The school festival, school parties for parents, fairs and sales, the general assembly, excursions, gardening or other industrial activity, plays and games, have in the hands of skillful teachers provided a compelling motive for a great variety of school work. The author would not deny the power of intellectual interest, but he knows, as does every other teacher, that with children in the elementary school this motive is only gradually developed. The teacher who is alert to find some real need for the computations of arithmetic; who gives a genuine opportunity for oral or written expression; who appeals to the desire to use the knowledge gained in history and geography by means of the historical festival, the article in the school paper, and the like, as well as to the curiosity of the child; who allows children to make real things which satisfy their individual or collective needs in the industrial arts,—is the teacher who is teaching school subjects in the way that will mean most in the education of her pupils.
The demand that the teacher vitalize the curriculum does not lose sight of the necessity for drill, or of the demand that children know, as a result of their education. As a matter of fact, the more vital the experiences, the more apparent it becomes to both teacher and pupil that the fixing of knowledge or the acquiring of skill is a necessary condition of present efficiency and of future progress. The children who have the most genuine need for the multiplication table will be the first to learn it. If you are to read to a whole school and want to have them enjoy with you the selection which you are to interpret, you will have the best possible reason for good expression. History means something, if you really need to know the history of a period in order to reproduce accurately its language, manners, dress, and the like in your festival. The mistake which at times has been made by enthusiastic teachers of neglecting the drill side of the work, has not been due to any difficulty which the situation presented from the standpoint of the children who are engaged in meaningful activities.
The teacher may not expect all children to gain equally in command of the experiences represented by the course of study. For her there must literally be courses of study for each subject, in that she must adapt her work in so far as is possible to individual needs. The office of teacher may well be exalted, for it is the teacher who must, because of her insight, provide for the needs of each child committed to her care, and in rendering this service provide society with its greatest asset, a truly educated human being.
For Collateral Reading
S. T. Dutton and D. Snedden, Administration of Public Education in the United States, Chapter XVIII.
Exercises.
The selections from courses of study are quoted by Dr. C. W. Stone in his monograph on Arithmetic Abilities and Some Factors Determining them. In Dr. Stone’s study the pupils in twenty-six schools or school systems were tested. One of the problems raised had reference to the excellence of the course of study. The selections quoted represent a variety in excellence such as one will find in the courses of study prepared in any subject.
Study these selections from the following points of view:—
1. Do any of them give too little information to the teacher concerning the work required in the grade?
2. Do any of them restrict the work of the teacher unduly?