Current Activities and Influences in Education: A Report Upon Educational Movements Throughout ...

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Introduction

PARTI

Chaftbr I. — ^Health and Health Teaching

PAGB

The Mind and the Body 33

The Changed Attitude toward Disease 39

The Newer Medical Education 45

Health and the Schools 52

Sites and Buildings in Relation to Health 53

Provisions for Physical Exercise and Play 63

Medical Inspection and Nurses 66

Health Instruction 69

Temperance and Tobacco 77

overstudy and the tension of modern life 79

The School as a Community Centre for Health Instruction. 83

Recreation and Health 88

Sex-Hygiene 90

Eugenics 94

Health and Efficiency 95

Longevity 97

Mind and Health 98

Doctor of Pubuc Health 102

Bibliografhy 106

Chapter II. — Developments Directly Affecting the Schools Vocational Training and Culture 109

Extreme View 113

"Practical Training" versus Scientific 114

Industrial Education in Germany 115

School of the Future 118

Practical Tests of Vocational Education 122

Federal Aid 122

Vocational Guidance 123

Recreation 126

Play as a Preparation for Life 127

Play and the Intellect 129

10 CONTENTS

Physioil Education and Pleasure 131

"Hous Made" Toys and Appliances 132

Physical Exercise and Disease 133

Fatigue 135

True Aim of Athletics 136

Left-Handedness 137

Chapter III. — ^Developments Directly Affecting the Schools (ConUnued)

Special Types of Pupils 139

Deficient Children 139

Defectives as a Menace to Society 141

Cost of Education 142

Cost per Pupil in 1851 142

Need of more Funds 142

Money Value of an Education 142

Census Returns and Illiteracy 143

School Administration 144

Scientific Management of the Schools 144

Measuring Educational Results 146

Departmental Teaching 152

Best Age to enter School 153

School All-the-Year 154

Courses of Study 155

School Fraternities 156

Dr. Kbrschensteiner's Opinion of American Schools 158

Chapter IV. — Developments Directly Affecting the Various Types of Schools

The Kindergarten 161

The Function of the Kindergarten 161

The Montessori Methods 163

General Consideration 163

Methods 165

Daily Program. 167

Writing and Reading 169

Application in America 173

Continuation Schools 174

Wisconsin's New Law 174

Testing of the Shop 175

The High School. 176

Development of Public High Schools 176

Opportunity of Small High Schools 177

College Entrance Requirements 181

Teaching Pupils How to Study 183

Rural Schools 185

General 185

Ideal Rural School 186

CONTENTS 11

Graded Union Rueal Schools 189

Rural High Schools 190

Wake County Plan , . , 191

Chapter V. — ^Developments Directly Affecting the Higher Institutions of Learning

Tests of College Efficiency 192

College Morals 194

Weaknesses in American Universities 197

More Effective Organization 201

University that Reaches the People 203

University Exposition 206

Study of the Classics 207

"Amherst Idea" 209

Literary Field-trips 210

Rhodes Scholarships 210

The Kahn Foundation 211

Commercial Education 211

Commercial Education in New York 211

Safe Investments 212

Chapter VI. — ^Matters Pertaining to the Emoluments and Professional Standing of Teachers

Salaries 214

Increased Cost of Living 214

Other Data 214

Teachers' Salaries and Salaries of Others 217

Professional Standing 219

Training School for Normal School Instructors 219

Supplementary Professional Study 219

The Teacher as a Social Being 221

Psychology 221

Caution in regard to "Average '' Results 221

Pears 222

Mind as a Spiritual Force 225

Organization of the Teaching Profession 226

Chapter VII. — Social Problems Camp-Fire Girls 230

The Drama as a Social Force 232

Museums as an Educational Force 233

The Library in Education 234

Extension of Public Library Work 234

"Travelling Libraries" 236

Doctor Eliot's "Five-Foot Shelf" 236

12 CONTENTS

Music as a Factor in Education 337

Music as a Moral Force 338

American Music 338

The Music School Settlement 340

Home and School 341

"Visiting Teachers" 341

Conservation 343

Providing for the Birds 343

Arbor Day Pamphlet 343

School Savings Banks 344

Child Labor 345

New Children's Bureau 345

Child Labor and Education 346

Child Labor in City Streets 347

Peace 348

Doctor Eliot's World Tour 348

Cost of War 349

War and Physical Vigor 350

Carnegie Peace Fund 350

The Hague Court 353

The Peace Palace 353

Peace Centenary 353

The Nobel Prizes. 353

Chapter XI. — ^Foreign Educational Interests Argentina 371

Australia 371

How It cares for Its Poor Children 371

CX)NTENTS 13

Bblgium 373

MoiBBRHO(H> iNsntucnoN 273

BULGAUA 275

Canada 277

Continuation Wokk in Ontario 277

Concessions for Rural Tbachbrs 277

China 278

China a Rbfubuc 278

Missionary Work in China 281

Denmark 282

England 283

Teaching of Reugion 283

Health of the Child 285

London University 285

Lloyd-George Insurance Law 286

Bngland's Distrust of Germany 286

Prance 287

League of Education 287

Ignorance of General Facts and Events 288

Froebbl 289

Germany 289

Vocational Education in Prussia 289

Health Circulars 290

New School Bill for Saxony 290

Experimental Pedagogy 291

New Normal College for Women : . . . . 292

Plba for Co-Education 293

Woman's Exhibition in Berlin 293

Use of Moving Pictures 294

The Socialists 294

Holland 295

Training for Foreign Civil Service 295

India 296

The Durbar 296

Italy 297

End of War with Turkey 297

PoMFEn 297

Mexico 298

Monroe Doctrine 298

Morocco 299

Peru 299

Oldest University in New World 300

Pbiuppines 300

Report of Director of Education 300

The Moros 301

Spain 303

Sweden 303

The People's High Schools 303

SwrrasRLAND 304

A New School of Higher Pedagogy 304

14 CONTENTS

PART VII Craptbr XI. — ^Meetings — National Educational Association The General Meeting 305

School Administration 309

School Buildings 310

Teaching of English in High Schools and Colleges 311

School Gardens 313

Rural Schools 314

Secondary Schools 317

Continuation Schools 319

Training of Teachers 321

Moral Education 321

A National University 322

Sex- Jealousy 324

Department of Superintendence 325

Economy in Education 326

Training of Teachers 333

Health Problems in Education 337

Agricultural Education 343

Rural Education 344

Cost of Education 346

Chapter XII. — Meetings (Continued) International Congress on Hygiene and Demography 348

Nutrition of School Children 350

Sex-Hygiene 351

Exhibits on Social Diseases 351

Abusive Use of Drugs 352

Conference for Education in the South 353

CURRENT ACTIVITIES

AND

INFLUENCES IN EDUCATION

INTRODUCTION.

Education, like the inductive sciences from which it gets much of its data, is in a state of constant change. Although there are educational principles and educational interpretations that will always be more or less permanent in their form and value, there is much in ideal and practice that takes on new aspects in the evolution of human affairs. Because of this condition of change, it is well for educators and the friends of education to have their problems and the efforts at their solution restated from time to time. Contributory influences and the way in which they affect these educational problems from year to year need also to be reviewed. Education, which has come so fully to mean preparation for life, is an important phase of the great evolutionary process which permeates all the affairs of men. It is the part of the process which makes it possible for man to progress — ^to inherit all that is best from the past, to make the wisest use of the present, and, through the medium of these results, to blaze the way into the more hopeful things of the future. And the more clearly the present is grasped the more surely the way to this future good is seen. It is a great world of educational opportunity in which we work. It is a world in which the "impossible" and the "improbable" mean very largely the untried and the unexplored. It i3 a world in which knowledge pours in from every side, when the trained sense and the open mind are ready to receive it. But all paths are not to be followed and all knowledge may not be received. The past has taught us the need of being receptive ; the present is emphasizing the need of our being discriminately so. In the interests of the child a careful, keen, and intelligent outlook must be maintained.

Our vision is being greatly broadened by the process of education. Things tlmt were not seen before are appearing, and old things are seen in a new light. This gives rise to new standards and to the reshaping of old standards. It is a time when the conservative finds it exceedingly difficult to maintain his poise and judgment, and to face even the appearance of being " old-f ogyish " and " unprogressive." It is a time when the new is sure to get a hearing and, unfortunately, often a following, before it has fully justified itself. The spirit of the times is one of change ; and the fear of falling behind the forefront of progress often impels to hasty and ill-considered adoption. While there are many lines of progress that are perfectly clear, there are also invitations to leave the well-tned paths that need careful consideration before it is safe to accept. It is the purpose of these Annals to indicate the current of educational activities, and, without asstmiing positive decisions, to emphasize the movements that seem to be onward, as well as to call attention to the swirling places of retrogression and danger. The great mass of material in the stream of events makes selection difficult but absolutely necessary. If the choice has been well enough made and clearly enough pictured, at least the current of the stream should be evident. And, being evident, it should be full of vital interest and meaning to all who have at heart the possibilities of that great organic, dynamic forc^— education.

The Year 19x2— SA! General View.

There was some criticism of the public schools during the year ; but much of it bore evidence of a lack of f anuliarity with existing conditions in the schools, or was founded on the exceptional cases which never furnish a safe basis of judgment for either the merits or demerits of any extended public effort. There was also suspicion of commercial exploitation in some of the criticisms — a factor of which the American people have had good reason to beware in recent years. Notwithstanding these evidences, however, there is much in the school conditions and in the school work that needs improvement. No one who knows

INTRDDUCTION 17

the public schools, or the private schools either, .for that matter, claims that they are all they should be. All that is claimed is that they are as good as the stage of development and the demands of the respective communities or clienteles involved will permit. While in some respects every school and school system can and should lead its community, in the really determining things only such progress can prevail as the people will support. Probably the most severe, as well as the most just, criticism that can be made against the public school has been its failure to lead the people as frankly and fearlessly into better school conditions as it should have done. Although it is not always easy for school workers to project and support ideals in the face of known or expected opposition, tact and courage often clear the way for these better things. At all events, it is quite clear that both school boards and school workers are employed to serve the best interests of the public, and fear and selfish desire, on the part of either of them, only lower the integrity and value of such service.

In marked contrast to the glaring headlines of some of the articles published during the year concerning the failure of the public school, was a statement in an editorial in The World's Work for July, to the effect that *' There is no better leadership in any department of American life than the leadership of the best minds now engaged in public educational work.*' The training of teachers is constantly growing better and the pay for their services steadily increasing. "During the last ten years Ae pay of male teachers has increased 38 per cent and of female teachers 2y per cent; and the increase goes on. Moreover, everybody who knows the present mood of the educational world and who interprets public sentiment intdligently knows the ever-increasing earnestness of the people about this very subject." And this better pay means that a better type of person is being attracted to and retained in the teaching force of the country. This better teaching force and tfiis better support cannot fail to bring better results. Or, as the editorial referred to states, " The movement for better schools, schools better fitted to the needs of the people, gathers volume and earnestness every year." To this a 2 thoughtful editorial in one of our prominent daily news* papers has added : " A noteworthy trend in public thought is the constantly widening interest everywhere manifest in popular education. While the school system itself is now in the crucible of criticism, it is likewise experiencing the beneficial impress of the work of competent revisionists, who will certainly succeed in rearing an educational structure fully adapted to the needs of the times. And this work is being stimulated by the readiness with which the taxpayers are voting lai^e sums for the physical needs of the schools. Equally significant and running parallel with the school movement is the extensive special programme planned by secular and religious societies. These activities are tokens of vast import to the republic. They mean that a race of men and women trained for the great problems of the future will be on hand when the children of to-day assume the responsibilities of government."

Probably nothing indicates more clearly the widening field of educational interest than the increasing part taken by prominent educators in public movements, and in the solution of public questions, which have in the past been regarded as practically outside the province of the school. The popular magazines, which are becoming so fully the forum of the people, now have frequent articles and discussions by such prominent educators as Doctor Eliot, Doctor Butler, Doctor Jordan, President Faunce, Jane Addams, Doctor Pritchett of the Carnegie Foundation, and others. And even President Wilson, who has recently enlarged his sphere and province as a- schoolman to include the whole of our great nation, manifests a continuance of his interests and desires as an educator by articles that he is contributing for the instruction of the people. And the field of interest of these educators has broadened to include general social activities; questions of peace and of justifiable war; problems of health, of conservation, of political and social economy; considerations of means of proper recreation, of civic betterment, of a higher type of citizenship; and the means for the promotion, in general, of all that tends to improve the morality and rdigion of the people.

Many are wondering what the school of the future shall' be. Doctor Kerschensteiner and many of his followers in the present vocational trend are convinced that it will be a school whose entire course of study will be permeated by manual work. One thing at least seems quite ^ clear, and that is, that it shall have to provide more nearly for the real needs and capabilities of the largest possible percentage of pupils. Until it is more fully determined, however, what most nearly meets the needs of pupils at the various stages of their development, we cannot be certain that we have solved the problem. In the past much was made of the nature of the child, at present everything is being tested on the basis of the destiny of the child ; and it is quite probable that the school of the future shall so combine these two ideas as to give us a high degree of practical training, built upon a firm foundation of intellectual and spiritual development and the possibilities of human beings for physical health and enjoyable rest and recreation.

Probably no one thing, in the changed and changing conditions of affairs, is influencing school organization and the course of study more seriously than the demand that somewhere during the period of formal education young people shall receive the kind of training that will prevent diem from entering upon the serious business of life as mere novices. Questions of earning and spending may no longer be ignored during the twelve to sixteen years of the school's opportunity. That the pupil is permitted to take up the toga of citizenship without the knowledge and skill which will enable him to apply his energies in some desired and desirable direction, is beginning to cast serious reflections upon the efficiency of the school. There was a time when the home provided all the training in these directions that was expected, and the task of the school was the comparatively simple one of providing knowledge and culture according to the demands of the community or the aspirations of the pupil. This was during the days of farm and village life, the days when industries were small and the apprenticeship system fully cared for the youth who would take up a trade, and even very largely cared for those who would enter upon a profession. But social and economic conditions have changed, and indus-

20 CUBEENT INPLUENCES IN EDUCATION

try is conducted upon a scale and under a competition that csdls only for the highest skill and efficiency. Wasters of good material and consumers of unearned wages are no longer welcomed for apprenticeship by the industrial world.

As the wages for unskilled labor have not kept pace with the cost of living and the increased demands of a more complex life, the conditions that face the unprepared beginner are far from promising. This is especially true of the girl who is compelled to earn her own living. As the average girl wage-earner of eighteen gets less than six dollars per week, the hardship and temptation involved in a lack of training that makes her worth so little to the industrial and business worlds are not pleasant to contemplate. And, naturally, much of the blame for her poor economic position is placed upon the school. At least, both business and industry claim that this dass of workers comes to them with so little practical knowledge and skill as to be worth little for their work. But there is another phase of the problem in which the girl is concerned. She may marry, and that with little knowledge, and less skill, concerning the fundamental things upon which the comfort and welfare of the home depend. In a modem wageeamlhg home this is apt to be the case. Hence the public is looking to the school for the solution of this problem also. While the school cannot do all, it is undoubtedly the best-equipped agency for doing a great deal. Its opportunity has shifted from storing the mind to training the life. And the public which supports it is looking to it to solve the problem of how best to do this.

But efficiency for participation in life does not depend upon the so-called practical training alone. A good education embraces many things, — familiarity with the conventions and implements of knowledge ; a self-discipline which brings the life into helpful accord with the highest social welfare; and appreciation of such ideals of life as the beautiful, the true, and the good; as well as efficiency for meeting the opportunities and duties of life. And no system of education can be complete or successful which does not provide for all of these essentials. The justice of the criticism to which the school has been subjected is found not so much in its failure to do what it has undertaken well, as in the fact that it has failed to give education a practical as well as an ideal trend. The importance of one side of the pupil's need has been practically neglected, and this has sent him forth too largely helpless in the presence of pressing practical demands. The discouragement and failure due to this too often lead the pupil and his parents to discredit the value of schooling, and education, which should be a continued process, ceases with the compulsory period. Teachers should live in the presence of the fact that they are merely setting in motion self-endeavor and self-desire, and that their work is truly successful only when it is the beginning of a continual educative process. And school administrators fail in their duty when they make no provision for continuation work, or for courses of study which will tend to induce a desire for it. What young people of fourteen really know or can do may not be much, but what they desire and are eager to know is exceedingly important. It is on this broader platform that the educator must build.

The interest in vocational guidance continues. But the whole problem of successfully guiding youth in their choice of a calling is so wrapped up in the general problem of vocational instruction that, until a satisfactory program for the latter is worked out, little can be done in the former. The trouble lies in the difficulty of judging of the real aptitudes of the pupil until he is tried out in actual work. Nor can much confidence be placed in his own choice until he has first secured an adequate basis of interpretation for his inclinations through such work. Local influences, home conditions, and the availability of employment are usually strong determining factors in the choice of an occupation. The interests and personality of a favorite teacher also enter largely into the account. Combined with the immaturity and inexperience of the pupil and the limited field that can be covered in most courses of instruction in such matters, these influences leave but a narrow margin for safe and successful guidance into the field of -work that is apt to yield the individual pupil the largest amount of opportunity and success. To utilize this narrow margin to the best advantage before a choice is made, a fairly large field of endeavor should be presented

9St CURRENT E^LUENCES IN EDUCATION

as helpfully as possible to pupils. As was said in last year's Annals (p. loi), the shop work of the elementary school should bring the pupil into touch with a fairly broad field of industry, so that if he does not find himself in one line of work he may in another. The best way to accomplish this seems to be through a series of vocational problems which involve a number of phases of industrial effort. In the secondary work, especially in the latter part of it where the vocational courses must be more clearly defined, the aptitudes should stand out more clearly, and desirable changes of course, or of emphasis upon a specific course, should be easily made.

The interest in the Montessori methods for the instruction of very young children has reached the stage of careful investigation and calmer consideration. A suspicion of commercial exploitation of the work and the material for it has served to cast some discredit upon the plan. However, some of the things emphasized by M'adame Montessori will undoubtedly, as a result of her efforts, now receive greater and more intelligent attention. Trained effort to see things from the viewpoint of the child ; the importance of dealing with the individual child rather than with the group; the necessity for encouraging and guiding, rather than repressing, natural expression and activity; and a better adaptation of didactic material and pedagogical methods to the self-activity of the child — ^these are some of the lessons that Madame Montessori has so well reemphasized for both the kindergarten and the lower elementary school. But the most important lesson in the whole Montessori movement, as well as in the widespread interest in the education of backward pupils and defectives, is the possibility of getting much of our pedagogy from a careful study of these beginnings of knowledge and training. That much of our progress in education is now from below upward g^ves promise of a more vigorous and trustworthy development. It also gives assurance of a better utilization of every possibility of the child, and that as education develops there shall be few wasted human products remaining as a burden upon society.

The demand for a reorganized curriculum and an ■enlarged activity in our secondary schools continues. This

INTRODUCTION 2S

demand is also reaching down to the seventh and eighth grades of the elementary schools. It is emphasized in both the high school and the higher elementary grades by the fact that entirely too often " the pupil is present but not participating, the community is represented by its sons and daughters but is not helpfully interested." Most of the charges against our schools touch these higher grades of the elementary school, which should be made high school grades, and the lower grades of the high school, which should be combined with them in a classification intermediate between the elementary and the secondary work.

The question of the advisability and the means of measuring the efficiency of public school work received a great deal of attention during the year. The tests of efficiency in industrial and business plants with a general view of securing the largest possible returns for investment and the specific purpose of eliminating all possible waste; the demands for a public accounting which shall be as clear, specific, and comprehensive as possible; and the promise of the scientific age in which we are living of more reliable ratios between cause and effect — ^these are some of the influences that are at work in educational effort as well as in all other human endeavor. That, so far as education is concerned, the problem involves serious difficulties is evident. But whether they are unsurmountable difficulties is another problem. The chief difficulty lies in securing units and scales of measurement which will answer for the more spiritual part of the influence of teacher upon pupil — ^the characteristic of successful teaching which is so much farther reaching and permanent in its results than any mere imparting of knowledge. Hence many experienced educators seriously question the ability to go beyond the general judgments and estimates already in vogue in such matters. They point out that the effort to evaluate standards, measurements, and comparisons that would be satisfactorily applicable to the actions and development of human beings, is an entirely different problem from that of measuring the efficiency of the operators of lifeless machinery of the factory or the easily estimated returns of the place of business. The potential powers of the youth whose face is turned in the direction of better things, and into whose life has been breathed the inspiration to grow and to do, are so limitless that no possible valuation can be placed upon the work of the teacher who accomplishes such results. It is also charged by them that any effort to measure such work, or to compare these results with those of mere knowledge-imparting, would be both unfair and discouraging to such priceless teachers. This thought, they claim, is also emphasized by the fact that all statistics, in so far as they pertain to human beings, are so difficult of digestion and application that, after all, one is driven back upon general judgments of the specific cases under consideration. In the next place, they claim that any determined effort at standardization of results would tend toward a uniformity of school product that would militate against the development of the individuality of the pupil which is so important in all educational endeavor.

The advocates of scientific tests of efficiency claim, however, that, with careful logic, even the deep and far-reaching influences of teaching can be classified, and standards of judgment, based on the opinion of a sufficiently large number of experts to be acceptable, can be established; that such standards of judgment, being inductively secured, will evolve, as in other sciences, with the growth of evidence, and always with the set purpose of meeting conditions as they exist ; that such estimating should make more evident the character and value of the work of a teacher; and that, instead of interfering with individual development, it would focus attention upon the pupil in a way that would emphasize his needs and the extent to which they are met. That such standardization of results would do much toward placing education upon a scientific basis, and toward making it easier to demonstrate the results of public school effort to a critical public, is evident. That, in so far as it pertains to such matters as the cost of education, school attendance, and the general school records, there is imperative need for uniform units and scales of measurement, is equally clear. But whether the efficiency of the teacher can be measured with anything like scientific accuracy is still an unsolved problem. The effort to secure a reliable and workable basis for measuring efficiency should, however, continue, especially in view of the fact that certain knowledge and skill results seem already to be yielding to such measurements.

The most pronounced changes in American life and thought are coming in with the new economic era upon which, as a people, we have entered. We are approaching the period when we shall consume practically all of the food-stuffs that we raise, and when the exports upon which we must rely to preserve the balance of trade must consist of manufactured products. We have passed the pioneer days when we could safely be wasteful of our forests and our minerals and when land could be farmed to impoverishment because there was plenty of virgin soil remaining to be broken. A profound change is taking place in our methods of industry: we are beginning not only to see but to feel the necessity for conserving our resources, and this necessity for conservation is bringing with it a study of methods and management that is rapidly reaching beyond the industrial world. There is promise of greater efficiency in intellectual, social, and religious endeavor as a result of the lessons learned from the fields of industry. Better preparation, greater skill, healthier and safer working conditions, the application of organized thought and effort to management, a better use of raw materials, conservation of sources of supply — all of these are rapidly developing in the material field of industry. Rapid improvements in country life, the replacing of farming in profit and position among the great callings of our country, the passing away of the pioneer era when great fortunes could be swiftly made, the rise in comfort and position of the working man and tfie artisan, the refreeing of enterprise and opportunity through the removal of the shackles of special privilege, the efforts of the school and the church to adjust themselves to the newer demands, and the many evidences of a true desire to serve — ^these are spme of the signs of the profound changes occurring in the ideals and desires of the people.