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31S S. U. I.ION ^'VISION

BOOK 375.B63 c. 1BOBBITT # WHAT SCHOOLS TEACH ANDMIGHT TEACH

3 T153 OOiniET 7


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This book may be keptFOURTEEN DAYSA fine of TWO CENTS will be charged for each day

the book is kept over time.


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WHAT THE SCHOOLS TEACHAND MIGHT TEACH


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THE SURVEY COMMITTEE OF THECLEVELAND FOUNDATIONCharles E. Adams, ChairmanThomas G. Fitzsimons

Myrta L. JonesBascom Little

Victor W. Sincere

Arthur D. Baldwin, SecretaryJames R. Garfield, CounselAllen T. Burns, Director

THE EDUCATIONAL SURVEYLeonard P. Ayres, Director


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CLEVELAND EDUCATION SURVEY

WHAT THE SCHOOLSTEACH AND MIGHTTEACHBY

FRANKLIN BOBBITTASSISTANT PROFESSOR OF EDUCATIONAL ADMINISTRATIONTHE UNIVER8ITT OF CHICAGO

THE SURVEY COMMITTEE OF THECLEVELAND FOUNDATIONCLEVELAND OHIO


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Copyright, 1915, bythe survey committee of the

cleveland foundation

WM F. FELL CO PRINTEB3PHILADELPHIA


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FOREWORDThis report on ''What the Schools Teach andMight Teach" is one of the 25 sections of thereport of the Educational Survey of Clevelandconducted by the Survey Committee of theCleveland Foundation in 1915. Twenty-three ofthese sections will be published as separate mono-graphs. In addition there will be a larger volumegiving a summary of the findings and recom-mendations relating to the regular work of thepublic schools, and a second similar volumegiving the summary of those sections relating toindustrial education. Copies of all these publi-cations may be obtained from the ClevelandFoundation. They may also be obtained fromthe Division of Education of the Russell SageFoundation, New York City. A complete hstwill be found in the back of this volume, to-gether with prices.


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TABLE OF CONTENTSFAOB

Foreword ^List of Tables 9Prefatory Statement 11The Point of View 15Reading and Literature 21Spelling 35Handwriting 40Language, Composition, Grammar 41Mathematics 46

Algebra 50Geometry 52

History 54Civics 62Geography 65Drawing and Applied Art 69Manual Training and Household^Arts 72Elementary Science 79High School Science 81Physiology and Hygiene 83Physical Training 88Music 92Foreign Languages 94Differentiation of Courses 98Summary 101


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LIST OF TABLESTABLE PAOB51. Time given to reading and literature 212. Sets of supplementary reading books per

building 283. Weeks given to reading of different books inHigh School of Commerce 314. Time given to spelling 355. Time given to handwriting 406. Time given to language, composition, and

grammar7. Time given to arithmetic 468. Time given to history 549. Time given to geography 65

10. Time given to drawing 6911. Time given to manual training 7212. Time given to science, physiology, hygiene 8413. Time given to physical training 8814. Time given to music 92

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WHAT THE SCHOOLS TEACH ANDMIGHT TEACHPREFATORY STATEMENT

For an understanding of some of the character-istics of this report it is necessary to mentioncertain of the conditions under which it wasprepared.The printed course of study for the elemen-

tary schools to be found in June, 1915, the timethe facts were gathered for this report, was pre-pared under a former administration. While itsmain outlines were still held to, it was beingdeparted from in individual schools in manyrespects. Except occasionally it was not pos-sible to find record of such departures. It wasbeheved that to accept the printed manualas representing current procedure would dofrequent injustice to thoughtful, constructiveworkers within the system. But it must beremembered that courses of study for the citycover the work of twelve school years in a scoreand more of subjects, distributed through a

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hundred buildings. Only a small fraction ofthis comprehensive program is going on duringany week of the school year; and of this fractiononly a relatively small amount could actually bevisited by one man in the time possible to de-vote to the task. In the absence of records ofwork done or of work projected, unduly largeweight had to be given to the recommendationsset down in the latest published course of studymanual.New courses of study were being planned forthe elementary schools. This in itself indicatedthat the manual could not longer be regarded asan authoritative expression of the ideas of theadministration. Yet with the exception of agood arithmetic course and certain excellent be-ginnings of a geography course, little indica-tion could be found as to what the details of thenew courses were to be. The present report hashad to be written at a time when the adminis-tration by its acts was rejecting the courses ofstudy laid out in the old manual, and yet beforethe new courses were formulated. Under thecircumstances it was not a safe time for settingforth the facts, since not even the administra-tion knew yet what the new courses were to bein their details. It was not a safe time to beeither praising or blaming course of study re-quirements. The situation was too unformed

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for either. In the matter of the curriculum, thecity was confessedly on the eve of a large con-structive program. Its face was toward thefuture, and not toward the past; not eventoward the present.

It was felt that if the brief space at the dis-posal of this report could also look chieflytoward the future, and present constructivereconmiendations concerning things that ob-servation indicated should be kept in mind, itwould accomphsh its largest service. The timethat the author spent in Cleveland was mostlyused in observations in the schools, in consul-tation with teachers and supervisors, and inotherwise ascertaming what appeared to be themain outUnes of practice in the various subjects.This was thought to be the point at which fur-ther constructive labors would necessarily begin.The recommendation of a thing in this report

does not indicate that it has hitherto been non-existent or umecognized in the system. Theintention rather is an economical use of the briefspace at our disposal in calling attention to whatappear to be certain fundamental principles ofcurriculum-making that seem nowadays moreand more to be employed by judicious construc-tive workers.The occasional pointing out of incomplete

development of the work of the system is not13


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to be regarded as criticism. Both school peopleand community should remember that sinceschools are to fit people for social conditions,and since these conditions are continuallychanging, the work of the schools must corres-pondingly change. Social growth is never com-plete; it is especially rapid in our generation.The work of education in preparing for theseever-new conditions can likewise never be com-plete, crystallized, perfected. It must grow andchange as fast as social conditions make suchchanges necessary. To point out such furthergrowth-needs is not criticism. The intention isto present the disinterested, detached view ofthe outsider who, although he knows indefinitelj^less than those within the system about the de-tails of the work, can often get the perspectiverather better just because his mind is not filledwith the details.

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THE POINT OF VIEWThere is an endless, and perhaps worldwide,controversy as to what constitutes the '^ essen-tials" of education; and as to the steps to betaken in the teaching of these essentials. Thesafe plan for constructive workers appears tobe to avoid personal educational philosophiesand to read all the essentials of education withinthe needs and processes of the communityitself. Since we are using this social point ofview in making curriculum suggestions forCleveland, it seems desirable first to explainjust what we mean. Some of the matters setdown may appear so obvious as not to requireexpression. They need, however, to be pre-sented again because of the frequency withwhich they are lost sight of in actual schoolpractice.

Children and youth are expected as theygrow up to take on by easy stages the char-acteristics of adulthood. At the end of the pro-cess it is expected that they will be able to dothe things that adults do; to think as theythink ; to bear adult responsibilities ; to be effi-cient in work; to be thoughtful public-spiritedcitizens; and the like. The individual whoreaches this level of attainment is educated,

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even though he may never have attendedschool. The one who falls below this level isnot truly educated, even though he may havehad a surplus of schooling.To bring one's nature to full maturity, asrepresented by the best of the adult communityin which one grows up, is true education for lifein that community. Anything less than thisfalls short of its purpose. Anything other thanthis is education misdirected.

In very early days, when community lifewas simple, practically all of one's educationwas obtained through participating in com-munity activities, and without systematicteaching. From that day to this, however, thesocial world has been growing more complex.Adults have developed kinds of activities socomplicated that youth cannot adequatelyenter into them and learn them without sys-tematic teaching. At first these things werefew; with the years they have grown verynumerous.One of the earliest of these too-complicated

activities was written languagereading, writ-ing, spelling. These matters became necessitiesto the adult world; but youth under ordinarycircumstances could not participate in themas performed by adults sufficiently to masterthem. They had to be taught; and the school

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thereby came into existence. A second thingdeveloped about the same time was the com-pHcated number system used by adults. Itwas too difficult for youth to master throughparticipation only. It too had to be taught, andit offered a second task for the schools. In theearly schools this teaching of the so-called ThreeR's was all that was needed, because these werethe only adult activities that had become socompUcated as to require systematized teaching.Other things were still simple enough, so thatyoung people could enter into them sufficientlyfor all necessary education.As community vision widened and men's

affairs came to extend far beyond the horizon,a need arose for knowledge of the outlyingworld. This knowledge could rarely be obtainedsufficiently through travel and observation.There arose the new need for the systematicteaching of geography. What had hithertonot been a human necessity and therefore notan educational essential became both becauseof changed social conditions.

Looking at education from this social pointof view it is easy to see that there was a timewhen no particular need existed for history,drawing, science, vocational studies, civics, etc.,beyond what one could acquire by minghngwith one's associates in the community. These

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were therefore not then essentials for education.It is just as easy to see that changed social con-ditions of the present make necessary for everyone a fuller and more systematic range of ideasin each of these fields than one can pick up in-cidentally. These things have thereby becomeeducational essentials. Whether a thing todayis an educational '^essential" or not seems todepend upon two things: whether it is a humannecessity today; and whether it is so complexor inaccessible as to require systematic teach-ing. The number of ''essentials'^ changes fromgeneration to generation. Those today whoproclaim the Three R's as the sole ''essentials'^appear to be calling from out the rather distantpast. Many things have since become essential;and other things are being added year by year.The normal method of education in things

not yet put into the schools, is participation inthose things. One gets his ideas from watchingothers and then learns to do by doing. Thereis no reason to believe that as the school lendsits help to some of the more difficult things,this normal plan of learning can be set asideand another substituted. Of course the schoolsmust take in hand the difficult portions ofthe process. Where complicated knowledge isneeded, the schools must teach that knowledge.Where drill is required, they must give the drill.

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But the knowledge and the drill should be givenin their relation to the human activities inwhich they are used. As the school helps youngpeople to take on the nature of adulthood, itwill still do so by helping them to enter ade-quately into the activities of adulthood. Youthwill learn to think, to judge, and to do, by think-ing, judging, and doing. They will acquire asense of responsibihty by bearing responsibility.They wdll take on serious forms of thought bydoing the serious things which require seriousthought.

It cannot be urged that young people have aHfe of their own which is to be lived only foryouth^s sake and without reference to the adultworld about them. As a matter of fact childrenand youth are a part of the total communityof which the mature adults are the natural andresponsible leaders. At an early age they beginto perform adult activities, to take on adultpoints of view, to bear adult responsibilities.Naturally it is done in ways appropriate to theirnatures. At first it is imitative play, con-structive play, etc.nature's method of bring-ing children to observe the serious world aboutthem, and to gird themselves for entering intoit. The next stage, if normal opportunities areprovided, is playful participation in the ac-tivities of their elders. This changes gradually

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into serious participation as they grow older,becoming at the end of the process responsibleadult action. It is not possible to determinethe educational materials and processes at anystage of growth without looking at the sametime to that entire world of which youth formsa part, and in which the nature and abilitiesof their elders point the goal of their training.The social point of view herein expressed is

sometimes characterized as being utilitarian.It may be so ; but not in any narrow or undesira-ble sense. It demands that training be as wideas life itself. It looks to human activities ofevery type: religious activities ; civic activities;the duties of one's calling; one's family duties;one's recreations; one's reading and medita-tion; and the rest of the things that are doneby the complete man or woman.

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READING x\ND LITERATUREThe amount of time given to reading in the ele-mentary schools of Cleveland, and the averagetime in 50 other cities* are shown in the follow-ing table:TABLE 1.TIME GIVEN TO READING AND LITERATURE


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vestment in this subject of some $150,000.Whether or not this excess investment in read-ing is justified depends, of course, upon the waythe time is used. If the city is aiming only atthe usual mastery of the mechanics of readingand the usual introductory acquaintance withsimple works of literary art, it appears thatCleveland is using more time and labor thanother cities consider needful. If, on the otherhand, this city is using the excess time for widelydiversified reading chosen for its content valuein revealing the great fields of history, industry,applied science, manners and customs in otherlands, travel, exploration, inventions, biography,etc., and in fixing life-long habits of intelUgentreading, then it is possible that it is just thisexcess time that produces the largest educationalreturns upon the investment.

It would seem, however, from a careful studyof the actual work and an examination of theprinted documents, that the chief purpose ofteaching reading in this city is, to use the ter-minology of its latest manual, '^easy expressiveoral reading in rich, well-modulated tone.'^ It istrue that other aims are mentioned, such asenlargement of vocabulary, word-study, under-standing of expressions and allusions, acquain-tance with the leading authors, appreciationof ^^ beautiful expressions, " etc. Properly em-

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phasized, each of these purposes is vaUd; butthere are other equally valid ends to be achievedthrough proper choice of the reading-contentthat are not mentioned. There is here nocriticism of the purposes long accepted, butof the apparent failure to recognize otherequally important ones. The character of thereading-content is referred to only in the recom-mendation that in certain grades it should relateto the seasons and to special occasions. Even inreference to the supplementary reading, wherecontent should be the first concern, the onlystatement of purpose is that '^children shouldread for the joy of it." Unfortunately, thismistaken emphasis is not at all uncommonamong the schools of the nation. How onereads has received an undue amount of atten-tion; what one reads in the school coursesmust and will receive an increasingly largeshare of time and thought, in the new evalua-tion. The use of interesting and valuablebooks for other educational purposes at thesame time that they are used for drill in themechanics of reading is coming more and moreto be recognized as an improved mode of pro-cedure. The mechanical side of reading is notthereby neglected. It is given its proper func-tion and relation, and can therefore be bettertaught.

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So far as one can see, Cleveland is attemptingin the reading work little more than the tradi-tional thing. The thirty-four per cent excesstime may be justified by the city on the theorythat the schools are commissioned to get thework done one-third better than in the averagecity. The reading tests made by the Surveyfail to reveal any such superiority. The cityappears to be getting no better than averageresults.

Certainly people should read well and effec-tively in all ways in which they will be calledupon to read in their adult affairs. For themost part this means reading for ideas, sugges-tions, and information in connection with thethings involved in their several callings ; in con-nection with their civic problems; for recrea-tion; and for such general social enlightenmentas comes from newspapers, magazines, andbooks. Most reading will be for the content.It is desirable that the reading be easy andrapid, and that one gather in all the ideas asone reads. Because of the fact that oral readingis slower, more laborious for both reader andlistener, and because of the present easyaccessibility of printed matter, oral reading isbecoming of steadily diminishing importanceto adults. No longer should the central educa-tional purpose be the development of expressive

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oral reading. It should be rapid and effectivesilent reading for the sake of the thought read.To train an adult generation to read for thethought, schools must give children full prac-

tice in reading for the thought in the ways inwhich later as adults they should read. Afterthe primary teachers have taught the elements,the work should be mainly voluminous readingfor the sake of entering into as much of theworld's thought and experience as possible.The work ought to be rather more extensivethan intensive. The chief end should be thedevelopment of that wide social vision andunderstanding which is so much needed in thiscomphcated cosmopolitan age. While works ofUterary art should constitute a considerableportion of the reading program, they should notmonopolize the program, nor indeed should theybe regarded as the most important part of it.It is history, travel, current news, biography,advance in the world of industry and appliedscience, discussions of social relations, political ad-justments, etc., which adults need mostly to read;and it is by the reading of these things that chil-dren form desirable and valuable reading habits.The reading curriculum needs to be lookedafter in two important ways. First, social

standards of judgment should determine thenature of the reading. The texts beyond the

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primary grades are now for the most part selec-tions of literary art. Very little of it has anyconscious relation, immediate or remote, topresent-day problems and conditions or withtheir historical background. Probably childrenshould read many more selections of literaryart than are found in the textbooks and thesupplementary sets now owned by the schools.But certainly such cultural literary experienceought not to crowd out kinds of reading thatare of much greater practical value. Illumina-tion of the things of serious importance in theeveryday world of human affairs should have alarge place in reading work of every school.

It is true that the supplementary sets ofbooks have been chosen chiefly for their con-tent value. Many are historical, biographical,geographical, scientific, civic, etc., in character.On the side of content, they have advancedmuch farther than the textbooks toward whatshould constitute a proper reading course.Unfortunately, the schools are very incompletelysupplied with these sets. If we consider all thesets of supplementary readers found in 10 ormore schools, we find that few of those assignedfor fourth-grade reading are found in one-quarter of the buildings and none are in half ofthem. The same is true of the books for use inthe fifth and seventh grades. Some of the books

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for the sixth and eighth grades are found in morethan half of the buildings, but there is none thatis found in as many as three-quarters of them.The second thing greatly needed to improve

the reading course is more reading practice.One learns to do a thing easily, rapidly, andeffectively by practice. The course of study inreading should therefore provide the opportu-nity for much practice. At present the readingtexts used aggregate for the eighth grade some2100 pages. A third-grade child ought to readmatter suitable for its intelHgence at 20 pagesper hour, and a grammar-grade child at 30 to40 pages per hour. Since rapidity of reading isone of the desired ends, the practice readingshould be rapid. At the moderate rates men-tioned, the entire series of reading texts oughtto be read in some 80 hours. This is 10 hours'practice for each of the eight school years, analtogether insufficient amount of rapid readingpractice. Of course the texts can be read twdce,or let us say three times, aggregating 30 hoursof practice per year. But even this is not morethan could easily be accompHshed in two orthree weeks of each of the yearsalways pre-suming that the reading materials are rightlyadapted to the mental maturity of the pupils.This leaves 35 weeks of the year unprovidedfor. To make good this deficit, the buildings are

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furnished with supplementary books in setssufficiently large to supply entire classes. Theaverage number of such sets per building isshown in the following table:TABLE 2.SETS OF SUPPLEMENTARY READING BOOKS PERBUILDING

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ill-chosen for practice in habits of rapid intelli-gent reading? It is not by going slow that onelearns to go fast. Quite the reverse. Too oftenthe school runs on low speed gear when it oughtto be running on high. The low may be neces-sary for the starting, but not for the running.It may be necessary in the primary grades, butnot thereafter for those who have had a normalstart. Reading practice should certainly makefor increased speed in effective reading.The actual work in the grades is very different

from the plan suggested. In taking up anyselection for reading, the plan in most schoolsis about as follows:

1. A list of the unusual words met with iswritten on the blackboard.

2. Teacher and pupils discuss the meaning ofthese words; but unfortunately words out ofthe context often carry no meaning.

3. The words are marked diacritically, andpronounced.

4. Pupils ^^use the words in sentences." Thepupil frequently has nothing to say that in-volves the word. It is only given an imitation ofa real use by being put into an artificial sentence.

5. The oral reading is begun. One pupilreads a paragraph.

6. With the book removed, the meaning ofthe paragraph is then reproduced either by the

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reader or some other pupil. This work is neces-sarily perfunctory because the pupil knows heis not giving information to anybody. Every-body within hearing already has the meaningfresh in mind from the previous reading. Thenormal child cannot work up enthusiasm fororal reproduction under such conditions.

7. The paragraph is analyzed into its variouselements, and these in turn are discussed indetail.Such work is not reading. It is analysis. A

selection is not read, it is analyzed. The purposeof real reading is to enter into the thoughtand emotional experience of the writer; not tostudy the methods by which the author ex-pressed himself. The net result when the workis done as described is to develop a criticalconsciousness of methods, without helping thechildren to enter normally and rightly into theexperience of the writer. The children of Cleve-land need this genuine training in reading.Reading in the high schools needs very muchthe same sort of modernization. There are morekinds of literature than classical belles-lettres,and perhaps more important kinds. We wouldnot advocate a reduction of the amount ofaesthetic literature. Indeed, the young peopleof Cleveland need to enter into a far widerrange of such literature than is the case at

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present. But the reading courses in high schoolsshould be built out in ways already recom-mended for elementary schools.The training, however, should be mainly in

reading and not in analysis. The former is ofsurpassing importance to all people; the latteris important only to certain specialists. And,what is more, fullness of reading and rightways of reading will accomphsh incidentallymost of the things aimed at in the analysis.The following table of the reading outline of

the High School of Commerce is a fair sample ofwhat the city is doing. Note how much time isgiven to the reading and analysis of the fewselections covered in four years.TABLE 3WEEKS GIVEN TO READING OF DIFFERENT BOOKSIN HIGH SCHOOL OF COMMERCE Weeks toFirst Year readAshmun's Prose Selections 9Cricket on the Hearth 5Sohrab and Rustum 3Midsummer Night's Dream 6Ivanhoe 11Second YearAutobiography of Franklin 7

Idjdls of the King 10Treasure Island 7Sketch Book 7Vision of Sir Launfal 3Third Year

Silas Marner 7Iliad (Bryant's4 books) 5Washington's Farewell Address 5First Bunker Hill Oration 6Emerson's Compensation 5Roosevelt Book 6

Fourth YearMarkham's The Man with the Hoe 2Tale of Two Cities 10Public Duty of the Educated Man 4Macbeth 11Self-Reliance 631


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When a short play of a hundred pages Uke Mac-beth requu-es nearly three months for reading,when almost two months are given to TreasureIsland and nearly three months to Ivanhoe,clearly it is something other than reading thatis being attempted. It is perfectly obvious thatthe high schools are attending principally to themechanics of expression and not to the contentof the expression. The relative emphasis shouldbe reversed.The amount of reading in the high schoolsshould be greatly increased. Those who objectthat rapid work is superficial believe that workmust be slow to be thorough. It should beremembered, however, that slow work is oftensuperficial and that rapid work is often excellent.In fact the world's best workers are generallyrapid, accurate, and thorough. Ask any busi-ness man of wide experience. Now leaving asidepupils who are slow by nature, it can be affirmedthat pupils will acquire slow, thorough habits orrapid, thorough habits according to the waythey are taught. If they are brought up by theslow plan, naturally when speeded up suddenly,the quality of their work declines. They canbe rapid, accurate, and thorough only if suchstrenuous work begins early and is continuedconsistently. Slow habits are undesirable ifbetter ones can just as well be implanted.

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To avoid possible misunderstanding, it oughtto be stated that the plan recommended doesnot mean less drill upon the mechanical side ofreading. We are recommending a somewhatmore modernized kind of mechanics, and a muchmore strenuous kind of drill. The plan looksboth toward more reading and improved habitsof reading.One final suggestion finds here its logical

place. Before the reading work of elementaryor high schools can be modernized, the citymust purchase the books used in the work.Leaving the supplying of books to privatepurchase is the largest single obstacle in theway of progress. Men in the business worldwill have no difficulty in seeing the logic of this.When shoes, for example, were made by hand,each workman could easily supply his own toolsbut now that elaborate machinery has beendevised for their manufacture, it has become soexpensive that a machine factory must supplythe tools. It is so in almost every field of laborwhere efficiency has been introduced. Now thebooks to be read are the tools in the teaching ofreading. In a former day when a mastery ofthe mechanics of reading was all that seemed tobe needed, the privately purchased textbookcould suffice. In our day when other ends areset up beyond and above those of former days,

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a far more elaborate and expensive equipment isrequired. The city must now supply the educa-tional tools. It is well to face this issue candidlyand to state the facts plainly. Relative failurecan be the only possible lot of reluctant com-munities. They can count on it with the sameassurance as that of a manufacturer of shoeswho attempts to employ the methods of formerdays in competition with modern methods.

In this city the expenditures for supple-mentary textbooks have amounted to some-thing more than $31,000 in the past 10 years.Approximately one-third of this sum was spentin the first seven years of the decade and morethan $20,000 in the past three years. Thisindicates the rapid advance in this directionmade under the present school administrationbut the supply of books still falls far short ofthe needs of the schools. A fair start has beenmade but nothing should be permitted to ob-struct rapid progress in this direction.

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SPELLINGCleveland has set apart an average amount ofprogram time for spelling. Possibly the studymight more accurately be called word-study,since it aims also at training for pronunciation,syllabification, vocabulary extension, and ety-mology. Since much of the reading time isgiven to similar word-study, the figures pre-sented in Table 4 are really too small to repre-sent actual practice in Cleveland.

TABLE 4.TIME GIVEN TO SPELLING

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syllables, derivation, phonetic properties, oraland written spelling and meaning, are all tobe made clear to pupils.

^^The teaching of a new word may be done byusing it in a sentence; by definition or descrip-tion; by giving a synonym or the antonym; byillustration with object, action or drawing; andby etymology.

''Each lesson should have also from eight to20 subordinate words taken from textbook orcomposition exercises. . . . Frequent sup-plementary dictation, word-building and phonicexercises should be given. Spell much orally.

. . . Teach a little daily, test thoroughly,drill intensively, and follow up words mis-spelled persistently."

In most respects the work agrees with theusual practice in progressive cities: the teach-ing of a few words in each lesson; the frequentand continuous review of words already taught;taking the words to be taught from the languageexperience of the pupils; following up wordsactually misspelled; studying the words frommany angles, etc.

In some respects the work needs furthermodernization. The words chosen for the workare not always the ones most needed. Whetherchildren or adults, people need to spell onlywhen they write. They need to spell correctly

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the words of their writing vocabulary, and theyneed to spell no others. More important still,they need to acquire the habit of watching theirspeUing as they write; the habit of spellingevery word with certainty that it is correct,and the habit of going to word-hsts or diction-ary when there is any doubt.

This development of the habit of watchful-ness over their speUing as they write is theprincipal thing. One who has it will alwaysspell well. In case he has much writing to do,it automatically leads to a constant renewingof his memory for words used and preventsforgetting. The one who has only memorizedword-lists, even though they have been rigor-ously drilled, inevitably forgets, whether rapidlyor slowly; and in proportion as he lacks thisgeneral habit of watchfulness, degenerates inhis spelling. The reason why schools fail toovercome the frequent criticism that youngpeople do not spell well, is because of the factthat they have been trying to teach specificwords rather than to develop a general and con-stant watchfulness.The fundamental training in spelling is accom-

plished in connection with composition, letter-writing, etc. Direct word-list study should haveonly a secondary and supplemental place. It isneeded, first, for making people conscious of the

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letter elements of words which are seen aswholes in their reading, and for bringing themto look closely into the relations of these letterelements; second, for developing a preliminaryunderstanding of the spelling of words used;and third, for drill upon words commonly mis-spelled. While a necessary portion of the entireprocess, it probably should not require so muchtime as is now given to it and the time savedshould be devoted to the major task of teachingspelling watchfulness in connection with writ-ing letters and compositions.The great majority of the population of

Cleveland will spell only as they write letters,receipts, and simple memoranda. They do notneed to spell a wide vocabulary with completeaccuracy. On the other hand, there are classesof people to whom a high degree of spellingaccuracy covering a fairly wide vocabulary isan indispensable vocational necessity: clerks,copyists, stenographers, correspondents, com-positors, proof-readers, etc. These people needan intensive specialized training in spellingthat is not needed by the mass of the population.Such specialized vocational training should betaken care of by the Cleveland schools, but itshould not be forced upon all simply becausethe few need it. The attempt to bring all to thehigh level needed by the few, and the failure to

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reach this level, is responsible for the justifiablecriticism of the schools that those few whoneed to spell unusually well are imperfectlytrained.The spelhng practice should continue through

the high school. It is only necessary for teachersto refuse to accept wTitten work that containsany misspelled word to force upon students thehabit of watchfulness over every word written.The High School of Commerce is to be com-mended for making spelling a required portionof the training. The course needs to be moreclosely knit with composition and business letter-\vTiting.

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HANDWRITINGCleveland gives a considerably larger propor-tion of time to handwriting than the averageof the 50 cities.

TABLE 5.TIME GIVEN TO HANDWRITING


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LANGUAGE, COMPOSITION, GRAMMARThe schools devote about the usual amount oftime to training for the correct use of themother tongue. Most of the time in inter-mediate and grammar grades is devoted toEngUsh grammar. Composition receives onlyminor attention.TABLE 6.TIME GIVEN TO LANGUAGE, COMPOSITION, ANDGRAMMAR


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ability to recite well on textbook grammar, andto pass good examinations in the subject. Inclasses visited the thing attempted was beingdone in a relatively effective way. And whenjudged in the light of the kind of education con-sidered best 20 years ago, the work is of a super-ior character.As a matter of fact, facility in oral and writ-

ten expression is, like everything else, mainlydeveloped through much practice. The formand style of expression is perfected mainlythrough the conscious and unconscious imita-tion of good models. Technical grammar plays,or should play, the relatively minor role ofassisting students to eliminate and to avoidcertain types of error. Since grammar has thisperfectly practical function to perform, prob-ably only those things needed should be taught;but more important still, everything taughtshould be constantly pult to use by the pupilsin their oversight of their own speech and writ-ing. Only as knowledge is put to work, is itreally learned or assimilated. The schoolsshould require much oral and written expressionof the pupils, and should enforce constantwatchfulness of their own speech on the partof the pupils. It is possible to require pupils togo over all of their written work and to examineit, before handing it in, in the light of all the

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grammatical rules they have learned. It is alsopossible for pupils to guard consciously againstknoTvn types of error which they are accustomedto make in their oral recitations. Every re-citation in whatever subject provides oppor-tunity for such training in habits of watchful-ness. Only as the pupil is brought to do it him-self, without prompting on the part of theteacher, is his education accompUshed.A Umited amount of systematic grammaticalteaching is a necessary prehminary step. Thepurpose is an introductory acquaintance withcertain basic forms, terminology, relationships,and grammatical perspective. This should beaccomphshed rapidly. Like the prehminarysurvey in any field, this stage of the work willbe relatively superficial. Fullness and depth ofunderstanding will come with apphcation. Thispreliminary understanding can not be learned''incidentally." Such a plan fails on the sideof perspective and relationship, which are pre-cisely the things in which the preparatory teach-ing of the subject should be strong.

This preliminary training in technical gram-mar need not be either so extensive or so in-tensive as it is at present. An altogether dis-proportionate amount of time is now given toit. The time saved ought to go to oral and writ-ten expression,composition, we might call it,

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except that the word has been spoiled becauseof the artificiaUty of the exercises.The composition or expression most to be

recommended consists of reports on the sup-plementary reading in connection with history,geography, industrial studies, civics, sanita-tion, etc. ; and reports of observations on relatedmatters in the community. Topics of interestand of value are practically numberless. Suchreports will usually be oral ; but often they willbe written. Expression occurs naturally andnormally only where there is something to bediscussed. The present manual suggests com-positions based upon ^^ changes in trees, dis-semination of seeds, migration of birds, snow,ice, clouds, trees, leaves, and flowers. " This typeof composition program under present condi-tions cannot be a vital one. Elementary scienceis not taught in the schools of Cleveland; andso the subject matter of these topics is notdeveloped. Further, it is the world of humanaction, revealed in history, geography, travels,accounts of industry, commerce, manufacture,transportation, etc., that possesses the greatervalue for the purposes of education, as well asfar greater interest for the student.

Probably little time should be set apart onthe program for composition. The expressionside of all the school work, both in the elemen-

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tary school and in the high school, should beused to give the necessary practice. Thetechnical matters needed can be taught inoccasional periods set aside for that specificpurpose.The isolation of the composition work con-

tinues through the academic high schools andin considerable degree through the technicalhigh schools also. In the high schools theexpression work probably needs to be developedchiefly in the classes in science, history, in-dustrial studies, commercial and industrialgeography, physics, etc., where the studentshave an abundance of things to discuss. Prob-ably four-fifths of all of the training in Englishexpression in the high schools should be accom-plished in connection with the oral and writtenwork of the other subjects.

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MATHEMATICSTo arithmetic, the Cleveland schools are devot-ing a somewhat larger proportion of time thanthe average of cities.

TABLE 7.TIME GIVEN TO ARITHMETIC


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mental needs of the age upon which we are nowentering is accurate quantitative thinking inthe fields of one's vocation, in the supervisionof our many co-operative governmental labors,in our economic thinking with reference totaxation, expenditures, insurance, public utili-ties, civic improvements, pensions, corporations,and the multitude of other civic and vocationalmatters.

Just as the thought involved in physics,astronomy, or engineering needs to be put inmathematical terms in order that it may beused effectively, so must it be with effectivevocational, civic, and economic thinking ingeneral. Our chief need is not so much theability to do calculations as it is the abilityto think in figures and the habit of thinking infigures. Calculations, while indispensable, areincidental to more important matters.

Naturally before one is prepared to usemathematical forms of thought in consideringthe many social and vocational problems, hemust have mastered the fundamentals. Theelementary school, at as early an age as prac-ticable, should certainly give the necessary pre-liminary knowledge of and practice in thefundamental operations of arithmetic. Thisshould be done with a high degree of thorough-ness, but it should always be kept in mind that

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this is only a preliminary mastery of thealphabet of mathematical thinking. The otherpart of our problem is a development of thequantitative aspects of the vocational, eco-nomic, and civic subjects. One finds clear recog-nition of this in Cleveland in the new arithmeticmanual. The following quotations are typical:"The important problem of the seventh and

eighth grades is to enable the pupils to under-stand and deal intelligently with the most im-portant social institutions with which arithmet-ical processes are associated."

In discussing the teaching of the mathemat-ical aspect of insurance, we find this statement''Owing to the important place this subjectholds in life, we should emphasize its informa-tional value rather than its mathematical con-tent."Under taxation and revenue: ''If the general

features of this subject are presented from thestandpoint of civics, the pupils should have nodifficulty in solving the problems as no newprinciple is introduced."Under stocks and bonds: "Pupils should be

taught to know what a corporation is, its chiefofficers, how it is organized, what stocks andbonds are, and how dividends are declared andpaid, in so far as such knowledge is needed bythe general public."

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These statements indicate a recognition of themost important principle that should controlin the development of all of the mathematics,elementary and secondary, beyond the pre-liminary training needed for accuracy and rapid-ity in the fundamental operations.When this principle is carried through to itslogical conclusion, it will be observed that mostof these developments will not take place withinthe arithmetic class, but in the various othersubjects. Arithmetic teaching, Uke the teachingof penmanship, etc., is for the purpose of givingtools that are to be used in matters that Hebeyond. The full development will take placewithin these various other fields. For thepresent, it probably will be well for the schoolsto develop the matters both within the arith-metic classes and in the other classes. Neitherbeing complete at present, each will tend tocomplete the other.On the side of the preliminary training in thefundamental operations, the present arithmetic

course of study is on the whole of a superiorcharacter. It provides for much drill, and fora great variety of drill. It emphasizes rapidity,accuracy, and the confidence that comes topupils from checking up their results. It holdsfast to fundamentals, dispensing with most ofthe things of little practical use. It provides

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easy advances from the simple to the com-pUcated. The field of number is explored in agreat variety of directions so that pupils aremade to feel at home in the subject. One largedefect is the lack of printed exercise materials,the use of which would result in greatly in-creased effectiveness. Such printed materialsought to be furnished in great abundance.

AlgebraIn the report of the Educational Commissionof Cleveland, 1906, we find the following verysignificant sentences relative to the course ofstudy for the proposed high school of com-merce :

^'An entirely new course of study should bemade out for this school. Subjects which havebeen considered necessary in a high school,because they tend to develop the mind, shouldnot for this reason only be placed in a com-mercial course. Subjects should not be givenbecause they strengthen the mind, but the sub-jects which are necessary in this course shouldbe given in such a way as to strengthen themind. The mathematics in this school shouldconsist of business arithmetic and mensuration.We can see no reason for giving these studentseither algebra or geometry. But they should be

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taught short and practical methods of workingbusiness problems."We find here a recommendation since carriedout that indicates a clear recognition of theprinciple of adaptation of the course of study toactual needs. Carried out to its logical conclu-sion, and applied to the entire city system, itraises questions as to the advisability of requir-ing algebra of girls in any of the high schoolcourses ; or of requiring it of that large number ofboys looking forward to vocations that do notinvolve the generalized mathematics of algebra.Now either the commercial students do needalgebra or a large proportion of these othersdo not need it. It seems advisable here to donothing more than to present the question asone which the city needs to investigate. Thepresent practice, in Cleveland as elsewhere,reveals inconsistency. In one or the other of theschools a wrong course is probably being fol-lowed. The current tendency in public edu-cation is toward agreement with the principleenunciated by the Cleveland Educational Com-mission, and toward a growing and consistentapplication of it.

Differentiation in the mathematics of differ-ent classes of pupils is necessary. The pubhcschools ought to give the same mathematics toall up to that level where the need is common

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to all. Beyond that point, mathematics needsto be adapted to the probable future activitiesof the individual. There are those who willneed to reach the higher levels of mathematicalability. Others wall have no such need.There is a growing belief that even for those

who are in need of algebra the subject is not atpresent organized in desirable ways. It is thoughtthat, on the one hand, it should be knit up infar larger measure mth practical matters, andon the other, it should be developed in connec-tion with geometry and trigonometry. Thetechnical high schools of Cleveland have adoptedthis form of organization. Their mathematics isprobably greatly in advance of that of theacademic schools.

GeometryForm study should begin in the kindergarten,and it should develop through the grades andhigh school in ways similar to the arithmetic,and in conjunction with the arithmetic, draw-ing, and construction work. Since geometricalforms involve numerical relations, they supplygood materials to use in making number rela-tions concrete and clear. This is now done indeveloping ideas of fractions, multiplication,division, ratio, per cent, etc. It should be donemuch more fully and variously than at present

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and for the double purpose of practising theform-ideas as well as the number-ideas. Arith-metic study and form-study can well growup together, gradually merging into the com-bined algebra and geometry so far as studentsneed to reach the higher levels of mathematicalgeneralization.At the same time that this is being developed

in the mathematics classes, development shouldalso be going on in the classes of drawing, de-sign, and construction. The alphabet of form-study will thus be taught in several of thestudies. The application will be made in prac-tical design, in mechanical and free-hand draw-ing, in constructive labor, in the graphical rep-resentation of social, economic, and other factsof life. The apphcation comes not so much inthe development of practical problems in themathematics classes as in the development ofthe form aspect of those other activities thatinvolve form.We have here pointed to what appears tobe in progressive schools a growing program ofwork. Everywhere it is yet somewhat vague andinchoate. In connection with the arithmetic,the drawing, the construction and art work, andthe mathematics of the technical high schools,it appears to be developing in Cleveland in avigorous and healthy manner.

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HISTORYThe curriculum makers for elementary educa-tion do not seem to have placed a high valua-tion upon history. Apparently it has not beenconsidered an essential study of high worth, likereading, writing, spelling, grammar, and arith-metic. To history are allotted but 290 hours inCleveland, as against 496 hours in the averageof 50 progressive American cities. This dis-crepancy should give the city pause and con-cern. If a mistake is being made, it is morelikely to be on the part of an individual citythan upon that of 50 cities. The probabilityis that Cleveland is giving too little time to thissubject.

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The treatment in the course of study manualindicates that it is a neglected subject. Of the108 pages, it receives an aggregate of less thantwo. The perfunctory assignment of work forthe seventh grade is typical:

''United States HistoryB Assignment.

Mace's History, pp. 1-124 inclusive.Questions and suggested collateral reading

found in Appendix may be used as teacherdirects.A Assignment.

Mace's History, pp. 125-197.Make use of questions and suggested col-lateral reading at your own option.'^For fifth and sixth grades there is assigned asmall history text of 200 pages for one or twolessons per week. The two years of the seventhand eighth grades are devoted to the masteryof about 500 pages of text. While there is in-cidental reference to collateral reading, as amatter of fact the schools are not suppliedwith the necessary materials for this collateralreading in the grammar grades. The truecharacter of the work is really indicated by thelast sentence of the eighth-grade history assign-ment: ''The text of our book should be thor-oughly mastered."

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In discussing the situation, the first thing towhich we must call attention is the great valueof history for an understanding of the multitudeof complicated social problems met with by allpeople in a democracy. In a country where allpeople are the rulers, all need a good un-derstanding of the social, political, economic,industrial, and other problems with which weare continually confronted. It is true the thingneeded is an understanding of present condi-tions, but there is no better key to a right under-standing of our present conditions than historyfurnishes. One comes to understand a presentsituation by observing how it has come to be.History is one of the most important methods ofsocial analysis.The history should be so taught that it will

have a demonstrably practical purpose. Indrawing up courses of study in the subject forthe grammar grades and the high school, thefirst task should be an analysis of present-daysocial conditions, the proper understanding ofwhich requires historical background. Oncehaving discovered the list of social topics, it ispossible to find historical readings which willshow how present conditions have grown upout of earlier ones. Looked at from a practicalpoint of view, the history should be developedon the basis of topics, a great abundance of

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reading being provided for each of the topics.We have in mind such topics as the followingSociological Aspects of WarTerritorial ExpansionRace ProblemsTariff and Free TradeTransportationMoney SystemsOur Insular PossessionsGrowth of PopulationTrustsBanks and BankingImmigrationCapital and LaborEducationInventionsSuffrageCentralization of GovernmentStrikes and LockoutsPanics and Business DepressionsCommerceTaxationManufacturingLabor UnionsForeign CommerceAgriculturePostal ServiceArmyGovernment Control of CorporationsMunicipal GovernmentNavyFactory LaborWages

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Courts of LawCharitiesCrimeFire ProtectionRoads and Road TransportationNewspapers and MagazinesNational DefenseConservation of Natural ResourcesLiquor ProblemsParks and PlaygroundsHousing ConditionsMiningHealth; Sanitation, etc.PensionsUnemploymentChild LaborWomen in IndustryCost of LivingPure Food ControlSavings BanksWater Supply of CitiesPrisonsRecreations and AmusementsCo-operative Buying and SellingInsuranceHospitals

After drawing up such lists of topics for study,they should be assigned to grammar gradesand high school according to the degree ofmaturity necessary for their comprehension.Naturally as much as possible should be coveredin the grammar grades. Such as cannot be

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covered there should be covered as early aspracticable in the high school, since so large anumber of students drop out, and all need thework. Of course, this would involve a radicalrevision of the high school courses in history.It is not here recommended that any suchchanges be attempted abruptly. There are toomany other conditions that require readjust-ment at the same time. It must all be a gradualgrowth.

Naturally, students must have some famihar-ity with the general time relations of historyand the general chronological movements ofaffairs before they can understand the more orless specialized treatment of individual topics.Preliminary studies are therefore both neces-sary and desirable in the intermediate andgrammar grades for the purpose of giving thegeneral background. During these grades agreat wealth of historical materials should bestored up. Pupils should acquire much famili-arity with the history of the ancient orientalnations, Judea, Greece, Rome, the states ofmodern Europe and America. The purposeshould be to give a general, and in the beginninga relatively superficial, overview of the world'shistory for the sake of perspective. The read-ing should be biographical, anecdotal, thriUingdramas of human achievement, rich with human

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interest. It should be at every stage of thework on the level with the understanding anddegree of maturity of the pupils, so that muchreading can be covered rapidly. Given theproper conditionschiefly an abundance of theproper books supplied in sets large enough forclassespupils can cover a large amount ofground, obtain a wealth of historical experience,and acquire a great quantity of useful informa-tion, the main outlines of which are rememberedwithout much difficulty. They can in thismanner lay a broad historical foundation forthe study of the social topics that should beginby the seventh grade and continue throughoutthe high school.The textbooks of the present type can beemployed as a part of this preliminary training.Read in their entirety and read rapidly, theygive one that perspective which comes from acomprehensive view of the entire field. But theyare too brief, abstract, and barren to affordvaluable concrete historical experience. Theyare excellent reference books for gaining andkeeping historical perspective.Reading of the character that we have here

called preliminary should not cease as the otherhistorical studies are taken up. The generalstudies should certainly continue for some por-tion of the time through the grammar grades

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and high school, but it probably should bemainly supervised reading of interesting ma-terials rather than recitation and examinationwork.We would recommend that the high schoolsgive careful attention to the recommendationof the National Education Association Com-mittee on the Reorganization of the SecondaryCourse of Study in History.

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CIVICSCivic training scarcely finds a place upon theelementary school program. The manual sug-gests that one-quarter of the history time10 to 20 minutes per weekin the fifth andsixth grades should be given to a discussion ofsuch civic topics as the department of publicservice, street cleaning, garbage disposal, healthand sanitation, the city water supply, themayor and the council, the treasurer, and theauditor. The topics are important, but the timeallowed is inadequate and the pupils of thesegrades are so immature that no final treatmentof such comphcated matters is possible. Forseventh and eighth grades, the manual makesno reference to civics. This is the more sur-prising because Cleveland is a city in whichthere has been no end of civic discussion andprogressive human-welfare effort. The extra-ordinary value of civic education in the ele-mentary school, as a means of furthering civicwelfare, should have received more decidedrecognition.The elementary teachers and principals of

Cleveland might profitably make such a civicsurvey as that made in Cincinnati as themethod of discovering the topics that should

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enter into a grammar grade course. The heavyemphasis upon this subject should be reservedfor the later grades of the elementary school.

In the high schools, a little is being accom-plished. In the academic high schools, thosewho take the classical course receive no civicswhatever. It is not even elective for them.Those who take the scientific or Enghsh coursesmay take civics as a half-year elective. In thetechnical high schools it is required of all for ahalf-year. The course is offered only in thesenior year, except in the High School of Com-merce, where it is offered in the third. As aresult of these various circumstances, the ma-jority of students who enter and complete thecourse in the high schools of Cleveland re-ceive no civic training whatever^not even theinadequate half-year of work that is availablefor a few.Whether the deficiencies here pointed out are

serious or not depends in large measure uponthe character of the other social subjects, suchas history and geography. If these are developedin full and concrete ways, they illumine largenumbers of our difficult social problems. It isprobable that the larger part of the informa-tional portions of civic training should beimparted through these other social subjects.Wliether very much of this is actually done at

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present is doubtful; for the history teaching,as has akeady been noted, is much under-developed, and while somewhat further ad-vanced, geography work is still far from ade-quate at the time this report is written.

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GEOGRAPHYGeography in Cleveland is given the customaryamount of time, though it is distributed overthe grades in a somewhat unusual way. It isexceptionally heavy in the intermediate gradesand correspondingly hght in the grammargrades. As geography, like all other subjects,is more and more humanized and socializedin its reference, much more time will be calledfor in the last two grammar grades.

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pupils a certain number of paragraphs or pagesin the textbook as the next lesson, and thenquestioning them next day to ascertain howmuch of this printed material they have re-membered and how well. It has not consistedof stimulating and guiding the children towardintelligent inquisitiveness and inquiring inter-est as to the world, and the skies above, andwaters round about, and the conditions ofnature that limit and shape the development ofmankind.That the latter is the proper end of geo-

graphical teaching is being recognized in de-veloping the new course of study in this sub-ject. Industries, commerce, agriculture, andmodes of living are becoming the centers aboutwhich geographic thought and experience aregathered. The best work now being done hereis thoroughly modern. Unfortunately it is notyet great in amount in even the best of theschools, still less in the majority. But the direc-tion of progress is unmistakable and unques-tionably correct.As in the reading, so in geography, right de-

velopment of the course of study must dependin large measure upon the material equipmentthat is at the same time provided. It sounds likea legitimate evasion to say that education is aspiritual process, and that good teachers and

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willing, obedient, and industrious pupils areabout all that is required. As a matter of fact,just as modern business has found it necessaryto install one-hundred-dollar typewriters totake the place of the penny quill pens, so musteducation, to be efficient, develop and employthe elaborate tools needed by new and complexmodern conditions, and set aside the tools thatwere adequate in a simpler age. The properteaching of geography requires an abundance ofreading materials of the type that will permitpupils to enter vividly into the varied experienceof all classes of people in all parts of the world.In the supplementary books now furnished theschools, only a beginning has been made. Theschools need 10 times as much geographicalreading as that now found in the best equippedschool.

It would be well to drop the term ''supple-mentary." This reading should be the basicgeographic experience, the fundamental instru-ment of the teaching. All else is supplementary.The textbook then becomes a reference book ofmaps, charts, summaries, and a treatment forthe sake of perspective. Maps, globes, pictures,stereoscopes, stereopticon, moving-picture ma-chine, models, diagrams, and museum materials,are all for the purpose of developing ideas andimagery of details. The reading should become

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and remain fundamental and central. Thequantity required is so great as to make itnecessary for the city to furnish the books.While the various other things enumerated arenecessary for complete effectiveness, many ofthem could well wait until the reading materialsare sufficiently supplied.

In the high schools the clear tendency is tointroduce more of the industrial and com-mercial geography and to diminish the timegiven to the less valuable physiography. Thedevelopment is not yet vigorous. The highschool geography departments, so far as ob-served, have not yet altogether attained thesocial point of view. But they are moving inthat direction. On the one hand, they now needstimulation; and on the other, to be suppliedwith the more advanced kinds of such materialequipment as already suggested for the elemen-tary schools.

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DRAWING AND APPLIED ARTThe elementary schools are giving the usualproportion of time to drawing and applied art.The time is distributed, however, in a some-what unusual, but probably justifiable, manner.Whereas the subject usually receives more timein the primary grades than in the grammargrades, in Cleveland, in quite the reverse way,the subject receives its greatest emphasis inthe higher grades.

TABLE 10.TIME GIVEN TO DRAWING


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developments in the main have been wholesomeand in line with best modern progress. Thecourse throughout attempts to develop an under-standing and appreciation of the principles ofgraphic art plus ability to use these principlesthrough practical application in constructiveactivities of an endlessly varied sort.

Occasionally the work appears falsetto andeven sentimental. It is often applied in arti-ficial schoolroom ways to things without signi-ficance. General grade teachers cannot be spe-cialists in the multiplicity of things demandedof them; it is not therefore surprising that theysometimes lack skill, insight, ingenuity, and re-sourcefulness. Too often the teachers do notrealize that the study of drawing and designis for the serious purpose of giving to pupilsa language and form of thought of the greatestpractical significance in our present age. Theresult is a not infrequent use of schoolroomexercises that do not greatly aid the pupilsas they enter the busy world of practical affairs.These shortcomings indicate incompleteness

in the development. Where the teaching is atits best in both the elementary and high schoolsof Cleveland, the work exhibits balanced under-standing and complete modernness. The thingneeded is further expansion of the best, and theextension of this type of work through specially

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trained departmental teachers to all parts ofthe city.There should be a larger amount of active

co-operation between the teachers of art anddesign and the teachers of manual training; alsobetween both sets of teachers and the generalcommunity.

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MANUAL TRAINING AND HOUSEHOLDARTSIn the grammar grades manual and household

training receives an average proportion of thetime. In the grades before the seventh, the sub-ject receives considerably less than the usualamount of time.

TABLE 11.TIME GIVEN TO MANUAL TRAINING


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perform them, they need, for properly super-vising others and for making intelhgible andappreciative use of the labors of others, a con-siderable understanding of these various matters.Where this work for girls is at its best inCleveland, it appears to be of a superior char-acter. Those who are in charge of the best arein a position to advise as to further extensionsand developments. It is not difficult to discerncertain of these. It would appear, for example,that sewing should find some place at least inthe work of seventh and eighth grades. Thegirl who does not go on to high school is greatlyin need of more advanced training in sewingthan can be given in the sixth grade. Eachbuilding having a household arts room shouldpossess a sewing machine or two, at the veryleast. The academic high schools are now plan-ning to offer courses in domestic science. As inthe technical high schools, all of this workshould involve as large a degree of normalresponsibility as possible.We omit discussion here of the specializedvocational training of women, since this ishandled in other reports of the Survey.When we turn to the manual training of theboys, we are confronted with problems of muchgreater difficulty. Women's household occupa-tions, so far as retained in the home, are un-

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specialized. Each well-trained household workerdoes or supervises much the same range ofthings as every other. To give the entire rangeof household occupations to all girls is a simpleand logical arrangement.But man's labor is greatly specialized through-

out. There is no large remnant of unspecializedlabor common to all, as in the case of women.To all girls we give simply this unspecializedremnant, since it is large and important. Butin the case of men the unspecialized field hasdisappeared. There is nothing of labor to giveto boys except that which has become special-ized.

A fundamental problem arises. Shall we giveboys access to a variety of specialized occupa-tions so that they may become acquainted,through responsible performance, with the wideand diversified field of man's labor? Or shallwe give them some less specialized sample outof that diversified field so that they may obtain,through contact and experience, some knowledgeof the things that make up the world of pro-ductive labor?

Cleveland's reply, to judge from actual prac-tices, is that a single sample will be sufficientfor all except those who attend technical andspecial schools. The city has therefore chosenjoinery and cabinet-making as this sample. In

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the fifth and sixth grades work begins in simpleknife-work for an hour a week under the direc-tion of women teachers. In the seventh andeighth grades it becomes benchwork for anhour and a half per week, and is taught by aspecial manual training teacher, always a man.In the academic high schools the courses injoinery and cabinet-making bring the pupils togreater proficiency, but do not greatly extendthe course in width.Much of this work is of a rather formalcharacter, apparently looking toward that man-ual disciphne formerly called '^ training of eyeand hand," instead of consciously answeringto the demands of social purposes. The regularteachers look upon the fifth and sixth grade sloydwhich they teach with no great enthusiasm.Seventh and eighth grade teachers do notgreatly value the work.The household arts courses for the girls have

social purposes in view. As a result they arekept vitalized, and are growing increasinglyvital in the work of the city. Is it not possiblealso to vitaHze the manual training of the boysunspeciahzed pre-vocational training, we oughtto call itby giving it social purpose?The principal of one of the academic high

schools emphasized in conversation the valueof manual training for vocational guidance

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a social purpose. It permitted boys, he said, totry themselves out and to find their vocationaltastes and aptitudes. The purpose is undoubt-edly a valid one. The limitation of the methodis that joinery and cabinet-making cannot helpa boy to try himself out for metal work, print-ing, gardening, tailoring, or commercial work.

If vocational guidance is to be a controllingsocial purpose, the manual training work willhave to be made more diversified so that onecan try out his tastes and abilities in a numberof lines. And, moreover, each kind of work mustbe kept as much like responsible work out inthe world as possible. In keeping work normal,the main thing is that the pupils bear actualresponsibility for the doing of actual work.This is rather difficult to arrange; but it isnecessary before the activities can be liftedabove the level of the usual manual trainingshop. The earUest stages of the training willnaturally be upon what is little more than aplay level. It is well for schools to give freerein to the constructive instinct and to providethe fullest and widest possible opportunitiesfor its exercise. But if boys are to try out theiraptitudes for work and their ability to bearresponsibility in work, then they must trythemselves out on the work level. Let the man-ual training actually look toward vocational

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guidance; the social purpose involved willvitalize the work.There is a still more comprehensive social

purpose which the city should consider. Owingto the interdependence of human affairs, menneed to be broadly informed as to the greatworld of productive labor. Most of our civicand social problems are at bottom industrialproblems. Just as we use industrial history andindustrial geography as means of giving youtha wide vision of the fields of man's work, somust we also use actual practical activities asmeans of making him familiar in a concreteway with materials and processes in their de-tails, with the nature of work, and with thenature of responsibility. On the play level,therefore, constructive activities should berichly diversified. This diversity of opportunityshould continue to the work level. One cannotreally know the nature of work or of workresponsibility except as it is learned throughexperience. Let the manual training adopt thesocial purpose here mentioned, provide theopportunities, means, and processes that itdemands, and the work will be wondrouslyvitalized.

It is well to mention that the program sug-gested is a complicated one on the side of itstheory and a difficult one on the side of its

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practice. In the planning it is well to look tothe whole program. In the work itself it is wellto remember that one step at a time, and thatsecure, is a good way to avoid stumbling.

Printing and gardening are two things thatmight well be added to the manual trainingprogram. Both are already in the schools insome degree. They might well be consideredas desirable portions of the manual trainingof all. They lend themselves rather easily toresponsible performance on the work level.There are innumerable things that a schoolcan print for use in its work. In so doing, pupilscan be given something other than play. Alsoin the home gardening, supervised for edu-cational purposes, it is possible to introducenormal work-motives. By the time the cityhas developed these two things it will have atthe same time developed the insight necessaryfor attacking more difficult problems.

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ELEMENTARY SCIENCEThis subject finds no place upon the program.No elaborate argument should be required toconvince the authorities in charge of the schoolsystem of a modern city like Cleveland that inthis ultra-scientific age the children who do notgo beyond the elementary schooland theyconstitute a majorityneed to possess a work-ing knowledge of the rudiments of science ifthey are to make their lives effective.The future citizens of Cleveland need to

know something about electricity, heat, expan-sion and contraction of gases and solids, themechanics of machines, distillation, commonchemical reactions and a host of other thingsabout science that are bound to come up in theday's work in their various activities.

Considered from the practical standpoint ofactual human needs, the present almost com-plete neglect of elementary science is inde-fensible. The minute amount of such teachingnow introduced in the language lessons forcomposition purposes is so small as to be almostneghgible. The topics are not chosen for theirbearing upon human needs. There is no labora-tory work.

Naturally much of the elementary science to79


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be taught should be introduced in connectionwith practical situations in kitchen, schoolgarden, shop, sanitation, etc. Certainly theapplied science should be as full as possible.But preliminary to this there ought to be sys-tematic presentation of the elements of varioussciences in rapid ways for overview and per-spective.To try to teach the elements only 'inci-

dentally" as they are applied is to fail to seethem in their relations, and therefore to failin understanding them. Intensive studies byway of filling in the details may well be in partincidental. But systematic superficial intro-ductory work is needed by way of giving pupilstheir bearings in the various fields of science.The term '^ superficial " is used advisedly. Thereis an introductory stage in the teaching of everysuch subject when the work should be super-ficial and extensive. This stage paves the wayfor depth and intensity, which must be reachedbefore education is accomplished.

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HIGH SCHOOL SCIENCEHaving no elementary science in the grades,one naturally expects to find in the high schoola good introductory course in general science,similar in organization to that suggested for theelementary stage. But nowhere is there any-thing that even remotely suggests such a course.Students who take the classical course gettheir first glimpse of modern science in the thirdor fourth high school year, when they have anopportunity to elect a course in physics orchemistry of the usual traditional stamp. Noopportunity is given them for so much as aghmpse of the world's biological background.Those who take the scientific or English coursehave access to physical geography and to ananemic biological course entitled, '^ Physiologyand Botany," which few take. Students of theHigh School of Commerce have their first con-tacts with modern science in a required coursein chemistry in the third year, and electivephysics in the fourth year. In the technicalhigh schools the first science for the boys issystematic chemistry in the second year andphysics in the third. They have no opportunityof contact with, any biological science. The

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girls have ^^ botany and physiology" in theirfirst year.The city needs to organize preliminary work

in general science for the purpose of pavingthe way to the more intensive science work ofthe later years. A portion of this should befound in the elementary school and taughtby departmental science teachers; and a por-tion in the first year of the high school. Asjunior high schools are developed, most of thiswork should be included in their courses.As to the later organization of the work, the

two technical high schools clearly indicate themodern trend of relating the science teaching topractical labors. What is needed is a widerexpansion of this phase of the work withoutlosing sight of the need at the same time for asystematic and general teaching of the sciences.It is a difficult task to make the science teachingvital and modern for the academic high schools,since they have so few contacts with the prac-tical labors of the world. Cleveland needs tosee its schools more as a part of the world ofaffairs, and not so much as a hothouse nurseryisolated from the world and its vital interests.

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PHYSIOLOGY AND HYGIENETeaching in matters pertaining to health isgiven but a meagre amount of time in the ele-mentary schools. While the school programshows one 15-minute period each week in thefirst four grades, and one 30-minute periodeach week in the four upper grades, it appearsthat in actual practice the subject receives evenless time than this. In the attempt to observethe class work in physiology and hygiene, amember of the Survey staff went on one day tofour different classrooms at the hour scheduledon the program. In two cases the time wasgiven over to grammar, in one to arithmetic,and in one to music. This represents practicethat is not unusual. The subject gets pushedoff the program by one of the so-called ''essen-tials." It is difficult to see why health-trainingis not an essential. In a letter to the SchoolBoard, February 8, 1915, Superintendent Fred-erick wrote

''The teaching of physiology and hygieneshould become a matter of serious moment inour course of study. At present it is not sys-tematically presented in the elementary schoolsand in the high schools it is an elective studyonly in the senior year. My judgment is that

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it should become a definite part of the program,as a required study in the seventh and eighthgrades/'The small nominal amount of time as com-

pared with the time usually expended is par-tially shown in Table 12. Professor Holmes'figures for the 50 cities include elementaryscience along with the physiology and hygiene.TABLE 12.TIME GIVEN TO SCIENCE, PHYSIOLOGY, HYGIENE

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schools, and in \dsits into the homes by thenurses. Conscious effort is continually made byall doctors and nurses to inspire to right li\ingall of the children with whom they come in con-tact."

Looking somewhat to the future, it can beaffirmed that the school physicians and nursesare the ones who ought to give the teaching inthis subject. After giving the prehminary ideasin the classrooms, they alone are in positionto follow up the various matters and see thatthe ideas are assimilated through being putinto practice both at school and at home. Atpresent, however, 16 physicians and 27 nurseshave 75,000 children to inspect, of whom morethan half have defects that require followingup. It is a physical impossibiUty for them to domuch teaching until the force of school nursesis greatly increased.

For the present certain things may well bedone:

1. A course in hygiene and sanitation, basedupon an abundance of reading, should bedrawTi up and taught by the regular teachers inthe grammar school grades. This course shouldbe looked upon as merely preliminary to themore substantial portions of education in thisfield. The physicians and nurses should selectthe readings and supervise the course to see

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that the materials are covered conscientiouslyand not slighted.

2. The schools should arrange for practicalapplications of the preparatory knowledge inas many ways as possible. Children in relayscan look after the ventilation, temperature,humidity, dust, light, and other sanitary con-ditions of school-rooms and grounds. Theycan make sanitary surveys of their home dis-trict ; engage in anti-fly, anti-mosquito, anti-dirt,and other campaigns; and reportfor creditpossiblypractical sanitary and hygienic ac-tivities carried on outside of school. Only asknowledge is put to work is it assimilated andthe prime purpose of education accomplished.3. The corps of school nurses should be grad-ually enlarged, and after a time they can begiven any needed training for teaching that willenable them, as the work is departmentalizedin the grammar grades, to become departmentalteachers in this subject for a portion of theirtime. Their ''follow-up" work will always givethem their chief educational opportunity; butto prepare for this the classwork must give somesystematized preparatory ideas.

In the high schools, training of boys in hy-giene and sanitation is little developed. Theonly thing offered them is an elective half-yearcourse in physiology in the senior year of the

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scientific and English courses in the academichigh schools. In the classical course, and in thetechnical and commercial schools, they have noteven this. Physiology is required of girls in thetechnical schools, and is elective in all but theclassical course in the others. "VMiile in one ortwo of the high schools there is training inactual hygiene and sanitation, in most cases itis physiology and anatomy of a superficial pre-liminary tj^pe which is not put to use and whichtherefore mostly fails of normal assimilation.The things recommended for the elementary

schools need to be carried out in the highschools also.

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PHYSICAL TRAININGThe city gives slightly more than the usualamount of time to physical training in the ele-mentary schools. Except for first and secondgrades, where a slightly larger amount is setaside for the purpose, pupils are expected toreceive one hour per week.

TABLE 13.TIME GIVEN TO PHYSICAL TRAINING


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city life, the nature of children is not changed.They still need huge amounts of active physicalplay for wholesome development. Most of thisthey will get away from the school, but as urbanconditions take away proper play opportunities,the loss in large degree has to be made good bysystematic community effort in estabUshing andmaintaining playgrounds and playrooms for12 months in the year. The school and itsimmediate envuonment is the logical place forthis development.The course of study lays out a series of

obsolescent Swedish gymnastics for each of theyears. The w^ork observed was mechanical,perfunctory, and lacking in vitahty. Sand-wiched in between exhausting intellectual drill,it has the value of gi\dng a Uttle rehef and rest.This is good, but it is not sufficiently positiveto be called physical training.Very desirable improvements in the course

are being advocated by the directors and super-visors of the work. They are recommending,and introducing where conditions will permit,the use of games, athletics, folk dances, etc.The movements should be promoted by thecity in every possible way. At present theregular teachers as a rule have not the neces-sary point of view and do not sufficiently valuethe work. Special teachers and play leaders

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need to be employed. Material facilities shouldbe extended and improved. Some of the schoolgrounds are too small; the surfacing is notalways well adapted to play; often apparatusis not suppl

what schools teach 00 bobb

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