The Errors of Democracy
The funds asked for were voted by the people. It would not be a complete statement of the facts, however, to omit the statement that an unfavorable reaction came in the form of a new board of education which at once began to blockade the kind of policy represented by this study.
American cities proceed slowly to a full realization of the possibilities of a satisfactory school organization. Democracy always masters its problems slowly and after many slips. The hopeful fact is that more communities are providing agencies for the scientific study of their school problems and are following in their organization the results of such study.
EXERCISES AND READINGS
In most communities there arise, from time to time, demands for new school legislation, or there occur controversies within the board of education or with regard to the superintendent of schools and his authority. As a practical lesson in democratic government the study of the changes that occur at such a time is very informing.
If there is no such exceptionally clear exhibition of the complexity of our public-school government, let the student find out what are the personal and professional characteristics of some board of education.
Would it be better, in some city known to the student, to elect a board or to have it appointed? Is a definition by law of the rights and duties of a superintendent advantageous, or should the superintendent acquire all the power and influence he can get from the board? Should a board of education examine textbooks? Should it determine the scale of salaries to be paid to teachers?
If a class does very poorly in a test in arithmetic, what are some of the different interpretations that can be put on this fact? Is the superintendent responsible, or the teacher, or the home?
Our American cities change teachers and superintendents frequently. What are the elements of cost which enter into such a change?
The best kind of material for reading under this chapter is a superintendent’s school report or one of the reports of a survey of a city school system.
Cubberley, E. P., and others. Portland Survey. School Efficiency Series. World Book Company. This is one of the first strong school surveys, and takes up very fully the functions of the different officers of the school system. The parts dealing with administration are largely the work of Professor Cubberley, whose work on administration was referred to under the last chapter.
MacAndrew, W. The Public and its School. World Book Company. A humorous report dealing in an interesting and striking way with a number of administrative problems.
Seventeenth Yearbook of the National Society for the Study of Education. Part II. The Measurement of Educational Products. Prepared by the National Association of Directors of Educational Research. Public School Publishing Co., Bloomington, Illinois. This report gives a comprehensive survey of the work which is being done by efficiency experts in public-school systems.
[CHAPTER VI]
THE SCHOOL BUILDING
The Building as an Evidence of a Community’s Educational Views
A study of school buildings furnishes in very concrete form evidence of the new spirit which has come into school organization. The old-fashioned school building was copied from the church. In its externals it often showed its antecedents by the tower and steeple, which sometimes housed the bell and sometimes served merely as an ornament. In its interior there was little or no evidence of careful adaptation of the space to its uses. Small windows, high from the floor and narrow in the space admitting light, were scattered along three sides of the room. Across the fourth side of the room was a raised platform for the teacher. The roof was high and made the space below difficult to heat. A stove was the means of heating; it gave out an excess of heat to the immediate neighborhood and proved inadequate for making the remote corners habitable. The seats were narrow benches, often without backs. In the schools of earlier days these benches ran around the room, the pupils facing the wall, to which was fastened a board that served as a desk on which the pupil might write or lay his book. In later schools the benches were arranged in rows, the desk of one row economically furnishing a back for the bench in front. Add to all this a common drinking cup in a pail of water and sanitary arrangements of the most primitive type, and we have a picture of almost complete disregard for human comfort and hygiene. More than this, we see in such a school building the clearest evidence of a conception of education which was limited to the barest rudiments. There was no provision for varied activities in a school building of the older type. Kitchens in which the girls learn to cook, shops for the boys, laboratories for courses in science, playrooms and libraries, to say nothing of swimming pools and baths, were never thought of, because the course of study was limited strictly to the three R’s.
Fig. 6. Floor plan of a typical school building of the old style
The modern school building is the embodiment of a wholly new conception of education. The building is constructed with the utmost deference to the demands of hygiene. The placing of windows, the means of heating and ventilating, the style and arrangement of seats, have all been considered in every possible detail. When the demands of hygiene have been met, the various needs of the school are studied, and the rooms and equipment are arranged with the fullest possible regard for an enriched course of study. The exterior of the building reflects the interest of the community in æsthetics. It is commonly surrounded by an ample playground and often has a garden as well. These changes from the barren buildings of earlier days show that education is thought of as related to the common life of children.