The junior high school

Front matter

V V*'

RIVERSIDE TEXTBOOKS IN EDUCATION

PROFESSOR OF EDUCATION LELAND STANFORD JUNIOR UNIVERSITY

Preface

The long discussion of proposals for the reorganization of our secondary schools has now passed into concrete action. The arguments based on new educational theory, on changed and changing conditions in the United States, and on the increase in the number of pupils who continue in school beyond the elementary grades, have during the past decade been so fully accepted that the most remarkable change in the history of our education is now well under way. The purpose of this book is to present the facts, so far as they can be ascertained, concerning the newly established junior high schools, or intermediate schools, and at the same time to set forth a constructive program for the reorganization if it is to be educationally effective.

The author has had the privilege of visiting personally more than sixty junior high schools, from Massachusetts to California and from Minnesota to Texas. The information thus obtained has been supplemented by a study of all available literature on the subject of reorganization, by questionnaire returns from many schools, and by conferences and correspondence with administrators, several hundred of whom have been students in his classes. In addition, during the past five years he has had the practical experience afforded him as educational adviser of the Speyer Experimental Junior High School, which is conducted jointly by the City of New York and Teachers College.

viii PREFACE

Acknowledgment is due and is gratefully made to the many people who have aided in this study, especially to those principals and superintendents who have courteously shown their schools, cheerfully submitted to crossexamination, patiently filled out a lengthy questionnaire, and generously answered letters of inquiry. It will not seem invidious to thank especially Principal Joseph K. Van Denburg and the teachers of the Speyer School for their cordial and constant cooperation and helpfulness.

T. H. B.

Teachers College Columbia University

Chapter Xn, Costs . . . . . 279

Chapter Xni. Results 303

Chapter XIV. In Conclusion 822