Introduction to the scientific study of education

by Charles Hubbard Judd

That a change is coming about in the methods of dealing with pupils in these years is shown by the fact that the elementary school is setting apart the fourth, fifth, and sixth grades as the years in which the strictly elementary work is to be completed. Much that was postponed to the seventh and eighth grades under the older form of organization will doubtless be brought down into the intermediate grades. The children will no longer be drilled in the forms of the social arts while waiting for the enlarged opportunities of the upper grades, but will be introduced at once to experiences with the objects of the physical world. They will be encouraged to see things and handle them for themselves.

Early Adolescence as a Period of Social Consciousness

The close of this period of individualism is marked by physical and mental changes of a very definite and significant type. From twelve years on the child begins to realize anew the social world about him. Physical changes are going on within him that stimulate this type of thought. The literature of education has emphasized the fact that at this period there is a maturing of the sex organs and an accompanying development of feelings and interests in the opposite sex. There has been doubtless an overemphasis on the sexual characteristics of this period. The fact is that a profound general physical and mental change is going forward.

On the physical side the organism which has been accumulating powers through its mastery of the fundamental processes of life is now ready for its last large development. We shall understand the meaning of this statement only when we realize that the organism has to cultivate a whole series of internal habits in order that it may be internally harmonious. The little child is easily disturbed, for example, in his digestion. This means that the habits of digestion are not established. The immature nervous organism of the pupil needs training to bring it to the point where digestion will go forward without interruption or distraction. The same is true of circulation and respiration. The organism has to learn to live. The school period is a period of mastery of these internal processes quite as much as a period of intellectual training.

At about twelve years of age the inner coördination is reaching its consummation. If one were to select for discussion the most significant physical fact that marks this period, one would lay stress on the development of the heart. This organ grows rapidly in size and strength. Its more vigorous action raises the blood pressure throughout the body. Organs which have been slow in their development now grow rapidly. The whole life of the individual is intensified. It is not alone the sex organs which mature; the nervous system acts with greater energy, and the muscular system develops. In short, a period of the most active life sets in.

The physical vigor of the twelve-year-old and the thirteen-year-old child is only part of the explanation of the characteristic intellectual temper of this period. Just prior to this period the child, as we have seen, passes through an era of marked individualism. The unsocial tendencies of that period bring disappointments and new lessons, and finally the child is ready for a renewal of his contacts with the social group. He cannot now be purely imitative as was the primary child, for he has gained self-consciousness. He cannot be content with pure individualism, because his experience has broadened so that he sees his dependence on others. A new social era opens. With self-consciousness and with a desire to get back into society by accepting its ways and complying with its demands, the adolescent seeks, albeit somewhat clumsily, a new contact with his fellows. The awkwardness of this period, its lack of self-assurance, its eagerness for social recognition, are all perfectly clear to the student of human nature who has analyzed the case of a twelve-year-old pupil.

The New School adapted to Adolescence

Has the school met the legitimate demand for a suitable education of the adolescent? The answer is that the school has been slow in meeting this situation. The archaic form of school organization which attached the seventh and eighth grades to the elementary school has hindered greatly a proper recognition of the special needs of adolescence. The child of twelve or thirteen does not need a review of the elementary work so much as a preparation for the active life of adulthood. The adolescent needs to be given an insight into the organization of society. He needs to be brought into contact with the ways and languages of other peoples. Fortunately, the keener educational insights of the present day are bringing us to a recognition of these needs. The school for the adolescent is beginning to emerge out of the current reorganizations of the seventh and eighth grades.

In many schools these two grades have been gradually separating from the rest of the elementary grades. The teaching has been organized on the departmental plan; that is, a number of special teachers, each dealing with a single subject, replace the single teacher who has charge of the whole curriculum in the lower grades. Furthermore, the curriculum has been enlarged. Manual arts and household science have been introduced and, in some cases, other subjects which were formerly offered only in the high school. A new type of school, including the seventh, eighth, and ninth grades and known as the junior high school or the intermediate school, is appearing.

Where these and like changes have not been made in the seventh and eighth grades, criticism has made itself increasingly heard because the pupils do not get ahead in these grades. The reviews which are sometimes carried on at great length in preparation for promotion into the high school are a waste of time and energy and leave the pupils without enthusiasm for school work and without habits of concentration.