FOOTNOTES:
[24] Now State Superintendent. See an article “‘Corn-Club’ Smith,” P. C. Macfarlane, Collier’s Weekly, May 17, 1913, p. 19.
[25] United States Department of Agriculture, Bureau of Plant Industry, Results of Boys’ Demonstration Work in Corn Clubs in 1911, Washington, May, 1912, p. 4.
[26] Op. cit., pp. 5-6.
[27] U. S. Department of Agriculture, Bureau of Plant Industry, Girls’ Demonstration Work, Washington, January, 1913, pp. 1-2.
[28] For a full statement of the work of the Columbus Schools see “Industrial Education in Columbus,["> Ga., R. B. Daniel, U. S. Bureau of Education, Bulletin 535, Government Printing Office, 1913. Also, The Annual Report of the Columbus Public Schools for the Year Ending August 1, 1913.
[29] Annual report of the Columbus Public Schools, 1913, p. 18.
CHAPTER XIII
THE SPIRIT OF THE NEW EDUCATION
I The Standard of Education
The educational experiments described in the preceding chapters are replete with the spirit of the New Education. From the virile educational systems of the country a protest is being sounded against traditional formalism. School men have learned that that which is is not necessarily right. Each concept, each method, must run the gauntlet of critical analysis. It is not sufficient to allege in support of an educational principle that the results derived from its application have been satisfactory in the past. Insistently the question is repeated, “What are its effects upon the problems of to-day?”
Educational ancestor worship is no more acceptable to the progressive spirit of the Western World than is ancestor worship in any other form. The past has made its contribution, and has died in making it. For the contribution the present is grateful, but it must steadfastly refuse in its own name, and in the name of the future, to be bound by any decree of the past which will not stand the acid test of present experience.
The old education was beset by traditionalism. Under its dominance, education, defined once and for all, was established as a standard to which men must attain; hence a preceptor, guiding his young charges along the straight path to knowledge, might, with perfect confidence, admonish them, “Lo here, the three R’s is education,” or “Lo there, Greek and higher mathematics is education,” according as his training had been in the three R’s or in Greek. In either case he felt certain of his general ground. Once and for all the educational standard had been set. By that standard new ideas were judged, and either justified or condemned.
Under this predetermined scheme there was a formula for education—a formula as definite as that for making bread or pickling pork. The formula was applied to each child who presented himself to the administration. If the formula worked successfully the child was declared educated in the same way that pork which has been successfully treated by the proper processes is declared to be pickled. If the formula did not work the child was not educated. He sat in school with a dunce-cap upon his head, or else played hookey and spent his hours in fishing, swimming or idling.
Perhaps, in view of the recent contributions of science, it would be more illuminating to say that the old education inoculated the child with a predetermined educational virus. If the virus “took” the child was declared immune to the bacteria of ignorance, illiteracy, stupidity and other prevalent social complaints. If the virus did not take the schoolmaster ostentatiously washed his hands of the recreant.
II Standardization Was a Failure
Only one argument need be urged against this method of attacking the educational problem—it did not work. In the first place, the most brilliant school successes often turned out to be the most arrant life failures, while the school derelicts frequently became life successes of stellar magnitude. To the thinking man the inference was plain; the formula was not an unqualified success. Not only was this true of the children who went through school, but there were crowds of children for whom the school held no attraction whatever. They attended a few sessions, wasted a scant bit of energy in educational effort, and then dropped out, hopeless of obtaining results by further “study.”
The old education read out of the school those children who could not benefit by its teachings. How utterly different the concept which has gripped the minds of progressive, modern educators! Under their guidance education has become what Herbert Spencer called it—a preparation for complete living. No longer a fixed, objective standard, education has been recognized as an enlargement of the life horizon of each individual boy or girl in the community. “Teach us individual needs,” proclaim the educational progressives, “and we will tell you what the character of education must be.”
Thus has education ceased to be an objective standard, created by one age and handed down rigidly immobile to the ages succeeding. Instead it is accepted as a fulfilment—a complement—to child needs. Always education has been regarded as a process of molding life and character. The chief difference between the old and the new education is that the old education made a mold, and then forced the child to fit the mold, while the new education begins by determining the character of child needs, and then fits the mold to the needs. The old education was like the farmer who built a corn-sheller, and then attempted to find ears of corn which would fit into the sheller; the new education is like the farmer who first measured the corn and then built his sheller to fit the corn. The old education selected the class which was able to conform to its requirements; the new education serves all classes.
III Education as Growth
Under the impetus given to it by modern thinkers, education has become the direction of growth, rather than the application of a formula. The child is a developing creature. It has become the function of education to watch over and guide the development.
Nor do the modern schools consider mental development as the sole object of educational endeavor. Physical growth is an equally essential part of child life. Therefore the direction of physical growth becomes just as vital a part of the educational machinery. Aesthetic and spiritual growth require like emphasis. Each phase of child life receives independent consideration.
The old education through mental impression is giving way before the new education through physical, mental and spiritual expression. Expression is the essence of growth; and since the school is to foster child growth it must place child expression in a place of paramount importance.
Child needs, rather than abstract standards, have thus become the basis of school activity. The old education developed its course of study by surveying the interests of adults, and picking from among them those, apparently the most simple, which were fit for children. The new education applies the laboratory method—studying children and their interests—reports, among its other findings, the quite evident fact that children enter into life as whole-heartedly as adults; that the field of their interest lies, not in the left-over problems of older people, but in their own problems and processes; and that therefore the educator must found his philosophy and his practice on an understanding of the child and child needs.
There is in the world a phenomenon called adult life, with its phases, problems and ideals. There is likewise in the world a phenomenon called child life, with its phases, problems and ideals. A complete understanding of either may not be derived through a study of the other. Child needs exist separate from and different from adult needs. It is the business of the new education to understand them and meet them.
Two appeals are reaching the ears of the modern educator: the first, the appeal of the child; the second, the appeal of the community. The appeal of the child is an appeal for the opportunity of developing all of its faculties. Physically, children grow. The school, recognizing this fact, is making a vigorous effort to break the shell of custom, which has confined its activities to purely intellectual pursuits, and provide a physical training which will lead the school child to perfect normal body growth, as well as normal growth of mind. Even in its intellectual activity the school is recognizing the importance of making the child mind an active machine for thought, rather than a passive storehouse for information. Though less emphasized, the training for sensual growth is becoming of ever increasing importance in the new education. Above all, the aesthetic side of child life is being expanded in an effort to round out a completed adulthood.
IV Child Needs and Community Needs
The recognition of child needs, which forms so integral a part of the new education, is paralleled by a similar recognition of the needs of the community. The progressive educator is laying aside for a moment the details of his task, and asking himself the pertinent question: “What should the community expect in return for the annual expenditure of a billion dollars on public education?” What are community needs if not the needs for manhood and womanhood? They are well summed up in three words—virility, efficiency, citizenship. Possessed of those attributes a group of individuals rounds itself inevitably into a vigorous, progressive community. They are normal qualities which a people must demand if their social standards are to be maintained. Since they constitute so vital an element in social life, a community lavish in its expenditures for schools may surely expect the school product to be virile, efficient, worthy citizens. The new education, recognizing the justice of this demand, is crying out insistently for social, as well as individual, training in the school.
The new educational institutions have set themselves to meet the needs of the child and of the community. Their success depends upon their ability to understand these needs and to supply them.
The old-fashioned schoolmaster asked: “How can I compel?” His answer was the rod. The modern schoolmaster asks: “How can I direct?” His answer is a laboratory, open-minded, scientific method, and a host of varied courses designed to meet the needs of individual children and of individual communities.
Communities vary as greatly in their characteristics as do children. It is now certain that no formula will provide education for all children. Each new study of community needs makes it more evident that no system will supply education for all communities. It is the business of the educator to study the individual child and the individual community, and then to provide an education that will assist both to grow normally and soundly in all of their parts.
V The Final Test of Education
The school is a servant, not a master. In that fact lies its greatness—the greatness of its opportunity and of its responsibility. As an institution its object is service—assistance in growth. Development is the goal of education. Virility, efficiency, citizenship, manhood, womanhood—these are its legitimate products. Its tools and formulas are such as will most effectively serve these ends. When the increase of knowledge leads to new methods and formulas which will prove more effective than the old ones, then the old ones must be laid aside, reverently, perhaps, but none the less firmly, and the new ones adopted. Changes may not be made hastily and without due consideration; but when experiment has shown that the new device is more advantageous in furthering the objects of education than the old and tried formulas, a change is inevitable.
The first and last word on the subject is spoken when this question is asked and answered: “Does education exist for children, or do children exist for education?”
If children exist for education, then it is just that an objective educational standard should be created; it is fair that a hard and fast course of study be mapped out in conformity with that standard; it is right that educational machinery be constructed which automatically turns away from the schools any child who does not conform to the school system as it is. If children exist for education, they should either conform to its requirements, or else, if they will not or cannot conform, they should be mercilessly thrust aside.
If, on the other hand, education exists for children, then the primal consideration must be child needs. If any one child, or any group of children, has needs which are not met by existing educational institutions, then these institutions must be remodeled. If an adequate congenial education is a part of the birthright of every American child, then educational institutions must be reorganized and reshaped until they provide that birthright in the fullest possible measure.
Already the answer has been formulated. Already educators have recognized the potency of the saying: “The schools were made for the children, not the children for the schools.” Hence it follows that no school system is so sacred, no method of teaching so venerable, no textbook so infallible, no machinery of administration so permanent, that it must not give way before the educational needs of childhood.
Concerning the educational problem of to-day, yesterday cannot speak with authority. Each age has its problems—problems which may be solved by that age, or handed on unsolved to the future. The past is dead. Only its voice—its advice and suggestion—serves as a guide or as a warning. Of authority it should have not an atom.
The educational opportunities of to-day are without peer. The educational machinery, ready at hand, is being transformed to meet the newly understood needs of the child and of the community. The spirit of the new education is the spirit of service, the spirit of fair dealing, the spirit of growth for the individual and of advancement for society. Here are individual needs. There are aligned the social obligations and requirements of the age. In so far as it lies within the power of the school, the children who leave its doors shall have their needs supplied, and shall be equipped to play their part as virile, efficient citizens in a greater community. Such is the spirit of the new education.
INDEX
Age distribution, [36].
and school progress, [37].
Ages of childhood, [35].
American school system, Statistics of, [19], [20].
Applied education, need for, [156].
Applied work, Cincinnati, [136].
in the grades, [161].
Average children and the old education, [39].
fallacy of, [34].
Berks County schools, manual training in, [186].
physical training in, [186].
Boys and girls, object of educating, [42].
Brown, E. E., quoted, [13].
Carney, Mabel, quoted, [179].
Chancellor, W. R., quoted, [40], [41].
Change, prevalence of, [24].
in social structure, [25].
Child growth, stages of, [44].
Child needs, recognition of, [56].
and community needs, [255].
Childhood, ages of, [35].
Children, needs of analyzed, [45].
social needs of, [48].
varying capacity of, [37], [38].
vs. subject matter, [39].
Cincinnati, educational advantages of, [148].
kindergarten work in, [129].
school system of, [125].
school policy continued, [150].
special school work in, [141].
schools, co-operation in, [126].
creed of, [127].
general support of, [126].
new plans for, [149].
social centers in, [151].
social work of, [150].
City and country, educational value of, [29].
City home, effect of industrial changes on, [30], [31].
City life and the new basis for education, [28], [29].
Civic education, necessity for, [49].
Civics teaching in the grades, Cincinnati, [135].
Club activity in schools, recognition of, [235].
Columbus, Ga., curriculum of schools, [244].
local needs basis of, [242], [243].
school policy of, [242], [243].
Community and the school, [72].
education applied to a small town, [52].
life, contribution of schools to, [167].
needs and child life, [256].
Consolidated school, advantages of, [179], [180].
course of study in, [172].
daily program in, [174].
disadvantages of, [179].
growth of in South, [177], [178].
Continuation High School work, [109].
schools in Ohio, [76].
Co-operation, spirit of in consolidated schools, [172].
Country, the call of the, [170], [171].
Country life, transformation in, [171], [172].
Country school, daily program in a district, [173].
daily program in a consolidated, [174].
two possibilities of, [171].
the duty of, [194].
new geography, [185].
task of, [193], [194].
transformation in, [171], [172].
schools and physical training, [186].
Courses of study, correlation in, [135].
home school, [69].
Criticism of schools, general, [11].
significance, [17].
Curriculum, content of, [44].
requirements of, [51].
Defectives, treatment of, Cincinnati, [144].
Discipline, disappearance of, Oyler School, [165].
Distribution of age, [36].
District school, daily program in, [173].
Domestic science, course in Lowville High School, [122].
course in Page County, [190].
home school movement, [68].
importance of, [51].
in the grades, [159].
in a Kentucky school, [195-200].
in Sleepy Eye schools, [213-216].
problems in, [160].
Draper, A. S., quoted, [12], [13], [18].
Education and the industrial revolution, [26], [27], [30].
and the success habit, [95].
as growth, [254].
city, effect of industrial changes on, [30], [31].
creed of, Cincinnati schools, [127].
elastic system of, [127].
essentials of, [15], [16].
for home-making, [68].
for life, [43].
for the whole child, [81].
in the early home, [27], [28].
place of physical training in, [71].
public lectures and, [73].
purpose of, [15], [16].
new basis for, [24].
new studies, [74].
object of, [22], [23], [42].
social importance of, [19], [20].
specialization in, [75].
standard of, [251].
theory and practice, [242-249].
in Kentucky, reaching parents through children, [195-206].
in the South, canning clubs, [234], [235].
corn clubs, [225-228], [229-233].
effect of on corn yield, [230-233].
improving health, [241].
improving home life, [239], [241].
teaching parents through children, [225-228], [229-233].
Educational advance in Cincinnati, [148].
Educational formulas, danger of, [252].
Educational needs and the small town, [52].
Educational problems of an industrial community, [55].
Educational work and the small town, [52].
Elementary grades, activities of, [87].
co-operation in, [86].
special studies for, [89].
spirit of service in, [90].
English, as a stimulus for other studies, [63].
constructive work in, [61], [62].
new methods for, [61].
organization of, Grand Rapids High School, [111].
original work, [65].
story work and, [64].
use of in other studies, [111].
Enrollment and attendance, statistics of, [17], [18].
Facts, place of in education, [22].
Fallacy of average children, [34], [35].
Fisher, Irving, quoted, [15].
Formalism in education, danger of, [252].
Froebel, F., quoted, [28].
Gary, plan of the schools in, [81].
Geography, new method of teaching, [59].
Geography and arithmetic, method of teaching in a southern school, [246-248].
Geography in Newark, [59].
Grade work, regeneration of, Cincinnati, [132].
Grades, amalgamation of with high school, [99].
applied work in, [161].
Grand Rapids High School, vocational guidance in, [110].
Growth, and child activity, [47].
and education, [254].
through play, [46].
of children, stages in, [44].
Hanus, P. H., quoted, [13], [14].
Health, importance of, [45].
High School, amalgamation of with grades, [99].
at Lowville, [116].
course of study in Cincinnati, [138].
future of, [114].
growing importance of, [54-56].
popularization of Cincinnati, [137].
promotion to, without examinations, [94].
responsibility of, [92].
social status of, [92].
High school children, experiments with, [92].
High school courses, arrangement of, [108].
High school status, Superintendent Spaulding on, [92].
High school training, right of children to, [105].
High schools, co-operation with elementary grades, [98].
technical development of, [106].
Home, education in, [27], [28].
Home making, education for, [68].
Home school, activities of, [70].
course of work in, [69].
in Indianapolis, [68].
in Providence, [69].
Home visiting in the grades, [166].
Home work, disadvantages of, [79].
opportunities for in school, [79].
Huxley, T. H., quoted, [16].
Industrial communities, educational problems, [55].
Industrial High School, place of in the school system, [248].
Industrial system, effect of on education, [27].
Institutions, effects of change upon, [26].
John Swaney School, course of study, [176].
equipment of, [176].
social life in, [176], [177].
Junior High Schools, outlook for, [98].
Kentucky education, teaching a community to cook, [195-200].
Kindergartens, at Gary, Ind., [58].
progressive work in, [58].
in relation to grade work, [131].
vitalized work in, [129].
Linden, Ind., equipment of consolidated schools, [175].
Locust Grove School, method of teaching a community, [195-206].
Lowville High School, courses in, [121].
domestic science in, [122].
social service of, [123].
work in, [116].
Mass training, defects of, [101].
Mathematics, and life problems, [60].
in Gary schools, [60].
in Indianapolis schools, [60].
Mothers’ clubs, organization of, [163].
work of, Cincinnati, [132], [163].
Needs of school children, [43].
New basis for education, [24].
and city life, [28], [29].
New education in the South, [220-250].
Newark vacation school, [80].
Newton Technical High School, success of, [96].
North Highland School, industrial training in, [245], [246].
raising community standards, [245].
Oconto County, Wis., schools, agricultural work in, [183-185].
the new arithmetic, [184], [185].
the new English, [184], [185].
Ohio, continuation schools, [76].
Old education, spirit of, [253].
One-room school, making it worth while, [182-187].
possibilities of, [182-187].
Open air schools, [71].
results of, [72].
Original work in English, [65].
Overwork, extent in schools, [14], [15].
Oyler School, social education in, [153].
Page County, Iowa, contests in schools, [189].
domestic science, [190].
ideal schools in, [188-193].
social life in, [191], [192].
training for country life, [189-190].
Physical training and education, [71].
a part of school work, [82].
Play, and growth, [46].
creative forms of, [48].
stages of, [47].
Playgrounds, Cincinnati, [145].
Popularized High Schools, Cincinnati, [137].
Promotion for special students, [92].
Promotion, improvements in, [85].
new methods of, [85].
Promotion average, fetish of, [40], [41].
Public lectures, and education, [73].
Rapp, Eli, quoted, [182], [186].
Regeneration of grade work, Cincinnati, [132].
Rural districts, needs of, [54].
School and community, [167].
School and shop work in high school, [109].
School feeding, [72].
School children, needs of, [43].
School equipment, educational nature of, [120].
School houses, social uses for, [117].
School machinery, abolition of, [84].
necessity for, [32].
new standards of, [32].
School mortality, statistics of, [18].
School plant, wider use of, [73].
School progress and age distribution, [37].
School work related to shop work, [76].
Schools, agricultural training at Sleepy Eye, [208-211].
agricultural training in Oconto County, Wis., [183-185].
agricultural training in Page County, [189], [190].
and the community, [72].
as public servants, [257].
city, effect on children, [33], [34].
condition of, Montclair, N. J., [13], [14].
consolidated vs. district, [171], [172].
courses at Sleepy Eye, Minn., [218].
courses fitted to community needs at Sleepy Eye, [207], [208].
domestic science at Sleepy Eye, Minn., [213-216].
elementary plumbing at Sleepy Eye, Minn., [209].
equipment at Sleepy Eye, [214].
equipment of Linden, Ind., [175].
general criticism of, [11].
influence on community at Sleepy Eye, Minn., [217].
local service of, [157].
mechanical course at Sleepy Eye, Minn., [214].
Montgomery County, Ind., [180], [181].
Page County, Iowa, [189-193].
purpose of, [42], [43].
short agricultural course at Sleepy Eye, Minn., [212], [213].
size of, [33].
social uses of, Cincinnati, [158].
Self-government in high schools, [102], [104].
Sex hygiene, importance of, [46].
Shop work and school work, [76].
Sleepy Eye, Minn., course in domestic science, [213-216].
course in elementary plumbing and steam-fitting, [209].
courses given in schools, [218].
department of agriculture, [208-211].
equipment for mechanical work, [214].
fitting schools to community needs, [207], [208].
influence on community at large, [217].
mechanical course, [214].
Sleepy Eye, Minn., short course in agriculture, [212], [213].
Small town, educational work of, [52].
Smith, W. H., “Corn Club,” [228].
Social centers in Cincinnati schools, [151].
Social change, [25].
Social education, Cincinnati, [153].
content of, [49].
Social importance of education, [19], [20].
Social needs of children, [48].
Southern schools, corn clubs in, [225-228], [229-233].
Special school for defectives, Cincinnati, [144].
Special schools, Cincinnati, [141].
Specialization in education, [75].
Spencer, H., quoted, [16].
Standard of education, [251].
Story work and English, [64].
Student organization in high school, [102].
Subjects of study, summary of, [51].
Success habits in education, [95].
Summer schools, Cincinnati, [145].
Technical High Schools, development of, [106].
Three “R’s,” Progressive work in, [59].
Twelve-year schools, possibilities of, [99].
Tyler, J. M., quoted, [16].
University of Cincinnati, social relations of, [140].
Vacation schools in Newark, [80].
Vernon school, before and after consolidation, [181].
Vocational guidance in high schools, [110].
Vocational training, appeal of, [78].
Cincinnati, [142].
in elementary grades, [77].
Lowville, [117].
Washington Irving High School, procedure in, [102].
Waste in education, [12], [13].
extent of, [18], [19].
Wider use of the schools, Lowville, [117].
William Penn High School, student organization in, [104].
Every effort has been made to replicate this text as faithfully as possible, including obsolete and variant spellings. Obvious typographical errors in punctuation (misplaced quotes and the like) have been fixed. Corrections [in brackets] in the text are noted below:
page 4: missing quote added
article, will exclaim,—“[‘]There is something that we must introduce into our schools.’”
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VIII. Breaching [the] Chinese Wall of High School Classicism
page 9: typo corrected
I. “[Coöperation”[Co-operation] and “Progressivism”
page 29: typo corrected
education of the city child. Standing on the [threshhold[threshold] of his meager dwelling, this child of six looks forward
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school district establishes part-time day schools for the instruction of youths over fourteen years [af[of] age who are engaged in regular employment, such board of education
page 94: typo corrected
buying of materials and simple [acounting[accounting] covered their mathematics. Those were the things which would probably
missing quote added
school classes. They all brushed their hair. The boys were neater and the girls were becomingly dressed.[">
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“Yes, it was a wrench,” Mr. [McAndrews[McAndrew] admits. “You see, the teachers hated to give up. They had been
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will all bear directly on the work of the farm in which he is so deeply interested.[">
page 167: missing quote added
that is enough. We have no problem of discipline now. The children and their parents are working for the school.[">
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first thing I knew, the way opened up—you never would guess how—it was through biscuits.[">
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biggest burden we have to carry—the most determined enemy we have to fight? Well, sir, [its’s[it’s] ignorance—the ignorance of the common man about his farm or his
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other States were equally good in view of the fact that a drought prevailed very generally throughout the South in 1911.[">
Footnote 28: missing quote added
For a full statement of the work of the Columbus Schools see “Industrial Education in Columbus,["> Ga., R. B. Daniel, U. S.
page 246: missing quote added
should use text-books as adults do books of reference, while the teacher guides and directs in the development of thought.[">