspects; house sanitation, plumbing, heat,
light, ventilation, fuel, disinfectants; proper methods of
sweeping, dusting, laundering and care of the home;
hygiene, emergency aid and nursing; a knowledge of ac-
counts and business forms, domestic architecture and
planning of the house and grounds; gardening and tree
and floral culture and much more that in the Swiss schools
is included under the term " female hand work" and
which is both practical and cultural.
90 STANDARDS IN EDUCATION
Teachers have in the past held tenaciously to the idea
that accuracy and precision in execution are
Accuracy the paramount issues. This thought has had
Rather than *_ . .
Thought much influence in shaping the courses in
hand work. Exercises have been arranged
chiefly to meet this demand. The exercises, carefully
thought out, have been based upon principles that seem
fixed. We have failed to see, however, that while a prin-
ciple may be unchanging, the applications will be chang-
ing constantly when the developing, growing, expanding
mind of the child is in question. There are planned elab-
orate schemes of models and accurately arranged sequences
of manipulations, attempting to fit the demands of the boy
or girl to these exercises, rather than following the reverse
order, that of fitting the occupation to the individual boy
or girl.
In this manner certain set forms, progressive sequences,
particular materials have somehow been considered by
teachers, supervisors, and superintendents as the sine qua
non in hand work. Systems rather than system, methods
instead of method, have been the thought before us.
Since a somewhat broader and more rational view has be-
gun to animate most of our other school work, the same
spirit is being applied in our manual training courses.
Technique ? Yes. The value of technique, of accuracy,
Technique * P ro ^ ucm g something exact in every de-
tail is unquestioned. To me there is some-
thing grand, almost humanly moral, in a piece of work
perfect in construction. But is technique the end and aim
INDUSTRIAL TRAINING 91
of a course in manual training or in any other school sub-
ject? Is it the end of life? "Seek yc first the Kingdom
of God." I see greater technique in the petals of a
flower, no two of which are counterparts in size, form
or color, than in twenty-seven match brackets, each
made from one-fourth inch stock, the backs regular
in outline and of exact and unchanging dimensions.
Is there no technique in the coloring of the birds; and
are they all alike? Must we have uniformity to get
technique, even though there are no two Japanese prints
exactly similar? Let us have technique, but if it must
be gained at the expense of producing pupils with in-
dividuality gone, with independence dwarfed and power
of leadership undeveloped, then bury technique and look
for soul.
But, you say, individuality later. The child must not
be allowed to choose at first. He must learn his alphabet,
his multiplication table, his notes in music, and thus lay
the foundation. Technique and the tools of knowledge
must be had in the beginning. Whatever grain of truth
there may be in this philosophy, the husks will come soon
enough at the best. Give the child the fruit. Give him
work that will make him happy and contented and willing
to remain in school. Remember with Eugene Field that,
"It's the songs ye sing
And the smiles ye wear,
That's a makin' the sun shine everywhere
Whatever the weather may be."
The wholesome unrest in the past few years and the
92 STANDARDS IN EDUCATION
change in the outward form of the work are welcome
signs. To borrow the thought of another,
A Broader we find the reason for Plato's relation to
sentiaf 8 " so many thinking men and women to-day, to
be his willingness to give them all standing
room in his conception. The present in industrial training
owes its being largely to our willingness to allow, in ever
increasing ratio, standing room to those who think dif-
ferently from ourselves. It owes it also to the fact that a
tradition may not be accepted unless based upon the
philosophy of common sense.
I take it as a healthful sign, that a conservative spirit
has been manifest in this subject of hand
work. Many have been slow to modify old
tionaicon- ideas, seeing as they did, the extreme to
servatism /
which the enthusiastic advocates of the newer
thought were wont to go. Naturally enough, some of
these latter have discarded entirely, course, or planned
out, work. Method has too often been cast aside, and the
terms selj-expression, interest, individual initiative, have
been warped out of perspective. In such instances the
nature and content of the instruction have been left too
exclusively to the whims of the child. The demands of
the social and industrial phases of life have been construed
to mean, what the child wants to do. The desires of the
pupil are frequently only passing whims against which
the greater experience of the teacher should surely count
for something. We shall, therefore, consider the larger
demands of society as a whole in shaping our work.
INDUSTRIAL TRAINING 93
We arc coming in this subject of hand work, to have a
broad, tolerant, truly educational view. Let
us see to ' lt that we sha11 not > as in the P ast >
over - cur- defeat the very ends set for manual training
ricularized" M i
by over curncularizing" it, as we have
other subjects. Only are real, actual, educational ends
served when the work is related to the child, to the other
school occupations, to the home life, and hence to the
life after leaving the school.
Perhaps the industrial arts can, in greater measure
than most subjects, help the child to interpret
cube ArtT the facts and forces that play about him,
strengthen those habits that shall render him
capable of being depended upon to perform a task at an
appointed season and in the proper manner, put him in
sympathy with his environment, enable him to appreciate
those elements that shape his life and the lives of his
fellows, render him capable of seeing his relations to so-
ciety as a whole and the part he is to play therein, take
from yesterday and to-day all that is good, and true, and
noble, and work toward a to-morrow whose industrial,
social, intellectual, and moral phases shall point ever
progressward.
Let us remember that in manual training, as elsewhere
in school work, it is the man-made course of study that
often fails to find its true place and that the child himself
may frequently suggest the element of greatest value.
The natural is more than the artificial.
Some months since, I stood upon a mountain- top and
94 STANDARDS IN EDUCATION
saw far below into the wonderful valley where spire,
and stream, and tree, stood out silent and beautiful. A
companion turned to me after some moments of silence
and said, "Man works upon a grand scale. See this
valley, once barren and dreary and impeopled, now a
garden spot of peace with its thousands of happy homes
and its prosperous towns." "Yes," I replied, "man does
work upon a grand scale; but God works upon a grander.
See what nature has done," and there, stretching away
as far as the eye could pierce, range upon range, and peak
upon peak arose, one beyond another, canyon and scarred
mountain side and snow-capped crest, without which no
peaceful valley would have been possible.
THESES
1. The widespread introduction of the industrial arts
necessitates the study of them by the regular teacher.
2. The past few years have brought about many
changes in the teaching of the subject.
3. Many of the arguments put forward in favor of
manual training were sound; others were fallacious and
visionary.
4. The term manual training is not sufficiently com-
prehensive.
5. Of the various motives prompting the introduction
of hand work into the curriculum, we have as the most
important :
a. Love for and appreciation of labor.
b. Satisfies the child's demand for creative activity.
INDUSTRIAL TRAINING 95
c. Understanding of our industrial life.
d. Valuable as recreative work.
e. Develops the physical powers.
f. Deception cannot readily be practised in dealing
with the arts.
g. Gives general dexterity of hand.
h. Lays foundation for one of several trades.
i. Lends clearness to the other less concrete subjects.
6. Two typical systems compared:
a. The exercise system, or the making of abstract
pieces exemplified by the Russian System.
b. The model system, or the constructing of complete
objects. The Swedish sloyd typifies this idea.
7. While we have too often been guided by tradition
alone, we have also adhered to old principles long ago
forsaken by those who first put them forward.
8. In order to break loose from the artificial tendency,
environment and utility must be considered.
9. Accuracy and technique are to be considered, but
in connection with the thought values only. Systems and
methods in hand work must give place to processes touch-
ing closely the actual life of the pupil. Individual initia-
tive, however, must not be construed to mean the mere
whim of the individual.
10. A broad and tolerant outlook and a rational con-
servatism are necessary elements.
11. Over "curricularization" will stultify and weaken
hand work as it has other school subjects. Properly pre-
sented, the industrial arts possess great educational value.
96 STANDARDS IN EDUCATION
TOPICS FOR STUDY
1. Is manual training to be taught as a regular subject
as are arithmetic and geography, or is it to become an illus-
trative or expressive element in each of the other school
subjects ?
2. If the former, is the instruction to be given by special
teachers, and are they being adequately trained ?
3. If the latter, are we to have special teachers, or are
the grade teachers to instruct in the arts ?
4. How may the class teacher acquire a technical
knowledge of processes and a realizing sense of the ne-
cessity for such work ?
5. Will the teaching then be conducted in the regular
class room with special equipment ?
6. Shall older boys and girls engage in like occupations,
and if not, where shall differentiation for work between
boys and girls begin, and what forms shall be given
each?
7. If the regular teacher carries the manual courses
as well, shall we insist upon men for the upper grades; or
if as under the present system of special instruction, are
we to increase the force of male teachers; and in any
event, how can we obtain them at the present salary rate ?
8. At present, in most towns and cities where boys in
the grades have from two to three years' instruction deal-
ing chiefly with wood, is their interest in working with
this material so weakened as to render them half-hearted
in the woodwork courses of the high school ?
INDUSTRIAL TRAINING 97
9. Discuss in detail the likelihood that too much stress
is laid upon technique and finish in the work accomplished,
without sufficient attention to the thought side.
10. Consider fully as to whether there is a false stand-
ard underlying our interpretation of the term educational
as applied to the arts, and whether the processes should
touch more closely the actual demands of real life, that
which we are pleased to term the utilitarian as opposed
to the educational view.
11. Should individual or communal work characterize
the spirit of the grades or of the high school ?
12. How is the beautiful in form, in construction,
and in clecoration to become a part of the work? Should
both design and construction be taught by the same
teacher ?
13. Consider the advantages and the disadvantages of
following a rigidly defined course, as against allowing the
pupil to do largely as he will. What is the rational ground
to take here?
14. How may the equipment provided for work along
manual lines find a more complete use through evening
or Saturday classes?
15. What has the kindergarten to offer as an index of
the trend that manual training should take ?
1 6. Discuss the main reasons advanced for not mak-
ing hand work a part of the course of study in every
school.
17. Under conditions as they now exist, deter-
mine whether the general normal school can give all the
Standards 7
98 STANDARDS IN EDUCATION
training necessary to equip special teachers of the
arts.
1 8. Make a list of the forms of work that can be taught
in the various grades with small outlay and little equipment.
19. Estimate the cost of equipping for hand work a
room to accommodate classes of twenty pupils each. Do
the same for a room to accommodate twenty girls in Do-
mestic Science (cooking) and a like number in Domestic
Art (sewing).
20. Give the arguments in favor of teaching sewing or
cooking, or both, to girls in the grades. Should the sew-
ing be done in the regular class room?
21. Consider the opportunities and limitations, in the
several grades, of the following processes:
a. Clay modeling.
b. Pottery.
c. Paper work.
d. Cardboard construction.
e. Bent iron.
f. Metal spinning.
g. Copper and brass work,
h. Work in thin wood.
i. Whittling.
j. Bench work in wood,
k. Weaving, and textiles.
1. Basketry.
m. Bookbinding,
n. Domestic Science,
o. Domestic Art.
INDUS1 RIM. TRAINING < } < }
22. Make a list of the larger cities in the United States
where some form of industrial training is taught.
23. What cities or towns having once introduced man-
ual training have discontinued its use as a school subject ?
What were the reasons given for such procedure?
24. Shall sewing, cooking, and the household sciences
be classed as industrial training subjects?
25. Wherein is the term manual training inadequate?
Suggest the term you consider most in keeping with the
spirit of the work as now carried on.
CONSULT'
BALLIET Manual Training: Its Educational Value.
59th Annual Report, Mass. Board of Edu-
cation, p. 483.
BALDWIN Industrial-Social Education for the Primary
and Grammar School Grades. Proceed-
ings Eastern Manual Training Association,
1904, p. 104.
BENNETT Russian System of 'Manual Training. Art
Education, vol. 2, pp. 75, 148.
CHAMBERLAIN Technical Education in Germany, sec. II.
The Manual Element in the Schools of
Germany. Manual Training Magazine,
vol. i, p. 124.
The Problems that Perplex. Proceedings Na-
tional Educational Association, 1905, p. 558.
DOPP The Place of Industries in Elementary Educa-
tion.
DEWEY The School and Society.
IOO
STANDARDS IN EDUCATION
GILBERT Manual Training High Schools or Manual
Training in High Schools. Proceedings Na-
tional Educational Association, 1904, p. 614.
HAM Mind and Hand.
HANEY The Arts in Theory: A Statement of Ideals.
Education, vol. 26, p. 161.
HARVEY Manual Training in the Grades. Proceedings
National Educational Association, 1905,
p. 121.
HENDERSON The Manual Training Outlook. Manual
Training Magazine, vol. 2, p. 65.
HILL The Manual Training Idea. Manual Train-
ing Magazine, vol. i, p. i.
JACKMAN The Constructive Idea in Education. Pro-
ceedings National Educational Associa-
tion, 1904, p. 594.
KEYES True Test of Educational Manual Training.
Proceedings, Eastern Manual Training
Association, 1898, p. 7.
LARSSON The Origin and History of the Sloyd in
Sweden, etc. Proceedings Eastern Manual
Training Association, 1899, p. 5.
MANEY Industrial Training as a Social Factor. Man-
ual Training Magazine, vol. 2, p. 129.
McMuRRY How can Class Teachers be Educated to the
Value of Manual Training? Proceedings
National Educational Association, 1905,
P- 5 6 3-
MONROE The Educational Bearings of Manual Train-
ing. Proceedings Eastern Manual Train-
ing Association, 1903, p. 70.
INDUSTRIAL TRAINING
101
O'SHEA Dynamic Factors in Education, chaps. 4 & 5.
PABST Manual Training in Germany. Report of the
Conference of Manual Training Teachers,
London, 1903, p. 78.
PARKER Talks on Pedagogics.
RICHARDS Some Practical Problems in Manual Training.
Manual Training Magazine, vol. 4, p. 142.
How Early may Hand Work be made a part of
the School Work? Proceedings National
Educational Association, 1901, p. 100.
SALOMON Theory of Sloyd.
Hand Book of Sloyd.
The Naas System and the Naas Models. Re-
port of the Conference of Manual Training
Teachers, London, 1903, p. 73.
SCRIPTURE Manual Training and Mental Development.
Manual Training Magazine, vol. i, p. 16.
SEIDEL Industrial Instruction.
WARI: The Educational Foundations of Trade and
Industry.
WOODWARD Rise and Progress of Manual Training. Re-
port of the Commissioner of Education,
1893-94, pp. 877-950.
Manual Training in Education.
WARN J R Teaching Trades in Connection with the Pub-
lic Schools. Proceedings National Educa-
tional Association, 1900, p. 492.
CHAPTER IV
THE MEANING OF CORRELATION
CORRELATION of school studies, concentration, interre-
lation, coordination, and the later term, unification, carry
with them varying shades of content, while at the same
time we find them frequently interpreted as meaning one
and the same thing. Each term in the abstract means
substantially nothing. Used thus the interpretation of
its meaning is either so limited that its value is slight, or
so broad and extensive that only a vague indefinite-
ness attaches to it. To use one or another of these
terms in the sense indicated would be as illogical as to
say that a certain study made for mental development,
since the term mental development may cover almost any-
thing desired in the field of education.
The subject of correlation is widely considered. Dur-
ing the past two decades hardly a writer upon educational
topics has failed to devote more or less space to a discus-
sion of the genesis of correlation and to its application to
school studies. The most discouraging feature of the
whole matter is that many of the early exponents espe-
cially, knew almost nothing about the subject. They
simply restated in a new phraseology the utterance of
some educational philosopher.
THE MEANING OF CORRELATION 103
One fallacy may also be said to have existed in most of
the arguments advanced in substantiation of the various
theories ; they evidently were not sound.
That there are, however, certain fundamental principles
underlying the doctrine of correlation cannot well be de-
nied. What are these principles, what gives rise to
them, and what are the educational implications of the
doctrine ?
Of the several basic facts as enunciated by Herbart in
his educational philosophy, the doctrine of
concentration may claim a prominent place.
To the mind of Herbart, the school life of
the child is too scattered ; the school studies too isolated,
one from another. Just as the several members of a
door-frame, or the parts of a machine have a certain defi-
nite connection or interrelation, so should the various por-
tions of a given subject be connected, and the different
school studies associated together. Then instead of iso-
lation we should have a thread of unity running through
the entire school course.
As an illustration of this thought, take the subject of
literature. We cannot get at the true meaning of the
literature of a people without at the same time coming
into intimate touch with their history, their manners,
their customs. Here again we find that geography, lo-
cation, environment, physical conditions, cli-
reiation mate, soil, are not only part and parcel 'of,
but in reality are at the very base of, his-
torical study, thus relating back to the literature. Hence,
io 4 STANDARDS IN EDUCATION
geography, history and literature are seen to have a di-
rect connection, not superficially, but in fact. It is there-
fore quite clear that history, mathematics or botany
cannot be studied to the best advantage as a subject
isolated, but must be thrown into certain interrela-
tions.
The doctrine of Herbart was taken up and enunciated
in Germany by such men as Ziller, Stoy, and Rein and has
had considerable support in our own country. To the
idea as advanced by Herbart regarding the natural unified
nature of the school subjects, must be added Froebel's
thought of the unity of the human being.
In the application of the correlation principle, two
theories at once arise, these growing out of a difference
of opinion as to the social basis of correla-
we e a Gr UP tion - It: has been held b y some > that certain
groups of school subjects naturally lend them-
selves as centers for study, and around these centers the
other school subjects should be arranged. For example,
history and literature form one central group, the biologi-
cal sciences another, while geography, geology and min-
eralogy constitute a third group, and so on, each subject
in these special groups being of equal value, one with
another. Here we have several coordinate groups of
studies. Again, a second theory places
The Individ. eac ^ su bject in turn as the central one ; that
ual Subject J
as center is, the subject under consideration is the
thing of concern. As the main element all
other subjects must, for the time, be subsidiary to it and
THE MEANING OF CORRELATION 105
flow in to enrich its content. In this instance concen-
tration plays the leading part.
Since, however, the child is to be considered as the
real center for study, and for correlation as well, it seems
to be generally admitted that the so-called humanistic
studies, as opposed to the formal, or those that seem to
relate themselves most intimately to the actual social ex-
istence of the child, should claim attention as central sub-
jects. Mathematics, spelling and writing are
Humanistic typical of the formal studies. Those ranking
and Formal
studies as humanistic would seem to include geogra-
phy, history and the natural sciences, while
to these may be added the industrial arts, including con-
struction in any material whatsoever. This last classifi-
cation is justified since the desire for expression on the
part of the child is a controlling motive. It is further
insisted that in the beginning, all else in school is seen in
the light of self-expression and motor activity. To re-
peat, the child is the center as the hub is the center of a
wheel, the various activities and studies radiating as do the
spokes. This makes the matter of correlation something
from within, something intrinsic, something
center Ud ** v * ta ^' ^ nsteac ^ * being added or tacked on to
the outside. In this sense the necessity for
correlation will be seen to exist not in the subject-matter
itself, but in the very nature of the individual.
Dr. Charles McMurry in his General Method says :
" The center for concentrating effort in education is not
so much the knowledge given in any school course as
io6 STANDARDS IN EDUCATION
the child's mind itself. We do not desire to find in the
school studies a new center for a child's life, so much as
the means for fortifying that original stronghold of char-
acter which rests upon native mental characteristics and
early home influences. We have in mind not the objec-
tive unity of different studies considered as complete
and related sciences, nor any general model to which
each mind is to be conformed, but the practical union
of all the experiences and knowledge that find entrance
into a particular mind."*
The one who first in our country put this idea of con-
centration into definite form was Colonel Francis W.
Parker. In his Talks on Pedagogics we find the follow-
ing : " The center of all movement in education is the
child. We must grant that human beings are absolutely
governed by immutable, ever-acting, all-efficient laws of
growth and development, and that all devel-
ment means opment means conformity to the laws of
being ; nonconformit y is decay, degradation,
and death." In the same volume the au-
thor says: "The present trend of study, investigation,
and discovery in the science of education is toward the
correlation and unification of educative sub-
footemto? J ects and their concentration upon human
Force development. All subjects, means, and
modes of study are concentrated under this-
doctrine upon economization of educative effort. In
the unification and correlation of subjects of thought and
*Chas. McMurry: Elements of General Method, First Edition, p. 98.
THE MEANING OF CORRELATION 107
expression, each subject, means, mode, and method finds
its absolute and relative educational value, its definite
place in the conditions for self-activity and self-effort."
Here, then, would seem to be the main point of differ-
ence between correlation and concentration, in so far as
those who do not consider the terms as synonymous are
concerned. Correlation has to do largely with school
studies, while concentration covers not only
con-elation t h e field of the former term but goes further,
VB. Concen-
tration penetrating the home life of the pupil ; pro-
jecting itself into his sports, his social expe-
riences ; in fact, having to do with the most fundamental
problems of his nature. Once a correlation exists, then
concentration may step in to relate the study, means, and
modes to life interests.
We have alluded to the term unification in an inciden-
tal way only. What is the force, the application, and the
value of the unification of studies, and wherein does it
differ from the correlation idea ?
In continuing the discussion upon the Report of the
Committee of Fifteen, Doctor Emerson E. White, under
the title Isolation and Unification as Bases of Courses of
Study, speaks thus regarding the indefiniteness of our
educational terminology : " One of the first conditions of
the intelligent reading of a work on psy-
SStoito* 7 chology is the determining of the definite
meaning of the terms used by the author. A
common source of disagreement is the use of words by
one party with a larger or smaller content than the other,
io8 STANDARDS IN EDUCATION
and this is true even when these contents contain a
considerable common element." *
" We have an instructive example of this difficulty in
the discussion of the past year over the place and value
of correlation, coordination, and concentration in school
instruction. The discussion has been a Babel of ideas,
if not of tongues, and well-meant attempts to settle the
pedagogical meaning of these terms have only added to
the confusion. After all that has been said, several writ-
ers for the educational journals are using the incongruous
terms coordination and concentration as synonymous. One
of the surprises of the profession was the expressed ex-
pectation that a recent report on the * correlation of stud-
ies ' would be devoted to a discussion of the theory of
concentration." f Doctor White then goes on to say that
his desire to avoid misunderstanding has led him to use
the terms isolation, and unification, as denoting opposite
processes and results. As Dr. White's discussion is based
upon reports dealing with the correlation of studies, it
would seem that he intends the term unification to carry
the same content as the former term correlation.
Studies are unified when two, three, or a half dozen
are so brought together as to form a common
tionidea a branch of study, the facts being so connected
as to produce a rational trend of thought and
the end or purpose to be attained, being a common end.
* Report of the Commissioner of Ediuation^ 1895-96, p. 929; also Pro-
ceedings Department of Superintendence, N. E. A., 1896.
I Report of the Commissioner of Education, 1895-96, p. 930.
T1IR MEANING OF CORRELATION 109
Here the thought of the precedence of one subject over
another has no place, it being possible for instance, for
any one of several studies to be ranked equally, in their
connection. The point is that there is such a fusion of
subject-matter as to unify into a common whole.
" The unification of subjects," says Parker, " takes for
its hypotheses, first, the unity of the human being in de-
sign ; second, the unity of the Creator and His creations ;
and third, that approximating unity of the human being
to his Creator is the sublime destiny of man. ' For He
made man in His own image.' ' He has crowned him
with glory and honor.' Unity of body, mind and soul,
unity of educative effort, unity of action, unity of thought,
and unity of thought and expression are the aims of the
theory of Concentration." * Here, again we come from
the unifying thought, considered from the point of
view of its genesis, to the application of such thought in
the principle of concentration. It would appear that the
terms are really subjective and objective phases, respec-
tively, of our whole educational fabric.
The question of. coordination is bound up in that of
unity. In the unifying of studies, it is conceived by
some, notably by Dr. Harris, that there are certain coor-
dinate groups of studies, as mentioned pre-
Cobrdination viously under correlation. The groups may
and the J
Group idea number five, six, or seven, according as this
or that classification appeals to the indi-
vidual. But being coordinate groups, they are of equal
* Talks on Pedagogics, p. 26.
no STANDARDS IN EDUCATION
merit one with another. These groups have certain
common features and can be brought into definite rela-
tionships, but never upon the basis of precedence of one
group over another. This, of course, is due to the fact
that they differ in their genesis and in their very nature.
Herein lies the chief difference between coordination
and concentration.
Again, the particular subjects going to make up a coor-
dinate group may within themselves have a
correlation correlative relationship. If history, language,
in Coordi- ,
nate Groups and art are contained in one group, language
and art may, for the time being, be subordi-
nated to history ; that is, a correlation may exist among
the three subjects. There can be, however, nothing
but an equal relationship existing between the history
group and that formed by the mathematical studies.
" Complete unification is the blending of all subjects
and branches of study into one whole and the teach-
ing of the same in successive sections." " When this
union is effected by making one group or branch of
study in the course the center or core, and subordinating
all other subjects to it, the process is properly called con-
centration of studies."
The unifying idea touches so closely the thought of
the relative value of studies that our problem
is complicated at this point. No present day
and Relative educator speaks more strongly of a unified
Values
curriculum than does Dr. John Dewey, but
the unity is coupled with the relative values and both have
THE MEANING OF CORRELATION in
their roots in the thought of the child as a social being.
I shall quote from Dr. Dewey to illuminate still further
this unification principle and also to point to the social
basis of correlation. In his Ethical Principles Underlying
Education he says : " A casual glance at pedagogical lit-
erature will show that we are much in need of an ultimate
criterion for the values of studies, and for deciding what
is meant by content value and by form value. At pres-
ent we are apt to have two, three, or even four different
standards set up by which different values as disciplinary,
culture, and information values are measured." * " There
is no conception of any unifying principle. The point
here made is that the extent and way in which a study
brings the pupil to consciousness of his social environ-
ment, and confers upon him the ability to interpret his
own powers from the standpoint of their possibilities in
social use, is this ultimate and unified standard." f
There is nothing within the facts themselves, accord-
ing to Dr. Dewey, to determine that they shall be classed
as history, science, literature and the like. All subjects
have the same office, namely, " the conscious experience
of man."
" It is only because we have different interests or dif-
ferent ends, that we sort out the material and label part
of it science, part history, part geography, and so on.
Each of these subjects represent an arrangement of
* Ethical Principles Underlying Education, p. 18.
t Ethical Principles Underlying Education, p. 18. Quoted on p. 27,
this volume.
112 STANDARDS IN EDUCATION
materials with reference to some one dominant or typical
aim or process of the social life." *
Present methods of school work give an entirely wrong
idea of the relation of studies to each other.
Unit 8 found ^he un ^7 ex isting in the various divisions of
in the indi- geography, is due, not to some external fact,
but rather to an intrinsic, vital principle, an
"attitude of interest in the human mind toward them."
All this does not mean that the various school studies
must be unified and correlated at every point. It indi-
cates simply the value and necessity for so doing where
the proper conditions exist, the philosophy for such pro-
cedure being found in the life, the activities, the social
phases, the very nature of the child himself. " We should
not seek to make a correlation where none exists," says
Mr. James Chamberlain. A forced unity is not unity
at all.
And right here is where the teacher, anxious to be
abreast of the times, desirous of doing for his
o ang rtuni nd P U P^ S tne best possible service, here it is
ties that the teacher so often makes a mistake.
Enough has been said to show that subjects
cannot be correlated simply by trying to teach several
of them at one and the same time. Results under these
conditions are simply absolute failures. When on the
other hand the subject-matter is so closely classified as
to permit the form only of any given study to be taught,
the work is narrow and barren.
* Ethical Principles Underlying Education, p. 19.
'1 HE MEANING OF CORRELATION 113
In the grades where a teacher must instruct in several
subjects, there is much greater opportunity for correlation
than exists in the upper school where departmental work
is carried on and a specialist is responsible for each par-
ticular subject. If the mathematics teacher looks only to
the form of his work, if mathematical data are the Alpha
and Omega of his teaching, he may have a class well
drilled in mathematics ; but if he fails to demand a high
standard of excellence when the pupil is called upon to
express himself, if he receives written papers and exercises
careless in execution and bristling with incorrect forms,
if the papers give evidence of careless or slovenly work, if
he permits this simply because the answer is there, and
his is not the English or the Ethics class, he is missing
one of the best opportunities the school affords for teach-
ing the relation of studies, one to another, and of show-
ing the practical application of the language arts to other
subjects.
In the cooking room we find too frequently no correla-
tion of science with the actual mechanical process in-
volved ; we find cooking only, not domestic science. Here
the student should learn not simply to prepare the food
properly, for this can be learned frequently at home. She
should learn something of the chemistry of foods, the
composition of the raw materials, the physiology of diges-
tion, the effect upon the body of certain foods. And a
score of other lessons should be taught along with that
of how to prepare properly a given dish.
These are only illustrations of the broad truth and
Standards 8
n 4 STANDARDS IN EDUCATION
serve to show that so-called correlation is the only logi-
cal, natural method. It is not desirable, however, nor
would the process be one of correlation, if matter not
germane be dragged in and forced to a place in the study
being pursued. If this were done, we should not sim-
plify, but only obscure from the pupil, the lesson or task.
The philosophy of correlation and unification of studies
is therefore seen to lie in the social side of the child's
life, and the necessity for such unity exists to-day as
never before. The spirit is spreading, industrialism is
vastly more far-reaching than formerly, competition is
keener, specialization is the order of the day, and the ap-
plication of the arts and sciences to the affairs of every-
day life is extremely differentiated.
In the early days the school taught the so-called fun-
damentals. A good general knowledge of
cSSons a arithmetic, the ability to express one's self in
strong AT- speech and with the pen in a passable man-
coeia\i7n ner, the skill to write clearly and legibly, a
general understanding of the geography of
the earth, and the possession of a few of the more im-
portant historical facts, these were the essentials of
school education. In those days there was less necessity
for the unifying of the curriculum than there is now.
With the increase of subjects and the marked tendency
to overcrowd and to make shallow, every effort must be
sought to simplify and unify. In the evolution of society,
children are taken out of touch with things and people.
They should have brought to them in this particular the
THE MEANING OF CORRELATION 115
opportunities possessed by the children of a half-century
ago. Society, properly considered, sets the standards for
social existence. The child himself is the center ; all true
study has a moral basis, and is concerned with the mani-
festation of Divine thought in the universe and in man.
The child, to come to a realization of self, must see
and appreciate the relation of the various school subjects
one to another. He must see also the relation of school
to home, and be able to connect the whole with the great
throbbing, pulsating life about him. The realization of
this condition will be reached through the proper social-
izing or unifying of the curriculum.
THESES
1. The terms correlation, concentration, etc., must not
be used in the abstract, else vague concepts result.
2. Herbart considered school work too scattered, and
advocated a uniform course.
3. Two theories (a) the group idea, and (b) the indi-
vidual subject, as centers.
4. The child is the real center ; the humanistic rather
than the formal studies should be given the chief emphasis.
5. Concentration is more fundamental than correlation ;
unification used by Doctor White in sense of correla-
tion; Parker's thought that unity is the aim of concentra-
tion.
6. A unified course means coordinate groups of stud-
ies and correlation may exist between the various coor-
dinate groups.
n6 STANDARDS IN EDUCATION
7. The relative value of studies is closely related
to unification and both relate to the child as a social
being.
8. The individual furnishes the cause for, and aim in,
correlation, and our present day conditions, social, indus-
trial and otherwise, demand a unifying of the curriculum.
TOPICS FOR STUDY
1. What school studies lend themselves most readily
to correlation ?
2. Is it possible to get the most from the study of a
subject, unless it is pursued distinctly as a subject in
itself ?
3. Is the correlation idea successfully carried out in
the elementary school of to-day ?
4. Can time be saved by bringing two or more sub-
jects together for study ?
5. If the child is the real center, how may we deter-
mine whether teacher, child, or subject-matter shall point
to the method of correlation at any given time ?
6. When arithmetic or science is the subject to be
taught, and hand work is to be correlated, what large
questions must the teacher determine in laying out the
work ?
7. The value of concentration to the business or pro-
fessional man.
8. Outline a lesson in United States history, on the
origin and work of the Hudson Bay Company, with no
consideration for the correlative principle.
7 HE MEANING OF CORRELATION
117
9. What should furnish the basis for determining the
relative value of studies ? Would this standard be the
same for every individual ?
10. Does society consider the facts of everyday life
in an associated sense, or separately ? Are the associa-
tions made after individual study, or vice versa ?
CONSULT
DEWEY Ethical Principles Underlying Education.
School and Society.
GORDY A Broader Elementary Education, chap. 17.
HARRIS Psychologic Foundations.
HERBART Science of Education, p. 123.
HANUS Educational Aims and Educational Values,
chap. i.
PARKER Talks on Pedagogics.
McMuRRY Elements of General Method, p. 98.
WHITE Report of Commissioner of Education, 1895-96,
p. 29.
CHAPTER V
THE BASIS OF ETHICAL TRAINING
PERHAPS no question has been more fully discussed
in the educational world during the past few years than
that of the moral training it should be the duty of the
school to impart. The matter has been taken up by
those representing all fields of educational activity, and
press and platform have agitated, at least, even though
they have not settled the question.
As the thought of the value and the purpose of educa-
tion has grown and expanded, it has become more and
more apparent that moral training should hold a broader
and more permanent place in any plan or scheme of school
instruction, than it has done in the past. With the rapid
commercial and industrial growth in our own country,
a growth unparalleled in the history of forty centuries,
with increased mental requirements and with the broad-
ening and deepening of our social obligations, there
comes also, as a logical result of our many-
forMor2 sided development, an increased demand for
Training finer ethical sensibilities, a necessity for
higher standards in the moral tone of indi-
vidual and community, a thoroughly appreciated need
for clean, honest, respectful, right-minded, reverent boys
118
THE BASIS 01' ETHICAL TRAINING 119
and girls; for tolerant, straightforward, fearless men and
women. Never, I say, has the necessity for this been so
apparent as now, when minds are absorbed by the am-
bition to become possessed of material wealth, when the
struggle for industrial supremacy takes the not always
imaginative shape of a hand to hand encounter, when, in
the hurry and jostle of the never ceasing onward march
of civilization, man is likely to forget the common courte-
sies and civilities he owes his brother and which it is his
duty and privilege to observe. The possibilities for ad-
vancement both from the mental and from the material
side, the freedom for thought and expression in the po-
litical arena and in the religious world, the chances open
for the poorest, least opportunitied boy to become the
master of millions or the leader of a people, these con-
ditions, while giving to us the sturdiest of nations and the
most strenuous men and women, tend too often to pro-
duce citizens less mindful of the rights of others, less
careful of giving the harsh word or of bestowing the un-
kindly act, less considerate for their fellows than for
themselves, less sensitive to loyalty to high ideals and
observance of moral virtues than could be desired.
And while this is true, no one, more than the teacher,
appreciates to the full this too frequent lack
^ e ffm 001 1. n the part of the boy or girl. Aside from
should Teach J
Morals the home influences, nowhere can right les-
sons be taught so well as in the school.
Here the intercourse of pupil with pupil reflects in small
the great throbbing, pulsating world without. Here the
120 STANDARDS IN EDUCATION
boy has duties and obligations; he meets others in friendly
rivalry or in honest cooperation; he must be serious and
sad, happy and cheerful; he is to give and take, to ask
and receive, to compete and assist, to accept and reject; he
must create and destroy, analyze and compare, investigate
and decide, learn and unlearn, and everywhere and always,
hi school and out, unless all that is learned, unless all
that the boy becomes is based upon a sound appreciation
of ethical and moral life and responsibility, the real work
of the school is not accomplished, and failure, not success,
is the reward of the individual and the achievement of
education. A study of the history of education shows
that with early peoples, and following down even to our
own time, what moral instruction was given had a special
place in the program of the school. Among certain
peoples this instruction was purely religious, as in Israel,
and comprehended in fact the education of the day. At
other times and in other places where moral and religious
training received less attention, they were, however,
taught as subjects in themselves, without regard to their
connection with other school subjects, or with the actual
life of the pupil.
In trying to determine the place moral instruction
should occupy in the school, we must again
tiufschooi return to the question: For what does the
school stand? What is education? Since
we have already determined that education is actual, not
seeming, participation in life, that it keeps continually be-
fore the mind the thought of mutual helpfulness and
THE BASIS OF ETHICAL TRAINING 121
mutual sympathy, that it deals with dynamic, not static,
forces, then we must see, if this indeed be education, that
thcTc is a deep and vital connection between intellectual
and moral training, and that the latter is at the base of
any true and sufficient system of school instruction.
This question then presents itself: How shall we pro-
ceed that we may bring about the proper
balance of results in the moral and ethical
life of the pupil? Can this best be done by
setting aside a special time and place in school work for
such teaching, that is, by so arranging the program that
a study of morals will find an intrinsic place in the cur-
riculum ? Let us examine the question.
This plan has been and is being thoroughly tried. It
can no longer be called an experiment. In parochial
schools and in many private institutions in our country
and quite commonly in the schools of England and the
continent, moral instruction, under one or another name,
is included as a regular branch of study. No doubt much
good is accomplished in this way, but the results are any-
thing but satisfactory. The query as to whether a better
plan cannot be proposed finds answer, I believe, in the
native good sense of the vast number of teachers as well
as in the results as shown here and there.
The school courses should be so constructed as to place
the desired principle in the very foundation of all work.
While each lesson shall be a lesson in truth, in morals,
the process is, so far as the pupil is concerned, an uncon-
scious one. He need not be told at the close of each reci-
122 STANDARDS IN EDUCATION
tation that this or that moral point should be carried away,
as was formerly the case when, in a given lesson, the moral
had to be "drawn" at its close. Where the mind is re-
quired to dwell for a considerable period upon the re-
sults of wrongdoing, or upon the rewards and prizes
achieved from the observance of the right, the imma-
ture student is too prone to treat the whole matter as
" preaching," and to think less seriously than he otherwise
would.
Good books have been prepared and excellent sugges-
tions made for the training of the ethical self in this
formal manner, but book instruction here, as in some
other fields of education, seems not to have accomplished
its purpose. The idea has somehow been held that the
ethical life is something apart from the workaday ex-
istence of men, that character and morals appear in the
abstract, that their more subtle development is carried on,
not in connection with, but aside from, that of the mental
and physical life.
In this sense character is conceived as a veneer. Karl
Schmitz says: "The proof of any method or
Part'of/not system is found in the character of the people
Apart from, using it." Character is developed in the be-
Everyday . ?
Life ginning, not so much through conscious
effort on the part of the pupil, as in following
day by day, the good example set by teacher and associate.
"Scarcely any connection exists," says Spencer, "be-
tween morality and the discipline of ordinary teaching.
Mere culture of the intellect (and education as usually
I HE BASIS OF ETHICAL TRAINING 123
conducted amounts to little more) is hardly at all opera-
tive upon conduct. Creeds pasted upon the mind, good
principles learnt by rote, lessons in right and wrong, will
not eradicate vicious propensities; though people in spite
of their experience as parents and citizens, persist in
hoping they will." *
Moral and ethical training, viewed in the light of what
has already been said, assumes a vastly different aspect
than that usually pertaining to it. Looking therefore
toward the desired end, and keeping in mind the conclu-
sions already drawn, the following argument is offered,
an argument not frequently used in this connection.
The moral training of the pupil cannot be brought
about without a thorough regard for discipline; it is not
possible to obtain discipline without attention, and the
latter in turn cannot be had unless there is a deep and
satisfying interest on the part of the pupil, in the subject
in hand.
(a) INTEREST
Ideas are many and varied regarding the part played
by interest in education. The Herbartian conception of
the nature of interest differs widely from that of many.
Herbart asserts that interest is not of a secondary nature,
but fundamental. It is not in the sendee of instruction.
We do not have an interest in order that we may learn;
we learn that an interest may be excited. With Herbart,
interest comes after, not before instruction. An interest
* Social Statics, National Education, p. 173.
124 STANDARDS IN EDUCATION
not only in the school, but one that shall carry over into
all the work of later life is the aim of the school; and this
interest is gained through instruction.
Another view of the nature of interest places it as a
fundamental. Interest is basic. Given the proper con-
ditions, environment, and subject-matter, the pupil will
become interested. Once interest is excited, the mind is
in a condition to receive instruction.
Whatever views we may as individuals hold regarding
the precedence of interest, we must all admit its value.
Many sided interest should be aimed at, an interest
that shall cover not only one phase of the subject, but
such as shall be broad in its scope. This means at the
very beginning the study of concrete things, rather than
the presentation of pure or abstract problems.
ib n stract r The dead materials of the text-book alone
are not sufficient. Doctor William T. Har-
ris in the Report of the Committee of Fifteen says: "The
printed page is the chief means by which the pupil shall
add to his own observation and reflection what has been
observed and thought by men especially gifted in these
things. The pupil shall learn by mastering the text-book
how to master all books, how to use that greatest of in-
struments of culture, the library. In the presence of the
book he can take the sentences, one by one, and reflect
carefully upon the meaning of each word and each sen-
tence."
These statements may be true regarding comparatively
mature minds, they may hold with some degree of exact-
THE BASIS 01 ETHICAL TRAINING 125
mss in the adult world, but Doctor Harris has outlined
an ideal condition. Before the child can run, he must
learn to walk. Before he can fully appreciate and master
the printed page and ponder wisely upon the
^symbols meaning of each word and each sentence,
he must first be interested in those things for
which the words of the printed page are but symbols.
With an interest firmly established, the pupil may go for-
ward to more abstruse ideas and conceptions.
The child is interested naturally in that which makes
for his welfare, in his food, shelter, clothing, playmates.
He is interested in his surroundings, in those portions of
his environment that touch and affect him at his work
and play. Until the child goes to school, he is intensely
interested in the great world of nature. The situations are
real; the man, the animals, the rocks, the fields and the
trees, water and sunshine, marbles and leapfrog, the swim-
ming hole and the toboggan slide, to the child all these
are actual. He finds a use for each and, in a greater or
less degree, appropriates all of them to his own advantage.
He sells papers upon the street and makes the correct
change, although he has never been taught the principles
underlying the fundamental operations or struggled with
fractions. He performs the operations without even ask-
ing himself the reason for the fact, or tracing in logical
order each step in the operation. He plays marbles "for
keeps," and the necessary mathematical processes are
carried on without any wrenching of the mathematical
laws. He wishes to construct a pool sufficiently deep and
126 STANDARDS IN EDUCATION
wide to sail his boat. He scrapes out the soil and throws
a dam across the stream. In all these undertakings he is
interested. How different, however, when he takes him-
self to school! Shakespeare pictures it thus:
Reaisitua- The w hining school boy with his satchel,
tions Differ. ,,. . , . ,.,
ent from and shining morning face, creeping like snail
dittcm^ 00 unwillingly to school." Here is the atmos-
phere likely to be artificial. He must learn
that three and four are seven. No natural desire springs
up within him for this knowledge. Not only must he
learn that three and four are seven, but he must know why
this is so, just as Dodd was expected to tell what it meant
to "lean agin a tree." * No matter if he should discover
a short cut or simplified method of reaching the answer,
he must still trace the never ending sequence in the steps
that have been so carefully thought out for him.
In these things he is likely to find little to attract, and
here lies the suggestion as to the child's natural interests.
See that the proper environment for growth is furnished
and lead the child to grapple with it. Not necessarily
something easy; on the contrary, it may be difficult indeed.
In the beginning, let the situations be real; the needs,
actual, not fancied; the desires, healthy.
Do not understand me to say that nothing to which
he is not at once attracted can be learned by the pupil.
Lessons may be learned, but are not so readily under-
stood or retained in memory. The mind of the child is
not likely to work so understandingly without interest as
* William Hawley Smith : Evolution of Dodd.
THE BASIS OF ETHICAL TRAINING 127
with it; and unless there is a clear understanding, the im-
ages, if they do not entirely fade from the mind, will be
dim or uncertain at best.
It is insisted by some that the child should be led to
do, from time to time, those things in which
riv* 8 n for the he may not be interested, or in which he
study of the may think he has no interest. While it is
Uiiintercst- -11*
^ the unusual that is sometimes necessary to
catch the eye, it is a mistake to continue to
resort to the unusual. In the everyday walks of life the
individual has to do with everyday things; hence, say
they, he must learn to be content with the monotony of
the common place. This he can best learn to do by
drilling while in school, upon what may at the time seem
dull and uninteresting. These school men further as-
sert that if, as some believe, the school is, or should be, a
model society where children are trained for life, or where
life in its many forms actually exists, then it is equally
true that the pupils should be trained to do tasks in the
same way, or after the same manner or pattern as that
followed by their elders. When the pupils take their
places in the grown up world, they will find constantly
that their own good and the good of society demands
that tasks be performed by them, tasks in which they
have no considerable degree of interest. Never to deviate
from the principle that the child may do those things
and those only in which he thinks himself interested, is
to do him an injustice. Hence, they conclude, he grows
selfish, narrow and conceited. He may finally lose con-
128 STANDARDS IN EDUCATION
fidence in himself and in his teacher, and come into dis-
honest habits.
A rational view of the subject of interest is taken by
Professor James when he says: "We have of late been
learning much of the philosophy of tenderness in educa-
tion; ' interest ' must be assiduously awakened in every-
thing, difficulties must be smoothed away. Soft peda-
gogics have taken the place of the old steep and rocky
paths to learning. But from this lukewarm air the brac-
ing oxygen of effort is left out. It is nonsense to suppose
that every step in education can be interesting. The
fighting impulse must often be appealed to. Make the
pupil feel ashamed of being scared at fractions, or being
'downed' by the law of falling bodies; rouse his pugnacity
and pride and he will rush at difficult places with a sort
of inner wrath at himself that is one of his best moral
faculties. A victory scored under such conditions becomes
a turning-point and crisis of his character." *
Many insist that the play spirit is entirely too common
to-day in education. The claim is made that
Tasifno? m order to interest our pupils more readily,
Necessarily we are making play of all the more serious
ingonf 6 duties f the Sch L If this be true > and T
doubt not it may be in some quarters, no
sympathy is expressed here for such existing condition.
To interest the pupil does not at all mean that tasks are
to be made simple and easy.
True interest, however, where the child mind is con-
* Talks to Teachers, pp. 54-55.
THE BASIS OF 1 TIIICAL TRAINING 129
cerned, does not lie in the direction of the hidden mean-
ing, the abstract symbol, the artificial catch word; it finds
its source in things at hand, in the facts and forces of
tin- environment which can be used, appropriated, and
modified to serve useful ends; in the circumstances, the
people, the events, the materials which find a response in
the life of the individual, and which in turn help the in-
dividual to find himself. This does not mean
The Teacher tnat wc must re j y wno lly upon the child to
is not
ignored determine his actual interests. He is to be
carefully watched and guarded, the lines of
his dominant interests must be studied, and in turn di-
rected, as seems for his best development. From time to
time these dominant interests change and these changes
the teacher must carefully note and study, for through
them will he be enabled to approach close to the child,
to gain his confidence, learn his likes and dislikes, his
strengths and weaknesses, his traits of char-
onolrnhfant aCtCI> 5 tnrou g h them he must hel P him to
interest the learn how to overcome acquired evil tend-
Any encies, to counteract wrong teaching of the
home or street, or to supplement the benefi-
cial home training. By study and understanding and by
allowing for the pupil's interests, we have one of the best
avenues open for moral training. By ignoring this fact
we drive from school many who would otherwise remain.
(6) ATTENTION
The second point to be noted is that of attention. At-
Standards 9
130 STANDARDS IN EDUCATION
tention may be discussed under a variety of forms and in
a varied terminology. For our purpose, however, only
two forms may be noted: voluntary attention, or that
form gained through an effort of the will, and involuntary
attention, or that gained through little or no will action.
These two types would conform to the effort vs. the in-
terest phases as discussed by Doctor Dewey. With a
many-sided interest in any lesson or task, comes a spon-
taneous or involuntary form of attention. The untrained
mind of the child is not sufficiently strong to give attention
through the centering of the will. The study matter must
be so arranged as to claim the attention without excessive
volition or will power.
The close relation that interest bears to involuntary,
or spontaneous, attention is at once under-
may beg?ven stood A11 those wh have to d with children
without know how necessary it is that the attention
be directed to the subject or lesson, if results
are to be achieved. They know, too, how difficult it is
to secure for more than a short period at most, the close,
undivided attention of the pupil, and that the more im-
mature the pupil the greater the necessity that his interest
be awakened, in order to claim better the attention. Let
the teacher note how spontaneous and natural is the at-
tention of the pupil while at play. In his games, no ar-
tificial means are necessary to concentrate the attention.
In the various activities, in building up and in tearing
down, in carrying on in small the occupations of the real
life about him, in these the child has complete interest.
THE BASIS OF ETHICAL TRAINING 131
\Vlu-n, however, the teacher finds she must call upon the
class to attend, when she must beg and entreat, threaten
and command, then must the fault lie without, not within
the pupil, and then will the attention, given under such
circumstances, be superficial rather than actual.
Here the course of study steps in to play its part. Our
chief concern must be so to shape the work that it shall
appeal to the individual mind. The danger lies in two
directions. The work must not be over difficult, else the
pupil, unable to grasp and comprehend, will find no mag-
net to draw the attention. Neither must the lessons be
so simple as to call for no mental reaction, for then will
there appear no necessity for attention. At this point the
principle of apperception comes to our aid, for with a
previous knowledge of some or all of the points involved,
the mind at once reaches out, attends. The known in
the old seeks to lay hold of the knowable in the new;
likenesses and differences are noted and the pupil has won
the battle for himself.
It is not claimed by all, however, that this form of at-
tention is the highest in the scale of mental development,
and it should only be used, they affirm, as a stepping-stone
to the deeper and more vital form of volun-
ctows hito 7 tarv attention. The purpose should be so
thevoiun- to train the mind that unconsciously the will
taryForm . ,
is more and more brought into play; otherwise,
the mental machinery becomes as flabby as an unused
muscle and the entire mind attitude will be a succession
of indecisions.
132 STANDARDS IN EDUCATION
An excellent illustration of this view is given in Mr.
Westcott's David Harum, where Mr. Carling, having
found to his dismay that he has dressed with one russet
shoe and one black one, proceeds to argue the question.
"First he was in favor of the black shoes as being thicker
in the sole, and then he reflected that they hadn't been
blackened since coming on board. It seemed to him that
the russets were more appropriate any way, but the blacks
were easier to lace. Had I noticed whether the men on
board were wearing russet or black, as a rule, and did
Alice remember whether it was one of the russets or one
of the blacks that he was saying the other day pinched his
toe? He didn't quite like the looks of the russet shoe
with dark trousers, and called us to witness that those
he had on were dark; but he thought he remembered
that it was the black shoe which pinched him. He sup-
posed he could change his trousers and so on, and so on."
There is one danger, too, of exacting the attention
when, with the young pupils, the subject
mayieadto or metn d of presentation is beyond them, or
instability uninteresting. A habit of desultory oscilla-
ofMind . J
Attitude tion, of wavering backward and forward, a
dreamy, half-hearted attention is encouraged,
and thus makes more difficult the securing of the volun-
tary form. In other words, the teacher should train, de-
velop, and educate into the latter. Voluntary attention
suggests at once the idea of concentration. Much has
been written upon the importance of concentration to
the learner, yet the last word has not been said. Prop-
THE BASIS OF ETHICAL TRAINING 133
eriy to attend, the mind must be directed toward, and
tied fast to, the object, the thing, the lesson. The wander-
ing mind becomes a vagabond. If the work is not such
as to compel the mind to concentrate, to give attention,
then it becomes sluggish and lazy. To be voluntarily
alive leads to alertness, to spontaneity and development.
Then not only are positive lessons learned through the
giving of attention, but the mind being centered upon
the lesson or task, is not engaged in some less profitable
occupation, is not concerned with those things that work
contrary to the moral well-being.
(c) DISCIPLINE
Granted now that interest and attention are gained,
the third point, that of discipline, will take care of itself.
It will certainly be present if the proper mental attitude
has been assumed by the pupils. The matter of disci-
pline is, in itself, a serious problem. Among a number
of teachers each holding the same view as to its value in
school work, there may be a wide difference of opinion as
to what constitutes good discipline.
It is a mistake to suppose that adherence to military
rule denotes a high standard of discipline. The calmest
and quietest pupils, may, in fact, be giving the minimum
of attention. What I wish to say is this: the outward
appearance and attitude of the pupil usually is, but may
not always be, indicative of attention to the work in hand
or of adherence to discipline. Frequently are pupils found
who, through physical disability, perhaps, are unable to
I 3 4 STANDARDS IN EDUCATION
hold themselves to the outward forms of attention, but
will upon examination show themselves thoroughly alive
to the lesson or the task. On the other hand, the teacher
will many times find that those who appear to be giving
marked attention are really wool gathering, and must be
recalled to the present.
One illustration will suffice, as parallels will be found
in the experience of every teacher. The
Outward writer recalls that in a certain class, one boy
Marks of . . , ... -, , -
Discipline m particular seemingly gave the closest of
attention, his attitude at all times being above
question. Almost invariably, however, was his mind upon
something other than his lesson. Seldom were his thoughts
centered, as would seem to be the case judging from his
bodily attitude. In the same class a boy of nervous
temperament and apparently undisciplined, and one who
would have been picked out as of a mind-wandering, care-
less, inattentive disposition, was one of the ready pupils
in the group. Of a sensitive and nervous disposition, he
would leave his seat, stand, and face around in the aisle,
but when a question or a request for an expression came
to him, he was seldom found wanting.
Aristophanes in his Clouds says:
"I prepare myself to speak
Of manners primitive and that good time
Which I have seen, when discipline prevailed,
And modesty was sanctioned by the laws.
No babbling then was suffered in the school;
The scholar's text was silence. The whole group
In orderly procession sallied forth
Right onward without straggling
THE BASIS OF ETHICAL TRAINING 135
To attend their teacher in harmonics.
Though the snow fell on them thick as meal, the hardy brood
Breasted the storm uncloaked. Their harps were strung
Not to ignoble strains, for they were taught
A loftier key, whether to chant the name
Of Pallas terrible amid the blaze
Of cities overthrown; or wide and far to spread,
As custom was, the echoing peal."
From our modern educational standpoint, the quotation
indicates another and perhaps a more extreme view. We
find too frequently such a lack of discipline and obedience
as leads to entire irreverence for right or for the welfare
of others. Too often, I say, do we find the pupil's educa-
tion in this direction such as to run counter to the laws
of society.
It happens not infrequently that one pupil in a class is
the cause of more anxiety and thought on the
Refractory P ar ^- ^ * ne t eacner > than are all other mem-
Pupiionthe bers of the class combined. The insistence
Right Side
of the one upon doing as he pleases without
consideration for his associates, or regard for suggestion
from the teacher, tends to produce a school lacking in the
best kind of discipline and leads the individual on to an
utter disregard for moral obligation and right living.
It is here that the tact of the teacher must be shown.
Moralizing, imploring or threatening will seldom be
sufficient to conquer the difficulty, and in all likelihood
will do harm rather than good. Neither should the
teacher resort to that method so frequently advocated,
of striving to have the pupil do right for the teacher's
sake, or to please the latter. Let the teacher find some
136 STANDARDS IN EDUCATION
dominant interest of the refractory pupil; let him study
this and invent some means of directing this interest into
proper channels. There is no pupil so careless, so in-
attentive, so disobedient, as not to be amenable to dis-
cipline, if he is thoroughly understood and properly
handled. In this connection Spencer says, "Do but gain
a boy's trust; convince him by your behavior that you
have his happiness at heart; let him discover that you
are the wiser of the two; let him experience the benefits
of following your advice and the evils that arise from
disregarding it; and fear not you will readily enough
guide him." *
Obedience must be had; and this obedience should be
carried over into the realm of choice. Care-
Obedience lessness and dishonesty follow disobedience;
must become '
Choice truthfulness and self-reliance will grow out
of obedience. The child must be guided to
that point where choice shall determine that he will be on
the side of honesty, of right, and of justice.
To accomplish this in the school is certainly no mean
task. Shall the child be obedient simply because the
teacher says he must? Shall obstacles be thrown in the
way and the educational path filled with underbrush in
order that the pupil may select the right and thus gain
strength of character? He must learn to do right for the
sake of right; he must choose the best because he can be
content with nothing less; he must look upon honest ac-
tion and straightforward dealing, not as a namby-pamby
* Social Statics, " The Rights of Children," pp. 85-86.
7 '///: HASIS OF ETHICAL TRAINING 137
conception, but as the only avenue through which he can
keep his own self-respect, or merit the appreciation of
others. He must be willing to be right at the expense of
standing alone.
That discipline and obedience are often lacking, is
forcefully portrayed by Mr. Elbert Hubbard.
^e says: " No man has endeavored to carry
Difficult to ou t an enterprise where many hands were
needed, but has been well-nigh appalled at
times by the imbecility of the average man the inability
or unwillingness to concentrate on a thing and do it.
Slipshod assistance, foolish inattention, dowdy indiffer-
ence, and half-hearted work seem to rule; and no man
succeeds, unless by hook or crook, or threat, he forces
or bribes other men to assist him; or mayhap, God in his
Goodness, performs a miracle, and sends him an Angel of
Light for an assistant. You, reader, put this matter to a
test: You are sitting now in your office six clerks are
within call. Summon any one and make this request:
' Please look in the encyclopedia and make a brief memo-
randum for me concerning the life of Correggio.' Will
the clerk quietly say, 'Yes, sir,' and go and do the task?
" On your life he will not. He will look at you out of a
fishy eye, and ask one or more of the following questions:
" 'Who was he?
" 'Which encyclopedia?
" 'Where is the encyclopedia?
" 'Was I hired for that?
" 'Don't you mean Bismarck?
138 STANDARDS IN EDUCATION
" 'What's the matter with Charlie doing it?
" 'Is he dead?
" 'Is there any hurry?
" 'Shan't I bring the book and let you look it up your-
self?
" ' What do you want to know for ? '
"And I will lay you ten to one that after you have
answered the questions, and explained how to find the
information, and why you want it, the clerk will go off
and get one of the other clerks to help him to try to find
Garcia and then come back and tell you there is no
such man. Of course I may lose my bet, but according
to the Law of Average, I will not." *
One would rarely speak in too forceful terms of the
bearing of obedience upon moral character. He who has
himself learned to obey can lead others to learn the same
lesson. "Servants, obey your masters," is a wise adage.
Before one can be a good leader he must first learn to
serve. Disobedience in little things leads finally to acute
difficulties. The teacher must use judgment
Make Rea- and suggest nothing to be done that is not
entirely just and reasonable, and within the
range of possibility. Having made a sugges-
piied with tion, which under ordinary conditions should
be all that is necessary (and under ordinary
conditions also, the suggestion should be made only once),
he must see to it that it is followed to the letter. "Pre-
cepts often heard and little regarded, lose by repetition the
* A Message to Garcia.
are
THE BASIS OF ETHICAL TRAINING 139
small influence they had." * A ready and cheerful re-
sponse on the part of the pupils, to rational suggestions
and requirements will go far toward training in right
habits of obedience and in laying the foundation of moral
character.
It is quite clear that there is not only a close relation
existing between school discipline and moral education,
but in certain of their phases they touch and overlap,
becoming one and the same principle.
"There are four cardinal rules which relate directly
to school discipline," says Doctor Harris.
wSSET " The child must be re S ular and P unctual >
piine silent and industrious." Moral training is
character training, and discipline has a great
part to perform in the formation of character. "Char-
acter," says Novalis, "is the completely rounded will."
The moral status of the individual must be such as to
fit him to perform willingly and cheerfully two classes of
duties: those relating to his own welfare and those touch-
ing the well-being of others. Broadly speaking, there is
no clash between these two sets of duties. What is really
best for the individual is best for society; and
Relation of conversely, what is for the best interests of
Individual to /'
society society is most fitting for the individual.
This must be so since society places the
standard for moral action, f In learning the twofold les-
son of self-reliance and mutual helpfulness, an altruistic
* Spencer : The Study of Sociology, chap. 15, p. 366.
t See this volume, p. 24.
140 STANDARDS IN EDUCATION
spirit is developed in the pupil. He gains that character
which is "in general uniformity and fixedness of the whole
of will."
Herbart says: "Children have at first no real moral
character. It arises gradually and begins
Moral char- w hen here and there single moral volitions
acterofthe . . ..
Child arise from the union of similar acts of will.
These more general determinations of will
action, which through the apperception begin to accept or
reject the new will actions, form the beginning of the sub-
jective side or subjective foundations of character; over
against this stands the objective past, or the single will
act which results from a manifold of desires. The sub-
jective part of character is that which determines; the ob-
jective part is that which is determined."
Moral education, like all other education deserving the
name, is not a certain knowledge; but it is
a training in the moral life the practice of
Moral Edu- morality; it is the entering upon a good, up-
right and useful life. "Moral education be-
gins in infancy; and is affected, influenced, continued by
everything that the eyes see, that the ears hear, that the
hands touch and handle and by all the thoughts that are
awakened in the child's mind by what is seen by it, or
said or done in its presence. Therefore moral education
is effected chiefly through the child's most constant asso-
ciations. Those with whom the child spends most time,
have most to do with his moral training, whether it is the
pupils in the school, the workmen who are building the
-JIU-: /mv.v 0* ETHICAL / i 4I
house next door, the men who take care of the horses in
the stable, the teacher in the school, or the family in the
home." "I count it as one of the most hurtful delusions
upon this subject of moral training to sup-
pose that any great effect can be produced by
what is said to the child, or what the child
studies out of a book, in regard to the prin-
ciples of morality. These methods are useful and have
their place no doubt; but the great effect is produced by
the sum total of the associations of the developing mind.
What is done in the presence of pupils in school will stand
for more than what is said to them, or what the book or
page says to them."
Says Doctor Dewey in speaking of the school, "The de-
mand is for social intelligence, social power,
The school social interests. Our resources are, (i) the
as a Moral
Agent life of the school as a social institution in
itself; (2) methods of learning and doing work,
and (3) the school studies or curriculum. In so far as the
school represents, in its own spirit, a genuine community
life; in so far as what are called school discipline, gov-
ernment, order, etc., are the expressions of this inherent
social spirit; in so far as the methods used are those which
appeal to the active and constructive powers, permitting
the child to give out, and thus to serve; in so far as the
curriculum is so selected and organized as to provide the
material for affording the child a consciousness of the
world in which he has to play a part, and the relations he
has to meet; in so far as these ends are met, the school is
142 STANDARDS IN EDUCATION
organized on an ethical basis. So far as general princi-
ples are concerned, all the basic ethical requirements are
met. The rest remains between the individual teacher
and the individual child." *
But after all there is an abnormal tendency to eliminate
from the school any suggestion of religious instruction.
In many localities the use of the Bible is prohibited to the
schools, legislation having been enacted to forbid reading
of the Scriptures. Discrimination is not made between
religious and moral instruction upon the one hand, and
sectarian teaching upon the other. No teacher should be
denied the use of any book, the teachings of which go to
strengthen the moral fiber of the individual. If religion
is necessary to develop the moral tone of the school, no
hand should be laid upon the teacher who brings to his
aid the Bible. Denominational and doctrinal teachings
should, of course, have no place.
The words of President Butler are significant; he says:
u The religious element may not be permitted to pass
wholly out of education, unless we are to cripple it and
render it hopelessly incomplete. . . . It is enough to
point out that the religious element of human culture is
essential; and that, by some effective agency, it must be
presented to every child whose education aims at com-
pleteness or proportion." f
Strange it is indeed that in the evolution of the school
* Ethical Principles Underlying Education, p. 26 ; quoted in part on
P- 54-
t The Meaning of Education, pp. 30-31,
THE BASIS OF ETHICAL TRAINING 143
we should pass from a time in which the teaching of so-
called religion was the principal excuse for its existence,
to the present, when the very word religion is eliminated
from the phraseology of the teacher. Even as a book of
literary worth we are fast doing away with the Bible in
school, and we seem fearful of drawing upon its pages
for lessons in moral and religious instruction. Are we to
lose sight of the lessons to be drawn from the life of the
Great Teacher? Other great lives we study for the in-
spiration, and enthusiasm, and moral strength they give
us. Shall that life be ignored which, simple in its sim-
plicity and human in its humanity, gives us out of a few
short years such experiences, parables and moral lessons
as to cause Him to be remembered through nineteen cen-
turies of war and turmoil and change and development?
The strong words of Professor Jackman are in point:
"Unless," he says, "we can pursuade ourselves that
present day graft is an allegory, we need the Bible chiefly
for neither its fables nor its myths, but for its straight-
out-from-the-shoulder teachings that Jesus and the
prophets leveled toward the evils of their day. There-
fore, along with the piety of the heathen philosopher, I
would see practically worked into every year of school
life, and all the years thereafter, the plain and simple, the
beautiful and understandable, teachings of Christ. If
that means teaching religion, then teach it; if it means
bringing the Bible into the public school, bring it in; with
all sincerity, candor, and earnestness, fetch it in." *
* Elementary School Teacher, vol. vi, pp. 435-436.
144 STANDARDS IN EDUCATION
The part that the emotions play in moral instruction
should ever be kept before the mind. A moral attitude can-
not be driven or drilled into the child; the ground must be
prepared and the mind receptive. It is not the intellectual,
but the emotional, side of human nature that causes us
to start and thrill at the sound of the national anthem.
Herbert Spencer, in discussing national education, has
this to say: "Whatever moral benefit can be effected by
education, must be effected by an education which is
emotional rather than intellectual. If in the place of
making a child understand that this thing is right and
the other wrong, you make it feel that they are so if
you make virtue loved and vice loathed if you arouse a
noble desire, and make torpid an inferior one if you
bring into life a previously dormant sentiment if you
cause a sympathetic impulse to get the better of one that
is selfish if, in short, you produce a state of mind to
which proper behavior is natural, spontaneous, instinctive,
you do some good. But no drilling in catechisms, no
teaching of moral codes, can effect this." *
Finally, the purpose of our school work in the cultiva-
tion of moral standards on the part of the pupil is to help
each one to see and appreciate his duty to himself and to
see and appreciate the place he should occupy as regards
his fellows.
* Social Statics, pp. 175-176.
THE BASIS 01- I'.TIIICAL TRAINING 145
THESES
1. There is great need for an advance in moral stand-
ards, both public and private.
2. Moral training in the early schools and under for-
mer systems took the form of religious instruction.
3. " Education is life." The purpose of the school is
to train all the powers; the pupil must become master of
himself on his physical, mental, and moral sides.
4. Moral training can best be brought about through
a thorough regard for discipline, which is based largely
upon and determined by the degree of attention given.
Attention can be secured only as there is a deep and
satisfying interest promoting it.
5. Interest must be "many sided." The study of the
concrete form is essential. The unusual should not be
resorted to, and pupils must be led to do those things in
which they may have little interest; otherwise they may
become one-sided, selfish, and unmindful of the rights of
others.
6. Voluntary attention should grow out of the invol-
untary form; and this may be accomplished largely by
means of properly graded subject-matter.
7. Discipline as a problem will be minimized if atten-
tion and interest are secured. The suggestion of the
teacher must be implicitly followed. The pupil who is
not taught to obey cannot be expected to claim obedience
from others. Obedience should in time be carried over
into the realm of choice.
Standards 10
146 STANDARDS IN EDUCATION
8. Since it is so largely upon obedience that the moral
life of the individual depends, regularity, punctuality
and courtesy should be insisted upon. The principles of
morality are not gained from a book or from the spoken
word simply, but from the unconscious influences; the
sum total of the associations of the developing mind.
What is done stands for more than what is said.
TOPICS FOR STUDY
1. The school as a moral institution.
2. The use of the Bible in the school; shall it be used
for its literary and historic values only ?
3. Has the church or parochial school a higher moral
standard than the public school ? Does it succeed better
than the public school in living up to its ideal ?
4. Consider fully the tests of moral standards in edu-
cation.
5. Are some school studies more ethical in their char-
acter than are others?
6. Is it more difficult to interest pupils in a study of
morals than in other subjects ?
7. How may the study of strong moral characters, such
as Lincoln and Garrison, be made most valuable?
8. Are girls, or boys, the more amenable to discipline?
9. Is the moral tone of the community where the study
of morals has a place in the school, higher than it is else-
where ?
10. The school surroundings and moral training.
Which plays the greater part, environment or heredity ?
THE BASIS OF ETHICAL TRAINING 147
11. The relation of teacher to parent in matters of
morals and of discipline.
12. Devotional exercises in the school. Should the
pupils take active part and if so, how? What is the
value of responsive reading? Discuss the advisability of
having the whole school assemble together for general
exercises.
13. Study the question of discipline in the several
grades of the elementary school. Are teachers agreed that
there are certain years or grades in which the problem is
a particularly troublesome one?
14. Recall a number of groups of children of various
ages and determine whether the attention generally given
is of a voluntary or involuntary nature, or whether with
any given individual the attention is now of one form and
now of another.
15. Make a list of those studies or subjects in which you
now have most interest. Were you interested chiefly in
these subjects in your elementary school days? Can
you recall what were the causes that tended to make a
given study interesting ?
Was there a change in this respect, the interesting study
of a given year becoming the uninteresting one of a suc-
ceeding year and vice versa? Account for this.
Apply the same tests as above suggested for school
studies, to matters or subjects entirely without the range
of the school.
148
STANDARDS IN EDUCATION
CONSULT
ADAMS Relation of the School Studies to Moral Train-
ing. Third Yearbook, National Herbart So-
ciety, p. 73.
BRUMBAUGH The Making of a Teacher, pp. 25-37; 250-261.
BUTLER Meaning of Education, particularly pp. 28-31.
COOLEY Human Nature and the Social Order, chaps. 2 &
12.
DE GARMO Social Aspects of Moral Education. Third
Yearbook, National Herbart Society, p. 35.
DEWEY Ethical Principles Underlying Education. Third
Yearbook, National Herbart Society, p. 75.
School and Society.
HALL Moral Education and Will Training, Pedagog-
ical Seminary, vol. n, pp. 72-89.
HARRIS Report of the Committee of Fifteen The Re-
lation of School Discipline to Moral Educa-
tion. Third Yearbook, National Herbart
" Society, p. 58.
HERBART Science of Education, pp. 110-120; 200-252.
JACKMAN Elementary School Teacher, vol. 6, pp. 431-437.
CALL Present Notions about Ethical Instruction in
our Public Schools, 75th Annual Proceedings,
American Institute of Instruction, pp. 61-88.
MAcCuNN The Making of Character, chap. 6.
McMuRRY Elements of General Method, chap. 3.
PARKER Talks on Pedagogics, chaps. 6 & 14.
SADLER Report on Moral Education in American
Schools with Special Reference to the For-
mation of Character.
THORNDIKE Notes on Child Study, chap. 16.
CHAPTER VI
THE SIGNIFICANCE OF HABIT
HABIT may be defined in terms of character. Cul-
ture comes through character, and when
true culture is developed in the schoolroom,
Element in character is being formed. But this culture
Character
or character is to come as right habits are
rooted and mirrored in action.
Habits, good or bad, are being formed continually. It
is a commonplace, but one of which we need
constantly to remind ourselves, that a thing
Acquiring once done, an act once accomplished, tends
Habits
always to develop a desire to repeat that ac-
tivity. The act or deed accompanied by painful sensa-
tions may be more readily inhibited than the one followed
by feelings of pleasure or joy. The sensation that ac-
companies the placing of the fingers in the cogs of a
wheel may be such as to prevent a repetition of the act
and the formation of the habit of tampering with cogs;
and thus a restraining habit may be formed. In a more
purely mental connection, the field and force of habit
is easily appreciated. The thing once done tends to be
repeated, and whether physical or mental, the attempt
is made to explain this from the pathological standpoint.
149
150 STANDARDS IN EDUCATION
The doing of the thing, the thought process, or the framing
of an idea, has as its resultant in consciousness
rmt-fThetry the wearing of a path or the blazing of a trail
through the brain. Just as a pioneer, thread-
ing his way through the forest, blazes the trees, that he
may leave a path by which to retrace his steps, or as the
vanguard of the engineering corps marks the landscape,
so are paths made in the brain. When an act is performed
for the first time, sign posts are set up, which invite and
impel a repetition. The line of least resistance is over
a traveled path rather than through an undiscovered
region.
All recent authorities on the psychology of habit are
wont to ascribe to the mental phase a physi-
The Mental ca j counterpart, and to show the relation be-
and Physical r
A Parallel tween habit in the material world and in the
realm of mentality. Every schoolboy knows
how disagreeable it is to have a shoe " run over." For
some reason one side of the shoe is subjected to more
pressure than the other, and before the indi-
vidual is aware, he is walking upon the side
Physical rather than the bottom of the shoe. The
turning habit in the shoe has been formed,
subsequent wrinkles and creases appearing in the same
spots where they first occurred. No end of trouble and
annoyance is thus occasioned before a normal condition
is reached ; and perhaps the fault is never remedied.
Another common illustration of the same principle :
as you drive, you perceive that a rein has become twisted.
'////<; SIGNIFICANCE OF HABIT 151
This may have been brought about by twisting or doubling
the rein when removing the harness on a previous occa-
sion. Being now used again, it tenaciously holds to the
twist, that is, the habit has developed, it being easier for
the leather to fall into an improper shape than to act the
part expected of it.
The acquiring of a habit may be likened to the making
of a chain. The links are made separately, joined to-
gether one by one, until the complete chain is formed.
Each repetition of an act is a link in the chain of habit
and soon will become part of the life of the individual.
But while habit is thus built up gradually and logic-
ally, release from a habit does not come
Building up readily through the reverse process. The
vs. Tearing
down sure way is not to break the links one by
one, to stop by degrees, to "taper off." In
rare instances this method may bring results, but the
way to stop is to stop. Under the great law governing
education, the little by little process must, perforce, be
used in acquiring knowledge. To break successfully
with a habit, however, we must break now, here, at once
and completely.
You want your pupils to acquire the habit of standing
straight, of holding the bodies erect ; you want them to
enunciate clearly and to write legibly ; you
Acquired desire that they should be clean and neat in
Through personal appearance and methodical in their
manner of doing things ; you demand that
equity and helpfulness prevail among the classes ; you
152 STANDARDS IN EDUCATION
see the necessity for punctuality and regularity in at-
tendance ; and you insist that nature as well as books be
studied. To get into the habit of standing erect, the
pupil must stand erect ; distinct speech comes habitually
through clear enunciation ; a legible hand is the result
of practice that has formed the habit ; to be always neat
and tidy means constant care in this regard ; proper
methods, appreciation of the rights of others, the virtue
of being on time and the love of nature and of books,
these all come through habits formed and made a part
of our mental machinery.
Consider now the reverse order of things, the draw-
ing away from harmful practices and wrong attitudes.
Here again habit has played its part. The
Relation of word or deed you deprecate belongs more and
the Difficulty
in Breaking more to the individual as the practice goes on.
Frequency Habit is becoming stronger and stronger,
and Length The more frequent the performance of the
of Perform-
ance act the more secure becomes the grip of the
habit Looked at from the standpoint of
the school, the teacher now has a double task. With a
free field a desirable habit may be inculcated with com-
parative ease ; but when a new habit must take the
place of an old one, then the latter must be
More Diffi-
culty to given battle and routed before the former
ow Habit? can occu Py the ground. Thus the difficulties
than to ES- are increased. This helping to break up old
tablish New
habits and to establish new ones is by no
means the least duty that falls to the teacher.
THE SIGNIFICANCE OF HABIT 153
If, then, a pernicious habit is to be eradicated, if the
pupil does not use grammatical forms or indulges in un-
becoming language, if he is selfish or stubborn or lazy,
if he reads harmful literature or is being injured by his
fondness for tobacco, if he " cuts " school or cheats in
his lesson or is otherwise untruthful, he has these habits
to wipe out before those representing opposite tendencies
can be substituted. He must eradicate the evil by sub-
stituting the good.
Perhaps the greatest aid to one endeavoring to cure
himself of a bad habit is to keep free from that which
prompts it. The tendency toward subsequent action be-
ing so strong, as already shown, it is unwise to stand in
the way of temptation. The longer time that can elapse
before the subsequent repetition of a wrong habit, the
greater likelihood of its complete inhibition. On the
other hand, a habit to be fixed demands repetition many
times in one form or another. To repeat, to review, to
recapitulate, to turn again to the question, all these un-
der proper conditions, will tend toward habit formation.
Professor James,* in discussing Professor Bain's max-
ims on " The Moral Habits," deduces two principles of
chief importance. Briefly stated they are,
F^Stef* first the grater the impetus and determina-
tion with which we throw ourselves into the
current, the more readily will we acquire a new habit
or divorce ourselves from the old ; and second, be cer-
* Psychology, Briefer Course, p. 145; Principles of Psychology, vol. I,
p. 122.
154 STANDARDS IN EDUCATION
tain the habit is a part of you before you allow a chance
exception to come upon the stage. To these maxims
Professor James adds the suggestion that a resolution
once made, no opportunity should be allowed to pass or
any emotion to die, without acting toward the desired
end, that the habit may be established.
Action in one or another direction is always essential,
and particularly when a habit is to be broken, or when
one looks for a means to keep the mind from dwelling
upon the undesirable. If the pupil is so interested and
occupied as to rivet his attention upon that
which is best and highest, he may soon be
^ en ti re ty to forego former practices or
tendencies. If the mind is allowed to dwell,
or focus itself, upon the old habit, it will be an almost
hopeless task to break away from a fixed tendency.
Care must be exercised that the pupil is never idle.
Mind and body should be kept occupied ; and in the
fulfillment of this necessity is to be seen one of the
great benefits of industrial education. The mind is
occupied with the work that the hands are doing, and
every reformatory as well as every school of industry
stands as an example of the value of concentrated em-
ployment.
Teach the lesson of the significance of habit. En-
deavor to inculcate in your pupils the desire for right
habits and the inhibition of bad ones ; and do this even
at the expense of skipping a few pages in the book. Lead
them to understand that in business or pleasure, in school
THE SIGNIFICANCE OF HABIT 155
or out, in whatever rank or station, trade or profession,
he only is successful who has subdued or kept down un-
desirable habits and who has in large measure acquired
habits of worth.
THESES
1. Character is formed and determined by the num-
ber and quality of one's habits.
2. The mind is acquiring habits constantly, and the
more frequently an act is performed the greater likeli-
hood of its repetition and of a fixed habit resulting.
3. The pathological, or line of least resistance theory,
and its parallel in the material world.
4. Habit-forming vs. habit-breaking, easier to make
than to mend.
5. To acquire a desirable habit, launch yourself with
energy and determination, beware of imitations or excep-
tions, and take advantage of every opportunity offered to
clinch the habit.
TOPICS FOR STUDY
1. Before the child enters school, certain character-
istic habits are partially or wholly formed. What are
the chief ones that the teacher must endeavor to have
eliminated ?
2. Should the business of the school be the presenting
of material such as to form new habits, break bad ones,
or develop those already maturing ?
3. Give illustrations of the force and tenacity of habit
156 STANDARDS IN EDUCATION
as shown in the lives and work of those beyond middle
life.
4. There are dangers that may arise from carrying a
wholesome and useful habit too far. What are they, and
under what conditions does the statement hold ?
5. Make a list of injurious habits (of which the follow-
ing are typical), such as the teacher has usually to con-
tend with in school. Do these same habits exhibit them-
selves in adults in later life ? Whispering, inattention,
absence, tardiness, lying, stealing, smoking ; how would
you proceed in your crusade against these obstacles to
educational growth ?
6. Consider the place of corporal punishment in habit-
breaking.
7. Compare the value of the use of high moral stand-
ards as object lessons to be copied, and of illustrations
drawn from the lower levels of life, the failures, to
be avoided.
8. What relation does the term habit bear to automatic
action and to second nature ?
9. Under what conditions, if ever, should a trouble-
some habit be lopped off by degrees instead of being
broken with instantly ?
10. The great value of proper habit-forming and the
dangers from evil habits should be put before school chil-
dren. Just how far should such discussion go and what
form should this instruction take ?
1 1. Compare habit-forming in man with instinct-form-
ing in animals.
THE SIGNIFICANCE OF HABIT
157
12. At what age do you find children most likely to
inhibit bad habits and form good ones ?
13. Read the chapter on habit in James's Psychology
and write a page on the meaning of habit in education.
14. Investigate the biological view of habit and write
a clear statement of this conception.
CONSULT
ANGEL Psychology, pp. 51-63.
BOWNE Introduction to Psychological Theory, pp. 301-
3 o6.
BRYAN The Basis of Practical Teaching, chap. 5.
HALLECK Education of the Central Nervous System,
pp. 222-237.
HAMILTON Mental Science, pp. 191-194.
HORNE Psychological Principles of Education, chap. 26.
JAMES Psychology, Briefer Course, chap. 10.
Principles of Psychology.
Talks to Teachers.
ROWE Physical Nature of the Child, chaps. 10 & n.
ROYCE Outlines of Psychology, chaps. 3, 8, 9 & 10.
SEELEY Elementary Pedagogy, chap. 10.
STOUT Manual of Psychology, pp. 99-101.
SULLY The Human Mind, vol. n, pp. 224-233.
THORNDIKE Elements of Psychology, chap. 13.
Principles of Teaching, chap. 8.
CHAPTER VII
THE CURRICULUM IN OPERATION
SOME years ago I visited Stratford, the home of the
Master Poet, that I might receive at first hand the in-
spiration and enthusiasm breathed from that historic
environment. I chanced to arrive on market day and
had no difficulty in finding upon the street a young lad
who volunteered to show me about. In the course of our
conversation I said to him:
" How old are you?"
He replied, " Fourteen years, sir."
"Have you ever visited London?" I asked.
"No, sir."
"Ever visited Manchester?"
"No, sir."
"Leamington?" (eight miles distant)
"No, sir."
"Do you ever expect to go?"
"I don't know, sir."
"How much did you make last year showing people
about?"
"I took four pounds, sir."
Some will tell you that the fourteen year old boy who
had never been beyond the borders of his own village and
whose outlook was thus circumscribed, was not being
158
Till': CURRICULUM IN OPERATION 159
truly educated, even though he was familiar with his
Caesar and could recite the terms of the Magna Charta;
that a knowledge of people and things, of places and
events, of methods employed in carrying on the complex
existence of to-day is essential and cannot be had within
such a narrow world as that which the boy occupied.
Only recently I chanced to be so seated in a railway
car as to overhear a conversation between two ladies.
One traveler remarked proudly to her companion that
a certain boy had neither missed a day at school nor
been tardy in two years. As I pondered the matter, I
questioned if after all this was something of which to
be proud; if the education of this American boy, with
broader knowledge, perhaps, than that possessed by the
young English lad was such as to warrant one in taking
particular pride that no absent or tardy marks had been
recorded against his name in two years. And then I fell
to thinking of the statement made by one of our most
eminent school men, extreme though it be, that he thanks
his lucky stars his own attendance at school was for a
period not exceeding one year all told.
For those who hold to the doctrine of formal discipline,
it matters not so much what one is taught.
Whatever is studied tends to develop the
Min<* Devei- mind, to so discipline the self, the individual,
opment
as to render him able to grapple successfully
with the problems that confront him in later life. Then,
too, according to another view, the child must pur-
sue all branches of school knowledge since he is to be
160 STANDARDS IN EDUCATION
developed in an all-around manner. Especially must he
taste of all courses in the curriculum, it
Danger in
Early spe- being impossible to tell, at an early age,
wnat tra ^e, vocation, or profession he is to fol-
i ow While this is an age of specialization, the
all Subjects
real specialist must first be a good generahst;
hence, to avoid narrow and superficial specialization, and
to be prepared for any emergency that may present itself,
each child while in school must go through the same mill.
That the child cannot pursue all lines of study, cannot
make himself master of, or even taste of, all
view^hlt branches of knowledge in one lifetime is
child can evident. No doubt there are certain things
Knowledge taught in schools that should be taught to all.
But as it has been so aptly put by another,
" First things first." Perhaps there are many things not
taught in schools to-day that should have a place on the
program. Give first consideration to the essentials.
Colonel Parker says: "Knowledge is boundless, and
your pupils can get but a drop of the ocean. What knowl-
edge shall you present them in the years you have them
under your care and guidance? What knowledge shall
govern you in the selection? The answers are not far
to seek. Your selection can be entirely governed by what
each pupil needs for his personal development. He needs
that knowledge which will enable him best to serve the
school and the world. The two answers are one; the
needs of the school and the needs of the world are the
needs of the individual. A course of study is a means to
Till': CURRICULUM IN OPERATION 161
an end. From this course of study the teacher selects the
matt-rial immediately necessary for the advancement of
personal, mental and moral power."
The curriculum must be such that the character, the
form, the ideals of the life at school shall not differ from,
nor run counter to, those of actual life, and unless the
school is recognized as being in accord with the broader
truths of existence, as a part of real life and not a prepara-
tion merely for something that is vague and indefinite;
unless it deals with the actual rather than with the arti-
ficial, then is the pupil being cheated of his heritage and
dwarfed and warped in his growth.
The school of fifty years ago considered in too narrow
a sense, perhaps, the so-called practical side
schooilnd f education. To teach the pupil to read,
the New; a to write, and to cipher, was then considered
Contrast
to be the chief duty of the school from the
intellectual side. Minor emphasis, was, to be sure, placed
upon a study of the main facts in history, of the geography
of the earth, of spelling. The pupil was taught also to
parse and conjugate. While with the glamour attaching
to the school of our fathers there is much of sentiment,
as seen through the hazy atmosphere of a lifetime, and
while we are apt to magnify the value of work given in
"the good old days," we admit the worth of the educa-
tion of the past and the part it has played in helping to
shape the lives of those who have built the nation. We
must admit also that in the earlier days much energy was
wasted by the pupils, energy that might have been turned
Standards 1 1
162 STANDARDS IN EDUCATION
to good advantage. Certain it is that if the school of the
past was born of earlier ideals and was suited to the
earlier day, the civilization of the present demands an
entirely different type of school.
Subjects have from time to time crept in to enrich, or
at least to help fill, the program. Spelling is now taught
both as an oral and as a written exercise, geography and
history are studied with regard to effect as well as to
cause; and the elements of the sciences and of nature
study, music, elocution, drawing, clay modeling, physical
culture, and the many forms of hand work, have, one
after another, been added to the curriculum.
In arranging our courses of study we must have in mind
the needs and conditions of the individual student, so plan-
ning the work that there shall be constant reference to the
pupil's capacity and to his life after leaving the school.
The curriculum must grow out of experience and since cir-
cumstances and the individual teacher must largely deter-
mine details, what follows should be used as suggestive only.
In enumerating the subjects that may properly be com-
prised in the elementary school curriculum,
J do not nave in mmd the correlation of
ciassmca- studies, in the loose sense of the common
tion of
studies usage of that term. I am thinking rather
of those particular subjects, considered in a
broad sense, that go to make up the everyday life of the
child of primary grade. I am thinking of a group of sub-
jects that should compel his attention because of their
constant action and interaction about him, subjects that
/ /IK CURRICULUM IN OPERATION 163
furnish the material for his everyday experiences, and
by and through which he is constantly expressing him-
self, subjects that assist him to interpret the great world
of life and action and through which he in turn interprets
to others. The classification is:
1. Physical Training.
2. Oral and Written Expression, Reading, Language
and Literature.
3. History.
4. The Industrial Arts.
5. Geography and Nature Study.
6. Music.
7. Numbers.
This classification does not carry with it the complete
breaking up of the curriculum into seven distinct and
clear-cut bodies of subject-matter. Indeed all subjects
may finally be reduced to one, the study of life itself.
The subjects of instruction, as presented in this seven-
fold classification, should comprehend all that it is essential
to teach the pupil of primary grade. The subjects are not
divided sharply, the one from the other, since physical
training, for instance, may find a place in the class in
music; and expression, whether oral or written, properly
should be taught throughout the entire group. Then, too,
subjects frequently given a special place in the program,
spelling, for example, will be taught where and under
such circumstances as may seem most fitting, according
to the necessities of a given situation.
The working out of an elementary school curriculum
1 64 STANDARDS IN EDUCATION
is a matter to be treated in a subsequent volume. In the
present chapter will be found suggestions on teaching
only two of the seven school subjects, physical training
and the industrial arts. It has been deemed wise to make
brief reference to these subjects here, not only on account
of their great worth and because they are indispensable
to the complete growth of the pupil, but also, owing to
the very nature and newness of the subjects themselves,
because few teachers are so conversant with them as to
be able to present them to classes.
(a) PHYSICAL TRAINING
By physical training I mean all forms of bodily activity
that look toward healthful exercise, whether
workcfom carried on under the name of gymnastics,
prehended calisthenics, physical culture, Delsarte, ath-
letics, recreation exercises, or any other title;
whether the work be Swedish system or German system;
whether given in a gymnasium under a special teacher, or
in the grade room by the grade teacher; whether listed in
the program as a regular subject, or introduced by the
teacher at a point where relaxation and change of occu-
pation and position are necessary.
I am convinced that physical training and athletics are
of vital import in both elementary and sec-
The Demand i 11 -r-r i -,
for Physical ondary schools. Had I the temerity to clas-
Traimngin s jf v the school studies upon a relative value
Schools
basis, I am not sure but that the development
of the body toward healthy, vigorous, physical activity,
THE CURRICULUM IN OPERATION 165
would stand out as occupying first place. Even the in-
culcation of moral standards depends in no small measure
upon the physical nature, and certainly when dealing with
gra.k- pupils, physical training must take its place side
by side with those essential humanities, typified by music
and oral expression.
The time has long since past when to be educated
implies frail physique and scant health. Time was when
palp cheeks and stooped shoulders were synonymous with
culture and learning. To become educated was to for-
swear the vulgar occupations of life. A peculiar con-
struction indeed was placed upon those lines "For 'tis
the mind that makes the body rich." We are coming to
see, more and more, that the sound mind in the sound
body is a condition more to be sought than that of the
sound mind in the unsound body, and that the first-named
condition is much more easily realized than the second.
We shall agree, I think, upon the necessity for, and the
value of, physical training in school. If such
*ecessityfor training is to perform in any adequate man-
zation ner its full function, it must be systematized.
Systematization implies supervision. By sys-
tematization I do not mean uniformity or over-curriculari-
zation. Physical training in school must be worked out
upon the basis of relative values, and taught, not as busy
work, but as a well-defined subject. The work must not
appear as abstract exercises but as concrete problems.
In schools where the pupils have the advantage afforded
by a well-equipped gymnasium, and what is of more
i66 STANDARDS IN EDUCATION
importance, a well-equipped teacher, the problem is not
so difficult. It is, however, in the grade
Problems school where there is no gymnasium, no
Confronting
theun- special room to which the pupils may be
school 6 * taken for physical training, that we find our
serious problem. The nature of the course
of study, the pressure of other tasks, the unprepared
condition of the teacher, and too often, a lack of sympathy
in the work, all conspire to render the physical training
a neglected subject.
The aisles between the seats, while narrow, are usually
of such width as to allow for certain free
movements of the arms and head and even
carrying on o f the legs, so far as bending the knees is
concerned. In comparatively small classes,
the pupils may be so arranged as not to hamper one
another in their movements. The prime object of the
exercises during study time, is to counteract the evil
effects resulting from unhealthful bodily positions, from
stooping of the shoulders and cramping of the chest.
The mere fact of allowing pupils to straighten up is in
itself essential and is a rest. Elaborate groups of exer-
cises are not so important as that the pupils be permitted
a supply of fresh air, and be taught to breathe properly
so that the lungs may be filled.
Movements of the hands, the arms, the head, the trunk,
the legs and feet may be carried on in the aisles. Other
exercises may be taken in halls or passageways, prefer-
ably in the open air, if the weather will permit and the
Til/': CURRICULUM IN OPERATION 167
distance be not too great. If a hall or passageway is at
the disposal of the class, wands, dumb-bells and Indian
clubs may be used. Walking and running exercises are
particularly good; and the proper breathing exercises
should always accompany them.
The time for change and recreation will of course vary.
Since, however, it is well-nigh impossible to
Questions of pn ve o ther than class instruction, the teacher
Administra-
tion must have a specific time in the day, both
forenoon and afternoon, perhaps, to give to
physical training. This is particularly true when dealing
with primary pupils. If a special time is given on the
program for such drill, care must be exercised that it be
sufficiently long before or after the lunch or intermission
hour. If one room or hallway is used by several grades,
each class making use of the same equipment, then the
program must be so adjusted as to prevent conflicts.
Loose, comfortable clothing and full deep breathing
must be carefully looked to by the teacher.
co y n g ditk,n 8 Hi g h collars and ti g ht belts are a hindr ance
to breathing. A few moments of well-planned
work is all that is necessary at any one time. The teacher
himself must be master of all the work he attempts to
give. He must not ask the pupils to per-
The Teacher form exercises that he cannot himself accom-
of the work plish. He must study the subject as he would
study the history or English lessons, that he
may have at his command such exercises as are needed
at a particular time. This statement bears out what was
168 STANDARDS IN EDUCATION
said earlier regarding the systematizing of the work. It
must not be haphazard.
I am, of course, alive to the objection that will be raised
by some at this point. In dealing with young
andDirec- n pupils, it will be affirmed, physical exercise
tionare w iil come spontaneously. Furnish the im-
Necessary .
petus or rather the proper conditions for exer-
cise and the pupils will naturally engage in the correct
bodily movements. This is doubtless true within certain
limits, but as well say, however, that a child can be taught
to study by placing a book in his hand and enjoining him
to study. Undirected effort on the part of the pupils
results, in this instance, in what we find every day, girls
and boys in high schools, yes, and the majority of those
around us in the grown-up world, who have never learned
the real art of study. Direction and supervision must be
given physical training and athletics to make them effective.
If apparatus be used, whether hi the school or in the
gymnasium, the lighter forms or work are
overstrain preferable. Pupils should be given a thorough
Avoided physical examination, to ascertain their needs
and weaknesses, before they are permitted to
engage in heavy work calling for exertion or strain. It
happens frequently that the discovery is made too late,
that a certain form of exercise indulged in has had the
effect of tearing down rather than of building up the con-
stitution. This brings us to the athletic side of our sub-
ject, athletics being included under the heading, physical
training. In athletics and heavy gymnastic work, super-
THE CURRICULUM IN OPERATION 169
vision is especially necessary and such supervision should
be scientific, close and careful.
The athletic side of physical training may be classified
under two heads. Under one of these will
Do^bie^cias ^ most * ^ wor ^ now being given in the
siflcation grades, and some of that given in the high
school as well, both in and out of doors, and
in the gymnasium, if one is provided. Such work is likely
to be of a general nature, and we may call it general
athletics. Over against this we find certain grade work
and practically all of that given in the high school at the
present time falling in a class which we shall speak of as
competitive or professional athletics.
The work spoken of as general should be general in the
sense that all students participate in one or
Argument another phase of exercise. It is not enough
for General
Athletics that certain select students take part. All
must have the advantage of the training of-
fered. Here we have one of the strong arguments against
competitive forms of athletics in the grades. Even in the
elementary school the games that are competitive in char-
acter are put upon such a professional basis, and so very
few take part in them, that the true element of sport
is eliminated. The fact that only a small number can
ever hope to qualify for or serve upon any
AtSetfcs team (that is, be permitted to play in con-
Means spe- tests), owing to the vast amount of practice
cialization
and technique necessary, excludes the great
mass of boys; and they suffer in consequence. This goes
170 STANDARDS IN EDUCATION
to prove the necessity for some form of supervision that
shall make it possible for all to be benefited. As a matter
of fact, the very ones who are by nature and training
fitted to enter competitive feats are those who least need
athletic work in the school. The moral effects of the pro-
fessionalizing of athletics is peculiarly bad. In general
forms of work, such as track and field athletics, the re-
sults are much less objectionable. The other school work
suffers when the pupil engages in competitive
Sting* fwm or professional forms of athletics; and what-
Professionai- ever effect this may have upon college boys,
it is not to be desired in the elementary or
high school student. Not only is a disproportionate
amount of time necessary in such training, to the end that
the other school work suffers unduly in consequence, but
the mind of the student is so continuously upon his game
as to render him incapable of concentrating upon anything
outside of it. Then, too, so much stress is laid upon
winning, that trickery and dishonesty are, in some quar-
ters, the rule rather than the exception.
In order to bring out more clearly this matter of the
danger of over-emphasizing in competitive athletics, and
the necessity for careful supervision, note the following
facts. The data were not gathered through the use of
a set of brass instruments, but come directly through
the teachers who have had to do with the students in
question. The data cover the entire school year, and
the boys whose cases are cited were under a consid-
erable degree of supervision, so that those situated
THE CURRICULUM IN OPERATION 171
less fortunately would not appear to as good advan-
tage.
The records of sixty-two high school boys are shown.
Twenty-one of the sixty-two engaged in some
form of track athletics; twenty-five in football;
anc * n ^ neteen m baseball. There are three
letics, Base- duplicates. Upon these pupils eleven teach-
FootbaJj ers rc P ort > being an average of five and five-
tenths reports for each student. As symbols
indicative of the quality of work done, the sign + (plus)
means high; G, signifies good; M, medium, and (minus),
low or failed. I count all signs after a letter, such as
M , at the full value of the letter, thus giving the pupil
the advantage. There are four chances to one that a
given student will be M or G rather than M-f- or
G+. In percentages, M is 75; G 75 to 85; and + in-
cludes all markings above 85; while a student is low or
fails, according as his record varies below 75. The three
following tables show the standing of the entire sixty-two :
Scholarship and Deportment Records Combined
Percentage of students Record
9-74% +
39.87% G
28.70% M
22.52% -
Scholarship Record Only
Percentage of students Record
6.07% +
26.52% G
38.00% M
29-39% -
172 STANDARDS IN EDUCATION
Deportment Record Only
Percentage of students Record
20.47% +
30-95% + G
26.66% + M
21.76% -
Note that the chances are nearly i to 4 that a student
will be in class standing or deportment, when the two
are taken together, and 3 to 10 that he will be in class
standing alone. Note also that the + record in class
standing is lowered when the deportment is not included.
The two following tables show the standing of the
twenty-one boys who engaged in
Track and Field Athletics
Scholarship: 11.60% -f (Approximately one in
45 - 53% G nine are ni g h -)
29.46% M
13 . 39% (Approximately one in
seven are low or have
failed.)
Deportment: 19.29% -f (i to 5)
62.28% G
I2.28%....M
6.14%....- (i to 16)
Notice here that the class record for - - students is
13.39% for track, as against 29.38% for all athletics.
THE CURRICULUM IN OPERATION 173
The odds arc twice as great that a failure will result when
considering football or baseball, as when considering field
alone. The chances are 3$ to i in favor of track
boys as against the combined work, that a failure will be
made.
Baseball
Scholarship: 2 . 53% + (i to 40)
17.94%. ...G
37.97%. ...M
40.50% (2 to 5)
Deportment: 7.31% + (i to 14)
51.21%. ...G
18.29%.. ..M
23.17%....- (i to 4)
It will be seen that the record of for track students
was 13.39%; f r baseball, it was 40.50%, or a probability
of 3 to i that the baseball student ranges lower than the
field student. The chances of deportment are i to 16
in track, and i to 4 in baseball. The figures show 29.46%
M in track, and 45.53% G; as against 18.29% M in
baseball, and 51.21% G.
Football
Scholarship: 3 . 05% -f (i to 33)
13.94%.... G
43.50%. ...M
39.69%....- (2 to 5)
174 STANDARDS IN EDUCATION
Deportment: 9.37% + (i to 10)
44.53%.... G
26.55%. ...M
19.53%....- (i to 5)
The probability of in scholarship for football and
baseball boys is the same, 2 to 5; in track events it is i to 7,
meaning that nearly three chances exist for work among
football as against track boys. In deportment there is
practically no difference. There is only one chance in
four in favor of a + mark with football, as compared
with track students.
In football only one boy out of every four is M in de-
portment, and less than half are G. In baseball, one out
of every five is M and every other one G, while in field
events one out of every seven is M and three-fourths are G.
The standards of scholarship are lower in football, there
being only one-third of the number of good students that
ate found in track athletics and only seven-ninths as many
as in baseball.
An added significance is given these statistics when it
is understood that the records of the majority of the base-
ball and football students was considerably higher during
the months preceding and immediately following their
extensive practice than while under training.
What has all this to do with supervision ? It has every-
thing to do with it. No one will contend that athletics are
not essential to the best development of the elementary
and high school lad. The showing I have made, how-
THE CURRICULUM IN OPERATION 175
cvi-r, is probably much better than would be found the
country over.
Our athletics must be so supervised that we shall:
First, provide some form of physical training for
each pupil in the school, and, second, present work that
shall increase rather than diminish the standards of effi-
ciency in scholarship, and .raise instead of lower moral
ideals.
While investigating this topic in England, some years
ago, I was told by competent authority that competitive
athletics, particularly football, was the life of Oxford and
Cambridge. That to exclude football, as some suggested,
would result in the certain decline of these universities.
Be that as it may, there are those of us who believe that
the business of our American elementary and high schools
is to produce men and women of mental efficiency and
moral stability, as well as those of strong physique, and
we propose to do our part, though professionalism be
barred from our schools; and we insist upon conscien-
tious supervision of athletics by those who know the
dangers into which young students are easily led.
It is the business of the teacher then to see that the
best possible conditions are present, looking
toward the physical welfare of the pupils.
for Good The following suggestions are offered:
First, the size and height of the seat must
be adjusted to the pupil that he may not be cramped in
his work.
Second, side and cross lights must be excluded from
176 STANDARDS IN EDUCATION
the room; the light should enter from above or fall over
the left shoulder.
Third, an abundance of pure air (cold air is not neces-
sarily pure), especially when the pupils are engaging in
physical exercise, is an essential.
Fourth, to counteract bad bodily positions and give
change and rest to the student, a carefully planned and
worked-out series of light gymnastic exercises is desirable,
attention being given to proper breathing.
Out of door gymnastics or games will result most bene-
ficially to the student and to the conduct of
influence of ^ sc hooL if the teacher enters heartily into
the Teacher .
in the Games the spirit of the exercise. He need not, nor
should he, dominate or dictate in the sports,
but the personality of the teacher is as necessary out of
doors as it is in the class room. He can suggest such
sports and exercises as he thinks most beneficial at a
given time, being cautious lest he rob the pupils of the
power of initiative; he can offer advice in case of dis-
putes, lend judgment where a decision is needed, or serve
as arbitrator where serious factional differences arise.
Moreover, upon the playground as nowhere else, may
the teacher find his opportunity to study each individual
pupil, to learn his likes and dislikes, his strengths and
weaknesses, and in no place better than in games de-
manding physical endurance and manual skill, can the
lessons of honor, of equity, and of kindness be inculcated.
Much more attention should be given physical training
than it is receiving in the schools to-day; and not only
THE CURRICULUM IN OPERATION 177
should it occupy more of the school time, but more
serious consideration must be given to the kinds of work
undertaken.
(b) THE INDUSTRIAL ARTS
Having dealt in a previous chapter with the theory and
purpose of the industrial arts, it will only be necessary
to suggest here some of the ways in which the various
materials of the manual training room may be used
throughout the elementary school.
Clay Modeling, Tiles, Pottery
It is not at all likely that the average teacher will over-
emphasize the value of clay work. The clay, though
easily handled, at the same time offers sufficient resistance
to bring into use the more fundamental muscles. It
makes for freedom of expression in a variety of ways; it
lends itself to form appreciation (the three dimensions),
and it develops an appreciation of lines of beauty and
correct conceptions of space relations. The study of
animal and plant forms, topography, history, customs,
occupations, the development of art, ideas of building
construction all are made more effective through the use
of clay modeling and pottery. Many industries may be
taken up in a simple way in connection with the work,
thus bringing the pupils nearer to the life of the primitive
peoples and leading to an appreciation of the advances
that have been made.
In clay work the process involved is mainly that of build-
ing up and is thus constructive rather than destructive.
Standards 12
178 STANDARDS IN EDUCATION
In order to prepare clay properly ,for use in the class
room, some sort of a trough or a tub is necessary. One
can be made readily; a heavy packing box of convenient
size and shape can be obtained; or a small fiber or gal-
vanized iron tub may be purchased. If a wooden box
is used, it should be zinc lined. The clay may be had
dry from the potters' works or from a kindergarten supply
house. Place the clay in a tub with about one-third its
volume of water. After standing thus for several hours,
it should be thoroughly mixed with the hands, squeezing
out all lumps. If, when well mixed, it is found to be too
dry to work easily, that is, if the surface cracks when
being molded in the hands, add a little water, remix and
mold into balls of convenient size. If too wet when
mixed, a little new, dry clay may be added, and thor-
oughly worked into the mass until it sticks but slightly to
the hands.
The great objection raised to the use of clay is that it
must be handled again and again and is thus rendered
uncleanly. Where practicable, it would be well to have
the clay used once only, although there is scant proof that
clay, properly treated, is injurious to the skin. Its greatest
point of disadvantage has been the tendency to soil desk
and books, and the difficulty in keeping and preparing
it for use.
Basketry and Weaving
Weaving and textile work is well adapted to the ele-
mentary grades. The materials are large, and detail is not
THE CURRICULUM IN OPERATION 179
demanded in simple forms. Opportunity is furnished
for the construction of a crude loom, thus making possible
not only the weaving of rugs or blankets, but the study
of more complex machinery adapted to the same purpose.
Because it is a material used, cotton fiber or wool should
be studied and its development traced from the raw state
through the various processes to the completed article.
A splendid basis of comparison between old and new
methods is furnished the pupil.
Through the study of weaving, whether in dealing with
a basket or a blanket, the child is enabled to reach back
into the past, note the progress that has been made, and
appreciate to some extent his position in the present.
Rushes, flags, willows, coarse yarns, rags, raffia, reeds,
splints, all are well suited for elementary work. Where
they can be obtained, the sweet grasses used by the In-
dians are very desirable. Through the making of useful
forms the pupil's initiative is developed, and almost all
phases of school work can be touched upon, and thus
many industries and occupations become understandable.
Children should be encouraged to collect such native
material as may be found in the vicinity of the home or
school, care being taken not to confine the processes too
closely to the making of baskets, as many other articles
of use may be produced.
In this work is found a good basis for the teaching of
design, as here the more fundamental principles may be
learned and applied. Space breaking and filling; the
meaning of balance, harmony and rhythm as applied to
i8o
STANDARDS IN EDUCATION
line, form and tone; composition and space and form
relations, all may be taken up and made clear.
Paper and Cardboard
These materials, in whatever form, are easily obtain-
able and quite inexpensive. If properly handled there is
very little waste. They, too, are easy of manipulation,
although the work may be made such as to tax the physical
abilities sufficiently.
Paper and cardboard may be put to a variety of uses
in the making of useful articles. Their character renders
them clean and tidy, and hence applicable for use in any
schoolroom or at home. They may be manipulated, also,
in a greater or less degree, by any grade teacher.
In the use of these materials graphic art has a strong
place. Objects must be thought out, planned and de-
signed, thus bringing in the constructional side of drawing
as well as free sketching. Through the study of form, of
ornamental design, a feeling for the artistic is developed.
Color blending and harmony, so essential and attractive
to young pupils, is largely assisted through the selection
and arrangement of materials.
In the first and second grades, the folding, cutting and
pasting, should as formerly have a place, but to my mind
a less important one. Weaving with paper need not be
so prominent, since we have other and more natural media
for this purpose. Folding of flat forms to produce geo-
metrical shapes, square, oblong, etc.; cutting and pasting
of designs; color blending; free cutting from manila or
THE CURRICULUM IN OPERATION 181
detail papers, of forms such as animals, natural objects,
fruits, and doll's clothing; cutting, folding and pasting to
produce play- or doll-house furniture, chairs, table, cra-
dle, bed; making of envelopes, valentines, boxes, tags and
labels; these are some of the ways in which the work
may be carried on in the lower grades.
In the second year more difficult pieces of furniture
may be constructed from heavy manila paper, and light-
weight cover stock may in some cases be used to produce
special individual projects for use at home or at school,
wall-pockets, cornucopias, clock faces, note-paper covers,
calendar backs, seed envelopes, weather charts and flags,
wind gauges, etc. It will be seen, then, that the field
offered in these grades is mainly that of illustration or
representation, such processes being given attention as
will assist in the social phases of the child's existence.
The opportunities are greater and the limitations are
less when dealing with third and fourth grades, than else-
where in school, perhaps. Here we have an extended
field for the making of typical objects of beauty and of
use. The pupils can deal with the more substantial
cover papers and the light-weight bristol boards or tag
stocks, while the age and ability of the boys and girls here
represented, would, for the most part, prohibit them from
engaging in some of the more heroic hand-work processes.
In these grades, also, the work may be illustrative when
opportunity offers; house construction, parts of utensils,
small apparatus and machines for nature study. In
schools where a somewhat varied equipment is found, a
182 STANDARDS IN EDUCATION
variety of work may be done, cutting, mounting and
filing of pictures for class work, making trays for speci-
mens, boxes for the pupil's belongings at home or at
school, picture frames of various forms and decoration,
napkin rings, calendar backs and supports, memorandum
and program cards, portfolios for school exercises, en-
velopes, note-box covers, handkerchief cases, etc. These
are a few in the multiplicity of objects that offer them-
selves and afford almost endless variety in design. Here
there is a constant opportunity for the study of color
blending in the selection of materials, for representation
through drawings, for the conservation of material, and
for appreciation of the artistic in form and proportion.
In grades above the fourth, the work may be in ad-
vance of that already spoken of. In addition, heavier
cover and bristol stocks, and rice, straw and pulp boards
of various weights can be introduced. The rice or straw
boards are perhaps better suited to some work than is the
pulp board, as they do not soil readily. These materials
are quite substantial, many objects constructed from
them serving their purpose as fully as though made from
wood. Here again simple and cheap apparatus to be
used in connection with the natural science work and
mathematics can be designed and made. Useful and
artistic objects, if presenting a dull and uninteresting
surface, may be covered with lithograph, embossed or
fancy paper, thus producing a finished effect. In the
selection of these papers, which are of a variety of design,
a considerable degree of taste is developed. Heavier and
7 '///; CURRICULUM IN OPERATION 183
more serviceable articles, some of them of the same nature
as those made in previous grades, may be mentioi
picture and mirror frames; boxes with hinged covers and
permanent fastenings for paper, envelopes, gloves, etc.;
note- and text-book covers; bill, letter and picture files;
scrapbooks and card cases; portfolios for drawings, writ-
ten exercises and photographs. This work will lead to
elementary book binding, which will not be touched upon
here.
Metal Work: Bent Iron, Metal Spinning, Copper and
Brass Work
The metal processes should find a place in the upper
grades only. Bent ironwork offers large opportunities
for design, although from an industrial or commercial
standpoint it has little value. Candlesticks, picture
frames, knife rests and lamp shades are suggestive of the
use to which bent iron may be put. In dealing with the
metal crafts, the way is open for the application of art
principles. Boxes, caskets, cups, bowls, vases; the de-
signing, shaping and making of locks, fastenings and
hinges; articles made in combination with wood or leather:
these processes may well find a place in the higher grades.
Wood
In a previous chapter (Purpose of the Industrial Arts),
suggestions were made as to the woodwork processes
applicable in the elementary school. Simple and useful
articles may be made with few tools in the regular grade
184 STANDARDS IN EDUCATION
room, the desk tops being provided with some sort of
cover, such as is desirable for cardboard work. Cutting
in thin wood and whittling with the knife may be carried
on to some extent, while rough construction, such as the
making of utensils, tools, furniture and illustrative ma-
terial may have a place in the lower grades under the
regular teacher. Bench work proper should not be given
below the fifth grade. It is properly confined in most
localities to the seventh and eighth grades.
In general it may be said that the thoroughly qualified
teacher will prepare a course of work, adapted as nearly
as may be to the needs of his students. He will then
make this course so elastic as to meet the requirements
of the individual pupil, allowing full play for initiative
and for the designing and construction of such articles
as may be for the best interests of the individual.
THESES
1. It is a fallacious doctrine that holds that the child
should be expected to master or even taste of all branches
of knowledge.
2. Much sentiment attaches to the education of time
past; it had points of vantage over that of the present day,
but would not at all fit present needs and conditions.
3. The basis for a rational course of study would seem
to include
(1) Physical Training.
(2) Oral and Written Expression, Reading, Language
and Literature.
THE CURRICULUM IN OPERATION 185
(3) History.
(4) The Industrial Arts.
(5) Geography and Nature Study.
(6) Music.
(7) Numbers.
4. A strong body is one of the chief elements of a com-
plete education, and all schools should give attention to
physical training.
5. The problems of the equipped and of the unequipped
school, and suggestions made on meeting and solving
them.
6. Absolute necessity for careful supervision and ad-
ministration of the work.
7. A comparison drawn between athletics for general
purposes and the more restricted competitive or pro-
fessional form.
8. Comparative data as to scholarship of students en-
gaging in football, baseball, and field and track athletics.
9. Practical suggestions on the place of the Industrial
Arts and the application of the various media, clay,
textiles, weaving materials, paper and cardboard, metal,
wood.
TOPICS FOR STUDY
1. Apply the familiar phrase, "Good old days," to the
schools of our grandfathers and determine its force and
significance in this connection.
2. Trace the growth of the curriculum in the United
States during the last fifty years.
186 STANDARDS IN EDUCATION
3. Total up the advantages offered in school to the
city bred boy and the country boy; the opportunities
offered outside the school.
4. Study the curricula of ten typical school systems in
cities of 25,000 to 100,000 population, taking each of the
eight grades in turn, and determine the amount of time
given each of the seven divisions of study as listed on
page 163. Show:
(1) Number of minutes per week devoted to each
subject in each grade. (Same for each city
chosen.)
(2) Total number of minutes per week devoted in
all grades, to each separate subject.
(3) Total number of minutes in all grades in ten
cities combined, and arrange seven subjects in
order of amount of time given.
5. Consider the advantages and disadvantages of hav-
ing special teachers in physical training, manual training,
music, drawing, domestic science, domestic art. The
advantages and disadvantages of having this work done
by the regular teachers.
6. Should the competitive idea as applied to school
studies and activities have an increasing or a decreasing
place as the child progresses in school?
Compare our own schools in this regard with those of
England, Germany and France.
7. What is the relation between a closer supervision of
school tasks on the part of the teacher and the elimination
of personality on the part of the student ?
THE CURRICULUM IN OPERATION
187
CONSULT
BARRY The Hygiene of the School Room, chap. 14.
CHAMBERLAIN, Course of Study in Geography.
J. F. How We Are Clothed.
How We Are Fed.
How We Are Sheltered.
How We Travel.
CRAPSY Some Phases of the Curriculum of the Ele-
mentary School. Proceedings N. E. A.,
i95> PP- 374-38o.
GORDY A Broader Elementary Education, pp. 212-
289.
HALLECK Education of the Central Nervous System,
chap. ii.
JACKMAN The Curriculum. Elementary School
Teacher, vol. 5, pp. 597-665.
KERN Industrial Training Most Practical and Best
Suited to the Country Child. Proceed-
ings, Department Superintendence, N. E.
A., 1906, pp. 174-178.
Among Country Schools.
KEYES Industrial Training best Adapted to City
Children. Proceedings, Department Su-
perintendence, N. E. A., 1906, pp. 179-
i8 3 .
KLEMM European Schools.
Industrial Education in Rural Schools, Re-
port of Committee, N. E. A., 1905.
McMuRRY, Elements of General Method, chaps. 2
CHARLES & 4.
1 88
STANDARDS IN EDUCATION
McMuRRY, FRANK
PAYNE
PARKER
RICE
ROUILLION
ROWE
STONEHEAD
TEACHERS COLLEGE
RECORD
THORNDIKE
WILSON
Omissions Advisable in the Present
Course of Study and Basis for the
Same. Proceedings, Dept. Superin-
tendence, N. E. A., 1904, pp. 26-34.
Public Elementary School Curricula.
Talks on Pedagogics.
American History in the Elemen-
tary Schools. Elementary School
Teacher, vol. 5, pp. 449-461.
History in the University Elementary
School. Elementary School Teacher,
vol. 5, pp. 521-555.
Economics of Manual Training.
Physical Nature of the Child.
Physical Training in Grammar Schools.
Proceedings, N. E. A., 1905, pp.
768-772.
Vol. i, no. 5.
Vol. 7, no. i. Elementary School
Curriculum, first year.
The Study of Children. Teachers
College Record, vol. 2, no. 3.
Pedagogues and Parents, chaps. 4 &
10.
CHAPTER VIII
STUDY AND PREPARATION
(a) AT HOME
WHATEVER may be said upon the subject of home
study, and of preparation of lessons out of school, will
not find sympathy in the minds of all teachers; much
less will all parents agree to the statements that follow.
I am at the outset reminded that should I insist upon
home work for the child, that is, preparation at home of
his school work for the following day, I should be falling
into line with the demands of most teachers, of practi-
cally all courses of study, and, in fact, should voice the
views of the majority of parents. If, on the other hand,
I turn heretic to the extent of saying that children under
a certain age or ability in school should have little or no
preparation work outside the schoolroom, that they should
be expected to prepare no book lessons or exercises at
home, I stand in danger of being frowned upon by a vast
number of my fellow teachers, and of being termed a
theorist by both teacher and parent. While many of my
readers will at once agree with the general proposition
herein made, some will either forget it to-morrow, or say
that while the principle is sound, nothing can be done at
the present to modify or change the course of events.
189
igo STANDARDS IN EDUCATION
A moment's consideration will show that the situation
is a serious one. It has been forced upon us
study^ias 6 ^ s ^ ow Degrees ; and few there are outside
seemed the school fully awake to the conditions as
they exist. The child in the elementary
school must prepare just so many pages of history,
so many problems in number work, and so many chap-
ters in his language book before the third day of
February at four o'clock P. M. He must accomplish
this or he will not pass. He must accomplish it or
he will not be ready to take his mid-year examina-
tions. He must accomplish it or he will not be pro-
moted to the fifth grade in June. He must accomplish
it ; and here the argument ceases, because the course
of study so dictates. If the teacher does not bring
the pupil to the point suggested in the course of study,
she is a poor teacher, and would, perhaps, better look
for another position. Each grade makes strenuous de-
mands upon the one next below it; the high school
is imposing a straight jacket upon the eighth school
year ; high school boys and girls are having their work
planned for them too largely upon the basis of de-
mands from above.
This, then, is the condition: infants of seven, eight
and nine years of age are trudging along the streets, their
arms filled with books of sufficient weight to destroy their
equilibrium ; and this seems necessary because there are
not sufficient hours in the school day in which properly
to prepare and recite all the lessons the pupils are ex-
STUDY AND /'A'AVM AM /ION
pected to learn. This existing condition is not merely
an evil ; it is a crime.
Pupils in the first four years of school should have little
or no outside school work to perform, little
Dangers of preparation of lessons found in books, or les-
Burdening sons that require close application in memo-
rizing and writing. It should be unnecessary
to suggest that the child of six to nine years
of age needs to be much in the open air ; needs to have
abundant freedom and exercise ; needs to have room for
his body to grow or his mind will be cramped. The sev-
eral hours that the child spends at school, are, if prop-
erly spent, sufficient for mental work.
Many children, below the age I have indicated, carry
home a long list of words, that they may be able to spell
them correctly next day ; they must write a certain
number of sentences containing various classes of words
for the language lesson ; they must bring to school the
home work in number : several pages of problems neatly
written, and each step of the analysis in its exact order ;
they must learn by heart the definitions of cape, bay and
isthmus, and be able to recite the lesson in geography.
Hour after hour is spent at this home work, the results,
many times, being no better than could be secured at
school under proper conditions in a comparatively short
time. Not knowing how to study and being unfit for
study, time and temper are lost, and the child made
miserable.
Only in rare instances is the work prepared at home
192 STANDARDS IN EDUCATION
given any direction. Only memory processes are in-
volved. There is no background of thought,
Direction tne answer being the end in view ; and
Given study aside from this there is no seeming neces-
sity to accomplish the task. The pupil does
it because he must.
The cause of this unnatural condition, how the pres-
sure has been brought to bear upon the
Placing of child's mind to make of it, before maturity
the Respon-
sibility is reached, an adult in mental gymnastics
and memory training need not be further
discussed. The situation confronts us. The teachers of
to-day are not entirely responsible ; neither school people
nor parents can be wholly blamed ; we should, so far as
possible, however, attempt to set right the wrong condi-
tion. So long as the teacher of the primary school has
to deal with more than thirty, forty, or even sixty pupils,
we cannot expect the proper amount of time to be de-
voted to each pupil while in school. It is considerable
if they have been amused, much less taught. The child
does not know how to study, and with the small share of
attention he gets in school, it is unlikely that he will
ever learn. This crowded condition means too much
work with the mass and not enough with individuals ;
and at once improper and dangerous habits are con-
tracted. Instead of entering heartily into the work, a
listless form of attention is engendered ; and an hour is
required to accomplish what should be done in one-third
the time. At home, too often, the parent makes no ob-
STUDY AND PREPARATION
'93
jection if the pupil worries and frets over the figures and
words, facts and definitions, provided he keeps away
from, and does not trouble, his elders. And it is so
much easier to answer the child's questions directly than
it is to lead him to an understanding of the work in hand.
But aside from the lessons of the book there are many
things, largely along motor lines, that may
b^DonT 7 be P rofi tably done at home by the pupils of
the first school years. Drawing and con-
struction, representation and the making of things, il-
lustrating and making clear the book lessons, in fact all
work of an art or a manual nature may well occupy the
time out of school. Instead of engaging in work or play
of an aimless character, the pupil will, if the proper in-
centives are provided, derive much benefit from his out-
of-school handiwork.
Much of the manual work could be planned at school
and carried on at home, for in this age of advanced
method and modern practice in education, many parents
would find it easier to assist in constructive work than
in the arithmetic or language exercises. If a little en-
couragement is offered, the life interests of the child
would show themselves. There would be little need of
curfew laws and police regulations of youthful misde-
meanors, if at home and at school ample facilities were
provided for industrial training. It is a commonplace
that the reform school is leading the way in educational
theory and practice through the work it offers in indus-
trial lines.
Standards -13
194 STANDARDS IN EDUCATION
Here is a matter in which the parents may assist.
The school should begin, and the parents insist upon, the
introduction of manual training throughout the school.
The school people stand ready to do what the taxpayers
demand and if, as home work, the pupils have their reg-
ular tasks to perform along the lines of design, construc-
tion and decoration, the home may greatly aid the
school.
(b) AT SCHOOL
What has been said of the evils resulting from prepa-
ration of lessons at home by young pupils, has been said
not as a plea for idleness either at home or at school.
Much more time should be devoted, while at school, to
actual study and preparation of lessons than is now given,
but it should be under the direction of the teacher. Too
often the pupil comes to his recitation with only a vague
idea of the lesson or subject.
More will be said in another chapter upon the manner
of study ; but it is at school, where the pupil
Derived* 868 ^ as ^ e advantage of the teacher's assistance
fromDi- and counsel, that he can best prepare his
rected Study
work. With the least loss of time he can be
directed to the main features in a given lesson, or be led
to select the topics demanding most earnest considera-
tion ; he has access to books and materials other than his
text from which he may derive assistance and informa-
tion ; he is inspired by the enthusiasm of numbers doing
the same or similar tasks as those upon which he is him-
STUDY AND PREPARATION 195
self engaged ; he can have the watchful eye of the teacher
upon him, to call him to his work if necessary and to
guard him against this or that circumstance which may
offer a side attraction. If puzzled or perplexed, the
teacher may by a word or question set the pupil's feet in
the right path, or perhaps, through his knowledge of the
child, and his skill as a teacher, he may do him the great-
est possible service by throwing him entirely upon his own
resources. Then, too, realizing clearly the difficulties in
the various lessons, and knowing the pupil's capacity in
the several lines of work, he is enabled to suggest the
proportionate length of time that should be put upon a
topic. If the lesson is not prepared, he must know the
reason therefor and suggest remedies.
That the home people frequently are unable to give
the pupil the assistance he needs in his work
Difficulty^ 16 f preparation, is accounted 'for, in part, by
the fact that the methods of to-day differ
materially from those of the school days of our fathers,
and that our text -books present their subject-matter in
entirely new ways. When assistance is asked in the so-
lution of a problem, the parent is told : "That is not the
way the teacher wants us to do it," and the former has
to admit that the new form of analysis or construction is
beyond him. As the parent's way is frequently that of
life, while the method of the book is the method of the
lesson only, sad it is, indeed, that the former is not more
frequently substituted for the latter.
But after all, when considering the pupils of the first
196 STANDARDS IN EDUCATION
four years, the study-recitation is about all that should
be expected of them. They should have the assistance
of the teacher during the study time as they do in their
recitations, and should be largely free from books when
out of school.
THESES
1. Teachers and parents generally believe in study and
preparation of lessons out of school by pupils of the first
school years.
2. Such outside preparation seems a necessity be-
cause of the ground to be covered in the elementary
school ; classes are large and courses of study must be
upheld.
3. Children, immature in years and development, are
in danger of being overcrowded ; they should have much
freedom when out of school.
4. Home work is unsatisfactory because :
(a) The child does not know how to study ;
(b) Parents are able to give but little direction.
5. Neither teacher nor parent can be held entirely re-
sponsible for existing conditions.
6. Industrial or constructive work may profitably have
a place at home, being planned at the school.
7. The school offers the best advantages for the prepa-
ration of book lessons because :
(a) Books and apparatus are at hand ;
(b) The pupil has the advantage of the teacher's
knowledge and suggestion.
STUDY AND PREPARATION
TOPICS FOR STUDY
1. Is too much or too little direction usually given the
pupil in his study periods ? Is the teacher or the parent
inclined to offer the more assistance to the pupils ?
2. Suggest the lines of work that can be carried on as
profitably at home as at school. Compare the length of
time given to actual preparation at school in the various
grades with that given at home.
3. Do pupils of the first four years in school over
study ? Do they choose to prepare lessons at home ?
4. Consider the feasibility of allowing the pupils to as-
sist one another in their study at school. What are the
dangers and advantages on each side ?
5. Suggest a plan for home work in those lines that
tax mainly the physical side of the pupil.
6. Consider the plan of the older children's giving as-
sistance to the younger children in home preparation.
Would, then, the graded school or the unclassified coun-
try school be best adapted to this end ?
CONSULT
BAGLEY The Educative Process, chaps. 19-22.
BRYAN The Basis of Practical Teaching, chap. 14.
DEWEY The School and Society.
Elementary School Curriculum in Teachers
College Record, vol. 7, pp. 1-12.
GORDY A Broader Elementary Education, chaps. 15 &
16.
HINSDALE The Art of Study, chaps. 6-n.
198
STANDARDS IN EDUCATION
MOORE Science of Study.
O'SHEA Dynamic Factors in Education, chap. 18.
PARKER Talks on Pedagogics.
THORNDIKE Notes on Child Study, chaps. 15, 17, 19 & 20.
WILSON Pedagogues and Parents, chaps. 13 & 14.
CHAPTER IX
THE RECITATION PROCESS
(a) SELECTION OF MATERIAL
As already stated, there can be no method without
subject-matter. Method must presuppose a knowledge
of subject-matter. The studies must be selected and the
curriculum arranged before method can be ap-
Mlteriauhe plied to the teachin g of the various branches.
First step In the recitation process, the selection of the
material follows immediately the decision as
to the subject or branch of instruction to be pursued.
Subjects are so varied and their number so extensive
that the selection of study material must be
largely a matter of elimination. Much that
the selective j n it se lf [ s valuable must be pushed aside to
Process
make place for things of greater importance.
The question of relative values must here receive grave
consideration.
Local conditions will determine largely the selection
of the study material. The surroundings of the school
and the home will play no small part. The conditions
pertaining to the down town portions of a crowded city
differ widely from those of the town or village; and the
isolated country district presents a series of problems
199
200 STANDARDS IN EDUCATION
similar to neither. In each instance the study material
must be chosen with locality as a determining factor.
The nationality of pupils, the financial condition of par-
ents, the moral and ethical life of the homes, these are
elements of prime importance. In no small degree will the
selection of material, especially in its details, be determined
by the industry or craft pertaining among the patrons,
whether that of manufacture, shipping, farming, milling,
lumbering, mining; the curriculum in a community en-
gaged in commercial lines must surely vary from that in a
community where literary pursuits prevail. These and
scores of other problems must be met and weighed by the
individual teacher.
In certain city or country districts, boys particularly,
leave school at an early age. In localities
wnere this condition is apparent, extraordi-
both inter- narv care must be exercised in the planning
estingand
serviceable of the curriculum, not alone to present the
interesting, that the pupil may be held for the
longest possible time, but that those who must leave early
may have the advantage of the most serviceable course of
study that it is possible to arrange for that class of stu-
dents. All of this assumes that the individual teacher is
bound down by no course of study planned for all alike.
In lower classes, and when dealing with certain school
subjects, it may be wise to follow no text-
book, but teachers in general will find it ad-
vantageous to have such a guide. This will
tend to do away with the danger of flying wide of the mark.
THE RECITATION PROCESS 201
The text-book, in whatever subject the choice is to be
made, should be the very best that can be secured. No
influence should be allowed to enter into the
Text Books* selection, save merit alone. No book con-
Based upon cern, no county or city board, no "influential
^on^raft member," no author friend should count in
this matter, only as such influence stands for
the best. The public schools are administered by public
servants and supported by public funds; and no teacher
or text-book, no equipment, no school comfort or conven-
ience is too good for those who seek an education in our
institutions of learning.
But you who are working under a city or county course
of study may say that here the argument closes. The
course of study is blocked out. You must teach what the
outline dictates and from the books furnished or required.
It is possible some teachers are less compe-
tent to select the studv material than are the
be allowed board members by whom they are engaged.
Latitude if
Besuits If so, such teachers should be required to
warrant see k OCCU p a tion in other fields. Incompe-
tency among board members is not a license for inability
on the part of teachers; and those who have most to do
with the schools know most about their make-up. Teach-
ers who are competent to study conditions so as to know
what is best for a given student or class should be allowed
not only to suggest, but to choose with large freedom as
well. They should then be held responsible for results.
The teacher who is working under an unwieldy system
202 STANDARDS IN EDUCATION
where much machinery is necessary must recognize a
central authority. He must "follow copy." In the lower
grades, however, if tact and judgment are used, the best
books may be secured, even though they are not listed in
the course of study or included in the State Series. Such
a teacher will usually be permitted to perform his work
in his own way. No violence will be done to rules or regu-
lations, and the teacher's chances for reelection will not
be endangered. One thing he must do, and to good
purpose. He must accomplish results.
But the securing of a good text is not all. The proper
material as contained in the book must be selected. The
best material for a given lesson may not always be found
upon the page following yesterday's recitation. It may
be elsewhere in the text-book or it may be in several
places. It will do no harm to draw upon a lesson already
covered or to levy upon a chapter in advance, if there be
found the material needed and providing that the work is
understood.
The text-book should be used as a guide only. It is
the compass to point the way and to keep
' m k^ course - Any available au-
Guide thority whatsoever may be used, all sources
contributing. Nor is the lesson material to
be selected from books alone. In most subjects abundant
material offers itself for use. This may be selected from
maps, charts, newspapers and magazines; from natural
objects, business interests, play and work; from the vo-
cations, interests and achievements of men and of the
THE RECITATION PROCESS
203
students themselves; from incidents of street life, the asso-
ciation of student with student; from con-
versation and observation; from excursions to
woods and fields and streams; from \isi
museums, quarries, mills, manufacturing plants, buildings
in course of construction and produce markets; from in-
vestigation of shipping by land and sea; and from the
planting, tending and harvesting of crops; in fact every
interest and every activity of life will furnish study mate-
rial for one or another recitation.
(b) DEVELOPMENT OF THE PLAN
Each lesson or series of lessons should be carefully
planned and worked out before being pre-
sented to the class. Having taught a given
Planned by subject for a period of years should not be an
the Teacher
excuse for the nonpreparation of each day s
lesson. Just as each pupil in a class demands a treatment
differing from that extended to each other member, so
each class should be studied, and each lesson to be pre-
sented prepared beforehand.
In planning lessons various methods are employed.
Some teachers find it convenient and beneficial to arrange
each lesson or topic upon paper or in a notebook, fol-
lowing much the same order as that used in some normal
schools. For instance, they would determine,
Les^pi^n First > the aim > purpose or object of the
lesson, what it is purposed to bring out and
the results it is hoped to reach; Second, the material to be
204 STANDARDS IN EDUCATION
used, whether found in text-book or in other illustrative
matter, giving sources of information; Third, the method
of the lesson or manner of procedure, showing how the
various steps are to be taken and why.
Those who do not use the written scheme should for-
mulate their plan in some other way. No teacher should
attempt to present a topic to a class without having first
decided why he selects this rather than some other lesson,
why he is to present it in one rather than in another form,
or whether he is using the most desirable media and illus-
trative material there is at hand.
This does not mean that the teacher is to proceed in the
class step by step as he has worked out the
Circura-
stances may lesson in preparation. Indeed, the exact
conditions he hopes for or expects may not
theRecita- be present. Outward circumstances, the
mental or physical attitude of the pupils, or
other conditions may vary. Some unthought-of direction
may be given the trend of lesson or discussion by an un-
expected query or an answer unlooked for. All such
circumstances only make it the more imperative that the
teacher be fully prepared, the better to cope with any or
all emergencies. With a thorough preparation he is the
more likely to be able to answer any question that may
arise, or to keep the class or individual from drifting, or
himself from being thrown off the main track of the
lesson.
If lessons are planned ahead, the teacher has opportunity
to build up, to change, or to modify the plan. He should
THE RECITATION PROCESS
205
reduce the matter to its lowest terms, cutting away any
unnecessary underbrush, yet at the same time nl
the pupil of nothing that will assist his growth. By de-
veloping the plan of a lesson, the teacher minimizes the
danger of haphazard work and of being taken unawares
and thus compelled to acknowledge himself unprepared.
He is the more able to proceed in a logical manner, hav-
ing in mind what has gone before, and looking forward
to what is to come.
(c) ASSIGNMENT OF LESSON
With a well thought-out and analyzed plan of pro-
cedure the teacher may readily and with
Methods of i f ,
Assignment some degree of understanding make an
assignment for the following day. The
statement, "take the next ten pages," or "to the middle
of the next chapter," or "the next lesson" will do oc-
casionally, but good pedagogy demands that it be carried
not too far.
Lessons are frequently disconnected, and irrelevant one
to another or to any other interest of the school or home.
The topical assignment will usually bring the
best results. If the pages of the text-book
contain all the information to which it is de-
sired the pupils have access, well and good. When the
lessons are grouped topically, assignments may be made
both for individual and class work; and the pupil may be
referred to outside sources, or required to discover for
himself material bearing upon the topic in hand.
206 STANDARDS IN EDUCATION
An assignment should be definite. Care must be ex-
ercised to the end that every pupil understands clearly
what is expected of him in preparing for his recitation.
It is ofttimes best to assign work at the be-
Definite* g mnm f a l esson - If this task be left until
Assignments the close of the recitation, the assignment is
sometimes hurried and unsatisfactory, the
ground to be covered being only partially made clear.
If the hoped-for ground be not covered in the recitation,
a different assignment from the one planned may be
necessary.
Even in the lower grades it is sometimes best to assign
special topics or various phases of a given topic to in-
dividual pupils, making each responsible for the lesson in
general, and at the same time seeking to awaken an in-
terest through individual responsibility. By varying the
common plan the pupils themselves may be asked how
much they can cover in a given lesson. Some
pupils, particularly anxious to please the
HIS pwn teacher, will suggest an overlong lesson.
Others may either underestimate their own
capacity or suggest a short lesson as a means of gaining
more time for something else. By noting carefully the
desires of each pupil the teacher may the better study
their characteristics.
While the assignments must be definite, it is not always
wise to give every reference or designate every source of
prospective information. Something should be left to
the ingenuity of the pupil. Encourage the habit of
THE RECITATION PROCESS -07
bringing in information gained from outside so
Great care must be 1 lest work
Pupusmuj c i t hcr too easy or too difficult be assig:
Robbed of then once having requested a pupil to
form a task only the best of reasons should
be accepted for noncompliance.
(d) HOW TO STUDY
The next step after the lesson or topic has been assigned
is its preparation by the class members. Children do
not know how to study. They read their lessons and
give time to them, but seldom study them.
One of the first requisites after becoming interested is
the ability to concentrate. The mind adrift
The value of cannot study; it can only dream. Unless
Concentra- ' ' J
tion the mind can be riveted upon the desired
problem in such a way as to shut out every-
thing of a foreign nature, the lesson in hand cannot really
be studied. Until the pupil is able to do this he would
best not attempt to prepare his school work in a room
where conversation and social intercourse are being carried
on.
The pupil may at times with profit, read the lesson
through from the beginning, whether it be a problem in
arithmetic, a statement in history, or a paragraph in lit-
erature. By miscalling a word or a figure, the whole
meaning or sense of a statement or question may be lost.
A few moments of close application, of uninterrupted
study will accomplish more than several hours of sporadic,
208 STANDARDS IN EDUCATION
intermittent, or mind-wandering attempts. If the pupil
has a study hour at school, the teacher will be able to
note the points at which he needs assistance and offer
suggestions accordingly. Encourage the pupil to ask
himself what he is about to do, as in a geometry lesson he
is taught to determine and state at the outset what he has
given and what he is to prove.
If the pupil has acquired the proper habits of study, he
will not inform the teacher so frequently
Clear State-
ment a He- that he is "all mixed up." Proper habits of
Proper 1 study lead to clear thought and exact ex-
Modes of pression, and thus to rational action. Fre-
Study .
quently on attempting to answer a question, a
student will be unable to state the question to which he
seeks answer. He has not learned to think nor has he
formed habits of study.
As has been suggested, material other than that found
in the text-book may be of value to the pupil. An illus-
tration is in point. A grammar grade class in United
States history had been studying the causes of the Revolu-
tionary War, and had prepared papers to be read in
class. One of the girls in the class, through discussion at
home, had learned something of one of the
individual- more remote causes no t mentioned in the
Dwarfed; text. When she presented this in her paper
An Elustra-
tion she was reprimanded by the teacher. It de-
veloped subsequently in conversation with
the teacher that she did not desire information other than
that of the text, lest the pupils gain ideas faulty or er-
THE A'tt 7 / . I / /< >.Y /'KOCESS MQ
roncous. This teacher, instead of stimulating in the child
the spirit of individual initiative, was closing one of the
avenues of greatest culture.
Some place interest as the only key to right habits of
study. Some insist that the kindergarten offers a sug-
gestion as to methods desirable in the upper schools.
Many grade teachers complain of the pupils who come to
them from the kindergarten, and insist that the play at-
titude has been so strong in early training, that serious
habits of study are difficult to form. In a recent number
of the North American Review,* Professor Barrett Wen-
dell of Harvard says that nothing has done more to break
down serious habits among the young than the use of
is the Kin kindergarten methods beyond the kindcr-
dergarten garten age. In other words, that the dressing
U P f ever y duty in the costume of play de-
Habits of prives the boy or girl of that training which
alone comes from the performance of duty
at whatever cost. Professor Wendell pleads for the cul-
tivation of the conscience and the will in a child as in a
man, and insists that the greatest injury we can do a de-
veloping soul is to teach it that all duty should be sugar-
coated. There comes a time when the wise teacher lays
aside the ribbons and tells the boy to put on his overalls.
Whatever view may be taken regarding this matter,
there can be no question that proper habits of study go
far toward producing a desirable intellectual and moral
atmosphere.
* Vol. 179, p. 396 (Sept., 1904).
Standards 14
210 STANDARDS IN EDUCATION
(e) HEARING THE RECITATION VS. TEACHING
The final stage in the recitation process, so far as teacher
or school is concerned, is that generally spoken of as the
recitation. This is the time when teacher and pupils are
actually together. The custom is common of devoting
this period to hearing the lesson. Questions are asked,
for the most part by the teacher, the answers
TheQues- cominsr from the class. These questions, in
tion and An-
swer Method exact phraseology or in substance, are taken,
many times, from the book, in the order in
which they occur. Thus the lesson takes the form of a
quiz. Too little information is imparted by the teacher.
Simply to hear pupils recite is not teaching. Teaching
is more than hearing a recitation. The teacher who hears
the recitation is keeping school. Caution must be used
that the pupil is not weakened by having his work done
for him. Out of his larger store of knowl-
The Teacher edge, however, and the preparation he has
must Con- *"
tribute made, the teacher should be enabled to add
greatly to the child's fund of information,
information the child cannot acquire from books or at
home.
Too much talking is a dangerous thing. If the teacher
talks much the class will, more and more, lose interest
and will hesitate to give expression to their ideas. This
may finally lead to lack of preparation. The incident
is related of the boy, who, on returning from school,
was asked by his father what he had learned that day.
THE RECITATION PROCESS
"Nothing," replied the boy; "the teacher talked all the
time."
What may be called the study-recitation, is, if projx-rly
conducted, of great value. Instead of assigning a lesson
to be prepared, the lesson is first taken up in class for
analysis. The teacher goes over the work,
^citation" suggesting methods of approach, and ques-
tioning the pupils on the problems to be met
and conquered. At the same time care is exercised that
the difficulties the pupil should meet and overcome are
not laid out before him. By suggesting additional sources
of information bearing upon the lesson, and by adding to
the interest in such manner as the teacher's own knowl-
edge makes possible and his mind prompts, the class may
be stimulated to effort and may begin their task, not
groping blindly, but with understanding of how and
what to study.
This study-recitation or study-preparation lesson is then
a forerunner of a development lesson. Not only is the
pupil's knowledge of facts tested, but he is helped to in-
formation at once useful and educational.
The art of questioning is extremely valuable in the
recitation. Quick, well-directed questions, relative to
the matter in hand stimulate interest. Judgment must
determine whether a question, unanswered
Questioning ^ Q ^ pupi ^ - g {Q ^ passcd Qn to anol h lT .
Sometimes this method brings best results.
Again, when a student fails to answer satisfactorily, he
may be asked another question on a different phase of
212 STANDARDS IN EDUCATION
the lesson, or the original question modified, the better
to be comprehended.
Many teachers make the mistake of repeating an answer
given. For example, the teacher says, "Charles, what is
the case?" "Nominative case," says Charles, to which
the teacher replies, "Yes, nominative case." This mode
of repeating an answer has the effect some-
Danger m times of impressing the point upon the pupil's
ff 6 !Sswers mind. With the habit established by the
teacher so that the pupil expects his answer to
be repeated, the effectiveness is lost. Time also is con-
sumed with no corresponding benefit resulting. The class
members, knowing that the question may be answered
twice, give attention to neither answer. It is generally
best to ask the question before calling upon any particular
pupil by name, thus throwing equal responsibility for
the answer upon all members of the class.
One of the gravest and most common dangers of the
recitation is that of being led astray by a query or dis-
cussion not germane to the lesson. The pupil who is un-
prepared may assume deep interest and ask
a question entirely foreign to the subject
comes the under discussion, in order to draw the
teacher away from the recitation. Irrelevant
questions may, of course, be asked in all fairness at any
time. The teacher must guard against making the lesson
so broad as to include any question asked. It is, as a rule,
better to hold the discussion within fairly well-defined limits.
While rapid questions and answers bring good results,
THE RECITATION PROCESS 213
it is not always best to pass the question along if the reply
is not forthcoming at once. Permit the pupil to think if
out. Too great hurry may rob him of the very training
he needs.
Leaving a pupil in doubt as to the correctness of an
answer will ofttimcs stimulate thought. Ask the same
question of several, receiving the answers without com-
ment. This allows for freedom and variety in expression
and a fuller consideration of the topic than might other-
wise be possible. It will also tend to make a student
sure of his position and to hold it against argument.
If the teacher has thoroughly and conscientiously pre-
pared for his lesson, he need not then worry about fol-
lowing a cut-and-dried line of action. In his Talks to
Teachers,* Professor James says, "The advice I would
give to most teachers would be in the words of one who is
herself an admirable teacher ' Prepare y ours el j in the
subject so well that it will be always on tap; then in the
class room trust your spontaneity and fling away all
further care.' "
Encouragement of a dull or poorly prepared student is
sometimes essential. Sarcasm should seldom be resorted
to; and spite and irritation have absolutely
Encourage- no pj ace m the school. A pupil should rarely
ment as
Necessary be humiliated or threatened. Just as cn-
couragement and a "well done" bring good
results, so does sharp and just criticism have
its place. Fairness is the one thing that must be looked
* Page 222.
214 STANDARDS IN EDUCATION
to. No favoritism should ever be shown. The teacher,
be he ever so strict, will be admired if he has a reputa-
tion for square dealing.
Many pupils are sensitive to a fault; and with them
harshness or nagging is very injurious. It is human
nature even for adults to want praise and favorable com-
ment when some task has been done creditably. Teachers
are too apt to forget that the sympathetic nature of the
child demands recognition on the part of those whom it
seeks to emulate. When it is deserved, the teacher should
not withhold the favorable criticism even though it be
given merely in a look or word.
As little as possible should the teacher use the book in
class, or ask questions in a direct order as given in the
text. Neither should the pupils be questioned in any
regular order. In some classes where this method is
pursued, each pupil picks out the question he knows will
come to him, prepares on that and ignores the remainder
of the lesson. If a question is asked of the one least ex-
pecting it, all will soon learn to attend. Practise the
method of calling upon a class member to ask a question
that will clear up a vague point, and you will be surprised
at the good work that may be done. While individuality
is to be desired, mutual helpfulness and team work are of
great value.
Avoid a set attitude or position before the class, just as
you avoid using the same phrases time after time, or of
employing only one mode of questioning. Do not feel
that there is any reason why you should always sit or
THE RECITATION /'A
always stand in class. Be alert in movement, ready in
action, but calm and forceful withal.
The test or examination has its place, but must not be
abused. A recapitulation may often prove best at the
beginning of a recitation. It is a question with many
whether a pupil who fails continually in his daily recita-
tions but who comes through on a final examination
should be credited with an adequate knowledge of the
subject. By " cramming" for a short time before an ex-
amination, a pupil may be able to pass creditably, but
the knowledge he has gained will likely leave him as
readily as it was acquired. On the other
hand, the student whose class work has 1
beyond reproach for a period of weeks or
tions
months, may fail in an examination. The
excitement of the moment renders the student incompe-
tent; and a grave injustice may be done him if he is
kept back or required to go over the same ground again.
Here, as elsewhere, the mental dimensions of the stu-
dent must be taken, and each case decided on its own
merits.
Too much stress must not be placed upon examinations,
but both oral and written tests, not at stated times nec-
essarily, but when least expected, will tend to stimulate
interest and increase standards of efficiency.
THESES
i. Great care must be exercised in planning the cur-
riculum, that it may not only be interesting, but that it
2i6 STANDARDS IN EDUCATION
may make the pupils more efficient and their life work
more effective.
2. The best books should be used as texts, and these
only as suggestive. All available sources of informa-
tion should be drawn upon, thus widening the pupil's
vision.
3. It is essential that the teacher plan each lesson he
is to present.
4. In assigning lesson or topic to class members, the
method should be varied. Assignment must be definite
and clear, but not such as to rob the pupil of effort.
5. Pupils should be taught how to study. Concentra-
tion of mind and effort is essential.
6. In the recitation the teacher must himself contribute.
The art of questioning must be developed, and stereo-
typed methods avoided.
7. Favorable as well as adverse criticism has a place.
8. Tests and examinations have great value, but they
must be used with discrimination.
TOPICS FOR STUDY
1. Give the arguments for and against a teacher of a
given grade selecting the study material for such grade.
2. Suppose the curriculum of a country school to be
made up of such study material as bears a close relation
to city conditions. What are the benefits from such a
plan?
3. Is the average age of pupils in the eighth school year
greater in the city or in the country? Is the tendency
THE RECITATION PROCESS
217
greater in rural or urban communities for boys to leave
school before the eighth grade?
4. Consider the advantages and disadvantages of a
"State Series" of text-books.
5. Consider the relative merits for class use of the
present texts in history and geography, and such books
as are classed as supplementary readers treating of i :
manners and customs, etc.
6. Should books and other school equipment be fur-
nished the pupil, the same to remain school property, or
should the pupil purchase them ?
7. Suggest how pupils may be interested in gathering
material outside the regular text used. What are the best
methods of securing and using materials for museums,
collections, scrapbooks, filing cases, etc.?
8. Secure information from your fellow students or
your teacher as to the value of note taking and the use of
notebooks. Should the pupil take notes in permanent
form, or with the idea in mind of transcribing them later ?
9. Ask a class of grade pupils how they prepare a lesson.
Suppose that you have charge of a class during study
hour or that you take them to the library : how will you
assist them in their preparation ?
10. How does the kindergarten assist in or detract
from the work of the next grades above?
11. Where is there least danger: in over-encouragement,
or in adverse criticism of pupils?
12. Discuss fully the value of, and danger in, exami-
nations, tests, reports, marks, prizes, medals, etc.
218
STANDARDS IN EDUCATION
CONSULT
BAGLEY The Educative Process, chaps. 16-22.
BRUMBAUGH The Making of a Teacher, chap. 20.
BRYAN The Basis of Practical Teaching, chap. 10.
DEWEY School and Society, chap. 3.
GIFFIN School Days of the Fifties, chaps. 3, 5, 9 & n.
GREENWOOD Successful Teaching, pp. 75-81; 97-106.
HINSDALE The Art of Study, pp. 7-89.
McMuRRY Suggestions for the Improvement of the Study
Period. Proceedings, Department Superin-
tendence, N. E. A., 1906, pp. 78-84.
PAGE Theory and Practice of Teaching, chaps. 8 & 9.
PUTNAM Manual of Pedagogy, chap. 9.
SEELEY The Foundations of Education, chap. 18.
THORNDIKE Principles of Teaching, pp. 257-264.
WHITE School Management, pp. 21-30; 130-166.
CHAPTER X
TRAINING, PROFESSIONAL GROWTH AND
RECOMPENSE OF THE TEACHER
A. INITIAL PREPARATION
(a) Knowledge of Subject-Matter
IF the normal or training school that prepares for gen-
eral teaching is on a high-school basis, that is, if it ad-
mits only those who have had the equivalent of a sec-
ondary education, then its students should possess a
knowledge of subject-matter sufficient to
Grammar warrant their teaching without a technical
school Re- study of subjects in the normal school. In
quirement
for Normal other words, the years spent in training
should be applied professionally-wise. If,
on the other hand, the normal school ad-
mits from the eighth school year or takes those with
less than an academic education, subject-matter, as such,
must be pursued along with the professional work. In
any event, as suggested in a former chap-
subject- ter * a knowledge of subject-matter is ab-
Matter vs.
Method solutely essential to a teacher and should
precede the work in method. No one can
be expected to teach that which he does not himself
* See page 28.
219
220 STANDARDS IN EDUCATION
know, and he should be expected to know much more
than he is required to teach. This is a point upon which
too much emphasis cannot be laid.
(b) The Value of Psychology
Psychology is the interpretation of human nature.
There is nothing strange or wonderful about it. We
talk of physiological psychology, or of descriptive psy-
chology, or of empirical or experimental or
Psychology, faculty psvcholosrv ; but we mean only human
the Interpre-
tation of nature. Some years ago a mother said of
N^lre ner daughter, who, at the year's beginning,
was being classified for psychology, " I sup-
pose she is to take up the study of the soul."
We study human nature and the laws governing
human nature, that we may develop common sense,
the rarest of all senses. But our study of psychology
usually is involved. It is bound up with
Philosophy, and pedagogy, and metaphysics
the study of and method ; and so intricate is it, and so
Psychology , .
mixed and confused the terminology, that in
most cases not only are the students bewildered, but
the teachers themselves, when they pause to analyze
their work, find that they are all but as confused as the
students.
Psychology is studied in the normal school and by
students in training generally, but possessing a knowl-
edge of the principles of the science will not produce
a teacher.
TIIK TEACHER: TRAINING AND GROWTH 221
Only when the facts or laws of psychology ai
in pedagogy, pedagogy being appli
L u^tio^f" ch lgy onl y then is the latter of d
Law value to the teacher. But the law.
be applied rationally or undcrstandingly until
they are grasped and comprehended. As Dr. Emerson
E. White says, " The method of teaching a human mind
knowledge involves the process by which the mind
acquires such knowledge, and for this we must go to
psychology." *
In beginning his work as a teacher of normal students,
the author chose for a text in one of his classes a volume
he had read and thought he had studied, a volume enti-
tled an Introduction to the subject. When the year was
half-spent, he began to realize that the large
Tei^BookB number of students possessed only vague,
indefinite ideas of the subject in hand. A
few weeks later he awoke to the fact that the book was
to him a blank ; and at the close of the year he was
driven to the conclusion that the psychologist had mis-
taken his calling. Instead of an Introduction to psychol-
ogy, the book endeavored to cover the most obscure fields
of mentality ; its writer had floundered beyond his depth
and ours, had used terms understood neither by himself
nor by us, to the end that he had succeeded admirably
in beclouding our minds as well as his own.
It is then this vagueness, this obscure phraseology
used by too many of our writers on psychology, that
* The Art of Teaching, p. 10.
222 STANDARDS IN EDUCATION
renders the subject dense. This is one reason for the
feeling on the part of many who study psy-
Ptoaseoiogy chology, and this feeling is shared by many
Causes Dis- teachers who, without a professional train-
Subj 6 e ct r m g have been reasonably successful in their
work, that psychology is pure theory and
cannot be applied, that the only way to learn to teach is
to teach. Experience, they say, is not merely the best,
it is the only teacher, and the teacher moreover is born,
not made.
The fallacy of this view when carried to the ultimate
is apparent. It is controverted by the presence of the
thousands who are in our normal schools. It is not nec-
essary for us in this day to go back to the beginning and
to work our way through experience. Experience on our
parts is undoubtedly the best teacher, but
t ^ ie experiences of others are of great value
for us also. Again, it is said that psychol-
ogy cannot tell us exactly what to do, or what method
to employ ; that, depending upon circumstances, one may
use this method or that ; any one of several may apply
with equal force. There is a measure of truth in this
statement, but education comes through the process of
elimination as well as that of accretion. Psychology,
when applied, teaches us many times what not to do, and
if unable in a given instance to suggest what method, or
scheme or plan should be operative, it may point with
certainty to that which should not be done.
The contention is sometimes advanced that he who
THE TEACHER: TRAINING AND GROWTH 223
would be a teacher needs no training in practice
pedagogic lines, because, having the experience of many
teachers as a guide, he can readily say what should be
imitated and what avoided. " It would be as reasonable
to assert," says Oscar Browning, " that an invalid who
has passed through the hands of many physicians would
make an excellent doctor." If the study of psychology
and normal school work is to be effective and to throw
light upon educational problems, theory and practice
must go together.
(c) Attitude of the Prospective Teacher
Most of those who enter the normal school or pro-
fessional course come fresh from secondary or other in-
stitutions of learning that they may prepare for teach-
ing. What has inspired them to look in this direction ?
What has inspired you ? A brother or sister or parent
or friend has taught, or is teaching, and why not you ;
you must earn a livelihood to support either yourself or
family members ; you think you love children, or enjoy
instructing, or glory in power, or believe you
Reasons for have ability as a disciplinarian, or consider
Entering the '
Profession the work easy or clean or dignified or above
reproach, or the hours short ; you desire to
tide over the period between graduation and matrimony ;
you are making it a stepping-stone to the occupation or
profession you expect to follow through life ; you see in
teaching opportunity to accomplish great good and to be
of service to mankind ; you come for one or more or all
224 STANDARDS IN EDUCATION
or none of these reasons, but if asked why you are in the
training school or are teaching to-day, you might be un-
able to return a satisfactory reply.
The student who enters the normal school comes from
an academic atmosphere an atmosphere of
stud y> of P lav > of companionship. But how
High school different the atmosphere of the high school
from that of the professional institution. In
the former there was work to be done, so many prob-
lems in algebra, so many pages in history, a certain set
of experiments in physics or chemistry. In a general
sense the student knows when he has accomplished his
task. Many times he works for the answer and if the
answer be wrong, either the book or the teacher so in-
forms him. In the high school the student has duties
and obligations to be sure, but the processes are aca-
demic. In the normal school there are two, three or four
years of work before him, and still further in the future
lies actual participation in his chosen profession. That
it is difficult to dissociate these academic standards from
the professional attitude it is necessary to assume, all will
agree ; and yet how essential that the latter be made
a part of the very life of the teacher,
though not that the view should be less op-
tudeisPro- timistic, or the life be less full, less joyous
than before. There is now a motive, a pur-
pose, because the teacher should have a distinct, clear-
cut aim.
With a definite motive comes a somewhat changed
THE TEACHER: TRAINING AND GROWTH 225
method, a new attitude. In the academic atmosphere
there is much of this, that, or the other before the stu-
dent, with a more or less definite answer in each case.
In the normal school you study psychology or pedagogy
or method as applied to the various subjects with which
you are supposed to be familiar, and if you are not cau-
tious you lose or do not gain the very student attitude you
seek. No longer is it possible to clear the way with a
Yes or No. More and more must the student do his own
thinking. It is not enough to know that the book says
so and so, though too often in the elementary and second-
ary schools is this considered sufficient ; the question is,
" What do you think about it ? "
An illustration is in point. A group of boys fresh
from a recitation in the fourth year of the high school
were talking over the recent lesson. It was evident that
one of the young men had thought himself prepared be-
fore attending the class; and, because he
Thought h ac | devoted more time to this particular les-
Values an
illustration son than he had to any other, he was sur-
prised that the teacher should have shown
dissatisfaction. One of his fellows remarked that time
put upon a lesson was not the only factor to be consid-
ered. He assured his classmate that in the recitations of
Mr. A. one must be able to answer the questions, to be
sure, but he must read between the lines as well ; he
must look up the implications and prepare upon any pos-
sible issues growing out of the lesson. As I heard these
comments, serious and to the point, I said to myself,
Standards 15
226 STANDARDS IN EDUCATION
" This satisfies me ; Mr. A. is a good teacher and will
succeed."
(d) Ability to Teach
The individual who seeks training in a professional
school that he may qualify for teaching should have a
real desire to enter the profession, and if
Province of possible should possess the natural qualities
the Training most essential to the teacher. In any event
he must be assured, and must assure his in-
structors before he is allowed to be graduated, that he
has the ability to teach. No normal school should grad-
uate as a teacher one who does not give ample evidence
of superior ability in his chosen field ; and those, who,
after a reasonable time spent in a training school do not
promise well, should be advised to pursue some other oc-
cupation. One does himself great injustice to enter the
profession unless he is in every way, by nature and train-
ing, adapted thereto. A still greater injustice he does
those who are so unfortunate as to come under his in-
struction.
B. THE TEACHER'S READING
Every teacher and every student, as well as everyone
who pretends to interest himself in educational affairs,
should begin early to accumulate such books
o?B<Joks 6 as are best adapted to his needs. Discretion
should be exercised in the choosing of a
book, as a teacher can afford to read only the best ; and
THE TEACHER: TRAINING AND GROWTH 227
he should purchase only those that will go to make up a
working library. They must be selected with more care
than was shown by the man, less literary than wealthy,
who in furnishing his home requested the dealer to
him some books. On being questioned as to what par-
ticular line of reading would best suit him, the pun
replied that books with blue, green and brown covers,
and with gilt lettering on the backs, such as he had been
accustomed to see in the homes of his friends, were of
the kind he wished:
The teacher must not look upon the book as an article
of furniture or a bit of decoration. He must use the
book as a companion and should treat it as a friend and
counselor. It is better to read a good book thoroughly
and to reread it, than to plunge through the pages of
many volumes of weak, superficial matter.
Thorough- .
ness and Dis- A book should never be mutilated, but no
^Beading 11 volume is to g d to be used 5 and th e per-
Essentiaito son who is tempted to mark the passages
Good Results j i i
and make notes and comments upon the
margins is the one who is likely to get the most from
his book.
No teacher can afford to read a book simply because
it is for the moment popular or because some one else has
read it. Many people read books as they see an art gal-
lery, or as they do Europe. In their desire to see every-
thing, they observe little, comprehend less, and remember
almost nothing at all. Each book should be selected
with a purpose, and so read that the mind may retain
228 STANDARDS IN EDUCATION
for use the most valuable thoughts and ideas contained
therein.
It is an admirable plan for the teacher to discuss his
book with a friend. Sometimes it is best to consult with
a member of the profession or with a fellow student ; and
again suggestions of much value may come by talking
with those engaged in other lines of work,
interchange whose thoughts are directed upon other pur-
Boo^vlhTes suits - Tne eve of tne critic should not dim
itself by looking for fallacies or by searching
out the mistakes, because the aim should be to get from
the book the greatest possible good it can give, selecting
for afterthought and consideration the portions of great-
est value, then holding them in readiness for instant use,
just as the finer, more thoroughly ground material is held
in suspension in a rapidly flowing stream.
Books of a reference nature and those not likely to
be in frequent demand may be secured from the public
library. The number and completeness of our public libra-
ries have made unnecessary the purchase, by the individ-
ual teacher, of such volumes. A borrowed book should
be treated with the utmost care and returned at the
reader's earliest convenience to private owner or public
library without injury.
Read much, read thoroughly, read the best, read with
a purpose, read to remember ; be critical within reason,
judge with caution, compare without haste and conclude
with a willingness to revise your opinion, for the light of
to-morrow may dispel the ignorance of to-day.
TEACHER: TRAINING AND GROWTH 229
C. THE TEACHER'S ASSOCIATES
If the effect of example upon the pupils is such as to
make for higher or lower standards <t moral-
ity so is the effect u Pn the teacher's life of
worthy a higher or a lower grade according as his
Associates
associates are selected from this or that body
of individuals.
The opportunities of the teacher are unexcelled in the
matter of choice of society. The best is open to him.
Not only should he choose to be a part of the best and
highest, but he should make it his province, his privilege
and his duty, to help mold and shape the social atmos-
phere, and to do his part in perfecting and uplifting the
lives of the individuals with whom he may be placed.
While not seeking to shun responsibilities that may be
his in dealing with the less desirable elements of society,
and while looking down upon or ignoring none, it is well
to look upward rather than downward, forward instead
of backward ; better it is to touch elbows with those who
in intellectual attainment and strength of character are
his superiors than to lower his own standards by sub-
tracting from himself that which marks the man.
D. CONTACT WITH THE ISSUES OF LIFE
(a) Standards of Morality
No teacher can do the best of which he is capable, or
be in the community the element of strength he should
become, unless his interests extend beyond the confines
230 STANDARDS IN EDUCATION
of the schoolroom. The needs of his pupils should have
first place in his thoughts and he should not use the pro-
fession as a stepping-stone to something else,
^ut he cannot be of the greatest value to his
terestsDe- pupils unless his horizon is broader than
sirable
mere teaching, as the term is generally un-
derstood. He must so live and so teach that on going into
a far country the talents which he has given his pupils
will not be hid in the earth, but will be used by them so
as to be a source of additional gain. To do this he must
constantly keep before himself and his students high stand-
ards of morality. True education lies not merely in facts
accumulated, or in the making of intellectual misers, but
rather in an income investment on the facts learned and
the turning of them into intellectual capital. The unit
of measurement is that of moral worth.
Let the teacher see to it that his contact with life is
first and foremost of that wholesome, health-
tul character which makes for moral growth
to Moral an d strength. It is only when the teacher is
Standards
closely in touch with the issues of life, with
the business and pleasure, the goings and comings, the
ups and downs of actual living, that he is in a position to
realize fully the increasing need of advanced standards
of morality; and it is only under such conditions that he
is in a position to appreciate the mighty advances that
have been made and are being made in the moral tone of
the people everywhere.
And these increased moral standards are to be realized
THE TEACHER: TRAINING AND GR( Ml / // 2 y
only as there is constantly before the mind tin- lofty purpose
and high ideal as suggested in such lines as:
" My child, choose well the colors
Which thou wilt use to-day
In adding to the painting of thy life;
And ere thy brush shall trace a single line,
Be sure that in thy soul there reiens supreme
The image of that which thou dost long to be."
(b) Material and Industrial Development
In the second place, the teacher should keep in touch
with the growth of our commercial interests. The ma-
terial development and industrial progress of our country
should interest every member of the body politic. What-
ever may be one's rank, station, financial condition or
profession, it is incumbent upon him not only to take
an interest in, but to have a share in the great onward
movement which makes for changed conditions in the
material world, the better to understand fully the effect
produced upon the individual and upon society.
It is needless for school people longer to ignore these
vast industrial movements; indeed it is all but criminal
to keep apart from these stupendous forces that, whether
we approve or not, must go forward and help to shape
the moral thought and mental warp and woof of all
human understanding. The attitude, the tendencies,
the achievements of the individual, in whatever field he
may labor, are largely influenced and shaped by this
industrial feeling; and our lives, as the days come and go,
are shot through and through by the achievements in the
232 STANDARDS IN EDUCATION
industrial world. The teacher must keep thoroughly in
touch with the movements and forces that mean so much
to the progress of a people.
Problems of heating, lighting and ventilation, of trans-
portation by land and water, of the distribu-
ti n f water su PPty> are constantly to be met
be consid- an d solved. The postal, telegraph, cable and
telephone service, sanitary conditions, labor-
saving devices and instruments and machines that do
the work of many men in so short a time as to make it
unbelievable; these must be perfected. Improvement is
the order of the day in printing, in making articles of
clothing, and of shelter, in converting raw materials into
usable products; in manufacture, agriculture, mining,
lumbering; in machinery and appliances everywhere.
The cause and progress of war and the reasons for the
establishment and reign of peace must be understood.
No teacher can expect to hold himself apart from the
resistless movement industrial-wise and still retain his
hold upon the normal boy in this modern age.
(c) Esthetic Feeling
By aesthetic feeling, the third element going to make
up the contact with life's issues, I mean appreciation of
and actual participation in the best and noblest and love-
liest which the world has to give in song and story and
conversation, in color and harmony, in landscape and
animal and plant. Sunlight and shade, bird song and word
picture, towering cathedral and mountain torrent, all are
THE TEACHER: TRAINING AND GK<)\\ I II 233
inspiring and uplifting; and it is contact with the
tlu u-acluT needs to strengthen his love for the
and to help him to keep the ears and eyes and sen
ties of his pupils ever attuned to those sights and sound,
that go to make up the beautiful life.
The thing aesthetic is the thing cultural; the true and
the right, if useful, are cultural. Each day
Elements tne teacher should renew and rein spin- him-
self by drinking in the beauties of nature or
of art or music that he may keep fresh and optimistic.
These things make for culture, which is the capacity for
nobler thinking, for higher ideals, for keener sensibilities,
for deeper sympathies. Culture is exemplified in a grow-
ing spirit of tolerance for the less opportunitied or more
unfortunate than ourselves; it aims at an increased ap-
preciation of inspiring music, uplifting art, ennobling
literature, strengthening oratory. Abhorrence of wrong
and love of right are its trainbearers and without it cannot
be had that true, strong, helpful character which makes
for success and joy and peace.
E. READING CIRCLES, EXTENSION COURSES, CORRESPOND-
ENCE AND SUMMER SCHOOLS
To grow and keep abreast of the times the teacher must
read and study and investigate. He can do much by him-
self, but in company with others working along similar
lines he may accomplish more. As an institution of culture
and learning, the reading circle, if properly conducted, is
of value. If a book or syllabus is to be studied, much
234 STANDARDS IN EDUCATION
profitable work may be done in the reading circle, but
having chosen the book for study, the problem of organ-
ization must be carefully considered, or the work will be
aimless and lacking in results. It is always best to select
a leader, one who will hold argument or discussion within
bounds, and who will keep the members from drifting
away from the point under consideration. To obtain the
greatest good trivial detail must be eliminated, and each
member must contribute.
The extension course is sometimes of the "get rich
quick" character and is amusing and entertaining only.
Again, the well-selected extension course for which one
prepares and submits reports, is an element of intrinsic
worth, and one to be reckoned with educationally. If
the teacher finds opportunity, he may with slight ex-
penditure of time and money gain benefit and inspira-
tion.
The correspondence school has long since passed the
experimental stage. Thousands of people the country
over have registered and pursued courses in one or another
of our correspondence schools. For those who have not
had the advantage of adequate school training or who
find themselves delinquent in a particular field, the ad-
vantages of correspondence work are many. Care must
be exercised, however, in the choosing of the
subject to be studied, as certain lines of
correspond- work lend themselves to correspondence in-
enceWork .... ,
struction while others do not. A course
in manual training by correspondence is one of the an-
THE TEACHER: TRAINING \ \i> GSM / // 235
nounccmcntsnvcntly made and would bealmod as i
lous as to attempt lo teach morals and dims in thi.,
secondhand manner. History, civics, mechanical draw-
ing, bookkeeping and certain other subjects may be pur-
sued with profit under the direction of the well-cond
correspondence school.
The summer school is more of a problem to the teacher,
although it presents greater opportunities than does the
reading circle or the extension course. The assumption is
that the teacher needs rest and quiet during the vaca-
tion period; and then it is that the summer
The summer school is active. It is nevertheless the fact
School its
Advantages tn ^t the summer school may offer the work
of which the teacher stands in need, and ai
the same time furnish the opportunity for the change
which is itself recreation. Especially is the summer
school valuable to the out-of-town teacher, the one who
needs contact with people and books, music and activity.
To such a student or teacher, the four or six weeks of the
summer school may be of inestimable value, and to those
who cannot afford the advantage of advanced study
during the school year, it supplies that which they
would otherwise remain without. The sum-
Dangers mer Sc h 00 i student must be cautious lest he
from Over- f
work in the overestimate his powers of accomplishment,
scho^ Should he overwork during his summer
course he will not return to his classes with
the vigor and enthusiasm they have a right to expect of
him.
236 STANDARDS IN EDUCATION
F. TEACHERS' MEETINGS, INSTITUTES AND CONVENTIONS
The teachers' meeting of twenty years ago is rapidly
passing, although in counties and towns of the isolated
districts will still be found the traditional
Sf e e Net and institute. Where the meeting or conven-
tion occurs at a stated time, and all the
teachers in a town or district are compelled by law to at-
tend each session of the entire meeting, which covers a
period of several days or a week, it loses its power for
good. The teacher who has just completed a term of
work needs rest rather than enforced attendance upon
lectures, where he listens perhaps to one who knows
less about the subject that he is presenting than does
the listener himself. On the other hand, no factor lends
itself better to the improvement of teaching, or is better
suited to keep the teachers happy and contented or to
make them progressive and enthusiastic, than the well-
ordered teachers' convention. Those who complain that
attendance at an institute is a complete loss of time
have been unhappy in their selection of lecture or speaker,
or have gone in the spirit of criticism. We get from a
thing largely in proportion as we carry to it; and no one
is so well informed but that he may get some word of
help or encouragement from the lesson or sermon or
lecture to which he listens.
An element not to be disregarded is that of friendships
formed, of companionships, of associations, and of the
renewed spirit which comes from the large number
THE TEACHER: TRAINING AND GROWTH 237
gathered for one purpose. While it is the indi
who must do his own work, nevertheless the
N^mlera 6 teacher who, failing to see results and do
ing in his own mind the outcome of hi
forts, sees in the great body of those who engage in the
same great undertaking, the forecast of final acl
ment; and he carries with him to his work the hope and
faith in humankind that was slipping from him.
It is often best for the teacher to listen to the exposition
of those subjects which he himself does not teach, or for
which he is not responsible, the better to see the rela-
tion of other subjects to his own, and to appreciate the
value and worth of such subjects and note the applica-
tion of method. More and more, as the purely th
ical attitude of the institute is being displaced by work of
an eminently practical nature, by a setting forth of the
real problems and the results of experience and investi-
gation, the teachers' meeting is coming to be of great
value.
G. QUALITIES ESSENTIAL TO GROWTH
(a) Honesty
It is, in a sense, well-nigh impossible to designate this
or that particular individual characteristic as the one
necessary to success in that mental workshop, the school.
Among what I shall call the essential qualities in the
teacher's make up, however, honesty, integrity and truth
stand out as being of first importance. I have not in
238 STANDARDS IN EDUCATION
mind the from-time-to-time honesty, practised by many,
the kind that works under certain conditions and lapses
at intervals, a variety of Sunday honesty, if you please.
No doubt we are all more or less inclined to reach our
high watermark of absolute truthfulness at rare intervals,
just as our mental or physical selves attain their maximum
efficiency only from time to time, sweeping back to the ordi-
nary standards of everyday life. What I have in mind is
the clean-cut, out-in-the-open honesty that is active ever
and always, not simply when a great point is at issue.
" This above all : to thine own self be true,
And it must follow, as the night the day,
Thou canst not then be false to any man."
Most of us will be honest and truthful in matters of serious
import, though we do not stick to the truth so readily
in word or deed, when the trifling circumstances or in-
significant matter is in question. There are few who
defraud a neighbor of a large bill; but it is thought to
be a matter of equity to defraud the street car company
out of the five cent fare which the conductor thinks he
has collected.
Especially among teachers should an absolutely strict
standard of honesty be adhered to; and no teacher who
works under less than this absolute standard could create
in the mind of his pupils the ideals they should possess.
It ought not to be a matter of extraordinary comment
that this or that individual be spoken of as strictly honest.
Indeed, the rare thing and the one to draw comment
THE TEACHl.R. TRAINING AND GROWTH 239
should be the statement thai a given man was not abso-
lutely dependable. If each human being were as honest
and truthful and reliable as he would \\ i h hi.-, IV How to
be when dealing with him, how mightily impro\
we find our standards.
But on the part of the teacher particularly, this atti-
tude of truthfulness must be real, not sugar o
If there is pretense or sham, the first to become av, i
it will be the pupil; and the effect upon him is anything
but good, as he loses confidence in the one who should
be his model.
Alice 'Gary says:
"True worth is in being, not seeming,
In doing each day that goes by
Some little good, not in dreaming
Of great things to do, bye and bye
For whatever men say in their blindness
And spite of the fancies of youth
There's nothing so kingly as kindness
And nothing so royal as truth."
(b) Open-Mindedness
A quality absolutely essential to the teacher, if growth
is to keep pace with experience, is that of open-minded-
ness. The attitude exemplified by the statement, "I
am willing to be convinced, but you will
find Jt impossible to convince me," does
vs. i Know no t militate in the direction of develop-
ment and growth. The teacher must be
stable, to be sure; he must not be turned by every theory
and statement that confronts him, but he must ever be
240 STANDARDS IN EDUCATION
ready and willing to know more; and to do this, no idea
or whim of his should be too sacred to be displaced by
one containing a larger measure of truth.
"If I were to frame a text," said Colonel Parker, "it
would be, 'O God, preserve me from the foregone, conclu-
sion.' " What the Colonel styled the suspended
judgment, a mind attitude that shows a will-
Scant Evi- ingness to believe in oneself, but reserves,
dence . . . . . . ..
at the same time, critical judgment until
the evidence is all in, this helps to constitute the open
mind. No mind can be great that draws its conclusions
only to meet those already formed. The teacher who is
honest and sincere need have no fear of
STSS^of bein S looked u P n as lackin g in strength
the Great o f character, if he is ever ready to receive
TVTitiH
and give consideration to advice and counsel
from any source whatsoever. Only a small mind can
be self -centered and self-satisfied. The great mind is
always open to catch the ray that flashes out in word or
act or accomplishment, and so to focus it as to increase
its brilliancy and power.
(c) Spirit of Absolute Responsibility
The matter of responsibility has its roots firmly in
what has already been discussed under honesty and
open-mindedness. The strictly honest, absolutely truth-
ful man is the responsible man, responsible in so far as
his knowledge and capacity are concerned. The man
who, knowing the right or the line of action that should
THE TEACHER: TRAINING AND (,l<o\\l n ,
be pursued, deviates from or ignores it, can in no measure
be considered as possessing the spirit of responsibility.
Dr. Andrew S. Draper sets forth admirably the dis-
tinction between the responsible character and the
lacking in this respect. He says :
"In the winter of 1891-92, a train, for some trivial
reason, came to an unusual stop near the village of
Hastings on the New York Central and Hudson River
Railroad, at perhaps the most beautiful and historic part
of the Hudson River Valley. The unusual stoppage of
the train created the occasion for the exercise of unusual
care. The rules of the company were explicit. It be-
came the immediate duty of the trainman who had
charge of the rear platform, to take his lantern and go
back and warn any approaching train. Mere stick that
he proved himself to be, if he had only followed his
orders all would have been well. It was dark, but not
stormy. There was no excuse. If he had possessed
any of the spirit which the public has the right to expect
of a trainman, he would have met the occasion and pro-
tected his train, orders or no orders. He had no spirit ;
he disobeyed his orders ; the through express crashed
through the rear of the standing train, a score of people
were killed, and as many more maimed and mangled for
life.
" Late in the afternoon of the next day after this unfor-
tunate occurrence, I left Albany to come West, in the
last car of the second section of the southwestern limited
express. The two trains, making more than forty miles
Standards 16
242 STANDARDS IN EDUCATION
an hour, were less than ten minutes apart. The weather
had become very cold, the wind was blowing a gale, and
the snow was so thick that one could not see the length
of a car. When in the snow belt between Utica and
Syracuse, the engineer whistled so sharply and the air
brakes were set so suddenly, and with such terrific effect,
that it was evident there was serious occasion for an
abrupt stop. As the train slowed up and stopped, the
cries of a man were heard outside. Opening the rear
door the figure of a man with unlighted lamps, climbed
up into the vestibule and fell upon the platform ex-
hausted. His emotions were uncontrollable, and he con-
tinually murmured, < I stopped her, he saw me ; I brought
her down.' Assisting him inside the car, we slowly
gathered the facts. This was the rear trainman on the
first section of our double train. His train had over-
hauled a freight wreck and had been obliged to stop.
The circumstances were appalling, the danger was immi-
nent, but the man who was responsible proved equal to
the emergency. He buttoned up his coat, took his
lamps and ran up the track into the darkness and the
blinding storm. If he had obeyed his orders in a per-
functory way only, it would have been of no avail. His
lamps were blown out, and he exhausted his last match
in vain efforts to relight them in the wind. Only unu-
sual resources would now distinguish him from any
tramp, in the mind of the engineer. But his spirit rose
to the occasion. Removing his coat and taking that in
one hand and his lightless lamps in the other, he ran on up
illL TEACHER: TRAINING AND GROWTH 243
the track. Soon our train came in sight. ! I
the track ; he got within the glare of the headlight ; he
frantically swung his lamps and his coat llooed
with all his might to the monarch in the cab ; he :
the whistle of the engine and heard the brakes take hold,
got off the track as the train was close upon him, and,
as it stopped, was helped into the last car. That was
spirit. It had saved his train; perhaps ours also."*
An illustration in line with the above and emphasizing
the necessity for a more universally recognized spirit of
responsibility, is fresh in my mind. On the night of the
New Year, 1905, I left Chicago, traveling southward on
the Illinois Central Railroad. Late in the evening, and
after most of the occupants of the car had retired, our
engine whistled sharply and the train soon stopped. After
a few minutes delay, I left my seat and stepped out upon
the track. As a lamp burned away up toward the en-
gine, I made my way forward and saw a half dozen men
standing on either side of a dark object. Pushing my
way within the circle I asked, " Is he dead ? " As no one
seemed to know, I endeavored to ascertain. Inquiry as
to the location of the nearest station sent a trainman back
to search. The unfortunate ' tramp ' was carried to the
small station close by, but our engine had done its work.
Lingering to the last I stepped upon the train with one
of the brakemen ; and there were tears in his eyes as he
turned to me and said : " The third man this train has
killed this week."
* Proceedings California Teachers Association, 1897, pp.
244 STANDARDS IN EDUCATION
This then is lack of the sense of responsibility, or of
spirit, if you please, lack on the part of the
Mift P Lack man w ^ overns t ^ ie en g me it m ay be ; lack
ing AII on the part of the company that requires or
permits too many consecutive hours of duty
without sufficient rest, or failure on the part
of the employee to refuse duties for which he is unfitted ;
lack exemplified in a time schedule fitted for speed rather
than for safety, and brought about by the demands of the
public, or the intense desire for the "almighty dollar " by
the railroad stockholders ; lack shown in toleration of a
system that permits a man to purchase the liquor that
renders him oblivious to the oncoming train ; somewhere
there is a lack, a sad, criminal, inexcusable lack of respon-
sibility ; and until the teacher, having learned to practise
this virtue, shall thus be enabled, little by little, to incul-
cate in the pupils the same spirit, we may not expect the
day to dawn when in practice as well as in theory, re-
sponsibility will be the watchword of our everyday ex-
istence.
(d) Fearlessness Simplicity
As I write, the realization is forced upon me that while
it is a simple thing to talk of fearlessness
and its value in the make-up of the teacher,
the Doctrine it is at the same time a difficult task to prac-
of Fearless- A . , . P , , . . . ,. .
tise this fearlessness and this simplicity.
Here again, only the absolutely honest, open-
minded, responsible person can be absolutely fearless in
THE TEACHER: TRAINING AND GROWTH 245
matters of principle; able to stand against m and
slander and censure and wrong; willing to be on the
" losing side" to maintain the right. To fo
means that one must practise simplicity, live tin .simple
life, and if this be the aim of the teacher, he mu
himself, and not merely an imitator.
It is no easy matter to be fearless, to be simple, to be
oneself. Each personality is the person-
und^faT 1 alit y of the one to whom il ke 101 ^ 8 - i
Conditions personality cannot be defined; it is the you
as you. " Human imagination has r.
fathomed the depth of human possibility;" but only as a
teacher is fearless, lives his own life, is himself in sim-
plicity and truth, can he be other than an imitator.
"By thine own soul's law learn to live;
And if men thwart thee, take no heed;
And if men hate thee, take no care;
Sing thine own song and do thy deed."
Be not conventional, live your own life, act your own
part, be fearless for the right and in what you believe
for the best welfare of those for whom you are respon-
sible; stand for something and for a principle and for
yourself.
This story is told of Dore*, the famous painter, when
at one time he was in the Swiss Alps. As he stood one
day upon a mountain crest, seeking a spot from which
to sketch his picture, he was approached by a keeper of
the mountains and told that he could not remain. " But,"
said Dore, "I mean no harm. I am an artist." "You
246 STANDARDS IN EDUCATION
must move on," said the keeper. "I am Dore," replied
the artist; "see, here is my easel, these are my brushes
and palette; I would paint this scene." "No," replied
the keeper, "you are not Dore. You must away. If
you are Dore, paint for me this view." Then Dor
took his brush, and with a few strokes of his master hand
there lived upon the canvas, mountain and valley, tree
and sky, so real as to leave no room for doubt. Rapt
with wonder and admiration the keeper said: "You
are Dore. No one but Dore could do that. You may
stay."
(e) Tactfulness
The teacher without tact is not a teacher. Seem-
ingly insurmountable difficulties may be conquered if the
teacher possesses what we speak of as a tactful disposition.
By tact is meant not simply the ability to say and do
those things that please the hearer, but the
abi %> natural or acquired, to say and do
and Right the right thing on a given occasion. In
Action . . . . . .
conversation, in business, in society, in the
professional world, everywhere is there trouble and dis-
cord and discontent and misunderstanding because of
lack of tact on the part of this or that individual. While
tact is necessary in successful dealing with men, it is
much more essential in successful dealing with pupils;
and if the teacher does not possess the intuitive, tactful
sense, he must endeavor to cultivate it.
Children are oftentimes quick to resent a seeming
THE TEACHER: TRAINING AM
wrong when no wrong is intended; they an- n<>i .
amenable to the same line of argument or to the same
kind and character of discipline or educational method;
the home life, the street and playground existence and the
school atmosphere differ widely one from the
parent deals with the pupil in a different manner than
does the teacher; all these reasons combine to make it
essential that the teacher use reason and judgment and
tact in his work, else there will likely be open revolt or
secret discontent, or progress be less rapid than could be
desired.
Lack of tact on the teacher's part results frequently
in lack of cooperation between parent and school author-
ities. The pupil will often report to his teacher that
father or mother was taught so and so,
E^ght word 6 an d that their experience dictates a method
in Dealing verv unlike the one advised by text or teacher.
witn Parents
If the teacher under such conditions uses
tact and judgment, he may avoid any attempt at contro-
versy, leave the pupil with confidence in parents and
school methods alike, and gain, rather than lose, the
support of the home.
Often, too, the pupil is in a disturbed mental and phys-
ical condition, unknown to himself perhaps. The ordi-
nary manner of dealing with him will not bring results,
and the teacher must be quick to grasp the situation and
ready to meet the emergency of the moment.
Letters from parents or oral communications sent by
pupils are often of the nature to bring quick, impulsive
248 STANDARDS IN EDUCATION
retorts from the teacher. It is seldom wise to reply in a
spirit of retaliation, as the tactful thing said in the right
way may gain rather than lose the parent as an ally of
the school.
The writer calls to mind an incident which illustrates
the extremity in which a teacher may find himself if he
is less than tactful. A village graded school,
. n W j 1 j c ] 1 fe was associated with several
other teachers, was built with chimneys
lower than the gable of the roof, and as a result on windy
days, the smoke was drawn down the chimney, and one
or another room was uncomfortable in consequence.
Frequent appeals to the Board seemed to be of no avail;
and one day, before the intermission, the smoke so filled
certain rooms that it was decided to dismiss school should
the trouble not abate. When the session began, how-
ever, the wind had so changed that little indication of
smoke remained, and the pupils under the writer's im-
mediate charge were allowed to determine whether this
condition should be endured or the windows opened to
relieve immediately the situation. The weather being ex-
tremely cold, the former alternative was chosen and all
went well until some one began a slight cough. This was
soon taken up by another and another until the whole
room was engaged in a violent fit of coughing.
Realizing the futility of an attempt to put an end to
a cough, as such a demonstration is as legitimate as is
winking or swallowing, the question of what was to be
done was of chief concern. If the pupils gained their
THE TEACHER: TRAINING AND GROWTH 249
point, viz., were able to draw the teacher into a threat
or entreaty, the power of the latter would be weakened.
Suddenly the teacher found it necessary to cough, lightly
at first, but soon more and more, until he with
announced the raising of a window a necessity. The
smoke continued to affect him; and the windows, one
after another, were raised until pupil after pupil asked
permission to procure coat or wrap; their requests
granted, of course. It is needless to say that long ere this,
all coughing on the pupils' part had ceased; but the teacher,
still continuing to be irritated by the smoke, kept up
the play until warned by the shivering pupils it would
be unsafe to do so longer. Later, at the noon hour, a
group of interested pupils were heard discussing tho
matter. Some insisted the presence of the smoke made
necessary the coughing by the teacher, but others were
just as certain there was another reason for his action.
Discipline in the room was a simple matter thereafter.
(f) Willingness to Practise the Gospel of Work
People may be classed, first, as those always willing
to help, and second, those just as willing to receive assist-
ance. Those of the first class are workers. They are the
men and women who accomplish things, who approach
a task, not in a half-hearted way, but who enter with
their full strength and energy into its accomplishment.
To-day I rode down street with a busy professional
man. He inquired from house to house for a family
of whom he was in search, that he might give them
250 STANDARDS IN EDUCATION
books and magazines of which they were in need. A
man who resided next door to this almost
destitute family could give us no infor-
othersCom- mation. From the carriage I watched this
mendable
man as he walked to his business. Seeing
a morning paper upon a lawn, he made his way to it
and scanned the headlines; and starting on, he took
from his pocket a pair of scissors and clipped roses
from the bushes of private owners as he passed along.
Here were the two types, the professional
man wno > out f a DUSV day, found time to
help the less fortunate than himself, and the
man unacquainted with his neighbor, willing to read the
morning paper of another and to pick flowers not intended
for him.
Work is the secret of success. The teacher who has
an "easy time" will not succeed; and the one who returns
home at night care free and without weariness may be
envied, but has certainly not been accomplishing the
most of which he is capable.
Work, too, is the secret of happiness. None is so
miserable as he without work. Optimism
Work, not i i < , ,
Leisure, con- anc * happiness come from active partici-
Ha CiV fnl P ation i n life's battles. It will do every
teacher good to feel that work
". . . . is the shape forever set between
The thought and form, the vision and the deed;
The hidden light, the glory all unseen,
I bring to mortal senses, mortal need.
THE TEACHER: TRAINING AND GROWTH 251
" Who loves me not, my sorrowing slave shall be,
Bent with a burden, knowing oft the rod;
But he who loves me shall my Master Ixj,
And use me with the joyance of a God.
" Man's lord or servant, still I am his friend;
Desire for me is simple as his breath;
Yea, waiting old and toilless for the end,
He prays that he may find me after death."
But after all, the best work can be done by the teacher
who has learned the art of play and who practises the
Periods of g s P e l of wor k as well. It is the halfway
Eeiaxation measures that do not lead to success. Pe-
Great AC- riods of absolute change and relaxation are
compiish- essential to successful accomplishment. Spen-
cer says: "Hereafter, when this age of active
material progress has yielded mankind its benefits, there
will, I think, come a better adjustment of labor and en-
joyment. Among reasons for thinking this, there is the
reason that the progress of evolution throughout the or-
ganic world at large, brings an increasing surplus of ener-
gies that are not absorbed in fulfilling material needs,
and points to a still larger surplus for the humanity of
the future ... In brief, I may say that we have had
somewhat too much of 'the gospel of work/ It is time
to preach the gospel of relaxation." *
This "gospel of relaxation" of which Spencer speaks,
should be heeded more particularly by the workers.
It is practised altogether too strenuously by the majority
of the others. Keeping at it steadily, continuous work
* Essays, " The Americans."
252 STANDARDS IN EDUCATION
with sufficient relaxation, a determination to stick to the
thing, will bring success. This success will come, not
in overburdening the mind or in consuming the time
with useless details, but in carefully selecting the main
issues and in looking after the little things of impor-
tance.
You recall that story of the man, who in the morn-
ing of life set out to win success. With face toward
the mountain top and a determination to reach the sum-
mit, where to his mind, success awaited
him, he traveled on. Small duties were
successes?- pushed aside, trivial obligations were ig-
niustration
nored as he journeyed. The meridian of
life was passed and the declining sun bespoke the even-
ing of his earthly span, but still he pushed on, and
an old man now, weary and white with years, he saw
at last before him the mountain peak of his desire.
And as by a final effort he reached the crest, and worn
and spent he paused to rest, a form approached him and
said, "What seek ye?" And the man replied, "I have
toiled and climbed that I might win success. Day by
day and year after year have I labored and at last the
heights are gained. Tell me, where may success be
found?" "Alas," came the answer, "in your great
desire for success you have missed her. Ignoring all
that goes to make life great and successful and worth
while, you have cast aside the gems that when assembled
would form the crown; see yonder along the path by
which you came;" and looking far, far below, through
77/7-; TEACHER: TRAINING AND GROWTH 253
the evening light to the valley, success could be seen
shining from a thousand hills.
(g) Order and System
Our one great cry is lack oj time. There is so much
to do and so little time in which to accomplish it.
Teachers are constantly deploring the fact that they lack
time in which to perform properly necessary
tasks, or to teach adequately even the
ments of a given subject. It is true that
we may expect too much of a pupil or a teacher, and it
is just as true that waste of time should be considered
as is waste of energy in a machine. The maximum of
work for a minimum of energy expended is always of
first consideration. to the man at the governor. The max-
imum of accomplishment, with understanding, in the
shortest space of time and with the best results to the
individual should be the aim.
Method is a mighty time saver. The teacher who
proceeds methodically, who is orderly and systematic
and who plans his lessons with the same
nicet Y aS the ^g^ 1661 P lanS hls P ro JC ct
or the architect his house, and who tries
to find a reason for each step he takes, will accomplish
much more than he who is unsystematic and relies upon
circumstances to point him his method of procedure.
The teacher who is careless and haphazard will al-
ways be behind time. No one doubts for a moment the
ability of a great corporation to carry on a business
254 STANDARDS IN EDUCATION
successfully; and no one doubts that it is in the great
corporation that most use is made of labor
an( ^ time-saving devices, and that every ef-
fort militates in the direction of the largest
output. It would be an object lesson to the careless,
unsystematic teacher to visit a large, successful man-
ufacturing plant and note how each workman has his
allotted task to perform. His tools are sharp and of the
best pattern, the equipment he uses is placed in posi-
tions of the greatest advantage, and every implement
or piece of material he manipulates has its own particular
place. The thing done quickest is not necessarily that
which saves most time; so each tool, after use, is returned
to its respective place, that it may be found without
delay when again required.
Regularity and punctuality are essential to large accom-
plishment. Begin on time and close promptly. Have
a time for everything. Have a plan and work to it.
A few minutes given regularly to a task will soon bring
returns. An education may be secured by utilizing the
time that is absolutely wasted.
One of the most successful business men of the country
told me recently that it is the policy of one of his busi-
ness acquaintances to excuse no associate or employee
who " misses a train." There is, he says, no excuse
for missing a train. An accident may delay a train upon
which one is riding, but to miss a train when in full
knowledge of the time of departure is something not to
be excused,
THE TEACHER: TRAINING AND GROWTH 255
Do not let your work crowd you; <
Don't get behind. "Do it now" is a good maxim to fol-
low. If several interests aiv being pursued at a given
time, one main issue should always be kept in view. Be
thorough, be exact, be orderly and save time by having a
carefully tried plan; thus you will accomplish much.
(h) Discrimination, Concentration, Judgment
Not because it is the least important of the st
qualities mentioned is that of discrimination placed last
in the list. An analytic, discriminating mind is indis-
pensable to the most successful teaching. An ability to
see things in their proper perspective, to place fair esti-
mates, to calculate just proportions, in fact to have that
delicate poise and balance without which the elusive thing
called judgment is impossible, these are of the utmost
value, and indispensable to large success in any field of
human activity.
What has been spoken of as open-mindedness, and an
appreciation of order and system, go far toward building
up the sense of discrimination. Truly the discriminating
mind is apt to be the broad mind. To dis-
i*Tge7m- f criminate one must lose sight of the petty
port should things of life, he must pick out the great from
Hold the i
stage the trivial, he must accept circumstances as
they are thrust upon him, not in the spirit of
helplessness, but only to conquer and free himself from
the bondage of annoyance and grievances; he must rise
superior to difficulties, and gain that calm repose of spirit
256 STANDARDS IN EDUCATION
that carries with it the power of achievement and of
conviction among his fellows. Strength of purpose is rec-
ognized in such a mind, and its possessor gains the con-
fidence, love and loyalty of his pupils. Unless the teacher
is discriminating, has good judgment and uses
anTsympa- ^, he cannot hope to appreciate the viewpoint
thy Essential o f the pupil. He must keep fresh and sympa-
in a Teacher
thetic and be ever ready to receive the best.
If the teacher is happy and hopeful, his pupils will be so.
The pessimist casts a gloom upon all about him, and the
pupils under such a teacher long for the freedom of the
active world.
"The pessimist, all steeped in woe,
Sits down and mourns,
Because no fragrant rose can blow
Without its thorns.
The optimist shouts gleefully
Because he knows
That where the thorns are growing, he
May find the rose."
By judgment I mean not only quick judgment but
clear judgment. That weighing of values, that clear, un-
biased discrimination, or rather lack of it, was admirably
illustrated in a recent convention of teachers.
An Example An able paper, touching the possible elimina-
judgment tions from the curricula of the grammar and
high schools, had been presented; and able
men and women had been chosen to lead the discussion.
The first speaker agreed with the general tenor of the
paper; he would eliminate much of the work as now taken
THE TV-J.K ///A': TRAINING AND Gl:<)\\ 1 ,1 257
up, but there was one school subject that must not be
given a shorter time allowance on the program; in fact, he
favored an increase of time, and as he proceeded in his
argument we learned he was a specialist in the line he
sought to magnify. Another speaker held views of similar
character regarding the curriculum in general, but stoutly
held for an increased time allowance in one subject, this
finally proving to be the one he was teaching; and still
others followed, all specialists, and fearful lest too little
time be devoted to their respective specialities while ignor-
ing the value and claims of allied work.
This appreciation of values, this tendency toward dis-
crimination, and clearness and readiness in judgment,
these traits of character have not come by
accident; and however much we may o
tive of heredity, education is made up of several parts
Growing . . ' r
Minds training, and the power of concentration, if
not acquired, can be developed and trained.
Ability to concentrate, to hold the mind and body to the
completion of a task, carries with it the power of accom-
plishment. Concentration, followed by a wise discrimina-
tion and a judgment unhampered by prejudice, is what
produces the great mind whether it be that of the master
merchant, the deep philosopher, the wise philanthropist,
the trusted workman or the skillful teacher.
Such are the elements that enter into the training of the
teacher and that constitute his professional growth. Edu-
cation is the best life insurance policy that can be secured,
and a true education is dependent upon these elements as
Standards 17
258 STANDARDS IN EDUCATION
a foundation. If a teacher builds upon these essentials
of growth, he will be progressive, not like the Scotchman,
one of a company gathered to discuss the ditching of a
certain moor that it might be converted into tillable land.
After many reasons had been advanced in favor of the
movement, a member of the meeting arose and at the
close of his speech offered the following argument as
conclusive evidence against the project: "This moor," said
he, "has been here since time immemorial."
Education comes sometimes in spite of the school. We
may each think differently as to education,.
but when the evidence is all in and the various
may be vie- opinions analyzed, they will be found pretty
much the same after all. It is the best edu-
cated man who can use all he has, in whatever that all
may consist; it is he who has judgment, who has grasped
his subjects, and has poise and breadth. The best edu-
cated man is he who with discernment and with his
appreciative quality of mind makes opportunity, or sees
the opportunity offered, and uses it to worthy ends. The
thought is expressed in these lines entitled Opportunity,
by John J. Ingalls.
"Master of human destinies am I!
Fame, love and fortune on my footsteps wait,
Cities and fields I walk : I penetrate
Deserts and seas remote, and passing by
Hovel and mart and palace, soon or late
I knock unbidden once at every gate!
If feasting, rise; if sleeping, wake before
I turn away. It is the hour of fate,
And they who follow me reach every state
THE TEACHER: TRAINING AND GROWTH 259
Mortals desire, and conquer rvtry foe
Save death. But those who doubt or hesitate,
Condemned to failure, ix.>nury and woe,
Seek me in vain and ceaselessly implore;
I answer not and I return no mor.
H. THE RECOMPENSE
And what of the rewards of the teacher ? Is his recom-
pense to be reckoned in terms of dollars and cents? The
laborer is worthy of his hire, and it is quite legitimate
indeed that a teacher consider financial remuneration.
No one thoroughly acquainted with the teacher's work
and what is expected of him and what accomplished by him,
would for a moment question the inadequacy of salaries
paid. But material gain is only one and certainly not the
chief element to be considered, for if salary was the iu-m
of prime concern, the great mass of our teachers would
soon engage in more lucrative undertakings. Kipling
gives the lie to the belief that all teachers are in the work
for what they get out of it financially, when he says in his
characteristic manner:
"If teaching was what teaching seems
And not the teaching of our dreams,
But only putty, brass, and paint,
How quick we'd drop her! But she ain't!"
Honor and position are considerations worthy our
attention, but while these are desirable, tlv
cannot be fully paid in coin of such standard. While
respected always and usually considered a leader, tlu-rv
are those who still look upon the teacher as a servant
260 STANDARDS IN EDUCATION
merely, a workman with his books for tools and his mis-
sion to deal out facts, to correct errors and to enforce
discipline. Honor and position certainly do not call our
best teachers to the work, or keep them in the educa-
tional arena, and can furnish no adequate recompense
for labors performed. The teacher's recompense must
lie elsewhere. It must lie in a knowledge of things at-
tempted and a hope of results achieved. These results
may not seem to be as far-reaching as could be desired
or as apparent as would be the case in the world of in-
dustry or commerce or finance, but the knowledge of
things attempted and the faith in final success should
prove to every teacher the value of his efforts and warrant
him in being steadfast in the belief that he who molds
the man is greater than he who plans and builds and
achieves in the material world, and that his work is the
more enduring. In casting up his accounts, the true
teacher will be able to say:
1 'My struggling soul may never gain the prize
It covets so;
It may not reach the gates of Paradise
At sunset's glow;
But I have faith that in the shadows blue
At set of sun,
I shall be judged by what I've tried to do,
Not what I've done."
Is the future of our schools in the hands of the teachers ?
Perhaps not. But the teacher will receive his recompense
if the life he lives is an example to his pupils and to the
world. And what is it to be a teacher that the recompense
THE TEACHER: TRAINING AK i HI 2 6i
may be his? To be rich in book knowledge? T
to impart information to others? It means this and it
means more. To be honest, to be helpful, to be h;:
to love books and nature, play and work; to be sy
thetic in spirit, wise in counsel, calm in judgment ; to be
teachable and tolerant, firm and impartial; to be grateful
for the past, hopeful for the future and reverent toward
all that is; to have ideas and to reach out toward the best;
to take counsel of the wise whether young or old, rich or
poor, high or low; to help rather than hinder, and to
encourage not dishearten; to dare nothing selfish, or
vicious, or unworthy; to be joyous and optimistic al
and to practise that freshness of disposition and exemplify
that strength of purpose that makes each feel that his own
life is beating in unison with the heart throbs of a uni-
verse; this it means. To approach the ideal our
must be broad and tolerant, our patience without limit,
our energy great and our interest in the work and love for
the child deep and abiding.
THESES
1. Psychology is of value in teaching when its laws are
known and applied.
2. Experience is necessary, but it is not the only teacher.
3. The academic atmosphere of the secondary school
and the professional atmosphere of the normal school
contrasted.
4. To grow, the teacher must read good books, and
choose worthy associates.
262 STANDARDS IN EDUCATION
5. The teacher must cultivate high moral standards,
keep in touch with industrial progress, and educate his
finer sensibilities.
6. The value of "outside" school courses,
7. Honesty, open-mindedness, responsibility, fearless-
ness and simplicity, tactfulness, willingness to work, order
and system, discrimination, concentration and judgment,
these are qualities that make for growth.
8. The recompense of the teacher is not to be measured
in terms of dollars and cents or in social or civic or pro-
fessional preferment, but in a knowledge of good ac-
complished.
TOPICS FOR STUDY
1. Consider the relative merits of a two years' profes-
sional course for high school graduates, and a four years'
course including high school work.
2. What are the advantages of dividing the normal
school year into two terms ? Three terms ?
3. When a teacher possesses both college and pro-
fessional training, which should precede?
4. Classify the various educational texts upon the basis
of treatment of subject-matter or method.
5. Make a classification of the five most helpful books
on psychology; on pedagogy, on general education.
6. Analyze the programs of five typical normal schools
and list the relative number of hours given to psychology,
pedagogy, history of education, school management, prac-
tise-teaching, observation and criticism.
THE TEACHER: TRAINING AND GROWTH 263
7. Make a list of the ten books other than those of a ped-
agogic character, that you would recommend for tea-
8. Discuss fully the danger to a teacher who dr
much time to outside interests. Consider in thr same way
the teacher who centers his whole attention upon his school
work.
9. How may the teacher best lead the pupils to an
appreciation of the necessity for moral, industrial and
aesthetic understanding ?
10. Study carefully the courses offered in a correspond-
ence school. Gather statistics as to numbers enrolled in
these courses.
11. What is your experience and observation of the dan-
ger of overwork on the part of both teachers and pupils?
12. Are teachers as a rule open to conviction, or are
they disinclined to receive new light?
13. Is the prevailing tendency toward simplicity of life
or the reverse? What are the contributing causes?
14. Show how the school may help to inculcate the idea
of the necessity for responsibility.
15. Discriminate clearly between tact, and methods that
may be questionable and open to adverse criticism.
16. In what .particulars may the teacher and pan-nt
work together for mutual benefit ?
17. Make a list of those who have accomplished great
good in various fields of human activity. What of their
periods of work and relaxation ? Have they been broad
in their interests or has the particular speciality been
Drominent in every case ?
264 STANDARDS IN EDUCATION
1 8. Go over your own work and habits to determine
how and where you can with profit be more accurate,
methodical and systematic.
19. Are we inclined to overemphasize the value of
punctuality and attendance at school?
20. Arrange a program of studies for each grade with
time allotment, giving attention to relative value of sub-
jects.
21. Many of the world's great men have become so
without the help of the school. Present both sides of the
question suggested.
22. Study the salary question and compare with wages
received by men and women in other lines of work.
23. Given that the teacher's services are not recog-
nized as they should be, from a financial point of view,
in what estimation is the profession held by the world at
large ?
CONSULT
BARE Reasons why Men are Leaving School
Work, etc. Council of Education, California
Teachers Association, 1906.
BRUMBAUGH The Making of a Teacher, chap. 17.
GIFFIN School Days of the Fifties, chap. 12.
GORDY New Psychology, chaps. 1,2.
GREENWOOD Successful Teaching, pp. 27-51.
HINSDALE The Art of Study, chaps. 21, 22.
The Training of Teachers Monograph 8, on
Education in the United States.
JAMES Talks to Teachers, chap, i, also pp. 191-301,
Til/: TEACHER: TRAINING A*\ I 265
K i NTLAND The Teacher and the !
ference for Education in the South, 1903,
pp. 168-176.
MOORE Science of Study, pp. 153-232.
O'SHEA Value of Psychology for Teachers. I
School Teacher, vol. 5, pp. 129-141.
PAGE Theory and Practice.
PARKER Talks on Pedagogics, especially pp. 445-451.
PUTNAM Manual of Pedagogy, chap. 12.
REPORT OF COMMITTEE ON SALARIES, etc., of Teachers, N.
E. A., 1905.
ROYCE Outlines of Psychology, chap. i.
SEELEY Educational Foundations, chaps, i, 2, 3 & 12.
SMALL Should Teachers be Required to Present Evi-
dences of Increased Scholarship? Proceed-
ings, Department Superintendence, N. E. A.,
1904, pp. 158-164.
STOUT Manual of Psychology, chaps, i, 2.
THORNDIKE Principles of Teaching, chap. i.
VANCE Best Means and Methods of Improving Teach-
ers. Proceedings, Department Superintend-
ence, N. E. A., 1906, pp. 102-108.
VAN SICKLE Basis for Promotion of Teachers. Proceedings,
Department Superintendence, N. E. A.,
1906, pp. 153-159-
VINCENT Summer Schools and University Extension-
Monograph 1 6, on Education in the United
States.
WHITE Elements of Pedagogy, pp. 210-215.
School Management, pp. Q-43-
WILSON Pedagogues and Parents, chap. 14.
BOOKS FC{R/ TEACHERS
By RURICK N. ROAfcrf Ph.D., President Ka.tern
Kentucky State Normal School, Richmond, Kentucky
Psychology in Education . 1.00 Method in Education . . fi.oo
Economy in Education . . $1.00
ROARK'S PSYCHOLOGY IN EDUCATION pre-
sents such a clear exposition of the elementary princi-
ples of psychology and their practical applications in
methods of education as to furnish a logical and scientific
basis for the daily work in the class room. Intended for the
average teacher, it gives a full and logical outline by which
the teacher may guide his study and lays constant emphasis
upon the necessity and the means of carrying psychology into
the schoolroom.
ff In METHOD IN EDUCATION the author develops
in detail the applications of psychology in the work of
teaching. He discusses the principles upon which good
teaching must be based, and also the means of making the
subjects in the curriculum produce the best educational results.
Each branch of study usually taught in elementary schools is
taken up and considered separately, and much hopeful advice
is given, supplemented by suggestive outlines, lesson plans,
and topics.
^ ECONOMY IN EDUCATION deals with the prob-
lems confronting the individual teacher in the successful ad-
ministration of his school, and also the larger problems of the
school as a part of the institutional life and growth of modern
society. It discusses the problems of the administration of
school systems and such matters as taxation, boards of
education, courses of study, and the distinctive work of
the different schools. The latest movements in the econom-
ical correlation of the home, libraries, museums, and art
galleries with the school are taken up at some length.
AMERICAN BOOK COMPANY
THE ART OF STUDY
By B. A. HINSDALE, Ph.D., LL.D., late Professor
of the Science and the Art of Teaching, University
of Michigan.
fl.OO
THIS book for teachers aims at a definite end : To teach
pupils how to study rather than to store their minds
with any particular stock of knowledge.
*ff It demonstrates in a clear and logical manner the true
relations which should exist between the teacher and the
pupil in the schoolroom, and presents practical methods by
which such relations may be established and maintained.
As learning is the primary act, and teaching but secondary,
it proposes a partial readjustment of the existing relations
between the teacher and the pupil, by which fhe pupil will
become the distinct and proper center of the school system,
and everything else teacher, studies, and apparatus sub-
ordinate to him.
^f The art of study is much misunderstood and neglected,
and there are current today in schools many conditions which
result in serious defects and weaknesses among pupils.
Many pupils fail in their studies, due chiefly, first to their
ignorance of how properly to attack a lesson; and, secondly,
to their inability to sustain the attack when once begun. It
too often happens that teachers and pupils do not work
together in the true spirit; that pupils make too little effort to
learn, while teachers try, apparently, to save them that
trouble. To overcome these errors and attain the end sought,
the author demonstrates the proper relations that should exist
between them, and then presents methods in establishing and
maintaining these relations. In illustration of these ideas, a
series of typical study-recitations is given in the book.
^f The book is rich in practical suggestions for the guidance
of the teacher, and devotes several chapters to rules and hints
which will be of great assistance to the pupil as well.
AMERICAN BOOK COMPANY
(204)
HISTORY OF EDUCATION
Ph.D.,
State N
By LEVI SEELEY, I'rofessor of Pedagogy
New Jersey State Normal School
SEELEY'S History of Education is a working book, clear,
comprehensive, and accurate, and sufficient in itself to
furnish all the material on the subject that is required by
any examining board, or that may be demanded in a normal
or college course.
*ff Each educational system that has influenced the world is
taken up and summarized in turn, its development shown,
and its important lesson pointed out. The fullest information
obtainable is presented in simple form and expressed in con-
cise language. The topics are arranged on a well defined
plan, everything being practical, useful, and directly to the
point.
^| In addition, the book includes biographical sketches of the
great educators with an illuminating account of their systems
of pedagogy. It also provides a general outline of the
educational history of ancient countries, and affords com-
parisons of the educational systems of the leading countries
down to the present time. In short, the volume gives the
student an accurate view in perspective of the educational
progress of the world. Extensive bibliographies of works for
reference are provided.
^j The work presents for study many of the great pedagogical
problems that have interested thoughtful men in every age.
It shows how some of these have been solved in the past and
points out the way to the solution of others of no less
importance in the near future.
^[ It should form an indispensable volume in every teacher's
library, for it not only is inspiring, but furnishes valuable
information. Every well informed teacher must know how
the past has taught in order to cope intelligently with the
educational problems of today.
AMERICAN BOOK COMPANY
(202)
NEW SERIES OF THE
NATURAL GEOGRAPHIES
REDWAY AND HINMAN
TWO BOOK OR FOUR BOOK EDITION
Introductory Geography . $0.60 School Geography . . . $1.25
In two parts, each . . .40 In two parts, each . . .75
IN the new series of these sterling geographies emphasis is laid
on industrial, commercial, and political geography, with just
enough physiography to bring out the causal relations.
^[ The text is clear, simple, interesting, and explicit. The
pictures are distinguished for their aptness and perfect illus-
trative character. Two sets of maps are provided, one for
reference, and the other for study, the latter having corre-
sponding maps drawn to the same scale.
% The INTRODUCTORY GEOGRAPHY develops the
subject in accordance with the child's comprehension, each
lesson paving the way for the next. In the treatment of the
United States the physiographic, historical, political, industrial,
and commercial conditions are taken up in their respective
order, the chief industries and the localities devoted largely to
each receiving more than usual consideration. The country
is regarded as being divided into five industrial sections.
<[[ In the SCHOOL GEOGRAPHY a special feature is
the presentation of the basal principles of physical and general
geography in simple, untechnical language, arranged in num-
bered paragraphs. In subsequent pages constant reference is
made to these principles, but in each case accompanied by
the paragraph number. This greatly simplifies the work,
and makes it possible to take up the formal study of these
introductory lessons after the remainder of the book has been
completed. With a view to enriching the course, numerous
specific references are given to selected geographical reading.
AMERICAN BOOK COMPANY
co
MILNE'S PROGRESSIVE
ARITHMETICS
By WILLIAM J. MILNE, Ph.D., LL.D., President of
New York State Normal College, Albany, N
THREE BOOK. SERIES
First Book ..... $<M5
Second Book ..... 40
Third Book ..... 45
TWO BOOK. SERIES
First Book f<>-35
Complete Book . . . .65
IN these series the best modern methods of instruction have
been combined with those older features which gave the
author's previous arithmetics such marvelous popularity.
^j Built upon a definite pedagogical plan, these books teach
the processes of arithmetic in such a way as to develop the
reasoning faculties, and to train the power of rapid, accurate,
and skillful manipulation of numbers. The inductive method
is applied, leading the pupils to discover truths for them-
selves ; but it is supplemented by model solutions and careful
explanations of each step.
^J Each new topic is first carefully developed, and then en-
forced by sufficient practice to fix it thoroughly in the mind.
The problems, which have been framed with the greatest care,
relate to a wide range of subjects drawn from modern life and
industries. Reviews in various forms are a marked feature.
Usefulness is the keynote.
^y In the First and Second Books the amount of work that
may be accomplished in a half year is taken as the unit of
classification, and the various subjects are treated topically,
each being preceded by a brief resume of the concepts
already acquired. In the Third Book the purely topical
method is used in order to give the pupil a coherent
knowledge of each subject. The Complete Book covers
the work usually given to pupils during the last four years
of school.
AMERICAN BOOK COMPANY
(57)
STEPS IN ENGLISH
By A. C. McLEAN, A.M., Principal of Luckey School,
Pittsburg; THOMAS C. BLAISDELL, A.M., Pro-
fessor of English, Fifth Avenue Normal High School,
Pittsburg; and JOHN MORROW, Superintendent of
Schools, Allegheny, Pa.
Book One. For third, fourth, and fifth years $0.40
Book Two. For sixth, seventh, and eighth years 60
THIS series presents a new method of teaching language
which is in marked contrast with the antiquated systems
in vogue a generation ago. The books meet modern
conditions in every respect, and teach the child how to ex-
press his thoughts in language rather than furnish an undue
amount of grammar and rules.
^J From the start the attempt has been made to base the work
on subjects in which the child is genuinely interested. Lessons
in writing language are employed simultaneously with those in
conversation, while picture-study, the study of literary selec-
tions, and letter-writing are presented at frequent intervals.
The lessons are of a proper length, well arranged, and well
graded. The books mark out the daily work for the teacher
in a clearly defined manner by telling him what to do, and
when to do it. Many unique mechanical devices, e. g. y a
labor-saving method of correcting papers, a graphic system of
diagramming, etc., form a valuable feature of the work.
^[ These books are unlike any other series now on the
market. They do not shoot over the heads of the pupils,
nor do they show a marked effort in writing down to
the supposed level of young minds. They do not contain
too much technical grammar, nor are they filled with what
is sentimental and meaningless. No exaggerated attention is
given to analyzing by diagramming, and to exceptions to ordi-
nary rules, which have proved so unsatisfactory.
AMERICAN BOOK COMPANY
(80
