The socialized recitation.
The classroom methods have also changed considerably in the last generation, and they have changed for the better. The older methods sought to drill facts into the pupil’s mind and resulted, very often, in merely over-stocking his memory. Today the aim is to utilize, wherever possible, a method of approach through the interests of the individual and to show him how every shred of knowledge fits into the whole fabric. The old methods of classroom instruction laid the entire emphasis upon individual study and recitations; today much greater emphasis is being placed upon group activity, which includes group discussions, group investigations, and group reports. This does not mean, however, that the individual pupil carries less responsibility than under the older system. It still remains true that there is no royal road to knowledge and no system of rapid transit either. No system can make an educated individual without self-effort. Education is one of the very few things in the world which anyone can obtain but which no one can give away.[[250]]
Financing the Schools.—All new educational enterprises mean increased expenses. Public education in the United States has become enormously more expensive during the past twenty years. The newer methods of school organization and instruction, the wider use of the schools, the extension of vocational education, the providing of free text books, the progress of health work in the schools, the establishment of evening schools, continuation schools, vacation schools—all these things have caused the cost to keep mounting year after year. |A billion dollars a year for education.| The public schools of the United States now cost the taxpayer more than a billion dollars per annum. That is twice what they cost ten years ago. If the expenses double once more in the next decade, where will the money come from? Practically all of it is now obtained by taxation; but taxation spreads itself out through rents and prices upon the whole people as has already been shown. A billion a year seems to be a large sum. It is a large sum but, strange to say, it is less than the American people spend every year for tobacco. Money for the schools, it is safe to predict, will be forthcoming when people understand what education means to individuals and to the nation. If present sources of revenue will not stand the strain others must be found. There is no more profitable way in which the nation can invest its wealth.
General References
E. P. Cubberly, Public School Administration, pp. 3-65;
S. T. Dutton and David Snedden, The Administration of Public Education in the United States, pp. 25-95;
F. J. Goodnow and F. J. Bates, Municipal Government, pp. 335-354 (Educational Administration);
A. J. Inglis, Principles of Secondary Education, pp. 340-383;
John A. Fairlie, Local Government in Counties, Towns, and Villages, pp. 215-224;
W. E. Chancellor, Our City Schools, pp. 25-77;