At the same time that this is being developed in the mathematics classes, development should also be going on in the classes of drawing, design, and construction. The alphabet of form-study will thus be taught in several of the studies. The application will be made in practical design, in mechanical and free-hand drawing, in constructive labor, in the graphical representation of social, economic, and other facts of life. The application comes not so much in the development of practical problems in the mathematics classes as in the development of the form aspect of those other activities that involve form.
We have here pointed to what appears to be in progressive schools a growing program of work. Everywhere it is yet somewhat vague and inchoate. In connection with the arithmetic, the drawing, the construction and art work, and the mathematics of the technical high schools, it appears to be developing in Cleveland in a vigorous and healthy manner.
HISTORY
The curriculum makers for elementary education do not seem to have placed a high valuation upon history. Apparently it has not been considered an essential study of high worth, like reading, writing, spelling, grammar, and arithmetic. To history are allotted but 290 hours in Cleveland, as against 496 hours in the average of 50 progressive American cities. This discrepancy should give the city pause and concern. If a mistake is being made, it is more likely to be on the part of an individual city than upon that of 50 cities. The probability is that Cleveland is giving too little time to this subject.
TABLE 8.—TIME GIVEN TO HISTORY
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| Hours per year | Per cent of grade time|
Grade |———————————————————————-
| Cleveland | 50 cities| Cleveland | 50 cities |
—————————————————————————————-
1 | 0 | 27 | 0.0 | 3.1 |
2 | 0 | 31 | 0.0 | 3.4 |
3 | 19 | 35 | 2.1 | 3.8 |
4 | 25 | 57 | 2.9 | 5.8 |
5 | 25 | 67 | 2.9 | 6.9 |
6 | 51 | 71 | 5.7 | 7.3 |
7 | 85 | 91 | 9.7 | 9.2 |
8 | 85 | 117 | 9.7 | 11.6 |
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Total | 290 | 496 | 4.2 | 6.5 |
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The treatment in the course of study manual indicates that it is a neglected subject. Of the 108 pages, it receives an aggregate of less than two. The perfunctory assignment of work for the seventh grade is typical:
"UNITED STATES HISTORY
"B Assignment.
Mace's History, pp. 1-124 inclusive.
Questions and suggested collateral reading
found in Appendix may be used as teacher directs.
"A Assignment.
Mace's History, pp. 125-197.
Make use of questions and suggested collateral
reading at your own option."
For fifth and sixth grades there is assigned a small history text of 200 pages for one or two lessons per week. The two years of the seventh and eighth grades are devoted to the mastery of about 500 pages of text. While there is incidental reference to collateral reading, as a matter of fact the schools are not supplied with the necessary materials for this collateral reading in the grammar grades. The true character of the work is really indicated by the last sentence of the eighth-grade history assignment: "The text of our book should be thoroughly mastered."