Adolescence and high-school problems

Preface

This book had its origin in a course which was organized a few years ago for prospective high-school teachers and principals. The author taught the course to an increasing number of students in the Teachers College of the Illinois State Normal University; and the material here presented continues to meet the interests and needs of the class of students for whom it was planned.

The discussions offered are not the result of original investi-

Aons in the field of secondary education. The aim has been ^ , produce a book that will be helpful to any one who expects t-. do high-school work and to all others who are responsible fc the welfare of adolescents. The table of contents shows that while there has been no attempt at completeness, the sub- It cs chosen for treatment include such matters as all experieo ed workers in the field of secondary education will recognize a • vital. It is hoped that the book will be of practical rather t'\ .n theoretical interest. The author has always had in mind ••" ' boys and girls and concrete situations. The book is based on more than twenty years' experience as principal of public high schools and nine years in training young men and women for high-school positions. The experience and observation of many writers and co-workers have been drawn upon with freedom, but constant acknowledgment is not deemed practical.

The plan of the book is simple: it attempts to describe the nature of boys and girls of high-school age; then, in the light of this knowledge of adolescence, it seeks solutions for various problems growing out of high-school teaching and management. No attempt is made to deal with teaching problems as such. In all the discussions, it is assumed that the development of

ill iv PREFACE jg|^

the youth, rather than what he expecB /^TwIPirnishes the safest and most practical basis for the sel^ion of educational material and the determination of educational methods. It would seem that both the new psychology and the new sociology teach us that, while giving attention to the future of our high-school pupils, we should not neglect their present interests and needs, and that the only way to give them training in general social efficiency is through specific, concrete practice. It is hoped that there is always manifest in these discussions "democratic respect for the individual;" to miss this would be to lose sight of one of the most significant teachings of the psychology of adolescence.

The reader will find each chapter complete in itself; but there has been a serious attempt to secure a real unity throughout the book. This unity it is hoped is brought about by the maintenance of the viewpoint already described.

It must be admitted that the one who at present publishes anything on certain phases of secondary education is guilty of considerable temerity. Educational ideals are ever changing; but the present is understood by all students of education to be a period profoundly transitional. The social and economic unrest of the years immediately preceding the great war, together with many other causes, greatly disturbed the educational thinking of the country and occasionally the practice; and the war, with its exposures and consequences, has still further troubled the educational waters. Moreover, it is in the field of secondary education especially that new policies are manifest and a fundamental reorganization is already in progress.

If we are to judge by the utterances of the more advanced thinkers, the high-school curriculum is little more than a flux, and many of the traditional methods are either being seriously questioned or wholly rejected. In the present instance, however, there may be comfort in the thought that, although

PREFACE V

educational theories iSe rapidly changing (like the individual adolescent), yet, as a race phenomenon, adolescence tomorrow will in all essentials be like the adolescence of today; hence, if the conclusions drawn from studies of this interesting and baffling period are logical, the following chapters will not immediately become antiquated. Of at least one thing the author feels certain: much that is here recommended will meet with the approval of many high-school boys and girls.

The reader, as well as myself , is under obligation to my wife, Lillian Smith Pringle, for her careful reading of the proof, her many helpful suggestions, and her encouraging interest in the success of this book.

The book is dedicated to all who are youthful in spirit and enter sympathetically and enthusiastically into the work and play of those in whose interest it has been written and to all who believe that the joyous days of youth are rich in possibilities for future manhood and womanhood.

Normal, III., 1922.

Introduction

CHAPTER PAGE

I. Methods of Solving Educational Problems. . i

Solution of educational problems — psychological and sociological; relative value of two methods; progress in secondary education; function of adolescent psychology; understanding of youth; social administration; plan of the book.

II. Preadolescence 7

Periods of human development; preadolescence a natural approach to adolescence; physical characteristics; mental traits; social characteristics; gang hfe; fads; games; non-social proclivities; sex; morality; personality; savagery; recapitulation theory; practical conclusions; health; stories and traditions; outdoor nature; methods; twofold life.

PART I — PSYCHOLOGY OF ADOLESCENCE III. General Survey 22 I Significance of adolescence; adolescence and primitive

'^" peoples; Romans; knighthood; churches; literature

and art; formative period; difficulties and dangers in study of adolescence; questionnaire method; "new birth;" series of crises; personality; stages of development — early, middle, late adolescence.

' IV. Physiological Changes and Characteristics 40

Maturing of sex functions; signs of adolescence; growth — height, weight, bones, muscles, heart, lungs, brain; health; breathing and voice; diet; science and common-sense.

vii viii CONTENTS

CHAPTER PAGE

f V. Mental Growth and Reconstruction 58

4.-^ Physical maturity and mental growth; new attitudes;

sexual life; sex characters; charms and fetishes, migratory instincts; development of senses; love; thought awakening, reverie; practical conclusions.

VI. Social Characteristics and their Import. . . 88

\ Social environment; adolescents hetero-centric; social

instincts — gregariousness, sympathy, love of approbation, altruism; personality; social efficiency; social conformity.

UVII. Moral Aspects 98

Adolescent a moral being; new wildness; moral differences; unrest; criminal out-croppings; antisocial acts — adventures, truancy, incorrigibility, anger, fighting, cruelty, steaUng, lying; commercialization of adolescent nature; ideals — origin, nature, struggle; moral evolution; personal influence.

Part II — High-school Problems

VIII. Transition to the Secondary School —

Junior High School 126

(i) Problem and its solution; (ii) psychological basis of junior high school; (iii) history of movement; (iv) definition, determined by nature of early adolescent; (v) curriculum, subject-matter, methods, propositions concerning curriculum, curriculum making, program of studies; (vi) methods; (vii) teachers; (viii) organization, administration, cost; (ix) building, equipment, text-books; (x) functions.

IX. The American High-school Group 16S

Heterogeneous nature; growth; social status; expectations of pupils; age; general intelligence; advisory system; conferences; supervised study.

CONTENTS IX

CHAPTER PAGE

X. The Curriculum 177

(i) Curriculum the storm center, curriculum making, shifting ideals, no ideal curriculum; (ii) qualifications of curriculum maker; (iii) purpose, scope, function, responsibility; (iv) forces leading to curriculum changes, new definitions, the trend; (v) general principles of curriculum making; (vi) individual natures, social outlook, Committee of Ten, a rich and changing curriculum, selective dev ces, history of curriculum, the curriculum system, majors, minors, constants; (vii) type curriculums, curriculum differentiation; (viii) administration, curriculum thinking.

' XL Social Activities 213

Functions; social education; organizing tendencies; three policies of faculty; two demands; leadership, cooperation, loyalty, moral training; pleasure; habits; faculty adviser; organizations; dancing, dramatics; credits.

XII. Literary Societies 232

Forms of expression; functions; extemporary speaking; subjects; learning to speak; organization.

XIII. Debating 248

(i) Brain development, new instincts and powers, dangers in debating; (ii) management, reasoning ^' power, initiative, judgment, poise, concentration, meaning of proof, fair play, leadership, cooperation, effort required; (iii) faculty adviser, debating clubs, instruction; (iv) interschool debating, regulations, benefits.

XrV. High-School Journalism 268

Effort necessary; functions; benefits; problems; staff; faculty adviser; diflficulties; responsibility.

CONTENTS

CHAPTER PAGE

XV. Athletics 277

(i) Necessary, attitudes of faculty; (ii) psychology, influence of athletics, adolescence and athletics; (iii) evils and dangers not inherent; (iv) coaching, faculty cooperation; (v) suitable high-school games; (vi) management, principal's duties, scientific demands.

XVI. Pupil Finance 302

Business training; temptations of adolescents; a plan and its workings.

XVII. Assembly 307

Esprit de corps; demands of assembly programs — interesting, instructive, inspiring; a social affair; cooperation; illustrations; time and length of period.

XVIII. Sex Education 317

DijQ&cult and dehcate subject; purpose of chapter; dangers; normal life processes emphasized; methods of appeal; timing instruction; preadolescence; the teacher; the information needed; knowledge not enough; methods; school's responsibility.

Xrx. Moral Education 335

Sex and morality; morality and adolescence; teaching morality; psychological and social aspects; conscience; imagination; social origin of morals; conditions; subconscious self; no spiritual gifts; life and character; moral ideas and ideas about morality; social-pyschology treatment; incidental instruction; rules; punishments; school studies; moral education.

XX. Principles and Methods of Appeal 352

Knowledge of human nature; (i) appreciation; (2) square deal; (3) honor and "honor systems;" (4) adolescent code of honor; (5) unity of the individual; (6) spirit of democracy; (7) freedom; (8) conduct and character; (9) loyalty as a motive — strongest, safest, and most effective; appHcation; personal leadership.

ADOLESCENCE AND HIGH-SCHOOL PROBLEMS

INTRODUCTION

Chapter I Methods Of Solving Educational Problems

There are two ways of determining educational procedure concerning questions of either method or material. « One is by a careful study of the nature and personal needs of the one to be educated; the other is by focusing attention upon the economic and social outlook of the one to be educated. According to the first, when methods of teaching, school administration, and management of social activities are under consideration, or when the content of the curriculum is in question, we iconcentrate upon the pupils, and, by a scientific and sympathetic study of their physical, mental, social, and moral characteristics, try to determine what method and what subject-matter will most strongly appeal to their interests and most closely fit their needs; this is the psychological mode of attacking educational problems. According to the second way, when matters pertaining to method and content are to be settled, we turn our thoughts toward the community from which the pupils come and to which they will return, and, by a close and exhaustive study of its nature and needs, attempt to learn what social and industrial services it will demand of the pupils when they leave school; this is the sociological mode of solving educational problems. The first method of solution, when applied to high-school problems, trusts our increasing knowledge of adolescence; and the second depends upon our tightening grasp of the fundamental principles of social economy. The first is dominated by reverence for the individual's tastes and talents, the second makes the requirements of the civilization into which the individual was born the determining factors. One method exalts individuality as the end toward which all educational efforts must tend, the other glorifies the composite spirit of society and makes its needs the end.

Both of these methods of solving educational problems are considered scientific and modern. Each has its disciples, and the influence of one or both is traceable in all recent educational writing and discussion. Just now it would appear that the demands of society, in the broader sense of the term, are uppermost in the minds of a majority of educational experts*; as witness, the ever recurring phrase "social efficiency" and its like, in which it would seem that this proposed aim of education implies that the schools are to make the pupils efficient for the sake of society. However, the relative merits and validity of these two ways of determining educational procedure are not under discussion here. Whatever may be their relative values as criteria, the discussions and attempted solutions of high-* school problems which follow are, controlled largely by psycho-^ logical considerations. These will certainly furnish workable and vaHd tests; if a single viewpoint is maintained, our study of the problems here considered will gain in unity.

There is little doubt that thus far child psychology has influenced the pedagogy of the elementary school much more profoundly than adolescent psychology has modified secondary education. For this state of affairs there are at least two reasons: first, the psychology of adolescence, although concerned with the most interesting and formative phase of human development, is not yet so definitely formulated as the psychology

EDUCATIONAL PROBLEMS 3

of childhood, there being the utmost variance of opinion and emphasis on many important points respecting adolescent nature, due partly, as we shall see, to the inherent difficulty of the subject, and partly to the methods of study which have prevailed; second, the field of modern secondary education has not yet been so thoroughly worked as that of elementary education, the latter having long possessed a considerable body of experimentally determined pedagogical principles, which have been fairly well confirmed by practice. In secondary education the pedagogical outlook is unsettled and the lines are still shifting, due, it seems to the author, to the lack of a psychological basis. From the very nature of the case, much light will be thrown on all high-school problems when we have reliable information concerning the nature of youth; it seems to be a fundamental principle in our thinking to judge the needs of any institution or individual by its nature, by the laws of its being; our remarkable success in dealing with plants and the lower animals has come from an intimate knowledge in each case of their life history. There is full agreement that the school is for the pupil, then let us study the pupil, and by so doing make the school deal with him according to his nature and needs.

The question as to what extent the study of psychology functions in the work of the teacher and school administrator has often been discussed. The answer to the question would seem to depend upon what phase of psychology is meant and what methods of study are employed. If the attention is focused largely on the abstract principles of the subject, and the methods are deductive and introspective, perhaps little direct help will result. But this is not what is now meant by the study of psychology in the modern schools of education. Educational psychology is now applying the principle of division of labor, with a view to securing the most direct and first-hand knowledge possible concerning each period of child and adolescent development. Any one who has year after year had the privilege of seeing successive groups of adolescent boys and girls, in their intercourse with each other and their grappling with the usual intellectual demands of high-school work, show forth the same characteristics and stages of development as their predecessors, comes to realize that he is in the presence of laws that must be universal and worthy of his serious attention. If this observation of the social and mental life of adolescents is close and sympathetic, and if it is supplemented by all the skill and methods of research known to modern science, there surely will result a body of knowledge and an attitude of mind on the part of the observer that will greatly aid him in his solution of the many urgent high-school problems. A persistent effort by every available means to understand this rapidly changing period will naturally give rise to a deep interest and a keen alertness that must prove most helpful in discovering individual differences and needs as well as group characteristics and requirements. The student of adolescent nature soon becomes aware of the close relation and interaction between individual life in its integrity of development and social life, which is so necessary to this individual development; without this knowledge and the consequent insight, one would be helpless in dealing with many of the social problems involved in the management of a really modern high school; and one who knows youth is conscious of a fortunate and helpful concurrence between the demands and ideals of the individual and of the social life. Moreover, of the evolving of new theories, the proposing of new subjects for the curriculum, and the devising of new methods there is no end; the conscientious student of secondary education is much in need of safe criteria by which to judge the educational novelties as they appear. J. J. Findlay, one of the highest educational authorities in England, says, "Let no one suppose that the study of adolescence can be left out of account in judging of the worth of current systems of secondary education."

EDUCATIONAL PROBLEMS 5

However, it must not be expected that a knowledge of adolescence will furnish ready-made rules of procedure; there must come between this knowledge and the successful management of youth the intervention of an inventive and sympathetic mind. As the late Professor Royce of Harvard pointed out many years ago, the greatest benefit that will come from such study is the psychological spirit and habit of mind, which lead to a constant and intelligent observation of the mental and social life of the pupils and a scientific reasoning from the data thus obtained. The whole on-rushing life of youth should supply the most reliable commentary on the many high-school problems as they arise.

The problems connected with high-school teaching and management have been variously classified. There is a class of problems that are practically peculiar to the modern high school, which may be called problems in "social administration;" they have come into prominence through our better knowledge of the close relation between the social life of the adolescent and his mental and moral life, and consequently through the growing conviction that secondary education in the last analysis is a social enterprise. These problems have arisen in connection with the social aspects of the curriculum and its administration and with the many and varied social activities of the modern high school. They are neither teaching nor administrative problems in the broadest sense; but they are vital problems, for they have to do with the individual and social life of every pupil, and on their wise solution will depend in a large measure the degree of social efficiency with which we are able to endow our pupils. Like other problems, their solution should be based on scientific knowledge; that is, their solution should rest on the fundamental facts thus far ascertained and the underlying principles thus far evolved concerning the nature of adolescence. This means, of course, parting company, as far as may be, with dogma and many traditions and customs; and this in itself is a peculiar and often difficult process, for many worthy intellectual and humanitarian movements have left their impress on secondary education. However, the leaders of educational thought are generally of the opinion that the feeling of unrest concerning all phases of high-school activity should be interpreted as a call to advance along all lines; Dr. Judd believes that "the time is ripe to essay the comprehensive task" of applying psychology to "all high-school problems," particularly the special psychology of adolescence.

The foregoing statements suggest the plan of this book. The chapters included in Part I furnish a brief and somewhat complete account of what is now generally believed concerning the psychology of adolescence; Part II is an attempt to deal with various important high-school problems, mostly of a social nature, in the light of our knowledge of adolescence. The assumption is that the psychology of the special problem in each case is based upon and merged into the psychology of the pupils.

CHAPTER n PREADOLESCENCE

Even a cursory survey of the entire life history of any individual makes us aware of how greatly the different periods of life differ from one another. It is true that we expect to find the later stretches of life's span more quiescent, more static, comparatively fixed and settled; even ten years at this end of life may seemingly bring slight change of any kind. But, when we turn our attention to the other periods of the individual's growth and development, we find all is changing and changing so rapidly that at times it appears almost impossible to fix upon any definite characteristics and say that these constitute the real individual under consideration; all is flux; physical features take on new shape and proportions, and the mental and moral movements are so rapid that we have at times little less than continuous turmoil. All here is dynamic. The countless currents of life are setting, and the full nature and trend of the complex stream is not yet determined.

Since so much of this book is devoted to one of these rapidly developing periods of life, it will be advantageous to try to give this period a setting. It will be helpful to pause and focus attention for a short time upon that most interesting and unique period just preceding adolescence. This will form a natural and helpful approach to our study of adolescence; the purpose of this chapter, therefore, is to give a brief account of the characteristics, tendencies, and educational possibilities of that period of childhood extending from the ages of eight or nine to twelve and known generally as preadolescence. Joseph Lee has well named it the Big Injun Age.

This period of childhood is characterized by the greatest physical activities, and these activities are the most varied; the waking moments are filled with almost continuous movement, and wiggling seems to be the law of living. Health is about at its best. Physical growth is slower now than at any other time during the first eighteen or twenty years; beginning with birth, the rate of growth rapidly decreases until preadolescence, when it sometimes almost stops. Thus it is a period of much stability, due in part at least to relative balance between assimilation and expenditure; and it is a time when the individual shows nearly perfect adaptation to environment. The boys and girls are now able to resist all kinds of unfavorable conditions; their power of endurance is great; both boys and girls are at the height of their physical buoyancy; and vitality according to all tests runs high. And, strange to say, although not fully developed, the brain reaches at the end of this period nearly its full size and weight. Thus we have during this period of preadolescence a being wonderfully efl&cient, when judged on a purely physical basis, perhaps more nearly perfect in the way it functions and rapidly adjusts itself to new conditions than at any other time of life.

The story on the mental side is also interesting. The power of perception is remarkably acute; and the child, especially the boy, is so bent on using this power that books are readily put aside and reading often becomes very distasteful. At this time the poet's injunction, "away to the fields," meets with eager response. A boy sometimes can take you to a hundred birds' nests, and of these he has a more intimate and vital knowledge than many a bookworm has of his books. A study of this period shows that memory is quick, the percentage of error is small, and facts and impressions are lasting. As distinguished from the previous four years of the child's life, it is an age of prose. The preadolescent is not interested in fairies or their doings; and the many mak^-believe activities of the previous dramatic period are suddenly and vigorously put aside. The automatic powers are at their best, the reactions are immediate. Thus it is the golden age for drill and discipline.

It is well to note that the elements of knowledge, which the preadolescent so rapidly and willingly acquires, are more or less without content to him while he is acquiring them, with the important exception of what he gets from outdoor nature and what comes to him in the form of suitable story.

Although he is not at all poetical, his visual imagination is vivid and grasps its object firmly. Reason is only slightly developed, in many cases little more than foreshadowed. Real insight and understanding in the narrow sense are only beginning. The preadolescent gets much pleasure from collecting all kinds of objects (many of them entirely useless) and swapping them with other collectors of his kind. The collecting is rarely in any sense scientific, but seems to be done merely to satisfy the desire for possession; all observers are familiar with the bulging pockets of the grammar-school boy. The interest in these collections and the value placed upon them are both, of course, very transient. The interest of the child in mechanical puzzles culminates at about eleven years. Thus the mental life of the preadolescent is lived on a concrete basis; he is interested in things tangible and deals successfully with them if he finds them in his immediate environment. Much of this success is doubtless due to his ready power of imitation; girls are more imitative and are less general in their interests than boys.

Much of the preadolescent 's keen objective interest doubtless arises from the feeling that he must "bang himself up against the world," as some one has expressed it, "and see what it and he himself is made of;" in fact it is the only way he can gain a knowledge of himself and his surroundings, and knowledge he must have. Moreover, he is satisfied if he can learn merely how the world runs; later he will philosophize about the runlO ADOLESCENCE

ning; now the facts are sufficient, later he will demand the theories which organize the facts.

The social characteristics of this period differ in a very marked way from the period that follows. Life at this time is naturally and decidedly individualistic. The preadolescent is ego-centric, always looking out for "number one;" he is likely to be unsympathetic and regardless of others; with him self-preservation is, indeed, the first law of nature. The altruistic symptoms which he may show are, when really understood, largely imitative. It is true that the preadolescent develops a life of his own outside of the home circle. His social tendencies are shown in the formation of the gang, in his adherence to its laws, and in conforming to its spirit. But in all this he is really self-centered; gang life and spirit appeal to him because of what they bring to him in personal satisfaction; and one gang is readily and unsentimentally exchanged for another when circumstances favor. This is the tribal period of boyhood and the gang is a primitive democracy, whose principles and purposes must be observed by the members; and, although his membership is readily transferred to another gang, the boy is remarkably loyal to the interests and purposes of the gang as long as these obtain. The educative influences of the gang are indispensable to virile development; it is here that the boy gains the masculine viewpoint, which he cannot easily get from his home life, at least not from his nurse or mother; here to a certain degree his selfishness will be mitigated, when the give-and-take methods and customs of this tribal institution are brought to bear upon his natural egotism; it is very wholesome and necessary to learn through pretty lively contact the personal values and talents of other boys.

The tendency to indulge in short-lived fads and the strength of mere gang spirit are vividly portrayed in Robert Louis Stevenson's account of the "Lantern-Bearers;" the interest and

PREADOLESCENCE II

value, as illustrative of our theme, are sufficient to warrant quoting certain passages from this delightful essay.

"Toward the end of September, when school time was drawing near, and the nights were already black, we would begin to sally from our respective villas, each equipped with a tin bull's-eye lantern. The thing was so well known that it had worn a rut in the commerce of Great Britain; and the grocers, about the due time, began to garnish their windows with our particular brand of luminary. We wore them buckled to the waist upon a cricket belt, and over them, such was the rigor of the game, a buttoned top-coat. They smelled noisomely of blistered tin. They never burned aright, though they would always burn our fingers. Their use was naught, the pleasure of them merely fanciful, and yet a boy with a bull's-eye under his top-coat asked for nothing more. The fishermen used lanterns about their boats, and it was from them, I suppose, that we had got the hint; but theirs were not bull's-eyes, nor did we ever play at being fishermen. The police carried them at their belts, and we had plainly copied them in that; yet we did not pretend to be policemen. Burglars, indeed, we may have had some haunting thought of; and we had certainly an eye to past ages when lanterns were more common, and to certain story-books in which we had found them to figure very largely. But take it for all in all, the pleasure of the thing was substantive; and to be a boy with a bull's-eye under his top-coat was good enough for us.

"When two of these asses met, there would be an anxious *Have you got your lantern?' and a gratified 'Yes!' That was the shibboleth, and very needful, too; for, as it was the rule to keep our glory contained, none could recognize a lantern-bearer unless (like the polecat) by the smell. Four or five would sometimes climb into the belly of a ten-man lugger, with nothing but the thwarts above them, — for the cabin was usually locked, — or choose out some hollow of the links where the wind might whistle overhead. Then the coats would be unbuttoned, and the bull's-eyes discovered; and the chequering glimmer, under the huge, windy hall of night, and cheered by a rich steam of toasting tinware, these fortunate young gentlemen would crouch together in the cold sand of the links, or on scaly bilges of the fishing-boat, and delight them with inappropriate talk. Woe is me that I cannot give some specimens ! • • • • But the talk was but a condiment, and these gatherings themselves only accidents in the career of the lantern-bearer."