What the Schools Teach and Might Teach

by John Franklin Bobbitt

"It is admitted that those who begin German in the high school, after the second year, can keep up with and do as good work in the same classes as those who have had eight years of German in the primary and grammar grades and two years in the high schools."

The form of argument that once was valid for including German in the elementary course of study may now be valid for Polish, Hungarian, Bohemian and Italian, for the children of the first generation of these nationalities. Properly done, it is a means of preventing the children's drifting from the parental moorings. After the first generation, it would not be needed.

It is impossible, in the limited space at our disposal, to discuss comprehensively so complicated a topic as foreign languages in the high school. One group of educators sturdily defends the traditional classical course, with its great emphasis on Greek and Latin, while another group as urgently insists that if any foreign languages are taught, they must be the modern ones. These opposing schools of thought are profoundly sincere in their conflicting beliefs. Each side is absolutely certain that it is right and is unalterably of the opinion that there is no other side of the question to be even so much as considered. Anything that agrees with its own side is based on reason; anything opposed is but ignorant prejudice. Under the circumstances the disinterested outsider may well suspect that where there is so much sincerity and conviction, there must be much truth on both sides. And undoubtedly this is the case.

Latin is a living language in our country in that it provides half of our vocabulary. Pupils who would know English well should have a good knowledge of this living Latin. If the Latinists would shift their ground to this living Latin and provide means of teaching it fully and effectively for modern purposes, it is possible that the opposing schools of thought might here find common ground upon which all could stand with some degree of comfort and toleration. When Latin study of the character here suggested is devised, it ought to be opened up to the students of all courses as an elective, so that it could be taken by all who wish a full appreciation and understanding of their semi-Latin mother tongue. Such a study ought to be required of the clerical students of the High School of Commerce. In the meantime, however, all will have to wait until the Latinists have provided the plans and the materials.

In the new so-called English course in the academic high schools required foreign languages are omitted entirely. In the third and fourth years German or Spanish is made elective. This gives rise to several questions. If the foreign language is studied simply as preparation for the leisure occupation of reading its literature—the only value of the course in the case of most who take it—why should not French be elective also? By far the largest of the world's literatures, outside of the English, is the French. The Spanish has but a small literature; and while Germany has excelled in many things, belles-lettres is not one of them. Another question relates to the placing of these electives. If one is to study a foreign language at all, it is usually thought best to begin earlier than the third year of the high school, so as to finish these simple matters that can be done by children and gain time in the later years for the more complicated matters that require mature judgment.

DIFFERENTIATION OF COURSES

Courses of training based upon human needs should be diversified where conditions are diversified. Uniform courses of study for all schools within a city were justifiable in a former simpler age, when the schools were caring only for needs that were common to all classes. But as needs have differentiated in our large industrial cities, courses of training must also become differentiated. In Cleveland this principle has been recognized in organizing the work of the special schools and classes. For all the regular elementary schools, however, a uniform course of study has been used. Under the present administration, principals and teachers are nominally permitted wide latitude in its administration.

A large part of this freedom is taken away by two things. One is the use by the city of the plan of leaving textbooks to private purchase. For perfectly obvious reasons, so long as textbooks are privately purchased, a uniform series of textbooks must be definitely prescribed for the entire city. Uniform textbooks do not necessarily enforce a uniform curriculum. In usual practice, however, they do enforce it as completely as a prescribed uniform course of study manual. As the schools of different sections of the city are allowed to experiment and to develop variations from the course of study, they should be allowed greater freedom in choosing the textbooks that will best serve in teaching their courses.

The second condition enforcing a uniform course of study in certain subjects is the use of uniform examinations in those subjects. We would merely suggest here that it is possible to use supervisory examinations without making them uniform for all schools. Different types of school may well have different types of examination.

Different social classes often exist within the same school. Administrative limitations probably must prevent the use of more than one course of study in a single elementary school. But as the work of the grammar grades is departmentalized, and as junior high schools are developed, it will become possible to offer alternative courses in these grades. Those practically certain of going on to higher educational work requiring foreign languages and higher mathematics should probably be permitted to begin these studies by the sixth or seventh grade. On the other hand, those who are practically certain to drop out of school at the end of the grammar grades or junior high school should have full opportunities for applied science, applied design, practical mathematics, civics, hygiene, vocational studies, etc. When the necessary studies are once organized and departmental work introduced, it is not difficult to arrange for the necessary differentiation of courses in the same school.