Looking at education from this social point of view it is easy to see that there was a time when no particular need existed for history, drawing, science, vocational studies, civics, etc., beyond what one could acquire by mingling with one's associates in the community. These were therefore not then essentials for education. It is just as easy to see that changed social conditions of the present make necessary for every one a fuller and more systematic range of ideas in each of these fields than one can pick up incidentally. These things have thereby become educational essentials. Whether a thing today is an educational "essential" or not seems to depend upon two things: whether it is a human necessity today; and whether it is so complex or inaccessible as to require systematic teaching. The number of "essentials" changes from generation to generation. Those today who proclaim the Three R's as the sole "essentials" appear to be calling from out the rather distant past. Many things have since become essential; and other things are being added year by year. The normal method of education in things not yet put into the schools, is participation in those things. One gets his ideas from watching others and then learns to do by doing. There is no reason to believe that as the school lends its help to some of the more difficult things, this normal plan of learning can be set aside and another substituted. Of course the schools must take in hand the difficult portions of the process. Where complicated knowledge is needed, the schools must teach that knowledge. Where drill is required, they must give the drill. But the knowledge and the drill should be given in their relation to the human activities in which they are used. As the school helps young people to take on the nature of adulthood, it will still do so by helping them to enter adequately into the activities of adulthood. Youth will learn to think, to judge, and to do, by thinking, judging, and doing. They will acquire a sense of responsibility by bearing responsibility. They will take on serious forms of thought by doing the serious things which require serious thought.
It cannot be urged that young people have a life of their own which is to be lived only for youth's sake and without reference to the adult world about them. As a matter of fact children and youth are a part of the total community of which the mature adults are the natural and responsible leaders. At an early age they begin to perform adult activities, to take on adult points of view, to bear adult responsibilities. Naturally it is done in ways appropriate to their natures. At first it is imitative play, constructive play, etc.—nature's method of bringing children to observe the serious world about them, and to gird themselves for entering into it. The next stage, if normal opportunities are provided, is playful participation in the activities of their elders. This changes gradually into serious participation as they grow older, becoming at the end of the process responsible adult action. It is not possible to determine the educational materials and processes at any stage of growth without looking at the same time to that entire world of which youth forms a part, and in which the nature and abilities of their elders point the goal of their training.
The social point of view herein expressed is sometimes characterized as being utilitarian. It may be so; but not in any narrow or undesirable sense. It demands that training be as wide as life itself. It looks to human activities of every type: religious activities; civic activities; the duties of one's calling; one's family duties; one's recreations; one's reading and meditation; and the rest of the things that are done by the complete man or woman.
READING AND LITERATURE
The amount of time given to reading in the elementary schools of Cleveland, and the average time in 50 other cities[A] are shown in the following table:
TABLE 1.—TIME GIVEN TO READING AND LITERATURE
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| Hours per year | Per cent of grade time
|———————————-|————————————
Grade | Cleveland | 50 cities | Cleveland | 50 cities
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1 | 317 | 266 | 43 | 31
2 | 317 | 235 | 36 | 26
3 | 279 | 188 | 32 | 21
4 | 196 | 153 | 22 | 16
5 | 161 | 126 | 18 | 13
6 | 136 | 117 | 15 | 12
7 | 152 | 98 | 17 | 10
8 | 152 | 97 | 17 | 10
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Total | 1710 | 1280 | 25 | 17
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During the course of his school life, each pupil who finishes the elementary grades in Cleveland receives 1710 hours of recitation and directed study in reading as against an average of 1280 hours in progressive cities in general. This is an excess of 430 hours, or 34 per cent. The annual cost of teaching reading being about $600,000, this represents an excess annual investment in this subject of some $150,000. Whether or not this excess investment in reading is justified depends, of course, upon the way the time is used. If the city is aiming only at the usual mastery of the mechanics of reading and the usual introductory acquaintance with simple works of literary art, it appears that Cleveland is using more time and labor than other cities consider needful. If, on the other hand, this city is using the excess time for widely diversified reading chosen for its content value in revealing the great fields of history, industry, applied science, manners and customs in other lands, travel, exploration, inventions, biography, etc., and in fixing life-long habits of intelligent reading, then it is possible that it is just this excess time that produces the largest educational returns upon the investment.
[Footnote A: Henry W. Holmes, "Time Distribution by Subjects and
Grades in Representative Cities." In the Fourteenth Year Book of the
National Society for the Study of Education, Part I, 1915. University
of Chicago Press.]
It would seem, however, from a careful study of the actual work and an examination of the printed documents, that the chief purpose of teaching reading in this city is, to use the terminology of its latest manual, "easy expressive oral reading in rich, well-modulated tone." It is true that other aims are mentioned, such as enlargement of vocabulary, word-study, understanding of expressions and allusions, acquaintance with the leading authors, appreciation of "beautiful expressions," etc. Properly emphasized, each of these purposes is valid; but there are other equally valid ends to be achieved through proper choice of the reading-content that are not mentioned. There is here no criticism of the purposes long accepted, but of the apparent failure to recognize other equally important ones. The character of the reading-content is referred to only in the recommendation that in certain grades it should relate to the seasons and to special occasions. Even in reference to the supplementary reading, where content should be the first concern, the only statement of purpose is that "children should read for the joy of it." Unfortunately, this mistaken emphasis is not at all uncommon among the schools of the nation. How one reads has received an undue amount of attention; what one reads in the school courses must and will receive an increasingly large share of time and thought, in the new evaluation. The use of interesting and valuable books for other educational purposes at the same time that they are used for drill in the mechanics of reading is coming more and more to be recognized as an improved mode of procedure. The mechanical side of reading is not thereby neglected. It is given its proper function and relation, and can therefore be better taught.
So far as one can see, Cleveland is attempting in the reading work little more than the traditional thing. The thirty-four per cent excess time may be justified by the city on the theory that the schools are commissioned to get the work done one-third better than in the average city. The reading tests made by the Survey fail to reveal any such superiority. The city appears to be getting no better than average results.