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diff --git a/13482-0.txt b/13482-0.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..cc42584 --- /dev/null +++ b/13482-0.txt @@ -0,0 +1,2380 @@ +*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 13482 *** + +WHAT THE SCHOOLS TEACH AND MIGHT TEACH + +by + +FRANKLIN BOBBITT +Assistant Professor of Educational Administration +The University of Chicago + +1915 + +CLEVELAND EDUCATION SURVEY +Leonard P. Ayres, Director + +The Survey Committee of the Cleveland Foundation +Cleveland, Ohio + + Charles E. Adams, Chairman + Thomas G. Fitzsimons + Myrta L. Jones + Bascom Little + Victor W. Sincere + + Arthur D. Baldwin, Secretary + James R. Garfield, Counsel + Newton D. Baker, Counsel + Alien T. Burns, Director + + + + + + + +FOREWORD + + +This report on "What the Schools Teach and Might Teach" is one of +the 25 sections of the report of the Education Survey of Cleveland +conducted by the Survey Committee of the Cleveland Foundation in +1915. Twenty-three of these sections will be published as separate +monographs. In addition there will be a larger volume giving a summary +of the findings and recommendations relating to the regular work of +the public schools, and a second similar volume giving the summary of +those sections relating to industrial education. Copies of all these +publications may be obtained from the Cleveland Foundation. They may +also be obtained from the Division of Education of the Russell Sage +Foundation, New York City. A complete list will be found in the back +of this volume, together with prices. + + + + +TABLE OF CONTENTS + + Foreword + List of Tables + Prefatory Statement + The Point of View + Reading and Literature + Spelling + Handwriting + Language, Composition, Grammar + Mathematics + Algebra + Geometry + History + Civics + Geography + Drawing and Applied Art + Manual Training and Household Arts + Elementary Science + High School Science + Physiology and Hygiene + Physical Training + Music + Foreign Languages + Differentiation of Courses + Summary + + + + +LIST OF TABLES + + + TABLE + 1. Time given to reading and literature + 2. Sets of supplementary reading books per building + 3. Weeks given to reading of different books in + High School of Commerce + 4. Time given to spelling + 5. Time given to handwriting + 6. Time given to language, composition, and grammar + 7. Time given to arithmetic + 8. Time given to history + 9. Time given to geography + 10. Time given to drawing + 11. Time given to manual training + 12. Time given to science, physiology, hygiene + 13. Time given to physical training + 14. Time given to music + + + + +PREFATORY STATEMENT + + +For an understanding of some of the characteristics of this report it +is necessary to mention certain of the conditions under which it was +prepared. + +The printed course of study for the elementary schools to be found +in June, 1915, the time the facts were gathered for this report, was +prepared under a former administration. While its main outlines were +still held to, it was being departed from in individual schools in +many respects. Except occasionally it was not possible to find record +of such departures. It was believed that to accept the printed manual +as representing current procedure would do frequent injustice to +thoughtful, constructive workers within the system. But it must be +remembered that courses of study for the city cover the work of twelve +school years in a score and more of subjects, distributed through a +hundred buildings. Only a small fraction of this comprehensive program +is going on during any week of the school year; and of this fraction +only a relatively small amount could actually be visited by one man in +the time possible to devote to the task. In the absence of records of +work done or of work projected, unduly large weight had to be given to +the recommendations set down in the latest published course of study +manual. + +New courses of study were being planned for the elementary schools. +This in itself indicated that the manual could not longer be regarded +as an authoritative expression of the ideas of the administration. Yet +with the exception of a good arithmetic course and certain excellent +beginnings of a geography course, little indication could be found as +to what the details of the new courses were to be. The present report +has had to be written at a time when the administration by its acts +was rejecting the courses of study laid out in the old manual, and yet +before the new courses were formulated. Under the circumstances it +was not a safe time for setting forth the _facts_, since not even +the administration knew yet what the new courses were to be in their +details. It was not a safe time to be either praising or blaming +course of study requirements. The situation was too unformed for +either. In the matter of the curriculum, the city was confessedly +on the eve of a large constructive program. Its face was toward the +future, and not toward the past; not even toward the present. + +It was felt that if the brief space at the disposal of this report +could also look chiefly toward the future, and present constructive +recommendations concerning things that observation indicated should be +kept in mind, it would accomplish its largest service. The time that +the author spent in Cleveland was mostly used in observations in +the schools, in consultation with teachers and supervisors, and +in otherwise ascertaining what appeared to be the main outlines of +practice in the various subjects. This was thought to be the point at +which further constructive labors would necessarily begin. + +The recommendation of a thing in this report does not indicate that +it has hitherto been non-existent or unrecognized in the system. +The intention rather is an economical use of the brief space at our +disposal in calling attention to what appear to be certain fundamental +principles of curriculum-making that seem nowadays more and more to be +employed by judicious constructive workers. + +The occasional pointing out of incomplete development of the work of +the system is not to be regarded as criticism. Both school people and +community should remember that since schools are to fit people +for social conditions, and since these conditions are continually +changing, the work of the schools must correspondingly change. Social +growth is never complete; it is especially rapid in our generation. +The work of education in preparing for these ever-new conditions can +likewise never be complete, crystallized, perfected. It must grow and +change as fast as social conditions make such changes necessary. To +point out such further growth-needs is not criticism. The intention +is to present the disinterested, detached view of the outsider who, +although he knows indefinitely less than those within the system about +the details of the work, can often get the perspective rather better +just because his mind is not filled with the details. + + + + +THE POINT OF VIEW + + +There is an endless, and perhaps worldwide, controversy as to what +constitutes the "essentials" of education; and as to the steps to +be taken in the teaching of these essentials. The safe plan for +constructive workers appears to be to avoid personal educational +philosophies and to read all the essentials of education within the +needs and processes of the community itself. Since we are using this +social point of view in making curriculum suggestions for Cleveland, +it seems desirable first to explain just what we mean. Some of the +matters set down may appear so obvious as not to require expression. +They need, however, to be presented again because of the frequency +with which they are lost sight of in actual school practice. + +Children and youth are expected as they grow up to take on by easy +stages the characteristics of adulthood. At the end of the process it +is expected that they will be able to do the things that adults do; to +think as they think; to bear adult responsibilities; to be efficient +in work; to be thoughtful public-spirited citizens; and the like. +The individual who reaches this level of attainment is educated, even +though he may never have attended school. The one who falls below this +level is not truly educated, even though he may have had a surplus of +schooling. + +To bring one's nature to full maturity, as represented by the best of +the adult community in which one grows up, is true education for life +in that community. Anything less than this falls short of its purpose. +Anything other than this is education misdirected. + +In very early days, when community life was simple, practically all +of one's education was obtained through participating in community +activities, and without systematic teaching. From that day to this, +however, the social world has been growing more complex. Adults +have developed kinds of activities so complicated that youth cannot +adequately enter into them and learn them without systematic teaching. +At first these things were few; with the years they have grown very +numerous. + +One of the earliest of these too-complicated activities was written +language--reading, writing, spelling. These matters became necessities +to the adult world; but youth under ordinary circumstances could not +participate in them as performed by adults sufficiently to master +them. They had to be taught; and the school thereby came into +existence. A second thing developed about the same time was the +complicated number system used by adults. It was too difficult for +youth to master through participation only. It too had to be taught, +and it offered a second task for the schools. In the early schools +this teaching of the so-called Three R's was all that was needed, +because these were the only adult activities that had become so +complicated as to require systematized teaching. Other things were +still simple enough, so that young people could enter into them +sufficiently for all necessary education. + +As community vision widened and men's affairs came to extend far +beyond the horizon, a need arose for knowledge of the outlying world. +This knowledge could rarely be obtained sufficiently through travel +and observation. There arose the new need for the systematic teaching +of geography. What had hitherto not been a human necessity and +therefore not an educational essential became both because of changed +social conditions. + +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 + ======================================================== + | Hours per year | Per cent of grade time + |-----------------------|------------------------ + Grade | Cleveland | 50 cities | Cleveland | 50 cities + -------------------------------------------------------- + 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 + ======================================================== + Total | 1710 | 1280 | 25 | 17 + -------------------------------------------------------- + +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. + +Certainly people should read well and effectively in all ways in which +they will be called upon to read in their adult affairs. For the most +part this means reading for ideas, suggestions, and information in +connection with the things involved in their several callings; in +connection with their civic problems; for recreation; and for such +general social enlightenment as comes from newspapers, magazines, and +books. Most reading will be for the content. It is desirable that the +reading be easy and rapid, and that one gather in all the ideas as one +reads. Because of the fact that oral reading is slower, more laborious +for both reader and listener, and because of the present easy +accessibility of printed matter, oral reading is becoming of steadily +diminishing importance to adults. No longer should the central +educational purpose be the development of expressive oral reading. +It should be rapid and effective silent reading for the sake of the +thought read. + +To train an adult generation to read for the thought, schools must +give children full practice in reading for the thought in the ways +in which later as adults they should read. After the primary teachers +have taught the elements, the work should be mainly voluminous reading +for the sake of entering into as much of the world's thought and +experience as possible. The work ought to be rather more extensive +than intensive. The chief end should be the development of that +wide social vision and understanding which is so much needed in this +complicated cosmopolitan age. While works of literary art should +constitute a considerable portion of the reading program, they should +not monopolize the program, nor indeed should they be regarded as +the most important part of it. It is history, travel, current news, +biography, advance in the world of industry and applied science, +discussions of social relations, political adjustments, etc., which +adults need mostly to read; and it is by the reading of these things +that children form desirable and valuable reading habits. + +The reading curriculum needs to be looked after in two important ways. +First, social standards of judgment should determine the nature of the +reading. The texts beyond the primary grades are now for the most +part selections of literary art. Very little of it has any conscious +relation, immediate or remote, to present-day problems and conditions +or with their historical background. Probably children should read +many more selections of literary art than are found in the textbooks +and the supplementary sets now owned by the schools. But certainly +such cultural literary experience ought not to crowd out kinds of +reading that are of much greater practical value. Illumination of the +things of serious importance in the everyday world of human affairs +should have a large place in reading work of every school. + +It is true that the supplementary sets of books have been chosen +chiefly for their content value. Many are historical, biographical, +geographical, scientific, civic, etc., in character. On the side of +content, they have advanced much farther than the textbooks toward +what should constitute a proper reading course. Unfortunately, the +schools are very incompletely supplied with these sets. If we consider +all the sets of supplementary readers found in 10 or more schools, we +find that few of those assigned for fourth-grade reading are found in +one-quarter of the buildings and none are in half of them. The same is +true of the books for use in the fifth and seventh grades. Some of the +books for the sixth and eighth grades are found in more than half +of the buildings, but there is none that is found in as many as +three-quarters of them. + +The second thing greatly needed to improve the reading course is +more reading practice. One learns to do a thing easily, rapidly, +and effectively by practice. The course of study in reading should +therefore provide the opportunity for much practice. At present the +reading texts used aggregate for the eight grades some 2100 pages. A +third-grade child ought to read matter suitable for its intelligence +at 20 pages per hour, and a grammar-grade child at 30 to 40 pages +per hour. Since rapidity of reading is one of the desired ends, the +practice reading should be rapid. At the moderate rates mentioned, the +entire series of reading texts ought to be read in some 80 hours. +This is 10 hours' practice for each of the eight school years, an +altogether insufficient amount of rapid reading practice. Of course +the texts can be read twice, or let us say three times, aggregating +30 hours of practice per year. But even this is not more than +could easily be accomplished in two or three weeks of each of the +years--always presuming that the reading materials are rightly adapted +to the mental maturity of the pupils. This leaves 35 weeks of the year +unprovided for. To make good this deficit, the buildings are furnished +with supplementary books in sets sufficiently large to supply entire +classes. The average number of such sets per building is shown in the +following table: + + TABLE 2.--SETS OF SUPPLEMENTARY READING BOOKS PER BUILDING + + Grade Average number of sets + 1 10.0 + 2 6.3 + 3 5.1 + 4 5.5 + 5 6.3 + 6 5.3 + 7 5.5 + 8 6.0 + +A fifth, sixth, seventh, or eighth-grade student ought to be able to +read all the materials supplied his grade, both reading texts and all +kinds of supplementary reading, in 40 or 50 hours. He ought to do it +easily in six weeks' work, without encroaching on recitation time. +He can read all of it twice in 10 weeks; and three times in 14 weeks. +After reading everything three times over, there still remain 24 weeks +of each year unprovided for. + +The reply of teachers is that the work is so difficult that it has to +be slowed down enough to consume these 24 weeks. But is not this to +admit that the hill is too steep, that there is too much dead pull, +and that the materials are ill-chosen for practice in habits of rapid +intelligent reading? It is not by going slow that one learns to go +fast. Quite the reverse. Too often the school runs on low speed gear +when it ought to be running on high. The low may be necessary for the +starting, but not for the running. It may be necessary in the primary +grades, but not thereafter for those who have had a normal start. +Reading practice should certainly make for increased speed in +effective reading. + +The actual work in the grades is very different from the plan +suggested. In taking up any selection for reading, the plan in most +schools is about as follows: + +1. A list of the unusual words met with is written on the blackboard. + +2. Teacher and pupils discuss the meaning of these words; but +unfortunately words out of the context often carry no meaning. + +3. The words are marked diacritically, and pronounced. + +4. Pupils "use the words in sentences." The pupil frequently has +nothing to say that involves the word. It is only given an imitation +of a real use by being put into an artificial sentence. + +5. The oral reading is begun. One pupil reads a paragraph. + +6. With the book removed, the meaning of the paragraph is then +reproduced either by the reader or some other pupil. This work is +necessarily perfunctory because the pupil knows he is not giving +information to anybody. Everybody within hearing already has the +meaning fresh in mind from the previous reading. The normal child +cannot work up enthusiasm for oral reproduction under such conditions. + +7. The paragraph is analyzed into its various elements, and these in +turn are discussed in detail. + +Such work is not reading. It is analysis. A selection is not read, it +is analyzed. The purpose of real reading is to enter into the thought +and emotional experience of the writer; not to study the methods by +which the author expressed himself. The net result when the work is +done as described is to develop a critical consciousness of methods, +without helping the children to enter normally and rightly into the +experience of the writer. The children of Cleveland need this genuine +training in reading. + +Reading in the high schools needs very much the same sort of +modernization. There are more kinds of literature than classical +belles-lettres, and perhaps more important kinds. We would not +advocate a reduction of the amount of aesthetic literature. Indeed, the +young people of Cleveland need to enter into a far wider range of such +literature than is the case at present. But the reading courses in +high schools should be built out in ways already recommended for +elementary schools. + +The training, however, should be mainly in reading and not in +analysis. The former is of surpassing importance to all people; the +latter is important only to certain specialists. And, what is +more, fullness of reading and right ways of reading will accomplish +incidentally most of the things aimed at in the analysis. + +The following table of the reading outline of the High School of +Commerce is a fair sample of what the city is doing. Note how much +time is given to the reading and analysis of the few selections +covered in four years. + +TABLE 3.--WEEKS GIVEN TO READING OF DIFFERENT BOOKS IN HIGH SCHOOL OF +COMMERCE + + Weeks to read + First Year + Ashmun's Prose Selections 9 + Cricket on the Hearth 5 + Sohrab and Rustum 3 + Midsummer Night's Dream 6 + Ivanhoe 11 + + Second Year + Autobiography of Franklin 7 + Idylls of the King 10 + Treasure Island 7 + Sketch Book 7 + Vision of Sir Launfal 3 + + Third Year + Silas Marner 7 + Iliad (Bryant's--4 books) 5 + Washington's Farewell Address 5 + First Bunker Hill Oration 6 + Emerson's Compensation 5 + Roosevelt Book 6 + + Fourth Year + Markham's The Man with the Hoe 2 + Tale of Two Cities 10 + Public Duty of the Educated Man 4 + Macbeth 11 + Self-Reliance 6 + +When a short play of a hundred pages like Macbeth requires nearly +three months for reading, when almost two months are given to Treasure +Island and nearly three months to Ivanhoe, clearly it is something +other than reading that is being attempted. It is perfectly obvious +that the high schools are attending principally to the mechanics of +expression and not to the content of the expression. The relative +emphasis should be reversed. + +The amount of reading in the high schools should be greatly increased. +Those who object that rapid work is superficial believe that work must +be slow to be thorough. It should be remembered, however, that slow +work is often superficial and that rapid work is often excellent. +In fact the world's best workers are generally rapid, accurate, and +thorough. Ask any business man of wide experience. Now leaving aside +pupils who are slow by nature, it can be affirmed that pupils will +acquire slow, thorough habits or rapid, thorough habits according +to the way they are taught. If they are brought up by the slow +plan, naturally when speeded up suddenly, the quality of their work +declines. They can be rapid, accurate, and thorough only if such +strenuous work begins early and is continued consistently. Slow habits +are undesirable if better ones can just as well be implanted. + +To avoid possible misunderstanding, it ought to be stated that the +plan recommended does not mean less drill upon the mechanical side +of reading. We are recommending a somewhat more modernized kind of +mechanics, and a much more strenuous kind of drill. The plan looks +both toward more reading and improved habits of reading. + +One final suggestion finds here its logical place. Before the reading +work of elementary or high schools can be modernized, the city must +purchase the books used in the work. Leaving the supplying of books +to private purchase is the largest single obstacle in the way of +progress. Men in the business world will have no difficulty in seeing +the logic of this. When shoes, for example, were made by hand, each +workman could easily supply his own tools; but now that elaborate +machinery has been devised for their manufacture, it has become so +expensive that a machine factory must supply the tools. It is so in +almost every field of labor where efficiency has been introduced. Now +the books to be read are the tools in the teaching of reading. In a +former day when a mastery of the mechanics of reading was all that +seemed to be needed, the privately purchased textbook could suffice. +In our day when other ends are set up beyond and above those of former +days, a far more elaborate and expensive equipment is required. The +city must now supply the educational tools. It is well to face this +issue candidly and to state the facts plainly. Relative failure can be +the only possible lot of reluctant communities. They can count on +it with the same assurance as that of a manufacturer of shoes who +attempts to employ the methods of former days in competition with +modern methods. + +In this city the expenditures for supplementary textbooks have +amounted to something more than $31,000 in the past 10 years. +Approximately one-third of this sum was spent in the first seven years +of the decade and more than $20,000 in the past three years. This +indicates the rapid advance in this direction made under the present +school administration but the supply of books still falls far short +of the needs of the schools. A fair start has been made but nothing +should be permitted to obstruct rapid progress in this direction. + + + + +SPELLING + + +Cleveland has set apart an average amount of program time for +spelling. Possibly the study might more accurately be called +word-study, since it aims also at training for pronunciation, +syllabification, vocabulary extension, and etymology. Since much of +the reading time is given to similar word-study, the figures presented +in Table 4 are really too small to represent actual practice in +Cleveland. + + TABLE 4.--TIME GIVEN TO SPELLING + ======================================================== + | Hours per year | Per cent of grade time + |-----------------------|------------------------ + Grade | Cleveland | 50 cities | Cleveland | 50 cities + -------------------------------------------------------- + 1 | 47 | 54 | 6.5 | 6.3 + 2 | 63 | 66 | 7.2 | 7.3 + 3 | 79 | 73 | 9.0 | 8.0 + 4 | 63 | 67 | 7.1 | 6.9 + 5 | 51 | 61 | 5.7 | 6.3 + 6 | 47 | 58 | 5.4 | 5.9 + 7 | 47 | 52 | 5.4 | 5.3 + 8 | 47 | 51 | 5.4 | 5.1 + ======================================================== + Total | 444 | 482 | 6.5 | 6.4 + -------------------------------------------------------- + +The general plan of the course is indicated in the syllabus: + +"Two words are made prominent in each lesson. Their pronunciation, +division into syllables, derivation, phonetic properties, oral and +written spelling and meaning, are all to be made clear to pupils. + +"The teaching of a new word may be done by using it in a sentence; +by definition or description; by giving a synonym or the antonym; by +illustration with object, action or drawing; and by etymology. + +"Each lesson should have also from eight to 20 subordinate words taken +from textbook or composition exercises.... Frequent supplementary +dictation, word-building and phonic exercises should be given. +Spell much orally.... Teach a little daily, test thoroughly, drill +intensively, and follow up words misspelled persistently." + +In most respects the work agrees with the usual practice in +progressive cities: the teaching of a few words in each lesson; the +frequent and continuous review of words already taught; taking +the words to be taught from the language experience of the pupils; +following up words actually misspelled; studying the words from many +angles, etc. + +In some respects the work needs further modernization. The words +chosen for the work are not always the ones most needed. Whether +children or adults, people need to spell only when they write. They +need to spell correctly the words of their writing vocabulary, and +they need to spell no others. More important still, they need to +acquire the habit of watching their spelling as they write; the habit +of spelling every word with certainty that it is correct, and the +habit of going to word-lists or dictionary when there is any doubt. + +This development of the habit of watchfulness over their spelling as +they write is the principal thing. One who has it will always spell +well. In case he has much writing to do, it automatically leads to +a constant renewing of his memory for words used and prevents +forgetting. The one who has only memorized word-lists, even though +they have been rigorously drilled, inevitably forgets, whether +rapidly or slowly; and in proportion as he lacks this general habit of +watchfulness, degenerates in his spelling. The reason why schools +fail to overcome the frequent criticism that young people do not +spell well, is because of the fact that they have been trying to +teach specific words rather than to develop a general and constant +watchfulness. + +The fundamental training in spelling is accomplished in connection +with composition, letter-writing, etc. Direct word-list study should +have only a secondary and supplemental place. It is needed, first, for +making people conscious of the letter elements of words which are seen +as wholes in their reading, and for bringing them to look closely +into the relations of these letter elements; second, for developing +a preliminary understanding of the spelling of words used; and third, +for drill upon words commonly misspelled. While a necessary portion of +the entire process, it probably should not require so much time as is +now given to it and the time saved should be devoted to the major task +of teaching spelling watchfulness in connection with writing letters +and compositions. + +The great majority of the population of Cleveland will spell only as +they write letters, receipts, and simple memoranda. They do not need +to spell a wide vocabulary with complete accuracy. On the other hand, +there are classes of people to whom a high degree of spelling accuracy +covering a fairly wide vocabulary is an indispensable vocational +necessity: clerks, copyists, stenographers, correspondents, +compositors, proof-readers, etc. These people need an intensive +specialized training in spelling that is not needed by the mass of the +population. Such specialized vocational training should be taken care +of by the Cleveland schools, but it should not be forced upon all +simply because the few need it. The attempt to bring all to the high +level needed by the few, and the failure to reach this level, is +responsible for the justifiable criticism of the schools that those +few who need to spell unusually well are imperfectly trained. + +The spelling practice should continue through the high school. It +is only necessary for teachers to refuse to accept written work that +contains any misspelled word to force upon students the habit of +watchfulness over every word written. The High School of Commerce +is to be commended for making spelling a required portion of the +training. The course needs to be more closely knit with composition +and business letter-writing. + + + + +HANDWRITING + + +Cleveland gives a considerably larger proportion of time to +handwriting than the average of the 50 cities. + + TABLE 5.--TIME GIVEN TO HANDWRITING + ======================================================== + | Hours per year | Per cent of grade time + |-----------------------|------------------------ + Grade | Cleveland | 50 cities | Cleveland | 50 cities + -------------------------------------------------------- + 1 | 47 | 50 | 6.5 | 6.7 + 2 | 63 | 60 | 7.2 | 6.7 + 3 | 63 | 52 | 7.2 | 5.7 + 4 | 63 | 53 | 7.2 | 5.5 + 5 | 67 | 50 | 6.4 | 5.1 + 6 | 47 | 47 | 5.4 | 4.8 + 7 | 47 | 39 | 5.4 | 3.9 + 8 | 32 | 37 | 3.6 | 3.7 + ======================================================== + Total | 419 | 388 | 6.1 | 5.1 + -------------------------------------------------------- + +The curriculum of handwriting resolves itself mainly into questions of +method, and of standards to be achieved in each of the grades. These +matters are treated intensively in the section of the survey report +entitled "Measuring the Work of the Public Schools." + + + + +LANGUAGE, COMPOSITION, GRAMMAR + + +The schools devote about the usual amount of time to training for the +correct use of the mother tongue. Most of the time in intermediate +and grammar grades is devoted to English grammar. Composition receives +only minor attention. + + TABLE 6.--TIME GIVEN TO LANGUAGE, COMPOSITION, AND GRAMMAR + ======================================================== + | Hours per year | Per cent of grade time + |-----------------------|------------------------ + Grade | Cleveland | 50 cities | Cleveland | 50 cities + -------------------------------------------------------- + 1 | 79 | 75 | 10.9 | 8.6 + 2 | 95 | 79 | 10.8 | 8.7 + 3 | 79 | 94 | 9.0 | 10.3 + 4 | 104 | 106 | 11.8 | 10.9 + 5 | 120 | 116 | 13.6 | 12.0 + 6 | 120 | 118 | 13.6 | 12.2 + 7 | 125 | 134 | 14.3 | 13.7 + 8 | 125 | 142 | 14.3 | 14.1 + ======================================================== + Total | 847 | 864 | 12.3 | 11.4 + -------------------------------------------------------- + +In the teaching of grammar too much stress is placed on forms and +relations. Of course it is expected that this knowledge will be of +service to the pupils in their everyday expression. But such practical +application of the knowledge is not the thing toward which the work +actually looks. The end really achieved is rather the ability to +recite well on textbook grammar, and to pass good examinations in the +subject. In classes visited the thing attempted was being done in a +relatively effective way. And when judged in the light of the kind +of education considered best 20 years ago, the work is of a superior +character. + +As a matter of fact, facility in oral and written expression is, like +everything else, mainly developed through much practice. The form and +style of expression are perfected mainly through the conscious and +unconscious imitation of good models. Technical grammar plays, or +should play, the relatively minor role of assisting students to +eliminate and to avoid certain types of error. Since grammar has this +perfectly practical function to perform, probably only those things +needed should be taught; but more important still, everything taught +should be constantly put to use by the pupils in their oversight of +their own speech and writing. Only as knowledge is put to work, is it +really learned or assimilated. The schools should require much oral +and written expression of the pupils, and should enforce constant +watchfulness of their own speech on the part of the pupils. It is +possible to require pupils to go over all of their written work and to +examine it, before handing it in, in the light of all the grammatical +rules they have learned. It is also possible for pupils to guard +consciously against known types of error which they are accustomed to +make in their oral recitations. Every recitation in whatever subject +provides opportunity for such training in habits of watchfulness. Only +as the pupil is brought to do it himself, without prompting on the +part of the teacher, is his education accomplished. + +A limited amount of systematic grammatical teaching is a necessary +preliminary step. The purpose is an introductory acquaintance with +certain basic forms, terminology, relationships, and grammatical +perspective. This should be accomplished rapidly. Like the preliminary +survey in any field, this stage of the work will be relatively +superficial. Fullness and depth of understanding will come with +application. This preliminary understanding can not be learned +"incidentally." Such a plan fails on the side of perspective and +relationship, which are precisely the things in which the preparatory +teaching of the subject should be strong. + +This preliminary training in technical grammar need not be either +so extensive or so intensive as it is at present. An altogether +disproportionate amount of time is now given to it. The time saved +ought to go to oral and written expression,--composition, we might +call it, except that the word has been spoiled because of the +artificiality of the exercises. + +The composition or expression most to be recommended consists of +reports on the supplementary reading in connection with history, +geography, industrial studies, civics, sanitation, etc.; and reports +of observations on related matters in the community. Topics of +interest and of value are practically numberless. Such reports will +usually be oral; but often they will be written. Expression occurs +naturally and normally only where there is something to be discussed. +The present manual suggests compositions based upon "changes in trees, +dissemination of seeds, migration of birds, snow, ice, clouds, trees, +leaves, and flowers." This type of composition program under present +conditions cannot be a vital one. Elementary science is not taught in +the schools of Cleveland; and so the subject matter of these topics is +not developed. Further, it is the world of human action, revealed +in history, geography, travels, accounts of industry, commerce, +manufacture, transportation, etc., that possesses the greater value +for the purposes of education, as well as far greater interest for the +student. + +Probably little time should be set apart on the program for +composition. The expression side of all the school work, both in the +elementary school and in the high school, should be used to give the +necessary practice. The technical matters needed can be taught in +occasional periods set aside for that specific purpose. + +The isolation of the composition work continues through the academic +high schools and in considerable degree through the technical high +schools also. In the high schools the expression work probably needs +to be developed chiefly in the classes in science, history, industrial +studies, commercial and industrial geography, physics, etc., where the +students have an abundance of things to discuss. Probably four-fifths +of all of the training in English expression in the high schools +should be accomplished in connection with the oral and written work of +the other subjects. + + + + +MATHEMATICS + + +To arithmetic, the Cleveland schools are devoting a somewhat larger +proportion of time than the average of cities. + + TABLE 7.--TIME GIVEN TO ARITHMETIC + =========================================================== + | Hours per year | Per cent of grade time| + Grade |----------------------------------------------- + | Cleveland | 50 cities| Cleveland | 50 cities | + ----------------------------------------------------------- + 1 | 38 | 60 | 5.2 | 6.9 | + 2 | 136 | 96 | 15.5 | 10.7 | + 3 | 142 | 131 | 16.3 | 14.4 | + 4 | 152 | 149 | 17.2 | 15.4 | + 5 | 142 | 144 | 17.1 | 14.9 | + 6 | 155 | 146 | 17.5 | 15.0 | + 7 | 142 | 140 | 16.1 | 14.4 | + 8 | 158 | 142 | 17.9 | 14.1 | + =========================================================== + Total | 1065 | 1008 | 15.5 | 13.3 | + ----------------------------------------------------------- + +That everybody should be well grounded in the fundamental operations +of arithmetic is so obvious as to require no discussion. Beyond this +point, however, difficult problems arise. The probabilities are that +the social and vocational conditions of the coming generation will +require that everybody be more mathematical-minded than at present. + +The content of mathematics courses is to be determined by human needs. +One of the fundamental needs of the age upon which we are now entering +is accurate quantitative thinking in the fields of one's vocation, in +the supervision of our many co-operative governmental labors, in our +economic thinking with reference to taxation, expenditures, insurance, +public utilities, civic improvements, pensions, corporations, and the +multitude of other civic and vocational matters. + +Just as the thought involved in physics, astronomy, or engineering +needs to be put in mathematical terms in order that it may be used +effectively, so must it be with effective vocational, civic, and +economic thinking in general. Our chief need is not so much the +ability to do calculations as it is the ability to think in +figures and the habit of thinking in figures. Calculations, while +indispensable, are incidental to more important matters. + +Naturally before one is prepared to use mathematical forms of thought +in considering the many social and vocational problems, he must have +mastered the fundamentals. The elementary school, at as early an +age as practicable, should certainly give the necessary preliminary +knowledge of and practice in the fundamental operations of arithmetic. +This should be done with a high degree of thoroughness, but it should +always be kept in mind that this is only a preliminary mastery of the +alphabet of mathematical thinking. The other part of our problem is a +development of the quantitative aspects of the vocational, economic, +and civic subjects. One finds clear recognition of this in Cleveland +in the new arithmetic manual. The following quotations are typical: + +"The important problem of the seventh and eighth grades is to +enable the pupils to understand and deal intelligently with the most +important social institutions with which arithmetical processes are +associated." + +In discussing the teaching of the mathematical aspect of insurance, we +find this statement: "Owing to the important place this subject holds +in life, we should emphasize its informational value rather than its +mathematical content." + +Under taxation and revenue: "If the general features of this subject +are presented from the standpoint of civics, the pupils should have no +difficulty in solving the problems as no new principle is introduced." + +Under stocks and bonds: "Pupils should be taught to know what a +corporation is, its chief officers, how it is organized, what stocks +and bonds are, and how dividends are declared and paid, in so far as +such knowledge is needed by the general public." + +These statements indicate a recognition of the most important +principle that should control in the development of all of the +mathematics, elementary and secondary, beyond the preliminary training +needed for accuracy and rapidity in the fundamental operations. + +When this principle is carried through to its logical conclusion, it +will be observed that most of these developments will not take place +within the arithmetic class, but in the various other subjects. +Arithmetic teaching, like the teaching of penmanship, etc., is for +the purpose of giving tools that are to be used in matters that lie +beyond. The full development will take place within these various +other fields. For the present, it probably will be well for the +schools to develop the matters both within the arithmetic classes and +in the other classes. Neither being complete at present, each will +tend to complete the other. + +On the side of the preliminary training in the fundamental operations, +the present arithmetic course of study is on the whole of a superior +character. It provides for much drill, and for a great variety of +drill. It emphasizes rapidity, accuracy, and the confidence that +comes to pupils from checking up their results. It holds fast to +fundamentals, dispensing with most of the things of little practical +use. It provides easy advances from the simple to the complicated. The +field of number is explored in a great variety of directions so that +pupils are made to feel at home in the subject. One large defect is +the lack of printed exercise materials, the use of which would result +in greatly increased effectiveness. Such printed materials ought to be +furnished in great abundance. + + +ALGEBRA + +In the report of the Educational Commission of Cleveland, 1906, we +find the following very significant sentences relative to the course +of study for the proposed high school of commerce: + +"An entirely new course of study should be made out for this school. +Subjects which have been considered necessary in a high school, +because they tend to develop the mind, should not for this reason only +be placed in a commercial course. Subjects should not be given because +they strengthen the mind, but the subjects which are necessary in this +course should be given in such a way as to strengthen the mind. The +mathematics in this school should consist of business arithmetic and +mensuration. We can see no reason for giving these students either +algebra or geometry. But they should be taught short and practical +methods of working business problems." + +We find here a recommendation since carried out that indicates a clear +recognition of the principle of adaptation of the course of study to +actual needs. Carried out to its logical conclusion, and applied to +the entire city system, it raises questions as to the advisability of +requiring algebra of girls in any of the high school courses; or of +requiring it of that large number of boys looking forward to vocations +that do not involve the generalized mathematics of algebra. Now either +the commercial students do need algebra or a large proportion of these +others do not need it. It seems advisable here to do nothing more than +to present the question as one which the city needs to investigate. +The present practice, in Cleveland as elsewhere, reveals +inconsistency. In one or the other of the schools a wrong course is +probably being followed. The current tendency in public education +is toward agreement with the principle enunciated by the Cleveland +Educational Commission, and toward a growing and consistent +application of it. + +Differentiation in the mathematics of different classes of pupils is +necessary. The public schools ought to give the same mathematics to +all up to that level where the need is common to all. Beyond that +point, mathematics needs to be adapted to the probable future +activities of the individual. There are those who will need to reach +the higher levels of mathematical ability. Others will have no such +need. + +There is a growing belief that even for those who are in need of +algebra the subject is not at present organized in desirable ways. It +is thought that, on the one hand, it should be knit up in far larger +measure with practical matters, and on the other, it should be +developed in connection with geometry and trigonometry. The technical +high schools of Cleveland have adopted this form of organization. +Their mathematics is probably greatly in advance of that of the +academic schools. + + + +GEOMETRY + +Form study should begin in the kindergarten, and it should develop +through the grades and high school in ways similar to the arithmetic, +and in conjunction with the arithmetic, drawing, and construction +work. Since geometrical forms involve numerical relations, they supply +good materials to use in making number relations concrete and clear. +This is now done in developing ideas of fractions, multiplication, +division, ratio, per cent, etc. It should be done much more fully and +variously than at present and for the double purpose of practising +the form-ideas as well as the number-ideas. Arithmetic study and +form-study can well grow up together, gradually merging into the +combined algebra and geometry so far as students need to reach the +higher levels of mathematical generalization. + +At the same time that this is being developed in the mathematics +classes, development should also be going on in the classes of +drawing, design, and construction. The alphabet of form-study will +thus be taught in several of the studies. The application will be +made in practical design, in mechanical and free-hand drawing, +in constructive labor, in the graphical representation of social, +economic, and other facts of life. The application comes not so much +in the development of practical problems in the mathematics classes as +in the development of the form aspect of those other activities that +involve form. + +We have here pointed to what appears to be in progressive schools +a growing program of work. Everywhere it is yet somewhat vague +and inchoate. In connection with the arithmetic, the drawing, the +construction and art work, and the mathematics of the technical high +schools, it appears to be developing in Cleveland in a vigorous and +healthy manner. + + + + +HISTORY + + +The curriculum makers for elementary education do not seem to have +placed a high valuation upon history. Apparently it has not been +considered an essential study of high worth, like reading, writing, +spelling, grammar, and arithmetic. To history are allotted but +290 hours in Cleveland, as against 496 hours in the average of 50 +progressive American cities. This discrepancy should give the city +pause and concern. If a mistake is being made, it is more likely to +be on the part of an individual city than upon that of 50 cities. +The probability is that Cleveland is giving too little time to this +subject. + + TABLE 8.--TIME GIVEN TO HISTORY + =========================================================== + | Hours per year | Per cent of grade time| + Grade |----------------------------------------------- + | Cleveland | 50 cities| Cleveland | 50 cities | + ----------------------------------------------------------- + 1 | 0 | 27 | 0.0 | 3.1 | + 2 | 0 | 31 | 0.0 | 3.4 | + 3 | 19 | 35 | 2.1 | 3.8 | + 4 | 25 | 57 | 2.9 | 5.8 | + 5 | 25 | 67 | 2.9 | 6.9 | + 6 | 51 | 71 | 5.7 | 7.3 | + 7 | 85 | 91 | 9.7 | 9.2 | + 8 | 85 | 117 | 9.7 | 11.6 | + =========================================================== + Total | 290 | 496 | 4.2 | 6.5 | + ----------------------------------------------------------- + +The treatment in the course of study manual indicates that it is a +neglected subject. Of the 108 pages, it receives an aggregate of less +than two. The perfunctory assignment of work for the seventh grade is +typical: + +"UNITED STATES HISTORY + + "B Assignment. + Mace's History, pp. 1-124 inclusive. + Questions and suggested collateral reading + found in Appendix may be used as teacher directs. + + "A Assignment. + Mace's History, pp. 125-197. + Make use of questions and suggested collateral + reading at your own option." + +For fifth and sixth grades there is assigned a small history text +of 200 pages for one or two lessons per week. The two years of the +seventh and eighth grades are devoted to the mastery of about 500 +pages of text. While there is incidental reference to collateral +reading, as a matter of fact the schools are not supplied with the +necessary materials for this collateral reading in the grammar +grades. The true character of the work is really indicated by the last +sentence of the eighth-grade history assignment: "The text of our book +should be thoroughly mastered." + +In discussing the situation, the first thing to which we must call +attention is the great value of history for an understanding of the +multitude of complicated social problems met with by all people in a +democracy. In a country where all people are the rulers, all need a +good understanding of the social, political, economic, industrial, and +other problems with which we are continually confronted. It is true +the thing needed is an understanding of present conditions, but there +is no better key to a right understanding of our present conditions +than history furnishes. One comes to understand a present situation by +observing how it has come to be. History is one of the most important +methods of social analysis. + +The history should be so taught that it will have a demonstrably +practical purpose. In drawing up courses of study in the subject for +the grammar grades and the high school, the first task should be an +analysis of present-day social conditions, the proper understanding of +which requires historical background. Once having discovered the list +of social topics, it is possible to find historical readings which +will show how present conditions have grown up out of earlier ones. +Looked at from a practical point of view, the history should be +developed on the basis of topics, a great abundance of reading being +provided for each of the topics. We have in mind such topics as the +following: + + Sociological Aspects of War + Territorial Expansion + Race Problems + Tariff and Free Trade + Transportation + Money Systems + Our Insular Possessions + Growth of Population + Trusts + Banks and Banking + Immigration + Capital and Labor + Education + Inventions + Suffrage + Centralization of Government + Strikes and Lockouts + Panics and Business Depressions + Commerce + Taxation + Manufacturing + Labor Unions + Foreign Commerce + Agriculture + Postal Service + Army + Government Control of Corporations + Municipal Government + Navy + Factory Labor + Wages + Courts of Law + Charities + Crime + Fire Protection + Roads and Road Transportation + Newspapers and Magazines + National Defense + Conservation of Natural Resources + Liquor Problems + Parks and Playgrounds + Housing Conditions + Mining + Health, Sanitation, etc. + Pensions + Unemployment + Child Labor + Women in Industry + Cost of Living + Pure Food Control + Savings Banks + Water Supply of Cities + Prisons + Recreations and Amusements + Co-operative Buying and Selling + Insurance + Hospitals + +After drawing up such lists of topics for study, they should be +assigned to grammar grades and high school according to the degree +of maturity necessary for their comprehension. Naturally as much as +possible should be covered in the grammar grades. Such as cannot be +covered there should be covered as early as practicable in the high +school, since so large a number of students drop out, and all need +the work. Of course, this would involve a radical revision of the high +school courses in history. It is not here recommended that any such +changes be attempted abruptly. There are too many other conditions +that require readjustment at the same time. It must all be a gradual +growth. + +Naturally, students must have some familiarity with the general +time relations of history and the general chronological movements +of affairs before they can understand the more or less specialized +treatment of individual topics. Preliminary studies are therefore both +necessary and desirable in the intermediate and grammar grades for the +purpose of giving the general background. During these grades a great +wealth of historical materials should be stored up. Pupils should +acquire much familiarity with the history of the ancient oriental +nations, Judea, Greece, Rome, the states of modern Europe and America. +The purpose should be to give a general, and in the beginning a +relatively superficial, overview of the world's history for the +sake of perspective. The reading should be biographical, anecdotal, +thrilling dramas of human achievement, rich with human interest. +It should be at every stage of the work on the level with the +understanding and degree of maturity of the pupils, so that much +reading can be covered rapidly. Given the proper conditions--chiefly +an abundance of the proper books supplied in sets large enough for +classes--pupils can cover a large amount of ground, obtain a wealth +of historical experience, and acquire a great quantity of useful +information, the main outlines of which are remembered without much +difficulty. They can in this manner lay a broad historical foundation +for the study of the social topics that should begin by the seventh +grade and continue throughout the high school. + +The textbooks of the present type can be employed as a part of this +preliminary training. Read in their entirety and read rapidly, they +give one that perspective which comes from a comprehensive view of the +entire field. But they are too brief, abstract, and barren to afford +valuable concrete historical experience. They are excellent reference +books for gaining and keeping historical perspective. + +Reading of the character that we have here called preliminary should +not cease as the other historical studies are taken up. The general +studies should certainly continue for some portion of the time through +the grammar grades and high school, but it probably should be mainly +supervised reading of interesting materials rather than recitation and +examination work. + +We would recommend that the high schools give careful attention to the +recommendation of the National Education Association Committee on the +Reorganization of the Secondary Course of Study in History. + + + + +CIVICS + + +Civic training scarcely finds a place upon the elementary school +program. The manual suggests that one-quarter of the history time--10 +to 20 minutes per week--in the fifth and sixth grades should be given +to a discussion of such civic topics as the department of public +service, street cleaning, garbage disposal, health and sanitation, the +city water supply, the mayor and the council, the treasurer, and the +auditor. The topics are important, but the time allowed is inadequate +and the pupils of these grades are so immature that no final treatment +of such complicated matters is possible. For seventh and eighth +grades, the manual makes no reference to civics. This is the more +surprising because Cleveland is a city in which there has been no +end of civic discussion and progressive human-welfare effort. The +extraordinary value of civic education in the elementary school, as a +means of furthering civic welfare, should have received more decided +recognition. + +The elementary teachers and principals of Cleveland might profitably +make such a civic survey as that made in Cincinnati as the method of +discovering the topics that should enter into a grammar grade course. +The heavy emphasis upon this subject should be reserved for the later +grades of the elementary school. + +In the high schools, a little is being accomplished. In the academic +high schools, those who take the classical course receive no civics +whatever. It is not even elective for them. Those who take the +scientific or English courses may take civics as a half-year elective. +In the technical high schools it is required of all for a half-year. +The course is offered only in the senior year, except in the High +School of Commerce, where it is offered in the third. As a result of +these various circumstances, the majority of students who enter and +complete the course in the high schools of Cleveland receive no civic +training whatever--not even the inadequate half-year of work that is +available for a few. + +Whether the deficiencies here pointed out are serious or not depends +in large measure upon the character of the other social subjects, such +as history and geography. If these are developed in full and concrete +ways, they illumine large numbers of our difficult social problems. +It is probable that the larger part of the informational portions of +civic training should be imparted through these other social subjects. +Whether very much of this is actually done at present is doubtful; +for the history teaching, as has already been noted, is much +underdeveloped, and while somewhat further advanced, geography work is +still far from adequate at the time this report is written. + + + + +GEOGRAPHY + + +Geography in Cleveland is given the customary amount of time, though +it is distributed over the grades in a somewhat unusual way. It is +exceptionally heavy in the intermediate grades and correspondingly +light in the grammar grades. As geography, like all other subjects, +is more and more humanized and socialized in its reference, much more +time will be called for in the last two grammar grades. + + TABLE 9.---TIME GIVEN TO GEOGRAPHY + =========================================================== + | Hours per year | Per cent of grade time| + Grade |----------------------------------------------- + | Cleveland | 50 cities| Cleveland | 50 cities | + ----------------------------------------------------------- + 1 | 0 | 16 | 0.0 | 1.8 | + 2 | 0 | 7 | 0.0 | 0.8 | + 3 | 28 | 50 | 3.2 | 5.4 | + 4 | 101 | 83 | 11.4 | 8.5 | + 5 | 125 | 102 | 14.3 | 11.2 | + 6 | 125 | 107 | 14.3 | 11.0 | + 7 | 57 | 98 | 6.4 | 9.9 | + 8 | 57 | 76 | 6.4 | 7.6 | + =========================================================== + Total | 493 | 539 | 7.2 | 7.1 | + ----------------------------------------------------------- + +As laid out in the manual now superseded, and as observed in the +regular classrooms, the work has been forbiddingly formal. In the +main it has consisted of the teacher assigning to the pupils a certain +number of paragraphs or pages in the textbook as the next lesson, and +then questioning them next day to ascertain how much of this printed +material they have remembered and how well. It has not consisted +of stimulating and guiding the children toward intelligent +inquisitiveness and inquiring interest as to the world, and the skies +above, and waters round about, and the conditions of nature that limit +and shape the development of mankind. + +That the latter is the proper end of geographical teaching is being +recognized in developing the new course of study in this subject. +Industries, commerce, agriculture, and modes of living are becoming +the centers about which geographic thought and experience are +gathered. The best work now being done here is thoroughly modern. +Unfortunately it is not yet great in amount in even the best of the +schools, still less in the majority. But the direction of progress is +unmistakable and unquestionably correct. + +As in the reading, so in geography, right development of the course of +study must depend in large measure upon the material equipment that is +at the same time provided. It sounds like a legitimate evasion to +say that education is a spiritual process, and that good teachers +and willing, obedient, and industrious pupils are about all that is +required. As a matter of fact, just as modern business has found it +necessary to install one-hundred-dollar typewriters to take the place +of the penny quill pens, so must education, to be efficient, develop +and employ the elaborate tools needed by new and complex modern +conditions, and set aside the tools that were adequate in a simpler +age. The proper teaching of geography requires an abundance of reading +materials of the type that will permit pupils to enter vividly into +the varied experience of all classes of people in all parts of the +world. In the supplementary books now furnished the schools, only +a beginning has been made. The schools need 10 times as much +geographical reading as that now found in the best equipped school. + +It would be well to drop the term "supplementary." This reading should +be the basic geographic experience, the fundamental instrument of +the teaching. All else is supplementary. The textbook then becomes +a reference book of maps, charts, summaries, and a treatment for +the sake of perspective. Maps, globes, pictures, stereoscopes, +stereopticon, moving-picture machine, models, diagrams, and museum +materials, are all for the purpose of developing ideas and imagery of +details. The reading should become and remain fundamental and central. +The quantity required is so great as to make it necessary for the city +to furnish the books. While the various other things enumerated are +necessary for complete effectiveness, many of them could well wait +until the reading materials are sufficiently supplied. + +In the high schools the clear tendency is to introduce more of the +industrial and commercial geography and to diminish the time given to +the less valuable physiography. The development is not yet vigorous. +The high school geography departments, so far as observed, have not +yet altogether attained the social point of view. But they are moving +in that direction. On the one hand, they now need stimulation; and +on the other, to be supplied with the more advanced kinds of such +material equipment as already suggested for the elementary schools. + + + + +DRAWING AND APPLIED ART + + +The elementary schools are giving the usual proportion of time to +drawing and applied art. The time is distributed, however, in a +somewhat unusual, but probably justifiable, manner. Whereas the +subject usually receives more time in the primary grades than in the +grammar grades, in Cleveland, in quite the reverse way, the subject +receives its greatest emphasis in the higher grades. + + TABLE 10.--TIME GIVEN TO DRAWING + =========================================================== + | Hours per year | Per cent of grade time| + Grade |----------------------------------------------- + | Cleveland | 50 cities| Cleveland | 50 cities | + ----------------------------------------------------------- + 1 | 47 | 98 | 6.5 | 11.3 | + 2 | 47 | 54 | 5.3 | 6.0 | + 3 | 47 | 56 | 5.3 | 6.2 | + 4 | 47 | 53 | 5.3 | 5.5 | + 5 | 57 | 50 | 6.4 | 5.2 | + 6 | 57 | 50 | 6.4 | 5.1 | + 7 | 57 | 50 | 6.4 | 5.0 | + 8 | 57 | 49 | 6.4 | 4.9 | + =========================================================== + Total | 416 | 460 | 6.1 | 6.1 | + ----------------------------------------------------------- + +Drawing has been taught in Cleveland as a regular portion of the +curriculum since 1849. It has therefore had time for substantial +growth; and it appears to have been successful. Recent developments +in the main have been wholesome and in line with best modern progress. +The course throughout attempts to develop an understanding and +appreciation of the principles of graphic art plus ability to use +these principles through practical application in constructive +activities of an endlessly varied sort. + +Occasionally the work appears falsetto and even sentimental. It +is often applied in artificial schoolroom ways to things without +significance. General grade teachers cannot be specialists in +the multiplicity of things demanded of them; it is not therefore +surprising that they sometimes lack skill, insight, ingenuity, and +resourcefulness. Too often the teachers do not realize that the study +of drawing and design is for the serious purpose of giving to pupils a +language and form of thought of the greatest practical significance +in our present age. The result is a not infrequent use of schoolroom +exercises that do not greatly aid the pupils as they enter the busy +world of practical affairs. + +These shortcomings indicate incompleteness in the development. Where +the teaching is at its best in both the elementary and high schools +of Cleveland, the work exhibits balanced understanding and complete +modernness. The thing needed is further expansion of the best, and the +extension of this type of work through specially trained departmental +teachers to all parts of the city. + +There should be a larger amount of active co-operation between the +teachers of art and design and the teachers of manual training; also +between both sets of teachers and the general community. + + + + +MANUAL TRAINING AND HOUSEHOLD ARTS + + +In the grammar grades manual and household training receives an +average proportion of the time. In the grades before the seventh, the +subject receives considerably less than the usual amount of time. + + TABLE 11.--TIME GIVEN TO MANUAL TRAINING + ======+=======================+======================== + | Hours per year | Per cent of grade time + Grade +-----------+-----------+-----------+------------ + | Cleveland | 50 cities | Cleveland | 50 cities + ------+-----------+-----------+-----------+------------ + 1 | 32 | 42 | 4.3 | 4.8 + 2 | 32 | 47 | 3.5 | 5.1 + 3 | 32 | 40 | 3.5 | 4.5 + 4 | 32 | 45 | 3.5 | 4.6 + 5 | 38 | 50 | 4.3 | 5.2 + 6 | 38 | 57 | 4.3 | 5.8 + 7 | 63 | 72 | 7.1 | 7.1 + 8 | 63 | 74 | 7.1 | 7.4 + ------+-----------+-----------+-----------+------------ + Total | 330 | 427 | 4.8 | 5.6 + ------+-----------+-----------+-----------+------------ + +It is easy to see the social and educational justification of courses +in sewing, cooking, household sanitation, household decoration, etc., +for the girls. They assist in the training for complicated vocational +activities performed in some degree at least by most women. Where +women are so situated that they do not actually perform them, they +need, for properly supervising others and for making intelligible and +appreciative use of the labors of others, a considerable understanding +of these various matters. + +Where this work for girls is at its best in Cleveland, it appears to +be of a superior character. Those who are in charge of the best are in +a position to advise as to further extensions and developments. It +is not difficult to discern certain of these. It would appear, for +example, that sewing should find some place at least in the work of +seventh and eighth grades. The girl who does not go on to high school +is greatly in need of more advanced training in sewing than can be +given in the sixth grade. Each building having a household arts +room should possess a sewing machine or two, at the very least. The +academic high schools are now planning to offer courses in domestic +science. As in the technical high schools, all of this work should +involve as large a degree of normal responsibility as possible. + +We omit discussion here of the specialized vocational training of +women, since this is handled in other reports of the Survey. + +When we turn to the manual training of the boys, we are confronted +with problems of much greater difficulty. Women's household +occupations, so far as retained in the home, are unspecialized. Each +well-trained household worker does or supervises much the same range +of things as every other. To give the entire range of household +occupations to all girls is a simple and logical arrangement. + +But man's labor is greatly specialized throughout. There is no large +remnant of unspecialized labor common to all, as in the case of women. +To all girls we give simply this unspecialized remnant, since it is +large and important. But in the case of men the unspecialized field +has disappeared. There is nothing of labor to give to boys except that +which has become specialized. + +A fundamental problem arises. Shall we give boys access to a variety +of specialized occupations so that they may become acquainted, through +responsible performance, with the wide and diversified field of man's +labor? Or shall we give them some less specialized sample out of +that diversified field so that they may obtain, through contact and +experience, some knowledge of the things that make up the world of +productive labor? + +Cleveland's reply, to judge from actual practices, is that a single +sample will be sufficient for all except those who attend technical +and special schools. The city has therefore chosen joinery and +cabinet-making as this sample. In the fifth and sixth grades work +begins in simple knife-work for an hour a week under the direction of +women teachers. In the seventh and eighth grades it becomes benchwork +for an hour and a half per week, and is taught by a special manual +training teacher, always a man. In the academic high schools the +courses in joinery and cabinet-making bring the pupils to greater +proficiency, but do not greatly extend the course in width. + +Much of this work is of a rather formal character, apparently looking +toward that manual discipline formerly called "training of eye and +hand," instead of consciously answering to the demands of social +purposes. The regular teachers look upon the fifth and sixth grade +sloyd[*sic] which they teach with no great enthusiasm. Seventh and +eighth grade teachers do not greatly value the work. + +The household arts courses for the girls have social purposes in view. +As a result they are kept vitalized, and are growing increasingly +vital in the work of the city. Is it not possible also to vitalize the +manual training of the boys--unspecialized pre-vocational training, we +ought to call it--by giving it social purpose? + +The principal of one of the academic high schools emphasized in +conversation the value of manual training for vocational guidance--a +social purpose. It permitted boys, he said, to try themselves out +and to find their vocational tastes and aptitudes. The purpose is +undoubtedly a valid one. The limitation of the method is that joinery +and cabinet-making cannot help a boy to try himself out for metal +work, printing, gardening, tailoring, or commercial work. + +If vocational guidance is to be a controlling social purpose, the +manual training work will have to be made more diversified so that +one can try out his tastes and abilities in a number of lines. And, +moreover, each kind of work must be kept as much like responsible work +out in the world as possible. In keeping work normal, the main thing +is that the pupils bear actual responsibility for the doing of actual +work. This is rather difficult to arrange; but it is necessary before +the activities can be lifted above the level of the usual manual +training shop. The earliest stages of the training will naturally be +upon what is little more than a play level. It is well for schools to +give free rein to the constructive instinct and to provide the fullest +and widest possible opportunities for its exercise. But if boys are +to try out their aptitudes for work and their ability to bear +responsibility in work, then they must try themselves out on the +work level. Let the manual training actually look toward vocational +guidance; the social purpose involved will vitalize the work. + +There is a still more comprehensive social purpose which the city +should consider. Owing to the interdependence of human affairs, men +need to be broadly informed as to the great world of productive +labor. Most of our civic and social problems are at bottom industrial +problems. Just as we use industrial history and industrial geography +as means of giving youth a wide vision of the fields of man's work, +so must we also use actual practical activities as means of making +him familiar in a concrete way with materials and processes in +their details, with the nature of work, and with the nature of +responsibility. On the play level, therefore, constructive activities +should be richly diversified. This diversity of opportunity should +continue to the work level. One cannot really know the nature of work +or of work responsibility except as it is learned through experience. +Let the manual training adopt the social purpose here mentioned, +provide the opportunities, means, and processes that it demands, and +the work will be wondrously vitalized. + +It is well to mention that the program suggested is a complicated +one on the side of its theory and a difficult one on the side of its +practice. In the planning it is well to look to the whole program. In +the work itself it is well to remember that one step at a time, and +that secure, is a good way to avoid stumbling. + +Printing and gardening are two things that might well be added to +the manual training program. Both are already in the schools in some +degree. They might well be considered as desirable portions of +the manual training of all. They lend themselves rather easily to +responsible performance on the work level. There are innumerable +things that a school can print for use in its work. In so doing, +pupils can be given something other than play. Also in the home +gardening, supervised for educational purposes, it is possible to +introduce normal work-motives. By the time the city has developed +these two things it will have at the same time developed the insight +necessary for attacking more difficult problems. + + + + +ELEMENTARY SCIENCE + + +This subject finds no place upon the program. No elaborate argument +should be required to convince the authorities in charge of the school +system of a modern city like Cleveland that in this ultra-scientific +age the children who do not go beyond the elementary school--and they +constitute a majority--need to possess a working knowledge of the +rudiments of science if they are to make their lives effective. + +The future citizens of Cleveland need to know something about +electricity, heat, expansion and contraction of gases and solids, the +mechanics of machines, distillation, common chemical reactions and a +host of other things about science that are bound to come up in the +day's work in their various activities. + +Considered from the practical standpoint of actual human needs, the +present almost complete neglect of elementary science is indefensible. +The minute amount of such teaching now introduced in the language +lessons for composition purposes is so small as to be almost +negligible. The topics are not chosen for their bearing upon human +needs. There is no laboratory work. + +Naturally much of the elementary science to be taught should be +introduced in connection with practical situations in kitchen, school +garden, shop, sanitation, etc. Certainly the applied science should +be as full as possible. But preliminary to this there ought to be +systematic presentation of the elements of various sciences in rapid +ways for overview and perspective. + +To try to teach the elements only "incidentally" as they are applied +is to fail to see them in their relations, and therefore to fail in +understanding them. Intensive studies by way of filling in the +details may well be in part incidental. But systematic superficial +introductory work is needed by way of giving pupils their bearings +in the various fields of science. The term "superficial" is used +advisedly. There is an introductory stage in the teaching of every +such subject when the work should be superficial and extensive. This +stage paves the way for depth and intensity, which must be reached +before education is accomplished. + + + + +HIGH SCHOOL SCIENCE + + +Having no elementary science in the grades, one naturally expects to +find in the high school a good introductory course in general science, +similar in organization to that suggested for the elementary stage. +But nowhere is there anything that even remotely suggests such a +course. Students who take the classical course get their first glimpse +of modern science in the third or fourth high school year, when they +have an opportunity to elect a course in physics or chemistry of the +usual traditional stamp. No opportunity is given them for so much as +a glimpse of the world's biological background. Those who take the +scientific or English course have access to physical geography and to +an anemic biological course entitled, "Physiology and Botany," which +few take. Students of the High School of Commerce have their first +contacts with modern science in a required course in chemistry in the +third year, and elective physics in the fourth year. In the technical +high schools the first science for the boys is systematic chemistry in +the second year and physics in the third. They have no opportunity +of contact with any biological science. The girls have "botany and +physiology" in their first year. + +The city needs to organize preliminary work in general science for the +purpose of paving the way to the more intensive science work of the +later years. A portion of this should be found in the elementary +school and taught by departmental science teachers; and a portion +in the first year of the high school. As junior high schools are +developed, most of this work should be included in their courses. + +As to the later organization of the work, the two technical high +schools clearly indicate the modern trend of relating the science +teaching to practical labors. What is needed is a wider expansion of +this phase of the work without losing sight of the need at the same +time for a systematic and general teaching of the sciences. It is a +difficult task to make the science teaching vital and modern for +the academic high schools, since they have so few contacts with the +practical labors of the world. Cleveland needs to see its schools +more as a part of the world of affairs, and not so much as a hothouse +nursery isolated from the world and its vital interests. + + + + +PHYSIOLOGY AND HYGIENE + + +Teaching in matters pertaining to health is given but a meagre amount +of time in the elementary schools. While the school program shows one +15-minute period each week in the first four grades, and one 30-minute +period each week in the four upper grades, it appears that in actual +practice the subject receives even less time than this. In the attempt +to observe the class work in physiology and hygiene, a member of the +Survey staff went on one day to four different classrooms at the hour +scheduled on the program. In two cases the time was given over to +grammar, in one to arithmetic, and in one to music. This represents +practice that is not unusual. The subject gets pushed off the program +by one of the so-called "essentials." It is difficult to see why +health-training is not an essential. In a letter to the School Board, +February 8, 1915, Superintendent Frederick wrote: + +"The teaching of physiology and hygiene should become a matter +of serious moment in our course of study. At present it is not +systematically presented in the elementary schools: and in the high +schools it is an elective study only in the senior year. My judgment +is that it should become a definite part of the program, as a required +study in the seventh and eighth grades." + +The small nominal amount of time as compared with the time usually +expended is partially shown in Table 12. Professor Holmes' figures for +the 50 cities include elementary science along with the physiology and +hygiene. + + TABLE 12.--TIME GIVEN TO SCIENCE, PHYSIOLOGY, HYGIENE + ======+=======================+======================== + | Hours per year | Per cent of grade time + Grade +-----------+-----------+-----------+------------ + | Cleveland | 50 cities | Cleveland | 50 cities + ------+-----------+-----------+-----------+------------ + 1 | 10 | 37 | 1.3 | 4.3 + 2 | 10 | 41 | 1.1 | 4.5 + 3 | 10 | 40 | 1.1 | 4.4 + 4 | 10 | 37 | 1.1 | 3.8 + 5 | 19 | 34 | 2.1 | 3.5 + 6 | 19 | 40 | 2.1 | 4.2 + 7 | 19 | 45 | 2.1 | 4.5 + 8 | 19 | 57 | 2.1 | 5.7 + ------+-----------+-----------+-----------+------------ + Total | 116 | 331 | 1.7 | 4.4 + ------+-----------+-----------+-----------+------------ + +In addition to the work of the regular teachers in this subject, a +certain amount of instruction is given by the school physicians and +nurses. In his report to the Board, 1913, Dr. Peterson writes: + +"Health instruction is given by doctors and nurses in personal talks +to pupils, talks to whole schools, tooth-brush drills conducted in +many schools, and in visits into the homes by the nurses. Conscious +effort is continually made by all doctors and nurses to inspire to +right living all of the children with whom they come in contact." + +Looking somewhat to the future, it can be affirmed that the school +physicians and nurses are the ones who ought to give the teaching in +this subject. After giving the preliminary ideas in the classrooms, +they alone are in position to follow up the various matters and see +that the ideas are assimilated through being put into practice both at +school and at home. At present, however, 16 physicians and 27 nurses +have 75,000 children to inspect, of whom more than half have defects +that require following up. It is a physical impossibility for them +to do much teaching until the force of school nurses is greatly +increased. + +For the present certain things may well be done: + +1. A course in hygiene and sanitation, based upon an abundance of +reading, should be drawn up and taught by the regular teachers in the +grammar school grades. This course should be looked upon as merely +preliminary to the more substantial portions of education in this +field. The physicians and nurses should select the readings +and supervise the course to see that the materials are covered +conscientiously and not slighted. + +2. The schools should arrange for practical applications of the +preparatory knowledge in as many ways as possible. Children in relays +can look after the ventilation, temperature, humidity, dust, light, +and other sanitary conditions of school-rooms and grounds. They can +make sanitary surveys of their home district; engage in anti-fly, +anti-mosquito, anti-dirt, and other campaigns; and report--for credit +possibly--practical sanitary and hygienic activities carried on +outside of school. Only as knowledge is put to work is it assimilated +and the prime purpose of education accomplished. + +3. The corps of school nurses should be gradually enlarged, and after +a time they can be given any needed training for teaching that will +enable them, as the work is departmentalized in the grammar grades, +to become departmental teachers in this subject for a portion of +their time. Their "follow-up" work will always give them their chief +educational opportunity; but to prepare for this the classwork must +give some systematized preparatory ideas. + +In the high schools, training of boys in hygiene and sanitation is +little developed. The only thing offered them is an elective half-year +course in physiology in the senior year of the scientific and English +courses in the academic high schools. In the classical course, and +in the technical and commercial schools, they have not even this. +Physiology is required of girls in the technical schools, and is +elective in all but the classical course in the others. While in one +or two of the high schools there is training in actual hygiene +and sanitation, in most cases it is physiology and anatomy of a +superficial preliminary type which is not put to use and which +therefore mostly fails of normal assimilation. + +The things recommended for the elementary schools need to be carried +out in the high schools also. + + + + +PHYSICAL TRAINING + + +The city gives slightly more than the usual amount of time to physical +training in the elementary schools. Except for first and second +grades, where a slightly larger amount is set aside for the purpose, +pupils are expected to receive one hour per week. + + TABLE 13.--TIME GIVEN TO PHYSICAL TRAINING + ======+=======================+======================== + | Hours per year | Per cent of grade time + Grade +-----------+-----------+-----------+------------ + | Cleveland | 50 cities | Cleveland | 50 cities + ------+-----------+-----------+-----------+------------ + 1 | 63 | 46 | 8.7 | 5.4 + 2 | 54 | 41 | 6.2 | 4.5 + 3 | 38 | 40 | 4.4 | 4.5 + 4 | 38 | 40 | 4.3 | 4.2 + 5 | 38 | 38 | 4.3 | 4.0 + 6 | 38 | 40 | 4.3 | 4.2 + 7 | 38 | 38 | 4.3 | 3.7 + 8 | 38 | 39 | 4.3 | 4.0 + ------+-----------+-----------+-----------+------------ + Total | 345 | 322 | 5.0 | 4.2 + ------+-----------+-----------+-----------+------------ + +Even though it is a little above the average amount of time, it is +nevertheless too little. A week consists of 168 hours. After deducting +12 hours a day for sleep, meals, etc., there remain 84 hours per week +to be used. In a state of nature this was largely used for physical +play. Under the artificial conditions of modern city life, the nature +of children is not changed. They still need huge amounts of active +physical play for wholesome development. Most of this they will get +away from the school, but as urban conditions take away proper +play opportunities, the loss in large degree has to be made good +by systematic community effort in establishing and maintaining +playgrounds and playrooms for 12 months in the year. The school and +its immediate environment is the logical place for this development. + +The course of study lays out a series of obsolescent Swedish +gymnastics for each of the years. The work observed was mechanical, +perfunctory, and lacking in vitality. Sandwiched in between exhausting +intellectual drill, it has the value of giving a little relief and +rest. This is good, but it is not sufficiently positive to be called +physical training. + +Very desirable improvements in the course are being advocated by the +directors and supervisors of the work. They are recommending, and +introducing where conditions will permit, the use of games, athletics, +folk dances, etc. The movements should be promoted by the city in +every possible way. At present the regular teachers as a rule have not +the necessary point of view and do not sufficiently value the work. +Special teachers and play leaders need to be employed. Material +facilities should be extended and improved. Some of the school grounds +are too small; the surfacing is not always well adapted to play; +often apparatus is not supplied; indoor playrooms are insufficient +in number, etc. These various things need to be supplied before the +physical training curriculum can be modernized. + +In the high schools two periods of physical training per week in +academic and commercial schools, and three or four periods per week in +the technical schools, are prescribed for the first two years of the +course. In the last two years it is omitted from the program in all +but the High School of Commerce, where it is optional. With one or two +exceptions, the little given is mainly indoor gymnastics of a formal +sort owing to the general lack of sufficiently large athletic fields, +tennis courts, baseball diamonds, and other necessary facilities. + +Special commendation must be accorded the home-room basis of +organizing the athletics of the technical high schools. Probably no +plan anywhere employed comes nearer to reaching the entire student +body in a vital way. + +With the exceptions referred to, it seems that the city has not +sufficiently considered the indispensable need of huge amounts of +physical play on the part of adolescents as the basis of full and +life-long physical vitality. High school students represent the best +youth of the community. Their efficiency is certainly the greatest +single asset of the new generation. There are scores of other +expensive things that the city can better afford to neglect. The one +thing it can least afford to sacrifice on the altar of economy is the +vitality of its citizens of tomorrow. + + + + +MUSIC + + +In the elementary schools Cleveland is giving considerably more than +the average amount of time to music. In the high schools, except for +a one-hour optional course in the High School of Commerce, the subject +is developed only incidentally and given no credit. It is entirely +pertinent to inquire why music should be so important for the grammar +school age and then lose all of this importance as soon as the high +school is reached. + + TABLE 14.--TIME GIVEN TO MUSIC + ======+=======================+======================== + | Hours per year | Per cent of grade time + Grade +-----------+-----------+-----------+------------ + | Cleveland | 50 cities | Cleveland | 50 cities + ------+-----------+-----------+-----------+------------ + 1 | 47 | 45 | 6.5 | 5.2 + 2 | 54 | 48 | 6.1 | 5.3 + 3 | 54 | 47 | 6.1 | 5.1 + 4 | 54 | 48 | 6.1 | 4.9 + 5 | 51 | 45 | 5.7 | 4.7 + 6 | 51 | 45 | 5.7 | 4.6 + 7 | 51 | 45 | 5.7 | 4.4 + 8 | 51 | 44 | 5.7 | 4.4 + ------+-----------+-----------+-----------+------------ + Total | 413 | 367 | 6.0 | 4.8 + ------+-----------+-----------+-----------+------------ + +The probability is either that it is over-valued for the elementary +school and should receive diminished time; or it is under-valued for +the high school and should be given the dignity and the consideration +of a credit course, as it is in many progressive high schools. +It cannot be urged that the subject is finished in the elementary +schools. Pupils in fact receive only an introductory training in vocal +music. The whole field of instrumental music remains untouched. It +seems the city ought to consider the question of whether the course +ought not to be much expanded and continued throughout the high school +period as an elective subject. However, in considering the question +it should be kept in mind that there are very many things of more +importance and of far more pressing immediate necessity. + + + + +FOREIGN LANGUAGES + + +German has long been taught in the elementary schools. Until less than +10 years ago it was taught in all grades beginning with the first. +More recently it has been confined to the four upper grades. Beginning +with the present year, it is taught only in the seventh and eighth +grades. The situation is so well presented in the report of the +Educational Commission of 1906 that further discussion here is +unnecessary. They summarize their discussion of the teaching of German +in the elementary schools as follows: + +"Such teaching originated in a nationalistic feeling and demand on the +part of German immigrants, and not in any educational or pedagogical +necessity. + +"It aimed to induce the children of Germans to attend the public +schools, where they would learn English and be sooner Americanized. + +"For 15 years [now 25 years] past, German immigration has almost +ceased, and other European nationalities, as the Bohemians, Poles, and +Italians, have taken their place numerically. + +"The children of the earlier German immigrants are already +Americanized and use the English language freely, and those later +born, of the second and third generations, no longer need to be taught +German in the schools beginning at six years of age. + +"It is demonstrated by experience and by abundant testimony that +children neither from German nor from English-speaking families really +learn much German in the primary and grammar grades, that is, from six +to 13 years of age. + +"Hence the Commission recommends that the teaching of German in these +grades be discontinued and that the German language be taught only in +the high schools. + +"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. + +Finally, courses of study should provide for children of differing +natural ability. Extra materials and opportunities should be provided +for children of large capacity; and abbreviated courses for those +of less than normal ability. In departmentalized grammar grades +and junior high schools this can be taken care of rather easily by +permitting the brighter pupils to carry more studies than normal, +and the backward ones a smaller number than normal. Under the present +elementary school organization with classes so large and with so many +things for the teachers to do, it is practically impossible to effect +such desirable differentiations. + + + + +SUMMARY + + +1. The fundamental social point of view of this discussion of the +courses of study of the Cleveland schools is that effective teaching +is preparation for adult life through participation in the activities +of life. + +2. The schools of Cleveland devote far more time to reading than do +those of the average city. In too large measure this time is employed +in mastering the mechanics of reading and in the analytical study +of the manner in which the words are combined in sentences and the +sentences in paragraphs. The main object of the reading should be +the mastery of the thought rather than the study of the construction. +Through it the children should gain life-long habits of exploring, +through reading, the great fields of history, industry, applied +science, life in other lands, travel, invention, biography, and +wholesome fiction. To this end the work should be made more extensive +and less intensive. As an indispensable means toward this end the +books should be supplied by the schools instead of being purchased by +the parents. + +3. The teaching of spelling should aim to give the pupils complete +mastery over those words which they need to use in writing and it +should instil in them the permanent habit of watching their spelling +as they write. Drill on lists of isolated words should give way to +practice in spelling correctly every word in everything written. The +dictionary habit should be cultivated, and every written lesson should +be a spelling lesson. + +4. The time devoted to language, composition, and grammar is about the +same as in the average city. The chief result of the work as done in +Cleveland is to enable the pupil to recite well on textbook grammar +and to pass examinations in the subject. The work in technical grammar +should be continued for the purpose of giving the pupils a +foundation acquaintance with forms, terms, relations, and grammatical +perspective, but this training need not be so extensive and intensive +as at present. The time saved should be given to oral and written +expression in connection with the reading of history, geography, +industrial studies, civics, sanitation, and the like. Facility and +accuracy in oral and written expression are developed through practice +rather than through precept. They are perfected through the conscious +and unconscious imitation of good models rather than through the +advanced study of technical grammar. Only as knowledge is put to work +is it really learned or assimilated. + +5. Cleveland gives more time to mathematics than does the average +city. The content of courses in mathematics is to be determined by +human needs. A fundamental need of our scientific age is more accurate +quantitative thinking about our vocations, civic problems, taxation, +income, insurance, expenditures, public improvements, and the +multitude of other public and private problems involving quantities. +We need to think accurately and easily in quantities, proportions, +forms, and relationships. Arithmetic teaching, like the teaching +of penmanship, is for the purpose of providing tools to be used in +matters that lie beyond. The present course of study is of superior +character, providing for efficient elementary training and dispensing +with most of the things of little practical use. The greatest +improvement in the work is to be found in its further carrying over +into the other fields of school work and in applying it in other +classes as well as in the arithmetic class. In the advanced classes +mathematics should be differentiated according to the needs of +different pupils. Algebra should be more closely related to practical +matters and developed in connection with geometry and trigonometry. + +6. History receives much less attention in this city than in the +average city. The character of the work is really indicated by the +last sentence of the eighth-grade history assignment: "The text of our +book should be thoroughly mastered." The work is too brief, abstract, +and barren to help the pupils toward an understanding of the social, +political, economic, and industrial problems with which we are +confronted. It should be amply supplemented by a wide range of +reading on social welfare topics. This reading should be biographical, +anecdotal, thrilling dramas of human achievement, rich with +human interest. It should be at every stage on the level with the +understanding and degree of maturity of the pupils so that much +reading can be covered rapidly. + +7. In Cleveland, where there has been an almost unequalled amount of +civic discussion and progressive human-welfare effort, the teaching +of civics in the public schools receives too little attention. It is +recommended that the principals and teachers make such a civic survey +as that made in Cincinnati as the method of discovering the topics +that should enter into a grammar-grade course. Not much civics +teaching should be attempted in the intermediate grades, but it should +be given in the higher grades. + +8. A new course of study in geography is now being put into use. The +work as laid out in the old manual and as seen in the classrooms +has been forbiddingly formal. It has mainly consisted of the teacher +assigning to the pupils a certain number of paragraphs or pages in +the textbook as the next lesson, and then questioning them next day to +ascertain how much of this printed material they have remembered and +how well. The new course of study recognizes, on the contrary, that +the proper end of geographical teaching is rather to stimulate and +guide the children toward an inquiring interest as to how the world +is made, and the skies above, and the waters round about, and the +conditions of nature that limit and determine in a measure the +development of mankind. To attain this ideal will require in every +school 10 times as adequate provision of geographical reading and +geographical material as is now found in the best equipped school. + +9. Drawing and applied art have been taught in Cleveland since +1849. The object of the teaching is to develop an understanding and +appreciation of the principles of graphic art and ability to use these +principles in practical applications. Where this work is done best, it +shows, in both the elementary and high schools, balanced understanding +and complete modernness. What is needed is extension of this best +type of work to all parts of the city through specially trained +departmental teachers. + +10. Where teaching of household arts is at its best in Cleveland, +it is of a superior character and should be extended along lines +now being followed. Manual training for boys should be extended and +broadened with a view to giving the pupils real contact with more +types of industry than those represented by the present woodwork. + +11. Elementary science finds no place in the course of study of +Cleveland. The future citizens of Cleveland will need an understanding +of electricity, heat, expansion and contraction of gases and solids, +the mechanics of machines, distillations, common chemical reactions, +and the multitude of other matters of science met with daily in their +activities. The schools should help supply this need. + +12. Teaching in matters pertaining to health is assigned little time +in the elementary schools, and the time that is assigned to it is +frequently given to something else. The subject gets pushed off the +program by one of the so-called "essentials." A course in hygiene +should be drawn up, and practical applications of the work should be +arranged through having pupils look after the sanitary conditions of +rooms and grounds. The school doctors and nurses should help in this +teaching and practice. + +13. Physical training is given about as much time as in the average +city, but without adequate facilities for outdoor and indoor plays +and games. At present the work is too largely of the formal gymnastic +type. Desirable improvements in the course are being advocated by +the directors and supervisors of the work. They are recommending +and introducing, where conditions will permit, the use of games, +athletics, folk dances, and the like. The movement should be promoted +in every possible way. + +14. In the elementary schools Cleveland gives more than the average +amount of time to music, but in the high schools the subject is +developed only incidentally and is given no credit. It is a question +whether this arrangement is the right one, and in considering possible +extensions it should be remembered that there are other subjects of +far more pressing immediate necessity. + +15. It is impossible in this brief report to discuss adequately so +complicated a matter as that of the teaching of foreign languages in +the high schools, but some of the most important of the questions +at issue have been indicated as matters which the school authorities +should continue to study until satisfactory solutions are reached. + +16. Where school work in Cleveland is backward, it is because it has +not yet taken on the social point of view. Where it is progressive, it +is being developed on the basis of human needs. There is much of both +kinds of work in Cleveland. + +17. In a city with a population so diversified as is that of +Cleveland, progress should be made steadily and consciously away from +city-wide uniformity in courses of study and methods of teaching. +There should be progressive differentiation of courses to meet the +widely varying needs of the different sorts of children in different +sections of the city. + + + + +CLEVELAND EDUCATION SURVEY REPORTS + +These reports can be secured from the Survey Committee of the +Cleveland Foundation, Cleveland, Ohio. They will be sent postpaid for +25 cents per volume with the exception of "Measuring the Work of the +Public Schools" by Judd, "The Cleveland School Survey" by Ayres, and +"Wage Earning and Education" by Lutz. These three volumes will be sent +for 50 cents each. All of these reports may be secured at the same +rates from the Division of Education of the Russell Sage Foundation, +New York City. + + Child Accounting in the Public Schools--Ayres. + Educational Extension--Perry. + Education through Recreation--Johnson. + Financing the Public Schools--Clark. + Health Work in the Public Schools--Ayres. + Household Arts and School Lunches--Boughton. + Measuring the Work of the Public Schools--Judd. + Overcrowded Schools and the Platoon Plan--Hartwell. + School Buildings and Equipment--Ayres. + Schools and Classes for Exceptional Children--Mitchell. + School Organization and Administration--Ayres. + The Public Library and the Public Schools--Ayres and McKinnie. + The School and the Immigrant--Miller. + The Teaching Staff--Jessup. + What the Schools Teach and Might Teach--Bobbitt. + The Cleveland School Survey (Summary)--Ayres. + + * * * * * + + Boys and Girls in Commercial Work--Stevens. + Department Store Occupations--O'Leary. + Dressmaking and Millinery--Bryner. + Railroad and Street Transportation--Fleming. + The Building Trades--Shaw. + The Garment Trades--Bryner. + The Metal Trades--Lutz. + The Printing Trades--Shaw. + Wage Earning and Education (Summary)--Lutz. + +*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 13482 *** |