[CHAPTER X]
EXTENSION OF SCHOOL ACTIVITIES
A General Social Movement
It would be a mistake to treat the innovations in the course of study which were discussed in the last chapter as concessions to a narrow demand for mere gain through the better training of workmen. To be sure, there are some who would be willing to curtail the educational opportunity of the common people in order to insure that type of contentment which is supposed to dwell in the mind untrained in higher ideas. But these are fortunately not likely to succeed in their plans. The movement for a better industrial training is part of a larger movement for a broader social and economic life for all. The important fact about the whole movement is that changes within the school parallel a general effort to deal with all the problems of modern life as problems of popular education.
No exhaustive study of educational extension can be undertaken in the short compass of a single chapter. Indeed, there is hardly more than space to enumerate the types of activity which enter into this movement. Confining ourselves, then, to this very modest effort, the following outline will serve as a rough classification of the major phases of the school-extension movement.
First, there are activities of pupils which lie outside the school but are systematized and promoted through the supervision of the school. Second, there are organized efforts to supplement and enlarge school work by adding to the opportunities offered to pupils out of school hours or during vacations. Third, there are continuation courses offered in the schools for adults who have been limited in their educational opportunities. Fourth, there are various forms of educational propaganda through which communities are to be brought to a more satisfactory economic or social status. Fifth, there are legitimate and refined forms of entertainment, some intellectual and some purely social, which are provided at public expense either in the school building or in other meeting places. Some of these social activities are directed toward the cultivation of a direct interest in the schools; some have no special relation to schools. Sixth, there is at present a great movement for the spread of education through correspondence schools.
Following this outline, concrete examples of each type of activity may be briefly described.
Credit for Home Activities
First, the extension of school supervision is illustrated by the fact that in a township high school the girls who are taking cooking are required to do each day a certain amount of laboratory work in the kitchen at home. This is reported by the parents, and the cooking teacher visits the homes from time to time to inspect the work. Again, in many agricultural schools home gardening is required as a part of the course. Sometimes a school officer is employed to keep up the supervision of this home work during the vacation period. Another series of examples under this heading is to be found in those systems where miscellaneous home activities are credited by the school on the report of parents. The following quotation taken from Superintendent Alderman’s book on home credits shows how far the matter has been carried in some quarters:
Below is the Spokane County plan.
BULLETIN FOR TEACHERS: HOME CREDITS