Nowhere is the future more clearly forecast than in the new lessons which are being introduced into both the elementary schools and the high schools for the purpose of teaching social organization. Under the title “community civics” or “lessons in community and national life” the social sciences are beginning to offer to the lower schools an exposition of the life of the people who make up society. These courses, like all new applicants for admission to the crowded curriculum, are finding some difficulty in making their way into the school. In spite of these handicaps the movement toward the introduction of social studies into the general school is now sufficiently under way to be described as one of the most hopeful innovations in the curriculum.
EXERCISES AND READINGS
What would be the effect on a community of putting different social classes of children into different schools? Is this done in any degree? Is the principle involved in such a suggestion different in its essentials from the elective system?
What classes of students elect commercial courses? If a school were set up which taught exclusively commercial courses, would the attitude of teachers and students toward their work be better than in a school which gives general academic courses also?
Should agriculture be taught in city high schools? It is sometimes argued that the country school should have a course of study different from that given in the city school. Does the argument touch spelling? arithmetic? drawing?
The part-time experiment has failed in a number of cases where the correlator is not appointed. Can you see why?
At what age should trade training begin? Connect this discussion with the earlier discussions of (a) compulsory education and (b) costs.
Is reading a practical subject? Is science a natural and desirable part of a trade course? The Federal government has appropriated money for trade training. Can any part of this money reasonably be spent in teaching arithmetic? history? literature?
Farrington, F. E. Commercial Education in Germany. The Macmillan Company. A book dealing with one phase of the matter.
Roman, F. W. The Industrial and Commercial Schools of the United States and Germany. G. P. Putnam’s Sons. An interesting comparison of the provisions made in Germany for trade education with various American efforts in the same direction.
Eleventh Yearbook of the National Society for the Study of Education. Part I, 1912, Industrial Education. Public School Publishing Company, Bloomington, Illinois.
Eleventh Yearbook of the National Society for the Study of Education. Part II, 1912, Agricultural Education in Secondary Schools. Public School Publishing Company, Bloomington, Illinois.
Lessons in Community and National Life. Published in 24 numbers (October, 1917, to May, 1918) by the United States Bureau of Education.