Present-Day Social Demands
Other suggestions are being made these days for a change in the course of study. Sometimes the suggestions take the form of social movements. Such social movements often come in the form of violent criticisms of existing practices. These criticisms will be understood only when it is recognized that back of them there is often a social pressure which has not been understood and is now finding voice in a demand that requires immediate attention. It will be well for us to seek some examples of this type in order that we may come to understand that the school system is answerable at all times not merely to earlier social ideals which were incorporated into courses of study but also to the new ideals which arise with the later developments of community life.
An example of the type we are seeking appears in a study which was made in 1913 in the city of Minneapolis. The following extracts from an article published on March 10 in the Morning Tribune of that city state the case fully:
A year ago a group of men and women interested in the welfare of boys and girls, and somewhat acquainted with conditions that confront them upon their entrance into industrial life, decided that it was time to make a survey of the city. There had been much talk of training for the trades in the public schools, and apparently there was reasonable ground for this advocacy....
Was there a real demand, or was this a new educational fad sweeping across the country, to be lost in the great abyss of educational nostrums, along with vertical writing and basketry? That was to be determined.
Educators are usually learned men; but this world generally does not ascribe to them an abundance of sound sense. These learned men have charge of the greatest plant in the world—our schools. A half million employees are at work at an annual expense to the nation of $450,000,000. The product of this institution should be manhood and womanhood, efficient to take its place in the world of workers, and firmly established in habits of right thinking and noble action. Yet who is accounted efficient for the work of to-day?
Certainly not the armorer, no matter how skilled—for what need have we of him? Possibly not the bootmaker; for the best and latest in boots come from big factories. And so rapidly do industries change that confusion awaits the man still using methods of ten years ago. No system of education can be efficient until the conditions of life to which pupils go are thoroughly known. No manufacturer would think of setting his machines to make “what-nots” or muzzle-loading guns; they were all right in their day but that day is now yesterday. The first thing for the man of business is to know what the market demands. And the managers of the schools must explore their market to know what is demanded of the education factory. That is the reason for this survey.
The commission was made up of persons well known in the city and representative of differing interests....
Ten months were spent in gathering the information, and a month in studying it and getting it into shape for presentation. The tables have been arranged in the following order: First, a set of three tables, showing the sources of the material studied, by school, by age, by grade, and by nationality, and the causes of retardation; second, a table showing upon whom the responsibility should be placed for the child’s leaving school; third, four tables setting forth the reasons for leaving school, and the economic status of the family; fourth, a table indicating the education of the children after leaving the public school; and fifth, five tables showing the industrial history of each child, his wages, the number of jobs, the kind of work, and his advancement.
In the discussion comparisons are frequently made with similar reports from other cities, and following these are the conclusions reached by the committee and recommendations for further work.
It will not be possible to give in detail all the results thus obtained. It must suffice to repeat here the figures which summarize the table of causes for leaving school. The percentages of pupils leaving for each cause are given with the statement of the cause.
| Ill health | 5.7 per cent |
| Had to go to work | 35.5 per cent |
| Child’s desire to earn money | 8.2 per cent |
| Kept vacation work | 2.6 per cent |
| Disliked or not interested in school | 29.6 per cent |
| Trouble with teacher | 3.1 per cent |
| Failure to pass | 1.1 per cent |
| Further public school not worth while | 14.2 per cent |
The number of pupils who leave because they do not like school or do not believe it worth while is disturbingly large. That there should be so pronounced an adverse judgment on the part of pupils is perhaps to be explained in a measure by their immaturity and restlessness; but part of the school’s problem is to meet this immaturity and restlessness and to train the pupils with full regard to all that goes to make up their individual tastes and abilities.
It is especially important that a careful study be made of all available recommendations for improving the situation. We turn, therefore, to some of the leading recommendations of the Minneapolis commission:
That as rapidly as would be economical, the schools be organized on the “six-three-and-three” plan, beginning differentiated courses in the B seventh grade. These courses should follow three broad lines: (1) Leading toward the academic courses in high schools. (2) Toward the commercial courses, or directly to business. (3) Toward manual training in high school, or directly to manufacturing and mechanical pursuits.
That preparation for the trades can be best and most economically closely related to working conditions, while the necessary skill shall be gained in actual work under the usual commercial conditions.
That the membership of the Thomas Arnold school be enlarged to include all boys who have reached the age of fifteen and have not yet reached the seventh grade. And that a similar school be organized for girls.
That a department of vocational guidance be organized.
That, as an adjunct to the board of education, an advisory commission of 15 members, composed of employees, employers and educators, be established, whose duty it shall be to report changes in the demands of business and industry, and to advise modifications of the course of study to meet these new demands.
That a law should be enacted, making it mandatory that a boy shall be either in school or at work up to his eighteenth year, and that the department of vocational guidance be charged with the duty of enforcing such a provision.
This report has been reproduced at length because it furnishes a concrete example of the kind of demand which is being made on many sides for a complete remaking of the curriculum. The comments about school officers are also typical of much that is being laid at the door of the present-day pedagogue. Better than any theoretical answer to these critics is a careful study of the whole problem of reorganizing the curriculum.