German views of American education, with particular reference to industrial development

Front matter

(lass LA ?- O 9 Book. . T12.

[Whole Number S61

DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR— BUREAU OF EDUCATION,

Contents

Page.

Letter of transmittal 5

Preface 7

Preface

The history and purpose of the Reiseberichte uber Nordamerika (Reports of an inspection tour in North America), of which this bulletin presents a partial synopsis, will best appear in the following statements culled from the preface of the Reiseberichte.

The Prussian House of Deputies, on the 4th of June, 1902, requested the Prussian Government to institute a number of measures for the promotion of the smaller industries. In compliance with this request, the minister of commerce and industry in the year 1903 sent commissioners to southern Germany, Switzerland, Austria, and England to gather data of interest and value for Prussian conditions.

In the year 1904 it was decided, on occasion of the St. Louis Exposition, to extend these studies to the United States and to appoint a suitable commission for this purpose. The majority oL these commissioners left for America toward the end of August, 1904, and spent six to seven weeks in the United States.

After a short stay in New York they entered upon their studies in St. Louis. Here the extensive and rich Educational Department of the Exposition afforded a most favorable opportunity to gain a comprehensive view of the school conditions of the United States; here also the further plans for the journey were determined upon. In this it became necessary to consider chiefly the North Atlantic and northern Middle States, whose school system is most widely developed and a standard for the rest of the country.

None of the reports claim to give a final and indisputable judgment of the matters treated. They are based on impressions which German specialists gathered in six to seven weeks, in a country as large as Europe, the whole supplemented with the study of related literature.

In the several reports there will be found differing judgments on the same subject. In one will be heard more the voice of the admirer of American institutions, in another more that of the critic. Intentionally no effort was made to do away with these differences or to conceal them. Whatever may be lost thereby for the total impression of American educational institutions/as presented by the reports, will be gained in many-sidedness and impartiality. * * *

Friends of our own [German] system of industrial instruction will seek in the reports chiefly suggestions by which we may be benefited. In hints in this direction the reports are not lacking. Only they must not hope to find accounts of institutions that can at once be transferred to Germany. The school system of a country is a part of its culture. It is indissolubly linked with its historic development, its economic and political condition. Thus, the American school system, too, with its superiorities and defects, is conditioned by the extremely rapid economic development of a young people, the democratic constitution of the country, its mode of settlement, the peculiar mixture of its population. In all these respects we live under essentially different conditions. If we would learn from the Americans we should try less to imitate one or another successful measure than to appropriate sound and effective ideas of organization.

It is evident from these statements that the reports, even where they deal with matters of general education, do so with constant reference to their bearing on technical instruction and industrial development. This should be steadily kept in mind in the perusal of this bulletin, lest the reports as well as the synopsis be charged unjustly with lack of comprehensiveness in the presentation of the data.

8 PREFACE.

In the preparation of this bulletin, the chief purpose has been to present the impressions of the commissioners as baldly as possible, and only in so far as they touch upon matters of education in their bearing upon industrial development, in order to afford an opportunity to see ourselves in this work as others see us who know how to look and what to look for. Such a point of view is always profitable. It enables us, on the one hand, to see more clearly what there is in our work that deserves approbation and increased emphasis, and what, on the other hand, calls for revision.

Naturally, too, stress has been placed upon matters in our educational work that affect our development as an industrial nation. Merely interesting data of extraneous information have been omitted as foreign to this purpose, and detailed accounts of the organization of specific home institutions have been passed by as more completely accessible in their official publications. The steady hope has been that the matter here presented may aid us in seeking our goal more advisedly, with deeper confidence in our ability and our resources, and with increasing reliance in our dealings with others on that "American fair play that seeks success only on the basis of true merit."

The reports of the following members of the commission appear in the Reiseberichte:

Doctor Dunker, of Berlin, industrial councilor.

Doctor Kuypers, of Dusseldorf, city school inspector.

H. Back, director of the Industrial School at Frankfort-on-the-Main.

Doctor Muthesius, of Berlin, industrial councilor.

E. Thormalen, director of the School of Industrial Art, at Magdeburg.

Professor Schick, director of the Industrial Art School at Cassel.

Von Czihak, of Berlin, industrial school councilor.

Professor Gotte, of Berlin, industrial councilor.

Beckert, of Schleswig, royal industrial school councilor.

E. Beil, director of the Hardware and Cutlery School at Schmalkalden.

Sellentin, director of the School of Shipbuilding and Machine Construction at Kiel.

Professor Giirtler, of Berlin, industrial councilor.

Pukall, director of the Royal Ceramic School at Bunzlau.

W. Oppermann, of Arnsberg, industrial councilor.

GERMAN VIEWS OF AMERICAN EDUCATION, WITH PARTICULAR REFERENCE TO INDUSTRIAL DEVELOPMENT.

GENERAL CONSIDERATIONS.

[From the report of Doctor Dunker.]

Historic development. — Doctor Dunker opens his report with a concise sketch of the historic development of the American school.

The American schools [he says] arose in response to local needs. They were from the beginning the children, not of theory, but of necessity, reflecting the political, cultural, and economic conditions of the new society which is developing beyond the sea. As the population passes out of the colonial into the national type the schools recede in character from their English models and emphasize more and more clearly distinct American features.

Education is not one of the interests assigned to the Federal Government by the Constitution of 1787. Yet the political development of the nineteenth century moved toward centralization. In the civil war the Union prevailed over State supremacy. The prodigious development of trade, the steady inland migration from State to State, the increasing accession of foreigners who wisht to become Americans rather than citizens of particular States, created a new people, the wonderful uniformity of whose character became possible only thru the remarkable uniformity of land and climate. With the twentieth century, after the easy victory over old Spain, this people, still in the process of formation, assumes a character of increased solidarity with reference to other nations. * * *

National Teachers' Association. — Parallel with this development, and because of it, proceeded the development of a national American school system. Shortly before the civil war (1857), when all other questions yielded to the question of union or separation, the National Teachers' Association was founded; and, after the victory of the Union, this association was reorganized on the basis on which it now rests. It constitutes to-day a powerful bond, uniting the entire educational system of the United States. Its annual meeting in Boston in 1903 was attended by over 32,000 members, from the presidents of the highest universities down to the plain rural teachers. Its sessions, its publications, and, above all, the reports of its committees, exert a far-reaching, unifying influence from the Atlantic to the Pacific, from the Great Lakes to the mouth of the Mississippi.

Bureau of Education. — Immediately after the civil war there was felt, too, the need of a national central office for educational affairs. As early as 1867 this office — the Bureau of Education — was created, and a few years later it was incorporated with the Department of the Interior.

It became the duty of the new Federal office to gather statistics showing the development of educational affairs in the several States, to aid the American people in the establishment of good schools by the diffusion of information concerning the organization of schools and methods of instruction, and to serve the interests of education in every direction.

The Bureau of Education has exerted an extraordinarily stimulating influence and contributed essentially to the development of a national school system. No other educational office of the world has done so extensive a literary work as this office, especially since Dr. William T. Harris has been its head (1889). Altho there may be many things among its publications which other countries would scarcely deem it necessary to print, there is, on the other hand, scarcely an educational problem for whose discussion the hundreds of bound volumes and pamphlets do not afford important material.

Hoisting the flag. — The national character of the American school is further indicated by the widely diffused custom, in many instances fixt by State law, of hoisting the flag of the Union over public school buildings during periods of instruction. It is especially significant that certain Southern States that heretofore had not forgotten the civil war and the evil days of reconstruction, under the direct influence of the victory over Spain began to hoist the Stars and Stripes over their schools instead of the State flag.

Public schools. — The new American school is a public school, i. e., a school established by the people, maintained by the people, conducted by the people, and open to the people without payment of tuition fees. It comprizes ( 1 ) the kindergarten, from the fourth to the sixth year of age; (2) the elementary school (grammar school, primary school), with an eight-year course; (3) the middle school (high school), with a four-year course; (4) the college, with a four-year course; (5) the university.

None of the schools from (1) to (4) represent a blind alley, but each is meant to prepare for the next higher grade, in accordance with the words of Huxley, much quoted in America, that "no system of public education deserves the name of a national system if it does not raise a great educational ladder which leads from the gutter to the university."

Religious instruction. — The public school is independent of every church. It imparts no religious instruction; it does not, even for statistical purposes, inquire into the religious belief of its pupils. In many instances, however, it is customary to hold short devotional exercises in which all the pupils take part, and which consist of moralizing addresses or readings from the Bible. Free afternoons, Saturdays, and Sundays are at the disposal of the different denominations for private religious instruction. Some churches, however, maintain also their own schools from the elementary grades to the university, competing with the public institutions; for the Americans have, indeed, the idea of compulsory education, but not that of compulsory schools.

Private schools. — In cultured sections, especially where the fundamental Anglo- Saxon character is strongly prominent among the people, the older form of education — the private institution — has held its place at the side of the public school, and this more particularly with reference to high school, college, and university instruction.

Here belong, first of all, the old richly endowed institutions, such as Harvard, Yale, Columbia, and some others, distinguished by their corporate character, and to which have been added in later days the magnificent university foundations of wealthy captains of industry.

Private middle schools hold their own, especially when they lay stress upon preparation for college, and when, in opposition to the increasing prevalence of coeducation in public middle schools, they instruct the sexes separately. Moreover, new institutions of this kind, partly with very high tuition fees, have been established in recent times in response to segregating tendencies in certain social circles.

Local differences. — Quite naturally there exist in this young country among individual schools in the same category great differerjj§s, which often are not merely quantitative. Many a small city school in Massachusetts stands on a higher plane than a college in Arizona or New Mexico, and even the middle schools of Chicago, on the one hand, and those of old centers of culture, such as Philadelphia and Boston, on the other hand, can scarcely be designated as institutions of the same rank. * * *

General culture. — The foregoing sketch of the American school system deals only with institutions of general culture. It is an American principle that the Commonwealth has not only the right but also the duty to provide for free public education from the district school to the university; but that, on the other hand, it has not only not the duty but indeed not the right to use the means of the Commonwealth for special education of any kind. Consequently, altho this principle is more and more being set aside, the greater part of the special education of jurists, clergymen, physicians, engineers, and merchants is consigned to private institutions. But conditions are stronger than human theories; they demand professional instruction and expansion of the idea of general culture.

Difference between German and American schools. — As to their general character, Doctor Dunker finds the essential difference between German and American schools in the fact that the former seek to instruct and the latter to educate. In America he finds "boards of education" and a "bureau of education," in Germany "ministers of instruction;" the German wants his children "to learn something worth while," the American "has his children educated." In the school life of Germany the

a Reiseberichte, pp. 7-10.

great educational principles are often neglected; the stress of discussion, always thoro and logical, is upon matters of organization and special method, and such discussion is confined to experts and does not reach the great mass of the people.

In America, on the other hand, all great educational problems are in a fluid condition; they are discust in meetings, books, magazines, and newspapers, often thoroly, sometimes superficially, almost always with enthusiasm and subjective conviction. The widest public is interested in the discussions. Usually the thought itself is derived from German studies, but here it is projected into the world of things, becomes a deed, often, it is true, before it is matured. The public is pleased to see it carried out; how this is done is frequently a minor consideration. Everywhere there is credulous optimism coupled with harmless dilettanteism, everywhere high aim, liberal execution, but lack of solidity in matters of detail.

The German educational ideal of a cultivated human being, as to its import, is more easily felt than defined; it is essentially aristocratic, since it can be realized only in a few. The American educational ideal is simple, concrete, and democratic, to wit: An American citizen, healthy (in mind and body), and self-dependent in judgment and action. 3

As to the general treatment of the pupils' work, Doctor Dunker says:

While with us the school frequently points out to the children the inadequacy of their work, holds them to the perfect solution of minor tasks with painful attention to all difficulties, and overwhelms them with difficulties and exceptions, the opposite practise prevails in the American school. Difficulties are avoided, mistakes past by; frequently the pupils are given great tasks whose performance would exceed their power, and the school is satisfied with a childish treatment of the subject and makes the impression upon the children that the problem has been fully solved. This results in quickness of judgment, self-confidence, superficiality, and dilettanteism ( Laienhaftigkeit ) . &

Sanitation. — With much approval Doctor Dunker directs attention to the care given to sanitation in the construction and equipment of the schoolhouses and to instruction in hygiene. With reference to lavatories and toilet rooms he says :

I have seen nothing like these in any German school and urgently recommend their imitation. * * * Habituation to a certain luxury in lavatories and toilet rooms is something which, as a people, we very much need. In America these localities are often luxuriously equipped with marble and other expensive material; and we find here again that these apartments are better kept and more respected the better their equipment. c

Discipline. — He also points to the gentleness of discipline, the comparative reduction of disciplinary drill, and the practical banishment of corporal punishment, ascribing these things largely to the prevalence of female teachers, for whose educational efficiency he has only words of commendation. "The word teacher," he Says, ' ' if not specially designated, is, in America, of feminine gender, and the great majority of American young people grow up under the direction of women teachers. This is only possible because of the position assigned to woman in America. * * * In an evening school for special instruction in Chicago we saw a young woman of about 28 years conduct a class of 30 to 40 grown and half-grown men with masterly tact, and confest to each other afterwards that we considered this impossible in a German metropolis." ^ On the other hand, Doctor Dunker holds that in scientific attainments these teachers in the middle schools are often deficient. His views on coeducation will be reported under the heading " Middle schools."

Pride in schools. — He notes the pride of Americans in their school system and concedes its justice, but criticizes the tendency of the great majority not to admit shortcomings of that system.

That, however, there are expert critics among them who do not conceal these faults is proved by the words of the president of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, addrest to a teachers' gathering at Boston: "Our schools reflect, or possibly account for, the national tendency to make a little knowledge go a great way.

aReiseberichte, pp. 35-36. & Ibid., pp. 39-40. o rbid., p. 36. d ibid., p. 40.

The American is alert, energetic, resourceful, and superficial. He can make a little knowledge go further than the citizen of any other country, and this lesson he has had every opportunity to learn in the school. Initiative, resourcefulness, and nervous energy were great factors in our pioneer work, and they are great factors still; but they will not endure in competition with efficient training, patient study, and exact knowledge. The pioneer epoch has past." « * * *

Patriotism. — The American schools are pronouncedly national educational institutions. This, as already mentioned, is even externally indicated by the fact that public instruction is imparted under the shadow of the national flag. The great national anniversaries of the Declaration of Independence, of the birth of Washington and Lincoln, are celebrated with suspension of school exercises and with school festivals. The geography and history of the United States are thoroly studied in all kinds of schools, so that the pupil may learn to know and love his people and its heroes and become familiar with his country.

Civics. — He becomes acquainted with the institutions of public life in community, State, and Union in special courses of instruction (civics). The thought that every one is destined to take part in the conduct of State affairs and must, therefore, be familiarized early and thoroly with these institutions, is shared not only by the educators but by the whole people. Early, too, the naive belief is inculcated that these institutions are the best in the world. b

American optimism. — Later on, after analyzing in some detail the attitude of the average American toward other nations, Doctor Dunker continues:

On the whole, however, the average American looks upon the European peoples as pitiable existences, weakened by old age, whose children, weary of home tyranny, flee to the bosom of the alma mater Americana, seeking bread and freedom. In the larger centers of population this view grows out of the character of the immigrants and constitutes one of the sources of American national pride. This pride rests not upon a feeling of hatred, but upon a sense of pity and superiority which is renewed daily by contact with the wretched proletariat coming from darkest Europe, and in education and modes of life far inferior to the lowest strata of native laborers. * * * If we add to this the unquestionably unprecedented economic development, the absence of a political counterbalance in the new world, the easy victory over old Spain, and, finally, the freedom of motion in American politics rendered possible by the unsettled condition of the European balance of power, we can understand the proud elevation of American self-appreciation, which has its roots less in the past than in the greatness of the present, and still more in the firm belief in a greater future.

And one of the roots of this optimism is grounded in the American school, with its educational ideal of American citizenship and its device: "A bright hope in the future." c

II. [Prom the report of Doctor Kuypers.J

Doctor Kuypers, after claiming for Pestalozzi, Froebel, Herbart, and Wundt a large share of credit for the educational progress of the United States, and pointing out the fact that the American educators of to-day have studied in Germany and acknowledge themselves to be "disciples of Germany," continues as follows:

But who will guarantee that the pupil will not excel the master unless the parts are interchanged and the teacher begins to learn from the pupil. Only such reciprocal stimulation can secure true progress. It is with German and American education as with all other arts, to the old the aims of the young may sometimes seem wild and their work unfinished, nay, immature; but that the creations of the young are full of suggestion in direct touch with reality, and largely planned, can not be denied, even by the old.

On the other hand, respect for traditions, the striving for attainable ends, regard for the little things, careful study of the course of procedure, and organic perfection, have a well-tried value in such daring new creations of youthful courage; but they are principles that impede progressive development. The solidity of the old must be joined to the eager, inventive spirit of the young, lest in time the good become antiquated, burdensome, unfit.

This thought forces itself upon the German educator on an inspection tour thru America as it does upon a representative of the old school who visits a modern exhibition of paintings, for the schools of the United States resemble in many ways such realistic pictures, largely planned but often only sketched in outline. To accept

aProc. Nat'l Ed. Ass'n, 1903, p. 76. b Reiseberichte, pp. 41-42. clbid., p. 43.

them without criticism is impossible; to be ready with a snap judgment would be equally wrong. The visible or demonstrable "results" will often prove unsatisfactory; the aim will afford ample ground for thought.

It is less the material than the formal elements in American instruction that call for observation; the essentials lie not in the results, but in the principles. On the recognition of this fact the present report is based. * * *

I have not tried to determine the extent of the results of instruction nor could I have done so. The Exposition, with its masses of exhibits, indicated clearly the principles, but could not give an idea of the results of instruction.

Unreliability of "shoiv work." — In the "show work" of an exposition we never know in what way or how much the teacher has prepared the pupil or helped out in the work. Even independently done samples of work furnish no true index of the character of a school, much less of the schools of an entire country, for not the achievement of individuals but the average achievements afford data for judgment. Finally, the success of a school consists not in the achievement or result, but in the progress, in the advance over former conditions on the part of the same persons, which it is difficult to show in an exhibit. Moreover, it is impossible in such work to isolate the influence of the school from other influences. a

For these reasons Doctor Kuypers deems it necessary to supplement the impressions of the Exposition with visits to the schools themselves. This he does. Yet he refrains from expressing a judgment as to the results of instruction, because of the imited time available for such visits and the influence of personality upon such results, and confines himself to the study of the general principles and conditions which essentially determine the character of the influence of the school. Even in this he warns the reader that, inasmuch as he could visit only a limited number of schools, his judgments can not apply to American schools in general.

Organization of schools. — In his remarks on the organization of the public schools he agrees essentially with Doctor Dunker, laying stress on the facts that all schools, from the kindergarten to the university, are attended by all classes of people, that in all schools instruction is gratuitous, and that, except as to the colored race in the South, there is no distinction of race or nationality in the attendance. He notes, not without marks of approval, the "flexible system" of grading the pupils on the basis of attainments, the attention paid to local conditions in the work of entire schools, and the "significant democratic tendency to provide pupils with free text-books and other school material."

Regard for personality of pupils. — The right of personality, which constitutes so large a factor in American life, exerts a great influence also in the school; for American methods respect to an extraordinary degree the inclinations of the young citizen. From the choice of playthings in the kindergarten to the election of studies in higher schools this fact is noticeable. &

Appeal to sense perception. — In the elementary school he sees this adaptation to child nature in appeals to sense perception thru the teacher's blackboard sketches rather than by means of apparatus, and still more in the utilization of the children's instincts of activity in graphic representation. "Drawing and painting are not limited to their formal cultural value as independent branches of instruction, but become in the service of all other branches a kind of childish thought expression in contents and form similar to oral and written thought utterance."

This he finds still further emphasized in "a kind of doing method," which even in purely theoretical branches claims bodily as well as mental activity, and culminates, in manual training, in the production of material objects with the help of tools.

By this method the education of hand and eye acquire equal value with mental development, and the cultivation of taste goes hand in hand with both.

This objective feature of the instruction keeps the school in touch with actual things. It assures, furthermore, a connection with the industrial and professional pursuits of later life, and renders the transition from the nursery to the school almost imperceptible. The entire school is permeated by a kind of kindergarten method.

a Reiseberichte, pp. 45-46. blbid., p. 50.

Superficiality. — It should not be overlooked that this feature is at the same time a manifestation of a certain superficiality (Ausserlichkeit) that characterizes also the theoretical instruction.

The inclinations of the child, that constant criterion of the American teacher, naturally seek breadth rather than depth. The same is true of the theoretical instruction. It is stimulating and many-sided rather than thoro. It loves the concentration of subjects and the natural connection of things, and is therefore not too desirous to keep from passing over into the spheres of other occupations. The principles "from the easy to the difficult and from the simple to the complex" yield to the desire to be interesting, and often, one is tempted to say, entertaining.

Consequently, the spirit of enterprise of Young America, aspiring even more eagerly than the youth of Europe to new and great achievements, is given tasks which a systematic teacher of the Old World would introduce with a well-arranged sequence of preparatory exercises. It would miss at every step the all-sided thoroness of work and the entire scale of formal steps ( Formalstufen); but also, on the other hand, the reverse side, namely, ennui.

The aim is not to transmit a definite fund of knowledge, but the school would stimulate and show the way in which the young citizen can help himself in his further progress. «

Reading. — Doctor Kuypers accordingly points out that the use of readers with selections for discussion is gradually diminishing, that children in the eleventh year of age already use a number of special books on the different subjects of instruction, that school libraries are found even in the first year of school, that "use of the library" is prescribed in the courses of all grades, and that silent reading is carried on extensively even in the elementary school. "The pupil is to do connected reading, and, as far as possible, interpret for himself, so that he may be able later on to study successfully the books of public libraries and the newspapers."

Training for' citizenship. — He is to become a citizen of a democratic state who is to extend his culture by his own efforts and to form his political judgments independently. * * * This training for citizenship is not merely a subject for special instruction, nor merely like practise in the vernacular, an incidental aim of all other instruction as a matter of course; but this ethical education assumes also an objective form in the frequent cooperative work of groups of pupils of different grades in the same task in manual instruction, in which each one shares according to ability. Even in class instruction in the theoretical branches there is a phase of free common interest. This instruction consists more in a stimulating exchange of views than in an alternation of exposition and recital, of question and answer.