The Vitalized School

by Francis B. Pearson

A centralized school.—For the purpose of illustration we may assume that the typical vitalized school is located in the country, and is what is known as a centralized school. The grounds comprise about ten acres, and the building contains, all told, not fewer than twenty rooms, large and small. This building was designed by a student of school problems, and is not merely a theory of the architect. Each room, and each detail, articulates with every other room in harmony with a general scheme of which the child and his interests are the prime considerations. The well-being of the child takes precedence over the reputation of the architect. Every nook of the building has its specific function, and this function has vital reference to the child. The location of each piece of furniture can be explained from the viewpoint of the child, and the architectural scheme is considered subsidiary. The seats conform to the child, and not the reverse. The scheme of lighting concerns itself with the child’s welfare rather than with the external appearance.

Integrity in construction and decoration.—The decorations throughout the building are all chaste and artistic. Nothing below this standard can win admission. No picture is admitted that does not represent art. The theory is that the school has a reflex influence upon the homes that attracts them to its standards, and experience reveals the fact that the decorations in the homes are constantly rising in artistic tone. The standards of the school become the standards of the pupils, and the pupils, in turn, modify and improve the standards of the homes. There is a degree of simplicity and dignity throughout the building that banishes from the homes the ornate and the bizarre. There is integrity in every detail of construction, and the absence of veneer gives to the pupils a definition of honesty and sincerity. There is nothing either in the building or in the work of the school that savors of the show element. The teachers of history and mathematics cannot display the products of their teaching and, therefore, there is no display of her products by the teacher of drawing. This school believes in education but not in exhibition. Words of commendation may be dispensed in the classrooms, but there is no exhibit of any department in the halls. The teachers are too polite and too considerate to sanction any such display.

Simplicity and sincerity.—The library is notable for the character of the books, but not for the number. The teachers and pupils are too genuine ever to become thrasonical, and no teacher or pupil is ever heard to boast of anything pertaining to the school. They neither boast nor apologize, but leave every visitor free to make his own appraisement of their school and its belongings. The teachers are too truly cultured and the pupils are too well trained ever to exploit themselves, their school, or their work. The pictures, the statuary, the fittings, and the equipment are all of the best, and, hence, show for themselves without exploitation. To teachers and pupils it would seem a mark of ill-breeding to expatiate upon their own things. Such a thing is simply not done in this school. The auditorium is a stately, commodious, and beautiful room, and everybody connected with the school accepts it as a matter of course with no boastful comment. Anything approaching braggadocio would prove a discordant note in this school, and, in this respect, it represents the American ideal that is to be.

Rooms are phases of life.—The home economics room, the industrial arts room, the laboratories, the dining room, the rest rooms, and the hospital room are all supplied with suitable fittings and equipment and all represent phases of life. At luncheon each pupil is served a bowl of soup or other hot dish to supplement his own private lunch, and this food is supplied at public expense. The school authorities have the wisdom to realize that health is an asset of the community and is fundamental in effective school work. The pupils serve their schoolmates in relays, wash the dishes, and restore them to their places. The boys do not think they demean themselves by such service, but enter into it in the true spirit of democracy. A teacher is present to modify and chasten the hurry and heedlessness of childhood, and there is decorum without apparent repression.

Industrial work.—In connection with the industrial arts department there is a repair shop where all the implements that are used in caring for the school farm, gardens, orchards, and lawns are kept in repair. Here the auto trucks in which the pupils are brought to the school are repaired by the drivers, assisted by the boys. In this shop the boys gain the practical knowledge that enables them to keep in repair the tools and machinery, including automobiles, at their homes. The farmers who have no sons in school avail themselves of the skill and fidelity that obtain in the shop, bringing in their tools, their harness, and their automobiles for needed repairs. The money thus earned is expended for school equipment. The products of the orchards, farm, and garden are the property of the school and are all preserved for use in the home economics department for school lunches. The man in charge of the farm is employed by the year and is a member of the teaching staff. The farm, gardens, orchard, and lawn are integral parts of the school, and perform the functions of laboratories.

School a life enterprise.—There are all grades in the school, from the kindergarten through the high school. There is but slight disparity in the size of the classes, for the parents instinctively set apart thirteen years of the time of their children for life in the school. To these parents school and life are synonymous, and when a child enters the kindergarten he enlists in the enterprise for a term of thirteen years. The homes as well as the school are arranged on this basis, and this plan of procedure is ingrained in the social consciousness. Deserting the school is no more thought of than any other form of suicide. If, by any chance, a boy should desert the school, he would be a pariah in that community and could not live among the people in any degree of comfort. He would be made to feel that he had debased himself and cast aspersion upon society. The looks that the people would bestow upon him would sting more than flagellation. He would be made to feel that he had expatriated himself, and neither himself nor his parents would be in good standing in the community. They would be made to feel that their conduct was nothing short of sacrilege.

Public sentiment.—In view of the school sentiment that obtains in the community the eighth grade is practically as populous as the first grade. Attendance upon school work is a habit of thinking both with the children and with their parents, and school is taken for granted the same as eating and sleeping. If a boy should, for any cause, fail to graduate from the high school, every patron of the school would regard it as a personal calamity. They would feel that he had, somehow, been dropped off the train before he reached his destination, and the whole community would be inclined to wear badges of mourning. Every parent is vitally interested in each child of the community, whether he has children in school or not, and thus school taxes are paid with pride and elation. The school is regarded as a safe investment that pays large dividends. Patrons rally to the calls of the school with rare unanimity and heartiness. Differences in politics and religion evaporate in their school, for the school is the high plane upon which they meet in fraternal concord.

The course of study.—The course of study is flexible, and because of its resiliency it adapts itself easily and gracefully to the native dispositions and the aptitudes of the various pupils. If the boy has a penchant for agriculture, provision is made for him, both in the theory and in the practical applications of the subject. If he inclines to science, the laboratories accord him a gracious welcome. The studies are adapted to the boy and not the boy to the studies. No boy need discontinue school to find on the outside something that is congenial, for, within the school, he may find work that represents life in all its phases. If he yearns for horticulture, then this study is made his major and, all in good time, he is made foreman of the group who care for the gardens. If the course of study lacks the element which he craves and for which he has a natural aptitude, this branch is added to the course. The economy of life demands the conservation of childhood and youth and the school deems it the part of wisdom as well as civic and social economy to provide special instruction for this boy, as was done in the case of Helen Keller. This school, in theory and in practice, is firm in its opposition to wasting boys and girls. Hence, ample provision is made for the child of unusual inclinations.

Electives.—The pupils do not elect a study because it is easy, but because their inclinations run in that direction. Indeed, there are no easy courses, no snap courses in the school. Diligent, careful, thorough work is the rule, and there can be found no semblance of approval for loafing or dawdling. The school stands for purposes that are clear in definition and for work that is intense. There are no prizes offered for excellent work, but the approbation of parents, teachers, and schoolmates, in the estimation of the pupils, far transcends any material or symbolic prizes that could be offered. In school work and in conduct the pupils all strive to win this approval. There is no coarseness nor boorishness, for that would forfeit this approval. The cigarette is under ban, for public sentiment is against it; and, after all, public sentiment is the final arbiter of conduct. Hence, no boy will demean himself by flying in the face of public sentiment through indulging in any practice that this sentiment proclaims unclean or enervating.

The school the focus of community life.—This school is the focus of the community. Hither come the patrons for music, for lectures, for art, for books and magazines, for social stimulus, and, in short, for all the elements of their avocational life. Indeed, in educational matters, the community is a big wholesome family and the school is the shrine about which they assemble for educational and cultural communion. It is quite a common practice for mothers to sit in the classrooms engaged in knitting or sewing while their children are busy with their lessons. For, in their conception of life, geography and sewing are coördinate elements, and so blend in perfect harmony in the school régime. At the luncheon period these mothers go to the dining room with their children in the same spirit of coöperation that gives distinction to the school and to the community. There is an interflow of interests between the school and the homes that makes for unity of purpose and practice. There is freedom in the school but not license. People move about in a natural way but with delicate consideration for the rights and sentiments of others. The atmosphere of the school interdicts rudeness. There is a quiet dignity, serenity, and intensity, with no abatement of freedom. In this school it is not good form for a boy to be less than a gentleman or for a girl to be less than a lady.