A careful examination of fifty average books on education issued since 1870 yields but scant encouragement to those who seek association of school and library. Six of the fifty writers give at least passing consideration to the subject. Two cyclopedias of education recognize the importance of the subject.[5]
Forty-two books issued between the years mentioned, and about equally divided between the decades represented are wholly barren of such mention. On the other hand, two are notable for vital grasp and broad treatment—G. Stanley Hall's chapters in the second volume of his "Educational Problems," and Hugo Müsterberg's chapter in "The Americans."
Significant of present-day conditions is the testimony of a teacher, who, addressing a library gathering, said:[6]
"In days gone by we carried on the school without libraries—we could do this as well as not because education meant learning by rote; text-book learning alone.
"This is, to my mind, the most important thing I have to say to you—we do not yet know you and our need for you.
"In our school lives as children, in our normal training and later in our actual teaching we have not had you, and we do not yet realize your resources.
"To get this matter before you definitely, pardon my using my own case as illustration.
"From beginning to end of my common school education—from the first grade through eighth—I never saw a school or a public library. We had none, though I lived in a good-sized city in the Middle West. I learned what the text-book told me; no supplementary reading (or rarely), no pictures, no objects. My training in reading and literature consisted in learning to keep my toes on a crack and my voice from falling on a question mark!
"In high school I had very little but the regular text. Again memory work was the test. I remember well a boy who was my ideal. He learned his geography word for word and so recited it. If he sneezed or a door slammed and his flow of words (I use words advisedly) was interrupted, he had to begin again. He was the show pupil in our class.