The high school problem

Preface

It must be evident to all thoughtful persons that the high school stands upon the threshold of a larger career of effectiveness. The utterances in favor of socializing and vitalizing high-school work are prophetic. The changing conditions of life, both social and economic, seem to call for a readjustment in our high-school procedure. This call will be more insistent as time goes on, and the school which fails to heed the call will find itself relegated to a position of subordinate importance as a determining factor in social and economic affairs. Conceding, to the utmost, the influence of colleges of education and normal schools in the way of inculcating better methods of teaching, there still remains much for high-school teachers, themselves, to do in the way of taking a generous survey of their work so as to give direction and potency to civilization. Tradition, alone, will not avail. The high school should lead, not follow; but this high function will not be attained until it can preview civilization and prepare the way. This privilege appertains to each individual teacher, nor can this function be either abrogated or delegated. Unless each teacher appreciates his own responsi-

6 PREFACE

bility in this high enterprise, the high school will not attain its maximum efficiency.

This book is an appeal to the individual teacher to make the most of himself and his opportunities to the end that the high school may attain the full fruition of its purposes ; that education may have a larger content ; and that society, more and more, may become the beneficiary of high school influences.

Columbus, Ohio, December 22, 1915.

F. B. P.

Contents

chaptee page

Ikteoductiof 9

I The Pkoblem 15

Introduction

During the past year it was proposed in several educational journals and in at least one State Legislature that tuition fees be exacted from all who attend high schools. The plea is made that the elementary schools are starved because of the large sums which go to the high schools and the colleges. If the idea of charging tuition in secondary schools is ever carried into effect, it will tend to create social distinctions similar to those found in England and on the Continent of Europe. One of the surprising things in European travel is the fact that American educators can visit schools abroad without discovering the radical difference between the school systems of the Old World and those of the United States. The former were organized to perpetuate the distinction between the masses and the classes. Professor Paulsen who taught education at the University of Berlin is authority for the statement that of ten thousand boys in attendance at the Volksschule not one ever reaches the University. And yet the universities, at least in time of peace, are full of students. "Whence do they come! If the father is rich enough to pay the tuition which the government

10 INTRODUCTION

exacts from pupils in the secondary schools, his son may spend the necessary years in preparation for the University. The boys whose parents cannot afford this expense, attend schools which aim to fit for vocations to which a university education is not essential.

In the United States the effort has been to organize school systems which seek to offer the best education that the pupil will take. We have tried to build up school systems which, to use Huxley's phrase, are like an educational ladder on which any pupil, if he has the strength to climb, may ascend from the humblest homes through the free schools, including the high school, into the College and the University and thence into the learned and the technical vocations, sometimes into the highest positions in the gift of the people. Shall we abandon this ideal for the sake of the efficiency which is supposed to characterize European schools? Would such a policy not stifle some of the best talent now found in our elementary schools? Free text books make a secondary education possible to many a pupil who could otherwise not face the expense of schooling beyond the grades. The policy of charging tuition in the high school would close the door of opportunity against many of our brightest pupils. Under such a policy many a gem must remain unpolished and many a star unknown.

There are today about forty vocations which

INTRODUCTION 11

require more or less of high school training by way of preliminary education. Many of them require the full equivalent of the four years of a standard high school course. Hence the pupil who quits school before graduation from a first-class school of secondary grade, finds the door of opportunity closed against him in many directions. And the number of learned vocations is on the increase. More and more of the forms of skilled labor presuppose some knowledge of the arts and sciences. Hence new problems are constantly arising for our schools to solve. The attendance at our high schools is rapidly increasing and school officers find that accommodations which were supposed to be ample for twenty years to come, are outgrown in less than ^ve years. And if our secondary schools are to keep pace with the demands of the times, they must enlarge, not only their buildings, but also their scope and their curriculum of studies.

The average man considers a trade school a good thing for his neighbor's son. For his own son he prefers a different type of schooling if the boy is willing to take it. Let it be hoped that through changes in the content of our courses of study all types of vocational schools will meet with favor and be considered worthy of patronage and public support.

The working people are ambitious to secure and in many instances have already secured an eight-

12 INTRODUCTION

hour working day. Whether this shall prove a curse or a blessing depends upon the manner in which the remaining hours of the day are spent. If the hours which are not devoted to bread-winning and moneygetting, are spent in dissipation and riotous living, the eight-hour day will prove a curse instead of a blessing. If on the other hand the leisure hours are devoted to the things of the mind and the higher life, the shorter working day will be a source of uplift and progress.

The high school has a function in training for both vocation and avocation. By vocation are usually meant the activities through which one earns a livelihood for himself and family. The word avocation is sometimes used to convey the same idea; but when used in its stricter sense it denotes the activities with which the worker occupies himself when he is not engaged in the struggle for bread. The Great Teacher said that man shall not live by bread alone. It helps to make life worth living if the pupil in the high school is taught to enjoy the things of the mind and the higher life. Literature, music, painting and the other fine arts afford sources of enjoyment far higher than the things we eat and drink and wear and the houses in which it is our privilege to dwell. In the secondary schools of every type the pupils should learn to think God's thoughts as revealed in nature and the best thoughts of the best men as enshrined in the printed pages of the shelves of the

INTRODUCTION 13

library. In the education of the future the school will be expected to train not merely for bread-winning and money-making but also for the activities which help to make life worth living.

This volume from the pen of Professor Frank Pearson discusses the various phases of the high school problem as it today confronts the American people. The author has been a teacher, an editor, and a high school inspector. His chapters are helpful and stimulating. His e^jperience and insight have fitted him in an eminent degree to speak with authority. I bespeak for his conclusions careful study by all who have to do with education in general or whose special field of work is found in the schools of secondary grade.

NATHAN C. SCHAEFFER.

Harrisburg, Pa.

Chapter I The Problem

Statistical statement. — If all the young people wlio are enrolled in the high schools of onr country were arranged in a marching column, four abreast, and the ranks three feet apart, this column would extend a distance of more than one hundred and sixty miles. Or, to put it in another way, if these young people were traveling by rail, sixty people to a coach, and eight coaches to a train, it would require more than twenty-four hundred such trains to transport them; and these trains combined would extend more than four hundred miles.

These statistical facts give some notion of the problem so far as numbers are concerned. But, even in point of numbers, these figures do not present the whole problem. In Massachusetts there are, in round numbers, sixty thousand enrolled in high schools and forty-five thousand others of high school age who are not in school. In Vermont there are fewer than six thousand in high school out of a possible twentyis five thousand; and, in Illinois, about thirty-five per cent of the young people of high school age are either idle or engaged in unprofitable, or undesirable employment. All those who are not in school must be taken into account in taking a comprehensive view of the problem even on the numerical side. It is but truth to say that many of these boys and girls are out of school because the work of the high school did not make a strong appeal to them.

Relation to absenteeism. — Hence, the solution of the problem must reckon with the absentees as well as with those whose names are found on the school records. With all our efforts to get at the real causes for the large exodus from the high schools no satisfactory explanation has been made and we still solace ourselves with the feeling that the young people, themselves, are at fault and not the school. The table is spread, we argue, and, if they do not come to the feast, the responsibility is theirs and not ours. If they say that they do not crave the food we serve we reply that both history and tradition go to prove that the food is palatable and nutritious and that they ought to like it whether they do or not. Thus, the school evades responsibility for absenteeism.

Changing" conditions. — Another factor in the problem is the fact that these young people are in a state of change, physical, mental, and spiritual. They are very certain that they want something but do not know clearly what it is or how to get it. They are full of energy but do not know liow to control and direct this energy to their own advantage. The engine has a full head of steam but the track has not been laid. Even their parents are doubtful as to the best course to pursue with them, and often confess failure in their dealings with their own children. These boys and girls are eager to assume the functions of men and women but have no clear notion as to what those functions are. They do not see things in right relations or proportions. The present is their all-in-all, and their faith is abiding that the future will take care of itself and them. They cannot ditferentiate major from minor and the distractions of life often take a major place with them. In short, they are in a state of perplexing bewilderment. Their native impulses are driving them on, but they lack chart and compass to direct their course.

Our problem, then, has to do with this vast number of young people in this condition of unrest and perplexity and, in addition, the many thousands of others who are ignoring the high school altogether. Such a problem is sufficient in magnitude and importance to challenge the best thought of all who are, in any way, connected with high school work, boards of education, superintendents, supervisors, principals, teachers, and parents. Thoughtful consideration of the problem is certain to evoke many questions. Is the high school doing all that is possible for these young people? Are the things that the high school is trying to do the best things to do, or are there others that woukl be better? Is the high school doing what it is doing in the best possible way? Who is commissioned to discover better things to do or better ways of doing what we are attempting? How are these things to become an integral part of the high school regime ?

Facing" the problem. — These and many other questions of like import are inevitable as we stand facing the problem and they will not down. If we will not answer them we stand convicted of cowardice ; if we cannot answer them we stand convicted of ignorance. Either horn of the dilemma gives a feeling of discomfort, bnt, in this case, discomfort is a hopeful sign. Complacency will never bring the solution of the problem. Diagnosis must precede the prescribing of remedies, and there will be no diagnosis until we become uncomfortable in the presence of our problem. If we have a passing feeling of pity and condemnation for the boy who leaves school and then forget him, we must be held accountable at the bar of civic economy for our indifference or dereliction. The conservation of boys and girls is highly important. They are too valuable to be wasted, not only in a moral sense but in a civic sense as well.

The Ninety and Nine parable has a vital application in every high school, nor can its teaching be ignored with impunity. We may not emulate the wicked and rebellious Cain in the query '^Am'l my brother's keeper T' Any careful study of the problem before us must assume that the school, in large measure, is responsible for every boy and girl of high school age. The State organizes, equips, and supports the school for all boys and girls and not for two-thirds of them. If we try to shift responsibility for absenteeism upon the home or upon the community at large it is a tacit acknowledgment that we are unable to cope with the stronger pull of these two institutions, a running up of the white flag.

When a man falls overboard there is great excitement and all interests are focused upon his rescue; but when the boy falls overboard the educational ship moves on its complacent way with but mild concern. When Huck Finn explained the apparent intention of Solomon to cut the child in two Jim remarked ^ ' What 's de diff 'ence 1 Plenty mo \ ' ' We may be lulled into complacency by the fact that the schools are crowded already, but it is far better and cheaper to build more schools than more prisons, and it cannot be denied that deserters from the school form a large part of the recruits for the prison.

Then, on the physical side, we have constructed palatial buildings and supplied them with elaborate equipment at great expense, giving much serious thought to convenience and elegance, but, with all our material provision, there is a great host of young people who are standing aloof from the school, resisting the appeals of building, equipment, teachers, and even their companions.

These young people who thus stand aloof are neither abnormal nor sub-normal but are quite like those who are enrolled in the schools, with kindred propensities, tastes, and aspirations. In the ideal high school order we shall have no such scholastic vagabondage as we now see just as, in the ideal society, there will be no tramps along the highways. We may not soon realize these ideal conditions in the school but life, at its best, is a striving toward the ideal and the school, itself, would be a sorry affair were it to rest content with what is.

The educational Golden Age will see all young people of high school years enrolled in the schools, and will see these schools doing work so wide in its scope as to serve the needs of all these young people. Fresh air, wholesome food, education, and honest work will then be co-ordinate elements in the scheme of life for these young people and the men and women who teach in the school will be wise enough and sympathetic enough to make this ideal condition a reality. They will deeply appreciate the fact that all the boys and girls of the land are their problem and that books, courses of study, buildings, and equipment are subsidiary agencies.

Chapter II The High School

High School defined. — It is not the purpose of this chapter to trace the genealogy of the high scliool back to its ancestors the academy and the Latin grammar school. That would lead us far afield into the domain of the history of education and that has been done so well in recent years that we are all fairly conversant with the historical development of schools in general, the high school included. It is rather the purpose here to discover, if possible, what the high school is, what it is liable or likely to be in future, and what it ought to be.

Without under-valuing ancestry, it is well to give some consideration to posterity. It requires no prophetic vision to see that the high school of the future will differ from the high school of the present, for it is common knowledge that the high school is in a state of transition. "We are just now very busy, working at our tasks, while we are trying to discover what to do and how to do it.

The caption of this chapter conjures up many pictures which portray a great variety of conditions, and all of these connected with high schools. Here is a school of one room where a teacher and five pupils constitute the high school. There is a small case of books, a few books on the teacher's desk, a few maps, three or four pictures on the walls, a dictionary, and in addition the usual complement of school appurtenances. The teacher is a college graduate, a young woman of winning personality, and effective as a teacher. The pupils respect her to the verge of reverence and the spirit in that little group is excellent. In that community this is known as a high school.

In the course of her first year this teacher visited a large city and spent a day in the great cosmopolitan high school. The experience produced in her a feeling of bewildering astonishment. She had never imagined that such a school could be. It had never occurred to her that so many people could be housed in one building, much less taught. She saw hundreds of pupils thronging the halls, at class intervals, and almost while she gazed the halls became empty and silent. Then she wondered what had become of all the people she had just seen. She knew they must be in the building but could not imagine where they were or what they were doing. When she looked at the roster of teachers and the daily program her astonishment was intensified. A tour of the building produced a succession of revelations. In one room she saw a group of boys with hammers, chisels, saws, and planes fashioning pieces of wood into useful and artistic forms. In another room, other boys were doing similar work with iron. Still others were working in clay. She saw a bevy of girls engaged in cooking amid a profusion of culinary utensils, and others transforming fabrics into garments. Through open doors she saw groups busily engaged with experiments in chemistry and physics. The typewriter room seemed less like a school than any other room because of the noise. She was accustomed to quiet in her own school. When she reached rooms where the teaching of language, history, and mathematics was in progress she began to get her bearings once more, for these things took her mind back home. The more she pondered the more she wondered that any one person could arrange and direct all these people and all these activities. Among so many pupils how would they discover if one was absent or tardy! How could the pupils find the right room, and how could they know what class came next ! How would the principal discover the absence of a teacher among so many? How could they learn the names of so many pupils!

These and a host of other questions of like import kept recurring to her during the day, but with no satisfying answers. One day was not sufficient for them all. The school was too big, from every angle, to be comprehended in a single day. For weeks she found her thoughts going back to that school, trying to grasp its complete significance, little realizing that she was attempting the impossible, that it would require weeks for a teacher in that schoool to do what she had tried to accomplish in one day.

These two pictures give us the extremes of the high-school situation and prove that the name we use in designating these schools is quite an elastic term. By reason of this elasticity we are wont to interpret the content of the name by our own experience. A high school is the sort of school in which we happen to be teaching. Indeed, we are prone to think of our school as the high school, whether it is small or large. By reason of this fact it is not easy to formulate a definition of the high school even if that were desirable.

High Schools differentiated. — Certain it is that size alone is not the determining factor of superiority. A small high school may be better than a large one, all depending upon the management, the teaching, and the spirit. Nor does the character of the building determine the ranking of the school. A palatial building, whose walls and environs bear the evidences of vandalism in the form of class numerals and such like manifestations of misdirected enthusiasm, gives the impression of incongruity. In the presence of such conditions on the outside, the conviction persists that things are not altogether right on the inside of that building, even though the building, itself, is majestic. Hence, the building and the equipment are not to be regarded as reliable exponents of the scliooL They are useful auxiliaries, but they are liabilities as well as assets. We are inclined to tolerate a mediocre school in a poor building, but not a mediocre school in an excellent building.

We must even go beyond the personnel of the teaching corps, the text-books, the course of study, and the daily work in order to give a just estimate of the school. We must inquire into its effectiveness as an agency of society in accomplishing the purposes for which it is supported. If the school is intended to promote the co-operative well-being of the people of the community and thus render that community favorable to right living, then we have a standard by which we may test the effectiveness of the school.

The test of a high school. — The supreme test lies in the question Do the activities of the school function in right activities in society? Thus, it becomes necessary for us to make a survey of the community in order to rank the school. Is the community a better place in which to live by reason of the presence of the school! Is the government of the community in more capable hands because of the work of the school? Have poverty and crime decreased through the influence of the school? Are people more selfrespecting, self-reliant, and self-supporting because of the school? Do the artisans of the community work more efficiently and honestly as a result of the school activities 1 Do honest weights, measures, and materials of construction obtain more largely in the community as an outgrowth of school work? Do the people read a higher grade of books because of having literature in the high school? Are the decorations of the homes more artistic because of the teaching of art! Is the colored supplement of the newspaper less objectionable, and the bill-boards less bizarre because of the art department? Is the home more economically, methodically, and artistically administered because domestic science has been taught in the high school for a period of years ? Do women dress more sensibly and more becomingly because of the teaching of domestic art in the school? Do the people employ their leisure time more profitably because of habits formed in the school ? Is there a higher appreciation of art, literature, music, nature, and the amenities of society because of the principles that have been inculcated by the school? Do we as a people study history more ardently and more intelligently because of the teaching of history in the school?

These questions might extend indefinitely, but the foregoing are sufficient to show what the real test of the school is. Such questions as the above may constitute a severe test but the high school should not shrink from any test, however severe, that will arrive at the truth. If society is not advancing in the particulars that have been enumerated, and, if the high school is responsible, in any degree, for this lack of advancement, then the high school ought to be the pioneer explorer into the causes of retardation that it may become an intelligent seeker for the remedy.

The function of the school.— If, to illustrate, the quest of the high school has been for mere knowledge rather than wisdom, and society has suffered from this restricted activity, then it behooves the school to enlarge its scope and intensify its plans and purposes. Will the high school conform to the changing conditions of society or is it to become potent enough to bring about changes, to modify, and give color and flavor to the activities of society? Is it to be a leader or a mere follower! These are questions that confront the high school, and every school official as well as every teacher. Nor can any teacher evade responsibility for the answers.

Since ^*a tree is known by its fruit, '^ we must examine the fruit' with great care before we can, with intelligence, enter upon a course of pruning and grafting. If the teacher of history finds, upon careful examination, that the pupil ceases to study history when he discontinues school work, then it is incumbent upon this teacher to discover a way by which he may project the work of the school into the life of the community. He proclaims, with emphasis, in his classes that every intelligent citizen should be a student of history, but finds, through his survey, that many people in the community, who lay claim to a goodly degree of intelligence, are not students of history, and, among these, some of his own pupils. Either his theory is wrong or, else, his teaching has been more or less ineffective. Moreover, the responsibility, in some measure, is his and he cannot escape it.

If shops dealing in wall-paper continue, year after year, to display flamboyant patterns, the department of art must assume some of the responsibility. It is not a flattering commentary upon this department that it cannot elevate the taste of the people even in the matter of wall-paper. Indeed, if art and physiology had done their ^ ^ perfect work ' ' we ought to have arrived at a state of civilization, by now, when wall-paper would be but an unpleasant memory.

Many people say that they have not looked at a Latin book since they graduated, but that does not prove that Latin is not a worthy study. It simply means that the teaching was such that it did not carry over into the after-school life of the pupil. On the other hand, there are many who received, in the high school, an impetus in the study of Latin that has continued through the years, and to whom Latin books have been a constant source of recreation and delight. The teachers of the former class have much occasion for meditation; the teachers of the latter class occasion for gratification.

The High School a democracy. — The high school is the heart of the school process. Just as the blood flows into and out from the heart, so life flows into and out from the high school. Democracy assumes the presence of men and women and, since the high school receives young people as they are entering the domain of manhood and womanhood, it becomes to them the place and means of preparation for their work as citizens. In point of fact, the high school should constitute an integral part of life for these young people. Just where preparation ceases and actual life-work begins has not been clearly revealed. The daily round of work on the part of every man and woman is a preparation for better and greater achievements in the days to come. So with these young people. Their daily tasks are a part of real life and their high-school experiences cannot be reduced to the plane of mere preparation.

It is inconceivable that the boy who has been well taught in the subject of agriculture will cease to be interested in this subject upon receiving his diploma. Such teaching would amount to a travesty. So with the subject of civics. This subject, if well taught, lays upon every boy and every girl some measure of responsibility in civic affairs during the entire high-school period, whether it be four years or six years, and thus makes them conscious of government in the school and, also, in society. Living in this atmosphere and feeling some responsibility for government tliey are all the while learning to do while they are doing. We may well call this the laboratory method in the science and practice of government and the activities of these young people after graduation will be but a continuation of their activities in the high school.