The junior high school

Introduction

It has been the traditional assumption that public schools are merely educative in function. To be sure this is their originating purpose and will remain their dominant one. But the scientific study of the careers of pupils indicates that the school system inevitably performs certain other functions which have large consequences for the students inasmuch as they retard, close, lengthen or determine the particular quality of the school education received.

One of these additional school functions is the protecting or conserving function which schools are always tending to exercise in special manner and varying degree. There is not much question that the schools of fifty years ago, with their rigid adherence to a narrow course of study and their continued favoring of those ^ gifted in this restricted curriculum, were inclined to encourage the training of the few and to discourage the education of the many. In the present school system a far more democratic impetus is at work. More attention is being given to varied types of mind. Those who suffer physical and mental handicaps are given the merciful attention of medical inspectors, school nurses, school clinics and special classes with a regimen of their own. For the most

iii iv INTRODUCTION

part, these modern adjustments are the outcome of an aspiration to equalize educational opportunities. Their result is a longer period of schooling than would have been the privilege of most unfortunate children several decades ago.

There is another school function which is the outcome of a quite different aspiration, namely the desire of the teaching profession to be economical and efficient in the service it renders the individual and society. In the older and more traditional schools it expressed itself in the selection and rejection of students, the standards of such continuous discrimination being on the whole narrow rather than broad. Recent statistical studies of school careers have indicated such an unanticipated rate of retardation and consequent elimination that attention has been focussed critically on the organization and method of the existing school system. In turn thoughtful educationists have proceeded to constructive experiments devised to hold children in school. Individual instruction, multiple courses and elective studies, departmental teaching, promotion by subjects, vocational and pre vocational classes, educational and vocational guidance and other modern innovations have been in considerable degree developed out of the attempt to lengthen school careers through better adjustments to individual differences. In so far as this motive has established itself as a working reform in the schools, it has transmuted the older and more or less subconscious function of selec-

INTRODUCTION v

tion and rejection of students into the contemporaneous and quite conscious policy of distributing school attendants more effectively within the complex ramifications of the modern school system. Thus whatever ability and interest the child or youth has is given a more congenial activity through which to express himself and the student's career is prolonged. This distributive function of the school operates within the school as educational guidance and across the gap between school and working life as vocational guidance and placement.

The professional recognition of these conserving and distributing functions of the public school system and the perception of their tremendous influence on the quality and quantity of the educational service rendered by the school to youth have been responsible for much of the current educational reconstruction. For this reason, it is well to have in mind the multiple functions of the public school system before beginning the study of a particular group of educational readjustments such as are involved in the Junior High School Movement. They are mentioned here so as to give a background to the specific interpretations of this particular educational reorganization.

It is not at all accidental that the teaching profession should at the present time be deeply engrossed with the Junior High School Problem. There is adequate" reason for such interest. Attention usually focuses on the most troublesome group of problems. It is vi INTRODUCTION

precisely because the now-obvious maladjustments seem to be more numerous and important in and about the close of the elementary school years and the first years of high school, that the effort at reconstruction has been most pronounced at this point in the school system. In consequence the analysis of the Junior High School Movement offers one of the most significant views of current educational thought and practice.

It is quite important for the profession to know in an accurate way the exact status of this movement. Many claims have been made for the Junior High School. We must know which are justified. Many new devices of administration have been proposed and tried. We must learn which are expedient or success- , ful. The unsolved problems must be indicated that additional experiments may be conducted in an economical way and the whole development of the Junior High School hastened in the direction of sure results. The author of the volume here presented serves our needs with a treatment which is scientific in spirit and method. He offers us the strict fact of experience. He summarizes the success, failure and uncertainty of our experiments to date. His study is a valuable contribution to the next stage in progress, because its method is not the optimistic expression of doctrine and intent, but the unprejudiced analysis of practice and

result - Henry Suzzallo.

Seattle, Wash., December, 1919

Chapter I The Movement For Reorganization Page

i. The factors of the movement for reorganization . i

a. The unfavorable result of comparison with European systems I

b. The facts of elimination urged reorganization . 2

c. Recognition of variation among children requires reorganization . . . . . . . 2

d. The unsuitability of the conventional organization to the approach to maturity of children in upper grades added to the impulse .... 3

e. Factors extrinsic to educational needs ... 3

2. The consciousness of the need for reorganization is

NOT NEW 4

a. The Committee of Ten recommended the six-year high school as alternative .... 4

b. Its Conferences recommended the earlier introduction of high school subjects . . •:....- 5

c. The Committee on College Entrance Require ments urged the establishment of a six-year high school and recommended the introduction of high school subjects into seventh and eighth grades •.'•''• 6

d. The Committee on the Eeconomy of Time emphasized the recommendations of earlier committees . 7

e. It recommended also the horizontal division of

the six-year high-school period .... 8

3. The movement is widespread 9

4. It takes on a great variety of forms .... 10

5. The imperativeness of attempting to clarify

thought concerning the junior high school . . II

Chapter II The Peculiar Functions Of The Junior High School

1. The aims of education 13

2. The relation of the junior high school to these

aims 14

vii

•X fc viii CONTENTS

PAGE

3. "Advantages" of or "arguments" for the junior

high school are classifiable as peculiar functions 15

4. The method of canvass for the peculiar functions . 16

5. Difficulties in classifying the functions ... 17

6. Retention of pupils 20 b. Present extensive elimination . . . . 20

c. External and internal organization as causes of elimination . . 21

d. The relative absence of factual proof of retention through reorganization 22

e. The expectation of improved retention ... 26

7. Economizing time 27 b. Earlier introduction of high-school subjects . 28

c. Scientific elimination in elementary-school studies . . m . . 31

d. Giving less time to reviews ..... 32

e. Scientific economy in secondary-school subjects . . .-.,.■ > 33

f. Economy through recognizing individual differences . 33

Recognizing individual differences 34 b. Variation in age, physique, mentality ... 35

c. The " surface of normal distribution " . . .37

d. Increased variability in upper grades ... 37

e. Variation in interests 38

/. The factors of variation . . . . . .41

g. Meaning of recognition of differences in terms

of ultimate aims . . 44

h. Methods of recognition available for the traditional organization 45

i. Methods of recognition in reorganization . . 46

9. Exploration for guidance 47 b. Exploration is preliminary to recognizing individual differences . . . . . . .48

c. Possibilities in the conventional organization . 49

d. Increased facilities are necessary . . . . 49

e. Possibility of providing increased facilities with concentration of pupils 49

'10. Providing the beginnings of vocational education . 50 b. Beginning of vocational education through exploration . . . 51

c. The disagreement as to whether specialization should begin in junior high school .... 5 2

d. Specialization in junior high schools was not recommended for Cleveland . . >j „ . 53

, a

CONTENTS ix

PAGE

e. Separate prevocational schools are not justified

where there are junior high schools ... 54 U, /. The decision should depend upon the findings of

Jf a survey 55

11. Recognizing the nature of the child at adolescence 55 b. Increments of stature, weight, and vital capacity 56

c. The increased power of the heart . . ... 57

d. The appearance of the signs of puberty . . 58

e. The difficulties in measuring the psychic changes

of adolescence 58

f. The dawn of social consciousness . ,. . . 61

g. Where the changes take place 62

>^v^- h. The advisability of gradual but far-reaching

changes in school organization 62

12. Providing the conditions for better teaching . . 63 b. Unfavorable conditions of the one-teacher regimen 65

c. The present tendency toward departmentalization 65

d. How the junior high school encourages improvement 65

13. Securing better scholarship 67 b. It depends to some extent upon better teaching . 68

c. It follows the introduction of supervised study . 68

d. The improvement through changed attitudes of pupils 68

e. The absence of scientific proof of improvement 68 /. Improvement is to be anticipated in individual

but not in average scholarship 71

14. Improving the disciplinary situation and socializ-

ing opportunities . . . ;. 71 b. The two phases of the improvement

(1) Reorganization brings disciplinary relief . 72

(2) Reorganization enlarges the socializing opportunities ....... 72

c. The advantage in homogeneity 74

" t<j. Other peculiar functions are not frequently mentioned 76

„Jj6. The argument of financial economy is ill-advised . 77 "17. Relief in the housing problem is dependent on the local situation and is extrinsic to the educational

— r-- functions 78

18. "The influence of the home is sometimes not con-

tinued 79

19. Hastening reform in grades above and below is a

by-product 79 x CONTENTS

PAGE

20. Normalizing the sized classes is more local than

universal 80

21. Bringing relief to teachers is important, but ex-

trinsic to educational functions 80

22. The legitimate peculiar functions of the junior

HIGH SCHOOL . . . 8l

23. The interdependence of these functions ... 82

24. The senses in which they are peculiar ... 82

25. Performing the peculiar functions facilitates the

achievement of ultimate aims 85

Chapter III The Test Of The Organization

1. The test of the organization is the adaptation of

the features to the performance of the functions 86

2. The features more frequently provided .... 86

3. The method of testing the adaptation of a feature . 87

4. The inadequacy of most organizations .... 89

5. Application of the test illustrated 89

a. The more common practices as to grades included 89

b. The seventh grade seems best adapted as the beginning grade 90

c. The three-year unit favors retention and economy of time _ . . .91

d. The two-year unit is urged as being better adapted to the needs of vocational education . 92

e. Socialization of the ninth-grade is better in the three-year unit 93

/. Three-year unit will cause more fundamental reorganization 93

g. The commission of the North Central Association on admission 94

h. The advisability of following their recommendation . 95

Chapter IV

1. This feature is regarded as highly important . . 97

^ The types of programs of study 98

a. The single-curriculum type illustrated ... 98

b. This type fails to perform the peculiar functions 99

c. The multiple-curriculum type illustrated . . 100

CONTENTS xi

PAGE

d. The implication of the determination to enter an occupation in the field represented by a curriculum 102

e. The superiority over the preceding type in performing the peculiar functions .... 103

f. The danger of failure to provide for exploration ' ,/. 104

g. The constants-with-variables type illustrated . 105 h. It remedies the defect of the preceding type . 107 i. The objection of difficulty of administration must

ykC^ give way before educational needs .... 107

/. The desirability of suggestive curricula . . 108

3. The constant subjects 109

a. To be determined by common needs . . .110

J/^ b. Training in the fundamental processes continued in

c. They assist in guidance 11 1

4. The variable subjects . . _ . . # . . . .112

a. The activities found in junior high-scho61 programs . 112

b. Their distribution to courses 113

c. Extra-curricular activities . ..' . . . . .'113

d. The adaptability of the activities to junior high-school grades . . 114

e. The need of a generous list of variables . . 115 /. The arrangement of activities in a program of

studies 116

g. The variables and differentiation . . . .117 h. The variables and training in the fundamental

processes 117

i. The variables and the performance of the peculiar functions 118

5. Classification of pupils according to ability . .118

a. It is encouraged by concentration of pupils . .118

b. An illustrative plan 119

c. To what courses it should be applied . . .119

d. The advantages of classification .... 120

6. The subjects of study 120

a. English 121

(1) Traditional courses 121

(2) The report of the National Joint Committee . . .121

(3) The distribution of time .... 122

(4) Additional literature as a variable . . 123-

b. The social studies 123

(1) The course of study 124

(2) The work in geography . . . . . 124

(3) The course in American history . . 125

(4) Vocational civics 125

(5) Community civics 126

(6) Economics and sociology in application . 126 xii CONTENTS

PAGE

(7) Ancient history as a variable «. m .. 127

c. Mathematics 127

(1) The need for ability in computation and

in quantitative thinking 127

(2) Recent changes in junior high-school mathematics . ■.. ,., M . ; „ . 128

(3) The work in arithmetic ..... 128 '(4) Algebra and geometry in seventh and

eighth grades 128

(5) The mathematics in the variable offering 130

d. General science . .....,.,. 131

(1) The need of a knowledge of science . . 131

(2) Instruction in science in the grades of the elementary school and in other subjects . 131

(3) General science in eighth and ninth grades 132

(4) The nature of the course which should be taught . • ■«■ . r.- 133

e. The foreign languages 133

(1) The offering in this field . . . .133

(2) The declining faith in the foreign languages 134

(3) We should continue to offer them . . 134

(4) The modern foreign languages may begin

in the seventh grade 135

(5) Modern foreign languages to be begun in

the seventh grade, Latin in the eighth . 135

(1) Where it should find place .... 135

(2) Hygiene should be stressed . ; . . . 135

(3) Play activities are to be emphasized . . 136

(4) We must differentiate for boys and girls . 137 g. The fine arts 137

(1) The offering in music and the graphic and related arts . w . r.. > . . 137

(2) Their functions ....... 1.38

(3) The constant in music is not to be an identical requirement for all ... 138

(4) The offering in the arts other than music 139 H. The practical arts . . . . . . 140

(1) Some work should be given in industrial arts, home arts, commercial work and agriculture > . 140

(2) The possible proportion of practical arts

in the pupil's schedule . . . . I4i ]

(3) The character of the work in industrial arts .141

(4) The socializing value of the work . . 143

(5) The opportunities for specialization . . 143

(6) The home arts 144

(7) Agriculture M >j , .., . 144

CONTENTS fciii

PAGE

(8) Commercial work 144

(9) The pupils' contact with adult standards

of efficiency » 145

7. The dependence of the program of studies upon the

provision of other features i46

Chapter V Other Features Of Reorganization

1. Departmentalization .148

o. Teaching work is almost uniyersally departmentalized or semi-departmentalized . . 148

b. The advantage of moving gradually toward complete departmentalization 149

c. The relation of departmentalization to the performance of the peculiar functions . . .149

2. Promotion by subject . , . . . . .151

a. This feature is also very commonly provided » 151

b. The measures of relationship between the grades

of the same pupils in different subjects . . 152

c. The bearing of promotion by subject on the permance of the peculiar functions .... 152

3. Methods . 153

a. The two innovations, (a) supervised study and (b) methods of teaching through the project and problem 153

b. The administration of supervised study . . 153

c. The purposes of supervised study . % . .154

d. Socialization of motive through project and problem '. 154

e. Their relationship to the distinctive purposes . 155

4. The advisory system ^ . . . . . . . .156

a. The need of advisory system 156

b. A widely functioning plan is necessary . . . 156

c. Two types of assignment of pupils and their evaluation . . . ... . . 156

d. Curricular exploration has two phases . . . 159

(1) The pupil makes contacts with many kinds

of work 159

(2) The teacher measures the success of the pupil in them . . . . . .160

e. The imperativeness of direction of the advisory activities . . . . . . . . . 161

/. Monition and not compulsion must characterize the advisory system 161

g. The bearing of the advisory system upon the performance of the peculiar functions . . . 162

h. The inadequacy of the usual system . . . 162 xiv CONTENTS

PAGE

5. The staff . 163

a. Its important role in reorganization . . . 163

b. The teacher described in terms of features and functions . . . . . . . . > . . 164

c. The sources of supply of teachers . . . .165

d. The kind of principal needed 166

6. The social organization 167

a. The present extent of extra-curricular activities 167

b. Organizing and controlling them to realize their educational values 167

c. The teacher andthe social organization . . 168

d. The social organization will assist in accomplishing the peculiar purposes 168

7. Housing and equipment 169

a. The advantage of separate housing . . . 169

b. The problem of distance to the junior high school 169

c. The sort of plant needed 170

Chapter VI The Standard Junior High School

1. The ineptitude of the typical junior high school

as the standard of organization 174

2. The inopportuneness of standardization . . . 175

3. Tentative standardization of the organized school . 176

TABLES

PAGE

I. Frequency of Appearance of Peculiar Functions . . 18 II. Occupational Choices of Thirteen Year Old Boys . . 41

III. Percentages of Pubescent and Post-Pubescent Boys at

Each Age 59

IV. Percentage of Pubescent and Post-Pubescent Girls at

Each Age 59

GRAPHS

Fig. 1. Frequency of Appearance of Peculiar Functions . 19 Fig. 2. Distribution by Ages of Seventh Grade Pupils . . 38 Fig. 3. Distribution of Total Point Scores in Eighth and

Ninth Grades . 39

Fig. 4. Distribution of Scores for Quality of Reading in

the Eighth Gade 39

Fig. 5. Distribution of Scores in Composition in Eighth

Grade 40

Fig. 6. Distribution of Seventh Grade Pupils according to

Number of Problems in Multiplication Solved . 40 FiG. 7. The Relationship Between the Features of the

Junior High School and the Performance of its

Functions 88 xy

THE MOVEMENT FOR REORGANIZATION

THE FACTORS OF THE MOVEMENT

Many forces, not one or a few only, are responsible for the movement for educational reorganization finding expression in the present widespread establishment of " junior high schools " or " intermediate schools." Perhaps first in point of time has been the appreciation on the part of some of our educational leaders that, as compared with certain European school systems, for the children in our schools entrance upon the period of secondary education is too long delayed. We have been told that there is a waste of time in our system. The unfavorable position given American schools in these comparisons has had no little to do with the current dissatisfaction with the conventional relationship between our elementary and secondary schools.

A second factor must be the statistical studies showing the high rate of pupil mortality beginning at about the sixth grade and continuing unabated through the earlier years of the four-year high school. During a long period we had been taking a smug satisfaction in what we regarded as the equality of educational opportunity afforded by our system. It hurt our pride to learn that the facts did not square with our boasting. Those directing our schools could hardly do otherwise than cast about for the means of achieving the educational democracy we had failed to attain.

Upon the heels of these disconcerting data and doubtless in some part discovered in an effort to learn the causes of elimination, came facts touching the wide variation in capacity, interests and needs of children in and out of school. A consideration of these differences brought a consciousness of the impossibility of adequately recognizing them in the conventional school. As the problem of recognizing these variations grows more acute in the grades commonly associated with the junior high school, it was but natural that efforts at reform should focus upon them.

Another force, perhaps even more influential than any of those already mentioned, may be set down here : the increasing appreciation of the fact that during the later years of the common school most children are undergoing changes in the nature of a rapid approach to adulthood, changes which make unsuited for them many of the features of that school. Among these incompatible features are the complete disciplinary dominance of the one-teacher regimen and the repetition and extension of the materials and methods of

MOVEMENT FOR REORGANIZATION 3

the " common branches " at a time when the child needs to be engaged by new interests.

Besides the forces mentioned and others which will occur to the reader as legitimate, we may point out certain forces which have had much to do with hastening the present status of reorganization and which are actually extraneous to the more strictly educational requirements of the situation. Here may be mentioned the solution of a knotty local building problem which is made possible by instituting the junior high school plan. For instance, the four-year high school building in a system becomes overcrowded. To build new and larger accommodations seems to the administrative authorities impossible. By removing the pupils of the ninth grade from the high school building and housing them with those in the seventh and eighth grades in some older buildings the problem is solved. This easy emancipation from a housing difficulty has sometimes been the primary cause of a superficial reorganization; it has also sometimes been used to effect genuine reorganization where otherwise there might have been > too great opposition to a change for which the popu- / lace was not yet prepared. /

A second factor of the broad sweep of the movement for reorganization extrinsic to educational needs and one which is more influential than that just indicated is the desire of school authorities to be " progressive." This factor is not unlike the force of a fad. It often operates without any clear understanding of the purposes of reorganization and it not uncommonly results in change which, rather than being fundamental, restricts itself to such a superficiality as the mere regrouping of grades.

REORGANIZATION FORESHADOWED

The consciousness of a need for reform in the grades now associated with the junior high school is not new. It has been with us for more than quarter of a century. As early as 1893 the widely influential / Report of the Committee of Ten on Secondary School Studies made recommendations in considerable part foreshadowing present-day reorganization. The chief emphasis of the report, of course, bore upon readjustment within the conventional four-year high school, but, in the light of his earlier pronouncements, it was scarcely to be expected that a committee working under the leadership of Charles W. Eliot would ignore the problem of the relationship of this organization to the grades below the high school. For some years he had been urging the " shortening and enrichment of school programs." In harmony with this is a statement in the Report of the Committee of Ten where comment is made upon the programs of study proposed :

" In preparing these programs, the committee were perfectly aware that it is impossible to make a satisfactory secondary-school program, limited to a period of four years, and founded on the present elementary-school subjects and methods. In the opinion of the committee,

MOVEMENT FOR REORGANIZATION 5

several subjects now reserved for high schools — such as algebra, geometry, natural science, and foreign languages — should be begun earlier than now, and therefore within the schools classified as elementary; or, as an alternative, the secondary-school period should be made to begin two years earlier than at present, leaving six years instead of eight for the elementary-school period."

Consonant with this comment are the recommendations of each of the Conferences of specialists whose reports the Committee of Ten had before them when the report from which quotation has just been made was in preparation. The Conference on Latin urged the introduction of that subject into the grades below the ninth, while that on Modern Languages recommended similarly the introduction of elective work in German and French. The Conference on Mathematics asked for the continuation of the usual eight years of arithmetic, but spoke also for a place for concrete geometry and for algebraic expressions and symbols and simple equations. The Conferences in the sciences urged some recognition of their fields in elementary grades. Each of the remaining conferences made recommendations that called for more or less reorganization of elementary-school curricula in the general direction of a more extended recognition of its subject.

If we may judge from those portions of the Report of the Committee on College Entrance Requirements 1

appearing in 1899.

touching reorganization, the six years following the appearance of the Report of the Committee of Ten did much to emphasize the demand for reform in the grades immediately below the ninth. In one of its resolutions this committee took a stand in favor of a " unified six-year high-school course of study beginning with the seventh grade." A number of considerations were arrayed in support of this proposal. They found that educators agreed that the work of the seventh and eighth grades "must be enriched by eliminating non-essentials and adding new subjects formerly taught only in the high school." It was their belief that these reforms were to be more quickly effected by making these grades a part of the high school. They contended that " the seventh grade, rather than the ninth, is the natural turning point in the child's life, as the age of adolescence demands new methods and wiser direction." They were aware of the high student mortality due to the fundamental differences of organization in the elementary school and in the high school, and they expressed the opinion that the transition from one to the other " might be made more natural and easy by changing gradually from the one-teacher regimen to the system of special teachers, thus avoiding the violent shock now commonly felt on entering the high school." They, like the Committee of Ten, made specific recommendations looking to the introduction of secondary-school subjects in seventh and eighth grades.

MOVEMENT FOR REORGANIZATION 7

It would not be difficult to find numerous further evidences of the growing consciousness of the need of effecting reorganization in the grades with which we are here concerned. We shall refer to one more report only, a report made in 191 3 by the Committee on the Economy of Time in Education, almost a decade and a half subsequent to the appearance of the Report of the Committee on College Entrance Requirements. From the name it bore one is led to expect this committee to renew the emphases of the two committees already referred to. And this they did. But, as this committee deliberated during a period not remote from our own time, they did not rest with a mere reiteration of formulae which had by the time of the making of their report become commonplace. Instead, they carried forward the torch of educational reorganization. Doubtless, the advances made by them over the preceding reports were augmented by the assurance provided in the experimentations in reorganization which had in the meantime been begun. Without attempting to give a complete outline of the additions made by this committee to the thought on reorganization, it may be said that its report is the first to recommend the separation on horizontal lines, into two divisions, of the proposed six-year secondary-school period. One of the members in his individual report endorsed the sort of reorganization which was at the time of the preparation of the report finding place in a number of school systems — " (1) a junior high school of three years extending from the twelfth to the fifteenth year; and (2) a senior high school, also of three years, covering the period from the fifteenth to the eighteenth year." " A three-year junior high school," said this member, " will assure a larger number of citizens possessing some cultural training of secondary-school grade than a six-year high school." Further evidence of this enhanced conception of economy through reorganization is to be found in the recommendation of the provision of " vocational lines of work beginning at 12, 15 or 16, 18, and 20." At the beginning of the seventh grade pupils " are already discovering the personal interests and limitations which point toward specific types of training and life work." Reorganization, through shortening the period of elementary and general education, " provides for a large number who will enter vocations at 16 . . ." Heretofore the economy desired was largely in the interests of those 'who will enter the professions. This offering of "practical studies " would have the additional advantage of retaining in school many who would otherwise drop out early. Through this retention and through the possibility in the junior high school of putting a larger proportion of the population in possession of some cultural training of secondary-school grade, we should be making strides toward democratizing the school system.