MERIAM, JUNIUS LATHROP. Child life and the curriculum. $3.60 World bk. 375
20–8866
A work by the professor of school supervision and superintendent of university schools, University of Missouri. That the subject matter of modern life should be used as the means of instructing boys and girls is his thesis. “In working out the details of this curriculum the effort has been, not, as some critics have erroneously judged, to get away from the traditional curriculum, but, on the positive side, to get as close as possible to the lives of children as found in the home and in the larger community.” (Preface) The book is divided into five parts: Point of view; The traditional curriculum; Principles in the making of curricula; The contents of a curriculum; Methods and results. Supplementary readings are suggested at the end of each chapter, and special reading lists, as well as lists of songs, games, etc., are given in appendices. In addition there is a general bibliography of fifteen pages, followed by an index.
“Not a course that can be adopted in a moment or by any school, but a virile, well presented point of view which has something of value for every elementary teacher.”
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“The reader may be unable to agree with all of the conclusions of the book, but it furnishes material for critical thought, and will be of interest to those dealing with courses of study. The manner of presentation is somewhat tedious at times, and one feels that occasional condensations would serve to emphasize the content.”
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“One may find some of his conclusions from well-known studies in the field of education surprising; and may be unwilling to see measurement deferred until after the attainment of seemingly impossible conditions. Nevertheless he will recognize in the book and the experiment it reports a contribution to the great effort to provide a curriculum more closely related to life.”
+ − School R 28:552 S ’20 560w