Costs of Different Subjects of Instruction
Pursuing the matter further, we find that there are the widest discrepancies in costs due to differences in the subjects taught, to differences in the number of pupils assembled in class, and to other less conspicuous differences.
In order to bring out the differences between subjects in the same school, Professor Bobbitt has calculated the cost, per thousand student hours, of instruction in twenty-five medium-sized high schools, and presents in Table IV the median[22] cost of each subject.
TABLE IV. COST, PER THOUSAND STUDENT HOURS, OF INSTRUCTION IN HIGH SCHOOLS IN THE VARIOUS SUBJECTS OF THE CURRICULUM[23]
| Subjects | Median Cost |
|---|---|
| Shopwork | $93 |
| Normal training | 92 |
| Latin | 71 |
| Commercial | 69 |
| Modern languages | 63 |
| History | 62 |
| Household occupations | 61 |
| Science | 60 |
| Mathematics | 59 |
| English | 51 |
| Agriculture | 48 |
| Music | 23 |
Translating this table into the form of a series of questions which school authorities and communities must face, we may ask: Is it desirable that shopwork be supplied in a school when it costs nearly twice as much as English? Is Latin enough better than modern languages to justify its retention in the program of a school when it costs eight dollars more per unit of instruction?
Like series of facts for the elementary schools can be borrowed from an unpublished study by Mr. G. Lee Fleming of Hibbing, Minnesota, and are reproduced in Table V. Certain selected facts are also exhibited in Fig. 5. The table shows that reading absorbs nearly two thirds of the expenditures of the first grade, while in the third grade the same subject gets a little less than one third of the expenditures, and in the sixth grade about one sixth. Opening exercises require about the same expenditure in all grades. Geography comes into prominence first in the fourth grade. A study of the table will show that financial statements of this type are indexes of academic organization.
TABLE V. THE PORTION OF EACH THOUSAND DOLLARS SPENT FOR INSTRUCTION IN EACH SUBJECT IN EACH OF THE FIRST SIX ELEMENTARY GRADES[24]
| Subjects | First Grade | Second Grade | Third Grade | Fourth Grade | Fifth Grade | Sixth Grade | Average |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Reading | $611 | $407 | $307 | $240 | $150 | $156 | $312 |
| Arithmetic | 5 | 101 | 176 | 187 | 181 | 190 | 140 |
| Language | 95 | 110 | 126 | 130 | 178 | 105 | 124 |
| Music | 86 | 90 | 84 | 67 | 58 | 67 | 75 |
| Spelling | 3 | 92 | 90 | 93 | 80 | 71 | 71 |
| Geography | — | — | 9 | 102 | 124 | 152 | 64 |
| Writing | 49 | 68 | 61 | 61 | 52 | 59 | 58 |
| Drawing | 60 | 80 | 55 | 66 | 32 | 42 | 56 |
| Manual arts | — | — | 23 | 9 | 60 | 76 | 28 |
| Opening exercises | 34 | 21 | 23 | 21 | 24 | 25 | 25 |
| Physical culture | 11 | — | 15 | 14 | 40 | 39 | 20 |
| Folk dancing | 11 | 22 | 25 | — | — | — | 10 |
| Hygiene | — | 3 | 6 | 10 | 11 | 13 | 7 |
| Construction work | 28 | — | — | — | — | — | 5 |
| History | — | — | — | — | 10 | 5 | 2 |
| Handwork | 4 | 6 | — | — | — | — | 2 |
| Sense training | 3 | — | — | — | — | — | 1 |
| Total | $1000 | $1000 | $1000 | $1000 | $1000 | $1000 | $1000 |
Fig. 5. Distribution in the various grades of each thousand dollars expended for instruction
The relative expenditure in six grades of the schools of Hibbing, Minnesota, for four of the chief school subjects is shown by the height of the columns