What the Schools Teach and Might Teach Part 5

TABLE 13.--TIME GIVEN TO PHYSICAL TRAINING ======+=======================+======================== | Hours per year | Per cent of grade time Grade +-----------+-----------+-----------+------------ | Cleveland | 50 cities | Cleveland | 50 cities ------+-----------+-----------+-----------+------------ 1 | 63 | 46 | 8.7 | 5.4 2 | 54 | 41 | 6.2 | 4.5 3 | 38 | 40 | 4.4 | 4.5 4 | 38 | 40 | 4.3 | 4.2 5 | 38 | 38 | 4.3 | 4.0 6 | 38 | 40 | 4.3 | 4.2 7 | 38 | 38 | 4.3 | 3.7 8 | 38 | 39 | 4.3 | 4.0 ------+-----------+-----------+-----------+------------ Total | 345 | 322 | 5.0 | 4.2 ------+-----------+-----------+-----------+------------

Even though it is a little above the average amount of time, it is nevertheless too little. A week consists of 168 hours. After deducting 12 hours a day for sleep, meals, etc., there remain 84 hours per week to be used. In a state of nature this was largely used for physical play. Under the artificial conditions of modern city life, the nature of children is not changed. They still need huge amounts of active physical play for wholesome development. Most of this they will get away from the school, but as urban conditions take away proper play opportunities, the loss in large degree has to be made good by systematic community effort in establis.h.i.+ng and maintaining playgrounds and playrooms for 12 months in the year. The school and its immediate environment is the logical place for this development.

The course of study lays out a series of obsolescent Swedish gymnastics for each of the years. The work observed was mechanical, perfunctory, and lacking in vitality. Sandwiched in between exhausting intellectual drill, it has the value of giving a little relief and rest. This is good, but it is not sufficiently positive to be called physical training.

Very desirable improvements in the course are being advocated by the directors and supervisors of the work. They are recommending, and introducing where conditions will permit, the use of games, athletics, folk dances, etc. The movements should be promoted by the city in every possible way. At present the regular teachers as a rule have not the necessary point of view and do not sufficiently value the work.

Special teachers and play leaders need to be employed. Material facilities should be extended and improved. Some of the school grounds are too small; the surfacing is not always well adapted to play; often apparatus is not supplied; indoor playrooms are insufficient in number, etc. These various things need to be supplied before the physical training curriculum can be modernized.

In the high schools two periods of physical training per week in academic and commercial schools, and three or four periods per week in the technical schools, are prescribed for the first two years of the course. In the last two years it is omitted from the program in all but the High School of Commerce, where it is optional. With one or two exceptions, the little given is mainly indoor gymnastics of a formal sort owing to the general lack of sufficiently large athletic fields, tennis courts, baseball diamonds, and other necessary facilities.

Special commendation must be accorded the home-room basis of organizing the athletics of the technical high schools. Probably no plan anywhere employed comes nearer to reaching the entire student body in a vital way.

With the exceptions referred to, it seems that the city has not sufficiently considered the indispensable need of huge amounts of physical play on the part of adolescents as the basis of full and life-long physical vitality. High school students represent the best youth of the community. Their efficiency is certainly the greatest single a.s.set of the new generation. There are scores of other expensive things that the city can better afford to neglect. The one thing it can least afford to sacrifice on the altar of economy is the vitality of its citizens of tomorrow.

MUSIC

In the elementary schools Cleveland is giving considerably more than the average amount of time to music. In the high schools, except for a one-hour optional course in the High School of Commerce, the subject is developed only incidentally and given no credit. It is entirely pertinent to inquire why music should be so important for the grammar school age and then lose all of this importance as soon as the high school is reached.

TABLE 14.--TIME GIVEN TO MUSIC ======+=======================+======================== | Hours per year | Per cent of grade time Grade +-----------+-----------+-----------+------------ | Cleveland | 50 cities | Cleveland | 50 cities ------+-----------+-----------+-----------+------------ 1 | 47 | 45 | 6.5 | 5.2 2 | 54 | 48 | 6.1 | 5.3 3 | 54 | 47 | 6.1 | 5.1 4 | 54 | 48 | 6.1 | 4.9 5 | 51 | 45 | 5.7 | 4.7 6 | 51 | 45 | 5.7 | 4.6 7 | 51 | 45 | 5.7 | 4.4 8 | 51 | 44 | 5.7 | 4.4 ------+-----------+-----------+-----------+------------ Total | 413 | 367 | 6.0 | 4.8 ------+-----------+-----------+-----------+------------

The probability is either that it is over-valued for the elementary school and should receive diminished time; or it is under-valued for the high school and should be given the dignity and the consideration of a credit course, as it is in many progressive high schools.

It cannot be urged that the subject is finished in the elementary schools. Pupils in fact receive only an introductory training in vocal music. The whole field of instrumental music remains untouched. It seems the city ought to consider the question of whether the course ought not to be much expanded and continued throughout the high school period as an elective subject. However, in considering the question it should be kept in mind that there are very many things of more importance and of far more pressing immediate necessity.

FOREIGN LANGUAGES

German has long been taught in the elementary schools. Until less than 10 years ago it was taught in all grades beginning with the first.

More recently it has been confined to the four upper grades. Beginning with the present year, it is taught only in the seventh and eighth grades. The situation is so well presented in the report of the Educational Commission of 1906 that further discussion here is unnecessary. They summarize their discussion of the teaching of German in the elementary schools as follows:

"Such teaching originated in a nationalistic feeling and demand on the part of German immigrants, and not in any educational or pedagogical necessity.

"It aimed to induce the children of Germans to attend the public schools, where they would learn English and be sooner Americanized.

"For 15 years [now 25 years] past, German immigration has almost ceased, and other European nationalities, as the Bohemians, Poles, and Italians, have taken their place numerically.

"The children of the earlier German immigrants are already Americanized and use the English language freely, and those later born, of the second and third generations, no longer need to be taught German in the schools beginning at six years of age.

"It is demonstrated by experience and by abundant testimony that children neither from German nor from English-speaking families really learn much German in the primary and grammar grades, that is, from six to 13 years of age.

"Hence the Commission recommends that the teaching of German in these grades be discontinued and that the German language be taught only in the high schools.

"It is admitted that those who begin German in the high school, after the second year, can keep up with and do as good work in the same cla.s.ses as those who have had eight years of German in the primary and grammar grades and two years in the high schools."

The form of argument that once was valid for including German in the elementary course of study may now be valid for Polish, Hungarian, Bohemian and Italian, for the children of the first generation of these nationalities. Properly done, it is a means of preventing the children's drifting from the parental moorings. After the first generation, it would not be needed.

It is impossible, in the limited s.p.a.ce at our disposal, to discuss comprehensively so complicated a topic as foreign languages in the high school. One group of educators st.u.r.dily defends the traditional cla.s.sical course, with its great emphasis on Greek and Latin, while another group as urgently insists that if any foreign languages are taught, they must be the modern ones. These opposing schools of thought are profoundly sincere in their conflicting beliefs. Each side is absolutely certain that it is right and is unalterably of the opinion that there is no other side of the question to be even so much as considered. Anything that agrees with its own side is based on reason; anything opposed is but ignorant prejudice. Under the circ.u.mstances the disinterested outsider may well suspect that where there is so much sincerity and conviction, there must be much truth on both sides. And undoubtedly this is the case.

Latin is a living language in our country in that it provides half of our vocabulary. Pupils who would know English well should have a good knowledge of this living Latin. If the Latinists would s.h.i.+ft their ground to this living Latin and provide means of teaching it fully and effectively for modern purposes, it is possible that the opposing schools of thought might here find common ground upon which all could stand with some degree of comfort and toleration. When Latin study of the character here suggested is devised, it ought to be opened up to the students of all courses as an elective, so that it could be taken by all who wish a full appreciation and understanding of their semi-Latin mother tongue. Such a study ought to be required of the clerical students of the High School of Commerce. In the meantime, however, all will have to wait until the Latinists have provided the plans and the materials.

In the new so-called English course in the academic high schools required foreign languages are omitted entirely. In the third and fourth years German or Spanish is made elective. This gives rise to several questions. If the foreign language is studied simply as preparation for the leisure occupation of reading its literature--the only value of the course in the case of most who take it--why should not French be elective also? By far the largest of the world's literatures, outside of the English, is the French. The Spanish has but a small literature; and while Germany has excelled in many things, belles-lettres is not one of them. Another question relates to the placing of these electives. If one is to study a foreign language at all, it is usually thought best to begin earlier than the third year of the high school, so as to finish these simple matters that can be done by children and gain time in the later years for the more complicated matters that require mature judgment.

DIFFERENTIATION OF COURSES

Courses of training based upon human needs should be diversified where conditions are diversified. Uniform courses of study for all schools within a city were justifiable in a former simpler age, when the schools were caring only for needs that were common to all cla.s.ses.

But as needs have differentiated in our large industrial cities, courses of training must also become differentiated. In Cleveland this principle has been recognized in organizing the work of the special schools and cla.s.ses. For all the regular elementary schools, however, a uniform course of study has been used. Under the present administration, princ.i.p.als and teachers are nominally permitted wide lat.i.tude in its administration.

A large part of this freedom is taken away by two things. One is the use by the city of the plan of leaving textbooks to private purchase.

For perfectly obvious reasons, so long as textbooks are privately purchased, a uniform series of textbooks must be definitely prescribed for the entire city. Uniform textbooks do not necessarily enforce a uniform curriculum. In usual practice, however, they do enforce it as completely as a prescribed uniform course of study manual. As the schools of different sections of the city are allowed to experiment and to develop variations from the course of study, they should be allowed greater freedom in choosing the textbooks that will best serve in teaching their courses.

The second condition enforcing a uniform course of study in certain subjects is the use of uniform examinations in those subjects. We would merely suggest here that it is possible to use supervisory examinations without making them uniform for all schools. Different types of school may well have different types of examination.

Different social cla.s.ses often exist within the same school.

Administrative limitations probably must prevent the use of more than one course of study in a single elementary school. But as the work of the grammar grades is departmentalized, and as junior high schools are developed, it will become possible to offer alternative courses in these grades. Those practically certain of going on to higher educational work requiring foreign languages and higher mathematics should probably be permitted to begin these studies by the sixth or seventh grade. On the other hand, those who are practically certain to drop out of school at the end of the grammar grades or junior high school should have full opportunities for applied science, applied design, practical mathematics, civics, hygiene, vocational studies, etc. When the necessary studies are once organized and departmental work introduced, it is not difficult to arrange for the necessary differentiation of courses in the same school.

Finally, courses of study should provide for children of differing natural ability. Extra materials and opportunities should be provided for children of large capacity; and abbreviated courses for those of less than normal ability. In departmentalized grammar grades and junior high schools this can be taken care of rather easily by permitting the brighter pupils to carry more studies than normal, and the backward ones a smaller number than normal. Under the present elementary school organization with cla.s.ses so large and with so many things for the teachers to do, it is practically impossible to effect such desirable differentiations.

SUMMARY

1. The fundamental social point of view of this discussion of the courses of study of the Cleveland schools is that effective teaching is preparation for adult life through partic.i.p.ation in the activities of life.

2. The schools of Cleveland devote far more time to reading than do those of the average city. In too large measure this time is employed in mastering the mechanics of reading and in the a.n.a.lytical study of the manner in which the words are combined in sentences and the sentences in paragraphs. The main object of the reading should be the mastery of the thought rather than the study of the construction.

Through it the children should gain life-long habits of exploring, through reading, the great fields of history, industry, applied science, life in other lands, travel, invention, biography, and wholesome fiction. To this end the work should be made more extensive and less intensive. As an indispensable means toward this end the books should be supplied by the schools instead of being purchased by the parents.

3. The teaching of spelling should aim to give the pupils complete mastery over those words which they need to use in writing and it should instil in them the permanent habit of watching their spelling as they write. Drill on lists of isolated words should give way to practice in spelling correctly every word in everything written. The dictionary habit should be cultivated, and every written lesson should be a spelling lesson.

4. The time devoted to language, composition, and grammar is about the same as in the average city. The chief result of the work as done in Cleveland is to enable the pupil to recite well on textbook grammar and to pa.s.s examinations in the subject. The work in technical grammar should be continued for the purpose of giving the pupils a foundation acquaintance with forms, terms, relations, and grammatical perspective, but this training need not be so extensive and intensive as at present. The time saved should be given to oral and written expression in connection with the reading of history, geography, industrial studies, civics, sanitation, and the like. Facility and accuracy in oral and written expression are developed through practice rather than through precept. They are perfected through the conscious and unconscious imitation of good models rather than through the advanced study of technical grammar. Only as knowledge is put to work is it really learned or a.s.similated.

5. Cleveland gives more time to mathematics than does the average city. The content of courses in mathematics is to be determined by human needs. A fundamental need of our scientific age is more accurate quant.i.tative thinking about our vocations, civic problems, taxation, income, insurance, expenditures, public improvements, and the mult.i.tude of other public and private problems involving quant.i.ties.

We need to think accurately and easily in quant.i.ties, proportions, forms, and relations.h.i.+ps. Arithmetic teaching, like the teaching of penmans.h.i.+p, is for the purpose of providing tools to be used in matters that lie beyond. The present course of study is of superior character, providing for efficient elementary training and dispensing with most of the things of little practical use. The greatest improvement in the work is to be found in its further carrying over into the other fields of school work and in applying it in other cla.s.ses as well as in the arithmetic cla.s.s. In the advanced cla.s.ses mathematics should be differentiated according to the needs of different pupils. Algebra should be more closely related to practical matters and developed in connection with geometry and trigonometry.

6. History receives much less attention in this city than in the average city. The character of the work is really indicated by the last sentence of the eighth-grade history a.s.signment: "The text of our book should be thoroughly mastered." The work is too brief, abstract, and barren to help the pupils toward an understanding of the social, political, economic, and industrial problems with which we are confronted. It should be amply supplemented by a wide range of reading on social welfare topics. This reading should be biographical, anecdotal, thrilling dramas of human achievement, rich with human interest. It should be at every stage on the level with the understanding and degree of maturity of the pupils so that much reading can be covered rapidly.

7. In Cleveland, where there has been an almost unequalled amount of civic discussion and progressive human-welfare effort, the teaching of civics in the public schools receives too little attention. It is recommended that the princ.i.p.als and teachers make such a civic survey as that made in Cincinnati as the method of discovering the topics that should enter into a grammar-grade course. Not much civics teaching should be attempted in the intermediate grades, but it should be given in the higher grades.