[16] Portions of this chapter originally appeared in The Journal of Education.
[17] “The Education of Man,” F. Froebel. Translated by W. N. Halliman, New York; D. Appleton & Co. 1909, p. 103.
[18] Ibid., p. 187.
CHAPTER II
TEACHING BOYS AND GIRLS
I The New School Machinery
The influence which the industrial changes of the past hundred years has had on education is considerable. With the transformation of the home workshop into the factory has come the transition from rural and village life to life in great industrial cities and towns. The introduction of specialized machinery has placed upon education the burden of vocational training. More important still, it has so augmented the size of the educational problem that an intricate system of school machinery has been devised to keep the whole in order.
The rural, or village, school was a one or two-room affair, housing a handful of pupils. Aside from matters of discipline, the administration of the school was scarcely a problem. General superintendents, associate superintendents, compulsory attendance laws, card index systems, and purchasing departments were unknown. The school was a simple, personal business conducted by the teacher in very much the same way that the corner grocer conducted his store—on faith and memory.