It will be noted that there is no opposition between the natural tendencies of growth and revision and the special investigations which are intended to hasten the process of adjustment. The purpose of scientific studies here, as in every other sphere, is to facilitate natural evolution and to give it rational guidance.

A Study of Representative Adults

One of the first methods of studying the curriculum is that of investigating the relation between school work and the demands of later life. The following description of a study made as part of a school survey teaches some very impressive lessons on the need of revision in the elementary curriculum:

The most serious defect of the present course of study, including some of the suggested revisions now under consideration, is that it makes thousands of children waste tens of thousands of precious hours in the laborious acquisition of facts for which they will never have any practical use. While the survey was under way the staff attempted to test the practical value of some of the subject matter taught to children in the elementary grades.

For this purpose short examinations were prepared from the material prescribed by the course of study and actually being taught in the upper grades in spelling, arithmetic, history, and geography. Through the coöperation of a woman prominent in social and intellectual circles of the city, 11 of the leading successful citizens were brought together one evening and asked to take these examinations. The object was to find out whether or not the material that the children of the upper grades were being taught was of the sort actually used by able men of affairs in the conduct of their daily business. For carrying out the test the most prominent and successful citizens were purposely chosen and in making up the examinations the most difficult material was purposely selected. The result of these examinations in spelling, geography, arithmetic, and history of the fifth, sixth, and seventh grades was that no one of the men examined made a passing mark in any subject. The reason is that the material on which they were examined, and which the children in the schools are daily learning, is of a sort that is seldom or never met with in the business of even the most successful men engaged in commercial and professional pursuits. The gentlemen who submitted to the examination were the following:

The test in spelling consisted of ten words taken from the spelling
lists of the seventh grade. These words were as follows:

Among the 11 men taking the examination, one spelled six of these words correctly. Three succeeded in spelling four words, two got three words right, one got two, three spelled one word correctly, and one failed on every word. It is not surprising that they failed so completely for no citizen in any ordinary walk of life needs to know how to spell these words. When the rare occasion arises that he needs to write one of them, he looks it up in the dictionary. These words and scores of words like them are studied in the classrooms as well as found in the spelling book.

The test described above was suggested by the experience of the director of the survey who went into a sixth grade room where an examination in spelling was being given. He took the test with the children. It consisted of 20 words, and he failed on six of them. These six words are included in the ten-word list used in the examination of the business and professional men. Some of the children in the schools can spell these words correctly but while they are laboriously learning to do it, many of them are still unable to spell short and common words as “which,” “separate,” and “receive.”[64]

A Study of Current References

Another method of comparing school courses with common social needs is set forth in the following quotation:

At a meeting of the Committee on Economy of Time held in the fall of 1912 it was suggested that current literature could be profitably employed as a standard for determining the kind of geographical information that the school should provide. The proposal was to read current newspapers and magazines, record the geographical references, and determine from the frequency of these references the relative value of the various types of geographical information. Results of the application of the method presented at the meeting seemed to indicate that the content of geography as now taught in the elementary school would be greatly modified if materials were chosen upon this basis....

Miss Biester collected and classified the geographical and historical references and allusions in eighteen issues of the Outlook and the Literary Digest, representing a period of seven years ending with 1913. She found in these eighteen journals a total of 2,237 geographical references. The distribution was as follows:

Per Cent
References to facts of location, size, direction, etc., which may be assumed to require for their understanding a knowledge of “place and location” geography 53.5
References to political divisions and facts of government which may be assumed to require a knowledge of “political” geography 25.1
References to industries, commerce, products, etc., which may be assumed to require a knowledge of “commercial” geography 5.8
References to people, customs, religion, education, etc., which may be assumed to require a knowledge of “social” geography 4.8
References to places as scenes of historical events, which may be assumed to require a knowledge of “historical” geography 1.7
Other references primarily of local or transitory interest 8.9

A grouping of this sort is obviously subject to the errors or peculiarities of individual judgment, but it may be said that the classification just presented is quite consistent with those furnished by other readers. Except for the absence of explicit reference to physiographical principles, this grouping represents fairly accurately the distribution of emphasis in the textbooks ordinarily used in the seventh and eighth grades. The physiographical principles, however, are precisely the “general” principles to which we referred above; that is, their function is broadly interpretive and adaptive; they “cover” a host of particulars too numerous in the aggregate, and too insignificant separately, to warrant specific attention.

Another suggestive grouping is based upon the frequency of references to the various continents. If one is to read intelligently the journals which formed the basis of this test, one will find occasion to apply one’s knowledge of the continents in approximately the following proportions (the maximum frequency of reference being represented arbitrarily by 100):

North America 100 Africa 4
Europe 73 South America 3
Asia 13 Australia 1

The principal European countries had an importance for the readers of the journals in question in the following proportions (giving England, as the country most frequently referred to, the arbitrary value of 100):[65]

England 100 Italy 32
France 80 Turkey 30
Germany 70 Austria-Hungary 24
Russia 35 Spain 22

Per Cent
References to facts of location, size, direction, etc.,which may be assumed to require for their understandinga knowledge of “place and location” geography53.5
References to political divisions and facts of governmentwhich may be assumed to require a knowledge of“political” geography25.1
References to industries, commerce, products, etc., whichmay be assumed to require a knowledge of “commercial”geography5.8
References to people, customs, religion, education, etc.,which may be assumed to require a knowledge of“social” geography4.8
References to places as scenes of historical events, whichmay be assumed to require a knowledge of “historical”geography1.7
Other references primarily of local or transitory interest8.9