Fundamentally Different Views on the Curriculum
Let us consider certain cases which will make clear the importance of the contrast. The following extract from the report of the state superintendent of schools in Maine sets forth a definite view on the matters under discussion:
More Careful System. The number of pupils in ungraded schools is shown to be 29,089, a decrease of 1986 from the figures shown for the previous year. It is clear that the work of the schools is becoming more carefully systematized. This fact is further attested by the reduction in the number of schools not using a course of study. In 1904 there were 2323 schools that were reported as following no definite outline of studies. In 1913 this number had dropped to 827 and, as indicated by this report, has now been further reduced to 670. This change, already increasing to no small extent the efficiency of the schools, suggests a promise of the greater advantages that would follow the adoption of a course that would in essentials be uniform for the state. While an absolute uniformity that would prevent individual initiative and wise experimentation would retard progress and is not to be desired, there is much to be said in favor of an agreement on established and essential points for all parts of the state school system.[34]
On the other hand, practical efforts are being made in many quarters to overcome the rigidity of the graded system by devising methods of taking the individual out of the group whenever the course of study proves to be inapplicable to his particular needs. In Fond du Lac, Wisconsin, the elementary schools have their programs for the various grades so arranged that language comes for every grade at exactly the same hour in the day; in like fashion, all arithmetic classes are held at the same time, and so with geography and the other subjects. Through this arrangement it is possible for a child who is backward in a single subject to withdraw from the group with which he spends most of the day and to go for the period to another class where he receives a different type of instruction in the subject in which he is behind.
At Gary the schools are so organized that certain teachers in certain rooms teach a particular subject; the general freedom of organization secured in this way is utilized to shift pupils from room to room, thus breaking up the grading system. The possibilities of this arrangement are described in the following quotation:
If a boy is weak in some particular subject, it is possible to give him double work in that subject. Let us say a 4A boy is weak in arithmetic. It is possible for a time for him to omit some of his special activities and take arithmetic with the 4B class also, thus permitting double time in arithmetic. If he is weak in all of his regular studies it is easy to drop him out of his special activities for a time and permit him to do double work in the regular studies. The special activities are of such a sort that he can return to his classes there without difficulty.[35]